The Heavenly Man personally is
presented to us by the Apostle John in a fuller way than by any
other of the New Testament writers. Paul advances to the
corporate Heavenly Man. That does not mean that Paul does not
present the personal Heavenly Man, for he undoubtedly does,
particularly in his letter to the Colossians; but he advances
from the personal Heavenly Man to the corporate Heavenly Man,
which is the Church, His Body.
May we repeat one thing.
Christ, actually and literally, was with the Father before times
eternal, and the Church, not actually and literally, but in
foreknowledge and fore-ordination, was also with the Father and
the Son before times eternal. The fullest unveiling of the
Church, which comes to us through the Apostle Paul, reveals it as
already complete, but we know it to be a fact that it was in no
sense completed when Paul wrote. It was not finished numerically,
and it was anything but finished spiritually and morally, yet he
speaks of it as though it were the most complete, the most
perfect thing in the universe. He is standing, as it were, at
God's side, and God views the Church from the eternal standpoint,
that is, as outside of time.
The
Restoration of Heavenly Relationship
Recognising, then, that Christ
and the Church are revealed as being with the Father from all
eternity, we next see that by reason of that which has taken
place in the fall, and which was anticipated in the redemptive
line of purpose, Christ comes into time, and is born in time in
relation to redemption, and that redemption is said to be from
"this present evil age." The Authorised Version renders
it "world", but the change is important. It is not from
a place that we are redeemed, but from an age, and it is
perfectly clear what that age is. It embraces all the
intermediary sections or dispensations. The present evil age runs
from Adam to the new heavens and the new earth. There is a coming
glorious age. To be redeemed out of this present evil age, means
that the Church, which belongs to eternity and not to this age,
is to be redeemed out of it. It shows how Christ, by redemption,
brings back into the straight line of what is eternal and outside
of time, into the eternal counsels and purposes of God concerning
His Son. By the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, which is a
redemption from this evil age, the Church is redeemed unto that
other age, that eternal age. So the birth of Christ is related to
the redemption of the purchased possession, the redemption of the
Church.
Coming to John, firstly with
regard to Christ's entry into time, we find that John has three
things to say about Christ.
(1) John sets Christ in
eternity.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God" (John 1:1). That is Christ outside of
time.
(2) He shows Christ's coming
into time.
"And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us..."
(John 1:14).
(3) Christ is revealed as being
also in heaven while here.
This third thing which is
stated in John's Gospel is declared by the Lord Himself, and
combines both of the other two things. The Son, who is here in
the flesh, is at the same time in heaven. There is the uniting of
the two spheres. While He is here, He is still in heaven; while
He is in time, He is still in eternity. "No man hath
ascended into heaven, but he that descended out of heaven, even
the Son of man, which is in heaven" (John 3:13). That is the
Heavenly Man as presented to us by John; Christ on earth, and at
the same time still in heaven.
Now, in Christ, that becomes
true of the Church, and is true of every member of the Church. In
Christ we are here, and at the same time in heaven. We are in
time, but we are also in eternity. The question arises, how can
this be? It is a statement which needs explaining.
This brings us to the point
where eternal and heavenly relationship is resumed. That
relationship was broken off, interrupted. In Christ, as
representative Man, it is resumed, taken up again. With Him it
has never been interrupted. The interruption had to do with man,
but through union with Christ that relationship - howbeit in a
fuller way - is resumed, or restored to man. What is the point at
which this resumption takes place? It is what is known amongst us
as being born anew, or from above. Its law and its main spring is
eternal life.
Israel and
the Promises
Two things were evidently
related in the Jewish mind. These were (1) The kingdom of heaven,
and (2) Eternal life. Nicodemus asked what he must do to enter
the kingdom of heaven. Another ruler, probably of the same school
as Nicodemus, and perhaps of the same rank, asked this question:
"Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"
(Luke 10:25). These things were evidently accepted by the Jews as
a promise. The Lord Jesus recognised and referred to that
expectation when He said, "Ye search the scriptures, because
ye think that in them ye have eternal life..." (John 5:39).
There was a quest for eternal life, an expectation, a hope of
eternal life, a persuasion that eternal life was a promise to be
realised. These two things were linked together in their mind.
Christ associates this hope with Himself and says concerning the
testimony of the Scriptures, "...these are they which bear
witness of me." To such as can receive it, He
indicates that He Himself is the way or ladder into heaven, the
necessary means of getting there. We are, of course, referring to
John 1:51. Now read verse 47:
"Jesus saw Nathanael
coming to him, and saith of him, Behold, an Israelite indeed,
in whom is no guile!"
Here is a pure Israelite. What
can you say to a pure Israelite who is looking for the kingdom of
heaven and eternal life, a man who is true, a man who is honest?
The Lord has seen him under the fig tree, really pouring himself
out in quest of the kingdom of heaven and eternal life, if what
the Lord Jesus said to him is a clue to what was going on in his
heart. He was of those who looked for the blessings of Israel.
Let us pause for a moment, and
insert Psalm 133 here in brackets. "Behold, how good and how
pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! ...for
there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for
evermore." How does the blessing come? Whence is this hope,
this expectation of the blessing? Our question takes us back to
the promise made to Abraham: "...in thee shall all the
families of the earth be blessed" (Gen. 12:3). These
Israelites were looking for the blessing of Abraham. But note
what is further said: "...in Isaac shall thy seed be
called" (Gen. 21:12). What does Isaac represent? Life from
the dead, Divine life. The blessing of Abraham is life. Now note
the words of the psalm: "...for there the Lord commanded the
blessing, even life for evermore". So you see that what they
were in quest of was the blessing which had these two aspects,
the kingdom of heaven, and eternal life.
In Nathanael we see an
Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile, a pure man in a right
quest. The Lord says to a man like that, "Ye shall see the
heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending
upon the Son of man." Are you in quest for the kingdom of
heaven? "Ye shall see the heaven opened..." Are you
wanting to get through? You will need a ladder, a way, a means, a
vehicle: "Ye shall see... the angels of God ascending and
descending upon the Son of man."
Nathanael knew exactly to what
the Lord was referring. An Israelite indeed, in whom there was no
Jacob, was Nathanael! Let us recall the incident to which the
Lord referred. "And Jacob... lighted upon a certain place...
and he took one of the stones of the place, and put it under his
head, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and
behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached
to heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending
on it. And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said... I am
with thee, and will keep thee whithersoever thou goest... And
Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said... How dreadful is
this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is
the gate of heaven" (Gen. 28:10-17) - Bethel, the House of
God: the House of God, the gate of heaven. The Lord Jesus
appropriates that and says, in effect: 'I am the House of God, I
am the gate of heaven. Thou shalt see heaven open through Me.' Do
you want to know how to reach heaven? Two things have to be
considered; one is the fact of union with Christ, the other is
that which is bound up with union with Christ, namely, eternal
life.
Man by Nature
an Outlaw
Let us stay with that for a
moment. "Ye shall see the heaven opened..." Such a
statement implies that the heavens have been closed. That, again,
carries with it the fact that for man eternal life has also been
put behind a closed heaven. Even for Nathanael, even for
Nicodemus, even for a pure-hearted Israelite that is true by
nature. Their longing is for an opened heaven. They are stretched
out for the kingdom of heaven, but it is closed.
We know quite well that to
everyone by nature heaven is a closed realm. But a closed heaven
is not God's thought for us. We belong to heaven. Christ belongs
to heaven. The Church belongs to heaven. Yet the very place to
which we belong is closed to us. The place with which we are
related in the eternal counsels and purpose of God is closed to
us by nature. That has its most terrible manifestation in those
moments of the Cross, when the Lord Jesus, standing in the place
of man in his sinful state, cried, "My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me?" Heaven is closed to Me; the place to
which I belong, My heaven, My home, is closed to Me! I am an
outcast from heaven!
Such is the state of man by
nature, shut out from heaven, the place for which he was made,
the place which belongs to him in the purpose of God. The Lord
says to Nathanael, "Ye shall see the heaven opened".
There is far more meaning in the phrase we so often use, "an
open heaven", than we have recognised. What is it to enjoy
an open heaven? It is to be at home, in fellowship with the Lord;
it is to have a heavenly life; it is to have all the heavenly
resources at our disposal; all that heaven means is open to us,
and we have come into that for which God brought us into being,
which He intended to be ours from all eternity; that is an opened
heaven. "Ye shall see the heaven opened..." Then the
quest of the heart is satisfied, the promise realised. The
principle of the opened heaven, or of the heavenly life, is what
is called eternal life in Christ. Christ is the Heavenly Man,
coming into time.
Christ and
the Church
We have said once or twice that
the Church is to be what the Heavenly Man was, and is, as to His
being, as to the laws of His life, as to His ministry. Everything
that is true about Him as the Heavenly Man has to become true of
the Church. Thus, even as the Lord Jesus, as the Heavenly Man,
was born here in time, so also is the Church, the corporate
Heavenly Man, to have a birth here in time, and on the same
principle as Christ was born.
How was Christ born? You will
realise that we are leaving the question of Deity on one side. We
are not touching that side at all. In the sense in which Christ
was God incarnate, Immanuel, God with us, God manifest in the
flesh, that is not true of us as members of the Church. That is
understood. We are talking about the Heavenly Man, not of the
Divine Son, not of Godhead. So that what is true of Him as the
Heavenly Man as to His birth, has to be true of the whole Church
in every part. Let us look at the birth of the Lord Jesus and
mark how it is characterised by three things.
(1) The Word
Presented
We go back to Luke, for Luke
enlarges upon what John says. John compasses it all in one
statement: "And the Word became flesh, and tabernacled among
us..." It is Luke who gives us the fullest description of
the Word being made flesh, the birth of Christ. We will not read
the whole story, but we mark first of all how that the angel went
to Mary, and began to present Mary with a statement. He made his
statement to her, and then waited. In her perplexity she asked a
question. He answered her question, and again waited. Then, came
the response: "Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto
me according to thy word" (Luke 1:38). First of all the word
offered: that is the first step in His birth, the word presented,
the statement made. Then the angel waited. What are you going to
do with it? How are you going to react to it? The word presents a
challenge, always a costly challenge. That word is going to lead
outside of the world, and is to bring the liberty of the world.
Mary weighs the cost while the angel waits. The battle is fought,
the storm for a moment rages, and then it is over, and in calm
deliberateness, she responds, "...be it unto me according to
thy word."
Do you see what it means to be
begotten of the word of God? The first step in this new birth,
the first step into this heavenly life, is our attitude toward
the presented word of God, and that will be found to
govern every step in the heavenly life. Such is the nature of the
first step, and it is equally that of every subsequent step. All
the way through the Lord will be presenting us with His word, and
with it a challenge, a cost, a price to be paid, and there will
be conflict over it: Are we prepared to go that way? Are we
prepared to accept that word? Are we prepared for what that word
means, for what it involves? On the response to what is presented
depends our knowledge of the heavenly life. From beginning to end
it is like that.
That is why the Lord never
first explains everything to unsaved people. Doctrine followed
for believers, but was never given for unbelievers. Clear,
concise statements were made to unbelievers. To them there was a
presenting of facts, boldly and deliberately. 'This is God's
will. This is God's word. This you must do. Explanation will come
later. Now, heaven is going to remain closed, or is going to be
opened; the question of your entry into a heavenly life lies in
the balance as you decide what is to be your response to God's
word. You will be born of that word, if you respond to it,
begotten by the word of truth'. So the first thing is the word
offered, and then, after some difficulty and conflict, accepted,
received, surrendered to: "...be it unto me according to thy
word."
(2) The Word
Germinating
What is the next step?
The Spirit makes the word to germinate within. The Spirit
generates within by means of the word. That is the second thing
to be noted in the case of Mary, the Spirit generating, or
implanting. Not until the word has found a response can that word
become a living thing within. That is why an unsaved person can
never know the meaning of the Word of God. The meaning of any
word of God demands the inward work of the Holy Spirit to make it
live, to make it germinate, and response to it opens the way for
the Spirit.
(3) The
Word (Christ) Formed Within Initially and Progressively
That is the third step. It is
very simple when presented like that, but this is the way into
heaven, into eternal life. Mark you, this is something other than
of Mary, her race, and her nature. By the Holy Spirit there was a
complete coming in between all that Mary was by nature and that
Holy Thing. It is a very important matter, moreover, for us to
recognise that in exactly the same way are we born anew. When
Christ was born of Mary, or when Christ was (may we use the
word?) generated in Mary, there took place in Mary something that
was altogether above nature. Mary had a long natural lineage, and
in that lineage there were all sorts of people, including several
harlots. But when the Holy Spirit came in and formed Christ in
her, He set all that aside and cut it off. That blood did not
come into Christ. Remember that! He did not inherit aught of
that, whatever it was, whether high or low, good or bad. The Holy
Spirit cut it off, and Christ was something other than that,
distinct: "...that holy thing...". You can never say
that of anything that is inherited of the blood of Rahab, or of
Ruth the Moabitess. It is something other.
Christ in us is something other
than ourselves. That is what makes us heavenly. Flesh and blood
cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven. That is our natural stream,
our natural history, the whole course of our Adamic relationship,
which cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven. It is only what is of
Christ that will inherit the kingdom of heaven. It is Christ in
us who is to us the hope of glory, and the only hope of glory.
This is something other than of Mary, and her race and nature,
something other than of ourselves. This which is begotten of God
is of the Holy Ghost. You and I ever need to discriminate between
what is of Christ in us and what is of ourselves, and not to get
these things mixed. Nothing that is not of Christ is going to
find acceptance. Everything has to measure up to Christ, to pass
through the sieve of Christ, and the sieve is a very fine one;
for everything has to go through the test of death, and death is
a tremendous test. Is there anything that death can lay hold of?
If there is, it will lay hold of it. All that is subject to death
will succumb to death, and this old creation is nothing else but
that. Christ is not subject to death; He cannot be holden of it,
for there is nothing in Him upon which death can fasten. That is
our hope of glory, Christ in us. This Holy Ghost dividing between
Mary and Christ, between ourselves and Christ, this fundamental
division made by the Holy Ghost, must be kept constantly in mind,
for only as we do that can God reach His end. Mark you, God can
reach His end far more rapidly where that discrimination is
maintained, than He can where it is overlooked. That is the
importance of believers being instructed of the Lord concerning
that which is essential unto His purpose.
Christ was other than the rest
of men in that respect. Even from childhood He had another
consciousness, as we have occasion to note when He is at the age
of twelve. Not finding Him in their company, His earthly parents
sought Him, and found Him in the temple, and claimed Him as son:
"Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold, thy father
and I sought thee sorrowing." To this He replied,
"...wist ye not that I must be in my Father's house?"
(Luke 2:48-49). It is a reproof, but at the same time a
disclosure of another consciousness. "Thy father and
I..." - "...my Father's house..." That is not
Joseph's house. Here is the setting of one Father over against
the other, and of the One above the other. It is a heavenly
consciousness, an eternal consciousness, a mark that He is
"other", as begotten of the Holy Ghost.
When, begotten of the Holy
Ghost, we come at once back into our eternal relationship with
God in the Son, a new consciousness springs up within us, a
consciousness that was not there before. This "new man"
which has been put on, has a new consciousness as to heavenly
relationships.
All that is embraced in the
words "eternal life". We know that eternal life does
not merely imply the fact of duration; it means a kind of life.
That eternal life, that life from above, that Divine life in
Christ, carries with it all that relates to the Heavenly Man.
Consider the Heavenly Man
personally again. "In him was life..."; "For as
the Father hath life in himself, even so gave he to the Son also
to have life in himself..." (John 5:26). In the Gospel by
John, the Lord Jesus says much about Himself as the Heavenly Man,
possessing heavenly life, and that heavenly life was the seat of
the heavenly nature and the heavenly consciousness; it was
through that heavenly life that He conducted Himself as He did.
He was alive unto God by that life which He possessed, and this
is seen in His being able to know God, to know the movements of
God, the directions of God, the gestures of God, the restraints
of God. It was all gathered up in that life. That is the
principle of His life as of His birth. It is the principle of our
birth, and alike the principle of our life as the corporate
Heavenly Man.
The Gift of
the Holy Spirit
That life is by the Holy
Spirit. It is always related to a Person; it is not an abstract,
a mere element. It is inseparable from the Person, which Person
is the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus.
When you come to the book of the Acts, you have a great deal
disclosed about the gift of the Holy Spirit. If you look at it
closely you will see that the coming of the Holy Spirit was
invariably related to spiritual union with Christ. Pentecost
marked the end of a physical relationship with the Lord Jesus as
in the flesh, the end of that extraordinary period of His
post-resurrection appearances. It is the beginning of an inward,
spiritual relationship with Christ. We may mark the same feature
at Caesarea; they believed, and the Holy Spirit was given. At
Samaria, again, hands were laid upon those who had believed, and
the Holy Spirit was given. And one of the most interesting things
in the book of the Acts is that incident at Ephesus. When Paul
came to Ephesus, he found certain disciples, and discerned
something unusual in their condition, or was it something
lacking? To them he says, "Did ye receive the Holy Ghost
when ye believed?" (Acts 19:2. R.V.). That is the correct
translation, not "since ye believed" as in the
Authorised Version. That in itself assumes that believing implies
the receiving of the Spirit. The two things go together. Paul
could not quite understand this situation. It was something
abnormal. Here were those who professed to believe in Christ, and
who in a way had believed in Christ, but that which should go
alongside of true faith was not there. Paul found himself
confronted by a condition he had never met with before, and on
his putting to them the question, "Did ye receive the Holy
Ghost when ye believed?" they made answer, "Nay, we did
not so much as hear whether the Holy Ghost was..." So Paul
further inquires, "Into what then were ye baptized?" to
which they replied, "Into John's baptism." Ah! Now we
have the clue. "John baptized with the baptism of
repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on
him which should come after him, that is, on Jesus". So they
had been baptized into John's baptism, unto an objective, future
Christ; not baptized into Christ, but baptized toward Christ.
Those are two different baptisms altogether. Paul commanded them
to be baptized into the Name of the Lord Jesus, laid his hands
upon them, and the Holy Ghost was given. Those two things go
together. Union with Christ is shown to involve the receiving of
the Spirit. That is not intended by the Lord to be something
later on in the spiritual life; it should mark the commencement.
If in the book of the Acts
there are particular elements which throw up the whole matter
into such clear relief, such as accompanying signs, those signs
were only the Lord's way of emphasising for all the dispensation
what it means, that union with Christ involves the receiving of
the Holy Spirit. How do you know? Well, He has shown it to this
dispensation by bringing it out into clear relief in that way. He
has laid it down so that no one can fail to see it. If you become
occupied with the signs (tongues etc.), but miss their
signification, you will fail to see that those outward marks,
those demonstrations, were only allowed as accompaniments, in
order to emphasise the basic truth, namely, that union with
Christ was now established. The gift of the Holy Spirit was the
seal and proof of this. On what ground? By believing in Christ,
by being baptized into Christ, eternal life is received in the
Holy Spirit. And that life has heavenly capacities, within it are
the powers of the age to come; and when in the ages to come its
powers are fully released, we shall be endued with powers which
far transcend our present powers. The age to come has been
foreshadowed in tokens at the beginning. It may be that from time
to time those powers are made manifest in the healing of the sick
even now, but let us not fasten upon those tokens and make a
doctrine of token and signs, begin to gather them up and
systematise them, and make them the object of our quest. Let us
remember that they are the token of something else, and you can
have the "something else" apart from the tokens. When
in truth you are baptized into Christ, you receive the Spirit of
life in Christ, and in that life you are at once brought back
into your heavenly relationship with the Heavenly Man; you become
part of the corporate Heavenly Man.
It is what Christ is in us by
His Spirit that determines everything. It determines all the
values, settles for ever the question of effectiveness, answers
all the questions and problems. I wish we had had this
understanding, this knowledge sooner. If only we could have this
as the foundation of our life from the beginning, what a lot we
should be saved from.
Ministry is the expression of
life, and not the taking on of a uniform and a title. Once I
thought that to be in the ministry was to go into a certain kind
of work, to come out of business, and, well, be a minister! So
one got into the thing. Many, many are labouring and toiling in
it, breaking their hearts, afraid to leave that order of things,
lest they should be violating what they conceived to be a Divine
call. Many others cannot get out of it because it is a means of
livelihood, and they too are breaking their hearts. It is all
false. Ministry is not a system like that. Ministry is the
expression of life, and that is but saying in other words that it
is the outworking of the indwelling of Christ. Disaster lies
before the man or woman who ministers on any other ground than
that. When the Lord gets a chance in us, and we really will trust
Him on that ground, take our position there, He will show us that
there is ministry enough for us; we shall not have to go round
looking for it. The real labour so often is to get us down to
that ground, the delivering of us from this present evil age even
in its conception of the ministry, unto the heavenly ministry.
The Lord Jesus is our pattern.
You see the spontaneous ministry, the restful ministry of that
Heavenly Man. I covet that! It does not mean that we shall become
careless, but it does deliver us from so much unnecessary strain.
That is how it should be. May the Lord bring us to it; the
Heavenly Man with the heavenly life as the full heavenly
resource.