The Lord
has led us in these days to be occupied with the
revelation of Jesus Christ. So far, John the apostle has
been our interpreter. We are going now to allow Paul to
say something to us about this matter.
I turn you,
therefore, to his second letter to the Corinthians,
chapter four at verse six: "Seeing it is God,
that said, Light shall shine out of darkness, who shined
in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." The
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of
Jesus Christ. Place alongside of that the words from his
letter to the Galatians chapter one at verse fifteen:
"...when it was the good pleasure of God, to
reveal His son in me." It was the good pleasure
of God, to reveal His Son in me; shined into our hearts
in the face of Jesus Christ.
This is
Paul's way of describing his great life revolution. This
is his personal testimony as to what happened when he saw
the face of Jesus Christ. And as you see, he likened that
to the divine fiat in creation: God who said "Let
light be" has repeated that in a spiritual way in my
heart. The implication clearly is that what happened in
creation when God commanded light to shine, had happened
in Paul when he saw the face of Jesus. And when you apply
that to such a man as Saul of Tarsus (later Paul) the
implications are indeed tremendous. It's a tremendous
confession on his part because when God said at the
beginning in creation "Let light be" - there
was NO light. All was darkness. Darkness was
over the face of the deep. And here is this man, SUCH
a man as we know him to have been with all his claimed
enlightenment, here is this man saying: "until I saw
the face of Jesus, that's how it was with me". He
would never have admitted that before, that he was in the
dark, and all was darkness to him; he would have claimed
to have been one of the most enlightened of men! Here,
when he saw the face of Jesus, he said "Until then,
I realize now that the primal darkness at creation was my
condition spiritually". More than that! When God
first said "let light be" everything was in
chaos, a state of disruption, disorder - yes, chaos. The
earth was without form and empty. And Paul dares here to
say "After all, with all that I had and had learned
and knew and claimed to be, until I saw the face of
Jesus, that's how it was for me, chaos, chaos! And still
again, until God said 'let light be' there was utter
desolation and barrenness. Really nothing there at
all!" Paul means what he's saying.
He realized
- oh yes, you will find plenty in his writings afterward
and utterances to bear it out - that for him the face of
Jesus meant light as over against darkness. Not just some
more light, but the mighty CONTRAST between
light and darkness. Seeing the face of Jesus meant for
him order out of chaos, meaning out of meaninglessness,
and still seeing the face of Jesus meant for him
fruitfulness out of barrenness and desolation.
I say the
implications are tremendous, but Paul quite agreed with
all that, indeed he does. And dear friends, although the
method and the manner of the beginning of our Christian
life and experience may differ, indeed there may be many
different ways in which we come into new life in Christ;
however many may be the ways, those should be THE
features and characteristics of everyone's coming into
that relationship with the Lord Jesus. It should be as
passing truly from darkness to light. Not just getting
some light but the difference between day and night, and
the darkest night and the brightest day. Between chaos,
confusion, disruption, and order; beautiful order and
meaning. Between emptiness, hollowness, a void, and
fullness and fruitfulness and plenty. It should be like
that in every case.
But note
the main and the great point in all this is that it was
all in the face of Jesus Christ. In the face of Jesus
Christ! When it happened and Saul questioned, "Who
art thou?" the answer came clear: "I am Jesus,
I am Jesus". We can never, never grasp the
tremendous (and we do not use exaggerated language when
we say the TERRIFIC) implication for that man of
that word 'Jesus' at that time. All this, all this in the
face of Jesus! It's there that I want to spend a few
moments because that is really the focal point, and very
much can be said but we want really to feel the force of
this message.
Of course
we know that the use of the word or term 'face' is
metaphorical. In the original language the word means
more than just 'countenance' it carries with it also the
idea of person or personality. We understand that, that
metaphorically the face is the expression of the person.
And so everything was in the Person of Jesus Christ that
Paul saw and came into.
Now this is
the thing that I want to stress right at the outset, that
if you and I, dear friends, are going to make anything
like the progress that Paul made as a young convert and
as a growing Christian, and if we are going to have
anything of the wheat that he has had in spiritual
impress and impact, and if we are going to count in any
degree as he counted in the work of the Lord; one thing
is absolutely essential and do get hold of this. The
youngest Christian get hold of this and everybody else;
that if we take our salvation, our conversion or anything
that has to do with it as something in itself, there's
going to be limitation. We have got to see every thing in
the light of the PERSON, Jesus Christ! That is,
we have not to take this as a gift - salvation as a gift
- or anything else of the Christian life as a gift in
itself; we have got to look at that and say: "What
does that signify as to the Giver? What does THAT
signify as to Christ? What does that mean as to the
Source of my salvation?" You may not grasp the point
but it is of infinite importance because all progress in
the Christian life and all power in Christian service
comes from NOT the grasping, the apprehending,
and the enjoyment of salvation as such, but SEEING
JESUS! Because, you see, Jesus is the sum total of ALL
divine fullness.
In a long
experience in Christian ministry and work, I have moved
much amongst Christians and I have had a lot to do with
what we may call "mission centres",
"mission halls". Larger or smaller, in some
cases a very large number of Christians meeting there,
and listening either to their prayers or to their
singing, taking note of their Christian life... There
they are, they've been Christians for years, decades; and
all they've got to talk about is the day when they were
saved, all about when they came to the Lord, when the
Lord found them - they're back there. And when you come
to these people - who have YEARS of Christian
life - with anything beyond the most elementary, they
don't know what you're talking about - it's another
language, just can't follow it - you've got nothing to
work on! They've not grown up, they cannot take solid
meat. All they want, as they say, is the simple gospel,
let's have the simple gospel.
Now, that
is not meant to be a criticism or a judgment, but an
illustration. What have they done? They've taken
salvation in itself and not seen salvation as only a PART
of something FAR, far greater, more immense; and
that greater fullness is Christ! It is the thing and not
the Person! And it makes all the difference. See, I come
back here: what does explain Paul's BOUNDING
onward in the Christian life, his RAPID
spiritual progress, his stature spiritually and his
tremendous impress upon the dispensation? The answer is
he saw in the face of Jesus everything. Everything! For
you see, Paul was a Jew and both personally and
nationally the quest of the Jews was for light, light!
They were always in quest of light, they were trained to
be the most enlightened, but light was what they were
after all the time. Light in relation to God, and God and
man, and man and God. And Paul says himself that although
that was true of him as of all Jews, perhaps more so in
his own case than many of his own countrymen; all that
quest for life did not begin to be answered until he saw
the face of Jesus Christ. This was such a tremendous
thing, such an overwhelming thing for him!
The
Christian life and everything to do with it is
inclusively and fundamentally a revelation of Jesus
Christ in the heart. It may be there in the Word, now
note: Paul probably knew the Old Testament as well as
anyone and better than most - it was all there! But not
until this happened did he see his Old Testament; when he
saw it in the face of Jesus Christ. You will never know
your Bible truly as it needs to be known for spiritual
effect until by the Holy Spirit you see Jesus Christ
everywhere. Not the Bible, not books of the Bible, not
the analysis of the books of the Bible, not the themes
and the subjects of the Bible, but in and through them
all - the face of Jesus. That is, how HE is
signified here, how HE is implied here, what
this means where HE is concerned. That is the
key. Paul never had that key until he saw the face of
Jesus and then wherever he looked after that, ANYWHERE
in this universe - Bible or outside the Bible - he saw
the face of Jesus. That face was clear to him wherever he
looked. Now that is not exaggeration. You know sometimes
if you look right into the sun, right into the sun, for
some while afterward wherever you look you don't see the
things that are there, you only see the sun. You're
blinded to everything else. That is exactly what happened
with Paul; he was blinded in a sense, to everything else,
having seen the face of Jesus.
Everything
in life, everything in character, everything in
endurance, through trials and opposition and suffering,
everything in victory over opposition and adversity,
everything in service; will depend entirely upon how much
we have seen in the face of Jesus Christ. Make no mistake
about it. Dear friends, this, as we have said and as
we've said in prayer again here this morning, is a very
critical time in the history of the people of God as it
is in the history of this world. And if I'm not mistaken,
this conference is set in a very critical time. We are
fast moving into and more deeply into, the final testing
of everything. Oh, how true that is literally in some
parts of this world. What an ultimate testing is taking
place in the life of many of the Lord's people and the
Lord's servants. And think not that we shall escape that,
in some form or another we are really going to be put to
it. The world is going to move into a situation where
every Christian will have their foundations most
certainly and severely tested. You may be tasting that in
a spiritual way now. How many people have said to me
about this very time, "Why, what a battle it's been
to get here!" all the unusual things happening...
wouldn't happen otherwise; strange things. It all just
happens when you've got something of the Lord in view. Oh
yes, and those happenings are very, very often testing
happenings; they could shake you.
Well, it's
like that, toward the end. I don't want to discourage
you... it's going to increase in that way. But you see,
the point is this: even our salvation as such is going to
be put to the test. Even all that we have really got is
going to be put to the test and it will not be too
difficult for us to question our salvation, to question
the Lord Himself if our Christian life is a kind of
objective thing that is made up of things, made up of
meetings, made up of teachings, made up of fellowship,
made up of beliefs. If it is made up like that it will
not be difficult for us to question the reality of the
whole thing. The REALITY of the whole thing -
does that sound a terrible thing to say? The REALITY
of Christianity... not difficult to allow that question.
The issue? The issue is going to be only one thing: how
much this thing is a matter of God having shined into our
hearts! I've put it in a way which has caused a good deal
of trouble, but nevertheless perhaps that itself is
significant; that God has revealed it in us, what we have
has come to us by REVELATION of Jesus Christ. I
emphasize that does not mean something extra to the
Bible, but what is there in the Bible has, by the Holy
Spirit, been ILLUMINATED in our own hearts. That
this has come out of the Bible into us by an ACT
of God, a FIAT of God; we have seen that in our
hearts. That has become a HEART matter with us
when it's like that.
Well, we
referred, I think yesterday, to the saintly Polycarp who
was burned for the faith there in those days of the early
persecution. And, as an old man with his white hair and
his saintly face, was being forced along by those cruel
and wicked Jews to be burned on that day, an official
standing by looked and was tremendously moved to see such
a man being carried to such a fate. And he stepped up and
he said "Curse! Just curse Jesus and I will save
you. I'll save you!" Said Polycarp, "Forty and
six years have I served my Master and He has never done
me a single injury. Do you think I would say something
against Him to save my life? No." And so he went to
the martyr's death. That's a heart relationship isn't it?
That is something more than life, more than anything
else. I say, it was that that carried Paul through all
his sufferings; he'd seen the face of Jesus. It was that
that was the strength and the substance of his great
ministry, he'd seen the face of Jesus. It was that that
made him the Christian that he was. And please do not get
mentalities about objective visions of the face of Jesus,
that's not what I'm talking about at all - seeing a face
- I'm simply meaning that there has come to you by the
Holy Spirit in your heart, a knowledge of the
significance of Jesus Christ in this whole universe in
the counsels of God: the revelation of Jesus Christ.
That's the light, the knowledge, the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ. What strength that brings, what
strength that brings!
I'm quite
sure that there are some here today who have gone on for
many years with the Lord and who could say with me that
if what we have and hold and teach had only been theory,
we'd have been out of the fight long ago. Been out of the
fight long ago, no doubt about it. It is because, may I
put it this way, we've SEEN something... where
something is into someone, when you've seen, when you've
seen, something is done. Oh, what effect it had with
Paul, first of all look what a man it made of him. Do you
notice the context of those words that we read in
Galatians, "When it pleased God to reveal His Son in
me what did I do, go and consult those who were apostles
before me as to whether I was right? Wonder whether I was
mistaken, whether this was according to tradition? No,
not at all. I didn't go up to Jerusalem to confer with
flesh and blood and talk it over and see whether I was
right; this thing put me on my feet in such a way there
was no question for me about it. No one could add
anything to this for me by way of confirmation as to the
reality and the rightness of it." So many dear
Christians are all the time running around to others for
advice on their Christian life and on this and that...
Now, please don't misunderstand me, get all the help that
you can, but somehow it seems that some people can never
stand on their own feet for any time together, they're
not sure at all. They're not sure about anything,
anything that arises they've got a question, they must
get some opinion on this matter. Now, while you must have
help and seek it, there is after all a fundamental, root
thing that makes you KNOW where you stand - you
stand in Christ by a work of God. Something's been DONE.
You can never question that. It put Paul in that position
where, while he was not independent and he did later on
go up and have a nice time of conference with Peter in
Jerusalem for several days and I suppose they talked over
much, but that didn't happen until Paul had faced this
whole issue for himself and got it settled with him
between himself and the Lord. Like that. And all these
other aspects of a new creation started on their
wonderful movement after he'd seen the face of Jesus like
that.
The
certainty and the assurance that was right at the root of
his Christian life and service came because of this one
thing: he'd seen everything in Jesus. Everything... in
Jesus. What liberation that brought to him! What
emancipation! We have often said here that there was no
power in this world that could have turned that rabid,
fanatical Jew, Saul of Tarsus, into a Christian and a
lover of Jesus of Nazareth. No power in this world that
could have done that, but just SEEING Jesus
Himself in this way and that did it, that did it! He was
emancipated, he was free! No wonder of all his writings
the fiercest, the fieriest is his letter to the
Galatians, the letter of our LIBERTY in Christ
and it begins with this "God revealed His Son in me
and that set me free from all other things." No use
telling people that this and that, and the other thing is
a limitation and that they should seek enlargement by
getting out of it. That is an unfruitful, unprofitable,
indeed that's a dangerous line to take with anybody. But
again, if only we can bring CHRIST... with all
His divine significance and meaning and comprehensiveness
to them and the Holy Spirit can reveal Him in their
hearts... oh, that will do it! That will do it; they will
never again be content with anything that limits them to
the grave clothes of religion. It delivered Paul from
Judaism as nothing else would have done. The way of an
escape, the way of enlargement, the way of endurance is
to see Jesus. It is not by learning, that is, it is not
by the schools. Paul had all of the schools he did... of
religion. He didn't get it through the schools and we'll
never get it through the schools; along that line of the
technical instruction of things Christian or religious.
This is not a merely mental or academic or intellectual
thing at all. It is a work of the Holy Spirit.
Well,
that's the foundation and may the Lord even now begin to
shine into our hearts. I want to go on just for a little
while in answering the question: What DID Paul
see in the face of Jesus Christ? Yes, he saw the light of
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ; a comprehensive statement. What DID Paul
see in Christ (if you like to drop out the word 'face'
you can) what did he see when he saw Jesus Christ by
divine illumination? And I suggest to you that the first
thing that he saw was Christ as the Purpose of God,
Christ as the Purpose of God.
If there
was one thing that was true about Saul of Tarsus, it was
that he was a man of purpose. He was a purposeful man,
there's no doubt about that, he was bent upon something,
he was after something, he was in quest of something, he
was on full stretch for something. That is, he was
characterized by this spirit or sense of purpose. Now, as
a Jew, and a member of the Jewish nation, his whole
horizon was Israel. For him all divine purpose was
centred in Israel. It was the nation that stood at the
heart of the purpose of God for him, that nation as in
ascendancy over all the nations, superior to all the
nations, ruling all the nations, having that central
place in the midst of the nations, to make all the
nations serve it, and well, yes, to serve all the
nations. This was what divine purpose meant to Saul of
Tarsus, as it meant to every Jew, every member of the
Jewish nation. That was the horizon. That was all
temporal, that was all earthly, albeit it was religious.
But that was the horizon. That spelt purpose for every
Jew and inasmuch as Saul of Tarsus was a Jew plus, you
can see how that idea of divine purpose for his own
nation was INTENSELY strong for him. Let anybody
call that into question! That really was the cause and
the reason for his VEHEMENT antagonism to Jesus.
You know quite well that that is why the Jews crucified
Jesus. They said, "If we let this man go on, the
Romans shall come and take away our, our nation, our
kingdom." And Saul was one of them. He saw that
Jesus setting up another kingdom was a menace to Israel
and all Israel's heritage. That, for him, was the meaning
of divine purpose. When he SAW the face of Jesus
Christ, all that was changed! All that was changed, his
horizon expanded to the universe and what a universe it
is that is presented to us in his letter to the
Ephesians! What an immense expanse and RANGE of
divine purpose that comes out - "called
according to His purpose Who worketh all things out to
the counsel of His own will from eternity to eternity"
- divine purpose. Poor little Israel, shrinking, and
shrinking, and shrinking, until for him, while he would
that they would be saved and give anything to have them
saved; they no longer occupy that place - his horizon has
become universal. And again, the temporal, the temporal
has given place to the spiritual and the eternal in
talking about every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies
unto the ages of the ages. These, you see, are all terms
which explain what happened in this tremendous revolution
in which Paul's horizon was pressed out to the uttermost
bounds. He saw ALL this in the face of Jesus, JESUS
signifies THIS! JESUS is the embodiment
and the sum of Purpose from eternity to eternity! It is
the purpose in Christ Jesus; that is his language. HE
is the Purpose of God and it's not of this earth,
temporal or temporary, material and transient; but of
heaven, of eternity and it's ALL IN HIM! Summed
up in Christ - the fullness of all things.
If only we
could, what tremendous amount we could draw in of
quotations from Paul about this. God's purpose concerning
His Son that He should fill all things and that He should
be the fullness of all things; all things should in Him
dwell, all things should be gathered together into Him!
Indeed, his world has enlarged and all the barriers have
broken down. Dear friends what does this MEAN to
us? This is not just a beautiful story or description of
what happened to a man, I'm speaking of spiritual
principles. If you and I really DID get a sight
of the significance of Jesus Christ, we really DID
see the glory of God in His face, we can NEVER
be little! We can NEVER be just tied up in our
little local things, we can never be sectarian or
anything like that at all, we should be all-embracing. We
could not (we get into a lot of trouble because we could
not and would not) accept the confines of human systems
and Christian departmentalisms and all that. You're
emancipated right out when once you've seen the Lord
Jesus and all that is silly nonsense - churches and
chapels and playing at things - no! Christ is FAR,
far greater and vaster than all this. For enlargement you
just need to see Him! For deliverance you need to see
Him!
What
happened to Paul, and Paul's universality of vision and
ministry, Paul's spiritual and heavenly impact upon this
earth through the centuries is due to this: he saw in the
face of Jesus Christ the greatness of God's purpose for
this universe - that the universe was Christocentric. Not
Israel-centric but Christocentric. He saw then that
divine purpose is centred in Christ. And that revelation,
that seeing, that apprehending, brought with it certain
other things. First, it brought with it the understanding
and recognition of God's energy in relation to Christ,
God's ENERGY in relation to Christ.
You can see
that the creation was for, through and unto Christ. And
all the energies of the Godhead called forth in creation
- and they're tremendous energies, tremendous energies -
called forth in the creation of this universe, those
energies in creation were working toward Christ's
inheritance. Tremendous energies in creation again were
unto Christ: "for unto Him were all things
created, things in the heavens, things in the earth".
Unto Him! The mighty energy of God in creation, in
changing chaos to order, light to darkness the darkness
to light, and emptiness to fullness; all that was mighty,
mighty power of God, but it was unto His Son. The end is
that He should be the Heir of all things for He was
appointed Heir of all things and He was to come into His
heritage at last.
We've been
dwelling in the book of the Revelation and these are the
final movements to the kindgom becoming the kingdom of
our God and His Christ - the inheritance of His Son. But
that's only a mere fragment of the whole story of divine
energies. After that creation we see the fall of man and
the fall of this earth. And it's a tremendous fall, it's
not just a moral fall, a moral collapse... We dare not
stay to contemplate the IMMENSITY of the thing
that happened when Adam disobeyed God and what he dragged
with him and all the TREMENDOUS forces that were
focused upon him from the outside spiritual world to make
him do it. Yes, it was a fall indeed, involving
tremendous and far reaching things as we very well know
that was part. But does God abandon, does He give up? He
at once reacts, reacts to that and with new application
and new energy proceeds along His line - same line -
toward His Son. And He immediately gives intimations that
all this that has happened which has come from the great
usurper, the serpent, the devil, will one day in His Son
come [under His heel] and be crushed forever. Immediately
He reacts! And you and I, dear friends, know what power
is called for to bring that about - the energy of God
concerning His Son. God said that the Seed of the woman
shall bruise the head of the serpent. That's not a
fanciful statement, that's a TERRIFIC cosmic
conflict! The battle of the ages, but at last we see it;
forces in the heavens hurled down, no more place found
for them, cast into the abyss. It's done! But this is the
energy concerning His Son, and that again is but a
fragment.
The people
in whom all this was to have its illustration and display
as a kind and token - Israel - we find them, because,
because of their failure, spiritual failure, following on
in the way of the covenant in the bondage of Egypt and
what bondage. You see, God has taken pains to let us know
that THIS thing was a thing of TREMENDOUS
spiritual power. We are impressed aren't we, with how
Pharaoh could stand up to it! Why surely he'll let them
go after that, even the first judgment, and the second
and the third! No, not a bit of it. We're amazed! I
venture to say that you wouldn't hold onto anything if
you had a little bit of that. Here it is, and God is
drawing out this thing, extending it to show what
terrific force there is behind this whole matter and then
finally with one blow He smashes the whole thing until
there was those people and forever their deliverance from
Egypt becomes the Old Testament illustration of the EXCEEDING
greatness of His power. Always refer back to that as the
example of God's exceeding power: deliverance from Egypt.
But it's all in line of His Son, the Son's in view. It's
the energy of God, you see, moving on.
I've missed
the flood, another thing; God's reaction to a departure
of the world. And so you must go on pursuing this through
the Old Testament - Israel coming through the wilderness
to the border of the land and then again the whole thing
breaking down by unbelief. Did God give it up? No, that
land forever stands as a type of His Son and in His
fullness into which He's going to bring a people and
therefore He cannot give it up in light of the spiritual
meaning. He cannot give it up and say "Well, I must
abandon My purpose". Not at all. Let THAT
generation fail, He'll have another, and He'll bring them
in, and see the mighty energies of God in that new people
as they take possession and overcome in the land.
Failure
again and you have exile in Babylon; oh dear, surely
God's purposes are defeated now... The land lies
desolate, the city is waste and the people are gone. No!
"For your sake have I sent to Babylon and have
brought down all their mighty ones". The remnant
shall return! But this is not something in itself, it is
still with the object, the ultimate object in view: the
kingdom of His Son moving on. So we go on like that. We
come as we have been in this book of the Revelation where
His Church is suffering untold agonies, persecutions and
martyrdoms... but how does it end? Well, it just ends in
God's victory, God's power, God's energy. Does it? How?
His Son is at last on the throne! That's the point. The
purpose of God, calling out the energies of God; all in
relation to His Son! And what I have said to you is only
what is contained in Paul's writings, I haven't added or
imagined, I've given it to you and I've given it to you
imperfectly, it's all there, this is what Paul saw! The
Purpose of God, drawing out the energies of God, he puts
it in one so familiar phrase, "the exceeding
greatness of His power which is to usward who believe
according to that working of the strength of His might
which He wrought in Christ in raising Him from the dead
and setting Him at His own right hand far above all rule
and authority and every name that is named".
Exceeding greatness! The energy of God in relation to His
purpose concerning His Son... Paul saw that in the face
of Jesus Christ. And I repeat, if we see something of
that, it's going to be a tremendous strength to us, it's
going to mean tremendous enlargement, enrichment and
strengthening to see us through at last.
Now,
because of my warning not to put too much on you at one
time, I'll stop there, although there is so much more of
what Paul saw as to that very matter - God's thought
concerning His Son, the Purpose. We'll have another
session yet perhaps.