THE GLAD TIDINGS OF THE GLORY
THE GLAD TIDINGS OF THE GLORY
JBS This verse may perhaps be enough to read, though it is connected with the latter part of verse 10: “If any other thing is opposed to sound teaching, according to the glad tidings of the glory of the blessed God”.
The glad tidings of the glory of the blessed God, not the law, is the test of everything.
No doubt many have not understood the glad tidings of the glory, not seeing that in Scripture we first get the glad tidings in connection with the kingdom; afterwards we get it as connected with resurrection (though a great many do not go even that far); but what characterises Paul’s ministry is that it is distinctly the glad tidings of the glory of Christ.
I am assured that it is of immense importance that souls should be in the apprehension of what this is, or they cannot understand the mystery. No doubt there are thousands who are converted who do not know it, and therefore cannot enjoy the truth of the mystery.
I think the prodigal son is a very good illustration of such. He could not doubt for a moment but that his father loved him when he kissed him; but what about his fitness for his father?
We can look up and see a Man in glory, who has borne all the judgment due to us, and has perfectly glorified God; and now all the glory of God rests on that Man, and the nearer I am to Him the better off I am. The great point to be insisted on in the preaching of the glad tidings is the Person.
The apostle says, in writing his first epistle to the Corinthians: “I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified”, 1 Corinthians 2: 2.
[p. 250] He had not been to Corinth between the writing of his first and second epistles, and it is in the second that he brings before them the subject of Christ in glory. If we come to close quarters, I am sure we shall have to admit how much more we know about the work of Christ than we do about His Person. He, as we well know, is now in glory, and you cannot know Him anywhere else but where He is.
RFK Is there any difference between the glad tidings of the glory of the blessed God, and the glad tidings of the glory of Christ?
JBS I do not think so; Christ has brought in the glory; it now shines in His face. I was the man who dishonoured God. He is the Man who has glorified God.
If you do not know the glad tidings of the resurrection, you cannot know the glad tidings of the glory.
There are very many who do not know the glad tidings beyond what is set forth typically in Exodus 12, namely, sheltered from judgment; that is, Romans 3; comparatively few, perhaps, get as far as the end of Romans 4.
FC How is one to become acquainted with the Person in glory?
JBS That is a very good question. You seek Him. I can understand a young believer saying, I know He died for me; but where is He now? He is in the glory. Can I see and know Him there? You can; and the nearer you draw to Him, the more you will be attracted; it will be with you just the reverse to what it was with the prophet in Isaiah 6: he was repelled by the glory; but there is no “live coal” now for us as in his case, there is no fire on the altar, but a MAN in glory.
Affection for Him is the point where we are all defective. “First love” is what will make me willing to part with everything that would hinder my enjoyment of His company. It may be a very small thing [p. 251] that is the hindrance, perhaps the reading of the newspaper; but whatever it is, I part with it.
In my soul I not only want to know the terms on which God can be with me; I may be quite happy as to that; but how am I with Him? Am I in the liberty of the Spirit, enjoying His presence? What I believe characterises many christians is, they know the gospel, but they do not enjoy it. I do not think the prodigal entered into real enjoyment until he had the best robe on. If I were in the real joy of the gospel, I should be like the queen of Sheba in the presence of Solomon: there was “no more spirit in her”.
EC Is not that the difference between the objective and the subjective side of the truth?
JBS Quite so. I believe in a general way we have all got the objective, and nothing has done more harm than people having this apart from the subjective. You are clear as to God’s side, but the point is, what about your side? People assume that all is cleared by the reckoning of faith on both sides, but that is not true. It is in the line of the false idea of holiness by faith. The subjective side is not by faith, but by the Spirit: “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death”, Romans 8: 2. The same Spirit that assures me of God’s love to me tells me I am out of death. No one can enjoy God’s love until he is in life.
I know from my own experience how the thing works. There was a time when, though I knew well that I was cleared of everything as to my sins, and if I looked at God I was happy so far; but if I looked at myself I was miserable.
Show me a man who is not in some way trying to improve himself; but that will not do. What you have to do is what Elisha did, that is, to rend the old clothes - to leave them altogether.
Ques When was the subjective [p. 252] side with the prodigal?
JBS When he got the best robe on.
DLH Would you say the best robe on is our standing?
JBS No; he is in standing when the father kisses him; the best robe is not standing and state combined, it is state only.
Taking Israel typically at Exodus 15, they are a redeemed people in the favour of Jehovah; and have crossed the Red Sea - type of the death and resurrection of Christ; but it is not until the end of thirty-nine years that it comes out they are so unmendably bad, that there is no remedy for their case but the bringing in of the brazen serpent. At that point an entirely new day dawns on them.
What has puzzled a good many is that John, in chapter 3, begins not with Exodus 12 but with Numbers 21: he begins exactly at the point where the difficulty of souls is. You cannot have “the glad tidings of the glory” without deliverance, you must be in a new condition; nor can you have deliverance but in the life of Christ. You are first made acquainted by the Spirit with the blessed fact that God loves you; then that same Spirit shows you that you have life in Christ, and it is in the power of that life that you are freed from the law of sin and death.
JJ What is the lifting up of the serpent in the wilderness?
JBS According to John 3 it is the man is gone. The old man, where all the mischief is, has passed from the eye of God. The brazen serpent never bit anyone, and Christ who did no sin was made sin, “That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”, John 3: 16.
The point insisted on in John 3 is the subjective side; when it comes to “the glad tidings of the glory” you cannot enjoy the objective unless you are in the reality of the subjective. One is properly standing, the other state.
[p. 253] The mass of souls are not in deliverance; that is they do not know that they are in Christ; and that is why the world is not a wilderness to them; the true secret of it lies there. When you are consciously in His life, you find that there is nothing here to suit you. Afflictions, sorrows, or aught else, never made the world a wilderness to anyone. You may have trials and sorrows, and find something to sustain you in them; but the soul going on in the life of Christ must find itself in a wilderness here.
DLH Then you could not say every christian is in the wilderness?
JBS No; how many are trying to make the place as pleasant as possible!
THR Those who belong to the world are visited with afflictions, difficulties, and so on, as christians are; but it is the privilege of the christian to be sustained in them, being in the life of Christ; but for that you must have come to Him as a Person.
JBS A great many have a true idea of the grace of God; but one seldom hears much about the purpose of God. If I knew His heart, I should not rest without being set upon apprehending His purpose; it is a great thing to know He has a purpose about me, which He will not fail to make good to me.
FER As to the points of life, and deliverance, it seems to me that the two things work concurrently; it is only as you are formed in the life, that you can enter into deliverance; you must be formed in the life of Christ, and as this is wrought in you by the Spirit, you realise deliverance; it is impossible to realise it in the flesh.
JBS Nine-tenths of people have the objective side, and then try to improve themselves; they have not learnt that “in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing”.
FER The real secret of it all, I am assured, is not seeing the purpose of God about them. Grace in [p. 254] its first application refers to me in my responsibility, and how that responsibility has been met; but that is not God’s purpose about me, which is that I should be united to Christ, He being the first-born among many brethren; Romans 8. You must be on the platform of God’s purpose to enter into this.
FHB We see as to Israel that the first thing was God’s purpose, then how it was all brought about.
JBS I regard all the trouble that has come in amongst us as indicative of the fact that we do not know what God’s purpose is; “the mystery” is God’s purpose; there are those who are now speaking of Christ as a union of God and man; if that were true of Him, then it must also be true of the church - -that it is union of God and man. If you do not understand who Christ is, you cannot understand what the church is; “God has been manifested in flesh”. “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us”. Of course He was God when here (John 1: 1); but as seen in the gospels He was a Man, but He manifested forth His glory; and the moment any apprehended His glory, that moment blessing came to them. Look for instance at the case of Peter in Luke 5: 8. He says, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord”.
The mystery is the great purpose of God; and the apostle’s earnest prayer is that they might have the spirit of wisdom and revelation for the understanding of it. Apart from that we could have no conception of it; the purpose of God will most surely reach on to its full consummation, though all these centuries are taken up in effecting it; and it will finally come out as the new Jerusalem, in which there will be the full display of Christ.
For us now, I do not think anything can surpass the last verse of 2 Corinthians 3: “Beholding ... the glory of the Lord”, we “are changed ... from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord”. Someone [p. 255] has said that that is gained by reading the Scriptures, but it is not so. In the Scriptures I get light; but the Person brings me to love.
FER When the Spirit conducts you to the Person, then it is that love comes in.
DLH You must have the Spirit of God, to enter into the love of God.
FER And it is the Spirit that leads you to the One from whom you have received the testimony; and He makes you conscious that it is from the Person that it came to your soul. I am satisfied that it is a point of vital importance distinctly to connect the Person with the gospel, because all centres round Him; He has brought in life for man, and in that life He is going to place Himself in connection with the universe for eternal blessing. What has struck me in the epistle to the Corinthians is the personal way in which the Lord is brought in; many do not have in mind that the gospel comes to them from the Lord; they are disposed to view it as coming to them from the vessel, the one who may happen to preach it; and this idea is not only true as to the gospel but all truth. In reading the Acts, I have felt impressed with the fact of how the apostles evidently felt that they carried the Lord’s testimony, not their own. Paul says to the jailor, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ”; that is, that he should believe on the One from whom the testimony came. If this were better understood, people would be more really conducted to the One from whom they received the testimony.
Ques What is beholding the Lord’s glory?
JBS I do not think anyone can know that until he tries it. It is not, as I have said, reading the Bible, but sitting before the Lord. The two disciples on the way to Emmaus, heard the most wonderful exposition of Scripture, but it did not alter them on their course a bit; but when He came and revealed Himself to them, their whole course was changed. No doubt that [p. 256] wonderful discourse came out very brightly after they had the Person.
Mary Magdalene had the love, and therefore she got the light; and she is the first to whom He shows Himself. This should be a comfort to every one of us.
GG Is the object of the glad tidings of the glory to lead you to behold the glory?
JBS It is to bring you to the Person. If you know Him risen, you say, I should like to see Him where He is; you are intent on that; then you will do so.