"UNTO THE GLORY OF GOD BY US"
“[p. 322] UNTO THE GLORY OF GOD BY US”
In chapter 4 of John’s gospel the Spirit springs up to everlasting life, while in chapter 7 the effect is rivers of living water flow out. We get the glorified Man in chapter 7, and here in 2 Corinthians 1 all the promises of God established in Him. The Spirit is the witness to the glory of Christ and in that way we are in connection with all that is living, the living God — Jesus glorified, the Son of the living God, and the Spirit of the living God, the church of the living God, and the service of the living God. We are in the apprehension of all that is living in virtue of the well of water springing up, and then you get rivers of water flowing out, and that in a scene of death. People make very little count of death, but death is here.
The idea of a living God is connected with all that is of life. Christians may die as to us, but all live unto God. He is, not was, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We have Jesus glorified; that means that every promise of God is established. In the Old Testament there were promises (David’s throne, etc.), but there was no man in whom they could be taken up, and that is the subject of Stephen’s defence. The patriarchs all died, but Stephen looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus. He saw the Man, and Stephen could rejoice amid the threats which surrounded him. You could say of Stephen that out of him rivers of living water flowed; you get his testimony. He said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God”. The infidelity of the present day is against the Man. In this country the existence of God would generally be admitted, there are few atheists;
[p. 323] the infidelity is against Christ, against the Man. It is exactly the spirit of antichrist, and the liar, which we get in John’s epistle. Who is the liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?
People in acknowledging God are in a way content, they satisfy their consciences, but the point is that there are promises which have been given from time to time, and how are these to be fulfilled? Well, the Man is there in whom these are to be taken up. The patriarchs all died to whom the promises were made, but they have all to come out in connection with the Man glorified, with Jesus glorified. What would have been the gain of the Spirit to men if there had been no Man in heaven? He could not have been here to set up the flesh and therefore there would have been no gain to us until Jesus was glorified; then He comes as the Spirit of another man, He is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Everything must come out from the right hand of God. The glory of Jesus is all bound up with it. The glory of God requires a man according to that glory, otherwise it could not be displayed except as withering man up in the presence of it. A Man has to come in who can stand in the presence of the glory, being Himself the righteous One, and He can take up man’s liabilities. We can only be in the presence of the glory of God as we are in Him, that is, being partakers of the spirit of that Man. The glory of God is connected with the heavenly city in the future, and the world will get the gain of it through the city, but it is the heavenly city which is in accord with the glory, and it becomes the medium of the glory of God; through it the earth becomes filled with the glory of the Lord.
The first great thing in the passage read is that all centres in the Son of God. The whole of the promises are to be enjoyed in the church, they have their confirmation, their yea and amen. They are centred in [p. 324] the Son of God, but they are brought to pass in the church, and so it is “unto the glory of God by us”. All the promises are taken up in the church. The promises were not made to the church: they all had reference, not to Abraham nor David, but to the seed of Abraham and the seed of David, and therefore to Christ. But then they are taken up in the church, for the church is Christ; it is His body. The idea connected with the bride is that she comes into all that belongs to the bridegroom. Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it that He might sanctify and cleanse it — a glorious church. It is according to Himself and fitted in that way for the glory of God and it shares in that way all the glory of Christ. What the bridegroom will come into the bride will come into. We can see how all the promises are to be fulfilled. We see the Man in whom they can centre. Redemption is accomplished, and He is the Son of God in whom the promises are established. We come into it now in the knowledge of that Man. I cannot conceive anything more wonderful than that there should be a Man who can abide in the full blaze of God’s glory: He is the effulgence of it — the righteous One, and we are of that Man.
Nothing gets into the glory except what is according to God’s glory. You have to be outside all that is unsuitable to it to enter there. In the measure of the Spirit’s work in us we are according to God’s glory. If we can divest ourselves in mind from all that is not according to God in us, and take account of ourselves according to what is of the work of the Spirit, then we are according to that glory. The great thing is to bring people into the consciousness of being according to God’s glory. If I think of myself as a child of God I am looked at as down here, where we may come under discipline because we are not according to that glory, but if I would [p. 325] take account of myself according to the Spirit’s work in me and exclude from my mind all that is not of the Spirit’s work, then I should be according to that glory. This latter, that is, to exclude in our minds what we are as after the flesh, is the practical difficulty. In resurrection bodies we shall take account of ourselves only according to what we are in connection with the Spirit’s work in us. There are not many moments of our lives when we come to that, but it is possible. In the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus we may be so absorbed as to exclude all that is not of the Spirit’s work, and thus realise what we are as according to God’s glory. Stephen did not enter into the holiest, but he saw it. Paul saw it and entered it. He gives it to us. When Paul was caught up, that was heaven — not the holiest — the holiest could not exist in heaven. The idea of the holiest is you are in the presence of the secret of God — we are in the light of what is a secret to all the universe. His wisdom, the mercy-seat is there; the ark of the covenant is there, the secret of God’s ways is all laid bare in the holiest.
Entering the holiest is a question of state. You do not enter by the mere fact of coming together in assembly. It is purely and simply a question of state. The holiest is not a place, it is a question of state. Entering heaven is entering a place, and all will enter there. There is no gainsaying that entering the holiest is a question of state. It is as risen with Christ and quickened together with Him, in your mind you have put off the body of the flesh; you divest yourself of all save what is the Spirit’s work in you, and thus you enter. The idea connected with the holiest is moral. The holiest is not a type of heaven. We have the antitype of the holiest now. In the world to come God will have come out in all the glory of His ways. The Corinthians did not enter the holiest; what went on in their meeting was [p. 326] a scandal. Christ comes to us in assembly, and we go to Him; we leave all that is connected with the court of the tabernacle and our everyday life to go to Him in the holiest. The holiest is the apprehension of all the secret of God. You worship God in the sense of the profound wisdom of His ways. Worship has for that reason a peculiar character at the present time, different I think, from what it will be in heaven. It is a great help to me to get an idea of the thing. While the Lord comes to us you must remember that you have to leave your present place of responsibility in the world, you have to join Him where you can be on common ground. The disciples when they went to the upper room were on the ground where they could meet Him. The Supper is the meeting-place. You meet Himself there. The Lord intends the Supper to be the meeting-place, and there He sings praises to God and we are associated with Him, so He leads us into the sanctuary. Aaron’s sons had to be in accord with their father. If Christ is to take the place of Aaron He must be surrounded by those who are of Him: they must be according to Him; a stranger could not be there. Quickening is not knowing and believing that you are alive, but that you are consciously alive. The disciples called the Lord to mind in a way we could not for they had been with Him. We could not in the same way. Beholding the glory of the Lord is more connected with the covenant than with the holiest. In the holiest you come into the presence of the Man in whom God can approach man, and with whom God will fill the universe.
In christianity the principle is that you get what you are prepared for; if you seek you will find; and if you ask it will be given to you. People get what they want; it is all a question of asking and receiving and seeking. We pray for a good many things, the question is do you want them? If you really want [p. 327] things you will get them. The Lord Jesus when people came to Him answered the man, not the man’s question. If we had a true sense of the ruin of the church it would have a great effect upon our prayers. If we had the sense of what the church is as the vessel of testimony and how it is hid and obscured here, it is bound to have a great effect upon us. We never learn wisdom except in the holiest; then you learn divine wisdom. The holiest is the apprehension of what you see there, and it affects you so that you praise and worship. As a child the love reaches me down here, but there is another thing, I am in a world of confusion and I am athirst to know and understand the secret of His way. We learn this in the holiest. It is most wonderful that God can address Himself to me in a Man who has taken up the liabilities which lay on man and who will yet fill the universe. You have got the secret of all that God is going to do in a Man. Forgiveness of sins is the end of every man forgiven. It is the last word that God has to say to him. Anointing is connected with intelligence — it is divine teaching — teaching of the Spirit. God is hid now behind a veil of providence, but God will put aside all that and He will come out. Providence will come to an end. Angels at that day are ascending and descending on the Son of man. They will be attendant upon the Son of man on earth. When He was here on earth angels were attendant on Him, and, I suppose, they will be manifestly so in the world to come.