THE FAMILY OF GOD
[p. 446] THE FAMILY OF GOD
John 13:31 - 35; John 14:1 - 3
My thought is to seek to suggest something in regard to the family of God. If there is one thing that one’s heart cherishes, and what one says of oneself must be said of all those who love God, it is the thought that one belongs to the divine family; and what I desire, by the Lord’s help, is to show that the family of God of necessity must be patterned after Christ; firstly patterned after Christ as the Son of man, which has reference to our position down here; and, secondly, patterned after Christ as the Son of God, which has reference to our position up there, in heaven.
Now, in venturing to bring forward this great and precious subject one is dealing with what may be called the primary thought with God. It is important to distinguish between the primary thoughts of God, which of necessity are eternal, and those of a provisional character which have arisen to meet the conditions which arose through the introduction of sin or lawlessness into the world. I repeat, that it is of great moment that we should become accustomed to distinguish between these two thoughts. God’s primary thoughts are those which He intends to be eternal. But the introduction of lawlessness into God’s creation necessitated a provisional course of dealings on the part of God, by which He met and solved the problem that arose in His creation through the introduction of sin. In this He had, as it were, to turn aside for a moment and from His point of view it is but a moment, to meet and solve this great problem. When this great problem is solved, we shall find that God reverts to His primary thoughts. He never relinquished them for a moment. Indeed, I think that [p. 447] an examination of the course of His ways will show that interwoven with His governmental dealings there was the family idea, which was a primary thought. The golden thread of the family idea, in connection with which affections are centred, runs through the entire course of God’s dealings.
In the light of the gospel of Luke, one cannot fail to see that in Adam the thought was there. He was in a peculiar and unique relationship with God; he was God’s offspring. There was the parental idea, which relates to the family; and from that point onwards you will find either the thought of father and son, or of brethren in the whole course of God’s dealings; and that, I believe, is the link between God’s primary thoughts and the course of His governmental dealings.
Now, going back for a moment beyond the first of Genesis, we find Wisdom in Proverbs 8, giving us an account of the motives and desires that were active at the outset. Wisdom was there, as we read, “before his works of old”. Wisdom was with God (Proverbs 8:22); and directly the earth takes form and the habitable parts come into evidence, Wisdom is intensely interested. I need not say that there was interest throughout, but that chapter tells us of the special interest which Wisdom took in the sphere in which man was to be. Wisdom delighted before Jehovah, and delighted “in the habitable part” of His earth. Wisdom is engaged with a sphere in which man is to subsist. Then we read, “my delights were with the sons of men”, Proverbs 8:31. Now, there we get a family thought. Thus, we see that at that early date the divine thought was that God should have men; and Wisdom delighted in the sons of men.
Now, that is prominent in the gospel of Luke. That gospel shows us that God had set His heart [p. 448] upon man. Hence the key to Luke in that respect is that there was to be “good pleasure in men”, Luke 2:14. That is, not only in Christ as Man, but in men, in a race of men after the pattern of Christ. Then Wisdom proceeds to say, “my delights were with the sons of men”, Proverbs 8:31. We have implied there that whilst God’s good pleasure is to have man before Him, it is man in the family character. My reason for saying that is, that Wisdom speaks of “the sons of men”.
Now, I do not know whether you have thought of it much, but I do know this, that every real parent has in his heart an ideal, and his thought is a son. You may think that is universal and common. It is, beloved friends, and the very fact that it is universal shows that it is a divine testimony which God has placed in the race to what is in His own heart. What is in the heart of God is, to have a humanity in the relationship to Himself of sons. As confirmatory of what I say as to the testimony that the parental idea suggests to us, we see that when God’s earthly people were in Egypt, God’s message to Pharaoh and the Egyptians was, “Israel is my son, my firstborn ... Let my son go, that he may serve me”, Exodus 4:21,22. Is there not wonderful light in that as to God’s primary idea with regard to man? God has the affections of a father, and He has placed a testimony to that in the human family. There is no such testimony, as far as we can tell, among angels. Hence He says, “Israel is my son, my firstborn ... Let my son go that he may serve me”. And what more does God say? “If thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, thy firstborn”, Exodus 4:23. He would slay Pharaoh’s son. It was as if God had said to Pharaoh, ‘You have the heart of a father, and you must recognise that I have the heart of a father. I have affections, and I must have my son’. There again we have God,
[p. 449] in the course of His governmental dealings on the earth, reverting to His primary thought.
Now, I was saying that the first statement of Wisdom which referred to the habitable earth was that God should have men, and have good pleasure in them as such, as men; and that this corresponds with the testimony of the gospel of Luke; whereas the idea of sons, the family idea, corresponds with the testimony of the gospel of John. John unites both these ideas in the opening chapter of his gospel. Giving us an account of the Person of Christ he tells us that “in him was life, and the life was the light of men”, John 1:4. It was not the light of angels, it was the light of men. In other words, the light as taking form in Man upon earth, has men in view. Men are to be illuminated, and the life of Christ was the light of men. That is the first thought. But John tells us also that the Lord came to His own and His own received Him not; but he adds, “as many as received him, to them gave he right to be (to take the place of) children of God”, John 1:12. There we get the family. And then he gives us an account of the origin of the children of God. He says they were born, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but they were born of God. Hence the initial idea of the family is, that it is of divine origin.
John also speaks to us of God. He says, “God is a spirit”, John 4:24. Now, there is nothing that one feels more than the inability on the part of God’s people to take account of what is spiritual. The apostle says that the spiritual was not first, but that which is natural, 1 Corinthians 15:46. Men are all engaged with the natural, but the natural is but an index to the spiritual, and the spiritual is the great end with God. Hence, to begin with, if we are to apprehend the family of God we must apprehend God. You cannot understand the nature [p. 450] of the family unless you know God, and John tells us that “God is a spirit”, John 4:24.
But is that all? No, beloved friends. He who is a Spirit has manifested Himself, and here again John does not fail us, but says “the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”, John 1:18. That is to say, He who is a Spirit has now been declared by One who has the place of an Only One, who has the place of Son with Him. Now think of that! That is the beginning of the divine thought for man. The disclosure of what God is morally comes out in One who has the place of an Only One with Him, as a Son. More than that, John says, “We beheld his glory” (John 1:14); and what kind of glory was it? It was the glory “as of an only-begotten with a father”, John 1:14. We must take account of Christ according to what He is in His own Person; as such He has no companion, no equal. Isaac is the type of Christ in that light.
We find the idea of sons in the Old Testament, but beyond that we find there in type what is peculiar to Christ. He is the Only One. “Take now”, God says to Abraham, “thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, Isaac”, Genesis 22:2. Now, Abraham had other sons, but in reading Scripture we have to read it in the light of the antitype; and that is what is in the mind of God — Christ as the Only One. “Thy son”, says God to Abraham, “thine only son, whom thou lovest”. How well God understood the affections of Abraham. They were but a reflection of His own affections; namely, the affections that He has for Christ; those affections are peculiar. Christ has a unique place with God. He is the Only One.
Well, now, what we have to consider in regard to the family is, that whilst the declaration of God has come out in the Son of God, and in that way He is the leader and pattern of the heavenly family, yet [p. 451] the testimony as to what we should be down here comes out in the Son of man. I desire, if I can, to make clear to you the distinction. You will remember what the apostle says in Hebrews 2: “it became him ... in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings”, Hebrews 2:10. It does not say there His sons. The point is that He is to brings sons, that there are to be people in glory in that peculiar relationship. There is a peculiar glory connected with the relationship expressed in the word son. Hence, there are to be many sons in glory; that is to say, there are to be many such persons in glory; and that thought suggests to us the family that is to share the heavenly glory of the Lord Jesus. But before we share that, the testimony as to what man should be has to come out here upon earth. I repeat, that the testimony as to what man should be here upon earth has first to come out.
Now, Christ is both. He is the Son of God. That stands in regard to revelation, and in regard to what is eternal. The Son of man has reference to what man should be here upon earth; and what man should be here upon earth was perfectly expressed in the Lord, as Son of man. It was because of that that I ventured to read these verses in chapter 13. The Lord is at the Supper. One need not dwell upon this chapter, it is so well known to us; but I refer to it for one reason, and that is, it was the occasion of the brightest light. The brightest conceivable light shone there, and the wonderful ministry of Christ was here in the midst of His disciples. He was there as the perfect Servant, and in man’s place. According to the well-known type, He had said, “I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free”, Exodus 21:5. I need not dwell upon that; it emphasises the character of the light that shone on the occasion recorded in [p. 452] chapter 13 of John. Christ was there as Man. He was in man’s place, and He was fulfilling it to God’s glory.
Well, now, Judas was there! Christ was in the midst of the divine family, and Judas was the representative of the family of evil which began with Cain; he was there. No man ever had such privileges, save the other apostles, as Judas. He shared the companionship of Christ here upon earth, and he shared His ministry; and he was here on this marvellous occasion in which the brightest light shone resplendently; and we are told that he “went out”, John 13:30. Judas went out. Into what did he go? And out of what did he go? He went out, as it were, from the midst of the bosom of the divine family. You may say, where do you get the family? Well, we get the idea of it in chapter 11. The family at Bethany was of God. There was a family at Bethany that Christ loved. It is the suggestion of a divine thought. The Lord know the name of each one in that family, and He loved each one there. He loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus: He loved them individually and collectively. I refer to Bethany for the idea, that those whom the Father had drawn to Christ had this place, and at the supper He was there as Head. From that family Judas went out. He went out from the presence of the brightest light, into darkness, into the world; and he carried out into the world something that had never been in the world before. He carried out into it the spirit of a traitor to Christ, and of an apostate; and that spirit remains in the world to this day. It has not died with Judas; one can easily see that the spirit of Judas remains in the world: and it finds its home, not in the pagan world, but in that which is known as the christian world. The world with which we have to do is characterised by the spirit of Judas, and it only awaits the opportunity to manifest itself under the “son of perdition” (John 17:12), the one who will be the counterpart of Judas.
I will not enlarge upon that, although much might be said; but I wish to turn to the Lord’s words in regard to it. He says, “Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God also shall glorify him in himself, and shall glorify him immediately”, John 13:31,32. This passage sets before us Christ as in man’s place under God’s eye; and the exit of Judas was the occasion that suggested that to His heart. The enemy had now got his instrument in Judas, and the last moments are coming. Gethsemane is at hand, wherein the Lord would testify in infinite perfection His unswerving obedience to the divine will. There is man seen in infinite perfection, in Christ, under God’s eye. That is what I understand to be the glory of the Son of man.
I am not alluding to Psalm 8, which is conferred glory; I am alluding to acquired glory; and my distinct impression is this, that the peculiar glory of Christ viewed as man is that He maintained man’s place in infinite exactness in every detail under God’s eye. He had maintained it throughout, but now the final test, the final crisis, was about to appear. He was to be face to face with Satan, who held the power of death in his hand; and Satan was about to bring that to bear upon the Lord so as to turn the Lord out of man’s place. That was the whole aim of the enemy, to divert the Lord from man’s true position of obedience to God. He had sought to do it at the outset in the wilderness, and now he returns with the power of death in his hand to turn the Lord out of the path of obedience; and at that moment the thought of His victory arose in the heart of Christ. He sees the opportunity, as it were, in which He would show in the presence of all, in the presence of the universe, His unswerving [p. 454] obedience to the will of God. He says; “Not my will”, Luke 22:42. He could not but recoil from the cross, for it was the forsaking of God. It was the essence of His perfection to recoil from it; and on the other hand it was the essence of His perfection as man to take it up to drink the cup; and hence His glory shines under God’s eye. There never had been such a shining of moral glory as there was in Gethsemane, and upon the cross when the Lord maintained, in infinite perfection, man’s place under God’s eye.
Well, He says, “If God be glorified in him”. How is God glorified in Him? God was glorified in that His will was carried out by man here upon earth, and that in the presence of every possible opposition to it. Hence He says, “If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself”. That surely is unique to Christ, for of no one could it be said but of Christ, that he is glorified in God. And then, moreover, God will not delay, He will “glorify him immediately”. God, as it were, is morally bound to proceed to the glorification of the Man who so glorified Him in man’s place.
Now, that is, I think, the pattern of the family of God here upon earth. The Man who in that way, glorified God in maintaining God’s will here, that Man must go higher; that man must be glorified. So with ourselves; God gives us the opportunity of witnessing to what man’s place is here; and then we are glorified. The Lord turns to the disciples and says “Children”. That is a term of relationship, I only touch upon it for a moment. He says, ‘I am going away. You are going to be where I have been; and I have glorified God in it. Now, what are you going to do?’ He says, “Children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me; and, as I said to the Jews, Where I go ye cannot come, I say to you also now. A new commandment I give to you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you”. And He adds, “By this shall all know that ye are disciples of mine, if ye have love amongst yourselves”.
The point is emphasised, in these verses, that christian love would be mutual. All are to know that the disciples are His by love one to another. And what kind of love is christian love? It is family love. Evidently my love to my brother as a christian is not parental affection, that belongs to God, and it flowed out in Christ. But our love to one another is the love of brethren. We are ‘to love as brethren’. Christian affection is family affection. Family affection begins with the parents; our love as brethren begins really with God, and flows out in Christ. And now the Lord is away. What are we going to do? Is there to be a family here taking pattern from the Son of man; He who carried out God’s holy will, and in doing so was marked at every point by affection for His people? Now, that is exactly our position. It is that we are set here for God’s will; and then we are set in relationship with one another as brethren; that is, we are set in relation with one another in this world as the family of God. So that man’s place for God is witnessed to in the christian company, and the affections that are peculiar to the divine family are seen amongst God’s people here upon earth. And what then?
Well, beloved friends, the moment is coming when that company which has glorified God upon earth will be translated to heaven. God will not translate to heaven anything that is not in moral suitability and accordance with Himself. What He transfers to heaven is what has glorified Him upon earth. Enoch, who was translated, is the great pattern man in this way. What was his testimony? He had this testimony “that he pleased God”, Hebrews 11:5. He walked with God. He did God’s will [p. 456] here, and he was translated to heaven. God translates to heaven those who glorify Him upon earth. Hence the Lord who glorified Him in perfection looks up in holy dignity to His Father in John 17, and says, “Father ... I have glorified thee on the EARTH (where He had been dishonoured): I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was”, John 17:4,5. His prayer was a demand for what was morally right; it was right in God’s account; and so we read in the epistle to the Romans, that He “was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father”, Romans 6:4. Wonderful expression! The raising of Christ drew out, as it were, the nature of the Father in His affection for the Son. As in death, the glory of the Father took Him out of death; it was a question of the Father’s affections. And it is as we glorify Him upon earth that we are morally suited for the heavenly abode. I think the thought of “the Son of man” is dropped there. The Son of man has to do with His path on earth, but the Son of God remains. I am not speaking dogmatically; I wish only to distinguish between the expressions.
Sonship is a divine idea, and a primary thought with God, and it is taken up in Christ, and in all that are Christ’s; so that God is leading “many sons to glory”, Hebrews 2:10. Sonship, as I understand it, is that which God had set His heart upon from the outset; and so chapter 14 discloses to us that there is to be an abode for the family. “In my Father’s house”, says the Lord, “there are many abodes”. The house of God is spoken of in Luke, and also in John. In Luke it refers to what is provisional; what stands related to the gospel here upon earth. In John it is eternal; it is the abode of the family of God as translated to heaven. So the Lord says, “I go to prepare a place for you”. It is the Son who goes.
[p. 457] It is the Son who has to do with the house, and He goes to prepare it. For whom? He says, “I go to prepare a place for you”. Every comfort was to be provided for them in the meantime, as the subsequent part of the chapter discloses; but it is only provisional. That which is eternal remains for us. “In my Father’s house there are many abodes ... I go to prepare a place for you”. And then, He says, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also”. It seems to me that there the Lord is looking on to the completion of His plan to have the family that had shared His suffering upon earth, in the Father’s abode in the heavenlies.
I trust, however imperfectly I have presented the subject, that there may be an exercise as to the spiritual, and that the family of God refers to what is spiritual. “God is a spirit” (John 4:24), and hence His family must be a spiritual family. It is of such that we are part, as having received the Spirit of God’s Son.