WHAT HAS COME FROM CHRIST’S DEATH
Genesis 2: 21-25
Revelation 21: 1-6
PM I was affected this morning by singing hymn 152, which speaks of what has come out of the death of Christ. I wondered if we might get some impression of that in our enquiry together and see how each divine Person operated in relation to the death of Christ. We have some suggestion of that in these verses in Genesis: “Jehovah Elohim caused a deep sleep to fall upon Man; and he slept”. It speaks of what the Godhead was working out in relation to the securing of its purpose, which could be secured in no other way than through the death of Christ. There is what the man did; “he slept”. Then Jehovah Elohim brought the woman to Man. We may draw on other passages to show the greatness of what has come out of His death.
In Revelation there is a setting in which God will tabernacle with men and in which men will be at perfect liberty. God Himself will put His own touch upon men to set them in liberty, “he shall wipe away every tear”. He will remove the sorrows that have entered into the responsible path which will by then have been completed, and He will remove every tear; He will set man in perfect liberty with Himself, He will tabernacle. I wondered if we might get some impression as to that and see the importance and the value of the death of Christ, apart perhaps from the sin question, important and necessary as that is. There was what divine Persons were working out for themselves through the death of Christ.
AEM That is very good. Is there a link with what we had yesterday as to the way that divine Persons did not react to circumstance; they were carrying out the divine intent in this thought that “Jehovah Elohim caused a deep sleep”. Is there a link there?
PM I think so. The fact that this comes before sin came in would give us some impression that it was ever in God’s mind to secure His end in a way that man would never have chosen, that One divine Person should come into manhood and go into death. Apart from the meeting of our need, the important thing was the meeting of God’s need; the purpose of God flowed from His heart. I think it is important to lay hold of that. It was the heart of God that necessitated His purpose. His purpose was not that He would have man in flesh and blood, not even Christ in flesh and blood. He was not going to have man in that condition, perfect as that was in Christ, but He was going to have Man according to Christ in a world of new creation.
AJMcK The detail of the translation we have is wise, and I wonder if it bears on what you are saying. This verse 21 begins with the word “And”, not ‘so’. It helps us to see that what God did was not a reaction to there being no helpmate found for Adam. God was not simply responding to finding something missing. The matter was all in God’s mind, that this course had to be followed in order for God to secure what was in His heart and in His mind.
PM What was in the purpose of God was never going to be thwarted because of what Satan brought in. God was going to carry His purpose through irrespective of that; and He was going to have an answer in a glorious vessel to the Man who was not now in flesh and blood, in that wonderful condition in which He moved here, in which God found His delight. But He looked on to the moment when He would have Christ out of death: “Except the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it abides alone”, John 12: 24.
RDP You made reference to “Jehovah Elohim”. What is the significance of that?
PM I was thinking as to the greatness of God Himself, operating in view of the securing of His purpose. Jehovah Elohim is a plural name.
RDP It struck me that that was added. It could have just been ‘Jehovah caused’ but it is “Jehovah Elohim caused” as if it is a particular view of Jehovah in His operations.
PM I think it is to give us some sense of the greatness of God, that no power was going to thwart what He was going to accomplish. Jehovah Elohim operated for Himself.
RDP I was thinking of what you were saying as to the Godhead: there is a certain mystery as to the Godhead, Christ coming into flesh and manhood; and you also made reference to the Spirit. Underlying all this are the steady, definite, unruffled, and unchanged thoughts of God; not diverted or hindered by man’s inability or failure or circumstance. The Godhead was moving in relation to its great end. Is that what you had in mind?
PM Yes, that is helpful; the supremacy of God lies behind all that He has done.
RSH In the previous paragraph it says, “I will make him a helpmate, his like”, Gen 2: 18. The will of God came into it right from the very beginning. Would that link with what you are saying as to before there was any need on man’s part - “I will”?
PM Very good; bringing out again the purpose of God. He was going to have an answer in a counterpart to Christ. Think of the Lord Jesus having a helpmate, a counterpart, one in whom, as we have in Psalm 22, He could sing the praises of God, v 22. That counterpart was necessary: “in the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises”, Heb 2: 12. Divine Persons had nothing less in mind than that, immediately the Lord Jesus was out of death, there would be an answer to God in a way that there had never been before; and it would be in the midst of the assembly.
JRW What do you understand by “built the rib”?
PM Does it give us an impression that the assembly is of Christ? This was substantial. The rib was substantial; He took the rib and built it. Jehovah was the first builder. He built it because there was to be what was entirely of Christ in the assembly,
JRW It is confirmed by what Man says: “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh”. It is of Him. We are taught that the assembly is heavenly in origin and destiny. I sometimes find it easier to understand destiny because that is brought out in Revelation, but what about origin?
PM She is heavenly, because she is of Him; we have been taught that she is heavenly in origin, in character and destiny; and the character relates to what was built. Not only is she of Christ, but she is like Him. Man could say, “This time it is bone of my bones”.
JRW It is an answer to His longings, to His love, to His desires that is entirely suitable.
PM Think of the Lord Jesus as Man needing a helpmate. We might just ponder that. In one sense, He needed nothing, being who He is in His Person, Himself giving life to everything; but as Man He needed a helpmate and He has one through His going into death.
GMcK There seems to be quite a lot in this about the expression, “This time”. “This time it is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh”. God works that way. He brings something in before to bring out the wonder of His final thought. The suitability of the woman is intensified by what had come before which has its own place. We have first a picture of Christ as Head of the creation - Adam gave all the animals their names. This served to intensify the suitability of the woman.
PM “This time” would give us some impression as to the feelings of Christ. He has been given to be Head over all things. His headship is wide; He is Head of all creation. Think of the greatness of Christ. It is not exactly His dominion which satisfies Him; what satisfies Him is what answers to His heart. He is Head over all things to the assembly.
DJMcK There is nothing wrong with the first creation, nothing deficient, but there seems to be what is more appropriate in the second. We had yesterday about God taking away the first and establishing the second, Heb 10: 9. There is nothing wrong with what is in the first, but the second is what would always be God’s fullest thought.
PM The creation from the hand of God was perfect but it could not answer to the heart of Christ. The death of Christ was necessary in order that there might be an answer to the heart of Christ. It struck me that the whole of the Godhead was involved in that. He “who by the eternal Spirit offered himself spotless to God” (Heb 9: 14); the Spirit was involved in this way in the death of Christ. Think of God not sparing His own Son but delivering Him up, Rom 8: 32. The whole of the Godhead was involved in relation to the death of Christ. What a moment it was. Mr Darby said the cross is the centre of the history of eternity, Synopsis vol 3 p361.
GAC What has been referred to is a very particular thing. This whole entity which was to be built looks on to what was compatible in every way with Christ in this setting. The feelings, the understanding, everything; is that something that we need to appreciate?
PM I am sure of that. With the animal creation it was formed by a word, but when we come to the assembly it has been built detail by detail. The capability to respond and to appreciate His love and answer to it was all built step by step in the forming of the assembly, typically from the rib taken from the side of Christ.
GAC This that we know as “my assembly” (Matt 16: 18) is very near and precious, and completely compatible and suitable. It is so special to Christ. We should get a glimpse of that for our own understanding.
PM I think so. We need to be careful in the way we speak because we can enter into deep waters in these matters. “This time it is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” would really link with what we have in Ephesians 3 that the assembly is “in Christ Jesus”, verse 21. We have been helped in the good teaching to see that that is more than unity. It is oneness, entire oneness: “the assembly in Christ Jesus” is one divine concept, and in the purpose of God it has been secured through the death of Jesus. There could have been no answer for the heart of Christ apart from the death of Jesus. The assembly does not have part with Him in the condition of flesh and blood into which He came; that condition had to be laid down. That was typified in the manna in the golden pot that was laid up before God in all its distinctiveness, Heb 9: 4. We could not have part with Him, and the assembly could not have part in that condition. He says to Mary, “Touch me not”, John 20: 17. She had known Him in flesh and blood conditions but He says, “Touch me not”. He was now in a new condition as out of death. The assembly has no part with Him in flesh and blood, but she has part with Him now in the condition in which He now is; united as one.
RDP It is interesting that the Man was said to be created, Gen 1: 27. He “formed Man, dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and Man became a living soul”, Gen 2: 7. Here you get the thought of building a rib, which suggests almost a process. The Lord says, “on this rock I will build my assembly” (Matt 16: 18), as if there was a process. In the creation of man we do not seem to have what was developed: it was creation. But this idea of building enters into the formation of the assembly. I wonder if it has any bearing on the present time, and the time coming at the end of God’s ways.
PM Is that challenging to us because it is to come into expression in the way in which we move here? No particular company can say that they are the assembly. We have to be clear about that, but we seek to walk in the light of it, and the features of what is being built are to come into expression in our local companies. Is that what you are thinking?
RDP I am asking really. We are in the building time in that sense; “I will build”. He built the rib. There is what is absolutely basic, not from the dust. Woman was not made from the dust; it was wholly of the Man. He built the rib that He had taken and He brought her to Man. There is that aspect of the assembly, the bride for Christ and seeking a bride for Christ.
PM The building is still proceeding. There is what is here. When the Holy Spirit came, the house of God was established; the assembly of God was here. Yet as far as the personnel are concerned the building goes on. Paul could address “the assembly of God which is in Corinth” before a broken day. The assembly of God in Corinth was there, but what you say is important; as far as we are concerned as the personnel, the building goes on and the building goes on in view that assembly features might come into greater expression.
RDP The scripture refers to the Lord as going into death: “who, in view of the joy lying before him, endured the cross”, Heb 12: 2. That joy was a prospect. It was something - whatever that involved, a very blessed thing that the assembly has been formed not just as a painted picture, but something that has gradually come in and through process been built. The Lord presents it as, “I will build”.
PM In the early chapters of Acts you get persons being added to the assembly. You made an inference that Man became a living soul, but that is not said as to the woman. Does it link with what we have in John 14 as to the Spirit’s day? In that day: “because I live ye also shall live”, v 19. The assembly’s life is in the life of Christ; that is where her life is. Because He is living she is living. I remember Mr Lyon saying that if Christ no longer lived the assembly would no longer live either. She lives in His life.
AJMcK That is life out of death. I was wondering about this “deep sleep”.
PM A “deep sleep”: think of what it meant that He should go that way, not in relation to sin, but that He should go into the very domain of death itself. It is His own action, “he slept”.
AJMcK I was thinking about what was said about what has been built; divine feelings as to the depth of sleep. Those divine feelings are what enter into the building. In the building there is what perfectly answers to the feelings of the Godhead that you are bringing before us in relation to the depth of the sleep. This gives us a view of the quality of what is now for Christ.
PM Yes we have to speak humbly as to that. I am sure what you are saying is right. There is here upon earth that which, as indwelt by the Spirit, shares the feelings of the Lord Jesus, and feels as He feels. We are to be exercised to be formed in that. Matters have come up among us: do I feel as He feels as to these matters, do I get resentful or do I get bitter, or do I feel as He feels? What sorrow He knew. These things are to mark us; Mr Lyon spoke of ‘broken-hearted churchmen’; we are to be of that character.
JRW The hymn writer said -
To win Thy bride what depths of
woe were Thine
Scorned and betrayed, beset by
powers malign! (Hymn 99)
Does that link on with your thought?
PM It does very much. It gives us the impression of how set Satan was against the Lord going the way He did. If he could turn Him aside from that path of perfection, there would be no heavenly response for the pleasure of God.
AEM Does it bear the thought of the completeness of the work that was done? There is no element of Satan’s domain or his power that has not been defeated by this One who, of His own accord, slept.
PM I am sure we had reference to it yesterday: “Lo, I come”, Heb 10: 7. He came to go that way and He defeated Satan. He says, “I became dead” (Rev 1: 18): He became what He had never been before. Death works in us; it never worked in Him. He became dead. He could not be held by it; He broke it entirely.
AEM What would you say in separating the two thoughts from the beginning of the reading about Jehovah Elohim causing it?
PM I was only thinking of the way in which the Godhead was involved in the Lord going this way. The Lord Jesus says, “I have a baptism to be baptised with”, Luke 12: 50. Think of Him accepting that from the Father’s hand, that He would go that way in order that there should be an answer. Isaiah 53 has been quoted: “When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see a seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in his hand”, v 10. The Godhead was working unitedly; one of the Godhead here in manhood. The Godhead working unitedly in view of an answer that would be there for God eternally.
AEM That is very helpful: “they went both of them together”, Gen 22: 6. There are feelings involved in that.
RDP We sometimes find the scripture difficult to understand that “it pleased Jehovah to bruise him; he hath subjected him to suffering”. I was thinking of this matter of causing. The idea of causing something to happen seems to suggest the gentle sustained unchanging effect of something which is not like a direct command. It may involve a whole multitude of things really, causing.
PM The One who was going this way was no less than the One of whom it says, “he spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast”, Ps 33: 9. He could not do that in relation to the securing of the assembly. He had to go into death.
RDP It is interesting too, the causing involves the idea of His coming or His being sent: “Lo, I come”. You get the impression it was in relation to what was mysterious in relation to the whole divine purpose, the sending, in relation to that pathway of service, and the immediate identification of the Spirit in that, which is underlined by “I come”. The causing seems to be very precious.
PM I was thinking of that in the night, as to the Lord being sent and Himself coming. He was sent as being in a position of subjection and obedience. You could not take it back to before the incarnation. He was on equality with God before the incarnation, but it was as Man that He was sent because He was here as an obedient dependent Man.
WBMcK You referred to the heart of God, in purpose. I wonder if you could say something as to the affections of God in relation to this. The affections of God are in building something for the pleasure of Christ.
PM It was a necessity on God’s part that there should be an answer for Christ and for God Himself, which is what we have in Revelation 21. It was the necessity of His heart. It was not just for the display of His holiness, although it will be that, but it was the necessity of His heart, and therefore in Revelation 21 it is the movements of His heart in which He moves to set persons at perfect liberty in His presence, so that He might be the Object of all, eternally. What a God we have come to know!
WBMcK Love must have an object to dwell upon. The two scriptures you have read, one at the beginning of the Bible and one at the end, show that God ever had in His mind to reveal His heart, that He might secure an object for it.
PM And therefore this “holy city”, which is in the millennial presentation, has the glory of God (Rev 21: 10), suggesting that it is really formed in the divine nature.
RMcK That is why it comes from God? It is not of the earth. I was thinking of what was said as to the assembly’s origin; this city is not an earthly one.
PM It could not be earthly because it is one with Christ. He fills it. In the millennial day there is no need of the lamp (chap 22: 5), no need of the temple, chap 21: 22. The Lamb is everything in this city; He fills it. How wonderful! Here it is for the pleasure of God. We had some sense this morning that, not only were we at perfect liberty in the presence of God, but that God Himself, we must speak carefully, found His joy in having men near to Himself, and will do that eternally. He will tabernacle with men.
JRW What is involved in the preparation? It says, “prepared”. I suppose there is certain finality about that here, but what is involved in preparation?
PM It says, “prepared as a bride”. There are young sisters here that could tell us what that means. A bride, I assume, in all the preparation she makes has one thought before her, and that is to be for her husband, and that is what has marked the true history of the church, the assembly. Her one thought has been to be for the Husband.
JRW That is helpful. I was thinking of the work of the Holy Spirit at the present time entering into the preparation. I would like more help to understand it. We think typically. The servant had bracelets and gold to adorn Rebecca, Gen 24: 22. The Holy Spirit would work in that sense in preparing the bride. We have the thought of “the friend of the bridegroom”, John 3: 29. The friend of the bridegroom “rejoices in heart”.
PM I was thinking of Genesis 24 because Rebecca is given those adornments and precious things and, having received them, she says to those that she was with, “I will go”, v 59. She had a sense of the man who was in another place; she said she would leave the one where she was. As far as we know she never returned; she says, “I will go”. We can imagine that what permeated the journey to Isaac was that he was speaking of His master. She had said, “Who is the man … ?”, and he says, “That is my master!”, v 65. I believe that was the character of the journey; and is that not something like the preparation we are speaking of, that Isaac (Christ in type) became everything to Rebecca and she was entirely ready and suited to be with him? Her affections became bound up with his. It says, “Isaac led her into his mother Sarah’s tent … and he loved her”.
JRW Preparation involves that our hearts have been attracted to Him. As we are occupied with Him, we can only be attracted to Him.
PM If our hearts are attracted to Christ, we will throw away all the things that are out of keeping with Him. We will discard them; “laying aside every weight, and sin”, Heb 12: 1.
RDP The scripture says, “his wife has made herself ready” (Rev 19: 7), which would perhaps link with what you are saying. Rebecca emerges from the family setting there in relation to what is down here. The journey was made in the company of the servant - typically of the Spirit. I wonder if “his wife has made herself ready” involves the presence and company of the Holy Spirit. That getting ready process involves another divine Person. Another thing that came out of the death of Christ, apart from dealing with sins, is the coming of the Holy Spirit. The smitten rock would indicate that; the water flowed as a result of the rock being smitten, Exod 17: 6. The death of Christ was necessary that the Spirit might come. It seems to be a very vital part of this preparation.
PM I am sure of that. In John 7, “the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified“, v 39. It had to be from a glorified Christ that the Spirit came.
Telling her of all His glory,
Giving grace and power (Hymn 295).
What a service has been rendered by the Holy Spirit coming from a glorified Jesus. He loves to speak as to the lowly pathway; His joy also is speaking of a glorified Christ.
EGMcK I was thinking of what answers from the assembly in intelligence. The Spirit has His part in that. We know the Spirit’s power and presence, and the Spirit moves us to respond in accord with God’s mind and Christ’s affections.
PM It gives us some sense of the greatness of what the assembly is, as wrought upon by the Holy Spirit; a vessel in which are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge; think of a vessel that has that. Israel does not have that; Israel had light, and the light that they will come into will be glorious, but the assembly as wrought upon by the Spirit is a vessel in which is hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. That comes as a test as working things out down here; is it man’s wisdom or is it the wisdom that comes from above which is formed in the assembly?
AEM Why is there in this section, in such a glorious section, this emphasis on wiping away of the tears and things that will be removed forever?
PM What impressed me just pondering this is the delight that God has to set every soul in perfect liberty without anything that has brought in sorrow or grief. We know that sphere of sorrows, and at times we are able to share those of others, but all those sorrows will be wiped away. All things are of the God who has reconciled us to Himself. This is a totally reconciled, perfectly complacent, atmosphere. Everything has come from God Himself, and all that we have entered into here, and the sorrows that we have borne, which may not always be because we have done wrong, but sorrows that we feel because of what has come in, will be removed; there will be nothing to cause us to think of anything other than the enjoyment of the divine presence, and what God has wrought through His ways with us.
AEM That is helpful, God Himself.
ARH I was thinking about what we had at the beginning of the reading about “Jehovah Elohim”. The note to Genesis 1: 1 is useful; “In the beginning God”: the note refers to ‘the Supreme’ or the absolute existence. That very One, His heart is love to me; He will bring these things to pass.
PM That reference refers to the supremacy of God. There used to be a hymn -
Evil’s challenge long permitted –
Met by thy supremacy.
(Hymn 56 in 1951 Little Flock Hymn Book)
You can read right through between these two passages we have read, that Satan’s challenge long permitted has been met by the supremacy of God, and yet that supremacy of God is not keeping us at a distance in this passage in Revelation 21. It is causing us to be near. You cannot wipe away a tear at a distance. A father does not do that; he takes a child into his arms and wipes the tears away. God will do that Himself: how wonderful it is.
AJMcK He does it Himself and for Himself; is that the thought? There is what we will know, and that is blessed, but “God Himself shall be … their God”. That is what He is doing for Himself.
PM Yes, we did not sing it this morning, but it was in the hymn that our brother gave out -
No tear-filled eyes then left to chill the joy
Of new creation’s bliss without alloy!
(Hymn 61)
Think of the joy that God will have to tabernacle with men where everything is according to His holiness and according to His nature and He will find delight in setting men in liberty:
This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell,
for I have desired it, Ps 132: 14.
RDP It is interesting to me that it says, “I will tabernacle”. You spoke about essential wiping away of the tears. You have to get very close, and so with the tabernacle. The tabernacle was relatively small compared to the expanse of the wilderness. It was very small, very close and confined. You would not have needed mechanised transport to get from one end to the other; short steps would do. It is interesting that God uses that idea: “the tabernacle of God”; He will dwell. It is not only near, but in close quarters. He says somewhere, “I went about in a tent” (2 Sam 7: 6), as if there was something that God found in that that was very close to His heart.
PM It is difficult for our human minds to understand what it will be like, but there will be myriads upon myriads and every one will be as close to God as everyone else. How wonderful. Not ‘some lone place within the door’.
Witney
3rd November 2019
Key to Initials –
local unless shown otherwise
G A Coull, Aberdeen; A R Hutson, R S Hutson, Bedford; P Martin, Colchester; Alistair J McKay; Duncan J McKay; Eddie G McKay; Garth McKay, Manchester; Rob McKay; Will B McKay; A E Mutton; R D Plant, Birmingham; J R Walkinshaw, Maidstone