The Word of God

      “For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an High Priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:12-15).

      The apostle sets before us the instrument that God employs to judge the unbelief and all the workings of the heart that tend to lead the believer into departure from the position of faith, and that tend to hide God from him by inducing him to satisfy his flesh and to seek for rest in the wilderness.

      To the believer who is upright in heart this judgment is of great value, for it is that which enables him to discern all that has a tendency to hinder his progress or make him slacken his steps. It is the Word of God which, as the revelation of God and the expression of what He is and of what His will is in all circumstances that surround us, judges everything in the heart that is not of Him. It is more penetrating than a two-edged sword. Living and energetic, it separates all that is most intimately linked together in our hearts and minds. Whenever nature—the soul and its feelings—mingles with that which is spiritual, it brings the edge of the sword of the living truth of God between the two, and judges the hidden movements of the heart respecting them. It discerns all the thoughts and intentions of the heart. But it has another character: coming from God, it brings us into His presence, and all those things that it forces us to discover it sets in our conscience before the eye of God Himself. Nothing is hidden; all is naked and manifested to the eye of Him with whom we have to do.

      Such is the true help, the mighty instrument of God to judge everything in us that would hinder us from pursuing our course through the wilderness with joy. What a precious instrument this is: solemn and serious in its operation, but of priceless and infinite blessing in its effects and consequences.

      It is an instrument that, in its operation, does not allow “the desires of the flesh and of the mind” (Eph. 2:3) liberty to act. It does not permit the heart to deceive itself. Rather it procures us strength, and places us without any consciousness of evil in the presence of God to pursue our course with joy and spiritual energy.

Our Great High Priest

      But there is another help, one of a different character, to aid us in our passage through the wilderness. We have a High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God. He has in all things been tempted like ourselves, sin apart, so that He can sympathize with our infirmities. Christ of course had no evil desires. He was tempted in every way, but apart from sin. Sin had no part in it at all. But I do not wish for sympathy with the sin that is in me; I detest it; I wish it to be mortified—judged unsparingly. This the Word does. For my weakness and my difficulties I seek sympathy; and I find it in the priesthood of Jesus. It is not necessary, in order to sympathize with me, that a person should feel at the same moment that which I am feeling—rather the contrary. If I am suffering pain, I am not in a condition to think as much of another’s pain. But in order to sympathize with him I must have a nature capable of appreciating his pain.

      Thus it is with Jesus when exercising His priesthood. He is in every sense beyond the reach of pain and trial, but He is Man. Not only has He the human nature which in time suffered grief, but He experienced the trials that we have to go through more fully than any of us has. Thus His heart, free and full of love, can entirely sympathize with us, according to His experience of ill, and according to the glorious liberty that He now has to provide and care for us. This encourages us to hold fast our profession in spite of the difficulties that beset our path, for Jesus concerns Himself about those difficulties according to His own knowledge and experience of what they are, and according to the power of His grace.

      (From Synopsis of the Books of the Bible.)

The night before He was crucified, the Lord Jesus prayed a high-priestly, intercessory prayer to His Father concerning His disciples. He prayed, “Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given me, that they may be one, as We are” (John 17:11). Jesus knew there would always be a tendency—aided and abetted by Satan—for His disciples to go their separate ways and start their own independent ministries and congregations. So He expresses, not only for His Father’s “ears” but for those of His disciples as well, His desire that His disciples remain united in spirit after His departure.

      The Lord does not stop there: “Neither pray I for these [twelve disciples minus Judas] alone, but for those also who shall believe on Me through their word; that they all … may be one in Us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me” (17:20,21). This unity desired first for His disciples was to extend to all believers in Christ. One very practical effect of such a unity would be its testimony to the watching world that Jesus Christ had truly been sent by God (“Thou hast sent Me”).

One Body

      In answer to this prayer, the Holy Spirit came down and baptized the believers in Christ “into one body” (1 Cor. 12:13; see also Rom. 12:4,5; 1 Cor. 10:16,17; 12:12-27; Eph. 2:16; 4:4; Col. 3:15).

      I have heard or read it expressed a number of times: “God has arranged the Church into many different denominations so that each believer may select the one with the kind of pastor, manner of worship, scheme of church government, or variety of activities that best suit his/her needs or personality.” NOT SO! By no means is God responsible for the many denominations and divisions of the Church! Sinful man is!

      In the early years of the Church, there was indeed one body in every sense of the word. There were no divisions, no denominations. It is true that there were assemblies of believers in many different countries, states, cities, and villages. But the New Testament clearly shows that a strong unity existed among these assemblies. There existed what is sometimes termed “a circle of fellowship.” The Church, the whole body of believers, did not consist of many independent local assemblies but of interdependent assemblies, geographically separated but united together as a complete and entire organism. Let us look at various Scriptural evidences of this unity.

      The Use of Letters of Commendation. When brothers or sisters from one assembly visited another assembly, they carried with them letters of introduction and commendation from their home assembly, or from a well-known believer (such as the apostle Paul), to the assembly being visited (see Acts 19:24-28; Rom. 16:1,2; 2 Cor. 3:1 for examples). Alternatively, Barnabas personally commended Saul of Tarsus to the believers in Jerusalem (Acts 9:26,27).

      The Ministry of Paul. The apostle Paul did not confine his ministry to one assembly. In addition to helping to establish assemblies of believers in many places, he revisited most of these plus many others in order to build up the saints through ministry of the Word of God. He also wrote letters (called “epistles” in our Bibles) to a number of them, addressing problems specific to each one. In his epistles to the assemblies, Paul often sought to remind the saints of their unity with all of the other assemblies in the Church as a whole: “The churches of Christ salute you” (Rom. 16:16). “Paul … unto the church of God that is at Corinth … with all who in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Cor. 1:1; see also 1 Cor. 4:17; 7:17; 16:1).

      The Help of Assemblies One for Another. A particular manifestation of the interdependence of assemblies in the early Church was the way the different local assemblies helped each other (see 1 Cor. 16:2,3; 2 Cor. 8:1-15; 9:1-15; Phil. 4:14-18).

      The Uniting of Believers of Various Ethnic Backgrounds. The earliest members of the Church were Jewish converts to Christ. The first were 120 or so disciples of the Lord (Acts 1:15) upon whom the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost. These were soon followed by 3,000 more Jewish men and women who responded to the preaching of the apostle Peter (Acts 2:41). Later, the gospel went out to the Samaritans and the Greek and Roman Gentiles, with many of these saved and added to the Church as well (Acts 8:5-17; 10:45,46; 16:34).

      While a longstanding animosity existed between Jews and Samaritans and between Jews and Gentiles, God worked things out to show clearly that the same Holy Spirit who brought the Jewish believers into the Church, the body of Christ, brought the Samaritan and Gentile believers into that same body.

      The apostle Paul emphasizes the oneness of Jewish and Gentile believers: “He is our peace, who has made both [that is, Jew and Gentile] one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us … to make in Himself of two one new man, so making peace; and that He might reconcile both unto God in one body … For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Eph. 2:14-18).

      There is not one body or Church for Jews and another for Gentiles; not one Spirit for Jews and another for Samaritans; not one Lord for whites and another for blacks; not one faith for males and another for females; not one baptism for Americans and another for Asians. Rather, “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all” (Eph. 4:1-6).

      The Resolving of Differences Between Assemblies. The unity of assemblies in the early Church was further demonstrated when “certain men who came down from Judea [to Antioch] taught the brethren and said, “Except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved” (Acts 15:1). A delegation of brothers from the Antioch assembly, including Paul and Barnabas, went to Jerusalem to discuss this matter with the believers there (Acts 15:7-9). After the brethren of both assemblies resolved that the Gentile believers should not be required to be circumcised, the assembly at Jerusalem sent a delegation to the assembly at Antioch confirming the satisfactory agreement reached on the controversial question.

      In this account we find a wonderful example of the care, concern, and unity that should exist among the local assemblies in the Church, the one body of Christ. Satan hates this unity of God’s people, and does all he can to disrupt and destroy it. What a credit to both the Antioch and Jerusalem assemblies that the brothers took great pains to resolve the conflict rather than deciding to split and divide over their disagreement.

“That They All May Be One”

      Given the sad history of the Christian Church over the past 2,000 years, its unity having been tragically smashed into thousands of divisions, sects, and denominations, we might throw up our hands in despair and cry, “What’s the use?” But the Lord, knowing full well what the history of the Church would turn out to be like, nevertheless prayed “that they all may be one.” Let us then, each one of us, look within ourselves to see if there is any attitude or behavior that could be used by Satan to foment even more divisions within the body of Christ.

      Let’s face it. Being part of a local church or assembly of believers for any length of time can be a very trying experience. It shouldn’t be so if all truly have been saved from their sins by the precious blood of Christ and are seeking to be followers of Christ (Eph. 5:1,2). But many of the selfish habits, behaviors, and attitudes (such as the want of meekness, humility, and mutual forbearance) that are responsible for the disgracefully high divorce rate in Western society have become painfully evident in the local church as well.

      Ideally, members of a local church meet together one and maybe several times a week to study the Bible, pray, worship, work, and make plans and decisions together. But while these experiences ought to be a foretaste of heaven, sadly they often are the farthest thing from it. However, considering the variety of personalities that may be joined together in the local church—males and females, nonagenarians and teens, blacks and whites, Jews and Gentiles, elementary school dropouts and college graduates, rich and poor, aggressive types and laid-back types—and that all are still carrying around our old sin nature, perhaps it is a wonder that local churches function as well as they do.

      Let us each ask ourselves:

      1. Is there someone in the congregation whom I don’t like, and particularly, with whom I am not on speaking terms?

      2. Do I find myself wanting to have everything my way in the local church, always shooting down the suggestions and proposals made by other people?

      3. Do I find myself frequently grumbling and complaining about any of the following: teaching and preaching by those who are poorly prepared or simply not edifying? prayers and praises that are rote recitations rather than the Spirit-led outpouring of a heart that is close to the Lord? quality of the singing and/or the hymns selected for singing? the outreach programs? the lack of outreach programs? management of finances? anything else?

      4. Do I consider myself to be spiritually superior to, and/or more advanced in knowledge of the Scriptures than, everyone else in the assembly?

      5. Do I become impatient with brothers and sisters in Christ who are not as advanced spiritually as I am?

      6. Do I find myself to be in conflict with others in the local assembly concerning a matter of church discipline?

These, I believe, are a few of the things that Satan and his host of emissaries are looking for when deciding what group of Christians to attack and rip apart next.

      Let us confess and exterminate any un-Christlike behaviors and attitudes before Satan is able to get an advantage over us (2 Cor. 2:11). Let us seek to do everything in our power, in accordance with Scripture and by the leading of the Holy Spirit, to fulfill our Lord’s earnest prayer, the night before He laid down His life for us, that we “all may be one” (John 17:21).

Healing of Past Divisions

      We cannot close this consideration of the unity of believers without asking what, if anything, can be done to heal the divisions that already exist. The Scriptures give instruction only for restoring an individual who has been put away because of wicked doctrine or behavior (compare 2 Corinthians 2:1-11 with 1 Corinthians 5). If a division or separation has occurred in a fellowship due to the allowance of wrong doctrine or practice, and if individuals associated with the evil come to see their wrong, they should—upon their confession and forsaking of the wrong—be received by those who separated from them.

      The merging of two entire bodies of believers, while the idea seems commendable on first thought, lacks Scriptural authority. When such has been attempted, it generally results in dropouts from both fellowships and even more divisions. Also, the leaders’ eagerness to push the union to completion may often result in failure to inform fully every individual in each fellowship of all of the details of the proposed  merger, or to provide adequate time for consideration and discussion by all. In the absence of clear Scriptural instruction for effecting such mergers of entire fellowships, it would seem best for God’s people to adhere to their primary focus of living day to day and week to week to the glory of God, and to seek to avoid further division by endeavoring, “with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love … to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:2,3).

      The Church, when viewed according to the mind of God, is a unity, a single body—the body of Christ—formed and connected with its living Head by the Holy Spirit sent down to abide here on earth. Thus formed into oneness in and with Christ, it is separate from the world, is heavenly in its character, and is to have its place down here as a witness for an absent Christ and as waiting His return to take it to glory. The gatherings of the Church are to be “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” only (1 Cor. 5:4); the smallest number thus gathered have His presence and His administrative power in their midst (Matt. 18:20).

The Body of Christ

      The characterization of the Church as the body of Christ is, no doubt, a figure, but it is one that the Holy Spirit constantly employs in order to show the union of members with one another as well as with Christ, their dependence upon one another as well as upon Christ. If the Church is the body of Christ, believers are “one body in Christ, and every one members one of another” (Rom. 12:5). Therefore, “The eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you” (1 Cor. 12:21). Furthermore, if “one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it” (verse 26). Therefore, the body is a figure used to show the closest possible union among believers. However, since the Church is one body, the body of Christ, part of the testimony which it is called upon to bear is the manifestation of this oneness on earth.

“That They May Be One”

      Thus Jesus prays the Father, “Keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, as We are” (John 17:11). Here oneness is asked, oneness of a most blessed character—a transcript of that transcendent oneness of the Father and the Son. The oneness of nature is, indeed, a depth which man’s intellect can never fathom, but the oneness of purpose and of love has been divinely manifested. This oneness, at least, believers are to exhibit to the world.

      However, it may be objected that this oneness was not to be outward and visible, but only in spirit, as seen by God. But let us look at another text: “Neither pray I for these alone, but for those also who shall believe on Me through their word; that they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us; that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me (John 17:20,21). Here Jesus prays for all “who shall believe on Me through their word.” Surely each believer will eagerly claim his part in this. But if all believers are included, the Lord’s request for them all is that they may be made one even as He Himself was one with the Father. And this oneness—far from being invisible to the world—was to be the evidence to the world of the Father’s having sent the Son. If God meant it to be a testimony to the world, He must

have meant it to be something that the world could see. Therefore, if the oneness of believers is not visible to the world, the Church has failed in its testimony. There may be abundant individual testimony that the Father has sent the Son; but the testimony here named, the testimony that was to be borne by the manifest oneness of believers, cannot come from a divided Church.

      How earnestly the appeal is over and over again repeated to oneness of heart and mind. “Be perfect,” says the apostle to the Corinthians, “be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you” (2 Cor. 13:11). He entreats the Ephesians to walk in love, “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,” and adds, “there is one body and one Spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all” (Eph. 4:3-6). In like manner the gifts bestowed by our ascended Christ are distributed “for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come, in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (verses 12,13). Wherever we look, the oneness that belongs to the Church in the mind of God is expected to find its manifestation here on earth.

      It is important to note the priority that the exhortations to unity possess in the teaching of God’s Word. When Christ prays for the disciples He was about to leave, the first request He makes for them is “that they may be one, as We are.” When He enlarges the circle and embraces in His petitions “those also who shall believe on Me through their word,” the first thing He asks for them is “that they all may be one.” So, when, in the Epistle to the Ephesians, believers are exhorted to walk worthy of their vocation, the first way in which this walk is to manifest itself is by “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” And where, as among the Corinthians, there has been a want of that lowliness and meekness, that long-suffering and forbearance in love which are needful to the preservation of unity, the first of the many errors which the apostle selects for rebuke and remonstrance is the “division” that had appeared in their midst. Thus, the manifestation of unity was far from being a secondary or indifferent matter in the mind of Christ or in the teaching of the Holy Spirit.

Division Condemned

      Nowhere in Scripture do we find the slightest trace of the modern philosophy that defends sects as securing variety in unity, that says, “Let men have their own thoughts on all matters but the great essential truths of salvation.” Sects are utterly condemned as the divisions of Christ, and every thought is to be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Divisions are a result of carnality, disobedience, and self-will.

      In Christendom today, division and sectarianism have ceased to be looked upon as disobedience, and have been quietly acquiesced in as either a positive good or a necessary evil. But if God’s Word condemns it, as we have seen, it certainly cannot be good. Is it, then, a necessary evil? In other words, are believers obliged to act in disobedience to God’s directions? Surely the bare suggestion refutes itself. God has marked out a way for His people to walk in obedience. Our ignorance may fail to find it, but God’s faithfulness has not failed to provide it.

Division Condemned, Separation

from Evil Enjoined

      Here an important question arises. Are believers to hold together whatever evil doctrine or practice is tolerated? Or, if not, how is division to be avoided? The Word of God is perfectly clear. Division is condemned, while separation from evil is enjoined. Where false doctrine or immorality has shown itself, separation is to take place. Thus, when there was immoral conduct at Corinth, the leaven was to be purged out (1 Cor. 5:7); if a person preached another gospel than the one Paul had taught the Galatians, “Let him be accursed” (Gal. 1:8,9); and when Hymenaeus and Alexander made shipwreck concerning the faith, they were “delivered unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme” (1 Tim. 1:20). However, this was not division. It was united action, shown in separating from evil. Even if large numbers had supported Hymenaeus and Alexander, and had gone out with them—in fact, if all the assembly had upheld them except two or three who in faithfulness to Christ withdrew from them—the act of these latter would merely have been godly separation from evil, and the division which had occurred would have been the act of those who followed the false teachers, not of those who, in obedience to the Lord’s mind, separated from them. As far as these were concerned, whether few or many, the principle of the oneness of the Church would have been maintained, and no departure from the divine order would have occurred. They would have remained on God’s ground, and would have constituted the outward manifestation of His Assembly or Church.

      Suppose a teacher tells his pupils that he does not wish them to be scattered, and therefore they are all to remain in the playground. The playground then becomes the place where their oneness is to be shown. If some wander away from the playground, the manifested oneness is gone, but which of the pupils maintain the principle of it—those who go away, or those who remain where they were told? Even if those who remain are but two or three out of two or three hundred, they have not caused the division, and their separation from those who disobeyed the teacher by leaving the playground, so far from breaking up the oneness, keeps them in the only place where the oneness which the teacher desired could have been exhibited. Therefore, godly separation from evil is not division and sectarianism, for the truth of God cannot contradict itself. Separation from evil never makes sects, and is a necessary step in delivering ourselves from sects.

      In conclusion, sects and denominations are entirely contrary to God’s Word. Does it make matters any better that they are of centuries standing? “God is not a man that He should lie; neither the son of man that He should repent” (Num. 23:19). What He has once declared evil cannot become good by long continuance. Now, what am I to do if I find myself involved in that which God condemns? I am bound to search His Word to learn how I can escape from it, and I am entitled to reckon with the most absolute confidence that He has provided such a way for those who faithfully seek it.

      (From The Lord’s Coming, Israel, and the Church.)

(Ed. note: The article, “Christ’s Teachings on Prayer,” that appeared in the March-April 2007 issue of Words of Truth, was Mr. Ridout’s introduction to his following thoughts on Christ’s high-priestly prayer given to us in John 17.)

The Divisions of John 17

      This marvelous prayer of our Lord shows us His deep longing for His own who are in the world. First, I want to mark out the three major divisions of this wonderful chapter. In the first five verses our blessed Lord speaks in view of His going to the Father, of having all power committed to Him, and of entering into His glory. In verses 6-21 we have the main part of the prayer. It is His desire for His own who are in the world. Then from verse 22 to the close of the chapter we have the glory into which He is entering, and which is our eternal home.

The Beginning Section:

Christ Glorified

      His prayer begins with “The hour is come” when He is to be glorified, and at the end of the chapter He has entered His glory and we are to share it with Him. Whatever comes in between is marked by the character that belongs to those two great parts of His prayer. At the beginning it is His entering into glory with all power given to Him, including that of giving eternal life to as many as the Father has given Him. Here there is no sense of feebleness! With us prayer is often the expression of our own feebleness in confession. How different with the Lord! “Glorify Thy Son … as Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He might give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him.” He is the Giver of eternal life, and only He leads us into it. He fills our hearts with that vital principle, never to be lost, which links us with Himself and the glory into which He has gone.

      But what a standard for prayer! When we in our feebleness get on our knees, what a blessed thing it is to realize that the Lord is on high, all power being given to Him, not merely to give us the little trifles of food and meat and clothing, but to give us all that the blessed term “eternal life” means. It is not merely the impartation of that which never can be lost, but more, the enjoyment of it, fellowship with the Father and the Son, companionship with Them, sharing Their thoughts, enjoying the holiness that belongs to Them, partaking of that holiness. This is realized power.

      As we listen to Him there, pouring out His heart in supplication, we may be in all the consciousness of what has been given to Him. There is no uncertainty, there is no thought that an answer will not be given, because He already has the power to give it to as many as the Father has given Him.

“The Hour Is Come”

      But I must not pass over the Lord’s words, “Father, the hour is come.” It had not come at the beginning. To His beloved mother—and He honored her and obeyed her in her place as mother, but she could never intrude between Him and the Father—He said, “Woman, what have I to do with you? Mine hour is not yet come” (John 2:4). Until that time He would not act. Again, “No man laid hands on Him, for His hour was not yet come” (John 7:30; 8:20) and then, later, “This is your hour” (Luke 22:53). Now, at the beginning of His prayer He speaks of it as come, that hour of which He had said, “What shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour? but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy Name” (John 12:27,28). It meant the cross for Him, the anguish of suffering unto death for us, the bearing of the wrath of God for us.

      But He is not thinking merely of the hour of suffering. “Glorify Thy Son.” “For the joy that was set before Him [He] endured the cross” (Heb. 12:2). He passed through Gethsemane, endured Calvary, entered the grave, but rose in life to sit down at the right hand of the throne of God!

      Now why did He pray to be glorified? Did He have some selfish motive? Was it in order that He might be displayed? “Father, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son may also glorify Thee.” He was here in this world for one purpose—to glorify the Father. Why is He in heaven? To glorify the Father. Blessed be His name! There is no selfishness in Him there, any more than there was here! It is the glory of the Father that is the one purpose ever engaging Him, His one desire.

Eternal Life

      Then, from out of that suffering, from out of that cross, the power is wielded to give eternal life. What is eternal life? I am not going to do more than point out what it is that marks eternal life: the knowledge of “the only true God,” to whom He is speaking, and “Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.” What does it mean to know Him, to know God? Does it mean merely that you believe there is a God? Does it mean merely that you believe there was such a historical person on the earth as Jesus of Nazareth, or even Jesus the Christ, or even Jesus the Son of God? Is it merely to know about Him in that way? Is that eternal life? This is life eternal, to be acquainted with, to have a conscious knowledge, to have a living and vital knowledge in my own soul of Him, the only God, God over all; not man, not the creature, but the living God, and He who has manifested God, Jesus Christ whom He has sent.

      Let us not be afraid to speak freely and fully of these blessed themes; let us not be afraid to discuss eternal life. Life eternal brings me into relationship with God; life eternal introduces me into the family of the Father and the Son. Truly our fellowship is with Them. It is a holy theme and a most blessed one. Blessed be His Name, He has given that eternal life to all whom the Father has given to Him!

Glorifying God

      Just another word: “I have glorified Thee on the earth!” How perfectly He did it! Do you not love to trace His footsteps here? The apostle writes that we “have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus” (Eph. 4:21). He is the personal exhibition of the truth in all of its holy character. It is not merely Christ risen, but it is the truth as it is in Him, in that life which He lived here upon earth. Thus the eternal life that was with the Father was manifested to us, indeed, exhibited in its perfection. Therefore He says, “I have glorified Thee on the earth,” and then, “I have finished the work that Thou gave Me to do.” The Father had committed a stupendous work to the Son, none other than that of bringing back a rebel world to God, vindicating His righteous character. This had been entrusted to Him as having humbled Himself to take the servant’s form, even the lowest place. I love to think of that little Babe in His mother’s arms, entrusted with the glory of the Father, now grown to manhood and about to go to the cross and into eternal glory. Looking forward, He can say, “I have finished the work that Thou gave Me to do.”

      As we contemplate that one great feature of this work, the redemption which He accomplished on the cross, what place has doubt, fear, or unbelief? Shall I not look at Him and say:

      “Clean every whit, Thou said it, Lord;

            Shall one suspicion lurk?

      Thine surely is a faithful Word,

            And Thine a finished work.”

                                                                                                                                    (Mary Bowley)

      And so He has gone on high, blessed be His Name; angels, principalities and powers are subject to Him. He is Lord and Master of all. Our Great High Priest  who has entered the holiest of God’s presence on high to appear for us has obtained eternal redemption.

The Concluding Section: Christ’s

Glory Given to the Believers

      Now let us turn to the close of the chapter, and afterwards we will consider the middle part. At the commencement He prayed, “Glorify Thy Son.” Then in verse 22 He says, “The glory that Thou gave Me I have given them.” That into which He has entered, He gives to us. We are joint-heirs with Christ. He will not be in glory and leave us behind. As surely as He has entered into His glory, so surely will His people enter into it with Him. Here in this dark world in sin and weakness, we soon will be with Him in glory. Notice what goes with this: “That they may be one, even as We are.” What will become of our petty divisions, parties, and alienations? What will become of our poor little pittance of personal dignity and pride? We will be one in the glory there. Surely our place is to show the reality of that in our lives here on the earth! But it must be on the basis of His glory; it is just in proportion as the sense of it fills our hearts that earthly things will fade out of sight.

      May His glory be supreme in our hearts. That will prevent our being apart; that will draw us together according to the attraction of the glory and the power of the blessed nature that is already ours, and in the power of which we are to live. A man-made union of all the Christians in the world would not be the answer to the Lord’s prayer. Were all to vote that henceforth and hereafter there would be no more sects and parties, no more divisions among Christians, but we would all be members of one vast body, that would not be the answer to His prayer. Why? The glory would be lacking. Only as Christ supreme in His glory is our object, and we live for that glory and in order that He may be glorified, can unity be realized. There is a pathway of unity for the people of God. It is to our common shame that we do not manifest that unity, but the reason for it is that His glory is not shining in and shining out in our lives, for this alone can produce it.

      You cannot legislate Christian behavior. You cannot legislate Christian unity. These come through the power of the Holy Spirit, and a genuine revival of the reality of the truth of what Christ is to us. That will draw us together and hold us together as we live in the light of our inheritance in the glory. The Lord grant us to know how in the light of that glory we may be blessedly drawn together so that the power of the enemy is set aside.

With Christ in Glory

      Yet another thought as to that glory: “Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am.” Heaven for us is to be with HIM. Beloved, is that your idea of heaven? If it is, you are ready to go now and you will be glad to go. You can say,

      “To Jesus, the crown of my hope,

      My soul is in haste to be gone.”

                                                                                                                               (William Cowper)

      Is that our thought of it: “Let me be with Thee where Thou art” (Charlotte Elliott)? Wherever He is, that is heaven for us.

      Complete in itself as this appears to be, yet He adds a marvelous, wondrous thought as to “the glory.” Is it, “That they may share My glory?” No, something better than that, for He will see that we share His glory, but, “That they may behold My glory, the glory that I had with Thee before the world was”! That matchless glory which was His with the Father in all eternity, is now given to Him as Son of Man, victorious, triumphant on high. To behold Him in His glory, that will be our heaven. Oh, beloved, have we seen that glory? Have we beheld it in such a way that our whole souls are satisfied that He is glorified? Is our joy such as Peter speaks of, “unspeakable and full of glory” (1 Pet. 1:8)? That will eliminate selfishness from us; in the power of this alone can we realize the blessedness of this prayer.

The Middle Section:

Our Lives in This World

      We have seen the heavenly opening and closing of this prayer, now let us look at what we might call the earthly part of it. First, He is entering into His glory with all power and dominion in His hand; then He is bringing us into that glory to share it with Him and to behold His glory and worship Him. What in the meantime is Christ’s desire for His people? “I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep through Thine own Name those whom Thou hast given Me.” He is about to depart, and what is His thought as He is leaving? “I am no longer here, but they are here. My loved ones are here, those for whom I died. Oh, Father, keep through Thine own Name those whom Thou hast given Me.” He had manifested the Father’s name to them; they had heard the Word; they had believed it; they had kept it; they were His because they were the Father’s, and He was glorified in His own. And the way He is glorified in us is that we shall be kept. When He was here He kept His own; not one of them who was truly His was lost, only the one that would fulfil the Scripture, the son of perdition, who knew not Christ, nor loved Him; he is the only one outwardly connected with Him who was lost. But all the others, though feeble in themselves, were kept.

Having Christ’s Joy

      “And now come I to Thee, and these things I speak in the world that they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves.” His joy! Do you think the Lord Jesus was happy when He was here? Do you think He had joy and communion? Do you think that ever a shadow passed between Him and the Father in all that holy life? No, it was a life of perfect communion, and that is what He desires for us. It is His high-priestly prayer for us, and that is why He washes our feet, that His joy should be fulfilled in us.

      This is to be in the world, for His prayer is not that we should be taken out of the world. The heart sometimes may leap over all thought of the present and say, “Oh, that I could be with Him up there!” Yes, blessed it would be, but He does not ask that we should be taken out. He has left us here, as He says, “As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.” We are sent as His ambassadors, His light-bearers, His witnesses in the world. What He desires is that the Father should “keep them from the evil” that is in the world. “They are not of the world.” Mark that. He does not say we ought not to be of the world; He does not say we shall not be of the world, but “They ARE NOT of the world.” Every one who is saved has the seal upon him that he is not of the world, no more than Christ was of the world. Beloved, I belong to Him, and therefore my life is as much out of the world as His is, and, dear brethren, how it comes home to our hearts: “If that is what I am, does my life answer to it? Is my life an unworldly life?” How far beyond mere moral integrity that goes! This thing of having a high talk and low walk is dishonoring to the Son of God.

      One may have a clean ledger, live a very moral and upright life outwardly, and yet be intensely worldly and belong to this world. No! “Not of the world” means that our hearts are where He is; our treasure where Christ is. If you would peel off all the outer coverings of our life, layer after layer, business life, public life, social life, family life, personal life, getting down, down, down to the center of it, it would be found true, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” That is His desire for us.

Sanctified through the Word

      But He has not left us merely with that thought of it for He adds, “As I am not” of it. Then He speaks of the work needed for the realization of this, namely, sanctification. It is not sanctification by new birth, nor yet sanctification by His own blood; the latter gives us a perfect position and standing before God, the other a perfect life. But here it is sanctification by the truth, by the Word of God filling and controlling the heart and life.

      Therefore how necessary it is that the Word of God should be our meat and drink. It is the vehicle for our sanctification. He says, as it were, to the Father, “Thy Word, which is truth, is power to sanctify My people.”

      Then one other word: “I sanctify Myself.” Need I say that this does not have to do with anything in the personal character of our Lord? Nothing whatever. He was holy essentially; He needed no sanctification; but ah, He takes His place outside of the world to set Himself apart to God; He has entered into the glory, for what purpose? That we might be linked with Him outside of the world, to have our portion with Him.

Concluding Thoughts

      Well, I have given you only an outline. May this prayer be repeated by the Holy Spirit in our supplications, our hearts rejoicing that He is in that place of glory and power, rejoicing too to think of our share in that with Him, and that we shall behold His glory. Meanwhile we are left here in the world, kept by the Father from the evil. May we realize our Lord’s purpose for us as sent into the world to be His witnesses and messengers, sanctified by His truth, and so growing in likeness to Him who gave when here the perfect expression of what such sanctification means for us. This will link us with Him in heaven, and give a heavenly tone to our lives. This will not make us neglectful of duty, nor forgetful of the trifles and amenities of life; rather will it make us more careful of others and truly self-forgetful.

      It is said of one of the old monks who was walking along the great mountain rim that surrounds the Gulf of Naples and makes it such a lovely, entrancing scene, that he took no notice of this great natural beauty because he was so engaged with the Lord. That may appear wonderfully heavenly; but I believe, beloved, if we were engaged with the Lord we would see that beauty and glory of His creation, and we would see Him in it.

      I remember when I was in Naples, passing through deep, deep exercise, and I was talking to some friends from this country. As we looked out on that same lovely scene, presented by the Gulf of Naples, I quoted the lines:

      “All around, in noonday splendor.

            Earthly scenes lay fair and bright,

      But mine eye no longer sees them

            For the glory of that light.”

                                                                                                                                  (Frances Bevan)

I thought at the time that this was quite a lofty thought, but I don’t think so now. I want to look at the glory there; I want to see “in noonday splendor those scenes so fair and bright” and to see the hand of my blessed Lord who made it all, to see My Father as the Owner of it all, and to realize that I am the joint-heir with Christ. Thus I wish to look out upon His fair creation and say: “These are Thy works, Thou Creator of all good.” And I am sure, dear brethren, that at some time you have stood and looked on some fair earthly scene, and seen its radiant splendor like the very day of heaven begun on earth, and then hasn’t an involuntary sigh risen from your heart? What was that sigh? “He is not here!” It is that alone, beloved, which makes us pilgrims: Christ is not here!

      So let us pray to be faithful, loyal, diligent in every true path of duty, but in it all to be kept from the evil of the world, to be sanctified by His truth and to have our hearts linked with Him, and we will be waiting to go home to glory with Him.             (From “None of Self … Christ Is All, a Memorial of S. Ridout,” in Help and Food, Vol. 48.)

Jesus, His disciples, and His mother Mary were invited to a wedding. We can imagine Mary talking with her friends, catching up on the latest news. Someone comes by and says that there is no more wine. Mary immediately gets up, finds Jesus, and takes Him into the kitchen. She tells the servants to do whatever Jesus tells them to do. So Jesus turns the water into wine.

      Now, I wonder what prompted Mary to do what she did. The Bible tells us, “And there are also many other things that Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written” (John 21:25).

      Let us consider the life of Jesus before He began His ministry. Some traditions tell us that Mary’s husband Joseph was older than she was, and he died, leaving her with a family to raise. Jesus as the oldest child, and being perfect in every way, would have helped Mary by working in the carpentry shop and guiding the younger children. Mary would have spent thirty years observing the contrast between the attitudes and behaviors of the Lord Jesus and those of His younger half-siblings and of other children and young men who lived in Nazareth.

      Mary doubtless also remembered the marvelous words spoken of her firstborn Son by the angel Gabriel (Luke 1:31-33), Elizabeth (Luke 1:41-45), the shepherds (Luke 2:16-19), and Simeon (Luke 2:28-33). So when Mary, at the wedding, heard that there was no more wine, she might have reasoned within herself, “Jesus would want to fix that, and He probably has the power to do so.”             Although Jesus never married, He was acquainted with the problems that families face today. So we can take all of our problems to the Lord Jesus Christ, realizing that He knows what we are going through and that He sympathizes with us. He gives us wisdom, comfort, and help when we need it (Heb. 2:17,18; 4:15-16).

Q. What means “The Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered” (Rom. 8:26)?

      A. The meaning of the passage appears to be this: we do not know what to pray for as we ought, and therefore the grace of God gives us, not only an Advocate on high for us, but the Holy Spirit within us to identify Himself in grace with our sorrowing, suffering condition, so as to put us in fellowship with God as His redeemed ones in bodies withal and a creation not yet redeemed. He accordingly intercedes for us—within us of course—according to God, so as to give a divine and sympathetic character to what otherwise would have been but selfish sorrow. Thus we are entitled to know that our very groanings as Christians are not without the Spirit, though these cannot be expressed in words, and they rise up acceptable to God, and will be surely answered by the revelation of the glory by and by, for which we who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, and all creation also, wait. How sweet to think that the Holy Spirit, who gives and directs the joys of our hearts and makes us bid the bridegroom “come” (Rev. 22:17), takes equal part in our present griefs and travail of spirit! And if we do not know what to ask for, we do know that all things work together for good, as the apostle proceeds and proves so triumphantly to the end of the chapter.

      (From The Bible Treasury, Vol. 16.)