WHAT IS SUITABLE TO BE RECEIVED
RB The thought in mind for this occasion is what is suitable to be received. Primarily I am thinking of the Lord Jesus being received up. This comes into the first scripture when the glory can be taken account of on the mountain. He comes down from there, and that marks the end of His public service and heaven is in view after that. Receiving up has in view what is suitable for heaven, and the Lord Jesus clearly was suitable for heaven. I have been attracted by this expression of the Lord being received up. We have “the days of his receiving up” being fulfilled; it has been said that He could have gone into glory from the mount of transfiguration, but “he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem”, knowing what awaited Him there. All that enters into “the days of his receiving up”.
The mystery of piety is a very attractive thought, seen pre-eminently in the Lord Jesus, ‘God manifest in flesh’; that entered into our hymn that we sang, Hymn 400. That beautiful verse in Timothy ends with “has been received up in glory”. It is not exactly received up into glory, but “received up in glory”. He had glory and that was suitable to the place which was going to receive Him.
In Acts 3 we have the One “whom heaven indeed must receive”; there is no other of whom that could be said. The heavens “must receive” Him. It is not only on account of what He has done, but because He is to be there in view of administration in view of the present time, which is no longer directed from the earth, but directed from heaven. So He is in heaven, and everything proceeds from Him there; the Lord Jesus Christ, our living Head, is our Head in heaven, and the body is here. I want to be guided by the brethren and the Lord, as to what we speak about in this reading; primarily it is the Lord in all His suitability for heaven, heaven’s delight in Him and what is suited to heaven. The Lord is in heaven now as the Head of the assembly, the assembly is a vessel that will be received into heaven. This is the time in which the features of moral correspondence are being worked out in the saints; what is morally glorious, what is compatible with the Lord Jesus Himself, what is of Him, and like Him, and the mystery of piety enters into that. That was not restricted to the Lord, there is something being worked out here which is fit for heaven and He Himself has gone before as our forerunner.
John 14 is very attractive; He has gone and prepared us a place by going there: our place is prepared because He is there, but then there is this lovely expression, “if I go and shall prepare you a place, I am coming again and shall receive you to myself, that where I am ye also may be”. In this time of the Lord’s absence the Holy Spirit is here engaging us with the heavenly Man and working with us in view of these moral features that heaven can receive. I wondered if we could get help on these lines.
AMB Where you read in Luke 9 there seems to be the initiative from heaven; there is the bright cloud that overshadowed them, and there was a voice out of the cloud; that was really a voice out of heaven, the Father’s voice. There is the point of attraction, and the point of reception is heaven. What more would you say about the glory that we have presented in Luke 9?
RB The cloud overshadowed them and Peter was an eyewitness of it. He speaks of it in his epistle; “For he received from God the Father honour and glory, such a voice being uttered to him by the excellent glory: This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight; and this voice we heard uttered from heaven”, 2 Pet 1: 17, 18. The voice was from heaven and Peter, James and John could take account of it and be impressed by it, but there was no doubt in their mind as to the glory that He was given, but then it was really His own personal glory that called out this voice.
AMB There was here on earth in a blessed Man what was altogether suitable and utterly delightful to the Father and therefore to heaven.
RB That is what I have primarily in mind, what is so delightful to heaven that calls out this voice and these words distinguishing the Lord Jesus. Moses and Elias were with Him, and the disciples could take account of them, but once the voice had been heard Jesus was found alone. Heaven has an object on earth, and so He was so delightful to heaven that He must be received up. Elsewhere, earlier in this section it speaks about His departure; in other presentations He enters into heaven through His own right, in John and Hebrews, but here it is the thought of reception into heaven, what is so pleasing that heaven delights to receive Him.
PAG Why did they keep silence and not say anything about it?
RB Did it await the Spirit? What did you have in mind?
PAG I think that is exactly right; they “told no one in those days”, but there was a day coming when they would. The Spirit would help us to appreciate what heaven would receive, and you have mentioned Peter’s impression in his epistle; it is very clear that his impression expanded greatly. He described it as “the excellent glory”, a glory that had a voice. Our appreciation of what is heavenly, and what heaven must receive, would really be brought about in us by the gift of the Spirit, do you think?
RB Exactly. And while we have not read specifically about the Spirit in any of these verses, I have very much in mind the Spirit’s service to us, first of all so that we can enter into these things ourselves, but so that Christ can come before us in all His glory and attractiveness to heaven. Who can communicate that more to us than the Holy Spirit of God who came from heaven as a result of Christ ascending and being received into heaven?
PAG The Lord says explicitly as to the Spirit, “He shall glorify me”, John 16: 14. That does not mean the Lord’s receiving up in glory, but the Spirit glorifies Him in the hearts of the saints.
GBG In the other two gospels they are told to keep silent; in this account they themselves keep silent. Do you think that is evidence of formation in these persons that they knew not to say anything about it at that point?
RB It seems entirely in accord with this section that they should keep silent. How could you speak in the face of such a manifestation of glory. This needs to be contemplated as Peter clearly did, and came into the benefit of it, and we, as a result of his epistle, have done so too.
GBG In Acts 1 He was taken up, and the note says, ‘received up’, (v 9 note a), and persons saw Him being received up; so they knew that Man was suitable to heaven. It was a very great privilege to see that Man being received up!
RB It says, “shall thus come in the manner in which ye have beheld him going into heaven” (v 11); the manner of His being received up could be taken account of and commented on. While we did not see it we have witness to it and it should enliven us in our affections after this glorious Man, the One in whom heaven so delighted!
WMP In his remark our brother made the comment that they saw a Man being received up. We get this reference to the two men here; is it the kind of man that is suitable to heaven bringing out all that was there in the beautiful features and qualities of manhood according to God?
RB This was a Man who had walked through this scene, had ministered to men, had walked in accordance with the will of His God and Father, and every detail of His pathway had afforded heaven pleasure, but here at the end of His pathway with His departure before Him heaven acts in this way.
WMP I was linking it in my mind with the expression ‘a green spot … down here’ (JT vol 6 p187); heaven’s eye, God’s eye, could rest on that Man. All that He says and does reflects all that God was looking for in perfect dependent manhood.
RB That remark as to the ‘green spot’ has been before me, the One that heaven’s eye could rest on in complacency and complete enjoyment. It is interesting that the Lord’s public service was marked by the heaven’s opening at the outset, and here on the mount again there is a cloud and a voice. It shows how in keeping with heaven this glorious Man was. He goes in, He is received, on account of His moral worth.
TRC The Lord says in John 16, “I came out from the Father and have come into the world; again, I leave the world and go to the Father”, v 28. He came in as under the eye of the Father and fulfilled the will of His God and Father, and gave God every right or every reason to receive Him into glory.
RB There was what was suitable and in keeping with heaven’s mind and He went back with all the glory that had accrued to Him because of His exploits, and it is anticipated here, it says, “when the days of his receiving up were fulfilled”. He still had to go to the cross, the actuality of it still awaited, but the glory could have claimed Him at this point, such was His moral excellence. It is so attractive!
BWL I was wondering about, “This is my beloved Son”. John’s line is, “the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father”, chap 1: 18. The Father’s bosom is receptive; the Lord entered into that place of affection. When we think of “received up in glory” we think about heaven and we think about a place, but it is really the Person; “and shall receive you to myself” (John 14: 3); it is really about the Person receiving His own.
RB I like what you say about the Father’s bosom and the Lord, as it were, coming into that place in manhood and demonstrating that in His pathway here, “a glory as of an only-begotten with a father, full of grace and truth”. All that entered into His glorious manhood, all was in keeping with the Father’s will and all therefore suitable to be received back.
I did think on Psalm 24 in this regard -
Lift up your heads, ye gates; yea, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and
the King of glory shall come in.
Who is this King of glory? Jehovah strong and mighty, Jehovah mighty in
battle.
Lift up our heads, ye gates; yea, lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of
glory shall come in.
Who is he, this King of glory? Jehovah of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah,
v 7-10.
I was thinking of what our brother brought in about going back to the Father, but this shows that He goes back as the mighty Victor, the King of glory, as a result of all that He has accomplished. This has application to ourselves as receiving Christ, but it is also a view of heaven’s reception of that One.
TRC I think what you are bringing before us is very fine! The Lord could have gone back into glory in His own right, but what you are attracting us to is the moral excellence of One who fulfilled the will of His God and Father in its entirety, and what our brother said is good, it is the Person that the Father delighted to receive, such a One as a Man received back into His presence.
RB Yes; so it says, “This is my beloved Son”; the ‘This’ is emphatic: there could be none other that could be received in this way. It could only be this One.
DCB The conversation earlier is about “his departure which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem”. Does that give the spirit of it, and is it interesting therefore that He would have Jerusalem in mind as the way He had to go?
RB I would be glad if you would say more about that. Departure has in mind the place that you are leaving, which must enter into this, but it seems that reception is more about the place that you are going to, that you are going to be received into; the two are clearly linked. Say more about what you had in mind, setting His face to go there.
DCB It is not exactly setting out His sufferings, but they are implied in that He had to go to Jerusalem, and something is secured through His going to Jerusalem. There is what is accomplished in principle, because He is going to take up His rights in due time in Jerusalem.
RB That is helpful. So “he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem”, knowing what awaited Him there, and knowing that the will of God required that He go there. All of that was involved in the days of His receiving up, was it not?
JCG Would you say something about the divine delight in Him being received up. There had been so much failure in the first man that God had seen that there was divine delight in Him being received up. That is a wonderful thing to contemplate.
RB That is exactly what I have in mind, that heaven would not receive anything or anyone that it did not delight in, and what delight the Lord Jesus afforded heaven in every step of His pathway, but particularly in the culmination of it. The delight of heaven was centred on a blessed Man; is that something to take account of? Our delight can be in Him too! We can be affected by what heaven delights in and find our delight there too.
JCG It is good what you say about how we enter into it ourselves, but we need to contemplate that divine Persons have found an answer to what the purpose of God required, and therefore the receiving up is with great welcome in that sense.
RB That is what was in my mind in referring to Psalm 24; you get some view of heaven’s acclamation of that One, the One in whom heaven delights.
ABB You mentioned “the days of his receiving up”; help us a little more. It is plural, and you mentioned He could have been received up in the right of His Person, but there was always pleasure from His walk for the eye of His Father, “the days of his receiving up”. It is almost the volume and delight that the Father had in that One, which is food for us. I was also thinking of what the eunuch says in Acts 8, “his life is taken from the earth”, v 33. There is a moral instruction for us in baptism, but when he goes on his way rejoicing (v 39), do you think there is something of the saints being able to feed on the divine delight in this One and His days, and how pleasing they were to heaven?
RB Yes, that corresponds with my thoughts that, as going over these things, our affections should be involved in it. If heaven delights in this glorious One then surely we should too because there is no other before the eye of heaven. Heaven’s delight is in Christ and those that are like Him, and as result of Him being there, there are those now who are like Him that are fitted for heaven. So, you can see the effect that Him being received into heaven has had; it has expanded the whole scene that heaven can delight in.
DS So His voice is the same now in heaven as it was here. Is there something expanding in that; “hear him”? The Man who has gone up into glory is anticipating death, but something expands now in relation to the voice in heaven; the sheep hear His voice and they follow Him, John 10: 27. Is there something expanding in that?
RB Very good, nothing has been lost as a result of the Lord Jesus no longer being on earth. He is in heaven now and we can still hear Him, and the Holy Spirit is here indwelling believers in order that this voice should not only be heard but acted upon. That is also attractive. The Spirit loves to bring the thoughts and impressions of this glorious Man to us and the voice has not ceased because He is no longer in this scene; if anything, it has more effect and more scope now.
DS It expands because of the place that He now fills in the Father’s affections, as has been brought out. He was here and He was drawing people to Himself, but now in heaven He is drawing people to the glory of the Father’s realm, and He holds and sustains everything for everyone for the glory of the Father in that realm too.
APG In the next chapter, Mary was listening to His word; she was in accord with heaven; she chose the good part, chap 10: 42. We would like to be in accord with heaven’s delight!
RB She herself had received Christ and was listening to Him, and really the Lord was moving towards heaven, and she was able for that. It is interesting in the next chapter that when the seventy return with joy in verse 17 they say, “even the demons are subject to us through thy name”. The Lord says, “Yet in this rejoice not … but rejoice that your names are written in the heavens”, chap 10: 20. I think it has been described as a turning point in the gospel, that heaven is in view, and Mary seems to be in accord with that.
APG He would be speaking of these heavenly things that Mary had an interest in.
RB And the Lord is speaking now as to heavenly things, spiritual things. He is not talking to us about things that hold us on the earth, although He is our great High Priest and He enters into things with us, but the Spirit and the Lord are bringing before us our heavenly inheritance, our heavenly portion, our heavenly calling; these are great matters.
TWL What you said in relation to the Spirit is borne out by what the Lord says in John 16: 13: “for he shall not speak from himself; but whatsoever he shall hear he shall speak; and he will announce to you what is coming”. There is activity in heaven, and we know what it is because the Spirit tells us so. So Christ still speaks, and we know what it is because of the Spirit, who speaks from heaven.
RB Yes, “whatsoever he shall hear he shall speak”; so as you say there are things transpiring in heaven which the Spirit brings to us, and all with a view that we may be fitted for that place ourselves.
DAB I am just considering verse 51; it says in Hebrews, “in view of the joy lying before him, endured the cross”, chap 12: 2. I wondered if His receiving up was really held in His affections while here and moving in accord with heaven. It is not exactly that it came to pass when His death was before Him, but when His receiving up was before Him “he stedfastly set his face”. It is as if the joy of being received in glory was before the Lord and that really held Him in His affections in relation to heaven and what was before Him.
RB It must be so! His affections were clearly engaged with where He was going, no matter what lay in the way. It was not that it was set aside or dismissed; He went through it as a perfect Man. He felt everything that “the days of his receiving up” entailed. But at this point what is stated is that “the days of his receiving up were fulfilled”, that came to an end and there was something that was complete, there was nothing more that needed to be demonstrated on earth, there was nothing more that the will of God required from Him except to go through with enduring the cross and despising the shame. All that was required if the way to heaven was to be opened up.
DAB Absolutely, because our blessing really was in view in “his receiving up” and the Spirit coming here. Do you think the importance of that, what was going to be established in the Spirit and by extension in ourselves, was really before the Lord?
RBa Do the early chapters of Esther help us along these lines, where there was a waiting time? Would it link with your scripture in Timothy, where there is also a waiting time in which we get instruction about our conduct in the house of God.
RB That takes us on to Timothy. We are in a time now under the hand of the Spirit, and it is going to result in what comes into Esther, that she required nothing save what was he appointed for her, Esth 2: 15. It must relate to glory and there is conduct that is becoming of God’s house. We are never out of God’s house while we are here, and there is what is being formed in God’s house which is suitable for it, and therefore suitable to be “received up in glory” as we have at the end of the section.
JSS What was your impression about that, “received up in glory”? You might think you could say ‘received up to glory’ and that would be true as well; what was your impression about being “received up in glory”.
RB Clearly He was received into glory, which is spoken of in other scriptures, but here it seems that He has been “received up in glory”; that is He was in a condition which heaven could not only receive but salute. It could take account of something glorious about that One. It was not conferred glory; it was glory that was His by right, but then also glory that He had as a result of His pathway of perfection. He was “heard because of his piety” (Heb 5: 7), and that eventuates in “his being received up in glory”.
JSS I was thinking of the Lord when He said, “I have glorified thee on the earth” (John 17: 4), and I was struck by this verse in Timothy that you read, these are all things that are taken account of by others. Of course there was what He was personally, delightful to the Father, but do you think there is a particular delight in how He glorified God in testimony, and that is really entirely suitable to be received up?
RB Exactly, so “God has been manifested in flesh”, and as a result of God being manifested in that way these other things that are involved in the mystery of piety have come into expression in manhood in the Lord Jesus Christ and can be taken account of, and others can then enter into it. Is that not a great thing!
ASP You mentioned earlier that He was in a condition of glory, “being received up in glory”; open that up further for us.
RB We have referred to what comes into Peter’s epistle as to receiving from the Father “honour and glory”; that is heaven acclaiming Him when the cloud descended on the mount of transfiguration. But His glory had already been taken account of; His garments became “white and effulgent”, Luke 9: 29. There was a glory that was there that Peter and those with him could see, that was His own glory and therefore He could be received up in that condition.
ASP That is helpful! When we see Him we shall be like Him (1 John 3: 2); we shall need that condition of glory ourselves.
TWL Is the mystery of piety also seen in the Man here that God reserved for Himself? God “hath set apart the pious man for himself”, Ps 4: 3. He was received up in glory, but God reserved Him for Himself.
RB Open up what that would mean for us if God has reserved Him for Himself.
TWL Scripture speaks of God setting aside the pious man for Himself. Christ was heard because of His piety. God had never had a man that spoke like Christ spoke, and He never had a life in a man like Christ’s life, and He never had piety expressed like Christ expressed it; and He reserved Him for Himself.
RB That further emphasises to us the delight that heaven has in this Man! Everything that God looked for in man awaited this blessed Man coming into manhood, God manifest in flesh, and everything that He did manifested God; “He that has seen me has seen the Father”, John 14: 9. When the Lord Jesus acted, that was how God would have acted; that was God acting, but in a Man, that was piety that could be taken account of. Therefore you can understand how He has been “justified in the Spirit, has appeared to angels, has been preached among the nations, has been believed on in the world, has been received up in glory”. How could such a Man not be received up in glory!
JCG I was thinking of “received up in glory”. In John 13 after Judas goes out, Jesus says, “Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him”, v 31. The glorification of Christ involves that God is now glorified in relation to all that He had in mind for Himself and for us.
RB That is very fine! The Lord Jesus comes in as we have been reminded from God, the Man of purpose, but everything that God looked for in His purpose, His love entering into it, came about as a result of this blessed Man glorifying Him and being glorified by Him.
CAMcK At the time of the incarnation we have, “suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying”, Luke 2: 13. I was wondering if what transpired at that time might give us some inkling as to what His reception in heaven must have meant. “Suddenly” seems to be an impulsive word, that there was a spontaneous response. Do you think there would have been that at the time?
RB So that the incoming of the Lord was marked by glory and heaven taking account of it and rejoicing in it, and not only is heaven’s pleasure connected with “his being received up in glory”, but rejoicing enters into it. In Luke 10, after the Lord says, “rejoice that your names are written in the heavens” it goes on, “In the same hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said, I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth, that thou hast hid these things from wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes”, v 21. The Lord Jesus is rejoicing Himself at the prospect of what revealing things to babes was going to result in.
PAG So is it in your mind that “being received up in glory” means that He brought glory to heaven that it had not had before?
RB Clearly the glory of an accomplished redemption had not been in heaven before. The glory of everything that He accomplished in His manhood, heaven waited for and acclaimed. That was in my mind in relation to Psalm 24 that He can be acclaimed there as the King of glory, “Jehovah mighty in battle”. Think of all that that would suggest to our hearts as to His exploits and the glory of them.
PAG Heaven had One who is the effulgence of God’s glory and “the expression of his substance”, Heb 1: 3. It now had One in whom “dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily”, Col 2: 9. It had the Son over God’s house, Heb 3: 6. It had the Redeemer; it now has the Mediator, “the mediator of God and men one, the man Christ Jesus”, 1 Tim 2: 5. It had the One who had conferred the glory of sonship on those whom He had come to call. He had secured a universe for God, and God gave Him “to be head over all things to the assembly”, Eph 1: 22. Heaven had none of that before, but now it did! He was “received up in glory”; He brought glory to the place to which He went.
RB Excellent! One of the suggestions in scripture is that He was received back to glory, to the place from which He had come. That being so, what He brought back with Him was glorious in itself. It would not be going too far to say that heaven has been enriched as a result of that, and one of the fruits of that is that there are persons like Christ that are fitted for that place, all in accordance with God’s mind.
PAG Persons who behold His glory are the ones who have the glory of sonship. There was the glory that He had along with the Father before the world was and that never changed but the glory of sonship was a new thing, “he inherits a name more excellent than they”, Heb 1: 4. But He brought a new race with Him as well. The glory is extensive, the Father is Father of every family, and every family has a feature of Christ. The days of his “receiving up” were accomplished, but we are still in the day when the day of Pentecost is still accomplishing, the glory is being added to every day.
RB So we can understand the scripture, “such as the heavenly one, such also the heavenly ones”, 1 Cor 15: 48. There is what takes character from Him that is fitted to be with Him where He is. The present time is the time when all that is being worked out.
BWL It has often been pointed out that the things in this verse are not chronological, but the great end is “has been received up in glory”. It says, “has been preached among the nations, has been believed on in the world”; that was consequent on the Lord being “received up in glory”, but there seems to be something current about this. I was wondering about what was said about John 13: the Lord is going to be glorified immediately, and that is in the assembly; that is now; that is current.
RB As you say these things have not happened chronologically but there is a moral order to them and a necessity that it must eventuate in being “received up in glory”.
GBG That is the final impression to be left on our spirits. Other beings, and we ourselves, are involved in what precedes, but the Spirit of God has left this final impression as to Christ Himself.
RB It is a great stimulus, not that I can speak about it as qualified to do so, but piety, something simple, something that we are involved in daily has such a great result in mind and is intended to leave us with that impression. A brother helped us about piety in a word in a ministry meeting recently; we should all know something about piety and ordering our circumstances so that God can come into them, but it all has in view what is suitable for glory.
AMB It is remarkable that the Lord is such a model for us in our day to day lives, our responsible lives, testimonial lives, where piety is expressed. He is the model for us in all of that. I was just thinking about what the brethren have been saying as to the Lord being “preached among the nations, has been believed on in the world”, that is with a view to gathering material for the assembly. It also gives you some impression of the breadth and the length, does it not? Do you think it all relates to God’s purpose? It is being fulfilled now; it has been over the past two thousand years. He “has been preached among the nations”: what divine grace in that, what breadth. “Believed on in the world”: that is His glory, that it has been possible to preach this Person among the nations. The result has been faith exercised in the scope of the matter. What glory is Christ’s! But then heaven appreciates that: “has been received up in glory” would indicate something of the scope of the appreciation of His glory in heaven.
RB So being “received up in glory” is a completed matter. But there are things that are still going on, and we, as it were, take our cue from that and relate to that blessed Man where He is and the glory that belongs to Him.
NJH When it says, “receive you to myself” would it be that the assembly is also received up?
RB That is what the glorious prospect is! Piety has in mind what is suitable for heaven, what heaven can delight in, that is found now in the assembly, the sphere of the Holy Spirit’s operations. And there is going to be a glorious result in what is suitable to be received up, received to Himself.
PAG The assembly is spoken of in Ephesians 1 as “the fulness of him who fills all in all” (v 23), that is the assembly as received up. She comes out in Revelation 21 “having the glory of God” (v 10), that is the assembly as received up. God is all in all eternally, but the “fulness of him that fills all in all” is Christ administratively seen in the assembly’s mediatorial position. What is mediatorial can only come from heaven; that is the way it works. “The mediator of God and men one, the man Christ Jesus”, and the assembly will share with Him in a mediatorial position, all the nations will come, and that will be “the tabernacle of God” eternally, Rev 21: 3. Surely it must be that she is received up in glory for it could not be otherwise!
RB That is helpful. Do we get some thought of that in why the heavens must receive Him because all of that was not going to come about with the Lord remaining on earth? It must be that He goes back there. You might think, “whom heaven indeed must receive” is on account of His moral excellence, and so it is, but the fact is that He is going back to heaven, everything having been committed into His hand by the Father. Where is He exercising that administration from? It must be from heaven because there is a glorious result which is yet to be brought about when the assembly itself is received up and the fulness is seen.
PAG “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”, Gen 1: 1. The heavens were not created as a consequence of the earth; the earth was created as a consequence of the heavens. “The heavens do rule” (Dan 4: 26), and that is the place where God’s influence and glory come from and shines. “Having the glory of God” is in view of testimony millennially, but “the tabernacle of God” is in view of God’s tabernacling with men eternally. Nothing less than what is heavenly would do! And nothing less than the vessel that has Christ as its Head would do! There could be no lower standard than that for God.
RB So in Acts 3 where we read, “whom heaven indeed must receive till the times of the restoring of all things, of which God has spoken”. Does that have a dispensational bearing?
PAG Well, He will come back to Israel, but it is “the restoring of all things”. God has set a day when He will “judge the habitable earth in righteousness by the man whom he has appointed, giving the proof of it to all in having raised him from among the dead”, Acts 17: 31. God will have everything set right and when He has done so, and when evil’s challenge itself is done away with, death will exist no more, the sea will exist no more, there will be “new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness”, 2 Pet 3: 13. There will be a setting of things right but we will come to a sphere where nothing needs to be set right because righteousness will dwell.
JSS Is the matter of faith important? Earlier in Acts it says, “a cloud received him out of their sight”, chap 1: 9. It really brought about the essential matter of faith at the present time, and that is what pleases God, and that is what God receives. I was thinking of Enoch as given as an example; “he has the testimony that he had pleased God” (Heb 11: 5); that was because he walked in faith, was it not?
RB Yes, a good reference. He “was translated that he should not see death”. He was received up; there was something in him that was pleasurable to heaven because of the testimony. But then, “without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that draws near to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them who seek him out”, v 6. Enoch proved that, but in the mystery of piety and the way that that has come into expression, the Lord Jesus is pattern for us as a Man of faith, we can take account of it in Him, and we can see how essential it is that faith should be working in view of our entrance into all of these things. We need eyes of faith to see the Lord Jesus where He is now, “crowned with glory and honour”. Heb 2: 9. He was given honour and glory by the Father on the holy mount, but now He is “crowned with glory and honour”; that is a greater thought.
DS Is that why everything is held in provisional reconciliation? Everything is held, the matter is concluded for God’s glory, and is that why the dispensation of grace can continue, because the matter is there finished for God?
RB Yes, God can be towards all men as a result of the Lord Jesus going in, and as a result of everything that He has done. Every man has a claim on Him! What a matter that is. There will be a day when the result of that will be seen, a glorious day.
JCG The reference to Moses is interesting because it says, “him shall ye hear in everything whatsoever he shall say to you” (v 22), bringing out that there is a glory relating to Him as Administrator for God. It brings out the great idea of a Man for God; not disputing who He is in His own Person, God now has Christ as Man and the assembly with Him in relation to this administration; there is glory in that too in relation to His position as received up.
DCB So that in contrast to Moses in 2 Corinthians you see what “subsists in glory”, chap 3: 11. I wondered if that related to the fact that He is received “till the times”; it is not only that He was received two thousand years ago: He is received in the affections of heaven up until now.
RB So that relates to what subsists; it cannot be interfered with. Heaven’s thoughts of this One continue and are current and heaven rejoices as it looks down on the earth and sees those that are like Him and have an appreciation of Him and His glory.
In John 14 there is again this reference, not only to the place that has been prepared, but to the affections that are clear in what the Lord says, “I am coming again and shall receive you to myself, that where I am ye also may be”. I think that is a great comfort and stimulus to our affections and our faith, not only that the Lord is coming again, but personally He will receive us to Himself, “that where I am ye also may be”. The Lord’s affections are bound up with that; heaven’s delight is involved, and surely our affections are bound up with that too and our hearts are looking for that One coming again. What a prospect we have!
AMB The place that the glorious One has prepared is a glorious place because He is there! Sometimes people speak of going to heaven, but the believer goes to be with Christ and that is where heaven is, but Christ is the great point of attraction and the Man who gives character to that place of glory.
RB So it will not be a strange place! It will be a place where we are received by One we know, who gives character to that place and it is populated by persons who are like Him. It must be so.
GBG We are in the scene of testimony at the present time, and there are troubles and testings and sorrow, but right at the beginning of this section here in all that the Lord has got to say further, He is encouraging them in saying to them that the ultimate end is going to be bliss! So they would have that in their affections, the end is to be bliss with Himself!
RB That is fine! Do you think that faith lays hold of that and helps us in this that the Lord says, “Let not your heart be troubled”? It is not that the troubles go away, but a view of Christ where He is and a view of the prospect of the blissful outcome that you have just described helps us in this scene of testimony, does it not? It gives character and colour to it.
WMP Your thought as that the disciples are suitable to be in that place: the Lord had served them personally in the previous chapter. Would that have any bearing? The Lord says, “as I have loved you”, chap 13: 34. That would be a wonderful assurance; “as I have loved you”.
RB So it is the Lord taking the initiative in chapter 13, and demonstrating how things are to be in the scene of His absence, and setting out what love involves and how it works horizontally. It is the same One that is prepared to wash the feet of the disciples that goes to prepare us a place. That affects us and draws our attention and our hearts to Him where He is. His place is our place; that is a tremendous thing. But He is going to receive us to Himself, in that place and that is what makes it so attractive.
WMP We learn in John 11 that “Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus”, (v 5); do you think that helps us in accepting the truth of chapter 14, that the Lord loves us individually?
RB Yes, and He has testified to that in the way that He has gone, what He has done for us, ministering to us as He does in chapter 13, and showing us how things are to be done in the scene of His absence. We can trace everything back to Him.
DAB At the beginning of John’s gospel it says, “He came to his own, and his own received him not; but as many as received him …”, chap 1: 11. These persons that the Lord was speaking to in John 14 were those who had received Him, and now He is saying, ‘Your portion is to be received by Myself’. Do you think it would have a current bearing also? This bearing is in some sense future, but being received by Christ is a wonderful present reality to our affections, do you think?
RB Certainly, it has its effect now. It is not something that we put off in our affections; it is that blessed prospect that we are engaged with, and we have the One who will receive us to Himself presently before us as our Head. We benefit from everything that He is to us in the sphere of testimony, but the great end is to be with Him where He is, and we are being fitted for that through the Spirit’s operations at the current time.
DAB I was just thinking of what is coming through the reading: “as many as received him”; that is to take on through the power of the Holy Spirit the features of that blessed Man, and that is so delightful to Christ that He can receive us in that way because He sees in us the features of Himself.
RB So in that sense the reception of Christ is an on-going thing. We receive Him when we first put our trust and faith in Him, but there is so much more that we can learn and seek to be formed by, and that must relate to the Holy Spirit making these things of Christ real in our affections.
DAB I have always thought that reception is a further matter than belief. It is really your heart, your affections, your mind, your whole being, being involved with this blessed Man and you can transfer that to heaven’s reception of Christ. What a glorious matter that must have been when a Man went back there for the first time. It thrills my heart to consider the Father’s delight and the Spirit too delighting in the way that Christ as a Man was received back. Think of the joy that existed in that glorious sphere.
RB So if heaven receives Him, the exercise is that we should, and that we should be active in doing so and, as a result of receiving Him, there should be features that belong to Him that come out in testimony in the waiting time for Him to receive us to Himself.
NJH John’s writings are characteristic. We have quoted earlier, “in the bosom of the Father” (John 1: 18); that is the characteristic place of Christ, and these scriptures become characteristic to our affections, is that right?
SMcL I was going to ask about the scripture in Romans 15. I am wondering if the enjoyment of all that we have spoken about in the reading has its effect on our relationships with one another. It says in chapter 15, “that ye may with one accord, with one mouth, glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore receive ye one another, according as the Christ also has received you to the glory of God”, v 6, 7. I think someone mentioned reconciliation, but is that the positive effect in our spirits of all we have all received?
RB I think that is the outcome of what we have been considering because he speaks just prior to that, “Now the God of endurance and of encouragement give to you to be like-minded one toward another, according to Christ Jesus”. That leads on to the reception of one another as you have said; it must be so. If there are persons here that are like Christ as a result of feeding on Him and being involved and engaged with Him where He is then that must work out in our relationships together. It causes us to look at each other from that standpoint as heavenly. Our calling is heavenly, our destination is heavenly, but we are to be engaged with that view of the saints now, and to work things out from that standpoint “according as the Christ also has received you to the glory of God”. The glory of God is in view.
GBG I am thinking of what our brothers have said; we have to receive the weak brother, and Paul says, “for God has received him”, Rom 14: 3. Each one of us has been received by God; surely we can receive one another.
MBG I was wondering as to what has been said about how this works out at the present time, because in John 14 it is primarily about what is future, but at the present time I wondered if those that enjoy the secret of this would be enjoy something that the world knows nothing about. In Colossians 3 it says, “your life is hid with the Christ in God”, v 3. That is after it says, “have your mind on the things that are above”, but then it also goes on to say, “When the Christ is manifested … then shall ye also be manifested with him in glory”. I wondered if it is similar to Him being received in glory, which is unique to Him, but we will be manifested in glory when He is manifested. I wondered if there is the side of the prospect to come. At the present time the believer’s life is largely secret in relation to these things, but there will be a public manifestation of glory.
RB I appreciate what you bring in; that must be so. He will come “amidst his holy myriads” (Jude v 14); He will not appear then alone: He will be manifested with those that are like Him and that will result in greater glory to Him. Everyone will be able to look on that and see the source of that glory and who it centres on because there will be those that will be like Him who will be manifested with Him. That is a great prospect and a necessary one for Him to be accorded the place that is His by right.
Linlithgow
27th September 2025
List of initials:-
R Bain, Buckie; A M Brown, Linlithgow; A B Brown, Linlithgow; D A Brown, Bo’ness;
D C Brown, Edinburgh; R Brown, Linlithgow; T R Campbell, Glasgow; J C Gray, Bo’ness; P A Gray, Linlithgow; A P Grant, Dundee; G B Grant, Dundee; M B Grant, Grangemouth; N J Henry, Glasgow; T W Lock, Edinburgh; B W Lovie, Aberdeen;
C A McKay, Brechin; S McLaren, Leven; A S Pittman, Grangemouth; W M Patterson, Glasgow; J S Speirs, Grangemouth D Spinks, Bo’ness