GOD HAS BEEN MANIFESTED IN FLESH

John 7: 16–18; 10: 17; 12: 27, 28; 20: 17, 18; Philippians 2: 5–11

NJH I wondered if it might be helpful for all of us to see how God has come into our circumstances based on what it says in Timothy as to the “mystery of piety”. “God has been manifested in flesh”, 1 Timothy 3: 16. The footnote there is ‘He’. That is only One of the Godhead came into that condition. God is manifested there. The three Persons are manifested there. Old Testament saints received communications from God, but they did not know what communications took place between the Persons of the Godhead. In Genesis 1, “Let us” (Genesis 1: 26) is the plural, but it awaited God manifest in flesh for the communications to be understood by the creature and known by the creature, that one divine Person would communicate with another, and They would move in relation to one another. And that is a very blessed thing to see how privileged we are as having part in this dispensation. We think of the request that the Lord made in the third scripture that we read, “Father, glorify thy name”. He was speaking to the Father there and I think the scriptures will bear out how that request was answered by the Father. So it says here in John 7, “He that speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but he that seeks the glory of him that has sent him, he is true, and unrighteousness is not in him”. That is the most wonderful, glorious place that Christ took up in manhood, in the spirit of His service, bondman service you might say, man-ward, but it was service to His Father. He says, “glorify thy name”. And then later it says, “On this account the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again”. You could see where the glory of the Father is leading, but in chapter 12 he says, “Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say?”. John’s gospel does not touch Gethsemane, but it is what He is going through in His own soul, anticipatively, and He says, “save me from this hour. But on account of this have I come to this hour. Father, glorify thy name”. And the Father immediately answers.

There is communication here. It says, “There came therefore a voice out of heaven, I both have glorified and will glorify it again”. Now I think we come through to that. He was raised by the glory of the Father. That was really an answer to this request of Christ, in the heart of Christ, to glorify His Father’s name. All the worth of that blessed Person involved in the Father’s approach to the tomb and then we have the reference, “I have not yet ascended to my Father”. He could have ascended without saying anything, but He immediately says, “I ascend to my Father and your Father.” The Father is glorified in that because He received the name from His Father to make it known to His own and that is what He has done to us. Blessed matter. He has made known the Father’s name to us. And then just a touch on the greatness of Christ—His devotion to death in Philippians 2 always touches our hearts that He went that way, and then everything which proceeds out of that is really for the Father’s glory. Now I wondered if we might get help in that.

JS A very extensive subject and we have cause to appreciate how a divine Person has come into manhood, God has been manifested in flesh. This matter of the Father being glorified in Man is a great matter because God had been dishonoured in man. Man comes in to put all that right, do you think?

NJH That is good, and in John 17 “that they should know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent” (John 17: 3). That puts everything right in the creation where everything has been out of place; but I think there is a relationship there that only those of the Spirit can appreciate and understand that Christ was here and the object was not His own glory. He refused to be glorified by man. He refused it. He would not take it. He says of man that he receives glory from men, but not Christ. He is looking for the glory of the Father and that meant going into death, beloved brethren, and coming out. You might say in this aspect it is not our moral condition, it is not our sinnership, but He went there that the Father’s glory might be expressed in His resurrection, and it is a wonderful matter.

GBG So that is a moral thought, is it not? “He that seeks the glory of him that has sent him, he is true”. So what is moral underlies—that is “he is true”. It says, “he that seeks the glory of him that has sent him”, that is a good moral feature in Christ as man.

NJH Yes, exactly. It confirms what our brother said, that everything is put right. He is true and unrighteousness is not in Him. And in fact it says in verse 17, “If any one desire to practise his will,” (that is God’s will), “he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is of God, or that I speak from myself”. Now that is what we have to arrive at in this meeting. That He was not speaking of Himself, He was actually seeking the glory of the Father. Now that is bound to affect a company like this where the Spirit is free.

JS I think that it drew out the affection of the Father, He spoke about laying down His life and the Father loved Him on that account.

NJH That is very precious. I thought that we should not pass that verse, that the Father loved Him because He laid down His life that He might take it again. I know He says that He had that commandment from the Father, but at that point it is the basis of his affection, and that is a very precious thing to be drawn into the affections that are between divine Persons. We know love is there. We can go by John 17, “thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world” (John 17: 24), we know love was there. That is God’s nature, but we are drawn into the affectionate side in the way Christ honoured the Father and glorified His name.

JW Does the Lord in John 7 get back to the Father as the source? The source of His teaching and doctrine, and the Father is glorified in that.

NJH Yes. Is that a point of teaching for all of us, that there is a source in the teaching that is not from ourselves? We speak about the Spirit as the Truth. The Spirit is in the believer. He is over against all untruth that is here, but we have a source in the Spirit and the Spirit speaks what He hears. You see how we are going back, as you say, to the source, and here the Lord says, “My doctrine is not mine, but that of him that has sent me”. Have you more to say?

JW It brings out the wonderful dependence of the Lord that He was drawing on the Father and the Father’s resources. Is it not important to know the source in doctrine?

NJH Yes, that helps. I found, when I was younger, difficulty understanding when brethren would say He was the Sent One, in John’s gospel and yet His glories, unparalleled glories, are presented in John 1. You say, if such a Person is brought in whose Deity is presented, as well as His creational glory, how should He take that place? Well, that is divine arrangement that such a glorious Person came into the place to be sent. I think that should touch our hearts.

JCG Practising His will would be central to the way in which the Lord moved in relation to the Father, but it says, “If any one desire”. Does that allow others like ourselves to come in on that basis? We follow the Lord as a model. He is supreme of course.

NJH Exactly. We have to acquire it. It was what He took up as coming into it, but nevertheless, with us, we have to acquire that desire. It is important that the basis of it is, that you desire to practise God’s will. You must. An unsubject person will not get the gain of this. This One that is being sent has the doctrine of Another. Unsubject persons cannot have access to that. If we desire to practise His will it says, “he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is of God, or that I speak from myself”.

RT Right at the outset the first impression he had of Christ was “a glory as of an only-begotten with a father, full of grace and truth”, John 1: 14. It shows that the Word became flesh. Yet what was exemplified was a glory that was unique, was it not?

NJH I am glad you have drawn attention to that. It is with the Father and that amplifies, too, the fact that manifest in flesh involves that the Father and the Spirit were made known in that One. So everything opens up. You might say John starts by saying, ‘Well, I see objectively in One, a Son with a Father’, but then it spreads out. The great thought of God, the Trinity being manifested in flesh brings the matter so close to us to discern the source of the doctrine, and what communications are related to that.

DBR I wonder if you could say a little more as to “he that seeks”? Would that govern the whole of Christ’s life here? He is seeking it. The idea of compulsion and purpose of His heart enters into that, and yet who is it that is doing it? Seeking it, do you think?

NJH Yes, the desire is our side. We need to acquire a desire, but with this Person, “he that seeks”, Himself seeks the glory of Him that has sent Him, that was characteristic in Christ. That is your point.

DBR Yes, I thought the idea of compulsion lay upon the spirit of Christ. So for instance in John 4 it says, “he must needs pass through Samaria” (John 4: 4).

NJH I like that word compulsion. It means that a life that was determined, speaking reverentially of that blessed humanity. He was set for it, “set his face”, Luke 9: 51. He was working on a different principle while still in humanity. He was on a different principle to every other man. We have to acquire that desire to practise God’s will, but with Him it was His food. It sustained His manhood, did it not? “I have food” (John 4: 32), He says. That sustained a manhood that was characteristically committed to the One that sent Him. What a Person! What an Object for our hearts.

QAP Even at the age of twelve. He said, “did ye not know that I ought to be occupied in my Father’s business?”, Luke 2: 49.

NJH Yes, it shows it was characteristic. It confirms what has been said that it was characteristic of Him. He did not open it up. They must have pondered that. His mother pondered all these things (Luke 2: 19). She must have thought, what does He mean when He says, “my Father’s business”? What is involved in that? Well, we find that out as we get into the wonderful expressions in this gospel, what that meant, that He was seeking the glory of the One that had sent Him.

RDP What do you understand by the doctrine, he shall know concerning the doctrine”? It is as if this is like a door here, is it not, His will opens up this matter of the doctrine? Perhaps we think of doctrine as rather dull, but it is almost as if there is life in it. The outline, the glory, is opened up in this way.

NJH The truth is fresh amongst us, if it is maintained, but the doctrine, I think, must set out everything that came out in expression in Christ. He is “the Word” in this gospel. “The Word became flesh”, John 1: 14. Well I think the doctrine must be included in that, what was embraced in that blessed Person.

RDP That is attractive. All that came out in Christ, it is as if it all opens up on this line. It may be that the doctrine is a problem for some, but here it seems to show the way into the glory of what was opened up.

NJH It appeals to me at the moment that the doctrine might be what is already manifested. It says, “God has been manifested in flesh”, 1 Timothy 3: 16. That is past, but when I say that, the truth of it continues. It is carried forward by the Spirit into the hearts of His own, but I think the doctrine must be what is already established.

JAG Is the doctrine a test of spirituality, and the desire is motivated by affection and attraction and proves what is genuine?

NJH I am glad you have brought that in because you need affection. You have to acquire this, you get a taste for it and you have affection for it. The Spirit of God will provide that. Help us more.

JAG I was thinking of what was said about the doctrine. It is not dry. It is livingly expressed in a Person.

NJH Exactly. In one sense the gospels present the doctrine which is in Christ. That is our view. The four gospel writers give it. You cannot add to it but the whole thing becomes living in the soul by the Spirit. I think what you said is helpful. It involves that you are attracted into it; and if any young person here has not been attracted in some sense, we would pray to God that you come to it in your own soul; that you are attracted to Christ and find that everything is in that presentation. What has been manifested in that Person is perfect and complete.

JDG “If any one desire to practise his will”, would that be for a person who has the Holy Spirit? I was thinking of another application of it. If I have a desire to practise His will, it does not call on the flesh but must call on the work of God. It must be related to the Spirit.

NJH Yes, if there is practice at all the Holy Spirit must be in it, because you have to accept it; it cannot be “the good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12: 2), without the Holy Spirit working in the vessel. So the body is available.

JDG There must be delight there for the will of God.

NJH It was Christ’s delight was it not? We see it in Him as His total delight and joy was in the will of God. It was not irksome, never irksome to Christ. But we have to acquire that, and I think what you have said is that the Spirit gives us leanings, instincts, that we should follow, and practise God’s will.

CKR Later on in this chapter it says, “for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified” (John 7: 39). You can follow that through to resurrection and ascension, and then the glorification of Christ makes way for the gift of this precious divine Person, the Holy Spirit.

NJH Yes, that is helpful because as you see Christ glorified, the whole matter you might say is encapsulated in a glorified Christ, and it is livingly presented there. And as you say, the Spirit is given. He comes from that point. I think we may come to that later.

RHB In chapter 8 the Lord says, “as the Father has taught me I speak these things”,

(John 8: 28). Does that enter into not speaking from Himself? The same thing is said of the Spirit, is it not, and it should be true of us, if it is said of divine Persons, should it not? The thought of teaching, does that enter into it?

NJH Yes, and the Father shows Him, does He not? Things that the Father did He showed Christ (John 5: 20). It is a tremendous thought that Christ came into that position,

to be taught by the Father. That is the Economy. He was taught by Him, and He showed Him His works. Think of the glory of the relationship that lay between the Father and the Son, and He has taken that place. Such a Person! I cannot explain it but such a glorious Person, coming into manhood to manifest God, the revelation of God in Christ. Even the mystery of piety. It is set before you as an example. You can say, ‘How can I lay hold of such a glory?’ That is the way that love took in the Father and Son relationship, and it is for us to get a desire for it.

GBG So it is shown in the teaching its function in practical expression, is it not? It is just like a father would do to his own son, is it not—show and teach?

NJH Yes, it is very tender is it not? With all the tainted movements of men and distractions that they try and bring in, the Lord Jesus, the blessed Son was listening, taking everything in from the Father. He was deaf as to those that spoke against Him (Isaiah 42: 19). He had an eye and an ear in pity and sympathy for what sin had effected amongst men, but no distraction from the purpose of the incarnation. His own brethren says, “manifest thyself to the world”, John 7: 4. No, He is seeking the glory of Him that has sent Him.

PM In the beginning of Hebrews God has spoken to us in the Son. Would that involve that there was the expression of the full mind of God, in Man?

NJH That is good. Does that not link a little with what we said about the doctrine that is set out there?

PM He could say of Himself, “Altogether that which I also say to you”, John 8: 25. It was not only that it was taught by word, it was expressed in what He was.

NJH Yes, that is exactly it. It is manifested in flesh. It was tangible. It was a tangible condition that persons like you and me, brothers or sisters, can consider what actually came out in Christ Himself. God spoke, “in Son” (Hebrews 1: 2) it says. It is not through the Son, it is “in Son”.

RGr Do you think the fact that desire comes before doctrine has a bearing on what you are saying? When we begin to realise that divine Persons have been involved as to their affections from the very beginning, and when our affections are quickened in relation to that, it is there that the doctrine becomes living, do you think?

NJH I am glad that you bring in the word ‘quickening’ because we need to get a sense of that. I think in meetings like this, if the Spirit is made room for, there will be some sense of quickening—and as you say that keeps the whole thing living. The only way that we keep in life is if we make room for the Spirit of God, and that is a principle with God.

JCG There is tremendous dependence in the Lord’s movements, is there not? It brings out really the way in which we might move in relation to the testimony in difficult conditions. In chapter 5 for example He says, “I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not; if another come in his own name, him ye will receive” (John 5: 43). It shows the way in which the Lord was representing and pointing to the Father, the greatness of what was in the economy really.

NJH Exactly, and the reason for His coming in. There was divine counsel. The purpose of God was involved in it, that God could take this way and that unwaveringly Christ would follow that way. He would unwaveringly follow the path that He had come into, to do for the One that had sent Him. I would love to lay hold of it in my soul more but I can see the wonder of it.

JCG It is a wonderful appeal. It says, “If any one desire” and then what has been said as to seeking is a challenge to us, as to the motives of our lives, what the bent of our life is in relation to making way for Christ and the Spirit, that the Father may be known to us.

NJH Now that is good because simply if we practise His will, we will be seeking the glory of the Father. Now that is a test. Is the bent of our life increasingly seeking the glory of the Father? It is a whole world. The Father is over against a world that is outside, that my heart, if I would make way for it, would lean towards. But I have by the Spirit a link with the Father’s world where the love of the Father is known, and, the Lord is leading His own with that in mind. Is that right?

RDP I was thinking about how everything in John’s

gospel, certainly up to this point, comes to those who desire and seek it. It says, “as many as received him” (John 1: 12), and then to the woman “If thou knewest the gift of God … thou wouldest have asked of him” (John 4: 10), and “If any one desire to practise his will”. It is as if it is all available on the basis of seeking it.

NJH That is right. We come down to it that the outcome of a meeting should be that we are more committed to seeking, and what we refer to as practising God’s will.

JAG Do you think that the Lord is showing them really what the feast of tabernacles is and how to enjoy it? I was thinking that the Lord was seeking to help them as to what the feast of tabernacles is and showing them how to get into it and enjoy it.

NJH That is good. It is all set out in the Person. They were all empty feasts that they were holding in Jerusalem anyway. But the real thing was all in Christ, and He had the Father’s name. He says, “thy name which thou hast given me”, John 17: 11. He was given the name of the Father to give to His own. That is another precious truth. JAG I was just going to say that this then is eternal life.

NJH That is right, this is eternal life.

DTP So the Lord Jesus in chapter 6 gives the indication of the food that is a help to us. It is Himself, but it brings us into that relationship with the living Father. But He lived related to the Father.

NJH Yes, and it goes back to what was referred to, it is in Christ glorified that you have life, “he also who eats me”, John 6: 57. You come through to life in Christ. Now in John 10, He says, “On this account the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again”. It is not put as a moral necessity, but it is actually love.

DBR “I lay down my life”. That would be governed by seeking the Father’s glory. And I am just looking forward to what you have to say about the inward feelings of Christ as He approached the great matter of death.

NJH We could go on because the two scriptures are very close. We could carry that verse in chapter 10 through to

chapter 12, “Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour”. What can you say about it?

DBR There is a peculiar depth in it and we will need the Spirit’s help to speak of it. And then the test comes home to me as to how much I am inwardly committed to the will of the Father, do you think?

NJH Yes, you mean that it involves suffering, “In bringing many sons to glory, to make perfect the leader of their salvation through sufferings”, Hebrews 2: 10. God has done that and that is the way He took. “On this account the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again”. ‘I lay it down’—the Father is glorified in that.

JAG The Lord would know that His soul was going to be made an offering for sin.

NJH Yes, He would know that, the cup that He received. It must have also involved the horror of death for Christ, would it not? Not only sin and sins, but death itself.

JAG As the brethren know, ‘death to Him was death’.

NJH Yes, a deep matter. It is a very deep matter that He could speak about “my soul”, “Now is my soul troubled”. What can we say? How can we calculate what that meant? The depth of the feelings of Christ. It is the feeling side of Christ.

DBR In the anointing of the tabernacle when it came to the altar, Moses anointed it seven times. I was thinking the anointing seven times would come into this verse we have read—“Now is my soul troubled”—the feelings of Christ inwardly.

NJH Is that the brazen altar that you are referring to? The horns of the altar are generally viewed as a sign of the strength of the One that went through the sufferings, but I think the seven times that it was anointed meant that there is some impress on our understanding and appreciation of the depth to which Christ went.

JAG “Christ, who by the eternal Spirit offered himself spotless to God”, Hebrews 9: 14.

NJH The offering of Himself spotless to God, involved the laying down of His life and the shedding of His blood which was a proof of His death. These are deep matters.

PAG It speaks of “this hour”. I am wondering why it is not ‘this day’ exactly. Does it suggest the intense compression of all that the Lord faced?

NJH It was all concentrated. Of course it was in Christ when you consider it—thirtythree and one-half years, and think of the mercy-seat—there was not much room between the two cherubim on the mercy-seat. How concentrated everything was, and then what sufferings He went through. The forsaking during His final conscious hours comes into the other gospels, but in John it was the cost to Him to glorify the Father. Think of that. Think of that how He felt and said in John 12, “Now is my soul troubled”.

JCG The appeal here is to His Father. In Gethsemane in Luke an angel appeared to Him, strengthening him, but this reinforces your point about the divine communications with One Another, and the relationship of love that existed in view of what had to be met. The addressing of the Father is very important in John’s gospel is it not?

NJH That is helpful. Everything was there, just met so perfectly in that death, laying down His life and taking it again.

JDG It must have been affecting to the Father to hear Christ speak like this. He was anticipating an hour when He would not be heard, could not be heard.

NJH Yes, exactly. The forsaking does not come into John. We can carry things forward in our affections. What that time meant, and in John’s gospel it was not angelic support strengthening Him; because that would have brought forward the dependent manhood, the condition into which Christ had come, so that the angels ministered to Him in a time of need. Here it is the Father, the Son desiring, seeking the glory of the Father, and going to the uttermost to secure it. It is blessed to be able to talk things over in such a company. I was thinking about the inner man. It involves a spiritual realm, and even though the service of God flows out of it in Ephesians 3, it involves an atmosphere of spiritual persons that consider carefully the sufferings of Christ, that He might glorify the Father.

PM Does the Father being glorified involve His laying down His life and taking it again in a condition in which others could be associated with Him?

NJH Exactly. That is why I read in John 20. He could have gone up, but He says, “I have not yet ascended”. He would need to be seen of His own to be witness to the company, but He says, “I ascend to my Father and your Father”. I think here it is just to ponder a little that this move into death, laying down His life and taking it again, involved seeking the glory of the Father.

GBG Do you think in the bondman saying “distinctly” love lay behind that? “I will not go free”, Exodus 21: 5. The Lord says, “what shall I say”? He says things in a distinct way, does He not?

NJH Yes, that is a good reference because his ear was bored through with an awl. He bore that evidence of his devotion, his love for the Father, for his Master, and that is so that we are always reminded, that He was prepared to go that way. And I think to bring in the Father, and the Son with the Father, is a very glorious matter.

JS I was just wondering if you could say something about the Father’s reassurance, you might say, at this point, “I both have glorified and will glorify it again”.

NJH Well, is that not wonderful? The Father could not hold back from expressing His delight at the One that has been said is characteristically seeking His glory. He says, “I both have glorified and will glorify it again”. He had glorified it in the resurrection of Lazarus, and would do so again in the resurrection of Christ (see J. N. Darby ‘Synopsis’ Vol. 3, p.354). He was raised by the glory of the Father. The Father secured what He was looking for. What a person the Son has been in making known the Father. He had received His name. In John 17 He says, “keep them in thy name which thou has given me” (John 17: 11). He makes that Name known, and He glorifies the Father’s name. I think He wants to glorify the Father’s name in our midst today.

MGW Yes, it is supremely lovely really. We are talking about what Mr. J. N. Darby said of the Lord, that He was the only One who gave the Father a reason for loving Him. You feel the affection there is in this.

NJH He had every reason to do it. He says, “There came therefore a voice out of heaven, I both have glorified and will glorify it again”. He could not hold back, His love, His name was going to be declared in John 20. Christ was raised by the glory of the Father. The first day of the week, the first thing that He does is He puts that Name into the company, through Mary. He could not hold back. The heart of God is made known. The heart of the Father is made known. He wanted to bring that into where it would be appreciated.

RT Why does He say, “Not on my account has this voice come, but on yours” (John 12: 30)?

NJH I do not know what you can say about the crowd in some of these passages in the gospels. The crowd is not always reliable but there is testimony to it. “That the world may know that thou has sent me, and that thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me”, John 17: 23. That will yet come out, will it not? that testimony to the universe. It is there as a testimony to the crowd, do you think?

RT It seems to have exposed the whole world that we are in, does it not? It says, “Now is the judgment of this world”, John 12: 31. Seeing how this has been effectuated is a love matter. It is to draw our hearts away from the world and its system and its practice.

NJH That is a very good point because the love of the Father is not in the world. “If any one love the world, the love of the Father is not in him”, 1 John 2: 15. That is as clear as anything and we all know we have loved the world. None of us was born perfect or innocent. Persons have been redeemed, have been secured out of the world. He says, “the men whom thou gavest me out of the world”, John 17: 6. I am glad you have said that because we need to keep before us that separation is a principle of God. And here there is something by far infinitely greater than the world can produce. You have the Father and Son relationship, and the Son seeking His glory.

RGr Do you think then the reference to “On this account the Father loves me” gives a lustre to the whole of the present dispensation? Speaking reverently this was a source of joy that divine Persons had not enjoyed before. This is something that belongs to the present time and would come out in expression, in a sense.

NJH That is good, yes. It was never before. The Man of purpose was introduced and then next the vessel of purpose was introduced. You have the assembly consisting of persons that get the gain of this—the name of the Father. Think of the glory of that, being brought into an environment of love.

QAP Just after where we read in chapter 10, the Lord Jesus says, “I have received this commandment of my Father” (John 10: 18). And later on He says, “as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love”, John 15: 10. Does that bear on the matter of compulsion that you were speaking about?

NJH It would. You are held by it. It is like the body being placed on the altar in Romans, that you are committed to it. You cannot take it back. There is compulsion in it, but you can say it is acceptable. You can say it is your life. When I was young I enjoyed hearing old brothers and sisters saying, ‘the happiest part of my life was when I was entirely devoted to Christ’. Paul’s life, after his conversion, was entirely consecrated to Christ. That is wonderful. And here is a Man beyond measure, consecrated, committed to His Father.

JAG I wondered what you would say about the fact that we are to know “the surpassing greatness of his power ... in which he wrought in the Christ in raising him from among the dead”, Ephesians 1: 19, 20. Is that to be known in His own?

NJH That power is now towards us who believe. It is now available to us in Ephesians 1. But it shows the great expression of God’s power in taking Christ out of the grave. Then in Romans 6 it says, “even as Christ has been raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6: 4), that we might overcome and practise His will—God’s will.

JCG In John 12, verse 36, “While ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may become sons of light”. That must surely have some relation to the eventual knowledge of the Father. “Sons of light” would bring us into not only the relationship with Jesus, but the Spirit and the Father, would it?

NJH Yes, it would. You have been brought into the light. You have more in your mind.

JCG Thinking about what you said about the crowd it is interesting, because there is more preaching in the street now going on before the gospel in the rooms, and there is an appeal going out in that sense in relation to persons generally; the Lord is appealing here to believe in the Light. That is Himself, personally, that they may become “sons of light”. That is a very high level that the Lord has in mind here, is it?

NJH Yes it is. A very high level. The sobering thing is right after that verse you quote, it says, “Jesus said these things and going away hid himself from them”. While the testimony goes on there is a solemn side that where it is rejected, characteristically rejected, the Lord hides Himself. That is a sobering thing, is it not? We have to keep at the testimony. We have to be true to God’s testimony and preach it. But then there is a sobering side that is not to be trifled with. Do not ignore the light that is in Christ.

RDP So they heard the voice. It says, “The crowd therefore, which stood there and heard it, said that it had thundered. Others said, An angel has spoken to him”. But John heard what was said. There is hiding in this chapter is there not? There is the crowd and there is something else. John gives you that hidden side. It is very affecting what was said, “which he wrought in the Christ”, Ephesians 1: 20. That is not something that is seen and understood by the crowd in general. In the Old Testament they witnessed and benefitted from His power, but the matter of what “he wrought in the Christ” is something reserved for today, is it?

NJH Yes, the power of that was made available to the saints in Ephesians 1, and the same power is available to us. It is interesting what you say that the crowds do not necessarily discern. They misunderstood Him at the cross, when He called (out) on the cross. It shows that man after nature cannot understand it. Thank God for the gift of the Spirit.

AM Could you open up the thought of the Father’s name? Is He looking on to John 20, what has come within our range?

NJH He has made it known, “and will make it known” (John 17: 26), applies to John 20, but He was already given the Name. The Name that Thou has given Me. He was given that Name, the name of the Father, to make it known to us.

RHB The Lord was speaking as Man, was He not? Does that bear upon it?

NJH Yes, it was His testimony, He was given the Name, I suppose it is the side that if divine purpose flows out of the revelation of the name of the Father, it must be the whole sphere of divine purpose was carried in His heart, even His ways amongst men, dealing with their smallest matters; yet the purpose of God was in His heart. He came to establish everything for God’s purpose, did He not? Is that right?

AM Yes, I wondered if everything hinges on the death of Christ? That is why, one of the reasons the Father loves, because He really made known the Father’s name, but we come into the good of it as a result of His death.

NJH Yes, exactly. So He says here in John 20, “I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”. What delight that must have been to the ear of the Father to hear Christ saying that.

DBR Is that beyond a mere dispensation? I think it is the economy eternal. It is linking on with the eternal order of things. It shows where this matter has led, the great eternal order of things in which divine Persons are known.

NJH Yes, and according to the psalm “thy law is within my heart”, Psalm 40: 8. But here the name of the Father was in His heart. And now He is placing that Name consciously into the heart of the assembly. He is saying to Mary, “go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father”. He is really placing the knowledge of the Father in the assembly.

DBR That would require a power that is equal to it and that would be in the Father’s Spirit. “According to the power which works in us” (Ephesians 3: 20) by the Father’s Spirit, do you think?

NJH Yes, that is good. Yes, it shows the whole thing is in life relating to the Father. “According to the power which works in us”, that is the indwelling Spirit, that those of the assembly have.

JS Do you think the Lord had this in mind in John 17 when He says, “… I come to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name which thou has given me, that they may be one as we” (John 17: 11)? Do you think that involves a whole realm of things connected with the Father?

NJH I think that confirms what we are saying. He says that while He was here in John 17, “And I am no longer in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name which thou has given me, that they may be one as we. When I was with them I kept them in thy name” (John 17: 11, 12). Now He was leaving them. And then He comes back and He places that Name in the assembly. It is where it is appreciated.

JS So that the making known of the Father’s name would open up, you might say, a world of things that is connected with the Father, and we are to be kept and preserved in it, do you think?

NJH That is good, preserved in it and preserved for it. We need preservation, brethren. There are a lot of destabilising spirits working against those who love the truth and we need to be established even as to the Father’s world which love permeates. Holiness, righteousness, yes, every attribute of God answered there, but the love of the Father is known.

Reading No. 1, Dundee
6 April 2012

KEY TO INITIALS

R. H. Brown	N. J. Henry	D. B. Robertson
J. A. Gardiner	A. Mair	C. K. Robinson
G. B. Grant	A. Martin	J. Strachan
J. C. Gray	R. D. Plant	R. Taylor
J. D. Gray	Q. A. Poore	M. G. Wood
P. A. Gray	D. T. Pye	J. Wright

R. Gray