Philemon ........................................................................... 71
J.D.G. I think it would carry forward in our own time, “give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the land, to cause 56
to inherit the desolate heritages; saying to the prisoners, Go forth”. Well, has He not released us?
R.T.
You spoke about the unfolding of the divine mind, is that all looking forward to the death and resurrection of Christ? Is that what has made the great change to the whole unfolding of everything?
J.D.G. Yes it is. What is in mind this afternoon, if the Lord will, is to look into the Lord’s death.
R.T.
He speaks Himself of being straitened, does He not?
The resurrection of Christ has put everything in its place as to Israel, and brought to light a new generation in these babes.
J.D.G. Yes, it is in mind, if the Lord will, to look into that, because it is after He brings forward the thought of building His assembly, He brings forward the necessity of His sufferings.
J.Sp. There is some indication of this in God’s dealings with Abraham, dust of the earth, but then it extends to the stars of the heavens. Do you think we see how God gives indication very early on as to what His great thoughts will be?
J.D.G. That is helpful. We were looking at that last Lord’s day in our local meeting. In Genesis chapter 15 it is dust of the earth, then in chapter 17 it is the stars of heaven. What is going to come out of the loins of Abraham from that point of view, he is father of all those who have faith. So, there will be variety in families, there is going to be the distinction of the heavenly and the earthly families. Well, it is a great matter to understand we belong to a heavenly family. It has been said that Abraham will belong to a heavenly family, but he will not belong to the assembly. He will have access to the city of habitation that God promised him, but he will not belong there.
Somebody else said it is one thing to have access to the assembly in its heavenly sphere, it is another thing to belong to the assembly; we want to grasp hold of that. Maybe we will get help today on that, what it is to belong to the assembly, it is a distinctive heavenly family.
J.M.
Do you think that this change that you referred to in chapter 11 of Matthew really proceeds from these holy intimate 57
affections between the Father and the Son? So that what is coming out is the very best that is in the divine mind.
J.D.G. Yes, it is very interesting. We should consider that how the Lord, at the time of His rejection of His ministry, compares the gravity of what happened with Sodom and Gomorrah. He says “it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in judgment-day than for thee”—that is Capernaum, the place where we might say, Emmanuel lived there and preached there. Then He says, “I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth”. I would like to ask if this is the first address of the Lord to the Father in the gospel.
J.M.
I think it is, but does it not bring out a beautiful setting because He goes on from that, that no one knows the Son but the Father, and the Father but the Son, and so on, as though what is in His mind is a company of persons that can be brought into these holy relations that exist between the Father and the Son in love. That is a tremendous matter, is it not? I doubt very much whether Israel would ever have been able to enter into that, would they?
J.D.G. I think what you say is right, but is it not the babes that enter into it?
J.M.
That is just it, it is revealed unto babes, that is not the diminutive idea about babes, but it is persons who are in a suited condition to receive it, the very great things that the Lord is about to bring out.
J.D.G. It is interesting the word “revealed” comes in here, because it is a new thought in the gospel, I think, the principle of revelation (which is going to occupy us later on in chapter 16) but it says, “revealed them to babes”. I think revelation and the principle of being revealed, involves that there is a work of God in the persons to whom it is revealed. So the babes are not immature persons but persons who, in the simplicity of their hearts, are prepared to receive Christ and what He has to say.
J.M.
I think really the magnitude of it should seize hold of us; you think of what has come in in these holy affections that flow between the Father and the Son, and we are brought into that, brought into the joy and the blessedness of it and the 58
gain of it, and therefore the exercise is to be babes in our spirits, is it not?
J.D.G. So that before He brings out, as we go on in chapter 13, the matter regarding the assembly, He brings out the intimacy and holy relationships of divine Persons in the economy; that is very important to grasp hold of because He looks later on for the Father operating in Peter to reveal things.
But here He brings out the essence of His relationship with the Father; “no one knows the Son but the Father, nor does any one know the Father, but the Son, and he to whom the Son may be pleased to reveal him”. What an opening up of the divine mind that there are going to be persons now to whom these things can be revealed. I think what you have said is very important; Israel would not be equal to that.
G.C.McK. Does it mean something to us that the Lord Jesus is praising the Father here? We have been speaking of His feelings in regard to His service, but here He is praising, a remarkable thought, is it?
J.D.G. He felt deeply, as we saw in Isaiah 49, “I have laboured in vain”. He leaves that with His God. He turns to His God, you might say, “I praise thee, Father”; there is a recognition of the Father operating, “thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes”.
There would be a reason for that; the wise and prudent would be the scribes and the Pharisees, I suppose in the previous part of the gospel, but revealed to babes are those who were looking for the pure, mental milk of the word. That should be our attitude; we have to be in this state, not an immature state, but the thought of babes that are looking for the pure, mental milk of the word, affected by what the Lord opens up here as the greatest matter involving the economy, the Father and the Son. The Spirit is not mentioned but as our brother referred to the baptism at the end of the book, the Spirit is there, in the one name, the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. What wisdom enters into the Lord Jesus unfolding in His ministry that He brings this forward at this time, before He proceeds to open up what is further in the divine mind.
W.L. Is the order in the economy seen at the end of the book? The Lord says here, “Father, Lord of the heaven and of 59
the earth” (Matt 11: 25), and at the end of the book He says,
“All power has been given me in heaven and upon earth”, Matt 28: 18. Could you comment on that?
J.D.G. Well, we often turn to the Father as the One who is the Lord of the heavens and of the earth, things are in His hands; that would be all-embracive, would it not? Then the Lord says, “All power has been given me in heaven and upon earth”, that is His place in manhood, but for the moment He is sitting on His Father’s throne. From another point of view He has sanctified Himself for the saints. So, He has not taken up His operations fully as being given power in heaven and upon earth. Is that right? Would you go with that?
W.L. I certainly would, but it is there, He has it, it has been given to Him. When He arises from His Father’s throne He will exert that power, do you think?
J.D.G. Yes, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, that is the power in heaven and on earth will be operated by that Person, known in John’s gospel as the Lamb of God.
D.B.R. Divine wisdom has brought in this great matter of the economy, and I just wondered if you would comment at this point on the place the Father has in it. It seems to me that it gives a great stabilising touch, because as we have been taught, the Father represents deity in the economy, He retains that place. Is the Lord recognising that here, “I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth”? Do you think that brings a sense of stability into our beings?
J.D.G. Yes, that is helpful. The Lord says in John’s gospel,
“no one shall seize them out of my hand”. He also says, “My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one can seize out of the hand of my Father”, John 10: 28, 29.
What security there is, that He holds everything in control. I think what you say is important. The Father has not taken a relatively inferior position, He retains what is equal to the sphere of Deity. So, it has been pointed out that in the service of God we address the Father then we address God, it is not going higher, it is the same level of things, the Father retaining Deity. Is that right?
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D.B.R. I think that is most helpful. I think too it is timely, because in the presentation of the economy, God known in Father and Son and Holy Spirit, the answer in the saints and in the assembly must take that in. The final thing is God known as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, do you think?
J.D.G. Well, you know it has been said that the revelation of God in Father, Son and Holy Spirit is for finite hearts and minds, something that comes within our range. We can know divine Persons affectionately, having made themselves known in the name of Father; what a tender name, then the Son, the One whom we know with affection, then the Holy Spirit, that guest that indwells us.
W.L. The Person of the Son is not revealed, what would you say about that?
J.D.G. It is too glorious to be revealed, but there is something revealed about Him in chapter 16, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God”, Matt 16: 16. That is a revelation about Christ, is it not?
W.L. Well, this produces worship; we began with the greatness of the person of Christ. While the order that we know, as we have been saying, in the economy, the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, does not in any way detract from the greatness of the person of Christ.
J.D.G. It is good to be affected by all these things, and then the Lord Jesus says, “Come to me”. I thought that was a very fine invitation to these babes, “Come to me, all ye who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest”. What questions would arise in their hearts, knowing the failure of the ministry to Israel, now a completely new sphere is being opened up to them. I noted that Matthew’s gospel was an address to the Jew to leave Judaism; I wondered whether in that setting Matthew was saying that there is a Person we can all come to, we have to go forth without the camp bearing His reproach.
P.J.H. When He says, “and I will give you rest”, is that a hint as to the giving of the Spirit?
J.D.G. Well, maybe, but I am not too sure. I think it could include that in the divine mind, certainly the Spirit is a 61
Comforter, that is what would be in your mind. It says, “Come to me ... and I will give you rest”, it is coming to a Person, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and for ever, He remains the same. We can always come to Him; if you come to Him you are going to be attracted to go into the final house, in the next section we have read.
J.A.G. “And ... give you rest” and then “rest to your souls”; perhaps there were Jews there with the Lord and concerned about His rejection, and their affections all torn, you might say.
Is this all the rest of sonship; we have to learn that in this section? I think the Lord is manifesting the blessedness of His relations with the Father, which is far greater than service, and then He brings them into the liberty of it in the next chapter.
J.D.G. Yes, I like that reference you have made; it is sweeter to Christ than service, His relations with the Father. So, what is sweeter to us than service is our relations with Christ, rest to your souls.
J.A.G. He came out from God.
J.D.G. He came out from God and was going to God, came out from the Father too.
D.F.H. There was a remark made as to relative inferiority, I did not quite follow that.
J.D.G. Well, the Lord Jesus has taken a mediatorial place, the service of the Spirit too as taking a mediatorial place; a place, as I understand it, relatively inferior to the Father, the Father remains in Deity, does not move out of that sphere. The Lord Jesus has come into manhood, so that would involve moving into a relatively inferior position, coming into manhood. The Spirit has taken His abode in believers, He serves in a hidden way, He does not promote Himself exactly in the Scriptures, it is the Lord Jesus that promotes Him.
R.G.
It has been said that by coming into a relatively inferior position, as man, it does not negate or reduce in any way the glory of who He is as God.
J.D.G. No, but you would go along with the thought that He has come into a relatively inferior place. Is that right?
R.G.
That is in the economy.
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That remark is confined to the economy, is it not? I think it is important to set our brother’s mind at rest that what we are speaking of is confined to the economy.
D.F.H. That helps to clarify it, thank you.
J.D.G. I think what has been said is right for us to grasp hold of, relative inferiority in divine Persons involves movements into the economy.
J.M.
It is important to carry that in our minds, because in the Persons there is no suggestion whatsoever of inferiority, and that really involves, as you say, both the Son and the Spirit. In the economy they have taken positions relative to the Father, and it bears on what you said earlier that the Father retains (even in the economy), He retains that thought of Godhead.
J.D.G. I think that helps. Well, we should move on to chapter 13 to get a few words on it before we close. The Lord Jesus moves out in chapter 13: 1. He moves out from the house and sat down by the sea, that is a movement into another area where then He expounds, and He begins to sow the seed. He is no longer looking for fruit from Israel after the flesh. He is sowing the seed which is the word of God, and there are hearts and souls responsible for how they receive that seed. The first parable brings that out; there are various conditions attached to souls that receive that seed; there was nothing wrong with the seed. We want to be among those, according to verse 23,
“he that is sown upon the good ground—this is he who hears and understands the word, who bears fruit also, and produces, one a hundred, one sixty, and one thirty”. That is encouraging for us, for me anyway, maybe I only bear thirty, but it is good seed, good fruit, it is pleasing to the heart of Christ; it would be better to be a hundredfold, still the Lord appreciates us, whether sixty or thirty. Then He opens up the parables about the public side of the present dispensation. We see how rapidly things have moved now from the Jewish setting over to the present dispensation which would be completely new to these dear brethren, these disciples. There are more than the disciples, the crowd is here, the matter is open for all who have ears to hear or are desirous of listening. Then He moves from verse 36, into another house but there are those who move 63
with Him. Do we want to move to listen to the Lord in the intimacy of where He can teach? Just as Paul moved the disciples later, bringing out Ephesian truth, into the school of Tyrannus. It has been pointed out by others (I say this for the younger ones) when He left the house in verse 1 of chapter 13
He was leaving the Jewish house, that is teaching, and He is by the sea which is looking for fruit from the nations. All we have been speaking about, what the nations mean, the whole scope of what is going to be secured in the dispensation from the nations, and then there is the public setting of things.
Then He moves the disciples into another house, that is the privacy and exclusion of where we are under His hand as Teacher.
J.S.
This house in verse 36 is where the disciples can come to Him and make enquiry of Him, an intimate, privileged setting, is it not?
J.D.G. Well, have I a desire to move from the one sphere, where it may be more public, speaking in parables that I may not understand fully, but the movement of the Lord Jesus into this house did not exclude anyone, into the house in verse 36.
It was open to all who were concerned and exercised to know further the truth concerning Christ and the assembly. That is the question that comes up; am I here today because we are concerned and exercised about coming into the truth, not only in public matters relating to the Christian dispensation, but the secret side of what is so precious to Christ?
J.A.G. What a cheer to the Lord’s heart to have here people asking Him to expound.
J.D.G. That is what I thought. That is a principle that gathers us today. Paul filled it out in Acts 20 after he had addressed them, they conversed together until daybreak.
There is a setting where we can ask one another questions, and really it is asking Christ.
J.M.
I was just going to point out from the early part of the chapter, it says He spoke a parable, He spoke another parable, and when you come to what He says in the house, in verse 36
onwards, there is no mention of a parable. It is a very intimate area, is it not, where there is a state of things to receive what 64
the Lord is saying directly? Should we be exercised that we should be in that area, do you think?
J.D.G. Well, that would be what I would carry in my heart, and all the brethren would carry in their hearts. There would be some desire with all of us, including the younger men, and women too.
W.L. Why do you think they asked, “Expound to us the parable of the darnel of the field”?
J.D.G. Well, they had not yet heard the other matters the Lord was going on to, they were puzzled, I suppose, by what happened with the sowing of the seed and then the darnel coming in, so the Lord gives them an understanding as He would give us an understanding. What do you say about it?
W.L. Well, I wondered if they would be concerned about admixture. When we were young, when certain exercises came up in the local assembly a brother spoke about this parable and said, Oh just leave it, the Lord will sort it when He comes.
That has no application to the present day, has it?
J.D.G. I think if we take the parable of the darnel by itself it is the scene in Christendom in which the Lord has sown good seed but the devil is sowing seeds so that sometimes you might think a person is a believer, and is not a true believer; they are affected by schisms that are not according to the truth. But we have to leave the public side, we cannot go rooting them out, but where the matter appears within is another matter, and that is what you are speaking about.
W.L. That is my point. Like Paul to the Corinthians, those without God judges, do not ye judge them that are within? So, when a moral matter arises, it must be faced up to.
J.D.G. That is right. We are going a bit further ahead than I intended, but that brings up the seine net cast into the sea of nations, it brings out good and bad, but the good is gathered into vessels. Maybe there has been a certain lack in what was selected as good, maybe in the case you speak about.
J.S.
I wondered if the Lord gives these parables about the treasure and the pearl to show really what the assembly is in His thoughts; the value of it to Him and what we may do in 65
deliberation in this way seems to sort out the good and the bad. It really is to be carried out in the light, and be governed by what the Lord has given as to the treasure and the pearl, do you think?
J.D.G. Yes, I think we should speak about that. The Lord Jesus tells them about the darnel; you have to leave the public side for Him to act upon. And then He says, “The kingdom of the heavens is like a treasure hid in the field, which a man having found has hid, and for the joy of it goes and sells all whatever he has, and buys that field”. The Lord Jesus was not looking for the treasure in the field, He was looking for the pearl. He found the treasure and He hides it for the meantime, but He has to sell all whatever He has and buys that field; He has to give up certain rights He has as to Israel and other rights to buy that field, involving His death. I was interested in a comment I came across in reading, that the Lord found some features of the assembly in His own in the remnant of Israel, something that was beyond what should have been there. If I have gleaned it right, something of the truth of the body, but it was not time to bring it out, it had to be left, but He saw that in His disciples. That may be confirmed by the fact that what was available for the Spirit when He came in Acts 2 was one body, which was Christ’s work. Now, that was after His death, it was all brought together. Here, too, the pearl is to give us some appreciation of the value that the assembly was going to be to Christ which you have to wait for development in Paul’s ministry.
D.B.R. One pearl. We used to speak about two brides, there is one bride, one pearl, it is really the glory that is opened up in Paul’s ministry, the glory of Christ and the assembly.
J.D.G. Yes, I am sure of that. I say, for the sake of the younger brethren, fasten on to what the climax is in this chapter we have been reading, as to the fact of whatever the public side is, there is something the Lord treasures, He is going to have it, He has paid a price to secure it that no other could pay.
R.T.
There is no thought of breakdown attached to these two parables.
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J.D.G. No, bringing out what we said earlier, the security of what is in the divine mind, do you think?
R.T.
The other parable says it has become, but these two say it is like. Something there that is beyond breakdown, it is treasured in the Lord’s heart and should be treasured in ours.
J.D.G. The treasure hidden in the field is going to be His and the pearl is going to be His, an entity in all its beauty that was in the heart of Christ, and He was looking for that and He found it. There is some evidence of it, perhaps in His disciples, but He found that pearl. It is not going to break down; there may be a public side of breakdown but going through it all, maybe in mystery in some sense, but not mystery to us because we should see something of the reality of it in those who are gathered here.
N.J.H. He ends with the thought of the scribe. Does He look for persons that will retain His teaching in what is opened up in the chapter?
J.D.G. Yes, and it is remarkable that he brings out of his treasure things new and old. What an opening up of the truth has come out in the Old Testament now the Spirit has come; it was hidden there in the old times but there is much of the truth come out in type as to Christ and the assembly, but I am going to ask you a question—Does the truth of the body only come out in the New Testament?
N.J.H. You have something in your mind?
J.D.G. You get the types, you get the thought of brethren, and the thought of the assembly in the Old Testament, and you get the types as to Christ and the assembly, but the truth of the body was hidden until brought out by Paul. Would that be right?
W.L. That is absolutely right. Many types of Christ and the assembly, but none of the body. Why do you think that is?
J.D.G. Well, it is the wisdom of the divine mind.
J.A.G. You cannot get the body until the Head is glorified.
The pearl is an entity in itself, it needs no attention. Do you think the treasure might need a bit of cleaning up before it was hidden again? How do you understand it?
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J.D.G. I do not know. The scripture does not speak of it as needing any attention, it comes under His hand, He finds it and then He hides it. What is in your mind?
J.A.G. I just wondered, the treasure might, finding it in the field as He finds us in the world, need a bit of cleaning up, through the gospel and the teaching. It is still the treasure and it is in earthen vessels too. The pearl is an entity, complete in itself, it needs no attention.
J.D.G. That is good, I think the brethren should pay heed to that.
P.J.H. So the pearl would be identified and handled by the connoisseur, would it not? He would have actually felt and just evaluated it from every aspect.
J.D.G. Yes, but it has no past history or any deficiency, and the assembly as out of the death of Christ has no past history, she does not need anything other than the adornment; to use the type in Esther, she had everything she received from the Spirit in type.
R.T.
His heart is specially moved in relation to the pearl, he sold all that ever He had.
J.D.G. Yes, it seems a momentous transaction, does it not, it would involve Philippians 2, His stoop down into manhood, taking a bondman’s form, being found in figure as a man?
R.T.
Nothing left but Christ and the assembly, He has nothing else before His gaze, it is His whole occupation.
J.D.G. Yes, that is right, and that is the Lord’s attitude at the present moment. He is wholly taken up with the assembly and assembly matters. Like the type in Deuteronomy 24: 5. He is freed from military business for a year, and that year runs the whole dispensation, to attend to His bride. I think we want to grasp hold of that, the Lord Jesus is not taken up with matters in the world exactly, He is taken up, according to Ephesians 5, with nourishing and cherishing His bride, in view of the moment of presentation.
J.A.G. To gladden the heart of His wife.
J.D.G. That is right, so is He gladdening her heart today?
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That should have a reflection in us. It says every scribe discipled to the kingdom of the heavens. These are great things, we need to be thoroughly committed to them, do we not? Not half-committed, but thoroughly committed; as the Lord is to the care of the assembly in this dispensation, so I think that should find an answer in our affections, should it not?
J.D.G. That is very good. In verse 52 He said to them, “For this reason every scribe discipled to the kingdom of the heavens is like a man that is a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old”. The scribe is a man of accuracy; I think there is a need with us, particularly younger men, whom the Lord may have to use in days ahead, if He tarry, to be scribes and be acquainted with the Scriptures and divine teaching.
J.M.
If you are a disciple that makes no room for casualness, does it?
J.D.G. No. Is not disciple used in business terms, you may be training as an accountant or something, you become a disciple, that has to be your whole occupation? Is that right?
G.A.B. I would like to be a scribe and I would like to be a disciple as well, but it is very testing what you have brought before us.
J.D.G. Well, it is not beyond us, the Spirit of God will help any one of us to be a scribe and a disciple. I think I would be like you and desire to be one; if you desire to be one you commit yourself, you will re-order your life so as to make time for acquiring this wonderful knowledge, not just in your mind, but you will find as you pray about it, it enters into your affections.
R.G.
Has the babe become a man now? What we had yesterday was revealed to the babes, the revelation now causes growth, does it not, formation; the man brings out of his treasure things new and old?
J.D.G. Yes, the man has taken on responsibility. There is a need to take on responsibility; the Lord may put it on you but you need to take it on. This man had a household, a 69
householder, his arrangement was such that he could bring out from that sphere things new and old.
J.A.G. What would you say about writing things down, the scribe would write things down?
J.D.G. Zacharias asked for a writing-table, and wrote, “John is his name”, Luke 1: 63. There was going to be accuracy and an indelibility for what he was writing down was according to God.
G.C.McK. It would be very comprehensive, would it? Things new and old, would it embrace, you might say, all these things the Lord had in His heart to bring about for God, do you think?
Things new and old, whether it be the blessedness of the truth of the assembly, or Israel going to be retained too is brought out, do you think?
J.D.G. I suppose what we have been speaking about is what the Lord would have in mind, things new and old would involve the complete thought of divine counsels, made known in the Old Testament and in the New; but going into the Old with the help of the Spirit of God, what a mine of wealth is there.
D.B.R. I was thinking of the end of verse 35, it says, “I will utter things hidden from the world’s foundation”. In one way bypassing all the historical details of the previous dispensation; what we are linked on with now is the whole counsel of God.
J.D.G. I think that is what the Lord is bringing out here.
DUNDEE
13th August 2005
List of initials -
G.A.Brown, Edinburgh; P J Herbert, Newport; D.F.Hugill, Vancouver; J. A. Gardiner, Aberdeen; R.Gardiner, Kirkcaldy; J.D.Gray, Edinburgh; N.J.Henry, Glasgow; W. Lamont, Cumnock; G.C.McKay, Glasgow; J.McKay, Witney; J.Mitchell, Edinburgh; D.B.Robertson, Dundee; J.Spinks, Grangemouth; J.Strachan, Dundee; R.Taylor, Kirkcaldy; M.G.Wood, Dundee 70
Acts 28: 16-end; Philemon
J.D.G. Paul wrote four letters from the prison, Philemon, Colossians, Ephesians and Philippians. I thought we might take them in the order Philemon, Philippians, Colossians and then Ephesians. I thought we should begin in Acts 28 to see the background of the prison. Paul had been in Caesarea on the coast of Judæa for about two years, held a prisoner there under Felix and Festus, and then because of the Jewish jealousy and hatred, he had to appeal to Caesar. Paul was in prison because he preached the gospel to the Gentiles, the Jews resisted that. He was cast into the prison on account of that. It was in God’s ways. Before the passage we read (v 15) he seemed to be depressed by the outcome. He had come as a prisoner to Rome. He had wanted to come as a free man, but he arrived as a prisoner in Rome, but when he saw the brethren he took courage, “thence the brethren, having heard about us, came to meet us as far as Appii Forum and Tres Tabernae, whom when Paul saw, he thanked God and took courage”. There was a work of God in the place before he arrived. Paul was allowed to remain by himself with the soldier who kept him. He was not able to go out and preach the gospel, he was not able to evangelise by going about, but he could receive persons. He had a certain liberty but he was chained to the soldier who kept him. He received the Jews and this is the last word to the Jews as far as scripture recalls, “he expounded … from early morning to evening … And he remained two whole years in his own hired lodging, and received all who came to him”. That word “received”, according to the note, conveys a thought of welcome and it is used only by Luke. That is the background to his prisonership, persons could visit him, they could seek him out. Rome at this time was a city of one and a half million people of whom half were slaves. He remained two years in his own lodging, he must have been able to finance it himself and with help from the brethren. He could receive all and speak freely but he was not allowed to go outside the house. I suppose he was, as we call it, under house arrest.
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Then we come to Philemon. This is an incident about a slave, Onesimus, who had run away from his master and stolen money and other goods and went to Rome because everybody went to Rome in those days—it was the centre of the empire. Paul was engaged in writing other letters besides the one to Philemon—it is thought that he wrote Colossians and Ephesians about this time. He writes this letter about a slave who was converted. The slave belonged to a rich man—
Philemon was a rich man, but a converted man. It seems that he was converted through Paul. It seems also that he was connected with Colosse. In the Colossian letter it speaks about the same persons, the same brethren. This is not entirely a personal letter, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ”—all Paul’s personal letters bring in the thought of mercy. This one does not because it is addressed to, “the assembly which is in thine house” as well.
He brings in the whole assembly to take account of the return of a slave who had been converted and was going back to his master to submit to the conditions of slavery, as far as he was concerned, but a converted man. It is a simple book but I thought we would get some impressions of Christian love and Paul’s ability to speak with persons. Paul could not have found Onesimus: Onesimus must have found Paul.
G.B.
I am sure it will hold our interest and instruction as well. The Lord’s hand was over His servant all the time. All the circumstances Paul was in were allowed by the Lord that the testimony might be expanded and indeed the light that comes in in these other epistles to which you have referred is very full as to the assembly.
J.D.G. In 2 Timothy 2 there was a different situation.
Scripture does not exactly say he was liberated, but it seems from what he writes in the Philippian epistle and Philemon that he was anticipating his release, and it is thought that he was released, whereas in 2 Timothy he was taken a prisoner by Nero on account of being a Christian, not on account of the jealousy of the Jews. That is what is called the second imprisonment, to clarify it from this situation where he was in his own hired house. Under God’s hand he was allowed that liberty, although he was restricted. Under God’s hand he was 72
restricted in his ways, but on account of that he wrote letters which he may not otherwise have done. This slave must have come into his lodging one day—whether he knew Paul through him visiting Philemon’s house we do not know—he must have had some acquaintance with him to have found him in a city of one and a half million people.
D.H.M. The word compassion is not mentioned here but it runs through the chapter. It says of the Good Samaritan,
“moved with compassion”, Luke 10: 33. You have some feeling here that runs through this letter in particular, of a very compassionate appeal that he makes on behalf of the slave.
J.D.G. He does not seek to set aside slavery, Paul does not do that. It says, “having much boldness in Christ to enjoin thee what is fitting, for love’s sake”. He could have commanded, as an apostle, to Philemon to release this man, but he does not do that; he goes about it in another way and brings the whole assembly into it in the tenderness of compassion.
D.H.M. There is some thought that he wanted to carry Philemon in this matter. Although slavery was quite legal then he could have made comment about it but did not, but he wanted to carry the assembly with him in his feelings, which is quite a touching thought as well.
J.D.G. I think that is the whole import of this section. He recognised that slavery was there, recognised that Onesimus had run away from his master who owned him, according to the rights of the day. He could have commanded him, as an apostle, to release him because he was converted, but he does not do that, he sends him back to his master. He tries to carry all with him in the affectionate bonds of Christianity so that Onesimus was received as a brother and possibly liberated from being in slavery. Paul’s letter is beseeching for that, that he might be released. It begins in a very fine way, “Paul, prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timotheus the brother, to Philemon the beloved and our fellow-workman, and to the sister Apphia” (who is thought to be Philemon’s wife),
“Archippus our fellow-soldier, and to the assembly which is in thine house. Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ”. That would touch the heart of 73
Philemon and also the others. I think it shows how liberation from slavery came about in this instance through the Christian circle in receiving such a man, and seeing the incongruity that he should continue as a slave. Philemon would have had other slaves, they would have continued with him. Paul was a prisoner—I want to keep that in our thoughts—he was not free to go out, but he was free to receive persons who came to him.
G.A.B. He was also free to pray, do you think. “Always making mention of thee at my prayers”—is that not a feature of these prison epistles, prayer?
J.D.G. Yes, it is a feature of all the epistles, I think there is reference to it in every one of them. He was free to pray, even though he was chained to a soldier. You wonder what the soldier heard and felt. It must have been a most remarkable situation for a soldier chained to a man, listening to him or seeing him praying and listening to him speaking of another world altogether, not overwhelmed in his spirit by the prison conditions but using them for liberty and access into another realm.
G.A.B. His prayers were not for his own release, they were for the welfare of the saints.
J.D.G. Yes, and also when you come to Colossians, he speaks of Epaphras praying too, praying for the saints, not exactly praying for his own release. It seems that some of those who visited Paul must have been apprehended too, Epaphras is a fellow-captive in the Colossian epistle, and Aristarchus. Some of those who visited Paul must have been apprehended by the Roman authorities for whatever reason, we do not know, but it must have had to do with the glad tidings. Paul was in prison because he preached to the Gentiles.
Rem. There is a relationship between persons which rises above all the circumstances in which they are found. Of one of the brethren that goes to Paul, it says, “has not been ashamed of my chain … sought me out very diligently, and found me”, 2 Tim 1: 16,17. There was a relationship with Paul which rises above all the circumstances.
J.D.G. That was Onesiphorus, He had been in Rome—it may have been at this time too—“sought me out very diligently”. I 74
like what you said, there is tenderness and affection which rises above the circumstances. Persons who are in the goodness of the grace of God, the riches of His grace—I was thinking of that this morning. In Ephesians 1 it says, “he has taken us into favour in the Beloved: in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of offences, according to the riches of his grace”, vv 6,7. Here is a man who has come into redemption through Christ’s blood,
“forgiveness of offences, according to the riches of his grace”.
Here was the runaway slave—how was he going to be received in the local place when he had run away and wronged the master who might well have been bitter about it? Paul is appealing to Philemon in his affections; things have changed now.
T.W.L. Paul may be restricted by the imperial power but he preaches about another kingdom under the Lord Jesus Christ.
J.D.G. It says, “preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, with all freedom unhinderedly”, Acts 28: 31. There used to be a brother who called this Paul’s currency—that is what his currency was in prison—“preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ”. That was what went on in the prison. The soldier was there all the time with his chain, but Paul was liberated in his spirit and in his prayers.
He says, “I thank my God, always making mention of thee at my prayers”. Personalities are spoken of here—Philemon and his wife, as appreciating her too, then “Archippus our fellow-soldier”, I suppose that is a fellow-soldier in the work of the gospel. It says in the Colossian epistle “and say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, to the end that thou fulfil it”, Col 4: 17. Archippus must have needed a little bit of stimulation.
T.D.E. Can you say something about “the assembly which is in thine house”? The prison epistles give us some of the greatest and most exalted thoughts of the assembly, but here it is, “the assembly which is in thine house”.
J.D.G. I suppose they met in his house, he provided for them, he was a rich man, he had the wherewithal to do that and provided for the assembly which was in his house. Paul takes 75
it out of the personal side only. It has been pointed out in the teaching that he does not add the thought of mercy because he brings in the thought of the assembly. He is elevating it.
What struck me was that it was good to see that Paul was speaking to Philemon personally about a slave who had run away, who is coming back, he is anticipating him being received by Philemon, but not only by Philemon but by the local assembly, so he addresses the assembly in his house which dignifies it. He is really making it a wider issue than just Philemon and the slave.
T.D.E. That is helpful, and, “if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; and if one member be glorified, all the members rejoice with it”, 1 Cor 12: 26. There is a sense in which anything that we do individually has a collective bearing as well.
J.D.G. You can understand the situation at the time—there were many persons who were slaves. Some slaves were in fellowship and they were still slaves, they might have been in their meeting in Colosse. Here is one whom Paul is sending back because he had run away. You might say the last man who should have got his liberation. The slaves would work for persons other than Christian masters. Paul teaches that in his epistles, they had to serve their masters. We do not understand the situation as it was at that time, but here is one that was converted and Paul sends him back and commends him to Philemon to liberate him and also to receive him as a brother. He brings the assembly in too, as much as to say, I want you all to take account of this, to get the gain “in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of offences, according to the riches of his grace”, Eph 1: 7. Here is an example of the riches of God’s grace.
G.B.
The assembly in the house would not just be a gathering of saints, it would carry a certain dignity. I wondered if there was some correspondence with the ark when it was in the house of Obed-Edom? Before that there had been a long time in another house, and I think it has been suggested that it might have been covered up and kept there as an artefact, but the ark meant something in the house of Obed-Edom; it 76
was valued and resulted in the household blessing, see 2 Sam 6.
J.D.G. I am glad of what is coming out. It is the anointed vessel according to Corinthians 12, see v 12. Here is the dignity of the anointing associated with the gathering in the home, it is more than just a gathering of Christians. It was that, but you are elevating it to the dignity of the assembly which the truth of the body underlies. I think it is helpful bringing out the truth of the body because Onesimus is coming back as a member of the body of Christ.
G.A.B. It is a very current matter, the assembly in the house, because I do not suppose since the early days of the recovery there have been so many gatherings of the saints held in houses. In the beginning in the Pentecostal time the breaking of bread was in the house but Paul really put it in the assembly. I think we want to maintain that distinction, even if it is literally in a house, that is only the building, but the dignity of the assembly stands whether it is a room like this or whether it is in someone’s drawing room.
J.D.G. I am glad you are bringing that out. There were some persons meeting in a house and someone said to them, are you a house meeting? They said no, we are in fellowship with the saints universally, “Paul a called apostle of Jesus Christ, by God’s will, and Sosthenes the brother, to the assembly of God which is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints, with all that in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours”, 1 Cor 1: 1, 2. That sets the dignity of it whether it is in a house or a hall. I am glad of that distinction, because in certain parts of the world there are quite a number of independent household meetings or churches but this is different.
G.A.B. I remember a brother and sister in the Midlands who were left on their own in a locality and when it came to the time for the meeting they had the chairs set in two circles in the room, the sister put her coat and hat on and came and sat in the second row and the brother sat on the front row and they had their meeting, and she said, When I come and sit down there I feel that I am in the assembly. That makes a distinction; that room might have been used for something else 77
at other times of the day, there it was, “the assembly which is in thine house”.
J.D.G. With the saints in other places, that is involving fellowship, the fellowship of God’s Son. I think too it is an expression of the body of Christ. So Onesimus coming back was coming as one who belonged to that body. The letter to Philemon suggests that it is more than to Philemon, but “to the assembly which is in thine house”. That is greater than to Philemon. It is very interesting because it shows that in leaving out the thought of mercy he is regarding it as a prison epistle and the dignity of an assembly letter. I had not seen that before.
T.W.L. Unity underlies this too. He says, “in such sort that thy participation in the faith”; it is the faith that is common to all. Would that be right?
J.D.G. That is right, “in the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in us towards Christ Jesus. For we have great thankfulness and encouragement through thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother”.
Although Paul was in prison he was in contact by letter and by persons; he speaks in one of the epistles about the brethren locally and all that concerned them in the prison in Rome.
Here he knows about Philemon, he has an appreciation of him, he must have proved his kindnesses, “hearing of thy love and the faith which thou hast towards the Lord Jesus, and towards all the saints, in such sort that thy participation in the faith”, so it is in active power which can be commended.
D.H.M. Practically speaking, in days of smallness—there are many localities that are small—where some of these conditions might exist, what is personal can sometimes create difficulty, but he seeks to go above that. It is quite a lesson, because although he writes to the brother where there may have been naturally some personal offence, he clearly shows that the responsibility of brotherhood in the assembly goes beyond that.
J.D.G. That is an attraction for us all. This would be an occasion of quite a serious matter at that time, the slave had run away and gone to Rome to see the sights: whether he ran 78
out of money we do not know, but he found Paul. Paul did not find him, he found Paul. He must have gone there under God’s hand, and the work of God has been wrought in him through Paul’s preaching the gospel to him at that time. Now he is coming back to meet his master whom he has wronged, and what was the reception going to be? But Paul puts in a letter of appeal, above the level of what is natural, above the level of business too.
D.H.M. Could you say something about anticipation, Paul takes it for granted that Philemon will do all of this. It is quite a nice touch, he puts him in that corner of correctness and ensures that he will behave in such a way, but then credits him that he will do that and do more.
J.D.G. It is a very fine way to appeal. He acknowledges that Onesimus had been wrong, and he says, if he owes anything I will repay it, but then he appeals to him to receive him as a brother, possibly liberate him and give him his freedom. Paul was desirous of keeping him, “I exhort thee for my child, whom I have begotten in my bonds, Onesimus”. The meaning of his name, is ‘profitable’ or ‘useful’. But he says, “Wherefore having much boldness in Christ to enjoin thee what is fitting, for love’s sake I rather exhort”. He did not want to command, he wanted it to come from Philemon himself. He gave him the liberty to retain him as a slave, to receive him as a brother, but to go further than that, liberate him. He could retain him as a slave and he could be received into fellowship.
D.H.M. It rises above debate and argument, really things are resolved in the assembly another way. It says of the wise men that they, “departed into their own country another way”, Matt 2: 12. Paul chose another way here.
J.D.G. It says of Onesimus, “once unserviceable to thee, but now serviceable to thee and to me”. He is saying he was unserviceable to Philemon, he ran away, but he is coming back of his own volition. You could not have forced him to go back, he could have gone out of Paul’s prison and disappeared into the streets of Rome.
G.B.
There were obligations on Onesimus as well; he had a believing master, so along with the obligations on Philemon, 79
there are obligations on Onesimus and so there are on all of us.
J.D.G. There were obligations on Onesimus, he had run away, ‘absent without leave’, run away without permission and stolen, but he has gone back willingly and gone back as a converted man. Will he be received as a brother? That is the test for Philemon and those who are in the assembly which is in his house.
G.A.B. He had come into a family relationship with Paul. He says, “I exhort thee for my child, whom I have begotten”, Paul has other children. John speaks of his children as well. There is the family of God, it is one thing that they are all begotten of God, but it is possible for believers with influence to beget children.
J.D.G. Paul had here, he says, “I exhort thee for my child, whom I have begotten in my bonds”.
C.E.
There seems to be complacency through the chapter, everything seems to revolve round trust. You mentioned military terms of being ‘absent without leave’, but there is a duty. Each one of us has to do our duty before the Lord, as to the working of the body that is seen here quite distinctly.
J.D.G. He fulfils his duty; Onesimus was going back, he was carrying the letter, but he was going back. He was being accompanied by Tychicus. He goes back to his master and gives him his letter and submits to whatever he would do, but he was a believer, a converted brother. Here is an appeal, “I have wished to do nothing without thy mind, that thy good might not be as of necessity but of willingness”, an appeal to the work of God in us. How difficulties can be resolved.
T.W.L. Is there subjection and affection here?
J.D.G. I do not think there is any will working in anybody in the chapter.
T.W.L. I was wondering that because Paul was not using apostolic authority here, but he is writing to him as a person who is subject to being a prisoner as being part of the government of God. He was pleased to speak in relation to another in relation to grace that he be set free. The person he 80
is speaking about is subject enough to go back in with the possibility of being a slave again, but subject to that in affection for Christ.
J.D.G. Onesimus is a changed man. It is, “Paul, prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timotheus the brother, to Philemon the beloved”. This does not bring in apostolic authority at all. He is really writing a letter of commendation for this dear slave, acknowledging his history but pointing out that he has been the subject of the work of God in being a converted man. Now he was entitled to be received as a brother, appealing to the affections of the saints in the place to do that.
G.A.B. It has been a feature of servants whom the Lord has honoured. Some of us can remember that they avoided interfering with matters in other localities than their own.
They operated rather by influence. That is really what Paul is doing here.
J.D.G. He is appealing as a member of the body of Christ, as a Christian, who is bound up in the circle of the saints, bound up in the one body, bound up in the family of God. He is appealing along those lines that matters may be set right. The person he is commending is converted, there is no will working in the man, he is going back to submit to slavery if that be his lot. I was interested in the fact that he addressed it to the assembly as if it is a greater matter than a mere household matter and bringing in the affections of the saints in a dignified way to influence one another, to influence Philemon, and the carrying forward of Paul’s wishes.
G.A.B. Mr Darby says that he rather hints to Philemon that Onesimus should be released, there is no commandment.
J.D.G. He is exhorting him to receive him as a brother and no doubt that could be done because if Onesimus sought his place to remember the Lord Jesus you could not refuse him because he was a slave. He had come back a converted man, he had received the forgiveness of his sins, the blood of redemption had been shed for him. As you say Paul hints that perhaps the Lord had in mind to use him in a wider way which involves his liberation. It is not just his liberation to go into 81
society and do as he will; it is his liberation with a view to the work of God.
A.M. There is a time when we have all been recovered to this. When you first have to do with Christ you find that at some point there is more room made in your heart for Him than there was before, and there are different things in your life that you may have been accustomed to that take on a very different value. I wondered if that was in line with what you are speaking of.
J.D.G. I think so. “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of offences, according to the riches of his grace” (Eph 1: 7) has affected me and you. We have all had a sinful history, a history of fallen man, whatever it has been it has been there, and then we have been forgiven, received the gift of the Holy Spirit so that the man that comes back is coming back in Christ, the man who went away was the man in Adam. Onesimus ran away wilfully, but he comes back as in Christ. He really comes back like the younger son.
E.W.J. Mr Stoney has a book, Who is in the Testimony? vol 11 p63 What is vital, as I understand it, in the testimony is what is here. There were houses and there were halls, churches, gatherings of people who speak about Jesus. God is wanting all men to be saved, but then the vital question is, Am I in the testimony? That would be involved in the Spirit, Christ in the assembly.
J.D.G. We possess one another, “that thou mightest possess him fully for ever; not any longer as a bondman, but above a bondman, a beloved brother, specially to me, and how much rather to thee, both in the flesh and in the Lord? If therefore thou holdest me to be a partner with thee, receive him as me”, it is a partnership. We are all in a partnership, a common fellowship from that point of view, but, “possess him fully for ever”.
Ques. With regard to possessing fully, does it suggest with Onesimus coming back there is nothing between these two brothers? They will be able to enjoy fully communion with Christ.
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J.D.G. It involves kindredship with Christ, “but go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”, John 20: 17. It is on a level of kindredship with Christ, “possess him fully for ever …
a beloved brother”.
T.D.E. One of the things that marks Paul’s prison epistles is Paul’s unselfishness. He wanted to keep Onesimus for himself to support and serve him, but there is more work for him to be done back in the place that he had come from. Is that one of the things that comes out in these epistles?
J.D.G. Paul would have kept him and used him in the glad tidings, and he could have used his authority over Philemon but he did not want to do that. He wanted to send him back and bring out this spirit of affection, of love and brotherliness, that would liberate the brethren in the place where he was.
T.D.E. I was wondering about the expression, “bonds of the glad tidings”, it seems to me to be significant.
J.D.G. Paul was in chains on account of the glad tidings; it would include that, but I thought it was more than that. This expression, “I have begotten in my bonds”, and in “the bonds of the glad tidings”. I thought it was more his bringing Onesimus into the work of the glad tidings, bound up with Paul, even though he was a prisoner. He was going to be in the bonds of the glad tidings and serviceable to the master.
T.D.E. So, even if Paul is in chains the glad tidings is not bound at all, it is able to proceed in vigour to ones like Onesimus.
J.D.G. If you had a link with Paul you would be liberated to serve in the glad tidings. He sends him back to his master, and then he says, “prepare me also a lodging; for I hope that I shall be granted to you through your prayers”. He speaks of these other persons, “Epaphras salutes thee, my fellow-prisoner in Christ Jesus; Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, my fellow-workmen. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit”. It is a very rich letter—personalities that they would know something about in the assembly in Philemon’s house and Colosse.
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D.H.M. Do you think he was given a real foretaste as to how profitable Christianity could be despite restriction? I was thinking of Acts 16, he was in extremely limited circumstances but what a result came out of that. Do you think that, in some way, sets the context for a lot of this?
J.D.G. He did not have to await the formal emancipation of slaves? He was liberated in the circle of the family of God in a dignified way. It shows you how Christianity was greater than the systems of men around at that time.
G.A.B. There is rather an interesting point in verse 19. It is almost a principle that the fellowship involves that we are prepared to undertake responsibility for one another, “I Paul have written it with mine own hand; I will repay it”. There was an obligation there, this debt, whatever it was, had to be repaid. Onesimus probably could not repay it, but Paul says, I will do it, so that there might be no impediment to the free working of love and restoration.
J.D.G. Paul was prepared to meet righteousness on behalf of a brother who probably could not meet it financially. It does not say that Paul gave him the money to pay it back, he just says to Philemon that he would repay it when they met. The moral obligation has to be met too in practical matters so that righteousness is maintained.
G.A.B. Besides the practical aspect of it, there is a moral side to it as well. Cain said, “am I my brother’s keeper?”, Gen 4: 9.
He should have been, we are our brothers’ keepers in that sense. We have to accept responsibility for one another as well as for ourselves.
EDINBURGH
4th June 2006
Key to initials (all local unless shown)
G.Bailey; G.A.Brown; C.English, Glasgow; T.D.Ellis; J.D.Gray; E.W.Johnson; T.W.Lock; A. Marshall; D.H.Marshall 84
The Lord Jesus was brought up as a Jew. He was born into the Jewish family of Joseph and Mary. He had other brothers and sisters in that family, so it appeared. From what was apparent He became a carpenter under His father, Joseph.
I am sure He attended many Passovers in His lifetime here.
There would be a Passover every year and for His three and a half years of public ministry, I would suggest He celebrated the Passover with His own, with His disciples. It would be customary, and He seems to have accepted what was done by them at that time.
But this Passover was to be the last Passover He would celebrate with His own, and it was distinctive: “He placed himself at table, and the twelve apostles with him”. Just before that, in verses 7 and 8, it says, “And the day of unleavened bread came, in which the Passover was to be killed. And he sent Peter and John saying, Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it” as if it was characteristic of Him. But this Passover was a special one: “He placed himself at table”, and He celebrated the Passover. I think what He says would be distinctive, even in regard to the Passover, when He says,
“With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer”. That was in the Lord’s heart: He was going to suffer; He was going to die; He was going to be God’s Lamb, “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”, John 1: 29. “With desire I have desired”—what intent there was in that, it is emphasised—“to eat this Passover with you before I suffer”. I think they would be paying attention to that, and then He says,
“I will not eat any more at all of it until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God”. Now for the young people’s sake, as far as I understand it the kingdom of God was anticipation of the Christian dispensation. In other gospels it is a little different, but I do not go into that tonight. “And having received a cup”, that is a cup that was to hand. He maybe gave thanks at the other Passovers, but I do not think He said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves. For I say unto you, that I will not 85
drink at all of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God come”. He knew that His death was to take place. The kingdom of God, as I have said already, involved the Christian dispensation. That is what is set out in Luke’s gospel.
And then He takes a loaf, “when he had given thanks, he broke it, and gave it to them, saying …”. Now, that is a departure from the Passover. The Passover was no longer going to be celebrated by Christ. He had no intention really that it should be celebrated any more by His own. But I think the Lord was drawing attention to a departure from the celebration of the Passover literally because the kingdom of God, involving the Christian dispensation, is what He had in His mind. It says, “And having taken a loaf, when he had given thanks, he broke it, and gave it to them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me”.
What a momentous occasion that was, that He should say that!
“In like manner also the cup, after having supped, saying, This cup”. That is what was in my mind, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you”.
It is not the Passover cup. He received a cup in verse 17, but having taken a cup—He took a cup that was on the table—He says, “This cup”. It is distinct from everything else. I wonder if we are affected by “This cup”. The celebration of the Lord’s Supper has come down to us—I will continue to speak about that in the setting in the Corinthian epistle. But “This cup”—
The Lord Jesus said that, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood”. He actually said that, and they would be paying attention to Him. “This cup is the new covenant in my blood”.
Everything was going to be established on the basis of “this cup”, not a Passover cup, but “this cup”.
I omitted to read a verse in the Acts 2: “And they persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles” (v 42)—that is the disciples that were secured as new believers—
“in breaking of bread and prayers”. And then verse 46, “And every day, being constantly in the temple with one accord, and breaking bread in the house, they received their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the people”. What I want to show, particularly 86
for young people here, is that in the early days of the Acts they broke bread in the house. They realised it was separate from the temple: “every day, being constantly in the temple”. They did not break bread in the temple. They broke bread in the house. They were grasping something of the distinction of the Supper, that it was not convenient to break bread in the temple setting or the synagogue. So they broke bread in their houses, and they would know something of the Lord’s presence in the simplicity of their hearts, just like the two on the way to Emmaus when they broke bread: “he was made known to them in the breaking of bread”, Luke 24: 35. That is what He did, even the act of doing it drew to their attention that it is what Christ had done. “Breaking bread in the house”; there was no local assembly. One place at this point would be Jerusalem and there would be many disciples there, thousands of them.
Somewhere it says what the numbers were. They broke bread in the house and in the simplicity of their hearts remembered the Lord Jesus. What light they had we do not know. They recognised Him as their Messiah, whom they had rejected and crucified.
Well, in 1 Corinthians 11, I want to tell you—these are simple matters known to the brethren here, maybe even the younger people, but bear with me in the simplicity of it—Paul did not receive the instruction of the Supper from any of the apostles. He must have known about it, known about them breaking bread in the houses. Yet when local assemblies were coming onto view, and the first one established was Antioch, the Lord Jesus gave this to Paul personally from heaven. He must have had an appearing of the Lord to him. He says, “For I received from the Lord, that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was delivered up …”.
Think of that! I did not read of it in Luke’s gospel—maybe I should have—but Judas was still present, according to Luke’s account of it, bringing out that it was the night of His delivering up, “the night in which he was delivered up”. That is what it was. We celebrate the Supper, but when the Lord instituted the Supper, He instituted it “in the night in which he was delivered up”. Now, He has given it to Paul in relation to the local assembly: not in relation to the houses, but in relation to the local assembly. So we do not break bread merely in 87
connection with our houses. We break bread as gathered together in the local assembly and he says it was “the night in which he was delivered up”. “The Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was delivered up, took bread, and having given thanks broke it, and said …”. It is a fine title—“the Lord Jesus”. When we come together, no matter what locality you go into, and the Supper is being celebrated, I think that almost invariably the first two words that are said are ‘Lord Jesus’.
That title is customary among us; it is an assembly title; and it is persons who are filled with the Holy Spirit that can say these words, ‘Lord Jesus’. If you can say, ‘Lord Jesus’, dear brethren and dear younger brethren, in all the affections of your heart, I think it is a sign that you have the Holy Spirit.
Only persons filled with the Spirit can say, ‘Lord Jesus’.
So he says, “the Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was delivered up,”—that touches the heart of the believer—
“took bread, and having given thanks broke it, and said, This is my body, which is for you: this do in remembrance of me”.
Then again, “In like manner also the cup, after having supped”—He had finished with the Passover cup and the Passover meal; He says “This cup is the new covenant in my blood: this do, as often as ye shall drink it, in remembrance of me”. “This cup”: does it affect our hearts, dear brethren?
When we celebrate the Supper, the loaf is there, but I want to draw your attention to the cup, “This cup”. In the shedding of Christ’s blood, remission of sins, redemption—all are included in His work—His body also is involved in it—but “This cup is the new covenant in my blood”. That cup that is before us is an expression of divine love in its fullest extent, God’s love expressed in Christ, “This cup”. I wonder what we feel about that. It is good to participate. “This cup is the new covenant in my blood”. It is going to lay the basis for everything that God is going to do.
I read in Ezekiel to show how God can put a new heart and a new spirit in the Israelite in a day to come because the Lord Jesus has laid the basis for the fulfilment of the new covenant in His death. He has borne the curse of the law. He has borne all that related to Israel as a nation, and how they failed! He has laid the basis for God to come in, as I read there, 88
“And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you”. God is going to do that to the nation of Israel that He takes up. The remnant of the nation in a day to come He will take up and the basis He has is in this cup: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood”. But we come into the blessings of the new covenant. That covenant is going to be made with Israel in a day to come, the remnant coming into the blessing of it, having a new spirit and a new heart and God putting His Spirit within them in the manner in which He will do it. But “This cup is the new covenant in my blood” has an effect upon me, forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit, all as a result of the Lord’s death and “This cup is the new covenant in my blood”—precious, precious blood of Christ.
It is not a cup of sorrow to us. The Supper is not exactly an occasion of sorrow to us. We may be affected by the fact it was “the night in which He was delivered up” and He has given His body for us, but this cup is a cup of joy, it is “the new covenant in my blood”. The work has been done. Christ has done the work completely so it is a cup of joy. He is not desiring that we be sorrowful, not at all. It is a basis of joy that will be there eternally. “This cup is the new covenant in my blood”, everything is cleared, the moral history is all gone. It involves the death of Christ. I do not go into the other parts of His death, such as the atonement, at this time. It is a cup of joy. We should celebrate it and be affected by it, and the heart is touched, the believer’s heart is touched, by the fact of that expression of love. There is no love like it, divine love expressed in the Lord Jesus, and it is there concentrated in the cup. The loaf is more the expression of the will of God in His body. The cup is an expression of love, love that we can hardly comprehend, but we know something about it because we know the love of Christ and we know something of the love of God because He “has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father”, Gal. 4: 6. What intense affection is ours, dear brethren, in that matter of “Abba, Father”, an expression of intense affection in relation to the God who is 89
known as our Father, “Abba, Father”, an intense form of the word “Father”. Words that are not translated bring out intensity in their meanings and “Abba” is one of those words, “Abba, Father”. So it springs from the heart of the believer that is affected by “This cup is the new covenant in my blood”. What a matter for us to contemplate! Let us look on that cup and appreciate it, be intent as the emblems are partaken of, both in the loaf and in the cup, be intense, look at them, and think about them, and Christ comes into your heart. Both of these matters in 1 Corinthians 11 bring out “remembrance of me”. Luke does not tell you that in the cup; he tells you that in the loaf, “This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me”, but He does not say that in the cup, but the Lord Jesus said it to Paul in the cup. He says not only in regard of the bread “in remembrance of me” but in the cup also “in remembrance of me”. It is a double intensification of the thought of
“remembrance of me”. It means that the believer’s heart and mind and affections, his soul and his spirit, are so engaged with the thought of what is in that cup that he makes way for the Lord to come in and make Himself known in the heart and the affections.
May the Lord help us with these few words for His Name’s sake!
EDINBURGH
13th June 2006
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I am sure what our brother has said has touched our hearts tonight. This scripture in Psalm 22, “Save me from the lion’s mouth. Yea, from the horns of the buffaloes hast thou answered me”, is, prophetically, the Lord speaking on the cross. Mr Darby said regarding the first cry, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mark 15: 34) that He ‘could not be heard’, Synopsis vol 2 p88. Heaven was watching that scene, which was shrouded in darkness to prevent men from seeing what the Saviour went through, but they were there and you have to take account of it. But God was watching that scene, and I think His heart was gladdened when He heard the second cry from the cross because it was a cry of victory. The wrath of God had been sustained and exhausted by Christ on the cross, the forsaking had finished. There was no immediate intervention by God at that time. The Lord commits His spirit to His Father. There is no immediate intervention, but the intervention came when He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. How the Father would rejoice in that. Our brother mentioned His delight in seeing the perfect Man take up the matter. Divine justice had to be met in regard to sin and sins, and Christ bore it all. Propitiation was made, and substitution was effected for those who lay a claim to Him. We often say that, but it is true. If you lay a claim to the One who was lifted up you come in for the blessing of what He has secured.
His delight, immediately on rising from the grave, was to express these very words which are expressed in this Psalm more than a thousand years before He came into manhood,
“my brethren”; “I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee”. It struck me as our brother was speaking that in bringing the Lord out of death the Father’s delight was in it, “raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father”, Rom 6: 4. The Father’s affections were in it. He selected one blessed Man to raise Him from among the dead, and almost the first words of that blessed Man as out of death are, “go to my brethren”, John 20: 91
17. There are a few prior remarks in this passage. But I do not think there had been any other words from Christ on being raised from the dead before those in this chapter. It is understood that Mary was there first at the tomb—I know she goes back and brings Peter and John, but she remains there.
She gets the first message from Christ, the very first words He said. When He says, “Woman” He may have had in His mind the joy He had in the anticipation of the assembly secured out of His death, but the first words He says regarding this great matter of fruit out of His death were, “Touch me not, for I have not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”. It is a fulfilment of the Psalm. That cry that was heard when He was on the cross before He went into the grave, before He gave up His spirit; the cry of victory, everything had been secured for God and the basis laid. The matter of atonement had to be completed by Christ going into the grave. He “died for our sins according to the Scriptures”, and “he was buried” and “he was raised ...according to the Scriptures”, 1 Cor: 15: 3, 4. He was buried—the matter had to be completed in the death of Christ, signifying that the man who had sinned was out of sight before God for ever. Now as out of death He expresses those very words we read in the Psalm, “my brethren”; “I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee”.
He uses that expression to Mary first of all. Before He deals with Peter, before He deals with any other, before He appears to His own, He says, “Go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”. The whole matter secured in view of the service of God was encapsulated in these words, “Go to my brethren”, persons He had relationships with out of death, persons who are viewed in this section as coming out of the death of Christ.
There is no past history. History has all gone. There is no past history apparent here. It is out of the death of Christ, and that is where they find their origin. He says, ‘Go to such persons’, persons who are in the divine eye, the divine purpose. The whole area of divine purpose can now be opened up because Christ has laid the basis in His death, finished everything on the moral side, making way for divine purpose in persons who 92
belong to the order of humanity to which Christ belongs, “For both he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren”, Heb 2: 11. What a wonderful thing to grasp hold of, that the Sanctifier and sanctified are all of one! We belong to that order of humanity out of the death of Christ. We do not belong to the Adam order from the divine side. We belong to the order of humanity that is out of the death of Christ. So “he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one”—such a company! He can make known the Father’s name to them, the name of God to them, “my Father and your Father … my God and your God”. We are loved with the same love that Christ is loved with and we love Christ with the same love with which the Father loves Him. What a company of persons we belong to, dignified, set apart for divine service.
These were a few thoughts that sprang from our brother’s remarks. May the Lord bless His word.
EDINBURGH
14th August 2007
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1 Corinthians 11: 23-25; 10: 15-22
I want to speak a little as to the loaf. (I read these scriptures to get the context in which the loaf comes in.) Regarding the Lord’s supper, the scripture says He “took bread, and having given thanks broke it, and said, This is my body, which is for you: this do in remembrance of me”. We do that each first day of the week. The loaf on the table in this setting represents the body of the Lord Jesus, and as we break it and eat of it we are appropriating that precious body. Christ is before us. We are calling Him to remembrance, “this do in remembrance of me”. It is mentioned twice in this passage, both in regard to the loaf and the cup, being an intensified thought; the mind and heart of the believer who participates is fastened on Christ. That is what is before us primarily. It is not exactly the saints that are brought before us—we will come to that in chapter 10—but what is before us is Christ and the remembrance of Him and the calling of Him to mind. The believer, as participating in the thanksgiving, the loaf, the bread, has in mind the death of the Lord, and both the bread and the cup, bringing in the death of the Lord. His resurrection would come in also. We remember One who is alive. He was once dead, but He is alive now. These are thoughts that fill the heart and soul and affections of the believer, linking them with a Man in the glory, a Man who is about to come to us. That is the great thought in coming up to the Supper, that Christ is going to come to us.
It is not so much the saints. The saints gather, and you take account of them as they come, you see the brethren gathering together, and you view them as the brethren of Christ. That is the company that gathers. You see the saints first of all. The table is set; someone has set the table, love has acted in that. You come in and sit down and look at the table, and take account of the memorial. It means something to the believer who is about to participate in the service of the Supper that has been set on by the Lord Jesus. He sees the brethren sitting around the emblems; it is a collective thought, be there few or be there many. That is what is the intent of the heart and mind of the believer at that time—Christ is being made 94
way for. The Lord comes amongst us as the Son of God, comes in and takes up His rights in our hearts. He does not take up His rights in the world yet, but takes up His rights in the hearts of the believers, those present. That is the setting of the Supper.
Last Lord’s day we were breaking bread in another place and it came to me in giving thanks, as we finished eating, that we had all participated of that one loaf; everyone that was there had eaten of the one loaf, and participated in the celebration.
It was a fresh dedication on my part and the part of each one to the Lord Jesus and to the fellowship. That is what I want to draw attention to.
In chapter 10 it says, “The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of the Christ? Because we, being many, are one loaf”, it is not exactly the main thought in the Supper. But it is a thought which has to enter into the mind and life of the believer, “we, being many, are one loaf”.
That same loaf represents all the saints. That is something to grasp hold of too. It comes into the heart from that point of view, out of the death of Christ has sprung, ‘A wondrous living throng’, Hymn 152, John 12: 24.
The one loaf represents the fellowship, “we, being many, are one loaf”, and in putting our hands to that one loaf we are committing ourselves to the Lord Jesus and to His testimony.
We belong to a fellowship and that fellowship is described in chapter 1, “God is faithful, by whom ye have been called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord”, 1 Cor 1: 9.
There is one Christian fellowship. Here it is referred to in verse 21, “ye cannot partake of the Lord’s table, and of the table of demons”; that means you cannot be in fellowship with the Lord and in fellowship with demons, and I am not thinking in any way that any of the saints are associated with anything to do with demons. I do not think that at all. But, partaking of the Lord’s table is a view, it seems to me, similar to chapter 1 of 1
Corinthians, “the fellowship of his Son”. All believers belong to that fellowship; there is only one fellowship in the world and that is the fellowship of God’s Son. At the time when Paul wrote the Corinthian epistle there was only one fellowship. It has often been said that in Corinth there were three kinds of 95
gatherings, the Christian gathering, the Jewish synagogue gathering and the pagan temple gathering. That is what was in Corinth. In our day, with the public breakdown of the church, there are many Christians breaking bread together, independent companies. I use that in a general sense. There are Christian companies in this city, apart from ourselves, who break bread together. But you and I are not committed to them in a practical sense, in what they go on with, because we have taken our escape, according to 2 Timothy 2, “Yet the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, The Lord knows those that are his; and, Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity”, v 19. So that in acting according to that, it then says, “If therefore one shall have purified himself from these, in separating himself from them, he shall be a vessel to honour, sanctified, serviceable to the Master”, v 21. By withdrawing from iniquity we are not responsible for what other believers go on with, but we are responsible to one another and to the Lord for what we do in participating together in the celebration of the Supper. When you put your hand to the loaf you are committed to the fellowship of God’s Son, you are committed to the company with whom you are breaking bread. It is an expression of committal to the Lord and to one another. All we who participate put our hands to the loaf, we take of it and eat of it. We are expressing Christian fellowship together. It is a broken day, thus the expression of fellowship limits it to those with whom we express fellowship in the breaking of bread.
So in this setting, “we, being many, are one loaf, one body”, immediately involves those of us who express fellowship together at the Lord’s supper, we all partake of that one loaf.
We are committed to one another, to the Lord, to Christian principles, we understand fellowship. We are associated with one another in a most intimate way, we are partners together.
Where I go, I take you; where you go, you take me. How intimate that is. In all our committals we take one another wherever we go, whatever we do. I am not suggesting or thinking that anyone is doing anything wrong; that is not what is in my mind. What is in my mind is this matter of the one loaf and the intimacy of the bond that binds believers together as expressing fellowship together. The bond is in the Holy 96
Spirit, that bond is in consecration to Christ. It is a practical thing and every Lord’s day we do that freshly and it remains through the week, and next Lord’s day we express it again freshly. If we miss the Supper it does not alter the fact that we are in fellowship together—we might be ill, but I am speaking about the normality of things, “we, being many, are one loaf, one body”. All the saints are in that loaf abstractly. In our hearts and affections there is love for all the saints, there is nobody excluded. Practically it comes down to those with whom we express fellowship and we, brethren, are bound up with one another as expressing fellowship together in a most intimate way. We are partakers with one another, partners with one another, in the fellowship of God’s Son. We are all committed to the understanding of the truth as we know it.
“Have an outline of sound words” (2 Tim 1: 13); that outline is in my heart and in your heart, and I am governed by my understanding of the truth, and I am governed by the understanding that the saints have of the truth. So if I do not understand it fully, I will come into the understanding of it.
That is what the reading meetings and the ministry meetings do, help us to come into an understanding of the truth.
I just had these thoughts in my heart and my mind to commend them to each of us: to see the dignity that attaches to the fellowship, and the intimacy that attaches to the fellowship, and the responsibility attached to the fellowship so that we are careful where we go, how we go, what we do, every one of us because we want to represent Christ in every setting in which we are, and carry with us the confidence of the saints.
We are acting with dignity in relation to the circle of the saints with whom we break bread together. I leave these thoughts with us for our encouragement, but also for the responsibility that attaches to us, especially in the partaking of the loaf.
EDINBURGH
13th November 2007
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Luke 17: 22-33; 22: 52-54; 23: 1, 20-25, 33, 34, 39-43
I want to speak about the days of the Son of man. I might read other passages earlier in Luke’s gospel as we proceed. There was never a time like this in the earth’s history, when there was One here called the Son of man. For the young people, the Son of man is the Lord Jesus, and His life was made up of days. That thought came to me this morning in giving thanks for the emblems. The earth never saw anything like this before, the days in which Jesus went about, known as the Son of man. He has a kingdom and He is going to come in His kingdom. There is still His day to come, “thus shall the Son of man be in his day”, that is a day to come. The Son of man was here, and He moved amongst men and largely was despised.
Luke tells us much about the days of the Son of man. I cannot go into it all but as you look through the pages of his gospel you will find that. I think he tells us more about the days of the Son of man, or the days of Jesus, than any other gospel writer. He makes this matter interesting, the days of the Son of man. The Son of man will come again, not in humiliation, but here He was a lowly Man, Jesus the Nazarene. He rose in the morning, and He listened with His ear to what His God would tell Him to do, “He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the instructed”, Isa 50: 4. His days were directed; every day He was in the liberty of sonship with His Father. Happy communion it was as He moved amongst men, taking account of the situation that man was in. He could compass what no one else could compass. He felt for man. The Lord Jesus as the Son of man was a Stranger.
He was a Man of another kind, of another order. He was “the second man, out of heaven”. 1 Cor 15: 47. He did not belong to Adam’s race. He was born of a woman, but she was the vehicle used to bring Him into this world. Man had no part in it.
Luke tells us about one of the days of the Son of man.
In chapter 5 verse 17 it says, “And it came to pass on one of the days, that he was teaching, and there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, who were come out of every village of Galilee and Judæa and out of Jerusalem; and the Lord’s 98
power was there to heal them”. No matter what your standing in this world is, you need healing. There they were, Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, “and the Lord’s power was there to heal them”. They did not get the gain of it. It was one of the days of the Son of man, and they despised Him. There was a poor paralytic man, “And lo, men bringing upon a couch a man who was paralysed; and they sought to bring him in, and put him before him”, Jesus. “And not finding what way to bring him in” they went up on the housetop and opened the tiles and let him down, and he got the blessing, verses 19-24.
The Lord says, “Days are coming, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man”, Luke 17 v 22. Here they were. The Lord’s power was there to heal them, that was to heal the doctors of the law and the Pharisees, but they despised Him and this poor man got the blessing. He got blessing on one of the days of the Son of man; it is a sample day. What does he get? The Lord healed him physically, but also he forgave him his sins. In verse 20 He says, “Man, thy sins are forgiven thee”, and in verse 24-26, “I say to thee, Arise, and take up thy little couch and go to thine house. And immediately standing up before them, having taken up that whereon he was laid, he departed to his house, glorifying God.
And astonishment seized all, and they glorified God, and were filled with fear, saying, We have seen strange things to-day”.
The Lord Jesus says, “that ye may know that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins”, v 24. For it had said, “And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason in their minds, saying, Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who is able to forgive sins but God alone? But Jesus, knowing their reasonings, answering said to them, Why reason ye in your hearts? which is easier, to say, Thy sins are forgiven thee; or to say, Rise up and walk?”, v 20-23. What was easier for the Lord to say, friend? It was easier for Him to say, “Rise up and walk” than to say, “Thy sins are forgiven thee”. Why? Because the Scriptures tell us that to forgive sins the Son of man was
“made some little inferior to angels on account of the suffering of death”, Heb 2: 9. He had to go into death to forgive sins.
That was one of the days of the Son of man.
There was another one. There are several in the book but I will not refer to them all. In Luke 8 the disciples were 99
with Him in the boat, “And it came to pass on one of the days, that he entered into a ship, himself and his disciples; and he said to them, Let us pass over to the other side of the lake …
And as they sailed, he fell asleep; and a sudden squall of wind came down on the lake, and they were filled with water, and were in danger; and coming to him they woke him up, saying, Master, master, we perish. But he, rising up, rebuked the wind and the raging of the water; and they ceased, and there was a calm. And he said to them, Where is your faith? And, being afraid, they were astonished, saying to one another, Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?”, v 22-25. The Son of man, a demonstration of His power, “Who then is this?” Have you and I got respect for the Son of man? There was no time like this on the earth, with this blessed Person, known as the Son of man, taking account of man in all his needs. A lonely Man, taking account of man, going around Galilee and Judæa. Somebody said that He never wrote a book, yet He is remembered by millions who have come to Him as their Saviour, the Son of man. Now it says here, “Days are coming, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and shall not see it”. That would be on account of His crucifixion. They cut Him off. Then it says,
“And they will say to you, Lo here, or Lo there; go not, nor follow them. For as the lightning shines which lightens from one end under heaven to the other end under heaven, thus shall the Son of man be in his day”. When is that going to take place?
Scripture is very interesting. There have already been two thousand years between the cutting off and the coming again of the Son of man. I was struck in reading Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon me, because Jehovah hath anointed me to announce glad tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of Jehovah, and the day of vengeance of our God”, chap 6: 1, 2. “To proclaim the acceptable year of Jehovah”, and then there is a comma, “and the day of vengeance of our God”. There have been already two thousand years between those statements. The Lord stopped when He preached the gospel as given in chapter 4 of Luke’s gospel at “to preach the acceptable year of the Lord”, v 19. It 100
is very remarkable, because if you notice the construction of this passage, there is a semi-colon before it and a semi-colon after “our God”; but “the acceptable year of Jehovah,” “and the day of vengeance of our God” are only separated by a comma.
But divine Persons had in mind about two thousand years of grace, “the acceptable year of the Lord”. The Lord Jesus is saying here, ‘The day of the Son of man is coming’. It is a future day. So there was a day when He was here, one of the days of the Son of man when He was available to mankind, when He was still in flesh and blood condition, going about.
The works of power of the age to come were taking place.
Things that will take place in the millennial day, you might say, were taking place and persons were being healed. The man with the withered hand was healed, the paralytic man was healed. Persons were healed and demons were cast out of them. Chapter 8 of this gospel brings out certain women who followed him; they had been healed, v 2. What a time it was!
It says, “And it came to pass afterwards that he went through the country city by city, and village by village, preaching and announcing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God; and the twelve were with him, and certain women who had been healed of wicked spirits and infirmities, Mary who was called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, who ministered to him of their substance. And a great crowd coming together …”, Luke 8: 1-4. These were the days of the Son of man.
I want to speak about the Lord’s sufferings before I come back to speak of the matters that come up in this section in chapter 17. A day came when the Lord Jesus says in chapter 22, “When I was day by day with you in the temple ye did not stretch out your hands against me; but this is your hour and the power of darkness”. You recall that when He preached the gospel in Luke 4 in Nazareth they were going to take Him and cast Him over the brow of the hill on which their city was placed, but He walked through their midst and they could not take Him, v 30. But here the Son of man is taken; the Ark goes into captivity, to use an Old Testament expression. He says,
“but this is your hour and the power of darkness”. It was their hour and the power of darkness, but it was God’s hour too.
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The Son of man, made a little lower than angels on account of the suffering of death, was going into death. I want you to consider the submission of Christ. It says, “And having laid hold on him, they led him away, and they led him into the house of the high priest”. There was no resistance. Man’s malicious ways were going to work out God’s thoughts and God’s ways. The Son of man was going into death. It says,
“And the whole multitude of them, rising up, led him to Pilate”, another step in the humiliation of the Son of man. What a Person He is! The Son of man whom “thou visitest”, Ps 8: 4.
God took account of the Son of man every day. This was the final day. It says in verse 66, “And when it was day”. God is with Him. “And the whole multitude of them, rising up, led him to Pilate”. Then you get that section where Pilate realised He was innocent; He was not guilty. Yet he assented to the desire to crucify Christ, crucify the Son of man. It says they would desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, but their opportunity on one of those days had gone. What a time it was, the life of Jesus here. It had never been seen before and would never, in that sense, be seen again. These persons, the Pharisees and the priesthood of Israel, were envious of the Lord Jesus. But He is submissive. So Pilate delivers Him up to their will. Their will was going to accomplish what God had in mind, but they will be held responsible for it. “They led him away” (v 26), and they laid hold of a Cyrenian to carry His cross. The Lord Jesus says, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”. What were they doing? This blessed Person was going forward to take up the matter of sins. The Son of man must suffer. That is what He says in chapter 17, before the day comes when He comes again, “But first he must suffer many things and be rejected of this generation”, v 25.
He suffered and was rejected of this generation. What a spirit was there in the Lord Jesus, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”. They sneered at Him, they mocked Him, but one man laid hold of his opportunity. I want to say that, lay hold of your opportunity today. There is an opportunity, an opportunity to lay hold of Christ as your Saviour. It is an opportunity to put matters right with God.
One man laid hold of his opportunity. One man knew that he was dying. He was on a cross beside Jesus. There were two 102
malefactors and one rebuked Him. They both reproached Him at one point; the other gospels tell us that, they both reproached Him. I really value Luke’s gospel for this. He brings in what the others do not bring in, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”. I think that broke this man down—that is my personal impression. When he heard the Lord Jesus say, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”, he realised there was another kind of Man here. He laid hold of his opportunity. Lay hold of your opportunity to put matters right with the Lord. Lay hold of Him now. This man laid hold of Him and he says, “Remember me, Lord, when thou comest in thy kingdom”. Where did he get that from?
You wonder about it. The malefactor, he was a robber and a murderer possibly too, and he says, “we indeed justly, for we receive the just recompense of what we have done; but this man has done nothing amiss”. He must have been convicted, I think, by the Lord’s statement. No other person on a cross would ever have said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”, because they were responsible for putting Him there. This man had light, and he says, “this man has done nothing amiss. And he said to Jesus, Remember me, Lord, when thou comest in thy kingdom. And Jesus said to him …
To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise”. The Lord can cause you to receive light at any time. I think the confession “this man has done nothing amiss” made way for God to give this man light in the last moments of his life here of the fact that there was another kingdom coming. The Son of man was going to come in His kingdom and he wanted to be with Him. If you want to be with the Lord Jesus in His coming kingdom you have to accept Him as your Saviour, lay hold of your opportunity.
I want to show you from chapter 17 that God has always considered for man with what you would call grace. “And as it took place in the days of Noe, thus also shall it be in the days of the Son of man: they ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed all of them”. Is that not the world that we live in? Are you going on with that world?
Am I going to go on with that world and disregarding the gospel? The gospel is going forth in the world. It concerns the 103
Son of man. It concerns the One who said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”. It concerns the One who bore the awful judgment of God on the cross, the One who died, the One who was buried and raised again. But men go on. They did it in Noah’s day. Noah built his ark. He laid the keel, built the sides, and finished it. He built that ark every day. He built it for a hundred and twenty years and he preached righteousness, 2 Pet 2: 5. He told them he was building it for a place of salvation that they could have come into, and they laughed and they mocked at him till the day the door was shut; then it was hopeless. The flood came and destroyed all of them. Eight souls were saved. Think of that, eight souls out of a whole world of men and women. How many there were we do not know, but there was a population on the earth that was all destroyed, yet God gave every one of them the opportunity to listen to Noah and his preaching. He has given us the opportunity to listen to the gospel, to accept Christ as our Saviour. When He comes again the gospel is finished, Then grace no more will say
“Yet there is room!”
(Hymn 70)
Then again, the Lord says, “in the days of Lot”—Lot lived in Abraham’s day. He gave up his pastoral, nomadic life to become a magistrate in the city of Sodom, and he sat in the gate of Sodom and had influence there. God was concerned about the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah. He heard about it in heaven. The scripture speaks about certain sins rising up to God in heaven in the Revelation (chap 18: 5), but He says, “I will go down now, and see”, Gen 18: 21. God came down in Christ to see the state of things in the world. The day of grace still continues. He came down in Lot’s day. And He went to see the city of Sodom, and Abraham interceded for that city because he knew Lot was there, but the people would not listen. Will you listen? Men and women around us do not listen; sometimes they do not. All the signs in this country at the present time are that man has little room for anything of God in his life. It is the character of things at the present time.
The Lord says, “they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded”; it all went on till on “the day that 104
Lot went out from Sodom, it rained fire and sulphur from heaven, and destroyed all of them: after this manner shall it be in the day that the Son of man is revealed”. What a warning!
The world is going to go on the way it is. There is not going to be any dramatic intervention from the divine side to show the Lord is about to come. The secret of the rapture is in the heart of believers. Men and governments will endeavour to explain away the rapture once it takes place. Thereafter is the public appearing of the Lord Jesus, and what follows then is judgment. Thank God for the day of grace, but be warned. I say to you again, how fair God is. He warns persons. He warned them in the day of Noah. What a world it was, a world of violence and corruption. The angels joined up with mankind. There were heroes and giants in those days. God had to remove them. But there was an opportunity for persons to listen to Noah’s preaching. In the days of Lot, God went down into Sodom and He laid hold of Lot and extricated him, but all those who remained perished, Gen 19: 16, 25. You do not want to perish, do you? God has come down in Christ, which is far greater than what He did in Abraham’s day. “That whosoever believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal”, John 3: 16. God has in mind another sphere of life for every man. He “desires that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth”, 1 Tim 2: 4. And then He says in Luke 17, “Remember the wife of Lot”. Would you look back? Are you going to look back, back to the world you have been delivered from? She looked back to Sodom and became a pillar of salt, a testimony to the fact that her heart was there, Gen 19: 26. She had been taken out but her heart was there,
“Remember the wife of Lot”. Then He says, “Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose it shall preserve it”. That is a conundrum. It means that the believer who loses his life for Christ’s sake shall save it. If you lose your life in this world for Christ’s sake, that is, that you accept the way of reproach, identification with the lowly Nazarene, accept Him as your Saviour, you will not be of much account in this world, but you will be preserved for another world. Whereas if you go on with this world, and do not heed the gospel, “whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it”; 105
the day will come when grace no more will say, ‘Yet there is room!’.
May the Lord attract every heart here to lay hold of Him as their Saviour, remembering the patience of God. For two thousand years He has gone on. “The Lord does not delay his promise, as some account of delay, but is longsuffering” (2 Pet 3: 9), desiring that men should be saved. That is His object. I thank God for that. The heart of the believer is desirous of Christ to come, awaiting the coming of the Son of man, no longer the lowly Nazarene but coming in the clouds with His saints, coming with His saints, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Revelation 19: 14 brings that out. That is the One who will come, “the Son of man coming ... with power and great glory”, (Matt 24: 30) to take up the reins of government, held for that blessed Man who stood before Pilate. Pilate was afraid.
He knew there was a personality there that was greater than what he could see but he yielded, and is responsible for yielding, to the claims of those who desired the crucifixion of Christ. In the ways of God and the wisdom of God the Son of man had to go that way although men are responsible for what they did to Him. But the day of the Son of man is coming. The days of the Son of man as He was on earth are finished. “As the lightning shines which lightens from one end under heaven to the other end under heaven, thus shall the Son of man be in his day”. There will be no doubt regarding His coming.
May the Lord bless the word to each soul here. For His Name’s sake.
BUCKIE
11th February 2007
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Romans 5: 20-21; 6: 14, 17-18, 22-23
J.D.G. I thought we might consider together the matter of life and light as it bears on the life of a believer. It came in in Christ, available for men, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men”. It has an effect on all of us as we come into an understanding of it and are affected by it.
In the first scripture it secures those who receive Him, persons affected by the light, and the life is affected by the light, they are “born of God”, are children of God. Then in Romans there is the side of responsibility. A challenge comes up as to how we are going to live our lives in the light of John 1. I would like to take it up from that point of view. There are persons here who have had a transaction. We belong to the children of God, but then we find ourselves in responsibility here in this world, but grace overabounds, and we prove the blessing of overabounding grace and how that affects our lives.
Light affects the life of the believer. So light and life are correlative in that sense in relation to the life of the believer so that he comes into the understanding of the light, and his pathway is a separate pathway. He is walking “in newness of life” (Rom 6: 4), and it also says, “reckon yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus”, Rom 6: 11. So he then takes account of his members and he is rejoicing that he is abstaining from sin and becoming a bondman to righteousness. Then Paul takes it up again at the end of the chapter, and he emphasises, “But now, having got your freedom from sin, and having become bondmen to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end eternal life”.
It is easy to see the connection with Exodus. They
“had light in their dwellings”. The children of Israel were against the state of things in the world, which Romans considers. I suppose it follows on from the aspect of, “reckon yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus”. As 107
we have been taught, it relates to the land of Goshen where the saints are. They are in the midst, with Egypt around them, but there is light in their dwellings. I would like to raise the matter with us further. We are living in relation to the light we have, and I linked that in my mind with the households; “light in their dwellings” is light in the Christian households. That is why I suggested the passage in 1 Peter, especially that statement “fellow-heirs of the grace of life”. I might dwell on that when we come round to it. That suggests the household in Goshen. Here in this epistle the background is suffering, the Lord’s suffering and then the saints’ suffering, but here is the place in the midst of suffering where there is another kind of life in evidence.
Lastly, in Romans, what I thought of was being led in relation to the Spirit. It is still in the wilderness but He is leading in relation to the inheritance; so that we might consider what that might be in our pathway.
These are the thoughts I had in mind that we might consider together. I am counting on the brethren to fill it out a bit.
R.J.C. Does “born of God” mean that we have a certain capacity to absorb these things? We are not born of any other means, “born of God”. There is the thought of derivation here, is there, and we are able to absorb the light and life that there is in Christ? These are transposable, are they not, light and life? They are seen in Christ, but we have to be affected by them, have we?
J.D.G. Yes. According to this passage in John 1, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men”. The only persons that got the gain of it were those who were born of God. I thought we should see the divine intent. It says, “All things received being through him, and without him not one thing received being which has received being” (v 3), and that is the completion of the creation, but then Scripture goes on to bring out that God is coming in in Christ in relation to men.
C.K.R. What a significant development this was, Christ coming in and light coming in, appearing in darkness.
Something had come into manifestation that had its source in God Himself.
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J.D.G. Yes, this is the light that came in but the darkness did not apprehend it. There were persons who apprehended it, but it is life, life in relation to humanity, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men”. He has come in in relation to humanity, and it is humanity that has fallen.
C.K.R. The perfect demonstration of it was in Him, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men”. There is something that has come into perfect and full manifestation in Christ personally in sonship in manhood.
J.D.G. That is right. There is no imperfection in the Lord Jesus. The thing was fully displayed in Him and communicated to where it found exercise to receive it. There were those that received it. It says that, “He came to his own, and his own received him not; but as many as received him
…”. There is a state there that is able to receive Him in this way. How we can be thankful, dear brethren, for the light that has come in in Christ! How we can be thankful that we belong to a company that has received that light! There is a darkness around us that we will speak about later too. Some were not able to apprehend it, being in moral darkness. How dark it was! It typifies this in the setting in Egypt, but the light shone.
I think it has been said already, it was not that the company that received it had any less perverse will than those who had refused it, but it was how God had worked.
J.T.B. Does the reception of the light create in us a desire to follow, and create instincts after Christ? “He that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life”, John 8: 12.
J.D.G. Yes, that epitomises what I had in mind. The light was received and brings about formation and substance in us.
So there was a desire to follow. In Romans there was a desire to follow Christ amidst all the exercises that come up in that chapter.
D.B.R. It has been said that from verses 4-13 is an epitome of Christ’s history here on earth with the consequences that either “the darkness apprehended it not” or those that were born of God did apprehend it and receive it. So these verses are very important as covering the whole period of Christ’s life, do you think?
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J.D.G. Yes, it is very helpful to bring that in. I like your word,
‘the epitome of His life here’ because that is what it was. The light was available to all. Responsibility enters into it too. “He came to his own, and his own received him not”. They regarded Him really as a carpenter. Those who received Him not just thought He was a carpenter. The Lord says in John 3, if you recall, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except any one be born of water and of Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God”, v 5. That is Nicodemus. That is the beginning of the work of God. Nicodemus saw more than a carpenter or a carpenter’s son in the Lord. So he comes to Him, by night. It is the first movement, drawn to Christ, and he comes out into the light eventually. What has come up is interesting, to see the effects of Christ coming into the scene, but what an opportunity for all that this Person of the Godhead, known as
“the Word”, the Son of God, comes in to convey to men life that was the light of men. There was no light like this before. In contradistinction to what God did in Genesis 1, this is a new movement to bring to light, you might say, a new race.
J.C.G. In John 12: 46 the Lord repeats in His own testimony,
“I am come into the world as light, that every one that believes on me may not abide in darkness”, the testimony that there was no need to stay there as long as Christ was there as the shining Light.
J.D.G. Yes, it says there in John 12: 36, “While ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may become sons of light”.
That conveys the thought of formation. Then it says there—it is an interesting scripture— “Jesus said these things, and going away hid himself from them”. I remember it being said,
‘Did they miss Him?’. Would we miss the Lord if He hid Himself from us? Here they were—they did not miss Him. They were against Him, some in that chapter. Jesus went away and hid Himself from them. That was because of their refusal. But here in this chapter 1 He is coming in, He is available to all.
W.L.
I was just wondering if there was a connection with verse 18 and verse 4, “No one has seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”. I was wondering if light and life were related to 110
Him in manhood from the standpoint of “the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father”.
J.D.G. Yes, I think that verse is quite helpful because it shows that there is movement with the Lord. It is really a condensed statement that we have in verse 4, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men”. But then as you move into the gospel, what you have brought out is helpful. This is one aspect of it, “No one has seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”. That is making the light available to us, is it not? “The life was the light of men” involves the unfolding of the Trinity, the economy, does it not, and that would be part of what is in mind in verse 18? So the Lord brings to light the economy as known in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
W.L.
So the Lord brought in with Him in manhood these features that were unique to Him. This is an absolute statement, is it not? We reach things as we come to Romans through moral exercise, but He never needed that.
J.D.G. “In him was life, and the life was the light of men” is a condensed statement, but then, as you get into the gospel, you find it unfolding. That is why I quoted John 3. He is reaching out to help a soul that is enquiring, is He not? So the Lord never turns us away. Even although we come to Jesus by night, the Lord discerned that there was something working in that man that was of God.
R.G.
In the woman in John 4, there is darkness, but He introduces interestingly the Father and the Spirit, and then she says, “Come, see a man”—the light had shone in her heart—“who told me all things I had ever done: is not he the Christ?”, v 29.
J.D.G. Yes, that is movement out from this position He took up as coming in, is it not? “In him was life, and the life was the light of men”. There by Sychar’s well He begins to unfold to that woman the truth of the worship of God: “the Father seeks such as his worshippers”, v 23. And what you have brought out introduces the thought of the Spirit. Then she grasps hold of a Man, and that is the Man who came in. She belonged to the family that was born of God, did she not? Light brings responsibility, man will be held to account for rejecting 111
the light, but it brings responsibility also to those who receive it. It says, “to them gave he the right to be children of God”. It is a very blessed matter which I would like us to take home to ourselves before we enter into the body of the reading that if we are persons who have come to Christ, and belong to this company who are children of God, we have a right to take that place. It carries with it responsibility as well as blessing.
J.A.G. The Lord leads Nicodemus along the moral road, referring to the serpent of brass (John 3: 14), and then, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal”, v 16.
J.D.G. I used to think that the Lord stopped speaking to Nicodemus at verse 12, “if I say the heavenly things to you, will ye believe?” but He does not. It dawned on me not too long ago that the whole section was addressed to Nicodemus. What a fullness there was as He brings him to the idea of the brazen serpent, and judgment of sin in the flesh in Christ. But then,
“For God has not sent his Son into the world that he may judge the world, but that the world may be saved through him”, v 17.
And, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son”. I came across a remark by Mr Pellatt, who said, ‘One can hardly think of the world, especially in the light of John, being an object of complacency, or even those who composed the world being objects of divine complacency or delight, but it is the love of omnipotent pity, of infinite compassion’, Selected Ministry vol 1 p115. He loved because of His great desire to have man recovered to Himself, so He gives His only-begotten Son “that whosoever believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal”.
D.B.R. To be brought into this life, redemption and the Holy Spirit is necessary. Does that link on with what has been said?
J.D.G. Yes, we have to bear that in mind. It is a condensed statement, as you said earlier on, verses 4-13, the epitome of the Lord’s life but for us to be brought into it involves redemption. It involves what we have been speaking about in John 3 that God gave His Son. It involves the blood of Christ; it involves the suffering of Christ.
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D.B.R. Is the idea of being “born of God” like a divine root in the person? I mean, Christ was His own root in manhood, and nothing could be added to that, and He needed no development in that sense; but I wondered if being born of God is the establishment of a divine root in men, and it is only on the basis of that that we can understand this, do you think?
J.D.G. Yes, I was wondering in my own mind whether it might link on a bit with what Paul calls the new man. There is something substantial which takes place in the believer when He comes to Christ. It is a divine work so we are all furnished with the same blessing. There has been an impartation to us by God’s operations through new birth coming to a climax where there is something in us that is born of God and has its root in Him. It involves a new nature.
D.B.R. So the new man is really a creation of God in that way, is it not? The creative power of God comes into that in a moral sense in the new man.
J.D.G. Yes. What is in my mind is that, as born of God, there is something imparted to us that is of God. We partake of what belongs to Him. Just as a family partakes of the father’s features, so in the divine family we partake of what belongs to God, and that expresses itself, just as the new man expresses itself. So this feature, “born of God”, expresses itself. Paul is appealing to that side of things in Romans that is in the believer, “grace has overabounded”. Grace belongs to what has been born of God. It is one of the characteristics of the divine nature.
J.A.G. The new man “is created in truthful righteousness and holiness”, Eph 4: 24. That is from God’s side, and yet we have to come to that. The boards stand in two bases of silver, Exod 26: 19.
J.D.G. Yes, and your “fruit unto holiness” at the end of Romans 6, “ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end eternal life”. There is a capacity in me of God that can take on these features and express them because they have been imparted to me. We ask for grace, and that is right. We ask for grace in the sense that we want to express it, but it belongs to me as having the work of God in me. It is not something I 113
have to ask to be given exactly, it is something I have to ask to use—at least that is how it appeals to me.
Life is worked out in the believer. Growth takes place in the life of a believer, but each one has been given the essence of the work of God that carries all these features with it and are developed.
W.L.
Some confuse “born anew” and “born of God”. It would be helpful if you say something.
J.D.G. Well, all I know about that is that “born anew” in John 3 is the beginning of the work of God, and “that which is born of the Spirit is spirit”, v 3, 6. There has been a change in your spirit and my spirit, when it might not have been discernible to others, by the Spirit of God. It is completed fully in the work of God maturing and developing from an embryonic condition to full maturity. Is that right?
W.L.
Yes, that is helpful. Some confuse the two. “Born of God” would involve the gift of the Spirit, the indwelling power of the Spirit; born anew, not necessarily.
J.D.G. “Born anew” is the beginning of the work of God, but it would be difficult to say about a soul that he had been born anew. You may consider he may be born anew. If you consider it in your own history, you can trace back to when you could say, ‘Yes, God was working there before I confessed Christ as my Saviour’. Confessing Christ as my Saviour was like a completion on the way, one of the completions. Is that right?
W.L.
Yes. It is a very solemn consideration. Unless a person is born anew he has no part in Christianity at all.
J.D.G. But it does say, “It is needful that ye should be born anew”, John 3: 7. Now, that may be a verse to me in the gospel in the sense that I be exercised to be born anew, but it is the sovereign operation of God.
C.K.R. Romans 3, 4 and 5 are light coming out then in righteousness, power, and the love of God. Then it says, “What then shall we say?”, Rom 6: 1. So there is a responsible life being fulfilled now on a new principle.
J.D.G. Yes, that is right. That is why I began there at the end of chapter 5, “grace has overabounded”. Paul says, “What 114
then shall we say? Should we continue in sin that grace may abound?”, but grace has overabounded. I would like us to approach this scripture, today anyway, from the point of view of persons who have received Christ, persons who have been born of God. This chapter is not written to unbelievers. That does not mean we cannot preach the gospel from it; we can, but it is written to believers. So the question comes up, grace has been shown to me, I have been born of God and I take account of myself as that. Now light comes into my soul.
A.S.H. Do you think that when Paul says, “But by God’s grace I am what I am; and his grace, which was towards me, has not been vain” (1 Cor 15: 10), that the working out of the introduction of the way Christ would operate in his soul as light shone in that soul?
J.D.G. Yes. It says here in verse 14, “for ye are not under law but under grace”. Grace becomes a motive power in the believer, does it not? He is affected by what has been shown to him, what has been secured in Christ. Grace becomes the power. It is not law that becomes the power. Law will never help me in the exercises of chapter 6 of Romans. It will never help me in my Christian life because I will not be able to fulfil it any more than the Israelites were prepared to fulfil it in the Old Testament. But grace is the power within the believer, the power of gathering. It draws us to Christ.
R.G.
I was thinking about all those to whom the Lord had appeared that Paul speaks about, and then he says, “But by God’s grace I am what I am”, 1 Cor 15: 10. “And last of all …
he appeared to me also”, v 8. So that is how He has appeared to us, do you think?
J.D.G. Well, I think we really could take ground like that,
“But by God’s grace I am what I am”. We know what we were.
The old man is what I was, is what you were, after the flesh.
All it desired was to sin. That is the desire of the old man. To be crucified with Christ, God has shown publicly the crucifixion of Christ, and He has ended that man. In the death and burial of Christ the old man is out of sight from the divine viewpoint. Now I have to learn that the resurrection of Christ, the baptism and resurrection of Christ, the death and resurrection of Christ has affected me; so I walk in newness of 115
life. I suppose that is just walking as a Christian, walking true to the work of God in me apart from the world. What we find in this section is that it is Christ or the world.
W.M.P. That expression “of his resurrection”, it is not only that we appreciate it or are identified with it. What do you see in it?
J.D.G. Well, it says there in verse 5, “For if we are become identified with him in the likeness of his death, so also we shall be of his resurrection”. It seems to me that we are suited then to be associated with Christ in resurrection. We take on the features of Christ in resurrection, but it says, “For if we are become identified with him in the likeness of his death”. The note says, ‘grown up with’ Him. Another has said that it does not happen in a moment, growing up with Christ in the likeness of His death. It is something that is worked out in the believer’s life. So we are not all taken to heaven when we come to Christ as Saviour but we are left here to go through this world and be true to what God has wrought in us.
W.M.P. We were looking at Psalm 139, “Thine eyes did see my unformed substance … during many days were they fashioned, when as yet there was none of them”, v 16. That is how the work of God develops in the believer and how things develop too in our local meetings. It is on that principle.
J.D.G. Yes, that is very helpful. It is a secret thing, secret to you and me. The brethren see the evidences of growth in me, growth in you. They see the evidence of that, but the secret of growth is with the believer and with the Lord and helped by the Spirit. What was brought out, that being born of God involves the reception of the Spirit, is important. So we develop in the features that belong to that state. Growth takes place.
‘Born of God’ is arrived at as something mature and we have everything in essence there, but it is developed in the believer in capacity in the time of his life by his searching out, and being with God, and enquiring of God to acquire substance in the truth. We need to acquire substance and capacity. There needs to be a desire with us to follow this line. We are not going to continue in sin but we are going to continue so that grace does abound to us and help us in the pathway.
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R.J.C. So it is intended to lay hold of us in our lives here apart from the world. It is completely apart from the world and apart from the domination of sin. You are apart from that. So Paul says, “Far be the thought”. Why should we continue in sin? We have a life in Christ which forms us so we should be here pleasurable to God apart from sin.
J.D.G. This is individual. We all individually here have to come through these exercises and then arrive at, “reckon yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus”, v 11.
Gradually as you go in for the things of the Lord, the truth begins to open up to you. “In Christ Jesus” is another sphere of life over against the world, linked with a Man in heaven. He is looking forward to divine purpose in that. This is all to encourage us to take up the pathway of identification with Christ in reproach, a pathway with Christ as “raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father” (v 4), to see that that blessed Man has been raised by the glory of the Father, a definite matter taken up by the Father to raise Him from among the dead.
J.A.G. If you go back to John 4, you can see newness of life very distinctly, arriving quickly at the fact that He was the Christ. John is writing that believers might believe that.
J.D.G. That is right, and how effective it was. What a name He received there by the Samaritans, “Saviour of the world”, John 4: 42.
D.B.R. Why do you think the idea of crucifixion comes in? It says, “knowing this, that our old man has been crucified” (Rom 6: 6); not only death, but He was crucified? Have you some thought about that?
J.D.G. We were speaking a week or two ago about circumcision in Joshua, circumcised with stone-knives (chap 5: 3), which is the secret side of things in the believer’s history.
The crucifixion, it seems to me, is how God publicly regards this old man. It says, “our old man has been crucified with him”. What I have derived from Adam, the whole stock of Adam, God has crucified in the death of Christ. He has made it a public, shameful thing to be identified with the old man so that we do not want to be any more identified with the old man.
He has been annulled “that we should no longer serve sin”.
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D.T.P. The footnote helps when it speaks of being
‘discharged’ from sin. ‘Free’ is ambiguous. It is justified, cleared, discharged. From sin...’ It is complete in the divine purpose of God and the believer lays hold on it.
J.D.G. It says, “For he that has died is justified from sin”, v 7. That means he can no longer be charged with it. “We have died”, v 8. It is a statement by itself there. “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ having been raised up from among the dead dies no more” and so on. But it says, “that the body of sin”, the totality of it, “might be annulled”. The result of God viewing the old man as crucified should exercise me that he has no power any longer over me, and power is given in the Spirit to secure that, an answer in me.
D.B.R. The idea of “the body of sin” is the whole totality of the thing. God has dealt with that and there has been a public demonstration that it has been dealt with. That is clearing the way for us to come into this newness of life.
J.D.G. So if I express, or you express, or anyone expresses features of the old man, God finds no pleasure in that and I think, as judging ourselves, we take no pleasure in it either.
At times when I may fail in expressing something of the features of the Christ, then I have to judge myself and in doing so learn to see what God has done with that old man He has crucified in the death of Christ.
C.K.R. How thankful we should be for the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the glory of the Father involved in it in Romans 6, and the believer living now in the new principle of
“alive to God in Christ Jesus”, a glorified Man. It opens up a whole new world, but also a whole new principle for living in the world in which we are.
J.D.G. Yes, so “born of God” has been reckoned to be like a new race. This chapter brings out the new world and I begin to walk in the light of it. I am not in it yet but I am in the light of it. So then it says in verses 13 and 14, “Neither yield your members instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but yield yourselves to God as alive from among the dead, and your members instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under law but under 118
grace”. How thankful we are that we are under grace, and it draws us to follow this blessed Man because what a wonderful deliverance we have received through Him! What a way He has gone to secure that deliverance!
J.T.B. Does the widow in 2 Kings 4 illustrate this? “Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt”, every liability was discharged, “and live thou and thy sons on the rest”, v 7. Do you think she was living now in the sphere of life, this newness of life was the scene in which she was walking?
J.D.G. Yes, so we might say, “Now, having got your freedom from sin, ye have become bondmen to righteousness”, and in the next part of the chapter, “But now, having got your freedom from sin, and having become bondmen to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end eternal life”. That was the principle of her life now, over against being under law and in debt, God given riches. What a challenge to us! Are we prepared for “having got your freedom from sin, ye have become bondmen to righteousness” and for “having got your freedom from sin, and having become bondmen to God”? How wonderful it is to address God and acknowledge Him as the Master!
D.C.B. Is this chapter helping us that sin is not to have dominion, as distinct from chapter 7 in which sin dwells in us.
So can we see this as something that is completed because of the work of Christ? The dominion of sin over the believer has been broken.
J.D.G. Yes, I am glad you bring that out, because what is in mind as discussing this chapter is that we are alive in the world in which all these things apply where sin is, and all that is surrounding us. We are living there, but it is not to have dominion over us. We have to come to a judgment of our eyes and our tastes that belong after the flesh, but which is part of the old man which has been crucified, and make way for what is spiritual, what is of God. I say again, we have been given something from God, that is born of God, that would be true to itself if we make way for it. You do not ask it to be true to itself, it will be true to itself if we make way for it. It belongs to each one of us. All we have to do is ask God for help, the Spirit 119
for help, to express what belongs to God in me and it will do it.
That is expressing itself in life.
W.L.
Is “bondmen of God” one fruit that you are born of God?
J.D.G. Yes, and you are rejoicing in it. It is not bondage. You have freedom from sin, “But now, having got your freedom from sin, and having become bondmen to God”, it is not bondage, it is liberty.
J.C.G. Say some more about this positive side of yielding. It is mentioned once or twice, “yield yourselves” and then “reckon yourselves dead to sin”. There is some kind of assertion of the work of God in that, is there?
J.D.G. Yes, I understand we get help by the Spirit as we yield ourselves. God has given us the Spirit of God to help us.
Someone else has said that nature is character, but power comes from the Spirit to express these things. What I have been saying, we have the nature. It belongs to us as born of God by divine workmanship in us, divine operations. The Spirit will cause those features to develop in me and you and express themselves, and they will express themselves along the pathway of “not of the world”, John 17: 16. Would that be right?
We come to Exodus. The thought there, as would be evident, was the dwellings. First of all you have persons individually. According to Romans 6 you are in this world but apart from it because you love the Lord and have been drawn to Him, have affection for Christ. You do not want to be in the world that cast Him out, but He died and He is risen. He is related to another world, and I want to be related to that world and have my tastes there, my joys there. We come now to persons who have households, “But all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings”. This is the land of Goshen. It is in Egypt, but it is the land of Goshen. This is the time of the plagues or the signs, plagues for Egypt, signs for the children of Israel. God distinguishes the children of Israel and distinguishes their dwellings in the land of Goshen. There is light there. That was the light that came in in Christ. “In him was life, and the life was the light of men”. That is that light that is in these dwellings.
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R.J.C. On the other hand there is thick darkness in Egypt. I thought of that when the Lord came in, “He came to his own, and his own received him not”. That was darkness religiously when the Lord came into this scene. But there is light in their dwellings, there is tremendous contrast between thick darkness and the children of Israel having light in their dwellings.
J.D.G. At the present time in which we live, if there is one thing registers with you in this country, it is that the darkness is increasing, but there is light in the dwellings of the saints.
Do I live in relation to that light?
D.B.R. Delightful to God! I was thinking for instance, a young brother and sister saying they will go and learn, morning by morning, to get on their knees, that is the life of Christ. That is the kind of life He lived and that would be seen now in our houses. I think, too, the older you get the more precious it becomes. It would be that we can just simply speak to God.
J.D.G. That is right. That was in my mind, the protection of a believer’s home, heirs together of the grace of life, a very beautiful suggestion. We have both got an object in life that is going to go beyond the natural. The natural is wonderful as it is but it will cease, but heirs together, husbands and wives and children can live in an environment where there is light and safety.
C.K.R. Say more then about what this light is that is in the dwelling. It must be a heavenly light. Paul drew a lot initially on households and light coming in. There was light in the house of Judas in “the street which is called Straight”, Acts 9: 11. There was light as he visited place by place, as though there was something of this principle developing as the truth of the assembly began to fructify.
J.D.G. Yes. You mentioned the assembly. It was in my mind that we should speak about walking in the light of the assembly, but the household is part of that. It is an environment related to the gathering of the saints. It goes before the gathering of the saints. What kind of light is in my house? Am I living in the light of Christ glorified and the Spirit here. As surrounded by a world of darkness, do our children 121
see a difference in our houses compared with what they might meet with their peers at school?
G.A.B. These three days must mean something. Is it not the death of Christ that sets my household apart from a worldly household?
J.D.G. You are referring to the three days in verse 22, “there was a thick darkness throughout the land of Egypt three days”
bringing out the death of Christ? We have been affected by Christ raised from the dead. We were speaking about it in Romans 6, but there is no doubt there is darkness in Egypt, darkness in the world. In this setting we are in Goshen. It is the setting of the testimony in the world in which we are in which we have to work out our daily toils amongst men, apart from men. But you return to your home, and it is a respite.
J.A.G. Does this light relate to the leadership of the Spirit, and the inheritance, and sonship.
J.D.G. Yes, it does, and these features are expressed livingly in the believer’s life. We are speaking about persons being married here and households, but it does not exclude persons who are not married because they have a household too and have to take up their households. So there is light in all their dwellings there too. Persons may come into the house of a sister and can see there is another kind of life there that is according to God. But I was thinking that marriage in the Lord is not just for one day. Our brother here undertakes marriages for us, and we are thankful for that, and marriage in the Lord is stressed, but it is not just for one day. In a Christian marriage there is husband and wife and the Lord, and that always has to be carried through. It is not just for one day in their lives, marriage in the Lord. It is to characterise the whole of their lives as husband and wife, and as children come on they are all related to the Lord and His authority.
J.A.G. Everyone who has the Spirit has intelligence in capacity to appreciate the light and where it is leading to.
J.D.G. Our homes are different; we are not trying to say they are not, but we need to protect them. We need to protect them and protect the children. Particularly as technology has affected our homes of necessity on account of business and 122
other matters, but we need to protect the children so that there is a difference in the home from a worldly home. Time is not spent on certain practice the way the world spends their time, but the believer’s house has opportunity given for prayer and for reading the Scriptures with the family. There is a protection in that.
W.L.
The jailor was baptised, “he and all his straightway”, Acts 16: 33.
J.D.G. What a joy to come into a house where there is rejoicing. They rejoiced household-wise. Why? Light had come into his soul and had affected his arrangements and his home, affected the whole of his life. It is not just for one day.
It becomes a life practice, and it is a joyous practice because, what is life? We are speaking about life. Life is enjoyment of what God has given you in your being and the environment where you can enjoy the blessings of what is in Christ Jesus now before the day of glory comes.
R.G.
“If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord”, that is like Romans, “come into my house and abide there”, Acts 16: 15. That is what we have here now.
J.D.G. That is very fine, to have light in our dwellings, to come into a home where that kind of light is shining, another kind of light, light from heaven shining in the believer, shining in our homes. Our children are brought into that environment.
Outside there is darkness in Egypt, but we want to lay hold of this, heirs together of the grace of life. In Peter, there is an exhortation to the husband but it does not exclude the sister either. It says, “Ye husbands likewise, dwell with them according to knowledge, as with a weaker, even the female, vessel, giving them honour”. Then it says, “as also fellow-heirs of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered”. That is a wonderful attitude to have. It is really the elements of what comes from Christ and the assembly. “Husbands, love your own wives, even as the Christ also loved the assembly”, Eph 5: 25.
T.D.B. I was thinking that John speaks in his epistle of things that we have seen and contemplated and handled, 1
John 1: 1. That was substantial in the life of Jesus, was it?
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J.D.G. You see it in our homes. There is to be an expression of that kind of life in our homes, that “had light in their dwellings”. What a privilege to be in such a house! What a privilege in responsibility to maintain such a house, to maintain it day by day, every day. There are ups and downs in life. We have to work the truth out together, work things out together in the pressures of life, but if you have something together of the grace of life, that is not only the light of another world but the enjoyment of it together. There is a bond formed in the marriage that is going to be greater than the marital bond in the end really. The marital bond will not go through, but “fellow-heirs of the grace of life” is something that is formed spiritually and will go into eternity.
W.L.
What is “the grace of life”?
J.D.G. It is just enjoying the Lord. What do you think?
W.L.
That is helpful. It is not fellow-heirs of life, but
“fellow-heirs of the grace of life”. There is something deep in that.
J.D.G. It is an expression in the believer of the choiceness of the favour of God which I can enjoy in my life and in my household.
J.A.G. I was thinking the mutuality of love in Priscilla and Aquila and their being in all these different places as being a manifestation of it.
J.D.G. Yes, and you are linked up with a living God. There is life according to God expressed in the home.
J.A.G. And all are welcome there.
J.D.G. That is right, and there is a mutuality of joy as you entertain the saints in your home. It is evident there is an atmosphere there in the home that is in the enjoyment of this kind of life. I know there are problems, and toilsome life, and we have many exercises, and going through this scene is not easy. We know all that, but what a joy to come home from the toils of business whatever they be, and find a person there who is a fellow-heir with you of the grace of life. What an adornment! What an atmosphere!
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J.C.G. “Giving them honour” is an acknowledgement really by the husband that there is the work of God in the wife, and the children can see the mutuality that exists there. It provides an atmosphere of love.
J.D.G. They will see natural affection too, but they will see something else. When it comes to Lord’s day morning, what will they see? Persons desirous of going out to remember the Lord Jesus, persons who spend the Lord’s day committed to the Lord Jesus, persons who, as far as they are able, spend the Monday evening in prayer in the assembly, persons who are committed, as far as is possible, to working out life here below to be amongst the saints on the week nights. I often think of one brother who gives the announcements and speaks of ‘the mid-week city reading’. I like that, because it is a place we should always be at. Why? Because you are going to taste something of the grace of life there, in the midst of a world of toilsomeness, which is greater than the home. The home has certain characteristics that are similar to this, but it is greater than the home. You come in to see other persons, to use an expression that you get in the Old Testament, that are acacias.
They have been in the world and they are acacias. They have been through the wilderness, acacia-wood, formed after Christ, and now they are released in an atmosphere in which you touch something of eternal life in the mid-week. Oh brethren, why are we not there? Why do we not live this kind of life as far as is possible? Why do we not live it? It is for our enjoyment. It is going to be for our blessing in our households, blessing in our families. We all have exercises in our families, there are very few households that do not, but for our enjoyment to have this kind of life .
J.C.G. Mr James Taylor likened the company of prophets in Samuel, and the hill of God (1 Sam 10: 5), to the middle of the week, vol 60 p497. The company of prophets would express what was of life by the Spirit.
J.D.G. That is a good expression, “the hill of God”. There were the Philistines there, so you need strengthened. It is a strengthening occasion to help you to continue for the next three days, you might say. It builds you up in your soul to go back to your home, and out the next morning to your work, 125
back into the toils of life and back in the evening, “fellow-heirs of the grace of life”. Wonderful!
D.B.R. What did you have in mind in your opening remarks about communication of life?
J.D.G. I just thought that, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men” was going to be communicated to us, imparted to us. Has it not been communicated to you? I am sure it has.
D.B.R. That is this verse here, “the grace of life”. It is what has been communicated, what we have been introduced into by the same blessed Person.
J.D.G. Yes, “the grace of life” would not be far from the sphere of eternal life, would it?
Well, what I thought in Romans 8 was that the Spirit identifies Himself with us, as the sons of God. There was just one touch I had on my spirit, “The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit”, that is the Spirit objectively. He indwells us but He is also there objectively, “that we are children of God.
And if children, heirs also: heirs of God, and Christ’s joint heirs”. I thought it is an added gem there, because the rest of the chapter goes on to the question of toils and we are not sure how to pray as is fitting, and the Spirit helps us in that, but He just touches your heart here. You are on the heavenly way.
You are on the way to the inheritance, and I link it in my mind with what we have just spoken about. He would say to you,