(3) THE LORD
([p. 383] 3) THE LORD
My object has been to enlarge a little upon different titles or designations under which Christ is presented to us in the Scriptures, with the desire of showing their particular signification, and the bearing of this on ourselves. I doubt if God has been pleased to make known anything to us in the Scripture except with the purpose of its having an effect upon us. And in whatever light it has pleased God to present Christ to us, this is intended to have its effect upon us. And the more clearly we understand these various titles of Christ, the closer we find ourselves in contact with the One whom they describe.
I have previously spoken of the “Mediator”, and of the “Son of God”, the latter as a name inherited by Christ in becoming Man. Christ is the eternal Son, who became Man and inherited a more excellent name than angels, as stated in Hebrews. (Chapter 1.) He inherited a name which no one but Himself could inherit, Many things in the Old Testament scriptures were written prophetically in view of the eternal Son becoming Man, and had He not become Man the Scriptures would not have been fulfilled. You get striking instances of this, as in Psalm 45: “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom”. And again in Psalm 102.
The significance of the titles or designations, the “Mediator” and “Son of God”, is, I think, evident. They present Christ on the part of God. If God [p. 384] would put Himself in touch or contact with man, there was but one way for Him to do so, namely, by a mediator; and that mediator must be a divine Person, or else it would not have been God putting Himself in touch with man. In sending a prophet God communicated His mind to man, but this was not putting Himself in touch with man. Neither was so in Aaron, the high priest, nor even with Moses; on the contrary, everything which took place on Mount Sinai was the very reverse of it — all was distance and darkness. God was hid, He was not putting Himself in touch with man at all, though Moses was a mediator. But now the eternal Son has become the Mediator, that in Him God might put Himself in touch with man.
There is another thing dependent on that. If the eternal Son becomes the Mediator, of necessity He must give Himself a ransom for all, otherwise it would be that God had passed over the moral condition of man. What I believe is this, that the very introduction of the Mediator necessitated that the Mediator should give Himself a ransom for all, in order that the righteousness of God might be maintained. “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all”.
These are the necessary conditions of God’s approach to man.
In speaking of the title, “Son of God”, there were two thoughts which I sought to present. The first was, the declaration 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”. And further, that not only was God declared, that grace and truth came to light, but the Son came to accomplish the counsels and will of the Father. That is the second thought, which we find in John 17 in which the Lord prays that He may be glorified. (Verses 1 - 5.)
I want you just to bear these two thoughts in mind in connection with the “Son of God”. God declared in [p. 385] fulness of grace and truth, and the Son here the centre and accomplisher of the counsels of the Father.
I am going to speak now of Christ as Lord, as He may enable me. This is quite a different line from Christ as Mediator or as Son of God. It is not the idea of God revealing Himself. Lord is a title of authority, a conferred title. The testimony of Peter and John on the day of Pentecost was: “God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ”. Christ was invested with that title, and this was Peter’s testimony to the Jews who had rejected Him. There are profound depths of meaning in the lordship of Christ. It speaks of the establishment of the kingdom.
The lordship of Christ is a very important point in connection with Christians. It is the point on which I should be prepared to make a stand as a matter of life and death. It is of importance to come in mind to a point where you are prepared to make such a stand. People may bring up all kinds of difficulties connected with the word of God, and I cannot solve them. There are difficulties that will never be solved in this world, but I leave them, God will solve every difficulty some day. I am not going to discuss these difficulties, but there is a ground where I am prepared to make a stand: on the lordship of Christ, and the presence of the Holy Spirit. The one is the consequence of the other. If Christ is Lord, the Holy Spirit is here; and if the Holy Spirit is here, Christ is Lord. He is exalted to the right hand of God, and as He is there, the Holy Spirit has come here to report the glory of the Lord. Everything hangs on those two points — they substantiate the whole word of God.
If a person in this country would not admit these two points, I would have nothing to say to that person. That person is an apostate from Christianity. That is the meaning of the denial of the truth in this country. But if these two points are admitted, then everything in [p. 386] Scripture stands, and stands on the incontrovertible testimony of the Son of God.
Now the truth of Christ being Lord hangs on incarnation and resurrection. Lord is not a title of eternity; Christ has it in resurrection. “God hath made that same Jesus ... both Lord and Christ”. Were it otherwise, the kingdom would not have been founded on accomplished righteousness. Hence we read, “To this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living”.
Every Christian has in himself the witness of Christ’s lordship. That is a great point to come to. We have not to go far to look for external evidence, or to cast about in this direction or that direction for proof, for we carry it in ourselves. Therefore the lordship of Christ has a most important bearing on every one of us. If the lordship of Christ were called in question, you really ought to be able to say that you are yourself witness of it.
One thing is evident, that Christ does not yet reign publicly. That is incontestable. He is not yet sitting on His own throne. He is on the Father’s throne. But the kingdom of heaven exists — the King is there, though not reigning. In Psalm 110 we have His exaltation spoken of prophetically: “Sit thou at my right hand, until I make the foes the footstool of thy feet”. I do not think any one would be disposed to maintain that Christ is yet reigning. All authority is given to Him in heaven and on earth. He has bought everything: He has every possible title to reign, and yet He does not do so. His rights are in abeyance.
Now there are two present applications to us of the lordship of Christ: first, in the way of administration: and secondly, in the way of discipline. It is that which makes me say that every Christian carries in himself evidence of the lordship of Christ; and I want now to show you how you get the gain of His administration, and the benefit of His discipline.
[p. 387] The benefit of His discipline is this, that through it He gives you perception, and thus you come to recognise that the Head of every man is Christ. Everyone must derive from Christ. Man is to be displaced in toto, and everything moral must issue from Christ. That is the force of “Head”. “The head of every man is Christ”, is not the same idea as Christ the Head of the body, the Church. The time will come when every man will come under Christ, He the Head, the source of supply.
‘Lord’ carries another thought altogether; it is a title of authority and administration. Now, if Christ is Lord at the right hand of God, do you think that He can be quiescent in regard of things here? If He is invested with all authority, can He be indifferent as to all here? Look at the verses I have read. (Mark 16: 19 - 20.) When Christ took His place at the right hand of God then you get His administration. “The Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following”. Here was the proof and evidence of His administration, which accompanied the apostles. They went everywhere preaching the word, the Lord working with them. He had given them their commission.
Further, if Christ is Lord at the right hand of God, there must of necessity be a power commensurate to Christ down here. These two things are bound to go together: authority in heaven and power on earth — so we have the Holy Spirit sent down. It is in that way that the Lord wrought with the apostles confirming the word. The authority of Christ, and the power commensurate with that authority, must necessarily go together. Christianity was thus founded.
Do you remember how the presence of the Holy Spirit first manifested itself down here? It was in fulfilment of Psalm 68. “Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men”. This is quoted in Ephesians 4. The [p. 388] prediction in the psalm was fulfilled. Christ had ascended up on high, the Holy Spirit was given, and the presence of the Holy Spirit manifested itself in the way of gifts. That is where man was touched.
The Holy Spirit came in the form of tongues of fire on the day of Pentecost, and in the gift of tongues God was expressing Himself to every nation upon earth. The scattering of men and the confusion of tongues, which had come to pass at the time of Babel, was overcome in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit spoke in every language of man. The power of the Holy Spirit made itself felt in that way. The proof that captivity was captive led was that Christ at the right hand of God had given gifts to men.
I come now to the object for which gifts were given. They were for the bringing about of subjugation to Christ. The object of God in regard to men was to lead them by testimony to the confession of Christ as Lord. Men were to be subdued to Christ, that was the first point. The next point was, that they should be brought into the enjoyment of the blessings that Christ had secured: the blessings of the kingdom. Gifts were given to that end.
It may indeed be said that gift is a great thing. It is a wonderful power, but I want it to be seen in its divine light. I do not think that fluency of speech is gift. Gift is really an expression of Christ down here. Everything now spoken of as gift came out in its perfection and fulness here in Christ. He was the Evangelist, Pastor, and Teacher — service came out to perfection in Him; now that He is on high it is distributed in the power of the Holy Spirit. All service here is in the power of gifts which Christ has given when ascended far above all heavens.
The effect of the evangelist’s work was that men were subdued to Christ. They submitted to baptism in His name. They gave up proud and high thoughts of themselves in bowing to Him. Where you get real [p. 389] evangelistic power you find souls subdued to Christ in the presence of it. The evangelist comes from God endued with gift, and, the Lord working, souls are enlightened and led to confess Christ as Lord. It would not be difficult to quote instances of this from Scripture. When the testimony of the gospel was brought to the Philippian jailor, he was bowed to the Lord. The testimony was, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ”, etc., and he bowed to it. That was the effect of the gift in regard to him. Gift is a wonderful thing, rightly understood. Souls are divinely enlightened by it.
Men have done their best to spoil gift. You might seriously hinder a real gift by giving the man that has it a theological training. Theological training would never produce a gift, and if a man has a gift he does not want a theological training. A man’s gift may be developed, and he may become more able in the use of it, but what is it worth if the Lord is not working with him? I speak of this in connection with souls being subdued to Christ.
But to come to the other point to be secured by gift, namely, that man might be in the enjoyment of the blessings of the kingdom. These blessings are: righteousness, peace and joy in the power of the Holy Spirit. No one can enjoy these blessings if he is not subdued to Christ. You first believe in Christ, you confess Him as Lord, and you come thus into the blessings of the kingdom. These blessings are what He has secured. He administers them through gifts, but He has first secured them.
Righteousness is practically the disallowance of all that which keeps God out. That is the way of its application to us. All that kept God out was set aside for Him in the cross, and this works out in us in the way of disallowance of sin, and if you do not admit the obligation of righteousness, you will not have God with you. It is impossible that it could be otherwise,
[p. 390] because it is impossible to put God and sin together. Righteousness is the condition on which God has come in. The presence of sin in the creation kept Him out. Sin had to be set aside. The sin of the world has to be taken away in order that God may take His place in His own creation. If you want the benefit and blessing of the presence of the Holy Spirit, you have to accept righteousness, to disallow that which shuts God out. You have to be at one with the cross of Christ. As to mind and thought, I am delivered in being at one with the cross. I see sin put away there for God, and by grace I am prepared to disallow the working of it in myself.
The next thing is peace. This comes in the moment God comes in. He presents Himself to man now as the God of peace. Every moral question has been eternally settled for the glory of God, and He presents Himself in the testimony of peace. Peace has come in through righteousness, “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God”. This is what Christ has secured. He has declared righteousness, and secured peace.
Thus we get the blessings of the kingdom in walking in self-judgment.
Do you think that anyone but a Christian has any real idea of righteousness or sin? Philosophers and scientific men have no true sense at all of either. You could not have a true sense of either, except in the power of the Holy Spirit. Scripture shows its power by the very character which it gives you. It forms a sense of righteousness and sin which no one could get otherwise. In the Christian walking in the power of the Holy Spirit, there is the disallowance of sin that there may be the enjoyment of the peace of God in the midst of a world of unrest.
Next, we come to joy. The soul is completely turned to God, and there is that confidence in God which leads to rejoicing. Though apparently evil may [p. 391] be dominant in the world, yet God is above it. He sits above the water flood, and He will in time bring down all the workings of evil. God is supreme. I doubt if a Christian would get joy if he had not the sense that God is above all evil. Joy surely ought to characterise Christians. The Philippians had very little in this world, but the apostle bids them “Rejoice in the Lord alway”. They were to rejoice though not in favourable circumstances. So righteousness, peace and joy are the blessings of the kingdom of God, the effect and result of the soul being bowed to the Lord Jesus, and hence the Christian carries about in himself the proof of the lordship of Christ.
There is another point connected with the lordship of Christ, namely, His discipline. The object of discipline is to give us discernment in connection with good and evil. I will just refer to two passages in regard to this. In Revelation 3: 19 we read, “As many as I love I rebuke and chasten”. I would like to alter two words, and read the passage, ‘As many as I love I convict and discipline’. The change may make the sense clearer. Again, in Ephesians 6: 4, “And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the discipline and admonition of the Lord”. Both passages connect distinctly the thought of discipline with the Lord. The second passage supposes parents to be so acquainted with the discipline of the Lord, as that they are able to bring up their children in it. How could I bring my children up thus if I did not myself understand the discipline?
Now there must be in this an end in view, and we have seen that it is that our senses may be better exercised to discern between good and evil, flesh and Spirit, what is of man and what is of God. You may be certain that the Spirit will bring in nothing but what is of God, nothing of man. Man, on the other hand, will shut out all that which is of God. The two things get mixed up in us. The Christian has the [p. 392] Holy Spirit, and he has the flesh; and it takes a good deal of teaching to enable us to discern what springs from the flesh and what from the Spirit. But in it we are helped by the discipline of the Lord. Just as you are conscious of the blessings of the kingdom, so you will be conscious of the discipline of the Lord. I am under His hand, He loves me, and because He loves me He convicts. He disciplines me that I may find out what is of God and what of man. There should be perfect division between the two in the mind of the Christian. This process has to go on in the Christian, and it produces a wonderful effect in his senses. It is remarkable to find the Lord making such a statement as He does to Laodicea in such a dark day.
I want to show a little further how discipline works. The conviction to which the Christian is brought is that Christ is Head. Hence everything must be after Christ. All that is of man has gone for God in the cross. Christianity has not come in to improve or reinstate man, but in testimony that he is absolutely set aside in order to make room for the Man that is from heaven — the second Man.
And now I would desire to give you an idea of what is of Christ, and for this purpose turn to a passage in Matthew. (Chapter 11: 25 - 30.) This passage brings out, in a divine way, what is after Christ, and in contrast to what is after man. What is highly esteemed by man is abomination in the sight of God.
To begin with, you get in contrast to the pride and haughtiness of man, “I am meek and lowly in heart”. Meekness and lowliness are not appreciated in the world. For success in the world a man must have ability, but ability will not serve a man without a good deal of assurance. If a man does not push himself forward others will not do it for him. But in Christ everything is the contrast of that. “I am meek and lowly”.
There are other principles in Christ brought out in [p. 393] the close of Romans 5, righteousness and obedience. There is further that which in a sense is the source of all, that is love.
All this is after Christ, and He is the Head of every man, the Head of a new race and order. We have to learn of Him, but before we learn of Him we need to get rest and perception and it is His grace which gives this to us. It is a great thing to see what is after Christ. The apostle teaches us in Colossians that everything now is after Christ. That which is after man fails to secure happiness for man. The pride and haughtiness of man never give him rest. The prouder a man is the more he is in danger of being wounded. But man’s title to inherit the earth from God is meekness. “The meek shall inherit the earth”. And that is reiterated through Scripture. When the Lord rode into Jerusalem as King, He came “meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass”. The Scriptures were ever looking forward to the One who was to inherit according to God.
It is a great thing to cultivate that which is after Christ: to have everything displaced which is after man, so as not to be in affinity with man but with Christ, the meek and lowly One in whom we see everything which is really of God; who said, “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart”.
Thus we have seen that every Christian carries in himself the proof and evidence of Christ being Lord. Christ does not reign yet, but the time will come when Jehovah and His Christ will reign. Christ is meantime at the right hand of God, but not quiescent as to things here. We see His great act of administration in the gift of the Holy Spirit, and now He is convicting and disciplining those He loves.
We have thus no need of miracles or signs of external evidence, for we carry in ourselves the proof of His lordship in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Further, one’s soul is attracted to that which is of Christ. I have pleasure in the thought that all of man is to be displaced, and what is of Christ attracts me to Him. I would rather learn of Him than have part in all the greatness and dignity of man down here.