OUR RELATIONS WITH GOD
Colossians 1:9-10 Matthew 11:25-27
I desire to say something about our relations with God. The apostle refers to “growing by the true knowledge of God”, which was needed to meet what was creeping in at Colosse – philosophy and vain deceit, man’s mind entering into the things of God.
There was reference at the weekend to the scripture that the God “who has begun in you a good work will complete it unto Jesus Christ’s day”, Phil.1:6. I thought of what proceeds in the meantime – the beginning of God’s work in believers, a work that God does in us according to His desire and according to His purpose until the completion of it. What God is doing in believers is what He has chosen to do in His purpose and counsels. In John’s gospel it says of Jesus, “He came to his own, and his own received him not; but as many as received him, to them gave he the right to be children of God, to those that believe on his name; who have been born, not of blood, nor of flesh’s will, nor of man’s will, but of God”, John 1:11-13.
In relation to God’s purpose, there is nothing which a person can do to earn the right to be taken up by God. It was pre-ordained. From God’s side, His work in a person is something that has always been in His mind. Even the inception of it is His work. Our responsibility is to receive it, to receive the word as it comes to us in the glad tidings and to receive Christ. The result of the work of God, the fruition of what God begins through new birth in a soul, comes into expression as the seed is sown in good ground in the glad tidings and yields a result; the seed grows and bears fruit. We referred at the weekend to Nicodemus (John 3; John 19:39), and also to the corn; “first the blade, then an ear, then full corn in the ear”, Mark 4:28. The increase in fruit produced was in measurements of thirty, sixty or one hundredfold (v.8). That brings out the sovereignty of God, for He is sovereign as to whom He takes up and how His work proceeds.
Then from our side, I read in Matthew where the Lord’s words refer to our relations with the Father as babes. It suggests the growth of the work of God in believers until its completion, producing what is well-pleasing – pleasing to the Father, pleasing to Christ. We are to be concerned about how much there is in us of God’s work that yields pleasure to Him. The Lord Jesus said at one point of the Father, “I do always the things that are pleasing to him”, John 8:29. So with us the work of God always proceeds with a view to what is pleasing to His mind and heart. We should desire that God’s work in us will result, through experience, in what is pleasing to Him.
But there can be hindrances to this. I was thinking of the book of Romans, which, as we have often been taught, is largely experimental. The epistle to the Romans helps us to identify what is of God in us and what is extraneous to that, what is of the flesh. When we arrive at Romans 7, “I myself with the mind serve God’s law …”. (v.25), that is really arriving at what John speaks about, that what is born of God cannot sin (1 John 3:9). As the work of God proceeds, it has nothing to do with our natural ability, our interests, our pursuits in life, whether in responsibility or otherwise. The work of God proceeds from what has been born of God and what God would nurture Himself.
It is interesting that in the epistle to the Philippians, the title of God is prominent. Paul speaks about what is of God – for example, the peace of God and the God of peace (chap.4:7,10). He also speaks about being otherwise minded. Paul was writing about his pathway here and what he was pursuing; “I pursue, looking towards the goal, for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus”, Phil.3:14. He is looking at the completion of things in himself, and then he goes on, “As many therefore as are perfect, let us be thus minded; and if ye are any otherwise minded, this also God shall reveal to you. But whereto we have attained, let us walk in the same steps” (vv.15,16). It seems that the apostle’s ministry in Philippi was to establish the saints in relation to their walk here, and that it would be a heavenly walk. We have often been taught that the Philippians were heavenly people in a sphere of responsibility or testimony. How we use our minds comes into Philippians – the need to hold our minds in relation to what is in God’s mind for us, and that is “the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus”.
In the epistle to the Colossians, the apostle is concerned in chapter 1 to counter the challenge to God’s work in us that the enemy would make as to our minds. The mind can be diverted by human teaching, or natural intelligence and thinking. My exercise was that during this period, when God’s work is being completed in us, there has to be a relationship established and maintained with the One who is doing the work. We have to keep near to God. I was thinking of John’s epistle; he says, “not that we loved God, but that he loved us”, 1 John 4:10. It is important to be maintained in these truths as to God Himself.
From the beginning of the Old Testament, much comes into Scripture about persons who God took up and who enjoyed His favour, His delight – persons like Noah, Enoch, Abraham and many more. Certain features marked these persons. Enoch was translated by God; it says that Enoch “was not, for God took him” (Gen 5:24), and he had the testimony that he pleased God. That was an indication that God had completed what He had set out to do in Enoch, and then He took him; there was nothing further to be worked out by God in that man. Then Abraham was a friend of God; a feature that marked him was that he believed God and “it was reckoned to him as righteousness”, Rom.4:3. So the features that came out in these persons whom God took up, and are marked out in Scripture, are what He finds His pleasure in – persons who had close relationships with Him.
The time is short. When the Lord comes for us, many of us may well still be living. It is incumbent upon us to make way in our souls for God to proceed in relation to His work in believers. God desires to work out great things in those who are His. In the Psalms, it speaks about the saints of the earth as the excellent; “To the saints that are on the earth, and to the excellent thou hast said, In them is all my delight”, Ps.16:3. God would acknowledge through His word what He has found His pleasure in. He certainly found it in Christ, in that Man, His Son, and the Lord Jesus is a pattern for us. Not that He was in need of growing to maturity, but He advanced in favour with both God and men (Luke 2:52). Who He was in His manhood was expressed in such perfection that God declared His delight in His Son; He marked Him out.
I thought that what runs through all of this is the need for our relations with God to be maintained. It is not a matter of accepting the glad tidings and finding a safe haven in the work of the Lord Jesus, and then continuing with my own interests. Instead, we are to be on the road to a full relationship with a God who desires our every blessing. One of the scriptures that came to mind in relation to this is in Malachi. God had pleasure in His people at the end of Malachi; there were those who thought upon His name, they spoke often one to another and a book of remembrance was written (Mal.4:16). But before that, God says, “Bring the whole tithe into the treasure-house, that there may be food in my house”, Mal.3:10. God’s delight was and is in Christ; the Lord’s food of course was to do the will of His God and Father. Speaking very reverently, I believe that God also has very great satisfaction in what speaks to Him of Christ in believers now.
May we be encouraged together for His name’s sake.
Given in a meeting for ministry, Calgary
6 October 2021
Richard Hesterman