THE LORD TEACHING IN THE TEMPLE (2)
[p. 199] THE LORD TEACHING IN THE TEMPLE (2)
CAC The place that these two chapters 20 and 21 have in the gospels is very distinctive. They show us the Lord teaching in the temple. His service of grace amongst men was over. That is, we get no miracles of healing after this, except the healing of a man’s ear which Peter had cut off, but we find the Lord giving the temple its true character as the place of divine teaching.
I suppose the object of this gospel is to make us temple-dwellers. It leads to that point. The Lord’s disciples are found “continually in the temple”. The gospel is designed to bring us to that, and as being there, we are to be fully acquainted with the mind of God. The mind of God is known there. In Psalm 27: 4 David speaks of inquiring of Jehovah in His temple. Chapters 20 and 21 are the two temple chapters in the gospel. The Lord is not seen as teaching there before. Divine light is thrown on some of the most important questions, and divine teaching is given to us.
Teaching is greater than meeting our need. The latter is our side. The Lord as teaching brings us to the mind of God about things. The mind of God seems connected with the temple. It is the place of divine teaching: “He was teaching day by day in the temple” (Luke 19: 47).
The selfishness which blinds man to the perception of that which is of God is displaced. Room is then made for the mind of God to be made known.
One of the greatest subjects that Scripture presents to us is resurrection.
The idea of the temple has not been set aside or discarded; God never disposes of any thought that He introduces, but carries it through; none of His thoughts have lapsed. He [p. 200] would have us to be temple-dwellers like Anna, “who did not depart from the temple” (Luke 2: 37).
The great blessing to the overcomer in Philadelphia is, “Him will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more at all out” (Revelation 3: 12). God would have us dwell where His mind is known. The Lord’s teaching in the temple covers the whole range of subjects upon which it is important to have the mind of God. There is a holy sphere, apart from the world, where God’s saints are able to approach Him and learn His mind. That goes on. “Ye are the temple of God”. In the temple all holy subjects are understood. “The temple of God is holy” (1 Corinthians 3: 16, 17) — there is no room for the mind of man which is essentially unholy. Holy, uncorrupted thoughts are to be learned in the temple. One would desire to value more and more the temple character and the teaching belonging to it.
God has before Him to bring in what is wholly spiritual; His pleasure is found in that. The Sadducee is the man who refuses all that is spiritual, “neither angel nor spirit” and no resurrection. Only the natural is admitted in his mind. If only the natural is admitted, when a man dies that is the end of him. It is a dreadful form of blindness not to be able to entertain the thought of anything spiritual. The thoughts of the Sadducee were formed on the line of what was natural.
Rem The Lord does not argue with them.
CAC A sharp contrast is drawn by the Lord between “this world”, that is the natural, of which marriage is the most distinctive feature, and “that world” in which the natural has no place at all. If we really understand this, we shall see clearly the difference between that which is temporal, under death, and that which is eternal, out of death and for ever for God’s pleasure in resurrection. That is a very precious, divine instruction for us.
Ques Who are “they who are counted worthy to have part in that world, and the resurrection from among the dead” (verse 35)?
CAC Nothing is going into God’s resurrection world but what is suited to be there — only spiritual features; every saint goes in as worthy to be there. In this particular teaching the saints go there as having spiritual features. How could anyone not having spiritual features be happy in a spiritual realm? He would be quite out of place, and there would be no pleasure for God in it. All are certainly going to be raised, but the wicked are raised for judgment. The Lord would have us cultivate the features suitable for the resurrection world. We all have features which are suited for the natural, but through grace we may gain spiritual features.
It is true that the thief on the cross went to paradise, cleansed from all his sin, but he had spiritual features too. That is clear enough, for he condemned himself, and that is the mark of a spiritual man. He had a great and high appreciation of Christ. It would be impossible for God to leave out of His world a man who appreciated Christ. He had a great sense of grace, and was the one solitary confessor amidst the darkness of Calvary while the Lord was alive upon the cross. He stands out before the universe to confess the Lord’s kingly rights and it was as a spiritual man that he went to paradise. That man must be raised; a man like that could not be left in his grave.
Rem The apostle Paul is an example of a spiritual man in Philippians 3: 10, 11.
CAC Quite so. He was fully and earnestly set for it and intent on gaining the spiritual world and being fit to be in it.
Rem It requires a great deal of displacement in us for that.
CAC What God brings in in His grace and in Christ is quite adequate to bring in the displacement. He brings in the displacing power for it.
The thought of resurrection, as presented here, goes so far as being the means of our becoming like angels. It does not say like Christ but “equal to angels”, because it is something [p. 202] to be coveted. We used to sing of desiring to be like an angel; it is a spiritual desire, because angels are wholly spiritual beings. Psalm 104 speaks of God, “Who maketh his angels spirits”. The elect angels have never known the natural; they are beings of a spiritual order, wholly spiritual. The Lord presents it to us as a wonderful thing, that we shall be wholly spiritual.
Ques Is the next thought, “sons of God”, higher?
CAC Yes, “being sons of the resurrection”, outside the touch of death, and “equal to angels”. What an elevation of rank! It is immense! You go up to a higher range. It is elevation in rank, “sons of God, being sons of the resurrection”.
Ques Are not the angels spoken of as sons of God?
CAC Yes. There is a point of sympathy clearly in Scripture between angels and men. Angels are our fellow-bondmen, that is a point of sympathy between us; an angel is an obedient and happy servant of the will of God; if I am, there is thus another point of sympathy between us; they are also holy; if I am, I am in line with the angels; and as far as I am spiritual, I am in line with an angel.
Ques What is meant by “sons of the resurrection”?
CAC It is a very striking word. It would seem that men only reach what is before the mind of God for them as being brought forth in resurrection. God is going to secure everything for His pleasure in resurrection. God has outwardly lost everything that He brought into the world, even Christ, all has gone down into the grave. But all He brought in in Abraham (calling), Isaac (promise) and Jacob (discipline) is not lost but exists again in resurrection. It looks as if it were lost and that all had gone into the grave. But it is nothing of the kind. They lived for God hundreds of years after they were buried. It was the sure pledge that they would come out of their graves. It is a death-blow to the belief held by the Sadducees.
Ques What does verse 38 mean, “For all live for him”?
CAC It is a general statement. Men have not disappeared in God’s account, and that involves resurrection. That is a sufficient proof of resurrection. All those who have been put into the graves are coming out. Resurrection does not refer to a man’s spirit. The spirit of a saint is with Christ. ‘We put his body in the grave’ we hear brothers say. That is not how Scripture speaks, for it says, “And pious men buried Stephen”. They buried Stephen; we bury the saint, and that saint will be raised. “Come see the place where the Lord lay”; the Lord was identified with His body by the angels. Every saint in the mind of God is identified with his body. In the point of view of resurrection, J.N.D. is in his grave but he is coming out of his grave.
Ques What happens to “the spirit” of a saint?
CAC His spirit (viewed from that aspect) departs to be with Christ. From the standpoint of resurrection, Scripture identifies the man with his body, “the dead in Christ”. There are many graves well known to the angels; they are marked spots in heaven. Two graves may be near one another, one the grave of a brother or sister who died in Christ, the other that of an unbeliever. There is an immense difference between the two. We can say of the one, ‘Our brother lies there’. It is one aspect of the truth that we need to remember. That man who lived for God and for Christ is buried; he is in his grave and, in the faithfulness of God, it is impossible that he be left in his grave. Resurrection is a fine thing! Never listen for a moment to people who want to argue about resurrection. “Fool” says the apostle in 1 Corinthians 15: 36.
The Lord brings all this out to us in His teaching in the temple; is it not a comfort to us all? What a comfort to think that the moment the breath goes out of a believer’s body, he has done with all the complications and only that which is spiritual goes into God’s world.
Cultivate the spiritual! That alone subsists for God’s world. Let us cultivate the spiritual; the natural is only for a moment, the little time that remains to us!