GRACE - THE LAW OF GOD'S KINGDOM
GRACE — THE LAW OF GOD’S KINGDOM
Zechariah 6: 10 - 13; Hebrews 2: 6 - 10; Hebrews 4: 13 - 16
My reason for speaking on a previous occasion of the kingdom was the very great practical effect on each one of us of a proper apprehension of its existence. I noticed that the apostle Paul is found at the end of the Acts “preaching the kingdom of God”. It was evidently an important subject of the apostle’s testimony. It began with Peter, and Paul takes up the theme, no doubt with fuller light. I referred also to the two great features of the kingdom — Christ exalted and glorified, not yet seated on His own throne, but made Lord and Christ at the right hand of God, and the Spirit down here; that is, a power equivalent to the authority at the right hand of God. Now I feel sure that if you do not understand that, you do not understand the kingdom, for the kingdom is a spiritual kingdom; and though it has the features of a kingdom, it is not yet manifested. That it is a spiritual kingdom is proved by the fact of its being maintained by the power of the Holy Spirit down here. You could not have the authority of the Lord maintained down here except by the power of the Holy Spirit — no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Spirit — you have no sense of the authority of the Lord Jesus but by the Holy Spirit. To understand the kingdom we must of necessity have the lordship of Christ before us as a reality, and to that end it is maintained not only in word, but in power.
Now there are three points in reference to the kingdom that I want to bring before you. First, the Law of the kingdom; and when I say law I do not use the word in a technical and limited sense, but meaning by it the principle of the kingdom, in the same way that one speaks of the “laws of nature”, law in the sense of rule or principle. Then the second point is how that law is maintained, so that it should be efficient in regard of us, for it must be maintained in some way. And my third point is the application of the law of the kingdom to us, how it is intended to affect saints. I think that you will get help from the consideration of these things — not directly from what I say, but it may arouse the question in your minds — and you will find that there is great practical benefit to be derived from the kingdom. But I come to my first point: the law of the kingdom.
In the hand of man the kingdom has become a great mustard tree, and the principle of the kingdom is law, and I use the word now in its limited and technical sense; men have availed themselves of the kingdom, and have adapted it to the world. Kings and queens profess to rule “by the grace of God”, but in their hands the principle of the kingdom could not be grace; this is not possible, for they could not govern on that principle in the existing state of things, and so if man takes up the kingdom, the principle must of necessity be law: no other principle is possible in the world. The kingdom in the hand of man has thus been falsified, in that a principle has been introduced absolutely foreign to the thought of God. Now the simple principle of the kingdom is grace, and a verse will prove this to you; “As sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord”. The kingdom in the divine thought of it is the reign of grace. You get the same thought expressed in the scripture I read in Hebrews 4: “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need;” that is, grace is enthroned, and that is the thought of the kingdom according to God. I have no doubt whatever that when the kingdom is set up manifestly, when Christ has come to take up the government [p. 352] here, the kingdom will have that character. The law was given by the disposition of angels, but the world to come is put under the Son of man because the foundation of the world to come is in redemption; so in that day grace will reign through righteousness unto eternal life. We antedate that time and apprehend that the principle of the kingdom is grace.
The kingdom being founded on righteousness, sin is not imputed; hence we are not under law, but under grace, and so we can “come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need”. It is a wonderful thing to find mercy and grace. I have experienced this for myself, and have seen it in its application to others. Saints are sometimes brought into very great straits; their way almost shut up, they come into extremity; but though they may be put thus through trial and sorrow for their good, yet mercy and grace come in, for they are not under law, but under grace. But you cannot come to the throne of grace with self-assertion; you must come in lowliness, and then you will find mercy and grace to help. And grace reigns unto eternal life. I do not think that the idea in that is to put eternal life off to the future: it is the end in view; grace must result in eternal life, and sin resulted in death. It is sometimes said that eternal life is generally future in Paul’s writings; but Paul does not, I judge, intend to present eternal life in the future, but in a moral sense, For instance he speaks of our having our fruit unto holiness, and, “the end everlasting life” — that does not put it off to the future; and so, too, in writing to Timothy he says: “Lay hold on eternal life”, and again to the Galatians, “He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting”. The reaping-time is now; you reap eternal life of the Spirit. Well, my first point is that the law of the kingdom is grace, and I would say, Get your eye off what men have made of [p. 353] the kingdom of God, and bear in mind that the principle of the kingdom according to God is grace.
The next point is a little difficult to make clear, but I trust the Lord may give me grace to convey to you what is before me. It is how the principle of the kingdom is practically maintained. Now I do not doubt for a moment that this is by priesthood, and I do not see how it could be maintained otherwise. We could not be maintained in the liberty of grace apart from priesthood. The first mention of priesthood in the Old Testament was when Abraham was returning from the slaughter of the kings; Melchisedec, the priest of the Most High God, met him, and brought forth bread and wine. At any rate we get in that incident the idea of support and of joy ministered to Abraham, the man of God, and it was after the slaughter of the enemies. It was the expression of the divine mind in regard of Abraham; it was the pleasure of God to minister to Abraham, in whom the people of God were foreseen.
Now in looking at the passage in Zechariah 6: 11, etc., we pass on to the future. Joshua, the high priest, who was crowned, was not the Branch; he simply represented the Branch. Of Him we read that He sits and rules upon His throne; He is King upon the throne of David. There are two very distinct thoughts in the passage; one is that He is King, He “shall sit and rule upon his throne;” and the other, “He shall be a priest upon his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both” — that is, the establishment of peace is dependent upon the throne and the priesthood. In the millennium, the throne and the priesthood will be combined in Christ. He is a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. Then the people of God will have the counsel of peace, and they will experience too the support and refreshment that the Lord will bring forth to them. He will fulfil the type of Moses and Aaron, who, on the day of the [p. 354] consecration, came out of the tabernacle and blessed the people. As yet Christ is not seated upon His throne: “We see not yet all things put under him, but we see Jesus ... crowned with glory and honour”. In Psalm 110, He is called to sit on the right hand of God: “Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool;” but that is not His own throne, and this prophecy is not literally fulfilled until He takes His throne; but it shows what is proper to Him, and He will yet have it; but for the moment He is a Priest at the right hand of God. For us the Son of man is crowned with glory and honour at the right hand of God, and is a Priest there; but you cannot yet get priesthood exercised after the Melchisedec character, because Christ is not yet a King upon His throne.
Now, for the application of priesthood to us, we may look at the end of Hebrews 4. Christ has passed through the heavens — a figure taken, no doubt, from the high priest on the day of atonement, for, as we have seen, Christ is not yet upon His throne. It is evident that the object of the priesthood of Christ is that grace may be available to us, that we may come “boldly” to the throne of grace, to find grace for daily need. We do not come there for the assuring of our hearts that we are forgiven our sins — that is not the idea of it; but it is available for saints in their course down here. There are two forms of pressure under which we come, weakness within and pressure from without; there are few people who do not know something of both. As conscious of weakness, we need, not just bread and wine, but grace and mercy: grace in regard of weakness within, and mercy in regard to pressure without. If people are callous and indifferent or hard, they do not get the experience of grace; but if on the other hand, they are lowly, they experience both grace and mercy. It is not the thought of God that we should be shut up in extremity, but that we should obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
[p. 355] Priesthood stands in contrast to mediatorship. In the provision of a Mediator, God has bridged the distance between Himself and man; that was the thought of grace. God had to be glorified, righteousness to be secured, and God to be revealed, and all that has been effected; but with all that, the thought of grace was to bridge the distance between God and man, and that in a moral sense. Now in the Mediator this is effected; we find “there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus”, and in the fact of the one Mediator, and of His having given Himself a ransom for all, the distance between God and man has been annulled on God’s side. In the Mediator, God has brought Himself close to man, so that the testimony of the gospel goes out to man; God can approach man thus. He would have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth; He can approach man thus, because the infinite distance between Himself and man has been removed in the Mediator and in His work. God presents Himself now to man as a “Saviour God”.
But the distance had also to be bridged on man’s side, as to his sense of things; approach to God had to be secured practically, and what makes it practical is the priest. Priesthood is essential to us, that in our minds the distance between man and God might be abolished; and you do not understand this except as you enter into the reality of priesthood. I feel sure we do not appreciate the place that priesthood fills in the divine economy; we see the testimony of God going out world-wide, because the distance between God and man has been bridged in the Mediator; but saints are not so sensible of how the distance is gone between man and God, bridged through the Priest. The Priest is Representative of His people; that is clear: He does not represent God, but the people of God. He “ever liveth to make intercession for them”. Aaron was representative of Israel, and now Christ [p. 356] is Representative of the true people of God, and our righteousness is perfect, for our Representative is our righteousness. So, though we are a poor infirm people on earth, we are represented by One who is not infirm or imperfect. Nothing can in any way interfere with our righteousness — He is our righteousness; righteousness is eternally secured, and so “we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand”.
But the One who is our Representative in the presence of God is One who can feel with us in our weakness and infirmity here; that is a great point to get hold of; and thus it is we learn how the distance is gone between ourselves and God, the righteous One is our righteousness in the presence of God, and sympathises with us in our infirmities. Now, you will admit that this is a different thought from that of the Mediator; the Mediator is not for the people of God; the Mediator has to say on the part of God to the unconverted; the Mediator is between God and men, and its application is universal — He gave Himself a ransom for all — but the Priest is not for the unconverted, but is Representative of the people of God — that is, of the converted. He is before the face of God for them, and sympathises with them in the pressure under which they are.
It is most wonderful to think that a divine Person is our Representative in the presence of God, and at the same time able, as a Man, to sympathise with us in our weakness and infirmity down here. It has been said that priesthood is for the prevention of failure — to help us in our pressure. Now, that is a great point, and we must all acknowledge how much we miss from not having a more real sense of the Priest. He is at the right hand of God interceding for us, for His people.
Now, you have the sense that you can come boldly to the throne of grace, that you may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. I do not want to go to God for this or that to improve my circumstances [p. 357] or gratify me as to things down here, but as a suppliant for grace and mercy. Deeply conscious of weakness within and of pressure without — it may be pressure of circumstances, or of ill-health, or of bereavement — I am in circumstances where I need mercy and grace to help in time of need. Well, if you have the sense of the Priest, and of His sympathy, you will come boldly to the throne of grace. I lay stress on the word boldly.
Priesthood is the divinely-ordained way that grace might be in the ascendant in the hearts of the saints, that they should be conscious of and use the throne of grace, and I do not think that in any other way people could be conscious that the way is open to God.
I want you to follow the distinction I have drawn between the Mediator and the Priest; there can be no failure in God’s approach to man in the Mediator, but in the question of our approach to God there may be much failure to appropriate the Priest. We cannot fail to see how everything has been falsified in Christendom: they have set up a priesthood in imitation of Judaism, for when failure comes in, men will go back to a former dispensation. The Galatians were going back to law and circumcision; and Christendom in the same way has gone back to a priesthood after the flesh, which I should repudiate emphatically. The truth is that the king and the priest must go together, and I do not care for any priest who is not also king. In Christ we find the King and the Priest and the Prophet all combined; He who is Priest at the right hand of God is both Lord and Christ.
I come now to my third point: why we are placed under grace down here. It is that we might have our senses exercised to discern between good and evil. You can carry out righteousness only in the presence of grace. You could not walk in self-judgment except as in the sense of grace, that is, that sin is not imputed; then it is that I can judge sin in myself, and that is [p. 358] the first principle of righteousness in a Christian. If my mind is assaulted by evil — evil thought or evil conception — I have to humble myself that I should have allowed myself to be thus overcome, even for a moment; but in so doing I judge myself; I do not remain there. It is in the very fact of my being under grace that I have ability thus to judge myself. If ‘clouds have dimmed my sight’, having judged myself, I find out that Christ is as bright to me as ever — ‘Towards me as e’er Thou’rt bright’. And the result of all that is, you have your senses exercised to discern between good and evil. Did you ever judge yourself before you were converted? No, you could not; unconverted people could have no clear sense of good and evil, because they do not judge themselves in regard to God; they may judge themselves by their fellows, but not in the light of God; they do not think of judging the thoughts and intents of their hearts. Many brought up in the light of christianity are straightforward and honourable in regard to their fellow-men, but they do not judge themselves; and that is the first principle of righteousness.
Well, the result of being under grace is that, having your senses exercised to discern between good and evil, it produces the peaceable fruits of righteousness, and that leads to fruit unto holiness. There is the practice of righteousness and advance in holiness, and righteousness and holiness are the characteristics of the new man. The new man is created after God in righteousness and holiness of truth; for you could not get righteousness and holiness apart from truth: it all comes out in the light of the blessed revelation of God; it is there that you reach righteousness and holiness.
Now all this is consequent upon the Priest. Little as I understand it I bless God for the divine ordering and appointment in the Priest.
My desire is that you may not take up divine things as amateurs; it is not in that way that we come into [p. 359] the reality of them. You have to go into things with purpose of heart, and then you learn something of the value of the Priest, and see the blessed grace that is leading you in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. And righteousness always goes in the direction of holiness, and the end is eternal life. You come to that which is truth in Jesus, “the having put off the old man ... and put on the new”.
May God give us to know better the principles of the kingdom, and how it is maintained, and what we gain from the fact of our being placed under grace, and having a throne of grace where we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.