READ:
John 2:1-11; 3:1-21; 4:1-26; 1:4
As we continue our
consideration of "Great truths and their Laws, as in
John's Gospel," and come into chapter four, we pass
from Nicodemus to the woman of Sychar, from Judea to
Samaria, with a spiritual link between. It is interesting
to notice what a little place time and space have in this
spiritual realm of John's Gospel. Chapter four follows
chapter three very swiftly. There is just the fragmentary
statement at the end of chapter three that the Lord,
because of certain uprisings of hostility in Judea from
the Pharisees, left Judea, and made His way toward
Galilee. That is barely stated and then certain
observations are made by John the Baptist, and a comment
is made by John, the writer of the letter, upon the words
of John the Baptist, and at one point it is exceedingly
difficult to know whether it is John or Christ speaking,
the two blend so thoroughly (I mean the last part of
chapter three), but with that bare reference to the
movement you find yourself over a considerable space,
both of time and geography, because the Lord has spent
nine months in Judea to which no reference has been made.
But from the time of His meeting Nicodemus in Jerusalem
nine months seem to drop altogether out of existence, and
Jesus is here on His way to Galilee in Samaria, at
Jacob's well by Sychar. The time is lost sight of, the
geography takes a very remote place. It is in keeping
with what we said, that when you come into
"John" you come into a different realm from the
other Gospels, which are so much related to the earth,
and things here, related to time and the earth. You come
into the realm of spiritual things in "John,"
and there geography does not count for a great deal, and
time ceases to be a dominating factor; what you come into
is the sequence of spiritual history. And so you find
yourself moving from Nicodemus to the woman of Samaria,
as it were, in rapid transition, but with a spiritual
link, a very clear, definite spiritual link between the
two, indicating that it is spiritual history that John is
writing. It is not the history of time and things here,
but it is the history of what is eternal. It is very
interesting to recognize that, and it is important,
valuable and helpful in our reading of this Gospel. It is
the spiritual order of history that is before us here,
and that spiritual order is Cana in Galilee, Nicodemus in
Jerusalem, the woman of Sychar.
From Nicodemus to the
woman of Samaria is our immediate object. We said when we
were in chapter two on the sign in Cana of Galilee, the
turning of the water into wine at the marriage, that that
was an inclusive thing of all that follows in the Gospel.
That that sign, that event, that incident in Cana of
Galilee, comprehended the Gospel, and all that follows
can be found in germ there in Cana. Now we shall see how
true that is in these two cases.
Referring to chapter
three and Nicodemus, Nicodemus corresponds to the wine
having failed. You think about that for a moment and you
will see how true that is. Nicodemus comes in all the
fulness of natural life religiously, morally,
ecclesiastically, intellectually. He presents himself to
the Lord Jesus as a model man on the old creation level,
even religiously. And what Nicodemus comes for is
teaching. He wants to be taught, he wants to learn
something more, and the Lord Jesus breaks in instantly,
and says in effect: Nicodemus, it is impossible for you,
we shall never get anywhere on your level, you must be
born from above. In effect He says: You can never learn
anything from Me until you are born from above and have
that heavenly union which I have, because I am from
above. And here at its best, the old wine fails, and
Nicodemus is evidently very disconcerted; and that is how
they were at the marriage, for the old wine failed. There
was an impasse, an arrest in the proceedings, and the
atmosphere is just that of: Well, we cannot get any
further on this level, with this resource, by this means;
we can go no further. Nicodemus corresponds to the wine
having failed and the miracle of birth from above; that
is Christ's intervention in connection with "Mine
hour." The hour of the Son of Man is the hour when
He accomplishes that which makes new birth possible.
Why
New Birth Is Necessary
And then the Lord
presses that further. He does not only show that there is
an impasse, and that He cannot get anywhere with
Nicodemus, and Nicodemus cannot get anywhere with Him,
except on the ground of this birth from above, He
proceeds to show why, and He heaps upon poor Nicodemus
the ignominy of this situation by following with the
serpent in the wilderness. We know that serpent in the
wilderness represents God's thought about man. It is
elevated, erected upon a pole, lifted up: "As Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness...."
Remember the serpent is the cursed thing because it is
symbolically the embodiment of sin, it is sin
personified. Cursed and lifted up. And oh, the terrible
nature of the interpretation of that: "...so must
the Son of man be lifted up." And you need Paul to
explain: "Christ made a curse for us":
"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no
sin"; and He therefore was made a curse, for it is
written: "Cursed is every one that hangeth on a
tree." If you want to know more about the awful
comprehensiveness of the curse, read Deuteronomy,
chapters 27 and 28. It is all gathered up in one thing,
not doing the will of God, not obeying the commandments
of the Lord. And He Who came in delight to do the will of
God, came to do His Father's will, and Who did it
perfectly, at a point in His life took the place
voluntarily of man who had wholly failed to do the will
of God, and received the curse of God in exclusion from
the presence of God in judgment, and thus represented
man, in man's state, and under that curse and judgment
represented God's thought about man by nature. Put that
over on to a Nicodemus, and you will find there is an
awful shock for a man such as he. And the Lord brings
that home to Nicodemus. That is bringing things down to a
great and terrible depth. A death has taken place; a low
place of death has been reached under condemnation and
judgment. We may say zero has been reached.
The
Truth of Eternal Life
Now then, the way is
prepared for the matter of eternal life to be considered,
and that is your transition from Nicodemus to the woman
of Sychar. Listen: John 3:36, which is the last verse in
the chapter, the link between the two chapters: "He
that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he
that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the
wrath of God abideth on him." That is the serpent in
the wilderness. Now that is the link between the two
chapters, but of course there ought to be no chapters.
Pass on to what is our chapter 4:14: "But whosoever
drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never
thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in
him a well of water springing up into everlasting
life." When the death place has been reached, and
the zero point has been touched, then eternal life can
come into view, but not before, and Sychar represents
that. Sychar brings in that teaching of eternal life. It
is the second great truth, eternal life. There is no need
for me to take you back to Cana of Galilee. We can see it
so patently, life out of death; but life springing from a
zero point. The Lord Jesus marked a very definite pause
in things there. His mother said: "They have no
wine." He did not just carry the thing on and not
allow a sense of an end to be felt, He paused. Yes, that
is the end, that is one realm, one history. We are not
going to perpetuate that. That pause is related to
"Mine hour," and "Mine hour" is
always related to the Cross, and the Cross is always a
great pause in the history of this universe - Silence in
heaven. One history has closed. There is a gap, not a
continuity; and then a new history begins. The Lord Jesus
said to His mother: "Woman, what have I to do with
thee? Mine hour is not yet come." There is the
pause, and then the taking up after a pause, the bringing
in of something new. Not making the old to be eked out to
the end of the feast, but the doing of something new
altogether: His own principle of: "And no man
putteth new wine into old bottles... but new wine must be
put into new bottles." Something altogether new
coming in. New wine, something different from what was.
So we find that with
chapter four we are brought into the doctrine of eternal
life, a doctrine which, if we were exhaustively to
consider it, would occupy us for many pages, but, for our
present, purpose has to be brought within the very small
compass of a few lines, so that we must put it into one
or two comprehensive statements.
The
Meaning of Eternal Life
What is the doctrine of
eternal life? In a statement it is the need for having
what is of God within, as the basis of all that is
related to God in life, fellowship, service, and the
eternal future. The question with Nicodemus was that of
entering the Kingdom of God. We saw that the Kingdom of
God is a state before it is a realm. Only that enters the
Kingdom of God which is of God. The realm of God is that
in which everything of God and nothing else obtains.
Through the death of chapter three we move to the place
where we see what is basic to the realm of God, that
which has to do with every phase of our relationship to
God; that is, the life of God, Divine life, known as
eternal life, and that within us, as the ground upon
which all the activities and operations of God proceed.
Are we going to be united with the Lord? Well, that is
the first step in the life of the believer. That is the
very first phase of spiritual life, of the true Christian
life. It is being united with the Lord. The nature of
union with the Lord is the sharing of His own life,
Divine life; the life of God, uniting us with Himself.
Not something broken off from Him and given to us, for
life can never be cut up into fragments like that and
distributed; life is one, one in essence, and it makes
organically one every part into which it enters. It is
the life of one body, not organized but organic. Union
with God then is by reason of receiving the life of God.
Do we want fellowship
with God, which is beyond union; a walk in communion? It
will be only upon the basis that God's life is active
within us. God will commune with that which is of Himself
in us. God will bring us into fellowship with Himself by
putting something into us with which He can have
fellowship. God can have no fellowship with flesh, with
man by nature. God's fellowship is with that which is
essentially Himself, and that is given to us in the gift
of God which is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Do we contemplate, or
desire service for the Lord? The same principle governs
that; that real fellowship with the Lord in service is
upon the basis of that life of God, active and energetic
within us. Paul speaks about that "energy which
energiseth in me mightily"; and then he spoke of God
Who is "able to do exceeding abundantly above all
that we ask or think, according to the power that WORKETH
IN US." There is the active vocational service side
of things. The doing of God upon the basis of an
energetic principle (an energetic "something" I
will call it for the moment). Service demands Divine life
in us, and Divine life is the basis of Divine service.
Many of us have proved that by Divine life we can do what
is totally impossible to us by natural life; very often
Divine life comes to our rescue when we are well-nigh
dead, and enables us to do things which are an
astonishment to ourselves, and anyone else who knows of
our inner history.
Are we contemplating
knowing the Lord more fully? It will be upon the same
principle: "In him was life; and the life was the
light of men." It is as the life of God is
unarrested and uninterrupted in us in its growth, in its
movement; as we do not put any obstacle in its way by
disobedience to its claims and demands, that we enlarge
in our spiritual knowledge of the Lord. Life issues in
light. Find the believer, the child of God, who is going
on freely, and clearly, and powerfully, transparently
with the Lord in spirit, without prejudice, without
questioning, without controversy, without disobedience,
and you will find that that child of God is coming into
an ever-increasing knowledge of the Lord. Find the child
of God who has put such a difficulty in the way of the
Lord by disobedience, a reservation, a hesitation, an
arrest, a rebellion, and you will notice two things
follow instantly. One is an arrest of life, and the other
is a darkening of the understanding. It is always so, the
two things go together.
Then further, have we
in view the hope of eternal resurrection? Well,
resurrection unto life is based upon, and exclusively
upon, the fact that we have got eternal life already
resident within us. That does not mean that those who
have not got eternal life will not be raised from the
dead for the judgment purposes. They will! But John makes
a discrimination, and that discrimination is also made by
Paul. "They that have done good, unto the
resurrection of life": literally, "the life
resurrection." "They that have done evil, unto
the resurrection of judgement" - the resurrection of
eternal judgment. There is a resurrection of life and
there is a death resurrection. Resurrection unto eternal
life is based upon our having this Divine life in us.
That is the argument of 1 Cor. 15. That resurrection body
will be formed round a seed, a germ, and it must be
there. Something must be there to be clothed upon. Paul
speaks of himself and of us as being clothed upon. What
is it that is going to be clothed upon? That living
spirit indwelt by the life of God. There is no hope of
eternal resurrection only on the ground of our already
being in possession of resurrection life. Resurrection
life will be given a resurrection body. The resurrection
body will evidence the resurrection life, so that we must
have spiritual resurrection now in order to have physical
resurrection, glorified resurrection, later on.
Now the point of all
that is, that the doctrine of eternal life is the need
for having what is of God within us, as the basis of
everything in relation to God. And in saying what we have
said, we have covered the whole ground of the doctrine of
eternal life, although if you like to go to your New
Testament with a concordance, that will help you in this
matter, or if you are able to read the original language,
and trace through the one word which is used for eternal
life, you will find a tremendous mass of detail and you
will see how very illuminating the New Testament is upon
this whole doctrine, and how many-sided is its
application.
Having broadly stated
the truth of eternal life, we come nearer to our chapter,
to look for a moment at the local setting of this
teaching, and at the teaching of the Lord on this matter.
The local setting of it is a very good illustration of
the absence of eternal life. You may look at it from
several standpoints if you wish. Look at it, for
instance, from the spiritual standpoint. The condition of
this woman, viewed from the spiritual standpoint,
represents an abiding sense of lack; a sense of lack
which continues, which persists, no matter what she does.
There is an atmosphere of longing, of desire; it may not
be that she intelligently understood her own heart, it
may not be that she could interpret the deeper feelings
of her heart, but undoubtedly there is an atmosphere
around this incident of a sense of lack, a sense of
longing, a sense of desire. It comes out quite clearly.
The Master had only to touch upon the subject of
satisfaction, and it was as though instantly she said:
Ah! that is what I want to know. Yes, in relation to this
sense of lack the activities of life were without
satisfaction. "Sir, give me this water, that I
thirst not, neither come hither to draw." In effect
she meant: I am all the time coming here to draw, but my
continuous activities, in the direction of meeting that
lack, go disappointed, never reach an end; I never come
to a point where I have any sense of feeling, or of being
able to say, Now that is done and never need be done
again. If we can read our own hearts we can get well into
the atmosphere of this chapter. If we read the spiritual
life of the world, it is just that. There is perhaps an
uninterpreted, perhaps unrecognized lack in the whole
race at heart. There is that sense, recognized,
acknowledged, or not so, that there is an incompleteness
about things, that something ought to be which is not.
That life has in it something of the will-o'-the-wisp,
something which draws you on but which you never get.
There is a phantom element about life. You know you ought
to have something, but you have it not, and you cannot
get it; and all that you are doing whether you would put
it into words or not, is your own effort, your own
activity to get that something which you feel you ought
to have possession of and which would bring to an end
that sense of lack, would make good an abiding deficiency
in life. There is a deficiency about life in nature.
Everything, in view of that sense of reaching the
ultimate, is a miscarriage, is a breakdown. That is from
the spiritual standpoint. Now that is an evidence of the
fact that eternal life is not there.
Look at it then, if you
will, from a further standpoint - the moral. This woman's
life from the moral standpoint was entirely out of
harmony with God's standard. We know the story. The Lord
Jesus was above all others sensitive. He was not coarse,
He was not vulgar, He was not unkind, and yet He would
drag that story right out; He would bring that skeleton
out of the cupboard and expose it; He would not allow
this thing to be covered up. It is an essential thing on
the way to life that we come to a place where we
recognize how out of harmony with God's standard we are
morally. "Go, call thy husband." "I have
no husband." "Thou hast well said, I have no
husband; for thou hast had five husbands; and he whom
thou now hast is not thy husband." "Sir, I
Perceive that thou art a prophet." Do you notice the
sleight of hand? "Our fathers worshipped in this
mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place
where men ought to worship." She has come up against
a challenge, and now she is going to talk about the
saints, and to set one over against the other. She will
start upon a doctrinal, and the logical, and
ecclesiastical line as a hedge to this thing. People do
that when they begin to get at close quarters with the
Lord about sin, and they will begin to discuss the
saints, talk religion, to hedge the issue; but the Lord
knows how to deal with a situation like this. We will not
anticipate, though, for a moment. The way to eternal life
is to come not only to recognize the fact that there is
an abiding lack and deficiency, it is to see that lack as
altogether out of harmony with God, and that morally we
do not represent God's standard by nature; and if in this
woman you think you have a somewhat extreme case, oh! be
reminded that it is only a matter of degree, for the Lord
has brought the serpent in the wilderness very close to a
Nicodemus, and said that even for a Nicodemus the mind of
God is that, and it is only a matter of degree. There may
be no need for putting ourselves into the category of
this woman in actualities of sin, but moral distance from
God is just the same in nature whether it be in a
Nicodemus representation, or in a woman of Sychar. What I
mean is this, that God's standard and irreducible minimum
is His Son, the perfection of Christ. Can you stand up to
that? Can any man stand up to that? Neither Nicodemus nor
this woman can stand up to that. It is only a matter of
the degree in actual expression, but the separation from
God morally is just the same. You say: How can anyone be
saved if Christ's perfections are God's irreducible
minimum? We shall find ourselves faced with the question
before we are through with this story; what Christ is in
Himself.
Then you may look at it
from one more standpoint; religiously. We have seen how,
as a kind of back door out from this embarrassment and
awkward situation, she turned to discuss religion, but
she betrayed something when she introduced those matters.
"Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye
say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to
worship." Well, in any case it is tradition without
power. "Our fathers worshipped in this
mountain...." What moral effect has that upon her?
What moral effect or spiritual effect has it upon her
that she has a temple in Mount Gerizim, and a copy of the
Old Testament Scriptures, and her fathers worshipped? It
is no use talking about the fact that: "My
grandfather was a great saint and my parents good
Christians." That is not the way out. So far as she
was concerned it was mere tradition without power. It did
not bring her to satisfaction or to moral deliverance;
and viewed from the religious standpoint, religion was
rather an enemy to her than an ally. Religion was no help
to her. The religion of her fathers meant nothing to her.
And very often the fact that we have been brought up
amongst Christians, and have Christian traditions behind
us, may be working rather to our undoing or against us
than otherwise. It is not always an unmixed blessing to
have Christian upbringing. Oh! no one would limit the
value, or seek to minimize the value of any help. Some of
us wish that we had a good deal more of the strain of
genuine saintliness and Godliness in our blood. Perhaps
the conflict has been all the greater for want of it, and
yet a religious upbringing is not always an unmixed
blessing, and certainly it does not mean, that because we
have had it, we are all right in the sight of God.
Tradition may be without power so far as we are
concerned. Certainly it was in her case.
Now all this is the
local setting of things, and it all shows the absence of
eternal life. It is all one strong argument that there is
lacking here that which is the central theme, eternal
life. Eternal life answers all these questions. Eternal
life brings to an end that sense of eternal deficiency.
You know that you have got something which brings
finality to your heart, when you receive eternal life.
Eternal life brings moral deliverance. You will see how
that is in a moment. Eternal life changes all our
traditions into living realities. Would that there could
be the opening of the flood gates of eternal life into
the traditional systems of today. But all this was
seeming life that was not life, but death.
The
Nature of Eternal Life
Then what is the nature
of eternal life? There are four Greek words translated
"life" in the New Testament. (1)
"Bios," which means the manner or period of
life, the kind of life we lead, or the means of living
and the duration here. (2) "Psuche," which
means animal life; sometimes breath; it really means a
living being, a being that is animate or possesses life.
(3) "Pneuma," which is spirit, and very largely
means liveliness, activity. It is only used in this case
once, in Rev. 13:15. But "pneuma" is the Holy
Spirit. (4) "Zoe." This is the word always
related to God, or almost always. It is the gift of God
in Christ, what Christ came to give; what Christians
alone have. There is the denominative "eternal
(aeonian) 'Zoe'"; incorruptible life, Divine life.
Having said that, and
arrived at this eternal life, we are able to notice its
nature. It has two elements. One is its quality, and the
other is its duration; its quality, and its abiding
endurance. Its quality is its main factor, and is the
factor in its permanence; and because its quality is its
permanence, when it is received it brings with it a sense
of permanence, and therefore of satisfaction. It is the
life of God, and being the life of God has in its very
essence the very nature of God. That is eternal. That is
final. That is absolute. And when you receive that in
germ, and in a vital way, you know that you have found
the answer to all your questions and all your longings,
and it is only a matter of time now for you to enter
intelligently into the answer of everything.
The effect of receiving
eternal life within us is to bring instantly a sense of
having reached an end. I know it opens up new
possibilities, new ranges, but you know you have got the
essence of satisfaction. You may yet have much to learn,
you may have a long way to go, there may be new worlds to
be explored and conquered, but you have got the secret of
the end of all in possessing this life.
What is the first thing
that one really born from above is conscious of? When you
really do pass from death into life, and are born from
above, what is the first uninterpreted, undefined, but
very real thing in your consciousness? Well, you have
found what you have been longing for! You have reached an
end of that long history of dissatisfaction; moreover,
you have discovered the secret of your very being, why
you are here in this world; you have a sense of being
here for something now. The spontaneous issue of that
life in the New Testament was that the people immediately
went out and talked to others. It created a purpose and
an object in life. Their whole bearing and conduct said:
We have found the explanation of our being in the world.
You never will find that, until you find eternal life. It
brings that as its essence. Why are we here? You have the
answer to that question when you have the Lord! You may
not be able to define it, but you know by an inner strong
sense that you are here with a purpose, and that purpose
is not something of time, it is eternal. It links you
with eternity. It is the essence of eternal life which
brings satisfaction and, therefore, the sense of
permanence. Its nature is the permanence of the universe,
because it is God. Receive that, and you know the deeper
meaning of the poor English word "eternal."
That is why John has so little to do with time and
geography; he is out in that which is eternal.
The
Law of Eternal Life
Now I close with just
one word about the law of eternal life. What is the law
of eternal life? The indwelling of the Holy Spirit! The
Lord's words in this chapter about the spring of water
within undoubtedly relate to the Holy Spirit, and we must
not divide between Divine life and the Holy Spirit. We
have to come to see that it is not an "it"; it
is He; it is the Holy Spirit. He is the Spirit of life.
Insofar as it is an "it" it is only an
expression of Him. We speak of the effect of a person's
presence. You come into this room; you are a person, but
from you there may come an influence; that influence may
be of life, or it may be of death; it may be of joy, or
it may be of depression; it may be of good fellowship, or
it may be of suspicion. The Holy Spirit with His presence
emanates that which is eternal life; the life is that
which comes with Him, from Him, is always a part of Him.
It is something in itself, but it is something related to
Someone, and you cannot have life as an indwelling
reality, as a thing apart from the Person.
We cannot stay to
enlarge greatly upon the law of the indwelling Holy
Spirit. When speaking of Nicodemus we said that the new
birth from above is an advent, not a revival; it is the
definite taking up of residence within, in an act, by the
Lord. Well, this is only the same truth. On the positive
side the Holy Spirit must, in a definiteness of faith
appropriation, be received. Do you notice how, later,
with the Acts and onward, that is stressed? The Word is
repeated again and again: "And that thou mightest receive
the Holy Spirit." It was said to Paul at His
conversion, and it was said at Pentecost. "Repent
and be baptized... and ye shall receive the gift of the
Holy Ghost." To the Ephesian disciples who had not
been instructed, and whose relationship to the Lord was,
therefore, very imperfect, the Apostle said: "Have
ye received the Holy Ghost since ye
believed?" There must be the recognition of the fact
that our life as children of God is based upon our
receiving of the Holy Spirit. "Now if any man have
not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." So
that the life of the child of God is not just some kind
of becoming interested in Christianity and religious
things; and taking up religious work, and entering into a
religious realm outside of which we lived before, and in
which we then had no interest. It is something far more
radical than that. It is the Spirit of the Living God, in
an act, coming to take up His residence in one who has
come to the place where they recognized that they were
dead, and there were no possibilities whatever in the
realm of God for them except on the basis of being born
from above. And the coming in to dwell of the Holy Spirit
begins everything, and on that basis everything goes on.
We said that the doctrine of eternal life means the
putting within of that upon which every Divine activity
takes place, but that is the Holy Spirit in us working in
harmony with God in heaven; and God in heaven working in
us by His Holy Spirit. That is the larger way of putting
the same truth. We must not think of this as abstract. It
is personal. This life is not merely an essence, a vapor,
an abstraction; it is an intelligent thing. You cannot
take life as you may take the ether and think of it as
having personal intelligence. This life is a life which
has the intelligence of God, Eternal intelligence because
it is the Holy Spirit. When you think that having the
Holy Spirit resident within means that there within us is
all the knowledge that God possesses, what tremendous
possibilities there are of usefulness! Our business
throughout the spiritual life is to learn how to live in
the Spirit. Yes, we have in the Holy Spirit all that God
has to give us. Now we have to learn how to appropriate
what we have, how to ENJOY what we have.
All
Related to Christ Personally
Then a final word. The
whole matter is related to Christ. Notice what He says
here when the woman turns to talk about their temple,
their worship, and the temple and worship of Jerusalem.
He breaks in with one of His strong arrests and says:
"Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall
neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship
the Father.... But the hour cometh, and now is, when the
true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and
in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship
him."
There are two things
there to be recognized. The force of: "But the hour
cometh, and now is..."; that, as He uses it,
represents a change of history. That phrase means that
the whole course of history takes another form. Jerusalem
worship, Samaritan worship - they are ended, as such they
are finished. Worship is neither here nor there on the
old lines. "But the hour cometh, and now
is...." What hour? What is the nature of this hour?
What is it that in this hour makes that change? In a word
- Christ has come, and all the worship that ever was at
Jerusalem with the whole system of that worship was all
pointing to Him. The Temple? Yes He is the Temple.
"Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise
it up... he spake of the temple of his body." They
thought He spake of the temple at Jerusalem. He was
saying, in effect: That is the type, I am the Anti-type!
Was there a priesthood? He is the High Priest! Were there
sacrifices? He is the Lamb of God! Those sacrifices never
took away sin. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh
away the sin of the world." Every fragment of that
worship was typical, pointing to something typified. That
has come, He is here, and now from the external, formal,
traditional you come into the true spiritual meaning of
that by being spiritually united with Him by the
indwelling Spirit.
The other thing clearly
is this, that the true worshippers from this hour onward
are not those who worship formally, but who are
spiritual. The difference between formal and spiritual
worship is tremendous. What He is saying is that a
spiritual state is basic to real fellowship with the
Father Who is a Spirit. A spiritual state! How is that
spiritual state brought about? By the Holy Spirit being
within. On what ground does the Holy Spirit come within?
On the ground that we have taken our place in death and
have been born from above.
That is only analyzing
the law of eternal life. It is the fact of the indwelling
Spirit; the nature of the indwelling Spirit; the result
of the indwelling Spirit. The result of the indwelling
Spirit is to make us spiritual in all our relationships
with the Lord; to make us spiritual people; a spiritual
state by reason of the Holy Spirit indwelling making
everything now true. The traditional, the formal was not
the eternal, it always lacked a sense of being eternal.
If we are linked up with what is a traditional system of
religion, however good it may be, we know there is a lack
about it, if it is just that; but when we come by the
Holy Spirit to know Him, Who is for us the Sanctuary of
God, the One in Whom we meet the Father, we come to know
Him spiritually by the Holy Spirit as our High Priest, as
our Sacrifice, as our everything in relation to God; we
have come into the truth because we have come by the
Spirit: "...in spirit and in truth." You can
only know the truth by the Spirit, but when you know the
Spirit, then you know the truth.
It may be that some
know all about the traditional thing, the formal thing,
and do not know the truth. What such need is eternal
life. What is needed is the living experience of the Holy
Spirit within making alive unto God.
Now it is a tremendous
question, a tremendous issue, which is at stake for us.
Really, have we eternal life? Do we know the activity and
energy of eternal life? Many of us do know this. I hope
that can be said of you; if not, well, the issue is
tremendous. The Lord lead us by faith to receive the
gift, the free gift of God, which is eternal life in
Jesus Christ our Lord.