Reading: 2 Timothy 1:8-10
We came
in our last chapter to the point where we were found
committed to investigate, to enquire, and seek to know,
what were and what are the incorruptible characteristics
of the life of the Lord Jesus, because the real value of
life, the real value of work, of service, in the sight of
God and heaven, will be on the same basis as was His.
Sometimes,
in connection with our printing work, we have samples
sent to us from different firms, and recently I had some
samples of stocktaking sheets, which could be supplied
with narrow or wide margins. While these were lying on my
desk, they said something. Stocktaking with narrow or
wide margins. What is in the margin? A wide margin of
surplus, in the stocktaking, that does not stand for any
value, and a small area of intrinsic worth, or a large
area of the intrinsic and a very narrow margin of the
worthless? For there is going to be a great stocktaking.
Yes, we all have to go the way of the stocktaking of life
and of work, and then there will arise the question of
the width of the margin and what is in it. Of all that
life has contained, of all that we have done and have had
and have used, have expended or drawn in, how wide will
be the margin of that which just did not matter or count
in the light of heaven and eternity? That is a very
serious matter, and it surely is a way of bringing us
back very forcibly to this important consideration. God
is after no margin at all, but the whole page filled with
that which is of intrinsic value. God does not want to
have to draw lines and say, 'On the one side of that line
there is so much that is more or less good; on the other
side no good at all'. He wants no lines, and if the Lord
has His way - and, mark you, He does seek by every means
to have His way in this connection - He will get as full
a measure as we will let Him of real intrinsic value.
With
this preliminary word, let us go on. We have said that
the Lord Jesus is the great example of a life without any
margin, a life reaching wholly to the edge, on every
side, full of intrinsic value, and that such a life has
an explanation. He, then, was the embodiment of the
incorruptible. Life and incorruption were embodied in
Jesus Christ in terms of Manhood, as Man. We are now
leaving out of our consideration His Deity, His Godhead.
It would not need to be discussed at all in this
connection. Very God of very God leaves no room for
discussion or argument concerning incorruption. But when
it comes to man, it is another matter. And so we are
concerned with Him on that side of His person and
personality in which He is called the Son of Man. This
whole question and issue of the incorruptible is
therefore a human question. It is a matter which relates
to and concerns man.
Man, or
Man-hood, is a big and specific thought of God. The idea
of Man, of Humanity, was born in the mind of God. He is a
peculiar creation in the mind of God for a special
purpose. The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews says
"Not unto angels... But... What is man?" (Heb.
2:5,6). 'Not unto angels... but man'. This is not a
matter, then, which concerns angels and it is certainly
not a matter of abstract and unrelated ideas. There is a
testimony which has to be found in the concrete
expression of man and manhood. The Bible makes it
perfectly clear from beginning to end that the idea
connected with man or manhood is that of representation,
representation of Divine thoughts. "In the image of
God", in the likeness of God - that is
representation, and that idea in relation to man runs
right through the Bible. The question all the way through
is - Does man, or does man not, fulfil the purpose of his
being, which is to represent God, to express God?
Now, man
was made for incorruption, for incorruptible life issuing
eventually in his glorification. If that is not
understood at once, just hold it for the present as a
statement. Man was made for incorruptible life, so that
at length he might be glorified, might be endowed with
Divine glory. I am not going to argue that from
Scripture; those of you who know your Bibles will at once
be able to support the statement - those of you who do
not, go and read your Bible! But man missed the purpose
of his creation, he missed the incorruptible life by his
disobedience and unbelief, by his rebellion against God,
his self-will, his pride. He missed his incorruptible
inheritance or heritage. He is no longer a candidate for
glory in his natural condition. Glory is not possible for
man as man is found outside of Christ. But Christ came,
and in His coming fulfilled a work by which the destiny
and purpose of man was recovered and secured. That is, in
Christ incorruptible life is recovered and secured for
man. Christ was a man who could not be corrupted, and,
therefore, because He could not be corrupted, corruption
was kept out of the very stream of His life. It was not
possible that He should see corruption even in the grave.
"He Whom God raised up saw no corruption" (Acts
13:37): that is the statement of Scripture. He was
incorruptible in His life and therefore triumphant over
corruption in His death. So Christ was constituted on
incorruptible characteristics, and we are now going to
ask what they were. In the ensuing pages we shall say
something about the first of these incorruptible
characteristics of Christ, which are to be reproduced in
those who are in Christ by faith.
A Relationship Established By The Holy
Spirit
The first, then, of these characteristics
was His union with God as His Father - a simple
statement, but oh, how much was in that union with God as
His Father! We are aware how often He used that word
'Father', and how often He said 'My Father' and then 'the
Father and I'. His enemies saw the point; they were not
slow to pick on what they thought was heresy and
blasphemy. 'He makes Himself equal with God' (John 5:18).
That union between Him and the Father was of such a kind
that their relationship was absolute and final. That
relationship was established by the Holy Spirit. I am
speaking now of Christ as Son of Man. The relationship
between Him as Son of Man and God as His Father was
established by the Holy Spirit. In His birth He was
begotten of the Holy Ghost. In His work He received
through anointing the Holy Spirit. In His walk, it was
ever in and by the Spirit. In His Cross, He offered
Himself up by the eternal Spirit (Hebrews 9:14); and we
can complete the circle by saying that it was through
that eternal Spirit that He was raised. The Holy Spirit
initiated, maintained, and consummated that relationship
with the Father. That union with the Father was the
governing thing of His whole life. At every point, at all
times, He referred and deferred to God as His Father. All
His works were out from the Father. "The Father
abiding in Me doeth His works" (John 14:10). His
words were out from the Father. "The word which
ye hear is not Mine, but the Father's Who sent Me" (John
14:24). You are well aware of that. Everything for Him
was out from the Father, by way of this union, this
oneness, and this was the very occasion of all the
conflict in His life. It was the very point of all the
attack and assault of the enemy. The one thing that the
Evil One and all the evil powers were ever focusing upon
was this oneness and fellowship with the Father, in order
to try somehow to drive in a wedge, to get that
relationship ruptured. That was the point of the attack
all the time, and that is very significant. If an enemy
concentrates all his attention and all his resources upon
any one point, it is clear that he regards that as the
point upon which the whole thing will collapse,
everything is gathered up in that one point of
concentrated attention; and it did not matter which
method the enemy used of the many ways which he did use -
whether open antagonism or friendly suggestion or subtle
subterfuge or bribery or any other means - that is the
point. 'If only I can get between these two somehow, the
Father and the Son!' I say again, that was tremendously
significant.
The Relationship The Explanation Of
Suffering
That union, then, that relationship, was
the explanation of all His sufferings and His testings -
indeed, of the whole ordeal of His life. Would He, on any
consideration, with wonderful offers, bribes or threats,
or the presentation of a dark shadow of suffering, the
awful anguish of the Cross; would He, on any
consideration, let go, violate, the principles of that
union? - and to maintain it, to preserve it, to adhere to
it, was no small, light thing for Him. For that one
thing, the most terrible cost that ever a man has paid in
the history of this universe was paid: the cost of that
dark moment of the Cross when everything seemed to have
gone out of His universe. There was not one glimmer of
light even from the Father's face while He was under that
test. Yes, this was a costly thing, because there was
something involved in it. There must have been some very
great issue involved in this union. There was nothing
superficial about this. It must have been something
unspeakably great that was bound up with it. What was it?
Providing God With A Place
It can be answered in one brief sentence.
Primarily, it was the issue of providing God with a
place. Go back to the first man. God created that man in
order that He might have a place in that man and in all
his seed; and not just a place, but THE place. In
a sense God's place had been taken from Him. God had been
rejected and put out of His place with man. He still
remained sovereign Creator, of course. He still remained
Ruler and Lord, the original Owner, but there was a
difference. Let us look at it like this. Pardon the
descent to such a low level to try to illustrate such
infinite and holy things.
Here is a landlord. He builds a house and
he is the owner of that house. In kindness and
friendliness he lets that house to some people, and to
begin with the relationship is quite a happy one, so
happy that he is able to visit that house and is welcomed
and has a place in the family; they are always glad to
see him. But someone comes along while he is not there
and begins to say things about him that are unworthy and
that are scandalous, begins to defame him, to insinuate
motives, make suggestions, with a view to getting him out
of his place in that home and that family, and this evil
one succeeds so well that no longer has he a place in the
heart of that family. He is still the landlord, the
rightful owner, and all the law is on his side, but there
is a difference between being a landlord and having the
law on your side, and the thing being yours and having a
place in the heart of the family. That is what I mean.
God lost His place. He is still sovereign Owner of this
universe, He is still Lord, and one day He will assert
His legal rights over His creation. But do you think that
is good enough? Within His creation He wants to have a
place.
There is all the difference between
sovereignty and fellowship. The union between Christ and
His Father was not the relationship of a sovereign and a
subject. He did not live that life and do that work under
the sovereign government of God. God was not just acting
sovereignly in the case of this Man - doing His own will,
asserting His own rights, claiming His own place,
demanding His own recognition and carrying through His
own programme in a sovereign way. No, it was all on a
very different footing from that. It was fellowship. God
can do a lot of things with us and through us and by
means of us in a sovereign way, but that is never, never
good enough for God. He wants us in fellowship, He wants
a place, not as sovereign and as despot, but as Father
- FATHER. That is the significance of the word
on the lips of the Lord Jesus. He taught them to pray,
"Father". The significance, then, of the
relationship between Christ and God as His Father was
that God had a place, a place in the heart of a Man.
Now the whole Bible is occupied with that
one concern; that is the issue arising all the way
through. God is seeking to have a place in the heart of
man - somewhere where He has a place, not just as
sovereign Creator, but in terms of fellowship, in terms
of love, in terms of delight to have Him. The Old
Testament is full of that in type and illustration. He
seeks some place for His Name, where His Name is loved,
some place where He can meet men on the ground of
fellowship and love. The New Testament brings that out
into bold relief. Its beginnings contain links between
the Old and the New. Christ, as Son of Man, is the
inclusive Link. Here again is the law of
incorruptibility. There is that which will go through to
eternity, there is something there that Satan cannot
destroy, there is something there that death cannot
annul, there is something there that is so precious to
God that it will appear again for ever. When all that is
capable of corruption has gone, the love relationship as
between Christ and His Father will abide. Oh, what a
difference between this and much of the relationship with
God that exists in general.
This, of
course, is clearly seen to be the idea of the New
Testament as to the INDIVIDUAL. What is God after
with us? It is just that - to have a place in our hearts,
on the basis of love and of fellowship. "My Father
will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our
abode with him" (John 14:23). "I and the Father
are one" (John 10:30). That, too, is the idea
concerning the NUCLEUS - that they, little
companies of two or three, should give Him a place.
"Where two or three are gathered together in My
name, there am I" (Matt. 18:20), and "I come
unto you" (John 14:18). And it is the New Testament
idea of the whole CHURCH. What does the Church
mean in the Divine thought? Just a place for God in love
relationship, in joyous relationship, in perfect
fellowship. That is the idea of the Church.
So then,
if Christ meant anything, He signified the coming of God
into this world in terms of fellowship. And this is an
eternal issue. If we could project ourselves into the
ages of ages, the eternal hereafter, and see the nature
of things, the very nature of things, as it will be then,
we should find it was just this: a perfect harmony
between God and man, so harmonious that it is all music,
there is no discord, there is no strain, there is no
shadow, there is no suspicion, there is no prejudice,
there is no fear. All those things have gone, with the
corruptible; the incorruptible remains; and in this first
instance the incorruptible is this - fellowship with God.
It is this KIND of relationship. It is an ETERNAL
issue. I underline 'eternal' because that is only
another word for the incorruptible.
The Test Of Everything
Therefore,
the test of everything with us will be: How much of God
really came in by our having been here? That is a fairly
thorough-going test. It may sound very exacting, but it
is just this - how much of God came in by your and my
having been here? How much, afterward, will it be
possible for others to say, 'Well, through that life I
came to know God, I came to fellowship with God, to enjoy
more of Him'?
Yes,
that is testing and that is discriminating. The test of
everything, of all our teaching, is, how much of it
results in more of God - not more of knowledge, not more
of mental apprehension, but how much more of God. Two of
us were talking one day. We were talking about certain
men of God of the past, and their life-work and teaching,
and at the end this is what we agreed - that, although
there were those things in their teaching which we did
not feel able to accept, they themselves have left us a
heritage, they have given us a deposit of God, there is
something of the Lord that has come through them to us;
and THAT is the thing which marks their
life for us. It is not that they were great teachers, not
that they were great organisers of Christian work, not
that they were great missionary statesmen, but that
somehow they have passed to us a deposit of God; God has
come through them to the enrichment and enlargement of
our lives.
That is
the test of everything. For me, at least, it is a
terrible test - one that I wonder whether I can face. Is
it going to be like that - that after all the speaking,
after all the teaching, there is a heritage of the Lord
Himself left behind? Teaching, truth; the truth of the
Church, the teaching of the House of God - all very well
in themselves; but oh, let us be careful of any of these
things AS SUCH, of putting the emphasis upon the TRUTH
of the thing, the TRUTH of the House of God,
the TRUTH of this, that and the other! Beware of
your emphasis. The emphasis is - what is the House of God
for, how does it work out, what is the issue of all the
teaching about it? The issue is this - that God comes in.
His place is provided, He is there. We may have meetings,
and all the rest of the paraphernalia of Christianity,
but if it does not issue in this, that the people
concerned have more of the Lord Himself, then the whole
thing is futile. Yes, with all our exact technique, and
the rest - if the Lord is not found there, it is
meaningless, it is valueless. All must be related to this
one issue - God having a place, and God being there, and
God being there without a margin, right to the edge. That
is the incorruptible element.
That is what the Apostle says in the
passage that we read. "Be not ashamed... of the
testimony of our Lord." The testimony of our Lord -
what is it? "Who annulled death, and brought life
and incorruption to light through the gospel." The
testimony of our Lord is His incorruptible life. The
testimony of His life, the testimony in His death, of His
resurrection - the "testimony of our Lord" is
found in that word 'incorruption'.
We have been considering the first of the
incorruptible characteristics of the life of the Lord
Jesus, which must be reproduced in us. Our conferences
will go, our meetings will go, the whole set-up will go,
and what will remain will be the measure in which the
Lord has come in, the Lord has found an abiding place,
the Lord is there intrinsically. That will be the issue.
One thing about heaven and about eternity will be that
the Lord is there and the Lord fills everything; there is
no room for anything else. That was the life of Jesus. He
provided a place for God, and there was no other place in
His life for anything else at all. Oh, that we might come
to that! It will be that, may I say again, which will
determine the measure of the permanent, the eternal, the
intrinsic value of our lives and of everything - how much
there is of the Lord.