LIFE
Jim R Walkinshaw
John 1: 1-5, 14-16; 11: 21-27
I was very encouraged, in view of the hymn that we have sung and our brother's thanksgiving, in the presence of death, to speak of life! As the hymn writer says:
Life is found alone in Jesus,
Only there 'tis offered thee (Hymn 266).
These scriptures that we have read draw our attention to that blessed One, our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the scripture says with the authority of God's word: “All things received being through him, and without him not one thing received being which has received being. In him was life, and the life was the light of men”.
I think if I can speak a little of our sister, although it is not the intention nor would it be her wish for attention to be drawn to her specifically, that the light of her life was her faith and trust in her Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, One who had died for her. But not only had He died for her, He lives again. He is One who was gone into death; as He says elsewhere, “No one has greater love than this, that one should lay down his life for his friends”, chap 15: 13. The question is whether I can find my life, find my joy, find my satisfaction, in such a One as our sister no doubt did? It was the testimony of her life; she found her joy and satisfaction and life in Another, in our Lord Jesus Christ. How wonderful that is! To have some sense in your soul that there is One glorious Man who has loved me enough to die for me! How great He is!
I read this first section because it brings out the greatness of the One of whom we speak, One who was in the beginning “with God”, and “was God”. How great is the Person of whom we speak, One who in His Person is beyond us to comprehend, and yet the preciousness of what comes out in God's ways is that that blessed One is the Word. It says simply here, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us”. Think of what that involved for the Saviour; think of what it involved for the One who was life and that “life was the light of men”! The apostle Paul brings it out in Philippians; he says, “but emptied himself” (chap 2: 7), what that meant for Him. One who “did not esteem it an object of rapine to be on an equality with God: but emptied himself” (v 6,7), found here in figure as a Man. And as here He “humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross”. The way that the Lord Jesus went was the way of the cross. He suffered there, and He died on the cross. He suffered there because of sin; He suffered there, I can say, for my sins; the apostle Peter says, “who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree”, 1 Pet 2: 24. It is a precious matter to be able to say He bore my “sins in his body on the tree”. Can you say that? Can you say the Lord Jesus bore your sins in His body on the tree? And that He shed His precious blood, a witness to that work was completed there to the entire and eternal satisfaction of God? So “the Word became flesh”; that One who was so great came into manhood and here He displayed the love of God. It says, “and we have contemplated his glory”, then lower down it says, ”No one has seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”; He was here declaring and demonstrating the love of God.
Chapter 11 is a wonderful chapter to read in the presence of death; these persons here were grieving, as are we in this locality, and many others around ,and the family, feeling the loss of a dear sister and what that will mean. But the Lord Jesus, I believe, would come in with a touch of comfort as He did with Martha here; and He says, “I am the resurrection and the life”. I would suggest that everything that we have in relation to the future rests in Him, and our faith and trust as in Him would bring in the comfort and the grace. Indeed, I might say the joy too, as we look at what we have been anticipating in our hymn, that the Lord Jesus is coming again, soon coming to take all those that love Him to be with Himself. So, the Lord Jesus says to Martha, “Thy brother shall rise again”. We would be sure, as our brother suggested in thanksgiving, that our sister will rise again! The Lord is coming, and all those that love Him will hear His voice and will rise to be with Him, and we will meet Him in the air, “and thus”, the apostle says in 1 Thessalonians, “we shall be always with the Lord”, chap 4: 17.
So I wondered if our hearts might just be encouraged in being occupied with the One who is life, “the resurrection and the life”; He says, “he that believes on me, though he have died, shall live”. Our sister at the present time, spirit and soul, is in bliss with the Lord Jesus, we know not in what situation it may be, but we know that she is with her Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then He says, “every one who lives and believes on me shall never die”. You have a never-dying soul; if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ you will be kept in life, and that life can be enjoyed even at the present time; even in the presence of death itself, life can be found in Jesus, and can be enjoyed at the present time.
May our hearts be encouraged and may we know more of it for His Name's sake and His glory.
Maidstone
6th Oct 2022