NEW RELATIONSHIPS

NEW RELATIONSHIPS

 "searches all things, yea the deep things of God" 1 Cor. 2:10

Confining the attention exclusively for the moment to the new union as seen in the Man  Jesus, it is evident that now God has moved into a new relationship with fallen man, and man is lifted in spite of his fall into new relation with God in the Person of Jesus. Jesus the unfallen is yet Jesus, Who has kept the final issues, resulting from the fall. His reception of the Spirit is therefore a representative fact declaring forevermore that in spite of sin, a way has been made back to fellowship with God. Such relation had never been nor could be, apart from this great fact. The Holy Spirit Who knows the mind of God, Who "searches all things, yea the deep things of God" (1 Cor. 2:10) Who is the Spirit of life forever proceeding from the Father, is now vested in the Man of Nazareth, and through Him, is at the disposal of all such as submit to His Lordship. The Spirit of God Who had been grieved from humanity, and prevented operating in the human heart, as to the knowledge of God and the life of God, and the power of God, is now through this perfect Man, in Whom was no sin, yet in Whom is resident the moral value of cancelled sin at the disposal of the rebel­lious also. THE ASCENDED CHRIST HAS NOW BECOME THE NEW CENTER OF A NEW RACE. Henceforth the Spirit will plead with man the cause of Christ, demonstrating the fact that sin consists in rejection of Him, declaring the evangel that righteousness is possible because He has ascended to the Father, and denouncing forever the ultimate doom of evil, because the "prince of this world hath been judged." (John 16:11)

Having received this promise of the Father, the ascended Lord poured out upon the waiting disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit, and so the promise fulfilled to Christ, is ful­filled to those who have put their trust in Him, and herein is revealed the explanation of all the careful statements of His own discourses on the Paraclete. The Father has sent the Spirit, because He has bestowed Him on the Man that represents the fallen race. The Son has sent the Spirit, having received Him from the Father.

One brief glance at the fact on earth will serve to com­plete the present article, and prepare for those that remain. In the upper room at Jerusalem, a company of waiting souls received the gift of the Holy Spirit, not in answer to their prayer but in answer to the prevailing prayer in high heaven of the ascended Man of Nazareth. Peter made that point in his sermon in Acts to prove He had arrived in heaven fully explaining the question they asked at Pentecost concerning what they were seeing and hearing. (Acts 2:12, 33) The Holy Spirit falling upon them took up His abode in them, coming to them from the crucified, risen, and ascended Lord. In the Person of Jesus the point of union between man and God has been found. Jesus is glorified by God in exalta­tion to the throne of power. Jesus is glorified by man in his submission to Him as enthroned.

The Spirit indwelling man administers all the values of the finished work of Jesus.

This means that the men so indwelt, are by that Spirit Who administers the values, made one with the risen Christ. His life is their life as to its nature, for His life won out of death, risen ascended and yet to be manifested; as to its expression, for it is life interested in the things of God and devoted in its powers to the accomplishment of Divine purposes; as to its whole for henceforth for them also the one and only rule of life will, be the good and perfect and acceptable will of God.

And yet again, the Spirit's indwelling initiates a process of growth into perfect likeness to Christ by the subjugation of the whole man spirit soul and body to the new life imparted in this miracle of regeneration. (Jude 24) Thus the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost is the demonstration of the fact that the stupendous work to which God set Himself according to His wisdom and His might in the Person and mission of Christ has been fully accomplished. It now remains to consider how Christ answers the call of man in all its deepest meaning.

RIGHTEOUS DEMANDS TO BE MEDIATED

RIGHTEOUS DEMANDS TO BE MEDIATED

Having clearly seen that this bestowment of the Spirit was not for Himself, it becomes perfectly evident that it was a bestowment for such as were represented by that infinite work accomplished through His death and resurrection. The act of His death makes RIGHTEOUS DEMANDS upon God, which, God answering Jesus receives for bestowment that which He Himself already had pos­sessed for personal life and victory. His death having been accomplished for sinners, the Spirit is now bestowed for them also. What symbols or figures of speech are equal to helping men to understand this solemn and won­drous transaction? Reverently conscious of the inadequacy of all figures of speech, it may be said that God placed the Spirit at the disposal of Christ, that He might bestow Him upon all SUCH AS TRUSTING IN JESUS have counted to them the value of His death upon the Cross. Having accom­plished that Mediatorial work through which man may in the value of His death be brought back to God, He now commences that MEDIATORIAL WORK through which God the Holy Spirit may come back into relation with man for the administration of the virtue of His life.

THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER

THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER

 "I will pray the Father…and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth: Whom the world cannot receive.” John 14:16-17

In the final charges delivered to the apostles, Christ distinctly commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but "to wait for the promise of the Father." (Acts 1:4) Here is the same thought, uttered by the Lord Himself, and here also He distinctly tells them when the promise was made, "which, said He, ye heard from Me." Thus it is evident that we are approaching an explanation of this statement. Christ had promised the Spirit, and He had done that in the name of the Father, for Whom He ever spake to men. Is there no definite account of His having made such a promise? Most assuredly there is an account, which is not only definite, but also detailed, and it is to be found in the Paschal discourses, which are recorded by John alone. "I will pray the Father…and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth: Whom the world cannot receive.” (John 14:16-17) “But the Comforter even the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name." (John 14:26) "When the Comforter is come, Whom I will send unto you from the Father." (John 15:26) Thus in view of His approaching Cross, and in preparation of His disciples for the days when He in bodily form should be no more with them, He declared that in answer to His prayer, and in His Name, the Father would send them another Comforter, the Holy Spirit. Nothing is more evident in reading these discourses than the quiet majestic confidence of Christ. "I will enquire of the Father." “He will send you." “The Father will send in My name." "I will send you from the Father." That is the promise of the Father, and when the One Who made the promise to the band of disciples, ascended into heaven, the Father recognized the prevailing plea of His presence there gave Him the Spirit that He might fulfill the promise to the waiting men upon the earth.

It is evident therefore that His reception of the Spirit was, as has been shown, not for Himself but for others. This however will be dealt with more fully subsequently. It would be sufficient to leave the statement at this point and yet that phrase “the promise of the Father" has more in it than is indicated by this answer. As the whole of the Old Testament economy had culminated in Christ, and as in His teaching He had fulfilled all that was symbolized and suggested in that economy, so His uttering of the promise of the Father concerning the Spirit was the ex­planation of a constant message, through the previous centuries, concerning A NEW DISPENSATION OF POWER. The seers and the prophets of the past all saw and spoke of a day full of light, full of force, a day of restoration that was yet to come. Through these prophets the Father had promised the Holy Spirit to men in larger, fuller measure than had ever been experienced. In the midst of the darkness that characterized the age in which these men of old had spoken, they had looked on towards the suffering Servant, Who was yet to be the all-conquering Deliverer, and stretching away beyond His day of suffering, they caught the light and glory of the dispensation of the Spirit.

One or two illustrations will suffice.

Isaiah, in lofty and terrible language is announcing the coming of judgment. He tells of woe and of desolation, and ends with a paragraph pulsating with hope, which be­gins with the words "until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest." (Isa. 32:15) Here the prophet, telling the message of Jehovah, promises the Spirit.

And yet again the same prophet, "I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and streams upon the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thine offspring: and they shall spring up among the grass, as willows by the watercourses. One shall say, I am Je­hovah's; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto Jehovah, and surname himself by the name of Israel," (Isa. 44:3-5) again an inspired promise of the Spirit.

There remains the most radiant and remarkable fore­telling of the Spirit's dispensation, which Peter quoted on the day of Pentecost itself. “I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My Spirit. And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of Jehovah cometh. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of Jehovah shall be delivered." (Joel 2:28-32) This is a pre-tribulational prophecy. Thus it is seen that the men who kept alive in the heart of the nation this spiritual hope, were men who served, and spoke in the hope of the coming of a new day, which should be a day of the poured out Spirit of God. Thus the promise which Jesus made in the Paschal discourses was the repetition of the promise made to the fathers by the prophets, by the One Who now not only promised, but was working towards the mighty consummation, which should consist in fulfillment.

In order to catch a true perspective, let this argument now be summarized. God, through the prophets in the past had promised the Holy Spirit to men, both Jew and Gentile. The Jews in their unbelief are yet to receive that promise. Belief in Christ brings that promise and one day they shall. The heroic souls hearing and seeing, declared to their age the gracious announcement, and yet passed away without seeing the day of which they spoke. In fullness of time the Messiah came. He accomplished the will of God, and at last, passing into the presence of God, claimed as the inevitable issue of His victory, the fulfillment of the Divine promise, made to, and through the prophets, and finally uttered by His own lips. In answer to that claim, God acting at once to Love and justice gave Him the Spirit. Through Him the dreams of the prophets moved into the realm of deeds.

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.