THE GLORY OF JESUS

E.E.Hoyte

John 3: 11-13; Ephesians 4: 8-13.

I seek help to call attention to the glory of Christ as presented in the scriptures read. I think John's ministry bears especially on the present time: it was written for a day of departure and brokenness. It is he who tells us that there were many antichrists in the world even at the time he was writing, but one designated as the antichrist was yet to come. Perhaps we are on the verge of his appearance, of "the man of sin" as Paul calls him. 'Anti' means against Christ: this spirit marks the world. It says of "the man of sin" that he "opposes and exalts himself on high against all called God, or object of veneration; so that he himself sits down in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God". We must see that we do not seek to displace divine Persons, that we do not seek to displace Christ from the souls of His saints. Christ is going to have His place finally and publicly. All the gospels are lit up with the glory of Jesus. But John, I think gives a special touch in his presentation of the varied glories of His person in view of the end of the dispensation, as if to indicate that there is no diminution of His greatness and glory, at least in his appreciation, in spite of the changes that have taken place in the public testimony. He begins his presentation of Him as God - "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." He could not be greater, He was God. God is greater than all else.

Professedly people make much of the birth of Jesus. Oh, that they understood more of His glorious Person! They would give a great place to His death also. Moses desired to see God's glory. The answer God gave him was, "Man shall not see me, and live," God dwells in light unapproachable. He said to Moses, "I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand, until I have passed by. And I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see me from behind; but my face shall not be seen." Moses saw something of God, reverently speaking, for it says, "he made haste and bowed his head to the earth and worshipped." The burning bush which he saw earlier in his life refers to the Israelites, his brethren, among whom God walked for forty years in the wilderness guiding them in the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. But the great mystery of Christianity is that God has been manifested in flesh on this earth in the person of Jesus. It involves the life of Jesus. "In him was life, and the life was the light of men". In the life of Jesus here in manhood men saw God expressed before their very eyes. It was that life that went through death and annulled its power, coming out of death in resurrection glory. The law was given by Moses but grace and truth subsists through Jesus Christ. The law condemned man. Thank God, "now we are clear from the law." (Romans 7: 6). It brought death, but the ministry of the Spirit brought in glory - the new covenant. "Now the Lord is the Spirit" says Paul. How great is the glory of the Lord! We have everything we need in Him and through Him. I wish we would arrive at that point, that Christ is everything. Can you take that in? I do not know that I have reached that yet. It must be arrived at experimentally. Experience is to give us increased apprehension of God. Nicodemus said to Jesus, "None can do these things that thou doest unless God be with him." I take it he was born again because he could discern in Christ that He came out from God. In chapter 7, when the Pharisees spoke derisively of Jesus, Nicodemus said to them, "Does our law judge a man before it have first heard from himself, and know what he does?" In chapter 19 he brought a mixture of a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes to anoint the body of Jesus for burial, publicly identifying himself with Jesus in His death. I would say Nicodemus finished gloriously. We should examine our histories with God to see the kind of beginnings we had. God will complete His work in us.

In verse 13 of our chapter what majesty and glory we see in Jesus as He said, "No one has gone up into heaven save he who came down out of heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven." We know Enoch was translated, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into the heavens, but Jesus is unique. As on earth, said, "the Son of man who is in heaven." This expression conveys to our minds the glory, majesty and inscrutability of our Lord Jesus. He came down out of heaven into manhood and adorned it. The race has been adorned by the incoming of Jesus on earth in manhood. This changed man's outlook completely. What an experience it must have been to the three disciples who stood with Him on the mount of transfiguration and beheld His glory! Luke says, "as he prayed the fashion of his countenance became different and his raiment white and effulgent." The glory of a person is the outshining of the person. Peter referring to the scene later says they were "eye witnesses of his majesty ... for he received from God the Father honour and glory." He could have gone straight into heaven from the mount of transfiguration but His work was not finished. In chapter 6 He said to some, "If then ye shall see the Son of man ascending up where he was before?" How great was His ascension after His resurrection! His disciples stood gazing into heaven as He ascended. Think of the tremendous explosive force it required to place the astronauts in orbit to the moon! Our Lord ascended into heaven by virtue of His own inherent power. It was just my thought to call attention to John's delineation in his gospel of the varied glories of our blessed Lord. To begin with, in chapter 1 we have the glory of the Word having become flesh, the Lamb of God, the Son of man, the Messiah; chapter 11 His glory as the resurrection and the life; chapter 17, "the glory which I had with thee before the world was" - referring to His Deity, and others could be spoken of. Paul connects glory with the saints too, "whom He has justified these also He has glorified" in Romans 8. Do you know anything about the glory that has been given to us? It lies in the Holy Spirit which God has given to us; then t he glory of sonship - the Spirit of God' s Son in our hearts. What glory!

Ephesians 4, in which Paul refers to gifts to men from the ascended Man says, "according to the measure of the gift of the Christ", (v 7). Psalm 68 says of Christ that He received gifts as having ascended into heavens - "thou hast received gifts in Man", it says, the idea being that He received gifts as in Manhood. Our chapter says, "Having ascended up on high, he has led captivity captive, and has given gifts to men." He went into death: He has ascended up above all the heavens. Paul went to the third heaven. Jesus is above all the heavens, which would be, I suppose, the uncreated sphere. He fills all things. The majesty and glory of Jesus! The assembly "is his body, the fulness of him who fills all in all". What a place the assembly has as associated with Him! May the Lord help us to think more about these things, as Paul says to Timothy, "Think of what I say, for the Lord will give thee understanding in all things."

VICTORIA BC

25 December 1970