THE BLESSING, LIFE FOR EVERMORE
[p. 227] THE BLESSING, LIFE FOR EVERMORE
Psalm 133: 1 - 3; John 6: 31 - 62
There is a remarkable expression in this psalm, “for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore”. It is connected with the ointment that was poured on Aaron, and the allusion is to the things of the Spirit which had been ordained by God. Any intelligent christian would say, it was the blessing which God had ordained for the earth, and which is in contrast to the condition of things which now prevails down here. Death has had dominion over man universally, and in contrast to that God has ordained “the blessing, even life for evermore”.
Nothing could take God by surprise, because He ever had wisdom, and therefore He can meet every emergency. The blessing was ordained before ever sin had come in. I think we get this thought taken up in the New Testament. In the twelfth chapter of the gospel by John we read, “I know that his commandment is life everlasting”. It is that which the Father purposed to establish, and therefore the Lord speaks of it. I will now take up three chapters of this gospel, 5, 6 and 7, because they bring before us the solution of the question of eternal life. One person and another came to the Lord enquiring about eternal life, and in the gospel by John the subject has a very prominent place. We get not only the solution of the question of eternal life, but we are instructed as to the conditions in which it is brought to pass, which are found in the connection in which each divine Person stands in regard of men on earth. It involves the question of what God is. In the Old Testament times they had no idea of the Godhead; what was made known to them was that Jehovah was one God.
There is progress in these chapters of John’s gospel.
[p. 228] In chapter 3 we simply have the thought and purpose of God’s love, that the believer might have eternal life; in chapter 4 there is the well of water in the believer springing up into eternal life. Then in chapters 5, 6 and 7 we get the light in which eternal life consists. It consists in the relations in which divine Persons stand in regard of men down here. In chapter 5 we see that the works of Christ were a witness to the Father; they were properly characteristic of the Father for the carrying out of the counsels of His love — raising the dead and quickening. It is not raising men to judgment, but to life. Even with regard to Israel they will be liberated from the power of death. Ezekiel did not think it possible that the dry bones could live. There is no life spiritually about the Jews now, and what the prophet had to learn was that God could bring them together and cause them to live. It is a picture of that which God will accomplish in regard of Israel as a nation; they will be made to live by the power of God.
The Father raises up the dead and quickens them; but then we get another point; that the Father has given to the Son to have life in Himself; that He might be a point of contact in regard of men, with the result that they who hear the voice of the Son of God are made to live. Then the Father has committed all judgment to the Son in order that all should honour the Son. God in His supremacy has imposed the sentence of death on the man who sinned, but the Father in the counsels of love raises up the dead and quickens them.
Now we come to another point: men cannot live naturally without food, and this I believe is also true with regard to the one who has been raised up. In the millennium things will be entirely different from what they are now. Discontent and confusion now prevail; but there will be a mighty change in the condition of things down here; the Father’s works will revolutionise the world. The introduction of Christ into the world as living Head must produce a profound effect on earth.
[p. 229] Man is not like God. Man, in order to live, needs something which will minister to him unfailing satisfaction; he must have bread, and what will come to pass in the world to come will be unfailing satisfaction to man down here. The Father is not bread, but is known by His works; it is the Son who is bread for man. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit, are one in unity, but quite a different thought is presented with each divine Person; it is a point of great interest. In the world to come, man, instead of being restless and dissatisfied, will have his heart satisfied with the goodness of God, and thus as we get in the next chapter, the feast of tabernacles will come to pass.
You remember that chapter 5 is introduced by a sign: the sign gives us a clue to the chapter. The man at the pool was quickened; at the word of the Lord, he took up his bed and walked. It was a figure and sign of the activity of the Father, and hence when the Lord was challenged about healing the man on the sabbath day, He replies, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work”. It is very wonderful that, in a world of sin and death, the Father should be working; and yet christians are really a proof of it. We are not exactly quickened as to our bodies, yet in a sense we are quickened, it is in regard of our affections that we are quickened; it is the fruit of the Father’s work, and if we live a little longer the Father will quicken our mortal bodies by His Spirit which dwells in us.
The sign in chapter 6 is the feeding of the multitude — a multitude without adequate provision for them: what was there was wholly out of proportion to their need, but at the hand of the Lord they are not only fed, but there is an abundant surplus. It is sometimes spoken of in regard of Psalm 132. “I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy her poor with bread”. Jehovah was there, and He abundantly blessed their provision, and satisfied her five thousand poor with bread. Now the instruction we receive from this miracle is [p. 230] brought out in the remainder of the chapter. It is not that Christ ministers the bread, but He is the bread. Bread is symbolical of goodness, goodness which is capable of satisfying the heart of man, so that he may be content. The scripture speaks of bread as satisfying the heart of man, and the object is that he might be maintained spiritually in the enjoyment of the goodness that has come down to him from heaven.
In this chapter we get Christ spoken of in three positions: first, Incarnate, living bread; second, Giving His flesh for the life of the world; third, He ascends up where He was before.
These three positions are alluded to in the earlier part of the chapter. “Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world. When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone”. It refers to what comes out in verse 62. You shall see the Son of man ascend up where He was before. The light in which we know Him at the present moment is as priest. We have to regard Christ as incarnate, then as giving His flesh for the life of the world, and then as priest gone up on high, so that the thought of His being bread, connects Him with every position of grace.
The incarnate Christ is the bread of God; He says, “The bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world”. The chapter presents Christ in regard to the world. My conviction is that what will really change the whole course of things down here will be the coming in of the bread of heaven. The pride, the arrogance, the lust, and the selfishness which characterise man did not come from above but from below; but now we get the bread of God as He which came down from heaven and will wholly change the character of things here. You will not get in that day pride, and arrogance, and lust, and all that kind of [p. 231] thing, but a most wonderful change will be wrought on earth, and every man’s heart will be satisfied and content with the goodness of heaven.
If we want to take account of the world as presented to us in Scripture, we must carry our thoughts back to the time when Christ was in it. Every lust of man’s heart — drunkenness, fornication, and so on, was really deified, Satan had most unlimited power, philosophers were no exception to the rest of mankind. You get a remarkable picture of it in the first two chapters of the epistle to the Romans; they give a most deplorable and vivid picture of the progress of evil in the world. The Jew was no better than the gentile, there was no goodness on earth. People make a great mistake to view the world as it is now; it has been largely influenced by christianity. The Son of God became Man, He came into this world, and brought into it the goodness of heaven. He loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. You must not separate goodness from moral righteousness. Christ when here on earth was instinct with goodness, He was here for the satisfaction of the heart of man, and here and there He was appreciated in that way on earth. The woman came to Him when in the house of Simon the Pharisee, and He was the satisfaction of her heart; mercy abounded towards her, and her heart was contented. Mary of Bethany sat at the feet of Jesus and heard His word. What immediately preceded this was the parable of the good Samaritan; he did not consider himself, but bound up the wounds of the man who was in distress and set him on his own beast. It is to show how Christ was instinct with goodness; every act was the expression of goodness. The next thing is that Mary sits at His feet and is satisfied with the goodness of heaven.
Take another case: the thief on the cross. He was sustained by the sense of goodness, which was available to him in his direst extremity. This gives us an idea of what came down to earth in the incarnate Son of God:
[p. 232] He was instinct with goodness, and goodness abounding in the form of mercy. You get, in these instances, the heart of man satisfied with the goodness of heaven. I have no doubt the woman in Luke 7 would say, I have been brought into contact with goodness, and I have nothing to desire. That is what will happen in the world to come. He will command the blessing and abound in mercy. We look for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, unto eternal life. When Christ comes publicly into the world He will give life to the world. The sun of righteousness will arise with healing in His wings, and men will be satisfied with the goodness of heaven, and then every man will be prepared to show mercy to his neighbour.
Christ gave His flesh for the life of the world. Death is in the world, and Christ gave Himself that He might bring to an end the man who brought death in; He gave His flesh for the life of the world, and the result will be that the world will live. That will not be a time of self-assertion on the part of man. Christ will come forth as Priest, and as such He comes to bless. He is Priest after the order of Melchisedec, and He will come forth in blessing in the world to come. The divine thought is that man might be satisfied with the goodness of heaven abounding with divine mercy — with the living bread that came down from heaven.
When Christ comes again and brings healing into the world it will change the whole state of things down here, but now the living bread has been brought within the reach of our appropriation, and the power is given us to appropriate. We eat the living bread and live by it. We sit at the feet of Jesus and hear His word, that we might have our heart familiar with goodness, the goodness which has visited the world in the incarnate Son of God. It would be a very good corrective if we were appreciating the goodness of the living bread. It would have a great effect on each of us in relation to one another. It would make a great alteration if the [p. 233] hearts of saints were contented and satisfied with that which has been expressed in the living bread come down from heaven. It is blessed to contemplate the goodness of Christ. The Lord was moved with compassion for the widow of Nain. Also for the thief on the cross.
If any one were to say to me, Are you doing better than other people? I would reply, No! I am worse than other people, but I have the power of appropriating the goodness of God toward man. In the Old Testament death was upon man, but he did not accept it; but now Christ has died, and I can accept death. It is not merely that Christ has ended the life of man after the flesh, but also that in His death the love of God is revealed, so that His death becomes the food of my soul, and the practical result is that I have eternal life. We can live in the love which has been expressed in that death; the death of Christ has altered everything, He has made known the love of God, and now I can accept death.
Christ as Priest is instinct with goodness, and the object of His priesthood is to attach our hearts to Himself. Peter did not fall away though he was about to do so, and the Lord says, “I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not”. His object was to make Himself indispensable to Peter. He foresaw what would happen, and it must have had a profound effect upon Peter; he must have felt greatly indebted to the Lord, and that He was indispensable to him.
The appropriation of Christ as food for our souls is of the greatest importance. He is the Head of every man, and He gives living water and is available to every man; if men avail themselves of Him, they come to know His goodness and appropriate His death, which opens the way to the love of God, and in this we live.
Then as Priest He sympathises with our infirmities, and is indispensable to us. It is a great thing to know that we are represented by our Priest; He is available for every man, but He does not represent every man.
[p. 234] It is the believer who can appropriate the death of Christ, because he can live in the love of God. He is on high representing His people, and He is indispensable to us down here. We should have sunk in the depths of depression if it had not been brought home to us that there is One above who intercedes for us, and who sympathises with us. The One who represents us loves us, and nothing can separate us from His love.
I desire that every one may appropriate Christ in this way. We ought to be satisfied as with marrow and fatness. Divine goodness has become incarnate, that men might be satisfied with the goodness of heaven. That is what will give character to the world to come, because the Sun of righteousness will give another impulse to the life of the world in that day.
We can now appropriate the death of Christ and live in the love of God. We can also appropriate His life, He has gone up where He was before. Christ having gone down into death, we can accept death and live in the love of God, which grace has made known to us.