PROVISIONAL AND ETERNAL PRIVILEGES
[p. 342] PROVISIONAL AND ETERNAL PRIVILEGES
Luke 15:22 - 32; Ephesians 1:1 - 6
In taking up these Scriptures my thought is to seek to engage you with what we are to God now in this provisional period, and what we shall be to God in the eternal state of things; and incidentally what we find now as our portion during this provisional period, and what we shall find eternally.
The Scriptures show us how God had ever purposed to have man with Him, to have man near to Him; and in placing Adam in the garden He intended not only that Adam should be in the joys and delights of paradise, but that He should visit him there. He intended to come to paradise; we read of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. It would seem that He discriminated in His visits. He came in at an opportune moment, the cool of the day would be a convenient time for Adam to be with Him. God discriminates so as to afford Adam every advantage. He came into the garden with a view to commune with Adam. Alas! as we all know, He did not find Adam; but we see in the visitation what was in the divine mind in ordering paradise. We know full well how that on coming to Adam God found him hidden. It is a sad thing to be hidden away from God, and it very often happens even with christians. As Adam might have enjoyed the presence of God in paradise, so christians have this great privilege, but it is on the ground of being apart from the world. God says, “I will dwell among them, and walk among them”; and “come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty”, 2 Corinthians 6:17,18.
We find that God has in a provisional way the counterpart of paradise in christianity. He speaks of dwelling among His people, and walking among them. He has, as it were, a garden down here now, He has an enclosure, He has a spot apart from the world into which He can come, in which He can walk, and when His presence is known; we are made conscious that we are His “sons and daughters”. That is a wonderful thing for us, but it is not the same as our eternal privilege; it is what we have provisionally on earth. “The Lord Almighty” makes us conscious that we are His “sons and daughters”. We are made conscious of divine parental affections; so that we have here the place of being God’s sons and daughters, and He who thus speaks is “Lord Almighty”.
God visiting man in paradise shows us what is in the divine mind, that there should be a special place prepared for man of such a character that God should have access to it for man’s benefit. Now we know, as I have said, how quickly all that terminated in the earthly paradise, but God never gives up a primary idea. He never surrenders any idea of His, so that if He does not accomplish it in connection with one set of circumstances He will accomplish it in connection with another.
Now after the flood we read of a national order of things being established. God was neither the author of a national order of things, nor yet was He the author of a city, but we find in the history of the world that both a national order, a kingdom, and a city appear.
Now how is God going to meet that? The order of things established in Adam had failed, and God permits man to show his hand, and what is man going to do? Well, man’s idea was to found a city and a tower, the top of which was to reach up to [p. 344] heaven; and in connection with that city you get a kingdom established by Nimrod. How does God meet that? He establishes a kingdom and a city of His own, He brings in what He intended to be, and what really was the antidote to the world system. In connection with Abraham’s seed He brought in a nation, and He would have a place for Himself in connection with that nation. He established a kingdom, and in connection with that kingdom He established a city, and in connection with that whole order of things He would have a house, a place in which to dwell.
Now in the nation God had really better material, in one sense, than that which He had in Adam. It is perfectly true that Israel were not innocent when they came out of Egypt; they were very far from being innocent, but there was one thing about them pleasing to Jehovah — they loved Jehovah. Jehovah in Jeremiah 2, testifies to the affections that were begotten in the nation when they came after Him into the wilderness. It is one thing for God to comfort you, but it is quite another thing for you to go after Him, especially when it is in a scene where everything is against you. Now that is what Israel did; Jehovah reminds them in after years of the love of their espousals when they went after Him into the wilderness. That was a great result for God, and it was the brightest day in Israel’s history. Everything was against them, there was nothing to attract them in the wilderness except Jehovah, and they went after Him into the wilderness. Now when they had showed their affection in that way, there was material for Jehovah to use, and hence He proposes to build. He says, “make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them”, Exodus 25:8. The fact is, they proposed to build God a habitation, and the material for the tabernacle came from them, so that in Israel we see an advance in that sense [p. 345] upon Adam. Thus there was more for God in Israel when they left Egypt than there was in Adam in paradise.
There is no evidence that He ever secured reciprocity of affection from Adam, but He did from Israel, and they proposed to build Him a habitation, and He accepts it. He proposes it, and He proposes further to accept their habitation to dwell in. I need not refer to the other side — their idolatrous failure. I am referring for a moment to what God found in the people in the beginning. God was not content that they should be in the wilderness. One of the most touching things with regard to God’s relation with the people in the wilderness is, that He journeyed with them; in all the sorrows of their journeyings God was with them. He entered into them all, but the wilderness was not His end for them; the wilderness was but a means to His end. It was a wonderful place of privilege in one sense; God’s tabernacle was there, and God was there; He dwelt among them and walked among them in the wilderness. Beloved friends, He would bring them in and place them in the mountain of His inheritance, in the place which His hand had established, Exodus 15:17.
I want to show you for a moment how, in spite of all the wonderful pains and forethought with which God placed the people in Zion, He was, after all, deprived of what His heart was set upon. We must remember that God’s thought for Israel was never reached until the temple was built. He journeyed with them, and entered into all their circumstances, but He had no house in which to dwell; He dwelt in tents until Solomon prepared the temple. Now, I must pass on to the end of their history, and that is seen in Luke 13. The temple had been designedly built for God, the city was to be known as Jehovah’s city; it was to be the city in which God would [p. 346] dwell. We must remember that the coming of the Lord Jesus into the midst of Israel was the coming of Jehovah. The gospel of Matthew shows that it was Jehovah the Saviour who came. It was Jehovah in the midst of the people; He draws near to Jerusalem, and in sight of the city, from the summit of Olivet, all His affections that centred in that city arise in His holy soul. There was the city, the centre of all God’s operations from the time that David had captured it until that time. It was the great divine centre on the earth; Jehovah’s house was there; it was the centre of God’s government on the earth, and here Jehovah appears, and as He looks down from the summit of Olivet upon the city He says, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” Matthew 23:37. That was Jehovah! “How often would I ... but ye would not!” Man’s will is active in that city. Jehovah was definitely refused as He visited the city in Christ, and now He says, “your house”. It is no longer Jehovah’s; “your house is left unto you desolate”, and “Ye shall not see me henceforth”. There is a definite break between Jerusalem and Jehovah. “Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord”.
But now I want to show you that God would not allow that all Jerusalem stood for should lapse; there would be a provisional order of things here upon earth, which includes in the principle of it, every feature of Jerusalem, and every feature of the nation, and every feature of the kingdom; all that would be established here in a provisional, nevertheless a spiritual way. I want to make clear to you what we have been introduced into as gentile [p. 347] believers, which we are. We have been introduced into a wonderful order of things, which is to continue until the coming of the Lord.
Now in connection with this I refer to the Acts. We all know how the ministry of the twelve stood connected with Jerusalem, and how the operations of the Spirit at the beginning were connected with that city, for the city as yet had not been wholly abandoned. God in grace waited upon Israel, if perchance they would accept His overture, and all that went on until there was a definite rejection of the Spirit of Christ presented in the testimony of the twelve. Jerusalem was still lingered over, its ancient privileges recognised until the Spirit of Christ (I emphasise that), in the ministry of the twelve, and of Stephen, was definitely rejected in the murder of Stephen.
Now what marked the city? It only waited for Christ to enter into it, for it to show itself against Him; but after the death of Stephen the wickedness that put Christ to death became more active. Saul of Tarsus was present at the death of Stephen. He was a young man, and a young man is emblematic of energy, and Saul had energy to the full. He watched the death of the martyr, and held the clothes of the executors of it; he completely identified himself with the death of him whose face was the reflection of Christ. Now, there had never before been such circumstances on earth as that; it was not only the death of Stephen; it was a repetition, in a sense, of the crucifixion of Christ; it was as if Israel said, ‘We are not a bit sorry for what we have done to Christ; we would do it again’, and they did it again to him who was a perfect reflection of Christ. He looked up and saw the glory of God and Jesus; his voice and his manner and his words were all a reflection of what he saw; and they stoned Stephen, calling upon God; and Saul was [p. 348] witnessing to his death, deliberately holding the clothes of those who stoned him.
And now Saul issues from the city; the energy, the evil, the wickedness of the city is personified in that man. The light, that wonderful light from the face, words, and demeanour of Stephen, all shone into his conscience, but he was rejecting the light, and the Lord says to him, “It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks”, Acts 9:5. He was resisting inwardly that wonderful light, and all the wickedness that found its centre in Jerusalem became personified in Saul; and he issues from the city, breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord. There was the city of the Great King, the city of David’s throne in which was God’s temple; there the high priests were installed; that city was sending forth its emissary Saul, and he was in full accord with them; he was their apostle; he breathed out their spirit; he was in full accord with his credentials; he was breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord. That is Jerusalem!
But now what a change! God now transfers the authority from Jerusalem, from earth to heaven, so that when Saul leaves the land of Judea and draws near to Damascus, outside the territory of Israel, a voice from heaven is heard. It was a voice of authority, the voice of Christ from heaven, and it breaks Saul down. In that voice is embodied the kingdom of the heavens; the authority had been in Jerusalem, but now it was in heaven. The shekinah had left the city and was in heaven, and the voice from heaven conveyed no empty authority; it was a voice of power. It brought Saul down. The kingdom of God is in power.
I have referred to that to show that the order of things into which we as gentiles have been admitted began from that day. It is a heavenly kingdom,
[p. 349] and directly Paul opens his mouth to preach he preaches the Son; he does not preach the King. You might have thought he would, for it was the voice of the King that he heard, and he acknowledges Him as Lord; he recognises the voice of authority; but when he begins to preach he does not present Him as Lord, but as Son. I do not deny that he preached the Lord, because he did; but in Damascus he preached the Son. And if the Son is brought in, He introduces everything entirely new; and everything is of a heavenly character; hence you have a heavenly kingdom and a heavenly city.
In chapter 10 we see wonderful grace in the dealings on the part of God, which I would dwell on for a moment. It is seen first of all in preparing Cornelius, and then in preparing Peter. Chapter 9 is the heavenly kingdom, and the heavenly city in principle; and chapter 10 shows us that the mind of heaven is sympathetic with the gentiles. Peter went up to the house-top to pray, and while there he saw heaven opened and a great sheet knit at the four corners let down to the earth, and this was done three times.
Now what does that mean? It means that the order of things into which the gentile was about to be admitted was to be marked by this; that all the mind of heaven was sympathetic with the gentile. What was in that sheet, knit at the four corners, signified the creatorial rights of God. God had a right to creation, and that which was in the sheet represented creation, and God claims that. Peter was made to understand that what it meant was that what God had cleansed was not to be called common. God, in principle, had cleansed the gentile, and moreover, His mind was toward the gentile for blessing.
Peter is sent to preach to them, and while he is [p. 350] preaching, and the gentiles are hearing, the Spirit of God falls upon them. The gentiles are thus brought into God’s system, which, as we have seen, embraced a heavenly kingdom and a heavenly city. And all the mind of heaven was favourable; yea, the very heart of God was delighting, as we may say, in the returning prodigal. And the Spirit acted in energy as the passage implies, in taking possession of the gentiles; it was as if God embraced them. What a system is that which we gentiles have been brought into, and God really delighting over us! He says in Luke 15:32, “It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad”. Luke 14 is the celebration of grace; it is what God has found in Christ as having accomplished righteousness. Chapter 15 is God’s way of impressing on us what His heart finds in us. “This my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found”. He found us who were lost, and we who were dead are now alive. The gentiles were dead to God, and He looked upon them in His loving kindness. Cornelius and his company represent the returning gentile; they were received as a company, as the Jews had been received. The Spirit fell on all them that heard Peter’s word. Peter’s part was to preach the word, and God gave the Spirit to the gentiles. “It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad”. The “elder brother” would have nothing to do with the joy in the father’s house on the return of the prodigal. I cannot dwell upon that side; I only wish to show what a delight God has in us in this provisional period. I want you to consider the elements of the system into which we have been introduced. It is a wonderful system; it is a system comprising a heavenly kingdom and a heavenly city; and the whole scene is pervaded with sympathy for the gentile.
I turn now to the few verses I read in Ephesians.
[p. 351] God shows us His own eternal state of things when we come to the epistle of Ephesians. We are there on the platform of God’s counsels; it is not only provisional, it is what is eternal; and when we come to the eternal state of things, what we find is that everything is patterned after Christ. We are taken into favour in the Beloved. He has predestinated us unto sonship by Jesus Christ to Himself. We are not on the platform of the returning prodigal; we are on the platform of God’s counsels. He has predestinated us unto sonship by Jesus Christ to Himself.
I want you to get that thought into your soul. The order of being that Wisdom has set its heart and mind upon is man; it is not an angelic order but a human order, and the relationship in which that being is put with God is that of sonship; hence we read, He has “predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself ... to the praise of the glory of his grace”; and we are taken into favour in the Beloved. It does not say here who the Beloved is; it is the strongest possible way of putting God’s great affection for Christ. But wherever our relationship with Christ as sons is introduced, you will always find that the Spirit guards His Person. He must be supreme, pre-eminent; so that He is the “firstborn among many brethren”, Romans 8:29. Whilst the sons are related to Him as His brethren, He is the Firstborn. Whilst the company of sons are associated with Him as the Son, there is only one Beloved. I think Isaac is a type of Christ in that light. God says, “Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac”, Genesis 22:2. Abraham had other sons; he had Ishmael; but God says of Isaac, “[p. 352] Thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest”. How well God took account of the affections of Abraham; they were but a type of His own. God was really speaking of His own affections when He referred to Abraham’s. “Take now thy son,
thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest”. That was Christ as before God; He is His only One.
John, the beloved disciple, helps us there, and comes very near to Paul in his impression. He beheld his glory, “a glory as of an only-begotten with a father”, John 1:14. God has “graced” us in that One. He has given us a place within in connection with Christ, graced in all the dignity and beauty of Christ; that is God’s thought for us. What a place that is — taken into favour in the Beloved! What affection God has towards us to take us into favour in that Person. I can only suggest this to you in regard to the eternal state of things; we all have to admit how meagre our thoughts are in regard to God’s eternal counsel; but, thank God, the light is there for us. God’s thought is that we should be before Him, graced in all the beauty of Christ.
There is one other expression that one might bring forward to show the strength of the appellative Beloved; it is in Acts 20:28, where we read that God has bought His flock “with the blood of his own”. Paul says, “shepherd the assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own”.
We are in that way taken into God’s affections in a unique way. May the Lord grant that our hearts may be under the influence of the love of God as it is known in Christ; as He says, “that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them”, John 17:26.