RECOVERY
[p. 348] RECOVERY
I just desire to add one word on the subject of recovery. (Matthew 2: 15.) What struck me (and I was very much interested in what our brother was bringing before us) was that it is a wonderful thing to see that God has the power of recovery with Himself. That is what I want to indicate. And that Christ is that power of recovery; and all recovery, whatever it may be — and it is a great principle with God beyond all manner of doubt — is really the revival of Christ. There is no recovery in man as man. All recovery, whether in the individual or in whatever circle it may be, is the revival of Christ in that individual or that circle.
You see the principle in Israel. In a sense Israel began with Christ. This is seen in Moses. Israel has lost all savour of Christ, but all recovery and blessing for them in the future is the revival in them of Christ. You get the expression of this in Isaiah 53. Christ will be revived in them. It is wonderful that God has thus the power and principle of recovery with Himself. It is all involved in Matthew 2: 15: “Out of Egypt have I called my son”. Christ is identified with Israel. God had brought Christ in, and He is the power and principle of recovery.
So in regard of the church. There is defection in the church. The principle of recovery is the revival of Christ in the saints. That is the force of what the Lord says in Laodicea. “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire”. What is the recovery there? It is Christ. So in regard of the individual. We might take Peter as an example of this. Peter called to mind the word of Christ. It was the revival of Christ in him; he remembered the word the Lord had said to him.
If there is recovery for any one of us — we have all had [p. 349] to be recovered in a kind of way — it is the power of Christ in us. The power of recovery is in Christ, and the way in which it works is by the revival of Christ, whether it be in the church, or Israel, or the individual. We all ought to be set for recovery; but I think the point is, that the principle of recovery should be seen in us. God would desire the revival of Christ in us, wrought by the Spirit of God, so that we ourselves might be the expression of the power of the Spirit of God in the way of recovery.
It would be a good thing, and I heartily go with the desire for recovery to any extent in the saints down here, but it must be brought about by the revival of Christ.
Revival is a very great thing. I do not limit it to the conversion of people. It is in the saints. No doubt if Christ were revived in the saints there would be much more work and power in the gospel. The revival must work in us. You may be confident there is no revival in man; the revival is the revival of Christ in man.
God has brought Christ forward as the blessed One in whom He accomplishes all the purpose of His will, but also as the great principle of recovery for every one, whether Israel, or the church, or the individual.
I only just desired to add that word.