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Darby Synopsis
3. Matthew to John
By John Nelson Darby
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Contents
Introduction to the New Testament ..............................10
Matthew ........................................................................35
Matthew 1 .....................................................................37
Matthew 2 .....................................................................41
Matthew 3 .....................................................................46
Matthew 4 .....................................................................61
Matthew 5-7 .................................................................73
Matthew 8 .....................................................................84
Matthew 9 .....................................................................91
Matthew 10 ...................................................................95
Matthew 11 .................................................................102
Matthew 12 .................................................................111
Matthew 13 .................................................................118
Matthew 14 .................................................................136
Matthew 15 .................................................................141
Matthew 16 .................................................................148
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Matthew 17 .................................................................164
Matthew 18 .................................................................175
Matthew 19 .................................................................181
Matthew 20 .................................................................186
Matthew 21 .................................................................190
Matthew 22 .................................................................195
Matthew 23 .................................................................201
Matthew 24 .................................................................205
Matthew 25 .................................................................218
Matthew 26 .................................................................226
Matthew 27 .................................................................239
Matthew 28 .................................................................248
Mark 251
Mark 1 ......................................................................... 252
Mark 2 ......................................................................... 259
Mark 3 ......................................................................... 262
Mark 4 ......................................................................... 265
Mark 5 ......................................................................... 269
Mark 6 ......................................................................... 272
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Mark 7 ......................................................................... 275
Mark 8 ......................................................................... 280
Mark 9 ......................................................................... 284
Mark 10 ....................................................................... 295
Mark 11 ....................................................................... 305
Mark 12 ....................................................................... 307
Mark 13 ....................................................................... 309
Mark 14 ....................................................................... 312
Mark 15 ....................................................................... 322
Mark 16 ....................................................................... 326
Luke 329
Luke 1 .........................................................................332
Luke 2 .........................................................................347
Luke 3 .........................................................................362
Luke 4 .........................................................................371
Luke 5 .........................................................................378
Luke 6 .........................................................................386
Luke 7 .........................................................................394
Luke 8 .........................................................................402
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Luke 9 .........................................................................408
Luke 10:1-37 ............................................................... 417
Luke 10:38-11:13 ........................................................ 424
Luke 11:14-54 ............................................................. 426
Luke 12 .......................................................................428
Luke 13 .......................................................................438
Luke 14 .......................................................................441
Luke 15 .......................................................................444
Luke 16 .......................................................................450
Luke 17 .......................................................................454
Luke 18 .......................................................................457
Luke 19-20 .................................................................. 461
Luke 21 .......................................................................466
Luke 22 .......................................................................469
Luke 23 .......................................................................476
Luke 24 .......................................................................482
John 490
John 1 ..........................................................................491
John 2 ..........................................................................507
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John 3 ..........................................................................511
John 4 ..........................................................................520
John 5 ..........................................................................532
John 6 ..........................................................................540
John 7 ..........................................................................549
John 8 ..........................................................................553
John 9 ..........................................................................561
John 10 ........................................................................566
John 11 ........................................................................572
John 12 ........................................................................582
John 13 ........................................................................591
John 14 ........................................................................604
John 15 ........................................................................618
John 16 ........................................................................631
John 17 ........................................................................640
John 18 ........................................................................655
John 19 ........................................................................659
John 20 ........................................................................668
John 21 ........................................................................676
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73077
Introduction to the New
Testament
e concentration and expansion of divine light and
the
immense importance of the truths in the New
Testament
In pursuing these Scripture studies, it is with a
certain kind of fear that I approach the New Testament,
great as may be the blessing attendant on so doing. e
concentration and at the same time expansion of divine
light in this precious gift of God, the immense reach of
the truths contained in it; the innite variety of the aspects
and true applications of one and the same passage, and
of its relations with the whole circle of divine truths; the
immense importance of these truths, whether considered
in themselves or with reference to the glory of God or in
relation to the need of man; the manner in which they reveal
God and meet that need-all these considerations, which
I can but imperfectly express, would cause any humble-
minded person to retire from the pretension of giving a
true and (even in principle) adequate idea of the purpose
of the Holy Spirit in the books of the New Testament. And
the more truth itself is revealed, the more true light shines,
the more one’s incapacity to speak of it must be felt, and
the more one must fear to darken that which is perfect.
e more pure the truth is with which we have to do (and
here it is truth itself), the more dicult is the endeavor to
lay it before others without in some respects injuring its
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purity; and the more fatal also is this injury. In meditating
on such or such a passage, we may communicate, for the
prot of others, the measure of light granted to us. But
in attempting to give an idea of the book as a whole, all
the perfection of truth itself, and the universality of the
purpose of God in the revelation He has made of it, present
themselves to the mind; and one trembles at the thought
of undertaking to give a true and general idea, if it be not
a complete one, which no really Christian person would
pretend to do.<P005>
In the Old Testament God has spoken, but in the
New Testament God manifests Himself
e Old Testament may perhaps appear more dicult
to some persons than the New, and with respect to the
interpretation of certain isolated passages it may be so;
but, although the inspired writers of that part of Scripture
reveal the mind of God as communicated to them by Him
(and we can admire the wisdom there unfolded), yet God
Himself was still hidden behind the veil. We may mistake
or overlook the meaning of an expression, and we suer
loss, for it was God who spoke; but in the New Testament
it is God Himself-meek, gentle, human, on earth, in the
Gospels; instructing with divine light in the subsequent
communications of the Holy Spirit; yet still God-who
manifests Himself. But if the light is brighter, both for
our personal guidance and for the knowledge of Himself,
it becomes a yet more serious thing to misinterpret these
living communications, or to disguise by our own thoughts
that which is the truth itself. For we must remember that
Christ is the truth. He is the Word. It is God who speaks
in the Person of the Son, who, while truly man, manifests
also the Father.
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e New Testament fullling and eclipsing the Old
Testament and introducing what is eternal and heavenly
As regards even interpretation itself, the truth itself, the
light, eternal life, being in that which is revealed to us in
the New Testament, it may be looked at in so many aspects,
that the practical diculty is much greater. For this truth
may be looked at in its intrinsic and essential value: We
may view it as the manifestation of the eternal nature of
God, or in its manifestation with respect to the glory of
the Son; we may examine its connections and its contrasts
with the partial communications of the Old Testament,
which it fullls and eclipses by its own brightness, with the
economy of God’s earthly government, which is set aside
in order to introduce that which is eternal and heavenly.
It may be viewed in its relations to man, for the life was
the light of men, God having been pleased to manifest
and to glorify Himself in man, to make Himself known
to man, and to constitute him the means of the revelation
of Himself to His other intelligent creatures. On every
passage there would be something to say with respect to
each of<P006> these aspects; for the truth is one, even as
it is of God, but it shines on all things, and displays their
true character.
e channels of the pure and living water
Two things, however, encourage me: rst, that we have
to do with a God of perfect goodness, who has given us
these wondrous revelations that we may prot by them;
and, in the second place, that, although the source of truth
is innite and perfect, although these revelations ow
from the fullness of truth in God, and its communication
to us is perfect, after the perfection of Him that made it,
nevertheless it is made by means of divers instruments, in
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themselves of a limited capacity, of which God makes use
in communicating this or that portion of truth to us. is
pure and living water has been in no wise corrupted, but
in each communication it has been limited by the purpose
of God, in the instrument used by Him to dispense it,
while still in connection with the whole, according to the
perfect wisdom of Him who has communicated all truth.
e channel is not innite. e water which ows through
it is innite, but not innite in its communication. ey
prophesied in part, and we know in part. e aspect and the
application of truth has even a special character, according
to the vessel through which it is communicated. e living
water is there in its perfect pureness. As it exists in its
source, so it gushes forth: e form of the fountain through
which it ows before men is according to His wisdom who
has formed it to be His instrument for that purpose. e
Holy Spirit acts in man, in the vessel thereunto prepared.
God had created, formed, fashioned and adapted the vessel,
morally and intellectually, for such and such a service in
respect to the truth. He acts in the vessel according to the
object for which He has prepared it. Christ was and is the
truth. Others have communicated it, each one according
to that given him, and in connection with those elements
with which God had brought his mind and heart into
unison, and with that object for which the Holy Spirit had
thus prepared him.
Leaving therefore my fears behind, I address myself
condingly to the accomplishment of this service, my heart
resting on the perfect goodness of God who delights to
bless us. May the just sense of my responsibility prevent
my hazarding anything not according to God; and may
the Lord Himself, in His grace,<P007> deign to direct me
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and furnish me with that which shall be a blessing to the
reader!
e character of the New Testament: the presence of
God Himself as a Man among men
e New Testament has evidently a very dierent
character from the Old. at which I have already
remarked constitutes the essence of this dierence. e
New Testament treats of the revelation of God Himself,
and shows us man brought in righteousness into glory in
the presence of God. Formerly God had made promises,
and He had executed judgments. He had governed a
people on earth, and acted towards the nations without,
having this people in view as the center of His counsels
as to earth. He had given them His law, and bestowed on
them, by means of the prophets, a growing light, which
announced, as nearer and nearer, His coming, who should
tell them all things from God. But the presence of God
Himself, a Man among men, changed the position of
everything. Either man must receive, as a crown of blessing
and of glory, the One whose presence was to banish all evil,
and develop and perfect every element of good, furnishing
at the same time an object which should be the center of
all aections, rendered perfectly happy by the enjoyment
of this object; or, by rejecting Him, our poor nature must
manifest itself as being enmity against God, and must
prove the necessity for a completely new order of things, in
which the happiness of man and the glory of God should
be based upon a new creation.
Man’s rejection of God the means of the fulllment
of God’s eternal purposes for a new order of things
We know what happened. He who was the image of
the invisible God had to say, after the exercise of a perfect
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patience, “Righteous Father, the world hath not known
thee.” Alas! yet more than that: He had to say, “ey have
seen and hated both me and my Father.”
Nevertheless, this condition of man has in nowise
prevented God from fullling His counsels; on the contrary,
it became the means of His doing so. He would not reject
man until man had rejected Him (as in the Garden of Eden
man, conscious of sin, being unable to bear the presence
of God, withdrew from Him before God had driven him
out of the garden). But now that man<P008> on his part
had entirely rejected God come in mercy into the midst
of his misery, God was free-if one may venture to speak
thus, and the expression is morally correct-to carry out
His eternal purposes. But it is not judgment that is carried
into eect, as was the case in Eden, when man had already
departed from God. It is sovereign grace which, when man
is evidently lost and has declared himself the enemy of
God, carries on its work to magnify His glory, before the
whole universe, in the salvation of poor sinners who had
rejected Him.1
(1. See Titus 1:2, 2 Timothy 1:9-10, and compare
Proverbs 8:22-31, especially verses 30-31, and Romans
16:25-26 (reading “prophetic scriptures”), Ephesians 3:5,10
and Colossians 1:26. Under the law God never came out,
and man could not go in. In Christianity God is come out,
and man is gone in; and these things are of the essence
of both. Before there was promise. ese are characteristic
relations.)
But in order that the perfect wisdom of God should
be manifested, even in the details, this work of sovereign
grace, in which God revealed Himself, must be seen as
having its due connection with all His previous dealings
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revealed in the Old Testament, and also as leaving its full
place to His government of the world.
e four principal subjects of the New Testament
All this is the cause that (apart from the one great idea
which reigns throughout) there are four subjects in this
wonderful book which unfold themselves to the eye of
faith.
First, the great subject, the dominant fact, is that the
perfect light is manifested: God reveals Himself. But this
light is revealed in love, the other essential name of God.
Christ, who is the manifestation of this light and love,
and who, if He had been received, would have been the
fulllment of all the promises, is then presented to man,
and especially to Israel (looked at in their responsibility),
with every proof, personal, moral, and of power-proofs
which left them without excuse.
Second, being rejected (a rejection by means of which
salvation was accomplished), the new order of things-the
new creation, man gloried, the assembly sharing with
Christ in heavenly glory-is put before us.
ird, the connection between the old order of things
upon earth and the new, with respect to the law, the
promises, the prophets, or the divine institutions on earth,
is set forth; whether in exhibiting the new as the fulllment
and setting aside of that which<P009> had grown old, or
in stating the contrast between the two, and the perfect
wisdom of God, which is demonstrated in every detail of
His ways.
Fourth, nally, the government of the world, on the
part of God, is prophetically displayed; and the renewal
of God’s relations with Israel, whether in judgment or in
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blessing, is briey but plainly stated, on the occasion of the
rupture of those relations by the rejection of the Messiah.
It may be added that everything necessary for man, as
a pilgrim on earth until God shall accomplish in power
the purposes of His grace, is abundantly supplied. Come
forth, at the call of God, from that which is rejected and
condemned, and not yet in possession of the portion that
God has prepared for him, the man who has obeyed this
call needs something to direct him, and to reveal the sources
of the strength he requires in walking towards the object of
his vocation, and the means by which he can appropriate
this strength. God, in calling him to follow a Master
whom the world has rejected, has not failed to supply him
with all the light and all the directions needed to guide
and encourage him on his way, as well as point him to the
sources of strength and how to obtain the supply of it.
Every reader of the Bible will understand that these
subjects are not treated methodically and separately in
the New Testament. Were it so, they would be much less
perfectly understood. It is in life and in power, whether
that of Christ or that of the Holy Spirit in the inspired
writers, that they develop themselves to our hearts.
Its divisions and their subjects
e Gospels, in general, set Christ before us as light and
grace-still, though not doctrinally, as God Himself, rst
presented to men in this world, as well as the One in whom
the promises made to Israel would be accomplished; and
then openly as a divine Person in whom the purposes of
the Father would be accomplished, the Jews being looked
at as reprobate in their then standing. e Apocalypse-the
introduction of the government of God over this world, in
connection with the responsibility under which its relations
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to a revealed God have placed it. e writings of Paul-
man’s acceptance and place before God by redemption, the
new creation, and the assembly according to the counsels
of<P010> God, the mystery of God. Various subjects
connected with these are, however, found everywhere in
the Epistles, and each separate development of one of these
subjects throws light upon all the rest. e writings of John,
we may add, treat particularly of the manifestation of God,
and of the divine life in Christ, and then in quickened
man, corresponding as they must, to one another; those
of Peter, of the Christian’s pilgrimage, founded on Christ’s
resurrection, and of the moral government of the world.
Truth shining out in living manifestation of God and
in living application to men
But, I repeat it, whether in the Person of Christ or in
the communications of the Holy Spirit (Christ’s life being,
in one way or other, the light of men), the truth shines
out in the living manifestation of God, and in its living
application to men; and also, according to the wisdom of
God, it is connected with the progressive development1
inherent to truth when communicated to man, and adapted
to the special wants and to the spiritual capacities of the
men to whom it was addressed.<P011>
(1. It must be clearly understood that I speak here of the
truth revealed in the New Testament. Its communication,
in this revelation, became gradually more clear, the Holy
Spirit having been given after the Lord was gloried.
e Apostle could say, when speaking of the nature of
God Himself, “Which thing is true in him [Christ] and
in you, because the darkness is past, and the true light
now shineth.” It is a Christ who is the wisdom of God.
In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. All
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the fullness was pleased to dwell in Him. He sanctied
Himself that we might be sanctied through the truth. e
Holy Spirit, having taken the things of Christ and revealed
them unto the apostles, led them into all truth. Now all
things that the Father has are Christ’s: erefore He has
said that the Holy Spirit should take of His, and should
show it unto them.
is being the case, the question of a subsequent
development is judged. Is there anything more than “the
fullness of the Godhead”? anything more than “all the
Father hath”? anything clearer than the “true light”? But
it is this which is revealed. If one thinks of man whose
ideas originate in himself, as the spider spins a web out
of its own substance, development may no doubt be
spoken of; but if the question is the revelation of Christ,
by the gift of the true light already come, Christ does
not increase. And, assuredly, we shall nd nothing good
outside “all that the Father hath given him.” is is what
we possess by revelation. e development inherent in the
communication of truth to man belongs to his capacity
of reception (in this there is progress for each one of us),
and to the manifestation of Christ, from the time of John
the Baptist unto His full revelation by the Holy Spirit-a
revelation which we possess in the New Testament. No
tradition can add to the revelation of that which Christ is.
No development can give us one new truth with respect to
His fullness. But this is everything. It is thus that the lofty
pretensions of man are brought to nothing.)
No doubt the revelations of the New Testament are for
the saints in all ages; but they were addressed, speaking
historically, to living men, and adapted to their condition.
But this circumstance weakens in no manner the truth
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communicated: It is of God, even as the Apostle expresses
it, “We are not as many which corrupt the word of God;
but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, speak
we in Christ.” And again, “Not handling the word of God
deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending
ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.”
He adds nothing to this pure wine; he does not adulterate
it. at which he received ows from him as pure as he
received it.1
(1. e statements of 1Corinthians 2 are very striking
as to this, and in these days of all importance. “Eye hath
not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man the things which God hath prepared for
them that love him [that was the Old Testament state],
but God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit”; that
is revelation. “Which things also we speak, not in words
which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost
teacheth”; that is the communication of them, inspiration.
ird, “ey are spiritually discerned”; that is the reception
of them. e revelation, the inspired testimony, and the
receiving them by the grace and power of the Spirit only
are all distinctly armed.)
e Word of God: its eect and authority
But the Word of God addressed to men has even greater
reality than any mere abstract truth; it is more immediately
of God. We have not men’s ideas with respect to God, nor
the reasonings of men’s minds even with truth for their
subject; nor is it even truth, as it is in God, submitted
abstractedly to the capacity of men that they may judge
it. It is God who addresses Himself to man, who speaks to
him, who communicates His thoughts as being His own.
For if man is to judge them, they are not the words of God
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proclaimed as such. “Ye received the word of God,” says the
Apostle, “not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the
word of God.”
e eect produced on man, which causes him to
own the truth and authority of the Word, has been often
confounded with a judgment formed by man upon the
Word as upon something submitted to him. Never can
the Word thus present itself. It would be denying its own
nature; it would be saying, It is not my God who speaks.
Can God say that He is not God? If not, He could not
speak and say that His Word has not authority in itself.
e Word is adapted to the nature of man: e life is the
light of men. ere are many things that produce an eect
according to<P012> the nature of the thing to which they
are applied, without their being judged by that thing. It is
the case in all chemical action. A medicine is administered
to me; I experience its eect. It has this eect according to
my nature. us I am convinced of this eect and of the
power of the medicine. It is not a question of my forming
a judgment on the medicine as submitted to my capacity.
It is the same thing, through grace, with the revelation of
Christ, save that the wicked will of man opposes also and
rejects it, so that it becomes a savor of death unto death.
e Word of God is never judged when it produces its
eect; it judges “the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
Man is subject to it; he does not judge it.
e historical circumstances given of great assistance
in understanding what is said
When man has, through grace, received the Word
of truth, which addresses itself to him as such, he is in
a condition to understand all its bearings by the help of
the Holy Spirit; and, in this case, the circumstances of the
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persons, to whom it was addressed historically, become a
means of understanding the intention of the mind of God
in that part of the Word which is under consideration.
ese circumstances, as we have seen, do not at all aect
the divine pureness of the Word; but, since God speaks
to men according to their condition, this condition, as
set before us in the Word itself, is a very great assistance
in understanding that which is said. is condition itself
is only understood by the Word, and by the help of the
Holy Spirit. Sometimes it is the eect of the wickedness
of the human heart; sometimes it partly depends on the
dispensations of God.
e light of the Word within men’s reach and
applicable to their condition
However this may be, grace addresses itself to men
according to their condition,1 according to the faithfulness
of God to His promises, and in connection with His ways,
which He has already<P013> taught them. It is not that
(the true light being come) this light is dimmed or lowered
to accommodate it to the darkness. Were this done, it
would no longer be itself nor be capable of raising man
by delivering him from the condition he is in; but it is
so communicated as to be within the reach of men and
applicable to their condition. It was this which they needed;
it was this which was worthy of God. He alone could do
it. And this is equally true as applicable to the subjects of
which the Lord speaks, and to those spoken of by the Holy
Spirit through the apostles. He may address Himself to
Jews, converted but still attached to the Jewish system, in
order to bring out the intentions of God (ever faithful to
His promises) with regard to this people; as He might also,
when raised on high, communicate by His Spirit all the
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consequences of the union of the church with Himself in
the heavenly places, outside all the dealings of God upon
the earth. And to those souls that were feeding on worldly
elements, contrary to this heavenly elevation, and who did
not lay hold in it of that which would deliver them from
this worldly and carnal tendency-to such He might display
the proofs of the evil into which they were falling; and this
He might do by means that would bring them into unison
with the eternal truths of God, in a manner which, although
elementary, would judge this carnal disposition that is
found at all times in those who do not rise to the height of
God’s purposes. Or the Spirit might reveal the truth more
simply in the elevation proper to it. He might dwell upon
the essential characteristics of the nature of God, in order
to judge all that pretended, under the most plausible forms,
to be Christian light, but which sinned against that nature
in the most simple things; and thus link the most simple
and most immature souls with the most exalted qualities of
God Himself, in the essence of His nature.
(1. It is God come in grace in the midst of evil-grace
adapted to man in it. It reveals God as naught else does,
but is adapted to man however evil he may be, yea as evil.
So that while it gives what is purely heavenly and divine,
it does it, and so much the more as it is so adapted, in
meeting the evil here. is, though it reveals God as He
will be known in heaven, is, as to the fact of its operation,
unknown in an earthly or heavenly paradise-good in the
midst of evil. e angels desire to look into it. Further, it is
sovereignty, grace and wisdom, what simple good cannot
be, though leading into it in its highest form.)
Apprehension of divine truth and practical truth
realized in the soul
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e understanding (derived from the Scriptures
themselves, in which these things are found) of the position
of those to whom they are addressed is of great use, under
the guidance of the Holy Spirit, in apprehending the divine
truth contained in them; truth<P014> which is absolute,
but, by the grace of God, applied truth, practical truth,
realized in the soul by the power of God working in it, and
guarding it by means of this truth from the carnal tendency
of the heart to fall into those evils which were the occasion
of the scriptures that speak of them; truth that comes down
to us, whatever our condition may be, not by altering its
own character to accommodate itself to us, nor by taking
a form according to our condition, though suited to it, but
comes down to us in order to raise us up to the source from
whence it came down, and from which it never separates
itself (for the truth communicated to us is ever the truth in
God and in Christ, in order to raise us up morally to all the
height of the divine nature); “which thing is true in him
and in us, because the darkness is past, and the true light
now shineth.” It is the eect of the intervention of Christ,
to whom we are united by the Holy Spirit, and who is one
with God the Father.
Christ, the center of the counsels of God
is truth, that the communications of God are
adapted to the position of those who historically received
them, brings us into intelligence of all the counsels of God;
for He reveals Himself in His authority, His wisdom and
His sovereignty, in these counsels, as He makes Himself
known in His nature by the revelation of Himself in
Christ. Christ is the center of these counsels, but every
family in heaven and earth is ranged under the Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Angels, principalities, powers, Jews,
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Gentiles, everything that is named shall be placed under
His authority (the church being united to Him in His
glory). Now, the counsels of God with respect to us are
revealed in His Word; and, although God does not speak
to us in order to gratify our curiosity, many subjects, outside
salvation strictly speaking, which are connected with this
supremacy of Christ, are connected also with that which
God sets before us for our instruction, as the development
of this in His dealings here below.
e New Testament displaying the harmony of God’s
ways
us, although His intentions with regard to the
Jews may naturally be much more developed in the Old
Testament, yet the connection of their history with the
subjects of the New, the historical transition from the old
economy to the new, the <P015>reconciling the promises
made to the Jews with the universality of the gospel
economy: all these subjects must necessarily have a place
in the New Testament, if the ways of God are to be known
by us. I say, the ways of God; for we have not to think of
the Jews only; it is God who acts and who makes Himself
known in His dealings. us, although the full light
displays itself in the New Testament, we nd there things
addressed to the Jews, and to the disciples who had formed
a part of that people, and which reveal the dealings of God
towards them. And without these revelations, and if they
did not refer to the position of that people, there would be
no harmony in the ways of God; at least it would be hidden
from us and would not exist morally. is refers to doctrine,
to history (that is, to the presentation of the Messiah), to
prophecy, which shows the faithfulness of God, and to the
judgment upon that people.
Darby Synopsis
26
God Himself known, enjoyed and gloried
In order that we may know God-the God who has
condescended to interpose in the aairs of this world-mere
light is not enough. He must be known, not only as He is
in His nature, although that is the essential and principal
thing, but as He has revealed Himself in the totality of His
ways; in those details in which our little, narrow hearts can
learn His faithful, patient, condescending love; in those
dealings which develop the abstract idea of His wisdom, so
as to render it accessible to our limited intelligence, which
can trace in it things which have been realized among men-
although entirely above and beyond all their prevision, but
which have been declared by God, so that we know them
to be of Him. Above all, God has been pleased to connect
Himself in a special way with man in all these things;
marvelous privilege of His feeble creature! Philosophy-
senseless, narrow-minded, and even essentially stupid in
its arguments-would have it that the world is too small for
God thus to expend Himself on an impotent being like
man, on that which is but a mere point in an immense
universe. Contemptible folly! As if the material extent of
the theater were the measure of the moral manifestations
wrought upon it, and of the war of principles which is
there brought to an issue. at which takes place in this
world is the spectacle that unfolds to all the intelligences
of the universe the<P016> ways and the character and the
will of God. It is for us to receive thereby, through grace,
understanding and power, that we may enjoy it, and that
in us God may be gloried-not only by us, which will be
true of all things, but in us. is is our privilege, through
the grace that is in Christ, and by our union with Him
who is the wisdom of God and the power of God. e
Introduction to the New Testament
27
more we are as little children, obedient and humble, the
more we shall realize this glorious position. Hereafter we
shall know as we are known. Meanwhile, the more Christ
is objectively our portion and our occupation, the more
shall we resemble Him subjectively. anks be to God! He
has hid these things from the wise and prudent, and has
revealed them unto babes. “Howbeit,” says the Apostle,
“we speak wisdom among them that are perfect; yet not
the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world,
that come to naught: but we speak the wisdom of God in
a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained
before the world unto our glory” (1Cor. 2:6-7).
e order of the truths revealed in the New Testament
Let us now present a general idea of the contents of the
New Testament, or rather of the order in which the truths
contained in it are revealed.
We need not depart from the order in which the
books are usually placed, without, however, attaching any
importance to it.1
(1. In some German Bibles, as well as in several Roman
Catholic editions, and in many manuscripts, the order is
dierent. For the proposed object this dierence is of no
importance. Everyone knows that the arrangement of the
books has nothing to do with the revelation itself.)
e rst subject that presents itself is the history and
Person of the Lord Jesus Himself, contained in the four
Gospels.
e second is the founding of the assembly and the
propagation of the gospel in the world after His ascension.
e history of this is given in the Acts of the Apostles.
Afterwards the development of the true doctrine of
Christ, the care bestowed by the apostles on the assemblies
Darby Synopsis
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and on individual souls, with the directions necessary for
a walk that would glorify the Lord while waiting for His
return, the refutation of errors by which the enemy sought
to corrupt the faith, and the instructions needful to preserve
the faithful from the seductions of the <P017>instruments
of his malice. All these subjects, the rst especially, include
the personal glory of the Lord. We refer evidently to the
contents of the Epistles.
In the last place, we nd the prophecies which announce
the evil that would tarnish and corrupt the testimony
rendered to Christ in the world, and which, when fully
developed, would lead to judgment. ese prophecies reveal
also the progress of God’s judgments, which will end with
the destruction of those enemies who will dare to rebel
openly against the Lamb, the King of kings and the Lord
of lords; and likewise the glory and blessing which will
succeed those judgments. is last subject links Christian
teaching with the revelation of the ways of God as to the
government of the world. It is largely developed in the
Apocalypse; but in divers epistles its connection with the
decay of the church is exhibited.
e four Gospels presenting the various characters of
Christ in a living way
We shall naturally begin with the Gospels, which give
us the history of the Lord’s life and present Him to our
hearts, whether by His actions or by His discourses, in the
various characters which make Him precious in every way
to the souls of the redeemed, according to the measure of
intelligence bestowed on them, and according to their need-
characters which, though He be seen here in humiliation,1
together form the plenitude of His personal glory, so far as
Introduction to the New Testament
29
we are capable of apprehending it here below in these our
earthen vessels.2
(1. Compare 1Corinthians 2:8.)
(2. In order to be clearly understood, I should perhaps
except His relationship with the assembly-a subject
which we nd in the Epistles; but I do not include, in the
expression “His personal glory,” this very precious part of
the doctrine of Christ. With the exception of the fact that
He would build a church on the earth, it is only by the
Holy Spirit sent down after His ascension that He made
known to the apostles and prophets this priceless mystery.)
It is evident that, according to the counsels of God, and
according to the revelations of His Word, the Lord must
unite in Himself more than one character on earth for the
accomplishment of His glory and for the maintenance
and manifestation of the glory of His Father. But, that
this might take place, He must also be some thing, that
He might be viewed in the light of His real nature, as
walking down here. He must needs accomplish the service
which<P018> it behoved Him to render to God, as being
Himself the true servant; and that, as serving God by the
Word, in the midst of His people, according to Psalm 40
(for instance, verses 8-10), Isaiah 49:4-5, and many other
passages.
A multitude of testimonies had announced that the Son
of David should sit, on the part of God, on His Father’s
throne; and the accomplishment of God’s counsels with
regard to His earthly people is linked in the Old Testament
with Him who should thus come and who on earth should
stand in the relation of Son of God to the Lord God.
e Christ, the Messiah, or, which is but the same word
translated, the Anointed was to come and present Himself
Darby Synopsis
30
to Israel, according to the revelation and the counsels of
God. And this promised seed was to be Emmanuel, God
with the people.
But this character of Messiah, although the expectation
of the Jews scarcely went beyond it-and they looked even at
that in their own way, merely as the exaltation of their own
nation, having no sense of their sins or of the consequences
of their sins-this character of Messiah was not all that the
prophetic word, which declared the counsels of God, had
announced with respect to the One whom even the world
was expecting.
He was to be the Son of Man-a title which the Lord
Jesus loves to give Himself-a title of great importance to us.
It appears to me that the Son of Man is, according to the
Word, the Heir of all that the counsels of God destined for
man as his portion in glory, all that God would bestow on
man according to those counsels (Dan. 7:13-14; Psa. 8:5-6;
80:17; Prov. 8:30-31). But in order to be the Heir of all that
God destined for man, He must be a man. e Son of Man
was truly of the race of man-precious and comforting truth!
born of a woman, really and truly a man, and, partaking of
esh and blood, made like unto His brethren.
In this character He was to suer and be rejected,
that He might inherit all things in a wholly new estate,
raised and gloried. He was to die and to rise again, the
inheritance being deled, and man being in rebellion-His
co-heirs as guilty as the rest.
But He was then to be the Servant, the great prophet,
though the Son of David and the Son of Man, and therefore
truly a man on the earth, born under the law, born of a
woman, of the seed of David, heir to the rights of David’s
family, heir to the destinies of man according to the purpose
Introduction to the New Testament
31
and the counsels of God. But in <P019>order to be this He
must glorify God according to the position man was in as
fallen in his responsibility, meet that responsibility so as
to glorify God there, but while here bearing a prophet’s
testimony, the faithful witness.
But who was to be all this? Was it only an ocial glory
which the Old Testament had said a man was to inherit? e
condition of men, manifested under the law, and without
law, proved the impossibility of making them partakers of
the blessing of God as they were. e rejection of Christ
was the crowning proof of this condition. And, in fact, man
needed above all to be himself reconciled to God, apart
from all dispensation and special government of an earthly
people. Man had sinned, and redemption was necessary,
for the glory of God and the salvation of men. Who could
accomplish it? Man needed it himself. An angel had to
keep and ll his own place and could do no more; he could
not be a saviour. And who among men could be the heir
of all things and have all the works of God put under his
dominion, according to the Word? It was the Son of God
who should inherit them; it was their Creator who should
possess them. He then, who was to be the Servant, the Son
of David, the Son of Man, the Redeemer, was the Son of
God, God the Creator.1
(1. e act of creation, when not spoken of God
generally, but distinguishing the Persons in deity, is always
ascribed to the Son or the Spirit. )
e Gospels, in general, develop these characters of
Christ, not in a dogmatic manner (that of John alone
having, to a certain degree, that form), but by so relating
the history of the Lord as to present Him in these dierent
characters, in a much more living way than if it were only
Darby Synopsis
32
set before us in doctrine. e Lord speaks according to
such or such a character; He acts in the one or in the other;
so that we see Him Himself accomplishing that which
belonged to the dierent positions that we know to be His
according to Scripture.
Christ revealed as a Person whom we know; the
fullness of God’s grace
us, not only is the character much better known in its
moral details, according to its true scriptural import, as well
as the meaning and purpose of God therein revealed, but
Christ Himself becomes in these characters more personally
the object of faith<P020> and of the heart’s aections. It is
a Person whom we know, and not merely a doctrine. By this
precious means which God had deigned to use, truths with
respect to Jesus are much more connected with all that
went before, with the Old Testament history. e change
in God’s dealings is linked with the glory of the Person
of Christ, in connection with which this transition from
God’s relations with Israel and the world to the heavenly
and Christian order took place. is heavenly system, while
possessing a character more entirely distinct from Judaism
than would have been the case if the Lord had not come,
is not a doctrine that nullies, by contradicting, that which
preceded it. When Christ came, He presented Himself to
the Jews as, on the one hand, subject to the law, and, on the
other, as the Seed in whom the promises were to be fullled.
He was rejected; so that this people, not only had broken
the law, which they had done from Sinai on,1 but forfeited
all right to the promises, and promises without condition
always distinguished fullness (see Romans 10). God could
then bring in the fullness of His grace. At the same time
the types, the gures, had their accomplishment; the curse
Introduction to the New Testament
33
of the law was executed; the prophecies that related to the
humiliation of Christ were fullled; and the relations of all
souls with God-always necessarily attached to His Person,
when once He had appeared-were connected with the
position taken by the Redeemer in heaven. ence the door
was opened to the Gentiles, and the purpose of God with
respect to the assembly, the body of the ascended Christ,
fully revealed. Son of David according to the esh and
declared to be the Son of God with power by resurrection
from the dead, He was a minister of the circumcision for
the truth of God, to conrm the promises made to the
fathers, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His
mercy. He was the rstborn from the dead, the head of His
body the assembly, that in all things He might have the
preeminence.<P021>
(1. It is solemn but instructive to remark that in
everything God has set up, the rst thing man has done
has been to ruin it. Man himself rst of all. en Noah,
the new head of the world, got drunk. en the golden calf
when the law was given. e priesthood oering strange
re the rst day. Solomon turning to idolatry and ruining
the kingdom. Nebuchadnezzar making the golden image
and persecuting the servants of the true God. God went
on in grace, but the system was fallen. So I doubt not with
the church. All will be made good more gloriously in the
second Adam.)
e new order of things attached to the Person of
Christ gloried, setting its seal on all that preceded it
e glory of the new order of things was so much the
more excellent, so much the more exalted above all the
earthly order that had preceded it, that it was attached
to the Person of the Lord Himself, and to Him as man
Darby Synopsis
34
gloried in the presence of God His Father. And at the
same time, that which took place puts its seal upon all that
had preceded it, as having had its true place and having
been ordained of God; for the Lord presented Himself on
earth in connection with the system that existed before He
came.
Christ as set forth in the rst three Gospels and in
John
e rst three Gospels give to us the presentation of
Christ to responsible man, and especially to Israel. John
presents to us the divine and eternal character of the Lord
Himself, Israel from chapter 1 being viewed as having
rejected Him, and themselves hardened and rejected, and
the world as insensible to the presence of its Creator; hence
eectual and sovereign grace, being born again, and the
cross as the foundation of heavenly things come fully out
in this Gospel.<P022>
Matthew
35
73078
Matthew
e distinctive character and scope of Matthew’s
Gospel
Let us now consider the Gospel by Matthew. is
Gospel sets Christ before us in the character of the Son of
David and of Abraham, that is to say, in connection with
the promises made to Israel, but presents Him withal as
Emmanuel, Jehovah the Saviour, for such the Christ was.
It is He who, being received, should have accomplished
the promises (and hereafter He will do so) in favor of
this beloved people. is Gospel is, in fact, the history of
His rejection by the people, and consequently that of the
condemnation of the people themselves, so far as their
responsibility was concerned (for the counsels of God
cannot fail), and the substitution of that which God was
going to bring in according to His purpose.
In proportion as the character of the King and of the
kingdom develops itself and arouses the attention of the
leaders of the people, they oppose it and deprive themselves,
as well as the people who follow them, of all the blessings
connected with the presence of the Messiah. e Lord
declares to them the consequences of this and shows His
disciples the position of the kingdom which should be set
up on the earth after His rejection, and also the glories
which should result from it to Himself and to His people
with Him. And in His Person, and as regards His work, the
foundation of the assembly also is revealed-the church as
built by Himself. In a word, consequent on His rejection
by Israel, rst the kingdom as it exists now is revealed (ch.
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36
13), then the church (ch. 16), and then the kingdom in the
glory (ch. 17).
At length, after His resurrection, a new commission,
addressed to all nations, is given to the apostles sent out by
Jesus as risen.1<P023>
(1. is was from resurrection in Galilee; not from
heaven and glory, that was near Damascus.)
Matthew 1
37
73079
Matthew 1
e Lord’s legal genealogy from David and Abraham;
its object
e object of the Spirit of God, in this Gospel, being
to present Jehovah as fullling the promises made to Israel
and the prophecies that relate to the Messiah (and no one
can fail to be struck with the number of references to their
fulllment), He commences with the genealogy of the
Lord, starting from David and Abraham, the two stocks
from which the Messianic genealogy sprang and to which
the promises had been made. e genealogy is divided into
three periods, conformably to three great divisions of the
history of the people: from Abraham to the establishment
of royalty, in the person of David; from the establishment
of royalty to the captivity; and from the captivity to Jesus.
We may observe that the Holy Spirit mentions, in this
genealogy, the grievous sins committed by the persons
whose names are given, magnifying the sovereign grace of
God who could bestow a Saviour in connection with such
sins as those of Judah, with a poor Moabitess brought in
amid His people, and with crimes like those of David.
It is the legal genealogy which is given here, that is
to say, the genealogy of Joseph, of whom Christ was the
rightful heir according to Jewish law. e evangelist has
omitted three kings of the parentage of Ahab, in order to
have the fourteen generations in each period. Jehoahaz and
Jehoiakim are also omitted. e object of the genealogy is
not at all aected by this circumstance. e point was to
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38
give it as recognized by the Jews, and all the kings were
well-known to all.
e birth of Jesus: the innite and eternal importance
of its facts
e evangelist briey relates the facts concerning
the birth of Jesus-facts which are of innite and eternal
importance, not only to the Jews, who were immediately
interested in them, but to ourselves-facts in which God has
deigned to link His own glory with our interests, with man.
Mary was betrothed to Joseph. Her posterity was
consequently legally that of Joseph, as to the rights of
inheritance; but the child<P024> she carried in her womb
was of divine origin, conceived by the power of the Holy
Spirit. e angel of Jehovah is sent, as the instrument of
Providence, to satisfy the tender conscience and upright
heart of Joseph, by communicating to him that that which
Mary had conceived was of the Holy Spirit.
We may remark here that the angel on this occasion
addresses Joseph as “son of David.” e Holy Spirit thus
draws our attention to the relationship of Joseph (the
reputed father of Jesus) to David, Mary being called his
wife. e angel gives, at the same time, the name of Jesus
(that is, Jehovah the Saviour) to the child that should be
born. He applies this name to the deliverance of Israel
from the condition into which sin had plunged them.1 All
these circumstances happened in order to fulll that which
Jehovah had said by the mouth of His prophet, “Behold
a [the] virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a
son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being
interpreted is, God with us.”
(1. It is written, “For he shall save his people,” thus
plainly showing the title of Jehovah contained in the word
Matthew 1
39
“Jesus” or “Jehoshua.” For Israel was the people of the Lord,
that is, of Jehovah.)
e titles of the Lord drawing the outline that He
alone could ll up
Here then is that which the Spirit of God sets before
us in these few verses: Jesus, the Son of David, conceived
by the power of the Holy Spirit; Jehovah, the Saviour, who
delivers Israel from their sins; God with them; He who
accomplished those marvelous prophecies which, more
or less plainly, drew the outline that the Lord Jesus alone
could ll up.
Joseph, a just man, simple in heart and obedient, discerns
without diculty the revelation of the Lord and obeys it.
ese titles stamp the character of this Gospel, that is,
of the way Christ is presented in it. And how wonderful
this revelation of Him by whom the words and promises of
Jehovah were to be fullled! What a groundwork of truth
for the understanding of what this glorious and mysterious
Person was, of whom the Old Testament had said enough
to awaken the desires and to confound the minds of the
people to whom He was given!
Born of a woman, born under the law, heir to all the
rights of David according to the esh, also the Son of God,
Jehovah the<P025> Saviour, God with His people: Who
could comprehend or fathom the mystery of His nature in
whom all these things were combined? His life, in fact, as
we shall see, displays the obedience of the perfect man, the
perfections and the power of God.
e characteristic titles connected with Christ’s glory
in Israel
e titles which we have just named, and which we read
in chapter 1:20-23, are connected with His glory in the
Darby Synopsis
40
midst of Israel-that is to say, the heir of David, Jesus the
Saviour of His people, and Emmanuel. His birth of the
Holy Spirit accomplished Psalm 2:7 with regard to Him
as a man born on the earth. e name of Jesus, and His
conception by the power of the Holy Spirit, no doubt go
beyond this relationship, but are linked also in a special
manner with His position in Israel.1
(1. e wider relationship is more distinctively given
in the Gospel of Luke, where His genealogy is traced up
to Adam; but here the title of Son of Man is specially
appropriate.)
Matthew 2
41
73080
Matthew 2
Formally acknowledged by the Gentiles as King of
the Jews
us born, thus characterized by the angel, and
fullling the prophecies that announced the presence of
Emmanuel, He is formally acknowledged King of the Jews
by the Gentiles, who are guided by the will of God acting
on the hearts of their wise men.1<P026> at is to say, we
nd the Lord, Emmanuel, the Son of David, Jehovah the
Saviour, the Son of God, born King of the Jews, recognized
by the heads of the Gentiles. is is the testimony of God
in Matthew’s Gospel and the character in which Jesus is
there presented. Afterwards, in the presence of Jesus thus
revealed, we see the leaders of the Jews in connection
with a foreign king, knowing, however, as a system the
revelations of God in His Word, but wholly indierent to
Him who was their object; and this king, the erce enemy
of the Lord, the true King and Messiah, seeking to put
Him to death.
(1. e star does not lead the wise men from their own
country to Judea. It pleased God to present this testimony
to Herod and to the leaders of the people. Having been
directed by the Word (the meaning of which was declared
by the chief priests and scribes themselves, and according
to which Herod sent them to Bethlehem), they again see
the star which they had seen in their own country, which
conducts them to the house. eir visit also took place some
time after the birth of Jesus. No doubt they rst saw the
star at the time of His birth. Herod makes his calculations
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42
according to the moment of the star’s appearance, which
he had carefully ascertained from the lips of the wise men.
eir journey must have occupied some time. e birth of
Jesus is related in chapter 1. e rst verse of chapter 2
should be read, “Now Jesus having been born”: it speaks of
a time already past.
I would also remark here that the Old Testament
prophecies are quoted in three ways, which must not be
confounded: “that it might be fullled”; “so that it was
fullled”; and, “then was fullled.” In the rst case it is the
object of the prophecy; Matthew 1:22-23 is an instance. In
the second it is an accomplishment contained in the scope
of the prophecy, but not the sole and complete thought of
the Holy Spirit; Matthew 2:23 may serve as an example.
In the third it is simply a fact which corresponds with the
quotation, which in its spirit applies to it, without being
its positive object-chapter 2:17, for instance. I am not
aware that the rst two are distinguished in our English
translation. Where the sense may require it, I shall hope to
point out the dierence.)
God’s providence over the child born to Israel
e providence of God watches over the child born
unto Israel, employing means that leave the responsibility
of the nation its full place; and that accomplish at the same
time all the intentions of God with regard to this only
true remnant of Israel, this only true source of hope for
the people. For, out of Him, all would fall and suer the
consequences of being connected with the people.
e true Branch recommencing Israel’s history out of
Egypt
Gone down into Egypt to avoid the cruel design of
Herod to take away His life, He becomes the true Branch;
Matthew 2
43
He recommences (that is, morally) the history of Israel in
His own Person, as well as (in a wider sense) the history
of man as the second Adam in relation with God: only
that for this His death must come in-for all, no doubt,
for blessing. But He was Son of God and Messiah, Son
of David then. But to take His own place as Son of Man
He must die (see John 12). It is not only the prophecy of
Hosea, “out of Egypt have I called my Son,” which thus
applies to this true beginning of Israel in grace (as the
beloved of God) and according to His counsels (the people
having entirely failed, so that without this, God must have
cut them o). We have seen, in Isaiah, Israel the servant
giving place to Christ the Servant, who gathers a faithful
remnant (the children whom God has given Him while
He hides His face from the house of Jacob), that become
the nucleus of the<P027> new nation of Israel according to
God. Chapter 49 of that prophet gives this transition from
Israel to Christ in a striking manner. Moreover, this is the
basis of all the history of Israel, looked at as having failed
under the law and being reestablished in grace. Christ is
morally the new stock from which they spring (compare
Isaiah 49:3,5).1
(1. In verse 5 Christ assumes this title of Servant. e
same substitution of Christ for Israel is found in John 15.
Israel had been the vine brought out of Egypt. Christ is the
true Vine.)
Son of God in Nazareth of Galilee among the despised
of the people
Herod being dead, God makes it known to Joseph, in a
dream, commanding him to return, with the young child
and its mother, into the land of Israel. We should remark
that the land is here mentioned by the name that recalls
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44
the privileges bestowed by God. It is neither Judea nor
Galilee; it is “the land of Israel.” But can the Son of David,
in entering it, approach the throne of His fathers? No: He
must take the place of a stranger among the despised of His
people. Directed by God in a dream, Joseph carries Him
into Galilee, whose inhabitants were objects of sovereign
contempt to the Jews, as not being in habitual connection
with Jerusalem and Judea-the land of David, of the kings
acknowledged by God, and of the temple, and where even
the dialect of the language common to both betrayed their
practical separation from that part of the nation which, by
the favor of God, had returned to Judea from Babylon.
Even in Galilee Joseph establishes himself in a place,
the very name of which was a reproach to one who dwelt
there and a blot on his reputation.
Such was the position of the Son of God when He
came into this world, and such the relationship of the Son
of David with His people, when, by grace and according
to the counsels of God, He stood among them. On the
one hand, Emmanuel, Jehovah their Saviour, on the other,
the Son of David; but, while taking His place among His
people, associated with the poorest and most despised of
the ock, sheltered in Galilee from the iniquity of a false
king, who, by help of the Gentiles of the fourth monarchy,
was reigning over Judea, and with whom the priests and
rulers of the<P028> people were in connection; the latter,
unfaithful to God and dissatised with men, proudly
detesting a yoke which their sins had brought upon them,
and which they dared not shake o, although they were not
suciently sensible of their sins to submit to it as the just
iniction of God. us is it that the Messiah is presented
Matthew 2
45
to us by this evangelist, or rather by the Holy Spirit, in
connection with Israel.
Darby Synopsis
46
73081
Matthew 3
e threefold ministry of John the Baptist
We now begin His actual history. John the Baptist
comes to prepare the way of Jehovah before Him, according
to the prophecy of Isaiah; proclaiming that the kingdom of
heaven was at hand, and calling on the people to repent.
It is by these three things that John’s ministry to Israel
is characterized in this Gospel. First, the Lord Jehovah
Himself was coming. e Holy Spirit leaves out the words
“for our God,” at the end of the verse, because Jesus comes
as man in humiliation, although acknowledged at the same
time to be Jehovah, and Israel could not be thus owned as
entitled to say “our.” In the second place, the kingdom of
heaven1 was at hand-that new dispensation which was to
take the place of the one which, properly speaking, belonged
to Sinai, where the Lord had spoken on the earth. In this
new dispensation “the heavens should reign.” ey should
be the source of and characterize God’s authority in His
Christ. ird, the people, instead of being blessed in their
present condition, were called to repentance in view of the
approach of this kingdom. John therefore takes his place
in the wilderness, departing from the Jews, with whom he
could not associate himself because he came in the way of
righteousness (ch. 21:32). His food is that which he nds
in the wilderness (even his prophetic garments bearing
witness to the position which he had taken on the part of
God), himself lled with the Holy Spirit.<P029>
(1. is expression is found only in Matthew, as
specially occupied with dispensations and the dealings of
Matthew 3
47
God with the Jews. “e kingdom of God” is the generic
term. “e kingdom of heaven” is the kingdom of God, but
the kingdom of God as specially taking this character of
heavenly government; we shall nd it (farther on) separated
into the kingdom of our Father and the kingdom of the
Son of Man.)
us was he a prophet, for he came from God, and
addressed himself to the people of God to call them to
repentance, and he proclaimed the blessing of God
according to the promises of Jehovah their God; but he
was more than a prophet, for he declared as an immediate
thing the introduction of a new dispensation, long expected,
and the advent of the Lord in Person. At the same time,
although coming to Israel, he did not own the people, for
they were to be judged; the threshing-oor of Jehovah
was to be cleansed, the trees that did not bear good fruit
to be cut down. It would be a remnant only that Jehovah
would place in the new position in the kingdom that he
announced, without its being yet revealed in what manner
it was to be established. He proclaimed the judgment of
the people.
e Lord God in the midst of His people Israel
What a fact of immeasurable greatness was the presence
of the Lord God in the midst of His people, in the Person of
Him who, although He was doubtless to be the fulllment
of all the promises, was necessarily, though rejected, the
Judge of all the evil existing among His people!
And the more we give these passages their true
application, that is to say, the more we apply them to Israel,
the more we apprehend their real force.1
(1. And we must remember that, besides the special
promises to and calling of Israel as God’s earthly people,
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that people was just man viewed in his responsibility to
God under the fullest culture that God could give him.
Up to the ood there was testimony but no dispensational
dealings or institutions of God. After it, in the new world,
human government, calling and promise in Abraham, law,
Messiah, God come in grace, everything God could do,
and that in perfect patience, was done, and in vain as to
good in esh; and now Israel was being set aside as in the
esh, and the esh judged, the g tree cursed as fruitless,
and God’s man, the second Adam, He in whom blessing
was by redemption, introduced into the world. In the rst
three Gospels, as we have seen, we have Christ presented to
man to be received; in John, man is set aside and Israel, and
God’s sovereign ways in grace and resurrection brought in.)
Eternal necessity for repentance; the consequences of
refusal of God’s call to it
No doubt repentance is an eternal necessity to every soul
that approaches God; but what a light is thrown upon this
truth when we see the intervention of the Lord Himself,
who calls His people to this repentance, setting aside-on
their refusal-the whole<P030> system of their relationships
with Him and establishing a new dispensation-a kingdom
which only belongs to those who hear Him-and causing at
length His judgment to break forth against His people and
the city which He had so long cherished! “If thou hadst
known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which
belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine
eyes.”
Judgment impending; a new state distinguished by
baptism
is truth gives room for the exhibition of another
and most highly important one, announced here in
Matthew 3
49
connection with the sovereign rights of God rather than in
its consequences, but which already contained in itself all
those consequences. e people from all parts, and as we
learn elsewhere especially the ungodly and despised, went
out to be baptized, confessing their sins. But those who, in
their own eyes, held the chief place among the people were,
in the eyes of the prophet who loved the people according
to God, the objects of the judgment he announced. Wrath
was impending. Who had warned these scornful men to
ee from it? Let them humble themselves like the rest;
let them take their true place and prove their change of
heart. To boast in the privileges of their nation, or of their
fathers, availed nothing before God. He required that
which His very nature, His truth, demanded. Moreover,
He was sovereign; He was able of those stones to raise up
children to Abraham. is is what His sovereign grace has
done, through Christ, with regard to the Gentiles. ere
was reality needed. e axe was at the root of the trees,
and those that did not bring forth good fruit should be cut
down. is is the great moral principle which the judgment
was going to put in force. e blow was not yet struck,
but the axe was already at the root of the trees. John was
come to bring those who received his testimony into a new
position, or at least into a new state in which they were
prepared for it. On their repentance he would distinguish
them from the rest by baptism. But He who was coming
after John-He whose shoes John was not worthy to bear-
would thoroughly purge His oor, would separate those
that were truly His, morally His, from among His people
Israel (that was His oor), and would execute judgment on
the rest. John on his part opened the door to repentance
beforehand; afterwards should come the judgment.<P031>
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e twofold baptism attributed to Jesus by John
Judgment was not the only work that belonged to
Jesus. Two things are, however, attributed to Him in John’s
testimony. He baptizes with re-this is the judgment
proclaimed in verse 12, which consumes all that is evil. But
He baptizes also with the Holy Spirit-that Spirit which,
given to and acting in divine energy in man, quickened,
redeemed, cleansed in the blood of Christ, brings him out
from the inuence of all that acts on the esh and sets him
in connection and in communion with all that is revealed
of God, with the glory into which He brings His creatures
in the life which He imparts, destroying morally in us the
power of all that is contrary to the enjoyment of these
privileges.
e only good fruit recognized by John
Observe here that the only good fruit recognized
by John, as the way of escape, is the sincere confession,
through grace, of sin. ose only who make this confession
escape the axe. ere were really no good trees excepting
those which confessed that they were bad.
But what a solemn moment was this for the people
beloved of God! What an event was the presence of
Jehovah in the midst of the nation with whom He stood
in relationship!
e Messiah presented as Jehovah the Judge
Observe that John the Baptist does not here present
the Messiah as the Saviour come in grace, but as the Head
of the kingdom, as Jehovah, who would execute judgment
if the people did not repent. We shall see afterwards the
position which He took in grace.
e baptism of Jesus: the Lord’s presentation of
Himself with His people in grace
Matthew 3
51
In verse 13 Jesus Himself, who until now has been
presented as the Messiah and even as Jehovah, comes to
John to be baptized with the baptism of repentance. We
must remember that to come to this baptism was the
only good fruit which a Jew, in his then condition, could
produce. e act proved itself to be the fruit of a work of
God-of the eectual work of the Holy Spirit. He who
repents confesses that he has previously walked afar from
God; so that it is a new movement, the fruit of God’s Word
and work in<P032> him, the sign of a new life, of the life
of the Spirit in his soul. By the very fact of John’s mission,
there was no other fruit, no other admissible proof, of life
from God, in a Jew. We are not to infer from this that there
were none in whom the Spirit already acted vitally; but, in
this condition of the people and according to the call of
God by His servant, that was the proof of this life-of the
turning of the heart to God. ese were the true remnant
of the people, those whom God acknowledged as such;
and it was thus they were separated from the mass who
were ripening for judgment. ese were the true saints-
the excellent of the earth; although the self-abasement of
repentance could be their only true place. It was there they
must begin. When God brings in mercy and justice, they
avail themselves thankfully of the former, confessing it to
be their only resource, and they bow their heart before the
latter, as the just consequence of the condition of God’s
people, but as applying it to themselves.
Now Jesus presents Himself in the midst of those who
do this. Although truly the Lord, Jehovah, the righteous
Judge of His people, He who was to purge His oor, He
nevertheless takes His place among the faithful remnant
who humble themselves before this judgment. He takes
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the place of the lowest of His people before God; as in
Psalm 16 He calls Jehovah His Lord, saying unto Him,
“My goodness extendeth not to ee”; and says to the
saints and the excellent in the earth, “All my delight is in
them.” Perfect testimony of grace-the Saviour identifying
Himself, according to this grace, with the rst movement
of the Spirit in the hearts of His own people, humbling
Himself not only in the condescension of grace towards
them, but in taking His place as one of them in their true
position before God; not merely to comfort their hearts
by such kindness, but in order to sympathize with all their
sorrows and their diculties; in order to be the pattern,
the source and the perfect expression of every sentiment
suitable to their position.
e Lord’s association with the poor of the ock to
lead them on to enjoyment of blessing
With wicked, unrepentant Israel He could not associate
Himself, but with the rst living eect of the Word and
Spirit of God in the poor of the ock, He could and did in
grace. He does so now. With the rst right step, one really
of God, Christ is found.<P033>
But there was yet more. He comes to bring those who
received Him into relation with God, according to the
favor which rested on perfectness like His and on the love
which, by taking up His people’s cause, satised the heart
of the Lord, and, having perfectly gloried God in all that
He is, made it possible for Him to satisfy Himself with
goodness. We know indeed that in order to do this, the
Saviour had to lay down His life, because the condition of
the Jew, as that of every man, required this sacrice before
either the one or the other could stand in relation with the
God of truth. But even for this the love of Jesus did not fail.
Matthew 3
53
Here, however, He is leading them on to the enjoyment
of the blessing expressed in His Person, which should be
securely founded on that sacrice- blessing which they
must reach by the path of repentance, into which they
entered by John’s baptism; which Jesus received with them,
that they might go on together towards the possession of
all the good things which God has prepared for them that
loved Him.
John’s opposition; the true character of the Lord’s
action
John, feeling the dignity and excellency of the Person
of Him who came unto him, opposes the Lord’s intention.
e Holy Spirit by this brings out the true character of the
Lord’s action. As to Himself, it was righteousness which
brought Him there and not sin-righteousness which He
accomplished in love. He, as well as John the Baptist,
fullled that which belonged to the place assigned Him by
God. With what condescension He links Himself at the
same time with John: “It becometh us.” He is the lowly and
obedient Servant. It was thus He ever behaved Himself on
earth. Moreover, as to His position, grace brought Jesus
there, where sin brought us, who came in by the door the
Lord had opened for His sheep. In confessing sin as it is,
in coming before God in the confession of (the opposite
of sin morally) our sin, we nd ourselves in company with
Jesus.1 Indeed it is in us the fruit of His Spirit. is was
the case with the poor sinners who came out to John.
(1. It is the same thing as to the sense of our nothingness.
He made Himself nothing, and in the consciousness of our
nothingness we nd ourselves with Him, and at the same
time are lled with His fullness. Even when we fall, it is
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not until we are brought to know ourselves as we really are
that we nd Jesus raising us up again.)
us it was that Jesus took His place in righteousness
and obedience among men, and more exactly among the
repentant Jews. It<P034> is in this position of a man-
righteous, obedient, and fullling on earth, in perfect
humility, the work for which He had oered Himself
in grace, according to Psalm 40, giving Himself up to
the accomplishment of all the will of God in complete
renunciation-that God His Father fully acknowledged
Him and sealed Him, declaring Him on earth to be His
well-beloved Son.
e heavens opened; the beloved Son; the descent of
the Holy Spirit
Being baptized-the most striking token of the place He
had taken with His people-the heavens are opened unto
Him, and He sees the Holy Spirit descending on Him like
a dove; and, lo! a voice from heaven, saying, “is is my
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
But these circumstances demand attention.
Never were the heavens opened to the earth, nor to a
man on the earth, before the beloved Son was there.1 God
had doubtless, in His long-suering and in the way of
providence, blessed all His creatures; He had also blessed
His own people, according to the rules of His government
on earth. Besides this, there were the elect, whom He
had preserved in faithfulness. Nevertheless, until now the
heavens had not been opened. A testimony had been sent
by God in connection with His government of the earth;
but there was no object on the earth upon which the eye
of God could rest with complacency, until Jesus, sinless
and obedient, His beloved Son, stood there. But what is
Matthew 3
55
so precious to us is that it is as soon as, in grace, He takes
publicly this place of humiliation with Is-rael-that is, with
the faithful remnant, presenting Himself thus before God,
fullling His will-the heavens open upon an object worthy
of their attention. Ever doubtless was He worthy of their
adoration, even before the world was. But now He has
just taken this place in the dealings of God as a man, and
the heavens opened unto Jesus, the object of God’s entire
aection on the earth. e Holy Spirit descends upon Him
visibly. And He, a man on earth, a man taking His place
with the meek of the people who repented, is acknowledged
as the Son of God. He is not only<P035> anointed of God,
but, as man, He is conscious of the descent of the Holy
Spirit upon Him-the seal of the Father set upon Him.
Here it is evidently not His divine nature, in the character
of the eternal Son of the Father. e seal would not even be
in conformity with that character; and as to His Person it is
manifested, and His consciousness of it, at twelve years old
in Luke’s Gospel. But while He is such, He is also a man,
the Son of God on the earth, and is sealed as a man. As a
man He has the consciousness of the immediate presence
of the Holy Spirit with Him. is presence is in connection
with the character of lowliness, meekness and obedience in
which the Lord appeared down here. It is “like a dove” that
the Holy Spirit descends upon Him; just as it was in the
form of tongues of re that He came down upon the heads
of the disciples for their testimony in power in this world,
according to the grace which addressed each and every one
in his own language.
(1. In the beginning of Ezekiel, it is said indeed that
the heavens were opened; but this was only in vision, as
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the prophet himself explains. In that instance it was the
manifestation of God in judgment.)
e glory of the Lord’s Person carefully guarded
Jesus thus creates in His own position as man the
place into which He introduces us by redemption (John
20:17). But the glory of His Person is always carefully
guarded. ere is no object presented to Jesus, as to Saul,
for instance, and, in a still more analogous case, to Stephen,
who, being full of the Spirit, sees also the heavens opened
and looks up into them and sees Jesus, the Son of Man,
and is transformed into His image. Jesus has come; He
is Himself the object over whom the heavens open; He
has no transforming object, as Stephen, or as we ourselves
in the Spirit; heaven looks down at Him, the perfect
object of delight. It is His relationship with His Father,
already existing, which is sealed.1 Neither does the Holy
Spirit create His character (except so far as, with respect
to His human nature, He was conceived in the virgin
Mary’s womb by the power of the Holy Spirit); He had
connected Himself with the poor, in the perfection of that
character, before He was sealed, and then acts according
to the energy and the power of that which He received
without measure in His human life here below (compare
Acts 10:38; Matthew 12:28; John 3:34).<P036>
(1. is is true also of us when we are in that relationship
by grace.)
Four memorable occasions on which the heavens
open; Christ the object of each
We nd in the Word four memorable occasions on
which the heavens open. Christ is the object of each of
these revelations; each has its special character. Here the
Holy Spirit descends upon Him, and He is acknowledged
Matthew 3
57
the Son of God (compare John 1:33-34). At the end of
the same chapter of John, He declares Himself to be the
Son of Man. ere it is the angels of God who ascend and
descend upon Him. He is, as Son of Man, the object of
their ministry.1 At the end of Acts 7 an entirely new scene
is opened. e Jews reject the last testimony that God
sends them. Stephen, by whom this testimony is rendered,
is lled with the Holy Spirit, and the heavens are opened
to him. e earthly system was denitely closed by the
rejection of the Holy Spirit’s testimony to the glory of the
ascended Christ. But this is not merely a testimony. e
Christian is lled with the Spirit, heaven is opened to him,
the glory of God is manifested to him, and the Son of Man
appears to him, standing at the right hand of God. is
is a dierent thing from the heavens open over Jesus, the
object of God’s delight on earth. It is heaven open to the
Christian himself, his object being there when rejected on
earth. He sees there by the Holy Spirit the heavenly glory
of God, and Jesus, the Son of Man, the special object of the
testimony he renders, in the glory of God. e dierence
is as remarkable as it is interesting to us; and it exhibits, in
a most striking manner, the true position of the Christian
as on earth and the change which the rejection of Jesus
by His earthly people has produced. Only the church, the
union of believers in one body with the Lord in heaven,
was not yet revealed. Afterwards (Rev. 19), heaven opens,
and the Lord Himself comes forth, the King of kings and
Lord of lords. us we see:
(1) Jesus, the Son of God on earth, the object of heaven’s
delight, sealed with the Holy Spirit.
(2) Jesus, the Son of Man, the object of the ministry of
heaven, angels being His servants.
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(3) Jesus, on high at the right hand of God, and the
believer, full of the Spirit and suering here for His sake,
beholding the glory on high and the Son of Man in the
glory.<P037>
(4) Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords, coming
forth to judge and make war against the scornful men who
dispute His authority and oppress the earth.
(1. It is all a mistake to make Christ the ladder. He, as
Jacob was, is the object of their service and ministry.)
e obedient Man on earth, the Son of God, sealed
with the Holy Spirit
To return: e Father Himself acknowledges Jesus, the
obedient man on earth, who enters as the true Shepherd
by the door, as His beloved Son in whom is all His delight.
Heaven is opened to Him; He sees the Holy Spirit come
down to seal Him, the infallible strength and support of
the perfection of His human life; and He has the Father’s
own testimony to the relationship between them. No object
on which His faith was to rest is presented to Him as it is
to us. It is His own relation to heaven and to His Father
which is sealed. His soul enjoys it through the descent of
the Holy Spirit and the voice of His Father.
Heaven opened to believers by redemption
But this passage in Matthew requires some further
notice. e blessed Lord, or rather what occurred as to
Him, gives the place or model in which He sets believers,
be they Jew or Gentile: only, of course, we are brought
there by redemption. “I go to my Father and your Father,
my God and your God” is His blessed word after His
resurrection. But to us heaven is opened; we are sealed
with the Holy Spirit; the Father owns us as sons. Only
the divine dignity of Christ’s Person is always carefully
Matthew 3
59
guarded here in humiliation, as in the transguration in
glory. Moses and Elias are in the same glory but disappear
when Peter’s haste, permitted to be expressed, would put
them on a level. e nearer we are to a divine Person, the
more we adore and recognize what He is.
e Trinity rst fully revealed
But another very remarkable fact is found here. For
the rst time, when Christ takes this place among men in
lowliness, the Trinity is fully revealed. No doubt the Son
and Spirit are mentioned in the Old Testament. But there
the unity of the Godhead is the great revealed point. Here
the Son is owned in man, the Holy Spirit comes down
on Him, and the Father owns Him as His<P038> Son.
What a wonderful connection with man! what a place for
man to be in! rough Christ’s connection with Him the
Godhead is revealed in its own fullness. His being a man
draws it out in its display. But He was really a man, but the
Man in whom the counsels of God about man were to be
fullled.
In conict with the enemy
Hence, as He has realized and displayed the place in
which man is set with God in His own Person and in the
counsels of grace, as to us, our relationship with God, so, as
we are in conict with the enemy, He enters into that side
of our position also. We have our relationship with God
and our Father, and now we have to say to Satan also. He
overcomes for us and shows us how to overcome. Remark
too, the relationship with God is rst fully settled and
brought out, and then, as in that place, the conict with
Satan begins, and so with us. But the rst question was,
Would the second Adam stand where the rst had failed?
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only, in the wilderness of this world and Satan’s power-
instead of the blessings of God- for there we had got.
e people’s history closed in judgment; a new thing
announced-the kingdom of heaven
Another point is to be remarked here, fully to bring out
the place the Lord takes. e law and the prophets were
till John. en the new thing is announced, the kingdom
of heaven. But judgment closes with God’s people. e axe
is at the root of the trees, the fan is in the hand of the
coming One, the wheat is gathered into God’s garner, the
cha burned up. at is, there is a close of the history of
God’s people in judgment. We come in on the ground of
being lost, anticipating the judgment; but man’s history as
responsible was closed. Hence it is said, “Now once in the
end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the
sacrice of himself.” It has happened externally and literally
to Israel; but it is morally true for us: only we are gathered
for heaven, as in result the remnant then, and shall be in
heaven. But, Christ rejected, the history of responsibility is
over, and we come in in grace as already lost. Consequent
on the announcement of this as imminent, Christ comes
and, identifying Himself with the remnant who escape on
repentance, makes this new place for man on the earth:
only we could<P039> not be in it till redemption was
accomplished. Still He revealed the Father’s name to those
He had given Him out of it.
Matthew 4
61
73082
Matthew 4
Led of the Spirit to be tempted of the devil
Having thus in grace taken up His position as man
on earth, He commences His earthly career, being led of
the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
e righteous and holy man, the Son of God, enjoying
the privileges proper to such a one, He must undergo
the trial of those devices through which the rst Adam
fell. It is His spiritual condition which is tested. It is
not now an innocent man in the enjoyment of all God’s
natural blessings who is put to the proof in the midst of
those blessings which should have made him remember
God. Christ, nigh to God as His beloved Son, but in the
midst of trial, having the knowledge of good and evil, and
as to outward circumstances come down into the midst
of man’s fallen state, must have His faithfulness to this
position fully tried with respect to His perfect obedience.
To maintain this position, He must have no other will than
that of His Father, and fulll it or suer it, whatever might
be the consequences to Himself. He must fulll it in the
midst of all the diculties, the privations, the isolation,
the desert, where Satan’s power was, which might tempt
Him to follow an easier path than that which should be
only for the glory of His Father. He must renounce all the
rights that belonged to His own Person, save as He should
receive them from God, yielding them up to Him with a
perfect trust.
e enemy did his utmost to induce Him to make use
of His privileges, “if thou be the Son of God,” for His own
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relief, apart from the command of God, and in avoidance
of the suerings which might accompany the performance
of His will. But it was to lead Him to do His own will, not
God’s.
With the enemy in the wilderness
Jesus, enjoying in His own Person and relationship with
God the full favor of God as Son of God, the light of His
countenance, goes into the wilderness for forty days to be
in conict with the enemy. He did not go away from man,
and from all communion with man and the things of man,
in order (like Moses and Elias) to be<P040> with God.
Being already fully with God, He is separate from men by
the power of the Holy Spirit to be alone in His conict
with the enemy. In the case of Moses, it was man out of his
natural condition to be with God. In the case of Jesus, it is
so to be with the enemy: To be with God was His natural
position.
Simple and absolute obedience, living by God’s words
e enemy tempts Him rst by proposing to Him to
satisfy His bodily need, and, instead of waiting on God, to
employ according to His own will and on His own behalf
the power with which He was endowed. But, if Israel was
fed in the wilderness with manna from God, the Son of
God, however great His power, would act in accordance
with what Israel should have learned by that means,
namely, that “man doth not live by bread only, but by every
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” e Man,
the obedient Jew, the Son of God, waited for this word
and would do nothing without it. He was not come to do
His own will, but the will of Him who sent Him. is is
the principle that characterizes the Spirit of Christ in the
Psalms. No deliverance is accepted but the intervention of
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63
Jehovah at His own good time. It is perfect patience, in
order to be perfect and complete in all the will of God.
ere could be no sinful lust in Christ; but to be hungry was
no sin, yet it was a human need, and what harm in eating
when hungry? ere was no will of God to do it, and that
will by the Word He came to do. Satan’s suggestion was,
“If thou be the Son of God, command”; but He had taken
the place of a servant, and this was not commanding: He
sought to get the Lord out of the place of perfect service
and obedience, out of the place of a servant.
e written Word and the character of Christ’s
obedience
And note here the place the written Word has and
the character of Christ’s obedience. is character is not
simply that the will of God is a rule; it is the one motive
for action. We have a will arrested often by the Word. Not
so Christ. His Father’s will was His motive; He acted not
merely according to, but because it was, God’s will. We
delight to see a child who would run o to something it
delights in, stop and cheerfully do its parents’ will when
called to do it. But Christ never obeyed thus, never sought
a will of His own, but was stopped by His Father’s. And
we are <P041>sanctied to the obedience of Christ. Note
further that the written Word is that by which He lives and
by which He overcomes. All depended here on Christ’s
victory, as all did on Adam’s fall. But for Christ, one text,
rightly used, of course, suces. He seeks no other: at is
obedience. It suces for Satan; he has no reply. His wiles
are thus defeated.
e rst principle of conquest is simple and absolute
obedience, living by words out of God’s mouth. e next is
perfect condence in the path of obedience.
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Perfect condence in the path of obedience
In the second place, then, the enemy sets Him on a
pinnacle of the temple to induce Him to apply to Himself
the promises made to the Messiah, without abiding in the
ways of God. e faithful man may assuredly reckon on
the help of God while walking in His ways. e enemy
would have the Son of Man put God to the test (instead
of reckoning on Him while walking in His ways) to see
whether He might be trusted in. is would have been
a want of condence in God, not obedience; or pride,
presuming on its privileges, instead of counting on God in
obedience.1 Taking His place with Israel in the condition
they were in when without a king in the land and quoting
the directions given to them in that book to guide them
in the godly path there taught, He uses for His guidance
that part of the Word which contains the divine injunction
on this subject, “ou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God”;
a passage often quoted as if it forbade excess in trusting
God; whereas it means not to distrust, and try if He is
faithful. ey tempted God, saying, Is God indeed among
us? And this Satan would have had the Lord do.
(1. We need condence to have courage to obey; but
true condence is found in the path of obedience. Satan
could use the Word in guile, but not turn Christ the Lord
from it. He still uses it as the adequate divine weapon, and
Satan still has no reply. To have forbidden obedience would
have been to show himself Satan. As regards the place in
which the Lord was dispensationally, we may remark the
Lord always quotes from Deuteronomy.)
e earthly inheritance oered the Son of Man by
Satan in open hostility to God
Matthew 4
65
e enemy, failing to deceive that obedient heart, even
by hiding himself under the use of the Word of God, shows
himself in<P042> his true character, tempting the Lord,
thirdly, to spare Himself all the suerings that awaited
Him, by showing Him the inheritance of the Son of Man
on earth, that which would be His when He had reached
it through all those paths, toilsome yet necessary to the
Father’s glory, which the Father had marked out for Him.
All should now be His, if He would acknowledge Satan
by worshipping him, the god of this world. is, in fact,
was what the kings of the earth had done for only a part
of these things; how often done for some triing vanity!
but He should have the whole. But if Jesus was to inherit
earthly glory (as well as all other), the object of His heart
was God Himself, His Father, to glorify Him. Whatever
might be the value of the gift, it was as the gift of the Giver
that His heart prized it. Moreover, He was in the position
of tested man and a faithful Israelite; and whatever might
be the trial of patience into which the sin of the people had
brought Him, be the trial ever so great, He would serve
none but His God alone.
e believer’s attitude towards Satan
But if the devil carries temptation, sin, to the utmost
and shows himself to be the adversary (Satan), the believer
has the right to cast him out. If he comes as a tempter,
the believer should answer him by the faithfulness of the
Word, which is man’s perfect guide, according to the will
of God. He does not need to see through everything. e
Word is the word of Him who does, and in following that,
we walk according to a wisdom which knows everything
and in a path formed by that wisdom, and which hence
involves absolute trust in God. e two rst temptations
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were the wiles of the devil; the third, open hostility to God.
If he comes as the open adversary of God, the believer has
a right to have nothing to do with him. “Resist the devil,
and he will ee from you.” He knows he has met Christ,
not esh. May believers resist if Satan would tempt them
by the world, remembering it is Satan’s domain in fallen
man!
e believer’s safeguard
e believer’s safeguard morally (that is, as to the state
of his heart) is a single eye. If I seek only the glory of
God, that which presents no other motive than my own
aggrandizement or my own<P043> gratication, whether
of body or mind, will have no hold upon me; and will show
itself in the light of the Word, which guides the single eye,
as contrary to the mind of God. is is not the haughtiness
that rejects temptation on the ground of being good; it is
obedience, humbly giving God His place, and consequently
His Word also. “By the word of thy lips I have kept me
from the paths of the destroyer,” from him that did his own
will and made it his guide. If the heart seeks God alone, the
most subtle snare is discovered, for the enemy never tempts
us to seek God alone. But this supposes a pure heart and
that there is no self-seeking. is was displayed in Jesus.
Our safeguard against temptation is the Word, used
by the discernment of a perfectly pure heart, which lives
in the presence of God and learns the mind of God in
His Word,1 and therefore knows its application to the
circumstances presented. It is the Word that preserves the
soul from the wiles of the enemy.
(1. ere must be no other motive for action than the
will of God, which, for man, is always to be found in the
Word; because, in that case, when Satan tempts us to act,
Matthew 4
67
as he always does, by some other motive, this motive is seen
to be opposed to the Word which is in the heart and to the
motive which governs the heart, and is therefore judged
as being opposed to it. It is written, “y word have I hid
in my heart, that I might not sin against thee.” is is the
reason why it is so often important, when we are in doubt,
to ask ourselves by what motive we are inuenced. )
Observe also that, consequently, it is in the spirit of
simple and humble obedience that power lies; for where it
exists, Satan can do nothing. God is there, and, accordingly,
the enemy is conquered.
e three temptations and characters of the Lord
It appears to me that these three temptations are
addressed to the Lord in the three characters of man, of
Messiah, and of Son of Man.
He had no sinful desires like fallen man, but He
hungered. e tempter would persuade Him to satisfy this
need without God.
e promises in the Psalms belonged to Him as being
made to the Messiah.
And all the kingdoms of the world were His as the Son
of Man.
He always replies as a faithful Israelite, personally
responsible to God, making use of the Book of
Deuteronomy, which treats of this subject (namely, the
obedience of Israel, in connection with the possession of the
land, and the privileges that belonged to the <P044>people
in connection with this obedience; and this, apart from the
organization which constituted them a corporate body
before God).1
(1. A careful examination of the Pentateuch will show
that, though needed historical facts are stated, yet the
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contents of Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers are essentially
typical. e tabernacle was made according to the pattern
shown in the mount-the pattern of heavenly things; and
not only the ceremonial ordinances, but the historical facts,
as the Apostle distinctly states, happened unto them for
types and are written for our instruction. Deuteronomy
gives directions for their conduct in the land; but the
three books named, even where there are historical facts,
are typical in their object. I do not know if one sacrice
was oered after they were instituted, unless perhaps the
ocial ones (see Acts 7:42).)
Satan departs from Him, and the angels come to
exercise their ministry towards the Messiah, the Son of
Man victorious through obedience. What Satan would
have Him try God about, He has fully. ey are ministering
spirits for us also.
Satan met and bound for man
But how profoundly interesting is it to see the blessed
Lord come down, the Son of God from heaven, and take-
the Word made esh-His place among the poor godly
ones on the earth, and, as having taken that place, owned
of the Father as His Son, heaven being opened and opened
to Him as man, and the Holy Spirit coming down and
abiding on Him as man though without measure, and so
forming the model of our place, though we were not yet in
it; the whole Trinity, as I have said, being rst fully revealed
when He is thus associated with man; and then, we being
slaves to Satan, going in this character and relationship to
meet also Satan for us, to bind the strong man, and give
man through Him this place also: only for us redemption
was needed to bring us where He is.
Matthew 4
69
e Lord’s ministry outside Jerusalem, fullling
prophecy
John being cast into prison, the Lord departs into
Galilee. is movement, which determined the scene
of His ministry outside Jerusalem and Judea, had great
signicance with respect to the Jews. e people (so far as
centered in Jerusalem, and boasting in the possession of
the promises, the sacrices and the temple, and in being
the royal tribe) lost the presence of the Messiah, the Son
of David. He went away for the manifestation of His
Person, for the testimony of God’s intervention in Israel, to
the<P045> poor and despised of the ock; for the remnant
and poor of the ock are already in chapters 3-4 clearly
distinguished from the heads of the people. He thus really
became the true stock, instead of being a branch of that
which had been planted elsewhere; although this eect was
not yet fully manifested. e moment corresponds with
John 4.
We may remark here that in John’s Gospel the Jews are
always distinguished from the multitude.1e language,
or rather the pronunciation, was entirely dierent. ey
did not speak Chaldee in Galilee.
(1. Called the people in the Gospels.)
At the same time, this manifestation of the Son of
David in Galilee was the fulllment of a prophecy in
Isaiah. e force of that prophecy is this: Although the
Roman captivity was far more terrible than the invasion of
the Assyrians when they came up against the land of Israel,
there was nevertheless this circumstance which altered
everything, namely, the presence of the Messiah, the true
Light, in the land.
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e Lord’s history here passed over till the death of
John the Baptist
We observe that the Spirit of God here passes over the
whole history of Jesus until the commencement of His
ministry after the death of John the Baptist. He gives Jesus
His proper position in the midst of Israel-Emmanuel,
the Son of David, the Beloved of God, acknowledged as
His Son, the faithful One in Israel, though exposed to
all Satan’s temptations; and then at once, afterwards, His
prophetic position announced by Isaiah, and the kingdom
proclaimed as at hand.1
(1. And we may remark here that He leaves the Jews
and Jerusalem, as already remarked, and His natural place,
so to speak, what gave Him His name, Nazareth, and takes
His prophetic place. e casting of John into prison was
signicant of His own rejection. John was His forerunner
in it, as in his mission, of the Lord. (See chapter 17:12.) e
testimony of Jesus is the same as that of John the Baptist.)
He then gathers around Him those who were denitively
to follow Him in His ministry and His temptations; and,
at His call, to link their portion and their lot with His,
forsaking all beside.
e strong man was bound so that Jesus could spoil
his goods and proclaim the kingdom with proofs of that
power which were able to establish it.<P046>
e proclamation of the kingdom in power; its
character, nature and subjects
Two things are then brought forward in the Gospel
narrative. First, the power which accompanies the
proclamation of the kingdom. In two or three verses,1
without other detail, this fact is announced. e
proclamation of the kingdom is attended with acts of
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71
power that excite the attention of the whole country, the
whole extent of the ancient territory of Israel. Jesus appears
before them invested with this power. Second (chapters
5-7), the character of the kingdom is announced in the
sermon on the Mount, as well as that of the persons who
should have part in it (the Father’s name withal being
revealed). at is, the Lord had announced the coming
kingdom, and with the present power of goodness, having
overcome the adversary; and then shows what were the
true characters according to which it would be set up, and
who could enter and how. Redemption is not spoken of in
it; but the character and nature of the kingdom and who
could enter. is clearly shows the moral position which
this sermon holds in the Lord’s teaching.
(1. It is striking that the whole ministry of the Lord
is recounted in one verse (vs. 23). All the subsequent
statements are facts, having a special moral import, showing
what was passing among the people in grace onward to His
rejection, not a proper consecutive history. It stamps the
character of Matthew very clearly.)
e Lord’s position in Israel; the principles of His
kingdom
It is evident that, in all this part of the Gospel, it is the
Lord’s position which is the subject of the teaching of the
Spirit, and not the details of His life. Details come after, in
order fully to exhibit what He was in the midst of Israel,
His relations with that people, and His path in the power
of the Spirit which led to the rupture between the Son of
David and the people who ought to have received Him.
e attention of the whole country being thus engaged
by His mighty acts, the Lord sets before His disciples-
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but in the hearing of the people-the principles of His
kingdom.<P047>
Matthew 5-7
73
73083
Matthew 5-7
e divisions and contents of the sermon on the
Mount
is discourse may be divided into the following parts:1
e character and the portion of those who should be
in the kingdom (vss. 1-12).
eir position in the world (vss. 13-16).<P048>
e connection between the principles of the kingdom
and the law (vss. 17-48).2
e spirit in which His disciples should perform good
works (ch. 6:1-18).
Separation from the spirit of the world and from its
anxieties (vss. 19-34).
e spirit of their relation with others (ch. 7:1-6).
e condence in God which became them (vss. 7-12).
e energy that should characterize them, in order that
they might enter into the kingdom; not, however, merely
enter, many would seek to do that, but according to those
principles which made it dicult for man, according to
God-the strait gate; and then, the means of discerning
those who would seek to deceive them, as well as the
watchfulness needed that they might not be deceived (vss.
13-23).
Real and practical obedience to His sayings, the true
wisdom of those that hear His words (vss. 24-29).
(1. In the text I have given a division which may assist
in a practical application of the sermon on the Mount.
With respect to the subjects contained in it, it might
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perhaps, though the dierence is not very great, be still
better divided thus:
Chapter 5:1-16 contains the complete picture of the
character and position of the remnant who received His
instructions-their position, as it should be, according to the
mind of God. is is complete in itself.
Verses 17-48 establish the authority of the law, which
should have regulated the conduct of the faithful until the
introduction of the kingdom; the law which they ought
to have fullled, as well as the words of the prophets, in
order that they (the remnant) should be placed on this
new ground; and the despisal of which would exclude
whoever was guilty of it from the kingdom; for Christ is
speaking, not as in the kingdom, but as announcing it as
near to come. But, while thus establishing the authority
of the law, He takes up the two great elements of evil,
treated of only in outward acts in the law, violence and
corruption, and judges the evil in the heart (vss. 22,28),
and at all cost to get rid of it and every occasion of it, thus
showing what was to be the conduct of His disciples and
their state of soul-that which was to characterize them as
such. e Lord then takes up certain things borne with by
God in Israel, and ordered according to what they could
bear. us was now brought into the light of a true moral
estimate, divorce-marriage being the divinely given basis
of all human relationships-and swearing or vowing, the
action of man’s will in relationship to God; then patience
of evil, and fullness of grace, His own blessed character,
and carrying with it the moral title to what was His living
place-sons of their Father who was in heaven. Instead of
weakening that which God required under the law, He
would not only have it observed until its fulllment, but
Matthew 5-7
75
that His disciples should be perfect even as their Father in
heaven was perfect. is adds the revelation of the Father,
to the moral walk and state which suited the character of
sons as it was revealed in Christ.
Chapter 6. We have the motives, the object, which
should govern the heart in doing good deeds, in living a
religious life. eir eye should be on their Father. is is
individual.
Chapter 7. is chapter is essentially occupied with the
communion that would be suitable between His own people
and others-not to judge their brethren and to beware of
the profane. He then exhorts them to condence in asking
their Father for what they needed and instructs them to act
towards others with the same grace that they would wish
shown to themselves. is is founded on the knowledge of
the goodness of the Father. Finally, He exhorts them to the
energy that will enter in at the strait gate and choose the
way of God, cost what it may (for many would like to enter
into the kingdom, but not by that gate); and He warns
them with respect to those who would seek to deceive
them by pretending to have the Word of God. It is not
only our own hearts that we have to fear, and positive evil,
when we would follow the Lord, but also the devices of the
enemy and his agents. But their fruits will betray them.)
(2. It is important, however, to remark that there is no
general spiritualization of the law, as is often stated. e
two great principles of immorality among men are treated
of (violence and corrupt lust), to which are added voluntary
oaths. In these the exigencies of the law and what Christ
required are contrasted.)
e revelation of the Father’s name
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ere is another principle that characterizes this
discourse, and that is the introduction of the Father’s name.
Jesus puts His disciples in connection with His Father, as
their Father. He reveals to them the Father’s name, in order
that they may be in relation with Him, and that they may
act in accordance with that which He is.
e rejection of the King; the consequent position
and conduct of His followers
is discourse gives the principles of the kingdom,
but supposes the rejection of the King, and the position
into which this would bring those that were His; who
consequently must look for a heavenly reward. ey were
to be a divine savor where God was known and was dealing,
and would be a spectacle to the whole world. Moreover, this
was God’s object. eir confession was to be so open that
the world should refer their works to the Father.<P049>
ey were to act, on the one hand, according to a judgment
of evil which reached the heart and motives, but also, on
the other, according to the Father’s character in grace-to
approve themselves to the Father who saw in secret, where
the eye of man could not penetrate. ey were to have full
condence in Him for all their need. His will was the rule
according to which there was entrance into the kingdom.
e discourse pronounced in Israel before the
kingdom is set up
We may observe that this discourse is connected
with the proclamation of the kingdom as being near at
hand, and that all these principles of conduct are given
as characterizing the kingdom, and as the conditions
of entrance into it. No doubt it follows that they are
suitable to those who have entered in. But the discourse is
pronounced in the midst of Israel,1 before the kingdom is
Matthew 5-7
77
set up, and as the previous state called for in order to enter,
and to set forth the fundamental principles of the kingdom
in connection with that people, and in moral contrast with
the ideas they had formed respecting it.
(1. We must always remember that, while
dispensationally Israel has great importance, as the center
of God’s government of this world, morally Israel was just
man where all the ways and dealings of God had been
carried out so as to bring to light what he was. e Gentile
was man left to himself as regards God’s special ways, and
so unrevealed. Christ was a light (εισ αποκαλυψιν εθνων;
eis apokalypsen ethnon) to reveal the Gentiles.)
e beatitudes: the character and portion of those in
the kingdom
In examining the beatitudes, we shall nd that this
portion in general gives the character of Christ Himself.
ey suppose two things: the coming possession of the land
of Israel by the meek, and the persecution of the faithful
remnant, really righteous in their ways, and who asserted
the rights of the true King (heaven being set before them
as their hope to sustain their hearts).1
(1. e characters pronounced blessed may be briey
noted. ey suppose evil in the world and among God’s
people. e rst is not seeking great things for self,
accepting a despised place in a scene contrary to God.
Hence, mourning characterizes them there and meekness,
a will not lifting up itself against God or to maintain its
position or right. en positive good in desire, for it is not
yet found; hungering hence and thirsting after it, such
is the inward state and activity of the mind. en grace
towards others. en purity of heart, the absence of what
would shut out God; and, what is always connected with
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it, peacefulness and peace-making. I think there is a moral
progress in the verses, one leading to the next as an eect
of it. e two last are the consequences of maintaining a
good conscience and connection with Christ in a world of
evil. ere are two principles of suering, as in 1Peter, for
righteousness’ and for Christ’s sake.)
<P050>
e disciples’ position in the world
is will be the position of the remnant in the last days
before the introduction of the kingdom, the last being
exceptional. It was so, morally, in the days of the Lord’s
disciples, in reference to Israel, the earthly part being
delayed. In reference to heaven, the disciples are looked
at as witnesses in Israel; but-while the only preservative
of the earth-they were a testimony to the world. So that
the disciples are seen as in connection with Israel, but, at
the same time, as witnesses on God’s part to the world
(the kingdom being in view, but not yet established). e
connection with the last days is evident; nevertheless,
their testimony then had, morally, this character. Only the
establishment of the earthly kingdom has been delayed,
and the church, which is heavenly, brought in. Chapter
5:25 evidently alludes to the position of Israel in the days
of Christ. And, in fact, they remain captive, in prison, until
they have received their full chastisement, and then they
shall come forth.
e obedient Man, the Lord from heaven
e Lord ever speaks and acts as the obedient man,
moved and guided by the Holy Spirit; but we see in the
most striking manner, in this Gospel, who it is that acts
thus. And it is this which gives its true moral character to
the kingdom of heaven. John the Baptist might announce
Matthew 5-7
79
it as a change of dispensation, but his ministry was earthly.
Christ might equally announce this same change (and the
change was all important); but in Him there was more
than this. He was from heaven, the Lord who came from
heaven. In speaking of the kingdom of heaven, He spoke
out of the deep and divine abundance of His heart. No
man had been in heaven, excepting Him who had come
down from thence, the Son of Man who was in heaven.
erefore, when speaking of heaven, He spoke of that
which He knew and testied of that which He had seen.
is was the case in two ways, as shown forth in Matthew’s
Gospel. It was no longer an earthly government according
to the<P051> law: Jehovah, the Saviour, Emmanuel, was
present. Could He be otherwise than heavenly in His
character, in the tone, in the essence, of His whole life?
e character of Christ identied with heaven
Moreover, when He began His public ministry and was
sealed by the Holy Spirit, heaven was opened to Him. He
was identied with heaven as a man sealed with the Holy
Spirit on earth. He was thus the continual expression of the
spirit, of the reality, of heaven. ere was not yet the exercise
of the judicial power which would uphold this character in
the face of all that opposed it. It was its manifestation in
patience, notwithstanding the opposition of all around Him
and the inability of His disciples to understand Him. us
in the sermon on the Mount we nd the description of that
which was suitable to the kingdom of heaven, and even the
assurance of reward in heaven for those who should suer
on earth for His sake. is description, as we have seen, is
essentially the character of Christ Himself. It is thus that a
heavenly spirit expresses itself on earth. If the Lord taught
these things, it is because He loved them, because He was
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them and delighted in them. Being the God of heaven,
lled as man with the Spirit without measure, His heart
was perfectly in unison with a heaven that He perfectly
knew. Consequently, therefore, He concludes the character
which His disciples were to assume by these words: “Be ye
therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
All their conduct was to be in reference to their Father in
heaven. e more we understand the divine glory of Jesus,
the more we understand the way in which He was as man
in connection with heaven, the better shall we apprehend
what the kingdom of heaven was to Him with regard to
that which was suitable to it. When it shall be established
hereafter in power, the world will be governed according to
these principles, although they are not, properly speaking,
its own.
e remnant in the last days, I doubt not, nding
all around them contrary to faithfulness and seeing all
Jewish hope fail before their eyes, will be forced to look
upward and will more and more acquire this character,
which, if not heavenly, is at least very much conformed to
Christ.1<P052>
(1. ose who are put to death will go up to heaven,
as Matthew 5:12 testies, and the Apocalypse also. e
others, who are thus conformed to Christ, as a suering
Jew, will be with Him on Mount Sion; they will learn the
song which is sung in heaven and will follow the Lamb
whithersoever He goes (on earth). We may also remark
here that in the beatitudes there is the promise of the earth
to the meek, which will be literally fullled in the last days.
In verse 12 a reward in heaven is promised to those who
suer for Christ, true for us now, and in some sort for those
who shall be slain for His sake in the last days, who will
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81
have their place in heaven, although they were a part of the
Jewish remnant and not the assembly. e same are found
in Daniel 7: only, remark, it is the times and laws which are
delivered into the beast’s hands, not the saints.)
e multitude and the Lord’s power and character
ere are two things connected with the presence of the
multitude, verse 1. First, the time required that the Lord
should give a true idea of the character of His kingdom,
since already He drew the multitude after Him. His power
making itself felt, it was important to make His character
known. On the other hand, this multitude who were
following Jesus were a snare to His disciples; and He makes
them understand what an entire contrast there was between
the eect which this multitude might have upon them and
the right spirit which ought to govern them. us, full
Himself of what was really good, He immediately brings
forward that which lled His own heart. is was the
true character of the remnant, who in the main resembled
Christ in it. It is often thus in the Psalms.
e salt of the earth and the light of the world
e salt of the earth is a dierent thing from the light of
the world. e earth, it appears to me, expresses that which
already professed to have received light from God-that
which was in relationship with Him by virtue of the light-
having assumed a denite shape before Him. e disciples
of Christ were the preservative principle in the earth. ey
were the light of the world, which did not possess that
light. is was their position, whether they would or no. It
was the purpose of God that they should be the light of the
world. A candle is not lighted in order to be hidden.
Men’s opposition to the establishment of the kingdom
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All this supposes the case of the possibility of the
kingdom being established in the world, but the opposition
of the greater part of men to its establishment. It is not a
question of the sinner’s redemption, but of the realization
of the character proper to a place in the kingdom of God;
that which the sinner ought to seek while<P053> he is in
the way with his adversary, lest he should be delivered to
the judge-which indeed has happened to the Jews.
Relationship with the Father; prayer in dependence
At the same time, the disciples are brought into
relationship with the Father individually-the second great
principle of the discourse, the consequence of the Son
being there-and a yet more excellent thing is set before
them than their position of testimony for the kingdom.
ey were to act in grace, even as their Father acted, and
their prayer should be for an order of things in which all
would correspond morally to the character and the will
of their Father. “Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom
come”1 is that all should answer to the character of the
Father, that all should be the eect of His power. “y will
be done in earth, as it is in heaven” is perfect obedience.
Universal subjection to God in heaven and on earth will
be, to a certain point, accomplished by the intervention
of Christ in the millennium, and absolutely so when God
shall be all in all. Meanwhile, the prayer expresses daily
dependence, the need of pardon, the need of being kept
from the power of the enemy, the desire of not being sifted
by him, as a dispensation of God, like Job or Peter, and of
being preserved from evil.
(1. at is, the Father’s. Compare Matthew 13:43.)
e special application of “the Lord’s Prayer”
Matthew 5-7
83
is prayer also is adapted to the position of the
remnant; it passes over the dispensation of the Spirit, and
even that which is proper to the millennium as an earthly
kingdom, in order to express the right desires and speak
of the condition and the dangers of the remnant until the
Father’s kingdom should come. Many of these principles
are always true, for we are in the kingdom, and in spirit we
ought to manifest its features; but the special and literal
application is that which I have given. ey are brought
into relationship with the Father in the realization of His
character, which was to be displayed in them by virtue of
this relationship, causing them to desire the establishment
of His kingdom, to overcome the diculties of an
opposing world, to keep themselves from the snares of the
enemy, and to do the Father’s will. It was Jesus who could
impart this to them. He thus passes from the<P054> law,1
recognized as coming from God, to its fulllment, when it
shall be, as it were, absorbed in the will of Him who gave
it, or accomplished in its purposes by Him who alone could
do so in any sense whatever.
(1. e law is the perfect rule for a child of Adam,
the rule or measure of what he ought to be, but not of
the manifestation of God in grace as Christ was, who in
this is our pattern-a just call to love God and walk in the
fulllment of duty in relationship, but not an imitating
of God, walking in love, as Christ has loved us and given
Himself for us.)
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Matthew 8
e beginning of the Lord’s testimony in the midst
of Israel
en, in chapter 8, the Lord begins in the midst of
Israel His patient life of testimony, which closed with His
rejection by the people whom God had so long preserved
for Him and for their own blessing.
He had proclaimed the kingdom, displayed His power
throughout the land, and declared His character, as well as
the spirit of those who should enter the kingdom.
e character of the Lord’s miracles
But His miracles,1 as well as the whole Gospel, are
always characterized by His position among the Jews and
God’s dealings with them, till He was rejected. Jehovah,
yet the man obedient to the law, foreshowing the entrance
of the Gentiles into the kingdom (its establishment
in mystery in the world), predicting the building of the
church or assembly on the recognition of His being Son
of the living God, and the kingdom in glory; and, while
detecting as the eect of His presence the perversity of the
people, yet bearing on His heart with perfect patience the
burden of Israel.3 It is<P055> Jehovah present in goodness,
outwardly one of themselves: wondrous truth!
(1. e miracles of Christ had a peculiar character.
ey were not merely acts of power, but all of them of the
power of God visiting this world in goodness. e power
of God had been often shown specially, from Moses, but
often in judgment. But Christ’s were all the deliverance of
men from the evil consequences sin had brought in. ere
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was one exception, the cursing the g tree, but this was
a judicial sentence on Israel, that is, man under the old
covenant when there was great appearance but no fruit.)
(2. I subjoin here some manuscript notes, made when
reading Matthew, since this was written, as throwing,
I think, light on the structure of this Gospel. Matthew
5-7 gives the character required for entrance into the
kingdom, the character which was to mark the accepted
remnant, Jehovah being now in the way with the nation
to judgment. Chapters 8-9 give the other side-grace
and goodness come in, God manifest, His character and
actings, that new thing which could not be put into the
old bottles-still goodness in power, but rejected, the Son
of Man (not Messiah) who had not where to lay His head.
Chapter 8 gives present intervention in temporal goodness
with power. Hence, as goodness, it goes beyond Israel,
as it deals in grace with what was excluded from God’s
camp in Israel. It includes power over all Satan’s power and
sickness and the elements, and that in taking the burden
on Himself, but in conscious rejection. Chapter 8:17-20
leads us to Isaiah 53:3-4 and the state of things calling
for the wholly following Him, giving up all. is leads to
the sad testimony that, if divine power expels Satan’s, the
divine presence manifest in it is insupportable to the world.
e swine gure Israel thereupon. Chapter 9 furnishes the
religious side of His presence in grace, forgiveness, and the
testimony that Jehovah was there according to Psalm 103,
but there to call sinners, not the righteous; and this was
especially what could not suit the old bottles. Finally, this
chapter practically, save the patience of goodness, closes
the history. He came to save Israel’s life. It was really death
when He came: only, wherever there was faith in the midst
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of the surrounding crowd, there was healing. e Pharisees
show the blasphemy of the leaders: only the patience of
grace still subsists, carried out towards Israel in chapter
10, but all found to be of no avail in chapter 11. e Son
was revealing the Father, and this abides and gives rest.
Chapter 12 develops fully the judgment and rejection of
Israel. Chapter 13 brings Christ as a sower, not seeking
fruit in His vineyard, and the actual form of the kingdom
of heaven.)
e healing of the leper: God manifest in grace and
goodness
First of all, we nd the healing of a leper. Jehovah alone,
in His sovereign goodness, could heal the leper; here Jesus
does so. “If thou wilt,” says the leper, “thou canst.” “I will,”
replies the Lord. But at the same time, while He shows
forth in His own Person that which repels all possibility
of delement-that which is above sin-He shows the most
perfect condescension towards the deled one. He touches
the leper, saying, “I will, be thou clean.” We see the grace,
the power, the undelable holiness of Jehovah, come down
in the Person of Jesus to the closest proximity to the sinner,
touching him, so to speak. It was indeed “the Lord that
healeth thee.”1 At the same time, He conceals Himself
and commands the man, who had been healed, to go to the
priest according to the ordinances of the law and oer his
gift. He does not go out of the place of the Jew in subjection
to the law; but Jehovah was there in goodness.<P056>
(1. One who touched a leper became himself unclean,
but the blessed One did come thus close to man, but
removed the delement without contracting it. e leper
knew His power, but was not sure of His goodness. “I will”
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87
declared it, but with a title which God only has to say “I
will.”)
Sovereign grace to a Gentile
But in the next case we see a Gentile, who by faith
enjoys the full eect of that power which his faith ascribed
to Jesus, giving the Lord occasion to bring out the solemn
truth that many of these poor Gentiles should come and sit
down in the kingdom of heaven with the fathers who were
honored by the Jewish nation as the rst parents of the
heirs of promise, while the children of the kingdom should
be in outer darkness. In fact, the faith of this centurion
acknowledged a divine power in Jesus, which, by the glory
of Him that possessed it, would (not forsake Israel, but)
open the door to the Gentiles and graft into the olive tree
of promise branches of the wild olive tree in the place of
those which should be cut o. e manner in which this
should take place in the assembly was not now the question.
Peter’s wife’s mother healed: present intervention in
temporal goodness and power
He does not, however, yet forsake Israel. He goes into
Peter’s house and heals his wife’s mother. He does the same
to all the sick who crowd around the house at even, when
the sabbath was over. ey are healed, the devils are cast out,
so that the prophecy of Isaiah was being fullled: “Himself
took our inrmities and bare our sicknesses.” Jesus put
Himself in heart under the weight of all the sorrows that
oppressed Israel, in order to relieve and heal them. It is still
Emmanuel, who feels for their misery and is aicted in all
their aiction, but who has come in with the power that
shows Him capable of delivering them.
Conscious rejection
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ese three cases show this character of His ministry
in a clear and striking manner. He hides Himself; for,
until the moment when He would show judgment to the
Gentiles, He does not lift up His voice in the streets. It
is the dove that rests upon Him. ese manifestations of
power attract men to Him; but this does not deceive Him:
He never departs in spirit from the place He has taken. He
is the despised and the rejected of men; He has nowhere
to lay His head. e earth had more room for the foxes
and the birds than for Him, whom we have seen appear
a moment before as the Lord, acknowledged at least by
the necessities which He never re<P057>fused to relieve.
erefore, if any man would follow Him, he must forsake
all to be the companion of the Lord, who would not have
come down to the earth if everything had not been in
question; nor without an absolute right, although it was, at
the same time, in a love which could only be occupied by
its mission and by the necessity that brought Him there.
e storm permitted for the trial of faith and to
manifest Christ’s dignity
e Lord on earth was everything or nothing. is, it
is true, was to be felt morally in its eects, in the grace
which, acting by faith, attached the believer to Him by an
ineable bond. Without this, the heart would not have
been morally put to the test. But this did not make it the
less true. Accordingly, the proofs of this were present: the
winds and waves, to which in the eye of man He seemed
to be exposed, obeyed His voice at once-a striking reproof
to the unbelief that woke Him from His sleep and had
supposed it possible for the waves to engulf Him, and
with Him the counsels and the power of Him who had
created the winds and waves. It is evident that this storm
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89
was permitted in order to try their faith and manifest the
dignity of His Person. If the enemy was the instrument
who produced it, he only succeeded in making the Lord
display His glory. Such indeed is always the case as to
Christ, and for us, where faith is.
Now the reality of this power and the manner of its
operation are forcibly proved by that which follows.
Divine power expels Satan’s power; the divine
presence insupportable to the world
e Lord disembarks in the country of the Gergesenes.
ere the power of the enemy shows itself in all its horrors.
If man, to whom the Lord was come in grace, did not know
Him, the devils knew their Judge in the Person of the Son
of God. e man was possessed by them. e fear they had
of torment at the judgment of the last day is applied in the
man’s mind to the immediate presence of the Lord: “Art
thou come . . . to torment us before the time?” Wicked
spirits act on men by the dread of their power; they have
none unless they are feared. But faith only can take this
fear from man. I am not speaking of the lusts on which
they act, nor of<P058> the wiles of the enemy; I speak of
the power of the enemy. Resist the devil and he will ee
from you. Here the devils wished to manifest the reality of
this power. e Lord permits it in order to make it plain,
that in this world it is not merely man that is in question
whether good or bad, but that also which is stronger than
man. e devils enter into the swine, which perish in the
waters. Sorrowful reality plainly demonstrated that it was
no question of mere disease or of sinful lusts, but of wicked
spirits! However, thanks be to God, it was a question also
of One who, although a man on earth, was more powerful
than they. ey are compelled to acknowledge this power,
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and they appeal to it. ere is no idea of resistance. In the
temptation in the wilderness Satan had been overcome.
Jesus completely delivers the man whom they had oppressed
with their evil power. e power of the devils was nothing
before Him. He could have delivered the world from all the
power of the enemy, if that only had been in question, and
from all the ills of humanity. e strong man was bound,
and the Lord spoiled his goods. But the presence of God,
of Jehovah, troubles the world even more than the power
of the enemy degrades and domineers over mind and body.
e control of the enemy over the heart-too peaceful, and
alas! too little perceived-is more mighty than his strength.
is succumbs before the word of Jesus; but the will of
man accepts the world as it is, governed by the inuence of
Satan. e whole city, who had witnessed the deliverance
of the demoniac and the power of Jesus present among
them, entreat Him to depart. Sad history of the world! e
Lord came down with power to deliver the world-man-
from all the power of the enemy; but they would not. eir
distance from God was moral, and not merely bondage to
the enemy’s power. ey submitted to his yoke, they had
become used to it, and they would not have the presence
of God.
I doubt not that that which happened to the swine is a
gure of that which happened to the impious and profane
Jews who rejected the Lord Jesus. Nothing can be more
striking than the way in which a divine Person, Emmanuel,
though a man in grace, is manifested in this chapter.<P059>
Matthew 9
91
73085
Matthew 9
Jehovah present in Israel with proof of His title to
forgive sinners in grace
In chapter 9, while acting in the character and according
to the power of Jehovah (as we read in Psalm 103), “Who
forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases,”
it is the actual grace in itself towards and for them, in
which He came, which is presented. It gives the character
of His ministry, as the previous one gives the dignity of
His Person and the bearing of what He was. He presents
Himself to Israel as their true Redeemer and Deliverer;
and, to prove His title (which unbelief already opposed) to
be this blessing to Israel and to pardon all their iniquities
which raised a barrier between them and their God, He
accomplishes the second part of the verse and heals the
disease. Beautiful and precious testimony of kindness to
Israel and, at the same time, the demonstration of His
glory who stood in the midst of His people! In the same
spirit, as He had forgiven and healed, He calls the publican
and goes to his house-come not to call the righteous, but
sinners.
e development of opposition; the rejection of the
Lord’s work and Person
But now we enter on another portion of the instruction
in this Gospel-the development of the opposition of
unbelievers, of the learned men and the religionists in
particular; and that of the rejection of the work and Person
of the Lord.
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e idea, the picture of that which took place, has been
already set before us in the case of the Gergesene demoniac-
the power of God present for the entire deliverance of His
people, of the world, if they received Him-power which the
devils confessed to be that which should hereafter judge
and cast them out, which displayed itself in blessing to all
the people of the place, but which was rejected, because
they did not desire such power to dwell among them. ey
would not have the presence of God.
e rejection of God’s intervention on earth
e narration of the details and the character of this
rejection now commences. Observe that chapter 8:1-27
gives the <P060>manifestation of the Lord’s power-this
power being truly that of Jehovah on the earth. From verse
28 the reception this power met with in the world and the
inuence which governed the world are set forth, whether
as power or morally in the hearts of men.
We come here to the historical development of the
rejection of this intervention of God upon the earth.
e multitude glorify God who had given such power to
a man. Jesus accepts this place. He was man: the multitude
saw Him to be man and acknowledged the power of God,
but did not know how to combine the two ideas in His
Person.
God manifest in grace to sinners
e grace which contemns the pretensions of man to
righteousness is now set forth.
Matthew, the publican, is called; for God looks at the
heart, and grace calls the elect vessels.
e Lord declares the mind of God on this subject and
His own mission. He came to call sinners; He would have
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93
mercy. It was God in grace, and not man with his pretended
righteousness counting on his merits.
New principles and new power
He assigns two reasons which make it impossible to
reconcile His course with the demands of the Pharisees.
How should the disciples fast when the Bridegroom was
there? When the Messiah was gone, they might well do so.
Moreover, it is impossible to introduce the new principles
and the new power of His mission into the old Pharisaic
forms.
Life given to the dead, proof that Jehovah was there
in grace
us we have grace to sinners, but (grace rejected) now
comes at once a higher proof that Messiah-Jehovah was
there, and there in grace. Being entreated to raise up a
young girl from her bed of death, He obeys the call. As
He goes, a poor woman, who had already employed every
means of cure without success, is instantaneously healed by
touching, in faith, the hem of His garment.<P061>
Christ the power for dead Israel and for individual
faith; the Pharisees’ wickedness
is history supplies us with the two great divisions
of the grace that was manifested in Jesus. Christ came to
awaken dead Israel; He will do this hereafter in the full
sense of the word. Meanwhile, whosoever laid hold of Him
by faith, in the midst of the multitude that accompanied
Him, was healed, let the case be ever so hopeless. is,
which took place in Israel when Jesus was there, is true in
principle of us also. Grace in Jesus is a power which raises
from the dead and which heals. us He opened the eyes
of those in Israel who owned Him to be the Son of David
and who believed in His power to meet their need. He cast
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out devils also and gave speech to the dumb. But having
performed these acts of power in Israel, so that the people,
as to the fact, owned them with admiration, the Pharisees,
the most religious part of the nation, ascribe this power
to the prince of the devils. Such is the eect of the Lord’s
presence on the leaders of the people, jealous of His glory
thus manifested among them over whom they exercised
their inuence. But this in no way interrupts Jesus in His
career of benecence. He can still bear testimony among
the people. In spite of the Pharisees, His patient kindness
still nds place. He continues to preach and to heal. He has
compassion on the people, who were like sheep without a
shepherd, given up, morally, to their own guidance. He still
sees that the harvest is plenteous and the laborers few. at
is to say, He still sees every door open to address the people
and He passes over the wickedness of the Pharisees.
e patience and kindness of grace
Let us sum up what we nd in the chapter, the grace
developed in Israel. First, grace healing and forgiving as
in Psalm 103. en grace come to call sinners, not the
righteous; the bridegroom was there, nor could grace in
power be put in Jewish and Pharisaic vessels; it was new
even in respect of John the Baptist. He comes in reality to
give life to the dead, not to heal, but whoever then touched
Him by faith-for there were such-were healed in the way.
He opens eyes to see, as Son of David, and opens the dumb
mouth of him whom the devil possessed. All is rejected
with blasphemy by the self-righteous Pharisees. But grace
sees the <P062>multitude as yet as having no shepherd;
and while the porter holds the door open, He ceases not to
seek and minister to the sheep.
Matthew 10
95
73086
Matthew 10
e twelve disciples sent to the lost sheep of Israel;
their message and authority
So long as God gives Him access to the people, He
continues His labor of love. Nevertheless, He was conscious
of the iniquity that governed the people, although He did
not seek His own glory. Having exhorted His disciples
to pray that laborers might be sent into the harvest, He
begins (ch. 10) to act in accordance with that desire. He
calls His twelve disciples, He gives them power to cast
out devils and to heal the sick, and He sends them to the
lost sheep of the house of Israel. We see, in this mission,
how much the ways of God with Israel form the subject of
this Gospel. ey were to announce to that people, and to
them exclusively, the nearness of the kingdom, exercising
at the same time the power they had received: a striking
testimony to Him who was come and who could not only
work miracles Himself, but confer power on others to do
so likewise. He gave them authority over evil spirits for this
purpose. It is this which characterizes the kingdom-man
healed of all sickness and the devil cast out. Accordingly,
in Hebrews 6, miracles are called “the powers of the world
to come.”1
(1. For then Satan will be bound and man delivered by
the power of Christ. And there were partial deliverances of
the kind.)
Dependence for their need; acceptance or rejection as
the King’s messengers
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ey were also, with respect to their need, to depend
entirely on Him who sent them. Emmanuel was there. If
miracles were a proof to the world of their Master’s power,
the fact that they lacked nothing should be so to their own
hearts. e ordinance was abrogated during that period of
their ministry which followed the departure of Jesus from
this world (Luke 22:35-37). at which He here (Matt.
10) commands His disciples appertains to His presence
as Messiah, as Jehovah Himself, on the earth. erefore
the reception of His messengers, or their rejection,
de<P063>cided the fate of those to whom they were sent.
In rejecting them they rejected the Lord, Emmanuel, God
with His people.1 But, in fact, He sent them forth as sheep
in the midst of wolves. ey would need the wisdom of
serpents and were to exhibit the harmlessness of doves
(rare union of virtues, found only in those who, by the
Spirit of the Lord, are wise unto that which is good and
simple concerning evil).
(1. ere is a division of the Lord’s discourse at verse 15.
Up to that, it is the then present mission. From verse 16 we
have more general reections on their mission, looked at
as a whole in the midst of Israel on to the end. Evidently
it goes beyond their then present mission and supposes
the coming of the Holy Spirit. e mission by which the
church is called as such is a distinct thing. is applies
only to Israel; they were forbidden to go to Gentiles. is
necessarily closed with the destruction of Jerusalem and
the dispersion of the Jewish nation, but it is to be renewed
at the end, till the Son of Man be come. ere was a
testimony to the Gentiles only, as brought before them as
judges, as Paul was, and that part of his history even on to
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Rome in Acts, was amid Jews. e latter part, from verse
16, has less to do with the gospel of the kingdom.)
If they did not beware of men (sad testimony as to
these), they would but suer; but when scourged and
brought before councils and governors and kings, all this
should become a testimony unto them-a divine means of
presenting the gospel of the kingdom to kings and princes,
without altering its character or accommodating it to the
world, or mixing up the Lord’s people with its usages and
its false greatness. Moreover, circumstances like these made
their testimony much more conspicuous than association
with the great ones of the earth would have done.
Help and encouragement
And, to accomplish this, they should receive such power
and guidance from the Spirit of their Father as would cause
the words they spoke to be not their own words, but His
who inspired them. Here, again, their relation with their
Father, which so distinctly characterizes the sermon on the
Mount, is made the basis of their capacity for the service
they had to perform. We must remember that this testimony
was addressed to Israel only; only that, Israel being under
the yoke of the Gentiles since the time of Nebuchadnezzar,
the testimony would reach their rulers.<P064>
Rejection of the message foreseen; the testimony to
be resumed in Israel
But this testimony would excite an opposition that
should break all family ties and awaken a hatred that would
not spare the life of those who had been the most beloved.
He who in spite of all this should endure to the end should
be saved. Nevertheless, the case was urgent. ey were not
to resist, but if the opposition took the form of persecution,
they were to ee and preach the gospel elsewhere, for
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before they had gone over the cities of Israel the Son of
Man should come.1ey were to proclaim the kingdom.
Jehovah, Emmanuel, was there, in the midst of His people,
and the heads of the people had called the master of the
house Beelzebub. is had not stopped His testimony,
but it very strongly characterized the circumstances in
which this testimony was to be rendered. He sent them
forth, warning them of this state of things, to maintain
this nal testimony among His beloved people as long as
possible. is took place at that time, and it is possible, if
circumstances permit, to carry it on until the Son of Man
comes to execute judgment. en the master of the house
will have risen up to shut the door. e “today” of Psalm
95 will be over. Israel in possession of their cities being
the object of this testimony, it is necessarily suspended
when they are no longer in their land. e testimony to
the future kingdom, given in Israel by the apostles after the
Lord’s<P065> death, is an accomplishment of this mission,
so far as this testimony was rendered in the land of Israel;
for the kingdom might be proclaimed as to be established
while Emmanuel was on the earth; or this might be by
Christ’s returning from heaven as announced by Peter in
Acts 3. And this might take place if Israel were in the land,
even until Christ should return. us the testimony may
be resumed in Israel, whenever they are again in their land
and the requisite spiritual power is sent forth by God.
(1. Observe here the expression “Son of Man.” is is
the character in which (according to Daniel 7) the Lord
will come, in a power and glory much greater than that
of His manifestation as Messiah, the Son of David, and
which will be displayed in a much wider sphere. As the Son
of Man, He is the heir of all that God destines for man.
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99
(See Hebrews 2:6-8 and 1Corinthians 15:27.) He must, in
consequence, seeing what man’s condition is, suer in order
to possess this inheritance. He was there as the Messiah,
but he must be received in His true character, Emmanuel;
and the Jews must thus be tested morally. He will not have
the kingdom on carnal principles. Rejected as Messiah,
as Emmanuel, He postpones the period of those events
which will close the ministry of His disciples with respect
to Israel unto His coming as the Son of Man. Meantime,
God has brought out other things, that had been hidden
from the foundation of the world, the true glory of Jesus
the Son of God, His heavenly glory as man and the church
united to Him in heaven. e judgment of Jerusalem and
the dispersion of the nation have suspended the ministry
which had begun at the moment of which the evangelist
here speaks. at which has lled up the interval since then
is not the subject here of the Lord’s discourse, which refers
solely to the ministry that had the Jews for its object. e
counsels of God with respect to the church, in connection
with the glory of Jesus at the right hand of God, we shall
nd spoken of elsewhere.
Luke will give us in more detail that which concerns the
Son of Man. In Matthew the Holy Spirit occupies us with
the rejection of Emmanuel.)
e position of God’s witnesses on earth; Christ the
touchstone
Meanwhile, the disciples were to share in Christ’s own
position. If they called the master of the house Beelzebub,
much more they of His household. But they were not to
fear. It was the necessary portion of those who were for
God in the midst of the people. But there was nothing
hid that should not be revealed. ey themselves were to
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hold nothing back, but were to proclaim on the housetops
all that they had been taught; for everything should be
brought into the light; their faithfulness to God in this
respect, as well as all other things. is, while it met the
secret plottings of their enemies, was itself to characterize
the ways of the disciples. God, who is light, and sees in
darkness as in light, would bring all out into the light, but
they were to do this morally now. erefore were they to
fear nothing while performing this work, unless it were
God Himself, the righteous Judge at the last day. Moreover,
the hairs of their heads were numbered. ey were precious
to their Father, who took notice of even a sparrow’s death.
is could not happen without Him who was their Father.
Finally, they were to be thoroughly imbued with the
conviction that the Lord was not come to send peace on
the earth; no, it should be division, even in the bosom of
families. But Christ was to be more precious than father or
mother, and even than a man’s own life. He who would save
his life at the expense of his testimony to Christ should
lose it; he who would lose it for the sake of Christ should
gain it. He also who should receive this testimony, in the
person of the disciples, received Christ, and, in Christ, Him
that sent Him. God, therefore, being thus acknowledged
in the person of His witnesses on earth, would bestow,
on whoever received the latter, a reward according to the
testimony<P066> rendered. In thus acknowledging the
testimony of the rejected Lord, were it only by a cup of
cold water, he who gave it should not lose his reward. In
an opposing world, he who believes the testimony of God,
and receives (in spite of the world) the man who bears this
testimony, really confesses God, as well as His servant. It
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is all that we can do. e rejection of Christ made Him a
test, a touchstone.
e judgment of the nation decided
From that hour we nd the denitive judgment of
the nation, not indeed as yet openly declared (that is in
chapter 12), nor by the cessation of Christ’s ministry,
which wrought, notwithstanding the opposition of the
nation, in gathering out the remnant, and in the still more
important eect of the manifestation of Emmanuel; but
it is unfolded in the character of His discourses, in the
positive declarations which describe the condition of the
people, and in the Lord’s conduct amid circumstances
which gave rise to the expression of the relations in which
He stood towards them.
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73087
Matthew 11
John the Baptist’s question; the Lord’s true testimony
as to Himself
In chapter 11, having sent His disciples away to preach,
He continues the exercise of His own ministry. e report
of the works of Christ reaches John in prison. He, in
whose heart, notwithstanding his prophetic gift, there still
remained something of Jewish thoughts and hopes, sends
by his disciples to ask Jesus if He is the One who should
come, or if they were still to look for another.1 God allowed
this question in order to put everything in its place. Christ,
being the Word of God, ought to be His own witness. He
ought to bear testimony to Himself as well as to John, and
not to receive testimony from the latter; and this He did in
the presence of John’s disciples. He healed all the diseases
of men and preached the gospel to the poor; and John’s
messengers were to set before him this true testimony of
what Jesus was. John was to receive it.<P067> It was by
these things men were tested. Blessed was he who should
not be oended at the lowly exterior of the King of Israel.
God manifest in the esh did not come to seek the pomp
of royalty, although it was His due, but the deliverance of
suering men. His work revealed a character much more
profoundly divine, which had a spring of action far more
glorious than that which depended on the possession of
the throne of David-than a deliverance which would have
set John at liberty and put an end to the tyranny that had
imprisoned him.
Matthew 11
103
(1. His sending to Jesus shows full condence in His
word as a prophet, but ignorance as to His Person; and this
is what is brought out here in its full light.)
To undertake this ministry, to go down into the scene
of its exercise, to bear the sorrows and the burdens of His
people, might be an occasion of stumbling to a carnal heart
that was looking for the appearance of a glorious kingdom
which would satisfy the pride of Israel. But was it not more
truly divine, more necessary to the condition of the people
as seen of God? e heart of each one therefore would be
thus tested, to show whether he belonged to that repentant
remnant, who discerned the ways of God, or to the proud
multitude, who only sought their own glory, possessing
neither a conscience exercised before God nor a sense of
their need and misery.
e Lord’s witness to John and his testimony to the
coming kingdom
Having set John under the responsibility of receiving
this testimony, which put all Israel to the test and
distinguished the remnant from the nation in general, the
Lord then bears witness to John himself, addressing the
multitude and reminding them how they had followed the
preaching of John. He shows them the exact point to which
Israel had come in the ways of God. e introduction, in
testimony, of the kingdom made the dierence between
that which preceded and that which followed. Among all
that are born of women there had been none greater than
John the Baptist, none who had been so near Jehovah, sent
before His face, none who had rendered Him a more exact
and complete testimony, who had been so separate from
all evil by the power of the Spirit of God-a separation
proper to the fulllment of such a mission among the
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people of God. Still he had not been in the kingdom: it
was not yet established; and to be in the presence of Christ
in His kingdom, enjoying the result of the establishment
of<P068> His glory,1 was a greater thing than all testimony
to the coming of the kingdom.
(1. is is not God’s assembly; but the rights of the King
as manifested in glory being established, the foundation
being laid, Christians are in the kingdom, although in a
very peculiar and exceptional manner, because they are
in the kingdom and the patience of Jesus Christ, who is
gloried but hidden in God. ey share the destiny of the
King and will share His glory when He reigns. )
e kingdom announced and preached but not yet
established
Nevertheless, from the time of John the Baptist there
was a notable change. From that time the kingdom was
announced. It was not established, but it was preached. is
was a very dierent thing from the prophecies that spoke
of the kingdom for a yet distant period, while recalling the
people to the law as given by Moses. e Baptist went before
the King, announcing the nearness of the kingdom and
commanding the Jews to repent that they might enter into
it. us the law and the prophets spake on God’s part until
John. e law was the rule; the prophets, maintaining the
rule, strengthened the hopes and the faith of the remnant.
Now, the energy of the Spirit impelled men to force their
way through every diculty and all the opposition of the
leaders of the nation and of a blinded people that they
might at all costs attain the kingdom of a king rejected by
the blind unbelief of those who should have received Him.
It needed-seeing that the King had come in humiliation
Matthew 11
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and that He had been rejected-it needed this violence to
enter the kingdom. e strait gate was the only entrance.
John as the Elias who should come
If faith could really penetrate the mind of God therein,
John was the Elias who should come. He that had ears to
hear, let him hear. It was, in fact, for those only.
Had the kingdom appeared in the glory and in the
power of its Head, violence would not have been necessary;
it would have been possessed as the certain eect of that
power; but it was the will of God that they should morally
be tested. It was thus also that they ought to have received
Elias in spirit.<P069>
e character of “this generation” manifested by its
rejection of Jesus
e result is given in the Lord’s words which follow,
that is, the true character of this generation, and the ways of
God in relation to the Person of Jesus, manifested by His
rejection itself. As a generation, the threatenings of justice
and the attractions of grace were equally lost upon them.
e children of wisdom, those whose consciences were
taught of God, acknowledged the truth of John’s testimony,
as against themselves, and the grace, so necessary to the
guilty, of the ways of Jesus.
e Lord’s righteous rebuke of their folly given in
warning
John, separate from the iniquity of the nation, had, in
their eyes, a devil. Jesus, kind to the most wretched, they
accused of falling in with evil ways. Yet the evidence was
powerful enough to have subdued the heart of a Tyre
or Sodom; and the righteous rebuke of the Lord warns
the perverse and unbelieving nation of a more terrible
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judgment than that which awaited the pride of Tyre or the
corruption of Sodom.
But this was a test for the most favored of mankind. It
might have been said, Why was the message not sent to
Tyre, ready to hearken? Why not to Sodom, that that city
might have escaped the re that consumed it? It is that
man must be tested in every way that the perfect counsels
of God may be developed. If Tyre or Sodom had abused
the advantages which a God of creation and of providence
had heaped upon them, the Jews were to manifest what
was in the heart of man, when possessing all the promises
and made the depositaries of all the oracles of God.
ey boasted of the gift and departed from the Giver.
eir blinded heart acknowledged not and even rejected
their God.
e people’s contempt felt by the Lord but accepted
as His Father’s will
e Lord felt the contempt of His people whom He
loved; but, as the obedient man on earth, He submitted
to the will of His Father, who, acting in sovereignty, the
Lord of heaven and earth, manifested, in the exercise of
this sovereignty, divine wisdom and the perfection of His
character. Jesus accepts the will of His Father in its eects,
and, thus subject, sees its perfection.<P070>
God’s revelation to the lowly; the glory of God’s
counsels
It was betting that God should reveal to the lowly all
the gifts of His grace in Jesus, this Emmanuel on earth;
and that He should hide them from the pride that sought
to scrutinize and to judge them. But this opens the door to
the glory of God’s counsels in it.
Matthew 11
107
e truth was that His Person was too glorious to be
fathomed or understood by man, although His words and
His works left the nation without excuse, in their refusal to
come unto Him that they might know the Father.
Jesus, subject to His Father’s will, although thoroughly
sensible of all that was painful to His heart in its eects,
sees the whole extent of the glory that should follow His
rejection.
e revelation of the Son to faith and the revelation
of the Father by the Son
All things were delivered unto Him of His Father. It is
the Son who is revealed to our faith, the veil that covered
His glory being taken away now that He is rejected as
Messiah. No one knows Him but the Father. Who among
the proud could fathom what He was? He who from all
eternity was one with the Father, become man, surpassed,
in the deep mystery of His being, all knowledge save that
of the Father Himself. e impossibility of knowing Him
who had emptied Himself to become man maintained
the certainty, the reality, of His divinity, which this self-
renunciation might have hidden from the eyes of unbelief.
e incomprehensibility of a being in a nite form revealed
the innite which was therein. His divinity was guaranteed
to faith, against the eect of His humanity on the mind of
man. But if no one knew the Son, except the Father only,
the Son, who is truly God, was able to reveal the Father.
No man has ever seen God. e only begotten Son, who
is in the bosom of the Father, has revealed Him. No one
knows the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son
will reveal Him. Wretched ignorance that, in its pride,
rejects Him! It was thus according to the good pleasure of
the Son that this revelation was made. Distinctive attribute
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of divine perfection! He came for this purpose; He did it
according to His own wisdom. Such was the truth of man’s
relations with Him, although He submitted to the painful
humiliation of being<P071> rejected by His own people, as
the nal test of their-of man’s-state.
e door opened to the Gentiles
Observe also here that this principle, this truth, with
regard to Christ, opens the door to the Gentiles, to all who
should be called. He reveals the Father to whomsoever He
will. He always seeks the glory of His Father. He alone
can reveal Him-He to whom the Father, the Lord of
heaven and earth, has delivered all things. e Gentiles are
included in the rights conferred by this title, even every
family in heaven and earth. Christ exercises these rights
in grace, calling whom He will to the knowledge of the
Father.
ose who refused the Revealer left in total ignorance
us we nd here the perverse and faithless generation;
a remnant of the nation justifying the wisdom of God as
manifested in John and in Jesus in judgment and in grace;
the sentence of judgment on the unbelievers; the rejection
of Jesus in the character in which He had presented Himself
to the nation; and His perfect submission, as man, to the
will of His Father in this rejection, giving occasion for the
manifestation to His soul of the glory proper to Him as
Son of God-a glory which no man could know, even as
He alone could reveal that of the Father. So that the world
who refused Him was in total ignorance, save at the good
pleasure of Him who delights in revealing the Father.
e disciples’ mission to Israel continues
until the coming of the Lord in judgment
Matthew 11
109
We should also remark here that the mission of the
disciples to Israel who rejected Christ continues (if Israel
be in the land) until He comes as the Son of Man, His
title of judgment and of glory as heir of all things (that is
to say, until the judgment by which He takes possession of
the land of Canaan, in a power that leaves no room for His
enemies). is, His title of judgment and glory as heir of
all things, is mentioned in John 5, Daniel 7, Psalm 8 and
Psalm 80.<P072>
Sovereign grace; the place of perfect rest to the heart
Observe too that in chapter 11, the perverseness of the
generation that had rejected John’s testimony, and that of
the Son of Man come in grace and associating Himself
in grace with the Jews, opens the door to the testimony
of the glory of the Son of God and to the revelation of
the Father by Him in sovereign grace-a grace that could
make Him known as ecaciously to a poor Gentile as to a
Jew. It was no longer a question of responsibility to receive,
but of sovereign grace that imparted to whomsoever it
would. Jesus knew man, the world, the generation which
had enjoyed the greatest advantages of all that were in the
world. ere was no place for the foot to rest on in the
miry slough of that which had departed from God. In the
midst of a world of evil, Jesus remained the sole revealer
of the Father, the source of all good. Whom does He call?
What does He bestow on those who come? Only source of
blessing and revealer of the Father, He calls all those who
are weary and heavy laden. Perhaps they did not know the
spring of all misery, namely, separation from God, sin. He
knew, and He alone could heal them. If it was the sense
of sin which burdened them, so much the better. Every
way the world no longer satised their hearts; they were
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miserable, and therefore the objects of the heart of Jesus.
Moreover, He would give them rest; He does not here
explain by what means; He simply announces the fact. e
love of the Father, which in grace, in the Person of the Son,
sought out the wretched, would bestow rest (not merely
alleviation or sympathy, but rest) on everyone that came
to Jesus. It was the perfect revelation of the Father’s name
to the heart of those that needed it; and that by the Son-
peace, peace with God. ey had but to come to Christ: He
undertook all and gave rest. But there is a second element
in rest. ere is more than peace through the knowledge of
the Father in Jesus. And more than that is needed; for, even
when the soul is perfectly at peace with God, this world
presents many causes of trouble to the heart. In these cases
it is a question of submission or of self-will. Christ, in the
consciousness of His rejection, in the deep sorrow caused
by the unbelief of the cities in which He had wrought
so many miracles, had just manifested the most entire
submission to His Father and had found therein perfect
rest to His soul. To this He calls all that heard Him, all
that felt the need of rest to their<P073> own souls. “Take
my yoke upon you, and learn of me,” that is to say, the yoke
of entire submission to His Father’s will, learning of Him
how to meet the troubles of life; for He was “meek and
lowly in heart,” content to be in the lowest place at the will
of His God. In fact, nothing can overthrow one who is
there. It is the place of perfect rest to the heart.
Matthew 12
111
73088
Matthew 12
e nation’s rejection plainly shown; a new position
in sovereign grace
At length the rejection of the nation, in consequence
of their contempt of the Lord, is plainly shown, as well
as the cessation of all His relations with them as such,
in order to bring out, on God’s part, an entirely dierent
system, that is to say, the kingdom in a particular form.
us this last chapter is the great turning point of the
whole history. Christ is a divine witness to Himself, and
John the Baptist has so to receive Him, as another would.
He stood no longer as Messiah witnessed to, but as Son of
God, but gives His full testimony to John. But the nation
had rejected God manifested in warnings and grace alike:
only there was a remnant. Wisdom was justied of her
children. en comes His submission to His rejection,
evil as it might be, as the Father’s will; but this leads Him
out into the consciousness of His personal glory, the real
ground of that rejection. All things were delivered to Him
of His Father. None could know Him, nor any the Father
unless He revealed Him. e whole world, tested by His
perfection, was found lying in wickedness (though with a
spared remnant), but man was universally away from God.
He looked down from heaven to see, as we read, but they
were all gone out of the way, none righteous, no, not one.
So Jesus, as He walked on the sea, stood alone in a judged
world, judged by His rejection, but now in the sovereign
grace of the Father, as the Son revealing Him, and calling
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to the revelation of this grace in Himself. is is just now
the new position. He had tried man.
e very thing that He was, hindered their receiving
Him. Now he that was weary must come to Him who
stood thus alone, and He would give them rest. ey must
learn of Him who thus had absolutely submitted, and they
would have rest as to the world<P074> and everything
here. So with us: where we wholly bow, we come into the
conscious possession of our privileges as disowned, on the
heavenly and higher ground.
e Son of Man as Lord of the sabbath
e rst circumstance that brought forward the question
of His Person and of His right to close the dispensation was
the disciples’ plucking the ears of corn and crushing them
in their hands to satisfy their hunger. For this the Pharisees
rebuke them, because it was on a sabbath day. Jesus sets
before them that the king, rejected by the malice of Saul,
had partaken of that which was only given to the priests. e
Son of David, in a similar case, might well enjoy a similar
privilege. Besides, God was acting in grace. e priest also
profaned the sabbath in the service of the temple; and One
greater than the temple was there. Moreover, if they had
really known the mind of God, if they had been imbued
with the Spirit which His Word declared to be acceptable
to Him-“I will have mercy and not sacrice”-they would
not have condemned the guiltless. In addition to this, the
Son of Man was Lord even of the sabbath. Here He no
longer takes the title of Messiah, but that of Son of Man-a
name which bore witness to a new order of things and to a
more extended power. Now that which He said had great
signicance; for the sabbath was the token of the covenant
between Jehovah and the nation (Ezek. 20:12-20); and the
Matthew 12
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Son of Man was declaring His power over it. If that was
touched, it was all over with the covenant.
e Pharisees’ persistent hatred; the Lord’s position
e same question arises in the synagogue; and the
Lord persists in acting in grace and in doing good, showing
them that they would do the same for one of their sheep.
is only excites their hatred, great as was the proof of His
benecent power. ey were children of the murderer. Jesus
withdraws from them, and great multitudes follow Him.
He heals them, charging them not to make Him known.
In all this, however, His doings were but the fulllment
of a prophecy which clearly traces out the Lord’s position
at this time. e hour would come when He should bring
forth judgment unto victory. Meanwhile, He retained the
position of entire lowliness, in which grace and truth could
commend<P075> themselves to those who appreciated
and needed them. But in the exercise of this grace and
in His testimony to the truth, He would do nothing to
falsify this character, or so to attract the attention of men
as to prevent His true work, or which could make it even
suspected that He sought His own honor. Nevertheless, the
Spirit of Jehovah was upon Him as His beloved, in whom
His soul delighted; and He should declare judgment to
the Gentiles, and they should put their trust in His name.
e application of this prophecy to Jesus at that moment
is very evident. We see how guarded He was with the Jews,
abstaining from the gratication of their carnal desires
respecting Himself, and content to be in the background, if
God His Father was gloried; and glorifying Him perfectly
Himself on the earth by doing good. He was soon to be
declared to the Gentiles; whether by the execution of the
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judgment of God or by presenting Himself to them as the
One in whom they should trust.
is passage is manifestly placed here by the Holy Spirit
in order to give the exact representation of His position,
before laying open the new scenes which His rejection
prepares for us.
e blindness of the religionists; the power of
Beelzebub; sealing their own condition
He then casts out a devil from a man who was blind and
dumb- a sad condition, truly depicting that of the people
with respect to God. e multitude, full of admiration,
exclaim, “Is not this the Son of David?” But the religionists,
on hearing it, jealous of the Lord and hostile to the
testimony of God, declare that Jesus wrought this miracle
by the power of Beelzebub, thus sealing their own condition
and putting themselves under the denitive judgment of
God. Jesus demonstrates the absurdity of what they had
said. Satan would not destroy his own kingdom. eir own
children, who had the pretension to do the same, should
judge their iniquity. But if not the power of Satan (and
the Pharisees admitted that the devils were really cast out),
it was the nger of God, and the kingdom of God was
among them.
He who had come into the strong man’s house to spoil
his goods had rst to bind him.<P076>
e unpardonable sin; deciding their own fate
e truth is that the presence of Jesus put everything
to the test; everything on God’s part was centered in Him.
It is Emmanuel Himself who was there. He who was not
with Him was against Him. He who did not gather with
Him scattered. Everything now depended on Him alone.
He would bear with all unbelief as to His own Person.
Matthew 12
115
Grace could not remove that. He could pardon all sin; but
to speak against and blaspheme the Holy Spirit (that is, to
acknowledge the exercise of a power, which is that of God,
and to attribute it to Satan) could not be pardoned; for
the Pharisees admitted that the devil was cast out, and it
was only with malice, with open-eyed, deliberate hatred
to God, that they attributed it to Satan. And what pardon
could there be for this? ere was none either in the age of
the law1 or in that of the Messiah. e fate of those who
thus acted was decided. is the Lord would have them
understand. e fruit proved the nature of the tree. It was
essentially bad. ey were a generation of vipers. John had
told them the same. eir words condemned them. Upon
this the scribes and Pharisees asked for a sign. is was
nothing but wickedness. ey had had signs enough. It was
only stirring up the unbelief of the rest.
(1. Take notice of this expression. We see the manner
in which the Holy Spirit passes on from the time then
present to the Jews, which would soon end, to the time
when the Messiah would set up His kingdom, their “world
[age] to come.” We have a position outside all this, during
the suspension of the public establishment of the kingdom.
e apostles even did but preach or announce it; they did
not establish it. eir miracles were “the powers of the age
to come.” (Compare 1Peter 1:11-13.) is, as we shall see
by and by, is of great importance. us also with regard to
the new covenant, of which Paul was the minister; and yet
he did not establish it with Judah and Israel.)
e Pharisees’ request granted; the sign of judgment
given; their condemnation by the Gentiles
is request gives the Lord occasion to pronounce the
judgment of this generation.
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ere should be only the sign of Jonah for this evil
generation. As Jonah was three days and three nights in
the belly of the sh, so should the Son of Man be three
days and three nights in the heart of the earth. But then lo!
Christ was already rejected.
e Ninevites by their conduct should condemn this
generation in the day of judgment, because they repented
at the preaching of<P077> Jonah; and a greater than
Jonah was here. e queen of the south likewise testied
against the wickedness of this perverse generation. Her
heart, attracted by the report of Solomon’s wisdom, had
led her to him from the uttermost parts of the earth; and
a greater than Solomon was here. Poor, ignorant Gentiles
understood the wisdom of God in His Word, whether by
the prophet or the king, better than His beloved people,
even when the great King and Prophet was among them.
Israel’s judgment pronounced
is was then His judgment: the unclean spirit (of
idolatry) which had gone out of the people, nding no rest
away from Israel (alas! its true house, whereas they ought
to have been the house of God), should return with seven
spirits worse than itself. ey would nd the house empty,
swept and garnished; and the last state should be worse
than the rst. What a solemn judgment of the people
was this-that those among whom Jehovah had walked
should become the habitation of an unclean spirit, of a
superabundance of unclean spirits; not merely of seven,
the complete number, but together with these (who would
incite them all to madness against God and those who
honored God, thus leading them to their own destruction)
that other unclean spirit also, who would draw them back
Matthew 12
117
into the wretched idolatry from which they had escaped!
Israel’s judgment was pronounced.
Natural bonds publicly broken; new ones
acknowledged
In conclusion Jesus publicly breaks the bonds that
naturally existed between Himself and the people after
the esh, acknowledging those only which were formed by
the Word of God and manifested by doing the will of His
Father which was in heaven. ose persons only would He
acknowledge as His relations who were formed after the
pattern of the sermon on the Mount.
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73089
Matthew 13
A new position, a new work as the Sower to produce
fruit
His actions and His words after this bear witness to
the new work which He was really doing on the earth. He
leaves (chapter 13) the house and sits beside the lake. He
takes a new <P078>position outside to proclaim to the
multitude that which was His true work. A sower went
forth to sow.
e Lord was no longer seeking fruit in His vine. It had
been requisite according to God’s relations with Israel that
He should seek this fruit; but His true service, He well
knew, was to bring that which could produce fruit, and not
to nd any in men.
It is important to remark here that the Lord speaks of
the visible and outward eect of His work as a Sower. e
only occasion here on which He expresses His judgment as
to the inward cause is when He says, “ey had no root”;
and even here it is a matter of fact. e doctrines respecting
the divine operation needed for the production of fruit are
not here spoken of. It is the Sower who is displayed, and
the result of His sowing, not that which causes the seed
to germinate in the earth. In each case, except the rst, a
certain eect is produced.
e Lord is then here presented as commencing a work
which is independent of all former relation between God
and men, bearing with Him the seed of the Word, which
He sows in the heart by His ministry. Where it abides,
where it is understood, where it is neither choked nor dried
Matthew 13
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up, it produces fruit to His glory and to the happiness and
prot of the man who bears it.
Distinction made between the remnant and the
nation; the reason for the Lord’s use of parables
In verse 11 the Lord shows the reason why He speaks
enigmatically to the multitude. A distinction is now
denitely made between the remnant and the nation: the
latter was under the judgment of blindness pronounced by
the prophet Esaias. Blessed were the eyes of the disciples
which saw the Emmanuel, the Messiah, the object of the
hopes and desires of so many prophets and righteous men.
All this marks judgment, and a called and spared remnant.1
(1. Compare Mark 4:33-34. It was adapted to all if they
had ears to hear, but was darkness to the willful.)
e character of the classes to whom the Word comes
I would now make a few remarks on the character of
the persons of whom the Lord speaks in the parable.
When the Word is sown in a heart that does not
understand it,<P079> when it produces no relation of
intelligence, of feeling, or of conscience between the heart
and God, the enemy takes it away: it does not remain in
the heart. He who heard it is not the less guilty: that which
was sown in his heart was adapted to every need, to the
nature and to the condition of man.
e immediate reception of the Word with joy, in the
next case, tends rather to prove that the heart will not
retain it; for it is scarcely probable in such a case that the
conscience was reached. A conscience touched by the
Word makes a man serious; he sees himself in the presence
of God, which is always a serious thing, whatever may be
the attraction of His grace or the hope inspired by His
goodness. If the conscience has not been reached, there is no
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root. e Word was received for the joy it imparted; when
it brings tribulation, it is given up. When the conscience
has been already exercised, the gospel brings at once joy;
but when not, it awakens the conscience where there is a
real work. In the rst case it is the answer to and meets the
wants already there. In the second it creates those wants.
Every day’s history is, alas! the sad and best explanation
of the third class. ere is no ill will; there is barrenness.
e Word understood; the true knowledge of God is
eternal life
at the Word was understood is only armed of those
who bear fruit. e true understanding of the Word brings
a soul into connection with God, because the Word reveals
God-expresses what He is. If I understand it, I know Him;
and the true knowledge of God (that is, of the Father and
of His Son Jesus Christ) is eternal life. Now, whatever
may be the degree of light, it is always God thus revealed
who is made known by the Word that Jesus sows. us,
being begotten of the Word, we shall produce, in diverse
measures, the fruits of the life of God in this world. For
the subject here is the eect, in this world, of the reception
of the truth brought by Jesus (not heaven, nor that which
God does in the heart to make the seed bear fruit).
e parable of the Sower as the great principle of
Christ’s service
is parable does not speak, as a similitude, of the
kingdom,<P080> though the Word sown was the word of
the kingdom, but of the great elementary principle of the
service of Christ in the universality of its application, and
as it was realized in His own Person and service while on
the earth, and after He was gone, though fuller subjects of
grace might then be brought out.
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121
Similitudes of the kingdom characterized by the
King’s absence; their two divisions
In the six following parables we nd similitudes of
the kingdom. We must remember that it is the kingdom
established during the rejection of the King,1 and which
consequently has a peculiar character. at is to say, it is
characterized by the absence of the King, adding to this, in
the explanation of the rst parable, the eect of His return.
(1. Remark here that chapter 12 having brought before
us the judgment of the Jewish people, we have now the
kingdom as it is in the absence of the King, chapter 13; the
assembly as built by Christ, chapter 16; and the kingdom
in glory, chapter 17.)
e rst three of these six parables present the kingdom
in its outward forms in the world. ey are addressed to the
multitude. e last three present the kingdom according to
the estimate of the Holy Spirit, according to the reality
of its character as seen by God-the mind and counsel of
God in it. ey are addressed consequently to the disciples
alone. e public establishment of the kingdom in the
righteousness and power of God is also announced to the
latter, in the explanation of the parable of the tares.
e outward form of the kingdom
Let us consider rst the exterior of the kingdom publicly
announced to the multitude-the outward form which the
kingdom would assume.
We must remember that the King, that is, the Lord
Jesus, was rejected on earth; that the Jews, in rejecting Him,
had condemned themselves; that, the Word of God being
used to accomplish the work of Him whom the Father had
sent, the Lord thus made it known that He established
the kingdom, not by His power exercised in righteousness
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and in judgment, but by bearing testimony to the hearts
of men; and that the kingdom now assumed a character
connected with man’s responsibility, and with the result of
the word of light being sown in the earth, addressed to
the hearts<P081> of men, and left as a system of truth to
the faithfulness and the care of men (God, however, still
holding good His sovereign right for the preservation
of His children and of the truth itself). is latter part
is not the subject of these parables. I have introduced it
here because it might otherwise have been supposed that
everything depended absolutely on man. Had it been so,
alas! all would have been lost.
e parable of the tares: the kingdom here on earth in
men’s hands
e parable of the tares is the rst. It gives us a general
idea of the eect of these sowings as to the kingdom; or
rather, the result of having for the moment committed the
kingdom here below to the hands of men.
e result was that the kingdom here below no longer
presented, as a whole, the appearance of the Lord’s own
work. He sows not tares. rough the carelessness and the
inrmity of men, the enemy found means to sow these
tares. Observe that this does not apply to the heathen or to
the Jews, but to the evil done among Christians by Satan
through bad doctrines, bad teachers and their adherents.
e Lord Jesus sowed. Satan, while men slept, sowed also.
ere were judaisers, philosophers, heretics who held with
both the former on the one hand, or on the other opposed
the truth of the Old Testament.
Nevertheless, Christ had only sown good seed. Must
the tares then be rooted out? Clearly the condition of
the kingdom during the absence of Christ depends on
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the answer to this question; and it throws light also upon
that condition. But there was still less power to bring in a
remedy than there had been to prevent the evil. All must
remain unremedied until the King’s interposition at the
time of harvest. e kingdom of heaven on earth, such as
it is in the hands of men, must remain a mingled system.
Heretics, false brethren, will be there, as well as the fruit of
the Lord’s word, testifying, in this last dealing of God with
him, man’s inability to maintain that which is good and
pure in its pristine state. So it has ever been.1<P082>
(1. It is a solemn thought that the rst act of man has
been to spoil what God has set up good. So with Adam,
so with Noah, so with the law, so with the priesthood of
Aaron, so with the son of David, so even Nebuchadnezzar,
so the church. In Paul’s days all sought their own, not the
things of Jesus Christ. All is made good, better and stable
in the Messiah.)
Execution of judgment on what is not of God
“At the time of harvest” (a phrase that designates a
certain space of time during which the events connected
with the harvest will take place) the Lord will deal rst, in
His providence, with the tares. I say “in His providence”
because He employs the angels. e tares shall be bound in
bundles ready to be burned.
We must observe that outward things in the world are
the subject here-acts which root out corruption-corruption
that has grown up in the midst of Christianity.
e servants are not capable of doing this. e
intermingling (caused by their weakness and carelessness)
is such that in gathering out the tares they would root up
the wheat also. Not only discernment, but the practical
power of separation would be wanting to carry out their
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purpose. When once the tares are there, the servants have
nothing to do with them as to their presence in this world,
in Christendom. eir service is with the good. e work
of purging Christendom from them was not in their
province. It is a work of judgment on that which is not of
God, belonging to Him who can execute it according to the
perfection of a knowledge that embraces everything, and a
power that nothing escapes; which, if two men are in one
bed, knows how to take the one and leave the other. e
execution of judgment on the wicked in this world does
not belong to the servants of Christ.1 He will accomplish
it by the angels of His power, to whom He commits the
execution of this work.
(1. I speak here of those who will have been His
servants on earth during His absence. For angels are also
His servants, as well as the saints of the age to come.)
Gathering the wheat
After the binding of the tares He gathers the wheat
into His garner. ere is no binding the wheat in bundles;
He takes it all to Himself. Such is the end of that which
concerns the outward appearance of the kingdom here
below. is is not all that the parable can teach us, but it
ends the subject of which this part of the chapter speaks.
During the absence of Jesus the result of His sowing
will be marred, as a whole down here, by the work of the
enemy. At the close He will bind all the enemy’s work
in <P083>bundles; that is, He will prepare them in this
world for judgment. He will then take away the church. It
is evident that this terminates the scene below which goes
on during His absence. e judgment is not yet executed.
Before speaking of it the Lord gives other pictures of the
forms which the kingdom will assume during His absence.
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e grain of mustard seed: the form of a great power
at which had been sown as a grain of mustard seed
becomes a great tree; a symbol that represents a great power
in the earth. e Assyrian, Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, are
set before us in the Word as great trees. Such would be the
form of the kingdom, which began in littleness through the
Word sown by the Lord and afterwards by His disciples.
at which this seed produced would gradually assume
the form of a great power, making itself prominent on the
earth, so that others would shelter themselves under it, as
birds under the branches of a tree. is has, indeed, been
the case.
e leaven: corruption in the doctrine
We next nd that it would not only be a great tree in
the earth, but that the kingdom would be characterized
as a system of doctrine, which would diuse itself-a
profession, which would enclose all it reached within its
sphere of inuence. e whole of the three measures would
be leavened. I need not dwell here on the fact that the word
“leaven” is always used in a bad sense by the sacred writers;
but the Holy Spirit gives us to understand that it is not
the regenerative power of the Word in the heart of an
individual, bringing him back to God; neither is it simply
a power acting by outward strength, such as Pharaoh,
Nebuchadnezzar, and the other great trees of Scripture.
But it is a system of doctrine that should characterize the
mass, pervading it throughout. It is not faith properly so
called, nor is it life. It is a religion; it is Christendom. A
profession of doctrine, in hearts which will bear neither
the truth nor God, connects itself always with corruption
in the doctrine itself.
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is parable of the leaven concludes His instructions to
the multitude. All was now addressed to them in parables,
for they did not receive Him their King, and He spoke of
things that supposed His rejection, and an aspect of the
kingdom unknown to the<P084> revelations of the Old
Testament, which have in view either the kingdom in
power, or a little remnant receiving, amid suerings, the
word of the Prophet-King who had been rejected.
With His disciples, in the house, in secluded intimacy
After this parable Jesus no longer remains by the seaside
with the multitude-a place suited to the position in which
He stood towards the people after the testimony borne at
the end of chapter 12, and whither He had repaired on
quitting the house. He now reenters the house with His
disciples; and there, in secluded intimacy with them, He
reveals the true character-the object-of the kingdom of
heaven, the result of that which was done in it, and the
means which should be taken to cleanse everything on
earth, when the outward history of the kingdom during
His absence should have terminated. at is to say, we nd
here that which characterizes the kingdom to the spiritual
man, that which he understands as the true mind of God
with regard to the kingdom, and the judgment which
should purge out from it all that was contrary to Him-
the exercise of power which should render it outwardly in
accordance with the heart of God.
e explanation of the parable of the tares to His own
disciples
We have seen its outward history ending with this: the
wheat hidden in the garner and the tares left in bundles
on the earth ready to be burned. e explanation of this
parable resumes the history of the kingdom at that period;
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only it gives us to understand and distinguish the dierent
parts of the intermixture, ascribing each part to its true
author. e eld is the world;1 there the Word was sown
for the establishment, in this manner, of the kingdom. e
good seed were the children of the kingdom; they belonged
to it really according to God; they are its heirs. e Jews
were no longer so, and it was no longer the privilege of
natural birth. e children of the kingdom were born of
the Word. But among these, in order to spoil the Lord’s
work, the enemy <P085>introduced all sorts of people, the
fruit of the doctrines which he had sown among those who
were born of the truth. is is the work of Satan in the
place where the doctrine of Christ had been planted. e
harvest is the end of the age.2e reapers are the angels.
It will be remarked here that the Lord does not explain
historically that which took place, but the terms used to
bring in the issue when the harvest is come. e fulllment
of that which is historical in the parable is supposed; and
He passes on to give the great result outside that which was
the kingdom during His absence on high. e wheat (that
is, the church) is in the barn, and the tares in bundles on
the earth. But He takes all that constitutes these bundles,
all that as evil oends God in the kingdom, and casts it into
the furnace of re, where there is wailing and gnashing of
teeth. After this judgment the righteous shall shine forth
like Himself, the true Sun of that day of glory-of the age
to come-in the kingdom of their Father. Christ will have
received the kingdom from the Father whose children they
were; and they shall shine forth in it with Him according
to that character.
(1. Manifestly it was not in the church that the Lord
began to sow: it did not then exist. But He distinguishes
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Israel here from the world and speaks of the latter. He
looked for fruit in Israel; He sows in the world, because
Israel, after all His culture, brought forth no fruit.)
(2. Not merely the instant that terminates it, but the
acts that accomplish the purpose of God in terminating
it-συντελεια (synteleia).)
us we nd, for the multitude, the results on earth of
the divine sowing and the machinations of the enemy-
the kingdom presented under this form; afterwards the
confederacies of the wicked among themselves apart
from their natural order as growing in the eld; and the
taking away of the church. For His own disciples, the
Lord explains all that was necessary to make them fully
understand the language of the parable. We then nd the
judgment executed by the Son of Man upon the wicked,
who are cast into the re; and the manifestation of the
righteous in glory (these last events taking place after the
Lord had risen up and put an end to the outward form
of the kingdom of heaven upon earth, the wicked being
gathered in companies and the saints taken up to heaven).1
(1. Remark too here that the kingdom of heaven
is parcelled out into two parts, the kingdom of the Son
of Man, and the kingdom of our Father: the objects of
judgment in what is subjected to Christ, and a place like
His before the Father for sons.)
e treasure hidden in the eld
And now, having explained the public history and its
results in judgment and in glory for the full instruction of
His disciples, the<P086> Lord communicates to them the
thoughts of God with respect to what was going on upon
earth, while the outward and earthly events of the kingdom
were being developed-that which the spiritual man should
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discern in them. To him, to one who understood the
purpose of God, the kingdom of heaven was like a treasure
hidden in a eld. A man nds the treasure and buys the
eld in order to possess it. e eld was not his object, but
the treasure that was in it. us Christ has purchased the
world. He possesses it by right. His object is the treasure
hidden in it, His own people, all the glory of the redemption
connected with it; in a word, the church looked at-not in
its moral and, in a certain sense, divine beauty, but as the
special object of the desires and of the sacrice of the Lord-
that which His heart had found in this world according to
the counsels and the mind of God.
In this parable it is the powerful attraction of this “new
thing” which induces the one who has found it to purchase
the whole place, that he may obtain possession of it.
e Jews were nothing new; the world had no
attraction; but this new treasure induced the One who
had discovered it to sell all He had that He might gain it.
In fact, Christ forsook everything. He not only emptied
Himself to redeem us, but He renounced all that belonged
to Him as man, as the Messiah on earth, the promises, His
royal rights, His life, to take possession of the world which
contained in it this treasure, the people whom He loved.
e pearl of great price
In the parable of the pearl of great price we have again
the same idea, but it is modied by others. A man was
seeking goodly pearls. He knew what he was about. He had
taste, discernment, knowledge, as to that which he sought.
It was the well-known beauty of the thing that caused his
research. He knows when he has found one corresponding
to his ideas, that it is worthwhile to sell all that he may
acquire it. It is worth this in the eyes of one who can
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estimate its value. And he buys nothing else along with
it. us Christ has found in the church by itself a beauty
and (because of this beauty) a value which made Him give
up all to obtain it. It is just so with regard to the kingdom.
Considering the state of man, of the Jews even, the glory of
God required that all should<P087> be given up in order
to have this new thing; for there was nothing in man that
He could take to Himself. Not only He was content to give
up all for the possession of this new thing, but that which
His heart seeks for, that which He nds nowhere else, He
nds in that which God has given Him in the kingdom.
He bought no other pearls. Until He found this pearl, He
had no inducement to sell all that He had. As soon as He
sees it, His mind is made up; He forsakes all for it. Its value
decides Him, for He knows how to judge, and He seeks
with discernment.
I do not say that the children of the kingdom are not
actuated by the same principle. When we have learned
what it is to be a child of the kingdom, we forsake all that
we may enjoy it, that we may be of the pearl of great price.
But we do not buy that which is not the treasure, in order
to obtain it; and we are very far from seeking goodly pearls
before we have found the one of great price. In their full
force these parables only apply to Christ. e intention in
these parables is to bring out that which was then doing,
in contrast with all that had taken place before-with the
Lord’s relations to the Jews.
e net cast into the sea; the good sh
ere remains yet one of the seven-that of the net
cast into the sea. In this parable there is no change in the
persons employed, that is to say, in the parable itself. e
same persons who cast the net draw it to shore and make
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the separation by gathering the good sh into vessels,
taking no further notice of the bad. Securing the good
sh is the work of those who draw the net to shore. It is
only when landed that this is done. e sorting is their
work, doubtless; but they have only to do with the good
sh. ey know them. is is their business, the object of
their shing. Others indeed come and are found in the
net together with the good; but these are not good. No
other judgment is needed. e shermen know the good.
ese are not such. ey leave them. is forms a part of
the history of the kingdom of heaven. e judgment of the
wicked is not found here. e bad are left on the shore,
when the shermen gather the good into vessels. e nal
destiny of either good or bad is not given here. It does not
take place on the shore with respect to the good; nor as to
the bad by simply leaving them there. It is subsequent to
the action of the parable; and, with<P088> respect to the
bad, it does not take place merely by their separation from
the good with whom they had been intermingled, but by
their destruction. Neither in this parable nor in that of the
tares and wheat does the execution of judgment form part
of the parable itself. ere the tares are bound and left on
the eld; here they are cast away out of the lled net.
us the gospel net has been cast into the sea of the
nations and has enclosed of all kinds. After this general
gathering, which has lled the net, the agents of the
Lord, having to do with the good, gather them together,
separating them from the bad. Remark here that this is a
similitude of the kingdom. It is the character which the
kingdom assumes when the gospel has assembled together
a mass of good and bad. At the end, when the net has
been drawn so that all kinds are enclosed in it, the good
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are set apart because they are precious; the others are left.
e good are gathered into divers vessels. e saints are
gathered, not by the angels, but by the work of those who
have labored in the name of the Lord. e distinction is
not made by judgment, but by the servants occupied with
the good.
e public execution of judgment
e execution of the judgment is another matter. e
laborers have nothing to do with that. At the end of the
age, the angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from
among the just, not the just from among the rest as the
sherman did, and shall cast them into the furnace of
re, where there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Here nothing is said of their being occupied about the
just. Gathering them into vessels was not the angels’ work,
but that of the shermen. e angels are in both parables
occupied with the wicked. e public result had been given,
whether during the period of the kingdom of heaven, or
afterwards, in the parable of the tares. It is not repeated
here. e work to be done with regard to the righteous
when the net is full is added here. e destiny of the wicked
is repeated to distinguish the work done with respect to
them from that wrought by means of the shermen, who
gather the good into divers vessels. Still it is presented
under another aspect; and the just are left where they were.
In the parable of the tares the judgment of the wicked
is declared as in this. ey are cast out into weeping and
gnashing<P089> of teeth, but there the general state of the
kingdom is revealed, and we have the righteous shining
forth as the sun-the higher part of the kingdom. Here it
is only what the intelligent understand, what the spiritual
mind sees; the just are put into vessels. ere is a separation
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by spiritual power before judgment, which there was not
in the general, public state of the kingdom, but only what
Providence did publicly in the eld, and the good grain
received above. Here the separation is by dealings with the
good. is was the main point for spiritual intelligence.
Public display is not the point; only judgment will be
executed on the wicked, in fact; then the just will be left
there.1
(1. In all symbolical prophecies and parables, the
explanation goes beyond the parable and adds facts; because
the judgment executed publicly testies of that which in
the time of the parable can only be discerned spiritually.
is latter may be spiritually understood. e result is,
judgment will publicly declare it, so that we are always
to go beyond the parable in the explanation. Judgment
explains publicly what is only understood spiritually before
and brings in a new order of things. (Compare Daniel 7.))
e explanation of the parable of the sh
In the explanation of the second parable, it is absolute
judgment in the case of the tares, destroying and consuming
that which remains on the eld, already collected together
and separated providentially from the wheat. e angels
are sent at the end, not to separate the tares from the wheat
(that was done), but to cast the tares into the re, thus
cleansing the kingdom. In the explanation of the parable
of the sh (vs. 49) the sorting itself takes place. ere will
be just ones on the earth, and the wicked will be separated
from among them. e practical instruction of this parable
is the separation of the good from the wicked, and the
gathering together in companies of many of the former;
this is done more than once, many others of the same being
gathered elsewhere into one also. e servants of the Lord
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are the instruments employed in what takes place in the
parable itself.
ings new and old
ese parables contain things new and old. e doctrine
of the kingdom, for instance, was a well-known doctrine.
at the kingdom should take the forms described by the
Lord, that it should embrace the whole world without
distinction, the people of God drawing their existence not
from Abraham but from the Word<P090>-all this was
quite new. All was of God. e scribe had knowledge of
the kingdom, but was entirely ignorant of the character it
would assume, as the kingdom of heaven planted in this
world by means of the Word, on which all here depends.
Work resumed among the Jews; Christ rejected as
Prophet as well as King
e Lord resumes His work among the Jews.1 To them
He was only “the carpenter’s son.” ey knew His family
after the esh. e kingdom of heaven was nothing in
their eyes. e revelation of this kingdom was carried on
elsewhere, and there the knowledge of divine things was
communicated. e former saw nothing beyond those
things which the natural heart could perceive. e blessing
of the Lord was arrested by their unbelief: He was rejected
as Prophet, as well as King, by Israel.
(1. e chapters which follow are striking in their
character. Christ’s Person as the Jehovah of Psalm 132 is
brought out, but Israel sent away, the disciples left alone,
while He prays on high. He returns, rejoins the disciples,
and the Gadarene world owns Him. en we have in
chapter 15 the full moral description of the ground on
which Israel stood actually, and ought to stand, but carried
much farther out into what man’s heart is; and then what
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God is, revealed in grace to faith, even if in a Gentile.
Historically He still owns Israel, but in divine perfection,
and now in human administrative power; and then (ch.
16) the church is brought in prophetically; and in chapter
17 the kingdom of glory in vision. In chapter 16 they are
forbidden to say He is the Christ. is is over.)
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73090
Matthew 14
e death of John the Baptist
Our Gospel resumes the historical course of these
revelations, but in such a manner as to exhibit the spirit by
which the people were animated. Herod (loving his earthly
power and his own glory more than submission to the
testimony of God, and more bound by a false human idea
than by his conscience, although in many things he appears
to have owned the power of the truth) had cut o the head
of the forerunner of the Messiah, John the Baptist; whom
he had already imprisoned, in order to remove out of the
sight of his wife the faithful reprover of the sin in which
she lived.<P091>
Jesus as Jehovah, the Supplier of all His people’s
wants
Jesus is sensible of the import of this, which is reported to
Him. Accomplishing in lowly service (however personally
exalted above him), together with John, the testimony of
God in the congregation, He felt Himself united in heart
and in His work to him; for faithfulness in the midst of
all evil binds hearts very closely together; and Jesus had
condescended to take a place in which faithfulness was
concerned (see Psalm 40:9-10). On hearing, therefore,
of John’s death, He retires into a desert place. But while
departing from the multitude who thus began to act
openly in the rejection of the testimony of God, He does
not cease to be the supplier of all their wants and to testify
thus that He who could divinely minister to all their need
was among them. For the multitude, who felt these wants
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and who, if they had not faith, yet admired the power of
Jesus, follow Him into the desert place; and Jesus, moved
with compassion, heals all their sick. In the evening His
disciples beg Him to send the multitude away that they
may procure food. He refuses and bears a remarkable
testimony to the presence, in His own Person, of Him who
was to satisfy the poor of His people with bread (Psa. 132).
Jehovah, the Lord, who established the throne of David,
was there in the Person of Him who should inherit that
throne. I doubt not the twelve baskets of fragments refer
to the number which, in Scripture, always designates the
perfection of administrative power in man.
e disciples as ministers of the blessing and power
of the kingdom
Remark also here that the Lord expects to nd His
twelve disciples capable of being the instruments of His
acts of blessing and power, administering according to His
own power the blessings of the kingdom. “Give ye them,”
said He, “to eat.” is applies to the blessing of the Lord’s
kingdom and to the disciples of Jesus, the twelve, as being its
ministers; but it is likewise an all-important principle with
regard to the eect of faith in every intervention of God
in grace. Faith should be able to use the power that acts in
such intervention to produce the works which are proper
to that power, according to the order of the dispensation
and the intelligence it has respecting it. We shall nd this
principle again elsewhere more fully developed.<P092>
e disciples wished to send the multitude away, not
knowing how to use the power of Christ. ey should
have been able to avail themselves of it in Israel’s behalf,
according to the glory of Him who was among them.
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e disciples in the midst of the sea; Jesus in the storm
and in the calm
If now the Lord demonstrated with perfect patience by
His actions that He who could thus bless Israel was in the
midst of His people, He does not the less bear testimony
to His separation from that people in consequence of their
unbelief. He makes His disciples get into a ship to cross
the sea alone; and, dismissing the multitude Himself, He
goes up into a mountain apart to pray; while the ship that
contained the disciples was tossing on the waves of the
sea with a contrary wind: a living picture of that which
has taken place. God has indeed sent forth His people to
cross the stormy sea of the world alone, meeting with an
opposition against which it is hard to strive. Meanwhile,
Jesus prays alone on high. He has sent away the Jewish
people, who had surrounded Him during the period of His
presence here below. e departure of the disciples, besides
its general character, sets before us peculiarly the Jewish
remnant. Peter individually, in coming out of the ship, goes
in gure beyond the position of this remnant. He represents
that faith which, forsaking the earthly accommodation of
the ship, goes out to meet Jesus who has revealed Himself
to it, and walks upon the sea-a bold undertaking, but based
on the word of Jesus, “Come.” Yet remark here that this
walk has no other foundation than, “If it be ou,” that
is to say, Jesus Himself. ere is no support, no possibility
of walking, if Christ be lost sight of. All depends on Him.
ere is a known means in the ship; there is nothing but
faith, which looks to Jesus, for walking on the water. Man,
as mere man, sinks by the very fact of being there. Nothing
can sustain itself except that faith which draws from Jesus
the strength that is in Him, and which therefore imitates
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Him. But it is sweet to imitate Him; and one is then nearer
to Him, more like Him. is is the true position of the
church, in contrast with the remnant in their ordinary
character. Jesus walks on the water as on the solid ground.
He who created the elements as they are could well dispose
of their qualities at His pleasure. He permits storms<P093>
to arise for the trial of our faith. He walks on the stormy
wave as well as on the calm. Moreover, the storm makes
no dierence. He who sinks in the waters does so in the
calm as well as in the storm, and he who can walk upon
them will do so in the storm as well as in the calm-that is
to say, unless circumstances are looked to and so faith fail,
and the Lord is forgotten. For often circumstances make
us forget Him where faith ought to enable us to overcome
circumstances through our walking by faith in Him who
is above them all. Nevertheless, blessed be God! He who
walks in His own power upon the water is there to sustain
the faith and the wavering steps of the poor disciple; and
at any rate that faith had brought Peter so near to Jesus
that His outstretched hand could sustain him. Peter’s fault
was that he looked at the waves, at the storm (which, after
all, had nothing to do with it), instead of looking at Jesus,
who was unchanged, and who was walking on those very
waves, as his faith should have observed. Still the cry of his
distress brought the power of Jesus into action, as his faith
ought to have done; only it was now to his shame, instead
of being in the enjoyment of communion and walking like
the Lord.
In the ship and with the remnant, in Gennesaret and,
in future, in the world
Jesus having entered the ship, the wind ceases. Even so
it will be when Jesus returns to the remnant of His people
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in this world. en also will He be worshipped as the Son
of God by all that are in the ship, with the remnant of
Israel. In Gennesaret Jesus again exercises the power which
shall hereafter drive out from the earth all the evil that
Satan has brought in. For when He returns, the world will
recognize Him. It is a ne picture of the result of Christ’s
rejection, which this Gospel has already made known to us
as taking place in the midst of the Jewish nation.
Matthew 15
141
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Matthew 15
God’s rejection of the Jewish system
Chapter 15 displays man and God, the moral contrast
between the doctrine of Christ and that of the Jews; and
thus the Jewish system is rejected morally by God. When I
speak of the system, I speak of their whole moral condition,
systematized by the <P094>hypocrisy that sought to
conceal iniquity, while increasing it in the sight of God,
before whom they presented themselves. ey made use
of His name in order to sink lower, under the pretense of
piety, than the laws of natural conscience. It is thus that a
religious system becomes the great instrument of the power
of the enemy, and more especially when that, of which it
still bears the name, was instituted by God. But then man
is judged, for Judaism was man with God’s law and God’s
culture.
e Lord’s exposure and judgment of the leaders’
hypocrisy, selshness and avarice
e judgment which the Lord pronounces on this system
of hypocrisy, while manifesting the consequent rejection of
Israel, gives rise to instruction that goes thus much farther;
and which, searching the heart of man, and judging man
according to that which proceeds from it, proves the heart to
be a spring of all iniquity; and thus makes it evident that all
true morality has its basis in the conviction and confession
of sin. For, without this, the heart is always false and atters
itself in vain. us also Jesus goes to the root of everything
and comes out of the special and temporary relations of the
Jewish nation to enter on the true morality which belongs
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to all ages. e disciples did not observe the traditions of
the elders; about these the Lord did not concern Himself.
He avails Himself of the accusation to lay it upon the
conscience of their accusers, that the judgment occasioned
by the rejection of the Son of God was authorized also
on the ground of those relationships that already existed
between God and Israel. ey made the commandment of
God of none eect through their traditions; and that in a
most important point, and one even on which all earthly
blessings depended for the children of Israel. By their own
ordinances also Jesus exposes the consummate hypocrisy,
the selshness and avarice, of those who pretended to
guide the people, and to form their heart to morality and
to the worship of Jehovah. Isaiah had already pronounced
their judgment.
Man shown in his real colors before God
Afterwards He shows the multitude that it was a
question of what man was, of what proceeded from his
heart, from within him; and points out the sad streams that
ow from that corrupt spring. But it was the simple truth
with respect to the heart of man, as<P095> known by God,
which scandalized the self-righteous men of the world,
which was unintelligible even to the disciples. Nothing so
simple as the truth when it is known; nothing so dicult,
so obscure, when a judgment is to be formed respecting it
by the heart of man, who does not possess the truth; for
he judges after his own thoughts, and the truth is not in
them. In short, Israel, and especially religious Israel, and
true morality are set in contrast: man is set in his proper
responsibility and in his real colors before God.
Outside forms or inward purity
Matthew 15
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Jesus searches the heart; but, acting in grace, He acts
according to the heart of God and manifests it by coming
out, both for the one and for the other, of the conventional
terms of God’s relationship with Israel. A divine Person,
God, may walk in the covenant He has given, but cannot
be conned to it. And the unfaithfulness of His people
to it is the occasion of the revelation of Him passing out
beyond that place. And note, here, the eect of traditional
religion in blinding moral judgment. What clearer or
plainer than that what came out of the mouth and heart
deled a man, not what he ate? But the disciples, through
the vile inuence of Pharisaic teaching, putting outside
forms for inward purity, could not understand it.
e Canaanite’s request; the Lord’s seeming harshness
Christ now leaves the borders of Israel, and His
disputes with the learned men of Jerusalem, to visit those
places which were farthest o from Jewish privileges.
He departs into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, the cities
which He had Himself used as examples of that which was
farthest from repentance; see chapter 11, where He classes
them with Sodom and Gomorrah as more hardened than
they. A woman comes out of these countries. She was
one of the accursed race, according to the principles that
distinguished Israel. She was a Canaanite. She comes to
beg the interposition of Jesus on behalf of her daughter,
who was possessed by a devil.
In begging this favor, she addresses Jesus by the title
which faith knew to be His connection with the Jews-
“Son of David.” is gives rise to a full development of the
Lord’s position, and, at the same time, of the conditions
under which man might hope to share the eect of His
goodness, yea, to the revelation of God Himself.<P096>
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As the Son of David, He has nothing to do with a
Canaanite. He makes her no answer. e disciples desired
to get rid of her by granting her request, in order to have
done with her importunity. e Lord answers them that
He was not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
is was indeed the truth. Whatever may have been the
counsels of God manifested on occasion of His rejection
(see Isaiah 49), He was the minister of the circumcision
for the truth of God, to fulll His promises made to the
fathers.
Taking her real place, the Canaanite tastes God’s
sovereign, divine goodness to Gentiles
e woman, in more simple and direct language, the
more natural expression of her feelings, begs for the merciful
interposition of Him in whose power she trusted. e
Lord answers her that it is not meet to take the children’s
bread and give it to dogs. We see here His true position,
as come to Israel; the promises were for the children of
the kingdom. e Son of David was the minister of these
promises. Could He as such blot out the distinction of the
people of God?
But that faith which derives strength from necessity and
which nds no resource but in the Lord Himself accepts
the humiliation of its position and deems that with Him
there is bread for the hunger of those who have no right to
it. It perseveres, too, because there is a felt want and faith
in the power of Him who is come in grace.
What had the Lord done by His apparent harshness?
He had brought the poor woman to the expression, to the
sense, of her real place before God, that is to say, to the truth
as to herself. But, then, was it the truth to say that God was
less good than she believed, less rich in mercy towards the
Matthew 15
145
destitute, whose only hope and trust was in that mercy?
is would have been to deny the character and the nature
of God, of which He was the expression, the truth and
the witness on earth; it would have been to deny Himself
and the object of His mission. He could not say, “God has
not a crumb for such.” He answers, in fullness of heart, “O
woman, great is thy faith; be it unto thee even as thou wilt.”
God comes out of the narrow limits of His covenant with
the Jews to act in His sovereign goodness according to His
own nature. He comes out to be God in goodness, and not
merely Jehovah in Israel.<P097>
e sense of need and the source of blessing
But this goodness is exercised towards one who is
brought, in the presence of that goodness, to know that
she has no right to it. To this point the seeming harshness
of the Lord had been leading her. She received all from
grace, while in herself unworthy of all. It is thus, and thus
only, that every soul obtains blessing. It is not merely the
sense of need-the woman had that from the beginning
- it was that which brought her there. It is not sucient
merely to own that the Lord Jesus can meet that need-the
woman came with that acknowledgment; we must be in
the presence of the only source of blessing and be brought
to feel that, although we are there, we have no right to
avail ourselves of it. And this is a terrible position. When
it comes to this, all is grace. God can then act according to
His own goodness, and He answers every desire which the
heart can form for its happiness.
e heart of man and the heart of God;
God’s wisdom, faithfulness and grace
us we see Christ here as a minister of the circumcision
for the truth of God to fulll the promises made to the
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fathers, and that the Gentiles also might glorify God for
His mercy, as it is written. At the same time, this last truth
makes manifest the real condition of man, and the full and
perfect grace of God. On this He acts, while still faithful
to His promises; and the wisdom of God is displayed in a
manner that calls forth our admiration.
We see how much the introduction, in this place,
of the story of the Syrophenician woman develops and
illustrates this part of our Gospel. e beginning of the
chapter shows forth the moral condition of the Jews,
the falseness of Pharisaic and sacerdotal religiousness;
brings out the real state of man as man, what the heart
of man was the source of; and then reveals the heart of
God as manifested in Jesus. His dealings with this woman
display the faithfulness of God to His promises; and the
blessing nally granted exhibits the full grace of God, in
connection with the manifestation of the real condition of
man, acknowledged by conscience-grace rising above the
curse which lay upon the object of this grace-rising above
everything to make itself a way to the need which faith
presented to it.<P098>
In Galilee; renewed evidences of Jehovah’s
compassions and tender mercies
e Lord now departs thence and goes into Galilee,
the place where He was in connection with the despised
remnant of the Jews. It was neither Zion, nor the temple,
nor Jerusalem, but the poor of the ock, where the
people were sitting in gross darkness (Isa. 8-9). ither
His compassions follow this poor remnant and are again
exercised in their behalf. He renews the evidences, not only
of His tender mercies, but of His presence who satised
the poor of His people with bread. Here, however, it is not
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in the administrative power which He could bestow on His
disciples, but according to His own perfection and acting
from Himself. He provides for the remnant of His people.
Accordingly, it is the fullness of seven baskets of fragments
that is gathered up. He departs also without anything else
taking place.
We have seen eternal morality, and truth in the inward
parts, substituted for the hypocrisy of forms, man’s use
of legal religion and man’s heart shown to be a source of
evil and naught else, God’s heart fully revealed that rises
above all dispensation to show full grace in Christ. us
dispensations are set aside though fully owned, and man
and God fully shown out in doing so. It is a wonderful
chapter as to what is everlasting in truth as to God, and as
to what the revelation of God shows man to be. And this,
note, gives occasion to the revelation of the assembly in the
next chapter, which is not a dispensation but founded on
what Christ is, Son of the living God. In chapter 12Christ
was dispensationally rejected, and the kingdom of heaven
substituted in chapter 13. Here man is set aside and what he
had made of law, and God acts in His own grace above all
dispensations. en come the assembly and the kingdom
in glory.
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Matthew 16
e Lord’s answer to unbelief in heart and will
Chapter 16 goes farther than the revelation of the
simple grace of God. Jesus reveals what was about to be
formed in the counsels of that grace, where He was owned,
showing the rejection of the proud among His people, that
He abhors them as they abhor Him (Zech. 11). Shutting
their eyes (through perversity of will) to the<P099>
marvelous and benecent signs of His power, which He
constantly bestowed on the poor who sought Him, the
Pharisees and Sadducees-struck with these manifestations,
yet unbelieving in heart and will-demand a sign from
heaven. He rebukes them for their unbelief, showing them
that they knew how to discern the signs of the weather;
yet the signs of the times were far more striking. ey were
the adulterous and wicked generation, and He leaves them:
signicant expressions of what was now passing in Israel.
e forgetful disciples warned and reminded in
patient grace
He warns His forgetful disciples against the devices of
these subtle adversaries to the truth, and to Him whom
God had sent to reveal it. Israel is abandoned, as a nation,
in the persons of their leaders. At the same time, in patient
grace, He recalls His disciples to the remembrance of what
explained His words to them.
e Father’s revelation of the Person of Christ to
Peter
Afterwards He questions His disciples as to what men
in general said of Him. It was all matter of opinion, not
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of faith; that is, the uncertainty that belongs to moral
indierence, to the absence of that conscious need of soul
which can rest only in the truth, in the Saviour one has
found. He then inquires what they themselves said of
Him. Peter, to whom the Father had deigned to reveal
Him, declares his faith, saying, “ou art the Christ, the
Son of the living God.” No uncertainty, no mere opinion
is here, but the powerful eect of the revelation, made by
the Father Himself, of the Person of Christ, to the disciple
whom He had elected for this privilege.
ree classes displayed
Here the condition of the people displays itself in a
remarkable manner, not, as in the preceding chapter, with
respect to the law, but with respect to Christ, who had been
presented to them. We see it in contrast with the revelation
of His glory to those who followed Him. We have thus
three classes: rst, haughty, unbelieving Pharisees; next,
persons conscious and owning there was divine power and
authority in Christ, but indierent; last, the revelation of
God and divinely given faith.<P100>
Grace contrasted with disobedience to and perversion
of the law
In the fteenth chapter, grace towards one who had no
hope but in it, is put in contrast with disobedience to and
hypocritical perversion of the law, by which the scribes
and Pharisees sought to cover their disobedience with the
pretense of piety.
e revelation of Christ’s Person as the foundation of
the assembly and administration of the kingdom
e sixteenth chapter, judging the unbelief of the
Pharisees respecting the Person of Christ, and setting
aside these perverse men, brings in the revelation of His
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Person as the foundation of the assembly, which was to
take the place of the Jews as the witness for God in the
earth; and announces the counsels of God with respect
to its establishment. It shows us, in adjunction to this,
the administration of the kingdom, as it was now being
established on the earth.
Christ the Messiah, the Son of God
Let us consider, rst, the revelation of His Person.
Peter confesses Him to be the Christ, the fulllment
of the promises made by God, and of the prophecies that
announced their realization. He was the One who should
come, the Messiah whom God had promised.
Moreover, He was the Son of God. e second Psalm
had declared that, in spite of the schemings of the leaders
of the people and the haughty animosity of the kings of the
earth, God’s King should be anointed on the hill of Zion.
He was the Son, begotten of God. e kings and judges
of the earth1 are called to submit themselves to Him, lest
they should be smitten with the rod of His power, when
He takes the heathen for His inheritance. us the true
believer waited for the Son of God born in due time upon
this earth. Peter confessed Jesus to be the Son of God.
So had Nathanael also: “ou art the Son of God, thou
art the King of Israel.” And, still later, Martha did the
same.<P101>
(1. e study of the Psalms will have made us understand
that this is the connection with the establishment of the
Jewish remnant in blessing in the last days.)
e Son of the living God: the rock foundation of the
unchangeable power of life
Peter, however, especially taught of the Father, adds to
his confession a word simple, yet full of power: “ou art
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the Son of the living God.” Not only He who fullls the
promises and answers to the prophecies; it is of the living
God that He is the Son, of Him in whom is life and life-
giving power.
He inherits that power of life in God which nothing
can overcome or destroy. Who can vanquish the power of
Him-of this Son-who came forth from “Him that liveth”?
Satan has the power of death; it is he who holds man
under the dominion of this dreadful consequence of sin,
and that by the just judgment of God which constitutes its
power. e expression “the gates of hades,” of the invisible
world, refers to this kingdom of Satan. It is then on this
power, which leaves the stronghold of the enemy without
strength, that the assembly is built. e life of God shall
not be destroyed. e Son of the living God shall not be
overcome. at, then, which God founds upon this rock
of the unchangeable power of life in His Son shall not
be overthrown by the kingdom of death. If man has been
overcome and has fallen under the power of this kingdom,
God, the living God, will not be overcome by it. It is on
this that Christ builds His assembly. It is the work of
Christ based on Him as Son of the living God, not of
the rst Adam nor based on him-His work accomplished
according to the power which this truth reveals. e
Person of Jesus, the Son of the living God, is its strength.
It is the resurrection that proved it. ere He is declared
to be the Son of God with power. Accordingly, it is not
during His life, but when raised from the dead, that He
begins this work. Life was in Himself; but it is after the
Father had burst the gates of hades-nay, He Himself in
His divine power had done so and was risen-that He
begins to build, by the Holy Spirit, as ascended on high,
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that which the power of death or of him who wielded it-
already overcome-can never destroy. It is His Person that
is here contemplated, and it is on His Person that all is
founded. e resurrection is the proof that He is the Son of
the living God and that the gates of hades can do nothing
against Him; their power is destroyed by it. Hence we see
how the assembly (though formed on earth) is much more
than a dispensation; the kingdom is not.<P102>
e work of the cross was needed; but it is not the
question here of that which the righteous judgment of God
required, or of the justication of an individual, but of that
which nullied the power of the enemy. It was the Person
of Him whom Peter was given to acknowledge, who lived
according to the power of the life of God. It was a peculiar
and direct revelation from heaven by the Father. Doubtless,
Christ had given proofs enough of who He was; but proofs
had proved nothing to man’s heart. e Father’s revelation
was the way of knowing who He was, and this went far
beyond the hopes of a Messiah.
e name given to Peter
Here, then, the Father had directly revealed the truth
of Christ’s own Person, a revelation which went beyond all
question of relationship with the Jews. On this foundation
Christ would build His assembly. Peter, already so named
by the Lord, receives a conrmation of that title on this
occasion. e Father had revealed to Simon, the son of
Jonas, the mystery of the Person of Jesus; and secondly,
Jesus also betokens, by the name He gives him,1 the
steadfastness, the rmness, the durability, the practical
strength, of His servant favored by grace. e right of
bestowing a name belongs to a superior, who can assign to
the one who bears it his place and his name, in the family
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or the situation he is in. is right, where real, supposes
discernment, intelligence, in that which is going on. Adam
names the animals. Nebuchadnezzar gives new names to
the captive Jews; the king of Egypt to Eliakim, whom he
had placed on the throne. Jesus therefore takes this place
when He says, e Father has revealed this unto you; and I
also give you a place and a name connected with this grace.
It is on that which the Father has revealed unto you that I
am going to build My assembly,2 against which (founded
on the life that comes from God) the gates of the kingdom
of death shall never prevail; and I who<P103> build, and
build on this immovable foundation-I give you the place
of a stone (Peter) in connection with this living temple.
rough the gift of God you belong already by nature to
the building-a living stone, having the knowledge of that
truth which is the foundation and which makes of every
stone a part of the edice. Peter was preeminently such by
this confession; he was so in anticipation by the election of
God. is revelation was made by the Father in sovereignty.
e Lord assigns him, withal, his place, as possessing the
right of administration and authority in the kingdom He
was going to establish.
(1. e passage (ch. 16:18) should be read, “And I also
say unto thee.”)
(2. It is important here to distinguish the church which
Christ builds, not yet nished, but which He Himself
builds, and that which is, as a manifested whole in the
world, built up in responsibility by man. In Ephesians
2:20-21 and 1Peter 2:4-5 we have this divine building
growing and built up. No mention of man’s work is found
in either passage; it is a divine one. In 1Corinthians 3 Paul
is a wise master builder; others may build in wood, hay
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and stubble. e confusion of these has been the basis of
Popery and other corruptions found in what is called the
church. His church, looked at in its reality, is a divine work
which Christ accomplishes and which abides.)
us far with respect to the assembly, now mentioned
for the rst time, the Jews having been rejected because of
their unbelief, and man a convicted sinner.
e kingdom of God on earth governed from heaven;
its keys
Another subject presents itself in connection with this
of the assembly that the Lord was going to build; namely,
the kingdom which was going to be established. It was to
have the form of the kingdom of heaven; it was so in the
counsels of God; but it was now to be set up in a peculiar
manner, the King having been rejected on earth.
But, rejected as He was, the keys of the kingdom were
in the
(1. Remark here what I have spoken of elsewhere-there
are no keys of or to the church or assembly. Peter had the
keys of administration in the kingdom. But the idea of
keys in connection with the church, or the power of the
keys in the church, is a pure fallacy. ere are none such at
all. e church is built; men do not build with keys, and it
is Christ (not Peter) who builds it. Further, the acts thus
sanctioned were acts of administration down here. Heaven
put its sanction on them, but they did not relate to heaven,
but to earthly administration of the kingdom.
Further, it is to be remarked that what is conferred here
is individual and personal. It was a name and authority
conferred on Simon, son of Jonas.
Some further remarks here may help us to understand
more fully the bearing of these chapters. In the parable of
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the sower (ch. 13) the Person of the Lord is not brought
forward, only that it is sowing, not reaping. In the rst
similitude of the kingdom He is Son of Man, and the
eld is the world. He is quite out of Judaism. In chapter
14 we have the state of things from John’s rejection, to the
time the Lord is owned on His return where He had been
rejected. In chapter 15 is the moral controversy, and God in
grace in Himself as above evil. On this I dwell no further.
But in chapter 16 we have the Person of the Son of God,
the living God, and hereon the assembly, and Christ the
builder; in chapter 17, the kingdom with the Son of Man
coming in glory. e keys (however heaven sanctioned
Simon’s use of them) were, as we have seen, of the kingdom
of heaven (not of the assembly); and that, the parable of
the tares shows, was to be corrupted and spoiled, and this
irremediably. Christ builds the church, not Peter. Compare
1Peter 2:4-5. )
Lord’s hand; its authority belonged to Him. He would
bestow them on Peter, who, when He was gone, should
open its doors to the Jews rst and then to the Gentiles.
He should also exercise authority from the Lord within
the kingdom; so that whatsoever he bound on earth in
the name of Christ (the true King, although gone up
to heaven) should be bound in heaven; and if he loosed
anything on earth, his deed should be ratied in heaven.
In a word, he had the power of command in the kingdom
of God on earth, this kingdom having now the character
of kingdom of heaven, because its King was in heaven,1
and heaven would stamp his acts with its authority. But it
is heaven sanctioning his earthly acts, not his binding or
loosing for heaven. e assembly<P104> connected with
the character of Son of the living God and built by Christ,
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though formed on earth, belongs to heaven; the kingdom,
though governed from heaven, belongs to earth- has its
place and ministration there.
God’s future purposes in the assembly and kingdom
connected with Peter
ese four things then are declared by the Lord in this
passage: First, the revelation made by the Father to Simon;
second, the name given to this Simon by Jesus, who was
going to build His assembly on the foundation revealed in
that which the Father had made known to Simon; third,
the assembly built by Christ Himself, not yet complete, on
the foundation of the Person of Jesus acknowledged as Son
of the living God; fourth, the
keys of the kingdom that should be given to Peter, that is
to say, authority in the kingdom as administering it on the
part of Christ, ordering in it that which was His will and
which should be ratied in heaven. All this is connected
with Simon personally, in virtue of the Father’s election
(who, in His wisdom, had chosen him to receive this
revelation) and of Christ’s authority (who had bestowed
on him the name that distinguished him as personally
enjoying this privilege).<P105>
e Lord’s death announced; the transition from the
Messianic system to the establishment of the assembly
e Lord having thus made known the purposes of God
with regard to the future-purposes to be accomplished in
the assembly and in the kingdom, there was no longer
room for His presentation to the Jews as Messiah. Not
that He gave up the testimony, full of grace and patience
towards the people, which He had borne throughout His
ministry. No; that indeed continued, but His disciples were
to understand that it was no longer their work to proclaim
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Him to the people as the Christ. From this time also He
began to teach His disciples that He must suer and be
killed and be raised again.
Peter doing the adversary’s work; the only path is the
cross
But, blessed and honored as Peter was by the revelation
which the Father had made to him, his heart still clung in a
carnal manner to the human glory of his Master (in truth,
to his own) and was still far from rising to the height of
the thoughts of God. Alas! he is not the only instance of
this. To be convinced of the most exalted truths, and even
to enjoy them sincerely as truths, is a dierent thing from
having the heart formed to the sentiments, and to the walk
here below, which are in accordance with those truths. It is
not sincerity in the enjoyment of the truth that is wanting.
What is wanting is to have the esh, self, mortied-to be
dead to the world. We may sincerely enjoy the truth as
taught of God, and yet not have the esh mortied or the
heart in a state which is according to that truth in what
it involves down here. Peter (so lately honored by the
revelation of the glory of Jesus and made in a very special
manner the depositary of administration in the kingdom
given to the Son-having a distinguished place in that
which was to follow the Lord’s rejection by the Jews) is
now doing the adversary’s work with respect to the perfect
submission of Jesus to the suering and ignominy that
were to introduce this glory and characterize the kingdom.
Alas! the case was plain; he savored the things of men
and not the things of God. But the Lord, in faithfulness,
rejects Peter in this matter and teaches His disciples that
the only path, the appointed and necessary path, is the
cross; if anyone would follow Him, that is the path He took.
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Moreover, what would it prot a man to save his life and
lose all- to<P106> gain the world and lose his soul? For
this was the question,1 and not now the outward glory of
the kingdom.
(1. In the Epistle of Peter we continually nd these
same thoughts-the words “living hope,” “living stone”-
applied to Christ, and afterwards to Christians. And again,
in accordance with our present subject, salvation through
life in Christ, the Son of the living God, we nd “receiving
the end of our faith, even the salvation of [our] souls.” We
may read all the verses by which the Apostle introduces his
instructions.)
Unbelief among the Jews and in the disciples’ hearts
Having examined this chapter, as the expression of the
transition from the Messianic system to the establishment
of the assembly founded on the revelation of the Person of
Christ, I desire also to call attention to the characters of
unbelief which are developed in it, both among the Jews
and in the hearts of the disciples. It will be protable to
observe the forms of this unbelief.
First of all, it takes the grosser form of asking a sign from
heaven. e Pharisees and Sadducees unite to show their
insensibility to all that the Lord had done. ey require
proof to their natural senses, that is, to their unbelief. ey
will not believe God, either in hearkening to His words or
in beholding His works. God must satisfy their willfulness,
which would be neither faith nor the work of God. ey
had understanding for human things that were much less
clearly manifested, but none for the things of God. A
Saviour lost to them, as Jews on earth, should be the only
sign granted them. ey would have to submit, willing or
not, to the judgment of the unbelief they displayed. e
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kingdom should be taken from them; the Lord leaves
them. e sign of Jonah is connected with the subject of
the whole chapter.
We next see this same inattention to the power
manifested in the works of Jesus; but it is no longer the
opposition of the unbelieving will; occupation of heart
with present things withdraws such from the inuence
of the signs already given. is is weakness, not ill will.
Nevertheless, they are guilty; but Jesus calls them “men of
little faith,” not “hypocrites,” and “a wicked and adulterous
generation.”
We then see unbelief manifesting itself in the form
of indolent opinion, which proves that the heart and
conscience are not interested in a subject that ought to
command them-a subject that if the heart would really face
its true importance, it would have no rest until it had arrived
at certainty with respect to it. e soul<P107> here has no
sense of need; consequently, there is no discernment. When
the soul feels this need, there is but one thing that can meet
it; there can be no rest till it is found. e revelation of God
that created this need does not leave the soul in peace until
it is assured of possessing that which awakened it. ose
who are not sensible of this need can rest in probabilities,
each according to his natural character, his education, his
circumstances. ere is enough to awaken curiosity-the
mind is occupied about it and judges. Faith has wants, and,
in principle, intelligence as to the object which meets those
wants; the soul is exercised till it nds that which it needs.
e fact is that God is there.
Peter’s living faith as a living stone in the temple
is is Peter’s case. e Father reveals His Son to him.
ough weak, living faith was found in him, we see the
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condition of his soul when he says, “Lord, to whom shall
we go? ou hast the words of eternal life; and we believe
and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God.” Happy the man to whom God reveals such truths
as these, in whom He awakens these wants! ere may be
conict, much to learn, much to mortify; but the counsel
of God is there, and the life connected with it. We have
seen its eect in the case of Peter. Every Christian has his
own place in the temple of which Simon was so eminent
a stone. Does it then follow that the heart is, practically, at
the height of the revelation made to it? No; there may be,
after all, the esh not yet mortied on that side where the
revelation touches our earthly position.
e revelation given to Peter implying Christ’s
rejection on earth; the cross as the entrance into the
kingdom
In fact, the revelation made to Peter implied the rejection
of Christ on earth-necessarily led to His humiliation and
death. at was the point. To substitute the revelation of
the Son of God, the assembly and the heavenly kingdom
for the manifestation of the Messiah on earth-what could
it mean, except that Jesus was to be delivered up to the
Gentiles to be crucied, and after that to rise again? But
morally Peter had not attained to this. On the contrary,
his carnal heart availed itself of the revelation made to
him, and of that which Jesus had said to him, for self-
exaltation. He saw, therefore, the personal glory without
apprehending the <P108>practical moral consequences.
He begins to rebuke the Lord Himself and seeks to turn
Him aside from the path of obedience and submission.
e Lord, ever faithful, treats him as an adversary. Alas!
how often have we enjoyed some truth, and that sincerely,
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and yet have failed in the practical consequences that it
led to on earth! A heavenly, gloried Saviour, who builds
the assembly, implies the cross on earth. e esh does not
understand this. It will raise its Messiah to heaven, if you
will; but to take its share of the humiliation that necessarily
follows is not its idea of a gloried Messiah. e esh must
be mortied to take this place. We must have the strength
of Christ by the Holy Spirit. A Christian who is not dead
to the world is but a stumbling-stone to everyone who
seeks to follow Christ.
ese are the forms of unbelief that precede a true
confession of Christ, and that are found, alas! in those who
have sincerely confessed and known Him (the esh not
being so mortied that the soul can walk in the height
of that which it has learned of God, and the spiritual
understanding being obscured by thinking of consequences
which the esh rejects).
e glorious title of “the Son of Man” replacing that
of the Messiah
But if the cross was the entrance into the kingdom, the
revelation of the glory would not be delayed. e Messiah
being rejected by the Jews, a title more glorious and of far
deeper import is unfolded: the Son of Man should come in
the glory of the Father (for He was the Son of God) and
reward every man according to his works. ere were even
some standing there who should not taste of death (for of
this they were speaking) till they had seen the manifestation
of the glory of the kingdom that belonged to the Son of
Man.
We may remark here the title of “Son of God”
established as the foundation; that of Messiah given up so
far as concerned the testimony rendered in that day and
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replaced by that of “Son of Man,” which He takes at the
same time as that of the Son of God, and which had a
glory that belonged to Him in His own right. He was to
come in the glory of His Father as Son of God and in His
own kingdom as Son of Man.<P109>
Christ as the Son of Man in the Psalms
It is interesting to remember here the instruction given
us in the beginning of the Book of Psalms. e righteous
man, distinguished from the congregation of the wicked,
had been presented in the rst Psalm. en, in the second,
we have the rebellion of the kings of the earth and the rulers
against the Lord and against His Anointed (that is, His
Christ). Now upon this the decree of Jehovah is declared.
Adonai, the Lord, shall mock at them from heaven. Further,
Jehovah’s King shall be established on Mount Zion. is is
the decree: “Jehovah hath said unto me, ou art my Son;
this day1 have I begotten thee.” e kings of the earth and
the judges are commanded to kiss the Son.
(1. We have seen that Peter went beyond this. Christ
is here seen as the Son born on the earth in time, not as
the Son from eternity in the bosom of the Father. Peter,
without the full revelation of this last truth, sees Him to
be the Son according to the power of divine life in His
own Person, upon which the assembly consequently could
be built. But here we are to consider that which belongs to
the kingdom.)
Now in the psalms that follow, all this glory is darkened.
e distress of the remnant, in which Christ has a part, is
related. en, in Psalm 8, He is addressed as Son of Man,
Heir of all the rights conferred in sovereignty upon man
by the counsels of God. e name of Jehovah becomes
excellent in all the earth. ese psalms do not go beyond the
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earthly part of these truths, excepting where it is written,
“He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh at them”; while
in Matthew 16 the connection of the Son of God with
this, His coming with His angels (to say nothing of the
assembly), is set before us. at is to say, we see that the
Son of Man will come in the glory of heaven. Not that His
dwelling there is the truth declared; but that He is invested
with the highest glory of heaven when He comes to set
up His kingdom on earth. He comes in His kingdom.
e kingdom is established on the earth; but He comes
to take it with the glory of heaven. is is displayed in the
following chapter, according to the promise here in verse
28.
A sample of the coming glory given to conrm the
disciples’ faith
In each Gospel that speaks of it, the transguration
immediately follows the promise of not tasting death
before seeing the kingdom of the Son of Man. And not
only so, but Peter (in his <P110>second epistle, chapter
1:16), when speaking of this scene, declares that it was a
manifestation of the power and coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ. He says that the word of prophecy was conrmed
to them by the view of His majesty; so that they knew that
whereof they spoke, in making known to them the power
and the coming of Christ, having beheld His majesty. In
fact, it is precisely in this sense that the Lord speaks of it
here, as we have seen. It was a sample of the glory in which
He would hereafter come, given to conrm the faith of His
disciples in the prospect of His death which He had just
announced to them.
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e transguration
In chapter 17 Jesus leads them up into a high mountain,
and there is transgured before them: “His face did shine as
the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.” Moses and
Elias appeared also, talking with Him. I leave the subject of
their discourse, which is deeply interesting, till we come to
the Gospel of Luke, which adds a few other circumstances,
which, in some respects, give another aspect to this scene.
Here the Lord appears in glory, and Moses and Elias
with Him: the one, the legislator of the Jews; the other
(almost equally distinguished), the prophet who sought
to bring back the ten apostate tribes to the worship of
Jehovah, and who, despairing of the people, went back
to Horeb, whence the law was given, and afterwards was
taken up to heaven without passing through death.
Peter’s error; the Object of the Father’s delight to be
ours
ese two persons, preeminently illustrious in the
dealings of God with Israel, as the founder and the restorer
of the people in connection with the law, appear in company
with Jesus. Peter (struck with this apparition, rejoicing to
see his Master associated with these pillars of the Jewish
system, with such eminent servants of God, ignorant of the
glory of the Son of Man, and forgetting the revelation of
the glory of His Person as the Son of God) desires to make
three tabernacles and to place the three on the same level as
oracles. But the glory of God manifests itself; that is to say,
the sign known in Israel as the abode (Shechinah)<P111>
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of that glory;1 and the voice of the Father is heard. Grace
may put Moses and Elias in the same glory as that of the
Son of God and associate them with Him; but if the folly of
man, in his ignorance, would place them together as having
in themselves equal authority over the heart of the believer,
the Father must at once vindicate the rights of His Son.
Not a moment elapses before the Father’s voice proclaims
the glory of the Person of His Son, His relation to Himself,
that He is the object of His entire aection, in whom is
all His delight. It is He whom the disciples are to hear.
Moses and Elias have disappeared. Christ is there alone, as
the One to be gloried, the One to teach those who hear
the Father’s voice. e Father Himself distinguishes Him,
presents Him to the notice of the disciples, not as being
worthy of their love, but as the object of His own delight.
In Jesus He was Himself well pleased. us the Father’s
aections are presented as ruling ours-setting before us
one common object. What a position for poor creatures
like us! What grace!2
(1. Peter, taught of the Holy Spirit, calls it “the excellent
glory.”)
(2. It was not in connection with the divine validity of
their testimony that Moses and Elias disappear. ere could
not be a stronger conrmation of it, as indeed Peter says,
than this scene. But not only they were not the subjects
of God’s testimony as Christ was, but their testimony
did not refer nor their exhortations reach to the heavenly
things which were now to be revealed in association with
the Son from heaven. Even John the Baptist makes this
dierence (John 3:13,31-34). Hence, as there set forth, the
Son of Man must be lifted up. So here, the Lord charges
the disciples not to say He was the Messiah, for the Son
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of Man must suer. It was the turning point of the Lord’s
life and ministry, and the coming glory of the kingdom
shown to the disciples, but then He must suer. (See John
12:27.) e Jewish history was closed in chapter 12, indeed
in chapter 11, and the ground of the change laid. John
and He both rejected, perfect submission, then all things
delivered unto Him of His Father, and He revealing the
Father. Compare John 13-14. But Matthew 13-apart from
Judaism-He begins with what He brought, not looking for
fruit in man.)
Jesus the sole dispenser of the knowledge and mind
of God
At the same time the law, and all idea of the restoration
of the law under the old covenant, were passed away; and
Jesus, gloried as Son of Man, and Son of the living God,
remains the sole dispenser of the knowledge and the mind
of God. e disciples fall on their faces, sore afraid, on
hearing the voice of God. Jesus, to whom this glory and
this voice were natural, encourages them, as He always
did when on earth, saying, “Be not afraid.” Being with
Him who was the object of the Father’s love, why should
they<P112> fear? eir best Friend was the manifestation
of God on the earth; the glory belonged to Him. Moses
and Elias had disappeared, and the glory also, which the
disciples were not yet able to bear; Jesus-who had been
thus manifested to them in the glory given Him, and in
the rights of His glorious Person, in His relations with the
Father-Jesus remains the same to them as they had ever
known Him. But this glory was not to be the subject of
their testimony until He, the Son of Man, was risen from
the dead-the suering Son of Man. e great proof should
then be given that He was the Son of God with power.
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Testimony thereunto should be rendered, and He would
ascend personally into that glory which had just shone
forth before their eyes.
e coming and rejection of Elias and of the Son of
Man
But a diculty arises in the minds of the disciples
caused by the doctrine of the scribes with regard to
Elias. ese had said that Elias must come before the
manifestation of the Messiah; and, in fact, the prophecy of
Malachi authorized this expectation. Why then, ask they,
say the scribes that Elias must rst come (that is to say,
before the manifestation of the Messiah), whereas we have
now seen that ou art He, without the coming of Elias?
Jesus conrms the words of the prophecy, adding that Elias
should restore all things. “But,” continues the Lord, “I say
unto you, that he is come already, and they have done unto
him whatsoever they listed; likewise shall also the Son of
Man suer of them.” en understood they that He spoke
of John the Baptist, who came in the spirit and power of
Elias, as the Holy Spirit had declared by Zacharias his
father.
Let us say a few words on this passage. First of all, when
the Lord says, “Elias truly cometh rst, and shall restore
all things,” He does but conrm that which the scribes
had spoken, according to Malachi’s prophecy, as though
He had said, “ey are in the right.” He then declares the
eect of the coming of Elias: “He shall restore all things.”
But the Son of Man was yet to come. Jesus had said to
His disciples, “Ye shall not have gone over the cities of
Israel till the Son of Man be come.” Nevertheless, He
had come and was even now speaking with them. But
this coming of the Son of Man of which He spoke is His
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coming in glory, when He shall be manifested as the Son
of Man in judgment according to Daniel 7.<P113> It was
thus that all which had been said to the Jews should be
accomplished; and in Matthew’s Gospel He speaks to
them in connection with this expectation. Nevertheless, it
was needful that Jesus should be presented to the nation
and should suer. It was needful that the nation should
be tested by the presentation of the Messiah according to
the promise. is was done, and as God had also foretold
by the prophets, “He was rejected of men.” us also John
went before Him, according to Isaiah 40, as the voice in the
wilderness, even in the spirit and power of Elias; he was
rejected as the Son of Man should also be.1
(1. Hence also John the Baptist rejects the application
of Malachi 4:5-6 to himself; while Isaiah 40 and Malachi
3:1 are applied to him in Luke 1:76; 7:27. )
e rejection of the Son of Man; temporary setting
aside of the nation and restoration of all things
e Lord then, by these words, declares to His disciples,
in connection with the scene they had just left and with
all this part of our Gospel, that the Son of Man, as now
presented to the Jews, was to be rejected. is same Son
of Man was to be manifested in glory, as they had seen
for a moment on the Mount. Elias indeed was to come, as
the scribes had said; but that John the Baptist had fullled
that oce in power for this presentation of the Son of
Man; which (the Jews being left, as was tting, to their
own responsibility) would only end in His rejection, and in
the setting aside of the nation until the days in which God
would begin again to connect Himself with His people,
still dear to Him, whatever their condition might be. He
would then restore all things (a glorious work, which He
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would accomplish by bringing again His Firstborn into the
world). e expression “restore all things” refers here to the
Jews and is used morally. In Acts 3 it refers to the eect of
the Son of Man’s own presence.
e last step in the testing of the Jews; pure grace
e temporary presence of the Son of Man was the
moment in which a work was accomplished on which
eternal glory depends, in which God has been fully
gloried, above and beyond all dispensation and in which
God and so man has been revealed, a work of which even
the outward glory of the Son of Man is but the fruit, so
far as that depends on His work, and not on His divine
Person;<P114> a work in which morally He was perfectly
gloried in perfectly glorifying God. Still, with respect to
the promises made to the Jews, it was but the last step in
the testing to which they were subjected by grace. God well
knew that they would reject His Son; but He would not
hold them as denitively guilty until they had really done
it. us in His divine wisdom (while afterwards fullling
His unchangeable promises) He presents Jesus to them-
His Son, their Messiah. He gives them every necessary
proof. He sends them John the Baptist in the spirit and
power of Elias, as His forerunner. e Son of David is born
at Bethlehem with all the signs that should have convinced
them; but they were blinded by their pride and self-
righteousness, and rejected it all. Nevertheless, it became
Jesus in grace to adapt Himself, as to His position, to the
wretched condition of His people. us also, the Antitype
of the David rejected in his day, He shared the aiction
of His people. If the Gentiles oppressed them, their King
must be associated with their distress, while giving every
proof of what He was and seeking them in love. He
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rejected, all becomes pure grace. ey have no longer a right
to anything according to the promises and are reduced to
receive all from that grace, even as a poor Gentile would
do. God will not fail in grace. us God has put them on
the true footing of sinners and will nevertheless fulll His
promises. is is the subject of Romans 11.
John the Baptist and Elias
Now the Son of Man who shall return will be this
same Jesus who went away. e heavens will receive
Him until the times of the restitution of all things of
which the prophets have spoken. But he who was to be
His forerunner in this temporary presence here could
not be the same Elias. Accordingly, John was conformed
to the then manifestation of the Son of Man, saving the
dierence that necessarily owed from the Person of the
Son of Man, who could be but one, while that could not be
the case with John the Baptist and Elias. But even as Jesus
manifested all the power of the Messiah, all His rights
to everything that belonged to that Messiah, without
assuming as yet the outward glory, His time not being
come (John 7), so John fullled morally and in power the
mission of Elias to prepare the way of the Lord before Him
(according to the true character of His coming, as then
ac<P115>complished) and answered literally to Isaiah 40,
and even to Malachi 3, the only passages applied to him.
is is the reason that John said he was not Elias and that
the Lord said, “If ye can receive it, this is Elias which was for
to come.” erefore also John never applied Malachi 4:5-6
to himself; but he announces himself as fullling Isaiah
40:3-5, and this in each of the Gospels, whatever may be
its particular character.1
(1. See previous note.)
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e believer’s unbelief; felt want and its remedy
But let us go on with our chapter. If the Lord takes up
into the glory, He comes down into this world, even now
in Spirit and in sympathy, and meets the crowd and Satan’s
power with which we have to do. While the Lord was on
the Mount, a poor father had brought to the disciples his
son who was a lunatic and possessed by a devil. Here is
developed another character of man’s unbelief, that even
of the believer-inability to make use of the power which
is, so to say, at his disposal in the Lord. Christ, Son of
God, Messiah, Son of Man, had overcome the enemy, had
bound the strong man and had a right to cast him out. As
man, the obedient One in spite of Satan’s temptations, He
had overcome him in the wilderness and had thus a right
as man to dispossess him of his dominion over a man as
to this world; and this He did. In casting out devils and
healing the sick, He delivered man from the power of the
enemy. “God,” said Peter, “anointed Jesus of Nazareth with
the Holy Spirit and with power, and he went about doing
good and healing all those that were oppressed by the devil.”
Now this power should have been used by the disciples,
who ought to have known how to avail themselves by faith
of that which Jesus had thus manifested on earth; but they
were
not able to do it. Yet what availed it to bring this power
down here, if the disciples had not faith to use it? e power
was there: man might prot by it for complete deliverance
from all the oppression of the enemy; but he had not faith
to do so-even believers had not. e presence of Christ
on earth was useless, when even His own disciples knew
not how to prot by it. ere was more faith in the man
that brought his child than in them, for felt want brought
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him to its remedy. All therefore come under the Lord’s
sentence, “O faithless and perverse generation!” He<P116>
must leave them, and that which the glory had revealed
above, unbelief shall realize below.
Individual faith met with blessing
Observe here that it is not evil in the world which puts
an end to a particular intervention of God; on the contrary,
it occasions the intervention in grace. It was on account of
Satan’s dominion over men that Christ came. He departs,
because those who had received Him are incapable of
using the power that He brought with Him or that He
bestows for their deliverance; they cannot prot by the very
advantages then enjoyed. Faith was wanting. Nevertheless,
observe also this important and touching truth that, as
long as such dispensation from God continues, Jesus does
not fail to meet individual faith with blessing, even when
His disciples cannot glorify Him by the exercise of faith.
e same sentence that judges the unbelief of the disciples
calls the distressed father to the enjoyment of the blessing.
After all, to be able to avail ourselves of His power, we
must be in communion with Him by the practical energy
of faith.
He blesses then the poor father according to his need;
and, full of patience, He resumes the course of instruction
He was giving His disciples on the subject of His rejection
and His resurrection as the Son of Man. Loving the Lord
and unable to carry their ideas beyond the circumstances of
the moment, they are troubled; and yet this was redemption,
salvation, the glory of Christ.
e Master’s instruction; association with Himself
Before, however, going farther and teaching them that
which became the disciples of a Master thus rejected and
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the position they were to occupy, He sets before them
His divine glory, and their association with Him who
had it, in the most touching manner, if they could but
have understood it; and at the same time with perfect
condescension and tenderness He places Himself with
them, or rather He places them in the same place with
Himself, as Son of the great King of the temple and of all
the earth.
e tribute money: divine condescension
ose who collected the tribute money for the service
of the temple come and ask Peter if his Master does not
pay it. Ever ready<P117> to put himself forward, forgetful
of the glory he had seen and the revelation made to him
by the Father, Peter, coming down to the ordinary level
of his own thoughts, anxious that his Master should be
esteemed a good Jew and without consulting Him, replies
that He does. e Lord anticipates Peter on his coming in
and shows him His divine knowledge of that which took
place at a distance from Himself. At the same time, He
speaks of Peter and Himself as both children of the King
of the temple (Son of God still keeping in patient goodness
His lowly place as a Jew), and both therefore free from the
tribute. But they should not oend. He then commands
creation (for He can do all things, as He knows all things) and
causes a sh to bring precisely the sum required, coupling
anew the name of Peter with His own. He had said, “Lest
we oend them”; and now, “Give unto them for me and
thee.” Marvelous and divine condescension! He who is the
searcher of hearts and who disposes at will of the whole
creation, the Son of the sovereign Lord of the temple,
puts His poor disciples into this same relationship with
His heavenly Father, with the God who was worshipped in
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that temple. He submits to the demands that would have
been rightly made on strangers, but He places His disciples
in all His own privileges as Son. We see very plainly the
connection between this touching expression of divine
grace and the subject of these chapters. It demonstrates all
the signicance of the change that was taking place.
Peter’s epistles in connection with chapters 16-17
It is interesting to remark that the rst epistle of Peter
is founded on Matthew 16, and the second on chapter 17,
which we have just been considering.1 In chapter 16, Peter,
taught of the Father, confessed the Lord to be the Son of
the living God; and the Lord said that on this rock He
would build His church, and that he who had the power
of death should not prevail against it. us also Peter, in
his rst epistle, declares that they were born again unto
a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the
dead. Now it is by this resurrection that the power of the
life of the<P118> living God was manifested. Afterwards,
he calls Christ the living stone, in coming unto whom we,
as living stones, are built up a holy temple to the Lord.
(1. Both these epistles, after stating redemption by the
precious blood of Christ and being born of the incorruptible
seed of the Word, treat of the government of God; the rst,
its application to His own, preserving them, the second, to
the wicked and the world, going on thus to the elements
melting with fervent heat, and the new heavens and the
new earth.)
In his second epistle he recalls, in a peculiar manner, the
glory of the transguration, as a proof of the coming and
the kingdom of the Son of Man. Accordingly, he speaks in
that epistle of the judgment of the Lord.
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God’s ways in the new order of things; the character
of the true testimony to be rendered
In chapter 18 the great principles proper to the new
order of things are made known to the disciples. Let us
search a little into these sweet and precious instructions of
the Lord.
ey may be looked at in two ways. ey reveal the ways
of God with regard to that which was to take the place of
the Lord upon earth, as a testimony to grace and truth.
Besides this, they depict the character which is in itself the
true testimony to be rendered.
is chapter supposes Christ rejected and absent, the
glory of chapter 17 not yet come. It passes over chapter
17 to connect itself with chapter 16 (except so far as the
last verses of chapter 17 give a practical testimony to His
abdication of His true rights until God should vindicate
them). e Lord speaks of the two subjects contained in
chapter 16, the kingdom and the church.
“As little children”-the spirit becoming the followers
of a rejected Lord
at which would be proper for the kingdom was the
meekness of a little child, which is unable to assert its own
rights in the face of a world that passes it by-the spirit
of dependence and humility. ey must become as little
children. In the absence of their rejected Lord this was the
spirit that became His followers. He who received a little
child in the name of Jesus received Himself. On the other
hand, he who put a stumbling-block in the way of one of
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those little ones who believed in Jesus1 should be visited
with the<P119> most terrible judgment. Alas! the world
does this; but woe unto the world on that account. As to the
disciples, if that which they most valued became a snare to
them, they must pluck it out and cut it o-must exercise the
utmost carefulness in grace not to be a snare to a little one
believing in Christ, and the most unrelenting severity as to
themselves, in whatever might be a snare to them. Loss of
what was most precious here was nothing, compared with
their eternal condition in another world; for that was in
question now, and sin could have no place in God’s house.
Care for others, even the weakest, severity with self was the
rule of the kingdom that no snare or evil might be. As to
oence, full grace in forgiveness. ey were not to despise
these little ones; for if unable to force their own way in this
world, they were the objects of the Father’s special favor, as
those who, in earthly courts, had the peculiar privilege of
seeing the king’s face. Not that there was no sin in them,
but that the Father did not despise those that were far from
Him. e Son of Man was come to save the lost.2 And
it was not the Father’s will that one of these little ones
should perish. He spoke, I doubt not, of little children like
those whom He took in His arms; but He inculcates on
His disciples the spirit of humility and dependence on the
one hand, and on the other, the spirit of the Father, which
they were to imitate in order to be truly the children of the
kingdom; and not to walk in the spirit of man, who seeks to
maintain his place and his own importance, but to humble
themselves and submit to contumely; and at the same time
(and this is true glory) to imitate the Father, who considers
the lowly and admits them into His presence. e Son of
Man was come on behalf of the worthless. is is the spirit
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of grace spoken of at the end of chapter 5. It is the spirit of
the kingdom.
(1. e Lord here distinguishes a believing little one.
In the other verses, He speaks of a little child, making its
character, as such, a model of that of the Christian in this
world.)
(2. As doctrine, the sinful condition of the child and its
need of the sacrice of Christ are clearly expressed here.
He does not say, “Seek,” as to them. e employing the
parable of the lost sheep is striking here.)
e assembly to occupy the place of Christ on earth;
Christ in the midst
But the assembly more especially was to occupy the place
of Christ on earth. With respect to oences against oneself,
this same spirit of meekness became His disciple; he was to
gain his brother. If the latter would hearken, the thing was
to be buried in<P120> the heart of the one whom he had
oended; if not, two or three more were then to be taken
with him by the oended person to reach his conscience,
or serve as witnesses; but if these appointed means were
unavailing, it must be made known to the assembly; and
if this did not produce submission, he who had done the
wrong should be to him as a stranger, as a heathen and a
publican was to Israel. e public discipline of the assembly
is not treated of here, but the spirit in which Christians
were to walk. If the oender bowed when spoken to, even
seventy times seven times a day, he was to be forgiven. But
though church discipline be not spoken of, we see that the
assembly took the place of Israel on earth. e without and
within henceforth applied to it. Heaven would ratify that
which the assembly bound on earth, and the Father would
grant the prayer of two or three who should agree together
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in making their request; for Christ would be in the midst
wherever two or three should be gathered together in or
to His name.1us, for decisions, for prayers, they were
as Christ on the earth, for Christ Himself was there with
them. Solemn truth! immense favor, bestowed on two
or three when really gathered together in His name; but
which forms a subject of the deepest grief when this unity
is pretended to, while the reality is not there.2
(1. It is important to call to mind here that-while the
Holy Spirit is personally fully recognized in Matthew, as in
the birth of the Lord, and (ch. 10) as acting and speaking in
the disciples in their service, as a divine Person, as it is ever
from Him alone we can act rightly-the coming of the Holy
Spirit, in the order of divine dispensation, forms no part of
the teaching of this Gospel, though recognized as a fact
in chapter 10. e view of Christ in Matthew closes with
His resurrection, and the Jewish body are sent out from
Galilee as an accepted body to the world to evangelize the
Gentiles, and He declares He will be with them to the
end of the age. So here He is in the midst of two or three
gathered to His name. e church here is not the body by
the baptism of the Holy Spirit; it is not the house where
the Holy Spirit dwells on earth; but where the two or three
meet to His name, there Christ is. Now I do not doubt
that all good from life on, and the Word of life, comes from
the Spirit, but this is another thing, and the assembly here
is not the body, nor the house, through the coming down
of the Holy Spirit. is was a subsequent teaching and
revelation, and remains blessedly true; but it is Christ in
the midst of those assembled to His name. Even in chapter
16 it is He builds, but that is another thing. Of course, it is
spiritually He is present.)
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(2. It is very striking to nd here that the only succession
in the oce of binding and loosing which heaven sanctions
is that of two or three assembled in Christ’s name.)
e spirit of the kingdom-grace and lowliness
Another element of the character proper to the
kingdom, which had been manifested in God and in Christ,
is pardoning grace. In<P121> this also the children of the
kingdom are to be imitators of God and always to forgive.
is refers only to wrongs done to oneself, and not to public
discipline. We must pardon to the end, or rather, there must
be no end; even as God has forgiven us all things. At the
same time, I believe that the dispensations of God to the
Jews are here described. ey had not only broken the law,
but they had slain the Son of God. Christ interceded for
them, saying, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what
they do.” In answer to this prayer, a provisional pardon was
preached by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of Peter.
But this grace too was rejected. When it was a question of
showing grace to the Gentiles, who, no doubt, owed them
the hundred pence, they would not hear of it, and they are
given up to punishment,1 until the Lord can say, “ey
have received double for all their sins.”
(1. is giving up and the formal opening into the
intermediate heavenly place connected with the Son of
Man in glory are in Acts 7, where Stephen recites their
history from Abraham, the rst called as root of promise,
to that day.)
In a word, the spirit of the kingdom is not outward
power, but lowliness; but in this condition there is nearness
to the Father, and then it is easy to be meek and humble
in this world. One who has tasted the favor of God will
not seek greatness on earth; he is imbued with the spirit
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of grace, he cherishes the lowly, he pardons those who
have wronged him, he is near God and resembles Him in
his ways. e same spirit of grace reigns, whether in the
assembly or in its members. It alone represents Christ
on the earth; and to it relate those regulations which are
founded on the acceptance of a people as belonging unto
God. Two or three really gathered together in the name of
Jesus act with His authority and enjoy His privileges with
the Father, for Jesus Himself is there in their midst.
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73095
Matthew 19
Principles which govern human nature; the true
character of the marriage bond
Chapter 19 carries on the subject of the spirit that is
suited to the kingdom of heaven and goes deep into the
principles which govern human nature and of what was now
divinely introduced. A question asked by the Pharisees-for
the Lord had drawn nigh<P122> to Judea-gives rise to the
exposition of His doctrine on marriage; and turning away
from the law, given on account of the hardness of their
hearts, He goes back1 to God’s institution, according to
which one man and one woman were to unite together
and to be one in the sight of God. He establishes, or rather
reestablishes, the true character of the indissoluble bond of
marriage. I call it indissoluble, for the exception of the case
of unfaithfulness, is not one; the guilty person had already
broken the bond. It was no longer man and woman one
esh. At the same time, if God gave spiritual power for it,
it was still better to remain unmarried.
(1. e connection is here traced between the new thing
and nature, as God had originally formed it, passing over
the law as something merely come between. It was a new
power, because evil had come in, but it recognized God’s
creation, while proving the state of the heart, not yielding to
its weakness. Sin has corrupted what God created good. e
power of the Spirit of God, given to us through redemption,
raises man and his path wholly out of the whole condition
of esh, introduces a new, divine power by which he walks
in this world, after the example of Christ. But with this
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there is the fullest sanction of what God Himself originally
established. It is good, though there may be what is better.
e way the law is passed over to go back to God’s original
institution, where spiritual power did not take the heart
wholly out of the whole scene, though walking in it, is very
striking. In marriage, the child, the character of the young
man, what is of God and lovely in nature is recognized
of the Lord. But the state of man’s heart is searched out.
is does not depend on character but motive and is fully
tested by Christ (there is an entire dispensational change,
for riches were promised to a faithful Jew), and a rejected
Christ-the path to heaven-everything, and the test of
everything, that is of the heart of man.
God made man upright with certain family relationships.
Sin has wholly corrupted this old or rst creation of man.
e coming of the Holy Spirit has brought in a power
which lifts, in the second Man, out of the old creation into
the new, and gives us heavenly things-only not yet as to the
vessel, the body; but it cannot disown or condemn what
God created in the beginning. at is impossible. In the
beginning God made them. When we come to heavenly
condition, all this, though not the fruits of its exercises in
grace, disappears. If a man in the power of the Holy Spirit
has the gift to do it, and be entirely heavenly, so much the
better; but it is entirely evil to condemn or speak against the
relationships which God originally created, or diminish or
detract from the authority which God has connected with
them. If a man can live wholly above and out of them all
to serve Christ, it is all well; but it is rare and exceptional.)
Instruction with respect to children
He then renews His instruction with respect to children,
while testifying His aection for them: here it appears to
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me rather in connection with the absence of all that binds
to the world, to its distractions and its lusts, and owning
what is lovely, conding, and externally undeled in nature;
whereas, in chapter 18, it was the intrinsic character of the
kingdom. After this, He shows (with<P123> reference to
the introduction of the kingdom in His Person) the nature
of entire devotedness and sacrice of all things, in order to
follow Him, if truly they only sought to please God. e
spirit of the world was opposed at all points, both carnal
passions and riches. No doubt the law of Moses restrained
these passions; but it supposes them, and, in some respects,
bears with them. According to the glory of the world, a
child had no value. What power can it have there? It is of
value in the Lord’s eyes.
e motives of the heart tested; earthly riches
e law promised life to the man that kept it. e
Lord makes it simple and practical in its requirements, or,
rather, recalls them in their true simplicity. Riches were
not forbidden by the law; that is to say, although moral
obligation between man and man was maintained by the
law, that which bound the heart to the world was not judged
by it. Rather was prosperity, according to the government
of God, connected with obedience to it. For it supposed
this world, and man alive in it, and tested him there. Christ
recognizes this; but the motives of the heart are tested. e
law was spiritual, and the Son of God there; we nd again
what we found before-man tested and detected, and God
revealed. All is intrinsic and eternal in its nature, for God
is revealed already. Christ judges everything that has a bad
eect on the heart and acts upon its selshness and thus
separates it from God. “Sell that thou hast,” says He, “and
follow me.” Alas! the young man could not renounce his
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possessions, his ease, himself. “Hardly,” says Jesus, “shall a
rich man enter into the kingdom.” is was manifest: it
was the kingdom of God, of heaven; self and the world
had no place in it. e disciples, who did not understand
that there is no good in man, were astonished that one so
favored and well disposed should be still far from salvation.
Who then could succeed? e whole truth then comes out.
It is impossible to men. ey cannot overcome the desires
of the esh. Morally, and as to his will and his aections,
these desires are the man. One cannot make an Ethiopian
white, or take his spots from the leopard: that which they
exhibit is in their nature. But to God, blessed be His name!
all things are possible.<P124>
Renunciation for Jesus’ sake; its reward
ese instructions with regard to riches give rise to
Peter’s question, What shall be the portion of those who
have renounced everything? is brings us back to the glory
in chapter 17. ere would be a regeneration; the state of
things should be entirely renewed under the dominion of
the Son of Man. At that time they should sit on twelve
thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. ey should
have the rst place in the administration of the earthly
kingdom. Everyone, however, should have his own place;
for whatever anyone renounced for Jesus’ sake, he should
receive a hundredfold and everlasting life. Nevertheless,
these things would not be decided by appearance here; nor
by the place men held in the old system, and before men:
some that were rst should be last, and the last rst. In
fact, it was to be feared that the carnal heart of man would
take this encouragement, given in the shape of reward for
all his labor and all his sacrices, in a mercenary spirit, and
seek to make God his debtor; and, therefore, in the parable
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by which the Lord continues His discourse (ch. 20), He
establishes the principle of grace and of God’s sovereignty
in that which He gives, and towards those whom He calls,
in a very distinct manner, and makes His gifts to those
whom He brings into His vineyard depend on His grace
and on His call.
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73096
Matthew 20
Laborers in God’s vineyard; God’s call and His grace
We may remark that, when the Lord answers Peter, it
was the consequence of having left all for Christ upon His
call. e motive was Christ Himself: therefore He says,
“Ye which have followed me.” He speaks also of those who
had done it for His name’s sake. is was the motive. e
reward is an encouragement, when, for His sake, we are
already in the way. is is always the case when reward
is spoken of in the New Testament.1 He who was called
at the eleventh hour was dependent on this call for his
entrance into<P125> the work; and if, in his kindness, the
master chose to give him as much as the others, they should
have rejoiced at it. e rst adhered to justice; they received
that which was agreed upon; the last enjoyed the grace
of his master. And it is to be remarked that they accept
the principle of grace, of condence in it. “Whatsoever is
right I will give!” e great point in the parable is that-
condence in the grace of the master of the vineyard, and
grace as the ground of their action. But who understood it?
A Paul might come in late, God having then called him,
and be a stronger testimony to grace than the laborers who
had wrought from the dawning of the gospel day.
1. Indeed, reward is in Scripture always an encouragement
to those who are in sorrow and suering by having
from higher motives entered into God’s way. So
Moses; so even Christ, whose motive in perfect love
we know, yet for the joy set before Him endured the
cross, despising the shame. He was the αρχηγοσ και
τελειωτησ (archegos kai teleiotes) in the path of faith.
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187
Sharing in the Lord’s suerings
e Lord afterwards pursues the subject with His
disciples. He goes up to Jerusalem, where the Messiah
ought to have been received and crowned, to be rejected
and put to death, but after that to rise again; and when the
sons of Zebedee come and ask him for the two rst places
in the kingdom, He answers that He can lead them indeed
to suering; but as to the rst places in His kingdom, He
could not bestow them, except (according to the Father’s
counsels) on those for whom the Father had prepared
them. Wondrous self-renunciation! It is for the Father, for
us, that He works. He disposes of nothing. He can bestow
on those who will follow Him a share in His suerings:
everything else shall be given according to the counsels of
the Father. But what real glory for Christ and perfection
in Him, and what a privilege for us to have this motive
only, and to partake in the Lord’s suerings! and what a
purication of our carnal hearts is here proposed to us, in
making us act only for a suering Christ, sharing His cross,
and committing ourselves to God for recompense!
e spirit of Christ a spirit of service
e Lord then takes occasion to explain the sentiments
that become His followers, the perfection of which
they had seen in Himself. In the world, authority was
sought for; but the spirit of Christ was a spirit of service,
leading to the choice of the lowest place, and to entire
devotedness to others. Beautiful and perfect principles,
the full, bright perfection of which was displayed in
Christ. e renunciation of all things, in order to depend
<P126>condingly on the grace of Him whom we serve,
the consequent readiness to take the lowest place, and thus
to be the servant of all-this should be the spirit of those
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who have part in the kingdom as now established by the
rejected Lord. It is this that becomes His followers.1
(1. Observe the way in which the sons of Zebedee and
their mother come to seek the highest place, at the moment
when the Lord was preparing unreservedly to take the very
lowest. Alas! we see so much of the same spirit. e eect
was to bring out how absolutely He had stripped Himself
of everything. ese are the principles of the heavenly
kingdom: perfect self-renunciation, to be contented in
thorough devotedness; this is the fruit of love that seeks
not her own-the yieldingness that ows from the absence
of self-seeking; submission when despised; meekness and
lowliness of heart. e spirit of service to others is that
which love produces at the same time as the humility
which is satised with this place. e Lord fullled this
even unto death, giving His life as a ransom for many.)
Christ’s last presentation to Israel as the Son of
David; the beginning of the closing scenes of His life
With the end of verse 28 this portion of the Gospel
terminates, and the closing scenes of the blessed Saviour’s
life begin. At verse 292 begins His last presentation to
Israel as the Son of David, the Lord, the true King of
Israel, the Messiah. He begins His career in this respect at
Jericho, the place where Joshua entered the land-the place
on which the curse had so long rested. He opens the blind
eyes of His people who believe in Him and receive Him as
the Messiah, for such He truly was, although rejected. ey
salute Him as Son of David, and He answers their faith by
opening their eyes. ey follow Him-a gure of the true
remnant of His people, who will wait for Him.
(1. e case of the blind man at Jericho is, in all the
rst three Gospels, the commencement of the nal
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189
circumstances of Christ’s life which led on to the cross,
the general contents and teachings of each being closed.
Hence He is addressed as Son of David, being the last
presentation of Himself as such to them, God’s testimony
being given to Him as such.)
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73097
Matthew 21
e Lord’s entry into Jerusalem as King and Lord
Afterwards, disposing of all that belonged to His
willing people, He makes His entry into Jerusalem as King
and Lord, according to the testimony of Zechariah. But
although entering as King<P127>-the last testimony to
the beloved city, which (to their ruin) was going to reject
Him-He comes as a meek and lowly King. e power
of God inuences the heart of the multitudes, and they
salute Him as King, as Son of David, making use of the
language supplied by Psalm 118,1 which celebrates the
millennial sabbath brought in by the Messiah, then to
be acknowledged by the people. e multitude spread
their garments to prepare the way for their meek, though
glorious King; they cut down branches from the trees to
bear Him testimony; and He is conducted in triumph to
Jerusalem, while the people cry, “Hosanna [save now] to
the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of
the Lord; Hosanna in the highest!” Happy for them if their
hearts had been changed to retain this testimony in the
Spirit. But God sovereignly disposed their hearts to bear
this testimony; He could not allow His Son to be rejected
without receiving it.
(1. is Psalm is peculiarly prophetic of the time of His
future reception and is often cited in connection with it.)
e King’s review of all as the true Judge
And now the King is going to review everything, still
maintaining His position of humility and of testimony.
Apparently the dierent classes come to judge Him, or
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to perplex Him; but, in fact, they all present themselves
before Him to receive at His hands, one after another, the
judgment of God respecting them. It is a striking scene
that opens before us-the true Judge, the everlasting King,
presenting Himself for the last time to His rebellious
people with the fullest testimony to His rights and to His
power; and they, coming to harass and condemn Him, led
by their very malice to pass before Him one after another,
laying open their real condition, to receive their judgment
from His lips, without His forsaking for a moment (unless
in cleansing the temple, before this scene commenced) the
position of faithful and true Witness in all meekness on
the earth.
e Lord as Messiah and Jehovah
e dierence between the two parts of this history is
distinguishable. e rst presents the Lord in His character
of Messiah and Jehovah. As Lord, He commands the ass to
be brought. He enters the city, according to the prophecy,
as King. He cleanses<P128> the temple with authority. In
answer to the priests’ objection He quotes Psalm 8, which
speaks of the manner in which Jehovah caused Himself to
be gloried, and perfected the praises due to Him out of
the mouth of babes. In the temple also He heals Israel. He
then leaves them, no longer lodging in the city, which He
could no longer own, but with the remnant outside. e
next day, in a remarkable gure He exhibits the curse about
to fall upon the nation. Israel was the g tree of Jehovah;
but it cumbered the ground. It was covered with leaves, but
there was no fruit. e g tree, condemned by the Lord,
presently withers away. It is a gure of this unhappy nation,
of man in the esh with every advantage, which bore no
fruit for the Husbandman.
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No fruit for God
Israel, in fact, possessed all the outward forms of
religion, and were zealous for the law and the ordinances,
but they bore no fruit unto God. So far as placed under
responsibility to bring forth fruit, that is to say, under the
old covenant, they will never do so. eir rejection of Jesus
put an end to all hope. God will act in grace under the new
covenant; but this is not the question here. e g tree is
Israel as they were, man cultivated by God, but in vain.
All was over. at which He said to the disciples of the
mountain’s removing, while it is a great general principle,
refers also, I doubt not, to that which should take place in
Israel by means of their ministry. Looked at corporately on
the earth as a nation, Israel should disappear and be lost
among the Gentiles. e disciples were those whom God
accepted according to their faith.
Details of judgment on the nation’s various classes
We see the Lord entering Jerusalem as a king-Jehovah,
the King of Israel-and judgment pronounced on the
nation. en follow the details of judgment on the dierent
classes of which it was composed. First come the chief
priests and elders, who should have guided the people;
they draw near to the Lord and question His authority.
us addressing Him, they took the place of heads of the
nation, and assumed to be judges, capable of pronouncing
on the validity of any claims that might be made; if not,
why concern themselves with Jesus?<P129>
e Lord, in His innite wisdom, puts a question
to them which tests their capability and by their own
confession they were incapable. How then judge Him?1
To tell them the foundation of His authority was useless.
It was too late now to tell them. ey would have stoned
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Him, if He had alleged its true source. He replies, “Decide
on John the Baptist’s mission.” If they could not do this,
why inquire respecting His? ey cannot do it. If they
acknowledged John to have been sent of God, it would
be acknowledging Christ. To deny it would be to lose
their inuence with the people. Of conscience there was
no question with them. ey confess their inability. Jesus
then declines their competency as leaders and guardians
of the faith of the people. ey had judged themselves;
and the Lord proceeds to set their conduct, and the Lord’s
dealings with them, plainly before their eyes, from verse 28
to chapter 22:14.
(1. is throwing back on conscience is often the wisest
answer, when the will is perverse.)
Perversity and rebellion; self-condemnation
First, while professing to do the will of God, they did
it not; while the openly wicked had repented and done
His will. ey, seeing this, were still hardened. Again, not
only had natural conscience remained untouched, whether
by the testimony of John or by the sight of repentance in
others, but, although God had used every means to make
them bring forth fruit worthy of His culture, He had found
nothing in them but perversity and rebellion. e prophets
had been rejected, and His Son would be so likewise. ey
desired to have His inheritance for themselves. ey could
not but acknowledge that in such case the consequence
must necessarily be the destruction of those wicked men,
and the bestowal of the vineyard on others. Jesus applies
the parable to themselves, by quoting Psalm 118, which
announces that the stone rejected by the builders should
become the headstone of the corner; moreover, that
whosoever should fall on this stone-as the nation was at that
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moment doing-should be broken; but that on whomsoever
it should fall-and this would be the lot of the rebellious
nation in the last days-it should grind them to powder. e
chief priests and the Pharisees understood that He spoke
of them, but they dared not lay hands on Him, because
the multitude took Him<P130> for a prophet. is is the
history of Israel, as under responsibility, even till the last
days. Jehovah was seeking fruit in His vineyard.
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195
73098
Matthew 22
e marriage feast; grace despised by Israel; its
judgment; the bringing in of the Gentiles
In chapter 22, their conduct with respect to the
invitations of grace is presented in its turn. e parable
is therefore a similitude of the kingdom of heaven. e
purpose of God is to honor His Son by celebrating His
marriage. First of all, the Jews, already invited, are bidden
to the marriage feast. ey would not come. is was done
during Christ’s lifetime. Afterwards, all things being ready,
He again sends forth messengers to induce them to come.
is is the mission of the apostles to the nation, when the
work of redemption had been accomplished. ey either
despise the message or slay the messengers.1e result
is the destruction of those wicked men and of their city.
is is the destruction that fell upon Jerusalem. On their
rejection of the invitation, the destitute, the Gentiles,
those who were outside, are brought in to the feast, and
the wedding is furnished with guests. Another thing is
now presented. It is true that we have seen the judgment
of Jerusalem in this parable, but, as it is a similitude of the
kingdom, we have the judgment of that which is within the
kingdom also. ere must be tness for the occasion. For a
wedding feast there must be a wedding garment. If Christ
is to be gloried, everything must be according to His
glory. ere may be an outward entrance into the kingdom,
a profession of Christianity; but he who is not clothed with
that which appertains to the feast will be cast out. We must
be clothed with Christ Himself. On the other hand, all is
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prepared-nothing is required. It was not the guest’s part
to bring anything; the King provided all. But we must be
imbued with the spirit of that which is done. If there is any
thought of what was suitable to a wedding feast, the need
of a wedding garment to appear in would surely be felt: if
not, the honor of the King’s Son has been forgotten. e
heart was a stranger to it; the<P131> man himself shall
become so by the judgment of the King when He takes
cognizance of the guests who have come in.
(1. Contempt and violence are the two forms of the
rejection of the testimony of God and of the true witness.
ey hate the one and love the other, or cleave to the one
and despise the other.)
us also grace has been shown to Israel, and they are
judged for refusing the invitation of the great King to the
marriage of His Son. And then the abuse of this grace by
those who appear to accept it is also judged. e bringing
in of the Gentiles is declared.
Here concludes the history of the judgment of Israel
in general, and of the character which the kingdom would
assume.
e Pharisees and Herodians answered
After this (chapter 22:15 and following) the dierent
classes of the Jews come forward, each in turn. First, the
Pharisees and the Herodians (that is, those who favored
the authority of the Romans, and those who were opposed
to it) seek to entangle Jesus in His talk. e blessed Lord
answers them with that perfect wisdom that ever displayed
itself in all He said and all He did. On their part, it was
pure wickedness manifesting a total want of conscience. It
was their own sin that had brought them under the Roman
yoke-a position contrary indeed to that which should
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have belonged to the people of God on earth. Apparently,
therefore, Christ must either become an object of suspicion
to the authorities, or renounce His claim to be the Messiah
and consequently the Deliverer. Who had occasioned this
dilemma? It was the fruit of their own sins. e Lord
shows them that they had themselves accepted the yoke.
e money bore the mark of this: let them render it then
to those unto whom it belonged, and let them also- which
they were not doing-render unto God the things that were
God’s. He leaves them under the yoke which they were
obliged to confess they had accepted. He reminds them
of the rights of God, which they had forgotten. Such
might, moreover, have been Israel’s state according to the
establishment of power in Nebuchadnezzar, as a “spreading
vine of low stature.”
e unbelief of the Sadducees
e Sadducees come next before Him and question
Him as to the resurrection, thinking to prove its absurdity.
us, as the condition of the nation had been exhibited
in His discourse with the Pharisees, the unbelief of the
Sadducees is displayed here. ey thought only of the
things of this world, seeking to deny the <P132>existence
of another. But whatever the state of degradation and
subjection into which the people had fallen, the God of
Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob changed not. e promises
made to the fathers remained sure, and the fathers were
living to enjoy these promises hereafter. It was the Word
and the power of God which were in question. e Lord
maintains them with power and evidence. e Sadducees
were silenced.
e essence of the perfect law
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e lawyers, struck with His reply, ask a question, which
gives the Lord occasion to extract from the whole law, that
which, in the sight of God, is its essence, presenting thus
its perfection, and that which-by whatever means it may
be reached-forms the happiness of those that walk in it.
Grace alone rises higher.
Here their questioning ceases. All is judged, all is
brought to light with respect to the position of the people,
and the sects of Israel; and the Lord has laid before them
the perfect thoughts of God respecting them, whether on
the subject of their condition, of His promises or of the
substance of the law.
e Lord’s question; its only answer; the true position
of Christ
It was now the Lord’s turn to propose His question in
order to bring out His own position. He asks the Pharisees
to reconcile the title of Son of David with that of Lord
which David himself gave Him, and that in connection
with the ascension of this same Christ to sit at the right
hand of God until God had made all His enemies His
footstool and established His throne in Zion. Now this was
the whole of Christ’s position at that moment. ey were
unable to answer Him, and no man dared ask Him any
more questions. In fact, to understand that Psalm would
have been to understand all the ways of God with respect
to His Son at the time they were going to reject Him. is
necessarily closed these discourses by showing the true
position of Christ, who, although the Son of David, must
ascend on high to receive the kingdom, and, while waiting
for it, sit at the right hand of God according to the rights
of His glorious Person-David’s Lord, as well as David’s
Son.<P133>
Matthew 22
199
e condition, privileges and responsibility of all
classes of Jews
ere is another point of interest to be remarked here.
In these interviews and these discourses with the dierent
classes of the Jews, the Lord brings out the condition of
the Jews on all sides with respect to their relations with
God, and then the position which He took Himself. He
rst shows their national position towards God, as under
responsibility to Him, according to natural conscience and
the privileges belonging to them. e result would be their
cutting o, and the bringing in of others into the Lord’s
vineyard. is is chapter 21:28-46. He then exhibits their
condition with regard to the grace of the kingdom and the
introduction of Gentile sinners. Here also the result is the
cutting o and the destruction of the city.1 Afterwards, the
Herodians and the Pharisees, the friends of the Romans
and their enemies, the pretended friends of God, bring out
the true position of the Jews with respect to the imperial
power of the Gentiles and to God. In His interview with
the Sadducees, He shows the certainty of the promises
made to the fathers, and the relationship in which God
stood to them in respect of life and resurrection. After this
He puts the real meaning of the law before the scribes;
and then the position which He took, Himself the Son of
David, according to Psalm 110, which was linked with His
rejection by the leaders of the nation who stood around
Him.<P134>
(1. Observe here that from chapter 21:28 to the end,
we have the responsibility of the nation looked at as in
possession of their original privileges, according to which
they ought to have borne fruit. Not having done so, another
is put in their place. is is not the cause of the judgment
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which was, and yet is in a more terrible way to be, executed
on Jerusalem, and which even then accomplished the
destruction of the city. e death of Jesus, the last of those
who had been sent to look for fruit, brings judgment on His
murderers (Matt. 21:33-41). e destruction of Jerusalem
is the consequence of the rejection of the testimony to the
kingdom sent to call them in grace. In the rst case, the
judgment was upon the husbandmen-the scribes and chief
priests and leaders of the people. e judgment executed on
account of the rejection of the testimony to the kingdom
goes much farther. (See chapter 22:7.) Some despise the
message, others ill-treat the messengers; and, grace being
thus rejected, the city is burned up and its inhabitants cut
o. Compare chapter 23:36 and see the historical prophecy
in Luke 21. e distinction is maintained in all three
Gospels.)
Matthew 23
201
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Matthew 23
e position of the disciples as part of the nation
Chapter 23 clearly shows how far the disciples are viewed
in connection with the nation, inasmuch as they were Jews,
although the Lord judges the leaders, who beguiled the
people and dishonored God by their hypocrisy. He speaks
to the multitude and to His disciples, saying, “e scribes
and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat.” Being thus expositors
of the law, they were to be obeyed in all that they said
according to that law, although their own conduct was but
hypocrisy. at which is important here is the position of
the disciples; it is, in fact, the same as that of Jesus. ey
are in connection with all that is of God in the nation, that
is to say, with the nation as the recognized people of God
- consequently, with the law as possessing authority from
God. At the same time, the Lord judges, and the disciples
also were practically to judge, the walk of the nation, as
publicly represented by their leaders. While still forming
part of the nation, they were carefully to avoid the walk
of the scribes and Pharisees. After having reproached
these pastors of the nation with their hypocrisy, the Lord
points out the way in which they themselves condemned
the deeds of their fathers-by building the sepulchres of
the prophets whom they had slain. ey were, then, the
children of those who slew them, and God would put them
to the test by sending them also prophets and wise men
and scribes, and they would ll up the measure of their
iniquity by putting these to death and persecuting them-
condemned thus out of their own mouths-in order that
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all the righteous blood which had been shed, from Abel’s
to that of the prophet Zechariah, should come upon this
generation. Frightful amount of guilt, accumulated from
the beginning of the enmity which sinful man, when placed
under responsibility, has ever shown to the testimony of
God; and which increased daily, because the conscience
became more hardened each time that it resisted this
testimony! e truth was so much the more manifest from
its witnesses having suered. It was a rock, exposed to view,
to be avoided in the people’s path. But they persisted in
their evil course, and every step in advance, every similar act,
was the proof of a still-increasing obduracy. e patience of
God, while graciously dealing in testimony, had not been
unobservant of their<P135> ways, and under this patience
all had accumulated. All would be heaped up on the head
of this reprobate generation.
Remark here the character given to the apostles and
Christian prophets. ey are scribes, wise men, prophets,
sent to the Jews-to the ever-rebellious nation. is very
clearly brings out the aspect in which this chapter regards
them. Even the apostles are “wise men,” “scribes,” sent to
the Jews as such.
But the nation-Jerusalem, God’s beloved city-is guilty
and is judged. Christ, as we have seen, since the cure of
the blind man near Jericho, presents Himself as Jehovah
the King of Israel. How often would He have gathered
the children of Jerusalem, but they would not! And now
their house should be desolate, until (their hearts being
converted) they should use the language of Psalm 118, and,
in desire, hail His arrival who came in the name of Jehovah,
looking for deliverance at His hands, and praying to Him
for it-in a word, until they should cry Hosanna to Him that
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should come. ey would see Jesus no more until, humbled
in heart, they should pronounce Him blessed whom they
were expecting and whom they now rejected-in short, until
they were prepared in heart. Peace should follow, desire
precede, His appearing.
e position of the Jews before God
e last three verses exhibit clearly enough the
position of the Jews, or of Jerusalem, as the center of the
system before God. Long since, and many times, would
Jesus, Jehovah the Saviour, have gathered the children of
Jerusalem together, even as a hen gathers her chickens
under her wings, but they would not. eir house should
remain forsaken and desolate, but not forever. After having
killed the prophets and stoned the messengers sent unto
them, they had crucied their Messiah, and rejected and
slain those whom He had sent to proclaim grace unto
them even after His rejection. erefore should they see
Him no more until they had repented and the desire to
see Him was produced in their hearts, so that they should
be prepared to bless Him, and would bless Him in their
hearts, and confess their readiness to do so. e Messiah,
who was about to leave them, should be seen of them no
more until repentance had turned their hearts unto Him
whom they were now rejecting. en they should see Him.
e<P136> Messiah, coming in the name of Jehovah,
shall be manifested to His people Israel. It is Jehovah
their Saviour who should appear, and the Israel who had
rejected Him should see Him as such. e people should
thus return into the enjoyment of their relationship with
God.
Such is the moral and prophetic picture of Israel. e
disciples, as Jews, were viewed as part of the nation, though
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as a remnant spiritually detached from it, and witnessing
in it.
Matthew 24
205
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Matthew 24
e Olivet discourse: prophecy and instruction
We have already seen that the rejection of the testimony
to the kingdom in grace is the cause of the judgment that
falls upon Jerusalem and its inhabitants. Now in chapter
24 we have the position of this testimony in the midst of
the people; the condition of the Gentiles, and the relation
in which they stood to the testimony rendered by the
disciples; after this, the condition of Jerusalem, consequent
upon her rejection of the Messiah, and her contempt for
the testimony; and then the universal overthrow at the
end of those days: a state of things which should be ended
by the appearance of the Son of Man, and the gathering
together of the elect of Israel from the four winds.
We must examine this remarkable passage, at once a
prophecy, and instruction to the disciples for their direction
in the path they must follow amid the coming events.
Jesus departs from the temple, and that forever-a
solemn act, which, we may say, executed the judgment He
had just pronounced. e house was now desolate. e
hearts of the disciples were still bound to it by their former
prepossessions. ey draw His attention to the magnicent
buildings that composed it. Jesus announces to them its
entire destruction. Seated apart with Him on the Mount
of Olives, the disciples inquire when these things were to
happen, and what would be the sign of His coming and of
the end of the age. ey class together the destruction of
the temple, the coming of Christ, and the end of the age.
We must observe, that here the end of the age is the end of
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the period during which Israel was subject to the law under
the old covenant: a period which was to cease, giving place
to the Messiah and to the new<P137> covenant. Observe
also that God’s government of the earth is the subject,
and the judgments that should take place at Christ’s
coming, which would put an end to the existing age. e
disciples confounded that which the Lord had said of the
destruction of the temple with this period.1e Lord treats
the subject from His own point of view (that is to say, with
regard to the testimony which the disciples were to render
in connection with the Jews during His absence and to
the end of the age). He adds nothing as to the destruction
of Jerusalem, which He had already announced. e time
of His coming was purposely hidden. Moreover, the
destruction of Jerusalem by Titus put an end, in fact, to the
position which the Lord’s instructions had in view. ere
was no longer any cognizable testimony among the Jews.
When this position shall be resumed, the applicability of
the passage will also recommence. After the destruction of
Jerusalem until that time the church only is in question.
(1. In fact, this position of Israel and the testimony
connected with it were interrupted by the destruction of
Jerusalem; and this is the reason why that event presents
itself to the mind in connection with this prophecy, of
which it is certainly not the fulllment. e Lord is not yet
come, neither the great tribulation; but the state of things to
which the Lord alludes, to the end of verse 14, was violently
and judicially interrupted, by the destruction of Jerusalem,
so that in this point of view there is a connection. )
e divisions of the discourse
e Lord’s discourse is divided into three parts:
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207
(1) e general condition of the disciples and of the
world during the time of the testimony, to the end of verse
14.
(2) e period marked out by the fact that the
abomination of desolation stands in the holy place (vs. 15).
(3) e Lord’s coming and the gathering together of
the elect in Israel (vs. 29).
Testimony among the people and among the Gentiles
until the end of the age
e time of the disciples’ testimony is characterized by
false
Christs and false prophets among the Jews; persecution
of those who render testimony, betraying them to the
Gentiles. But there is yet something more denite with
regard to those days. ere would be false Christs in Israel.
ere would be wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes.
ey were not to be troubled: the end<P138> would not
be yet. ese things were only a beginning of sorrows. ey
were principally outward things. ere were other events
which would bring them into greater trial and test them
more thoroughly-things more from within. e disciples
should be delivered up, put to death, hated of all nations.
e consequence of this among those who made profession
would be that many would be oended; they would betray
one another. False prophets would arise and deceive many,
and, because iniquity abounded, the love of many should
wax cold-a sorrowful picture. But these things would give
occasion for the exercise of a faith that had been put to the
proof. He who endured to the end should be saved. is
concerns the sphere of testimony in particular. at which
the Lord says is not absolutely limited to the testimony in
Canaan; but as it is from thence the testimony goes forth,
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it is all connected with that land as the center of God’s
ways. But, in addition to this, the gospel of the kingdom
should be preached in all the world for a witness unto all
nations, and then should the end come-the end of this age.
Now, although heaven is the source of authority when the
kingdom shall be established, Canaan and Jerusalem are
its earthly center. So that the idea of the kingdom, while
extending throughout the world, turns our thoughts to the
land of Israel. It is “this gospel of the kingdom”1 which is
here spoken of; it is not the proclamation of the union of
the church with Christ, nor redemption in its fullness, as
preached and taught by the apostles after the ascension,
but the kingdom which was to be established on the
earth, as John the Baptist, and as the Lord Himself, had
proclaimed. e establishment of the universal authority
of the ascended Christ should be preached in all the world
to test their obedience and to furnish those who had ears
to hear with the object of faith.
(1. e gospel of the kingdom was conned to Israel
in chapter 10 and here this, though no subject of the
teaching, is the subject supposed up to verse 14, but there
is no formal distinction made: the mission in chapter 28 is
to the Gentiles; but then there is nothing of the kingdom
but rather the contrary, though Christ be only risen, but all
power given to Him in heaven and earth.)
is is the general history of that which would take place
until the end of the age, without entering on the subject of
the proclamation which founded the assembly properly so
called. e impending destruction of Jerusalem, and the
refusal of the Jews to receive the gospel, caused God to
raise up a special testimony by<P139> the hands of Paul,
without annulling the truth of the coming kingdom. at
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which follows proves that such a going forth of testimony
of the kingdom will take place at the end, and that the
testimony will reach all nations before the coming of that
judgment which will put an end to the age.
e great tribulation; “the time of the end”
But there will be a moment when, within a certain
sphere (that is, in Jerusalem and its vicinity), a special
time of suering shall set in as regards the testimony in
Israel. In speaking of the abomination that makes desolate,
the Lord refers us to Daniel, that we may understand
whereof He speaks. Now Daniel (chapter 12, where this
tribulation is spoken of) brings us denitely to the last
days-the time when Michael shall stand up for Daniel’s
people, that is, the Jews, who are under the dominion of
the Gentiles- the days in which there shall be a time of
trouble, such as never had been nor ever again should be,
and in which the remnant should be delivered. In the latter
part of the previous chapter of that prophet, this time is
called “the time of the end,” and the destruction of the king
of the north is prophetically declared. Now the prophet
announces that 1335 days before the full blessing (blessed
is he that has part therein!) the daily sacrice should be
taken away, and the abomination that makes desolate set
up; that from this moment there should be 1290 days (that
is, one month more than the 1260 days spoken of in the
Apocalypse, during which the woman who ees from the
serpent is nourished in the wilderness; and also than the
three years and a half of Daniel 7). At the end, as we nd
here, the judgment comes and the kingdom is given to the
saints.
e time and people to whom the prophecy applies
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us it is proved that this passage refers to the last days
and to the position of the Jews at that time. e events
of the time past since the Lord uttered it conrm this
thought. Neither in 1260 days, nor in 1260 years, after the
days of Titus, nor in 30 days or years after, did any event
take place which could be the accomplishment of these
days in Daniel. e periods are gone by many years ago.
Israel has not been delivered, neither has Daniel stood in
his lot at the end of those days. It is equally<P140> plain
that Jerusalem is in question in the passage, and its vicinity,
for they that are in Judea are commanded to ee into the
mountains. e disciples who shall be there at that time
are to pray that their ight may not be on a sabbath day-an
additional testimony that it is Jews who are the subject of
the prophecy; but a testimony also of the tender care which
the Lord takes of those who are His, thinking even in the
midst of these unparalleled events of whether it would be
wintry weather at the time of their ight.
e Jewish remnant in question, not the assembly
Besides this, other circumstances prove, if further proof
were needed, that it is the Jewish remnant who are in
question, and not the assembly. We know that all believers
are to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. ey will
afterwards return with Him. But here there will be false
Christs on the earth, and people will say, “He is here in the
wilderness,” “He is there in the secret chambers.” But the
saints who shall be caught up and return with the Lord
have nothing at all to do with false Christs on earth, since
they will go up to heaven to be with Him there, before
He returns to the earth; while it is easy to understand that
the Jews, who are expecting earthly deliverance, should be
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liable to such temptations, and that they should be deceived
by them unless kept by God Himself.
e coming of the Son of Man
is part then of the prophecy applies to the last
days, the last three years and a half before the judgment
which will be suddenly poured out at the coming of the
Son of Man. e Lord will come suddenly as a ash of
lightning, as an eagle to its prey, unto the spot where the
object of His judgment is found. Immediately after the
tribulation of those last three years and a half, the whole
hierarchical system of government shall be shaken and
utterly overthrown. en shall appear the sign of the Son of
Man in heaven, and they shall see the Son of Man coming
in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. is
verse (vs. 30) contains the answer to the second part of the
disciples’ inquiry in verse 3. e Lord gives His disciples
the warnings necessary for their guidance; but the world
would see no signs, however<P141> plain they might be
to those that understand. But this sign should be at the
moment of the Lord’s appearing. e brightness of His
glory whom they had despised would show them who it
was that came; and it would be unexpected. What a terrible
moment, when, instead of a Messiah who should answer
to their worldly pride, the Christ whom they had despised
shall appear in the heavens!
Afterwards the Son of Man, thus come and manifested,
would send to gather all the elect of Israel from the four
corners of the earth. It is this which ends the history of
the Jews, and even that of Israel, in answer to the disciples’
question, and unfolds the dealings of God with respect
to the testimony among the people who had rejected
it, announcing the time of their deep distress, and the
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judgment that shall be poured out in the midst of this
scene when Jesus comes, the subversion of all powers great
and small being complete.
e importance of the capture of Jerusalem; the Jews
as a distinct race today
e Lord gives the history of the testimony in Israel,
and that of the people themselves, from the moment of
His departure until His return; but the length of time,
during which there should be neither people nor temple
nor city, is not specied. It is this which gives importance
to the capture of Jerusalem. It is not here spoken of in
direct terms-the Lord does not describe it; but it put an
end to that order of things to which His discourse applies,
and this application is not resumed until Jerusalem and the
Jews are again brought forward. e Lord announced it
at the beginning. e disciples thought that His coming
would take place at the same time. He answers them in
such a manner that His discourse should be of use to
them until the capture of Jerusalem. But when once the
abomination of desolation is mentioned, we nd ourselves
carried on into the last days.
e disciples were to understand the signs He gave them.
I have already said that the destruction of Jerusalem, by the
fact itself, interrupted the application of His discourse. e
Jewish nation was set aside; but verse 34 has a much wider
sense, and one more really proper to it. Unbelieving Jews
should exist, as such, until all was accomplished. Compare
Deuteronomy 32:5,20, where this<P142> judgment on
Israel is especially in view. God hides His face from them
until He shall see what their end will be, for they are a very
contrary generation, children in whom is no faith. is has
taken place. ey are a distinct race of people unto this day.
Matthew 24
213
at generation exists in the same condition-a monument
of the abiding certainty of God’s dealings, and of the Lord’s
words.
To conclude, the government of God, exercised with
regard to this people, has been traced to its end. e Lord
comes, and He gathers together the dispersed elect of
Israel.
e judgment of nations on earth according to their
treatment of the messengers of the kingdom
e prophetic history continues in chapter 25:31, which
is connected with chapter 24:30. And as chapter 24:31
relates the gathering together of Israel after the appearance
of the Son of Man, chapter 25:31 announces His dealings
in judgment with the Gentiles. He will appear doubtless
as the lightning with regard to the apostasy, which will
be as a dead body in His sight. But when He shall come
solemnly to take His earthly place in glory, that will not
pass away like lightning. He shall sit upon the throne of
His glory, and all nations shall be gathered before Him on
His throne of judgment, and they shall be judged according
to their treatment of the messengers of the kingdom, who
had gone out to preach it unto them. ese messengers
are the brethren (vs. 40); those who had received them are
the sheep; those who had neglected their message are the
goats. e account then which begins chapter 25:31, of
the separation of sheep and goats and of its result, pictures
the nations who are judged on earth according to their
treatment of these messengers. It is the judgment of the
living, so far at least as regards the nations-a judgment as
nal as that of the dead. It is not Christ’s judgment in battle,
as in Revelation 19. It is a session of His supreme tribunal
in His right of government over the earth, as in Revelation
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20:4. I speak of the principle or rather of the character of
the judgment. I do not doubt that these brethren are Jews,
such as the disciples were, that is to say, those who will be in
a similar position as to their testimony. e Gentiles, who
had received this message, should be accepted, as though
they had treated Christ in the same manner. His Father
had prepared for them the enjoyment of the kingdom;
and<P143> they should enter into it, being still on earth,
for Christ was come down in the power of eternal life.1
(1. ere is no possible ground for applying this parable
to what is called the general judgment, an expression
indeed wholly unscriptural. First, there are three parties,
not merely two-goats, sheep, and brethren; then, it is the
judgment of the Gentiles only; and, further, the ground
of judgment is wholly inapplicable to the great mass even
of these last. e ground of judgment is the way these
brethren have been received. Now none have been sent
at all to the vast majority of the Gentiles in long ages.
e time of this ignorance God winked at, and another
ground of judgment as to them is given in the beginning
of Romans. Christians and Jews have been already treated
of in chapter 24 and the previous part of chapter 25. It is
just those whom the Lord nds on earth when He comes,
and who will be judged according to their treatment of the
messengers He has sent. )
Christ’s disciples outside the testimony in Israel
I have, for the moment, passed over all between chapter
24:31 and chapter 25:31, because the end of this last
chapter completes all that concerns the government and the
judgment of the earth. But there is a class of persons whose
history is given us in its great moral features intermediately
between these two verses I have just mentioned.
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215
ese are the disciples of Christ, outside the testimony
borne in the midst of Israel, to whom He has committed
His service, and a position in connection with Himself,
during His absence. is position and this service are in
connection with Christ Himself, and not in connection with
Israel, wherever it may be that this service is accomplished.
Discriminating judgment in the last days in the
Lord’s own household
ere are, however, before we come to these, some
verses of which I have not yet spoken, which apply more
particularly to the state of things in Israel, as warning to
the disciples who are there, and describe the discriminating
judgment which takes place among the Jews in the last
days. I speak of them here, because all this part of the
discourse-namely, from chapter 24:31 to chapter 25:31-is
an exhortation, an address from the Lord, on the subject of
their duties during His absence. I refer to chapter 24:32-
44. ey speak of the continual expectation which their
ignorance of the moment when the Son of Man would
come imposed on the disciples, and in which the disciples
were <P144>intentionally left (and the judgment is the
earthly one); while from verse 45 the Lord addresses
Himself more directly, and at the same time in a more
general manner, to their conduct during His absence, not in
connection with Israel, but with His own-His household.
He had committed to them the task of supplying them
with suitable food in due season. is is the responsibility
of ministry in the assembly.
Collective responsibility in service
It is important to remark that in the rst parable the
state of the assembly is looked at as a whole; the parable
of the virgins and that of the talents give individual
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responsibility. Hence the servant who is unfaithful is cut
o and has his portion with hypocrites. e state of the
responsible assembly depended on their waiting for Christ,
or their heart saying He delays His coming. It would be
on His return that judgment should be pronounced on
their faithfulness during the interval. Faithfulness should
be approved in that day. On the other hand, practical
forgetfulness of His coming would lead to license and
tyranny. It is not an intellectual system that is meant here:
the “evil servant says in his heart, My lord delayeth his
coming”; his will was concerned in it. e result was that
the eshly will manifested itself. It was no longer devoted
service to His household, with a heart set upon the Master’s
approval at His return; but worldliness in conduct, and the
assumption of arbitrary authority, to which the service
appointed him gave occasion. He eats and drinks with the
drunken, he unites himself to the world and partakes in
its ways; he smites his fellow-servants at his will. Such is
the eect of putting o during His absence, deliberately
in heart, the Lord’s return and holding the assembly to
be settled down here; instead of faithful service, worldly-
mindedness and tyranny. Is it not too true a picture?
Reward for service in the assembly
What is it that has happened to those who had the place
of service in the house of God? e consequences on either
hand are these: the faithful servant, who from love and
devotion to his Master applied himself to the welfare of
His household, should be made ruler on his Master’s return
over all His goods; those who<P145> have been faithful in
the service of the house shall be set over all things by the
Lord, when He takes His place of power and acts as King.
All things are given into the hands of Jesus by the Father.
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217
ose who in humility have been faithful to His service
during His absence shall be made rulers over all that is
committed to Him, that is, over all things-they are but the
“goods” of Jesus. On the other hand, he who during the
Lord’s absence had set himself up as master, and followed
after the spirit of the esh and of the world to which he
had united himself, should not merely have the world’s
portion; his Master should come quite unexpectedly, and
he should receive the punishment of hypocrites. What a
lesson for those who take to themselves a place of service
in the assembly! Observe here that it is not said he is
drunken himself, but that he eats and drinks with those
that are so. He allies himself with the world and follows
its customs. is, moreover, is the general aspect which the
kingdom will assume in that day, although the heart of the
evil servant was wicked. e Bridegroom would indeed
tarry; and the consequences that might be expected from
the heart of man will not fail to be realized. But the eect,
we then nd, is to make manifest those who had1 really
the grace of Christ and those who had not.
(1. How solemn the testimony given here to the eect
of the assembly’s losing the present expectation of the
Lord’s return! What causes the professing church to run
into hierarchical oppression and worldliness, so as to be cut
o in the end as hypocrites, is saying in the heart, “My lord
delayeth his coming”-giving up the present expectation.
at has been the source of the ruin. e true Christian
position was lost as soon as they began to put o the Lord’s
coming; and they are treated, note, though in this state, as
the responsible servant.)
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73101
Matthew 25
e ten virgins: individual responsibility during
Christ’s absence
Professors, during the Lord’s absence, are here presented
as virgins, who went out to meet the Bridegroom and light
Him to the house. In this passage He is not the Bridegroom
of the church. No others go to meet Him for His marriage
with the church in heaven. e bride does not appear
in this parable. Had she been introduced, it would have
been Jerusalem on earth. e assembly is not seen in these
chapters as such.<P146>
It is here individual1 responsibility during the absence of
Christ. at which characterized the faithful at this period
was that they came out from the world, from Judaism, from
everything, even religion connected with the world, to go
and meet the coming Lord. e Jewish remnant, on the
contrary, wait for Him in the place where they are. If this
expectation were real, the characteristic of one governed
by it would be the thought of that which was necessary
for the coming One-the light, the oil. Otherwise, to be the
companions of professors meanwhile, and to carry lamps
with them, would satisfy the heart. Nevertheless, they all
took a position; they go out, they leave the house to go out
and meet the Bridegroom. He tarries. is also has taken
place. ey all fall asleep. e whole professing church
has lost the thought of the Lord’s return-even the faithful
who have the Spirit. ey must also have gone in again
somewhere to sleep at ease-a place of rest for the esh. But
at midnight, unexpectedly, the cry is raised, “Behold, the
Matthew 25
219
bridegroom; go ye out to meet him.” Alas! they needed the
same call as at rst. ey must again go out to meet Him.
e virgins rise and trim their lamps. ere is time enough
between the midnight cry and the Bridegroom’s arrival
to prove the condition of each. ere were some who had
no oil in their vessels. eir lamps were going out.2e
wise had oil. It was impossible for them to share it with
the others. ose only who possessed it went in with the
Bridegroom to take part in the marriage. He refused to
acknowledge the others. What business had they there?
e virgins were to give light with their lamps. ey had
not done it. Why should they share the feast? ey had
failed in that which gave this place. What title had they to
be at the feast? e virgins of the feast were virgins who
accompanied the Bridegroom. ese had not done so.
ey were not admitted. But even the faithful ones had
forgotten the coming of Christ. ey fell asleep. But, at
least, they possessed the essential thing that corresponded
to it. e grace of the Bridegroom causes the cry to be
raised which proclaims His arrival. It awakens them: they
have oil in their vessels; and the delay, which occasions the
lamps of the unfaithful to go out, gives the faithful time to
be ready and<P147> at their place; and, forgetful as they
may have been, they go in with the Bridegroom to the
wedding feast.3
(1. e servant in chapter 24 is collective responsibility.)
(2. e word rather signies torches. With them they
had, or should have had, oil in vessels to feed the ame.)
(3. And note here that the waking up is by the cry; it
wakes up all. ere is enough to rouse all professors to
needed activity; but the eect of this is to put them to the
test and separate them. It was not the time of getting oil or
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supplies of grace to those already professors; conversion is
not the subject of the parable. e question of getting oil is
only, I doubt not, to show it was not the time of doing so.)
Individual faithfulness to an absent Master; the three
servants
We pass now from state of soul to service.
For in truth (vs. 14) it is as a man who had gone away
from his home-for the Lord dwelt in Israel-and who
commits his goods to his own servants and then departs.
Here we have the principles that characterize faithful
servants, or the contrary. It is not now the personal
individual expectation, and the possession of the oil,
requisite for a place in the Lord’s glorious train; neither
is it the public and general position of those who were
in the Master’s service, characterized as position and as
a whole, and therefore represented by a single servant; it
is individual faithfulness in the service, as before in the
expectation of the Bridegroom. e Master on His return
will reckon with each one. Now what was their position?
What was the principle that would produce faithfulness?
Observe, rst of all, that it is not providential gifts, earthly
possessions, that are meant. ese are not the “goods” that
Jesus committed to His servants when He went away.
ey were gifts which tted them to labor in His service
while He was absent. e Master was sovereign and wise.
He gave dierently to each, and to each according to his
capacity. Each was tted for the service in
which he was employed, and the gifts needed for its
fulllment were bestowed on him. Faithfulness to perform
it was the only thing in question. at which distinguished
the faithful from the unfaithful was condence in their
Master. ey had sucient condence in His well-known
Matthew 25
221
character, in His goodness, His love, to labor without being
authorized in any other manner than by their knowledge
of His personal character, and by the intelligence which
that condence and that knowledge produced. Of what use
to give them sums of money, except to trade with them?
Had He failed in wisdom when He bestowed these gifts?
e devotedness that owed from knowledge of their
Master counted upon the love<P148> of Him whom they
knew. ey labored, and they were rewarded. is is the
true character, and the spring, of service in the church. It
is this that the third servant lacked. He did not know his
Master-he did not trust in Him. He could not even do that
which was consistent with his own thoughts. He waited
for some authorization which would be a security against
the character his heart falsely gave his Master. ose who
knew their Master’s character entered into His joy.
e dierence between this parable and that of Luke
19
ere is this dierence between the parable here and
that in Luke 19, that in the latter each man receives
one pound; his responsibility is the only question. And
consequently he who gained ten pounds is set over ten
cities. Here the sovereignty and the wisdom of God are
concerned, and he who labors is guided by the knowledge
he has of his Master; and the counsels of God in grace are
accomplished. He who has the most receives yet more. At
the same time the reward is more general. He who has
gained two talents and he who has gained ve enter alike
into the joy of the Lord whom they have served. ey have
known Him in His true character; they enter into His full
joy. e Lord grant it unto us!
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e parable of the ten virgins limited to the heavenly
portion of the kingdom
ere is more than this in the second parable-that of
the virgins. It refers more directly and more exclusively to
the heavenly character of Christians. It is not the assembly,
properly so called, as a body; but the faithful have gone
out to meet the Bridegroom, who was returning to the
marriage. At the time of His return to execute judgment,
the kingdom of heaven will assume the character of persons
come out from the world, and still more from Judaism-
from all that, in point of religion, belongs to the esh-
from all established worldly form-to have to do with the
coming Lord alone, and to go out to meet Him. is was
the character of the faithful from the beginning, as having
part in the kingdom of heaven, if they had understood the
position in which they were placed by the Lord’s rejection.
e virgins, it is true, had gone in again; and this falsied
their character; but the midnight cry brought them back
into their true place. erefore they go in with<P149>
the Bridegroom, and there is no question of judging and
rewarding, but of being with Him. In the rst parable
and in that of Luke, the subject is His return to earth and
individual recompense-the results, in the kingdom, of their
conduct during the King’s absence.1 Service and its results
are not the subject in the parable of the virgins. ose who
have no oil do not go in at all. is is enough. e others
have blessing in common; they go in with the Bridegroom
to the marriage. ere is no question of particular reward,
nor of dierence in conduct between them. It was the
heart’s expectation, though grace had to bring them back
into it. Whatever the place of service might have been, the
reward was sure. is parable applies and is limited to the
Matthew 25
223
heavenly portion of the kingdom as such. It is a similitude
of the kingdom of heaven.
(1. In that of the talents in Matthew, we get indeed the
ruling over many things, the kingdom, but it is more full
through the expression, “Enter thou into the joy of thy
Lord”; and the blessing is conferred on all alike who were
faithful in service, great or small.)
e Master’s delay
We may also remark here that the delay of the Master
is noticed in the third parable likewise-“after a long time”
(vs. 19). eir faithfulness and their constancy were thus
put to the test. May the Lord give unto us to be found
faithful and devoted, now in the end of the ages, that He
may say unto us, “Good and faithful servants!” It is worthy
of remark that in these parables those who are in service, or
go out at rst, are the same as those found at the end. e
Lord would not hold out the supposition of delay beyond
“we who are alive and remain.”1
(1. So in the churches in Revelation, He takes existing
churches, though I doubt not it is a complete history of the
church.)
Weeping and gnashing of teeth are his portion who
has not known his Master, who has outraged Him by the
thoughts he entertained of His character.
e judgment on earth of the living; the four dierent
parties
In verse 31 the prophetic history is resumed from verse
31 of chapter 24. ere we saw the Son of Man appear
like a ash of lightning, and afterwards gather together the
remnant of Israel from the four corners of the earth. But
this is not all. If He thus appears in a manner as sudden
as unexpected, He also <P150>establishes His throne
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of judgment and glory on the earth. If He destroys His
enemies whom He nds in rebellion against Himself, He
also sits upon His throne to judge all nations. is is the
judgment on earth of the living. Four dierent parties are
here found together: the Lord, the Son of Man Himself-
the brethren-the sheep-and the goats. I believe the
brethren here to be Jews, His disciples as Jews, whom He
had employed as His messengers, to preach the kingdom
during His absence. e gospel of the kingdom was to be
preached as a testimony to all nations; and then the end
of the age should come. At the time here spoken of, this
had been done. e result should be manifested before the
throne of the Son of Man on earth.
He calls these messengers therefore His brethren. He
had told them they should be ill-treated: they had been
so. Still there were some who had received their testimony.
e King’s aection for and value of His faithful
servants
Now such was His aection for His faithful servants,
so highly did He value them, that He judged those to
whom the testimony was sent according to the manner
in which they had received these messengers, whether
well or ill, as though it had been done to Himself. What
an encouragement for His witnesses during that time of
trouble, tried as their faith should be in service! At the
same time it was justice morally to those who were judged;
for they had rejected the testimony by whomsoever it was
rendered. We have also the result of their conduct, both the
one and the other.
It is the King-for this is the character Christ has
now taken on earth-who pronounces judgment; and He
calls the sheep (those who had received the messengers
Matthew 25
225
and had sympathized with them in their aictions and
persecutions) to inherit the kingdom prepared for them
from the foundation of the world; for such had been the
purpose of God with respect to this earth. He had always
the kingdom in view. ey were the blessed of His (the
King’s) Father. It was not children who understood their
own relation with their Father; but they were the receivers
of blessing from the Father of the King of this world.
Moreover, they were to enter into everlasting life; for such
was the power, through grace, of the word which they had
received into their heart. Possessed of everlasting life, they
should be blessed in a world that was blessed also.<P151>
ey who had despised the testimony and those that
bore it had despised the King who sent them; they should
go away into everlasting punishment.
e eect of Christ’s return
us the whole eect of Christ’s coming, with regard to
the kingdom and to His messengers during His absence,
is unfolded: with respect to the Jews, as far as verse 31
of chapter 24; with respect to His servants during His
absence, to the end of verse 30 of chapter 25, including
the kingdom of heaven in its present condition, and the
heavenly rewards that shall be given; and then, from verse
31 to the end of chapter 25, with respect to the nations
who shall be blessed on the earth at His return.
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73102
Matthew 26
e Lord’s announcement of His betrayal and death;
God’s counsels and His submission
e Lord had nished His discourses. He prepares (ch.
26) to suer and to make His last and touching adieus to
His disciples, at the table of His last Passover on earth,
at which He instituted the simple and precious memorial
which recalls His suerings and His love with such
profound interest. is part of our Gospel requires little
explanation-not, assuredly, that it is of less interest, but
because it needs to be felt rather than explained.
With what simplicity the Lord announces that which
was to happen (vs. 2)! He had already arrived at Bethany,
six days before the Passover (John 12:1): there He abode,
with the exception of the last supper, until He was taken
captive in the garden of Gethsemane, although He visited
Jerusalem and partook of His last meal there.
We have already examined the discourses uttered during
those six days, as well as His actions, such as the cleansing
of the temple. at which precedes this chapter (ch. 26) is
either the manifestation of His rights as Emmanuel, King
of Israel, or that of the judgment of the great King with
respect to the people-a judgment expressed in discourses
to which the people could make no answer; or, nally, the
condition of His disciples during His absence. We have
now His submission to the suerings appointed<P152>
Him, to the judgment about to be executed upon Him; but
which was, in truth, only the fulllment of the counsels of
God His Father and of the work of His own love.
Matthew 26
227
Man’s iniquitous counsels fullling the marvelous
ones of God
e picture of man’s dreadful sin in the crucixion of
Jesus unfolds before our eyes. But the Lord Himself (ch.
26:1) announces it beforehand with all the calmness of One
who had come for this purpose. Before the consultations of
the chief priests had taken place, Jesus speaks of it as a
settled thing: “Ye know that after two days is the feast of the
passover, and the Son of Man is betrayed to be crucied.”
Afterwards (vs. 3) the priests, the scribes and the elders
assemble to concert their plans for obtaining possession of
His Person and ridding themselves of Him.
In a word, rst, the marvelous counsels of God, and
the submission of Jesus, according to His knowledge of
those counsels and of the circumstances which should
accomplish them; and, afterwards, the iniquitous counsels
of man, which do but fulll those of God. eir purposed
arrangement of detail not to take Him on the feast day as
they dreaded the people (ch. 26:5) was not God’s and fails:
He was to suer at the feast.
Judas in the hand of Satan by divine intention
Judas was but the instrument of their malice in the
hand of Satan; who, after all, did but arrange these things
according to divine intention. ey wished, but in vain, to
avoid taking Him at the time of the feast, on account of
the multitude, who might favor Jesus, if He appealed to
them. ey had done so at His entrance into Jerusalem.
ey supposed Jesus would do so, for wickedness always
reckons on nding its own principles in others. is is why
it so frequently fails in circumventing the upright-they are
artless. Here it was the will of God that Jesus should suer
at the feast. But He had prepared a gracious relief to the
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heart of Jesus-a balm to His heart more than to His body-a
circumstance which is used by the enemy to drive Judas
to extremity and put him in connection with the chief
priests.<P153>
At Bethany for the last time; Mary’s estimate of the
Lord’s preciousness accepted
Bethany (linked in memory with the last moments of
peace and tranquillity in the Saviour’s life, the place where
dwelt Martha and Mary, and Lazarus the risen dead)-
Bethany1 receives Jesus for the last time: the blessed but
momentary retreat of a heart which, ever ready to pour itself
out in love, was ever straitened in a world of sin, that did
not and could not respond to it; yet a heart which has given
us, in His relations with this beloved family, the example
of an aection perfect, yet human, which found sweetness
in being responded to and appreciated. e nearness of
the cross, where He would have to set His face as a int,
did not deprive His heart of the joy or the sweetness of
this communion, while rendering it solemn and aecting.
In doing the work of God He did not cease to be man.
In everything He condescended to be ours. He could no
longer own Jerusalem, and this sanctuary sheltered Him
for a moment from the rude hand of man. Here He could
display what He ever was as man. It is with reason that the
act of one who, in a certain sense, could appreciate what
He felt2 (whose aection instinctively entered into the
rising enmity against the object she loved and was drawn
out by it) and the act that expressed the estimate her heart
had of His preciousness and grace should be told in all the
world. is is a scene, a testimony, that brings the Lord
sensibly near to us, that awakens a feeling in our hearts
which sancties by binding them to His beloved Person.
Matthew 26
229
(1. It was not in Martha’s house this scene took place,
but that of Simon the leper: Martha served and Lazarus
sat at meat. is makes the intelligent act of Mary more
entirely personal.)
(2. No instance is found of the disciples ever
understanding what Jesus said to them.)
e Lord’s daily life; His estimate of Mary’s devotion
His daily life was one continued tension of soul, in
proportion to the strength of His love-a life of devotedness
in the midst of sin and misery. For a moment He could and
would own (in presence of the power of evil, now to have its
way, and the love that clung to Him thus bowing under it,
through true knowledge of Him cultivated in sitting at His
feet) that devotedness to Himself, drawn out by that which
His soul was, in divine perfectness, bowing to.<P154> He
could give an intelligent voice, its true meaning, to that
which divinely wrought aection silently acted on.1e
reader will do well carefully to study this scene of touching
condescension and outpouring of heart. Jesus, Emmanuel,
King and Supreme Judge, had just been causing all things
to pass in judgment before Him (from chapter 21 to the
end of chapter 25). He had nished that which He had to
say. His task here, in this respect, was accomplished. He
now takes the place of Victim; He has only to suer, and
can allow Himself freely to enjoy the touching expressions
of aection that ow from a heart devoted to Him. He
could but taste the honey and pass on; but He does taste it,
and did not reject an aection which His heart could and
did appreciate.
(1. Christ meets the heart of the poor woman in the
city who was a sinner, and told God’s mind out there, and
told it to her. He meets Mary’s heart here, and justies and
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satises her aection, and gave the divine estimate of what
she did. He met Mary Magdalene’s heart at the sepulchre,
to whom the world was emptiness if He was not there, and
tells God’s mind in its highest forms of blessing. Such is
the eect of attachment to Christ.)
Deep aection for the Lord drawn out by the
perfectness of Jesus
Again, observe the eect of deep aection for the
Lord. is aection necessarily breathes the atmosphere
in which, at that moment, the spirit of the Lord is found.
e woman who anointed Him was not informed of the
circumstances about to happen, nor was she a prophetess.
But the approach of that hour of darkness was felt by one
whose heart was xed on Jesus.1e dierent forms of
evil developed themselves before Him and displayed
themselves in their true colors; and, under the inuence
of one master, even Satan, grouped themselves around
the only object against whom it was worthwhile to array
this concentration of malice, and who brought their true
character out into open daylight.
(1. e enmity of the chiefs of Israel was known to the
disciples-“Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee,
and goest thou thither again?” And afterwards by omas-
a gracious testimony to the love of one who afterwards
showed his unbelief as to Jesus’ resurrection-“let us go that
we may die with him.” Mary’s heart doubtless felt this
enmity, and as it grew, her attachment to the Lord grew
with it.)
But the perfectness of Jesus, which drew out the enmity,
drew out the aection in her; and she (so to speak) reected
the perfectness in the aection; and as that perfectness was
put in <P155>action and drawn to light by the enmity, so
Matthew 26
231
was her aection. us Christ’s heart could not but meet it.
Jesus, by reason of this enmity, was still more the object that
occupied a heart which, doubtless led of God, instinctively
apprehended what was going on. e time of testimony,
and even that of the explanation of His relationship to
all around Him, was over. His heart was free to enjoy the
good and true and spiritual aections of which He was the
object; and which, whatever might be their human form,
showed so plainly their divine origin, in that they were
attached to that object on which, at this solemn moment,
all the attention of heaven was centered.
e Lord’s omniscience
Jesus Himself was conscious of His position. His
thoughts were on His departure. During the exercise of His
power, He hides-He forgets-Himself. But now oppressed,
rejected and like a lamb led to the slaughter, He feels that
He is the just object of the thoughts of those who belong
to Him, of all who have hearts to appreciate that which
God appreciates. His heart is full of the coming events (see
verses 2,10-13,18,21).
e tact of devotedness
But yet a few words more on the woman who anointed
Him. e eect of having the heart xed in aection on
Jesus is shown in her in a striking manner. Occupied with
Him, she is sensible of His situation. She feels what aects
Him; and this causes her aection to act in accordance
with the special devotedness which that situation inspires.
As hatred against Him rose up to murderous intent, the
spirit of devotedness to Him grows in answer to it in
her. Consequently, with the tact of devotedness, she does
precisely that which was suited to His situation. e
poor woman was not intelligently aware of this; yet she
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did the thing that was meet. Her value for the Person of
Jesus, so innitely precious to her, made her quick-sighted
with respect to that which was passing in His mind. In
her eyes Christ was invested with all the interest of His
circumstances; and she lavishes upon Him that which
expressed her aection. Fruit of this sentiment, her action
met the circumstances; and, although it was but the instinct
of her heart, Jesus gives it all the value which His perfect
<P156>intelligence could attribute to it, embracing at once
the sentiments of her heart and the coming events.
e selsh, cold-heartedness and treachery of others
brought out by Mary’s devotedness
But this testimony of aection and devotedness to
Christ brings out the selshness, the want of heart, of the
others. ey blame the poor woman. Sad proof (to say
nothing of Judas1) how little the knowledge of that which
concerns Jesus necessarily awakens suitable aection in
our hearts! After this Judas goes out and agrees with the
unhappy priests to betray Jesus to them for the price of a
slave.
(1. Judas’s heart was the spring of this evil, but the other
disciples, not occupied with Christ, fall into the snare.)
e Lord pursues His career of love; and as He had
accepted the poor woman’s testimony of aection, so He
now bestows on His disciples one of innite value to our
souls. Verse 16 concludes the subject of which we have
been speaking: Christ’s knowledge, according to God, of
that which awaited Him; the conspiracy of the priests; the
aection of the poor woman, accepted by the Lord; the
selsh cold-heartedness of the disciples; the treachery of
Judas.
Matthew 26
233
e memorial of the true Passover; a slain Saviour; an
entirely new order of things
e Lord now institutes the memorial of the true
Passover. He sends the disciples to make arrangements
for the celebration of the feast at Jerusalem. He points out
Judas as the one who would deliver Him up to the Jews.
It will be noticed that it was not merely His knowledge
of the one who should betray Him which the Lord here
expresses-He knew that when He called him; but He says,
“One of you shall betray me.” It was that which touched His
heart: He wished it to touch theirs likewise.
He then points out that it is a Saviour slain who
is to be remembered. It is no longer a question of the
living Messiah: all that was over. It was no longer the
remembrance of Israel’s deliverance from the slavery of
Egypt. Christ, and Christ slain, began an entirely new
order of things. Of Him they were now to think-of Him
slain on earth. He then draws their attention to the blood
of the new covenant, adding that which extends it to
others besides<P157> the Jews, without naming them-it
“is shed for many.” Moreover, this blood is not, as at Sinai,
only to conrm the covenant, for delity to which they
were responsible; it was shed for the remission of sins. So
that the Lord’s supper presents the remembrance of Jesus
slain, who, by dying, has broken with the past; has laid the
foundation of the new covenant; obtained the remission
of sins; and opened the door to the Gentiles. It is only in
His death that the supper presents Him to us. His blood
is apart from His body: He is dead. It is neither Christ
living on the earth, nor Christ gloried in heaven. He is
separate from His people, as to their joys on earth; but
they are to expect Him as the companion of the happiness
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He has secured for them-for He condescends to be so-in
better days: “I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of
the vine, until that day when I drink it new1 with you in
my Father’s kingdom.” But, these links broken, who, save
Jesus, could sustain the conict? All would forsake Him.
e testimonies of the Word should be accomplished. It
was written, “I will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall
be scattered abroad.”
(1. “New” is not anew (νεον; neon), but in a new way
(καινον; kainon).)
e promise of a risen Saviour in Galilee
Nevertheless, He would go, to renew His relationship,
as a risen Saviour, with these poor of the ock, to the
same place where He had already identied Himself
with them during His life. He would go before them into
Galilee. is promise is very remarkable, because the Lord
resumes, under a new form, His Jewish relationship with
them and with the kingdom. We may here remark that,
as He had judged all classes (to the end of chapter 25),
He now exhibits the character of His relationship with all
those among whom He maintained any. Whether it is the
woman or Judas or the disciples, each one takes his place in
connection with the Lord. is is all we nd here. If Peter
had natural energy enough to go a little farther, it would
only be for a deeper fall in the place where the Lord alone
could stand.
At Gethsemane in supplication with His Father; the
anticipation of the cup of suering
And now He isolates Himself to present, in supplication
to His Father, the suerings that awaited Him.<P158>
But while isolating Himself for prayer, He takes three
of His disciples with Him, that in this solemn moment
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they may watch with Him. ey were the same three who
were with Him during the transguration. ey were to
see His glory in the kingdom and His suerings. He goes
a little way beyond them. As for them, they fall asleep, as
they did on the mount of transguration. e scene here is
described in Hebrews 5:7. Jesus was not yet drinking the
cup, but it was before His eyes. On the cross He drank it,
made sin for us, His soul feeling itself forsaken of Him.
Here it is the power of Satan, using death as a terror with
which to overwhelm Him. But the consideration of this
subject will be more in place when we come to Luke’s
Gospel.
Complete submission
We here see His soul under the load of death-by
anticipation- as He alone could know it, nor had it as yet
lost its sting. We know who has the power of death, and
death as yet had the full character of the wages of sin, and
the curse, of God’s judgment. But He watches and He
prays. As man, subjected by His love to this assault, in the
presence of the most powerful temptation to which He
could be exposed, on the one hand He watches; on the other,
He presents His anguish to His Father. His communion
was not interrupted here, however great His distress. is
distress only cast Him the more, in all submission and in
all reliance, upon His Father. But if we were to be saved, if
God was to be gloried in Him who had undertaken our
cause, the cup must not pass away from Him. And His
submission is complete.
Peter reminded of false condence
He tenderly reminds Peter of his false condence,1
making him sensible of his weakness; but Peter was too
full of himself to prot by it; he awakes from his sleep, but
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his self-condence is not shaken. A sadder experience was
needed for its cure.<P159>
(1. It is wonderful to see the Lord in the full agony of the
anticipated cup, only as yet presenting it to His Father, not
drinking the cup; yet turning to the disciples and speaking
to them in calm grace as if in Galilee, and turning back to
the dreadful conict of spirit Himself exactly for what was
before His soul. In Matthew He is victim, I add, and every
aggravation, with no alleviating circumstance, is here what
His soul meets.)
e cup taken from the Father’s hand
e Lord therefore takes the cup, but He takes it from
His Father’s hand. It was His will that He should drink
it. Committing Himself thus entirely to His Father, it is
neither from the hand of His enemies, nor from that of
Satan (though they were the instruments), that He takes it.
According to the perfection with which He had subjected
Himself to the will of God in this matter, committing all to
Him, it is from His hand alone that He receives it. It is the
Father’s will. It is thus that we escape from second causes,
and from the temptations of the enemy, by seeking only
the will of God who directs all things. It is from Him we
receive aiction and trial, if they come.
e betrayal; submission to man’s malice, the power
of darkness and God’s judgment of sin; in the hands of
the Jews
e disciples need no longer watch: the hour is come.1
He was to be betrayed into the hands of men. is was
saying enough. Judas designates Him by a kiss. Jesus goes
to meet the multitude, rebuking Peter for seeking to resist
with carnal weapons. Had Christ wished to escape, He
could have asked for twelve legions of angels and had
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237
them; but all things must be fullled.2 It was the hour of
His submission to the eect of the malice of man and the
power of darkness, and God’s judgment against sin. He is
the Lamb for the slaughter. en all the disciples forsake
Him. He surrenders Himself, setting before the crowd that
came what they were doing. If no one can prove Him guilty,
He will not deny the truth. He confesses the glory of His
Person as Son of God and declares that henceforth they
should see the Son of Man no longer in the meekness of
One who would not break the bruised reed, but coming in
the clouds of heaven and sitting on the right hand of power.
Having borne this testimony, He is condemned on account
of that which He said of Himself-for the confession of
the truth. e false witnesses did not succeed. e priests
and the heads of<P160> Israel were guilty of His death, by
virtue of their own rejection of the testimony He rendered
to the truth. He was the Truth; they were under the power
of the father of lies. ey rejected the Messiah, the Saviour
of His people. He would come to them no more, except as
Judge.
(1. I purpose speaking on the Lord’s suerings when
studying the Gospel of Luke, where they are described
more in detail; because it is as Son of Man that He is there
especially presented.)
(2. Remark here, in so solemn and crucial a moment,
the place that the Lord gives to the Scriptures: that thus
it must be, for it was there (vs. 54). ey are the Word of
God.)
Jesus as the Victim
ey insult and outrage Him. Each one alas! takes, as we
have seen, his own place-Jesus, that of Victim; the others,
the place of betrayal, rejection, abandonment, denial of
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the Lord. What a picture! What a solemn moment! Who
could stand in it? Christ alone could steadily pass through
it. And He passed through it as a victim. As such, He
must be stripped of all, and that in the presence of God.
Everything else disappeared, except the sin which led to
it; and, according to grace, that also before the powerful
ecacy of this act. Peter, self-condent, hesitating,
detected, answering with untruth, swearing, denies his
Master; and, painfully convinced of man’s powerlessness
against the enemy of his soul and against sin, he goes out
and weeps bitterly: tears, which cannot eace his guilt,
but which, while proving the existence, through grace, of
uprightness of heart, bear witness to that powerlessness
which uprightness of heart cannot remedy.1
(1. I think it will be found, on comparing the Gospels,
that the Lord was examined at Caiaphas’s overnight, when
Peter denies Him, and that they met formally again in
the morning, and, asking the blessed Lord, received from
Himself the confession on which they led Him to Pilate.
Overnight it was only the active leaders. In the morning
there was a formal assembling of the Sanhedrim.)
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73103
Matthew 27
Delivered up to the Gentiles; the evil of Satan and
man displayed
After this, the unhappy priests and heads of the people
deliver up their Messiah to the Gentiles, as He had told
His disciples. Judas, in despair under Satan’s power, hangs
himself, having cast the reward of his iniquity at the feet
of the chief priests and elders. Satan was forced to bear
witness, even by a conscience that he had betrayed, to
the Lord’s innocence. What a scene! en the priests,
who had made no conscience of buying His blood from
<P161>Judas, scruple to put the money into the treasury
of the temple, because it was the price of blood. In the
presence of that which was going on, man was obliged to
show himself as he is and the power of Satan over him.
Having taken counsel, they buy a burying ground for
strangers. ese were profane enough in their eyes for
that, provided they themselves were not deled with such
money. Yet it was the time of God’s grace to the stranger
and judgment on Israel. Moreover, they established thereby
a perpetual memorial of their own sin and of the blood
which has been shed. Aceldama is all that remains in this
world of the circumstances of this great sacrice. e world
is a eld of blood, but it speaks better things than that of
Abel.
is prophecy, we know, is in the Book of Zechariah.
e name “Jeremiah” may have crept into the text when
there was nothing more than “by the prophet”; or it might
be because Jeremiah stood rst in the order prescribed
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by the Talmudists for the books of prophecy; for which
reason, very likely, also, they said, “Jeremiah, or one of the
prophets,” as in chapter 16:14. But this is not the place for
discussion on the subject.
e King of the Jews before Pilate; Pilate’s
condemnation
eir own part in the Jewish scene closes. e Lord
stands before Pilate. Here the question is not whether He
is the Son of God, but whether He is the King of the Jews.
Although He was this, yet it was only in the character of Son
of God that He would allow the Jews to receive Him. Had
they received Him as the Son of God, He would have been
their King. But that might not be: He must accomplish the
work of atonement. Having rejected Him as Son of God,
the Jews now deny Him as their King. But the Gentiles
also become guilty in the person of their head in Palestine,
the government of which had been committed to them.
e Gentile head should have reigned in righteousness.
His representative in Judea acknowledges the malice of
Christ’s enemies; his conscience, alarmed by his wife’s
dream, seeks to evade the guilt of condemning Jesus. But
the true prince of this world, as regards present exercise
of dominion, was Satan. Pilate, washing his hands (futile
attempt to exonerate himself), delivers up the guiltless to
the will of His enemies, saying, at the same time, that he
nds no fault in Him. And he releases to the Jews a man
guilty of sedition and<P162> murder, instead of the Prince
of life. But it was again on His own confession, and that
only, that He was condemned, confessing the same thing
in the Gentile court as He had done in the Jewish, in each
the truth, witnessing a good confession of what concerned
the truth as to those before whom He was.
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e Jews’ choice of Barabbas; a rejected Saviour the
universal touchstone
Barabbas,1 the expression of the spirit of Satan who
was a murderer from the beginning, and of rebellion
against the authority which Pilate was there to maintain-
Barabbas was loved by the Jews; and with him, the wrongful
carelessness of the governor, who was powerless against
evil, endeavored to satisfy the will of the people whom he
ought to have governed. “All the people” make themselves
guilty of the blood of Jesus in the solemn word, which
remains fullled to this day, till sovereign grace, according
to God’s purpose, takes it o-solemn but terrible word,
“His blood be on us and on our children.” Sad and frightful
ignorance which self-will has brought upon a people who
rejected the light! Alas! how each one, I again say, takes
his own place in the presence of this touchstone-a rejected
Saviour. e company of the Gentiles, the soldiers, do that
in derision, with the brutality habitual to them as heathen
and as executioners, which the Gentiles shall do with joyful
worship, when He whom they now mocked shall be truly
the King of the Jews in glory. Jesus endures it all. It was the
hour of His submission to the full power of evil: patience
must have its perfect work, in order that His obedience
may be complete on every side. He bore it all without
relief, rather than fail in obedience to His Father. What a
dierence between this and the conduct of the rst Adam
surrounded with blessings!
(1. Strange to say, this means “son of Abba,” as if Satan
was mocking them with the name.)
e crucixion; the abyss of His suerings
Everyone must be the servant of sin, or of the tyranny
of wickedness, at this solemn hour, in which all is put to
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the proof. ey compel one Simon (known afterwards, it
appears, among the disciples) to bear the cross of Jesus; and
the Lord is led away to the<P163> place of His crucixion.
ere He refuses that which might have stupeed Him.
He will not shun the cup He had to drink, nor deprive
Himself of His faculties in order to be insensible to
that which it was the will of God He should suer. e
prophecies of the Psalms are fullled in His Person, by
means of those who little thought what they were doing.
At the same time, the Jews succeeded in becoming to the
last degree contemptible. eir King was hung. ey must
bear the shame in spite of themselves. Whose fault was it?
But, hardened and senseless, they share with a malefactor
the miserable satisfaction of insulting the Son of God,
their King, the Messiah, to their own ruin, and quote,
so blinding is unbelief, from their own scriptures, as the
expression of their own mind, that which in them is put
into the mouth of the unbelieving enemies of Jehovah. Jesus
felt it all; but the anguish of His trial, where after all He
was a calm and faithful witness, the abyss of His suerings,
contained something far more terrible than all this malice
or abandonment of man. e oods doubtless lifted up
their voices.1 One after another the waves of wickedness
dashed against Him; but the depths beneath that awaited
Him, who could fathom? His heart, His soul-the vessel of a
divine love-could alone go deeper than the bottom of that
abyss which sin had opened for man, to bring up those
who lay there, after He had endured its pains in His own
soul. A heart that had been ever faithful was forsaken of
God. Where sin had brought man, love brought the Lord,
but with a nature and an apprehension in which there was
no distance, no separation, so that it should be felt in all
Matthew 27
243
its fullness. No one but He who was in that place could
fathom or feel it.
(1. We nd in Matthew, specially collected, the dishonor
done to the Lord and the insults oered Him, and with
Mark the forsaking of God.)
Forsaken of God; glorifying God
It is, too, a wonderful spectacle to see the one righteous
man in the world declare at the end of His life He was
forsaken of God. But thus it was He gloried Him as none
else could have done it, and where none but He could have
done it-made sin, in the presence of God as such, with no
veil to hide, no mercy to cover or bear it with.
e fathers, full of faith, had in their distress experienced
the<P164> faithfulness of God, who answered the
expectation of their hearts. But Jesus (as to the condition
of His soul at that moment) cried in vain. “A worm and no
man” before the eyes of men, He had to bear the forsaking
of the God in whom He trusted.
eir thoughts far from His, they that surround Him
did not even understand His words, but they accomplished
the prophecies by their ignorance. Jesus, bearing testimony
by the loudness of His voice that it was not the weight of
death that oppressed Him, gives up the ghost.
e ecacy of Christ’s death; the rent veil
e ecacy of His death is presented to us in this
Gospel in a double aspect. First, the veil of the temple was
rent in twain from the top to the bottom. God, who had
been always hidden behind the veil, discovered Himself
completely by means of the death of Jesus. e entrance
into the holy place is made manifest-a new and living way
which God has consecrated for us through the veil. e
entire Jewish system, the relations of man with God under
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its sway, its priesthood, all fell with the rending of the veil.
Everyone found himself in the presence of God without a
veil between. e priests were to be always in His presence.
But, by this same act, the sin, which would have made it
impossible for us to stand there, was for the believer entirely
put away from before God. e holy God and the believer,
cleansed from his sins, are brought together by the death of
Christ. What love was that which accomplished this!
Resurrection; sinners without fear before God
Second, besides this, such was the ecacy of His death
that when His resurrection had burst the bonds that held
them, many of the dead appeared in the city-witnesses of
His power who, having suered death, had risen above it
and overcome it and destroyed its power, or taken it into
His own hands. Blessing was now in resurrection.
e presence, therefore, of God without a veil and
sinners without sin before Him prove the ecacy of
Christ’s suerings.
e resurrection of the dead, over whom the king of
terrors had no more right, displayed the ecacy of the death
of Christ for sinners and the power of His resurrection.
Judaism is over for those<P165> that have faith, and the
power of death also. e veil is rent. e grave gives up its
prey; He is Lord of the dead and of the living.1
(1. e glory of Christ in ascension, and as Lord of all,
does not come within the scope of Matthew historically.)
e rst testimony of faith among the Gentiles to the
Person of Christ
ere is yet another special testimony to the mighty
power of His death, to the import of that word, “If I be
lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto me.” e
centurion who was on guard at the crucixion of the Lord,
Matthew 27
245
seeing the earthquake and those things that were done,
trembling, confesses the glory of His Person; and, stranger
as he is to Israel, renders the rst testimony of faith among
Gentiles: “Truly this was the Son of God.”
e instinct of aection; at the foot of the cross
But the narrative goes on. Some poor women-to whom
devotedness often gives, on God’s part, more courage than
to men in their more responsible and busy position-were
standing near the cross, beholding what was done to Him
they loved.1
(1. e part that women take in all this history is
very instructive, especially to them. e activity of public
service, that which may be called “work,” belongs naturally
to man (all that appertains to what is generally termed
ministry), although women share a very precious activity
in private. But there is another side of Christian life which
is particularly theirs; and that is personal and loving
devotedness to Christ. It is a woman who anointed the
Lord while the disciples murmured; women who were at
the cross, when all except John had forsaken Him; women
who came to the sepulchre and who were sent to announce
the truth to the apostles who had gone after all to their
own home; women who ministered to the Lord’s need. And
indeed this goes farther. Devotedness in service is perhaps
the part of man; but the instinct of aection, that which
enters more intimately into Christ’s position, and is thus
more immediately in connection with His sentiments, in
closer communion with the suerings of His heart-this is
the part of woman: assuredly a happy part. e activity of
service for Christ puts man a little out of this position,
at least if the Christian is not watchful. Everything has,
however, its place. I speak of that which is characteristic;
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for there are women who have served much, and men
who have felt much. Note also here, what I believe I have
remarked, that this clinging of heart to Jesus is the position
where the communications of true knowledge are received.
e rst full gospel is announced to the poor woman that
was a sinner who washed His feet, the embalming for His
death to Mary, our highest position to Mary Magdalene,
the communion Peter desired to John who was in His
bosom. And here the women have a large share.)
But they were not the only ones who lled the place
of the terried disciples. Others-and this often happens-
whom the world had held back, when once the depth of
their aection is<P166> stirred by the question of His
suerings whom they really loved, when the moment is
so painful that others are terried, then (emboldened by
the rejection of Christ) they feel that the time is arrived
for decision and become fearless confessors of the Lord.
Hitherto associated with those that have crucied Him,
they must now either accept that act or declare themselves.
rough grace they do the latter.
“With the rich in His death”
God had prepared all beforehand. His Son was to have
His tomb with the rich. Joseph comes boldly to Pilate and
asks for the body of Jesus. He wraps the body, which Pilate
grants him, in a clean linen cloth and lays it in his own
sepulchre, which had never served to hide the corruption of
man. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary1-for they were
known-sat near the sepulchre, bound by all that remained
to their faith of Him whom they had loved and followed
with adoration during His life.
(1. at is, Mary the wife of Cleophas and mother of
James and Joses, constantly spoken of as “the other Mary.”
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247
In John 19:25, Mary the wife of Cleophas has been taken as
in apposition with His mother’s sister. But this is simply a
mistake. It is another person. ere were four-three Marys
and His mother’s sister.)
e involuntary witness of unbelief
But unbelief has no faith in itself, and, fearing lest that
which it denies be true, it mistrusts everything. e chief
priests request Pilate to guard the sepulchre, in order to
frustrate any attempt the disciples might make to found
the doctrine of the resurrection on the absence of the
body of Jesus from the tomb in which it had been laid.
Pilate bids them secure the sepulchre themselves; so that
all they did was to make themselves involuntary witnesses
to the fact, and assure us of the accomplishment of the
thing they dreaded. us Israel was guilty of this eort of
futile resistance to the testimony which Jesus had rendered
to His own resurrection. ey were a testimony against
themselves to its truth. e precautions which Pilate
would not, perhaps, have taken they carried to the extreme,
so that all mistake as to the fact of His resurrection was
impossible.<P167>
Jesus’ ministry and service still with the poor of the
ock
e Lord’s resurrection is briey related in Matthew.
e object is again, after the resurrection, to connect
the ministry and service of Jesus-now transferred to
His disciples-with the poor of the ock, the remnant of
Israel. He again assembled them in Galilee, where He
had constantly instructed them and where the despised
among the people dwelt afar from the pride of the Jews.
is connected their work with His, in that which specially
characterized it with reference to the remnant of Israel.
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73104
Matthew 28
Faith’s full assurance of the fact of the Lord’s
resurrection
I shall examine the details of the resurrection elsewhere.
Here I only consider its bearing in this Gospel. e sabbath
ended (Saturday evening with us-chapter 28), the two Marys
come to see the sepulchre. At this moment that was all they
did. Verses 1-2 are not consecutive; verses 2-4 go together.
When the earthquake and its attendant circumstances took
place, no one was there except the soldiers. At night all was
secure. e disciples knew nothing of it in the morning.
When the women arrived at dawn, the angel who sat at
the door of the sepulchre reassured them with the tidings
of the Lord’s resurrection. e angel of the Lord had come
down and opened the door of the tomb, which man had
closed with every possible precaution.1ey had in truth
only guaranteed by unexceptionable witnesses the truth of
the apostles’ preaching, by placing the soldiers there. e
women, by their visit the evening before, and in the morning
when the angel spoke to them, received a full assurance to
faith of the fact of His resurrection. All that is presented
here is the facts. e women had been there in the evening.
e intervention of the angel certied to the soldiers the
true character of His coming forth from the tomb; and
the visit of the women in the morning established the fact
of His resurrection as an object of faith to themselves.
ey go and announce it to the disciples, who-so far from
having done that which the Jews imputed to them-did not
even believe the assertions of the women.<P168> Jesus
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249
Himself appears to the women who were returning from
the sepulchre, having believed the words of the angel.
(1. But I apprehend the Lord Jesus had left the tomb
before the stone was rolled away; that was for mortal eyes.)
e disciples’ commission
As I have already said, Jesus connects Himself with His
former work among the poor of the ock, afar from the seat
of Jewish tradition, and from the temple, and from all that
linked the people with God according to the old covenant.
He appoints His disciples to meet Him there, and there
they nd Him and recognize Him; and it is there, in this
former scene of the labors of Christ, according to Isaiah
8-9, that they receive their commission from Him. Hence
we have not the ascension of Christ at all in this Gospel,
but all power is given unto Him in heaven and in earth,
and, accordingly, the commission given to His disciples
extends to all nations (Gentiles). To them they were to
proclaim His rights and make disciples of them.
A risen, mighty Saviour; the revelation and confession
of the
Father, Son and Holy Spirit as the holy name for all
nations
It was not, however, the name of the Lord only, nor in
connection with His throne at Jerusalem. Lord of heaven
and earth, His disciples were to proclaim Him throughout
all nations, founding their doctrine on the confession of
the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. ey were
to teach, not the law, but the precepts of Jesus. He would
be with them, with the disciples who thus confessed Him,
unto the end of the age. It is this which connects all that
will be accomplished until Christ sits upon the great white
throne with the testimony that He Himself rendered on
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the earth in the midst of Israel. It is the testimony of the
kingdom, and of its Head, once rejected by a people that
knew Him not. It links the testimony to the nations with
a remnant in Israel owning Jesus as Messiah but now risen
from the dead, as He had said, but not to a Christ known
as ascended on high. Nor does it present Jesus alone, nor
Jehovah, as any longer the subject of testimony, but the
revelation of Father, Son and Holy Spirit as the holy name
by which the nations were connected with God.<P169>
Mark
251
73105
Mark
e special character of Mark’s Gospel; its subject
e Gospel according to Mark has a character that diers
in certain respects from all the others. Each Gospel, as we
have seen, has its own character; each is occupied with the
Person of the Lord in a dierent point of view: as a divine
Person, the Son of God; as the Son of Man; as the Son of
David, the Messiah presented to the Jews, Emmanuel. But
Mark is occupied with none of these titles. It is the Servant
we nd here-and in particular His service as bearing the
Word-the active service of Christ in the gospel. e glory
of His divine Person shows itself, it is true, in a remarkable
manner through His service, and, as it were, in spite of
Himself, so that He avoids its consequences. But still
service is the subject of the book. Doubtless we shall nd
the character of His teaching developing itself (and truth
consequently shaking o the Jewish forms under which it
had been held), as well as the account of His death, on
which all depended for the establishment of faith. But that
which distinguishes this Gospel is the character of service
and of Servant that is attached to the life of Jesus-the work
that He came to accomplish personally as living on the
earth. On this account the history of His birth is not found
in Mark. It opens with the announcement of the beginning
of the gospel. John the Baptist is the herald, the forerunner,
of Him who brought this good news to man.
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73106
Mark 1
e mission of John the Baptist
e message is new-at least in the absolute and complete
character it assumes, and in its direct and immediate
application. It was not the Jewish privileges which should be
obtained by repenting and returning to the Lord. e Lord
was coming <P170>according to His promise. To prepare
His way before Him, John was preaching repentance for
the remission of sins. It was this they needed: remission of
sins for the repentant was the great thing, the formal object
of John’s mission.
Repentance and remission of sins; governmental and
justifying forgiveness
Repentance and remission of sins refer clearly to the
responsibility of man, here of Israel, in his natural standing
with God; and clearing that, as to man’s state relatively to
God, morally and responsibly qualify him for the reception
of purposed blessing-morally in that he judges the sins in
principle as God does, and responsibly by God’s forgiving
them all. Hence also remission is necessarily a present,
actual thing. ere is a governmental forgiveness as well as
a justifying one, but the principle is the same, and the latter
is the basis of the former. Only where it is governmental
it may be accompanied by various accompanying dealings
of God, only the sin is no longer imputed as to present
relationship with God, as in justifying, this is eternally true.
In justifying forgiveness-as in Romans 4, showing by its use
of Psalm 32, the common character of non-imputation-it
is founded on the work of Christ, and hence is absolute
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253
and unchangeable. Sin is not imputed and never can be,
because the work is done and nished which puts it away
out of God’s sight: that-eternal, absolute, and immutable
in itself-is the basis of all God’s dealings with man in
grace. Grace reigns through righteousness. Hebrews 9-10
unfold this, where the conscience and coming to God, and
that in the holiest, are concerned. So Romans 3-5, where
the question is judicial, a matter of judgment, wrath and
justifying. It is the basis of blessings, not the end, great as it
is in itself-peace with God and reconciliation. Here it was
the ground of all the blessings Israel will have by the new
covenant (founded on Christ’s death), but being rejected,
those who believed entered into better and heavenly
blessings. In Exodus 32:14,34, we get governmental
forgiveness, not justifying. In the case of David’s great sin,
it was pardoned when owned, the iniquity of it put away,
but severe chastisement connected with it because he had
given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme.
God’s glory in righteousness had to be maintained before
the world (2Sam. 12:13-14).<P171>
Here it was a proposal of present forgiveness to Israel,
which will be accomplished in the last days; and then,
as their long rejection will have closed in governmental
forgiveness, they will also through the death and blood-
shedding of Christ, at least the remnant, be forgiven and
justied for the enjoyment of the promises under the new
covenant (compare Acts 3).
e people’s conscience stirred; confession of sins
e prophets had indeed announced pardon if the people
returned to the Lord; but here it was the present object of
the address. e people go out in a body to avail themselves
of it. Conscience at least was stirred; and whatever might
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be the pride of their leaders, the sense of Israel’s condition
was felt by the people, as soon as anything outside the
routine of religion acted on the heart and conscience-that
is to say, when God spoke. ey confess their sins. With
some, perhaps, it was only natural conscience, that is, not
a really quickening work; but at any rate it was wrought
upon by the testimony of God.
John’s proclamation
But John, rigidly separate from the people, and living
apart from human society, proclaims another, mightier
than he, whose shoe-latchet he was not worthy to unloose:
He would not merely preach repentance accepted by the
baptism of water; He would bestow the Holy Spirit, power,
on those who received His testimony. Here our Gospel
passes on rapidly to the service of Him whom John thus
declared. It only sets forth summarily that which introduces
Him into this service.
e Lord’s position in service on earth
e Lord takes His place among the repentant of His
people, and, submitting to John’s baptism, He sees heaven
open to Him and the Holy Spirit descending upon Him
like a dove. e Father acknowledges Him as His Son on
earth, in whom He is well pleased. He is then led by the
Holy Spirit into the wilderness, where He undergoes the
temptation of Satan for forty days; He is with the wild
beasts, and angels exercise their ministry towards Him.
Here we see His whole position-the character which the
Lord takes on earth-all its features and relations with
that<P172> which surrounded Him, gathered into these
two or three verses. It has been treated of in its details in
Matthew.
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255
e Lord’s path of ever-ready service; His word of
power
After this John disappears from the scene, giving place
to the public ministry of Christ, of whom he was only
the herald; and Christ Himself appears in the place of
testimony, declaring that the time was fullled; that it was
now no question of prophecies or of days to come; that
God was going to set up His kingdom, and that they ought
to repent and receive the good news which at that very
moment was proclaimed to them.
Our evangelist passes1 rapidly on to every branch
of the service of Christ. Having presented the Lord as
undertaking the public ministry which called on men to
receive the good news as a present thing (the time of the
fulllment of the ways of God being come), he exhibits
Him as calling others to accomplish this same work in His
name by following Him. His word does not fail in its eect:
those whom He calls forsake all and follow Him.2 He goes
into the city to teach on the sabbath day. His word does
not consist of arguments which evidence the uncertainty
of man, but comes with the authority of One who knows
the truth which He proclaims-authority which, in fact, was
that of God, who can communicate truth. He speaks also
as One who possesses it; and He gives proof that He does.
e word, which thus presents itself to men, has power
over demons. A man possessed by an evil spirit was there.
e evil spirit bore testimony, in spite of himself, to Him
who spake, and whose presence was insupportable to him;
but the word that aroused him had power to cast him out.
Jesus rebukes him-commands him to hold his peace and to
come out of the man; and the evil spirit, after manifesting
the reality of his presence and his malice, submits and
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departs from the man. Such was the power of the word of
Christ. It is not surprising that the fame of this act should
spread through all the country; but the Lord continues His
path of service wherever work presented itself. He goes into
the house of Peter, whose wife’s mother lay sick<P173> of
a fever. He heals her immediately; and when the sabbath
was ended, they bring Him all the sick. He, ever ready to
serve (precious Lord!), heals them all.
(1. is rapidity characterizes Mark, as does the word
“immediately” (ευθεωσ; eutheos).)
(2. It is the fact in itself which is given here, as also in
Matthew. Luke’s account will give occasion to enter more
into detail as to the call of the disciples. From John the
Baptist’s days they had been more or less associated with
the Lord-at least these had.)
e character of His service in dependence on His
God and Father
But it was not to surround Himself with a crowd that
the Lord labored; and in the morning, long before day, He
departs into the wilderness to pray. Such was the character
of His service- wrought in communion with His God and
Father, and in dependence upon Him. He goes alone into a
solitary place. e disciples nd Him and tell Him that all
are seeking Him; but His heart is in His work. e general
desire does not bring Him back. He goes on His way to
fulll the work which was given Him to do-preaching the
truth among the people; for this was the service to which
He devoted Himself.
e healing of the leper; service in the might of love
But, however devoted to this service, His heart was
not made rigid by preoccupation; He was always Himself
with God. A poor leper comes to Him, acknowledging
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His power, but uncertain as to His will, as to the love that
wielded that power. Now this dreadful disease not only
shut the man himself out, but deled everyone who even
touched the suerer. But nothing stops Jesus in the service
to which His love calls Him. e leper was wretched, an
outcast from his fellow-creatures and from society, and
excluded from Jehovah’s house. But the power of God was
present. e leper must be reassured as to the goodwill on
which his dejected heart could not reckon. Who would
care for such a wretch as he? He had faith as to the power
that was in Christ; but his thoughts of himself concealed
from him the extent of the love that had visited him. Jesus
puts forth His hand and touches him.
e lowliest of men approaches sin, and that which was
the token of sin, and dispels it; the Man, who in the might
of His love touched the leper without being deled, was
the God who alone could remove the leprosy which made
one aicted with it miserable and outcast.<P174>
e Lord’s authority declaring His love and divinity
e Lord speaks with an authority that declares at once
His love and His divinity: “I will; be thou clean.” I will-
here was the love of which the leper doubted, the authority
of God who alone has the right to say I WILL. e eect
followed the expression of His will. is is the case when
God speaks. And who healed leprosy except Jehovah only?
Was He the One who had come down low enough to touch
this deled being that deled every other that had to do
with him? Yes, the only One; but it was God who had
come down, love which had reached so low, and which, in
thus doing, showed itself mighty for everyone that trusted
in it. It was undelable purity in power, and which could
therefore minister in love to the vilest and delights to do so.
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He came to deled man, not to be deled by the contact,
but to remove the delement. He touched the leper in
grace, but the leprosy was gone.
He hides Himself from human acclamations and bids
the man who had been healed to go and show himself to the
priests according to the law of Moses. But this submission
to the law bore testimony, in fact, to His being Jehovah,
for Jehovah alone, under the law, sovereignly cleansed
the leper. e priest was but the witness that it had been
done. is miracle being noised abroad, by attracting the
multitude, sends Jesus away into the wilderness.
Mark 2
259
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Mark 2
Divine rights of pardon in exercise
Afterwards He goes again into the city, and immediately
the multitude gather together. What a living picture of
the Lord’s life of service! He preaches to them. is was
His object and His service (see chapter 1:38). But again,
in devoting Himself to the humble accomplishment of it
as committed to Him, His service itself, His love-for who
serves like God when He deigns to do it?-bring out His
divine rights. He knew the real source of all these evils, and
He could bring in its remedy. “y sins,” said He to the
poor paralytic man, who was brought to Him with a faith
that overcame diculties, persevering in spite of them-that
perseverance of faith which is fed by the sense of want, and
certainty that power is to be found in Him who is sought-
“thy sins are forgiven thee.” To the reasoning of the scribes
He gives an answer that silenced<P175> every gainsayer.
He exercises the power that authorized Him to pronounce
the pardon of the poor suerer.1e murmuring of the
scribes brought out doctrinally who was there; as the
verdict of the priests, who pronounce the leper clean, put
the seal of their authority upon the truth that Jehovah, the
healer of Israel, was there. at which Jesus carries on is
His work, His testimony. e eect is to make it manifest
that Jehovah is there and has visited His people. It is Psalm
103 which is fullled, with respect to the rights and the
revelation of the Person of Him who wrought.
(1. We must distinguish between governmental
forgiveness and absolute pardon of sins. Only, such as man
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is, there could not have been the former without the latter.
But till Christ was rejected and had died, this was not fully
brought out.)
e call of Levi, of sinners, a new development of the
Lord’s ministry
Jesus leaves the city; the people ock around Him; and
again He teaches them. e call of Levi gives occasion for
a new development of His ministry. He was come to call
sinners, and not the righteous. After this He tells them
that He could not put the new divine energy, unfolded
in Himself, into the old forms of Pharisaism. And there
was another reason for it-the presence of the Bridegroom.
How could the children of the bridechamber fast while
the Bridegroom was with them? He should be taken from
them, and then would be the time to fast. He proceeds to
insist on the incompatibility between the old Jewish vessels
and the power of the gospel. e latter would but subvert
Judaism, to which they sought to attach it. at which
took place when the disciples went through the cornelds
conrms this doctrine.
e new things of grace and power; old things passed
away
Ordinances lost their authority in the presence of the
King ordained of God, rejected and a pilgrim on the earth.
Moreover, the sabbath-a sign of the covenant between
God and the Jews-was made for man, and not man for
the sabbath; therefore He, the Son of Man, was Lord of
the sabbath. As Son of David rejected, the ordinances lost
their force and were subordinate to Him. As Son of Man
possessor (in the sight of God) of all the rights which
God had bestowed on man, He was Lord of the sabbath,
which was made for man. In principle the old things were
Mark 2
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passed away. But this<P176> was not all. It was, in fact,
the new things of grace and power, which did not admit
of the old order of things. But the question was whether
God could act in grace and bestow blessing, in sovereignty,
on His people-whether He must submit to the authority
of men availing themselves of His ordinances against His
goodness, or do good according to His own power and love
as being above all. Was man to limit the operation of God’s
goodness? And this, in truth, was the new wine which the
Lord brought to man.
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73108
Mark 3
e withered hand healed; the Lord’s service to God’s
goodness and rights
Such was the question raised in the synagogue on the
occasion of the man with the withered hand. e Lord
sets it publicly before their conscience; but neither heart
nor conscience answered Him; and He acts in His service
according to the goodness and rights of God, and heals the
man.1e Pharisees and their enemies, the Herodians-for
all were against God and united in this-consult together
how they might destroy Christ. Jesus departs to the
seacoast.2ere the multitude follows Him, because of all
that He had done; so that He is obliged to have a boat,
that He may be outside the crowd. Spirits are subject to
Him, compelled to own that He is the Son of God; but He
forbids them to make Him known.
(1. One cannot but see how the old system, based on
what man ought to be for God, is being set aside for what
God is for man. But, the former having been established by
God, nothing but the words and works of Jesus would have
justied the Jews in giving it up. As it was, it was clearly
opposition and hatred to the full revelation of Him who
had ordained the other. Compare John 15:22,24.
(2. at is, the sea of Tiberias.)
Self-eacing service not circumscribed by Judaism
Service in preaching, and in seeking souls, in devoting
Himself to all, showing Himself by His acts to be the
possessor of divine power, hiding Himself from the notice
of men, in order to fulll, apart from their applause, the
Mark 3
263
service He had undertaken-such was His human life on
earth. Love and divine power were disclosed in the service
which that love impelled Him to accomplish, and in the
accomplishment of which that power was exercised.<P177>
But this could not be circumscribed by Judaism, however
subject the Lord was to the ordinances of God given to the
Jews.
Man’s carnal opposition; willful, deliberate unbelief
brings hopeless condemnation
But, God being thus manifested, the carnal opposition
of man soon shows itself.1 Here, then, the description of
Christ’s service ends, and its eect is manifested. is eect
is developed in that which soon follows, with respect both to
the iniquity of man and to the counsels of God. Meanwhile,
the Lord appoints twelve of His disciples to accompany
Him and to go forth preaching in His name. He could,
not merely work miracles, but communicate to others the
power to work them, and that by way of authority. He goes
back into the house, and the multitude reassembles. And
here the thoughts of man display themselves at the same
time as those of God. His friends search for Him as one
who was beside Himself. e scribes, possessing inuence
as learned men, attribute to Satan a power which they
could not deny. e Lord answers them by showing that in
general all sin could be pardoned; but that to acknowledge
the power and attribute it to the enemy, rather than own
Him who wielded it, was taking the place, not of ignorant
unbelief, but of adversaries, thus blaspheming against the
Holy Spirit-was a sin that could never be pardoned. e
“strong man” was there; but Jesus was stronger than he, for
He cast out the devils. Would Satan endeavor to overthrow
his own house? e fact that the power of Jesus manifested
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itself in this manner left them without excuse. God’s “strong
man” was then come: Israel rejected Him; and, as regards
their leaders, by blaspheming against the Holy Spirit, they
brought themselves under hopeless condemnation. e
Lord, therefore, immediately distinguishes the remnant
who received His word from all natural connection He had
with Israel. His mother or His “brethren” are the disciples
who stand around Him and those who do the will of God.
is really sets aside Israel at that time.<P178>
(1. is is the secret of all the history of Jesus, Son of
David. All the promises being in Him for the Jews, the
servant of every want too and every sorrow, yet being God
and God manifested in Him, man could not bear it. e
mind of the esh is enmity against God.)
Mark 4
265
73109
Mark 4
en present and future character and result of the
Lord’s service
is introduces the true character and result of His
own service and all the history of the service that should
be accomplished unto a far distant future; as well as the
responsibility of His disciples, with regard to the share they
would have in it, and the quietness of one who trusted in
God while thus laboring; the storms also that should occur,
that should exercise faith while Jesus apparently took no
notice of them; and the just condence of faith, as well as
the power that sustained it.
e Sower and the seed
e whole character of the work at that moment, and
until the Lord’s return, is described in this fourth chapter.
e Lord resumes in it His habitual work of instruction,
but in connection with the development that had just
taken place of His relationship with the Jews. He sows.
Fruit He no longer sought in His vineyard. In verse 11 we
see that the distinction between the Jews and His disciples
is marked. To the latter it was given to know the mystery of
the kingdom, but to those that were without all these things
were done in parables. I do not repeat the remarks I made
in speaking of the contents of this parable in Matthew. But
that which follows in verse 21 belongs essentially to the
Gospel by Mark. We have seen that the Lord was occupied
in preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and He committed
the preaching of this gospel to others also. He was a sower,
and He sowed the Word. at was His service, and it was
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theirs likewise. But is a candle lit to be hidden? Moreover,
nothing should be hidden. If man did not manifest the
truth he had received, God would manifest all things. Let
everyone take heed to it.
e object of the service committed to the disciples
In verse 24 He applies this principle to His disciples.
ey must take heed to what they heard, for God would
act towards them according to their delity in the
administration of the word committed to them. e love
of God sent the word of grace and of the kingdom unto
men. at it should reach their conscience was the<P179>
object of the service committed to the disciples. Christ
communicated it to them; they were to make it known to
others in all its fullness. According to the measure with
which they gave free course to this testimony of love
(conformably to the gift they had received), so should it
be measured unto them in the government of God. If they
hearkened unto that which He communicated to them,
they should receive more; for, as a general principle, he
who made that which reached him his own should have
yet more, and from him who did not truly make it his own
it should be taken away.
e absence of the King; His return at harvesttime
e Lord then shows them how it should be with regard
to Himself. He had sown, and, even as the seed springs up
and grows without any act on the sower’s part, so would
Christ allow the gospel to spread in the world without
interposing in any apparent way, it being the peculiar
character of the kingdom that the King was not there. But,
when harvesttime comes, the sower has again to do with it.
So should it be with Jesus: He would return to look after
the harvest. He was personally engaged in the sowing and
Mark 4
267
in the harvest. In the interval, all went on apparently as if
left to itself, really without the interference of the Lord in
Person.
e mustard seed: the formation of a great earthly
power as the result of the truth preached
e Lord makes use of another similitude to describe
the character of the kingdom. e small seed that He
sowed should become a great system, highly exalted in the
earth, capable of aording temporal protection to those
that took shelter in it. us we have the work of preaching
the Word; the responsibility of the laborers to whom the
Lord would entrust it during His absence; His own action
at the beginning and at the end, at seedtime and at harvest,
Himself remaining at a distance during the interval; and
the formation of a great earthly power as the result of
the truth which He preached, and which created a little
nucleus around Himself.
e storm; the Creator’s presence; the disciples’
unbelief
One part of the history of His followers was yet to
be shown. ey should nd most serious diculties in
their way. e enemy<P180> would raise up a storm
against them. Apparently Christ took no notice of their
situation. ey call upon Him and awake Him by cries,
which He answers in grace. He speaks to the wind and
the sea, and there is a great calm. At the same time He
rebukes their unbelief. ey should have counted on Him
and on His divine power, and not have thought that He
was going to be swallowed up by the waves. ey should
have remembered their own connection with Him-that, by
grace, they were associated with Him. What tranquillity
was His! the storm does not disturb Him. Devoted to His
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work, He took His rest at the moment when service did
not require His activity. He rested during the passage. His
service only aorded Him those moments snatched by
circumstances from labor. His divine tranquillity, which
knew no distrust, allowed Him to sleep during the storm.
It was not so with the disciples; and, forgetful of His power,
unaware of the glory of Him who was with them, they
think only of themselves, as though Jesus had forgotten
them. One word on His part displays in Him the Lord of
creation. is is the real state of the disciples when Israel
is set aside. e storm arises. Jesus appears to take no heed.
Now faith would have recognized that they were in the
same ship with Him. at is to say, if Jesus leaves the seed
He has sown to grow until the harvest, He is, nonetheless,
in the same vessel; He shares, not the less truly, the lot of
His followers, or rather they share His. e dangers are
the danger He and His work are in. at is, there is really
none. And how great is the foolishness of unbelief. ink
of their supposing, when the Son of God is come into the
world to accomplish redemption and the settled purposes
of God, that by, to man’s eye, an accidental storm, He and
all His work should be unexpectedly sunk in the lake! We
are, blessed be His name, in the same boat with Him. If the
Son of God does not sink, neither shall we.
Mark 5
269
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Mark 5
e demoniac delivered from Satan’s power called to
serve in Jesus’ absence
But, in another sense, they are not with Him. ey are
called to serve, when He quits the scene of His labor. We
learn this from the demoniac Legion, delivered from his
miserable condition. Man<P181>-and Israel in particular-
was completely under the power of the enemy. Christ, as
to the work of His power, completely delivered the one in
whose behalf this power was exercised. He is clothed-not
naked-in his right mind, and sitting at the feet of Jesus to
hear His words. But the people of the place are afraid and
send Jesus away-what the world has done with Christ; and
in the history of the herd of swine we have the picture of
Israel after the remnant has been healed. ey are unclean,
and Satan drives them to destruction. Now, when Jesus
departs, he who had personally experienced the mighty
eects of His love would have liked to be with Him; but
he was to go home and bear testimony to those around him
of all that Jesus had done. He was to serve in the absence
of Jesus. In all these narratives we see the work and the
devotedness of the servant, but at the same time the divine
power of Jesus manifested in this service.
Healing of incurable disease and life given to the dead
In the circumstances that follow the cure of the
demoniac, we nd the true position of Jesus portrayed in
His work. He is called upon to heal the daughter of Jairus-
even as He came to heal the Jews, had that been possible.
As He went toward the house of Jairus to perform this
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work, a poor, incurable woman touches the hem of His
garment with faith and is instantly healed. is was the
case with Jesus during His passage among the Jews. In the
multitude that surrounded Him, some souls through grace
touched Him by faith. In truth, their disease was, in itself,
incurable; but Jesus had life in Himself according to the
power of God, and faith drew out its virtue by touching
Him. Such are brought to acknowledge their condition,
but they are healed. Outwardly He was in the midst of
all Israel-faith reaped the benet in the sense of its own
need and of the glory of His Person. Now, with respect
to the one who was the object of His journey, remedy was
unavailing. Jesus nds her dead, but does not miss the
object of His journey. He raises her again, for He can give
life. us too with respect to Israel. On the way, those who
had faith in Jesus were healed, incurable as they were in
themselves; but in fact, as to Israel, the nation was dead in
trespasses and sins. Apparently this put a stop to the work
of Jesus. But grace will restore life to Israel in the end. We
see the perfect grace of Jesus intercepting the eect<P182>
of the bad tidings brought from the ruler’s house. He says
to Jairus, as soon as the messenger has told him of his
daughter’s death, and the inutility of troubling the Master
any further, “Be not afraid, only believe.” In eect, although
the Lord restores life to a dead Israel in the end of the ages,
nevertheless it is by faith that it takes place. e case of the
poor woman, although in its direct application it does not
go beyond the Jews, yet applies in principle to the healing
of every Gentile who, through grace, is brought to touch
Jesus by faith.
Mark 5
271
is history then gives the character of His service, the
manner in which-on account of man’s condition-it had to
be accomplished.
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73111
Mark 6
Patient service accompanied by the testimony of
judgment for rejection of His mission
In that which follows, the history (properly so called) of
His service is resumed. Only we see Him already rejected
by a blinded people, in spite of the power which He had
manifested, and which bore testimony to the glory of His
Person. Nevertheless, He pursues His service and sends
forth His disciples in order that no eort might be wanting;
but with the testimony of the judgment that awaited those
who should be guilty of the rejection of His mission-a
rejection that was already taking place. e Lord, however,
continues to give proof in mercy and in goodness that
Jehovah, who had compassion on His people, was there;
until at length He had to prepare His disciples for the
certain result of His work, namely, His death by the hand
of the Gentiles, to whom the chief priests would deliver
Him.
e Lord’s service, limited by Israel’s unbelief,
widened elsewhere
To the Jews He was the carpenter, the son of Mary.
eir unbelief stopped the benecent hand of God with
regard to themselves. Jesus carries on His work elsewhere
and sends forth His disciples-an act which implied the
possession of divine power. It was still to Israel that the
mission they received from Him directed them, and
they were to pronounce judgment upon the land of
<P183>Emmanuel, the land of Israel, as a polluted land,
wherever their testimony should be rejected. ey were
Mark 6
273
to go forth resting on the mighty protection of Him who
sent them, and they should lack nothing. He was sovereign
Lord: all things were at His disposal. Christ can not only
communicate blessings as the channel of blessing Himself,
but can also confer on His disciples the power of casting
out devils. e disciples fulll their task. is passage shows
forth in a remarkable manner the position and glory of
Christ. He is the Servant-for men, the carpenter’s son. In
His new service, He takes no place but the lling up of that
which God had given Him to do. He could do no mighty
works there, because of their unbelief-ever ready to serve,
but shut up, straitened in the exercise of His love, where
no door opened to receive its inuence; and nature judging
according to sight never does. Only where a need was, His
love, never tired, works-must work. e few sick folk prot
by a love that despises none, because it never seeks itself.
Divine power and love shown in the dependent
Servant
But, in the following verse, He who could not work
mighty works (because His service was dependent on
divine conditions, on which God could found and carry
on His communion with men, in order to reveal Himself)
now gives power to others over all unclean spirits, a power
which is divine. Any can work miracles, if God gives the
power; but God alone can give it. ey are to lack nothing,
for Emmanuel was there; and to announce judgment if
their message was rejected. Divine love had made Him
entirely a dependent Servant; but the dependent Servant
was God present in grace and righteousness.
e murderous opposition of the authorities in Israel;
the death of John the Baptist
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But the eect of all these manifestations of power is
that the conscience of the king who then reigned in Israel
is awakened; and the evangelist opens to us the history of
the murderous opposition of the authorities in Israel to the
witnesses for the truth. Herod had put John to death in
order to gratify the iniquity of a woman who pleased him-
iniquity that he shared with her. A dance was worth the life
of the prophet of God. Such was the ruler of Israel.<P184>
Jesus’ compassion and power:
satisfying the poor with bread
e apostles return. Jesus withdraws them from the
inquisitive and needy crowd, by going into a desert place;
but the multitude follows Him. Jesus, rejected as He is by
the land He loved, has compassion on the poor of the ock
and manifests in their behalf the power of Jehovah to bless
them according to Psalm 132. He satises the poor with
bread. Having sent the people away, He crosses the sea on
foot; and, rejoining His disciples, the wind ceases-a gure,
of which we have spoken when meditating on Matthew.
eir work was nished. As to themselves, in spite of all
His miracles, their hearts at that time were still hard and
forgot the miracles, one after the other. e Lord pursues
His work of blessing. It was but to touch Him and be
healed.
Mark 7
275
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Mark 7
e heart of man and the heart of God
e ruling power in exercise among the Jews had shown
itself hostile to the testimony of God and had put to death
the one whom He had sent in the way of righteousness. e
scribes, and those who pretended to follow righteousness,
had corrupted the people by their teaching, and had broken
the law of God.
ey washed cups and pots, but not their hearts; and,
provided that the priests-religion-gained by it, set aside the
duties of children to their parents. But God looked at the
heart, and from the heart of man proceeded every kind of
impurity, iniquity and violence. It was that which deled
the man, not having his hands unwashed. Such is the
judgment on religiousness without conscience and without
fear of God, and the true discernment of what the heart
of man is in the sight of God, who is of purer eyes than to
behold iniquity.
But God must also show His own heart; and if Jesus
judged that of man with the eye of God-if He manifested
His ways and His faithfulness to Israel; He displayed,
nevertheless, through it all, what God was to those who
felt their need of Him and came to Him in faith, owning
and resting upon His pure goodness. From the land of
Tyre and Sidon comes a woman of the condemned race, a
Gentile and a Syrophenician. e Lord replies to her, on
her <P185>request that He would heal her daughter, that
the children (the Jews) must rst be lled; that it was not
right to take the children’s bread and cast it to the dogs:
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an overwhelming answer, if the sense she had of her need
and of the goodness of God had not gone beyond, and
set aside, every other thought. ese two things made her
humble of heart and ready to own the sovereign favor of
God towards the people of His choice in this world. Had
He not a right to choose a people? And she was not one of
them. But that did not destroy His goodness and His love.
She was but a Gentile dog, yet such was the goodness of
God that He had bread even for dogs. Christ, the perfect
expression of God, the manifestation of God Himself in
the esh, could not deny His goodness and His grace,
could not say that faith had higher thoughts of God than
were true, for He was Himself that love. e sovereignty of
God was acknowledged-no pretension made to any right
whatsoever. e poor woman rested only upon grace. Her
faith, with an intelligence given of God, laid hold of the
grace which went beyond the promises made to Israel.
She penetrates into the heart of the God of love, as He is
revealed in Jesus, even as He penetrates into ours, and she
enjoys the fruit of it. For this was brought in now: God
Himself directly in presence of and connection with man,
and man as he was before God-not a rule or system for
man to prepare himself for God.
Hearing and speech bestowed in grace apart from the
multitude
In the next miracle, we see the Lord, by the same grace,
bestowing hearing and speech upon a man who was deaf
and unable even to express his thoughts. He could have
received no fruit from the Word, from God, and could
give no praise to Him. e Lord is returned into the
place where He arose as light on Israel; and here He deals
with the remnant alone. He takes the man apart from the
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multitude. It is the same grace that takes the place of all
pretensions to righteousness in man and that manifests
itself to the destitute. Its form, though exercised now in
favor of the remnant of Israel, is suited to the condition
of Jew or Gentile-it is grace. But as to these too it is the
same: He takes the man apart from the crowd that the
work of God may be wrought: the crowd of this world had
no real part therein. We see Jesus here, His heart<P186>
moved at the condition of man, and more especially at the
state of His ever-loved Israel, of which this poor suerer
was a striking picture. He causes the deaf to hear and the
dumb to speak. So was it individually, and so will it be
with the whole remnant of Israel in the latter days. He
acts Himself, and He does all things well. e power of the
enemy is destroyed, the man’s deafness, his inability to use
his tongue as God gave it him, are taken away by His love
who acts with the power of God.
e miracle of the loaves bore witness to the presence
of the God of Israel, according to His promises; this, to the
grace that went beyond the limits of these promises, on
the part of God, who judged the condition of those who
asserted a claim to them according to righteousness, and
that of man, evil in himself; and who delivered man and
blessed him in love, withdrawing him from the power of
Satan and enabling him to hear the voice of God and to
praise Him.
Hidden from the Jews, in rejection; need met in grace
and power by the One who alone can supply it
ere are yet some remarkable features in this part of
the history of Christ, which I desire to point out. ey
manifest the spirit in which Jesus labored at this moment.
He departs from the Jews, having shown the emptiness
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and hypocrisy of their worship, and the iniquity of every
human heart as a source of corruption and sin.
e Lord-at this solemn moment, which displayed the
rejection of Israel-goes far away from the people to a place
where there was no opportunity for service among them,
to the borders of the stranger and Canaanite cities of Tyre
and Sidon (ch. 7:24), and (His heart oppressed) would
have no one know where He was. But God had been too
plainly manifested in His goodness and His power to allow
Him to be hidden whenever there was need. e report of
what He was had gone abroad, and the quick eye of faith
discovered that which alone could meet its need. It is this
that nds Jesus (when all, that had outwardly a right to the
promises, are deceived by this pretension itself and by their
privileges). Faith it is that knows its need, and knows that
only, and that Jesus alone can meet it. at which God is
to faith is manifested to the one that needs it, according
to the grace and power that are in Jesus. Hidden from the
Jews, He is grace to the sinner. us also (ch. 7:33),<P187>
when He heals the deaf man of his deafness and of the
impediment in his speech, He takes him aside from the
multitude and looks up to heaven and sighs. Oppressed
in His heart by the unbelief of the people, He takes the
object of the exercise of His power aside, looks up to the
sovereign source of all goodness, of all help for man, and
grieves at the thought of the condition in which man is
found. is case then exemplies, more particularly, the
remnant according to the election of grace from among the
Jews, who are separated by divine grace from the mass of
the nation, faith, in these few, being in exercise. e heart of
Christ is far from repulsing His (earthly) people. His soul
is overwhelmed by the sense of the unbelief that separates
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them from Him and from deliverance; nevertheless, He
takes away from some the deaf heart and looses their
tongue in order that the God of Israel may be gloried.
us also on the death of Lazarus, Christ grieves at the
sorrow which death brings upon the heart of man. ere,
however, it was a public testimony.
Faith not forsaken, but power not exercised where
there is manifest unbelief
We shall nd in chapter 8 another example of that
which we have been noticing. Jesus leads the blind man
out of the town. He does not forsake Israel wherever there
is faith; but He separates the one who possesses it from
the mass and brings him into connection with the power,
the grace, the heaven, whence blessing owed-blessing
consequently which extended to the Gentiles.
Power was not exercised in the midst of manifest
unbelief. is clearly marks out the position of Christ with
regard to the people. He pursues His service, but He retires
to God because of Israel’s unbelief: but it is to the God of
all grace. ere His heart found refuge till the great hour
of atonement.
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73113
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God’s unwearied intervention in power in spite of
rejection
It is on this account, as it appears to me, that we have
the second miracle of the multiplication of the loaves. e
Lord acts again in favor of Israel, no longer as administering
Messianic power in the midst of the people (which was
implied, as we have<P188> seen, in the number twelve),
but in spite of His rejection by Israel, continuing to
exercise His power in a divine manner and apart from man.
e number seven1 has always the force of superhuman
perfection-that which is complete: this, however, applied
to what is complete in the power of evil as well as good,
when it is not human and subordinate to God. Here it is
divine. It is that intervention of God which is unwearied
and which is according to His own power, which it is the
principal object of the repetition of the miracle to display.
(1. It may be remarked that seven is the highest prime,
that is indivisible, number; twelve, the most divisible there
is.)
e condition of the heads of Israel and of the
remnant displayed
Afterwards the condition both of the heads of Israel
and of the remnant is displayed. e Pharisees require a
sign; but no sign should be given to that generation. It
was simply unbelief when abundant proofs of who He was
were before them; they were the very things which had
led to the demand. e Lord departs from them. But the
blind and unintelligent condition of the remnant is also
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manifested. e Lord warns them to beware of the spirit
and the teaching of the Pharisees, the false pretenders to a
holy zeal for God; and of the Herodians, the servile votaries
of the spirit of the world, who, to please the emperor, set
God entirely aside.
In using the word “leaven,” the Lord gives the disciples
occasion to show their deciency in spiritual intelligence.
If the Jews learned nothing from the Lord’s miracles, but
still asked for signs, even the disciples did not realize the
divine power manifested in them. I do not doubt that this
condition is set forth in the blind man of Bethsaida.
e blind man of Bethsaida; the disciples’ condition;
the announcement of the Lord’s death and resurrection
Jesus takes him by the hand and leads him out of the
town, away from the multitude, and uses that which was
of Himself, that which possessed the ecacy of His own
Person, to perform the cure.1e rst eect well depicts
the condition of the <P189>disciples. ey saw, doubtless,
but in a confused manner, “men, as trees, walking.” But the
Lord’s love is not wearied by their unbelieving dullness of
intelligence; He acts according to the power of His own
intention towards them and causes them to see clearly.
Afterwards - away from Israel - the uncertainty of unbelief
is seen in juxtaposition with the certainty of faith (however
obscure its intelligence may be), and Jesus, forbidding the
disciples to speak of that which they certainly believed (the
time was gone by for convincing Israel of Christ’s rights as
Messiah), announces to them that which should happen
to Himself, for the accomplishment of God’s purposes in
grace as Son of Man, after His rejection by Israel.2 So that
everything is now, as we may say, in its place. Israel does
not recognize the Messiah in Jesus; consequently He no
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longer addresses the people in that character. His disciples
believe Him to be the Messiah, and He tells them of His
death and resurrection.
(1. Spittle, in connection with the sanctity of the
Rabbins, was highly esteemed by the Jews in this respect;
but here its ecacy is connected with the Person of Him
who used it.
(2. We have nothing here of the church, nor of the keys
of the kingdom. ese depend on what is not introduced
here as a part of Peter’s confession-the Son of the living
God. We have the glory of the kingdom coming in power,
in contrast with the rejected Christ, the prophet-servant
in Israel.)
Peter’s opposition as the instrument of Satan
Now there may be (and it is a most important
practical truth) true faith, without the heart being formed
according to the full revelation of Christ, and without
the esh being practically crucied in proportion to the
measure of knowledge one has of the object of faith. Peter
acknowledged indeed, by the teaching of God, that Jesus
was the Christ; but he was far from having his heart pure
according to the mind of God in Christ. And when the
Lord announces His rejection, humiliation and death, and
that before all the world, the esh of Peter-wounded by
the idea of a Master thus despised and rejected-shows its
energy by daring to rebuke the Lord Himself. is attempt
of Satan’s to discourage the disciples by the dishonor of the
cross stirs up the Lord’s heart. All His aection for His
disciples and the sight of those poor sheep before whom
the enemy was putting a stumbling block bring a vehement
censure upon Peter, as being the instrument of Satan and
speaking on his part. Alas for us! the reason was plain-he
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savored the things of men, and not those of God;<P190>
for the cross comprises in itself all the glory of God. Man
prefers the glory of man, and thus Satan governs him.
e Lord calls the people and His disciples, and explains
distinctly to them that if they would follow Him, they
must take part with Him and bear their cross. For thus, in
losing their life, they would save it, and the soul was worth
all beside. Moreover, if anyone was ashamed of Jesus and
of His words, the Son of Man would be ashamed of him,
when He should come in the glory of His Father with the
holy angels. For glory belonged to Him, whatever might
be His humiliation. He then sets this before His chief
disciples, in order to strengthen their faith.
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73114
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e transguration: the coming of the kingdom in
power and glory on earth
In Matthew we saw the transguration announced in
terms that related to the subject of that Gospel-the rejected
Christ taking His glorious position as Son of Man. In each
of the Gospels it is in connection with the moment when
this transition is clearly set forth; but in each case with
a particular character. In Mark we have seen the humble
and devoted service of Christ in proclaiming the kingdom,
whatever might be the divine glory that shone through
His humiliation. Accordingly, the manifestation of the
transition to glory is here announced as the coming of the
kingdom in power. ere is nothing that very particularly
distinguishes the recital here from that in Matthew,
excepting that the isolation of Jesus and the three disciples
at this moment is more strongly marked in verse 2, and that
the facts are related without addition. e Lord afterwards
charges them to tell no one what they had seen, until after
His resurrection from among the dead.
We may remark here that it is indeed the kingdom in
power that is manifested. It is not the power of the Holy
Spirit bringing the sinner as a holy member of the body
into connection with Christ the Head, revealing to it the
heavenly glory of Christ as He is at the right hand of the
Father. Christ is on earth. He is there in connection with
the great witnesses of the Jewish economy (the law and
prophecy), but witnesses who give place entirely to Him,
while participating with Him in the glory of the kingdom.
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But<P191> Christ is manifested in glory on the earth-the
man in glory is recognized as Son of God, as He is known
in the cloud. It was the glory as it shall be manifested on
the earth, the glory of the kingdom, and God is still in
the cloud, though revealing His glory in it. is is not our
position as yet without a veil; only that the veil as to our
relationship with God is rent from top to bottom, and we
have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of
Christ. But this is spiritual privilege, not public display-
our veil as to that, our body, is not rent; but Christ’s, as the
title of entrance, is.1
(1. e entrance into the cloud does not form part of
the revelation here. We nd it in Luke. e cloud for Israel
was the place where God dwelt; it was (Matt. 17) a bright
cloud.)
A new order of things established in resurrection
But this position of glory could not be taken by the Lord,
nor the glorious reign be established, excepting in a new
order of things. Christ must rise from the dead to establish
it. It did not accord with His presentation as Messiah, as
He then was. erefore He commands His disciples not to
make it known till after His resurrection. It would then be
a powerful conrmation of the doctrine of the kingdom in
glory. is manifestation of the glory conrmed the faith
of the disciples at that time (as Gethsemane taught them
the reality of His suerings and of His conicts with the
prince of darkness); and would afterwards form a subject of
their testimony, and its conrmation, when Christ should
have taken His new position.
We may see the character of this manifestation, and
its relation to the earthly kingdom of glory of which the
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prophets had spoken, in 2Peter 1:19. Read there, “We have
the word of prophecy conrmed.”
e Son of Man as the resurrection and the life
e disciples had stopped at the threshold. In fact,
although their eyes were opened, they saw “men as trees
walking.” What, they questioned between themselves, could
this “rising from among the dead” mean? Resurrection was
known to them; all the sect of the Pharisees believed in
it. But this power, which delivered from the condition in
which man and even the saints were found, implying too
that others were still left in it when that power<P192> was
exercised, of this they were totally ignorant. at there was
a resurrection in which God would raise up all the dead at
the last day, they had no doubt. But that the Son of Man
was the resurrection and the life-the absolute triumph
over death of the last Adam, the Son of God having life
in Himself, manifested by His resurrection from among
the dead (a deliverance that shall be accomplished in the
saints also in due time), of this they understood nothing.
Doubtless they received the Lord’s words as true, as having
authority; but His meaning was incomprehensible to them.
e diculties of unbelief
Now unbelief never fails to nd out diculties that
justify it in its own eyes which refuse to perceive the divine
proofs of the truth-diculties great enough in appearance,
and which may trouble the minds of those who, through
grace, are inclined to believe, or who have believed, but are
still weak in the faith.
e prophets had said that Elias must rst come.
e scribes insisted on this. Struck with the glory that
undeniably conrmed the pretensions of Christ, the
disciples speak to Him of this diculty. e conviction
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which the sight of the glory brought to their mind made
them confess the diculty with regard to which they had
previously been silent, not daring to bring it forward. But
now the proof is strong enough to embolden them to face
the diculty.
Suerings before glory
In fact, the Word spoke of it, and Jesus accepts it as the
truth; Elias was to come and restore all things. And he
shall indeed come before the manifestation of the glory of
the Son of Man; but rst of all the Son of Man must suer
and be rejected. is also was written, as well as the mission
of Elias. Moreover, before this manifestation of Christ,
which tested the Jews as to their responsibility, God had
not failed to supply them with a testimony according to
the spirit and power of Elias; and they had ill-treated him
as they listed. It was written that the Son of Man should
suer before His glory, as truly as that Elias should come.
However, as we have said, in point of testimony to the Jews,
he who took morally the place of Elias had come. ey had
treated him as they were going to treat the Lord. us also
John had said that he was not Elias, and he quotes Isaiah
40, which speaks of the testimony;<P193> but he never
quotes Malachi 4, which relates to Elias personally. e
Lord (Matt. 11:10) applies Malachi 3:1; but John, Isaiah.
Great need; weak and wavering faith; almighty power
to heal
Come down from the mountain, the people rush towards
Him, astonished apparently at this mysterious absence
from His disciples, and salute Him with the reverence
with which His whole life had inspired them. But that
which had taken place in His absence only conrmed the
solemn truth that He must depart, which had just been
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demonstrated by a more glorious testimony. e remnant
even, they who believed, knew not how to prot by the
power which was now on earth. e faith of those even
who believed did not realize the presence of the Messiah-
the power of Jehovah, the Healer of Israel: wherefore then
still remain among the people and the disciples? e poor
father expresses his aiction in a touching manner, in
words that show a heart brought by the sense of its need
to a right condition, but very weak in faith. e miserable
state of his child is related, and his heart presents a true
picture of the condition of the remnant-faith that required
support on account of the unbelief under which it was
buried. Israel was in no better condition than the poor
child. But power was present, capable of all things. at
was not the diculty. Is there faith to prot by it? was the
question. “If thou canst,” said the aicted father to Jesus.
“If thou canst” (replied the Lord) applies to thy faith; “if
thou canst believe, all things are possible.” e poor father,
true of heart, confesses his own state with grief and seeks,
in the goodness of Christ, help for his failure. us the
position of Israel was plainly shown forth. Almighty power
was present to heal them, to deliver them from the power
of Satan. It was to be done through faith, for the soul
was to return to God. And there was faith in those who,
touched by the testimony of His power, and moved by the
grace of God, sought in Jesus the remedy for their woes
and the foundation for their hopes. eir faith was weak
and wavering; but wherever it existed, Jesus acted with the
sovereign power of His own grace and of the goodness of
God that nds its measure in itself. However far unbelief
may have gone in those who should prot by the grace
of a dispensation, wherever there is a need to meet, Jesus
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answers to it when He is looked to. And this is a great
mercy and encouragement for us.<P194>
Nevertheless, for this power to be exercised by man
himself (to which God called him), it was needful that
he should draw very near to God-that he to whom it was
committed should accustom himself to communion with
God, by withdrawing from all that connected him with the
world and the esh.
Unbelief brought to Jesus; the enemy cast out
Let us here recapitulate the principles of this narrative
with respect to their general application. e Lord, who
was going away, to be seen no more of the world until He
came in glory, nds, on coming down from the mount of
transguration, a case of the power of Satan over man,
over the Jewish people. It had continued from almost the
commencement of the child’s existence. e faith that
recognizes the intervention of God in Christ, and takes
shelter in it from present evil, is weak and wavering,
preoccupied with the evil, the sight of which conceals in
great measure the power that masters and takes it away.
Still the sense of need is deep enough to make it have
recourse to that power.
It is the unbelief which knows not how to count on the
power that is present, which puts an end to the relations of
Christ with man. It is not man’s misery that does so-it was
this that brought Him down to earth. But the almighty
power is present-it only needs faith to prot by it. But if
the heart, on account of the enemy’s power, turns to Jesus,
it can (thank God) bring its unbelief to Him as well as all
the rest. ere is love and power in Him for every kind of
weakness. e people crowd around, attracted by the sight
of the enemy’s power. Can the Lord heal him? But can
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he allow the testimony of Satan’s power to invade their
hearts? is is the curiosity of men whose imagination
is lled with the eect of the enemy’s presence. But,
whatever might be the unbelief of man, Christ was present,
the testimony of a power that, in love to men, destroyed
the eects of the power of the enemy. e people gather
round-Jesus sees it and with a word casts out the enemy.
He acts according to the necessity of His power and the
purposes of the love of God. us the eort of the enemy
occasioned the intervention of Jesus, which the weakness
of the father’s faith tended to arrest. Nevertheless, if we lay
all our inrmity, as well as our misery, before Christ, He
answers according to the fullness of His power.<P195>
Intelligence in the ways of God hindered by the esh
On the other hand, if the esh meddles with the
thoughts of faith, it hinders intelligence in the ways of
God. While journeying, Christ explained His death and
His new condition in resurrection. Why blame the lack of
intelligence which hid all this from them and lled their
minds with ideas of earthly and Messianic glory? e secret
of their want of intelligence lay here. He had told them
plainly; but on the way they disputed among themselves
which should have the rst place in the kingdom. e
thoughts of the esh lled their heart, in regard to Jesus,
with exactly the opposite of that which engaged the mind
of God respecting Him. Inrmity, presented to Jesus, nds
an answer in power and in sovereign grace; the esh and
its desires hide from us, even when thinking of Him, all
the import of the thoughts of God. It was their own glory
they were seeking in the kingdom; the cross-the true path
to glory-was unintelligible to them.
e disciples instructed as to their Lord’s rejection
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After this the Lord resumes with His disciples the great
subject before Him at this moment; and which was, in
every way, that which now must be decided. He was to be
rejected; and He separates Himself from the multitude, with
His disciples, to instruct them on this point. Preoccupied
with His glory, with His rights as Messiah, they do not
understand it. eir faith even, such as it was, blinds them
to all beyond that; because, while rightly attaching itself
to the Person of Christ, it connected-or rather, their own
hearts, in which the faith existed, connected-with Christ
the accomplishment of that which their esh desired and
sought in Him for themselves. How subtle is the heart! is
betrays itself in their dispute for preeminence. eir faith is
too weak to bear elucidations that contradicted their ideas
(vs. 32). ese ideas are manifested without disguise among
themselves. Jesus reproves them and gives them a little
child for an example, as He had so often done before. He
that would follow Christ must have a spirit quite opposite
to that of the world-a spirit belonging to that which was
weak and despised by the pride of the world. In receiving
such a one, they would receive Christ; in receiving Christ,
they would receive the Father. It was eternal things that
were in question, and the spirit of a man must then be the
spirit of a child.<P196>
Instruction for the Christian life as set apart for God
and sharing the Lord’s rejection
e world was so contrary to Christ, that he who was
not against Him was for Him.1e Son of Man was to
be rejected. Faith in His Person was the thing, not now
individual service to Him. Alas! the disciples were still
thinking of themselves: “He followeth not us.” ey must
share His rejection; and if anyone gave them a cup of cold
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water, God would remember it. Whatever would cause
them to stumble in their walk, were it even their own right
eye or hand, they would do well to cut o; for it was not the
things of an earthly Messiah that were in question, but the
things of eternity. And all should be tested by the perfect
holiness of God, and that in judgment by one means or
another. Everyone should be salted with re-the good and
the bad. Where there was life, the re would only consume
the esh; for when we are judged, we are chastened of the
Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.
If the judgment reaches the wicked (and assuredly it shall
reach them), it is condemnation-a re that is not quenched.
But, for the good, there was also something else: they
should be salted with salt. ose who were consecrated to
God, whose life was an oering to Him, should not lack
the power of holy grace, which binds the soul to God and
inwardly preserves it from evil. Salt is not the gentleness
that pleases (which grace produces without doubt), but
that energy of God within us which connects everything
in us with God and dedicates the heart to Him, binding it
to Him in the sense of obligation and of desire, rejecting
all in oneself that is contrary to Him (obligation that
ows from grace, but which acts all the more powerfully
on that account). us, practically, it was distinctive grace,
the energy of holiness, which separates from all evil; but
by setting apart for God. Salt was good: here the eect
produced in the soul, the condition of the soul, is so called,
as well as the grace that produces this condition. us they
who oered themselves to God were set apart for Him;
they were the salt of the earth. But if<P197> the salt lose
its savor, wherewith can it be salted? It is used for seasoning
other things; but if the salt needs it for itself, there is
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nothing left that can salt it. So would it be with Christians;
if they who were of Christ did not render this testimony,
where should anything be found, apart from Christians, to
render it to them and produce it in them?
(1. Some have diculty in reconciling this with “Forbid
him not, he that is not with me is against me.” But they
coalesce when the main point is seen; Christ was a divine
criterion of man’s state and brought things to an issue. e
world was wholly, absolutely, against Him. If a man was
not, there was no middle state, he was for Him. But things
being brought to an issue, if a man was not for Him, he was
of the world, and so against Him.)
Now this sense of obligation to God which separates
from evil, this judgment of all evil in the heart, must be in
oneself. It is not a question of judging others, but of placing
oneself before God, thus becoming the salt, having it in
oneself. With regard to others, one must seek peace; and
real separation from all evil is that which enables us to walk
in peace together.
In a word, Christians were to keep themselves separate
from evil and near to God in themselves; and to walk with
God in peace among one another.
No instruction could be more plain, more important,
more valuable. It judges, it directs, the whole Christian life
in a few words.
e relations of God with man; the Lord’s obedience
as Man
But the end of the Lord’s service drew near. Having
described in these principles the exigencies of eternity
and the character of Christian life, He brings back all the
relations of God with man to their original elements, setting
aside the world and its glory, and Jewish glory also, as to
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its immediate accomplishment, and pointing out the path
of eternal life in the cross and in the saving power of God.
Nevertheless, He takes the place of obedience Himself and
of service-the true place of man-in the midst of all this:
God Himself being introduced on the other hand, in His
proper character as God, in His nature and in His divine
rights; the special glory that belongs to dispensations, and
the relationships proper to them, being left out.
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e relationships of nature reestablished
It is a striking principle which meets us here-the
relationships of nature (as God has Himself created them
at the beginning) reestablished in their original authority,
while the heart is judged, and the cross the sole means of
drawing nigh to the God who was<P198> their creative
source. On earth Christ could oer nothing but the cross
to those who followed Him. e glory to which the cross
would lead has been shown to some of them; but as to
Himself He took the place of servant. It was the knowledge
of God by Him that should form them for this glory and
lead them to it; for, in fact, that was life eternal. All other
intermediate ways had, in the hands of men, become
hostile to the God who had granted them, and therefore to
His manifestation in the Person of Christ.
e family; the law and the heart of man; natural
uprightness and man’s true condition
We nd, then (vss. 1-12), the original relationship of man
and wife as formed by the creative hand of God; in verses
13-16 the interest which Jesus took in young children, their
place in the compassionate eye of God, the moral value of
that which they represented before men. In verse 17 we
come to the law, to the world, and to the heart of man
in presence of the two. But at the same time we see that
Jesus takes pleasure in that which is amiable in the creature
as a creature-a principle of deep interest unfolded in this
chapter-while still applying the touchstone morally to his
heart. With respect to the law, as the natural heart can see it
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(that is, the outward action it requires), the young man had
kept it; and with a natural sincerity, and uprightness, that
Jesus could appreciate as a creature quality, and which we
ought always to recognize where it exists. It is important
to remember that He who as man was perfectly separated
unto God-and that, because He had the thoughts of
God-could recognize the unchangeable obligations of
the relationships established by God Himself; and, also,
whatever there was amiable and attractive in the creature
of God as such. Having the thoughts of God-being God
manifest in the esh-how could He but recognize that
which was of God in His creature? And while doing this,
He must establish the obligations of the relationships in
which He has placed him and exhibit the tenderness He
felt for the infant representatives of the spirit which He
prized. He must love the natural uprightness that may
be developed in the creature. But He must judge the true
condition of man fully brought out, and the aections
that rested on objects raised up by Satan, and the will that
rejected and turned away from the manifestation of God
that<P199> called him to forsake these vanities and follow
Him, thus putting his heart morally to the proof.
e law used for self-righteousness
Jesus exhibits the absolute perfection of God in yet
another manner. e young man saw the exterior of Christ’s
perfection, and, trusting to the power of man to perform that
which is good, and seeing its practical fulllment in Jesus,
applies to Him-and, humanly speaking, with sincerity-
to learn, from One in whom he saw so much perfection,
though viewing Him merely as a Rabbi, the rule of eternal
life. is thought is expressed in his sincere and cordial
salutation. He runs, he kneels, to the Teacher who, morally,
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stood so high in his estimation, saying, “Good Master.” e
human limit of his ideas of this goodness and his condence
in the powers of man are manifested by the words, “What
shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” e Lord, taking
up the whole import of his word, replies, “Why callest thou
me good? there is none good but one, that is God.” What
God has created he who knows God will respect, when it
presents itself as such in its true place. But God alone is
good. Man, if intelligent, will not make himself out good
before God, nor dream of human goodness. is young
man had at least the hope of becoming good by the law,1
and he believed that Jesus was so as a man. But the greatest
advantages which the esh could recognize, and which
answered to its nature, did but the more eectually shut the
door of life and heaven to man. e esh used the law for
self-righteousness, man being not good but a sinner. And,
in fact, if we have to seek for righteousness, it is because
we have it not (that is to say, because we are sinners and
cannot attain this righteousness in ourselves). Moreover,
worldly advantages, which appeared to render man more
capable of doing good, bound his heart to perishing things,
and strengthened selshness, and made him attach little
value to the image of God.
(1. He does not ask, note, What must I do to be saved?
He assumed that by the law he was to get life.)
Peter’s diculty; man in the presence of God
But the instructions of this chapter carry on still farther
the subject of man’s condition before God. e ideas of the
esh ac<P200>company and give their form to the heart’s
aections, in one who is already quickened by the Spirit
of grace acting through the attraction of Christ, until the
Holy Spirit Himself communicates to those aections
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the strength of His presence, by giving them the glory of
Christ in heaven for their object; and at the same time
causing the light of that glory to shine (for the believer’s
heart) upon the cross, investing it with all the value of
the redemption it accomplished, and of the divine grace
that was its source, and producing conformity to Christ in
everyone that bears it with Him. Peter did not understand
how anyone could be saved, if such advantages as the Jews
possessed in their relationship to God (and which were
specially present in the case of this young man) only barred
up the way to the kingdom of God. e Lord meets him
upon this very ground; for man in the presence of God
was now the question. As far as man was concerned, it
was impossible-a second profound truth-with respect to his
condition. Not only was there none good excepting God,
but no one could be saved, according to what man was.
Whatever advantages he might have as means, they would
avail him nothing in his state of sin. But the Lord introduces
another source of hope-“with God all things are possible.”
e whole of this, indeed all this part of the Gospel, while
it sets aside the Jewish system, does so, because, while that
was founded on testing the possibility, by the possession of
divinely given ordinances, of acquiring righteousness, and
a standing before God as yet unrevealed, this revealed God
and brought man and man’s heart face to face, as a present
thing, with Him; in grace, but still face to face as he was.
e disciples, not having yet received the Holy Spirit, are
still under the inuence of the old system, and only see
men as trees walking; and this is fully developed in this
chapter. e kingdom indeed they could think of, but still
with eshly thoughts.
Following the Lord and its reward
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But the esh, the carnal mind, enters yet further into the
career of the life of grace. Peter reminds the Lord that the
disciples had forsaken all to follow Him. e Lord replies
that everyone1 who had done so should have everything
that would make him happy<P201> in his social aections,
as God had formed him, and all this world could give as to
the real enjoyment of it and a hundredfold, together with
the opposition that He Himself met with in this world;
but in the world to come (Peter was not thinking of that),
not some private, individual advantage, but everlasting life.
He went beyond the sphere of promise connected with the
Messiah on earth to enter, and to make others enter, into
that which was eternal. As to individual reward, that could
not be judged of according to appearances.
(1. is went beyond even the disciples’ connection with
the Jews and, in principle, admitted the Gentiles.)
e cross; the place of service, humiliation and
obedience
But further, they followed indeed Jesus, and thought of
the reward, but thought little of the cross which led to it;
they were amazed, therefore, at seeing Jesus deliberately
going up to Jerusalem, where people sought to kill Him,
and they were afraid. Although following Him, they were
far from the height of realizing all that the path implied.
Jesus sedulously explains it to them- His rejection, and
His entrance into the new world by resurrection. John and
James, little aected by the Lord’s communications, use
their faith in the royalty of Christ to present the carnal
desires of their heart, namely, to be on His right and left
hand in the glory. Again the Lord assures them that they
should participate in the cross with Him, and takes the
place Himself of the accomplishment of His service and
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of bringing others into fellowship with His suerings. As
for the glory of the kingdom, it would be theirs for whom
the Father had prepared it: the disposal of it was not in
His hands save to them. is is the place of service, of
humiliation and of obedience, in which this Gospel always
presents Him. Such should be the place of His disciples.
We have seen what the esh was in an upright young
man whom Jesus loved, and in His disciples who knew not
how to take the true position of Christ. e contrast of this
with the full triumph of the Holy Spirit is remarkable, as we
nd it in the comparison of this chapter with Philippians
3.
Human righteousness made worthless to Paul; the
righteousness of God by faith bright with Christ’s glory
We have in Saul a man outwardly blameless, according
to the law, like the young man in the Gospel; but he has
seen Christ in<P202> glory, and, by the teaching of the
Holy Spirit, the righteousness according to which Christ
entered into the glory in which He revealed Himself to Saul.
All that had been gain to him was loss for Christ. Would
he have a carnal righteousness, a human righteousness,
even if he could have accomplished it, when he had seen a
righteousness bright with the glory of Christ? He possessed
the righteousness which was of God by faith. What was that
righteousness worth for which he had labored, now that he
possessed the all-perfect righteousness which God gave by
faith? Not sins alone were put away: human righteousness
was made worthless by it. But his eyes had been opened to
this by the Holy Spirit, and by seeing Christ. e things
that engaged the heart of the young man and retained him
in the world which Christ forsook, and which in Him had
rejected God-could these things retain one who had seen
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Christ in the other world? ey were but as dung to him.
He had forsaken everything in order to possess this Christ.
He considered them as utterly worthless. e Holy Spirit,
in revealing Christ, had completely delivered him.
e disciples’ amazement and fear contrasted with
Paul’s desire
But this manifestation to the heart of Christ gloried
goes yet further. He who thus breaks with the world must
follow the One whose glory he would reach; and this is
to put himself under the cross. e disciples had forsaken
all to follow Him. Grace had attached them to Christ
that they might follow Him. e Holy Spirit had not
yet linked them with His glory. He goes up to Jerusalem.
ey are amazed at it; and, in following Him (although
He goes before them, and they have His guidance and His
presence), they are afraid. Paul seeks to know the power of
His resurrection: he desires to have fellowship with His
suerings and to be conformed unto His death. Instead of
amazement and fear, there is full spiritual intelligence and
the desire of conformity to that death which the disciples
feared; because he found Christ morally in it, and it was
the pathway to the glory he had seen.
Christ Himself desired, not a good place near Him
Moreover, this sight of Christ puries the desires of the
heart with respect even to the glory. John and James desire
for <P203>themselves the best place in the kingdom-a
desire that availed itself (with a carnal and selsh object)
of the intelligence of faith-a half-sighted intelligence that
sought the kingdom at once, and not the glory and the
world to come. Paul had seen Christ: his only desire in the
glory was to possess Him-“that I may win Christ,” and a
new state conformed to it; not a good place near Him in
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the kingdom, but Himself. is is deliverance-the eect of
the presence of the Holy Spirit revealing a gloried Christ.
e cross as faith’s only path to God; Christ the leader
in it
We may remark that in every case the Lord brings in
the cross. It was the only passage from this world of nature
to the world of glory and of eternal life.1 To the young man
He exhibits the cross; to the disciples that follow Him He
exhibits the cross; to John and James, who sought a good
place in the kingdom, He exhibits the cup they would have
to drink in following Him. Eternal life, although received
now, was, in possession and enjoyment according to God’s
purpose, on the other side of the cross.
(1. From the transguration until His rights as Son
of David are in question, it is the cross that is presented.
Prophet and preacher until then, that ministry ended with
the transguration, in which His future glory shone in this
world upon the cross that was to close His service here
below. But before He reached the cross, He presented
Himself as King. Matthew begins with the King, but Mark
is essentially the Prophet.)
Observe also that the Lord was so perfectly, divinely
above the sin in which nature lay that He could recognize
all that was of God in nature and show at the same time the
impossibility of any relation between God and man on the
ground of what man is. Advantages were but hindrances.
at which is death to the esh must be gone through:
we must have divine righteousness and enter in spirit
(hereafter in fact) into another world, in order to follow
Him and to be with Him-to “win Christ.” Solemn lesson!
In result, God alone is good, and-sin having come in-
it is impossible, if He be manifested, that man can be in
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relationship with God; but with Him all is possible. e
cross is the only path to God. Christ leads to it, and we
must follow Him in this path, which is that of eternal
life. A childlike spirit enters into it by grace; the spirit of
service and of self-renunciation walks in it. Christ walked
in it, giving His life a ransom for many. is part of the
Lord’s instruction ends here. Lowliness of service is the
place into which Christ brings us; in such He had walked.
is<P204> chapter is worthy of all the attention which
the Christian through grace can devote to it. It speaks of
the ground man can stand upon, how far God owns what
is natural, and the disciples’ path down here.
Christ’s last dealings with the Jews; the need and faith
of the blind man at Jericho met in power
At verse 46 another subject begins. e Lord enters on
the path of His nal relationship with Israel, presenting
Himself as King, Emmanuel, rather than as the prophet
who was to be sent. As the Prophet, His ministry had been
accomplished. He had been sent (He told His disciples) to
preach. is had led Him to the cross, as we have seen. He
must needs announce it as the result to those that followed
Him. He now resumes His connection with Israel, but as
the Son of David. He draws near to Jerusalem, from which
He had departed and where He was to be rejected, and the
power of God manifests itself in Him. By the way of Jericho,
the city of the curse, enters the One who brings blessing at
the price of the gift of Himself. e poor blind man1 (and
such indeed was the nation of itself) acknowledges Jesus of
Nazareth to be the Son of David. e grace of Jesus replies
in power to the need of His people, that expressed itself by
faith, and that persevered in, in spite of the obstacles put
in its way by the multitude who did not feel this need, and
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who followed Jesus, attracted by the manifestation of His
power, without being attached to Him by the faith of the
heart. at faith has the sense of need. Jesus stands still and
calls him, and before all the people manifests the divine
power which responded in the midst of Israel to the faith
that recognized in Jesus of Nazareth the true Son of David,
the Messiah. e poor man’s faith had healed him, and he
followed Jesus in the way without dissimulation or fear.
For the faith which then confessed Jesus to be the Christ
was divine faith, although it might perhaps know nothing
of the cross which He had just announced to His disciples
as the result of His faithfulness and service, and in which
faith must follow when genuine.<P205>
(1. I have already noticed that the blind man of Jericho
is, in all the rst three Gospels, the point where the history
of the last dealings of Christ with the Jews and His nal
suerings begin, His general ministry and service being
closed.)
Mark 11
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Christ presenting Himself at Jerusalem as King
In that which follows Jesus presents Himself to
Jerusalem as King. His reception shows the extent to
which the testimony He had rendered had acted on the
hearts of the simple. God ordained, therefore, that it should
take place. ere is little dierence between the narrative
here and in Matthew. Only the kingdom is more simply
presented as such: “e kingdom of our father David.”
e Judge of all things; man’s wisdom in the presence
of God
With what dignity, as the Judge of all things, Jesus now
takes knowledge of all that was being done in the temple
and goes out without saying anything! e Lord had visited
His temple, as also He had entered the city riding on the
ass’s colt, whereon never man sat. Israel is judged in the
condemned g tree.1e glory of the Lord, of the house of
Jehovah, is vindicated with authority- an authority which
He claims and which He exercises in His own Person. e
scribes and chief priests draw back before the ascendancy
that His word had given Him over the people, and He goes
out of the city without being molested, notwithstanding
their malice. e next day He assures His disciples, who
were astonished at seeing the g tree withered away, that
whatsoever they asked in faith should be accomplished;
but that they must act in grace, if they would enjoy this
privilege. e scribes and priests and elders are confounded
and demand His authority. He addresses their conscience,
but in such a manner as to demonstrate their incompetency
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to ask Him such a question, exposing at the same time
their insincerity. ey could not decide with respect to the
baptism of John: by what right then could they subject
Him to their questions respecting His own claims? ey
could not decide when the case was before them. On the
other hand, they must either sanction His work by their
reply, or lose their authority with the people by denying the
baptism of John who had borne testimony to Christ. It was
no longer a question of winning these men;<P206> but
what an empty thing is the wisdom of man in the presence
of God and His wisdom!
(1. at is man under the old covenant, esh under
divine requirement, and no fruit to grow on it forever.)
Dierent characteristics of the Gospels of Matthew
and Mark as to the change of dispensation
e change of dispensation has a more denite place in
Matthew, and the sin which rejected the King. In Mark, it
is more the service of Christ as the Prophet. Afterwards, as
we have seen, He presents Himself as King. And, in both
Gospels, we see that it is Jehovah who lls the oce which
He has deigned to undertake.
Consequently we nd in Matthew more personal
accusations, as in the parable of the two sons (ch. 21:28-
32), and the detail of the change of dispensation in the
parable of the marriage feast (ch. 22:1-14); neither of
which is in Mark. In our Gospel, the unchangeable dignity
of His Person, and the simple fact that the Prophet and
King were rejected (rejection that led to Israel’s judgment)
are set before us by the Spirit of God. Otherwise, it is the
same general testimony we have reviewed in Matthew.
Mark 12
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e law as the principle of blessing; the touchstone of
the heart in Christ’s rejection
e Lord afterwards gives the substance of the whole
law, as the principle of blessing between the creature and
God, and that which formed the touchstone for the heart
in the rejection of Christ. I say for the heart, because the
trial was really there, although it was in the understanding
that it appeared. Even when there were really orthodox
principles (Christ being rejected), the heart that was not
attached to His Person could not follow Him in the path
to which His rejection led. e system of God’s counsels
which depended on that rejection was a diculty. ose
who were attached to His Person followed Him, and
found themselves in it, without having well understood
it beforehand. us the Lord gives the pith of the law-
the whole law as essentially divine instruction-and the
point at which the counsels of God are transplanted into
the new scene, where they will be fullled apart from the
wickedness or ill will of man. So that in these few verses
(ch. 12:28-37) the law and the Son of David are<P207>
presented, and the latter taking His place as Son of Man-
the Lord-at the right hand of God. is was the secret of
all that was going on. e union of His body, the assembly,
with Himself was all that remained behind. Only in Mark
the Prophet recognizes the moral condition, under the law,
that tends towards entrance into the kingdom (vs. 34). is
scribe had the spirit of understanding.
True and false devotion
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e picture of the condition that would bring in
judgment, which we nd in Matthew 23, is not given here.
It was not His subject. (See Synopsis about Matthew 23.)
Jesus, still as the Prophet, warns His disciples morally; but
the judgment of Israel, for rejecting the Son of David, is
not here before His eyes in the same manner (that is to
say, it is not the subject of which the Holy Spirit is here
speaking). e real character of the scribes’ devoutness is
pointed out, and the disciples are warned against them.
e Lord makes them feel also what it is that, in the
eyes of God, gives true value to the oerings that were
brought to the temple.
Mark 13
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e disciples’ service in Israel and in testimony,
continuing the Lord’s preaching
In chapter 13 the Lord takes up much more the service
of the apostles in the circumstances that would surround
them than the development of the dispensations and the
ways of God with respect to the kingdom-a point of view
more presented in Matthew, who treats of this subject.
It will be observed that the disciples’ question takes
only a general view of the subject which preoccupied them.
ey ask when the judgment upon the temple and all these
things shall be fullled. And from verses 9-13, although
some circumstances found in Matthew 24 are included,
the passage relates even more to that which is said in
Matthew 10. It speaks of the service which the disciples
would accomplish in the midst of Israel, and in testimony
against persecuting authorities, the gospel being preached
in all nations before the end came. ey were, as preachers,
to ll the place which Jesus had occupied<P208> among
the people, only that the testimony was to extend much
further. It would be in the face of all possible suering and
most trying persecutions.
Forewarned of coming days of unparalleled distress
But there would be a moment when this service should
end. e well-known sign of the abomination that makes
desolate would point it out. ey were then to ee. ese
would be the days of unparalleled distress, and of signs
and wonders, which, if it were possible, would deceive the
very elect. But they were forewarned. Everything should be
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shaken after that time, and the Son of Man should come.
Power should take the place of testimony, and the Son of
Man should gather together His elect (of Israel) from all
parts of the earth.
e judgment on Jerusalem near at hand and that
which is still future
It appears to me that in this Gospel, more than in any
other, the Lord brings together the judgment on Jerusalem
then at hand, and that which is yet to come, carrying the
mind on to the latter, because He is here more occupied
with the conduct of His disciples during those events.
Israel, the whole system into which the Lord had come,
was to be set aside provisionally, in order to bring in the
assembly and the kingdom in its heavenly character, and
afterwards the millennium-that is, the assembly in its glory
and the kingdom established in power-when the legal
system and Israel under the rst covenant should be nally
set aside. At these two periods the general position of the
disciples would be the same; but the events of the latter
period would be denitive and important, and the Lord
speaks especially of them. Nevertheless, that which was
the most imminent, and which, for the present, set aside
Israel and the testimony, required that a warning should be
addressed to the disciples on account of their immediate
danger; and they receive it accordingly.
e eort of the Jews to reestablish their system at the
end, in despite of God, will but lead to open apostasy and
denitive judgment. is will be the time of unequalled
aiction, of which the Lord speaks. But from the time of
the rst destruction of Jerusalem by Titus until the coming
of the Lord, the Jews are considered<P209> as set aside
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and under this judgment, in what degree soever it may
have been accomplished.
e unknown length of service during the Master’s
absence
e disciples are commanded to watch, for they know
not the hour. It is the conduct of the disciples in this respect
which is here especially before the eyes of the Lord. It is
of this great day, and the hour of its arrival, that the angels
and even the Son, as Prophet, know not. For Jesus must sit
at the right hand of God until His enemies are made His
footstool, and the time of His rising up is not revealed.
e Father has kept it, says Jesus, in His own power. See
Acts 3, where Peter proposes to the Jews the Lord’s return.
ey rejected his testimony; and now they wait for the full
accomplishment of all that has been spoken. Meantime, the
servants are left to serve during the Master’s absence. He
commanded the porter in particular to watch. ey knew
not at what hour the Master would come. is applies to
the disciples in their connection with Israel, but at the same
time it is a general principle. e Lord addresses it to all.
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73119
Mark 14
Man’s purposes and God’s arrangements
Chapter 14 resumes the thread of the history, but with
the solemn circumstances that belong to the close of the
Lord’s life.
e scribes and Pharisees were already consulting
how they might take Him by craft and put Him to death.
ey feared the inuence of the people, who admired the
works and goodness and meekness of Jesus. erefore they
wished to avoid taking Him at the time of the feast, when
the multitude ocked to Jerusalem: but God had other
purposes. Jesus was to be our Paschal Lamb, blessed Lord!
and He oers Himself as the victim of propitiation. Now
the counsels of God and the love of Christ being such,
Satan was not wanting in suitable agents to perform all
that he could do against the Lord. Jesus oering Himself
for it, the people would soon be induced to give up, even
to the Gentiles, the One who had so much attracted
them; and treachery would not be wanting to throw Him
without diculty into the hands of the priests. Still God’s
own arrangements, which owned Him and displayed Him
in<P210> His grace, should have the rst place; and the
supper at Bethany and the supper at Jerusalem should
precede-the one, the proposal, and the other, the act of
Judas. For, let the wickedness of man be what it may, God
always takes the place He chooses, and never allows the
enemy power to hide His ways from faith, nor leaves His
people without the testimony of His love.
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All in God’s hands to accomplish His purposes, at the
moment, in the manner, and by His chosen instruments
is portion of the history is very remarkable. God
brings forward the thoughts and fears of the leaders of the
people in order that we may know them; but everything
is absolutely in His own hands; and the malice of man,
treachery, and the power of Satan when working in the
most energetic manner (never had they been so active) only
accomplish the purposes of God for the glory of Christ.
Before the treachery of Judas He has the testimony of
Mary’s aection. God puts the seal of this aection upon
Him who was to be betrayed. And, on the other hand,
before being forsaken and delivered up, He can testify all
His aection for His own, in the institution of the Lord’s
supper, and at His own last supper with them. What a
beautiful testimony to the interest with which God cares
for and comforts His children in the darkest moment of
their distress!
Love for Christ to guide suitable conduct
Remark, also, in what manner love to Christ nds, amid
the darkness that gathers around His path, the light that
directs its conduct, and directs it precisely to that which was
suitable to the moment. Mary had no prophetic knowledge;
but the imminent danger in which the Lord Christ was
placed by the hatred of the Jews stimulates her aection to
perform an act which was to be made known wherever the
death of Christ and His love for us should be proclaimed
in the whole world. is is true intelligence-true guidance
in things moral. Her act becomes an occasion of darkness
to Judas; it is clothed with the light of divine intelligence
by the Lord’s own testimony. is love for Christ discerns
that which is suitable-apprehends the good and the evil in
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a just and seasonable manner. It is a good thing to care for
the poor. But at that moment the whole mind of God was
centered on<P211> the sacrice of Christ. ey had always
opportunity to relieve the poor, and it was right to do so. To
put them in comparison with Jesus, at the moment of His
sacrice, was to put them out of their place and to forget
all that was precious to God. Judas, who cared only for
money, seized the position according to his own interest.
He saw, not the preciousness of Christ, but the desires of
the scribes. His sagacity was of the enemy, as that of Mary
was of God. ings advance: Judas arranges with them his
plan to deliver up Jesus for money. e thing, in fact, is
settled according to his thoughts and theirs. Nevertheless,
it is very remarkable to see here the way in which-if I may
so speak-God Himself governs the position. Although it
is the moment when the malice of man is at its height,
and when the power of Satan is exerted to the utmost, yet
all is accomplished exactly at the moment, in the manner,
by the instruments, chosen of God. Nothing, not the least
thing, escapes Him. Nothing is accomplished but that
which He wills, and as He wills, and when He wills. What
consolation for us! and, in the circumstances which we are
considering, what a striking testimony! e Holy Spirit has
therefore reported the desire (easy to be understood) of the
chief priests and scribes to avoid the occasion of the feast.
Useless desire! is sacrice was to be accomplished at that
time; and it is accomplished.
e last Passover during the life of Jesus, Himself the
Lamb of God
But the time drew near for the last feast of the Passover
that took place during the life of Jesus-the one in which
He was Himself to be the Lamb and leave no memorial to
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faith except that of Himself and of His work. He therefore
sends His disciples to prepare all that was needed to keep
the feast. In the evening He sits with His disciples, to
converse with them, and to testify His love for them as
their companion, for the last time. But it is to tell them
(for He must suer everything) that one of them should
betray Him. e heart at least of each one of the eleven
answered, full of grief at the thought.1 So should one have
done who was eat<P212>ing from the same dish with
Him; but woe to that man! Yet neither the thought of such
iniquity nor the sorrow of His own heart could stop the
outowing of the love of Christ. He gives them pledges of
this love in the Lord’s supper. It was Himself, His sacrice,
and not a temporal deliverance, that they were henceforth
to remember. All was now absorbed in Him, and in Him
dying on the cross. Afterwards, in giving them the cup, He
lays the foundation of the new covenant in His blood (in
a gure), giving it to them as participation in His death-
true draught of life. When they had all drunk of it, He
announces to them that it is the seal of the new covenant-a
thing well-known to the Jews, according to Jeremiah;
adding that it was shed for many. Death was to come in for
the establishment of the new covenant and for the ransom
of many. For this, death was necessary, and the bonds of
earthly association between Jesus and His disciples were
dissolved. He would drink no more of the fruit of the vine
(the token of that connection) until, in another way, He
should renew this association with them in the kingdom
of God. When the kingdom should be established, He
would again be with them and would renew these bonds
of association (in another form, and in a more excellent
way, no doubt, yet really). But now all was changing. ey
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sing and go out, repairing to the accustomed place in the
Mount of Olives.
(1. ere is something very beautiful and touching in
this inquiry. eir hearts were solemnized, and Jesus’ words
have all the weight of a divine testimony in their hearts.
ey had not a thought of betraying Him, save Judas; but
His word was surely true, their souls owned it, and there
was distrust of themselves in presence of Christ’s words.
No boasting certainty that they would not, but a bowing of
heart before the solemn and terrible words of Jesus. Judas
avoided the question, but afterwards, not to seem to be but
as the rest, asks it, only to be personally marked out by the
Lord, a sure relief to the rest (Matt. 26:25).)
Relationship with His disciples to be resumed and
established in resurrection
e connection of Jesus with His disciples here
below should indeed be broken, but it would not be by
His forsaking them. He strengthened, or, at least, He
manifested, the sentiments of His heart, and the strength
(on His part) of these bonds, in His last supper with them.
But they would be oended at His position and would
forsake Him. Nevertheless, the hand of God was in all this.
He would smite the Shepherd. But when once raised from
the dead, Jesus would resume His relationship with His
disciples- with the poor of the ock. He would go before
them to the place where this relationship commenced, to
Galilee, afar from the pride of the nation, and where the
light had appeared among them according to the Word of
God.<P213>
e death of Christ as God’s judgment on sin
ministering its own remedy
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Death was before Him. He must pass through it, in
order that any relationship whatsoever between God
and man might be established. e Shepherd should be
smitten by the Lord of hosts. Death was the judgment of
God: could man sustain it? ere was but One who could.
Peter, loving Christ too well to forsake Him in heart,
enters so far into the path of death as to draw back again,
thus giving a testimony all the more striking to his own
inability to traverse the abyss that opened before his eyes
in the Person of his disowned Master. After all, to Peter it
was but the outside of what death is. e weakness that his
fears occasioned made him unable to look into the abyss
which sin has opened before our feet.
At the moment when Jesus announces it Peter undertakes
to face all that was coming. Sincere in his aection, he
knew not what man was, laid bare before God, and in the
presence of the power of the enemy who has death for his
weapon. He had trembled already; but the sight of Jesus,
which inspires aection, does not say that the esh which
prevents our glorifying Him is, in a practical sense, dead.
Moreover, he knew nothing of this truth. It is the death
of Christ which has brought our condition out into full
light, while ministering its only remedy-death, and life in
resurrection. Like the ark in Jordan, He went down into
it alone, that His redeemed people might pass through
dryshod. ey had not passed this way before.
e perfection and glory brought out by the Lord’s
trial
Jesus approaches the end of His trial-a trial which only
brought out His perfection and His glory, and at the same
time gloried God His Father, but a trial which spared
Him nothing that would have had power to stop Him, if
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anything could have done so, and which went on even unto
death, and unto the burden of wrath of God in that death,
a burden beyond all our thoughts.
At Gethsemane; the Lord’s full knowledge of what lay
before Him
He approaches the conict and the suering, not with
the lightness of Peter who plunged into it because he was
ignorant of its nature, but with full knowledge; placing
Himself in the presence<P214> of His Father, where all
is weighed and where the will of Him who laid this task
upon Him is clearly stated in His communion with Him;
so that Jesus accomplishes it, even as God Himself looked
upon it, according to the extent and the intention of His
thoughts and of His nature, and in perfect obedience to
His will.
Realizing the whole compass of His suerings, but in
communion with His Father
Jesus goes forward alone to pray. And, morally, He passes
through the whole compass of His suerings, realizing all
their bitterness, in communion with His Father. Having
them before His own eyes, He brings them before His
Father’s heart, in order that, if it were possible, this cup
might pass from Him. If not, it should at least be from His
Father’s hand that He received it. is was the piety on
account of which He was heard and His prayers ascended
up on high. He is there as a man-glad to have His disciples
watch with Him, glad to isolate Himself and pour out
His heart into the bosom of His Father, in the dependent
condition of a man who prays. What a spectacle!
Peter, who would die for his Master, is not able even to
watch with Him. e Lord meekly sets his inconsistency
before him, acknowledging that his spirit indeed was full
Mark 14
319
of goodwill, but that the esh was worthless in conict
with the enemy and in spiritual trial.
e moral character and connection of events in
Mark, displaying the perfect Man, the faithful Servant
e narrative of Mark, which passes so rapidly from
one circumstance (that displays the whole moral condition
of the men with whom Jesus was associated) to another,
in such a manner as to place all these events in connection
with each other, is as touching as the development of the
details found in the other Gospels. A moral character is
imprinted on every step we take in the history, giving it, as
a whole, an interest that nothing could surpass (excepting
that which is above all things, above all thoughts) save that
only One, the Person of Him who is here before us. He at
least watched with His Father; for after all, dependent as
He was by grace, what could man do for Him? Completely
man as He was, He had to lean on One alone, and
thus<P215> was the perfect man. Going away again to pray,
He returns to nd them again sleeping, and again presents
the case to His Father, and then awakens His disciples,
for the hour was come in which they could do no more
for Him. Judas comes with his kiss. Jesus submits. Peter,
who slept during the earnest prayer of his Master, awakes
to strike when his Master yields Himself as a lamb to the
slaughter. He smites one of the assistants and cuts o his
ear. Jesus reasons with those who were come to take Him,
reminding them that, when He was constantly exposed,
humanly speaking, to their power, they had laid no hands
upon Him; but there was a very dierent reason for its now
taking place-the counsels of God and the Word of God
must be fullled. It was the faithful accomplishment of the
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service committed to Him. All forsake Him and ee; for
who beside Himself could follow this path to the end?
One young man indeed sought to go farther; but as
soon as the ocers of justice laid hold of him, seizing his
linen garment, he ed and left it in their hands. Apart from
the power of the Holy Spirit, the further one ventures into
the path in which the power of the world and of death is
found, the greater the shame with which one escapes, if
God permits escape. He ed from them naked.
e faithful Witness before the high priest; false
witnesses; unfaithful Peter
e witnesses fail, not in malice, but in certainty of
testimony, even as force could do nothing against Him until
the moment God had appointed. e confession of Christ,
His faithfulness in declaring the truth in the congregation,
is the means of His condemnation. Man can do nothing,
although he did everything as regards his will and his guilt.
e testimony of His enemies, the aection of His disciples-
everything fails: this is man. It is Jesus who bears witness
to the truth; it is Jesus who watches with the Father-Jesus
who yields Himself to those who were never able to take
Him until the hour came that God had appointed. Poor
Peter! He went farther than the young man in the garden;
and we nd him here, the esh in the place of testimony, in
the place where this testimony is to be rendered before the
power of its opposer and of his instruments. Alas! he will
not escape. e word of Christ shall be true, if that of Peter
be false-His heart faithful<P216> and full of love, if that
of Peter (alas! like all ours) is unfaithful and cowardly. He
confesses the truth, and Peter denies it. Nevertheless, the
grace of our blessed Lord does not fail him; and, touched
by it, he hides his face and weeps.
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321
e rejected King is the Son of the Blessed, the Son
of Man
e word of the prophet has now again to be fullled.
He shall be delivered into the hands of the Gentiles. ere
He is accused of being a king, the confession of which must
assuredly cause His death. But it was the truth.
e confession that Jesus had made before the priests
relates, as we have seen in other cases in this Gospel, to His
connection with Israel. His service was to preach in the
congregation of Israel. He had indeed presented Himself
as King, as Emmanuel. He now confesses that He is to
Israel the hope of the people, and which hereafter He
will be. “Art thou,” had the high priest said, “the Christ,
the Son of the Blessed?” at was the title, the glorious
position, of Him who was the hope of Israel, according to
Psalm 2. But He adds that which He shall be (that is to
say, the character He would assume, being rejected by this
people, that in which He would present Himself to the
rebellious people); it should be that of Psalm 8, Psalm 110,
and also Daniel 7, with its results-that is to say, the Son of
Man at the right hand of God and coming in the clouds
of heaven. Psalm 8 only presents Him in a general manner;
it is Psalm 110 and Daniel 7 which speak of the Messiah
in that particular manner according to which Christ here
announces Himself. e blasphemy which the high priest
attributed to Him was only the rejection of His Person. For
that which He said was written in the Word.
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73120
Mark 15
Before Pilate; the Lord’s last service; led out to be
crucied
Before Pilate, He only witnesses a good confession, a
testimony to the truth where the glory of God required it,
and where this testimony stood opposed to the power of
the adversary. To all the rest He answers nothing. He lets
them go on; and the evangelist enters into no details. To
render this testimony was the last service and duty He had
to perform. It is rendered. e Jews make<P217> choice of
the seditious murderer Barabbas; and Pilate, hearkening to
the voice of the multitude, won over by the chief priests,
delivers Jesus to be crucied. e Lord submits to the insults
of the soldiers, who mingle the pride and insolence of their
class with the hard-heartedness of the executioner whose
function they performed. Sad specimens of our nature! e
Christ who came to save them was, for the moment, under
their power. He used His own power, not to save Himself,
but to deliver others from that of the enemy. At length they
lead Him away to Golgotha to crucify Him. ere they
oer Him a soporic mixture, which He refuses; and they
crucify Him with two thieves, one on His right hand and
the other on His left, thus accomplishing (for it was all they
did or could do) everything that was written concerning
the Lord. It was now the Jews’ and the priests’ hour; they
had, alas for them! the desire of their heart. And they make
manifest, without knowing it, the glory and perfection of
Jesus. e temple could not rise again without being thus
cast down; and, as instruments, they established the fact
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323
which He had then announced. Further, He saved others
and not Himself. ese are the two parts of the perfection
of the death of Christ with reference to man.
God’s will accomplished; the Lord’s service completed
in obedience to the end
But, whatever might be the thoughts of Christ and His
suerings with regard to men (those dogs, those bulls of
Bashan), the work which He had to accomplish contained
depths far beyond those outward things. Darkness covered
the earth-divine and sympathetic testimony of that which,
with far deeper gloom, covered the soul of Jesus, forsaken
of God for sin, but thus displaying incomparably more
than at any other time, His absolute perfection; while the
darkness marked, in an external sign, His entire separation
from outward things, the whole work being between Him
and God alone, according to the perfectness of both. All
passed between Him and His God. Little understood by
others, all is between Himself and God: and, crying again
with a loud voice, He gives up the ghost. His service was
completed. What more had He to do in a world wherein
He only lived to accomplish the will of God? All was
nished, and He necessarily departs. I do not<P218> speak
of physical necessity, for He still retained His strength; but,
morally rejected by the world, there was no longer room in
it for His mercy towards it: the will of God was by Himself
entirely fullled. He had drunk in His soul the cup of death
and of judgment for sin. ere was nothing left Him but
the act of dying; and He expires, obedient to the end, in
order to commence in another world (whether for His soul
separate from the body, or in glory) a life where evil could
never enter, and where the new man will be perfectly happy
in the presence of God.
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Obedience perfected in death by the Prince of life
His service was completed. His obedience had its term
in death-His obedience, and therefore His life, as carried
on in the midst of sinners. What would a life have meant
in which there was no more obedience to be fullled? In
dying now His obedience was perfected, and He dies. e
way into the holiest is now opened-the veil is rent from top
to bottom. e Gentile centurion confesses, in the death
of Jesus, the Person of the Son of God. Until then, the
Messiah and Judaism went together. In His death Judaism
rejects Him, and He is the Saviour of the world. e veil
no longer conceals God. In this respect it was all Judaism
could do. e manifestation of perfect grace is there for the
Gentile, who acknowledged-because Jesus gave up His life
with a cry that proved the existence of so much strength-
that the Prince of life, the Son of God, was there. Pilate
also is astonished that He is already dead. He only believes
it when certied of its truth by the centurion. As to faith-
far from grace, and even from human justice-he did not
trouble himself at all on that point.
e body of Jesus laid in the tomb
e death of Jesus did not tear Him from the hearts of
those feeble ones who loved Him (who perhaps had not
been in the conict, but whom grace had now brought out
from their retreat): those pious women who had followed
Him and had often ministered to His wants, and Joseph,
who, although touched in conscience, had not followed
Him, until now, strengthened at the last by the testimony
of the grace and perfection of Jesus (the integrity of the
counsellor nding in the circumstances, not an occasion of
fear, but that which induced him to declare himself)-these
women<P219> and Joseph are alike occupied about the
Mark 15
325
body of Jesus. is tabernacle of the Son of God is not left
without those services which were due from man to Him
who had just quitted it. Moreover, the providence of God,
as well as His operation in their hearts, had prepared for all
this. e body of Jesus is laid in the tomb, and they all wait
for the end of the sabbath to perform their service to it. e
women had taken knowledge of the place.
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73121
Mark 16
e resurrection; the connection reestablished
between Jesus and the remnant
e last chapter is divided into two parts-a fact that has
even given rise to questions as to the authenticity of verses
9-20. e rst part of the chapter, verses 1-8, relates the
end of the history in connection with the reestablishment
of that which has always been before us in this Gospel-the
relationship of the Prophet of Israel and of the kingdom
with the people (or at least with the remnant of the
chosen people). e disciples, and Peter, whom the Lord
individually acknowledges in spite (yea, in grace, because)
of his denial of his Master, were to go and meet Him in
Galilee, as He said unto them. ere the connection was
reestablished between Jesus in resurrection and the poor of
the ock, who waited for Him (they alone being recognized
as the people before God). e women say nothing to any
others. e testimony of Christ risen was committed only
to His disciples, to these despised Galileans. Fear was the
means employed by the providence of God to prevent the
women speaking of it, as they would naturally have done.
e message sent by Mary Magdalene; the disciples’
commission to every creature
Verses 9-20. is is another testimony. e disciples do
not appear here as an elect remnant, but in the unbelief
natural to man. e message is sent to the whole world.
Mary Magdalene, formerly possessed by seven demons-
the absolute slave of that dreadful power-is employed to
communicate the knowledge of His resurrection to the
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327
companions of Jesus. Afterwards Jesus Himself appears to
them and gives them their commission. He<P220> tells
them to go into all the world and preach the gospel to
every creature. It is no longer specically the gospel of the
kingdom. Whosoever throughout the world believed and
joined Christ by baptism should be saved; he who believed
not should be condemned. It was a question of salvation
or condemnation-the believer saved, he who refused the
message condemned. Moreover, if anyone was convinced of
the truth but refused to unite with the disciples confessing
the Lord, his case would be so much the worse. erefore it
is said, “He who believeth and is baptized.” Signs of power
should accompany believers, and they should be preserved
from that of the enemy.
Signs of power over the enemy’s power; the
proclamation of grace to all men
e rst sign should be their dominion over evil spirits;
the second, the proof of that grace which went beyond the
narrow limits of Israel, addressing itself to all the world.
ey should speak divers languages.
Besides this, with respect to the power of the enemy,
manifested in doing harm, the venom of serpents and
poisons should have no eect upon them, and diseases
should yield to their authority.
In a word, it should be the overthrowal of the power of
the enemy over man and the proclamation of grace unto
all men.
Christ’s ascension to the seat of power; the disciples’
sphere of service
Having thus given them their commission, Jesus
ascends to heaven and sits at the right hand of God-the
place from which thus power shall come forth to bless and
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from which He will return to put the poor of the ock
in possession of the kingdom. Meanwhile, the disciples
occupy His place, extending their sphere of service unto
the ends of the earth; and the Lord conrms their word by
the signs that follow them.
e accomplishment of the service of the great
Servant-Prophet rendered to His Father in view in
Mark’s Gospel
It may, perhaps, be thought that I have dwelt little on the
suerings of Christ in that which I have written on Mark.
Never will<P221> this subject be exhausted; it is as vast as
the Person and the work of Christ must be. Blessed be God
for it! In Luke we have more details. And I follow the order
of thought which the Gospel sets before me; and it appears
to me that, with regard to the crucixion of Christ, it is
the accomplishment of His service that the evangelist has
in view. His great subject was the Prophet. He must needs
relate His history unto the end; and we possess, in a brief
narrative, a very complete picture of the events that mark
the end of the Lord’s life-of that which He had to fulll as
the servant of His Father. I have followed this order of the
Gospel.<P222>
Luke
329
73122
Luke
e scope of Luke’s Gospel: the Mediator, the Son of
Man, revealing God in delivering grace
e Gospel of Luke sets the Lord before us in the
character of Son of Man, revealing God in delivering grace
among men. Hence, the present operation of grace and
its eect are more referred to, and even the present time
prophetically, not the substitution of other dispensations as
in Matthew, but of saving heavenly grace. At rst, no doubt
(and just because He is to be revealed as man, and in grace to
men), we nd Him, in a prefatory part in which we have the
most exquisite picture of the godly remnant, presented to
Israel, to whom He had been promised, and in relationship
with whom He came into this world; but afterwards this
Gospel presents moral principles which apply to man,
whosoever he may be, while yet manifesting Christ for the
moment in the midst of that people. is power of God in
grace is displayed in various ways in its application to the
wants of men. After the transguration, which is recounted
earlier in the narration by Luke1 than in the other Gospels,
we nd the judgment of those who rejected the Lord, and
the heavenly character of the grace which, because it is
grace, addresses itself to the nations, to sinners, without
any particular reference to the Jews, overturning the legal
principles according to which the latter pretended to be,
and as to their external standing were originally called
at Sinai to be, in connection with God. Unconditional
promises to Abraham and prophetic conrmation of them
are another thing. ey will be accomplished in grace and
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were to be laid hold of by<P223> faith. After this, we nd
that which should happen to the Jews according to the
righteous government of God; and, at the end, the account
of the death and resurrection of the Lord, accomplishing
the work of redemption. We must observe that Luke (who
morally sets aside the Jewish system, and who introduces
the Son of Man as the man before God, presenting Him as
the One who is lled with all the fullness of God dwelling
in Him bodily, as the man before God, according to His
own heart, and thus as Mediator between God and man,
and center of a moral system much more vast than that of
Messiah among the Jews)- we must observe, I repeat, that
Luke, who is occupied with these new relations (ancient, in
fact, as to the counsels of God), gives us the facts belonging
to the Lord’s connection with the Jews, owned in the pious
remnant of that people, with much more development than
the other evangelists, as well as the proofs of His mission to
that people, in coming into the world-proofs which ought
to have gained their attention and xed it upon the child
who was born to them.
(1. at is, as to the contents of the Gospel. In the ninth
chapter His last journey up to Jerusalem begins; and thence
on to the latter part of the eighteenth, where (vs. 31) His
going up to that city is noticed, the evangelist gives mainly
a series of moral instructions, and the ways of God in grace
now coming in. In verse 35 of chapter 18 we have the blind
man of Jericho already noticed as the commencement of
His last visit to Jerusalem.)
Christ set forth as a Man on earth
In Luke, I add, that which especially characterizes the
narrative and gives its peculiar interest to this Gospel is
that it sets before us that which Christ is Himself. It is
Luke
331
not His ocial glory, a relative position that He assumed;
neither is it the revelation of His divine nature, in itself;
nor His mission as the great Prophet. It is Himself, as He
was, a man on the earth-the Person whom I should have
met every day had I lived at that time in Judea or in Galilee.
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73123
Luke 1
e style of Luke and the purpose of his Gospel
I would add a remark as to the style of Luke, which may
facilitate the study of this Gospel to the reader. He often
brings a mass of facts into one short, general statement,
and then expatiates at length on some isolated fact, where
moral principles and grace are displayed.
Many had undertaken to give an account of that which
was historically received among Christians, as related
to them by the<P224> companions of Jesus; and Luke
thought it well- having followed these things from the
beginning, and thus obtained exact knowledge respecting
them-to write methodically to eophilus, in order that he
might have the certainty of those things in which he had
been instructed. It is thus that God has provided for the
instruction of the whole church, in the doctrine contained
in the picture of the Lord’s life furnished by this man of
God; who, personally moved by Christian motives, was
directed and inspired by the Holy Spirit for the good of
all believers.1
(1. e union of motive and inspiration, which indels
have endeavored to set in opposition to each other, is found
in every page of the Word. Moreover, the two things are
only incompatible to the narrow mind of those who are
unacquainted with the ways of God. Cannot God impart
motives, and through these motives engage a man to
undertake some task, and then direct him, perfectly and
absolutely, in all that he does? Even if it were a human
thought (which I do not at all believe), if God approved of
Luke 1
333
it, could not He watch over its execution so that the result
should be entirely according to His will?)
e rst revelations of stupendous events to Zacharias
and Elizabeth
At verse 5 the evangelist begins with the rst revelations
of the Spirit of God respecting these events, on which the
condition of God’s people and that of the world entirely
depended; and in which God was to glorify Himself to all
eternity.
But we immediately nd ourselves in the atmosphere
of Jewish circumstances. e Jewish ordinances of the Old
Testament and the thoughts and expectations connected
with them are the framework in which this great and solemn
event is set. Herod, king of Judea, furnishes the date; and
it is a priest, righteous and blameless, belonging to one of
the twenty-four classes, whom we nd on the rst step of
our way. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron; and these
two upright persons walked in all the commandments and
ordinances of the Lord (Jehovah) without blame. All was
right before God, according to His law in the Jewish sense.
But they did not enjoy the blessing that every Jew desired;
they had no child. Nevertheless, it was according, we may
say, to the ordinary ways of God in the government of
His people, to accomplish His blessing while manifesting
the weakness of the instrument-a weakness that took
away all hope according to human principles. Such had
been the history of the Sarahs, the Rebeccas,<P225> the
Hannahs and many more of whom the Word tells us for
our instruction in the ways of God.
God’s answer to prayer
is blessing was often prayed for by the pious priest;
but until now the answer had been delayed. Now, however,
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when, at the moment of exercising his regular ministry,
Zacharias drew near to burn incense, which, according to
the law, was to go up as a sweet savor before God (type of
the Lord’s intercession), and while the people were praying
outside the holy place, the angel of the Lord appears to
the priest on the right side of the altar of incense. At the
sight of this glorious personage Zacharias is troubled, but
the angel encourages him by declaring himself to be the
bearer of good news; announcing to him that his prayers,
so long apparently addressed in vain to God, were granted.
Elizabeth should bear a son, and the name by which he
should be called was, “e favor of the Lord,” a source of joy
and gladness to Zacharias, and whose birth should be the
occasion of thanksgiving to many. But this was not merely
as the son of Zacharias. e child was the Lord’s gift and
should be great before Him; he should be a Nazarite, and
lled with the Holy Spirit, from his mother’s womb: and
many of the children of Israel should he turn to the Lord
their God. He should go before Him in the spirit of Elias,
and with the same power to reestablish moral order in
Israel, even in its sources, and to bring back the disobedient
to the wisdom of the just-to make ready a people prepared
for the Lord.
e spirit of Elias
e spirit of Elias was a steadfast and ardent zeal
for the glory of Jehovah and for the establishment, or
reestablishment by repentance, of the relations between
Israel and Jehovah. His heart clung to this link between the
people and their God, according to the strength and glory
of the link itself, but in the sense of their fallen condition,
and according to the rights of God in connection with these
relationships. e spirit of Elias-although indeed the grace
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of God towards His people had sent him-was, in a certain
sense, a legal spirit. He asserted the rights of Jehovah in
judgment. It was grace opening the door to repentance, but
not the sovereign grace of salvation, though what prepared
the way to it.<P226> It is in the moral force of his call to
repentance that John is here compared to Elias, in bringing
back Israel to Jehovah. And, in fact, Jesus was Jehovah.
Zacharias’ want of faith used of God; Elizabeth’s piety
But the faith of Zacharias in God and in His goodness
did not come up to the height of his petition (alas! too
common a case), and when it is granted at a moment that
required the intervention of God to accomplish his desire,
he is not able to walk in the steps of an Abraham or a
Hannah, and he asks how this thing can now take place.
God, in His goodness, turns His servant’s want of faith
into an instructive chastisement for himself and into a
proof for the people that Zacharias had been visited from
on high. He is dumb until the word of the Lord is fullled;
and the signs which he makes to the people, who marvel
at his staying so long in the sanctuary, explain to them the
reason.
But the word of God is accomplished in blessing
towards him; and Elizabeth, recognizing the good hand
of God upon her with a tact that belongs to her piety,
goes into retirement. e grace which blessed her did not
make her insensible to that which was a shame in Israel,
and which, although removed, left its traces as to man
in the superhuman circumstances through which it was
accomplished. ere was a right-mindedness in this, which
became a holy woman. But that which is rightly concealed
from man has all its value before God, and Elizabeth is
visited in her retreat by the mother of the Lord. But here
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the scene changes to introduce the Lord Himself into this
marvellous history which unfolds before our eyes.
e Saviour’s birth announced to Mary
God, who had prepared all beforehand, sends now to
announce the Saviour’s birth to Mary. In the last place that
man would have chosen for the purpose of God-a place
whose name in the eyes of the world suced to condemn
those who came from thence-a maiden, unknown to all
whom the world recognized, was betrothed to a poor
carpenter. Her name was Mary. But everything was in
confusion in Israel: the carpenter was of the house of
David. e promises of God-who never forgets them and
never<P227> overlooks those who are their object-found
here the sphere for their accomplishment. Here the power
and the aections of God are directed, according to their
divine energy. Whether Nazareth was small or great was of
no importance, except to show that God does not expect
from man, but man from God. Gabriel is sent to Nazareth,
to a virgin who was betrothed to a man named Joseph, of
the house of David.
e gift of John to Zacharias was an answer to his
prayers- God faithful in His goodness towards His people
who wait upon Him.
Sovereign grace displayed
But this is a visitation of sovereign grace. Mary, a chosen
vessel for this purpose, had found grace in God’s sight. She
was favored1 by sovereign grace-blessed among women.
She should conceive and bring forth a son: she should call
Him Jesus. He should be great and should be called the
Son of the Highest. God should give Him the throne of
His father David. He should reign over the house of Jacob
forever, and His kingdom should have no end.
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(1. e expressions “found favor” (ευρεσ χαριν; eures
charin) and “highly favored” (κεχαριτωμενη; kecharitomene)
have not at all the same meaning. Personally she had found
favor, so that she was not to fear: but God had sovereignly
bestowed on her this grace, this immense favor, of being
the mother of the Lord. In this she was the object of God’s
sovereign favor. )
e birth of the child presented by the Holy Spirit in
a twofold way
It will be observed here that the subject which the Holy
Spirit sets before us is the birth of the child, as He would
be down here in this world, as brought forth by Mary-of
Him who should be born.
e instruction given by the Holy Spirit on this point
is divided into two parts: rst, that which the child to be
born should be; second, the manner of His conception, and
the glory which would be its result. It is not simply the
divine nature of Jesus that is presented, the Word which
was God, the Word made esh; but that which was born
of Mary, and the way in which it should take place. We
know well that it is the same precious and divine Saviour
of whom John speaks that is in question; but He is here
<P228>presented to us under another aspect, which is of
innite interest to us; and we must consider Him as the
Holy Spirit presents Him, as born of the virgin Mary in
this world of tears.
e Lord Jesus as really and truly Man
To take rst the verses 31-33. It was a child really
conceived in Mary’s womb, who brought forth this child
at the time which God had Himself appointed for human
nature. e usual time elapsed before its birth. As yet this
tells us nothing of the manner. It is the fact itself, which
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has an importance that can neither be measured nor
exaggerated. He was really and truly man, born of a woman
as we are-not as to the source nor as to the manner of His
conception, of which we are not yet speaking, but as to the
reality of His existence as man. He was really and truly a
human being. But there were other things connected with
the Person of the One who should be born that are also set
before us. His name should be called Jesus, that is, Jehovah
the Saviour. He should be manifested in this character and
with this power. He was so.
e child born as Man is “the Son of the Highest”
is is not connected here with the fact, “For he shall
save his people from their sins,” as in Matthew, where it
was the manifestation to Israel of the power of Jehovah,
of their God, in fulllment of the promises made to that
people. Here we see that He has a right to this name; but
this divine title lies hidden under the form of a personal
name; for it is the Son of Man who is presented in this
Gospel, whatever His divine power might be. Here we are
told, “He”-the One who should be born-“should be great,”
and (born into this world) “should be called the Son of the
Highest.” He had been the Son of the Father before the
world was; but this child, born on earth, should be called-
such as He was down here-the Son of the Highest: a title
to which He would thoroughly prove His right by His acts
and by all that manifested what He was. A precious thought
to us and full of glory, a child born of a woman legitimately
bears this name, “Son of the Highest”-supremely glorious
for One who is in the position of a man and really was such
before God.<P229>
“e Son of David”: His endless kingdom and His
glory
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But other things still were connected with the One
that should be born. God would give Him the throne of
His father David. Here again we plainly see that He is
considered as born, as man, in this world. e throne of
His father David belongs to Him. God will give it Him.
By right of birth He is heir to the promises, to the earthly
promises which, as to the kingdom, appertained to the
family of David; but it should be according to the counsels
and the power of God. He should reign over the house
of Jacob-not only over Judah, and in the weakness of a
transitory power and an ephemeral life, but throughout
the ages; and of His kingdom there should be no end. As
indeed Daniel had predicted, it should never be taken by
another. It should never be transferred to another people.
It should be established according to the counsels of God
which are unchangeable, and His power which never fails.
Until He delivered up the kingdom to God the Father, He
should exercise a royalty that nothing could dispute; which
He would deliver up (all things being fullled) to God, but
the royal glory of which should never be tarnished in His
hands.
Such should be the child born-truly, though miraculously,
born as man. To those who could understand His name, it
was Jehovah the Saviour.
He should be King over the house of Jacob according
to a power that should never decay and never fail, until
blended with the eternal power of God as God.
e grand subject of the revelation is that the child
should be conceived and born; the remainder is the glory
that should belong to Him, being born.
Mary’s question; her faith
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But it is the conception that Mary does not understand.
God permits her to ask the angel how this should be. Her
question was according to God. I do not think there was
any want of faith here. Zacharias had constantly asked
for a son-it was only a question of the goodness and the
power of God to perform his request-and was brought
by the positive declaration of God to a point at which he
had only to trust in it. He did not trust to the promise of
God. It was only the exercise of the extraordinary power of
God in the natural order of things. Mary asks, with holy
condence, since<P230> God thus favored her, how the
thing should be accomplished, outside the natural order.
Of its accomplishment she has no doubt. (See verse 45;
“blessed,” said Elizabeth, “is she that believed.”) She
inquires how it shall be accomplished, since it must be done
outside the order of nature. e angel proceeds with his
commission, making known to her the answer of God to
this question also. In the purposes of God, this question
gave occasion (by the answer it received) to the revelation
of the miraculous conception.
e Son of God as become Man
e birth of Him who has walked upon this earth was
the thing in question-His birth of the virgin Mary. He was
God, He became man; but here it is the manner of His
conception in becoming a man upon the earth. It is not
what He was that is declared. It is He who was born, such
as He was in the world, of whose miraculous conception we
here read. e Holy Spirit should come upon her-should
act in power upon this earthen vessel, without its own will
or the will of any man. God is the source of the life of
the child promised to Mary, as born in this world and by
His power. He is born of Mary-of this woman chosen by
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God. e power of the Highest should overshadow her,
and therefore that which should be born of her should be
called the Son of God. Holy in His birth, conceived by
the intervention of the power of God acting upon Mary
(a power which was the divine source of His existence on
the earth, as man), that which thus received its being from
Mary, the fruit of her womb, should even in this sense have
the title of Son of God. e holy thing which should be
born of Mary should be called the Son of God. It is not
here the doctrine of the eternal relationship of the Son
with the Father. e Gospel of John, the Epistle to the
Hebrews, that to the Colossians, establish this precious
truth and demonstrate its importance; but here it is that
which was born by virtue of the miraculous conception,
which on that ground is called the Son of God.
e angel’s announcement to Mary of Elizabeth’s
blessing
e angel announces to her the blessing bestowed on
Elizabeth through the almighty power of God; and Mary
bows to the will of her God-the submissive vessel of His
purpose, and in her piety acknowledges a height and
greatness in these purposes which<P231> only left to her,
their passive instrument, her place of subjection to the will
of God. is was her glory, through the favor of her God.
It was betting that wonders should accompany, and
bear a just testimony to, this marvellous intervention of
God. e communication of the angel was not without
fruit in the heart of Mary; and by her visit to Elizabeth,
she goes to acknowledge the wonderful dealings of God.
e piety of the virgin displays itself here in a touching
manner. e marvellous intervention of God humbled her,
instead of lifting her up. She saw God in that which had
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taken place, and not herself; on the contrary, the greatness
of these marvels brought God so near her as to hide her
from herself. She yields herself to His holy will: but God
has too large a place in her thoughts in this matter to leave
any room for self-importance.
Mary’s visit to Elizabeth; Elizabeth’s recognition of
God’s grace to the mother of her Lord
e visit of the mother of her Lord to Elizabeth was a
natural thing to herself, for the Lord had visited the wife
of Zacharias. e angel has made it known to her. She is
concerned in these things of God, for God was near her
heart by the grace that had visited her. Led by the Holy
Spirit in heart and aection, the glory that belonged to
Mary, in virtue of the grace of God who had elected her
to be the mother of her Lord, is recognized by Elizabeth,
speaking by the Holy Spirit. She also acknowledges the
pious faith of Mary, and announces to her the fulllment
of the promise she had received (all that took place being
a signal testimony given to Him who should be born in
Israel and among men).
Mary’s thanksgiving, owning God’s grace and her
own low estate
e heart of Mary is then poured out in thanksgiving.
She owns God her Saviour in the grace that has lled her
with joy, and her own low estate-a gure of the condition
of the remnant of Israel-and that gave occasion to the
intervention of God’s greatness, with a full testimony that
all was of Himself. Whatever might be the piety suitable to
the instrument whom He employed, and which was found
indeed in Mary, it was in proportion as she hid herself
that she was great; for then God<P232> was all, and it
was through her that He intervened for the manifestation
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of His marvellous ways. She lost her place if she made
anything of herself, but in truth she did not. e grace of
God preserved her, in order that His glory might be fully
displayed in this divine event. She recognizes His grace,
but she acknowledges that all is grace towards her.
It will be remarked here that, in the character and the
application of the thoughts that ll her heart, all is Jewish.
We may compare the song of Hannah, who prophetically
celebrated this same intervention; and see also verses 54-
55. But, observe, she goes back to the promises made to the
fathers, not to Moses, and she embraces all Israel. It is the
power of God, which works in the midst of weakness, when
there is no resource, and all is contrary to it. Such is the
moment that suits God, and, to the same end, instruments
that are null, that God may be all.
It is remarkable that we are not told that Mary was full
of the Holy Spirit. It appears to me that this is an honorable
distinction for her. e Holy Spirit visited Elizabeth and
Zacharias in an exceptional manner. But, although we
cannot doubt that Mary was under the inuence of the
Spirit of God, it was a more inward eect, more connected
with her own faith, with her piety, with the more habitual
relations of her heart with God (that were formed by this
faith and by this piety), and which consequently expressed
itself more as her own sentiments. It is thankfulness for the
grace and favor conferred on her, the lowly one, and that in
connection with the hopes and blessing of Israel. In all this
there appears to me a very striking harmony in connection
with the wondrous favor bestowed upon her. I repeat it,
Mary is great inasmuch as she is nothing; but she is favored
by God in a way that is unparalleled, and all generations
shall call her blessed.
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But her piety, and its expression in this song, being more
personal, an answer to God rather than a revelation on
His part, it is clearly limited to that which was necessarily
for her the sphere of this piety-to Israel, to the hopes and
promises given to Israel. It goes back, as we have seen, to
the farthest point of God’s relations with Israel-and they
were in grace and promise, not law-but it does not go
outside them.<P233>
Piety in secret recognized by God
Mary abides three months with the woman whom
God had blessed, the mother of him who was to be the
voice of God in the wilderness; and she returns to follow
humbly her own path, that the purposes of God may be
accomplished.
Nothing more beautiful of its kind than this picture
of the fellowship between these pious women, unknown
to the world, but the instruments of God’s grace for the
accomplishment of His purpose, glorious and innite in
their results. ey hide themselves, moving in a scene into
which nothing enters but piety and grace; but God is there,
as little known to the world as were these poor women, yet
preparing and accomplishing that which the angels desire
to fathom in its depths. is takes place in the hill country,
where these pious relatives dwelt. ey hid themselves;
but their hearts, visited by God and touched by His grace,
responded by their mutual piety to these wondrous visits
from above; and the grace of God was truly reected in
the calmness of a heart that recognized His hand and His
greatness, trusting in His goodness and submitting to His
will. We are favored in being admitted into a scene from
which the world was excluded by its unbelief and alienation
from God and in which God thus acted.
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John, the son of Zacharias and Elizabeth, is born;
Zacharias’ public announcement of the coming One and
of John’s position
But that which piety recognized in secret, through faith
in the visitations of God, must at length be made public
and be fullled before the eyes of men. e son of Zacharias
and Elizabeth is born, and Zacharias (who, obedient to the
word of the angel, ceases to be dumb) announces the coming
of the Branch of David, the horn of Israel’s salvation, in the
house of God’s elect King, to accomplish all the promises
made to the fathers and all the prophecies by which God
had proclaimed the future blessing of His people. e child
whom God had given to Zacharias and Elizabeth should
go before the face of Jehovah to prepare His ways; for the
Son of David was Jehovah, who came according to the
promises and according to the word by which God had
proclaimed the manifestation of His glory.<P234>
Israel under present and future blessing from the
Christ then at the door-the hope of Israel
e visitation of Israel by Jehovah, celebrated by the
mouth of Zacharias, embraces all the blessing of the
millennium. is is connected with the presence of Jesus,
who brings in His own Person all this blessing. All the
promises are Yea and Amen in Him. All the prophecies
encircle Him with the glory then to be realized and make
Him the source from which it springs. Abraham rejoiced
to see the glorious day of Christ.
e Holy Spirit always does this, when His subject
is the fulllment of the promise in power. He goes on to
the full eect which God will accomplish at the end. e
dierence here is that it is no longer the announcement
of joys in a distant future, when a Christ should be born,
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when a child should be brought forth, to bring in their joys
in days still obscured by the distance at which they were
seen. e Christ is now at the door, and it is the eect of
His presence that is celebrated. We know that, having been
rejected, and being now absent, the accomplishment of
these things is necessarily put o until He returns; but His
presence will bring their fulllment, and it is announced as
being connected with that presence.
We may remark here that this chapter connes itself
within the strict limits of the promises made to Israel, that
is to say, to the fathers. We have the priests, the Messiah,
His forerunner, the promises made to Abraham, the
covenant of promise, the oath of God. It is not the law; it
is the hope of Israel-founded on the promise, the covenant,
the oath of God, and conrmed by the prophets-which has
its realization in the birth of Jesus, of the Son of David. It
is not, I again say, the law. It is Israel under blessing, not
indeed yet accomplished, but Israel in the relationship of
faith with God who would accomplish it. It is only God
and Israel who are in question, and that which had taken
place in grace between Him and His people alone.<P235>
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73124
Luke 2
e pagan emperor of the world in Emmanuel’s land;
imperial glory and authority an instrument in God’s
hands
In the next chapter the scene changes. Instead of the
relations of God with Israel according to grace, we see rst
the pagan emperor of the world-the head of Daniel’s last
empire-exercising his power in Emmanuel’s land, and over
the people of God, as though God did not know them.
Nevertheless, we are still in presence of the birth of the
Son of David, of Emmanuel Himself; but He is outwardly
under the power of the head of the beast, of a pagan
empire. What a strange state of things is brought in by sin!
Take special notice, however, that we have grace here: it
is the intervention of God which makes all this manifest.
Connected with it are some other circumstances which it is
well to observe. When the interests and the glory of Jesus
are in question, all this power-which governs without the
fear of God, which reigns, seeking its own glory, in the
place where Christ should reign-all the imperial glory is
but an instrument in the hands of God for the fulllment
of His counsels. As to the public fact, we nd the Roman
emperor exercising despotic and pagan authority in the
place where the throne of God should have been, if the sin
of the people had not made it impossible.
e world’s power set in motion that the Saviour-
King might be born where God had decreed
e emperor will have all the world registered, and
everyone goes to his own city. e power of the world is set
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in motion, and that by an act which proves its supremacy
over those who, as the people of God, should have been
free from all but the immediate government of their God,
which was their glory-an act which proves the complete
degradation and servitude of the people. ey are slaves,
in their bodies and in their possessions, to the heathen,
because of their sins.1 But this act only accomplishes the
marvelous purpose of God, causing the Saviour-King to
be born in the village where, according to the testimony
of God, that event was to take place. And, more than that,
the divine Person, who<P236> was to excite the joy and
the praises of heaven, is born among men, Himself a child
in this world.
(1. Nehemiah 9:36-37.)
e state of things in Israel and in the world is the
supremacy of the Gentiles and the absence of the throne of
God. e Son of Man, the Saviour, God manifested in the
esh, comes to take His place-a place which grace alone
could nd or take in a world that knew Him not.
is registration is so much the more remarkable, in
that, as soon as the purpose of God was accomplished, it
was carried no further; that is to say, not till afterwards,
under the government of Cyrenius.1
(1. I have no doubt that the only right translation of
this passage is, “e census itself was rst made when
Cyrenius was governor of Syria.” e Holy Spirit notes
this circumstance to show that, when once the purpose
of God was accomplished, the decree was not historically
carried out till afterwards. A great deal of learning has been
spent on what I believe to be simple and clear in the text.)
e Son of God born into this world nds no place
there
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e Son of God is born in this world, but He nds no
place there. e world is at home, or at least by its resources
it nds a place, in the inn; it becomes a kind of measure
of man’s place in, and reception by, the world; the Son of
God nds none, save in the manger. Is it for nothing that
the Holy Spirit records this circumstance? No. ere is no
room for God, and that which is of God, in this world. So
much the more perfect, therefore, is the love that brought
Him down to earth. But He began in a manger and ended
on the cross, and along the way had not where to lay His
head.
e Son of God-a child, partaking in all the weakness
and all the circumstances of human life, thus manifested-
appears in the world.1
(1. at is to say, as an infant, He did not appear, like the
rst Adam, coming out, in His perfection, from the hand
of God. He is born of a woman, the Son of Man, which
Adam was not.)
e fulllment of God’s counsels announced by
angels; their heavenly chorus of praise
But if God comes into this world, and if a manger
receives Him, in the nature He has taken in grace, the
angels are occupied with the event on which depends the
fate of the whole universe, and the accomplishment of
all the counsels of God; for He has chosen weak<P237>
things to confound things that are mighty. is poor infant
is the object of all the counsels of God, the upholder and
heir of the whole creation, the Saviour of all who shall
inherit glory and eternal life.
Some poor men who were faithfully performing
their toilsome labors, afar from the restless activity of an
ambitious and sinful world, receive the rst tidings of the
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Lord’s presence on earth. e God of Israel did not seek
for the great among His people, but had respect to the poor
of the ock. Two things here present themselves. e angel
who comes to the shepherds of Judea announces to them
the fulllment of the promises of God to Israel. e choir
of angels celebrate in their heavenly chorus of praise all the
real import of this wondrous event.
“Unto you,” says the heavenly messenger who visits the
poor shepherds, “is born this day in the city of David a
Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” is was proclaiming
good tidings to them and to all the people.1
(1. “All the people” (not, as in the Authorized Version,
“all people”).)
e fullness, sovereignty and perfection of God’s
grace magnied by sin
But in the birth of the Son of Man, God manifest in
the esh, the accomplishment of the incarnation had far
deeper importance than this. e fact that this poor infant
was there, disallowed and left (humanly speaking) to its
fate by the world, was (as understood by the heavenly
intelligences, the multitude of the heavenly host, whose
praises resounded at the angel’s message to the shepherds),
“Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, good pleasure
[of God] in men.” ese few words embrace such widely
extended thoughts that it is dicult to speak suitably of
them in a work like this; but some remarks are necessary.
First, it is deeply blessed to see that the thought of Jesus
excludes all that could oppress the heart in the scene which
surrounded His presence on earth. Sin, alas! was there. It
was manifested by the position in which this wondrous
infant was found. But if sin had placed Him there, grace had
placed Him there. Grace superabounds; and in thinking
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of Him, blessing, grace, the mind of God respecting sin,
that which God is, as manifested by the presence of Christ,
absorb the mind and possess the heart, and are the heart’s
true relief in a world like this. We see grace alone; and sin
does but magnify the <P238>fullness, the sovereignty, the
perfection of that grace. God, in His glorious dealings,
blots out the sin with respect to which He acts, and which
He thus exhibits in all its deformity; but there is that
which “much more aboundeth.” Jesus, come in grace, lls
the heart. It is the same thing in all the details of Christian
life. It is the true source of moral power, of sanctication
and of joy.
“Glory to God in the highest” shown in the child
born on the earth
We see next that there are three things brought out by
the presence of Jesus born as a child on the earth. First,
glory to God in the highest. e love of God-His wisdom-
His power (not in creating a universe out of nothing, but
in rising above the evil, and turning the eect of all the
enemy’s power into an occasion of showing that this power
was only impotence and folly in presence of that which
may be called “the weakness of God”)-the fulllment of
His eternal counsels-the perfection of His ways where evil
had come in-the manifestation of Himself amid the evil in
such a manner as to glorify Himself before the angels: in a
word, God had so manifested Himself by the birth of Jesus
that the hosts of heaven, long familiar with His power,
could raise their chorus, “Glory to God in the highest!” and
every voice unites in sounding forth these praises. What
love like this love? And God is love. What a purely divine
thought that God has become man! What supremacy of
good over evil! What wisdom in drawing nigh to the heart
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of man and the heart of man back to Him! What tness in
addressing man! What maintenance of the holiness of God!
What nearness to the heart of man, what participation in
his wants, what experience of his condition! But beyond
all, God above the evil in grace, and in that grace visiting
this deled world to make Himself known as He had never
yet been known!
“Peace on earth”: Jesus the surety of the eventual
fulllment of the promise
e second eect of the presence of Him who manifested
God on the earth is that peace should be there. Rejected-
His name should be an occasion of strife; but the heavenly
choir are occupied with the fact of His presence, and
with the result, when fully produced of the consequences,
wrapped up in the Person of<P239> Him who was there
(looked at in their proper fruits), and they celebrate these
consequences. Manifested evil should disappear; His holy
rule should banish all enmity and violence. Jesus, mighty in
love, should reign, and impart the character in which He
had come to the whole scene that should surround Him
in the world He came into, that it might be according to
His heart who took delight therein (Prov. 8:31).1 See, as
regards a smaller scale, Psalm 85:10-11.
(1. is quotation leads to a glorious apprehension, both
of what was then doing and of our blessing. e special
interest of God is in the sons of men; wisdom (Christ is
the wisdom of God) daily Jehovah’s delight, rejoicing in
the habitable part of His earth, before creation, so that
it was counsel, and His delight in the sons of men. His
incarnation is the full proof of this. In Matthew we have
our Lord, when He takes His place with the remnant as this
is, fully revealed, and it is in the Son’s taking this place as
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man and being anointed of the Holy Spirit, that the whole
Trinity is fully revealed. is is a wonderful unfolding of
God’s ways.)
e means of this-redemption, the destruction of
Satan’s power, the reconciliation of man by faith, and of all
things in heaven and earth with God-are not here pointed
out. Everything depended on the Person and presence of
Him who was born. All was wrapped up in Him. e state
of blessing was born in the birth of that child.
Presented to the responsibility of man, man is unable to
prot by it, and all fails. His position thereby becomes only
so much the worse.
But, grace and blessing being attached to the Person of
Him just born, all their consequences necessarily ow forth.
After all, it was the intervention of God accomplishing
the counsel of His love, the settled purpose of His good
pleasure. And, Jesus once there, the consequences could
not fail: whatever interruption there might be to their
fulllment, Jesus was their surety. He was come into the
world. He contained in His Person, He was the expression
of, all these consequences. e presence of the Son of God
in the midst of sinners said to all spiritual intelligence,
“Peace on the earth.”
“e good pleasure of God in men”: God’s glorious
counsels accomplished in Jesus
e third thing was the good pleasure1-the aection of
God<P240>-in men. Nothing more simple, since Jesus was
a man. He had not taken hold of angels.
(1. is is the same word as when it is said of Christ, “In
whom I am well pleased.” It is beautiful to see the unjealous
celebration, by these holy beings, of the advancement of
another race to this exalted place by the incarnation of the
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Word. It was God’s glory, and that suced them. is is
very beautiful.)
It was a glorious testimony that the aection, the good
pleasure, of God was centered in this poor race, now far
from Him, but in which He was pleased to accomplish all
His glorious counsels. So in John 1 the life was the light
of men.
In a word, it was the power of God present in grace in
the Person of the Son of God taking part in the nature,
and interesting Himself in the lot, of a being who had
departed from Him, and making him the sphere of the
accomplishment of all His counsels, and of the manifestation
of His grace and His nature to all His creatures. What a
position for man! for it is indeed in man that all this is
accomplished. e whole universe was to learn in man, and
in what God therein was for man, that which God was in
Himself, and the fruit of all His glorious counsels, as well as
its complete rest in His presence, according to His nature
of love. All this was implied in the birth of that child of
whom the world took no notice. Natural and marvelous
subject of praise to the holy inhabitants of heaven, unto
whom God had made it known! It was glory to God in the
highest.
e faith and joy of the shepherds
Faith was in exercise in those simple Israelites to whom
the angel of the Lord was sent; and they rejoiced in the
blessing fullled before their eyes, and which veried the
grace that God had shown in announcing it to them. e
word, “As it was told unto them,” adds its testimony of
grace to all that we enjoy by the loving-kindness of God.
e name of the child; His circumcision under the
law; Mary’s poverty
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e child receives the name of Jesus on the day of His
circumcision, according to Jewish custom (see chapter
1:59), but according to the counsels and revelations of
God, communicated by the angels of His power. Moreover,
everything was performed according to the law; for
historically we nd ourselves still in connection with Israel.
He who was born of a woman was born under the law.
e condition of poverty in which Jesus was born is also
shown by the sacrice oered for the purication of His
mother.<P241>
e child recognized by the godly remnant
But another point is here made prominent by the Holy
Spirit, insignicant as He may apparently be who gave
occasion to it.
Jesus is recognized by the godly remnant of Israel, so far
as the Holy Spirit acts in them. He becomes a touchstone
for every soul in Israel. e condition of the remnant
taught by the Holy Spirit (that is, of those who had taken
the position of the remnant) was this: ey were sensible
of the misery and ruin of Israel, but waited upon the God
of Israel, trusting to His unchangeable faithfulness for the
consolation of His people. ey still said: How long? And
God was with this remnant. He had made known to those
who thus trusted in His mercy the coming of the promised
One, who was to be the fulllment of this mercy to Israel.
us, in presence of the oppression of the Gentiles, and
of the iniquity of a people who were ripening or rather
ripened in evil, the remnant who trust in God do not lose
that which, as we saw in the preceding chapter, belonged
to Israel. In the midst of Israel’s misery they had for their
consolation that which promise and prophecy had declared
for Israel’s glory.
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e revelation made to Simeon; the threefold
character of his praise
e Holy Spirit had revealed to Simeon that he should
not die until he had seen the Lord’s Christ. at was
the consolation, and it was great. It was contained in the
Person of Jesus the Saviour, without going further into the
details of the manner or the time of the accomplishment
of Israel’s deliverance.
Simeon loved Israel; he could depart in peace, since God
had blessed Him according to the desires of faith. e joy of
faith ever dwells on the Lord and on His people, but sees, in
the relationship that exists between them, all the extent of
that which gives rise to this joy. Salvation, the deliverance
of God, was come in Christ. It was for the revelation of
the Gentiles, till then hidden in the darkness of ignorance
without a revelation; and for the glory of Israel, the people
of God. is indeed is the fruit of the government of God
in Christ, that is to say, the millennium. But if the Spirit
revealed to this pious and faithful servant of the God of
Israel the future which depended on the presence of the
Son of God, He revealed to him that he held the Saviour
Himself in his arms; thus<P242> giving him present peace,
and such a sense of the favor of God that death lost its
terrors. It was not a knowledge of the work of Jesus acting
on an enlightened and convicted conscience; but it was
the fulllment of the promises to Israel, the possession of
the Saviour, and the proof of the favor of God, so that the
peace which owed from thence lled his soul. ere were
the three things: the prophecy that announced the coming
of Christ, the possession of Christ, and the eect of His
presence in the whole world. We are here in connection
with the remnant of Israel, and consequently nd nothing
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of the church and of purely heavenly things. e rejection
comes afterwards. Here it is all that belongs to the remnant,
in the way of blessing, through the presence of Jesus. His
work is not the present subject.
Simeon’s testimony in Israel to the Messiah
What a beautiful picture, and what a testimony
rendered to this child, by the manner in which, through
the power of the Holy Spirit, He lled the heart of this
holy man at the close of his earthly life! Observe also
what communications are made to this feeble remnant,
unknown amid the darkness that covered the people. But
the testimony of this holy man of God (and how sweet it
is to think how many of these souls, full of grace and of
communion with the Lord, have ourished in the shade,
unknown to men, but well-known to and beloved of God;
souls who, when they appear, coming out of their retreat
according to His will in testimony to Christ, bear so
blessed a witness to a work of God which is carried on in
spite of all that man is doing, and behind the painful and
embittered scene that is unfolding on the earth!), Simeon’s
testimony here, was more than the expression of the
deeply interesting thoughts which had lled his heart in
communion between himself and God. is knowledge of
Christ and of the thoughts of God respecting Him, which
is developed in secret between God and the soul, gives
understanding of the eect produced by the manifestation
to the world of Him who is its object. e Spirit speaks
of it by the mouth of Simeon. In his previous words we
received the declaration of the sure fulllment of God’s
counsels in the Messiah, the joy of his own heart. Now it
is the eect of the presentation of Jesus, as the Messiah
to Israel on the earth, which is described. Whatever may
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have been the power of God in Christ<P243> for blessing,
He put the heart of man to the test. He should thus be, by
revealing the thoughts of many hearts (for He was light),
and so much the more that He was humbled in a world
of pride, an occasion of falling to many, and the means
of rising to many from their low and degraded condition.
Mary herself, although the mother of the Messiah, should
have her own soul pierced through by a sword; for her child
should be rejected, the natural relationship of the Messiah
to the people broken and disallowed. is contradiction
of sinners against the Lord laid all hearts bare as to their
desires, their hopes and their ambition, whatever forms of
piety might be assumed.
Such was the testimony rendered in Israel to the
Messiah, according to the action of the Spirit of God upon
the remnant, amid the bondage and misery of that people:
the full accomplishment of the counsels of God towards
Israel, and towards the world through Israel, for joy of
heart to the faithful who had trusted in these promises,
but for a test at that moment to every heart by means of
a Messiah who was a sign spoken against. e counsels of
God and the heart of man were revealed in Him.
Malachi’s prophecy of God’s hidden people; Anna at
the throne of God
Malachi had said that those who feared the Lord in
the evil days, when the proud were called happy, should
often speak together. is time had arrived in Israel. From
Malachi to the birth of Jesus, there was but the passage
of Israel from misery to pride-a pride, moreover, that was
dawning even in the days of the prophet. at which he
said of the remnant was also being accomplished; they
“spake together.” We see that they knew each other, in this
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lovely picture of God’s hidden people: “She spake of him
to all them that looked for redemption in Israel.” Anna, a
holy widow, who departed not from the temple and who
deeply felt the misery of Israel, had besieged the throne
of God with a widowed heart, for a people to whom God
was no longer a husband, who were really widowed like
herself; and she now makes known to all who pondered
on these things together that the Lord had visited His
temple. ey had looked for redemption in Jerusalem; and
now the Redeemer-unknown of men-was there. What a
subject of joy to this poor remnant! What an answer to
their faith!<P244>
e return to Nazareth; the Lord’s perfection of
obedience as a child and as a man
But Jerusalem was not, after all, the place in which God
visited the remnant of His people, but the seat of pride of
those who said “the temple of the Lord.” And Joseph and
Mary, having performed all that which the law required,
return with the child Jesus to take their place together with
Him in the despised spot which should give Him its name,
and in those regions where the despised remnant, the poor
of the ock, had more their place, and where the testimony
of God had announced that the light should appear.
ere His early days were spent in the physical and
mental growth of the true humanity which He had
assumed. Simple and precious testimony! But He was not
less conscious, when the time was come for speaking to
men, of His real relationship to His Father. e two things
are united in that which is said at the end of the chapter.
In the development of His humanity is manifested the Son
of God on earth. Joseph and Mary, who (while marveling
at all that happened to Him) did not thoroughly know by
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faith His glory, blame the child according to the position
in which He formally stood towards them. But this gives
occasion to the manifestation of another character of
perfection in Jesus. If He was the Son of God and had
the full consciousness of it, He was also the obedient
man, essentially and ever perfect and sinless-an obedient
child, whatever sense He also had of another relationship
unconnected in itself with subjection to human parents.
Consciousness of the one did not injure His perfection in
the other. His being the Son of God secured His perfection
as a man and a child on the earth.
e Lord’s relationship to His Father
But there is another important thing to remark here;
it is that this position had nothing to do with His being
anointed with the Holy Spirit. He fullled, no doubt, the
public ministry which He afterwards entered on according
to the power and the perfection of that anointing; but His
relationship to His Father belonged to His Person itself.
e bond existed between Him and His Father. He was
fully conscious of it, whatever might be the means or the
form of its public manifestation, and of the power of His
ministry.<P245> He was all that a child ought to be; but
it was the Son of God who was so. His relationship to
His Father was as well-known to Him as His obedience
to Joseph and to His mother was beautiful, becoming and
perfect.
e unique and incomparable course of the divine
Saviour, the Son of Man
Here we close this touching and divine history of the
birth and early days of the divine Saviour, the Son of Man. It
is impossible to have anything more profoundly interesting.
Henceforward it is in His ministry, in His public life, that
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we shall nd Him, rejected of men, but accomplishing
the counsels and the work of God; separate from all, in
order to do this in the power of the Holy Spirit, given to
Him without measure, to fulll that course with which
nothing can be compared, with respect to which it would
be lowering the truth to call it interesting. It is the center
and the means, including His death, His oering Himself
without spot to God-and the only possible means-of all
relationship between our souls and God; the perfection of
the manifestation of His grace, and the foundation of all
relationship between any creature and Himself.
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73125
Luke 3
e circumstances surrounding the exercise of the
ministry of the Word and the Lord’s introduction into
the world
In chapter 3 we nd the exercise of the ministry of the
Word towards Israel, and that for the introduction of the
Lord into this world. It is not the promises to Israel and
the privileges secured to them by God, nor the birth of
that child who was heir to all the promises; the empire,
itself a testimony to Israel’s captivity, being an instrument
for the accomplishment of the Word respecting the Lord.
e years are here reckoned according to the reign of the
Gentiles. Judea is a province in the hands of the Gentile
empire, and the other parts of Canaan are divided under
dierent chiefs, subordinate to the empire.
e Jewish system continues, nevertheless; and the high
priests were there to note the years of their subjection to the
Gentiles by their names, and at the same time to preserve
the order,<P246> the doctrine and the ceremonies of the
Jews, as far as could be done in their circumstances at that
period.
Jehovah’s message to His people that He Himself
would come
Now the word of God is ever sure, and it is when the
relationships of God with His people fail on the side of
their faithfulness that God in sovereignty maintains His
relationship by means of communications through a
prophet. His sovereign word maintains it when there are
no other means.
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But in this case Jehovah’s message to His people had
a peculiar character; for Israel was already ruined, having
forsaken the Lord. e goodness of God had still left the
people outwardly in their land; but the throne of the world
was transferred to the Gentiles. Israel was now called to
repent, to be forgiven, and to take a new place through the
coming of the Messiah.
e testimony of God is therefore not in connection
with His ordinances at Jerusalem, although the righteous
submit to them. Nor does the prophet call them back to
faithfulness on the ground on which they were. It is His
voice in the wilderness, making His paths straight, in order
that He may come, as from without, to those who repented
and prepared themselves for His coming. Moreover, since
it was the Jehovah Himself who came, His glory should
not be conned within the narrow limits of Israel. All esh
should see the salvation wrought by God. e condition of
the nation itself was that out of which God called them to
come by repentance, proclaiming the wrath that was about
to fall upon a rebellious people. Besides, if God came, He
would have realities, the true fruits of righteousness, and not
the mere name of a people. And He came in His sovereign
power, which was able to raise up out of nothing that
which He would have before Him. God comes. He would
have righteousness as to man’s responsibility, because He is
righteous. He could raise up a seed unto Abraham by His
divine power, and that from the very stones, if He saw t.
It is the presence, the coming of God Himself, that here
characterizes everything.<P247>
e conscience of all addressed in warning of
judgment at the door
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Now, the axe was already at the root of the trees, and
each was to be judged according to its fruits. It was in vain
to plead that they were Jews; if they enjoyed that privilege,
where were its fruits? But God did not accept any according
to man’s estimate of righteousness and privilege, nor the
proud judgment the self-righteous might form of others.
He addressed Himself to the conscience of all.
Accordingly, the publicans, objects of hatred to the Jews,
as instruments of the scal oppression of the Gentiles; and
the soldiers, who executed the arbitrary mandates of the
kings, imposed on the people by the Roman will, or that of
heathen governors, were exhorted to act in accordance with
that which the true fear of God would produce, in contrast
with the iniquity habitually practiced in accordance with
the will of man; the multitude was exhorted to practical
charity, while the people, considered as a people, were
treated as a generation of vipers, on whom the wrath of
God was coming. Grace dealt with them in warning of
judgment, but judgment was at the door.
Summary of verses 3-17 of chapter 3
us, from verses 3-14, we have these two things: in
verses 3-6 the position of John towards the people as such,
in the thought that God Himself would soon appear; in
verses 6-14 his address to the conscience of individuals;
verses 7-9 teaching them that the formal privileges of the
people would aord no shelter in the presence of the holy
and righteous God, and that to take refuge in national
privilege was only to bring wrath upon themselves- for the
nation was under judgment and exposed to the wrath of
God. In verse 10 he comes to details. In verses 15-17 the
question as to the Messiah is solved.
God Himself was coming
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e great subject, however, of this passage-the great
truth which the testimony of John displayed before the
eyes of the people-was that God Himself was coming. Man
was to repent. Privileges, granted meanwhile as means
of blessing, could not be pleaded against the nature and
the righteousness of Him who was<P248> coming, nor
destroy the power by which He could create a people after
His own heart. Nevertheless, the door of repentance was
open according to His faithfulness towards a people whom
He loved.
Messiah’s special work
But there was a special work for the Messiah according
to the counsels, the wisdom and the grace of God. He
baptized with the Holy Spirit and with re. at is to say,
He brought in the power and the judgment which dispelled
evil, whether in holiness and blessing or in destruction.
He baptizes with the Holy Spirit. is is not merely a
renewal of desires, but power, in grace, in the midst of evil.
He baptizes with re. is is judgment that consumes
the evil.
is judgment is thus applied to Israel, His threshing-
oor. He would gather His wheat in safety elsewhere; the
cha should be burned up in judgment.
e end of John’s testimony; the beginning of the
Lord’s identication with His people
But at length John is put in prison by the regal head
of the people. Not that this event took place historically
at that moment; but the Spirit of God would set forth
morally the end of his testimony, in order to commence
the life of Jesus, the Son of Man, but born the Son of God
in this world.
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It is with verse 21 that this history begins, and in a
manner both wonderful and full of grace. God, by John the
Baptist, had called His people to repentance; and those on
whom His word produced its eect came to be baptized
by John. It was the rst sign of life and of obedience. Jesus,
perfect in life and in obedience, come down in grace for
the remnant of His people, goes thither, taking His place
with them, and is baptized with the baptism of John as
they were. Touching and marvelous testimony! He does
not love at a distance, nor merely in bestowing pardon; He
comes by grace into the very place where the sin of His
people had brought them, according to the sense of that
sin which the converting and quickening power of their
God had wrought in them. He leads His people there by
grace, but He accompanies them when they go. He takes
His place with them in all the diculties of the way, and
goes with them to meet all the obstacles that present
themselves;<P249> and truly, as identifying Himself with
the poor remnant, those excellent of the earth, in whom
was all His delight, calling Jehovah His Lord; and making
Himself of no reputation, not saying that His goodness
extended to God, not taking His eternal place with God,
but the place of humiliation; and, for that very reason,
of perfection in the position to which He had humbled
Himself, but a perfection that recognized the existence
of sin, because, in fact, there was sin, and it behooved the
remnant to be sensible of it in returning to God. To be
sensible of it was the beginning of good. Hence He can go
with them. But in Christ, however humble grace might be,
His taking that path with them was grace that wrought in
righteousness; for in Him it was love and obedience, and
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the path by which He gloried His Father. He went in by
the door.
With the remnant; heaven open on the grace and
perfection of Jesus
Jesus, therefore, in taking this place of humiliation which
the state of the beloved people required, and to which grace
brought Him, found Himself in the place of the fulllment
of righteousness, and of all the good pleasure of the Father,
of which He thus became the object, as in this place.
e Father could acknowledge Him as the One who
satised His heart in the place where sin and, at the
same time, the objects of His grace were found, that He
might give free course to His grace. e cross was the
full accomplishment of this. We shall say a word on the
dierence when speaking of the temptation of the Lord;
but it is the same principle as to Christ’s loving will and
obedience. Christ was here with the remnant, instead of
being substituted for them and put in their place to atone
for sin; but the object of the Father’s delight had, in grace,
taken His place with the people, viewed as confessing their
sins1 before God, and presenting themselves to God as
concerned in them, while by this really morally out of them,
and renewed in heart to confess them, without which the
Lord could not have been with them, except as a witness to
preach grace to them prophetically.<P250>
(1. He took it in and with the godly remnant, in the act
which distinguished them from the unrepentant, but was
the right place of the people, the rst act of spiritual life.
e remnant with John is the true Jew taking his true place
with God. is Christ goes with them in.)
Jesus having taken this position and praying-appearing
as the godly man, dependent on God and lifting up His
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heart to God, thus also the expression of perfection in
that position-heaven opens to Him. By baptism He took
His place with the remnant; in praying-being there-He
exhibited perfection in His own relationship with God.
Dependence, and the heart going up to God, as the rst
thing and as the expression, so to say, of its existence, is the
perfection of man here below; and, in this case, of man in
such circumstances as these. Here then heaven can open.
And observe, it was not heaven opening to seek someone
afar from God, nor grace opening the heart to a certain
feeling; but it was the grace and perfection of Jesus which
caused heaven to open. As it is said, “erefore doth my
Father love me, because I lay down my life.” us also it
is the positive perfection of Jesus1 that is the reason of
heaven’s opening. Remark also here that when once this
principle of reconciliation is brought in, heaven and earth
are not so far from each other. It is true that, till after
the death of Christ, this intimacy must be centered in
the Person of Jesus and realized by Him alone, but that
comprised all the rest. Proximity was established, although
the grain of wheat had to remain alone, until it should “fall
into the ground and die.” Nevertheless, the angels, as we
have seen, could say, “Peace on earth, the good pleasure [of
God] in men.” And we see the angels with the shepherds,
and the heavenly host in the sight and hearing of earth
praising God for that which had taken place; and here,
heaven open upon man, and the Holy Spirit descending
visibly upon Him.
(1. Remark here, Christ has no object in heaven to x
His attention on, as Stephen; He is the object of heaven. So
He was to Stephen by the Holy Spirit, when heaven was
open to the saint. His Person is always clearly evident, even
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when He puts His people in the same place with Himself
or connects Himself with them. See on this Matthew.)
Let us examine the import of this last case. Christ has
taken His place with the remnant in their weak and humble
condition, but in it fullling righteousness. e entire favor
of the Father rests upon Him, and the Holy Spirit comes
down to seal and anoint Him with His presence and His
power. Son of God, man on earth, heaven is open to Him,
and all the aection of heaven is centered upon Him, and
upon Him associated with His own.1e rst step<P251>
which these humbled souls take in the path of grace and
of life nds Jesus there with them, and, He being there,
the favor and delight of the Father, and the presence of the
Holy Spirit. And let us always remember that it is upon
Him as man while Son of God.
(1. I do not speak here of the union of the church with
Christ in heaven, but His taking His place with the remnant,
who come to God through grace, led by the ecacy of His
Word, and by the power of the Spirit. is is the reason I
apprehend that we nd all the people baptized, and then
Jesus comes and is associated with them.)
Jesus as the measure of the position of man accepted
before God
Such is the position of man accepted before God. Jesus
is its measure, its expression. It has these two things-the
Father’s delight, and the power and seal of the Holy Spirit;
and that in this world, and known by him who enjoys it.
ere is now this dierence, already noticed, that we look
by the Holy Spirit into heaven where Jesus is, but we take
His place down here.
Let us contemplate man thus in Christ-heaven open-
the power of the Holy Spirit upon Him and in Him-the
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testimony of the Father, and the relationship of the Son
with the Father.
Christ’s genealogy in Luke; the last Adam
It will be remarked that the genealogy of Christ is here
traced, not to Abraham and David, that He should be the
heir of the promises after the esh, but to Adam; in order to
exhibit the true Son of God a man on earth, where the rst
Adam lost his title, such as it was. e last Adam, the Son
of God, was there, accepted of the Father, and preparing to
take upon Himself the diculties into which the sin and
fall of the rst Adam had brought those of his race who
drew nigh to God under the inuence of His grace.
e enemy was, through sin, in possession of the rst
Adam; and Jesus must gain the victory over Satan, if He
would deliver those who are under his power. He must
bind the strong man. To conquer him practically is the
second part of the Christian life. Joy in God, conict with
the enemy, make up the life of the redeemed, sealed with
the Holy Spirit and walking by His power. In both these
things the believer is with Jesus, and Jesus with him.
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73126
Luke 4
Tested by the enemy
e unknown Son of God on earth, Jesus, is led into
the wilderness by the Holy Spirit, with whom He had
been sealed, to<P252> undergo the temptation of the
enemy, beneath which Adam fell. But Jesus endured this
temptation in the circumstances in which we stand, not
those in which Adam stood; that is to say, He felt it in all
the diculties of the life of faith, tempted in all points
like as we are, sin excepted. Take notice here that it is no
question of bondage to sin, but of conict. When it is a
question of bondage, it is a question of deliverance, not
of conict. It was in Canaan that Israel fought. ey were
delivered out of Egypt; they did not ght there.
e moral order of the temptations; simple obedience
to the Word of God
In Luke the temptations are arranged according to
their moral order: rst, that which bodily need required;
second, the world; third, spiritual subtlety. In each the Lord
maintains the position of obedience and of dependence,
giving God and His communications to man-His Word-
their true place. Simple principle, which shelters us in
every attack, but which, by its very simplicity, is perfection!
Nevertheless, let us remember that this is the case; for
raising ourselves to marvelous heights is not the thing
required of us, but the following that which applies to our
human condition as the normal rule for its guidance. It is
obedience, dependence-doing nothing except as God wills
it, and reliance on Him. is walk supposes the Word. But
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the Word is the expression of the will, the goodness and
the authority of God, applicable to all the circumstances of
man as he is. It shows that God interests Himself in all that
regards him: why then should man act of himself without
looking to God and to His Word? Alas! speaking of men in
general, they are self-willed. To submit and be dependent
is precisely that which they will not. ey have too much
enmity to God to trust in Him. It was this, therefore, which
distinguished the Lord. e power to work a miracle God
could bestow on whom He would. But an obedient man,
who had no will to do anything with respect to which the
will of God was not expressed, a man who lived by the
Word, a man who lived in complete dependence upon
God and had a perfect trust, which required no other
proof of God’s faithfulness than His Word, no other
means of certainty that He would intervene than His
promise of so doing, and who waited for that intervention
in the path<P253> of His will-here was something more
than power. is was the perfection of man, in the place
where man stood (not simply innocence, for innocence has
no need of trusting God in the midst of diculties, and
sorrows, and questions raised by sin, and the knowledge of
good and evil), and a perfection which sheltered one who
possessed it from every attack Satan could make upon him;
for what could he do to one who never went beyond the
will of God, and to whom that will was the only motive
for action? Moreover, the power of the Spirit of God was
there. Accordingly, we nd that simple obedience directed
by the Word is the only weapon employed by Jesus. is
obedience requires dependence on God, and trust in God,
in order to accomplish it.
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He lives by the Word: this is dependence. He will not
tempt (that is, put God to the test) to see if He is faithful:
this is trust.
He acts when God wills, and because He wills, and does
that which God wills. All the rest He leaves with God. is
is obedience; and, remark, not obedience as submission
to God’s will where there was an adverse one, but where
God’s will was the one motive for action. We are sanctied
to the obedience of Christ.
Satan overcome
Satan is overcome and powerless before this last Adam,
who acts according to the power of the Spirit, in the place
where man is found, by the means which God has given to
man, and in the circumstances in which Satan exercises his
power. Sin there was none, or it would have been to yield,
not to conquer. It was shut out by obedience. But Satan
is overcome in the circumstances of temptation in which
man is found. Bodily need, which would have become lust
if self-will had entered into it, instead of dependence on the
will of God; the world and all its glory, which, so far as it
is the object of man’s covetousness, is, in fact, the kingdom
of Satan (and it was on that ground that Satan tried to
bring Jesus, and showed himself to be Satan in so doing);
and, lastly, self-exaltation in a religious way through the
things which God has given us-these were the points of
the enemy’s attack. But there was no self-seeking in Jesus.
With the remnant, and alone
We have found, then, in these things which we have
been looking at, a man lled with the Holy Spirit, and born
of the Holy<P254> Spirit on earth, perfectly well-pleasing
to God and the object of His aection, His beloved Son,
in the position of dependence; and a man, the conqueror
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of Satan amid those temptations by which he usually gains
advantage over man-conqueror in the power of the Holy
Spirit, and by making use of the Word, as dependent,
obedient and trusting in God in the ordinary circumstances
of man. In the rst position, Jesus stood with the remnant;
in the second, alone-as in Gethsemane and on the cross.
Nevertheless, it was for us; and, accepted as Jesus, we
have, in a certain sense, the enemy to overcome. But it is
a conquered enemy whom we resist in the strength of the
Holy Spirit, who is given unto us in virtue of redemption.
If we resist him, he ees; for he has met his conqueror. e
esh does not resist him. He nds Christ in us. Resistance
in the esh does not lead to victory.
e rst Adam, failure; the last Adam, the Conqueror
of Satan
Jesus conquered the strong man and then spoiled his
goods; but it was in temptation, obedience, having no will
but that of God, dependence, the use of the Word, abiding
in subjection to God, that Jesus gained the victory over
him. In all this the rst Adam failed. After Christ’s victory,
we also, as servants of Christ, gain actual victories, or rather
the fruits of the victory already gained in the presence of
God.
e Lord has now taken His place, so to speak, for
the work of the last Adam-the man in whom is the
Spirit without measure, the Son of God in this world
by His birth. He has taken it as the seed of the woman
(nevertheless, conceived of the Holy Spirit); He has taken
it as the Son of God perfectly well-pleasing to God in
His Person as man here below; and He has taken it as the
conqueror of Satan. Owned to be the Son of God, and
sealed with the Holy Spirit by the Father, heaven being
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open to Him as man, His genealogy is, however, traced up
to Adam; and, the descendant of Adam, without sin, full of
the Holy Spirit, He conquers Satan (as the obedient man,
having no motive but the will of God), and sets Himself
to accomplish the work which God His Father committed
to Him in this world, and that as man, by the power of the
Holy Spirit.<P255>
e return to Galilee in the Spirit’s power
He returns, in the power of the Spirit, into Galilee,1
and His fame spreads through all the region round about.
(1. And here note, as anointed with the Holy Spirit and
led by Him, He goes to be tempted, and returns in the
power of it. None was lost, and this power was as much
shown in the apparently negative result of overcoming, as
in the miraculous manifestation of power afterwards on
men.)
e announcement of the fulllment of God’s
promises in grace and blessing
He presents Himself in this character: “e Spirit
of Jehovah is upon me, because he hath anointed me to
preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal
the brokenhearted . . . to preach the acceptable year of
Jehovah.” Here He stops. at which follows in the prophet,
respecting the deliverance of Israel by the judgment which
avenges them of their enemies, is omitted by the Lord. Now
Jesus does not announce promises, but their fulllment in
grace by His own presence. e Spirit is upon this man,
full of grace; and the God of grace in Him manifests His
goodness. e time of deliverance is come; the vessel of His
favor to Israel is there in their midst.
e examination of the prophecy renders this testimony
so much the more remarkable, that the Spirit, having
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declared the sin of the people and their judgment, in the
chapters that precede these words, speaks (when introducing
the Christ, the Anointed) only of grace and blessing to
Israel: if there is vengeance, it should be executed upon
their enemies for the deliverance of Israel.
e perfect manifestation of grace rejected; the result
But here it is grace in His Person, this man, the Son of
God, full of the Holy Spirit, in order to proclaim the mercy
of a God who is faithful to His promises, and to comfort
and lift up the bruised and the poor in spirit. Blessing
was there, presenting itself before them. ey could not
misunderstand it, but they do not recognize the Son of
God. “Is not this Joseph’s son?” We have here the whole
history of Christ-the perfect manifestation of grace in the
midst of Israel, His land, and His people; and they knew
Him not. No prophet is accepted in his own country.
But this rejection opened the way to a grace which went
beyond<P256> the limits that a rebellious people would set
to it. e woman of Sarepta and Naaman were testimonies
of this grace.
Wrath lls the heart of those who reject grace.
Unbelieving, and incapable of discerning the blessing that
had visited them, they will not have it go elsewhere. e
pride which rendered them unable to appreciate grace
would not hear of its communication to others.
ey seek to destroy Jesus, but He goes on His way.
Here is the whole history of Jesus among the people traced
beforehand.
e acts and cures characterizing the Lord’s ministry
of grace
He went His way; and the Spirit preserves to us the
acts and the cures which characterize His ministry in the
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aspect of the ecacy of grace, and of its extension to others
besides Israel.
Power was in Him whose grace was rejected.
Acknowledged by devils, if not by Israel, He expels them
by a word. He heals the sick. All the power of the enemy, all
the sad, outward eects of sin, disappear before Him. He
heals, He withdraws; and when entreated to remain (the
eect of His works that procured Him that honor from
the people which He did not seek), He goes away to labor
elsewhere in the testimony committed to Him. He seeks to
accomplish His work, and not to be honored.
He preaches everywhere among the people. He casts
out the enemy, He removes suerings, and proclaims the
goodness of God to the poor.
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73127
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Others called to be associated with Him in His
glorious work
Man, He was come for men. He will associate others
with Himself in this glorious work. He has a right to do
it. If He is in grace a servant, He is so according to the full
power of the Holy Spirit.
He works a miracle well adapted to strike those whom
He would call, and which made them feel that everything
was at His disposal, that all depended on Him, that where
man could do nothing He could do everything. Peter,
stricken in conscience by the presence of the Lord, confesses
his unworthiness, but drawn by grace goes to Christ. Grace
raises him up and appoints him to speak of<P257> itself
to others-to sh for men. Already it was not a preacher
of righteousness among the people of God, but one who
drew into His net those that were afar o. He attracted to
Himself as the manifestation on earth of the power and
the character of God. It was grace which was there.
e gracious work of the undelable all-powerful
One
He was there with the will and the power to heal
that which was a gure of sin, and incurable but by the
intervention of God. But God had intervened; and in
grace He can say, and says, to one who acknowledged His
power but doubted His will, “I will, be thou clean.”1 Yet
He submitted to Jewish ordinances as one obedient to the
law. Jesus prayed, as a man dependent on God. is was
His perfection as a man born under the law. Moreover,
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He must needs acknowledge the ordinances of God, not
yet abrogated by His rejection. But this obedience as man
became a testimony; for the power of Jehovah alone could
heal leprosy, and He had healed it, and the priests were to
acknowledge that which had been done.
(1. If a man touched a leper, he was unclean. But here
grace works, and Jesus undelable touches the leper (God
in grace, undelable, but a man touching the deled thing
to cleanse it).)
e Son of Man exercising His power and rights as
Jehovah to forgive sins
But He brings pardon as well as cleansing. He gives
a proof of this by removing all inrmity and imparting
strength to one who had none. is was not the doctrine
that God could pardon. ey believed that. But God had
intervened, and pardon was present. ey would no longer
have to wait for the last day, nor for a day of judgment,
to know their condition. A Nathan would not be required
to come and proclaim it on the part of a God who was
in heaven while His people were on earth. Pardon was
come, in the Person of the Son of Man come down to
earth. In all this, Jesus gave proofs of the power and the
rights of Jehovah. In this instance it was the fulllment of
Psalm 103:3; but, at the same time, He gives these proofs
as accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit, without
measure in man, in His own Person the true Son of God.
e Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins: in
fact, Jehovah was come, a man on earth. e Son of Man
was there <P258>before their eyes, in grace, to exercise this
power-a proof that God had visited them.
e power of grace displayed in the midst of Israel
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In both these instances1 the Lord, while displaying a
power tted to extend, and that was to extend, beyond this
sphere, displays it in connection with Israel. e cleansing
was a proof of the power of Jehovah in the midst of Israel,
and the pardon was in connection with His government
in Israel, and therefore proved itself by the perfect cure
of the sick man, according to the psalm already quoted.2
No doubt, these rights were not limited to Israel, but at
that moment they were exercised in connection with this
nation. He cleansed, in grace, that which Jehovah alone
could cleanse. He pardoned that which Jehovah alone
could pardon, taking away all the consequence of their sin.
It was, in this sense, a governmental pardon; the power
of Jehovah present, fully to restore and reestablish Israel-
wherever, at least, faith could prot by it. Afterwards, we
shall nd pardon for peace of soul.
(1. e call of Peter is more general in this respect, that
it is connected with the Person of Christ. Nevertheless,
although he was a sher of men (a word used evidently in
contrast with the shes he was occupied with), he exercised
his ministry more particularly with regard to Israel. But it
was power in the Person of Christ that governed his heart;
so that it was, fundamentally, the new thing, but as yet in
its connection with Israel, while extending beyond them. It
is at the end of chapter 7 and in chapter 8 that we enter on
ground beyond the narrow limits of Israel.)
(2. Compare Job 33-34 and James 5:14-15-the rst
outside dispensations, and James under Christianity. In
Israel, it is the Lord Himself in sovereign grace.)
Grace extended beyond Israel
e call of Levi, and that which follows, shows that not
only was this power of grace to extend beyond Israel, but
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that the old vessel was not able to bear it. It must form a
vessel for itself.
e perseverance of faith and the power of God
We may also remark here, on the other hand, that faith
is characterized by perseverance. In the consciousness of
the evil, an evil without remedy, and in the assurance that
One able to heal is there, it does not allow itself to be
discouraged-does not put o the relief of its need. Now,
the power of God was there to meet this need.<P259>
is terminates that part of the narrative which reveals,
in a positive way, divine power, visiting the earth in grace,
in the Person of the Son of Man, and exercised in Israel, in
the condition in which it found them.
e distinct characters of the rst part of the Lord’s
ministry in power and grace
at which follows characterizes its exercise in contrast
with Judaism. But that which we have already examined
is divided into two parts, having distinct characters which
deserve to be noticed. First, in chapter 4:31-41, it is the power
of the Lord manifesting itself on His part, as triumphing
(without any particular connection with the mind of the
individual) over all the power of the enemy, whether in
sickness or in possession. e power of the enemy is there:
Jesus casts it out and heals those who are suering from it.
But, second, His occupation is to preach. And the kingdom
was not only the manifestation of a power which casts out
all that of the enemy, but of a power which brought souls
also into connection with God. We see this in chapter 5:1-
26. Here their condition before God, sin, and faith are in
question-in a word, all that belonged to their relationship
with God.
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Here, consequently, we see the authority of the word of
Christ upon the heart, the manifestation of His glory (He
is owned as Lord), conviction of sin, just jealousy for His
glory, in the sense of His holiness which should keep itself
inviolate; the soul taking God’s part against itself, because
it loves holiness and respects the glory of God, even while
feeling the attraction of His grace; so that, owing to this,
everything is forgotten-sh, nets, boat, danger: “one thing”
already possesses the soul. e Lord’s answer then dispels
all fear, and He associates the freed soul with Himself in
the grace which He had exercised towards it, and in the
work which He wrought in behalf of men. It was already
delivered morally from all that was around it; now, in the
full enjoyment of grace, it is set free by the power of grace,
and wholly given to Jesus. e Lord-perfect manifestation
of God-in creating new aections by this revelation of
God, separates the heart from all that bound it to this
world, to the order of the old man, in order to set it apart
for Himself-for God. He surrounds Himself with all that
is delivered, becoming its center; and, indeed, delivers by
being so.<P260>
He then cleanses the leper, which none but Jehovah
could do. Still He does not come out of His position under
the law; and, however great His fame, He maintains His
place of perfect dependence as man before God. e leper,
the unclean, may return to God.
He next forgives. e guilty one is no longer so before
God; he is pardoned. At the same time he receives strength.
Nevertheless, it is still the Son of Man who is there. In both
cases faith seeks the Lord, bringing its need before Him.
e character of grace
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e Lord now exhibits the character of this grace in
connection with its objects. Being supreme, being of God,
it acts in virtue of its rights. Human circumstances do not
hinder it. It adapts itself by its very nature to human need,
and not to human privileges. It is not subject to ordinances,1
and does not come in through them. e power of God by
the Spirit was there, and acted for itself, and produced its
own eects, setting aside that which was old-that to which
man was attached,2 and to which the power of the Spirit
could not be conned.<P261>
(1. Christ, born under the law, was subject to them; but
that is a dierent thing. Here it is a divine power acting in
grace.)
(2. But here also the Lord, in giving the reasons why the
disciples did not follow the ordinances, and the institutions,
of John and of the Pharisees, connects them with the two
principles already pointed out-His position in the midst of
Israel, and the power of grace which went beyond its limits.
e Messiah, Jehovah Himself, was among them, in this
grace (in spite of their failure under the law, in spite of their
subjection to the Gentiles) according to which Jehovah
named Himself, “I am the Lord that healeth thee.” At least,
He was there in the supremacy of grace for faith. ose,
therefore, who owned Him as the Messiah, the husband of
Israel, could they fast while He was with them? He would
leave them: without doubt that would be their time to fast.
Moreover, secondly, it is always impossible. He could not
adapt the new cloth of Christianity to the old garment of
Judaism, in its nature incapable of receiving its energy, or
adapting itself to grace, worn out withal as a dispensation
by sin, and under which Israel was, in judgment, made
subject to the Gentiles. Besides, the power of the Spirit of
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God in grace could not be restricted to the ordinances of
the law. It would destroy them by its very strength. e call
of Levi violated, and most openly, all the prejudices of the
Jews. eir own fellow-countrymen were the instruments
of their masters’ extortion, and reminded them in the most
painful manner of their subjection to the Gentiles. But the
Lord was there in grace to seek sinners.
at which the Holy Spirit sets before us is the presence
of the Lord, and the rights which are necessarily attached
to His Person and to His sovereign grace, which had come
into Israel, but necessarily went beyond its limits (setting
aside, consequently, the legal system which could not receive
the new thing). is is the key to all these narratives. us,
also, in that which follows respecting the sabbath, the one
case shows the supremacy which His glorious Person gave
Him over that which was the sign of the covenant itself;
and the other, that the goodness of God cannot abdicate its
rights and its nature. He would do good even on a sabbath
day.)
Opposition to grace; the old order of things and the
new
e scribes and Pharisees would not have the Lord
associate with the wicked and disreputable. God seeks those
who need Him-sinners-in grace. When they ask why His
disciples do not observe the customs and the ordinances
of John and the Pharisees, by which they guided the legal
piety of their disciples, it is that the new thing could not
be subjected to the forms that belonged to that which was
old, and which could not sustain the strength and energy
of that which came from God. e old were the forms of
man after the esh; the new, the energy of God, according
to the Holy Spirit. Moreover, it was not the time for a piety
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that took the form of self-mortication. What else could
man do? But the Bridegroom was there.
Nevertheless, man would prefer that which was old,
because it was man, and not the energy of God.
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Luke 6
e Son of Man manifested as Lord of the sabbath
e circumstances related in chapter 6:1-10 have
reference to the same truth, and in an important aspect.
e sabbath was the sign of the covenant between Israel
and God-rest after nished works. e Pharisees blame
the disciples of Christ, because they rub out the ears of
corn in their hands. Now a rejected David had overleaped
the barrier of the law when his need required it. For when
God’s Anointed was rejected and cast out, everything
became in a manner common. e Son of Man
(Son of David, rejected like the son of Jesse, the elect
and anointed king) was Lord of the sabbath; God, who
established this ordinance, was above the ordinances He
had established, and present in grace the obligation of
man yielded to the sovereignty of God; and the Son of
Man was there with the rights and the power of God.
Marvelous fact! Moreover, the power of God present in
grace did not allow misery to exist, because it was the day
of grace. But this was setting aside Judaism. at was the
obligation of man to God, Christ was the manifestation
of God in<P262> grace to men.1 Availing Himself of the
rights of supreme goodness, and displaying a power that
authorized His pretension to assert those rights, He heals,
in full synagogue, the man with the withered hand. ey are
lled with madness at this manifestation of power, which
overows and carries away the dikes of their pride and self-
righteousness. We may observe that all these circumstances
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are gathered together with an order and mutual connection
that are perfect.2
(1. is is an important point. A part in the rest of God
is the distinctive privilege of saints-of God’s people. Man
had it not at the fall, still God’s rest remained the special
portion of His people. He did not get it under the law.
But every distinct institution under the law is accompanied
by an enforcement of the sabbath, the formal expression
of the rest of the rst Adam, and this Israel will enjoy at
the end of this world’s history. Till then, as the Lord said
so blessedly, My Father works hitherto and I work. For
us, the day of rest is not the seventh day, the end of this
world’s week; but the rst day, the day after the sabbath,
the beginning of a new week, a new creation, the day of
Christ’s resurrection, the commencement of a new state
for man, for the accomplishment of which all creation
around us waits, only we are before God in Spirit as Christ
is. Hence the sabbath, the seventh day, the rest of the rst
creation on human and legal ground, is always treated with
rejection in the New Testament, though not set aside till
judgment came, but as an ordinance it died with Christ in
the grave, where He passed it-only it was made for man as
a mercy. e Lord’s Day is our day and precious, external
earnest of the heavenly rest.
(2. I may remark here that, where chronological order
is followed in Luke, it is the same as in Mark and that of
the events, not as in Matthew put together to bring out
the object of the Gospel; only he occasionally introduces
a circumstance which may have happened at another time
illustrative of the subject historically related. But in chapter
9 Luke arrives at the last journey up to Jerusalem (vs. 51),
and, from this on, a series of moral instruction follows to
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chapter 18:31, chiey, if not all, during the period of this
journey, but which for the most part has little to say to
dates.)
God manifested in a new way; the Sent One sends out
His messengers
e Lord had shown that this grace-which had visited
Israel according to all that could be expected from the Lord
Almighty, faithful to His promises-could, nevertheless,
not be conned to the narrow limits of that people, nor
be adapted to the ordinances of the law; that men desired
the old things, but that the power of God acted according
to its own nature. He had shown that the most sacred, the
most obligatory, sign of the old covenant must bow to His
title superior to all ordinance, and give place to the rights
of His divine love which was in action. But the old thing
was thus judged, and passing away. He had shown Himself
in everything-in the calling of Peter especially-to be the
new<P263> center, around which all that sought God and
blessing must gather; for He was the living manifestation
of God and of blessing in men. us God was manifested,
the old order of things was worn out and unable to contain
this grace, and the remnant was separated-around the
Lord-from a world that saw no beauty in Him that they
should desire Him. He now acted on this basis; and if faith
sought Him in Israel, this power of grace manifested God
in a new way. God surrounds Himself with men, as the
center of blessing in Christ as man. But He is love, and in
the activity of that love He seeks the lost. None but one,
and one who was God and revealed Him, could surround
Himself with His followers. No prophet ever did (see John
1). None could send out with the authority and power of
a divine message but God. Christ had been sent; He now
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sends. e name of “apostle” (sent), for He so names them,
contains this deep and marvelous truth-God is acting in
grace. He surrounds Himself with blessed ones. He seeks
miserable sinners. If Christ, the true center of grace and
happiness, surrounds Himself with followers, yet He sends
also His chosen ones to bear testimony of the love which
He came to manifest. God has manifested Himself in
man. In man He seeks sinners. Man has part in the most
immediate display of the divine nature in both ways. He
is with Christ as man; and he is sent by Christ. Christ
Himself does this as man. It is man full of the Holy Spirit.
us we see Him again manifested in dependence on His
Father before choosing the apostles; He retires to pray, He
passes the night in prayer.
e new center; the remnant separated to receive
blessing
And now He goes beyond the manifestation of
Himself, as personally full of the Holy Spirit, to bring
in the knowledge of God among men. He becomes the
center, around which all must come who sought God, and
a source of mission for the accomplishment of His love-the
center of the manifestation of divine power in grace. And,
therefore, He called around Him the remnant who should
be saved. His position, in every respect, is summed up in
that which is said after He came down from the mountain.
He comes down with the apostles from His communion
with God. In the plain1 He is surrounded by the company
of His disciples, and<P264> then by a great multitude,
drawn together by His word and works. ere was the
attraction of the Word of God, and He healed the diseases
of men and cast out the power of Satan. is power dwelt
in His Person; the virtue that went out of Him gave these
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outward testimonies to the power of God present in grace.
e attention of the people was drawn to Him by these
means. Nevertheless, we have seen that the old things, to
which the multitude was attached, were passing away. He
surrounded Himself with hearts faithful to God, the called
of His grace. Here, therefore, He does not, as in Matthew,
announce strictly the character of the kingdom, to show
that of the dispensation which was at hand, saying, “Blessed
are the poor in spirit”; but, distinguishing the remnant, by
their attachment to Himself, He declares to the disciples
who followed Him that they were these blessed ones. ey
were poor and despised, but they were blessed. ey should
have the kingdom. is is important, because it separates
the remnant and puts them in relationship with Himself to
receive the blessing. He describes, in a remarkable manner,
the character of those who were thus blessed of God.
(1. Properly “a level place” on the mountain, τοπου
πεδινου (topou pedinou).)
e divisions and subjects of the Lord’s discourse
e Lord’s discourse is divided into several branches.
Verses 20-26. e contrast between the remnant,
manifested as His disciples, and the multitude who were
satised with the world, adding a warning to those who
stood in the place of disciples, and in that gained the favor
of the world. Woe be to such! Remark also here that it is
not a question of persecution for righteousness’ sake, as in
Matthew, but only for His name’s sake. All was marked by
attachment to His Person.
Verses 27-36. e character of God their Father in
the manifestation of grace in Christ, which they were to
imitate. He reveals, note, the Father’s name and puts them
in the place of children.
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Verses 37-38. is character particularly developed
in the position of Christ, as He was on earth at that
time, Christ fullling His service on earth. is implied
government and recompense on God’s part, as was the case
with regard to Christ Himself.
Verse 39. e condition of the leaders in Israel, and the
connection between them and the multitude.
Verse 40. at of the disciples in relation to
Christ.<P265>
Verses 41-42. e way to attain it, and to see clearly in
the midst of evil, is to put evil away from oneself.
Afterwards, in general, its own fruit characterized every
tree. Coming around Christ to hear Him was not the
question, but that He should be so precious to their hearts
that they would put aside every obstacle and practically
obey Him.
Summary of chapters 4-6
Let us sum up these things which we have been
considering. He acts in a power which dispels evil, because
He nds it there, and He is good; and God alone is good.
He reaches the conscience and calls souls to Himself. He
acts in connection with the hope of Israel and the power
of God to cleanse, pardon and give them strength. But it
is a grace which we all need; and the goodness of God, the
energy of His love, did not conne itself to that people. Its
exercise did not agree with the forms on which the Jews
lived (or, rather, could not live); and the new wine must be
put into new bottles. e question of the sabbath settled
the question of the introduction of this power; the sign
of the covenant gave way to it: He who exercised it was
Lord of the sabbath. e loving-kindness of the God of
the sabbath was not stayed, as if having His hands tied
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by that which He had established in connection with the
covenant. Jesus then assembles the vessels of His grace and
power, according to the will of God, around Himself. ey
were the blessed ones, the heirs of the kingdom. e Lord
describes their character. It was not the indierence and
pride that arose from ignorance of God, justly alienated
from Israel, who had sinned against Him, and despised the
glorious manifestation of His grace in Christ. ey share
the distress and pain which such a condition of God’s
people must cause in those who had the mind of God.
Hated, proscribed, put to shame for the sake of the Son
of Man, who had come to bear their sorrows, it was their
glory. ey should share His glory when the nature of God
was gloried in doing all things according to His own will.
ey would not be put to shame in heaven; they should
have their reward there, not in Israel. “In like manner had
their fathers done unto the prophets.” Woe unto those that
were at ease in Zion, during the sinful condition of Israel,
and their rejection and ill-treatment of their Messiah! It
is the contrast between the<P266> character of the true
remnant and that of the proud among the people.
We then nd the conduct that is suitable to the former-
conduct which, to express it in one word, comprises in
its essential elements, the character of God in grace, as
manifested in Jesus on the earth. But Jesus had His own
character of service as the Son of Man; the application of
this to their particular circumstances is added in verses 37-
38. In verse 39 the leaders of Israel are set before us, and in
verse 40 the portion of the disciples. Rejected like Himself,
they should have His portion; but, assuming that they
followed Him perfectly, they should have it in blessing,
in grace, in character, in position also. What a favor!1
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Moreover, the judgment of self, and not of one’s brother,
was the means of attaining clear moral sight. e tree good,
the fruit would be good. Self-judgment applies to the trees.
is is always true. In self-judgment, it is not only the fruit
that is corrected; it is oneself. And the tree is known by its
fruit-not only by good fruit, but by its own. e Christian
bears the fruit of the nature of Christ. Also, it is the heart
itself and real practical obedience that are in question.
(1. is, however, does not speak of nature intrinsically,
for in Christ was no sin. Nor has the word used for “perfect”
that sense. It is one completely, thoroughly instructed,
formed completely by the teaching of his master, omnibus
numeris absolutus. He will be like him, as his master, in all
in which he was formed by him. Christ was the perfection;
we grow up unto Him in all things unto the measure of
the stature of the fullness of Christ. (See Colossians 1:28.))
Here, then, the great principles of the new life, in its
full practical development in Christ, are set before us. It
is the new thing morally, the savor and character of the
new wine-the remnant made like unto Christ whom they
followed, unto Christ the new center of the movement of
the Spirit of God, and of the calling of His grace. Christ
has come out of the walled court of Judaism, in the power
of a new life and by the authority of the Most High, who
had brought blessing into this enclosure, which it was
unable to acknowledge. He had come out from it, according
to the principles of the life itself which He announced;
historically, He was still in it.<P267>
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73129
Luke 7
Out of the walled court of Judaism; faith in the heart
of a Gentile
Hence, after this, we nd the Spirit acting in the heart
of a Gentile. at heart manifested more faith than any
among the children of Israel. Humble in heart, and loving
the people of God, as such, for the sake of God, whose
people they were, and thus raised in his aections above
their practical, wretched state, he can see in Jesus One who
had authority over everything, even as he himself had over
his soldiers and servants. He knew nothing of the Messiah,
but he recognized in Jesus1 the power of God. is was not
mere idea; it was faith. ere was no such faith in Israel.
(1. We have seen this to be precisely the subject of the
Holy Spirit in our Gospel.)
Power exercised to raise the dead; all things new
e Lord then acts with a power which was to be the
source of that which is new for man. He raises the dead.
is was indeed going beyond the pale of the ordinances
of the law. He has compassion on the aiction and misery
of man. Death was a burden to him: Jesus delivers him
from it. It was not only cleansing a leprous Israelite, nor
pardoning and healing believers among His people; He
restores life to one who had lost it. Israel, no doubt, will
prot by it; but the power necessary to the accomplishment
of this work is that which makes all things new wherever
it may be.
e relative positions of John the Baptist and Christ;
the Lord’s testimony to John
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e change of which we speak, and which these two
examples so strikingly illustrate, is brought out in treating
of the connection between Christ and John the Baptist,
who sends to learn from the Lord’s own mouth who He
is. John had heard of His miracles and sends his disciples
to learn who it was that wrought them. Naturally the
Messiah, in the exercise of His power, would have delivered
him from prison. Was He the Messiah? or was John to
wait for another? He had faith enough to depend on the
answer of One who wrought these miracles; but, shut up
in prison, his mind desired something more positive. is
circumstance, brought about<P268> by God, gives rise to
an explanation respecting the relative position of John and
Jesus. e Lord does not here receive testimony from John.
John was to receive Christ upon the testimony He gave of
Himself; and that as having taken a position which would
oend those who judged according to Jewish and carnal
ideas-a position which required faith in a divine testimony,
and, consequently, surrounded itself with those whom a
moral change had enabled to appreciate this testimony.
e Lord, in reply to John’s messengers, works miracles
which prove the power of God present in grace and service
rendered to the poor; and declares that blessed is he who is
not oended at the humble position He had taken in order
to accomplish it. But He gives testimony to John, if He will
receive none from him. He had attracted the attention of
the people, and with reason; he was more than a prophet-he
had prepared the way of the Lord Himself. Nevertheless, if
he prepared the way, the immense and complete change to
be made was not itself accomplished. John’s ministry, by its
very nature, put him outside the eect of this change. He
went before it to announce the One who would accomplish
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it, whose presence would bring in its power on the earth.
e least, therefore, in the kingdom was greater than he.
e people’s reception of John and the Lord
e people, who had received with humility the word
sent by John the Baptist, bore testimony in their heart to
the ways and the wisdom of God. ose who trusted in
themselves rejected the counsels of God accomplished
in Christ. e Lord, on this, declares plainly what their
condition is. ey rejected alike the warnings and the
grace of God. e children of wisdom (those in whom the
wisdom of God wrought) acknowledged and gave glory
to it in its ways. is is the history of the reception both
of John and of Jesus. e wisdom of man denounced the
ways of God. e righteous severity of His testimony
against evil, against the condition of His people, showed
to man’s eyes the inuence of a devil. e perfection of
His grace, condescending to poor sinners, and presenting
itself to them where they were, was the wallowing in sin
and the making oneself known by one’s associates. Proud
self-righteousness could bear neither. e wisdom of God
would be owned by those who were taught by it, and by
those alone.<P269>
God’s ways towards sinners in contrast with the
pharisaic spirit
ereupon, these ways of God towards the most
wretched sinners and their eect, in contrast with this
pharisaic spirit, are shown in the history of the woman
who was a sinner in the Pharisee’s house; and a pardon
is revealed, not with reference to the government of God
in the earth on behalf of His people (a government with
which the healing of an Israelite under God’s discipline
was connected), but an absolute pardon, involving peace to
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the soul, is granted to the most miserable of sinners. It was
not here merely the question of a prophet. e Pharisee’s
self-righteousness could not discern even that.
e child of wisdom
We have a soul that loves God, and much, because God
is love- a soul that has learned this with regard to, and by
means of, its own sins, though not yet knowing forgiveness,
in seeing Jesus. is is grace. Nothing more touching than
the way in which the Lord shows the presence of those
qualities which made this woman now truly excellent-
qualities connected with the discernment of His Person
by faith. In her were found divine understanding of the
Person of Christ, not reasoned out indeed in doctrine
but felt in its eect in her heart, deep sense of her own
sin, humility, love for that which was good, devotedness
to Him who was good. Everything showed a heart in
which reigned sentiments proper to relationship with
God-sentiments that owed from His presence revealed
in the heart, because He had made Himself known to it.
is, however, is not the place to dwell upon them; but it
is important to remark that which has great moral value,
when what a free pardon really is is to be set forth, that the
exercise of grace on God’s part creates (when received into
the heart) sentiments corresponding to itself, and which
nothing else can produce; and that these sentiments are
in connection with that grace, and with the sense of sin
it produces. It gives a deep consciousness of sin, but it is
in connection with the sense of God’s goodness; and the
two feelings increase in mutual proportion. e new thing,
sovereign grace, can alone produce these qualities, which
answer to the nature of God Himself, whose true character
the heart has apprehended, and with whom it is in<P270>
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communion; and that, while judging sin as it deserves in
the presence of such a God.
e hearts of the Pharisee, the sinner and of God
manifested in grace
It will be observed that this is connected with the
knowledge of Christ Himself, who is the manifestation of
this character; the true source by grace of the feeling of this
broken heart; and also that the knowledge of her pardon
comes afterward.1 It is grace<P271>-it is Jesus Himself-
His Person-that attracts this woman and produces the
moral eect. She goes away in peace when she understands
the extent of grace in the pardon which He pronounces.
And the pardon itself has its force in her mind, in that
Jesus was everything to her. If He forgave, she was satised.
Without accounting for it to herself, it was God revealed to
her heart; it was not self-approval, nor the judgment others
might form of the change wrought in her. Grace had so
taken possession of her heart-grace personied in Jesus-
God was so manifested to her that His approval in grace,
His forgiveness, carried everything else with it. If He was
satised, so was she. She had all in attaching this importance
to Christ. Grace delights to bless, and the soul that attaches
importance enough to Christ is content with the blessing
it bestows. How striking is the rmness with which grace
asserts itself and does not fear to withstand the judgment
of man who despises it! It takes unhesitatingly the part of
the poor sinner whom it has touched. Man’s judgment only
proves that he neither knows nor appreciates God in the
most perfect manifestation of His nature. To man, with all
his wisdom, it is but a poor preacher, who deceives himself
in passing for a prophet, and to whom it is not worthwhile
to give a little water for his feet. To the believer it is perfect
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and divine love, it is perfect peace if he has faith in Christ.
Its fruits are not yet before man; they are before God, if
Christ is appreciated. And he who appreciates Him thinks
neither of himself nor of his fruits (except of the bad), but
of the One who was the testimony of grace to his heart
when he was nothing but a sinner.<P272>
(1. To explain the expression, “Her sins are forgiven,
for she loved much,” we must distinguish between grace
revealed in the Person of Jesus and the pardon He announced
to those whom the grace had reached. e Lord is able to
make this pardon known. He reveals it to the poor woman.
But it was that which she had seen in Jesus Himself, which,
by grace, melted her heart and produced the love she had
to Him-the seeing what He was for sinners like herself.
She thinks only of Him: He has taken possession of her
heart so as to shut out other inuences. Hearing that He is
there, she goes into the house of this proud man, without
thinking of anything but the fact that Jesus is there. His
presence answered, or prevented, every question. She saw
what He was for a sinner, and that the most wretched and
disgraced found a resource in Him; she felt her sins in the
way that this perfect grace, which opens the heart and wins
condence, causes them to be felt; and she loved much.
Grace in Christ had produced its eect. She loved because
of His love. is is the reason that the Lord says, “Her sins
are forgiven, because she loved much.” It was not that her
love was meritorious for this, but that God revealed the
glorious fact that the sins-be they ever so numerous and
abominable-of one whose heart was turned to God were
fully pardoned. ere are many whose hearts are turned
to God, and who love Jesus, that do not know this. Jesus
pronounces on their case with authority-sends them away
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in peace. It is a revelation-an answer-to the wants and
aections produced in the heart made penitent by grace
revealed in the Person of Christ.
If God manifests Himself in this world, and with such
love, He must needs set aside in the heart every other
consideration. And thus, without being aware of it, this
poor woman was the only one who acted suitably in those
circumstances; for she appreciated the all-importance of
the One who was there. A Saviour-God being present, of
what importance was Simon and his house? Jesus caused
all else to be forgotten. Let us remember this.
e beginning of man’s fall was loss of condence in
God, by the seducing suggestion of Satan that God had
kept back what would make man like God. Condence
in God lost, man seeks, in the exercise of his own will, to
make himself happy: lusts, sin, transgression follow. Christ
is God in innite love, winning back the condence of
man’s heart to God. Removal of guilt and power to live
to God are another thing, and found in their own place
through Christ, as pardon comes in its place here. But the
poor woman, through grace, had felt that there was one
heart she could trust, if none else; but that was God’s.
God is light and God is love. ese are the two essential
names of God, and in every true case of conversion both
are found. In the cross they meet; sin is brought fully into
the light, but in that by which love is fully known. So, in
the heart, light reveals sin, that is, God as light does, but
the light is there by perfect love. e God who shows the
sins is there in perfect love to do it. Christ was this in this
world. Revealing Himself, He must be both; so Christ was
love in the world, but the light of it. So in the heart. e
love through grace gives condence, and thus the light is
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401
gladly let in, and in the condence in the love, and seeing
self in the light, the heart has wholly met God’s heart: so
with this poor woman. is is where the heart of man and
God always and alone meet. e Pharisee had neither.
Pitch dark, neither love nor light were there. He had God
manifest in the esh in his house and saw nothing-only
settled that He was not a prophet. It is a wondrous scene to
see these three hearts. Man’s as such resting on false human
righteousness, God’s, and the poor sinner’s-fully meeting it
as God did hers. Who was the child of wisdom? For it is a
commentary on that expression.
And note, though Christ had said nothing of it, but
bowed to the slight, yet He was not insensible to the neglect
which had not met Him with the common courtesies of life.
To Simon He was a poor preacher, whose pretensions he
could judge, certainly not a prophet; for the poor woman,
God in love, and bringing her heart into unison with His
as to her sins and as to herself, for love was trusted in. Note,
too, this clinging to Jesus is where true light is found: here,
the fruitful revelation of the gospel; to Mary Magdalene, as
to the highest privilege of saints. )
is is the new thing-grace, and even its fruits in their
perfection: the heart of God manifested in grace, and the
heart of man- a sinner-responding to it by grace, having
apprehended, or rather having been apprehended by, the
perfect manifestation of that grace in Christ.
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73130
Luke 8
e import and eect of the Lord’s ministry in spite
of unbelief
In chapter 8 the Lord explains the import and the eect
of His ministry; and especially, I doubt not, its eect among
the Jews. However great the unbelief, Jesus carries on His
work to the end, and the fruits of His work appear. He goes
to preach the good news of the kingdom. His disciples (the
fruit, and the witnesses by grace, in their measure, in the
same manner as Himself, of His mighty word) accompany
Him; and other fruits of this same word, witnesses also by
their own deliverance from the power of the enemy, and
by the aection and devotedness owing from thence by
grace-a grace which acted also in them, according to the
love and devotedness that attach to Jesus. Here women
have a good place.1 e work was strengthened and
consolidated, and characterizes itself by its eects.
(1. It is exceedingly interesting to see the distinct place
of the disciples and the women. Nor, as said above, have
the women a bad place. We nd them again at the cross
and the sepulchre when-at any rate save John-the disciples
had ed, or, even if called by the women to the sepulchre,
gone home! when they saw He was raised.)
e Sower; the seed sown to produce fruit; the
disciples distinguished from the multitude
e Lord explains its true nature. He did not take
possession of the kingdom, He did not seek for fruit;
He sowed the testimony of God in order to produce fruit.
is, in a striking way, is the altogether new thing. e
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403
Word was its seed. Moreover, it was the disciples only-
who had followed and attached themselves to His Person,
by grace and by virtue of the manifestation of the power
and grace of God in His Person-to whom it was given to
understand the mysteries, the thoughts of God, revealed
in Christ, of this kingdom which was not being openly
established by power.<P273> Here the remnant is very
clearly distinguished from the nation. To “others” it was in
parables, that they might not understand. For that the Lord
Himself must be received morally. Here this parable is not
accompanied by others. Alone it marks out the position.
e warning, which we considered in Mark, is added.
Finally, the light of God was not manifested in order to
be hidden. Moreover, everything should be made manifest.
erefore, they must take heed how they heard, for, if they
possessed that which they heard, they should receive more:
otherwise, even that should be taken from them.
e place and eect of the Word
e Lord puts a seal upon this testimony, namely, that
the thing in question was the Word, which drew to Him
and to God those who were to enjoy the blessing; and that
the Word was the basis of all relationship with Himself,
declaring, when they spoke to Him of His mother and
brethren, by whom He was related to Israel after the esh,
that He acknowledged as such none others but those who
heard and obeyed the Word of God.
Christ in power in the storm with His disciples
Besides the evident power manifested in His miracles,
the accounts that follow-to the end of chapter 8-present
dierent aspects of the work of Christ, and of His reception,
and of its consequences.
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First, the Lord-although, apparently, He takes no
notice-is associated with His disciples in the diculties and
storms that surround them, because they have embarked in
His service. We have seen that He gathered the disciples
around Himself: they are devoted to His service. As far as
man’s power to avert it went, they were in imminent danger.
e waves are ready to swallow them up. Jesus, in their
eyes, cares nothing about it; but God has permitted this
exercise of faith. ey are there on account of Christ, and
with Him. Christ is with them; and the power of Christ,
for whose sake they are in the storm, is there to protect
them. ey are together with Him in the same vessel. If
as to themselves they might perish, they are associated in
the counsels of God with Jesus, and His presence is their
safeguard. He permits the storm, but He is Himself in the
vessel. When He shall awake and manifest Himself, all will
be calm.<P274>
e demoniac healed as a witness of the Lord’s grace
and power
In the healing of the demoniac, in the country of the
Gadarenes, we have a living picture of what was passing.
As to Israel, the remnant-however great the enemy’s
power- is delivered. e world beseeches Jesus to depart,
desiring their own ease, which is more disturbed by the
presence and power of God than by a legion of devils. He
goes away. e man who was healed-the remnant-would
fain be with Him; but the Lord sends him back (into the
world that He quitted Himself) to be a witness of the grace
and power of which he had been the subject.
e herd of swine, I doubt not, set before us the career
of Israel towards their destruction, after the rejection of the
Lord. e world accustoms itself to the power of Satan-
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405
painful as it may be to see it in certain cases-never to the
power of God.
e eect of faith; healing power in the Person of
Christ
e next two histories present the eect of faith, and the
real need with which the grace that meets it has to do. e
faith of the remnant seeks Jesus to preserve the life of that
which is ready to perish. e Lord answers it, and comes
Himself to answer it. On the way (it is there He was, and,
as to nal deliverance, He is still there), in the midst of the
crowd that surrounded Him, faith touches Him. e poor
woman had a disease which no means at man’s disposal
could heal. But power is found in the Man, Christ, and
comes forth from Him for the healing of man, wherever
faith exists, while waiting for the nal accomplishment of
His mission on earth. She is healed and confesses before
Christ her condition and all that had happened to her: and
thus, by means of the eect of faith, testimony is rendered
to Christ. e remnant is manifested, faith distinguishes
them from the multitude; their condition being the fruit of
divine power in Christ.
is principle applies to the healing of every believer,
and, consequently, to that of the Gentiles, as the Apostle
argues. Healing power is in the Person of Christ; faith-by
grace and by the attraction of Christ-prots by it. It does
not depend on the relationship of the Jew, although, as to
his position, he was the rst to prot by it. It is a question
of what there is in the Person of Christ, and of faith in the
individual. If there is faith in the <P275>individual, this
power acts; he goes away in peace, healed by the power of
God Himself.
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Jairus’ daughter: divine power to raise from the dead
exercised in grace
But, in fact, if we consider in full the condition of man,
it was not sickness merely which was in question, but
death. Christ, before the full manifestation of the state of
man, met it, so to speak, on the way; but, as in the case of
Lazarus, the manifestation was allowed; and to faith this
manifestation took place in the death of Jesus. us, here,
it is permitted that the daughter of Jairus should die before
the arrival of Christ; but grace has come to raise from the
dead, with the divine power that alone can accomplish it;
and Jesus, in comforting the poor father, bids him not to
fear, but only to believe, and his daughter should be made
whole. It is faith in His Person, in the divine power in Him,
in the grace that comes to exercise it, which obtains joy and
deliverance. But Jesus does not seek the multitude here; the
manifestation of this power is only for the consolation of
those who feel their need of it, and for the faith of those
who are really attached to Him. e multitude know,
indeed, that the maiden is dead; they bewail her, and do
not understand the power of God that can raise her up.
Jesus gives back to her parents the child whose life He had
restored. us will it be with the Jews at the end, in the
midst of the unbelief of the many. Meantime, by faith, we
anticipate this joy, convinced that it is our state by grace;
we live: only that for us it is in connection with Christ in
heaven, the rstfruits of a new creation.
With respect to His ministry, Jesus will have this
hidden. He must be received according to the testimony
which He bore to the conscience and to the heart. On the
way, this testimony was not entirely nished. We shall see
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His last eorts with the unbelieving heart of man in the
succeeding chapters.
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73131
Luke 9
Sending forth the twelve disciples; a denite
testimony against the people
In chapter 9 the Lord charges the disciples with the
same mission in Israel as that which He Himself fullled.
ey preach the<P276> kingdom, heal the sick and cast
out devils. But this is added, that their work takes the
character of a nal mission. Not that the Lord had ceased
to work, for He also sent forth the seventy; but nal in
this sense, that it became a denite testimony against the
people if they rejected it. e twelve were to shake o the
dust from their feet on leaving the cities that would reject
them. is is intelligible at the point we have reached in
the Gospel. It is repeated, with a yet greater force, in the
case of the seventy. We shall speak of it in the chapter that
relates to their being sent forth. eir mission comes after
the manifestation of His glory to the three disciples. But
the Lord, as long as He was here, continued His exercise
of power in mercy, for it was what He personally was here,
and sovereign goodness in Him was above all the evil He
met with.
e fame of the Lord’s marvelous works
To go on with our chapter. at which follows verse 7
shows that the fame of His marvelous works had reached
the ears of the king. Israel was without excuse. Whatever
little conscience there was felt the eect of His power.
e people also followed Him. Gone apart with the
disciples, who had returned from their mission, He is soon
surrounded by the multitude; again, their servant in grace,
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however great their unbelief, He preaches to them and
heals all who needed it.
e Satiser of His people with bread: a special proof
of the divine power and presence
But He would give them a fresh and very special proof
of the divine power and presence that was among them. It
had been said that in the time of Israel’s blessing from the
Lord, when He should make the horn of David to ourish,
He would satisfy the poor with bread. Jesus now does so.
But there is more than this here. We have seen throughout
this Gospel that He exercises this power, in His humanity,
by the unmeasured energy of the Holy Spirit. Hence, a
marvelous blessing for us, granted according to the sovereign
counsels of God, through the perfect wisdom of Jesus in
selecting His instruments. He will have the disciples do
it. Nevertheless, the power that performs it is all His own.
e disciples see nothing beyond that which their eyes can
estimate. But, if He who feeds them is Jehovah, He ever
takes His place<P277> Himself in the dependence of the
nature He had assumed. He retires with His disciples, and
there, afar from the world, He prays. And, as in the two
remarkable cases1 of the descent of the Holy Spirit and
the selection of the twelve, so here also His prayer is the
occasion of the manifestation of His glory- glory which
was due to Him, but which the Father gave Him as man,
and in connection with the suerings and the humiliation,
which, in His love, He voluntarily underwent.
(1. Observe also here that it is not only in the case
of acts of power, or in that of testimony to the glory of
His Person in answer to His prayer, that these prayers are
oered. His conversation with the disciples respecting the
change in the dispensations of God (in which He speaks
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of His suerings and forbids them to make Him known as
the Christ) is introduced by His prayer when He was in a
desert place with them. at His people were to be given
up for a time occupied His heart as much as the glory.
Moreover, He pours out His heart to God, whatever may
be the subject that occupies Him according to the ways of
God.)
e suering Son of Man
e attention of the people was excited, but they did not
go beyond the speculations of the human mind with regard
to the Saviour. e disciples’ faith recognized without
hesitation the Christ in Jesus. But He was no longer to be
proclaimed as such-the Son of Man was to suer. Counsels
more important, a glory more excellent than that of the
Messiah, were to be realized: but it should be through
suering-suering that, as to human trials, His disciples
were to share by following Him. But in losing their life
for Him, they would gain it; for in following Jesus, the
eternal life of the soul was the question and not merely the
kingdom. Moreover, He who was now rejected would return
in His own glory, namely, as Son of Man (the character He
takes in this Gospel), in the glory of the Father, for He was
the Son of God, and in that of the angels as Jehovah the
Saviour, taking place above them, although (yea as) man:
He was worthy of this, for He created them. e salvation
of the soul, the glory of Jesus acknowledged according to
His rights, everything warned them to confess Him while
He was despised and disallowed. Now, to strengthen the
faith of those whom He would make pillars, and through
them the faith of all, He announces that some of them,
before they tasted death (they should neither wait for death,
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in which the value of eternal life would be felt, nor for the
return of Christ), should see the kingdom of God.<P278>
e transguration; the new glory and blessing
dependent on Christ’s death
In consequence of this declaration, eight days later
He took the three who afterwards were pillars, and went
up into a mountain to pray. ere He is transgured. He
appears in glory, and the disciples see it. But Moses and
Elias share it with Him. e saints of the Old Testament
have part with Him in the glory of the kingdom founded
upon His death. ey speak with Him of His decease. ey
had heretofore spoken of other things. ey had seen the
law set up, or had sought to bring the people back to it, for
the introduction of blessing; but now that this new glory
is the subject, all depends on the death of Christ, and on
that alone. Everything else disappears. e heavenly glory
of the kingdom and death are in immediate relationship.
Peter sees only the introduction of Christ into a glory
equal to theirs; connecting the latter in his mind with
that which they both were to a Jew, and associating Jesus
with it. It is then that the two disappear entirely, and Jesus
remains alone. It was He alone whom they were to hear.
e connection of Moses and Elias with Jesus in the glory
depended on the rejection of their testimony by the people
to whom they had addressed it.
e disciples associated on earth with the abode of
glory
But this is not all. e church, properly so called, is not
seen here. But the sign of the excellent glory, of the presence
of God, shows itself-the cloud in which Jehovah dwelt in
Israel. Jesus brings the disciples to it as witnesses. Moses
and Elias disappear, and, Jesus having brought the disciples
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close to the glory, the God of Israel manifests Himself as the
Father and owns Jesus as the Son in whom He delighted.
All is changed in the relationships of God with man. e
Son of Man, put to death on earth, is owned in the excellent
glory to be the Son of the Father. e disciples know Him
thus by the testimony of the Father, are associated with
Him, and, as it were, introduced into connection with the
glory in which the Father Himself thus acknowledged
Jesus-in which the Father and the Son are found. Jehovah
makes Himself known as Father by revealing the Son. And
the disciples nd themselves associated on earth with the
abode of glory, from whence, at all times, Jehovah Himself
had protected Israel. Jesus<P279> was there with them, and
He was the Son of God. What a position! What a change
for them! It is, in fact, the change from all that was most
excellent in Judaism to connection with the heavenly glory,
which was wrought at that moment, in order to make all
things new.1
(1. It is the display of the kingdom, not of the church in
heavenly places. I suppose the words “they entered” must
refer to Moses and Elias. But the cloud overshadowed the
disciples. Yet it carries us beyond that display. e word
“overshadowed” is the same as that used by the LXX for
the cloud coming and lling the tabernacle. We learn from
Matthew it was a bright cloud. It was the Shekinah of
glory which had been with Israel in the wilderness-I may
say the Father’s house. His voice came from it. Into this
they entered. It is this in Luke that makes the disciples
afraid. God had talked with Moses out of it; but here they
enter into it. us, besides the kingdom, there is the proper
dwelling-place of the saints. is is found in Luke only. We
have the kingdom, Moses and Elias in the same glory with
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the Son, and others in esh on the earth, but the heavenly
sojourn of the saints also.)
e heavenly glory; the intimacy of the three disciples
with the Lord
e personal prot of this passage is great, in that it
reveals to us, in a very striking manner, the heavenly and
glorious state. e saints are in the same glory as Jesus,
they are with Him, they converse familiarly with Him,
they converse on that which is nearest to His heart-on His
suerings and death. ey speak with the sentiments that
ow from circumstances which aect the heart. He was
to die in the beloved Jerusalem, instead of their receiving
the kingdom. ey speak as understanding the counsels
of God; for the thing had not yet taken place. Such are
the relationships of the saints with Jesus in the kingdom.
For, up to this point, it is the manifestation of the glory as
the world will see it, with the addition of the communion
between the gloried and Jesus. e three were standing
on the mountain. But the three disciples go beyond this.
ey are taught of the Father. His own aections for His
Son are made known to them. Moses and Elias have borne
testimony to Christ, and shall be gloried with Him; but
Jesus now remains alone for the church. is is more than
the kingdom, it is fellowship with the Father, and with
His Son Jesus (not understood, assuredly, at that time, but
now is by the power of the Holy Spirit). It is wonderful,
this entrance of the saints into the excellent glory, into
the Shekinah, the abode of God; and these revelations on
God’s part of His own aections for<P280> His Son. is
is more than the glory. Jesus, however, is always the object
that lls the scene for us. Observe also, for our position
down here, that the Lord speaks as intimately of His death
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to His disciples on the earth as to Moses and Elias. ese
are not more intimate with Him than are Peter, James and
John. Sweet and precious thought! And mark how thin a
veil there is between us and what is heavenly.1
(1. Note too that if Jesus takes up the disciples to see
the glory of the kingdom, and the entrance of the saints
into the excellent glory where the Father was, He came
down also and met the crowd of this world and the power
of Satan where we have to walk.)
e disciples’ powerlessness; the grace of Christ
unhindered
at which follows is the application of this revelation
to the state of things below. e disciples are unable to
prot by the power of Jesus, already manifested, to cast
out the power of the enemy. And this justies God in that
which was revealed of His counsels on the mount, and
leads to the setting aside of the Jewish system, in order to
introduce their fulllment. But this does not hinder the
action of the grace of Christ in delivering men while He
was yet with them, until man had nally rejected Him. But,
without noticing the fruitless astonishment of the people,
He insists with His disciples on His rejection and on His
crucixion; carrying this principle on to the renunciation
of self, and the humility which would receive that which
was least.
Dierent features of selshness and of the esh
contrasted with Christ’s grace and devotedness
In the remainder of the chapter, from verse 46, the
Gospel gives us the dierent features of selshness and of
the esh that are in contrast with the grace and devotedness
manifested in Christ, and that tend to prevent the believer
from walking in His steps. Verses 46-48, 49-50, 51-56,
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415
respectively, present examples1 of this; and, in verses 57-
62, the contrast between the illusive will of man and the
ecacious call of grace; the discovery of the repugnance
of the esh, when there is a true call; and the absolute
<P281>renunciation of all things, in order to obey it, are
set before us by the Spirit of God.2
(1. ese three passages point out, each in succession,
a more subtle selshness less easily detected by man:
gross personal selshness, corporate selshness, and the
selshness that clothes itself with the appearance of zeal
for the Lord, but which is not likeness to Him.)
(2. Observe that, when the will of man acts, he does not
feel the diculties, but he is not qualied for the work.
When there is a true call, the hindrances are felt.)
e Lord (in reply to the spirit that sought the
aggrandizement of their own company on earth, forgetful
of the cross) expresses to the disciples that which He did
not conceal from Himself, the truth of God, that all were
in such wise against them that, if anyone were not so, he
was even thereby for them. So thoroughly did the presence
of Christ test the heart. e other reason, given elsewhere,
is not repeated here. e Spirit, in this connection, connes
Himself to the point of view we are considering. us
rejected, the Lord judges no one. He does not avenge
Himself; He was come to save men’s lives. at a Samaritan
should repulse the Messiah was, to the disciples, worthy
of destruction. Christ came to save the lives of men. He
submits to the insult and goes elsewhere. ere were some
who wished to serve Him here below. He had no home to
which He could take them. Meantime, for this very reason,
the preaching of the kingdom was the only thing to His
unwearying love; the dead (to God) might bury the dead.
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He who was called, who was alive, must be occupied with
one thing, with the kingdom, to bear testimony to it; and
that without looking back, the urgency of the matter lifting
him above all other thoughts. He who had put his hand to
the plough must not look back. e kingdom, in presence
of the enmity-the ruin-of man, of all that opposed it,
required the soul to be wholly absorbed in its interests by
the power of God. e work of God, in the presence of
Christ’s rejection, demanded entire consecration.
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417
73132
Luke 10:1-37
e mission of the seventy; its character; testimony
rendered in power
e mission of the seventy follows in chapter 10, a
mission important in its character for the development of
the ways of God.
is character is, in fact, dierent in some respects
from that of the beginning of chapter 9. e mission is
founded on the glory of Christ manifested in chapter 9.
is, of necessity, settles the question more decisively of
the Lord’s relations with the Jews: for<P282> His glory
came after and, as to His human position, was the result of
His rejection by the nation.
is rejection was not yet accomplished: this glory was
only revealed to three of His disciples; so that the Lord
still exercised His ministry among the people. But we see
these alterations in it. He insists on that which is moral
and eternal, the position into which it would bring His
disciples, the true eect of His testimony in the world, and
the judgment about to fall upon the Jews. Nevertheless,
the harvest was great. For love, unchilled by sin, saw the
need through the outward opposition; but there were few
moved by this love. e Lord of the harvest alone could
send forth true laborers.
Already the Lord announces that they are as lambs
among wolves. What a change from the presentation of
the kingdom to the people of God! ey were to trust (like
the twelve) to the care of the Messiah present on the earth,
and who inuenced the heart with divine power. ey were
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to go as the Lord’s laborers, openly avowing their object,
not toiling for their food, but as having claims on His part.
Wholly devoted to their work, they were to salute no one.
Time pressed. Judgment was coming. ere were those in
Israel who were not children of peace. e remnant would
be distinguished by the eect of their mission on the heart,
not yet judicially. But peace should rest on the children of
peace.
ese messengers exercised the power gained by Jesus
over the enemy, and which He could thus bestow (and this
was much more than a miracle); and they were to declare
unto those whom they visited that the kingdom of God
had come nigh unto them. Important testimony! When the
judgment was not executed, it required faith to recognize
it in a testimony. If they were not received, they were to
denounce the city, assuring them that, received or not, the
kingdom of God had come nigh. What a solemn testimony,
now that Jesus was going to be rejected-a rejection that
lled up the measure of man’s iniquity! It would be more
tolerable for infamous Sodom, in the day that judgment
should be executed, than for that city.
is clearly points out the character of the testimony.
e Lord denounces1 the cities in which He had wrought,
and assures His<P283> disciples that to reject them in
their mission was the same thing as to reject Him, and that,
in rejecting Him, He who had sent Him was rejected-the
God of Israel-the Father. On their return they announce
the power that had accompanied their mission; demons
were subject to their word. e Lord replies that in eect
these tokens of power had made present to His mind the
full establishment of the kingdom-Satan cast out entirely
from heaven (an establishment of which these miracles
Luke 10:1-37
419
were only a sample); but that there was something more
excellent than this, and in which they might rejoice-their
names were written in heaven. e power manifested was
true, its results sure, in the establishment of the kingdom;
but something else was beginning to appear-a heavenly
people were dawning, who should have their portion with
Him, whom the unbelief of the Jews and of the world was
driving back to heaven.
(1. In verse 25 of this chapter, as well as in chapter
13:34, we have examples of the moral order in Luke, of
which we have spoken (page 263). e testimonies of the
Lord are perfectly in place. ey are of innite assistance
in understanding the whole connection of the passage,
and their position here throws great light on their own
meaning. Historical order is not the question here. e
position taken by Israel-by the disciples-by all, through
the rejection of Christ, is the subject of which the Holy
Spirit treats. ese passages relate to it, and show very
plainly the condition of the people who had been visited
by Jesus, their true character, the counsels of God in
bringing in the heavenly things through the fall of Israel,
and the connection between the rejection of Christ and the
introduction of the heavenly things, and of eternal life, and
of the soul.
Nevertheless the law was not broken. In fact, its place
was taken by grace, which, outside the law, did that which
could not be done through the law. We shall see this in
going on with our chapter.)
e heavenly position of a heavenly people
is very clearly unfolds the position now taken. e
testimony of the kingdom rendered in power, leaving Israel
without excuse, Jesus passed into another position-into the
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heavenly one. is was the true subject of joy. e disciples,
however, did not yet understand it. But the Person and the
power of Him who was to introduce them into the heavenly
glory of the kingdom, His right to the glorious kingdom
of God, have been revealed to them by the Father. e
blinding of human pride, and the Father’s grace towards
babes, became Him, who fullled the counsels of His
sovereign grace through the humiliation of Jesus, and were
in accordance with His heart who came to fulll them.
Moreover, all things were given to Jesus. e Son was too
glorious to be known, save by the Father, who was Himself
only known by the revelation of the Son. To Him must
men come. e root of the diculty in <P284>receiving
Him lay in the glory of His Person, who was known only
to the Father, and this action and glory of the Father, which
needed the Son Himself to reveal it. All this was in Jesus
there on earth. But He could tell His disciples in private
that, having seen in Him the Messiah and His glory, they
had seen that which kings and prophets had in vain desired
to see. e Father had been proclaimed to them, yet they
but little understood it. In the mind of God it was their
portion, realized afterwards by the presence of the Holy
Spirit, the Spirit of adoption.
e power of the kingdom; the Lord’s call to rejoice in
a place and name in heaven
We may remark here the power of the kingdom
bestowed on the disciples; their enjoyment at that moment
(by the presence of the Messiah Himself, bringing with
Him the power of the kingdom which overthrew that
of the enemy) of the sight of those things of which the
prophets had spoken; at the same time the rejection of
their testimony, and the judgment of Israel among whom
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421
it was rendered; and, nally, the call of the Lord (while
acknowledging in their work all the power that shall
establish the kingdom) to rejoice, not in the kingdom thus
established on earth, but in that sovereign grace of God
who, in His eternal counsels, had granted them a place
and a name in heaven, in connection with their rejection
on earth. e importance of this chapter is evident in this
point of view. Luke constantly brings in the better and
unseen part in a heavenly world.
e relationship and glory of the Father and the Son;
the lawyer’s inquiry as to eternal life
e extent of the dominion of Jesus in connection
with this change, and the revelation of the counsels of
God that accompanied it, are given us in verse 22, as well
as the discovery of the relationships and the glory of the
Father and of the Son; at the same time also the grace
shown to the humble according to the character and the
rights of God the Father Himself. Afterwards we nd
the development of the change as to moral character. e
teacher of the law desires to know the conditions of eternal
life. is is not the kingdom, nor heaven, but a part of the
Jewish apprehension of the relationship of man with God.
e possession of life was <P285>proposed to the Jews by
the law. It had, by scriptural developments subsequent to
the law, been discovered to be eternal life, which they then,
at least the Pharisees, attached as such to the observance
of that law-a thing possessed by the gloried in heaven, by
the blessed on earth during the millennium, which we now
possess in earthen vessels; which the law, as interpreted by
conclusions drawn from the prophetic books, proposed as
the result of obedience:1 “e man that doeth these things
shall live by them.”
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(1. It is to be remarked that the Lord never used the
word eternal life in speaking of the eect of obedience.
“e gift of God is eternal life.” If they had been obedient,
that life might have been endless; but in fact and truth,
now that sin had entered, obedience was not the way to
have eternal life, and the Lord does not so state it.)
e Lord’s answer; the broken law
e lawyer therefore asks what it is that he must do.
e answer was plain: the law (with all its ordinances, its
ceremonies, all the conditions of God’s government, which
the people had broken, and the violation of which led to
the judgment announced by the prophets-judgment that
should be followed by the establishment, on God’s part,
of the kingdom in grace)-the law, I say, contained the
kernel of the truth in this respect, and distinctly expressed
the conditions of life, if man was to enjoy it according to
human righteousness-righteousness wrought by himself,
by which he himself should live. ese conditions were
summed up in a very few words-to love God perfectly, and
one’s neighbor as oneself. e lawyer giving this summary,
the Lord accepts it and repeats the words of the Lawgiver:
“is do, and thou shalt live.” But man has not done it and
is conscious that he has not. As to God he is far away; man
easily gets rid of Him; he will render Him some outward
services and make his boast in them. But man is near; his
selshness makes him alive to the performance of this
precept, which, if observed, would be his happiness-make
this world a kind of paradise. Disobedience to it is repeated
every moment, in the circumstances of each day, which
bring this selshness into play. All that surrounds him (his
social ties) makes man conscious of these violations of this
precept, even when the soul would not of itself be troubled
Luke 10:1-37
423
about it. Here the lawyer’s heart betrays itself. Who, he
asks, is my neighbor?<P286>
Grace manifested and introduced by the Man Christ
Jesus; the love of the Good Samaritan
e Lord’s answer exhibits the moral change which has
taken place through the introduction of grace-through the
manifestation of this grace in man, in His own Person. Our
relationships with one another are now measured by the
divine nature in us, and this nature is love. Man under the
law measured himself by the importance he could attach
to himself, which is always the opposite of love. e esh
gloried in a nearness to God which was not real, which
did not belong to participation in His nature. e priest
and the Levite pass by on the other side. e Samaritan,
despised as such, did not ask who was his neighbor. e
love that was in his heart made him a neighbor to anyone
who was in need. is is what God Himself did in Christ;
but then legal and carnal distinctions disappeared before
this principle. e love that acted according to its own
impulses found the occasion of its exercise in the need that
came before it.
Here ends this part of the Lord’s discourses. A new
subject begins in verse 38.
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73133
Luke 10:38-11:13
e two great means of blessing: the Word and prayer
From that verse to the end of verse 13 in chapter 11 the
Lord makes known to His disciples the two great means
of blessing- the Word and prayer. In connection with the
Word, we nd the energy that attaches itself to the Lord, in
order to receive it from Himself, and that leaves everything
in order to hear His Word, because the soul is laid hold of by
the communications of God in grace. We may remark that
these circumstances are connected with the change that had
been wrought at that solemn moment. e reception of the
Word takes the place of the attentions that were due to the
Messiah. ese attentions were demanded by the presence
of a Messiah on the earth; but, seeing the condition man
was in (for he rejected the Saviour), he needed the Word;
and Jesus, in His perfect love, will have nothing else. For
man, for the glory of God, but one thing was needful; and
it is that which Jesus desires. As to Himself, He would go
without everything for that. But Martha, though preparing
for the Lord, which was right<P287> surely, yet shows how
much self is inherent in this kind of care; for she did not
like to have all the trouble of it.
e prayer taught the disciples
e prayer which He taught His disciples (chapter
11) has respect also to the position into which they came
before the gift of the Holy Spirit.1 Jesus Himself prayed,
as the dependent man on earth. He had not yet received
the promise of the Father, in order to pour it out on His
disciples, and could not till His ascension into heaven.
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425
ese, however, are in relationship with God as their
Father. e glory of His name, the coming of His kingdom,
were to occupy their rst thoughts. ey depended on
Him for their daily bread. ey needed pardon, and to be
kept from temptation. e prayer comprised the desire of
a heart true to God; the need of the body committed to
their Father’s care; the grace required for their walk when
they had sinned, and in order that their esh should not
manifest itself, that they might be saved from the power of
the enemy.
(1. e desire to have a form of prayer given by the Lord
has led to a corruption of the text here, recognized by all
who have seriously inquired into it (the object being to
conform the prayer here to that given in Matthew). It runs
thus: “Father, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come,
give us each day our needed bread, and forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us, and
lead us not into temptation.”)
Perseverance in prayer to the Father
e Lord then dwells on perseverance, that petitions
should not be those of a heart indierent to the result.
He assures them that their prayers should not be in vain;
also, that their heavenly Father would give the Holy
Spirit to those that asked Him. He puts them into His
own relationship on earth with God. Hearkening to God,
applying to Him as a Father-it is the whole of practical
Christian life.
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73134
Luke 11:14-54
Casting out demons
Afterwards the two great weapons of His testimony
are shown forth, namely, casting out demons and the
authority of His word. He had manifested the power that
cast out demons; they <P288>attributed it to the prince
of the demons. Nevertheless, He had bound the strong
man; He had spoiled his goods; and this proved that the
kingdom of God was indeed come. In such a case as this,
God being come to deliver man, everything took its true
place; everything was either of the devil, or of the Lord.
Moreover, if the unclean spirit had gone out and God was
not there, the wicked spirit would come back with others
more wicked than himself; and the last state is worse than
the rst.
e authority of the Word proclaimed; the motives of
its hearers
ese things were taking place at that time. But miracles
were not all. He had proclaimed the Word. A woman,
sensible to the joy of having a son like Jesus, declares
aloud the value of such a relationship to Him after the
esh; the Lord puts this blessing, as He did in the case
of Mary, on those who heard and kept His Word. e
Ninevites had hearkened to Jonah, the queen of Sheba to
Solomon, without even one miracle being wrought; and a
greater than Jonah was now among them. ere were two
things there- the testimony plainly set forth (vs. 33), and
the motives which governed those that heard it. If the true
light shone fully into the heart, there remained no darkness
Luke 11:14-54
427
in it. If the perfect truth was presented according to God’s
own wisdom, it was the heart that rejected it. e eye was
evil. e notions and motives of a heart at a distance from
God only darkened it: a heart that had but one object, God
and His glory, would be full of light. Moreover, light does
not merely display itself, it enlightens all around it. If God’s
light were in the soul, it would be full of it and no part dark.
In the Pharisee’s house; judgment consequent on
rejection
Verses 37-52. Invited to the Pharisee’s house, He
judges the condition of the nation, and the hypocrisy of its
pretended righteousness, putting His nger on the whited
show and inward covetousness and self-seeking, the
making God’s law burdensome to others, while neglecting
the fulllment of it themselves, announcing the mission
of the apostles and prophets of the New Testament, the
rejection of whom would ll up the measure of Israel’s
iniquity, and bring to a nal test those who hypocritically
built the tombs of the prophets their fathers had killed.
And then all<P289> the blood, with respect to which God
had exercised His long-suering, sending testimonies to
enlighten the people, and which had been shed on account
of those testimonies, should at length be required at the
hand of the rebels. e Lord’s words did but stir up the
malice of the Pharisees, who sought to entangle Him in
His talk. In a word we have, on one side, the word of the
testimony set in full relief, in place of the Messiah fullling
the promises; and, on the other, the judgment of a nation
that had rejected both, and would also reject even that
which should afterwards be sent to bring them back.
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73135
Luke 12
e disciples encouraged in the place of testimony in
the world
Chapter 12 puts the disciples into this place of testimony
by the power of the Holy Spirit, and with the world opposed
to them, after the Lord’s departure. It is the Word and the
Holy Spirit, instead of the Messiah on the earth. ey were
neither to fear opposition, nor to trust in themselves, but to
fear God and trust to His help; and the Holy Spirit would
teach them what to say. All things should be revealed. God
reaches the soul: man can only touch the body. Here that
which goes beyond present promises, the connection of
the soul with God, is put forward. It is coming out from
Judaism to be before God. eir calling was to manifest
God in the world at all costs-to manifest Him to faith
before all things were made manifest. It might cost them
dear before men: Jesus would confess them before angels.
It is bringing the disciples into the light as God is in it,
and the fear of God by the Word and faith when the power
of evil was present; all that evil, however secret, would be
brought to light.
Nor this only. Blasphemy against the witness given
would, in their case, be worse than blaspheming Christ. is
might be forgiven (it has been indeed, and will be at the end
to the Jews as a nation); but whosoever spoke in blasphemy
against the testimony of the disciples blasphemed against
the Holy Spirit. It should not be forgiven. But the Lord
deals with their heart as well as with their conscience. He
encourages them by three things: rst, the protection of
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429
Him who counted the hairs of their head, whatever<P290>
might be the trials of their faith; second, the fact that, in
heaven and before the angels, their faithfulness to Christ in
this painful mission should be acknowledged by Him; and
third, the importance of their mission, its rejection being
more fatally condemning than the rejection of Christ
Himself. God had taken a step, and a nal step, in His
grace and in His testimony. e bringing to light of all
things, the care of God, their being confessed by Christ
in heaven, the power of the Holy Spirit with them-these
are the motives and the encouragements here given to the
disciples for their mission after the Lord’s departure.
e importance of the soul and the future life
at which follows brings out yet more distinctly the
position in which the disciples were placed, according to
the counsels of God, by the rejection of Christ (vs. 13).
e Lord formally refuses to execute justice in Israel. is
was not His place. He deals with souls, and directs their
attention to another life which outlasts the present; and,
instead of dividing the inheritance between the brothers,
He warns the multitude to beware of covetousness,
instructing them by the parable of the rich man who was
suddenly called hence in the midst of his projects. What
became of his soul?
e great practical principles to guide the disciples’
walk
But, having established this general basis, He turns
to His disciples and teaches them the great practical
principles that were to guide their walk. ey were not to
think of the morrow, but to trust in God. Moreover, they
had no power over it. Let them seek the kingdom of God,
and all that they needed should be added. is was their
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position in the world that rejected Him. But, besides, the
Father’s heart was interested in them: they were to fear
nothing. It was the Father’s good pleasure to give them
the kingdom. Strangers and pilgrims here, their treasure
was to be in heaven; and thus their heart would be there
also.1 Besides this, they were to wait for the Lord. ree
things were to inuence their souls: the Father would give
them the kingdom, their heart’s treasure in heaven, and the
expectation of the Lord’s return. Until<P291> the Lord
should come, they were required to watch-to have their
lamps burning; their whole position should manifest the
eect of the continual expectation of the Lord-should
express this expectation. ey were to be as men who
waited for Him with their loins girded; and in that case,
when all should be according to the Lord’s own heart,
reestablished by His power, and they brought into His
Father’s house, He would make them sit down, and, in His
turn, gird Himself to serve them.
(1. Observe here that the heart follows the treasure. It
is not, as men say, where your heart is, your treasure is-my
heart is not in it; but “where your treasure is, there will your
heart be also.”)
Waiting for Christ Himself the attitude of the heart
It is of all importance to x the attention of the reader
on the point that what the Lord looks for here is not the
holding, however clearly, the Lord’s coming at the end of
the age, but that the Christian should be waiting for Him,
in a full profession of Christ, and his heart in spiritual order.
Such, the Lord will make to sit down as guests, but such
forever, in His Father’s house where He has brought them,
and will Himself in love minister the blessing. is love
will make the blessings ten thousand fold more precious,
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all received from His hand. Love likes to serve, selshness
to be served. But He did not come to be ministered to. is
love He will never give up. Nothing can be more exquisite
than the grace expressed in these verses 35 and 37.1
(1. Here we have the heavenly portion of those who
wait for the Lord during His absence. It is the character
of the true disciple in his heavenly aspect, as service is his
place on earth.
Observe also that the Lord was a servant down here.
According to John 13 He becomes a servant on ascending
to heaven, and Advocate, to wash our feet. In this place
He makes Himself a servant for our blessing in heaven.
In Exodus 21, if the servant who had fullled his service
did not wish to go out free, he was brought to the judges,
and was fastened to the door by an awl which bored his
ear in token of perpetual bondage. Jesus had perfectly
accomplished His service to His Father at the end of His
life on earth. In Psalm 40 His “ears were digged” (that is, a
body prepared, which is the position of obedience: compare
Philippians 2). is is the incarnation. Now His service was
nished in His life on earth as man, but He loved us too
much-He loved His Father too much in the character of
servant-to give it up; and at His death His ear, according to
Exodus 21, was bored, and He became a servant forever-a
man forever- now to wash our feet; hereafter in heaven,
when He shall take us to Himself according to the passage
we are considering. What a glorious picture of the love of
Christ.)
e expectation of the Lord’s return with faithfulness
in service
On the inquiry of Peter, desirous of knowing to whom
Jesus <P292>addressed these instructions, the Lord refers
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him to the responsibility of those to whom He committed
duties during His absence. us we have the two things
that characterize the disciples after the rejection of Christ-
the expectation of His return, and service. e expectation,
the vigilance that watches with girded loins to receive
Him, nds its reward in rest, and in the feast (happiness
ministered by Him) at which Jesus girds Himself to serve
them; faithfulness in service, by having rule over all that
belongs to the Lord of glory. We have seen, besides these
special relationships between the walk of the disciples and
their position in the world to come, the general truth of the
renunciation of the world in which the Saviour had been
rejected, and the possession of the kingdom by the gift of
the Father.
Unfaithful servants and their Master
In that which He says afterwards of the service of those
who bear His name during His absence, the Lord also
points out those who will be in this position, but unfaithful;
thus characterizing those who, while publicly exercising
ministry in the church, should have their portion with the
unbelievers. e secret of the evil that characterizes their
unbelief would be found in this, that their hearts would put
o the return of Jesus, instead of desiring it and hastening it
by their aspirations, and serving with humility in the desire
of being found faithful. ey will say, He is not coming
immediately; and, in consequence, they will do their own
will, accommodate themselves to the spirit of the world,
and assume authority over their fellow-servants. What a
picture of that which has taken place! But their Master
(for He was so, although they had not truly served Him)
would come at a moment when they did not expect Him,
as a thief in the night; and, although professing to be His
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servants, they should have their portion with unbelievers.
Nevertheless, there would be a dierence between the two;
for the servant who knew his own Master’s will and did
not make ready for Him, as the fruit of his expectations,
and did not perform his Master’s will, should be severely
punished; while he who had not the knowledge of His will
should be punished less severely. I have added “own” to the
word “Master,” according to the original, which signies a
recognized relationship with the Lord, and its consequent
obligation. e other was ignorant of the explicit
will<P293> of the Lord, but he committed the evil which
in any case he ought not to have done. It is the history of
true and false servants of Christ, of the professing church,
and of the world in general. But there cannot be a more
solemn testimony as to what brought unfaithfulness into
the church, and led to its ruin and approaching judgment,
namely, the giving up the present expectation of the Lord’s
coming.
If it shall be required of persons according to their
advantages, who will be so guilty as those that call
themselves the ministers of the Lord, if they do not serve
Him as in expectation of His return?
e rejected Lord comes to bring conict and re on
the earth
Nevertheless, the Lord, thus rejected, was come to
bring conict and re on the earth. His presence kindled
it even before His rejection, in the baptism of death
through which He was to pass, was accomplished. It was
not, however, till after this that His love would have full
liberty to develop itself in power. us His heart, which
was love even according to the innitude of the Godhead,
was straitened until the atonement gave free course to it,
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and to the accomplishment of all the purposes of God, in
which His power should be manifested according to that
love, and to which this atonement was absolutely necessary
as the basis of the reconciliation of all things in heaven and
earth.1
(1. It is blessed to see here how, let evil in man be what it
may, it after all leads to the accomplishment of the counsels
of His grace. e unbelief of man drove back divine love
into the heart of Christ, unweakened surely, but unable to
ow forth and express itself; but its full eect on the cross
made it ow forth unhindered, in grace that reigns through
righteousness, to the vilest. It is a singularly interesting and
blessed passage.)
e evil of the human heart drawn out by the Saviour’s
presence
Verses 51-53. He shows in detail the divisions that
would be the result of His mission. e world would no
more endure faith in the Saviour than it did the Saviour
Himself, who was its object and whom it confessed. It is
well to note how the presence of the Saviour draws out
the evil of the human heart. e state described here is in
Micah, the description of the most dreadful state of evil
conceivable (Mic. 7:1-7).<P294>
Warning of the existing signs of the times
He then addresses Himself to the people, to warn
them of the existing signs of the times in which they lived.
He puts this testimony on a twofold ground: the evident
signs which God gave; and the moral proofs which, even
without the signs, conscience ought to acknowledge, and
which thus oblige them to receive the testimony.
Be they ever so blind, they are in the way to the
judge. Once delivered up, they should not come out till
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the chastisement of God was fully executed upon them.1
(Compare Isaiah 40:2).<P295>
(1. Let us here, in a note, sum up the contents of these
two chapters, that we may better understand the instruction
they contain. In the rst (ch. 12) the Lord speaks, in order to
detach the thoughts of all from this world-to the disciples,
by directing them to Him who had power over the soul as
well as the body, and encouraging them with the knowledge
of their Father’s faithful care, and His purposes to give
them the kingdom; meanwhile, they were to be strangers
and pilgrims, without anxiety as to all that happened
around them-to the multitude, by showing them that the
most prosperous man could not secure one day of life. But
He adds something positive. His disciples were to expect
Him from day to day, constantly. Not only should heaven
be their portion, but there they should possess all things.
ey shall sit at meat, and He will Himself serve them.
is is the heavenly portion of the church at the Lord’s
return. In service until He comes-service that requires
incessant watchfulness: it will then be His turn to serve
them. We next have their inheritance, and the judgment
of the professing church and of the world. His teaching
produced division, instead of establishing the kingdom in
power. But He must die. is leads to another subject-the
present judgment of the Jews. ey were on the road, with
God, towards judgment (ch. 13). e government of God
would not manifest itself by distinguishing the wicked in
Israel through partial judgments. All should perish, unless
they repented. e Lord was cultivating the g tree for the
nal year; if the people of God did not bring forth fruit,
it spoiled His garden. To make a pretense of the law in
opposition to a God present with them (even He who had
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given them the law) was hypocrisy. e kingdom was not to
be established by the manifestation on earth of the King’s
power. It should grow from a little seed until it became
an immense system of power in the earth, and a doctrine
which, as a system, should penetrate the whole mass.
On inquiry being made whether the remnant was
numerous, He insists upon entrance by the narrow gate
of conversion, and of faith in Himself; for many would
seek to enter into the kingdom and not be able: when once
the Master of the house had risen up and shut the door
(that is, Christ being rejected of Israel), in vain should they
say that He had been in their cities. Workers of iniquity
should not enter into the kingdom. e Lord is speaking
here entirely of the Jews. ey shall see the patriarchs, the
prophets-Gentiles even from all parts-in the kingdom, and
themselves outside. Nevertheless, the accomplishment of
the rejection of Christ did not depend on the will of man,
of the false king who sought, by the Pharisees’ account, to
get rid of Him. e purposes of God and, alas! the iniquity
of man were fullled together. Jerusalem was to ll up the
measure of her iniquity. It could not be that a prophet
should perish except at Jerusalem. But then the putting
man to the proof in his responsibility closes in the rejection
of Jesus. He speaks, in touching and magnicent language,
as Jehovah Himself. How many times this God of goodness
would have gathered the children of Zion under His wings,
and they would not! As far as depended on the will of man,
it was complete separation and desolation. And in fact it
was so. All was over now for Israel with Jehovah, but not
for Jehovah with Israel. It was the prophet’s part to reckon
on the faithfulness of his God, and-assured that this could
not fail, and that, if judgments came, it would only be for
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a time-to say, “How long?” (Isa. 6:11; Psa. 79:5). Distress is
complete when there is no faith, no one to say, “How long?”
(Psa. 74:9). But here the great Prophet Himself is rejected.
Nevertheless, asserting His rights of grace, as Jehovah, He
declares to them, unasked, the end of their desolation. “Ye
shall not see me until ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh
in the name of the Lord.” is sudden manifestation of
the rights of His divinity, and of His divinity itself, in
grace, when as to their responsibility all was lost in spite
of His gracious culture, is surpassingly beautiful. It is God
Himself who appears at the end of all His dealings. We
see from this recapitulation that chapter 12 gives us the
heavenly portion of the church, heaven, and the life to
come; chapter 13 adding to it (with verses 54-59 of chapter
12) the government of Israel and of the earth, with the
outward form of that which should replace it here below.)
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73136
Luke 13
e g tree in God’s vineyard; unfruitfulness followed
by just judgment
Now, at this moment they reminded Him of a terrible
judgment that had fallen upon some among them. He
declares to them that neither this case, nor another which
He recalls to their minds, is exceptional: that except they
repent, the same thing should happen to them all. And
He adds a parable in order to make them understand their
position. Israel was the g tree in the vineyard of God. For
three years He had been threatening to cut it down; it did
but spoil His vineyard-did but encumber and uselessly
cover the ground. But Jesus was trying for the last time
all that could be done to make it bear fruit; if this did not
succeed, grace could but make way for the just judgment of
the Master of the vineyard. Why cultivate that which only
did harm?
Grace and power displayed to the individual
Nevertheless, He acts in grace and in power towards
the daughter of Abraham, according to the promises made
to that people, and demonstrates that their resistance,
pretending to oppose the law to grace, was but hypocrisy.
Outward profession and doctrine in the kingdom of
God
However (vss. 18-21) the kingdom of God was to take
an unexpected form in consequence of His rejection. Sown
by the Word,<P296> and not introduced in power, it would
grow on the earth until it became a worldly power; and, as
an outward profession and doctrine, would penetrate the
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whole sphere prepared for it in the sovereign counsels of
God. Now this was not the kingdom established in power
acting in righteousness, but as left to the responsibility
of man, although the counsels of God were being
accomplished.
e strait gate of the kingdom
At last, the Lord takes up, in a direct manner, the
question of the position of the remnant and of the fate of
Jerusalem (vss. 22-35).
As He went through the cities and villages, fullling
the work of grace, in spite of the contempt of the people,
someone asked Him whether the remnant, those that
would escape the judgment of Israel, should be many. He
does not reply as to the number; but addresses Himself to
the conscience of the inquirer, urging him to put forth all
his energy that he might enter in at the strait gate. Not only
would the multitude not enter in, but many, neglecting that
gate, would desire to enter into the kingdom and not be
able. And moreover, when once the master of the house
was risen up, and the door was shut, it would be too late.
He would say unto them, “I know you not, whence ye are.”
ey would plead that He had been in their city. He would
declare that He knew them not, workers of iniquity: there
was “no peace for the wicked.” e gate of the kingdom was
moral, real before God-conversion. e multitude of Israel
would not go in at it; and outside, in tears and anguish,
they should see the Gentiles sitting with the depositaries
of the promises; while they, the children of the kingdom,
according to the esh, were shut out, and so much the more
miserable that they had been nigh unto it. And those who
had appeared to be rst should be the last, and the last rst.
e last visitation; the fate of Jerusalem foretold
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e Pharisees, under pretense of consideration for the
Lord, advise Him to go away. ereupon He refers nally
to the will of God as to the fulllment of His work. It was
no question of the power of man over Him. He should
accomplish His work, and then go away; because Jerusalem
had not known the time of her visitation. Himself, her
true Lord, Jehovah, how often would He have<P297>
gathered the children of this rebellious city under His
wings, and they would not! Now His last eort in grace
was accomplished, and their house left desolate, until they
should repent, and, returning to the Lord, say according to
Psalm 118, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the
Lord.” en He would appear, and they should see Him.
Nothing can be plainer than the connection and the
force of these conversations. For Israel it was the last
message, the last visitation of God. ey rejected it. ey
were forsaken of God (though still beloved) until they
should call upon Him whom they had rejected. en this
same Jesus would appear again, and Israel should see Him.
is would be the day that the Lord had made.
His rejection-admitting the establishment of the
kingdom as a tree and as leaven, during His absence-bore
its fruit among the Jews until the end; and the revival amid
that nation in the last days, and the return of Jesus on
their repentance, will have reference to that great act of
sin and rebellion. But this gives rise to further important
instructions with regard to the kingdom.
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441
73137
Luke 14
e rights of grace; hypocrisy judged; the Christian’s
place in this world
Some moral details are unfolded in the next chapter
(ch. 14).1e Lord, being invited to eat with a Pharisee,
vindicates the rights of grace over that which was the seal
of the old covenant, judging the hypocrisy which, at any
rate, broke the sabbath when their own interest was in
question. He then shows the<P298> spirit of humility and
lowliness that became man in the presence of God, and the
union of this spirit with love when there was the possession
of worldly advantages. By such a walk, which was indeed
His own, in opposition to the spirit of the world, one’s
place there would be lost; the reciprocations of society
would not exist: but another hour was beginning to dawn
through His rejection, and which, in fact, was its necessary
consequence-the resurrection of the just. Cast out by the
world from its bosom, they should have their place apart in
that which the power of God should eect. ere would be
a resurrection of the just. en should they have the reward
of all that they had done through love to the Lord and for
His name’s sake. We see the force with which this allusion
applies to the Lord’s position at that moment, ready to be
put to death in this world.
(1. Chapters 15-16 present the sovereign energy of
grace, its fruits, and its consequences, in contrast with all
apparent earthly blessing, and God’s government on earth
in Israel, and the old covenant. e fourteenth, before
entering on that full revelation, shows us the place to be
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taken in such a world as this, in view of the distributive
justice of God, of the judgment He will execute when He
comes. Self-exaltation in this world leads to humiliation.
Self-humiliation-taking the lowest place according to
what we are, on the one side, and, on the other, to act in
love-leads to exaltation on the part of Him who judges
morally. After this we have set before us the responsibility
that ows from the presentation of grace; and that which
it costs in a world like this. In a word, sin existing there,
to exalt oneself is ministering to it; it is selshness, and
the love of the world in which it unfolds itself. One sinks
morally. It is being far from God morally. When love acts, it
is representing God to the men of this world. Nevertheless,
it is at the cost of all things that we become His disciples.)
e great supper of grace; the responsibilities of those
entering God’s house
And the kingdom, what would then become of it? With
reference to it at that moment, the Lord gives its picture
in the parable of the great supper of grace (vss. 16-24).
Despised by the chief part of the Jews, when God invited
them to come in, He then sought out the poor of the ock.
But there was room in His house, and He sends out to seek
the Gentiles and bring them in by His call that went forth
in ecacious power when they sought Him not. It was the
activity of His grace. e Jews, as such, should have no part
in it. But those who entered in must count the cost (vss.
25-33). All must be forsaken in this world; every link with
this world must be broken. e nearer anything was to the
heart, the more dangerous, the more it must be abhorred.
Not that the aections are evil things; but, Christ being
rejected by this world, everything that binds us to earth
must be sacriced for Him. Cost what it may, He must
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be followed; and one must know how to hate one’s own
life, and even to lose it, rather than grow lax in following
the Lord. All was lost here in this life of nature. Salvation,
the Saviour, eternal life, were in question. To take up one’s
cross, therefore, and follow Him was the only way to be
His disciple. Without this faith, it were better not to begin
building; and, being conscious that the enemy is outwardly
much stronger than we are, it must be ascertained whether,
come what may, we dare, with <P299>settled purpose, go
out to meet him by faith in Christ. Everything connected
with the esh as such must be broken with.
Called to witness to God’s character as rejected in
Christ
Moreover (vss. 34-35), they were called to bear a peculiar
testimony, to witness to the character of God Himself, as
He was rejected in Christ, of which the cross was the true
measure. If the disciples were not this, they were nothing
worth. ey were disciples in this world for no other
purpose. Has the church maintained this character? A
solemn question for us all!
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73138
Luke 15
e sovereign energy of grace; God’s grace contrasted
with man’s self-righteousness
Having thus unfolded the dierence in character
between the two dispensations, and the circumstances of
the transition from the one to the other, the Lord turns to
higher principles-the sources of the one that was brought
in by grace.
It is indeed a contrast between the two, as well as the
chapters we have been going through. But this contrast
rises to its glorious source in God’s own grace, contrasted
with the miserable self-righteousness of man.
e publicans and sinners draw near to hear Jesus.
Grace had its true dignity to those who needed it. Self-
righteousness repulsed that which was not as contemptible
as itself, and God Himself at the same time in His nature
of love. e Pharisees and the scribes murmured against
Him who was a witness of this grace in fullling it.
I cannot meditate on this chapter, which has been the
joy of so many souls, and the subject of so many testimonies
to grace, from the time that the Lord pronounced it,
without enlarging upon grace, perfect in its application to
the heart. Nevertheless, I must conne myself here to great
principles, leaving their application to those who preach
the Word. is is a diculty that constantly presents itself
in this portion of the Word.
God’s joy in showing grace
First, the great principle which the Lord exhibits, and
on which<P300> He founds the justication of God’s
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dealings (sad state of heart that requires it! marvelous grace
and patience that gives it!)-the great principle, I repeat, is
that God nds His own joy in showing grace. What an
answer to the horrid spirit of the Pharisees who made it
an objection!
It is the Shepherd who rejoices when the sheep is found,
the woman when the piece of money is in her hand, the
Father when His child is in His arms. What an expression
of that which God is! How truly is Jesus the one to make it
known! It is on this that all the blessing of man can alone
be founded. It is in this that God is gloried in His grace.
e love that seeks; the lost sheep and the lost piece
of silver: the work of Christ and that of the Holy Spirit
But there are two distinct parts in this grace-the love
that seeks and the love with which one is received. e
rst two parables describe the former character of this
grace. e shepherd seeks his sheep, the woman her piece
of money: the sheep and the piece of silver are passive.
e shepherd seeks (and the woman also) until he nds,
because he has an interest in the matter. e sheep, wearied
with its wanderings, has not to take one step in returning.
e shepherd lays it on his shoulders and carries it home.
He takes the whole charge, happy to recover his sheep. is
is the mind of heaven, whatever the heart of man on earth
may be. It is the work of Christ, the Good Shepherd. e
woman sets before us the pains which God takes in His
love; so that it is more the work of the Spirit, which is
represented by that of the woman. e light is brought-she
sweeps the house until she nds the piece she had lost.
us God acts in the world, seeking sinners. e hateful
and hating jealousy of self-righteousness nds no place in
the mind of heaven, where God dwells, and produces, in
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the happiness that surrounds Him, the reex of His own
perfections.
e love which receives; the prodigal son and the
father
But although neither the sheep nor the piece of silver
does anything towards its own recovery, there is a real work
wrought in the heart of one who is brought back; but this
work, necessary as it is for the nding or even the seeking
of peace, is not that on which the peace is grounded.
e return and the reception of the sinner<P301> are
therefore described in the third parable. e work of grace,
accomplished solely by the power of God, and complete in
its eects, is presented to us in the rst two. Here the sinner
returns, with sentiments which we will now examine-
sentiments produced by grace, but which never rise to the
height of the grace manifested in his reception until he has
returned.
e father’s heart: the only measure of the ways of
God
First his estrangement from God is depicted. While as
guilty at the moment that he crosses the paternal threshold,
in turning his back upon his father, as when he eats husks
with the swine, man, deceived by sin, is here presented in
the last state of degradation to which sin conducts him.
Having expended all that fell to him according to nature,
the destitution in which he nds himself (and many a
soul feels the famine which it has brought itself into, the
emptiness of all around without a desire after God or
holiness, and often into what is degrading in sin) does not
incline him towards God, but leads him to seek a resource
in that which Satan’s country (where nothing is given) can
supply; and he nds himself among the swine. But grace
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operates; and the thought of the happiness of his father’s
house, and of the goodness that blessed all around it,
awakes in his heart. Where the Spirit of God works, there
are always two things found, conviction in the conscience
and the attraction of the heart. It is really the revelation
of God to the soul, and God is light and He is love; as
light, conviction is produced in the soul, but as love there
is the attraction of goodness, and truthful confession is
produced. It is not merely that we have sinned, but that we
have to do with God and desire to have, but fear because
of what He is, yet are led to go. So the woman in chapter
7.1 So Peter in the boat. is produces the conviction that
we are perishing, and a sense, feeble it may be, yet true,
of the goodness of God and the happiness to be found
in His presence, although we may not feel sure of being
received; and we do not remain in the place where we are
perishing. ere is the sense of sin, there is humiliation; the
sense that there is goodness in God; but not the sense of
what the grace of God really is. Grace attracts- one goes
towards God, but one would be satised to be received as
a servant-a proof that, though the heart be wrought in by
grace,<P302> it has not yet met God. Progress, moreover,
although real, never gives peace. ere is a certain rest of
heart in going; but one does not know what reception to
expect, after having been guilty of forsaking God. e
nearer the prodigal son drew to the house, the more would
his heart beat at the thought of meeting his father. But
the father anticipates his coming, and acts towards him,
not according to his son’s deserts, but according to his own
heart as a father-the only measure of the ways of God
towards us. He is on his son’s neck while the latter is still in
rags, before he has had time to say, “Make me as one of thy
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hired servants.” It was no longer time to say it. It belonged
to a heart anticipating how it would be received, not to one
who had met God.
(1. See page 272.)
Such an one knows how it has been received. e prodigal
arranges to say it (as people speak of a humble hope, and
a low place); but though the confession is complete when
he arrives, he does not then say, Make me a hired servant.
How could he? e father’s heart had decided his position
by its own sentiments, by its love towards him, by the
place his heart had given him towards himself. e father’s
position decided that of the son. is was between himself
and his son; but this was not all. He loved his son, even
as he was, but he did not introduce him into the house in
that condition. e same love that received him as a son
will have him enter the house as a son, and as the son of
such a father should be. e servants are ordered to bring
the best robe and put it on him. us loved, and received
by love, in our wretchedness, we are clothed with Christ to
enter the house. We do not bring the robe: God supplies
us with it. It is an entirely new thing; and we become the
righteousness of God in Him. is is heaven’s best robe.
All the rest have part in the joy, except the self-righteous
man, the true Jew. e joy is the joy of the father, but all
the house shares it. e elder son is not in the house. He
is near it, but he will not come in. He will have nothing to
do with the grace that makes the poor prodigal the subject
of the joy of love. Nevertheless, grace acts; the father goes
out and entreats him to come in. It is thus that God acted,
in the Gospel, towards the Jew. Yet man’s righteousness,
which is but selshness and sin, rejects grace. But God will
Luke 15
449
not give up His grace. It becomes Him. God will be God;
and God is love.
It is this which takes the place of the pretensions of the
Jews, who rejected the Lord, and the accomplishment of
the promises in Him.<P303>
at which gives peace, and characterizes our position,
is not the sentiments wrought in our hearts, although they
indeed exist, but those of God Himself.
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73139
Luke 16
e eect of grace on Christian conduct; the
unfaithful steward
In chapter 16, the eect of grace on conduct is
presented, and the contrast that exists (the dispensation
being changed) between the conduct that Christianity
requires with regard to the things of the world, and the
position of the Jews in that respect. Now this position was
only the expression of that of man made evident by the law.
e doctrine thus embodied by the parable is conrmed by
the parabolic history of the rich man and Lazarus, lifting
up the veil that hides the other world in which the result of
men’s conduct is manifested.
Man is the steward of God (that is, God has committed
His goods to man). Israel stands especially in this position.
But man has been unfaithful; Israel had indeed been
so. God has taken away his stewardship; but man is still
in possession of the goods to administer them, at least, in
fact (as Israel was at that moment). ese goods are the
things of earth-that which man can possess according to
the esh. Having lost his stewardship by his unfaithfulness,
and being still in possession of the goods, he uses them to
make friends of his master’s debtors by doing them good.
is is what Christians should do with earthly possessions,
using them for others, having the future in view. e
steward might have appropriated the money due to his
master; he preferred gaining friends with it (that is, he
sacrices present to future advantage). We may turn the
miserable riches of this world into means of fullling love.
Luke 16
451
e spirit of grace which lls our hearts (ourselves the
objects of grace) exercises itself with regard to temporal
things, which we use for others. For us it is in view of
the everlasting habitations. “at they may receive you”
is equivalent to “that you may be received”-a common
form of expression in Luke to designate the fact without
speaking of the individuals that perform it, although using
the word they.<P304>
Earthly and heavenly riches
Observe that earthly riches are not our own things;
heavenly riches, in the case of a true Christian, are his own.
ese riches are unrighteous, in that they belong to fallen
man and not to the heavenly man, nor had any place when
Adam was innocent.
e contrast between the Jewish and Christian
dispensations
Now, when the veil is lifted from the other world, the
truth is fully brought to light. And the contrast between the
Jewish dispensation and the Christian is clearly unfolded;
for Christianity reveals that world, and, as to its principle,
belongs to heaven.
Judaism, according to God’s government on earth,
promised temporal blessing to the righteous; but all was
in disorder: even the Messiah, the head of the system,
was rejected. In a word, Israel, looked at as set under
responsibility, and to enjoy earthly blessing on obedience,
had entirely failed. Man, in this world, could no longer,
on that footing, be the means of bearing testimony to
the ways of God in government. ere will be a time of
earthly judgment, but it was not yet come. Meanwhile,
the possession of riches was anything rather than a proof
of God’s favor. Personal selshness, and alas! indierence
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to a brother in distress at his door, was, instead, the
characteristic of its possession among the Jews. Revelation
opens the other world to our view. Man, in this world, is
fallen, wicked man. If he has received his good things here,
he has the portion of sinful man; he will be tormented,
while the one whom he had despised will nd happiness in
the other world.
e parabolic history of the rich man and Lazarus:
this world and the next
It is not a question here of that which gives title to enter
heaven, but of character, and of the contrast between the
principles of this world and the invisible world. e Jew
made choice of this world; he has lost this and the other
also. e poor man whom he had thought contemptible
is found in Abraham’s bosom. e whole tenor of this
parable shows its connection with the question of Israel’s
hopes, and the idea that riches were a proof of the favor
of God (an idea which, false as it may be in every case,
is intelligible<P305> enough if this world is the scene of
blessing under the government of God). e subject of
the parable is shown also by that which is found at the
end of it. e miserable rich man desires that his brethren
might be warned by someone who had risen from the dead.
Abraham declares to him the uselessness of this means. It
was all over with Israel. God has not again presented His
Son to the nation who rejected Him, despising the law and
the prophets. e testimony of His resurrection met with
the same unbelief that had rejected Him when living, as
well as the prophets before Him. ere is no consolation
in the other world if the testimony of the Word to the
conscience is rejected in this. e gulf cannot be crossed. A
returning Lord would not convince those who had despised
Luke 16
453
the Word. All is in connection with the judgment of the
Jews, which would close the dispensation; as the preceding
parable shows what the conduct of Christians should be
with regard to things temporal. All ows from the grace
which, in love on God’s part, accomplished the salvation of
man, and set aside the legal dispensation and its principles
by bringing in the heavenly things.
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73140
Luke 17
Directions for the Christian’s walk; the ten lepers
Grace is the spring of the Christian’s walk and furnishes
directions for it. He cannot with impunity despise the
weak. He must not be weary of pardoning his brother. If
he have faith but as a grain of mustard seed, the power of
God is, so to speak, at his disposal. Nevertheless, when he
has done all, he has but done his duty (vss. 5-10). e Lord
then shows (vss. 11-37) the deliverance from Judaism,
which He still recognized; and, after that, its judgment.
He was passing through Samaria and Galilee: ten lepers
come towards Him, entreating Him, from a distance, to
heal them. He sends them to the priests. is was, in fact,
as much as to say, You are clean. It would have been useless
to have them pronounced unclean; and they knew it. ey
take Christ’s word, go away with this conviction, and are
immediately healed on their way. Nine of them, satised
with reaping the benet of His power, pursue their journey
to the priests and remain Jews, not coming out of the old
sheepfold. Jesus, indeed, still acknowledged it; but they
only acknowledge Him so far as to prot by His presence
and<P306> remain where they were. ey saw nothing in
His Person, nor in the power of God in Him, to attract
them. ey remain Jews. But this poor stranger — the
tenth — recognizes the good hand of God. He falls at the
feet of Jesus, giving Him glory. e Lord bids him depart
in the liberty of faith: “Go thy way; thy faith hath saved
thee.” He has no longer need to go to the priests. He had
found God and the source of blessing in Christ, and goes
Luke 17
455
away freed from the yoke which was soon to be judicially
broken for all.
e kingdom of God among them with the King in
their midst
For the kingdom of God was among them. To those
who could discern it, the King was there in their midst.
e kingdom did not come in such a manner as to attract
the attention of the world. It was there, so that the disciples
would soon desire to see one of those days which they had
enjoyed during the time of the Lord’s presence on earth,
but would not see it. He then announces the pretensions
of false Christs, the true having been rejected, so that the
people would be left a prey to the wiles of the enemy. His
disciples were not to follow them. In connection with
Jerusalem they would be exposed to these temptations, but
they had the Lord’s directions for guidance through them.
e last days; the return of the Son of Man to earth in
discerning, discriminating judgment on earth
Now the Son of Man, in His day, would be like the
lightning: but, before that, He must suer many things
from the unbelieving Jews. e day would be like that of
Lot, and that of Noe: men would be at ease, following their
carnal occupations, like the world overtaken by the ood,
and Sodom by the re from heaven. It will be the revelation
of the Son of Man — His public revelation — sudden and
vivid. is referred to Jerusalem. Being thus warned, their
concern was to escape the judgment of the Son of Man
which, at the time of His coming, would fall upon the city
that had rejected Him; for this Son of Man, whom they
had disowned, would come again in His glory. ere must
be no looking back; that would be to have the heart in the
place of judgment. Better lose all, life itself, rather than be
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associated with that which was going to be judged. If they
should escape and have their<P307> lives spared through
unfaithfulness, the judgment was the judgment of God;
He would know how to reach them in their bed, and to
distinguish between two that were in one bed, and between
two women who ground the corn of the household at the
same mill.
is character of the judgment shows that it is not the
destruction of Jerusalem by Titus that is meant. It was the
judgment of God that could discern, take away, and spare.
Neither is it the judgment of the dead, but a judgment
on earth: they are in bed, they are at the mill, they are on
the housetops and in the elds. Warned by the Lord, they
were to forsake all and to care only for Him who came to
judge. If they asked where this should be- wherever the
dead body lay, there would be the judgment that would
come down like a vulture, which they could not see, but
from which the prey would not escape.
Luke 18
457
73141
Luke 18
Perseverance in prayer the resource of the faithful in
the time of judgment
But, in the presence of all the power of their enemies
and oppressors (for there would be such, as we have seen, so
that they might even lose their lives), there was a resource
for the aicted remnant. ey were to persevere in prayer,
the resource, moreover, at all times, of the faithful-of man,
if he understand it. God would avenge His elect, although,
as to the exercise of their faith, He would, indeed, try it.
But when He came, would the Son of Man nd this faith
that waited for His intervention? at was the solemn
question, the answer to which is left to the responsibility
of man-a question which implies that it could hardly be
expected, although it ought to exist. Nevertheless, should
there be any faith acceptable to Him who seeks it, it will
not be disappointed or confounded.
e twofold presentation of the kingdom in the last
days; the day of the judgment of the wicked
It will be observed that the kingdom (and that is the
subject) is presented in two ways among the Jews at that
time-in the Person of Jesus then present (ch. 17:21) and
in the execution of the judgment, in which the elect ones
should be spared and the <P308>vengeance of God be
executed in their behalf. On this account, they were only to
think of pleasing Him, however oppressive and at ease the
world might be. It is the day of the judgment of the wicked,
and not that in which the righteous will be caught up to
heaven. Enoch and Abraham are more the types of the
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latter; Noe and Lot, of those who will be spared to live on
the earth; only there are oppressors of whom the remnant
are to be avenged. Verse 31 shows that they must think
only of the judgment and connect themselves with nothing
as men. Detached from everything, their only hope would
be in God at such a moment.
Characters suitable to the kingdom of God; the spirit
of a little child
e Lord then resumes, in verse 9 of chapter 18, the
description of those characters which were suitable to the
kingdom, to enter it now by following Him. From verse
351 the great transition draws near historically.
(1. e case of the blind man at Jericho is, as already
noted, the beginning (in all the synoptical Gospels) of the
last events of Christ’s life.)
Verse 8, then, of chapter 18 ends the prophetic warning
with respect to the last days. e Lord afterwards resumes
the consideration of the characters which bet the state of
things introduced by grace. Self-righteousness is far from
being a recommendation for entrance into the kingdom.
e most miserable sinner, confessing his sin, is justied
before God rather than the self-righteous. He that exalts
himself shall be abased, and he that humbles himself shall
be exalted. What a pattern and witness of this truth was
the Lord Jesus Christ Himself!
e spirit of a little child-simple, believing all that he
is told, conding, of little importance in his own eyes, who
must give way to all-this was meet for the kingdom of God.
What else would He admit?
e rich, young ruler and his temporal blessings in
contrast with Christ’s rejection
Luke 18
459
Again, the principles of the kingdom, as established
by the rejection of Christ, were in full contrast with the
temporal blessings attached to obedience to the law,
excellent as that law was in its place. Goodness in man
there was none: God only is good. e<P309> young man
who had fullled the law in his outward walk is called to
leave everything that he may follow the Lord. Jesus knew
his circumstances and his heart, and put His nger on
the covetousness that ruled him and was fed by the riches
he possessed. He was to sell all that he had and follow
Jesus; he should have treasure in heaven. e young man
went away sorrowful. e riches that, in the eyes of men,
appeared to be a sign of God’s favor, were but a hindrance
when the heart and heaven came in question. e Lord
announces at the same time that whosoever should forsake
anything that he prized for the sake of the kingdom of
heaven should receive much more in this world, and, in
the next, life everlasting. We may remark that it is only
the principle which is here laid down in reference to the
kingdom.
e path to the cross
At last the Lord, on His way to Jerusalem, plainly tells
His disciples in private that He was going to be delivered
up, to be ill-treated and put to death, and then to rise again.
It was the fulllment of all that the prophets had written.
But the disciples understood none of those things.
If the Lord was to make those who followed Him
take up the cross, He could not but bear it Himself. He
went before His sheep, in this path of self-denial and
devotedness, to prepare the way. He went alone. It was a
path which His people had not yet trodden, nor indeed
could they till after He had done so.
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e Lord’s last approach to Jerusalem
e history of His last approach to Jerusalem and
communion with it now commences (vs. 35).
Here then He presents Himself anew as the Son of
David, and for the last time; laying on the conscience of
the nation His pretensions to that title, while displaying
the consequences of His rejection.
Grace near Jericho, the city of the curse, for the blind
Near Jericho,1 the place of malediction, He gives sight
to a blind<P310> man who believes in His title of Son
of David. So indeed those who possessed that faith did
receive their sight to follow Him, and they saw yet greater
things than these.
(1. In Luke, the coming to Jericho is stated as a general
fact, in contrast with His general journey which is in view
from chapter 9:51. In point of fact it was on going out of
Jericho He saw the blind man. e general fact is all we
have here, to give the whole history, Zaccheus and all, its
moral place.)
Luke 19-20
461
73142
Luke 19-20
Grace bringing salvation in Jericho for the lost
In Jericho He sets forth grace, in spite of the pharisaic
spirit. Nevertheless, it is as a son of Abraham that He points
out Zaccheus, who-in a false position indeed as such-had
a tender conscience and a generous heart1 by grace. His
position did not, in the eyes of Jesus, take from him the
character of son of Abraham (if it had that eect, who
could have been blessed?) and did not bar the way to that
salvation which was come to save the lost. It entered with
Jesus into the house of this son of Abraham. He brought
salvation, whoever might be heir to it.
(1. I doubt not that Zaccheus sets before Jesus that
which he did habitually, before the Lord came to him.
Nevertheless, salvation came that day to his house.)
e Lord’s departure predicted; His servant’s
responsibility in His absence
Nevertheless, He does not conceal from them His
departure and the character which the kingdom would
assume, owing to His absence. As for them, Jerusalem,
and the expectation of the coming kingdom, lled their
minds. e Lord therefore explains to them what would
take place. He goes away to receive a kingdom and to
return. Meanwhile, He commits some of His goods (the
gifts of the Spirit) to His servants to trade with during
His absence. e dierence between this parable and that
in the Gospel by Matthew is this: Matthew presents the
sovereignty and the wisdom of the giver, who varies His
gifts according to the aptitude of His servants; in Luke it
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is more particularly the responsibility of the servants, who
each receive the same sum, and the one gains by it, in his
master’s interest, more than the other. Accordingly, it is not
said, as in Matthew, “Enter into the joy of your Lord,” the
same thing to all, and the more excellent thing; but to the
one it is authority over ten cities that is given; to the other,
over ve (that is to say, a share in the kingdom according to
their labor). e <P311>servant does not lose that which
he has gained, although it was for his master. He enjoys it.
Not so with the servant who made no use of his talent; that
which had been committed to him is given to the one who
had gained ten.
at which we gain spiritually here, in spiritual
intelligence and in the knowledge of God in power, is not
lost in the other world. On the contrary, we receive more,
and the glory of the inheritance is given us in proportion
to our work. All is grace.
Persistent rejection by the Jews foretold
But there was yet another element in the history of the
kingdom. e citizens (the Jews) not only reject the king,
but, when he is gone away to receive the kingdom, send
a messenger after him to say that they will not have him
to reign over them. us the Jews, when Peter sets their
sin before them, and declares to them that if they repent,
Jesus would return, and with Him the times of refreshing,
reject the testimony, and, so to say, send Stephen after Jesus
to testify that they would have nothing to do with Him.
When He returns in glory, the perverse nation is judged
before His eyes. e avowed enemies of Christ, they receive
the reward of their rebellion.
e Lord’s last, personal presentation of the kingdom
to the people of Jerusalem
Luke 19-20
463
He had declared that which the kingdom was-that which
it should be. He now comes to present it for the last time in
His own Person to the inhabitants of Jerusalem according
to the prophecy of Zechariah. is remarkable scene
has been considered in its general aspect when studying
Matthew and Mark; but some particular circumstances
require notice here. All is gathered around His entrance.
e disciples and the Pharisees are in contrast. Jerusalem is
in the day of her visitation, and she knows it not.
Some remarkable expressions are uttered by His
disciples, moved by the Spirit of God, on this occasion.
Had they been silent, the stones would have broken out
in proclamation of the glory of the rejected One. e
kingdom, in their triumphant acclamations, is not simply
the kingdom in its earthly aspect. In Matthew it was,
“Hosanna to the Son of David,” and, “Blessed is he that
cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.”
at was indeed<P312> true; but here we have something
more. e Son of David disappears. He is indeed the King,
who comes in the name of the Lord; but it is no longer the
remnant of Israel who seek salvation in the name of the Son
of David, acknowledging His title. It is “peace in heaven
and glory in the highest.” e kingdom depends on peace
being established in the heavenly places. e Son of Man,
exalted on high and victorious over Satan, has reconciled
the heavens. e glory of grace in His Person is established
for the everlasting and supreme glory of the God of love.
e kingdom on earth is but a consequence of this glory
which grace has established. e power that cast out Satan
has established peace in heaven. At the beginning, in Luke
2:14, we have, in the manifested grace, Glory to God in
the highest; peace on earth; the good pleasure [of God] in
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men. To establish the kingdom, peace is made in heaven;
the glory of God is fully established in the highest.
e Lord weeping over Jerusalem; its coming
destruction; the vineyard given to others
It will be remarked here that, as He draws nigh to
Jerusalem, the Lord weeps over the city. It is not now as in
Matthew, where, while discoursing with the Jews, He points
it out to them as that which, having rejected and slain the
prophets-Emmanuel also, the Lord, who would so often
have gathered her children under His wings, having been
ignominiously rejected-was now given up to desolation
until His return. It is the hour of her visitation, and she has
not known it. If only she had, even now, hearkened to the
call of the testimony of her God! She is given up into the
hands of the Gentiles, her enemies, who will not leave her
one stone upon another. at is to say, not having known
this visitation of God in grace in the Person of Jesus, she
is set aside-the testimony goes no farther-she gives place
to a new order of things. us the destruction of Jerusalem
by Titus is here prominent. It is the moral character of the
temple also of which the Lord here speaks. e Spirit does
not notice here that it is to be the temple of God for all
nations. It is simply (ch. 20:16) the vineyard is given to
others. ey fell upon the stone of stumbling then: when it
falls on them-when Jesus comes in judgment-it will grind
them to powder.<P313>
e Sadducees answered; the certainty of the
resurrection; future life
In His reply to the Sadducees, three important things
are added to that which is said in Matthew. First, it is
not only the condition of those who are raised, and the
certainty of the resurrection; it is an age, which a certain
Luke 19-20
465
class only, who are accounted worthy of it, shall obtain, a
separate resurrection of the just (vs. 35). Second, this class
is composed of the children of God, as being the children
of the resurrection (vs. 36). ird, while waiting for this
resurrection, their souls survive death, all live unto God,
although they may be hidden from the eyes of men (vs. 38).
Characteristics and dierences of the accounts of
Matthew and Luke of the Lord’s prophetic discourse
e parable of the wedding feast is omitted here. In
chapter 14 of this Gospel we nd it with characteristic
elements, a mission to the lanes of the city, to the despised
of the nations, which is not in Matthew, who gives us the
judgment of Jerusalem instead, before announcing the
evangelization of the Gentiles. All this is characteristic. In
Luke it is grace, a moral condition of man before God, and
the new order of things founded on the rejection of Christ.
I will not dwell upon those points which Luke relates in
common with Matthew. ey naturally meet in the great
facts that relate to the Lord’s rejection by the Jews, and its
consequences.
If we compare Matthew 23 and Luke 20:45-47, we
shall see at once the dierence. In Luke the Spirit gives
us in three verses that which morally puts the scribes
aside. In Matthew their whole position with respect to
the dispensation is developed; whether as having a place,
so long as Moses continued, or with reference to their
guiltiness before God in that place.
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73143
Luke 21
e character of Luke’s Gospel displayed; the present
period and its end indicated
e Lord’s discourse in chapter 21 displays the
character of the Gospel in a peculiar manner. e spirit
of grace, in contrast with the Judaic spirit, is seen in the
account of the poor widow’s <P314>oering. But the
Lord’s prophecy requires more detailed notice. Verse 6,
as we saw at the end of chapter 19, speaks only of the
destruction of Jerusalem as she then stood. is is true also
of the disciples’ question. ey say nothing of the end of
the age. e Lord afterwards enters upon the duties and
the circumstances of His disciples previous to that hour.
In verse 8 it is said, “e time draweth near,” which is not
found in Matthew. He goes much more into detail with
regard to their ministry during that period, encourages
them, promises them necessary help. Persecution should
turn to them for a testimony. From the middle of verse
11 to the end of verse 19 we have details relative to His
disciples that are not found in the corresponding passage
of Matthew. ey present the general state of things
in the same sense, adding the condition of the Jews, of
those especially who, more or less, professedly received
the Word. e whole stream of testimony, as rendered
in connection with Israel, but extending to the nations,
is found in Matthew to the end of verse 14. In Luke it
is the coming service of the disciples, until the moment
when the judgment of God should put an end to that
which was virtually terminated by the rejection of Christ.
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467
Consequently, the Lord says nothing in verse 20 of the
abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel, but gives
the fact of the siege of Jerusalem, and its then approaching
desolation-not the end of the age, as in Matthew. ese
were the days of vengeance on the Jews, who had crowned
their rebellion by rejecting the Lord. erefore Jerusalem
should be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times
of the Gentiles were fullled, that is, the times destined
to the sovereignty of the Gentile empires according to the
counsel of God revealed in the prophecies of Daniel. is
is the period in which we now live. ere is a break here
in the discourse. Its principal subject is ended; but there
are still some events of the last scene to be revealed, which
close the history of this Gentile supremacy.
e end of the age; the coming of the Son of Man
We shall see also that, although it is the commencement
of the judgment, from which Jerusalem will not arise until
all is accomplished and the song of Isaiah 40 is addressed
to her, nevertheless, the great tribulation is not mentioned
here. ere is great distress, and wrath upon the people, as
was indeed the case in the<P315> siege of Jerusalem by
Titus; and the Jews were also led away captive. Neither is
it said, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days.”
Nevertheless, without designating the epoch, but after
having spoken of the times of the Gentiles, the end of the
age comes. ere are signs in heaven, distress on earth, a
mighty movement in the waves of human population. e
heart of man, moved by a prophetic alarm, foresees the
calamities which, still unknown, are threatening him; for all
the inuences that govern men are shaken. en shall they
see the Son of Man, once rejected from the earth, coming
from heaven with the ensigns of Jehovah, with power and
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great glory-the Son of Man, of whom this Gospel has
always spoken. ere the prophecy ends. We have not here
the gathering together of the elect Israelites, who had been
dispersed, of which Matthew speaks.
Exhortations to watchfulness; the day of distress a
token of deliverance to faith
at which follows consists of exhortations, in order
that the day of distress may be a token of deliverance to
the faith of those who, trusting in the Lord, obey the voice
of His servant. e “generation” (a word already explained
when considering Matthew) should not pass away till all
was fullled. e length of the time that has elapsed since
then, and that must elapse until the end, is left in darkness.
Heavenly things are not measured by dates. Moreover,
that moment is hidden in the knowledge of the Father.
Still heaven and earth should pass away, but not the words
of Jesus. He then tells them that, as dwelling on earth,
they must be watchful, lest their own hearts should be
overcharged with things that would sink them into this
world, in the midst of which they were to be witnesses. For
that day would come as a snare upon all those who had their
dwelling here, who were rooted here. ey were to watch
and pray, in order to escape all those things, and to stand in
the presence of the Son of Man. is is still the great subject
of our Gospel. To be with Him, as those who have escaped
from the earth, to be among the 144,000 on Mount Zion,
will be an accomplishment of this blessing, but the place
is not named; so that, supposing the faithfulness of those
whom He was personally addressing, the hope awakened
by His words would be fullled in a more excellent manner
in His heavenly presence in the day of glory.<P316>
Luke 22
469
73144
Luke 22
Nearing the end of the Lord’s life; the chief priests
and Judas; the Passover
In chapter 22 commence the details of the end of our
Lord’s life. e chief priests, fearing the people, seek how
they may kill Him. Judas, under the inuence of Satan, oers
himself as an instrument, that they might take Him in the
absence of the multitude. e day of Passover comes, and
the Lord pursues that which belonged to His work of love
in these immediate circumstances. I will notice the points
that appertain to the character of this Gospel, the change
that took place in immediate and direct connection with
the Lord’s death. us He desired to eat this last Passover
with His disciples, because He would eat thereof no more
until it was fullled in the kingdom of God, that is, by His
death. He drinks wine no more until the kingdom of God
shall come. He does not say, Until He shall drink it new
in the kingdom of His Father, but only that He will not
drink it till the kingdom shall come: just as the times of the
Gentiles are in view as a present thing, so here Christianity,
the kingdom as it is now, not the millennium. Observe also
what a touching expression of love we have here: His heart
needed this last testimony of aection before leaving them.
e foundation of the new covenant
e new covenant is founded on the blood here drunk
in gure. e old was done away. Blood was required to
establish the new. At the same time the covenant itself
was not established; but everything was done on God’s
part. e blood was not shed to give force to a covenant of
Darby Synopsis
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judgment like the rst; it was shed for those who received
Jesus, while waiting for the time when the covenant itself
should be established with Israel in grace.
e disciples’ ignorance and innocence
e disciples, believing the words of Christ, do not
themselves know, and they ask one another, which of them
it could be that should betray Him, a striking expression
of faith in all he uttered-for none, save Judas, had a bad
conscience-and marked their innocence. And at the same
time, thinking of the kingdom in<P317> a carnal way, they
dispute for the rst place in it; and this, in the presence of
the cross, at the table where the Lord was giving them the
last pledges of His love. Truth of heart there was, but what
a heart to have truth in! As for Himself, He had taken
the lowest place, and that-as the most excellent for love-
was His alone. ey had to follow Him as closely as they
could. His grace recognizes their having done so, as if He
were their debtor for their care during His time of sorrow
on earth. He remembered it. In the day of His kingdom
they should have twelve thrones, as heads of Israel, among
whom they had followed Him.
Sifted by Satan, prayed for by the Saviour
But now it was a question of passing through death;
and, having followed Him thus far, what an opportunity
for the enemy to sift them since they could no longer
follow Him as men living on the earth! All that belonged
to a living Messiah was completely overthrown, and death
was there. Who could pass through it? Satan would prot
by this and desired to have them that he might sift them.
Jesus does not seek to spare His disciples this sifting. It was
not possible, for He must pass through death, and their
hope was in Him. ey cannot escape it: the esh must be
Luke 22
471
put to the test of death. But He prays for them, that the
faith of the one, whom He especially names, may not fail.
Simon, ardent in the esh, was exposed more than all to
the danger into which a false condence in the esh might
lead him, but in which it could not sustain him. Being,
however, the object of this grace on the Lord’s part, his
fall would be the means of his strength. Knowing what
the esh was and also the perfection of grace, he would be
able to strengthen his brethren. Peter asserts that he could
do anything-the very things he should entirely fail in. e
Lord briey warns him of what he would really do.
e forewarning of change in the absence of the Lord;
the enemy’s power
Jesus then takes occasion to forewarn them that all
was about to change. During His presence here below, the
true Messiah, Emmanuel, He had sheltered them from all
diculties; when He sent them throughout Israel, they
had lacked nothing. But now (for the kingdom was not
yet coming in power) they would be, like Him<P318>self,
exposed to contempt and violence. Humanly speaking,
they would have to take care of themselves. Peter, ever
forward, taking the words of Christ literally, was permitted
to lay bare his thoughts by exhibiting two swords. e
Lord stops him by a word that showed him it was of no
use to go further. ey were not capable of it at that time.
As to Himself, He pursues with perfect tranquillity His
daily habits.
Pressed in spirit by that which was coming, He exhorts
His disciples to pray, that they enter not into temptation;
that is to say, that when the time came that they should be
put to the test, walking with God, it should be for them
obedience to God, and not a means of departure from Him.
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ere are such moments, if God permits them to come, in
which everything is put to the proof by the enemy’s power.
e perfect, dependent Man at Gethsemane
e Lord’s dependence as man is then displayed in the
most striking manner. e whole scene of Gethsemane and
the cross, in Luke, is the perfect, dependent man. He prays:
He submits to His Father’s will. An angel strengthens Him:
this was their service to the Son of Man.1 Afterwards, in
deep conict, He prays<P319> more earnestly: dependent
man, He is perfect in His dependence. e deepness of
the conict deepens His communion with His Father.
e disciples were overwhelmed by the shadow only of
that which caused Jesus to pray. ey take refuge in the
forgetfulness of sleep. e Lord, with the patience of
grace, repeats His warning, and the multitude arrives.
Peter, condent when warned, sleeping at the approach
of temptation when the Lord was praying, strikes when
Jesus allows Himself to be led as a sheep to the slaughter,
and then alas! denies when Jesus confesses the truth. But,
submissive as the Lord was to His Father’s will, He plainly
shows that His power had not departed from Him. He
heals the wound that Peter inicted on the high priest’s
servant, and then permits Himself to be led away, with the
remark that it was their hour and the power of darkness.
Sad and terrible association!
(1. ere are elements of the profoundest interest which
appear in comparing this Gospel with others in this place;
and elements which bring out the character of this Gospel
in the most striking way. In Gethsemane we have the Lord’s
conict brought out more fully in Luke than anywhere; but
on the cross we have His superiority to the suerings He
was in. ere is no expression of them: He is above them.
Luke 22
473
It is not, as in John, the divine side of the picture. ere
in Gethsemane we have no agony, but when He names
Himself, they go backward and fall to the ground. On the
cross, no “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
but He delivers up His own spirit to God. is is not so
in Luke. In Gethsemane we have the Man of sorrows, a
man feeling in all its depths what was before Him, and
looking to His Father. “Being in an agony, he prayed more
earnestly.” On the cross we have One who as man has
bowed to His Father’s will and is in the calmness of One
who, in whatever sorrow and suering, is above it all. He
tells the weeping women to weep for themselves, not for
Him, the green tree, for judgment was coming. He prays
for those who were crucifying Him; He speaks peace and
heavenly joy to the poor thief who was converted; He was
going into paradise before the kingdom came. e same
is seen specially in the fact of His death. It is not, as in
John, He gave up His spirit; but, “Father, into thy hands I
commend my spirit.” He trusts His spirit in death, as a man
who knows and believes in God His Father, to Him whom
He thus knew. In Matthew we have the forsaking of God
and His sense of it. is character of the Gospel, revealing
Christ distinctively as perfect Man, and the perfect Man, is
full of the deepest interest. He passed through His sorrows
with God, and then in perfect peacefulness was above
them all; His trust in His Father perfect, even in death-a
path not trodden by man hitherto, and never to be trodden
by the saints. If Jordan overowed all its banks at the time
of harvest, the ark in the depths of it made it a passage
dryshod into the inheritance of God’s people.)
e iniquitous trial; Peter’s defection; the Son of Man
is the Son of God
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In all this scene we behold the complete dependence of
the man, the power of death felt as a trial in all its force;
but, apart from that which was going on in His soul and
before His Father, in which we see the reality of these two
things, there was the most perfect tranquillity, the most
gentle calmness towards men1- grace that never belies
itself. us, when Peter denied Him as He had foretold,
He looks upon him at the tting moment. All the parade
of His iniquitous trial does not distract His thoughts, and
Peter is broken down by that look. When questioned, He
has little to say. His hour was come. Subject to His Father’s
will, He accepted the cup from His hand. His judges did
but accomplish that will and bring Him the cup. He makes
no answer to the question whether He is the Christ. It
was no longer the time to do so. ey would not believe
it-would not answer Him if He had put <P320>questions
to them that would have brought out the truth; neither
would they have let Him go. But He bears the plainest
testimony to the place which, from that hour, the Son of
Man took. is we have repeatedly seen in reading this
Gospel. He would sit on the right hand of the power of
God. We see also it is the place He takes at present.2ey
immediately draw the right conclusion: “ou art, then,
the Son of God?” He bears testimony to this truth, and all
is ended; that is to say, He waives the question, whether
He was the Messiah-that was gone by for Israel-He was
going to suer; He is the Son of Man, but thenceforth only
as entering into glory; and He is the Son of God. It was
all over with Israel as to their responsibility; the heavenly
glory of the Son of Man, the personal glory of the Son of
God was about to shine forth; and Jesus (ch. 23) is led away
to the Gentiles, that all may be accomplished.
Luke 22
475
(1. It is most striking to see how Christ met, according
to divine perfectness, every circumstance He was in.
ey only drew out the perfectness. He felt them all, was
governed by none, but met them-always Himself. is
which was always true was wonderfully shown here. He
prays with the fullest sense of what was coming upon
Him-the cup He had to drink-turns and warns them, and
gently rebukes and excuses Peter, as if walking in Galilee,
the esh was weak; and then returns into yet deeper agony
with His Father. Grace suited Him with Peter, agony in the
presence of God; and He was grace with Peter-in agony at
the thought of the cup.)
(2. e word “hereafter,” in the Authorized Version,
should be “henceforth.” at is, from this out they would
see Him no longer in humiliation, but as Son of Man in
power.)
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73145
Luke 23
e guilt of the Gentiles; agrant injustice
e Gentiles, however, are not presented in this Gospel
as being voluntarily guilty. We see, no doubt, an indierence
which is agrant injustice in a case like this, and an
insolence which nothing could excuse; but Pilate does
what he can to deliver Christ, and Herod, disappointed,
sends Him back unjudged. e will is altogether on the
side of the Jews. at is the characteristic of this part of
the history in Luke’s Gospel. Pilate would rather not have
burdened himself with this useless crime, and he despised
the Jews; but they were resolved on the crucixion of Jesus,
and require Barabbas to be released-a seditious man and a
murderer (see verses 20-25).1
(1. is willful guilt of the Jews is strongly brought out
in John’s Gospel also, that is, their national guilt. Pilate
treats them with contempt; and there it is they say, “We
have no king but Cæsar.”)
e King of the Jews on the cross for the everlasting
salvation of souls
Jesus, therefore, as He was led to Calvary, announced
to the women, who with natural feeling lamented for
Him, that it was all<P321> over with Jerusalem, that they
had to bewail their own fate and not His; for days were
coming upon Jerusalem which would make them call
those happy who had never been mothers- days in which
they would in vain seek refuge from terror and judgment.
For if in Him, the true green tree, these things were done,
what would become of the dry tree of Judaism without
Luke 23
477
God? Nevertheless, at the moment of His crucixion, the
Lord intercedes for the unhappy people: they knew not
what they did- intercession, to which Peter’s discourse to
the Jews (Acts 3) is the remarkable answer by the Holy
Spirit come down from heaven. e rulers among the Jews,
completely blinded, as well as the people, taunt Him with
being unable to save Himself from the cross-not knowing
that it was impossible if He was a Saviour, and that all was
taken from them, and that God was establishing another
order of things, founded on atonement, in the power of
eternal life by the resurrection. Dreadful blindness, of
which the poor soldiers were but imitators, according to
the malignity of human nature! But the judgment of Israel
was in their mouth, and (on God’s part) upon the cross. It
was the King of the Jews who hung there-abased indeed,
for a thief hung by His side could rail on Him-but in the
place to which love had brought Him for the everlasting
and present salvation of souls. is was manifested at the
very moment. e insults that reproached Him for not
saving Himself from the cross had His answer in the fate
of the converted thief, who rejoined Him the same day in
paradise.
A gross sinner converted by grace on the gibbet; the
wickedness of the other thief
is history is a striking demonstration of the change to
which this Gospel leads us. e King of the Jews, by their
own confession, is not delivered-He is crucied. What an
end to the hopes of this people! But at the same time a gross
sinner, converted by grace on the very gibbet, goes straight
to paradise. A soul is eternally saved. It is not the kingdom,
but a soul-out of the body- in happiness with Christ. And
remark here how the presentation of Christ brings out the
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wickedness of the human heart. No thief would mock at or
reproach another thief on the cross. But the moment it is
Christ who is there, this takes place.<P322>
Marks of conversion and remarkable faith; the Lord’s
reply; the rstfruits of the love that placed them side by
side
But I would say a few words on the condition of the
other thief, and on the reply of Christ. We see every mark
of conversion, and of the most remarkable faith. e fear
of God, the beginning of wisdom, is there; conscience
upright and vigorous. It is not “and justly” to his fellow,
but “we indeed justly”; knowledge of the perfect, sinless
righteousness of Christ as man; the acknowledgment of
Him as the Lord, when His own disciples had forsaken
and denied Him, and when there was no sign of His glory
or of the dignity of His Person. He was accounted by man
as one like himself. His kingdom was but a subject of scorn
to all. But the poor thief is taught of God; and all is plain.
He is as sure that Christ will have the kingdom as if He
was reigning in glory. All his desire is that Christ should
remember him then; and what condence in Christ is
here shown through the knowledge of Him in spite of his
acknowledged guilt! It shows how Christ lled his heart,
and how his conding in grace by its brightness shut out
human shame, for who would like to be remembered in the
shame of a cross! Divine teaching is singularly manifested
here. Do not we know by divine teaching that Christ was
sinless, and to be assured of His kingdom there was a faith
above all circumstances? He alone is a comfort to Jesus
upon the cross, and makes Him think (in answering his
faith) of the paradise that awaited Him when He should
have nished the work that His Father had given Him to
Luke 23
479
do. Observe the state of sanctication this poor man was in
by faith. In all the agonies of the cross, and while believing
Jesus to be the Lord, he seeks no relief at His hands, but
asks that He will remember him in His kingdom. He is
lled with one thought-to have his portion with Jesus.
He believes that the Lord will return; he believes in the
kingdom, while the King is rejected and crucied, and
when, as to man, there was no longer any hope. But the
reply of Jesus goes further in the revelation of that proper
to this Gospel, and adds that which brings in, not the
kingdom, but everlasting life, the happiness of the soul. e
thief had asked Jesus to remember him when He returned
in His kingdom. e Lord replies that he should not wait
for that day of manifested glory which would be visible to
the world, but that this very day he should be with Him
in paradise. Precious testimony, and perfect grace! Jesus
crucied<P323> was more than King-He was Saviour.
e poor malefactor was a testimony to it, and the joy and
consolation of the Lord’s heart-the rstfruits of the love
which had placed them side by side, where, if the poor thief
bore the fruit of his sins from man, the Lord of glory at his
side was bearing the fruit of them from God, treated as
Himself a malefactor in the same condemnation. rough
a work unknown to man save by faith, the sins of His
companion were forever put away, they no longer existed,
their remembrance was only that of the grace which had
taken them away, and which had forever cleansed his
soul from them, making him that moment as t to enter
paradise as Christ Himself, his companion there!
Death; the last act of the Lord’s life; God reveals
Himself
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e Lord then, having fullled all things, and still full of
strength, commends His spirit to His Father. He commits
it to Him, the last act of that which composed His whole
life-the perfect energy of the Holy Spirit acting in a perfect
condence in His Father, and dependence upon Him. He
commits His spirit to His Father and expires. For it was
death that He had before Him- but death in absolute faith
which trusted in His Father-death with God by faith; and
not the death that separated from God. Meantime, nature
veiled itself-acknowledged the departure from this world
of Him who had created it. All is darkness. But on the
other hand, God reveals Himself-the veil of the temple is
rent in twain from the top to the bottom. God had hidden
Himself in thick darkness-the way into the holiest had not
yet been manifested. But now there is no longer a veil; that
which has put sin away through perfect love now shines
forth, while the holiness of God’s presence is joy to the
heart, and not torment. What brings us into the presence
of perfect holiness without a veil put away the sin which
forbade us to be there. Our communion is with Him
through Christ, holy and unblamable before Him in love.
e centurion’s confession
e poor centurion, struck with all that had taken
place, confesses-such is the power of the cross upon the
conscience- that this Jesus whom he has crucied was
certainly the righteous man. I say conscience, because I do
not pretend to say that it went<P324> any further than
that in the case of the centurion. We see the same eect on
the spectators: they went away smiting their breasts. ey
perceived that something solemn had happened-that they
had fatally compromised themselves with God.
e burial of the Lord; everything prepared
Luke 23
481
But the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of
glory, had prepared everything for the burial of His Son,
who had gloried Him by giving Himself up to death.
He is with the rich in His death. Joseph, a just man, who
had not consented to the sin of his people, lays the Lord’s
body in a tomb that had never yet been used. It was the
preparation before the sabbath; but the sabbath was near.
At the time of His death the women-faithful (though
ignorant) to their aection for Him while living-see where
the body is laid and go to prepare all that was needed for
its embalming. Luke only speaks in general terms of these
women: we shall therefore enter on the details elsewhere,
following our Gospel as it presents itself.
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73146
Luke 24
e resurrection and its many proofs
e women come, nd the stone rolled away, and the
sepulchre no longer containing the body of Him whom
they had loved. While perplexed at this, they see two
angels near them, who ask why they came to seek the
living among the dead, and remind them of the plain
words which Jesus had spoken to them in Galilee. ey
go and tell these things to all the disciples, who cannot
believe their account; but Peter runs to the sepulchre,
sees everything in order, and departs, wondering at that
which had come to pass. In all this there was no faith in
the words of Jesus, nor in that which the Scriptures had
spoken. In the journey to Emmaus, the Lord connects the
Scriptures with all that happened to Himself, showing
to their minds, still lingering around the thought of an
earthly kingdom, that according to these scriptures, God’s
revealed counsels, the Christ ought to suer and enter into
His glory, a rejected and heavenly Christ. He awakens
that ardent attention which the heart feels whenever it is
touched. He then reveals Himself in breaking bread-the
sign of His death: not that this was the <P325>Eucharist,
but this particular act was linked with that event. en
their eyes were opened, and He disappears. It was the true
Jesus; but in resurrection. Here He Himself explained all
that the Scriptures had spoken and presented Himself in
life with the symbol of His death. e two disciples return
to Jerusalem.
Luke 24
483
e Lord had already shown Himself to Simon-an
appearance of which we have no details. Paul also mentions
it as the rst with reference to the apostles. While the two
disciples related that which had happened to them, Jesus
Himself stood in their midst. But their minds were not yet
formed to this truth, and His presence alarms them. ey
cannot realize the idea of the resurrection of the body. e
Lord uses their confusion (very natural, humanly speaking)
for our blessing, by giving them the most sensible proofs
that it was Himself risen; but Himself, body and soul, the
same as before His death. He bids them touch Him, and
He eats before their eyes.1 It was indeed Himself.
(1. Nothing can be more touching than the way in
which He cultivates their condence as that One they had
known, the man, still a true man (though with a spiritual
body) as He had been before! Handle Me and see that it is
I Myself. Blessed be God, forever a man, the same who has
been known in living love in the midst of our weakness.)
e basis of true faith
An important thing remained-the basis of true faith: the
words of Christ, and the testimony of Scripture. is He
sets before them. But two things were yet required. First,
they needed capacity to understand the Word. He opens
their understanding therefore, that they might understand
the Scriptures, and establishes them as witnesses that were
not only able to say, “us it is, for we have seen it”; but,
“us it must needs have been, for so hath God said in his
word”; and the testimony of Christ Himself was fullled
in His resurrection.
Grace to be preached among all nations
But now grace was to be preached-Jesus rejected by
the Jews, slain and risen again for the salvation of souls,
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484
having made peace, and bestowing life according to the
power of resurrection, the work which cleansed from sin
being accomplished, and pardon already granted in thus
bestowing it. Grace was to be preached among all nations,
that is to say, repentance and<P326> pardon to sinners;
beginning at that place, with which indeed the patient
grace of God still owned a link, through the intercession of
Jesus, but which could only be reached by sovereign grace,
and in which sin the most aggravated rendered pardon the
most necessary, by a testimony which, coming from heaven,
must deal with Jerusalem as it dealt with all. ey were
to preach repentance and remission of sins to all nations,
beginning at Jerusalem. e Jew, a child of wrath, even as
others, must come in on the same ground. e testimony
had a higher source, although it was said, “To the Jew rst.”
e disciples to be endued with power for their
mission
But, second, something more, therefore, was needed for
the accomplishment of this mission, that is, power. ey
were to tarry at Jerusalem until they were endued with
power from on high. Jesus would send the Holy Spirit
whom He had promised, of whom the prophets also had
spoken.
e Lord’s ascension to heaven characterized by
blessing and great joy
While blessing His disciples, heaven and heavenly
grace characterizing His relationship with them, Jesus was
parted from them and carried up into heaven; and they
returned to Jerusalem with joy.
e great foundation principles of the doctrines and
proofs of the resurrection
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485
It will have been remarked that the narrative of Luke
is very general here, and contains the great principles on
which the doctrines and proofs of the resurrection are
founded; the unbelief of the natural heart so graphically
painted in the most simple and touching accounts; the
disciples’ attachment to their own hopes of the kingdom,
and the diculty with which the doctrine of the Word
took possession of their hearts, although, in proportion
to their realization, their hearts opened to it with joy; the
Person of Jesus risen, still a man, the gracious One they
knew; the doctrine of the Word; the understanding of
the Word bestowed; the power of the Holy Spirit given-
all that belonged to the truth and to the eternal order of
things made manifest.<P327>
Bethany as the point of contact and connection
between Jesus and the disciples
Nevertheless, Jerusalem was still recognized as the rst
object of grace on earth according to God’s dispensations
towards her; yet she was not, even as a place, the point of
contact and connection between Jesus and His disciples.
He does not bless them from Jerusalem, although, in the
dealings of God with the earth, they were to tarry there
for the gift of the Holy Spirit; for themselves and their
relationship with Him He leads them out to Bethany.
From thence He had set out to present Himself as King to
Jerusalem. It was there that the resurrection of Lazarus took
place; there that the family, which present the character of
the remnant-attached to His Person, now rejected, with
better hopes- in the most striking manner received Jesus. It
was thither He retired when His testimony to the Jews was
ended, that His heart might rest for a few moments among
those whom He loved, who, through grace, loved Him. It
Darby Synopsis
486
was there that He established the link (as to circumstances)
between the remnant attached to His Person and heaven.
From thence He ascends.
Jerusalem is but the public starting point of their ministry,
as it had been the last scene of His witness. For themselves
it was Bethany and heaven which were connected in the
Person of Jesus. From thence was the testimony to come
for Jerusalem herself. is is the more striking when we
compare it with Matthew. ere He goes to Galilee, the
place of association with the Jewish remnant, and there is
no ascension, and the mission is exclusively to the nations.
It is a carrying out to them what was then conned to the
Jews and forbidden to be carried further.
NOTE: In the text I have strictly followed the passage;
I add some developments here, connecting this Gospel
with the others.
e two distinct parts in the suerings of Christ
ere are two distinct parts in the suerings of Christ:
rst, that which He suered from the eorts of Satan-
as man in conict with the power of the enemy who has
dominion over death, but with the sense of what it was
from God in view-and this in communion with His Father,
presenting His requests to Him; and<P328> second, that
which He suered to accomplish expiation for sin, when
actually bearing our sins, made sin for us, drinking the cup
which the will of His Father had given Him to drink.
e Lord’s temptations in the wilderness; His
suerings at Gethsemane and on the cross
When speaking on the Gospel of John, I shall enter more
on the character of the temptations; but I would notice here
that at the commencement of His public life the tempter
endeavored to turn Jesus aside by setting before Him the
Luke 24
487
attractiveness of all that which, as privilege, belonged to
Him, all that might be agreeable to Christ as man, as to
which His own will might work. He was defeated by the
perfect obedience of Christ. He would have Christ, being
Son, go out of the place He had taken as servant. Blessed
be God, he failed. Christ, by simple obedience, bound the
strong man as to this life, and then returning in the power
of the Spirit into Galilee spoiled his goods. Putting away
sin and bearing our sins was another matter. Satan then
departed from Him for a season. In Gethsemane he returns,
using the fear of death to throw anguish into the heart of
the Lord. And He must needs go through death; and death
was not only Satan’s power but God’s judgment on man, if
man was to be delivered from it, for it was man’s portion;
and He alone, by going down into it, could break its chains.
He had become man, that man might be delivered and even
gloried. e distress of His soul was complete. “My soul is
exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” us His soul was
that which the soul of a man ought to be in the presence
of death, when Satan puts forth all his power in it, with
the cup of God’s judgment as yet unemptied in it: only
He was perfect in it; it was a part of His perfection put
to the test in all that was possible to man. But with tears
and supplications He makes His request to Him who had
power to save Him from death. For the moment, His agony
increases: presenting it to God makes it more acute. is
is the case in our own little conicts. But thus the thing is
settled according to perfection before God. His soul enters
into it with God; He prays more fervently. It is now evident
that this cup-which He puts before His Father’s eyes when
Satan presents it to Him as the power of death in His soul-
must be drunk. As obedience to His Father, He takes it in
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peace. To drink it is but perfect <P329>obedience, instead
of being the power of Satan. But it must be drunk in reality;
and upon the cross Jesus, the Saviour of our souls, enters
into the second phase of His suerings. He goes under
death as the judgment of God, the separation of the soul
from the light of His countenance. All that a soul which
enjoyed nothing except communion with God could suer
in being deprived of it, the Lord suered according to the
perfect measure of the communion which was interrupted.
Yet He gave glory to God: “But thou art holy, O thou that
inhabitest the praises of Israel.” e cup-for I pass over
the outrages and insults of men: we may spare them-the
cup was drunk. Who can tell the horrors of that suering?
e true pains of death, understood as God understands it,
felt-according to the value of His presence-divinely, as by
a man who depended on that presence as man. But all is
accomplished; and that which God required in respect to
sin is done-exhausted, and He is gloried as to it: so that
He has only to bless whosoever comes to Him through a
Christ who is alive and was dead, and who lives forever a
man, forever before God.
Christ made sin; forsaken of God
e suerings of Christ in His body (real as they were),
the insults and upbraidings of men, were but the preface
of His aiction, which, by depriving Him as man of all
consolation, left Him wholly in the place of judgment
as made sin, to His suerings1 in connection with the
judgment of sin, when the God who would have been His
full comfort was, as forsaking Him, the source of sorrow
which left all the rest as unfelt and forgotten.<P330>
(1. Psalm 22 is His appeal to God from the violence
and wickedness of man, to nd Himself there forsaken
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and only sin in His sight, but perfect there. Christ suered
all from man-hostility, unrighteousness, desertion, denial,
betrayal, and then, as trusting in God, forsaking. But what
a spectacle, the one righteous Man who did put His trust
in Him to have to declare, at the end of His life, openly to
all, He was forsaken of God!)
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73147
John
e peculiar character of John’s Gospel
e Gospel of John has a peculiar character, as every
Christian perceives. It does not present the birth of Christ
in this world, looked at as the Son of David. It does not
trace His genealogy back to Adam, in order to bring out
His title of Son of Man. It does not exhibit the Prophet
who, by His testimony, accomplished the service of His
Father in this respect here below. It is neither His birth, nor
the commencement of His gospel, but His existence before
the beginning of everything that had a beginning. “In the
beginning was the Word.” In short, it is the glory of the
Person of Jesus, the Son of God, above all dispensation-a
glory developed in many ways in grace, but which is always
itself. It is that which He is; but making us share in all the
blessings that ow from it, when He is so manifested as to
impart them.
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73148
John 1
e eternal existence, divine nature and distinct
personality of the Word
e rst chapter asserts what He was before all things,
and the dierent characters in which He is a blessing to
man, being made esh. He is, and He is the expression of,
the whole mind that subsists in God, the Logos. In the
beginning He was. If we go back as far as is possible to
the mind of men, how far soever beyond all that has had a
beginning, He is. is is the most perfect idea we can form
historically, if I may use such an expression, of the existence
of God or of eternity. “In the beginning was the Word.” Was
there nothing beside Him? Impossible! Of what would He
have been the Word? “e Word was with God.” at is to
say, a personal existence is ascribed to Him. But, lest it may
be thought that He was something which eternity implies
but which the Holy<P331> Spirit comes to reveal, it is said
that He “was God.” In His existence eternal-in His nature
divine-in His Person distinct, He might have been spoken
of as an emanation in time, as though His personality
were of time, although eternal in His nature: the Spirit
therefore adds, “In the beginning he was with God.” It is
the revelation of the eternal Logos before all creation. is
Gospel therefore really begins before Genesis. e Book
of Genesis gives us the history of the world in time: John
gives us that of the Word, who existed in eternity before
the world was; who-when man can speak of beginning-
was; and, consequently, did not begin to exist. e language
of the Gospel is as plain as possible, and, like the sword of
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paradise, turns every way, in opposition to the thoughts and
reasonings of man, to defend the divinity and personality
of the Son of God.
e Creator of all things
By Him also were all things created. ere are things
which had a beginning; they all had their origin from
Him: “All things were made by him, and without him was
not anything made that was made.” Precise, positive and
absolute distinction between all that has been made and
Jesus. If anything has been made, it is not the Word; for all
that has been made was made by that Word.
“In Him was light . . . the life of men,” shining in
darkness
But there is another thing, besides the supreme act of
creating all things (an act that characterizes the Word)-
there is that which was in Him. All creation was made by
Him; but it does not exist in Him. But in Him was life.
In this He was in relation with a special part of creation-a
part which was the object of the thoughts and intentions
of God. is “life was the light of men,” revealed itself as
a testimony to the divine nature, in immediate connection
with them, as it did not with respect to any others at all.1
But, in fact, this light shone in the midst of that which
was in its own nature2 contrary to it, and evil beyond any
natural <P332>image, for where light comes, darkness is
no longer: but here the light came, and the darkness had
no perception of it- remained darkness, which therefore
neither comprehended nor received it. ese are the
relations of the Word with creation and with man, seen
abstractedly in His nature. e Spirit pursues this subject,
giving us details, historically, of the latter part.
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(1. e form of expression in Greek is very strong, as
identifying completely the life with the light of men, as
coextensive proposition.)
(2. It is not here my object to develop the manner in
which the Word meets the errors of the human mind; but,
in fact, as it reveals truth on God’s part, it also replies, in a
remarkable way, to all the mistaken thoughts of man. With
respect to the Lord’s Person, the rst verses of the chapter
bear witness to it. Here the error, which made of the
principle of darkness a second god in equal conict with
the good Creator, is refuted by the simple testimony that
the life was the light, and the darkness a moral condition,
without power, and negative, in the midst of which this life
was manifested in light. If we have the truth itself, we have
no need to be acquainted with error. e voice of the Good
Shepherd known, we are sure that none other is of Him.
But, in fact, the possession of the truth, as revealed in the
Scripture, is an answer to all the errors into which man has
fallen, innumerable as they are.)
e manifestation of the Word made esh; the true
Light and its reception
We may remark here-and the point is of importance-
how the Spirit passes from the divine and eternal nature of
the Word who was before all things, to the manifestation,
in this world, of the Word made esh in the Person of Jesus.
All the ways of God, the dispensations, His government of
the world, are passed over in silence. In beholding Jesus
on the earth we are in immediate connection with Him as
existing before the world was. Only He is introduced by
John, and that which is found in the world is recognized as
created. John is come to bear witness of the Light. e true
Light was that which, coming into the world, shone for all
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men, and not for the Jews only. He is come into the world;
and the world, in darkness and blind, has not known Him.
He is come unto His own, and His own (the Jews) have
not received Him. But there were some who received Him.
Of them two things are said: they have received authority
to become the children1 of God, to take their place as such;
and, second, they<P333> are, in fact, born of God. Natural
descent and the will of man went for nothing here.
(1. Sons in Paul’s writings is the place Christians have
in connection with God into which Christ has brought
them by redemption, that is, His own relative place with
God according to His counsels. Children is that they are
of the Father’s family. (Both are found in Romans 8:14-16,
and the force of both may there be seen. We cry Father,
so are children, but by the Spirit we take up the place of
grown-up sons with Christ before God.) Up to the end
of verse 13, we have abstractedly what Christ intrinsically
was and from eternity, and what man was-darkness. is
rst to the end of verse 5. en God’s dealings, John’s place
and service; then the Light came, came into the world He
had made, and it did not know Him, to His own, the Jews,
and they would not have Him. But there were those, born
of God, who had authority to take the place of children, a
new race.)
What the Word became on earth
us we have seen the Word, in His nature, abstractedly
(vss. 1-3); and, as life, the manifestation of divine light in
man, with the consequences of that manifestation (vss.
4-5); and how He was received where it was so (vss. 10-13).
is general part, in regard to His nature, ends here. e
Spirit carries on the history of what the Lord is, manifested
as man on earth. So that, as it were, we begin again here
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(vs. 14) with Jesus on the earth-what the Word became,
not what He was. As light in the world, there was the
unanswered claim of what He was on man. Not knowing
Him, or rejecting Him where He was dispensationally in
relationship, was the only dierence. Grace in life-giving
power then comes in to lead men to receive Him. e
world did not know its Creator come into it as light, His
own rejected their Lord. ose who were born not of man’s
will but of God received Him. us we have not what the
Word was (ην; en), but what He became (εγενετο; egeneto).
e Word made esh; the glory of an only Son with
the Father
e Word was made esh, and dwelt among us in the
fullness of grace and truth. is is the great fact, the source
of all blessing to us;1 that which is the full expression of
God, adapted, by taking man’s own nature, to all that is in
man, to meet every human need, and all the capacity of the
new nature in man to enjoy the expression of all in which
God is suited to him. It is more than light, which is pure
and shows all things; it is the expression of what God is, and
God in grace, and as a source of blessing. And note, God
could not be to angels what He is to man-grace, patience,
mercy, love, as shown to sinners. And all this He is, as well
as the blessedness of God, to the new man. e glory in
which Christ was seen, thus manifested (by those who had
eyes to see), was that of an only Son with His Father, the
one concentrating object of His delight as Father.<P334>
(1. It is indeed the source of all blessing; but the
condition of man was such that without His death no one
would have had any part in the blessing. Unless the corn of
wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone; but if it
die, it brings forth much fruit.)
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ese are the two parts of this great truth. e Word,
who was with God and who was God, was made esh; and
He who was beheld on the earth had the glory of an only
Son with the Father.
Grace and truth come in Jesus Christ; God revealed
by the only Son
Two things are the result. Grace (what greater grace?
It is love itself that is revealed, and towards sinners) and
truth, that are not declared, but come, in Jesus Christ.
e true relation of all things with God is shown, and
their departure from it. is is the groundwork of truth.
Everything takes its true place, its true character, in every
respect; and the center to which all refers is God. What
God is, what perfect man, what sinful man, what the world,
what its prince, Christ’s presence brings all out. Grace then
and truth are come. e second thing is that the only Son
in the bosom of the Father reveals God, and reveals Him
consequently as known by Himself in that position. And
this is largely connected with the character and revelation
of grace in John: rst, fullness, with which we are in
communication, and from which we have all received; then
relationship.
e fullness of grace and truth received
But there are yet other important instructions in these
verses. e Person of Jesus, the Word made esh, dwelling
among us, was full of grace and truth. Of this fullness we
have all received: not truth upon truth (truth is simple,
and puts everything exactly in its place, morally and in its
nature); but we have received that which we needed-grace
upon grace, the favor of God abundantly, divine blessings
(the fruit of His love) heaped one upon another. Truth
shines-everything is perfectly manifested; grace is given.
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e witness of John the Baptist to the character and
position of the Word made esh
e connection of this manifestation of the grace
of God in the Word made esh (in which perfect truth
also displays itself) with other testimonies of God is then
taught us. John bore witness to Him; the service of Moses
had quite another character. John preceded Him in his
service on earth; but Jesus must be preferred before him;
for (humble as He might be) God above all, blessed<P335>
forever, He was before John, although coming after him.
Moses gave the law, perfect in its place-requiring from
man, on God’s part, that which man ought to be. en
God was hidden, and God sent out a law showing what
man ought to be; but now God has revealed Himself by
Christ, and the truth (as to everything) and grace are come.
e law was neither the truth, full and entire,1 in every
respect, as in Jesus, nor grace; it was no transcript of God,
but a perfect rule for man. Grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ, not by Moses. Nothing can be more essentially
important than this statement. Law requires from man
what he ought to be before God, and, if he fullls it, it
is his righteousness. Truth in Christ shows what man is
(not ought to be), and what God is, and, as inseparable
from grace, does not require but brings to man what he
needs. If thou knewest the gift of God, says the Saviour
to the Samaritan woman. So at the end of the wilderness
journey Balaam has to say, “According to this time it shall
be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought?”
e verb “came” is in the singular after grace and truth.
Christ is both at once; indeed, if grace were not there He
would not be the truth as to God. To require from man
what he ought to be was righteous requirement. But to give
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grace and glory, to give His Son was another thing in every
respect; only sanctioning the law as perfect in its place.
(1. Indeed it told what man ought to be, not what man
or anything actually was, and this is properly truth.)
We have thus the character and the position of the
Word made esh-that which Jesus was here below, the
Word made esh; His glory as seen by faith, that of an only
Son with His Father. He was full of grace and truth. He
revealed God as He knew Him, as the only-begotten Son
in the bosom of the Father. It was not only the character
of His glory here below; it is what He was (what He had
been, what He ever is) in the Father’s own bosom in the
Godhead: and it is thus that He declared Him. He was
before John the Baptist, although coming after him; and
He brought, in His own Person, that which was in its
nature entirely dierent from the law given by Moses.
Here then is the Lord manifested on earth. His relations
with men follow, the positions He took, the characters
He assumed, according to the purposes of God, and the
testimony of His word among men. First of all, John the
Baptist gives place to Him. It<P336> will be remarked that
he bears testimony in each of the parts1 into which this
chapter is divided-verse 6,2 in the eect of the abstract
revelation of the nature of the Word; as light, verse 15,
with regard to His manifestation in the esh; verse 19,
the glory of His Person, although coming after John; verse
29, respecting His work and the result; and verse 36, the
testimony for the time being, in order that He might be
followed, as having come to seek the Jewish remnant.
(1. It will be observed that the chapter is thus divided:
verses 1-18 (this part is subdivided into verses 1-5,
verses 6-13 and verses 14-18), verses 19-28, verses 29-34
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(subdivided into verses 29-31 and verses 32-34), verse 35
to the end. ese last verses are subdivided into verses 35-
42 and verse 42 to the end. at is, rst, what Christ is
abstractedly and intrinsically-John’s testimony to Him as
light; when come, what He is personally in the world-John,
only forerunner of Jehovah, witness of Christ’s excellency;
the work of Christ (Lamb of God, who takes away the sin
of the world, He baptizes with the Holy Spirit, and is Son
of God); John gathers to Him; He gathers to Himself. is
goes on till the upright remnant of Israel own Him Son
of God, King of Israel; then He takes the larger character
of Son of Man. All the personal characters of Christ, so to
speak, are found here and His work, but not His relative
characters, not Christ, not Priest, not Head of the assembly
His body; but Word, Son of God, Lamb of God, Baptizer
with the Holy Spirit; and, according to Psalm 2, Son of
God, King of Israel; and Son of Man, according to Psalm
8, whom the angels serve; God withal, life, and the light of
men.)
(2. e strictly abstract statement ends in verse 5, and
goes by itself. e reception of Christ as come into the world
as light introduces John. We are no longer in what is strictly
abstract; though not developing the object-what the Word
became-it is historical as to the reception of the light, and
thus shows what man was, and what he is by grace as born
of God, in respect of the object.)
John’s formal testimony to his own oce
After the abstract revelation of the nature of the Word,
and that of His manifestation in the esh, the testimony
actually borne in the world is given. Verses 19-28 form
a kind of introduction, in which, on the inquiry of the
scribes and Pharisees, John gives account of himself, and
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takes occasion to speak of the dierence between himself
and the Lord. So that, whatever the characters may be
that Christ takes in connection with His work, the glory
of His Person is ever rst in view. e witness is occupied
naturally, so to speak, with this, before bearing his formal
testimony to the oce which he fullled. John is neither
Elias nor that prophet (that is, the one of whom Moses
spoke) nor the Christ. He is the voice mentioned by Isaiah,
who was to prepare the way of the Lord before Him. It is
not precisely before the Messiah, although He was<P337>
that; neither is it Elias before the day of Jehovah, but the
voice in the wilderness before the Lord (Jehovah) Himself.
Jehovah was coming. It is this consequently of which he
speaks. John baptized indeed unto repentance; but there
was already One, unknown, among them, who, coming
after him, was yet his superior, whose shoe’s latchet he was
not worthy to unloose.
e glorious work of Christ and its result
We have next the direct testimony of John, when he
sees Jesus coming to him. He points Him out, not as
the Messiah, but according to the whole extent of His
work as enjoyed by us in the everlasting salvation He has
accomplished, and the full result of the glorious work by
which it was accomplished. He is the Lamb of God, one
whom God alone could furnish, and was for God, and
according to His mind, who takes away the sin (not the
sins) of the world. at is to say, He restores (not all the
wicked, but) the foundations of the world’s relations with
God. Since the fall, it is indeed sin-whatever may be His
dealings1-that God had to consider in His relations with
the world. e result of Christ’s work shall be that this will
no longer be the case; His work shall be the eternal basis
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of these relations in the new heavens and the new earth,
sin being entirely put aside as such. We know this by faith
before the public result in the world.
(1. As the ood, law, grace. ere was a paradise of
innocence, then a world of sin, by and by a kingdom of
righteousness, nally a world (new heavens and new
earth) wherein dwells righteousness. But it is everlasting
righteousness, and founded on that work of the Lamb of
God which can never lose its value. It is an immutable state
of things. e church or assembly is something above and
apart from all this, though revealed in it.)
Although a Lamb for the sacrice, He is preferred
before John the Baptist, for He was before him. e Lamb
to be slain was Jehovah Himself.
e place and subject of the testimony
In the administration of the ways of God, this testimony
was to be borne in Israel, although its subject was the Lamb
whose sacrice reached to the sin of the world, and the
Lord, Jehovah. John had not known Him personally; but
He was the one and only object of his mission.<P338>
Jesus sealed by the Holy Spirit; recognized and
proclaimed as the Son of God
But this was not all. He had made Himself man, and as
man had received the fullness of the Holy Spirit, who had
descended upon Him and abode upon Him; and the man
thus pointed out, and sealed on the part of the Father, was
Himself to baptize with the Holy Spirit. At the same time
He was pointed out by the descent of the Holy Spirit in
another character, to which John therefore bears testimony.
us subsisting and seen and sealed on the earth, He was
the Son of God. John recognizes Him and proclaims Him
as such.
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e eect of John’s testimony to attach the remnant
to Jesus, the one center of gathering
en comes what may be called the direct exercise and
eect of his ministry at that time. But it is always the Lamb
of whom he speaks; for that was the object, the design of
God, and it is that which we have in this Gospel, although
Israel is recognized in its place; for the nation held that
place from God.
e naming of Simon, an act of authority
Upon this the disciples of John1 follow Christ to
His abode. e eect of John’s testimony is to attach the
remnant to Jesus, the center of their gathering. Jesus does
not refuse it, and they accompany Him. Nevertheless,
this remnant-how far soever the testimony of John might
extend-do not, in fact, go beyond the recognition of Jesus
as the Messiah. is was the case, historically;2 but Jesus
knew them thoroughly, and declares the character of Simon
as soon as he comes to Him, and gives him his appropriate
name. is was an act of authority which proclaimed
Him the head and center of the whole system. God can
bestow names; He knows all things. He gave this right to
Adam, who exercised it according to God with regard to
all that was put under him as well as in the case of his wife.
Great kings, who claim this<P339> power, have done the
same. Eve sought to do it, but she was mistaken; although
God can give an understanding heart which, under His
inuence, speaks aright in this respect. Now Christ does so
here, with authority and with all knowledge, the moment
the case presents itself.
(1. Note, it is not on his public testimony, but on the
expression of his heart addressed to no one, which they
heard.)
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(2. A principle of the deepest interest to us, as the
eect of grace. In receiving Jesus we receive all that He is;
notwithstanding that at the moment we may only perceive
in Him that which is the least exalted part of His glory.)
Nathanael, a gure of the remnant, at rst rejecting
and then confessing the Lord as Son of God and King of
Israel; the Lord’s declaration of Himself as Son of Man
Verse 43.1 We have next the immediate testimony of
Christ Himself and of His followers. In the rst place, on
repairing to the scene of His earthly pilgrimage, according
to the prophets, He calls others to follow Him. Nathanael,
who begins by rejecting one who came from Nazareth, sets
before us, I doubt not, the remnant of the last days (the
testimony to which the gospel of grace belongs came rst,
verses 29-34). We see him at rst rejecting the despised
of the people, and under the g tree, which represents
the nation of Israel; as the g tree which was to bear no
more fruit represents Israel under the old covenant. But
Nathanael is the gure of a remnant, seen and known by
the Lord, in connection with Israel. e Lord who thus
manifested Himself to his heart and conscience is confessed
as Son of God and King of Israel. is is formally the faith
of the spared remnant of Israel in the last days according to
Psalm 2. But those who thus received Jesus when He was
on earth should see yet greater things than those which
had convinced them. Moreover, thenceforth2 they should
see the angels of God ascending and descending upon the
Son of Man. He who by His birth had taken His place
among the children of men would, by that title, be the
object of service to the most excellent of God’s creatures.
e expression is emphatic. e angels of God Himself
should be in the service of the Son of Man. So that the
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remnant of Israel without guile acknowledges Him to be
the<P340> Son of God and King of Israel; and the Lord
declares Himself also to be the Son of Man-in humiliation
indeed, but the object of service to the angels of God. us
we have the Person and the titles of Jesus, from His eternal
and divine existence as the Word, to His millennial place
as King of Israel and Son of Man;3 which He already was
as born into this world, but which will be realized when He
returns in His glory.
(1. ese verses 38 and 43 take in the two characters in
which we have to do with Christ. He receives them and
they abide with Him, and He calls upon them to follow
Him. We have no world where we can abide, no center in it
which gathers around itself those rightly disposed by grace.
No prophet, no servant of God could. Christ is the one
center of gathering in the world. en following supposes
that we are not in God’s rest. In Eden no following was
called for. In heaven there will be none. It is perfect joy and
rest where we are. In Christ we have a divine object, giving
us a clear path through a world in which we cannot rest
with God, for sin is there.)
(2. Not “hereafter.” Many authorities leave the word
out.)
(3. Except what concerns the assembly and Israel. Here,
He is not High Priest, He is not Head of the body, He is not
revealed as the Christ. John does not give what shows man
in heaven, but God in man on earth-not what is heavenly
as gone up, but what is divine here. Israel is looked on all
through as rejected. e disciples own Him as the Christ,
but He is not so proclaimed.)
Review of chapter 1
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Before going further, let us review some points in this
chapter. e Lord is revealed as the Word - as God and
with God - as light-as life: second, as the Word made esh,
having the glory of an only Son with His Father-as such
He is full of grace and truth come by Him, of His fullness
we have all received, and He has declared the Father
(compare chapter 14) - the Lamb of God - the One on
whom the Holy Spirit could descend, and who baptized
with the Holy Spirit-the Son of God:1 third, His work,
what He does, Lamb of God taking away sin, and Son
of God and King of Israel. is closes the revelation of
His Person and work. en verses 35-42, John’s ministry,
but where Jesus, as He alone could, becomes the gathering
center. Verse 43, Christ’s ministry, in which He calls to
follow Him, which, with verses 38-39, give His double
character as the one attractive point in the world; with
this His entire humiliation, but owned through a divine
testimony reaching the remnant as according to Psalm 2,
but the taking His title of Son of Man according to Psalm
8-the Son of Man: we may say, all His personal titles. His
relationship to the assembly is not here, nor His function
as Priest; but that which belongs to His Person, and the
connection of man with God in this world. us, besides
His divine nature, it is all that He was and will be in this
world: His heavenly place and its consequences to faith are
taught elsewhere, and barely alluded to, when necessary, in
this Gospel.<P341>
(1. Here He is seen as the Son of God in this world; in
verse 14, He is in the glory of an only Son with His Father;
and verse 18, He is so in the bosom of His Father.)
e character and eect of heart testimony to Christ
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Observe that, in preaching Christ, in a way to a certain
degree complete, the heart of the hearer may truly believe
and attach itself to Him, though investing Him with a
character which the condition of soul cannot yet go beyond,
and while ignorant of the fullness in which He has been
revealed. Indeed where it is real, the testimony, however
exalted in character, meets the heart where it is. John says,
“Behold the Lamb of God!” “We have found the Messiah,”
say the disciples who followed Jesus on John’s testimony.
Note also that the expression of what was in John’s
heart had greater eect than a more formal, more doctrinal
testimony. He beheld Jesus and exclaims, “Behold the
Lamb of God!” e disciples heard him and followed Jesus.
It was, no doubt, his proper testimony on God’s part, Jesus
being there; but it was not a doctrinal explanation like that
of the preceding verses.
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e third testimony to Christ at the marriage feast:
millennial blessing
e two testimonies to Christ that were to be borne
in this world, both gathering to Him as center, had been
borne; that of John, and that of Jesus taking His place in
Galilee with the remnant-the two days of God’s dealings
with Israel here below.1e third day we nd in chapter
2. A marriage takes place in Galilee. Jesus is there; and the
water of purication is changed into the wine of joy for
the marriage feast. Afterwards at Jerusalem He cleanses
the temple of God with authority, executing judgment on
all those who profaned it. In principle these are the two
things that characterize His millennial position. Doubtless
these things took place historically; but, as introduced here
and in this manner,<P342> they have evidently a wider
meaning. Besides, why the third day? After what? Two
days of testimony had taken place-that of John and that of
Jesus; and now blessing and judgment are accomplished.
In Galilee the remnant had their place; and it is the scene
of blessing, according to Isaiah 9-Jerusalem is that of
judgment. At the feast He would not know His mother:
this was the link of His natural relation with Israel, which,
looking at Him as born under the law, was His mother. He
separates Himself from her to accomplish blessing. It is
only in testimony, therefore, in Galilee, for the moment. It
is when He returns that the good wine will be for Israel-
true blessing and joy at the end. Nevertheless, He still
abides with His mother, whom, as to His work, He did not
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acknowledge. And this also was the case with regard to His
connection with Israel.
(1. Remark here that Jesus accepts the place of that center
around which souls are to be gathered-a very important
principle. None else could hold this place. It was a divine
one. e world was all wrong, without God, and a new
gathering out of it was to be made around Him. Next, He
furnishes the path in which man was to walk: “Follow me.”
Adam in paradise needed no path. Christ gives a divinely
ordered one, in a world where of itself there could not be a
right one, for its whole condition was the fruit of sin. ird,
He reveals man in His Person as the glorious Head over
all, whom the highest creatures serve.)
e Son of God in His Father’s house
Afterwards, in judging the Jews and judicially cleansing
the temple, He presents Himself as the Son of God. It is
His Father’s house. e proof of this which He gives is
His resurrection, when the Jews should have rejected and
crucied Him. Moreover, He was not only the Son: it was
God who was there-not in the temple. It was empty-that
house built by Herod. e body of Jesus was now the true
temple. Sealed by His resurrection, the Scriptures and the
word of Jesus were of divine authority to the disciples, as
speaking of Him according to the intention of the Spirit
of God.
e earthly revelation of Christ closed; heavenly
things opened
is subdivision of the book ends here. It closes the
earthly revelation of Christ, including His death; but even
so, it is the sin of the world. Chapter 2 gives the millennium;
chapter 3 is the work in and for us which qualies for the
kingdom on earth or heaven; and the work for us, closing
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Messiah’s connection with the Jews, opens the heavenly
things by the lifting up of the Son of Man- divine love and
eternal life.
Man’s natural state as lost manifested
e miracles that He wrought convinced many as to
their natural understanding. No doubt it was sincerely; but
a just human<P343> conclusion. But another truth now
opens. Man, in his natural state,1 was really incapable
of receiving the things of God; not that the testimony
was insucient to convince him, nor that he was never
convinced: many were so at this time; but Jesus did not
commit Himself to them. He knew what man was. When
convinced, his will, his nature, was not altered. Let the
time of trial come, and he would show himself as he was,
alienated from God, and even His enemy. Sad but too true
testimony! e life, the death, of Jesus proves it. He knew
it when He began His work. is did not make His love
grow cold; for the strength of that love was in itself.
(1. Observe that the state of man is here manifested
fully and thoroughly. Supposing him to be outwardly
righteous according to the law, and to believe in Jesus
according to sincere natural convictions, he clothes himself
with this, in order to hide from himself what he really
is. He does not know himself at all. What he is remains
untouched. And he is a sinner. But this leads us to another
observation. ere are two great principles from paradise
itself-responsibility and life. Man can never disentangle
them till he learns that he is lost and that no good exists
in him. en he is glad to know that there is a source of
life and pardon outside himself. It is this which is shown
us here. ere must be a new life; Jesus does not instruct a
nature which is only sin. ese two principles run through
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Scripture in a remarkable way: rst, as stated, in paradise,
responsibility and life in power. Man took of one tree,
failing in responsibility, and forfeited life. e law gave the
measure of responsibility when good and evil were known,
and promised life on the ground of doing what it required,
satisfying responsibility. Christ comes, meets the need of
man’s failure in responsibility, and is, and gives, eternal life.
us, and thus only, can the question be met, and the two
principles reconciled.
Moreover, two things are presented in Him to reveal
God. He knows man, and all men. What a knowledge in
this world! A prophet knows that which is revealed to him;
he has, in that case, divine knowledge. But Jesus knows all
men in an absolute way. He is God. But when once He has
introduced life in grace, He speaks of another thing; He
speaks that which He knows, and testies that which He
has seen. Now He knows God His Father in heaven. He is
the Son of Man who is in heaven. He knows man divinely;
but He knows God and all His glory divinely also.
What a magnicent picture, or, rather should I say,
revelation, of that which He is for us! For it is here as
man that He tells us this; and also, in order that we may
enter into it and enjoy it. He becomes the sacrice for sin
according to the eternal love of God His Father.)
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Nicodemus’ sense of need; the necessity of new birth
But there was a man - and that a Pharisee - who was not
satised with this inoperative conviction. His conscience
was reached. Seeing Jesus and hearing His testimony had
produced a<P344> sense of need in his heart. It is not the
knowledge of grace, but it is with respect to man’s condition
a total change. He knows nothing of the truth, but he has
seen that it is in Jesus, and he desires it. He has also at once
an instinctive sense that the world will be against him; and
he comes by night. e heart fears the world as soon as it
has to do with God; for the world is opposed to Him. e
friendship of the world is enmity against God. is sense
of need made the dierence in the case of Nicodemus. He
had been convinced like the others. Accordingly, he says,
“We know that thou art a teacher come from God.” And
the source of this conviction was the miracles. But Jesus
stops him short; and that on account of the true need felt
in the heart of Nicodemus. e work of blessing was not
to be wrought by teaching the old man. Man needed to be
renewed in the source of his nature, without which he could
not see the kingdom.1e things of God are spiritually
discerned; and man is carnal, he has not the Spirit. e
Lord does not go beyond the kingdom-which, moreover,
was not the law-for Nicodemus ought to have known
something about the kingdom. But He does not begin to
teach the Jews as a prophet under the law. He presents the
kingdom itself; but to see it, according to His testimony, a
man must be born again. But the kingdom as thus come
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in the carpenter’s son could not be seen without a wholly
new nature, it struck no chord of man’s comprehension or
Jews’ expectation, though testimony to it was amply given
in word and work: as to entering and having a part in it
there is more development as to the how. Nicodemus sees
no further than the esh.
(1. at is, as it was then come. ey saw the carpenter’s
son. In glory, of course, every eye on earth shall see it.)
e communication of new life through the Word of
God and the Spirit
e Lord explains Himself. Two things were necessary-
to be born of water and of the Spirit. Water cleanses. And,
spiritually, in his aections, heart, conscience, thoughts,
actions, man lives, and in practice is morally puried,
through the application, by the power of the Spirit, of the
Word of God, which judges all things, and works in us
livingly new thoughts and aections. is is the water; it is
withal the death of the esh. e true water<P345> which
cleanses in a Christian way came forth from the side of a
dead Christ. He came by water and blood, in the power of
cleansing and of expiation. He sancties the assembly by
cleansing it through the washing of water by the Word.
“Ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto
you.” It is, therefore, the mighty Word of God which, since
man must be born again in the principle and source of his
moral being, judges, as being death, all that is of the esh.1
But there is, in fact, the communication of a new life; that
which is born of the Spirit is spirit, is not esh, has its
nature from the Spirit. It is not the Spirit-that would be
an incarnation; but this new life is spirit. It partakes of the
nature of its origin. Without this, man cannot enter into
the kingdom. But this is not all. If it was a necessity for the
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Jew, who already was nominally a child of the kingdom, for
here we deal with what is essential and true, it was also a
sovereign act of God, and consequently it is accomplished
wherever the Spirit acts in this power. “So is everyone that
is born of the Spirit.” is, in principle, opens the door to
the Gentiles.
(1. Observe here that baptism, instead of being the sign
of the gift of life, is the sign of death. We are baptized to His
death. In coming up out of the water, we begin a new life
in resurrection (all that belonged to the natural man being
reckoned to be dead in Christ, and passed away forever).
“Ye are dead”; and “he that is dead is freed [justied] from
sin.” But we live also and have a good conscience by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. us Peter compares baptism
to the deluge, through which Noah was saved (διεσωθη;
diesothe), but which destroyed the old world, that had, as it
were, a new life when it emerged from the ood.)
Heavenly things revealed by the Son of Man
Nevertheless, Nicodemus, as a master of Israel, ought
to have understood this. e prophets had declared that
Israel was to undergo this change, in order to enjoy the
fulllment of the promises (see Ezekiel 36), which God
had given them with regard to their blessing in the holy
land. But Jesus spoke of these things in an immediate way,
and in connection with the nature and the glory of God
Himself. A master in Israel ought to have known that
which the sure word of prophecy contained. e Son of
God declared that which He knew, and that which He
had seen with His Father. e deled nature of man could
not be in relationship with Him who revealed Himself in
heaven whence Jesus came. e glory (from the fullness of
which He came, and which formed, therefore, the<P346>
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subject of His testimony as having seen it, and from which
the kingdom had its origin) could have nothing in it
that was deled. ey must be born again to possess it.
He bore testimony, therefore, as having come from above
and knowing that which was suitable to God His Father.
Man did not receive His testimony. Convinced outwardly
by miracles he might be; but to receive that which was
betting the presence of God was another thing. And if
Nicodemus could not receive the truth in its connection
with the earthly part of the kingdom, of which even the
prophets had spoken, what would he and the other Jews
do if Jesus spoke of heavenly things? Nevertheless, no one
could learn anything about them by any other means. No
one had gone up there and come down again to bring back
word. Jesus only, in virtue of what He was, could reveal
them-the Son of Man on earth, existing at the same time
in heaven, the manifestation to men of that which was
heavenly, of God Himself in man-as God being in heaven
and everywhere-as the Son of Man being before the eyes of
Nicodemus and of all. Nevertheless, He was to be crucied,
and thus lifted up from the world to which He had come
as the manifestation of the love of God in all His ways and
of God Himself, and so only could the door be opened for
sinful men into heaven, so only a link formed for man with
it.
e necessity of the death of the Son of Man as
atonement for sin
For this brought out another fundamental truth. If
heaven was in question, something more was needed than
being born again. Sin existed. It must be put away for
those who should have eternal life. And if Jesus, coming
down from heaven, was come to impart this eternal life
John 3
515
to others, He must, in undertaking this work, put sin
away-be thus made sin-in order that the dishonor done
to God should be washed away, and the truth of His
character (without which there is nothing sure, or good,
or righteous) maintained. e Son of Man must be lifted
up, even as the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, that
the curse, under which the people were dying, might be
removed. His divine testimony rejected, man, as he was
down here, showed himself to be incapable of receiving
blessing from above. He must be redeemed, his sin expiated
and put away; he must be treated according to the reality
of<P347> his condition, and according to the character of
God who cannot deny Himself. Jesus in grace undertook
to do this. It was necessary that the Son of Man should be
lifted up, rejected from the earth by man, accomplishing
the atonement before the God of righteousness. In a word,
Christ comes with the knowledge of what heaven is and
divine glory. In order that man might share it, the Son of
Man must die-must take the place of expiation-outside the
earth.1 Observe here the deep and glorious character of
that which Jesus brought with Him, of the revelation He
made.
(1. On the cross, Christ is not on the earth, but lifted up
from it, rejected ignominiously by man, but withal through
this presented as a victim on the altar to God.)
e gift of God’s Son and the gift of eternal life to all
believers
e cross, and the absolute separation between man
on earth and God-this is the meeting-place of faith and
God; for there is at once the truth of man’s condition, and
the love that meets it. us, in approaching the holy place
from the camp, the rst thing they met on going through
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the gate of the court was the altar. It presented itself to
everyone that quitted the world without and entered in.
Christ, lifted up from the earth, draws all men to Him. But
if (owing to man’s state of alienation and guilt) it needed that
the Son of Man should be lifted up from the earth, in order
that whosoever believes in Him should have everlasting
life, there was another aspect of this same glorious fact;
God had so loved the world that He had given His only
begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should have
everlasting life. On the cross we see the necessity morally
of the death of the Son of Man; we see the ineable gift
of the Son of God. ese two truths unite in the common
object of the gift of eternal life to all believers. And if it
was to all believers, it was a question of man, of God and
of heaven, and went outside the promises made to the
Jews, and the limits of God’s dealings with that people.
For God sent His Son into the world, not to condemn it,
but to save it. But salvation is by faith; and he who believes
in the coming of the Son, putting all things now to the
test, is not condemned (his state is decided thereby); he
who believes not is condemned already, he has not believed
in the only begotten Son of God, he has manifested his
condition.<P348>
God’s just condemnation; the love of darkness, proof
of evil works
And this is the thing that God lays to their charge.
Light is come into the world, and they have loved darkness
because their works were evil. Could there be a more just
subject of condemnation? It was no question of their not
nding pardon, but of their preferring darkness to light
that they might continue in sin.
e contrast between John the Baptist and Christ
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e rest of the chapter presents the contrast between
the positions of John and of Christ. ey are both before
the eye. e one is the faithful friend of the Bridegroom,
living only for Him; the other is the Bridegroom, to whom
all belongs: the one, in himself, an earthly man, great as
might be the gift he had received from heaven; the other
from heaven Himself, and above all. e bride was His.
e friend of the Bridegroom, hearing His voice, was full
of joy. Nothing more beautiful than this expression of John
the Baptist’s heart, inspired by the Lord’s presence, near
enough to Jesus to be glad and rejoice that Jesus was all.
us it ever is.
John’s testimony and that of the One from heaven
With respect to the testimony, John bore witness in
connection with earthly things. For that end he was sent.
He who Himself came from heaven was above all, and bore
witness of heavenly things, of that which He had seen and
heard. No one received His testimony. Man was not of
heaven. Without grace one believes according to one’s own
thoughts. But in speaking as a man on the earth, Jesus spoke
the words of God; and he who received His testimony set
to his seal that God was true. For the Spirit is not given
by measure. As a witness, the testimony of Jesus was the
testimony of God Himself; His words, the words of God.
Precious truth! Moreover, He was the Son,1 and the Father
loved Him, and had given all things into His hand. is is
another glorious title of Christ, another aspect of His glory.
But the consequences of this for man were eternal. It was
not almighty help to pilgrims, nor faithfulness to promises,
so that His people could trust in Him in<P349> spite of
all. It was the quickening, life-giving Son of the Father. All
was comprised in it. “He who believeth in the Son hath
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everlasting life, he who believeth not shall not see life.” He
remains in his guilt. e wrath of God abides on him.
(1. e question presents itself naturally, where John’s
testimony closes and the evangelist’s begins. e last two
verses, I apprehend, are the evangelist’s.)
Summary of chapter 3
All this is a kind of introduction. e ministry of the
Lord, properly so called, comes after. John (vs. 24) was not
yet cast into prison. It was not till after that event that
the Lord began His public testimony. e chapter we
have been considering explains what His ministry was,
the character in which He came, His position, the glory
of His Person, the character of the testimony He bore, the
position of man in connection with the things of which He
spake, beginning with the Jews, and going on, by the new
birth, the cross and the love of God, to His rights as come
into the world, and the supreme dignity of His own Person,
to His properly divine testimony, to His relationship with
the Father, the object of whose love He was, and who had
given all things into His hand. He was the faithful witness,
and that of heavenly things (see chapter 3:13), but He was
also the Son Himself come from the Father. Everything
for man rested on faith in Him. e Lord comes out from
Judaism, while presenting the testimony of the prophets,
and brings from heaven the direct testimony of God and
of glory, showing the only ground on which we can have a
part in it. Jew or Gentile must be born again; and heavenly
things could only be entered by the cross, the wondrous
proof of God’s love to the world. John gives place to Him,
bringing out-not in public testimony to Israel but to his
disciples-the true glory of His Person and of His work1 in
this world. e thought of the bride and Bridegroom is, I
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519
believe, general. John says, indeed, that he is not the Christ,
and<P350> that the earthly bride belongs to Jesus; but He
has never taken her; and John speaks of His rights, which
for us are realized in a better land and another clime than
this world. It is, I repeat, the general idea. But we have now
entered on the new ground of a new nature, the cross, and
the world and God’s love to it.
(1. Observe here that the Lord-while not concealing
(vss. 11-13) the character of His testimony, as indeed He
could not-speaks of the necessity of His death, and of the
love of God. John speaks of the glory of His Person. Jesus
magnies His Father by submitting to the necessity which
the condition of men imposed on Him, if He would bring
them into a new relationship with God. “God,” said He,
“hath so loved.” John magnies Jesus. All is perfect and in
place. ere are four points in that which is said with regard
to Jesus: His supremacy; His testimony-this is the Baptist’s
testimony to Him. What follows (vss. 35-36), His having
all things given to Him by the Father who loved Him, life
everlasting in contrast with the wrath that is the portion of
the unbeliever from God is rather the new revelation; the
purpose of God giving all things to Him, and His being
Himself eternal life come down from heaven, is that of
John the evangelist.)
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John 4
Driven outside Judea, divine grace in Samaria
And now Jesus, being driven away by the jealousy of
the Jews, begins His ministry outside that people, while
still acknowledging their true position in the dealings of
God. He goes away into Galilee; but His road led Him by
Samaria, in which dwelt a mingled race of strangers and of
Israel-a race who had forsaken the idolatry of the strangers,
but who, while following the law of Moses and calling
themselves by the name of Jacob, had set up a worship of
their own at Gerizim. Jesus does not enter the town. Being
weary, He sits down outside the town on the brink of the
well-for He must needs go that way; but this necessity was
an occasion for the acting of that divine grace which was
in the fullness of His Person and which overowed the
narrow limits of Judaism.
Baptism by Jesus’ disciples
ere are some preliminary details to remark before
entering on the subject of this chapter. Jesus did not Himself
baptize, for He knew the whole extent of the counsels of
God in grace, the true object of His coming. He could not
bind souls by baptism to a living Christ. e disciples were
right in so doing. ey had so to receive Christ. It was faith
on their part.
At Jacob’s well in Samaria
When rejected by the Jews, the Lord does not contend.
He leaves them; and, coming to Sychar, He found Himself
in the most interesting associations as regards the history of
Israel, but in Samaria: sad testimony of Israel’s ruin. Jacob’s
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well was in the hands of people who called themselves of
Israel, but the greater part of whom were not so, and who
worshipped they knew not what, although pretending to
be of the stock of Israel. ose who were really Jews had
driven away the Messiah by their jealousy.<P351> He-a
man despised by the people-had gone away from among
them. We see Him sharing the suerings of humanity, and,
weary with His journey, nding only the side of a well on
which to rest at noon. He contents Himself with it. He
seeks nothing but the will of His God: it brought Him
thither. e disciples were away; and God brought thither
at that unusual hour a woman by herself. It was not the
hour at which women went out to draw water; but, in the
ordering of God, a poor, sinful woman and the Judge of
quick and dead thus met together.
e heart of the Saviour; the gift of living water
e Lord, weary and thirsty, had no means even to
quench His thirst. He is dependent as man on this poor
woman to have a little water for His thirst. He asks it of
her. e woman, seeing that He is a Jew, is surprised; and
now the divine scene unfolds itself, in which the heart of
the Saviour, rejected by men and oppressed by the unbelief
of His people, opens to let that fullness of grace ow out
which nds its occasion in the necessities and not in the
righteousness of men. Now this grace did not limit itself
to the rights of Israel, nor lend itself to national jealousy.
It was a question of the gift of God, of God Himself who
was there in grace, and of God come down so low that,
being born among His people, He was dependent, as to
His human position, on a Samaritan woman for a drop
of water to quench His thirst. “If thou knewest the gift
of God, and [not, who I am, but] who it is that saith unto
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thee, Give me to drink”; that is to say, If thou hadst known
that God gives freely, and the glory of His Person who
was there, and how deeply He had humbled Himself, His
love would have been revealed to thy heart, and would
have lled it with perfect condence, in regard even to
the wants which a grace like this would have awakened
in thy heart. “ou wouldest have asked,” said the divine
Saviour, “and he would have given thee” the living water
that springs up into everlasting life. Such is the heavenly
fruit of the mission of Christ, wherever He is received.1
His heart lays it open (it was revealing Himself), pours
it out into the heart of one who was its object; consoling
itself for the unbelief of the Jews <P352> (rejecting the
end of promise) by presenting the true consolation of grace
to the misery that needed it. is is the true comfort of
love, which is pained when unable to act. e oodgates of
grace are lifted up by the misery which that grace waters.
He makes manifest that which God is in grace; and the
God of grace was there. Alas! the heart of man, withered
up and selsh, and preoccupied with its own miseries (the
fruits of sin), cannot at all understand this. e woman sees
something extraordinary in Jesus; she is curious to know
what it means-is struck with His manner, so that she has a
measure of faith in His words; but her desires are limited
to the relief of the toils of her sorrowful life, in which an
ardent heart found no answer to the misery it had acquired
for its portion through sin.
(1. Note, too, here, that it is not as with Israel in the
wilderness that there was water from the smitten rock to
drink. Here the promise is of a well of water springing up
unto everlasting life in ourselves. )
e stream of grace and its channel
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A few words on the character of this woman. I believe
the Lord would show that there is need, that the elds
were ready for the harvest; and that if the wretched self-
righteousness of the Jews rejected Him, the stream of grace
would nd its channel elsewhere, God having prepared
hearts to hail it with joy and thanksgiving, because it
answered their misery and need-not the righteous. e
channel of grace was dug by the need and the misery which
the grace itself caused to be felt.
Isolated by sin; alone with the Lord
e life of this woman was shameful; but she was
ashamed of it; at the least her position had isolated her,
by separating her from the crowd that forgets itself in the
tumult of social life. And there is no inward grief like an
isolated heart; but Christ and grace more than meets it.
Its isolation more than ceases. He was more isolated than
she. She came alone to the well; she was not with the other
women. Alone, she met with the Lord, by the wonderful
guidance of God who brought her there. e disciples even
must go away to make room for her. ey knew nothing of
this grace. ey baptized indeed in the name of a Messiah
in whom they believed. It was well. But God was there in
grace-He who would judge the quick and the dead-and
with Him a sinner in her sins. What a meeting! And God
who had stooped so low as to be dependent on her for a
little water to quench His thirst!<P353>
e woman’s sense of need; conscience awakened by
the Searcher of hearts
She had an ardent nature. She had sought for happiness;
she had found misery. She lived in sin and was weary of
life. She was indeed in the lowest depths of misery. e
ardor of her nature found sin no obstacle. She went on,
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alas! to the uttermost. e will, engaged in evil, feeds on
sinful desires and wastes itself without fruit. Nevertheless,
her soul was not without a sense of need. She thought of
Jerusalem, she thought of Gerizim. She waited for the
Messiah, who would tell them all things. Did this change
her life? In no wise. Her life was shocking. When the
Lord speaks of spiritual things, in language well suited
to awaken the heart, directing her attention to heavenly
things in a way that one would have thought it impossible
to misunderstand, she cannot comprehend it. e natural
man cannot understand the things of the Spirit: they are
spiritually discerned.
e novelty of the Lord’s address excited her attention,
but did not lead her thoughts beyond her waterpot, the
symbol of her daily toil; although she saw that Jesus
took the place of one greater than Jacob. What was to
be done? God wrought-He wrought in grace, and in this
poor woman. Whatever the occasion might be as regards
herself, it was He who had brought her thither. But she was
unable to comprehend spiritual things though expressed
in the plainest manner; for the Lord spoke of the water
that springs up in the soul unto everlasting life. But as the
human heart is ever revolving in its own circumstances
and cares, her religious need was limited practically to
the traditions by which her life, as regarded its religious
thoughts and habits, was formed, leaving still a void that
nothing could ll. What then was to be done? In what way
can this grace act, when the heart does not understand the
spiritual grace which the Lord brings? is is the second
part of the marvelous instruction here. e Lord deals with
her conscience. A word spoken by Him who searches the
heart searches her conscience: she is in the presence of a
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man who tells her all that ever she did. For, her conscience
awakened by the word and nding itself laid open to the
eye of God, her whole life is before her.<P354>
In the presence of God
And who is He that thus searches the heart? She feels
that His word is the word of God. “ou art a prophet.”
Intelligence in divine things comes by the conscience, not
by the intellect. e soul and God are together, if we may so
speak, whatever instrument is employed. She has everything
to learn, no doubt; but she is in the presence of Him who
teaches everything. What a step! What a change! What
a new position! is soul, which saw no further than her
waterpot and felt her toil more than her sin, is there alone
with the Judge of quick and dead-with God Himself. And
in what manner? She knows not. She only felt that it was
Himself in the power of His own word. But at least He did
not despise her, as others did. Although she was alone, she
was alone with Him. He had spoken to her of life-of the
gift of God; He had told her that she had only to ask and
have. She had understood nothing of His meaning; but it
was not condemnation, it was grace-grace that stooped to
her, that knew her sin and was not repelled by it, that asked
her for water, that was above Jewish prejudice with regard
to her, as well as the contempt of the humanly righteous-
grace which did not conceal her sin from her, which made
her feel that God knew it: nevertheless He who knew it
was there without alarming her. Her sin was before God,
but not in judgment.
Condence inspired by the grace of God
Marvelous meeting of a soul with God, which the grace
of God accomplishes by Christ! Not that she reasoned
about all these things; but she was under the eect of their
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truth without accounting for it to herself; for the word
of God had reached her conscience, and she was in the
presence of Him who had accomplished it, and He was
meek and lowly, and glad to receive a little water at her
hands. Her delement did not dele Him. She could, in
fact, trust in Him, without knowing why. It is thus that
God acts. Grace inspires condence-brings back the soul
to God in peace, before it has any intelligent knowledge, or
can explain it to itself. In this way, full of trust, she begins (it
was the natural consequence) with the questions that lled
her own heart; thus giving the Lord an opportunity of fully
explaining the ways of God in grace. God had so ordered
it; for the question was far from the sentiments which
grace afterwards led her to. e Lord replies according
to her <P355>condition: salvation was of the Jews. ey
were the people of God. Truth was with them, and not
with the Samaritans who worshipped they knew not what.
But God put all that aside. It was now neither at Gerizim
nor at Jerusalem that they should worship the Father who
manifested Himself in the Son. God was a spirit and must
be worshipped in spirit and in truth. Moreover, the Father
sought such worshippers. at is to say, the worship of their
hearts must answer to the nature of God, to the grace of
the Father who had sought them.1us, true worshippers
should worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Jerusalem
and Samaria disappear entirely-have no place before such
a revelation of the Father in grace. God no longer hid
Himself; He was revealed perfectly in light. e perfect
grace of the Father wrought, in order to make Him known,
by the grace that brought souls to Him.
(1. It will be found in John’s writings that, when
responsibility is spoken of, God is the word used; when
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grace to us, the Father and the Son. When indeed it is
goodness (God’s character in Christ) towards the world,
then God is spoken of.)
e Lord received; its eect-the heart lled with
Christ Himself
Now the woman was not yet brought to Him; but, as
we have seen in the case of the disciples and of John the
Baptist, a glorious revelation of Christ acts upon the soul
where it is and brings the Person of Jesus into connection
with the need already felt. “e woman saith unto him, I
know that Messias cometh; and when he is come, he will
tell us all things.” Small as her intelligence might be, and
unable as she was to understand what Jesus had told her,
His love meets her where she can receive blessing and life;
and He replies, “I, that speak unto thee, am he.” e work
was done: the Lord was received. A poor Samaritan sinner
receives the Messiah of Israel, whom the priests and the
Pharisees had rejected from among the people. e moral
eect upon the woman is evident. She forgets her waterpot,
her toil, her circumstances. She is engrossed by this new
object that is revealed to her soul-by Christ; so engrossed
that, without thinking, she becomes a preacher; that is, she
proclaims the Lord in the fullness of her heart and with
perfect simplicity. He had told her all that she had ever
done. She does not think at that moment of what it was.
Jesus had told it her; and the thought of Jesus takes away
the bitterness of the sin.<P356> e sense of His goodness
removes the guile of heart that seeks to conceal its sin. In a
word, her heart is entirely lled with Christ Himself. Many
believed in Him through her declaration-“He has told me
all that ever I did”; many more, when they had heard Him.
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His own word carried with it a stronger conviction, as more
immediately connected with His Person.
e harvest elds; the laborers, their wages and the
fruit
Meanwhile, the disciples come, and-naturally-marvel at
His talking with the woman. eir Master, the Messiah-
they understood this; but the grace of God manifested in
the esh was still beyond their thoughts. e work of this
grace was the meat of Jesus, and that in the lowliness of
obedience as sent of God. He was taken up with it, and,
in the perfect humility of obedience, it was His joy and
His food to do His Father’s will, and to nish His work.
And the case of this poor woman had a voice that lled
His heart with deep joy, wounded as it was in this world,
because He was love. If the Jews rejected Him, still the
elds in which grace sought its fruits for the everlasting
granary were white already to harvest. He, therefore, who
labored should not fail of his wages, nor of the joy of
having such fruit unto life eternal. Nevertheless, even the
apostles were but reapers where others had sown. e poor
woman was a proof of this. Christ, present and revealed,
met the need which the testimony of the prophet had
awakened. us (while exhibiting a grace which revealed
the love of the Father, of God the Saviour, and coming out,
consequently, from the pale of the Jewish system) He fully
recognized the faithful service of His laborers in former
days, the prophets who, by the Spirit of Christ from the
beginning of the world, had spoken of the Redeemer, of
the suerings of Christ and the glories that should follow.
e sowers and the reapers should rejoice together in the
fruit of their labors.
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e divine picture presented in the grace owing at
Sychar’s well
But what a picture is all this of the purpose of grace, and
of its mighty and living fullness in the Person of Christ, of
the free gift of God, and of the incapability of the spirit of
man to apprehend it, preoccupied and blinded as he is by
present things, seeing <P357>nothing beyond the life of
nature, although suering from the consequences of his sin!
At the same time, we see that it is in the humiliation, the
deep abasement, of the Messiah, of Jesus, that God Himself
is manifested in this grace. It is this that breaks down the
barriers and gives free course to the torrent of grace from
on high. We see, also, that conscience is the doorway of
understanding in the things of God. We are brought truly
into relationship with God when He searches the heart.
is is always the case. We are then in the truth. Moreover,
God thus manifests Himself, and the grace and love of the
Father. He seeks worshippers, and that, according to this
double revelation of Himself, however great His patience
may be with those who do not see further than the rst
step of the promises of God. If Jesus is received, there is a
thorough change; the work of conversion is wrought; there
is faith. At the same time, what a divine picture of our
Jesus-humbled, indeed, but even thereby the manifestation
of God in love, the Son of the Father, He who knows the
Father, and accomplishes His work! What a glorious and
boundless scene opens before the soul that is admitted to
see and to know Him!
e whole range of grace is open to us here in His work
and its divine extent, in that which regards its application
to the individual, and the personal intelligence we may have
respecting it. It is not precisely pardon, nor redemption, nor
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the assembly. It is grace owing in the Person of Christ;
and the conversion of the sinner, in order that he may
enjoy it in himself, and be capable of knowing God and of
worshipping the Father of grace. But how entirely have we
broken out in principle from the narrow limits of Judaism!
In Galilee; the Lord’s second miracle and the great
truths it set forth
Nevertheless, in His personal ministry, the Lord,
always faithful, putting Himself aside in order to glorify
His Father by obeying Him, repairs to the sphere of labor
appointed Him of God. He leaves the Jews, for no prophet
is received in his own country, and goes into Galilee, among
the despised of His people, the poor of the ock, where
obedience, grace and the counsels of God alike placed
Him. In that sense, He did not forsake His people, perverse
as they were. ere He works a miracle which expresses
the eect of His grace in connection with the believing
remnant of Israel, <P358>feeble as their faith might be. He
comes again to the place where He had turned the water
of purication into the wine of joy (“which cheereth God
and man”). By that miracle He had, in gure, displayed
the power which should deliver the people, and by which,
being received, He would establish the fullness of joy in
Israel, creating by that power the good wine of the nuptials
of Israel with their God. Israel rejected it all. e Messiah
was not received. He retires among the poor of the ock
in Galilee, after having shown to Samaria (in passing)
the grace of the Father, which went beyond all promises
to, and dealings with, the Jew, and in the Person and the
humiliation of Christ led converted souls to worship the
Father (outside all Jewish system, true or false) in spirit and
in truth; and there, in Galilee, He works a second miracle
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in the midst of Israel, where He still labors, according to
His Father’s will, that is to say, wherever there is faith; not
yet, perhaps, in His power to raise the dead, but to heal and
save the life of that which was ready to perish. He fullled
the desire of that faith and restored the life of one who was
at the point of death. It was this, in fact, which He was
doing in Israel while here below. ese two great truths
were set forth-that which He was going to do according to
the purposes of God the Father, as being rejected; and that
which He was doing at the time for Israel, according to the
faith He found among them.
Outline of chapters 5-21
In the chapters that follow we shall nd the rights
and the glory shown forth that attach to His Person; the
rejection of His word and of His work; the sure salvation
of the remnant, and of all His sheep wherever they may
be. Afterwards-acknowledged by God, as manifested on
earth, the Son of God, of David and of man-that which
He will do when gone away, and the gift of the Holy
Spirit, are unfolded; also the position in which He placed
the disciples before the Father, and with regard to Himself.
And then-after the history of Gethsemane, the giving of
His own life, His death as giving His life for us-the whole
result, in the ways of God, until His return, is briey given
in the chapter that closes the book.
We may go more rapidly through the chapters till
the tenth, not as of little importance-far from it-but as
containing some great<P359> principles which may be
pointed out, each in its place, without requiring much
explanation.
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73152
John 5
e quickening power of Christ contrasted with the
powerlessness of legal ordinances
Chapter 5 contrasts the quickening power of Christ,
the power and the right of giving life to the dead, with the
powerlessness of legal ordinances. ey required strength in
the person that was to prot by them. Christ brought with
Him the power that was to heal, and indeed to quicken.
Further, all judgment is committed to Him, so that those
who had received life would not come into judgment. e
end of the chapter sets forth the testimonies that have been
borne to Him, and the guilt therefore of those who would
not come to Him to have life. One is sovereign grace, the
other responsibility because life was there. To have life, His
divine power was needed; but in rejecting Him, in refusing
to come unto Him that they might have life, they did so in
spite of the most positive proofs.
e impotent man; strength imparted by Christ
Let us go a little into the details. e poor man who had
an inrmity for thirty-eight years was absolutely hindered,
by the nature of his disease, from proting by means that
required strength to use them. is is the character of sin,
on the one hand, and of law on the other. Some remains of
blessing still existed among the Jews. Angels, ministers of
that dispensation, still wrought among the people. Jehovah
did not leave Himself without testimony. But strength
was needed to prot by this instance of their ministry.
at which the law could not do, being weak through the
esh, God has done through Jesus. e impotent man had
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desire, but not strength; to will was present with him, but
no power to perform. e Lord’s question brings this out.
A single word from Christ does everything. “Rise, take up
thy bed and walk.” Strength is imparted. e man rises and
goes away, carrying his bed.1<P360>
(1. Christ brings the strength with Him which the law
requires in man himself to prot by it.)
e sabbath; God beginning to work again in power
and love
It was the sabbath-an important circumstance here,
holding a prominent place in this interesting scene. e
sabbath was given as a token of the covenant between the
Jews and the Lord.1 But it had been proved that the law
did not give God’s rest to man. e power of a new life was
needed; grace was needed, that man might be in relationship
with God. e healing of this poor man was an operation
of this same grace, of this same power, but wrought in the
midst of Israel. e pool of Bethesda supposed power in
man; the act of Jesus employed power, in grace, on behalf
of one of the Lord’s people in distress. erefore, as dealing
with His people in government, He says to the man, “Sin
no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.” It was Jehovah
acting by His grace and blessing among His people; but it
was in temporal things, the tokens of His favor and loving-
kindness, and in connection with His government in Israel.
Still it was divine power and grace. Now, the man told the
Jews that it was Jesus. ey rise up against Him under the
pretense of a violation of the sabbath. e Lord’s answer is
deeply aecting, and full of instruction-a whole revelation.
It declares the relationship, now openly revealed by His
coming, that existed between Himself (the Son) and His
Father. It shows-and what depths of grace!-that neither the
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Father nor Himself could nd their sabbath2 in the midst
of misery and of the sad fruits of sin. Jehovah in Israel
might impose the sabbath as an obligation by the law and
make it a token of the previous truth that His people should
enter into the rest of God. But, in fact, when God was truly
known, there was no rest in existing things; nor was this
all-He wrought in grace, His love could not rest in misery.
He had instituted a rest in connection with the creation,
when it was very good. Sin, corruption and misery had
entered into it. God, the holy and the just, no longer found
a sabbath in it, and man did not really enter into God’s rest
(compare Hebrews 4). Of two things,<P361> one: either
God must, in justice, destroy the guilty race; or-and this is
what He did, according to His eternal purposes-He must
begin to work in grace, according to the redemption which
the state of man required-a redemption in which all His
glory is unfolded. In a word, He must begin to work again
in love. us the Lord says, “My Father worketh hitherto,
and I work.” God cannot be satised where there is sin.
He cannot rest with misery in sight. He has no sabbath,
but still works in grace. How divine an answer to their
wretched cavils!
(1. e sabbath is introduced, whatever new institution
or arrangement is established under the law. And in truth,
a part in the rest of God is, in certain aspects, the highest of
our privileges. (See Hebrews 4.) e sabbath was the close
of the rst or this creation, and will be so when fullled.
Our rest is in the new one, and that not in the rst man’s
creation state but risen, Christ the second Man being its
beginning and head. Hence the rst day of the week.)
(2. God’s sabbath is a sabbath of love and holiness.)
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e Lord putting Himself on an equality with the
Father
Another truth came out from that which the Lord
said: He put Himself on an equality with His Father.
But the Jews, jealous for their ceremonies-for that which
distinguished them from other nations-saw nothing of
the glory of Christ, and seek to kill Him, treating Him
as a blasphemer. is gives Jesus occasion to lay open the
whole truth on this point. He was not like an independent
being with equal rights, another God who acted on His
own account, which, moreover, is impossible. ere cannot
be two supreme and omnipotent beings. e Son is in full
union with the Father, does nothing without the Father, but
does whatsoever He sees the Father do. ere is nothing
that the Father does which He does not in communion
with the Son; and greater proofs of this should yet be seen,
that they might marvel. is last sentence of the Lord’s
words, as well as the whole of this Gospel, shows that,
while revealing absolutely that He and the Father are one,
He reveals it and speaks of it as in a position in which He
could be seen of men. e thing of which He speaks is in
God; the position in which He speaks of it is a position
taken, and, in a certain sense, inferior. We see everywhere
that He is equal to, and one with, the Father. We see that He
receives all from the Father and does all after the Father’s
mind. (is is shown very remarkably in chapter 17.) It is
the Son, but the Son manifested in the esh, acting in the
mission which the Father sent Him to fulll.
e Son as the Giver of life and the Judge of all
Two things are spoken of in this chapter (vss. 21-22)
which demonstrate the glory of the Son. He quickens
and He judges. It is not healing that is in question-a work
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which, at bottom, springs<P362> from the same source,
and has its occasion in the same evil: but the giving of life
in a manner evidently divine. As the Father raises the dead
and quickens them, so the Son quickens whom He will.
Here we have the rst proof of His divine rights, He gives
life, and He gives it to whom He will. But, being incarnate,
He may be personally dishonored, disallowed, despised of
men. Consequently, all judgment is committed unto Him,
the Father judging no man, in order that all, even those
who have rejected the Son, should honor Him, even as
they honor the Father whom they own as God. If they
refuse when He acts in grace, they shall be compelled when
He acts in judgment. In life, we have communion by the
Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son (and quickening
or giving life is the work alike of the Father and the Son);
but in the judgment, unbelievers will have to do with the
Son of Man whom they have rejected. e two things
are quite distinct. He whom Christ has quickened will
not need to be compelled to honor Him by undergoing
judgment. Jesus will not call into judgment one whom He
has saved by quickening him.
Grace gives eternal life and secures from judgment
How may we know, then, to which of these two classes
we belong? e Lord (praised be His name!) replies, He
that hears His word and believes Him who sent Him
(believes the Father by hearing Christ) has everlasting life
(such is the quickening power of His word) and shall not
come into judgment. He is passed from death into life. Simple
and wonderful testimony!1e judgment will glorify the
Lord in the case of those who have despised Him here.
e possession of eternal life, that they may not come into
judgment, is the portion of those who believe.
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(1. Remark how full the bearing of this is. If they do not
come into judgment to settle their state, as man would put
it, they are shown to be wholly dead in sin. Grace in Christ
does not contemplate an uncertain state which judgment
will determine. It gives life and secures from judgment. But
while He judges as Son of Man according to the deeds
done in the body, He shows us here that all were dead in
sin to begin with.)
Two distinct periods in the Lord’s exercise of power:
(1) Souls quickened by the Son of God
e Lord then points out two distinct periods in which
the power that the Father committed to Him as having
come down to<P363> the earth is to be exercised. e hour
was coming-was already come-in which the dead should
hear the voice of the Son of God, and those that heard
should live. is is the communication of spiritual life by
Jesus, the Son of God, to man, who is dead by sin, and
that by means of the word which he should hear. For the
Father has given to the Son, to Jesus, thus manifested on
earth, to have life in Himself (compare 1John 1:1-2). He
has also given Him authority to execute judgment, because
He is the Son of Man. For the kingdom and the judgment,
according to the counsels of God, belong to Him as Son
of Man-in that character in which He was despised and
rejected when He came in grace.
is passage also shows us that, although He was the
eternal Son, one with the Father, He is always looked upon
as manifested here in the esh, and, therefore, as receiving
all from the Father. It is thus that we have seen Him at
the well of Samaria- the God who gave, but the One who
asked the poor woman to give Him to drink.
(2) Bodies raised from death
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Jesus, then, quickened souls at that time. He still
quickens. ey were not to marvel. A work, more wonderful
in the eyes of men, should be accomplished. All those that
were in the grave should come forth. is is the second
period of which He speaks. In the one He quickens souls;
in the other, He raises up bodies from death. e one has
lasted during the ministry of Jesus and [more than] 1800
years since His death; the other is not yet come, but during
its continuance two things will take place. ere will be a
resurrection of those who have done good (this will be a
resurrection of life, the Lord will complete His quickening
work), and there will be a resurrection of those who have
done evil (this will be a resurrection for their judgment).
is judgment will be according to the mind of God,
and not according to any separate personal will of Christ.
us far it is sovereign power, and as regards life sovereign
grace-He quickens whom He will. What follows is man’s
responsibility as regards the obtaining eternal life. It was
there in Jesus, and they would not come to Him to have
it.<P364>
Four testimonies to the Lord’s glory and Person,
leaving man without excuse
e Lord goes on to point out to them four testimonies
rendered to His glory and to His Person, which left them
without excuse- John, His own works, His Father and the
Scriptures. Nevertheless, while pretending to receive the
latter, as nding in them eternal life, they would not come
to Him that they might have life. Poor Jews! e Son came
in the name of the Father, and they would not receive Him;
another shall come in his own name, and him they will
receive. is better suits the heart of man. ey sought
honor from one another: how could they believe? Let us
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remember this. God does not accommodate Himself to
the pride of man-does not arrange the truth so as to feed
it. Jesus knew the Jews. Not that He would accuse them to
the Father: Moses, in whom they trusted, would do that;
for if they had believed Moses, they would have believed
Christ. But if they did not credit the writings of Moses,
how would they believe the words of a despised Saviour?
In result, the Son of God gives life, and He executes
judgment. In the judgment that He executes, the testimony
which had been rendered to His Person leaves man without
excuse on the ground of his own responsibility. In chapter
5 Jesus is the Son of God who, with the Father, gives life,
and as Son of Man judges. In chapter 6 He is the object
of faith, as come down from heaven and dying. He just
alludes to His going on high as Son of Man.
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73153
John 6
e Bread of Life; the incarnate Lord put to death
and ascended again to heaven
In chapter 6, then, it is the Lord come down from
heaven, humbled and put to death, not now as the Son
of God, one with the Father, the source of life; but as He
who, although He was Jehovah and at the same time the
Prophet and the King, would take the place of Victim,
and that of Priest in heaven: in His incarnation, the bread
of life; dead, the true nourishment of believers; ascended
again to heaven, the living object of their faith. But He
only glances at this last feature: the doctrine of the chapter
is that which goes before. It is not the divine power that
quickens, but the Son of Man come in esh, the object
of faith, and so the<P365> means of life; and, though, as
plainly declared by the calling of grace, yet it is not the
divine side, quickening whom He will, but faith in us
laying hold of Him. In both He acts independently of the
limits of Judaism. He quickens whom He will and comes
to give life to the world.
e Lord in contrast with Judaism; earthly blessings
and the new position and doctrine
It was on the occasion of the Passover, a type which
the Lord was to fulll by the death of which He spoke.
Observe, here, that all these chapters present the Lord, and
the truth that reveals Him, in contrast with Judaism, which
He forsook and set aside. Chapter 5 was the impotence of
the law and its ordinances; here it is the blessings promised
by the Lord to the Jews on earth (Psa. 132:15), and the
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characters of Prophet and King fullled by the Messiah on
earth in connection with the Jews, that are seen in contrast
with the new position and the doctrine of Jesus. at of
which I here speak characterizes every distinct subject in
this Gospel.
e Prophet, Priest and King in respect to Israel
First, Jesus blesses the people, according to the promise
of that which Jehovah should do, given them in Psalm 132,
for He was Jehovah. On this, the people acknowledge Him
to be “that Prophet,” and desire by force to make Him their
King. But this He declines now-could not take it in this
carnal way. Jesus leaves them and goes up by Himself into
a mountain. is was, guratively, His position as Priest on
high. ese are the three characters of the Messiah in respect
of Israel; but the last has full and special application to the
saints now also, as walking on the earth, who continue as to
this the position of the remnant. e disciples enter a ship,
and, without Him, are tossed upon the waves. Darkness
comes on (this will happen to the remnant down here),
and Jesus is away. Nevertheless, He rejoins them, and they
receive Him joyfully. Immediately the ship is at the place to
which they were going. A striking picture of the remnant
journeying on earth during the absence of Christ, and their
every wish fully and immediately satised-full blessing and
rest-when He rejoins them.1
(1. e direct application of this is to the remnant; but
then, as hinted in the text, we, as to our path on earth,
are, so to speak, the continuation of that remnant, and
Christ is on high for us, while we are on the waves below.
e subsequent part of the chapter, of the bread of life, is
properly for us. e world, not Israel, is in question. Indeed
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though Christ is Aaron within the veil for Israel, while He
is there the saints have properly their heavenly character.)
<P366>e Son of Man in humiliation here
is part of the chapter, having shown us the Lord as
already the Prophet here below, and refusing to be made
King, and also that which will yet take place when He
returns to the remnant on earth-the historical framework
of what He was and will be-the remainder of the chapter
gives us that which He is, meanwhile, to faith, His true
character, the purpose of God in sending Him, outside
Israel, and in connection with sovereign grace. e people
seek Him. e true work, which God owns, is to believe in
Him whom He has sent. is is that meat which endures
unto everlasting life, which is given by the Son of Man (it
is in this character we nd Jesus here, as in chapter 5 it
was the Son of God), for He it is whom God the Father
has sealed. Jesus had taken this place of Son of Man in
humiliation here below. He went to be baptized of John
the Baptist; and there, in this character, the Father sealed
Him, the Holy Spirit coming down upon Him.
e true Bread from heaven set before faith
e multitude ask Him for a proof like the manna. He
was Himself the proof-the true manna. Moses did not
give the heavenly bread of life. eir fathers died in the
very wilderness in which they had eaten the manna. e
Father now gave them the true bread from heaven. Here,
observe, it is not the Son of God who gives, and who is the
sovereign Giver of life to whom He will. He is the object
set before faith; He is to be fed upon. Life is found in Him;
he that eats Him shall live by Him, and shall never hunger.
But the multitude did not believe in Him; in fact, the mass
of Israel, as such, were not in question. ose that the
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Father gave Him should come unto Him. He was there the
passive object, so to say, of faith. It is no longer to whom He
will, but to receive those whom the Father brought Him.
erefore, be it who it might, He would in no wise cast
them out: enemy, scoer, Gentile, they would not come if
the Father had not sent them. e Messiah was there to do
His Father’s will, and whomsoever the Father brought Him
He would receive for life eternal (compare chapter<P367>
5:21). e Father’s will had these two characters. Of all
whom the Father should give Him, He would lose none.
Precious assurance! e Lord saves assuredly to the end
those whom the Father has given Him; and then everyone
that should see the Son and believe on Him should have
everlasting life. is is the gospel for every soul, as the
other is that which infallibly assures the salvation of every
believer.
A new dispensation; resurrection and eternal life
But this is not all. e subject of hope was not now the
fulllment on earth of the promises made to the Jew, but
being raised from the dead, having part in everlasting life-
in resurrection at the last day (that is, of the age of the law
in which they were). He did not crown the dispensation of
the law; He was to bring in a new dispensation, and with it
resurrection. e Jews1 murmur at His saying that He came
down from heaven. Jesus replies by the testimony that their
diculty was easy to be understood: no one could come
unto Him except the Father brought him. It was grace that
produced this eect; whether they were Jews or not made
no dierence. It was a question of eternal life, of being raised
from the dead by Him; not of performing the promises as
Messiah, but of bringing in the life of a widely dierent
world to be enjoyed by faith-the Father’s grace having led
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the soul to nd it in Jesus. Moreover, the prophets had
said they should all be taught of God. Everyone, therefore,
who had learned of the Father came unto Him. No man,
doubtless, had seen the Father excepting Him who was of
God-Jesus; He had seen the Father. He that believed in
Him was already in possession of eternal life, for He was
the bread come down from heaven, that a man might eat
thereof and not die.
(1. In John, the Jews are always distinguished from the
multitude. ey are the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judea.
It would, perhaps, be easier to understand this Gospel if
the words were rendered “those of Judea,” which is the true
sense.)
e death of Christ as the believer’s life
But this was not only by the incarnation, but by the
death of Him who came down from heaven. He would
give His life; His blood should be taken from the body
which He had assumed. ey should eat His esh; they
should drink His blood. Death<P368> should be the
believer’s life. And, in fact, it is in a dead Saviour that we
see the sin taken away which He bore for us, and death
for us is death to the sinful nature in which evil and our
separation from God lay. ere He made an end of sin- He
who knew no sin. Death, which sin brought in, puts away
the sin that attached to the life, which there comes to its
end. Not that Christ had any sin in His own Person; but
He took sin, He was made sin, on the cross, for us. And
he who is dead is justied from sin. I feed, therefore, on
the death of Christ. Death is mine; it is become life. It
separates me from sin, from death, from the life in which I
was separated from God. In it sin and death have nished
their course. ey were attached to my life. Christ, in grace,
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has borne them, and He has given His esh for the life of
the world; and I am freed from them; and I feed on the
innite grace that is in Him, who has accomplished this.
e expiation is complete, and I live, being happily dead to
all that separated me from God. It is death as fullled in
Him that I feed upon, rst for me, and entering withal into
it by faith. He needed to live as man in order to die, and He
has given His life. us His death is ecacious; His love
innite; the expiation total, absolute, perfect. at which
was between me and God exists no longer, for Christ died,
and it all passed away with His life here on earth-life as
He had it before expiring on the cross. Death could not
hold Him. To perform this work, He needed to possess a
power of divine life which death could not touch; but this
is not the truth expressly taught in the chapter before us,
although it is implied.
e One who died as the object of faith
In speaking to the multitude, the Lord, while rebuking
them for their unbelief, presents Himself, come in the
esh, as the object of their faith at that moment (vss. 32-
35). To the Jews, in laying open the doctrine, He repeats
that He is the living bread come down from heaven, of
which if any man eat he should live forever. But He makes
them understand that they could not stop there- they must
receive His death. He does not say here, “He that eateth
me,” but it was to eat His esh and drink His blood, to
enter fully into the thought-the reality-of His death; to
receive a dead (not a living) Messiah, dead for men, dead
before God.
He<P369> does not exist now as a dead Christ; but we
must acknowledge, realize, feed upon, His death-identify
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ourselves with it before God, participating in it by faith, or
we have no life in us.1
(1. is truth is of vast importance as regards the
sacramental question. Sacraments are declared by the
Puseyite school to be the continuation of the incarnation.
is is in every respect error, and, in truth, a denial of the
faith. Both sacraments signify death. We are baptized
to Christ’s death; and the Lord’s supper confessedly
emblematic of His death. I say “denial of the faith”;
because, as the Lord shows, if they do not eat His esh
and blood, they have no life in them. As incarnate Christ is
alone. His presence in esh on earth showed that God and
sinful men could not be united. His presence as man in the
world resulted in His rejection-proved the impossibility of
union or fruit on that ground. Redemption must come in,
His blood be shed, Himself lifted up from the earth, and
so draw men to Him: death must come in, or He abode
alone. ey could not eat the bread unless they ate the esh
and drank the blood. A meat oering without a bloody
oering was null, or rather a Cain oering. Further, the
Lord’s supper presents a dead Christ, and a dead Christ
only-the blood apart from the body. No such Christ exists;
and therefore transubstantiation and consubstantiation
and all such thoughts are a blundering fable. We are united
to a gloried Christ by the Holy Spirit; and we celebrate
that most precious death upon which all our blessing
is founded, through which we got there. We do it in
remembrance of Him, and in our hearts feed on Him, so
given, and shedding His blood.)
Life by Christ through feeding on Him
us it was for the world. us they should live, not
of their own life, but by Christ, through feeding on Him.
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Here He returns to His own Person, faith in His death
being established. Moreover, they should dwell in Him
(vs. 56)-should be in Him before God, according to all
His acceptance before God, all the ecacy of His work in
dying.2 And Christ should dwell in them according to the
power and grace of that life in which He had gained the
victory over death, and in which, having gained it, He now
lives. As the living Father had sent Him, and He lived, not
by an independent life which had not the Father for its
object or source, but by reason of the Father, so he that thus
ate Him should live because of Him.3<P370>
(1. Abiding imports constancy of dependence,
condence, and living by the life in which Christ lives.
“Dwelling” and “abiding,” though the word be changed in
English, are the same in the original: so in chapter 15 and
elsewhere.)
(2. It may be well to note that in this passage, in verses
51 and 53, eating is in the aorist-whosoever has done so. In
verses 54, 56 and 57, it is the present-a present, continuous
action.)
e Lord’s ascension again to heaven; the food of
faith during His absence
Afterwards, in reply to those who murmured at this
fundamental truth, the Lord appeals to His ascension.
He had come down from heaven-this was His doctrine;
He would ascend thither again. Material esh proted
nothing. It was the Spirit who gave life, by realizing in the
soul the mighty truth of that which Christ was, and of His
death. But He returns to that which He had told them
before; in order to come to Him thus revealed in truth,
they must be led of the Father. ere is such a thing as faith
that is ignorant perhaps, although through grace real. Such
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was that of the disciples. ey knew that He, and He only,
had the words of eternal life. It was not only that He was
the Messiah, which they indeed believed, but His words
had laid hold of their hearts with the power of the divine
life which they revealed, and through grace communicated.
us they acknowledged Him as the Son of God, not only
ocially, so to speak, but according to the power of divine
life. He was the Son of the living God. Nevertheless, there
was one among them who was of the devil.
Jesus, therefore, come down to earth, put to death,
ascending again to heaven, is the doctrine of this chapter.
As come down and put to death, He is the food of faith
during His absence on high. For it is on His death we must
feed in order to dwell spiritually in Him and He in us.
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John 7
e future typical fulllment of the feast of tabernacles
In chapter 7 His brethren after the esh, still sunk in
unbelief, would have Him show Himself to the world, if
He did these great things; but the time for this was not
yet come. At the fulllment of the type of the feast of
tabernacles He will do so. e Passover had its antitype
at the cross, Pentecost at the descent of the Holy Spirit.
e feast of tabernacles, as yet, has had no fulllment. It
was celebrated after the harvest and the vintage, and Israel
joyfully commemorated, in the land, their pilgrimage
before entering on the rest which God had given them
in Canaan. us the fulllment of this type will be when,
after the execution of judgment (whether in discerning
between the wicked and the good, or <P371>simply
in vengeance1), Israel, restored to their land, shall be in
possession of all their promised blessing. At that time Jesus
will show Himself to the world; but at the time of which
we are speaking His hour was not yet come. Meanwhile,
having gone away (vss. 33-34), He gives the Holy Spirit to
believers (vss. 38-39).
(1. e harvest is discriminating judgment, there are
tares and wheat. e winepress is the destructive judgment
of vengeance. In the former there will be two in one bed,
one taken and another left, but the winepress is simple
wrath, as Isaiah 63. So in Revelation 14. )
Remark here, there is no Pentecost brought in. We
pass from the Passover in chapter 6 to the tabernacles in
chapter 7, in lieu of which believers would receive the Holy
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Spirit. As I have remarked, this Gospel treats of a divine
Person on earth, not of the man in heaven. e coming of
the Holy Spirit is spoken of as substituted for the last or
eighth day of the feast of tabernacles. Pentecost supposes
Jesus on high.
e Holy Spirit presented as the hope of faith at that
time;
thirst quenched and abundance of living water for
others
But He presents the Holy Spirit in such a way as to make
Him the hope of faith at the time in which He spoke, if
God created a sense of need in the soul. If anyone thirsted,
let him come to Jesus and drink. Not only should his thirst
be quenched, but from the inner man of his soul should
ow forth streams of living water. So that coming to Him
by faith to satisfy the need of their soul, not only should
the Holy Spirit be in them a well of water springing up
into everlasting life, but living water should also ow forth
from them in abundance to refresh all those who thirsted.
Observe here that Israel drank water in the wilderness
before they could keep the feast of tabernacles. But they
only drank. ere was no well in them. e water owed
from the rock. Under grace every believer is not doubtless a
source in himself; but the full stream ows from him. is,
however, would only take place when Jesus was gloried,
and in those who were already believers, previous to their
receiving it. What is spoken of here is not a work that
quickens. It is a gift to those who believe. Moreover, at the
feast of tabernacles Jesus will show Himself to the world;
but this is not the subject of which the Holy Spirit thus
received is especially the witness. He is given in connection
with the glory of<P372> Jesus, while He is hidden from
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the world. It was also on the eighth day of the feast, the
sign of a portion beyond the sabbath rest of this world, and
which began another period-a new scene of glory.
Observe also that, practically, although the Holy Spirit
is presented here as power acting in blessing outside the
one in whom He dwells, His presence in the believer is the
fruit of a personal thirst, of need felt in the soul-need for
which the soul had sought an answer in Christ. He who
thirsts, thirsts for himself. e Holy Spirit in us, revealing
Christ, becomes, by dwelling in us when we have believed,
a river in us, and thus for others.
e spirit of the Jews plainly shown
e spirit of the Jews plainly showed itself. ey sought
to kill the Lord; and He tells them that His relationship
with them on earth would soon be ended (vs. 33). ey
need not hasten so much to get rid of Him: soon they
would seek Him and not be able to nd Him. He was
going away to His Father.
We see clearly the dierence here between the multitude
and the Jews-two parties always distinguished from each
other in this Gospel. e former did not understand why
He spoke of the desire to kill Him. ose of Judea were
astonished at His boldness, knowing that at Jerusalem
they were conspiring against His life. His time was not
yet come. ey send ocers to take Him; and these return,
struck with His discourse, without laying hands on Him.
e Pharisees are angry and express their contempt for the
people. Nicodemus hazards a word of justice according to
the law and brings their contempt on himself. But each one
goes away to his home. Jesus, who had no home until He
went back to heaven whence He came, goes to the Mount
of Olives, the witness of His agony, His ascension and His
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return-a place which He habitually frequented, when at
Jerusalem, during the time of His ministry on earth.
John 8
553
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John 8
Outside Judaism as shown in chapters 5-7
e contrast of this chapter with Judaism, even with
its best hopes in the future that God has prepared for
His earthly people, is too evident to be dwelt upon. is
Gospel, throughout, <P373>reveals Jesus outside all that
belonged to that earthly system. In chapter 6 it was death
here below on the cross. Here it is glory in heaven, the Jews
being rejected, and the Holy Spirit given to the believer.
In chapter 5 He gives life, as the Son of God; in chapter
6 He is the same Son, but not as divinely quickening and
judging as being Son of Man, but as come down from
heaven, the Son in humiliation here, but the true bread
from heaven which the Father gave. But in that lowly One,
they must see the Son to live. en, as so come, and having
taken the form of a servant, and being found in fashion as a
man, He (vs. 53) humbles Himself, and suers on the cross,
as Son of Man; in chapter 7 He, when gloried, sends
the Holy Spirit. Chapter 5 displays His titles of personal
glory; chapters 6-7, His work and the giving of the Spirit
to believers consequent on His present glory in heaven,1 to
which the presence of the Holy Spirit answers on earth. In
chapters 8-92 we shall nd His testimony and His works
rejected, and the question decided between Him and the
Jews. It will be observed also that chapters 5-6 treat of
the life. In chapter 5 it is given sovereignly and divinely
by Him who possesses it; in chapter 6, the soul, receiving
and being occupied with Jesus by faith, nds life, and feeds
upon Him by the grace of the Father: two things distinct in
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their nature-God gives; man, by grace, feeds. On the other
hand, chapter 7 is Christ’s going to Him that sent Him,
and meanwhile the Holy Spirit, who unfolds the glory
He is gone into, in us and by us, in its heavenly character.
In chapter 5 Christ is the Son of God, who quickens in
abstract, divine power and will, what He is, not the place
He is in, but alone judges, being Son of Man; in chapter 6,
the same Son, but come down from heaven, the object of
faith in His humiliation, then the Son of Man, dying, and
returning again; in chapter 7, not yet revealed to the world.
e Holy Spirit is given instead when He is gloried
above, the Son of Man in heaven- at least contemplating
His going there.<P374>
(1. is glory, however, is only supposed, not taught. He
cannot be at the feast of tabernacles, Israel’s rest, nor show
Himself, as He will then, to the world; but gives the Holy
Spirit instead. is we know supposes His present position,
just referred to in chapter 6.)
(2. e doctrine of chapter 9 continues to verse 30 of
chapter 10.)
e word and works of Jesus rejected; His personal
glories putting men to the test
In chapter 8, as we have said, the word of Jesus is rejected;
and, in chapter 9, His works. But there is much more than
that. e personal glories of chapter 1 are reproduced and
developed in all these chapters separately (leaving out, for
the moment, verses 36-51 of chapter 1): we have found
again the verses 14-34 in chapters 5, 6 and 7. e Holy
Spirit now returns to the subject of the rst verses in the
chapter. Christ is the Word; He is the life, and the life
which is the light of men. e three chapters that I have
now pointed out speak of what He is in grace for men,
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while still declaring His right to judge. e Spirit here (in
chapter 8) sets before us that which He is in Himself, and
that which He is to men (thus putting them to the test,
so that in rejecting Him they reject themselves, and show
themselves to be reprobate).
e woman taken in adultery; the contrast with
Judaism
Let us now consider our chapter. e contrast with
Judaism is evident. ey bring a woman whose guilt is
undeniable. e Jews, in their wickedness, bring her forward
in the hope of confounding the Lord. If He condemned
her, He was not a Saviour- the law could do as much. If He
let her go, He despised and disallowed the law. is was
clever; but what avails cleverness in the presence of God
who searches the heart? e Lord allows them to commit
themselves thoroughly by not answering them for a while.
Probably they thought He was entangled. At last He says,
“He that is without sin among you, let him rst cast the
stone.” Convicted by their conscience, without honesty
and without faith, they quit the scene of their confusion,
separating from each other, each caring for himself, caring
for character not conscience, and departing from Him who
had convicted them; he who had the most reputation to
save going out rst. What a sorrowful picture! What a
mighty word! Jesus and the woman are left together alone.
Who can stand unconvicted in His presence? With regard
to the woman, whose guilt was known, He does not go
beyond the Jewish position, except to preserve the rights of
His own Person in grace.<P375>
e glory of the Light
is is not the same thing as in Luke 7, plenary pardon
and salvation. e others could not condemn her-He
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would not. Let her go, and let her sin no more. It is not
the grace of salvation that the Lord exhibits here. He does
not judge, He was not come for this; but the ecacy of the
pardon is not the subject of these chapters- it is the glory
here of His Person, in contrast with all that is of the law.
He is the light, and by the power of His word He entered
as light into the conscience of those who had brought the
woman.
e Light of the world
For the Word was light; but that was not all. Coming
into the world, He was (ch. 1:4-10) the light. Now it was
the life that was the light of men. It was not a law that
made demands and condemned; or that promised life on
obedience to its precepts. It was the Life itself which was
there in His Person, and that life was the light of men,
convincing them, and, perhaps, judging them; but it was as
light. us Jesus says here-in contrast with the law, brought
by those who could not stand before the light-“I am the
light of the world” (not merely of the Jews). For in this
Gospel we have what Christ is essentially in His Person,
whether as God, the Son come from the Father, or Son of
Man-not what God was in special dealings with the Jews.
Hence He was the object of faith in His Person, not in
dispensational dealings. Whoso followed Him should have
the light of life. But it was in Him, in His Person, that it
was found. And He could bear record of Himself, because,
although He was a man there, in this world, He knew
whence He came and whither He was going. It was the
Son, who came from the Father and was returning to Him
again. He knew it and was conscious of it. His testimony,
therefore, was not that of an interested person which one
might hesitate to believe. ere was, in proof that this man
John 8
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was the One whom He represented Himself to be, the
testimony of the Son (His own) and the testimony of the
Father. If they had known Him, they would have known
the Father.
Opposition plainly declared; the true setting free
At that time-in spite of such testimony as this-no one
laid hands on Him: His hour was not yet come. at only
was wanting;<P376> for their opposition to God was
certain and known to Him. is opposition was plainly
declared (vss. 19-24); consequently, if they believed not,
they would die in their sins. Nevertheless, He tells them
that they shall know who He is, when He shall have been
rejected and lifted up on the cross, having taken a very
dierent position as the Saviour, rejected by the people
and unknown of the world; when no longer presented to
them as such, they should know that He was indeed the
Messiah, and that He was the Son who spoke to them from
the Father. As He spake these words, many believed on
Him. He declares to them the eect of faith, which gives
occasion to the true position of the Jews being manifested
with terrible precision. He declares that the truth would
set them free, and that if the Son (who is the truth) should
set them free, they would be free indeed. e truth sets
free morally before God. e Son, by virtue of the rights
that were necessarily His, and by inheritance in the house,
would place them in it according to those rights, and that
in the power of divine life come down from heaven-the
Son of God with power as resurrection declared it. In this
was the true setting free.
Servants of sin, not children of God
Piqued at the idea of bondage, which their pride could
not bear, they declare themselves to be free and never to have
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been in bondage to anyone. In reply, the Lord shows that
those who commit sin are the servants (slaves) of sin. Now,
as being under the law, as being Jews, they were servants
in the house: they should be sent away. But the Son had
inalienable rights; He was of the house and would abide in
it forever. Under sin, and under the law, was the same thing
for a child of Adam; he was a servant. e Apostle shows
this in Romans 6 (compare chapters 7-8) and in Galatians
4-5. Moreover, they were neither really nor morally the
children of Abraham before God, although they were so
according to the esh; for they sought to kill Jesus. ey
were not children of God; had they been, they would have
loved Jesus who came from God. ey were the children of
the devil and would do his works.
Observe here that to understand the meaning of the
word is the way to apprehend the force of the words. One
does not learn the denition of words and then the things;
one learns the things, and then the meaning of the words
is evident.<P377>
e revelation that God Himself was there
ey begin to resist the testimony, conscious that He
was making Himself greater than all those whom they had
leaned upon. ey rail upon Him because of His words;
and by their opposition the Lord is induced to explain
Himself more clearly; until, having declared that Abraham
rejoiced to see His day, and the Jews applying this to His
age as man, He announces positively that He is the One
who calls Himself I am-the supreme name of God, that
He is God Himself-He whom they pretended to know as
having revealed Himself in the bush.
Wondrous revelation! A despised, rejected man, despised
and rejected by men, contradicted, ill-treated, yet it was
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God Himself who was there. What a fact! What a total
change! What a revelation to those who acknowledged
Him, or who know Him! What a condition is theirs who
have rejected Him, and that because their hearts were
opposed to all that He was, for He did not fail to manifest
Himself! What a thought, that God Himself has been
here! Goodness itself! How everything vanishes before
Him-the law, man, his reasonings. Everything necessarily
depends on this great fact. And, blessed be His name! this
God is a Saviour. We are indebted to the suerings of
Christ for knowing it. And note here how the setting aside
formal dispensations from God, if true, is by the revelation
of Himself, and so introduces innitely greater blessing.
e character in which the Lord presented Himself
But here He presents Himself as the Witness, the Word,
the Word made esh, the Son of God, but still the Word,
God Himself. In the narrative at the beginning of the
chapter He is a testimony to the conscience, the Word that
searches and convicts. Verse 18, He bears testimony with
the Father. Verse 26, He declares in the world that which
He has received of the Father, and as taught of God He has
spoken. Moreover, the Father was with Him. Verses 32-33,
the truth was known by His Word, and the truth made
them free. Verse 47, He spoke the words of God. Verse
51, His Word, being kept, preserved from death. Verse 58,
it was God Himself, the Jehovah whom the fathers knew,
that spoke.
e source and character of opposition to the truth
Opposition arose from its being the Word of truth (vs.
45).
<P378>Opposers were of the adversary. He was a
murderer from the beginning, and they would follow
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him; but as the truth was the source of life, so that which
characterized the adversary was that he abode not in
the truth: there is no truth in him. He is the father and
the source of lies, so that, if falsehood speaks, it is one
belonging to him that speaks. Sin was bondage, and they
were in bondage by the law. (Truth, the Son Himself, made
free.) But, more than that, the Jews were enemies, children
of the enemy, and they would do his works, not believing
the words of Christ because He spoke the truth. ere is no
miracle here; it is the power of the Word, and the living
Word is God Himself: rejected by men, He is, as it were,
compelled to speak the truth, to reveal Himself, hidden at
once and manifested, as He was in the esh-hidden as to
His glory, manifested as to all that He is in His Person and
in His grace.
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73156
John 9
e testimony of the Lord’s works that men may see
Him
In chapter 9 we come to the testimony of His works,
but as down here as a man in lowliness. It is not the Son
of God quickening whom He will as the Father, but by the
operation of His grace down here, the eye opened to see in
the lowly man the Son of God. In chapter 8 it is that which
He is towards men; in chapter 9 it is that which He does
in man, that man may see Him. us we shall nd Him
presented in His human character, and (the Word being
received) acknowledged to be the Son of God; and in this
way the remnant separated, the sheep restored to the Good
Shepherd. He is the light of the world while He is in it;
but where, through grace received in His humiliation, He
communicates the power to see the light, and to see all
things by it.
Observe here that when it is the Word (the manifestation
in testimony of what Christ is), man is manifested as he
is in himself, a child-in his nature-of the devil, who is a
murderer and a liar from the beginning, the inveterate
enemy of Him who can say, “I am.”1 But when the Lord
works, He produces something in man that he had not
previously. He bestows sight on him, attaching<P379>
him thus to the One who had enabled him to see. e
Lord is not here understood or manifested in apparently
as exalted a manner, because He comes down to the wants
and circumstances of man, in order that He may be more
closely known; but, in result, He brings the soul to the
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knowledge of His glorious Person. Only, instead of being
the Word and the testimony-the Word of God-to show
as light what man is, He is the Son, one with the Father,2
giving eternal life to His sheep, and preserving them in this
grace forever. For, as to the blessing that ows from thence,
and the full doctrine of His true position with regard to the
sheep in blessing, chapter 10 goes with chapter 9. Chapter
10 is the continuation of the discourse begun at the end of
chapter 9.
(1. Chapter 8 is practically chapter 1:5; only that there
is, besides that, enmity, hostility against Him who was
light.)
(2. is distinction of grace and responsibility (in
connection with the names Father and Son, and God) has
been already noticed.)
e man born blind; the power of the Spirit and Word
making Christ known
Chapter 9 opens with the case of a man that gives rise to
a question from the disciples, in relation to the government
of God in Israel. Was it his parents’ sin that brought this
visitation on their child, according to the principles God
had given them in Exodus? Or was it his own sin, known to
God though not manifested to men, that had procured him
this judgment? e Lord replies that the man’s condition
did not depend on the government of God with respect
to the sin either of himself or of his parents. His case was
but the misery which gave room for the mighty operation
of God in grace. It is the contrast that we have continually
seen; but here it is in order to set forth the works of God.
God acts. It is not only that which He is, nor even simply
an object of faith. e presence of Jesus on earth made it
day. It was therefore the time of work to do the works of
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Him that sent Him. But He who works here works by
means that teach us the union which exists between an
object of faith and the power of God who works. He makes
clay with His spittle and the earth, and puts it on the eyes of
the man who was born blind. As a gure, it pointed to the
humanity of Christ in earthly humiliation and lowliness,
presented to the eyes of men, but with divine ecacy of
life in Him. Did they see any the more? If possible, their
eyes were the more completely closed. Still the object was
there; it touched their<P380> eyes, and they could not see
it. e blind man then washes in the pool that was called
“Sent” and is enabled to see clearly. e power of the Spirit
and of the Word, making Christ known as the One sent
by the Father, gives him sight. It is the history of divine
teaching in the heart of man. Christ, as man, touches us.
We are absolutely blind, we see nothing. e Spirit of God
acts, Christ being there before our eyes; and we see plainly.
Hostility of the Jews; deciding their own fate and
judging their own condition
e people are astonished and know not what to
think. e Pharisees oppose. Again the sabbath is in
question. ey nd (it is always the story) good reasons for
condemning Him who bestowed sight, in their pretended
zeal for God’s glory. ere was positive proof that the man
was born blind, that he now saw, that Jesus had done it.
e parents testify to the only thing that was important on
their part. As to who it was that had given him sight, others
knew more than they; but their fears bring out in evidence
that it was a settled thing to cast out, not only Jesus, but all
who should confess Him. us the Jewish leaders brought
the thing to a decisive point. ey not only rejected Christ,
but they cast out from the privileges of Israel, as to their
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ordinary worship, those who confessed Him. eir hostility
distinguished the manifested remnant and put them apart;
and that, by using confession of Christ as a touchstone.
is was deciding their own fate and judging their own
condition.
e once-blind man cast out by the Jews, but found
by the rejected Son of God; the eects
Observe that proofs here went for nothing; the Jews,
the parents, the Pharisees, had them before their eyes.
Faith came through being personally the subject of this
mighty operation of God, who opened the eyes of men to
the glory of the Lord Jesus. Not that the man understood
it all. He perceives that he has to do with someone sent of
God. To him Jesus is a prophet. But thus the power which
He had manifested in giving sight to this man enables him
to trust the Lord’s word as divine. Having gone so far, the
rest is easy: the poor man is led much further, and nds
himself on ground that sets him free from all his former
prejudices,<P381> and that gives a value to the Person of
Jesus which overcomes all other considerations. e Lord
develops this in the next chapter.
In truth, the Jews had made up their mind. ey would
have nothing to do with Jesus. ey were all agreed to cast
out those who believed in Him. Consequently, the poor
man having begun to reason with them on the proof that
existed in his own person of the Saviour’s mission, they cast
him out. us cast out, the Lord-rejected before him-nds
and reveals Himself to him by His personal name of glory.
“Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” e man refers it
to the word of Jesus, which to him was divine truth, and
He proclaims Himself to him as being Himself the Son of
God, and the man worships Him.
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us the eect of His power was to blind those who
saw, who were full of their own wisdom, whose light was
darkness; and to give sight to those who were born blind.
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73157
John 10
e Good Shepherd contrasted with Israel’s
shepherds
In chapter 10 He contrasts Himself with all those who
pretended, or had pretended, to be shepherds of Israel. He
develops these three points: He comes in by the door, He
is the door, and He is the Shepherd of the sheep-the Good
Shepherd.
e Lord’s entrance into the fold; the true Shepherd
He comes in by the door. at is to say, He submits
to all the conditions established by Him who built the
house. Christ answers to all that is written of the Messiah
and takes the path of God’s will in presenting Himself to
the people. It is not human energy and power awakening
and attracting the passions of men; but the obedient
man who bowed to Jehovah’s will, kept the lowly place
of a servant, and lived by every word that proceeded out
of the mouth of God, bowed in lowliness to the place in
which Jehovah’s judgment had placed and viewed Israel.
All the Lord’s quotations in His conict with Satan are
from Deuteronomy. Consequently, He who watches over
the sheep, Jehovah, acting in Israel by His Spirit and
providence, and arranging all things, gives Him access
to the sheep in spite of the Pharisees and priests and so
many others. e elect of Israel hear His<P382> voice.
Now Israel was under condemnation: He therefore brings
the sheep out, but He goes before them. He leaves that
ancient fold, under reproach doubtless, but going before
His sheep, in obedience according to the power of God-a
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security to everyone who believed in Him that it was the
right road, a warrant for their following Him, come what
might, meeting every danger and showing them the way.
e sheep follow Him, for they know His voice.
ere are many other voices, but the sheep do not know
them. eir safety consists, not in knowing them all, but
in knowing that they are not the one voice which is life
to them-the voice of Jesus. All the rest are the voices of
strangers.
e Door for the sheep
He is the door for the sheep. He is their authority for
going out, their means of entering in. By entering in, they
are saved. ey go in and out. It is no longer the yoke of
ordinances, which, in guarding them from those without,
put them in prison. e sheep of Christ are free: their safety
is in the personal care of the Shepherd; and in this liberty
they feed in the good and fat pastures which His love
supplies. In a word, it is no longer Judaism; it is salvation
and liberty and food. e thief comes to make his prot
on the sheep by killing them. Christ is come that they
might have life, and that abundantly; that is, according to
the power of this life in Jesus, the Son of God, who would
soon have this life (whose power was in His Person) in
resurrection beyond death.
e Good Shepherd who gave His life for the sheep
e true Shepherd of Israel-at least of the remnant of
the sheep-the door to authorize their coming out of the
Jewish fold, and to admit them into the privileges of God
by giving them life according to the abundance in which
He was able to bestow it- He was also in special connection
with the sheep thus set apart, the Good Shepherd who
thus gave His life for the sheep. Others would think of
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themselves, He of His sheep. He knew them, and they
knew Him, even as the Father knew Him, and He knew the
Father. Precious principle! ey could have understood an
earthly knowledge and interest on the part of the Messiah
on earth with regard to His sheep. But the Son, although
He had given His<P383> life and was in heaven, knows
His own, even as the Father knew Him when He was on
the earth.
His “other sheep”; one ock and one Shepherd
us He laid down His life for the sheep; and He
had other sheep who were not of this fold, and His death
intervened for the salvation of these poor Gentiles. He
would call them. Doubtless He had given His life for the
Jews also-for all the sheep in general, as such (vs. 11). But
He does not speak distinctly of the Gentiles until after He
has spoken of His death. He would bring them also, and
there should be but one ock1 and one Shepherd.
(1. Not “one fold.” ere is no fold now.)
e intrinsic value of Christ’s death in the Father’s
eyes; His unique power to lay down His life and take it
again
Now this doctrine teaches the rejection of Israel, and
the calling out of the elect among that people, presents
the death of Jesus as being the eect of His love for His
own, tells of His divine knowledge of His sheep when He
shall be away from them, and of the call of the Gentiles.
e importance of such instruction at that moment is
obvious. Its importance, thank God! is not lost by the
lapse of time, and is not limited to the fact of a change of
dispensation. It introduces us into the substantial realities
of the grace connected with the Person of Christ. But the
death of Christ was more than love for His sheep. It had
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an intrinsic value in the Father’s eyes. “erefore doth the
Father love me, because I lay down my life that I might
take it again.” He does not say here for His sheep-it is
the thing itself that is well-pleasing to the Father. We love
because God has rst loved us, but Jesus, the divine Son,
can furnish motives for the Father’s love. In laying down
His life, He gloried the Father. Death was owned to be
the just penalty for sin (being at the same time annulled
and he who had the power of it1), and eternal life brought
in as the fruit of redemption-life from God. Here also the
rights of the Person of Christ are set forth. No man takes
His life from Him: He lays it down Himself. He had this
power (possessed by no other, true only of Him who had
divine right) to lay it down, and power to take it again.
Nevertheless, even in this, He did not depart from the path
of obedience. He had<P384> received this commandment
from His Father. But who would have been able to perform
it save He who could say, “Destroy this temple, and in three
days I will raise it again”?2
(1. 2Timothy 1:10; Hebrews 2:14.)
(2. Love and obedience are the governing principles of
divine life. is is unfolded in the First Epistle of John as to
ourselves. Another mark of it in the creature is dependence,
and this was fully manifested in Jesus as man.)
“Never perish”: the glory and love of the Son and the
Father identied with the safety of the sheep
ey discuss what He had been saying. ere were
some who only saw in Him a man beside himself, and who
insulted Him. Others, moved by the power of the miracle
He had performed, felt that His words had a dierent
character from that of madness. To a certain point their
consciences were reached. e Jews surround Him and ask
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how long He would keep them in suspense. Jesus answers
that He had already told them; and that His works bore
Him testimony. He appeals to the two testimonies which
we have seen brought forward in the previous chapters (ch.
8-9); namely, His word and His works. But He adds, they
were not of His sheep. He then takes occasion, without
noticing their prejudices, to add some precious truths
respecting His sheep. ey hear His voice; He knows them;
they follow Him; He gives them eternal life; they shall never
perish. On the one hand, there shall be no perishing of life
as within; on the other, no one shall pluck them out of the
Saviour’s hand-force from without shall not overcome the
power of Him who keeps them. But there is another and an
innitely precious truth which the Lord in His love reveals
to us. e Father had given us to Jesus, and He is greater
than all who would seek to pluck us out of His hand. And
Jesus and the Father are one. Precious teaching! in which
the glory of the Person of the Son of God is identied
with the safety of His sheep, with the height and depth
of the love of which they are the objects. Here it is not a
testimony which, as altogether divine, sets forth what man
is. It is the work and the ecacious love of the Son, and at
the same time that of the Father. It is not “I am”; but “I and
the Father are one.” If the Son has accomplished the work
and takes care of the sheep, it was the Father who gave
them to Him. e Christ may perform a divine work and
furnish a motive for the Father’s love, but it was the Father
who gave it<P385> Him to do. eir love to the sheep is
one, as those who bear that love are one.
e subjects of chapters 8-10
Chapter 8, therefore, is the manifestation of God in
testimony, and as light; chapters 9-10, the ecacious grace
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571
which gathers the sheep under the care of the Son, and of
the Father’s love. John speaks of God when he speaks of
a holy nature and man’s responsibility-of the Father and
the Son, when he speaks of grace in connection with the
people of God.
Observe that the wolf may come and catch1 the sheep,
if the shepherds are hirelings; but he cannot catch2 them
out of the Saviour’s hands.
(1. e words in verses 12, 28 and 29 are the same in
the original.)
(2. See preceding note.)
Active rejection of the Lord; Israel denitely left by
Him
At the end of the chapter, the Jews having taken up
stones to stone Him, because He made Himself equal
with God, the Lord does not seek to prove to them the
truth of what He is, but shows that, according to their own
principles and the testimony of the Scriptures, they were
wrong in this case. He appeals again to His own words and
works, as proving that He was in the Father and the Father
in Him. Again they take up stones, and Jesus denitely
leaves them. It was all over with Israel.
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73158
John 11
e death of Lazarus; man’s real state; evil allowed to
go on to the end
We come now to the testimony which the Father
renders to Jesus in answer to His rejection. In this chapter
the power of resurrection and of life in His own Person
are presented to faith.3 But here it is not simply that He
is rejected: man is looked upon as<P386> dead, and Israel
also. For it is man in the person of Lazarus. is family was
blessed; it received the Lord into its bosom. Lazarus falls
sick. All the Lord’s human aections would be naturally
concerned. Martha and Mary feel this; and they send Him
word that he whom He loved was sick. But Jesus stays
where He is. He might have said the word, as in the case
of the centurion, and of the sick child at the beginning
of this Gospel. But He did not. He had manifested His
power and His goodness in healing man as he is found
on earth and delivering him from the enemy, and that in
the midst of Israel. But this was not His object here- far
from it-or the limits of what He was come to do. It was a
question of bestowing life, or raising up again that which
was dead before God. is was the real state of Israel; it
was the state of man. erefore He allows the condition
of man under sin to go on and manifest itself in all the
intensity of its eects down here, and permits the enemy
to exercise his power to the end. Nothing remained but
the judgment of God; and death, in itself, convicted man
of sin while conducting him to judgment. e sick may be
healed-there is no remedy for death. All is over for man,
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573
as man here below. Nothing remains but the judgment of
God. It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this
the judgment. e Lord therefore does not heal in this
instance. He allows the evil to go on to the end-to death.
at was the true place of man. Lazarus once fallen asleep,
He goes to awaken him. e disciples fear the Jews, and
with reason. But the Lord, having waited for His Father’s
will, does not fear to accomplish it. It was day to Him.
(1. It is very striking to see the Lord in the lowliness of
obedient service, allowing evil to have its full way in man’s
failure (death) and Satan’s power, till His Father’s will
called Him to meet it. en no danger hinders, and then
He is the resurrection and the life in personal presence and
power, and then giving Himself-being such, up to death
for us.)
In fact, whatever might be His love for the nation, He
must needs let it die (indeed it was dead), and wait for the
time appointed by God to raise it up again. If He must
die Himself to accomplish it, He commits Himself to His
Father.
Lazarus’ death not prevented; Christ who died shown
to be the resurrection and the life
But let us follow out the depths of this doctrine. Death
has come in; it must take eect. Man is really in death before
God; but God in grace comes in. Two things are presented
in our history. He might have healed. e faith and hope
of neither Martha, Mary nor the Jews went any further.
Only Martha acknowledges that, as the Messiah, favored
of God, He would obtain from Him <P387>whatsoever
He asked. But He had not prevented the death of Lazarus.
He had done so many times, even for strangers, for
whosoever desired it. In the second place, Martha knew
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that her brother would rise again at the last day; but true
as it was, this truth availed nothing. Who would answer
for man, dead through judgment on sin? To rise again and
appear before God was not an answer to death come in by
sin. e two things were true. Christ had often delivered
mortal man from his suerings in esh, and there shall be
a resurrection at the last day. But these things were of no
value in the presence of death. Christ was, however, there;
and He is, thanks be to God! the resurrection and the life.
Man being dead, resurrection comes rst. But Jesus is the
resurrection and the life in the present power of a divine
life. And observe that life, coming by resurrection, delivers
from all that death implies, and leaves it behind1-sin,
death, all that belongs to the life that man has lost. Christ,
having died for our sins, has borne their punishment-has
borne them. He has died. All the power of the enemy, all
its eect on mortal man, all the judgment of God, He has
borne it all, and has come up from it, in the power of a new
life in resurrection, which is imparted to us; so that we are
in spirit alive from among the dead, as He is alive from
among the dead. Sin (as made sin, and bearing our sins
in His own body on the tree), death, Satan’s power, God’s
judgment, are all past through and left behind, and<P388>
man is in a wholly new state, in incorruption. It will be true
of us, if we die (for we shall not all die), as to the body, or,
being changed, if we do not die. But in the communication
of His life who is risen from the dead, God has quickened
us with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses.
(1. Christ took human life in grace and sinless; and as
alive in this life He took sin upon Him. Sin belongs, so
to speak, to this life in which Christ knew no sin, but was
made sin for us. But He dies-He quits this life. He is dead
John 11
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to sin; He has done with sin in having done with the life to
which sin belonged, not in Him indeed but in us, and alive
in which He was made sin for us. Raised up again by the
power of God, He lives in a new condition, into which sin
cannot enter, being left behind with the life that He left.
Faith brings us into it by grace.
It has been pretended that these thoughts aect the
divine and eternal life which was in Christ. But this is all
idle and evil cavil. Even in an unconverted sinner, dying or
laying down life has nothing to do with ceasing to exist as
to the life of the man within. All live to God, and divine
life in Christ never could cease or be changed. He never
laid that down, but in the power of that, laid down His life
as He possessed it here as man, to take it up in an entirely
new way in resurrection beyond the grave. e cavil is a
very evil cavil. In this third edition I have changed nothing
in this note, but have added a few words in the hope that
it may be clear to all. e doctrine itself is vital truth. In
the text I have erased or altered a part for another reason,
namely, that there was confusion between the divine power
of life in Christ and God’s raising Him viewed as a dead
man from the grave. Both are true and blessedly so, but
they are dierent and were here confounded together. In
Ephesians Christ as man is raised by God. In John it is the
divine and quickening power in Himself.)
Life communicated by Christ to the believer; death
cannot subsist before Him
Jesus here manifested His own divine power to this
eect; the Son of God was gloried in it, for we know He
had not yet died for sin; but it was this same power in
Him that was manifested.1e believer, even if he were
dead, shall rise again; and the living who believe in Him
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shall not die. Christ has overcome death; the power for
this was in His Person, and the Father bore Him witness of
it. Are any that are His alive when the Lord exercises this
power? ey will never die-death exists no more in His
presence. Have any died before He exercises it? ey shall
live-death cannot subsist before Him. All the eect of sin
upon man is completely destroyed by resurrection, viewed
as the power of life in Christ. is refers, of course, to the
saints, to whom life is communicated. e same divine
power is, of course, exercised as to the wicked; but it is not
the communication of life from Christ, nor being raised
with Him, as is evident.2
(1. Resurrection has a double character: divine power,
which He could exercise and did exercise as to Himself (ch.
2:19), and here as to Lazarus, both the proof of divine son-
ship; and the deliverance of a dead man from his state of
death. us God raised Christ from the dead, so here Christ
raises Lazarus. In Christ’s resurrection both were united in
His own Person. Here, of course, they were separate. But
Christ has life in Himself and that in divine power. But
He laid down His life in grace. We are quickened together
with Him in Ephesians 2. But it seems avoided saying, He
was quickened, when speaking of Him alone in chapter 1.)
(2. e cavil I have referred to in the note to page 388
sanctions (most unwittingly, I gladly admit) the pestiferous
doctrine of annihilation, as if laying down life, or death,
that is, the end of natural life, were ceasing to exist. I notice
it, because this form of evil doctrine is one very current
now. It subverts the whole substance of Christianity.)
Death, the end of natural life; resurrection, the end
of death
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Christ exercised this power in obedience and in
dependence on His Father, because He was man, walking
before God to do His will; but He is the resurrection and the
life. He has brought the power of divine life into the midst
of death; and death is <P389>annihilated by it, for in life
death is no more. Death was the end of natural life to sinful
man. Resurrection is the end of death, which has thus no
longer anything in us. It is our advantage that, having done
all it could do, it is nished. We live in the life1 that put an
end to it. We come out from all that could be connected
with a life that no longer exists. What a deliverance! Christ
is this power. He became this for us in its full display and
exercise in His resurrection.
(1. Observe the sense which the Apostle had of the
power of this life, when he says, “at mortality might be
swallowed up of life.” Consider, in this point of view, the
rst ve chapters of 2Corinthians.)
e need and sorrow of Martha and Mary; the Lord’s
sympathy
Martha, while loving Him and believing in Him,
does not understand this; and she calls Mary, feeling that
her sister would better understand the Lord. We will
speak a little of these two presently. Mary, who waited
for the Lord’s own calling her to Him, modestly though
sorrowfully leaving the initiative with Him, believing thus
that the Lord had called her, goes to Him directly. Jews
and Martha and Mary all had seen miracles and healings
that had arrested the power of death. To this they all refer.
But here life had passed away. What now could help? If
He had been there, His love and power they could have
counted on. Mary falls down at His feet weeping. On the
point of resurrection power she understood no more than
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Martha; but her heart is melted under the sense of death
in the presence of Him who had life. It is an expression of
need and sorrow rather than a complaint that she utters.
e Jews also weep: the power of death was on their hearts.
Jesus enters into it in sympathy. He was troubled in spirit.
He sighs before God, He weeps with man; but His tears
turn into a groan, which was, though inarticulate, the
weight of death, felt in sympathy, and presented to God by
this groan of love which fully realized the truth; and that
in love to those who were suering the ill that His groan
expressed.
e need brings the Lord’s power to meet it
He bore death before God in His spirit as the misery of
man- the yoke from which man could not deliver himself,
and He is<P390> heard. e need brings His power into
action. It was not His part now patiently to explain to
Martha what He was. He feels and acts upon the need to
which Mary had given expression, her heart being opened
by the grace that was in Him.
Man’s sympathy; the exercise of the power of life by
the Son of God
Man may sympathize: it is the expression of his
powerlessness. Jesus enters into the aiction of mortal
man, puts Himself under the burden of death that weighs
upon man (and that more thoroughly than man himself
can do), but He takes it away with its cause. He does more
than take it away; He brings in the power that is able to
take it away. is is the glory of God. When Christ is
present, if we die, we do not die for death, but for life:
we die that we may live in the life of God, instead of in
the life of man. And wherefore? at the Son of God
may be gloried. Death came in by sin; and man is under
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the power of death. But this has only given room for our
possessing life according to the second Adam, the Son of
God, and not according to the rst Adam, the sinful man.
is is grace. God is gloried in this work of grace, and it
is the Son of God whose glory shines brightly forth in this
divine work.
Martha and Mary and what marked them; Mary at
Jesus’ feet
And observe that this is not grace oered in testimony,
it is the exercise of the power of life. Corruption itself is
no hindrance to God. Why did Christ come? To bring the
words of eternal life to dead man. Now Mary fed upon
those words. Martha served- cumbered her heart with
many things. She believed, she loved Jesus, she received
Him into her house: the Lord loved her. Mary listened to
Him: this was what He came for; and He had justied her
in it. e good part which she had chosen should not be
taken from her.
When the Lord arrives, Martha goes of her own accord
to meet Him. She withdraws when Jesus speaks to her of
the present power of life. We are ill at ease when, although
Christians, we feel unable to apprehend the meaning of
the Lord’s words, or of what His people say to us. Martha
felt that this was rather Mary’s part than hers. She goes
away and calls her sister, saying<P391> that the Master
(He who taught-observe this name that she gives Him)
was come and called for her. It was her own conscience that
was to her the voice of Christ. Mary instantly arises and
comes to Him. She understood no more than Martha. Her
heart pours out its need at the feet of Jesus, where she had
heard His words and learned His love and grace; and Jesus
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asks the way to the grave. To Martha, ever occupied with
circumstances, her brother stank already.
e family at Bethany
Afterwards (Martha served, and Lazarus was present),
Mary anoints the Lord, in the instinctive sense of what was
going on; for they were consulting to put Him to death.
Her heart, taught by love to the Lord, felt the enmity of
the Jews; and her aection, stimulated by deep gratitude,
expends on Him the most costly thing she had. ose
present blame her; Jesus again takes her part. It might
not be reasonable, but she had apprehended His position.
What a lesson! What a blessed family was this at Bethany,
in which the heart of Jesus found (as far as could be on
earth) a relief that His love accepted! With what love have
we to do! Alas, with what hatred! for we see in this Gospel
the dreadful opposition between man and God.
God’s testimony of His grace thrown over His feeblest
servants: omas, Mark and Barnabas
ere is an interesting point to be observed here before
we pass on. e Holy Spirit has recorded an incident in
which the momentary but guilty unbelief of omas was
covered by the Lord’s grace. It was needful to relate it; but
the Holy Spirit has taken care to show us that omas
loved the Lord and was ready, at heart, to die with Him.
We have other instances of the same kind. Paul says, “Take
Mark, and bring him with thee; for he is protable to me for
the ministry.” Poor Mark! is was necessary on account of
what took place at Perga. Barnabas also has the same place
in the Apostle’s aection and remembrance. We are weak:
God does not hide it from us; but He throws the testimony
of His grace over the feeblest of His servants.<P392>
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581
Jesus’ death proposed by the high priest; the Lord
quietly in the place of service
But to continue. Caiaphas, the chief of the Jews, as
high priest, proposes the death of Jesus, because He had
restored Lazarus to life. And from that day they conspire
against Him. Jesus yields to it. He came to give His life
a ransom for many. He goes on to fulll the work His
love had undertaken, in accordance with His Father’s will,
whatever might be the devices and the malice of men. e
work of life and of death, of Satan and of God, were face to
face. But the counsels of God were being accomplished in
grace, whatever the means might be. Jesus devotes Himself
to the work by which they were to be fullled. Having
shown the power of resurrection and of life in Himself, He
is again, when the time comes, quietly in the place to which
His service led Him; but He no longer goes in the same
manner as before into the temple. He goes thither indeed;
but the question between God and man was morally settled
already.
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John 12
e Bethany family: a sample of the three dierent
classes of the true remnant
His place now is with the remnant, where His heart
found rest-the house of Bethany. We have, in this family, a
sample of the true remnant of Israel, three dierent cases
with regard to their position before God. Martha had faith
which, no doubt, attached her to Christ, but which did not
go beyond that which was needed for the kingdom. ose
who will be spared for the earth in the last days will have
the same. eir faith will at length acknowledge Christ
the Son of God. Lazarus was there, living by that power
which could have also raised up all the dead saints in the
same way,1 which, by grace, at the last day, will call up
Israel,<P393> morally, from their state of death. In a word,
we nd the remnant, who will not die, spared through
true faith (but faith in a living Saviour, who should deliver
Israel), and those who shall be brought back as from the
dead, to enjoy the kingdom. Martha served; Jesus is in
company with them; Lazarus sits at the table with Him.
(1. I speak only of the power needed to produce this
eect; for, in truth, the sinful condition of man, whether
Jew of Gentile, required expiation; and there would have
been no saints to call out from among the dead if the
grace of God had not acted by virtue, and in view, of that
expiation. I speak merely of the power that dwelt in the
Person of Christ, that overcame all the power of death,
which could do nothing against the Son of God. But man’s
condition, which made the death of Christ necessary, was
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only demonstrated by His rejection, which proved that all
means were unavailing to bring back man, as he was, to
God.)
Mary’s true appreciation of Christ; God’s gracious
remembrance of her
But there was also the representative of another class.
Mary, who had drunk at the fountain of truth and had
received that living water into her heart, had understood
that there was something more than the hope and the
blessing of Israel-namely, Jesus Himself. She does that
which is suitable to Jesus in His rejection-to Him who is
the resurrection before He is our life. Her heart associates
her with that act of His, and she anoints Him for His burial.
To her it is Jesus Himself who is in question-and Jesus
rejected; and faith takes its place in that which was the seed
of the assembly, still hidden in the soil of Israel and of this
world, but which, in the resurrection, would come forth in
all the beauty of the life of God-of eternal life. It is a faith
that expends itself on Him, on His body, in which He was
about to undergo the penalty of sin for our salvation. e
selshness of unbelief, betraying its sin in its contempt of
Christ, and in its indierence, gives the Lord occasion to
attach its true value to this action of His beloved disciple.
Her anointing His feet is pointed out here, as showing that
all that was of Christ, that which was Christ, had to her a
value which prevented her regarding anything else. is is
a true appreciation of Christ. e faith that knows His love
which passes knowledge-this kind of faith is a sweet odor
in the whole house. And God remembers it according to
His grace. Jesus understood her: that was all she wanted.
He justies her: who should rise up against her? is scene
is over, and the course of events is resumed.
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Deliberate rejection of the King of Israel, the true
Son of David
e enmity of the Jews (alas! that of man’s heart, thus
given up to itself, and consequently to the enemy who is
a murderer by <P394>nature and the enemy of God-an
enemy that nothing merely human can subdue) would fain
kill Lazarus also. Man is indeed capable of this: but capable
of what? Everything yields to hatred-to this kind of hatred
of God who manifests Himself. But for this, it would, in
fact, be inconceivable. ey must now either believe in Jesus
or reject Him: for His power was so evident that they must
do the one or the other-a man publicly raised from the
dead after four days, and alive among the people, left no
longer any possibility of indecision. Jesus knew it divinely.
He presents Himself as King of Israel to assert His rights,
and to oer salvation and the promised glory to the people
and to Jerusalem.1e people understand this. It must be
a deliberate rejection, as the Pharisees are well aware. But
the hour was come: and although they could do nothing,
for the world went after Him, Jesus is put to death, for “he
gave himself.”
(1. In this Gospel the occasion of the assembling of the
crowd to meet and to accompany Jesus was the raising of
Lazarus-the testimony to His being Son of God.)
Jesus taking His place as the Son of Man
e second testimony of God to Christ has now been
borne to Him, as the true Son of David. He has been
witnessed to as the Son of God in raising Lazarus (ch.
11:4), and Son of David in riding into Jerusalem on the
ass’s colt. ere was yet another title to be acknowledged.
As Son of Man He is to possess all the kingdoms of the
earth. e Greeks1 come (for His fame had gone abroad)
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and desire to see Him. Jesus says, “e hour is come for
the Son of Man to be gloried.” But now He returns to
the thoughts of which Mary’s ointment was the expression
to His heart. He should have been received as the Son of
David; but, in taking His place as the Son of Man, a very
dierent thing necessarily opens before Him. How could
He be seen as Son of Man, coming in the clouds of heaven
to take possession of all things according to the counsels
of God, without dying? If His human service on earth was
nished, and He had gone out free, calling, if need were,
for twelve legions of angels, no one could have had any part
with Him: He would have remained alone. “Except the
corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone;
if it die, it<P395> bringeth forth much fruit.” If Christ
takes His heavenly glory and is not alone in it, He dies to
attain it and to bring with Him the souls whom God has
given Him. In fact, the hour was come: it could no longer
tarry. Everything was now ready for the end of the trial of
this world, of man, of Israel; and, above all, the counsels of
God were being fullled.
(1. Greeks, properly speaking: not Hellenists, that is,
Jews who spoke the Greek language, and belonged to
foreign countries, being of the dispersion.)
e corn of wheat; the necessity for the Lord’s death
Outwardly all was testimony to His glory. He enters
Jerusalem in triumph-the multitude proclaiming Him
King. What were the Romans about? ey were silent
before God. e Greeks came to seek Him. All is ready for
the glory of the Son of Man. But the heart of Jesus well
knew that for this glory-for the accomplishment of the
work of God, for His having one human being with Him
in the glory, for the granary of God to be lled according to
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the counsels of grace-He must die. No other way for guilty
souls to come to God. at which Mary’s aection foresaw,
Jesus knows according to the truth; and according to the
mind of God He feels it and submits to it. And the Father
responds at this solemn moment by bearing testimony to
the glorious eect of that which His sovereign majesty at
the same time required-majesty which Jesus fully gloried
by His obedience: and who could do this, excepting Him
who, by that obedience, brought in the love and the power
of God which accomplished it?
Serving and following; loving one’s life, to lose it;
hating it, to keep it
In that which follows, the Lord introduces a great
principle connected with the truth contained in His
sacrice. ere was no link between the natural life of man
and God. If in the man Christ Jesus there was a life in
entire harmony with God, He must needs lay it down on
account of this condition of man. Being of God, He could
not remain in connection with man. Man would not have
it. Jesus would rather die than not fulll His service by
glorifying God-than not be obedient unto the end. But
if anyone loved his life of this world, he lost it; for it was
not in connection with God. If anyone by grace hated it-
separated himself in heart from this principle of alienation
from God, and devoted his life to Him, he would have it in
the new and eternal state. To serve Jesus, <P396>therefore,
was to follow Him; and where He was going, there should
His servant be. e result of association of heart with Jesus
here, shown in following Him, passes out of this world,
as He was indeed doing, and Messiah blessings, into the
heavenly and eternal glory of Christ. If anyone served
Him, the Father would remember it and would honor him.
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587
All this is said in view of His death, the thought of which
comes over His mind; and His soul is troubled. And in
the just dread of that hour which, in itself, is the judgment
of God, and the end of man as God created him here on
earth, He asks God to deliver Him from that hour. And,
in truth, He had come-not then to be (although He was)
the Messiah, not then (although it was His right) to take
the kingdom; but He had come for this very hour-by
dying to glorify His Father. is He desires, involve what
it may. “Father, glorify thy name” is His only prayer. is
is perfectness-He feels what death is: there would have
been no sacrice if He had not felt it. But while feeling it,
His only desire was to glorify His Father. If that cost Him
everything, the work was perfect in proportion.
e Father’s name gloried in resurrection
Perfect in this desire, and that unto death, the Father
could not but answer Him. In His answer, as it appears to
me, the Father announces the resurrection. But what grace,
what marvel, to be admitted into such communications!
e heart is astounded, while lled with worship and with
grace, in beholding the perfection of Jesus, the Son of God,
unto death; that is to say, absolute; and in seeing Him, with
the full sense of what death was, seeking the sole glory of
the Father; and the Father answering-an answer morally
needful to this sacrice of the Son, and to His own glory.
us He said, “I have both gloried it, and will glorify it
again.” I believe that He had gloried it in the resurrection
of Lazarus;1 He would do so again in the resurrection
of Christ-a glorious resurrection which, in itself, implied
ours; even as the Lord had said, without naming His
own.<P397>
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(1. Resurrection follows the condition of Christ.
Lazarus was raised while Christ was living here in the esh,
and Lazarus is raised to life in the esh. When Christ in
glory raises us, He will raise us in glory. And even now that
Christ is hid in God, our life is hid with Him there.)
e coming glory of the Son of Man and the truths
connected with it
Let us now observe the connection of the truths spoken
of in this remarkable passage. e hour was come for the
glory of the Son of Man. But, in order to this, it needed
that the precious corn of wheat should fall into the ground
and die; else it would remain alone. is was the universal
principle. e natural life of this world in us had no part
with God. Jesus must be followed. We should thus be
with Him: this was serving Him. us also we should be
honored by the Father. Christ, for Himself, looks death
in the face and feels all its import. Nevertheless, He gives
Himself to one only thing-the glory of His Father. e
Father answers Him in this. His desire should be fullled.
He should not be without an answer to His perfection. e
people hear it as the voice of the Lord God, as described
in the Psalms. Christ (who, in all this, had put Himself
entirely aside, had spoken only of the glory of His followers
and of His Father) declares that this voice came for the
people’s sake, in order that they might understand what He
was for their salvation. en there opens before Him, who
had thus put Himself aside and submitted to everything
for His Father’s sake, not the future glory, but the value,
the import, the glory, of the work He was about to do.
e principles of which we have spoken are here brought
to the central point of their development. In His death
the world was judged: Satan was its prince, and he is cast
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out: in appearance it is Christ who was so. By death He
morally and judicially destroyed him who had the power
of death. It was the total and entire annihilation of all the
rights of the enemy, over whomsoever and whatsoever it
might be, when the Son of God and Son of Man bore the
judgment of God as man in obedience unto death. All the
rights that Satan possessed through man’s disobedience
and the judgment of God upon it were only rights in virtue
of the claims of God upon man, and come back to Christ
alone. And being lifted up between God and the world, in
obedience, on the cross, bearing that which was due to sin,
Christ became the point of attraction for all men living,
that through Him they might draw nigh to God. While
living, Jesus ought to have been owned as the Messiah of
promise; lifted up from the earth as a victim before God,
being no longer of the earth as living upon it, He was the
point of attraction towards God for all those<P398> who,
living on earth, were alienated from God, as we have seen,
that they might come to Him there (by grace), and have
life through the Saviour’s death. Jesus warns the people
that it was only for a little time that He, the light of the
world, would remain with them. ey should believe while
it was yet time. Soon would the darkness come, and they
would not know whither they went. We see that, whatever
might be the thoughts that occupy His heart, the love of
Jesus never grows cold. He thinks of those around Him-of
men according to their need.
Isaiah’s prophetic warning of the results of unbelief
Nevertheless, they did not believe according to the
testimony of the prophet, given in view of His humiliation
unto death, given in sight of the vision of His divine glory,
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which could but bring judgment on a rebellious people
(Isa. 53 and 6).
God’s counsels of grace; His long-suering
Nevertheless, such is grace, His humiliation should be
their salvation; and, in the glory that judged them, God
would remember the counsels of His grace, as sure a fruit
of that glory as was the judgment which the holy, holy, holy
Jehovah of hosts must pronounce against evil-a judgment
suspended, by His long-suering, during centuries, but
now fullled when these last eorts of His mercy were
despised and rejected. ey preferred the praise of men.
e Saviour and His Word
At last Jesus declares that which His coming really was-
that, in fact, they who believed in Him, in the Jesus whom
they saw on the earth, believed in His Father and saw His
Father. He was come as the light, and they who believed
should not walk in darkness. He did not judge; He was
come to save; but the word which He had spoken should
judge those who heard, for it was the Father’s word, and it
was life everlasting.<P399>
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591
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Man’s unceasing hatred; the Lord’s unchanging love
Now, then, the Lord has taken His place as going to
the Father. e time was come for it. He takes His place
above, according to the counsels of God, and is no longer
in connection with a world that had already rejected Him;
but He loves His own unto the end. Two things are present
to Him: on the one hand, sin taking the form most painful
to His heart; and on the other, the sense of all glory being
given to Him as man, and of whence He came and whither
He was going: that is, His personal and heavenly character
in relationship with God, and the glory that was given
Him. He came from God and went to God; and the Father
had put all things into His hands.
e service of love: our Advocate on high
But neither His entrance into glory nor the heartlessness
of man’s sin takes His heart away from His disciples or
even from their wants. Only He exercises His love to put
them in connection with Himself in the new position He
was creating for them by entering thus into it. He could
no longer remain with them on earth; and if He left them,
and must leave them, He would not give them up, but t
them for being where He was. He loved them with a love
that nothing stopped. It went on to perfect its results; and
He must t them to be with Him. Blessed change that
love accomplished even from His being with them here
below! ey were to have a part with Him who came from
God and went to God, and into whose hands the Father
had put all things; but then they must be t to be with
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Him there. To this end He is still their servant in love,
and even more so than ever. No doubt He had been so in
His perfect grace, but it was while among them. ey were
thus in a certain sense companions. ey were all supping
together here at the same table. But He quits this position,
as He did His personal association with His disciples by
ascending to heaven, by going to God. But, if He does,
He still girds Himself for their service, and takes water1
to wash their feet. Although in<P400> heaven, He is still
serving us.2e eect of this service is that the Holy Spirit
takes away practically by the Word all the delement that
we gather in walking through this world of sin. On our way
we come in contact with this world that rejected Christ.
Our Advocate on high (compare 1John 2), He cleanses
us from its delement by the Holy Spirit and the Word;
He cleanses us in view of the relationships with God His
Father, unto which He has brought us by entering into
them Himself as man on high.
(1. It is not blood here. at assuredly there must be. He
came not by water only, but by water and blood; but here
the washing is in every respect that of water. e washing
from sins in His own blood is never repeated at all in any
way. Christ must have suered often in that case. See
Hebrews 9-10. In respect of imputation, there is no more
conscience of sins.)
(1. e Lord in becoming a man took on Him the form
of a servant (Phil. 2). is He never gives up. It might
have been thought so when He went into glory, but He is
showing here that it is not so. He is now as in Exodus 21
saying, I love my master, I love my wife, I love my children;
I will not go out free; and becoming a servant forever, even
if He could have had twelve legions of angels. Here He is
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a servant to wash their feet, deled in passing through this
world. In Luke 12 we see that He keeps the place of service
in glory. It is a sweet thought that even there He ministers
heaven’s best blessedness to our happiness.)
Washing the disciples’ feet; the means
A purity was needed that should bet the presence of
God, for He was going there. However, it is only the feet
that are in question. e priests that served God in the
tabernacle were washed at their consecration. at washing
was not repeated. So, when once spiritually renewed by the
Word, this is not repeated for us. In “he that is washed” it
is a dierent word from “save to wash his feet.” e rst
is bathing the whole body; the latter, washing hands or
feet. We need the latter continually, but are not, once born
of water by the Word, washed over again, anymore than
the priests’ rst consecration was repeated. e priests
washed their hands and their feet every time they engaged
in service-that they drew near to God. Our Jesus restores
communion and power to serve God, when we have lost
it. He does it, and with a view to communion and service;
for before God we are entirely clean personally. e service
was the service of Christ-of His love. He wiped their feet
with the towel wherewith He was girded (a circumstance
expressive of service). e means of purication was water-
the Word, applied by the Holy Spirit. Peter shrinks from
the idea of Christ thus humbling Himself: but we must
submit to this thought, that our sin is such that nothing
less than the humiliation of Christ can in any sense
cleanse us from it. Nothing<P401> else will make us really
know the perfect and dazzling purity of God, or the love
and devotedness of Jesus: and in the realization of these
consists the having a heart sanctied for the presence of
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God. Peter, then, would have the Lord to wash also his
hands and his head. But this is already accomplished. If we
are His, we are born again and cleansed by the Word which
He has already applied to our souls; only we dele our feet
in walking. It is after the pattern of this service of Christ in
grace that we are to act with regard to our brethren.
Judas’ treachery known to the Lord
Judas was not clean; he had not been born again, was
not clean through the word Jesus had spoken. Nevertheless,
being sent of the Lord, they who had received him had
received Christ. And this is true also of those whom He
sends by His Spirit. is thought brings the treachery of
Judas before the Lord’s mind; His soul is troubled at the
thought, and He unburdens His heart by declaring it to
His disciples. What His heart is occupied with here is,
not His knowledge of the individual, but of the fact that
one of them should do it, one of those who had been His
companions.
e love of John and Peter to their Lord
erefore it was, because of His saying this, that the
disciples looked upon one another. Now there was one
near Him, the disciple whom Jesus loved; for we have, in
all this part of the Gospel of John, the testimony of grace
that answers to the diverse forms of malice and wickedness
in man. is love of Jesus had formed the heart of John-
had given him condingness and constancy of aection;
and consequently, without any other motive than this, he
was near enough to Jesus to receive communications from
Him. It was not in order to receive them that he placed
himself close to Jesus: he was there because he loved the
Lord, whose own love had thus attached him to Himself;
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but, being there, he was able to receive them. It is thus that
we may still learn of Him.
Peter loved Him: but there was too much of Peter, not
for service, if God called him to it-and He did in grace,
when He had thoroughly broken him down, and made him
know himself-but for intimacy. Who, among the twelve,
bore testimony like Peter, in whom God was mighty
towards the circumcision? But we do not<P402> nd in
his epistles that which is found in John’s.1 Moreover, each
one has his place, given in the sovereignty of God. Peter
loved Christ; and we see that, linked also with John by this
common aection, they are constantly together; as also at
the end of this Gospel he is anxious to know the fate of
John. He uses John, therefore, to ask the Lord which it was
among them that should betray Him, as He had said. Let
us remember that being near Jesus for His own sake is the
way of having His mind when anxious thoughts arise.
(1. On the other hand, Peter died for the Lord. John
was left to care for the assembly: it does not appear that he
became a martyr. )
Judas possessed by Satan: darkness and despair
Jesus points out Judas by the sop, which would have
checked any other, but which to him was only the seal of
his ruin. It is indeed thus in degree with every favor of God
that falls upon a heart that rejects it. After the sop Satan
enters into Judas. Wicked already through covetousness,
and yielding habitually to ordinary temptations; although
he was with Jesus, hardening his heart against the eect of
that grace which was ever before his eyes and at his side, and
which, in a certain way, was exercised towards him, he had
yielded to the suggestion of the enemy, and made himself
the tool of the high priests to betray the Lord. He knew
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what they desired, and goes and oers himself. And when,
by his long familiarity with the grace and presence of Jesus
while addicting himself to sin, that grace and the thought
of the Person of Christ had entirely lost their inuence,
he was in a state to feel nothing at betraying Him. e
knowledge he had of the Lord’s power helped him to give
himself up to evil and strengthened the temptation of
Satan; for evidently he made sure that Jesus would always
succeed in delivering Himself from His enemies, and, as
far as power was concerned, Judas was right in thinking
that the Lord could have done so. But what knew he of
the thoughts of God? All was darkness, morally, in his soul.
And now, after this last testimony, which was both a
token of grace and a witness to the true state of his heart
that was insensible to it (as expressed in the psalm here
fullled), Satan enters into him, takes possession of him
so as to harden him against all that might have made him
feel, even as a man, the horrid nature<P403> of what he
was doing, and thus enfeeble him in accomplishing the
evil; so that neither his conscience nor his heart should
be awakened in committing it. Dreadful condition! Satan
possesses him, until forced to leave him to the judgment
from which he cannot shelter him, and which will be
his own at the time appointed of God-judgment that
manifests itself to the conscience of Judas when the evil
was done, when too late (and the sense of which is shown
by a despair that his link with Satan did but augment) but
which is forced to bear testimony to Jesus before those who
had proted by his sin and who mocked at his distress.
For despair speaks the truth; the veil is torn away; there is
no longer self-deception; the conscience is laid bare before
God, but it is before His judgment. Satan does not deceive
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there; and not the grace, but the perfection of Christ is
known. Judas bore witness to the innocence of Jesus, as did
the thief on the cross. It is thus that death and destruction
heard the fame of His wisdom: only God knows it (Job
28:22-23).
e Lord’s omniscience
Jesus knew his condition. It was but the accomplishing
that which He was going to do, by means of one for whom
there was no longer any hope. “at thou doest,” said Jesus,
“do quickly.” But what words, when we hear them from
the lips of Him who was love itself! Nevertheless, the eyes
of Jesus were now xed upon His own death. He is alone.
No one, not even His disciples, had any part with Him.
ese could no more follow Him whither He was now
going than the Jews themselves. Solemn but glorious hour!
A man, He was going to meet God in that which separated
man from God-to meet Him in judgment. is, in fact, is
what He says, as soon as Judas is gone out. e door which
closed on Judas separated Christ from this world.
e cross: the brightest manifestation of God’s glory,
the center of the history of eternity
“Now,” He says, “is the Son of man gloried.” He had
said this when the Greeks arrived; but then it was the
glory to come-His glory as the head of all men, and, in
fact, of all things. But this could not yet be; and He said,
“Father, glorify thy name.” Jesus must die. It was that which
gloried the name of God in a world<P404> where sin
was. It was the glory of the Son of Man to accomplish it
there, where all the power of the enemy, the eect of sin
and the judgment of God upon sin were displayed; where
the question was morally settled; where Satan (in his power
over sinful man-man under sin, and that fully developed
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in open enmity against God) and God met, not as in the
case of Job, as an instrument in God’s hand for discipline,
but for justice-that which God was against sin, but that in
which, through Christ’s giving Himself, all His attributes
should be in exercise and be gloried, and by which, in fact,
through that which took place, all the perfections of God
have been gloried, being manifested through Jesus, or by
means of that which Jesus did and suered.
ese perfections had been directly unfolded in Him,
as far as grace went; but now that the opportunity of the
exercise of all of them was aorded, by His taking a place
which put Him to the proof according to the attributes of
God, their divine perfection could be displayed through
man in Jesus there where He stood in the place of man;
and (made sin, and, thank God, for the sinner) God was
gloried in Him. For see what, in fact, met in the cross:
Satan’s complete power over men, Jesus alone excepted;
man in open, perfect enmity against God in the rejection
of His Son; God manifest in grace: then in Christ, as man,
perfect love to His Father, and perfect obedience, and that
in the place of sin, that is, as made it (for the perfection
of love to His Father and obedience were when He was
as sin before God on the cross); then God’s majesty
made good, gloried (Heb. 2:10); His perfect, righteous
judgment against sin as the Holy One; but therein His
perfect love to sinners in giving His only begotten Son.
For hereby know we love. To sum it up: at the cross we nd
man in absolute evil-the hatred of what was good; Satan’s
full power over the world-the prince of this world; man
in perfect goodness, obedience and love to the Father at
all cost to Himself; God in absolute, innite righteousness
against sin, and innite, divine love to the sinner. Good
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and evil were fully settled forever, and salvation wrought,
the foundation of the new heavens and the new earth laid.
Well may we say, “Now is the Son of man gloried, and
God is gloried in him.” Utterly dishonored in the rst,
He is innitely more gloried in the Second, and therefore
puts man (Christ) in glory, and straightway, not waiting for
the kingdom. But this requires some less abstract words;
for the cross is the center of the universe, <P405>according
to God, the basis of our salvation and our glory, and the
brightest manifestation of God’s own glory, the center of
the history of eternity.
“e Son of man gloried” in Jesus of the cross, and
“God gloried in him” there
e Lord had said, when the Greeks desired to see
Him, that the hour was come for the Son of Man to be
gloried. He spoke then of His glory as Son of Man, the
glory which He should take under that title. He felt indeed
that in order to bring men into that glory, He must needs
pass through death Himself. But He was engrossed by one
thing which detached His thoughts from the glory and
from the suering-the desire which possessed His heart
that His Father should be gloried. All was now come to
the point at which this was to be accomplished; and the
moment had arrived when Judas (overstepping the limits
of God’s just and perfect patience) was gone out, giving
the reins to his iniquity, to consummate the crime which
would lead to the wonderful fulllment of the counsels of
God.
Now, in Jesus on the cross, the Son of Man has been
gloried in a much more admirable way than He will be
even by the positive glory that belongs to Him under that
title. He will, we know, be clothed with that glory; but,
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on the cross, the Son of Man bore all that was necessary
for the perfect display of all the glory of God. e whole
weight of that glory was brought to bear upon Him, to put
Him to the proof, that it might be seen whether He could
sustain it, verify, and exalt it; and that by setting it forth
in the place where, but for this, sin concealed that glory,
and, so to speak, gave it impiously the lie. Was the Son of
Man able to enter into such a place, to undertake such a
task, and to accomplish the task, and maintain His place
without failure to the end? is Jesus did. e majesty of
God was to be vindicated against the insolent rebellion of
His creature; His truth, which had threatened Him with
death, maintained; His justice established against sin (who
could withstand it?); and, at the same time, His love fully
demonstrated. Satan having here all the sorrowful rights
that he had acquired through our sin, Christ-perfect as a
man, alone, apart from all men, in obedience, and having as
man but one object, that is, the glory of God, thus divinely
perfect, sacricing Himself for this<P406> purpose-fully
gloried God. God was gloried in Him. His justice, His
majesty, His truth, His love-all were veried on the cross as
they are in Himself, and revealed only there; and that with
regard to sin.
All God’s attributes freely and fully displayed to the
sinner
And God can now act freely, according to that which He
is consciously to Himself, without any one attribute hiding
or obscuring or contradicting another. Truth condemned
man to death, justice forever condemned the sinner,
majesty demanded the execution of the sentence. Where,
then, was love? If love, as man would conceive it, were to
pass over all, where would be His majesty and His justice?
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Moreover, that could not be; nor would it really then be
love, but indierence to evil. By means of the cross, He is
just, and He justies in grace; He is love, and in that love
He bestows His righteousness on man. e righteousness
of God takes the place of man’s sin to the believer. e
righteousness, as well as the sin, of man vanishes before the
bright light of grace, and does not becloud the sovereign
glory of a grace like this towards man, who was really
alienated from God.
God glorifying the Son of Man in Himself
And who had accomplished this? Who had thus
established (as to its manifestation, and the making it good
where it had been, as to the state of things, compromised
by sin) the whole glory of God? It was the Son of Man.
erefore God glories Him with His own glory; for it
was indeed that glory which He had established and made
honorable, when before His creatures it was eaced by sin-
it cannot be so in itself. And not only was it established,
but it was thus realized as it could have been by no other
means. Never was love like the gift of the Son of God for
sinners; never justice (to which sin is insupportable) like
that which did not spare even the Son Himself when He
bore sin upon Him; never majesty like that which held
the Son of God Himself responsible for the full extent of
its exigencies (compare Hebrews 2); never truth like that
which did not yield before the necessity of the death of
Jesus. We now know God. God, being gloried in the Son
of Man, glories Him in Himself. But, consequently, He
does not wait for the day of His glory with man, according
to the thought of chapter 12. God calls<P407> Him to
His own right hand, and sets Him there at once and alone.
Who could be there (save in spirit) excepting He? Here
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His glory is connected with that which He alone could do-
with that which He must have done alone; and of which
He must have the fruit alone with God, for He was God.
Alone on the cross, unique and preeminent in glory
Other glories shall come in their time. He will share
them with us, although in all things He has the preeminence.
Here He is, and must ever be, alone (that is, in that which is
personal to Himself). Who shared the cross with Him, as
suering for sin, and fullling righteousness? We, indeed,
share it with Him so far as suering for righteousness’ sake,
and for the love of Him and His people, even unto death:
and thus we shall share His glory also. But it is evident
that we could not glorify God for sin. He who knew no sin
could alone be made sin. e Son of God alone could bear
this burden.
e new commandment given to the disciples:
brotherly love
In this sense the Lord-when His heart found relief
in pouring out these glorious thoughts, these marvelous
counsels - addressed His disciples with aection, telling
them that their connection with Him here below would
soon be ended, that He was going where they could not
follow Him, anymore than could the unbelieving Jews.
Brotherly love was, in a certain sense, to take His place.
ey were to love one another as He had loved them, with
a love superior to the faults of the esh in their brethren-
brotherly love gracious in these respects. If the main pillar
were taken away against which many around it were
leaning, they would support each other, although not by
their strength. And thus should the disciples of Christ be
known.
Simon Peter’s self-condence
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Now Simon Peter desires to penetrate into that which
no man, save Jesus, could enter-God’s presence by the path
of death. is is eshly condence. e Lord tells him, in
grace, that it could not be so now. He must dry up that
sea fathomless to man- death-that overowing Jordan;
and then, when it was no longer<P408> the judgment of
God, nor wielded by the power of Satan (for in both these
characters Christ has entirely destroyed its power for the
believer), then His poor disciple might pass through it for
the sake of righteousness and of Christ. But Peter would
follow Him in his own strength, declaring himself able to
do exactly that which Jesus was going to do for him. Yet, in
fact, terried at the rst movement of the enemy, he draws
back before the voice of a girl and denies the Master whom
he loved. In the things of God, eshly condence does but
lead us into a position in which it cannot stand. Sincerity
alone can do nothing against the enemy. We must have the
strength of God.
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73161
John 14
In view of His departure; the Lord alone an object of
faith
e Lord now begins to discourse with them in view of
His departure. He was going where they could not come.
To human sight they would be left alone upon the earth.
It is to the sense of this apparently desolate condition that
the Lord addresses Himself, showing them that He was an
object for faith, even as God was. In doing this, He opens
to them the whole truth with respect to their condition.
His work is not the subject treated of, but their position by
virtue of that work. His Person should have been for them
the key to that position, and would be so now: the Holy
Spirit, the Comforter, who should come, would be the
power by which they should enjoy it, and indeed more yet.
e revelation of what is beyond death for faith; what
the Lord’s departure meant for His disciples; with Him
To Peter’s question, “Whither goest thou?” the Lord
replies. Only when the desire of the esh seeks to enter
into the path on which Jesus was then entering, the Lord
could but say that the strength of the esh was unavailing
there; for, in fact, he proposed to follow Christ in death.
Poor Peter!
But when the Lord has written the sentence of death
upon the esh for us, by revealing its impotency, He can
then (ch. 14) reveal that which is beyond it for faith; and
that which belongs to us through His death throws its light
back, and teaches who He was, even when on earth, and
always, before the world was. He did but<P409> return
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to the place from which He came. But He begins with
His disciples where they were and meets the need of their
hearts by explaining to them in what manner-better, in
a certain sense, than by following Him here below-they
should be with Him when absent where He would be. ey
did not see God corporeally present with them: to enjoy
His presence they believed in Him. It was to be the same
thing with regard to Jesus. ey were to believe in Him. He
did not forsake them in going away, as though there were
only room for Himself in His Father’s house. (He alludes
to the temple as a gure.) ere was room for them all.
e going thither, observe, was still His thought-He is not
here as the Messiah. We see Him in the relationships in
which He stood according to the eternal truths of God. He
had always His departure in view: had there been no room
for them, He would have told them so. eir place was
with Him. But He was going to prepare a place for them.
Without presenting redemption there, and presenting
Himself as the new man according to the power of that
redemption, there was no place prepared in heaven. He
enters it in the power of that life which should bring them
in also. But they should not go alone to rejoin Him, nor
would He rejoin them down here. Heaven, not earth, was
in question. Nor would He simply send others for them;
but as those He dearly valued, He would come for them
Himself and receive them unto Himself, that where He
was, there should they be also. He would come from the
Father’s throne: there, of course, they cannot sit; but He
will receive them there, where He shall be in glory before
the Father. ey should be with Him-a far more excellent
position than His remaining with them here below, even as
Messiah in glory on the earth.
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Going to the Father; Himself the way
Now, also, having said where He was going, that is, to
His Father (and speaking according to the eect of His
death for them), He tells them that they knew whither He
was going, and the way. For He was going to the Father,
and they had seen the Father in seeing Him; and thus,
having seen the Father in Him, they knew the way; for in
coming to Him, they came to the Father, who was in Him
as He was in the Father. He was, then, Himself the way.
erefore He reproaches Philip with not having known
Him.
He<P410> had been long with them, as the revelation
in His own Person of the Father; and they ought to have
known Him, and to have seen that He was in the Father,
and the Father in Him, and thus have known where He was
going, for it was to the Father. He had declared the name
of the Father; and if they were unable to see the Father in
Him, or to be convinced of it by His words, they ought to
have known it by His works; for the Father who dwelt in
Him-He it was who did the works. is depended on His
own Person, being still in the world; but a striking proof
was connected with His departure. After He was gone,
they would do even greater works than He did, because
they should act in connection with His greater nearness
to the Father. is was requisite to His glory. It was even
unlimited. He placed them in immediate connection with
the Father by the power of His work and of His name; and
whatsoever they should ask the Father in His name, Christ
Himself would do it for them. eir request should be
heard and granted by the Father-showing what nearness
He had acquired for them; and He (Christ) would do all
they should ask. For the power of the Son was not, and
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could not be, wanting to the Father’s will: there was no
limit to His power.
Discipleship characterized by obedience; the promise
of the Holy Spirit, to abide forever
But this led to another subject. If they loved Him,
it was to be shown, not in regrets, but in keeping His
commandments. ey were to walk in obedience. is
characterizes discipleship up to the present time. Love
desires to be with Him, but shows itself by obeying His
commands; for Christ also has a right to command. On
the other hand, He would seek their good on high, and
another blessing should be granted them; namely, the Holy
Spirit Himself, who should never leave them, as Christ was
about to do. e world could not receive Him. Christ, the
Son, had been shown to the eyes of the world and ought to
have been received by it. e Holy Spirit would act, being
invisible; for by the rejection of Christ, it was all over with
the world in its natural and creature relationships with God.
But the Holy Spirit should be known by the disciples; for
He should not only remain with them, as Christ could not,
but be in them, not with them as He was. e Holy Spirit
would not be seen then or known by the world.<P411>
e way, the truth, and the life
Until now, in His discourse, He had led His disciples
to follow Him (in spirit) on high, through the knowledge
which acquaintance with His Person (in which the Father
was revealed) gave them of whither He was going, and of
the way. He was Himself the way, as we have seen. He
was the truth itself, in the revelation (and the perfect
revelation) of God and of the soul’s relationship to Him;
and, indeed, of the real condition and character of all things,
by bringing out the perfect light of God in His own Person
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who revealed Him. He was the life, in which God and the
truth could thus be known. Men came by Him; they found
the Father revealed in Him; and they possessed in Him
that which enabled them to enjoy, and in the reception of
which they came in fact to, the Father.
e stream of blessing owing for the disciples in this
world; life in Christ
But, now, it is not what is objective which He presents;
not the Father in Him (which they ought to have known)
and He in the Father, when here below. He does not,
therefore, raise their thoughts to the Father through
Himself and in Himself, and He in the Father in heaven.
He sets before them that which should be given them down
here-the stream of blessing that should ow for them in
this world, by virtue of that which Jesus was, and was for
them, in heaven. e Holy Spirit once introduced as sent,
the Lord says, “I will not leave you orphans, I will come to
you.” His presence, in spirit, here below, is the consolation
of His people. ey should see Him; and this is much more
true than seeing Him with the eyes of esh. Yes, more true;
it is knowing Him in a much more real way, even though
by grace they had believed in Him as the Christ, the Son
of God. And, moreover, this spiritual sight of Christ by the
heart, through the presence of the Holy Spirit, is connected
with life. “Because I live, ye shall live also.” We see Him,
because we have life, and this life is in Him, and He in this
life. “is life is in the Son.” It is as sure as His duration.
It is derived from Him. Because He lives, we shall live. Our
life is, in everything, the manifestation of Himself who is
our life. Even as the Apostle expresses it, “at the life of
Jesus may be manifested in our mortal bodies.” Alas! the
esh resists; but this is our life in Christ.<P412>
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e disciples in Christ in virtue of the Holy Spirit’s
presence
But this is not all. e Holy Spirit dwelling in us, we
know that we are in Christ.1 “At that day ye shall know
that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” It
is not, “e Father in me [which, however, was always
true], and I in him”-words, the rst of which, here omitted,
expressed the reality of His manifestation of the Father
here on earth. e Lord only expresses that which belongs
to His being really and divinely one with the Father-“I
am in my Father.” It is this last part of the truth (implied,
doubtless, in the other when rightly understood) of which
the Lord here speaks. It could not really be so; but men
might imagine such a thing as a manifestation of God in
a man, without this man being really such-so truly God,
that is to say, in Himself-that it must also be said, He is in
the Father. People dream of such things; they speak of the
manifestation of God in esh. We speak of God manifest
in the esh. But here all ambiguity is obviated-He was in
the Father, and it is this part of the truth which is repeated
here; adding to it, in virtue of the presence of the Holy
Spirit, that while the disciples should indeed fully know
the divine Person of Jesus, they should, moreover, know
that they were themselves in Him. He who is joined to
the Lord is one spirit. Jesus did not say that they ought to
have known this while He was with them on earth. ey
ought to have known that the Father was in Him and
He in the Father. But in that He was alone. e disciples,
however, having received the Holy Spirit, should know
their own being in Him- a union of which the Holy Spirit
is the strength and the bond. e life of Christ ows from
Him in us. He is in the Father, we in Him, and He also
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in us, according to the power of the presence of the Holy
Spirit.<P413>
(1. Note, this is individual, not the union of the members
of the body with Christ; nor is union indeed an exact term
for it. We are in Him. is is more than union, but not the
same thing. It is nature and life, and position in it, our place
in that nature and life. When He was on earth, and they
had not the Holy Spirit, they should have known that He
was in the Father and the Father in Him. When He was
in heaven, and they had the Holy Spirit, they would know
they were in Him and He in them.)
Continual guardianship and government; the child’s
love, the Father’s love, and that of Christ, shown in the
path of obedience
is is the subject of the common faith, true of all.
But there is continual guardianship and government, and
Jesus manifests Himself to us in connection with, and in
a manner dependent on, our walk. He who is mindful of
the Lord’s will possesses it, and observes it. A good child
not only obeys when he knows his father’s will, but he
acquires the knowledge of that will by giving heed to
it. is is the spirit of obedience in love. If we act thus
with regard to Jesus, the Father, who takes account of all
that relates to His Son, will love us. Jesus will also love
us and will manifest Himself to us. Judas (not Iscariot)
did not understand this, because he saw no further than
a bodily manifestation of Christ, such as the world also
could perceive. Jesus therefore adds that the truly obedient
disciples (and here He speaks more spiritually and generally
of His word, not merely of His commandments) should be
loved of the Father, and that the Father and Himself would
come and make their abode with him. So that, if there
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be obedience, while waiting for the time when we shall
go and dwell with Jesus in the Father’s presence, He and
the Father dwell in us. e Father and the Son manifest
themselves in us, in whom the Holy Spirit is dwelling, even
as the Father and the Holy Spirit were present, when the
Son was here below-doubtless in another way, for He was
the Son, and we only live by Him-the Holy Spirit only
dwelling in us. But with respect to those glorious Persons
they are not disunited. e Father did the works in Christ,
and Jesus cast out devils by the Holy Spirit; nevertheless,
the Son wrought. If the Holy Spirit is in us, the Father and
the Son come and make eir abode in us. Only it will be
observed here that there is government. We are, according
to the new life, sanctied unto obedience. It is not here a
question of the love of God in sovereign grace to a sinner,
but of the Father’s dealings with His children. erefore it
is in the path of obedience that the manifestations of the
Father’s love and the love of Christ are found. We love, but
do not caress, our naughty children. If we grieve the Spirit,
He will not be in us the power of the manifestation to our
souls of the Father and the Son in communion, but will
rather act on our consciences in conviction, though giving
the sense of grace. God may restore us<P414> by His love,
and by testifying when we have wandered; but communion
is in obedience. Finally, Jesus was to be obeyed; but it was
the Father’s word to Jesus, observe, as He was here below.
His words were the words of the Father.
Christ truly and ever Man, but God manifest in esh
e Holy Spirit bears testimony to that which Christ
was, as well as to His glory. It is the manifestation of the
perfect life of man, of God in man, of the Father in the
Son-the manifestation of the Father by the Son who is in
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the bosom of the Father. Such were the words of the Son
here below; and when we speak of His commandments, it is
not only the manifestation of His glory by the Holy Spirit,
when He is on high, and its results; but His commandments
when He spoke here below, and spoke the words of God;
for He had not the Holy Spirit by measure, so that His
words would have been mingled, and partly imperfect, or
at least not divine. He was truly man, and ever man; but
it was God manifest in the esh. e old commandment
from the beginning is new, inasmuch as this same life,
which expressed itself in His commandments, now moves
in and animates us-true in Him and in us (compare 1John
2). e commandments are those of the man Christ, yet
they are the commandments of God and the words of the
Father, according to the life that has been manifested in
this world in the Person of Christ. ey express in Him,
and form and direct in us, that eternal life which was with
the Father, and which has been manifested to us in man-
in Him whom the apostles could see, hear and touch; and
which life we possess in Him. Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit
has been given us to lead us into all truth, according to this
same chapter of John’s epistle: “Ye have an unction from
the Holy One, and ye know all things.”
e dierence between Christ’s commandments and
the law
To direct life is dierent from knowing all things. e
two are connected, because, in walking according to that
life, we do not grieve the Holy Spirit, and we are in the light.
To direct life, where it exists, is not the same thing as to give
a law imposed on man in the esh (righteously, no doubt),
promising him life if he keep these commandments. is is
the dierence between the commandments of Christ and
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the law: not as to authority - <P415>divine authority is
always the same in itself-but that the law oers life and
is addressed to man responsible in esh, oering him life
as the result; while the commandments of Christ express
and direct the life of one who lives through the Spirit, in
connection with his being in Christ, and Christ in him. e
Holy Spirit (who, besides this, teaches all things) brought
to remembrance the commandments of Christ-all things
that He had said to them. It is the same thing in detail, by
His grace, with Christians individually now.
e Lord’s gift of His own peace
Finally, the Lord, in the midst of this world, left peace to
His disciples, giving them His own peace. It is when going
away, and in the full revelation of God, that He could say
this to them; so that He possessed it in spite of the world.
He had gone through death and the drinking of the cup,
put away sin for them, destroyed the power of the enemy
in death, made propitiation by fully glorifying God. Peace
was made, and made for them before God, and all that they
were brought into-the light as He was, so that this peace
was perfect in the light; and it was perfect in the world,
because it brought them so into connection with God that
the world could not even touch or reach their source of joy.
Moreover, Jesus had so accomplished this for them, and
He bestowed it on them in such a way, that He gave them
the peace which He Himself had with the Father, and in
which, consequently, He walked in this world. e world
gives a part of its goods while not relinquishing the mass;
but what it gives, it gives away and has no longer. Christ
introduces into the enjoyment of that which is His own-of
His own position before the Father.1e world does not
and cannot give in this manner. How perfect must that
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peace have been which He enjoyed with the Father-that
peace He gives to us-His own!<P416>
(1. is is blessedly true in every respect, except, of
course, essential Godhead and oneness with the Father:
in this He remains divinely alone. But all He has as man,
and as Son in manhood, He introduces into, “My Father
and your Father, my God and your God.” His peace, His
joy, the words the Father gave to Him, He has given to
us; the glory given to Him He has given to us; with the
love wherewith the Father has loved Him we are loved. e
counsels of God were not merely to meet our responsibility
as children of Adam, but before the world to put us into
the same position with the second Adam, His own Son.
And Christ’s work has made that to be righteousness.)
In the Lord’s glory and happiness we nd our own
ere remains yet one precious thought-a proof of
unspeakable grace in Jesus. He so reckons upon our
aection, and this as personal to Himself, that He says to
them, “If ye loved me ye would rejoice, because I said, I go
unto the Father.” He gives us to be interested in His own
glory, in His happiness, and, in it, to nd our own.
e desire of the Christian’s heart
Good and precious Saviour, we do indeed rejoice that
ou, who hast suered so much for us, hast now fullled
all things, and art at rest with y Father, whatever may
be ine active love for us. Oh that we knew and loved
ee better! But still we can say in fullness of heart, Come
quickly, Lord! Leave once more the throne of y rest and
of y personal glory, to come and take us to yself, that
all may be fullled for us also, and that we may be with
ee and in the light of y Father’s countenance and in
His house. y grace is innite, but y presence and the
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joy of the Father shall be the rest of our hearts, and our
eternal joy.
e fullness of grace and perfection shown in the
Person of Christ
Here the Lord closes this part of His discourse.1 He had
shown them, as a whole, all that owed from His departure
and from His death. e glory of His Person, observe, is
always here the subject; for, even with regard to His death,
it is said, “Now is the Son of Man gloried.” Nevertheless,
He had forewarned them of it, that it might strengthen
and not weaken their faith, for He would not talk much
more with them. e world was under the power of the
enemy, and he was coming: not because he had anything
in Christ-he had nothing-therefore he had not even the
power of death over Him. His death was not the eect
of the power of Satan over Him, but thereby He showed
the world that He loved the Father; and He was obedient
to the Father, cost what it would. And this was absolute
perfection in man. If Satan was the prince of<P417> this
world, Jesus did not seek to maintain His Messiah glory in
it. But He showed to the world, there where Satan’s power
was, the fullness of grace and of perfection in His own
Person; in order that the world might come from itself (if
I may use such an expression)-those, at least, who had ears
to hear.
(1. Chapter 14 gives to us the Son’s personal relationship
with the Father, and our place in Him who is in it, known
by the Holy Spirit given. In chapter 15 we have His place
and standing on earth, the true Vine, and then His state of
glory as exalted and sending the Comforter to reveal that.)
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e Lord then ceases to speak and goes forth. He is no
longer seated with His own, as of this world. He arises and
quits it.
Summary of the Lord’s discourse in chapters 14-16
at which we have said of the Lord’s commandments,
given during His sojourn here below (a thought to which
the succeeding chapters will give interesting development)
helps us much in understanding the Lord’s whole discourse
here to the end of chapter 16. e subject is divided into
two principal parts: e action of the Holy Spirit when the
Lord should be away; and the relationship of the disciples
to Him during His stay upon the earth. On the one hand,
that which owed from His exaltation to the right hand
of God (which raised Him above the question of Jew
and Gentile); and, on the other, that which depended on
His presence upon earth, as necessarily centering all the
promises in His own Person, and the relations of His own
with Himself, viewed as in connection with the earth and
themselves in it, even when He should be absent. ere
were, in consequence, two kinds of testimony: that of the
Holy Spirit, strictly speaking (that is, what He revealed
in reference to Jesus ascended on high); and that of the
disciples themselves, as eyewitnesses to all that they had
seen of Jesus on the earth (ch. 15:26-27). Not that for this
purpose they were without the help of the Holy Spirit; but
the latter was not the new testimony of the heavenly glory
by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven. He brought
to their remembrance that which Jesus had been, and that
which He had spoken, while on earth. erefore, in the
passage we have been reading, His work is thus described
(ch. 14:26): “He shall teach you all things, and bring all
things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you.”
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(Compare verse 25.) e two works of the Holy Spirit are
here presented. Jesus had spoken many things unto them.
e Holy Spirit would teach them all things; moreover, He
would bring to their remembrance all that Jesus had said.
In chapter 16:12-13, Jesus tells them that He had many
things to say, but that they<P418> could not bear them
then. Afterwards, the Spirit of truth should lead them into
all truth. He should not speak from Himself; but whatsoever
He should hear, that should He speak. He was not like an
individual spirit, who speaks on his own account. One with
the Father and the Son, and come down to reveal the glory
and the counsels of God, all His communications would
be in connection with them, revealing the glory of Christ
ascended on high-of Christ, to whom belonged all that the
Father had. Here it is no question of recalling all that Jesus
had said upon earth: all is heavenly in connection with that
which is on high, and with the full glory of Jesus, or else
relates to the future purposes of God. We shall return to
this subject by and by. I have said these few words to mark
the distinctions which I have pointed out.
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John 15
e true Vine; Christ on earth in contrast with Israel
e beginning of this chapter, and that which relates to
the vine, belongs to the earthly portion-to that which Jesus
was on earth-to His relationship with His disciples as on
the earth, and does not go beyond that position.
“I am the true vine.” Jehovah had planted a vine brought
out of Egypt (Psa. 80:8). is is Israel after the esh; but
it was not the true Vine. e true Vine was His Son,
whom He brought up out of Egypt-Jesus.1 He presents
Himself thus to His disciples. Here it is not that which He
will be after His departure; He was this upon earth, and
distinctively upon earth. We do not speak of planting vines
in heaven, nor of pruning branches there.
(1. Compare, for this substitution of Christ for Israel,
Isaiah 49. He began Israel over again in blessing, as He did
man.)
e fruit-bearing of the branches: the disciples’
personal responsibility
e disciples would have considered Him as the most
excellent branch of the Vine; but thus He would have
been only a member of Israel, whereas He was Himself
the vessel, the source of blessing, according to the promises
of God. e true Vine, therefore, is not Israel; quite the
contrary, it is Christ in contrast with Israel,<P419> but
Christ planted on earth, taking Israel’s place, as the true
Vine. e Father cultivates this plant, evidently on the
earth. ere is no need of a husbandman in heaven. ose
who are attached to Christ, as the remnant of Israel, the
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disciples, need this culture. It is on the earth that fruit-
bearing is looked for. e Lord therefore says to them, “Ye
are clean already, through the word which I have spoken
unto you.” “Ye are the branches.” Judas, perhaps it may be
said, was taken away, so the disciples who walked no more
with Him. e others should be proved and cleansed, that
they might bear more fruit.
I do not doubt that this relationship, in principle and in a
general analogy, still subsists. ose who make a profession,
who attach themselves to Christ in order to follow Him,
will, if there is life, be cleansed; if not, that which they
have will be taken away. Observe therefore here that the
Lord speaks only of His word- that of the true prophet-
and of judgment, whether in discipline or in cutting o.
Consequently, He speaks not of the power of God, but of
the responsibility of man-a responsibility which man will
certainly not be able to meet without grace; but which has
nevertheless that character of personal responsibility here.
Pruned by the Father; fruit as the proof of a vital and
eternal link
Jesus was the source of all their strength. ey were to
abide in Him; thus-for this is the order-He would abide in
them. We have seen this in chapter 14. He does not speak
here of the sovereign exercise of love in salvation, but of the
government of children by their Father; so that blessing
depends on walk (vss. 21,23). Here the husbandman
seeks for fruit; but the instruction given presents entire
dependence on the Vine as the means of producing it. And
He shows the disciples that, walking on earth, they should
be pruned by the Father, and a man (for in verse 6 He
carefully changes the expression, for He knew the disciples
and had pronounced them already clean)-a man, anyone
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who bore no fruit, would be cut o. For the subject here
is not that relationship with Christ in heaven by the Holy
Spirit, which cannot be broken, but of that link which
even then was formed here below, which might be vital
and eternal, or which might not. Fruit should be the proof.
In the former vine this was not necessary; they were
Jews by<P420> birth, they were circumcised, they kept
the ordinances, and abode in the vine as good branches,
without bearing any fruit at all. ey were only cut o
from Israel for willful violation of the law. Here it is not a
relationship with Jehovah founded on the circumstance of
being born of a certain family. at which is looked for is
the glorifying the Father by fruit-bearing. It is this which
will show that they are the disciples of Him who has borne
so much.
What precedes fruit; the source of strength and fruit;
abiding in Christ
Christ, then, was the true Vine; the Father, the
Husbandman; the eleven were the branches. ey were to
abide in Him, which is realized by not thinking to produce
any fruit except as in Him, looking to Him rst. Christ
precedes fruit. It is dependence, practical, habitual nearness
of heart to Him, and trust in Him, being attached to Him
through dependence on Him. In this way Christ in them
would be a constant source of strength and of fruit. He
would be in them. Out of Him they could do nothing. If,
by abiding in Him, they had the strength of His presence,
they should bear much fruit. Moreover, “if a man” (He
does not say “they”; He knew them as true branches and
clean) did not abide in Him, he should be cast forth to be
burned. Again, if they abode in Him (that is, if there was
the constant dependence that draws from the source), and
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if the words of Christ abode in them, directing their hearts
and thoughts, they should command the resources of divine
power; they should ask what they would, and it should be
done. But, further, the Father had loved the Son divinely
while He dwelt on earth. Jesus did the same with regard
to them. ey were to abide in His love. In the former
verses it was in Him, here it is in His love.1 By keeping
His Father’s commandments, He abode in His love; by
keeping the commandments of Jesus, they should abide in
His. Dependence (which implies condence, and reference
to Him on whom we depend for strength, as unable to do
anything without Him, and so clinging close to Him) and
obedience are the two great principles of practical life here
below. us Jesus walked as man: He knew by experience
the true path for His disciples. e commandments of His
Father were the <P421>expression of what the Father was;
by keeping them in the spirit of obedience, Jesus had ever
walked in the communion of His love; had maintained
communion with Himself. e commandments of Jesus
when on earth were the expression of what He was,
divinely perfect in the path of man. By walking in them,
His disciples should be in the communion of His love. e
Lord spoke these things to His disciples, in order that His
joy2 should abide in them and that their joy should be full.
(1. ere are the three exhortations: (1) abide in Me; (2)
if ye abide in Me and My words abide in you, ye shall ask
what ye will; (3) abide in My love. )
(2. Some have thought that this means the joy of Christ
in the faithful walk of a disciple: I do not think so. It is the
joy He had down here, just as He left us His own peace,
and will give us His own glory.)
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e path of a disciple, not the salvation of a sinner,
treated here
We see that it is not the salvation of a sinner that is the
subject treated of here, but the path of a disciple, in order
that he may fully enjoy the love of Christ, and that his
heart may be unclouded in the place where joy is found.
Obedience: the means of abiding in the Lord’s love
Neither is the question entered on here whether a real
believer can be separated from God, because the Lord makes
obedience the means of abiding in His love. Assuredly He
could not lose the favor of His Father or cease to be the
object of His love. at was out of the question; and yet
He says, “I have kept my Father’s commandments, and
abide in his love.” But this was the divine path in which
He enjoyed it. It is the walk and the strength of a disciple
that is spoken of, and not the means of salvation.
Love one to another: its measure
At verse 12 another part of the subject begins. He wills
(this is His commandment) that they should love one
another, as He had loved them. Before, He had spoken of
the Father’s love for Him, which owed from heaven into
His heart here below.1 He had loved them in this same
way; but He had also been a companion, a servant, in this
love. us the disciples were to love one another with a love
that rose above all the weaknesses of others, and<P422>
which was at the same time brotherly, and caused the one
who felt it to be the servant of his brother. It went so far
as to lay down life itself for one’s friends. Now, to Jesus, he
who obeyed Him was His friend. Observe, He does not say
that He would be their friend. He was our friend when He
gave His life for sinners: we are His friends when we enjoy
His condence, as He here expresses it-“I have told you all
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things that I have heard of my Father.” Men speak of their
aairs, according to the necessity of doing so which may
arise, to those who are concerned in them. I impart all my
own thoughts to one who is my friend. “Shall I hide from
Abraham the thing that I will do?” and Abraham was called
the “friend of God.” Now it was not things concerning
Abraham himself that God then told Abraham (He had
done so as God), but things concerning the world-Sodom.
God does the same with respect to the assembly, practically
with respect to the obedient disciple: such a one should be
the depositary of His thoughts. Moreover, He had chosen
them for this. It was not they who had chosen Him by
the exercise of their own will. He had chosen them and
ordained them to go and bring forth fruit, and fruit that
should remain; so that, being thus chosen of Christ for the
work, they should receive from the Father, who could not
fail them in this case, whatsoever they should ask. Here
the Lord comes to the source and certainty of grace, in
order that the practical responsibility, under which He
puts them, should not cloud the divine grace which acted
towards them and placed them there.
(1. He does not say “loveth me,” but “hath loved me”;
that is, He does not speak merely of the eternal love of
the Father for the Son, but of the Father’s love displayed
towards Him in His humanity here on earth.)
Hated by the world: in the same position as their
Master
ey were therefore to love one another.1 at the
world should hate them was but the natural consequence
of its hatred to Christ; it sealed their association with
Him. e world loves that which is of the world: this is
quite natural. e disciples were not of it; and, besides, the
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Jesus whom it had rejected had chosen them and separated
them from the world: therefore it would hate them because
so chosen in grace. ere was, besides, the moral reason,
namely, that they were not of it; but this demonstrated their
relationship to Christ, and His sovereign rights, by which
He had<P423> taken them to Himself out of a rebellious
world. ey should have the same portion as their Master:
it should be for His name’s sake, because the world-and
He speaks especially of the Jews, among whom He had
labored-knew not the Father who had sent Him in love.
To make their boast of Jehovah, as their God, suited them
very well. ey would have received the Messiah on that
footing. To know the Father, revealed in His true character
by the Son, was quite a dierent thing. Nevertheless, the
Son had revealed Him, and, both by His words and His
works, had manifested the Father and His perfections.
(1. By choosing them and setting them apart to enjoy
together this relationship with Him outside the world, He
had put them in a position of which mutual love was the
natural consequence; and, in fact, the sense of this position
and love go together.)
Fallen creatures in the presence of mercy and grace
proving they preferred sin to God; the Father and Son
seen and hated
If Christ had not come and spoken unto them, God
would not have had to reproach them with sin. ey might
still drag on, even if in an unpurged state, without any
proof (though there was plenty of sin and transgression
as men and as a people under the law) that they would
not have God-would not even by mercy return. e fruit
of a fallen nature was there, no doubt, but not the proof
that that nature preferred sin to God, when God was there
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in mercy, not imputing it. Grace was dealing with them,
not imputing sin to them. Mercy had been treating them
as fallen, not as willful creatures. God was not taking the
ground of law, which imputes, or of judgment, but of grace
in the revelation of the Father by the Son. e words and
works of the Son revealing the Father in grace rejected
left them without hope (compare chapter 16:9). eir
real condition would otherwise not have been thoroughly
tested, God would have had still a means to use; He loved
Israel too much to condemn them while there was one left
untried.
If the Lord had not done among them the works which
no other man had done, they might have remained as
they were, refused to believe in Him, and not have been
guilty before God. ey would have been still the object
of Jehovah’s long-suering; but, in fact, they had seen and
hated both the Son and the Father. e Father had been
fully manifested in the Son-in Jesus; and if, when God was
fully manifested, and in grace, they rejected Him, what
could be done except to leave them in sin, afar from God?
If He had been manifested only in part, they would have
had an excuse; they<P424> might have said, “Ah! if He had
shown grace, if we had known Him as He is, we would not
have rejected Him.” ey could not now say this. ey had
seen the Father and the Son in Jesus. Alas! they had seen
and hated.1
(1. Remark that His word and His works are here again
referred to.)
But this was only the fulllment of that which was
foretold of them in their law. As to the testimony borne to
God by the people, and of a Messiah received by them, all
was over. ey had hated Him without a cause.
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e promised Holy Spirit: new testimony to be
rendered to the Son of God
e Lord now turns to the subject of the Holy Spirit
who should come to maintain His glory, which the people
had cast down to the ground. e Jews had not known the
Father manifested in the Son; the Holy Spirit should now
come from the Father to bear witness of the Son. e Son
should send Him from the Father. In chapter 14 the Father
sends Him in Jesus’ name for the personal relationship of
the disciples with Jesus. Here Jesus, gone on high, sends
Him the witness of His exalted glory, His heavenly place.
is was the new testimony and was to be rendered unto
Jesus, the Son of God, ascended up to heaven. e disciples
also should bear witness of Him, because they had been
with Him from the beginning. ey were to testify with
the help of the Holy Spirit, as eyewitnesses of His life on
earth, of the manifestation of the Father in Him. e Holy
Spirit, sent by Him, was the witness to His glory with the
Father, whence He Himself had come.
e disciples’ position after Christ’s departure
us in Christ, the true Vine, we have the disciples,
the branches, clean already, Christ being still present on
the earth. After His departure they were to maintain this
practical relationship. ey should be in relationship with
Him, as He, here below, had been with the Father. And
they were to be with one another as He had been with
them. eir position was outside the world. Now the Jews
had hated both the Son and the Father; the Holy Spirit
should bear witness to the Son as with the Father, and
in the Father; and the disciples should testify also of that
which He had been on earth. e Holy Spirit, and, in a
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<P425>certain sense, the disciples take the place of Jesus,
as well as of the old vine, on the earth.
e presence and testimony of the Holy Spirit on
earth
e presence and the testimony of the Holy Spirit on
earth are now developed.
It is well to notice the connection of the subjects in the
passages we are considering. In chapter 14 we have the
Person of the Son revealing the Father, and the Holy Spirit
giving the knowledge of the Son’s being in the Father
and the disciples in Jesus on high. is was the personal
condition both of Christ and the disciples, and is all linked
together; only rst the Father, the Son being down here,
and then the Holy Spirit sent by the Father. In chapters
15-16 you get the distinct dispensations-Christ the true
Vine on earth, and then the Comforter come on earth sent
down by the exalted Christ. In chapter 14 Christ prays the
Father, who sends the Spirit in Christ’s name. In chapter 15
Christ exalted sends the Spirit from the Father, a witness
of His exaltation, as the disciples, led by the Spirit, were of
His life of humiliation, but as Son on earth.
e Spirit sent by the Father in Christ’s name as an
abiding Comforter on the Lord’s departure
Nevertheless, there is development as well as connection.
In chapter 14 the Lord, although quitting the earth, speaks
in connection with that which He was upon earth. It is the
Father (not Christ Himself) who sends the Holy Spirit at
His request. He goes from earth to heaven on their part as
Mediator. He would pray the Father, and the Father would
give them another Comforter, who should continue with
them, not leaving them as He was doing. eir relationship
to the Father depending on Him, it would be as believing
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in Him that He would be sent to them-not to the world-
not upon Jews, as such. It should be in His name. Moreover,
the Holy Spirit would Himself teach them, and He would
recall to their mind the commandments of Jesus-all that
He had said unto them. For chapter 14 gives the whole
position that resulted from the manifestation1 of the
Son, and that of the Father<P426> in Him, and from
His departure (that is to say, its results with regard to the
disciples).
(1. Observe here the practical development, with
respect to life, of this most deeply interesting subject, in
1John 1-2. e eternal life which was with the Father had
been manifested (for in Him, in the Son, was life, He was
also the Word of life, and God was light. Compare John
1.) ey were to keep His commandments (ch. 2:3-5). It
was an old commandment which they had had from the
beginning-that is, from Jesus on earth, from Him whom
their hands had handled. But now this commandment was
true in Him and in them: that is to say, this life of love
(of which these commandments were the expression) as
well as that of righteousness reproduced itself in them, by
virtue of their union with Him, through the Holy Spirit,
according to John 14:20. ey also abode in Jesus (1John
2:6). In John 1 we nd the Son who is in the bosom of
the Father, who declares Him. He reveals Him as He has
thus known Him-as that which the Father was to Himself.
And He has brought this love (of which He was the
object) down into the bosom of humanity and placed it in
the heart of His disciples (see chapter 17:26); and this is
known now in perfection by God dwelling in us, and His
love being perfect in us, while we dwell in brotherly love
(1John 4:12; compare John 1:18). e manifestation of
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629
our having been thus loved will consist in our appearing in
the same glory as Christ (ch. 17:22-23). Christ manifests
this love by coming from the Father. His commandments
teach it us; the life which we have in Him reproduces it.
His precepts give form to this life, and guide it through
the ways of the esh, and the temptations in the midst of
which He, without sin, lived by this life. e Holy Spirit is
its strength, as being the mighty and living link with Him,
and He by whom we are consciously in Him and He in us.
(Union, as the body to the Head, is another thing, which
is never the subject of John’s teaching.) Of His fullness we
receive grace upon grace. erefore it is that we ought to
walk as He walked (not to be what He was); for we ought
not to walk in the esh, although it is in us and was not in
Him.)
e Spirit to be sent by Christ also from heaven, a
witness to His exaltation
Now, in chapter 15 He had exhausted the subject of
commandments in connection with the life manifested in
Himself here below; and at the close of this chapter He
considers Himself as ascended, and He adds, “But when
the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from
the Father.” He comes, indeed, from the Father; for our
relationship is, and ought to be, immediate to Him. It is
there that Christ has placed us. But in this verse it is not
the Father who sends Him at the request of Jesus, and in
His name. Christ has taken His place in glory as Son of
Man, and according to the glorious fruits of His work,
and He sends Him. Consequently, He bears witness to
that which Christ is in heaven. No doubt He makes us
perceive what Jesus was here below, where in innite grace
He manifested the Father, and perceive it much better than
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they did, who were with Him during His sojourn on earth.
But this is in chapter 14. Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit
is sent by Christ from heaven, and He reveals to us the
Son, whom<P427> now we know as having perfectly and
divinely (albeit as man and amid sinful men) manifested
the Father. We know, I repeat, the Son, as with the Father,
and in the Father. From thence it is He has sent us the
Holy Spirit.
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631
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John 16
e Holy Spirit looked upon as already here;
suerings and joy predicted
In chapter 16 a further step is taken in the revelation of
this grace. e Holy Spirit is looked upon as already here
below. In this chapter the Lord declares that He has set
forth all His instruction with regard to His departure; their
suerings in the world as holding His place; their joy, as
being in the same relationship to Him as that in which He
had been while on earth to His Father; their knowledge of
the fact that He was in the Father and they in Him, and
He Himself in them; the gift of the Holy Spirit, in order to
prepare them for all that would happen when He was gone,
that they might not be oended. For they should be cast
out of the synagogues, and he who should kill them would
think that he was serving God. is would be the case with
those who, resting in their old doctrines as a form, and
rejecting the light, would only use the form of truth by
which they accredited the esh as orthodox to resist the
light which, according to the Spirit, would judge the esh.
is would they do, because they knew neither the Father
nor Jesus, the Son of the Father. It is fresh truth which
tests the soul, and faith. Old truth, generally received and
by which a body of people are distinguished from those
around them, may be a subject of pride to the esh, even
where it is the truth, as was the case with the Jews. But fresh
truth is a question of faith in its source: there is not the
support of a body accredited by it, but the cross of hostility
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and isolation. ey thought they served God. ey knew
not the Father and the Son.
Nature’s sorrow at the Lord’s departure; faith’s gain
Nature is occupied with that which it loses. Faith looks
at the future into which God leads. Precious thought!
Nature acted in the disciples: they loved Jesus; they grieved
at His going away.
We can understand this. But faith would not have stopped
there.<P428> If they had apprehended the necessary glory
of the Person of Jesus; if their aection, animated by faith,
had thought of Him and not of themselves, they would
have asked, “Whither goest thou?” Nevertheless, He who
thought of them assures them that it would be gain to
them even to lose Him. Glorious fruit of the ways of God!
eir gain would be in this that the Comforter should
be here on earth with them and in them. Here, observe,
Jesus does not speak of the Father. It was the Comforter
here below in His stead, to maintain the testimony of His
love for the disciples, and His relationship to them. Christ
was going away: for if He went not away, the Comforter
would not come; but if He departed, He would send Him.
When He was come, He would act in demonstration of
the truth with regard to the world that rejected Christ and
persecuted His disciples; and He would act for blessing in
the disciples themselves.
e Comforter’s testimony to the world: its sin in the
rejection of Christ
With regard to the world, the Comforter had one only
subject of testimony, in order to demonstrate the sin of the
world. It has not believed in Jesus-in the Son. Doubtless
there was sin of every kind, and, to speak truth, nothing
but sin-sin that deserved judgment; and in the work of
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conversion, He brings these sins home to the soul. But
the rejection of Christ put the whole world under one
common judgment. No doubt everyone shall answer for
his sins; and the Holy Spirit makes me feel them. But, as
a system responsible to God, the world had rejected His
Son. is was the ground on which God dealt with the
world now; this it was which made manifest the heart
of man. It was the demonstration that, God being fully
revealed in love such as He was, man would not receive
Him. He came, not imputing their trespasses unto them;
but they rejected Him. e presence of Jesus was not the
Son of God Himself manifested in His glory, from which
man might shrink with fear, though he could not escape; it
was what He was morally, in His nature, in His character.
Man hated Him: all testimony to bring man to God was
unavailing. e plainer the testimony, the more he turned
from it and opposed it. e demonstration of the sin of the
world was its having rejected Christ. Terrible testimony,
that God in goodness should<P429> excite detestation
because He was perfect, and perfectly good! Such is man.
e testimony of the Holy Spirit to the world, as God’s to
Cain of old, would be, Where is My Son? It was not that
man was guilty; that he was when Christ came; but he was
lost, the tree was bad.1
(1. Man is judged for what he has done; he is lost by
what he is.)
e demonstration of righteousness: Christ at God’s
right hand
But this was God’s path to something altogether
dierent-the demonstration of righteousness, in that Christ
went to His Father, and the world saw Him no more. It was
the result of Christ’s rejection. Human righteousness there
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was none. Man’s sin was proved by the rejection of Christ.
e cross was indeed judgment executed upon sin. And
in that sense it was righteousness; but in this world it was
the only righteous One condemned by man and forsaken
by God; it was not the manifestation of righteousness. It
was a nal judicial separation between man and God (see
chapter 11 and chapter 12:31). If Christ had been delivered
there, and had become the King of Israel, this would not
have been an adequate consequence of His having gloried
God. Having gloried God His Father, He was going to
sit at His right hand, at the right hand of the Majesty on
high, to be gloried in God Himself, to sit on the Father’s
throne. To set Him there was divine righteousness.2is same
righteousness deprived the world, as it is, of Jesus forever.
Man saw Him no more. Righteousness in favor of men was
in Christ at God’s right hand-in judgment as to the world,
in that it had lost Him hopelessly and forever.
(2. Chapter 13:31-32; 17:1,4-5.)
Satan, the prince of this world, judged
Moreover, Satan had been proved to be the prince of
this world by leading all men against the Lord Jesus. To
accomplish the purposes of God in grace, Jesus does not
resist. He gives Himself up to death. He who has the power
of death committed himself thoroughly. In his desire to
ruin man, he had to hazard everything in his enterprise
against the Prince of Life. He was able to associate the
whole world with himself in this, Jew and Gentile, priest
and people, governor, soldier, and subject. e world was
there,<P430> headed by its prince, on that solemn day. e
enemy had everything at stake, and the world was with
him. But Christ has risen, He has ascended to His Father,
and has sent down the Holy Spirit. All the motives that
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govern the world and the power by which Satan held men
captive are shown to be of him; he is judged. e power of
the Holy Spirit is the testimony of this and surmounts all
the powers of the enemy. e world is not yet judged, that
is, the judgment executed-it will be in another manner; but
it is morally, its prince is judged. All its motives, religious
and irreligious, have led it to reject Christ, placing it under
Satan’s power. It is in that character that he has been
judged; for he led the world against Him who is manifested
to be the Son of God by the presence of the Holy Spirit,
consequent on His breaking the power of Satan in death.
e Holy Spirit’s presence here the proof
of the world’s rejection of the Son of God
All this took place through the presence on earth of the
Holy Spirit, sent down by Christ. His presence in itself was
the demonstration of these three things. For, if the Holy
Spirit was here, it was because the world had rejected the
Son of God. Righteousness was evidenced by Jesus being at
the right hand of God, of which the presence of the Holy
Spirit was the proof, as well as in the fact that the world
had lost Him. Now the world which rejected Him was
not outwardly judged, but, Satan having led it to reject the
Son, the presence of the Holy Spirit proved that Jesus had
destroyed the power of death; that he who had possessed
that power was thus judged; that he had shown himself to
be the enemy of Him whom the Father had owned; that
his power was gone, and victory belonged to the Second
Adam, when Satan’s whole power had been arrayed against
the human weakness of Him who in love had yielded to it.
But Satan, thus judged, was the prince of this world.
e Holy Spirit’s work in and for the disciples
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e presence of the Holy Spirit should be the
demonstration not of Christ’s rights as Messiah, true as
they were, but of those truths that related to man-to the
world, in which Israel was now lost, having rejected the
promises, although God would preserve<P431> the nation
for Himself. But the Holy Spirit was doing something more
than demonstrating the condition of the world. He would
accomplish a work in the disciples; He would lead them
into all truth, and He would show them things to come; for
Jesus had many things to tell them which they were not yet
able to bear. When the Holy Spirit should be in them, He
should be their strength in them as well as their teacher;
and it would be a wholly dierent state of things for the
disciples. Here He is considered as present on the earth
in place of Jesus, and dwelling in the disciples, not as an
individual spirit speaking from Himself, but even as Jesus
said, “As I hear I judge,” with a judgment perfectly divine
and heavenly: so the Holy Spirit, acting in the disciples,
would speak that which came from above, and of the future,
according to divine knowledge. It should be heaven and the
future of which He would speak, communicating what was
heavenly from above, and revealing events to come upon
the earth, the one and the other being witnesses that it was
a knowledge which belonged to God. How blessed to have
that which He has to give!
e Holy Spirit taking the place of Christ here
But, further, He takes here the place of Christ. Jesus
had gloried the Father on earth. e Holy Spirit would
glorify Jesus, with reference to the glory that belonged to
His Person and to His position. He does not here speak
directly of the glory of the Father. e disciples had seen
the glory of the life of Christ on earth; the Holy Spirit
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would unfold to them His glory in that which belonged to
Him as gloried with the Father-that which was His own.
ey would learn “in part.” is is man’s measure when
the things of God are in question, but its extent is declared
by the Lord Himself: “He shall glorify me, for he shall
receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All that the
Father hath is mine: therefore, said I, He shall take of mine,
and shall show it unto you.”
Christ’s name and glory; His position in virtue of His
work as Son of Man; His rights as Son of the Father
us we have the gift of the Holy Spirit variously
presented in connection with Christ. In dependence on
His Father, and representing His disciples as gone up from
among them, on their behalf, He addresses Himself to
the Father; He asks the Father to<P432> send the Holy
Spirit (ch. 14:16). Afterwards we nd that His own name
is all powerful. All blessing from the Father comes in His
name. It is on His account, and according to the ecacy
of His name, of all that in Him is acceptable to the Father,
that good comes to us. us the Father will send the Holy
Spirit in His name (ch. 14:26). And Christ being gloried
on high, and having taken His place with His Father,
He Himself sends the Holy Spirit (ch. 15:26) from the
Father, as proceeding from Him. Finally, the Holy Spirit
is present here in this world, in and with the disciples, and
He glories Jesus, and takes of His and reveals it to His
own (ch. 16:13-15). Here all the glory of the Person of
Christ is set forth, as well as the rights belonging to the
position He has taken. “All things that the Father hath” are
His. He has taken His position according to the eternal
counsels of God, in virtue of His work as Son of Man. But
if He has entered into possession in this character, all that
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He possesses in it is His, as a Son to whom (being one with
the Father) all that the Father has belongs.
e Lord’s coming departure to His Father; the
disciples encouraged to draw nigh to the Father
ere He should be hidden for a while: the
disciples should afterwards see Him, for it was only the
accomplishment of the ways of God; it was no question
of being, as it were, lost by death. He was going to His
Father. On this point the disciples understood nothing.
e Lord develops the fact and its consequences, without
yet showing them the whole import of what He said. He
takes it up on the human and historical side. e world
would rejoice at having got rid of Him. Miserable joy! e
disciples would lament, although it was the true source of
joy for them; but their sorrow should be turned into joy.
As testimony, this took place when He showed Himself to
them after His resurrection; it will be fully accomplished
when He shall return to receive them unto Himself. But
when they had seen Him again, they should understand
the relationship in which He has placed them with His
Father, they should enjoy it by the Holy Spirit. It should
not be as though they could not themselves draw nigh to
the Father, while Christ could do so (as Martha said, “I
know that whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, he will give
it thee”). ey might themselves go directly to the Father,
who loved them, because they had believed in Jesus,<P433>
and had received Him when He had humbled Himself in
this world of sin (in principle it is always thus); and asking
what they would in His name they should receive it, so that
their joy might be full in the consciousness of the blessed
position of unfailing favor into which they were brought,
and of the value of all that they possessed in Christ.
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e disciples’ limited apprehension of the Lord’s
meaning
Nevertheless, the Lord already declares to them the
basis of the truth-He came from the Father, He was going
away to the Father. e disciples think they understand that
which He had thus spoken without a parable. ey felt that
He had divined their thought, for they had not expressed
it to Him. Yet they did not rise really to the height of
what He said. He had told them that they had believed
in His having come “from God.” is they understood;
and that which had taken place had conrmed them in
this faith, and they declare their conviction with regard
to this truth; but they do not enter into the thought of
coming “from the Father” and going away “to the Father.”
ey fancied themselves quite in the light; but they had
apprehended nothing that raised them above the eect of
Christ’s rejection, which the belief that He came from the
Father and was going to the Father would have done. Jesus
therefore declares to them that His death would scatter
them and that they would forsake Him. His Father would
be with Him; He should not be alone. Nevertheless, He
had explained all these things to them in order that they
should have peace in Him. In the world that rejected Him
they should have tribulation; but He had overcome the
world, they might be of good cheer.
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73164
John 17
e Lord’s intercessory prayer
is ends the conversation of Jesus with His disciples on
earth. In the following chapter He addresses His Father as
taking His own place in departing, and giving His disciples
theirs (that is, His own), with regard to the Father and to
the world, after He had gone away to be gloried with
the Father. e whole chapter is essentially putting the
disciples in His own place, after laying the ground for it
in His own glorifying and work. It is, save the last<P434>
verses, His place on earth. As He was divinely in heaven,
and so showed a divine, heavenly character on earth, so
(He being gloried as man in heaven) they, united with
Him, were in turn to display the same. Hence we have rst
the place He personally takes, and the work which entitles
them to be in it.
Outline and divisions of chapter 17
Chapter 17 is divided thus: Verses 1-5 relate to Christ
Himself, to His taking His position in glory, to His work,
and to that glory as belonging to His Person, and the result
of His work. Verses 1-3 present His new position in two
aspects: “glorify thy Son”- power over all esh, for eternal
life to those given to Him; verses 4-5, His work and its
results. In verses 6-13 He speaks of His disciples as put into
this relationship with the Father by His revealing His name
to them, and then His having given them the words which
He had Himself received, that they might enjoy all the full
blessedness of this relationship. He also prays for them
that they may be one as He and the Father were. In verses
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14-21 we nd their consequent relationship to the world;
in verses 20-21, He introduces those who should believe
through their means into the enjoyment of their blessing.
Verses 22-26 make known the result, both future and in
this world, for them: the possession of the glory which
Christ Himself had received from the Father-to be with
Him, enjoying the sight of His glory- that the Father’s love
should be with them here below, even as Christ Himself
had been its object-and that Christ Himself should be in
them. e last three verses alone take the disciples up to
heaven as a supplemental truth.
is is a brief summary of this marvelous chapter, in
which we are admitted, not to the discourse of Christ with
man, but to hear the desires of His heart, when He pours
it out to His Father for the blessing of those that are His
own. Wonderful grace that permits us to hear these desires,
and to understand all the privileges that ow from His thus
caring for us, from our being the subject of communion
between the Father and the Son, of their common love
towards us, when Christ expresses His own desires-that
which He has at heart, and which He presents to the
Father as His own personal wishes!
Some explanations may assist in apprehending the
meaning of<P435> certain passages in this marvelous and
precious chapter. May the Spirit of God aid us!
Christ’s new position in glory; power over all esh
and the gift of eternal life to those given Him
e Lord, whose looks of love had until then been
directed towards His disciples on the earth, now lifts His
eyes to heaven as He addresses His Father. e hour was
come to glorify the Son, in order that from the glory He
might glorify the Father. is is, speaking generally, the
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new position. His career here was nished, and He had
to ascend on high. Two things were connected with this-
power over all esh and the gift of eternal life to as many
as the Father had given Him. “e head of every man is
Christ.” ose whom the Father had given Him receive
eternal life from Him who has gone up on high. Eternal
life was the knowledge of the Father, the only true God,
and of Jesus Christ, whom He had sent. e knowledge of
the Almighty gave assurance to the pilgrim of faith; that of
Jehovah, the certainty of the fulllment of the promises of
God to Israel; that of the Father, who sent the Son, Jesus
Christ (the anointed Man and the Saviour), who was that
life itself, and so received as a present thing (1John 1:1-
4), was life eternal. True knowledge here was not outward
protection or future hope, but the communication, in life,
of communion with the Being thus known to the soul-of
communion with God Himself fully known as the Father
and the Son. Here it is not the divinity of His Person
that is before us in Christ, though a divine Person alone
could be in such a place and so speak, but the place that
He had taken in fullling the counsels of God. at which
is said of Jesus in this chapter could only be said of One
who is God; but the point treated is that of His place in
the counsels of God, and not the revelation of His nature.
He receives all from His Father-He is sent by Him, His
Father glories Him.1 We see the<P436> same truth of
the communication of eternal life in connection with His
divine nature and His oneness with the Father in 1John
5:20. Here He fullls the Father’s will and is dependent on
Him in the place that He has taken, and that He is going
to take, even in the glory, however glorious His nature may
be. So, also, in chapter 5 of our Gospel, He quickens whom
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He will; here it is those whom the Father has given Him.
And the life He gives is realized in the knowledge of the
Father and of Jesus Christ whom He has sent.
(1. e more we examine the Gospel of John, the more
we shall see One who speaks and acts as a divine Person-
one with the Father-alone could do, but yet always as One
who has taken the place of a servant, and takes nothing to
Himself, but receives all from His Father. “I have gloried
thee”: “now glorify me.” What language of equality of
nature and love! But He does not say, And now I will
glorify Myself. He has taken the place of man to receive
all, though it be a glory He had with the Father before
the world was. is is of exquisite beauty. I add, it was out
of this the enemy sought to seduce Him, in vain, in the
wilderness.)
Christ’s work and its results
He now declares the conditions under which He takes
this place on high. He had perfectly gloried the Father on
earth. Nothing that manifested God the Father had been
wanting, whatever might be the diculty; the contradiction
of sinners was but an occasion of so doing. But this very
thing made the sorrow innite. Nevertheless, Jesus had
accomplished that glory on the earth in the face of all that
opposed itself. His glory with the Father in heaven was but
the just consequence-the necessary consequence, in mere
justice. Moreover, Jesus had had this glory with His Father
before the world was. His work and His Person alike gave
Him a right to it. e Father gloried on earth by the
Son: the Son gloried with the Father on high: such is
the revelation contained in these verses-a right, proceeding
from His Person as Son, but to a glory into which He
entered as man, in consequence of having, as such, perfectly
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gloried His Father on earth. ese are the verses that
relate to Christ. is, moreover, gives the relationship in
which He enters into this new place as man, His Son, and
the work by which He does so in righteousness, and thus
gives us a title, and the character in which we have a place
there.
e Lord’s disciples in relationship with the Father
by the revelation of His name and Word
He now speaks of the disciples; how they entered
into their peculiar place in connection with this position
of Jesus-into this relationship with His Father. He had
manifested the Father’s name to those whom the Father
had given Him out of the world.
ey belonged to the Father, and the Father had given
them to Jesus. ey had kept the Father’s word. It was
faith in the revelation which the Son had made of the
Father. e words of the<P437> prophets were true. e
faithful enjoyed them: they sustained their faith. But the
word of the Father, by Jesus, revealed the Father Himself,
in Him whom the Father had sent, and put him who
received them into the place of love, which was Christ’s
place; and to know the Father and the Son was life eternal.
is was quite another thing from hopes connected with
the Messiah or what Jehovah had given Him. It is thus,
also, that the disciples are presented to the Father; not as
receiving Christ in the character of Messiah and honoring
Him as possessing His power by that title. ey had known
that all which Jesus had was of the Father. He was then
the Son; His relationship to the Father was acknowledged.
Dull of comprehension as they were, the Lord recognizes
them according to His appreciation of their faith, according
to the object of that faith, as known to Himself, and not
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according to their intelligence. Precious truth! (Compare
chapter 14:7.)
ey acknowledged Jesus, then, as receiving all from the
Father, not as Messiah from Jehovah; for Jesus had given
them all the words that the Father had given Him. us He
had brought them in their own souls into the consciousness
of the relationship between the Son and the Father, and
into full communion, according to the communications
of the Father to the Son in that relationship. He speaks
of their position through faith-not of their realization of
this position. us, they had acknowledged that Jesus came
forth from the Father and that He came with the Father’s
authority-the Father had sent Him. It was from thence
He came, and He came furnished with the authority of a
mission from the Father. is was their position by faith.
e Lord’s prayer for the disciples as distinguished
from the world
And now-the disciples being already in this position-
He places them, according to His thoughts and His
desires, before the Father in prayer. He prays for them,
distinguishing them completely from the world. e time
would come when (according to Psalm 2) He would ask
of the Father with reference to the world; He was not
doing so now, but for those out of the world, whom the
Father had given Him. For they were the Father’s. For all
that is the Father’s is in essential opposition to the world
(compare 1John 2:16).<P438>
e motives for the Lord’s request
e Lord presents to the Father two motives for His
request: rst, they were the Father’s, so that the Father,
for His own glory and because of His aection for that
which belonged to Him, should keep them; second, Jesus
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was gloried in them, so that if Jesus was the object of the
Father’s aection, for that reason also the Father should
keep them. Besides, the interests of the Father and the
Son could not be separated. If they were the Father’s, they
were, in fact, the Son’s; and it was but an example of that
universal truth-all that was the Son’s was the Father’s, and
all that was the Father’s was the Son’s. What a place for us!
to be the object of this mutual aection, of these common
and inseparable interests of the Father and the Son. is
is the great principle-the great foundation of the prayer of
Christ. He prayed the Father for His disciples, because they
belonged to the Father; Jesus must needs, therefore, seek
their blessing. e Father would be thoroughly interested
for them, because in them the Son was to be gloried.
e circumstances to which the prayer applied
He then presents the circumstances to which the prayer
applied. He was no longer in this world Himself. ey would
be deprived of His personal care as present with them, but
they would be in this world, while He was coming to the
Father. is is the ground of His request with regard to
their position. He puts them in connection, therefore, with
the holy Father-all the perfect love of such a Father-the
Father of Jesus and their Father, maintaining (it was their
blessing) the holiness that His nature required, if they were
to be in relationship with Him. It was direct guardianship.
e Father would keep in His own name those whom He
had given to Jesus. e connection thus was direct. Jesus
committed them to Him, and that, not only as belonging
to the Father, but now as His own, invested with all the
value which that would give them in the Father’s eyes.
Oneness and its bond
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e object of His solicitude was to keep them in unity,
even as the Father and the Son are one. One only divine
Spirit was the bond of that oneness. In this sense the bond
was truly divine. So far as they were lled with the Holy
Spirit, they had but one mind,<P439> one counsel, one aim.
is is the unity referred to here. e Father and the Son
were their only object; the accomplishing their counsels
and objects their only pursuit. ey had only the thoughts
of God; because God Himself, the Holy Spirit, was the
source of their thoughts. It was one only divine power and
nature that united them-the Holy Spirit. e mind, the
aim, the life, the whole moral existence were consequently
one. e Lord speaks, necessarily, at the height of His own
thoughts, when He expresses His desires for them. If it is a
question of realization, we must then think of man; yet of
a strength also that is perfected in weakness.
e sum of the Lord’s desires-the disciples’
relationship to the Father as sons, saints, under His care
is is the sum of the Lord’s desires-sons, saints, under
the Father’s care; one, not by an eort or by agreement, but
according to divine power. He, being here, had kept them
in the Father’s name, faithful to accomplish all that the
Father had committed to Him and to lose none of those
that were His. As to Judas, it was only the fulllment of the
Word. e guardianship of Jesus present in the world could
now no longer exist. But He spoke these things, being still
here, the disciples hearing them, in order that they might
understand that they were placed before the Father in the
same position that Christ had held, and that they might
thus have fullled in themselves, in this same relationship,
the joy which Christ had possessed. What unutterable
grace! ey had lost Him, visibly, to nd themselves (by
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Him and in Him) in His own relationship with the Father,
enjoying all that He enjoyed in that communion here
below, as being in His place in their own relationship with
the Father. erefore, He had imparted to them all the
words that the Father had given Him-the communications
of His love to Himself, when walking as Son in that place
here below; and, in the special name of “Holy Father,” by
which the Son Himself addressed Him from the earth, the
Father was to keep those whom the Son had left there.
us should they have His joy fullled in themselves.
is was their relationship to the Father, Jesus being
away. He turns now to their relationship with the world, in
consequence of the former.<P440>
e disciples’ relationship with the world; set apart by
the Word
He gave them the word of His Father-not the words to
bring them into communion with Him, but His word-the
testimony of what He was. And the world had hated them as
it had hated Jesus (the living and personal testimony of the
Father) and the Father Himself. Being thus in relationship
with the Father, who had taken them out from the men
of the world, and having received the Father’s word (and
eternal life in the Son in that knowledge), they were not of
the world even as Jesus was not of the world: and therefore
the world hated them. Nevertheless, the Lord does not
pray that they might be taken out of it; but that the Father
should keep them from the evil. He enters into the detail
of His desires in this respect, grounded on their not being
of the world. He repeats this thought as the basis of their
position here below. “ey are not of the world, even as
I am not of the world.” What then were they to be? By
what rule, by what model, were they to be formed? By the
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truth, and the Father’s word is truth. Christ was always the
Word, but the living Word among men. In the Scriptures
we possess it, written and steadfast: they reveal Him, bear
witness to Him. It was thus that the disciples were to be set
apart. “Sanctify them by thy truth: thy word is the truth.”
It was this, personally, that they were to be formed by, the
Father’s word, as He was revealed in Jesus.
e disciples sent into the world; their mission and
testimony
eir mission follows. Jesus sends them into the world,
as the Father had sent Him into the world; into the world-
in no wise of the world. ey are sent into it on the part of
Christ: were they of it, they could not be sent into it. But
it was not only the Father’s word which was the truth, nor
the communication of the Father’s word by Christ present
with His disciples (points of which from verse 14 till now
Jesus had been speaking, “I have given them thy word”): He
sanctied Himself. He set Himself apart as a heavenly man
above the heavens, a gloried man in the glory, in order
that all truth might shine forth in Him, in His Person,
raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father-all that
the Father is being thus displayed in Him; the testimony of
divine righteousness, of<P441> divine love, of divine power,
totally overturning the lie of Satan, by which man had been
deceived and falsity brought into the world; the perfect
model of that which man was according to the counsels
of God, and as the expression of His power morally and
in glory-the image of the invisible God, the Son, and in
glory. Jesus set Himself apart, in this place, in order that the
disciples might be sanctied by the communication to them
of what He was; for this communication was the truth, and
created them in the image of that which it revealed. So that
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it was the Father’s glory, revealed by Him on earth, and
the glory into which He had ascended as man; for this is
the complete result-the illustration in glory of the way in
which He had set Himself apart for God, but on behalf of
His own. us there is not only the forming and governing
of the thoughts by the Word, setting us apart morally to
God, but the blessed aections owing from our having
this truth in the Person of Christ, our hearts connected
with Him in grace. is ends the second part of that which
related to the disciples, in communion and in testimony.
e Lord’s prayer for believers, not limited to the
twelve; unity in communion with the Father and the Son
In verse 20, He declares that He prays also for those
who should believe on Him through their means. Here the
character of the unity diers a little from that in verse 11.
ere, in speaking of the disciples, He says, “As we are”;
for the oneness of the Father and the Son showed itself
in xed purpose, object, love, work, everything. erefore
the disciples were to have that kind of unity. Here those
who believed, inasmuch as receiving and taking part in that
which was communicated, had their oneness in the power
of the blessing into which they were brought. By one Spirit,
in which they were necessarily united, they had a place
in communion with the Father and the Son. It was the
communion of the Father and of the Son (compare 1John
1:3; and how similar the language of the Apostle is to that
of Christ!). us, the Lord asks that they may be one in
em-the Father and the Son. is was the means to make
the world believe that the Father had sent the Son; for
here were those that had believed it, who, however opposed
their interests and habits might be, however strong their
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prejudices, yet were one (by this powerful revelation and by
this work) in the Father and the Son.<P442>
Converse with His Father; the glory He has given His
Son
Here His prayer ends, but not all His converse with
His Father. He gives us (and here the witnesses and the
believers are together) the glory which the Father has
given Him. It is the basis of another, a third,1 mode of
oneness. All partake, it is true, in glory, of this absolute
oneness in thought, object, xed purpose, which is found
in the oneness of the Father and the Son. Perfection being
come, that which the Holy Spirit had produced spiritually,
His absorbing energy shutting out every other, was natural
to all in glory.
(1. ere are three unities spoken of. First, of the
disciples, “as we are,” unity by the power of one Spirit in
thought, purpose, mind, service, the Holy Spirit making
them all one, their path in common, the expression of His
mind and power, and of nothing else. en, of those who
should believe through their means, unity in communion
with the Father and the Son, “one in us”-still by the Holy
Spirit but as brought into that, as already said above, as
in 1John 1:3. en, unity in glory, “perfect in one,” in
manifestation and descending revelation, the Father in
the Son, and the Son in all of them. e second was for
the world’s believing, the third for its knowing. e two
rst were literally accomplished according to the terms in
which they are expressed. How far believers are departed
from them since need not be said.)
A unity in manifestation in glory
But the principle of the existence of this unity, added yet
another character to that truth-that of manifestation, or at
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least of an inward source which realized its manifestation
in them: “I in them,” said Jesus, “and thou in me.” is is not
the simple, perfect oneness of verse 11, nor the mutuality
and communion of verse 21. It is Christ in all believers, and
the Father in Christ, a unity in manifestation in glory, not
merely in communion-a oneness in which all is perfectly
connected with its source. And Christ, whom alone they
were to manifest, is in them; and the Father, whom Christ
had perfectly manifested, is in Him. e world (for this
will be in the millennial glory, and manifested to the world)
will then know (He does not say, “at it may believe”) that
Jesus had been sent by the Father (how deny it, when He
should be seen in glory?) and, moreover, that the disciples
had been loved by the Father, even as Jesus Himself was
loved. e fact of their possessing the same glory as Christ
would be the proof.<P443>
With Christ, to see His glory, the secret for those who
love Him
But there was yet more. ere is that which the world
will not see, because it will not be in it. “Father, I will that
they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am.”
ere we are not only like Christ (conformed to the Son,
bearing the image of the heavenly man before the eyes of
the world), but with Him where He is. Jesus desires that we
should see His glory.1 Solace and encouragement for us,
after having partaken of His shame: but yet more precious,
inasmuch as we see that He who has been dishonored as
man, and because He became man for our sake, shall, even
on that account, be gloried with a glory above all other
glory, save His who has put all things under Him. For He
speaks here of given glory. It is this which is so precious to
us, because He has acquired it by His suerings for us, and
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yet it is what was perfectly due to Him-the just reward for
having, in them, perfectly gloried the Father. Now, this is
a peculiar joy, entirely beyond the world. e world will see
the glory that we have in common with Christ, and will
know that we have been loved as Christ was loved. But
there is a secret for those who love Him, which belongs
to His Person and to our association with Himself. e
Father loved Him before the world was-a love in which
there is no question of comparison but of that which is
innite, perfect, and thus in itself satisfying. We shall share
this in the sense of seeing our Beloved in it, and of being
with Him, and of beholding the glory which the Father has
given Him, according to the love wherewith He loved Him
before the world had any part whatever in the dealings of
God. Up to this we were in the world; here in heaven, out
of all the world’s claims or apprehension (Christ seen in
the fruit of that love which the Father had for Him before
the world existed). Christ, then, was the Father’s delight.
We see Him in the eternal fruit of that love as Man. We
shall be in it with Him forever, to enjoy His being in it-
that our Jesus, our Beloved, is in it, and is what He is.
(1. is answers to Moses and Elias entering into the
cloud, besides their display in the same glory as Christ,
standing on the mountain. )
e righteousness of the Father
Meantime, being such, there was justice in the dealings
of God with regard to His rejection. He had fully, perfectly
manifested<P444> the Father. e world had not known
Him, but Jesus had known Him, and the disciples had
known that the Father had sent Him. He appeals here, not
to the holiness of the Father, that He might keep them
according to that blessed name, but to the righteousness of
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the Father, that He might make a distinction between the
world on one side, and Jesus with His own on the other;
for there was the moral reason as well as the ineable love
of the Father for the Son. And Jesus would have us enjoy,
while here below, the consciousness that the distinction
has been made by the communications of grace, before it is
made by judgment.
e Father’s name declared; His love to be known and
enjoyed
He had declared unto them the Father’s name, and
would declare it, even when He had gone up on high,
in order that the love wherewith the Father had loved
Him might be in them (that their hearts might possess
it in this world-what grace!) and Jesus Himself in them,
the communicator of that love, the source of strength to
enjoy it, conducting it, so to speak, in all the perfection in
which He enjoyed it, into their hearts, in which He dwelt-
Himself the strength, the life, the competency, the right,
and the means of enjoying it thus, and as such, in the heart.
For it is in the Son who declares it to us, that we know the
name of the Father whom He reveals to us. at is, He
would have us enjoy now that relationship in love in which
we shall see Him in heaven. e world will know we have
been loved as Jesus when we appear in the same glory with
Him; but our part is to know it now, Christ being in us.
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John 18
e Lord’s personal glory brought out in the history
of His last moments
e history of our Lord’s last moments begins after
the words that He addressed to His Father. We shall nd
even in this part of it, the general character of that which is
related in this Gospel (according to all that we have seen in
it), that the events bring out the personal glory of the Lord.
We have, indeed, the malice of man strongly characterized;
but the principal object in the picture is<P445> the Son
of God, not the Son of Man suering under the weight
of that which is come upon Him. We have not the agony
in the garden. We have not the expression of His feeling
Himself forsaken by God. e Jews too are put in the place
of utter rejection.
Judas’ iniquity: the malice of a hardened heart
e iniquity of Judas is as strongly marked here as
in chapter 13. He well knew the place; for Jesus was in
the habit of resorting thither with His disciples. What a
thought-to choose such a place for His betrayal! What
inconceivable hardness of heart! But alas! he had, as it
were, given himself up to Satan, the tool of the enemy, the
manifestation of his power and of his true character.
Divine glory displayed; the Good Shepherd and His
sheep
How many things had taken place in that garden! What
communications from a heart lled with God’s own love,
and seeking to make it penetrate into the narrow and too
insensible hearts of His beloved disciples! But all was lost
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upon Judas. He comes, with the agents employed by the
malice of the priests and Pharisees, to seize the Person of
Jesus. But Jesus anticipates them. It is He who presents
Himself to them. Knowing all things that should come
upon Him, He goes forth, inquiring, “Whom seek ye?” It
is the Saviour, the Son of God, who oers Himself. ey
reply, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus says unto them, “I am he.”
Judas, also, was there, who knew Him well, and knew that
voice, so long familiar to his ears. No one laid hands on
Him: but as soon as His word echoes in their hearts, as
soon as that divine “I am” is heard within them, they go
backward and fall to the ground. Who will take Him? He
had but to go away and leave them there. But He came not
for this; and the time to oer Himself up was come. He asks
them again, therefore, “Whom seek ye?” ey say, as before,
“Jesus of Nazareth.” e rst time, the divine glory of the
Person of Christ must needs display itself; and now His
care for the redeemed ones. “If ye seek me,” said the Lord,
“let these go their way”-that the Word might be fullled,
“Of those whom thou hast given me, I have lost none.” He
presents Himself as the Good Shepherd, giving His life
for the sheep. He puts Himself before them, that they may
escape the danger that threatens them and<P446> that all
may come upon Himself. He yields Himself up. All is His
own free oering here.
Perfect obedience displayed by the Lord; Peter’s
carnal and unintelligent energy
Nevertheless, whatever might be the divine glory that
He manifested and the grace of a Saviour who was faithful
to His own, He acts in obedience and in the perfect
calmness of an obedience that had counted the whole cost
with God and that received it all from His Father’s hand.
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When the carnal and unintelligent energy of Peter employs
force to defend Him, who, if He would, had only needed
to have gone away when a word from His lips had cast
down to the ground all those who came to take Him, and
the word that revealed to them the object of their search
deprived them of all power to seize it-when Peter smites
the servant Malchus, Jesus takes the place of obedience.
“e cup that my Father hath given me, shall I not drink
it?” e divine Person of Christ had been manifested; the
voluntary oering of Himself had been made, and that, in
order to protect His own; and now His perfect obedience
is at the same time displayed.
Before the high priest; the Lord’s calm submission to
man to accomplish God’s counsels
e malice of a hardened heart and the want of
intelligence of a carnal though sincere heart have been
brought to view. Jesus has His place alone and apart. He is
the Saviour. Submitting thus to man, in order to accomplish
the counsels and the will of God, He allows them to take
Him whither they would. Little of all that took place is
related here. Jesus, although questioned, says scarcely
anything of Himself. ere is, before both the high priest
and Pontius Pilate, the calm though meek superiority of
One who was giving Himself; yet He is condemned only
for the testimony He gave of Himself. Everyone had already
heard that which He taught. He challenges the authority
which pursues the inquiry, not ocially, but peacefully
and morally; and when unjustly struck, He remonstrates
with dignity and perfect calmness, while submitting to the
insult. But He does not acknowledge the high priest in any
way; while at the same time He does not at all oppose him.
He leaves him in his moral incapacity.<P447>
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e carnal weakness of Peter is manifested; as before
his carnal energy.
Before Pilate, and Pilate before Jesus
When brought before Pilate (although because of truth,
confessing that He was King), the Lord acts with the same
calmness and the same submission; but He questions Pilate
and instructs him in such a manner that Pilate can nd no
fault in Him. Morally incapable, however, of standing at the
height of that which was before him, and embarrassed in
presence of the divine prisoner, Pilate would have delivered
Him by availing himself of a custom, then practiced by
the government, of releasing a culprit to the Jews at the
Passover. But the uneasy indierence of a conscience which,
hardened as it was, bowed before the presence of One who
(even while thus humbled) could not but reach it, did not
thus escape the active malice of those who were doing the
enemy’s work. e Jews exclaim against the proposal which
the governor’s disquietude suggested and choose a robber
instead of Jesus.
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John 19
e real authors of the Lord’s death
Pilate gives way to his usual inhumanity. In the account,
however, given in this Gospel, the Jews are prominent, as
the real authors (as far as man was concerned) of the Lord’s
death. Jealous for their ceremonial purity but indierent
to justice, they are not content to judge Him according to
their own law;1 they choose to have Him put to death by
the Romans, for the whole counsel of God must needs be
accomplished.
(1. It is said that their Jewish traditions forbade their
putting anyone to death during the great feasts. It is possible
that this may have inuenced the Jews; but however that
might be, the purposes of God were thus accomplished. At
other times the Jews were not so prompt in submitting to
the Roman exigencies that deprived them of the right of
life and death.)
Pilate’s alarm, pride and injustice; his attempt to
make the Jews fully guilty
It is on the repeated demands of the Jews that Pilate
delivers Jesus into their hands-thoroughly guilty in so
doing, for he had<P448> openly avowed His innocence
and had had his conscience decidedly touched and
alarmed by the evident proofs there were that he had some
extraordinary person before him. He will not show that
he is touched, but he is so (ch. 19:8). e divine glory that
pierced through the humiliation of Christ acts upon him
and gives force to the declaration of the Jews that Jesus
had made Himself the Son of God. Pilate had scourged
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Him and given Him up to the insults of the soldiers; and
here he would have stopped. Perhaps he hoped also that
the Jews would be satised with this, and he presents Jesus
to them crowned with thorns. Perhaps he hoped that their
jealousy with regard to these national insults would induce
them to ask for His deliverance. But, ruthlessly pursuing
their malicious purpose, they cry out, “Crucify him, crucify
him!” Pilate objects to this for himself, while giving them
liberty to do it, saying that he nds no fault in Him. Upon
this they plead their Jewish law. ey had a law of their
own, say they, and by this law He ought to die, because
He made Himself the Son of God. Pilate, already struck
and exercised in mind, is the more alarmed; and, going
back to the judgment hall again, questions Jesus. He makes
no reply. e pride of Pilate awakes, and he asks if Jesus
does not know that he has power to condemn or to release
Him. e Lord maintains, in replying, the full dignity of
His Person. Pilate had no power over Him, were it not the
will of God-to this He submitted. It heightened the sin
of those who had delivered Him up, to suppose that man
could do anything against Him, were it not that the will of
God was thus to be accomplished. e knowledge of His
Person formed the measure of the sin committed against
Him. e not perceiving it caused everything to be falsely
judged, and, in the case of Judas, showed the most absolute
moral blindness. He knew His Master’s power. What was
the meaning of delivering Him up to man, if it were not
that His hour was come? But, this being the case, what was
the betrayer’s position?
But Jesus always speaks according to the glory of
His Person, and as being thereby entirely above the
circumstances through which He was passing in grace,
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and in obedience to His Father’s will. Pilate is thoroughly
disturbed by the Lord’s reply, yet his feeling is not strong
enough to counteract the motive with which the Jews
press him, but it has sucient power to make him throw
back upon the Jews all that there was of will in His
condemnation and to make them fully guilty of the Lord’s
rejection.<P449>
e Jew’s own condemnation and calamity; Jesus
delivered up
Pilate sought to withdraw Him from their fury. At
last, fearing to be accused of indelity to Cæsar, he turns
with contempt to the Jews, saying, “Behold your King”;
acting-although unconsciously-under the hand of God,
to bring out that memorable word from their lips, their
condemnation, and their calamity even to this day, “We
have no king but Cæsar.” ey denied their Messiah. e
fatal word, which called down the judgment of God, was
now pronounced; and Pilate delivers up Jesus to them.
e Lord’s title axed to the cross
Jesus, humbled and bearing His cross, takes His place
with the transgressors. Nevertheless, He who would that
all should be fullled ordained that a testimony should
be rendered to His dignity; and Pilate (perhaps to vex the
Jews, certainly to accomplish the purposes of God) axes
to the cross as the Lord’s title, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King
of the Jews”: the twofold truth-the despised Nazarene is
the true Messiah. Here, then, as throughout this Gospel,
the Jews take their place as cast o by God.
Jesus crucied: prophecy fullled
At the same time the Apostle shows-here, as elsewhere-
that Jesus was the true Messiah by quoting the prophecies
which speak of that which happened to Him in general,
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with regard to His rejection and His suerings, so that He
is proved to be the Messiah by the very circumstances in
which He was rejected of the people.
After the history of His crucixion, as the act of man,
we have that which characterizes it in respect to what Jesus
was upon the cross. e blood and water ow from His
pierced side.
e devotion of the women at the cross; nature seen
in its perfection in the Lord’s human feelings
e devotedness of the women who followed Him, less
important, perhaps, on the side of action, shines out in its
own way, nevertheless, in that perseverance of love which
brought them nigh to the cross. e more responsible
position of the apostles as men scarcely allowed it to them,
circumstanced as they were; but this<P450> takes nothing
from the privilege which grace attaches to woman when
faithful to Jesus. But it was the occasion for Christ to give us
fresh instruction, by showing Himself such as He was, and
by setting His work before us, above all mere circumstances,
as the eect and the expression of a spiritual energy which
consecrated Him, as man, entirely to God, oering Himself
also to God by the eternal Spirit. His work was done. He
had oered Himself up. He returns, so to speak, into His
personal relationships. Nature, in His human feelings, is
seen in its perfection; and, at the same time, His divine
superiority, personally, to the circumstances through which
He passed in grace as the obedient man. e expression
of His lial feelings shows that the consecration to God,
which removed Him from all those aections that are alike
the necessity and the duty of the man according to nature,
was not the want of human feeling, but the power of the
Spirit of God. Seeing the women, He speaks to them no
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longer as Teacher and Saviour, the resurrection and the life;
it is Jesus, a man, individually, in His human relationship.
John’s commission; the Master’s love for John
“Woman,” He says, “behold thy son!”-committing His
mother to the care of John, the disciple whom Jesus loved-
and to the disciple, “Behold thy mother!” and thenceforth
that disciple took her to his own home. Sweet and precious
commission! A condence which spoke that which he
who was thus loved could alone appreciate, as being its
immediate object. is shows us also that His love for
John had a character of human aection and attachment,
according to God, but not essentially divine, although
full of divine grace-a grace which gave it all its value, but
which clothed itself with the reality of the human heart. It
was this, evidently, which bound Peter and John together.
Jesus was their only and common object. Of very dierent
characters-and so much the more united on that account-
they thought but of one thing. Absolute consecration to
Jesus is the strongest bond between human hearts. It strips
them of self, and they have but one soul in thought, intent
and settled purpose, because they have only one object. But
in Jesus this was perfect, and it was grace. It is not said,
“e disciple who loved Jesus”; that would have been quite
out of season. It would have been to take Jesus entirely out
of His<P451> place and His dignity, His personal glory,
and to destroy the value of His love to John. Nevertheless,
John loved Christ, and consequently appreciated thus his
Master’s love; and, his heart attached to Him by grace, he
devoted himself to the execution of this sweet commission,
which he takes pleasure in relating here. It is indeed love
that tells it, although it does not speak of itself.
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I believe that we again see this feeling (used by the
Spirit of God, not evidently as the foundation, but to give
its color to the expression of that which he had seen and
known) in the beginning of John’s rst epistle.
Christ acting in accordance with the glory of His
Person
We also see here that this Gospel does not show us
Christ under the weight of His suerings, but acting in
accordance with the glory of His Person as above all things
and fullling all things in grace. In perfect calmness He
provides for His mother; having done this, He knows that
all is nished. He has, according to human language, entire
self-possession.
e Lord laying down His life: a voluntary act
ere is yet one prophecy to be fullled. He says, “I
thirst,” and, as God had foretold, they give Him vinegar.
He knows that now there is not one detail left of all that
was to be accomplished. He bows His head, and Himself
gives1 up His spirit.
(1. is is the force of the expression; which is quite
dierent from the word εξεπνευσεν (exepneusen; expired).
We learn from Luke that He did this when He had said,
“Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.” But in
John, the Holy Spirit is setting forth even His death as
the result of a voluntary act, giving up His spirit, and not
saying to whom He committed (as man with absolute and
perfect faith) His human spirit, His soul, in dying. It is His
divine competency that is here shown, and not His trust in
His Father. e word is never used in this way but in this
passage as to Christ, in either the New Testament or the
LXX.)
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us, when the whole divine work is accomplished,
the divine man giving up His spirit, that spirit leaves the
body which had been its organ and its vessel. e time
was come for so doing; and by doing it, He secured the
accomplishment of another divine word: “Not one of his
bones shall be broken.” But everything bore its part in the
fulllment of those words and the purposes of Him who
had pronounced them beforehand.<P452>
e tokens of an eternal and perfect salvation from
His pierced side; the purpose of the record
A soldier pierces His side with a spear. It is from a dead
Saviour that ow forth the tokens of an eternal and perfect
salvation-the water and the blood; the one to cleanse the
sinner, the other to expiate his sins. e evangelist saw it.
His love for the Lord makes him like to remember that
he saw Him thus unto the end; he tells it in order that
we may believe. But if we see in the beloved disciple the
vessel that the Holy Spirit uses (and very sweet it is to see
it, and according to the will of God), we see plainly who
it is that uses it. How many things John witnessed which
he did not relate! e cry of grief and of abandonment-
the earthquake-the centurion’s confession-the history of
the thief: all these things took place before his eyes, which
were xed upon his Master; yet he does not mention them.
He speaks of that which his Beloved was in the midst of
all this. e Holy Spirit causes him to relate that which
belonged to the personal glory of Jesus. His aections
made him nd it a sweet and easy task. e Holy Spirit
attached him to it, employing him in that which he was
well suited to perform. rough grace the instrument lent
itself readily to the work for which the Holy Spirit set it
apart. His memory and his heart were under the dominant
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and exclusive inuence of the Spirit of God. at Spirit
employed them in His work. One sympathizes with the
instrument; one believes in that which the Holy Spirit
relates by his means, for the words are those of the Holy
Spirit.
Divine grace expressing itself, but Christ’s personal
dignity never lost
Nothing can be more touching, more deeply interesting,
than divine grace thus expressing itself in human tenderness
and taking its form. While possessing the entire reality of
human aection, it had all the power and depth of divine
grace. It was divine grace that Jesus should have such
aections. On the other hand, nothing could be further
from the appreciation of this sovereign source of divine love,
owing through the perfect channel which it made for itself
by its own power, than the pretension to express our love
as reciprocal; it would be, on the contrary, to fail entirely in
that appreciation. True saints among the Moravians have
called Jesus<P453> “brother,” and others have borrowed
their hymns or the expression; the Word never says so. “He
is not ashamed to call us brethren,” but it is quite another
thing for us to call Him so. e personal dignity of Christ
is never lost in the intensity and tenderness of His love.
Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus rendering the
last honors to the Lord’s dead body
But the rejected Saviour was to be with the rich and
the honorable in His death, however despised He may
previously have been; and two, who dared not confess Him
while He lived, awakened now by the greatness of the sin
of their nation and by the event itself of His death-which
the grace of God, who had reserved them for this work,
made them feel-occupy themselves with the attentions due
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to His dead body. Joseph, himself a counselor, comes to ask
Pilate for the body of Jesus, Nicodemus joining with him
to render the last honors to Him whom they had never
followed during His life. We can understand this. To follow
Jesus constantly under reproach, and compromise oneself
forever on His account, is a very dierent thing from acting
when some great occasion happens in which there is no
longer room for the former, and when the extent of the
evil compels us to separate from it; and when the good,
rejected because it is perfect in testimony, and perfected
in its rejection, forces us to take a part, if through grace
any moral sense exists in us. God thus fullled His words
of truth. Joseph and Nicodemus place the Lord’s body in
a new sepulchre in a garden near the cross; for, on account
of it being the Jews’ preparation, they could do no more at
that moment.
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73167
John 20
Summary of chapters 20-21
In chapter 20 we have, in a summary of several of the
leading facts among those which took place after the
resurrection of Jesus, a picture of all the consequences of
that great event, in immediate connection with the grace
that produced them, and with the aections that ought to
be seen in the faithful when again brought into relationship
with the Lord; and at the same time, a picture of all God’s
ways up to the revelation of Christ to the <P454>remnant
before the millennium. In chapter 21 the millennium is
pictured to us.
Jesus risen; Mary Magdalene seeking Jesus; Peter and
John nding the proofs of His resurrection
Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven
demons, appears rst in the scene-a touching expression
of the ways of God. She represents, I doubt not, the Jewish
remnant of that day, personally attached to the Lord, but
not knowing the power of His resurrection. She is alone in
her love: the very strength of her aection isolates her. She
was not the only one saved, but she comes alone to seek-
wrongly to seek, if you will, but to seek- Jesus, before the
testimony of His glory shines forth in a world of darkness,
because she loved Himself. She comes before the other
women, while it was yet dark. It is a loving heart (we have
already seen it in the believing women) occupied with
Jesus, when the public testimony of man is still entirely
wanting. And it is to this that Jesus rst manifests Himself
when He had risen. Nevertheless, her heart knew where it
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would nd a response. She goes away to Peter and to the
other disciple whom Jesus loved, when she does not nd
the body of Christ. Peter and the other disciple go and
nd the proofs of a resurrection accomplished (as to Jesus
Himself) with all the composure that became the power
of God, great as the alarm might be that it created in the
mind of man. ere had been no haste; everything was in
order: and Jesus was not there.
Mary’s aection; the Good Shepherd and His sheep
e two disciples, however, are not moved by the same
attachment as that which lled her heart, who had been the
object of so mighty a deliverance1 on the Lord’s part. ey
see, and, on these visible proofs, they believe. It was not a
spiritual understanding of the thoughts of God by means
of His Word; they saw and believed. ere is nothing in
this which gathers the disciples together. Jesus was away;
He had risen. ey had satised themselves on this point,
and they go away to their home. But Mary, led<P455>
by aection rather than by intelligence, is not satised
with coldly recognizing that Jesus was again risen.2 She
thought Him still dead, because she did not possess Him.
His death, the fact of her not nding Him again, added to
the intensity of her aection, because He Himself was its
object. All the tokens of this aection are produced here
in the most touching manner. She supposes that<P456>
the gardener must know who was in question without her
telling him, for she only thought of one (as if I inquired of
a beloved object in a family, “How is he?”). Bending over
the sepulchre, she turns her head when He approaches; but
then the Good Shepherd, risen from the dead, calls His
sheep by her name; and the known and loved voice-mighty
according to the grace which thus called her-instantly
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reveals Him to her who heard it. She turns to Him and
replies, “Rabboni-my Master.”
(1. “Seven demons.” is represents the complete
possession of this poor woman by the unclean spirits to
whom she was a prey. It is the expression of the real state
of the Jewish people.)
(2. It is impossible to me, in giving great principles for
the help of those who seek to understand the Word, to
develop all that is so deeply touching and interesting in this
twentieth chapter, on which I have often pondered with
(through grace) an ever-growing interest. is revelation of
the Lord to the poor woman who could not do without her
Saviour has a touching beauty, which every detail enhances.
But there is one point of view to which I cannot but call
the reader’s attention. ere are four conditions of soul
presented here which, taken together, are very instructive,
and each in the case of a believer:
(1) John and Peter, who see and believe, are really
believers; but they do not see in Christ the only center
of all the thoughts of God, for His glory, for the world,
for souls. Neither is He so for their aections, although
they are believers. Having found that He was risen, they
do without Him. Mary, who did not know this, who was
even culpably ignorant, could, nevertheless, not do without
Jesus. She must possess Himself. Peter and John go to their
home; this is the center of their interests. ey believe
indeed, but self and home suce them.
(2) omas believes, and acknowledges with true,
orthodox faith, on incontestable proofs, that Jesus is his
Lord and his God. He truly believes for himself. He has
not the communications of the ecacy of the Lord’s work,
and of the relationship with His Father into which Jesus
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brings His own, the assembly. He has peace, perhaps, but
he has missed all the revelation of the assembly’s position.
How many souls-saved souls even-are there in these two
conditions!
(3) Mary Magdalene is ignorant in the extreme. She
does not know that Christ is risen. She has so little right
sense of His being Lord and God that she thinks someone
might have taken away His body. But Christ is her all, the
need of her soul, the only desire of her heart. Without Him
she has no home, no Lord, no anything. Now to this need
Jesus answers; it indicates the work of the Holy Spirit. He
calls His sheep by her name, shows Himself to her rst
of all, teaches her that His presence was not now to be a
Jewish bodily return to earth, that He must ascend to His
Father, that the disciples were now His brethren, and that
they were placed in the same position as Himself with His
God and His Father-as Himself, the risen Man, ascended
to His God and Father. All the glory of the new, individual
position is opened to her.
(4) is gathers the disciples together. Jesus then brings
them the peace which He has made, and they have the
full joy of a present Saviour who brings it them. He makes
this peace (possessed by them in virtue of His work and
His victory) their starting point, sends them as the Father
had sent Him, and imparts to them the Holy Spirit as the
breath and power of life, that they may be able to bear that
peace to others.
ese are the communications of the ecacy of His
work, as He had given to Mary that of the relationship
to the Father which resulted from it. e whole is the
answer to Mary’s attachment to Christ, or what resulted
from it. If through grace there is aection, the answer will
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672
assuredly be granted. It is the truth which ows from the
work of Christ. No other state than that which Christ here
presents is in accordance with what He has done, and with
the Father’s love. He cannot, by His work, place us in any
other.)
e Lord’s new position and relationship with the
remnant
But while thus revealing Himself to the beloved
remnant, whom He had delivered, all is changed in their
position and in His relationship with them. He was not
going now to dwell bodily in the midst of His people on
earth. He did not come back to reestablish the kingdom
in Israel. “Touch me not,” says He to Mary. But by
redemption He had wrought a far more important thing.
He had placed them in the same position as Himself with
His Father and His God; and He calls them-which He
never had, and never could have done before-His brethren.
Until His death the corn of wheat remained alone. Pure
and perfect, the Son of God, He could not stand in the
same relationship to God as the sinner; but, in the glorious
position which He was going to resume as man, He could,
through redemption, associate with Himself His redeemed
ones, cleansed, regenerated and adopted in Him.
e remnant’s new position with Him
He sends them word of the new position they were to
have in common with Himself. He says to Mary, “Touch
me not; but go to my brethren, and tell them that I ascend
to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”
e will of the Father-accomplished by means of the
glorious work of the Son, who, as man, has taken His place,
apart from sin, with His God and Father-and the work of
the Son, the source of eternal life to them, have brought
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the disciples into the same position as Himself before the
Father.<P457>
e risen Lord in the midst of the gathered disciples,
bringing peace
e testimony borne to this truth gathers the disciples
together. ey meet with closed doors, unprotected now
by the care and power of Jesus, the Messiah, Jehovah on
earth. But if they had no longer the shelter of the Messiah’s
presence, they have Jesus in their midst, bringing them that
which they could not have before His death-“peace.”
e disciples sent forth into the world for Him with
peace as their starting point
But He did not bring them this blessing merely as their
own portion. Having given them proofs of His resurrection,
and that in His body He was the same Jesus, He sets them in
this perfect peace as the starting point of their mission. e
Father, eternal and innite fountain of love, had sent the
Son, who abode in it, who was the witness of that love, and
of the peace which He, the Father, shed around Himself,
where sin had no existence. Rejected in His mission, Jesus
had - on behalf of a world where sin existed - made peace
for all who should receive the testimony of the grace which
had made it; and He now sends His disciples from the
bosom of that peace into which He had brought them, by
the remission of sins through His death, to bear testimony
to it in the world.
e Holy Spirit given for peace and power
He says again, “Peace be unto you,” to send them forth
into the world clothed and lled with that peace, their feet
shod with it, even as the Father had sent Him. He gives
them the Holy Spirit for this end, that according to His
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power they might bear the remission of sins to a world that
was bowed down under the yoke of sin.
e distinction between the bestowal of the Holy
Spirit here and at Pentecost
I do not doubt that, speaking historically, the Spirit here
is distinguished from Acts 2, inasmuch as here it is a breath
of inward life, as God breathed into the nostrils of Adam
a breath of life. It is not the Holy Spirit sent down from
heaven. us Christ, who is a quickening Spirit, imparts
spiritual life to them according to the<P458> power
of resurrection.1 As to the general picture guratively
presented in the passage, it is the Spirit bestowed on the
saints gathered by the testimony of His being risen and
His going to the Father, as the whole scene represents
the assembly in its present privileges. us we have the
remnant attached to Christ by love; believers individually
recognized as children of God, and in the same position
before Him as Christ; and then the assembly founded on
this testimony, gathered together with Jesus in the midst,
in the enjoyment of peace; and its members, individually
constituted, in connection with the peace which Christ has
made, a witness to the world of the remission of sins-its
administration being committed to them.
(1. Compare Romans 4-8 and Colossians 2-3.
Resurrection was the power of life which brought them
out of the dominion of sin, that had its end in death, and
that was condemned in the death of Jesus, and they dead
to it, but not condemned by it, sin having been condemned
in His death. is is a question, not of guilt, but of state.
Our guilt, blessed be God, was put away too. But here we
die with Christ, and resurrection presents us (Romans,
as quoted, unfolds the side of death, Colossians adds
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resurrection; Romans is death to sin, Colossians to the
world) living before God in a life in which Jesus-and we by
Him-appeared in His presence according to the perfection
of divine righteousness. But this supposed His work also.)
omas’ absence from the rst gathering
omas represents the Jews in the last days who will
believe when they see. Blessed are they who have believed
without seeing. But the faith of omas is not concerned
with the position of sonship. He acknowledges, as the
remnant will do, that Jesus is his Lord and his God. He
was not with them in their rst church gathering.
e Lord here, by His actions, consecrates the rst day
of the week for His meeting together with His own, in
spirit here below.
e evangelist’s object in what he has related
e evangelist is far from exhausting all that there was
to relate of that which Jesus did. e object of that which
he has related is linked with the communication of eternal
life in Christ; rst, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God;
and, second, that in believing we have life through His
name. To this the Gospel is consecrated.<P459>
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73168
John 21
Chapter 21 picturing the millennial work of Christ
The next chapter, while rendering a fresh tesmony to the
resurrecon of Jesus, gives us-to verse 13-a picture of the
millennial work of Christ; from thence to the end, the special
porons of Peter and John in connecon with their service
to Christ. The applicaon is limited to the earth, for they had
known Jesus on earth. It is Paul who will give us the heavenly
posion of Christ and the assembly. But he has no place here.
The disciples shing in Galilee; Peter and John
in the same circumstances as when rst called
Led by Peter, several of the apostles go a shing. The Lord
meets them in the same circumstances as those in which He
found them at the beginning and reveals Himself to them in
the same manner. John at once understands that it is the Lord.
Peter, with his usual energy, casts himself into the sea to reach
Him.
Observe here that we nd ourselves again upon the ground
of the historic Gospels-that is to say, that the miracle of the
draught of shes idenes itself with the work of Christ on
earth and is in the sphere of His former associaon with
His disciples. It is Galilee, not Bethany. It has not the usual
character of the doctrine of this Gospel, which presents the
divine Person of Jesus, outside all dispensaon, here below;
raising our thoughts above all such subjects. Here (at the end
of the Gospel and of the sketch given in chapter 20 of the
result of the manifestaon of His divine Person and of His
work) the evangelist comes for the rst me on the ground
of the synopcs, of the manifestaon and coming fruits of
John 21
677
Christ’s connecon with earth. Thus, the applicaon of the
passage to this point is not merely an idea which the narrave
suggests to the mind, but it rests upon the general teaching of
the Word.
The dierence aer the Lord’s manifestaon; the net
unbroken; Christ’s millennial work not marred
Sll there is a notable dierence between that which took
place at the beginning and here. In the former scene the
ships began to sink, the nets broke. Not so here, and the
Holy Spirit<P460> marks this circumstance as disncve:
Christ’s millennial work is not marred. He is there aer His
resurrecon, and that which He performs does not rest, in
itself, on man’s responsibility as to its eect here below: the
net does not break. Also, when the disciples bring the sh
which they had caught, the Lord has some already there. So
shall it be on earth at the end. Before His manifestaon He
will have prepared a remnant for Himself on the earth; but
aer His manifestaon He will gather a multude also from
the sea of naons.
Christ in companionship with His disciples; His three
manifestaons
Another idea presents itself. Christ is again as in
companionship with His disciples. “Come,” says He, “and
dine.” There is no queson here of heavenly things, but of the
renewing of His connecon with His people in the kingdom.
All this does not immediately belong to the subject of this
Gospel, which leads us higher. Accordingly, it is introduced
in a mysterious and symbolical manner. This appearance of
Christ’s is spoken of as His third manifestaon. I doubt His
manifestaon on earth before His death being included in
the number. I would rather apply it to that which, rst, aer
His resurrecon, gave rise to the gathering together of the
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saints as an assembly; second, to a revelaon of Himself to
the Jews aer the manner of that which is presented in the
Song of Songs; and third, here, to the public display of His
power, when He shall already have gathered the remnant
together. His appearing like the lightning is outside all these
things. Historically the three appearances were the day of
His resurrecon, the following rst day of the week, and His
appearance at the sea of Galilee.
Peter’s restoraon; the Lord’s sheep commied to his care
when humbled
Aerwards, in a passage full of ineable grace, He entrusts
Peter with the care of His sheep (that is, I doubt not, of His
Jewish sheep; he is the apostle of the circumcision) and leaves
to John an indenite period of sojourn upon earth. His words
apply much more to their ministry than to their persons,
with the excepon of one verse referring to Peter. But this
demands a lile more development.<P461>
The Lord begins with the full restoraon of Peter’s soul. He
does not reproach him with his fault, but judges the source
of evil that produced it-self-condence. Peter had declared
that if all should deny Jesus, yet he at least would not deny
Him. The Lord therefore asks him, “Lovest thou me more
than do these?” and Peter is reduced to acknowledge that it
required the omniscience of God to know that he, who had
boasted of having more love than all others for Jesus, had
really any aecon for Him at all. And the queson thrice
repeated must indeed have searched the depths of his heart.
Nor was it ll the third me that he says, “Thou knowest all
things; thou knowest that I love thee.” Jesus did not let his
conscience go unl he had come to this. Nevertheless, the
grace which did this for Peter’s good-the grace which had
followed him in spite of everything, praying for him before
he felt his need or had commied the fault-is perfect here
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also. For, at the moment when it might be thought that at the
utmost he would be readmied through divine forbearance,
the strongest tesmony of grace is lavished upon him. When
humbled by his fall and brought to enre dependence upon
grace, all-abounding grace displays itself. The Lord commits
that which He most loved to him-the sheep whom He had
just redeemed. He commits them to Peter’s care. This is the
grace which surmounts all that man is, which is above all that
man is; which consequently produces condence, not in self,
but in God, as One whose grace can always be trusted in, as
being full of grace and perfect in that grace which is above
everything and is always itself; grace which makes us able
to accomplish the work of grace towards-whom?-man who
needs it. It creates condence in proporon to the measure in
which it acts.
I think that the Lord’s words apply to the sheep already
known to Peter; and with whom only Jesus had been in daily
connecon; who would naturally be before His mind, and that
in the scene which we see this chapter puts before us-the
sheep of the house of Israel.
It appears to me that there is progression in that which the
Lord says to Peter. He asks, “Lovest thou me more than do
these?” Peter says, “Thou knowest that I have aecon
for thee.” Jesus replies, “Feed my lambs.” The second me
He says only, “Lovest thou me?” oming the comparison
between Peter and the rest, and his former pretension. Peter
repeats the declaraon<P462> of his aecon. Jesus says
to him, “Shepherd my sheep.” The third me He says, “Hast
thou aecon for me?” using Peter’s own expression; and on
Peter’s replying, as we have seen, seizing this use of his words
by the Lord, He says, “Feed my sheep.” The links between
Peter and Christ known on earth made him t to pasture the
ock of the Jewish remnant-to feed the lambs, by showing
them the Messiah as He had been, and to act as a shepherd,
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in guiding those that were more advanced, and in supplying
them with food.
Peter’s desire to follow the Lord granted by the will of God
But the grace of the loving Saviour did not stop here.
Peter might sll feel the sorrow of having missed such an
opportunity of confessing the Lord at the crical moment.
Jesus assures him that if he had failed in doing so of his own
will, he should be allowed to do it by the will of God; and as
when young he girded himself, others should gird him when
old and carry him whither he would not. It should be given
him by the will of God to die for the Lord, as he had formerly
declared himself ready to do in his own strength. Now also
that Peter was humbled and brought enrely under grace-that
he knew he had no strength-that he felt his dependence on
the Lord, his uer ineciency if he trusted to his own power-
now, I repeat, the Lord calls Peter to follow Him; which he had
pretended to do, when the Lord had told him he could not. It
was this that his heart desired. Feeding those whom Jesus had
connued to feed unl His death, he should see Israel reject
everything, even as Christ had seen them do; and his own
work end, even as Christ had seen His work end (the judgment
ready to fall, and beginning at the house of God). Finally, what
he had pretended to do and could not, he would now do-
follow Christ to prison and to death.
The poron and ministry of John
Then comes the history of the disciple whom Jesus loved. John
having, no doubt, heard the call addressed to Peter, follows
also himself; and Peter, linked with him, as we have seen, by
their common love to the Lord, inquires what should happen
to him likewise. The Lord’s answer announces the poron
and ministry of John, but, as it appears to me, in connecon
with the earth. But<P463> the Lord’s enigmacal expression
John 21
681
is, nevertheless, as remarkable as it is important: “If I will that
he tarry ll I come, what is that to thee?” They thought, in
consequence, that John would not die. The Lord did not say
so-a warning not to ascribe a meaning to His words, instead
of receiving one; and at the same me showing our need of
the Holy Spirit’s help; for the words literally might be so taken.
Giving heed myself, I trust, to this warning, I will say what I
think to be the meaning of the Lord’s words, which I do not
doubt to be so-a meaning which gives a key to many other
expressions of the same kind.
The connecon with the earth in John’s Gospel; Jerusalem’s
destrucon as an earthly center; the heavenly assembly
gathered out
In the narrave of the Gospel, we are in connecon with the
earth (that is, the connecon of Jesus with the earth). As
planted on earth at Jerusalem, the assembly, as the house of
God, is formally recognized as taking the place of the house
of Jehovah at Jerusalem. The history of the assembly, as thus
formally established as a center on earth, ended with the
destrucon of Jerusalem. The remnant saved by the Messiah
was no longer to be in connecon with Jerusalem, the center
of the gathering of the Genles. In this sense, the destrucon
of Jerusalem put an end judicially to the new system of God
upon earth-a system promulgated by Peter (Acts 3); with
regard to which Stephen declared to the Jews their resistance
to the Holy Spirit, and was sent, as it were, as a messenger
aer Him who was gone to receive the kingdom and to return;
while Paul-elected from among those enemies of the good
news sll addressed to the Jews by the Holy Spirit aer the
death of Christ, and separated from Jews and Genles, in
order to be sent to the laer-performs a new work that was
hidden from the prophets of old, namely, the gathering out of
a heavenly assembly without disncon of Jew or Genle.
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682
The extent of John’s ministry
The destrucon of Jerusalem put an end to one of these
systems and to the existence of Judaism according to the
law and the promises, leaving only the heavenly assembly.
John remained- the last of the twelve-unl this period, and
aer Paul, in order<P464> to watch over the assembly as
established on that foong, that is, as the organized and
earthly framework (responsible in that character) of the
tesmony of God, and the subject of His government on the
earth. But this is not all. In his ministry John went on to the
end, to the coming of Christ in judgment to the earth; and he
has linked the judgment of the assembly, as the responsible
witness on earth, with the judgment of the world, when God
shall resume His connecon with the earth in government
(the tesmony of the assembly being nished, and it having
been caught up, according to its proper character, to be with
the Lord in heaven).
The scope of the Apocalypse
Thus the Apocalypse presents the judgment of the assembly
on earth, as the formal witness for the truth; and then passes
on to God’s resumpon of the government of the earth, in
view of the establishment of the Lamb upon the throne, and
the seng aside of the power of evil. The heavenly character
of the assembly is only found there, when its members are
exhibited on thrones as kings and priests, and when the
marriage of the Lamb takes place in heaven. The earth-aer
the seven churches-has no longer the heavenly tesmony. It
is not the subject, either in the seven assemblies, or in the
properly so-called prophec part. Thus, taking the assemblies
as such in those days, the assembly according to Paul is not
seen there. Taking the assemblies as descripons of the
assembly, the subject of God’s government on earth, we have
it unl its nal rejecon; and the history is connuous, and
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the prophec part immediately connected with the end of the
assembly: only, in place of it, we have the world and then the
Jews.1<P465>
(1. Thus we have in the ministerial life, and in the teaching,
of Peter and John, the whole religious, earthly history from
the beginning to the end; commencing with the Jews in
connuaon of the relaons of Christ with them, traversing
the whole Chrisan epoch, and nding itself again, aer the
close of the earthly history of the assembly, on the ground
of God’s relaonship to the world (comprising the Jewish
remnant) in view of the introducon of the Firstborn into the
world (the last glorious event terminang the history which
began with His rejecon). Paul is on very dierent ground.
He sees the assembly, as the body of Christ, united to Him in
heaven.)
The coming of Christ (as spoken of in chapter 21:22) and
John’s ministry
The coming of Christ, therefore, which is spoken of at the end
of the Gospel, is His manifestaon on earth; and John, who
lived in person unl the close of all that was introduced by
the Lord in connecon with Jerusalem, connues here, in his
ministry, unl the manifestaon of Christ to the world.
The teaching of John; the work of Peter and Paul
In John, then, we have two things. On the one hand, his
ministry, as far as connected with dispensaon and with
the ways of God, does not go beyond that which is earthly:
the coming of Christ is His manifestaon to complete those
ways and to establish the government of God. On the other
hand, he links us with the Person of Jesus, who is above and
outside all dispensaons, and all the dealings of God, save
as being the manifestaon of God Himself. John does not
enter upon the ground of the assembly as Paul sets it forth.
Darby Synopsis
684
It is either Jesus personally, or the relaons of God with the
earth.1 His epistle presents the reproducon of the life of
Christ in ourselves, guarding us thus from all pretensions
of perverse teachers. But by these two parts of the truth,
we have a precious sustainment of faith given to us, when
all that belongs to the body of tesmony may fail: Jesus,
personally the object of faith in whom we know God; the life
itself of God, reproduced in us, as being quickened by Christ.
This is forever true, and this is eternal life, if we were alone
without the assembly on earth: and it leads us over its ruins,
in possession of that which is essenal and of that which will
abide forever. The government of God will decide all the rest:
only it is our privilege and duty to maintain Paul’s part of the
tesmony of God, as long as through grace we can.
(1. John presents the Father manifested in the Son, God
declared by the Son in the bosom of the Father, and that
withal as eternal life-God to us, and life, Paul is employed to
reveal our presentaon to God in Him. Though each alludes
in passing to the other point, one is characterized by the
presentaon of God to us, and eternal life given; the other, by
our presentaon to God.)
Remark also that the work of Peter and Paul is that of
gathering together, whether it be in circumcision or the
Genles. John is conservave, maintaining that which is
essenal in eternal life.<P466> He relates the judgment of
God in connecon with the world, but as a subject that is
outside his own relaons with God, which are given as an
introducon and exordium to the Apocalypse. He follows
Christ when Peter is called, because, although Peter was
occupied, as Christ had been, with the call of the Jews, John-
without being called to that work - followed Him on the same
ground. The Lord explains it, as we have seen.
The inexhausble fullness of all that Jesus did
John 21
685
Verses 24-25 are a kind of inscripon on the book. John has
not related all that Jesus did, but that which revealed Him as
everlasng life. As to His works, they could not be numbered.
Here, thanks be to God, are these four precious books laid
open, as far as God has enabled me to do so, in their great
principles. Meditaon on their contents in detail I must leave
to each individual heart, assisted by the mighty operaon of
the Holy Spirit; for if studied in detail, one might almost say
with the Apostle that the world would not contain the books
that should be wrien. May God in His grace lead souls into
the enjoyment of the inexhausble streams of grace and truth
in Jesus which they contain!<P467>
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