TRANSCENDENT GRACE
John 1:14-18; 20:16-22; Ephesians 1:22,23
J.D. I wondered if we could consider the expression ‘transcendent grace’ used in the hymn we sang this morning:
‘Soon we shall, as come to glory,
Thy transcendent grace relate’ (Hymn 28)
It is most attractive to think of such a matter as ‘transcendent grace’. The word transcendent conveys what exceeds, what surpasses; how wonderful that is! We know it as believers because “where sin abounded grace has overabounded”, Rom.5:20. We have also had some experience of what Paul could say to the Corinthians: “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ”, 2 Cor.8:9. We can proceed contemplatively, as we have read in John: “we have contemplated”. I think verses 14 to 18 have been described as an elaboration of what divine grace is. While we would not want to be too definitive about divine Persons and divine things, of divine nature, divine attributes, of which grace is one, it has been suggested that mercy protects us from what we deserved, and grace confers upon us what we did not deserve. I think that aspect of grace will be before us. As we read, it is “of his fulness we all have received, and grace upon grace”.
The first scripture we read must involve what has been revealed. It says: “No one has seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”. Then where we read in John 20, we can see something of the expression of transcendent divine grace that marked the Lord in resurrection – how He spoke to Mary and then the message He gave her. Transcendent grace was in the message that the Lord delivered to Mary, “I have not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”.
In the last scripture we read I was thinking of the assembly as the vessel of grace. It has wonderful capacity for all that has been made known through Christ: “which is his body, the fulness of him who fills all in all”. Perhaps we can get some help as we enquire together.
D.J.W. Is grace the characteristic feature of this dispensation?
J.D. Yes. It is a wonderful matter. Think of the length of this dispensation – we do not know how long it is because it has not ended yet. We do not know when it will end, and that should add urgency to the glad tidings. How remarkable that God has chosen that grace should characterise such a long dispensation, the dispensation in which we find ourselves. Grace as presented in John’s gospel involves the name of the Father being revealed; and the name of the Father conveys to us, all that can be known of God in grace.
D.J.W. I was struck with the way it is put here, “grace upon grace”. It is as though grace is a building block.
J.D. We can get help together as to what may be conveyed by what John writes as to “grace upon grace”. It seems to suggest the spirit of the matter. It is interesting that towards the end of 1 Chronicles, it says: “And David gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch” (chap.28:11). And then it says, “and the pattern of all that he had by the Spirit” (v.12). I think this matter of “grace upon grace” would involve receiving divine things by the Spirit. It is how we hold things. Grace permeates the situation; divine grace is supreme. We should not confuse grace with what men may refer to as airs and graces, or being polite – which would obviously be normal. There is a substantiality to divine grace.
G.McK. Would you say something about the incarnation in relation to grace? I tend to link it with mercy, the Lord coming here to die for us, for our sins, but to see it in connection with grace seems an even more exalted thing.
J.D. That links with what we have here, “the Word became flesh”. It is linked with the revelation of God Himself. What wonderful grace, what transcendent grace that God in all His greatness should now be made known in one of the Godhead becoming a Man. That is the incarnation. So there is a change of position and a change of condition, Christ being found here in manhood to make known divine Persons. What transcendent grace, then, to know God as the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
G.McK. You were speaking about what is substantial; it is embodied in a Man.
J.D. That is helpful, so “the Word became flesh”. We have been taught that that is what goes right through. It is not ‘flesh and blood’, the condition that the Lord laid down. We know He laid down His life in flesh and blood, but “the Word became flesh” refers to what came in and goes right through death.
A.J.McK. Does this link with the thought of grace and truth subsisting? I was looking at the translator’s note and it says, ‘grace and truth actually commenced to be, not in God’s mind of course, but in revelation and actual existence down here’ (see note to v.17). Does that support your thought?
J.D. Yes, that is good and links well with what our brother has referred to. It says, ‘not in God’s mind of course, but … actual existence down here’. It is the substantiality of God manifest in flesh.
A.J.McK. I suppose the substantial element of it is that it was in a Man. It was the nature of God revealed in a Man.
J.D. So “we have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father”. The way in which God has chosen to make Himself known is wonderful. Then it adds, “full of grace and truth”.
R.D.P. There was grace in the Old Testament, but this is something special, this is “full of grace and truth”. You can almost trace the touches of God’s grace right through from Genesis.
J.D. Yes, saints of the Old Testament knew grace. We spoke of Moses yesterday, and David would be another example; how he proved God’s grace. It was known there, but not yet known in the way that it has been revealed to us through Christ. Christ would bring in the matter of relationships: we have been brought into the relationships of grace.
R.D.P. In the garden when Adam and Eve were banished, before they went out God made them coats of skin that they might be clothed (Gen.3:21); that is a touch of His grace. But when Jesus came you get the fulness of it.
J.D. It has been said that God in the Old Testament was largely known in the way of power, but with the Lord Jesus coming into manhood we get the full revelation of divine love. He fully revealed the Father and we are brought into relationships, as we read further on, which would involve the impartation of the Holy Spirit and the matter of sonship. All of that belongs to the fulness of grace, do you think?
Q.A.P. This is foretold in Psalm 45, “Thou art fairer than the sons of men; grace is poured into thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee for ever” (v.2). If we think particularly of what the Lord Jesus said, we have four gospel accounts of that. There is what He said and what He did – it was “full of grace”.
J.D. So we can appreciate and prove God’s grace and His ways with us, but we are also speaking of God’s grace in relation to effecting His purpose, His desire to make Himself known and bring us into sonship. Grace – as we have said earlier – not only meets need, as we have in “where sin abounded grace has overabounded”, but God is working in grace to bring about what is according to His purpose.
Q.A.P. Do you think that call in the Song of Songs, “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away” (chap.2:10) is transcending grace drawing us apart?
J.D. I am sure it is, so that we can have part with Him.
D.J.W. Would the word “fulness” in itself involve what is transcending? It does not say we have been given this, but “we all have received”, which would involve that there is capacity on our part to imbibe what is available, do you think?
J.D. It really speaks of what has come within our reach: “for of his fulness we all have received, and grace upon grace”. We have said that grace links with the spirit of what has been introduced, and then grace maintains what is introduced. We need grace, in contrast to what we are naturally. It says, “grace and truth subsists”. The footnote already referred to explains that grace and truth is in the singular, that these things subsist and are seen substantially in Jesus Christ. What we see is the introduction of a Person who glorifies God, the name ‘Jesus Christ’ would suggest that. He was a Man on the earth whom God could glorify, Jesus Christ.
P.A.G. Is that why grace is connected with display? It says, “that he might display in the coming ages the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus”, Eph.2:7.
J.D. We have Jesus Christ here, the Man, the incarnation involving One who came here and who answered to God’s glory, but Christ Jesus is the same Person in display in glory.
T.M. It says, “the Word became flesh”, that is He became what He was not before, so John 1 is in one sense descending grace. Then when you come to John 20 it is ascending grace bringing us into relationship with God and the Father.
J.D. That helps us to understand and consider things. We can speak about descending grace, “the Word became flesh”, and then ascending grace, “I ascend”. Both descending grace and ascending grace are ‘transcending grace’, because it is the excess of how divine Persons have operated.
D.J.W. Is it to be known as what is effective in the believer to accomplish the divine end?
J.D. Yes, so grace is one of the greatest powers that we can have to do with. Grace effects in the believer what nothing else can effect. We come to that through moral teaching, such as we have in Romans. We realise that grace operates in us as having to do with God to change us as believers so that we can be conformed to His will.
D.J.W. I was thinking of Luke 10, as to the Samaritan journeying. The lawyer attributed the Samaritan’s actions to mercy (v.37) but really it is a display of divine grace that the Samaritan took the wounded man up from where he was found, and put him on his own beast and placed him in a sphere where grace was operative.
J.D. And took him to the inn – which as you say is a whole sphere where grace and love operate. In the last verse we read in the section in John 1 it says, “No one has seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”. It is wonderful that it is in an environment of love that grace has been revealed.
Q.A.P. Is there a link with what Paul says to the elders of Ephesus in Acts 20, “And now I commit you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give to you an inheritance among all the sanctified”, v.32? That is transcending grace as it has the inheritance in view.
J.D. And the context is that he had not shrunk from announcing the whole counsel of God (v.27). It links the matter of grace with the counsel and the purpose of God, and whilst we very much appreciate divine grace in relation to our need and meeting that need, divine grace involves much more than that.
Q.A.P. The elders would have carried that back to Ephesus.
P.A.G. Does transcending grace really relate to what is heavenly?
J.D. Yes. That is really what we have in John 20. I am glad you make that comment because that is why we read to the end of verse 22. It says there, “And having said this, he breathed into them, and says to them, Receive the Holy Spirit”. We know from the teaching that it is the spirit of the ascending Man1 and that is your thought, that it is linking us on with what is heavenly. What wonderful grace is conferred upon us that we should have part in what is heavenly.
Where we began to read in John 20, verse 16 says “Jesus says to her, Mary”. What wonderful grace it was that the Lord should speak to Mary in this way, and use her name. And then “She, turning round, says to him in Hebrew, Rabboni, which means Teacher”. There is an example in that verse of ‘grace and truth’. The Lord is expressing it and Mary is realising it in Jesus in how He speaks to her.
D.J.W. It is very touching that at first she turns backward (v.14), but immediately He calls her by name she turns round. She is now facing Him and her back is towards the place of His death, she is looking in the opposite direction. It seems to suggest the substantial character of the new view she is getting.
J.D. It says, “She, turning round, says to him in Hebrew, Rabboni, which means Teacher”. When the Lord in His grace comes in and gives us a touch as to Himself, it would involve a measure of adjustment on our part. In His grace He would adjust us so we would turn round to face in the right direction. We can see Him, we can hear Him; and then He gives her this wonderful message.
G.McK. He says to Mary, “Touch me not”. I suppose we think about Mary that she would have held Him in the way that she had known Him before, but I was wondering if we need to get more of the good of what the Lord said to her for ourselves. We may in our minds limit the thoughts of the Lord’s grace. These things cannot be limited, they are transcendent. Our brother has suggested that what is in mind is what is heavenly, and the Lord is moving. It is good to think not only about what Mary learned, but to ask whether I am learning it too.
J.D. I think that is instructive. When we read the words of the Lord Jesus, “Touch me not”, we may think that seems a little unfair towards Mary. But it was because the Lord had something far greater in mind, and if she had touched Him then it would have in one sense allowed the continuation of the Jewish relationship with the Lord. But He was on entirely new ground. It is in grace that He says to her, “Touch me not”. In our own experience, perhaps the Lord has to say to us ‘Touch me not’, so that we might have a greater apprehension of what He is bringing us into.
D.B.B. The Lord had given her an instruction as to what to say to His own, but the first thing she said to them is that she had seen the Lord, before she carries out the instruction.
J.D. That would be the most important thing, the realisation of having seen the Lord. It is the Person that she has seen, and it is the Person that she hears and it is that Person’s message that she gives. It all centres in that Person.
D.J.W. It is striking that John himself changes his position. It does not say that Mary goes taking the message, but “Mary of Magdala comes bringing word to the disciples”. He is immediately transferred to a new position.
J.D. So grace does that. Grace upon grace is bringing in this positive change in outlook and in position. It is for us then to get the benefit. I am thinking of our brother’s point, Mary “says to him in Hebrew, Rabboni”, which I understand means ‘mine own Teacher’. How important it is for each of us individually to lay hold of this, ‘mine own Teacher’, that we may enter into what is collective. That change of position we see not only with Mary, but – as you draw attention to – with John also as he then describes the situation. He is immediately identifying himself with the collective position because she is bringing the word to them.
A.J.McK. This transcending grace is appreciated collectively in an intelligent company. I was thinking again about the hymn that we sang. It spoke about His declaring ‘on resurrection’s morning’, Hymn 117. There is something dignified about that, it is not just that He said, but there is a declaration, “to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”. That is what characterised that company, they were together in relation to that declaration and that is where that grace is appreciated.
J.D. That is good. It is “grace and truth”: the message is to them, it is grace, but it is very clear, it is truth, so it is “grace and truth”. It comes to them, and it is to have an effect upon them. It is a wonderful message: we quote it so often that we may lose the sense of how wonderful it was for the Lord to say to Mary, “for I have not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”. He speaks of relationships that had never been known in this way before.
R.D.P. I was thinking of our brother’s comment that it involves another scene. Our impression of grace may be as to meeting our need and sustaining us in a sphere of need, but Paul’s ministry goes on to speak about “the full knowledge of him”, Eph.1:17. That is grace! The reference you get later, “that he might display in the coming ages” (Eph.2:7), is not only the relief of man in his sins but the fulness of the thoughts of God in bringing men into the expansiveness of His thoughts. That is grace.
J.D. It is the riches of His grace. It is not in this way linked with need, unless perhaps God’s need to have an answer, but I like what you say, it is really grace. We sometimes speak about love away from home, or love at home. But really we are referring to grace at home, grace in that realm where everything is according to God, where relationships are centred in Christ who has established what is for God. He is the only One who could say “I ascend”, no other person could say that than the Person who has established this world of grace that proceeds for the pleasure of God.
P.A.G. You have spoken about grace bringing in adjustment. Do you think transcending grace really has a displacing effect?
J.D. We commented yesterday that what marks Christianity is not that we work up to anything; by faith in Christ Jesus we are sons, and then it is not a matter of replacement, it is a matter of displacement. Grace comes in with the best thoughts from God to displace everything that belongs to us naturally.
P.A.G. There were things to be displaced in Corinth but Paul says, “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ”, 2 Cor.8:9. You may say, ‘What about all these terrible things?’ but “ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ” would displace these things. Paul is able to speak to the Corinthian saints about God being “all in all”, 1 Cor.15:28.
J.D. Grace is brought in in Corinthians where things were not right. Grace effects what the law could never do, and that is a wonderful thing. We may struggle with that naturally; how can that be? But God’s grace in our souls brings about what nothing else can. Delivering us, displacing what is in us that is not in accord with God – but then clothing us, so we have some appreciation of being clothed in the worth of Christ. That will help us with many other practical matters.
P.A.G. The law would never have displaced fear of the Jews; it would have made it worse! But grace displaces fear of the Jews and brings in peace and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
J.D. The Lord says here, “Peace be to you”. He says it at the end of verse 19 and again at the end of verse 21. We would not want to stretch the application of the first scripture we read, but it is like “grace upon grace”, He is wanting them to be established in an environment. I think that is an environment in which this grace is known, involving the presence of God. When the Lord comes and takes His place in the midst, that is where everything is according to divine grace.
H.T.F. Grace then is resource and supply, and transcending grace is really abundance.
J.D. Yes, what abundance there is! In John’s gospel the Lord says, “that they might have life, and might have it abundantly” (chap.10:10). That is not life in contrast to death, it is life according to God. It is life of the kind that the Lord was making known in relation to the Father and the relationships that we have been brought into where we can take up what He says as to “my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”. Sonship must be the greatest expression of grace, that we are sons, and we come in with Christ as sons through adoption and have part in sonship. The greatest thing that grace could confer is that we are sons.
R.D.P. In Romans 5 you get references to “And not only that” (vv.3,11). I know that the writer there is speaking about the fulness of the glad tidings, but “not only that” applies in other ways. We have been thinking this week of the river of His grace which is flowing. In Ezekiel, the river becomes fuller, wider and deeper, and not only that, it comes to a point where it is a river that could not be passed through, waters to swim in (Ezek.47:1-5). It is grace that is effecting this, going far beyond the meeting of the sinner’s need. It is the fulness of God’s grace that would take us to the fulness of His thoughts.
J.D. In that scripture in Ezekiel the river flows out from the house (v.1). That is the first thing said, that it flows out from the house, bringing before us God’s prime thoughts; grace was securing an answer for Himself. The river of God’s grace is a wonderful thing and I do not want to confuse the line of enquiry by speaking about it in relation to the glad tidings, but it is a wonderful thing that divine grace is not dependent upon its reception, it is dependent upon God, who is the One who has displayed divine grace. How wonderful that is! That is why this dispensation, the longest dispensation, is one of grace – it expresses the goodness of God. It is not based on man’s reception but on God’s disposition. That river never stops until this dispensation ends.
R.W.McC. Do you think that the way God has operated in grace has laid a foundation for Him to operate further in grace? The wonderful work of salvation has been accomplished, but layered on top of that, as it were, in “grace upon grace”, we are brought in as brethren, and we are brought in as sons. I was thinking of the Father’s house in Luke 15. The younger son is no longer there on ordinary, natural ground: he is there without any other entitlement but grace.
J.D. It is making way for all that God has in mind, “grace upon grace”. Grace meets us in our need, but there is what surpasses our need, including these different relationships, relationships of grace. That would involve relationships among believers as well, horizontal relationships. You mentioned that believers are brethren of Christ, but we are brethren in relation to one another too, that is “grace upon grace”. Then we are not only brethren, but we are also brought into sonship: what relationships of grace, how wonderful they are! What is conferred includes the dignity that belongs to such relationships and such a realm, and all of it is making way for the enjoyment of God’s love.
D.J.W. The river in Ezekiel 47 goes into the sea, does it not? It is effective in changing the whole environment, what was dead now becomes living and fruitful for us and for God (vv.8-10).
J.D. That is the wonderful effect of grace in contrast to the law, because the law could never introduce life. Grace has made way for life to be known, brought in through Christ: “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sakes he, being rich, became poor, in order that ye by his poverty might be enriched”.
D.J.W. What would you say about “as the Father sent me forth, I also send you”?
J.D. You are referring to verse 21: “Jesus said therefore again to them, Peace be to you: as the Father sent me forth, I also send you”, and then He breathes into them. I think there is some thought that they were to represent what He had represented in the features of the Father. He is now departing, He was going to be with them for forty days, but there was to be a continuation of what they had seen in Him of the Father. What do you think?
D.J.W. The same character is intended to be conveyed, so if there was fulness of grace there in Him we are to express the same. It is a dignified word, being sent.
J.D. I think that is good. The character of how Christ did things was how they could see the Father, “He that has seen me has seen the Father” (chap.14:9). There was what the Lord did and how He did it, and the dignity of it; and now – as you are drawing attention to – He is saying to them “as the Father sent me forth, I also send you”. What a dignity is imparted as we go forward in the testimony. And then it says, “having said this, he breathed into them, and says to them, Receive the Holy Spirit”.
Q.A.P. In chapter 5 the Lord Jesus says that the Father judges no one but “has given all judgment to the Son” (v.22). I think it has been said that the Father’s name is a name of pure grace and love. Does that link on?
J.D. Yes, it has been said too that the name of the Father conveys all that can be known of God in grace. The scripture goes on to say, “whose soever sins ye remit”; that is put first. It is this matter of the dispensation continuing in grace, it continues in that character. As has been drawn attention to, “as the Father sent me forth, I also send you”.
Q.A.P. So there is a formation in grace in persons.
P.A.G. Does it also suggest that Christ as the anointed vessel has a counterpart that is anointed? We do not get the assembly officially in John, as you well know, but still “as the Father sent me forth, I also send you”, suggests that Christ’s counterpart is fully suited by the anointing to represent Him in the scene of His absence.
J.D. You are linking the thought that the Lord was sent when the Spirit descended upon Him. He was marked out and thus His ministry proceeded and on that basis He was sent. He came of His own volition, but then He was anointed, the Spirit descended as a dove (Matt.3:16), and He went forth in service. The same character then is to mark the testimony and all who form part of the assembly.
That would take us to the last scripture we read in Ephesians 1:22. It says there, “and has put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the assembly, which is his body, the fulness of him who fills all in all”. This would bring before us the greatness of the assembly, which is His body.
R.W.McC. Grace is not limited to time.
J.D. That is helpful; grace is not only what we can take account of in the ways of God, but we are thinking of grace in relation to the purpose of God and that links too with what has been said about the matter of display and what will be displayed in the coming ages. The effects of grace will be displayed, the fulness of grace will be seen here. These things are mentioned in the previous verses, and then it says, “gave him to be head over all things to the assembly, which is his body, the fulness of him…”; what wonderful capacity the assembly has.
G.J.R. As to your thought and the hymn you mentioned:
‘Soon we shall, as come to glory,
Thy transcendent grace relate’,
these words suggest we are going to speak about it, we are going to speak to one another, we will relate that grace. Am I right that we shall have experienced the judgment seat of Christ by then and would you include that in the provision of divine grace?
J.D. Yes, I would, because it is not punitive, as the hymn writer says:
‘To learn the meaning, at His hand,
Of every deed in every day!’ (Hymn 299)
What a wonderful matter it will be! Where it speaks about the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor.5:10), it then says, “For the love of the Christ constrains us” (v.14). It also speaks about a new creation (v.17), so even the judgment seat of Christ is grace making way for this realm that is going to subsist eternally. As the hymn helpfully says, there will be these conditions of new creation where we can ‘relate’ what has been effected and it will ever be a consideration of divine grace.
P.A.G. What is being said is helpful because this vessel, “the fulness of him who fills all in all”, fills that place administratively. God will be “all in all”, but this is the vessel that will be the tabernacle of God: “the tabernacle of God is with men”, Rev.21:3. That is grace beyond need. It is not because there will be any need then, but it is because God “all in all” will be seen in Christ and the assembly, and she will be the vessel whereby men can tabernacle, and God can tabernacle with men.
J.D. And it is grace because God is God! The assembly is a creature vessel, and so the tabernacle of God being with men, because God is God, must be grace. What we have here is “which is his body, the fulness of him…”, so the assembly has the capacity to appreciate all that has been revealed in Christ. We were reading John’s gospel locally, and right at the end of the book it says, “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which if they were written one by one, I suppose that not even the world itself would contain the books written” (chap.21:25). But the assembly can contain the books written. The assembly has been described as the library of the universe. How wonderful the assembly is: “which is his body, the fulness of him who fills all in all”.
R.J.F. Is there therefore a suggestion in what we are speaking about that grace accumulates? I was just looking at the next chapter: “display in the coming ages the surpassing riches of his grace” (chap.2:7). I do not think that is a transient thing that is put on display for that time, but it seems to me that that is an accumulation of the operation of divine grace throughout the ages.
J.D. Earlier on in the chapter it speaks about “according to the riches of his grace” (v.7). There is what grace has effected, and the accumulation of what grace has effected leads to the display in the coming ages of “the surpassing riches of his grace”.
D.J.W. It is the feature that characterises God’s final thought. I suppose the millennium will be the demonstration of righteousness, but this dispensation is the climax of God’s ways and demonstrates grace.
J.D. It must be linked with the perfection that is found in Christ. Righteousness will reign in the millennium where the Lord will be known especially as the Son of Man, but think of all that belongs to Christ as the Son of God and the One who has made the Father known. Then the assembly has the capacity to fully appreciate it. We use expressions such as, ‘the response is equal to the revelation’ and they may become statements that we make perhaps without fully appreciating what is meant, but how wonderful the assembly is! It says “the fulness of him who fills all in all”. The matter of “all in all” must be a reference to God, it must be a reference to deity. As we considered previously, we know the assembly does not have part in deity, but she comes very close to it because as in Christ Jesus she becomes a display of what God is as revealed in Christ.
R.D.P. The final view of the river in Ezekiel is “a river that could not be passed through” (chap.47:5); it is beyond this time. There is something that “could not be passed through” about these things we speak of.
J.D. That is a good note to end on. The apprehension of what “could not be passed through” magnifies the fulness of what we have been brought into through the transcendent grace of God.
Birmingham
14 May 2023
James Drummond
KEY TO INITIALS
D.B.B. David B. Bodman Birmingham
J.D. James Drummond Aberdeen
R.J.F. Roland J. Flowerdew Sunbury
H.T.F. H. Tim Franklin Grimsby
P.A.G. Paul A. Gray Linlithgow
T.M. Tony Mair Cullen
R.W.McC. Robert W. McClean Grimsby
A.J.McK Alastair J. McKay Witney
G.McK Garth McKay Manchester
R.D.P. Ron D. Plant Birmingham
Q.A.P. Quentin A. Poore Swanage
G.J.R. G. John Richards Malvern
D.J.W. David J. Willetts Birmingham
A FRIEND OF JESUS2
Lazarus was the Lord’s immediate product. He raised him. He was the Lord’s friend. Is it not lovely to be the Lord’s friend? “Our friend Lazarus”, He said. Moses called his firstborn Gershom, “I have been a stranger in a strange land”. That is what the world was to Jesus. He made it: “The world was made by him, and the world knew him not”. How strange it must have been that there was no response – but He had a friend in it! Lazarus was a friend of Jesus in this strange place that He had to do with. I believe that the conditions that He found in the world caused the Lord constant sorrow; the whole scene was blighted and opposed. Every step He took caused strange opposition. It was most unfair and uncalled for, as He said, “They hated me without a cause”, John 15:25. How valuable was a friend in it! That is what Lazarus was, and what the disciples were according to John. “I call you not servants … but I have called you friends”, John 15:15. Wonderful, indeed, to be a friend to Jesus in a strange place like this!
I wonder if all our dear young brothers and sisters look upon this world as strange, or is it just what you like and where you aspire to be? When Jesus came into it, it was a strange place to Him. Ah! it was very strange, but He found a friend in it and He finds friends now.
JT New Series Vol 89 p.442
RESPONSIBILITY AS TO MAINTENANCE OF THE TRUTH
I would not venture to say anything at all, after what has been before us, did I not in some sense feel conscious of having a word from the Lord. And what I first wish to press upon each one is our individual responsibility in regard to the maintenance of the truth. It is very easy to put the responsibility of maintaining the truth on those who minister the truth. It is certainly not given to every one to minister the truth. Ministry is in the power of gifts from Christ, and He claims to be sovereign in that matter; and it is a privilege to minister in the truth. But I say without any hesitation that it is the responsibility of every one of us to maintain the truth. We do not maintain the truth merely by clinging tenaciously to the terms of the truth, but by being ourselves the exponents of the truth. You may think what I say is hard, but I judge that we ought to be prepared to surrender everything – whatever we have in this life, the dearest ties and associations, whatever honour or glory or position we may have – in order to be exponents of the truth which the Lord has given us to maintain. It is very easy to justify having things agreeable here – and God may allow us to enjoy many things here – but they may readily be too prominent with us, and when they are the truth has a second place; and which, I ask, should have the first place – the things of this life, or the truth? Every right-minded person would allow that the truth is to be the first thing, and we are at all costs to maintain it; and the divine way to maintain it is by ourselves being the expression of it, and everything has to be subordinate to that. So I say that, in a sense the less a man has in this world the better. …
… I want to say another word in regard to our responsibility to maintain the truth. There are two things here to which we have to return; two things which marked saints at the beginning. Where there has been departure you are bound to go back to first principles, and you have to go to the outset to find them. If the Spirit of God has opened your eyes in any measure to the true state of things, that is what you have to do. Now the two things to which I refer are great safeguards; and you must keep within them if you want to be in the truth, and in liberty from what is about. They are the reproach of Christ and the power of the Spirit. If I may speak of them as principles (though they are not exactly principles, for the Spirit of God is not a principle), these are what you must hold to, if you want to be maintained in liberty from all that is about us – that is, from Babylon. …
... You have come to spiritual circumcision that every difficulty between one and another may be removed, that we may be able to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace; and in eating the old corn of the land you have come to heavenly associations (the manna, the food of the wilderness, ceases); and you have come to the Captain of the Lord’s host; you are occupied with His interests; you are led by Him into conflict with the power of evil – and the place is holy.
Do not make the fatal mistake of supposing that this refers only to those who minister – that no one is responsible for maintaining and guarding the truth but those who minister it. The spiritual circumcision refers to all. We all have to stand to the truth of it. … Though it may only be given to a few to minister, it is the responsibility and privilege of each one to stand to, and seek to maintain the truth, and that, not by dogmatism, but by being exponents of it.
Extracts from FER New Series Vol. 2 pages 268-281
Edited and published monthly by Alistair Brown and Paul Martin
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