READINGS AND ADDRESSES ON SOME OF THE TEACHINGS OF THE GOSPEL OF JOHN (1)
[p. 343] READINGS AND ADDRESSES ON SOME OF THE TEACHINGS OF THE GOSPEL OF JOHN (1)
All I have to say to you, beloved friends, is of a very simple character (but I trust it may lead each of us into what may be real, practical results), to speak of the power of Christ to attract us and to attach us to Himself. It is not to believe certain doctrines, but what is connected with our relations to Christ, being actually bound to the Lord with the sense in our souls of it; the sense must be there and there is no real sense of it until we are attached.
The next step follows, He leads us to go in, we have access by Him; and the third step, He establishes Himself in our hearts so that we may witness for Him.
Each of these three steps is essential. There can be no knowledge of God without attachment to Christ. He has accomplished redemption to deliver us from this present evil world.
Who is the One here free from the world of sin? It can only be said of one Man, and that is Christ; so salvation must be in Christ, not in any one else, the salvation which is in Christ Jesus.
There are other steps equally important to conduct us to God; we may not be very far on the road, but wherever we are it must be very real to us, and thus we should be witnesses for Him, Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith. Then we shall be morally qualified to be witnesses for Him. It all comes down from above. We find the holy city, the new Jerusalem, spoken of as coming from God — the Holy Spirit has come to us from God. We have been [p. 344] taken in, so to speak, that we may come out as witnesses down here. Now there are two points to which I wish to call your attention. One is Christ as our attraction, and the second is that we have to be attached to Him. All must begin with attraction to Him. The Lord indicates that Himself when he says, “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me”. To use an illustration which I do not altogether care for, the thought conveys the idea of a magnet. Christ is the magnet which attracts hearts to Himself; there must be something in Christ which attracts. Attachment to Him we have to learn. The attractions in Him are vast and varied, and a long time must elapse before we can learn all the attractions.
When the Lord was down here He was a point of attraction to a great many; they were attracted to Him in a wonderful way. We know that some, while attracted to Him, did not walk with Him, but there were those who were not only attracted but attached to Him; they were held to Him by a wonderful power. It is needless for me to give examples, many will come to your minds, but I just refer to the disciples, and then there were many women mentioned, and we know at the day of Pentecost a hundred and twenty were gathered, attached to Him, and held to Him notwithstanding His death.
In Christ there is nothing to hold the natural man. Thus in Isaiah 53: 1 - 3 the estimate of the natural man: “He hath no form nor comeliness ... no beauty that we should desire him ... he was despised, and we esteemed him not”.
These things mark the natural man’s estimate of Christ. Now we find another thing: in Luke 2: 52 “Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man”. In looking at this we have to remember this was said of Him before He entered into His ministry — before He came out publicly in [p. 345] connection with His word and works. It is only there He can be really known.
I know there have been knight-errants for Christ, for one raised up in their imaginations, and it is very possible to have a Christ of the imagination, not the real Christ; the truth of the matter is that no one can know Christ save through His death, apart from what His death expresses. It was the great expression of Himself.
I know He was the Sin-bearer, but I am not just now looking at that side of things; but His death was the perfect expression of Himself. So we announce His death, and when He comes again He will come unto salvation. No form nor comeliness, there is nothing to appeal to the natural man. He never fitted in with the orderings of this world, as people born into the world are fitted into the positions they are born into as they grow up; but Christ was morally outside of all, and man did not, could not, esteem Him.
One of the temptations presented by Satan was the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them; Satan is the god of this world.
The other point I wanted to bring before you is the power of attachment to Christ. He was the perfect expression of the grace of God, and is, because He is the same yesterday, today, and for ever. His position has been changed, but morally He is the same and will be so for ever, and He declares it, because He came to declare His righteousness; and we have to remember there is the righteousness of grace as well as that of the law. John the baptist preached the last, Christ preached the righteousness of grace. He was here to talk about grace, and He not only talked about it but He was the perfect expression of it. He was full of grace and truth. He was the living Bread which came down from heaven. It is a very great point to me to see [p. 346] what is in the heart of God. Christ was the embodiment of what is in the heart of God to man.
Luke 7: 41 - 50. God is presented to us here as the Creditor; there are two debtors, and He forgave them both; that was surely an expression of grace; grace to frankly forgive when they had nothing to pay. The mind of the Creditor to both debtors was the same.
Simon did not apprehend it, but the woman did, and He says to her, “Thy sins are forgiven ... go in peace”. She had, so to speak, the Spirit given to her as a witness. What is true is, the mind of the Creditor was the same towards both debtors. All here would admit the expression of God’s grace to themselves, but the wonderful thing is, God’s mind towards all debtors is the same. Christ proved a great point of attraction to that woman. She was a suitable object for grace, and she apprehended the grace that was present in the Person of Christ, and I do not think she was ever detached from Christ again.
The same thing is true of us; the finest man in the world is nothing in the eye of God. No man, whoever he may be, can make amends to God. There is nothing in man that can enable him to pay his debt; he has nothing to pay, and, this being so, all alike are fit objects for God’s grace, and His attitude is alike to all. “Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins”.
Now to pass on to another point of attachment. God and man have been brought together. In the incarnation of Christ God has been brought in touch with man. The Son of God became man; He was not going to abide alone, others would be associated with Him. I see an illustration of this in John 1: 47, etc. In speaking of God and man being brought together I ought to have referred to a verse in 1 Timothy: “For there is one God, and one mediator [p. 347] between God and men, the man Christ Jesus”. The Mediator brings God and man together.
There was no mediator in the promises, for they were all on one side. In regard to God and man, two parties, a mediator was required. What has really come to pass, God and man have been brought together by the Mediator, and it means we are brought into attachment to the Man. “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit”. Now Nathanael in John 1 had that Man before him, a despised Nazarene, as he at first saw Him. And yet, after all, He so attached Nathanael to Himself that he has to own, “Thou art the Son of God”. Thus we have a picture, God and man brought together in the one Man. Every one here ought to be able to apprehend that God and men have been brought together.
People talk of men and their doings, but there is only one Man before God; He is Head of every man. Now there is another point in regard to the power of attachment to Christ, and that is that He has taken up man’s cause to be the vessel of blessing to man. Now for this I will give you an illustration in John 12: 1 - 8. We get a contrast here to what we had in Luke 7. There the woman washed His feet with her tears. Mary in John 12 anointed the feet of Jesus, a very great token of her affection and attachment to Christ. She appreciated Him knowing who He was. She would remember Him as the One who had raised Lazarus out of the grave, and yet saw in Him the One who was going into death to take up the curse in order to be the appointed vessel of blessing; the true Isaac, the vessel of Abraham’s blessing to bless the nations. Galatians 3: 13, 14.
The thought presented was that death could not hold Him. He dispossessed death of its power; it could not remain in His presence one moment, but He went into death to take the curse under which [p. 348] man was; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
Now these are three important points I have endeavoured to bring before you:
(1) Christ, the expression of God’s grace to every man.
(2) God and men have been brought together in one Man, the Lord Jesus Christ.
(3) That He has taken up the curse under which men lay in order to be the appointed vessel of blessing to men.
You will remember He left this earth in blessing the disciples. He abides in the same attitude. Did you ever consider what blessing involves? I can tell you what curse is: man under the curse withers, like the fig-tree the Lord cursed; under blessing there is enlargement, the consciousness of divine favour, expansion.
Now another point: all we want in the way of help and support is found in Christ. The capability to heal and support man is all to be found in Him. He gives to us living water, springing up to everlasting life. Luke 10 gives us an illustration on this point. The Lord used to speak in parables because He had to deal with unbelief.
The parables required an expositor, and He was the expositor. Now in this passage we get the neighbour, and what comes out in the neighbour is the character of mercy, he “went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast”. What we find is this, that we want a great deal more than forgiveness of sins. He gives us the Spirit to accomplish His purpose in us in order to bless us. When has any one conferred things on us like this?
Suppose a person were to give you a million, what is it worth in sickness and death? It may enable you [p. 349] to have doctors and comforts and all that sort of thing, but what is the worth of these things in death? He can pour in oil and wine. He can bind up our wounds. He can heal, He can support, He ministers the Spirit and carries us along the pathway here. And no doubt many of us can testify thereto.
Just one point more: we have the Lord presented to our hearts as the Centre around whom are gathered all the counsels of God.
See in Luke 24: 26: “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?” You find a parcel of foolish men attacking Scripture; they do not in the least understand the scope and meaning of it, or the purpose of it, and it is a poor thing to attack that which a man does not understand. To me it is one of the most wonderful things that we should have the Scriptures written at different times by different men, yet all through there is one central figure, the One who is the Centre of all divine counsel and purpose. He is to arise the Sun of righteousness, the Fulfiller of the mystery of His will; God’s purpose will thus be made known in Him. He is the Centre of all, and He is capable of heading all things. It is a very great thing for us to have these things made known to us, “He opened to us the scriptures”. Think of the Lord expounding the scriptures: from Genesis to Malachi they testify to Him. He is the central Figure of the books of Moses, as in the Psalms and the prophets. As He said, “Search the scriptures”. I think the effect of all this would be greatly to establish the hearts of the saints. The proofs of Scripture must be its own evidence. Scripture is the test of faith. The ground of faith is Christ. The Spirit is now the expositor of Scripture. I believe, if we take up things in this way, it would enlarge our thoughts of Christ, and greatly attract us to Him; we should be bound to admire Him.
[p. 350] It is perfectly wonderful that all has come out in Him, and then He has attached us to Himself after having attracted us to Himself, so that we may have Him dwelling in our hearts by faith, and that He might have the affections of our hearts.