THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SON OF GOD (2)
THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SON OF GOD (2)
Galatians 1: 10 - 24; Galatians 2: 18 - 21; Galatians 3: 23 - 29; Galatians 4: 1 - 7
SMcC It is well to keep in mind the subject we are considering, namely, the knowledge of the Son of God, the unique place that it has in this dispensation. It is knowledge, we might say, of the highest and most excellent quality. In the letter to the Ephesians Paul is not hesitant to remind us of his knowledge of the mystery, his intelligence in regard of the mystery, but the more we look at Paul’s ministry the more we shall see the important parallel line in regard to the knowledge of the Son of God that is running through it. This important line of teaching in regard to the glad tidings of the Son of God is especially to be understood by us in view of our being entirely liberated and set free in connection with the lower levels of the truth. It would matter little what our intelligence was academically in regard to the higher levels of the truth if we are not set free entirely on the lower levels of the truth. When I say lower levels I simply refer to what bears on our salvation and deliverance. We followed through, this morning, the way the knowledge of the Son of God is introduced into the letter to the Romans in view of the complete emancipation of the believer from sin, the world and Satan, and now we come to the reference again in this letter. It is a letter that is corrective and Paul uses language in it that he does not use in the same way elsewhere. He seems to be more agitated than he is in any of his letters, so it has particularly in mind meeting a certain thing. What we should keep in mind in pursuing the enquiry before us this afternoon as to the knowledge of the Son of God, is the substantial side in the minister, Paul. I think it is an important feature for all of us, and especially for those who have any part (not that we can say much about it), whatever it may be, in serving, to see that the minister rightly affects the saints by what he is in himself. I thought we might look first of all at how distinctive Paul’s glad tidings are in the first chapter, and then the setting out of what there was substantially with him in the second chapter. Then we might see how the knowledge of the Son of God works out in relation to us as saints, our place in sonship and the Spirit of God’s Son sent out into our hearts.
HJM Paul is seeking to get pure results from the ministry. One has been impressed lately that Jacob set certain impressions before the flock that brought forth ringstraked, speckled and spotted, but there are none of those results from Paul’s ministry or John’s. There is to be a pure result, a pure flock.
SMcC That is very interesting. It is important that we have the pure strain. This letter insists on it, as to Hagar and Ishmael. We must have Sarah and Isaac. The pure strain is linked with the free woman, the system of grace, the line of promise in Isaac.
CEJ Is it important to take account of these thoughts of the glad tidings in that way? - “neither did I receive them from man, neither was I taught them, but by revelation of Jesus Christ.”
SMcC That is, their origin was heavenly - Paul’s glad tidings in relation to the Son of God and particularly bearing upon what he was himself as he says, “But when God, who set me apart even from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me, that I may announce him as glad tidings among the nations,” verse 15. I believe it stresses Paul substantially, what was to come out in him substantially as a minister of the glad tidings.
GJG Do you think that verse 8 puts the gospel on a very high level, really bringing it in as something that is greater than himself? He says, “if even we or an angel out of heaven announce as glad tidings to you anything besides what we have announced as glad tidings to you, let him be accursed.” Would that be a part of Paul’s substantiality that he thus regarded the gospel?
SMcC Yes. It shows what a place it had with him and how much he was affected inwardly by it that he uses this strong language referred to earlier, “let him be accursed.” He is affected by what, as suggested, would entrench upon the pure strain in Christianity.
GTD Would this influence be seen in Acts 19 where it says, “God wrought no ordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even napkins or aprons were brought from his body and put upon the sick, and the diseases left them, and the wicked spirits went out.” Is that what you have in mind?
SMcC Yes, what he was substantially. We have a remarkable allusion there to what was substantial with Paul. It was not just a matter of speaking. It was a matter of what he was. I believe Mr. Taylor once said in regard to Peter, that he did not think it was conjecture to say that Peter had never seen a man like Paul, a man that was in so much liberty, the liberty of his glad tidings. There never was a man like him in that regard.
WHG Is what Paul is substantially what God has made him in His own sovereign way uniquely or is it a matter of formation?
SMcC Well, we have to keep the two lines of the truth clear in that relation. One is what the vessel was himself, as separated from his mother’s womb - that was sovereign; and coupled with that, “was pleased to reveal his Son in me,” but, when we come to the working out of it substantially, it involves what Paul was formatively, what he became as the truth formed him.
RHG He speaks of serving in his spirit in the glad tidings.
SMcC Showing how his inward being was affected in regard to the exalted service of the glad tidings. The more you look into Paul’s service, the more your soul is affected by the glory of the glad tidings. We should never lose touch in our souls as to the glory of the glad tidings. It continues through the letters which Paul writes to the Ephesians and to the Philippians.
CPP Did the apostle pursue a line that would help, first of all in what he did not do - he did not take counsel with flesh and blood and he did not go up to Jerusalem - and then what he did do in going to Arabia? Did he pursue a line that would help that glory to develop in his soul as alone with divine Persons?
SMcC I should think so. He allowed as it were - other letters would bear it out - nothing to interfere with what had been committed to him in relation to the glad tidings in this way. He speaks in Corinthians about buffeting his body and keeping it in subjection, that he might not be a castaway, showing the remarkable extent to which he went, that the ministry might not be blamed, as he says in 2 Corinthians.
RMY What is the great distinction between Paul’s gospel and the commission which the twelve had?
SMcC The twelve largely preached the gospel of the Christ. Paul preaches the gospel of the Christ too, but more essentially the glad tidings of the Son of God. Peter says, “God has made him, this Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.” The Christ has to do with the ways of God; taking up every feature in regard to the scope of prophetic ministry; the answer to every Jewish hope; the answer to the Gentile position too in relation to the ways of God. The Christ stands related to that line of things. The ministry of the twelve bore on that, the ways of God. But Paul’s ministry linked with the heavenly side.
EAK Were the glad tidings of the glory peculiar to Paul? In Timothy we have “the glad tidings of the glory of the blessed God,” 1 Timothy 1: 11, and as we had this morning, “the radiancy of the glad tidings of the glory of the Christ,” 2 Corinthians 4: 4. Did not Mr. Taylor say that the glad tidings of the glory was not preached much among us? Could you help us as to that?
SMcC Well, it is important that we should see the place it has in Paul’s ministry, because the heavenly side is particularly emphasised in it. The gospel of the glory, as we have it in Paul’s ministry, particularly links us on with Christ as the centre of the heavenly realm.
JC Is not Paul a fine sample of one who “loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s,” Mark 8: 35?
SMcC Yes. He was prepared to suffer the loss of his life to complete his ministry. I think it is important that we should see here the concern of Paul that his glad tidings might be kept free from earthly and human influence, especially from Jewish influence.
GJD We saw in our scripture this morning the necessity of receiving reconciliation, receiving the truth of it into our souls. Paul had done that. In the scripture this afternoon we have the matter of receiving sonship. Is that to be understood by us if we are to preach this glorious gospel rightly? The reception of the truth of reconciliation and the reception of sonship means that only sons are able to preach the gospel. Is that so?
SMcC It shows how much enters into the gospel. These things are preached, laid out in the glad tidings for faith to lay hold of, to appropriate - reconciliation and sonship and eternal life.
WHG Would his going to Arabia indicate that the work was formed substantially in Paul by his having to do with God Himself apart from the influence of the Jewish apostles?
SMcC Yes. And the negating of all that might be linked with any natural propensity in himself, because Saul of Tarsus was a very energetic man, but we find that he chooses the circumstances where certain things would be negated to make way for the pure strain of the glad tidings of God’s Son.
Ques Is this knowledge of the Son of God on our side in relation to God?
SMcC Well, it works out in that way in sonship on our side, but then it also involves our relations with one another. It says here, “Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to make acquaintance with Peter,” verse 18. You will notice what he alludes to here. This matter is going to work out in their relations together. He did not go up to preach, exactly, or to speak; he went up to make acquaintance with Peter, “and I remained with him fifteen days” - a remarkable thing. It is important that our relationships should be on right ground, especially between those who serve, and that what there is in one another should be taken account of.
HW Would you say that one difference between Paul and the twelve might be that Paul’s ministry began from the light that shone on him, “I could not see, through the glory of that light,” Acts 22: 11? Did he get a sight of Christ in His glorified body, whereas the twelve knew Him as here on earth? Is that what gave character to Paul’s ministry, do you think?
SMcC It does say that the Lord appeared to him on the way to Damascus. But whether he saw the Lord in His glorified body, as we speak of it, would remain to be considered. The Lord certainly appeared to him corporeally in the wayside and that put a distinct impression on all his ministry.
RHG It would appear that the voice from heaven was really the voice of God. God calling by His grace.
SMcC You mean the voice in Acts 9?
RHG Really it was the voice of Jesus, the voice of the Son of God, that Paul heard.
SMcC Exactly, but he is tracing all things up to their source in God here: “When God, who set me apart even from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me.” He is speaking here of God; what God is doing; what the Father is doing in His operations; He revealed the Son to Peter but He reveals His Son in Paul, meaning that in relation to the ministry which gives us the assembly according to the purpose of God, we have this side of things pressed, the substantial side in the vessel.
VD After he went to Arabia, it says, “and again returned to Damascus.” I was wondering if that would have any link with the word that the Lord gave to him earlier, “rise up and enter into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do,” Acts 9: 6, and whether he was further honouring that word of the Lord to him in what was provided in that locality?
SMcC I think it would be fair to say that. I believe that is a good word for all of us who have any little part in the things of God, that we should honour the local setting.
SL Would you say a little more about God calling him by His grace? What is in mind?
SMcC God is entering into this great matter of Paul’s separation. Things are traced to their source. The context shows that it is a question of men and God. “For do I now seek to satisfy men or God.” The mediatorial side comes into view in Christ’s bondman, and the like, but he is tracing things up to their source.
CPP Is that confirmed in the way he withstood Peter later on? Brotherly links are established in this chapter, but when it is a question of maintaining the truth is it a matter of doing what is right before God?
SMcC Exactly, so that as we have often been taught and noted, the good relations established through the acquaintance in chapter 1 became advantageous in chapter 2 when it came to a matter of the truth. It is important that we should see that the source of the glad tidings is stressed in chapter 1, because there is something in what flows from the source. The river does not get higher than the source.
GCL Does the result go back to its source “they glorified God in me,” Galatians 1: 24?
SMcC Very good, that is just how it works out. It is throwing into relief this great minister, not just exactly what he said. I think we should be afraid of acquiring a place because we are good speakers. That kind of thing has to be guarded. If there is any place to be gained on moral and spiritual lines we want to gain it by what we are substantially. I think that is what the Lord is aiming at on the eve of the translation. We have been under the most wonderful ministry in the past fifty years, authoritative in character and rich in nature, and the present moment is just a test to us as to where we are substantially in relation to it.
Ques Is that seen in the Lord Jesus Christ when He says, I am “altogether that which I also say to you,” John 8: 25?
SMcC Exactly. Paul, too, says, “By God’s grace I am what I am.” Now that is a salutary word for any one of us. Why should we try to be something more than we are? Why should we try to be different from what we are? We should have a right judgment of ourselves, a right appraisal of ourselves in the light of Paul’s word there.
CD They glorified God for the miracle of grace that had taken place in Paul. According to what he says he was unknown personally to them, but they heard this, this wonderful miracle that had taken place, “that he who persecuted us formerly now announces the glad tidings of the faith which formerly he ravaged: and they glorified God in me,” verse 23.
SMcC Exactly, “they glorified God in me,” not by me; notice the preposition. They glorified God in me. Think of that kind of glorifying, “they glorified God in me.” That is, what was in Paul was throwing into relief the greatness of what God was and what He was doing in His operations in the glad tidings.
AJW It was a wonderful claim by Paul when he said, “For for me to live is Christ and to die again,” Philippians 1: 21.
SMcC Yes, it was. F.E.R. said that if we were fully in the gain of deliverance we would be like Christ. We often think of deliverance as on the negative line but the full result of deliverance means that we are like Christ. Christ is supreme with us.
AJW Was there a continuation of Christ in Paul?
SMcC Chapter 2 brings us to Christ living in him. Here it is God. If you keep this passage to itself, it is God calling, the assembly of God, and satisfying God, “and they glorified God in me.” It is the high level on which God is moving and operating in the glad tidings of His Son.
RHG It brings the work of Christ in for the glory of God, and now God is glorified in Paul.
SMcC “To whom be glory to the ages of ages. Amen,” Galatians 1: 5. I think we want to take full account of the servants in this letter. You get Barnabas coming in and Titus. The brethren will all well know how much the servants are thrown into relief; and Titus a product of the ministry. That is, in this letter it is not a question of force of argument. It involves standing for the truth; but it is not by dint and force of argument, it is what is there in Paul, the minister, and in the results of the ministry. That is we are challenged as to the results of the ministry - what has the ministry produced?
GJD I was wondering as to the word “announce.” Paul often uses that word when he is speaking of the glad tidings. He says that he announced the glad tidings, not preached it, exactly. I wondered if that involved gift, and the attractive way in which the glad tidings were to be presented.
SMcC No doubt it would. Wherever you saw Paul in the preaching you would get a remarkable impression,
not exactly as to the eloquence of the man, but as to what the man was; there was something about the man that could not be gainsaid.
VTS Is that why we get what we do at the end of the epistle; not devouring one another, but by love serving one another, and the fruits of the Spirit working out?
SMcC The letter really contemplates abnormal conditions in the Galatian province. These abnormal conditions were obtaining and Paul offsets all that by what he and Barnabas and Titus were. I think there are many here who have some part in serving. What kind of presence do we bring among the brethren? What do we promote among the brethren? Do we promote liberty? Do we promote joy? Do we promote life and spontaneity among the brethren?
JP It needed this kind of spirit to meet the situation at Corinth, “I have sent you to Timotheus, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, who shall put you in mind of my ways as they are in Christ,” 1 Corinthians 4: 17. Is that the way abnormal conditions are met?
SMcC Very good. That would bear out what we are saying that it was a question of what they were as ministers; Timothy reminding the saints at Corinth of Paul, his ways in Christ. Then again at the end of the second letter you will remember he alludes to Titus and himself, “have we not walked in the same spirit? have we not in the same steps?” 2 Corinthians 12: 18, stressing what they were in their movements among the brethren.
JD Does what Paul says to Timothy have a bearing on this? He says: “he has counted me faithful, appointing to ministry him who before was a blasphemer,” 1 Timothy 1: 13, and later on, “But for this reason mercy was shown me, that in me, the first, Jesus Christ might display the whole long-suffering, for a delineation of those about to believe on him to life eternal,” verse 16. I was thinking of the words “in me.”
SMcC So that you have that strong expression there as to Paul that he was a delineation of Christ’s ways in the case of the Jews. It is a remarkable thing how like Christ he was. If Timothy was a delineation of Paul’s ways in Corinth, Paul was a delineation of Christ’s ways among the Jews, in relation to the Jews.
SEE When King Agrippa said to Paul, “In a little thou persuadest me to become a Christian,” Paul said, “I would to God, both in little and in much, that not only thou, but all who have heard me this day, should become such as I also am, except these bonds.” Would that illustrate it?
SMcC It would, so that there are abundant references to support and confirm the substantial side; and this letter would stress the need of it in a crisis. We have a crisis here and what seems to carry the day is what the servants are, what the minister is and what the ministry is, what it produces.
LGL Galatians 1: 15, 16 says, “When God ... called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me.” That seems to be a necessary matter before the announcing of the glad tidings is taken up and what is inward seems to be necessary in order that weight might be given to the announcing of the glad tidings by what the person is, and this has a bearing on what he is able to say.
SMcC We are all in this matter and it is an important thing that we should all be concerned as to being in the liberty of Christianity according to Paul’s glad tidings.
CBS You have been stressing this substantial side as over against what is academic. Can we have some help as to how we are to take it on? We know it was peculiar to Paul but we want it to apply to us. Can you give us some help there?
SMcC In love for Christ and making room for the Spirit. The greater our attachment to Christ and the more room that is made for the Spirit, the more we shall be like Christ. Self-judgment in itself is of no value if Christ is not before our souls. We are only left in a vacuum if we are judging ourselves without a definite object and without making room for the Spirit.
CBS Would the Spirit come in there that if we give ourselves over to the Spirit we are formed according to the inward man?
SMcC Exactly, and as we are with Christ, as Paul was with Him, we shall come out more like Him. I think we want to see more (I am speaking from what one observes in oneself), we want to be impressed more with this substantial side, not in the amount we can say, but what we are. What do we promote amongst the brethren? Do we promote liberty? Do we promote joy? Or do we bring in darkness and bondage among the saints? These are things that would enter into our lesson this afternoon.
CEJ Does that take us on to the end of chapter 2 and the way Paul speaks there as to the life that he lived, “but in that I now live in flesh, I live by faith, the faith of the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me”? I am thinking of what you said as to having not only the matter of self-judgment in our hearts but having Christ as an Object before us.
SMcC That is it exactly. Self-judgment in itself will never get us anywhere unless Christ is before our hearts. There are plenty around us who go on in self-judgment and are in misery, but self-judgment with Christ before the soul and room made for the Spirit brings us into liberty, freedom and buoyancy.
CD So that in saying “Not I” is not enough; we want to go on to say “but Christ.”
SMcC It is interesting the language that Paul uses here. He says in verse 17, “Now if in seeking to be justified in Christ we also have been found sinners, then is Christ minister of sin? Far be the thought! For if the things I have thrown down, these I build again, I constitute myself a transgressor. For I, through law” - now this brings us into Romans 7 only that we have a more buoyant view of Romans 7 here - “have died to law, that I may live to God. I am crucified with Christ and no longer live I, but Christ lives in me; but in that I now live in flesh, I live by faith, the faith of the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me.” Now this is largely experimental. It is a question of what is experimental with Paul. He uses the personal pronoun.
RHG As to the matter of self-judgment, can we really have a right judgment as to ourselves unless Christ is before us?
SMcC Not according to God.
DND Would David in Psalm 51 be an example?
SMcC Well, exactly. This is an important thing for our younger brethren. Oftentimes in judging themselves they do not get anywhere and that is in reality the truth of Romans 7. We get into an occupation with ourselves. We set up for ourselves a standard in our desire to be devoted to Christ and to God, and something has come in and brought in dismalness because we have failed in relation to the standard we have set up. Well, we want to reach what is in mind in the full thought in that chapter. We do not reach deliverance exactly in Romans 7 (deliverance is in Romans 8), but we reach the Deliverer, we have our eye on Christ, and we come out of the tunnel of darkness and despair, as it were, with our eye on Him.
HJM I wondered whether it would be illustrated in the butler and the baker both in prison for their offences and both meeting Joseph. The butler going through things, said, “In my dream, behold a vine was before me,” and that was made to him the pledge that he would be restored to his cup-bearing activities, but the baker did not have Christ before him really, did he?
SMcC No. That is a good illustration in that relation, so that the baker was not restored, that is, the man under judgment has gone in judgment; there is no revival of that man.
JE Does it not help too to view Romans 8 as the counterpart of Romans 7? In chapter 7 he discovers a great many things that he wishes were not there, but the great thought in chapter 8 is “Christ be in you.”
SMcC It is interesting to notice these counterparts. We have to notice in preaching the gospel the place that burial has as the counterpart in the great work of atonement, the counterpart to the abandonment.
AHS Would you say something about the expression, “the faith of the Son of God”?
SMcC It is a beautiful expression here that we want to lay hold of, “in that I now live in flesh,” that is now, it is the wilderness, he is not in heaven yet. “But in that I now live in flesh,” that means the kind of life in the wilderness, “I live by faith,” and then he tells us of the Son of God. It is that kind of faith, meaning that he is governed by the light of another world and the Person who is the centre of it.
AHS And then love comes into it.
SMcC Exactly, “who has loved me.” The historical side is stressed, “the Son of God, who has loved me.” He singles himself out. We need more help personally, each of us, in regard to our links with Christ from this viewpoint; that is, it is what Paul is apart from the brethren. The brethren will understand what I am saying.
EAK Is it the thought of the individuality of sonship as it has come before us in the ministry, over against the entity in the assembly?
SMcC That is what the glad tidings of the Son of God have to do with. It is the taking of us up individually in relation to the Son of God, both our individual links and our personal experiences with the Son of God. It is always building up that side so that we should value one another individually in the light of our links with the Son of God, belonging to the system, but each of us having a definite impression and appreciation in regard to the Son of God.
CPP Would it leave us with an impression that this love had in view in its activities our association with Him in this system of glory rather than our side of need?
SMcC That is right. Running along with the truth in this letter is deliverance from the age and the world. Sometimes we think of Corinth as the side of the world. The immorality and licentiousness in Corinth generally comes into our minds when we speak of worldliness, but it is interesting to note that in the scripture Judaism takes the form of the world. The world takes form in Judaism. So it is important to notice that in this letter our deliverance from that side of things is by the faith of the Son of God.
CBS “I live by ... the faith of the Son of God.” It is the giving expression to the experimental side in his own soul as really known through the operations of faith: “I live by the faith.”
SMcC So that as Paul was among them (he was speaking, no doubt, to Peter here in verse 14), you can understand, without conjecturing too much, the tremendous impression Peter must have got as to this man, not just by what he said, but by the liberty of the man, what the man was substantially in relation to his ministry.
Ques Would chapter 1: 4, “Christ, who gave himself for our sins, so that he should deliver us out of the present evil world,” and so on, be the deliverance side; but the verse that we are considering, “the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me,” the attachment side?
SMcC Yes. The first part is the delivering side, “I am crucified with Christ, and no longer live I, but Christ lives in me,” that is the side of deliverance; but then “the faith of the Son of God” gives us a positive link with the Man, the Person, who is the Centre of another world.
VTS Is that the impression that Peter would get of Paul? He would not be bitten and devoured and kept down, would he? He would be promoted in his service and stimulated by Paul, would he not?
SMcC It is interesting to see how Peter in his letter refers to Paul later, as has often been pointed out. I think the very expression that he uses shows how he values what Paul said to him in withstanding him to the face, because Peter was a princely man, but he was entirely wrong in this matter, and it was all the more serious in that he was affected by the influence of others. It says in verse 12 “before that certain came from James.” We often think of the generality of the brethren being affected by influence, but here is one servant being affected by another, and to the extent that he compromises the truth. This shows the importance of ministers being right and solid in their links with the Lord who has given their gifts to them.
CEJ Is that seen in that the apostle first speaks to Peter and says, “If thou, being a Jew,” but later on he is able to draw attention to himself and what he was, and his links with the Lord, and he uses the personal pronoun “I”. He draws attention to himself substantially.
SMcC It is interesting to notice that. Now we should come on to the latter part to show how sonship works out among the brethren. Christ coming into sonship has in mind our coming into sonship, so that we have the Spirit of God’s Son in our hearts crying, Abba, Father.
AHS Paul is consciously in this liberty of sonship and says to them, “Be as I am, for I also am as ye.” His desire was that they should come into the same liberty which was in him substantially.
SMcC And especially does it throw into relief in the end of chapter 3 the greatness of the saints. It says in verse 25, “But, faith having come, we are no longer under a tutor; for ye are all God’s sons by faith in Christ Jesus.” We want to see the dignity of the saints on this line, that the time of tutorship has passed. The saints are not exactly in infancy now. It is the great matured thought linked with sonship according to the purpose of God: “ye are all God’s sons”; not the ministers, not the gifts, not those that are spiritual. It does say later in Galatians 6: 1, “Ye who are spiritual” when it comes to dealing with sin and those who are overtaken in it, but it does not say that here. It is “ye are all God’s sons by faith in Christ Jesus.” That is such a great matter in our localities. We should not treat the saints as if they were in infancy and need of tutorship and guardianship from this viewpoint.
HJM In this section is it not really an historical resume of God’s ways in the testimony with men? There was a time when man was under tutorship was there not, but it does not belong to the present period in that setting.
SMcC That is the truth exactly. It is not that time now. It is the time when all the saints are God’s sons by faith in Christ Jesus. It is not the time of infancy, not the time of tutorship. It is the time of the full thought as to sonship.
Ques The bringing in of faith: “faith having come,” does that indicate that we are to take the matter up in faith in a positive way with our eyes on Christ the Son of God?
SMcC Well, it is alluding to the great change, the incoming of Christ. “But faith having come,” would bear on the coming in of Christ in manhood, not exactly to the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 but it would have in mind the coming in of Christ, “faith having come.” He is the Leader and Completer of faith, He sets on the great matter.
PB One is greatly impressed by the importance of what has been said. I was thinking in regard to the young people, “ye are all God’s sons by faith in Christ Jesus.” How encouraging that would be to the young!
SMcC It is a great thing that they should carry that away with them. If that were the only impression that every one of us got from this reading, what an impression it would be! We are all on the one common platform. We all can start together and go on together, as God’s sons by faith in Christ Jesus.
WJB As soon as we believe in Jesus, God has no other thought, no less thought than this in mind for us.
SMcC And we are to have no less thought in regard to the saints than this.
JC It was the basis for God sending forth the Spirit of His Son, “because ye are sons.”
SMcC Yes. We are sons before we have the Spirit. It is the sons that get the Spirit. “Because ye are sons, God has sent out,” notice that. I think that is a beautiful reference. “God has sent out.” It is not the time yet of the world to come. You remember how Noah sent out the dove, but it is not the time of the millennium. It is the time of the Gentiles, Paul’s ministry among the Gentiles, and I think it is an allusion to that: “God has sent out the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” It is very fine, I think, God’s operation here in the sending out.
RMY Are we not apt even to make the matter of the Spirit somewhat legal? Here it is the question of “because ye are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of His Son.” Have we not to view one another on that line as those who have received the Spirit?
SMcC It is interesting in relation to what you say in regard to our having to do with the young people when they ask to break bread. What are we looking for? We are often concerned about this matter of the Spirit. I think the thing we should look most for in regard to their having the Spirit is the family link that they have. I think the family link is one of the surest evidences of whether they have the Spirit or not.
DJM It says here as the first evidence of the Spirit’s fruit, “love, joy, peace.”
SMcC Yes, it may not be there in great quantities, but the elements of it are there; the feature of it is there; it will grow; it will increase; because we are to increase and abound in love; but it is there and it is a sure evidence of a soul having the Spirit.
AHS Does that mean that having this apprehension, they are in function in the assembly?
SMcC Exactly. You are conscious that they have got a link with divine Persons, a link with the Father.