DEATH AND GLORY
[p. 227] DEATH AND GLORY
Greater than Jonas and greater than Solomon. “Behold a greater than Solomon is here”. We have here two types of the Lord Jesus Christ - Jonah and Solomon, and they set forth the greatness of His grace. Jonah represents His sufferings, Solomon represents His glory.
There are two parts in grace, one is what we are brought from, and the other what we are brought to. Those who know only the former are occupied with themselves and what they have escaped from. If you know what you are brought to you are occupied with the greatness of what you are brought to, and with the One who has brought you there. A man brought from a prison to a palace would speak of the palace and not of the prison. He would be full of the wondrousness of the place he was brought to, and what he had left behind would be done with. Souls are never restful in grace till they know what they are brought to.
The four leprous men in 2 Kings 7 say, We die here, there is nothing left for us but mercy, the mercy of our enemies. Try mercy. If there is one here who has not tasted mercy, try it. These poor leprous men tried mercy and they made a fortune, and then they became evangelists of it. They were not only relieved of the famine, but they acquired a fortune. When God came down to deliver Israel, it was not only to bring them out of Egypt; He says, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people ... I know their sorrows; and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey”, Exodus 3: 7, 8. We find the same principle in the case of the thief on the cross. He was brought from the very lowest degradation into the very highest position, in company with the Son of God. I give these examples and illustrations to show you that if you are only occupied with what you are brought from you have not found the finish of the gospel, you are not in the truth of God’s purpose, in the reality of what He has brought you to. This is the great lack in souls, and hence they do not know the greatness of God’s salvation.
Now in the two types which we get in the passage which I have read the first, Jonah, is type of the One who went into death; the second, Solomon, sets forth the One in glory - he is a type of the glory of Christ. The sufferings of that blessed One typified by Jonah were on our account. Jonah suffered on his own account; he had a will of his own, he would not go the way that God wanted him to go, and he had to learn that death was due to his will. He had to learn that the man who has a will of his own must die. Christ bore the judgment due to your will, and the judgment was death; and not only so, but in His death He ended the man who was under judgment. You will never know what Christ has accomplished for you till you know this, “that our old man is crucified with him”, Romans 6: 6. Death is on you; I ask you, How do you get out of it? How? Is it by saying, Christ died for me and I keep what He died for? No. True, He died for you, but it was not that you might keep what He died for, but to make an end of it - to make an end of you, so that you who live should not live to yourself but to Him who died for you and rose again. Do you want to keep what Christ died for? If you do, you will never get to the finish of the gospel. You have not only to learn that the blood shelters you, but you have to walk through the way which God has made through death (in type the Red [p. 229] Sea), and you will never otherwise know what it is to be free. The man who offended against God and who is offensive to God, is removed in the cross, and I cannot appear before God in that man. No, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world”, Galatians 6: 14. Do I regret that that man is gone? No, I am glad that he is gone. Nothing can relieve you but death. God’s own Son died for you, and you have not only to believe that He died, but you have to appropriate His death in order to get out of your own death. Until you appropriate Christ’s death you are not in the blessing that His death has secured for you. “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you”, John 6: 53.
Now this is the first part of grace. Through the death of Christ - the Jonah aspect - I am clear of my own side, and I receive the Holy Spirit. Now we come to the other side. Read 2 Corinthians 3: 7 - 9. “But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory”. Now here we are looking, not at Christ’s death but at Christ’s glory. In this chapter we get the contrast between Sinai - the law - and the gospel. The law was a demand for righteousness made on man from God, which man could not meet. Now, because of Him who glorified God where we dishonoured Him, there is the ministration of righteousness which exceeds in glory. It is hard to show what this is, it is so wonderful. A demand of righteousness had come from the glory; now there is a ministration of righteousness from the glory; and this is what [p. 230] Satan is set against, so we get, “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them”, 2 Corinthians 4: 4. Now this light is the beginning of enlightenment in every soul in which there is a work of God. The light shines down from the Person - from Christ in glory; God begins from that. The enemy tries to baffle it; he blinds their minds lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. When the Greeks come up to worship Him (John 12: 23), the Lord says anticipatively, “The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified”. He was not here as Solomon, He was here as Jonah. There had been a demand on man for righteousness, and that blessed One went into death and bore the judgment of it; but as risen, He is the Saviour in glory, and now there is a ministration of righteousness from the glory. In Isaiah 6: 1 - 5, when the prophet saw the King, the Lord of hosts in glory, he could not endure the sight; he said, “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips”. Have you ever said that? Have you ever discovered your moral condition in the presence of Christ? What happened to Isaiah? A live coal is laid upon his mouth, and he hears, “Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged”, (verse 7). That was very blessed, but it is not our gospel. He received grace; his sin was forgiven, but no righteousness was ministered to him from the glory; he had not a Saviour there; he is not at home there. The live coal was evidence that the judgment had not been borne, though there was grace before Christ came. There is no live coal now in glory, but there is a Saviour in glory. God sent His Son and set aside the man on whom the judgment lay, and now there is a Man in glory to the pleasure and delight of God, and from that Man there is a ministration of righteousness.
[p. 231] The grace comes from the glory, not from the cross. The cross is the basis of it all, but the light shines down from the finish, and the nearer you get to the glory the more you know your welcome; the more assured you are that it is your place according to God; and the effect on you is that Christ personally absorbs your heart. This is the gospel of the glory. I am not only clear of all that was against me, but I have appropriated His death, and as I follow Him to where He is, I am transformed into the same image. No sovereign in the world could make you like himself; he may admit you to his presence, but he could not transform you.
Now I come to the steps by which you learn this. Many do not go beyond the fact that He died on the cross. Mary Magdalene and the other disciples in John 20 were in great trouble because they could not find Him. They knew He had died, but He had risen, and they could not find Him. Have you found Him risen? Are you looking for Him as the Living One? Have you asked, Where is He? The answer that Christ gives to anyone who believes in Him risen is the “living water”. There is a receiving as well as a giving. It is a great thing to see Him risen out of death; when you see Him thus you are not only sheltered but justified. He was raised for our justification. Do you believe in Him risen? I do not ask if you believe the fact of His resurrection, but is the eye of your heart on Him risen? Then you receive the Spirit, and the moment you receive the Spirit you have got the link with Him; and if you do not grieve the Spirit He will lead you into nearness to Christ, to acquaintance with Him as the glorified One; and the nearer you are to Him as the glorified One the more at home you are. Where do you get most natural light? Near the sun. Where most warmth? Near the sun. All light and warmth to your soul come from nearness to Christ, and not only that, but the most [p. 232] wonderful thing is that as you behold His glory you are transformed into the same image from glory to glory. May you ponder it, and take it to heart that He is not only the greater than Jonah but the greater than Solomon. Do you ask me what is the journey you must take to reach Him as Solomon? Just the journey the queen of Sheba took. She had heard the report of the acts and the wisdom of Solomon, but she was not satisfied without coming to him herself. When she came she said, “The half was not told me”, and “there was no more spirit in her”. She was so absorbed with the glory and blessedness which she saw in him and his surroundings. When you reach Christ in glory nothing about yourself occupies you, but Christ engrosses you. The glory is the expression of God’s satisfaction resting on the Lord Jesus Christ. All God’s attributes - love, righteousness, truth, holiness - were declared in the Man Christ Jesus; and now the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ is the perfect delight and satisfaction of God according to all His attributes resting on Him, and as you behold Him you are transformed into moral correspondence to Him.
You must keep the two types together, Jonah and Solomon. Christ by going into death brought to an end judicially the man that was offensive to God. This is the crucial point for all of us. All that was between us and God is gone, removed in the death of Christ, and now “old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God”. “Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more”, 2 Corinthians 5: 16 - 18. Now I have to do with Him in glory. I can understand a man saying it is magnificent, for so it is but do you really know what it is to be brought from the lowest point of degradation into association with Christ in glory?
[p. 233] The great delay in the progress of souls is that they do not know and accept what the gospel really is, that all which is contrary to God - the flesh - that which the live coal refused and repelled, has been removed in the cross. Man after the flesh was brought to a judicial termination there. Christ not only bore the judgment due to us, but He so glorified God where we had dishonoured Him that God is now indebted to Man for glory. He is raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, and the nearer you come to the glory the more assured you are that the righteousness of God greets you in the light of the glory. You are not only justified, but you are in the justification of life - in the righteousness of God, where there never was a soil. That is the finish of the gospel. The gospel is, “as he is, so are we in this world”, 1 John 4: 17, and the fruition of it is that you behold the Lord’s glory. He is without a veil, and you are “transformed according to the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit”, 2 Corinthians 3: 18. Not only are you at rest with Christ in the glory, but you come out here in a way suitable to Him.
May each heart here be awakened to see what His grace in its fulness is, and to know Him not only as the greater than Jonah, but as the greater than Solomon. You are not in the fulness of the gospel until you have come to the finish.