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(2) THE SON OF GOD

(^[p. 371] 2) THE SON OF GOD

I do not think that I am without a sense of the gravity of speaking on the subject before me. We have previously contemplated Christ as Mediator; now I want to present Him to you in another aspect, namely, as the Son of God.

I feel almost bewildered in attempting to do this, because what is connected with Him as “Son of God” is so vast, that it is most difficult to select any definite thoughts to bring before you in this connection. But I wish to dwell upon Christ as “Son of God”; and to show you what is distinctive of Him as such.

There are many designations of Christ in Scripture, as “the Christ”, “Mediator”, “Son of man”, “Leader of our salvation”, “High Priest”, the “Word”, etc., all having application to the same Person, but each at the same time having its own particular significance. This is true also of the title “Son of God”.

It is important to apprehend that the title, “Son of God”, is spoken of as a name inherited. In Hebrews we read: “Being made so much better than the angels, as He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they”. Then follows a quotation from Psalm 2, in which Christ is addressed as “Son of God”.

Now there are certain things evidently distinctive of the Son of God, and one of them is, the voice of the Son of God. Voice is distinctive of a person, or of a class.

There was the voice of the prophets, the voice of law, and in each dispensation it was a voice from God. Now it is: “The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead ^[p. 372] shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live”.

Glory is also distinctive. There is one glory of the sun, another of the moon. And so in regard of divine Persons, there is the glory of the Son and the glory of the Father. The glory of the Father is not the glory of the Son, neither the glory of the Son that of the Father. Each has His own distinction. In chapter 17, the Son prays that He may be glorified. He says; “Glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee”, and afterwards “Glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was”. And at the close of the chapter, He prays on behalf of those given Him, “That they may behold my glory”. In chapter 1, we have a reference to the glory of the Son, “And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father”. That is not the glory of the Father, but of the Son. Thus we have the voice of the Son of God in contrast to every other voice, and the glory of the Son in contrast to every other glory.

Now I do not want to give you many thoughts, and I have not the notion that I can present to you, in a short lecture like this, all the truth of the Son of God. I can only attempt to give you one or two leading thoughts in connection with that name.

In studying the gospels, I believe that the key to the understanding of them is the sense that they present to you one and the same Person, though under different aspects. I have no doubt that a great many would say, we all believe that, but I am not sure whether all have realised it.

In the gospel of Matthew, the Son of God comes in on what may be called the line of promise: the line of Abraham and David. In Mark, He is on the prophetic line. God had said to Moses, “A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you from among your brethren like unto me”. The Son of God comes in on that line. In Luke the Son of God comes in on the ^[p. 373] line of divine grace to man as the seed of the woman. The seed of the woman was to bruise the head of the serpent, and the seed of the woman is the Son of God. But in John we have something altogether distinctive. It is not the Son of God come in on the line of promise, nor on the prophetic line, nor on the line of grace to man, but presented entirely on the side of God. It is the Son revealing the Father and His will.

There are two distinct thoughts connected with Christ as the Son of God. One is, His coming forth to express God; and the other is, to give effect to the counsel of the Father. He has come in that God may be perfectly expressed, and the Father’s will and counsel effected.

There has been the perfect expression of God here in this world in Christ. But, alas! the world will not have God, even though perfectly expressed. They would not have prophets; nor will they have God, and if they will not have God, what remains? One thing only, that the Father should accomplish in Christ the counsels of His love.

It is in these two lights that we have the Lord presented to us as Son of God, and that led me to the passages which I have read. It is said, “No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”, the point is the declaration of God in the only-begotten Son. Another point comes out in chapter 17, “These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come: glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee; as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give ^[p. 379] eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent”. I want you to mark well the close of verse 2, “to as many as thou hast given him”. Here we have the counsel of the Father, and authority was given to Christ over all flesh, not to give eternal life to all flesh, but “to as many as thou has given him”. It is the accomplishment of the counsels of the Father by the Son, and has in that sense reference to the Church.

The declaration of God, and that which came out in connection with it, was a most serious thing for the world, resulting in what the Lord said when here, “They have both seen and hated, both me and my Father”. The more fully God was declared, the more the opposition of man was brought to light. It was not the more the light, the less the opposition. There had been the breaking of the law and opposition to prophets, but the greatest opposition of all on the part of man was brought out by the presence of the Son of God here. That is the effect of the declaration of God.

You could not speak of any prophet in the way in which you can speak of Christ, for “God was in Christ”, and thus God was brought close to man. A prophet brought God’s word close to man, but in the Son, God Himself was here.

There is a remarkable expression in Colossians, “In him was all the fulness pleased to dwell”. I understand fulness to mean that which is necessary and adequate for complete display. All the fulness was pleased to dwell in Christ that there might be the complete display of God in this world, and that came to pass. “No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”. It was the special object for which the Son came forth. He came forth from the Father, and He came into the world, He brought into the world the full and perfect expression of God’s heart and thought in regard to the world, and when He left it, He did not leave it as He found it. Its god and prince was manifested.

Christ came full of grace and truth, and when here would not, when appealed to, condemn. He had not come to condemn. He was the Light of the world, and though the light made manifest and convicted — as we ^[p. 375] see in chapter 8, yet, Christ would not condemn. He had come in grace. There was affection for man rather than condemnation. There was no state which was suitable for grace that He did not meet. “Who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil: for God was with him”. Whatever pressure here might be on man, which made him an object for grace, Christ met.

In Him the presentation of grace was perfect, and grace met every necessity of man. I need not allude to the many miracles which the Lord did, or to the compassions of Christ; but it was evidently the pleasure of the Lord to relieve the spirit of man from every pressure under which it was. Christ was full of grace and full of truth; and, in fact, a man wants more than grace, he wants truth too, for grace is not enough. Truth is that which is revealed and may be known of God Himself and of His will. It was the pleasure of God to meet every need of man in grace, and it was equally the pleasure of God to make Himself known to man in Christ.

Now, in what light do you think God can be known in the heart of man at this present time? I will tell you. It is as a Saviour God that He is speaking to man. That is His thought and attitude towards man. He is thus presented, so that man may be in the enjoyment of God? “No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”. The Son of God came in that way, but this only brought out more distinctly the perverseness and contrariety of man. His case is irremediable. And what was true then is true today. It is equally true at the present day that man does not care for the grace of God. If you speak to people about the grace of God, they do not care to hear of it: they do not understand their need of grace, and the thought of it is repugnant to man.

Commonly speaking, men are on too good terms with ^[p. 376] themselves, and therefore do not care to hear of grace and truth, but however this may be, nothing can alter the attitude of God towards man. The present moment is the moment of reconciliation. It is an accepted time, a day of salvation. It is certain that in whatever light God may present Himself to man, man will not have God. You may have as much preaching of the gospel as you like, and have it well preached too, but if there were not a work of God underneath, not a single person in the world would believe it.

No man ever receives light from God, if he is not prepared of God to receive it. No one receives the testimony of the Son of God, apart from the work of God. “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God”. Christ does not begin by saying he cannot enter it, but he cannot see it. The grace of God may be preached in the world in the mighty power of the Holy Spirit, and yet not a soul would accept it, unless there were a distinct work of God in man.

In the parable of the sower, the seed fell into a variety of grounds, but it produced fruit only when sown in the good ground. The mere scattering of the seed did not produce fruit, but where it fell into good ground, there it sprang up and produced fruit. The fact is, that the mind of man, apart from the work of God, does not receive the testimony of God.

The importance of what I say is seen in the effect of it on the preachers, for it makes those who preach the gospel completely dependent upon God, and that is what they should be. Do you think that the power of God simply accompanies the servant? No; the servant ought to be in the line of God’s power. He has to be where the power of God works. If servants were ambitious to be in the line where the power of God works, they would find blessing there. The power of God will be with the servant who is in the line of God’s appointment. God will help that servant very effectually, but it is futile to go in a line which ^[p. 377] God has not appointed. I say this on account of the importance of the point on which I have already spoken, that let there be the most perfect presentation of the grace of God to man, the heart of man rejects it. It is the result of the fall that man’s heart rejects everything of God, and if there is to be fruit for God at all in man it must be the result of His own work: the work of the Father.

The work of the Father must be distinguished even from what Christ Himself was doing when He was here upon earth. The Father drew souls to Christ that they might be enlightened. “No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day”. Christ came to accomplish the will of the Father, the Father drew souls to Him, and He declared to them the Father’s name. The Son of God has come to give effect to the Father’s will. He declared the Father’s name when here, and having gone back to the Father, has sent the promise of the Father — the Holy Spirit. The Father is working for man, but He is working independent of man, and that is what we have presented to us in the first few verses of chapter 17. It is the Father’s counsel, and we have to learn that the Father has wrought for His own pleasure. He has wrought for man by His own Son, but entirely independent of man. It is all His work from beginning to end.

Jesus says, “I have glorified thee on the earth”. The Lord had not hesitated to declare the Father on the earth. He had set forth the Father, and what was in His mind He would accomplish. His living ministry made known the Father’s thought and will.

Now there is another point. He says, “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do”. I take it that Jesus is here speaking in anticipation. There were things which stood in the way of the Father’s counsels being accomplished, and these had to be removed; hence in this gospel you get on the cross the expression, “It is finished”. There was the complete removal of you and me and of everything which obscured the glory of God. People cannot understand that, because the old man has not disappeared from their own eye. We take pretty good care, as far as we can, to save ourselves, but as to what we are morally, every bit of us has disappeared in the cross of Christ from under the eye of God. God did not intend to save one bit of the old man.

There are such expressions in Scripture as “the old man” and “the new man”, “the first man” and “the second man”. The first man was superseded by the second Man, but the old man was completely set aside in the cross; he was condemned in order that there might be place and room for the new man. This was all the work of the Lord, and therefore He could say, “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do”. It was as much as to say, ‘I have removed every hindrance in the way of the accomplishment of the Father’s counsels’. I doubt if the disciples understood the Lord when He said, “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do”. God had been glorified in the very place of His dishonour; the Father’s will had been put in presence, and the work given to Christ to do accomplished.

I turn to the first two verses of chapter 17. The Lord says, “Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him”. I want to show you the significance of these two verses. In speaking thus the Lord was speaking from the place of humiliation which He had taken down here. The Son had come into that position in order that He might accomplish the will of God. He says, “Glorify thy Son”, but He could only be glorified in regard to the position He had taken, and the object was, that “He should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him”. I think His being glorified meant in the first place His being set in a position which made manifest who He was. So long as He was on earth He bore testimony in lowliness, but now He was to be put in a position which would declare who He was. “Glorify thy Son”, is a demand by the Lord. The Son was the revelation of the Father, and both the Son and the Father are working in regard of man, in order that man may enjoy the heart of the Father; that God’s love might be known, that man might be conscious of standing in relationship to Him; and the Son, in being glorified, is made manifest as being the sent One of the Father. For if He is set on the right hand of God, it is manifest that He came from God. “He came from God and went to God”.

We have first the manifestation of the Father’s name. His will and name declared, but we have also the full light of the sent One, and eternal life is this, “That they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent”. Jesus prays to be glorified, in order that He should give eternal life to as many as the Father had given Him. All is to that end.

The fact is that Christ has taken the position of Head of every man — He is the last Adam and second Man. In that position He is declared to be the sent One of the Father. He came forth from the Father in order that He might accomplish all the counsels of the Father. We see the Father and the Son working in perfect communion in order that the Father’s counsels might be accomplished, and accomplished in a world that has rejected Christ. Man will not have the grace of God, none the less the Father accomplishes the counsels of His own will, and they are accomplished in the Son, independent of man.

Now I come to the point of eternal life. Eternal life, in the thought of it in Scripture, is objective. It is a something revealed which faith apprehends. It is in the Son. Christ is it.

^[p. 380] In regard even of natural life, man’s life is not like a vegetable, a mere existence. His life consists in the relationships in which he is set and the affections suited to them. A child grows up into life; it lives at the outset, but it grows up into life. It grows up into the sense of the relationships and affections by which it is surrounded. As mind and sense develop you will see the child becoming conscious of and responsive to these affections. It is a position which no angel knows. It is peculiar to men.

The same is true spiritually with us. We read, “This is eternal life, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ thy sent one”. The grace of God works on the same principle as in natural life. We begin as babes and as we grow up — as the work of God is developed in us, as the Spirit of God takes possession of us — we become conscious of the relationships and affections in which the Father in His will has been pleased to place us.

Christ declares the Father’s name and makes known the Father’s will, and you become conscious that the Son of God, the sent One of the Father, has come to bring you into the light of the Father’s heart. He loves you because the Father gave you to Him, in order that He might bring you to the Father. If He did not bring us to the Father, He would not be accomplishing the will of the Father.

But some one perhaps may say, how am I to understand that? Well, for that purpose the Son has sent forth the promise of the Father.

Thus we have the perfect revelation of the Father’s name and His will. The knowledge of Christ as the Son; the One who has accomplished the Father’s will in regard to man, which gives the Son a peculiar claim upon the affections of His people. He has now gone back to the Father, received the promise of the Father, the Spirit, and the Spirit has come to make effectual in us what has been done in Christ: to set aside in ^[p. 381] us the old man which was condemned on the cross — and to form us by what has been expressed in the cross. I want you to remember those two words, condemned and expressed. Man’s state was condemned and God’s love was expressed, and the Spirit is in us to make that good, that we might accept the condemnation on the one hand, and be led into and formed by the love of God on the other.

The truth is this, the Christian has to come in mind to crucifixion. Christ was actually crucified. We are not actually crucified as He was, but we must come to it in mind; that is, we accept the condemnation, and if we accept that, we are in the light of the love which was expressed in the cross. “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us”. He resides in us to form us by the love of God. He forms us in the truth of the new man that is according to God.

Christ is the expression of it all. We grow up into Christ, and as we do so we enter into the blessed affections and relationships by which we are surrounded. When we were babes we were the subjects of those affections, and as we grow up by the Spirit’s teaching, and accept the witness of the cross, we become conscious of all that in which it has pleased the Father to place us. We see in the New Testament the connection of each divine Person with our place as children:

THE FATHER. “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God”. (1 John 3: 1.)
THE SON. “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the children of God”. (John 1: 12.)
THE HOLY SPIRIT. “The Spirit beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God”. (Romans 8: 16.)

We are thus brought into this perfection of relationships.

^[p. 382] It is that which makes me say that eternal life is presented to us objectively.

It consists in the scene and sphere of affections in which it has been the will of the Father to place us. All has been done in regard of us, but entirely independent of us. The Son came forth that He, and He alone, might give effect to the Father’s will, and He has done this in the declaration of the Father’s name. When the work of redemption had been accomplished, He went to the right hand of God, and, having received the promise of the Father, sent forth the Spirit; and the work of the Spirit is to lead you to accept that which has been effected for God in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is a great point for us to be kept continually in the blessed light of the cross. I am thankful to accept the condemnation there of man, for where sin was condemned, the love of God was expressed, in order that we might be formed into the image of another. “As is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly, and as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly”. And why? Because we have been formed morally in the image of that Man in the light of the cross.

In chapter 1, we have the complete declaration of God. In chapter 17, the accomplishment of the Father’s counsels entirely independent of man. Christ was the solitary One here, and He is glorified solitarily, too. The effect of it all is that we are drawn to Him by the Father, and He then becomes the object of our affections. He makes us conscious of the Father’s affections, and we are thus led into a scene of spiritual affections which man’s heart cannot conceive. Thus has the Son given effect to the Father’s will.

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