AN OPEN DOOR FOR CHRIST
[p. 337] AN OPEN DOOR FOR CHRIST
I desire to touch on two or three points in this chapter; and I just observe that evidently the chapter divides itself into two parts: the one goes down to verse 14, and the other begins with verse 15. The first part is what I might speak of as objective, and the latter part as subjective, that is, what has come to pass in connection with the coming of the Comforter. That is a simple thought.
The first part is connected with faith. Faith always refers to an object. We are not called on to believe anything about ourselves; we are never the objects of faith. The thought of faith necessarily involves what is objective. “Ye believe in God, believe also in me”. In the latter part of the chapter we have what is dependent on the presence of the Comforter. These are the two points I am going to touch upon. In the first part, Christ as the object of faith, and in the latter part a very important principle, and that is, that there should be an open door here for Christ. That is what Christ would bring to pass in a world to which He was obnoxious. “The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me”. The point before the mind of the Lord was that, in spite of His leaving the world, there should be an open door for Him here in the affections of His people. A very important point, and one that might well exercise every one of us.
Eventually the Lord makes this very distinctly individual. He speaks in a more general way in connection with the coming of the Comforter at first, but afterwards He passes on to what is essentially individual. It is a little striking that you find the same thing coming out in the address to the church at Laodicea. “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my [p. 338] voice, and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him, and he with me” — there is the idea of an open door. The Lord invites us to open to Him. It is in such a state of things as is presented in Laodicea that there may be an open door for Christ. There is no good in making much of anything collective at the present time, for we are in the day of the church’s ruin, and in such a moment everything must depend upon individual fidelity, so that each one of us has to look to himself or herself.
I say a word or two with regard to faith. I connect these chapters with the prayer of the apostle Paul in Ephesians 3. You will find they run pretty much on the line of what he prays there. He desires for the saints that they may be strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner man, that the Christ might dwell in their heart by faith. In this chapter in John, Christ contemplates having a place in the affections of His disciples — that is what I mean by an open door, a place in the affections of His people; but, depend upon it, you will not get that side of the truth unless you get the first. If we are not right in regard of faith, we shall not get the other side. The Spirit could not fulfil it to us, because the Spirit will never work in any of us beyond our faith.
The Lord says, “Ye believe in God, believe also in me”. Evidently the Lord in this changes the ground, enlarges the view. Faith in God was no new thing; it had marked many a saint in times gone by: Abraham, for instance, believed in God. But faith in Christ was new in a sense. Evidently the thought of the Lord was not limited to the disciples — they had believed on Him; but He is laying down a new platform, and thus the ground is changed. It is now not only faith in God, but also faith in Christ, and that is to us a point of the last moment. I suppose we are all in the reality of that; we believe in God, but we also believe in Christ. This does not invalidate any faith that had gone before, but a new object of faith has come in in Christ’s Person. The [p. 339] Lord is anticipating here the day of Pentecost when He, as the ascended Man, made Lord and Christ, would be presented to men as an object of faith.
The Lord does not say, You believe in the Father, believe also in Me. I do not think it is exactly a question of the Father and the Son. He goes on afterwards to speak of the Father’s house, but in the first expression it is more the idea of God and Christ than of the Father and the Son. Things have become very much more defined to us because the exaltation of Christ, following upon the accomplishment of redemption, brings at once into view another system of things. The apostle’s words in the beginning of Acts, “God hath made this same Jesus ... both Lord and Christ”, are pregnant with meaning. “Lord and Christ” is a wonderful thing to be apprehended by us in a Man in heaven. Faith in Christ, in that point of view, is to us a matter of the last moment. It is not only that He is Lord, but He is Christ. There is power in Christ not only to set aside the existing order of things, but to introduce an order of things that is according to the love of God which Christ has revealed. Not only “in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily”, but He “is the head of all principality and power”. The Lord says, “Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out”. In Christ there is power to break up and set aside the existing order of things, so as to make room for an order that takes its character from Himself.
You get hints in the Old Testament of the break-up of the order that exists. It was the lesson God was teaching Job. God let loose the forces of evil, and shewed him in a way the break-up of the existing order of things, and that is what will yet come to pass in a wider sense. God will allow the lawlessness of man and the power of Satan to come to a head; He will allow the upheaval and break-up of the existing framework of the world; the foundations of the world will be discovered.
[p. 340] He will in this way bring to pass that man will find himself cut off from everything on which he has been accustomed to lean, and then God will reinstate man according to Himself. Of course, in the case of Job it was one single man, but he represents many who will be found in like circumstances. The upheaval of all here will teach them that nothing avails but confidence in God, who will in due time reinstate man according to His mind, and that will be brought to pass in Christ. Christ can say, I bear up the pillars of the earth. He is capable of this. He held back the power of evil when on earth; He is capable of controlling all the forces of evil hereafter. He can still the winds and the waves. This is in the power of His hand for He is not only Christ but Lord. If He uses His mighty power to hold in check the forces of evil, it is that He may introduce a world which in every part of it will be answerable to the revelation of God. It is a world which Christ will bring in; an order of things suitable to the holy love of God.
The moment I think of Christ, I think of God revealed. The only-begotten Son has declared God. A system of things brought to pass by Christ must be, in the very nature of things, suitable to the revelation of God. Everything must be in accord with what is revealed in Christ, responsive to the holy love of God of which Christ is the revelation.
I have said this much in regard of faith in Christ. “Ye believe in God, believe also in me”. Now a word or two as to the Father’s house (verses 2, 3). The Father’s house must be a large place for the reason that in it there are many mansions. The Lord would not speak thus if the house were not wide. I should suppose many mansions must imply many families. I do not understand an abode — a mansion — apart from a family. The place of Christ is that of Son over God’s house. He is a great Priest over the house of God, and I take it He is that in order that He might usher every family into its [p. 341] appointed abode. Every family is named of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. There are many abodes and many families, and Christ is the great Chamberlain, so to speak — a great Priest over God’s house (not a servant, like Moses) to set every family in its appointed place. How is that determined? You remember James and John desired to sit one on the right hand of the Lord and the other on His left in the kingdom, but He said, It is for those to whom it is appointed of My Father. I think the place of each family is determined by the character which it takes from Christ. Every family will surely take character in some sense from Christ. The Old Testament saints, for example, took character from Christ. That may seem strange, seeing that Christ had not come. But the Spirit working in them was the Spirit of Christ. We have been accustomed to think of it in that way. Scripture speaks of what “the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify”. If you think of it, there could not be any other Spirit than that which we have received. You cannot doubt that it was the Spirit of Christ active in Abraham, Moses, Daniel and many others. These saints, in spite of every difficulty and opposition, held tenaciously to the promises of God. That marked them, and they walked in the fear of God. No doubt in the Father’s house that is the character by which they will be distinguished.
I might speak of other companies. There is the company that will suffer in the time of trial yet to come. I do not attempt to describe what character they will take from Christ, but Christ passed through, in anticipation, all that to which they will be subjected, and they, too, by the Spirit will take character from Christ.
But now to come to the church. The place of the church is peculiar. It is “the fulness of him who filleth all in all”. It is not distinguished by any particular detail of character; but it is His body. The point in the church is that nothing might be lacking. I might use another word in place of “fulness”. It is the “completeness”
[p. 342] of Him that fills all in all. Therefore there cannot be any quality lacking which characterised Christ as Man. That is the place of the church as characterised by the Spirit of Christ. If I understand the working of the Spirit at the present time, it is in the complete displacement of the old man, the flesh, that the Christ might be dwelling in the heart by faith. It is not one particular trait or character of Christ that is in question, but, as the apostle says, “that ye may be filled even to all the fulness of God”. He says elsewhere, “that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus”. And again, that “we may grow up unto him in all things”. Not in one thing or another thing, but in all things, that we might be marked not simply by fidelity or attachment or any particular feature, but grow up unto Him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ. It is to that end the Spirit of Christ is working in us now.
Though there will be saints in the time to come who will be subjected, like Job, to the upheaval of all things, yet Job must have some instruction in regard of us. I think it is that we may be free from every prop down here, so as to find our resource in God Himself. I believe every heart will be privy to what I am saying, that we are ever ready to rest in something down here. We have to learn to be loosed from dependence on every prop on which man can rest, so that we may find our portion in God and in Christ. The Spirit is working to that end, so that one can say, I do not thirst; I have sufficiency; I have all and abound; all that heart could desire in God and in Christ.
I only say that much with regard to the Father’s house, I have tried to open out the place of Christ in regard of the Father’s house — there are many abodes, and each abode appointed for the family to whom it is ordained, and each family ushered into its place by Christ.
In the Revelation we see the whole heavenly company merged in one. There must be a point of unity, and you find that. But in the latter part we see the bride distinct [p. 343] from every other company. No company loses its own peculiar place and character, but there is a point of contact between all the families. Christ went to prepare a place for us, and I do not think any family will get its place until the church has its place in the Father’s house, for the church is His fulness. No company will be made perfect without the church. The Lord says, “I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also”.
It would be a great point if we were kept here in faith in God and also in Christ. If you look about the world and see the way things are going on, you cannot find much satisfaction there. The secret of all rest and stability and comfort in a world like this is faith in God, and faith in the One who is capable, on the part of God, to fill all things, who has ascended up far above all heavens to that end, and the church is His fulness.
Now I come to the latter part of the chapter, just to say a word with regard to there being a door here for Christ (see verse 15, and onwards). All will admit that Christ is going to have a place here. We are only left here for a moment in the absence of the Bridegroom, but He will return and have His place. We forget that too often. It is not only that He has a place in heaven. His place as Bridegroom is more connected with earth than with heaven. John speaks of it here in John 3: “He that hath the bride is the bridegroom”. We have gone forth to meet the Bridegroom, that shews He is coming. We are left here to fast in His absence; but the point is, the Bridegroom comes again. If there is any truth in our profession, we have left the world to meet Him.
While He is absent we are fasting, and in His absence there is a door open to Him here. That is what the Lord is opening out here. All depends upon the Spirit of truth and on the saints. I do not think you could understand an open door now without the saints. It could not be without the Spirit, because no one can hold for Christ but the Spirit; but it is in the saints. That is [p. 344] what the Lord contemplated.
He speaks first of what is normal. “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you”. There is the open door for Christ, because not simply are we in Christ, but He is in us. You shall, the Lord says, be conscious of the position of things in that day. “I am in my Father”, that is in His affections. We are in Christ’s affections, and He is in ours. Then there is a door for Christ. He can come in; He can present Himself. He is present in the affections of His people down here. The truth is maintained, because there is a company of people here who live because He lives; not because the world goes on, but because Christ lives. There is thus the witness in the world for Christ. What testimony could be greater than that we live because He lives? That is what maintains christianity on earth. Were it not for that, christianity would be a dead letter. Christianity may be here in name after the church is gone, but it will be a dead letter. It is not so now, because there are those who live because He lives. He is present in our affections.
That is the mighty power here of the Spirit of God. I do not care much for anything else if Christ has an open door here on earth, and that is entirely dependent on the Spirit of truth and the place that Christ has in the affections of His people. In that way everything depends on the heart. Propriety and orthodoxy are all very well in their place. I am not going to run a crusade against them, but I do not see any great power in them. The power is Christ in the affections of the saints. The gates of hell will not prevail against that. They may prevail against orthodoxy and propriety, but not against the place which Christ has in the affections of the assembly.
Now we come to verse 21, and that is more individual. We get in the first few verses what is properly consequent on the coming of the Comforter, but what is normal has been gravely obscured; yet, after all, there is the individual, and that is what we have to see to. We see this in the Lord’s appeal to Laodicea, “I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door”. If you have the commandments of Christ and keep them, you will find you have to do violence to the desires of the flesh. That you may be sure of: they are bound to run counter to all the dispositions of flesh; but the Lord says, “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me”. It is vain to talk of loving Christ if you do not keep His commandments. Then the Lord says, If you do that, there will be an open door for Me. Christ will manifest Himself. By and by He will put Himself in evidence; then there will be a great open door; but the point is now, there is an open door for Him here A great thing that! We ought all to covet that it might be. Even though we may be very conscious how everything collective is obscured by the great mass of profession, still it remains true individually that if any man open the door Christ will come in.
Do you think Christ manifests Himself for nothing? Depend upon it it is a great day in a person’s history, when Christ does manifest Himself. One will be a witness for Christ here then. He will never revert to his old ways. He will be careful henceforth about nothing but that there may be an open door for Christ in His absence. He will be characterised by loving Christ and keeping His commandments more abundantly.
But the Lord goes further in verse 23. If the commandments of Christ are bound to run counter to every inclination of the flesh, so the word of Christ is bound to run counter to the course of this world; because the word of Christ will undoubtedly bring to light the elements of another world, and in the nature of things that must run counter to the elements of this world. I ask any thoughtful person: Do you expect to find the word of Christ in a newspaper? You will find much about this world and the present course of things, but the word of Christ brings to light all that is of God. Now look at the gain you get, “we will come unto him, and make our abode with him”.
[p. 346] Christ is not content simply to find an open door for Himself, but He will have an open door too for the Father. That is a great thought. When He comes into the world hereafter He will not only bring in Himself but also the Father. The Father will get His proper place then, everything will be in accord, and there will undoubtedly be witness to the Father and the Son. It is true that if we love Christ and prove it in keeping His word we do not merely get the gain of Christ, He is in evidence, but He brings in the Father and makes Him known. “We will make our abode with him”. That is a very great thing.
We are in a place of reproach, and I do not think we are found in a place of reproach for nothing. We have great gain if Christ is in evidence. You will be prepared to abandon everything that gives importance and position to you in this world. He is much greater than any worldly position or self-importance. What is the greatness of this world in comparison to Christ? Christ is equal to filling all things. He will fill all things with moral glory according to God. I can learn thus to be nothing, and to give up all that would give importance to me; I have learned my nothingness in the presence of divine love. The great thing is that Christ should have an open door, and I cannot see how that can be at the present time save through the affections of His people.
I do not want to put out these things merely as a matter of interest; but my desire is that we may enter into them by the Spirit, and if we do enter into them, and they are made good in us, they will give a very remarkable character to us down here. We shall be morally distinguished. We shall not be what we were before. The man to whom Christ has manifested Himself, to whom He is in evidence, will bear the stamp of it.
And the man with whom the Father and the Son make their abode will evidently bear a very peculiar stamp down here. It may not be appreciated by man or by the world, but it will undoubtedly be beneficial to man on [p. 347] earth.
I just touch on these things. It is for us to enter into them by the power of the Spirit — the Comforter. He only can work all in us.
It is most wonderful that after two thousand years we can go back to this chapter and find everything as fresh and real as at the beginning.