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"... reaching forth unto those things which are
before ...
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus
"
(Philippians 3:13-14)
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Vol. 3, No. 4, July - Aug. 1974 |
EDITOR: Mr. Harry Foster |
[ifc/61]
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WALKING IN A STRAIGHT PATH
(Studies in the epistle to the Galatians)
6. FELLOWSHIP
Harry Foster
OUR consideration of the pathway of the truth of the gospel now brings
us to think of the destination of the journey. We have already
described this as the manifestation of the sons of God. It is important
that we should understand that such sons are not only committed to
filial union with God but to brotherly union in God's family. It is
with this in view that the last chapter stresses the active and
understanding participation due from members of this "household of
faith", and on this note the letter ends. Earlier on, the apostle had
explained that all believers -- whether they had previously been Jews
or Gentiles -- have the Jerusalem which is above as their mother. He
continued this emphasis on the corporate relatedness of the Church by
describing it as "the Israel of God" (v.16). The sons of God are many,
but they are of one household; there are a multitude of believers but
there is only one new man (3:28). Hence the supreme importance of
Christian fellowship.
Now it is possible to argue that the expression of this unity can only
be realised in heaven, and that here on earth it cannot be enjoyed.
When I pointed out that the public investiture with the dignity of sons
is essentially future, I urged that even now the Spirit of adoption
should be working in us and producing continual spiritual growth. The
same is true with regard to fellowship: its full realisation awaits the
dawn of eternity, but it should be finding practical expression here
and now. If Paul was appalled at the idea of two separate tables in
Antioch, what would he now feel about the multiplicity of rival groups
of Christians in any given area today? If he so violently condemned
those who excused their divisions by claiming that they were of Paul,
what would be his indignation if he could hear the way in which modern
Christians call themselves by names of outstanding leaders of more
recent centuries and think poorly of others who do not wish to be of
any party? He might well exclaim again: "I am afraid lest by any means
I have laboured in vain" (4:11) and might even ask: 'Don't those people
ever read my letter to the Galatians?'
Happily the apostle is resting from his battles now. As a matter of
fact he had found a basis of heart rest by the time he finished writing
this letter. "Henceforth" he wrote, "henceforth let no man trouble me"
(v.17). He no longer sought to please men: the marks on his body
clearly showed that he belonged to nobody and nothing except to Christ
Himself. When we get to the glory the Lord's name will be stamped on
our foreheads in glad recognition of His sole ownership. There would be
much more glory in the Church now -- yes, and more freedom from
tensions too -- if we could look one another in the face and see there
nothing but the unique seal of His lordship. It is true that Paul may
have been referring to some special scars of battle which were to him
the marks of Jesus. There is no need, though, to limit his words to
such scars for it was he who later wrote to the Ephesians to the effect
that every believer has been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise as
a purchased possession. Those who carry the marks of Jesus need never
be troubled by those who base their claims on lesser considerations.
There is peace for those who walk by this rule (v.16), the rule which
refuses to be governed by outward distinctions, adhering to the divine
reality of the new creation in Christ. God's new Israel, born of the
Spirit and called to the heavenly kingdom, is one united people. This
is God's rule and those who walk by it are delivered from internal
strife.
SO this is what chapter six is all about -- the fellowship of
believers. But make no mistake about it, a vital share in this
fellowship will mean suffering persecution for the cross of Christ
(v.12). Satan's focus of attack is always the spiritual reality of the
household of God. Why did they have all that trouble at Antioch? Why
was there such a threat to harmony and progress in the churches of
Galatia? Why do tensions arise among God's people now, even in lands
where one might imagine that the very oppressive circumstances would
ensure unity? The answer is simple, though rarely appreciated. It is
that unity among God's people is Satan's prime target. You and I as
individuals never threaten [61/62] the gates of
hell, but Christ's Church does. The devil cannot pluck one single
believer out of the Saviour's hand, but he can and does tempt
Christians to throw off the loving restraint of that hand which would
hold them together in unity. This is the explanation of why Peter
failed, why even Barnabas was carried away and why the Galatians were
in danger of being bewitched. It explains why this matter of keeping
fellowship represents our greatest area of conflict. The real battle is
not between different individual Christians but between Christ's Church
and the gates of Hades. The Lord Jesus indicated that it would be, and
so it is. He also clearly predicted the outcome. This victory is
clearly described in the book of Revelation. But whether we study this
epistle to the Galatians or the book of the Revelation, what we really
need to know is not theology or theory but what practical contribution
we in our day can make to that cosmic victory. The answer is summed up
in the word 'fellowship'.
The first contribution we must make is a spirit of meekness (v.1). This
is Christ's priority. And it must be meekness in action, meekness in
the practical sphere of our life together. Any brother may slip up, may
be overtaken in a fault. This may be serious, though not necessarily
intentional. His error will become a test of the spirituality or
otherwise of the rest of the assembly. Will they pounce on him,
denounce him, try to exclude him? Or will they prove their true
spiritual discernment of the issues at stake by humbly seeking to carry
this burden, being more careful to fulfil the law of Christ than to
take sides with "the accuser of the brethren"? "Bear ye one another's
burdens", so that the happy result may be healing and restoration in
the body of Christ. Why is it that evangelical Christians seem at times
to take delight in exposing, accusing and attacking other Christians
who offend them? Sometimes this is even done in the name of loyalty to
Christ, and yet it is in direct opposition to His royal law. A further
contribution to fellowship is made by a proper sense of proportion. A
sure way to jeopardise such fellowship is when you are deceived into
thinking that you are a specially important factor in God's household,
when it would be more correct and more seemly to accept the humble
position of a nobody (v.3). By all means let a man properly assess the
value of his own activities and get whatever justified satisfaction he
can from his assessment, but let him not arrogantly set himself up to
judge others, imposing burdens on his brothers instead of helping to
bear them. The man who walks by the Spirit avoids the conceit and
provocation which destroy fellowship (5:26), and seeks to prove that he
is a son of God by being a peacemaker (Matthew 5:9).
But someone may protest that it is surely our duty to expose and
denounce all who may be in error. It is certainly our duty to proclaim
the truth. But in our dealings with our fellow believers we do well to
heed the divine order: "Touch not mine anointed ones" (Psalm 105:15).
The law which must govern all our relationships with our brothers is
the law of Christ. Dr. Yu, a Chinese Christian, was once faced with the
need for a sudden decision in such a matter. He was an elder in a large
Shanghai assembly, who later died in tragic circumstances when, under
communist interrogation, he refused to be disloyal to Watchman Nee. My
story relates to a time long before this when the Shanghai assembly had
one of its meetings disturbed by a brother who stood up and in an
excited voice began to disclose publicly the alleged sins of a fellow
member of the church. Dr. Yu's reaction was swift and decided. He
walked over to the speaker and in the name of Jesus Christ commanded
him to be silent. The man collapsed without another word. The godly Mr.
Yu and his fellow elders found that in fact this 'inspired'
denunciation was the work of a deceiving spirit. Without at that moment
considering whether the charges were true or not, Dr. Yu knew that the
man's impulsive speaking could not be the work of the Holy Spirit, for
He would never depart from the course laid down by the Lord Jesus in
such matters, which is that possible offences should be thoroughly
dealt with in private and that there could only be public condemnation
when all other efforts had failed (Matthew 18:15-17). There are other
spirits who know men's inner histories, as well as the Holy Spirit; and
these are all too ready to find some human instrument through whom they
can make their disclosures and act as 'accusers of the brethren'. It
brings especial gain to the kingdom of darkness and confusion among the
fellowship of the saints if such accusations can be made under the
guise of piety or spirituality. "Ye that are spiritual" will prove
yourselves to be so by your ability humbly to heal fellowship, and not
by helping to break it up, as this story from China shows. [62/63]
IF Paul's letter saved the Galatians from biting and devouring one
another, and induced them to seek wisely and humbly to bear one
another's burdens, then it was worth all the large letters which he so
painfully wrote in its composition. His next point was that each
individual must carry his own burden (v.5). At first sight this may
seem to contradict what has already been said about bearing one
another's burdens but it would not have so appeared to its first
readers, for the word here translated 'burden' is quite different from
the one used in verse 2. The 'burden' which each must bear for himself
is rendered by the word which the Lord Jesus used when He offered heart
rest and stated that His burden is light. It seems to represent the
weight of responsibility which the Spirit has apportioned to each
individual believer, and this is a personal burden which each one must
wholeheartedly carry. Again we are told of a contribution which we can
make to functioning fellowship, and this time it is to exercise one's
own gift, to do one's own divinely appointed job to the full without
wrongly trespassing into another man's sphere. It is all a question of
the Spirit's anointing. The Church is desperately weak because
individual members are failing to do the one thing which only they can
do. The Church is also greatly confused because some of its members are
not content to devote themselves to their own personal calling in God,
but aspire to carry responsibilities which do not properly belong to
them. If my gift is connected with preaching the Word I shall probably
be a clumsy failure in other equally important matters. If my brother,
who is gifted in practical matters, is always wanting to have a chance
to do my preaching, instead of faithfully carrying out the tasks for
which God has fitted him, then our church will be the poorer and there
will be a hold-up in the harmonious progress of the work of Christ.
Each of us should find his burden light. So if some spiritual 'burden'
is crushing me with its weight then it is unlikely that I am truly
walking in the Spirit, for the Lord Jesus is never wrong and He said
that it would be light. I must take care to fulfil the ministry given
to me and avoid trying to do work for which I have no calling and
therefore no spiritual anointing.
There are, of course, some people whose spiritual activities preclude
them from earning a living in the normal way. If God so calls them then
they have nothing to be proud of, but equally nothing to be ashamed of,
for this is all provided for in the household of God. Clearly if they
are God's servants then He must provide for their financial needs, but
He has made it plain that He places the stewardship of His money fairly
and squarely on the shoulders of His people. "But let him that is
taught contribute towards the livelihood of his teachers" (v.6). This
is immediately followed by the passage concerning sowing and reaping,
as though God includes financial giving in the methods by which men are
to sow to the Spirit. I personally believe that one of the explanations
of why God's people are not reaping as they might expect to do, may be
found in this area of the adequate support of His servants. The Lord
will not be fobbed of by our excuses; we are not to deceive ourselves
into thinking that such matters have no close connection with spiritual
life, and we must not allow ourselves to be put off or lose heart but
keep steadily on with our sowing to the Spirit. That this sowing
involves actions rather than mere words or prayers is demonstrated by
the fact that the reference is both preceded and followed by
exhortations about practical activities -- "Let him communicate" (v.6),
and "let us work that which is good" (v.10).
THE verses about sowing to the Spirit are often used as a gospel text:
there is a certain amount of validity in that respect, but it is
limited. For example, I did not sow to the Spirit, but I have eternal
life -- I received it as a gift. I did sow to the flesh and no doubt
deserve to reap the fruits of my folly. Thank God that I will not do
so, for Christ's sacrifice has delivered me from the threat of
corruption. So these verses apply not so much to the unconverted as to
the daily walk of the Christian and particularly, I think, to the
relationships of Christian fellowship. We reap what we sow. We may put
on a show; we may deceive ourselves even; but we can never deceive God.
The sowing of selfishness, of discord, or lovelessness, of critical
gossiping, of personal pride or jealousy will bring its inevitable
harvest and put a blight on any assembly or church. It is vain for
God's people to long for blessing or to pray for revival when this kind
of 'sowing' is going on. The sowing to the flesh may be hidden from men
but it is seen by God and will surely produce the visible outcome of
decay and disintegration. Thank God that the opposite is also true,
namely that when the Lord's people make it their constant concern to
show Christlikeness, when they are careful to sow seeds of [63/64] His grace all around, then the harvest of a
fresh fullness of life can be surely expected.
This "sowing of the Spirit" is a very individual and personal matter.
Several times in these first eight verses reference is made to 'man' in
the singular. Each one has a responsibility. We may wonder what
difference a single individual can make, but we remember that it was
the action of this one man, Paul, which saved the situation at Antioch.
Things were very critical then for the whole household of God. Those
responsible were all being swept away in a wrong direction. It would
have been easy for Paul to have washed his hands of them and walked
out. But then it would also have been easy for the Lord Jesus to have
done just this with the twelve when they were quarrelling about washing
one another's feet on the very eve of His crucifixion. He could have
quitted that upper room, walked down the outside stairs of the house,
and knocked at the door of the owner whose manservant had carried the
waterpot. Either the owner or the servant would have been thrilled to
have had the privilege of washing the Master's feet. It would have been
the easier way -- to walk out. It often is. The Lord Jesus took the
harder way; He stayed in, sowed to the Spirit by doing the menial task
Himself, and so preserved the little community from breaking up. It
mattered to God that they should be together. And it mattered to God
that the saints of Antioch should stay together. They were kept
together, all because one man sowed to the Spirit, displayed the
mixture of frankness and patience which is essential to all true
fellowship, and saved the situation for God.
We are one undivided household, the household of the faith. We are
God's own household which is most precious to Him and most important to
His eternal purpose. The book of the Revelation shows us this house
coming down out of heaven from God and bright with His glory. There is,
of course, another kind of glory, as indicated in verse 13, but this is
man's glory. It is inadequate: it does not last. Those who were
introducing legalism into the Galatian churches, imposing on God's
people their own ideas of rule and procedure and using even the
Scriptures to do so, were in pursuit of glory, but it was glory for
them, not for God; the glory of the flesh. If it had succeeded it would
have given them material for boasting. This was an earthly glory which
Paul determined to avoid at all costs (v.14).
So we terminate these studies by noting that the straight path of the
gospel is really the way of the cross. There is no other basis for true
and sustained fellowship among God's people than that each member --
like Paul -- should be willing to be crucified. This is often painful,
but it is never inglorious. It is the great glory of the cross that it
can hold men together in living, loving fellowship and lead them on in
the straight path of the gospel.
----------------
A SIGNIFICANT PSALM
Poul Madsen
PSALM TWO is much quoted in the New Testament, which is reason enough
for us to examine it carefully. We shall find that it is extremely
relevant for our own days. It consists of four stanzas, each of three
verses, as follows:
Stanza 1
"Why do the nations rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The
kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel
together, against the Lord and against his anointed. saying, Let us
break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us."
Psalm 2:1-3.
In this way the psalmist describes the basic attitude of the earth's
rulers. They regard God's law as an insufferable yoke; His will as
constricting bonds. So it has been ever since the fall of man. This is
the spirit of Babel. Since the fall, man has wanted to be 'free' in his
own, that is to say, rebellious way. What mankind really wants is to be
free from God. He finds the will of God obnoxious, since he regards it
as a limitation of his own capacity for development. So the highest
good (the good, acceptable and perfect will of God) is made an object
of scorn and hatred.
This will culminate in the end-time, which is presumably our time.
Under the leadership of [64/65] Antichrist and
governed by an antichristian spirit, the world's leaders will decide to
dethrone God. This is already clearly to be seen. The spirit of
antichrist permeates society. The generation which has grown up since
the war is more antichristian in spirit than probably any previous
generation in human history. Such an atmosphere will inevitably produce
the personal Antichrist, and will hail him as its saviour. The
characteristic of our day is opposition to authority. People will not
be submissive to anyone or anything, but always demand to be 'free'.
They do not understand that this freedom amounts to nothing less than
slavery to Satan, for man is only free when he accepts God as his Lord
and subjects himself to God's order and the authorities which are a
part of His order. That is why God's Word says: "Fear the Lord and the
king, my son; join not with people who are rebellious" (Proverbs 24:21).
When the rulers and kings of the earth join together in plans to do
away with God it can look very threatening, but we shall see in the
next verses that God is far from being disturbed about it all.
Stanza 2
"He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have
them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex
them in his sore displeasure: Yet I have set my king upon my holy hill
of Zion. " Psalm 2:4-6.
When the mighty ones of the earth gather together in rebellion against
God, they do not embarrass Him in the least. He is not disturbed, let
alone anxious. Their actions do not force Him to any kind of action,
which is proof that He does not feel Himself to be in a threatening
situation. For Him the great ones of the earth are like a drop in a
bucket or a speck on the scales, they are so tiny. One might truly say
that the mighty ones of the earth are really without might. They do not
know this themselves and it does not always look like it to others here
on earth, but this is the divine fact. Before God they are nothing, and
so they can never put God into a quandary or force Him to take
emergency action. He knows their thoughts afar off. Before words come
to their lips He knows what they are going to say; He besets them
before and behind; they are dependent upon Him for every moment they
breathe and every step they take, even though they do not know or
recognise this fact.
That is why God laughs at them. This laughter does not involve anything
unholy, for God is not malicious or spiteful. No, He laughs with a holy
laughter. The meaning of this is revealed in Acts 4, where this psalm
is quoted as the basis for, and indeed the content of, the prayer which
the church prayed with Peter and John after they had been released from
prison under threats for the future. After having quoted the psalm in a
united appeal to God, they went on to say: "For of a truth against thy
holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius
Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered
together to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined
before to be done." The italicised words explain God's laughter in
its holy humour -- a laughter which the praying church shared with Him.
When all the enemies of Jesus joined together to cast off the Lord's
yoke and to bring God's Christ to the cross, what did they actually
accomplish? Neither more nor less than the purpose already formed by
God. Having done their worst they were seen only to have performed the
will of God. No wonder God had a good laugh, and no wonder that those
early disciples shared His liberating humour.
It looked like a crushing defeat for God's Anointed, yet it became His
final triumph. The mighty ones of the earth could do no more: they had
to run God's messages for Him when they were doing their utmost to
fight against Him. This shows their helplessness, although it does not
free them from guilt. Behind them, of course, stood Satan and his army
of fallen angels and demons. They also could not withstand the will of
God. They neither understood the wisdom of God nor did they realise
that their greatest apparent triumph would turn out to be their final
and utter defeat. God's laughter and derision spring from the fact that
He is sovereign. No one is equal to Him and therefore He has no real
opponents. To take up arms against Him is to be doomed to failure from
the first. The result of any such fight is certain, so that one cannot
really speak of a battle between God and His enemies. For this very
reason He often does not intervene and prevent evil. He did not
intervene on behalf of His Son. He allowed men to accomplish their evil
purpose [65/66] against Christ, but He did so
because this was the method which He Himself had planned for the
redemption of the world. Because we do not always understand this, we
plead for God to intervene. We try to tell Him that He ought to do so,
but happily He pays no heed to our advice. Peter was aghast at the idea
of Jesus being crucified, for such an idea was contrary to all his
ideas about God and the ways of God. How wrong he was! God's laughter
is an expression of His undisturbed tranquillity. He never panics, and
if we truly believe in Him neither should we panic or give way to
anxiety.
God contents Himself with just speaking to His enemies. He knows that a
word from Him, spoken in displeasure and wrath, is enough to strike
terror to their hearts. They realise that they are not so great as they
imagined themselves to be when once He speaks to them in anger . As His
laughter and derision are holy, so also are His wrath and displeasure.
They are two sides of the same holiness. His laughter and derision show
a holy scorn of their presumptuous pride in thinking that they can
thwart the purposes of almighty God. This pride is their basic sin, and
that is why He is angry with them. He laughs at their folly: He is
righteously angry at their pride.
"I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion!" This is all that God
says, and all that He needs to say. This fact is their undoing. God has
His king. This is the one whom the kings and rulers of this world
despise and hate, and for this reason God is angry with them even while
He laughs at their puny futility. That the king has been set on God's
holy hill of Zion is capable of several interpretations, as is often
the case with the Word of God. Historically the statement applies to
the future when our Saviour will visibly return and be invested as king
over all the earth, but spiritually it has already happened. In His
ascension our Lord sat down at the right hand of the Father and was
given all power in heaven and on earth. It is to this fact which God
refers in His stern condemnation. To ignore this fact is the height of
foolish stupidity and sinful pride. All the antichristian clamour will
never alter this fact. God has already invested His king: the rebels
will one day lie as the footstool of His feet.
Stanza 3
"I will tell of the decree: The Lord said unto me, Thou art my son;
this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I will give thee the
nations for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for
thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt
dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." Psalm 2:7-9.
Now God's king speaks for Himself. He is not disturbed or panicky
either. He contents Himself with quoting the Father's word to Him. That
is quite sufficient. It ought always to be enough for us too. We must
place all our confidence in the Father's decree, even when the enemies
rage the most. These enemies can no more shake God's promises than they
can shake God Himself. They are powerless before God and His Word. This
follows that they must be powerless before everyone who believes in God
and holds on to His Word. The words which God's king quotes are God's
call to Him personally. Through this psalm we are allowed to overhear
what God has said to His Son. What a privilege, not only to know God's
word to us men but to know His word to His Son. This is beyond our
understanding. No wonder that the saints have meditated over these
words for they must of necessity be of very great importance. What did
God mean when He said: "Thou art my son, this day have I begotten
thee"? According to Paul the words speak of the resurrection of the
Lord Jesus from the dead (Acts 13:32-33). The apostle told the men who
listened to him in the synagogue at Antioch that by means of Psalm 2,
many centuries before it happened, the Lord had said that Jesus would
rise from the dead. His resurrection was then a divine decree: it
happened according to the Scriptures. This was the tenor of the New
Testament creed:
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
He was buried.
He rose again the third day according to the
Scriptures.
(1 Corinthians 15:1-4)
Tremendous emphasis was placed upon the fact that our Saviour's death
for our sins and His resurrection were in full accord with the
Scriptures, that is, in agreement with God's decree which for us is
timeless because it was issued before the foundation of the world. The
Son of God meets His enemies with this eternal [66/67]
decree, and what can these pygmies do in the face of that? They cannot
do other than act within the framework of this decree: it is quite
beyond them to break or hinder its fulfilment. In any case, the decree
has now been realised, Jesus has risen from the dead. What can
Antichrist and all his followers say to that? There is not the
slightest possibility that they can ever throw off His lordship.
But in His decree to His Son, God included an exhortation to the Son to
ask for lordship over the whole earth: "Ask of me, and I shall give
thee ...". The Son now quotes this as an answer to the raging of His
enemies, and in doing so makes it plain that He intends to make use of
His God-given right to rule with a rod of iron. Nobody can prevent
this, least of all those who are part of His creation. The saints have
naturally meditated often on this part of God's decree to His Son. The
question is, What does God mean by it? Perhaps we can best obtain some
light on this by considering Paul's words in the synagogue at Antioch
when he states that God had fulfilled His promise given to the fathers
by raising Jesus from the dead, according to the second psalm. By the
resurrection of Jesus, then, there was a fulfilment both of God's
decree to the Son and His promise to the fathers. This promise to the
fathers was that a Saviour should arise for them (Acts 13:23).
So God has promised something to the Son and has also promised
something to us. Both promises are fulfilled by the resurrection of the
Lord Jesus from the dead. By that resurrection we have been justified.
We can stand before God even as the Son stands. We have received all
that the Son has won. It follows that when God promised the uttermost
parts of the earth to His Son, He also included us in the promise. This
great truth dawned on the apostle John who wrote about it in the book
of the Revelation. There he speaks of "a man child who is to rule all
the nations ..." (Revelation 12:5). We may feel that these words apply
to our Lord and Saviour, the Son of God, but it was He who said: "He
that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him I will give
power over the nations: and he shall rule them ... even as I received
of my Father" (Revelation 2:26-28). These words of His were directed to
born-again Christians, and they make it clear that to them is offered
an honour corresponding to that given to the Son, namely to rule over
the nations. All this is contained in Psalm Two. It gives God's decree
to the Son. This is also God's decree to us. This decree is highly
relevant today, and will remain so even though Satan rages and even
when he is allowed to send his Antichrist. With this decree we can
conquer everything. We need nothing more. It is more than sufficient.
It is God's eternal promise to the Son, and so is made valid for us who
belong to the Son. What grace! What an honour!
Stanza 4
"Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the
earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the
Son, lest he be angry and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is
kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him."
Psalm 2:10-12.
Now the logical conclusion of what has gone before is made quite clear.
As it has already been confirmed that no earthly opponent has the
shadow of a chance against God, it is manifestly best to refrain from
every thought of rebellion. The only logical behaviour of anyone who
has rebellious thoughts is rather to tremble before his God and Creator
and to cast himself in the dust before Him so as to escape His wrath.
This is the advice which the psalmist, David, gives, when he says: 'Be
wise; be instructed'. We ought to take great note of this biblical
definition of wisdom which suggests that it consists first in being
ready to seek and heed instruction as one who has the self-knowledge
and humility to admit his lack of wisdom. In short, David advises men
to fear God. Lack of the fear of God is the mark of all foolishness,
since the fear of the Lord is, so we are told, the beginning of wisdom.
It is the lack of a fear of God which characterises our day and
therefore the race as a whole is devoid of wisdom. And so it is that
foolishness grows and spreads, even gaining an entrance into the
churches. The day of reckoning will be dreadful. Soon the Son's anger
will express itself and consume the proud. The great Day of the Lord is
surely near.
The call comes even to us, who should fear God, serve Him with fear and
rejoice before Him with trembling. If we can only get a true conception
of the nature and majesty of our holy God we shall cast ourselves down
on our faces before Him. If the real seriousness of the issues of our
day dawns upon us, we will want to re-examine our life and all our
activities in the light of the coming again of Christ. [67/68]
Conclusion
There is nothing in the Scriptures nor in experience to indicate that
the world's political leaders will take the proffered advice, but
rather an indication that they will continue in stubbornness and
rebellion until the culmination of the history of fallen man under
Antichrist. The time for the appearance of this ominous figure does not
seem likely to be far distant. Shall we then just stand back and leave
men to their fate? No, that would be to misunderstand God and His Word.
1 Timothy 2:1-4 continues to apply right up to the end. Christians must
never become fatalists, those who stand apart and leave people to their
fate. God does not desire the death of any sinner, but only wants men
to repent and find salvation in His Son. The power of the Word of God
and the effective working of the intercessions of the saints must
continue to control the situation. Perhaps there is a Joseph or a
Daniel among the kings and judges of the earth. Perhaps there is one
who, like the king of Nineveh, will repent even at a late hour and call
for a humbling before the terror of a holy God. Perhaps there is a
Nicodemus or a Joseph of Arimathea among the great ones of the earth.
Abraham held on in prayer for Sodom and Gomorrah. We ought also to hold
on in the long suffering and love of the Spirit, not imagining that we
ourselves are guiltless. David's advice to the judges and kings of the
earth is what we ourselves preach, and therefore what we should
practise in every detail. We conclude, therefore, with one last
consideration of this advice.
(1) "Be wise ... be instructed" (verse 10). This is said to the kings
and judges of the earth, that is to its leaders. Let each one of us who
has any position of leadership in the churches take this to heart. Let
us be the first to set an example of being willing to listen to advice
and instruction, whether it comes direct from God or from other
believers. We can so easily grow too sure of ourselves and fall into
the folly of no longer being willing to learn.
(2) "Serve the Lord with fear" (verse 11). This does not mean a
paralysing fear which expresses and communicates discouragement and
unbelief, but a healthy fear of failing God, a fear which causes us to
do our utmost, like Paul who explained that it was because he knew the
terror of the Lord that he persuaded men.
(3) "Rejoice with trembling" (verse 11). Both by its nature and in its
expression, joy in God is different from the joy of the world. It
carries a certain stamp of holiness which means that it is not
superficial, exaggerated and uncontrolled, but sensitive and humble, so
that it is worthy of God.
(4) "Kiss the Son" (verse 12). This translation is doubtful, but if it
is right it implies the humbling of oneself in the dust as a conquered
enemy might fall down before his victorious master and kiss his feet in
slavish subjection. Well, the Lord's true servants often rejoice in
being able to call themselves His slaves. Another translation, however,
renders it: 'Embrace obedience'. The thought is not really so different
from what we have already said. Let the man who has until now been
disobedient take hold of obedience and embrace it as his greatest
treasure.
In order that these four exhortations may lead to lasting good which is
valid in times of trial as well as in daily living, the psalm closes
with a beatitude of purely evangelical tone and content: "Blessed are
all they that put their trust in him". The thought here implicit is
that of seeking cover or shelter with Him, as Ruth did with Boaz (Ruth
2:12). It means that we come to Him in all our helplessness and
littleness to hide under His shadow. Then when His wrath arises, we
have Him as our shelter and protection. And so we, who are nothing in
ourselves but are wholly His, shall appear together with Him and reign
with Him in His new kingdom. Then we shall be truly blessed, for we are
nothing and He is everything.
----------------
OUR GREAT HIGH PRIEST
(Translated from the Chinese)
Newman Sze
THE epistle to the Hebrews gives us a wonderful unfolding of the
priesthood of the Lord Jesus, and it also makes Him our example for, as
God's people, we are also called to be priests. As we look at His High
Priesthood we can learn valuable lessons concerning our priestly
ministry. [68/69]
1. "... a merciful and faithful high priest ..."
The first thing that we notice is that His sufferings under temptation
were necessary to fit Him to be a merciful and faithful high priest
(2:17-18). The Lord Jesus took a body Himself so that He could be like
man and go through all the sufferings of mankind. When His friend
Lazarus died and He came to Bethany, Martha did not understand what He
tried to tell her and Mary had unbelief in her heart, but He did not
reproach Martha or Mary, because in His own heart He was sensing the
pain and agony of human death. "Jesus wept." Why did He weep? It was
not because He did not know what to do, for He knew that Lazarus would
rise again at that command of His: "Come forth". Yet He truly entered
into the suffering of those sisters and shed tears with them. This was
why He was able to help them.
In His wilderness temptations Jesus fasted forty days and was
afterwards hungry. Then one day He led His disciples through the
cornfields and they had nothing to eat and were suffering hunger. We
are amazed at the strange circumstances that those who were followers
of the glorious Son of God who created the heavens and the earth, were
without anything to eat and glad to make do with the bare grain which
had neither been baked nor cooked. The Lord defended them from their
accusers for, although He did not Himself pluck or eat the grain, He
was able to sympathise with them because He knew by experience what it
meant to feel very hungry.
In the United States I have found that those whom God was using to pray
for the sick are often in poor health themselves. A healthy man who is
never ill cannot understand the sufferings of those who are. It seems
that God lets them endure infirmities themselves so that every time
they pray for those who are needy they are filled with compassion and
understanding. Brothers and sisters, if we are to fulfill our ministry
as priests we must be tempted in every way so that we too may be
merciful and faithful. Even our failures may prove valuable experiences
to this end, for how can we expect to comfort others unless we know
God's grace for ourselves? Our hardships are meant to teach us
practical faith.
In Los Angeles I have been teaching young people who have left their
jobs and given up their careers to serve the Lord, and had to remind
them that they were not to go around with their Bibles in their hands
laying down the law to people, correcting them and telling them what
they ought to be and to do. That would mean that they would be
disciples of Moses, whereas we must be disciples of Jesus, the merciful
and faithful High Priest who can help others because He Himself has
been tempted in every way -- only in His case it was without any
failure or mistake. The Lord Jesus also knew what it was like to be
lonely, to be rejected, to be brushed aside and abused. When the man
full of leprosy came to Him, He was able to appreciate what it meant to
be despised and rejected, and so He was full of compassion for this
needy man whom nobody else would venture to come near to or touch.
Christ touched him and healed him, for His was a ministry full of
understanding love.
2. "... he that built the house ..."
The next reference shows that Christ's priestly work is connected with
the building of the house of God (3:1-6). As priest the Lord Jesus was
sent into the world for a great mission. What was this mission? It was
the building of God's house which is, of course, a spiritual edifice.
In the earthly aspect of things it was Moses who built the tabernacle,
but he could not build God's heavenly home since he himself was a part
of that house. It was the Lord Jesus who built Moses. The Lord Jesus
built Abraham. The Lord built David, and Peter and Paul. He intends to
build all the saints into a spiritual house as God's eternal dwelling
place. He it is who cuts out the numerous stones and who moulds and
refines them. His work in gold and silver and jewels requires the most
exquisite workmanship, which explains why He laboured so patiently with
Jacob, why He took three forty-year periods to fit Moses for his
eternal destiny and why He worked with David so skilfully to build him
into a great and rare stone. In the New Testament we read of His
building work with Peter and Paul and many others. This is a tremendous
task, calling for the greatest patience, this work of taking so many of
us, each with his own different story, and leading us on to the same
outcome, which is that together we should form the house of God.
There were twelve jewels, for the Lord Jesus deals with us as
individuals. Our natures are [69/70] different,
what we go through is different, but the end product is the same, even
likeness to Jesus Christ. The twelve disciples had different
dispositions and characters, and each had to be dealt with in the way
which the Lord judged to be suitable. We often take Peter as an
example. He was the impulsive one. At one time he was so brave that he
would die for his Lord; at another time he was so weak that he was
afraid of a servant girl. We may think that his name of Cephas means
that he had something rocklike in his nature. This is hardly the case,
though he was certainly a very stubborn man. It was not easy to get him
to change his mind. He was obstinate and governed by prejudices. So
tough was he that the Lord Jesus had a hard time in changing him. Yet
he was one of the best of the disciples. Slowly, during those three and
a half years, the Lord Jesus dealt with Peter, moulding him and
building him by letting him experience failures and humbling.
Afterwards we read in the book of the Acts how patiently the risen Lord
dealt with him, for He was determined to make this disciple of His into
one of His precious jewels. The great difference in those days
described in the Acts was that Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit
and therefore more ready to cooperate in the transforming work.
Friends sometimes say to me: 'Brother Sze, why do you give so much time
to the young people, for they are very wild and difficult to handle?'
This may be true, but a priest's work is always hard. We are all
difficult, but the Lord Jesus persists with us, for He knows how to
build us together into Himself. It is no use being impatient. We cannot
become spiritual in a day or two. The Lord is dealing with us slowly,
little by little, and though we lose heart and are ready to give up, He
never does. The patience of Jesus is greater than any earthly strength.
No child of God is hopeless, because each child of God has a High
Priest whose patience surpasses all. And when this spiritual house is
gloriously completed, all the credit will go to Him. The Builder has
more glory than the house. And for us, too, this priestly work means
more than just singing hymns and praying: it means cooperation with
Christ in the costly task of the building together of believers into
the gold and jewels of the new Jerusalem.
3. "... the throne of grace ..."
Then there is the throne of grace (4:14-16). The great High Priest who
has passed through the heavens has done so in order to become our
throne of grace. In the house of God there was a golden mercy seat on
the ark of the covenant, and this mercy seat is the throne of grace.
For us it is a Person, even our Lord Jesus. We can always come
confidently to Him and be sure of getting seasonal help, just the kind
of help we need and just when we need it. He never replies that He does
not know what to do. This may seem impossible to us, for we often feel
that we have no answer to the needs which confront us. To be quite
frank, I confess that I can hardly endure the personal pressures which
come upon me, let alone care for others. Yet people are constantly
coming to me with their troubles and problems and, being a servant of
God, I cannot run away even though the burdens are too heavy for me.
How can I help the mothers who bring me their complaints about their
children, the tense people who ask my help because they cannot sleep at
nights, and many others whose burdens I have no strength to bear? I can
only stand up to it because the Lord stands behind me. He is not like
me; He is not overwhelmed; He is never nonplussed; He is the throne of
grace where mercy and timely help can always be found.
The Lord Jesus passed through Jericho knowing that He was on the way to
the cross, but when the blind man begged for sight He did not excuse
Himself by saying that He had too much on His mind to attend just now
to this beggar, but He stopped and opened the man's eyes. The Lord's
own burden was the heaviest of all, yet He behaved as though He had no
personal burden at all. When He was actually on the cross His greatest
test came but, even with those dreadful pains of crucifixion, with men
mocking Him and the blood pouring down His face, He still was able to
speak words of comfort and promise to the repentant thief. Thank God
that we can come to Him at any time, and we will always have His full
attention and prove His sufficiency to help us.
In Los Angeles we began with just a home and no public meetings, and
did not know how to go into action. But we could -- and did -- pray for
people who came to us. One day a young Chinese sister came to us with a
big problem and brought a friend, an American young woman. Before they
left on the following morning we had a time of prayer and were very [70/71] conscious of the Lord's gracious presence and
the well of water springing up. We had so much liberty that I thought
that I would rise and pray for the Chinese sister for whom I had great
concern and who I knew was having to face grave difficulties, but the
Spirit seemed to check me and move me to pray instead for her American
friend. I did not know anything about this young woman, so first I went
over and sat down with her and asked her if she had read the Lord's
Word that morning. I found that she had been reading in John chapter
four about the living water, but that she confessed to not having
understood what she had read. I was led to point out that in verse ten
three things are mentioned, the gift of God, the Giver and the living
water, and that actually these three are one. The Lord's presence
seemed so real that I was able to pray, and as we did so the Holy
Spirit took possession in real power. Then the two sisters went on
their way, and now they were both rejoicing and the well kept springing
up. Afterwards I heard that she had been on the verge of sinning a
serious sin and might well have proceeded on this disastrous course if
I had not been obedient to the Lord in taking up her case in prayer. I
knew nothing of her circumstances and she had not told me anything of
them, nor did her Chinese friend who brought her along feel free to
speak to me about it. Well, the Lord met her and the danger was
averted. At a meeting that night she was broken down under the
conviction of the Spirit and although the others in that prayer
gathering were taken aback she was able to share with them the
wonderful way in which the Lord had delivered her. It is in this way
that we can work in fellowship with our great High Priest. At the
moment when someone is going to take a perilous course or has special
needs, we can be used to lead them to the throne of grace, and we can
do this without even knowing anything about them.
4. "... ordained for men in things pertaining to God"
Here we are told that a high priest is ordained for men in things
pertaining to God (5:1-10). These things were the candlestick, the
shewbread, the golden censer, the altar of burnt offering, the laver
and the ark. There were many things, and all came within the sphere of
the high priest. Christ is all these things to us. Now that He is here
there is no more need of a material candlestick, for He is our light.
There is no more need for the material shewbread, for He is our living
bread. No more censer or altar, for He is the fulfilment of them all.
He is for man in all these things; all of them are taken care of by our
great High Priest. Jesus feeds us with the shewbread because He is
Himself the bread of life. He gives us living water to drink because
whatever things we have need of, He is ordained to minister those
things of God to us men. The Lord Jesus fulfils all spiritual fullness.
Now the golden candlestick is unnecessary because He is our light. The
golden censer is fulfilled in Him. The Lord Jesus undertakes to care
for all those things which pertain to God on man's behalf.
Actually this is the new age of the Holy Spirit. We cannot do anything
at all with regard to spiritual things; only the Lord Jesus can perform
these things by His Holy Spirit. As the golden censer, He makes
possible our prayer life. A brother told me that he knew how to pray
but he had never had a deep spiritual experience. I could only answer
that he must have had a greater experience even than the apostle Paul
if he knew how to pray, for the apostle stated that for his part he did
not know how to pray as he ought (Romans 8:26). In fact it is when we
feel that we do not know how to pray that we can really pray in the
will of God, for the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with sighs too
deep for words. That is the prayer of the golden censer which reaches
the throne of heaven and touches the heart of God. It may be that
sometimes the difficulty with our brothers and sisters is that they
think that they do know how to pray, and in fact feel that they are
rather good at it. In twenty minutes they can pray through from Genesis
to Revelation. But have they been praying in the Spirit, or just
preaching to God? Surely the Lord Jesus has had enough of suffering!
Now that He is in heaven must He still suffer by having to listen to
this believer and that preaching long sermons to Him in their prayers
and telling Him what to do?
The Lord Jesus takes care of our love for God. There are times when
people will come along and say that they want to love the Lord but
cannot do so. The temptation is to hurry to the Bible in an endeavour
to find passages which explain how we ought to love Him, and
inexperienced workers will often try to explain [71/72]
and reason with such people, and in the end lose patience with them.
How different is our Lord Jesus! He simply stresses God's great love
for us; He meets our coldness with His own flame of love. So it is that
we cease trying to be or do something and are melted by the realisation
of all that His love has done for us. So we find that in this area also
He is ready to take responsibility for what pertains to God on our
behalf.
5. "... made after the power of an endless life"
Our great High Priest is made not after the law of a carnal commandment
but after the power of an endless life (7:15-28). It is the life of
Jesus, His imperishable and triumphant life, which makes possible His
priesthood. For us this means that we need to experience Christ first
before we can share Him with others. Our ministry is not just preaching
about Christ but sharing Him, letting people see and hear for
themselves. It is the Lord Himself who has become the source of eternal
salvation, and it is His triumphant life which is the power of His
priesthood. So it is that this same life must be manifested in us, in
the details of our everyday life, in our sufferings, in our loneliness,
in our sickness, in our difficulties. The power of His resurrection is
not just a theme to be discussed by those who are sitting back and
enjoying their ice-creams; it is a vital proving of the power of
Christ's incorruptible life in experiences of poverty, privation,
weakness, rejection and the small details of life.
I would like to tell you of a Chinese brother who had not been to a
meeting for twenty years but who came to the United States and
experienced a revival in his own heart. He prayed, attended the
meetings, had the joy of the indwelling Spirit and experienced the
power of resurrection. He met a family which had emigrated to the
United States and were friendless there, so he served and helped them,
hoping that they would be saved. He said to me: 'Brother Sze, I
preached the gospel to that family many times, but they just did not
want to accept. When the husband seemed ready to believe, the wife
objected, and vice versa. My spiritual power is so little and limited
that I could never break through. Will you please go and preach the
gospel to them?' So I went, and sat with eight of them, and this is the
story which I heard. The head of the family said to me: 'Sir, the
spirit of you children of God is just great. It leaves us speechless.
When we came to the United States we found, to our great dismay, that
the company which had offered me a job had gone out of business, so we
were really in a tight spot. We had no car and did not know the
language. We found that the country where we now lived was not like
Taiwan; it covered such a large area that we could not get round from
one place to another. This gentleman was not related to us. At that
time he was not even a friend. But when we were at a loss to know what
to do he bought groceries for us and delivered them to our home. He saw
everything about us in our home; he even saw me quarrel and fight with
my wife. Although he was a busy man he took time to buy food and bring
it to us, either before he went to work or after he had finished for
the day. And this lasted for two years -- rain or shine -- until we had
enough English to get by with and until we ourselves had a car.' That
day I preached the gospel to that family, but I myself was moved, for
while I preached with words, this man had witnessed with deeds, and
gone far beyond me. Our priestly work is not to be done just by our
lips, but by what we do and how we do it.
6. "... a more excellent ministry ..."
Finally we are told that our Lord Jesus has "obtained a more excellent
ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant,
which is established upon better promises" (8:1-6). The priests of the
Old Testament carried the book of the law in their hands, for theirs
was a condemning ministry. When you approached them you were reminded
of your sins, and although they could offer sacrifices for you, we know
that the blood of calves and goats could never really make a man's
conscience clean. We are not disciples of Moses but of Jesus, pointing
men to Him who is at the right hand of God interceding for us. No child
of God is ever forgotten by Him. No child of God is ever outside the
sphere of His love. He mediates a better covenant because He gives us
of Himself. He never fails. And He calls us to prove that love and life
for ourselves, and then to go out and share it with others. Our
priesthood consists in introducing men to this Mediator of a better
covenant, so that they may be brought into personal touch with the one
who saves them by His endless life. [72/73]
----------------
THE LAST GREAT SERMON
(Some thoughts on John chapters 13 to 17)
1. CHAPTER THIRTEEN -- UNFAILING LOVE
Roger T. Forster
THIS chapter deals with the two important signs which the Lord Jesus
gave at the beginning of His last great sermon here on earth. The
washing of the disciples' feet and the offering of bread to His
betrayer were two striking symbols of His dealings with us and His
challenge as to the way in which we live. The Lord Jesus washes our
feet -- a tremendously humbling experience for us -- and then He does
not turn and say: 'Now I have washed your feet, you wash Mine; I have
served you, now you serve Me', but His challenge to us is that if He
has washed our feet and served us, then He expects us to wash one
another's feet and serve one another. Again, He took the bread and
offered it to Judas, the man who at the feast was probably sitting at
His left hand in the place of honour. The Lord took the special
portion, perhaps bread dipped in gravy or even meat wrapped in bread,
and handed to Judas this finest piece of food on the table, though He
knew all about the plan to deliver Him to His enemies which the traitor
had already made. In doing this, and even in answering John's question
as to who would betray Him, the Lord did not expose Judas to the
others. We do not know just what John must have thought (it may have
been that Judas would make a foolish blunder), but we gather that most
of the disciples still thought well of him even as he left the upper
room. Jesus had honoured him, put him at His own left hand, offered him
the morsel which stood as a symbol of friendship, given him the
responsibility of the purse, and let the others go on thinking better
of him than he really was.
We rather like to expose other people's sins, drawing attention to
faults in our brothers, under the pretext of caring only for the Lord's
glory. Now of course we should never cover our own sins, but when we
are dealing with other people we should remember how Jesus gave honour
to the man who was so great an enemy and allowed him to go out free,
better thought of by the others than he deserved to be. This was either
sublimely beautiful or just ridiculous, and since it was our Lord who
did it, we know which of these it must have been. True it is very
different from what we would have naturally expected Him to do and to
teach, but we observe that although He does desire our devotion, He
does not so much want us to wash His feet as to minister to one
another. After all, He came not to be served but to serve, and He wants
His disciples to have the same spirit of serving and not clamouring to
be served. And He who so behaved with Judas does not approve of us when
we, out of imagined zeal for His glory, pursue and denounce our
brothers. He will not have us exposing and running down the characters
of others, even when we do it out of a vaunted concern for His glory.
This is the way in which God's great purpose for the world is going to
be accomplished -- by the washing of one another's feet and by the
friendship and love which we show even to those who would betray us. We
are so ready to expose, but which of us would care to have exposed to
others all the baseness which the penetrating eyes of Christ can see in
us? Therefore it is surely better if we keep quiet about one another
and learn to speak well whenever we truthfully can.
What the Lord Jesus wants to do is to extend His own ministry through
His disciples. "Truly, truly I say to you, the servant is not greater
than his Lord, neither is he that is sent greater than He that sent
him" (v.16). Again and again the Lord Jesus claimed that He was the
'sent one' of the Father. 'Now,' He says, 'I am sending you in the same
way in which I was sent and so -- like Me -- you must wash one
another's feet and go on loving in the midst of hatred.' The Lord
further added: "Truly, truly, I say unto you, He that receives
whomsoever I send receiveth me; and he that receives me receives him
that sent me" (v.20). So we are to be an extension of what He was and
did. As we are sent, Christ is sent with us, and as we are received,
the One who sent Him is also received. What a tremendous privilege it
is to be involved in an extension of what God began in sending His Son,
Jesus Christ, to reveal His heart to men. [73/74]
In this connection a familiar verse comes home to me with great force:
"A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have
loved you, that ye also love one another" (v.34). This shows that with
the new commission to 'wash feet' and to offer friendship in the face
of hatred, there comes also a new charge to love one another. In one
respect it is not new, for it is virtually a repetition of the command
of Leviticus 19:18: "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself". The
newness is not novelty but freshness. Two Greek words are used for
'new'; one means new in time, that which has never been before but has
just begun, while the other means new in quality, having something
fresh about it. The word which Jesus used denotes that which is new in
quality. His commandment is old in the sense of time; it has been there
since the world began, for it belongs to the heart of God the Father;
but the Lord Jesus sends us out into the world with a commission for a
new quality of love. I suggest that this quality is indicated by the
two symbols of foot washing and giving the honoured portion. This is
not to be limited to the history of the scene in the upper room but is
to be kept up-to-date in us now.
1. The Measure
First of all the chapter suggests a new measure of love. Love can be
sentimental; it can be soft and cloying; it can be lacking in healthy
strength. The measure of this love however is taken from what the Lord
Jesus did in the upper room. It began with His washing the feet of all
of His disciples. Now it is a fact that, apart from wives, no Jew was
permitted to wash the feet of another Jew. Not even a Jewish slave,
male or female, was allowed to wash the feet of a fellow Jew. So not
only was this matter not commanded by the law, it was not even
countenanced by it. Nevertheless the Lord Jesus took this lowest
possible position. He knew that He came from God and that He was going
back to God, and yet He did this most lowly service. This is the
measure of the new commandment to love; it is to that degree, something
which would not be required even of a slave. It was John the Baptist
who, in expressing his sense of lowliness, exclaimed that he was not
worthy to do this very thing, to "unlatch the shoe", meaning to take
off the sandals and wash the feet. To him this was the work of the
lowest of the low, and so it was to them all. Yet this is what Jesus
did. He came from God and yet He got on His knees to unworthy men. I
could not believe that God is really like that if it had not been
demonstrated in this way. Unless Jesus had actually got down on His
knees in front of His disciples and declared: 'This is what the love of
God is like', I could never have credited it. No wonder the gospel
message is revolutionary: this is the measure of God's love.
Following this our Lord sat at the table with a man who, in spite of
having been in the privileged apostolic band for the two or three
years, was at that very moment scheming to do the Lord a great wrong,
despising all that Jesus was and stood for. The Lord not only sat down
with him, but gave him the seat of honour and the special portion of
favour, the symbol of friendship, whereas under those conditions He
might have been excused if He had rallied the other disciples to strike
the traitor down. This again is the measure of the new love which we
are commanded to exercise. It is so new that I feel that I hardly know
anything about it. Yet this is what it means to be a disciple.
2. The Motive
The motive which should inspire me to go out and love my brother in
this way is the realisation of how greatly Christ has loved me. In this
chapter we are shown in a nutshell the whole movement of His divine
love. It started from the highest place; it involved divesting Himself
of His eternal glory and investing Himself with the form of a slave, so
coming to the lowest place, even to the death of the cross. Having
washed away our uncleanness He then took His clothes again, put them
on, and went back to the Father to sit down at His right hand. This was
the extent of His love, even to unworthy sinners. One of them, Judas,
was completely unmoved by this and still remained a traitor at heart,
but nevertheless Jesus kept on loving him even though the love had been
as it were thrown back into His face. Is this true of me? Alas, it is.
I brought Him down from the glory to my base position so that He could
wash my feet, and for a time I spurned His love and despised Him; yet
He still loved me in spite of it all.
It appears possible from Luke's Gospel that it was actually while the
nails were being driven into the hands of Jesus that He prayed:
"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do". It was this
sort of love with which God loved [74/75] me, a
love which has persisted even when I hated and rejected it. I can
conceive of loving when people let me wash their feet, but I find it
too much to go on loving when the only response to that love is hatred
and treachery. This, however, is the measure of the divine love which
must show itself even through me.
3. The Means
My problem is, of course, how can I begin to love people with even a
trace of this love with which God has loved me? I must do it. It is a
command. Yet how can it be? I am so weak and frail. I think of Peter
who at this time was ready to jump up and assert that he was ready to
go to prison for the Lord, and yet who so soon afterwards denied he had
even known Him. It was he who protested: "Lord, thou shalt never wash
my feet". Well, perhaps this gives a clue to this whole matter. If the
Lord had let us do the serving, then we should have felt able to look
around on our brethren with some pride, and boast about what we had
done for Him. But because it is He who has done the serving, because He
has stooped down even to wash our feet, we feel terribly humbled and
have nothing to boast of or glory in. Had I washed the Lord's feet on
the eve of His crucifixion I would have had some marvellous sermon
material, and everybody would have reacted with enthusiasm, thinking
that there was really something rather wonderful about me. But it is
just the opposite. I have to confess that it was the Lord who washed my
feet, and this reminds me of how low I have been brought, and this is
what provides me with the means, the ability to serve others.
There is a sense in which there are dangers in our working for the
Lord, since we are then tempted to rise up and exalt ourselves amongst
our brothers. This does not mean that we should not work for Him, but
it does impress upon us the importance of knowing how completely we are
dependent on His grace. Paul could claim: "I laboured more abundantly
than they all", but then he was quick to add: "yet not I, but the grace
of God which was with me", recalling at that very moment how he had
been loved even when he had murderous hatred towards Christ in his
heart (1 Corinthians 15:9-10). So it is that the Lord provides a means
for our loving by His gracious condescension to us. Popular concepts of
God put Him on a throne and demand that we bow before Him. Strangely
enough such a concept can make us proud of heart. The Lord Jesus gave
us a true revelation of God by stooping to wash our feet. Like Peter,
we want to cry out against this. It is too humbling to our pride. But
it has to be if we are to have any part with Him. The Lord Jesus offers
me bread across a table, even as He offered it to Judas, and this very
action provides a gateway for the entrance of energy to love as He
loves, as I receive His gift and make it mine. Alas, that the rejection
of it can open the gateway for Satan to enter in when it is rejected.
This was what happened to Judas. When we receive such undeserved love
it humbles us and brings our pride into the dust. And this is God's
means for making us those who can show this love to others.
4. The Medium
There is always a practical area of life in which this love is to find
expression, always a medium, a towel and a basin, which we must use. We
read that it was while Jesus knew that the Father had given all things
into His hands that He took a towel. But all things are in your hands,
Lord: the destiny of humanity, the salvaging of the creation, the
fulfilment of the eternal purposes of the Father! Surely Your hands are
much too full for You to be bothered with a towel! Why I only need to
have a very few things in my hands to make me too preoccupied to give
practical help to others. I think that because I have to preach a
sermon I must not get involved in any household task; I want to shut
myself in my study; I want to be quiet and think; I am inclined to
resent any demands of home or family, or friends or neighbours because
of what I have on hand, though in my case I have only a very few
things. The marvel about the Lord Jesus was that although the destiny
of the universe was in His hands He could still cope with the lowly use
of a towel and make that and the basin a medium for expressing divine
love. Why did the Lord take the towel? Because it was through that
action that He could give expression to the love of God. There is
always a medium, an instrument, for channelling and communicating love.
It may be some great achievement like the emancipation of slaves or it
may be the homely action of washing up. It may even be passing bread
across the table. So the thrilling thing about a life devoted to
demonstrating the love of God is [75/76] that
every detail of life, however petty and however naturally boring or
irritating, can provide a channel for this great love. All things were
in His hands, as He undertook the footwashing and in this way eternity
became wrapped up in a towel. So it should be with us: the simplest
servile action can bring in something of eternal significance.
And of course the special area defined by the Lord for the exercise of
this love is the brotherhood of all believers -- "that ye have love one
to another" (v.35). In the second century Tertullian recorded that
pagans were amazed to see Christians loving, giving and serving, and
they remarked: "See how these Christians love one another". Two
centuries later Chrysostom had to complain that the pagan world mocked
at the Christian message because of the evident lack of love, the
ill-will and the quarrelling among professing Christians. The medium
for the expression of divine love is indicated by the words: "By this
shall all men know that you are my disciples, that you have love one to
another". The Church is called to be the extension of Christ's mission
to the world. What was begun in the upper room in the person of the
Lord Jesus is to be continued in His disciples, so that this world may
know what the Father is like, and how greatly He loves. Men and women
are meant to discover God through companies of people who love as He
loved -- even to the washing of feet and the meeting of hatred with
unfailing love.
----------------
RESURRECTION, THE HALL-MARK OF SONSHIP
T. Austin-Sparks
IN the terrible darkness of the cross, Jesus uttered the cry of
desertion and forsakenness in which He could only use the term: "My God
..." (Matthew 27:46), but before He died He was able to say: "Father,
into thy hands I commend my spirit" (Luke 23:46). After He had risen
from the dead, among the first words that He spoke were these: "Touch
me not; for I am not yet ascended unto the Father: but go unto my
brethren, and say to them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father ..."
(John 20.17). The battle was won. All that the first cry meant of
sonship being obscured, had been set aside. In perfect tranquillity the
Lord could not only speak of His Father but of our Father too.
Such passages as: "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee", and
"declared to be the Son of God ... by the resurrection from the dead"
can make for intellectual difficulty. What about the eternal Sonship?
Was He not God's Son before the resurrection? The words: "This day have
I begotten thee" evidently refer to the resurrection, as the first two
chapters of the letter to the Hebrews confirm. In what way is the Lord
Jesus God's Son by virtue of resurrection?
Let us at once state that this is related to the first and the last
Adam. The first Adam was called God's son (Luke 3:38) and in a sense
this was true, but that sonship was never fully realised -- all its
meaning, all its potential, all the divine intention, was never known.
It was sonship on probation which never attained to determination. In
the case of the Lord Jesus, however, we are told that He was
"determined the Son of God ..." (Romans 1:4 m.). The first Adam failed,
and in him the whole race lost its sonship. That was why the Lord Jesus
went to the cross as representative of the whole race, to meet the
final consequences of that lost sonship. Those consequences were known
in that eternal period of unspeakable agony, when there was the awful
consciousness of what it means to be abandoned by God. By nature we are
out of Christ, without God and without hope in this world, but we are
not fully aware of it nor of what it involves. In that phase of the
cross, the Lord Jesus was, so to speak, projected into the full
realisation of that complete consciousness of what God-forsakenness
really means, that which is the very terrible destiny of all deliberate
rejectors -- to find themselves rejected.
Well, having suffered that judgment, and having carried all the agony
of it to the disrupting of His soul and the breaking of His heart (for
when the soldiers came to inspect, they found that He was dead already,
while those crucified with Him were still alive) -- when that [76/77] was accomplished He came to the moment of
consciousness that the judgment was past, and so could return again to
use the word, "Father". Now, however, he used it with a meaning that it
had never borne for man until that time, so that the last word of the
cross is not "forsaken", but "Father". Sonship had now come on to a new
ground of resurrection, restoration; the alienation of the race had
been overcome. Restoration is made for the race in Christ, and so
everything begins with "Father". What a wealth there is in the phrase:
"The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" when it is seen in the
light of the cross! It is the ground of our approach, our appeal. It
carries with it the full meaning of the triumph of His cross over all
the alienation that had come to the human race with the loss of God's
meaning of sonship.
Briefly, then, that is the doctrine and the explanation of "This day
have I begotten thee". It speaks of a begetting not of the eternal Son,
not of Christ as the Son of God; but the begetting of the Son of man,
of the last Adam, and of sonship for man in Him. Sonship is ours in
Christ, so Peter cries: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy begat us again unto a
living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an
inheritance " (1 Peter 1:3-5).
BUT while our sonship through the cross and the risen Christ is to be
appropriated and entered into by faith as an act, yet for the purpose
of our testimony here, it is something which has to be continuous as a
spiritual experience. It is accepted in an act, but it has to be borne
out in a continuous process. The New Testament shows that sonship is
something which relates to the whole life of the believer in a
practical way of expression, so that inasmuch as it is inseparably
bound up with resurrection in the case of the Lord Jesus, for us it
demands a constant experience of His resurrection power . How do we
know sonship? Well, there was a time when we believed, and in believing
were made children or sons of God. "Ye are all sons of God, through
faith in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:26). Because we believe, we have
the sonship. That is very good, and of course we have always to cling
tenaciously by faith to the fact that it is so. But that may have been
years ago. Did the Lord just mean it to be something in our past
history, something which took place years ago? We have always to hold
on to that transaction with the Lord and believe, but does it not call
for a reinforcement as we go along? Is there no opportunity for it to
be more and more confirmed? Surely the Word teaches that there is; and
so not only the origin but the experience of the believer should be
that of sonship being freshly demonstrated and manifested on the same
ground as its origin -- that is, resurrection.
What is God's confirmation of our sonship? It is that He gives us
continual experiences of being raised from the dead. He has left us
here in a setting and a background of death: we are called upon to live
and to walk amidst death. This world is a tomb, which sooner or later
will engulf all those outside of Christ; but here we are in this very
tomb, this scene and realm of death, living. We are not a part of it,
we are living, and this is the testimony, this is sonship. Sonship is
meant to be manifested. The end of this process is the full
manifestation of the sons of God according to Romans 8:19. Here, in a
spiritual way, the manifold wisdom of God is shown in the Church, to
the glory of His name and to the confounding of principalities and
powers.
Our new birth is our first taste of resurrection life. We notice that,
after quoting the passage concerning Christ: "Thou art my Son, this day
have I begotten thee", the Scriptures present a further quotation: "I
and the children whom God hath given me" (Hebrews 2:13). The completion
of the original statement is: "Behold I and the children whom God hath
given me are for signs and wonders ..." (Isaiah 8:18). It is clear that
Isaiah's words are put into the mouth of the Lord Jesus who links the
announcement of His own Sonship by resurrection to the fact that by
that same resurrection He has begotten us again unto a living hope. We
are the children given to Him by virtue of His resurrection. And we are
for signs and wonders. What does this mean? Well when the evil
generation of Jews demanded a sign from the Lord Jesus, He replied:
"... there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of Jonah the
prophet" (Matthew 12:39). He went on to point out that this sign of
Jonah was connected with death and resurrection. So the signs and
wonders associated with Christ and the children whom the Father has
given Him are the miracles of resurrection life. This is the experience
of the spiritual [77/78] Christian, he
repeatedly knows the impact of death and the glory of Christ's
resurrection. So it is that the Church has survived. There is no other
way of accounting for the continuance of the Church through the ages
than the wonder-working power of Christ's resurrection. The powers of
hell and death have come like a deluge upon the Church through the
centuries and have sometimes almost seemed to quench it, but it has
sprung up again in greater fullness than ever before after every such
time.
WHAT is true of the Church as a whole is true in smaller ways in our
individual experience. In our own hearts we sometimes become
encompassed by death; we almost fear for our own faith at times,
wondering if we shall survive; but we have gone on, and we are still
going on. This is the marvellous outworking of "the exceeding greatness
of his power to usward who believe" (Ephesians 1:19). It is not our
endurance: it is the power of His resurrection. This is the testimony
-- for signs and wonders. The story is not to be read openly, but one
day it will be revealed for His glory. It is now a hidden story.
Everyone knows his own dark, deadly hours in the spiritual life, but he
also proves the superior power of Christ's resurrection life.
Thank God that since Christ bore the bitter tasting of death for us,
there is none left for us to taste. Spiritual death is the complete
consciousness of what it means to be finally abandoned by God. There is
no more of that for those who are in Christ; that death has been
swallowed up in Him. So may the Lord give us faith to stand on that
ground in the darkest hour. If we are children by resurrection, then we
are for signs and wonders in Israel. However gloomy the prospect, we
know that God's answer in His sons is the victory of resurrection life.
----------------
WHAT IS HIS NAME?
16. MASTER
Harry Foster
THIS one English word is given as the rendering for various titles
which His contemporaries applied to the Lord Jesus. The most common of
them is the word which really signifies Teacher. The Hebrew counterpart
is Rabbi (John 1:38).
There is nothing unusual about the actual word. It is applied to the
'doctors' with whom the boy Jesus reasoned in the temple; it was used
by Christ to describe Nicodemus, the 'master of Israel'; and it is the
word employed concerning those in the churches who had the spiritual
gift of teachers (Ephesians 4:11). But the Lord took up the general
word and gave it a unique significance to those who were proud to
acknowledge themselves as His disciples. To them there was only one who
could be their Teacher in the things of God.
Saul of Tarsus once had the great Gamaliel as his teacher, and he
described the relationship by saying that he had been brought up "at
the feet" of this great rabbi (Acts 22:3). The Scriptures make use of
this same phrase, telling of those who were glad to sit at the feet of
Jesus. Mary of Bethany was prominent in this respect, and this is how
we always remember her.
When Martha sent her the message: "The Master is come, and he calleth
for thee", she knew at once who had arrived and went out to voice her
doubts and perplexities from this same position -- at His feet (John
11:32). Equally the Jerusalem householder, when told that the Master
was asking for the promised guest chamber, responded instantly and with
all his heart to this request. There was no need for names. For him
there was only one Teacher.
All human teachers have their limitations. It seems that in the temple
the Lord Jesus, though only twelve years old, had to supply the answers
to the questions which He Himself had posed. There were things that the
great doctors did not know. This was certainly true in the case of
Nicodemus, as the Lord Himself had to point out to the great teacher
who had arrived and opened the conversation with the words: "We [78/79] know ...". He clearly did not know the things
of the Spirit (John 3:10).
Only Jesus knows it all. He is truly our Teacher. For this reason the
most experienced of us had far better maintain our place at the feet of
Jesus as His disciples. The would-be teacher can often finish up by
exposing not only his limitations but his contradictions (James 3:1).
The last use of the title is perhaps the most moving and inspiring.
When the unrecognised Saviour revealed Himself to Mary by the simple
utterance of her name, she turned swiftly to Him and exclaimed:
"Rabboni" (John 20.16). John tells us that what she really said was
just "Teacher", but we know something of the ardent devotion that she
put into that one word. It is not what we say but how we say it that
matters.
----------------
FOR BOYS AND GIRLS
HOLDING ON
Harry Foster
UNCLE JOE was Fred's favourite uncle. He was a preacher and often had
interesting stories to tell. He also had some rather unusual ways of
talking, as for instance when he spoke of 'holding on' in prayer. This
phrase so puzzled Fred that one day he asked his uncle what it meant.
He had heard his parents ask telephone callers to 'hold on' a moment,
but somehow he did not think that it was this kind of holding on to
which his uncle referred. 'How do you hold on in prayer?' he asked
Uncle Joe, rather hoping that his question might produce a story -- and
so it did.
The story was concerned with an experience which Uncle Joe had while in
missionary work in Brazil. The only method of travelling then was by
dugout canoe, and this was often dangerous because of the many rapids
in the middle reaches of the river. To shoot these rapids was swift and
exciting, but to find a way slowly through them when going upstream was
very hard work. At places the only possible way of progress was by the
members of the crew hauling the boat up by means of a rope. One end was
tied to the canoe and the men took the other end to a suitable rock.
When they were all in position, the one man left in the canoe pushed
away from the bank and then, hand over hand, the others slowly pulled
the canoe up through a gap in the rocks.
This was a man-sized job, so that when one day Aatu, a teenage Red
Indian, begged to be included in the crew, Uncle Joe was inclined to
refuse. However Aatu was a good lad and one of the first of that tribe
to become a Christian, and at last Uncle Joe agreed to take him.
When they had these perilous pulls through the rapids it was always
Uncle Joe who stayed in the canoe while the Indian members of the crew
took the rope on ahead to drag it up past the danger. On this trip they
had used this method several times until once when things went all
wrong. Everything seemed to be going according to plan and with the men
hanging on to the rope Uncle Joe pushed off into midstream, only to
discover to his dismay that some commotion had made all the men except
Aatu lose their foothold and fall into the river. There was no danger
for them, for they could all swim well and were used to getting wet:
the danger was for the canoe which could have been dashed on to the
rocks with Uncle Joe in it.
'There was I,' he told Fred, 'standing helplessly looking at Aatu at
the other end of the rope, and there was he, just as helpless, looking
back at me in the canoe. Of course he could not pull me to safety --
even a strong man would not have been able to do that alone -- but he
could hold on until something happened. And how I hoped and prayed that
he would just hold on!' 'And did he?' asked Fred. 'Oh yes,' replied his
uncle. 'He held on all right. Otherwise I should not be here alive
today. And it was not long before the other men swam back to the rock
and joined in pulling me to safety. It seemed a very long time to me,
of course, and for that [79/80] moment
everything depended on Aatu. All he could do was to stand firm and not
let go of the rope. And I am thankful to say that that was what he did.'
After a pause Uncle Joe asked Fred if he understood better now what he
meant when he used the phrase about 'holding on' in prayer. 'Yes
Uncle,' answered Fred, 'but I am afraid that I am not very good at it.
Not like Aatu.' 'Well,' said his uncle, 'that is true of most of us. We
start full of eager interest but we feel helpless and are tempted to
let go. Yet it was not a matter of skill for Aatu, was it? Nor was it a
matter of strength. It was just a case of -- well, holding on. Wasn't
it?
To each one of us there come times when our strength seems quite
insufficient and the case so hopeless that we are ready to let go. How
important it is not to do so, but just to keep holding on. This is
especially the case in the matter of prayer. Really that was why the
Lord Jesus told His disciples to "Watch and pray". And that is also why
we are all told to go on "praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and
watching thereunto in all perseverance ..." (Ephesians 6:18). So hold
on!
----------------
RECORDED MESSAGES by the late T. Austin-Sparks
Our friend Mr. Alec Brackett has prepared cassettes with messages which
Mr. Austin-Sparks gave at Honor Oak and elsewhere. He will be glad to
make these cassettes available to any who wish to get the help and
inspiration which they bring. Particulars of these and other tape
recordings may be had on application. The address is: "THINGS THAT
MATTER", 30 Western Road, URMSTON, MANCHESTER M31 3LF. [80/ibc]
----------------
[Inside back cover]
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[Back cover]
"HE WHO CALLS YOU IS UTTERLY
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1 Thessalonians 5:24 (Phillips)
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