"THAT THE CHRIST MAY DWELL, THROUGH FAITH, IN YOUR HEARTS"
“[p. 170] THAT THE CHRIST MAY DWELL, THROUGH FAITH, IN YOUR HEARTS”
There are very few of us that do not hail with some measure of gladness the advent of a new year. The sun, the power, in a sense, of life, has reached its lowest point in the heavens, and hope and geniality in our minds accompany its rising again. We have seen the same thing repeated many times, yet we cannot resist the effect of the recurrence. Now we must all admit that, in the view of the church, Christ, the true sun, has gone down very low indeed, and all are suffering from the effects of this. There are dark days, and a great absence of geniality among those that ought to be filled with gladness. For them the sun is not high in the heavens. But it is in the power of God to give a reviving by His Spirit, for there is no thought more comforting than that the Spirit abides here still. And there is no limit to what the Spirit can effect for Christ in the saints.
The form that the reviving would take would be, I judge, in the Spirit producing in the hearts of saints a deep sense not only of that which Christ is personally, but of that which He is officially, of the place which He fills as the Centre and Head of the counsels of God. This brings Him into view as the “Sun of righteousness”, the life of the world to come. And the view of Christ in this way can hardly fail to revive hope in the hearts of saints even in the darkest day. It is in this light that I desire to present Christ.
We have been very much disposed to put the coming again of Christ in contrast to His first coming, and in a sense the contrast is very great; but looked at in a moral point of view, the second [p. 171] coming is the complement of the first. What was then set forth in testimony will be established in power. One simple thought will be sufficient to establish this: He testified the righteousness and faithfulness of God in the great congregation; when He comes again it will be to establish that righteousness and faithfulness in the world, and not alone in Israel. So too the works of mercy that the Lord did in the way of witness were the powers of the world to come. Again the holiest of all, the kingdom of God and eternal life were all here in His Person, and available for man had man not been blind, and all these will be established in His second coming. The great salvation began to be spoken by the Lord and will be accomplished in power in His second coming. We see in this way how the first coming is the pledge and sample of what marks His coming again.
In the first coming of Christ it is extremely interesting to see that everything that had been here for God, and had in a sense lapsed through sin, is renewed, it comes again into view. Man comes into view in the Son of man. The law is seen in the perfection of it in Christ; not in the detail of its requirements, but in the great moral principles that were, so to say, the soul of it. Israel came again into view, not in a small remnant of Jews that in the providence of God had been brought back to Canaan under gentile domination, but in the perfection of the whole, in God’s Son that was called out of Egypt, and was in spirit outside of all domination, whether of Satan or man. The word of God that had ceased for many a long year is revived in the power of the Spirit, in glad tidings to the poor. The temple of God comes into view, not in a house that had become corrupt through the covetousness of man, but in One who was marked by unsullied holiness.
[p. 172] All this was of the deepest interest for God, and is of the greatest moment to us, for nothing can be more important to us than to realise the impossibility of anything that God has ordained ending in absolute failure. Satan is not going to achieve a victory over God. Thus Christ is the great answer on the part of God to all that has come in by sin. And it is profitable for us to study the gospels in this light.
But another consideration comes in, and that is that men with whom Christ had connected Himself (not morally, but in the fact of incarnation) were under liabilities in regard of God, and under the power of evil, in abject bondage. And yet they were the objects of the sovereign mercy of God, whether Jew or gentile. Hence these liabilities had to be met by redemption; Christ came in the grace of God, was made a little lower than angels that He might taste death for everything. And here we meet a most momentous fact, that all that had been revived for God in the incarnation of Christ was laid down, as after the flesh, in death. And it could not be otherwise if men were to have any part in blessing.
But the resurrection morning broke, and all comes into light again in One who, having charged Himself by the will of God with all that under which man lay, is now revealed in respect of man as a quickening Spirit, with power to subdue all things to Himself! Surely this is great ground of rejoicing. If heavenly hosts celebrated the birth of Christ into this world with rejoicing, should not the resurrection of Christ be hailed with acclamation by man, the subject of God’s mercy? If man did not rejoice, the stones would cry out.
But we can see still a point further by the power of the Holy Spirit that has come down from heaven. The One that descended into the lower parts of the earth has ascended far above all heavens, that He [p. 173] may fill all things. He has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers being made subject to Him. We are at liberty to behold the glory of the Lord with unveiled face. He is the Mediator of the new covenant, the establishment of which will fill the world with blessing by the knowledge of God. It is in this way that Christ is now before the eyes of His people, the pledge of the reconciliation of all things to God in Himself. And now all is to come forth from Himself. Nothing will be seen until He rises from the right hand of God. Then He will come to take His place and to establish the universe of bliss. He will come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all those that believe. The church is the special object of His love, that with which He has been concerning Himself in His absence, and in it His glory will be set forth. He will be known by her in the gate. Israel too will in a sense come forth from Him. It may be said that they will be gathered from all places in which they have been hid, but morally they will come forth from Christ. He is the true vine, the true Son of God that has been called out of Egypt, and all that will distinguish Israel morally as a people on earth will be of Christ. They confer no distinction on Christ, but He gives character to them. Then too He is a light for the revelation of the gentiles, they will come out of the close places in which they have been hidden from God, in the degradation of idolatry. Men will be blessed in Him, the true seed of Abraham, all nations will call Him blessed. He will fill all things with blessing. The One that takes away the sin of the world is the One suited to fill all things with blessing according to God. All this is hid in Christ at the present time at the right hand of God. The world goes on its course perfectly regardless of all this, and, alas! many christians are very little [p. 174] affected by it. The terrible mistake has been made of regarding Christ as having come in to better this world, instead of seeing that the moment He comes in as man He is the beginning of another world, in which man can have part by the Spirit of Christ in virtue of the accomplishment of redemption. Hence Christ is the hope of the christian, who is most deeply interested in all that which Christ will bring in at His coming.
In the light of what has been said above, there can be little difficulty in entering in some little measure into the prayer of the apostle Paul in Ephesians 3. The church is here as the bride of Christ, but the Bridegroom is absent, and His absence is a test of the fidelity of the bride. If she is true to the Bridegroom, she would have Him dwelling in her heart by faith. She would regard no interest but His, would cherish all that concerns Him, and would not allow anything to conflict with His rights in the heart. In this way the Bridegroom would be reflected in the bride. She would be a witness to Him in His absence. How far this has been realised in the church I leave anyone to judge. But the power of the Spirit of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ can strengthen us with all might in the inner man that this may be the case. One cannot allow that the prayer of the apostle is to have no answer in the present time, and if so, even at this late moment there may be the witness of fidelity to the Bridegroom. The point is whether we are prepared for this strengthening in the inward man, for it may be accompanied by a corresponding weakening in the outward man, so that all the links with the world may be loosened. But there is great gain in it. The result is that we are rooted and founded in love, for love, in the true sense, lies in the inward man, and if we are strengthened there it is in the way of spiritual holy affections, the [p. 175] secret of all real intelligence. It is the enlargement of the man that is wanted that there may be the opening of the intelligence. Then we have a vast expanse presented, the breadth and length and depth and height. This is a wonderful subject of contemplation, the vastness of that moral expanse that presents itself to the one that apprehends the true thought of the Bridegroom, who enters into alliance with and gives character to all that which is for God. It is an expanse which will be filled with the glory of God, and will rejoice in liberty from ill, and in the blessing of God. Then we know too the warmth with which all will be filled, the love of Christ that passes knowledge. The church is privy now to these things, and the knowledge of them qualifies her to be an expression of the wisdom and love of God while she waits the coming of the Bridegroom. One can only pray that saints may be awakened to this in these last moments, that there may be an answer morally to all the infidelity that is abroad, and a support to the testimony of the gospel.