THE EFFECTS OF THE SPIRIT HERE
THE EFFECTS OF THE SPIRIT HERE
FER I think in chapters 3 and 4 we get the thought of God’s love. The way in which it is expressed and brought into effect is in chapter 4. In the chapters 5, 6 and 7 we really find in what eternal life consists, in the way it has pleased God to reveal Himself and come out in connection with the world to come: the Father in His word, and Christ as living bread and the Holy Spirit as living water. In chapters 8, 9 and 10 the sheep are brought to light. In chapters 11 and 12 we get Christ as the subject of testimony and as the point of gathering. That completes that part, then in the second part we get Christ and the Spirit present. The Lord was always working to the end, that of eternal life, the reason of it was that it was the Father’s commandment and it is the last word to the world (see chapter 12: verse 50). Chapter 13 is introductory and 14 brings in the coming of the Comforter. Chapter 13 is preparatory as bringing to light all those who were true. The real work must come out in connection with the Priest, it gets rid of the Judases. The great point, as in verse 1 was to bring to light those who were His own. Feet washing is refreshment I think and if you were to remove defilement that is picked up, it is a service we carry out one toward another. He has left it to us to carry out, Christ does it now mediatorially. The Lord says “if ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them”. It comes out in more than one way, it is not literal, a man has to be convicted first, conviction is not feet washing. Paul had got a measure of joy in the Philippians and he said to them to complete his joy, it means refreshment. I think that, by what was said of the widow: “if she have washed the saints’ feet”. The Lord was sifting — “have part with me” was to have association with [p. 440] the Lord. Where He now is everything was to be changed and they were to pass on to new ground with Him. I think that the question is an extremely important one. I think we are bound to serve one another to refresh one another. You may depend upon it, where people get depressed you will not revive them but by bringing the word of Christ to bear upon them. It is in the intercourse of saints one with another. The very fact of saints being refreshed shows that you remove the defilement. People get a little bit jaded and depressed, that is the effect of things down here on the saints and they want their feet washed, they want refreshment. If I am a little bright in Christ myself I will refresh others, you really want to bring people back to where they started from, to their original brightness.
Where you get a positive disposition to depart from the truth you want more than feet washing, something a little more drastic. There is not much feet washing in the address to the seven churches, we are left under a sort of obligation to it. I feel under an obligation to my own circle, those who are in the faith. I do not think the Lord ever washed the feet of Judas, my reason for it is that it was in connection with bringing Judas to light, the Lord said “Now are ye clean but not all”. He puts us under obligation to wash one another’s feet. The feet washing was an occasion of bringing Judas to light, there was the definite intent to betray Him, therefore the Lord exposes him.
I think another very important point in the latter part of the chapter is that where you get a great display of evil it is followed on the part of God by the Son of man being glorified. You get the same in Revelation, the exposure of the harlot is succeeded by the marriage of the Lamb. I think it is common in the ways of God, some great combination of evil followed by some great action on the part of God. The Son of man was glorified on the cross. The Son of man being glorified in chapter 12: 23 is as King [p. 441] of Zion, the cross is really the effulgence of God — the Son of man being glorified. Glory is that God shines out, you can add nothing to God. God is really glorified in making Himself known, that all comes out in the death of Christ, it was there that God is effulgent. Christ was glorified “in himself” (God) in being set at the right hand of God; “and shall straightway glorify him” was that He would not have to wait for the public glory as Son of man. Stephen saw that; Son of man is employed as a designation for Son of God because the secret of God being effulgent was that He was glorified in the Son of God. God is not glorified in us in the same way, it is only reflected glory in us, the glory of Christ reflected. It is excessively interesting to see that some great climax of evil is followed by some remarkable interpretation of God. You see it in Revelation, the great red dragon gives his authority to the beast and the harlot rides the beast. What could be more awful, yet it is all followed by the marriage of the Lamb, the bride makes herself ready. You get the same principle in the Old Testament when the enemy comes in like a flood the Spirit of the Lord shall raise up a standard against him.
In chapter 14, you get “a place”, access, and works; a place with the Father and the Lord says “I am the way the truth and the life” and then the Lord says “Greater works than these shall ye do”. The Lord does not say ‘because I die ye shall die also’ but “because I live ye shall live also”. You can only follow the Lord now through death, you cannot say a person is dead until he is risen, man could not reach resurrection except by death. The three points in chapter 14 belong to us, the Lord says “I go to prepare a place for you”. In chapter 13 the Lord surveys the state of things down here and shows how it is to be met and I think it is by our love one to another, but the elements of comfort all come in in chapter 14. The new commandment is what is true in Christ and in us, it is a great thing to get hold of what [p. 442] belongs to us, we have got a place. A man likes a place down here, a nice house and garden but we have got a place, you do not want two places. To get to the place Christ comes to take you there but your access is measured by your appreciation of Christ. Greater works are done now than were ever done when Christ was here, you may get a whole heap of people converted. The greater works would be consequent on His position, He goes to the Father and so everything is greater. On the day of Pentecost three thousand were converted, all consequent on His going to the Father. It is done to a much greater extent than when the Lord was here and so you see a much greater extent of works and even greater works. You cannot read the Acts of the Apostles without seeing the great power of the Holy Spirit. You have got no witness now, the witness of the Spirit is so marred, so dimmed. It is a terrific hindrance to unity and spiritual affection. The Lord prays in chapter 17 for the unity of the saints, that the world may believe that the Father sent the Son. Look at all the great organisations all around and see how the witness is obscured. The saints were to be the living exponents of the truth, the living scriptures, all that was of God was to be living in the saints. What conveys it to me more than anything else is the prayer of the apostle in Ephesians 3, that there might be nothing in which God has come out that would not be seen in the saints. The place where Christ was to dwell was in the hearts of the saints, the length, breadth and height, the whole extent in which God will be glorified. A wonderful thing that a power has come in to put everything in its place and proportion in the same. Truth really brings everything to order and proportion, truth in the inward parts — that is the effect of the Spirit of truth I take it. The apostles were kept dependent, they would have unlimited access and would have abundant answers. The Father and the Son were to be abiding here in the saints. Christianity is the continuation of Christ, that not a jot or tittle that [p. 443] came out in Christ might fall, but everything required to be regulated and ordered according to God. Order and proportion is a very great thing, what would the physical world be without it? The Spirit of truth will do it. Man is much greater than the sun, the sun cannot worship God, the sun cannot love God. Science has never done anything for man but the Spirit of truth will regulate everything. What a wonderful and beautiful picture a christian is! He loves God, he loves Christ, he loves the brethren and he is faithful in every relationship.