1 Samuel 16: 1, 2
Isaiah 42: 1
Psalm 2: 7
John 13: 31, 32
RFW We will have received various impressions during our occasion this morning, and we would trust that something of the richness of them might flow into this occasion. I had a thought in relation to these verses in John 13, as to the glory of Christ as the Accomplisher of all that was in the divine mind, and the joy that God the Father has in glorifying Him in that connection. It says, “Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God also shall glorify him in himself“. I have an impression that God has infinite satisfaction in Christ as the Accomplisher of His will, and delights to honour Him in that connection. And then it says He “shall glorify him immediately”. As we know Christ will be glorified publicly and universally, but that awaits Him. But there is an area of things in which His glory is known here now and that area of things is in the assembly. And so I was wondering if, as those of the assembly, we should have some enhanced appreciation of what the Lord Jesus Christ is to God. That led me to think of these scriptures which seem to suggest what the Lord Jesus is for God. First of all, it is "a sheep" - “God will provide himself with a sheep for a burnt-offering”. And then He provides Himself a king in 1 Samuel 16. The thought of David as king originated with God - “I have provided me a king amongst his sons”. Then He says in Isaiah 42: 1, “Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth”. Then in Psalm 2: 7, “Thou art my Son”. So we have the sheep for a burnt offering; God’s king, God’s servant, and then God’s Son. I wonder if we might enquire about these references.
DMW These features speak of Christ, what He is to God - My King, My Servant, My Son. We could understand that this personal outflow from God is to exalt this blessed Man, this Person, before our affections and before the universe that He has secured for God.
RFW In every aspect of His service He has glorified God, and God has glorified Him. In every situation that He took up there was perfection. We see that in respect of the Lord Jesus as the sheep for a burnt offering, as God’s King, His Servant, or supremely as His Son.
DMW These are wonderful thoughts to get into our souls. We speak often - and rightly so - of the devotedness, the committal, of the Lord Jesus, for the Father’s pleasure and for God’s will; but the Father is with Him in everything, and He is committed to the Lord Himself, would you say?
RFW Just so. The anointing of Christ implies the full committal of God to Him. The anointing brings out the blessedness of divine committal to that One, God having full assurance that He would carry through everything in perfection.
JRB What chords of affection must have been struck as God looked down on the Lord Jesus as suggested by what it says here, “they went both of them together”, Gen 22: 6. It is a beautiful suggestion.
RFW We can take this up in the light of the New Testament, can we not? The type is somewhat imperfect in that Isaac did not know exactly what was going to happen. But, in the antitype, there was perfect consonance, perfect knowledge between the Father and the Son as to all that was going to be carried through. It has often been said that the expression “they went both of them together” could be written over John’s gospel.
APD We are often engaged with what God is towards us in Christ, but this is a wonderful thought, to see what Christ is to God, do you think?
RFW Yes, I had that in mind. We often approach things from our own standpoint, to grasp something of what He is for us, and what has been secured for us in Him; but it gives us enlargement in our thoughts and our affections, to see what He is for God, and what He accomplished for God.
KAK Would you help as to God as the Provider? God took up that line of things even in relation to Adam, providing the coats of skin.
RFW Yes, He did. He has provided all things as a faithful Creator, but it is blessed to think of God providing for Himself in view of the accomplishment of all that was in His purpose. The burnt-offering character of the death of Christ brings out all that He was for the pleasure of God, expressed fully in His death.
TRV Would it be His pleasure in having man before Him, as He saw in purpose as He set on in a type in Adam? But Adam could not be the satisfaction that His beloved Son could be.
RFW It is a blessed thought that it was in the purpose of God to dwell with men, that order of being, men such as ourselves, who have been brought into a relationship to Him. And how was He to bring it about? I think sometimes - if it is right to do so - of the obstacles, the difficulties; what had to be overcome in order that God’s rest and His pleasure in men might be secured. But He has secured it all perfectly in Christ.
DMW It is affecting that He did take up man as an order of being to have for Himself. The Lord Jesus as a Man is the Accomplisher of the pleasure of God in having this before Him. The kind of manhood that God desires is perfectly filled out in the Accomplisher of all that God had in His mind.
RFW Yes, indeed. In His pathway here below God saw in Him all that He ever desired in man; but then, manward, the Lord expressed all that God could be for men.
WSC Do you think this thought of “both of them together” comes out in the Lord’s prayer in John 17 where He speaks to the Father? We see it from His side, of course, but there is an opening up of the oneness between them - “They were thine, and thou gavest them me”, John 17: 6. And He says “Father”, and “Holy Father”, and “Righteous Father”.
RFW It is interesting that, as the Lord proceeds in that prayer, He utters those expressions - “Holy Father” and “Righteous Father” - as if these sentiments rise up in His soul as He goes over the way that divine purpose had ordered things. There He was, as the Accomplisher of it all, speaking to His Father in the light of all that was in the Father’s mind and heart as to the men that had been given to Him.
DMW You say it refers to “men” - plurality - that is your thought?
RFW “I have manifested thy name to the men whom thou gavest me out of the world. They were thine, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word”. As I understand it, they have been given to Him in divine purpose. Redemption comes in, and purchase comes in, but they are given in divine purpose to Christ, “the men whom thou gavest me”. And then the great work of Christ comes in that the reality of it might be secured. I think that we are to touch something of the blessedness of belonging to Christ in purpose as together collectively.
TRV Would that link to the passage, “to the redemption of the acquired possession to the praise of his glory”, Eph 1: 14?
RFW Yes, the possession has been acquired now; the great work of redemption has been accomplished and things can proceed from that standpoint. I wondered if that was in view in the Father glorifying Him as the Lord speaks of it in John 13. He anticipates the completion of His work, and His place in the Father’s presence. He is glorified there as the Completer of all that He had given Him to do.
APD What do you understand by the reference, “God also shall glorify him in himself”?
RFW It involves, as I understand it, the present glory of the Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of God. It is “in himself”. He is glorified in that heavenly position in God. He is the supreme Object of His affections - glorified "in himself”. He has been given such a place of glory and honour in the Father’s affections, the affections of God, as the Accomplisher of all His will. I am not sure that I can convey the thought fully but it seems to me it touches something very sublime, the infinite joy and satisfaction of God in this Person.
APD Is it the special place He has in God’s affections?
RFW In John 17, He says, “I desire ... that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world”, v 24. That would be a distinctive glory of the Lord Jesus Christ that we will behold. But the Lord is in that glory now, is He not? He is in that place of distinctive, blessed honour that has been bestowed upon Him. We will have the privilege, according to His desire, of seeing it. But “thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world” relates, as I understand it, to the affections that were there in relation to the Lord Jesus as One who would be the Accomplisher of what was in the divine purpose.
DMW Is this in any way touchable now in the service of God - this vision in John 17: 24?
RFW As to the actuality of it, the Lord says there, “I desire that where I am they also may be with me”. We - very thankfully and by the Spirit - get some impression of the glory of Christ, but I thought that it related more to the reference in chapter 13, “glorify him immediately”. There is an area in which the Lord’s glory is known now, but there is something that awaits us, it seems to me, in the reference in John 17, “that they also may be with me”. Think of the blessedness of being with Him to see His glory, that distinctive glory that has been given to Him!
DMW I am just enquiring. We are not there actually in the service of God, but we are spiritually there, touching glorious things.
RFW I think the Father delights to give us, in the service of God, a sense of the way in which He has honoured Christ. I think He delights to give us some fresh touch of that in every occasion. I trust we have had some fresh sense today of the glory that He has bestowed upon His beloved Son.
AL Is the glory in John 17 all encompassed in the burnt-offering? I am thinking of verse 24, and the relations between the Father and the Son that come out in that chapter, and I am just struck with the thought of the burnt-offering mentioned three times in the early part of Genesis 22.
RFW Well, no doubt what is presented in type in the burnt-offering underlies all that the Lord is speaking of in John 17. The burnt-offering refers to the pleasure that God had in the Lord Jesus Christ as the One who was here in perfect accord with His will, and went into death in full obedience to that will. That brought out a wondrous fragrance for the delight of God the Father’s heart. The burnt-offering really speaks of the perfect acceptability of that One. It underlies all the other offerings. There was One there who was perfectly acceptable to Him, and that underlies all that has been accomplished. So, all that the Lord Jesus has accomplished in His death will ever be reflected in the glory that is His - that is, the glory that is His as Man. There are glories that belong to the Lord Jesus because of the greatness of His Person, who He is, glories that were ever His and ever will be. Coming into manhood, He has fulfilled the will of God and acquired glories - we might say reverently - that were not there before.
KNP The prophet says, “he was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and was as a sheep dumb before her shearers, and he opened not his mouth”, Isa 53: 7. Is that another glory that we see coming out in the way that He was subject and led in the direction that the Father would have Him go?
RFW Quite so, what a Man He was! And He even lays down His life as under commandment, does He not, in John’s gospel: “I have received this commandment of my Father”, chap 10: 18. The fulfilment of what was in the divine mind was before the Lord Jesus in that moment, and He had received commandment to lay down His life to bring it about. That would relate to Genesis 22, would it not?
DMW “I, if I be lifted up” (John 12: 32) - there would be something in that in regard of drawing all to Him as the Accomplisher. There must be something in that?
RFW “I, if I be lifted up ... will draw all to me”. It has been helpfully said that it may not be all without exception, but it is all without distinction. That is, it is all without distinction of race, or distinction of nationality - “all”. There is a central gathering point for all men in the One who has been lifted up.
MN Do we get an appreciation of these things in Peter? He says as to the Lord accomplishing these things, “For he received from God the Father honour and glory, such a voice being uttered to him by the excellent glory: This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight ... being with him on the holy mountain”, 2 Pet 1: 17, 18. Do we grow in appreciation as being with Him?
RFW Yes, that helps because I thought that part of the wonder of that statement is what you draw attention to, “this voice we heard uttered from heaven, being with him on the holy mountain”. That is, the Father delighted to bring others into His appreciation of Christ - “this voice we heard”. I think that is the line on which we come in. We would look for something of that in the service of God, something of that voice being heard. It was a wonderful moment when the Father could cause others to hear the expression of His delight in Christ
DMW Is there something of His appreciation of Christ to be shared by the Father with us when the Lord says - “that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them”, John 17: 26?
RFW That is a wonderful expression, is it not? Do you understand it to mean that something of the character of the Father’s love for the Son is to be in us? I remember a brother saying that, when the Lord Jesus left this scene, He left behind something in the hearts of His own that had never been there before; something of the love with which the Father had loved Him.
DMW Would that go with glorifying Him immediately?
RFW Yes, I think it would. And it would relate in our experience to the operations of the Father’s Spirit, as mentioned in Ephesians 3: 16.
WSC I have thought for some time that the wave-offering (Exod 29: 24) is connected with this, our appreciation of how the Father thinks of Christ.
RFW Just explain for us all what the wave-offering is.
WSC It included the shoulder of the ram of consecration, and the priest would wave it heaven-ward in an action towards God.
RFW He would wave it; it would represent an appreciation of the One who had taken upon Himself the whole burden of carrying through the divine will. He would express to God an appreciation of the ability of that blessed Person to carry out all that God’s will involved.
DFH What had you in mind in the thought of the king?
RFW Well, God has provided Himself with a King as well. David as king accomplished great things for the people of Israel, but he also set on something that was for God. When you come to the Lord’s address to Philadelphia, He speaks of the key of David, Rev 3: 7. That is, David was used by God to open up something that was not there before in the service of God. I wondered if that is related to the fact that God says, “I have provided me a king”. He was looking beyond the need of Israel, and He was looking to that which would be established for His praise eternally.
DFH I wondered about it, because Jehovah Himself would be their King, and He was grieved that the people of Israel should want a man as king, but what you say is instructive that God had in mind something for Himself.
RFW When the people asked for a king to be appointed, God said through Samuel that this king is going to take things from you. It is interesting to read this section (1 Sam 8: 10-17) - Samuel says he will take, and take, and take. God’s King comes in as the great provider, the great securer of the people of God, and the One who sets on that which would be for the service of God.
APD Do you think underlying that is “a man after his own heart”, 1 Sam 13: 14. It is a beautiful expression - after God’s own heart.
RFW “But now thy kingdom shall not continue: Jehovah has sought him a man after his own heart, and Jehovah has appointed him ruler over his people”. It is a very fine thought. We have had three-day meetings in Glasgow based around that reference, the man after God’s own heart. Paul brings it in, in his address in Acts 13: 22 - “I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who shall do all my will”. So the suggestion is that God was looking for such a person and God has found Him.
APD You can understand God honouring Him, and delighting in our honouring Him too.
AL God always had David in mind.
RFW Well, I am sure it must have been so. He always had Christ in mind and He brings in these types to help us to understand His thoughts. The thought of a king seems to originate with the people but God had something in His mind even before that. He had in mind to bring in One who would set on and establish that which would be for His pleasure. So the Lord Jesus Christ has been made “both Lord and Christ”, Acts 2: 36. We come into the benefit of this now through the acknowledgement of Jesus as Lord.
DMW Why is it, then, that He is not exactly a king over us, but He is a King - God’s King? You have reminded us of the verse that he has been made “both Lord and Christ”. Could you say something as to the teaching?
RFW He does not exactly stand in relation to the assembly as her King, does He? But He stands in relation to us individually as Lord, which is a somewhat similar thought. The administration of the world to come will be under the Lord Jesus Christ. His kingship will be acknowledged; but, as to His Person, He will not be any more in the world to come than He is to us now as believers, as Lord.
APD So in Psalm 2: 6 it is “my king”. That is a beautiful suggestion. He says, “I have anointed my king”. We are really brought into the appreciation of God’s King, are we not?
RFW It is lovely thought that God has a King, a Man after His own heart; a Man “who shall do all my will”, who can carry everything through. So what a man David was. It is interesting that, when you come to the Book of Revelation, the Spirit of God reverts to David - the “root of David” (Rev 5: 5), “the root and offspring of David” (Rev 22: 16), and “the key of David” as already referred to. There are a number of references to David, bringing out his importance as a type of Christ.
TRV So you mentioned the other day the introduction in Matthew - “Jesus Christ, Son of David” (Matt 1: 1), so that the book of relationship with God’s people is introduced in that way.
RFW Yes, exactly; and Matthew tells us that their King came to them, “meek, and mounted upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass”, Matt 21: 5. It is a beautiful scene. I do not suppose that the Lord will come to Israel again in that lowly way. He came that way once; He came “lowly and riding upon an ass, even upon a colt the foal of an ass” (Zech 9: 9), that He might fulfil the prophetic scripture, but I do not suppose He will come that way again.
HJG Do we prove as the Lord is in our midst that He is Head, and not exactly King, to the assembly?
RFW Just so. There is there in Him everything that is proper to kingship, but we do not exactly know Him in that relationship in the assembly. Everything of the dignity and authority that belongs to Him is there, but that blessed One has come into relationship to the assembly as Head.
APD We speak of what is dominical in connection with the Lord’s supper, Rev 1: 10 note a. Would you help us about what we mean by that? It is the Lord’s supper, it is the Lord’s day.
RFW It is good to remember that. We gather in the acknowledgement that it is His Supper. We recognise His Lordship individually, do we not? We come together as those who recognise the Lordship of Christ, and we are individually subject to Him; and we take up the Supper from that standpoint.
APD I suppose it looks forward to the day when He will have dominion universally. But something of it is known in our souls, do you think?
RFW Exactly. We recognise the worth of that blessed Person to have universal dominion. We have that secret knowledge in our souls as we gather to remember Him. And we celebrate the Supper in that way “until He come” (1 Cor 11: 26), and He is going to come to take up universal dominion.
TRV So the footnote in Revelation 1: 10 says ‘belonging to the Lord’. Would it attract our hearts to this One, that anything belonging to Him should have attraction and therefore also authority?
RFW The key of David involves authority, and I have often wondered if it relates to the way that the Lord has opened up the truth to us. It relates to what has been established. David was able to establish things; he was able to lay the basis for the temple to be built, and the service of God to be maintained in it. The key of David suggests something opened up through David’s service. The Lord has opened up certain things to us, in the recovery of the truth especially. He has opened them up in an authoritative way; and I think one of the most blessed things that has been opened up to us has been the service of God. When the Lord says to Philadelphia, “that no one take thy crown” (Rev 3: 11), I believe it refers to that. Others can say what they think about that, but there is something distinctive to Philadelphia as laying hold of the fact that the Lord using the key of David has opened up certain things. They take hold of them, and they are rejoicing in them, and that is their crown. It is right to rejoice in the experience of the service of God, I believe.
PBK Are we to understand that coming to the Lord’s supper is a personal matter?
RFW We assemble as those who are individually subject to the Lord. As we assemble we look around and take account of the brethren; and we relate to one another as those who are individually lovers of the Lord Jesus, and subject to His authority in our own lives. And in that way there is a company assembled of persons able to move together into partaking of the Supper and what flows from it.
PBK What has been said is helpful, that we come personally; but then we come into a collective matter.
RFW Yes - “we being assembled to break bread”, Acts 20: 7. There is something very precious about the thought of assembling. I think the moments in which we sit together before the occasion begins are precious, because the spirit of what belongs to the assembly properly is in motion as the saints assemble.
JRB I was wondering if the passage in the beginning of Philippians 2 would help us in the understanding of this, that pathway of down-stooping love. It says, “Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and granted him a name, that which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of heavenly and earthly and infernal beings, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to God the Father’s glory”, v 9-11.
RFW That is very wonderful. It is one of the fullest descriptions of His Lordship. But it is very precious that, even in that statement of His universal dominion, it is “to God the Father’s glory”. There is no divergence. The glory is reflected back on God the Father, and the Lord would have it so.
Then, He is also the Servant. That is a very precious thought - “Behold my servant”. This scripture is referred to in Matthew’s gospel, and it is interesting that when the gospel writer quotes it, he adds something - “my beloved, in whom my soul has found its delight” Matt 12: 18. How precious to think of the beloved Servant, the Lord Jesus, here for the carrying through of every thought of God - “my servant”.
KAK Does the upholding here link with God’s provision?
RFW Yes, it would. It would relate to the anointing. God is fully committed to this blessed Person - “whom I uphold”. He was rejected, His service to Israel was rejected, but God is upholding Him. Mr Darby says in relation to this section that God has a controversy with Israel over their treatment of Christ (see A Brief Outline of the Books of the Bible, on Isaiah - Collected Writings vol 19 p9). He says, “I am Jehovah, that is my name; and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images”, Isa 42: 8. God has a controversy with Israel in respect of their treatment of Christ as His Servant. He came in that lowly way to them, and God upheld Him and they rejected Him. And God is still upholding Him, and they will come to respect Him, they will have to bow to Him and acknowledge Him.
WSC Would you link Hebrews 1 with this - “the expression of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power”, Heb 1: 3?
RFW That refers to the Lord Jesus, does it not? It is the Son “whom he has established heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who being the effulgence of his glory and the expression of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power”.
WSC I was just thinking of what a Servant He was for God, and it goes on, “having made by himself the purification of sins”. Was all His work, and how He was down here, reflective of the perfection of His Person?
RFW It is blessed to think of the greatness of His Person in those verses and then the greatness of what He has accomplished. He, “having made by himself the purification of sins, set himself down on the right hand of the greatness on high”. So that work was accomplished perfectly. You might say, from one standpoint, that, whether anybody benefited from it or not, the work was accomplished perfectly. It was done by Himself - or for Himself - and for the accomplishment of God’s purpose.
DFH Does the Lord’s character as Servant extend to setting justice in the earth? "The isles shall wait for His law." I am just thinking of all that the Lord will accomplish for God. Finally, He delivers up the kingdom, 1 Cor 15: 24.
RFW He will go on to that. “He shall not faint nor be in haste, till he have set justice in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law”, Isa 42: 4. It is very fine thing, that justice will be set in the earth. We come under the administration of this blessed One now, do we not?
APD Is there something in this reference, “Behold”? John the baptist says, “Behold the Lamb of God”, John 1: 36. Do you think we need to be contemplators: John says, “we have contemplated his glory”, John 1: 14? Beholding it would not be a casual view, it would be something like "looking stedfastly on Jesus" in Hebrews 12: 2.
RFW We have the peculiar privilege at the present time of seeing Jesus "crowned with glory and honour" before the time of His public manifestation. It is open to us now - “we see not yet all things subjected to him, but we see Jesus, who was made some little inferior to angels on account of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour”, Heb 2: 8, 9. When He was here He received from God the Father honour and glory but now we can see him “crowned with glory and honour”. It is a blessed privilege that is open to us at the present time.
TRV And the experience of Stephen, to see the heavens opened: is that open to us?
RFW Well, what an experience was given to Stephen distinctively! He saw Him standing there, as if He was ready to return had they received his message. Now, we see Jesus, crowned with glory and honour. Now He is sitting - the scripture we had yesterday says, “The Lord ... sat at the right hand of God”, Mark 16: 19. We love to think of the Lord Jesus, sitting restfully there, we might say. The gospel of Mark speaks extensively of the Lord’s activity in service, all that He did; and at the end of the gospel it says that He “was taken into heaven, and sat at the right hand of God”, Mark 16: 19. Hebrews gives us that too, in chapter 10, “he, having offered one sacrifice for sins, sat down in perpetuity at the right hand of God, waiting from henceforth until his enemies be set for the footstool of his feet”, v 12, 13. It conveys to me a scene of restfulness. The great work of redemption has been accomplished; the Lord Jesus has gone up. He has offered one sacrifice for sins that never needs to be repeated, and He has set Himself down, waiting. There is no anxiety about how the whole matter will be carried through to completion. He is not concerned at the present time about how His enemies are to be dealt with, He is concerned about His assembly. The day will come when He will ask for the nations as Psalm 2 gives us: “Ask of me, and I will give thee nations for an inheritance”, v 8. That day will come. It has often been pointed out in relation to John 17 that He does not ask for the nations there - “I do not demand concerning the world, but concerning those whom thou hast given me”, v 9. At the present time, the Lord’s affections are going out to the saints of the assembly, and He is waiting in perfect restfulness for the working out of all that is in the divine mind concerning the earth, and concerning His earthly people.
DMW The controversy that you mentioned is really two-fold: the mercy of God towards Israel is very great as to receiving the ministry of the Spirit. They rejected Christ, and they rejected the Spirit, and “wrath has come upon them to the uttermost”, 1 Thess 2: 16.
RFW What a thing that is; they have closed their eyes, as we have in the end of the Acts. There is something judicial about it - “lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them”, chap 28: 27. There is that which is governmental that has come upon the nation, but God will take them up again: “the gifts and the calling of God are not subject to repentance”, Rom 11: 29. He will bring them in on the ground of mercy, as Romans tells us. There are two great controversies in this section in Isaiah. God is speaking to men about Christ as His Servant, but He is also speaking to man about His greatness as Creator, as we get in chapter 40. These are current issues. God is speaking to man about His glory as Creator, and what belongs to Him. It is set aside largely in the world, what God is as Creator; and then He is speaking to men about Christ, His Servant.
KRO Is there something notable about the Spirit being put upon Him? We have been reminded over the past few days of the Lord being marked by the Spirit descending as a dove, and, after he is anointed, the Spirit comes upon David too.
RFW The Spirit is identifying Himself completely with the Lord Jesus here as Man. In the type of the ark, the gold is put on the acacia wood. There was that in the acacia wood that could perfectly support the gold; there was that in the manhood of Jesus that could sustain perfectly all that was in the Spirit of God. “I will put my Spirit upon him”: it is a lovely touch. It is gentle, it is careful, it is deliberate - “I will put my Spirit upon him”.
DMW This is the Holy Spirit, but is there a character here that may be for further enquiry - “my servant”, “my soul”, “my Spirit”?
RFW Is it that, at the baptism of Jesus, the Trinity was really in expression, we might say, for the first time?
DMW It is helpful to think about these things. They are very deep, and yet we can never think of the Godhead, as we speak of it, being in any way other than unified. Yet each divine Person is distinguished, is distinct.
RFW That is right. I am exercised personally as to the worship of God, to understand what is involved in it; because each divine Person is distinct as you say. There must be something very great about the worship of God Himself.
MN Do we get a touch of affection about Benjamin as a type: “The beloved of Jehovah, - he shall dwell in safety by him; He will cover him all the day long, And dwell between his shoulders”, Deut 33: 12? I was thinking of the Lord carrying everything for God on His shoulders and God’s affection resting upon Him.
RFW Christ was God’s beloved Son, was He not - “Thou art my Son”. Solomon is the great type of the one that was loved by God. It was God that sent Nathan to name him Jedidiah, ’beloved of Jehovah’ (2 Sam 12: 25), before he did anything. David is a type of one who is loved because of what he was, and what he had done. Both combine in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we have been taken "into favour in the Beloved" (Eph 1: 6), and both the David and Solomon types come together in that reference.
So, he says, “Thou art my Son”. There is something infinitely precious in the expression, “Thou art my Son; I this day have begotten thee”. Think of what was in purpose, and we get the veil drawn aside and we hear the Lord saying, “Lo, I come … to do, O God, thy will”, Heb 10: 7. But there was a moment in time when this blessed Person came here in Manhood - “Thou art my Son; I this day have begotten thee”.
MN How do we develop more in these things? I think of John the baptist; he says, “He must increase, but I must decrease”, John 3: 30. Would that help us?
RFW It would indeed, and the importance of contemplation already referred to; “we have contemplated his glory”, John says, John 1: 14. We have to set time aside for these things and engage our minds and affections with this blessed Person so that He becomes more precious to us. May we have a greater sense of being drawn into the blessedness of the Father’s affections for Him!
APD In the quotation of this in Hebrews 1, he says, “to which of the angels said I ever, Thou art my Son: this day have I begotten thee?” (v 5); as if He is deliberately distinguishing Christ above every other.
RFW Think of the moment in time when the Father said this to Christ: “Thou art my Son”! Think of what it was for that blessed Man to be here in this wonderful relationship to His Father. What sonship really means was seen for the first time in expression in Him.
DMW You could not think of any separation between the Father and the Son: “we have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only begotten with a father”; and the two of them were together.
RFW Quite so. They went both together. It says in John’s gospel, “Jesus therefore, knowing all things that were coming upon him”, chap 18: 4. There was a perfect knowledge of all that was before Him. It says, “He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the instructed”, Isa 50: 4. The Lord knew perfectly what was before Him in His pathway. The Father and the Son went together.
AL Would the term “my Son” imply divine relationships and affections?
RFW There is a kind of infinite blessedness about it, “Thou art my Son”. It is the perfection of feeling between the Father and the Son.
TRV I am just thinking, as you are referring to “they went both of them together”, that the distinctiveness of the Persons is seen in the garden when He says, “nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done”, Luke 22: 42 AV.
RFW Well, He had the right of having a will of His own, but there was no divergence; just a reassertion of His blessed, perfect obedience and submission. It was an assertion of the unity of these wills; there was no question of the Lord’s will being different from the Father’s.
WSC Even from His birth, it is amazing that they were given the privilege of naming Him. I was thinking of what we had in the first reading about His Father’s business even at twelve years old; but the perfection of His Sonship came in immediately as He was born.
RFW I believe so; “this day” relates to that. In Matthew, his father is given to name Him, “Thou shalt call his name Jesus” chap 1: 21. In Luke it is His mother, Luke 1: 31. They are both brought into the privilege of giving Him a name.
DMW The reference made, “nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” did not really require an answer from the Father, did it?
RFW What delight it must have given the Father to hear it!
APD Going back to Genesis 22, it is “thine only son, whom thou lovest”, v 2; and then in the reference you made in John 10, He really gave the Father fresh occasion to love Him.
RFW It is a precious thought. “On this account the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again..... I have received this commandment of my Father”. John 10: 17, 18. Think of the reality of that: the Lord Jesus here as Man having received commandment to lay down His life. Think of what that meant to Him and yet He accepted it in perfect obedience and drew out the Father’s love on that account.
APD Then in Romans 6, He was "raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father" (v 4), as if that was the outshining of the Father’s love.
RFW You might say that all the glory that related to the name of the Father entered into the resurrection of Christ.
DMW That was the answer to “nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done”. He was raised by the glory of the Father.
RFW The answer was in resurrection, was it not?
APD It has been said that the Father was there first at the grave. Mr James Taylor spoke about his pent up feelings (vol 56 p 51); what it meant to the Father to be without Christ for three days and three nights.
RFW Divine feelings were very real, and very intense. We often think of the death of Christ, what it meant to His Father. Any father would feel deeply the sufferings of his child, but think of what it was for the Father to take account of the sufferings and death of His Son; and of His burial. You can understand the glory of the Father entering into His resurrection.
In John 13, I just thought that there is something infinitely wonderful about the expression “God also shall glorify him in himself”. It seems to suggest the delight of God in glorifying that Person, the Son of man. It says, as to the Lord Jesus, He "has been received up in glory”, 1 Tim 3: 16. But there is something intensely beautiful about God glorifying Him - delighting to glorify Him as the One who has fulfilled all His will. “Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him”. God is glorified in Him in everything He did. He sustained and carried through every thought of God; and God glorifies Him in Himself.
DMW Would you say just a word as to the wonderful privilege to be let in on these things; having the light of these things and the desire to be in the gain of them - “glorify him immediately”. There is no place else where we can get these touches, is there?
RFW No, I do not think so; it is a wonderful privilege indeed. It is something we should appreciate deeply that we are in an area of things where the glory of Christ is known now.
KAK Is that an inside thing? I am thinking of how Judas has gone out at this point. The Lord was not seen publicly in immediate glorification. It was for His own.
RFW Exactly. His public glory has not been seen. He has been glorified in God: “and God will glorify him immediately” relates to the affections of the saints now.
KAK Is that seen immediately when He assembles with them after His resurrection?
RFW Yes, quite so. He comes in among them bringing His peace - “Peace be to you”, John 20: 19.
Denton
24th April 2011