GOD AND CHRIST - THE FATHER AND THE SON
[p. 182] GOD AND CHRIST — THE FATHER AND THE SON
Colossians 1: 12 - 23; Ephesians 1: 3 - 6
It appears to me that nothing is really effective in our souls except the knowledge of God. The divine purpose in the gospel was to bring the knowledge of God home to the heart of man; and it is the knowledge of God as He has been pleased to reveal Himself that is effective in man’s soul. If doctrine fails of increasing our knowledge of God, doctrine is of little value to us.
It is hardly profitable to study Scripture for any other purpose than to learn God and His ways. It is the pleasure of God to enlighten man here with regard to Himself. He presents to us the light of the knowledge of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ.
I see in the writings of the New Testament as regards Christians two distinct lines of truth: the one connected with the titles of God and Christ, and the other with the names of the Father and the Son. It is in connection with the latter — the Father and the Son — and our place in relation to it, that you get the greatest insight into the grace and love of God. You come to a point where the love of God can rest without let or hindrance, and with supreme satisfaction. At the beginning of the Christian career (Romans 5) the love of God is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit; but when you come to the close of chapter 8, you find the persuasion that neither depth nor height nor life nor death nor any other creature shall be able to separate [p. 183] us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The one appears to be in advance of the other. The Christian begins with the knowledge of the love of God, as He has been pleased to prove it in the death of Christ; but in the close of chapter 8 we find that nothing can separate us from “the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”. That is the circle into which you are brought. You get something of the same thought in John 17 “that the love wherewith thou has loved me may be in them, and I in them”. The Lord does not refer here to a love that has passed. It is the love that rested upon Christ when He was down here but it does not cease. It rests on us as it rested on Him. We are loved as Christ is loved. “As he is, so are we in this world”.
I will just draw attention to the two lines of truth to which I have referred, the one, as I said, in connection with God and Christ; the other, in connection with the Father and the Son. I own that they are very intimately allied; but I think that it is important for us to distinguish them.
If you want to learn what the saints are to God, you learn this in connection with the Father and the Son. This thought led me to refer to Colossians 1. It is a remarkable passage, as bringing out the truth of the Father and the Son.
With regard to God and Christ certain other thoughts come to light. In the place which Christ has taken as man He has become the vessel of God’s pleasure. All was purposed in Christ — the promise of life was in Christ Jesus. Every purpose or promise of God is to have its accomplishment in Christ. He is the Vessel in whom all these purposes are to be established. I think the truth of the body and of the bride both come out in this connection. The body is a vessel adequate for the setting forth of Christ — “his fulness”; and the bride has the glory of God. Ephesians 2 brings before us “That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus”. That is a clear proof that the church is the vessel in which the glory of God’s grace will be set forth, as in the body the character of Christ will be seen. The body is taken [p. 184] from Him in order to be His bride, as the rib was taken from Adam and built up into his bride. It is adequate being taken from Him, in order to be united to Him for the satisfaction of His love, and that in it God might show forth His glory. Thus the point is of what God is going to show forth in the church, rather than of what we are going to enjoy. In the Revelation the bride is seen coming down from God out of heaven, not going up to heaven — the blessed vessel in which the glory of God resides, and in which it is displayed. It comes from God, partakes of the divine nature, and therefore God’s glory is set forth there. There is no temple there, but the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. The same will hold good in regard to other things, for Christ is the vessel in which all the purposes of God will have their accomplishment. On that line, I think, as I have pointed out, you get the truth of the body and the bride.
But there is also the line of the Father and the Son; and there we have a still more blessed idea, for it is in that connection that we learn what the church is to God. It is not here a question of what comes from God, like the heavenly city, which is what God displays. Everyone can, I think, distinguish between the thought of display and of what God secures for Himself, for the satisfaction of His love — what God rests in for His own satisfaction. The more blessed line for our contemplation is of what the church is for God, for His satisfaction. Nothing can be more wonderful than this, and it is where the thought of the Father and the Son comes in, and where the truth of sonship is also found.
If you look at Colossians 1 you will read (verse 12) “Giving thanks to the Father”, and then verse 13 brings in the name of the Son “who has delivered us from the authority of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love” — the Father and the Son. The whole passage speaks of what God [p. 185] has secured for His own satisfaction. He is the image of the invisible God (verse 15). Verse 18, He is the Head of the body. Who is the Head of the body? It does not here say Christ, because it is not in that connection. Of course it is Christ, and the church is the fulness of Christ; but that is not the thought here. “The Son of his love” is the Head of the body, and I will tell you why, because the point is of what God is securing for Himself. It is all for God. And in all this the Son of His love is to have the pre-eminence. When it is a question of sonship the point is not of display, but of what we are for God, and sonship must bring in of necessity the thought of the Father. When we stand with Christ in the presence of God, it must be of the Father. The passage continues, “In him all the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell” (verses 19 - 22). And it is in the presence of that you are to be presented. Again I say it is not a question of what God is going to display, but of what He is securing for Himself, of what is to be presented before Him. The Son of His love is the antecedent of the whole passage; the One by whom all is to be reconciled, the Head of the body, etc.; and the end of reconciliation is to present Christians holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight. Where? Before Him. It is a question of what the saints are to be in the presence of the fulness of God according to His own nature and attributes — “holy and unblameable”. The fulness of the Godhead has been set forth in the Person of the Son of the Father’s love. All the truth hangs upon these titles. All has its source in the Father, and all is accomplished in the Son, and we are presented in Him in the Father’s presence.
If you turn to Ephesians 1 you get substantially the same thought (verses 3 and 4). It is not the question of display, but of what we are to be before the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It very much accords with Colossians. We are to be holy and blameless [p. 186] before Him in love. That is according to His own nature. He has chosen us for that. “Having predestinated us to sonship (I use the word ‘sonship’ instead of ‘the adoption of children’) unto himself”. It is to Him, all on that line. Sonship is always for the Father that He may have His part, His satisfaction. Sonship is that you are in the full light of His love; you enjoy it and respond to it; you cry, “Abba, Father”. That is what we are called to, and the place which Christ, the Son of His love, has taken is that of the First-born among many brethren. The church is seen in that light, for the thought is not merely of individuals, it would be a great mistake to make it that. Everyone who has part in the assembly has received sonship, and by the Spirit of sonship is formed in love, and it is that we may be in the Father’s presence, companions of the Son of His love — “accepted in the Beloved”.
Now that is the other line, and it is an eternal line. It is what we are called to in the Father’s presence, to be companions of Christ, to enjoy what He enjoys, to be loved, as He is loved. It is a most wonderful conception, an amazing thought, that we should be called to share His portion! He truly has His place, He is pre-eminent, but we are with Him, and loved as He is loved. There is also, as we have seen, what God will display, namely, the body and the bride. The bride must be suitable for Christ, for it is taken from Christ. God surveyed all the creation and could find nothing suited to be a helpmeet for Adam, nothing in which he could be adequately represented, and hence the woman was taken from the man. The idea of fulness is that which is adequate for presentation. The body is the bride, the holy city in Revelation which has the glory of God.
It will open up Scripture to you to follow out these two lines of truth — the one, our wonderful place in the Father’s presence, Christ the First-born among [p. 187] many brethren, and we with Him, loved as He is loved. And the other, that which God is pleased to set forth in Christ. That is display, and the vessel, the church is adequate for it. But the more blessed part is to ponder on what is presented in the Father and the Son, for it brings in the whole system of divine affections. The Head of the body is the Son of His love. He — the First-born, we — His companions! What can equal that for blessedness?