We are to consider briefly that solemn watchword of our
Lord's
life on earth by which the stages of His advance toward His
ultimate purpose were governed and marked:
for He went toward that ultimate purpose by stages governed
by a
consciousness which found its expression in a familiar
phrase, "Mine hour." That was the solemn watchword of our
Lord's
life and progressive movement into and unto His ultimate
purpose, and we shall look at some of those movements as
defined
by that expression.
1. The Sign of the Ultimate
Purpose.
In the first place let us turn to John 2. You know this is
the
account of the miracle of turning water into wine at the
marriage
in Cana of Galilee, and the thing upon which everything turned
was
this utterance, "Mine hour is not yet." Mary, His mother in
the
flesh, had come to Him saying, "They have no wine." Whether
she
was anticipating a miracle on His part or not, we need
not
stay to discuss. Probably not, for His answer is
illuminating. It is very harsh in our English language,
which
does not convey a certain softness that really was in His own
words. Our language simply bluntly puts it this way, "Woman,
what
have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet." Literally He
said
this, "What is there in common between you and Me," which
being
expounded means this, you are thinking of one thing and I am
thinking of another. Your mind is in one realm, My mind is
working
in another. You are wanting one thing, I am after another.
What is
there in common between thee and Me? We are in two different
realms of thought, of inclination, of intention, of desire.
That,
I say, is very significant and very suggestive, as the
original
language makes it perfectly clear that that is what
He
said, and therefore you come to this conclusion, that He had
a
mind, a very clear mind, a made-up mind, a settled mind as
to
what He would do.
What He was after and the thing that was going to happen had
a
significance in His mind which far transcended anything that
was
in the mind of anyone else: there was really no
comparison or relationship between these
other thoughts and His. He had something in mind which they
did
not discern or perceive. When you realise that this was the
beginning of His ministry, and that this was the first
manifestation of that Divine Sonship in its
sovereignty, then you have a clue; you recognise that He is
making this first thing a very, very significant thing
indeed;
that in His mind
this
is full of eternal significance, and no one else saw that,
but He knew, and He was moving in a definite and deliberate
act
and stage toward that ultimate thing which He was now
projecting
in this positive and definite way. Now you break the thing
up,
and you find that the key-words are, "Mine hour," and the
last
word, "manifested His glory." Then the miracle, or the sign,
as
you notice, had wine as its occasion and basis. Wine is a
symbol
in the Word for blood and life, very often interchangeable
words, and very often synonymous terms. As we gather
around
the Lord's Table we recognise that the wine is
the
symbol of the blood which contains the Life, and this symbol
was
the basis and the occasion of this
sign,
or act, which issued in His glory relative to His hour, and
marked a definite stage toward an ultimate purpose.
Here He ceases to be a private person, and crosses the line
into
public life, and from this moment He was a marked man. On the
one
hand, sought after because of certain
benefits
which He was considered capable of bestowing;
on
the other hand, sought after for His destruction; but from
this moment He was out in the open, and it was this
deliberate
stepping across the line with this thing which was in His
mind
relative to "the hour" that committed Him to the battle
which
had its consummation in the last declaration of this
watchword:
"The hour is come that the Son of Man
should
be delivered into the hands of wicked
men and should be crucified." He crossed the line in Cana of
Galilee and related this to the first expression "Mine
hour,"
"the hour," and in between you mark the stages, the progress
toward that.
Now what is the thing that is in His mind? Everything that
the
Master did was deliberate. There was nothing casual;
there
were no side-shows
in the Master's life; there was nothing that was merely
incidental. Everything was in the direct line of His
ultimate
purpose, and He would not accept an invitation to a
marriage festivity just on sentimental grounds. This thing
was
not a social incident in His life, it was brought right into
direct line with His ultimate purpose, and that is why the
whole
thing was made to centre in this "Mine hour." This
beginning of signs related to
His glory. Then if He takes hold of this thing and
turns it thus to be a sign, the meaning of this is that He
projects, as it were, upon the screen, all the purpose
of His
coming, a marriage relationship upon a basis of
Life, and that Life as found in His blood, and the ultimate
Purpose looms into view.
The hour in which He is glorified is that when He gets that
which
stands in relationship to Him as a bride, and it throws you
right
on into that unveiling through Paul, "Husbands love your
wives,
even as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her."
That is
the end of this. His hour is related to that, and His glory is
related to that. In simple words, it is this that the Son of
Man
requires for the manifestation of His glory, that church which
stands in this relationship to Him upon a basis of One
Life
for which He gave Himself. He takes hold of this which
otherwise would have been an ordinary occasion of social
festivity, He turns it to account and makes of it the occasion
of
the sign of His ultimate Purpose. "This beginning of signs" -
that
is what it signifies here, and the miracle of death and
resurrection by which He gets His church, is foreshadowed,
foreseen in this - the Life poured out, the basis of a
union.
"Mine hour." That is "the hour," and He has, as we have
pointed
out, deliberately stepped out to that.
As we pass on, let us take with us this central thought. It
is a
Life which is in question which is to be shared by a corporate
company in a marital union with the Lord Jesus in His
Resurrection; a Life, a triumphant Life, by which the church
is
secured triumphantly over death. Now we cannot stay for
anything
more about that, but we take up the clue and pass on with that
in
our hands.
2. The
Security of
the Ultimate Purpose.
The next is in John 7:30: "They sought therefore to take Him:
and
no man laid his hand on Him because His hour was not yet
come."
What was His own later comment upon that?
"I lay it down of Myself, no man taketh it from Me. I have
authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it
again.
This commandment have I received from My Father." "No man laid
his hand upon Him because His Hour was
not
yet come." The Hour of His authority for
laying
down that Life. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ was not
just
to be murder. The murderer was out, he of whom the Lord
said,
"he is a murderer" was out to murder the Son of God, and he
is
seeking all the way through to bring about His untimely
death,
His destruction, and you notice how varied are his methods.
The
first temptation - "Cast Thyself down for it is written He
will
give His angels charge concerning Thee. In their hands shall
they bear Thee up lest at any time Thou dash Thy foot
against a
stone." You see he was trying to bring about His undoing and
His
death by not keeping in the way of God. If the Lord had
acted
upon the basis projected by
the
devil, the angels could not have upheld Him, He would have
been dashed to pieces. That would have been the untimely
end.
The Master saw through it, and from that first time of
temptation onward the devil is out to murder, but the
death of
Christ is not murder. His death, when it came about, was
to be
deliberate and in the will of God, and therefore
victorious,
not defeat.
Now, as you have the sign
of
the ultimate Purpose in the first occasion, here you
have the security of the ultimate
Purpose:
that that Life cannot be touched by man; that Life is a thing
which man cannot interfere with. The laying down of that Life
is a
deliberate act of authority, and in the same authority it will
be
taken up again, the triumph of that Life in Resurrection,
because
it is in the will and purpose of God, and neither devil nor
man
can touch that. It is a very blessed thing, beloved, to know
this
as a practical thing, that if we possess that Life and
are
keeping in the way of the Lord, there can be no untimely
end. Everything will be deliberate, however it may appear.
The
murderer is defeated, the Purpose is secured in that Life,
the
triumph of that Life as it is kept
sheerly in the way of the Divine will. Get out of that and
deviate, and you have no guarantee of protection from the
murderer. Keep in that, and "no man laid hand upon Him"; "His
hour
was not yet." The security of the ultimate Purpose is in that
Life
maintained in the will of God.
3. The
Law
of the Ultimate Purpose.
Pass on hurriedly to the 12th chapter. The Greeks enquired
for Him
saying, "Sir, we would see Jesus." His response to the enquiry
is,
"the Hour is come
that
the Son of Man should be glorified. Except a corn of
wheat
fall into the ground and die," etc. Perhaps [there is] no more
familiar
passage to us than that - a corn of wheat issuing in
the Resurrection Body; the Son of Man thus glorified;
the
triumph of Christ over death in a bodily form. It is true
that
in an isolated capacity and apart altogether, He triumphed
personally over death, but that is not the only method of
God of
demonstrating the fact. The fact of His triumph over death
is
also in a corporate Resurrection Body
with all the members sharing that Resurrection Life. That is
the
testimony to the fact that He has risen; that is also an Instrument
by
which it is to be proved to the universe that
He
is alive from the dead.
The law of that ultimate
Purpose is here seen - "Except a corn of wheat
fall
into the ground and die."
The sign of the ultimate Purpose; the security of the
ultimate
Purpose; the law of the ultimate Purpose. What is that? Life through
Death.
Now we are so familiar with this truth that it hardly needs
further emphasis or words, but, beloved, let it be said as we
pass
on that everything to the most minute detail which relates to
that
ultimate Purpose of God has to be born in the power of His
Resurrection. All relationships! Oh, how we are tested upon
that!
A relationship, and the Lord calls upon you to let that
relationship go. The Cross and your position in relation to
the
Lord Jesus costs you that, and that is to go down into death.
The
relationships are all tested down there, and then, what is of
God
comes back, it must survive. What is not of God we become
quite
content to do without. We come up in the victory of His Life.
If a thing has been sown of God in the grave of the Lord
Jesus,
it is in the power of a Life that cannot see death, which
cannot
see corruption; it will come up, but this time on a higher
level.
That is the history of many a personal experience. That is the
continual order, the cycle of the law of this progress of the
ultimate Purpose, and I think the Church will be baptised into
a
deeper death just before the Lord comes than ever it has been
before, and then it will go higher than ever; it will not be
able
to get any higher, it will bound to the utmost heights. This
is
the law of the ultimate Purpose which is wrought out in
individual
lives in every relationship, in every thing. It results in
this,
that you do not come back to the single plane, you come back
to
the multiple plane - increase - the one corn changed to the
many,
all sharing One Life.
4. The Basis
of
the Ultimate Purpose.
Let us now turn to Matthew 26:18. Here the Master is
preparing
for the Passover, sending a messenger to a certain man He
evidently knows in secret, and He says to this man, "My time
is at
hand; prepare Me a place where I may keep the Passover." The
Passover. Here the Blood is again in view, but what is the
most
conspicuous thing relative to this particular Passover Supper
and
the shed Blood? It is a covenant. Do we not read, "This is the
new
covenant in My Blood which is shed for the remission of sins."
The
blood of the Eternal Covenant. It is a covenant in view; now
in
the Passover. Tracing this thing through the Word, as in the
case
of Israel and the Passover, it was in that blood of the lamb,
a
covenant between the Lord of Life and His people as against
the
lord of death and his authority, and in that covenant with His
people made in the blood of the Passover Lamb they were
secured
from the tyranny of "him that had the power of death, that is
the
devil," and were brought out from death into life, from
darkness
into light, from bondage into liberty, from shame into glory,
from
desolation into fruitfulness.
That covenant was the basis of their emancipation, and all
that
is bound up now with this - a new covenant in My Blood - is
the
covenant between Himself, the Lord of Life and His own elect
ones
by which they are going to be made victorious over death in
their
union with Him as members of His Body, as seen in the other
side
of the supper; the covenant with His Church by which death is
robbed ultimately, finally of its power. Here you
have the basis of His ultimate Purpose,
and, beloved, it will be upon the basis of that covenant in
His
Life that we are maintained victorious. That is, here you have
the
thing made in the Blood and in the Life of the Eternal Son of
God,
Whom "God brought again from the dead by the blood of the
Eternal
Covenant," which is the absolute ground of your victory. "He
is a
God Who keepeth covenant." This covenant is an Everlasting
Covenant, the Eternal Covenant of a
Life which cannot see corruption, and upon that basis we are
bound to go through triumphantly. He will not break this
covenant with us. This covenant stands to bring us into
that union with Himself which is
going
absolutely to triumph.
Now you see what He secures here in His
covenant
is a basis; that relationship in Life by which He is going
to
work out all that was wrought in the
Cross,
and in the Resurrection. We have anticipated this,
but here the stronger emphasis comes. How is He going to
demonstrate throughout the Kosmos that He has triumphed over
death? In those who are in covenant relation with Him upon
the
basis of this One Life! So He sits down with His disciples,
and
in this testimony He declares that oneness in His
death
and in His burial and in His Resurrection - victory! "God
says what is true of Me is going to be true in you, that is,
victory over death and here I make the Covenant which cannot
be
broken that we together are going to display this victory of
this Life throughout the universe." A Covenant
in
Life. That is the Hour.
"Mine Hour is at Hand."
5. The Mind
and
the Method of the Ultimate Purpose.
Now let us turn to John 13. Here you have the account of the
feet-washing. "Jesus knew that His hour was come.
And
that the Father had delivered all things into His
hands. He
came forth from God and went to God." How rich
that
is! But that is the basis of what is going to take place
now. All things delivered unto Him of the Father, knowing
that
He came forth from the Father and returned to the Father.
Upon
that basis He rose from the supper and took a towel, laid
aside
His garment, girded Himself and poured water into a basin
and
washed the feet of the disciples. Then cometh He to Simon -
knowing that the Father had given all. And then this
remarkable
statement so full of significance,
"What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know
afterwards." Then this must be
a symbolic act, and mean a sign. It is a sign of Jesus. It
ranges the ages, and it ranges the eternities, and could
truly be paraphrased in this way:-
"He rose from His Throne; He laid aside the garments of
Light; He
took the poor towel of our humanity and wrapped it around His
glorious Person, and poured His own Blood into the basin of
the
Cross, and set Himself to wipe from the universe the foul
stains
of sin." Or put round the other way, He is about to lay aside
the
garment of humiliation, enter into the presence of God, girded
to
make abiding intercession in virtue of His shed blood for the
maintenance of a life, walk, work, and fellowship of holiness
on
the part of His servants.
That is what is signified in this. Oh, you say, that is
imagination taking flight. Oh, no, come again to Philippians
2.
There He is in the throne with God. "He thought it not
something
to be grasped at to be on equality with God; He emptied
Himself;
laid aside the garments of glory. He rose from His throne of
equality with God and took upon Himself the form of a servant,
being found in fashion as a man." There is the towel of our
humanity (in essence He was always equal with the Father, but
in
ministry He accepted our dependence). He came forth, poured
His
blood out to wipe the stains of sin from the universe; that is
why
there is this basis, "Knowing that the Father had given all
things
into His hands, and He came forth from the Father and returned
to
the Father." You see that is the
background
of this thing. "What I am doing thou knowest not now," but
they
did know afterward. All this said to them, this is the
way
of the highest service, not to be important, not to be high
and
lifted up above everyone else; for this was a blow at their
attitude at this very time, when no one would take upon
himself
the form of a slave and wash the others' feet; but this is
the
way.
Now recognise this one central thing. Pride was the source of
all
human sin. Satan started this awful thing there. "Thou saidst
in
thine heart, I will be equal with the Most High," he who had
no
right to it, and sought to grasp at that. He who had the right
to
it did not think it a thing to be grasped at, and saw a need
for
laying it down, so He rebukes them thus. Pride was the source
of
all human sin, and the wreckage of the world; so Christ must
needs
provide an antidote for the source of sin. What is that? His
own
humiliation. He reverses the order, and ends all this work of
the
devil by and in His humiliation. Now He says in effect to
them,
and to us, Do you want to remove the ground from the devil,
pride
must be torn from your hearts, and you must pour yourself out
unto
death; pour yourself out for the sake of the Name, and for the
sake of others. Position, prestige, reputation, these must be
of
no concern whatever. The spirit of victorious
service
is this. So here you
have the mind, and the method of
the
ultimate Purpose. "Let this mind be in
you which was in Christ Jesus, Who, being in the
form
of God, thought it not a thing to be grasped at to be on an
equality with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a
bondservant, being made in the likeness of men; and as
a man,
He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto
death, yea, the death of the Cross. Wherefore (knowing that He
returned unto the Father - this was the way up; this was the
way
back to the glory - He came forth from God and He was going
unto
God, and all things are His) God has highly exalted Him and
given
Him the name above every name."
6. The
Instrument
of the Ultimate Purpose.
"Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son" (John
17:1).
John seventeen is a chapter of great range. Back to the past
Eternity (5), on through all time (23), unto eternity to be
(25).
Heaven, earth, hell, believers, unbelievers, and the Evil One,
are
all touched.
With all these in full view the Great High Priest stands by
the
altar of the Cross and prays. He is praying
a
prayer of universal and timeless dimensions. And yet He
focuses it all upon a point in time which He calls "The
Hour."
To what does that eternal hour relate? To the glorifying of
the
Son, Who is praying! What is one of the prominent factors in
that glorifying? That the world might know that He had been
sent
by the Father, and that He should be believed on in the world!
By what means will that be brought about? What will be the
ultimate proof that He came, and coming, accomplished His work
successfully? By the triumphant manifestation of His own one Life by which the "Church - which is
His
Body" is constituted a living organism through that
deathless
and indestructible Life. The heart of this far-reaching and
many-sided chapter would seem to be the constituting of an
effectual testimony to the Lord Jesus to
the
nations in and through
the Church in virtue of
His
Cross. This testimony is seen to have as a primary and basic
truth, the organic oneness
of
all members of Christ. The nature and pattern of this
oneness
is revealed in verse 21.
It
is oneness in God and in
Christ. It is not merely the presenting of a united front to
the
world, but the impact of a mighty Presence.
Christ dwelt in the Father; had His life in the Father
in
the days of His flesh. He said "I live by the Father." It
was
the effect of this that demonstrated the oneness. The
oneness is
a spiritual power not an organised force. A world governed
by
"The spirit that now worketh in the children of
disobedience"
will not bow to a common testimony to objective truths,
however
many may represent them. The conviction that Christ has come
rests upon the abiding power of His imparted Life which is
the
common possession of all who are truly His by new birth. To
know
God and Jesus Christ Whom He did send is a matter of Life
(3).
It is not life resultant from knowledge, but knowledge
resultant
from Life. When the Lord Jesus prays that the world may know
and
believe, He makes that consequent upon the living
manifestation of the believer's union with and abiding
in
the Father and Himself, which relationship would issue in
a
common witness to the living reality of Christ.
This then is a full consecration chapter, based upon His own
model
- "For their sakes I consecrate Myself" (19). There may be
different aspects of the oneness in the chapter. Verse 21,
in
basic oneness in Christ. Verse 11 may be that manifest
oneness
as on the Day of Pentecost. Verse 23 is a
process and a consummation, ultimate oneness. The glorifying
also is threefold. There is the
glorifying
of the Father in the Son, verse 1.
Then
the glorifying of the Son in the church, verse 10. Finally
the
glorifying of the church in the Son, verse 24.
Now all this is gathered up into the "Hour" which is the hour
of
the Cross, and the Cross is necessary for it and basic to it.
The
common participation in the Life of the Lord demands the
end
of the self-life. It is the self-life that obscures the glory
of
Christ. The whole trend of the flesh is to take the glory from
Christ. The "flesh" is the principle of the fallen humanity by
which initially and continuously the Adversary robs God of His
glory, and mars that which was made for His glory.
The background of this prayer is the "Evil One," working
through
fallen human nature, splitting it into unholy rivalries,
schisms,
factions, partisanships, jealousies, suspicions, hatreds,
conflicts, and what not. Christ has come to deal with this
spiritual background, and lay a
new
foundation of a oneness which is deeper than intellect or
emotion.
If there is one element in the seventeenth of John more than
another, surely it is the spirit of selfless humility. It is
just
as important - if not more so - to get into the spirit of this
chapter as into the words, and this humility so deeply
breathed is
the key to all the teaching. It is the offset to the pride
which
is the world-spirit, and from which the disciples themselves
needed deliverance. Pride is the root and cause of all
divisions.
There has never yet been an external rift amongst the Lord's
people which did not have its source in pride somewhere. Pride
blinds. Pride therefore provides a ground for deception. Often
this deception makes the proud believe that they are the
humblest
and most selfless. Pride's firstborn is jealousy,
and
jealousy tears in fragments and gets on with no one.
The spirit of subjection to Christ as Christ is subject to
the
Father is the most potent force in fellowship.
A
"holding fast the Head" as Head is a vital
law
of the "Body" of Christ, for thus all the members find their
oneness.
Thus when the Lord Jesus prayed this great "Father Glorify,"
He
linked it with "The Hour" when by the Cross, through utter
consecration to the will of the Father, in the power of an
endless
life, "through the eternal spirit," He met the great
archenemy of God and His ultimate purpose for a people
out
of whom all the discord and enmity is utterly
eliminated, and who live in a love
which
has been made perfect: and He secured that end when He
destroyed
the works of the devil by His Cross. The means by which that
testimony is veiled are legion, but in every case the
contradiction is by reason of something either less than or
extra to that Divine Life and its operations.
When "movements" as the enterprises of men take the
place
of the spontaneous movement of the Spirit of God; when
teaching
as such moves in advance of real spiritual hunger and
becomes
merely mental; when men become the centre of an encirclement
instead of the Lord Jesus; when even a "testimony"
is
more than "The Person" of the Lord; then divisions are bound
to come. Thus we
It was when "no one called the things that he possessed his
own"
that a spirit prevailed which afforded Christ His supreme
opportunity for being glorified. That spirit must extend to
everything in life, ministry, position, salvation, revelation.
All
must be held for Christ and to Him.
7. The
Cost of the Ultimate Purpose.
Finally we come to Matthew 26:45. "Sleep on now and
take
your rest, the hour is come."
It is significant that following upon a prayer for oneness
and
fellowship in and with Himself, so deep and strong that
"neither
life nor death, height nor depth, things present nor things to
come" could destroy, the Lord should find Himself without a
single
wakeful helper in the hour of His deepest need. He is going to
have His heart's desire, but on the one hand He has to pay the
price, and on the other something has to be done to get it on
the
stable rock of the Divine and off this insecure sand of the
human.
He must "tread the winepress alone," this is where they "cannot
follow Him now." They did not yet
realise
what was going on. The mighty issues were
not
perceived by them. He alone knew all that was involved, and
while His human nature cried out for companionship and
co-operation, He and only He could go those "few steps
further,"
to that deep "yonder." He was tasting a desolation essential
to
His office and work which no other one need ever taste in the
same
measure. There is a fellowship, however, in
His sufferings which, while not being of an atoning character,
relates to the outworking of what He has done.
As with Him, so with His servants, one of the deepest points
and
the greatest costs is loneliness. The loneliness where no one
else
is able to appreciate what is going on, what God is doing,
what is
the meaning of the strange features which are apparent.
Before there can be true fellowship and oneness in the
great spiritual realities,
a
fellowship of a lesser sort has to break down, and then
ensues
this costly isolation before eyes begin to be opened, and
understanding is given. There will then come into being a
fellowship over which death has no power.
The price of leadership in these things is terrible
loneliness,
but the end makes it worth while.
He who was cut off from the last human companion in the
Garden is
at length seen encompassed by "a great
multitude
which no man can number out of every nation, and
tribe, and peoples, and tongues." Any loneliness which may
come
to us in fellowship with Him now will not issue in our
having a
company of our own, but something far greater; it will have
helped in the securing for the Lamb that was slain, the
reward of
His sufferings. It will be an ample
reward for us to be standing by and with increasing
intensity and emphasis cry:
"Crown Him! Crown
Him!!
Angels Crown Him!!!
Crown the Saviour King of kings.
"Bring forth the royal diadem,
And Crown Him Lord of All."
First published in A Witness and A Testimony magazine and also as a booklet in 1929 by Witness and Testimony Publishers. This version is from the original booklet.