John 6.
You will notice that
the two main parts of the chapter are the feeding of the
multitude, and the discourse of the Lord upon Himself as
the Bread of Life.
In seeking to recognize
the great truths and their laws as brought before us in
the Gospel by John, the truth which is at the heart of
the sixth chapter, is the truth of life triumphant over
death, as a present and continuous testimony. It is
probable that you have not so read the chapter, and that
that may be a new thought for some; but I think, if I
give you an indication from the content of the chapter,
you will more readily recognize that that is what the
chapter deals with.
Firstly let me point
out that the word "life" occurs no fewer than
eleven times in this chapter; in verses 27, 33, 35, 40,
47, 48, 51, 53, 54, 68. Then the word "live"
occurs four times; the word "living" three
times; "not die" occurs once, in verse 50; and
"resurrection'' is mentioned four times, in verses
39, 40, 44, 54. On the other hand the word
"dead" occurs twice, 49, 58. When you recognize
all that, you have a substantial reason to believe that
life and death take an important place in the chapter,
and you are on your way to realize what is here as the
underlying truth, the truth of life triumphant over
death. Indeed, that is a New Testament truth, and as a
present and continuous Testimony, it is revealed
throughout the New Testament to be what Lord desires.
Union
with Christ in Life a Dominant Theme
When we commenced these
meditations we saw that the two main themes of the whole
Gospel by John are the Person of Christ, and union with
Christ. This chapter is a very strong, very rich, very
full unveiling of that twofold truth. The "I
AM" of this chapter is very strong. Again and again
we have "I AM" related to life. Then
"Except ye" is connected with "I AM";
a relationship is found between the two. That carries
with it this; that if this chapter represents Christ as
relating to life, and the "Except ye" brings us
into relationship with Him - union with Him in
that particular sense - then the Testimony to life
triumphant over death is the issue, the outcome of this
chapter. That can be carried forward right through the
New Testament, and you will call to mind much, if you
make a fresh enquiry with this thought in mind. You will
be tremendously impressed with how much there is bearing
upon the Lord's desire, that there should be in His Own a
present and continuous Testimony to life triumphant over
death. I think it unnecessary, even if it were possible
in the space available, to carry you right through the
whole of the New Testament teaching on the matter. Let us
be reminded at this time that that is the Lord's will,
that there should be in us, and in all of His Own, a
present and continuous Testimony to life triumphant over
death. It seems to me, that in a very large sense the
Gospel by John is occupied with that theme; it is viewed
in this Gospel from various standpoints, and seen to have
various effects; but there is a main note, a thread,
running through the whole Gospel bearing upon the matter
of life, and that is set over against certain conditions
which speak of death, which represent features of death,
forms of death.
We have said more than
once that the first "sign" of the second
chapter, the turning of the water into wine at the
marriage of Cana in Galilee, was a comprehensive sign
embodying the rest of the Gospel, and the central note of
that sign, that work, was and is, that of life triumphant
over death. Contemplate that incident again and surely
that is clear.
The next movement in
chapter three brings in Nicodemus, and the serpent lifted
up in the wilderness. The one, showing a state of death,
under the curse resting upon the whole race; the other,
the way out of death or over death, by new birth from
above. New birth from above is surely, throughout the New
Testament, the Testimony to life triumphant over death.
The next chapter, four,
is again a presentation of death features and then the
implanting of eternal life within.
Chapter five has the
background of death under the Law; a living death, in
bondage, weakness, impotence, and despair. The triumph
comes, and newness of life, in Christ.
Now chapter six carries
on the same theme from another standpoint, and with a
fresh and added factor. Thus you go on through the Gospel
right to the end, and you find step by step, and stage by
stage, it is a touching upon, or dealing with, this very
subject, life triumphant over death. You will come to
Lazarus before long; you will come to the Good Shepherd
Who giveth His life for the sheep; another form of the
Testimony. That the sheep might live, the Shepherd dies;
and the fact that the sheep do live, is a Testimony to
victory over death in the Shepherd Who gives them life.
And so you will see that this whole Gospel, from one
standpoint, is one continuous unveiling, disclosing, and
developing of this great truth of life triumphant over
death. We could easily pass on into Acts, where we should
not have much difficulty in establishing our affirmation.
The first few chapters of the book of the Acts are little
else than a Testimony to the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus, and the testifiers are the witnesses; that is, the
Testimony is in the witnesses. Then the letter to the
Romans. We are familiar enough with the Roman letter to
know, that when you pass from the first chapters, you are
passing from the realm of death from which you emerge
into the realm of life triumphant over death; through
chapter six into chapter eight. So we go on. It is good
for us to know what a solid mass of Scripture there is
back of anything which we have presented as the Lord's
will. I mean this: it is a tremendous thing for you, or
for me, to say that the Lord desires to have a present
and continuous Testimony to life triumphant over death.
That will be a challenge continually. What ground in
Scripture have we got for that, to support us? What is
there as a solid mass of rock under our feet to bear us
up when we take such a position? Are we hanging a great
declaration like that, with all that it involves, upon
some unrelated, detached bit of the Word of God; or have
we a sufficient foundation for such a position? That is
why I have stayed to open out beyond the one chapter in
relation to this. There is a tremendous amount of the
Word of God to support that position, that the Lord
desires in His Own there should be a present and
continuous Testimony to life triumphant over death.
The
Law of Feeding Upon Christ
Now then, we come to
break it up into some of its fragments. And that, of
course, will mostly have to do with the law which governs
this truth. There is the great truth, but it has a
governing law; and in order to enjoy the Testimony, to
have the experience of life triumphant over death now and
continuously, we must recognize the law, and be adjusted,
and obedient thereto. What is the law? Simply, it is
feeding upon Christ. What feeding upon Christ means, we
will not deal with for a moment, but recognize the fact
as it relates to the truth. You notice two things that
come up in this chapter, one early, and one later. Verse
4: "Now the passover, the feast of the Jews, was at
hand. Jesus therefore lifting up his eyes...." Do
you get the link of that "therefore"? You might
say in reading the first word: "After these things
Jesus went away to the other side... a great multitude
followed him, because they beheld the signs which he
did... and he went up into a mountain and sat with his
disciples... now the passover, the feast of the Jews, was
at hand." What has that to do with it? Why is that
"Jesus therefore" put in there? There was
something in the back of His mind, just as there was in
Cana of Galilee when He said: "Mine hour is not yet
come." "Jesus therefore lifting up his eyes,
and seeing that a great multitude cometh unto him, saith
unto Philip, Whence are we to buy bread, that these may
eat?" Do you notice the Passover comes up in
relation to this; the Passover in the mind of the Lord is
related to this, or rather, this is related to the
Passover. There is a background to this feeding of the
multitude; it is related to some spiritual truth. Hold
that for a moment, the fact that the Passover comes up at
the beginning of this. Move on to verse 31: "Our
fathers ate the manna in the wilderness... Jesus
therefore said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
It was not Moses that gave you the bread out of heaven;
but my Father giveth you the true bread out of
heaven." You have the Passover introduced, and now
you have Moses, the wilderness, and the manna brought in,
all in the same connection. Then what is the link between
those two things, and the main truth of life triumphant
over death? Well, the Passover had a great deal to do
with that. You are taken back into Egypt, back into the
realm of death, back into the place where the Destroyer
is abroad, where death is rampant, and the eating of the
Passover is life triumphant over death. It is found right
at the commencement of their history; it fixed the date
of their national constitution. They were constituted a
nation by the Passover. "This is the beginning of
months." So that their history, as the people of
God, was based upon that which represented life
triumphant over death, the feeding upon Christ, the
appropriation of Christ as their life. Now later the
wilderness comes into view, and what you have in the
wilderness is death. There are no signs of life in a
wilderness; no element of life in a wilderness; there is
no resource for life there. The wilderness was - apart
from God - the place of death. When they ceased to be
obedient to the Lord, they died in the wilderness. Their
cry was: Were there no graves in Egypt that thou hast
brought us out to die in the wilderness? Oh, yes, it was
the place of death! The manna was given, and it raised in
them the Testimony of life triumphant over death as a
continuous thing. That feeding upon the manna constituted
the continuous Testimony in them to life triumphant over
death.
The
Significance of a Changed Tense
Now here is a
remarkable thing. Look at verse 53: "Jesus therefore
said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye
eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye
have not life in yourselves." Now the Greek tense
there is that of something done: it is the second AORIST active
subjunctive; that is, something which has been done,
but which has to be carried on. An aorist tense is
something done, but with something yet to be the outcome,
the outworking. Literally it is completed in the past,
but wholly indeterminate; that is, it has not reached its
final issue although it is already done, something
completed. It is something done in the past. When you
come to the next verse, 54, you have a change of tense:
"He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath
eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last
day." The tense there is the present active
participle: He that keeps on eating, makes a habit of
it. So we have something done at the beginning, as a
complete basis for something to come out and be carried
on continually; a thing which relates to the origin of
our history and of its continuation. I think that is a
magnificent example of the Holy Spirit controlling
grammar. It is a remarkable thing that at the beginning
you have the Passover as the basic act, in which
everything really is complete, and yet an implication
that something else is to be done. Then the wilderness is
introduced, and the very grammar here indicates that the
wilderness experience is to be a habitual eating,
something going on all the time. Life triumphant over
death is something which we have completely when we first
receive the Lord Jesus, but there has to be an outworking
of it, and we have continually to receive Christ for the
maintenance of the Testimony.
Christ's
Body - an Incorruptible Humanity
Do remember that this
eating of the flesh and drinking of the Blood of the Son
of Man, is the receiving of that which is incorruptible
and has incorruptible life in it (comp. Acts 2:27). The
flesh was the body of Christ, was that in which death was
conquered: "A body hast thou prepared for me."
Why? That, in a body - the sphere of death in the race -
death should be conquered. I am so glad that the Lord met
death just in death's own residence, the body. Death has
struck right at the race in its very humanity. Humanity
was a thought of God of a very high order; a perfect
humanity. Humanity is something unique. Humanity is
something special. "For unto the angels hath he not
put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.
But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is
man, that thou art mindful of him?..." Of a higher
order than angels is man. The inhabited earth to come is
not to be under the dominion of angels, it is to be under
the dominion of man. "Know ye not that we shall
judge angels?" Angels are subject to man, when man
is what God intended him to be. "Are they not all
ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who
shall be heirs of salvation?" They are ministers in
relation to salvation; ministers to man, in order to
bring man to the place for which God eternally intended
him. Humanity is a high thought of God, something higher
than the angelic order. Ah! but it was there that the
enemy struck, and it is in humanity that death reigns,
and it is in our mortal bodies that death has its ground.
That is the teaching of the Word, "our dying
bodies." In a body the Lord Jesus conquered death,
and dealt with man's moral condition, which was the basis
of death; He did it in a body. His body was the
instrument of His triumph over the moral state of man,
and death, the result of that moral state. Remember, in
His body He met every temptation which is common to man
and overcame it. In His body, in humanity: "...in
all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."
Temptation is not temptation if you do not feel it. The
question of how a perfect being can be tempted misses the
point altogether. He was tempted, He was tried, and He
was Victorious, and victory is nothing if you have no
ordeal: victory has no meaning if you never have a
battle. In His body He met from without, the
assault of every kind of evil suggestion, evil influence;
He was left alone with the very Devil himself in trial
and temptation. In His body He triumphed, and in His body
He bore our sins. "Who his own self bare our sins in
his own body upon the tree...." We would be careful
to say that we do not believe that there was any sin in
Christ Himself in any part. Therefore we underline
"from without." Now in that body triumphant
there is incorruptible life. This Holy One did not see
corruption because He had triumphed morally; it was not
possible that He should be holden of death, because death
had no place of residence in that body. "Except ye
eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye
have no life in you." Life triumphant over death is
in our appropriating all that which is represented by His
body. That is faith appropriation of Christ in His
victory, in humanity. We will explain what that is
presently. But we must remember that it was in His flesh,
in His body that He triumphed over death; if you like -
in a body He overcame. Christ's body was, and is, a body
in which all Calvary's work and victory was accomplished.
Receive the virtue of that, the spiritual efficacy of
that by faith, and you are receiving Calvary's victory.
Calvary's victory is not some doctrine you adopt, it is a
spiritual exercise in relation to Christ Himself in
victory: the taking of Christ, the making Christ yours by
faith. That is the way of Calvary's victory. Feeding on
Christ is sharing His victory. Feeding on Christ is
strength, is growth, is endurance; it is not doctrine or
teaching, but feeding, taking, assimilating,
appropriating, making ours. That is the way of victory
over death continuously. A thing we do at the beginning
once and for all. We take Christ; and then we do so
habitually every day; just as those in the wilderness had
to do afresh every morning. The Lord there carefully
stipulated that they were not to live on yesterday's
manna. Nothing was to be left overnight; anything left
over in the evening was to be burned. It was to be fresh
every morning; not yesterday's exercise in relation to
Christ, but today's, every day. The wilderness; well,
Christ was in a wilderness with the Devil, and the first
assault was concerning bread: "If thou be the Son of
God, command that these stones be made bread." What
was the Lord's answer? The Lord's answer is out from the
wilderness: "It is written, Man shall not live by
bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of God." You LIVE, even in the place of death,
by the Word of the Lord. He is the Word in Person, and in
commandment.
We will now move to the
end of this meditation by saying a little about what
feeding upon Christ is, as the way of the Testimony of
life triumphant over death continuously. We shall be very
elementary.
What
Feeding Upon Christ Means
Feeding upon Christ!
Remember that you have made a start by making Christ your
life, and that has to be kept up as a habit. That it will
not do, according to the Lord's Word and stipulation, to
have done it yesterday, and not to do it today, or to
think that that is enough for a few days; it has got to
be continuous, daily, habitual. What then is feeding upon
Christ? It relates to several simple things, but the
importance and magnitude of these things, which are
regarded as commonplace, can only be recognized from the
standpoint of the Testimony to which they lead. Is there
a greater Testimony than life triumphant over death?
There is none! And you and I, as we go on with the Lord,
will discover that it is the highest thing in our
experience, and the thing concerning which all hell
rages. We are really up against the naked forces of the
Devil, and they are against us, when once we have taken
our place with the Lord Jesus, and the issue will be
either the destruction of our Testimony by the forces of
death in bringing us to death spiritually, and in any
other way, or the Testimony will be maintained, the
Testimony to Christ's tremendous victory over all the
power of the Devil. When you view things from that
standpoint, related things take on importance, and when
one speaks about feeding upon Christ as being, in the
first place a matter of prayer, then prayer is
immediately related to the Testimony of life triumphant
over death.
Feeding
by Prayer
We do feed upon Christ
in prayer. To put that in another way, there is an
imparting of Himself to His Own in prayer. We may go to
prayer in weariness, and rise in freshness; we may go to
prayer exhausted, and rise renewed. Is it that we have
simply uttered some form of prayer, prayed some prayer?
We know quite well if that is so we do not get up very
much invigorated. Formal praying does not bring very much
life. Going through a form of prayers sometimes only
ministers death. But really seeking the Lord, reaching
out, taking hold of the Lord, giving ourselves up to the
Lord in prayer, never fails to have renewing, uplifting,
strengthening results. You say prayer may wear you out?
Yes, but there is a wonderful strength that comes by
wearing out prayer. There is vitality given to the
spiritual life even in prayer that tires us physically,
and we go in the strength of it. Yes, prayer is a way in
which Christ is ministered to us by the Holy Spirit.
Prayer is a way in which we feed upon Christ; He becomes
our life.
Feeding
by the Word
Then of course the
Word: there is a value, a strengthening, enriching,
building-up value in giving ourselves to the Word of the
Lord, I mean spiritually. We can study the Bible in a
technical way, and it may not mean a great deal of
spiritual help. But to go to the Word of the Lord, in
order that our spiritual life may be enriched; not with a
congregation in view, not with increased information as
our objective, but because of our own spiritual life; and
to take pains with the Word of the Lord and to give
ourselves, and not to be discouraged because for a little
while we are getting nothing: there is a real value in
that; and it is remarkable how, after the initial period
of discouragement, you begin to get something. It seems
as though the Lord tests us out, and then there is a
ministration of Christ by the Spirit through the Word.
Yes, but it is not only reading the Word of the Lord;
there is a value in that; but that passage, quoted by the
Lord in the wilderness to the Devil, has a deeper meaning
than that. Go back to the book of Deuteronomy with it,
and you will find that it was not Israel's reading or
studying of the Law that was in view, it was their
obedience to it. They lived by obedience to the Word of
the Lord, and in every act of obedience to the Word of
the Lord there is a fresh ministration of Christ. You can
never be obedient to any part of the Word of the Lord
without gaining Christ. It is always so. That is how we
live by the Word, being obedient to it. Obedience to the
Word is life, because it is an increase of Christ.
Sustenance
by Fellowship
Then we feed upon the
Lord, and He becomes our life, when we recognize the
Divine order of spiritual fellowship. That is a Divine
order. You have it brought in with Acts: "And they
continued stedfastly in the apostles' teaching and
fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in
prayers." There is a tremendous means of grace, a
tremendous enrichment of Christ in the fellowship of the
Lord's people. I believe the enemy will get believers,
when they are together, to talk about anything under the
sun rather than about the Lord. It is easy when you meet
together with the Lord's people to be carried off with
all kinds of matters of interest, and not to begin to
talk about the Lord; but if you do there is always an
enrichment, always a strengthening, always a building up;
it is the Divine way. Fellowship is a means of imparting
Christ to the believer. And wherever spiritual fellowship
is possible, you and I ought to seek it, look after it,
cherish it. There are all too many of the Lord's children
today, who have no chance of spiritual fellowship, and
who would give anything to have it. The Lord would have
us at least two together. That is His order, and there is
something in ministering Christ to one another. There
will be something lost unless that is so. These are ways
in which we feed upon the Lord.
Enrichment
by Worship
There is one other way.
It is worship. There is a wonderful enrichment in
worship. What is worship? Strangely enough worship in the
Old Testament, by which the person or persons were
themselves enriched, was by bringing something to the
Lord, for Him. Yes, there is some enrichment, building
up, enlargement, impartation of Christ, when we take
account of what He is, and speak to Him of what He is to
us. I do not think we have yet learned all the value of
worship as a factor in our spiritual upbuilding.
When all is said about
the way of feeding upon Christ, what is the all inclusive
effect? What should it all lead to? What does it mean to
appropriate the Lord Jesus? Well, you see He is
everything that God ever wants us to have spiritually and
morally, and there is all the difference between our
struggling to be like Jesus and our taking Him to be His
own likeness in us. I think that struggling to be like
Him is a starvation way; we shall finish up as skeletons.
Most people do, who try to be like the Lord by an effort;
but when we begin to recognize this, that on the one hand
I am insufficient, I never can be anything; on the other
hand, He is all, and He is God's provision in that very
respect to meet my deficiency, if that I by faith can
take Him for that, then there is victory whatever it may
be. The way of victory is not struggling to overcome, it
is taking Christ as the Victor. Is it a spiritual matter?
A moral matter? Or a physical matter? He is what we need.
I mean by physical, do we need physical strength? Well,
nature will not give us what we need for spiritual
purposes. The Lord has taught us strange lessons in this
way. Sometimes we have thought that what we needed for
spiritual purposes was physical renewal along ordinary
natural lines of a holiday, and we have made that our
objective, and, oh! what a poor holiday it has been; and
the Lord has shut us up to something else and showed us
that spiritual purposes required spiritual resources, and
there are spiritual resources for physical needs for
spiritual ends. I do not mean the Lord deprives us of
holidays. The Lord gives some people good holidays! The
Lord lets us go out for a good day. That is not wrong,
but I am saying there is a law which is deeper than that,
and unless you recognize that law, the other will not
work. The law is, that being tired, exhausted, thoroughly
played out, yet if the Lord wants you to do something, He
can make you able to do it without giving you a holiday.
When you have settled that, and recognized that, and do
not make the natural course the essential, the
indispensable, well, the Lord may give you the other, and
doubtless He will. That is the Testimony. Where is the
Testimony of life triumphant over death in the physical
if you go away and have a good holiday and thorough rest,
and come back and work for the Lord on that basis alone?
Where is the Testimony? There is something behind that,
and the Lord would hold us down to that basic principle,
and then: "...no good thing will he withhold from
them that walk uprightly," and: "...seek ye
first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all
these things shall be added unto you." When we are
settled on that, the Lord is free to give the other; but
if we think that this natural course is the only way to a
spiritual Testimony, it is a contradiction. The Lord is
life for us physically for all that He requires. The Lord
is life for us morally for all that He requires. He has
triumphed morally, and on every moral question that
victory is for us. The Lord is life for us spiritually.
We must take Him by prayer, by the Word, by obedience, by
fellowship, by worship; take the Lord! There is the
truth, life triumphant over death, a present and
continuous Testimony. There is the law; feeding upon,
appropriating the Lord as our life. The Testimony
requires the law. You cannot maintain the Testimony
without observing the law. Fail on any one point of that
spiritual law and the Testimony breaks down. You will
never live in victory, if you do not pray, and pray every
day. You will never live in victory, if you do not feed
every day upon the Lord in His Word. You will never live
in victory, unless you come to use all spiritual
fellowship for spiritual ends, if it is available. If it
is not available, the Lord will have to be extra to you,
and He can be in other ways. But we must recognize what
He is made unto us of God, and take Him as that.