THE NEW UNION

THE NEW UNION

 "through the eternal Spirit" Heb. 9:14

Having attempted to follow the Lord as He ascended to the right hand of the Father, and having seen Him in the height of the heavenly glory, a perfect Man, fulfilling the Divine ideal, the perfect Savior having provided a ransom for the lost; and having moreover, recognized anew the fact that this exalted Man is our God, there remains to be considered somewhat more closely, the NEW UNION between God and man, consummated when the Man of Nazareth received the promise of the Father (John 14:16-17). For this He prayed while here on earth.

In his first sermon after Pentecost, Peter, referring to the ascended Christ, declared that He "having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit," (Acts 2:33) had poured forth the gift upon the waiting disciples. This was the proof He had arrived in heaven and the answer to their question at Pentecost concerning what was going on at that point (Acts 2:12). The present article is an attempt to understand what the apostle meant, when he said that Jesus had received the promise of the Spirit.

Most certainly this is a declaration that upon the basis of His finished work of life, and on the occasion of His ar­rival in heaven, Jesus of Nazareth did receive, by a solemn and official act from the Father, the Holy Spirit ACCORDING TO PROMISE. The first question that suggests itself to the mind is, why was the Spirit now given to this as­cended Man, and in what sense was the Spirit given to Him? It cannot possibly be that the bestowment of the Spirit was for Himself. His whole human life had been conditioned by the abiding presence in Him of the Holy Spirit of God, and that in fulfillment of the primal Divine intention concerning man. It is important that there should be perfect clearness of understanding of this fact. His reception of the Spirit in heaven was not the crowning by God of His Manhood. It was rather the answer of God to the claim this Man made upon Him, by the work He had accomplished for others.

To state this even more fully: the whole Being of Christ, and the whole mission of Christ was  so closely as­sociated with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit that there could be no necessity for any new bestowment of the Spirit merely for Himself. His very human life was due to the mystery of the overshadowing Spirit and through all the years of privacy, there can be no doubt that He lived under the immediate guidance of the Spirit of truth. He did not at the baptisms receive the Spirit. At that crisis the presence of the Spirit was manifest, and in a new symbolism that suggested the truth that His work would be carried out in the power of the Spirit. The dove like form in which the Spirit then appeared—a form in which He is never manifested in connection with any other person, except the Christ: a form suggestive of tender gentle patience—revealed the truth concerning the character of Jesus; and announced that in keeping with that essential of His nature all His work would be carried forward. Filled with the Spirit, He passed to the wilderness to be tempted of the devil, and in the power of the Spirit He went forth to His ministry, when all the temptation was accomplished. And at the last it was "through the eternal Spirit" He offered Himself without blemish unto God. (Heb. 9:14) And yet we have a declaration that having passed through death, and having ascended to the presence of the Father, He received there from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit.

An explanation of the declaration will be found in a correct apprehension of what is meant by THE PROMISE OF THE SPIRIT. Where, and to whom was the promise made? The whole subject may be considered under the following heads,

1st, the promise of the Spirit fulfilled in His be­stowment upon the ascended Man;

2nd, the Spirit re­ceived by the ascended Man for those whom He repre­sented as Savior;

3rd, the union of God and man resulting.

SEATED IN THE PLACE OF AUTHORITY

SEATED IN THE PLACE OF AUTHORITY

The issue of this is self-evident. The Man of Nazareth in the midst of the throne, occupies the seat of final authority, and therefore constitutes the last court of appeal. There can be no appeal beyond that throne. His word is the universal law, His verdict the irrevocable sen­tence. As in resurrection, God rejected man apart from Christ, so in Christ's enthronement, He receives man in Him. Thus those who are united to Him are already seated in Him in the heavenlies. Forevermore therefore the word of the Church is that which so often occurred in apostolic preaching, "Jesus is Lord." (1 Cor. 12:3) Also proclaimed by the disciples and the Master Himself “Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.” (John 13:13) It is the word of salvation to the individual, the word of reconstruction to society, the word of ultimate deliverance to all the nations. Herein therefore lies the true center of sin, as He Himself said, "of sin, because they believe not on Me." (John 16:9) It is still true of the world at large that:

"Our Lord is now rejected,

And by the world disowned.

By the many still neglected,

And by the few enthroned." (Major Whittle)

Yet He is God-enthroned, and the future of an individual, of society, of a nation is being determined by the relation of each to Him. The Man of Nazareth, ascending on high, led captivity captive, and passed beyond all principal­ities and powers, yea, beyond every name that is named to the very throne of God, and there today He sits, still rejected by men, and  yet being crowned  by thousands who listening to His voice, obey it.

It is impossible to pass from this contemplation of the ascension of Jesus to the center of all government, and to see in Him man's wounded God, without becoming con­scious of a great comfort and of a great strength. The comfort ever comes as we behold on the throne of the Eternal, One Who bears amid the dazzling splendor, marks that tell of His having suffered and died for us men, that He might bring us into union with His unending joy and eternal Love.

Moreover when the work presses, and the battle thickens, and the day seems long in coming, it is good for the heart to remember that the present conflict is with defeated foes, and that there is no room for question as to the final issue, for the Man of Nazareth is not only SEATED IN THE PLACE OF AUTHORITY, He carries forward the work of active administration. This is a fact too often forgotten amid the tur­moil and the strife. High over all the thrones of earth stands that throne of the Eternal, and SEATED on it is THE ASCENDED MAN, watching, ordering, preventing, and through all the apparent chaos, moving surely towards the ultimate triumph of the Infinite Love. He initiates the true poli­cies selects the proper agents, and even when man least understands, moves ever onward.

In the Person of the crowned Man of Nazareth justice acts forevermore in mercy, and mercy moves in unerring justice. Justice acts in mercy by pardoning, purifying, perfecting upon the basis of that Passion, the signs of which are in the evidences of the slaying. Mercy operates in justice by the justification, sanctification, glorification of those who submitting to the Kings receive the blessing of the Savior.

THE CENTRAL PERSONALITY

THE CENTRAL PERSONALITY WITH ALL AUTHORITY

“And Jesus came and spoke unto them, saying, All authority is GIVEN UNTO ME in heaven and in earth.”  Matt. 28:18

The CENTRAL PERSONALITY being that of the ascended Man, is described as a "Lamb as though It had been slain," (Rev. 5:6) and the throne is the symbol of order. That order had been violated through the terrible catastrophe of human sin. There was no possible way for its restoration but the way of the Cross. Jesus of Nazareth having wrought righteousness in life, and atonement in death, and having received the seal of perfect victory, in the miracle of resur­rection, now passes to the very throne of power.

While it is thus seen that the only way to the throne was the way of the Cross, it is at once demonstrated that there could be no issue to the Cross of Christ other than His crowning and the ultimate restoration of the lost order. The ascended Man of Nazareth in the midst of the throne is none other than God the Son, invested in the counsel of the ever-blessed Trinity with all authority (Matt. 28:18), upon the basis of redemption work accomplished, and victory won over all the enemies of the human race.

MAN'S WOUNDED GOD

MAN'S WOUNDED GOD

THE PAIN OF GOD

The title of this article is startling, and needs some ex­planation. In the previous articles has been considered the coming into heaven of God's perfect Man, bearing in His body the marks of His wounding, the evidences of His dying.

Attention still being fixed upon Him, it must be remem­bered that in that glory as ever, two things are true con­cerning Him. First He is God's Man; and secondly, He is man's God.

Apart from Him, man has no perfect understanding of God. In Him man finds the full and final revelation of the Father. It is impossible for men to come; either in understanding or in actual communion, to the Father except through the risen glorified Son.

To state this positively therefore is to declare that man approaching God, does so forevermore, as He has revealed Himself in and through Jesus of Nazareth. Thus the ascended One is man's God.

It is impossible to omit from that ascended and reigning One the wounds He bears. They are part of His Person­ality, and speak of the fulfillment of a PURPOSE which was THE PURPOSE OF GOD, and which was carried out by God in and through Jesus. If the perfect Manhood of Jesus be the perfect unveiling before the eyes of men of the essen­tial glories of God, so the wounded Personality of Jesus is the unveiling before the eyes of men of that wounding of the heart of God, through which His grace was manifested, and wrought its mightiest victory.

In Apocalyptic vision John saw "in the midst of the throne . . . a Lamb as though it had been slain." (Rev. 5:6) The reference is without question to Christ. Two things are manifest, first that He occupies the position of proper Deity. He is in the midst of the throne. Secondly that He retains the evidences of suffering. It is "a Lamb as though it had been slain." This double fact speaks forevermore of the deepest fact that lies be­hind man's redemption. This fact is that of THE PAIN OF GOD.

In the book of Proverbs, the preacher asks,

"The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; But a broken spirit who can bear?” (Prov. 18:14)

Therein is recognition of the fact that while the spirit of a man gives him physical infirmity, the
deepest fact of sorrow possible to man is sorrow of the spirit.

Bearing in mind that illustration taken from the lower realm of human experience, turn now to a passage in the prophecy of Isaiah. "I gave My back to the smiters, and My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I hid not My face from shame and spitting." (Isa. 50:6) Whatever the local and incidental application of these words, there is a general con­sensus of opinion that they are Messianic in their final ap­plication, finding their perfect fulfillment only in the experience of Jesus.

Turning to another passage in the same prophecy, "Surely He hath accepted our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed." (Isa. 53:4-5) The idea that He was smitten of God and stricken of God is not accurate. It is rather the portrayal of One Who in perfect cooperation with God is bearing the smiting and the bruising that comes upon human guilt through the operation of the inexorable law of God. The suffering Servant is seen here as receiving those stripes which will make possible the healing of such as ought to have endured their own penalty. The word to be specially noticed now is the word "smitten." That is the word translated "broken" in the quotation from the Proverbs. While the wounding of the body of Jesus was the outward and visible sign, it was in the wounding of the Spirit that the deepest mystery of His atoning suffering lie. Thus in Jesus, God is revealed, not only in His love, in His holiness, and in His justice; but in His sorrow, and in His pain.

At this point there are strong divergences of opinion. It has been maintained that God is incapable of sorrow, and that it was only in the fact of His Manhood that Jesus suffered in the place of man. Such a conception of God would seem to be utterly unwarranted by the whole revela­tion made of Him in Scripture, and finally in the Person of His Son. If the Man was a revelation of God, surely the Man of sorrows was a revelation of the God of sorrow. This capacity for sorrow is most evidently pre-supposed in the injunction of the apostle, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God." (Eph. 4:30) The word "grieve" here is purely a word in­dicating SORROW. There is no suspicion of anger in it. The injunction does not mean, do not make the Spirit angry. It most certainly means, do not cause Him SOR­ROW. The fact to be established is that or the possibility of sorrow in the consciousness of God. If once this is es­tablished, then a new light shines through the entire book. The final proof of the proposition is most evidently to be found in the simplest statement concerning God, namely, "God is love." (1 John 4:8) Love is the capacity for joy. It is therefore, moreover, the capacity for sorrow. Joy and sorrow are twin sisters. They are so closely related that it is impossible to have capacity for one, without having also capacity for the other. That Jesus was the revelation of God in His marvelous wisdom, in His splendid strength, no one denies. When against tyranny, and oppression, and wrong, His anger flamed, it is at once conceded that the indignation of God was being revealed. Can it then be denied that the tears He shed in presence of the grief of the bereaved sisters, were revelations of the exquisite ten­derness of the heart of the Divine, or have we any right to affirm that when the Man of Nazareth gazed upon beauti­ful Jerusalem the curse alone was the revelation of the Divine will? Were not the tears and the tones of emo­tion in the voice, equally means of manifesting to men the love and the sorrow of the heart of God? It must of course be immediately granted that God can never have any sorrow which is merely that of limitation or that caused by the sense of mystery. His sorrow must forever be that of sympathy, with that which is the result of His entering into the actual experiences of another, and making His own what that other feels. To understand this is to read with new intonation the startling questions that occur in the first book of the Bible. When God cried to Adam "Where art thou," (Gen. 3:9) it was not so much the voice of outraged holiness, speaking in anger, as a violated love, but crying in compassion.

Jesus the wounded is therefore in expression to man, and in the fact of His own Personality, MAN'S WOUNDED GOD. As the God-man on the earth was the Revelation of the Father in all the wondrous facts of His Personality, so the Lamb slain in the midst of the throne is still the Revelation of the Father in the unsullied light of the heavenly places. The harmony between Father and Son is unbroken (John 10:30). In the High Priest, Who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, there exists One Who ex­presses thus the fact of God's consciousness of all human infirmity and all human sorrow.

The risen and ascended God-man, having received His Name, now assumes His place in the economy of God, and the Divine purpose is declared that every knee shall bow, in submission; and every tongue shall confess in acclamation that He is Lord to the glory of God the Father (Isa. 45:23; Rom. 14:11; Phil. 2:10). Thus we may see in Him the order of a new economy as to its central Personality, and as to the nature of its administration.

HIS RECEPTION OF HIS NAME

HIS RECEPTION OF HIS NAME FOR ALL TIME

"the Name which is above every name," Phil. 2:9

Thus ascending, He led CAPTIVITY CAPTIVE (Eph. 4:8), He passed into the presence of God with the defeated foes of the race dragged at His chariot wheels, the Master of sin, the Vanquisher of Satan, the Overcomer of death, the insignia of Whose victory were the wounds that He bore, and the fact that He lived the life taken up after having been laid down in death. For Himself He stood in the PERFECTION OF HIS MANHOOD. For man He stood in the PERFECTION OF HIS SAVIORHOOD.

It is now that He is invested with the Name. In that most awe-inspiring of all passages dealing with His descent and ascent, the apostle declares that God gave unto Him "the Name which is above every name," (Phil. 2:9) and the occasion of the giving of the Name was His exaltation to heaven, after the perfect carrying out of that Divine work of Love which included humiliation and suffering and death.

In the ascension light what Name is this now bestowed upon the all-conquering Man? It is the old Name, full by ineffable music, THE NAME OF JESUS. It is the Name by which His mother first called Him in the innocence of infancy.

It is the Name by which men knew Him in the purity of His boyhood. 

It is the Name by which men called Him in the victory of His Manhood.

It is the Name by which disciples knew Him in the days of His teaching.

It is the Name which men wrote over His Cross in the hour of His dying.

It is the old Name, and yet He had never received it in all fullness until now. 

At His Incarnation the Name was a prophecy. "Thou shalt call His Name JESUS; for it is He that shall save His people from their sins.” (Matt. 1:21) That PROPHETIC NAME He carried through all life's mystery and ministry, the Name that told to those that understood that God's faith was centered in this innocent child, and holy Man. And now having accomplished all, perfected to finality the infinite plan of the Eternal Love, He is invested with the Name which at His birth was prophetic. The issue reached and in the center of the universe of God, the Man of Nazareth is enthroned, and named by the sweet Name that ever speaks of perfect humanity and ever declares the fulfillment of the purpose of salvation. At His birth the Name of Jesus was the proclamation of a Divine purpose. On Ascension Day it was the ratification of a victory, won. He gave Him the Name—JESUS.

THE MYSTERY OF LIFE AND DEATH

THE MYSTERY OF LIFE AND DEATH

Yet that is not the greatest wonder of Ascension Day. It would seem as though one could hear the antiph­onal singing of the heavenly choirs, as this perfect One passes into heaven,

“Lift up your heads, O ye gates;

And be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors:

And the King of glory will come in," (Psa. 24:7)

is the exulting challenge of the angels escorting Him. To this comes back the question, inspired by the passion to hear declared again the story of the victory,

"Who is the King of glory?"

And yet gathering new music and new meaning the surg­ing anthem rolls,

"Jehovah strong and mighty,

Jehovah mighty in battle. . . . He is the King of glory." (Psa. 24:8-10)

Thus the song is also of One who was mighty in battle. Looking upon Him the glorified One, and listening to His words, the wonder grows. In that form all filled with ex­quisite beauty are yet the signs of suffering and of pain. The marks of wounding are in hands, and feet, and side, and His presence declares in His own words,

"I am . . . the Living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore." (Rev. 1:17-18) Ask a Jehovah Witness when their Jehovah died? The answer is impossible for them for it shows their false position concerning Jesus here revealed as Jehovah.

This is indeed a mystery demanding explanation. In the life of the Perfect, there is no reason for death. Death is the wage of sin and apart from sin there is no place for death. Sometimes men declare that death is a necessity, a part of a process. This may be declared, but cannot be demonstrated. THE MYSTERY OF LIFE has eluded all scientific examination, and therefore so also has THE MYSTERY OF DEATH. The reason for death in ordinary human life has never yet been declared. The human frame, according to scientific testimony, reconstructs itself once in every seven years. Why may not this process go on indefinitely? Why is there any necessity for death? The scientists are unable to answer the question. They can do no more than declare what seems to be a necessity from the perpetual recurrence of the experience in the human race.

What science has failed to do, revelation has clearly done. It simply and utterly states that DEATH IS PENALTY FOR SIN. Such is the meaning of the story of Genesis, and such the meaning of the explicit declaration of the apostle, "Through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned." (Rom. 5:12) If then pain be the issue of sin, and death its penalty, why has the Perfect suffered and died? As was seen in the consideration of the transfiguration of Jesus on the Holy mount, His human nature, having passed through all temptation victoriously, was metamorphosed, and might so far as it was concerned, have been received into heaven. Between that crisis and ascension, He has been to the deepest depth of suffering, and through death itself. There can be but one answer to all these questionings. He has wrought a victory for others. The One in Whom death had no place, has died in the place of those who ought to die. Gazing upon the perfections of the ascended Man, the heart is filled with astonishment, and humbled with a great shame, as the light of His glory falls upon the failure of all others. Gazing upon that Perfect One, the "Lamb as it had been slain," realizing that the wounds tell of penalty made manifest, and the words of death vanquished, the heart is filled with unutterable sense of the infinite Love, the lips break out in song,

"Rock of Ages, cleft for me, 

Let me hide myself in Thee.

Let the water and the blood

From Thy riven side which flowed,

Be of sin the double cure,

Cleanse me from its guilt and power." (Toplady)

THE SON AND ABSOLUTE PERFECTION

THE SON AND ABSOLUTE PERFECTION

“Let Us make man in our Image, after Our likeness." Gen. 1:26

The coming of Jesus of Nazareth into heaven was the arrival of such a One as had never before been there. The coming to heaven of Abel was the coming of the first human being, and so far as it is competent to measure the interest of heaven by earthly interest in the things of God, it may be reverently declared that it was a great occasion when this first soul representing a new race, and, more marvelous still, representing a fallen race, appeared in the unsullied light of the home of the unfallen. He came by faith, ransomed by love, at the cost of sacrifice. As the Scripture declares that "the angels desire to look into" (1 Peter 1:12) these things, this must indeed have been a mystery of life and love demanding their close attention, and not per­haps, even fathomed by them, until the explanation of the mystery of sacrifice enfolded in the more inspiring mystery of love, was wrought out upon the Cross of Calvary. It is more than probable that Abel, and all who succeeded him, had to wait the fullness of the earthly time for the explanation of the method of their acceptance with God. They passed into the dwelling-place of Infinite Love, upon the basis of their faith in God, so far as they were concerned. In the Divine economy they were received upon the basis of God's faith in His Son. The Father trusted the Son to accomplish His purpose in the fullness of time, and upon the foundation of that confidence of God in Himself, the sinner was admitted to heaven.

On Ascension Day something still more marvelous occurred. The Man of Nazareth, the First of the new race, the last Adam, passed into the Divine presence in the right of His own perfect humanity. In His coming, He asked for no mercy. No mediator opened the door of heaven for Him. He proceeded along the line of the outworking of the infinite order to consummation, basing His claim to reception upon the even and inexorable justice of God. He passed from earth to heaven, and stood unafraid in the white light of the Eternal Purity. In all the record of the race there has been no other like unto this Jesus of Nazareth.

The greatest of Old Testament characters are seen overshadowed by their own sin and failure and the men of the New have no claim or merit, except that which is  imputed to them, and out wrought through them, by  the Spirit as He reveals to their understanding, and realizes in their character, the perfections of the Christ. Jesus stands in heaven, having perfectly realized the original thought of God which found expression in the first covenant of creation, “Let Us make man in our Image, after Our likeness." (Gen. 1:26) Both in character and in conduct do men learn the meaning of that Divine thought as they know the Man of Nazareth.

Perhaps the most inspirational description of perfect character is that which Paul uses in writing to Timothy, when he says "God gave us . . . a spirit . . . of power and love and discipline." (2 Tim. 1:7) This exactly describes the character of Christ—the spirit of POWER, the spirit of LOVE, the spirit of DISCIPLINE. It should be noted here that discipline does not signify self-control, so much as power of ruling others. It is the spirit of order, of authority. This indeed is PERFECTION OF CHARACTER. Out of this sprung His PERFECTION OF CONDUCT. The whole conduct of His life was the outward expression of this perfect character whether at the feast, or the funeral; whether with the scholars, or the simple; whether with the adults, or the children; whether in loneliness on the mountain height, or amid the crowds that surged around Him, He was forever acting in response to the impulse of the spirit of POWER, the spirit of LOVE, and the spirit of DISCIPLINE. At last this Man Whose creed was TRUTH, Whose character was TRUE, and Whose conduct was TRIUMPHANT, was received into heaven upon the basis of His own ABSOLUTE PERFECTION.