"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 incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not
away, reserved in heaven for you, who by the power of God are guarded through
faith..." (1 Pet. 1:3-5).
"I rejoice
in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of
the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body's sake, which is the church;
whereof I was made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which was
given to you-ward, to fulfil the word of God, even the mystery which has been
hid from all ages and generations, but now has it been manifested to his saints,
to whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this
mystery among the nations (Gentiles), which is Christ in you, the hope of
glory; whom we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all
wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ" (Col. 1:24-28).
"A living
hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ...". "This mystery which is Christ
in you, the hope of glory". A living hope - the hope of glory.
We have to put
these two fragments together in order to understand the real meaning of the
'hope' referred to. For Peter, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus was an
experience which opened up for him an entirely new prospect. The context of
that, 'a living hope', gives us just a little of the prospect that the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead had brought to Peter. "An inheritance
incorruptible, undefiled, that doesn't fade away" - that is what opened up for
him with the resurrection of Christ. To Paul, the resurrection of Christ was the
very heart of the mystery which had been hid from all generations, but was now
revealed.
Peter as Representative
We look first
at Peter in this connection. As Peter sits down to write this letter to the
"elect scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia" he
finds himself caught up at once in a doxology: "Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." And perhaps Peter, of all men,
had cause for a doxology over the resurrection of Jesus!
But we take
Peter as representative of all those who had become followers of the Lord Jesus
in the days of His flesh; not only of the twelve, but evidently quite a large
number beyond the twelve. There were the seventy and, beyond the seventy, many
more who followed Jesus, and had some attachment to Him. Peter can be taken as,
in a very real sense, representative of them all.
We
are thinking at this moment particularly of the effect of the Cross upon
him, and upon them all; the utter devastation, and then the despair, that the
Cross of the Lord Jesus brought upon them. We are told they were "all scattered
abroad"; and we know how, even before the Cross became an actuality, any
reference to it brought a terrible reaction. From time to time the Lord did just
make some mention of His coming death, and, as He did so, many went away (John
6:66). Then again, others said, "This is a hard saying; who can hear it?"
(John 6:60). Apparently off they went as well. The very thought and prospect of
the Cross was impossible of acceptance. When it came, Peter, as the very centre
of that whole company, is found most vehemently denying with a terrible denial,
any association with Christ, just because of the cross; and they all shared
that, even if not in word and in the same form of expression, for we are told
that "all the disciples forsook Him and fled" (Matt. 26:56). And
He had said to them: "You will all leave Me" (John 16:32) and it
became true.
Then we meet
them after His crucifixion. We meet those two on the Emmaus road, the very
embodiment of despair. For them, everything had gone and was shattered. All
their hopes, and their hope, were eclipsed - "We had trusted..." (Luke
24:21), or "We had hoped that it had been He that should redeem Israel."
Now, everything was gone, and the hope laid in His grave.
From time to
time we meet Thomas, and we know what Thomas thought about the Cross. He again
was in the grip of an awful despair and hopelessness: loss of faith and loss of
assurance. As we move through those forty days after the resurrection, we find
the Lord repeatedly having to upbraid and rebuke them. They believed not, it
says, "because of their unbelief" (Matt. 17:20 AV). "Some doubted" (Mark
16:11,13,14). We can see what a shock the Cross had been. I have not used too
strong a word when I have said that the Cross was nothing less than a
devastation for every follower of the Lord Jesus. And right at the heart of them
all was Peter; we could say that it was all concentrated in him; it must have
been, in view of what he had done. Put yourself in his place, and see if you
would have any more hope for anything, or for yourself. No!
The One Supreme Essential
Now, there were
forty days of this: forty days of appearances, disappearances; coming and going;
a steady build-up of the fact that He was risen; overcoming day by day that
despair and that unbelief, building up a new hope. But even after forty days of
all that, the most vital thing is still lacking. You might think, 'Well, given
all that, they have enough to go on'. But no: the most vital thing, even at that
point, is still lacking. What is it? It is Christ within! Hence the
restraint: "Tarry ye in Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high"
(Luke 24:49). Do not move yet. With all that you have, you really have not yet
got the vital thing, the essential thing. And that thing is Christ IN you,
the hope of glory. Christ in you!
That is why the
apostles were so particular as to converts receiving the Holy Spirit before ever
they felt assurance about their conversion. Thus, there were all the reports
about things happening in Samaria. Had not the Lord said that they would be
witnesses unto Him in Samaria (Acts 1:8)? The report comes back of things
happening, of people turning to the Lord, real conversions taking place in large
numbers. Why not be satisfied with the report? It is a good report, and there is
surely no reason to doubt it. But no, the apostles are not just satisfied with
that. They sent down from Jerusalem, and when they were come down, they laid
their hands upon them (Acts 8:14-17), that they might receive the Holy Spirit.
Now see again and again how that happens. For them, things were not really
settled until they were sure that Christ was on the inside, that Christ
was in them; which is the same thing as 'receiving the Holy Spirit', the
Spirit of Jesus. That is why the Lord said, 'Tarry; do not move yet!' And that
is why the apostles were so meticulous on this matter of 'receiving the Holy
Spirit'.
That, too, is
why the Holy Spirit gave evidences in those times, that He had come within. We
believe that this book, the book of the Acts, is a book of fundamental
principles for the dispensation. When principles are being laid down in the
first instance, God always bears them out with mighty evidences that they are
true principles and governing things for all time. God puts His seal upon them.
So, when they received the Spirit, there were the evidences of the Spirit. They
spoke with tongues; mighty things happened. It was clear to all without any
doubt whatever that the Spirit was on the inside, Christ had entered in; that
universal Christ transcending all human language, that Christ of Heaven
transcending all earthly things had come in and the evidences were given.
There is no
mistaking that this matter of Christ within is the fundamental essential
of Christianity. You may have the mightiest facts - the mightiest facts of His
birth, of His marvellous life, His death, His resurrection and they are the
mightiest of facts - you may have them all, and they may all be impotent,
non-potent, until He is inside! This is borne out by this threefold truth: Tarry
- do not move yet; the essential has not taken place after all! Make sure; leave
nothing to chance; let it not be just an emotional revival in Samaria! Whatever
there may seem to be on the outside to prove that something has happened, make
sure that it has got inside! Make sure that Christ is in, that the Holy
Spirit is in! For as we shall see as we go on, you may have so much, and then,
that vital thing being lacking, there is calamity, as with them.
This mighty
hope does not merely rest just upon historic grounds - that is, upon the ground
of the historic Jesus. This mighty hope rests upon inward reality - Christ in
you! That is super-historic! And for the full meaning, the 'mystery which has
been hid from all generations', we have to go to Paul.
The Insufficient Foundation
So much for a
general approach to the matter. Let us now in greater detail consider Peter and
the others whom he undoubtedly represents.
Firstly, then,
as to the hopelessness, ultimately, of a merely outward association with
Christ, however sincere. There is no question about the sincerity of Peter
or of any of those followers. They were sincere; there was a devotion to Jesus;
their motives could not be called into question; it was all well-meant. They had
left all and followed Him; and to follow Jesus of Nazareth in those days had
involved them in a considerable amount of trouble, at least with the high-up
people, and the prevailing system. Their association with Him undoubtedly meant
something.
Moreover, while
perhaps they were not fully able to see and understand; while they were not in
the full light of who He was, the fact of who He was was present with
them.
For instance,
there is the fact of the incarnation: that this One among them was God
incarnate, the very Son of God, come down from Heaven to dwell in human form.
They were in closest touch with that fact every day of their lives.
Then, there was
the fact of His Personality; and there is no avoiding this, that that was
a Personality! There was a Presence where He was that was different, that made
itself felt, that registered. His was a very impressive Presence, beyond that of
anyone else with whom they had any association, or of whom they had any other
knowledge. There is a mystery about this Man: you cannot fathom Him; you cannot
explain Him; you cannot comprehend Him; He is more; He is different. And
wherever He comes, His Presence has a tremendous effect. The fact of His
Personality!
And then,
although we do not know how far it went, there was the fact of Mary and
her secret. We do not know to how many she told her secret; we are told that she
"hid all these things in her heart" (Luke 2:19,51). But we do know that
some knew about it. We know that she told Elisabeth all about it; and Zachariah
knew it; and John the Baptist knew it. John the Baptist knew Mary's secret. She
was there with them all. There is the fact of Mary and her secret.
Then there is
the fact of the miracles. Miracles in the realm of the elements - the sea
and the wind; miracles in the realm of nature - as our hymn says: 'It was
spring-time when He took the loaves, and harvest when He brake'. In the realm of
sickness and disease and death: His healing and His raising from the dead the
son of the widow of Nain. These were facts. And then, in the realm of the
powers of evil - muzzling demons and casting them out and delivering the demon-possessed.
These were all facts present with them. It is a tremendous accumulation
of evidence.
Further, the
fact of the teaching that, without special education, He bewildered,
confounded and defeated the authorities of His time: all the men of information
and knowledge, the scribes, the lawyers, the best representatives of the
intellect of Jewry. They picked out on occasions their best intellects to go
and try and catch Him in His words; and these very men had to ask the question:
"Whence has this man this, having never learned?" (John 7:15). There was
His teaching.
There is a
tremendous build-up. And yet, while being in possession of that whole mass of
mighty facts and realities about Him, and while living in the closest
association with Him, it was possible for them to know all the havoc and the
despair of the Cross! I venture to say that you and I would probably think that,
if we had only a bit of that, we should be safe for ever and never have any reason
whatever to doubt our salvation. And they had it all, and yet here we have them
after the Cross in abject despair. When it came to the supreme test, all that
did not save them; there was lacking the one essential to make it all vital, to
make it the very triumph in the trying hour.
The One Essential
That one
essential is Christ in you. So long as all that is still objective, on the
outside, though you may be in the closest association with it all, there is
something yet lacking. And that lack may spell disaster, for it did with them.
By the
resurrection a new hope was born; by the resurrection a new power came into the
world and human life; by the resurrection the way was opened for Christ to
change His position from heaven - from outside - into the inner life of the
believer. It has all got to be 'Christ in you, the hope of glory'. This
is just the essential nature of this dispensation in which we live. In the
former dispensation, the Spirit moved from the outside upon. Jesus said:
'When He is come, He shall be in you'. That is the change of
dispensations; that is the character of this present dispensation - the Spirit
within. What is the secret of the church's power? What is the secret of the
believer's life, strength, persistence, endurance, triumph against all hell and
the world? What is the secret of ultimate glory? It is Christ in you. In
other words, that you have really and definitely received the Holy
Spirit.
How important
this is - that you and I shall know that our Christianity, our faith,
does not rest upon even the greatest historic facts, but that we know
that Christ is inside; we know that we have received the Holy Spirit.
That is the secret of everything.
Let us carry
this a little further, and consider the next thing: the hopelessness of work
for Christ without Christ within.
"He
appointed the twelve, that they might be with Him, and that He might send them
forth to preach and to have authority to cast out demons..." (Mark 3:14,15).
"And
the seventy returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject unto us
in Thy name"
(Luke 10:17). Tremendous! 'Heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons;
freely ye have received, freely give' (Matt. 10:8). And they returned with great
joy: it was done; they had seen it! And you have this picture after the cross of
these same people devastated! You say: Is that possible? Is that real? If
you know your own heart, you will know it is possible. But what is the meaning
of this?
In the case of
the 'twelve' and the 'seventy', we have set forth a strange, wonderful, and
almost frightening fact. It is that - within the vast scope of the sovereign
rule of God - which is only another definition of the 'kingdom of God', many things obtain which only express that
sovereignty. They are not of the essential and permanent essence of God Himself
as in the nature of things; they are the works of God. Within that vast
scope of His rule and His reign, God has countless instruments of His
sovereignty, be it official or providential, which He just uses in His
sovereignty in relation to His end. There is a purpose to be served, an end to
be reached, concerning His Son, Jesus Christ: it has got to be made known in
this world that the kingdom of God has drawn near, and that Jesus Christ is the
centre of that kingdom. And, in order to make that known, God will employ
sovereignly even the devil himself! His sovereignty gathers into it many things
which are not essentially of the nature of God.
Perhaps you
have been amazed sometimes, and perplexed and bewildered, why God should use
certain things or persons. You have been inclined to say: 'It is all contrary to
what I believe to be necessary to God for His work. I see that the Bible says
that instruments have got to be according to God's mind in order to be used.'
But history does not bear that out. He has used the devil, and the devil is not
according to God's mind. There is a sovereignty of God spread over in relation
to His end.
But when you
have said that, it is a frightening fact when you come to the work of God. I
mean this: that we may be working for God, and doing many mighty things as
employees of the kingdom of God, the rule of God, and then, in the end, be cast
away! In the end, we ourselves might just go to pieces. Here it is, this strange
thing, that these men went out, twelve and seventy, with this 'delegated
authority' - this delegated authority - and exercised it, and mighty
things resulted; and then these same people are found, after the Cross, with
their faith shattered and nothing to rest upon.
The
Deficiency Made Good
Thank God, the
book of the Acts transforms the whole situation! Because the book of the Acts
brings in this mighty new factor: that Christ, who had delegated the authority,
is now indwelling as the authority Himself. And the works now are mighty works,
but they are not just works for the Lord; they are the works of
the Lord. It all goes to prove the tremendous fact: that it is Christ in
you that is the indispensable necessity for life and for work. All that they had
in their association with Him, and then all that they were allowed to do by His
delegated authority, all fell short of being something that could make them
triumphant in the hour of the deepest testing.
Paul put his
finger on it when he got to at Ephesus, if you remember, when he said: "Did
you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" (Acts 19:2) it was ever the
apostles' question, and ever their quest. They knew afterwards, if they knew
anything at all, that nothing will stand up to anything, but the indwelling
Christ Himself.
Now, we can, of
course, take that both ways. There is the negative side, the almost frightening
possibility that there should be all that, and then disaster at the end. But let
us take it positively. What a marvellous thing it is that we are in the
dispensation when the one thing, above all others, God will make true, is "Christ
in you"! No wonder Peter burst forth with his doxology: "Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who... has begotten us again... to a
living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead"! You need to
be Peter to be able to speak as he spoke; to have gone through the awful
shattering, into that unspeakable depth of despair and loss of hope, to be able
to say: "a living hope" - a living hope! And what is it? "Christ
in you, the hope of glory".
No, there is no
hope for us individually; there is no hope for our companies, our churches, our
assemblies; there is no hope for Christianity unless and until the living
Christ, with all the tremendous significance of His coming into this world, of
His life here, of His Cross, of His resurrection, has come, by the Holy Spirit,
on to the inside of things, of people, and churches; until it is "Christ in
you". All the other may be there: the creed, the teaching; you may, with all
sincerity and honesty, say: 'I believe in God the Father...' and so on. It may
all be there, and yet there may be disaster where that thing is most
frequently declared.
It is the
impact of Christ that matters. In those early days He could not be present
without it being known; and that is the thing that you and I need; that is the
secret of the church's power. It is the presence of Christ on the inside
of you and me, and all of us as people together; this Mystery among the nations,
which is Christ in you. You are among the nations, and the deepest, profoundest,
most inexplicable thing is Christ in you, as you are among the nations, "the
hope of glory".
It is a
question of hope. It can be touched by a deep and terrible despair; it
can see disintegration and disruption. What we need is a mighty hope, a living
hope; that is, Christ, Christ risen, Christ Himself! We need to get beyond even
the resurrection to be able to say: It is Christ present, it is what Christ
means as within us.