THE GRACE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST
[p. 300] THE GRACE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST
I had a desire, beloved brethren, in continuation of what has been before us, to bring before you the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. While it is possible (and I speak in self-condemnation in that sense) to say a great deal about the position and standing of christians, what really tends to growth is the ministration of Jesus Christ. As the apostle says: “Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ”. The ministration of Christ was thus the means, by the power of the Spirit of God, of practical growth in the saints.
When you come to the practical side of things every one must begin small. You may get a commission, as we have heard, and you cannot improve it. It is just as good at the beginning as at the end, but practically we must begin small. I admit the difference between Paul and John. John presents the things in their nature. Paul presents them in their application. Therefore, in Paul, as I said, we all begin small; we all begin as babes. It is not the condition in which we are to remain; he does not for a moment contemplate that, but he says, “Whom we preach ... that we may present every man perfect in Christ”, or literally, full grown in Christ. There is the ministration, the presentation of the grace of Christ, that we may grow up into Him in all things, as we read elsewhere, that we, holding the truth in love, may grow up to Him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ.
I just want to allude to two or three passages in John’s gospel, and would to God I could bring them before you in the unction of the Holy Spirit, so as to illustrate the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. I could not convey to anyone the sense, poor as it is, which I have of the [p. 301] grace that is presented to us in His Person, especially in the gospel of John. Every one, I think, must be alive to this, that Christ is presented in a very peculiar way in John’s gospel. How entirely the gospel presents Him as One morally outside this world! The world is looked upon as reprobate. “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not”. He was a heavenly stranger here upon this earth, but He was also the “Son of man which is in heaven”. There was a scene where He was at home. The purely human side is not prominent in John. He presents One who was a real Man, but as outside this world — actually in this world, making the Father known, declaring His name, ministering grace in the most blessed way, but as to Himself, morally outside the world; and more than that, the effect of the testimony He presented was to draw souls to Himself outside this world. There was an internal work of grace going on, the Father drawing souls to Christ; as He says, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him”.
I would rather only suggest, and leave every one to work it out for himself, but we will turn to one or two scriptures, and first, John 2: 9 - 11. Now, beloved brethren, we are not here on heavenly ground, that is certain, but we get a wonderful expression of the grace of Christ. The first thing brought before us is, that man’s resources, even at best, run out; then it is Christ comes in; the water of purification is turned into the wine of joy. It is an earthly scene pictured before us, but who is it brings it in? It is Christ. And there is another thing, He “manifested forth his glory”, and the effect was the confirmation of the faith of His disciples. There we get, to begin with, a sample of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. No doubt every one knows that the scene has a dispensational character — it points on to the future, but it proves, even with regard [p. 302] to the earth and the hopes of Israel, that they are dependent entirely on what Christ shall bring. Man’s resources will run out, and, after all, it is the water of purification that is turned by the power of Christ into the wine of joy. “This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him”.
It is wonderful and beautiful! There is a great deal more in believing than we sometimes think. In John it is not simply believing certain things about Him, but if I believe in a Person I commit myself to Him. We read in this same chapter: “Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men”. The disciples committed themselves to Him. It is a great thing to commit yourself to Christ. The more you go on the more you have confidence in Christ. It is like saying, I believe in Christ; He is the One for me.
Just a word on chapter 3: 13. “No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven”. That verse, beloved brethren, conveys a very great deal to me, since as a matter of fact the Son of man was bodily present on earth. He says, at the close of chapter 1, “Henceforth ye shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of man”. But in chapter 3 I get another idea connected with the Son of man, and that is “the Son of man which is in heaven”. There could be nothing more marvellous. I can understand the Son of man on earth, the object of the attendance of heaven; but here it is the Son of man in heaven. The contrast, I doubt not, is to man in paradise. Man was there innocent, perfect as God made him; but now I get the Son of man which is in heaven. There is a vast deal connected with it. He is the object of affection in heaven; not there for a moment, but the place where He is at home, the object of supreme affection and delight. That is what He was, though bodily present on earth. Man might reject Him here, but could [p. 303] not alter what He was in heaven. I wish we could lay that to heart, and see the wonderful thing that had come to pass in the very fact of the Son of God having become Man. Then He goes on to speak of the Son of man being lifted up from the earth.
I turn now to chapter 6: 32, 33: “my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world”. Here we get another thought of grace connected with His Person. The Jews referred to Moses because they regarded themselves as a people of privilege, and had eaten the manna in the wilderness. Now the Lord gives them another truth: “Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven”. Because His business was to make known to them the grace of the Father. “The bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world”. We have seen Him as the One who brings in the wine of joy; then we find He is the Son of man which is in heaven; and then the bread of God come down to give life to the world, where there was no life, where all was death. The whole thing originates in heaven. He is the revelation of grace; the living bread come down from heaven to give life to the world is the revelation of grace where all was barren, everything dry, no moisture here. He comes down according to the grace and thought of the Father, and gives life to the world. What He brings before us is how the whole thing originates in heaven in the heart of the Father, and the Son comes to effect these purposes of blessing, these thoughts of love. It is heavenly grace which is to support man down here in life. It is not people taken straight away to heaven, but man down here upon the earth. Man supported here of God in the power of heavenly grace.
The whole idea in this chapter is, that it is a dependent life. I am supported by grace that comes down from heaven. (Another thought comes out namely, of [p. 304] deliverance, but I do not dwell upon that.) The Lord says later on in the chapter: “he that eateth me, even he shall live by me”. I am sustained by that living grace come down from heaven. But the point in my mind is to bring before you the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the whole thing originating in the heart of the Father, and the Son the way of its communication.
I pass on now to the chapter I read, 20: 17, “Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God”. We have a great deal here; redemption is accomplished. And we have here the Lord, not simply morally outside this world, but, as I might say, actually outside it — though He was not yet in heaven, but you cannot connect the risen Man with this world. As having come down from heaven He was always morally outside this world, but now was actually so: but the link was not broken between Himself and His own. Not a bit! They were to be associated with Him as He is. He makes known to them the grace come down from heaven, the full effect and result of what He had wrought for them, the full consequences of redemption — the source of all being the heart of the Father, and the Son, who came to accomplish the Father’s will, having done all that was needed to bring them into His own place before the Father. He Himself announces to them the full consequence and result of redemption. “I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”. His place was theirs. No distance now, all is gone in His death. Not only were they justified in the place where they had been guilty, but all that stood between God and them had been removed in His death, and His place as Man before God was theirs. He would not hold back anything. That was the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ! It is a wonderful thing! We do not understand giving in such sense as that. Our hearts are so narrow, so selfish; we poorly [p. 305] understand it. Everything comes from above, nothing from beneath. Everything was accomplished according to what He knew to be needful. Now He places them along with Himself, as near to His Father and God as He was Himself. It is of interest that we get all brought out here, apart from any question of the Holy Spirit; that is, apart from the question of realisation on their side. It is all His own grace. I have no doubt He gave them a sense of it before the Holy Spirit came down at all. Who is to sustain us in it? We are before His Father and His God, and who is to sustain us there but Himself? That I doubt not is the idea in John 6, “he that eateth me, even he shall live by me”. He speaks of it here, apart from the question of realisation on the part of the disciples. It is the fruit of grace and the redemption He has accomplished for us. Look at the announcement to Mary. He does not delay after He is risen. The Lord knows her, calls her by name, she responds at once, and He makes her the messenger to His disciples — “Go to my brethren”. He owns them; He does not wait for them to own Him. ‘Go and tell them the consequences of what I have accomplished; they are placed in the presence of God according to what I am’. That is the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I ask any one here, is it not the most marvellous and striking contrast to all the selfishness of our own hearts? I do not know how to impress it upon you, I know it so little; but I would press upon you the grace of Christ, the Bread of God which came down from heaven. Spiritually the disciples were very small in stature, but we get the “commission”. You cannot improve upon that. You cannot add to relationship; “my brethren” in relationship with Christ and with the Father. However little they might realise it, there can be no improvement upon it.
Then in verses 18 and 19 we get another truth of all moment. Jesus comes into the assembly. I am not dogmatising, but I am bold to say I believe the assembly [p. 306] was here. They were gathered by the testimony to Christ’s resurrection. Their tendency was to scatter after His death, but they were gathered by the testimony to the resurrection. Shut off from the world, in the upper room where the doors were closed, Jesus comes into the midst and His presence gives us the assembly. I am alive to the position of things; the Holy Spirit was not here, the body was not formed, but here was Christ’s assembly. There was the Lord; He called them; they were brought together by the testimony to His resurrection. He was in their midst. It was the assembly in pattern. I delight in it because every point of grace is brought before us in its distinctness in connection with Christ Himself, and apart from any question of realisation. First, “Go to my brethren”, and then, “In the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee”. Other truths in connection with the church were not brought to pass yet; but it was Christ’s assembly, the place where He was supreme and pre-eminent, the place where He made known His pleasure, and there they get their mission. He sends them out. “As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you”. And then it is He says, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit”. The Holy Spirit is another fruit of redemption. The first-fruit is relationship; the second the assembly; the third is the communication to them of the Holy Spirit. A most important point, because in connection with that comes in the whole question of realisation. It is in connection with sending them forth that He breathes on them and says, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit”. As long as He was with them the Holy Spirit could not come. I think it is in connection with the Holy Spirit that we get the whole formative process. All that goes on subjectively in the believer is in the power of the Holy Spirit. “He that eateth me, even he shall live by me”. It is by the Holy Spirit that this goes on, that Christ is assimilated, that deliverance is realised, and we are practically formed by the power of the Spirit in the [p. 307] affections and thoughts and feelings of Christ Himself. That is the process that goes on in us by the power of the Holy Spirit. Those the Lord speaks to here had received His word, were already clean, but all the things brought out here were the consequence of the redemption He had accomplished; relationship with His Father and with His God, association with Himself, now in the presence of the Father.
We are in the world still in a sense, but in the power of the Holy Spirit we may say we are outside the course of things here, because we are connected with this wondrous Person who is actually outside and who has made known to us the Father’s heart of grace and the wondrous grace of His own Person. As I said before, we all begin small. We need to feed on Christ that Christ may be assimilated in us, that thus we may grow by Him. We need, too, to realise the perfect deliverance Christ has wrought for us. Now He has removed every bit of distance between God and us. We need to enter into it as part of the redemption that He has accomplished. We have not only the “upper springs”, Christ up there, but also the “nether springs” — what answers in us to every movement of the heart of Christ. No doubt the Holy Spirit is in us the servant of Christ.
I readily own that I feel myself very defective in the ability to minister Christ to the saints, to communicate to the hearts of the saints a sense of the blessed grace Christ has brought down from heaven. With regard to the blessing of Israel in the future, I believe this will be just as true in principle as now. Now it is grace come down from heaven to lift us up to heaven. Not actually yet, but while down here in the world, that we should find ourselves by the power of the Holy Spirit in faith in these heavenly things, the objects of the Father’s affections as the Son is Himself. As He says, “That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them”.