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"In the Face of Jesus Christ"

by T. Austin-Sparks

First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazines, 1935-1936.

Contents

Chapter 1 - The Son of Man

Chapter 2 - The Man Conceived

Chapter 3 - The Seamless Robe

Chapter 1 - The Son of Man

READING: Ps. 8:3-6; Heb. 2:5-9; Eph. 4:13; Rom. 2:16, 3:24; Acts 17:31; Luke 9:18-22.

"Seeing it is God, that said, Light shall shine out of darkness, who shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6).

"In the face of Jesus Christ"! In that phrase I see everything that relates to God's eternal purpose and to the Divine intention, both as to man and the universe. It embraces the counsels of the Godhead before the world was - it embraces the creation; it embraces redemption; it embraces the final glory. All that is in the face of Jesus Christ. Indeed, there is nothing which concerns us, as creatures related to God and eternity, which is not to be found in the face of Jesus Christ. God comes to us in the face of Jesus Christ, and all that ever we shall or can know of God is to be found in the face of Jesus Christ. The face is the human medium of communication. The face is the medium of personality. The personality is the character formed in secret, the sum of all secret history, and it embraces itself in the face. Sooner or later, somehow, the personality will betray itself in the face. But in order to read the personality through the face, there has to be a certain amount of qualification. You cannot off hand read a person through their face. You need to have certain ability to do so. If all that is of God is in the face of Jesus Christ, there has to be given revelation in our hearts, as well as in His face. We have to be able to see the face of Jesus Christ.

All that is but a wide and sweeping survey or intimation of what the face of Jesus represents. It must be brought nearer to our hearts in a practical way, but I want to remind you of this before we go further, that it has ever been by reason of a vision of the face of Jesus Christ, that God has secured lives and instruments which have reflected His own glory.

"To this end have I appeared unto thee, to appoint thee a minister and a witness both of the things wherein thou hast seen me, and of the things wherein I will appear unto thee...." (Acts 26:16). Note all the touches as to seeing the Lord in Acts 9, 22 and 26. I think we can truly say that Paul was a fruit of the seeing of the face of Jesus Christ. I am certain that we depend for everything upon a seeing of the face of Jesus Christ. Do not misunderstand. We are not thinking for a moment of any necessity for a literal vision, but we mean that it is absolutely essential to our spiritual life, and to our spiritual service, that by revelation of the Holy Spirit, something of the significance of Jesus Christ, the face of Jesus Christ, should be unveiled to the heart. I am being occupied very much, simply engrossed, in these days with the momentousness of Christ; and it is all gathered up into this phrase, "the face of Jesus Christ."

That phrase is employed to imply spiritual vision, spiritual revelation. It is a figure of speech, and in the main, therefore, not to be taken literally, as we have said. The words have in them the thought of our catching some view, some vision, of our having some spiritual insight as to the significance of Jesus Christ, presented to us as the expression, the countenance of God, in which all that is in the mind and the heart and the will of God is found, and is expressed. I believe it means that the face of Jesus Christ is the Man. If you want to know what sort of a person you are dealing with, if you want to know your man, you do not look at his boots (forgive my putting it in this way) you do not turn round so that you can see his shoulders; you look right into his face; you study his face; you get the proportions of his face. You watch him in repose; you watch him under tension; you watch his face in times of provocation or sorrow; you watch him in changing atmosphere, changing conditions, when things are for and when things are against. You learn the man by his face. If you have any special gifts at reading through the face, when you look at that face, you at once know the man. It is not always possible to do so, but you get a good deal through the face; at any rate, you look to the face to tell you what you want to know. It is in that sense that the statement in the Scripture is made "...the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ"; that statement signifies that that face is the revelation of what lies behind of God - God's thought, God's mind, God's will, God's feelings, God's desires, God's attitudes, God's purposes. All that is written in the face of Jesus Christ.

But the words carry us further than that: The face of Jesus Christ is the face of a Man. It is the face of a Man with God behind it. It is the face of the Man about which we want to meditate at this time. "The Son of Man" is the designation found in one of the passages to which we have referred (Luke 9:22), "I am Jesus of Nazareth...." (Acts 22:8) - His was the face that was seen of Saul on his way to Damascus - "Inasmuch as he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained" (Acts 17:31). The face of a Man with God behind it! We are stressing the significance of the fact that the Lord Jesus was Man, the Man Christ Jesus. I know, and never forget, and I hope you never will for a moment allow the other fact to fall out of your remembrance, that we are dealing with God, utterly and verily, in Jesus Christ; but it is the significance of Christ as Man, "the Man Christ Jesus" that is to me the great wonder, the amazing wonder, that is becoming to me the real meaning of salvation, of sanctification, of glory - the significance of the Man, the face of Jesus Christ.

1. - Man. (1) Man Conceived.

So we are led by the face of Jesus Christ, and the light in that face, back into the Word of God. We find that that light falls upon the counsels of the Godhead before the world was, in which Godhead man was conceived. We see the conception of man in the Divine counsels: shall we say, the thought of there being man originated in the Divine mind, and became a part of the Divine counsels. In some dateless point in the past eternity man was conceived, and before the foundation of the world "foreordained unto the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ." Do you catch the ray of light? In the face of Jesus Christ! Foreordained unto the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ! In that face you have the man conceived, foreordained, and the object of the conception and the foreordaining is unto the adoption of sons.

(2) Man Created.

Out from the man conceived we move to the man created. The first chapter of the letter to the Colossians tells us that he was created by Jesus Christ. In Him, by Him, through Him, and unto Him all things were created; and the man conceived was now created. We see how in the face of Jesus Christ, by the light of the face of Jesus Christ, the first Adam was created.

(3) Man Probationed.

Then, in the light of that face we see the man, now created, being conditioned, probationed. We can never understand the meaning of the conditioning and probationing of the first Adam, except in the light of the countenance of Jesus Christ. Do you want to know why man was put on test, before ever he reached the adoption of sons? You have to come into the light of the face of Jesus Christ. That will explain all. We will pass to that presently. Remember the first Adam never did reach the adoption of sons. He failed in his probation. He failed under his test. The Word declares us to be God's workmanship, "created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God foreordained that we should walk in them!" But Adam ceased to walk in them, if ever he did walk in them at all, and therefore failed of the very creating purpose. The light on the face of Jesus Christ illumines all that for us. We understand it now in the light of His countenance. It is all a dark mystery, an enigma, until you come to the face of Jesus Christ.

(4) Man Ruined.

The man conceived; the man created; the man probationed; the man ruined. Do you need to comprehend the ruin? Do you need to know the meaning of the fall? You can only understand it in the light of the face of Jesus Christ. It takes the face of Jesus Christ to make you know what the fall is. Those who have never seen the face of Christ have never seen the reality or known the nature of the fall. I am not surprised that some men in this world do not believe in the fall, repudiate the fall, or talk about it being a fall upward and not downward. They have never seen the face of Jesus Christ. You and I have in some measure, and like Isaiah we have fallen upon our faces and said: "Woe is me!" Like Job we have cried out: "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." To see the face of Jesus is to see the ruin of man, and you never will see it, until you see the face of Jesus.

2. - The New Man. (1) Previsioned.

There is then the true Man - not that other man, but the Man, Who was ever in the counsels of the Godhead, the Man conceived of God, the Man previsioned through a long history. He was previsioned in prophet, priest and king, previsioned in a thousand different ways, and is seen now, as no one ever did see Him then, in the light of the face of Jesus Christ. It takes the light of the face of Jesus Christ to explain the Old Testament in its types and symbols.

That is exactly what happened after His resurrection. There were men who knew Moses, and the Psalms, and the prophets, but they did not see the inner content and meaning. But as He walked with them, and opened unto them the Scriptures from Moses, the Psalms and the prophets, in the light of the face of Jesus Christ they saw the Man previsioned throughout - "He interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:27). It requires a seeing of the risen Lord to give us the light on the Man previsioned. Until you really have a view of the face of Jesus Christ, the Old Testament is full of enigmas. Again, you cannot see Christ everywhere, except you have had a view of His face, but once you have seen that face, you will see Him everywhere. Once you have the clue by revelation you cannot read anywhere, from Genesis onward, without seeing the face of Jesus Christ.

(2) Provided.

In the fullness of the times God sent forth His Son - the Man provided - not created, but provided. There is a big difference now. The first man was created. The Last Adam is provided, "God will provide himself the lamb" (Gen. 22:8). In every way the Last Adam is provided by God.

(a) Conditioned.

Even here the Man provided is conditioned. The Last Adam, as the first, was on probation. He was placed upon a basis of faith and obedience, just as the first Adam - faith in His Father, obedience the practical expression of that faith. Therefore, as Son of Man He had nothing in Himself, but everything in His Father. Whatever He had as Son of God is quite another thing, but as Son of Man He did not live upon the basis of His deity: He lived upon the basis of faith and obedience, having nothing in Himself but everything in His Father - "As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father; so he that eateth me, he also shall live because of me" (John 6:57). He lived by the Father.

(b) Tested.

Of course, we know that that conditioning was the ground of His testing. He was conditioned by faith and obedience, with every resource in His Father and none in Himself, save the resources of such a humanity as His was. (I believe that a perfect humanity has resources in itself which fallen humanity has not.) But we are now speaking of the resources of His deity, of very God. Those resources were in a place where He, for a probationary time, could only avail Himself of them through faith and obedience. Thus conditioned, He was tested by His conditioning; and tested, not by chance but by Divine appointment. He was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. It was a part of the intention that this conditioned One should at the very outset of His life be tested by the forces of evil in this universe, subjected to the fiery trial of hell's terrible darts of temptation. Satan left that work with no angel, or band of angels. He was called into it himself. Christ met the lord of all the evil angels, and was subjected to his testing, not only in the wilderness but again and again, to the very last moments of His Cross, when through sneering enemies Satan still made the suggestion that, if He would only come down from that Cross, all men would believe, and He would get the following. He had come for the Cross, not to come down from the Cross; but we must remember that in the awful agony of spirit and soul and body that suggestion would not fail to have its own fierceness of temptation. Oh, what easement from the agony was offered Him in that moment, if He would but come down from the Cross, for the seeming gain of all He hung there for!

(c) Proved.

Tested and proved are not the same thing. Tested, then, as the result, proved. When you are proved, you have graduated from the test. If you can say of anybody, They are proved! you mean that they have been through the fire and you know them; they are established.

(d) Perfected.

Perfect, yet perfected. Made perfect through sufferings, we are told. The Man - let the word ring in your ears - the Man perfected! He has walked in the foreordained works triumphant. I work "today and tomorrow, and the third day I am perfected" (Luke 13:32). Perfect walk by faith, by obedience, and the perfected Man as the result.

(3) Instated.

The Man installed at God's right hand, the perfected Man, with a perfected Humanity, installed at God's right hand as representative, and as a representation of God's realised goal for the race. There you have all that is meant by the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Installed as representative, as model, to which the new creation in Christ Jesus is to be conformed - perfected humanity.

(4) Related.

God "gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all" (Eph. 1:22-23). The Man related, in the relationship of Head to the Body.

(5) Corporately Expressed.

What is the final issue? The Man corporately expressed: "....unto a full grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ...." (Eph. 4:13). That does not relate to an individual, but to the Church. "What is man," inquired the Psalmist, "that thou art mindful of him" (Ps. 8:4). The Apostle takes up the question, and, still relating it to God's thought for humanity in general, God's intention, goes on to say that so far we do not see that truth of man corporately, collectively consummated, but that we behold Jesus made a little lower than the angels, and travelling the same path as man up to a point for an express purpose, and realising it - "we behold him who hath been made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour, that... he should taste death for every man." Again, "Since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner partook of the same; that through death he might bring to nought him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and might deliver all them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Heb. 2). There is the man collectively or corporately expressed.

That is the unveiling of the face of Jesus Christ. The face of Jesus Christ embraces all that is signified by the "Man Christ Jesus" from eternity to eternity in relation to God's thought, God's will, God's design. It is all behind that face. That is what we mean, when we say, Catch a glimpse of the face of Jesus Christ and you have the wonder of all ages, the glory of God from eternity to eternity in the face of Jesus Christ; the Divine counsels, the creation, the redemption, the glorification of humanity, of man, in "the Man Christ Jesus." That is for those who see that Righteous One, hear the voice of His mouth. But for those who through disobedience, unbelief, still allow the veil which the god of this age hath cast over the hearts of the unbelieving, still allow that veil to remain, God "hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained" (Acts 17:31). For the one, the Man represents the glory of God. For the other, the Man represents the judgment of God. It is to be in and through and by a Man. You see how God has summed up all things in Christ. It is all in the face of Jesus Christ.

I do not know what that conveys to you. It may sound to you more or less like a clever summary of the Bible and of truth. Let me make it clear that this is not the fruit of simply sitting down and studying. I did not sit down and study this. It came to me like the passing of something before my heart, and I tell you I was stirred in heart at what I saw to be the meaning of the face of Jesus Christ. I can understand now why Paul was revolutionised. He saw the face of Jesus Christ. He did not simply see a blazing light on the way to Damascus. He saw the significance of Jesus of Nazareth in the glory, the Man Whom probably he had seen in Jerusalem; the Man Whom he had hated, loathed as a blasphemer, as an apostate; the Man Whom he had thought to be of all creatures the most objectionable, an impostor; the Man Whom he thought had been rightly handled and given His due, when they crucified Him. He saw that Man, and what that Man meant as installed in heaven at God's right hand, and there broke upon him something of the significance of Jesus Christ, and he saw the face of Jesus in that eternal, and universal, and spiritual sense, that all-inclusive sense. Out from that beholding - for he never stopped beholding inwardly the face of Jesus - there grew and grew this explanation of history; this explanation of the race; this explanation of man; this explanation of human destiny; this explanation of the Cross: this unveiling of things which no man could ever know by reason or study. There came out into the heart of Paul the knowledge of what went on in Divine counsels in eternity of old. It was all seen in the face of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ interpreted everything, explained everything, revealed everything.

This it was that made Paul the man he was. It was this that gave him the power of endurance, the power of suffering, the power of going on. He had seen the face of Jesus Christ, and what a realm, what a wealth, what fullness was in that face! He says, "We have this ministry" (2 Cor. 4:1). What ministry? Why this, God hath "shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ"; and our ministry is simply to tell what we have seen in that face, the meaning of Jesus Christ, "the Man Christ Jesus" - the amazing wonder of a Man! Yes, not forgetting all that is extra to that, and ever was, and ever will be of Godhead, but in the light of that the amazing wonder of a Man! I confess to you that while I glory in Christ as Son of God, and while I glory in Him as very God, and in God as God, the real wonder of it all only comes to me as I see that wealth of glory coming down into the face of a Man; as I see that expressed in a Man, all taken up in a Man. Yes, Man of my manhood, but different! Man torn with all my passions, and yet without sin in Himself! That is to say, a Man beset by all my temptations, and knowing what it is to have to battle with that pressure which comes upon us in order to overwhelm us. In our case much of it arises from within; but, oh, we do know to some extent what it is to have that pressure come upon us from without, and to have something evil impinging upon us. He knew the full force of that as you and I have never known it - the impingement of universal evil to try and make Him think other than He would think, and act other than He would act, and choose other than He would choose, and that under all manner of circumstances which would facilitate the temptation and the tempter.

Yes, a Man has triumphed. A Man has taken up the fight. A Man has come through, and in humanity has realised God's end in Himself and taken that perfected humanity back into the glory, and is installed and related. And now by the blessed eternal Spirit, through faith, we are joined to that Man; and when we gather around the Table and take the bread and the cup, we in faith are taking in spirit of that perfect humanity - joined to Him one spirit, to be one Body, one glorified humanity eventually, of which we now have the earnest in the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

It is marvellous! It is beyond our apprehension, our power of expression! Oh, that the Lord would open our hearts, yea, break them open, and give us a new apprehension and grasp of the meaning of the face of Jesus Christ! Dwell upon that, and ask the Lord continually to shine in, shine in, shine in, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

The Son of Man! Do you notice where He took that title? He asked: "Who do men say that I am?" Elijah! One of the prophets of old! "But who say ye that I am?" "The Christ of God!" Then He commanded them to tell no man, but to keep that to themselves, to keep that covered. That was something which for the moment was to be suspended. At that point for the first time He took to Himself the title "Son of Man" - "The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected... killed." What is the import of this. Oh, He has leapt over the bounds of Messiah-ship. "The Christ of God!" That is all right for Israel, but He has gone beyond Israel now. Israel is refusing their Messiah. The title "Son of Man" passes far beyond the bounds of Israel and is the racial representation. Not Israel, but all men: He is the world-wide, universal Son of Man. How? By the Cross. The Christ has leapt all the limitations of nationality, even of Israel, and has bounded the range of humanity. He took the title "Son of Man," as Israel refused their Messiah and the Cross came into view. He saw that the Cross was leading to a baptism of passion, which would mean a baptism of fire into all the earth. Not to Israel now! Say nothing about that! This is not the time to preach Israel's Messiah! The time now has come into view when by the Cross all men are coming into God's eternal thought.

The Lord open our hearts to see the face of Jesus Christ.

Chapter 2 - The Man Conceived

"And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him... And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies" (Genesis 22:1-3,16-17).

"My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?" (Numbers 12:7-8).

"But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the LORD hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the LORD commanded thee" (1 Samuel 13:14).

"...he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave their testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will" (Acts 13:22).

"...being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Phil. 2:8).

"For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building" (1 Cor. 3:9).

"Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ" (2 Cor. 10:5).

The Man Conceived

Each of the above passages has some bearing upon this matter. Perhaps the one which touches most immediately upon the particular thought is that which refers to David, Acts 13 (quoted from Samuel and from Psalm 89): "I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who shall do all my will." Such a word clearly expresses God's heart as related to a man, that God has in His heart the man whom He desires. Already the life-size portrait of the man of His own desire is in the heart of God. It may seem a simple method of approach, but I think it is helpful and expressive to think of God as having locked up in His heart the picture of a man who completely satisfies His heart, and God in quest of the man to answer to that picture, looking for the man after His heart. It is a tremendous thing to be able to say, even in a limited way, of David, that He was a man after God's heart. But the point is that God ever had in His heart an ideal man, a man fully satisfying Him, and He was determined to have that man, bent upon that man, in quest of that man, and more, that eventually He would have all men conformed to that picture, to that standard. That is clearly what is taught, by the Word of God. That is clearly the ultimate object of God. In spite of how things are now, that is what will be. All men, men after God's heart!

We are occupied with the kind of man that is. What kind of man is he who is in the heart of God? What is it that characterizes that one of whom God will say, "A man after my heart"? I think that the man after God's heart is characterized and distinguished by one thing, and that one thing in God's sight includes all else. What is the one thing, including all else, from God's standpoint which marks out the man after God's heart? I have very little doubt whatever in my own heart but that I am right when I say that the one thing, which includes all else from God's standpoint, is obedience.

We mention some of the men who stand out in the history of relationships with God as the most conspicuous instances and illustrations, men of whom God said the biggest things which have ever been said to and of men.

Abraham

"By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord" (Gen. 22:16). You cannot go beyond that. When God swears by Himself, neither He nor any other can swear by a greater. "By myself have I sworn." That means, I, God, the Lord, commit Myself, with all that I am and all that I have, to this undertaking! I stand into this with every bit of My being and resource! "By myself have I sworn, because thou... hast not withheld thy son, thine only son..." It is impossible to fail to recognize the implicit, instant, unquestioning obedience of Abraham. Look again at the record. "And it came to pass after these things, that God did prove Abraham, and said unto him... Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, even Isaac, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. And Abraham rose early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Issac his son: and he clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went..." I venture to say that you and I, if confronted with a demand like that, would stay in bed on such a morning as long as we could. We should not be up with the sun, busy, active, making preparation as though this thing were urgent, and no time was to be lost. The whole atmosphere and spirit, is that of an unquestioning obedience, resulting in this, "By myself have I sworn..." Be utter for Me, and I will be utter for you! The man after God's heart.

Moses

"My servant Moses is not so; he is faithful in all mine house: with him will I speak mouth to mouth..." (Num. 12:7-8); directly, not in dark speeches, not in parables, not in mysteries, but with the open face.

David

"...the Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the Lord hath appointed him to be prince over his people..." (1 Sam. 13:14). Whatever we may have to say of human shadows in the life of David, there is this one thing which, from the Divine standpoint, covers a multitude of sins, that David was unhesitating and unreserved in his obedience to God. There may be many weaknesses in the life, but given obedience, God finds His ground.

This is what is meant by the fear of the Lord. That is not a dread of the Lord, and the word "fear" is not used here, as so often amongst us, of being afraid of the Lord. The fear of the Lord here means the regarding of the Lord's will as the first, the primary, the preeminent,the predominant thing, and being abandoned to it. That is the fear of the Lord.

Obedience is Always a Matter of Faith

God never explains why He asks for a certain course. God never explains Himself, when He calls for obedience, whether it be in a specific matter or in the whole life. Neither does He give the issue of our obedience in advance. He simply requests it. He simply makes His will known, intimates that a certain course is according to His mind, and leaves it there. Our hearts immediately begin to seek for an explanation.

Why does the Lord want this and that? Why does the Lord desire to lead us in this way or in that? Why does the Lord request this? Why? Our obedience is so often tardy, slow, behindhand, because all the time we are seeking to be satisfied in our minds with an explanation as to why the Lord would have it so. Often, indeed, we go further than that, and want to have already in hand the blessing, the result, the issue of obedience. We want to come into the state of satisfaction about the whole matter, before we start out on it. The Lord never gives us either of those things, neither explanations nor issues. He makes known to us His desire, and, leaving it there, gives us the very highest possible ground of faith in Himself.

I was reading early this morning the exploits of David's mighty men. You are familiar with that great chapter. When I read it, I did not begin at the beginning of the chapter, I read the last part, the prowess, the mighty deeds of certain of his mighty men. What mighty deeds they were! One man to slay three hundred: to go down into a pit in winter and take a lion by the beard at close quarters and slay him outright; and many other things did these mighty men. But of all of them it was said that they did not attain unto the first three, and I was driven back again to have another look at what it was that put these three in such a superior position. If none of these other deeds resulted in the doers of them attaining unto the first three, then the first three must be wonderful men. I did not find much said about the three, but noted this one outstanding thing: One day David breathed a desire: "Oh, that one would give me water to drink of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate!" (2 Samuel 23:15). Just a desire, and the three broke through the host of the Philistines and drew water and brought it to David! My answer was found there. It was but a desire expressed: not a command given, not an expression of will that it should be done, but simply a desire of his heart, perhaps spontaneously, impulsively expressed. Men standing by heard David express a desire, and that was enough. They transcended all the rest, because there was no question of order, command, nor reward; all they needed was to know that their leader had an inclination in a certain direction, and, no matter what it meant, that was the direction for them.

The highest level is gained, when the Lord offers no rewards, gives no explanations in advance, nothing which might seem like solid ground under our feet, but simply indicates to us that a certain direction is the direction of His heart, and then we are left to the choice of what ground we will take. Will we take it on that ground alone, or will we wait for explanations, will we wait for assurances, will we wait for promises, will we wait until we have double assurance that, if we take this course, it will be all right? Obedience is always a matter of faith.

The Way into the Foreordained Works of God, and into the Larger Life of the Lord

We are told that we were created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God foreordained that we should walk in them, and we are always stretching out in some way or other to get into the foreordained works; asking what they are, where they are, how they are, praying that we might be led into the foreordained works; it is our desire to be in them. If it is true that "known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world" (Acts 15:18), the whole plan is made, the whole programme is arranged, everything is already prepared; God has foreordained the works. There is nothing incidental, nothing casual, nothing springing up as in time, but already before the foundation of the world the works have been prepared and foreordained. Oh, to be in that! How can it be? Simply by obedience of faith. Do the next thing that the Lord tells you, without asking any questions, and you will come into the works foreordained. If God came along and showed you the complete plan, you would leap into it. If He were to say, Here is My great pattern, arranged, mapped out, all completed before ever you came into being, before this world was created! Look at it! You have a place in that! Will you take your place? you would not hesitate. Seeing the whole thing you would leap to it. The Lord does not do this, and often He approaches in some veiled way, some mysterious way, and intimates to you and to me that a certain course would be according to His mind, if we would but take this step or that step, be obedient in this detail or in that detail, hand up to Him this thing or that thing. Now, if only by His grace we would bring an end in our life to this or that which is not pleasing to Him - an end for which He, on His part, is very ready to enable - if only we would do that, it would be like the door into what is eternal, and vast, and universal. But because the thing seems to be something so small in itself; insignificant, and not related and personal; because we discern no grand vistas in relation to it, and it seems to be something apart by itself, and we do not see that it can lead to anything, our obedience is reserved; we want more to go upon than just the simple word to be obeyed, "Go, show yourselves to the priests and as they went they were healed."

You see the principle. Just take one step, and that step will bring you into something larger, but it is the step of faith's obedience. There may be for us some vastness of Divine design and intention hanging upon a single act of obedience, which may seem to be very insignificant, so much a thing in itself, and yet the Lord has put His finger upon it, and perhaps He has come back with that finger again and perhaps again, and said: "Yes, I do not forget that there is something which you have to take back, or something which you have to give up" something where a matter of obedience to the Lord has not been thorough, something that He has asked. I wonder if we are in the place where we are going to have the Lord hammer us until we cannot get out of it, and then, because we cannot get out of it, simply break under it, and give that kind of obedience to the Lord; or whether we are of the first three - Lord is that Your desire? I only want to know it, that is enough! If that is the direction of Your will, I want nothing more than that! What is the order of obedience?

Such obedience leads, then, into the way of the foreordained works, and the larger life in the Lord. If you have been in danger of falling into the snare of wanting to have the whole of God's purpose for your life brought into clear view, or if you have fallen into that snare, and you have not moved because the presentation to you has not been big enough to draw you out, please remember that it is a snare, and seek to get out of it very quickly. Remember that perhaps the whole of your life is hanging upon some habit of which the Lord has said, I would rather not that! A reservation of obedience, it may be, as to some part of His Word. It is dangerous always to begin to catalogue possibilities, for it is easy to miss the one that applies. But remember that upon what may seem to you a very small matter of the Lord's will, the Lord's desire, there may be hanging everything of God's desire and God's purpose. Nothing is small, when it is a matter of obedience to the Lord. Everything hangs upon it.

God Allies Himself with the Utterly Obedient

"By myself have I sworn..." Notice the repetition of the "I will" of God in relation to the man of obedience. The Lord has committed Himself, the Lord has allied Himself, the Lord has put Himself in line with the man of utter obedience. It is no small thing to have the Lord allied, committed, bound up with your life.

The Obedience of Faith May Lead into Deep Trial

There follows this, that the obedience of faith may lead into deep trial. In faithfulness we must say that. People very often think that if they are but utterly obedient to the Lord, then the sun will begin to shine at once, and all the shallowness will disappear from the path, and things will be wonderful. Oh, what a comfortable path is the path of absolute obedience! Not always! There is something within which is more than all that may come, but we must be faithful and say that the path of obedience, the obedience of faith, may, and very often does, lead into deep trial. And because trial follows our obedience, when we have abandoned ourselves to the Lord and said we will go utterly after Him, because fiery trial sometimes becomes our lot upon such a step, often the enemy springs in at that point and seeks to make us believe that we have been mistaken, that, after all, this is not the way of the Lord for us, we really have not taken His way, we have gone another way. You know the perplexities and the difficulties which often arise in the realm of doing His will. There is conflict over every step that is taken in the will of God. Very rarely do we take a step of obedience, the obedience of faith, but what instantly we find ourselves in terrible conflict on that very thing, tested by the step we have taken. That is quite in order. It always has been. I expect it always will be. But there is this: it is vindicated at length. "For we have need of patience, that, having done the will of God, ye may receive the promise" (Heb. 10:36). You have need of patience after you have done the will of God. Surely that implies that, even when you have done the will of God, you do not always come immediately into possession of the good, the blessing, the reward. But in the end all obedience of faith is fully vindicated, and you cannot find it otherwise in the case of anyone of those who have taken that course.

The Obedience of Faith Signifies the Dominion of the Lord over the Life

It indicates how much He is Lord, how much we have become abandoned to Him, how much He dominates our whole being, our whole life, our whole course here, all our interests. This is indicated, signified, by the obedience of faith. Where the Lord is not utterly Lord, obedience and faith are limited, are divided. Obedience is proportioned to abandonment to His dominion. It may prove a serious test as to where we are. Are you holding something back? Are you not responding in some matter? Have you got a controversy with the Lord? Have you been arguing? There is no harm in it! Other good people do it! Are you finding a back-door way out of something that the Lord has presented to you? It does not matter about other people. "Why call ye me Lord, and do not the things which I say?" See where He puts things. "If you are honest in what you say, when you call Me, Lord, then it needs be that you do all that I say!" The two things go together; otherwise there is a contradiction. The obedience of faith is that by which His Lordship is signified as a reality.

A man after God's heart! The glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ! Here is the Man after God's heart. Notice those two passages to which we have referred: "...found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross" (Phil. 2:8); "...bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ..." (2 Cor. 10:5). That is but another way of saying, being made conformed to the image of His Son. "...Obedient unto death..."; "every reasoning into captivity to the obedience of Christ" (R.V.M.) - Is there a vindication? "Wherefore also God highly exalted him..." That is the Man with Whom by faith and the Holy Ghost we are joined.

The Lord give us obedient hearts, Christ-likeness. May we come into the place where all the fullness of the Lord's desire for us is possible of realization, because He has a clear way opened in our hearts by the obedience of faith.

Chapter 3 - The Seamless Robe

READING: Ezekiel 43:1-12; Psalm 22:18; John 19:23-24.

The Man Created

As we dwell upon that seamless robe of the Lord Jesus, and see how it was under the very careful, sovereign preservation and protection of God, it is difficult to fail to see that the robe speaks in a typical way of the humanity of the Lord Jesus, of that which the Son of God wore. What did the Son of God wear? He wore the Son of Man! He wore a human life. He wore, as a garment, humanity. He took upon Him the form of a Man. He was found in fashion as a Man. This is signified in the vesture. The vesture, in a word, then, speaks of His humanity. This robe is presented to us as something complete, whole, a perfect unity: of one piece, woven from the top throughout. That is God's conception for man. That is the Man conceived in the mind of God. That humanity is the product of the counsels of God from eternity; man, in himself personally, individually, and collectively, corporately, a complete whole, a perfect unity; of one piece, woven from the top throughout.

The man created, as produced by the hand of God, as the result of that Divine activity, God's weaving, shall we say, of the humanity of the man, Adam, is a figure of Him that was to come. Before there was any complicity with the adversary, the Devil, before there was any disobedience through unbelief, man was in his own being and nature a unity, a harmony, an accord, a whole. The man created was not a discord, not a tangle, was not a contradiction, was not a divided being, in his own self. He was a figure of Him that was to come; a whole, a unity, of one piece.

The Man Ruined

What is the nature of the ruin? It is as of a one-piece garment rent and torn to shreds.

If you have a one-piece garment torn, you know quite well that you cannot make that good. If you have a two-piece, a three-piece, or a four-piece, you know that in the part where the tear takes place you can remove that and replace it. But when it is a one-piece thing, it is ruined when it is torn. You can patch it, but you have not restored it to its original perfection. You can sew it up, but you have not made it as it was. There have been many efforts to sew up torn humanity, to patch it up, but the patch always reveals the damage, the sewing up always betrays that something has happened, and before long, under given strain the thing breaks again. The Lord Jesus says, "No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment"; for the rent is only made worse.

No, this humanity once torn is ruined, and there is no hope but in a new garment, because of its essential oneness before God.

I ask you, is it not true that man is anything but a unity in himself, a oneness, a harmony, a perfect whole? We know ourselves that we are torn and rent, as it were, into many fragments, contradictory elements, in our own make-up. Is not Romans 7 the great unveiling of the dividedness of man? Even when he is brought under Divine law, that dividedness is brought all the more to light. "For that which I do I know not; for not what I would, that do I practice; but what I hate, that I do." Here I am, straining in one direction and going in the opposite. I am a division. I am a contradiction. I am not one piece. I desire right, but against my desire I do wrong, and in spite of all my purposing I do it. I am not one. A river always flows in one direction, in one way, but not so human nature. It is sadly otherwise with our nature now. We are not flowing all one way. Even when perhaps the greater part seems to be working harmoniously to one end, there is always a reactionary "something" in us, a kick back. It needs no stressing that we are anything but a unity. No, the garment has been rent. Even our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Man's humanity now is in rags at its best. Man is ruined, torn, disrupted.

The New Man Pre-figured

We shall not stay longer than to point out that in the Old Testament there is a pre-figuring of the new man. In those men who came into a living relationship with God in the Old Testament, you find the spiritual and moral threads of the new man pre-figured, the threads being woven typically into the form of the new man. It may be the faith of an Abraham, the meekness of a Moses, the worship of a David, the truth of an Elijah, the life of an Elisha, and so on. These are all threads in typical men, being woven into the One Perfect Man, the garment of a renewed humanity. All of them are to be found in the new Man when He comes. He takes up all those moral elements, all those spiritual features; they are woven from the top throughout in His humanity. See the wonder of His faith, the beauty of His humility, His meekness: See the devoutness of His worship, His honouring of God, His Father: See the zeal for truth which burns with a blazing heat more than that of Elijah: See Him as the life, the power of life triumphant over death, as in an Elisha, and so on. These are all the threads of His humanity, and all this is pre-figured in the Old Testament.

The New Man Provided

No longer is it now the figure, but the Man Himself. His humanity is not the humanity of Adam, but a transcendent humanity. There is all the difference between God creating Adam and God providing Jesus Christ. But we will not stay with the comparison or contrast between Adam and Christ for the moment. We point out that the new Man is provided, and in this new Man you cannot detect any join; you cannot trace any place where two things have been sewn together. He is not in parts, He is whole. Oh, the wonderful completeness, perfection, balance, wholeness, harmony of His humanity. He can be angry, with a burning anger, without ever losing His balance and allowing fleshly heat to come in; but, being angry, He can at the same time be full of love. He can turn from one thing to another, and on the surface these things may seem to be altogether at variance, and yet in Him they are so perfectly poised that you are no longer sensible of any contradiction in His Presence. We could stay a long time with the perfect balance of His humanity, the oneness of His humanity. Oh, He is not a patchwork: He is not so many parts joined together: He is a perfect whole. He is of one piece, woven from the top throughout.

The New Man Tested

The new Man provided! Ah, yes, but tested. This humanity, like the garment, is subjected to the test. All the strain is loosed upon it. Its power for taking moral strain is tested. Every one of those threads in the garment is put to the test. Meekness? Cast Thyself down from the pinnacle of the Temple! What would such an act have been? A proud boast! And men would have said, You are a wonderful Man; we will follow You! No, to have yielded would have been to have forsaken meekness. "Behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass's colt" (John 12:15). But that meekness was oft-times put to the test. On another occasion the multitude would take Him by force and make Him King, and He escaped through the midst of them. There it is given us to see His devotion to His Father, that devotion which is the essence of worship, the fear of the Lord, that utter abandonment to God. That was the great characteristic of David's life. Whatever were the faults of David, you cannot get away from the true worshipfulness of his being toward God. The sublime touches in the darkest hours of David's life are those. Even when he has sinned in numbering Israel, and God visits his sin with terrible judgment, he goes down before God and says, "Lo, I have sinned, and I have done perversely: but these sheep, what have they done? Let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against my father's house" (2 Sam. 24:17). What fear of the Lord! What reverence for God! What a falling down before God in utterness of surrender and yieldedness! That was the spirit of David's life. And the perfection of that spirit, that devotion to His Father in the life of the Lord Jesus was put to severe tests. "If thou be the Son!" Right at the end, when men come and take Him with swords and staves, Son of God as He was, He tells them that if He should ask His Father He would send twelve legions of angels: but that devotion to His Father must mean that the angels must stay where they were. He was put to the test.

We might dwell upon all the moral features of Christ, and see how they were tested, tried under strain. This fabric underwent a very severe test in every thread.

The New Man Proved

Tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin! Not only without sinning in the act, but without sin is this Man. Sin is a deeper thing than sinning.

The New Man Perfected

How? Through suffering. This is the word of the Lord. I said that in a Conference some years ago, and afterwards I was taken to task very severely: How dare you speak about Jesus Christ being perfected! He always was perfect! He was never anything but perfect! But I quote Scripture: "Made perfect through sufferings" (Heb. 2:10). That is said of Him. We need not stop to argue the doctrine. To quote the Scripture is enough. He was sinless: He was perfect; and yet He was perfected. If you cannot understand the seeming contradiction look again, and ask the Lord to enlighten you. It is only another way of saying that He was perfected through the strain placed upon the fabric.

A sapling may have no vices in it. It may be a perfect tree as a sapling. But show me that sapling grown to the full tree in a few years' time, and I will say, It is perfected through sufferings: not that those sufferings bore witness to any vice, but its perfections were being brought out to perfection through the storm, the stress, the strain. It is a matter of the measure of perfection, not so much of kind.

The Man Installed

"I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God" (Acts 7:56). "Inasmuch as he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained" (Acts 17:31). The Man is eventually coming again to be the instrument of the judgment of this world in righteousness. God shall judge the thoughts of men by Jesus Christ: "He gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man" (John 5:27). It is into the hands of the Son of Man that God has given all authority in heaven and in earth. Thank God that there is a Man in the glory. Thank God for all that means for you and for me in our need of a perfected humanity. He is installed there as God's standard, and the earnest of our full conformity to the image of God's Son is that He has given us His Spirit. We have the earnest of that. "When he shall appear, we shall be like him: for we shall see him as he is" (1 John 3:2). What is the earnest, the guarantee, the title deed? The Spirit of Christ now dwelling within.

The New Man Related, and Corporately Expressed

"And gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all" (Ephes. 1:22-23). What is the expression of that? Or, shall we put it in another way: What is the significance and implication of Christ related as in the simile of a seamless robe? As Head of the Church which is His Body, He is a oneness of nature, a oneness of life, a oneness of everything. His Headship represents the oneness that is in Christ Jesus.

We can hardly divide these two last features. They are really the two sides of one whole; related, and corporately expressed. They are represented by two letters, the letter to the Colossians, and the letter to the Ephesians. One sets forth the absolute sovereign Headship of Christ, the other the unity of the Church which is His Body. They have their own emphasis and meaning and value. The Colossian letter sees all things gathered up into Christ, summed up in Him, and all things holding together in Him; and then the statement is made that He is the Head of the Church, His Body. As Head, in that perfected, glorified humanity, there is secured and established a oneness which is indestructible.

Look back for a moment upon that seamless robe. The Psalmist has prophesied. Hundreds of years afterwards the scenes of the Cross are transpiring. The scenes pass rapidly, with their many details and incidents, and in the course of the whole these men, the roughest, most brutal, insensible, cruel, thoughtless, caring really nothing about fine things, having crucified Jesus, sat down to watch Him, so we are told by Matthew. They had stripped Him of His garments, and their eyes fell upon them, and they saw the possibility of some capital in those garments. They were avaricious men, whose whole thought was any kind of acquisition, gain, profit; yes, profit out of a thing like this. Did ever man sink so low? To crucify a Man, and then in the presence of that dying One to think only of what they could get out of His garments for themselves? So they, being four, find four pieces, and take one each. Then coming to a fifth and recognizing that this is a garment which is of one piece and that there is not much to be gained by dividing it into four, they toss for it. That is what it amounts to. The dice is brought out and cast, and one man is lucky and gets the seamless robe in addition to the other. It all looks like a horrible bit of the whole evil programme. And yet, standing back in the shadows, is God Almighty, exercising His sovereign power, bridging the gap of hundreds of years. A Psalmist had prophesied under the inspiration of the Eternal Spirit, and God is watching that word to perform it, and the most brutal, cruel, insensible men come under that sovereignty unconsciously, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. Even the worst of men are compelled to fulfill the counsels of God, and that oft-times unconsciously. Anything that belongs to Christ is watched over by God. It is because of the principle lying behind it, the spiritual meaning in the thought of God.

What does that seamless robe mean? God is careful of His types, of His prophecies, even of His foreshadowings, until He brings them to fulfilment. Not one bit of the type has failed of fulfilment, and this shall not, and God brings it through in His sovereign over-ruling. Of what does it speak? It speaks of a unity which Christ represents which is indestructible, a oneness in Him which cannot be divided. It means, in one broad, glorious word of affirmation, that in Christ victorious all the damage by the fall has been put away, and God has secured His thought. There is no rent here. That has all been removed. The old garment of Adam has been destroyed, and God has brought in His new seamless garment, and established it in the place where it can never again be rent. Satan cannot get at Him. Sin cannot get at Him. All these have tried themselves out to the limit upon that garment, and by sovereign power He has triumphed. By the glory of the Eternal Spirit in Him He has overcome. The oneness of Christ by the Eternal Spirit has been preserved, and it is there in a related position, related to you and to me. Turning it round the other way, through faith in Christ and by receiving the Holy Spirit, we are related to Him and all His perfect humanity.

What is the corporate expression? "Till we all attain unto the unity of the faith unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephes. 4:13). "Joined to the Lord one spirit" (1 Cor. 6:17). What is the Church? What is the Body of Christ? It is that which by the Eternal Spirit is linked with the exalted and perfected Lord in one life and in one substance. We are partakers. When we take the loaf and the cup we are testifying to the fact that we are partaking by faith in the spirit of that perfect humanity. We look, in other words, into the face of Jesus Christ, and, as we look, we are changed into the same image. Oh, that we might see, on the one hand, what Christ installed and related means, and then what the Church is as the expression of the unity of Christ, the oneness of Christ, through partaking of Him. To use the word in the Colossians, "Holding fast the head." It is not too late even now for the Lord to have a company on this earth who will hold fast the Head. What does it mean to hold fast the Head? In a word, it means to allow the Lord Jesus to express Himself in us in absolute sovereignty, to bring us into the unity of the Spirit, the unity of the faith, the unity of direct government from heaven. That is the only way to unity. Now some of the things we are up against are just in that realm. The question arises, is it to be ecclesiastical government or government by the Holy Ghost? That is one of the great issues - the government of a man-established system, or government by the Holy Ghost? Is it to be an order imposed from the outside, or is it to be the form expressed from the inside? In a word, is it to be ecclesiastical, or is it to be organic?

These are tremendous issues. The answering of those things all bears upon this great question of holding fast the Head. Is it to be the Holy Ghost, or is it to be the committee? I have never known members of my body to get into committee, to tell the head what it ought to do. I have never known my arm and my hand, and perhaps some other members, saying, Now look here, we will form a board, and get up our programme, and tell the head what we want done or what we intend to do, and how we intend to do it! It does not work that way. The head governs the members. Which kind of order will obtain depends on how far the truth of holding fast the Head is being expressed. The oneness of Christ in His thought, His purpose, His way, His means, His time, His everything, expressed in the saints, is what is in view. It is not too late to have that in a company.

Now what is the occasion of all that we have said? Well, when we have said everything, we have to come back to this, that after all, old Adam is not a unity like that, and that is why you get such a contrary expression in what is called the Church. Discords, divisions, contradictions, contrasts, schisms, stress! Oh, the history of the Church as an earthly thing is just such a history as that. That is its history because it is an earthly thing. But Christ is one. And I do not believe that you will get three or four different interpretations of the same Scripture, if you are under the government of the Holy Ghost. I do not believe that you will get three or four different orders of Church arrangement, if you are under the government of the Holy Spirit. He is one. Christ is one. It is not for us, mark you, to say, Well, we are right and everybody else is wrong! Beware of any spirit like that! But I do say this: Be quite sure that the ground upon which you stand is not the ground of your study, your reason, your comparing of one thing with another, but upon the ground of the absolute sovereignty and the Headship of Jesus Christ by the Holy Ghost. If you do not stand on that ground, you have no right whatever to claim to be superior to others.

However, we come to this position at last. The Cross surely does come in and cleave between Adam in all his dividedness, his discord, his torn and rent state. Individually and collectively the Cross cuts that whole thing off: in its tatters, in its rags, in its divided threads, in its ruined fabric, and puts it away. It is rolled up like a garment and buried for ever, and in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus the new man comes in, a unity, a whole.

We can test our relationship to the Lord Jesus on two points. Firstly, that we find there is a progressive triumph in our own being of that which is ruling out the contradiction, a progressive victory taking place over the schism in our own being; that Christ is getting the upper hand more and more, and bringing us to that glorious peace which is the peace of harmony. That, of course, wants a lot of explaining and breaking up, but let us touch it at one small point and you will see what we mean, and it will open a great field. As we go on with the Lord, walking in the Spirit, or in other words, as Christ is becoming more and more Master in us, so there is a lessening and a decreasing of those awful conflicts, and of that awful unrest and lack of peace, that spring from our trying to explain the ways of the Lord. Faith has ruled out our reasonings, and we are learning to trust the Lord, and peace comes in. We are in the ascendant, and the dividedness, the stormy conflict of our own souls, is silenced, is hushed; He is bringing about a harmony. I believe as we become more and more spiritually mature we shall have fewer storms between ourselves and the Lord, and more peace; not because things will become easier; not because problems will cease to exist; not because mysteries will disappear, but because faith is trusting the Lord, and all this schism in our being is being subdued; and we are coming to a poise, a balance, a rest, a settledness. It is the oneness in us of Christ.

What is true in the individual becomes true amongst the saints, and we can again test our relationship to the Lord, our progress, by the transcendence through His love of those human elements, those natural things, which come between us, so that while the natural things are still there, and people are still themselves, and the old Adam is not ruled out in other people, nevertheless there is a growing ascendancy over that in others, a forbearance, an understanding, a love, and the seamless robe is being woven; for the beauty, so to speak, is being expressed in the Body.

Woven from the top! Where is that? Where the Head is. Woven from the top throughout! The Lord give us to wear inwardly and outwardly the seamless robe.