(Revised notes of an address.)
How blessed it is for us to have our attention drawn to that One into whose hand the Father has committed all things, and who, from His place of exaltation on high, is caring for His own down here as they pass through the difficulties and trials of life, so that they might be lifted in their spirits above the tempestuous waters in being occupied with Him in His greatness and glory. Having been occupied with the greatness of the Son, and the greatness of the work of the Holy Spirit, as an extension of these subjects, we might now consider the greatness of God as revealed in the Scriptures we have read.
Our first Scripture, in John 1:18, brings before us the revelation of God. There are things connected with God that lie outside the sphere of revelation, for God essentially, dwelleth "in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see;" but here we have, "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." Moses, who was so intimate with God, could not look upon Him: he had to be put in the cleft of the rock, and as God passed by he saw His back parts. The revelation of God awaited the coming into the world of the incarnate Word. How true it is that, if there was to be a revelation of God, it could only be made by a Divine Person; only the Son of His bosom could make the Father known.
If we go back to the opening verses of this wonderful chapter we learn something of the greatness of the Son in whom there came the revelation of God. Who is He? "In the beginning was the Word … and the Word was God." No matter how far the mind can range back, when we get there, back beyond the precincts of time, into eternity, we find the One of whom it is stated that He "was." In this chapter we read what He became, "The Word became flesh;" but we also learn what He "was," and what He "is." Jesus is presented to us in the eternity of His Being as "The Word," and, as is so beautifully emphasised, "The only begotten Son in the bosom of the Father." He came from the Father to reveal Him, but He never left the bosom of the Father; this is His eternal place, and His unique place, in the affections of the Father.
All that lies in the heart of the Father has been made known in the Son; all the goodness of His heart, and all the grace for the blessing of those He has given to the Son. God in His nature of love has been seen in the Son as it could not be seen until the Son came to manifest the Father's Name. In the Old Testament there was no disclosure of God as Father. We find Him making Himself known to Abraham as The Almighty, and by the name of Jehovah He is known to Israel; but only in the Son is there the revelation of the Father.
In John 4 the subject of the worship of the Father is opened up by the Son, where He says, "the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him" (John 4:23). We are not thinking so much here of the glory of the Son, however great that is; nor of the sustaining hand of our great High Priest to take us through the difficulties of the journey: we are looking at something the Son has done for the pleasure of the Father. He has not only revealed the Father, but he has brought to light a company that is suited to the Father's presence, and is capable of presenting to God something for the satisfaction of His own affections: a company to answer to the desires of the Father in worship.
The Son is seen in John 1 as the source of life: "In Him was life;" and in John 3 the Holy Spirit is the power for the communication of divine life, the One through whom we are "born again;" but in John 4 the Holy Spirit is the power for worship, the "well of water springing up into everlasting life." The Spirit as the power of life produces what answers to the will of God; and in the Spirit's power there rises from the hearts of the worshipping company that which answers to His own heart.
When we come to John 13 of John we read, "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God be glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify Him" (John 13:31-32). It is not now God revealed, or God worshipped, but God glorified. The Son of Man is glorified in the perfection of His obedience, His moral glory shining out in all its perfection when He was hanging on the cross, and not only in His submission to all the indignities that men heaped upon Him, but as the voluntary sin offering that procured God's glory in redemption.
The Son had glorified God in every step of His journey, even as He said. "I have glorified Thee on the earth." In all His deep perfections He glorified God in this scene, and at the end glorified God in His death, where the floodgates of divine love were opened that God's love might flow out to fill and satisfy each of our hearts. Not only has God been glorified in His nature of love; He has also been glorified in all His attributes, in His character, His majesty, His truth, His righteousness and His holiness; and all converge on the cross. The cross became a necessity because of what had come in by the first man, but every question that sin had raised found its answer there in Christ, the Son of Man.
Having been glorified by the Son of Man, God has taken Him out of death and glorified Him in Himself, the divine glory shining refulgent in His face in the presence of God. God would not wait for the kingdom glory, but would straightway glorify the Son of Man who had glorified Him in dealing with all that dishonoured His name, and in bringing to Him a new glory, the glory of redemption. The glory of God now shines radiant in the face of Jesus, and in engagement with that blessed Man we are changed from glory to glory, and brought out in His features here.
The only begotten Son had been revealing the Father in all that He was, spoke and wrought; telling of His own relationship with the Father; but in resurrection He made known the Father's Name in a new way when He said to Mary Magdalene, "Touch me not for I am not yet ascended unto my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them. I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to my God and your God" (John 20:17). This fresh revelation brought out the new relationship into which the disciples had been brought through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
Not only has God been revealed in His nature of love; not only has He a company of worshippers to worship Him in spirit and in truth: not only has God been glorified by the Son of Man; but God has brought to light the company associated with His own Son as His brethren, and who are His sons in association with His Son. In John 10 the Lord had spoken of His disciples as "My sheep:" in John 15 He had called them "My friends:" but now He can speak of them as "My brethren," and announce their new relationship to God the Father in association with Himself.
Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, also speaks of the relationships into which we have been brought with God the Father in association with the Son, showing that this was according to the eternal purpose of God. He writes. "Blessed he the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love" (Eph. 1:3-4). Then the apostle opens up the blessedness of our relationship as sons of God.
How blessed it is to be occupied, as we have been, with the greatness of the Person of the Son, with the greatness of the mission and work of the Spirit of God, and with the wonders of the revelation of God, and all that it means for the glory and pleasure of God, for the joy of the heart of Christ, and for the blessing of those who have been drawn to Christ by the Father Himself. Anon.