CHRISTIANITY
[p. 3] CHRISTIANITY
Many in the present day seem to think that Christianity is a development of Judaism, but there could be no greater mistake. Christianity is the introduction of what is wholly new and altogether divine in the Person of the Son of God. We are slow to get hold of this. We do not readily perceive that “the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (Matthew 16: 6), and human sentiment (verses 22, 23) are things of which to beware. But if we savour the things that be of men we are far from the savour of “things that are of God”. The leaven of the Pharisees is human religiousness, and the leaven of the Sadducees is human intellect working in connection with divine things. Both are to be dreaded and shunned as elements ever opposed to what is of God, and human sentiment is no better in result, however well it may appear on the surface.
The full revelation of God has come out in Christ the Son. This gives Christ an altogether unrivalled place in the estimation of everyone who has been taught of the Father. Godhead glory shines out in Him before our adoring hearts. I do not refer to this merely as christian doctrine, but as something which has become a very great reality to us. It is our deep joy to know the blessed God revealed in His beloved Son. God has spoken to us in the Son, and He would have us to look at the wonderful record contained in the gospels, in the intelligence of the Holy Spirit, to see the revelation of Himself in it all.
Then whatever came out in the life of Jesus here was uttered in a far deeper way at the cross. What a telling forth of God’s heart was there! The death of the Son of God is the mighty voice of divine love to man. The ruin, need, guilt, and [p. 4] condemnation of man, the sinner, only serve as the dark background to show in stronger light the love that would reach him and bless him in spite of it all. When all were in utter darkness and ignorance of God, He spoke in that amazing hour of Calvary so that He might be known, and loved, and worshipped by all who have ears to hear.
The revelation of God necessarily carries with it salvation for men. God has spoken to us in the Person of the Son (Hebrews 1), and the “great salvation” began to be spoken by the Lord (Hebrews 2). Salvation is man’s inheritance according to the grace of God. The portion of men in God’s mind is to be “heirs of salvation”, and those who despise their birthright are profane persons like Esau, entirely alienated from God. Salvation for men is bound up with the revelation of God because that revelation has come out in the way of redemption. The heart of God was toward man, but certain terrible questions stood in the way. Sins, death and the curse seemed to bar the blessing of men, but the Son has removed them all out of the way. He “having made by himself the purification of sins, set himself down on the right hand of the greatness on high” (Hebrews 1: 3), and men can now find salvation in the knowledge of God.
Then there is another thing — the rights of God are all taken up in His beloved Son. There are two things in this connection: the inheritance and the throne. God has established the Son “heir of all things”; He will take up his inheritance in the Person of the Son. Then the throne — the rule of God — will also be taken up in the Son, so that God’s inheritance may be filled with order and blessing under His rule. The glorious Person who is great enough for all this, and the knowledge of Him by the Father’s work in souls, is the Rock on which the assembly is built.
All saints are living stones for Christ’s assembly by divine calling. That is what we are in the thought and intention of God. But we have to become living stones characteristically, and the Father’s work is essential to this. Peter was a kind of [p. 5] pattern man; he confessed the Christ, the Son of the living God, by the Father’s revelation; but no doubt he had afterwards to reach what was involved in his confession in the history of his soul. We often get things first as divine light, and then we have to be brought into the spiritual reality of them by the work of God in our souls. These two things must ever be kept in view: what we are by God’s calling and what we are by God’s work. The first is all that is in God’s mind for us; the second is the measure of our experimental entrance upon it. The first is altogether divine and perfect; as to the second the Spirit may be grieved by us and the work of God hindered.
The assembly, as built by Christ, is composed of those who are in the life of Christ by the Spirit and who own no other, and therefore the gates of hades cannot prevail against it. Satan can overthrow everything that is of man, but he cannot prevail against what is of Christ.
The Lord said to Peter, “Thou art Peter, (a stone: note h, Matthew 16: 18) and on this rock I will build my assembly”. There is something in common between a stone and a rock; a stone is a small piece of the same material as a rock. Peter was a bit of the Rock, and that is what saints are. As taught by the Father to appreciate Christ, and to turn from what is not Christ, we, that is true believers, are of kindred nature with Christ. “For both he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren” (Hebrews 2: 11).
If we look around in the world we see that people generally have little or no concern about Christ; His things are of no interest and are meaningless to them. But there are hearts that thrill with joy in the sense of His blessedness and love. What makes the difference? Just this, that it has been well-pleasing to the Father to reveal something of that blessed One to babes (Matthew 11: 25). It is infinitely better to be the smallest, feeblest babe and to perceive the greatness and glory and love of Christ than to be the most honoured person [p. 6] in the world without any appreciation of Him. It is good when Christ can say to one, “Thou art Peter” -’You are of kindred nature to Myself’! Of course it is necessarily so, if He is our life, and in the Spirit we own no other. The Father has taken us up to bring this about in us. If Christ has thrown self and the world and man in the flesh into the shade in the estimation of our hearts, it is clear proof that we have been the subjects of a divine work. It is as such that we are material for Christ’s assembly — divinely formed material for a divine structure. The Christ, the Son of the living God, is now before us, and the consciousness of belonging to Him and being of Him puts us in spirit outside things here and in moral separation from man in the flesh and his world.