THE DIVINE EFFECT OF THE TRUTH
[p. 77] THE DIVINE EFFECT OF THE TRUTH
John 1: 35 - 39; John 20: 17 - 20
Just one thought is upon my mind in connection with these scriptures — the great importance of being divinely affected by the truth. If the truth does not form and move us it shows that we are only taking it up in the letter. There is not much advantage in this, for a man who has the letter of truth without its spirit is offensive to God. I admit that this is a solemn assertion, but it is nevertheless a true one. The Pharisee and the lawyer are more repugnant to God than the publican and the sinner. The Pharisee and the lawyer are men well up in the externals and shell of the truth, but entirely unaffected by its kernel and spirit. The divine effect of truth is to mould and to move men.
In John 1 the blessed Lord is presented as the Lamb of God to the two disciples. The Lamb of God is a sacrificial title; it presents One to our hearts who comes from God to go into death, to bring the blessed testimony of what God is into the very place of sin and death. I have a strong impression that when Satan introduced sin into the world his object was not so much to destroy man as to introduce a state of things which should render it impossible for God to be known save as a righteous Judge. Satan’s object is to keep the knowledge of God out of the heart of man, and thus to perpetuate that state of sin which was brought about in the first place by man giving ear to his slanderous insinuations. But what an answer God has given to all this! The very thing that seemed to make it impossible for Him to be known by man has furnished Him with an opportunity to make Himself [p. 78] known in all the blessedness of His nature. He has come out to reveal Himself in supreme and sovereign love in the very place of sin and death. Hence the “only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father” — the One who declares God perfectly — must needs be “the Lamb of God”. There is necessity for Him to wear that sacrificial title, for He came to bring the testimony of divine love into DEATH.
In the very fact that the Son of God is invested with such a title is the pledge of the entire removal of sin, and thus of the total destruction of the works of the devil in the heart of man. Everyone who is in the light of this blessed fact, that the Son of God has assumed the title of Lamb of God, must be conscious that by His doing so a divine solution of the whole question of sin was absolutely ensured, and this in the way of divine love. The very fact that He was manifested here in that character rendered the whole thing absolutely secure because of the greatness of the One who was thus manifested.
Beloved brethren, how much have we been affected by the presentation to our hearts of the Lamb of God? We are in the light of the blessed revelation of Himself; divine love has been presented to us in its supremacy and sovereignty in the fact that He has gone into death. To what extent has the truth had its divine effect upon us?
The two disciples were greatly affected by the presentation to them of the Lamb of God. They left everything to follow Him. John the Baptist was a great servant of God, but his ministry was in connection with the present order of things where sin was. There was no solution of the question of sin, and therefore no full revelation of God presented in connection with John the Baptist. But the “Lamb of God” was One who could solve the whole question of sin, and remove that question out of the way altogether, so as to be able to lead men into an [p. 79] entirely new order of things, where everything should be characterised by the knowledge of God according to the blessedness of the revelation in which He has come out in His only begotten Son.
I do not say that the two disciples entered intelligently into all this at the time, but it is surely this which the Spirit of God would have us to gather from the lovely picture which He presents to us here. They followed Him to know where He dwelt, and it was everything to them to abide with Him. In figure they had left the circle of things where sin was, and they were in a new circle, where the perfect revelation of God was found, and where they could be in association with the One who was “with the Father”. This is the divine effect of truth. It moved these disciples entirely out of the circle where sin was into all the blessed light of God, and into the company of Him who dwelt in the bosom of the Father.
If the Lamb of God is really before our hearts we shall be drawn away from all the pride and glory of this world, for we shall recognise it as the place of sin. But at the same time we shall be in the presence of divine love that could go even unto death to remove sin, and to reveal itself to our hearts. The divine effect of this would be to move our hearts entirely out of the present order of things. We should follow the Lamb of God through death into His own circle, where there is no trace of sin, where there is nothing to dim the shining of ‘love supreme and bright’. The Lamb of God has passed into a scene where divine affections are in cloudless repose; He dwells in these affections, and He has accomplished in death the removal of sin so that we might enter that scene in association with Him for ever. He says, “Come and see”; He would have us to know the place of His abode, and if we miss this we miss the very kernel of christianity — the crowning privilege and blessing of divine love. The whole work of grace in our souls, the Father’s activity in sovereign love, the drawings of His grace and power, are all with a view to our introduction to this blessed association with His Son.
In John 20 everything that was involved in the title “Lamb of God” had been accomplished, and we find a company outside everything here — a company affected and brought together by the truth. The Risen One had said, “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 question of sin was disposed of, and consequent upon this the truth should be fully declared. And if, on the one hand, God and Father were perfectly revealed, on the other hand there was a company secured to be in the blessed light of that revelation in association with the Son of God. The divine effect of this = and this is the truth — must be to put souls outside everything that is of man, and of the present order of things. In the upper room, with the doors shut to exclude the religious man after the flesh, the disciples had the company of Christ. The truth had had its divine effect upon them, and had brought them into a position where He could manifest Himself to them.
This is the great test for our hearts. If the truth affects us in a divine way, it must put us outside what is of man. And the truth is presented to us in a Person; it is not a mere collection of doctrines; it is presented in a Person, and that Person is the Son of God. If we are moved and affected by it — if we are attracted by its blessedness — we shall most surely be delivered from the influence of what obtains down here, and we shall be led into conscious association with the Son of God. This is the great privilege of the assembly. To sever us thus in spirit and affection from the present order of things, and to lead us into conscious association with the Son of God, is the divine effect of the truth.