Collected

Writings of J.N.

Darby

Expository 4

By John Nelson Darby

B&P

Bibles & Publications

5706 Monkland, Montréal, Québec H4A 1E6

BTP #nnnn

BibleTruthPublishers.com

59 Industrial Road, Addison, IL 60101, U.S.A.

BTP# 15250

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

Contents

Compared View of the First ree Gospels: Matthew,

Mark & Luke .........................................................8

Notes on Luke 1 ............................................................44

Notes on Luke 2 ............................................................49

Notes on Luke 3 ............................................................57

Notes on Luke 4 ............................................................65

Notes on Luke 5 ............................................................74

Notes on Luke 6 ............................................................84

Notes on Luke 7 ............................................................96

Notes on Luke 8 .......................................................... 102

Notes on Luke 9 .......................................................... 117

Notes on Luke 10 ........................................................143

Notes on Luke 11 ........................................................154

Notes on Luke 12 ........................................................163

Notes on Luke 13 ........................................................171

Notes on Luke 14 ........................................................180

Notes on Luke 15-16 ..................................................192

Notes on Luke 17 ........................................................205

Notes on Luke 18 ........................................................214

Notes on Luke 19 ........................................................221

Notes on Luke 20 ........................................................228

Notes on Luke 21 ........................................................233

Notes on Luke 22 ........................................................238

Notes on Luke 23 ........................................................245

Notes on Luke 24 ........................................................253

On the Gospel of Luke ...............................................261

On the Gospel According to John ...............................309

Meditations on the Acts of the Apostles .....................441

Meditations on Acts 1 .................................................445

Meditations on Acts 2 .................................................451

Meditations on Acts 3 .................................................456

Meditations on Acts 4 .................................................463

Meditations on Acts 5 .................................................470

Meditations on Acts 6-7 .............................................476

Meditations on Acts 8 .................................................483

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

Meditations on Acts 9 .................................................488

Meditations on Acts 10 ...............................................498

Meditations on Acts 11 ...............................................503

Meditations on Acts 12 ...............................................509

Meditations on Acts 13 ...............................................514

Meditations on Acts 14 ...............................................522

Meditations on Acts 15 ...............................................528

Meditations on Acts 16 ...............................................536

Meditations on Acts 17 ...............................................551

Meditations on Acts 18 ...............................................562

Meditations on Acts 19 ...............................................568

Meditations on Acts 20 ...............................................577

Meditations on Acts 21 ...............................................595

Meditations on Acts 22 ...............................................603

Meditations on Acts 23 ...............................................608

Meditations on Acts 24 ...............................................612

Meditations on Acts 25 ...............................................614

Meditations on Acts 26 ...............................................616

Meditations on Acts 27 ...............................................621

Meditations on Acts 28 ...............................................626

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

62884

Compared View of the First

ree Gospels: Matthew,

Mark & Luke

Part 2.

I now turn to Luke. It is remarkable how this Gospel

brings out the moral condition of things in their various

phases, and rst of Israel in the days in which the Lord

came. We have rst the whole status of Judaism most clearly

and graphically presented. In the body of the Gospel Luke

gives us in general the Son of man, and the great moral

principles of relationship between man and God. But for

this reason, before this begins, he pictures to us very fully

the state of Judaism by itself, and all the blessings which

remained to the faithful in it: Herod (an Edomite) king

of Judea — the Jewish service going on in Davidical order;

angels, ministers of God, His messengers to a godly priest,

prophecy, and more than prophecy brought in according to

promise; the house of David entering on the scene, but in

poverty and low estate. Note, the explanation of the name

of “Jesus,” as saving His people, is not given, but He is the

Son of the Highest. At the same time, He will have the

throne of His father David. Next, as Haggai said, the Spirit

remains among them, and acts in holy men and women

according to ancient Jewish witness, such as Hannah in the

desolations of Israel. Jewish hopes are prophetically sealed

of God by prophecy (Luke 1:67-79).

e Jews, at the same time, are under the dominion of

the Gentiles, successors to those to whom Jerusalem had

Compared View of the F irst ree Gospels: Matthew, Mark & L uke

been delivered. ey are disposed of at their will. Still the

promise is sure, and its accomplishment announced by an

angel to the poor of the ock. e heavens see further into

this grace; there is goodwill toward, more exactly, God’s

good pleasure in, men. But the Jewish order is still there;

the faithful accomplish the ordinances of the law, but they

await with desire the fulllment of the promise, and see it

in Jesus. ey know each other as a remnant. Anna spake

of Him to all them who waited for redemption in Israel.

Yet prophecy in the remnant sees well the place the new-

born child is to hold in Israel. He is for the fall and for the

rising again of many. Such is the scene presented in the

rst two chapters of Luke, and of which the other Gospels

say nothing, while this is silent on all the royal question

and Herod’s eort to destroy Christ, Jesus coming up

out of Egypt, the coming of the Gentiles to Israel’s King,

all which referred to God’s dealings with Israel. Further,

Christ is a real man; grows bodily and mentally, and in

favor with God and man, in His gracious ways. But, child

or not, His person was not changed. He depended on no

outward mission to have it. At twelve years old, full of

the power of His relationship, He is, with comely tness

and marvelous competency, occupied with His Father’s

business, yet returns into the human child’s obedient place.

After that comes the service. In the third chapter

we enter on what is common to this Gospel and that of

Matthew, but the form is very dierent. John’s preaching,

in Matthew, is repentance for the kingdom; in Luke, for

the remission of sins. One feels the dierence: one is

dispensational, the other moral. So in Luke: “All esh shall

see the salvation of God” (Luke 3:6). It is not merely the

Pharisees and Sadducees, but the multitude, who are a

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

generation of vipers. So he gives the practically moral test

to each class that comes to him. e result as to John, at

least his imprisonment, is given at once. Christ is owned

Son of God by the Father, and the Holy Spirit comes on

Him. Here this part of the Gospel closes, and the Lord’s

genealogy comes in, not connected with these Jewish

scenes and the promises of Abraham’s and David’s, but

traced up to Adam, Son of God; introducing the great and,

to us, all-important character of Son of man.

is makes us easily understand the reason why the

genealogy is placed here, and the distinctive character of

what precedes it. e whole Jewish condition is there, as we

have seen, brought out with one little inlet into heaven, on

Jesus coming into the world; and now we have His place as

Son of man, One who, as representative of man according

to divine perfection and counsels, is come to begin the

new thing, and become the center of the new creation.

Only for that His death was needed for God’s glory and

our salvation. (Compare John 12:23-24.) But in His own

moral perfectness we have the new thing.

e moment His being Son of man, descended according

to the esh from Adam, has been shown, He is led to be

put to the test by the enemy who had deceived the rst

Adam (Luke 4). is scene we have had as a fact in Mark,

and detailed in Matthew, with this dierence, that there it

is given in historical, and, I may add, dispensational order;

here in moral, the scriptural temptation by the Scriptures

coming last. Hence Luke omits the sending away of Satan

after the oer of the world and Satan’s proposal that He

should worship him. After this, the moral power of work

and victory in obedience is noted in His returning in

the power of the Spirit into Galilee. None of that power

Compared View of the F irst ree Gospels: Matthew, Mark & L uke

was lost; indeed, Christ not having failed in subjective

obedience, the strong man was bound. Hence the rst thing

is not, as in Matthew, the manifestation of power, and then

(attention being attracted) the description of the character

suited to the kingdom; but the presentation of Himself in

grace, the Spirit of the Lord being upon Him, He being

therefore man. e gracious words told in their hearts; but

in His own country He was, for them, Joseph’s son — such

is the place of the Lord from heaven, the Son of man (last

Adam) presented in grace to men and to Israel. Christ had

already preached and acted in Capernaum: but the Spirit

of God we see thus formally presents Him in Luke. And

the Lord shows, that coming in sovereign grace sent from

God, there was no limitation to Israel, as Elias went to

Sarepta, and Naaman, the Syrian, was healed; while in

either case many in Israel are left aside. Hence unbridled

rage in His Jewish audience; but He was not subject to its

power. is is all peculiar to Luke.

With the exception of displacing the calling of Andrew

and Simon, as we shall see, Luke now follows the same

order as Mark. First, His power over the enemy is shown

(Luke 4:33-37); next, over diseases, and all that sin had

brought in. is is the power He had in the world as having

bound the strong man — He could spoil all his goods, work

an entire deliverance of man from Satan’s power, and all

its consequences in this world. But He seeks no witness

to Himself, does not allow the devils to speak, and retires

from the gaze and throng of men when His miracles had

drawn their attention. He goes rst into the desert, and

then, when they would stay Him, pursues His work. is

characterizes His presence in the world.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

e Lord now begins to gather round Himself (Luke

5). In Matthew, this gathering round Himself is brought in

immediately. He appears as the Light in Galilee, according

to promise, preaching the kingdom; and then He goes

round everywhere; and, when crowds follow Him, explains

the character suited to the kingdom. Here, His mission and

power as Son of man on the earth being shown, He, though

retiring from view, begins then to gather to Himself. It will

be remarked, that we have a much fuller development of

the way in which the disciples are called to follow Him

in Luke. Simon hears the word in his ship. Christ works

a miracle which reveals His person; the eect is just and

deep conviction of sin in connection with that person. en

they leave all and follow Him. It is, I apprehend, Luke

who changes the place of this. In that which immediately

follows, he takes the same order as Mark. In Matthew we

have the whole of this arranged according to subjects.

What characterizes these facts in Luke is their being

presented as the various displays of power in grace.

First, Jesus heals that which Jehovah alone healed, the

gure of sin as disease and delement, which excluded

from Jehovah’s presence, and from communion with His

people. He cleanses them from delement. He charges

the cleansed men to tell no man, but it is noised abroad.

He heals all who come, but retires into the wilderness and

prays. ere is power and grace, but it is the Son of man.

Next, doctors of the law and Pharisees were then there, and

(an expression so fully showing the situation) the power

of the Lord (of Jehovah) was present to heal them. Faith

brings the paralytic man; Jesus goes to the root of all evil in

Israel (and everywhere), but here especially deals with it in

respect of the government of God, and pardons the man’s

Compared View of the F irst ree Gospels: Matthew, Mark & L uke

sins — Jesus brings forgiveness. e word is, “e Son of

man hath power on earth to forgive” (Luke 5:24). Yet it

was the Jehovah of Psalm103. Here “so seen in Israel” is

omitted. Next, we nd grace receiving the vile. He came

to call sinners as a physician for their need. Grace was

thus shown in the midst of Israel, but on principles which

went necessarily beyond it. Jesus receives sinners in grace,

making all new. ese cases, indeed, are common to the

Gospels, whatever the order may be, and prominent in them

as stamping a plain character on Christ’s mission. Only

Matthew, introduces the centurion’s case where he places

it, as especially showing the bearing of the state of things

on the extension of grace to the Gentiles. e fact that,

though in connection with Israel, the presence of the Lord

and the principles here brought into view went necessarily

farther, and could not be conned to the Jews denitely, is

brought out in the question as to John’s disciples, and the

new wine and old bottles, and so forth; the vessels must

be new for the new power. But Luke adds here a moral

principle not noticed in the other two Gospels; that human

nature will like the old thing best.

is subject is pursued (Luke 6) in two remarkable

cases as to the Sabbath, the keystone of Jewish ordinances:

the case of David eating the showbread — the Son of man

is Lord of the Sabbath; and the healing of the withered

hand — divine goodness rises above ordinances. Luke gives

the facts more briey than Mark. Matthew puts them

much farther on in the history, where they are connected

with the rejection of Israel. e rst of these cases presents

the position of the rejected King whose need was above

ordinances, and whose condition really abrogated them;

adding that, as Son of man, consequently, He was Lord of

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

the Sabbath. e second is the title of grace to rise above

them. For grace is of God.

Next, we nd the nomination of the apostles. After the

Lord’s personal position and character had been brought

out, this nds a natural place. He selects His instruments.

is still follows the same order as Mark; who, after a

general statement of the position of Jesus, continues his

account with the same event. Matthew has not this choice

of the twelve. He continues his full account of Jesus’ mission

in the midst of Israel till He sends them out to continue it.

In Luke we nd again here the dependent character of the

Son of man. He is all night in prayer before He chooses

the twelve. Here comes in the sermon on the mountain

in its place; and we have clear evidence of the intended

omission by the Holy Spirit of this choice of the twelve

in Matthew, for as a man he must have known it, for he

was one of the twelve. We have seen Matthew bringing in

the sermon on the mount much earlier, as the principles

of the kingdom. In Luke 6:17 it should not be “the plain,”

but “a level place” — still on the mountain. Luke gives the

substance of the sermon in its great moral principles. His

power, note, was shown in the multitude (vss. 17-19). e

Lord addresses Himself in Luke to His disciples, as being

themselves in the place He speaks of, instead of stating

the abstract principle. e woes too are added. It is an

address to the heart and conscience of the person present.

He weaves in too, as verses 39-40, other general principles

connected with the precepts He is giving.

So verses 44-45. Here we have left Mark, who does

not give the sermon on the mount. He gives the choice

of the apostles, and then passes on to the full blasphemy

of the Pharisees, and Jesus’ refusal to listen to His mother,

Compared View of the F irst ree Gospels: Matthew, Mark & L uke

preceding the parables from the ship, as in Matthew. 12

and 13. But the order in Luke, in this particular case, helps

us, as it does in Matthew, to identify the sermon on the

mount in the two Gospels.

From the mountain He enters into Capernaum, and

heals the centurion’s servant. Here Christ’s divine title

and power is shown; but he does not use it to show the

rejection of Israel, and the reception of the Gentiles as

in Matthew. e widow of Nain, again, shows the divine

power and compassion of Jesus in the place of death and

sorrow; this circumstance is peculiar to Luke. In Matthew

8 the leper, and the healing of Peter’s wife’s mother, are

introduced respectively before and after the centurion’s

servant, without reference to the order of time. After

this, the relative positions of John and Christ are brought

forward; which is not in Mark, and is much later in

Matthew. I apprehend its historical place is here. In Luke

we have the moral eect of both inquired into. e people

and publicans justied Christ, having humbled themselves

under John’s baptism; the Pharisees not, having refused to

do so. Matthew introduces here Jesus thanking the Father

for His way of dealing with the wise and with babes, and

the real reason of the change taking place; taking it again,

I apprehend, out of its historical order to complete the

picture of that change furnished by John’s position and

message. is justifying of wisdom by her children is then

illustrated by the woman who was a sinner, in contrast with

Simon the Pharisee.

is deep-reaching moral picture is in Luke only, as are

also the few words which follow (Luke 8); which cast so

clear a light on the Lord’s life; and give the double character

of devotedness — that of the apostles, and of the women

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

who followed Him. One of the parables of Matthew 13

is then given, that is, the present service in the word, and

responsibility of man, his duty to maintain the light. e case

of Jesus’ mother and brethren is then introduced in Luke,

as showing Christ’s value for those who kept His word,

and not as a witness of His breaking His ties with Israel

in the esh. None of the parables relative to the kingdom

are spoken of. Here we return to the historical order which

is in Mark until the feeding of the ve thousand inclusive;

that is, the history of Legion, Jairus’ daughter, the sending

out of the twelve, and the feeding of the multitude. As

regards Legion, the dierence is remarkable. In Matthew

we have the display of Satan’s power, as it would afterward

work in the Jews, and the request for Jesus’ departure; not

any detail as to the poor man that was healed. In Luke, as

in Mark, we have the details of the eects on him: — the

Lord’s real work in grace in the matter. In the case of Jairus

and the woman with the issue of blood, the same brevity

may be remarked in Matthew.

In Luke all the moral circumstances are much more

brought out in detail, as indeed in Mark also. What is

shown in Luke especially is grace, divine power acting in

the kindness and goodness of a Man lled with charity.

It is not, as in John, a divine person so much as a divine

character; and that in the perfect sympathy of a Man. What

shows this (as the case of the widow of Nain, Simon and

the woman that was a sinner) is constantly found in Luke

and not in the other Gospels. It is grace in and towards

man.

On the other hand (ch. 9), the mission of the twelve,

which comes in its place here, is given much more briey,

and with no special reference to Israel; nor the elaborate

Compared View of the F irst ree Gospels: Matthew, Mark & L uke

unfolding of the place which testimony would have among

the people until Christ’s return, which is found in Matthew.

We have the fact: they are to preach the kingdom of God

and heal the sick, and to go free from care and dependent

on Himself. It is the same mission, but in its simple actual

character. e eect on Herod is here introduced. Luke

gives no account of John the Baptist’s death. ere is a short

allusion to his imprisonment (Luke 3:19), when John’s

preaching is spoken of; but this part of Israel’s sin formed

no part of his subject. Otherwise the same order as Mark’s

is still followed here. On the return of the twelve, the Lord

goes into a desert place, is followed, and heals those who

have need of healing. In these miracles, necessary to relate

as great witnesses to Christ’s power, Luke gives but the fact

briey, and, as so given, having more power in that respect.

e connection of it with Israel, and His dismissal of the

people, and taking Himself another position while His

disciples were toiling alone, are all omitted. In Matthew

and Mark, the closing circumstances of this miracle lead

to a series of events and incidents, which refer all of them

to Christ’s special relationship with the Jews, the moral

position of these, and God’s estimate of them; all of which

are omitted in Luke (Matt. 14:22 to 16:12; Mark 6:47 to

8:26).

All three Gospels then come to Peter’s confession of

Christ and the transguration. Only in Luke the common

opinions as to Christ connect themselves more directly with

Herod’s, and what is there said. For Luke 9:18 is directly

connected with chapter 10, and that with what precedes.

Still the transguration is a great central event in all, and

that connected with the confession of Peter. In all the

rejection of Christ and the taking up the cross are founded

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

on Peter’s owning Him to be the Christ, and precede

the revelation of His glory. ere are some dierences

to be noted. Matthew recounts Christ’s instruction as to

the church, which was to take the place for the present

of His Messiah glory; and the place Peter was to hold in

the administration of the kingdom. Here also in Luke the

matter is simply stated in its own moral force; and the

details of Peter’s dislike to the cross, and the Lord’s rebuke,

are omitted. e character of what they are about to see is

also more simply stated.

In Matthew, for whom the change from Messiah to

Son of man is a main point, and the future coming of

Christ in this character (see Matt. 24:30), the expression

used in connection with this display of His glory is the Son

of man coming in His kingdom. In Mark, where service in

the word forms the subject, it is the kingdom of God come

with power. In Luke it is simply till they see the kingdom

of God. ere is a dierence also in the details. e moral

circumstances again appear in Luke. e disciples are

asleep. e Lord is speaking of His decease. It is the entry

of Moses and Elias

into the cloud that alarmed them. All

the ensuing conversation relative to John’s being Elias, of

which Matthew and Mark speak, is not found in Luke’s

account; but he returns after the casting out of a devil to

the doctrine of the cross (vss. 44-45). And further, in the

rest of this chapter, in Luke 9, we have all the forms which

self takes, and which it would excuse and justify from

the grossest to the most subtle; and the claim of Christ

and the service of grace in the kingdom is shown to be

paramount to everything. Two of the circumstances are

1 It rather appears that the second “they” refers to Moses and

Elias, though it is not absolutely certain.

Compared View of the F irst ree Gospels: Matthew, Mark & L uke

given in Matthew and Mark; the second, that of the little

child, as an example, with a large addition of instruction

as to oenses; and with the addition, in Matthew, of the

position which the church takes, as in the place of Israel

in respect of oenses. is passes o in Matthew to other

questions relative to the Jews.

We then nd in Luke a mission not noticed in the other

Gospels, that of the seventy (Luke 10). It is in principle the

same as that of the twelve, only more urgent, but there is

no limit as in Matthew 10. ose that rejected them were

to be equally sure that the kingdom of God had come nigh

to them. Such was essentially the message, with proofs of

the power of Him that sent it. From this onwards to the

commencement of the closing scene (Luke 18:31), what

we read in Luke is either not in Matthew and Mark, or is

here connected with other subjects than the historical ones

found in those Gospels; and the various circumstances are

introduced in their moral connection. On the return of

the seventy the great moral connection of the gospel with

eternal hopes comes out. e power of Christ’s name over

the demons brings to Christ’s mind the nal overthrow of

Satan. Still the subject of joy for them was not that they

could cast out devils, but that they belonged themselves

to heaven — their names were registered there. is gave

a very clear and denite character to the Gospel. It is in

this connection that the hiding these things from wise

and prudent, and revealing them to babes, is introduced

here; not in connection with the rejection of John Baptist

and Christ, and the total change in God’s dealings with

man taking place, as in Matthew 11. Hence it is added

here, that the Lord turned to the disciples to remark their

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

blessedness, for these things were brought to their eyes. It

is the blessing of the heavenly people which is before us.

What follows is in Luke alone. After the essence of the

statement of the law, the Lord shows to him who would

justify himself by a cavil on the terms, that grace, the new

and blessed principle of God’s dealings, makes us, by its

own nature, the neighbor of every one that has need, and

obliterates, by its divine nature, the divisions formed by

ordinance which work no grace, but, with the heart such as

it is, tend to nourish pride by distinguishing him to whom

they belong. e bearing of this instruction, and its deep

moral character, are evident.

Next, we learn the value of hearing the word — in

contrast with cares — and that of prayer, its character and

success (ch. 1). We have then the nal hardness of the

Pharisee shown, and the way in which Satan possesses the

heart void of God, though it seem reformed; but without

application to Israel’s nal state, as in Matthew. e Lord

turns, on one speaking of the value of natural ties with

Him, to the word; that God owned those who heard and

kept it, as the only true tie — the Ninevites and Queen of

Sheba, as owning the word from feebler lips than He who

was there, would condemn that generation. We have then

the judgment of the moral state of the Pharisees, but not

here connected with the nal judgment of Jerusalem, and

the connection of the disciples with Israel, as in Matthew.

Still the Lord shows, that all the blood shed would be

required of them, as in Matthew.

We have then a general warning as to their principles,

and those on which the disciples were to act, taken, partly

from a private warning to His disciples, partly from His

instruction to the twelve when He sent them out, partly

Compared View of the F irst ree Gospels: Matthew, Mark & L uke

from His statement as to the blasphemy against the Holy

Spirit: but this is here employed to encourage the disciples

in acting on the principles of the upright testimony He

had spoken to them of; showing that the Holy Spirit who

was spoken against, spoke in them, and would tell them

what to say (ch. 12).

As the Lord had urged on His disciples, faithfulness,

uprightness, and boldness in testimony, so now He goes

on to press on them disinterestedness and absence of all

carefulness. is, however, is introduced by one who looked

to Him to order things rightly on earth. is He entirely

disclaims, and turns to the multitude to press on them

the folly of having their portion here, which death in a

moment could snatch away. With His disciples He presses

another motive, namely, their preciousness in the Father’s

eyes. Here some of the instructions of the sermon on the

mount come in.

But the Lord goes on to urge another motive, giving

an additional character to their devotedness. Not only it

was the Father’s good pleasure to give them the kingdom,

so that they might well trust Him for all things: but He

Himself was coming again. Christians were to be as those

that waited for Him. He gives the beautiful picture of His

love making them happy in glory, girding Himself and

coming forth to serve them; till then they must watch with

girded loins. e dierence of the faithful and unfaithful

professing servants is then brought out. One cannot but

feel, in all this and what follows, even though parts of

what is recorded are found in Matthew and Mark, that we

are in a wide sphere of moral instruction not entered on

elsewhere: and that all this is given with a moral purpose,

not in reference to historical order. He is in Israel, but

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

developing great principles which cannot be conned to

Israel.

In what immediately follows, He shows that they must

bow to the truth or be judged. He came in grace, and the

power of divine love: but there was nothing to answer it.

His death would open the ood-gates of this love to the

chief of sinners, not wait till there was righteousness enough

to receive it. But while this love was in Himself, He was

straitened in its display and revelation, till this baptism of

death was accomplished. is love, this incoming of God,

would raise all the enmity of the human heart. It is not as

Prince of peace that His power would be shown. Not only

so, but, by the present manifestation of the grace, though

straitened, the re it would light was already kindled.

e Jews ought to have discerned this time. Looked at,

naturally, as under the law, they did not become reconciled

on the way; they would go to prison till all was paid.

Personally, if they did not repent, they would all perish,

like those slain by Pilate at Jerusalem, whom they thought

special objects of judgment (Luke 13). is instruction is

closed by the parable of the g-tree in the garden, spared by

the intercession of the gardener, that is, for the painstaking

service of Christ; then, if fruitless, to be cut down. It only

spoiled the garden. In all this, and what follows, we have

the judgment of the present state of Jerusalem and the

people, in connection with the Lord’s presence. Meanwhile,

He asserts, while showing their hypocrisy, His right to

minister in grace, in divine power, blessing to Israel, in

opposition to their legal ignorance of and absence from

God. e urgency of the acceptance of this ministry is

then pressed. He was going through the cities and villages

teaching, and presses the entrance at the strait gate; for the

Compared View of the F irst ree Gospels: Matthew, Mark & L uke

time would come when they would seek to take credit from

His having been among them, He would in glory reject

them, and they would see Gentiles with Abraham and the

fathers, and themselves thrust out. Finally, on the Pharisees

urging Herod’s evil intentions, He shows that Jerusalem

must ll up its guilt in rejecting Him, the Jehovah who

would ever have gathered her children, and now mourned

in tender grace over her who was henceforth to be desolate,

till, according to Psalm 118, she saluted Him who came in

the name of the Lord.

In Luke 14 the Lord, on occasion of a dinner in the

Pharisee’s house, continues His instruction on the grace

which characterized God’s ways now, and that again in

contrast with the Sabbath; silencing them, with the same

reasoning as to their own conduct. He then unfolds the

path of present grace, and its results with God; namely, rst

lowliness, taking the lowest place (God would exalt, in due

time, those who did so: such was His own course); next, to

act in grace, and not on the principles of worldly selshness.

e recompense would be in the resurrection of the just. In

all this, He is bringing out the spirit and character of the

new thing, into which He was leading men; the character of

the new man in a world of evil. e reference of one of the

company to the joy of eating bread in the kingdom of God,

perhaps a commonplace remark, perhaps felt, leads Him to

apply the principles He is expounding, to the consequence

of their rejection in Israel then. e kingdom was presented

in grace; the Jews, in their national capacity, from temporal

motives, were slighting it. e Lord would call the poor of

the ock, glad to come; and the Jews, as such, be excluded.

But the enjoyment of blessing, at the same time, would

depend on unqualied decision in oneself, and against the

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

much greater power, in esh’s judgment of it, exercised

against those who sought it.

It will be remarked, that the parable of the great

supper in Matthew has a much more dispensational and

judicial character. e city is burnt up. It is the king’s son

the marriage is for. e king’s turning to the poor of the

ock in Israel, the judgment of those entered, the conduct

of many towards the messengers, are not found in Luke;

nor the fact of the house being lled with guests. at

is, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the general Gentile

body of professors are not brought out. e rst invited

are excluded from the Supper in Luke as unworthy. I am

disposed to think it a dierent occasion.

After insisting on decision, and counting the cost, the

Lord concludes by saying, a man must forsake all that he

has; and if the salt has lost its savor, it is good for nothing.

Luke 15 begins a series of instruction, showing the

character and eects of grace; and the change, dependent

not on dispensation, but on the full revelation of the divine

character, and the consequent judgment of the whole

condition of man; though it was in Israel that condition

was put to the test. e well-known fteenth chapter

brings out the whole scheme of God’s ways in grace with

the sinner; in Christ, the Spirit, and the Father; and, in

general, that it was the divine joy to save and act in grace.

It shows the way in which Christ sought His sheep, and

charged Himself with bringing it home; the way the Spirit

sought diligently with the light brought to bear on all; the

path of man’s ruin, and the way the Father received Him on

His return; and, nally, the self-righteous Jewish condition.

Next, we nd the way in which grace estimates this

world, and man in it; with the use to be made of his forfeited

Compared View of the F irst ree Gospels: Matthew, Mark & L uke

possession in it; that is, of what he possessed, though he

had forfeited all title to it. Of this, also, the Jews were the

special illustration. When the human earthly place was lost,

another future was to be the motive on which the use of

present possessions was to be founded. en the veil of the

other world is removed, and we see that this world’s being

our portion, excludes from that. In the close of this parable,

which points at the complete substitution of the heavenly

blessing for the earthly, and the judging of all things, in

their eternal character, by the letting in of that new light,

the Lord shows that Moses and the prophets would have

led the Jews to own Him, and be delivered; and that if

they did not hear them, His own resurrection would have

no eect. e connection of great moral truths with the

setting aside of the Jewish system, and the setting it aside

by these moral truths, and the grace which belonged to

God’s nature, when He revealed Himself; both of them too

wide for Judaism (the latter, contrasted with its spirit, as the

former left all its ordinances necessarily behind), instead of

setting it aside dispensationally, is very remarkable in all

this part of Luke 16.

In the beginning of Luke 17, are collected a number

of passages found in Matthew and Mark, with additional

matter, in which the principles on which the disciples had

to walk, in their new service, are stated. Such are — care

against giving occasions of stumbling to the little ones of

Christ; forgiveness of what is personal; the power of faith;

the recognition that, at best, we have only done our duty. e

order and way in which these are introduced and used is the

only thing to be particularly noted here. In what follows we

have an interesting example of the way of deliverance from

the legal ordinances. Ten lepers are cleansed. e Lord

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

sends them — their cleansing was the fruit of Jehovah’s

power — to show themselves to the priests, according to

the law. ey go, believing Him, and are cleansed. Nine

pursue their course; one turns back. Outwardly farther

from privileges which exalt esh, he more easily discovers

that Jehovah, whom he went to own in Jerusalem, is in

Him who had cleansed him. He turns back to oer his

thanks there. e Lord, since he had found the true place

where God was, sets him entirely free from Jerusalem: “Go

thy way,” He says, “thy faith hath made thee whole” (Luke

17:19). He was not only blessed but free. e kingdom of

God was really in its power in His person amongst them.

And this was so true, that, rejected as He was going to be,

the time would soon come, when the disciples would be

glad to have such days as they then had with Him.

e Lord then, as in Luke 12, He had given the

church’s place at His coming, gives the Jewish condition

and in general the world’s. e same instructions are

given, in connection with the judgment of Jerusalem, in

Matthew, of which the prophetic announcement in Luke

is farther on. Here it is the unfolding the condition of the

disciples and the Jews, owing from His then presence and

the place His removal would give them. e condition of

the witnesses in the nal days of Jerusalem is given here,

not as in Matthew in connection with the destruction of

Jerusalem. is last is directly and distinctly given by itself,

and with plain reference to presently coming events, as a

positive object of revelation in Luke.

Here the subject is the condition of the disciples; and

the warnings are connected with His teaching on that

point. Hence the direction to pray, though having a peculiar

parabolic application to the latter days in Jerusalem, has

Compared View of the F irst ree Gospels: Matthew, Mark & L uke

a universal one for men in every circumstance in which

they are in diculty and need. But this dependence upon

God was hardly to be expected when the Lord returned.

Except the comparison of the times of Noah and Lot, all

this is found in Luke only; and the whole is general, and

applicable to the coming of Christ, in its bearing on the

world at large, though where the carcass is there the eagles

will be gathered together.

e characteristic traits, suited to the kingdom, and

approved of God, are next shown. Lowliness — because of

our sinfulness — lowliness in the sense of our nothingness.

Here we have some of the account, given in Matthew,

of the relationship and position of children, in a moral

connection, as is usual with Luke. en, entire devotedness,

and the heart purged; not simply the outward keeping of

the commandments, however sincere. Goodness is denied

to man. One only is good — God Himself. What seems

blessing here below, is the greatest hindrance to entering

into the kingdom; but grace can do everything. Nor will

devotedness lose its reward in this world, or the next; Luke

18.

is closes the moral developments which compose

all the middle part of Luke, and form instructions of

the highest interest, connected with the present moral

introduction of the kingdom. ey contrast with Matthew

13, where we have the dispensational earthly survey of it;

and with chapters 16-17, when the great change of system

and organization is brought out to light. Save two or three

general principles, such as taking up the cross, the young

ruler seeking the best commandment to have eternal life,

and the exhortation to lowliness, all this part is omitted in

Matthew and Mark. It characterizes Luke; and even the

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

topics introduced, which are found in Matthew and Mark,

are so in a dierent connection. On the other hand, a good

deal that precedes the transguration in Matthew and

Mark is omitted in Luke. In this part of Luke historical

order is not generally to be sought. is is now again taken

up, as it is in the other Gospels too, by telling the disciples

that rejection awaited Him from the Jewish rulers. e

prophecies were thus going to be accomplished. e

disciples did not understand Him.

e history of the last events, begins, as we have seen

in reading Matthew, with the entrance into Jericho, where

the blind man owns Him as Son of David, and receives

his sight. But here also the grace which receives the vile,

in spite of Jewish prejudices, must be brought out in Luke;

Luke 19. is is the more remarkable here, as connected

with His character as Son of David, and His speedy

entry into Jerusalem, according to Zechariah. Zacchaeus

had been honestly faithful to his conscience; but that day

salvation came to his house. His heart had been drawn; but

now salvation came to him. e Son of David, Messiah the

King, would, in spite of Pharisees, meet the wants of the

poor and despised in Israel, however false their position.

And that of Zacchaeus was so; and no attempt to satisfy the

exigencies of his conscience changed its falseness; indeed

this creates them. But in a time of confusion (and who

does not see such?) grace reaches through the forms this

confusion takes in individuals, to meet the need which lies

at the bottom of the heart, and which grace had produced,

and which shows itself in many a detail of which grace

takes notice, and which grace can see (though selshness

cannot), as the Lord did here. Such grace as Jesus’ draws

them out, as it did here; but that grace, at the same time,

Compared View of the F irst ree Gospels: Matthew, Mark & L uke

passes by as well all the eorts to quiet the conscience. It

brings salvation. Zacchaeus was a son of Abraham, surely

as much as the Pharisees. I am disposed to think, that the

healing of the blind man is out of its place in Luke, and is

introduced before the Lord’s entry into Jericho, in order to

give its true character to the reception of Zacchaeus.

Besides the very interesting history of Zacchaeus, Luke

adds the parable of the trac with the mina, referring to

the way in which the kingdom would be set up, and the

Jews’ rejection of Him. It is evident that there are certain

points of analogy between this and the parable addressed

to the disciples in Matthew; but there are important

points of distinction. Here responsibility is much more

distinctly brought out; God’s sovereignty, though ever wise

sovereignty, in gifts, less. In Matthew one had ve talents;

another two; another one, according to his several ability.

Here each has one; all depends on the faithfulness of the

servant. Hence, it is not, as in Matthew, one common joy,

“Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” (Matt. 25:21); but

“Be thou over ten, thou over ve cities” (Luke 19:17,19).

It is reward in the kingdom, not common joy with Christ;

each being faithful in what was entrusted, and having

gained according to what was given him. But another

point is brought in, not merely the faithfulness of the

2 e expression employed, I judge, carefully avoids the

moment or act of entering into Jericho. e Greek for “as

he was come nigh unto Jericho” (Luke 18:35), is in a form

always distinctively used for a period or course of action, a

state of things during which a thing happens. It may refer to

an individual act; but it is while a thing takes place, not as it

takes place, as a particular point. It is at the period in which

Jesus came into the neighborhood of Jericho, which He did in

a particular manner; in fact, at that time.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

servants, in which the analogy, though not sameness, of

the two parables lies. e question of the Jews receiving the

kingdom or not is treated; they could not, for they would

not receive the King. Christ was now near that place where

this question was to be decided, the city of the great King;

and men thought the kingdom should immediately appear.

He shows them that another order was to be followed. He

was going to a far country, heaven, to receive the kingdom.

Meanwhile, He left His servants to trade; not yet to be His

partners in the glory of the kingdom — that would come

afterward. ey would have their place in it according to

their faithfulness in His absence; to them that had, more

would be given. But there was another class of persons,

His citizens — over whom He should have reigned — the

Jews; but they, in their rejection of the gospel after His

departure, declared they would not have Him to reign

over them. ey are, on His return, brought before Him

and slain. It was not merely the rejection of Christ — He

interceded for them on the cross, for that as their ignorance,

and the Spirit comes to tell them, He will return on their

repentance; — but their opposition to this last, as a message

sent after Him, that they will not have Him. is gave the

full instructions as to the course the introduction of the

kingdom would take.

He rides into the city on an ass. Part of the cry recited

here, not in the other Gospels, is worthy of remark: “Peace

in heaven, and glory in the highest” (vs. 38). at is, in

Luke, they not merely raise the cry of Israel in the last day,

according to Psalm 118, but the announcement is extended

to heaven. ere peace is settled. e power of the enemy

is gone; and that glory, which is above the heavens, fully

established. Peace reigns there, so that the blessing on earth

Compared View of the F irst ree Gospels: Matthew, Mark & L uke

can follow. is additional and characteristic announcement

naturally belongs to Him who reveals the Son of man, and

heavenly and eternal things. Further, we have still grace

shown here; the other special part of Christ’s character in

Luke — He weeps over the city on seeing it.

e question of His authority is in all the three Gospels,

as is also the seeking of fruit from the husbandmen;

but Luke omits the marriage of the king’s son, which,

in Matthew, gives the other part of God’s dealing with

the Jewish people. Luke had already given an analogous

parable; but dealing with the subject morally as to the

eect of Jesus’ teaching, and calling men, and the result in

its extension to the Gentiles, after He had shown His love

to the poor of the ock in Israel. In Christ’s reply to the

Sadducees, an additional and important element is brought

out in Luke — the rst resurrection peculiar to the children

of God. In Matthew, the present authority of scribes, etc.,

as in Moses’ seat, is recognized; but they are denounced by

the Lord in the most awful way. Here, after the manner of

Luke, the true moral point of their character is stated; no

authority is spoken of, and they are left there. A few words

suce for this; Luke 20.

en comes the widow’s mite (Luke 21), which is not

in Matthew.

In all this part Luke’s account tallies exactly with Mark’s.

e character of Jerusalem, as killing the prophets, and the

Lord’s patient grace, which would have so often assembled

her children, found in Matthew immediately before the

prophecy of chapter 24, is in Luke 13. I apprehend, as I

expressed in speaking of Matthew 23, it is introduced by

Matthew, in connection with his subject, somewhat out of

its place, but not so far as to time as might be supposed.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

e journey mentioned in Luke 9:51, and in chapter 17:11

was the last, which, I suppose, are the same, if the sense of

chapter 9:51 is rightly given.

e collection of moral instructions, which follows on

chapter 9, leaves the chronological connection untouched.

e transguration practically closed the Lord’s ministry,

as the Lord in the midst of Israel; and that, in all the three

Gospels. In all the three, besides the account of the birth of

the Lord, which is not in Mark, there are three parts: His

ministry in Galilee, which closes with the transguration;

then He specially announces that He is to suer, and

that as Son of man; then we have a course of instruction,

whether dispensational or moral. e latter character

is largely developed in Luke, so that this second part, in

which Christ has the place of Son of man (the subject

of Luke’s Gospel), is very much longer, contains a great

deal of additional matter, and draws out what is found in

Matthew and Mark in quite another connection. e third

part begins with the blind man near Jericho.

In the second part, in all three Gospels, there is, as to

historical circumstances, merely the last journey, and what

passed in it; so that the blind man at Jericho connects

itself, through this journey, almost immediately with the

transguration. He then nally left His service in Galilee,

and set out to suer in Jerusalem; so that the character

of His service was changed, or rather it was closed: only

that He continued to show mercy, and to bear witness in

grace, till it was actually and nally closed. But He had

forbidden His disciples to say He was the Christ, for He

was soon going to suer as Son of man, and could say now,

“How long shall I be with you? how long shall I suer

you?” (Luke 9:41).

Compared View of the F irst ree Gospels: Matthew, Mark & L uke

John shows, I apprehend, that there was, after His

leaving Galilee, a course of movements in detail not found

in the other Gospels. He goes up into the coast of Judea

from Galilee, the other side Jordan, and goes to Jerusalem

(Mark 11). Jesus was at Jerusalem in winter, at the feast of

the dedication (John 10:22). ey seek to kill Him, and He

goes beyond Jordan again; comes up to raise Lazarus, and

again departs to a country called Ephraim. en He comes

up for the last time (Luke 9 and 17). is, of course, was a

little before Easter. e address to Jerusalem was thus, at

any rate, on His last journey up to Jerusalem.

To come now to the prophetic warning of the Lord.

e question recorded, as put by the disciples, shows at

the outset the dierence of the object of the revelation.

Christ, as in Matthew, had assured them that the temple

would be thrown down. e inquiry, as to the sign of

Christ’s coming and the end of the age, is not presented

nor noticed in Luke. e question here put, relates solely to

the destruction the Lord had spoken of. Hence, while the

early warnings referring to this epoch are found here, more

briey, yet much as in Matthew, the prophetic account

closes with the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans,

and says nothing of the abomination of desolation. e

times of the Gentiles have then their course, till they are

fullled, Jerusalem being trodden under foot. After this

come the signs, and the Son of man is seen coming in

glory. e dierence of this and Matthew is evident. e

passage in Luke, while giving the subsequent events and

the coming of the Lord, is specially occupied with the

Roman destruction of Jerusalem, judicially ushering in

the external Christian order of things; while Matthew is

exclusively occupied with the time which is yet to come,

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

and (save the fact that the gospel of the kingdom was to be

preached to all nations) connes himself to the testimony

in Israel. We shall see something analogous in the Lord’s

supper.

e close of the warning in Luke 21 is also peculiar.

e warnings of Noe and Lot are not given here in Luke,

but in chapter 17. Instead of that, we have verses 34-36,

where the day is declared to come on the whole earth; but

then the warning directed to the disciples, that they may

escape and stand before the Son of man, leaving it open to

a full millennial accomplishment. us, while it deals with

the remnant, it is much more large and general. In Luke

17 the Noe and Lot comparisons are given as a warning,

in contrast to the present character of the kingdom then

through Christ’s presence. e kingdom was there in His

person; but His rejection would change all, and then He

would come as a ash of lightning in the midst of the busy

selsh occupations of this world, like the deluge on the

world and the re on Sodom.

I do not think, from chapter 17:22, the Gospel of Luke

has a date, until the last events. What is narrated, is added

to what precedes; and then, when the prophetic warnings

are given, that is, when the residue are warned, the present

change is brought forward, and the time of the Gentiles

dispensationally stated.

In what follows in chapter 22, in the main, the three

Gospels are alike; only Luke, as he usually does, where

not led out into moral development, gives a very brief and

concentrated résumé of the facts more distinctly stated

elsewhere. I refer particularly now to Judas and the chief

priests. e “then” of “then entered Satan” (vs. 3), is not in

the original. It was after the sop he entered in. Before that,

Compared View of the F irst ree Gospels: Matthew, Mark & L uke

he had put the betraying of Jesus into his heart. is is all

put together, with the chief priests’ counsel (Luke 22:1-6).

A similar instance is as to John Baptist (Luke 3:15-19): as

is also the visit of the women to the sepulcher.

en follows the choice of the room for the Passover.

Here there are some important circumstances peculiar to

Luke. First, the Lord’s love and feeling about it (vs. 15);

next, the reference to the eating the lamb for the last time,

and the cup: besides the institution of the Supper, the

presence of Judas, and the strife among them who should

be the greatest. e manner of expression, too, is according

to the character of that Gospel; that is, opening the then

next present order of God’s dealings, instead of going on

dispensationally to the renewal of God’s relationship with

the world. e Passover was to be fullled in the kingdom

of God. Hence He was glad to eat of it for the last time

in His earthly association with His disciples. is is not in

Matthew. It is the great moral fact of universal bearing of

the death of Christ.

Next, as to His drinking of the fruit of the vine. In

Matthew, He takes His character of Nazarite separation

from Israel, until He drinks it in a new way in the Father’s

kingdom: the time of future blessedness spoken of, in this

way, in Matthew. Compare chapter 13. Here, He takes the

Nazarite place as a present thing, but closes, so to speak,

every thought of this association in the present time, xing

the mind on the present setting up of the kingdom. In

Matthew in connection with His death, and the founding

of the new covenant thereon, He goes quite on to the

establishment of the Father’s kingdom: only showing His

separation from all on earth, till that establishment of

the kingdom came. e words of institution dier, also,

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

somewhat. In Matthew, He replaces the passover: and the

words, “this is my body” (Matt. 26:26), only are given. In

Luke the gift of grace is noticed. In Matthew it is noticed as

going out beyond the Jews, to whom Christ had presented

Himself, as related in that Gospel — shed for many, for

the remission of sins. In Luke it is the simple, personal

application of grace — “for you.”

e inquiry among the disciples who should betray

Him, is found in Luke in a few words, as we have seen

in other cases. On the other hand, an humbling moral

circumstance is stated; that, even here, was a strife among

them who should be greatest — at such a moment!

But it gives occasion to the perfect and patient grace

of Christ, to teach them the true path of glory He had

followed — that of humility, and being servant to all; and

to own, in unspeakable grace, as if dependent on their

kindness, their perseverance with Him. Also He appointed

to them a kingdom, as His Father had appointed to Him:

so that they should be at table in His kingdom, and sit on

twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. e very

greatness of the glory and the blessing ought to silence the

dispute.

In Matthew the fact here revealed is given (Matt. 19:16-

30) in connection with setting aside human righteousness,

and riches as an advantage and reward connected with

it (that is, the setting aside the Jewish system); and with

the glory, in the time of the regeneration, consequent on

the loss of all for faith: still showing, in chapter 20, that

grace — sovereign grace — characterized God’s dealing

with men in the kingdom.

To turn to Luke 22, where the general application of

Christ’s death to faith is spoken of, the result of the present

Compared View of the F irst ree Gospels: Matthew, Mark & L uke

faithfulness of the disciples in connection with Christ before

His death would meet its judgment in Jewish millennial

glory. But into His death — which, while witnessing

judgment of sin, was the means of salvation — they could

not follow Him; to be saved by it was another thing.

eir service in His suering in the kingdom would be

recompensed with glory in the kingdom; but death, as such,

man could not stand in, such as he was: that belonged to

Christ only, a lesson they had not yet learned. ey could

not go into it as death from the divine judgment of sin;

but they could as a sifting from the enemy, to learn that

they could not, but must be dependent on Another’s doing

it. is is found only in Luke; and the ardor of nature is

suered to go farther in Peter, to teach the entire incapacity

of the energy of nature to do the work of God (its ardor

only making its fall more apparent and terrible); so that,

by the experience of what it was worth, and grace meeting

it, one should be better able to strengthen others with true

strength. is done, the Lord shows the dierence of their

position during His life, and that induced by His death.

He had served them as a living Savior. ey must suer,

and, humanly speaking, shift for themselves when He

became a dying one. On the earth He was reckoned among

malefactors; for the things which concerned Him drew to

a close. New ones would begin.

is contrast of Christ’s life, and His disciples’

connection with it; and His death, and the impossibility

of their being connected with Him in it, is peculiar to

Luke. Into the latter, that is, the scenes connected with His

death, he now enters. is point is important. e human

character of the blessed Lord’s suering in Gethsemane is

much more brought out in Luke; and circumstances of the

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

deepest interest are added, while the details of the thrice

repeated prayer are omitted, and all is brought together

in its moral character. e chief circumstances added are

these.

e Lord already on arriving at the place, Himself

perfect in the sense of what it was, warns them of their need

and how to meet it. “Pray that ye enter not into temptation”

(Luke 22:40).

Further, an angel from heaven appeared to Him to

strengthen Him. Here we nd His human position clearly

brought out. Again, we have the solemn sign of the conict

in which He was: His sweat as great drops of blood falling

down. All this is brought together without distinguishing

His three prayers. Save the answer of the Lord to Judas as

to his kiss, nothing distinctive, that I am aware of, is in what

follows, only the healing of Malchus is more briey noticed.

Conict through prayer in view of temptation, not to enter

into it, characterizes Luke’s account of Gethsemane, not the

being sorrowful unto death. e forsaking of the disciples

is not in Luke. e personal human conict of Jesus is His

subject. e trial of Peter follows in Luke. e Lord had

closed His address to those that came, by saying that it

was the hour of Satan’s power — alas! their hour also, but

the time of the exercise of the power of darkness; happily

for us, for the light has shone there, and in that light, the

power of darkness is gone for us. is Gospel brings in, in

connection with this, Peter’s history under temptation and

the power of the enemy, before pursuing that of Christ’s

interrogatory.

ere is no diculty in the details, as has been imagined.

e maid spoke to the men, a man to Peter. e perfect

grace of the Lord is brought out here in a circumstance

Compared View of the F irst ree Gospels: Matthew, Mark & L uke

omitted elsewhere — the Lord’s looking at Peter. e

personal sorrows of Christ are given as such in Luke. His

being bueted is given also before His interrogatory: and

this last very briey in the testimony of Christ Himself,

who declares the uselessness of reply; that henceforth they

would not see Him, but in glory. All the witness as to the

destruction of the temple is omitted.

e account of Luke is here also much more brief,

but an important fact added (Luke 23). Judas’ death is

not found (see the Acts), nor the message of Pilate’s

wife, nor the Jews taking His blood upon their head, nor,

subsequently, the crown of thorns and insults. On the

other hand, the sending to Herod is brought before us, and

thus the full uniting of all against the rightful Lord of the

world — the Christ — is presented to us; with the solemn

but too natural picture of the opposition to Christ, uniting

those who in their personal interests and passions were

otherwise enemies. ey can complement each other in

treating Christ thus. Pilate, doubtless, would have quieted

thus a disturbed conscience by throwing the matter over

on Herod, or avoided the guilt. But thus it was to be. Nor

can men thus escape the fruit of their own wickedness. He

hoped to get rid of the matter. What is noticed in Luke is,

that he delivered Jesus to their will.

e circumstances attending Christ’s crucixion give

a very dierent character to the scene, though the great

central truth is necessarily the same. He is all through now,

indeed, the green tree. It is the Man, the Man dependent

on the Father, the holy conding Man, as full of grace now

as when walking through a world enlightened (had it been

possible) by His miracles. His suerings, His death as King

of the Jews, are recounted surely, the veil of the temple is

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

rent; but the accomplishing so many prophecies, and the

expression of His expiatory agony, are not noticed. Nature

wept at His sorrow, His loss, and the terrible act was felt;

but it was over themselves these daughters of Jerusalem

should weep. He was the green tree, and if this happened in

Him, what should be done to the dry, the lifeless Jerusalem,

whose sorrow He was bearing, whose state in judgment He

had in grace stepped forward to cake for the remnant, who

would fain have seen Him received, and acknowledged

the sad estate of Jerusalem? Still a nation’s sin was there.

Judgment was due, and He, the green tree, took it on

Him. e remnant would thus escape, but the dry tree,

what would be done in it? It is not simply salvation here,

but judgment on the nation. is unfolds many Psalms,

and the desire that the meek and righteous should not be

ashamed for His sake.

Verses 35-38 very briey recount what the other two

evangelists relate in detail; and then we have the deeply

interesting account of the malefactor, which, as the weeping

women drew out the judicial dealings with Jerusalem, and

the place Christ took as to the judgment due to the people,

unfolds the heavenly portion through faith in Jesus, in

virtue of expiation and grace of one who leaves this earth,

however great a sinner a man may be, be he who he may,

before even the kingdom is set up at all. is we have

constantly seen is in view in Luke — the eternal, moral,

heavenly blessing, what we call Christianity, in contrast with

the order of dispensations, while even owning these. Even

the dispensational part (the weeping women) is treated

morally. e poor thief, converted, justied, and cleansed,

was to be that very day with Him in paradise. e traits of

his conversion and faith are admirable. e circumstance

Compared View of the F irst ree Gospels: Matthew, Mark & L uke

that the sun, the center of all natural light and life, and of

the whole system of nature for us, was darkened is added

(vs. 45). Nature was put out, and its central sun darkened,

as it were, but the way into the holiest laid open by the very

same thing.

But, on the other hand, there is no rising for the earthly

witness (as in Matthew) of bodies of the saints. Further,

there is not the agony of rejection from the light of God’s

countenance — the opposite to all that every righteous man

in Israel hitherto could say, for they had been heard. But

we have the new man, the man that trusts in God. Having

passed through it and drunk, in perfect obedience, the

bitter cup, He can say, “Father, into thy hands I commend

my spirit” (vs. 46). In death, He trusts His soul to His

Father. So the centurion also here recognizes the Lord in

this character; “Certainly this was a righteous man” (vs. 47).

Luke adds the moral eect on the people now, as so often

happens under the eect of what their misguided passions

had led to. at He was with the rich in His death is then

related by all.

In what follows, as we have so often found, Luke relates

in a general way, bringing all together, the discovery by the

women and by Peter of the resurrection of Jesus; but there

is no apparition of Jesus here to any of them; Luke 24.

Angels spoke to the women — they to the disciples. It was

as idle tales to these; only Peter went to the sepulcher and

found it was so, and departed wondering. But then Luke

gives the details of the touching history of the journey

to Emmaus, just noticed by Mark, where Jesus reveals

Himself; and here it is by an allusion to His death, which,

though in no way the Lord’s supper, intimated a part of

the same truth as that. e Christ they had to know was

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

a Christ who had died, whose body had been broken for

them, and who then disappeared — was to be known by

faith. At the same time He had expounded to them the

Scriptures. is and indeed something more, is again found

after His personal revelation of Himself to Simon, and to

the eleven and others. We have His revelation of Himself

rst to Peter, and then the clear setting forth that He was

really a risen man, having esh and bones, and having even

eaten with them. Two things then are presented, divinely

given intelligence of Scripture, and power given from on

high.

Such are the great bases of the Gospel here

presented — the Man risen — known in death, and gone

away; scripture understood by divinely — given spiritual

intelligence; and power from on high. Of this last we have

little to boast. Next, all that passed in Galilee, recorded by

Matthew, is omitted. Matthew gives his last glimpse of

Jesus there, and does not speak of the ascension. What is

recorded also by John as passing in Galilee is also omitted.

He closes with the respective positions of Peter and John

(representing the Jewish and Gentile parts of the Christian

church), without historically mentioning the ascension.

All this part of the history is omitted in Luke, and the

link of the Lord’s departure is with Bethany, His home

when rejected of Jerusalem, the heavenly family. ere He

blesses them, and, as He does so, is taken up to heaven. e

mission they receive is according to this. It is not going

forth to the Gentiles, assuming the acceptance of, at any

rate, the remnant of Israel; nor simply enlarging the service

to all creation; but as from outside all, as from heaven, to

3 e Lord teaches the ascension to Mary Magdalene. See

John’s Gospel, though there be no account of it.

Compared View of the F irst ree Gospels: Matthew, Mark & L uke

preach to all the Gentiles, beginning at Jerusalem, which

for heavenly things needed it as much as Gentiles, and as

to dispensation, had the rst place as object of promise.

ey were to go to all, but “to the Jew rst” (Rom. 2:10).

e apostles were witnesses, but the Holy Spirit also would

be given. ough their blessing and mission were from

heaven, they nd their way to the temple, there praising

God.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

62914

Notes on Luke 1

Luke 1.

e Savior is presented to us in Luke in His character

as Son of man, displaying the power of Jehovah in grace

in the midst of men. At rst, doubtless, we nd Him in

relationship with Israel, to whom He had been promised;

but afterward moral principles are brought out, which

apply to man, as such, wherever he might be. And indeed

what characterizes Luke’s account of our Lord, and gives

special interest to his Gospel, is that it presents to us Christ

Himself, and not His ocial glory as in Matthew, nor His

mission or service as in Mark, nor the peculiar revelation

of His divine nature as in John. It is Himself, such as He

was, a man upon the earth, moving among men day by day.

Luke 1:1-4. Many had undertaken to give an account

of what was historically received amongst Christians, as it

had been related to them by the eye-witnesses. However

well intended this might be, yet it was a work undertaken

and executed by men. Luke had an exact and intimate

knowledge of all from the beginning, and he found it

good to write in order to eophilus, that he might know

the certainty of the things he had been instructed in. It is

thus that God has provided for the whole church by the

teaching contained in the living picture of Jesus that we

owe to this man of God. For Luke, although he might be

personally moved by Christian motives, was of course none

the less inspired by the Holy Spirit to write.

Luke 1:5-17. e history brings us into the midst of

Jewish institutions, feelings, and expectations. First, we

Notes on Luke 1

have a priest of Abia (one of the twenty-four classes: 1

Chron. 24), with his wife who was of the daughters of

Aaron. “ey were both righteous before God, walking

in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord

blameless” (vs. 6). All with them was in accordance with

God’s law Jewishly; but they did not enjoy the blessing

so earnestly desired by every Jew; they were childless.

Yet it was according to the ways of God to accomplish

His work of blessing while manifesting the weakness of

the instrument which He was using. But now this long-

prayed-for blessing was to be withheld no longer; and

when Zacharias draws near to oer the incense, the angel

of Jehovah appears to him. At the sight of so glorious a

being Zacharias is troubled; but the angel says to him,

“Fear not, thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elizabeth shall

bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John,” that is,

“the favor of Jehovah.” And not only should the hearts of

many rejoice in him, but he should be great in the sight of

the Lord and be lled with the Holy Spirit. “Many of the

children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And

he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias to

make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” e “spirit of

Elias” was a rm and ardent zeal for the glory of Jehovah

and for the re-establishment, through repentance, of Israel’s

relations with Him. e heart of John clung to this link of

the people with God, and it is in the moral force of his call

to repentance that John is here compared to Elias.

Luke 1:18-23. But Zacharias’s faith, as is alas! so often

the case, was not equal to the greatness of his request.

He knows not how to walk in the steps of Abraham, and

he asks again how such a thing can be. God’s goodness

turns the unbelief of His servant into a chastening that

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

was protable for him, and that served, at the same time,

as a proof to the people that he had been visited from on

high. Zacharias remains dumb until the word of Jehovah

is accomplished.

Luke 1:24-25. Elizabeth, with feelings so suitable to a

holy woman, remembering what had been a shame to her

in Israel (the traces of which were only made the more

marked by the supernatural blessing now granted to her),

hides herself, whilst at the same time she owns the Lord’s

goodness to her. But what may conceal us from the eyes of

men has great value before God.

Luke 1:26-38. And now the scene changes, in order

to introduce the Lord Himself into this marvelous scene

that is unfolding itself before our eyes. In Nazareth, that

despised place, there was found a young virgin, unknown

by the world, whose name was Mary. She was espoused

to Joseph, who was of the house of David; but so out of

order was everything in Israel, that this descendant of the

king was a carpenter. But what is this to God? Mary was a

chosen vessel; she had found favor in the eyes of God.

We must remark that the subject here is the birth of the

child Jesus as born of Mary. It is not so much His divine

nature as the Word which was God and which was made

esh (though, of course, it is the same precious Savior

presented here as in John’s Gospel); but it is Jesus as really

and truly man — born of a virgin. His name was to be

Jesus, that is, Jehovah the Savior. He “shall be called the

Son of the highest, and the Lord God shall give unto him

the throne of his father David” (Luke 1:32) — still looking

at Him as man born into the world. But He was God as

well as man. Holy by His birth, conceived by the power of

God, this blessed One, who even as born of Mary is spoken

Notes on Luke 1

of as “that holy thing,” was to be called “the Son of God”

(vs. 35).

e angel then tells Mary of the blessing God had

bestowed upon Elizabeth. e wonderful intervention of

God had rendered Mary humble instead of lifting her up:

she had seen God and not herself in what had happened.

Self was hidden from her because God had been brought

so near, and she bows to His holy will. “Be it unto me

according to thy word.”

Luke 1:39-45. Afterward we nd that Mary goes to

visit Elizabeth, for her heart loves to see and acknowledge

the goodness of the Lord. Elizabeth, speaking by the

Spirit, acknowledges Mary as the mother of her Lord, and

announces the accomplishment of God’s promise. “Blessed

is she that believed,” etc.

Luke 1:46. e heart of Mary is lled with joy, and she

breaks forth into a song of praise. She acknowledges God

her Savior in the grace that has lled her with such joy,

whilst, at the same time, she owns her utter littleness. For

whatever might be the holiness of the instrument that God

might employ, and that was found really in Mary, yet she

was only great so long as she hid herself; for then God

was everything. By making something of herself she would

have lost her place; but this she did not. God kept her in

order that His grace might be fully manifested.

e character of the thoughts that ll the heart of

Mary is Jewish. It reminds us of Hannah’s song in 1

Samuel 2, which speaks prophetically of this same blessed

intervention of God. But Mary goes back to the promises

made to the fathers, and takes in the whole of Israel.

Luke 1:56. After remaining three months with

Elizabeth, she returns to her house humbly to follow her

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

own path, in order that God’s ways may be accomplished.

Nothing is more beautiful in its way than this account of

the conversations of these holy women, unknown to the

world, but who were the instruments of God’s grace to

accomplish His glorious designs. ey moved in a scene

where nothing entered but piety and grace. But God was

there Himself, no better known to the world than were

these poor women, but preparing and accomplishing what

the angels would desire to look into.

Luke 1:57-59. But what is only known in secret by faith

is at last to be accomplished before all men. e son of

Zacharias and Elizabeth is born, and Zacharias, no longer

dumb, pronounces the blessed prophecy we have in Luke

1:69-80. e visitation of Israel by Jehovah, which he

speaks of, embraces all the happiness of the millennium,

connected with the presence of Jesus upon the earth. All

the promises are Yea and Amen in Him. All the prophecies

encircle Him with the glory which will be then realized. We

know that, since He has been rejected and while He is now

absent, the accomplishment of these things is necessarily

put o till His return.

Notes on Luke 2

62919

Notes on Luke 2

Luke 2.

When God is pleased to occupy Himself with the world,

and to take a part in what passes therein, it is marvelous

to see how He acts and the instruction He gives. ere

is no agreement, but a total opposition between His ways

and those of men. e emperor and his decree are but

insignicant instruments. Caesar Augustus acts in view of

his subjects; yet he is, without knowing it, the means of

accomplishing the prophecy that Jesus should be born in

Bethlehem. e entire course of the world is outside the

current of God’s thoughts. e capital fact for Him and

for His kingdom here is the babe’s birth at Bethlehem; but

the emperor has no thought about it. e decree puts the

world in motion, and God makes good His thoughts here

below. How wondrous! All the world is in movement to

bring about this event, needed to fulll prophecy, that the

poor carpenter, with Mary, his espoused wife, should be in

the city of David, and David’s heir should be born there

and then. And this is the more striking, for the census itself

was rst made some years afterward, when Cyrenius was

governor of Syria: God is accomplishing His purpose of

love. But man was blind to it. Who cared to notice the

poor Jew, though he might be of the house and lineage of

David? e things that are perfectly indierent to man ll

the heart and eye of God.

Still we are in Jewish atmosphere. Promises are being

accomplished; the babe must be born in Bethlehem. “e

city of David” (vs. 4) is nothing to the Christian as such,

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

save as showing prophecy fullled: to us the Son comes

from heaven. On earth the babe is the object of God’s

counsels; angels and all heaven are occupied with His birth;

but there is no place in the world for Him! Go where the

great world registers every individual, go to the little world

of an inn, where each is measured by the servant’s knowing

eye, and place is accordingly awarded from the garret to the

rst oor; but there is no room for Jesus! And the manger

led, in due time, to the lowest place — to the cross.

What a lesson for us as to this world! What a dierence,

too, between giving up the world and the world giving us

up! We may do the one with comparative ease; but when

we feel the world despises us as Christ was despised, we

shall discover, unless He lls and satises the heart, that

we had a value for its esteem that we were not aware of.

When obedience is as important to us in our measure, as

obeying was to Christ, we shall go right on whatever be

before us, without regarding the world: not that we shall

be insensible, but when Christ is the object we shall only

be occupied with Him.

All intelligence of the things of God comes from His

revelation, and not from the reasonings of men. Hence,

the simple go farther in spiritual understanding than the

wise and prudent of the earth. God acts here so as to set

aside all appearance of human wisdom. Happy he who

has so seized the intention of God as to be identied with

it, and to want none but God! is was the case with the

shepherds. ey little entered into the great intent of the

registration; but it was to them, and not to the prudent, that

God revealed Himself. Our true wisdom is through what

God reveals. But we never get God’s fullest blessings till

we are where the esh is brought down and destroyed — I

Notes on Luke 2

speak as regards walk. We cannot get into the simple joy

and power of God, till we accept the place of lowliness

and humiliation — till the heart is emptied of what is

contrary to the lowliness of Christ. ese shepherds were

in the quiet fulllment of their humble duty; and that is

the place of blessing. Whoever is keeping on terms with

the world is not walking with God; for God is not walking

with you there. From the manger to the cross all in Christ

was simple obedience. How unlike a eudas, who boasted

himself to be somebody! Christ did all in God’s way; and

not only so, but we must come so too.

e glory of the Lord shines round about the shepherds,

the angel speaks to them, the sign is given; and what a sign!

“Ye shall nd the babe wrapped up in swaddling clothes,

lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel

a multitude of the heavenly host praising God” — and for

what? “e mystery of godliness: God was manifested in

the esh” (1 Tim. 3:16). e hope of Israel is revealed to

them — glad tidings of great joy to all the people. For Jesus

is the pivot of all God’s counsels in grace. Adam himself

was but a gure of Him who was to come. Christ was

ever in the mind of God. Such displays of glory are not

shown to mortal eyes every day; but God sets them before

us in His word, and we must every day follow the sign

given — follow Jesus the babe in the manger. If He lled

the eye, the ear, the heart, how we should see the eects

in person, spirit, conversation, dress, house, money, and so

forth.

Such, then, is the sign of God’s accomplishment of

promise and of His presence in the world — “a babe in a

manger” (Luke 2:16). the least and lowest thing. But God

is found there, though these things are beyond man, who

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

cannot walk with God, nor understand His moral glory.

But God’s sign is within the reach of faith. It is the token

of perfect weakness; a little infant who can only weep!

Such, born into this world is Christ the Lord. Such is the

place God chose — the low degree. God’s intervention is

recognized by a sign like this. Man would not have sought

that. e heavenly host praise God and say, “Glory to God

in the highest, and on earth, peace, goodwill toward [in]

men.” Nothing higher nor more astonishing (save the cross)

for those who have the mind of heaven. e choir above

see God in it — God manifested in esh, and praise God in

the highest. ey rejoice that His delights are with the sons

of men. Of old God had displayed Himself to Moses in a

ame of re, without consuming the bush, and here, still

more marvelously, in the feeblest thing on earth; innite

thought morally, though despicable in the eye of the world!

How hard it is to receive that the work of God and of

His Christ is always in weakness! the rulers of the people

saw in Peter and John unlearned and ignorant men. Paul’s

weakness at Corinth was the trial of his friends, the taunt

of his enemies, the boast of himself. e Lord’s strength is

made perfect in weakness. e thorn in the esh made Paul

despised, and he conceived it would be better if that were

gone. He had need of the lesson, “My grace is sucient for

thee.” It is God’s rule of action, if we may so say, to choose

the weak things. Everything must rest on God’s power,

otherwise God’s work cannot be done according to His

mind. One can hardly believe that one must be feeble to

do the work of God: but Christ was crucied in weakness,

and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For the

work of God we must be weak, that the strength may be

Notes on Luke 2

of God; and that work will last when all the earth shall be

moved away.

Luke 2:21-38. But besides the additional testimony

rendered by the oering of His mother to the circumstances

in this world, in which the Lord of glory was born, we

may see that, while God all through the Gospel is settling

man in his new place with Himself, He did not forget

His ancient people. He shows us here that He met every

thought in every heart that was touched by grace in Israel.

His heart was especially toward those who sorrowed over

the sins and desolation of His people; and who, withal,

waited for redemption, crying from the darkness, “How

long, O Lord?” God will accomplish in power that wherein

man has failed in responsibility. Should we therefore be

content if God’s people do not glorify Him? No; faith is

not hard; it will sorrow, but it will wait for God, and God’s

time too; for faithful is He who hath promised, who also

will do it. He will bring about His own purposes.

Luke 2:25. us was Simeon “waiting for the consolation

of Israel.” us Anna departed not from the temple, but

served with fastings and prayers night and day; thus all

that had looked for redemption in Jerusalem. ere were

those who watched, and Anna knew and spake to them.

e rest doubtless were occupied with Roman oppression;

but these few waited for Him, bowing before His hand in

judgment of evil, but looking for His deliverance.

I believe there was something more in Simeon’s soul

than the joy of holding in his arms the babe, the expected

Messiah; Simeon felt he had God, and was satised. So

he says, without even looking on to the glory, “Lord, now

lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy

word” (Luke 2:29). In Romans 5:11 the apostle, after

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

speaking of rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God, says,

“and not only so.” What could be more than that hope?

Yes, there is more: “we also have joy in God.” e eyes

of Simeon have seen God’s salvation, and he begs of the

sovereign Lord that he may go.

We often see something like this in dying saints, who

deeply joy in the Lord’s love to His own, and in the nearness

of His coming for them. Why, one might say, what is His

near coming to those who are dying and departing to Him?

Just this — the nearer we are to God, the more precious is

all the truth of God, and everything which is near to His

heart. So in verses 30-32 Simeon rejoices as he surveys the

extent of the divine deliverance. It was for the revelation of

the Gentiles, who had been till now hidden in the dark of

idolatry and ungodliness, as well as for the glory of Israel.

But his soul is satised possessing Christ, and anticipating

the eect of His presence in the whole world: he has all in

Him, and desires to depart. If a man walks with God and

has nished his course, he knows that his work is done

and is conscious of the Lord’s time being come. He has

a companionship and communion with the Lord he has

walked with. If simply brought to a bed of sickness, he is

not then ready to go; not that he fears, but God is teaching

him something else. But when God’s time is come, all is

joy and readiness. He feels like Simeon, “Lord, now lettest

ou y servant depart in peace” (Luke 2:29).

But, further, when Simeon blessed Joseph and Mary, the

Spirit gives him to disclose the more immediate results of

the babe’s presence in Israel. He should be the touchstone

of many hearts, an occasion for the fall as well as the rise

of many; He should be a sign spoken against, a rejected

Notes on Luke 2

Messiah; and Mary’s heart should be pierced through,

whatever the present joy or the future glory.

Israel was low indeed, but did not know it; Israel must

be made to know it, and Christians too; for Christ had

to descend to the grave and rise again. e thoughts of

the heart must be revealed, whatever the outward garb. But

then He is the one who brings out God’s thoughts too. If

He is the Christ, the glory of God’s people, He is also the

one who will abase the esh, and meet and humble man in

his pride; He is the one who will make you know whether

His rejection is more precious than all beside.

Luke 2:39. When all was done according to the law,

they returned to Galilee to Nazareth. Jesus would not

be the Christ we need, if He had taken any glory from

Jerusalem. His place is among the poor of the ock — His

place all through in Israel.

Luke 2:40. “And the child grew, and waxed strong

in spirit, lled with wisdom: and the grace of God was

upon him.” Luke gives us more of the reality of His

childhood than the other Gospels. He was not made man

full — formed like Adam.

If one only reads the account without comment, how

the soul feels it unspeakably precious! When we see who

it was, we see human nature in Him lled with God, so

to speak. It is not ocial distinction, but the heart feels

God brought nigh. e blessedness of the child’s intrinsic

loveliness lls the heart. Deeply instructive too is the

incident recorded in connection with the passover when

He was twelve years old. His true character comes out,

though He was not yet to act upon it. He came to be a

Nazarene — to be about His Father’s business. is is here

stated distinctly before He enters upon His public ministry,

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

that it might be seen to be connected with His person, and

not to depend merely upon His oce. He was the Pastor

of the ock in spirit and character. It belonged to Him. He

was the Son of the Father, though abiding God’s time for

showing it.

Luke 2:51. Nevertheless “He went down with them,

and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them.” What

a majesty in His whole life! His being God secured His

perfection as a child and man here below. He had ever

the blessed consciousness of His relationship to His

Father — an obedient child, but conscious also of a glory

unconnected in itself with subjection to human parentage.

He belonged to Mary and even Joseph; in another sense

He was not theirs. His divine sonship was as well known

to Him, as His obedience to His parents was in due season

absolutely right.

Luke 2:52. “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature,

and in favor with God and man.” His human intelligence

being developed, He, though ever perfect, became so in a

full way — the perfect man. e lovely plant grew up and

unfolded before God and man.

Notes on Luke 3

62931

Notes on Luke 3

Luke 3.

e two preceding chapters have given the general

character; they have shown the going out of the thoughts

of God to man. Accordingly we nd that the Gospel, as a

whole, is particularly occupied with what is not Jewish. Still

the Jewish part is given at rst with considerable detail,

inasmuch as Israel, because of their unbelief and moral

worthlessness, are to be set aside, in order to make way for

new relationships, founded on what God reveals Himself

to be for man in Jesus, the true and only mediator. But if

Luke 1 disclosed the faithfulness of God to the Abrahamic

promises, to His covenant and His oath, Luke 2 puts us

in the presence of the actual government of the world

and of the Lord’s land and people under the fourth beast,

the Roman empire. What confusion does not sin create?

e Jews are subject to the Gentiles; Joseph and Mary, of

David’s royal house, go up to be taxed. Nevertheless the

ways of God shine so much the brighter for the darkness

that surrounded them: He was in Christ, reconciling the

world unto Himself. Israel, however, would be put to a new

moral test by His presentation of Himself. Alas! it would

soon appear that, if they had not kept the law, they hated

grace. “Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again

of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken

against” (Luke 3:34).

In Luke 3 we have the ministry of God coming in by

a prophet as of old by Samuel. “e word of God came

unto John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness.” It is not

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

without object that the Spirit mentions the fteenth year

of Tiberius Caesar, etc. All the earth was seemingly at rest

under its heathen lord; the word of God found its suited

sphere in the wilderness. e law and the prophets were

until John: and where should he be in such a state of things

but the wilderness? Could he morally own it? God will not

have His messenger in Jerusalem.

Prophecy is the sovereign means whereby God can

communicate with His people when they are ruined and

departed from Him. John understands this, and preaches

the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. And

such was the place assigned him, many centuries before,

by Esaias the prophet. It was vain for Israel to plead their

privileges and rights. All was wrong, and the Judge was

at the door. John’s work was not to lead the people back

to the law: he was preparing the way of the Lord. Herein

he diered from the prophets as well as the law, or rather

he went farther; for God’s time was come for a step in

advance. e prophets led back to Horeb: John says not a

word of this, though his father was a priest, and himself,

of course, an Aaronite. He does not try to set up again

what was closed; he announces the kingdom. He may not

introduce the church, nor even the glad tidings of God’s

grace (both awaited the accomplishment of the work of

redemption), but he drops the law, and shows that God’s

purpose is the kingdom.

e quotation from Esaias sets aside Israel — not the

Gentiles merely but Israel — as grass, withered grass,

without a green blade left. Yet the word of the Lord

endureth forever, and this when all hope for man was

gone. Israel may have failed, but the word of the Lord shall

stand. Moreover, since it was the Lord who was coming,

Notes on Luke 3

every valley should be lled, etc. Not the Jews alone, but

all esh, should see God’s deliverance. If sin plunges all

in indiscriminate ruin and a common judgment, God can

meet man thus ruined, but His glory will not be shut up in

the narrow limits of Israel.

Luke 3:7-14. But, to be blessed, man must repent. God

would have realities, and not a mere nominal people; He

must have fruits answering to hearts which felt and judged

their moral condition, and which therefore turned from

themselves to God. Ordinances, formal claims, etc., which

should have been means of blessing, would be no shelter

against the coming wrath; nor would God permit them

to hinder His creating true children of the promise, if this

generation were but Ishmael over again. Judgment must

begin at the house of God.

In fact, as we know, John was beheaded, and the Lord

was crucied, and the kingdom, presented in Him, and

by Him, was rejected by Israel. By-and-by it will be set

up visibly and in power.

Meanwhile the church is set up,

because the kingdom is not set up in this manifested way.

4 Observe, that Matthew only uses the expression, “kingdom

of heaven.” It is often, in a general sense, capable of being

interchanged with “kingdom of God,” as we see by comparing

Luke. Notwithstanding, the two phrases cannot always replace

each other, and Matthew uses “kingdom of God” in a few

passages where “kingdom of heaven” could not be used (Matt.

6:33; 12:28; 21:43). us “the kingdom of God” was there

when Christ the King was there; “the kingdom of heaven”

began with Christ going to heaven. By-and-by, when Satan

ceases to rule, it will be the “kingdom of heaven” (and “of God”

too, of course), not in a mystery, but in manifestation. “e

kingdom of God” has also a moral force which “kingdom of

heaven” has not; and in this way it is frequently used by Paul,

and was peculiarly suitable to the Spirit’s design in Luke.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

And those who now take their place with the Lord share

His rejection. ey are members of His body, the church.

ey shall share His glory, but it will be heavenly, and not

earthly, glory. In another sense we are in the kingdom now.

To faith heaven rules now, and we own it, and know it; but

Satan is actually prince and god of this world; and hence

those who are made kings to God (for that is our true

place) are called to suer. erefore Paul went everywhere

preaching the kingdom of God, as well as Christ and the

church. We have that by virtue of which we shall reign with

Christ; but even that is not our best portion. To be one

with Christ — His body and bride — is far more blessed.

If your mind only rests on the person of Christ, there is

no diculty in seeing that when He is cut o, all must

cease as regards the earth. He is the center of all; and when

rejected, what prophecy spoke of, and what seemed about

to be accomplished, breaks o. ereupon Christ ascends,

and takes up a glory above the heavens, and there now the

saints nd their place with Him. Compare Psalm 2 and 8.

John Baptist, then, addresses himself to the Jews,

demanding repentance, and righteousness as its fruit;

shows them that, if they were nearer to God outwardly as

Jews, they must expect judgment the sooner. If the Lord

was coming, He must have what became the Lord. e ax

was even then lying at the root of the trees; if there was

not good fruit on the trees, everyone must be hewn down

and burnt. Repentance or wrath — which? e Lord would

allow no plea of descent from Abraham, if their ways belied

Abraham; He must have righteousness. It is the Lord that

is just at hand, and He must have a people t for Him, or

He would out of the very stones make a suited people for

Himself.

Notes on Luke 3

Evidently John’s word is not a voice of mercy to the

poor sinner. God is presented in the way of judgment, not

of sovereign mercy. He does not say, “Come unto me.” John

could not say it, because he was not Christ, and none but

He could say, “Come unto me.” John came in righteousness.

In Luke 3:10-14 moral testimony is given, and that in

detail. John deals with the practical iniquity of each set of

people. So even when the question of the Christ is raised

(vss. 15-18), “one mightier than I cometh,” says he. It is

of His power specially he thinks — His power morally as

outwardly. “He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost

and with re.” It is the power of the Holy Spirit and His

consuming judgment. He could not speak of the grace of

the gospel which we know now. He proclaims One who

was coming after him, not a present salvation. Whatever

would not stand the re was to be burnt up. For His fan

“is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his oor, and

will gather the wheat into his garner, but the cha he will

burn with re unquenchable.” (Compare Isa. 21:10.) God’s

oor was Israel; there He was getting His wheat, if any

were to be found. But His fan is in His hand; He is going

to make short work. Titus nally set aside God’s oor upon

the earth; Israel’s sin had lost it morally when they rejected

Christ, but at the destruction of Jerusalem it was done with

thoroughly for the present.

Luke 3:19, etc. — Luke’s method of instruction is to be

noticed in passing. He shows that John had preached and

exhorted moral truth, and then disposes of him, putting

him, as it were, out of the scene, in order to bring Christ

in. It was not that historically John was imprisoned at that

juncture by Herod the tetrarch; it took place long after.

But it is a sample of Luke’s manner, who returns to the

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

Lord’s taking His place amongst the remnant of Israel.

For the Lord does not identify Himself with the nation;

but, directly there is a poor remnant, He identies Himself

with it.

is history opens with verse 21, and how wonderful

and full of grace! “Now when all the people were baptized,

it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying,

the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended

in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came

from heaven, which said, ou art my beloved Son; in thee

I am well pleased” (Luke 3:21-22). One may have looked

and listened mournfully, as one reads of John Baptist and

his testimony. We might have asked, as the dying record of

men passed before us, What is man? But now my eye rests

on Jesus: I nd the Lord from heaven a man. All is to begin

again. Do I ask again, What is man? At once Christ comes

out. Do I look at myself? at all around? What do I see?

Enough to break my heart, if there is a heart to be broken.

e only thing which prevents people being utterly broken

down is that they have not a heart to feel things as they are.

But a rest is here! I have got a man now who satised

God — this blessed man on earth in the presence of God,

looking to God, and an object to God! not Messiah

purging His oor, but Him in whom God’s thoughts and

purposes are all folded up — not man perishing before

the moth, but Jesus the Son of man, not merely coming

down from Abraham and David, but traced up, “which

was the son of Adam, which was the son of God” (Luke

3:38) — the second Man, the last Adam, the quickening

Spirit. What a relief; for what is man? What one’s self

when the heart’s sin is known — giving up God for an

apple from the beginning hitherto! But now a man, a

Notes on Luke 3

blessed man, appears, “and praying.” We are not told this

elsewhere, and why here? Because Luke presents man in

his perfection — the dependent man; for dependence is

the essence of a perfect man. Truly we see God shining

all through, but yet in Jesus the dependent man, in the

place and condition of perfectness as man. e root of sin

in us is self-will, independence. Here my heart has rest! A

dependent man in the midst of sorrow, but perfectly with

God in all. See Luke’s account of the transguration also:

in humiliation or in glory, it makes no dierence as to this;

the perfect is ever the dependent one.

And when that blessed heart thus expressed its

dependence, did He get no answer? “e heaven was

opened.” Does heaven open thus on me? It is open to me

indeed, no doubt, but I pray because it is open; it opened

because He prayed. I come and look up because the heavens

were opened on Him.

It is, indeed, a lovely picture of grace, and we may be

bold to say that the Father loved to look on — to look down,

in the midst of all sin, on His beloved Son. Nothing but

what was divine could thus awaken God’s heart; and yet it

was the lowly perfect man. He takes not the place of His

eternal glory, as the Creator, the Son of God. He stoops and

is baptized (Psa. 16). He says, “in thee do I trust.” He says

to Jehovah, “ou art the Lord: my goodness extendeth

not to thee.” He says to the godly remnant in Israel, “To

the saints that are on the earth, and to the excellent … in

them is all my delight.” He needed no repentance, yet is He

baptized with them; just as when, later on, He puts forth

His sheep, He goes before them. He identies Himself in

grace with Israel, even with such as were of a clean heart.

And the Holy Spirit descends like a dove on Him — t

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

emblem of that spotless man! — t resting place for the

Spirit in the deluge of this world! And how sweet, too, that

Jesus is pointed out to us as God’s object. I know the way

the Father feels about Him. I am made His intimate, and

admitted to hear Him expressing His aection for His Son,

to see the links reformed between God and man. Heaven

is opened, not on something above, but upon a man on the

earth. us I get rest, and my heart nds communion with

God in His beloved Son. It is only the believer who enjoys

it, but the link is there. And if I have that in and about

me which distresses the soul, I have that in Him which is

unfailing joy and comfort.

e genealogy quite falls in with the thought that God

is showing grace in man and to man. Jesus, the beloved Son

of God, is traced up to Adam and to God. Jesus is Son of

man; He is heir in this sense. He takes up the inheritance

God gave to man. O what a truth! Where could one’s heart

turn for rest, if it had not Jesus to rest in? With Him, let

heaven and earth be turned upside down, and still I have a

rest. What blessedness for the heart to have the object God

Himself is occupied with! May our hearts also be more and

more occupied with Him!

Notes on Luke 4

62932

Notes on Luke 4

Luke 4.

We saw the Lord taking His place of servant with the

excellent in Israel, and thereon the heavens opened, and

Himself owned by the Father as His beloved Son. His

delights were with the sons of men, and He is traced up,

not to Abraham only, the root and depositary of Jewish

promises, but to Adam and God Himself. Independently

of His proper divine glory as Son of the Father, Jesus should

be called the Son of the Highest, the Son of God. As man

on earth, He was sealed with the Holy Spirit. He took upon

Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of

men. His entire perfectness now was to fulll, as a servant,

the will of Him who sent Him; for a servant doing his own

will is a bad servant. Dependence, waiting, and obedience,

were the characteristics of this place, and they are found in

Him to the uttermost. Hence, as in the Psalms, “I waited

patiently for the Lord” (Psa. 40:7). He would not ask for

power, but waits on God. “inkest thou that I cannot now

pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than

twelve legions of angels?” (Matt. 26:53). Put thoroughly to

the test, He would do nothing but His Father’s will. He was

to learn obedience. Having taken the place, He would go

through it wholly, not in one act, but experiencing the force

of that expression, learning obedience, without one comfort

here, with enemies around, bulls of Bashan besetting, dogs

compassing. He had to learn obedience where obedience

was always suering, even to the yielding up of life. Every

single step was humiliation till the close came in the cross,

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

where the wrath of God was borne in love to us. No doubt

He found, in His rejection, elds white for harvest, and so

shall we, in our measure, when walking in the same path.

But the cross was always before Him, everything that could

stop a man. Nevertheless He went on, patiently waiting,

and not asking for deliverances. us He presented perfect

God to man, and perfect man to God.

Luke 4:1. In this chapter He begins the walk of suering

obedience publicly. And the rst thing to be remarked is

that, being full of the Holy Spirit, He is led by Him into

the wilderness, where He is tempted by the devil. ere

are two ways in which the enemy has power; rst by

allurements, and secondly by terror. In the one he works

upon us through our lusts, presenting what is calculated to

attract, and so he rules over us naturally. In the other he has

the power of death. us, Judas being a covetous man and

without the faith which puries the heart, Satan suggested

the occasion and gets him. He has no right to rule over

men, but he acquires dominion through the lusts of the

esh. Another way is through the terror of death. In both

he assailed the Lord, but found nothing in Him.

Here, then, we have the devil meeting man in the power

of the Spirit of God — man tempted, not in paradise, but

in the wilderness. Jesus does not say, “I am God, and you

are Satan; go away.” at would not have gloried God,

nor have helped us. But as the Lord was led into the

wilderness, not by lust (God forbid the thought!) but by

the Holy Spirit, so in His blessed grace He puts Himself

in the place where man was. He has help from none, not

even from John the Baptist. ere was all that might have

stumbled rather, had it been possible; through all He goes

as man. He must be tempted, and must overcome where

Notes on Luke 4

man not only had failed, but was lying under the power of

wickedness.

Luke 4:2-3. ere was no harm in hunger: it was no sin.

He could have commanded stones to be made bread, but

to do so, save at His Father’s word, would have been doing

His own will, and then He had not been the perfect man.

Satan tries to introduce into His heart a desire which was

not in the word of God; He succeeded in insinuating a

lust into the heart of Adam; he fails with Jesus, though He

was for forty days exposed to his presence and power. Jesus

had to know by experience what it was to have working at

Him, without a single support, without a friend, in solitary

dreariness (save indeed the wild beasts) with the devil!

us He measured the power of Satan. e strong man

was there, putting forth all his weapons, but the stronger

than he overcame: Jesus binds the strong man. He was

abstracted from human condition for forty days, not like

Moses to be only with God, but as the one who was always

with God, to be exposed to Satan. None other man needs

to be abstracted in order to be tempted, he has only to go

along with men. In this case, this extraordinary separation

was to be with the devil. To be with God He did not

need anything out of His everyday path, for it was His

natural place; but to be with Satan, He needed it. Others

were strangers to God, and at home with Satan. He, in

the most adverse things, is a stranger to Satan, and dwells

in the bosom of the Father. But He emptied Himself as

God to become a servant as man, and there He waits in

dependence on the word of Him whom He served. e

living Father had sent Him, and He lived by the Father. He

was as man under His authority, and His meat was to do

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

His will. “By the word of thy lips I have kept me from the

paths of the destroyer” (Psa. 17:4).

Luke 4:4. It is the written word He ever uses, and Satan

is powerless! What amazing importance Jesus gives the

scriptures! God now acts by the word, and Satan is resisted

morally in this way. A man cannot be touched by Satan

while the word is simply used in obedience. “He that is

begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one

toucheth him not” (1 John 5:18). It was not as an exercise

of divine authority He dismissed Satan, but the enemy is

proved unable to grapple with obedience to the word of

God. If he cannot take out of the path of obedience, he has

no power. What more simple? Every child of God has the

Holy Spirit acting by the word to keep him.

Jesus does not reason with Satan. A single text silences

when used in the power of the Spirit. e whole secret of

strength in conict is using the word of God in the right

way. One may say, I am not like this perfect Man: it might

be so with Christ, but how can I expect the same result?

True, we are ignorant, and the esh is in us; but God is

always behind, and He is faithful, and will not suer us

to be tempted above that we are able. Temptation may

be simply a trial of our obedience, as in Abraham’s case,

not a snare to lead us astray. Satan presents what has no

appearance of evil. e evil would be — doing one’s own

will. Now it solves every diculty to ask — not, what harm

is there in doing this or that? — but, why am I doing it? Is

it for God or myself? What! am I to be always under this

restraint? Ah! there the secret of our nature comes out; we

do not like the restraint of doing what God will approve.

It is restraint to do God’s will! We want to do our own

will. To act merely because one must is law, and not the

Notes on Luke 4

guidance of the Spirit. e word of God was the motive

of Christ, and such is Christ’s guidance. Not fencing the

old man, but the new man living on the word is defense

against Satan.

Verses 3-13. e rst temptation is an appeal to the

need of the body. e second in Luke (not in Matthew)

is the inducement of the world’s glory. e third in our

Gospel is the religious temptation through the word of

God, and therefore morally the hardest of all to one who

values that word. And this is the reason why Luke departs

from the actual order of the events, in order to group them

morally, as is the habit of this evangelist elsewhere also.

us we have the tempter assailing the Lord Jesus, rst,

as to man’s life; second, as to the power given to man; and

third, as to the promises made to Christ Himself.

e Lord might have argued with the devil, but He does

not even tell him that the dominion of the world would be

His by-and-by. He takes His stand on that which settles

everything, and is a perfect example for us. He stands to

God’s word, and God’s worship. He awaits His word, He

worships Him, He serves Him only. How simple and how

blessed! It was the immediate link of an obedient heart

with God. e question was one of relationship to God.

So of old, Eliezer receives blessing, but before he begins to

enjoy it, he gives thanks. He had the word rst, then the

blessing — and what follows forthwith? He bows his head

and worships. God is the rst thought of his heart. And so

still more fully with the Lord here. e last and subtlest

temptation was grounded on the promises to Messiah (vss.

9-I1). If thou art the Son of God, why not try? But why

should He try, who KNEW that God was for Him? Why

should He be like presumptuous Israel of old, who would

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

go up the hill in disobedience, to prove whether the Lord

was among them? Not even when Lazarus was sick would

He stir, till it was the Father’s will, though all nature would

have moved: and He knew well the sorrow of that house

which was His refuge; for “Jesus loved Martha, and her

sister, and Lazarus” (John 11:5).

e Lord did not listen. Who would? you say. But you

do listen to Satan, every day of your lives that you seek a

very little bit of the world. But was there not a promise?

Doubtless there was; yet why should He throw Himself

down to see whether God would be as good as His word?

Did He not know that God was with Him? And so with us:

let us only have the word behind us, no matter what may be

before us. Never should we raise a question whether God

is with us. If He does not send, let us not move, but let us

never question His presence. If we are in the simple path

of His will, the Holy Spirit will act in us to guide, and not

merely on us to correct.

us then, in the order of Luke, which, as we have seen,

is not historical, but moral, we have the progressive exercises

of a man. First, natural lusts; secondly, worldly lusts;

and

lastly, spiritual temptations. e Lord Jesus was tempted

here, not in Eden, but in the great system where we are. He

put Himself, by the will and wisdom of God, in the place

of our diculty in the world, where man is. He has gone

through all the diculties a saint is in. Who wants His

help? Not a sinner, for he wants salvation: but a saint needs

help and sympathy in his path. We have practically to keep

our rst estate, as renewed. Satan cannot touch the new

5 Satan’s saying in Luke 4:6, “All this power,” was false as to

right, but true in fact, through men’s lusts. So far as these go, he

gives the power; but God, after all, is above him, and governs

in providence.

Notes on Luke 4

man, but he tries to entice us out of the path of godliness.

We want the succor to walk as obedient ones where Christ

walked.

Luke 4:14-15. “And Jesus returned in the power of the

Spirit into Galilee…and he taught in their synagogues,

being gloried of all.” In all things His obedience is shown.

Untouched by Satan, He goes forth in unhindered power:

as we shall in a measure, if like Him we pass through

temptation, so as not to be touched by Satan.

Luke 4:16. “And he came to Nazareth, where he had

been brought up“ — the low, despised place, but just the

place where spiritual power is found. Was it not ever thus?

When was it [power] found allied to the great things of

this world?

Verse 18. “e Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because

he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor,” etc.

It was the characteristic of grace to come to such. e great

business of Christ was to preach, that is to present God.

e Holy Spirit gives the right word at the right time,

and in the right way. “is day is this scripture fullled

in your ears” (vs. 21). e Lord does not reason; He says,

Here it is. e way of God is to present what we want.

You want salvation, there it is; you want mercy, and there

it is. God alone can thus come, by grace, into the place of

a sinner. ey wonder, for His were precious words, but

soon they ask, Is not this Joseph’s son? Was He ashamed

of being the carpenter? Grace goes down to the lowest

need. But man will take occasion to despise grace, because

it is clothed in humiliation: he cannot but see God, but

he steps aside to look at the humiliation, and so show out

the hatred of his heart. God’s grace is despised and His

sovereignty is hated. God did not despise Nazareth, but

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

man despises Jesus because He came out of Nazareth. Even

the guileless Nathaniel asks, “Can any good thing come

out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46). How little appreciation of

the way of grace there is even in the godly! Christ comes

into man’s misery, and nds him where he is. Could an

angel? No: he stays in his proper position, doing the Lord’s

commandments, and hearkening to the voice of His word.

An angel ought not to come down to me in my sins: God

only can in His grace. And man despised the lowliness to

which grace brought Him — wretched man!

But Israel ever resisted grace, and yet it was ever the

way of God’s delight. Witness the widow of Sarepta in

Sidon, and Naaman the Syrian leper. Grace overleaped

the bounds of Israel (vss. 25-27). ey might be enraged,

but grace does overstep their limits. ey rose up to thrust

down Him who had denied their privileges, but He passed

through (vs. 30) to renew the work of grace elsewhere (vss.

31- 32). is does not move Jesus; it tries Him and breaks

His heart, but it does not move Him. e reproach of man

turns Him to God. His comfort in His rejection is His

Father’s will: “Even so, Father.” It was perfectness in the

scene of grace, as before in the scene of temptation.

ere was also the manifestation of power, and not

merely promise. ere was the accomplishment of promise

for the deliverance of man in power as well as grace: and

this remains true for us, who know Him as a man risen,

and at the right hand of God. Mere promise does not give

a center for the aections: Christ Himself is that — Christ

to whom promise pointed. He awakens divine feelings and

thoughts in us, which nd no response or satisfaction from

anything in this world. It is the special character of Christ:

when He presents Himself, it is perfect peace and grace;

Notes on Luke 4

and in fellowship with Him, the soul can praise and rejoice

in what He is.

is grace adapts itself to all diculties, so as to bring

man into peace with God. e very demons knew who He

was; man alone was dull and blind. e demon held captive,

but a single word of Jesus sets the captive free. He was

there, not a promise merely, but power accomplishing, the

living power of the Lord Himself among men, the power

of God in man overcoming Satan. Such was Jesus in the

synagogue of Capernaum, dealing with the unclean spirit

(Luke 4:33-37). And it is the same when He goes out and

enters Simon’s house. Disease disappears, the weak is made

strong. He ministers unto Simon’s wife’s mother, as she

lay taken in a great fever, “and immediately she arose and

ministered unto them” (vss. 38-39). What can resist this

delivering power in the person of the Lord Jesus? “Now

when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with

divers diseases, brought them unto Him, and He laid His

hands on every one of them, and healed them; and demons

also came out of many” (Luke 4:40-41). He went about

doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the

devil. erefore when men stayed Him that He should not

depart, He pleads His mission to preach elsewhere also. He

is ever the obedient One.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

62933

Notes on Luke 5

Luke 5.

It is interesting to know the progressive power of the

word of God. e Lord was preaching, as related at the

close of chapter 4, and in so doing, as well as in the miracles

He wrought, He was manifesting the power of goodness.

us, in performing miracles, two purposes had to be

accomplished — conrmation of the testimony given, and

present deliverance from the power of Satan. But His great

business was preaching the kingdom of God. He will set

up the kingdom in power by-and-by, but His great object

then was (and is) to bring the heart into contact with God;

and the word does this more than miracles.

Luke 5:1. In a measure even the unconverted are sensible

of the presence of God. Adam was, when he tried to hide

himself. When the gospel is preached with power, crowds

are gathered together by it, touched, perhaps, by something

new, but without fruit. So it was with the Lord’s preaching

and miracles. We know their motives were selsh often, yet

He went on all the same. Come for the blessing of man, He

would associate others with Himself in this work of grace;

but He calls them in such a way as leaves no glory to man.

He “saw two ships standing by the lake, but the shermen

were gone out of them, and were washing their nets. And

he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon’s, and

prayed him that he would launch out a little from the land;

and he sat down and taught the multitudes out of the ship.

Now when he had left o speaking, he said to Simon,

Notes on Luke 5

Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a

draft” (Luke 5:2-4).

e word had authority in the conscience. Peter and

Andrew had seen Jesus before, but had not yet stayed with

Him; there had not been sucient power in their faith to

attach them to Christ. ere are many now, as ever, who

own the authority of the word, and yet not attached by its

power to His person — many absorbed by their everyday

pursuits, the word not having laid hold of their souls so as

to make them walk thoroughly with Christ. It is one thing

simply to hear His word when spoken to them; quite a

dierent thing when the word reaches them, and becomes

the spring and motive of all their ways. So, here, these men

had spent a little time with Jesus, had heard Him speak,

and owned Him as Messiah; so, now also, we see obedience

to His word when it comes to them. ey launch out at His

word, and at His word they let down their nets.

e miracle which the Lord wrought was one every way

suited to act on those concerned. eir own powerlessness

was confessed. “Master, we have toiled all the night, and

have taken nothing.” Man could do nothing in such a

case: if Jesus could, it was because everything was at His

disposal. “At thy word I will let down the net” (Luke 5: 5).

Luke 5:6-8. “And when they had this done, they enclosed

a great multitude of shes, and their net brake. And they

beckoned unto their partners … and they came and lled

both the ships, so that they began to sink.” ere was not

even strength to receive of themselves. “When Simon Peter

saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me;

for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” If the word of Jesus had

not reached Peter’s heart, he would merely have obeyed it

as a means of temporal help; but he owns Him as Lord,

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

hearing far more in the words spoken. His conscience was

reached. e Lord Himself is revealed to Peter, and that

shows Peter himself. When the eye of God is consciously

upon us, we see in ourselves what He saw. is was Peter’s

case. He, when brought into God’s presence, feels that he

has been deceiving himself.

Grace begins here, but we have not the end yet. So Paul

was blind three days, and his soul so wrought on that he

could neither eat nor drink. Here Peter falls down at Jesus’

knees. So with us: when brought really into His presence,

there is the discovery of our sinfulness. e means used

to bring us there may be various — circumstances of life,

providential occurrences (with Luther, a thunder-storm).

But when we are there, there is the revelation of Christ

Himself, and wherever He is, He takes His right place in

the soul. It is not only that a man then has salvation, but

he cannot longer be content without God having His due

place before him.

Peter does not y away from the Lord, like Adam

hiding himself; he is attracted to Him. At the same time

he is there a judged, convicted, sinful man in his own

conscience, which takes the part of Christ against itself.

“Depart from me,” he says, but he says it at Jesus’ knees.

is might seem like a contradiction. It was really love to

the Lord and care for His honor, because His word had

become the revelation of Christ to him. His heart has not

perfect peace, but Christ has got possession of it. Grace

draws to Christ, but there is withal the sense of untness

till His work is known in all its peace-giving consequences.

God sees the thoughts and intents of the heart, and we

are made to see these as He sees them. Righteousness

is planted in the conscience; God and man are brought

Notes on Luke 5

together. It was not that Peter could be happy anywhere

but at the knees of Jesus, but he felt all the while how unt

he was to be in such company.

But the Lord deals in perfect grace. He does not leave

Simon Peter. He knew all his sin before He went into the

ship, and says to him, “Fear not; from henceforth thou

shalt catch men” (Luke 5:10). Jesus went into the ship to

show Peter that he had nothing to fear. Truly “perfect love

casteth out fear” (1 John 4:18). Fear has torment till grace

is fully revealed; and now it was, with as much authority

as that miracle-working word, “Let down your nets for a

draft.” It was the word of Christ to his heart. If he trusted it

for the sh, why not for his fears? Peter had said, “Depart,”

but instead of that, Christ had already come, knowing all

he was better than Peter. He was come as a Savior; nay,

more, He intimates to Peter that He was going to make

him an instrument in gathering others. Everyone who

has the love of God shed abroad in his heart becomes a

vessel of living grace himself: not the source, but the river

ows through him, so that people may come and drink.

Recipients of grace, we are associated with Christ in the

activity of love. Outward gift is not meant here, but that,

as members of His body, there is living fellowship with the

Head in the testimony of His grace and power.

We see in these disciples the eect of all. ey are

absorbed with Christ now. ey not only look to Him for

salvation, but they think of nothing else for life, speaking

now generally and apart from any particular failure. “ey

forsook all, and followed him” (John 5:11). Christ becomes

their life. It is a new line altogether — not merely obedience

to an express command, with the reserve of thinking and

saying, perhaps, “there is no harm in this or that.” Christ

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

pleased not Himself. His reason for action was His

Father’s will, and not the absence of a prohibition. And

we are sanctied unto the obedience and sprinkling of the

blood of Jesus Christ. “ey forsook all,” and where Christ

went they went. ey are associated with their Lord in His

love to souls, and in the walk of life. is is liberty. May

we, having Christ our life, have Him as our one motive!

detached from all to Him, yet channels for all the blessing

and grace we have ourselves tasted in Him! ere is power

to attract out of every corruption around, and to gather the

soul into the thoughts and ways of God, by the revelation

of Christ Himself.

Luke 5:12. Christ was the manifestation on earth of

God’s power and character — of grace. Of this the leper’s

case which follows is a striking witness; for leprosy was

an evil which none but God could remove. But God

was there in grace. Leprosy presented sin in the aspect

of uncleanness. A man full of it on seeing Jesus, fell on

his face, and besought Him, saying, “Lord, if thou wilt,

thou canst make me clean.” ere is the recognition of

divine power in Jesus, but He has not full condence in

His grace. He seems disheartened by misery, and almost

in despair says, “If thou wilt,” and so forth. But He who

alone on earth had the title so to say, says, “I will.” It was

God only — not in heaven, but come down in man and

among men. Christ was there, who could touch the leper

and the leprosy without being touched by it. Divine power

was needed, doubtless, and the very priests could not but

attest the results of its intervention, but there was divine

and perfect love in His touch, while it was the touch of a

man, a man who acknowledged the ordinances of God, as

one who had been born under law. us this “turned for a

Notes on Luke 5

testimony.” For the leper must go to the priest, and what

could he think? Why, who has been here? Jehovah must

have been to heal the man.

Luke 5:16. And what next? Jesus “withdrew himself

into the wilderness, and prayed.” Let the power exercised

be ever so great, and manifestly divine, He is the dependent

man; and this is just where we fail.

Luke 5:18. Here we have another thing — not the

power of Satan, as in chapter 4, nor the uncleanness of

sin, typied by leprosy, but the guilt of sin. ey brought

the man, because they felt the need; and there was the

perseverance of faith, which would not be put o till

another day. And Jesus brings forgiveness of sins, as well

as cleansing from delement. is is what appears in the

instance of the palsied man. e rst and grand point

is that Jesus pronounces his sins forgiven. Authority to

pardon was come in the Person of the Son of man on earth,

whatever scribes and Pharisees might think. It was God,

the Lord Jehovah, but the Son of man withal, having on

earth power to forgive sins, and using it. It is in this way

Israel is to be forgiven by-and-by (compare Psa. 103:3); and

accordingly, the Lord here gives the proof of that authority

to forgive by the healing the disease of the paralytic. “at

ye may know” (Luke 5:24). e man was to know in his

relationship to God, that his guilt was gone.

rough innite grace, we are entitled to more than

even this; for we have the righteousness of the accepted

man in God’s presence. We are made the righteousness of

God in Him. is palsied man was a sample of what will

be, in the future day, Israel’s portion. Jesus was forgiving

iniquities and healing diseases. He had shown the power

to do the one; now He would show that He could do the

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

other also. It is God’s delight to do it all. You may not

believe that you can have such a boon, but it is ours in

Christ. e perfect Man has come with perfect title in His

Person. God wrought there, but it was also as a man lled

with the Holy Spirit. e believer walks, too, a proof not

to himself so much as to others that God is there. e man

ought not to say, “I wonder if I can walk”; if he has faith, he

will get up and do it.

Two things are here present. First, the exceeding

blessed grace that the Lord is come, the power of God

within the sphere of human misery, which, extreme as it

may be, does but make that power evident. If I look around

as a man, I am lost. I cannot un-riddle the history of the

world — abominations committed in the name of Christ,

Himself rejected by His people Israel, and crucied by those

Gentiles to whom God had entrusted the government

of the world, Mohammedanism, heathenism; what kind

of a God have you, says the reasoning heart, when it is

such a world! But here I have the Lord come down into

all the wretchedness, sickness, sin; and my heart is drawn

away from pleasure and sorrow to Him. How beautiful to

see heart after heart brought around this One, the only

true center, soon to be the risen head of the new creation,

Himself the object drawing out feelings and aections

of which He alone is worthy; He who by His excellency,

gives excellency, and by His gracious thoughts towards us

produces and draws out gracious thoughts in us. Next, our

hearts are xed just so far as we have an object — xed

according to God, when we have Christ Himself before us.

How can I love if I have nothing to love? A man is what he

feels, and likes and thinks. If my soul lives and feeds upon

that which is most excellent — Christ the bread of God,

Notes on Luke 5

Christ becomes, in a practical sense, formed in the heart.

In Him, the man Christ Jesus, God has had all His delight,

and the display of it too.

Remark further, that in the accounts we have seen, divine

power in the person of Jesus, the Son of man, is exercised

in the midst of Israel. First, Luke 4:31-41, its triumph

over the enemy’s power in sicknesses and in demoniacal

possessions, and the testimony of the kingdom, when all

such eects of Satan’s work should disappear. is last

opens the way for the more positive and deeper blessing

of souls, being put in relationship to God. Hence from

Luke 5:1-26 (the call of Peter, the cleansing of the leper,

and the pardon of the palsied man), it is a question of the

state of the soul (whatever the outward accompaniments

might be), of the authority of the word of the heart, of

faith, and of Christ’s personal glory. Still it was grace in

operation towards Israel; grace, if one may so speak, in

government. To Israel God had said that He would not put

upon them the plagues of Egypt, save for their sin. ey

were an outwardly elect, redeemed people, but they were

under God’s government; and hence chastening came, of

which the leprosy and the palsy were peculiar samples.

Jesus shows Himself to be “Jehovah that healeth thee” (Ex.

15:26), in the midst of Israel, though He was passing away

from them into a wider display of power and goodness. He

could have healed every one, leprous or paralytic; He could

have removed all the diseases, now, alas! brought on the

Israelites; but in these cases it is where they come to Him

in quest of healing, that is, it is in answer to faith that He

works. He was there, showing divine power and grace in

healing.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

Luke 5:27, etc. But this grace, being of God and

sovereign, could not be bounded by human circumstances.

Wherever a want appeared to Him, could He gainsay

His power or His love? Now, see how that connects itself

with what follows. ere was full deliverance for all who

trusted in Israel, but He could not, and would not limit

His grace. e law limited, but when Himself, the God

who gave it, came, everybody who needs Him is welcome;

His house is a house of prayer for all nations. Hence He

calls a publican, a Jew indeed, but detested by the Israelites,

and in a sense rightly, when viewed as the mark of their

servitude nationally. A publican was one who proted by

their Gentile masters, to extort money from Israel, and

therefore naturally regarded with horror. But Jesus calls

one named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom — calls

him to be an apostle! Grace must act according to its own

rights. If God has been good to you and me, does that

hinder His mercy and love to another? Grace creates the

instrument it wants to act by; and it will ow farther than

the publican yet, even to the most distant Gentile. True,

Israel had the promises, the Gentile, strictly speaking, had

none; but for that very reason it was more purely grace; and

grace would act towards the Gentiles. e Lord Himself,

God, was there, and Israel could not be the center, nor the

temple, when He was there, the despised Lord of both. He

is the door, the new center and turning-point of blessing;

not a mere branch of the old vine, but Himself the true

vine. As a Jew, He was subject to ordinances, but as the

Lord, He is above them, and He breaks out beyond all the

old restrictions.

“Levi made him a great feast in his own house, and

there was a great company of publicans and of others

Notes on Luke 5

that sat down with them; but their scribes and Pharisees

murmured” (Luke 5:23-30). It was a terrible sight and

blow to such. But Jesus answers, “ey that are whole need

not a physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call

the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” ey mistook the

Lord altogether: He came to show how grace could deal

with those who had no righteousness.

Luke 5:33. He is now breaking, as it were, out of the old

thing. He is faithful to Israel, but breaking up that order

of things. How could they fast who owned the presence

of the divine husband of Israel, the Messiah! e time

was coming when the cross must be taken; but when the

Bridegroom is there, fasting was out of place and season.

Luke 5:36-39. Further, the old garment cannot be

patched with new cloth. Jesus would do no such thing as

tack on Christianity to Judaism. Flesh and law go together,

but grace and law, God’s righteousness and man’s, will

never mix. Neither can the new wine, the power of the

Spirit, be put into the old legal ordinances without loss on

all sides. A man accustomed to forms, human arrangement,

fathers’ religion, and so forth, never likes the new principle

and power of the kingdom; he says, e old is better. Such

is nature; grace is oensive to it. Nor does man improve in

divine things. He can degrade himself and give up what his

heart never relished. And this goes on rapidly today.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

62934

Notes on Luke 6

Luke 6.

Here we have a most weighty thing spoken of — the

sabbath. It is a question that often agitates the minds

of men, and it was then specially important as closing

Jewish relations. And this, it will be borne in mind, was

just where the Lord had morally arrived at the close of the

preceding chapter. e rights of His person and His grace,

now becoming more rejected by the religionists, of Israel,

reach out beyond the narrow bounds of that proud people.

God thereon, by degrees, intimates the coming purpose of

His mercy; His salvation in due time shall be sent unto

the Gentiles, and they will hear if the Jew judges himself

unworthy of everlasting life. God will have His own joy of

saving souls somewhere.

Now it is very evident that the incident of the corneld

(vss. 1-5), “on the second sabbath after the rst,” thoroughly

falls in with the object of the Spirit in hand. “e Son of

man is Lord also of the sabbath.” His person entitles Him

to supremacy over that which was the sign of the covenant

of the law. In the next case (vss. 6-10) He asserts the right

to do good on the sabbath-days, as His adversaries on the

same day show their disposition to destroy.

e sabbath, in any real sense, man had entirely lost;

indeed he had never entered into God’s thoughts of rest. It

was His rest, and had not sin spoiled all, man should have

enjoyed that which was the result not of his own, but of

God’s labor. is is the proper character of that rest which

belongs to man distinctively; but sin having come in, the

Notes on Luke 6

necessity has arisen that God should work afresh, if man is

ever to share the rest of God (Heb. 4). Meanwhile Christ

has appeared and nished the work which God gave Him

to do. Hence, we who believe, nd rest in Christ, as does

God Himself. In Him, by virtue of the accomplished

and accepted work of redemption, we have our sabbath

spiritually.

e day was set apart and hallowed from the beginning

(Gen. 2). Afterward it came in, rst in grace to Israel,

marked by the cessation of the manna, and a double portion

to provide for that holy day (Ex. 16): and, secondly, as a part

of the law of Sinai, and incorporated with every new and

special dealing of Jehovah (Ex. 20). (See also Ex. 31:13-14;

33:14; 34:21; 35:2.) It was a memorial thenceforward of

the deliverance out of Egypt (Deut. 5:15). Accordingly, the

prophets expressly treat it as a sign of Israel’s separation

from all other nations unto God, and God’s covenant with

them (Ezek. 20:12-20; 22:8; 23:38; 44:24; Isa. 56; Isa. 58;

Jer. 17:21-27). But then, in the past, Israel, a sinful people,

had the sabbath as a legal ordinance, and consequently are

condemned by it as by all else.

Where is this covenant with Israel? All gone because of

their iniquity. Hence they were thrown into the hands of

the Gentiles, and became slaves. “Behold, we are servants

this day, and for the land that thou gavest unto our fathers

to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof, behold, we are

servants in it; and it yieldeth much increase unto the kings

whom thou hast set over us because of our sins: also they

have dominion over our bodies, and over our cattle, at their

pleasure, and we are in great distress” (Neh. 9:36-37). If they

had a temple after the captivity, it was only at the mercy

of their Persian masters. e outward emblem lingered on,

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

no doubt, and was especially made much to dishonor Him,

of whom and whose work it was so signicant; but where

was its reality when Jesus was on earth? Alas! He lies in the

grave all the day which His murderers kept as a day holy

to Jehovah (“for that sabbath day was a high day!”); awful

testimony to the Jews of their position. eir own Messiah

slain by His own people; such was the truth which that

sabbath-day uttered to him who had ears to hear. Israel

never had the rest of God. If Joshua had given them rest,

and so forth (Heb. 4). ere remaineth therefore a rest.

ey must own Jesus rst.

But the rejected Jesus was Son of man, and the Son of

man was Lord of the sabbath (vs. 5) — a truth of the utmost

gravity, to be asserted with all strength. ose who confound

the Lord’s day with the sabbath are in danger of forgetting

this. It was the very point here in controversy with the Jews

who maintained that the sabbath was superior to the Lord.

But He shows that another new principle had come in,

which wholly overleaped the old, and that to remain in the

old was to have no deliverance. For there is no possibility

for a lustful creature to be under a commandment that

condemns lust, without being condemned. Grace, however,

has entered through a rejected Christ, and now there is rest

for us who believe — not for those who are on the ground

of law.

is is the reason why Christians keep the rst day of

the week, and not the seventh or sabbath day. e rest was

acquired by the power of Christ’s redemption, and the

rst day, when He arose from the dead, was that which

proclaimed it to faith, spite of man’s guilt and ruin. e

seventh day will be the rest of man on earth; the rst day

celebrates Christ’s taking us in Him to heaven. en was

Notes on Luke 6

life from the dead, life more abundantly, liberty from the

law and every consequence of sin — in a word, the victory of

grace. e Christian therefore has the rst day distinctively,

because it belongs to and witnesses of the perfected work

of Christ, and consequently introduces heavenly rest. e

rst day is in contrast with the seventh, which appertained

to the round of man’s labor in nature and of the Jew’s under

the law, in which Adam and Israel utterly broke down. It

is the Lord’s day emphatically, and thus testies of the

triumph of Christ’s word and the glory of His person — not

the day which guilty unbelief would have perverted into

the proof and means of His inferiority. It is positive, direct

blessing to him who owns and honors it — not because it is

the close of legal toil, but the commencement of Christian

hope — the resurrection-day when we begin our spiritual

life; and look on for what will crown so precious a pledge.

Here, however, the grand thing is the maintenance of

the rights and the authority of the Son of man. You never

can, according to God, raise up the title of the sabbath

against the Lord of the sabbath.

Luke 6:3-5. What did David, the anointed of the Lord,

when Saul persecuted him and sought his life? Was it of

God, then, to uphold the ritual and so starve the man after

His heart? No; the foundations were out of course, and

everything became common in Israel when the chosen

king was thus iniquitously rejected. But a greater One,

and a graver sin, were now in their midst. e Son indeed,

but the Root of David, God Himself was there; He who

instituted the sabbath, its Lord, was there in the person of

the Son of man.

Luke 6:6-10. But if God was there, would He deny

His own goodness or restrain His power in presence of

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

human misery, because “the scribes and Pharisees watched

him, whether he would heal on the sabbath-day?” Divine

love must act and heal the withered hand, even if wretched

man should seek to nd therein an accusation. And they

were lled with madness and communed one with another

what they might do to Jesus (vs. 11); but Jesus in those

days retired to a mountain to pray. He drew near to God,

to commune with Him what He was to do for them (vs.

12). His was the activity of grace — of love displaying itself

holily and mightily in the midst of evil.

Luke 6:13-16. “And when it was day, he called unto

Him his disciples,” and so forth. In this call He proves

that He was the only One who could empower others to

bear this testimony also, and yet here, as in all that passed

before, He is the lowly dependent One-perfect man, as

well as God. He was in perfect unbroken communion with

His God and Father, though Himself God manifest in

the esh. How blessedly near us this brings Him, though

so innitely above us! What He did, we should aim at,

whatever our measure and our little sphere. In Him we see

man perfect in that place of power wherein He came.

He knew whom He chose. He knew that one of them

had a devil; but He sent them out. Twelve He chose

specially, whom also He called apostles, “sent ones.” It

was an important and signicant word, as quite a distinct

thing from both law and promises. No one was sent out

by law. Now God is active; He is sending His Son, and

the Son is sending out apostles. e love of God is active

in gathering souls. is rst sent One is a man, really and

truly. God’s work of His grace must be done by His Son:

not by angels, but by His own Son, as the Man Christ Jesus,

and He sends men out from Himself. e gathering point

Notes on Luke 6

is Man — Himself of course. To Man God has committed

all things. While it must be God who shows grace, the Son

of man it is who comes on the mission of love, and sends

out men to men.

Luke 5:17-19. Whatever He attracts by, He gathers

round Himself to worship, surrounds Himself with them,

and then comes down and stands in the plain. e great

multitude are attracted by His miracles and their wants,

coming to hear and be healed. e company of the disciples

were an inner circle. “e whole multitude sought to touch

him.” It is not said that they were converted, which is

another thing; but living power went out of Him, healing

their bodily misery and delivering from the power of Satan.

Luke 20, etc. He now lifts up His eyes on His disciples

and speaks to them, not as in Matthew 5, giving them the

developed principles of the kingdom; but distinguishing

those before Him as the remnant. Hence it is “ye” here.

He puts seal and stamp on those actually gathered round

Himself. ey are to be like Him. He is at once their center

and their pattern. He was God, but the fullness of the Holy

Spirit dwelt in Him as man also; and so He could say, “I

do always those things that please him” (John 8:29). So

should it be with those around Him.

Luke 6:20-26. “Blessed [are] ye poor; for yours is the

kingdom of God. Blessed [are] ye that hunger now; for ye

shall be lled. Blessed [are] ye that weep now; for ye shall

laugh. Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you.” ese words

of the Savior give the contrast of those He pronounces

blessed with all that are in ease in this world. ose who,

if in this life only they had hope in Christ, would be of

all men the most miserable, are the only happy few; they

are severed from all others, and put in relationship with

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

Him the source of blessing, to be blessed. If you can make

yourselves happy and comfortable in this world which has

rejected Jesus, count not on His blessing.

It is the poor, the despised with Jesus, who shall have the

kingdom. He says, if we may so speak, “I am distinguishing

you” (for there is no enunciation of abstract principles, as in

the beginning of Matthew 5, but a speaking to the hearts

of those gathered around Him). “I am come as the center

of power and active love. ere is but one sole place of

blessing on earth. With Me you are blessed.” Others may

be gay and cheerful where Christ has no place; but it is a

time when a true spiritual soul can get no good save with

Christ. It is a denite distinction of, and address to, the

disciples who attached themselves to Him. is is made

clear in verse 22, where the persecution for righteousness,

which Matthew carefully records, is omitted. Here it is

only a question of suering “for the Son of man’s sake.”

In the midst of a world of misery and selshness there

came One who displayed not law nor judgment, but

grace. But the light shines in darkness, and the darkness

comprehended it not. Like the adder that hears nothing,

the world goes on as deaf as it is blind. No; you who are

“full,” now Jesus has no charm for you; but you, disciples,

are weeping now — the sorrow and the sin of man distress

your spirit: you shall rejoice. When God has His way, you,

who cannot be satised with the husks, shall be lled.

Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your

reward is great in heaven; for in the like manner did their

fathers unto the prophets. You have your portion with

Christ here, you shall have it with Christ in heaven. You

suer with the suering One, you shall have glory with

the gloried One. But the others! — they shall have what

Notes on Luke 6

they seek. For the full there shall be a famine by-and-by,

for they have lost God. If you can laugh in such a world as

this, you shall weep when God’s time for blessing comes.

ey are of the world, and the world loves its own. “So

did their fathers to the false prophets” (Luke 6:26). Are

the times altered? Is Christ’s character changed? It is not a

whit more agreeable to the esh. And if you can nd your

joy, ease, and pleasure in the world, Christ could not, and

you have not His Spirit. He that will be its friend is the

enemy of God. Can the disciples of Jesus be merry and

gay in a world which has sin wrapped up in it? ere is

communion with Jesus, joy in the Spirit, while patient in

tribulation; but this is quite another thing. It is a serious

joy, though very real and blessed.

From Luke 6:27 He shows what must be the conduct of

the disciples as such. ey were to manifest God, to be the

unfolding of what was displayed in Him. Grace which was

in Him in fullness and perfection should be reproduced in

them, sadly as we all fail in this — the principle of our path.

“Love your enemies,” and so forth. God loved us when we

were His enemies, and we have now to show practically

what God is. Luke 6:29 brings us into entirely human

circumstances, patiently learning in them: or, as in 1 Peter

2, doing well, suering for it, and taking it patiently. is

may seem poor comfort. But Jesus did so, and love must

so manifest itself in an evil world. e time comes when

God will judge, instead of bearing long as now; but now,

at whatever cost to self, show love as Christ did. Flesh

can love for love (vss. 32-33), but the disciples of Christ

are called to imitate God, and walk in love. “Love ye your

enemies, and do good and lend, hoping for nothing again,

and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

of the Highest; for he is kind unto the unthankful and to

the evil” (Luke 6:35).

What a blessed character of God comes out here! It

is not righteousness, though surely there was that; but in

the world where God had to do with the unthankful and

evil, He shows grace. For the angels He has not grace, but

love: but Christ in this world of sin is grace (that is, love to

those who deserve it not). “Be ye therefore merciful, as your

Father also is merciful” (Luke 6:36). It is not “with” but “as

your Father.” As He loves His enemies, so do you; He is

merciful, be ye also merciful. In all this, God’s character

is displayed — perfect love in a world of sinners. It must

cost us something; it cost the life of Christ. His love was

a stream, which, if it met with hindrances in its way, only

went on owing over, and leaving them behind till it

reached the cross.

Luke 6:37. is is not certain things required in order

to get life, but the result of certain conduct shown. “Judge

not, and ye shall not be judged.” As though He had said,

You will nd the consequences of your conduct as Christ

did. He took the lowest place, but He has got the highest

now. He humbled Himself; “wherefore God also hath

highly exalted him,” etc. He came not to judge, and now

“all judgment is committed to the Son.” us we not only

have the display of grace, but divine character meeting its

consequences. It is a question of government — of walking

with the Lord; it must cost a great deal in the path, but in

the end it will be “full measure, pressed down.” ere will

be God’s blessing too in the way; though self is mortied.

Grace will abound according to God’s way.

Luke 6:39. See the contrast of those who are utter

blindness, and the blind leading the blind. You must let

Notes on Luke 6

them alone; leave them to go on their own way; but you

have to take your place with Me; and the disciple is not

above his master, but you shall be as your Master. If your

Master suers, you suer; if it has cost your Master much,

it may cost you much. If Christ teaches you, it is to make

you possess the divine learning that He has Himself. And

see what a place He gives us! When He gives, what does

He give? e very same that He has Himself. “As he is,

so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17). “Not as the world

giveth” (John 14:27), which, if it gives a little, reserves the

chief for itself; but as though He said, “I am putting you in

the very same learning that is in My nature: the grace that

I have you are to have.” But people do not like to do those

things that Jesus did.

Why is there so much argument about that one passage,

“resist not evil”? (Matt. 5:39). It is because you like to resist

evil. Your will is touched, your conscience is reached; for

it is given you as matter-of-fact exhortation; but you do

not like it, and you will rid of it if you can. ese things

are given as tests for the conscience; they judge the eye,

not the path only. “If therefore thine eye be single, thy

whole body shall be full of light” (Matt. 6:22). e object

is wrong, if you have not light for the step. ere may be

diculties in going up a steep hill, but if the object before

you is clear, you get over them as quickly as you can. is

is what is meant by the expression, “is one thing I do”

(Phil. 3:13). It is having one object, and the mind intent

on accomplishing it. If it is so with you, there will be sure

to be light in the path — light, not for ten years hence, but

for this one step that is before you, and then for the next.

It was said to Moses, “Speak unto the children of Israel

that they go forward” (Ex. 14:15); and when they were out

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

in the wilderness, the pillar was given to be their constant

guide. So with us; we are called out to go after Christ on

the principle of obedience, and this puts us into connection

with Him in the revelation of His will, not giving us to

see all the path onwards. A man may see a wall, and say, “I

cannot go that way: there is a wall,” while, if he but takes a

single step, he will nd that there is a path all down by the

side of the wall.

Luke 6:44. “Every tree is known by his own fruit.” Not

only bearing fruit, but fruit that Christ produces should be

ours. ere is fruit that an upright nature produces, such

as that of the young man who came to Jesus, but this was

not divine fruit — “its own fruit”; and where Christ is the

root and the stock, it is Christian fruit, that is, fruit that

will remain (John 15:16). Two men may go together up

to a certain point, and then some test for Christ comes;

one goes on with Him, and the other turns aside. “Its own

fruit” fruit shows itself, springs of itself. ere will not be

the question of, What harm in this or that? What harm

in being rich? as a person once asked me. If it shuts you

out of heaven, is there any harm in that? Oh, I did not

think of that! But the secret is, that you like the things. e

evil is not the things themselves dug out of the earth, but

the love in the heart for them. Out “of the abundance of

the heart the mouth speaketh” (Luke 6:45). An impatient

word betrays the heart. A blow I may restrain and yet utter

the word.

Luke 6:47. In the hearing of all the multitude the Lord

speaks now about the house built upon the rock. is is not

a question about building upon Christ, the Rock, for the

salvation of the sinner. It is the path of the saint. But where

Christ’s word does connect with Himself, see the result.

Notes on Luke 6

e very thing people are called upon to do is to follow

Him; and when I follow, it proves that the Master’s words

have taken such hold upon my soul that they have power

to carry me over the diculties. “My soul followeth hard

after thee” (Psa. 63:8). A man’s aections, heart, will, are

taken and connected with Christ, instead of with himself.

Is Christ suciently precious to make me leave all beside

and follow Him, to do those things that please Him? “If

any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he

seeth the light of the world” (John 11:9). “As when the

bright shining of a candle doth give thee light” (Luke

11:36). Keeping close to Christ, the light shines upon us. If

we have to get into the light, we may be dazzled by it. us

He has gathered round Himself in light and love, set out

in those words, those whom He will have to enjoy Himself,

and be as their Master, at length to be conformed to His

image in glory.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

62935

Notes on Luke 7

Luke 7.

We have seen the Lord, rejected by Israel, gradually, in

virtue of His person and rights, breaking out beyond the

ancient limits, and gathering the remnant round Himself,

the new and only just object of God, the source of a mission

in grace, and the full development and exemplication of

holy love in an evil world; for, whatever the principles laid

down in chapter 6, they are but the expression of God’s

character in grace, as displayed in Christ here below.

In accordance with this, we have now (vss. 1-10) the

case of the centurion, and a very full and striking one it

is. It is not merely an act of grace, but grace to a Gentile.

Nor is this all. e principle on which the apostle rests

this question is brought out. “It is of faith, that it might

be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all

the seed” (Rom. 4:16). Faith, as the great turning-point, is

introduced. It was no mere theory; it was living faith, and

such faith as had not been seen in Israel. Neither was there

presumption, but, on the contrary, remarkable humility.

He recognized the honor God had put upon His people;

he sees, holds to it, owns and acts upon it, spite of their

low and debased, and, in every other respect, unworthy

condition. Despised and failing as they might be, he loved

the Jews as God’s people, and for His sake, and he had built

them a synagogue. Unfeigned lowliness was his, though

(yea, rather, for) his faith was far beyond those he honored.

Consequently he had a very high apprehension of the

power and glory of the person of Christ as divine, reaching

Notes on Luke 7

out beyond Jewish thoughts altogether. He does not refer

to the Lord as Messiah, but recognized in Him the power

of God in love. is was blessed faith, which forgets itself

in the exaltation of its object. He had not seen Jesus, it

would seem, but assuredly gathered from what he “heard,”

that diseases were nothing to Him but occasions wherein

to display His absolute authority and His sovereign mercy.

He was a stranger, and the Jews were God’s people; must

not they or their elders be the ttest to bring this wonderful

person? For he conded in His mercy as well as His power,

and his servant, “dear unto him,” was sick and ready to die.

He needed Jesus.

“en Jesus went with them. And when he was now

not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him,

saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself; for I am not

worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof; wherefore

neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee; but say

in a word, and my servant shall be healed” (Luke 7:6-7).

ere was surely the deepest personal respect and aection.

Untaught as he might be in other things, he strongly felt

the excellency of Christ’s person, and here again with

humility correspondent to the measure in which His glory

was seen. is message of the centurion’s friends admirably

depicts his character and feeling. He told nothing to Jesus

of his service to the Jews, spoke of nothing personal save

his unworthiness, and this so consistently, that he begged

Jesus not to come to his house, as unworthy to receive

Him. ere was in this soul the exact opposite of doing

Christ an honor, by believing on Him, and far from him

was the pretense of receiving Christ to set himself up; both

alas! found often elsewhere. e simplicity of his heart is as

apparent as his strong faith. ere was none such in Israel,

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

and yet it was in one who loved Israel. It was a lesson of

grace, in every way, for the crowd that followed Jesus — for

us too most surely.

Along with grace to the Gentiles came the evidence

of power to raise the dead, but here it was manifested in

human sympathies, in witness that God had visited His

people (vss. 11-17). It was the power of resurrection, a

power which was yet to be shown more gloriously, and to

be the source of that which is new for man according to

God — the God who raiseth the dead. It was another and

wondrous proof that He is here going, in the character of

His action, without the sphere of the law and its ordinances.

For “the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth”

(Rom. 7:1); what can it avail for one who is dead? “For

what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the

esh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful

esh” (Rom. 8:3). It was grace, indeed, and divine energy,

but withal displayed in One who was touched with the

feeling of our inrmities. And how astonishingly all the

details bring this out! e dead man was “the only son

of his mother, and she was a widow” (Luke 7:10). “And

when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and

said unto her, Weep not … And he that was dead sat up,

and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother”

(Luke 7:13,15). How exquisitely human, and withal how

unmistakably divine!

It is manifest that these two cases illustrate the change

which the Spirit is attesting in this part of Luke. Nor is

it otherwise with the scene that follows, which brings

out in fact the hinge of the dispensation. e Lord bears

witness to John Baptist, not John to the Lord. John sends

two of his disciples, on the report of the Lord’s miracles,

Notes on Luke 7

to learn from Himself who He is. Are we surprised? He

had preached and baptized in the confession of sins and

in faith of the coming Messiah. But now all was changed.

John was in prison, not delivered, and it was no longer a

people preparing for the Lord. Was it not strange? At any

rate John sought a plain answer, and well could he trust the

word of One who did such mighty and holy works. But

what a comment upon the marvelous change was this very

inquiry! It was a sort of turning over the disciples of John

to the Lord. “And in that same hour he cured many of their

inrmities and plagues, and of evil spirits; and unto many

that were blind he gave sight. en Jesus answering said

unto them, Go your way, and tell John” (Luke 7:21-22).

At the same time, if He receives no longer testimony from

John, He bears it to him, owning John and his work. But

they were owned from a higher ground where the Lord in

grace and resurrection power had placed Himself; and this

was based on entire rejection in and by the world, so that,

though He was doing all good, still it was “blessed is he

whosoever shall not be oended in me” (Luke 7:23). Hence

in the very verse where the Lord recognizes in the fullest

way John the Baptist, He marks the change about to take

place — “he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater

than he” (Luke 7:28). Happy they who justied God in

being baptized of John — wretched the self-righteous

who rejected His counsel against themselves. Wisdom is

justied of all her children. ey understand the ways of

God, whether in the servant or the Lord. e ways are

quite dierent, but understood in grace. is generation

alas! understands none, nds fault with all. John is too

righteous for them, Jesus is too gracious. e mourning of

the one and the piping of the other are utterly distasteful.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

100

Such is man’s wisdom before the ways of God. But the

children of wisdom justify wisdom notwithstanding.

And in spite of the perverseness of men, our Lord did not

stop manifesting Himself to the world. Accordingly a tale

follows (Luke 7:36-50) which shows how God’s wisdom

is justied by and in those who own it in Jesus. It is a tale

of grace, of pure, plenary, pardoning grace, which rests not

till its object is dismissed in perfect peace. Jesus is in the

Pharisee’s house, who failed entirely in the essential point:

Simon perceived not the glory of Christ. In this the Lord

meets him, and shows, in contrast with the woman “which

was a sinner,” the point where this Pharisee was exercising

judgment to be precisely that wherein he failed. God’s

thoughts are not as our thoughts, nor His ways as our ways.

What if the despised Jesus were not a prophet only, but a

Savior of poor lost sinners? Ah, God was unknown — that

was the secret. e converted soul sees the glory of the Lord

as grace towards itself; he who is unconvinced, however

interested humanly, judges according to his own thoughts,

and therefore necessarily fails to see the glory which is not

according to these thoughts. Man’s judgment of the gospel

must be wrong therefore; his reception of it, as grace, is

alone right, and alone the way of coming to the knowledge

of it.

is was, then, a direct and distinct example of God’s

ways. It was a forgiving of sins in grace, sovereignly and

freely, to any poor sinner, manifesting and producing love

in the forgiven, who loves God, because God is love, and

this in respect of his sins, in Jesus the Lord. It was proper

grace — the ground on which any one, a Gentile or not,

would be received, and God manifested not in requirement

from man (and so making man in the esh of importance)

Notes on Luke 7

101

but making God all, and His character in sovereign grace,

so bringing in blessing and its blessed eect upon the

heart, developing the fruits of grace in a heart restored to

condence in God by the sense of His goodness.

What a blessed picture! Goodness known not only in

the act, but in Him who did it. e discernment of guilt

in its gross forms by man was one thing, but the grace

of God which could blot out and forgive all was quite

another. It was not Christ there to judge, and to sanction

Pharisees, but love to a sinner, manifesting God in this

new character of grace, producing thankful holy love to

God, and a blessed relationship, sovereign and beyond the

reach of man. But how has God always to prove Himself

right in His goodness to man! so hard is man’s heart.

But the Lord identies Himself with the believer, and

vindicates him against the haughty world, and this gives

assurance. Perfectly regardless of comments, He applies

Himself, not to unbelief, which were useless, but to those

who have faith, and having communicated forgiveness,

shows the soul his uprightness, that is, the right thoughts

of God and self which faith has. e last word settles the

whole question. e soul’s love was a ground of evidence

and reasoning — not, of course, the cause. “y faith hath

saved thee”, said the Lord to the woman, “Go in peace”

(Luke 7:50). All is discharged from the conscience, and the

heart nds itself innitely and everlastingly a debtor to the

continual fountain of all grace.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

102

62936

Notes on Luke 8

Luke 8.

We have seen, in what has preceded, the Lord presenting

Himself, by His words and His work, as a new center, to

which and round which His people were gathered. Before

this, Jehovah had been the center, when Israel was the

gathering point; for Jehovah was among the Jews, and

the temple the place where He met with the people. But

now the Son is here, “God was manifest in the esh” (1

Tim. 3:16). and He must be the center of everything. But

Israel would not be gathered, as the Lord Himself said in

Matthew 23:37, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem … but ye would

not.” Again in Isaiah 65:2, “I have spread out my hands all

the day unto a rebellious people.”

Israel could not have the blessing, for the esh could

not hold it. e esh, simply looked at as such, is “as grass”

(Isa. 40:6). “All esh is grass.” We have these two great

principles running through the latter chapters of Isaiah;

rst that esh, as esh, could not hold the blessing, and be

the depository for the promises. For when all grace came,

in the person of the Lord, the people to whom He was sent

He found withered down like grass. “Surely the people is

grass. e grass withereth, the ower fadeth: but the word

of our God shall stand forever” (Luke 8:7-8). But God was

not going to give up His purpose. erefore in Isaiah 49

we nd Jehovah says unto Christ, “ou art my servant, O

Israel, in whom I will be gloried” (Isa. 49:3). en Christ

says, If God is to be gloried in Israel, “I have labored in

vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain:

Notes on Luke 8

103

yet surely my judgment is with Jehovah, and my reward

with my God.” en saith Jehovah, “ough Israel be not

gathered, yet shall I be gloried in the eyes of Jehovah. I

will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou

mayest be my salvation to the ends of the earth” (Isa. 49:5-

6).

is is what Christ is becoming in Luke’s Gospel — “a

light to lighten the Gentiles,” and so forth. And afterward

we nd Paul quoting, with the perfect accuracy of the Spirit,

this very scripture, so exactly tted for them, to the Jews at

Antioch. “It was necessary that the word of God should

rst have been spoken unto you, but seeing put it from you,

and ye judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, lo! we turn

to the Gentiles” (Acts 13:46-47; and again, Acts 28:28).

Israel will be gathered afterward, for Christ will hereafter

raise up the tribes of Jacob and restore the preserved of

Israel; but before this He turns to the Gentiles. All this

the Lord pictures to us in Luke. In Luke 7 we see Israel

refused both John the Baptist and Christ; but “wisdom

is justied of all her children.” e Pharisees and lawyers

did not justify God at all, for they saw no beauty in Jesus,

whereas the publicans did; and thus the poor woman, “who

was a sinner,” whose heart was touched by the grace of

God, is the true child of wisdom, and is brought in here as

an illustration of Christ being the new center of blessing,

“though Israel be not gathered” (Isa. 49:5).

e Lord then goes on with His testimony, gathering

by the word, rst, by parables, as in chapter 8, and then

in chapter 9 sending forth His disciples to preach, with

this commission, to shake o the dust from their feet, if

they are not received, a token of the last testimony being

rendered, when they are given up.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

104

Here are two classes of persons gathered round Christ.

First, the twelve apostles were public witnesses, tted by

divine grace to be the vessels of testimony, manifesting the

electing power of God in calling them, and sending them

forth in all the energy of ministry; Christ’s apostles, sent

out by Himself. “As my Father hath sent me, even so send I

you” (John 20:21) — His chosen ones. “Ye have not chosen

me, but I have chosen you” (John 15:16). en, secondly,

there were others who were gathered by aection round

Him, having no place of oce in the church, but those

whose hearts were touched and drawn round Him, not

sent out like the rst class, but not less devoted in heart

than the apostles, for they followed Him and ministered to

Him of their substance.

In Luke 8:4-8 we have the parable of the sower; and

here, as previously remarked, it is not the kingdom brought

out as in Matthew, but the testimony as to what and whom

Christ was gathering, and not as to the form the kingdom

would take afterward. e very fact of Christ coming as the

sower proved that Israel was set aside; for had it been now

to Israel as His vineyard, He must have come seeking fruit

from the vine He had long before planted. He had come to

Israel previously, seeking fruit and nding none. He now

comes in the new character of the sower, which is quite

another thing. He comes into a waste world, where there

was nothing, and He begins a fresh work. God is not now

looking for fruit from man in one sense, because man has

been proved to be a bad tree: and the more you dig about

and dung a bad tree, the more bad fruit it produces. “Every

tree is known by its fruits” (Luke 6:44). Christ came to

seek and to save that which was lost. God is now going to

produce the fruit He requires. He is not now looking for

Notes on Luke 8

105

man to produce anything, for John the Baptist said, “Every

tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and

cast into the re” (Matt. 7:19). erefore the Lord now

comes as sower, not looking for fruit, but doing that which

will produce it.

He then goes on to describe the character and eect

of the sowing, and the disciples ask the meaning of the

parable (vss. 9-15). Israel, as such, had forfeited its place,

and therefore was “a people of no understanding” (Isa.

27:11). Long patience had waited on Israel. Seven hundred

years had passed since the word was given to Isaiah, “Go,

tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not” (Isa.

6:9). As individuals they might be drawn round the person

of the Lord, but as a nation they were blinded. e disciples

had an explanation of the parable, but as a nation the Lord

speaks to them in parables (see vs. 10), thus fullling to

the nation the very words spoken by the prophet so long

before. Now the testimony is closed as to Israel, though not

as to God’s nal purpose respecting them.

e seed is sown indiscriminately, and although man

rejects it, because his will is opposed, nevertheless it is

sown in his heart; for this parable shows how the word

of God is perfectly adapted to the need of man, meeting

his conscience and heart. “Never man spake like this man”

(John 7:46). Christ’s word came with a power that reached

the heart and aections; the will is corrupt and therefore

resists it. It is not abstract grace here, but the condition

of man that is recognized; therefore we nd the word so

perfectly suited to the need, not claiming righteousness

from man, but coming in with power to show him that

he is a sinner, and laying open the thoughts and intents

of the heart. When the heart is thus detected, the word

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

106

comes, with all gentleness and comfort, for healing and

rest, because there is grace to meet a soul in whatever state

it may be found. e heart is spoken to, and therefore the

gospel leaves man without excuse.

Some too received the word with joy (vs. 13). is was

a proof that the conscience was untouched; for when that

is reached it is anything but joy, until forgiveness is known.

e feelings may be moved for a time, and the word be

listened to with a joy which will give place to sorrow. e

reason truth is thus ippantly taken up with joy is because

there is no root, and so it is received in joy, and given up in

trouble.

Another class is where thorns spring up and choke the

word. e understanding may be convinced and receive the

truth; but the cares, pleasures, and riches of this world come

in and choke the word. Now these “cares” (Luke 8:14) are

most subtle things, because they enter as necessary duties,

and there is no sin in doing one’s duty. Nay, it is right that

a man should do his duty in his daily calling. But if these

duties choke the word, and a man loses his soul through

it, what then? e natural tendency of the heart often

needs to be met with that word, “Take heed, and beware

of covetousness” (Luke 12:15). It is the love of possession.

One came to the Lord, saying, “Master, speak to my brother,

that he divide the inheritance with me” (Luke 12:15). e

heart wanted to keep it. If love of the world or covetousness

gets in amongst the saints, it is an insidious thing and most

dicult to meet, because it is often not open to discipline;

and yet, if covetousness slips into the heart, it checks the

power of Christ over the soul and conscience, and eats out

the practical life of the Christian, and his soul is withered,

withered, withered. It may be checked by the power of

Notes on Luke 8

107

God coming in; but this covetous care about earthy things

is so subtle that, while there is nothing on which to lay the

hand, the practical power of Christian life in the soul is

gone, though of course, I need hardly say, eternal life can

never be lost in those who once had it.

“at on the good ground are they which, in an honest

and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring

forth fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15). ey may seem to

the world to be fruits bright and blessed, but if people have

not got Christ they tire. ere will be no enduring, unless

Christ has possession of the soul; but if He has, there will

be an abiding motive, and people will go on, and “bring

forth fruit with patience.” ey that hear and keep it go

steadily on, having their motive for action in the Lord.

Trouble may come in, in the church; disappointment may

arise, even from brethren; but they go on just the same,

because they have got Christ before them: for the word

they have heard and keep connects them with Christ, and

He is more than anything else.

is is a question, not of eternal salvation, but of the

practical eect of the word as seen in this world (Luke

8:16-18) — the growth of the word in the soul, and that

will not be hidden under a bushel. “Ye are the light of the

world” and “the salt of the earth” (Matt. 5:13). In those

who only appear to be Christians it soon comes to nothing.

“Whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that

which he seemeth to have” (Luke 8:18). But those in whom

the word works eectually are to be as a “candle” set on a

candlestick. Israel being set aside for a season, God sets

up a new light in the world; a light lit up by God because

of the world’s darkness. When Christ was here He was

the light of the world, because of its darkness, and now

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

108

we should be a light in the world, as we are “light in the

Lord” (Eph. 5:8). e light is here set up by Christ’s word,

and people are responsible for the word received. Suppose

you have heard the word and bring forth no fruit, it will

all come out, by-and-by, that you have heard the word and

lost it, and the spiritual power accompanying it. For, even

if you are saints, all that you have heard without fruit or

power resulting there from, it will come out; for nothing

is hid that shall not be known or come abroad. “Take heed

therefore how ye hear” (Luke 8:18).

Christ is looking for the results of His sowing. ere

must be not only the hearing, but the possessing, and in

this rests the responsibility; for if you keep the word which

you have heard, more shall be given you. If, on hearing, I

possess that which I hear, not merely have joy in receiving

it, but possess it as my own, then it becomes a part of the

substance of my soul, and I shall get more; for when the

truth has become a substance in my soul, there is a capacity

for receiving more. Suppose, for example, you hear the truth

of the Lord’s second coming and see your portion in the

bride of Christ, and you do not lay hold of it practically, so

as to possess it (have communion with God about it, which

is possession); you will presently lose the expectation of

His coming and forget your place of separation from the

world, and the truth will gradually slip away, because you

are not holding it in your soul before God. Consequently

your soul becomes dead and dull, and you lose the very

truth you have received.

us, if one lives daily as waiting for the Lord from

heaven, there will be no planning for the future, no laying

up for the morrow; such a man will learn more and more,

as other truths will open round this one grand central one,

Notes on Luke 8

109

and he will be kept in the truth. If, on the other hand, he

drops this center truth by saying, “He cannot come yet;

so many things must happen rst,” then is the progress

of such an one’s communion with God hindered, for, as

we have said, it is according to what a man has heard and

holds with God that there can be any growth; for what is

the use of teaching me that the Lord may come tomorrow,

if I am going on living as though He were not coming for a

hundred years? Or where is the comfort and blessedness of

the truth to my soul, if I am saying in my heart, “My Lord

delayeth his coming?” ough I cannot lose my eternal life,

yet if I am losing the truth and light I have had, I shall be

merely oating on in the current of life, half world and

half Christ, and all power of Christian life will be dimmed

in my soul. If the truth is held in communion with God,

it separates to Himself. Truth is to produce fruit, and you

have no truth that does not bear fruit. Truth must build

up the soul. “Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word

is truth” (John 17:17). Christ becomes precious in and by

the truth that I learn; and if it has not that power, it all

drops out, comes to nothing, and is taken away. If Christ is

precious to me, I shall be waiting for Him with aection,

and if it is not so, the bare truth will soon be given up.

Luke 8:19-21. Here He closes up His connection

with Israel after the esh, for the relations of mother and

brethren put Him into connection with Israel after the

esh. Observe, He here distinguishes the remnant by the

word “these,” as He did in chapter 6 by the word “ye.” His

mother and His brethren came to Him on the ground of

natural relationship only; and there was all natural aection

in the Lord, as on the cross we nd Him remembering His

mother, and commending her to the care of John. But He

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

110

replies here, as much as to say, I am not on that ground

now — “my mother and my brethren are these which

hear the word of God, and do it” (Luke 8:21). Israel was

now given up as to that position, the Lord owning and

acknowledging only those to be His relations on whose

hearts and consciences the word of God had taken eect. It

was not what was found in nature, but what was produced

by grace, and, being thus produced by power through the

word, the principle is hereby established, that it might go

out to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews, although not

fully brought out until after His resurrection. In these three

verses we have a judicial sentence on Israel, which closes in

verse 21.

In Luke 8:22-26 it is a parabolical display of what

we may expect if we follow the Lord, and the opening

out of what the Lord would be to those tried by such

circumstances. e consequence of being the disciples and

companions of Jesus is that they get into jeopardy every

hour — they are not on terra rma, but are tossed about

on the troubled sea, and Christ Himself absent (“asleep”).

ere came down a storm of wind on the lake, the ship was

lled with water, and they lled with fear were in jeopardy.

But the fact was, Christ was in the same boat with them.

He who made the worlds, the Son of God, was with them,

and yet they are afraid! and cry out, “we perish,” as though

He could be drowned, thus showing they had no sense of

who He was that was with them in the boat. To us, now

calmly reading the circumstances, what absurdity there

seems in such unbelief; when alas! is it not just the same

with ourselves, spiritually? Have we no sense of jeopardy,

when tossed about, and trouble is in the church? In truth

we have, for there is many a heart saying, “Who will show

Notes on Luke 8

111

us any good?” forgetting what God is acting and doing,

though man is battling to all appearance against God’s

purposes; but God is not baed, and He is calmly carrying

on His purposes, through all the storms of men’s or devils’

raising. In John 16 we nd the disciples sorrowing because

Jesus was going away; and the Lord had said to them (Luke

14), “If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go

unto the Father.” In Luke 16 Jesus says, “Now I go my way

to him that sent me, and none of you asketh me, Whither

goest thou? but because I have said these things unto you,

sorrow hath lled your hearts” (John 16:5-6). God was

accomplishing His blessed purposes in redemption by

Christ’s going. You forget that God is acting in all this,

for you cannot suppose that God is so baed as to give

up His purpose. e disciples thought, when Jesus was

crucied, that all their hopes were disappointed; they say,

“we thought it had been he that should have redeemed

Israel.” In fact, in that very act and at that very moment,

all was being accomplished for them. Where is the Lord

going? should have been their question. It is not now that

there seems no jeopardy, no confusion, no sorrow; but faith

looks at and through it all to God, and asks, What is the

Lord doing? Where is the Lord going?

In and through all the trouble the Lord has not turned

a hair’s breadth out of His way. We may be in distress, but

faith will not say the Lord is far away, but will know Him

nigh at hand. e Lord let them be in jeopardy, the ship

lled with water, and Himself asleep, on purpose to put

their faith to the test, to prove if they were really trusting

Him; and that it might be seen if such foolish thoughts

would arise, when they were put into jeopardy. ey say,

“Lord, we perish,” but they were in the ship with Christ,

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

112

and could they be drowned? He said to them, Where is

your faith? Well might He say thus to them, for though the

water was in the boat, He was there too, and could sleep

through it all. It was not so much of Him they were thinking

as of themselves. “We perish” (said they), and it is just the

same now; for the fact of being in danger with Christ in

the boat is the same at one time as at another — just as

impossible now as then; and in truth Christ is much more

with us now, being more perfectly revealed to us, and we

are united to Him, one with Him, so that He is with us

every moment in the power of the Spirit.

However high the waves may rise, there is no drowning

His love and thoughts towards us. e test is to our faith.

e question is, Have we that faith which so realizes

Christ’s presence as to keep us as calm and composed in

the rough sea as the smooth? It was not really a question of

the rough or the smooth sea, when Peter was sinking in the

water, for he would have sunk without Christ, just as much

in the smooth as in the rough sea. e fact was, the eye

was o Jesus on the wave, and that made him sink. If we

go on with Christ, we shall get into all kinds of diculty,

many a boisterous sea; but being one with Him, His safety

is ours. e eye should be o events, although they be ever

so solemn, and surely they are so at this present time, and I

feel them to be so; for none perhaps has a deeper sense than

I of the growth of evil, and of the solemn state of things;

but I know all is as settled and secure as if the whole world

were favorable. I quite dread the way many dear saints are

looking at events, and not looking at Christ and for Christ.

e Lord Himself is the security of His people, and, let the

world go on as it may, no events can touch Christ. We are

safe on the sea if only we have the eye o the waves, with

Notes on Luke 8

113

the heart concentrated on Christ and on the interests of

Christ. en the devil himself cannot touch us.

Luke 8:26. We have a solemn picture of the consequence

of Christ’s rejection by the world! Christ comes and

nds them utterly under the power of the devil. A man

of the Gadarenes was possessed, but He delivers him,

thus showing that the Lord had complete power over the

enemy. With a word from Christ the demons were o.

“e Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy

the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). What was the eect of

His thus casting out Satan? Why, the whole multitude of

the country round about “besought him [Christ] to depart

from them” (Luke 8:37). ese Gadarenes, who had borne

with the demons because they could not help it, will not

bear with Christ, and they beg Him to depart! Man would

be glad to bind Legion if he could, for he does not like the

eects of the devil’s power; but man’s will is against Christ;

he has a deliberate determined hatred to Christ. e Lord

came to the world full of love and power, to deliver from the

consequences of sin; but man rejected Him, cast Him out;

and God will not stay where the will is determined against

Him. When the Gadarenes request Christ to depart, He

immediately went up into a ship and returned back again.

And mark, the world in which we live is just going on as

having quietly rejected Christ. But does God give them up,

though Christ is gone away for a season? No, He did not

give them up, but sent amongst them this man, whom He

had healed, to tell them what great things God had done

for him. is is what the disciples did in the world, and

the delivered remnant also are to tell the world what great

things God has done for them.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

114

e swine appear to represent the state of the Jews after

their rejection of Christ. e Lord, doubtless, permitted the

demons to enter the swine (as the swine having no passions

of their own, it was their being possessed with these demons

which made them run violently to destruction), showing

it was not merely the evil passions in the men, but their

being possessed by wicked spirits, which hurried them on

to destruction. And we know historically, from Josephus

and others, that one can hardly conceive the infatuation

with which the Jews rushed on to their own destruction,

when those Gentile powers went and plowed up the holy

city. is is just a consequence of Israel’s rejecting the Lord.

en the Lord gives us two other pictures, through the

medium of real events, of His dealings in deliverance. In

verse 41 we have Jairus’ daughter, who lay dying; and here

is a picture (dispensationally) of Israel. e Lord was going

to heal Israel, who was just like one dying, but while in the

way the people throng Him. What He came to do He did,

for the world crowded Him while on the way to heal the

sick “daughter of my people” (Isa. 22:4); whosoever could

touch Him by faith got healing, the activities of grace going

forth from Him.

Jairus’ daughter lay dying. Man was not pronounced

to be dead until Christ was killed. Before Christ came,

there was no healing for man. Abraham longed for the day

of Christ. ere were prophets who spoke of Christ as a

healer, blessing was promised, but there was no physician.

“Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?”

(Isa. 8:22). ere was none; for no physician could be found

to heal man’s condition until Christ came, and Him they

put to death. In Him there was living power, for when the

people thronged Him, a woman does but touch the border

Notes on Luke 8

115

of His garment, and virtue goes out of Him to heal her.

Healing depended not on the condition of those who were

healed, but in the power of the healer.

Physicians might apply remedy after remedy, but it is of

no avail, until One came who could impart life; then the

case was changed.

When the multitude press upon Him, and He

recognizes the touch of one to have been the touch of faith,

He says, “somebody has touched me: for I perceive that

virtue is gone out of me” (Luke 8:46). And now, before the

Lord comes forth in resurrection power and glory, to bring

life from the dead in Israel, there is perfect healing where

there is faith; for the Lord is always alive to the exercise of

faith. e woman hid herself, for there was shame in her,

because of the consciousness she felt of the disease which

had needed to be healed. But she could not be hid (Luke

8:27). e heart always shrinks from opening itself, when

within itself; but when it looks at Christ, it is opened to

Him; for that is always the eect of being in the presence of

Jesus. Shame, reputation, character, all give way before the

sense of what He is. When grace gets to the bottom of the

heart, all else is easily set aside. A link was formed between

this woman’s soul and Christ. “y faith hath made thee

whole; go in peace” (Luke 8:48). He brings perfect peace

and comfort into her heart, for His way is not only to heal,

but to make Himself known. She is not only to be cured,

but to have the assurance of peace from His own mouth.

Meanwhile they come, saying that Jairus’ daughter was

dead; “Trouble not the master.” ey thought He might

possibly heal her, while she was living; but now she is dead,

they supposed He could do nothing. is is a picture of

Israel, who are dead before God (as are Gentiles too, of

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

116

course). But Jesus encourages them, and says, Only believe

“and she shall be made whole” (Luke 8:50). When He

came to the house, He suered no man to go in, save Peter

and James and John (the pillars of the future glory, when

He will come forth as the resurrection and the life to the

dead nation), and the father and the mother of the maiden.

In this chapter we get a picture of what was then doing,

and what will come to pass. We have the seed, the word

sown, and the eect of it, the use man made of it. We have

God’s explanation of all that was going on, as being all

known and settled in His mind; and if a storm arise, and if

Christ appear asleep and insensible to the danger — though

“He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep”

(Psa. 121:4) — as disciples we are in the same boat with

Him. e Lord gives us to rest on that with undivided

undistracted hearts: for Christ is in the boat, as well as the

water. Only let the eye of faith rest on Christ, then come

what may, we shall say, “Who shall separate us” (Rom.

8:35) — nay, in all, “more than conquerors.” en the more

the trouble, the more the blessing, because of the exercise

of faith.

Notes on Luke 9

117

62937

Notes on Luke 9

Luke 9.

After the Lord had given a picture, as it were, of all that

was going on in chapter 8, He raises the question in chapter

9 as to who He was, and He tells His disciples some should

see His glory; for the mount of transguration shows what

the glory of the kingdom would be. Peter speaks of the

power and coming, “when there came such a voice to him

from the excellent glory … when we were with him in the

holy mount” (2 Tim. 1:17-18). But it is a closing testimony

at that time, though the glory would come; and as a signal

that it was, the disciples were to shake o the dust from their

feet, when they were not received. It is interesting to mark

all the circumstances which bring out the fact of its being

the Lord Himself there, and a test to Israel. He worked

miracles, and could confer on others the power, as we have

seen. Now we nd another thing — He is committing the

power to several together, giving to those men, a number of

them together, power and authority over the demons, and

not only entrusting it to whom He pleases individually.

ree things we have noticed in connection with the

testimony of the Son of man; 1, the testimony of God

to Him; 2, the misery of man set aside by Him; and 3,

demons cast out, so proving that it was really the Lord

visiting this world in grace and power. ere will be the

display of power by-and-by; but He was bringing in, in

His own person, the manifestation of that which will be

then full and perfect, so being an earnest of the powers of

the world to come, alluded to in Hebrews. is was not

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

118

redemption, but the exercise of power in dealing with the

enmity of man against Himself, and they would not have

Him in this way.

Luke 9:3 and so forth. He is sending out His disciples,

and in so doing He disposes of all their circumstances.

While He was with them, He supplied them with

everything — they lacked nothing. e power of the

Lord was there to take care of them, wherever they were.

Afterward, when He was going to leave them, He tells them

to take a sword. ey would have to shift for themselves, as

it were: but while He was with them He was their shelter.

As in the demand for the ass to ride into Jerusalem, He

proves His authority royal and divine altogether — “the

Lord hath need of him” (Luke 19:31). e disciples depart,

preaching the gospel, and healing everywhere. en comes

the question of who He was: He would have the conscience

awakened about Him. ere are two things in man brought

out by the question — curiosity is excited on the one hand,

and perplexity and dismay on the other.

Luke 9:7-9. He goes on, and wherever there is an ear to

hear, He ministers to them according to the grace of the

kingdom.

Luke 9:11-12. e disciples ask Him to send the

multitude away. Let them go and get lodging. No, says the

Lord, “give ye them to eat.” He does not now say He would

feed them, but He is committing to others the same power

as He had Himself, and He would exercise their faith in

what He could do by them. is applies to the church now.

Faith uses the power that is in the Head. “Give ye them

to eat.” What He expected was for faith to exercise His

divine power, that which they saw in Him. We should be so

reckoning on the power in the Head. e Lord was trying

Notes on Luke 9

119

their faith in Him, “Give ye them to eat.” But no; they had

no faith; they began to reckon on their resources. “We have

no more but ve loaves and two shes.” So it is with us. No

faith! Memory is not faith. “He smote the rock, that the

waters gushed out, and the streams overowed. Can he give

bread also? “He gave us water, but can He give us food? We

know He has done that one thing, but can He do this other

thing today? We want to count on the energy of the Lord’s

love, and expect Him to be interested for us. When He

said, “Give ye them to eat,” they should have expected He

would give them the power. Jehovah was amongst them,

exercising His own power; but we see in their answer the

horrid principle of unbelief. Unbelief shuts out God, and

limits itself to what it sees — “except we should go and buy

meat.” He made “them sit down by fties in a company.

And they did eat and were lled” (Luke 9:14,17). It was

said in Psalm 132, “I will satisfy her poor with bread,” and

here He was doing it. is was said of their King, and He

had chosen Zion; He had desired it for His habitation. He

was here giving a sign that He was the One to accomplish

this blessing, for He was feeding their poor with bread. He

was not only sending out the power through His disciples,

but Himself among them; not only as a man, a messenger,

but as it is said in Hebrews, the word “began to be spoken

by the Lord” (Heb. 2:3). He was the Apostle. ere were

others sent afterward, but He Himself was there rst as

their Apostle. It is a solemn thing to think that the Lord

has really visited this world! He has come and presented

Himself rst to His people Israel, but they would not have

Him. It shows us what the world is we are in. God is now

dealing with it in grace, though His Son has been rejected.

“Twelve baskets” of fragments. Just observe, in passing, that

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

120

the number twelve is signicant of power exercised in the

way of government — twelve apostles, twelve gates to the

city in Revelation.

Hitherto we have been looking at Christ presenting

Himself among the people as Jehovah, the Messiah; we

now see Him as the dependent man praying. He was

Immanuel, God with us; Son of David; Son of man. He was

to be all. en the question is started among the disciples,

who He was. Some said one thing, and some another; but

Peter said, “the Christ of God” (Luke 9:20). Upon this, He

charges them to tell no man that thing. ere was faith,

however feeble, dictating this answer, and therefore there

is no thinking about it. With perfect certainty, Peter says,

“e Christ of God.” So it always is with faith. When the

Spirit of God brings home the truth with power, there is

no uncertainty about it. A man may not doubt whether

Christ is the Son of God, or not; but the mind may work

upon it, and think perhaps, I do not love Him enough to

be saved? then there is uncertainty. But when the Spirit,

with power, shows whoever confesses that Jesus is the

Son of God, God dwelleth in him; then I believe it, and I

see that my sins and my iniquities He will “remember no

more” (Heb. 10:17). It may set a man thinking about the

consequences of a truth.

Luke 9:22. He now passes by the thing that has been

already brought out, and He presents Himself to them as

the Son of man, and He is going to suer — to be crucied.

ey must therefore be content to take up their cross. A

new thing was coming in; He was going to be rejected, and

to be slain, and the third day rise again. It is no longer

Messianic ground, but in another sphere altogether beyond

this their hopes must lie. “If any man will come after me,

Notes on Luke 9

121

let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily” (Luke

9:23). “Daily” — this is the trial. A man might heroically

do it once for all, and he would have plenty of people to

honor him, and have books written about him; but it is

terribly dicult to go on every day denying oneself, and

no one knowing anything about it. It came to this that, if

you spare the esh in this life, you will lose your life in the

next; and what if a man gain the whole world and lose his

own soul; what should a man give in exchange for his soul?

It is not a question of bringing life down to the esh; but

if you lose your life here, you will get it elsewhere — above

and beyond this world: “For whosoever will save his life

shall lose it; but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the

same shall save it” (Luke 9:24). It is giving up the world for

eternal life, or for eternal misery, that is the real question.

“What is a man advantaged?” You must give it up; you

cannot keep it.

ere is the glory of the kingdom; there is the

manifestation of glory coming. ose tastes and dispositions

which are attracted by Jesus cannot nd their portion here.

“ey declare plainly that they seek a country; wherefore

God is not ashamed to be called their God” (Heb. 11:14,16).

“Whosoever shall be ashamed of me” …. “of him shall the

Son of man be ashamed,” when He comes in the display

of His own glory. (See Dan. 7:13.) One like to the Son of

man came to the Ancient of days, and there was given Him

dominion, etc. en He comes too in the glory of the Son

of God — His Father’s glory, and in the glory of the angels.

e angels are waiting upon Him who created them, for

they were created for Him as well as by Him, and thus give

glory to Him as Son of man; giving Him His proper glory,

for He has not lost a tittle of His glory; “ou hast set him

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

122

over the works of thy hands” (Heb. 2:7). “Let all the angels

of God worship him” (Heb. 1:6). ere was the same thing

at Sinai. “e law was ordained by angels.” “e chariots of

God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels” (Psa.

68:17).

We are now nding the displayed glory in this triple

character spoken of (Luke 9:26). It is that glory when

He appears; and it is a question of His being ashamed

of those who have been ashamed of Him; they could not

deny themselves present advantage. I do not here allude to

the Father’s house, which of course has another character.

Here it is the kingdom manifested in its glory to the earth

(Luke 9:28). “He went … to pray.” is is not mentioned

in the other Gospels. He was going to show His disciples

His glory, to give the declaration of His power and coming

From the other Gospels we nd that, a week after this,

He went up to Jerusalem where He was to be crucied.

“e fashion of his countenance was changed” (Luke

9:29). An entire change of things is here. He talks of His

decease, which He should accomplish at Jerusalem, where

He ought to have been crowned; but there He is going to

be crucied. ere, where this horn of David was to bud,

shall this root of David be taken, and by wicked hands be

crucied and slain. is is the deep center of all the change.

Luke 9:30. “ere talked with him two men which

were Moses and Elias.” is we may look at in two ways;

dispensationally, as representing the law and the prophets;

and in this way Moses held a very peculiar place, for it

was through Him the law was given; Elijah had nearly as

important a place also, for though the Jews were in a right

position, they had failed in it, and he goes back to Horeb.

e other prophets were never called to work miracles.

Notes on Luke 9

123

Except the account of the dial of Ahaz, we hear of no

miracle in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Habakkuk, etc. ose

prophets, sent of God, gave proof that He was caring for

Israel; but there was nothing like the calling back in Elijah,

who stood as the maintainer of the law, when the people

had departed from it most grossly, though all the prophets,

even to Malachi, called back to law.

Moses and Elias were taken away, and Jesus is left alone.

Law was gone, prophecy gone, and Christ is alone, and He

was going to be crucied. All the fabric built up by law

and prophets (not the testimony given by them, but law as

given to man in the esh) is broken up, because man ended

by killing the Lord come in the esh; therefore all is gone.

Peter would have had the three established together, taken

all alike, “Let us build three tabernacles.” But that moment

Moses and Elias disappear, and the voice is heard, “is

is my beloved Son, hear him” (Luke 9:35). It is now the

righteousness of God, without law, in Jesus. Law did not

send Christ. What law could have been put upon God to

do it? Nothing but divine love could have originated such a

thought. “Grace reigns through righteousness” (Rom. 5:21).

e law was good and perfect, but Christ was far beyond

the law. Moses and Elias, therefore, were not to have any

place with Him. God the Father put them aside, when

Peter wishes to put them in connection. ey disappear

immediately. is is the important thing for us. Every word

of law and prophets is the truth of God, but these were

until John. Now the Son of God is the messenger of the

Father’s love, and the accomplisher of divine righteousness.

When He is there, the voice says, “is is my beloved Son:

hear him” (Luke 9:35) — and He is left alone.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

124

Mark, too, that they were occupied with His death,

while talking with Him. One thing occupies the minds

of heaven and earth. He was going to be crucied where

He ought to have been King. Under such circumstances,

there was nothing for heaven or earth to talk about but His

death. And so for us, the great thing to talk about Messiah

is, that He died. ough He could destroy all the evil that

had come in, He must die — in grace of course. It must all

end in death, because the carnal mind is not only under

Satan’s power, but enmity against God; therefore heaven

has to speak.

Zion, the very place He had chosen, where He had

been and is to be — the special place of God’s favor, is to

be the scene of His death. ere they cast Him out of the

world He came to save. e One in whom all human and

divine righteousness and perfections were centered must

die there. All man’s nature, under the most advantageous

circumstances: all man’s wickedness, spite of the public and

patient and varied ways of God in government, are brought

out here.

Moses could deal with man as man; and bring water

from the rock for them, in answer to their murmurings;

the prophet the same, “Plead with me,” “Put me in

remembrance, let us plead together” (Isa. 43:26). But now,

all this was gone. God had cultivated the vineyard — done

all that could be done for it. ere was yet one thing; His

Son — the best of all. Him He sent, and they cast Him out

and slew Him. And now the testimony concerning man is,

that he has “killed the Prince of life,” and “denied the Holy

One and the Just” (Acts 5:14). We never can have peace

then, till we get pardon through Christ on the cross. en

we see a true picture of heaven: but all the intermediate

Notes on Luke 9

125

dealings of testimony are entirely short of what we have in

Christ on the cross, because short of the ground of what

man actually is, which fully came out only when he “killed

the Prince of life.”

When the Lord’s Messiah-ship was given up, we have

seen He takes the place of translation from earth to heaven.

He, being rejected, was no longer to be looked upon as the

Head of Israel down here, but as the heavenly Christ; for

He takes His place on high, when cast out by man, and

this fact was to give a character to the path of those who

follow Him. e two things go together — rejection on

earth and a heavenly place. “If any man will come after me,

let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow

me” (Luke 9:23). e Lord shows them that this heavenly

calling involves the cross down here, as it was with Christ

Himself. e peculiar place given Him in heaven was, in

God’s counsels, dependent on the cross which He bore as

the Man. “He humbled himself and became obedient unto

death,” etc.; “wherefore God also hath highly exalted him”

(Phil 2:9). It was through the cross that He went there:

and, if we are to have a place in heaven, we must have it

too. e cross was for the destruction of sin and for the

destruction of self, in which sin dwells. We have the same

place; therefore He says, “Let these sayings sink down into

your ears, for the Son of man shall be delivered into the

hands of men” (Luke 9:44).

We want the heavenly calling to give power to take up

the cross; and it is at the same time in proportion as we

are dead to things down here, that the heavenly things

are realized. When the blood was taken within the veil,

the sacrice was taken without the gate: so we are to go

“without the camp, bearing his reproach” (Heb. 13:13); and

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

126

if we apprehend the value of the blood, and go within the

veil, we get to the place of being where the burning outside

the camp was; for while we are in spirit where His blood has

been carried in, our bodies are where His body was burned.

Judaism only put men between the two: for they did not

go in within the veil, His blood not having been shed; and

they never went without the camp (vss. 18-22). He is going

to take another place, and they are to follow Him in it; and

then, in order to strengthen them for it, He shows them

what the heavenly place was. “He took Peter and John and

James, and went up into a mountain to pray” (vs. 28). e

heavenly part of the kingdom is here represented by Christ,

Moses, and Elias — the earthly part by the disciples (and

there is one part in which the church on earth is alluded to

as down here). Peter speaks of this scene as the power and

coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ Himself, in the

position of the dependent man (praying), takes them up

into a mountain. “Peter and they that were with him were

heavy with sleep” (Luke 9:32) asleep in the presence of the

glory, just as in Gethsemane, showing what human nature

is. ere is no power in it, in suering or glory, to x the

attention on Christ and His interest.

Moses and Elias were in the same glory (vss. 30-32),

and we are made the associates of Christ in the same glory

(the glory of the kingdom in its broad character), not of

course, the essential glory. “As we have borne the image of

the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly”

(1 Cor. 15:49) even of God’s Son in glory. “We know that

when he shall appear, we shall be like him” (1 John 3:2).

When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, we shall appear

with him in glory (Col. 3:4). e portion is not to be

under Christ, but with Christ. “We shall appear with him

Notes on Luke 9

127

in glory” — with Him in the same glory. We look for the

Lord from heaven, “who shall change our vile body, that it

may be fashioned” (Phil 4:21). We shall be with Him and

like Him, and this we shall all alike share, though there

will be dierent degrees of glory for one and another: for

example, Paul’s measure will not be mine. What we speak

of now is all the same glory, and we are predestinated “to

be conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom. 8:29). “e

glory thou hast given me I have given them.”

e next thing that we see is the perfect familiarity in

this glory. ey are talking with Him — not presenting a

petition — not at His feet (though this is our blessed place

too); but this part of the scene represents communion,

familiarity of closeness, the same as that of the disciples on

earth, though better of course. On the holy mount they had

a higher understanding about it, but it was the same subject

occupied them. is shows us the kind of intercourse we

have with Jesus now, for we belong to the heavenly part of

the kingdom.

A third point to mark is the subject they talked of. is

is quite a new thing, for He ought to have been a king. But

man was a sinner, and there was the determinate counsel of

God to be fullled — redemption. Jerusalem was the place

of royalty, and His decease was to be accomplished there,

where He ought to have been acknowledged king. ere

was full intimacy on the theme which occupied His heart,

for they talked on this, His decease. en He told His

disciples afterward the consequences of it to them. ey

must deny themselves. “Let these sayings sink down into

your ears” (Luke 9:44). e great subject on God’s heart

should be that for us.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

128

Another thing is, it is the glory which enables us to talk

on this subject. We cannot talk of it until we have peace

with God through the knowledge of forgiven sin. When a

man has not this, he has to come in his need and get it: but

when he is in it, he can contemplate and enjoy it. Besides

this, God saw all that was passing in Christ’s soul as to

obedience unto death. We shall never cease having interest

in this subject: when with the Father in the glory, it will be

the absorbing theme. He said Himself, “erefore doth my

Father love me, because I lay down my life” (John 10:17).

How much more shall we not love Him for the same cause?

ink what it must have been to be occupied with Christ

about His decease! What His knowledge was, of what He

was going to do! He knew what man was, what the counsel

of God was. He came to “reconcile all things unto himself”

(Col. 1:20). It was so eectually done that the eye of God

could only see the eect of that blood in what was washed

away. e rejected Christ a Savior! and this the subject

of conversation with Christ Himself! “ey spake of his

decease” (Luke 9:31). Peter says, “Master, it is good for us

to be here.” en immediately there was a voice from the

cloud: “is is my beloved Son; hear him” (Luke 9:35). e

eect on Peter’s mind is a wish to put Moses and Elias on

a level with Christ.

We have spoken of this, viewing it dispensationally, law

and prophecy mixed with Him; but there is another thing

to be noticed in it; namely, that which characterized the

Son was peculiar. Nothing could be put on a level with

Him. ere necessarily comes out, therefore, the Father’s

testimony to the Son. “is is my beloved Son,” etc. When

a saint knows Jesus, though he also knows he will be like

Him hereafter, and that all the saints will be like Him too,

Notes on Luke 9

129

yet Christ has the supremacy in his heart. He is single

and alone in blessedness, having supremacy in the heart,

as well as being the object of faith. I delight in the saints,

but Christ is the alone object of faith. en I get into this

fellowship with the Father. I have the Father’s thoughts

about the Son, as well as the Son’s thoughts about the work.

I have fellowship with the Father and the Son. We cannot

have communion with the Father about redemption work

because He has not been made a man. Notice, the Father

does not say, is is the Son whom you ought to adore

and admire, but He tells us His own thoughts about Him.

“is is my beloved Son” (Luke 9:35). Wherefore “beloved!”

“erefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my

life”; thus I know that I have one thought with the Father,

in delighting in the Son and in His death. e Father

communicates His own thoughts about the Son, and by

the power of the Holy Spirit they are put into my heart,

and I have fellowship; and as a consequence I know that he

that hath everlasting life shall never come into judgment.

Mark, further, how they came into the excellent glory.

ere came a cloud and overshadowed them. e cloud

is the Shechinah, the dwelling-place of God, which the

people had to guide them through the wilderness, and

they were to stay or move according to it. It was the divine

presence, and “they feared as they entered into the cloud”

(Luke 9:34). ey were not protected by the cloud, as Israel

were, and as they will be by-and-by. “Upon all the glory

shall be a defence” (Isa. 4:5); but here they enter into the

cloud. e fact was, coming into the cloud was coming

into the presence of the Father now, a dwelling-place for

us. It was thence the Father’s voice was heard. “is is my

beloved Son” (Luke 9:35). ence they were told who this

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

130

Son was. He had been with them as one of them. He was

the Father’s beloved Son, in a place worthy of adoration,

but the companion of their hearts. He brought them to the

Father, the only place into which redemption brings us (as

to our relationship). Until a man knows redemption and is

brought into His presence, he can never know the Father’s

love: but when there, he can never know the end of it. It

is the kind of love the prodigal never knew till he was in

his father’s arms. He had doubts and fears as he went on,

and thoughts about the hired servants, but none when he

was in his father’s house. It is known only by the teaching

of the Holy Spirit in us — in the cloud — God in us. It

is in the presence of the glory, realized by faith now, we

know the power of redemption; and by its brightness and

its truth, it blots out all other relationship.

Notice who are learning this glory. Saints walking

on the earth — Peter, James, and John; and so with us.

e truths written in this book are not for us to know in

heaven. Is the Father’s love not to be known till we are

in heaven? Is redemption only to be known there? Was

God less intimate with those on earth than with those in

heaven? Not at all. It was to Peter, James, and John this was

communicated, not to Moses and Elias. e Father’s voice

was to men on earth. We learn the rejection of man here

and the grace which has brought us to share in the glory.

In what follows we nd the Lord coming down into

the crowd of this world, not remaining on the mount. We

may listen and enjoy, but we have to come down and pass

through this world. e Lord comes down and meets three

things — a throng of men, Satan’s power, and the disciples’

unbelief. ere was no seclusion here for Him, but He

comes to a crowd. What a picture of distress this is! e

Notes on Luke 9

131

son of one, possessed with a devil (vs. 39); and the father’s

heart racked more than the son’s body. e world will weep

till they are tired of weeping, and then go on with the same

thing again.

We have seen before how the Lord was come in the

display of His power and bound the strong man. e

disciples could not do it. e power of Satan remains the

same unto this day. He is not literally cast out, but remains

the “prince of this world,” the character he has gained, not

lost, by Christianity. He will be bound; his power will be

overthrown as a fact, and not to faith only. e question

was to be settled about Satan’s right, and what did the Lord

say of him?

“Now is the judgment of this world” (John

12:31) — “Now shall the prince of this world be cast out.”

His title is “cast out,” but Christ has not yet exerted this

power. erefore in the epistles we nd him spoken of as

still ruling in this world. In Ephesians he is called, “the

prince of the power of the air” (Eph. 2:2), “the spirit that

now worketh.” en we hear of the “rulers of the darkness

of this world.” When “the powers of the world to come”

(Heb. 6:5), are in their full display, Satan will be cast out

entirely; but these instances and more show he was here

then as he is still. “How long shall I be with you” (Luke

9:41). It was not because Satan was here that Christ said

this, but because the disciples could not use the power He

had brought in; and that closed the dispensation. So it will

be in this. e power and goodness of God brought Christ

into the world, but the incapacity of man to believe, so as to

use that power, will close it. So we read in Romans 11:22,

“Toward thee [the professing body now], goodness, if thou

continue in his goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

132

o”; but until His grace ceases, there is refuge for us to

go to Him. While He was here, the moment the father of

the child sought to Him, He cast out the spirit. As long as

Christ’s grace is at work, if there is only one saint on the

earth and everything else failed around, he would nd the

power of Christ ready to be exercised on his behalf. ere

can be no failing in meeting the need of a soul, because as

there is Christ to go to, there is help in Him. However dark

the dispensation may be, there is exactly the grace that is

needed for the position. Not that God would have our eyes

blinded to the darkness around, for if we do not take heed

to the ruinous state, conscience is not in its right place. If

I am ready to say, Why should He not stay? when He says,

How long shall I be with you? I am insensible to the state

of things around me, and I am not awake to the response

that Christ’s love to the church demands; but, on the other

hand, if I am not able to look up and count on the grace

of Christ to meet that state, however bad it may be, I am

powerless.

Luke 9:43. “ey were all amazed at the mighty power

of God.” It is very humbling to see how amazed they were

about this power. ey did not wonder at the power of the

evil. But they ought so to have counted on His power as

to have been amazed if the power were not exerted. Christ

brings them back to the cross. “Let these sayings sink down

into your ears, for the Son of man shall be delivered into

the hands of men” (Luke 9:44). You ought to have been

able to get this power; but you must now know not only the

power of Christ, but the cross of the rejected One. “Rejoice

not, that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice,

because your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20).

We have more to be rejoiced at in this than if a miracle

Notes on Luke 9

133

were to be performed tomorrow. It is more blessed to know

the cross. It was as though He had said, “I had rather you

should come now to own the rejected One than be looking

for this power even.” Beloved friends, you are not thinking

of what God is doing at this present time, if you do not see

that now it is not power on the earth, but rejection.

Luke 9:46. “ere arose a reasoning among then, which

of them should be the greatest.” What a tale this tells!

What a selshness runs through and through! Even at the

Lord’s supper it was the same thing. In Luke we nd it,

where there is so much of what man is brought out.

We see then, from what we have been tracing, that we

need to come down from the hill; not to be without Jesus,

but to learn what man is. It is not necessary to come down

from the mount, as some people say, lest we should be

pued up there; for we shall never be pued up while on

the mount. Like Peter we may be afraid, but we are never

pued up in the presence of God. It is when we quit it that

we are in danger. Paul was not exalted above measure when

in the third heaven; but after he came down, he needed the

thorn in the esh to prevent it.

Besides, there is an historical necessity for us to get

through this world. But Jesus was as much with His

disciples when they came down as while they were on the

mount, and that is our comfort. Do not let us suppose we

have lost Christ. We have to serve Him, walk with Him,

learn from Him, and mark His patient grace towards us in

and through all circumstances. e Lord give us to know,

while passing through this world, what a Christ we have,

taking our hearts clean out of the deling circumstances

around, so that, whether we get a taste of the glory, or

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

134

are passing through the crowd of this world, He may be

everything to us, as He is everything for us.

Luke 9:46 and so forth. e Lord is now showing His

disciples the place they are to take upon earth. ey are

not to be in a position connected with Him as Messiah

in earthly glory — heavenly glory they could not have till

the end. In the meantime they have to take their place

with Him in rejection, and this put them to the test, for

they were to give up things right enough in themselves,

for example, to hate father, mother, wife, and so forth, all

which earthly relationships had a claim upon them, and

especially so upon the Jew. “Honor thy father and mother,”

and so forth. But all these relationships would not stand in

association with the cross. Everything must be sacriced,

everything that linked man with the earth must be snapped

asunder to faith, when Christ was rejected.

e character of the world was fully manifested in His

rejection: its deeds were evil and it rejected the light. e

incarnation, which should have been the link to man’s

blessing, is rejected. He accomplishes redemption by His

rejection on earth, and He has a place in heaven. is

alters the character of everything. It brings in the judging

of self. ere never would have been this if Christ had

been crowned on earth. He was “delivered into the hands

of men,” (Luke 9:44). He whose very name carried power

and authority is to be delivered up. If Christ had had His

place on earth, the heart of man would never have been

put to the test. Why? Because, if men had seen all the

dignity and glory displayed on earth which was His right,

it would have gratied their esh with its greatness. But

esh cannot inherit heaven, and what place has it on the

cross? ere they go together so blessedly — the cross and

Notes on Luke 9

135

heaven; and for the esh there is no place in either. ere

was a terrible breach between man and God, and the One

who would have healed it they crucied. en every carnal

thought that was in accordance with such an act must be

judged.

e disciples were disputing who should be the

greatest — not the greatest in the world, but the greatest

in the glory. It is self after all. ey have not to tell Him

much, but their thoughts are judged. When in the light,

everything is judged. Jacob had the word from God to

go to Bethel (Gen. 35:2), and he immediately says to his

household, “Put away the strange gods that are among you.”

And why so? Everything is detected when getting into the

presence of God. Jacob could get the blessing before he

went to Bethel; but when he goes into God’s presence, the

idols are judged. When he has got rid of the idols, it is “El-

bethel,” the God of Bethel. e disciples were reasoning

which should be the greatest, and when He detected their

thoughts He “took a child and set him by him” (Luke 9:47).

is shows us our place: we ought to seek the lowest place.

We never can have it, because Christ has taken it. He went

down under sin, wrath, death. He took the lowest place,

because the servant of all. is is the truly happy place for

us, but how it judges self! is is what the cross does. Not

only are the idols judged, but self is judged.

It is a blessed thing to have done with self. When there

is room for God, we can be full of joy and happiness. We

are not humble, even when we are occupied with our own

nothingness, or how bad we are; but we are humble when

we do not think of ourselves at all. When we have to learn

our nothingness and badness, that is being humbled. If we

get away from the Lord, we have to be brought back, and

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

136

that is a humbling process. We want to judge the esh in

ourselves. It is pretty easy to judge it in another, but it is in

ourselves we miss it (vs. 50). ings are brought to a crisis.

“He that is not against us is for us.”

Mark how conscious the Lord was of His utter rejection

by man; so utter that He said, he that is not against us

is proved to be for us. Christ was perfect; therefore He

was a perfect test to men’s consciences; and, as far as He

is manifested in us, we shall be so also. Paul could say, “If

our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost” (2 Cor.

4:3). Why could he say so? Because it went out from him

as pure as it went in. John said, “We forbad him, because

he followeth not with us” (Luke 9:49). at tells the whole

tale. ey were thinking of themselves, not of Christ; of

their own importance, and not His honor. If it had been

His importance, they would have thought how blessed it

was to nd the eect of His name, and rejoiced to know

how His power was being exercised by man. But no; they

were looking at themselves as well as at the Messiah. Even

John was thus using Christ Himself to further his own

importance. And is there not something in us of the same

thing, a satisfaction at that which aggrandizes self as well

as Christ, instead of seeking the honor of Christ alone?

e Lord takes him up and answers him on the ground

of His utter rejection, which was coming. “He that is not

against us is for us” (Luke 9:50). And mark that the very

selshness of John brings out the grace of Christ. He says

“us.” You do not know the lot you have with Me. If you nd

one who can use the power of My name, rejoice in it.

Luke 9:51. “It cannot be that a prophet perish out

of Jerusalem” (Luke 13:33). I am going to get a portion

in heaven, and you are to have the same portion, but it

Notes on Luke 9

137

must be through rejection here. “If any man will come

after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily.”

“When the time was come that he should be received up,

he set his face steadfastly to go to Jerusalem.” In Isaiah

50:7, “I set my face as a int.” He was accomplishing His

Father’s will here, as in all His course. Redemption must be

accomplished through the cross. He “learned obedience by

the things which he suered.” It was the same obedience as

at the beginning, when He was coming amongst them with

“Blessed are the poor,” and so forth — more painful, and of

course, He felt the dierence; but still He goes in the same

blessed spirit and earnestness. Are there not twelve hours

in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not,

etc. He had found it His meat to do the will of Him that

sent Him. ere was joy to Him in this; but in the cup

of wrath which He was going to drink there was no joy.

He had met with scorn here, smiting there, rejection all

through, but nothing like this cup, and therefore He cried,

“If it be possible, let this cup pass from me,” etc. Christ

proved His perfectness, for He felt what it was to be “made

sin.” His holy nature shrank from it, yet there was the same

quiet, steady, patient obedience, for “He steadfastly set his

face to go to Jerusalem,” as all through. He knows His

Father’s will and He does it. He sets His face there, where

His Father’s will is to be done, not looking to this side or

to that, but there — Jerusalem.

We, according to the measure we have of the single eye,

shall be following in the same course, going to the cross

steadily, with one purpose: and, in proportion as we do so,

will those who do not so set their face oppose us. But the

Lord says, “If any man serve me, let him follow me” (John

12:26). Service is not doing a great deal, but following the

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

138

Master, and the world and half-hearted Christians do not

like that. ere is plenty of doing in the world, but “if any

man serve me, let him follow me.” Paul wanted to serve

every way, but we nd the Spirit forbidding him to go into

Bithynia or Troas, and yet two years afterward we read that

all “Asia heard the word” (Acts 19:10). God’s work was to

be done, but it was to be in His time and of His ordering.

His servant had only to follow in obedience. It was the

same with Moses. Nature would say of him, Why not stay

in Pharaoh’s court that the people there may be converted,

instead of leaving it? Flesh cannot understand what faith

leads to. Afterward he goes out in all the earnestness of

his spirit, natural energy comes in, but then there is no

deliverance. Moses has to go and keep sheep, for forty

years, to be broken down, and made nothing of, and what

were Israel to do all that time? To wait. en when he

comes back to serve them, how is it done? ere is the

esh appearing in another way. “Lord, I am not eloquent”

(Ex. 4:10). en Aaron is sent back with him, and the work

is done in the power of God.

Luke 9:52. “ey went, and entered into a village of

the Samaritans.” (vs. 53). We see the reason why they did

not receive Him was because His face was set towards

Jerusalem. His obedience and singleness of eye, going to do

God’s will without honor or attractiveness or repute, going

to Jerusalem, is the very reason they would have nothing

to do with Him (Luke 9:54). See the religious opposition

of the disciples to them. e Samaritans would not submit

to God’s way: Christ did. at is the dierence; and the

disciples want to command re to come out of heaven as

Elias did, and at the very place where Elias worked the

miracle. In eshly reasoning they think Christ was as

Notes on Luke 9

139

worthy as Elias to call down re. is is a more subtle kind

of self than the other. It seemed like direct zeal for Christ,

but they did not understand the zeal of Christ. He was not

come for judgment nor to destroy men’s lives, but to suer

Himself for them. If they had known God’s thoughts, they

would have submitted quietly. Peter again understood not

the Lord’s mind when he drew his sword and smote the

servant of the high priest. All the miracles of Elias were

characterized by the spirit of judgment, not like Elisha

who had his commission from heaven. Elijah stood in the

place of judgment and righteousness, like John the Baptist

who came in the spirit and power of Elias, saying, “Every

tree that bringeth not forth fruit shall be hewn down,”

etc., and “the ax is laid to the root of the trees.” Elisha had

life-giving power, on the contrary, and was a type of grace.

Elijah passed through Jordan (death in type), while Elisha

starts from the other side of Jordan in resurrection.

Luke 9:56. He turned round and went to another

village. It is not pleasant to be trodden upon in this

world, but Christ was. To do well, suer for it, and take it

patiently, is what we have; and is it to end there? Yes, and

that is “acceptable with God.” Christ came to suer, to bear

anything for the sake of others; and He would not have

been doing this, if He had called down re from heaven

upon the Samaritans. We have to follow Christ in carrying

the testimony of God’s love into the world in all our walk

through it. e world needs it. We must not be seeking

for ourselves, but have Christ the object. At the end of the

chapter He goes on to show how the links with this world

are to be broken.

Luke 9:57-58. One says, “Lord, I will follow thee

whithersoever thou goest,” but Christ puts him to the test.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

140

You cannot go if you do not take up your lot with One

who had not where to lay His head; for you may sooner

go to the birds of the air for a nest, or to the foxes for a

hole, than to the Son of man for a home in this world.

ey were not now to come to Him as the One who had

the promises, and so forth, but to One whose portion was

utter and entire rejection. Following Him could not be

accompanied with ease and comfort here. He was to be

delivered into the hands of men. At His birth we see the

same thing. Every one found room in the inn save He, but

any who wanted to nd Him whom angels celebrate must

go to the manger!

Luke 9:59. He says to one, “Follow me.” e rst one

wanted something with Christ; but here where He says,

“Follow me,” then immediately a diculty is started; and it

is when He calls a man that diculties are felt. ere was

no sense of the diculties of the one who said, “Lord, I will

follow thee” (Luke 9:57), without His call. But this man

who is called says, “Let me rst go and bury my father.” He

is going presently, but there is a link felt. Jesus says, “Let

the dead bury their dead”; you must leave them to follow

Me. You may be ready to say, the things of the earth have

no power over you; but just try what it is to have them,

and you will learn the extent of their power. A man may

go to the length of his cord, but when he gets to the end

he is checked. A father had the rst claim in nature, and

especially to a Jew, but Christ says, I am calling you out in

the power of life; I am putting in My claim for the life I

give you, and it breaks every bond here. It is a question of

life in the midst of death. e word “rst” (let me rst go

and bury my father) shows something put before Christ,

as though the man said, ere is something I put before

Notes on Luke 9

141

Your calling. Death had come in, and this very plea told

Christ they were all under death. It was quite a right thing

for the man to bury his father; but if life has come in, and

the question is one of redemption, to be lost or saved, you

must give yourself up to it. In the divine light which is in

the cross, He saw all dead, and therefore He said, “Let the

dead bury their dead” (Luke 9:60). e one thing to be

done now is to follow Christ. e question is, Death in the

world or life in Christ? Where are the aections?

Luke 9:61. “Another also said, Lord, I will follow thee,

but let me rst go bid them farewell which are at home

at my house.” In the previous case it was just this: When

my rst aections are settled, then will I come and follow

ee. ere is no good in that: the Lord says, “Let the

dead bury their dead.” But this case shows that those at

home were not left in heart. He felt he had to break with

them, and yet his heart lingered. “No man looking back

is t for the kingdom of God.” “Remember Lot’s wife.”

“A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James

1:8). If Christ be not rst and last, He will always be last,

for faith is not in exercise. e question is, whether we are

walking as seeing what the cross tells us. e cross lifts the

veil, showing the skeleton of the world, and when I see

this sentence on all that is in the world, on self as well as

what is outside, and our links of aection with it, I learn

that all is to be given up: but there is Christ Himself and

the love which is in Him to meet it. It will and must judge

self: and it brings out the will too, for there is a great deal

of will in all this shunning of the cross. People may speak

of the claims of aection, yet it is not really and only family

aection, and so forth, but the end which connects with self

is felt. Natural aection there should be — indeed it is one

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

142

of the signs of the last evil days to be without it; but if you

have power to judge yourselves, you will nd that many an

excuse you make has this secret at the end. So in aiction,

bereavement, etc., it is not only the aection that is touched,

but the will. ere is sweetness in the sorrow, so long as we

realize Christ in it, and aection only is sorrowing. But if

the will is touched, there is rebellion, resistance, struggling;

and all this the Lord must judge, for a mass of esh and

self can never follow Christ. What a wonderful detail all

this is! It is God going through our hearts entering into

every corner and crevice. Why? Because of the constant

undeviating steadfastness of His love; and as a father loves

his child when it is naughty, as well as when it is good, so

our God takes pains, as it were, with us all, even when so

bad.

e eect of all is not only to make us practically

righteous, but happy — imitators “of God, as dear children”

(Eph. 5:1). It is well, on the one hand, for us to judge

ourselves and see what there is to detect in us, and, on the

other, to see the fullness of His grace in Christ.

May the Lord give us to feel more and more that “the

friendship of the world is enmity with God” (James 4:4),

and that the energy of the esh cannot accomplish the

work of God, so that we may learn to work from God, for

God, and with God.

Notes on Luke 10

143

62885

Notes on Luke 10

Luke 10.

e Lord pursues the subject we have been looking at

in the preceding chapter, connected with the change that

has taken place in His own position amongst them. It is

no longer the Messiah on earth, but the heavenly Christ,

they are to look to. ere is another thing brought out

here in the amazing importance attached to that moment,

the last testimony being applied to them: and those who

heard it would be more the subject of judgment than Tire

and Sidon. Any among them would have repented with

the truth you have, but they had it not. e blessing now

was the Lord Himself being there; and He was so glorious

and excellent that to hear Him was the prime source of

blessing. All hung upon their reception or rejection of Him.

In the sending out of these seventy, we see the same patient

grace at work as when He sent out twelve. If they were not

received, they were to shake o the dust from their feet, etc.

God’s love never stops, whatever the wickedness of man,

until His work is done. His grace never fails. Christ looks

at the power of grace in God, more than at the wickedness

of men, and He went patiently on, and said, “the harvest

is truly great,” though knowing what there was all around

Him. e Lord was not like Elijah who needed to be

reminded of the seven thousand, who, as God knew, had

not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. He came in by

the door, and went through everything with God. Nothing

stopped Him from seeking out His sheep, scattered on the

dark mountains. He laid down His life to save His sheep,

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

144

and not one should be lost. To gather them, He went on in

the power of grace. Paul was of this spirit when he says, “I

endure all things for the elect’s sakes” (2 Tim. 2:10).

Did Christ suer nothing in it? Look at Him, weary

with His journey, sitting at the well, and a poor wretched

vile sinner coming to meet Him, to whom He gives the

water of life. ere He nds meat to eat that they know not

of; and He says, “the elds are white unto harvest” (John

4:35). He was as fresh and happy in His testimony, while

sitting at the well with this poor woman, as if all Jerusalem

had received Him; because the fountain was within. In

Him was “a well of water, springing up” (John 4:14). So

with us. If we are going on with Him, we shall be “troubled

on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not

in despair; cast down, but not destroyed” (2 Cor. 4:8-9).

e testimony is in the earthen vessel, it is true, but the

fountain is within; and they were to be perfectly dependent

on God, and independent of everything else. ey were to

expect to meet enemies, wolves. “Go your ways: behold, I

send you forth as lambs among wolves.” You cannot turn

a lamb into a wolf to defend itself. Peter was for taking

a sword to smite o the servant’s right ear, but the Lord

forbids him, and says, “All they that take the sword shall

perish with the sword” (Matt. 26:52). It is dicult to

receive everything and do nothing, to be a lamb among

wolves — like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in

prospect of the ery furnace, saying, “we are not careful,

O king, to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God

whom we serve is able to deliver” (Dan 3:16-17).

“Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes; and salute

no man by the way.” Not be uncourteous, but waste not

time in useless ceremonies, etc. When in God’s service,

Notes on Luke 10

145

and among God’s enemies, God must be everything. It

needs concentration of heart in Him, as knowing that the

world has rejected your Master, and will reject you, if you

are faithful to Him. Faith knows this, and goes on, not

with carnal prudence and worldly wisdom, but as knowing

what to do and going on to do it. Faith always carries peace

to the house; it produces enmity — two against three, and

three against two — because some will receive it, and some

not; but the thing brought is always peace (vss. 7-9). “e

kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.” Not merely

such and such a thing is God’s will, but whatever you do,

whether you receive or reject it, “the kingdom of God is

come nigh unto you.” e condition of the world now is,

that it has rejected Christ. e Son of God, the King, has

come into the world, put it to the test, and it says, We will

not have Him. is fact has not lost its solemnity now, for

we are walking through the world that has rejected Christ;

we bring the testimony of peace to it — peace that has been

made, for the sacrice has been oered. It is also true that

the testimony has been rejected. “Notwithstanding, be ye

sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto

you” (vss. 10-11). Faith carries things in its own sphere,

needing nothing but God’s word. e sight of the eyes is

constantly tending to dim the estimate which faith forms;

and if faith is not nourished by the word, it sinks down and

fades away. If I am not feeding on the word, faith is not fed,

for it cannot be fed by sight of things all around. When

the Lord spoke to Jerusalem, saying, eir house shall be

left unto them desolate, and there should not be one stone

left upon another, they could not actually see the stones

then falling, but it was Christ’s word for them to believe.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

146

Natural reasoning is fed by what we see, but faith is fed by

what God has revealed to the soul.

Luke 10:15. “ou, Capernaum, shalt be thrust down

to hell” — in God’s eye, not man’s. In man’s eye it might

be exalted to heaven. So with this world. And what does

that prove? at it may last as long as God permits, but

that His word will be fullled, “the earth and the works

that are therein shall be burnt up” (2 Peter 3:10). ere is

nothing stable here. When God comes in, where will it

all be? though there are scoers who say, “Where is the

promise of his coming?” (2 Peter 3:4).

Luke 10:16. “He that heareth you heareth me.” at

is where faith has its resource. In hearing the word the

disciples spoke, I am hearing Christ Himself. at is where

faith walks. I know it must be true, for Christ has said it.

Everything may go wrong, the world, Jews, the church,

etc., but God’s word never. And it has been given. It never

changes, for it has been given by inspiration of God, and

is protable for doctrine, etc. e church, as ground of

condence in testimony, is gone (though we know it is

founded upon a rock, and as to its security, it can never be

destroyed), but God’s word will not fail. Whatever we see

tends to weaken and deface faith puts to the test what the

aections of the soul are, because it is not to be what I like,

but what God says.

Luke 10:17-20. “Rather rejoice, because your names are

written in heaven.” is shows the change of everything.

Demons may be subject to you, but the Lord says, at is

not the portion for you to rejoice in; I am now showing

My power in another way. is word, “I beheld Satan as

lightning fall from heaven,” alludes to the time when Satan

the “accuser of the brethren,” will be cast down. Now he

Notes on Luke 10

147

is in heaven, not in God’s presence, in light inaccessible,

but before the throne of judgment — two dierent things.

“Hast thou considered my servant Job?” It proves that when

others came before the throne, Satan came also. Contrast

verses 19 and 20. e one speaks of what can be seen, the

other of what could be known only to faith. e unseen

thoughts of your heart are much more important than

what can be seen. e invisible is always more important

than the visible.

In this world, it is not merely that man is a sinner, but

there is the introduction into it of the power of evil. Satan

has got hold of this world through man’s sin. So in the case

of the poor woman it is said, “whom Satan hath bound, lo,

these eighteen years” (Luke 13:16). But when the church

has been caught up, Satan will be cast down. ere was war

in heaven; but when he is on the earth, he will for three

and a half years be raising up the man of the earth against

the Lord from heaven. When He comes, Satan’s power will

be put away. He is not put into the “lake of re” until the

close of the thousand years, but into “the bottomless pit.”

at is just what the demons asked to be saved from when

cast out of the man whose name was Legion (Luke 8: 31);

“deep” meaning “bottomless pit.” e Lord did not cast

them down to it, because the time was not then come.

is ability to cast out demons was a great thing. e

communicating of the power by the Lord was a power

above the immediate working of the miracles themselves.

It required divine power, and none but that could give the

power to others. In the millennium there will not be the

power of good and evil together; the latter will be cast out.

“Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee?”

(Psa. 94:20). e pit shall be digged for the wicked. Satan

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

148

must be cast out. And when Christ was upon earth, He

was presenting Himself in the power of God to bind the

strong man, and spoil his goods. It was a wonderful thing

to meet a man under the power of Satan, and to cast Satan

out. It was an earnest of the “powers of the world to come”

(Heb. 6:5); “the world to come” referring, not to heaven,

but to this earth being renewed. He was then putting forth

the same power that He will exercise fully in the coming

kingdom.

Luke 10:19. “Behold, I give unto you power to tread

on serpents,” etc.; and it was at the point when He was

rejected that He says this. He knew what was really going

on, and though He said peace, they did not say peace to

Him. “I give you power” over all the power of the enemy.

“Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are

subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are

written in heaven.” at is the church’s place. When Christ

was manifested on earth, it was a blessed thing; but it is

better to be His companion in heaven, as we shall be when

He comes to take us. Far better to be with Himself and as

Himself in the Father’s house. We have nothing to do with

earth — our names are not written in the earth — kings in

it indeed, but our portion is not in it. He “hath blessed us

with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places” (Eph. 1:3).

We shall have the inheritance with Him, but it is below us;

our hope is to be with Himself above it. e inheritance

is the consequence of having this place with Him (Eph.

1). We are children of the Father, to be “holy and without

blame before him in love.” Now we have our portion

according to the riches of His grace, of poor sinners whom

He has saved; and we shall be to the glory of His grace in

the manifestation of it. e inheritance comes in afterward.

Notes on Luke 10

149

“Rather rejoice because your names are written in

heaven.” As though He would say to them, Do not let

your minds be lled with things down here, but think of

what you have in Me and with Me. We nd two things

brought before us in God’s ways; rst, the government of

this world — that which is still prophetic, connected with

the kingdom; and then the church up in heaven. When the

inheritance is spoken of, it is always future: but when our

place is spoken of, it is always up in heaven. e Lord saw

that the present setting up of the kingdom would all fail,

and He was bringing in a better thing than any kingdom,

and He rejoiced in that; for when He gives joy to another,

He cannot help having it also Himself. When the thief on

the cross asked Him to remember him in His kingdom, He

said, “this day shalt thou be with me,” etc. He was gratifying

the thief and also Himself. So with these disciples. He

would have them not be rejoicing in the good down here,

for it is not good enough. Not only do not be troubled

with the bad, but rejoice not in the best thing in this world.

“In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit.” “Even so, Father; for

so it seemed good in thy sight.” He felt the circumstances

deeply, but His soul was up to the source, and He would

say, It is quite right that these proud and haughty ones

should see they are nothing, and that these poor despised

lambs should get the glory. “Even so, Father.” He must bow

to the evil, because the time to judge it was not yet come.

Evil is going on; people are saying, Where is the God of

the earth? We have to bear it — the Lord did. We must get

our thoughts away from the expectation of having things

better down here. e soul that enters into God’s thoughts

and purposes bows to His will. “Even so, Father.”

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

150

en He, as it were, retires into the glory of His own

person. e Son has to reveal the Father. e world rejects

Him, and He submits to the rejection of the kingdom, and

brings out, instead of it, the blessedness of the heavenly

thing, and now speaks of Himself as the Son, and glories in

that. e present result of His coming is the Son revealing

the Father; and this is even better than the kingdom. e

testimony is brighter as to what God is about, when I take

things quietly and submit, not desiring to be a wolf among

the wolves. It is exceedingly dicult for one’s heart to bow

and say, “I will be nothing but a lamb”; but that is our place,

for the Lord says, “Vengeance is mine”; “rather give place

unto wrath” (Rom. 12:19); and “neither give place to to the

devil” (Eph. 4:27). But if you do not give place to wrath, you

will give place to the devil. Shall we lose anything by being

quiet, and taking things patiently? No, “all power,” He says,

“is given unto me in heaven and on earth” (Matt. 28:18).

We must bow to what it is, without, and be satised with

what is written. If not we shall be only wearing ourselves

in the greatness of our way. May we be satised to have our

“names written in heaven! “

Luke 10:23-24. He “said to them privately.” ese

things could only be enjoyed by faith. He would have them

in consciousness of present blessing.

Luke 10:25. Now that the Lord has shown out the

dispensational change, He shows the moral change. A

lawyer comes and asks how he is to get eternal life. e

Lord brings him to the law — Keep the law, and you

shall live. But he is stopped directly with the simplicity of

this, “thou shalt love…thy neighbor as thyself.” He does

not love his neighbor as himself! He asks, “Who is my

neighbor? … is do and thou shalt live.” Who does love

Notes on Luke 10

151

his neighbor as himself? e good Samaritan is the one

who does not ask who the neighbor is, but acts in grace,

without asking what title the other had. Christ has the title

of doing good to him that is in need and misery. is is

grace that gives without a title.

See how thoughtful this grace and love is. He went

to him — did not send someone else, but went, bound up

his wounds, poured in oil and wine, set him on his own

beast, brought him to an inn, took care of him, gave him

in charge to the host, and said, “When I come again, I

will repay thee.” How beautiful are all the details of the

actings of this love which ows from what is within, and

acts according to what is working there, and not according

to the claims upon it!

In the closing part of chapter 10 (vss. 38-42), we see the

one great thing was to hear Jesus’ word. Hence the approval

given to Mary above Martha, who, in a certain sense, was

doing a very good work. She received Him into her house

and served Him; but there is something better than this:

“Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken

away from her.” He wanted His words to enter and to have

power in the heart. e only thing that endures forever is

the word of the Lord. e wisdom of this world is against

it, and so is human reasoning; but it is the only thing worth

waiting upon diligently; and if Christians reason about the

things of God instead of appealing to the word, they are

sure to be going down. We want to have the word in our

hearts, to sit at Christ’s feet that we may understand and

treasure it up. To hear Jesus is the “one thing” needful. No

attention, even to Himself in the esh, though it were from

one who loved Him and whom He loved, could replace

this. e “many things” end only in disappointment and

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

152

death, instead of leading into life eternal, as did the words

of Jesus, issuing from a heart broken, that it might let forth

the stream of life. e hearing ear for His word delighted

Him. He was bringing in truth to people’s souls.

“Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).

“Of his own will begat he us by the word of truth” (James

1:18). “Now are ye clean through the word which I have

spoken to you” (John 15:3). Truth sets everything to rights;

it sets God and man in their place, or it is not truth. Sin,

and righteousness, and love — these never came out fully

by the law; but “grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”

Everything was set morally in perfect light by Him: but

men saw it not, because they knew Him not. e word now

is the instrument of revealing truth. e law was perfect

because it was of God, but it did not tell what man was,

much less what God was — it told what man ought to be.

Christ comes in as the light and says, You are all dead, but

I can give you life. His coming into the world showed out

everything exactly as it was. As the living Word He came

and revealed to those who could see God — not at rst in

redemption, but in testimony. What value to Him was it

that Martha cumbered herself about serving, in comparison

to a soul listening to His word!

It is the same now to a Christian. When God’s word

comes with nothing else, it has a right to have power

over the soul. It makes its way by its own authority and

its attractive grace to the hearts, and where received it

gives life in Christ. ere is no living power in a miracle

to quicken a soul, but there is living power in the word.

It is by the word that any soul can get into heaven. We

are begotten by the word. If the word cannot do it, it will

never be done. ere are three things constantly pressed

Notes on Luke 10

153

in connection with the power of the word. 1. e words

spoken will all come up against them another day (John

12:37-41). 2. ough perilous times come (2 Tim. 3:15),

the word is “able to make wise unto salvation, through faith

which is in Christ Jesus.” 3. ere is another thing also.

When a soul is quickened by the word, the moral eect

is to make it dependent and obedient — “sanctied…

obedience” (1 Peter 1:2). Such is the character of the new

man, as the old man would be independent.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

154

62886

Notes on Luke 11

Luke 11.

Luke 11:1. At the beginning of this chapter we have

another instance of our Lord praying, the expression of

dependence. And there the disciples ask Him to teach

them to pray. ey had not learned the simple condence

in the Father that would go up naturally to Him and tell

Him all. ere may not always be wisdom in asking, but

there should be condence of communion by the Holy

Spirit. Even Paul had not always intelligence of God’s

mind, or he would not have asked to have the thorn in the

esh taken away; but he was not afraid to make his request.

e disciples had not this simple hearted condence. ey

understood not their place as children of the Father. He

condescends to teach them when in this condition and

gives them this prayer. e Lord teaches them to pray for

things about which His own heart was occupied. “Father,

glorify thy name” (John 12:28), was expressive of the grand

desire of His heart. “Hallowed be thy name.” He rst tells

them of Him with whom they are brought into relationship.

Not that they had the present power of the Holy Spirit,

giving them the consciousness of their relationship — this

they did not get till the day of Pentecost; but He teaches

them to say, “Father…hallowed be thy name.” ere we

have perfection. It is the desire for Him to be gloried,

though I cannot tell what it may involve me in. ere will

be the desire not to sin, etc. is was the expression of the

perfect desire that was in Christ Himself — “Hallowed be

thy name.”

Notes on Luke 11

155

“y kingdom come.” ere will be the removing of

those things that are made, that, “those things which cannot

be shaken may remain” (Heb. 12:27). Are you quite sure

that you would like Him to come in this kingdom that will

involve the shaking out of everything that may not remain?

Surely that will wrench the heart from a quantity of things

that are attaching you to that which does not belong to the

kingdom to come. ere may be the desire for these things,

while at the same time the consciousness that I have not

the sense of the object, but a sense of distance from it which

hinders my enjoyment, though I know Him to be “the

chiefest among ten thousand,” and the “altogether lovely.”

ere are often complaining prayers, because there is not

the present enjoyment of seeing Him in the sanctuary,

though the remembrance of it. We may have the hope of

the Lord’s coming, being glad to get to the end of this

desert, because it is a desert; or we may long to get out,

because Canaan is at the end. If it is not the latter, we shall

be in danger of being tired with running, which is always

wrong. We should be in the spirit of waiting pilgrims, not

weary ones. We ought not to be weary; I do not say we are

not, but we ought to be ever desiring His coming, because

He is precious. In Revelation 22:17, the bride says “come,”

in answer to what He is, when He says, “I am…the bright

and morning star” (Rev. 22:16). God does not reject the cry

which comes to Him as “out of the depths” (Psa. 130:1);

but there is a dierence between the cry of distress and the

cry of desire.

When Christ was on earth, there was an answer in

Him to all God’s will, for He always did the things which

pleased His Father. He did it as no angel ever could. en

He comes down to notice our daily need, and there is

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

156

dependence, indeed, in this. “Give us day by day our daily

bread.”

“Forgive us our sins,” etc. is chapter does not go into

what we may call proper church privileges; the desires are

perfect, but the place is not known. e Lord touches upon

all the circumstances down here. Man is looking up from

the earth, he is walking there, and needs his feet washed.

ere are trespasses to be forgiven, and the spirit of grace

is wanted. ere is no sin imputed to us now; it is all put

away. But will that make me hard when others fail? No;

my seeing that Christ has agonized on the cross for me,

will give me a sense of my freedom, but not indierence

about sin. Instead of hardness, it will give us tenderness

and softness of spirit.

“Lead us not into temptation.” Why should God ever

lead us into temptation? it may be asked. Sometimes the

Lord has need to put us through a certain process to make

us learn our weakness. Look at Peter. e Lord saw he

needed to be sifted, or He could have prayed for him to

be saved from that fall. A soul would always desire that he

may not have this sifting. Christ Himself, though it was

a dierent thing for Him, desired to be delivered from it

when bearing sin. Paul prayed for the thorn to be removed.

But Paul did not get a fourth heaven — that would have

made him worse, but a “thorn in the esh” (2 Cor. 12:7);

something to make him despicable in preaching (otherwise

people might have come to him and said, Paul, you must

be better than anyone else, for you have been to the third

heaven), to prevent his being pued up, and to keep him

even. It was a gracious provision for him, though it is a right

thing for the soul to desire not to be led into temptation,

but to be delivered from the evil.

Notes on Luke 11

157

Luke 11:5. “Which of you shall have a friend,” etc.

is is another character of prayer — earnest waiting upon

God. ere is majesty in God’s goodness, and yet He takes

knowledge of all our wants, and we must await His will and

pleasure. Suppose one asks his father for anything, and he

says, “you must wait ve minutes,” is the child to say, “No, I

cannot; I must have it directly?” Meantime, while waiting,

faith is exercised, and the spirit broken down in the sense

of need. Look at Daniel, and see another thing. God gave

him a deep sense of his identication with Himself in what

he was doing; so He must make him pray three weeks

before he has his request granted. is is a great privilege,

for it is to have fellowship with God. In the case of this

friend, there is a depth of interest excited in desire for the

thing, and because of his importunity he gains it. ere is a

certainty of God’s answering in blessing, though He delay.

Luke 11:9-13. is is prayer for the Holy Spirit, whom

they, though believers, had not then received. In one sense

a man may pray for this now, when he has not the Spirit of

adoption, like the disciples then. But now the Holy Spirit

has been given, consequent upon the Lord’s ascension to

the right hand of the Father (Acts 2:33). ere could be

no union with the man Christ on earth. It is as a heavenly

people that there is union with Him. Christ was looked

upon alone until His work was done. “Except a corn of

wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone” (John

12:24). e Holy Spirit was the seal of Christ’s work, not

of John’s preaching righteousness. e second time He

received the Holy Spirit was for the church.

He received for Himself (Matt. 3) at His baptism, but

for us when He ascended, having nished the work of our

salvation. e fruits of the Spirit in us are the consequences

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

158

of the grace and righteousness in Him, He being the only

righteous man. e rstfruits of the Spirit in us are love,

joy, peace — then come the practical fruits toward men.

e rst — named fruits are toward God, then patience,

temperance, etc., towards men. e Holy Spirit cannot be

the subject for the church, as such, to ask for now, seeing

He has thus been given. Christ received Him for us. We

pray by or in the Holy Spirit, not for Him now. We should

pray for more of the working of the Spirit in us, and desire

to be lled with the Spirit-poor little hearts indeed, but

they may be lled. It does not at all follow that we are lled

with the Spirit because sealed with the Spirit. To be lled

with the Spirit would keep out evil thoughts. It will not

take away the evil nature, which ever remains, but thereby

that will be kept down.

Luke 11:14, etc. See the dreadful opposition of man’s

heart against Him, which brings out a very important test.

“He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth

not with me scattereth.” When Christ is manifested, it is

for or against Him that people take their stand. We have

spiritual enemies to contend with, and Joshua leading the

people in conict was gurative of the Spirit leading the

soul against our spiritual enemies. It is not Christians

but Christ who is become God’s center. We may gather

Christians together, but if it is not Christ in one’s own

spirit, it is scattering. God knows no center of union but the

Lord Jesus Christ. It is Himself the object, and nothing but

Christ can be the center. Whatever is not gathering round

that center, for Him and from Him, is scattering. ere

may be gathering, but, if not “with Me,” it is scattering. We

are by nature so essentially sectarian, that we have need

to watch against this. I cannot make Christ the center of

Notes on Luke 11

159

my eorts, if He is not the center of my thoughts. It is a

great thing for a man to say, I have no other object but

Christ — no other activity in my heart but for Christ; not

only that He is the chief object at bottom — every Christian

has that — but there may be a quantity of middle things in

our hearts between the inside and the outside. ese must

be judged in the soul. Besides love to Christ, there may be

love of company, etc.; and we must judge all that is between

Christ, the root, and the ospring.

Luke 11:27, etc. “Blessed is the womb that bare thee,”

etc. ey speak of the honor of being His mother. No,

we would say, that has nothing to do with it. e closest

connection with the Son of man is not equal to keeping

the word of God. Religionists make a great deal of natural

aection, but, though blessed in its way, it is nothing to the

life of God in my soul. Of course it was a blessed thing to be

the mother of the Lord; yet it was but a natural relationship,

though a miracle; nor could it have been a light thing to

her heart. Still, it was not equal to the blessing of the word

of God bringing a soul to Himself. O! beloved friends, if

you will only let the pure word of God abide in your hearts,

you will nd that it will sweep away all the cobwebs of the

esh.

Luke 11:29. ey are seeking a sign, another natural

thing; but He says, “ere shall no sign be given.” Jonah is

a sign; he preached, and they repented. Now My word has

come to you, and that is the test to you. “e queen of the

south,” etc. e word of God is so perfectly suited to man’s

heart, even the natural feelings are touched by it. e word

is sown in the heart, though it may bring forth no fruit.

Luke 11:33-36. Light is there, and the question is about

the man’s eye. If a man has bad eyes, the light is painful.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

160

So the word to one who has not clear eyesight or the eye

single. is is a solemn word; but if a person was converted

only yesterday, it might be true of him; he might be full

of light. It applies as much to the babe in Christ as to the

grown man. Where God is in the soul, His light is seen. “If

any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not.” “When thine

eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light, having no

part dark,” etc. When the candle is there, we see all around.

It shows itself and thus shows all around. e eye receives

the light, single or evil. It is not single or double, but single

or evil. If Christ is not the object, there is some evil object.

If the eye be single, it is all simple, though there will be

diculties in the path, as with Paul. e light is set on a

candlestick, that all who come in “may see the light.” e

man is forced to the question, Do you see it or not? Christ

has set up the light in the world. God has displayed Himself

in Him, and the eect of that is to show your condition.

Do you say, “Suer me rst to go and bury my father?” Ah,

you have something rst. If my body is not full of light,

there is something not single in my eye — something has

not given way before the power of Christ — something not

given up. People say, I cannot see. No, of course you cannot;

you have some other light. Further, what you do see now

will presently be given up if you do not walk in the power

of what you have.

“Take heed that the light that is in thee be not darkness.”

Our manner of judging may be wrong, because the standard

is not Christ, and then the light becomes darkness: we are

guided wrong and mistaken in our path. If the eye be full

of Christ, and we judge everything by that light, when I

see anything that would not glorify Christ, I say, at will

not do for me. I may be a little vessel, but I must be wholly

Notes on Luke 11

161

for Christ. May we be walking in the power of the Holy

Spirit, and by the divine teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ,

content to follow Him, and desire no other path, having

the eye upon Him, and only upon Him, so that when other

objects are put before us, we may be able to say, “is one

thing I do!” (Phil 3:13). While walking through the world,

may we be occupied with Christ, not making it our business

to judge evil, but simple concerning it.

From verse 37 we have the sure judgment of the Lord

on the various forms which the lifeless religion of those

who led the people took up, expressed in dierent ways,

but His constant and unmingled judgment upon it all. e

rst ground of condemnation is the substitution of outward

cleansings and services, which the esh can render, for

purity of heart and the spirit of love: where these last are,

external things are clean. us money occupies the heart,

where there is only a religious form, for it represents the

world; and preeminence is another expression of the same

thing. Next (vs. 45, and so forth), the doctors of the law

are sentenced, and with them the imposing of burdens on

others, while they spared themselves from the trouble. It

might not at rst appear why building the sepulcher of

the prophets showed approval of those who killed them;

but the truth was that the lawyers sought in this their own

honor, instead of receiving the testimony of the prophets,

which would have humbled them, for the moral and utter

ruin of the nation. But they were adorning, as if all were

right, the tombs of the righteous and good. It was the spirit

of the world, arrogating credit to itself for piety to the dead,

not holy fear at the prophet’s rebukes. But a clearer proof

should be in the wisdom of God that they sympathized not

with the word of the prophets, but with the works of their

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

162

fathers. Prophets and apostles would be sent, and once more

be slain and persecuted. e Pharisees were hypocrites,

and so judged; the expositors of the law perverted their

nearness to scripture in their hatred of any real testimony

to their own conscience. ese could, least of all bear, what

detected their evil. Hence, in pride and fear, they took to

themselves all the springs of knowledge, neither entering

themselves (for they must do that as learners, and needy,

and lost), nor allowing those to enter who would (lest they

should condemn themselves, and besides, their honor and

characters go for nothing). e closing verses show us the

invariable conduct of false religionists. Having no answer

of moral truth to the evidence of deceit and evil exhibited

in their ways, their eort was to perplex and to entrap.

Convicted of sin, and incapable of truth, they sought to

make void God’s goodness in accusing even Christ of

error. It was mercy toward others to be plain as to these

false guides, and therefore the Lord denounced them

unsparingly.

Notes on Luke 12

163

62887

Notes on Luke 12

Luke 12.

e last section of this gospel (Luke 10:38; 11) showed

the two great means of blessing to the soul — namely the

word of God and prayer, the precious gift of God, and the

true need of man in the presence of a rejected Messiah.

It showed withal the doom of the people who refused

every testimony of God. Luke 12 presents the disciples

carrying on their testimony in the midst of hypocrisy

and opposition, but in the power of the Holy Spirit. e

Lord addressed His disciples rst of all; but fearlessly, and

without compromise, before a vast throng, as one who acted

in the spirit of what He taught. He warns them against

that religious formalism which consists of what could be

presented to man, and insists strongly and explicitly upon

the sure bringing of all things into the light (vss. 1-3).

But just as the breaking down of forms and the revelation

of the full light of God had its highest operation and eect

in His own death, so the disciples must look for the world’s

hostility, must be prepared for it in their own case, it might

be up to death itself. If Messiah were rejected and slain,

what could they look for in the same scene, while Satan’s

power is not set aside? Hence, also, in these chapters it is a

question of the soul’s relationship with God. It was not the

unfolding of the church yet, but the kingdom in its Jewish

application is set aside, and the consequence is that the

disciples are to look for the Lord’s coming again, and until

then, trial and violence. His return would have two aspects:

one for such as are in relationship with Himself, and the

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

164

other for the world; and both are taken up here. ey were

to beware of hypocrisy, and to remember God’s necessary

determination to bring everything to light. “For there is

nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that

shall not be known. erefore whatsoever ye have spoken

in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye

have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon

the housetops” (Luke 12:2-3).

Luke 12:4-5. Next, as to the importance of walking in

the light. ey were not to fear them who kill the body but

God, who could cast into hell. Jesus perfectly feared God,

and called on His friends to fear none but Him. “Yea, I

say unto you, fear him.” But further (vss. 6-8), not even a

sparrow is forgotten before God; and the very hairs of their

head were all numbered. erefore they were not to fear.

Our God has made it of faith to be assured that He cares

much for us.

On the other hand, they were not to trust in

themselves — in their own courage or their own wisdom,

but to confess Christ. ere was the result in relation with

the humbled, but yet to be exalted, Son of man. ere

would be a return of love or shame before the angels of

God, according as He should be confessed or denied before

men (vss. 8-9). He had hidden His glory to eect grace. He

had come among men and into the midst of evil, that God

might be fully gloried in His humiliation. is was the

patience of God, for Christ claimed nothing. But the Holy

Spirit would come asserting the glory of God, and claiming

subjection to it, witnessing the grace, and proving the glory

in power. Hence a word spoken against the Holy Spirit

would not be forgiven. Wonderful to say, this is attached

to the disciples (vs. 10) to console and strengthen them in

Notes on Luke 12

165

their weakness. e Son of man might be slighted, and yet

there was forgiveness; but if He by whom they would speak

was blasphemed, it would be unpardonable. Further (vss.

11-12), the Holy Spirit would speak by them, whatever

the power, ecclesiastical or civil, that arraigned them. Such

were the principles, the warnings, the motives, and the

encouragements the Lord attached to a mission which,

rejected by and outside Judaism, was the introduction of

light by grace into a world of sin and darkness.

ereupon in verses 13-14, the Lord, by positively

refusing to adjudge in Israel, shows that Jewish blessing

had lost its place. It was no longer a question of dividing

the inheritance, but of the soul in its position before God.

Only He warns against the folly of loving the things which

gave occasion to such disputes. Righteousness on earth is

not looked for now: Jesus declines the place of regulating it,

and proceeds to show the inward principle of the kingdom

in contrast with the world. Hence He told the multitude

to beware of covetousness, for a man’s life is not in what he

possesses, adding a most solemn parable as to the doom of

the rich man, who was not rich toward God. Whatever he

might say to his soul, God required it that night. “So is he

that layeth up treasure for himself” (vss. 16-21).

Luke 12:22-31. If it be thus with the world, do you

who have a father, even the Father, not be anxious for your

soul or body. Food and clothing were not just objects for

disciples’ care, but rather to put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

eir thoughts should be in another channel, rising above

a mere natural view of the life and the body. But He

proceeds to assign positive grounds operative upon them

as believers. Needful things were subsidiary which God

provided, for they were His and under His ordering. He

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

166

cared for much less than they were. e fowls of heaven and

the grass if the eld read them no un-instructive lesson, as

interpreted of Christ. And if there was, on the one side,

God’s provident care for the least of His creatures, on the

other side let them bear in mind the utter weakness of their

anxieties. Whatever might be natural to those who knew

not God, they were not to be seeking what to eat or drink:

their Father knew they wanted such things. Let them seek

the kingdom of God, and all the rest should be added.

Luke 12:32-40. e Lord now takes higher ground for

them. “Fear not, little ock, for it is your Father’s good

pleasure to give you the kingdom.” erefore were they

rather to get rid of what they had as men, and to provide

things such as the Father gives to the heirs of the kingdom.

ey were to act the part of kings called to and having

an higher inheritance. e heart follows the treasure. Let

them provide a treasure in the heavens, and their heart will

be there also. To be great saints is not by the value of what

they gave meritoriously, but the eect internally suitable to

their position and their calling. God is not ashamed to be

called their God. Further (vs. 35, etc.), they were to wait

for their Lord. is was especially to form their character,

and to be continually and outwardly expressed — the

habitual expectancy of the Lord. eir loins were girded,

and their lights burning, as if Christ was actually on His

way. And He that shall come will come; and “blessed are

those servants, whom the Lord when he cometh shall nd

watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself,

and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth

and serve them.”

ey were now associated with the heavenly character

of the kingdom. is world was naught; what they had of it

Notes on Luke 12

167

they could turn into the privilege of doing good unselshly,

and have their treasure above, where there would be no

losing it, and so their hearts would be kept there. us their

character would be heavenly. Meanwhile they were to be as

men who waited their Lord returning from the wedding.

e general aim of the heavenly eect of the calling is here

in question. ey were to be on the watch. It is not prophecy,

but character and position. ere are no signs or historical

circumstances, as in chapters 17 and 21, for people on

earth; here there is heavenly separation from it. For those

who thus wait Jesus is still a servant. He will make them sit

down to meat, and come forth and serve them. Girded to

serve as man, His ear bored in death, in joy He comes forth

delighting in disciples so walking. Gladly He releases them

from their endurance and watching and service; He sets

them at the feast, and honors their faithfulness thus. ey

were therefore left in uncertainty; and so the church, when

formed, was left. e church is always to wait for Christ,

having no special time: every moment is its time in desire

and duty, as alas! it is the world’s for negligence. e Jews

have a time; days, years, and earth computations belong to

them, and therefore signs. To us it may be second watch or

third watch; blessed only if we are found watching!

Luke 12:41-48. Peter puts the question of the application

of what goes before, which brings out the portion of those

who serve faithfully. ey will be set over all the Lord’s

goods when He returns to take possession of all He made

and will inherit; a very encouraging thought, though not

the highest.

On the other hand Christendom apostatizes by putting

o in heart the Lord’s coming. e great stay of heavenly-

mindedness is lost thereby, and so our peculiar calling and

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

168

hope. To expect the Lord detaches from the world; putting

it o left the servant to his own will. It is not doctrinal

denial; but he says in his heart, “My Lord delayeth his

coming”; and then he acts with violence towards the

fellow-servants, and his fellowship is with the world. But

that servant has a Lord, let him act ever so independently;

and He will come when not expected, and set that servant’s

portion with the unbelievers, whatever may have been his

boasted rights and privileges. Further in detail there would

be a righteous adjudgment (vss. 47-48); for here we have the

principles of service, as before of position. e ignorance of

heathenism will not be spared, but far more tremendous

will be the doom of Christendom. Most righteous, but oh,

how solemn!

Luke 12:49. ere is another thing to be noted — the

import of our Lord’s coming then into the world. Had

man been what he ought, peace would have been the result;

but man saw no beauty in Christ to desire Him, and the

eect was hatred — not peace, but a sword. e nearer the

relation, the deeper the grievance. e will of man comes

out, and is utterly opposed to God. ey would not endure

to be told that they were under God’s judgment. But there

is this peculiarity in the character of division which the

entrance of grace makes. He who is converted in a family

becomes generally, and at once, the slave of the rest. Nature

even is subverted in such cases. How often thus a husband

or parent loses his authority! ere is a re kindled before

Christ comes again in judgment to kindle it. He was not

then come to judge, but they, by their rejection of Him,

kindled the re of judgment.

Now look at the Lord’s part. “I have a baptism” (Luke

12:50). What could straiten the Lord’s heart? e perfect

Notes on Luke 12

169

innite love of God in Him was, as it were, shut up. If He

spoke to His disciples of His death, “Be it far from thee,

Lord” (Matt. 16:22) was all the response He met with even

in Peter. How painfully was He thus shut up into Himself!

But on He went in His service of living love through the

world, looking forward to the baptism of His death; and

His being straitened showed the fullness and strength of

His love. Till then there could be no letting out of heart; for

who understood Him? e Jews said, “Behold a gluttonous

man, and a wine bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!”

ey were shut up within the walls of Judaism; so that,

though One was there with a owing river of blessing, they

would not receive Him. Divine love was, we may say, pent

up and driven back into the heart of God. But all is met.

“How am I straitened till it be accomplished?” He is not

straitened now. e barrier is broken in His death.

How could they as sinners have communion with Christ?

ere could be none. When He came to meet man’s need,

they hated and rejected Him. But on the cross He has put

away sin, and now grace can ow out without hindrance

or measure: “Where sin abounded, grace did much more

abound” (Rom. 5:20). Man is not changed, but God can

act in His own way through redemption. Christ’s love and

glory did come out in a measure before, for “He could not

be hid” (Mark 7:24). But at the cross all overowed; and

looking back from that over His life, we see what innite

love, and sorrow, and suering, lled it up.

In Luke 12:54-57 the multitude are addressed on the

principle of personal responsibility — rst, upon the evident

signs of God’s dealing with the world, and next, from their

moral judgment of what was right. e conclusion was,

that God was in the way with the Jewish people; and if they

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

170

did not agree with Him then, they would turn Him into

a judge, and must incur the full penalty of their iniquities.

In human aairs man would be prudent enough to come

to terms with his adversary, knowing himself wrong and

anticipating the judgment. If they did not submit and be

reconciled to the Lord now in the way, they would soon be

delivered to His judicial dealings and not cease from them

till they had received of His hand double for all their sins.

Notes on Luke 13

171

62888

Notes on Luke 13

Luke 13.

ere are two great principles or subjects in connection

with man on the earth — the church of God as such,

and the government of God in the world; and these are

very distinct. In the church the riches of His grace are

manifested. In His governmental dealings we see the

display of His justice, mercy, and goodness. An example of

God’s governmental power as to Israel we have in Exodus

34:5-7. is is not sovereign grace, bringing a soul to

eternal life, but government of the same character as we

may see every day around us. If a man wastes his fortune or

ruins his health by intemperance of any kind, his children

suer for it. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also

reap” (Gal. 6:7). See God’s dealings with David, because of

the matter of Uriah. “e sword shall never depart from

thine house … ou didst it secretly, but I will do this thing

before all Israel … Because by this deed thou hast given

great occasion to the enemies of Jehovah to blaspheme,

the child that is born unto thee shall surely die” (2 Sam.

12:10). And we know that this judgment for his sin was

accomplished in David’s after-history. is is not grace, but

government. God deals in the same way with a saint now-

that is, both in grace and righteousness.

In Luke 13 we see the Jews had this thought of

government in their minds, nor was it wrong in itself. ey

thought that God could not let such a guilty fellow live

as this Pilate, who had been mingling the blood of the

Galileans with their sacrices. But Christ brings them to a

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

172

new principle by which to judge, and tells them judgment

was coming upon themselves if impenitent. “Suppose ye

that these Galileans were sinners” and so forth? “I tell ye

nay, but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” It

refers to judgment in the government of this world, which

would overtake all who repented not. ey had God’s

Son there, and they were practically rejecting Him; and

how many of the Jews had their blood mingled by Titus?

Christ had said to the Jews at the close of Luke 12, “When

thou goest with thine adversary to the magistrate … give

diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him; lest he

hale thee to the judge,” etc.; but of the state of the Jews,

who were under God’s dealings and would not escape till

the chastenings of the Lord upon them are complete. us

it is very evident that this passage refers simply to God’s

government of His people. Natural conscience ought to

have told these Jews not to reject the Messiah, for God

was going all the way along with them to the magistrate,

dealing with them in patient grace, and He would say to

them, If you do not repent and be reconciled, judgment

must come upon you, when it will be the same with you as

with those whom ye think to be such sinners.

Luke 13:6. e Lord is dealing here with the same state

of things. e g-tree is Israel, and God comes seeking

fruit in them and nding none. In the gospel there is this

dierence, that grace, instead of seeking, sows in order to

produce fruit. He found none, and the sentence therefore

upon it is, “Cut it down.” He not only found it useless, but

His vineyard was encumbered by it. “e name of God is

blasphemed among the Gentiles through you.” en comes

in Christ’s mission. Last of all He “sent his Son.” God had

planted a vineyard and pruned it, but there was no fruit.

Notes on Luke 13

173

en a new gardener comes in, and He says, “Spare it this

year also, till I shall dig about it,” etc. It must bring forth

fruit then, or be digged up. He has done as He said, but still

there is no fruit.

Luke 13:11. e woman with an inrmity, whom Jesus

heals on the sabbath day, brings out another thing that

was working in their hearts, in the place of the law which

left room for hypocrisy. ey would lead an ox or an ass

from the stall on the sabbath, but they would not bear that

a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan had bound these

eighteen years, should be loosed on that day. One of the

inrmities of man’s mind is to use possessed truth to resist

revealed truth. Paul was an example of this — as “touching

the righteousness of the law, blameless”; still he thought

he “ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus

of Nazareth” (Acts 26:9). So also Christ says of the Jews

in John 16, “ese things will they do unto you,” etc. ey

were using the name of the one true God, which had been

given them (“Jehovah thy God is one God”) to reject the

Son; for when Christ came in humiliation, they would not

receive Him. Orthodoxy is used to stop the reception of

truth. When truth is the ground of a man’s standing, it gains

him credit; but when a new truth comes in, it puts faith to

the test. Truth that requires faith to walk by is resisted by

the natural heart; and the root of this is hypocrisy. e ruler

of the synagogue said, “ere are six days in which men

ought to work; in them come and be healed, and not on the

sabbath day.” But he ought to have known that the Lord

of the sabbath was there; for that single word “daughter of

Abraham” ought to have told him who He was that stood

there. e Lord answered him, “ou hypocrite!” A solemn

word this!

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

174

Luke 13:18. He goes on to show what the kingdom will

be like when the king is rejected and gone away. A kingdom

without a king! who is sitting on His Father’s throne, until

He comes to take His own throne. e kingdom is like a

little seed thrown into the ground, which springs up and

becomes a great tree — just what we call Christendom.

is lls up the gap between His rejection and His coming

again. ere is no power exercised while the King is away;

as in Mark’s Gospel it sprang up, men knew not how.

When the harvest is ripe, He will come again. He sowed

the rst time, but He will put in the sickle the second time.

He is looking for heavenly fruit now; but when He comes,

He will nd Christendom a great tree with the fowls of

the air lodging in its branches. Pharaoh was a great tree;

Nebuchadnezzar a greater still: they were the high and

mighty ones of the earth, representatives of worldly power.

Even Israel, which had been planted a noble vine, wholly

a right seed, was bearing no fruit. erefore, as it is said in

Ezekiel 15, “what is the vine-tree more than any tree,” if it

bears no fruit? It is only t to be burned. Otherwise useless

if it does not bear fruit, it only makes the best rewood.

Luke 13:21. Here the kingdom is likened unto leaven,

and leaven is that which spreads throughout the whole

mass, and also gives a character to that in which it works.

It is nominal profession of Christianity which is spread

into a vast system. ere is not a word here about the Holy

Spirit, but about the eect in the world. In Matthew 13,

in the rst parable, there is individual result, and not the

kingdom spoken of. In the rst three of the six similitudes,

it is the public appearance; in the last three, the inward

character is described.

Notes on Luke 13

175

Luke 13:23. “Are there few that be saved?” e word

used here is the same word that through the LXX signies

a remnant, or “such as should be saved” (Acts 4:47). e

question really was as to whether this remnant would be

few or many, who were to be spared when the judgment

came; but, this being a mere idle question, the Lord does

not answer it, but says to them: —

Luke 13:24. “Strive to enter in at the strait gate.” e

strait gate was receiving Christ at that time — the real but

narrow entrance of faith in Him and conversion to God.

ere will be some to come and knock when the door is

closed, to whom He will say, “I know you not whence ye

are”; you are not changed, Strive to enter in at the strait

gate, through which Christ goes before you — that is,

rejection. “Many shall seek to enter in [not at the strait

gate], and shall not be able.”

It is most simple when we see the rejection of Christ.

ose who reject Him in the day of His humiliation will

themselves be rejected in the day of His glory; and, instead

of being His companions in the kingdom, they will be

thrust out. e unbelieving Jews will see the Gentiles come

into the glory of the kingdom, while they, remaining in

unbelief, will be cast out.

Verse 31. e Pharisees say to Him, “Get thee out,

and depart hence, for Herod will kill thee.” Now Herod

was an Idumæan, and what right had such a stranger to

be their king? What had he to do with the promises to

Israel? Nothing. In Herod we have a gure of the willful

king. He tried to kill Christ, and therefore the character

of opposition — king belongs to him. He had no faith in

God’s purposes or in Christ’s glory; and the Lord says, “Go

ye and tell that fox.” I shall do My Father’s will till the

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

176

moment come for Me to be gloried. I am here as long as

My Father wills, and then I shall be perfected. e power

of God must be fully known. What divine contempt for

the apostate king, but what perfect human obedience

combined! “Nevertheless I must walk today, and tomorrow,

and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet

perish out of Jerusalem. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that

killest the prophets,” etc. After all, Jerusalem is the guilty

place. Let the Edomite king do and say what he will, it is

“the holy city” that is guilty, for it was nearest to Himself.

e nearer I am to God, if I reject Him, the worse is the

sin and the more dreadful the judgment. See Psalm 132:13,

“e Lord hath chosen Zion,” etc., and Psalm 78:65-68,

the same election of Zion. Christ does not put the sin upon

them till they have rejected both Him and His Father. He

brings out a purpose of grace in these closing verses. e

old man is condemned and protless — Israel and all of

us. “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his

spots?” (Jer. 13:23). e gospel begins with seeking and

saving that which was lost. Here we see that, though they

have rejected Him in responsibility, He has not rejected

them in the day of His grace. Grace shines out in His yet

choosing Judah.

Notice how the divine person of the Lord comes out

here. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem…how often would I have

gathered,” etc. A prophet could not say this, and He was

a prophet too, and more than a prophet: He was Jehovah,

for none but Jehovah could gather Israel; as “He that

scattered Israel will gather him” (Jer. 31:10). Israel under

responsibility had rejected Jehovah; but Jehovah will own

them when He comes in sovereign grace. How blessed is

the way! e circumstances through which He passed in

Notes on Luke 13

177

His path down here did bring out in a far brighter way who

He was than any text to prove it, important as that is in its

place. For suppose you believed there was a God, yet if He

were to come down by your very side and say I am, would

not this be a very dierent thing? Christ was the humbled

man all through His path down here, for He was ever the

servant of all; yet when the service was done, and rejected

as of no use, His glory shines out. “Before Abraham was, I

am” (John 8:58). See in this chapter of Luke the connection

between verses 33-35 as illustrative of this. “How often

would I have gathered thy children … your house is left

unto you desolate … when ye shall say, Blessed is he that

cometh in the name of the Lord.”

e complaint in the Psalms is, that there is none to say

“How long” — none to count on the faithfulness of God to

His people. See Psalm 74:9. is expression is often used

in the Psalms and in Isaiah 6 and refers to chastening, not

retribution. How long is Israel to stumble and fall? (Rom.

11:11). In Isaiah 6:11 the prophet, having uttered these

words, “Make the heart of this people fat,” taken up by the

Lord in John 12, then says, “how long?” He waits in faith,

and reckons upon God, and having God’s mind, he cannot

believe that God will give them up, and therefore asks, “how

long” is the chastening to continue? To which the Lord

answers, “ere shall be a great forsaking in the midst of

the land, but in it there shall be a tenth, and the holy seed

shall be the substance therefore” (Isa. 6:12-13). e sap is

still there, though there are no leaves. So in Psalm 118, “He

hath chastened me sore, but he hath not given me over unto

death.” In the same way the Lord does not say, “Your house

is left unto you desolate, and therefore you shall not see me

again.” No; but He says, “Ye shall not see me until ye shall

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

178

say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”

He can give, as Jehovah, the answer in grace, and when He

gives repentance to Israel, then He will send Jesus, whom

until that day the heavens have received. Meanwhile our

connection with Him comes in. e prophet spake only

of earthly things, though divine; but to the church it is,

“Holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling” (Heb.

3:11), and “hath made us sit together in heavenly places

in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6); that gives security. How did I

get there? By virtue of Christ. He is my title. My desire is

to be acquainted with this, that I am one with Christ in

heaven — an everlasting portion. is the Holy Spirit seals

upon my soul, and would have me enjoy more and more.

When Israel is brought to repentance, “the stone which

the builders rejected” (Luke 20:17) will be “the head of the

corner,” and owned of them. ey will say, “O give thanks

unto the Lord, for his mercy endureth forever” (Psa. 136:26).

Alas! they will receive another rst; but when their hearts

are turned, and grace works, they will use the language of

Psalm 119 and nd the expression of the law within their

hearts; and when faith is thus exercised, and their hearts

are broken, and open to receive Him, then He Himself

will come to them. If there is not a prophet to say “How

long?” Jehovah will give the answer. He never changes; and

though He executes judgment and righteousness, grace is

found in Him still. “When the Son of man cometh, shall

he nd faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). Well, if there be

not faith to be found, or a prophet to say “How long?” there

is One who will lay up, in His treasures, something for

faith to lay hold on, in the sovereignty of His own grace.

us we see Jehovah in that humbled One, and how He

is able to rise above all iniquity. How precious does all this

Notes on Luke 13

179

make Jesus to us! and we are one with Him. May we learn

of Him, and so follow Him, remembering that all that is

left outside the narrow way is the esh and evil.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

180

62889

Notes on Luke 14

Luke 14.

is chapter shows out the distributive justice of God.

First, it is toward His saints, the consequence of conduct

with God, and the place a man will take in view of that. Next,

we have responsibility connected with grace, the moral

position of the soul, because of having grace presented to

it. Slighting God’s grace lls up the measure of man’s sin.

But here it is the presentation, which is a dierent thing

from the possession, of grace. is is brought out in those

who refused to come to the Supper.

Luke 14:1-6. e Lord, in bringing the dispensation

to a close, constantly brings before Israel the sabbath. e

question was, Could man, as man, nd rest with God? Could

man ever enter into God’s rest? We know man broke God’s

rest directly — how soon we are not told: but, perhaps the

very day he ought to have rested, he ate the forbidden fruit.

Man never entered into God’s rest; and now the question

was, how to enter in — by his own work or Christ’s? It was

essential to the rest after creation, to have it at the end of

the six days of work, and therefore it was on the seventh

day. So afterward, when the legal ordinances were given,

the sabbath became a sign of the covenant. e Lord, when

here, constantly trenched on the sabbath, to show that, sin

being unremoved, He must work. He could not rest, the

sabbath being a sign of man’s getting rest after work, and

the law showing that man constantly broke that covenant.

e Lord presses home to their consciences their sin, by

showing them that He must work if they were to have rest.

Notes on Luke 14

181

“My Father worketh hitherto, and I work” (John 5:17). If

man had kept the law, he was entitled to the rest, but he

neither did nor could keep it. All that was the sign of God’s

rest, for man, after work done, failed; but “there remaineth

a rest for the people of God” (Heb. 4:9). e sabbath

continued as a sign; and all through the prophets, we nd it

insisted on, but they did not get rest. Paul, reasoning upon

it in Heb. 4:3, says, “We which have believed, do enter into

rest.” But Canaan, the nominal rest, they of old did not

enter, save the few faithful ones, and these did not get rest,

for if they had, another day would not have been spoken of;

and so it is said by the Psalmist, and quoted in Hebrews, “If

they shall enter into my rest.” “If” means “they shall not.”

is being the sabbath was no rest to them. e sabbath

was still the sign, but no real rest. e whole thing being

therefore gone as to man’s getting into God’s rest, it must

be now on an entirely new principle, by faith and not by

works. When Messiah came, He would have been rest to

the people, but man would not have Him, as we nd it here.

Man could not have God’s rest by law, and they would not

have it by grace, and this proves man has altogether broken

with God. If I have got to God, I have rest, and need not

journey farther for it. I have my rest in Himself; for grace,

not law, has given me a capacity to enjoy what God is. But

when the creature had broken the rest of his Creator, there

could be no relationship between them. Sin has come in

and caused God to be towards me as a judge, and there can

be no link of heart between a judge and a criminal. If God

judges me as a sinner, the only word I can have from Him

is, “Depart from me, ye cursed.” erefore all that man can

say is, “Enter not into judgment with thy servant, O Lord”

(Matt. 25:41). ere is a link between a father and a child

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

182

that brings them into relationship; but it is a new thing.

All must be put on a new footing, for there is no rest in the

old creation.

In chapter 15 we have grace at work to give rest, the

Shepherd bringing the sheep home, etc.; and in this

chapter we have a case of misery brought out in the man

who had the dropsy. Christ said, “Is it lawful to heal on

the sabbath day? And they held their peace.” He puts the

case to themselves. “If you shall have an ox or an ass fallen

into a pit … and they could not answer him.” ere was

no present rest, no hope of rest, no possibility of rest for

man as a sinner, and there could be no rest for God, for

God could not rest where sin was. ere was no sabbath

for righteousness, for man had no righteousness. ere was

no sabbath for love, for love could not rest where judgment

must be exercised. Love might come in and work, but

work is not rest. Man has lost his communion with God,

through his sin; and this is a solemn thing, for he has made

God a judge through his sin. e very thought of judgment

connected with God shows man a sinner, for there was no

necessary association of judgment with God; but when sin

came in, judgment must follow, for God is holy. If brought

to the consciousness of there being no relationship between

us as sinners and God, we learn what a place becomes us,

when once we have faith in His grace.

Verses 7-11. “And he put forth a parable to those which

were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the

chief rooms.” It is just the place that nature likes. e world

which has no relations with God delights in exalting self

and shutting Him out. Self gets for self what it likes and

forgets God. Man is always setting up self, pushing for self,

against God. He does not think so, for he says he is only

Notes on Luke 14

183

using his faculties. But so Adam did to hide himself from

God. Do not we use our faculties to please ourselves, rather

than for God? While the master is away, the servants go on

their own way and do their own will. A man is naturally

hurt when he is put down in a corner and despised. Flesh

does not relish being thrust aside, but this seeking for a

place is to seek for it where Christ had none. “erefore,”

He says, “when thou art bidden to a wedding, sit down in

the lowest room.”

e point of this parable is seen in verses 8-11; it refers

the heart to the Master, to “him that bade thee.” If I am

conscious of being a sinner, and therefore deserving no

place, I shall take none, but wait till God bestows one on

me. I shall have honor indeed, when God gives me a place.

e point is, What does He bestow upon me? Having the

eye upon God, and referring to Him, seek for the lowest

place as Christ did. It will not do to say, I will not have a

place in the world; the great thing is, the heart resting on

God’s place in the world. When the eye is thus upon God,

self is forgotten; if not, I am thinking of the slights I receive,

and neither faith nor grace are in exercise. If I could think

nothing of myself, I should be perfect. e man who bade

the guests has the right estimate of each and the honor due

to them. e evangelist’s place, the pastor’s, the apostle’s,

etc., will all be appointed by God. When God gives me a

place, it is one of power and nighness to Himself; but when

a man takes a place for himself, it is one of weakness and

alienation from God, because self is the object.

en, again, we must guard against the mere refusing

to take a place in the world, because we know it is wrong,

as followers of Him who has been rejected. A mere legal

estimate of what is, right can never last. A thing may be

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

184

very right; but there is no stability in pursuing it, because

there is no power to subdue the esh in merely doing what

one knows to be right. ere was the sense of obligation

with the law, but the law did not set an object before me to

attract my heart; it did not bring God to me nor me to God.

at lasts which feels that we are nothing and that God is

everything. Many have begun very energetically, and taken

a certain place, right in itself; but if legality be the source

of it, there will be no power of perseverance, for that which

is taken up under law will be sure to be lost in the esh.

When God is the object, the low place here is sucient.

He Himself carries me on; and whatever it be, if the mind

and, aections are upon Him, what was hard at rst is no

eort as I proceed. His love, which attracted and gave me

power at rst to take such a position, becomes brighter

and brighter when better and longer known; and what was

done, at rst tremblingly, is easy with increasing courage.

e only thing which can enable me thus to go on is to

have CHRIST the object before me, and just in proportion

as it is so can I be happy. ere may be a thousand and one

things to vex me, if self is of importance; they will not vex

me at all, if self is not there to be vexed. e passions of the

esh will not harass us, if we are walking with God. What

rubs we get when not walking with God, and thinking

only of self! ere is no such deliverance as that of having

no importance in one’s own eyes. en one may be happy

indeed before God.

If we look at Christ, we learn two principles: rst, that

He humbled Himself, because of the sin of the world

all around Him; second, the world did all they could to

humble Him, for the more He went down, so much the

more they sought to pull Him down.

Notes on Luke 14

185

No one cares for another; so that if a man does not

care for himself, he will be sure to be pushed down low

enough. en again, so deceitful are our hearts that it is

possible we should be willing to humble ourselves, if we

could get anything by it, even the approbation of men. On

the other hand, if we, in the usual sense of men, merely

seek to imitate Christ in this, it will be but legal eort. “Let

this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil.

2:5). He humbled Himself. First, He “made himself of no

reputation”; that is, He emptied Himself of His glory to

become a man. In doing this, He left the Father’s glory to

become a man. is was a great descent (though we think a

great deal of ourselves). But was that all? No. He humbled

Himself to death, even the death of the cross. It is the same

principle which is put before us in this chapter in Luke.

“He that humbleth himself shall be exalted” (Luke 14:11).

Real lowliness is being ready to serve any and everybody:

and though it may to the eye of man look low, it is in reality

very high, being the fruit of divine love working in our

hearts. God, operating in our hearts, makes us unselsh.

e only thing worth doing in the world is this service,

except it be enjoying God. We should be ready to serve our

enemies. “He that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” is

is not only being humbled but humbling one’s self, and

not doing it before those who would honor us all the more

for being humble. Paul could say of himself and others,

“ourselves your servants for Christ’s sake” (2 Cor. 4:5). He

felt they had a title to serve in grace; and in proportion as

he took the humble place, he will be exalted in the day that

is coming.

Luke 14:12-14. e next statement in the chapter

goes on to speak of him who bade. Before, it was about

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

186

the guest; but here it is the principle on which feasts are

made. “Call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: and

thou shalt be blessed, for they cannot recompense thee, but

thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.”

us He takes them all out of the world again, to the time

when they shall meet God, and makes it a present guide

for action. ey must not act on the principle of getting

reward here, but must wait for the time when they are to

meet the Lord, as it is not till the Master of the house

returns that the servants receive their wages. is is not a

question of salvation, but of reward for service. “ou shalt

be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.”

Mark how the Lord brings out the JUST as a separate

class. e resurrection is not a common one; there is no

such thing in Scripture. ere is no thought of confounding

in another world what God has separated in this. Grace

has separated the believer, so that he is risen in his soul

now; but he does not get the reward of his service till

“the resurrection of the just.” A sinner is quickened here,

though not judicially manifested here; because we are in

a dispensation of faith, and the portion is in glory. ere

is no “general” resurrection to good and bad alike; but

there is the “rst resurrection,” which is God separating

in power those whom in grace He has made His own. It

was the “resurrection from among” or “out of the dead” that

awakened such wonder among the Jews. e Pharisees

could teach resurrection though the Sadducees denied it.

A resurrection was commonly believed, as Martha said, “I

know that he shall rise again at the last day.” But they could

not comprehend divine power coming in to Satan’s house,

and taking the righteous dead out from among the rest of

the dead. Jesus replied to Martha, “I am the resurrection

Notes on Luke 14

187

and the life” — speaking of the living power that visits a

man when he is in a state of death, and takes him out of

it. ey knew nothing of the discriminating process of the

one to life, and the other to judgment (John 5).

e Master of the house will show His approval of

the faithful servant. ere will be degrees of glory given

according to the service done. Not that I shall be saved

for what I have done; but my service will be rewarded,

whatever may have been produced by the Holy Spirit

answering the desire of Christ in working in me; for it

is service of which I could not do an atom without His

power. It is likewise the answer of God according to His

counsels; as we may see in the reply to the mother of

Zebedee’s children, “It shall be given to them for whom

it is prepared of my Father” (Matt. 20:23). e service of

love is never inuenced by recompense. Reward is not set

before the soul as the motive for doing anything; but when

we nd diculties in treading the path of service, then the

crown is set before us to encourage us to go on. So, even

Christ, for the joy that was set before Him, “endured the

cross, despising the shame” (Heb. 12:2). So also Moses,

while esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than

the treasures of Egypt, had respect unto the recompense of

the reward. If the recompense and not love be the spring

of our service, it would just amount to this, “Take thy

penny, and go thy way.” But if the world is broken with, no

recompense can be looked for from that source, which is as

great a deliverance as the deliverance from self.

Now (vss. 15-24) see how grace, when brought in, is

rejected. e Supper was ready; the guests were bidden,

but they would not come. e Lord had before spoken of

the kingdom, and here He shows what the reception of

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

188

the kingdom would cost. All things are now ready; but

they all make excuses. ey do not care enough for the

Supper to leave their yoke of oxen, the piece of ground,

and so forth. e Supper was in God’s thoughts from the

beginning, and it was to be when He came to the Jews, as

their Messiah, at the close of the day; but they rejected

Him — they did not want Him. It does not say that their

sins shut them out from the Supper, for God was in Christ

reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their

trespasses unto them. Neither was it the piece of ground,

the oxen, or the wife that were in themselves the evil; but in

their case they became so, because their minds were intent

on them to the slighting of the Supper. And is it not just

the same now? What harm is there in these things, do you

say? If they have occupied your heart, and made you slight

God, that is the harm. In the kingdom of God where are

you? ere was not one link of heart between Christ and

the people He came to, and therefore they rejected the

Supper. is is also a test to our souls all through the day.

It is not a question of whether a thing be right or wrong,

but what savor have the things of Christ to our souls in

it? It may be a very small thing. If we nd the reading of

a book makes the manifestation of Christ to become less

precious to us, we have got away from God, and we cannot

tell where the next step may take us. Satan often cheats us

in this way. e soul is put to the test day by day, whether

the things that are revealed by God in Christ have so much

power over us as to engage the heart; but if other things

have come in between when we want the enjoyment of the

things of Christ, we shall not have it, and this will show us

how far we have got away. If anything comes in and takes

the freshness of Christ from your soul, take heed! for, if

Notes on Luke 14

189

the oxen, and so forth, are thus cared for, when you have

opportunity for the things of Christ, you will have no taste

for them.

In Luke 14:21 the Lord turns to “the poor” of the ock,

those who have no yoke of oxen, and are glad of the feast.

e priests and chiefs of the Jews had the rst invitation,

but, they rejecting it, the Master of the house sends out

into the streets and lanes of the city, to bring in the poor,

the maimed, the lame, and the blind of the people. Still

the house is not lled; and then He sends outside the city,

into the highways and hedges, and compels them to come

in, that the house may be lled. ese are the Gentiles.

In this Gospel the poor of the ock and the Gentiles are

distinguished from each other. But in Matthew, whose

aim is Jewish, there is no mention made of both classes as

distinct. “e wedding was furnished with guests” (Matt.

22:10) includes the Gentiles, gathered in after the Jews are

brought into the blessing. en mark the lowliness of the

servant and the patient grace of the Master; that goes right

on to the end. He cannot rest till He gets His house lled

with guests.

What perseverance there is on the part of God! and we

are called to go on in the same spirit. It does cost a great

deal, to go on, and on, and on, in spite of everybody and

everything; and for us to do so, marks the presence of divine

power in us, for God’s grace is unwearied. ere is indeed

judgment at the same time, for it is said, “None of those

men which were bidden shall taste of my supper” (Luke

12:24). But God’s acting thus shows us what lowliness

there should be in us, as regards self, and grace as regards

everyone else, and all grounded on this one fact, that all

man’s relationships with God are morally broken; and if

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

190

you are really going to take such a path as that of following

Christ, you must count the cost. It is all very well to see

such grace and admire it; but there is no power to persevere

in it, without such love in the heart as the establishment of

a new relationship with God gives. ere must be a link in

the heart with the new thing; and Christ must have such

strength in the heart as to give power to break with old

things.

Verses 25-33. Multitudes were attracted by the hearing

of such grace: so in verse 26 He tells them what discipleship

will involve. ere may be an allusion here to Micah 7:5-

6. Friends must be given up for Christ. A man may have

to leave everything else, but the question is, Am I to leave

God? What! life too? Yes-no matter. In that life you are

linked with the world, and that must be given up too, if

I am in question: you cannot have two hearts — a heart

for the world, and a heart for Me — Christ would say. I

tremble when I see people who have not counted the cost,

setting out in the profession of following Christ. It is God’s

way to put the barrier at the rst start. If you can leap that,

you will do. Legal obedience will not stand, but following

Christ. If He is in the path, it is happy and easy; but it is

a path between two hedges. If Christ is not with you in it,

there will be nothing but trouble and diculty.

Verses 34, 35. “Salt” is grace in spiritual energy; that is,

the saints being witnesses in the world of the power of holy

love, instead of selshness. Salt is the consecrating principle

of grace: if that is gone, what is to preserve? Salt is rather

grace in the aspect of holy separateness unto God, than in

that of kindness and meekness, though of course these are

also inseparable from grace. If the salt has lost its savor,

wherewith shall it be salted? If I have meat without salt, I

Notes on Luke 14

191

can salt it; but if there is no saltness in salt, what can I do?

What a character we have here of an unspiritual church,

or an unspiritual saint! Like the vine which represented

Israel, good for nothing at all but to dishonor the Lord its

owner and be destroyed. Mercy, it is true, may recover us;

but as saints we should have the savor of Christ. Whatever

enfeebles attachment to Christ destroys power. It is not

gross sin that does it, which of course will be met and

judged; but it is the little things of everyday life which are

apt to be chosen before Christ. When the world creeps in,

the salt has lost its savor and we show that a rejected Christ

has little power in our eyes.

e Lord keep us in the path with Christ, where all is

bright and blessed. If the lm of this world has been drawn

over our spiritual vision, hiding Christ from us, He alone

can remove it.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

192

62890

Notes on Luke 15-16

Luke 15-16.

We have seen the Lord showing out His own rejection,

in grace, followed by an entirely new order of things. e

church, brought in subsequently, is not an age, properly so

called, but a heavenly episode between the ages. ere are

three ages spoken of in Scripture: the age before the law, the

age under the law, and the millennial age. Christ was “made

under the law” (Gal. 4:4), and that age is not nished yet.

e disciples said to Him, “What shall be the sign of thy

coming and of the end of the age?” (Matt. 24:3). at was

the age when He was there, but when they rejected Him,

the age was suspended. As He straitly charged Peter to tell

no man He was the Christ, saying, “the Son of man must

suer many things, and be rejected” (Mark 8:31). erefore

He says to them, “Ye shall not see me, till ye shall say, Blessed

is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” We, who form

a part of the church of God, and not having anything to do

with the earth, are in no sense an age, but are a heavenly

people united to Christ above, during the suspension of

this age, lling up the gap between the Lord’s leaving the

Jews, and His return to them again. So in Romans 11 we

have the olive tree with some of the branches broken o,

and others graed in. is is the tree with its root in the

earth, and consequently it could have nothing directly to

do with the church in heaven. Some of the branches were

broken o, and some left; but this could never be said of

the church, the body united to its head, at the right hand of

God. e church, of course, does ll up a certain place and

Notes on Luke 15-16

193

time, but it is during the suspension of the age to which

Christ came. Characteristically we belong to that which is

above and beyond anything connected with this world. It

is grace that has set us there, and that is not of earth but

of heaven.

In chapter 15 we nd the Lord rising above Jewish

dispensation altogether, to the full display of God’s own

nature — love in the gospel. At the close of chapter 14 He

takes up the professing system in its responsibility. “Salt

is good, but if the salt have lost its savor,” it is good for

nothing. us He shows what man is. en in chapter 15

come publicans and sinners, and we have the display of

what God is. Here God is dealing with lost man, in grace.

Sinners, who owned their sins and came to repentance,

were those who justied God. “Wisdom is justied of

her children” (Luke 7:35). God is vindicated in His ways,

whether in the condemnation or salvation of a sinner.

e publicans and sinners justied God, being baptized

of John, while the Pharisees rejected His counsel against

themselves. All that is wanted to justify God is that He

should show Himself; and this is what the Lord now does.

He manifests what God is in grace, and this it is which

makes the chapter ever so fresh and full to our souls; the

heart that has been awakened never tires of such a chapter.

en, in chapter 16, He shows the responsibility of

those who are thus dealt with. e earth was given to the

children of men, and God looked for fruit. He rst dealt

with man as to what he ought to have been on the earth,

but there was entire failure. Now there comes out another

thing, entire grace, which is irrespective of all that man

was, and takes an absolutely heavenly character. Divine

love is its source, and its character is heavenly. Revealing

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

194

heaven, it puts man into connection with it; and the people

so put must be a heavenly people. Why so? Because this

world is all gone wrong; it has fallen from God, and is

become the “far country.” Hence, its riches are of no value,

but a great hindrance, unless used in a heavenly way; and

chapter 16 shows how they should be used. Chapter 15

shows the sinner called out by grace; that which follows

shows what he, who is called out, is to be as a heavenly

man. is world is a scene of evil, and that which attaches

to it is now ruin and not blessedness. (See the rich man and

Lazarus.) Adam had a place in this world, and Israel had

a place in it; but now that is all gone, and grace has come

in, lifting those who are the subjects of it into another state

of things altogether. Christ is justifying God. His nature

being love, it was His joy to manifest grace to sinners. It is

not here the joy of those brought back, but God’s own joy

in bringing the sinner back to Himself. is gives the tone

to heaven. “ere is joy” above in the poor wretched sinner

brought back.

I have no doubt we have, in these three parables,

the unfolding of the ways of the Trinity. In the rst is

shown the Son, as the Good Shepherd, going after the

sheep. In the second, the woman lighting a candle, and

searching diligently till she nd the piece of silver, we

have the painstaking work of the Holy Spirit, lighting up

a testimony in this dark world. e third is the Father’s

reception of the returning sinner, when brought back.

In this, the prodigal son, we nd the work in the sinner;

but in the two previous ones, it is the sovereignty and the

activity of grace, which goes out in love to nd that which

was lost, and brings the sinner back without his having

anything to do in it. is persevering energy of love is in

Notes on Luke 15-16

195

the Shepherd Himself — the Good Shepherd cares for the

sheep, and gives it no trouble in getting home; He carries

it on His shoulders. Herein is seen the perfect grace in

which the Lord Jesus has so charged Himself with bearing

our every burden, our every trial and diculty all along the

road. Christ is thus the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls.

en mark, in verse 6, the peculiar character of this joy.

“He calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto

them; Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which

was lost.” ere could not be a more genuine picture, or

a fuller expression of a person being happy than this. Joy

always speaks out.

In the second parable we have the same general

principle. e painstaking of the Holy Spirit is shown

in the acting of the woman who sought the lost piece of

silver; the piece of silver could have neither trouble nor

joy itself. e dierence in the two is, that in the rst, the

Shepherd bears all the burden; in the second, it is the pains

taken in nding the lost piece, proving the woman cared

enough for it to take all this trouble to search it out. us

does God’s love act towards us, to bring us out of the dark

world to Himself. What a work it is to bring man’s heart

back to God!

“‘Twas great to speak a world from naught; ‘Twas

greater to redeem.”

If we look at man, as he is in himself, he could never

get back to God. But look at what God is in Himself, and

who or what can resist His grace! Still it is the joy of the

nder, and not of the thing found: Rejoice with me, for I

have found my sheep — my piece — that was lost. And in

the case of the returning prodigal, who made the feast?

Not the young man, but the father, saying to those in the

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

196

house, “Let us eat and be merry, for this my son was dead

and is alive again, he was lost and is found” (Luke 15:23-

24). All caught the joy of the Father’s heart, the servants,

etc., all except the unhappy self-righteous elder brother

(the Pharisee, the Jew), to whom the father replied, “It was

meet that we should make merry and be glad, for this thy

brother was dead and is alive again,” etc.

It is the joy God has in receiving a sinner back to

Himself. In the parable of the prodigal son, by itself, the

full glory of grace is not seen, as these three parables set

it forth together. e case of the sheep is the Shepherd

charging Himself with the whole burden of the sheep; the

silver is the painstaking of the Holy Spirit. Before actual

departure there was moral departure. When the young man

left his father’s house, it was but a display of the evil in his

heart. He was just as wicked when he asked for his portion

of goods, and crossed his father’s threshold, as when he ate

husks with the swine in the far country; he was doubtless,

more miserable then, but his heart was gone before. One

man may run farther into riot than another, but if we have

turned our backs upon God, we are utterly bad. In this

sense there is no dierence.

e moral evil was just the same with Eve. She gave up

God for forbidden fruit. She virtually thought the devil

a much better friend to her than God, and took his word

instead of God’s. Satan is a lair from the beginning, and at

the cross the Lord proved this. It cost the Lord His life to

prove that God was good. Christ came to contradict the

devil’s lie, which man believed, and under which the whole

world is lying. Grace and truth came by Christ, and at all

cost were set up by Him on the cross. Man can do without

God, and from the beginning the whole world has been a

Notes on Luke 15-16

197

public lie against God. Who could un-riddle it? Look at

creation, how it groans under the bondage of corruption.

Look at providence — how can I account for the goodness

of God when I see an infant writhing with pain? How can

I reconcile the two things? e villain prospers — the good

man suers. When I see Christ on the cross, I see what

God is. Death came on man by reason of sin. But Christ

takes my sin on His own sinless person, bows His head in

death upon the cross, and thus sets aside that lie of Satan,

“Ye shall not surely die” (Gen. 3:4). us was God’s truth

re-established here below in the work and person of the

Lord Jesus, and nowhere else. In Him I see holiness, truth,

and love, no matter at what cost.

e natural man is just like this prodigal, he spends

his substance in the far country, and ruins himself. A man

having £5,000 a year, and spending £20,000, will seem very

rich for the time; but look at the results. He is a ruined man.

e moment man departed from God, he sold himself to

Satan, and is spending his soul, his heart, away from God;

he even spends what God has given him against God, and

when he is thoroughly spent, and has nothing to live on, he

begins to be in want. “ere arose a mighty famine in that

land,” and all the world feels that. Every sinner does not go

to the same lengths of eating the swine’s husks, but all are

in the same condition of ruin. Every man has turned his

back upon God, though all have not run to the same excess

of riot, nor fallen into the same degradation. e famine

never draws back to the Father’s house.

e prodigal joined himself to a citizen of that

country — not his father’s country. “He would fain have

lled his belly” (Luke 15:16), and “no man gave to him.”

Satan never gives; that is found where God’s love is, who

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

198

spared not His own Son. When the prodigal thinks of his

father’s house, the whole work is morally done, though he

is not back there yet. He turns, his heart was changed, and

thus his whole desire was to get back to his father’s house,

from whence he had departed. He was not yet in the full

liberty of grace, so as to have peace and happiness, and he

says to himself, “make me as one of thy hired servants.” He

is brought to a sense of his guilt; and what was it? feeding

with the swine? No, this was the fruit of it; but his guilt

was in leaving his father’s house, turning away from God.

When he came to himself, he desired to return. is was

truly a right wish, but the form it took in his mind, from

his not yet knowing grace, was a legal one. “I am no more

worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired

servants.” But the father does not give him time for that.

We hear nothing more about hired servants; for when

he was “yet a great way o, his father saw him, and had

compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.”

He could not have been a servant with the father’s arms

round his neck. It would have spoiled the father’s feelings,

if not the son’s.

It was the joy of Him who was receiving back the sinner

to Himself; and it is the knowledge of this which gives

peace to the soul: nothing else does. If a man does not

know love, he does not know God, for God is love. e

full revelation of God is what we have in Christ. “Have I

been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known

me?” (John 14:9). God acts from the joy and delight He

has in Himself, in receiving back the sinner, and therefore

He does not think of the rags but of the child He has got

back again. What right has man to call God in question,

when He indulges His own heart in the outow of love

Notes on Luke 15-16

199

to the sinner? You will never get peace by the mere act

of coming back, but by learning the Father’s mind about

you. Could the prodigal get peace as he was coming back

if the father had not met him? No, all along the road he

would be questioning, how will he receive me? — will he be

angry with me? will he spurn me from his presence? And

if he does, what will become of me? “But when he was yet

a great way o, his father saw him, and had compassion,

and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.” If not so, he

would have trembled even to knock at the door.

When the father’s arms were on the son’s neck, was

he deied by the rags? No; and he will not have the son

bring rags into the house, but orders the best robe to be

brought out of it. God sends His own Son out of heaven,

and clothes the sinner; and, thus arrayed, the young man

could bring credit to his father’s house. And, surely, if we

are so clothed with Christ, we shall do credit to God; and,

in the ages to come, He will show the exceeding riches of

His grace in His kindness towards us through Christ Jesus.

“Let us eat, and be merry.” It is not, Let him eat and be

merry. Again, he says, “It was meet that we should make

merry and be glad.” ere was but one exception to the

delight in the house. e elder brother (the self-righteous

person) was angry, and would not go in. God had shown

what He was in Himself, by His Son, in thus receiving

the prodigal: and now He would show what they were

in themselves. We know the Pharisees murmured from

the beginning, and the elder brother had no communion

with his father: for if the father was happy, why was not

he happy too? “He was angry, and would not go in.” If

such a vile person as the publican gets in, this makes my

righteousness go for nothing! It is truly so; for where God’s

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

200

happiness is, there self-righteousness cannot come. If God

is good to the sinner, what avails my righteousness? He

had no sympathy with his father. He ought to have said,

“My father is happy, so I must be.” ere should have been

communion in the joy. “y brother is back.” at ought to

have rung on his heart, but no.

en see the perfect patience of God’s grace: the father

goes out and entreats him. And do we not, all through the

Acts, see God entreating the Jews to be reconciled, although

they had crucied His Son? So Paul, in 1 essalonians

2:15-16, says that the Jews lled up the measure of their

sins by forbidding the apostles to speak to the Gentiles,

that they might be saved. It is all selshness in the elder

son. “ou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry

with my friends” (Luke 15:29). To which the father replies,

“Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.”

e oracles of God, the covenants, the promises, God gave

to the Jews; but He will not give up the right to show His

grace to sinners, because of the self-righteous selshness of

the Jews, or of anyone else.

Luke 16. “ere was a certain rich man, which had a

steward; and the same was accused unto him, that he had

wasted his goods.” Man, generally, is God’s steward: and in

another sense and in another way, Israel was God’s steward,

put into God’s vineyard, and entrusted with law, promises,

covenants, worship, etc. But in all, Israel was found to have

wasted His goods. Man, looked at as a steward, has been

found to be entirely unfaithful. Now, what is to be done?

God appears, and in the sovereignty of His grace, turns

that which man has abused on the earth, into a means of

heavenly fruit. e things of this world being in the hands

of man he is not to be using them for the present enjoyment

Notes on Luke 15-16

201

of this world, which is altogether apart from God, but with

a view to the future. We are not to seek to possess the

things now, but, by the right use of these things, to make

a provision for other times. “Make to yourselves friends of

the mammon of unrighteousness” (Luke 16:9). It is better

to turn all into a friend for another day than to have money

now. Man here is gone to destruction. erefore now man is

a steward out of place. “Give an account of thy stewardship,

for thou mayest be no longer steward.” He is discharged

from stewardship — has lost his place, but not the things

of which he has the administration. Here is something far

better than the alchemy which would turn all into gold.

For this is grace, turning even gold itself, that vile thing

which enslaves men’s hearts, into a means of showing love

and getting riches for heaven.

To Israel, God is saying, You have failed in the

stewardship; therefore now I am going to put you out.

In chapter 15 the elder brother, the Jew, would not go in;

and here, in chapter 16, God is putting the Jew out of the

stewardship. With Adam, all is over; but we have a title in

grace to use, in a heavenly way, that to which we have no

title at all as man. “If, therefore, ye have not been faithful

in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your

trust the true riches?” “If ye have not been faithful in that

which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is

your own?” Our own things are the heavenly things; the

earthly things are another’s; and if you do not use your title

in grace in devoting in love these earthly temporal goods,

which are not your own, how can God trust you with the

spiritual things which are “your own”? Our own things are

all the glories of Christ — all that is Christ’s is ours, for

“ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

202

and gold.” We were bought with a price, it is true, not with

money, but “with the precious blood of Christ.” (1 Peter

1:28). God has not given us eternal life in order that we

might be getting money. “No man can serve two masters”

(Matt. 6:24), and if you want to be rich, you cannot be

seeking to serve God. We may have to do our duty in this

world, but it is never our duty to serve mammon and desire

riches.

Now He goes on to show that there are these everlasting

habitations, when the grand results will appear of what has

been done here. e old thing is eeting away, and the new

coming in. e Jew, who refused to come to the feast, is

loosening the law, while rejecting grace. See chapter 14:18-

19.

Luke 16:19. “A certain rich man, which was clothed

in purple,” etc. e thought here is Jewish, and the great

principle is that all God’s dealings, as to the distributive

justice on the earth, were no longer in force, and that now

He only deals in grace. He draws aside the veil to show

the result in another world. e rich man had his good

things here — he belonged to the earth, and the basket

and the store belonged to him — his treasure was on earth,

and his heart there too. But look into the other world and

see the result — “torment.” e good things have changed

now. “e rich man also died, and was buried; and in hell

he lifted up his eyes, being in torment.” “And there was a

certain beggar, named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate,

full of sores … and the beggar died.” Was he buried? Not

a word about it, for he belonged not to the earth. He “was

carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom.” He who had

the “evil things” down here, “was carried by the angels into

Abraham’s bosom.” He who have the “evil things” down

Notes on Luke 15-16

203

here, was carried to the best place in heaven. en mark, it

was not the aiction, sores, and so forth, of Lazarus made

him righteous, any more than the riches of the rich man

made him unrighteous. God having done with the earthly

things, no earthly circumstances are a mark of God’s

present favor, or the reverse: though, no doubt; God’s

dealings with Lazarus were the means of bringing down

his pride, breaking the will, etc., and so preparing him for

the place He was going to take him to.

Verse 31. “If they hear not Moses and the prophets,”

etc. Here this solemn truth comes out, that even the

resurrection of Christ will not convince them; for if they

refuse to hear God’s word as they have it, they will not hear

the testimony of God, even though one rose from the dead;

and we know they did not.

is chapter 16 is to let in the light of another world

upon God’s ways and dealings in this. e whole world

is bankrupt before God; so that man is now trading with

another’s goods. When man rejected Christ he was turned

out of his stewardship. is is man’s position. We should

therefore, dispose of everything now, in reference to the

world to come, according to this permission in grace

revealed in chapter 16, to use the things of which we

have the administration. If we are serving mammon, we

shall not get the blessing of serving God, in the sense of

God’s gifts; for it is retributive justice here, in a sense. If

you are not faithful in another man’s, who will give you

that which is your own? If you have not been faithful to

the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust

the true riches? If you are loving money, you cannot have

your heart lled with Christ. We are not to be “slothful in

business,” but “fervent in spirit, serving the Lord” (Rom.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

204

12:11); and for this He opens heaven to us. Not as He said

to Abraham, “Unto a land that I will show thee.” He has

shown heaven unto us, having opened it to us in grace. It is

the revelation of grace that gives power over earthly things.

May the Lord keep before us a living Christ, as our light

for guidance and salvation to walk and trust in!

Notes on Luke 17

205

62891

Notes on Luke 17

Luke 17.

We have seen the great principle of divine grace in

contrast with self-righteousness, and the Jewish economy,

which refused its Messiah, the Son of God, set aside to

make way for bringing to light life and incorruption

through the gospel.

“en said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that

oenses will come; but woe unto him through whom they

come” (vs. 1). We enter here on the spirit and way of serving,

now that the world to come was let in upon the conduct

and faith of the disciples in this world, for none could serve

two masters. God is carrying on a work — in a little child

perhaps — but it is His own work and individual faith is

needed in the path of a rejected Christ. Among those who

professed to follow Him and His glory on the principles of

faith, there would be alas! many scandals. It was not now,

nor yet to be, a reign of judicial power when the Son of man

would gather out of His kingdom all scandals and them

which do iniquity. Satan’s power is permitted, the exercise

of faith is required. It is a time of proving, by the prevalence

of evil, that which lasts because of God. e cross must be

taken and self denied. It is a hard lesson, but blessed when

learned. e cross and the glory are always connected. e

cross must be on the natural man, not on sin merely, so as to

break the will. Christ had no will, showing perfectness; but

we need the cross practically, as the means of communion

by breaking down that which hinders.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

206

en, again, the whole system of the world is a stumbling

block: there is not one thing in it which is not calculated

to turn the heart from God. Take the merest trie — dress,

vanities in the street, attery of man, of brethren, perhaps,

and so forth — all tend to elevate the esh. What a dierent

thing is heaven opening on a rejected Savior! And this is

our light and pathway through the world, for now the

heavens are open to faith, as we pass through it to Him

whom we see in glory. ere is an active energetic ow

of God’s love in carrying on souls. Is our walk a witness?

Take care you are not a stumbling-block. You may say, A

person must be very weak to feel such or such a thing, but

it is the very reason why he is to be cared for. e Lord give

us never to hinder but to help the weak! ese things are

the stumbling-block of the enemy, and the man by whom

they come is so far an instrument of Satan. e Lord loves

His little ones. Better for that man that a millstone were

hanged about his neck and he cast into the sea, than that

he should oend one of them.

Luke 17:3. But suppose a person does something to

stumble you, what then? “Take heed to yourselves.” Your

part is to forgive. Take heed to yourselves, jealous and

self-judging. “If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke

him; and if he repent, forgive him.” What! if he trespass

often — “seven times in a day?” Yes, if he “seven times

in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent, thou shalt

forgive him.” Watch incessantly yourselves and see to it

that the spirit of love (the power of unity and the bond of

perfectness, as we know from elsewhere) be not broken, nor

the spirit of holiness, that the peace be not false. Blessed

path! what condescension to our weakness and danger

in the introduction of grace, and the moral judgment of

Notes on Luke 17

207

present things, which are the aliment of the esh and the

domain of the world! Watchfulness against self and grace

to others bring us through, rising like a life-boat above all

breakers.

Luke 17:5-10. In such a position there would be need

of faith and the energy proper to it. e apostles (led

of God, though perhaps seeing but a petty part of the

diculty and with a confused sense of this new position)

pray for an increase of faith. e Lord answers by setting

forth the fullness of its energy: for faith realizes a power

which is not in the person and thus acts without limit. He

applies it also, though in general terms, to the removal of

the obstacles of a system, which might present the form

of what was good and great, but fruitless. In every need

we may draw upon God. All consists in looking simply

to Him. All things are possible to him that believes. For

it is God accomplishing His will, and He has willed to

accomplish it by man and to honor Himself in man, after

being dishonored of Satan in and by man; but this in faith

according to His will, till the Lord Jesus returns in power

and glory. God is at work, and if you are co-workers under

Him, you could believe that He is and say, Let this be done

and this. Is it nothing to wield God’s power? If you know

what it is to be opposed by Satan, you will feel how blessed

it is to call in the power of God. Your place and work may

be very humble — outside — no matter what: still you need

God’s power to be little. What the Lord says in verses 7-10

is not applicable to a careless servant. If he has neglected

his work, he is a slothful one. But I am an unprotable

servant when I have done all that I am commanded. Am

I neglected? It is to try me. Something needs it. Perhaps

I want to learn that God can do without me. Now that

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

208

Christ is rejected, God is at work. If He uses me, it is a

great honor; if He lays me by because self was elated, it

is a great mercy. He is saying, as it were, Be satised with

Myself, be content to know I love thee. Are you content

with His love? Do you want man’s honor or your own?

Remember that when you have done all, it is the time to

say, “unprotable servant!”

Luke 17:11-19. e history which follows shows that

when God brings in new power, those who have had the

previous privileges are the last to rise above them into

what is better. But there is a faith wrought of God in the

heart which sets free from the subsidiary forms thrown

around God’s will in the past economy. us, recognizing

God in Jesus, it carries the soul beyond the law of a carnal

commandment and associates it with Him in whom is the

power of an endless life. It occupies us with His person

who is above all, planting us not in dishonor of the law

(“yea, we establish the law” through faith), but in the

liberty wherewith the truth — the Son — makes free. All

were cleansed by the word of divine power. e nine went

on to show themselves to the priests, acting on the word

of Jesus and thus far in faith. But the Samaritan stranger

perceived God’s glory in what had taken place, and so

turned back to Jesus and aloud gloried God. e others

owned the power which had come, but remained in their

religious habits and associations. He, less pre-occupied

with outward institutions, returned to the source of power,

not to its shadow and witness, which nature always uses

to hide God. He had experienced divine power in Jesus,

and instead of merely enjoying the gift, he most humbly,

but in the boldness and propriety of faith, went back

to own the Giver. He “fell down on his face at his feet,

Notes on Luke 17

209

giving him thanks” (Luke 17:16). He wanted no priest.

e priest did not, could not cleanse, but only discern

and pronounce a man clean. Evil had leveled the Jew and

the Samaritan. ey were alike cast out of the presence of

divine communion by the leprosy which aicted them.

But He who healed lepers under the law was He who gave

the law, and the word of Jesus at once recognized the law

and manifested the Jehovah who gave it. e gratitude of

faith was a readier reasoner than the instruction of the law;

for the blessing aorded by the work and presence of Jesus

was to the nine the means of keeping up Jewish distinction,

to the tenth it was the evidence of divine goodness. To him,

therefore, it was complete deliverance. He was by faith

arrived in grace at the fountain-head from which the law

itself proceeded, and was let go in peace, made whole by his

faith, having liberty from God and with God, giving thanks

and glorifying Him, and withal knowing how acceptable it

was in His sight.

How many reasons might have been pleaded for going

on and not returning to Jesus! How might the nine Jews

have said, You are ordered to go and show yourself to the

priest! But faith goes straight to the heart of God, and there

nds all grace and a dismissal in the liberty of grace. To him

who returned to Jesus, cleansed and with heart-felt thanks,

the priests were left behind. In spirit and gure the healed

Samaritan was passed into another system by faith — the

grace and liberty of the gospel. It is blessed thus to be at the

source of power and goodness, and there only does God

put now those who believe. If under the law before, we are

become dead to it by the body of Christ that we should

belong to another — to Him who is raised from the dead.

It is this way alone that glories God, however men may

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

210

plead the letter. us only can we joy in God through our

Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received (not

the law, but) the reconciliation. In Him, thus known and

enjoyed, we have all and more than all then the priests ever

conceived. We have communion with the Father and the

Son by faith in God fully revealed. We have to do with

Him in heaven now, not with a temple and priests on earth.

“Arise, go thy way.” You have found the person and glory

of the Lord. You are beyond the priests and the temple,

your faith has pierced the veil and found One greater than

both. e rest went their way, cleansed, to be under the law.

Stupeed by Judaism, they did not return to glorify God.

All this, at the point of the gospel we are arrived at, is full

of importance. It is another light thrown on the passing

away of the law and of that dispensation.

In the next verses, from verse 20 to 37, the question

was actually raised as to the coming of God’s kingdom.

e Pharisees asked when it should come, and the Lord

places them on their plain responsibility. “e kingdom

of God cometh not with observation” (Luke 17:20), or

outward show. It should not be said, Lo here! or Lo there!

for that kingdom then was there among them. e King

was speaking to them. Ought they not to have known Him

because He came in grace? If He had humbled Himself

to know their sorrows and to die for their sins, was that

a reason for not discerning His greatness and moral

perfection manifested in ten thousand ways? Did not His

holy love to the poor and guilty prove, plainly enough, who

He was? If man’s heart had not been opposed to all that

was the delight of God in the kingdom, if his eye had not

been blind to all that was lovely and of good report, he

Notes on Luke 17

211

would have felt that the lower Christ stooped, the more

wonderful were His works.

To His disciples He had other things to say. He was

rejected and leaving them. Suering awaited them. Trying

as their position might now be as the companions of His

rejection, the days would come when they would long in

vain for one of those days when they had enjoyed blessed

and sweet intercourse with the Son of man. ey would, as

Jews in the land, feel the dierence. en Satan, to allure

and deceive in that day, would lead men to say, “Lo here,”

or “Lo there”; but the disciples would know its falsehood.

ere was no hope for the nation which rejected Christ.

e King had been there but refused; He was no longer

“here” or “there.” is day the Son of man would be as

the lightning ashing from one quarter under heaven

to another. But rst He must suer many things and be

rejected of this generation, that is, the unbelieving Jews.

It is evident that while the Lord takes this name of

Son of man to His disciples as revealing a relation higher

and wider than that of Messiah (the link of which was

broken and gone in the nation’s ruinous rejection of Him),

the whole of this instruction is Jewish and shall nd its

accomplishment properly in a godly remnant of the latter

day. e Christian part is not spoken of here, for that is

association after a heavenly sort with Christ, and we have

its great moral outlines, at least in Luke 12. Here we are

on the ground of responsibility, not of heavenly grace. We

must separate the church’s place with Christ from the

government of the world by Christ. e very character of

the predicted delusion conrms this distinction. For if men

said to the Christian, “Here is Christ,” he would instantly

know that it was of Satan, because we are to meet Him,

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

212

not here or there on earth, but in the air (1 ess. 4). But

this is not the case when you come to the government of

the world. ere the hope rests on Jewish ground, and

then the witnesses for God must go through tribulation

such as has never been. Now, unless expressly forewarned,

they would naturally look here or there for the Deliverer:

for in that character His feet shall stand upon the Mount

of Olives, and He shall come to Zion and shall come out

of it. “Jehovah shall send the rod of thy strength out of

Zion; rule thou in the midst of thine enemies” (Psa. 110:2).

All this diers from the Christian’s hope and his desire

meanwhile; for we do not want our enemies destroyed, but

converted, and we are looking to be taken from them all to

heaven with the Savior, instead of waiting for Him to join

and exalt us under His reign upon the earth.

But, again, the subject here is neither the past siege

of Jerusalem nor the future judgment of the dead. Titus’s

capture of the city was not like the lightning, but a long,

erce, hardly-contested struggle. Nor were the Jews, up to

the moment of the nal stroke, in a state of ease and carnal

security, resting on the continuance of things as they were,

as in the days of Noah and Lot. Suddenness of judgment

is its rst feature, certainty is the next, discriminating

certainty, neither of which things could be fairly said of

the Romans. Without or within, at rest or at work, men

or women, it mattered not, God would burn up the cha

and preserve the wheat: the one should be taken, and

the other be left. Next, there is a local and earthly stamp,

which excludes the scene from that of the great white-

throne judgment. For there is no resemblance between

the judgment of the dead and the deluge or the fate of

Sodom. It is the end of the age, not of the world, and is

Notes on Luke 17

213

a judgment on a temporal people, and more especially on

their city; for they were not to return into the house, if on

the housetop; and if in the eld, they were not to turn back.

None of these things could be said of the dead, any more

than the bed or the mill. It would be no time for human

motives, artices, or concessions (vs. 33). Faithfulness to

the Lord and His testimony would be the true and saving

wisdom. e day of the Son of man’s revelation was in

question — His judgment of the quick, and especially of

a generation which has rejected and caused Him to suer.

If they asked, “where?” the solemn word for conscience

was, where the body, the corpse, was, the swift inevitable

judgments of God would fall.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

214

62892

Notes on Luke 18

Luke 18.

We saw, from verse 20 to the end of the last chapter, that

the kingdom of God was presented, rst, in the person of

Jesus, as a question of faith, not of outward show, nor of a

Lo, here! or lo, there! and, secondly, in the way of judgment,

which should deliver the remnant by the execution of

divine vengeance on their enemies.

Luke 18:1-8. e rst eight verses of our chapter

complete the prophetic warning, and show that the resource

of the righteous in the last days will be prayer. Nevertheless,

though the parable has the special application to the future

oppression of God’s witnesses who will then be found in

Jerusalem, the instruction, as usual with this gospel, is made

general so as to suit any or all kinds of diculty by which

men might be tried. “And he speaks a parable unto them to

this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.”

Faith would be put to the test. If God were looked to, and

not merely the blessing, men would not faint, though there

was no answer. ey would go on, always looking up, though

all seemed against them. e widow represents those who

have no human resource: their resource would be constancy

in prayer. Such will be the godly seed in Israel, for it is the

remnant, not the church which is here meant. ey will

plead with the judge to avenge them of their adversary.

eir patience and condence may be sorely tried, but

they will not cry in vain. “And the Lord said, Hear what

the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge his own

elect, which cry day and night unto him” (Luke 18:6-7).

Notes on Luke 18

215

He may be slow in taking up their cause; but when once

He shall rise up, a short work will He make on the earth.

Meanwhile, patience must have its perfect work. In Jesus

it had its full perfection. ere was the rejection and the

reproach of men, the forsaking of disciples, the power of

Satan, the cup of God’s wrath; but He went through all to

the glory of God. In detail, we too have to be sifted, and to

nd all circumstances against us but God for us, yet more

than if we had outward help, miraculous power, the church

all right, etc. Even joy may hinder our entire dependence

on God, making us forget, practically, that the esh prots

nothing. When no circumstances lead you to have any

hope, is your hope then in Him? e esh may get on for

a long while, as in Saul; but faith only can wait with all

against it. It is then the divine life depending on divine

power. us it was in Christ pre-eminently. “I believed,

therefore have I spoken” (2 Cor. 4:18). He went down into

the dust of death, and has introduced a wholly new order

of things. And we, having the same spirit of faith — we also

believe, and therefore speak. “Wherefore henceforth know

we no man after the esh; yea, though we have known

Christ after the esh, yet now henceforth know we him

no more. erefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new

creation” (2 Cor. 5:16-17). Christ is dead, risen, and now

set down at the right hand of God. Having this life, we are

put to the test practically to learn the lesson of death and

resurrection, where nothing but God can sustain.

In the parable there are two considerations. If the

unjust judge hear and act for the defenseless, be the motive

what it may, will not God? But this is far from all. God

has His aections, not only His character, but objects of

His delight. “And shall not God avenge his own elect?”

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

216

(Luke 18:7). It never can become the righteous God, who

taketh vengeance to make light of evil or let the wicked go

unpunished. For then how shall He judge the world? He

notices the cry from the oppressed day and night, and it

is the cry of His own elect. “I tell you that he will avenge

them speedily.” But will there be the faith that expects His

interference? ey will cry from distress and God will hear.

Nevertheless, the question is raised, Will there be, when

the Son of man cometh, that faith on the earth, which is

founded on God known in peaceful communion? Will it

not rather be the cry of the righteous, in bitterness of spirit,

a cry forced out of them, and not the cry of desire?

Luke 18:9. We have next, the moral features of,

and suited to, the kingdom, the characters which are in

harmony or discord with the state of things introduced by

grace. e Pharisee and publican set forth, not the doctrine

of atonement or of justication by faith, but the certainty

that self-righteousness is displeasing to God, and that

lowliness because of our sin is most acceptable in His sight.

e Pharisee does not set God aside. He “stood and prayed

thus with himself, God, I thank thee.” But then he thanks

God for what he is, not for what God is. e only hope of

the publican was in God Himself. He was very ignorant,

no doubt, but he had the right spirit to get at God. Light

had broken in and shown he was a sinner, and he submitted

to the painful conviction, and confessed the truth of his

state to God. He was cast on God’s mercy to his soul. He

dared not appeal to justice, he did not ask indierence,

but that mercy which measures the sin and forgives it.

e revelation of grace had not yet come in, the work of

reconciliation was not yet done, so that the publican stood

“afar o,” but his heart was touched, and God was what he

Notes on Luke 18

217

wanted. If a soul is brought to a sense of sin now, it need

not, and ought not, to stand afar o. e grace of God that

brings salvation has appeared. Nevertheless, though he did

and could not thus know grace, the publican gives God and

himself their true character. It was not full knowledge, but

the knowledge, as far as it went was true. “I tell you, this

man went down to his house justied rather than the other;

for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and

he that humbleth himself shall be exalted” (Luke 18:14).

Universal truth! but where so shown as in Jesus? For if the

rst man, exalting himself, was abased to hell, He who was

God, made Himself of no reputation, humbled Himself to

the death of the cross. “Wherefore God also hath highly

exalted him” (Phil 2:9).

In one sense men cannot humble themselves, because

they are sinners already, and cannot go lower; a saint may.

True humility is forgetfulness of self.

is is illustrated yet more by the incident that follows

(vss. 15-17), where they brought infants to Jesus, that He

would touch them. It is the lowliness of real insignicance,

as the former was because of sinfulness. Who would be

troubled with beings of such little consequence? Not the

disciples, but Jesus. e Lord delighted in them, and that

is the spirit of the kingdom of God. And here too a general

moral maxim comes out. If a man is to enter that kingdom,

all condence in self must be broken down, and the truth

be received simply, as a little child hears its mother. If it

is not so, God and man have not their place. When He

speaks, all I have to do is to listen. is is the humility of

nothingness, as the other was on account of sin.

Next, in verses 18 to 27 comes the question of doing in

order to eternal life, not salvation for a lost one, but that

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

218

which searches the heart to the bottom. e young man

was a lovely character, looked at as a creature. For if there

are the ravages of sin in the world, there are traces of God

there too. is ruler did not see God in Christ. Morally

attracted, he came to learn to do good, without a doubt of

his own competence. In Jesus he only saw a perfectly good

man, and one therefore eminently able to advise and direct

him in the same path. Sin, on the one hand, and grace,

on the other, were altogether ignored by him. He knew

neither himself nor God. ere is no man good. All are

gone astray. Man is a sinner, and needs God to be good to

him: he is incompetent to do the good which satises God.

e Lord took up the young ruler on his own assumption

that he could do good, for the purpose of bringing out what

he was. e good Master that he had appealed to puts to

the test what his heart really is. “Yet lackest thou one thing;

sell all that thou hast … and come, follow me.” Would he

give up self-importance? After all, he loved his riches too

well. “He was very sorrowful; for he was very rich” (Luke

18:23). Had not such things been promised as a blessing to

the Jews? Christ shows them to be a snare. But then they

do much good! Nay, are they good for your heart? It is not

that they may not be used in grace; but the man did not

know his own heart. Good is not there, nor the strength

to produce it. Every motive which governs man is rooted

up by the cross. But all within is bad, and I can never

work a thing t for God out of bad material. I need God

therefore, who can give me a new and holy nature, who can

be merciful to me because He is above all sin. e spring

of all good is, that it ows from God and not man. It is an

impossibility, as far as man is concerned, that any should be

saved. Sin has ruined man and all his hopes. If one looks at

Notes on Luke 18

219

the means he can avail himself of, they are wholly useless

to save him. But “the things which are impossible with

men,” said the Savior, “are possible with God.” Such is the

sole foundation for the sinner.

On the other hand (vss. 28-30), if Peter is quick to

speak of the devotedness of the disciples, in leaving all and

following Jesus, the Lord shows the certainty that every

loss, for the kingdom’s sake, will turn into manifold gain,

both now and in the world to come.

But He binds it all up (vss. 31-33) with what was coming

on His own person. ey were going up to Jerusalem; but

for what? He, the Messiah, “shall be delivered unto the

Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated,

and spitted on; and they shall scourge him, and put him

to death.” All hopes must end here: “Yea, though we have

known Christ after the esh, yet now henceforth know we

him no more” (2 Cor. 5:16). Even He, if He is to deliver the

lost, must come down to the dust of death. Christ has no

association with sinful man. How then can He deliver? He

must die for us; He cannot take corruption into union with

Himself. A living Christ, we may reverently say, could not

deliver us, consistently with God’s nature and character;

redemption was a necessity. “Except a corn of wheat fall

into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it

bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12:24).

But it was the only means of a holy salvation; man’s

full wickedness came out in the rejection and death of

Christ. He hated what is in God and Him who is God-

hated both the Son and the Father. All question of human

justice is settled and negatived forever. Alas! the disciples

understood none of these things, neither His shame and

death, nor His resurrection. It was the accomplishment of

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

220

what the prophets had written concerning the Son of man.

But they knew not what He said nor what they wrote. e

death of Christ would manifest what man was, and what

God was; His resurrection would evince the power of life

that can deliver the dead. But He was not understood.

Luke 18:34 closed that part of our Gospel which shows

the bringing in of the new and heavenly dispensation.

With verse 35 we enter on the historical account of the

Lord’s nal interaction with the Jews. “Son of man” was

the general character of the Gospel, but now, in the midst

of Israel, He takes up that of Son of David. Jericho was

the rst place Israel had to say to when they crossed the

Jordan, and a special curse was pronounced against it. But

Israel had not walked in obedience, and the Messiah enters

not as the king in outward glory, but as the rejected Jesus

of Nazareth, with blessing for the remnant that received

Him in faith.

“And it came to pass, that as he was come nigh unto

Jericho” (Luke 18:35). It is not “came nigh,” as if it were

necessarily His rst approach, but a general expression, just

as applicable to His being nigh on His leaving the city.

(Compare Matthew and Mark.) “A certain blind man sat

by the way side, begging … and he cried, saying, Jesus,

thou Son of David, have mercy on me” (Luke 18:35,38).

He was rebuked by many, but there was the perseverance of

faith, and he cried so much the more, ou Son of David,

have mercy on me.” Here was a sample of the power of the

Name that Israel rejected. e eye of the blind was opened

then, as it will be in the remnant by-and-by.

Notes on Luke 19

221

62893

Notes on Luke 19

Luke 19.

Next, we have the account of Zacchæus (Luke 19:1-10),

for the Spirit of God did not tie Luke to the mere order of

time; and morally viewed, it was the tting sequel to the

healing of the blind man. Found only in this Gospel, it is a

striking illustration of the grace which receives a man, no

matter how low, and in the face of Jewish prejudices. For a

publican, a rich chief of the publicans, was justly an object

of abhorrence to those who regarded him as the expression

of Gentile dominion. All was wrong through sin, and Israel

was not humbled. Still it was a sad position for an Israelite,

however honest and conscientious Zacchæus might be in

it. But it was the day of grace, and “he sought to see Jesus.”

ere were diculties, hindrances in him and around; but

faith perseveres in spite of opposition. As the blind man

was bent on his object, so was the rich publican set on

seeing Jesus. is marks the working of God’s Spirit — the

apprehension of the worth of the object. We want it and

more of it; we know enough to want more. It is an appetite

produced by the Holy Spirit. It is a terrible thing, if we,

as Christians, have not this craving, this hungering and

thirsting after a greater enjoyment of God; for where this

is not, deadness and apathy of soul have come in.

Jesus came to the place, and saw him and said unto him,

“Zacchæus, make haste, and come down; for today I must

abide at thy house. And he made haste, and came down, and

received him joyfully” (Luke 19:5-6). He had not yet the

full knowledge of Jesus, but his desire had been met, and he

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

222

had joy. It was neither law nor glory, but a hidden Messiah

come in full grace. ere was abundant evidence who He

was, but in grace He was come down where they were. No

matter what people thought. Finding Jesus is everything.

Zacchæus had the answer to the want which divine grace

had created. Grace does not give at rst the knowledge of

Christ’s work; there may be little or no understanding that

we are made the righteousness of God in Him. Hence the

rst joy often wanes; because, when conscience is accused,

I want the consciousness of that righteousness. e rst

joy is constantly that of discovering that we possess the

felt need of the soul for Christ; but the full question as to

righteousness may still have to be met in the conscience,

though of course every believer in possessing Christ does

possess divine righteousness. Nevertheless, much as there

is to learn, there is joy. New interests are awakened, new

desires arise, a new insight is obtained into good and evil.

When there is a deep sense of what it is to be lost and saved,

the world (man) is a light matter. But when the pressure on

the conscience is removed, too often nature resumes a sort

of place, and Christ is not all and everything to the saint.

Zacchæus’ heart is opened. ere is condence, which

tells itself out. ere might be ever so much honest eort

to satisfy conscience in his false position; but after all what

a place it was! Men murmured. e Lord passed all over.

Self-defense was needless. e Lord did not accuse, and

speaks of nothing but the salvation which was that day

come to the house. Zacchæus was a son of Abraham, and

the Son of man was come to seek and to save that which

was lost. What, could a Pharisee object? ere had been a

work with the conscience of Zacchæus, but the Son of man

was come and salvation was the word. He brings it. He

Notes on Luke 19

223

gave what Zacchæus had little thought of. He was come to

meet the need He had created. He was come to seek, that

is, to produce the desire; and to save, that is, to meet the

desire.

e Lord was now nigh to Jerusalem, and so He added

a parable to correct the thought that the kingdom of God

was immediately to appear; for Jerusalem is the city of the

great King, and the question of His rejection would be

closed there. He shows, on the contrary, that He was going

away — going to a far country, to heaven, where He was to

receive the kingdom and to return. e time was not come

to set up the kingdom on earth. Meanwhile, the business

of His servants was to trade with the money He delivered

them. When returned, having received the kingdom, He

assigns them places according to their faithfulness; for

in Luke it is a question of man’s responsibility; in the

corresponding parable of Matthew God’s sovereignty is the

point. Dierence of gifts appears in Matthew, dierence

of rewards in Luke. In Luke each servant receives a mina

from the Lord; in Matthew all who gained in trading

enter alike the joy of their Lord. Here the whole force is,

occupy. “Occupy till I come” (Luke 19:13). Our position is

serving a rejected Savior till He comes again. We are not

yet to share in the glory of the kingdom. When He returns,

all will be disposed of impartially, and there will be that

which answers to authority over ten cities and over ve.

e righteousness of God is the same for us as for Paul;

but as there is very dierent service, and dierent measures

of delity, so there will be specialty of reward. No doubt

it is grace that works, still here there is reward of faithful

service. e secret of all service is the due appreciation of

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

224

the Master’s grace. If one fears Him as “an austere man,”

there is unfaithfulness too, even on one’s own principles.

Luke 19:26 is a universal principle. When through grace

there is the realization in our souls of the truth presented to

us, we are of those “who have.” But if a truth comes before

a man, and he talks about it without its being mixed with

faith in the heart, even that he hath shall be taken away

from him. Truth, if it reveals Christ, humbles me and deals

with the evil within. en it is not only Christ as an object

outside me, but a living Christ in my soul. Knowledge,

which has not power over the conscience, only pus up. If

truth be not acted on, it troubles the conscience. But how

often one sees a conscience, having lost the light, quite easy

at a lower standard than before, rejoicing that it has lost its

trouble, though the light of truth be lost with it! e soul

has sunk below that which had exercised the conscience,

and thus the whole standard, principle, and life are lowered,

and opportunities of winning Christ lost forever.

Holding fast the truth — Christ — I have Him as it were

a part of myself, and learn to hate the evil and to delight in

the good; so that I get more, till I grow up into Christ, into

the measure of the stature of His fullness. Common duties

do not rob us of Him: from these the heart returns with

fresh delight into its own center. It is the heart clinging

to vanity that spoils our joy; it is anything which exalts

self and lowers Christ — an idle thought even, if allowed

in the heart. As to the citizens, the Jews on whom He had

rights as king, their will was against Him, not only hating

Him there while among them, but above all, sending the

message after Him, We will not have this man to reign

over us. Unsparing vengeance must take its course on them

in His presence.

Notes on Luke 19

225

Luke 19:28. Jesus enters Jerusalem as Messiah. His

rights as Lord of all were to be asserted and acted on (vss.

29-36). He presents Himself for the last time to Israel, in

the lowliness of grace, which was of far greater importance

than the kingdom.

is gives rise to the most marked contrast between the

disciples and the Pharisees. e whole multitude of the

disciples began to rejoice and praise God with loud voice,

saying “Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of

the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest” (Luke

19:38). Some of the Pharisees appeal to Him to rebuke the

disciples, but learn from His lips that if these were silent,

the very stones would cry out. ere must be a testimony

to His glory (Luke 19:37-40).

When Jesus was born, angels announced it to the poor

of the ock, and the heavenly host praised God, saying,

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace — good

pleasure in men. Such will be the result, and the angels

anticipate it, without reference to the hindrances, or to the

means. But Christ was rejected here below; and now the

disciples say, “Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.”

When the question of power is raised, in order to establish

the kingdom, there will be war then (Rev. 12). In fact

there can be no peace in heaven till Satan and his host

are cast out. en will the King be established in power,

when the obstacles shall be taken out of the way. Psalm

118 celebrates this, His mercy enduring forever, spite of

all the people’s sins. It is the song of the latter day. If God

sends peace to the earth in the person of His Son, it is

in vain, not as to the accomplishment, but as to present

eect. Meanwhile, to faith there is peace in heaven, and

when this is asserted in power against the evil spirits in the

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

226

heavenly places, there will be blessing indeed. O, what a

time will it be! What a relief to the working of God’s grace!

For now it is ever toil and watching. What, always? Yes,

always; and that is not the rest. But then it will be, as sure

as God takes His great power and reigns. e Lord shall

“hear the heavens,” and so forth (Hos. 2:21). ere will

be an unbroken chain of blessing, and that too on earth.

It will not be one “building, and another inhabiting,” but

blessing owing down and around to the lowest and the

least. Till then, as now, the word is suering in grace, not

victorious power. Never fear persecution: it will make your

face shine as an angel’s. But God could not be silent if His

own Son were cast out. He might leave Him to suer, but

not without a testimony. If there were no others, the stones

would speak. And so if we are faithful and near to Christ,

this will turn for a testimony.

Next (Luke 19:41-44) we have, not the cursing of the

g-tree, but the spirit of grace in the Lord’s weeping over

the city. e counsels of God will surely be accomplished,

but we ought also to know His real tenderness in Jesus.

ose tears were not in vain, whatever the appearances.

It was the time of Jerusalem’s visitation, but she knew it

not. We ought, as having the mind of Christ, to know

when and how to interfere spiritually. We are the epistle

of Christ, whereby the world should be able to read what

God is. Christ manifested Him perfectly. But what did He

nd in the people? See Luke 19:45-46. God declares His

house to be one of prayer: menthe Jews — had made it a

den of thieves. It was a terrible moral estimate, but this is

the true way to judge; that is, having God’s word, to take

facts as they are. We are ignorant and morally incapable of

judging without the word of God. Let the eye be xed on

Notes on Luke 19

227

Christ and our judgment be formed on things around by

the word.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

228

62894

Notes on Luke 20

Luke 20.

e rst question raised was by the scribes, as to the

authority of Christ and its source. Jesus questions them

about the baptism of John: Was it from heaven or of man?

ey reasoned without conscience. ey owned their

incompetency, rather than acknowledge His Messiah-ship.

e simple child of God receives the word as certainly as

Christ gives it. Reliance on God’s word is the only sure

ground. How can you be certain? God has said it. If God’s

speaking requires proof, I must have something more sure

and true than God. Is the church? Alas! alas! … If God

cannot speak so as to claim authority, without another to

accredit what He says, there is no such thing as faith.

e parable of the husbandmen (Luke 20:9-18) sets

forth the Lord’s dealings with Israel, to whom the vineyard

was rst let, and, upon the rejection of “the Heir,” the gift

of it to others. Nor was this all. e rejected stone becomes

the head of the corner. Whosoever fell on that stone should

be broken; but on whomsoever it fell, utter destruction

would be the result. e past sins of Jerusalem illustrate

the rst; for the second we must wait for the execution of

judgment when the Lord appears.

Luke 20:19. e question of tribute to Caesar was very

subtle. ey used the eect of their own wickedness to

tempt the Lord. Abstractedly the Jews ought not to have

been subject to the Gentiles. And, moreover, the Messiah

was come, the Deliverer of Israel. If He said, Obey the

Gentiles, where was His delivering power? If He said,

Notes on Luke 20

229

Rebel, they would have had an excuse to deliver Him

to Pilate. Because of Israel’s sin, God has broken down

the keystone of nations, and given power to the Gentile.

e Jew has been rebellious under the sentence, and ever

craving deliverance from their thraldom. But the Lord

answered with divine wisdom. He put them exactly in the

place where their sin had put them: Caesar’s things are to

be rendered to Caesar, and God’s things to God.

After settling the question as to this world between God

and the people, He next meets the Sadducean or skeptical

diculty as to the next world (Luke 20:27-38). e Lord

shows the place of the risen saints in entire contrast with

the world. e idea of a general resurrection is set aside. If

all rise together, there is uncertainty, a common judgment,

etc.; but if the saints are raised by themselves because

they are children of God, leaving the rest of the dead for

another and distinctive resurrection — a resurrection of

judgment, all is changed. No passage of scripture speaks

of both rising together. e resurrection is that which

most of all distinguishes, and this forever. It is the grand

testimony to the dierence between good and bad. e

saint will be raised because of the Spirit of Christ that

dwells in him — the application to his body of that power

of life in Christ which has already quickened his soul. It

is a resurrection from among the dead, as was Christ’s. So

here, “they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that

age,” for such it is, “and the resurrection from the dead.”

“ey are equal to the angels, and are the children of God.”

Luke adds another characteristic point omitted elsewhere;

“all live unto him.” It is the present blessed living unto God

of those who have died, and await the resurrection from

among the dead.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

230

en in Luke 20:41-44 the Lord puts His question, How

is David’s Son, David’s Lord? is was just what the Jews

could not understand. It was the hinge on which turned

the change in the whole moral system. He had taken the

place of the holy dependent One, a pilgrim as others, and

He had drunk of the brook by the way. He was going on

in meekness and quietness, but living by the refreshments

which came from God His Father. us having emptied

Himself, humbled Himself, He is now exalted by God. is

great universal principle, “he that humbleth himself shall

be exalted, and he that exalteth himself shall be abased”

(Matt. 23:12) is fully exemplied in the two Adams. e

rst Adam, man’s nature, would exalt itself to be “as God,”

until in its full ripeness Antichrist will exalt himself above

all that is called God, or that is worshipped.

Satan tempted man at the beginning to make himself

like God, and at the end God shall send them strong

delusion to believe a lie. Satan, not being able to exalt

himself in heaven, will attempt to do it through the seed

of man; but in the end shall be abased (Isa. 14:12-15).

In the last Adam we have Him who was God humbling

Himself, going down, becoming obedient unto death, even

the vilest, and then we see that humbled One going back to

the place of power at God’s right hand, but as man as well

as God. God highly exalted Him, that at the name of Jesus

every knee should bow. Having been obedient all through,

in humiliation, He is exalted to be David’s Lord. is took

Him out of the line of Jewish promises, though as David’s

Son of course He had them.

e Jews did not understand the Scriptures, and fullled

them through not understanding them. God’s ways have

gone on through all, manifesting His grace and patience

Notes on Luke 20

231

towards man. He placed man on the earth, and then sent law,

prophets, and so forth, until man gets to the end in rejecting

all. God tries man and then brings in the new man, who

is the fulllment of all His blessed counsels — the second

Man. en He takes up the last Adam as the heavenly

man into a heavenly place and all now depends not on the

responsibility of man, but on the stability of God. Life,

righteousness, and glory descend from heaven. Is it life that

is needed? God gives the life of Christ in resurrection. Is it

righteousness? It is a divine righteousness that God gives.

Is it a kingdom? It is the kingdom of heaven. All ows

down not simply from God in grace, but from the place

which man has in glory, from the counsels of God about

the heavenly man in glory. He has rst taken Him up, and

thence the blessing ows down. e man Christ Jesus has

fully met all man’s responsibilities. is is the reason of the

fullness of the blessing of the gospel, and also that of the

kingdom to come. e gospel is the power of God, and the

kingdom is to be set up in heaven. e king is gone into

the far country; and when He returns, it will be to bring in

the kingdom of heaven. All the counsels of God now take

their center and seat in heaven. us, in the largest way, the

turning-point in all the plans and counsels of God is Jesus

being set at the right hand of God. All the character, the

stability, and the perfectness of our blessing takes its source

from the exalted Jesus. e character of it is heavenly; the

stability is what God has done; and the righteousness that

ts me for it is God’s.

e Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, has come down to

bear witness to Him, on whom peace of the soul rests, even

on the accomplished righteousness of Him who is taken

up into glory. His oce is to work within, and make us

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

232

down here manifest what God is. All this we have as the

result of Christ, instead of accomplishing the promises as

David’s Son, bringing them in as David’s Lord.

Mark the moral blessedness of this general principle:

“He that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” Christ

humbled Himself — not was humbled, that is another

thing. “He that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” at

is what we are to do — take the lowest place. We cannot

do this till we are Christians; but it is our glory to take

the lowest, and hear Him say, “Come up higher.” He hath

left “us an example that we should follow his steps” (1 Pet.

2:21). e Lord Jesus has been rejected as David’s Son; He

will come forth as David’s Lord.

Now, while He is thus hidden, we see the church’s place.

We are “hid with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3), and have our

portion by faith, as united to Him, while He is out of sight.

e Holy Spirit, having come down, gives us a place as

associated with Him in all the blessedness of the Father’s

house, and in all the glory which He has to be displayed

by-and-by.

e place of Eve was one of union with Adam in the

dominion over all things (Gen. 1:26-28; 5:2). We nd the

church in the display of Christ’s glory, only as by grace,

the bride and companion of Christ, never as part of the

inheritance. Viewed even individually, we are “joint-heirs

with Christ” (Rom. 8:17). It is of the last importance to the

saints in these days to apprehend the distinct place which

we have, as one with Christ, the heavenly Man.

Notes on Luke 21

233

62895

Notes on Luke 21

Luke 21.

At the close of Luke 20 and the beginning of Luke 21 we

have a most instructive, though painful, contrast between

the selsh hypocrisy of the scribes, whom He condemns

before the people, and the real devoted love of the widow,

whom He singles out for honor. Remark also that the Lord

knows how to separate the intention of a sincere soul from

the system that surrounds it, judging the whole state of that

with which the individual is associated. Observe, further,

the dierence of giving one’s living and one’s superuity. It

is easy to compliment God with presents, and thus really

minister to self; but she who gives her living gives herself in

devotedness to God, and proves her dependence on God.

us, the two mites of her who had these only expressed

all this perfectly: for there was need and everything else

to hinder, while the applause of men and the pride of the

donor found no place here. For Jewish splendor the act had

little worth; but the Lord saw, and bore witness of, the poor

widow, blessed in her deed.

Luke 21:5 and following. e account which the Lord

gives in this Gospel of the sorrows of Jerusalem is also, like

the preceding, much more allied to the simple fact of the

judgment on the nation and the change of dispensation. It

diers much from Matthew 24, which fully refers to what

is to arrive at the end; while our Gospel bears, more than

the rst two, on the then present time and setting aside

of Jerusalem. Hence, Luke plainly sets forth the siege and

destruction by Titus, and the times of the Gentiles. Let it

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

234

be observed also that the question in verse 7 extends only to

the predicted destruction. Consequently, in what follows,

we have the judgment on the nation taken as a whole,

from its then destruction till the times of the Gentiles

(with whose economy this Gospel is so much occupied)

be fullled. Nation should rise against nation, signs from

heaven and sorrows on earth follow. And before all these

the disciples would be objects of hostility, but this would

turn for a testimony instead of destroying theirs. ey were

to go on testifying, while the unhappy devoted city where

they were lled up its iniquity. e Lord would permit trial,

but not a hair of their head would be lost. But this would

close. e sign given here is in no wise the abomination of

desolation, but an historical fact — Jerusalem encompassed

with armies. Its desolation now approached. ey were

then to ee, not to return. ese were days of vengeance (it

is not said of the unprecedented tribulation, as in Matthew,

which is only in the latter day). All that was written was to

be fullled. Great distress there was in the land, and wrath

on this people. Slaughter rst and captivity afterward

wrought their cruel work of devastation, and Jerusalem till

this hour abides, the boast and prey of Gentile lords, and

so must it be till their day is over.

In these earlier verses (8-19) the Lord dwells on the

dangers, duties, and trials of the disciples before the sack

of Titus. Specially were they to beware of a pretended

deliverer, and of the cry that the time (that is, of deliverance)

was at hand. Neither were they to be terried by wars or

commotions, any more than seduced by fair promises. ese

things must rst be, but the end not immediately. Besides,

it was not only confusion and woes and signs of coming

Notes on Luke 21

235

change and evil outside. Before all these they themselves

were to be in aiction and persecution for Christ’s sake.

en in Luke 21:20-24, comes the actual judgment

of the city and people, already judged virtually by His

rejection. is extends down to our own days in principle.

But all is not yet fullled. For in verse 25 begins the Lord’s

description of the closing scene — a judgment not on the

Jews merely, but on the Gentiles also; for the powers of

the heavens, the source of authority, shall be shaken, as in

Haggai 2 and Hebrews 12. is is not said to be immediately

after the siege of Titus, but on the contrary, room is left

for the long course of treading down of Jerusalem under

Gentiles, till their times are run out. It is in Matthew that

we must look for the great tribulation of the last days,

occupied as the rst evangelist is with the consequences

of Messiah’s rejection, especially to Israel. erefore it is

said there, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days”

(Matt. 24:29), that is, the short crisis of “Jacob’s trouble” yet

to come. Here, however, after mention of the times of the

Gentiles, it is said that “there shall be signs in the sun and

in the moon, and in the stars;and upon the earth distress of

nations, with perplexity; the sea and waves roaring, men’s

hearts failing them” (Luke 21:25-26). Men were astounded

because they saw not the end, and trembled as they were

dragged along to some unknown awful conclusion. For

principles were at work, they knew not how, dragging

them along whether or no. e coming of the Son of man

disclosed all the scene to the disciples. But it is clear from

the circumstances, and especially from the character of the

redemption spoken of (vs. 28), that it is a question, not

of Christians, but of earthly disciples, and of an earthly

deliverance by judgment here below. e Lord in mercy

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

236

turns the terror of man into a sign of deliverance for the

remnant of that day.

Verses 31, 32 are interesting in this point of view here,

because they furnish remarkable evidence, rst, that the

kingdom of God does not mean the gospel of His grace;

and, secondly, that this generation cannot refer to the space

of time from the prophecy to the destruction of Jerusalem.

1. For when they see these things coming to pass (and He

had spoken of the nal, universal trouble for the whole

habitable earth, and not merely of what has befallen the

Jews), they are to conclude that the kingdom of God is

nigh. Now, even if it were only the Romans taking away

their place and nation, and still more if it include the latter-

day trouble, it is undeniable that the gospel had extended

far and wide before the rst. In fact, the manifestation of

its inuence was declining rather before that time, as we

see in the later epistles. But the things here seen were signs

like the budding of the trees, and the kingdom of God is

evidently to be at the coming of the King, when the Lord

God Almighty takes His great power and reigns. at

there was a partial analogous judgment, when Jerusalem

fell, is true, but verses 25-28 ought to leave no doubt of a

wider subsequent judgment, with signs which introduce,

not the sorrows of the Jews, but the Son of man coming

in His kingdom. 2. For a similar reason, “this generation”

does not apply to a mere lifetime, but is viewed morally, as

in Deuteronomy 32, Psalm 12, and many other scriptures.

It is here expressly put at the close, after not only the fall of

Jerusalem, but the totally distinct scene of Christ’s coming

in power and glory. e expression in verse 33 is very solemn.

Deeper interests were involved than a casual change as to

Notes on Luke 21

237

Jerusalem. e time was wrapped up in purposed obscurity,

but nothing more sure than the facts predicted.

e Lord has provided for His then disciples what was

needful, but also in the written word for the like times to

come. Still, though the principle be always true, verse 34

clearly applies to a day to come on the earth. e privilege

is to escape the judgments, and stand before the Son

of man. is again is earthly, not the rapture to heaven.

e great moral principles, of course, remain true for all;

specially indeed for those who, by virtue of a higher calling,

can enjoy them in a more excellent way.

Luke 21:37-38. e Lord yet returned to give testimony,

walking and working in the day; but His resting-place was

there, whence He did depart, and where His feet shall stand

in that day. Patient in service, He taught daily and early in

the temple; at night He was separate from the judged city.

His time was now come.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

238

62896

Notes on Luke 22

Luke 22.

How the carnal mind was shown to be enmity against

God in the rejection of Christ! Wickedness was summed up

and brought out in all — people, priests, rulers. If a friend,

he is a traitor; if disciples, they either ed when danger

approached, or denied Him when near. e religious chiefs

who ought to have owned the Messiah took Him to the

indel power of the world. He who was in the place of

judgment washed his hands, owning Christ’s innocence,

but gives Him up to man’s will and rage. us man’s evil

was brought into complete juxtaposition with that which

was perfect, and this in putting Him to death. It is no use

to look for good in man. Not that there are no amiable

traits of nature, but God has no place at all if man is put

to the test.

Along with this is the picture of the Lord’s perfect

patience through it all. Not man only, but Satan was there

in temptation. It was the power of darkness, as well as

man’s hour. And the Lord Jesus passes through this scene

of men’s wickedness and Satan’s power; His heart melted

like wax, but the eect always being the manifestation of

perfectness. An angel strengthens Him; for He was really

man, but perfect man, enduring all that could try Him,

and nothing brought out but perfect grace and perfect

obedience. Whenever there was sorrow, His love surmounts

the suering to help and comfort others.

Luke 22:3-6. It is a solemn thought that the nearer to

Jesus, if there is not spiritual life, the more a man resists

Notes on Luke 22

239

God, and the more sure and sad an instrument of the

enemy he becomes.

If truth has been resented and not received, nowhere

has Satan so much power.

Covetousness was the means

used; but though they plotted to betray and crucify Him in

a corner, this could not be; they were obliged to accomplish

it according to God’s purposes.

en the light from behind the scene (vss. 8-13) makes

a passage. It is the Lord; and no matter what He suers,

or what is before Him, yet we nd the divine knowledge

and power. ere is the chamber! What calm and peaceful

dignity! It is no eort, nothing to display a character. All

yields before the un-witnessed authority of this rejected

Savior — all but that to which it had been most manifested,

the un-renewed heart of man. To the householder, unknown

it seems to every eye but one, it is enough to hear, “e

Master saith unto thee.”

Luke 22:14-15. How blessed to see such perfect human

aections combined with His divine knowledge of all

things! “With desire I have desired to eat this passover

with you before I suer” — like one leaving his family and

rst desiring a farewell meeting. When we see the divine

glory in the person of Christ, we nd the human aections

shining out. (Compare Matt. 17:27.) It is this which gives

Him a power and charm which no object else has: so that

God can delight in man and man can delight in God. e

Lord breaks every link with the old thing (vs. 16). It is not

setting up the kingdom here, but setting up man with God

when the old connection was impossible. He was taking a

6 is is a sample of Luke’s manner as to dates. e entrance

of Satan into Judas was what was morally necessary to present

here; not so the particulars. Strictly, he put it into Judas’ heart

then, and entered after the sop was received.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

240

new place where esh and blood could not enter. His death

and resurrection introduce a new relation with God.

e Lord distinguishes here between the paschal

lamb and the wine, and both from the institution of His

supper. He entered in the fullest way into all the feelings of

Israel — the Israel of God, into the interests of the people

as such, till His rejection put them on other ground, and

divine favor passed into another scene by the resurrection,

becoming Himself the Substitute, the true Paschal Lamb.

His disciples held the foremost rank as to this fellowship,

as we have Hushai the king’s friend. With them He desired

the last testimony of parting and love. But while thus

expressing His aection to them, He assumes manifestly

(vs. 18) the Nazarite character, which was always His

morally, but now externally and painfully: “I say unto you,

I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom

of God shall come.” He postpones His joy with them as in

the common enjoyment of the kingdom, till then.

en (Luke 22:19-20) He institutes the memorial of

His better redemption, of His self-sacricing dying love.

If He separated Himself now to God in His joy, it was

not want of love to His disciples, but its fullest display. It

was to be done “in remembrance” of Him. We remember

Him suering, dead, absent; we know Him as a present

living Savior. e new covenant is established in His blood.

We cannot, in all the joy of fellowship with Christ above,

forget what brought us into it. On one side, it is a body

broken and blood shed; on the other, it is Himself and all

the perfectness of love in dying for us. We are united to

Him as a risen Christ, but He calls us to remember Him

as a dead Christ. e blessedness of this last is in the work

He did alone, by virtue of which I am put in union with

Notes on Luke 22

241

Himself, alive again for evermore. As to man’s part in it

(Luke 22:21-23), it was treachery and wickedness.

e Lord then distinctly sets forth this calling to walk in

His own lowliness and not as the world. Earthly grandeur

was recognized among the Jews, but now it was sentenced,

like all their system, as the rudiments of the world. All other

greatness, though under the form of being benefactors, was

worldly. He was one that served. e grace of His heart

sets them right without a reproach. He lets them know

that whatever high place they sought, He took a low one.

He might have said, Nothing will break down this horrid

selshness; yet says He, “Ye are they which have continued

with me in my temptations.” And He is the same now.

What we should seek is to have as much of the burden of

the church as we can. Suering thus with Him, His heart

goes on with us.

Luke 22:31. Peter was bold enough in the esh to enter

temptation. But it is impossible for man to stand where it

is a question of good and evil. He is a sinner and cannot go

through that trial. If God judges, esh comes to nothing.

ere is the weakness of human nature, but, besides, Satan’s

title and power over man, who had brought out his own

condition in God’s presence, and come under death as the

judgment of God. I may have learned in grace that the

esh is thus protless, but it must be learned by intercourse

with the enemy, if not with God. For Simon, the Lord

prayed that his faith should not fail; all his self-condence

must perish. Nor did he distrust Christ like Judas, who

had no faith. What enabled him afterward to strengthen

his brethren? He discovered that there is perfect grace in

Christ even when he did worst.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

242

Luke 22:35-38 show an entire change of circumstances.

Previously He had protected them and supplied all, as

Messiah disposing of everything here. at was now

gone, since the Righteous One was being more and more

rejected. He had come, able to destroy Satan’s power, but

it was the Lord, and man would not have Him; that is the

condition the world is in. He must be reckoned among the

transgressors! What link could there be between God and

man? Humanity is a condemned thing, because it refused

Christ. You may nd a scrupulous conscience as to putting

the money in the treasury, but no conscience in betraying

and crucifying Him. But it is in a rejected, dead Christ that

faith delights. e Christ that man scorns, it requires faith

and grace to own. But the disciples still rested on man’s

strength, not on Messiah crucied in weakness, and said

“Here are two swords.” e Lord in saying “It is enough,”

alludes to their words, and implies that they did not enter

into His mind. He did not want to say more.

Luke 22:39-46. ere are siftings needed to exercise us

and to judge esh. Christ, of course, did not need this, but

dealt with all in communion with His Father. To Him it

was a path of obedience, a blessed opportunity of doing

God’s will; to Peter it was Satan’s power Christ did not

speak of the wickedness of the priests, the will of the

people, or the injustice of Pilate, but of the cup His Father

gave Him. ere was positive intercourse with God about

the trial, before the time came. And so it must ever be. It

is late to put the armor on when we ought to be in the

battle. A man living with God, when he gets into trial,

goes through it, in his measure, as Christ did. He stands

in the evil day, because he has been with God when there

was no evil day. On the cross it was not a question of

Notes on Luke 22

243

communion; in the garden Christ is in communion with

the Father, as to Satan’s power, which was about to fall

on Him. He felt all, but succumbed under nothing. us,

instead of entering into temptation, He was in the highest

exercise of spirituality, accomplishing the will of God in

the most dicult circumstances, and the most perfect

submission where it cost everything. Our Father never

can lead us into sin, but He may into temptation, that is,

into the place of sifting, where the esh is exposed, when

this is needful, because hardness, or levity, or inattention to

His patient warnings, has come in. It is the last, and often

necessary, means of self-knowledge and discipline. ough

it is great grace that He should take such pains, yet seeing

our weakness, and the terribleness of the conict with the

enemy, it will becomes us to pray that we may not be cast

into the furnace. In such times a bad conscience drives to

despair. e esh, in its undiscerning carelessness, meets

the trial in uncertainty, or carnal opposition, and falls. If,

on the other hand, trial comes, we learn our position before

God — watching, prayer, entreaty, spreading all before Him

in child-like condence, but submissive desire that His will

be done.

e Lord was thoroughly man in this, for an angel

appears and ministers, strengthening Him; for the conict

of His soul was great; but it urged Him, in the realization

of the trial, to pray more earnestly. e eect of this is to

see more clearly the power of evil and the sorrow; and that

so as to act on the very body. He was in agony Himself, but

always says “Father.” He is, and speaks, in His relationship

as Son; not yet the victim before God, but the suerer in

spirit, feeling all the depths of the waters He is passing

through, but crying out of them to His Father. Satan tried

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

244

to stop Christ with the diculty, when he could not beguile

Him with the pleasure. But He went through all with His

Father. At the cross was another thing — the power of God

against sin.

Luke 22:47-53. It is blessed to see these two things

brought together — patience with men, and yet power to

stop everything. Having been in agony with God, He is

calm before man. When the servant’s ear was cut o, He

puts forth His hand to heal. What a picture of man, what

a picture of God, if we look here at Christ!

Luke 22:54-62. When we tremble before men, it is

when we have not been with God. Peter breaks down,

proving the deceitfulness of the esh. In Jesus suering as

He was, there was naught to disable the perfect and simple

action of grace at each moment required. When the cock

crew, He turned and looked on Peter, who remembered

His word, went out and wept bitterly.

Luke 22:63-71. e Lord spent the night, not before

His judges, who took their ease till morning, before they

judged the Lord of glory, but with the men whom they

employed, the object of all injury and insult. en, when it

suited the convenience of the Jewish rulers, they brought

Him to their council; but the Lord knew it was not the

time of testimony, and left them to their weakness. e

presenting of Messiah to the Jews was nished; from this

the Son of man was to be seated at the right hand of God.

All was settled with God — they could go on. ey draw

the right conclusion, and He conceals nothing. He was the

Son of God. ey must be guilty, not of mistake, but of

condemning Him because He was the Son of God and

owned it.

Notes on Luke 23

245

62897

Notes on Luke 23

Luke 23.

Luke 23:1-25. Religious iniquity had now only to lead

on the world to nish the wickedness in which itself had

taken the lead. e civil power must give in to the willful

evil of the apostate people of God. is is the history of the

world, and of the two, the religious side is always nearest

to Satan. e chief priests manifested their enmity by their

accusation, which was calculated to arouse the jealousy of

the governor; charging, on Christ what was entirely false

as to Caesar, but with the subtle groundwork of that which

they knew (reckoning on His truth) He could not deny.

e guilt of the Jews was complete, as was also that of the

Gentiles, for Pontius Pilate declared Him innocent, and

desired to release Him. Cruel’ enough himself, the Roman

governor disliked cruelty in others, but he would not go

so far as to save Him from the malice of His enemies: it

would have cost something to do this; it threatened his

interest, and Pilate gave way. e one thing that is strong

in the world is enmity against Christ.

But there was another form of evil to be introduced,

to wit, Herod, the apostate king of apostate Israel; and in

rejecting Jesus all are friends, however jealous and divided.

How terrible the union between the fourth beast and God’s

external people! But if the Gentiles failed shamefully in

protecting the just and hence fell into basely unrighteous

judgment, the activity of an evil will was with the Jews.

ree times the opportunity of a relenting voice was given;

but while the governor’s indierence was as plain as the

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

246

disappointed insolence of Herod, every time the cry of the

people increased in ardor for the death of the Messiah.

Pilate, therefore, released the guilty Barabbas, whom they

desired, to appease the Jews, and delivered Jesus to their

will.

Luke 23:26-31. It was a terrible time and full of

violence. It mattered little whom they met, if they could

only force them to help in their iniquity. eir hour was

struck, and all fell into the same mass of rejection and insult

of Christ, save that the Jews acted with more knowledge.

e forms of privilege became sorrows and harbingers of

terror; they must be laid low, for all was untrue now. e

natural feelings, touched by aecting circumstances, as we

see in the weeping daughters of Jerusalem, did not change

this. ey understood neither the cross of Christ nor the

ruin which awaited themselves. One may be aected with

comparison, as if one were superior to Christ, and fall under

the judgment consequent on His rejection and death. No

humiliation of Jesus put Him out of His place of perfect

capability of dealing with all others from God. Alas! it was

not only on Pilate and Herod, nor on the chief priests, that

judgment was coming, but on the women that lamented

Him, unconscious of their own state, which was under

condemnation. Neither natural conscience, nor natural

religiousness, nor natural feelings will do — nothing short

of the glory of God in Jesus. And if He, the living and true

vine, who indeed bore fruit to God, was thus dealt with,

what must be the lot of the fruitless and unprotable, for

such branches were they? Where shall the ungodly and the

sinner appear? Man rejects the green tree, and God rejects

the dry. Life was there in the person of Jesus, and they

Notes on Luke 23

247

would not have it, and are therefore given up; it cannot be

had now but through a dead and risen Christ.

Luke 23:32-43. ere is the setting aside of all they

looked for here in present deliverance, for Christ must die.

But if we are also to see how low man can go morally, we

learn, at the same time, that Christ in His grace can go

lower still. “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and

die, it abideth alone” (John 12:24). erefore, whenever

you see an attempt (and it is the attempt of man’s religion)

to connect a living Christ, before death and resurrection,

with living sinners, be sure there is error. It unites sin

with the Lord from heaven, and it denies that its wages

is death. Had Christ delivered Himself, as the rulers, with

the people, said in derision, He would not have delivered

us. He must pass through death, and take a higher place,

even in resurrection, and there He takes us. By itself, the

incarnation cannot bring life and redemption to those who

are dead in trespasses and sins. We need to be set beyond

all in resurrection-life in Christ.

us, then, in spite of the grace of Jesus in intercession,

Jews and Gentiles joined in mockery of the crucied;

yet God had prepared, even here, the consolation of His

mercy for Jesus in a poor sinner. But no sorrow, no shame,

no suering brings the heart too low to scorn Jesus; a

gibbeted robber despises Him! ere is an instinct, so to

speak, in every un-renewed heart, against Jesus, which

was not quelled even by that power of love in which He

was going down into the deepest humiliation, to suer

the wrath due to sin. Say not that you are one whit better

than this wretched man. “ere is none righteous, no, not

one: there is none that understandeth; there is none that

seeketh after God. ey are all gone out of the way, they are

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

248

altogether become unprotable” (Rom. 3:10-12). In two

words, there is no dierence. You are as bad, in God’s sight,

as the railing impenitent thief. See now the fruit of grace

in the other. Grace works in a man who was in as low a

condition as he who, notwithstanding his own dying agony

and disgrace, had pleasure in outraging the Lord of glory;

indeed both had done it (Mark 15:32). But what more

blessed and certain than the salvation of this thief, now

that he bows to the name of Jesus? He is going to Paradise

in companionship with the Lord whom he owned.

It is often idly said, that there was one saved in this

way, that none might despair, and but one, that none might

presume. e truth is, that this is the only way whereby

any poor sinner can be saved. ere is but one and the

same salvation for all. ere was evidently no time for him

to do anything, had this been the way; but all is done for

him. at very day his knees were to be broken. But how

could he get into Paradise! Christ wrought his deliverance

through His own death, and his eye was opened in faith to

what Christ was doing.

Nor was it only that Christ’s work was wrought for

him — the ground on which his soul rested for salvation.

ere was a mighty moral work wrought in him through the

revelation of Christ to his soul by the Spirit who convinced

him of his utter sinfulness. “Dost not thou fear God” (Luke

23:40), is his rebuke to his railing fellow, “seeing thou art

in the same condemnation? And we, indeed, justly.” It was

not all joy. Conscience had its place. ere is a real sense of

good and evil; for he has got in spirit into God’s presence,

and this, making him forget circumstances, elevates him

into a preacher of righteousness. And if he owns the

rightness of his own punishment in honest confession of

Notes on Luke 23

249

sin, what a wonderful testimony he bears to Christ! “is

man hath done nothing amiss.” It was just as if he had

known Christ all his life. He had a divine perception of His

character; and so with the Christian now. Have you such

jealousy about the spotlessness and glory of Christ, that

you cannot help crying out when you hear Him slighted?

He believed that He was the Lord, the Son of God, and

so could answer with assurance for what He had been as a

man. As completely a man as any other, the holy obedience

of Christ was divine. “is man hath done nothing amiss.”

What a response in the renewed heart to the delight of

sinlessness! His eye glances, as it were, over the whole life

of Christ; he could answer for Christ anywhere, because he

has learned to know himself.

en he says, turning to Jesus, “Lord, remember me

when thou comest into thy kingdom” (Luke 23: 42). As soon

as he can get rid of what was sad, when he has done with

his testimony to the other thief, his heart turns to Christ

instinctively. How undistracted he was! Was he thinking

of his pain? or of the people around the cross? As is always

the case, where God’s presence is realized, he was absorbed.

In the extremity of helplessness, as to outward appearance,

he hears the Shepherd’s voice, and recognized Him as the

Savior and King. He wants Christ to think of him. e

judgment of men was that Christ was a malefactor. e

weeping women saw not who He was. But no degradation

of circumstances could hide the glory of the Person who

hung by his side. He owned Jesus as the Lord, and knows

that His kingdom will certainly come. e other malefactor

thought only, if he thought at all, of present deliverance;

but this one saw the suerings of Christ, and the glory

that should follow. His mind was set, not on being free

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

250

from bodily pain, but on the loving recognition of Christ

in glory. He looks not to earth, nor nature, but to another

kingdom, where death could not come. ere was not a

cloud, not a doubt, but the peaceful settled assurance that

the Lord would come in His kingdom.

And the Lord gave him more than his faith asked.

ere was the answer of present peace. It was not only the

kingdom by-and-by, but “Verily, I say unto thee, Today shalt

thou be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). As if He said,

You shall have the kingdom when it comes, but I am giving

now soul-salvation; you are to be associated at once with

Me in a way far better and more than the kingdom, blessed

and true as it is. For indeed the work was accomplished

on the cross, which could transport a soul into Paradise.

If the Savior had taken the sinner’s place, the sinner is by

grace entitled to take the place of the Savior. e poor thief

might know but little of Christ’s work and its eect, but

the Holy Spirit had xed his heart on the person of Christ.

e words of the Lord (vs. 43) imply the atonement, by

virtue of which we are made t to be His companions in

the presence of God. e work of Christ is as perfect now

for us, as then for him; it is as much accomplished for us as

if we were already caught up into Paradise. How distinct

this is from anything like progress of the soul to t it for

heaven! And how wonderful that such a soul should be a

comfort to the Savior! He had come into the condemnation;

yea, and wrath was on Him to the uttermost. And now the

converted thief was a bright witness of perfect grace and

eternal salvation through His blood.

Verses 44-49. e scene was closed which let in the

light beyond through the portals of a heart now purged

by faith, and the darkness proper, to the hour took now its

Notes on Luke 23

251

suited course — specially over Israel, it would seem; “and

the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent

in the midst” (Luke 23:45). us the way into the holiest

was made manifest by the act which had its place in this

darkness, and God in the grace of Christ’s sacrice shone

forth upon the world. Darkness of judgment as it was

to one, the light broke through, and access was opened

within the veil. All was nished, and the Lord with no

hesitating voice but aloud cried, “Father, into thy hands

I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46). is was not Jewish

blessing, (for the living, the living, they shall praise ee),

but it was much higher; it was sonship, death overcome,

and the occasion merely of presenting the spirit, safe,

happy, condent, notwithstanding death, into the Father’s

care and presence. is is an immense principle, and,

short of resurrection, of the highest possible importance.

Death in the hands of Jesus — what a fact! e centurion,

in the course of duty, struck at least in natural conscience,

gloried God and owned a righteous man on the cross. e

masses were troubled and went away, auguring no good.

ose who knew Him, and the women from Galilee, were

more nearly interested, but in fear stood afar o.

Luke 23:50-56. But the providence and operation of

God, the righteous Judge, took measures for the body of

the Holy One. If the more prominent witnesses were set

aside, others feeble in the faith are found active and faithful

in the post of danger, confession, and attachment to the

Lord. How often the diculties which frighten those force

these forward! So was it with Joseph of Arimathea, for

Jesus must be “with the rich in his death” (Isa. 53:9). e

women too, in true but ignorant aection, make useless

preparation, awaiting the just Jewish time for a Lord who

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

252

had passed far beyond their faith. e resurrection was soon

to usher in the dawn of a bright morrow: for the honor of

the grave, like the intentions of the women from Galilee,

was of a Jewish character, and all this was now closed in

death.

Notes on Luke 24

253

62898

Notes on Luke 24

Luke 24.

What now occupies our evangelist is the Risen Man

again with His disciples and the testimony to the world

founded on the resurrection — this new truth and power

above all the principles of natural life. e door of the cross

is shut on all that man in the esh is, and the new thing is

introduced in this risen Christ. Resurrection is an entirely

new condition; but even the Jew could not have the sure

mercies of David without it. Man, lawless and under law,

has had the sentence of death pronounced on him. He

may pride himself on his natural powers, but he is without

God. He has rejected the One who came to him, a man in

perfect divine grace, and in so doing has fully shown what

he is. erefore says the Lord, “Now is the judgment of this

world” (John 12:31).

An entirely new ground appears, and this is here brought

out in Christ Himself. Our bodies are still the same, but

the life, character, motive, means, end are altogether new

in the Christian. “Old things are passed away, behold all

things are become new” (2 Cor. 5:17). e women, pre-

occupied with their own thoughts and aections, come

with their spices to anoint the dead body of Jesus, while He

was already living in the perfume of His work and oering

before God, having eected all that placed man anew

before God the Father, the last Adam in living acceptance.

en they were thrown into an unlooked-for diculty at

rst, for they did not nd the Lord’s body. Neither did they

know He was risen. ey understood not that there was

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

254

neither judgment nor sin remaining. ere may be real and

great love to Jesus without understanding this. But soon the

question was put which involved the answer to all. “Why

seek ye the living One among the dead?” ese women,

faithful if ignorant, were not forgotten of the Lord; and

He whose ways are grace has preserved their memorial and

their early seeking of the Lord, thence to bear the message

to the apostles themselves, but to them the words were as

idle tales. Peter’s heart, broken and contrite, was the more

aected by what he heard, and ran to the sepulcher, and

having seen the linen clothes laid aside there, went away

wondering. Surely it was a marvelous secret, baing and

rising above all human thought! (Luke 24:1-42).

Luke’s statements of circumstances are always general.

In John we have more details, especially developing Mary

Magdalene’s devoted aection to His person, but showing

also how little she as yet knew of the power of God in

resurrection.

Luke 24:13-27. e touchingness of this interview with

the Lord on the journey to Emmaus need not be spoken

of. How the Lord draws out all their thoughts! But He is

here altogether as a man, and presenting the truth they

speak of Jewishly. How naturally their minds rested always

in the same circle! He was a prophet, and they hoped He

might redeem Israel. e fact of the resurrection occupied

their attention, but it had no link with the counsels of God.

ey were astonished, and, like others before them, there

they rested. Christ takes up quite other ground, though it

was only in the way of intelligence and not yet the power

of the Holy Spirit. “O fools,” says He, “and slow of heart

to believe all that the prophets have spoken” (Luke 24:25).

ese He expounds, and opens their understanding to

Notes on Luke 24

255

them; for though viewed completely as man, He operates

divinely and spiritually on their mind. “Ought not,” said

He — was it not the counsel of God plainly revealed in

His word? What He presses is the mind of God in the

scriptures relative to the Christ. is was an immense

step; it took them out of their egotism and the egoistical

character of Judaism. eir thought was of the redemption

of Israel by power. ey had no idea of a new and heavenly

life, though of course they had it. Even as to the Christ,

death must come in if God were to be vindicated and

man really blessed, and so Moses and all the prophets had

taught. “Ought not Christ to have suered these things,

and to enter into his glory?” — not set up His kingdom

down here, but “enter into his glory.”

Luke 24:28-35. en we have a most graphic account of

the scene at Emmaus. “He made as though he would have

gone further.” Why should He, to their eye “a stranger,”

intrude? “But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us:

for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent….And it

came to pass, as they sat at meat with them, he took bread,

and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes

were opened, and they knew him, and he vanished out of

their sight.”

is was not celebrating the Lord’s supper with them;

yet was it taking up that part of it — the act of breaking the

bread — which was the sign of His death. He was not now

merely as the living Bread that came down from heaven,

but as He had said, this “is my esh, which I will give for

the life of the world” (John 6:51) — not which I will take,

but give. He did take esh, of course, in order to give it; but

it was His death that became the life of the world. For Jew

or Gentile there was no other way. e condition of man

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

256

was such that he could be quickened only in connection

with the cross. All that was in man, as a child of Adam, was

under sentence of death and judgment. Christ, by grace,

entered into the place of man — came where I am, that I

might be on equal terms with Him, as far as acceptance

with God; His broken body shows me that I have got that

which brings me to God. A dead sinner can nd life and

divine favor only in a dead Christ. So the Lord had taught

in John 6. To eat His esh and drink His blood must be in

order to have life.

It was not any longer a question of His bodily presence

merely as incarnate. Redemption was absolutely necessary,

and faith in it. Christ is to be fed upon, not alone as a

living Messiah, nor only as One alive again for evermore in

resurrection; but, besides that, as He who died, His body

broken and blood shed in atonement. us it was the Lord

was known to the disciples at Emmaus, though it was not

the Lord’s supper. eir hearts had been opened by what

encouraged them in connecting the truth of God with the

facts of human unbelief and Christ’s rejection, and thus

turning the cause of their despair into joy and peace by the

sight of the counsels of God in it. But His actual revelation

was by the aecting circumstance of personal association

in the breaking of bread. It was Himself who broke the

bread. ere could be no mistake. He was gone in a

moment — “vanished out of their sight” (Luke 24:31). But

His object was gained. ey had life through His death.

And He was risen. e body was a spiritual body, and

had esh and bones, which a spirit has not. He had shown

them not only the fact, but its necessity. Why does He not

say “did,” but “must rise again from the dead?” (John 20:9).

Because all the sentence must be passed on the rst Adam.

Notes on Luke 24

257

All that I have now is in the last Adam: I am not only

quickened, but quickened together with Christ, having all

trespasses forgiven. Christ, by His death, put them away for

all who believe, and for such, all that belonged to the rst

Adam is clean gone. is is power over the principle of sin,

which as a fact is still within. And hence the apostle bids

the believers reckon themselves dead to sin. In the power

of the Holy Spirit, giving me the consciousness of new life

in Christ, I am to mortify my members here below, because

I have to apply the death of Christ to my old nature. e

monkish principle tries to kill sin in order to get life, but

the apostle shows that we must have life by faith in Christ

in order to treat sin as a dead thing. See Romans 6-8.

e holding of the disciples’ eyes was of importance.

To have recognized Jesus would have been in their state

to have satised their thoughts. e Lord, on the other

hand, engaging their hearts by all God said of Him,

furnished them with scriptural intelligence; and then in

the act of intimate friendship, which recalled the great

truth of His death, brought to mind His great deliverance.

“We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7). Filled with

the concentrating event which began a new world, they

hastened back to Jerusalem, where the eleven and others

were occupied. “e Lord,” said the latter, “is risen indeed,

and hath appeared to Simon.” en the two told the

tale of their wondrous journey, and still more wondrous

recognition of Jesus in breaking of bread. e Lord was

proving that there should be independent witnesses.

Luke 24:36-53. us their hearts were prepared. Yet in

the fact of this new thing, “the beginning, the rstborn from

the dead” (Col. 1:18), there was that to which earthly hearts

could ill assort themselves. e Lord presents Himself as

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

258

the very same man, all through and in every way. In His

conversation with the two, it had been just the same; all

was human, though what no man ever was, and what none

but God could be, was shown in and through it. Here also

His hands, His feet, His previous wounds are presented.

He takes of sh and of an honey-comb, and eats before

them. Two sentiments had overpowering possession of the

disciples — joy to see Himself again, and astonishment. e

Lord presents the truth of resurrection, not as a doctrine,

but in living reality, thus restoring their souls and making

them know Him most familiarly, risen indeed, but yet a

man properly and truly. “And he said unto them, ese are

the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with

you, that all things must be fullled, which were written in

the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms,

concerning me. en opened he their understanding, that

they might understand the scriptures” (Luke 24:44-45).

is showed the standing before God in justication

of life and liberty. But another thing was wanted before

men — power. is is not the question before God, where

the Christian stands as Christ stands, “accepted in the

beloved” (Eph. 1:6). But the testimony of the Christian

here below, whether preaching or anything else, needs

power to be given. is power was promised to the disciples,

but even yet they must wait for it. We must not confound

service of any kind with standing. e power of the Spirit

is requisite to live before man — power over and above the

new birth, and distinct from spiritual understanding. is

last is needed to give us the apprehension of our standing

in Christ; and when He opens our understandings to

understand the Scriptures, it does not pu up. It is a

revelation of Himself and leads to communion with Him.

Notes on Luke 24

259

Yet the other want still remains. Even this knowledge is

not necessarily power. e testimony and purpose of God

in the word has to be fullled.

e great truth of a suering and risen Christ reaches

out to the Gentiles. In Matthew His association with the

Jewish remnant is taken up. Consequently He meets them

in Galilee after, as before, His resurrection; and thence

ows the commission to go and disciple all the Gentiles.

But all this is dropped in Luke. Jerusalem, Emmaus, and

Bethany, above all, are prominent; from thence He ascends

to heaven, where He has to do with poor sinners. e

testimony was to begin at Jerusalem expressly: the riches of

His grace must be shown rst where there was the deepest

guilt. e cross broke this link with the Jews as a Jewish

Messiah, but opened the door of repentance and remission

of sins, to the Jew rst and also to the Gentile. “And ye are

witnesses.” en came in the need of power. “And, behold,

I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in

the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from

on high” (Luke 24:49). is all-important sign of Christ’s

exaltation could only be obtained for man by the reception

of Jesus in heaven when redemption was eected. e

Holy Spirit had ever acted in creation, in providence, in

revelation, in regeneration, and in every good thing, but He

had never been given before. It hung on the glory of Jesus:

to this the Holy Spirit could become a servant in man; for

it was the divine counsel and the perfection of love.

Meanwhile, before this endowment, they returned

with great joy to the city which their Lord had left. eir

hearts were lled with the inuence of the great fact, that

their Master was gloried, though it was still associated

with Jewish thoughts. And these two elements reproduce

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

260

themselves in the Acts of the Apostles, particularly in the

earlier part.

On the Gospel of Luke

261

62899

On the Gospel of Luke

Luke 4-5.

I hardly know whether the thoughts I send you suit

your little journal;

but I trust that all that unfolds the

way the blessed Lord presented Himself on the earth, the

connection of the Old Testament with the New, and the

revealing of God in man upon the earth, will be protable

to some of your readers at least.

I forward to you therefore some remarks on the Gospel

of Luke, owing from thoughts which have arisen in my

mind while lately reading it. ere are two great subjects

in the life of the blessed Lord which Luke brings out: the

fulllment of promise; and the revelation of God in grace

in the “Son of man.” ese are presented to us in the history

in a very interesting way. I will notice this as displayed in

chapters 4 and 5.

In chapter 4 the Spirit of God has shown us the blessed

One led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of

the devil, victorious in trial, as the rst man had failed in it.

He returns in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, having

rst bound the strong man.

Let me remark here, in passing, how faithfulness in trial

and temptation shows the power of the Spirit as much

as the energy of action. Jesus was led by the Spirit to be

tempted, overcame Satan by the word through the Spirit,

and returned in its power, working miracles and casting out

devils. But the power had been exercised all through the

temptation, only in standing fast. See Ephesians 6. erein

7 is was a contribution to the Girdle of Truth. Ed.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

262

He had overcome Satan, baed his power, really bound the

strong man, and then had only to spoil his goods. He used

too the weapon we have to use, the word of God: only we

must remark, as we learn from Ephesians 6, that, to use the

word, we must rst have all the defensive armors, that is, the

state of the soul must be right. Christ, of course, was perfect

and used it perfectly. In the measure of our spirituality and

uprightness we shall be able to wield this blessed weapon.

But here even the sword was a defensive weapon. He met

the wiles of Satan by it. Whatever reasonings or scriptures

Satan may use, if we are spiritual enough to use it, the word

of God suces to confound him.

But to turn to my more direct subject. e Lord now

stood as man, anointed of the Holy Spirit, having overcome

Satan, to make good divine grace and goodness amongst

men, and specially rst amongst the Jews; but the glory of

His divine person was not to be hid. But rst He presents

Himself as the anointed Man, fullling all that has been

promised in grace.

I must remark another point. e Lord looks for rejection;

and this, it will be seen, is the case in both the characters

in which He presents Himself. First, then, as the anointed

Man. “e Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath

anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent

me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to

the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at

liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year

of the Lord” (Luke 4:18-19). us He presents Himself

as the fulller of promise, announcing the favorable and

gracious time of God’s mercy in His own person. “is day

is this scripture fullled in your ears” (Luke 4:21). But at

the same time He tells them that He will be rejected. A

On the Gospel of Luke

263

prophet has not honor in his own country. But He adds

that grace, as grace, passed beyond the limits of the Jews;

that God was sovereign in His goodness, and of old had

sent help to two Gentiles, while many remained in sorrow

in rebellious Israel. is the haughty Jews would not bear,

and, gracious as His words had been, they are now ready to

destroy Him for preaching a grace which Israel might lose

all part in, as rejecting Him, and the Gentile get blessing

by. ey are ready to destroy Him; but it was not the time,

and He passed through the midst of them.

Now see the character in which the demons own Him:

how it meets this character in which He was really come.

How sad a picture! Demons perforce own Him; men reject

Him with hatred. It is remarkable how these evil spirits

own Him according to the truth (as we may remember the

spirit of divination did Paul), but surely only as dreading,

and, if they could have done so, avoiding His power. “Let

us alone: what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of

Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who

thou art; the Holy One of God” (Luke 4:34). It was the

reluctant owning of a power they could not avoid. e time

was not come to cast them into the pit, but to deliver man.

e demon came out of the man at Jesus’ word.

But it is well to note that this title was a prophetic one

of Jesus; and His title as summing up all the mercies of

God. It is unfolded in Psalm 89 e word “mercies,” in

the rst verse of that psalm, is the same as “Holy One”

in verse 19; “Holy One” in verse 18 is quite dierent.

Mercy was to be built up forever, the psalm declares. How?

“ou spakest in vision of [not “to,” I think, but about, as

we see that of the prophecy in Psalm 72, “A Psalm about

Solomon”] thy holy One,” thy gracious One, in whom help

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

264

and mercy is summed up. “I have laid help upon One that

is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.

I have found David my servant,” (Psa. 72:20). Here, no

doubt, the immediate subject is David: but in the mind of

God a greater, even Christ, is here. e evil spirit owns that

this Holy One is there in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

Help was indeed laid upon the Mighty One, who, having

overcome Satan wholly, could have delivered man from all

the miserable fruits of his power, even death itself; but man

would have none of Him. He must be redeemed or lost.

Next, in this fourth chapter, when healing many, the

demons who are cast out own Him as the Christ the Son

of God. is was owning His title as promised to Israel in

Psalm 2; but which also witnessed to His rejection. us

the power of present delivering goodness, in the promised

One, was there. He is owned the Holy One of God, in

whom mercies came to Israel; as the Christ and Son of

God spoken of in Psalm 2. But in His own country He is

not received. e prejudices and passions of man rise up

against grace and this gracious One, while the demons own

Him, but through dread; a strange but solemn picture! ey

could not but know Him. But what is knowledge when

only such? ose He really came to would not receive Him.

In Luke 5 He is seen in another character. He reveals,

and is, Jehovah. In the miraculous draft of shes He makes

Himself known to the conscience of Peter, who sees the

Lord in it, and acknowledges himself a sinful man unt

for His presence. is is always the eect of the revelation

of God to us, and indeed of nothing else. Jesus speaks

words of grace, “Fear not.” From henceforth he should

catch men. In what follows He heals the leper, which was

Jehovah’s work alone. But there was a special circumstance

On the Gospel of Luke

265

connected with this, full of blessed signicance. e leper

recognized His power, but was not sure of His goodness or

willingness to help him. “Lord,” he says, “if thou wilt, thou

canst make me clean.” e Lord does not merely say He is

willing, He puts forth His hand and touches him. Now, if

a man touched a leper he too was unclean, and must be put

out of the camp. But here was a divine person come down,

Jehovah, who could cleanse. One who could say, “I will”;

“be thou.” — One who could not be deled, but had for

that very reason come down to touch the deled one, and

remove the delement. He was Jehovah, come as man, to

touch, so to speak, the sinner in grace. Jesus was one whose

holiness was so perfect, as God become man, that He could

carry divine love to the vilest — carry it wherever a need or

a sorrow was, and as love touch the deled, not to become

so, but to heal. It is a wonderful picture of what Christ,

Jehovah, present to heal was in this world. us revealing

Himself to the conscience, and doing a divine work in love,

in what was a gure of cleansing from sin, mark Him out

as Jehovah in the world in grace.

He withdraws Himself into the wilderness and prays;

ever the dependent, as the obedient and victorious, man.

But other elements of divine grace are yet to be observed

here. He was sitting with doctors of the law, ready to object

to grace, and ignorant of how the Son of God had in

manhood visited this sinful world in the power and title

of divine grace. One sick of the palsy is brought to Him

by faith. He goes to the root of all sorrow, and says, “y

sins be forgiven thee” (Luke 5:20). e question is not

here how through the precious death of Christ forgiveness

was consistent with divine righteousness and gloried it.

What is here revealed is Jehovah present in unmingled

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

266

grace. As the testimony and witness of this, the Lord does

what is ascribed to Jehovah in Psalm 103:3, along with the

forgiveness of sins. “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; and

healeth all thy diseases.”

Lastly, the Lord shows, as the friend of publicans and

sinners, that He had come in sovereign grace to gather, in

the power of good, not looking for it in man. But thus also

He must be rejected. is new wine, for it was so, could

not be put into old bottles; Judaism could not receive and

be the vessel of sovereign grace; nor could those who were

used to Judaism easily receive the new wine of the gospel

and Spirit of God. And so it ever is in all ages.

Luke 7.

I do not for the present make any remark on chapter

6. Only we may note that the Lord is gathering distinctly

around Himself, apart from the nation, and that He

addresses His disciples as thus separated — as those already

called to possess the kingdom. But in chapter 7 we have

the Lord brought out in a far greater character, and more

fully revealed, than as the fulller of promise. He is entirely

a divine person, and consequently reaches out beyond

Judaism, and even human life, in this world. Still the Jews

are recognized by the Gentile whom the Lord blesses; and

this was right. e Lord did the same. It was the lowliness

and submission to God’s ways which the knowledge of

God, true faith, always produces.

Remark here, too, a principle which will be found to

shine forth through all the Gospels, namely, that whenever

Christ was manifested as God, it was impossible that He

could be conned to His relationship to the Jews. God

present in His own nature, as love, cannot be conned to

the special relationships to a nation to whom He has made

On the Gospel of Luke

267

promises: although He may, and surely will, faithfully meet

them according to promise. is is largely and specially

brought out in John: where, indeed, however, the principle

reaches further, and thereby assumes another character.

e Jews are there looked at, already, in the rst chapter,

as reprobate, and so treated; though dealt with, still, all

through the Gospel. “He came to his own, and his own

received him not” (John 1:11). e world, too, is viewed as

blind. “e world knew him not.” It was that phenomenon

known only in morals, the light shining in darkness. e

eect of this is to bring out the Lord in two characters

in that Gospel — rst, as God, as light in the world, and

as such, when forcing the conscience to attend to Him,

bringing out the terrible truth that men love darkness

rather than light — that they will not have God such as

He is: this especially, and formally, in chapter 8, when His

word is rejected, as His work is in the ninth. But this makes

a turning-point in the Gospel after the rst three chapters,

which are preface. e rst, Christ in nature — Christ

incarnate — Christ in work of blessing on earth — Christ

(as John Baptist also) calling and gathering on the earth;

which reaches on, by His servants, to His millennial

presence on earth; in all which, note, no heavenly character

or oce of Christ is given, as is ever the case in John’s

writings. e second gives the millennial kingdom. e

third what is needed for the kingdom, and heavenly things:

where John also brings out His full person and glory in

grace. en being driven out of Judea, the new order of

things is intimated, from God’s nature and the Father’s

love, in the fourth chapter. ereon, to the end of the

seventh, Christ is presented as the divine life-giving Son

of God; in incarnation, and as the dying Son of man; the

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

268

Giver of the Spirit, as the feast of tabernacles, the gure of

earthly rest, could not yet be kept by Him. en, His word

being rejected in the eighth, in the ninth He gives sight,

and this brings in eectual grace; and, rejected though He

be, He will have His sheep. Here we have not simply God,

who is light in darkness, revealed, but the Father sending

the Son in grace. is distinction is always kept up in John.

When grace is spoken of it is the Father and the Son! the

Father sending the Son; while as mere light, it is God. But

this expression of Father and Son refers to grace revealed

and eectual, not to the love of God in His nature and

character. Where this is spoken of, it is still God. “God so

loved the world.” I may follow this Gospel and its character

more in detail, if it suit you and the Lord so will, another

time; but this leads me back to the general truth that Christ

as revealing God shines necessarily out beyond Israel.

us, in a very striking and beautiful example, the

Syrophenician woman. ere the Lord seems to hold back

and conne Himself to Israel. “I am not sent but unto the

lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 15:24). “It is not

meet to take the children’s bread and to cast it to dogs”

(Matt. 15:26). e poor woman says, “Truth, Lord, but

the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master’s

table.” Could He say, God is not so good as you suppose?

He has no crumbs for the wretched, who even look to Him

through grace? Impossible. It would have been denying,

not revealing, God; and her faith is at once met. Remark,

too, again here, how lowly faith is, and how it submits

to God’s sovereign will! She owns herself a dog, and the

privilege of being near God, as Israel was, as a nation. But

her faith pierces through the diculty, with a want, to Him

who revealed God in love; and divine goodness, which had

On the Gospel of Luke

269

taught her to trust in it, met, and could not but meet, that

conding trust.

Now in the Luke 7 the Lord fully takes the divine place.

He is owned by the Gentile as One who can dispose of all,

as he himself ordered his soldiers about; and the Lord owns

his faith. “I have not found so great faith; no, not in Israel”

(Matt. 8:10). In the next recorded event He goes farther in

the display of divine power and goodness. “When the Lord

saw her, he had compassion on her” (Luke 7:13). at was

His rst thought; and to the bereaved widow He spoke

rst, and this was God too, though as man near to her

sorrow. But divine power was there too; and a word from

Him woke up to conscious life the young man they were

about to bury. But power, the fullest, divine power, did not

obliterate goodness, and cannot. God uses power, but He is

love. He delivered him to his mother.

is reaches the ears of John. e very dead are

raised, and he remained in prison! He sends to know, Is

the promised One come? He trusts the word of Him of

whom he had heard such things, but he wants to know

if He be the One that should come. John is to believe in

Christ, not Christ receive testimony from men. But “He

that should come” is the promised One. And John is to

receive Him, as others, by the testimony which He gave of

Himself, as setting right all the sorrows that sin and Satan

had brought into the world, and in grace caring for the

poor. But this was more than promise, though it witnessed

to the promised One. It proved the presence of One who

was love and had all power. But because He manifested

God, He was the rejected One; and blessed was he who

should not be oended in Him. If He came in promise, as

man expected Him, it would not have been in the grace

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

270

of divine power come down in love to every want. But

because He did, though His arm was not shortened, “He

was despised and rejected of men” (Isa. 53:3).

However, when John’s messengers were gone, the Lord

bears testimony to the captive one. He was Jehovah’s

messenger, sent before His face to prepare His way. But it

was really Jehovah who was come. But he who mourned to

them, and He who piped to them, were alike rejected by

that generation. One class alone received the Lord — the

humbled ones who had owned their sinfulness. ese

intelligently justied God’s ways in both John and Christ.

But it went far beyond a Messiah; they had morally met

God. ey owned they needed repentance; they had

deserved the ax. ey owned the suitableness of grace. It

was not merely Messiah they received. Perhaps, in some

of the happiest cases, they are not much occupied with

this, though they may have recognized Him as such.

ey wanted compassionate grace, and they had found it.

ey recognized the justice of God in condemning them

and calling them to repentance. ey acknowledged His

sovereign goodness in having to do with and in receiving

worthless sinners. ey justied God. One who was self-

righteous thought John and divine grace alike out of place.

Repentance was all well for others; they were the heirs of

the kingdom.

Now this is characteristic of Luke. e promised One

was there no doubt. But it was in grace to men, grace

bringing home to them their moral state. ey were

meeting God. His way, such as He was in truth, John

prepared; Him in His own person and ways Christ fully

revealed; God manifest in esh meeting sorrow, meeting

Satan’s power, meeting death, meeting sin, in grace. ey

On the Gospel of Luke

271

who felt all these found God in perfect grace there;

the friend, indeed, not of the lame, and blind, and deaf

merely, but, more wonderful still, of publicans and sinners.

ey — oh how willingly! — justied God in His ways;

while they did so truly and righteously, in what led them to

it, in the mourning testimony of John, who coming in the

way of righteousness, went into the desert alone (for there

was none righteous; no, not one), and, calling for good

fruit, found only that which sinners could, through grace,

come with — the confession that they had borne bad fruit.

But this gave understanding. e conscience, recognizing

the state he who has it is in, nds in the manifestation

of God Himself in grace all it wants, and what innitely

attracts the heart. e knowledge of God is found through

conscience, not through the understanding.

e convicted sinner is wisdom’s child; he knows

himself — the hardest of all knowledge to acquire. And God

in grace meets his state exactly. But such a manifestation

of God does not meet the Pharisee. Right and wrong he

knows, and can judge of God’s dealing in grace; but not

the smallest ray of it enters his soul. Yet God can only be

so revealed to man who is a sinner, if it be not in eternal

judgment; and even so He is not known, for He is love;

that is, he does not know God at all. Intellect never knows

grace; self-righteousness does not want it. We learn to

know God through conscience, when grace has awakened

us to feel its need.

Here the child of wisdom is found. e history of the

poor woman and the Pharisee is the example of this. e

poor sinner was the child of wisdom. She judged her sins

with God; she had found Him in grace for her sins. She did

not know forgiveness, but she had tasted love. It had won

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

272

her condence, the true divinely — given condence of an

humbled heart. is was Christ’s work in the world. At the

beginning Satan had gained man to evil and lust by rst

producing distrust of God. Why had God kept back this

one tree? Man would be like Him if he had it. Condence

in God was gone; then lust came in.

e blessed Redeemer, while coming indeed to put away

sin, yet in His life as the manifestation of God, had come

winning back the condence of man’s heart by perfect

love — grace in the midst of sin: humbled to the lowest

to bring it wherever there was a want; to win man by his

wants, and sorrows, and even his sins, where by grace the

true sense of them was, back to God; that he might trust

in God, because He was God, in love, when he could trust

in none else, and thus know Him as God in the fullest

revelation of Him — a child of wisdom, true in heart, and

knowing God. Such was this poor sinner; justly feeling

her sins, but feeling that being such, and feeling herself

such, there was One she could trust. Had He been less than

God, she could not — had no right to do so — no prot in

doing it. It would not meet her case. What God was had

reached her heart. She could not have explained it. But it

had met her case.

How lovely is this, and yet how humbling to man! In

the Pharisee we have clear intellect — the perception of

right and wrong, as far as natural conscience goes. All that

was in Christ, all that was in God manifested in grace,

he had no perception of, he saw no beauty in it; his eye

was blind as to God; he says, “If he were a prophet” (Luke

7:39), to say nothing of the promised One. is the Lord

showed He was, by exposing his heart, and noting to him

On the Gospel of Luke

273

what state he was in; He then leaves him, and the cavilers

he was surrounded by.

His heart was with the sinner, the humbled one. Her

sins, He had declared to all, were forgiven; but to her He

turns, to unfold all God’s grace, to give rest to a weary

heart — “y sins are forgiven thee.” No concealing, no

marring integrity by softening matters with her; though

owning all that grace had wrought (she loved much)

standing by her, with the heartless. When He notices her

sins, she would not have had it otherwise: we never would

when grace really works. “y sins” — but He notices it as

God, which He could, and could righteously, through His

coming work — “y sins are forgiven thee.” Man’s cavils

do not interrupt His work of grace: “Go in peace; thy faith

hath saved thee.”

What words from a divine Redeemer! Sins forgiven, faith

in divine love owned, and salvation declared to be possessed

by it! peace — perfectly divinely — given peace for her! She

had not trusted the heart of God in vain. He had revealed

Himself that she might trust it. Grace was greater than

sin, though it allowed none of it. It wrought conviction,

confession, condence; but it gave forgiveness, salvation,

peace: for God, who had restored the soul, and more, by

the revelation of Himself, was there. It seems to me, besides

this profoundly interesting individual case, instructive to

see how, while manifested clearly as the promised One, the

Savior in this Gospel passes on, by the way in which He

is manifested, into His divine manifestation in grace. It is

not followed here as in Matthew, which speaks of dealings

with Israel, with woes to Chorazin and Bethsaida, though

even there it issues in grace; but in the manifestation of

God in grace, and the picture of a poor sinner become the

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

274

child of wisdom, as taught her soul’s need, and the grace of

God to meet it. Observe here, too, how love is known, and

brokenness of heart trusts it, before the answer of peace is

given by Him who could do so.

Our chapter gives us thus the God of the Gentiles; the

God who delivers from death, raises from it; the God who

meets the sinner in grace, when all sin is known, and sends

him away in peace from Himself. It is well to have to do

with such a God!

Luke 12.

In this Gospel we constantly nd the Lord going over

the same ground again and again, in dierent aspects; but

here He is pressing the rejection of His own person, not

in connection with the kingdom, but in connection with

men’s souls. It is not the kingdom as being set aside by

His rejection, nor yet the connection of men’s souls and

bodies with Him in future earthly glory — such as blessing

the basket and the store — but the blessing of their souls

forever; therefore what is pressed here is the relationship of

the soul with God.

On this ground He says a man is but a “fool,” that

“layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward

God.” For “what is a man proted, if he gain the whole

world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in

exchange for his soul?” (Matt. 16:26). He thus takes them

o all dispensational teaching, to put them on the broad

moral ground of the soul’s relationship to God; and then

shows them the consequence of discipleship with Himself.

His coming again also is not in its aspect towards the

church; but the consequence of His kingdom being set

aside for the present is, that His disciples are to look for

His coming again. And this also bears two aspects; the one

On the Gospel of Luke

275

for those in relationship with God, and the other towards

the world. Both are taken up in this chapter.

But rst He puts before the disciples some of the motives

which should actuate them as His disciples. “Beware ye of

the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there

is nothing hid that shall not be made known” (vss. 1-2). It

will all come out before God: whatever is said or done, it

will all come out before God. Having made this appeal to

their consciences, the next thing is, that He being rejected,

power will be on the side of evil. Power would be there, and

it would be against them: still not one single hair of their

head was unnumbered. is was for their comfort! but as

to the government on earth by Christ, that was now closed

for the present, and, Christ as Messiah being rejected, they

must be rejected too, and bear the cross like their Master,

being left down here in the midst of the power of evil un-

subdued. So thoroughly indeed was power on the side of

evil, that when the Lord was casting out a demon, the

people said, “He casteth out demons through Beelzebub

the chief of the demons” (Luke 11:15). e principle

brought out in this is, that the saints are now down here

in conict with evil, but they are not to be afraid. “Be not

afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no

more that they can do; but I will forewarn you whom ye

shall fear; fear him which after he hath killed hath power

to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, fear him.” ink of

your souls as being connected with God. e hairs of your

head are all numbered. If men kill your body, do not be

afraid; for they cannot touch your soul; and not a single

hair of your head shall perish. You may be cut o by an

ignominious death. What then? Why, “not a sparrow falls

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

276

to the ground without your Father.” “Fear not therefore: ye

are of more value than many sparrows.”

Nothing can possibly separate us from God’s love.

However hot the persecution may be, condence in God

is all that is needed. As Paul said, “I am persuaded that

neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor

powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,

nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate

us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”

(Rom. 8:38-39).

In all human eorts to preserve oneself from suering,

there is shown a want of condence in God. If I am

delivered from suering, I am thankful to God for it; but if

it be permitted, I accept suering as my portion, and trust

God in it. Do not seek suering; but in confessing Christ,

you will be sure to get it: and then you should take the

suering and trust God in it. It is a privilege to suer for

the name of Christ. “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile

you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil

against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding

glad, for great is your reward in heaven; for so persecuted

they the prophets which were before you” (Matt. 5:11-

12). However severe the suering, let your condence be

in God. Do nothing of yourself, leave everything to God

alone; for God may make some man (a Gamaliel it may be)

to stand up for you. God may use anything as a means of

preserving you which you could not use yourself, even the

wickedness of man. So that it is never a question of means,

but of who is to use them. It is God Himself, and not you.

And mark that this would not be indierence, or haughty

deance; it is simply trusting in God. Shadrach, Meshach,

and Abednego replied, “Our God whom we serve is able to

On the Gospel of Luke

277

deliver us from the burning ery furnace, and he will deliver

us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto

thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship

the golden image which thou hast set up” (Dan. 3:17-18).

If a man persecute me, I would not say a word; I must

be quiet and passive, whatever they may do, referring

everything to God. As in the case of Peter and John, when

the chief priests “commanded them not to speak at all nor

teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered

and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of

God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye”

(Acts 4:18-19).

en again, in verse 8, “Also I say unto you, Whosoever

shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man

also confess before the angels of God.” How thoroughly

the Lord is supposing the hostility of man! He expects it,

for in truth the gospel sets out with it. “I send you forth as

lambs among wolves” (Luke 10:3). He did not say as lambs

among lambs: but as lambs among wolves. erefore,

beloved, if you meet with this hostility, “ink it not strange

concerning the ery trial which is to try you, as though

some strange thing happened unto you” (1 Peter 4:12). For

what Christ met with in His own person while down here,

He fully anticipates for all His followers; and therefore

“rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s suerings”

(1 Peter 4:13). But then it is as lambs — not in rashness,

but harmless as doves, though wise as serpents. Be prudent

in not giving occasion to hostility; but if confessing the

name of Christ brings it out, take is patiently, trusting in

God.

e Lord sees the diculties they will have to encounter,

and cheers them by saying, “If you confess me before men,

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

278

I will confess you before the angels of God” (Luke 12:8).

And mark how the Lord knows how to put His nger on

the very point of the diculty; “If you confess me before

men.” It is not whether they could think of Him in their

closets: of course they could do that, if they cared for Him

at all; but that is not it. Do they “confess me before men?”

Alas! how often we cannot nd courage to confess Christ

openly “before men,” when we can do it in our closets. But

this is just a simple test how far the fear of man has more

power over our souls than God. Still He would not have us

to thrusting ourselves upon people; this would be no good

at all. “Be wise as serpents, harmless as doves” (Matt. 10:16).

“Be simple concerning evil, and wise concerning good.” As

they said of Daniel, “We shall not nd any occasion against

this Daniel, except we nd it in the law of his God.” Daniel

was simply obeying God, and in thus simply and steadily

doing God’s will, he had to suer for it; and so may we. But

then let us take care that we are suering for doing God’s

will, and not in doing our own will. Not as Moses in his

rashness, going and slaying an Egyptian and then running

away. ere was no good in that. But go on steadily doing

God’s will, giving Satan no handle: but at the same time

having unhesitating boldness in confessing Christ, and in

bringing out God’s truth; but not anything of the esh to

excite or oend the esh in another, except it be by the

cross, and that will always be an oense. As it is said, “e

reproaches of them that reproached thee have fallen upon

me” (Rom. 15:3). He took Himself all the rejection of man’s

wicked heart against God. He set his face “as a int” (Isa.

50:7); and so must we. But then we are not to fret ourselves

by saying anything contrary to the grace of Christ, and

thereby bring on us needless hostility.

On the Gospel of Luke

279

en again, it is not sucient to be right in the thing

that we confess, neither to be sincere. It must be God

speaking by us. at which ows from me ought to be of

the Spirit, in the power of the Spirit, and according to the

time of the Spirit, or it is not of the Lord; it is not the

manifestation of the grace of Jesus. is requires the will to

be mortied, and the esh crucied; for if it be otherwise,

there will be the blustering out of something without any

grace. But assuming the will to be mortied, the esh

subdued, and the Spirit of God working, He says (vs. 10),

“Whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man,

it shall be forgiven him; but unto him that blasphemeth

against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him.” e

Lord is here putting them, in a sense, on higher ground

than Himself. What an amazing encouragement to our

poor hearts! If you speak, they are even more responsible

if they reject it than in rejecting Me. is, of course, could

only be true but as they spake by the Holy Spirit: there

must be no water mixed with the wine.

Paul could say, “If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them

that are lost” (2 Cor. 4:3). I should not venture to say, If my

gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. Paul could say

so, because he gave it out as pure as he got it in. But it is

not always so with us; and therefore we cannot say what

the apostle could, because it was the truth and nothing but

the truth that was given pure from God. I could say so as

to the truth of it; that is, I can say if you reject the truth you

will be lost, though I cannot say if you reject the gospel I

preach you will be lost.

Luke 12:11-12. Here the Lord encourages the disciples

for the warfare, supposing the hostility of the world, which

must be expected if the gospel is set forth in power, and

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

280

guarding them against the fear of man. He says, “When

they bring you unto the synagogues, unto magistrates, and

unto powers, take ye no thought how, or what thing ye

shall answer, or what ye shall say; for the Holy Spirit shall

teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.” When

God rst sent out the gospel, He took care that it should

go out pure. All we speak ought to be by the Spirit, as it is

nothing but what is of the Holy Spirit that God can use.

But when it is by inspiration, which is nothing but by the

Holy Spirit, then God takes care that nothing else but the

truth shall be spoken. But when I am speaking it is not

necessarily so guarded as that no error is mixed up with

it. Of course anything really good that is spoken is in a

manner inspired. But when the truth was inspired by the

Holy Spirit, God so kept the man that nothing but the

truth came out. It is not so now. When God came forth in

creation, it was by the Spirit. “e Spirit of God moved on

the face of the waters” (Gen. 1:2). Everything was always

done by the Spirit. “He that God has sent speaketh the

words of God, for God giveth not the Spirit by measure

unto him” (John 3:24). is was spoken of Christ. But

now there is no warrant that every man speaks the truth,

because there is no man now so qualied, as to leave no

doubt whether there is nothing beside the Holy Spirit.

In Luke 12:13 one comes to the Lord, complaining of

the injustice of his brother; “Speak to my brother,” says he,

“that he divide the inheritance with me.” And the Lord

replied, “Who made me a judge or a divider over you?”

He was not come to set things right in this world then;

though He will do this when He comes again. Had He

been accepted as Messiah, He would have done so then;

but the counsels of God were otherwise. It was quite right

On the Gospel of Luke

281

that the man should have his inheritance; but as Messiah

He was rejected, and therefore could not then set “justice

and judgment on the earth.” He was then come about men’s

souls; therefore He says to them, “Take heed and beware

of covetousness.” For while the one sought to defraud, the

other sought to obtain; and it was the same spirit in both.

ey were both loving the possession of these things, and

this was the whole secret; therefore the Lord told them,

that “a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the

things which he possesseth” (Luke 12:15).

He could not be occupied with dividing men’s

inheritance, for His whole business was with their souls.

e world was going to be set aside, therefore what had the

Lord to do with men’s inheritances? His work was to go

on with God, doing His will; and His entire business as to

men was with their souls; and this ought to be our business

too, for we are associated with God on new grounds. But

if we are seeking the world or riches, the eect will be

practically to separate us from God. I always tremble now

when I hear of a Christian getting on in the world; for “how

hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom

of God?” And who ever escapes the snare of getting on in

the world? Generally there is a getting down in spirituality,

when there is a getting up in the world. It may all be taken

up in service to the Lord, but that is quite another thing;

then it would be a bright testimony. A person once said to

me, What harm is there in riches? My reply was, Suppose

they keep you out of heaven; what then? Oh! said he, I

never thought of that! If riches do get possession of the

heart, they surely must keep Christ out; and a Christ-less

heart never got into heaven yet.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

282

e real mischief is in the riches of this world getting

into the heart. Mark that most solemn word in 1 Timothy

6:9-11, “But they that will be rich fall into temptation and

a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which

drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of

money is the root of all evil; which while some coveted

after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves

through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, ee

these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness,

faith, love, patience, meekness.” It is they that have a desire

for riches, who fall into “many foolish and hurtful lusts,

which drown men in destruction and perdition.” It is not

the question as to whether riches are right or wrong in

themselves, but as to riches being the object of the heart. If

so, they keep Christ out. A man will then say, But suppose

I do not set my heart upon them; but the Lord who knows

our hearts better than we do ourselves, does not deal in this

way: for He says, “Where your treasure is, there will your

heart be also”; and not as it is often quoted, “Where the

heart is, there the treasure will be” (Luke 12:34). It is quite

true that, if the Lord give riches, He can give grace to use

them; but even then they are a snare. e language of the

“certain rich man” to his soul in this chapter is, “Soul, thou

hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease,

eat, drink, and be merry”; but God says, “ou fool, this

night thy soul shall be required of thee; then whose shall

those things be which thou hast provided?” (Luke 12:20).

So is he that “layeth up treasure for himself, and is not

rich towards God.” Here come in the questions, “What is

a man proted if he shall gain the whole world, and lose

his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his

soul?” (Matt. 16:26).

On the Gospel of Luke

283

“erefore take heed, and beware of covetousness” which

is idolatry. For, be it ever remembered, that while riches are

a snare to the rich man, to be jealous of a rich man, because

of his riches, is as bad or worse in the poor man; for it just

shows that he would also have them if he could. It is not

a question about riches. e Lord wants to get souls into

heaven, and riches will not take them there; that can only

be by being rich towards God. e whole question is about

Christ; for if Christ has His place in our hearts, the things

of this world cease to be temptations to us. e man that

is rich towards God has no desire for other riches. But the

man that layeth up treasure for himself is not rich towards

God; because self is at the bottom. All this has to do with

the world.

But now in Luke 12:22 He says unto His disciples,

“erefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life,

what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put

on.” “e life is more than meat, and the body is more

than raiment.” When speaking to the world He takes the

lowest ground; but when He turns to His disciples He

speaks dierently. ey may trust in God, for He presses

upon them that as His disciples they were of great value

in the sight of God. Poor worthless things in themselves,

no doubt, still they were of great value to God. Do not

you be uneasy, for God has a particular interest in you, and

the hairs of your head are all numbered. If God feedeth

the fowls, “how much more are ye better than they?” ey

were all God’s subjects by creation, for He had not given

up His title to the world. In the peculiar teaching of the

Book of Jonah, when God had given up Israel as an earthly

testimony, we learn that God’s character of doing good to

all, and caring for all was not at all touched. “Should not

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

284

I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six

score thousand persons that cannot discern between their

right hand and their left, and also much cattle?” “But does

God take care of oxen?” In truth He does, for they are the

work of His creative power. But to the disciples He says,

You are of such value to God that He would have you

reckon yourselves to be of value to Him even in the midst

of this hostile world. Do not you be taking thought for

the morrow; leave the morrow with God. Do not you be

taking thought at all; for if by taking thought ye cannot do

that which is least, why take ye thought for the rest? He is

urging upon them unlimited condence in God, who is to

them as a tender Father. erefore He says to them, “Seek

not ye what ye shall eat, nor what ye shall drink, neither

be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations

of the world seek after, but your Father knoweth that ye

have need of these things” (Luke 12:29-30). “Fear not,

little ock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you

the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). erefore, do not be uneasy

in passing through the desert, for the kingdom is at the

end. And if God is going to give you the kingdom, though

as sheep you may be killed here, still He will give you the

kingdom.

en after showing them what their relationship

involved as His disciples, He speaks to them of His coming

again.

Luke 12:36. ey were to be “like unto men that wait

for their Lord.” For though rejected for a season on the

earth, He will return: and therefore He here tells us of the

blessedness of those who will be found waiting for Him.

at which should characterize the saints is, not merely

holding the doctrine of the Lord’s coming, as that which

On the Gospel of Luke

285

they believe, but their souls should be in the daily attitude

of waiting, expecting, and desire His coming! But why?

at they may see Himself and be with Him, and like Him

forever — not because the world which has been so hostile

to them is going to be judged, though God will smite the

wicked.

It is true, there will be mercy to those who are spared.

But we have obtained mercy now, and are therefore waiting

for Himself, for what He is in Himself to us, and not

because of judgment. at would not be joy to me, though

it will be to some on the earth; for “In every place where

the grounded sta shall pass, which Jehovah shall lay upon

him, it shall be with tabrets and harps” (Isa. 30:32). is is

not our hope, but simple waiting for Himself. e whole

walk and character of a saint depends on this, on his waiting

for the Lord. Everyone should be able to read us by this as

having nothing to do in this world, but to get through it,

and not as having any portion in it; “turned from idols to

serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from

heaven” (1 ess. 1:9-10). is is thought a strange thing

now, but the essalonians were converted to this hope, for

they belonged to a world which had rejected God’s Son;

therefore they had to turn from these idols to serve the true

and living God, and to wait for His Son from heaven.

What I desire to press upon you all and myself too is the

individual waiting for the Lord; not as a doctrine merely,

but as a daily waiting for Himself. Whatever the Lord’s

will may be, I should like Him to nd me doing it when

He comes. But that is not the question, but am I waiting

for Himself day by day?

In the second chapter of 1 essalonians the hope is

connected with ministry, “What is our hope, or joy, or

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

286

crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our

Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?” (1 ess. 2:19). en Paul

would get the reward of His service to the saints. en in

the third chapter the hope is connected with our walk, as a

motive for holiness, “unblameable in holiness, before God,

even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ

with all his saints” (1 ess. 3:13).

en in the fourth chapter, the doctrine of the hope is

unfolded; the manner of it comes out — “e Lord himself

shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of

the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in

Christ shall rise rst; then we which are alive and remain

shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to

meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the

Lord” (1 ess. 4:16-17).

us we see what a present expectation the coming of

the Lord was; therefore Paul says, “WE which are alive and

remain.” But why does he say “WE”? Because he expected

it then. is was Paul’s character then, that of waiting for

the Lord. And does he lose that character, because he died

before He came? No, not at all.

ough Peter had a revelation that he should put o

the tabernacle of his body (2 Peter 1:14), yet did he daily

wait for the Lord’s coming then; and this will be Paul’s

character when the Lord does come; he will lose nothing

by his death. “Be ye like unto men that wait for their Lord.”

e character of their waiting was to be like servants at

the hall-door, that, when the master knocked, they were

ready to open to Him immediately. It is a gure of course

here; but it is the present power of the expectation that

is alluded to. And the ruin of the church has come in by

practically saying, “My Lord delayeth his coming.” “Blessed

On the Gospel of Luke

287

are those servants whom the Lord when he cometh shall

nd watching” (Luke 12:37).

“Let your loins be girded about, and your lights

burning” — “your loins girt about with truth” (Eph. 6:14)

for service. You must not let your garments ow loose; that

is, you must not let your thoughts and aections spread

abroad, but be ready with your garments well girt up and

your lights burning. is is not rest, for it is an exceedingly

tiring thing to have to sit up and watch through a long

dark night. But in the spirit of service the heart, aections,

thoughts, feelings, and desires must all be girt up. And this

requires real painstaking not to let the esh go its own way;

for it is a great comfort sometimes to do this, if but for a

moment, but if we do we shall surely fall asleep like the

virgins. For as the virgins went to sleep with their oil in

their lamps, so may we go to sleep with the Holy Spirit in

our hearts. But blessed are those servants who are found

watching. e Lord says this is the time for you to be

girded, to take your turn in love to serve and watch; but

when I come again, and have things My own way, then I

will take My turn in love, ungird you, and gird Myself, and

come forth and serve you. You must be well girt up and

watchful in the midst of evil; but when the evil is done

with, then you may take your rest. When in the Father’s

house, you may lie down and be at ease; and then your

robes may ow down without any fear of their being soiled.

In that blessed place of holiness and purity you may let

your aections, thoughts, and desires ow out without the

fear of their being deled.

e Lord does not speak to us, as He does to the

remnant on the earth. He does not say to them that He

will come as a thief in the night, but He tells them the

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

288

tribulation will be so terrible, that He notes how many

days it shall last, and says, “For the elect’s sake those days

shall be shortened, or no esh could be saved” (Matt.

24:22). But to us it would be nothing that our esh should

be saved on the earth — we would rather get out of the

esh. To them it would be everything to “fear not them

which kill the body, and after that have no more that they

can do.” ey would be amongst those who would not have

Christ, and therefore will have Antichrist; and so terrible

will be the sorrow, that the Lord comes to cut short those

days. ey were too late for the other thing, but now, by

reason of the sorrow, a short work will the Lord make of

it on the earth. e Psalms express a desire for judgment,

because those who express it then get their deliverance; but

no Christian can claim this. Who could ask, “that thy foot

may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies, and that the

tongue of thy dogs may be red through the same?” (Psa.

68:23). Judgment will not be our deliverance, but going up

to heaven before the judgment begins.

He will come in judgment; as it is said, “Sit thou on my

right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool” (Luke

20:42-43). But that is not for us — we are not His enemies;

for He hath perfected forever them that are sanctied. And

we are perfected now, but we wait by the Holy Spirit to

have that which is ours by virtue of our union with Him;

and when He comes forth to judgment, we shall come with

Him. e Lord comes with His saints, when He comes

to execute judgment on the earth; but He comes for His

saints previously.

I do not desire judgment, but I do desire that which is

worthy of being desired, the hope of being with the Lord,

as the Lord, and like the Lord forever. It is the end of the

On the Gospel of Luke

289

whole thing as regards ourselves. erefore, as the apostle

says, e times and the seasons are nothing to you, for you

belong to the day that will come, when the wicked shall be

as ashes under the feet of the saints.

Luke 12:40-41. e Lord then goes on to speak of the

conduct of the saints while waiting for their Lord; and,

“Peter said, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or

even to all? And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful

and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over

his household, to give them their portion of meat in due

season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he

cometh shall nd so doing.” Now observe that the answer

of our blessed Lord was most remarkable, and in this way,

that those who had the name of waiting for the Lord would

become the world. In our country, in England, worldly

people are called Christians, and thus they are responsible

for the name they bear, and not only for the power. So

they that take the name of ministers are responsible for the

position they take. For people will be judged, not according

to the power they have, but according to the PLACE they

have taken. ey cannot say, I have taken the place, but

have not the power, so you ought not to judge me. But you

have taken the place, and therefore are responsible for the

power, or you should not have taken the place. If a servant

comes into your house and spoils all your goods, you

judge him according to the place he has taken. erefore

the professing church or Christendom is responsible for

having taken the place of Christianity without the power;

and how can there be power where there is not life? If

servants, they are to give to the household the portion of

meat in due season, because it is a service to be done in the

house while the master is away. So that whatever the place,

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

290

whether little or great, the servant is to be in service to

Christ, while He is away; and if faithful, He will make him

ruler over all that He hath at His return.

Luke 12:45. “But and if that servant say in his heart,

My Lord delayeth his coming,” etc. Mark, he does not say

He will not come, but “he delayeth his coming.” And the

moment the church of God said, My Lord delayeth His

coming, it got into the world; and the Lord’s coming was

counted a heresy. For as soon as the church lost the practical

sense of the Lord’s coming, it began to decay and decline,

and the hope gradually dropped out, until it was entirely

lost. What awoke the virgins at rst was the cry, “Behold

the Bridegroom cometh.” But they needed to be called

out again from the place where they had gone to make

themselves comfortable, although they had been called out

before; and that which awakes them again is, “Behold the

Bridegroom cometh.” It is not that the church had been

saying, He will never come again, but “My Lord delayeth

his coming,” just showing that the hope of His immediate

coming had lost its place in her heart. e servant does

not say he will be a heathen or a Jew, nor does he leave

the other servants; but instead of giving them their meat

in due season, he begins to beat them. And when it came

to this, they began to eat and drink with the drunken; not

that they got drunk, but that they readily went on with

the ways, customs, and habits of the world from which

they had been redeemed. Is that the wilderness? No. It is

getting into the world and setting up a millennium in the

continuity and perpetuity of the church down here, which

is virtually denying the Lord’s coming. How can I make

preparation for continuing down here, if I am expecting

Him daily? Men tell me that the Lord is providing for the

On the Gospel of Luke

291

continuance of the church down here on the earth; but the

Lord tells me in His word to expect Him daily to take me

up to heaven.

It is a most solemn thing, that this thought of settling

in the earth because the Lord delayeth His coming is

fast closing in upon the blinded hearts of the professing

church, and thus tting them for the judgment that is fast

approaching. e voice then ought now to be lifted up

like a trumpet to meet this state of things. “Behold the

Bridegroom cometh.” is will be the test again by which

souls may yet be gathered out to wait for the Lord, and

not settle down into the expectation of the perpetuity and

continuance of the church down here.

Now mark the result of this (vs. 46). “e lord of that

servant cometh in an hour when he looketh not for him,

and will cut him in sunder, and appoint him his portion

with the unbelievers.” He is treated according to the

position he has taken.

Luke 12:47. Christendom is in the worst case after all;

it will be better even for the poor heathen than for it. “As

many as have sinned without law shall perish without law”

(Rom. 2:12). at which now boasts itself as the church

will then have peculiar judgment; for “it shall be beaten

with many stripes.”

Luke 12:48. While the heathen who ought to have acted

according to the light of conscience “will be beaten with

few stripes,” God will not go on with evil, though He may

bear long with it. And where Satan is working, believers

cannot rightly deal with it, but by treating it as what it is. I

have no power over it, for it corrupts the principles of the

light within me, and brings darkness into my soul.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

292

First, then, there is the waiting for the Lord Himself;

and, secondly, the answer to the question, “Speakest thou

this unto us, or to all?” is to all that call themselves, and

take the place of servants. e Lord make us faithful as

those who are waiting for Him! It will be no joy to my soul

for Him to nd me heaping up riches when He comes;

for there should be the testimony to the world that He

was coming. Individual faithfulness is rst, and then love

to Him and to souls will ow out naturally.

Luke 13.

ere are two great principles in God’s dealings, in

connection with man on the earth, which are developed in

the church of God, as such, and in the government of God.

And these two things are very distinct the one from the

other. In the church the riches of God’s grace are manifested;

but in His governmental dealings, righteousness, and the

display of His attributes, as justice, mercy, and goodness.

We have an example of God’s governmental power in

Exodus 34:6-7, “And the Lord passed by before him,

and proclaimed, e Lord, the Lord God, merciful and

gracious, long-suering, and abundant in goodness and

truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and

transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the

guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children,

and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the

fourth generation.” Here it is in connection with the Jews,

and not only among the Jews, but it shows also that which

is outside in the world in God’s dealings. What we get in

Exodus 34 is not sovereign grace bringing a soul to eternal

life, but governmental power; the exercise of which we may

now mark every day around us. For if a man wastes his

fortune, or ruins his health by intemperance of any kind,

On the Gospel of Luke

293

his children suer for it. is is an invariable principle. We

see also the exercise of righteous government in God’s not

clearing the guilty.

See God’s dealings with David, because of the matter

of Uriah. “e sword shall never depart from thine

house … ou didst it secretly; but I will do this thing

before all Israel, and before the sun … Because by this deed

thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of Jehovah to

blaspheme, the child that is born unto thee shall surely die”

(2 Sam. 12:10,12,14). Now, here was judgment for David’s

sin; and we know that in his after life, the “sword did not

depart from his house.”

is also is true of the Jews for the murder of the Lord;

as it is expressed in Galatians: “Whatsoever a man soweth,

that shall he also reap” (Gal. 6:7). is, however, is not

grace but government; still it is true of a saint as well as

of a sinner. Both kinds of dealing God has with the saints

now, that is, in grace, and in righteous government. I shall

never reap the reward of my sins in eternal blessedness, for

it is innite grace; but in the way of righteous government

I shall reap the reward of my iniquity down here. “Be

not deceived; God is not mocked … He that soweth to

the esh shall of the esh reap corruption” (Gal. 6:7-8).

It is grace as to sins eternally, but righteous government

as to iniquity down here. God never lets go the reins of

government, even over the world, although for a season

He did not interfere in governmental power. As it is said,

“e times of this ignorance God winked at” (Acts 17:30).

He did not say there was no sin; therefore they were

responsible. So that “death reigned from Adam to Moses,

even over them that had not sinned after the similitude

of Adam’s transgression” (Rom. 5:14). ere was sin and

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

294

death, though no transgression, because God had not

then come in with law. But Adam had received a positive

commandment and had transgressed it. And sin must bear

its consequence, which is death. But “in the day when God

shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to

my gospel” (Rom. 2:16), then all will come out, and both

will have their place.

e angels see and understand the government of God

in the world; but in the church it is quite another thing, as

Peter says, “Which things the angels desire to look into”

(1 Peter 1:12). e angels had seen the various wisdom of

God in creation, when the morning stars sang together;

but here it was quite a new thing; for by the church the

manifold wisdom of God is displayed. God is going to

have a people not belonging to the earth at all.

In the prophets government on the earth is spoken of,

because it is of Messiah’s kingdom that they speak. But

God’s government towards Israel in its Messiah-character

is now suspended, but it will come out again another day.

When the kingdom is spoken of, it is government on the

earth; but when the church is spoken of, it is as connected

with the Governor Himself. e position of Christians is

such, that they have in it a motive for the very commonest

aairs of life: so that their daily conduct should be suitable

to their high calling of God in Christ Jesus. We are united

to Him who will judge the world; and therefore, when the

apostle is going to counsel two foolish Christians that are

going to law, he says, “what! cannot you settle such a triing

thing as that about money without going to law?” “Know

ye not that we shall judge angels?” (1 Cor. 6:3). Could not

those who are destined to do such high things settle their

own smaller matters, without going to law, and that before

On the Gospel of Luke

295

the unbelievers? It is the sense of their high calling that

Paul places before them; which he desired might ll their

minds as it did his. erefore, if telling them as servants to

be faithful in a house, and not to be guilty of purloining,

he says, “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath

appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness

and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and

godly in this present world; looking for that blessed hope

and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior

Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem

us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar

people, zealous of good works” (Titus 2:11-14). e grace

having appeared, the glory is looked for. erefore the

conclusion is, do you, as subjects of the grace and waiting

for the glory, live righteously and suer wrongfully, rather

than avenge yourselves.

We have, then, God’s government of this world, and of

the Jew in justice, though in patient goodness; and His taking

out of the world a people united to Christ in governing. If

you look into the prophets, you do not nd anything about

the church whatever, but about government, whether of

the Jew or of the world. But when we come to the church

we nd a suspension of government, in its outward, visible,

and settled order, because the world had rejected Christ,

who was their Governor. In the church I get an entirely

new thing; for the Son of God, having been rejected in the

world, is gone back to the Father, and He now says to us,

Ye “are not of this world, even as I am not of this world”

(John 17:16). “Now is the judgment of this world, now is

the prince of this world cast out” (John 12:31). Christ, who

made all things, is also set over all things in government,

as Heir of all things; though not yet openly exercising His

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

296

power thus. But Christ, who is “Head over all things, is also

Head to the church, which is his body” (Eph. 1:22-23); a

thing hidden from ages and generations, but now made

manifest.

In Ephesians this is fully brought out, but there we have

more of the fullness of the body; while in Colossians there

is more about the fullness of the Head. is is because the

Colossians were in danger of slipping back from the Head

into the observance of ordinances; therefore the apostle

presses upon them the fullness of the Head to bring them

back again. But in Ephesians he dwells on the church, the

body, the fullness of Him that lleth all in all. e church,

as His body, is the completeness of Christ.

In Ephesians 3 we read of the promise in Christ by the

gospel given in the eternal purpose of God to the church

before the foundation of the world; whereas the promises

given to Israel were given to them on the earth and not

before the world was. e church was called in the eternal

purpose of God before time; while the Jew was called out

in time. In Colossians 1:23-25 we read, “Be not moved

away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard,

and which was preached to every creature which is under

heaven; whereof I, Paul, am made a minister; who now

rejoice in my suerings for you, and ll up that which is

behind of the aictions of Christ, in my esh, for His body’s

sake, which is the church; whereof I am made a minister

according to the dispensation of God, which is given to

me for you, to fulll [or, more properly, to complete] the

word of God.” at which still remained for God to give,

and which we now have, is the revelation of the church; for

until the church was revealed, the word of God was not

On the Gospel of Luke

297

complete. But now that which for ages and generations

was hid in God is fully told out.

Here we see Paul’s two ministries, rst, that of the

gospel, and then that of the church. And the form which

a believer’s life now takes is, “Christ in you the hope of

glory” (Col. 1:27). A Christ in heaven, and at the same

time dwelling in the saints now on the earth, is a thing

which was hid in God before the foundation of the world.

Unto the Jews had been committed the oracles of God; but

they knew nothing of a body on the earth united to a Head

in heaven, even to the man Christ Jesus, as members of

His body, of His esh, and of His bones. Until the church

was revealed to Paul, this was still hid in God’s eternal

purpose. As soon as all God’s dealings, in the sense of

proving man, were closed with the earth, by the rejection

of His Son (“is is the heir, come let us kill him”), all was

closed to men in the esh, and the church is brought out in

connection with a Man in heaven.

God sent His only Son, and Him they crucied. He

had no other messenger. Christ was rejected as Prophet,

as Messiah, as Son of man, and as Son of God; and when

man, as man, was thus fully shown out, God comes in

and acts for Himself. Him, whom man had put to death,

God raises from the dead, and sets Him down at His own

right hand in heaven; in virtue of which the Holy Spirit

comes down and unites a people on the earth to this risen

Man in glory. is is quite a distinct thing, and therefore

it is that in Scripture we constantly nd a gap, as it were,

leaving space for the mystery of the church, “which from

the beginning of the world hath been hid in God” (Eph.

3:9), to be brought out.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

298

erefore, as we have previously remarked, the church

is not found in the Old Testament; but Christ’s coming

in humiliation, and His coming in judgment, are spoken

of close together, without saying a word about the church

coming in between the two events. So, in Luke 4 when the

Lord was in the synagogue at Nazareth, after preaching

from Isaiah what referred to His then mission of healing

the brokenhearted and preaching the acceptable year of the

Lord, He closed the book and sat down, saying not a word

about “the days of vengeance” — that being deferred until

the mystery which had been hid from ages and generations

had been manifest to the saints; or, in other words, until

after the church had been brought out.

It is of immense importance, for the steadiness of the

soul, to keep these two principles quite distinct; for what

often confounds people in the study of prophecy is their not

seeing the distinctive place which the church of God holds

apart from God’s government of the world, or of Israel. But

the very essence of the church is, that there is no dierence

between Jew and Gentile. ey are all sinners alike; but,

when reached by God’s grace, are all brought into one body.

e very principle on which the church is based, would

have destroyed the whole basis of the Jewish system. All

along in the Jewish system their righteousness consisted

in maintaining a distinct separation between themselves

and the Gentiles; but now “there is no dierence”; for both

Jew and Gentile are made one in Christ. If the barrier

which God Himself had originally set up had been broken

down before Christ was crucied and risen, it would have

been sin: therefore the church could never have been even

hinted at in the Jewish scriptures. e principle of the

church could not be brought in, while the “handwriting

On the Gospel of Luke

299

of ordinances” remained. But this being “blotted out” in

Christ, the two, Jew and Gentile, are made “one new man”

(Eph. 2:15).

In going back to our chapter (Luke 13), we see the Jews

had the thought of God’s government in their minds. Nor

was it wrong in itself. ey thought that God could not

let such a guilty wretch as this Pilate live, who had been

mingling the blood of the Galileans with their sacrices.

But Christ brings them to a new principle by which to

judge of things, and tells them that Pilate is but a mere

instrument in the governmental dealings of God with the

nation. Judgment was going on in this present evil world.

“Suppose ye,” says the Lord, “that these Galileans were

sinners above all the Galileans? …I tell you nay; but except

ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” It is not that they were

nally condemned as sinners here, but it was governmental

judgment in this world which would overtake them all

unless they repented. God had sent forth His judgment

and caught these Galileans, and would catch the Jews also

unless they repented. For not only Pilate but God’s Son

was there, and they were practically rejecting Him. And

how many of the Jews had their blood mingled with their

sacrices by Titus in the destruction of Jerusalem!

Christ had said to the Jews in the close of chapter 12,

“When thou goest with thine adversary to the magistrate,

as thou art in the way, give diligence that thou mayest be

delivered from him; lest he hale thee to the judge, and the

judge deliver thee to the ocer, and the ocer cast thee

into prison. I tell thee, thou shalt not depart thence, till

thou hast paid the very last mite.” is is not a question

of eternal salvation, but it simply refers to the state of the

Jews: that is, the Jews will not come out till they have paid

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

300

the very last mite. Jerusalem will not get out till she has

received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. But

she will get out from the chastenings of the Lord when

they are complete. It is very evident that this passage refers

simply to God’s government of His people.

In Luke 12:56 of the preceding chapter the Lord asks

in the way of reproach, “How is it that ye do not discern

this time?” And ought not we always to discern the time?

Surely the Lord might often reproach us by saying, “How

is it that ye do not discern this time? All the world is

rejecting Me, and if they do not repent before they get to

the judgment, there is no hope. Natural conscience ought

to tell you Jews not to reject your Messiah, for God is

going all the way along with you to the magistrate, dealing

with you in patient grace; and if you do not repent and be

reconciled, judgment must come upon you; and then it will

be the same with you, as with those whom you think to be

such sinners.”

“I am come to send re on the earth,” — (the re of

judgment) “and what will I if it be already kindled?” (Luke

12:49). e Lord is here dealing with the same state of

things. e g-tree also is Israel; for God came seeking

fruit in them, but He found none. In the gospel there is

this dierence, that grace sows in order to produce fruit;

but in connection with Israel’s responsibility, He came

seeking fruit and found none.

e sentence upon the g-tree then is, “cut it down”

(Luke 13:7). He not only found it useless, but His vineyard

was cumbered by it. “e name of God is blasphemed

through you among the Gentiles.” en comes in Christ’s

mission. “Last of all he sent his Son” (Matt. 21:37). God

had planted a vineyard and pruned it, but found no fruit.

On the Gospel of Luke

301

en a new Gardener comes in to try what He can do, and

He said, “Let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it

and dung it” (Luke 13:8). is was all done, but still there

was no fruit. All was useless, as far as Israel was concerned.

en God says, I will get rid of the whole thing: “cut it

down.”

e woman with an inrmity (Luke 13:11), whom Jesus

heals on the sabbath day, brings out another thing that was

working in their hearts, that is, the abuse of the law, which

brought in hypocrisy. ey would lead an ox or an ass from

the stall to water on the sabbath day, but they could not

bear that a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan had bound

eighteen years, should be loosed on the sabbath day. One

of the inrmities of man’s mind is to use possessed truth

to resist revealed truth. Paul was an example of this. As

“touching the righteousness which is in the law” he was

blameless; still Paul thought he ought to do many things

contrary to Jesus of Nazareth. And so also Christ says of

them in John 16:2-3: “ese things will they do unto you,

because they have not known the Father, nor Me.” ey

were using the name of the Godhead which had been given

them (“Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our God is one Jehovah”)

to reject the Son; for when Christ came in humiliation,

they would not receive Him. Orthodoxy is used to stop the

reception of truth. When truth is the ground of a man’s

standing, it gains him credit; but when a new truth comes

in, it puts faith to the test. So the unity of the Godhead was

used by the Jews to resist the reception of Christ.

e ruler of the synagogue said, “ere are six days in

which men ought to work: in them therefore come and

be healed, and not on the sabbath day” (Luke 13:14). But

he ought to have known that the Lord of the sabbath was

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

302

there. at single word “daughter of Abraham” ought to

have told him who He was that stood there. And the Lord

answered him and said, “ou hypocrite,” and so forth.

In verse 18 the Lord goes on to say what the kingdom

will be like, while the king is rejected and away. While

the king is sitting on His Father’s throne, until He comes

to take His own throne, the kingdom is like a little seed

thrown into the ground which springs up and becomes a

great tree; just what we see in Christendom. is lls up

the gap between Christ’s rejection and His corning again.

ere is no royal power exercised while the king is away;

as it is said in Mark’s Gospel, “It springs up men know not

how.” But when the harvest is ripe He will come again.

He sowed the rst time, and the second time He will put

in His sickle. He does not, however, come looking for a

great tree, but for heavenly fruit; though, instead of the

fruit He expected, He will nd the seed has become a

great tree, with the fowls of the air lodging in the branches.

Pharaoh was a great tree; Nebuchadnezzar was a great tree;

the high and great ones of the earth, the representatives of

earthly power. Even Israel, who had been planted “a noble

vine, wholly a right seed” (Jer. 2:21), was bearing no fruit.

erefore, as it is said in Ezekiel is, “What is the vine-tree

more than any other tree” (Ezek. 15:2), if it bears no fruit?

It is only t to be burned. We all know that the vine is the

most fruitful thing that grows upon the face of the earth,

and that the branches when cut o and withered make the

best rewood; but they are useless for anything else. It was

not a question of the kingdom here, but of fruit-bearing.

e word sown in the heart does not come to a great tree,

but produces fruit.

On the Gospel of Luke

303

In Luke 13:21 the kingdom is likened unto leaven; and

leaven is just that which spreads throughout the whole

mass in which it is placed, and also gives a character to

the thing in which it is. It is the nominal profession of

Christianity which is spread into a great mass — a great

system. Looked at as a doctrine it has leavened whole

countries. Still it is not what the Lord could own; as leaven

in Scripture is never used in a good sense. e idea is, the

spreading of the doctrine while the king is away.

It should be observed that there is not a word here

about the power of the Holy Spirit in connection with the

spread of Christian doctrine. He is simply speaking about

the eect produced in the world.

In the question of the disciples (Luke 13:23), “Are there

few that be saved?” the word “saved” is the same as that

which all through the Old Testament signies the remnant

spared. erefore the question really was as to whether this

remnant that would be spared would be few or many, when

the judgment came. But, this being a mere idle question,

the Lord does not answer it, but says to them (Luke 13:24),

“Strive to enter in at the strait gate.” ose who would get

in may. e strait gate was receiving Christ at that time.

Some however would come and knock when the door is

closed, to whom He will say, “I know ye not whence ye

are.” Strive to enter in at the strait gate, through which

Christ goes before you — that is, rejection. “For many [all

Israel] shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able” (Luke

13:24). For, inasmuch as they did not receive Christ in

humiliation, He says, “Depart from me, all ye workers of

iniquity” (Luke 13:27). It is all most simple when we see

the rejection of Christ. For those who reject Christ in the

day of His humiliation will themselves be rejected in the

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

304

day of His glory; and, instead of being His companions in

the kingdom, will be thrust out. e unbelieving Jews shall

see the Gentiles come into the glory of the kingdom, while

they remaining in unbelief will be cast out.

e Pharisees came and said to Him, “Get thee out, and

depart hence, for Herod will kill thee” (Luke 13:31). Now

Herod was an Idumean and became their king; but what

had this Idumean king to do with God’s promises to Israel?

Nothing whatever. In Herod we have a kind of gure of

the willful king, rst in his trying to kill Christ, and then

in his having no faith in God’s purposes or Christ’s glory.

But Christ answers, “Go ye and tell that fox” I shall do my

Father’s will till the moment come, for I am come to show

divine power, and when rejected here shall be perfected

in glory. What divine contempt for the apostate king was

here combined with the most perfect human obedience!

“Nevertheless I must walk today, and tomorrow, and the

day following, for it cannot be that a prophet perish OUT

of Jerusalem.” “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the

prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how

often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen

doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!”

(Luke 13:34). After all, Jerusalem is the guilty place. Let

the Idumean king say and do what he will, it is Jerusalem

that is guilty; for Jerusalem was nearest to Himself. And

the nearer I am to God, if I reject Him, the worse is the

rejection, and the more dreadful the judgment, because it

is the place of love. Look at Psalm 132, “e Lord hath

chosen Zion, he hath desired it for his habitation,” etc., and

at the end of Psalm 78 it is the same election of Zion from

verses 65-68. “But chose the tribe of Judah, the Mount

Zion which he loved.” And in Psalm 87, “What is Rahab

On the Gospel of Luke

305

and Babylon?” I am not ashamed of Zion to compete with

them. But Christ does not put the sin upon them until they

have rejected both Him and His Father.

But before bringing out this purpose of grace, God

dealt all through with man on the ground of responsibility,

and the last eort He made was in sending His Son. e

g-tree yielded nothing — responsibility was fully put to

the test, when the soil itself was found to be bad. I have

tried the chosen portion, says God, and nd the whole

thing so worthless that nothing can be done with it. It is as

though one had taken the sand of the sea and found it so

impregnated with salt that nothing could be done with it;

and, the more digging and pruning that was given to it, the

more bad fruit it produced. And we all are no better than

the Jews were, for we were, by nature, children of wrath

even as others. What! condemn everybody? Yes, to be sure,

but then I condemn myself! Man’s “carnal mind is enmity

against God” (Rom. 8:7). And the more pains God has

taken, it has only brought out the more hatred. e old

man is condemned, and the gospel begins with seeking and

saving that which was lost. “Can the Ethiopian change his

skin, or the leopard his spots?” (Jer. 13:32). And do we not

nd the truth of all this in ourselves?

But notice how the divine person of the Lord comes

out here, “O! Jerusalem, Jerusalem…how often would I

have gathered … and ye would not!” (Luke 13:34). Now a

prophet could not say this. ough Christ was a prophet, it

is true, still He was more than a prophet. He was Jehovah;

for none but Jehovah could gather Israel. As it is said, “He

that scattered Israel will gather him” (Jer. 31:10). Israel had

rejected Jehovah, when under responsibility; but Jehovah

will own them when He comes in grace. e church will go

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

306

up to heaven, and the kingdom will be set up on the earth.

And mark how the deity of our blessed Lord shines out

again and again in the Gospels, while at the same moment

the humanity remained so perfect. And here I would say

a word or two as to the way of bringing this blessed fact

out. For surely the circumstances through which the Lord

passed in His path down here did bring out in a far brighter

way WHO HE WAS, than any text that could be adduced

to prove it. Not that I would set aside any text, but suppose

you believed there was a God as a truth; if He were to come

down by your very side and say, Here I AM, would not

that be a very dierent thing? And though Christ was the

humbled Man all through His path here (for He was ever

the servant of all), yet when the service was of no use, then it

was that God shone out. “Before Abraham was, I AM.” See

Luke 13:33-34. e moment He said, I must die, since you

reject Me, immediately Jehovah shone out. “O! Jerusalem,

Jerusalem…how often would I have gathered thee” — and

who could gather ISRAEL but Jehovah Himself? but “ye

would not,” therefore “your house is left unto you desolate

until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that

cometh in the name of the Lord” (Luke 13:35).

e complaint in the Psalms is, that there is none to

say, “How long?” — none to count upon the faithfulness of

Jehovah to His people. (See Psa. 74) e expression, “How

long?” is often used in the Psalms, and in Isaiah 6 it refers

to chastening, and not retribution. How long is Israel to

stumble or fall? (Rom. 11). In Isaiah 6 the prophet having

uttered those words, “Make the heart of this people fat,”

etc., taken up by the Lord in John 12, the prophet then says,

“How long?” He was in the faith of God and reckoning

upon God, and having God’s mind, he cannot believe that

On the Gospel of Luke

307

God will give them up, and therefore asks, “how long” the

chastening is to continue. To which the Lord God answers,

“ere shall be a great forsaking in the midst of the land,

but yet in it there shall be a tenth…so the holy seed shall

be the substance thereof” (Isa. 6:12-13). e sap is still

there, though there be no leaves.

So in Psalm 118:18, “Jehovah hath chastened me sore,

but he hath not given me over unto death.” In the same way,

the Lord does not say, Your house is left unto you desolate,

and therefore you shall not see me again. No, but He says,

“Ye shall not see me, until ye shall say, Blessed is he that

cometh in the name of Jehovah.” He can give as Jehovah, in

grace, the answer, and when He gives repentance to Israel,

then He will send Jesus — whom, until then, the heavens

have received — and then our connection with Him comes

in. e prophets spoke only of earthly things, though

divine; but to the church it is “Holy brethren, partakers

of the heavenly calling!” (Heb. 13:1). You hath He made

to sit together with Him in the heavenly places, and that

gives security. How did I get in there? By virtue of Christ;

He is my title and is He not a good title? My desires are

to be acquainted with this, that I am one with Christ in

heaven. And these are my desires in fact, and that is what

the Holy Spirit seals upon my soul, and we get it as our

everlasting portion. When Israel is brought to repentance,

then “the stone which the builders rejected will be the head

of the corner,” and owned of them. ey will say, “Oh give

thanks unto Jehovah, for his mercy endureth forever.” Alas,

they will receive another rst! But when their hearts are

turned and grace works, then they will use the language of

Psalm 119, and nd the expression of the law within their

hearts, and when faith is thus exercised, and their hearts

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

308

are broken and open to receive Him, then He Himself will

come to them. If there is not a prophet to say, “How long?”

then Jehovah Himself will give the answer.

And though applied to Israel here, yet we may learn

what the Lord is, for He never changes, and though He

executes judgment in righteousness, grace is found in

His heart for faith to lay hold of. “When the Son of man

cometh shall he nd faith on the earth? “Well, if there be

not faith to be found, or a prophet to be found, there is

One who will lay up in His treasures something for faith to

lay hold of in the sovereignty of His grace. We see Jehovah

in that humble one, that Nazarene, and see how He is able

to rise above all iniquity; and thus to see Jehovah shining

out through it all, how precious He becomes to us! at we

are one with Him should endear Him to our hearts, and in

learning Him may He give us to follow Him.

On the Gospel According to John

309

62900

On the Gospel According to

John

ere is a general remark as to John’s Gospel which will

astonish some perhaps; that, except in three cases, John has

nothing to do with heaven. In these alone you have heaven.

“What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where

he was before?” (John 6:62). “I go to prepare a place for

you” (John 14:2), and “ose whom thou hast given me

be with me where I am,” in chapters 6, 14 and 17; and

in these it is only thrown out in a way. John’s Gospel is

really the manifestation of God to men down here in the

person of Christ, and the coming of the Holy Spirit, with

the declaration of Christ’s coming again. I merely indicate

the character of the Gospel in saying so: you do not get

any ascension either at the end of it. Let me rst give you

a summary of it.

In John 1 you get Christ’s person, and incarnation and

work, or rather, perhaps, what He does than His work. All

His essential names are there, not His relative ones. You do

not get Him as Head of the church, or as High Priest, nor

as the Christ, which are His relationships; for He is not

revealed as Christ in verse 41.

In John 2, having His title as Son of man at the close of

the rst, we hear of His millennial work in the marriage,

and the clearing of the temple, up to the end of verse 22.

Verses 23 and 24 are connected with John 3, where we see

8 Notes of remarks made partly in reply to questions at a

conference.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

310

not only Christ’s total rejection by man, but the setting

aside of the natural man, the new birth and the cross.

ese three chapters are before His entry on His public

ministry. We know this, because John was not yet cast into

prison, and from the other Gospels we learn it was after

John was cast into prison, that He went out into His public

ministry. In John 4 He leaves Judaea, the place of promise,

of the temple, and all that, and sets aside Jerusalem and

Samaria, bringing the gift of God down to the earth in

grace. He sets up spiritual worship, and the old thing is set

aside altogether. en, in Galilee, He brings the power of

life to man where he is, and heals the nobleman’s son. In

John 5 He is the quickening Son of God along with the

Father, and the judging Son of man alone. He is Son of

God in judging too. In John 6, He is the humbled Son of

man incarnate and dying, and the food of the saints while

He is away.

In John 7 the Holy Spirit is substituted for His

manifestation to the world. Of course it is only the main

idea I am giving you now. In John 8 His word is rejected.

In John 9 His work is rejected. In John 10 He has His

sheep in spite of all. In John 11 being rejected and having

His sheep, God bears testimony to Him as Son of God

in the power of resurrection. In John 12 He is owned by

spiritual intelligence as the dying one (which comes in

most beautifully in a little parenthesis), and then as Son of

David, King of Israel, and Son of man; you get the three

here, Son of God, Son of David, and Son of man. In John

13 He still remains the servant. As He cannot remain with

His disciples here, He abides a servant, though gone to

God, to t them to be with Him there. At the end you

have the last supper, and Judas, and then the cross, but in

On the Gospel According to John

311

the character of His glorifying God there. In John 14 He

is telling them that He would come again to receive them,

and He gives them what would be their comfort, while He

was away; having revealed the Father in His own person,

and then they in Him and He in them, known by them

through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

In John 15 He is Himself the true vine on the earth,

Israel is not; and He sends the Comforter to reveal His

heavenly glory while His disciples bear witness, through

the Comforter, of what He had been on earth. In John 16

we have the action of the Comforter on earth towards the

world and in the church; they were to ask in His name

which they had not done yet. In John 17 to the end of

verse 23 He puts them completely into His own place on

earth toward the Father, and towards the world, He being

gloried; and in the last verses He wills that they should

be brought into the same place with Him in heaven. In

John 18 you begin the last history of Gethsemane, and so

on. In John 19 remark that you have no human suering,

but divine power in it all; they scourge Him and you get

all the facts about it, not that He did not suer, but it is

not that part that is brought out: people fall back to the

ground instead of His sweating great drops of blood; you

have the divine side, I mean. In John 20 you have the whole

condition of believers from the rst revelation of the fact of

His resurrection and ascension until the remnant believe by

seeing. In John 21 you get Christ ministerially represented

as come again in the millennial times and the services of

Peter and John until then, Peter to be cut o, but John to go

on. It is the beginning of the millennium and of the history

of Peter and John in the interval from Christ’s death. Paul’s

ministry is not found there. Now let us go back.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

312

In the very outset Christ came to the world, and the

world knew him not, and He came to His own and His

own received Him not; consequently the Jews are treated

as reprobates; but He has come from the Father into the

world. It is what some might call a Calvinistic gospel;

consequently it shows the sovereign grace which leads

anybody to receive Christ or own Him at all. ey are born

of God, not of the will of man. erefore, too, He has His

sheep; and this characterizes the Gospel.

e truth is entirely abstract in the rst ve verses

except ve words. e Gospel itself begins before Genesis.

In Genesis you have the responsible creation; but here “In

the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God,” a very distinct statement of the

eternity of Christ. ere is the being of the Word, He is the

Word, the Logos, the expression of God’s mind, for Word

is both — it is what we were speaking of once before as the

intelligent and the intelligible. Christ is the expression, and

the Logos too, because He is God. When the expression

only is meant it is rheema, not logos. But logos takes up

what the mind is as having a thought, or it expresses the

mind. All the wisdom of God is in Christ, He is it, and

besides He is the expression of it. en you get another

thing, and that is, personal distinction — “the Word was

with God” — something in a personal sense distinct. And

then “the Word was God,” and that is the nature. It is very

full, though brief.

John 1:2 meets what was a common diculty that He

only became into personal distinctness when God began to

act. Of course it is a mere notion, but it is met here: “e

same was in the beginning with God.” en in verse 3, I

come to the beginning of Genesis. “All things were made

On the Gospel According to John

313

by him; and without him was not any thing made that was

made.” He is Creator as to things outside Himself. And

then I get what is inside Himself, “in him was life.” Very

full all this, as to the divine person and glory of the Lord.

And another thing, “and the life was the light of men”

(John 1:4). God is light in His nature, but here is specic

appropriation in the second person.

It is in form too a reciprocal expression. Wisdom always

had man in its thoughts; the angels come into creation, but

the life was the light of men, and therefore He became a

man.

en I get the judgment of the world, and of “his own,”

“the light shineth in darkness” — a thing impossible in

nature, for if the light there shone in darkness, there would

be no darkness for it to shine in. e judgment of the

world is the consequence, for “the darkness comprehended

it not.” “e light shineth in darkness” is abstract too; He

does not say “shone.”

en comes another truth of immense import. “ere

was a man sent from God,” that is, God took pains with

men to bring them to apprehend this light. He sends this

messenger to draw people’s attention; “the same came for

a witness to bear witness of the light, that all men through

him might believe” (John 1:7). All to no purpose it might

be, but still there was the painstaking of God. “He was not

that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light.” Here

we get this name of light (we have nothing of love yet),

the purest thing we have any idea of, and which manifests

everything else. It is light that makes all things manifest;

but it is a thing too which is perfect purity. at is the

true light which, on coming into the world, lights every

man. It was not a mere Jewish thing: we have got far away

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

314

out of that now, but it comes into the world; it is not a

question of promises here, but of nature and counsels. God

in His counsels had to say to men, and light comes into the

world; He was in the world, and the world was made by

Him, and the world knew Him not. Man had not the sense

to see that the person who made him was in the world,

and its light. And He came to the Jews, and they would

not receive Him either. So there was the judgment of

everything. You have got the world, and its pitch-darkness;

and the Jews — His own — will not have Him: “there is

none that understandeth” or “that seeketh after God.”

(Rom. 3:11). Job 38:1-7 refers to the same: only that these

very singers were created too; so that Job does not go quite

so wide. John 1:3 is before the beginning of Genesis when

you think of the angels.

We have got what Christ was, abstractly, and the result

was that nobody received Him. ey had no understanding,

and no will; and now, consequently, we get grace working,

“but as many as received Him, to them gave He power

become children of God.” It is not merely that they got

light and blessing, but He gave them a place, “children of

God,” “born, not of blood, nor of the will of the esh, nor

the will of man, but of God.” I have the action of grace,

and, where the action of grace is, they do receive Him.

If we are to distinguish the phrases in verse 13, “of

esh,” is the nature more; “of man” is the being; “esh” is the

characteristic, “man” is general. “Not of blood.” A Jew was

born of blood and thought himself a son of the kingdom;

but it was not of the will of the esh either — Gentile, if

you please. is closes on God’s part what He was; and it

9 Authority to take that place which the saints had not before.

On the Gospel According to John

315

closes on man’s part too; and then there is the grace that

comes in.

Now the Word is looked at as become esh. In verse 14

a new part commences. Before, it was what He was; now,

what He became (what He began to be). e Word became

esh and dwelt among us; it was a real thing, not like God

visiting Abraham; but He dwelt among us, tabernacled

there “and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only

begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, and of his

fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.” His own

incarnate character and our connection with it. e part

about John the Baptist comes in, in the middle. But there

is the statement, “the Word was made esh”; and then you

get the aspect He had. We beheld His glory, not of the

Son as such, but as of an only-begotten with a Father. He

had all the title of that excellency and value in everything.

All that that was to the Father was with Him. It is His

personal glory made visible in esh. When He was made

esh, we get a witness of John (vs. 15), just as before, saying,

“is was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is

preferred before me, for he was before me.”

e dierence between only-begotten (monogenees) and

rst-born (prototokos), is that the rst is His relationship

to God eternally; the second is His relationship to other

things. us, “I will make him my rst-born, higher than

the kings of the earth,” in Psalm 89:27: is is not what

He is essentially. He was light — the revealer of the Father.

“Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not

known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the

Father.” “e light shineth in darkness” is real, and it is by

incarnation; but John is not taking it up in an historical

way, only the fact of light and life. “e law was given by

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

316

Moses, but grace and truth,” he does not say were given,

but “came by Jesus Christ” — they were in His person.

He was the truth. e truth never was in the world

till then. Bits of truth there were; prophecy was true, and

people tell the truth to one another; but the truth was only

now. Christ alone is the truth. e truth itself had never

come. e law is not the truth; it is not its object. e law

tells me what I ought to be; truth tells a fact that is. e law

never told anything about truth, but gave a perfect rule, and

showed what man ought to be — “ou shalt not do this

and that.” I might draw conclusions from it and say, I am

not this or that; whereas, Christ was this and that; He was

God and was man, a holy being, and love itself; and all that

man without sin was; and the eect was, that He showed

not what things ought to be, but what they were. is

world is all very ne, but it is the mere tool and instrument

of the devil. Christ tells the truth about everything, evil

and good alike — just as light manifests everything; and,

more, grace came by Him too; and I know not only what

I am, but what God is, and, whatever I am, He is grace to

me. Of course Christ had to die to t us to be with God,

but as regards testimony, everything is told out by Christ’s

coming — what we are, what God is, what the devil is, and

what the world is, and everything. e light shines in it,

that is Christ’s nature; and then he comes down to the fact,

that the “darkness comprehended it not” (John 1:5). at

is the moral statement as to it.

As to the force of the use of the names “God” and “Father”

in the Gospel of John, and pretty much in his Epistle, as

a general rule, when you speak of our responsibility or the

nature of things, you get “God.” But when the ways of grace

are unfolded, you get the Father and the Son; there are

On the Gospel According to John

317

certain exceptions which only conrm it. “God so loved the

world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever

believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting

life” (John 3:16). It was essential to put “God” in there,

because it was as God He did it. “e Father sent the Son

to be Savior of the world” (1 John 4:17). “And this is life

eternal that they might know thee, the only true God, and

Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3). “No man

hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is

in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” at is a

most blessed sentence; though the word “love” is not there,

it is the perfection of it. We cannot know God by seeing

Him; but the only-begotten Son, in whom is concentrated

all the Father’s delight, and who is in the bosom of the

Father, hath declared Him. e Son comes and declares

the Father as He knows Him in His bosom, just as the

Father enjoys the Son as the object of His delight and love.

If I were to tell you what my father was in his love, I should

tell you what he was to me; and Christ comes and tells us

all this Himself, and therefore He could say, “He hath that

seen me hath seen the Father.” In another sense He came

forth from the Father and came into the world.

ere never was a time when the Son was so dear to

the Father as on the cross. “erefore doth my Father love

me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again”

(John 10:17). at is, if you look at Him as a Son with His

Father. If you take Him as actually suering being made

sin, He could as such have no joy in God. He was forsaken

in His soul of God. at is quite true, if you are looking at

judicial action in respect of sin. He could not then have any

enjoyment of communion with God. e principal part of

the cross was the interruption of the communion, but the

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

318

complacency of the Father in the Son was never so great.

It is a misapprehension of relationships which has made

confusion here. My father is a man; but suppose I were to

go and say to him “my man, so-and-so,” it would deny the

relationship between us; but if he says to me “my boy,” it is

very natural, because it is the expression of the relationship.

You will never get the value of such things by putting them

into a cut-and-dry form. Suppose I were to try to act the

son to somebody, I should in that case slip out something

all wrong as sure as possible. If the judge were my father,

and I go into court, there I should say to him, “my lord”;

but this would not be to deny him as my father.

Verse 18 is the revelation of the Father in the world,

and it is striking, if we compare it with John’s rst epistle.

In that he says, “No man hath seen God at any time; if

we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is

perfected in us!” (1 John 4:12). We know that by the Holy

Spirit. Here the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of

the Father He hath declared Him.

But I think that very often there is defect among

Christians as to relationship, and their apprehension of

it; that is, they do not live in the present consciousness of

it; they come even in worship in a certain sense through

Christ — no man ever came in any other way — but there

is not the sense of what the Lord means when He says

the “Father himself loveth you” (John 16:27). ere is no

consciousness of that; it is rather persons outside, conscious

they can get in. Of course they never could get in but by

Christ.

en comes John’s mission, preparing the way before

Him. He says, “I baptize you with water, but there standeth

one among you whom ye know not; he it is who coming

On the Gospel According to John

319

after me is preferred before me.” John gives the divine

person of Christ and bears testimony to Him. So that we

now have had three things: the abstract nature of Christ;

then Christ incarnate; then as the revealer of the Father.

And we have John’s testimony to these; and He who was

divine and incarnate, and the revealer of the Father, dwelt

among us “full of grace and truth.”

en in John 1:29 we come to His work. He is “the

Lamb of God,” and He “baptizes with the Holy Ghost”

(John 1:33). ose are the two parts of His work; He is not

only a Lamb, who takes away the sin of the world, but He

gathers a peculiar people by the Holy Spirit too. You notice

it is not “taketh away the sins,” nor “has taken” away the

sin; you never get either. Often people say Christ has taken

away original sin and so on; here it simply says He is the

doer of it. It points Him out as such. He is in every sense

God’s Lamb, He is of God and suited to God, and the eect

of the work of this Lamb is the removal of all sin totally

out of the world, away from God’s sight; He takes it clean

away. e rst Adam was set up an innocent man; but the

moment he became a sinful man, all that God did and does

now as to the world He does in respect of sin. If He judges,

it is for sins; if He forgives and shows grace it refers to sin,

whatever He does in government must have reference to

that. ere is sin, and God must act in respect of it now;

when the new heavens come and the new earth, wherein

dwelleth righteousness, then the ground of relationship

between God and the world will be righteousness instead

of sin, or indeed instead of innocence either. It is based

upon accomplished redemption which never can lose

its value, and therefore the ground of relationship is

immutable in the nature of things. And that ground is

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

320

already laid, though the thing itself has not yet come. We

have justication and peace and reconciliation. is is

however only one particular part of the result; in the new

heavens and new earth the whole result will be completely

fullled. e result is not produced in manifestation at all

as yet.

us John 1:29 has no reference to time. Christ is the

taker away of sin. It is just the same as in Hebrews 2, “He

that sanctieth, and they who are sanctied, are all of one.”

It is not there that they are going to be sanctied, or that

they have been sanctied, but simply those are the people.

us we have His work as the Lamb of God, and the

next thing is John bearing record, saying, “I saw the Spirit

descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.”

And then follows the great fact that, besides accomplishing

redemption, He is the baptizer with the Holy Spirit. e

rst thing is, He is the one who takes sin clean out of the

world, and then His work being accomplished brings the

redeemed into the full blessing of sons. He rst, note, takes

His place among men and receives the Holy Spirit before

He becomes the giver of it to others. And He is marked as

Son of God in that place. It is a beautiful expression of the

way in which Christ found Himself among us. And then

heaven was opened the moment He took His place with

the remnant and was baptized — the Holy Spirit comes

down on Him, and the Father says, at is My Son.

It was the Son that created in Hebrews 1 and in

Colossians 1; and as to being Son in the eternal state, He

says, “I came forth from the Father, and am come into the

world”; again, “I leave the world and go to the Father”;

and you have no Father if you have no Son. If I do not

know Him as Son when He came into the world, I have

On the Gospel According to John

321

no mission from God at all. And you get too the Father

sent the Son.

“Son of the Father” and “Son of God” are the same

essentially, only one is personal relationship, the other

nature. But there are persons who take it that Christ was

only Son as come into the world. e positive answer is

given to this in Hebrews and Colossians, that by Him, the

Son, the world was made. He is also called Son as born into

this world. ere is “is day have I begotten thee” (Psa.

2:7). at is not quite the same thing, though the same

person, of course. He was begotten in time, which is true as

to His human estate.

But Hebrews and Colossians are conclusive. It is of

immense import, because I have not the Father’s love

sending the Son out of heaven, if I have not Him as Son

before born into the world. e Son gives up the kingdom

to the Father in 1 Corinthians 15. I lose all that the Son is,

if He is only so as incarnate, and you have lost all the love

of the Father in sending the Son as well. “I have declared

unto them thy name and will declare it,” will declare it is

now. He did it on earth, and does still, and I believe will

do it to all eternity if you take the general statement of

Scripture.

In Acts 13 you will nd Paul, after speaking of other

things, says in verse 33, “God hath raised up Jesus” (not

“again”; which ought not to be there), and so in Acts 3:26,

“God having raised up his Servant Jesus” (not Son; Peter

never states that Jesus is the Son of God); so in John 13,

“he hath raised him up,” as it is written in Psalm 2:7, “ou

art my Son, this day have I begotten thee”; and then he

goes on to prove resurrection by quoting another text: “I

will give you the sure mercies of David” (Acts 13:34). e

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

322

sureness of them is the proof they were in resurrection not

dependent on failing man, and then by resurrection He

was declared to be the Son of God with power.

en in John 1:35-36 you get again, “e next day after

John stood and two of his disciples, and looking upon Jesus

as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God.” In this

we have not John’s public ministry that had not produced

the eect; but the going out of his own heart at the sight of

the Lamb of God.” And the two disciples heard him speak,

and they followed Jesus.” And then Christ — which to me

is most important — Christ accepts the being a center. He

“saith unto them, What seek ye? “ey said unto Him,

“Where dwellest thou?” “He saith unto them, Come and

see.” Christ becomes a center.

Again in John 1:43 Christ says to Philip, “Follow me”;

and this intimates another thing to me, which is, the only

right path through the world where there is no path and

nothing right. We are accustomed to think we have a way

to trace; but a way to trace proves the world is in ruin and

nothing right with us. If a man is in a right place, he has no

way to nd out; but if I am in a wrong place, there is no right

way there. Suppose my son scampers o away from me to

Brazil, there is no right way for him until he comes back;

for all he is doing does but carry on his error of being away

from his father. In Eden and in heaven there is no way to

nd. If I have got to nd a way, it is because I am in a wrong

place; but here I nd Christ is the way, and Christ is the

center, and He accepts it too. e days are numbered from

verse 34 when the gathering of the godly remnant around

Jesus begins. First through John the Baptist’s ministry, and

the day following Jesus Himself gathers; and this takes up

all the time right on to the remnant at the end represented

On the Gospel According to John

323

by Nathanael, a remnant then and a remnant to the end.

Philip found Nathanael and said unto him,” We have

found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets,

did write, Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph.” ere is the

greatest prejudice in Nathanael, but there is uprightness.

“Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?” “Come

and see.” Nathanael asks, “Whence knowest thou me?”

“Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the

g tree; I saw thee.” Nathanael answers, “Rabbi, thou art

the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel.” is is the

confession of Psalm 2; that is Christ’s Jewish place. Jesus

answered and said, “Because I said unto thee, I saw thee

under the g tree, believest thou? ou shalt see greater

things than these.” And He said unto him, “Verily, verily,

I say unto you, ou shalt see heaven open, and the angels

of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.”

is is Psalm 8. I get Nathanael as a remnant owning

Christ in His place there, and then comes “Ye shall see

greater things than these” — ye shall see all creation — the

angels — subject to the Son of man. “Under the g tree”

was really the Jew, and God knew him there. e g tree is

symbolic of Judaism. at gives us the whole, the abstract

nature of Christ, His incarnation, His work, gathering

others, and calling by John the Baptist and by Christ; then

the owning of Him as in Psalm 2, and nally His place in

Psalm 8.

en in John 2 you get the third day. John’s ministry is

one day, Christ’s ministry is a second day, and then “the

third day” in John 2 is the millennium, the marriage, and

water of purication of the Jews. All among the Jews.

us John 1: 35 is the rst day. e third day is when

the remnant is all called in. You get no church here at all.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

324

John the Baptist’s ministry was preparatory; then Christ

gathers by His own ministry, and gathers to the kingdom,

and revealing of the Son of man; and then the millennium.

It is in Psalm 2 we hear of Christ set King of Zion; then

the trials of the remnant, and in Psalm 8 everything is

put under Him. Here it is the highest creature that is put

under Him. When I get Him Son of man, He is Lord of

all. ere is nothing of the church, unless it would be in

baptizing with the Holy Spirit.

e marriage in John 2 is all a picture of millennial joy.

e time of the second day would have commenced when

the Lord was on earth, and it will be resumed again; but it

is in abeyance now. What was to go on till the destruction

of Jerusalem you get in Matthew 10:10 the end of verse

15. e baptism of the Holy Spirit was at Pentecost. ere

will be a latter rain when the Holy Spirit will come down,

though you do not get exactly a baptism of the Holy Spirit

in the millennium.

John 3 is immensely important; for you get in it

a complete judgment of human nature, the absolute

testimony to what man is, but the bringing in of the

complete grace that meets it too. e last three verses of

John 2 belong really to John 3; and there you get that men

could believe in Christ in a certain kind of way, and yet it

is good for nothing. It was not insincerity, nor is it so now,

often; but it is a human conviction there justly drawn from

His miracles now. at has arisen perhaps from education

or human causes, but it was all in man and of man. e

moment other motives and stronger came before them,

they cry out, “Crucify him.”

In Nicodemus we nd a want that is something more

than that. e moment a want is thus felt, there is a

On the Gospel According to John

325

consciousness that the world will be against you; and so

he goes by night. ere is a real want in his soul. He goes

to Christ and follows up the impression. What the Holy

Spirit produces is always a want, though the want is met.

Nicodemus owns Christ to be a teacher that comes from

God; but he did not know that the old nature was good

for nothing, and that he must be born again. us it is the

Lord meets him: “I am not going to teach esh: you must

have a new nature; the old cannot be taught at all, except

outwardly, and this is worthless.” e special case for a Jew

is that he could not enter the earthly kingdom, except he

were born again. erefore the Lord says, “Marvel not that

I said unto you, Ye must be born again.”

en you come to the principle of sovereign grace, “the

wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound

thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh nor whither it

goeth; so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.” is can

reach a Gentile; and that is grace. Do not be astonished

that I say, you Jews must be born again, esh is but esh,

and then the Holy Spirit goes where it lists. e Spirit of

God goes where He pleases; God is sovereign.

Nicodemus ought to have known it from the Old

Testament prophecies, say Ezekiel 36 at was for the

Jews, and in the millennium they must be born again, and

they must be so even to get into the kingdom on earth.

But the moment you get the cross, the whole thing is

carried farther; if you look at it, you will see the Lord’s own

statement. e water of Ezekiel refers not to baptism, but

to the word of God exclusively. Baptism refers to it; and so

here. Puseyites and others refer these words to sacraments,

but it is the word. Baptism may be its symbol; the symbol

refers to the truth, of course. It is not that such words

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

326

misplace the symbol; people do that; but the symbol is one

way of teaching the truth. You have a similar thing in John

6: we must eat the esh and drink the blood of the Son

of man, or else we have no life in us. People apply that to

the Lord’s supper, and there we have a symbol again; for

it is a symbolic statement of these truths; and we have the

written statement of them too in the word; and both these

refer to death, Christ’s death, and that brought home to us

when you come to look into them.

It does not say in terms, you cannot enter heaven except

you are born again, though it would be perfectly true; but

you cannot enter the kingdom of God. ese chapters and

the sacraments refer to the same thing, but these chapters

do not refer to the sacraments.

en the Lord says, “we speak that we do know, and

testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.”

In John 3:32 John says the same thing, “and what he hath

seen and heard, that he testieth; and no man receiveth his

testimony.” If you get man as man in the presence of Christ

Himself telling these heavenly things, man’s heart will not

have one of them. A man would have nothing to do with

them; if you were to put a natural man in heaven, he would

get out as fast as ever he could, he would not nd a single

thing there that he likes.

We have had the rejection of the Lord’s testimony, and

also the fact that an entirely new nature is brought in, “that

which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” e cross must be

there, but it goes on to the millennium on the earth, and

there you must get men born again to have part in the

kingdom.

“Again” means “anew, completely, from the beginning,”

not a modication of the old thing. In Luke 1:3 it is “from

On the Gospel According to John

327

the very rst.” It is the same word. I know many think the

new birth is an action of the Holy Spirit on man as he is,

especially where there are no decided views of truth; as if

the Spirit of God found a man, body, soul, and spirit, in

a bad state, and then put him, body, soul, and spirit, in a

good state. But the testimony as brought here is received

of nobody: “wherefore, when I came, was there no man?

when I called, was there none to answer” (Isa. 50:2); that is

the condition, and then what is done is that they are born

of God. en we come to the second great truth, the Lord

comes revealing things from heaven, and also doing that

which was needed to take us up there. We see the two sides

of the cross, the Son of man must be lifted up (and that

carries a great deal with it), and then the source of it is that

“God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten

Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,

but have everlasting life.” is same person comes on man’s

behalf, and on God’s side God gave Him. On the one side,

it is Son of man; and on the other side, it is Son of God.

en the lifting up of the Son of man you will see in two

connections, as the rejected of man, and as “made sin.” A

living Messiah is for the Jews according to promise, but He

must be lifted up, rejected by the world, cast out of it, and

made sin before He could draw all men.

But God gave His only-begotten Son, and that brings

everything to a test. He was not sent to judge, but save,

and he that believeth not is judged already because he has

not believed. “And this is the judgment that light is come

into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light

because their deeds are evil.” He came into the world to

die, and verses 16-17 refer to Him as the lifted-up Son

of man. I should not say in the same absolute way now,

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

328

that God loves the world. God was in Christ reconciling

the world to Himself. But this has not stopped His grace,

but laid the ground for the testimony of it in the whole

creation under heaven by His ambassadors. I suppose it is

the characteristic of God, and no time is in the statement.

Still there is the accepted time and the day of salvation,

though that depends on resurrection. It is in full view of

the cross that the Lord said, “God so loved the world.”

God is now beseeching men to be reconciled, He is acting

on that ground now. He gave His Son, and that is done and

nished; but it is on that He is now acting.

e casting away of the Jews did put the world in a

dierent position before God; and the cross put the world

in a dierent position of responsibility as to grace and the

saint as delivered from it. “And I, if I be lifted up from

the earth, will draw all men unto me” (John 12:32). e

cross gave a righteous outlet to God’s love. e strongest

scripture as to this change is, “for if the casting away of

them,” the Jews, “be the reconciling of the world” (Rom

11:15).

We get a very distinct character given to Christ’s

testimony, and one that made a total breach with the world;

“he that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the

earth is earthy, and speaketh of the earth,” that is John the

Baptist’s testimony; the setting up of the kingdom on earth

has its place and character, but all that is gone now, and it

is the setting up of the kingdom of heaven. “He that hath

received his [Christ’s] testimony hath set to his seal that

God is true.” at is the true reception of the word.

It may be John the Baptist’s testimony to the end of

verse 32, and John the Evangelist’s in verse 33. ere may

be some doubt about it. e last verse certainly looks like

On the Gospel According to John

329

John the Evangelist’s line of things more than John the

Baptist’s.

e force of “the wrath of God abideth on him” (John

3:36) is that he has deserved it; and that if he rejects Christ,

he lies under it still. But we must not forget that this wrath

applies to all sins and uncleanness, not merely to unbelief:

“for which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the

children of disobedience” (Col. 3:6). In this last verse of

the chapter “the wrath of God abideth” if they do not bow

to Christ’s authority; it is not, disobey Him in the details

of precept, or anything of that sort; the “believeth not”

means “is not subject to” Him. In “He that believeth not

is judged already,” it takes him as not believing. If he has

been inattentive, it is not condemnation that he cannot

escape from as yet. John is not speaking about attention

or inattention, but about not believing or being subject to

Christ.

What is so striking is the entire setting aside of man.

e Son of God comes with His testimony, and nobody

receives it. God sent His Son that the world through Him

might be saved, and that is what the world will not receive.

In a sense the object of the gospel now is that men through

Him may be saved, though it is also to gather out a people.

It is a dierent thing — God’s mind and the absolute state

of things. You read in 1 Timothy 2:4, “Who will have all

men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the

truth”; it is not “will” in the sense of purpose and desire,

but it is good will as to His own nature and love. It is the

character of God, not His purpose; and the two are very

distinct, what God is, and the way He deals. But there is

the activity of His love, “As though God did beseech you

by us” (2 Cor. 5:20); and, as one result of that, even the

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

330

condemnation becomes more terrible if the riches of His

goodness are despised, “not knowing that the goodness of

God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and

impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against

the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment

of God” (Rom. 2:4-5); that increases the condemnation.

When grace had been oered to man and rejected, man

was set aside, and a new thing altogether brought in. And

so in John 4, Christ being set aside by the Jews, He leaves

Judea and goes to Galilee. In John 4:4, “He must needs go

through Samaria,” and then follows the character of His

ministry. Wearied with His journey He sits on the well.

A woman comes to draw water, and He says to her, “If

thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto

thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him,

and he would have given thee living water” (John 4:10).

If you did but know that God was giving, and had come

down so low as to ask a drink of water of you, if you but

knew that, who it is, and in what character He has come

down, you would have asked and He would have given,

and what He would have given would have been in you a

well of water springing up into everlasting life. en you

nd all that is to no purpose directly, and the way the Lord

gets at the woman is by her conscience; and understanding

comes in by conscience. She is a poor wretched soul, but

a very interesting woman, and a great deal going on in

her heart though a vile creature. It is a beautiful picture,

wonderfully distinct and denite, of how the Lord deals

with her heart. e woman is astonished that He has

anything to say to her, and the disciples that he had to

say to a woman. But the Lord’s action towards her is very

distinct, getting intelligence in by the conscience. “Go, call

On the Gospel According to John

331

thy husband and come hither.” “I have no husband.” “ou

hast had ve husbands, and he whom thou now hast is

not thy husband.” “Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.”

She had got totally alone through her restless search for

happiness and willful ways, she does not go to the well

at the time when the women usually went to draw water;

she was tired of her life, for she says, “at I thirst not,

neither come hither to draw” (John 4:15). e Lord was

weary too in His lonely path of grace, and more isolated

than she, and sat at the well, and the woman was weary and

utterly isolated by sin, but her conscience is reached, and

note here the eect. She recognizes the word of God that

had reached her, its authority not merely the truth of what

was said: “I perceive that thou art a prophet”; and then the

Lord points out to her that God must be worshipped in

spirit because He is a Spirit, and that the Father seeketh

worshippers in spirit and in truth. His nature required it,

His grace sought it. She says she knows that, when Messias

comes, He will tell us all things. But He replies, You have

got Him already. Where the heart has been visited really,

there Christ has already come. en you see the eect; she

is entirely delivered from care; she leaves her water-pot and

goes after other people. “He that reapeth receiveth wages,

and gathereth fruit unto life eternal.” We do not get the

kingdom here exactly, though it was here I have no doubt.

e “needs,” in John 4:4, is a material one. e straight

way was through Samaria; the Jews went that way generally,

though they did not stop at Samaria on the way. I would

not say it was on purpose to meet this woman, though

God’s purpose that He should. e sixth hour was our

noon — at least so I have always reckoned it here. At the

end of the chapter we see the character of the ministry of

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

332

Christ in anticipating death, symbolical of the death that

was coming on Israel. In point of fact, He had to make him

alive: “Come down ere my child die,” said the man.

e Samaritans were a mixed people. After Israel was

carried captive, the king of Assyria sent people to live in

the land who did not fear the Lord; and the Lord sent

lions and slew some of them. So one of the priests was sent

back to teach them the manner of the God of the land,

and then when Nehemiah came back, Sanballat and these

people wanted to join him, and he would not let them.

Mount Gerizim was the place where Joshua pronounced

the blessings, and so they said that would be the proper

place for worship, and a temple was built at Gerizim by

them. e high priest’s daughter was married to a prince of

these people; and they built a temple for themselves.

As to the temple in the millennium, there is a square in

the midst of the land, and the city is one side of the square,

and the temple is on the other. e portion allotted to the

temple seems to be separated from Jerusalem by some

distance.

In John 3 Christ takes them out of esh; and in John

4 He tells what worship is outside of esh. In John 5 we

get the great principle of life, but He does not begin with

life. ere is instruction connected with it that carries us

farther in it as to the character of sin when He comes to

the doctrine that men are dead. A man lay at Bethesda,

where there were some remains of Jewish blessing. Jehovah

had said, “I am Jehovah that healeth thee” (Ex. 15:26); and

the Jehovah that healeth was yet there. In the case of this

man, the means were there; but the disease he had had

taken away the power of using the means; the eect of

sin is to make us incapable of using the means aorded

On the Gospel According to John

333

to esh under the old covenant. To use the pool, he must

have the power to get in, and it was just what the disease

he had to be healed of had taken away, and such even if

willing, as this man was, is man’s state under the law. e

Lord brings power with Him. e Jews reproach Him

when the man is healed, with breaking the sabbath, and

then He gives that beautiful answer (“Father” being the

name of grace), “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work”

(John 5:17). God could not have His rest where sin and

misery are. e law tested man and said, “Do your duty

and enjoy my sabbath of rest here below”; but the fact was,

they did not do the duty; they were all sinners, and, instead

of there being the rest of God, the Father works and the

Son works, and brings in divine life where sin and death

are; but in this world as such one can have no rest. God at

least can have none.

I do not believe a word of what they say about leaving

out verse 4 of this chapter. ese learned Germans leave

anything out. It is just the same with the opening of John 8.

You get Augustine in the fourth century, saying some had

left that out because it was contrary to morality; and the

same language is used by others. In one of the manuscripts

of the old Latin translation it was there, and they have

deliberately torn in out. But some men take this and that

out without the least moral discernment; it is very easy to

take it out so, but how did it get in? what should people

have put it in for? In other places, as in Acts 8:37, you can

account for it in the plainest way. ere was a reason for

putting in this verse. As for the manuscripts, if not versed

in them it is very easy to be entirely misled about them.

L is almost always the same as B, and so L is no good as

a separate witness. e manuscript E omits the verse, and

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

334

the corrector has put it in again. ese people did not like

the angels, and so they left them out. After all the only

question is whether an angel did it — God did it, anyway.

en you have “My Father worketh hitherto, and I

work” (John 5:17). e Lord often did miracles on the

sabbath day, taking pains as it were to upset it. You do

not nd any one institution in the wilderness to which

the sabbath is not added. You nd the sabbath brought

in wherever there was some new expression of God’s will

and ways, as obligatory; while you never have the sabbath

mentioned in connection with Christ’s working in the New

Testament, except to cast a slur upon it; it was a sign of the

old covenant and the dispensation was passing away. Now

the Lord’s day is a testimony to resurrection, the essential

basis of the new creation for man; the sabbath of the rest

of God for man on the earth; while in connection with that

rest it serves to give man a day’s rest as of God and it will

be fullled in the millennium: whatever man has a title to

in purpose and peace Christ takes the right of it and will

make it good. en when you come to the typical import

of it, the seventh day was type or sign of the earth’s rest,

and the Lord’s day of heavenly rest. e Lord by His action

shows that a power was come in that was paramount to

law. It is strikingly signicant that Christ lay in His grave

on the sabbath day.

Adam takes no share in the sabbath before he fell; he

never entered into it according to Hebrews. e Lord took

up esh and its responsibilities, and without slighting what

God instituted, man having failed, He died out from under

the whole. is is the thing that made such a hubbub in

Scotland — this sabbath question. A well-known minister

said he found Moses dead and threw him out of the pulpit.

On the Gospel According to John

335

I say no man has died in Christ away from under the law,

which has power over a man as long as he lives. I believe

it is a very bad sign indeed if a man slights the Lord’s day.

God has given you a day free to use for Him, and you make

light of it or turn it to mere pleasure. I ask, what use do you

make of it, for yourself or for Him? It is all connected with

the question, Is the law the thing we are still under? It is

perfectly true that the Christian by love fullls the law, but

if I have to do with the law as such, I have not died to sin;

because the law has power over a man so long as he lives.

I remember one, a most blessed man too, who would not

wash his hands on the Lord’s day; he was acting up to the

light he had, I do not doubt.

e “greater works than these, that ye may marvel,” are

His raising the dead, and many works that He did; He

raised Lazarus when he was stinking. ey all knew that if

the Lord had been there Lazarus would not have died, but

He did not go purposely before his death; raising him was

more than healing.

Now in the doctrine that follows, Christ does not take

up mere weakness, but He goes on to death. We are dead

in sin, and He says, “As the Father raiseth up the dead and

quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he

will”; and judgment too is committed to the Son alone,

“that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor

the Father.” Both Father and Son quicken, but judgment

against the wicked is committed by the Father to the Son

because He is the Son of man. e Father chastens: that is

another thing.

I get these two ways in which the Son is honored,

quickened souls own Him, and the wicked must, for they

are judged by Him. ere is no confounding of the two

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

336

things, or rather destroying the certain truth of the rst by

bringing it into question in the second; by bringing all up

into a common judgment, as if the thing was not settled

already; but you have the two ways through which the

Son is honored. en the heart will ask: which place am

I in? “He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him

that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into

judgment [“condemnation” is not the same word], but is

passed from death unto life” I see in that verse the whole

system of Romans and Ephesians brought out. He that is

under the quickening power will not come into judgment,

that is Romans; but, not merely his responsibility is met, he

is passed from death unto life and gone over into the new

creation; that is Ephesians.

As I said, when you come to the doctrine He goes on

beyond the case of the paralytic. Doctrinally, a man is dead

in sins, and by grace passes out of death into life, and does

not go into judgment at all, so as to raise any question as

to his acceptance; though he gives an account of himself.

e bringing all men into judgment upsets all the truth of

Scripture about it, because saints are raised in glory. What

an odd thing it is to talk about raising a man in glory, and

then judging him! It is upsetting the whole of grace right

on to the glory. en people say it is done only to declare

a man just. But he is declared just already; all that believe

are justied from all things, and glorifying declares him

just, surely. Take for example; there is Paul who has been

these eighteen hundred years in heaven, and you are going

to take him out and judge him as to whether he is t to go

there! It is striking folly.

e Son quickeneth whom He will, but when you come

to the end of the chapter, you get the responsible side. You

On the Gospel According to John

337

have the testimony of John the Baptist, the testimony of

My Father, the testimony of My works, and the testimony

of your own scriptures (where you think you have eternal

life) which testify of Me, and yet you will not come unto

Me that you might have life. I have four witnesses that

there is eternal life here for you, and you will not have it.

It was the rejection of the One in whom life was present

from God.

Now as to responsibility; power is not the question at

all. If my will were right, there would soon be power from

God. Here is my child tied under the table by the leg, and

I say to him, “Come with me”; and he says, “I won’t.” I say,

“You must”; but he will not, and I go to og him. But then

he says, “I was tied by the leg to the table”; but I say, “that

makes no dierence, I have a knife to cut the cord, for you

would not come. It is the will that is the diculty. I have

lent ten thousand pounds to a man; he comes and tells me

he is not responsible to me for his debt, for he has not a

penny left — all is squandered. He has no power to pay but

that does not destroy my claim.

In John 6 we see a beautiful picture of the Son of man in

lowliness. In John 5 we have the Jewish means of healing,

and here follows the Jewish passover, for which His own

sacrice is substituted. He shows Himself as Jehovah in

Psalm 132:15, “I will satisfy her poor with bread,” He

shows that here, and they own Him for a prophet, and

then they are going to take Him by force and make Him

a king. at gives two of Christ’s titles. But He will not

be king in this carnal way, and goes up into the mountain,

and takes the place of priest. Here is Christ, who would

not be king, was a prophet, and intercedes on high, His

people toiling below. en you get Christ, the food of His

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

338

people now while He is away, in a double character; He is

the bread that came down from heaven — the incarnation;

they reject that, and then He goes farther and says, you

must eat the esh of the Son of man and drink His blood.

ey say, “How can this man give us his esh to eat?” I

get the revelation that, if you do not take a dead Christ,

you cannot enjoy a living one come down from heaven.

You cannot enjoy Christ as bread come down from heaven,

unless you come in by atonement. You must come in as

a mere sinner, or else you cannot take Him to eat for the

maintenance and food of life.

John 6:57 says the living Father had sent Him, and He

lived on account of the Father, so we live by reason of Him

by eating Him. We have the two things, it is eating both

for reception of and for maintenance of life. I remember

a person once saying he ate Christ once for all, but it is

not so here. In verses 54-56 you have in the Greek, the

present participle for “eating,” in the others the aorist tense.

I come in by Christ’s death, eat His esh and drink His

blood — that is eating to have life; but I go on eating Him

after, though my life is the consequence of eating. Verse 56,

“dwelleth in me and in I him,” goes farther than the rst

statement.

“I will raise him up at the last day” shows perpetual

security on into another world. “I bring in death, as the

true way and you must come in by death; you cannot have

the old thing; nor can you have a living Christ to be your

Savior, it is only by death, and then it will be in resurrection,

that you get the blessing”; and then you get the statement

that it goes right on to the end, and then when the present

period is closed “I will have them all up in resurrection.”

On the Gospel According to John

339

ere is a distinction between the eatings. It is the

aorist tense in verse 51, and in verse 53, “have eaten,” which

having no present participle, borrows another word in the

next verses, 54, 56, 57 and 58; the rst (aorist) is the one act

eating for life, and the other is now eating for maintenance

of life. “e last day” is the last of this period when Christ

comes of course. Really this is not a dispensation. e Jews

had a “this world” and “a world to come,” “this age” and an

“age to come.” Messiah was to bring in the “age to come.”

e age of the law went on and Messiah did come, but they

would not have Him, and the whole thing stopped; then

comes the church between that and His second coming;

and this is why I said this is not strictly a dispensation, but

when Messiah comes again, it will close this time, and then

will be the last day of this age.

e times of the Gentiles in Daniel, and the parenthesis

of the church, are not at all contemporaneous; for the times

of the Gentiles began in Babylon, being the times of the

four Gentiles beasts in Daniel. e times of the Gentiles

will not end at the same time with the church, but go on a

little after we are caught up. e temple of Jehovah on earth

was set aside when the people were carried to Babylon, and

they never got the ark again, but a remnant of them was

spared to present to them Messiah.

I know what a person means by “the dispensation of the

kingdom of heaven,” but we belong to a heavenly thing in

an interval, and there are no dispensations in heaven. e

kingdom of heaven is a dispensation, the dispensation of

the gospel is an administration. e “I live by the Father”

in verse 57 is the sense of dependence: (dia with a genitive

is the instrument); with the accusative as this is, it is the

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

340

reason. It is not “by,” “through,” or “for the sake of”; but by

“reason of,” “on account of,” is right.

We have had that Christ was a prophet, and was not

King, and had taken a place on high. He had left the

disciples, and while absent they toiled against the sea, and

when He rejoined them, they were at the land. He was

their food, and in our coming to Him we must come by

eating His esh and drinking His blood; and then we saw

that it was completed in resurrection, “I will raise him up

at the last day.” You have proof there that it cannot be the

Lord’s supper, for whosoever eats Christ will live forever, be

raised at the last day according to the life he has received.

e aorist, in verses 51 and 53, “has eaten,” is the thing

done; where it is “eats,” the participle is used, verses 54, 56,

57 and 58. I am an eater of Christ, I go on eating, I feed

on Him. It is rst feeding on His death, and then feeding

on Him continually. is shows what poor Romanists do

in transubstantiation; they deny the whole truth in their

doctrine of concomitancy. If the blood be in the body, it

is no atonement at all, and therefore you eat the esh and

drink the blood separately. eirs is a sacrament of non-

redemption, instead of a sacrament of redemption.

It was not “old corn” here. It is the Father sending the

Son to be the Savior. In the end of Galatians 2 it is faith

on Him in heaven, it is not a question of eating there. I

prefer “on him” to “in him,” because it is on Him as an

object there. “e faith of Christ” is simply that He is the

object. “Have faith in God” in Mark 11:22 is in Greek “the

faith of God”; that is, has God for its object. What is in

Galatians is this, I am dead, and then I get two things,

“nevertheless I live,” and “I live by the faith of the Son of

God.” But whenever I have Christ as life in me, it is by

On the Gospel According to John

341

faith of Christ as an object; He is my life and makes me

live on Him, my eye rests on Him and I live by that. “By

faith of Jesus Christ,” in Romans 3:22 is the faith which is

characterized by that name, so to speak, and the owning of

what is in Him.

John 6 refers to communion and feeding. en the

Lord adds “the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit,

and they are life,” the mere carnal eating is nothing. Flesh

prots nothing — I am speaking in a spiritual sense, that

is, not literal — a guard against that, though we eat Him

as incarnate. Flesh may take it up in a way, and then it

becomes a mere awakening of a sentiment or feeling, just

as the daughters of Jerusalem wept for Him at seeing a

man carried o to the cross, but there is no conscience in

that. But when I go to Him and am cleansed by Him, this

is a dierent thing.

I must “have eaten” in the rst instance; verses 51

and 53 are aorists as I was saying; and in some cases of

exhortation. It is “He that has eaten”; in verse 53; “Except

ye have eaten,” etc., and in verse 57; “So he that eateth

me [goes on eating] shall live on account of me.” In verse

54 the real force of it is, “the eater of my esh and the

drinker of my blood.” In the Jewish services the passover

in the beginning of the chapter would answer to this. And

“Christ our passover was sacriced for us.”

It is striking how the Jews are always viewed as rejected,

and uniformly oppose Him in this Gospel. Nor does He

say a word to make His words intelligible to them. And the

disciples many of them went away, and the branches of the

vine were broken o. ese were simply professors. us a

man might be a disciple without being quickened, so far as

following after Him goes.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

342

e great thing is death rst. “Herein is love, not that we

loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the

propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10), and when I come

to talk of feeding on Christ, I must rst feed on His death.

e Lord’s supper is a symbol of the same truth of which

this chapter speaks; but these words are positively untrue

of the Lord’s supper. I would not connect the eating of the

Supper with this chapter at all, but with the Christ who is

spoken of in this chapter. e Supper and the chapter refer

to the same thing, but not to one another. is chapter

is the word of God about it, and the Lord’s supper is the

symbol of the same.

In Luke 24, I doubt not, it is the Lord’s supper; not

actually sitting down for that purpose, but they sat down to

a meal, and the Lord took the bread and brake it. e “did

eat” in John 6:58 is the aorist tense; “not as your fathers did

eat,” because they were not eating it now; and He adds, “he

that eateth [or the eater — present participle] of this bread

shall live forever.”

en He asks, “Doth this oend you, What and if ye

shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before,”

You have in this chapter the incarnation, the death, and

then the ascension suggested, but you do not get the

resurrection referred to here. An incarnate and dead Christ

are looked at as food of life. Death and resurrection is not

the point of view in John; but simply departing out of this

world to the Father.

I do not know what is the best reading of verse 69, as I

trouble myself little about readings, unless there is something

positive in them. Tischendorf’s English Testament gives

the English text all thrown into doubt, adding readings

from three manuscripts for people to decide which is

On the Gospel According to John

343

which, as if they could. e eect on my mind was very

unsatisfactory. It is very dicult for people to enter into the

merits of these manuscripts. ese gentlemen turn up their

noses at Alexandrian when they get others on their side;

but the Syriac is older still, and it is said more often agrees

with Alexandrian. As for leading people to any conclusion

by quoting letters, it is no guide whatever unless to those

who know the place and character of the various texts. e

Alexandrian is of two distinct families in the Gospels and

Epistles; and it is perfectly impossible for ninety-nine out

of a hundred to know anything about them. Tregelles is

very accurate and diligent, but he is one-sided so that you

cannot trust him. As for any truth, whether “Son of the

living God” be there or not, it makes little dierence; no

particular truth, I mean, is involved in it here.

To return, many of the disciples go back, but Peter had

the consciousness of Christ’s person; whatever the degree

of his knowledge, he had what held him fast when other

people went away, though he knew no better than they did

what the eating and drinking was. You cannot take a lower

condition of faith than this expresses: “thou hast the words

of eternal life, to whom shall we go?” “But Peter had got

the person in whom the life was. In point of fact, the less

the confession, the more strong would be the instruction

of the passage. If I had got hold of Christ at all, I had

got what was not to be shaken. Peter was negatively kept;

“there is nowhere else to go but to you”; after all it is a

great thing to say so; simple souls are often kept when

wiseacres fall. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them,

and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and

they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them

out of my hand” (John 10:27-28). But “a stranger will they

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

344

not follow, but will ee from him, for they know not the

voice of strangers.” It is just like a child; a stranger may

come, kindness itself, but it is not the voice of its mother;

it will not do.

Quickening is the power of the Spirit by the word, of

course. e omasites take up verse 63, and say it is in the

“word” the Spirit is; and Campbellites too. One of them

told me they were just as much begotten of Paul, as they

were of the Holy Spirit, because they were begotten of him

by the gospel. But I get the personality of the Holy Spirit in

Scripture very clearly; He wills, distributes, is sent, comes,

speaks, works, and so on; and this is somebody.

e business of the Old Testament is to reveal the unity

of the Godhead; the business of the New Testament is to

reveal the Trinity; and therefore, though you have got at

the beginning “the Spirit of God moved on the face of

the waters” (Gen. 1:2) and elsewhere, it is not so clear in

the Old Testament; there is no personal coming. As to

the word “person,” use what word may be best, but the

testimony of scripture is plain enough that what we mean

by a person is said both of the Father and of the Son and

of the Holy Spirit.

I do not think the remnant will see anything like so

clearly as we do. ey will be an earthly people, not a

heavenly; they will never get the place we have. But you see

we never say a prayer without the Trinity (Eph. 2:18). As

far as the remnant take up promise and prophecy as to the

church in the then past, they will see it is all over and gone.

ey will look for Christ, and the strongest expression of

their intelligence that I know of is, “Let thy hand be upon

the man of thy right hand, upon the Son of man whom

thou madest strong for thyself,” Psalm 80:17. ey will say,

On the Gospel According to John

345

“Here is forgiveness, but the people are all gone that it was

for; and I do not know whether it is for me.”

e Spirit of God will not be conned to the remnant,

for there will be the everlasting gospel. But the thing now is,

the Holy Spirit being come it is the rstfruits that we have

got, and we become a kind of rstfruits of His creatures,

and that is sanctication to God in a special manner, but it

will not be the case with the remnant. And so now we get

a far fuller insight into the heavenly things than they will

then. God has reserved some better thing for us, than even

for the Old Testament saints.

In John 7 comes the feast of tabernacles, and the Spirit

instead of it. Of the feast of tabernacles there has been no

fulllment at all. None had then been fullled, but we had

the passover in the last chapter and the truth connected

with it; but the tabernacles Christ could not then have to

say to, and He substitutes the gift of the Holy Spirit for

the revelation of Christ to the world. at is the grand

truth that is in this chapter. e tabernacles came after the

harvest and vintage (that is, the double judgment of God)

is fullled, the separative judgment and the execution of

vengeance. Pentecost and passover are over. We have the

fulllment of them in Christ’s sacrice and Pentecost;

but at the tabernacles they dwelt in booths, as a sign that

they had been strangers, but are so no more. His brethren

say to Him, “go and show thyself to the world,” but He

says, “I do not go to this feast: your time is always ready.”

And, having gone up as it were secretly, on the last day,

the eighth day — it was only this feast that had an eighth

day to it — He then “stood and cried, saying, If any man

thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.” He could not

show Himself to the world, for His time was not yet come,

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

346

but He does go up in the middle of the feast, though He

could take no part in it; but instead of that, there was this

eighth day — not one of the seven days of the complete

feast — and on it He speaks of the “Spirit, which they that

believe on him should receive” (John 7:39). He could not

show Himself in the glory then.

e word “yet” in verse 6 is right, but in verse 8 it is

doubtful the rst time it is used. When you say, “I go not up,”

it is dierent from “I go not yet.” He did go up afterward.

e time referred to in verse 6 is the millennium. I believe

the Virgin Mary had a family afterward, but “brethren” is

used in a large way including relatives.

Christ cannot show Himself to the world, but says, If

any man thirst for himself — wants to drink for himself; it

is not looking for gifts for others, but if any man is thirsty,

let him come unto Me and drink. If he ll his own soul in

the power of the Holy Spirit from Christ, out of his belly

shall ow rivers of living water.

We had a passover in John 2; in John 5 it was not one of

the great feasts. I do not know what feast it was. But now

the feasts give a distinctive character to everything.

e aspect of the Holy Spirit in John 4 is communion,

as in John 3 life giving; in John 4 springing up into

everlasting life and communion; and here, in John 7, it

ows out to others, but I get a drink for myself rst. In John

20 it is the power of life in resurrection. It is not sending

it from heaven, but just as God breathed into Adam’s

nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul,

so Christ breathes into His disciples the breath of life. It

is an immense advance on the Old Testament, but here in

John 7 the waters ow forth again from them; it is far more

than they had in the wilderness. ere they “drank of that

On the Gospel According to John

347

spiritual rock that followed” (1 Cor. 10:4). Here the rivers

ow forth from them. is John 7 is immensely important,

but not so objective, and therefore simpler.

He could not show Himself, for the feast of Tabernacles

will be kept in the millennium, and His time was not yet

come. But the seventh day completed the week of the

feast properly speaking, and as when Christ rose it was the

beginning of a wholly new state, the eighth day was the

rst day of another week, the beginning of another world

for man. e seven days are the gure of the millennium,

the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles; the rst of the

seven was a holy convocation. Only here Christ does not

show Himself to the world for the seven days, but at the

last He announces the gift of the Holy Spirit to connect

us with Himself in heaven. It will be an immense relief to

see the world delivered from evil, no doubt; but what you

get here is for the meanwhile the Holy Spirit till Christ

returns.

Just a word or two back. In verse 17, “If any man will

do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be

of God, or whether I speak of myself.” e rst “will” is

emphatic — if he wills to do it; if he wills, he shall know if

the word is right. ere is a dierence between the people

and the Jews. e people in verse 20 ask, “Who goeth about

to kill thee?” But in verse 25, “en said some of them of

Jerusalem, Is not this he, whom they seek to kill? “He had

gone to Galilee to the poor of the ock, and they did not

understand that any were going about to kill Him; but the

Jews from Jerusalem knew very well; and the controversy

between them and Christ constantly comes out in John.

All Christ’s work was in Galilee except a very occasional

thing, the beginning of Matthew tells you so; but in John

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

348

it is nearly all in Jerusalem bringing out His controversy

with the Jews. It is very striking that in Matthew in the

end of John 4 you get all Christ’s ministry in about four

verses. “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their

synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and

healing all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease

among the people, and his fame went throughout all Syria;

and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken

with divers diseases and torments, and those which were

possessed with demons, and those which were lunatic,

those that had the palsy, and he healed them; and there

followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and

from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and

from beyond Jordan” (John 7:23-25); three verses; and then

He goes on to tell them in John 5-7 what kind of people

were t for the kingdom. e rest unfolds His person and

dispensational ministry as come among the Jews and what

took its place.

In the close of the chapter, John 7, poor Nicodemus

shows himself, and says a word for Christ, just what he

dared. en in John 8, with other things, you will nd His

word rejected. Instead of the millennium we have had the

Holy Spirit given; the Bread of life had before come down

from heaven; and now it is the word in John 8. ey bring

Him a woman taken in adultery.

e rst verse of John 8 should go with John 7. e

divisions are of no authority at all. e chapters had been

arranged, and verses put in the New Testament in 1551.

e rst divisions were in 1200 and something for the

New Testament. Stephens was the rst to issue the text so

divided. ere were Dutch printers who in 1624 published

an emendation of Stephens, calling it the text received by

On the Gospel According to John

349

all, and then people got afraid to change anything. Here

and there a word was taken from Beza, but at large the text

was from Stephens. In the Apocalypse Erasmus had but

one manuscript, and that mingled up with a commentary.

Stephens had some thirteen second-rate manuscripts.

Erasmus employed a man to cull out the text from the

commentary. e last verse he translated into Greek from

the Vulgate. We have now a hundred manuscripts of the

Apocalypse, with ve uncial ones; but the rst translations

having been all made from the one text, we may say that

of Stephens, it looks now as if we were changing what we

were all used to. is narrative in John 8 was left out where

it was found avowedly for the sake of morality, and this was

so stated near as early as we have any copy at all.

e Lord here takes up the law in this way; they bring

the letter of it to Him that He may condemn the woman.

ey thought they had a great advantage against the Lord,

for by the law He must say, “Stone her”; but if so, then

He was no Savior; and if He said, “You must not stone

her,” then clearly He had broken the law. Really in them it

was no respect for the law, nor compassion for the woman

either; but the Lord takes it up and says: Quite right, e

law condemns, but I must apply it to all of you: whosoever

“is without sin among you, let him rst cast a stone at her.”

And the oldest went out rst, because he had the most

character to save. So the Lord gives the law all its power,

and the woman is spared too. “Hath no man condemned

thee?” “No man, Lord.” “Neither do I condemn thee; go

and sin no more.” e law is not set aside, for if you give it

its proper authority, all are condemned together; and that

is just where we all are, all gone in the light of the law

for Christ to come in. Like a man attempting to conduct

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

350

a business; I say to him, You ought to do so-and-so; but

he replies, “What is the good of telling me that? for my

money is gone already.” We have got debts and no capital,

counsels for righteousness are of no avail; and what are we

to do? en the Lord says, “I am the light of life.” “I am the

light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in

darkness, but shall have the light of life.” at is not the law

which was death, righteous death to everybody, but it is the

person of Christ who is the light of the world, “and the life

was the light of men.” e writing on the ground was just

giving them time for conscience to work.

You have no forgiveness of sins in this gospel unless

administrative forgiveness by man. I think this is

characteristic. Christ does not here forgive or condemn.

It is characteristic, for instead of that He is in constant

conict with these Jews in respect of who He was.

And now follows that which declares this testimony:

“I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that

sent me beareth witness of me.” And so He taught in the

temple, but “no man laid hands on him, for his hour was

not yet come.” He tells them, “If ye believe not that I am

he, ye shall die in your sins.” “He that sent me is true, and I

speak to the world those things which I have heard of him.”

Some of them believed on Him, and He says to them, “If

ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed,

and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you

free.” ey say they are Abraham’s seed; but if you commit

sin, you are the slaves of sin. “If the Son therefore shall

make you free, ye shall be free indeed. I know that ye are

Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word

hath no place in you.” is shows that being under law

and being under sin are tantamount. e Jews — people

On the Gospel According to John

351

under law — are slaves of sin. e slave does not abide in

the house always, but the Son abides ever and He could

make free.

ere is a mistranslation in verse 25. It should be “Who

art thou? Altogether that which I said unto you.” It is His

word still. It is the same in verses 32 and 36: the word sets

free. But it is the living Son’s act. e passage is important

to show how the word and the living person go together.

It is not “from the beginning” in verse 25; it is “altogether

what I also say to you.” at is true of every honest man

in a certain sense; it is not “from the beginning,” but in

principle or absolutely. e word that Christ spake was the

absolute expression of what He was. I am what I speak,

that is the thought expressed.

en the truth sets free and the Son sets free. ere may

be this much dierence, that you do not connect grace so

much with the word as with the Son. When I say the truth,

I think of God as coming and judging everything in men

by the revelation of truth by the word, bringing what is

good and divine by that word. When I say the Son I speak

of living power and authority working in love. It does not

appear that it was divine faith the Jews had who believed

on Him; but it might be in some.

en comes another principle; our Lord says, “Why do

ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear

my word” (John 8:43). ey did not understand what He

said because they did not take in His thought. In human

things you must understand the language, the technical

terms, before you understand the thing; but in divine

things you must understand the propositions in order to

understand the words. If I say, “Ye must be born again,” the

words do not give an understanding of what it is. Until I

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

352

know the liberty of Christ, until I have the thing in freedom,

no words make my understand what “free” really is. Christ

has to say to them, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the

lusts of your father ye will do; he was a murderer from the

beginning, and abode not in the truth because there is no

truth in him; when he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his

own, for he is a liar and the father of it. And because I tell

you the truth, ye believe me not. Which of you convinceth

me of sin; and if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?

He that is of God, heareth God’s words” (John 8:44-47).

And in verse 51 He says, “If a man keep my saying, he shall

never see death.” e Lord’s words expressed Himself, and

these words are the Father’s testimony to Him, and they

would not have him. Later on He says “Believe me…or

else believe me for the very works’ sake.”

en they drive Him to say that He is God Himself.

It is the day of His glory, I have no doubt in verse 56. But

now, instead of executing judgment on His enemies, He

allowed Himself to be executed to save sinners. Abraham

in a gure may have seen that day in Isaac. And then He

says, “Before Abraham was, I am” — He is God. People

may quibble now and again, but the Jews understood it

very well, and took up stones to stone Him for it, but He

passed away. is is His word rejected.

In John 9 it is Christ’s work. “And as Jesus passed by, he

saw a man which was blind from his birth; and his disciples

asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man or his

parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither

hath this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of

God should be made manifest in him.” It is not the word

now, but the works. I suppose they thought Exosus 34

was being carried out in the man because his parents had

On the Gospel According to John

353

sinned; though that had been abrogated in Jeremiah and

Ezekiel really, and it became, “the soul that sinneth, it shall

die” (Eze. 18:20), that is, the death of the person himself

who had sinned. It is not spiritual death either; it has done

a great deal of mischief, using that as spiritual death, it was

temporal only. God’s governmental dealings with the Jews.

e word “soul,” though often used for living person

simply, as it is in English yet, in the Old Testament is for

soul contrasted with the body. Still “life and incorruptibility

are brought to light by the gospel.” Life was intimated in

a way, “ou will not leave my soul in hell [hades], neither

wilt thou suer thine Holy One to see corruption” (Psa.

16:10). Suering and disease are the common lot of a poor

world, lying in sin and ruin; though they may be special

chastisement. But the Lord displays His grace to the man.

He spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle; you get

what comes from the earth, and what comes from Christ’s

person. e Lord typied in this clay that the only eect of

His presence was, that, if it were possible to make a blind

man more blind, it did. e man was blind already, just

as the Jews were; but the eect of the presence of Christ

was to make them more blind still. Only He goes to the

pool of Siloam which is by interpretation “sent”; and the

moment anyone saw Him as the sent One of God, they

got their sight. You have got Christ there present as a Man

before the eyes of the people, and that is not giving them

sight at all, but the contrary; but the moment the word in

the power of the Spirit of God opened their eyes, it was

healing and sight at once.

You have a very distinct principle here, as to the way of

the operation of divine grace. When the man is questioned,

he says, “Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not; one

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

354

thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see.” And

that is the only way of knowing that is worth anything,

while the external knowledge of Christ is only double

blindness. But the moment there is the power of the Spirit

of God giving the knowledge of Christ as the sent One of

God, you get eyes then, spiritual eyes of course. e Jews do

what they can to confound the man; they bring his parents

who are afraid to say a word of who did it, because “if any

man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out

of the synagogue”; but the only thing their testimony is

worth anything for is, that he was their son, and was born

blind — just what the Pharisees did not want. And then

the man begins to reason with them, that He has opened

my eyes, and you cannot tell whence He is. Himself the

subject of divine power He knew it was such. “Oh,” say

they, “but he does not keep the sabbath,” and there was a

division among them. en they tell the man, “ou wast

altogether born in sins,” the very thing he was not; it was

their blindness that said so.

And now Christ has got a sheep, and He goes before

him. e man had said that He was a prophet, and when

he was cast out and Jesus found him, He asks him, “Dost

thou believe on the Son of God,” and he said, “Who is he,

Lord, that I might believe on him?” e word of Christ

had already power in his soul, and this leads him directly

to the knowledge of Himself as Son of God, as with the

Samaritan the reception of the word is really, though only

implicitly, the reception of Christ. “And Jesus said unto

him, ou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh

with thee.” e man gets to know Him as Son of God, and

he worships Him; and then Christ has got His sheep with

Him. e sign in itself had no eect on the Jews though

On the Gospel According to John

355

the sign was there; there was power in the word spoken

which gives the knowledge of the sent One. e clay on

his eyes was Christ, and the Jews had the clay, but nothing

else morally. e pool, morally, is the word of God in the

power of the Spirit of God, and thus Christ known as sent

of God.

How these poor Pharisees are baed! We see again,

wherever Christ has visited the soul bringing the word of

God, He is owned a prophet; and when the soul owns the

prophet, the word of God presents Christ as the Son, and

you have the Son too. You cannot separate the word from

the person of Christ. If we receive what He says, we receive

Himself. We have done with that history now. We have the

Lord, His word, and His works rejected, and now therefore

He says, “No matter what the opposition, I will have my

sheep,” and the porter opens the door.

John 9:39 shows the blindness of their judgment, and

that looked at as to the eect the Lord came to judge.

“When he putteth forth his own sheep”; the blind man was

one of them. “I am the door of the sheep.” “I am the good

shepherd.” John 10:14-15 reads, “I am the good shepherd,

and I know my sheep and am known of mine, as the Father

knoweth me and I know the Father,” that is, “As the Father

knows me and I know the Father, so I know my sheep and

am known of them.” He puts His sheep and Himself in

the place which He and the Father had been in relatively.

e relationship between Himself and the sheep was the

same as between Himself and the Father. It is a beautiful

expression of Christ in connection with the sheep. He is

taking them out of the Jewish fold. You get Christ from

the time of His lowest subjection to the will of the Father

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

356

entering by the door until He says, I am one with the

Father.

e “porter” signies the power of God by the Spirit of

God opening the door to Christ, in spite of the Pharisees

and everybody else who would shut Him out. ey would

have shut Him out if they could, but they could not succeed,

and the sheep hear His voice. ere had been thieves and

robbers who had set up to be Christ before, but “he that

cometh in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.”

e door is made for people to come in at, and Christ

did not climb over the wall, but came in by the door.

Whatever had been appointed to Him, He came in by that,

a lowly man. en we read He “leadeth them out,” that is a

new thing; He is taking them out from Judaism. And then

He is the door, the appointed way.

“And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth

before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know

his voice” (John 10:4). It has often been noticed that this

is one of the most familiar images in the world, because

they never drive sheep except in England, and perhaps in

Ireland, but go before them, and the ock follows. And “a

stranger will they not follow, but will ee from him, for

they know not the voice of strangers” (John 10:5).

“I am the door of the sheep” (John 10:7). As He came

in by God’s appointed way, He is God’s appointed way for

everybody else, and so He is the door. “By me, if any man

enter in, he shall be saved” — now He is not taking them

out — “and shall go in and out, and nd pasture.” What you

call, folds are hardly intelligible here; there were wild beasts

there, and the fold was many feet high, that animals should

not jump over. Now He takes His sheep out of Judaism,

and they are saved, and they are free, and they nd pasture;

On the Gospel According to John

357

before they were neither safe nor free, nor had they pasture.

But if a soul go in by Christ, he gets salvation, liberty, and

food. If I am entering, and they say, Where are you going?

I do not know, but I am sure it is all right if Christ is the

door; like Abraham going forth, not knowing whither he

went; it is all right if Christ leads. Further, our safety comes

from the personal care of the shepherd, and not from the

prison of a fold. With Christ, we have salvation, liberty and

pasture.

en “the thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill,

and to destroy; I am come that they might have life, and

that they might have it more abundantly.” He was going to

give it them in all the power of resurrection and ascension.

at was the Good Shepherd that gives His life for His

sheep. I do not think the object here is so much atonement

as devotedness, when He speaks of laying down His life for

the sheep, though atonement of course was in laying down

His life. At any cost the sheep must be kept. e hireling

eeth and the wolf catcheth and scattereth the sheep.

ere is an important word there to notice: “catcheth” is

the same word as in verse 28 is rendered “pluck.” e wolf

can lay hold of them so as to scatter them in this world,

but he cannot lay hold of them so as to pluck them out of

Christ’s hand.

John 10:15 involves atonement, but it is especially the

devotedness with which Christ loves His sheep. e “again”

in verse 17 is not connected with “much more…by his life”

in Romans 5:10. at is the life that comes after death;

here it is the life He lays down in death, and so lives again.

e “other sheep” are Gentiles which are not of this

fold. “em also I must bring and they shall hear my

voice, and there shall be one ock, and one shepherd.” It

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

358

was ecclesiastical feeling put in “one fold,” because they

understood not one ock. “erefore doth my Father love

me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it up again”

(John 10:8). To me that is a most astonishing testimony to

the person of Christ. We love God because He rst loved

us; but here I nd one that would give a motive to the

Father for loving Him; it is not merely that the Father is

pleased to delight in Him, as in us. We cannot give motives

to the Father to love us, but Christ could. In that sense

of the word the Father was debtor to Christ for all His

own glory. It is the burnt-oering character of Christ in

sacrice. What is tantamount to the meat-oering is found

in “No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself.

I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it

again.” At the same time the Lord absolutely refuses to go

out of the place of obedience, as He says later, “at the

world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father

gave me commandment, even so I do.” He was a divine

Person who could give a motive to His Father for loving

Him; and at the same time He was a man that was doing

all in obedience.

John 10:24. “en came the Jews round about him, and

said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? if

thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I

told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my

Father’s name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe

not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.”

Here again you have the distinct election principle of John

“because ye are not of my sheep.” I do not know why it

is said here “it was winter,” except because it was another

occasion. e verse shows He had gone up for that feast as

He never stayed in Jerusalem.

On the Gospel According to John

359

As to the “more abundantly” of verse 10 it is not only

that they should have life as every believer from Adam had

life, but the liberty that redemption brought them into, and

life in resurrection power and character. Of old, they had

diered nothing from a servant, though lords of all.

You never nd the Lord saying He is the Christ, except

to the woman of Samaria, “I that speak unto thee am he”

(John 4:26), and that was to a person who had no right

to Christ. He delights to call Himself Son of man. We

learn from this that He knew He was come to give His

life a ransom for many, and so could not speak of Himself

as the Christ. e Gospels are really the history of His

rejection. In Samaria it was out of the way to do it, in one

sense, because salvation is of the Jews. “My sheep hear my

voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give

unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither

shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father,

which gave them me, is greater than all, and no man is

able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my

Father are one.” You get this principle of election; then

the character of the elected, they “hear my voice”; what

He does for them — gives them eternal life; and then they

will not perish, that is, inwardly so to speak; and no man

plucks them out of His hand: no inward perishing, and no

outward force can destroy.

en He takes the low place, My Father gave them,

and He keeps. And then you come to His glory, “I and my

Father are one.” e Jews felt that and took up stones to

stone Him. And you see He does not reason with the Jews

to convince them, but to silence them. “Is it not written in

your law, I said, Ye are gods?” In the Pentateuch “then his

master shall bring him unto the judges” is Elohim, that is,

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

360

to God, so that this is literally true in its very letter — “if he

called them gods, unto whom the word of God came (and

the scripture cannot be broken)…say ye of him, whom

the Father hath sanctied, and sent into the world, ou

blasphemest, because I said, I am the Son of God?” (John

10:35-36). And He left them.

In John 5-7, you have Christ revealed and bringing in

what grace is, in John 8 and 9 you have the rejection of His

word and of His work, but in chapter 10 He will have His

sheep and that closes the whole thing. John 1, 2, and 3 are

before His public ministry, what you may call introductory.

John 4 is a transitional scene. John 5 is the Son of God;

John 6 is the crucied Son of man; John 7 the giving of the

Holy Spirit instead of the glory. And now what we get is

the testimony borne to Christ by God in all His characters.

God would not allow Him to be rejected, without giving

Him a full testimony to what He is. en there is the

episode of a heart that owned Him in His rejection and

death, and His character of Son of David and Son of man;

that is in John 12.

John 11 is what He is as Son of God, a testimony to

Him as the perfectly obedient One as servant, but still the

Son of God with power while death is allowed to come in.

at is the character of it here. He was the rejected One,

then death is allowed to come in, and He is manifested as

having power over all that Satan and death can do; and

this shows that He is Son of God. erefore He says: “is

sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that

the Son of God might be gloried thereby.” You get nature

expecting Him to do the old work, that is, to come and

heal the sick man, but that could not be here. Of course the

miracle came from His divine power, but in that way merely

On the Gospel According to John

361

it was what many a one might have done, and He had done

often before, but you nd no act of His will merely, nor

of human kindness even. We read that He loved Mary

and her sister and Lazarus, and they sent unto Him to say,

“Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.” One might

have expected that He so full of tenderness would have

gone directly; but He said it was not unto death, and abode

two days still in the place where He was. He does not stir;

He had no expression of His Father’s will for Him to go,

and so He stayed.

John 11:9 has reference to the Jews seeking to stone

Him. He says “it is a question of my Father’s will, and so

it is all light before me.” In the light of God all was plain.

He does not go when natural feelings would lead Him, but

He does go when it is His Father’s will even if death were

before Him. And we get the divine object of it — “that

the Son of God might be gloried thereby.” It is not the

Son of David, but the Son of God declared with power by

resurrection. He knew that Lazarus was fallen asleep, and

says, “I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.” e disciples

did not understand Him and He says plainly, “Lazarus is

dead.” Some people talk of the sleep of the soul, whereas

the sleep here is simply death itself, the death of the body.

A man here goes to sleep — dies; but there is no such thing

as a hint of the soul sleeping afterward. He says, “I am glad

for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may

believe” (John 11:15), because He was going to raise him

up from the dead. Healing would have been no such proof

of His divine sonship. It is just what they all say, “Could

not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have

caused that even this man should not have died?” (John

11:37). But there Lazarus was dead, and the question was,

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

362

the power of the Son of God who raises the dead. It is

beautiful to see omas brought in here (vs. 16), because

omas was the doubting one after Christ was risen, and

his character is given beforehand so far as it shows his

attachment to Christ at any rate.

Well, there was to be no mistake about Lazarus being

dead. Many of the Jews came there; it became a great public

testimony. en we get the character of Martha and Mary,

both in a state of partial unbelief, they could only look for

healing; that is, if Christ had only come in time, Lazarus

would not have died at all. You have Martha running out

uncalled, and Mary sitting in the house till Martha called

her; as Jesus Himself did not go until God called Him. It

was no harm, as men say, in a certain sense in Martha — no

evil intended of course; but she rushes out from her own

feelings instead of waiting for the Lord’s call.

In John 11:26 the Lord had gone beyond all Martha’s

faith. Christ begins by resurrection, taking people out

of death, and He was there with that power, but she has

no idea of that; what the Lord was bringing out she did

not understand one bit, and that makes her go and call

Mary. Mary had been sitting at Jesus’ feet and heard His

word. Martha tells her, “e Master is come, and calleth

for thee” — like saying, “He is talking about what I do not

understand, and you must come.” e Lord says to Martha,

“thy brother shall rise again.” She has the general truth like

evangelical Christendom in the present day, but of a special

resurrection in power, He being the resurrection and the

life, she has no idea at all. But you nd the Lord Himself

moved and exercised when Mary goes out; she is sent for in

a way, and went as called, and she falls at Christ’s feet. ere

is a great deal more feeling as to Christ, than is in Martha,

On the Gospel According to John

363

but she is in much the same state, and has no idea of present

power over death; so she says, “Lord, if thou hadst been

here, my brother had not died”; no thought of His present

power in resurrection; they were all alike as to that. ere

was no sense of a power that could take away the power of

death; and that is what makes the Lord weep — the power

of death that He saw lying on all their spirits. When Jesus

therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which

came with her, He groaned in spirit and was troubled and

said, “Where have ye laid him?” ere was sympathy there,

but it was the full character of the Lord’s sympathy that

strikes one, that is, His understanding the power of death

that lay upon them. It lay on their spirits, but not on His.

ere was no weeping for Lazarus on His part. It was His

full sense of the power of death resting on their hearts,

no matter how advanced they were. e groaning was for

others — something like the groaning in Romans 8. en

you have Martha’s unbelief coming denitely out, “Lord,

by this time he stinketh, for he hath been dead four days.”

e Jews said nothing more, but “behold how he loved

him” Again groaning in Himself, “He cometh to the grave:

it was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.” at groaning is a

very strong word; He troubled Himself withal, stirred up

His heart in its depths in His sense of man’s state under

death; His soul went into the power of the death lying on

others.

All through this, at the same time, you see the Lord

taking distinctly the place of subjection and service both,

and so here He says, “Father, I thank thee that thou hast

heard me; and I know that thou hearest me always.” en

He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth.” ere

was the power of the Son of God. Poor Martha! hers was a

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

364

positive unbelief, or belief in the power of death, “Lord, by

this time he stinketh,” instead of the power of resurrection.

Jesus said unto her, full of patience, “Said I not unto thee,

that, if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldest see the glory

of God?” “ey took away the stone, and when He cried,

“Lazarus, come forth,” “he that was dead came forth.” It

was the testimony to the Son of God come amongst us,

and His power over death — He is the resurrection and the

life — and of His thorough entering into what the power

of death was.

He never healed a sick person, I believe, without His

heart entering into the power of the evil that was there

as distress and sorrow on man. ere is another thing to

note — what you nd in James about Elias. He had said,

“As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand,

there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to

my word” (1 Kings 17:1). It seemed simple authority and

power. But James teaches us how the power of the Lord

was in the prophet, for he says, he “prayed earnestly that it

might not rain” (James 5:17); that is, where a person acts

really in the will and power of God, you constantly nd

his intercourse with God clear and simple. Paul went up

to Jerusalem at the wish of the church, but he tells us in

Galatians he went up by revelation. And here Christ had

the power in Himself, because He was Son of God, but still

He says, “Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.” He

never swerved from His place of subjection. e great thing

is that He was really Son of God, though rejected. And

then He must die; it is desperate, the dreadful hardness

of the Jews. Afterward they wanted to kill Lazarus again

because he was such a testimony. And we have the utter

unbelief of the people — not only unbelief, but positive

On the Gospel According to John

365

hostility; we must get rid of Him [Christ]. “If we let him

thus alone, all men will believe on him, and the Romans

shall come and take away both our place and nation.” But

at Christ’s death the temple and all connected with it was

disowned, high priest and everything. en Jesus walked

no more openly among them, but went to Ephraim and

waited for the passover.

e “high priest that same year” is named because the

Jewish things continued till Christ died. ere were two

high priests. e Romans meddled with everything. Large

sums of money were given to get to be high priest, and they

were changing constantly. As yet things were not altogether

gone from the Jews; there was the pool of Bethesda and

remnants of blessing one way or another. e opening

of Luke gives us a remnant in the midst of the iniquity,

Simeon, Anna, Zechariah, and so on; a most lovely picture

of how grace was ripening in these poor things whilst the

Pharisees were ripening in iniquity.

Now we come to Bethany. ere they made Him a

supper; Lazarus was there as a man alive through the power

of resurrection, but death had come in rst. Here we see

Mary goes to Christ in the consciousness of the other side

of the truth — that He must die. She was not a prophetess

at all; but at the hostility of the Jews her heart rises up

in love with the instinct of what that hostility sought and

meant. She was the opposite of the Jews; it was the fullness

of aection that moved her though she was no prophetess.

You may see continually the way in which personal

attachment to Christ gets His secret by some means or

other. Mary Magdalene was all wrong, seeking the living

among the dead, but still her heart was entirely on Christ,

and if she did not get Him she got nothing, and she is

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

366

the messenger to the apostles themselves of the highest

privileges we have. “I ascend unto my Father and your

Father, to my God and your God” (John 20:17); she is sent

with it to the apostles, who learn it through her.

It is the same in other things: the poor woman that was

a sinner did not know forgiveness, but she clings to Christ,

and there comes out the forgiveness of her sins, “thy faith

hath saved thee, go in peace” (Luke 7:50), the fullness of the

gospel. So with Mary; she did not understand resurrection

and life as she ought to have done, but the thing she does is

the thing she ought to have done, and it is what she felt was

right. It was from attachment to His person that she comes

and anoints Him with her ointment. She might have put it

in a bag, and given it to Him, but that would not do. Judas

shows how the wrong thing leads people away. It was Judas

said, “Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred

pence, and given to the poor?” and they were all led away

by it (Matt. 26:8). e disciples did not shine at this time at

all. ey all ran away too from Him later on, but her heart

enters into it all. e Lord gives a voice of intelligence to

her act, the wickedness of the Jews was rising up to the

point of putting Him to death, and her heart had the sense

of it, the Lord leading her no doubt.

“Let her alone,” He says: “against the day of my burying

hath she kept this; for the poor always ye have with you,

but me ye have not always.” It was His person He meant

there of course. is is a beautiful expression of Mary’s

heart, and it shows how a heart xed on Christ gives the

right thing; though there may be a want of intelligence,

it does the right act. e poor woman in the city acted

rightly and condes in Him; though as yet unforgiven, the

light and love of God are both in her heart. ere was the

On the Gospel According to John

367

condence that love produces, and the sense of sins that

light and love both produced. So with Mary Magdalene; it

was the right thing to seek Him among the dead in a sense.

And here Mary anoints His feet — His feet were worth

it — that is the thought, I think; but generally they would

have put ointment on the head.

Mary is a gure of the heavenly remnant in that sense

of the word. Martha was one of the heavenly remnant, I

suppose, but we do not see much of it in what she did, she

had been busied with care. e heavenly remnant belong

to heaven, whereas the earthly remnant get their portion

on earth. Mary was on the heavenly road, she was entering

into the spirit of Christ’s death. She anointed Him for His

burial, though nobody could die with Him; and her heart

went with Him. She could not weep and raise from the

dead, but she could weep and anoint. Her heart went with

the sense of what was coming; she saw the way in which

He was being treated. ey had plotted the death already.

at is just what we get here, not intelligence, but the heart

right, and it does the right thing, that which is intelligent,

so to speak. It is, very largely, want of attachment to the

person of Christ that keeps people in the systems around

us if they have not any particular motive.

Now we get the Son of David sitting on an ass’s colt;

afterward in verse 12 the Son of man comes out. ey go

to meet Him and cry, “Hosanna, blessed is the King of

Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord,” taken from

Psalm 118:13, which is the introduction of the millennial

day. “Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord,” and so on.

e Greeks are the nations coming up, or individuals

of them. ey are Hellenes; Grecian Jews are Hellenists.

“Jesus answered them saying, e hour is come that the

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

368

Son of man should be gloried.” He was Son of God in

raising Lazarus; He was Son of God in the world without

dying; He was Son of David too, and ought to have been

received as such according to Psalm 2, but when He takes

His place as Son of man, according to Psalm 8, He must

die. He cannot take the heavenly place of glory and be over

all the works of God’s hand without dying. And then we

must follow in that, “he that loveth his life shall lose it,

and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto

life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me.” A

very important word; if you want to serve Christ, you must

follow Him. It is not as if you could do so much service

in a kind of independent way, but if I serve Him I must

follow Him where He is. And then His own soul enters

into this death. “Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I

say? Father, save me from this hour, but for this cause came

I unto this hour.” Not so deep, but like Gethsemane. And

then you get His perfectness brought out, seeking only His

Father’s glory, at all cost. He cannot be gloried without

thus dying, and on the perfect submission the sense of the

glory comes into His own soul. is is very instructive to us.

And then comes a voice from heaven, “I have both gloried

it, and will glorify it again.” You have had the Father’s name

gloried in the Lord in raising back Lazarus to this world,

and He is going to glorify it again in raising Christ from

the dead. He was declared the Son of God with power here

as given in Romans 1, and raised from the dead by the glory

of the Father in Romans 6. en in verses John 12:31-32

He says, “Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the

prince of this world be cast out; and I, if I be lifted up from

the earth, will draw all men unto me.” Having submitted

Himself entirely, and having looked only for His Father’s

On the Gospel According to John

369

glory, He says that the thing where He glories God is

the way to His own glory. Wherever we bow to a dealing

of God that brings us down, we nd that it is the path of

more glory.

As a living Messiah He had to say to the Jews, but as

Savior of everybody, He must die — “Will draw all men

unto me.” It is not the Father drawing to Him here, but the

attractive point to which men are drawn.

John 12:32 is the cross, and the eect of it goes on; every

soul that is brought in is the eect of it. e drawing goes

on, but it is to a crucied Christ they are drawn. A living

Christ was for a Jew, but it is by a dying Christ salvation

comes to the world. When living, He says, “I am not sent

but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 15:24).

When it says, “e hour is coming, and now is, when

the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they

that hear shall live,” He is quickening; it is then, and goes

on still. It is the Son of God in power; here it is the Son

of man dying. e “lifting up” is lifted out of the world,

though not gone to heaven. Here it is the mere fact stated,

but it is the atoning Savior.

e character of resurrection answers to the condition

in which Christ is. At the grave of Lazarus He raises back

to this world; but now He is at the right hand of God,

He quickens us into the character of His own place. We

have Him only spiritually now, and we only live spiritually.

But when He comes back into the world, those who are

quickened then will receive a life accordingly. e power

of resurrection or of life answers to Christ’s position. He

raised back Lazarus to the place where He Himself was

alive; and so too it is now, to where He is now alive, and

when He comes again He will raise up the body or change

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

370

it to His own likeness then. Lazarus was merely a restored

man.

“Now is the judgment of this world.” at is the

consequence of the Lord being lifted up; and the prince of

the world is cast out. By death He has destroyed “him that

had the power of death” — that is, annulled his power (heb.

2:14). ough it says, “shall be,” his power is now destroyed.

e sentence is passed, but not carried out. It is the cross

that is referred to. e world is a judged world. Satan has

led it to crucify the Lord. He is its prince, but by that in

which this was fully shown his power was broken. I quite

admit that, until Christ comes again, he is not cast into the

bottomless pit, but through Christ’s death Satan’s power is

annulled, and therefore “now is the prince of this world”;

it was “shall be,” but that was then. And he is only called

the prince of the power of this world when we come to the

cross. To faith his power is annulled now. And so it is as

to everything; you will nd it is “yes” for faith, and not yet

for full accomplishment fact. I have eternal life and yet the

end is everlasting life. I am looking for salvation ready to

be revealed, yet He has saved us and called us. We are really

quickened, and have the Holy Spirit in our souls, we receive

the end of our faith, salvation of soul, but not the result. I

think it is a great thing to see that Christ is lifted up, and

has nothing more to do with this world. at the breach

was total and nal: “O righteous Father, the world hath

not known thee” (John 17:25). en we get the unbelief:

“Who is this Son of man?” and the Lord says, “Walk while

ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you.”

John 12:34 gives the meaning of “lifting up.” It is

contrary to abiding here. en you have two references to

Isaiah, verse 38, (quoting Isa. 53) which is His rejection,

On the Gospel According to John

371

and goes on to death; and verse 40 (quoting Isa. 6), which

we are told Isaiah said when he saw His glory.

en you have another terrible warning. “Many believed

on him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess

him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue.” Such

would be lost. ey were convinced, yet would not own

Him. e principle is in Romans 10:10, “With the mouth

confession is made unto salvation.” at applies now. I

do not believe there are many of whom it is true now or

ever — that many are ashamed to confess Christ, and yet

are truly saved. I could not say they are saved. God knows

what is at the bottom of their hearts. Some are afraid, it may

be, of acting in certain ways, and yet they confess Christ in

a more open manner than we do. We must leave such to

God, like Nicodemus who goes secretly by night for fear of

the Jews. And the counselor Joseph, who had been hidden,

comes out when the disciples have all run away. ese two

confessed at last, when they said as it were, We cannot go

on with all this wickedness, this is too much for us.

By “He that is not with me is against me” (Matt. 12:30)

is meant taking the path of faith, you must take your place

for Christ, or else you are against Him. e world has

manifested itself as entirely against Him. e open breach

is come, you must take your place either one way or other.

We have Christ practically rejected — “lifted up” — and in

John 13 we pass on to His going out of the world altogether.

e Epistle to the Hebrews says He could not be a priest

on earth, because there were priests here already. Christ

oered Himself; He was kept up three days — three years

if you like better — as a pure victim. He oered Himself

up on the cross. It is on the cross the Lord lays on Him

the iniquity of us all, when He gave Himself a voluntary

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

372

oering. But the oering Himself was not a priest’s

oce: the priest only began when He took the blood, he

had nothing to say to the oering until he accepted the

blood. On the day of atonement the priest put his hand

on the head of the scape-goat and confessed the people’s

sins, but there the whole nation was looked at as separate

from God, and for them he confesses, though that was not

exactly a priestly thing, though done by the high priest as

representing the people. Christ oered Himself through

the eternal Spirit without spot to God, but then He so far

answered to the priest that He confessed our sins on the

cross, and then after that He is properly a priest. Christ

as now on high is not a priest for sins, He is an advocate

with the Father if we sin. When I look at Him as suering

for sins, His work is done once for all, as in Hebrews 9:12

when we fail, we have an advocate with the Father, for

then it is a question of communion with the Father; but

His sacrice was for sins. He was a priest, He stood as

priest, but He is not priest for sins now, but for grace to

help that we may not sin and ever in God’s presence for

us the witness that our sins are put away, the reconciliation

is made, and this was once done for us, where He stood as

our suering representative.

Christ did not, as the high priest in Israel, confess His

own sins, for He had none (I need hardly say that), but

the high priest on the day of atonement had his own to

confess too, but Christ did only stand there as His people’s

representative. If He were on earth, He should not be a

priest at all, and in the Hebrews you get the exercise of

His priesthood now, which does not refer to sins because

He has done with that question forever. You get Him as an

advocate in John, but there it is dealing with communion,

On the Gospel According to John

373

and hence the question of imputation never comes up, but

communion is destroyed for the time.

Looked at as an instrument used, this chapter applies

to ministry. e word, in Hebrews 4, detects, and is the

means of washing in that way. e word detects that which

leads to falling away; the constant tendency to apostasy

runs all through Hebrews 1 would not include advocacy

in priesthood. Intercession is a general word. He ever lives

to make intercession for us. Intercession is commonly

used for priesthood; but it is more a question of what is

meant by words. Advocacy much more corresponds with

Numbers 19.

What we come to in John 13 is that Christ’s hour was

come to depart out of this world unto the Father; up to

this it had been His place and rejection on earth. Only

when testimony was given to Him, He had declared He

could only take that of Son of man, unless alone by dying.

As to Himself there was now an end to all His sorrow

and trouble, but His service He now shows us is not over;

He goes up into the glory, and is there going to be our

servant: “I have loved my own, and I love them through

and through,” that is the meaning of “to the end.” He could

not stay with them down here, but did not give them up;

but He was now going to God perfect as He came from

God, and the Father had given all things into His hand.

He was returning spotless to God Himself, the glory being

His. He could not stay with them, could they be with Him

there? is is the solemn problem in this chapter. He solves

it in ineable grace. He rose up from supper, “and laid aside

his garments, and took a towel and girded himself, after

that he poured water into a basin and began to wash the

disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

374

he was girded” (John 13:4-5). Peter objects, but the Lord

says, “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.”

Peter says then, “Not my feet only, but also my hands and

my head.” “Jesus saith to him, He that is washed, needeth

not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit.” e two

words “wash” in verse 10 are dierent; the rst is washing

the whole body, “bathed,” and the second is washing hands

or small objects. And you notice the “hands” are left out,

for it does not apply to our works, but to our walk. It is

bringing the light of the word to judge inwardly when a

man has done wrong. ose who have received the word

have been bathed, they are clean as John 15:3. Here not all

because Judas was still there. e statement alludes to the

priests, who were washed bodily once for all, and afterward

whenever they went to any service, washed their hands and

feet. e consecrating with water was done once for all. So

with us; but we are set to walk through this world, and in

danger of deling our feet as we go.

e words in Hebrews 10:22, “bodies washed with pure

water,” refer to the rst bathing, and not to this action of

Christ or what it signies. It is “bathed” there. And then

Christ comes in as an advocate, and cleanses me when

deled in walk, and restores me to communion. It is like the

red heifer when a person touched death; there was no fresh

death appointed for that, but the application of the word,

moral cleansing based on the death already accomplished.

As to the washing of regeneration, the priests were not

washed at the laver at their rst consecration; but they had

to wash their hands and their feet at the laver every time

when they came to serve. “Regeneration” in Titus is the

same word as in Matthew 19, and not used elsewhere. It is

the millennium in Matthew, instead of the present state of

On the Gospel According to John

375

things. It is a change of state in both places. It is connected

with what you are brought into, and what you are brought

out of; for you are brought out of one, and into the other.

e action is very beautiful as to the Lord’s loving and

lowly service, and is really the glory of grace in providing

for, and meeting moral evil in every shape for us that we

might have communion with that which is on high. It is the

fruit of the perfect love of Christ whatever is needed, the

Lord sets Himself to do it, for love likes to serve: “having

loved His own which were in the world He loved them

unto the end.” “Jesus knowing that the Father had given

all things into His hand, and that He was come from God

and went to God, He riseth from supper, and laid aside

His garments, and took a towel and girded Himself.” It

was with this glory present in spirit though actually future.

In all the glory to which I am going, I shall be a servant as

much as down here: such is its meaning.

It is “to God” in verse 3, because Christ’s returning in

the spotless divine perfectness in which He left God is

thus armed; He is just as perfect as ever, and is going

back as such to God — goes back just as He came from.

He did not go half way, but came from God and went back

to God. And then He must bring us into the same place

too; either He must give us up, as He could not stay here

where we are, or He must do all for us to t us to be there

where He is. And He will have us have part with Him in

everything the Father gives, and be with the Father as He

Himself is. So He has washed us and made us partakers of

the divine nature.

It is the new birth, only it is looked at in its moral

character rather than in the life-giving power of the Spirit’s

work; though they cannot be separated. In His love He

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

376

takes up a slave’s work; Peter objects, and the point He

insists on is, our having a part with Himself. “Ye are clean,

but not all,” is because Judas was there. And then He tells

us to walk in the same spirit of serving.

Next, He puts the reception of an apostle on the same

footing as the reception of Himself. “He that receiveth

whomsoever I send receiveth me, and he that receiveth me

receiveth him that sent me.” It had been already true, even

of Judas, but still it is true always practically, and we know

it — he that receives Christ’s servant receives Him.

en you nd the Lord coming to the time of His

betrayal. He is troubled in spirit. It is remarkable to see

how the Lord feels everything thoroughly and personally;

you never nd in Him any failure as to that; but He is

always Himself in it, the very opposite of insensibility;

circumstances draw out His feelings, but it is what is divinely

perfect, which is there to be drawn out. He says He knew

who was going to betray Him from the beginning. And

who is it? He is to have every sorrow. One of His intimate

companions who had been with Him all the time. rough

the devoted aection of women, you generally nd them

clinging to Him and so in the place of condence, but here

you have the one instance where a man comes into that

good place. John was sitting close to Christ not from his

seeking it then but from habitual nearness to Him, and

Peter is obliged to ask John to inquire of Christ, who it was

that should betray Him. It is an instance of what I mean;

John was not there in order to get the information, but he

was in the place to get it, the disciple whom Jesus loved and

close to Him in order to be there, but there in the place to

know His mind. at is the point; it is of all importance to

be in a position so to learn of Him.

On the Gospel According to John

377

Now we get an important statement; after the sop,

Satan entered into Judas. ere is much in that; there is

a familiarity with Christ in an outward way, which where

the heart is wrong is a deadly inlet to Satan’s power. Satan

had already gained Judas’s lusts, and suggested the evil; but

here he takes possession of him in a personal way, Satan

enters into him. He hardens his heart against every natural

feeling.

If you take Luke as giving the order of the thing, Judas

broke bread; having received the sop, he went immediately

out. Luke says, after He had given both the bread and the

cup, “the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on

the table” (Luke 22:21). But here in John we have nothing

to do with the Lord’s supper; I merely get the fact that

the sop was given to Judas. I think it has nothing to do

with the Supper, whether Judas was there or not. Christ

washed his feet, and there was intimacy at the table. It

is important to notice that, because of the guilt resulting

from it. If anybody quotes it as to fellowship now, then you

would have betrayers at the table. Further there was no evil

manifested, and you cannot of course put a man out where

no evil is manifested. Besides, after all, people do not mean

that they would have a table of Judases, and if you put it

so to them, they will reject it. e Lord knew it Himself of

course divinely, but that is no ground for us to act on and

the disciples knew nothing of it, nor was their conscience

exercised as to it; nor was the church founded till the Holy

Spirit came.

As to Judas you rst get the lust, and then the acting

on it; he was a thief and had the bag; and then comes an

occasion suggested by Satan to gratify the lust, who thereon

enters in and hardens the person’s heart against even his

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

378

natural feelings, for many an unconverted man would not

betray a friend with a kiss. It is at this point when all this

has come completely forward that you get “Now is the Son

of man gloried,” that is, in the cross the perfectness of

His work was His glory, perfect devotedness and love were

in it, and obedience at all cost to His Father, suering all

things where His glory called for it and it was a man’s glory

to make God’s glory good and in such a place, “and God is

gloried in him.” All that God is in His character is there

made good by a man much more than a man, no doubt,

but one who was a man” God is gloried in him; if God be

gloried in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and

will straightway glorify him” (John 13:21-32). He does not

wait for the glory of the kingdom, but goes straight up to

God’s right hand. God thus is perfectly gloried by man,

so that man goes into the glory of God. And that is an

immense truth, for the fact of our sins being put away, if it

stood alone, would not entitle us to the glory of God. But

that which has done it has. But Christ has gone into the

glory of God: so Stephen saw and said. But man could not

follow before this was all done; you must have the ark in

the bottom of Jordan, or the people could not come over.

Peter had condence in himself, and so he denies Christ.

If we come in esh into the place of Christ, it will only be

to deny Him there.

e “in himself” in verse 32 is in God, and Christ went

straight into the glory of God. It is an immense part of the

cross that, the ending of self and all condence in self. e

Lord told Peter he could not follow Him. And now the

Lord in a certain sense assumes that He has gone out of

the world, and He looks at things in that aspect, but their

heart is not to be troubled at it; and in John 14 He gives

On the Gospel According to John

379

them the ground on which it is not to be troubled. In the

rst place they get the comfort from God by believing in

Him; and so would it be with Christ; and the next point is,

in Christ’s going away: it was not to leave them behind and

He go alone, but He is going to prepare a place for them. It

is not only a place for me, but there are a number of places,

and I am going to prepare one for you, and “I will come

again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am there

ye may be also.” Now that part of the chapter is complete

in itself; they believe in Him instead of seeing Him; there

are places in the Father’s house and He is going to prepare

us for them; He cannot stay with them where they are, but

He will have them there with Himself.

Now comes, in the body of the chapter, what the

comfort is while He has not come back. at is divided

into two parts; what they had in His person, and what they

would get on having the Comforter. e rst part extends

to about the end of verse 12. e three or four verses about

their doing greater works come in by the bye.

e rst part of the chapter is exceedingly beautiful and

simple, when once you get at what the Lord is at. e point

was “Whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.” omas

answers, “Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how

can we know the way?” ere was a good bit of unbelief in

omas, his mind made diculties, but he loved the Lord;

and the Spirit delights to show it (John 11:16); and the

answer is this, “I am going to the Father, and you know

what He is, because you have seen the Father in me, and

therefore you do know where I am going; and you know

the way, because having come to Me, you have found Him.”

Such is what the Lord says, “I am the way, and the truth,

and the life, no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

380

If he had known me, ye should have known my Father

also, and from henceforth ye know him and have seen him.

Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father and it

suceth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time

with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that

hath seen me hath seen the Father, and how sayest thou

then, show us the Father?” (John 14:6-9), and so on. If

they had seen the Father (in seeing Christ) and Christ was

going to the Father, they both knew where He was going,

and they knew that He was the way, because in Him they

had found the Father. ey had had this upon earth, and

they ought to have known where they were.

It is “from henceforth” in verse 7, because He had

revealed Himself and told them plainly now; but they did

not understand. But they said, “now speakest thou plainly”;

but they deceive themselves. He says, “I came forth from

the Father, and am come into the world, again, I leave the

world and go to the Father”; they say, “by this we believe

that thou camest forth from God.” ey had no idea of

the Father after all. Still there it was: they had it, though

they did not realize it. en you get the two things He has

once or twice insisted upon, as in John 8 and 9, His word

and His work, “Believe me that I am in the Father and the

Father in me, or else believe me for the very works’ sake.”

en in the second part (you may connect verse is with

it if you like) “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you

another Comforter that he may abide with you forever,

even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive,

because it seeth him not neither knoweth him, but ye know

him for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” (John

14:16-17). Now I get a second element, not the Father and

the Son, but the Spirit. e Father had been revealed in the

On the Gospel According to John

381

Son, and He had declared the Father’s name on earth; but

now comes another thing, He was going away, as we know,

and the second Comforter was to come. He was not to be

sent into the world, the world cannot receive Him. Christ

had been presented to the world, and the world would not

have Him; but the Spirit is not for the world, the way that

He is known shows that the world cannot know Him. He

abides with you and shall be in you. e rst Comforter,

Christ, was neither to abide, nor to be “in.” But the second

would not go away, He would abide, Christ could not

abide. As to whether it should be “dwelleth” or “will dwell,”

in verse 17, for the Greek, or indeed for the sense, it is

just as good in one case as the other; it is a mere question

of a Greek accent. e “Comforter” is the character He

would have in coming to them, He is the Spirit of truth

as well. It is to me evidently the point, the dierence of

the rst Comforter, that is, Christ, that He could not stay

with them, and the second could. Christ was not in them

either, but with them; the second should dwell in them,

and abide forever (“ abide” is the same word as “dwell”)

not be merely with them. In the power of the Spirit of

God they should do “greater works,” and a gloried Christ

should be the source of them. e very shadow of Peter

would do; a handkerchief or apron from Paul, and so on;

three thousand be converted in one day. But Christ had

come in the character of humiliation.

e “I will come to you” is Christ in Spirit now, I believe;

Himself in Spirit. It is not merely the Holy Spirit, but

what the believer can always count on. ere is a particular

promise in the case of two or three gathered in Christ’s

name. ere is not only individually dwelling in our hearts

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

382

by faith, but the particular way in which He comes to two

or three gathered.

e “manifest myself to him,” is where a person walks

right; he gets Christ specially revealed to his heart. You

have a very great additional fact in this second part of the

chapter which you could not have in the rst. What is in

verse 20 that they could not have known then: “in that day

ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I

in you,” it was only when the Holy Spirit came that they

knew that. e person of Christ was in the Father, that

they knew; at any rate it was there to be known; but also

they were in Christ and He in them: this they could know

only by the Holy Spirit. Now you come to Judas — not

Iscariot — and the realization of all this. We may look at

verse 15 here; “if ye love me, keep my commandments,” if

you love me, do not be thinking of keeping Me down here,

but do you obey Me. ey were sorrowing about His going,

and His words are; then, “keep my commandments.” ere

is a connection here (He is looking at them in the character

of obedience, though it is not the motive of His praying in

next verse) with Acts 5:32, “and so is also the Holy Ghost,

whom God hath given to them that obey him.”

e dierence between “commandments” and “words”

is that words go farther rather. In Acts 13:47 you have a

quotation from Isaiah, “for so hath the Lord commanded

us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that

thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.”

He calls that a commandment, though it was a word of

prophecy, but the moment they understood it, it was a

commandment. e whole thing is comprised in obedience

whether words or commandments, we are “sanctied

On the Gospel According to John

383

to obedience.” If they had words which gave them the

knowledge of God’s will, they are commandments really.

You will nd in all this part of John the responsibility

of the disciples in the rst place, and that, in the verse we

have just come to. “He that hath my commandments, and

keepeth them, he it is that loveth me; and he that loveth

me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will

manifest myself to him.” It is the Father loves us because

we love Christ, it is not here, “we love him because he rst

loved us,” but with disciples, it is “he that loveth me, shall

be loved of my Father, and I will love him” (John 16:21).

It is no question here whether he is a child of the

Father, but what he is to the Father as a child; there is

more expression of love and kindness to an obedient child,

than to a disobedient one. And He adds “if a man love me,

he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and

we will come unto him and make our abode in him.” at

goes farther, the “abode” will be more constant than the

“manifestation.” “He that loveth me not keepeth not my

sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the

Father’s which sent me.” Notice before in verse 21, it is not

he that keepeth my commandments when he hath them;

but knowing what the commandments of Christ are when

we love Him so as to give heed to what He says. is is an

important principle. A loving child enters into its father’s

mind, and knows what he would like and does it; a careless

child will not know a bit what his father’s wishes are.

In John 10:17, “therefore doth my Father love me,”

it is not here so much for those for whom He is laying

down His life, the motive is rather the immense value of

glorifying His Father. Children that are living in their

father’s house, might all hear their father’s voice and words,

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

384

but there is instructive perception of what he intends on

the part of the children that love him best. Which of us

would settle quite clearly from Isaiah 49:6, “I will also give

thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my

salvation unto the end of the earth,” that we were to go

and preach the grace of God? Paul did in Acts 13:47. It

is quite clear we must have the commandments if we are

to use them, but the loving attentive person will have ten

times more knowledge of them than a careless one. Mary

and Martha are a kind of illustration; you get the example

of the listening there or the lack of it.

In this chapter the Father sends the Comforter, not

Christ; Christ sends Him in the close of the next chapter,

and in John 16:7. It is in Christ’s name here, but the

Father sends Him, and “he shall…bring all things to your

remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” e value

of sending in His name is seen in this. If you come to me

in a person’s name now, I should receive according to the

value to me of the person in whose name you come. en

He says, “Peace I leave with you,” and then it is “his own

peace.” You will nd that as to everything. He puts us into

His own place. It is His own peace, the peace He had in

walking through this world with the Father, as a man with

God. Christ says it of “joy,” “glory,” “peace,” “words,” “love.”

e world may give liberally sometimes, but it has another

kind and way of giving. It has no longer what it has given.

e emphasis is on the word “my,” “my joy,” “the glory thou

gavest me,” “the words which thou gavest me.” But we nd

another thing here which I have often referred to, but it is

one of the most wonderful things in Scripture as to Christ.

He expects us to be interested in His happiness, not merely

to trust Him as interested in ourselves; but “if ye loved me,

On the Gospel According to John

385

ye would rejoice because I said, I go unto the Father, for my

Father is greater than I.” at is, if you love Me, you will

rejoice because I am going out of this world into happiness.

He expects that His disciples should be really interested in

His happiness and glory.

en we come to verse 30, “hereafter I will not talk

much with you, for the prince of this world cometh and

hath nothing in me.” “Prince of this world” is an important

expression; it was then that the devil was proved to be the

prince of this world, and he is never called so until Christ

was rejected, so long as there was a possibility remaining of

the world receiving the Son and owning Him; but in the

rejection of Christ, the devil was able to raise both Jews

and Gentiles against Christ Himself, and even the disciples

ran away. His full power was shown. And therefore too

now, the devil is a judged being “the prince of this world

is judged” — and the world shown to be under Satan’s

power. He its god and its prince. e opposite is in Christ,

“hath nothing in me.” And Christ loves the Father, and is

obedient (vs. 31).

Satan nds plenty in us. He had the power of death

in us, but he had nothing at all in Christ. It is a beautiful

expression of Christ’s perfectness. He was divine, but He

was also man, and perfection as to both comes out so

wonderfully. He would not talk much with His disciples,

for the time was over. e devil is coming, and I cannot talk

with you much more. e thing is all nished. In John 14

we get Christ’s person and the Comforter; and now we go

on to nd the connection of people with Him upon earth,

not with the Father.

In John 15 it is His relationship with the disciples on

earth, and in the end of the chapter He has gone up on

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

386

high, and sends the Comforter Himself, and it closes with

the testimony. In John 16 it is the Comforter down here;

He is not sent but come, He has been sent. In John 15 you

get Christ in the earth, and His people on the earth. ere

is an analogy to this now, but what He is looking at is His

being the real vine Himself in contrast with Israel on earth.

“Now ye are clean” is “already ye are clean.” e “ye are

not all clean” in John 13 refers to Judas, here there is no

exception for it, Judas had gone out. e point is, Israel was

the old vine, and Christ takes the place of Israel, and is the

true vine. If you look at Isaiah 49, you will see distinctly

how he replaces the nation: “ou art my servant, O Israel,

in whom I will be gloried.” “And now, saith Jehovah that

formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob

again to him, though Israel be not gathered,” and so on.

us it is Christ is the real servant — Israel a vine, but

Christ the true vine. So you get in Matthew, “Out of Egypt

have I called my Son.” Hence Christ is the true Man for

God — the true Servant — the true Vine. e true Man,

God’s Son, has taken up all that in which the rst man

had failed. en, when Christ was upon earth, there was

no church union; there is no question of planting vines in

heaven nor of pruning to get fruit. He says, “Every branch

in me that beareth fruit, he purgeth it”; and in John 15:3,

“Now ye are already purged”; it is the same word. ey

were clean in the sense of “purged,” only that the purging

continues; like “He that is washed needeth not save to wash

his feet”; this is the rst of these washings. “Ye are already

clean”; you are “already.” And then comes, “abide in me.” It

is all responsibility here. e person’s conduct is put rst,

but there is this dierence made, when He speaks of ruin

and destruction; He turns from “you” and says “a man.” In

On the Gospel According to John

387

the middle of His exhortation He drops the “ye” and says,

“If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and

is withered; and men gather them and cast them into the

re, and they are burned”; there it is positive destruction.

In “if ye abide in me,” the “abide” is to “hold fast in

dependence and communion.” “Without me [that is the

opposite], ye can do nothing.” He does not say, “I will abide

in you, and so ye will abide in me.” He puts His people rst

all through, for it all rests on responsibility. Only in verse

6 it changes to “a man,” and speaks of destruction, which

could not be of a true disciple in Christ. Judas was taken

away. ere they were, all branches in the vine; for I do

not think anything of the expression, “men gather them,”

because He is speaking of the gure. ere is another point

in verse 7: “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you” I

can dispose of all power, when the words of Christ govern

my mind and will. “Ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be

done unto you.”

In verse 2 taking away is utter destruction; for He is

taking in all there who were associated with Him; they are

all branches there till they are broken o. “If ye continue

in my word,” He says to the Jews, “then are ye my disciples

indeed” (John 8:31); they were His disciples, but did not

continue. Hebrews 6 is in analogy with it.

en I have another point still. I have the service and

fruit-bearing, and then, “Herein is my Father gloried that

ye bear much fruit.” But then, further “As the Father hath

loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love” — the

divine favor of Christ. “If ye keep my commandments, ye

shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father’s

commandments, and abide in his love.” ere I get a

plain proof that it is no question of divine delight in the

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

388

person only, but of the path in which the Son enjoyed the

Father’s love, and the path in which we shall enjoy it too.

Now we have the “joy”; we had the “peace” before; now

it is joy walking in His words, and abiding in His love.

e love of grace seeks a sinner, but “greater love hath no

man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

at is not grace for a sinner; here it is for His friends.

It applies to the disciples only, and is not here grace for

sinners. “Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant

knoweth not what his lord doeth, but I have called you

friends, for all things that I have heard of my Father, I have

made known unto you.” A friend is a person with whom I

communicate, not because I have business with him, but I

tell him my thoughts and feelings as to that with which he

himself has nothing to do. He puts them into the place of

fruit-bearing, and tell them to ask of the Father whatsoever

they would, and He would give it them.

Fruit that “may remain” is fruit to this day, you are it,

if you please. We are here part of the fruit, and shall be to

eternity, though the fruit is more down in the world in this

passage. Now comes a third principle. Abiding in Christ

and His word, and abiding in His love; and then “love one

another.” But now the converse: “If the world hate you, ye

know that it hated me before it hated you; if ye were of the

world, the world would love its own; but because ye are

not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world,

therefore the world hateth you” (John 15:18-19). e world

never can stand being outside; they will stand your having

a religion, but they cannot stand a peculiar people “puried

to himself.” is puts the disciples in a very blessed place,

for it puts them in His place — “If they have persecuted

me, they will also persecute you.”

On the Gospel According to John

389

And then the history of Israel on the ground of their

responsibility closes. He being the true vine, the old vine

is judged. As long as anything was not done to Him, all

was forgivable, as it were; but now “they have both seen

and hated both me and my Father.” In verses 22, 24 it is

again His word and His works; and then the Son had been

manifested, and the Father in Him, so that their conduct

had been really hatred of the Son and of the Father, and

what was to be done? We have fellowship with the Father,

and with the Son, but they had hated both — and that

without a cause. It was all gone now, and then you get the

Comforter and the disciples in the world. He says now, “e

Comforter is come whom I will send unto you,” because

He has gone away. e dierence is clear; before the Holy

Spirit came, they could not tell of Christ’s glory in heaven,

but they were to testify what Christ was upon earth. Still

it was by the Holy Spirit. He shall “bring all things to your

remembrance” (John 14:26), when the Father is spoken of

as sending the Comforter; but in this place Christ sends

the Comforter, and He is the witness of the glory in

which Christ is sitting. You have a humbled Christ, and a

gloried Christ, and the disciples bearing witness through

the Comforter. But the Comforter Himself brings down

the heavenly glory. en you get in John 16 the Comforter

on the earth. Read verses 1-3.

A person may be perfectly sincere, just as Saul was,

in trying to blot out the name of Christ from the earth,

but it is only proof that they have hated “both me and my

Father.” Where there are truths held that go to make part

of my religious credit, there I can go on; but the truth that

comes to test my heart, to that I object. A person might be

a Protestant boasting of justication by faith, and do it to

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

390

trample on a Romanist; but if you talk to him of the living

presence of the Holy Spirit down here, and of the Lord’s

coming, he will persecute you from the bottom of his heart.

A Jew could boast in the unity of the Godhead, for it was

part of his own credit religiously; but the moment he was

asked to own the Father and the Son, he would stone you

for it. It was the thing that was then testing a man whether

he was right or not. e Jews were blind in the darkness

of unbelief, yet they held what was very true all the while.

Romanists hold the divinity of Christ, and His manhood,

and the Trinity, and atonement; they would burn a man

if he did not hold them, if they had their way; but if you

come and say, A man is not justied by sacraments, they

will burn you too, if they can.

en another thing. He says, “I go my way to him that

sent me, and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou?

but because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath

lled your heart” (John 16:5-6). In one sense it was very

natural. God deals with the thing we are resting in; and

takes it away, as now His Son from the disciples, it is not

a thing that springs from the dust. God must have some

intention in it. Christ is going, and they do not ask where;

they felt the trouble of their loss and that pressed on them.

He was not going to die like an ordinary person put in the

grave, but they never asked Him where He was going. God

has an intuition of love in our sorrows, our hearts should

look beyond our sorrow to His hand and ways in it.

Peter did ask Him at the end of John 13, “Why cannot

I follow thee now?” But it was the general state the Lord

refers to here. Peter did not think of going through death

and up to heaven with Him. He was not thinking of God’s

mind in Christ’s going away, but of some place where he

On the Gospel According to John

391

could follow Him. It is a gloried Christ who has gone

on high, and who sends the Holy Spirit to build up the

disciples while He is there. Sometimes one is afraid of

getting truth through mere feelings. I say merely, that is

not power. I do not believe that anybody before, ever got

the knowledge of divine truth that the church has now;

but if you look at power, it is like none at all. It is right

according to God, as God’s way with us; but it is only a

“little strength” indeed, incomparably less power, though

so much truth. e essalonians were waiting for God’s

Son from heaven, which is a very superior state; but they

had not the word, as we have it, to study. Certainly they

had not got this Gospel, they might have had Matthew’s

perhaps. I think there is always a danger of awakening and

decaying, and that you have to watch. I speak merely of the

whole character of the thing; not that I do not believe it

is God’s mind, for all the evil is seen by Him, but we have

to recognize in a certain sense where we are. And even as

to truth, we must get it really. I feel the word of God is

an immense thing, thou “hast kept my word, and hast not

denied my name” — Christ’s — the word of His patience

too; and there was then the confession of Christ in the

midst of a people that would not receive Him, just as in

not denying His name when professing Christianity are

apostatizing.

en remark, the coming of the Holy Spirit is a distinct

denite thing consequent upon Christ’s exaltation. ere

was no coming of the Son until the incarnation, though

He created everything; and the Holy Spirit in the same

way, though working, did not come until Pentecost. We

were looking a little at that before. All direct action as to

the creature was by the Holy Spirit, but He did not come

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

392

before Pentecost, unless you except His coming as a dove

on Christ. And there it was personally on Him alone. You

get Him acting, as at the beginning of creation, but Christ

says, “if I go not away, the Comforter will not come.” at

is of immense import as to the character of His presence.

e world is judged, and the Holy Spirit is not sent to the

world, “whom the world cannot receive because it seeth

him not, neither knoweth him. But ye know him; for he

abideth with you and shall be in you.” e world ought to

have received Christ, the Holy Spirit it cannot; and He

comes consequent upon a rejected Christ and a gloried

Christ, and it is a Man who sends the Holy Spirit, sends

Him from the Father. You get His action when down

here. He demonstrates to the world, sin, righteousness and

judgment. If He convinces a man, he is a believer; that is

not the power of “reprove” here in John 16:8; it is used much

to that eect, but it does not suit this place, and there is no

English word that has so wide an application as the Greek

word has. He does not reprove the world of righteousness.

His presence is the demonstration to the world that the

whole world is guilty of the death of Christ, just as if God

were saying to Cain, “Where is Abel thy brother?” at is

to the whole world; this world is a world that has rejected

the Son of God. So that it is a very solemn thing to the

world that the Holy Spirit is here.

It is the “world,” just as “he came into the world” (1

Tim. 1:15). What I see in the history is that God takes

out of the nations one man and his family to be a nation

for Himself, and He tests them and tries to nd any good

thing at all in them, as a specimen of the whole, to tell what

the mass is, and they are shown by it to be bad altogether.

Suppose I nd a “slob,” as you call it, in Lough Foyle, and

On the Gospel According to John

393

I take out twenty acres, and spend an immense amount of

labor upon it, but all to no good; well then, I do not try the

rest. So Israel was but a sample of what all were, children

of wrath. In saying the Gentiles, which “do by nature the

things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a

law unto themselves” (Rom. 2:19), the apostle is reasoning

in the rst place thus: “if you have the law and do not keep

it, the Gentiles who have not the law but keep it, are better

than you.” But as Gentiles also they are without excuse

upon the ground of the testimony of creation, and the fact

that when they had the knowledge of God, they would not

retain it. I will tell you the result of a pagan acting up to his

conscience, if you rst show me such a one. Cornelius was

a converted man before Peter saw him. We have the sample

of what man is in the Jews.

Let us go back. God calls Abraham when the world

would have the devil and idols instead of the one true

God. en comes law, and that was all broken; then Christ

and then the testimony of the Holy Spirit as we read in

Stephen’s case, and they resisted that. I do not believe a

thing about Gentiles, that I do not believe about myself:

my esh would go and do lawlessness. But they are not

condemned for not having received Christ when they have

not heard of Him. But the Holy Spirit not having been

presented to the world, they have not so rejected Him, but

the world is convicted and judged because it killed Christ,

and in the testimony to Him where that is it now resists

the Holy Spirit. e Jews had the law, and the prophets,

and the Just one, and Stephen charges them, “ye do

always resist the Holy Ghost, as your fathers did, so do

ye” (Acts 7:51). at is the demonstration of sin. en “of

righteousness.” If all the world is under sin, where am I to

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

394

nd righteousness? You will nd it in two things, which are,

“I go to my Father,” and the other ye will “see me no more.”

Christ’s going to the Father is proof of righteousness, for

He is the one that deserved to go; and I see Him no more,

is proof of righteousness against those who have rejected

Him.

In “and ye see me no more,” it is you see Me no more

in that character of mercy come as a Savior; every eye

shall see Him in His new character as Judge. If I receive

the demonstration of the Holy Spirit convincing of

righteousness because Christ has gone, I have ceased then

to belong to the world, and have become a believer. e

demonstration of sin may come fully to the conscience, in

a certain sense of the word, but if the will is not changed, I

gnash my teeth on the man who brings it to my conscience

as they did to Stephen. en there was conscience with a

bad will. e sin of Christendom is the practical denial of

the Holy Spirit; I say “practical,” because orthodox people

own Him as to statement. e root of the gospel is here,

“righteousness, because I go to my Father.” I do not get

a man’s sins dealt with in this demonstration, that is not

the point; but it is the broad general truth of the general

standing of the world. e One righteous man having gone

to the Father, the world will never have Him here again as

such, though believers may go to Him there. e world was

judged in John 12, and the prince of the world is judged in

this chapter. You do not see righteousness fully displayed

anywhere save in the glory. e cross is the declaration,

not of righteousness, but of the contrary. It is the ground

of righteousness. But if I look no farther than the cross

I see the only righteous man that ever lived forsaken of

God. e “judgment” is not come. It is not merely Satan

On the Gospel According to John

395

is judged but the world; the whole world, having come up

against Christ whom God put at His right hand. But I see

Satan the prince of it all, and the whole thing is bad from

beginning to end, and the whole is judged.

e judgment was not actually come; there was a

demonstration of judgment because the one who had

the power of the world had committed himself fatally

against Christ; but the presence of the Holy Spirit showed

it was against One who had broken his power and gone

up to heaven. e presence of the Holy Spirit shows that

Christ is in heaven, and righteousness is shown in setting

Christ there. e same thing demonstrated that judgment

was there; for the one who had allowed it was in direct

opposition to the one God had set at His right hand. But

it was not the execution of this judgment yet. e prince of

the world was cast out, for the world had fatally committed

itself against the One whom God had set at His right

hand. All this demonstration is in the world; what follows

is among the saints. “I have yet many things to say unto

you, but ye cannot bear them now; howbeit, when he, the

Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth,

for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall

hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to

come; he shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and

shall show it unto you” (John 16:12-14). We have had the

testimony borne by His presence in the world and now His

work among the saints. First He guides into all the truth.

at is a present thing. en things to come are shown.

In all He glories Christ, taking His things, all the Father

has, and securing them to them. It is for the world from

verse 8. I take it that the expression “because I go to the

Father,” which He employs everywhere in John, ows from

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

396

His speaking everywhere as the divine person who was

come and went back, not as the dying man, though going

through death, when all was over. He says, I am going away,

and to the Father. No man takes My life away, Satan has

nothing in Me. I am a divine person going to My Father;

and when the proper time has come you will see Me again.

ey did not understand, and He says, “Verily, verily, I say

unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall

rejoice, and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be

turned into joy.” It is not thus death and going to Him

that He sets before them, but seeing Him again, which is a

totally dierent thing.

In John 16:13 “of himself,” is “from himself.” He

will speak from the Father and the Son. e distinction

between verses 13 and 14 is that the one is what He does,

and the other is the object of it. He does two things — gives

you all present truth, and shows you things to come, that

is prophecy, of which there is plenty in the epistles and

the Revelation, to say nothing of what He explains of

earlier writings, and of Christ’s teachings, which was more

bringing to remembrance, but all part of the truth of course.

Verse 14 is what He does: He “shall show it unto you.” But

it is Christ He glories. e Holy Spirit reveals all that the

Father has, and that can be, revealed, and all these things

are part of Christ’s glory. He specially speaks of Christ as

gone. “He shall receive of mine,” is not Christ’s history as

on the earth, so much, but all this new scene, though He

does the other also. Here it is the new. ey were wrought

on by the Spirit to remember themselves what had passed

on earth. ey had seen it all; but here the Holy Spirit

comes down, and, coming down brings the things they

On the Gospel According to John

397

had not seen, that is, everything which the Father has and

which belongs to Christ.

e point in the “little while” is that the Lord is

not going to be lost, but as soon as God’s purposes are

accomplished He will come again. It is a great thing to

take what is in a passage. And it was accomplished as far

as resurrection went. e statement is that they would

see Him again, for He was not gone and lost. e world

rejoiced when He went away, as gone and done with. As far

as it went, it was veried when He rose again, His disciples

did rejoice greatly then; but it was not conned to that. It

says, “your sorrow shall be turned into joy.” And it was. In

the sense of verse 16 we have seen Him. It does not say, we

are sorrowing at His being lost; but they did sorrow, and it

speaks of the condition of the disciples in their place. e

world was delighted to get rid of Him, but He comes up

again, and His disciples see Him and rejoice. We have not

got into the one or the other case entirely. Christ is gone

in a certain sense, and yet we have seen Him so that we

are always rejoicing. e entire fulllment will not be until

Christ returns.

I was referring to verse 22. As to the present they have

lost Him again, after they had been glad when they saw

the Lord, but they never got back into the sorrow they had

had. I think the passage refers mainly to the resurrection,

the then present thing, though it is not entirely fullled

until we see Him. As we were saying before, I have eternal

life, and am looking for it, and even for justication in one

sense as in Philippians 3:9 that I may “be found in him,

not having mine own righteousness.” e disciples then

were wonderfully dull of heart about it, and they had no

understanding because the Holy Spirit was not given. e

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

398

point to me is, they would see Him again which they did

when He arose. e world would see Him no more, but

they see Him again, and have a consciousness that, instead

of a lost Savior of Israel, they had got a complete one for

the eternal purposes of God.

He is putting them here, as being Himself with the

Father and having everything in His hands, in contrast

with being a mere rejected dying man on earth as in the

other Gospels, and puts them in the presence of the Father

in grace, saying, “the Father himself loveth you, because ye

have loved me and have believed that I came out from God.

I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world;

again, I leave the world, and go to the Father” (John 16:27-

28). He is not here a dying man but a divine Person; I come

from the Father and go back to the Father, and shall come

again. e disciples got that, or part of it, when they saw

Him raised from the dead, although the full result will not

be until He comes again. ey did not understand it then

though they professed to do so, for they say, “by this we

believe that thou camest forth from God.” From the Father

they have not entered into. e Father is looked at as giving

Him all things, not merely is it that Christ came from God

and went to God — that was the moral connection, He was

going back to God in all His perfectness, but now He takes

His headship over everything. “Whatsoever ye shall ask of

the Father in my name”; we ask the Father as brought into

immediate relationship with Him, and in His name, as the

one in and through whom we are thus in relationship with

the Father. What title else have I to go to God? As to the

Lord’s prayer, here is one reason why it should not be used

now: it would not be asking in Christ’s name.

On the Gospel According to John

399

ere is often great failure in going directly to the

Father; it is in Christ’s name, but people go not in Christ’s

name, in the Spirit of adoption, but to Christ if they could

not go to the Father, like Martha: “whatsoever thou wilt

ask of God, He will give it thee.” ey go as sinners, but

inasmuch as Christ is there, they can go. Now that is not at

all where Christ puts them here; “the Father himself loveth

you”; all for Christ’s sake, it is true.

en the passage has been used for a very bad purpose

indeed, “ye shall ask me nothing,” as if you are not to look

or pray to Christ Himself, a mere abuse of the words. ey

were not to come to Him like Martha and say, “I know that,

whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it ee.”

e Lord says, “do you come yourselves to the Father and

do not be asking Me that I should go for you.” But in all

that concerns the administration, of what concerns His

lordship on earth, the Christian prays to the Lord, not to

the Son in that character. As a child and son I go to the

Father, but it is to Christ I go, not to the Father, in matters

that relate to His service. If I am a child, I go to the Father,

but if I have something of administration in the church, I

go to the Lord. It is a denition of a Christian that he calls

on the name of the Lord Jesus; and you have Stephen’s

example, and Paul besought the Lord thrice. You cannot

properly address the Spirit, but this is for another reason,

the Holy Spirit being the One who is in me, and so He

cannot address Himself. It is the dierent place the Holy

Spirit takes in the economy of grace that is the reason of

this. He is the agent in us to sustain us in prayer, for by one

Spirit we have access unto the Father.

It is not intelligent to use that hymn, “Come, Holy

Spirit, heavenly dove.” God does not make a man an

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

400

oender for a word, but it is not intelligent. “ese things

I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In

the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer,

I have overcome the world” (John 16:35). “In me” not

merely, not apart from me, but “in me.” Godly persons have

prayed for an outpouring of the Spirit. It was a mistake in

divine knowledge. at was done on the day of Pentecost.

But they meant well and earnestly desired really the more

abundant action of the Holy Spirit. I have no feeling of

attacking what is merely a want of apprehension, though

I have no doubt such lose greatly by it. I believe too, it is

necessary for the church of God that there should be the

clear truth seen.

John 17 is dierent from all other chapters in Scripture.

It is not all a prayer of intercession but the thing that is

peculiar, and which there is nothing else like is, that Christ

is not speaking to His disciples but to His Father in their

hearing. So He opens out all His mind to His Father while

they are there to hear it, or, if you please, we are there to

hear it. Of course this is a wonderful thing to be admitted to

listen while He is unfolding to His Father all He has to say

to Him about His disciples. And rstly He lays down the

position. “ese words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes

to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come, glorify thy

Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee.” Christ always has

His Father’s glory in view. And when He says, “glorify thy

Son,” we may remark these two points: He never, though

Son of God having become a man, goes out of the place of

receiving all from the Father. He does not say, Now I will

glorify Myself; but glorify ou Me. When gloried His

object as such is to glorify the Father in that higher place

and way though all was perfect here. en he continues,

On the Gospel According to John

401

“as thou hast given him power over all esh, that he should

give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.” He has

title over all esh, but with a special object too in that. He

has power over all esh; but the special intent is that He

may give eternal life to as many as have been given to Him

of the Father. “And this is life eternal that they might know

thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast

sent.” at is, as I was saying, when you come to grace, it is

Father and Son; it is the name that eternal life and blessing

come in; it is the only full revelation of God Himself.

You get the three names we were speaking of brought

together in Corinthians: “Wherefore come out from

among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch

not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and will be

a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters,

saith the Lord [that is, Jehovah] — Almighty.” Almighty,

Jehovah, and Father. Abraham’s God Almighty, Israel’s

Jehovah, Father is God’s name with us. Most High will

be millennial. Father comes out in John 17. Almighty did

not give eternal life, but kept Abraham from one people to

another; and Jehovah was faithful to His promises, making

them all good to His people. But this did not give eternal

life, nor is it eternal life; but the moment the Father sends

the Son, here is the grace that gives eternal life. God sent

His only begotten Son that we might live through Him.

We do not live through the rst Adam. e Almighty

watched over Abraham, but that did not give life, nor yet

the government of Jehovah, but the name of the Father

sending the Son does, and, receiving Him, we get it; that is

eternal life. e Most High goes on to the millennium, and

we have not come to that yet. “Father” is the special name

that we have; it was revealed while Christ was upon earth,

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

402

but not understood, because they had not yet the Spirit

of adoption. en comes the position we get this in; that

the Father glories the Son, all power being given to Him

to give eternal life to as many as God gave Him; and that

eternal life was in the knowledge of the Father, the true

God, and of Jesus Christ as sent.

en comes another point. His work: “I have gloried

thee on earth; I have nished the work which thou gavest

me to do, and now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine

own self with the glory which I had with thee before the

world was” (John 17:4-5). He had gloried God down here,

and nished the work given Him to do. It is wonderful how

the work itself is all passed over, but it is nished and He is

looking at the one passing out of the world to the Father;

and that is what has made the diculty of understanding

the seeing Him again, for He did not actually go to the

Father till the forty days were ended: the work is nished,

and then He goes back as Man into the glory of the

Father. And then it is He makes us sons, glorifying God

by His work, and we have part in the eect of it as sons.

So you get the whole framework of grace in this chapter.

He takes the glory as man having accomplished the work.

“Glorify thou me with thine own self.” “With” means “with

Himself, along with Himself.” He has just the same glory

as the Father, but He never goes of Himself out of the

place of humiliation. He was with the Father before the

world was — one with the Father. You get that equality all

through the Gospel. So here, “I have gloried thee,” now

“glorify thou me”; but He never says, “I have gloried thee,

and now I will glorify myself.” He receives everything, and

will take everything as receiving it from the Father.

On the Gospel According to John

403

As to Isaiah 53:11, “By his knowledge shall my righteous

servant justify many,” the meaning is very dierent. Christ

does not justify us by His knowledge. e Hebrew word

has two meanings. It is to justify; but it is also to “instruct

in righteousness,” though it goes farther, for He might

instruct, and they not learn. But the meaning is they are

really instructed. To justify by knowledge is very crooked.

“It pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to

grief; when thou shalt make his soul an oering for sin,

he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the

pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall

see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satised; by his

knowledge shall my righteous servant instruct the many

in righteousness, and he shall bear their iniquities.” It is

“instruct the many,” but in the last verse it is “bare the sin

of many,” without “the”; there is a “the,” or article, when it

says, instruct the many in righteousness. (Compare Dan.

11:33; 9:27; and the end of Rom. 5).

Notice now verses 4-5. Christ receives as Man, what

He had been in as a divine Person before ever the world

was at all, and then you come to the next step, to bring out

the part of those who were given Him. “I have manifested

thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the

world.” It is the Father giving to Him as Son of man, and

He gets the whole place as receiving it of the Father, and

having nished the work, He brings us into it, and then He

manifests the Father’s name to bring us into relationship in

which He is as Son. He has communicated to them all the

communications of the Father to Him as Man down here,

so that they should enjoy the relationship as exercised in

these communications. “I have given unto them the words

which thou gavest me, and they have received them, and

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

404

have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have

believed that thou didst send me.” us we get their place

settled. First, He manifests the name; and next, whatever

the Father had given Him He passes on to them that they

may have the full enjoyment of it.

In verse 26 “thy name” is the Father. “I have declared, and

will declare it.” If I think of God as thus revealed, I think of

the Father; because that is the name He has taken with me.

Christ having become a man, has “emptied himself,” and

He looks up to the Father. To deny His deity is to take the

opportunity of His having humbled Himself for our sakes

and sins to deny the glory due to Him because He laid

aside the form of it in love to us. He made Himself of no

reputation and then as Man humbled Himself. Still, though

He said, Freely do I come; when a body was prepared Him,

yet He therein took the place of the sent One. But His

moral glory was the greater; therefore doth my Father love

me because I lay down My life that I may take it again.

Now, He could say, is the Son of man gloried. When I

get the perfectness of the love, I nd the Father sent the

Son forth into the world. If I get a man sent from God,

whose name was John, he has a mission; but when I see

the Father sent the Son, I get the inniteness of the Son

in love, become a servant. If you go back, you will see the

thing the devil sought was to get Christ out of the place

of servant, and lead Him to command — “Command that

these stones be made bread.” “No”; as it were, He says, “I

have taken the place of service, and I will keep it.”

e sent One, as such, is not equal to the one who sends

Him. But then you get Him, the Jehovah, and Jehovah says,

“I am the rst, and I am the last, and beside me there is no

God” (Isa. 44:6). Isaiah saw also Jehovah in John 6; and in

On the Gospel According to John

405

John 12, referring to that passage it says, “ese things said

Esaias when he saw his glory, and spake of him.” What he

saw was, “Jehovah sitting on the throne, high and lifted up”

(Isa. 6:1).

But again, I do not admit that He came merely as man.

He undertook to come and do this will of God, a place of

distinct service. “Mine ears hast thou opened” (“digged” in

margin; Psa. 40:6). He undertook the service freely, and

God prepared a body for Him. “He wakeneth mine ear to

hear” as the learned, “the Lord God hath opened mine ear,”

that is, to learn down here (Isaiah 50:4-5). God formed the

place of service, and prepared a body, and Christ says, “Lo,

I come to do thy will, O God.” We hear of the undertaking

to come when the body was only prepared; He comes

to take it and became esh. en His ears were opened

morning by morning, and nally according to Exodus

21:6, as He who had completed His full service, loving the

One whose due service He had performed, His wife, His

children, in death He became a servant forever. Compare

John 13. His present place, and Luke 12 when He comes

and takes those who watch for Him to Himself. I came

forth from the Father, and came into the world.

ere is no such thing in Scripture as the Lamb slain

from the foundation of the world. It is in Revelation 13,

“Whose names are not written from the foundation of

the world in the book of life of the Lamb slain.” If people

merely mean that the Lamb was slain before the world in

the counsels of God, that is all very well, but in no other

way.

en He prays and rst for the eleven; further on He

says, “I pray not for these only” — all Christians are the gift

of the Father to Christ; though the immediate application

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

406

is to those brought in by the apostles. “I pray not for the

world” stands in a way contrasted with Psalm 2. He leaves

the world and does not pray for it. Intercession is only for

those who actually believe. “I pray for them; I pray not for

the world, but for them which thou hast given me.” He

will ask for the world hereafter, but He does not occupy

Himself with it here. It is in this verse that He begins to

pray. “Glorify thou me” in verse 5 is not prayer. “And all

mine are thine and thine are mine.” It is precious to see

these two motives given to the Father to keep us. If thou

carest for ine own thou must keep them, and if thou

carest for My glory thou must keep them, for He adds,

“and I am gloried in them.” is gives two motives for

keeping them, they belong to the Father and Christ is

gloried in them. “And now I am no more in the world;

but these are in the world, and I come to thee.” ere is

His position taken. “Holy Father, keep through thine own

name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be

one, as we are” (John 17:11). As yet we have only got the

disciples — the apostles. “While I was with them in the

world I kept them in thy name, those that thou gavest me

I have kept, and none of them is lost.” We get the name

withal in which they are kept. Kept as by a Father, but as

a holy Father, there is all the love and care of their being

His own children, but the holiness of God’s nature is the

character in which He keeps them.

And now I have another thing to mark, and that is the

three unities. First, it is the apostles “that they may be one,

even as we are,” and then the next is “that they all may be

one, as thou Father art in me and I in thee, that they also

may be one in us that the world may believe that thou hast

sent me,” and that is for the others who believe through

On the Gospel According to John

407

their words — communion as 1 John 1. And then there is

a third, “And the glory which thou gavest me I have given

them, that they may be one even as we are one. I in them,

and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and

that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast

loved them, as thou hast loved me” (John 17:22-23). at

is the glory. Display of the Father in the Son and of the

Son in the saints.

e unity of the apostles was unity by the power of

thought and work of the Holy Spirit. ey were identical

in counsels and purposes, being entirely under the Holy

Spirit, they were all of one mind, and it was one thing.

en when the persons who had believed were brought in,

they are brought into communion with the Father and the

Son which the apostles enjoyed that they might be “one

in us” as is said, may have communion with us, and our

fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

e apostles brought such into fellowship with them, and

they then had communion with “us.” ose who believed

were brought into unity and communion, though they did

not go out in action and counsel; but they are brought in

to enjoy it in the Father and Son, and have fellowship with

them. at would be the same as in John’s rst Epistle. It

is unity of communion, not of divine action and counsel,

and work. e third unity is simple; for there you have the

glory, and you get what is descendible, so to speak, “I in

them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in

one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me”

(John 17:23).

e rst is divine action and counsel and everything,

referring to the twelve; the second refers to those who

believe through their word, the Holy Spirit working by

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

408

them, and these brought into communion, and all one that

the world may believe; and then the unity in the glory, the

glory given that they may be one even as we are one. e

Father, gloried in Christ, and Christ gloried in us, and

this glory He gives us that the world may know; for when

they come out in glory the world will not “believe,” but

will “know” that God sent Christ, and, wondrous word!

loved us as He loved Him, for they will see them in the

same glory together. It is three steps, the giving out of the

testimony by the apostles; the reception of the testimony

through their means in the beginning; and the glory. e

last is the same as in essalonians. “I am gloried in them”

is also now, but He will be perfectly gloried in His saints.

You get a picture of it in the Acts too. Well these are the

three unities. “And now come I to thee, and these things

I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fullled

in themselves.” ere you have them put in His own place

with the Father “my joy”; nothing less.

“I have manifested thy (the Father’s) name.” I have

brought them in here, and I am gloried in them, that they

might have my joy fullled in themselves. Even then, all

the words His Father had given Him, He had given them.

He had put them completely in His own place before the

Father.

And now He puts them in His own place, not with the

Father, but in respect of the world; “I have given them thy

word, and the world hath hated them.” It is in the same

place of testimony that He had been in. ey are in the

same place as Himself with the Father to the end of verse

13; and then He begins to put them in the same place

as to the world, and He prays, “not that thou shouldest

take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep

On the Gospel According to John

409

them from the evil.” ere I learn that He has made their

place that which His was, giving them His testimony, the

Father’s word, not words here, and the world will not bear

it; if you get into this place the world will not stand it. e

world will bear a deal of religion, but not the Father. e

Father dwells with the Christian; you are all outside, if you

belong to the world and not to the Father. e Father has

taken His Son up to Himself out of the world; and the Son

says, “O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee,

but I have known thee, and these have known that thou

hast sent me.” “I have manifested thy name” and the eect

is that I am rejected. e world has not known the Father,

but the Father takes up the Son to His right hand, and the

world is all left behind; but Christians are put in His place

before the Father and before the world.

“Holy Father” is the name He uses in verse 11, where

He asks for them to be kept; here it is “righteous Father” in

speaking of the world. It is God, of course, but the friendship

of the world is enmity against God, and God is righteous

in reference to it. In verse 16 He says, “they are not of the

world, even as I am not of the world,” and then goes on to

how they are practically made not of the world as Christ

was not of it. e Father’s truth, and the Son at the right

hand of God, these are the two great elements. “Sanctify

them through thy truth, thy word is truth.” I want them

apart from the evil, they are not of it, as I am not of it; thy

word, the divine word, is truth, truth to separate them from

it. And then “for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also

might be sanctied through the truth.” It is not only the

Father’s truth brought down by the Spirit so as to bring

what is in His mind into ours and form us by it judging the

evil; but Christ has set Himself apart as the One in whom

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

410

all this truth is realized in glory, and as the object of their

aections, so that they should be sanctied through the

truth. Just as He had said before, “the truth shall make you

free,” and “the Son shall make you free” (John 8:36). is

is an important sentence; it is the way in which you are

morally put in the place in which we are detached from the

world. e truth shows us the divine nature, Christ, His

death; it is the Father’s word that comes from Christ who

is gone on high, and it is with the additional fact that in

Christ Himself it is all realized in glory. We have had now

their place with the Father, their place in the world.

en He prays “for them also which shall believe on me

through their word, that they all may be one, as thou Father

art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that

the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” And then

comes the third position — the glory — “that the world

may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as

thou hast loved me.” e dierence between believing and

knowing is not suciently noticed. When the glory comes

the world will know that we have been loved as Christ

was, for we appear with Him in the same glory. What a

wonderful sentence it is! e Lord delights to show that

we are in the same glory with Himself. Like Moses and

Elias in the same glory with Him on the mount. In one

sense this closes the teaching of the chapter.

e last three verses of the chapter alone refer to heaven.

“Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me

be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory

which thou hast given me, for thou lovedst me before the

foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world

hath not known thee, but I have known thee, and these have

known that thou hast sent me.” He will have His disciples

On the Gospel According to John

411

up there in the glory where He is; but this involves the

question between Him and the world. And He appears to

His Father to judge between the world and Himself. It is

His direct desire for having them in the glory in verse 24,

and then the decision as to the world comes in verse 25,

and in verse 26 He says, “I have declared unto them thy

name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast

loved me, may be in them and I in them.” at is a present

thing. It is not “declaring,” as before, that the world should

know, but to the disciples; when the glory comes, the world

will know that we have been loved as Jesus is loved. But we

are to know it now, and for this purpose He has declared

it, “that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be

in them and I in them.” He has made the Father’s name

known to us that the love wherewith He was loved may

be in us, and He dwells in us as a kind of conductor of

this love down to our hearts. ere are two kinds of love

known in the heart: God’s love shed abroad there and the

love of relationship in the Father; and dierent measures

of it, according to our spirituality; but the living in it is the

place we are in rightly, one child may feel its father’s love

better and deeper than another, but each is always in it.

As a child, he has the Spirit of adoption and cries, Abba,

Father; as to righteousness, he has it; and if I speak of a

son, he is one. And he is all this through Christ. He has

brought us into the same place with Himself. Such is the

subject of the chapter. But you never nd Christ taking us

into the same place with Himself without His divine glory

shining out and marking a dierence in Him all the while.

Still as to us and the ground of the relationship we are all

in the same place. It is another thing whether the heart of

the Christian in looking up has the consciousness of the

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

412

same favor resting on him as rests on Christ; that may vary

and in the same person too, but the settled consciousness

of the favor is there.

In “He that sanctieth and they who are sanctied are

all of one” (Heb. 2:11), we have the same thing. Before

God we are of one, but He sancties, we are sanctied.

And the nearer we are to Him the more we shall know it.

You always get the dierence kept up of the “sanctier”

and they “sanctied”; but He does bring us into His own

place, the same place in righteousness and life, and love. It

is not merely that my sins are put away, through the work

of the cross; that is not relationship, my debts are paid,

and I have to be very thankful for it, but it puts me into

no relationship with anybody. But Christ bring us into the

same place as Himself, and then we come not only into

relationship with Him, but also into His relationships.

en just look a little at this expression — I feel it often

in our worship meetings — “in the midst of the assembly

will I sing praise unto thee.” Christ is singing the praises,

but He raises the song of praise as the consequence of His

own place and ours being the same. He comes and brings

us into this place and says, I will sing in the midst of the

assembly He went down into the place of death and drank

the cup of wrath, and comes out into all the blessedness of

His Father’s delight, not only as His eternal delight, but as

having done the work for God — comes out and tells us

His name, and then says, “you must come and sing with

me.” It shows how wonderfully He puts us into the place

of relationship. And we cannot sing with Him unless we

have found that deliverance which put the new song in His

mouth. Even the bearing of sins and putting them away,

though an everlasting ground of thanksgiving, is not a new

On the Gospel According to John

413

relationship. What we are brought into is what the Father

is to Him when He has accomplished the work: “thou hast

heard me from the horns of the unicorns. I will declare thy

name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation

will I praise thee” (Psa. 22:21-22).

“at the love wherewith thou hast loved me, may be

in them, and I in them.” It is a very wonderful scheme

of God, to be sure, to bring poor worms, sinners, into the

place of His Son; and all His glory is in it, His love, His

righteousness, His holiness, His majesty, all are made good

in that by which we were; that is what we have here, Christ

gloried His Father — things for the angels to look into.

“Herein is love with us made perfect that we may have

boldness in the day of judgment” (1 John 4:17) is dierent,

in this, that there I have judgment before me, and you

cannot have this here. at is the thing as I look at myself

as a responsible being: responsibility leads me to judgment,

but Christ has come in and cleared me from it all, and I

am accepted in Him. But here I have another thing; what

is He going to do with these redeemed people? He makes

us “sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” “and

show the exceeding riches of his grace in us” (Eph. 2:7). He

must clear them from sins rst, that is true, but He had this

thought in His counsels to set us before Himself in love,

“having predestinated us into the adoption of children

(sons) by Jesus Christ to himself” (Eph. 1:5).

John’s epistle is the other aspect of this, from the

judgment side of it; it is not the union and relationship

side but the other side so that, when I think of judgment, it

is no judgment for me. “Boldness in the day of judgment,”

is a strong word, but that is what the epistle gives; it is in

the aspect of judgment. If I am the same thing as my judge,

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

414

I need have no fear of judgment if the judge acts according

to what He Himself is, because I am the same thing as

Himself. What I feel so important is, that consciousness of

relationship should be insisted upon. It is more than that

question of judgment, only here it is all the same position

as Christ, as well as in the epistle. I nd so many brethren

who linger round the fact of clearing us from our sins, and

do not enter into the consciousness of our relationship

in Christ with the Father. Every Christian ought to have

a sense of relationship, just as a child has on earth. e

moment I take my place in Christ by faith, I say “I am

loved as he is loved,” and I understand the aspect of the

Father’s love towards me.

I do not say if we are sealed, that we should not say,

“Abba Father,” but such an one may not enter into what it

is to be loved as Jesus is loved, and that Jesus would have

it so, and dwells in him that he might. You will nd many

brethren who really know they are forgiven, and yet have

never thought of being loved as Christ is loved. It is to be

known by faith, in the power of the Holy Spirit looking up

and being there — through the word of course.

e Lord says at the end, “O righteous Father, the world

hath not known thee” (John 1:25). ese have come unto

Me, they have received the message. ere is “the world”

on one side, and “these” on the other. “I have known thee,

and these have known that thou hast sent me.” And then

comes what these souls get: “I have declared unto them thy

name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast

loved me may be in them, and I in them.” Before, it was the

righteous Father, and He decides between the world, and

Christ, and His disciples; and the love comes in and puts

them in His place. He does so now, just as the Father had

On the Gospel According to John

415

said, “I have both gloried it, and will glorify it again” — as

He had done in Lazarus, and would do again in Christ. As

to the same glory: there is the divine end of it so to speak,

and the other end of it. We are one with Him and He is

one with the Father. Christ and His disciples go together,

and the Father is to decide between them and the world,

“O, righteous Father.”

He goes over the brook Cedron, and still you get the

same divine character. You have nothing at all, not a word,

of what is called Gethsemane, or of the praying and crying

to His Father; it is not that side that we get here. ey

came to take Him, and He puts Himself forward. You get a

divine Person who is giving His life, and He says, “Whom

seek ye? ey answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith

unto them, I am he. And Judas also which betrayed him

stood with them. As soon then as he had said unto them,

I am he, they went backward and fell to the ground” (John

18:4-6).

It is all power. He had only to walk away then. As soon

as divine power was manifested, they all fell to the ground.

en He asks again, “Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus

of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I have told you that I am he;

if therefore ye seek me, let these go their way” (John 18:7-

8). He puts Himself forward, and all the disciples escaped,

not in a very grand way, but still they are safe — the Good

Shepherd puts Himself in the gap, and the sheep escape.

Now Simon Peter, who had been sleeping when he

ought to have been praying, comes forward and resists. He

cuts o the right ear of the high priest’s servant, but Jesus

says, “Put up thy sword into the sheath; the cup which my

Father hath given me, shall I not drink it” (John 18:11).

is is not resisting; and it is all the Gethsemane you get

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

416

here — a divine person as man, bowing to whatever is done

as the Father’s will. e Father has given Him the cup to

drink, and He will drink it. He was a divine person, but a

servant. Simon Peter denies Him; the high priest asks of

His doctrine, and He answers He had ever openly taught in

the temple; those who heard knew what He said. ere is

no recognition of authority anywhere though He submits

to all. It is the Son of God who gives Himself. ey lead

Him to Pilate, and then what this Gospel so brings out is

here again shown, and that is perfect contempt for a Jew.

Pilate asks, “Am I a Jew?” All through this is so. Our Lord

says to the Jews, “Ye are of your father, the devil; ye have

not the love of God in you.” Pilate had the feeling of utter

contempt. When the chief priest wanted to change the

title on the cross, he says, utterly despising them, “What I

have written I have written.”

ey claim that He should die. Pilate goes again, and

asks, “Whence art thou”; and when He did not answer,

he says, “Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify

thee, and have power to release thee? Jesus answered, ou

couldest have no power at all against me, except it were

given thee from above; therefore he that delivereth me

unto thee hath the greater sin. And from henceforth Pilate

sought to release him” (John 18:10-12). e Jews cry, to

work on his fears, “ou art not Caesar’s friend.” “erefore

he that delivereth me unto thee hath the greater sin.” Pilate

had no power against Him really at all. If he believed that

He was the Son of God, and there was at any rate fear in

his conscience, he was helping on the devil’s work against

the Son of God, and any way he saw that in the Jews it was

hypocrisy and envy.

On the Gospel According to John

417

Pilate’s saying, “What is truth?” showed he did not know

what truth was. It is just what indels say now. eir minds

are always “open to truth,” as they say, and this shows one

clear thing — they have not got any. It is an old saying, “A

fool can ask a question that nine wise men cannot answer.”

You will never nd them state a truth; at best, everything

is hypothetical. One said to me, “How can I get any good

from anything I do not understand?” “Do you know how

your heart beats?” I asked, “and do you not get any good by

it?” He was confounded, but he got some good by it. And if

I have truth, my love of truth is shown by keeping it.

We nd a complete apostasy of the Jews here. “It was the

preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour; and

he saith unto the Jews, Behold your king! But they cried

out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate

saith unto them, Shall I crucify your king? e chief priests

answered, We have no king but Caesar.” is was apostasy.

It was denial of Messiah, their hope and everything else.

at stamps their character.

ey had a double council — one at night when He

was taken, and then they came to a formal sentence in

the morning. e narrative leaves much out here, as the

interview with Herod, and many details. But it is all Christ

in peace, who delivers His mother to the disciple, and then,

knowing that all things were accomplished, He received

the vinegar, and said, “It is nished.” He was crucied at

our nine, I suppose, and the darkness was from twelve till

three, and then He died. ere were six hours from the time

when He was crucied, and the darkness was for three of

them. Neither in Gethsemane, nor on the cross, have you

a word of suering in this Gospel. He bows His head, and

gives up His own spirit.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

418

He says “I thirst,” that the scripture might be fullled.

e suering was all there of course, only this Gospel does

not bring it out. In Matthew you get it all fully. In Luke you

see a great deal more suering in Gethsemane, and none

on the cross. “Being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly,

and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling

down to the ground” (Luke 22:44). ere, and all through

Luke, we get the Son of man, and not so much His divine

person. As Son of man He goes through all sorrow, looked

at as a matter of faith, in Gethsemane, and in spirit and

heart He drinks the cup, so that, when He comes to die,

the whole thing is perfectly calm. You get that side of it in

Luke. And that is just what we ought to do — I mean, to go

through all the sorrow and trial that is before us with the

Father rst, and when the sorrow itself comes, go through

it in calm. Jordan overows all its banks, it may be, but it is

dry to us. en in Luke it is simply said He expired.

Matthew gives us the suerings on the cross fully: there

I see the victim and the drinking of the cup. Is it not a

wonderful thing to have the Lord brought down to us in

this way — as Son of God and Son of man especially, all

divinely developed for our souls to see what was going on?

e vinegar was a kind of drink the soldiers had. Some

have thought it mockery, but this is not the way in which

it is presented here.

Certainly this is that death, where God and sin met in

the sinless one, and death was what it could be to none

but God, and yet He must be a man to die. He looked

at it as the cup of the judgment of sin, God hiding His

face, and yet there was perfect obedience manifest in man,

besides the perfect love of God in it. ere is no place like

this; even the new heavens and new earth depended upon

On the Gospel According to John

419

the cross, because God was perfectly gloried here as to

the whole question of sin, and nowhere else; good and evil

met perfectly; hatred against God and the devil’s power

and all possible evil in man to the highest degree. Christ,

man perfect in obedience and love to His Father, having

no sin, but made sin for us, while the judgment of God in

righteousness against sin, yet in perfect love to the sinner;

so that the question of good and evil might be settled and

settled forever, and by God Himself, the Son of God giving

Himself as man for it.

Unrepentant sinners will be judged of course; will be

judged, and justly, according to their works; but the cross

has settled a great deal more than that; it has settled all

that is in God’s character as to evil and as to good. Christ

says, “I have overcome the world,” but also, “I have nished

the work which thou gavest me to do” (John 17:4). And

that work can never lose its value, and therefore I get the

everlasting value of it when I get it at all. It was dealing with

sin; but so as to put it away, and thus I get the new heavens

and the new earth founded on it. Innocence was in the rst

earth, or garden of Eden, sin is in this, and righteousness

will be in the next. e cross was to put away sin for God,

and you get the new heavens and the new earth founded on

sin being put away before God; righteousness then comes

in. “He appeared once in the end of the world to put away

sin by the sacrice of himself.” e result is not produced

yet at large, though it is in respect of our consciences.

Heaven and earth shall bow to Christ, but that is things

in heaven and things on earth, and things under the earth

too, and that is nal. Now God has been gloried nally,

and this cannot change; and everything new is based on it.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

420

e Lord’s making John the guardian of His mother

explains, “what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet

come.” But when His hour was come, and He had done the

work, He could turn to recognize the relationship, seeing

He was now no longer engaged in serving His Father on

earth.

It was the scene that stands by itself. Pilate was alarmed

and uneasy all through; his wife came and told him she had

suered many things in a dream because of Him, and he

was to have nothing to do with that just man, but the Jews

press Him on, though Pilate did it himself. Everything

was exactly opposite to God; the disciples that ought to

have been faithful to Him, run away, another betrays Him,

another denies Him; the chief priests, who ought to have

interceded for the guilty, plead against the innocent; Pilate,

who ought to have justly acquitted Him and set Him

free, condemns Him. Everything was exactly opposite to

what ought to have been. e cross being there brought

everything to the test.

Pilate represents the power of the world committed

against Christ, and that has been fatally compromised

there: it was the abuse of the power committed to the

Gentiles by God. e Jews were the agents in it all, but

Pilate was the government of the world recklessly rejecting

Christ at the instigation of wicked men.

When the Lord returns, He will nd the beast in power,

and the Antichrist there. Evil will have all ripened into

some positive shape, but otherwise it will be exactly the

same. at is the reason why the Lord, as to circumstances,

took the sorrows of the remnant upon Him. He had to do

with the apostate nation, with the king Cesar; He had to

do with them all, but did he nd faith on the earth? e

On the Gospel According to John

421

remnant will have to do both with apostasy and Gentile

power, with this immense dierence — that Christ went

through judgment for them, and they will not have to do it.

e Jews have a tradition that Antichrist is to be of the

tribe of Dan; and they look for Messiah Son of Joseph to

suer, and for Messiah Son of David to reign. Many now

look for nothing at all. ere is a rationalistic movement

among them, and an attempt on the part of some to join

the Socinians. Some will tell you that Christians have

done a great deal of good, and many have read the New

Testament, but many are indels, and this is growing

among them — on the one side the Talmudists, and the

rationalists on the other, and some few in between these;

but they are all uneasy.

In Revelations 13 we have Antichrist with two horns

like a lamb, that is his royal character. In the rst part of that

chapter, the Roman power comes rst, and they will both

go on together, and play into each other’s hands; but then

the beast has not as yet actually come into Palestine; when

he has, the second beast has truly his prophet character.

John alone of the evangelists mentions the owing of

the blood and water from Christ’s side; he alludes to it in

his epistle too. It is a beautiful testimony of divine grace,

answering the last insult man could heap upon Him. ey

drove Him outside the camp, put Him to death on a cross,

and then, to make assurance doubly sure, the soldier gives

Him a blow with his spear. Salvation was God’s answer to

man’s insult, sin in his rejection of Him, for the blood and

water were the signs of it.

In John’s epistle the water is named rst, because, looked

at on God’s side, water comes rst; in the history it cannot:

“Forthwith came there out blood and water,” in the epistle;

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

422

“not by water only, but by water and blood” (1 John 5:6).

e point is that eternal life is not found in the rst Adam

but in the last; the witnesses to this are the water, the blood,

and the Spirit. You want purifying to have eternal life; you

will get it nowhere but in death, and in that of Christ in

grace. You want expiation, and the blood of Christ makes

that; you want the Holy Spirit. Christ is not only dead,

but gloried, and the Spirit is given, the witness that there

is no life in the rst Adam but in the Son. Its power is

found in that which marks the total breach of the rst man

with God and of God with him, save in sovereign mercy.

In the epistle John is showing that moral cleansing will

not be enough. e Spirit is named rst when God applies

it. e word is the instrument, but it is by death itself: you

must have cleansing, but the cleansing is death. e water,

coming forth from the side, is purity; and you can have

purity by death only, and by His death. en Joseph comes

before us, and Nicodemus too, when the thing comes to a

point.

But in John 20 we get the whole picture of the

dispensation, from the remnant of Israel that rst received

Him risen, to the remnant that will know Him when they

see Him again, represented by omas. Mary comes early

to the sepulcher, while it is yet dark; her heart is there, and

she has no rest without Him. e others came when it was

light — the natural hour to come. When they had been

buying spices for the body and what they were going to do

next morning, they come at the light. But Mary Magdalene

has no heart to be without Him, and, before the light, she

is there. e church began by a remnant, but John never

gives us the church, but the remnant at the end, and in

On the Gospel According to John

423

verse 17, “My Father and your Father, and to my God and

your God” — two dispensations if you call them so.

First, Mary goes to the sepulcher and nds the stone

rolled away. She runs and tells Peter and John, and they

go to the sepulcher. Peter goes in rst as usual; those two

constantly go together, they both loved the Lord, but in

very dierent characters. ey do not shine in this history.

ey come and see and believe, and go away to eat their

breakfasts, or for something at home. ey did not know

the scriptures, nor did they stay to be anxious about it at

all. ey saw and believed, for they knew not the scriptures.

It was not faith in God’s word but sight convinced them.

e clothes all lay quietly there; there had been no stealing

away, and they said He must be risen. Afterward Christ

reproaches them for their unbelief. At any rate like Mary,

they might have inquired. Mary stays when they have gone

o; and there she is weeping, and thinks when she sees

Him He is the gardener, and says, “If thou have borne him

hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take

him away.” She feels she has a right to dispose of His body,

and talks to the gardener as if he knows all about it — “Tell

me where thou hast laid him” — just as I might go to a

house where one is ill, and say, “How is he?” without stating

a name, because all hearts are full of the sick one. en

Christ brings out (the angel had done so too) where her

heart was; and, when that is done, He calls His own sheep

by name, and she turns and says to Him, Rabboni, that

is, Master. en she would have taken Him by the feet,

but He anticipates her, for she thought she had got Him

back again for the kingdom. You must not touch Me, “but

go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my

Father and your Father, and my God and your God.” It

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

424

is the highest expression of personal relationship, and she

is the messenger of it to the apostles themselves. He has

accomplished redemption, and they are His brethren, for

He has put them into the same place as Himself. e women

in Matthew touch Him, but they were no messengers of a

higher calling in contrast with the kingdom. ey thought

nothing about the act save as a mere token of respect and

attention, and He let them do it.

e Lord was not seen by Peter rst. e women are

not named in 1 Corinthians 15, because Paul is speaking

of witnesses there; he speaks of Peter, and the twelve, and

ve hundred, and James, and that was all he wanted. “en

of the twelve”; that marks it.

“It was written in the Book of Psalms…and his

bishoprick let another take” (Acts 1:20). at was both

reason and authority for choosing another. He has another

to witness of His resurrection, because the Psalms said it

was to be done. e number “twelve” is the perfection of

human things in government; the foundations of the city,

new Jerusalem, are twelve; so twelve apostles of the Lord.

“Ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve

tribes of Israel” (Matt. 19:28). ere must be twelve.

Luke takes them all in a lump — Mary Magdalene and

the other women, and puts them together; this is Luke’s

way — all in a lump together, and then he picks out perhaps

a single circumstance in which deep and interesting moral

traits are developed and that he gives at length. In verse

18 we get Mary Magdalene’s testimony. e seeing and

believing left the disciples at home, individually, but

through her they receive testimony. Mary Magdalene is the

gure of the remnant.

On the Gospel According to John

425

en another point. We see them gathered, and Christ

pronounces peace upon them. He had said before, “Peace I

leave with you” — His own peace in the world, but here there

is not only resurrection brought in, but the relationship.

“My Father and your Father, my God and your God.” And

then He comes in a sense into the midst of the church

gathered together, and, instead of saying, “Fear not,” as He

was wont while here below, the door was shut for fear of

the Jews, and He says now, “Peace be unto you,” for He

had now made peace by the blood of His cross. As though

to say, “I cannot stay with you, but I leave peace with you”;

and He breathes on them too, and says, “Receive ye the

Holy Ghost.” “As I cannot stay, here is a provision for you

if I go”; such is the force of it. It is the Holy Spirit in the

power of life in resurrection, not sent down from heaven.

ere is nothing special in the “eight” days, in verse 26.

In one place you will nd “after six days,” and in another,

eight. John never gives us the church as a doctrine, but we

have historically their gathering together and He in their

midst.

As to peace He says, “Peace be unto you; as my Father

has sent me, even so send I you” (John 20:21). It is

characteristic now to be so. e word “peace” is an amazing

word in scripture. “e God of peace shall be with you”

(Phil. 4:9). He is never called the God of joy; it is never

given as His character. He is, as God, always in peace, and

never up and down as we are. Joy is a feeling that a man has

when he is up, and presently it subsides, and he goes down

again. Christ now brings peace — He has made absolute

peace, perfect peace, and He brings it.

en comes the breathing on them. It was the gure

of the Holy Spirit coming after He had made peace; but

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

426

as a fact it was the power of resurrection life. Just as God

breathed into Adam’s nostrils, so the resurrection Son of

God breathes into them the power of the life He gives

them as risen. In Acts 1 you get the sending of the Holy

Spirit, not the breathing on them, not the power of life, but

the Holy Spirit Himself received anew for others from the

Father by the Son, and then by Him shed forth.

As to “Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted

unto them” (John 20:23). ey were the administrators of it

in the world; rst in the preaching of the gospel if you like;

but afterward, in the proper administrative sense. Here it is

the apostles. But Peter in a sense remitted Cornelius’ sins.

Paul says, “To whom ye forgive anything, I forgive also”

(2 Cor. 2:10). And yet, if such an one is a believer, he has

eternal life and forgiveness all the while. at is what I mean

by administrative. Not the forgiveness in which the soul is

justied, but the present conferring the forgiveness in the

ways and government of God. James says, “And if he have

committed sins, they shall be forgiven him” (James 5:15).

If discipline is carried out, there the sin is bound upon the

person. It is spoken here of the disciples, that is the eleven.

e question has been raised, I know, whether there were

one hundred and twenty that obtained this power, or only

eleven. e great thing is to get what the Spirit of God is

at in the passage, and afterward the context as much as you

like. omas is not there the rst time. ere might have

been more than the eleven present.

As to binding and loosing the only thing that I see it

conferred upon, after Peter, is in Matthew 18, “Where two

or three are gathered together in my name”; forgiveness of

sins is not named here, though this is part of it. e thing

He is here speaking of is their administrative capacity. In

On the Gospel According to John

427

those early days there was no such thought as receiving in

anyone, and he not having his sins forgiven. It is the very

thing, they, the disciples, were “sent” out for — to announce

the remission of sins to give knowledge of the salvation of

His people by the forgiveness of sins: only He gives the

administration of it to them. I believe that any assembly of

two or three in Christ’s name (provided they look to Him,

and do it in His name) have the power to bind and loose,

and forgive sins; only this is not eternal forgiveness.

As to John 18:28, it is a question of whether Christ

anticipated the Passover, for they began it in the evening,

and among the Jews the evening began the next day, and

was reckoned with it. It was dark when they went out. I did

look into the thing once, but those things do not occupy

me much. “at they might eat the passover,” falls in

completely with Christ being sacriced on the paschal day;

it is merely a question of why He ate the supper previously,

and still it was on the same day. As to the title on the cross,

here we get the whole — “Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the

Jews.” One Gospel gives one part, and another, another;

but here you get it in full.

To return to the forgiveness of sins in John 20. He says

“Peace [be] to you”; rst by itself, and next, both on the

Lord’s day, says, “Peace [be] to you; as the Father sent me

forth, I also send you.” He brought the peace to them, and

then He sent them out with the peace. en He breathes

the Holy Spirit into them, which, looked at as gurative

teaching, in the dispensational teaching here given, is the

same as sending it from heaven; but historically it was the

power of life, and not the giving of a person.

When they brought the message of this peace and

preached the gospel, that was the character of their mission;

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

428

then there was restoring souls in details. e oering once

oered, we have absolute remission, when it is a question

of our acceptance with God; and then the administrative

thing, as “Arise and be baptized, and wash away thy sins”

(Acts 22:16), to Paul. It is well to see that, as to forgiveness,

it is not a mere perfect work by which I am to be forgiven,

but I am forgiven. It is more than mere declaration. e

woman in Luke 7 was forgiven in the mind of God, but

she herself had it not until the Lord said to her, “y faith

hath saved thee, go in peace.” I could not say that a person

is sealed in the mind of God, because sealing is not a thing

in a person’s mind at all, and forgiveness is. I may have

forgiven you an oense, but you are not easy until I tell

you so; whilst sealing is a dierent thing in its nature. e

woman did not get the forgiveness until He said so, though

she saw the grace in Christ that drew her to Him. You

nd that constantly; you get it in pious souls, the sense of

the grace that forgives without the sense of forgiveness.

ey love the Lord, but if I say, “Are your sins forgiven?”

the reply at once is, “Oh, I could not say that.” You nd

hundreds such. You see it as to salvation in Cornelius. He

was to call Peter and hear words, whereby he and his house

should be saved. He was safe really already. Justication is

in the same way. People talk about eternal justication; but

justication is not only what is in the mind of God, but in

the man’s receiving it, and therefore you get justication by

faith. A person really is accepted, and there is the sense of

the forgiving grace in the person of Christ, but the word of

known forgiveness is not in the mind of the person himself.

e same of justication. at is the force of the word,

He “was raised again for our justication” (Rom. 4:24),

because justication there is an active word in Greek — for

On the Gospel According to John

429

our justifying — and then it adds, “Having been justied

by faith,” and so on. Faith must come in in order to our

actually having it, and the man has not got it until faith.

Suppose a thousand pounds given to me, I must sign my

name for it. Actually I do not get it until I sign my name.

In Matthew 18:15-18, the inheritance of binding and

loosing is given to the two or three. us the binding and

loosing power which is claimed by clergymen and others,

and which was given rst to Peter, has its succession in the

two or three gathered together, and not in clerical successors.

And that has its importance in these days. In Matthew it is

not absolutely the same as in John 20:23, for it may apply

to other things. e main point is the same no doubt, and

has always been considered so, though not exclusively that.

It is almost always “heavens,” not “heaven.” e place is lost

sight of when we say “heaven,” because we talk loosely of

going to heaven. It is the “kingdom of the heavens”; that is,

belongs to the heavens and not to the earth. “Heavens” is

the place more, but “heaven” is characteristic. You may use

both so, but I should say, “e heavens are higher than the

earth.” We use the heavens more materially in a way. ere

are habits of that kind in language which are not absolute.

Peter is represented as having “keys,” but it is an

important point to notice that there are no keys of the

church; that is a mere blunder. “I will build,” says Christ;

and Peter had nothing to say to it except the privilege of

getting the name “Peter.” e administration of the church

was not committed to Peter, but of the kingdom. e

church in this sense is not even built yet; whereas the keys

of the administration of the kingdom of heaven upon earth

were committed to him; and he lets in the Jews and the

Gentiles. at is the force of “keys.” “e key of the house

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

430

of David will I lay upon his shoulder,” Isaiah 22:22, has

the same meaning. It is the charge of administering the

kingdom of heaven down here. at is where popery has

made an immense blunder, though very natural to the state

of that church. It has taken Peter instead of Paul; there

is no successor to Paul, and they do not attempt it. Peter

had to follow Christ, and Judaism came to nothing, and

the circumcision church died away at Jerusalem. ey take

up with Peter because the church dropped into a Judaical

state. You never hear of a pope as the successor of Paul.

e entire thing is ridiculous, because after all you have

no succession of Peter. As to successors to Timothy, whom

Paul appointed in a way (but not to be his successor),

nobody has thought of that, except in some general idea.

It is curious how and where things come out. ere are

those now and doctors of divinity too; one of them goes

through all this, and declares there is no ordination to the

ministry in scripture, and no sacraments in scripture, and

that one person is as competent to administer as another,

that certain things must be done, but there is no authority

in any clergy from scripture. He says there was no such

thing in the early church at all. And it is so — there was

not. He admits that the apostles appointed elders, as

indeed is plain, but it must be taken for granted that they

did it with the concurrence of the people, because Clement

says so. Clement owns no bishop. Vigilantius was cursed

by Jerome in an awful way; but he stopped on his way back

and stayed among the Vaudois. Tillemont says of Jerome,

“we may learn from this what a church saint is.” He is as

abusive and vengeful as possible, only he praises celibacy.

Chrysostom and Augustine fell under his lash.

On the Gospel According to John

431

But we were at forgiveness: and now we get the remnant

in the last days, and the three times that Christ reveals

Himself to them, as it says in John 21:14: “is is now

the third time.” He had seen them ever so many times,

but as to this kind of denite public and positive showing

Himself, the rst time was on the Lord’s day (John 20:19);

then when omas was there eight days after in verse 26;

and then in the last chapter picturing the remnant at the

end. Calling this the “third time” is a proof that the third

time is used with a kind of specic gurative character.

omas being absent the rst time, had no part in this

Christian mission, but he comes in afterward, and believes

when he sees.

Let us look now at the dierent missions in the dierent

Gospels. In Matthew you have no ascension, and you get

the mission from Galilee. e angels tell the women to “go

quickly, and tell his disciples,” not “I ascend unto my Father

and your Father, and to my God and your God,” but “that he

is risen from the dead, and behold he goeth before you into

Galilee, there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you” (Matt.

28:7). And then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee

unto a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And

when they saw him they worshipped, but some doubted.

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, “All power is

given unto me in heaven and in earth; go ye therefore, and

teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father,

and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to

observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you”

(Matt. 28:18-20). ere you get the mission in resurrection

from Galilee, and from the remnant of Israel looked at

as thus gathered, and going out to disciple the nations

or Gentiles. And that never was carried out in scripture,

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

432

except it be a hint in Mark at the utmost. And not only

you do not get it carried out negatively, but you also get

positively the going to the Gentiles given up to Paul. e

apostles gave it up, and agreed that they should go to the

Jews, and “that we should go unto the heathen.” You nd

it in Galatians 2. And then you get the church an entirely

new kind of thing. As Matthew’s mission, everything was

provisional, not carried out.

But there is another thing which gives an intimation

about it, and that is, when the Lord sends them forth, He

tells them (Matthew 10) “If they persecute you in this city,

ee ye into another; for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not

have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be

come.” But in Acts you nd that, on persecution arising,

they all ed, except the apostles, and that must be taken

into account as to the way in which the instruction was

practically carried out. For the Gentiles there is an entirely

fresh start from Antioch when Paul is sent out by the Holy

Spirit. ere was then very nearly a split between Jerusalem

and Antioch, but they were united and kept together as

you nd in Acts 15.

Well, the mission in Matthew starts from Christ’s

connection with the remnant in Israel. In Mark, it is more

general. You get more the service of Christ there; and in

Mark 16:15, He said unto them, “Go ye into all the world,

and preach the gospel to every creature”; that is the largest

and most general commission you have, “He that believeth

and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not

shall be damned.” It is the more remarkable because that is

the part of Mark which the learned Germans reject from

verse 9 to the end. In what precedes you get this Galilee

revelation of Himself, but no heavenly revelation, no

On the Gospel According to John

433

Bethany revelation at all. In what they consider genuine

in Mark you do not get the ascension; they only go to the

instruction in verse 7, and stop with “ey were afraid” (vs.

8). But in Mark they are sent to Galilee, and the history is

pursued regularly on that basis up to the end of verse 8, but

if you stop at verse 8, it stops all of a heap, and you get no

mission at all. In these last verses you get His appearings

to them, and the facts are what are recounted in Luke and

John, and the mission is added in verse 15; it is not said in

what connection, and then He is received up into heaven.

ey go forth, the Lord working with them, so that there

you get the mission from heaven with power. It is the Luke

commission from verse 9. In Luke you only get the last

part of Mark, who gives Matthew up to the sepulcher, and

parts of Luke and John. In Luke 24, “It behooved Christ

to suer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that

repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his

name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke

24:46-47). He, taking the mission from heaven as Paul

did, takes in Jerusalem as much as the nations, “the Jew

rst, and also the Greek.” en “He led them out as far

as to Bethany, and he lift up his hands and blessed them;

and it came to pass while he blessed them, he was parted

from them, and carried up into heaven.” So Luke’s mission

practically comes from heaven, it is in Bethany and not

in Galilee. Galilee is the mission to Gentiles only from

a risen Savior in the place where He had the poor of the

ock; Luke’s commission is from heaven, and is Pauline

in character. In Mark you have “Go to Galilee,” but you

have no Galilee mission at all. In John you get no going to

heaven, but you get them sent out for the remission of sins:

“As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” It is a

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

434

mission from the divine person, not from a place at all. And

then it is by the Holy Spirit: He gives them the Holy Spirit

and the forgiveness of sins; and so there is no ascension in

John, for this would give a place, though a heavenly one.

And now it is all purposely mysterious in the end of

John. It is remarkable — all the puzzling of men’s minds

about these things, when it is just an inlet into the fullness

of truth. “After these things” (Luke 21:1), it is all mysterious.

Peter was going back to the old work from which he had

been called. Peter might have wanted his dinner. But

it was ordered of God for His own purposes. And they

went forth, but that night they caught nothing. When the

morning came, Jesus stood on the shore, and asks, “Have ye

any meat?” ey answer “No.” He says, “Cast the net on the

right side of the ship, and ye shall nd.” And they were not

able to draw the net for the multitude of shes. “erefore

that disciple whom Jesus loved [the secret of the Lord was

still with him who loved and kept close to Him], saith unto

Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it

was the Lord, he girt his sher’s coat unto him (for he was

naked), and did cast himself into the sea, and the other

disciples came in a little ship (for they were not far from

land, but as it were two hundred cubits), dragging the net

with shes.”

But the Lord had sh already; He had got the remnant

with Him on shore, and then you get the millennial haul. It

is all purposely mysterious. Where did He get the sh He

had? It does not say. But “Simon Peter went up and drew

the net to land full of great shes, an hundred and fty and

three; and for all there were so many, yet was not the net

broken.” Now when the gospel haul was depicted (Luke

5:6), the net was broken; but here, the Lord being there,

On the Gospel According to John

435

the net did not break. e gospel net gathered shes, and

does now; but as a whole, the net broke, and they began to

sink. Here they haul them in, and the Spirit of God notices

that the thing is complete. e shes gathered out of the

sea are the nations; but the Jewish remnant is on the shore

already.

We may here remark how Augustine makes a mess when

he gets on the unity of the church. It was settled at that

time that they should not re-baptize heretics, and so the

Donatists say to him, “You do not re-baptize those you call

heretics because they have already received the Holy Spirit

by our baptism, but how could we give the Holy Ghost

if we have not got it?” And Augustine could say nothing,

for it was a decided thing already. ey confounded the

outward thing with the inward. Augustine felt the reality

of divine things, and was trying to unite the two — the

outward and the inward He took the outward thing as the

union with Christ, and said there was no salvation out of it.

“Jesus then cometh and taketh bread, and giveth them,

and sh likewise. is is now the third time that Jesus

showed himself to his disciples, after that he was risen

from the dead” (John 21:13-14). And now He begins with

Simon Peter and the mission He has for him. ere is a

mission that goes before Christ’s coming — a kind of John

the Baptist mission; and after that they go out and bring

the nations in. e disciples had not yet the Holy Spirit,

and understood nothing. Israel will be the head of nations,

and the nations will take hold of the skirts of a Jew, saying,

“We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with

you” (Zech. 8:23).

e unbelieving Jews before that will join the Gentiles

in total unbelief. Any who are converted will be persecuted

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

436

horribly, and their blood will be shed like water. e Gentile

haul will be for the millennium. Compare Revelation 7.

e Jews will understand it, as everybody will then.

e net full is the millennium all through; it is merely a

general idea of a whole body of people, but these passages

refer to the beginning of it all. In the last of Isaiah you nd

the Gentiles will bring the Jews all in. Matthew 25 is the

judgment on the nations. But the remnant, you remember,

is distinct from the haul. Matthew 25 is at the beginning,

and so is Revelation 7, where they come out of the great

tribulation; both these speak of the beginning, but in the

haul, the net not being broken the eect goes on. e gospel

net is going on now. e net breaking is simply that the

system gave way. en we see the Lord and the disciples

eating together. is completes the picture.

en Simon Peter comes, and the Lord takes him and

tests him as to his fall. “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me

more than these?” (John 21:15). at is what he pretended

to do. “He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I

love [am attached to] thee. He saith unto him, Feed my

lambs.” He asks a second time, and Simon replies the same,

but the Lord changes the words then into “Feed my sheep,”

or properly, “Shepherd my sheep,” not “feed.” It is one of

the defects of the English translation, that they have put

the same word where the original has dierent ones, and

dierent words where the original has the same. en

the third time, instead of using the same Greek word for

“lovest,” as in the rst two questions, the Lord changes the

word, and uses the same word [phileo] that Peter had used

in his two answers. He took Peter up as it were on his own

expression, and asks him, “Art thou attached to me”; Peter

On the Gospel According to John

437

answers, “Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that

I love [am attached to] thee.”

e Lord never reproaches Peter for the fault, but He

probes him — probes the root that produced it; and when

He has thoroughly humbled him so that he is obliged

to appeal to divine knowledge that he did love, then He

commits all that is dearest to Himself to Peter. He had

said to him before (Luke 22) that He had prayed for

him, “that thy faith fail not, and when thou art converted

[brought back], strengthen thy brethren. And he saith unto

him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison

and to death. And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall

not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that

thou knowest me”; and now, when Peter is broken down

and the esh proved, can He say, as it were, “you are t

to serve.” You see how He takes that up, “when thou wast

young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou

wouldest,” there is human will; “but when thou shalt be

old thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall

gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. is

spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God.

And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow

me.” at is exactly what Peter had pretended to do; he had

said, “I will follow thee to prison and death.” Now He says,

Of your own will you cannot. It is a beautiful expression of

the Lord’s love and a pattern of the Lord’s restoring grace.

Everyone has to go through that, though you see many

a person serving sincerely who has not been broken down

yet. Yet I believe it must be got; if one does go and make

messes, he gets it afterward. ere is a positive breaking

down of esh, and then when you know it can do nothing

but mischief, which is all it can do, there is still the watching

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

438

of it after its back is broken, so to speak. Peter’s mission

to the circumcision comes to nothing in the outward

sense, and he follows Christ. As to outward work for the

Jews, Christ’s mission had come to nothing, and so had

Peter’s: Jerusalem was taken, the Jews were rejected, and

the church as Peter had it was altogether nothing, being

supplanted, as you may say, by Paul’s. So with Paul himself,

when Jesus spoke to him, and he fell to the earth, he asks;

“Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” (Acts 9:6). Before,

in his own energy, he had had no hesitation what to do,

and went very vigorously about it. And afterward he was

away for three years to learn, though he was rst allowed

to give a full testimony at Damascus; “And straightway he

preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of

God.” In that way Moses needed to have forty years in the

desert before leading out the people.

en Peter asks about John, “Lord, and what shall this

man do?” and Jesus says, “If I will that he tarry till I come,

what is that to thee? Follow thou me” (John 21:22). John

does not come under “Follow thou me,” but has to continue

until Christ comes, and not be cut o as it were. John always

speaks so of himself; there is a tness for John’s ministry

in it. It shows a complete attachment to Christ personally.

You never get the church in John’s ministry; it is always

the individual; and, Christ being personally the thing he

clings to, all that is vital and essential to souls (supposing

the church goes to the winds) is there still. And John was

just the one to hang over the ruin of the church and carry

out the essential of Christianity. John’s ministry did tarry

till Christ came, next the Antichrist in his epistle, and then

the church spued out of Christ’s mouth, and so on. e

other disciples took the words as if John would not die, but

On the Gospel According to John

439

this was not said. en you have no Paul, no founding of

the church, as a distinct thing, no ascension here: we are in

Galilee with a mysterious intimation of what was going to

happen, and Christ is in Galilee, not in Bethany when it

ends, but He here gives no mission from Galilee; we have

Peter following Him, and John tarrying till He came again,

mysteriously, and meant to be so.

But Peter in his second epistle gets beyond this into

new heavens and new earth. And you have the day of the

Lord in which “the heavens shall pass away with a great

noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat” (2

Peter 3:10). Peter’s epistles are the government of the Lord,

the rst being the government of the saints in the world,

and the second more the government of the world — its

judgment. And therefore he carries this on to the new

heavens and new earth. But you have nothing of the Lord’s

coming except that the wicked despise it.

e rst epistle is government for, and the second is

government against; the rst is taking care of the saints, the

second is power over, and judgment on, the wicked. Peter

forms in that way a connecting link. We are not of the

world at all, but there is an application of the government

of God while we are passing through it. We nd the saints

suering for righteousness’ sake, and suering for Christ’s

sake, and God’s care of them in it all. at is in the rst

epistle. e second is government in respect of evil. John’s

ministry was dierent; his life hung as it were over the

seven churches.

“Whither thou wouldest not” means against Peter’s

will. With his esh unbroken he could not follow Christ

at all, but afterward he would. It is in the fullest contrast

with Paul in Philippians, a totally dierent kind of thing.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

440

It is just the opposite to Mark 10. e young man is

righteous according to law, and, instead of counting all

dross and dung, he goes away sorrowful because he has

great possessions. Instead of the righteousness of faith, the

young man was looking how he was to be righteous in his

own way. It is a wonderful thing — God’s mind being all

brought before us in this way. e leaving out of Paul and

all that belongs to his ministry strictly is very striking here.

His was an extra mission, being “one born out of due time”;

and even Peter speaks of him as writing “things hard to be

understood” (2 Peter 3:16) in his epistles. ere is nothing

about demons in John’s Gospel: “ye are of your father the

devil” (John 8:44) you get, but no demons possessing men.

You have the Lord in His own divine person, and the devil

is the adversary.

Meditations on the Acts of the Apostles

441

62901

Meditations on the Acts of

the Apostles

Introduction.

e Acts of the Apostles are a continuation of the

Gospel of Luke, and are written by the same Evangelist.

e discourses, whether of Peter or of Paul, have their

source in the heavenly commission which is found at the

end of that Gospel. It is not necessary, I hope, to say that

the whole is given by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,

because each of the evangelists has been employed by God

to present us with a dierent aspect of the history of the

Lord; and each has accomplished, with the help of the

Spirit, the work assigned to him by God. For example, in

Matthew we nd much more the dispensations of God,

and the Lord as Emmanuel in the midst of Israel on the

earth. In Luke, after the rst two chapters, we have the Son

of man, and the ways of God in grace and the blessings of

the present time. en again, in Matthew, the ascension

of the Lord is not recounted, and the commission given

to the apostles comes from a risen Jesus, and is addressed

to the Gentiles as though the residue of the Jews were

already received in grace. e Lord, in Luke, is about

to ascend into heaven, and goes there while speaking to

them, blessing them with a heavenly blessing; and the

commission is addressed to all — rst to the Jews, then

to the Gentiles. e disciples were to begin in Jerusalem;

and this work — the accomplishment of their mission — is

what is found recounted in Acts.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

442

Let us follow the course of this story, which is essentially

the history of the activity of the apostles Peter and Paul: the

rst among the Jews, and in the foundation of the church

at Jerusalem; and the other among the Gentiles, although

he always addressed himself rst to the Jews. e rst was

one of His eleven disciples who had followed the Lord

on the earth, till the cloud received Him and took Him

from their sight. e last, Paul, an open enemy to the name

of Christ, and converted in sovereign grace while he was

occupied in the destruction, if possible, of that name, only

saw Him in the glory, and went out to call the Gentiles to

the faith: marvelous witness of the sovereign grace of God,

and of a glory which renders a magnicent testimony to

the perfect and accepted work of Christ, to which believers

are led by faith in Him and in His work. Both these two

great apostles laid the same foundation of the salvation

preached, that there is but one Savior and one work by

which we may be saved.

Now the grand and important fact, on which all

the history depends, is the descent of the Holy Spirit.

Doubtless, in all Biblical history, the responsibility of man

is found, as well as the ways of God, through the deeds

and weakness of man; but nevertheless the presence of

the Holy Spirit on the earth, sent by the Father and by

the Son of man, and dwelling in the faithful and in the

house of God, is of immense importance. It is only when

God has accomplished redemption that He comes to dwell

in the midst of men. He did not dwell with Adam in his

innocence, nor with Abraham, nor with any, till He had

brought Israel out of Egypt, and had rescued them from

the hands of the king of Egypt, in whose hands they were

Meditations on the Acts of the Apostles

443

prisoners; then He came to dwell in their midst in the

cloud, and the tabernacle was lled with His glory.

us, as soon as the Son of man is gone into heaven to

sit down at the right hand of God, having accomplished the

work of redemption, the Holy Spirit descends according

to His promise of the Comforter, and the baptism of the

Spirit is realized. Sent from the Father, He cries, “Abba,

Father,” in the hearts of those who have received Him. Sent

by the Son from the Father, He reveals the glory of Him,

the man in heaven; and, more than that, forms the body of

Christ joining the members to the head, so that he “that

is joined to the Lord is one spirit” (1 Cor. 6:17), dwelling

in the believer, and also in the universal congregation of

believers, so that they are together the habitation of God.

It is evident that this truth is of immense importance; the

spiritual liberty given to the child of God, the unity of the

assembly of God, and the union of the children of God,

all depend on the presence of the Spirit, as all are founded

on the work of the Savior on the cross. en this truth

reveals the state of the external church where He dwells,

because she has grieved the Spirit, and has been — and has

acted — in a manner altogether contrary to what He would

have her be and do, so much so that the judgment of God

is ready to fall upon her.

Since I have spoken of the descent of the Holy Spirit,

it must be understood that the “new birth” is not the point

here (though that may be accomplished by the same

Spirit), but rather the personal coming of the Spirit, when

the Son of man ascended into heaven. e Holy Spirit has

worked divinely since the foundation of the world. He it

was who moved upon the face of the waters, who inspired

the prophets, who has been the immediate instrument of

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

444

all that God has done on the earth and in the heavens. But

He only came here below when the Son of man went to

sit down at the right hand of God (John 7:37-39), and is

only received when we believe (Eph. 1:13; Gal. 4:6). is

is seen also clearly elsewhere: we are sealed when we have

believed, and especially when we have believed in the value

of the blood of Christ. Washed in this precious blood, we

are t to be the habitation of the Spirit of God. “Know ye

not,” says the apostle Paul, “that your bodies are the temple

of the Holy Spirit which ye have from God?” (1 Cor. 6:19).

As when the leper was cleansed and puried under the law,

he was rst washed with water, then sprinkled with blood,

then anointed with oil (Lev. 14:8-9; 14-18) — clear gure

of our purication by means of the word of God when

we are converted and born again, then of the sprinkling

of the blood of Christ, and nally of the anointing of the

Holy Spirit by which we are sealed for the day of nal

redemption.

Also all gifts, the exercise of which is found in the

church, are the manifestation of the Holy Spirit who works

there. But here, in the Acts, the exposition of the operations

of the Spirit is not found, but the fact itself of His coming

in order to work.

Meditations on Acts 1

445

62902

Meditations on Acts 1

Acts 1.

Let us now come to the examination of the narrative

itself. is begins with the great truth of which we have

already spoken. e disciples were to wait at Jerusalem

for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We shall nd again

the proof of another precious truth. e Lord, after His

resurrection, gave commissions to His disciples by the

Holy Spirit. We shall not lose the Holy Spirit when we are

raised again: truth perhaps simple, but which makes us feel

how great will be our capacity for happiness in that state.

Now a great portion of our spiritual strength is employed

to enable us to walk in integrity, in spite of the esh and

the temptations of the enemy; but then neither the one nor

the other will exist. All the power of the Spirit in us will be

employed in rendering us t for the innite felicity we shall

nd there. We shall enjoy it according to the strength of

the Spirit, as Christ gave gifts by the Spirit to His disciples

after His resurrection.

Remark now the intimacy of the Lord with His

disciples. He spoke of the things belonging to the kingdom

of God. Christ is now gloried, but His heart, full of divine

love, is not removed, is not any the farther away from His

own. When He appeared to Saul, He said, “I am Jesus of

Nazareth whom thou persecutest” (Acts 22:8). He speaks

to Ananias with authority it is true, but as with a friend,

opening His heart respecting Saul, and sending Ananias

to speak to him.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

446

He was not ashamed to call His disciples friends on

the earth; He is not ashamed to treat them as friends now.

Immense blessing! To feel that the Lord of glory is near to

us, that He holds us as friends and loved ones, and that He

can feel compassion also for our inrmities.

e disciples expected still the visible kingdom of the

Lord in Israel; their hearts were still Jewish. ey quite

believed that He had risen again, but expected that their

hopes of the restoration of Israel as a nation would be

realized by the Lord, now that He had come out of the

sepulcher. e Lord did not tell them that the kingdom

would not be restored to Israel; but that it did not concern

them to know the times and seasons which the Father had

put in His own power. e kingdom shall be restored to

Israel — when is not revealed. e Son of man will come

in an hour when He is not expected. He sits at the right

hand of God the Father till His enemies shall be made His

footstool. In the meantime He gathers His co-heirs, those

who are content to suer with Him; and caught up into

glory we shall reign with Him. It is not revealed then, it

was not revealed to the disciples — the hour of the Savior’s

return; but they should receive, said the Lord, not many

days hence, the power of the Holy Spirit, which should

come on them, and they should be witnesses to Him in

Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and to the uttermost parts

of the earth. And, having said these things, He was taken

up, while they beheld, and a cloud received Him and took

Him away out of their sight. ey were to be eyewitnesses

as far as this point of His heavenly glory. e Holy Spirit

was sent after Him (see John 15:26-27). We shall nd later

that Saul saw Him in His heavenly glory for the rst time,

of which thing he was to be the special witness. How the

Meditations on Acts 1

447

Holy Spirit has rendered clear testimony to this glory, we

shall see in the discourses in the Acts; and again it may be

seen in the epistles of Peter and elsewhere.

But here is found, before the coming of the Holy Spirit,

a very remarkable testimony rendered by means of angels.

e disciples had their eyes xed on the heavens while

Jesus was going there. is was very natural. e beloved

Savior, given back to them from the grave, was, apparently

at least, abandoning them again — for heaven, it is true,

which ought to have strengthened their faith. He had left a

promise of the power of the Spirit, which, however, had not

yet come; and therefore the consciousness and direction of

this power, which was to reveal all the truth, was wanting

to them. He had gone away, and what should they do? ey

must wait.

And as their eyes were then xed on the heavens, behold,

two by appearance men, but in reality angels, stood beside

them, asking why they looked up into heaven, and making

them the revelation of His return. A fact very remarkable,

since the Lord had, after the Lord’s supper, made known

to the disciples that He was going to the Father; and the

rst consolation He gave His disciples was that He would

come again and take them to Himself in the Father’s

house, where He was going to prepare them a place; then

He speaks of the presence of the Comforter which was

to be accomplished. ere He speaks of His coming to

introduce His own into the Father’s house; here, of His

glorious appearing, when He will make Himself seen from

the place where He has gone.

ere He Himself speaks of the special privilege of His

own according to His personal aection which He had for

them. He wished to console them, His heart had need of

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

448

them; He desired to have them near to Himself, in the

same glory, so that they might see His glory, but especially

that, where He was, there they might be also. Here it is His

return in glory, which would be like His going away.

is was the disciples’ rst consolation, once they were

deprived of His presence. en another Comforter would

be given to dwell with them meanwhile here below. But

whether in the declaration on the part of the Lord in

His love, or in the revelation made by the angels, the rst

thing in the Savior’s heart and in the revelations of God is

that He will come again. Immense is the gift of the Spirit

during His absence, and forever immense is the nature of

the state in which redemption has placed the assembly of

God here below: but its hope is, and the height of its joy

will be, to see the Savior as He is, to be always with Him,

like Him, to see and to be forever with Him who does love

us and has washed us from our sins in His own blood, and

to see Him face to face! Greatest blessing, too great for us,

if not the fruit of something still greater — the cross and

the suerings of the Son of God.

Once this blessed Savior has suered, and the Son of

God has been made sin for us, and has died as a man on

the cross, nothing is too great; it will only be the fruit of

the travail of His soul. He shall be satised; His love shall

be satised in our happiness and in our presence with Him.

Look only at Zephaniah 3:17, where the love and the glory

are inferior to this: “Jehovah thy God in the midst of thee

is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he

will rest in his love; he will joy over thee with singing.” e

Father will rest in His love, and in the accomplishment of

all His counsels for the glory of His Son; showing, at the

same time, in the ages to come, the excellency of the riches

Meditations on Acts 1

449

of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. Such

is our expectation.

e disciples return to Jerusalem, and live there

together in an upper chamber. ey persevered with one

consent in supplication and prayer, with the women and

with Mary, the mother of Jesus, and His brethren. But

the eect of the promise of the Father is only found in

Acts 2. All that we have at the end of Acts 1 is connected

with a Jewish situation; that is, with the condition of the

disciples before the coming of the Spirit, yet possessing

an understanding which had been opened by the Lord to

understand the word. ey had not the power of the Spirit,

but intelligence of the word; because their standing was

in relation with Christ raised up from the dead, they were

enlightened by the divine light communicated to them

after His resurrection. ese verses accord perfectly with

verses 14-48 of Luke 24. en comes the promise of the

Spirit, the accomplishment of which is found in Acts 2.

e well-known active energy of Peter employs the

knowledge given by the Lord, applying Psalm 109 to Judas,

whose oce, says the psalm, another should take. ey drew

lots, according to Jewish custom, leaving the decision in the

hands of God. Matthias is chosen and added to the eleven

apostles. Verses 18-19 are a parenthesis. e sabbath-day’s

journey, the lots, and all the circumstances, show clearly the

actual state of the disciples and the thought of the Holy

Spirit on this step. ey work with intelligence of the word

of the Old Testament; but the Spirit had not yet come. It

is important for us to understand the dierence. e Spirit

gives now intelligence (1 Cor. 2:14); but this is not of itself

power.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

450

e Lord is faithful to lead His own in the path of

truth. His grace is sucient, His strength is made perfect

in weakness, and also He always gives us the strength

necessary to accomplish His will; but the power of the

Spirit is another thing. Now, we are specially called to

follow His word, although we may be feeble (see what is

said to the church of Philadelphia, Rev. 3).

It is impossible for Christ to fail us in our obedience,

and His strength is sucient for us. Faithful to His word,

while we wait for Him in weakness, we shall be pillars in

the temple of His God, when He sees the hour of glory. Yet

the Holy Spirit dwells in the faithful, sealed with Him by

the Father according to His promise.

Meditations on Acts 2

451

62903

Meditations on Acts 2

e Coming of the Holy Spirit.

But the great event of which we have spoken now

claims our attention — the immense fact of the coming of

the Holy Spirit to dwell with the disciples of Jesus, in each,

and in the midst of all together. us, in 1 Corinthians

3:16, the church as a universal assembly is the temple

of God; and then, in Corinthians 6:19, the body of the

faithful is the temple of God. All those who, steadfast in

Jesus, habitually gathered together were thus assembled on

the day of Pentecost. We have seen (Acts 1: 14), that they

continued with one accord in prayer while waiting for the

Comforter, promised according to the word of Jesus.

Suddenly an impetuous wind is felt, lling all the house

where they sat, as the cloud lled the tabernacle, so that the

priests could not enter there (1 Kings 8:11). But now men

themselves composed the tabernacle where God disdained

not to dwell. e blood of Jesus had puried them, and

rendered them t to be the habitation of God through the

Spirit (or in Spirit) (Eph. 2:22). Marvelous truth, fruit of

accomplished redemption, and blessed knowledge, that a

Man, much more than a man, sits at the right hand of God

(John 7:39). But how beautiful is the truth, this divine fact,

that — such is the eect of the death and of the blood of

Christ, and of our reconciliation and purication — instead

of driving away the priests by His presence, God, in grace,

makes us His habitation! What a contrast between the law

and the gospel!

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

452

But, besides this, a marvelous testimony is found in this

fact to the grace of God. e presence of the Holy Spirit

depended on the sitting of the Man Jesus at the right hand

of God; demonstration and fruit of the accomplishment of

the work of redemption. Now this could not be limited to

the Jewish people. is presence was in itself a testimony

to that accomplishment, and the earnest of our inheritance,

Christ being dead for all, and ascending into glory. For the

moment, the patience of God fullled the work of grace

among the Jews, people of the promises; but the gospel

which should be preached was for the whole world.

When the judgment of God fell on man at the tower

of Babel, it dispersed them, confounding their speech; but

God took Abraham, separating him from his country and

from his father’s house, to have a seed and then a people

for Himself. During many years God endured the iniquity

and unfaithfulness of this people, sending prophets, till

no further remedy could be found; at last He sent His

own Son, and they, as we know, rejected and crucied

Him. en the nation is put aside till the sovereign grace

of God — His church, the fullness of the Gentiles, being

gathered out — commences anew on the footing of the

new covenant, and of the presence of the Messiah on the

earth.

In the meantime He gathers together the heirs of Christ,

the heavenly assembly. us — although for a moment the

Spirit had separated in the midst of the Jews, spared as a

nation by the intercession of Christ on the cross, till they

should have rejected a gloried Christ in the same way that

they had a crucied Christ come in humiliation: and also

to gather together all those among this people that had

ears to hear — it is shown by the Spirit how the God of

Meditations on Acts 2

453

grace was ready to overstep the limits of the chosen people

and surmount the judgment of Babel, speaking to all the

people in their own tongue — highest testimony of grace

towards the world!

e barriers remained, but God surmounted

them — passed over them — in order to announce the

Savior’s grace and salvation unto the whole world. We also

see this special gift every time that God intervenes anew,

as in Samaria and in the house of Cornelius. In fact, it was

impossible that a gloried Savior should be only the Jewish

Savior. e history of this people, when they had rejected

the Savior, was nished, save by grace: and the eternal

redemption of God could not be for the Jews alone.

e visible character that the Holy Spirit takes

corresponds to this work. When it descended on Christ,

the Spirit was like unto a dove, symbol of the meekness and

sweet tranquility of Him of whom it was written, “He shall

not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in

the streets. A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking

ax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto

victory” (Matt. 12:19-20). But to the disciples He said,

“at which I say in the darkness, tell it in the light; and

that which ye have heard in the ear, proclaim it on the

house-tops.”

e Spirit came then as an impetuous wind, lling

all the house, and as cloven tongues of re. e partition

was symbolical of the diverse languages, the re of the

penetrating power of the word of God, discerner of the

thoughts and intentions of the heart. It seems to us, that

not only the apostles, but all the one hundred and twenty,

were invested with this power. ey were all together; and

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

454

the explanation given by Peter of the prophecy of Joel

conrms the matter (Joel 1:14-15; 2:1,17).

ey were all lled with the Holy Spirit, and began to

speak in strange tongues, according as the Spirit gave them

utterance. Now, at Jerusalem, men of all countries were

present, and the rumor of what had happened brought

them together. is great crowd was astonished to hear

each his own dialect, speaking together and saying, “Are

not all these Galileans? How then do we hear each his own

tongue?” ey were in doubt, saying, “What meaneth this?”

Others, caviling, said, “ey are full of new wine.” ese

were, especially the Jews, always prone to incredulity.

To them Peter replies, speaking rmly in their mother

tongue, and makes them understand that this was what

Joel had said, prophesying that these things should happen

in the last days. It is clear, on reading Joel 1 doubt not, that

the Holy Spirit will be poured out anew when Israel is re-

established in its own land. It will then be the rain of the

latter season. Remark that verse 30 of Joel 2 should come

before those preceding. ese things will happen before the

terrible day of the Lord comes: but the blessings are after

that day. Peter says, in a general way, “in the last days,” and

speaks of judgment as yet to come, as in fact was the case.

But what is important in his discourse is the presentation

to the conscience of the Jews of their actual position:

because, whatever the case may be, God is always clear and

positive in the declaration and in the setting out of the sins

of those souls where grace works. In short, this was their

position; they had outraged and crucied Him whom God

had set at His right hand, His own Son. Him they had put

to death, and God had raised Him up, besides what had

been demonstrated by the power manifested in His works.

Meditations on Acts 2

455

Horrible position! and we say it not only for the Jews, but

for all men. eir Messiah, foundation of all their hopes,

rejected; the Son of God put to death — a rupture which

seemed irreparable between God and man; and on man’s

side, it was in fact irreparable.

All was lost. God was in Christ reconciling the world

unto Himself, and mankind had refused it. Sin was there,

transgression against the law was already there: God had

come in grace, and man had not received Him. Now He

had gone back into heaven; but, blessed be His name, the

counsels of God were not frustrated: far from that, they

were accomplished. Grace had won the victory; and where

man had manifested his enmity against God, God had

manifested His love towards man, and accomplished the

work for the salvation of believers in Christ. “Him, being

delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge

of God, ye have taken, and by hand of lawless men have

crucied and slain” (Acts 2:23).

God has made use of the iniquity and enmity of man

to accomplish the work of redemption. e enmity of

man and the love of God were contrasted in the same fact

on the cross, in the glorious manifestation that His love

surpassed and surmounted the enmity of man. Woe to him

who neglects and refuses this immense grace, this work

alone ecacious for salvation!

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

456

62904

Meditations on Acts 3

Acts 3.

e third chapter of the Acts is remarkable in the ways

of God. e declaration is not found, as in the second, of

a present introduction of those who repent and confess

the name of Jesus, into the blessings of the remission of

sins, nor of the gift of the Holy Spirit. Peter shows, as

in all his other discourses, that the death of Christ was

the eect of the thoughts of God, though He was put to

death by wicked hands: but rather as the accomplishment

of prophecy than as the fruit of the counsels of God. e

Spirit descends in virtue of the proclamation by the gospel

of God’s ways with Israel. e Lord, interceding on the

cross for the people, had said, “Father, forgive them, for

they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). His prayer was

heard, and the judgment of God suspended in the design

of presenting repentance to the people once more.

God knew well that the Jews, hard of heart, would not

receive the merciful voice of the long-suering of God;

and had warned those who had ears to hear (Acts 2:40)

to save themselves from this untoward generation. But

He would not come to judge till everything possible had

been done, and they had rejected a gloried Christ, as they

had rejected a Christ come in humiliation here below. e

Spirit, therefore, by the mouth of Peter, starting from the

intercession of Christ, proposes repentance to the people,

saying, that then Christ would return. e apostle enters

more particularly into the sin of the Jews, and presents the

facts with great power to their consciences.

Meditations on Acts 3

457

It may seem strange that the apostle should speak of

the repentance of all the people, and of sparing them,

when the Christian assembly had already commenced,

and he had warned them to avoid the judgment which

was ready to fall on a people which had crucied the Lord

of glory. But God knew well that the rulers of the people

would render His grace vain; and reject the testimony of a

gloried Christ, as they had put to death a Christ present

in grace. He prosecuted His counsels according to His own

knowledge, but He did not carry out the judgment of His

government; ill everything possible had been done to spare

man, inviting them to repentance.

us Abraham was told that his seed must descend into

Egypt because the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet

accomplished (Gen. 15:16). And Jeremiah 7-14 (and in

other places) does precisely what Peter does; he says clearly

by his prophetical knowledge that the people and the

vessels of the temple would go into Babylon: at the same

time he exhorts the people to repent, and that thus doing

they would be spared. And it is laid down as a principle,

that when Jehovah had pronounced the condemnation of a

people or of a city, if that people or that city should repent

of its wickedness, He would turn away from the judgment

that He had pronounced (Jer. 18:7-11). us, then, the

apostle exhorts the people to repent, and Christ would

return.

Going up to the temple, the apostles Peter and John

had healed a man, lame from his birth, who asked alms at

the gate called “Beautiful.” e man goes up together with

the apostles, leaping and praising God; a crowd naturally

gathers, as the man was well known. Peter takes advantage

of the occasion to put before the eyes of the people what

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

458

had been done. It was not by his own power. e God of

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of their fathers, had

raised up His servant Jesus, whom they had put to death.

Horrible position! what open opposition! fatal — if grace

had not been there among the people of God.

It is thus that Peter always presents the truth. ey

had rejected Him, and God had recognized and gloried

Him. And here he enters much more particularly into their

sin, more than in Acts 2. He presents the facts with great

power to their consciences. ey had betrayed the Lord,

and denied Him in the presence of Pilate when he had

decided to let Him go. ey had denied the Holy One and

the Just, had desired a murderer, and killed the Prince of

Life. But God had raised Him up — once more opposition

between the people and God. e name of the risen

Savior at the right hand of God had given to the cripple

the perfect health in which they saw him. And here the

Spirit responds in grace to the Lord’s intercession; and the

apostle attributes to ignorance the terrible fact of having

rejected the Lord, whether on the part of the rulers or of

the people.

at which had been foreordained by God was now

accomplished — the suerings of Christ announced before

by their prophets; and, if they repented, Jesus would come

back: God would send Him from heaven. ose times of

blessing that would be fullled on the earth by His presence

they would have; times that might come on the Lord’s

side, but for which the repentance of Israel was absolutely

necessary, and for which it is still necessary. at always

remains true. eir house, said the Lord, should be left

unto them desolate, until they should say, “Blessed be he

Meditations on Acts 3

459

that cometh in the name of Jehovah” (Matt. 23:38, quoting

Psa. 118:26).

When Israel repents, the Lord will come, and they

will own that He whom they had rejected was the Lord

Himself; and they will be full of sorrow and shame, but be

pardoned and liberated; and all the blessings, of which the

prophets have spoken, shall be fullled. Meanwhile, heaven

held Jesus, hid from the eyes of men. But Peter presents

this repentance to the Jews, and the present return besides.

But before he could nish his discourse, the rulers of the

Jews arrive, take possession of the apostles, and throw them

into prison. Jesus gloried is refused, as completely as Jesus

in humiliation. All is nished for Israel, with respect to its

responsibility — the marvelous patience of God, and the

grace that had made intercession for the beloved people on

the cross. Nothing more could be done: it only remained

to carry out the judgment of a people who would not have

grace. Such is the history alas! of the natural man.

Let us mark this, that here the Holy Spirit is not

oered, as in the discourse of the preceding chapter, which

began the new order of the ways of God; but he speaks

of the return of Christ Himself to accomplish all that

the prophets had said. e presence of the Holy Spirit

distinguishes the time between the rst and the second

coming of Jesus — the present interval. I do not say that the

Spirit will not be poured out after the second coming, but

the coming and presence of Jesus distinguished that period,

and His absence the present, as moreover the presence of

another Comforter instead of Him. And this reveals to us

a Christ gloried in the heavens, makes Him the object of

a living faith, unites us to Him, makes us understand that

we are children of God, joint-heirs with Christ, that we are

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

460

in Him and He in us, and makes us members of His body,

while we wait for Him to take us to Himself. e love of

God, too, is shed abroad in our hearts.

Although Peter never speaks of the rapture of the saints

to be with Jesus, yet we may turn to 1 Peter 1:11-13, where

we nd the testimony of the prophets, that of the Holy

Spirit come down from heaven, and the accomplishment

of the promises to happen on the appearing of Jesus — the

three things which appear here. It is not a question of

gathering believers to Christ, nor of the coming of the

Holy Spirit. We nd ourselves entirely on Jewish ground.

And God, having rst raised up His servant Jesus, had sent

Him to bless them, that is, down here in the world; and

as they would not receive Him, repentance was oered

them. But the rulers interposed, resisting the Holy Spirit,

just as they had refused Christ on the earth, thus sealing

their own judgment. e nal sentence will be found in the

history of Stephen.

Another truth is introduced here, which is not wanting

in importance in the ways of God; though it may not be

equal in importance to the moral state of men which led

them to reject the Lord come in grace. After this moment

the throne and the government of God cannot be found

on the earth. e providence of God watches over all; not

even a little bird falls to the ground without His hand. But

this throne does not exist on the earth, and will no more

exist till the Lord Jesus, the Son of David, establishes it, till

He comes to whom it belongs. e throne of God, between

the cherubim, was taken away from Jerusalem when the

Jews were led captive into Babylon; but a little remnant of

the Jews was brought back to Jerusalem, in order to present

to them again their true King, the Son of David, Jesus of

Meditations on Acts 3

461

Nazareth. But they would not receive Him. enceforward

the kingdom of God is changed to the kingdom of heaven;

the King is in heaven, and the kingdom is like the grain

of wheat, which, once sown, springs and grows, without

man’s hand being applied to it (Mark 4:26). Christ works;

without His grace nothing would be done; but He does not

appear. He sits on the throne of God, and has not taken

His own throne; He will take it when He returns.

rones are perfectly established by God; the Christian

recognizes fully the authority of princes and governors as

ordinances of God, and submits to them. But it is not the

immediate kingdom of God. From the captivity of Babylon

till the coming of Christ are the “times of the Gentiles”

(Luke 21:24); and God gathers the joint-heirs of Christ,

who are not of this world, as He was not. ey are blessed

with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ;

they will reign with Him in glory, joint-heirs by grace of

the inheritance of God.

ere are two great subjects in the Bible, after personal

salvation; the divine government of the world with the

Jews as center, under Christ; and the sovereign grace that

has given those who are content to suer with Him the

same glory that Christ enjoys as Man, predestinated to

be conformed to the image of His Son, that He may be

the rst-born among many brethren. Already we enjoy

the same relationship with His God and Father. “Go to

my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father

and your Father, to my God and your God” (John 20:17).

Already children and heirs here below, when Christ comes

we shall rejoice with heavenly joy with Him, and we shall

reign with Him.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

462

e Jews, and with them the Gentiles on the earth, will

enjoy the peace and blessings resulting from the reign of

Christ. Acts 2, though it does not go any farther than to

the presence of the Spirit here below, speaks of the rst

and heavenly position; Acts 3 of the second. e word of

God in Acts 2 brings forth its fruit in gathering souls for

God’s assembly, and for heavenly glory. In Acts 3 the call

to repentance is refused on the authority of the people; and

the Lord sits at the right hand of God in heaven till His

enemies are made His footstool.

And the work of God goes on here below. e reign of

Christ on the earth is deferred because of the unbelief of

the Jews; and the presence of the Spirit, Christ being in

heaven, to gather together the heavenly citizens, and to put

them into a new, eternal, and heavenly relationship with

God — this is the foundation of the history recorded in

the Acts of the Apostles. e following chapters unfold the

progress of the work, its diculties and their causes. “Unto

you rst God, having raised up his Son [servant] Jesus, sent

him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his

iniquities” (Acts 3:26).

Meditations on Acts 4

463

62905

Meditations on Acts 4

Acts 4.

What we read in this chapter is very sad, but full of

instruction. e state of Israel is frightful, and the contrast

to the apostles, and to all the believers marvelous. ere

is ecclesiastical authority and hatred of the truth and of

the Lord on one side, and the presence and power of God

on the other. Authority, depending on public opinion, is

timorous at this juncture, and for a moment by this means

held in check by the hand of God; and the courage of faith,

given by God, is sustained by the powerful presence of the

Holy Spirit.

e priests deliberately resist the action of the Holy

Spirit though admitting that the power of God had been

manifested. Is it not frightful? Oh what audacity, of what

malice, is the heart of man capable when abandoned

by God and left to its own hatred against Him! “e

transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that

there is no fear of God before his eyes. For he attereth

himself in his own eyes, until his iniquities be found to be

hateful” (Psa. 36:1-2). And for what follows see also Luke

12:1-12. Horrible and vain opposition, for the word of God

will be fullled in spite of men. If we suer, it is our glory.

Our portion is to be found in Psalm 27; and then in Psalm

37, “Fret not thyself — trust in Jehovah — delight thyself

also in Jehovah — commit thy way unto Jehovah — rest in

Jehovah, and wait patiently for Him — cease from anger,

and forsake wrath; fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.”

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

464

We shall see the path of the apostles; what courage,

what tranquility, what clearness of judgment, doing

exactly what became servants of God — those who, in

the testimony of God, represented Him on the earth!

Doubtless an extraordinary power was displayed in them,

but the principle is just the same for us all. Moreover the

word did not remain without eect, the number of men

who had believed became about ve thousand.

We have seen that the chief priests had put the apostles

in prison. e morning came, they meet at Jerusalem, and

make the apostles appear before them. ey demand by

what power and in what name they had done the miracle.

e old story is again repeated — ocial authority opposed

to the power of God. us the high priests and the rulers

of the people demanded of the Lord by what authority

He worked. But what madness, what hardness of heart,

what lack of conscience! A miracle had evidently been

performed by the apostles: it was known by the people, and

they could not deny it. It is God Himself who works, but

they will not allow the knowledge of it to spread among

the people. It was not convenient that the power of God

should be manifested outside their oce; for if divine

power operated outside their oce, they could no longer

secure authority to themselves. But it was not for them to

command God; and not only this, but they were directly

opposed to that power which was of God.

In such cases absence of all conscience is always found,

as when the Lord did not reply to their questions, but, in

His divine wisdom, asked them what the baptism of John

was. And they, fearing the people, dared not say that it was

not of God, because public opinion was against them. ey

were forced to acknowledge their incapacity; evidently,

Meditations on Acts 4

465

then, the Lord was not bound to account to them for what

He had just before done.

Here something more is found. What the apostles

had done was an act of power and not of authority, and

the priests place themselves in open opposition to God.

ey would have suppressed His power if they had been

able; otherwise they were humiliated. is was necessary,

for the miracle had been performed in the name of Him

whom they had crucied. ey were adversaries of God,

and adversaries consciously and willingly, for they had

acknowledged that it was impossible to deny the miracle.

is was indeed the power of Satan, but also of an oce

destitute of the power of God. Whenever man nds

himself in such a position, he is unwilling that God should

work. But what a state of soul, what a frightful condition!

Let us contemplate the spectacle of an unlettered and

ignorant man, but believing in Jesus and full of the Holy

Spirit. He announces openly, and with frank candor, not

only that it was by the name of Jesus that the man had

been cured, but that He was the stone set at naught by

the builders, now become the head of the corner, and that

there was no other name under heaven given among men

whereby we must be saved. e position of the rulers is

clearly established, such as we have seen it. e man there

present had been cured by the name of Him whom they

had crucied, and whom God had raised from among the

dead.

But alas! the will of men was not moved, though they

had nothing to say against the facts. e power of God was

there; the testimony could not be refuted; but they would

not have divine testimony. And, having conferred together,

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

466

they dismissed them, “straitly threatening them, that they

speak henceforth to no man in this name” (Acts 4:17).

eir part was taken against God and against His

Anointed. ey commanded the apostles, therefore, when

they had brought them in again, never to speak again in

this name. Peter does not boast, does not insist on his

rights or on his liberty, does not threaten the priests and

council, does not show on his part any of his own will; he

remains tranquil in obedience, but in obedience to God

rather than to man. God was with them; the others were

only men. ey must obey God. He appeals to the priests

and themselves, if it was not right to do so. Again they

threaten them and let them go; witnesses were before them

who gloried God for what had been done.

It is well to remark that the apostles do not assail

the Jews — they do their duty; and when these oppose

themselves, conscious of doing the will of God sent by

Him, they declare that necessarily they were doing His

will — that, when God willed and sent, they had to obey.

It is the calm, the tranquility, of him who does not think

of himself, either through fear or through human ardor. It

is full of the Holy Spirit; what is said, what is done, comes

from Him. Such a man works perfectly on God’s side,

because the man is put aside, and God by His Spirit works

in him. ough it may be the man who presents himself

perfectly in the position in which he nds himself, yet it is

that Spirit who produces the perfection in him. “It is not

ye,” said the Lord, “that speak, but the Spirit of your Father

which speaketh in you” (Matt. 10:20). If man works, then

there is imperfection. God works in man, and then man is

what he ought to be. Is it always thus?

Meditations on Acts 4

467

But the miserable position of the Jews unfolds itself

only too clearly. God was no longer to be found among

the chosen people who had rejected their Messiah, the Son

of God, in whom are all the promises of God; and now

they were abandoned. God dwelt by His Spirit among

the Christians. God will fulll His promises to the nation

in the last times, but then it will be in pure grace. He is

faithful, whatever may be the iniquity of His people. What

Peter proposed to Israel in Acts 3, repentance, will be

accomplished in their hearts by grace, when the assembly of

God shall have been taken up into heaven. en they shall

see Him whom they have pierced, and shall be blessed;

but meanwhile they are put aside, kept apart however, till

the fullness of the Gentiles be brought in. en Israel as a

whole shall be saved. But now they are displayed as resisting

the Holy Spirit, as having rejected the Messiah. Now we

see the power of the Spirit and His presence manifesting

itself in the midst of the assembly.

e apostles returned to “their own”; for now there

existed a company, a society, the house of God; composed,

it is true, of Jews, but apart, outside the national pale. ere

they recount what has happened. en, moved by the

Holy Spirit, with one heart they raise the voice to God,

acknowledging the accomplishing of Psalm 2, where the

rejection of the Messiah, the Son of God is announced,

and the absolute power of God, whatever might be the

wickedness of men who did nothing but fulll the counsels

of God. Nevertheless they do not ask that the kingdom.

should be established, according to what is said in that

Psalm, of which kingdom the Father has put the times into

His own power (Acts 1:7); but the manifestation of the

power of the Holy Spirit is pronounced in the same place,

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

468

whether in the full courage to announce the word, or in

the works of power done in the name of the holy servant

of God, Jesus, His Son.

After they have prayed, the presence of God is

manifested in their midst, and the place where they are

assembled shakes. Here too, is seen, in an exterior way,

the dierence between the new birth and the presence of

God by the Spirit. Many more important proofs of it are

to be found; but I speak of it, because here it is an outward

sign, impossible to confound with the work of grace in the

soul. eir prayer is heard. ey are all lled with the Holy

Spirit, and speak the word of God with great boldness. But

it is not only in the gifts of speech; it is the faith which

does it all, that shows the eect and the power of being

lled with the Holy Spirit. We nd a work of the same

character in the description given in Acts 2: there was but

one heart.

No one retained his own property, but distributed to

those who were in need. With great power the apostles

bore testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and

great grace was on them all. None among the disciples

lacked anything. ose who possessed lands or houses sold

them, and laid the prices of the things that were sold at

the apostles’ feet, who distributed to everyone according

to his need. Beautiful testimony of the power of love, the

love of God shed abroad by the Holy Spirit in the hearts

of those who were lled with it! Among the others we nd

Barnabas, especially noticed here, because we shall nd

him soon occupied in the work of God, the companion

of Paul; so that he is called an apostle. But God has not

forgotten the others.

Meditations on Acts 4

469

Such is the scene which passes before our eyes when

the church’ was established in the beginning — when the

Spirit, ungrieved, displayed all the eect of His presence.

Most blessed scene, giving us to understand what it is to

be lled with the Holy Spirit! He dwells in every true

Christian; but it is another thing to be so lled with Him

that He may be the source of all that is thought, of all that

is done, and that all that the heart, which is His vessel,

produces may be the fruit of His presence; that there may

be no doubting, no shutting up in the career of love, that

Jesus may be faithfully confessed before men. e heart is

set free from its own love, and loves according to the love

of Christ. Liberty, true liberty, is found, and the practical

life, and its fruits are the fruits of the Spirit.

What a blessed state! And whatever may be the ruin of

the church, in principle this state belongs today to every

Christian; circumstances may hinder the form that existed

in the days of the apostles; but the Spirit of God, at the

bottom, is more powerful than circumstances.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

470

62906

Meditations on Acts 5

Acts 5.

Although a man may be truly a Christian, yet the esh

always remains in him, which is just as ready to show itself

in the assembly as in the world. e desire to have a good

reputation among men may arise in the heart, although

such a reputation may merely be sought for among

Christians. us too it happened when the assembly of

God rst began. Love produced the inclination to think

of others rather than of themselves. But the esh also

would have the reputation of doing so, without denying

itself, deceitfully thinking to keep back its money, and at

the same time to gain the benet of a reputation for giving

it away. But here also the great truth of the presence of the

Holy Spirit is the subject of God’s revelation given in this

book.

Ananias and Sapphira have lied to the Holy Spirit: this

is the gravity of the sin of Ananias and his wife. God dwelt

in the midst of His own in the assembly. Deceived in heart

and conscience by cupidity, whether of money or of human

glory, Ananias did not recognize His presence. But still

another was acting in this sad event. Satan suggested to

them the means of keeping back the money, and still of

winning fame. But the Holy Spirit was there, and the folly

of men and malice of Satan did nothing but make manifest

the truth and the power of His presence, in a sad way it is

true, but in a way that could leave no doubt of it.

Ananias, whose sin was thus unexpectedly to himself

revealed, falls dead by the judgment of God who was there.

Meditations on Acts 5

471

But what a solemn judgment! And it is not surprising if,

not only the Christians, but also the outside world, were

terried at such a testimony to the presence of God that

was entirely unmistakable. Moreover the sin was not a

simple failure. Ananias and Sapphira had agreed together

in their eagerness of endeavor to deceive God, forgetting

that He knew everything and that He was there.

But, however sad and solemn the fact might be, it was a

testimony from which it was impossible to detract, that God

Himself was present; a testimony to the great truth that

God, in the person of the Holy Spirit, had come down to

dwell in the midst of His people, and forever (John 14:17),

so that they might be taken up to dwell in the Father’s

house. e apostles were lled with it; everything at that

time was in the power of it. But the assembly of God has

been unfaithful; the Spirit has been grieved, and therefore

we see no longer those actions which bore testimony to

His presence..

is, nevertheless, does not in any way render it

invalid — that would be impossible. e word of Christ

is — He shall dwell with you; and the Spirit is as able to

accomplish the will of God in His children now as in the

time of the apostles, though it may not be shown in the

same manner. But it is more blessed, says the Lord, to have

our names written in heaven than to cast out demons: and

by the true work of God in souls, and in all His ways, He

manifests His presence in the assembly, and in Christians

who depend on Him, and are lled with Him, just as much

as He did in the days of the apostles. It is not proper that

it should be shown outwardly in the fallen church as in the

faithful assembly long ago established by God Himself, as

though He sealed its fall with His approbation. But God

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

472

changes not, and His grace and power are the same, and

are as available as ever for all that is necessary and all that

is suitable to the state of the church; and He still does all

that is requisite for His glory and our full blessing. He

works in His own with the same power according to the

circumstances in which they are placed.

Now many signs and wonders were wrought by the

hands of the apostles, who were to be found habitually (it

seems to us) in Solomon’s porch in the temple. e great and

the rulers did not dare to identify themselves with them;

but the people, convinced in their simplicity, increased

the number and importance of the Christians in the holy

city. We see always fear on the part of the great and of the

ecclesiastical rulers. ey could persecute, but they could

not join the Christians, because then their power would be

compromised. As Paul says, “not many mighty, not many

noble, are called” (1 Cor. 1:26). e reproach of Christ is

always linked to His name, wherever there is delity.

But still the power of God manifested itself in such a

way that in Jerusalem and in the cities round about they

brought sick folks, so that at the least the shadow of Peter

passing by might overshadow some of them; and the sick

of the city and those vexed with unclean spirits were all

healed. But all this excited the envy and indignation of the

chief priests; the divine power and authority had evidently

passed away from their hands, and they were unwilling that

they should be found elsewhere. ey could not prevent

God from manifesting His power, but they could take

possession of the persons who exercised it, at least when

God allowed it. ey do so, and throw the apostles into the

common prison.

Meditations on Acts 5

473

But this did nothing more than prepare the way for

another display of the hand and power of God. When God

is working, vain are the eorts of men. We have seen, and

shall see, the internal power of the Holy Spirit. Here we

nd angels, the servants of God, in favor of the men who

preach the good news of salvation through Christ. I do

not doubt that they ever minister, according to the will of

God, to all His children who walk in the way of His will;

and they may be employed otherwise, if it please God, as it

is written in Hebrews 1. But here they operate in a visible

way. e angel opens the doors of the prison, leads the

apostles out, and tells them to go their way, and to speak in

the temple all the words of this life, which they do at once

at break of day.

Meanwhile the high priest and they that were with him

meet together in the great council of the Jews, and send the

sergeants, commanding them to bring the apostles before

them.

ey go therefore to the prison, which they nd shut

with all safety, and the keepers standing without before the

doors, but no prisoners within. e priests, confounded,

know not what to think. Who can make war against God,

and not nd himself discomted? Satan can do much, he

can persecute and exercise great inuence over unbelieving

souls; but, where the working of the power of God is

present, he cannot surmount it. Condence is found on the

part of God’s servants; and, at the bottom of their heart, the

adversaries are afraid and perplexed. (See Josh. 2:9; Phil.

1:23; 1 Peter 3:6.) Satan had the Sadducees ready to resist

the work of the apostles who presented the resurrection,

as the Pharisees to oppose Christ who preached true

righteousness.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

474

But the work of God goes on in the midst of suering.

He allows His own to suer; it is given to them to suer

for the name of Christ; but He accomplishes His counsels

in spite of man. e ocers then brought them without

violence, fearing the people lest they should have been

stoned. e apostles appear before the council, and the

high priest reproves them, because they had preached Jesus,

in spite of the prohibition, and that thus they thought to

bring the blood of Jesus on them. It is apparent that their

conscience was ill at ease. e simple truth was that they

were responsible for the blood of Jesus; but when a man is

spurred on by Satan to commit a crime, he does not fear

to do it, but, once committed, the deceit of Satan leaves

him; the crime weighs on his conscience, and Satan cannot

alleviate it, but often goads him to desperation, as he did

with Judas.

e reply of Peter to the rulers is very brief and decisive;

already they knew it well. “We ought to obey God rather

than men. e God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom

ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with

his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, for to give

repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. And we are

his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Spirit,

whom God hath given to them who obey him” (Acts 5:29-

32). When they heard that, they were cut to the heart, and

took counsel to slay them.

But here again the hand of God appears; and as He

had miraculously used an angel to let Peter out of prison,

so now He employs the hand of man to arrest the power

and the malice of the elders and high priest. e human

prudence of the Pharisee Gamaliel, a man much esteemed,

gives them to realize, by several examples, the peril of

Meditations on Acts 5

475

putting themselves in conict with God. e Pharisees

were always opposed to the Sadducees, and the high priest

belonged to the sect of the Sadducees, so that the Pharisee

could always employ his human sagacity to gain a hearing.

And God could use it to preserve His servants from the

wicked hand of their enemies.

ey consent to the counsel of Gamaliel, but without

any fear of God. e will is not changed, the enmity against

the testimony of God remains in all its force; but they are

afraid of compromising themselves, and know not what

to do. e apostles are beaten, and forbidden to speak in

the name of Jesus. It is enmity without strength, without

conscience, and without knowledge, blind from unbelief,

and resisting in vain the power of God! e apostles

continue their work, teaching and preaching both in the

temple and in every house.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

476

62907

Meditations on Acts 6-7

Acts 6-7.

But the esh manifests itself in Christians, and the

more so if their number be large. Now we nd a new

event happening; in the multitude the power of faith and

the fruits of the Spirit begin to grow feebler. Love and

condence — love’s constant companion — diminish; but

at the same time the strength of the Spirit found in the

apostles takes its stand against diculty. And not only this,

but an opportunity is given for securing greater regularity

in the daily ministration of the assembly. e preaching of

the word is separated from the care of the poor. In this case

the apostles desired that the people should choose those

who might care for the widows. We shall see farther on

that the apostle Paul himself, with Barnabas, appointed

elders, but, when it was a question of money, neither the

twelve nor Paul would take any part in it, nor confound the

divine service of the word with the administration of the

money furnished by the faithful (1 Cor. 16).

e twelve desired to be occupied only with the word,

and Paul would not charge himself with the money for

the poor at Jerusalem, unless brethren appointed for this

purpose were with him. But, although the esh showed

itself, the Spirit was enough to overrule circumstances.

In the case of Ananias and Sapphira this power and the

presence of the Spirit was manifested in judgment against

hypocrisy; here we nd it seeking to make its way in the

assembly, producing order and right where danger of

disunion was manifested in the midst of the disciples.

Meditations on Acts 6-7

477

But another principle respecting the Holy Spirit, easy

to believe but often forgotten, is now made evident — His

full liberty: as we read in 1 Corinthians 12:11, “dividing

to every man severally as he will.” We have seen up to this

moment the activity of the apostles, established in their

oce by the Lord Himself, if we except Matthias. We nd

now seven men, full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom,

chosen by the people to serve at the tables where the

distributions were made to the poor widows; and among

these were two specially used by the Holy Spirit in the

preaching of the gospel; and, at this moment, Stephen. In

1 Timothy 3:13, we nd, “For they that have used the oce

of a deacon well purchase to themselves a good decree, and

great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.”

Stephen was already a man full of the Holy Spirit and

of faith, but now his gift is unfolded. He does signs and

wonders; even his adversaries could not resist the power

and wisdom with which he spoke. e Holy Spirit here

works freely as in Philip. He also was obliged to give up

his oce for the work of evangelization, for he went to

Samaria. By the liberty given by the Spirit he is a minister

of the word, and not of the tables. It is a new phase of the

work of grace and of the Spirit. We shall nd still other

proofs. It is a very important principle, the truth and force

of which extend to the present day. ey are not sent by the

apostles but directly by God. It is the strength of the Holy

Spirit that urges them to the work, consecration to Christ,

and love of souls.

It seems also that Stephen had said more, and spoken

more openly, than Peter. e latter ever bore testimony

to Israel’s open opposition to God, for they had crucied

Him whom God had exalted to His own right hand. We

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

478

know not how Stephen spoke; but at all events he gave

rise to the accusation of having said that Jesus would

destroy Jerusalem, and change the customs which Moses

had established. Evidently he always preached Christ and

His glory, as did Peter; but he said more — he warned the

people of the consequences of their sin. Peter laid down the

fundamental truth that showed the state of the Jews before

God. Stephen, taking lower ground and speaking more

familiarly, announces the consequences of non-repentance.

Both testimonies were fully of God, and inspired, but

diered in character.

e accusations being brought before the council,

Stephen is seized and forced to appear before the high

priest and his accusers. To these there only remained

enmity against God, and the power of death, for God

allowed them to fulll their purposes. But the occasion

produces the magnicent defense of Stephen, indicating

the position of the Jews with the utmost precision, and

closing the history of humanity, of man before God here

below. Before the ood God bore testimony, but He

established no institution. We have perhaps Adam, Abel,

Enoch and Noah, godly men, but not one of them was

the head of a race according to God; but after the ood

God began in the new world to found institutions for the

government of the world, for the blessing of man, and to

unfold truth and His ways.

At rst no promise was made to man. In the judgment

pronounced on Satan we nd a prophecy of the nal work

of Christ, the object, by grace, of Adam’s faith, and also of

ours, the everlasting gospel; but God made no promises to

the rst man. After the ood God began to unfold His ways.

In Noah He established government in order to restrain

Meditations on Acts 6-7

479

violence. en, when man fell into idolatry (Josh. 24), not

only was he wicked, but he chose demons as the power

of the world in place of God; and God called Abraham

to be for Himself, and the father of a race that He might

on earth recognize as His, whether after the esh or after

the Spirit. e great principles of election, of calling, or

of the promises are established. en the law is given on

Mount Sinai, by which man is put to the proof in a still

more denite manner. en, after long patience, in which

prophets were sent to recall the people chosen according

to the esh to the obedience of the law, and sustain the

trust of the few faithful by the promise of the Messiah,

God sent His only-begotten Son, His well-beloved, saying,

in the words of the parable, “ey will reverence my Son”

(Mark 12:6); but we know what happened. e history of

man was nished on the cross. Not only had he sinned, but

he had rejected grace when the Savior had come.

Now they reject the testimony that spoke of a gloried

Savior, sent in virtue of His intercession on the cross,

“Father, forgive them; for they know not what they

do” (Luke 23:34). As we have seen, God replied to this

intercession in the testimony of Peter and of the apostles;

and in the announcement of the Holy Spirit of a gloried

Savior, Him whom they had rejected; but, as we have again

seen, they refused the testimony of the Holy Spirit by the

mouth of the apostles.

And here we have a kind of résumé, an explanation

of their state, their history from the time of Abraham till

that day. It is the history of man from the moment that

God began His dealings with him — in the beginning, in

giving the promise, whether to Israel or to Christ, the true

ospring; then in the law, in the prophets, and, nally, in

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

480

Christ Himself. All this time the Spirit was working, and

now especially, after Christ had been gloried in heaven,

as we have seen. Stephen recounted this history; grace

in the call of Abraham; what happened to Joseph and to

Moses, wherein the Spirit worked and had been rejected

by Israel; then the law violated at the outset in the calf of

gold; then the prophets; then Christ Himself; and, nally,

the testimony of the Holy Spirit. ey had broken the

law, persecuted and put to death the prophets who had

spoken of the coming of the Just One, of whom now they

had become the betrayers and murderers. And more than

this, they still resisted the Holy Spirit, as their fathers had

always done.

All the dealings of God pass before our eyes; the law,

the prophets, Christ, the Spirit. In all, the people are found

in enmity against God. Meanwhile they conded in the

temple, of which God had declared by the prophet that the

Most High dwelt not in temples made with hands. Such is

the history of Israel — of man. Conscience is hardened, will

is unchanged in the Sanhedrim, and nothing but hate and

opposition to the testimony of the Holy Spirit is revealed;

their hearts are goaded to resistance, and put the witness

himself to death. ey were unable to answer him; it was

indeed their history of which they so loudly boasted — and

what a history! Man always resists the testimony of the

Spirit; and, if the conscience be stung, hatred breaks out

violently against the witness.

On the other hand we see a man, a Christian, full of

the Holy Spirit, doubtless here manifested in a very special

way; but that which was visible to Stephen is the object

of faith for us. Mark rst the perfect tranquility of the

servant of Christ. With beautiful simplicity he tells a story

Meditations on Acts 6-7

481

familiar to all — a story, however, which carried with it

the condemnation of the Jews. To reason with him was

needless, for they could not deny the facts. en, kneeling

down quietly amid the stones which fell on him, he prays

for his enemies. What moral power! How entirely it

overcomes all circumstances, and displays the man of God

in the presence of the fury of his adversaries!

But let us examine not only the character of Stephen’s

testimony against his enemies, but his own state. He is

the embodiment of a man full of the Holy Spirit, and his

enemies are the embodiment of men who resist the Spirit.

First, heaven is opened to him; he is enabled to keep his

eyes xed on the heavens — touchstone of the state of the

soul — and sees the Son of man standing at the right hand

of God. He saw indeed the glory of God, but does not

speak of it; the new and blessed thing was, that Man, in the

person of the Son of God, stood there.

I believe that here He does not sit, because, until the

Jews had refused the testimony of His glory, the Savior

was expecting to come back according to the address of

Peter. As soon as Stephen is slain this testimony is at end;

and, a single soul in heaven, the gathering of the spirits

of the redeemed begins, which will continue till the Lord

comes to reunite the bodies and spirits of His own, and

bring them into heavenly glory. us, in the Epistle to the

Hebrews, it is said that Jesus is set down at the right hand

of God, expecting till His enemies be made His footstool.

He sits down on the throne of the Father, and not yet on

His own. is is what rouses the hatred and fury of the

Jews. “ey cry out blasphemy!” and stone the witness of

God, of the glory of Jesus.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

482

For Stephen heaven is opened, and Jesus is seen in

divine glory; and this is what forms his soul in such a

beautiful way into the likeness of Jesus. As He prayed for

enemies, so also Stephen prays for his; and as the Lord

Jesus commended His spirit to His Father, so Stephen

exclaims, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Not only does he

pardon his enemies, but quietly kneels down to do so. e

view of Jesus transforms the heart into His likeness. at

which was seen by Stephen is the object of faith for us,

made clearer by what happened to him.

Meditations on Acts 8

483

62908

Meditations on Acts 8

Acts 8.

An important fact, which renders the signication of

our narrative still clearer, is here presented to us. Here we

nd Saul taking part in the death of Stephen. We have seen

that the death of Stephen was the end of the history of the

enmity of the human heart against God, when God had

done everything to try it, and also to restore it; its incurable

enmity was manifested, and the end of man before God.

ere was no longer hope of nding any good since

God Himself has made use of everything — judgment in

the deluge, the law, the prophets, His own Son, and the

testimony of the Holy Spirit. All was in vain. e more

God worked, the more man’s enmity manifested itself.

Here for the rst time we nd Saul. Not content with

taking part in the death of Stephen, he goes into distant cities

in search of Christians to bring them bound to Jerusalem.

He is the apostle of man’s enmity against Christ. If the

history of man was nished, that of the sovereign grace of

God was beginning. e spirit of the rst martyr takes its

place in the presence of Jesus. But the entire number must

be completed before Jesus can come and reunite them with

their bodies.

Here we nd the rst general persecution, which,

however, in the hands of God, served to scatter the seed

of the gospel. is also is a proof of the free activity of

the Holy Spirit to make use of whomsoever He sees t to

select. Still another important fact: while all the Christians

are scattered by the persecution, the apostles remain at

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

484

Jerusalem. e special mission of Matthew 10:23 was not

accomplished. It will be by the power of God hereafter, I

doubt not; but not at the moment of which we read here. It

is the multitude of Christians scattered by the persecution

who preach the gospel in Palestine, and afterward among

the Gentiles. Saul persecutes the assembly with cruel zeal;

and the Christians leave the city. It was neither the settled

design of man, nor the spiritual zeal of the apostles, but the

fury of the enemy, which according to the wisdom of God

rst disseminated the gospel outside the gates of Jerusalem.

e spirit of Stephen gone up to heaven, the gospel of

grace is carried into the surrounding districts by means of

the enmity of man, and the providence of God who makes

use of it leads the scattered ones to communicate in love

the gifts they possess. What is man? and what the wisdom

and grace of God?

Another example of the free activity of the Spirit is

found in the person of Philip, chosen to take care of the

widows. His service is nished with regard to the widows;

but he has acquired a good degree, and great liberty in the

faith in Christ Jesus. Setting out from Jerusalem, he goes

down to Samaria; and there by the power of his word, and by

the miracles given him to do, the people are liberated from

the inuence of a notorious instrument of Satan — Simon,

who exercised the arts of sorcery and had been held to be

the great power of God. “en Simon himself believed

also; and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip,

and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which

were done” (Acts 8:13).

It was the miracles which had exercised this inuence

over his spirit, not the seed of God, the divine word which

had entered into his heart. To believe by means of miracles

Meditations on Acts 8

485

alone is not the faith which operates by the Holy Spirit,

although God may work miracles and signs in order to

conrm His word. e end of John 2 shows that Jesus did

not trust those who had believed in this way. When the

Spirit of God works, requirements are produced in the soul

which Jesus alone can satisfy. us Nicodemus was under

the inuence of the miracles when he went to Jesus. To the

others reasonable conviction suced, and they remained

where they were.

e sole desire of Simon is to possess the power of

conferring on others by the imposition of his hands the

ability to work miracles and signs. He wished to buy it with

money, thereby showing that there was no work of God in

his soul. He had “neither part nor lot in this matter.” He

was in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity;

his heart was not right before God. His sin excited the

indignation, not the compassion, of Peter. “y money

perish with thee,” said he. But still his heart is not touched

with compunction. He asks only that what had been said

might not come upon him; not that his thought might be

forgiven, or that the state of his heart might be changed.

Here we nd still other things which we shall do well

to consider. e dierence between the operation and

the sealing of the Spirit is very clear. e Samaritans had

believed and had been baptized, but had not received the

Holy Spirit; for He had not yet descended upon them. He

had worked by the word in their hearts; men and women

were converted, born again, had confessed the name of

Jesus; but they were not yet sealed. en it belonged in a

special manner to the apostles to impose hands, and confer

the gift of the Spirit. In Acts 19 we see that Paul conferred

it; he was a true apostle. Ananias was sent that Saul might

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

486

receive it; this was a special mission of the Lord Himself.

e Spirit might also come without the laying on of hands,

as on the hundred and twenty, and on Cornelius; but not

one had the power of conferring it save the apostles. It is

said, “of the apostles’ hand” (vs. 18).

It is possible, too, that the Spirit might come on a

man in this way without an internal work giving life. e

Lord does not habitually work thus; but cases of it are

not wanting in the Old Testament, such as Balaam, king

Saul, and others, where the question of conversion is not

raised, showing that that is another thing altogether. In the

New Testament we do not nd a case of it, but the thing is

supposed (1 Cor. 12; Heb. 6), and the power to do miracles

with the aid of the Holy Spirit and without conversion

and life, is clearly presented by the Lord Himself (Matt.

12:26-27); the Lord does not deny the fact, but declares

that He knows not those who have done them; Matthew

7. See Deuteronomy 13. Judas at least was sent to do such.

We see then a new character of the apostolic authority;

then the free activity of the Spirit clearly displayed in

Philip. By his means the gospel is communicated to a

distant country through a proselyte come to Jerusalem

to worship the true God; a man in whose heart the word

of God possessed full power. It is beautiful to remark in

Philip the readiness of his obedience — how he allowed

himself to be led by the will of God. He is the object of all

attention in the city of Samaria: a notable work had been

done by means of him. “Arise,” said the angel of the Lord,

“and go…unto Gaza, which is desert” (Acts 8:26); but he

was not told what he was to do there. And he goes there

immediately. ere he nds the treasurer of the Queen of

Ethiopia. e Spirit says to him, “Go near, and join thyself

Meditations on Acts 8

487

to this chariot”; and he runs immediately to it. e treasurer

was reading the word of God, but the key of faith in Jesus

was wanting. Philip mounts the chariot, and preaches faith

in Jesus to him. All was ordered by God. He was reading

what was immediately connected with the suerings of the

Lord; and by the power of the Spirit the explanation of the

passage is sent him by the mouth of Philip. e eunuch,

with the heart prepared by grace, and already having faith

in the word, becomes a Christian. He is baptized by Philip,

and goes on his way rejoicing. It is remarkable that the

name of Christianity remains to this day in that country,

much corrupted (it is true), but in the form which this man

implanted. ey believe as to the profession of Christ, but

practice circumcision — (verse 37 is not authentic).

e Spirit of the Lord catches away Philip, and by the

miraculous power of God he is found at Azotus. Time and

space are nothing to God. From Azotus he evangelizes in

all the cities till he comes to Caesarea. Further on we nd

him stationed with his family at this city. He had by this

time obtained the fair name of Evangelist.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

488

62909

Meditations on Acts 9

Acts 9.

We have glanced at the history of the free activity of the

Spirit in those who were dispersed by the persecution, in

Stephen, and in Philip. en follows the deeply interesting

narrative of Saul and of his conversion. In that of Stephen

we saw that man had reached the extreme end of his

iniquity, not only in crucifying the Lord, but in refusing

the oer of grace, and of His return in virtue of the Savior’s

intercession on the cross. ere, for the rst time, we nd

Saul; but he is not content with this quiet hatred. “And

Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against

the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, and

desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that,

if he found any of this way, whether they were men or

women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem” (Act

9:1-2).

He is the apostle, of his own will, of hatred against

Christ, and of the persecution of God’s children. Now

the Lord allowed this, in order to make him the witness

and apostle of the sovereign grace which opened his

eyes, converted and pardoned him. Here it is evidently

sovereign grace meeting the fury of the ardent enemy of

truth and grace, who sought, as he himself says, to destroy

Christianity, and banish the name of Christ from the face

of the earth. While occupied in this very purpose, the Lord

stops him on his way, and reveals Himself to his soul, and

also to his eyes, so that he might be an eye-witness of His

Meditations on Acts 9

489

glory. A light from heaven shone round about him — “Saul,

Saul, why persecutest thou me?” (Acts 9:4).

But two very important truths are contained in this

remarkable scene. e Lord’s glory is revealed. Saul had

not seen the Lord — had not followed Him when present

in the esh. e twelve apostles had known Him in the

days of His esh, and had seen Him disappear in the cloud;

they knew by faith that He was seated at the right hand of

God, but they could not be eye-witnesses of His glory. It is

then that Paul begins. He saw the Lord’s glory, but knew

not who He was. One thing he was certain of — the glory

and the voice of the Lord Himself had appeared to him.

He asks therefore, “Who art thou, Lord?” en the Lord

replies, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.” He was not a

man of the earth, nor the Messiah gone up to heaven, but

the Lord of glory recognizing Himself still as Jesus, and

also Jesus of Nazareth.

e starting-point of the doctrine is dierent: the same

redemption, the same Savior; but the revelation given to

the twelve is that the man Jesus is gone up to heaven; God

has exalted Him. e revelation given to Saul is that the

Lord of glory is Jesus of Nazareth. It begins with heavenly

glory; then, in the second place, that all Christians are

united with Himself, members of His body. is doctrine

is not unfolded but it is not said, “Why persecutest thou

My disciples?” as a doctor or a rabbi, but “Why persecutest

thou me?” And this is the Lord of glory. “I am Jesus whom

thou persecutest.”

Such are the fundamental points in the history of Paul,

the enemy of the Lord of glory, converted, pardoned,

justied, necessary witness of sovereign grace. e gospel

of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, of the glory

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

490

of the Lord, is conded to him; then the truth of the union,

of the unity of Christians with Christ, glorious Head in

heaven. Peter preached that God had gloried Him whom

the Jews had crucied, and invited the rebels to come to

God by the sacrice which he had perfected; and to those

who repented Jesus would return. Saul preached that this

salvation was for all men; and that God, as Savior, could

not limit Himself to the narrow bounds of Israel, but

that He announced Himself to the whole creation under

heaven; then, that the assembly of God was united to Jesus,

His body.

We shall see that God did not permit disunion, but

desired that there should be a single assembly. But it is

not the less true that Paul was a witness that there was

no dierence, that all men were lost, all children of wrath,

one just as another; and that Jesus, by the gift of the Holy

Spirit, had united all in one body — a truth which the Jews

(and also the Christian Jews) always resisted, tormenting

the apostle in his work. Peter himself dissimulated, so that

all the Christian Jews, led by his authority, which was only

the fear of man, sided with him. Not one of the apostles

speaks in his epistles of the assembly, the body of Christ

on earth, save only Paul. e glory of God in the face of

Jesus Christ; sovereign grace, by which he was the example

to all those who should afterward believe in Christ Jesus;

and the whole in virtue of the cross — such was the gospel

conded to Paul.

His traveling companions were witnesses to the truth

of the vision, but did not know of the revelation conded

to Paul. e bright light shone around them, but they did

not see the Lord. ey heard a voice, but not the words of

Him who spoke. Paul was a witness of that which he had

Meditations on Acts 9

491

seen and heard. Paul’s companions were able to testify to

the vision, which was a real thing, and not an invention

of Paul for his own glory. e whole was conrmed by

the mission of Ananias, to whom the Lord revealed what

had happened, sending him to Saul to open his eyes, and

receive him into the Christian assembly by baptism, and by

the gift of the Holy Spirit; for the sudden light had blinded

Saul.

God had drawn him away from all communication

with the outside world, in order that he might be entirely

occupied with his soul, and with the state in which he

found himself. In fact his situation was without a parallel.

Externally he was a man without spot, of irreproachable

reputation according to the law; he had a good conscience.

He believed it his duty to do much against the name of

Jesus, and he did it. e authorities of the religion of the

fathers encouraged and sent him, in every way supporting

him in what he did with such zeal; conscience, legal justice,

religion, all that formed his moral life, had made him the

erce enemy of the Lord of glory. But at one blow all the

foundations of his moral life were ruined. It was by these

very foundations that he became the enemy of the Lord,

and resisted the Spirit who called men to repentance by

the testimony rendered to His glory. Saul had assisted in

an active way in this opposition, when the Jews stoned

Stephen. But this did not satisfy him. His zeal required that

he should persecute also those who believed in distant parts.

us occupied he meets with the Lord, whose name he was

seeking to extirpate. He was therefore the head, the chief,

of sinners; in ignorance it is true, but nevertheless willingly.

Where was his good conscience according to man? Where

his legal justice? Where his religion, of which the priests

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

492

and religious authorities had for him been supreme before?

All had led him to discover himself an enemy of ery zeal

to the Lord, face to face with whom he found himself now,

but still the object of His grace, at the very moment when

he was occupied so thoroughly in destroying His glory.

What a revulsion! What an overturning in his heart! Who

can tell what passed in him during those three days?

And yet the Lord does not send Ananias to him till

this internal moral work was completed. Old things have

passed away, and now all things have become new in his

soul, in the bottom of his thoughts; all is of God who has

revealed Himself in the glory of the face of Jesus Christ.

He is no longer a Jew, although he may be one externally:

but he has not become a Gentile; joined to the Lord of

glory, Jesus Christ, he knows henceforth no man any more

after the esh. He knows the Lord, he knows His people

as united with Him, Gentiles and Jews alike lost sinners,

children of wrath; but he knows the sovereign grace towards

himself which has called him, has revealed the Son of God

to him, and has given him eternal life, even while engaged

in destroying His name. All was grace, pure and sovereign

grace, grace which went so far as to make of Christians

one body with Christ in heaven, and to give them to know

it. How marvelous the revelations we nd unfolded in the

epistles of the apostle! e gospel of the glory of Christ

is easily understood when we realize how and when the

apostle was converted.

But it is worthwhile considering some of the

circumstances which accompanied the conversion of the

apostle. e Lord made use of a converted Jew, hated by his

countrymen, to convey to Paul the formal testimony of His

grace, and receive him into the bosom of the assembly, in

Meditations on Acts 9

493

order that, as we before said, he might never more fear, the

vision having passed away that might be mistaken. Here

is a quiet man who had received a communication from

the Lord, fully conrming what had happened to Saul.

Moreover, Saul is made by another revelation to expect

Ananias so that he may receive his sight by the laying on

of his hands.

But I should like to call attention to still other

circumstances — the full liberty, and, one may say, the

familiarity with which Ananias speaks to the Lord (with

reverence and submission, of course); and, in the same way,

the Lord with him. When the Lord calls him, he replies

immediately, “Here am I.” Nevertheless the Lord, the Man

who interests Himself in His own as friends whom He

loves, speaks with an open heart to Ananias; showing him

not only the way, the house where Saul was to be found,

but that which was necessary to identify him, namely, that

Saul prayed and that he had seen Ananias coming to him

to lay hands on him and restore his sight — just as one tells

a servant what to say, or to a friend what is in the heart.

us the Lord took knowledge of what Paul was doing,

and speaks of it to Ananias. And we see in the answer of

Ananias a perfect trust in this goodness of the Lord. He

begins to reason with the Lord. He had heard that this

man was come to bind those who called upon the name

of the Lord. And the Lord does not reprove him. Of

course he had to go and do what the Lord desired; but He

explains the matter to him, and communicates to him His

thoughts concerning Saul, that he was a chosen vessel to

bear His name, and that He would show him what things

he should suer for His name’s sake. In a word the Lord

opens His heart to Ananias, as a friend whom He treats

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

494

with full condence, speaks naturally, but condingly tells

all He feels to Ananias.

It is very important to remember that Jesus is always

man. If He were not God, His humanity would have no

value; but, being God, the fact that He interests Himself in

us as a man, as men whom He is not ashamed to call His

brethren, is innitely precious. He can feel with us, take

part in all our circumstances, trials, diculties, and troubles.

He loves us as the Father loved Him, a man and Son on the

earth. His love has divine perfection, but He feels as a man,

as a man on the earth, tempted in like manner as we are

apart from sin. He is ever a man; He thinks of us as One

who has passed through all these things with divine love

and human sympathy. Not only does He know everything

as God, but He has had the experience of a man. Precious

truth, unfathomable grace!

We have no need of saints — if they could hear us — to

move His heart to favor us, to render His love warmer, His

interest more profound, or His knowledge of our condition

more intimate. But He has had the experience on purpose

to be able to understand and sympathize with His own

in every circumstance of the life of God in man on the

earth. How great is the intensity of the Savior’s love! How

near to us! How intelligent and intimate is His heart in the

conict of faith! He knows all, feels all, and is with us in

everything to help us. Blessed be His love!

It is possible that He may not reveal Himself to us in

visions, but His heart is not colder to us than to Ananias;

His wisdom is not diminished; His willingness is not

weakened to help us, neither is His arm shortened. e

intimacy and the condence of our hearts ought to be the

Meditations on Acts 9

495

same to tell Him everything; certain it is that His ear is

open to listen to us.

us sent and encouraged, Ananias obeys, goes in perfect

condence towards him who not long before breathed out

threatenings and slaughter against the Christians; and lays

his hands on him, saying, “Brother Saul, the Lord, even

Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest,

hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be

lled with the Holy Ghost” (Acts 9:17). Saul immediately

receives his sight, and rises, is baptized, eats, and walks

with the disciples at Damascus. Without delay he preaches

Christ in the synagogues, declaring Him to be the Son of

God. Although the lion had become a lamb, yet he had not

lost his energy; but his object is dierent; now he preaches

what he had formerly sought to destroy. e subject of his

preaching diers a little from that of Peter, and responds

to the revelation of Christ, which was made to him. Peter

preached that God had exalted the Jesus whom they had

rejected; Saul, that Christ was the Son of God.

But the pungency of Saul’s preaching stirs up the

animosity of the Jews. It is always the religious who oppose

the truth, because their own importance and traditions

are compromised. e rancor of the esh, particularly in

religious things, knows of no giving way. ey seek to stone

Saul, making conscience and religion their plea. But God

watches over His servant; their plot is made known to Paul;

and, while they wait day and night for him at the gates, the

disciples take him by night, and let him down over the wall

in a basket. us he escapes out of men’s hands.

e following verse (26), does not, I think, apply to an

immediately succeeding period. When, however, he arrives

at Jerusalem, they are still afraid of him, not yet knowing

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

496

all that has happened to him; but the good Barnabas

introduces him to the apostles, and makes known to them

the whole truth of his conversion. Here again the apostle

bears faithful witness, and again religious men seek to put

him to death. But the time had not yet arrived for his own

special mission. e brethren bring him down to Caesarea,

and he sets out for Tarsus, his native city.

e narrative now returns to the work of Peter. Although

Saul was called to preach the gospel to the nations, and was

set apart to this mission by a special dispensation of God

founded on a more perfect revelation, which left the Jews

behind as sinners by nature as well as the Gentiles, and

taught that there was no dierence, since all had sinned,

bringing in the new creation, and knowing Christ no more

after the esh; yet there were not to be two assemblies; the

oneness of the church was to be maintained.

Peter is employed, after the conversion of Saul, to bring

the rst Gentile to the knowledge of Christ. But he never

taught what the church was as the body of Christ: this is

not revealed in the case of Cornelius. at the Gentiles

should take their place among the Christians without

becoming Jews, or being circumcised, was something that

Peter and the other Jews had great diculty in believing.

As to the progress of the gospel, let us see what is

taught us in the sequel. We shall nd that those who had

been scattered, being Hellenists, or Jews who had lived in

foreign countries, and were accustomed to maintain daily

intercourse with the Gentiles, spoke with these: so that

the free action of the Spirit also communicated by this

means the gospel to the Gentiles. Paul had a new formal

mission to every creature under heaven, and then he taught

what the assembly was — a truth set forth by no other.

Meditations on Acts 9

497

See Colossians 1. And he himself was to be a member of

the assembly, already founded and established on Christ,

which was His body, the habitation of God through the

Spirit, though he alone taught this doctrine.

It is not without importance to remark that the Romish

system is founded on the authority of Peter, and draws all

its pretensions from him; but the doctrine of the church

was never conded to Peter. Peter was not the apostle of

the uncircumcision, but of the circumcision (Gal. 2); full

of power for the work among the Jews, he left that among

the Gentiles entirely in the hands of Paul. Peter does not

speak of the body of Christ, we who are Gentiles; and the

instrument whom God adopted to establish the church

among the Gentiles was Paul (1 Cor. 3).

e foundation is one, that is, Christ; the gospel of

salvation, one (1 Cor. 15:2). Moreover, God Himself

founded the assembly on the day of Pentecost by the gift of

the Holy Spirit; but, as a human builder, Paul it was whom

God employed to establish the church among the Gentiles,

and unfold what it was. e other apostles never speak of

the body of Christ, nor of the presence of the Holy Spirit

on the earth. Peter then goes about continually, and the

power of God manifests itself in him. Aeneas is healed;

Tabitha is restored to life. e eect, however, of the rst

miracle is greater than that of the second. All that dwell at

Lydda and Saron, rich countries on the sea-shore, turn to

the Lord. At Joppa many believe on Him; and there Peter

tarries many days.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

498

62910

Meditations on Acts 10

Acts 10.

While Peter remains in Simon’s house, God is occupied

with the Gentiles, of whom Peter was not thinking and,

even when he did think of them, not at all disposed to admit

them among the believing Jews. e angel of God appears

to Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian

band, a devout man, faithful according to the knowledge

he possessed, fearing God, and praying continually. He was

then converted, but did not know that salvation which had

been announced by grace in Jesus, obtained for us on the

cross. ere are many people who, though they may have

learned more than Cornelius, and who bear the name of

Christians, have not got beyond this state. ese are like

the prodigal son (Luke 15), when he repents and arises to

go to his father. He was on the right way, but he did not

know how he would be received by his father. Such people

possess perhaps more light, but as to their relation with

God, they are in the same state.

But the conversion of Cornelius, and his introduction to

the Christian assembly, was evidently of great importance.

e Gentiles were to participate in the grace and blessing

of the gospel. e promises had been given to the

Jews — none of them to the Gentiles; but the revelation

of the grace of God could not be limited to one people. In

His government of the world God could choose a people

for Himself, when mankind had abandoned Him and had

altogether fallen into idolatry, in order to maintain on the

earth the knowledge of the one true God, and to put the

Meditations on Acts 10

499

heart of man to the test, show what it was, and unfold His

ways in the midst of mankind. But God, revealed in grace

according to His nature, could not in any way be the God

of a single nation.

Hidden behind the veil, He could give a perfect law,

promises, and prophecies; but at the death of Christ the

veil is rent in twain, God is fully revealed in grace and

justice, and could no longer be the God of the Jews only.

Moreover, at the death of Christ, the Jews as a nation were

set aside till they should repent. Yes, it was God’s will that

the Gentiles should take part in the new blessings of grace.

All were sinners; but God puried by faith one as freely as

another.

Independently of the Jews, He sends His angel to

Cornelius. His prayers and alms are recognized as being

acceptable to God. He is told to send men to Joppa to

call for Simon, who, the angel tells him, lodged with one

Simon, a tanner. He would tell him what he ought to do.

Here is a new and important fact. God was thinking about

the Gentiles, and desired to admit them to the assembly

without their becoming Jews or submitting to the law.

Cornelius, a truly devout man, humble, and fearing God,

acts immediately according to the word of the angel, and

calls two of his servants and a devout soldier, and, having

declared to them all that had happened, sends them to call

for Peter.

As they travel, God prepares Peter’s heart for a mission,

to accomplish which he, till then, had been by no means

ready. But God desired to have the Gentiles. Peter was

praying on the roof of the house where he lodged, and

becoming very hungry, he would have eaten; but while

they made ready, he fell into a trance and saw as it were

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

500

a great sheet let down from heaven to earth, full of all

manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts,

and creeping things, and fowls of the air, which it was not

lawful for the Jews to eat. And there came a voice from

heaven, saying, Rise, Peter, kill, and eat. Peter, faithful to

Judaism, refuses to do so; he had never eaten anything

common or unclean. en the voice said to him, What

God hath cleansed, that call thou not unclean.

As Peter seeks for the interpretation of the vision, the

men sent by Cornelius come to the door and ask for him;

and the Spirit tells Peter to go with them, doubting nothing;

for, said the Spirit, I have sent them. Peter, therefore, brings

them in and lodges them, and on the morrow goes away

with them, only taking the precaution of getting certain

brethren to accompany him. Arrived at Caesarea, Cornelius

throws himself at his feet as the messenger of God. Peter

lifts him up, and asks for what reason he had sent for him.

Many relations and intimate friends of Cornelius

were gathered together. All doubt as to the meaning of

the vision was now removed. By the authority of God

Himself, Peter found himself in the society of the Gentiles,

which was unlawful for the Jews. He acknowledges God’s

willingness to receive those that feared Him and worked

righteousness among all nations, not only among the Jews.

While Cornelius and his friends listen with godly faith, he

recounts the mission of Jesus, how the Jews had crucied

Him, and God had raised Him up, of which thing the

apostles were the witnesses, having eaten and drunk with

Him after His resurrection; the proof that He was still a

true man, though He possessed then a spiritual body, and

that He was the same Jesus whom they had known alive

on the earth. At the end of the Gospel of Luke, the basis

Meditations on Acts 10

501

of every record of the Acts, it is remarkable how Jesus in

perfect grace, takes pains to make the disciples certain that

He was the same Jesus whom they had known. ere we

are told, that He ate and drank in order to demonstrate it

(Luke 24:36 and so forth). “And when he had thus spoken,

he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they

yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them,

Have ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece of

broiled sh, and of an honeycomb. And he took it, and did

eat before them” (Luke 24:40-43).

Still the principal thing remained. Cornelius was

already converted, devout, faithful, and full of the fear of

God, according to the light he possessed. But he did not

know salvation, the work of the Savior, and its ecacy. Led

only by the grace of God, he received with faith what Peter

told him. Now it was declared to him that, according to

the testimony of all the prophets, he who believed in Jesus

received the remission of his sins. e Holy Spirit seals by

His coming this truth received with simple faith into the

hearts of Cornelius and his friends. e Holy Spirit is given

then to the Gentiles, without their becoming Jews or being

circumcised. Henceforth it was impossible not to receive

them into the Christian assembly. God had received them,

and had put His seal on them. Peter commands them to be

baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

We have here four distinct points: the conversion of

the soul by grace (Cornelius was already converted, and

his prayers and alms accepted by God); then the testimony

of the remission of his sins by faith in Jesus, the victim

by whom propitiation was made for us on the cross; then

the seal of God in the gift of the Holy Spirit; and, nally,

the formal reception among the Christians. is order is

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

502

not that which is found elsewhere; because God was here

showing that it was His will that the Gentiles should be

received. But it is important to distinguish the four things,

and to observe the true force of each of them.

Meditations on Acts 11

503

62911

Meditations on Acts 11

Acts 11.

e diculty to the Jews of receiving the Gentiles was

a great one. To do so was to give up all their privileges, all

that remained of the ancient glory of Israel. Peter therefore,

on his return to Jerusalem, is reproved; he had eaten with

the Gentiles. Peter narrates all that had happened, and

how God had given them the gift just as to believing Jews;

how then could he hinder God? e Spirit had sent him to

the Gentiles; the Spirit had been given to them. It was the

accomplishment of the words of John the Baptist; and other

brethren were witnesses to the gift of the Holy Spirit. e

Jews could no longer resist the clear evidence of the will

of God. Grace overcoming in their hearts, they exclaim,

“en hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance

unto life” (Acts 11:18).

It is important to ponder deeply the dierence between

conversion and salvation. I have already spoken on

this subject, but it is one that is so much neglected, and

Christians are so accustomed to be content with a low state

of soul, and are so uncertain with regard to salvation, that

I shall take the opportunity of adding a few more words.

Cornelius was already converted; his prayers and alms were

acceptable to God. He was to call for Peter, who would

tell him words whereby he might be saved. God had been

working in his soul, but he did not yet know the value of

the work accomplished by the Savior. It is the same in the

case of the woman in Luke 7; she loved the Lord deeply,

had felt the height of His grace and the depth of her sins;

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

504

but knew not that all was pardoned. e Lord tells her

so. e prodigal son was converted, confessed his sins, and

turned towards his father, but he was not yet clothed with

the best garment. His father had not yet fallen on his neck,

he knew not his love; he hardly hoped to be admitted as a

servant, and was not in a t state to enter into the house.

Every privilege awaited him, but he did not possess them.

I doubt not that He who has begun the good work will

continue it till the day of Christ Jesus. As long as a soul

reasons about its state, seeks to know whether it is saved

or converted, and judges by its own heart of what is in the

heart of God, it is under law; salvation for such an one

depends on his own state, not on the love of God and the

ecacy of the work of Christ. He may perhaps say he is

truly converted; he feels the need of salvation, and believes

that others have found it; but he does not himself possess

it; just as Israel was not out of the land of Egypt till the sea

was crossed. Two things, which cannot be separated, are

necessary; faith in the work of Christ, and the knowledge

that it is nished. I say they cannot be separated, because,

when we believe in the work of Christ, and by faith trust in

it, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit; we enjoy peace (the love

of God being shed abroad in our hearts), we are reconciled

to God, and in Christ are made meet to be partakers of

the inheritance of the saints in light; and we know it by

the Holy Spirit given to us. In spirit we are in the Father’s

house, partaking of the food with which He nourishes His

beloved children. Not only has the heart turned towards

God, but Christ is our righteousness, who also appears for

us continually before the face of God.

Before the narrative of the mission of the apostle Paul,

we nd once more the free activity of the Holy Spirit in all

Meditations on Acts 11

505

the members of the body of Christ. ose who had been

dispersed by the persecution raised against the Christians

on the death of Stephen were preaching everywhere, but

for the most part to the Jew only. It never occurred to them

that the grace and the thoughts of God could overstep the

limits of His people after the esh. A few of them, however,

who, living in Gentile districts (especially at Antioch),

daily came in contact with the Gentiles and desired their

salvation also, preached the Lord Jesus to them. And the

hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number,

having believed, were converted to the Lord.

us we nd that no sooner is the unity of the assembly

secured by the admission of Cornelius to it by means of

Peter — he rst making use of the keys of the kingdom

to admit, according to the Lord’s promise, the Gentiles

also — than the free action of the Spirit is reproduced. e

gospel is spread among the nations, not by means of Peter,

nor of Paul, who afterward became the great minister of

God towards the Gentiles, but by means of the faithful,

stirred up by the love of Christ reigning in their hearts,

and giving them the desire that His name should be

gloried. It was not a question of ordination, nor of human

consecration. All, except the apostles, had been scattered,

and all were preaching. at there are especial gifts is

evident in the word, but it was love to Christ and souls

that opened their mouths.

And observe, the fact is not merely recorded in the

word, but their activity is approved by the Lord. “e hand

of the Lord was with them.” e gospel was rst preached

to the Gentiles by private Christians, moved by the grace

of God to communicate to others the blessing which

they themselves enjoyed; and they sought to establish

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

506

the authority of Christ over mankind, and glorify His

name — an important principle clearly demonstrated in

this narrative.

Let us bear in mind that the rst dissemination of the

gospel among the nations was eected, not by means of

ocial preachers, but by ordinary Christians, not sent

out by men; but moved by love to Christ. Subsequently

Paul was sent expressly by the Holy Spirit, and received

apostolic gifts; but he was not sent by the other apostles

but directly by God and by Jesus Christ, by means of the

Holy Spirit. Moreover, in the providence of God, the free

activity of Christians became the occasion of his mission.

“en tidings of these things came unto the ears of the

church which was in Jerusalem; and they sent forth

Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch: who, when

he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and

exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would

cleave unto the Lord. For he was a good man, and full of

the Holy Ghost and of faith; and much people was added

unto the Lord” (Acts 11:22-24). en Barnabas goes to

seek for Paul, whom the brethren had brought to Caesarea,

from whence he had gone to his native city, Tarsus. We

have seen that Barnabas was a man full of faith and of

the Holy Spirit, but he was not a man capable of taking

the initiative, of starting and maintaining such a work

as that of the conversion of the Gentiles. us, though

blessed by God, he is not His instrument for this work.

He was himself conscious of this, and so, with kindness

and simplicity of heart, and doubtless led of God, seeks

the instrument chosen and called by God. He had already

introduced him to the Jews at Jerusalem, who were afraid

of their late persecutor.

Meditations on Acts 11

507

e power of Saul’s call had separated him from

everything to be for Christ alone. He awaited only the

formal message from the Lord, a new source of courage

and the eect of the spirit of humility and obedience.

In our times, it is a diculty that there is no clear and

open call like that of Saul, but we have seen that all were

free to evangelize; and moreover that they were bound to

accomplish the work according to the strength of the love

of Christ working in their hearts. And if there is a special

gift, this gift is unfolded in the exercise of it. Besides, we

have the promise and the precept, “If any man lack wisdom,

let him ask of God, that giveth liberally to all men, and

upbraideth not, and it shall be given him” (James 1:5).

Such were the rst disseminators of the gospel among the

Gentiles. Apostolical gifts are indeed wanting, and that is

a great loss; but it is an honor to be thus dependent on

God, and that activity should be the fruit of the spiritual

state. We shall experience our own weakness, but also the

unwavering faithfulness of God. We have also the warning

of the same James, “Be not many masters.” e word of

God is enough for all times; if it is not enough for us, it will

be for our condemnation. e grace of God must work in

us. Let us bear it in mind.

We see, however, the greatest liberty in the exercise

of the ministry. Barnabas seeks Saul; Paul takes Silas,

Timothy, and others; he wished Apollos to go to Corinth,

but Apollos did not wish to go there. Saul then, and

Barnabas, exercise their ministry together; they assemble

themselves with the church, and teach much people. It was

thus that a Christian assembly was founded at Antioch,

the capital of the Gentile world in that quarter, and the

point from which the Grecian world was evangelized.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

508

But it was important that this assembly should not be

separated from that of Jerusalem, and so we are suddenly

taken back to that city. It is still lovingly recognized; and

we shall see that God makes use of the very strength that

sought to bring the Gentiles under subjection to the law, to

set them free, maintain unity, and preserve liberty. Now the

union is strengthened by the fruits of love. A prophet (and

there were such in the new assembly) announces that there

should be a great dearth throughout all the world; and the

disciples determine to send aid to the brethren in Judea;

which is done by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.

Meditations on Acts 12

509

62912

Meditations on Acts 12

Acts 12.

e Spirit now takes us back to Jerusalem. He was

willing to forget neither it nor the testimony of God found

there. e Spirit here records an event which sets forth the

care that God, in His providence, had of His own (and

especially, by means of the angels, for Peter), working in

them by His Spirit. He permits that James, the brother of

John, should succumb to the malice of Herod, the enemy

of the gospel. at this was pleasing to the Jews gave the

king a further pretext for continuing in the path of his

opposition. Little mattered the death of a few Christians,

if their death gave him popularity with the Jews. He

therefore seized Peter and put him in prison, purposing

after the feast of the passover to give him up to the people.

But the thoughts of God were otherwise. e night

before he was to be led out to the people, Peter slept in

perfect peace under the protection of God, although, so

that the hand of God might be shown in his liberation,

he was strongly guarded by men. He slept between two

soldiers, bound with two chains. Sentinels before the door

guarded the prison likewise. But we are more secure in the

hands of God than when exposed to the violence of men,

even though they may seem to have us rmly enough in

their grasp.

e angel awakens Peter, and at the sound of his voice

the chains fall from his hands. Every detail is minutely

recorded. At the word of the angel Peter binds on his

sandals and girds himself. e care of the angel is most

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

510

minute. And when, after having passed the two guards,

they reached the outer gate, it opens to them of itself. e

angel accompanies Peter through one street, and then

disappears. Peter, who till this moment imagined he saw a

vision, now becomes conscious that God has delivered him

from the hands of Herod and from the expectation of the

Jews. Observe here how visions resembled the reality, since

Peter believed the reality to be a vision. us, considering

the things, he comes to the house of Mary, the mother of

Mark, a place probably often the scene of the meetings of

the Christians. It was the home of the sister of Barnabas.

Mark had gone with Barnabas on his separation from Paul,

but Mark is again found in Colossians, and in 2 Timothy

4:11 his service is recognized as protable for the ministry.

Sweet it is to see how grace, shut out for a while by failure,

hastens to recognize the brother brought back to the path

of devotedness, and to renewed usefulness in the work of

the Lord.

Peter does not remain there, but, telling them to make

known to James what has occurred, departs and goes to

another place. But here we shall do well to remark a few

particulars. e refuge of the faithful is in prayer. ey had

come together to ask God for the preservation of Peter,

and God had heard their prayer. ey did not know how,

but they had put trust in God. It seemed to be the natural

resource of the hearts of these believers; and the feeling was

a common one. In the diculty which had occurred, the

danger of the beloved apostle, they meet together to look

to God. Prayer Was given to their hearts by the Holy Spirit

as a refuge in adversity; and though they might not know

how God would respond, yet they were always answered

according to His own counsels. Peter is set free according

Meditations on Acts 12

511

to their desire; but we see how little the heart, though by

grace it may have condence in God and turns to Him

in its need, believes that its supplications will be granted.

Here their need had been expressed to God, but when the

answer came, they could not believe it was possible.

Peter is set free by the intervention of the angel, and

Herod is struck by the judgment of God when he sets

himself up against Him. Can we expect similar intervention

now? I do not believe that miracles are performed today;

angels no longer appear; it was not a gift that could continue.

In Ephesians 4 no miraculous gifts are to be found. But I

fully believe, according to the Lord’s promise, that prayer

is heard, and that the angels work in favor of the children

of God as much now as in those early times. As to prayer,

the word of God is clear. e condition is made, however,

that what we ask be according to the will of God, and that

prayer be made in faith; and we are told that, if the words

of Christ abide in us, we shall ask what we will.

e Lord and the apostles exhort us to prayer without

ceasing, in condence, never letting our faith fail. We do

well if we make known our requests to God in every case;

but it does not follow that we shall always receive what

we ask — as, for example, it happened to Paul with regard

to the thorn in his esh. For him it would not have been

good for God to have answered him. But the result of our

prayers is that the peace of God which passes knowledge

shall keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus

(Phil. 4). His throne is not disturbed, neither is His heart

burdened by our solicitations; and the peace in which

He dwells continually shall, when we have placed these

requests on His throne, work eectually in our hearts. e

outward manifestation of the power of God, the testimony

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

512

rendered at the beginning to the word of God, does not

repeat itself; but God’s care, His answers to prayer, and

the blessed service of angels, still remain to the children of

God. (For the angels, see Heb. 1:14.)

Here we nd then God’s care for the assembly at

Jerusalem; but we shall not again see any activity on the

part of Peter. at such was to be the case is demonstrated

by the fact of this intervention. We know that he went to

Antioch, probably for the work of the Lord, but this is not

stated. ere he was unfaithful to the Lord, and is reproved

by Paul. He wrote to the Jews in the provinces of Asia

Minor, but it is not known whether he went there. It is

possible that he lived in Babylon, but it is uncertain; many

Jews lived there. In his epistle he salutes on the part of the

saints there; but we possess no account of any of his doings.

He was the rst to introduce the Gentiles to the public

Christian assembly, in order to preserve unity.

At this period ordinary Christians, in their dispersion,

disseminated the truth among the Gentiles. Unity was still

preserved; and the wisdom of God declared, by means of

the assembly at Jerusalem, that the Gentiles were not under

the subjection of the law. But as for Peter no more is heard

regarding his activity; for the divine work was now to leave

Jerusalem. He is fully recognized here by the care of the

angels, but the power of the Holy Spirit is only found in

Paul and in his companions. Antioch is the starting-point,

and not Jerusalem; as for Rome, it is the last place where

the church is established, and it was not founded there by

the apostles. Before the arrival of Paul Christians, who,

like many others, had gone to the capital of the world, met

together there; and Paul wrote to them before going. What

became of Peter is not recorded, and, save in Acts 15, where

Meditations on Acts 12

513

what he had previously done is mentioned, he now entirely

disappears from the narrative. Paul, sent from Antioch by

the Holy Spirit, is the instrument of God for the preaching

of the gospel among the Gentiles, and to teach what the

church was, the mystery which had been hid from ages and

generations. See Colossians 1:23-27. It is his history which

follows in Acts 13.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

514

62913

Meditations on Acts 13

Acts 13.

Barnabas and Saul, having accomplished their mission,

return to Antioch, from whence they had gone to Jerusalem

with the contribution for the poor. Now in the assembly at

Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers. ese

ministered to the Lord and fasted. While thus engaged,

with hearts consecrated to the Lord, the Holy Spirit said,

“Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto

I have called them” (Acts 13:2). Doubtless the command

was given by the mouth of one of these prophets, for this

reason called such; but the important fact to remark is that

these two apostles were called by the Spirit Himself.

en, under the impression of the seriousness of the

call, having again fasted and prayed, they laid their hands

on them and sent them away. And it was on a mission of

the greatest importance. e gospel, and the revelation of

the assembly, is now formally given to the Gentiles, they

and the Jews, as believers, being united in one body on the

earth and for the heavens. Let us consider a few particulars.

Already Paul had been called by the revelation and the

authority of Christ, and more precisely by the revelation of

a gloried Christ. Saul had not known Christ on the earth.

Of this we have spoken. He had been separated both from

the Jews and from the Gentiles. As regards religion, he did

not belong to the one class any more than to the other, but

was united to a risen and gloried Christ. Henceforth he

knew no man after the esh, not even Christ — that is, as

a Jew who awaited a Christ on the earth, according to the

Meditations on Acts 13

515

promises given to the nation. As a witness called by God

his starting-point was the glory — Christ in heavenly glory,

the same who had suered by the hands of those who were

still persecuting His members on the earth. For him the

cross was the end of his Adamic and Judaic life. He was

dead to the world, to the esh, to the law. He labored as an

apostle of, and one who belonged to, a new creation.

Moreover, he drew neither his authority nor his mission

from the apostles who preceded him; his mission did not

even originate at Jerusalem, and was not dependent on the

sanction of the apostles there, nor of the church at that

place. His mission was given directly from God and from

Christ. Personally called by Christ three years before, he

is now sent by the Holy Spirit, and departs from Antioch,

a Gentile city, from the bosom of an assembly where the

Gentiles had rst gathered together. He did not go to

or from another assembly. e superstition and legality

of the Jews very nearly did so, but God did not permit

it, as we shall see. His mission was nevertheless entirely

independent; it was dependent on the authority of Christ

alone, and on the power of the Holy Spirit. e apostle

insists much on this point in the rst two chapters of the

epistle to the Galatians.

He desired to be absolutely independent of Peter and

the others; and not only did he assert his having been sent

from God Himself, but he was obliged to rebuke Peter,

who, for fear of those who came from Jerusalem, had been

unfaithful to the truth and to his own convictions. Paul was

free from all men, subject to Christ, and in love the servant

of all; a model and example for all Christians, as indeed he

himself tells us. He fully recognized the mission of Peter to

the Jews, as well as that of the other apostles; but though he

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

516

preached the same gospel as they, his mission was directly

from God Himself.

Barnabas and Saul are not only called, but sent by the

Holy Spirit. ey depart therefore to Seleucia, and from

thence sail to Cyprus. But here the state of the work is

manifested — a new aspect of aairs. e Gentiles are

disposed to listen. Judgment falls on the Jews for a time,

on account of their opposition to the gospel, especially

on its proclamation to the Gentiles. See 1 essalonians

2:16. Till now all the light that was in the world the Jews

possessed; but, having rejected the true and perfect Light

of the world, they had fallen into darkness, and hated the

light, and all the more because jealousy lled their hearts.

e apostle never denied their privileges. In Salamis he

began by preaching in their synagogues. He did not give

up the Jews till the Jews rejected the gospel.

Now John Mark, the son of her in whose house the

disciples had met together to pray for Peter, was with them.

e relationships of the apostle were still Judaic, for, though

himself free, Paul profoundly loved his nation as the people

of God. Having gone through the island, they nd with

the governor a certain Jew, a false prophet. e governor, a

prudent man, desires to hear the word of God. e sorcerer

Elymas, however, withstands the apostles, seeking to turn

the deputy away from the faith. But if the hurtful power

of the enemy was with the sorcerer, the power of God

was with the apostles. ey strike the false prophet with

blindness. Such is a remarkable picture of the state of the

Jews, and of the power of God shown in the propagation

of the gospel. e deputy, astonished at the doctrine of the

Lord, believes.

Meditations on Acts 13

517

Saul now assumes the name of Paul, having (we are not

told how) changed his Jewish name for a Roman one. e

moment was a convenient one. e word literally signies

“to work”; but I do not think this is either the source or the

intention of it.

After crossing the sea, John Mark leaves them. His

relationship with Jerusalem was too strong for him, and

the diculties and dangers of the work of the apostles

too great for his faith. Barnabas was his uncle; Cyprus,

the country of Barnabas. Alas! how many there are whose

faith depends on circumstances! ey go on steadily while

surrounded by these circumstances; but when the path

leads to simple dependence on the faithfulness of God,

their steps at once begin to ag.

e power of the Spirit of God creates His instruments,

and adapts each for His work; and, set forth by the energy

of the Spirit, they are sustained by His power in the midst

of all circumstances, whatever they may be. We shall see

that even Barnabas could not continue always with Paul,

nor consent to know no longer any man after the esh.

But it is sweet to see how, as I have already said, Paul in

the end recognizes Mark as protable for the ministry (2

Tim. 4:11). So Mark goes away, and Barnabas and Paul

continue their journeying in strange lands, where the

gospel is unknown.

Leaving Perga, they come to another Antioch, in

Pisidia, where they enter into the synagogue of the Jews.

Called on by the rulers of the synagogue to exhort the

congregation (for the ministry was freer among the Jews

than in modern Christian churches), they announce Jesus

and the resurrection. Let us notice certain points in this

address. As was generally the case, it was composed of facts.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

518

e apostle briey relates the history of Israel till the time

of David; and then lays down the two fundamental parts of

the gospel — namely, the fulllment of the promises, and

the powerful intervention of God in the resurrection of

Christ, by which He was shown to be the Son of God.

In this way also he begins the Epistle to the Romans. All

the narratives of the Acts depend on the mission given at

the end of Luke. e subjects are repentance and remission

of sins. For Israel the way had been prepared by John the

Baptist. en God, according to His promise, raised up

(not raised from among the dead) a Savior.

But they of Jerusalem had accomplished all that the

prophets had spoken, knowing neither the Savior nor

the voice of the prophets, which, in crucifying Jesus, they

had fullled. But God had raised Him from the dead,

and He had been seen for many days by those who had

accompanied Him from Galilee. us was the promise in

Psalm 2 of the coming of the Son of God, the King of Israel,

accomplished. But, we would add, as to the responsibility

of Israel, it is lost on account of the rejection of Christ; yet

on the part of God all the promises were rmly established

in His resurrection according to Isaiah 55:3, and as to His

person, the prophecy of Psalm 16 is accomplished. All that

the Jews were now to receive was to be given in pure grace.

On this foundation the doctrine of the gospel is established.

e remission of sins is announced, and justication from

all things, from which the law of Moses could not justify.

e basis of the new covenant has been laid, and the blood

of that covenant shed, though the covenant itself be not yet

established. It will be with Judah and with Israel in the last

days, but founded on what has been already accomplished.

Meditations on Acts 13

519

e apostles then exhort their hearers not to neglect

the salvation which had been announced to them. e

fundamental truths of the gospel ever remain the same;

the remission of all sins to believers; the person of Christ

proved to be the Son of God by His resurrection; and the

fulllment of the promises made to Israel, though that

people be for a time set aside. But this justication being

for believers, it was for the Gentiles also.

e Gentiles then ask that these words may be preached

to them on the next sabbath. e fame of this new doctrine

quickly spreads, and nearly the whole city comes together

to hear it. But the poor Jews, moved with jealousy, cannot

bear to be surpassed in religious inuence, and that another

religion than theirs should work on the Gentiles. Oh, poor

human heart, always stronger in religious people! e truth

it has already believed in (and believed in because received

by many, themselves unconverted; and because, besides

being the truth, it does them honor to profess it) does not

put the heart to the test. But truth is always truth, even

though it be not received by the many; it does put the heart

to the test, and must be received only because God gives it.

e Jews now begin to contradict and to blaspheme.

Paul at once takes his stand, and acknowledging that the

gospel ought rst to be preached to the Jews, as heirs

of the promises, openly declares that he turns to the

Gentiles, taking the remarkable prophecy in Isaiah 49 as

the commandment of the Lord. ere the Spirit presents

Israel as the nation in which God should be gloried. But

then the Messiah had labored in vain, for Israel was not

gathered in. Still it was but a small thing to bring back

the tribes of Israel; the Messiah should be a light to the

Gentiles, and the salvation of God to the ends of the earth.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

520

On the ground of this declaration of the will of God, the

apostles turn to the Gentiles.

Such was free grace, poured out on all, leaving the

strict connes of Judaism, and directing itself to the whole

world. But still the grace of God, mingled with faith,

was necessary to make the truth enter the heart, so that

it might be born of God. is is what happens here. e

power of God accompanied the word and “as many as were

ordained to eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48). e result

is this: — opposition on the part of the Jews, testimony

throughout all the earth (except at Jerusalem, chap. 15),

and the operation of grace in the heart, whereby it is led to

the acceptance of the gospel.

Already, on the rst sabbath day, many Gentiles and

proselytes had followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking

to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.

e Jews, however, on account of their failure, are put aside.

e spiritual energy of Paul now places him at the head of

the work. Till this moment it has been Barnabas and Paul;

henceforth we shall nd Paul and Barnabas.

e gospel is shed abroad in all these regions; but the

opposition of the Jews increases. ey “stirred up the devout

and honorable women, and the chief men of the city, and

raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled

them out of their coasts.” Similar scenes are enacted

everywhere. By the permission of God (He, however, still

holding the reins in His own hand) the devotees of the old

religion, and the devout women, with the chief men under

their inuence, seek to cast out the gospel. e apostles

shake o the dust from their feet, in testimony of the

justice awaiting those who rejected the grace and salvation

Meditations on Acts 13

521

of God. “And the disciples were lled with joy, and with

the Holy Ghost” (Acts 13:52).

Such is the varied picture of the work of the gospel

in the world, and the rst public exhibition of its result,

when announced in the face of the opposition of the old

religion, which still exercised its power over unconverted

hearts, in presence of the need and unbelief of mankind.

And such, in spite of conicts and diculties, is the power

of the gospel under the inuence of the Holy Spirit. It is

rst preached to the Jews, because they had the promises;

then it is given to the Gentiles, because all believers are

justied by faith in Christ. A dead and risen Christ is for

all. Opposition springs up from the hatred of the Jews, of

the devout women according to the old religion, and of the

principal men of the city. Judgment, though not executed,

is pronounced; and then grace, working in the hearts of the

believers, leads them to faith and joy in the presence of the

Spirit, those who do not believe being left under judgment.

Expelled from Antioch, the apostles prosecute their labors

elsewhere.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

522

62915

Meditations on Acts 14

Acts 14.

At Iconium many believed, but the Jews renewed their

eorts against the gospel. As God worked by the word,

however, the apostles abode there a long time. But, the city

being divided, and their adversaries desirous of doing them

injury, they set out for Lystra and Derbe, where they preach

the gospel, as also in the regions round about. At Lystra

the power of God was manifested by the hand of Paul in

healing a cripple who had never walked. Here we nd that

the faith of the cripple had to go with his restoration; in

other cases this does not appear, the cure being eected by

the power of God alone, by him who was His instrument.

e people, astonished by the miracle, call Barnabas

Jupiter, and Paul Mercury, because he was the chief speaker.

Barnabas (as Mercury was servant to Jupiter) is mentioned

rst in the narrative. e priest of Jupiter desires to do

sacrice with the people. e apostles, Barnabas and Paul,

vexed in heart at seeing the purpose of the people, and far

from desiring any honor for themselves, rend their clothes,

and running in among the crowd to stop them, announce

the one true God (not here salvation), who, till then, “had

suered all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless

he left not himself without witness, in that he did good,

and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, lling

our hearts with food and gladness” (Acts 14:16-17).

Such was the beautiful description of what God was,

even among the Gentiles, and of what He gave to be

known by them; I do not say that they did know Him,

Meditations on Acts 14

523

for they preferred the imaginations of their own hearts,

and the gods who favored their evil lusts. Nothing could

be more horrible than what man showed himself to be,

when God left him, on account of his perversity, to himself.

What they did every day in their idolatry is unt to be

written. e account of it may be found in Romans 1. e

apostles seek to persuade the Gentiles of Lystra to give up

their idols, and to believe in the one, true, and bountiful

God, whom they had come expressly to declare to them, to

lead them to His knowledge and to faith in Him. Scarcely,

however, do they succeed in preventing the people from

sacricing to them.

But the Jews (not satised with having driven the

apostles from Antioch and Iconium, and moved by an

animosity, grievous to the heart, against the gospel) come

to Lystra also, and persuade the people, who, ignorant

and ckle, now seek to stone those whom, shortly before,

they had been ready to adore. Paul, the more culpable in

their eyes because the more active in the work, is stoned,

and, apparently dead, is dragged out of the city. Such is

man — such the religious, when they have not the truth;

Paul himself had been such — but such also is the power of

the gospel, when active in an unbelieving world.

But it was not in the thoughts of God that His servant

should then perish. “As the disciples stood round about

him, he rose up, and came into the city; and the next day

he departed with Barnabas to Derbe.” Much blessed in this

city, he goes on his way and returns to Lystra, Iconium,

and Antioch, from whence he had been expelled. Outrage

and violence neither impede the work nor enfeeble the

courage of the servants. When the Lord so wills it, they

return in peace to the very places from whence they have

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

524

been driven. It is beautiful to see the calm superiority of

faith over the violence of man, and how God conducts the

heart of His servants. ey submit to, or, if possible, avoid

violence; but if the work requires it, God opens the door,

and the laborers are there with it again.

Now another part of their work is here presented. ey

continue to preach the gospel; but it was now necessary to

establish assemblies, and put them in regular order (vs. 23).

ey give the disciples to understand that Christ was not

come to bring peace on the earth which would meet with

the opposition and enmity of the world, but that through

much tribulation they must enter the kingdom of God. It

was a warning for all times to make men understand that

persecution was not a strange thing. “All that will live godly

in Christ Jesus shall suer persecution” (2 Tim. 3:12) — not,

however, all Christians. If a Christian conforms to the

world, he will avoid persecution; but he will lose the joy

of the Holy Spirit and communion with God; he will be

saved as by re, and an entrance into the eternal kingdom

shall not be abundantly ministered to him. If we walk with

God, we shall not be barren in the knowledge of the Lord

Jesus.

I speak thus, because for many the time of open

persecution has passed away; but, if we are faithful, we shall

most surely experience persecution both from the world

and from our own families. e world cannot tolerate

faithfulness. If the Christian walk with the world, instead

of winning the world to Christ, he himself gets at a distance

from Him, and will lose, I do not say life, but his spiritual

privileges, his joy, and the approval of Christ; and his

testimony is against Christianity. By his ways he declares

that the friendship of the world is not enmity against God.

Meditations on Acts 14

525

e Christian when with the world is in no respects at

ease; and when in the company of spiritual Christians his

conscience reproves him because he is walking badly, and

that which is a joy to them, he cannot enter into. May all

who are disposed to or in danger of being let to mingle

with the ways of the world give heed to this exhortation!

e apostles chose elders for the assemblies in every

city. It is neither chose by common vote, nor ordained;

this is not the true rendering of the word, but “chose.” e

same word is employed in 2 Corinthians 8:19, where the

assemblies chose brethren to accompany Paul with the

money collected for the poor of Jerusalem. e same word

occurs again in Acts 10:41, where it is used in respect of

God, and “chosen” is necessarily the sense. e apostles

then chose elders for the assemblies. e epistle to Titus

is another proof that the authority of the apostles was the

source of that of the elders. I do not dwell here, however,

on this question, though it is an important one, since the

ordinary translation leads to putting the truth in a false

light.

We have not in these days apostolical authority; and

election made by the assembly is a thing unknown to the

word. e authority descended from Christ to the apostle,

and from the apostle to the elder. e word Bishop, in its

present acceptation, is also unknown in the word. All the

elders are really called bishops, as in Acts 20:17,28; no

other bishops are found in scripture; and at the beginning

Paul and Barnabas chose them for every assembly among

the Gentiles, as afterward Paul sent Titus to establish them

in every town in the island of Crete.

It is important here to observe that the apostle not

only preached the gospel for the salvation of souls, which

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

526

was his principal work, but that he united the converts in

assemblies, to which he was afterward able to write; and that

the church or assembly which he founded in every city was

properly ordered and represented the universal assembly, of

which those who in each place composed it were members

(1 Cor. 12), with the promise that Jesus would be in the

midst of them. But the wickedness of Christians, or of

Christians so-called, and forgetfulness of Christ’s return

(Matt. 24:48-50), have corrupted Christianity according to

the prophecies of the New Testament. See 2 Timothy 3:1-

5; Jude 4; John 2:18-19; Matthew 13:28-30. All is disorder,

confusion and corruption.

But we are here learning the primitive order, before the

assembly became corrupted. John tells us that the last time

has already come; and Paul that “the mystery of iniquity

doth already work” (2 ess. 2:7); Peter, that the hour has

arrived to judge the house of God; Jude, that those who

should be judged at the end had already crept in unawares.

e testimony is as clear as day, if we have ears to

hear what is written in the word; that in the time of the

apostles the corruption of the assembly of God had already

commenced, and that, when the apostolic energy of Paul

should be absent, evil from within and from without would

inundate the church like a deluge. Matthew 13:29-30

teaches us that the evil eected by, the enemy in the kingdom

of God should not be taken away till the judgment. It all

exists still, while the patience of God gathers in His own.

en, when they had prayed with fasting and had

commended them that believed to the Lord, the apostles

go down by Pisidia to the sea-shore, preach in Perga, and

pass on to Antioch. Here we see the true force of what had

been done in Acts 13:3. ey had been recommended to

Meditations on Acts 14

527

the grace of God, for the work they had now fullled. is

is repeated in Acts 15:40, so that Paul would have been

twice ordained, if this had been ordination; and he would

moreover have been an apostle ordained by the laity. is,

however, he stoutly denies (Gal. 1:1); “an apostle,” he says,

“not of men, neither by man.” e Judaizers sought to have

it so, but he refuted it with all his power. ese insisted that

his mission was from the church at Jerusalem, and opposed

him precisely because it was not. He was not willing to be

an apostle at all, if not from God, and from Jesus Christ.

It is to Antioch they go, not to Jerusalem; they return

to their starting-point, from whence they had been

recommended to the grace of God. e work of the

Holy Spirit connects itself with Antioch, in its earthly

relationship; the power is all from above. ere the apostles

recount the great things which God had done for them,

and how He had opened the door among the Gentiles.

“And there they abode long time with the disciples” (Acts

14:28).

In the preceding narrative we nd this history of the

preaching of the gospel among the Gentiles, by formal

apostolic mission, the diculties, the position of the

Gentiles and of the Jews, the circumstances under which

it was propagated in the world, and that independently of

Judaism and of Jerusalem, a work in which Peter took no

part. God worked mightily by him among the Jews; but,

except that he was employed to introduce the rst Gentile,

he had nothing to do with them. He was the apostle of

the circumcision, and with the other apostles formally gave

up the work among the Gentiles to Paul and to Barnabas

(Gal. 2).

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

528

62916

Meditations on Acts 15

But the Jews-those at least who made a profession of

Christianity with Satan as their instrument — sought to

place the Gentiles under the yoke of Judaism, and destroy

the work of God within, if they could not hinder it without

the church. ey went down from Judea to Antioch,

teaching the brethren that they must be circumcised,

and observe the law of Moses, in order to be saved. e

moment was a critical one. It was necessary, according to

them, that the Gentiles should submit to the law of Moses,

and become Jews, or that two separate assemblies should

be formed. Paul and Barnabas, however, oppose themselves

to these exactions. But God did not permit the question to

be settled at Antioch.

It will readily be understood, that, had the cause of the

Gentiles been vindicated by a decision given at Antioch,

and, in spite of the Jews, they had preserved their liberty,

the danger would have been imminent of two assemblies

being formed, and of unity being lost. All the spiritual

and apostolical power of Paul therefore was insucient

to overcome the opposing spirit at Antioch, and decide

the question. It was God’s will that it should be decided

at Jerusalem, and that the Christian Jews themselves,

the apostles, the elders, and the whole assembly, should

pronounce the freedom of the Gentiles; and that thus holy

liberty and unity should be secured. It is decided, therefore,

that Barnabas and Paul shall go to Jerusalem concerning

this matter. We learn from Galatians 2:2 that Paul went

thither in obedience to direct revelation.

Meditations on Acts 15

529

God permitted that these Jews, without mission, zealous

without God for the law, the authority of which over the

conscience had been terminated by the cross, should raise

this question, so that it might be denitively settled. e

apostles and elders, therefore, meet together. It seems

that all the believers may have been present, since verse

12 speaks of the multitude; however it is the apostles and

elders who meet together. Paul and Barnabas relate what

has happened in their journey — the conversion of the

Gentiles — and the brethren rejoice with great joy. Here

the most simple hearts enjoy with simplicity the grace of

God. But at Jerusalem they met with greater diculty.

Nothing could be more opposed to grace than the doctrine

of the Pharisees, which asserted that righteousness must be

obtained by works, and by the administration of ordinances.

Arrived at Jerusalem, they declare there also all things

that God has done with them. But here God in His grace

manifests the question as having been produced by the

hardness of the heart; that is, that some of the sect of the

Pharisees who had believed demanded that the Gentiles

should be circumcised. I do not believe, however, that

it is Paul or Barnabas who relates this fact, which had

happened at Jerusalem. e apostles and elders then meet

together. After much disputing (for the principals, led

doubtless by the Holy Spirit, were wise enough to allow all

who thought themselves capable to give their opinion; and

in order that after the thoughts of men the voice of God

might be heard) Peter reminds the assembly how God had

chosen him rst to bear the gospel to the Gentiles, and

that the Spirit had been given to Cornelius without his

being circumcised; that God Himself had borne witness

to them by the Holy Spirit just in the same way as to the

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

530

believing Jews; that He had made no dierence between

them, purifying their hearts by faith. He acknowledges the

yoke of the ordinances, and warns them not to tempt God

by putting it on the neck of the Gentiles. For did not they

themselves believe that they had been saved by the grace of

the Lord Jesus, and not by ordinances?

en all the multitude kept silence, and Paul and

Barnabas declared what miracles and wonders God had

wrought among the Gentiles by them. (Here, at Jerusalem,

Barnabas is always mentioned rst; it is probable that he

spoke more than Paul, relating what had been done. Paul

had labored more than any other; but at Jerusalem it was

natural that Barnabas should be more forward than Paul.)

en James, who held the rst place at Jerusalem (see

Acts 12:17; 21:18; Gal. 2:12), gives a summary of the

judgment of the assembly, which no one opposes, and, by

the aid of the Holy Spirit, a denite form to the thought of

God, expressing His will respecting the Gentiles. e work

of the Holy Spirit is here in the rst place remarkable;

and also His full liberty, so that all the thoughts of men

are brought to light, and given utterance to. In the next

place, what God proposed to reveal by Peter in the case of

Cornelius; and then the wonders that had been wrought by

the hands of Barnabas and Paul among the Gentiles. Such

is what seemed good to the Holy Spirit, who was given to

Cornelius, and who wrought also among the Gentiles with

signs and wonders by the hands of those who were sent out

from Him.

en James (who, as we have seen, represented the Judaic

spirit, and in whose mind the feelings of the assembly at

Jerusalem concurred, but who was fully under the inuence

of the Holy Spirit) expresses the thought of that assembly,

Meditations on Acts 15

531

and of the eleven apostles of Jerusalem, whom we may

call Judaic, the judgment of God on the vital question

under consideration; namely, that the Gentiles should not

be subject to the law of Moses. e word of the prophets

supported this sentence, for they had declared that there

should be Gentiles on whom the name of the Lord should

be called. It is with this intention that he cites the past.

us the Gentiles were free. e things they had to

observe were duties before the publication of the law. e

worship of one God, and the purity of man, were always

obligatory. Noah had been prohibited from eating blood,

in testimony that the life belonged to God. ese great

principles are established by this decision — the abstaining

from idols — that life belongs to God alone, purity of life

in man. ey were principles necessary for the Gentiles,

and corrected their evil habits; principles recognized by the

law, but which had not been distinctly laid down by it.

e assembly did not vote. All consented, under the

inuence of the Holy Spirit to what had been expressed.

All agreed, apostles, elders, and the whole assembly, to send

men chosen from among them to conrm by word of mouth

the account of Barnabas and Paul, and the written decision

which they took with them from Jerusalem. e apostles

and elders assembled together to examine the question,

but all the brethren joined with them in the letter sent to

the Gentiles. us it was not the Gentiles who maintained

their rights in spite of the assembly at Jerusalem, but by

the wisdom and grace of God, the assembly at Jerusalem

which acknowledges the liberty of the Gentiles as to the

law; and unity is thus preserved.

We may add that it was not a general, or other assembly,

for it was the assembly at Jerusalem, and the apostles and

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

532

elders of that city, who met together, with a few from

Antioch on the part of the Gentiles, to consider the

question. e Councils, for many centuries called “general,”

were convoked by the emperors to settle the disputes of

the bishops: rst in the east, on which occasions there

were never more than six bishops present from the west;

and afterward when the Greek church separated from the

Latin church, when there was no emperor from the west,

councils being assembled by the popes without a single

bishop from the east being present. ese popes, without

one bishop from the east, and proting by the need of the

emperor of the east who was menaced by the Turks, sought

to unite the east to the west in the fteenth century at

Florence, but the attempt failed.

What we have here is that the apostle and the Judaic

assembly, by which God had begun the work, set the

Gentiles free from the law; and unity is preserved. We learn,

too, how the Holy Spirit gives unity of thought concerning

the questions which had arisen, since the gathering was

waiting on the Lord. us is the liberty of the Holy Spirit

preserved to the Gentiles, and, by the goodness of God the

unity of the whole assembly maintained. It is declared that

no commission had been given to those who had disturbed

the Gentiles, subverting their souls. Subsequently, after

much long-suering on the part of God the Jews are called,

in the Epistle to the Hebrews, to give up Judaism. e law

and Christianity cannot be united.

Paul and Barnabas, then, taking leave of Jerusalem,

come to Antioch, assemble the multitude, and give them

the letter. e brethren, having read it, rejoice for the

consolation. us was the state of the whole assembly

settled, and also the relationship between the Jews and

Meditations on Acts 15

533

Gentiles. e necessary rule for them is established. ey

are to walk well, avoiding certain things. Judas and Silas

remain for a time with the disciples at Antioch, exhorting

them, and rejoicing in this new fellowship of the love of

the assembly at Jerusalem for the brethren among the

Gentiles. en Judas leaves them, but Silas, drawn towards

these new brethren, remains at Antioch. Paul and Barnabas

also remain there, teaching the brethren; and many others

likewise interest themselves on their behalf; for the power

of the Holy Spirit was working in their midst. Life was

fresh in those days.

After some time Paul, active and full of love, his work

accomplished for the moment at Antioch, turns towards

the gatherings he had founded, desiring to know how it

fared with them. But now Barnabas, like Peter before him,

disappears from the scene. Not that he no longer worked

for the Lord, but he did not maintain himself at the same

level of service of Paul. Eclipsed in the work when with

him, now he disappears altogether. A good man, and full of

the Holy Spirit and of faith, he was yet not detached from

everything as was Paul, for whom, according to his call on

the way to Damascus, Christ gloried and His own was all

in all.

is remarkable servant of God knew no longer

anything after the esh — a consecration necessary to the

founder of the church of God. He had given up Judaism

that he might become a minister of the economy of the

church. (See 1 Cor. 3:10; Eph. 3:1-2; Col. 1:23-25.) is

economy had always existed in the counsels of God, but

after the delay granted by His patience till the preceding

mission of Paul from Antioch, which mission was then

only put into execution, it is put on its true footing, on

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

534

account of the attachment of Barnabas to things which

were only objects of natural aection. John Mark was the

son of the sister of Barnabas, and the island of Cyprus his

native country (Col. 4:10; Acts 4:36).

Barnabas was quite disposed to accompany Paul in his

journey, but he wished to take Mark with him; this, however,

was displeasing to Paul, for Mark had left them in the

preceding journey at Perga. He had not courage sucient

to confront the diculties of the work outside of Cyprus.

Paul only thought of God, Mark of the circumstances;

but it is not thus that diculties are to be overcome. It is

possible that the esh may have manifested itself in Paul;

but at all events he could not boast of being in the right.

Paul did not think of the economy entrusted to him, but

of what according to faith suited the work — the principle

of life and heart necessary to accomplish it. He did not

know the results, but what was necessary to produce them.

Separation was necessary, and that God had wrought out

in him. Still acerbity was unnecessary. At the bottom Paul

was right, and the hand of God was with him. Even where

the purpose of the heart is just, the esh may very soon

manifest itself.

Barnabas separates himself, and sets out for Cyprus,

his country, taking Mark, his nephew, for the work of the

Lord, but no longer the companion of Paul in the work to

which God had called him. We do not forget the real worth

of Barnabas, a true servant of Jesus, to whom the Holy

Spirit Himself has borne witness; only he was not suited

to that work. We learn ourselves that a heart consecrated

to the Lord, without other attachment, separated from

everything, is alone suited to represent Christ in a ministry

such as that of Paul, and indeed in every true ministry.

Meditations on Acts 15

535

Aection is good, but it is not consecration. Woe to us

if we have not natural aection — it is a sign of the last

times (2 Tim. 3:8); but these are not suited to such a work,

a work which demands that one should not know anything

after the esh. Natural aection is not the “new creation,”

though fully recognized by God in Christ Himself, when

He was not in the work; neither is natural aection the

power of the Holy Spirit, which alone produces the eects

of grace in the work of God.

Barnabas then goes his way; such was his will. Paul

chooses Silas, and is recommended by the brethren to the

grace of God — a second ordination if it were a question

of that, but it is quite another thing. And he went through

Syria and Cilicia, conrming the churches. Remark here

that many had been formed where the apostle had not

before been, as he found the rst time he passed through

the island of Cyprus.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

536

62917

Meditations on Acts 16

Now from the beginning of Acts 16 down to the end

of Acts 20 we have the public ministry of Paul among the

Gentiles during many years when he has commenced his

apostolic ministry (as under the grace and direction of the

Lord, head of the work), having undertaken it, it being

laid upon his heart by the power of the Holy Spirit, and

taking with him rst of all Silas, and afterward other co-

laborers but always to help him — in a work, in which by

the authority of the Lord and led of the Spirit, he held the

rst place; the activity, the direction, and the movement

proceeded from him, the others who accompanied him

being only co-laborers and being under his direction: but

he stands alone now as apostle of the Gentiles (Rom. 11:13;

Eph. 3; Rom. 1:13,15; Gal. 2:7-8).

We have seen that now Barnabas has separated himself.

Paul (1 Cor. 3), as a wise master builder has laid the

foundation; others worked independently, as Barnabas and

Apollos. But Paul had the revelation of the mystery of the

church, and the administration of the economy among

the Gentiles to found and set in order everything. See 1

Corinthians 16:1; 7:17 and many other passages. Timothy

and Titus and Silas, and many others named in his epistles

labored under his direction; and he sent them wherever the

exigencies of the work required. He had already taken with

him Silas; and now, having returned to Lystra and Derbe,

he chooses Timothy to whom the brethren bore a good

testimony.

Meditations on Acts 16

537

It appears that Paul laid his hands upon him (2 Tim.

1:6), the young man having been marked out by prophecy,

as he had been himself; then the testimony of the elders

was added, and they also laid on their hands (1 Tim. 4:14).

It is possible that Paul may have laid his hands upon him

when he visited Derbe on his rst journey.

at, however,

is not said; at the same time, it was known by the brethren

of Lystra and of Iconium, as also at Derbe; prophecy had

marked him out; and the testimony of all, manifested by

the laying on of the hands of the elders, conrmed it. Paul

conferred on him the gift of the Spirit (2 Tim. 1:6-7) by

the laying on of his hands, although it may not be said

openly when it is quite possible that he might have been

active already in that locality, but he was specially gifted

for the present work by that imposition of hands of the

apostle.

ere yet remains a special fact to remark upon.

Confusion had entered into the practical life of the Jews,

as among the Christians. e mother of Timothy was a

Jewess, his father a Greek; a thing unlawful among the

Jews. His mother was pious (it is not said if it was before his

conversion or after); also his grandmother was so (2 Tim.

1). Now such a marriage was totally contrary to the custom

of the Jews. (See Neh. 13:23-31; Ezra 9-10.) According

to these books the sons and daughters were heathen, and

ought to be rejected and sent away, as well as the wife. It

was a disorder. Paul availing himself, not of the law but of

the privileges of grace, and thinking of the Jews, of whom

there were many in those regions, circumcises Timothy.

10 In Acts 20:4, the reading should be: “and Gaius and Timotheus

of Derbe.” Gaius was not of Derbe. e dierence is only in

the punctuation.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

538

is was not according to Judaism; on the contrary, it was

against its order, but he took away what would have been

a stumbling-block for the Israelites. It was pleasing to the

Jews: he did it to gain them; in a word, it was not a legal

act, quite the contrary. It was an act of superiority to the

law. e Jews all knew that his father was a Greek; and

the position of Timothy, his mother being a Jewess, was

scandalous for them, and the apostle takes away the scandal.

e hearts of the Jews would nd themselves contented;

and they would have had something to say if the son of

a Greek, by whom his mother had been rendered impure,

had presented to them the gospel. It was an arbitrary act,

but the scandal was taken away, and he went against the

prejudices of his people. But when the Jews wished to force

him to circumcise Titus, he yielded to them not even for a

moment (Gal. 2:3-5).

At the same time, as they passed “through the cities they

delivered them the decrees for to keep, that were ordained

of the apostles and the elders”; a perpetual testimony, if

the Christian Jews should wish to put their brethren from

among the Gentiles under the law of Moses, that they

acted against the thoughts and authority of the apostles

and of the elders, of those whom the Lord had established

for Christ by the Holy Spirit, who in the Jewish church

itself were as an authority. at the Judaisers were not in

any way authorized by the chief men gives a source of joy

to the Gentile brethren thus established in the faith.

And remark how the Christian faith is now spread

throughout all the regions where Paul prosecuted his labors;

and the number of those gathered together increased daily.

Now we follow his labors in other countries and regions.

Meditations on Acts 16

539

Here we nd another precious truth: the perpetual

direction of God by the way, be it directly by the Spirit,

or be it by other intimations. Paul was sent to preach the

gospel to the entire creation under heaven; but that eld

is large, and so he labors under the authority of the Lord,

the Son, who is over the house of God; as also He was

announced as Lord and Savior to poor sinners. ey execute

then this mission in Phrygia, and in the regions of Galatia.

He had already commenced in Phrygia on his rst journey,

but now he enters Galatia, a large province, for the rst

time. ese had suddenly gone astray from the right way,

through the means of Judaizing Christians: people who

wished, as we have seen, to join the law to Christianity. We

possess the epistle written by the faithful care of the apostle

to deliver them from their error: an epistle more severe

than all, since they had taken away the divine foundation

of righteousness and true holiness — more severe than

that to the Corinthians, who had committed nevertheless

sins more horrible than the heathen, and had got into

deplorable disorder. He says all the good he can to the

Corinthians, although he does not spare them as regards

their deeds, but reproaches them; and also he did not wish

to visit them until they repented. But as to the Galatians

he says nothing loving to commence with, but sets himself

at once to reproach them, and at the end salutes no one.

Troubled in his heart he does not know how to take them

(chap. 4:20), he would wish to be among them in order to

speak according to their wants. His love had not grown

weak, but he travailed again in birth of them until Christ

was formed in them. We see the power of the love of the

blessed apostle. Moses, weary, fatigued by the unbelief of

the people, asks if he had brought forth all this people that

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

540

he should carry them as a father. Paul, full of the love of

Christ, is contented to do it a second time rather than lose

them. He was their father in the faith; so powerful is the

love of Christ in the heart!

After having crossed Phrygia and Galatia, the Holy

Spirit forbids them to preach in Asia. Later he dwelt about

three years in Ephesus, the capital of the province; and

all Asia

heard the word of God. Arrived in Mysia they

essay to go into Bithynia; but the Spirit of Jesus suers

them not. Having passed by Mysia, they come to Troas.

ere Paul has a vision in a dream. It was not the open

direction of the Spirit; it was left to spiritual intelligence to

understand the meaning. A man of Macedonia appeared to

him, beseeching him to come and succor them.

As Paul lived in the things of God, he interpreted the

vision as his mission, by the knowledge he had both of

the thoughts of God and of the wants of men, and passed

over therefore at once into Macedonia. Perhaps it is not

very important, but we may remark here, that for the rst

time we nd the writer speak in the rst person: “We

endeavored”; that is to say, Luke, who has written the facts,

becomes now the companion of Paul in his work.

Here the question presents itself: In what manner and

to what extent can we expect the direction of God in our

work? e answer is analogous to that which we have

already given with respect to the intervention of God in

order to liberate us from dangers. We cannot expect visible

and sensible interventions; but we can expect with certainty

the care and direction of God by His Spirit in the heart, if

we walk with Him — To “be lled with the knowledge of

his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding” (Col.

11 en it was the name of a province of the Roman Empire.

Meditations on Acts 16

541

1:9) — to be led by the Spirit if we walk in humility. See

Romans 8:14; Colossians 1; also Psalm 32:8-9. I do not

doubt that, if we walk with God and look to Him, the Spirit

will put in our hearts the special things that He wishes us

to do. Only it is important that we keep in memory the

word of God, in order that it may be a guard against all

our own imaginations; otherwise, the Christian who lacks

humility will do his own will, often taking it for the Holy

Spirit. at is but the deceitful folly of his heart; rst, that

it knows them; secondly, taking it for the Holy Spirit: but,

I repeat, he who looks with humility to the Lord will be

conducted by the Lord in the way; and the Holy Spirit

who dwells in him will suggest to him the things which He

wishes him to do. “He that is spiritual judgeth all things,

yet he himself is judged of no man … We have the mind of

Christ” (1 Cor. 2:15-16).

Here then the apostle gathers that the Lord had sent

him to Macedonia, and goes there. He stops at Philippi,

the principal city of the country and a Roman colony. He

commences, as he always does, with the Jews. It appears that

there was not synagogue — there. It was the custom of the

Jews to have their worship in such a case, as it is still, on the

banks of the river — I believe, for the sake of purication.

ere were but a few women there: Paul contented

himself with them, and spoke to them of Christ, and of

salvation through Him. ere was Lydia, a proselyte who

worshipped the true God; she was among these women,

had not the knowledge of Christ, but the piety which does

not neglect the worship of the Sabbath day in a far distant

country, where it was not the natural occasion to observe

it. e blessing is accorded at least to that one in whose

heart this faithfulness is found. e Lord opened the heart

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

542

of Lydia to attend to the things spoken by Paul. She was

a Gentile, but brought to the knowledge of the only true

God; and she is another example of the dierence between

conversion and the knowledge of salvation in Christ.

ere were many such worshippers — their souls were

wearied with the folly and iniquity of paganism, which was

insucient to satisfy the needs of the soul, and through

grace they were turned to the only true God known among

the Jews, and they frequented the Jewish worship, without

being circumcised. ey were called religious persons,

persons who served God. ey listened to the apostle

more than the Jews, and were often the occasion of their

jealousy; of this class was Lydia. See Acts 17:17 and 13:16

where it is said, “and ye which fear God.” ey are found

without being named, in Acts 13:1, and distinctly verse 43,

and also elsewhere. Lydia is baptized with all her house:

and Paul and his companions enter her house and dwell

there. It may be said that now the assembly was founded

at Philippi.

But the enemy is not satised to allow the work to

make progress, without doing anything to oppose it. On

the contrary he works with deceit; he does not assail the

work openly. He has the appearance of helping it, certainly

not recognizing Christ as Lord, because then he would no

longer be Satan (the adversary), but attering the apostle,

in order to be able to mix himself up with the work of the

Lord, to accredit himself with this union, and to spoil it at

the same time. He acts thus with more nesse in order that

Christians may be less wise to refute him. To be supported

by the world (and Satan is the prince of it) will appear to

be a great help to the progress of the gospel. e enemy

disguises himself, makes himself the friend of the servants

Meditations on Acts 16

543

of God and of the work, transforms himself into an angel

of light. e Gibeonites with deceit made themselves

the friends of Israel, and in consequence they were never

conquered, as our friends are not conquered. us, when

the Christian or the assembly, mixes itself with the world,

the loss is always on the side of the Christian, because the

world in its nature is always with its motives, but the esh

is always in the Christian. He may draw near to the world,

but not the world to the Spirit. e testimony, however, is

lost. Wine mixed with water is no longer pure wine, it has

lost its taste. e friendship of the world is enmity against

God.

e world seems amiable when it draws near to

Christians and their testimony, but it draws near to

Christians to spoil their testimony, and to put itself in

esteem; but to Christ it cannot draw near. e spirit of

Python can atter the servants of God in order to gain

them; it can speak of God, of the most high God, even of

the way of salvation, but not of Christ Lord and Savior, of

the state of sin and guilt in which man is, in which he is

lost. at would be to confess that he who says such things

is lost. at is quite another story. When the world unites

itself to Christians, their testimony is lost, and the fault

is always that of the Christians. ey accept the world,

because they have already lost true spirituality, the love of

Christ rejected by the world, the love of the holy glory of

His cross in which His heavenly glory was exhibited in this

world.

But the apostle does not seek to excite the enmity of

Satan, he does not accept that testimony, he keeps himself

ever separate, neither does he act so as to change it into open

opposition. He continues quietly on his way. At last he can

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

544

no longer bear the voice of the unclean spirit, it being so

grievous to his heart that he associated himself with him;

he casts him out by the power of the Holy Spirit. Suddenly

the enmity of the natural heart under the inuence of the

world is revealed. And that inuence is more fatal for man

than the possession of the body and faculties.

e Lord drove out the legion with a word; but the

world, frightened by the manifestation of divine power,

cast out Jesus from its connes. Similarly here, the demon

being cast out, the masters of the damsel through human

motives to which the demon lent himself, seeing that their

gain was lost, stirred up a persecution against Paul and

Silas.

What the servants of the most high God do is now of

no consequence. Man’s god is money, power and human

glory. Satan never wishes that the power of God should be

cast out. To be recognized, accredited, to join himself to the

excellency of the truth pleases him, because he knows well

that true power is with God, and thus that which remains

of the truth in eect increases his inuence, for that is now

only increased, not destroyed. He will speak suciently of

the truth to deceive Christians if it were possible, in order

that, such as he is as prince of the world, he may not the

less be in light.

e pure light manifests him, and thus is it that

Christianity, and Christians, less wise than the apostle,

have mixed themselves with the world, and the result is

that Christianity lies under the power of Satan. e apostle

did not act thus; but now it is quite possible persecution

will arise, and that is what came to pass here. If the enemy

cannot accredit himself with the gospel, he will oppose it.

Meditations on Acts 16

545

e motives were purely human, the inuence that

of Satan. e motives presented to the magistrates were

nothing but false pretexts. ey worked on the pride and

the fear of the authorities, who desired peace, and that was

disturbed by the enemies, not by the Christians. Besides

the gospel did not oppose Roman dignity which possessed

the city, it being a colony. e magistrates ask no more; they

had stirred up a multitude which strove for its privileges.

Rending their clothes, they command them to be beaten,

and then send them to prison, charging the jailor to keep

them safely. He, having received such a charge, thrusts

them into the inner prison, making their feet fast in the

stocks.

All then was tranquillized; but the magistrates thought

nothing of justice, nor of paying costs (feeing counsel) for

poor evangelists. But God has not forgotten them, and

bears marked testimony to His servants. He permits them

to be punished unjustly, and it is their glory to make no

resistance. It is a means by which still brighter testimony

may be given to His word, and to His servants.

ey are thrust then into the inner prison, and there

sing praises to God, and the prisoners hear them. Suddenly

there is a great earthquake, the doors of the prison are

opened, and every one’s bands are loosed. God intervenes

for His own, and to bear testimony to His word. When

persecution is allowed, the wickedness of man can do

much, but he cannot hold against the power of God those

who fall into his hands. e jailor wishes to kill himself;

but Paul crying out that they were all there, prevents him

from doing so. Leading out Paul and Silas, he asks them

what he must do to be saved. e answer is simple, “Believe

on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

546

house” (Acts 16:31). e word is then announced to him

and his, and he is baptized with his house. He then cares

for his prisoners, and washes their stripes, being lled with

joy and peace with all his house.

Tranquility restored, the magistrates, believing that all

trouble is thus ended, send word to the jailor to let Paul

and Silas go. But it was a struggle between the testimony

of God and the power of Satan; it was necessary that the

unjust magistrates should own their fault, and the rights of

the gospel of God. Paul did not wish to excite this struggle

(an important warning to us), but to continue his work

peacefully. e devil was seeking to mix himself up with

the work, to associate himself, to the eyes of the world,

with what was done by the servants of God. is provoked

the apostle. It was necessary either to receive the testimony

of the devil, and join his name to that of Christ, or to enter

into a struggle. He casts out, therefore, the unclean spirit;

and open war is thus at once declared.

Satan is the prince of this world; and the world, stirred

up by the present power of God in the work of the Spirit, is,

unless kept down by God, stronger than His servants. Here

God permits the world to manifest itself in violence and

injustice, in the multitude as much as in the magistrates.

e servants of God submit to this injustice, are beaten

and cast into prison, their enemies being the guilty ones, as

is nearly always the case. I say nearly, because it is possible

for Christians to fail in wisdom, and to provoke a struggle

without cause. ey do not resist; but here the power of

the Holy Spirit and the state of their souls show complete

superiority to circumstances. Full of joy in prison and in

the stocks, they can sing praises. Testimony is rendered

even to the prisoners. As far as the body is concerned, the

Meditations on Acts 16

547

world is stronger than the Christian, if God allows it to act;

but in soul, the Christian is always above circumstances,

if he can realize the presence of God. His presence is the

greatest of all circumstances, and overcomes the others.

One can rejoice even in suerings, as we see in Acts 5:41;

Romans 5:5.

Moreover, God makes use of the circumstances, and

enters, so to speak, into the struggle Himself; the doors

are opened, and the bands are loosed. In body man is

powerless, unless God see t to intervene; and often He

does so by His providence, if not in a miraculous way.

All were witnesses or convinced that God was victorious

in the struggle — though some, in spite of themselves.

e magistrates had taken part in the wrong with great

injustice, and it was necessary, therefore, that they should

own their fault. Now that all was calm, they sought, in the

wisdom of the world, to let the aair blow over in silence.

But when God works and shows Himself, He makes it

plain that He has rights in this world.

Paul and Silas were in prison against all the rights of

God and of men; and the magistrates are obliged by the

rmness of Paul to own their fault, and to ask the servants

of the Lord as a favor to depart. is, as it suited them, they

do without delay; only, being perfectly free, they enter into

the house of Lydia, see the brethren, comfort them, and

depart.

When Paul sought to make use of his rights as a Roman

in order to arrest injustice, he lost his liberty, and was

sent a prisoner to Rome, although the Lord had directed

everything. But here he did not attempt to arrest injustice;

he submitted, only taking advantage of this right afterward,

when it was a question of the innocence of the gospel and

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

548

of its conduct, and when it happened that the magistrates,

and not he, were in the wrong.

But God has this peculiar work in the world, the

blessings of grace; and makes sure of all this for the

conversion of the jailor. He works as a man of the world

at his post; but by this manifest intervention of God, he

is awakened, convinced of sin, and given to feel his need

of salvation. Now that all call themselves Christians, one

asks if a man is a good Christian, truly converted; but then

all were heathens or Jews, and became Christians. Now

Christianity is salvation. e grace of God has brought

salvation into the world in the Son of God; and by His

work on the cross, it is announced by the Holy Spirit. e

need makes itself felt when the conscience is moved by the

Holy Spirit. What it seeks for is salvation, as here does the

jailor. e answer is simple and clear: “Believe on the Lord

Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”

e object of faith is the person of the Lord Jesus, and

the redemption accomplished by Him; and all believers,

reaping the benets of this work, are saved. Now one

investigates and scrutinizes in order to know whether one

has faith in the heart, and whether it be true faith. We

all pass more or less through this state, but true peace is

never to be found there. It is perhaps, however, useful in

humbling us, and teaching us that in us dwells no good

thing. But we are not called upon to believe in the faith

which is in us, but to believe in Christ Jesus; and God

declares that all believers are justied, and have eternal

life. I do not examine my eyes to know whether I see, but

look at the object before them, and know that I see. People

quote the passage in 2 Corinthians 13:5; but those who do

so deceive themselves, leaving out the correct beginning

Meditations on Acts 16

549

of the passage, “Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking

in me … examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith” (2

Cor. 13:3,5). e apostle shows them their folly in doubting

his true apostleship. If Christ had not spoken by him, since

they had received his word, how was it that he had been

the means of their conversion? For the same reason he

continues to inquire, “Know ye not your own selves, how

that Jesus Christ is in you” (2 Cor. 13:5). Christ therefore

had spoken by his mouth. ere were many proofs of his

apostleship. Here he shows them their stupidity, because

if he were not an apostle, they would not be Christians.

Of their conversion they had no doubt. If we examine

ourselves to know whether we walk as Christians, we do

well; but if we do so to know whether we are Christians, it

is not according to the word.

Faith looks towards Jesus, not towards self. e

experience of the examination of the heart, in order to

discover what passes there to make one believe, leads

us to see that it is impossible thus to nd peace, or even

victory, for we are looking at what is behind us; when we

are convinced of this, the answer of God is there — He has

given salvation in Christ, and he who believes is justied.

e Lord says, “y sins are forgiven…thy faith hath saved

thee go in peace” (Luke 7:48,50). e woman looked to

Jesus, and believed His word, not thinking of the state of

her own heart. e state of her heart, the conviction that

she could not nd peace and salvation in herself, led her to

look to Jesus, and in Him she found peace. e gospel gives

the answer of God to the heart clearly and fully. “Believe

on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”

I learn by experience that in me dwells no good thing,

and that I have not the strength to conquer. I cease to look

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

550

towards myself, as though I could become better. e esh

is always there; the will may be good (in a converted man),

but practice does not correspond to will. Not amendment,

but salvation, is needful to us: and that we possess in

Christ by faith, and, in salvation, peace. Being unable to

accomplish justice in ourselves, we submit to the justice of

God. By the faith that Christ Himself is our justice before

God, we learn by experience what we are ourselves. is

experience is itself the fruit of the work of the word by the

Spirit in the heart; but by this we learn that we are lost, that,

looking to Christ, we are saved. “Believe…and thou shalt

be saved.” Good works are what suit the position we then

occupy. It is the same in human relationships of children,

wives, servants; it is necessary to be in the relationship, or

the duties do not exist. When we are saved, we become the

sons of God, and then we nd the duty of sonship; but it

cannot exist before we are sons. e duty of man as the

creature of God existed, but on that ground we are lost.

Christian duty does not begin till we are Christians. It is

remarkable, here and elsewhere, how whole households are

admitted to the Christian assembly.

Meditations on Acts 17

551

62918

Meditations on Acts 17

Acts 17.

To suer with patience, to sing in the midst of

tribulation — this is power; then with the same strength we

can, when free, carry on the Lord’s work, with like courage.

So says the apostle, referring to such circumstances, in 1

essalonians 2:2; having been stoned and shamefully

entreated at Philippi, he boldly and energetically continues

to preach the gospel at essalonica. It is there we nd

him at this point of our narrative. God leads through

persecution just as by all other means. e Apostle selects

localities where there were synagogues. Passing through

Amphipolis and Apollonia, he stops at essalonica; where

was a synagogue. It was a large city, where to this day many

Jews are to be found. “To the Jew rst, and also to the

Greek” (Rom. 1:16), characterized his work.

In Philippi we nd Satan’s opposition apart from the

Jews, for, though Paul had there sought the Jews also,

they had no part whatever in the conict. e enemy had

desired to identify himself with the work of the gospel,

falsifying it in order to avoid the destruction of his own

power: but he does not support open opposition. But

when the religious element is present — that is a religion

which boasts of possessing the rights conferred by God

on His own on the earth, the professors of which do not

submit to the truth — this is always a source of persecution.

In Philippi it was simply an arrogant and self-interested

people who spurned all religions which spoke of the true

God, as well as everything else except its own superstitions,

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

552

and only sought to preserve peace under the government of

Satan. It was the world that cast out Paul, as the Gadarenes

did Jesus. It could endure the manifestation neither of the

truth, nor of the power of God.

In the narrative which follows we again nd the

religious element in enmity to the truth; the Jews jealous

of the gospel of grace, and of the Gentiles, to whom it was

announced, although the former had the rst place in its

administration. For three sabbaths Paul reasons with the

Jews of essalonica in the synagogue, according to the

custom, showing them that it was expedient that Christ

should suer, and rise again, and that Jesus was this Christ.

Some of the Gentiles, who worshipped the true and one

God, whose need had led them to recognize Him who had

revealed Himself, believed. ey were many in number,

and of the chief women not a few.

e blessing of God does not fail to excite the jealousy

of the Jews, and to the enmity of the human heart all means

are lawful. Stirring up the people of the baser sort, they

assault the house of Jason, seeking to bring out the servants

of God, but they do not nd them there. Jason, however,

and certain other brethren they drag before the rulers of

the city, accusing them of teaching doctrines opposed

to the authority of Caesar, and of saying that there was

another king, Jesus. But the rulers, troubled, it is true, with

the people, were wiser than those of Philippi; for, taking

security of Jason, they let them go. e chief culprits, Paul

and his companions, not being found, were not there; and

the brethren, nding the door shut for the moment against

the work, send Paul and Silas to Berea, a neighboring city.

In the epistles to the essalonians (1 ess. 2:14),

where also the apostle speaks of the state of the Jews (2

Meditations on Acts 17

553

ess. 1:4), it appears that immediately after the apostle’s

departure, a violent persecution sprang up, and that the

converts suered greatly, but remained faithful, so that

their faith became celebrated everywhere. It was to these

that the apostle wrote his two rst epistles, immediately

after his departure from Athens and Corinth, in order to

encourage them to persevere, having sent Timothy from

Athens, to know if they stood fast in the faith (1 ess.

3:1). In reading these epistles, and Acts 18:6, we nd that

the rst was written from Athens when Silas and Timothy

had rejoined him (Acts 17:15; ess. 1:1). en he had sent

Timothy to essalonica, who, on his return, brings good

tidings of the state of the essalonians. e rst epistle is

then written. It seems that Silas and Timothy had come

back and again rejoined the apostle, when he had already

left Athens and was come to Corinth (Acts 18:5).

Of this journey we have no account, but it is the proof

of the tender care with which the apostle watched over the

new converts, and sought to establish them in the faith

and path of Christ. e two epistles are remarkable for the

freshness and aection of the communications, of which

they are full, and especially the rst, for the testimony

which the apostle could render to the state of the disciples.

It will be useful to examine for a little what the apostle

taught during his short stay at essalonica. We have very

little, almost nothing, of the apostle’s discourses outside

of the synagogue. At Athens he makes a speech in the

Areopagus, but he does not preach. He preached, it is said,

Jesus and the resurrection. Let us gather up what is said

here. In the synagogue he maintained that Christ should

suer and rise again from among the dead; moreover, he

announced the kingdom of God, because He was accused

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

554

of having taught that there was another king, Jesus (Acts

20:25). Short though the time was in essalonica, yet

during his sojourn there, he had taught the disciples the

coming of the Lord; which, in reading the Epistle, is

perfectly clear. e disciples had learned that Jesus had

delivered them from the wrath to come, the resurrection,

and the expectation of the Son of God from heaven; that

they were called to suer with Christ, and to walk in

holiness; the coming of the Lord with re for judgment,

and that with all His saints; that they should be caught up

to meet the Lord; that the man of sin should be revealed,

and that the mystery of iniquity was already working,

but that they were called to share the glory of our Lord

Jesus Christ. He taught salvation by the truth and by faith

through the power of the Holy Spirit who sanctied them

for God; and all this by grace, to those who were chosen

for salvation. Even the peculiarities of the last days were

communicated to them (2 ess. 2:5).

But all this was for the disciples; only the coming of

the Lord in judgment of the living — this world — was

announced to all, and they were exhorted to ee from the

wrath to come, from which Jesus was the deliverer. It was

necessary now to announce facts known to all; but if he

speaks of salvation, the person of the Lord, as also His

coming, has a far greater place in his doctrine than in that

of the preachers of today. A present salvation is clearly

announced, through Christ dead for us, so that we might

live with Him. at which was everywhere presented for

salvation is described with much simplicity and clearness

in 1 Corinthians 15, Christ put to death for our sins,

buried, and raised up the third day. But here also the facts

hold a greater place than now. We reason on the value of

Meditations on Acts 17

555

the facts, and this is necessary; but the more the facts are

put in evidence, the more will the preaching be powerful.

While the people are occupied with Jason, Paul sets out

for Berea, and with undiminished courage enters into the

synagogue of that city. Here the grace of God is manifestly

with him, to dispose the hearts of the Jews to listen, and to

search the word, and many believe. But the unhappy Jews

carry on their work, and come from essalonica, to stir up

the people against Paul and the others. It is mournful to

see their permanent hatred to the gospel. But it is ever thus

with an old religion set aside by truth which its professors

will not receive.

A few brethren conduct Paul to Athens, and he sends

an order to Silas and Timothy to join him there at once.

But with all this, the enemy does nothing but order the

path of the gospel, according to the will of God.

Now at Athens the sight of the idolatry ardently

practiced in that city pressed heavily on the spirit of the

apostle. He reasons in the synagogue with the Jews, and

daily in the market with them that met with him. Athens

had been a city famous for the glory of its arts and of its

arms, and for its schools of philosophy. Having succumbed

to the Roman yoke, it had lost its importance, and lived in

idleness, seeking for some new thing, still philosophizing,

and boasting in the memory of its ancient glory in pagan

philosophy, surpassed perhaps by that of Alexandria and

Tarsus (where Paul himself had been educated), although

where the leaders of Roman society studied. e fruit was

not great in this vain and idle city, but the instruction for

us is precious.

e apostle’s discourse at the Areopagus was not the

preaching of the gospel. It was his apology before an ancient

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

556

tribunal whose decisions had, in times gone by, possessed

great weight, but which then, though still allowed to

exist, no longer retained its ancient importance. But the

fact that the apostle was obliged to present himself before

the tribunal, gave him the opportunity of manifesting the

wisdom and grace he possessed through the Spirit of God.

As we have seen he preached in the synagogue at Antioch

in Pisidia. In the market-place, where the philosophers

and townspeople met together, he announced Jesus and

the resurrection, His person, His victory over death, the

testimony that God had accepted the sacrice of Christ,

and moreover that in Him we are admitted into a new

creation (a position which Adam, even in innocence, never

occupied) the kingdom of the second, of the last Adam.

I do not say that all these points were unfolded, but

the apostle announced the grand foundations on which all

these truths are built up. He did so according to the need

and capacity of his hearers; and nobody is so incapable as

a philosopher, and those under his inuence and who walk

in the vain thought of being something, when in reality

they are nothing, and such was the true character of the

Athenians. Knowledge is blinding. Human intelligence

does not know God. God enters the conscience when He

speaks in order to make Himself known; and in proportion

to the pretension of the human mind to intelligence, is the

hardness and inaction of the conscience. It is as though

dead, and man as though he had none, and therefore no

capacity to receive the truth whereby he may know God.

ese wise men thought that Jesus and the resurrection

were gods, so far were they from the truth. e mind of man,

and the activity of his intelligence, when it is a question of

morality and of God, can do nothing but always drive him

Meditations on Acts 17

557

farther and farther away. He nds no basis for morality,

and consequently no true rule; and when God is submitted

to the human understanding, He is no longer God in any

sense. God does not present Himself to man in order to

know what he ought to be. Conscience and faith put God

in His own place, and man in his true relation to God; and

the word is the means of doing so, the word in which God

reveals Himself, and shows what man is.

Some mocked the apostle, saying, “What will this

babbler say?” Ridicule is often a means in the hands of

the enemy to turn away souls from the truth, because men

are afraid to identify themselves with what others despise.

Conscience and moral courage are the very last things to be

found in the heart of man: grace awakens conscience, and

gives strength to follow it. Still here was something new;

and that was always enough for the Athenians, fatigued

by the nonentity of their existence. Accordingly they lead

Paul to the Areopagus, once honorable and honored, in

order to know what this new doctrine might be. Because

however frivolous philosophical opinions may be, they

cannot quietly endure either truth or Christ. One human

opinion may be as good as another; but the testimony of

God operates on the conscience, and demands the heart.

Paul, surely taught by the Holy Spirit, replies in the

Areopagus with admirable wisdom, and a calm love which

lays hold on the sole circumstance to which he could

attach the truth he desired to communicate to them.

His practiced eye had observed in the city the only little

remnant of truth by which he could lead them to recognize

their true position. It was not simply a declaration of the

salvation of the soul, which had already occupied him in

the synagogue and public market-place; here he explains

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

558

the true character of the religion of idols, but with perfect

delicacy; and seeks to bind that remnant of truth which

the enemy had not been able to destroy, with truth more

positive, with the name of Jesus, and with that which

appealed to the conscience.

e people of the city, idle and at heart skeptical, were

given up to idolatry; and, the circle of the gods being

exhausted, they had dedicated an altar to the unknown

God. It is said that in former times a fatal malady had

reigned in the city; and that the inhabitants, having prayed

in vain to all the gods to remove the plague, had consulted

an oracle, who directed them to dedicate an altar to the

unknown God. It is unnecessary, however, to seek for any

special source of this worship. At the bottom of all idolatry

there is the idea of God, corrupted, and taken possession

of by Satan, so that men may worship demons; but the

idea cannot be eradicated from the heart of man. Indels

seek to do so, but it always remains at the bottom of the

heart, in spite of all their eorts. It is born with the birth

of man, and creation bears witness too clear and too strong

to allow the heart to believe that everything was made by

nothing. And then conscience speaks too loud to allow it

to be unhearkened to. Man does not want God and tries

to forget Him; he reasons, and seeks diversions; but the

thought always returns, and possibility makes itself felt. He

endeavors to get rid of the thought by every means, but still

it is always there; and the thought of God always makes us

feel guilty.

God is to be found in all idolatries, neglected and

forgotten, it is true; but He exists in all mythologies, and

is found in the conscience when awakened by fear. When

men are in agony (so says a Christian of pagan times) they

Meditations on Acts 17

559

do not say, “Oh, immortal gods!” but “Oh God! a proof, I

would add, of a soul naturally Christian.” ey made great

gods and little gods, placed a god or a goddess at fountains,

in woods, and wherever they could see the operations of

nature; but behind everything remained the deep feeling

that there was one only and all-powerful God. us among

the Brahmins in India, in Egypt, among the Sabeans,

among the Scandinavians, there were gods without end,

yet one God not worshipped but owned as the source of

everything. is God, the Author of all, rested in darkness.

In India not a single temple was ever dedicated to him, but

still He exists and is the source of everything. Among the

Sabeans, the ancient Persians, there was another kind of

pagan religion which recognized Ahrim and Ahrmasda, a

bad and a good god, and in which God was worshipped in

re, and which had no idol; there was another god as the

source of these. I say source, because a creation was not

owned among the pagans. See Hebrews 11:3.

e imagination, under the inuence of Satan,

created gods everywhere, but at the bottom the idea

of God was there. And yet this God, the true, was

unknown — deplorable state of mankind, deprived of God,

of whom they stood in such deep need! thus enemies to

His true knowledge, because the conscience, which makes

responsibility felt, could not endure His presence, because

the heart desired things which the conscience in the

presence of God condemned. ey made gods who would

help men to gratify their passions. Man cannot suce to

himself; he has lost God, and fears Him; his heart stoops

to that which is more degraded than himself. He seeks, but

in vain, to satisfy the need of his heart by means of objects

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

560

which degrade him, and make him forget God, of whom

the thought is anguish to his heart.

God, the unknown God, now reveals Himself; and the

apostle, with great happiness of thought laying hold of the

inscription on the altar, announces the true God whom

they did not know. is is not the gospel; but he identies

the God he had already preached in the gospel of Jesus

and of the resurrection with the truth they themselves

admitted, and, defending it, speaks to the conscience. e

unknown God would judge the world by this Jesus, in that

He had raised Him from the dead. is truth he applies to

their conscience and to idolatry, under the yoke of which

they were subjected. By the power of the Spirit in Paul

they stood accused, convicted of having falsied the idea of

God and denied His glory, the glory of the only Creator,

for they had only recognized Him by the confession that

He was unknown.

Here was what was done by the apostle. He announced

to them clearly this true God, who had manifested Himself

in the gift of life, and in the things necessary to sustain

that life. rough the conscience He was then not far

from each of them. During the times of ignorance, God

had borne with the wanderings of man; He had passed

them over without judgment. Now He was calling to all

men everywhere to repent, because a day was appointed

in the which He should judge the world; He speaks of

the judgment of this habitable earth, in righteousness by

the Man whom He had ordained; whereof He had given

assurance unto all men, in that He had raised Him from

the dead. In this way He reveals by the power of the Spirit

the one true Creator-God, the Sustainer of all things, the

knowledge of whom had been lost in the folly of idolatry,

Meditations on Acts 17

561

into which man had been deluded by the enemy, who,

by means of the passions of deceived beings, had made

himself God. en he declares the approaching judgment

of this world by Jesus, the risen Man, but that grace, in the

patience of God, invited all men to repent.

Such was the apostle’s defense; not of himself, truly;

but he brings his hearers into the presence of God, and

sets forth that which the conscience could not deny, and

that this was what they ought to have known (Rom. 1:19-

20). en he reveals what was new, namely, that judgment

was approaching, that it was to be executed by the Man

established by God, of whom He had given assurance, in

raising Him from the dead, as the public proof of His ways

and power, which ended the path of man on earth, and

overthrew the power of Satan. e accusers receive their

own sentence. To the existence of God they say nothing,

but many mock at the idea of resurrection.

It is the present exercise of the power of God that man

cannot receive; let there be a God, and it is well; but let Him

do something, let Him intervene presently, and man cannot

willingly receive it. But the mighty word of the apostle

touches some hearts even among this frivolous people. e

harvest is small, but God does not leave Himself without

testimony. A few, believing the gospel, join themselves to

the servants of God; but the testimony being rendered, the

apostle remains there no longer. Philosophy and frivolity

united, as is always the case, give a high opinion of self,

are bad soil for grace, and do not deserve that God should

wait long for the good will of vanity. Grace can be eective

everywhere; but here testimony and judgment are given

against philosophy and the pretensions of men.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

562

62920

Meditations on Acts 18

Acts 18.

ere was but little fruit in this gifted but frivolous

city: for God has chosen the foolish, the weak, and the

despised things of the world, to bring to naught the things

that are; and the wisdom of this world is foolishness before

God. e Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they

are vain. e apostle pursues his journey to the other

important Grecian center, Corinth, a commercial city in

a superb situation, but deeply corrupt, being dedicated to

Venus, whose priestesses were given up to vice. Even at this

time wealth abounded, and the city had become proverbial

for luxury and dissoluteness.

e ambassador of God appears in the midst of this

luxury, as a poor workman of the world; and we know from

his letters that he refused to take anything from the wealthy

Corinthians, while he received with joy the oering sent as

the fruit of their love by the simple brethren of Philippi.

ere was afterward another special reason why the apostle

would not receive money from the Corinthians. is was

that false teachers, seeking to prot by the work of Paul,

pretended to labor without receiving anything; and Paul

desired to take away every occasion of inuence from these

evil men, and that they should not pretend to that which

was not equally veried in him.

Arrived then at Corinth, he nds two people of his own

trade, and with them he lodges and works. ere, in the

simplicity of Christian life, the work of God begins. e

Jews had, and always have, a trade. We are apt to believe

Meditations on Acts 18

563

that the apostles soared above all diculties, because armed

with divine authority, and that they were free from all fear.

We, no doubt, who believe they have the Lord’s authority,

receive them as sent by Him: but the Gentiles recognized

neither the Lord, nor those sent by Him. ey were in the

presence of the enemy’s power. God had committed His

word to them, that they might convey it to the world, which

lay under the power of Satan; and this word they possessed

in the weakness of the esh. By faith they knew that the

Lord would be with them; and certainly His faithfulness

did not fail. But this is known by faith; and they felt all the

diculty of a work which introduced the light of God and

the authority of His testimony in the midst of darkness,

where the enemy reigned over the spirits of men.

It is a serious thing to make and carry on war for

God against the prince of evil. We must know what we

are doing, what the enemy is, and what He is whom we

represent in this war, so that we may consider it according

to the rules of a war of God, that He may sustain us, that

the consciousness of His call may be with us, and that thus

our faith and condence in Him may not be interrupted.

See how the apostle speaks of his entrance among the

Corinthians; “And I was with you in weakness, and in fear,

and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching

was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in

demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (1 Cor. 2:3-4).

One cannot do better than read the rst four chapters of

the rst epistle, and for the question of money, Acts 9; what

was the testimony, the life, and the feeling of the apostle

in 2 Corinthians 4; 6 and 10. And how deep and real his

testimony in Acts 12 and especially in verse 9, the source

of his power in the midst of weakness! For in this epistle,

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

564

as elsewhere, we nd what the apostle’s own feeling were,

and what his labors; his heart appears. In 2 Corinthians 11

the eect produced by suerings is shown.

With fear and much trembling then, he commences

the work in this seat of Satan. First he reasons in the

synagogue, as he did everywhere, “to the Jew rst, and also

to the Greek” (Rom. 1:16) from Athens, Paul had sent

Timothy, who had joined him there according to Acts

18:15-16; 1 essalonians 3:2. Now Silas and Timothy

return, and are found with Paul (Acts 17:5). Pressed in

spirit by their presence, he bears still stronger testimony

that Jesus was the Christ. He had labored faithfully during

their absence; but the presence of other Christians gives

courage and strength to his spirit according to God. e

feeling of what Christianity is forties the heart, and the

state of unbelievers is more present to the mind, and more

urgent to the heart. But the rights of Christ hold the rst

place in the apostle’s heart; and when the Jews contradict

and blaspheme, he leaves them, and, shaking his garments,

says to them, “Your blood be upon your own heads; I am

clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles” (Acts

18:6).

Leaving them he enters into the house of a Gentile, one

who worshipped the one true God. ere were many such

among the Gentiles, who, weary of the folly and iniquity of

idolatry, worshipped in the synagogue, although they had

not become Jews. It seems that he had left the house of

Aquila and Priscilla. e house of a Gentile who owned

the one true God was suited to his work; and to him the

work was everything. Still, he does not go far away from the

synagogue; and Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, is

converted with all his house, whether from the testimony

Meditations on Acts 18

565

rendered by Paul in the synagogue, or after he had left it.

Moreover, the testimony now reaches the Corinthians, and

many believe and are baptized. e work, rejected by the

Jews, is now established in the city; for, notwithstanding its

wickedness, the Lord had many people there.

Besides this, the Lord encourages Paul by a vision in

the night, saying to him, “Be not afraid, but speak, and

hold not thy peace.” e Lord was with him, and saw t to

hold the door open. All things were in His hands, and He

would not permit the enemy to hinder the work because of

wicked men. “He that openeth, and no man shutteth” (Rev.

3:7). It is interesting to see how the Lord watches over the

work, and over the hearts of His laborers. It is possible that

direct communications and visions may not be given now

as they were then; but God has not ceased to guide those

who labor faithfully in His name, to manifest Himself to

their hearts, and He holds still, as then, the keys; He opens,

and no man shuts. It is sweet to see that, when we work for

Him, He is with us, to speak to our hearts, and to direct us

and regulate all our circumstances for His glory, and that

according to a divine wisdom.

At Corinth the apostle remains a year and a half, teaching

the word of God. e Jews, roused by the folly of their

enmity against Christ and the gospel, seek to accuse Paul

of a crime because he preached the gospel. ey bring him

before the judgment seat of the governor, a man profoundly

indierent to everything religious. e apostle is accused of

having persuaded men to worship contrary to the law. e

proconsul, Gallio, drives them from the judgment seat. He

was right. His oce was not to maintain the Jewish law,

but to preserve order and peace in the country. It was only

another proof of the unreasonable and unbridled hatred of

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

566

these poor people, who had refused the grace of God, and

nourished themselves in enmity against all.

e crowd take Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the

synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. And

Gallio cared for none of those things. For him the Jewish

religion was a miserable and contemptible superstition,

because it separated its professors from all the world; for

the human heart loves not the truth that condemns the

falsity of the world and of its ways. If the chief of this

religion were beaten, it was nothing to him; in his eyes

he deserved it, and so they could do it. Unbelief despises

superstition, and yet supports it; but it hates the truth,

and, if it can, persecutes it. e poor Jews united these

true characters — the truth of the oneness of God, and

superstition in ordinances, which separated them from

all the Gentiles. Contempt and persecution were the only

fruits of their assault on the apostle.

e position of this people is shown in a special way

in the narrative before us. But Paul’s relation with them

is also shown; we see to what an extent he was still bound

to Jewish customs. He takes a vow and shaves his head

in Cenchrea. He feels obliged in his heart to observe the

feast at Jerusalem; and gives this to the Jews at Ephesus

as his motive for not then remaining in their city. He is

a true Jew, and acts like one; and the Spirit records these

facts that we may understand the bonds which still held

the spirit of the apostle. e state of a soul with regard to

religious habits is a dierent thing from the energy of the

Spirit of God in the declaration of the truth. We shall see

the eect of these bonds strongly pronounced at the end of

his career, whether toward the Christians at Jerusalem, or

in his submission to their wishes.

Meditations on Acts 18

567

He leaves Corinth then with Priscilla and Aquila, after

a work largely blessed. e history of this assembly we read

in the two epistles addressed to it. We may remark that it is

an example of the inuence which the world, in the midst

of which it is placed, exercises on the assembly of God.

Breathing the same atmosphere, it is always in danger of

following its habits of thought; the eect on the mind

of surrounding things, which ever resound in the ears of

Christians, and, alas! too often in their hearts. It is dicult

to avoid being more or less associated with what surrounds

us universally. What we need is faith, which lives in things

unseen.

Paul does not stop at Ephesus, where the Jews were

disposed to listen to him, but expresses the hope of seeing

them again. Leaving Priscilla and Aquila, two quiet people,

but faithful and consecrated to the Lord, he goes on towards

Jerusalem. ere he salutes the assembly, and sets out for

Antioch, the starting-point of the gospel for the Gentiles,

and from whence he had been sent by the Holy Spirit. At

Jerusalem he merely salutes the assembly, for here we are

on Christian, not Jewish, ground.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

568

62921

Meditations on Acts 19

Acts 19.

e apostles’ work is now situated in another provincial

center in the capital of the province of Asia, which was

then only the south-west canton of Asia Minor, Caria,

Lycia, and so forth. Paul had before been prohibited

from preaching the word in Asia, having been sent into

Macedonia. Now, while he remains at the capital, all the

province listens to the word of God. It is good to wait on

God and to follow His direction; His work is then much

better done, and with a certainty that human plans can

never give us. Having passed through the upper portion

of Asia Minor (the northern and central), Paul arrives at

Ephesus. In this important city he remains nearly three

years. Here also the power of his ministry is displayed in a

remarkable way. It is the special subject of this chapter. We

are ignorant as to how Apollos was fully introduced into

the Christian position. He was doubtless baptized, and had

received the Holy Spirit; but nothing is said about it. All

we know is that he was instructed in the way of the Lord

by means of Aquila and Priscilla through the word. It was

independently of Paul, and had to be so.

In this chapter the apostolic power and the dierence

of the estate of the disciples of John the Baptist are clearly

shown. e apostle perceives something in the state of these

disciples which did not correspond with the presence of the

Holy Spirit — the essential distinction of the Christians.

ey believe that the Messiah had come, and that Jesus

was that Messiah; but they had not followed Him on the

Meditations on Acts 19

569

earth; they had remained with John, and had not received

the Spirit. John had told them that Christ would baptize

with the Spirit, but they did not know whether that Spirit

had just come, according to the promise of God and the

word of John. It is not meant, “If there be a Holy Ghost,”

because all the Jews well knew that there was; but they did

not know if the Holy Spirit spoken of by John had come.

e words are the same as those in John 7:39. Whoever

became a Christian by baptism received the Holy Spirit. It

was the seal of faith.

Paul explains to them that John had taught faith in

Christ to come; but now He had come and moreover

had been exalted to the right hand of God. ey are then

baptized in the name of the Lord. Paul lays his hands on

them, and they receive the Holy Spirit, who bears witness of

His presence by the gifts communicated to these disciples.

It is a clear testimony to the apostolic power of Paul (Acts

8:14-17). e Holy Spirit was given without the laying on

of hands, as on the day of Pentecost, then in the case of

Cornelius, and generally with others. But among men the

apostles alone possessed the power of communicating the

Spirit. e miracles done by Paul’s garments, and also by the

shadow of Peter, likewise testify to the power vouchsafed

to them by God. God desired to bear witness to the word

of His grace.

is became still more remarkable when others, who

pretended to cast out demons, undertook to make use of

the name of Jesus. is placed the reality of the Lord’s

power over that of the devil in the clearest light. Certain

Jews sought to prot by the power of the name of Jesus

preached by Paul, but without having faith in His person.

But the devil knew well with whom he had to do. He knew

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

570

Jesus, and did not dare to resist Him; and he also well knew

that Paul was His servant. But under what pretense did

these unbelievers exercise authority over the power of the

devil? e man possessed by the devil rises up against these

Jews, and drives them out, so that they ee from the house

naked and wounded.

What a testimony to the truth of Paul’s mission, to the

power by which he worked, and to the war that goes on

in man between grace and the devil! It was not, and is not

yet, the time for the Lord to manifest His power and His

rights, in binding the enemy. His desire is that war should

be carried on by man in faith, and by the power of the Spirit

who dwells in believers. But it comes out clearly here, what

this war is; and the total dierence between the possession

of truth and of the Spirit, learned as a certain truth, and

the employment of the name of Jesus, without faith in the

heart. One cannot exorcise the devil by the name of Jesus,

when true faith in Jesus has no place in the heart.

e people were terried by what had happened; but this

ought not to surprise us. ey felt how near they were to

the power of God and to that of Satan, openly manifested.

e enemy is no less dangerous when he works secretly.

A single word from Jesus had been sucient to cast out

a legion of demons, no more to enter into the liberated

man. But the inuence of Satan persuaded the Gadarenes

to beseech Jesus to depart out of their coasts, and He goes.

e presence of God makes the heart tremble more when

it perceives it, than that of Satan. Such is the condition of

poor sinners. But Satan at bay is more to be feared than

when he goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he

may devour. “Resist the devil,” it is said, “and he will ee

Meditations on Acts 19

571

from you” (James 4:7). But we need all the armor of God

to deliver from his snares.

e power of God in Paul is seen in three ways:

rst, the Spirit is communicated by the laying on of his

hands; second, very wonderful miracles; third, the devils

themselves are forced to own the power of His word, and

the authority of Paul, when he makes use of the name of

Jesus; and they make a dierence between him and those

who under false pretenses employ that name. is was soon

known by all, Greeks and Jews, and they were lled with

fear. It moreover works on the conscience of the believers,

who come and confess their deeds, bringing the books of

their curious arts, for which Ephesus was celebrated, and

burning them before all to the value of fty thousand

pieces of silver. When God reveals Himself in power, the

heart opens before Him, and confesses sincerely all that

the conscience knows, doing so openly for His glory. is

is a special eect of the manifestation of His power. Man

thinks no longer of himself, or of his shame, but is overcome

by the presence of God.

But we must retrace our steps a little in order to observe

the progress of the apostle’s own work. For three months

he reasons in the synagogue. It seems that the Jews were

not so badly disposed as in other cities (for example, at

essalonica and elsewhere). ey had desired that the

apostle should remain there some time, when he had

gone to Jerusalem. However, the greater part did not

long endure the preaching of the gospel. Many became

hardened, and did not believe, speaking evil of the truth

and of the Christian profession before the multitude. Paul

then leaves them, separates the disciples, and continues to

dispute daily in the school of one Tyrannus. Two years he

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

572

spends in this way, so that all who dwelt in Asia, Greeks

and Jews, heard the word of the Lord Jesus.

us was the Christian assembly formed outside the

synagogue, the Jews (as ever) being contradictory and

opposing. eir attempt to make use of the name of

Jesus, without faith, was likewise turned to their dishonor.

ough the goodness of God sought for them, yet their

enmity against the name of Jesus, and against the grace

which wounded their pride, they never lost. God then

placed His blessing elsewhere. And when the Christians

were separated from the Jews, and the assembly settled

apart, this extraordinary power of the Spirit was manifested

in Paul, as a testimony from God to his work, and to the

growing assembly. us was this important gathering

formed by divine power. For two years God held the reins,

and kept the adversary in check, in order that the testimony

of Christ might be rmly established in this capital of Asia,

and resound in all the country round about. All had been

under the direction of God. Formerly, Paul had not been

permitted to go to Ephesus; but now, under the good hand

of God, he labors there without hindrance — two or three

weeks at essalonica, and two or three years at Ephesus.

In the two cities the work is done according to His will.

Now that the work is nished, as far as Paul is concerned

at this time, he proposes to depart.

e enemy left free, and spurred on by the powerful

eect of the word of God, raises a great tumult against Paul

and the gospel (vs. 23). But it is vain to ght against God.

His fury expends itself in shouts and cries. But when God

allows it, opposition manifests itself in its true character.

e devil works on the passions, on selsh interests, on base

motives, which rise up against the love, the grace, and the

Meditations on Acts 19

573

salvation which God sends to ruined men. God be praised,

it was too late! It was the ecacy of His grace in liberating

the slaves of a diabolical superstition, the worship of false

gods, that is, of demons, which called forth all this tumult.

We have seen that till the work was nished, the enemy

was kept in check.

A certain man, Demetrius, gained large sums from the

manufacture of little silver shrines to Diana, because this

Diana was celebrated in the entire pagan world; and her

temple was one of the seven wonders of the world (vs. 27).

Incited by the desire for gain, he assembles the craftsmen

to oppose the truth which was destroying all their trade

(vss. 25-26), the truth which showed that gods made with

hands were no gods. How deep the gloom into which

man, without God, and by his very need of a God, throws

himself!

Not only were their gains at stake, but the importance

of their goddess and of their city was in danger of being

destroyed. ey do not say, “Great is Diana,” but “Great

is Diana of the Ephesians.” e knowledge of the true

God makes our own nothingness felt, and judges the state

of the heart; but in a false religion there is an alliance

with the passions of the heart. e worshippers are great

according to the measure of their religion, and of that

which they worship. If the Diana of the Ephesians was

great, the Ephesians themselves were important according

to her importance. To despise Diana was to detract from

the greatness of her followers. Gain and importance were

the two things which accompanied the worship of this

goddess. Such was the source of the passions awakened by

a few clever words from Demetrius. Such is the religion of

the natural heart, which however feels the need of a God.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

574

It is a false religion which does not act on the conscience,

unless perhaps to produce fear, if God be against it; but

which nourishes human passions, and allies itself with the

malice of the heart against truth.

e multitude rise in fury, and rush with one accord to

the theater. e brethren restrain Paul, and prevent him

from going there, whither his zeal would have led him. God

watches over His servant; there was nothing for him to do

there. e crowd, however, take possession of two brethren,

companions of Paul, and drag them to the theater. Certain

chiefs of the public festivals of Asia, friends of Paul, send

to him, warning him not to present himself at the theater,

where there was only violence and tumult. But once more

the poor Jews prove themselves without light. Walking in

darkness in their own errors, they put forward one of their

countrymen to defend the doctrine of the one God. But

this only still further excites the fury of the people, who

cry out for the space of two hours, “Great is Diana of the

Ephesians.” Without God it is impossible either to oppose

the devil, or to maintain the truth; neither the truth of the

one God, nor the name of Jesus associated with that of

Paul who announced Him, had any power without faith

and truth in the heart. e poor Jews had rejected the

Savior, and without their perceiving it, strength entirely

failed them, as it did Samson, shorn of the Nazarite’s hair.

Although enemies to the new doctrine, yet they expected

to be able to present amicably the doctrine of the one God.

But, enemies to the grace of God and despised by men, all

they could do was to excite the multitude to continue still

longer their senseless and passionate cry, “Great is Diana of

the Ephesians” (Acts 19:28).

Meditations on Acts 19

575

e town clerk, having appeased the people, gives

them to understand that the authorities would most likely

interfere on account of the tumult, and that the men (Gaius

and Aristarchus) had done nothing contrary to the law. He

then dismisses the disorderly and irregular assembly, which

had done nothing but show what man is under the power

of Satan and moved by his own selshness.

In short, we have in this chapter, presented in a

remarkable way, the conict between the Spirit of God

working in the servants of Jesus, and the power of the devil,

kept in check, however, by God, as long as His work was

being performed; and the sorrowful position of the Jews, all

their moral power being taken from them, since they were

opposed to the gospel. e assembly of God being formed

beyond their limits, they were no longer His people; when

they sought to make use of the name of the Lord, it turned

to their confusion; when they defended the doctrine of

the one God, which they believed, it only made the people

cry out the more, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians.” Till

the Lord comes, this conict must continue; and though

miracles have ceased, yet the care of His servants never

grows weaker in the heart of Jesus. He works as really as

ever, and the government of God orders everything for the

good of His work. He may indeed permit Satan’s rage to

break forth, but He never forgets His own.

He can allow the apostles to be driven from essalonica

and Berea, and then keep the enemy in check at Ephesus.

But He always watches over His servants. He can hold the

door open where He will, and shut it where He sees t to

do so. We can rely on Him! Only let us be directed by Him

who openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

576

man openeth. When we have “a little strength,” He sets

before us an opened door.

Meditations on Acts 20

577

62922

Meditations on Acts 20

Acts 20.

From 2 Corinthians 1 and 4, it would appear that the

persecution was more violent, and that it continued longer

than during the public events recorded in Acts 19. But

what these particulars may have been, we are not told.

But after the stormy assemblage in the theater, Paul calls

the disciples together, embraces them, and departs into

Macedonia. Going over those parts, he exhorts the brethren,

and arrives in Greece. ere he remains three months. He

had thought of returning from Greece to Syria; but the

Jews — ever envious, and enemies to the gospel, as well as

to the one who preached it outside their limits, since they

had rejected Christ, and hope for them was gone — laid

wait for him. e truth which they had had was always

the truth; but now that the Son of God had come, and

the Father and His love been manifested in Him, that no

longer possessed any power; for this revelation was one of

life eternal, and of the satisfaction of divine justice. ey

could not endure the thought of being placed on one

side on account of the truth they would not receive, and

therefore laid wait for Paul. When this becomes known to

the apostle, he returns by way of Macedonia.

Let us remark in this brief narrative, which is not

accidental, that when Paul had planted the gospel in a

country, he did not abandon the converts, but returns

with aectionate solicitude, instructs, exhorts, edies, and

watches over the seed planted by his instrumentality, in

order that it may be preserved, and grow in the knowledge

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

578

of Christ. He does not neglect the Lord’s garden, well

knowing that tares may spring up where the good seed

grows, and that the enemy can spoil the harvest, if it is not

well guarded. It is more needful now than ever to do this,

for we are in the perilous times of the last days. ough

the enemy can never pluck the sheep out of the Good

Shepherd’s hand, yet he may disperse them; they may be

subjected to the eect of every kind of evil doctrine, by

which their growth is hindered, the Lord’s glory trampled

upon, testimony to Him destroyed, and the candlestick

taken away. Let the Lord’s servants take warning!

Paul then returns by Macedonia. It’s not important, but

in verse 4 we should read, “Gaius and Timotheus of Derbe.”

From verse 5 we see that many attached themselves to Paul

in the work; and others, besides those in verse 4 went before.

Luke, the author of this book, and perhaps others too,

accompanied the apostle in his journey towards Troas. e

others tarried for him at Troas. It is not without interest to

see this emotion of hearts moved by the gospel which Paul

preached. All were free; some, such as Apollos, laboring

apart; the others, the companions of the great central

gure — great for his faith in Christ, and as sent directly

from Him by the voice of the Holy Spirit — occupied and

sent by Paul to carry on and accomplish the work in places

he would himself have visited, had he not been obliged

to go elsewhere, when the opportunity presented itself for

them to be thus sent.

Leaving Philippi in ve days, they come to Troas, and

there remain seven days. Everywhere assemblies had been

formed. Here a door had been opened to Paul in coming

from Ephesus, but he had not been able to remain long,

being uneasy about the Corinthians, since he did not nd

Meditations on Acts 20

579

Titus there, whom he had sent to them. It was at Troas that

Luke, who wrote the Acts, had attached himself to Paul, to

accompany him the rst time he visited Macedonia. We

do not know how the gathering at Troas was formed; but

there was one, and we are given to see, into it a little, not its

discipline or gifts, as in Corinthians, but its ordinary walk.

e rst day of the week the disciples met together to

break bread. is was evidently their custom. It was the

rst day of the week, and the disciples gathered themselves

together according to their habit, to break bread. It was the

rst object of their meeting, the center of their worship.

Other things were done; they spoke, taught, as Paul

did, sang; but they met together to break bread. is is

conrmed by 1 Corinthians 11:20, where the apostle says

that the Corinthians did not really assemble for the Lord’s

supper, since each ate his own supper, not thinking of the

others, but eating and drinking for his own pleasure. Now

this shows clearly that the object of the assembly was the

Lord’s supper. At the beginning they broke bread every day

(Acts 2:42,46). When gatherings were formed everywhere,

and zeal had been enfeebled, they met only on the rst

day of the week, the day of the Lord’s resurrection. is

was not a rule, but Luke speaks of it as a usage well known

everywhere among the Christians. It seems that Paul had

awaited this day to speak to the disciples, simply because

it was the day of their meeting together; however, that is

not certain. However it may be, he prots by the occasion

to preach to them before setting out, and he speaks till

midnight. ey met, it seems, in the evening.

e discourse was long, and they had not yet broken

bread; the weather was hot, and there were many lights.

Such is human weakness, that all this so aected a certain

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

580

Eutychus, that he was overcome with sleep, as Paul was

long preaching, and fell down from the third oor, where

he was sitting by the window. He was taken up by the men

dead. Paul naturally interrupts his discourse, goes down and

throws himself on him, declaring that life is still in him.

e separation had not yet taken place; he was stunned

by the fall, and if the power of God had not interposed,

he would have been caught in the clutches of death. Life,

however, had not yet gone out of the body; and by the Spirit,

Paul so works on it, that the functions of life are restored.

e bonds between soul and body are re-established. In

the case of the child restored to life by Elijah (1 Kings

17:21-22) the soul had already left the body, and returned

to it. From these cases, as always elsewhere, we see that the

soul is entirely distinct from the body; and though in our

present state it works by means of the body, yet it is in its

habitation; that life in this world is the activity of the soul

by means of the functions of the body, the activity of which

is restored by sleep, because we are feeble; that when the

soul leaves the body, the man is denitively dead, but that

the activity of the soul by the functions of the body may be

interrupted, as is partly the case in sleep; and this action

is re-established if the soul have not left the body, if God

does so or permits it.

In its highest part — the spirit, the soul in relation to

God is alas! at enmity against Him: it will not and does

not submit to Him. With its inferior part, it works in the

body: marvelous creation! in relations with God above, and

with nature before. It is a mixture of thoughts which seek

to rise to God but cannot, and of creature thoughts. It is

responsible to God according to the nature it has originally

received from Him. When born of God, it receives a totally

Meditations on Acts 20

581

new life, in which it is in relation with God, according to

grace and redemption, a life animated by the Spirit which

it receives from above, and which makes of the body an

instrument for the service of God. Possessing this life, we

know that, “if our earthly house of this tabernacle were

dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made

with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor. 5:1). I have said

this in reference to Eutychus, because in these days the

simplicity of the truth regarding the soul is lost sight of by

many.

Paul then goes up again, and, having broken bread,

talks still even till daybreak, comforting much the souls

he saw perhaps for the last time. He then departs leaving

Eutychus alive to the joy of the brethren. Paul sends on his

companions by ship, and goes himself on foot, desiring to

be alone. For us this is often a wise thing; to be alone, apart

from men, but alone too with God, where we can think

of Him, of ourselves before Him, of the work, as He sees

it, and where in His presence responsibility is felt, instead

of activity before men. No doubt this activity ought to

appear in His presence, because it is holy; but at all events

the activity of man is another thing than to place oneself

before God, such as He is for us. It is not less true that this

communion with Him, as His servants, gives and sustains a

blessed condence in Him, an intimacy of soul with Him,

full of goodness and of grace.

Paul had instructed his companions to take him in

at Assos, which they do: from thence they proceed to

Mitylene, to Chios, and nally to Miletus, half a day from

Ephesus. Paul had determined not to stop there, desiring

if possible to be at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. If he

had stopped at Ephesus, he must have remained some time,

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

582

as he had labored there for a long period, and with great

blessing. He passes on therefore, sending from Miletus

for the elders of the assembly at Ephesus, the center of

the work in that region. It is evident that the apostle was

preoccupied with the circumstances in which he was

placed — with the apparent end of his career. is thought,

it is probable, exercised an inuence over him, when he

went alone on foot to Assos. And also it was the cause of

his long speech at Troas.

It is not only imagination which suggests this idea; the

apostle expresses (at the end of the Epistle to the Romans,

written when he was about to leave Corinth (Rom. 15:31),

his fear that he might be an object of hatred to the rebels

in Judea; and he desires the Romans to pray that he may be

delivered out of their hands, hoping thus to be able to see

their face with joy, and from Rome to continue his work

in Spain. We know that in Palestine he was taken, and

after two years connement at Caesarea, went a prisoner

to Rome; that he remained there as such two years more;

and that there, as far as the word is concerned, his history

terminated. It is possible that he may have been liberated;

I believe so, from what we nd in the Epistles to the

Philippians and to Philemon (Phil. 1:25-26; Philem. 1:22).

Also, from 2 Timothy it seems that he was set free, and

that he returned to Asia. But as to the Biblical record of his

labors, all is nished at the end of the Acts, which leaves

him a prisoner at Rome. According to God’s thoughts,

such as they are communicated to us in the scriptures, that

was the end of the apostle’s work. And he felt that such was

the case; and it is no more a question of going to Spain, or

traveling anywhere beyond Rome. e Holy Spirit spoke

Meditations on Acts 20

583

of bonds and tribulations; and Paul’s thought now turned

towards his departure from this world.

e elders being come from Ephesus and assembled

before him, Paul speaks of his ministry as of a thing

accomplished. A little before he had told the Romans that

he had no longer any place in those parts, his career there

being over (Rom. 15:23). Revisiting the scenes of his work

in Asia, and the regions of Asia Minor, he shows us the

character of this work, and the eect of his departure; and

this renders his discourse very important. He had served

the Lord with much humility, in trials and in tears, caused

by the snares of the Jews, whose opposition was continual

and without conscience. In spite of it, however, he never

failed both in public and in private to preach and teach all

that was necessary for them, repentance towards God, and

faith in Jesus Christ, as the true state of a soul brought to

God. Nothing is said, as to the order of these two things

in the heart, although in such order there is something

practical, but of the true character of repentance and faith.

Repentance was to be preached in the name of the Lord

Jesus (Luke 24:47); so that His name might be owned, and

that sinners might repent. It was founded on the ground of

the grace and truth that came by Him; but true repentance

takes place in the presence of God, and goes beyond sorrow

for having done wrong, or shame, or the mere work of the

natural conscience.

e soul revealed to itself through grace comes with

open eyes into God’s presence. All is judged according to

Him whose presence is manifested to the soul; everything

is judged as it appears in His eyes. e word of God is His

eye in the conscience, and makes us feel that He has seen

all, and then things appear to us as they do to Him. We

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

584

no longer excuse ourselves, nor do we desire to do so. e

result is confession to God by a conscience which feels itself

in His presence (Heb. 4:12-13); while the heart restored

desires holiness, and the soul feels its responsibility for all

that we have done. We justify God in our condemnation

(Luke 7:29); though in such a case there is always some

condence in His grace, not peace but condence; for He

who has become light to the soul is also love, Himself

being both these things. When He reveals Himself as light

in order to show us our sins, it is in love He does so in

Jesus; and He is love. He cannot reveal Himself to the soul

without being the two things, for in His nature He is both.

Take the case of the woman in Luke 7. e light and

the love of God had penetrated into her soul; she did not

yet know what it was to be pardoned, but her heart had

condence in Jesus; and at the same time her conscience

was deeply convinced of sin.

Take again the case of Peter (Luke 5:8), the prodigal

son (Luke 15:17-19), and of the thief on the cross (Luke

23:41). Repentance thus is the eect of the revelation of

God to the soul, which then shows itself; and up to a certain

point it knows God as light, which manifests everything.

“Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I

did” (John 4:29). But as love to the soul, the Lord inspires

condence, though the remission of sins be not known.

is is discovered by the soul by faith in Christ Jesus — not

only that Jesus is the Christ, but that by Him its sins are

pardoned, for He was dead for our sins; and if we receive

the word of God, we believing in Him know, that He has

taken all our sins on Himself on His own body on the tree.

When He had by Himself purged our sins, He sat down

at the right hand of the Majesty on high; because by one

Meditations on Acts 20

585

oering He has perfected forever them that are sanctied

by that sacrice.

Although faith in the work of Christ is necessary in

order to possess peace, yet His person ever remains as the

object of the heart — the Christ who has loved us, and

given Himself for us, who now is gloried at the right

hand of God, after having borne our sins, and submitted

to death and the curse for us, but ever living for us now;

who Himself will return to seek us, and make us perfectly

like Himself in glory. We believe in Him, not only in the

ecacy of His death. He is our righteousness before God,

made such by God Himself, and we are accepted in the

Beloved. John 17 tells us that we are loved with the same

love wherewith the Father loves the Son. If true repentance

is made in the presence of God, and in respect of Him,

condence and peace come by means of the faith of the

Lord Jesus Christ. He has made peace by His own blood.

Such was the testimony of Paul, the truth of the

conscience, peace, and the knowledge of God by His Son

Jesus come down here in love, ascended into heaven as

man, having accomplished the work which His Father had

given Him to do. So great were the truth and the revelation,

and so like the apostle is the execution of his ministry! But

this ministry was drawing to its close, without knowing

that such was the case. e Spirit testied in every place

that bonds and tribulations awaited him; and he foresees

that they would see his face no more. is furnishes the

opportunity to speak of the eect of His departure. e

sheep of Jesus are safe in His hands; as to the life He has

imparted to them, they can never perish — none can pluck

them out of His hand. But a temple had been established,

a house on the earth, of which the apostle was by grace

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

586

the founder according to the will of God, the wise master-

builder (1 Cor. 3:10). According to another gure, He has

placed a candlestick on the earth to shine round about

Himself, and this He can take away. ere will always be

a house of God built with His hand, and by His power

which will never grow less — Christ the foundation, the

stones living, by grace placed on this chief corner stone,

and growing to an holy temple for the Lord (Matt. 16:18;

1 Pet. 2:4-5; Eph. 2:21).

Against this work of the Lord — a work carried on by

grace in the heart — the gates of hell cannot prevail; for

it is the fruit of the power of the Lord Jesus, working in

grace. Moreover, this temple is not yet entirely built — it is

growing. At least we may expect that by grace every soul

can be introduced into it. God alone knows the moment

when the work of grace which forms the assembly, the

body of Christ, shall be accomplished. See 2 Peter 3:9.

But God’s will has been to form an assembly on the earth.

e work of Jesus, of which we have spoken, is done here

below; but beyond this, as we have seen, God formed an

assembly by the ministry of Paul, a temple on the earth,

conding the building of this temple into the hands of

men, and under their responsibility. It is now the habitation

of God through the Spirit, Jews and Gentiles being built

up together, founded according to the will of God, but

left to the responsibility of man. “But let every man take

heed how he buildeth thereupon.” “Now if any man build

upon this foundation [Jesus Christ] gold, silver, precious

stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man’s work shall be made

manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be

revealed by re; and the re shall try every man’s work of

what sort it is” (1 Cor. 3:12-13).

Meditations on Acts 20

587

ere are three kinds of workmen: a good Christian

and a good workman, such as Paul; a good Christian

and a bad workman, himself saved, but his work to be

consumed; then he who seeks to corrupt and destroy the

temple of God, whose work, as well as himself, shall perish.

Such were the heresiarchs, who, moved by the enemy,

sought to corrupt the faith. ree sects of them existed

during Paul’s own time; but as long as he remained in

the world, his spiritual energy resisted and overcame evil;

such as immorality among the Corinthians, and the loss

of the doctrine of grace among the Galatians. But with

his departure this energy disappeared. He had already said

(Phil. 2:21) that all sought their own, not the things which

were Jesus Christ’s. No soul was to be found like that of

Timothy to care for the state of the Christians.

Paul tells the elders then that, after his departure,

grievous wolves should enter in among them, and that even

of their own selves perverse men should arise, and draw the

disciples away. Till Satan be bound, and the Lord come to

do it, there will ever be conicts. Since the beginning of the

world, whenever God has established anything good, man’s

rst act has been to destroy it. First, there was man himself;

then, in the world after the ood, Noah got tipsy, and his

authority was lost. Israel made the golden calf before ever

Moses came down from the mountain. Nadab and Abihu

oered strange re the rst day after their consecration,

for which cause Aaron could no more enter into the inner

sanctuary with his priestly garments of glory. Solomon

having loved strange women, his kingdom was divided. So

in the assembly established on the earth, soon after the

apostle’s departure, evil presents itself; and it is of this that

the elders are forewarned.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

588

Where were the other apostles? At Jerusalem. Peter, the

apostle of the circumcision, leaves the gathering scattered

by the destruction of Jerusalem. e chief of the apostles

abandon to Paul the preaching of the gospel among the

Gentiles, to which work the Lord Himself had called him

at the rst, and then again expressly, by the Holy Spirit

at Antioch. To the other apostles, therefore, he does not

entrust his ministry. Still less does Paul imagine that

there can be successors in his oce. He knows nothing of

successors; but he exhorts the existing elders to faithfulness

and watchfulness, commending them to God, and to the

word of His grace, “which,” he says, “is able to build you

up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which

are sanctied.” Christ, ascended up on high, can still give

evangelists, pastors, and teachers; and He does give them;

but the oce of personal apostolic care has disappeared.

“After my departure,” says the apostle. is is a departure

without succession. It is sad, surely, yet true; and we have

seen it in all that God has established among men. His

grace continues, the faithful care of Christ can never fail.

e Spirit has given His instructions for this time, as at

the beginning, and the Lord is enough for the present

condition, as He was faithful in the past. But such a thing as

a succession to his apostleship is unknown to Paul when he

speaks of his absence. God, and the word of His grace, are

for him the refuge of God’s people. ey can meet together,

and Christ will be in their midst; they can prot by the

gifts He has granted according to His promise. e rules

for our walk are contained in the word; but the apostleship,

as a personal energy watching over the organization of the

assembly, has disappeared, leaving no succession behind it.

Meditations on Acts 20

589

is is a solemn truth, which must be well borne in mind.

But we must never forget that Christ is always enough for

the assembly; that He is faithful in His care of it, and that

He can never fail in strength, in love or in faithfulness.

What we have to do is to count on Him, and that with

purpose of heart. Divine power is manifested more in

Elijah and Elisha than in all the prophets of Jerusalem

from the time of Moses himself. e Lord gives what is

needful to His people. e word of God conrms sadly,

but abundantly, what Paul says here. His testimony is that

not only should evil appear in the exterior constitution of

the church, but that it should continue till the Lord comes

in judgment. Let us consider what the word of God says.

Jude declares that it was already needful to write to

them, to exhort them to contend for the faith once delivered

to the saints, because certain men had crept in unawares

who turned the grace of our God into lasciviousness. ey

were corrupting the assembly from within; and what is

very remarkable, he declares that these are they (that is,

the class of persons) who will be among the objects of the

Lord’s judgment, when He comes with ten thousands of

His saints. e corruption, begun during the time of the

apostles, will continue till the coming of the Lord. So much

for internal corruption. But this is not all. Evil unfolds

itself from the other side, as we nd in the Epistle of John.

Some had abandoned Christianity openly. “Little children,

it is the last time; and as ye have heard that Antichrist shall

come, even now are there many antichrists, whereby we

know that it is the last time. ey went out from us, but

they were not of us” (1 John 2:18-19).

us we see that though this apostle survived Paul for

many years, and certainly watched over the assemblies, in

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

590

Asia Minor at least, dwelling, as it is said, at Ephesus, it

was only in order to record the fact that the last time was

already come, which was shown by the presence of these

antichrists, and by the apostasy of many. If it be asked

why God waits so long before executing judgment, the

answer is to be found in 2 Peter 3:9: “e Lord is not slack

concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but

is long-suering to us-ward, not willing that any should

perish, but that all should come to repentance.” To Him

a thousand years are as one day. In the time of the Jews,

judgment was pronounced (Isa. 6), eight hundred years

before it was executed, that is, when they had nally

rejected the humbled, but also gloried Son of God.

e epoch of this ruin of the assembly on the earth

is determined, namely, on the death of Paul — “After my

departure.” Doubtless, corruption had been rapidly growing.

e mystery of iniquity was already working during the

apostle’s life; but his spiritual energy knew how to resist

it. He being gone, however, it went on increasing without

hindrance, except from the grace of God in individuals,

and the chastisement by which God arrested the decline

into ruin and corruption. e testimony of God, although

hid under a bushel, has never yet been extinguished; and

God has from time to time raised up witnesses in the midst

of darkness, feeble perhaps, but true; and, at the time of

the Reformation, delivered whole countries from open

corruption. But we have seen that the evil, introduced in

the time of Jude, was to continue till the judgment.

is solemn and humiliating truth is conrmed by

other passages. e assembly has never been restored. Not

only does John say that the last time has come, but that this

is marked by the presence of antichrists. Now Antichrist

Meditations on Acts 20

591

shall be destroyed by the coming of the Lord. Paul

reveals to us that the apostasy that began to show itself

in John’s time will be fully unfolded at the last time; when

Antichrist himself shall be manifested, whose coming shall

be after the working of Satan, and whom the Lord shall

destroy when He comes in glory. e mystery of iniquity

was already working, even during the apostle’s life, and the

progress of evil was to continue from his days till the Lord

should come. us too, the Lord says that the tares are to

grow till the harvest.

It seems to us, then, that the death of Paul is the moment

from which we must count the prevalence of evil. We say

“prevalence,” because evil was already working, though

Paul resisted it by the power of the Spirit; and because

this evil was to go on increasing till Christ should come;

because in the last days perilous time should come, and

the form of godliness without the power of it. en in 2

Timothy 3 we also get the word of God set forth as that

which is necessary, and sucient to render the man of God

perfect, and furnished unto all good works. All this truth

is powerfully conrmed by what is said in Revelation 2

and 3, where the Christian who has ears to hear is called

upon to hearken, not to the church, but to what the Spirit

saith unto the church; and in His words we nd judgment

pronounced by Jesus Christ on the state of the church.

We would add that it is one thing to submit to the

discipline, or practical judgment of an assembly, regarding

evil, and quite another thing to suppose, when we are

called upon to judge of the state of the church by the

words of Christ and of the Spirit, that the authority of

the assembly is the perpetual safeguard of the faith. e

universal assembly, Christianity, is corrupted and divided,

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

592

and cannot, even as an instrument in the hands of God,

secure the maintenance of the truth. It is submission to the

word of God only that can do it.

In order to show how far the primitive church wandered

from the truth, we shall quote from a book read in the

assembly, one hundred and fty years after the death of

John, cited by one of the best fathers of the primitive

churches as part of the inspired scriptures, and esteemed as

such by another, who was less orthodox, it is true.

e author, pretending to have received a revelation says,

“A man possessed a vineyard, and commanded his servants

to gather the fruits. e servant, being very faithful, did

what was entrusted to him, and besides, out of devotedness

to his master, rooted all the weeds out of the vineyard. e

master who was so much pleased with the servant, that

he consulted his son and his friends as to what should be

done for the faithful servant, and it was decided to make

him heir with the son. Now the master is God, the son is

the Holy Spirit, the friends are the angels, and the servant

is Christ. God had sent him to establish the clergy for

the support of the faithful; but He had done much more

than this, and what God had not told him to do — He had

taken away sins. us it is, according to the consultation

of God with the Holy Spirit, and the angels, co-heirs with

the Holy Spirit, who is Son and Heir of God.” Such is

what was read in the churches, written by the brother of

Pope Pius, and pretended to have been inspired by God.

And this a hundred and fty years after the birth of Christ.

What is recounted in the same book of holiness is no better.

What is there related as holy in the visions of Hermas, it is

impossible to transcribe on these pages!

Meditations on Acts 20

593

Such then is the testimony of the apostle; after his

departure, evil would prevail, active both within and

without. He tells them nothing of the nomination of

successors to the elders, any more than he does of a

successor to himself. He insists on the faithfulness of

those who were there, whom the Holy Spirit had made

bishops (for bishops and elders were one and only one

oce); and commends them to God and to the word of

His grace, which was able to build them up, and give them

an inheritance among them that were sanctied. In fact,

no means is established in the word for the continuance of

the organization of the assembly. People are mistaken on

this point. e disciples were waiting for the coming of the

Lord, the Lord Himself. See the parables of the servant,

Matthew 24, of the virgins and the talents. But the apostle

shows that this coming might be delayed till long after the

life of those then on the earth. e sleeping virgins are the

very same that are revealed; the servants who received the

talents those found afterward at the coming of the Lord.

Paul says, “We which are alive and remain unto the coming

of the Lord” (1 ess. 4:15). ey did not know when He

would come, but still they waited for Him (Luke 12:36).

What has produced the moral ruin of the assembly is, that

she has ceased to look for the Lord; but has said, “My Lord

delayeth his coming” (Matt. 24:48). She has taken and

beaten her fellow-servants, has eaten and drunk with the

drunken. e hierarchy has been established; worldliness

has invaded the assembly; and thus alliance has been made

with the world.

e apostle recalls his own faithfulness, how he had

been an example to the elders, laboring with his own hands,

since it was more blessed to give than to receive. en,

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

594

kneeling down, he prays with them all. And they, weeping,

embrace him sorrowfully, chiey for the word that he had

spoken, that they should see his face no more. And they

accompanied him to the ship. Solemn departure, the end

of the apostle’s public work. He speaks of it as of a nished

work, announcing that henceforward, in consequence of

his absence, evil would prevail in the outward assembly

of God on the earth, but assuring the faithful that God

and the word of His grace would be enough to build them

up, and give them an inheritance among those that were

sanctied. is was certain. e power of Christ secures it;

but the exterior system, Christianity, would be corrupted,

having given up the expectation of the Lord’s return. Paul

teaches the same truth in 2 Timothy 3. John tells us that

the last time has already arrived.

e patience of God continues to accomplish the

work of grace; and Christ to supply the gifts necessary

to the perfecting of the saints, and the building up of the

assembly, although our coldness greatly hinders the Spirit.

And this will be the case till the end of the gathering of

the saints. Christianity has ripened in the midst of evil, as

foretold by the apostles. It is evil which began in apostolic

times, and which was already suciently mature in John’s

time, the last of the apostles; for he says that the last times

had already come. We trust that the cry, “Behold, the

bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him” (Matt. 25:6)

has already begun to go forth, and that many hearts will

respond, and kindle their lamps. May the Lord add daily

to their number!

Meditations on Acts 21

595

62923

Meditations on Acts 21

Acts 21.

From Miletus, Paul sets out for Jerusalem. In this

journey, nothing of importance occurs till the apostle’s

arrival at Tire. ere he nds disciples who tell him not

to go up to Jerusalem; and this they do by the Spirit. We

have already spoken a little of this. To tell him by the Spirit

not to go up was more than to forewarn him that bonds

and tribulation awaited him. He felt bound in spirit, and

doubtless the hand of God was leading him, though it was

not that free action of the Holy Spirit in his heart that had

guided him in the Lord’s work. He means by the state of

his soul as a victim, and by this providence, not to preach

to lost souls in order to save them, but to bear testimony

to the Lord in the face of death. In such a testimony he

answers for himself, and therefore for the Lord; but he was

not seeking souls. He does nothing hurtful, but he does

not work in the power of the Holy Spirit. To him the Lord

Himself was everything. at was not changed; and the

circumstances in which the apostle is found during these

last years of his life resemble those in which the Lord

was placed at Jerusalem. But in Him we see perfection in

man; in Paul the grace of God with man, but man in his

imperfection was not doing that work now. He was going

to Jerusalem with money from the Greeks for the poor

saints who lived there — a good Christian work, but not

the apostolic work of the gospel. He could not bear witness

as an apostle at Jerusalem. e Lord had told him so. Still

as a prisoner he had a testimony, and the Lord was with

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

596

him: and also towards those who had not otherwise heard

the gospel, such as the governors and kings.

It is true that he followed afar o in the Lord’s

footsteps, being betrayed by the Jews, and placed by them

with Gentiles to be put to death; but his true work as an

apostle to the Gentiles was at an end, at least as far as we

know from the word. We have seen that there is a certain

dierence between “who said to Paul through the Spirit,”

and “the Spirit said.” If the Spirit Himself had said it, it

would have been disobedience to Paul to have gone to

Jerusalem: but it seems to us that it was rather a warning

given by the Spirit, that he should not go there. Certainly

it was much more than to say that aictions awaited him.

It was a solemn warning from the Spirit by the mouths of

the brethren; and moreover he was “bound in the spirit.”

But this warning the apostle neglects. He feels constrained

to go to Jerusalem, but notwithstanding this, he is led by

the providence and grace of God manifest towards him,

faithful and blessed.

e Lord goes as a sheep, dumb before her shearers;

and neither opens His mouth, nor replies to His accusers.

Paul, however, claims Roman citizenship, and raises a

tumult in the council by declaring himself a Pharisee. at

he was a Roman, and also (as a Jew) a Pharisee, was true;

but where was any testimony in these worldly facts? Christ

was condemned solely for the witness He bore to the truth,

to Himself before the Jews and before Pilate, although by

the latter He was recognized as entirely innocent. Paul is

betrayed by the Jews, and given over to the Gentiles as

Christ was, and by them punished, though not put to death;

but Christ is condemned by His own divine perfection, by

jealousy and hatred against God, manifest in goodness.

Meditations on Acts 21

597

But Paul is condemned by the enmity of the Jews to the

Gentiles.

e apostle follows the Lord, but it is afar o. With full

heart we honor the apostle so faithful, so blessed, and own

the power of the Spirit in his work among the Gentiles.

But to Jerusalem he went neither to seek the Gentile,

nor to bear witness to the Jews. e Lord had told him,

“they will not receive thy testimony” (Acts 22:18). And it

is precisely when he reminds the Jews of these words of

the Lord, that their fury breaks forth. But Christ was the

object of the testimony: and though Paul witnessed a good

confession, yet he was only the witness, honored however,

and following the Lord in the distance.

Let us follow now the sad history of the apostle’s end.

At Tire he enjoys again Christian simplicity and aection.

en he and his companions, accompanied by the brethren

of Tire, go down to the sea, and there kneeling down on

the shore, join in prayer. en taking leave of them, Paul

embarks in the ship, and the others return to their homes.

Blessed by his faithful labors, Paul leaves the eld forever.

It is possible, and also probable that he was liberated from

his captivity at Rome, and that he recommenced his work,

but we have not the history of this in the Bible. Arrives at

Caesarea, he leaves the vessel, and enters into the house of

Philip the evangelist, whose preceding history at Samaria,

together with the treasurer of Candace, we have already

perused. ere a prophet comes from Jerusalem, who

announces once more that bonds awaited Paul there. His

companions and the brethren of Caesarea then beseech

him not to go up to Jerusalem; but in vain, Paul declaring

that he is ready to die there for the name of the Lord Jesus.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

598

“And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying,

e will of the Lord be done.”

Here we must draw the distinction between the apostle’s

service, in which he was the minister of God Himself, and

guarded by the Holy Spirit, when his words were those of

the Spirit conveyed by his mouth, and his individual walk

when he is found in a place where he had not been sent

to accomplish the work assigned to him. is distinction

made, let us compare the path of the Lord with that of the

apostle, and faithful as the latter was, mark the dierence.

e Lord, when He hears that Lazarus is sick, remains

quietly for two days in the same place, and then, God’s

time being come, goes up to Jerusalem to do the will of

His Father. e disciples, astonished, and fearing that

death awaited Him there, warn Him, saying, “Goest thou

thither again?” (John 11:8). But the will of God was clear

to the Lord, and therefore His path also, and He replies,

“Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in

the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this

world” (John 11:9). All is calm, all is in the light of a divine

day for His heart. e Savior is the object of testimony,

perfect in Himself. e apostles, however great and faithful,

were only witnesses of His perfection and His glory. In

themselves, no matter how marvelously blessed, they were

only men as others. Paul had to reprove Peter publicly, and

to separate himself from Barnabas. Here, conducted by

the hand of God, and strengthened by His grace, he is led,

bound in the spirit, to pass through circumstances that put

to the test his state of soul, and brought his public career

to a close.

He goes up then to Jerusalem forewarned (though

neglecting or resisting these various warnings of the Spirit),

Meditations on Acts 21

599

accompanied by the brethren who were with him, and an

old disciple, Mnason, with whom he was to lodge. Arrived

at Jerusalem, the disciples receive him gladly; and here

begins the history of that submission to human forms and

Jewish customs which terminated in his captivity at Rome.

But he does not follow these Jewish forms and ceremonies

that he may thereby attract his countrymen to the gospel,

but because persuaded into them by the elders and James,

in order to show that he was himself a good Jew, faithful

to the law, and to Jewish customs. It was precisely this that

threw him into the hands of the hostile Jews, and then

into those of the Gentiles. Jesus, on the contrary, in the

dignity of His perfection, sits in the temple to instruct the

multitude. All classes of Jews come to prove him; but all are

judged, and reduced to silence by the divine patience of the

Savior, and none dare ask Him any more questions. en,

as we have said, the Lord is condemned for the witness He

bore to the truth.

When Paul arrives, the elders assemble with James,

and, attached as they were to Judaism, and surrounded by

Christian Jews, in order to uphold the reputation of their

religion and unite Christianity to Judaism, counsel Paul

to satisfy the prejudices of the believing Jews by purifying

himself after their custom, and oering sacrices in the

temple, so that he might appear a good Jew to their eyes.

Paul accedes to their proposal; and we encounter the

strange spectacle of the apostle oering sacrices, as though

all such had not been abolished by the Lord’s death. He

neither upholds nor wins the Jews who were not set free

from their customs. Still God permitted him willingly to

conform to these Jewish ceremonies. Being at Jerusalem,

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

600

though warned by the Spirit not to go there, what could

he do?

Let us remember, if we have been cast for the Lord’s

name out from a place where we have been under the

authority of the governing power, not to re-enter it, so that

we may not again be placed in the position from which

we have been freed. e relationship has been broken

by the authority itself, and if we have left it by the will

of God, by returning we place ourselves anew under the

abandoned authority; and if this be contrary to that of the

Lord Jesus, under which we came when liberated from

human authority, we reestablished over us the authority

which had been destroyed, and thus strife begins between

the authority of Christ over us, and that which we have

abandoned. It is impossible to go on well thus. We were free

under the authority of Christ, free to do His will; and we

have returned to the authority which prohibits obedience

to Christ. For example, suppose that a son or daughter has

been driven from home for the Lord’s name; by this act the

parents have renounced their authority. If this son returns

to his father’s house, he places himself under paternal

authority, and what can he do when his parents oppose the

faith of Christ? He is powerless; and moreover, has so lost

his liberty as to renew over himself the authority which

opposes that of Christ, has given up the latter to return to

that which is contrary to it.

Mark again the power of ancient habits. For us it is

as clear as the light of day, that the sacrices of the Jews

are annulled, and that the precious sacrice of Christ

has abolished them entirely. But here is a multitude of

Christians at Jerusalem, zealous for the law, oering

sacrices, and their elders counseling Paul to do likewise.

Meditations on Acts 21

601

Let us remember that his submission to these customs put

an end to the public testimony of the apostle. Still, as we

follow Paul’s history, let us ever bear his work in mind, all

his labors, and the blessing which accompanied them. In

this submission to Jewish ceremonies, he was not guided by

the Spirit; he followed the advice of the elders; they were

tenacious of the law; and his position was theirs. Paul does

what they desire; and joining himself to four other men

who had a vow goes with them to the temple to signify the

days of purication, when a sacrice should be oered for

each of them.

But before the end of the days, certain Jews of Asia

recognize Paul, and stir up the people against him, crying

out that he taught everywhere against the law of Moses,

and that he had profaned the temple. e doors are shut,

and the crowd begin to abuse and beat Paul. While they

are thus engaged, the Roman captain learns that all the

city is in an uproar, and comes to liberate Paul from their

hands. Such is the result of the attempt to conform to the

superstitions of others, not made with a view to winning

souls by guarding against oending them, but in order to

convince these superstitious Jews that he walked as they

did, thus only conrming them in their darkness!

If here we think of the Lord ever perfect, we shall

perceive the dierence of His path. Paul is taken by the

hands of the Jewish rabble; Christ, when the band arrives,

gives Himself up voluntarily, saying, “Whom seek ye? … I

have told you that I am he: if therefore ye seek me, let

these go their way” (John 18:7-8). It is not in any way to

disparage the Lord’s blessed workman, unequaled in his

labors, caught up into the third heavens, that I point out

this dierence, but only that we may realize the unique

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

602

perfection of the Savior, the witness in His ministry of

divine perfection in man, always, no doubt, but especially

during His last sojourn at Jerusalem, when this perfection

was proved to the end, then only shining more brightly,

and found wanting in nothing.

Meditations on Acts 22

603

62924

Meditations on Acts 22

Acts 22.

e captain permitting Paul to speak to the people, the

apostle relates the story of his conversion, then that which

brings to light his submission to the superstitions of the

Jewish Christians. is was the result of personal amiability,

grace, and condescension to his brethren, but not of the

direction and power of the Holy Spirit. His position was a

false one; and in a false position it is impossible to do well.

ough the grace of God may support, and sustain those so

placed, yet the Holy Spirit cannot act in free power by their

means. It is in sovereignty that He acts, and the instrument

is like blind Samson, the power exercised being the end of

his own career, as well as that of his enemies.

What is seen clearly in Paul is the absence of this power.

e Lord’s grace was always there. us, what he did in the

temple was the eect of the counsels of the elders, not of

the direction of the Spirit.

Captured now by the captain, he is allowed to speak to the

people. As Paul addresses them in their own language, they

listen in silence, while he relates the story of his conversion,

of the revelation he had had of the glory of Christ, as well

as that given to Ananias, a devout Jew. e moment he

reaches the cardinal point of his discourse, however, the

fury of the audience breaks out with a violence which the

presence of the captain and soldiers cannot check. “I will

send thee far hence unto the Gentiles … And then lifted

up their voices, and said, Away with such a fellow from the

earth” (Acts 22:21-22). It was precisely what the Lord had

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

604

said to him, “ey will not receive thy testimony concerning

Me.” What then was he doing at Jerusalem? e word that

had sent him away from Jerusalem on his glorious mission

is fullled when he re-enters it, to the ruin of his work,

making him once more a Jew, bound by the law.

Like Jesus, Paul is condemned on account of the truth

of his mission; but in the apostle’s case, in a position that

contradicted the mission itself. But the Jews complete their

sin by rejecting, and giving up to the Gentiles, the grace

oered to them. e word that raised the tumult was also

the occasion of his imprisonment among the Romans. is

was the proof, that as an apostle he had nothing to do at

Jerusalem. He loved his people, and that deeply; for he had

returned to Jerusalem, in spite of all that had been said

to him. Desiring to bear witness there, he had reasoned

with the Lord; but the Lord had replied that he ought

not to go there. He excuses himself to the Jews, without

doubt; but if they would not receive his testimony, what

was the necessity of saying that the Lord had sent him?

is discourse is the main point of the apostle’s history, on

which all the rest depends.

Paul justies himself before the Jews, declaring how like

themselves, he had persecuted the Christians even unto

death, and that they and the high priest were witnesses

of it. en he relates how all had been changed by the

appearing of the Lord in glory, who had declared Himself

as Jesus, and shown him how, in persecuting the Christians,

he was persecuting the Lord Himself; and lastly the part

that Ananias, the devout Jew, had taken in the aair. All

this they tolerate, but when the apostle speaks of a mission

to the Gentiles, their wrath breaks forth. ey complete

their sin. “Forbidding us,” had said the apostle, “to speak to

Meditations on Acts 22

605

the Gentiles — to ll up their sins always: for the wrath is

come upon them to the uttermost” (1 ess. 2:16).

ere are three degrees in their sin. First, they crucied

the Lord of glory, and were guilty of the ten thousand

talents (Matt. 18); but Christ intercedes for them on the

cross, and the Holy Spirit responds to this prayer by the

mouth of Peter (ch. 3), declaring that if they repented of

their sin, Jesus would return. But they stopped the mouth

of Peter, and then stoned Stephen who bore testimony to

the glory of the Son of man at the right hand of God. is

was the second degree; they would not believe in a gloried

Savior, when the Spirit bore witness to Him.

All this happened among the Jews. But Paul had a

mission among the Gentiles, since the Jews would not have

the grace oered to them. ey would have been willing

enough to enjoy the promises made to Israel, although they

had rejected Him in whom all the promises were fullled;

but of having compassion on His servant, they did not even

think. It was the end; all was nished; the debt of the ten

thousand talents weighed down on them. Jerusalem would

neither have grace itself, nor leave it to others. Judgment

will come upon it. e patience of God, long-suering

patience, at length came to its end for hearts that refused

to surrender to the perfect grace of God. But the judgment

of God is only pronounced at Rome (Acts 28); a judgment

already announced eight hundred years previously (Isa. 6).

But in the patience of God, this was not executed till they

opposed themselves openly to His grace.

But judgment had to be executed. Christ in humiliation

worked by the power of God; then Christ having been

gloried, the Holy Spirit was sent into the world. Paul was

afterward raised up to carry the gospel to the Gentiles; and

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

606

all having been rejected, nothing remained but judgment.

e mystery of the union of Jews and Gentiles in one body

was promulgated by Paul, and was the true point of progress

of his testimony. It was grace itself that was rejected. God

permitted the journey of Paul to Jerusalem, so that all

might come to an end. Grace ever continues, even during

the period of his captivity at Rome; and the mystery itself

is fully unfolded by him in the Epistles to the Ephesians

and Colossians: and then he has given us the true Christian

character, the practical fall of the system (Phil. 2:21), and

the superiority of faith to all the circumstances in the

Epistle to the Philippians. In 2 Timothy, the walk of the

faithful Christian amid a scene of ruin, is clearly taught.

It will be worth our while to notice a few particularities

in the apostle’s discourse. e Lord still calls Himself Jesus

of Nazareth. We know that He was gloried, but this

makes Him shine with a light more brilliant than that of

the sun. He is ever the same benign and gentle Man who

learned human sorrows in the midst of men. He thinks of

others, and considers all Christians as part of Himself. “I

am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest” (Acts 22:8).

Innitely precious truth! en we nd in Paul the same

liberty as we have seen in Ananias. He reasons with the

Lord (vss. 18-21), saying that more than any other he was

t for testimony at Jerusalem. And this makes his sincerity

evident. Yet in this he might perceive the Lord’s wisdom,

for he is bearing witness against his own presence at

Jerusalem. And here too we see what a perfect conscience

is, by grace and by the blood of Christ. He recounts to

Christ all his sins, and the hatred which at the beginning

had been in his heart to the Lord’s name; how he had

persecuted the members of Christ, and taken part in the

Meditations on Acts 22

607

death of Stephen; and all this he presents to the Lord as a

motive for his mission to the Jews. But his conscience was

pure now.

I believe we have spoken of a little diculty which

Paul’s words present here, but I shall not err in repeating

it. e companions of Paul saw the light, but did not hear

the voice of Him who spoke with him. In Acts 9 we read

that they heard the voice, but saw no one. ey did not see

the Lord, nor did they hear His words, but they saw a great

light, and heard a voice without being able to distinguish

the words.

is is just what was necessary. ey were undeniable

witnesses that the vision was true and real, but the

communication was for Paul alone. Only he saw the Lord

(Acts 22:14-15). For he had to be taught by Him, and bear

testimony as an ocular witness that he had seen Him.

Moved by the violence of the multitude, the captain

desires that Paul should be led into the castle, and

commands him to be examined by scourging, but, already

covered with stripes, Paul takes advantage of his rights as

a Roman citizen. It was not lawful to bind such. He is not

scourged therefore. On the morrow, loosed from his bands,

he is brought before the Jewish Council, that they might

know of what he was accused. And now Paul, who a little

before had represented himself as a Jew in order to escape

the prejudices of the Judaizing Christians, declares himself

a Roman citizen in order to avoid unjust punishment from

the Gentiles. It was not a sin, for he was really a Roman; but

where was the power of the Spirit? Where is the Christian

who would not do likewise?

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

608

62925

Meditations on Acts 23

Brought before the Council, the apostle begins by

declaring his innocence. “And the high priest Ananias

commanded them that stood byhim to smite him on the

mouth.” is undoubtedly was violence; yet produced not

by testimony borne to Christ, but by self-justication. Paul

replies with an insult, calling the high priest a “whited

wall.” He had merited this, it is true; but such an answer

did not display the meekness of Christ. Being reproved,

Paul owns his fault; but his defense tells us of the absence

of the power and of the knowledge of the Holy Spirit. “I

knew not,” is not what the Holy Spirit would say. All is

true; but we do not nd the energy of the Spirit of God.

Moreover, he is not now merely a Jew and a Roman, but

also a Pharisee. Such a title he counts no longer dross and

dung, it has become once more a gain.

However, God makes use of this to liberate Paul from

the hands of the Jews. Full of zeal for their opinions, and

of wrath against one another, the Council begin to dispute;

and the discussion becoming warm, the captain fearing

Paul might be pulled in pieces amid the tumult, commands

the soldiers to go down and take him by force from among

them. In the hands now of the Gentiles, he is taken by the

soldiers to the castle; there we nd the perfect grace of the

Lord towards his faithful servant, in bringing him through

trying circumstances without the consciousness that he

was suering for the testimony of God. For Jerusalem

all was nished; and the Lord, knowing that Paul must

go to Rome, appears to him the night following, saying,

Meditations on Acts 23

609

“Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testied of me

in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.”

What grace! He encourages His servant. It is possible that

his position was not the eect of the action of the Spirit;

nevertheless, even had he not drawn down the hatred of

the Jews on himself, he would have been in peril.

e cross, and grace towards the Gentiles, had made him

the object of the enmity of this people. He had confessed

Christ gloried, as revealed on his way to Damascus, and

declared his mission to carry the name of Christ the Savior

to the Gentiles. e Lord does not remind him of the faults

he had committed, but of his faithfulness. He encourages

him, and makes him understand (and this was the more

necessary, since he was a prisoner, and might say, “I have

failed, I have not hearkened to the warning of the Spirit”)

makes him understand, I say, that whatever might happen,

he was under His hand and His care. Watched over in

Jerusalem, he would arrive in safety at Rome, and there be

permitted to bear witness to Him. What consolation for the

heart of His poor servant! And what grace on the Lord’s

part! e apostle might have said to himself, “Now my

testimony is over, and I myself am the cause of it.” Ah! why

did I not follow the counsel of the Spirit? e end of my

work is come, and I have done it! “But the Lord manifests

Himself. Paul is in His hands, and Jesus owns him still as

a witness to His name. And shall we not recognize him

whom the Lord owned? Assuredly. It is possible that the

spiritual power of the witness is not displayed; it is possible

that such a warning ought to have stayed his steps, and

made him ask the Lord what he should do; but still the

hand and heart of the Lord were with him. e grace is the

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

610

more remarkable, as such a position had deprived him of

the power of the Spirit of God.

e hatred of the Jews only hastened the liberation

of Paul from their hands. Many conspiring for his death,

the captain sends him to Caesarea, the residence of the

governor. God has everything at His disposal. Here,

therefore, for the rst time we learn that the apostle had

a nephew and a sister. ough he knew no longer anyone

after the esh, yet God knew his danger, and made use of

the natural aection of a relation. Paul concerns himself

little either about the young man or the peril he was in, but

sends him to the captain, and the conspiracy is frustrated.

But amid the circumstances in which he was

placed — though the lowest in his history — how grand

the gure of Paul appears! if we compare him with those

by whom he was surrounded — priests dominated by

base passions, without conscience and without heart, and

seeking only their own importance. In the captain, bound

to subdue the passions of a people whom he despised, we

see, in his sending Paul to the governor, a worldliness full

of duplicity and contempt for the rights of others. Such,

alas! are everywhere the ordinary, though base feelings of

poor mortals. In Paul, though oppressed, and occupying

a false position, integrity and grandeur of soul shine out;

from a soul sustained by the great things with which

he had been in relation; from the thought of a gloried

Lord, and of a mission from Him for the salvation of poor

sinners. Such things his persecutors could not understand

(which shows that his position was a false one), but which

issued naturally from a heart lled with them. But all he

does is to throw what was holy to dogs, and pearls before

swine. Nevertheless these things enlarge and illuminate

Meditations on Acts 23

611

the apostle’s gure in the scene we delineate, where, though

scorned and trampled upon, he stands out in relief from

among all the great ones, for the beauty and grandeur of

his moral gure.

We now nd the apostle in the hands of the Gentiles;

and though there may have been no free action of the

Spirit in Paul himself, yet the providence of God cares for

him, ordering everything for the testimony he was to bear;

and His favor is with him. e implacable enmity of the

Jews only produces the fulllment of the counsels of God,

and debases them in the eyes of all who possess a noble

heart. ough their desire was to gain possession of his

person, yet he was to remain no longer in their power, and

he is therefore conducted to Lysias, to Felix, to Festus, to

Agrippa, and at last to Caesar. Such was the intention of

God. Such too the means employed by Him to present the

gospel to the governors and to the great; not by raising up,

as many frequently think, men of the world to do so; but

God makes a prisoner His servant, in order that the gospel

might be carried to the knowledge of governors and kings.

“But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to

confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things

of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and

base things of the world, and things which are despised,

hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring

to naught things that are: that no esh should glory in his

presence” (1 Cor. 1:27-29).

Paul then, under a guard, journeys by night (for the

captain was distrustful of the Jews), with a letter representing

matters in a light favorable to himself, introducing him as

a Roman, and preparing a good reception for him by the

governor.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

612

62926

Meditations on Acts 24

Acts 24

Instead of abandoning their inimical endeavors, the

Jews go down to Caesarea to accuse Paul. e accusation

is what our narrative itself suggests — his acts among the

Jews in countries beyond Palestine, and his profanation of

the temple.

For conrmation of their allegation, they refer to

the captain. e dignity of Paul’s reply is self-evident.

While speaking with the respect due to the governor,

he does so with perfect independence, with simplicity,

and with a good conscience, as one innocent. His faith

as a Christian — which the Jews called heresy — and

particularly his belief in resurrection, it is not requisite

to confess. Formally denying what they accuse him of,

he demands that his adversaries prove what they say. e

only thing of which they could accuse him, was of having

spoken of the resurrection in such a way as to raise a tumult

in the council, and this they were little disposed to bring

to light. eir violence on that occasion had obliged the

captain to rescue Paul out of their hands. Felix, accustomed

to Jewish habits, and knowing that the dispute arose out

of the doctrine of Christianity, which had by that time

acquired publicity, defers his judgment till Lysias should

descend from Jerusalem to Caesarea. Meanwhile, Paul is

set at liberty, and his friends are permitted to minister to

him.

Some days later, Felix, who seems to have been absent

with his wife Drusilla, a Jewess, calls for Paul, to hear him

Meditations on Acts 24

613

concerning the faith in Christ: for now the new doctrine

had spread everywhere, and was attracting the attention

of all. Felix, as well as his wife, being well versed in the

things of the Jews, desired to know from its original

source what Christianity was; and therefore summon

Paul for this purpose. But Paul, ever occupied with souls

and Christ, speaks to the conscience of the governor,

telling him of judgment to come. Felix then, trembling,

remands the apostle till “a more convenient season.” us

divine testimony is borne to the council, Lysias, and to

the governor. Besides this, the governor hoped that Paul

would give him money to be liberated. But to such dealing

Paul does not consent, and therefore remains a prisoner.

Felix, having to go away, and desiring to leave a favorable

impression on the minds of the Jews, leaves Paul bound.

ough aware of his innocence, and able to set him free, he

cared nothing for justice. Money and public opinion were

of more importance to him. God’s intention, however, was

that Paul should appear before other governors and kings,

and at last before the Emperor himself. And this therefore

is what happened.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

614

62927

Meditations on Acts 25

Acts 25.

Festus, the new governor, after three days goes up to

Jerusalem. ere the chief of the Jews inform him against

Paul, and propose to have him brought to Jerusalem,

intending to kill him on the way. But Festus will not

consent, saying that he would return soon to Caesarea, and

that then they could go there and accuse him.

Here again, God, in His providence, watches over His

servant. Arrived at Caesarea, Festus makes Paul appear

before him, and in order to gratify the Jews who accuse him,

proposes to him to go up to Jerusalem. is he had before

refused to the Jews; but now, in order to gain popularity,

he proposes it. ese two years had neither lessened the

hatred, nor awakened the consciences of the Jews; and in

the Roman (Festus), only base motives existed — love of

self and of his own importance.

Paul upholds his integrity, and is watched over by God.

He denies once more the things his accusers could not

prove. Festus thinks nothing of justice, but only of gratifying

the people. Paul replies with great dignity, that Festus was

well aware that he had done nothing amiss, that he had

not the right to give him up to his enemies, and concludes

by appealing to Caesar. Such was the fulllment of God’s

purpose, that, conducted to Rome by His providence, Paul

should there bear witness before the Emperor himself. is

was not the thought of Festus, nor of the Jews, nor yet

the testimony of the Spirit in Paul. But the will of God is

accomplished without that of men.

Meditations on Acts 25

615

We have seen that Paul was both a Roman and a

Pharisee. With him it is no longer the weak things, the

base things, and the things which are despised, the things

that are not, that bring to naught the things that are. All

is no longer dross and dung. Paul now makes use of these

things to avoid injustice and death; and God employs them

to conduct the apostle to Rome there to be a witness of the

truth before the great of the world. Such too the cause of

his audience with Agrippa, and of his journey to Rome.

Having appealed to Cesar, he must of necessity be sent to

Caesar; and Festus therefore decides accordingly.

But while these things are happening, the king Agrippa

and Bernice come to salute the new governor. e latter

relates to them the history of Paul, giving himself (as we

nd everywhere in the world, as well as in this instance)

a character for equity and delity to the principles of

justice and honor. But the story of the resurrection was

only a Jewish superstition. Agrippa, one of the Herods,

and king of the southern part of Palestine, was by race an

Edomite, but a Jew by profession. He was consequently

well-informed as to the religious questions of the country;

and curious to know clearly, and from a reliable source,

what the Christianity might be that had produced such

a movement of spirit in the people of his country, asks to

hear Paul. Festus, well knowing that the accused was not

guilty of anything, and anxious to obtain some pretext for

sending him to Caesar, accedes to his request. Of Paul’s

innocence we have the testimony of the governor, in his

address to Agrippa, as well as of the others who listened

to him. He did not know what to write to the Emperor,

and so brings Paul before this audience in the hope of

discovering something to say.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

616

62928

Meditations on Acts 26

Acts 26.

Paul now shows that it is on account of the promises

made to the fathers that he stands charged, and this too

was the ground of the Jews’ accusation. “Why should it be

thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise

the dead?” (Acts 26:8). He had thought that he should do

many things against the name of Jesus, and zealous like

the other Jews against the Christians, had persecuted them

unmercifully, even into strange cities. en he relates the

appearing of the Lord Jesus on the way to Damascus,

whither he was going to imprison Christians — how he

had been arrested by the glory of the Lord in heaven, and

learned that it was He Himself he was persecuting, since

all Christians were one with Him. It was then that the

unity of believers with Jesus was for the rst time declared,

a truth more fully unfolded afterward by means of the

apostle.

But the conversion itself was eected by two things;

rst, the heavenly glory of the Man, Jesus Christ the

Lord; Paul, seeing this rst, and then learning that it was

Jesus; and secondly, that all Christians were united in one

body with Him. Paul was persecuting Jesus Himself. But

thenceforward he was to be a witness both of the things he

had seen, and of those in which He who had been revealed

to him would yet appear unto him. He had been separated

from his own people, the Jews, and from the Gentiles, to

whom now he was to be sent. He was no longer a Jew,

but yet had not become a Gentile. He was associated

Meditations on Acts 26

617

with the Lord of glory, and was sent out from Him as a

witness of His glory, and of the grace that could take up

an open enemy, and make him the expression and witness

of the perfect grace that had converted and saved him.

His mission, as God’s workman, was to open the eyes of

the Gentiles, and turn them from darkness to light, and

from the power of Satan to God, that they might receive

forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them that are

sanctied — the whole by faith in Jesus. “By faith that is

in me” (vs. 18), applies more particularly to forgiveness and

inheritance, though as a matter of fact, the words extend

to the entire sentence. Obedient to the heavenly vision, he

had preached repentance everywhere, beginning with the

Jews, exhorting them to turn to God, and do works meet

for repentance. ough the Jews had sought to kill him, yet

by the help of God he had continued till that day, saying

none other things than those which the prophets had said

should happen — that Christ should suer, rise from the

dead, and show light to the people and to the Gentiles.

To Festus, all this was mere fanaticism. But Paul replied

with perfect dignity and propriety, in a way which was

the best proof that he was not beside himself, but that he

spoke the words of truth and soberness. Such a testimony,

however, to an unconverted Gentile, whose conscience had

not been reached, was nothing but pure madness. At all

events, Festus felt that these things were entirely beyond

his knowledge. He saw that Paul could not be charged

with any misdemeanor. He understood nothing about the

matter. e formal politeness he had at rst shown now

disappears, as well as the propriety of his position. e

power of what Paul had said has suced to reduce him

to his natural state of soul. But Paul maintaining both

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

618

dignity and propriety, places Festus anew in the position of

governor, and addresses himself to Agrippa, who knew the

truth of these things, and before whom therefore he could

speak freely. Turning towards the latter, then, he asks, “King

Agrippa,” appealing to his conscience, “believest thou the

prophets? I know that thou believest” (Acts 26:27).

Being above all circumstances, Paul is completely

master of the occasion. Agrippa is confused by the

apostle’s question, since he was a Jew by profession, though

nothing in heart! and ashamed of being placed in a corner

before such company by his simple but powerful words,

tries to parry the blow, and says jestingly, “Almost thou

persuadest me to be a Christian.” But Paul, whose large

heart is occupied only with the reality and happiness of

Christianity, replies, “I would to God, that not only thou,

but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and

altogether such as I am, except these bonds.” Such was the

beautiful expression of a heart full of grace, and therefore

of love for others, and of the consciousness of a happiness

that two years’ captivity had rather strengthened than

weakened. But how highly by his nearness to God, is he,

the poor prisoner, the despised Jew, elevated above both

governors and kings! He treats them with deference and

respect, as was his duty, but because he was able to do so

from his place of moral superiority to them, which he

had by faith in a gloried Savior. Humble, and at peace,

when the opportunity presented itself, he could display the

greatness of what was in his soul, and utter desires for the

great who only possessed outward splendor.

For the pagan Festus, who only relished human

grandeur, he was nothing but a madman; for Agrippa,

nothing but a trouble and vexation of spirit. He had

Meditations on Acts 26

619

desired to know what this Christianity that was attracting

the attention of all around him, and that pretended to

come from God and demand the submission of all with

His authority, might be; but he did not expect himself to

be challenged so personally. For Paul the prisoner, it was

eternal life and the presence of God who had saved him,

and the earnest of the glory to which he was heir. His

testimony had been given.

e eect on king Agrippa is evident. Not that he

was converted — far from that — but his conscience

was touched. He speaks to Festus as a little king to a

governor, not as feeling lightly, nor despising the truth and

Christianity, but is careful to declare that Paul might have

been set at liberty if he had not appealed to Caesar. Two

things are thus made manifest; the innocence of Paul, since

Agrippa fully understood the truth of his case, and that his

appeal to Caesar was the only hindrance to his liberation.

It was the will of God that he should go to Rome, but if he

had not made use of his worldly rights to regain his liberty,

he might have gone there free. Yet the hand of God was in

all this, for the one who had given his decision in the matter

had listened to the testimony through this appeal to Caesar;

and from his knowledge of the ways of the country, was able

to declare with condence, that it was only the appeal that

prevented him from being set free. It is manifest in what

light the apostle’s faith considered the eect of his captivity

(Phil. 1:12-13,19). Moreover, the Epistles to the Ephesians,

Philippians, Colossians, and to Philemon, are the precious

fruit of his captivity at Rome. But his mission to the

Gentiles, as far as the Spirit speaks of it, is now at an end.

Yet, though his mission is over, the apostle remains a bright

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

620

and blessed object. We shall nd the condemnation of the

Jews closing our history.

Meditations on Acts 27

621

62929

Meditations on Acts 27

Acts 27.

It having been decided that Paul should be sent to Italy,

he is consigned with other prisoners to the charge of one

Julius, a centurion of Augustus’ band. ey set out with the

intention of sailing along the coast of Asia.

Aristarchus accompanies the apostle. He had already

been with Paul in former journeys. We have met him at

Ephesus (Acts 19), with Gaius, who at Corinth was the

apostle’s host. Julius treats Paul courteously at Sidon, giving

him liberty to visit his friends. God cared for his servant,

and granted him leniency on the part of this ocer. Besides,

the authorities were well aware that he was not guilty

of anything. ey were obliged to send him to Rome in

consequence of his appeal to Caesar.

ey continue their voyage then, though slowly, the

wind being contrary, till they reach a place called “the fair

havens,” in the island of Crete, and near the city of Lasea.

It was already the month of November, and the navigation

dangerous; and the port belied its name, being much

exposed to the wind. e port and ruins of Lasea are still

discoverable. Human wisdom advised departure, the

master of the ship hoping, with a favorable wind, to reach

Phenice, a better port, and there winter. is place has also

been recognized in modern times. Of the two winds which

prevail in that latitude, the one is soft but capricious, and

the other very violent.

Here again we discover the apostle’s nearness to God, his

intimacy with Him, and the Lord’s abundant grace towards

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

622

His servant; and through this communion, Paul becomes

master of the situation. On the authority of God, he is

able to forewarn the sailors and captain of the vessel what

is to happen. But this revelation was expressed in general

terms, and the centurion placed more condence in the

owner and pilot than in what Paul said. To him, this was

a mere human prediction. And when the smith wind blew

softly, they thought they had gained their desire of reaching

Phenice. But God holds the winds in the hollow of His

hand. e soft and favorable wind that tempted them to set

sail, did not continue; and soon a tempestuous wind, called

Euroclydon, which blows from Greece, and even more from

the east, sprang up, and drove them towards the south-west,

threatening to cast them on the quicksands of Africa, which

lay almost in the direction in which the wind was driving

them. After much diculty, they succeeded in getting the

boat on board, but this after all, proved useless in saving

them. God was not willing that the many souls in the vessel

should be saved by human means, but that Paul’s word

should be accomplished, and he himself be the occasion of

the safety of all.

It is useless to enter into the details of the voyage.

Everything possible was done to save the ship, but in

vain. e description given us is perfectly exact, and even

technical. Carried by the tempest, they are cast on the island

of Malta. But what is important for us is the position which

the apostle occupies. All hope of escape was gone. But now

God interposes, and by means of a revelation made to Paul,

revives the failing courage of the suerers. e apostle

reminds them of what he had said at the “fair havens,”

telling them that they ought to have followed his advice,

and that now they were reaping the fruit of refusing it, and

Meditations on Acts 27

623

trusting to the knowledge of the sailors. But they were to be

of good cheer, for there would be no loss of life, but only of

the ship. As before governors, Paul, the servant of God, held

morally the superior position, so now he occupies the same

place, amid perils sucient to reduce the crew of the ship to

despair. God was watching over Paul. It was necessary that

he should appear before Caesar; and full of grace, the Lord

had given him all those who were with him.

e ship being driven by the force of the wind near

to the land, the sailors cast four anchors out of the stern.

en, as all are looking anxiously for day, the crew, thinking

only of themselves, endeavor to escape in the boat, under

pretext of getting out an anchor from the forward end of the

vessel. But Paul is there, observes all, and directs everything

on the part, one may say, of God. It was necessary that he

should save them. Paul had now acquired full inuence

over those in authority. e presence of God, and the

divine knowledge he had received of what was to happen,

had gained for him the condence of all. Cutting therefore

the ropes of the boat, the soldiers let her drop o. eir

salvation was to depend on God, and this had to be owned.

If any could have been saved by human means, all might.

But all would have perished if the sailors had not remained

on board. All the work had to be performed by God.

If we follow the counsels of God through His word, we

shall avoid many mistakes. He can save us still when we err,

but it will be through suering and loss. Israel refused to

ascend the hill of the Amorites, and had therefore to remain

thirty-eighty years in the desert. Here, Paul’s companions

would not listen to his words, which were those of God,

and they lost everything, except life. eir deliverance, it

is evident, came from God alone, and was eected for the

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

624

honor of His servant, whose words they had despised. It is

always important for us to ascertain the will of God before

entering any untried path. If we are assured of this, the

diculties will be only diculties; and the help of God is

enough to overcome them. But if we are not sure about His

will, then doubt and weakness arise in the heart, because

faith to count on God for help is not there, since we are not

certain that the path is according to His will.

Paul then comforts them, and persuades them to eat,

for the storm had prevented them from taking any regular

meal for fourteen days. On the authority of God, he assures

them that not a hair of their heads shall perish. He then

gives thanks, and eats himself, in order to encourage them.

en all take heart, and eat also. Suciently refreshed (for

they eat with the more courage, being cheered by that of

the one who walked with God, and with whom was His

secret), they begin to lighten the ship by throwing the grain

overboard. It was not wrong to do so. God can take up

the means and the intelligence of men and use them; but

these means did not do much good; the hand of God did

everything. e ship is then run aground at a place where

two seas met, and while the fore part remains fast the stern

is broken by the violence of the waves.

But God is faithful to His promise. e soldiers desire

to kill the prisoners, so that none may escape; but the

centurion, moved by all that had happened, and guided by

God, wishes to save Paul, and therefore does not permit

them to do so. According to his command, those who can

swim cast themselves into the sea, while the others reach

the shore on pieces of the ship. God paid this tribute of

honor to His servant. He who governs the winds and

seas, brings all through the tempest, though through their

Meditations on Acts 27

625

own fault, in order to manifest the apostle’s nearness to

Himself, and saves all, as Paul had foretold, who therefore

shines here as elsewhere, for the power of his faith, and the

simplicity of his condence in God. e wisdom of man

went for nothing in the deliverance of the crew and the

others. All had to resign themselves to God for salvation;

and they were saved. All power to avail of this necessity was

frustrated by the word of Paul.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

626

62930

Meditations on Acts 28

Acts 28.

God honors His servant on the island where he and

his companions had been cast. He works miracles, and

receives no hurt from the viper which fastens itself to his

hand. Paul had brought captivity on himself by his appeal

to Cesar, but still God was with him. It was necessary that

he should bear witness before Cesar. God made use of his

journey to Jerusalem (where, it is true, the power of the

Spirit was not manifested in Paul) in order to bring him

before Caesar himself; and this could not otherwise have

been accomplished. Far from abandoning him, He displays

His grace and power to him most fully.

I have already mentioned that his public testimony, as

far as we learn from the Bible, was now at an end. e last

testimony to the Jews had been given, and their judgment

sealed; but the Lord’s grace does not fail now; He comforts

and sustains His servant in every circumstance in which

he is placed. e weakness of man is found, it is true, even

in Paul; but also the grace and the wisdom of God. It is

remarkable that the church of the city of Rome was not

founded by any apostle. Before Paul’s arrival, there were

already Christians in Rome; and the gospel in its apostolic

power came in captivity.

e voyage, is continued without incident of

importance. Brethren, however, are found at Puteoli, and

here the apostle remains for seven days. From thence,

he goes on to Rome. e brethren there must have heard

that Paul was coming, as they come out to meet him. He

Meditations on Acts 28

627

was probably left at Puteoli, while the centurion made

known his arrival in Italy to the authorities. e rumor

of this would then reach the brethren. But here we meet

once more with the apostle’s experiences. e love of the

brethren constrains them to go to meet him. Paul, seeing

them, thanks God, and takes courage. He was then cast

down — I do not say discouraged — but he needed to take

courage. Here we nd a dierence in the experimental state

of Christians, which it is important to remark. On the one

side, there is the state of the soul in itself, and on the other,

its strength in the presence of diculties and the power

of the enemy, and in the labor required for the gospel in a

world the prince of which is the devil; although these two

things react on each other. ough we may have a deep

sense of feebleness, and be lled with perplexity, yet, if we

walk with God, if condence in His faithfulness and His

goodness do not fail us in the work, and before our enemies

we lose sight of self, then the power of God will work in us,

and act against that of the enemy, and amid the unbelievers

among whom we labor.

us it happened to Moses. Leaving Pharaoh’s court, he

went down among the people of God in slavery. Faithful

and blessed, he was owned by God in what he did; but he

carried human power with him; and when he had killed the

Egyptian, he ed for fear of the king’s anger. Forty years in

the desert dissipated this human condence, though lack of

faith in God was mingled with the sense of weakness. He

was not eloquent, he said, not t to appear before Pharaoh.

But when sent from God, he presented himself before the

king, it was neither in false eshly energy, nor in the sense

of weakness. e power of God was there; and as we read,

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

628

he represented God to Pharaoh, overcame all obstacles, and

delivered the people from his oppression.

Paul himself, when called to labor amid a rich and

corrupted populace, said, “And I was with you in weakness,

and in fear, and in much trembling” (1 Cor. 2:3). Feeling

the diculties and the power of the evil, he threw himself

on the aid of God, and the work was accomplished in

demonstration of the Spirit and in power. It is in human

weakness that the Lord’s strength works, and is made

perfect. How the Lord, perfect in everything, went

through all the suerings of His heart with His Father in

Gethsemane, before drinking the cup! He did not then

drink the cup, nor make propitiation for our sins: but as

man, He contemplated all that lay before Him. e power

of Satan was there to hinder Him from persevering till

the end in the path of obedience. His soul was exceeding

sorrowful, even unto death; but He told all to His Father;

and when the enemies came, was as calm as in the days of

His service. Here our wisdom is to present all to God, in

the conicts that may be before, as in our service. en He

will be with us when the work is over. ough our weakness

may be sensible to us, yet the power of God will be with us.

Paul, full of this when with others, and in the most dicult

circumstances, feels the painfulness of his own situation,

and is encouraged by the presence and love of the brethren.

Paul goes then to Rome, where the centurion places him,

with the other prisoners, in the hands of the captain of the

guard. But the apostle is under the care of, and guarded by

the hand of God. He is allowed to live by himself, with a

soldier to guard him. e conduct of the Jews had not

alienated the apostle’s noble heart (I say noble, because

he was a chosen vessel; compare Matthew 25:15) from

Meditations on Acts 28

629

his people, the people of God. He sends and calls for

them; but only that they may hear for the last time their

condemnation foretold. Still, some believe. Here we nd

the end of the ways of God towards Israel, and that of the

labors of Paul, the prisoner at Rome. e threatenings of

God, prophesied by the mouth of Isaiah, eight hundred

years before (Isa. 6) are now accomplished. His long-

suering, the gift of His Son, the many warnings of the

prophets, all had been in vain. And though judgment had

been deferred for a time through the intercession of Christ

on the cross, yet they were not more willing to recognize

Christ gloried, than in humiliation. It was mercy that

prolonged the testimony of grace, sending it even to

countries at a distance from Jerusalem, among those of the

dispersion, after Jerusalem had rejected the divine blessing.

But no eect was produced on these; and judgment fell on

the unbelieving nation, till the sovereign grace of God shall

call them to enter into the privileges of the new covenant,

and the Lord Jesus shall come, bringing the better blessing

of pure grace. But the history of Israel in its responsibility

is over, as well as that of the gospel in its free power. God

has never ceased to preserve a testimony on the earth; and

has given power and fruit according to the good pleasure of

His will; His name be praised! But the work of liberty and

apostolic energy is over.

e gospel is captive at Rome! But the providence of

God watches over the truth, maintains testimony, and

does not allow it to be entirely hidden. ere have been evil

times, in which iniquity and superstition have prevailed,

and truth has been persecuted; and others in which God has

held the door open, and given full liberty. Often, however,

faith and steadfastness shine more brightly in evil days that

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

630

in times of peace and tranquility. Elijah, who was caught

up to heaven without dying, is not found in the reign of

Solomon; and when he himself could nd none faithful in

Israel, God maintained and guarded His seven thousand in

the midst of the unbelieving and apostate people.

ough it pleased God to allow Paul to remain a

prisoner, yet He held the door open for souls. For two

whole years he dwelt in his own hired house, preaching the

kingdom of God, and the things of Jesus Christ, with all

condence, no man forbidding him.

Such is the touching end of the public career of the

apostle of the Gentiles, faithful above all, large of heart,

able by grace to understand the wonderful counsels of

God as a grand whole, and to feel their perfection and

their greatness; and equally capable of entering into the

circumstances and relationships of a fugitive slave with his

master, with an aection and a delicacy without example.

Bound to the Lord with a heart that led him to suer all for

Him, and for souls dear to Him; bold even to fearlessness;

tender and aectionate as a mother for her babes; energetic

and patient, he suered all things for the elect’s sake,

that they might obtain salvation that is in Christ Jesus,

with eternal glory. As truly risen with Christ, he knew no

man after the esh, being separated from both Jews and

Gentiles, and united to a gloried Christ, his strength and

hope, his all in all.

If he possessed a fault — he was a man, and displayed

his manhood fully — it was in loving too much the ancient

people of God, his brethren after the esh. For this fault he

was made prisoner, but the ways of God were carried out

according to His wisdom. If we would know the eect of

his connement, at least of his being made prisoner, let us

Meditations on Acts 28

631

read the beginning of the Epistle to the Philippians 1:12-

20. It is beautiful to see the faith and courage of the apostle

after two years imprisonment. He might have reproached

himself, and said, “Ah, if you had not gone to Jerusalem, if

you had not appealed to Caesar, you might still have been

preaching everywhere, have gone to Spain.” But such

was the will of God; and He was with him in his trouble.

Submitting to this will, he rises above circumstances,

renders thanks to God for all, nds that His wisdom

is better than liberty, and works where God has placed

him. Faith and condence through grace raise him above

his position to be with God, to act on His part, in whose

presence he dwells.

We ought to be thankful to God, we and the church,

forever, for the fruit of this period, in which the apostle was

free from constant labor. e epistles to the Philippians,

Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon, were written at this

time. Two are profound dissertations on the privileges of

Christians and of the assembly. Another is the expression

of the experience of a godly soul led entirely by the Holy

Spirit. en the fourth is the outow of the apostle’s

personal aection for a soul he has won to the Lord and

to eternal life — a poor slave, it is true; but he says, a son

whom he has begotten in his bonds. Generally speaking,

they are letters in which the highest truths of Christianity

are unfolded, and in which we learn what is not to be found

elsewhere in the New Testament — at least, not fully

taught, though the truths themselves are spoken of, but

only in part, and introduced by the way. ese scriptures

complete the circle of the revelation of God.

e career of the apostle Paul was more remarkable

than that of any other. His fellow apostles accomplished

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

632

the work of the Lord within the narrow limits of Judaism.

e starting point for him was the Lord in glory, and that

all Christians were recognized as being one with Him.

“Why persecutest thou me?” the Lord had asked him. is

gloried Lord, salvation, and the kingdom that was to

come, he preached to every creature under heaven. en, for

the completion of the word of God, he unfolded and taught

what the church was.

He developed the truth as to her position, the union of

believers with Christ, the presence of the Spirit in believers

and in the church, establishing them as the temple of God

on earth. e revelation of the church, or assembly, put an

end to Judaism, since there were no longer either Jews or

Gentiles, but Christians united in one body to Christ. Paul

was thus the head, as servant of Christ, and founder of a

new economy; and he also presented himself as a model

whom converts were to imitate in their walk and ways.

No other apostle held such a position. e twelve

followed Jesus Christ while He was in the world; but this

Paul did not do. en they saw Him taken up to heaven,

and believed that He was gloried at the right hand of God.

Paul, till then an enemy to Christ, but converted through

sovereign grace, while acting in the violence of his enmity,

began with the vision of the Lord in glory, who had made

Himself known to him as Jesus of Nazareth. What he

preached, he called his gospel, the gospel of the Lord’s glory.

e knowledge and revelation of the counsels of God were

conded to him; and he was caught up to the third heaven,

and there heard unspeakable things which it was not lawful

for a man to utter. His apostleship was to the Gentiles, to

the whole world; and to this he was called by the Lord in

glory, and sent expressly by the Holy Spirit. He began with

Meditations on Acts 28

633

the Jews, the people beloved of God, the possessors of the

promises; but, according to the prophecy of Isaiah 49, he

turned towards the Gentiles, when the former rejected the

testimony of God. Of the church, as the body of Christ on

earth, and habitation of God through the Spirit, no apostle

except Paul speaks. (See Col. 1:23-29).

In the apostle’s character, we nd both good and bad

features which stamp him a man as we are. None of these

things were seen in Christ, entirely and alone perfect in

every respect. But as a man of like passions to ours, Paul,

the servant of Jesus Christ, had no equal. Although in

captivity at Rome, the word of God was not bound. God

watched over it, and Paul, dwelling in his own hired house,

received all who sought after truth, and taught them with

perfect liberty the gospel so dear to him. In all times, God

has made it public, more or less, in order to give life through

faith; but its history, begun by the marvelous power of the

Holy Spirit at Jerusalem, terminated at Rome, where, in

the person of Paul, to whom it had been entrusted, it lay

a prisoner. Judaism crucied the Lord, and imprisoned the

gospel of the glory, but God, in spite of the eorts of Satan,

disseminates it, especially in these times — His name be

praised! In respect to the church, it remained bound till the

present day. But though preachers have little strength, yet

the Lord holds the door open, and no man can shut it.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

634

Courtesy of BibleTruthPublishers.com. Any suggestions for

spelling or punctuation corrections would be warmly received. Please

email them to: BTPmail@bibletruthpublishers.com.