LIFE ABUNDANTLY

^[p. 33] LIFE ABUNDANTLY

John 10:10; John 20:22; 1 Thessalonians 5:10

JT The abundant character of the life we have in Christ was suggested by the statement as to Elisha, that he received a double portion of Elijah’s spirit, indicating that what we have in Christianity exceeds what others will have in the measure in which the firstborn’s portion exceeds what the other members of the family receive. I thought it might be helpful to look a little at the introduction of the idea of life in the Scriptures. In the first chapter of Genesis it is presented perhaps in three forms firstly, in the vegetable form; secondly, in the animal form, and, thirdly (although intimately connected with the animal feature), in what one might call the intelligent form, in man, of whom alone it is said that God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life”, Genesis 2:7. Whilst the lower creatures are said to be “living”, there is a clear distinction made in the fact that into man’s nostrils was breathed the breath of God, the breath of life.

FL So “Man became a living soul”, Genesis 2:7.

JT Yes. It is the same expression as is used of the lower creatures, although obviously it has a fuller meaning in regard to him, because it is not only that his affections are active in it, but his intelligence.

FL That is what we understand as a moral being. It is capable of response to God in intelligence and affection.

JT I thought that would help us in regard to living together with Christ. To live with Christ involves more than the gratification of our affections. It involves intelligence as to the mind of God and the things of God; so that life as Christians have it is of that higher order, although embracing necessarily ^[p. 34] the other two. I just mention all that to make clear what one had in view in the Scriptures suggested.

FL So life is a very much greater matter than that of existence. I mean by existence the capacity to move, to eat, to drink, etc. Life according to the scriptural thought is much more comprehensive.

BTF Do you connect in any way the Spirit “hovering over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2) with life?

JT I think that is a divine act outside of any creature as intermediary. Historically life is seen taking form on earth. I refer to Genesis 1. The first intimation of life, I think, is on the third day: “And God called the dry [land] Earth, and the gathering together of the waters he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth cause grass to spring up, herb producing seed, fruit trees yielding fruit after their kind, the seed of which is in them, on the earth. And it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, herb producing seed after its kind, and trees yielding fruit, the seed of which is in them, after their kind”, Genesis 1:10 - 12. There I think is the first evidence of life, and it is what we may call the ‘vegetable order’. It is alluded to by the Spirit in regard to the Lord Himself, one might say, in the “corn of wheat” falling into the ground, and other similar expressions. Indeed, it is very frequently referred to in the New Testament, as in the Old, as an evidence of life.

AFM Does this first chapter present testimony as to what God would bring to pass?

JT I think there is a spiritual thought in each day, and there can be no doubt that the third day, the ordered earth brought out of the water, brought out of death as you might say, might be used as a figure of that form of life that appears in resurrection.

FL Yes, so that what we get in the first of Genesis brings into view what might be called ^[p. 35] original thoughts. The first introduction of life conveys with it, that in due course of time it will be seen that God orders life in the resurrection sphere. The significance of it appears in verses 29 and 30 of the same chapter: “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb producing seed that is on the whole earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree producing seed: it shall be food for you; and to every animal of the earth, and to every fowl of the heavens, and to everything that creepeth on the earth, in which is a living soul, every green herb for food” (Genesis 1:29 - 30); also there is the distinction that with the animal kingdom as such they had what we would call the grass and the green herbs, but for man, he being marked out separately and distinctly, his food was to be that which contained the idea of life in resurrection. So that the distinction is very beautiful to see in that way.

JT Things are to be continued or perpetuated according to their own kind. The emphasis is laid, I think, on the seed. First of all it says: “let the earth cause grass to spring up, herb producing seed, fruit trees yielding fruit after their kind, the seed of which is in them, on the earth ... . And the earth brought forth grass, herb producing seed after its kind, and trees yielding fruit, the seed of which is in them, after their kind”, Genesis 1:11 - 12. I think there we have laid down the divine thought, that there is to be no admixture. One great thought in life is that things are not to be crossed. They are to be of their own kind, and we might perhaps regard that as the initial idea of life; whereas, when you come to the fifth day, which follows upon the lights being set in the heavens, we have not exactly life governed by intelligence, but rather by instinct. The lower creatures have affections and therefore are “living souls”. The soul I suppose involves that they have ^[p. 36] affection, which a plant has not. That is, with an individual believer the idea is that there is a certain fruit of its kind in him, but it is not that he loves himself. Regarding him entirely as an individual, love is not the point, but when you come to a number of individuals then you have instincts and love of the brethren, because they are brethren.

FL When the prophet Isaiah is bringing out certain thoughts concerning the remnant which God would preserve, he makes use of this; “But a tenth part shall still be therein, and it shall return and be eaten; as the terebinth and as the oak whose trunk [remaineth] after the felling: the holy seed shall be the trunk thereof”, Isaiah 6:13. It is preserved of its order by a remnant preserved of the Lord, as trees grow in connection with the seed. The idea of life is in it.

JT That is very helpful, and confirms the remarks in regard to the third day; and I might venture a further thought that in the gospel of John you have the vegetable figure in chapter 12. A corn of wheat falls into the ground and dies, otherwise it abides alone, but dying it bears much fruit. Life is seen there; the fruit comes up of itself as it were, being the result of the corn of wheat dying, but in chapter 13 it is regulated. The Lord regulates it. He enforces that there is to be love one for another. In that way, I think it answers to the “fifth day”. And the Lord pursues the instructions in these wonderful chapters: John 14 to 16. The presence of the Holy Spirit with and in the disciples is contemplated; the instructions therefore imply the highest order of intelligence in them. The coming of the Spirit would bring in divine thoughts amongst them so that their testimony would be after the manner of the Lord’s own testimony.

ANW Now you are coming to the “breath” ^[p. 37] more.

JT Yes. The Lord instructs them in order that they should be as He had been here. The Spirit would bring into their souls all those divine thoughts, and He would support them; and then you have in that same chapter the idea of joy that a man is born into the world, because they had come up to that point. They would come up to the idea of a man. Man is the top stone of the structure in Genesis 1.

FL A great thought in John 16 is the joy in the birth of the Man — that is Christ.

JS Going back to the third day, do you not think the life introduced there is introduced with a view of sustaining the life which was to follow, both in the lower creation, as well as in man? That is to say, we feed on something wherein there is life and thus we are living.

JT That is very important. “The king [himself]”, it says, “is dependent upon the field”, Ecclesiastes 5:9. The king’s table is served from the field as much as the poor man’s table. There is no other way of support for man than from the field.

FL The herb and tree yielding seed, the germ of resurrection life for a new scene, is reserved for man, who has intelligence, and who has a moral being responsive to God and the brethren. So what is to mark us is that we are feeding on what God would bring in in the new sphere.

JS So you would make a difference between the grass of the field, for instance, and the trees.

FL Those two verses do make a difference, and this is in keeping with the difference between the intelligent moral being and the beast of the field.

JT Nebuchadnezzar had to go back to the grass.

FL Yes, he had become a beast.

AFM Would you speak of life in those three ways, as support, affection ^[p. 38] and intelligence?

JT Yes. There is the food for our souls and the enjoyment of affection, and then the mind.

AFM I like that reference to living soul. I have often wondered why the creatures were made living souls. It sheds light on this section.

JT Well, although the same expression is used as regards man, any one can see it is of a fuller nature as to him, because he is a living soul by the breath of God, and hence his affections must be of a higher order than those in the lower creatures.

JS Following upon the introduction of that in the second chapter you have the tree of life introduced, which is especially for man.

AFM I was going to ask, how does the tree with seed stand in relation to the tree of life?

JT Jehovah planted the garden eastward and put man there whom he had formed. “And out of the ground Jehovah Elohim made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; and the tree of life, in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”, Genesis 2:9. And then He said to him: “Of every tree of the garden thou shalt freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it”, Genesis 2:16 - 17. They were all available save the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Well now, Romans shows that the question of good and evil is first solved. It is solved in the death of the Lord Jesus, and consequent upon that we have the tree of life; and we know from Revelation 22 that the tree of life is in the midst of the street of the city, on either side of the river, so as to be available, and the leaves of it even were for the healing of the nations; so that our food, therefore, is Christ as the tree of life.

FL The thought seems to be with regard to the trees, judging from the first chapter, that they all had seed and were all good, which the second chapter also confirms, and one sees when sin came ^[p. 39] into the world other elements were brought in like the thistle and the thorn, and I think poison and the like, which have to be avoided, but until sin came in there was no indication of any such thing. All was good.

JT Like the “wild gourds” in “the great pot”.

FL They are found in the field now undoubtedly, and the children of the prophets bring them in.

JS When we come to the second chapter, to the garden of Eden, we have there the conditions upon which man would enjoy life. It is especially selected of God for the enjoyment of life, all that was pleasant to sight and good for food.

JT It opens up a very interesting line of thought, and most important, I think. When you approach the higher order of life it requires particular attention. I think John develops it, as well as certain of Paul’s epistles. It is not only that we love, although that is undoubtedly one great evidence of life, but we are qualified for companionship with Christ. Now in John 20 what is emphasised is the kind of Spirit we receive. It is not simply that you have what we might call the lower evidences of life, of vegetable life, for that was there already. They had in common what others will have, for those having part in the millennium will be made to live; but there is nothing said in regard to such as to the breath of Christ. It seems to me it is one of the most important subjects in the world, His breathing into the disciples what He called “Holy Spirit”. It is not the person of the Holy Spirit, but the character that is prominent.

FL At the outset, where man is formed from the dust of the earth, the Lord God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul, and in John 20 the New Translation reading has a remarkable similarity: “And having said this, he breathed into [them], and says to them,

Receive [the] Holy Spirit”, John 20:22. It is somewhat the language of Genesis. The Lord God breathed into their souls; He breathed into them. He is there as the life-giving Spirit.

JT In John 20 it is a Man breathing into men. “The first man Adam became a living soul; the last Adam a quickening spirit”, 1 Corinthians 15:45. It is what we are in our spirits that tells, and it is the spirit that gives character to the man; so that the Lord is to surround Himself with a company who have His spirit. It is really wonderful to think of the divine design, that there should be such a company. The Lord says: “Because I live, ye also shall live” (John 14:19) but this passage shows the secret of it, that we live in His spirit. We understand each other because of having kindred spirits, and so we understand and enjoy living together with Christ because the spirit is the same.

AFM I would like to have a word, if not diverting from the immediate line, as to this spirit of life. He says “I am come that they might have life” (that is the sheep), “and might have [it] abundantly”, John 10:10.

JT I do not think it could take place until Christ died; man could not touch the tree of life. The cherubim were there with flaming sword, keeping the way of it, until Christ died. Of course the work of God was going on in the disciples, but it was all in view of the death of the Lord Jesus; so that both the terms “life” and “life abundantly”, I apprehend, refer to what is subsequent to His death.

AFM Then could you define for us between “life” and “life abundantly?”

JT I think life in the general use of it is power, whatever form it may take. This is seen in the first of Genesis. It shows itself in vegetation, in movements of creatures, or in men. Would you not say so?

AFM Yes, I suppose what the saints in the ^[p. 41] world to come will have we have now, this “life”, but we go beyond it. There is the excess in regard to us.

JT That is what I had in mind. The “abundant life” I think, refers to the peculiar way in which the Holy Spirit has come, in which He indwells us, so that we have excess. In other words, as I remarked at the beginning, we have what the firstborn had, the double portion.

ARS What about Hezekiah? He says: “The living, he shall praise thee, as I this day”, Isaiah 38:19. Men have forfeited life on account of sin coming in, but individuals like David and Hezekiah, while they did not have life abundantly, did they not have a measure of life?

JT The life Hezekiah spoke of was bounded by fifteen years, and that could not be said to be abundant life. He had light, you see. The Old Testament is like the light you get before the sun rises. You do not see the sun but the reflection, and hence they all had light. However dim the light was it pointed to a life beyond death. From the moment God acted for Adam in grace, there was the reflection back from Christ as it were. The Sun had not yet appeared, but there was reflection, so that all these people you read of as having faith and appreciating what was of God had light, some more and some less. Hezekiah, for instance, had a remarkable experience. He was brought down to the gates of the grave himself, and God brought him up again and he learned, that “By these things [men] live”, Isaiah 38:16. He now finds that discipline is the sustenance of his soul “In all these things is the life of my spirit” (Isaiah 38:16) he says. So that whilst what he says may in some sense speak of what he enjoyed, in reality it is prophetic. As the Spirit says, “To whom it was revealed, that not to themselves but to you they ministered those things”, 1 Peter 1:12. The Spirit was looking forward ^[p. 42] to the blessings presented in the gospel, “which have now been announced to you ... by [the] Holy Spirit, sent from heaven”, 1 Peter 1:12. So when Hezekiah says: “The living ... he shall praise thee, as I this day” (Isaiah 38:19) the Spirit of God was thinking of Christianity. That was put down for us. It does not mean that Hezekiah had spiritual life as presented in the New Testament. He may have had glimpses of it. It was the Spirit of God who made him say these things. The circumstances through which he passed gave occasion for it in his soul, but the statement itself goes beyond his experience.

ARS “With thee is the fountain of life”, Psalm 36:9. I suppose that is prophetic too?

JT All these statements are, such as the one our brother read: “Let everything that hath breath praise Jah”, Psalm 150:6. The psalmist would not himself understand much by that, but the Spirit of God had much in it. There was a spiritual thought in it. The right way to read the Old Testament is to read it in the light of what the Holy Spirit had in His mind. For instance, the Lord says, “Abraham exulted in that he should see my day, and he saw and rejoiced”, John 8:56. Abraham never would have said this. The Lord referred to Abraham in that way; and so Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ. He would not have said that, but the Holy Spirit puts that interpretation on the course he took.

FL Christ gives us the key in the verse you quoted. “Your father Abraham exulted in that he should see my day, and he saw and rejoiced”, John 8:56. The Spirit of God always saw Christ. So in reading the Old Testament we can always interpret by that key.

BTF Do you connect the life more abundantly with “Whether we may be watching or sleep, we may live together with him?”, 1 Thessalonians 5:10.

JT I was endeavouring to get on to that, to show that in what we might call the highest order ^[p. 43] of life intelligence is implied. Indeed you get the idea in a family. The youngest child in the family is in a sense alive. There is response in some sense there to affection, but then the grown up members are capable of entering into life in an intelligent way, and I apprehend that the breathing into the disciples implies that we live, not only in the sense in which men will have life in the millennium, but we have the spirit of that Man, and it is “Holy Spirit”. As living together with Him we are not only so many children, but are capable of entering into the Lord’s thoughts. We noted in regard to Elijah and Elisha that they walked and talked together. That is, there was ability in Elisha to reciprocate the communications of Elijah. So the saints, having the spirit of Christ, are able to reciprocate what communications He makes to them. He “died for us, that whether we may be watching or sleep, we may live together with him”, 1 Thessalonians 5:10. Here it is not only that we should live, as we get elsewhere, but that we should “live together with him”.

ANW How do you account for such a high thought of life being in Thessalonians?

JT I think it was an encouraging feature coming in after the rapture in the fourth chapter. “God has not set us for wrath” it says, “but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who has died for us, that whether we may be watching or sleep, we may live together with him”, 1 Thessalonians 5:9 - 10. In view of their apprehensions in regard to the departed ones, that would be reassuring. It seems to me it reinforces the thought of the love of Christ for His people, and that He should have us not only as redeemed, but intelligently with Him, living together with him.

FL This touches on “Where I am ye also may be”, John 14:3. It is to be with Him. I wish you would tell us a little what your thought of life is. I think, you know, we are not very clear as to the thought of ^[p. 44] life. It is evident that life spiritually considered has its own meaning.

JT It is a great subject surely. I was thinking of the word in John, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men”, John 1:4. Now, I think, in that statement we have suggested what was presented objectively for all eyes to see while the Lord was here; that is, it is a Man that is in view, and the life was there in Him as light. It was the privilege of those that were with the Lord to see how He lived. He did not live by bread alone, by what He ate and drank. That was merely incidental to His flesh and blood condition. His life was not in that. His life was with God, and, as a Man here, He was entirely free from the pressure of death, wholly immune from it; in His mind and affections He was taken up with God and God’s counsels; there was also the love He had for the disciples. I think it is in that way you get an apprehension of it.

FL I quite go with that. I was thinking, that, if it is the life of a butterfly, the life of a fish, or the life of a saint, it involves environment and the scope opened to intelligence. So if you take the highest example in the blessed Lord, there were forty days in which He fasted (Luke 4:2), but yet in those forty days He lived. He lived to God. We are introduced into the life of Christ and it is a question of appreciation and enjoyment and feeding our souls on the things discovered in Christ. That makes life.

JT And all that centres around the statement as to the spirit of life. It is remarkable that in any of the environments in which men live in this world there is a spirit that pervades it. This is also true in Christianity. Normally you will find in a meeting of Christians a certain spirit marks it; and that, perhaps, is one of the most essential things to understand. “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and of death”, Romans 8:2. It ^[p. 45] is an indefinable thing, yet patent to all that it is there. Edification is not simply in what we say; there is a certain spirit pervading the company; and this is the vital element that gives character to what is said. This is really what the Lord breathed into His disciples, and what He names formally as “Holy Spirit”. Now it says that God breathed into Adam’s nostrils “the breath of life” (Genesis 2:7) without defining anything beyond that, but in Christianity it is “Holy Spirit”. How blessed indeed is the circle in which the Holy Spirit is free to act as the spirit of life!

FL “If any one has not [the] Spirit of Christ he is not of him”, Romans 8:9. It is what is derived from the spirit of that Man.

CAM In this connection, how about the verse that says: “The last Adam a quickening spirit”, 1 Corinthians 15:45. Do you understand that as a Spirit He quickens?

JT It is in keeping with John 20. In Luke 24 He says “A spirit has not flesh and bones”. He formally asserts that He is not a spirit. “A spirit has not flesh and bones, as ye see me having”, Luke 24:39. Luke emphasises the Man. His humanity is emphasised. Now John emphasises the spiritual side. He brings forward certain facts such as that the doors were shut, and in spite of the fact that they were shut, He appears in their midst. That is a spiritual idea, and so He breathes into them. That was a spiritual act, and so also His remark, “Receive [the] Holy Spirit”, John 20:22. The whole scene is characterised by being spiritual, and I think that is the thought in 1 Corinthians 15:45: “The last Adam a quickening spirit”. But then He is the last Adam, mark you. That means He is a Man, but the chapter develops that the new thing is spiritual; even as to our bodies “It is raised a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:44) but nevertheless a real, human body, as the Lord’s is. So it is as risen from the ^[p. 46] dead He is said to be, I apprehend, a quickening spirit.

CAM I see. That helps in making a body a spiritual body.

FL You have touched on a thing of tremendous importance. I was thinking in the first of Genesis the origin of all, in connection with life in man, was seen with God; but now in connection with new creation, as I understand it, that which is taken up in Christ, the origin of all, as to the Spirit, is from a Man — that last Adam. The import of that is tremendous, that He is the quickening spirit. It is the Man. He breathes into them and says: “Receive [the] Holy Spirit”, John 20:22. It puts in a wonderful light the person of that Man.

ANW The whole of God’s world in that way is developed from that Man.

JS Reading Genesis 2 in the light of Christianity, do we not have life more abundantly suggested in the garden of Eden. Adam was set up in an environment suited to him, and into which God could come and commune with him?

JT The divine thought as to life was there foreshadowed.

Ques We read something about life in Colossians 3. “For ye have died, and your life is hid with the Christ in God. When the Christ is manifested who [is] our life, then shall ye also be manifested with him in glory”, Colossians 3:3 - 4. Does that life refer to what you are speaking about?

JT The life there is spoken of from our side; Christ who is our life. Our life is hid with Christ in God. We are speaking of life rather as presented from God’s side. And it is undoubtedly developed in Scripture in the connection we have spoken of.

JS So that John 20 would be the fulfilment of John 10, life more abundantly?

JT I think it is. Life as believers now have it exceeds what those in the millennium will possess.

^[p. 47] It is involved in that peculiar transaction of the Lord, His breathing into the disciples; and what He breathed into them is formally stated to be “Holy Spirit”. It is not a question of the person of the Spirit, although implied, but it is the character.

CB And when the apostle Paul said the life “that I now live”, it was Christ, was it not, he lived Christ?

JT That is another thought. I am endeavouring to bring out the importance of what I am free to call the higher order of life. In our being brought into intelligent relationship with Christ and one another in love as having the Holy Spirit, you have the expression of the highest form of life. Ponder it! In 1 Corinthians 15 we have the great idea of victory over death, but it does not develop what I am speaking of. It does, however, say: “As in the Adam all die, thus also in the Christ all shall be made alive”, 1 Corinthians 15:22. It is really elementary, but it shows that we are made alive “in the Christ”; but John 20 shows how we are made to live; it is that we have received from Christ His spirit. The breathing is into the lungs as it were, so it is the inner, vital principle by which we exist and by which we are characterised that is in view.

JS But wholly a spiritual idea?

JT Wholly spiritual, yes.

WHF Life more abundantly I understand is association with Christ.

JT You can understand that this blessed breath, called “Holy Spirit”, breathed into them, implies that we are viewed as raised with Christ.

WHF Is there a distinction between life more abundantly and eternal life? I understand eternal life is condition.

JT I am sure it is correct, as stated by the beloved brother whom the Lord used to bring this truth before us, that the term eternal life in itself ^[p. 48] is a testimony as to what God brings about through Christ on earth where the defeat was, where death was. The more you consider it, the more it becomes obvious that with regard to Christians the idea necessarily goes on to intelligence with regard to Christ, and this involves not only life in the enjoyment of God’s blessing for ever, but I have the spirit of Christ and in that way am qualified to be a companion of Christ, with the brethren, in regard to the highest divine thoughts; and the greatest divine thought is that I shall have part with Christ in all that God has purposed in regard to Man as seen in Him.

FL So that is the supreme thought of life.

JT That is what I was thinking.

FL Life is never contemplated as other than the sovereign prerogative of God; life in the insect or bird, all life is traced as having its origin in God. Then if we take the life of man it takes character from what God is pleased to give. What we have been considering is something that is far beyond the character of things enjoyed by Old Testament saints or in the millennial day. It is the supreme thought of life; that is, receiving Holy Spirit and living together with Him.

JT That is what I had in mind and it brings it out very clearly. Every family of men will have eternal life as named of the Father, but it will take character in each from the privilege and endowments granted.

CAM Can you make an individual application of the breathing in John 20?

JT I am sure He breathed into each one of them. Surely you have the spirit of Christ, and that is the point, you know.

C.A.M. Who has?

JT You as a Christian. It is there in the gift of the Spirit. But we have to come to the thought ^[p. 49] of the spirit of Christ, that that is the spirit you have, and no other.

FL Romans 8:9 is individual. “If any one has not the Spirit of Christ he is not of him”.

ANW Why is the breathing immediately connected with the disciples being sent out?

JT It was looking toward their mission here. They go out really, you might say, from heaven. It is the spirit of the heavenly Man that is to give character to their witness here. That shows what Christianity is. There can be no other witness like it.

AFM Thessalonians really is developed in Ephesians, in that verse you have read, living together with Him?

JT Ephesians leads on to position; whereas the thought in Thessalonians does not go beyond our living with Christ. In Ephesians you are led on to your position, seated in the heavenlies with Christ.

JS It is more the glory, and position, in Ephesians.

AFM I was thinking in speaking of it that Ephesians gives you the sphere of life.

JT Of course it is there, but the epistle develops much more, because it is a question of God’s counsels; Christ and the assembly.

Rem John 20 seems to be a definite thing, being an advance upon the gift of the Spirit.

JT It is all there in the gift of the Holy Spirit, but we must distinguish between John 20 and Acts 2; and then again the reception of the Holy Spirit by an individual. John 20 is pattern, as we have often had it, so when you come through exercise and experience to that Spirit you have no other. Now I may have a different spirit. I may not be up to that, but when I am energised and characterised by the spirit of Christ I measure with John 20.

Ques It is presented in John 20 as a definite transaction. Now is that same thought carried out ^[p. 50] in an individual at the present time, that there comes a time in his experience that Christ breathes into him?

JT I do not say it ever happened in the same way again. It is a pattern and therefore the reception of the Spirit involves what is presented, only many of us have the Spirit, but it does not characterise us. He has not become in me yet the spirit of Christ. I like what was brought out last night about the spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of God, and sonship. They are very important, and I think we ought to consider well the thought of the spirit of Christ. Is that the spirit that characterises me?

ANW Elisha tore his own garments in two pieces after he saw Elijah go up.

JS John 20 is a pattern of the assembly, is it not?

FL The Lord says: “As the Father sent me forth, I also send you”, John 20:21. That is, the disciples are sent out in connection with that pattern.