1994 issue 5 - christ's joy fulfilled in us - counsel of chalcedon

8/12/2019 1994 Issue 5 - Christ's Joy Fulfilled in Us - Counsel of Chalcedon

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And

these things I speak in the world,

that

they

might have

my joy

fulfilled

in

themselves. John

17: 13

The.re exists a difficulty in

expounding

the Gospel of John

notwithstanding the

transparent

simplicity of his style. There are two

reasons

forthis.ln

the first place,John

is a seer. He arrives at truth by intuition,

not by

argument. He does not reason,

he simply sees.

And it

is fitting that the

Apostle who lay upon Jesus' bosom,

and

who is called the Disciple whom

Jesus

loved

should

apprehend '

the truth

qUite as much through

the sympathy of the

affections

as

by the

exercise

of

the

understanding.1n the

highest and purest since

of

the word John

was

the mystic of

the

Apostolic college, as Paul

was the logician. The

latter goes

down

with his

massive reasoning into

the bosom of the law,

and

seizes

the

eternal

principles of justice and

of

right,

and

holds

them

up

before

the

eyes ofmen; And then he

lays the whole work of Jesus Christ

over against thes , and establishes the

fact of our justification

in

the sight of

God. But the representation, you

perceive, is external; We are able to

apply the rule

and

the square to the

whole of his reasoning, and thus to

take the dimensions'of his argument.

We,rise from

the

discussion with the

assurance

of

haVing grasped, in all

their

majesty

and

proportion,

the

principles

which were involved, -

simply because they were presented

to

the logical understanding, and we have

been able to go around the argument

upon the four sides of the square. But

John resembles

more

one

of

the

prophets

of

he OldTestament, whom

the Holy

Spirit lifts to an elevated

plane in order that he may just open

his

eyes

and see; and, when he has seen

,thathemaystandforthasawitnessand '

testify. He may

not

inaptly be styled

the Ezekiel of the New Testament,

whose words are symbols, obscurely

understood

by

those whose experience

does

not

rise

to

the level

of

his own.

Upon this ground, there is an inherent

difficulty in expounding his writings.

Again,John, beyond all the writers

of the New Testament, is a reporter of

Chtist's words: and what must

be

the

words ofsuch a being as Christ He the

sinless man Whose judgment was

never warped by prejudice; whose

reason was never blinded by passion;

whose power, of thought, of feeling

and of action stand

in

the hannonybf

a perfect agreement, no one of themby

the breadth of a hair overlapping the

other. He, the Great Prophet

too

Not

as Isaiah

with

all his fire; nor as

Jeremiah,

with

all his pathos; nor as

Ezekiel, with all his ecstasy:

but

as the

Head of

' the entire

Prophetic

Dispensation, front Enoch down

to

Malachi; ll of whom were implicity

contained in Him,

and

each severally

deriving inspiration from Him. Not

only this, but the very God, coming

from the bosom of the Father, that he

may reveal Him What shall be the

4 I TIlE COUNSEL ofChalcedon

f

Jnne 1994

words of this Revealer, but the flashes

of light

from

the person and being

Jehovah,- swifter

than

the lighting,

more dazzling than the sun? Look at

the sun rising from the lap of the

morning, gilding the mountain's top,

sloping down its steep descent, filling

every crevice

in

its side, and throwing

at last a broad glory overa hemisphere

lighting up the clouds and

unsub-

stantial air until they seem solid with

the glory with which they are filled.

Yet the sun is only God's work, while

Jesus Christ is

God

himself.

Ahl When e grasps

one of the vast thoughts

of God, and does that

mightymiraclebeforeus,

of imprisoning

it

in

a

human word-and

then

sets

that

word in a book

what depthshallnot that

word have? How shall it

not

part beneath our

gaze, and let

us

down

into the very abysses

from which it was at first

drawn up? I have a long

while ago got

past the

need of

any

external

argument for the divinity of Jesus

Chtist. If a

man

tell

me

that Christ is

not God-but only a man, or at best an

angel, or perhaps a gifted prophet, I

tum awayfrom thesecoldspeculations

which chill the soul as with a polar

atmosphere, andwalkUp and down in

this wann Gospel of the beloved

disciple.

As

I

bend

down

my

ear to

these verses, I find them throbbing

with the pulse of infinite life and love;

until

it

seems as though the echoes

were rolling up from the deep eternity

in which Jehovah dwells. We cease to

reason; thought glides into devotion;

and we

feel

we are about ready to step

from the heaven ofJohn's Gospel, into

the heaven of John's Apocalypse.

Readers, I come to you with one of

these Christ-words:"And these things I


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speak in the

world,

that they might have

my joy fulfilled

in

themselves.

Christ's

joy

What monal shall expound

it?

Who

shall

mount into the

consciousness of such a being as the

God-man so as to delineate His joy?

Who can stretch his thought around

His complex person and take up the

two lobes of His nature, who is

presented

in

Scripture as the Christ of

God; and feel that he measures his

consciousness, and is able

to

interpret

Him to human thought?

And, if he should, must

not such a monal die

from

sheer ecstasy? It seems

wicked

to

take a strong

word, like

this

in the text,

and break

it

nto fragments,

just

because

we are

incapable of comprehen

ding

it

as a whole; as

sometimes

we

take a pure

beam of the sun

and

pass it

though the prism. Some

times,we have counted the

colors of the

specuum

pronoucing which are the

heat rays, and which are

thecolorrays,

we

conclude

thatafterallwe have added little to our

knowledge, and find

it

bestto combine

all again, and send the white light

forth upon its blessed mission to chase

darkness and gloom

from

the earth.

So,

after

we

have analyzed this joy of

our Redeemer, we may conclude that

it

is better to mass the fragments again

into the one single idea, and share in

the joyunti

we

are intoxicated with it.

Let me, then, present what I have to

say under four specifications.

1.

Look

at the joy of Christ, in the

consciousness of His sinless rectitude.

Even

we,inourmeasure, can appreciate

that subtle joy which steals through

every fiber of

our

nature, under the

consciousness of doing that which is

right- and still more, under the

consciousness of being that which is

right. Just to the extent that one's

moral nature has been cultivated,

is

the consciousness of rectitude, even

though it be partial, a source of

unutterable satisfaction . I scarcely

know how

to

illustrate this,unless I

compare it to the physical pleasure

which diffuses itself over the whole

body from the bare possession of

physical life and health. Look at the

young of animals,-not excepting your

own children,

as

they

spon

around

your knee at the fireside-how, in their

frolic they exhibit a strange delight

which thrills through every nelve and

everymuscle,

from

the simple factthat

they live. The glow of health diffuses

itself over the whole frame,

as

a source

of exquisite pleasure. Were you ever

sick? After a little, you

feel

it

to

be

worth even the pain and the pelil of

sickness, to enjoy

the

luxury of

convalescence; when God pours the

tide of life back upon you, which had

been receding, and which you

feel

tingling to your fingers' ends.

Well, carry the analogy from the

natural world into the spiritual, and

see if there be not such a thing as the

life of the soul, and the health of the

soul. f a man

feel

within himself the

powerto dobattle with the temptations

of life, to spting over its ttials and its

SOTI OWS

shan

he

not possess, in the

bare consciousness of this spiritual

vigor, a superb joy? I can only picture

the thing to you by the illustration

which I have employed;

and

then ask,

what must have been the

joy

of our

Lord

in

consciousness

of

His own

rectitude- in the serene consciousness

of His holiness as God, and then, lying

over against

this

the sweet

consciousness of His sinlessness

as

a

man? It is written of Him, that He was

"holy, harmless, undefiled, separate

from sinners." There was

in Him the sense of perfect

purity

in both

natures,

as

these were united

in

His

mysterious person, which

nothing could

disturb.

Deep as was the agitation

of His spirit

under

the sin

which was laid

upon

Him

and

for which He came

to

atone- and great as may

have been His recoil from

the

sins of others with

which He came

in

daily

contact-there was a calm

beneath

in

the hidden

depths of His soul, which

nothing could vex. Just

as

the ocean which appears to be stirred

throughout, when the storm lifts up

the waves and dashes them against the

stars:

and

yet there are deeper depths,

where the mermaidssingin the grottoes

of pearl and know nothing

of

the

boisterous battle which is waged upon

the surface. Such a peace pervaded the

whole life and thought ofour Redeemer

upon earth in the sublime

consciousness of His perfect purity

and rectitude. I apprehend that we

find here, in

pan

at least, the secret of

His frequent retirement from the

bustling crowd; sometimes

in

the little

family

at Bethany, but still more often

on the lonely mountain-where,

in

secret meditation , He spreads out His

thought over the great work which He

must discharge, yet infinitely full of

joy

in

the perfect consciousness of His

own obedience to His Father's will.

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My brethren, ate we able, on this

earth;

to share

in

thisjoy of our Lord?

See

how it

comes to us through the

rectificationof ournature;when God's

blessedspiritquickensusintospiritual

life, and there comes upon

us

the first

sweet senSe

of

its possession.

Perhaps the first evidence

of

birth

into the kingdom of God, is the blind

instinctive joy which comes into the

heart from the first possession

of

spiritual life. We

do

not instantly

analyze it.

That

is to be tracked

afterwards in the experience which

lies beyond. But

at

the first,

when

the

Holy Spirit

o v e r s h a d o v . : ~

us with His

quickening energy

,

there

s

an

inexpressible thrill of

oy

through the

whole

nature

which I;tas thus .been

made

alive from a state

o[spirituai

death. .

Afterwards, this divine life deepens

in the soul, in .our

progressive

sanctification; until we come to the

consummation of it, when,

in

the

supreme hour, the Holy Spirit puts

fonh His divine energy once more,

and changes grace into glory. When

the life

which

He gave in the second

birth, expands in the

third-through

which

we

were

born

into

heaVf;n

and

into

glory-oh,

then is

Chrises joy

fulfilled within us the joy

which

spirings from the possession

of

spiritual

life

and health;

and

oflife

and of

health diffused

through

the

whole

spirit

and taking possessionof

every faculty. "These thingslspeakin the

world that they might havemy

joy

ulfilled

In t h e m s e 1 v e s . ~

II. There is the joy of Christ, in the

anticipation

of

his.ftnishedwork. One

feels a strange pleasure whenhis work

is

done, and

he can

hold it

up

before

hiseye

and

ook

at

it as theembodiment

of

himself. n proportion as the work

is great

and

in ts execution drew

upon

all the resources

of

our being, is the

gratification supreme when it

is

finished. Thevanity

of

authorship finds

itsexplanation,perhapsits excuse,just

here. t s surely a pardonable affection

with which one looks

upon

the lines

which are treasured, notonly the labor

of

many years, but the whole essence

and virtue ofhis intellect

and

thought.

The inventor, too, who holds before

his eye a perfected machine, goes back

in

memory to the first rude conception

formed

in

his mind,

and

traces the

stepsby which it gradually took shape,

until now he rejoices

in

the glory of ts

completlon.Aman'swork,

upon

which

he

has expended thought and care, is

the reproduction of himself. With an

honest pride he bequeaths it to the

generations after him, and hopes

through the wit of this invention to

secure a name which posterity"wiJI

not willingly let die."

Apply the principle, so

as

by

it

to

measUre the joy of our Lord

in

the

conte1)lplation of His finished work.

My hearers, what a work was His It

was to look out upon a lost world, and

tb

redeem it. It was to heal forever the

dreadful schism which sin had made

in the Universe, by throwing Himself

into

the

breach

and .drawing the

creat1)res to Him as their blessed Head.

ByHis

Spirit He lifted the sinner out of

the hole

of

the

pit

in

which

he

was

fallen, .

and

made him by faith the

mem:ber of His own living body. He

stretched

forth His

hand

until

it

touched the angels in light, and

recapitulated them

in

Himself-that by

the blessed union of all in Him, an

eternal foundation might

be

laid for

the fellowship ofthe creatures. What a

work was that

of

Christ, when He

tendered an obedience even unto .

death, and laid this over against the

law

of His

Father, as its absolute

measurel

In

His body of glory, He

went up into the presence the Throne;

and held before the Judge, who was

pronouncing

the

decrees,a

righteousness which is a perfect

commentary upon a perfect law. If the

law be glorious

upon

which Jehovah

6

f IRE

COUNSEL

of

Chalcedon I June, 199+

has stamped the'majesty

of

His being,

what shall the

exposition

be

which

stands over against it as the exact

counterpanandintetpretationihereof?

What awork is that of Christwhen,

sitting upon the right hand of th

Father on high,He shall impress the

grace of which He

is

the author. upon

the substance and body of the

law

of

God -so that throughout eternity, it

shall be the law of inflexible justice

arid truth tempered with infinite grace

and love. It was

in

the anticipation of

. these results, that our Lord utters His

joyin the'openingverse of this chapter

from which the text is taken: "I

have

glOrified

Thee

on

the

earth;

1have imshed

the work which

Thou gavest me to

do

And now. 0 Father glorify Thou

me

with

thine

own self.

with the glory which I

h d

with Thee

before

the world a s . ~ (]ohn,

xVIi:

4,5.) We are told of the

stem

joy

Which is felt by the brave

on

the eve of

battle-the deep excitement of one's

nature, which is

not

manifested in the

tremors of

the body, but in the

exhilaration of the ' spirit-

that

marvelous stiffening of one's energies;

when a tremendousissueislObe closed

within an hour, and the whole nature

is sum:moned to meet the crisis. Even

such

an

illuStrationas this may

help

us

to understand a little hOw the Master;

justas He enters within the edge

of

the

dark cloud of His passion, was able to

project Himself over the abyss of

suffering arid death, and to seize by a

blissful antiCipation the glory which

lay beyond; He thought not of the

shadows ofGethseniane neir the deeper

hOrrors of Calvary, but ofthe glory

which He

had

With the Father before

the world was.

Is this a joy in which we,

my

brethren, shall

be

able to share? When

the Spirit of Christ reveals to

us

the

righteousness of .our Head through

which we are .to become just before

God,do we not in

that disclosure

behold its

glory,and

its perfect

adaptationtoournecessity?And when


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the hand of appropriation has been intrude into the pavilion in which the turning away from Him of His

laid upon it which makes it our own, Jehovah dwells, so

as

to penetrate the Father's face to bear alone the pressure

is there not a sense of sweetness of mystery of the Divine subsistence and of the curse. What then must have

possession?

t

is a law of our nature to communion. But

we

do know,

from

been the joy of the sinless Redeemer in

rejoice in what

we

acquire. We are the hints given us in Scripture, that in His communion with His Father above

constantly thrust

from

within,

to

Jay the distinction of persons, there is an until that moment of anguish, when as

hold

upon the

things which are exchange between the three of infinite the sinner's substitute, He must feel

without. The little child is happy in

the

and divine affection.

So far as we are

God'sjudicialdispleasureresltngupon

possession even of the

toys

which it able to appreciate this play of divine

His

soul

calls its own.lt is this, I suppose, that and boundless love between the Father, Is this then a joy, in which it is

lies at the foundation of that peace Son, and Spirit, are we able

to

possible

for us to

share? The Apostle

which

we

have in believing-the sense comprehend

the

blessedness of answersinthewords, OurJellowshipis

of possessing a righteous-

.

____________________ , with the Father and with

ness which is ours simply " His Son]

esus

Christ. (I,

because we are conscious No

creature may intrude into the Johni:3.)WebytheHoly

that we have taken it. It pavilion in which Jehovah dwells,

so

SpiIit, have the witness of

was not ours

in

the doing

our

adoption into God's

of it, and this

we

fully as to penetr te the mystery of the

family, which enables us

know; but it is ours in the

Divine subsistence and communion. to

say,

Our Father

which

receiving ofit, which our

artinheaven " Forye have

consciousness attests with

ut

we

do

know

from

the

hints given

not

received

the

spirit

oj

equal distinctness. We bondage

again

to Jear; but

have been enabled to put U in Scripture, th t in the distinc- ye

have

received the

spirit

forth our two hands, to f h oJadoption, wherebywecry,

grasp it and to draw it up t/On

0 persons, ere Isan exc ange Abba Father.

(Romans,

to our own breast.

t

is

between the three of infinite nd

viii: 15)Justso often

as in

ours to plead against the

accusations of conscience, divine affection.

the closet you and I are

able to say "

Our

Father

which

art in heaven,

we

hose sharp rebukes

are

at once silenced. It is ours to rest upon

in the hour of death; when the curtain

is drawn aside, revealing to

us the

awful realities of the spiritual world. It

is ours to hold up before the Judge;

when

we

stand at His bar, to answer

to

all the challenges of the law we have

broken. It is ours, the robe of

righteousness

in

which to wrap the

soul, as

we

sit in the presence and

kingdom of our Father above. Yes in

the moment that, by a divine faith,

we

appropriate this righteousness ofjesus

Christ, it becomes our own, with as

true asense of proprietorship

as

though

we had

wrought it

for

ourselves.

In

this joy of possession whiclt fills the

heart of the believer, the joy of Christ

is fulfilled.

III. Christhas a joyin His fellowship

with the God -head. I touch here what

I can not explain. No creature may

Jehovah.

Without undertaking,

however, to compass this divine joy of

Christ, as the Eternal son, in His

communion with the Father and with

the Spirit, 100kuponHimasincarnate.

How close a fellowship, even

as

man

here on earth, did He have with His

Father, enabling Him to say

of

Philip, he that

hath

seen me

hath

seen

the Father; and how sayest thou then,

show

us the

Father?

Believest thou not

that am in the Father, and the

Father

in

me?

John xiv:9,lO.) In holy

communion with

that

Father He

poured out His soul in prayer, which

perhaps is best measured to us by the

agony which He experienced when at

death He exclaimed, My

God, my God,

why

hast thou Jorsaken

me?

It is with

special significance we read in the

sufferings of our Lord, that the element

of sorrow which broke His heart, was

hold a communion with Him as real as

that of a child with his parent upon

earth. When this is consummated

beyond the grave,- and we, through

our living union with Chlist, draw

nearer and nearer to the Father and

have larger and broader views of His

glory,-then will it appear that

our

communion with God isiInmeasurably

closer through our blessed Head, than

could have been enjoyed through all

eternity apart from Him. The loftiest

being, whom the power of God ever

made, could never of himself come so

near

to

the eternal Father as those

whom the Savior folds withinHis anns

when as the High Priest of the

assembled church He conducts their

worship in the heavenly temple. There

will be, through

Christ Jesus

a

continuous revelation of the eternal

Father to the redeemed in heaven;

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through which they

shall

hold

fellowship

with

Him evenas they

hold

fellowship with

is

Son. Thus here,

and hereafter, do

we

participate

in

the

Savior's joy, which He feels

iu

the

communion of the God-Head.

IV. There is the oy of Christ,

in

the

expectation of His reward. This began .

with

His resurrection, through which

He was judicially absolved from the

curse which He had borne for guilty

man; and through which He was

declared

with power

to

be

the Son of

God. (Romans 1:4) Then followed His

ascension into heaven; the symbol,

not

only of

the acceptance of His

finished work, but of His supremacy

as

the king

and head of His people.

The

next

stage is His session at the

Father's right hand

in

glory; where, as

Mediator,

He

enjoys the sense of His

Father's approval forever. He has,

moreover, a fullness of reward in that

innumerable company of whichJohn

speaks,

the ten

thousand times ten

thousand

and thousands of housands,

which no man hath numbered or can

number, gathered around His person,

and given to Him as the purchase of

His death. And the climax of his reward

.is found in His glorious Headship over

the creatures; angels and men brought

together into one body of Him, and

constituted

the universal Church-

which He shall preside in the glory of

that righteousness which this book

declares to be the illumination of

heaven; for

"the

dty

had

no

need

of

the

sun, nctther of the moon,

to

shine

in

it;jor

the glory of God did lighten

it,

and the

1.amb.is

the

light thereof" (Revelation

xxii: 23.) Looking at this reward our

Lord feels thejoywhich comes through

the

near

anticipation

of

it.

You and I share in the joy of this

reward, for

we

shall

be

sharers in the

possession thereof.

"In my

Father's

house

there are many mansions; i it were not

so, would h' ve told you. go to prepare

aplace for

you. And i

go

and prepare

a

place for

you,

will

come again

and

recctveyou

untomyselj

that where am,

there ye may be also."" Father

will

that

they also

whom

thou hast given me

be

with

mewhere am;

that

they

may behold

my glory

which

thou

hast

given me;

for

thou lovedst

me before the

foundation

of

the

world. (Johnxivi:2,3, lbidxvi: 24.)

The Apostle, Hctrs of

God,

atld hctrs

with Christ; i so

be

that we suffer

with

Him,

that

we

may

be

also

glorified

together."

(Romans viii: 17.) I do not

suppose

that heaven

can

be

paraphrased. There is no fonn of

speech inwhich its blessedness can be

described. Even the holy seer, as he

looked through the telescope and saw

the heavenly city, and walls

1

and

the gates, could

only describe Its glory

by

enumerating the stones of which

these were built. (See

Rev.

21: 19-21)

He takes

up

the

jasper,

and the

amethYSt,

l,J;ld

the sardonyx, and other

preciousandbrilliant stones, and these

were the types under which even the

inspired John

represents the

blessedness and joy of heaven. And

because these words of his are only

symbols, this gorgeous deSCription

does

not

materialize

t to our

conception. We walk the streets. that

are paved with gold; we pass through

the gates, every several gate being one

pearl; we

lool

1994 issue 5 - christ's joy fulfilled in us - counsel of chalcedon

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