THE REVELATION OF GOD
[p. 334] THE REVELATION OF GOD
John 2: 23 - 25; John 3: 1 - 17
Some may think the purpose that I have in my mind is rather pretentious, as the object before me is to show the connection between various parts of truth in Scripture — how one step in advance leads to another. It is easy to take up detail of truth separately, such as the end of man, the kingdom, the church, the righteousness of God; but there must be a connection between all these, and this connection has to be made good in the soul of the believer, and in this light I want to show you how one part of truth leads on to another. The truth cannot remain disjointed; it forms one whole, and it is in the soul of the believer that it is to be put together.
I begin at the beginning — the revelation of God, and that which is dependent upon this, namely, the kingdom of God, for the kingdom is the necessary outcome of the revelation, and the effect of the kingdom is to bring you into the light of the church; and the church leads to the testimony. It may be difficult at first to understand how the kingdom leads to the church, but I hope I shall be able to make it clear to you before I have done. But I confine myself now to the beginning, namely, the revelation of God. What comes out in connection with the revelation of God is the removal from before God of one man; for the testimony of God is bound up with the death and resurrection of Christ. In the death of Christ, God Himself is revealed; and in the resurrection His pleasure as to man comes out. But I confine myself now to the death of Christ. The resurrection brings in the light of the kingdom and the church, and in the [p. 335] death of Christ we see that where God was revealed the old man was removed.
Now these two things are apparent in the scriptures before us; in the end of chapter 2 we are told that Christ knew what was in man, and that He did not trust man — what was to become of the man to whom Christ could not commit Himself? It is clear that that man must come to an end; but in chapter 3 we get the thought that another man was to come in and that that man was to be formed by the revelation of God; the old man was to be put off, and the new man to be put on by the christian. But this could not be, had not God removed the old man.
Now this truth is presented in Scripture in an objective way as truth in Jesus, that we may see it, but what has been effected in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ has to be made good spiritually in the believer. Now the blood is the witness that man in the flesh is gone from before God; the blood is the life, and if the life is gone the man has no longer place; the blood of Christ is the witness that the man has been removed sacrificially — “God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh”. Reconciliation is brought in because the man that had brought in the distance between God and man has been removed; and that for the glory of God. The man has been removed vicariously from under the eye of God, in the Son of man lifted up. The worst point about man was that Christ could not trust him. You would have thought there might be some good in man when his mind was convinced through the miracles — no, he is like a bent bow, which goes back again; he acknowledges the miracles, but he is not to be trusted.
Nicodemus comes to the Lord as convinced by the miracles, he says, “Thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that [p. 336] thou doest, except God be with him”; the Lord meets it by saying virtually that there must be another man; the cross is the removal of one man sacrificially, and in it, too, God is revealed. We hardly get a full gospel until we come to Paul; he preached that Jesus was the Son of God — how otherwise could we understand that in the cross one man could be removed, and the formative principle of another brought in — Christ was alone competent to take that place, for He was the SON OF GOD — only He could do it. It is in the cross that we learn the heart of God; that God made a real revelation of Himself. In a friend I should not be content to know some of his qualities, or even his mind — I want to know his heart. Now it is in the cross that you learn the heart of God. The love of God was expressed in the Son of man lifted up — God commends His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Christ came out from God to declare the heart of God; not only His righteousness. We do not understand the heart of God save as we learn it in the cross of Christ. When Christ died the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. The Jewish system depended upon the veil — God was hid — and therefore when the veil was rent, the system was gone, for the testimony of God had come into man’s lowest point. None of us have come to that yet, but into that lowest point of man here, death, the testimony of the love of God came. When Abraham prepared his sacrifices and parted them in twain, an avenue was made for something to pass through; it is a foreshadowing of where the love of God came to light; the smoking furnace and the burning lamp passed between the pieces. The old man is gone, but the love of GOD is there — IT has not gone. The man was removed, but the love in which that man was removed abides.
[p. 337] Now I come to this, that whatever is formed for God here, is formed by the testimony of God’s love; from the time that we receive the Holy Spirit the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts; and that love becomes the formative principle of the new man. The christian has believed the gospel, but he has been born again: that is the first thing; afterwards he is enlightened by the testimony of God’s love as expressed in the death of Christ, and the Spirit by that love forms him in the new man. There has been the removal of the old man, but the love of God which remained is the formative principle of the NEW MAN.
Now I come to the necessary consequence of the death of Christ — if He goes into death, He must come out of death; resurrection was in His case a necessity; He was the resurrection; He could not be holden of death. That God raised Him from the dead is God’s testimony, when it is a question of His having been put to death by wicked hands; but when the question is of what He is personally — He IS the resurrection.
Now two things are consequent on His being raised — first, He must be exalted; and, secondly, He must send the Holy Spirit. CHRIST goes to the right hand of God, and that attests that He IS the SON OF GOD. Also the fact that He baptises with the Holy Spirit proves that He is the Son of God: “I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God”; who but the Son of God could communicate the gift of the Holy Spirit? Do you think God is going to do anything now save through the Son? Now it is just those two things which bring in the kingdom — the kingdom of heaven is introduced in connection with Christ’s exaltation, and the kingdom of God in connection with the power of the Spirit. These two are distinct thoughts, but they have to come together in the soul of the believer. If there [p. 338] is a Man at the right hand of God, He must have dominion over everybody. And as surely as I look up to Him, I shall get guidance and light amid the darkness here. If I want to go over new ground, I do not traverse it in pitch darkness, I wait for the light of the sun; so as a christian I see my way through this world only in the light of the Lord. As surely as I look to the One at the right hand of God, I get guidance as to service, and as to all that relates to the will of God.
The other side of the kingdom is that we get support down here; the sway of the Lord in heaven is effective in that we get direction from Him, but the Spirit is the support of the believer down here. We have righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit; I do not much concern myself about eating and drinking, for the kingdom of God is not meat and drink. I need these for support, but the kingdom of God means other things. God has established the throne of grace in the Man of His pleasure, in the One who has removed the old man and in whom God has been revealed. It is a mercy that I am not left here to find my way through the world as best I can, but I am free to look up to heaven from whence I get light, so that I need not miss my way; and, having the support of the Holy Spirit here, I am maintained in righteousness, and peace, and joy. The reign of grace, which is the moral force of the kingdom, is established in the One who is at the right hand of God, He is Lord to us now; other lords have had dominion over us, but we own Him now alone. The kingdom was established when He went to the right hand of God.