I desire to bring before you the way in which the Lord draws our hearts to Himself. I do not speak of how the conscience is set at rest. I trust all of my readers are at rest in the conscience, through the work of Christ, as to all questions of sin and judgment. But it is possible to know the work of the Lord and greatly rejoice in it and yet never really to have experienced His company. Let us look at some Scriptures that show how the Lord values our company, our affections, our love.
Simon Peter
In Peter (Luke 5:4-11) we get the way the soul is first set at ease in the company of the Lord. If a poor man received a great benefit from a nobleman, he would better enjoy his gift than his company. This feeling needs to be removed. We may appreciate the grace of the Lord in having paid our debts, while little knowing His love. There is a difference between grace and love. We can enjoy grace a great way off, but to enjoy love there must be nearness; we must be in the company of the one who loves us. When the Lord came from heaven, He did not come into the midst of angels but of men in order to find companions for eternal glory. Peter had already known the Lord, but now it dawned on him who the One was whom he knew. He learned by the miraculous draught of fishes that Christ was the Lord of earth and heaven, who could command the fish to come into his net. When we apprehend in some measure the Person of the Lord, we wonder that He should want to bring such as we are into His own company. Peter says, “Depart from me,” for he felt that he was a sinner; yet he was attracted to Him all the while. Notwithstanding our sense of disparity, He sets us at ease in His presence. He says, “Fear not.” Christ would not only have us to believe what He has done for us on the cross, but He would take away every suggestion of fear and make us at home in His company. He has been here with us and we shall be with Him for ever, but do we enjoy His company now?
Mary and Martha
In chapter 5 the Lord had come down in grace to minister to man, and Peter was drawn into His company. In Luke 10:38 we have an advance. The time was come that the Lord should be received up; thus we find Him here on His way to suffer. “He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51). “As they went, He entered into a certain village” (10:38). After the Mount of Transfiguration, where Moses and Elias spoke to Christ of His decease, He was on His way to death. On the way “Martha received Him into her house.” She had not the sense of the path the Lord was taking, that He was not staying in this world. So she invited Him into her house and sought to entertain Him with her things. She did not understand what was before the Lord at this time and she was cumbered about much serving, making the Lord her guest. Mary was, so to speak, the Lord’s guest, and He was entertaining her with His things. No doubt Martha served Him to the best of her ability with her house, her means, her time, her labor. Mary was in the company of the Lord. Martha wanted to bring the Lord to her side of things. Mary went to the Lord’s side. Do we know a little of that? He has this object in bringing us into His company, to lead us to His side of things. The Lord did use what was Peter’s—his boat—but this is more. He wants to bring us to the path that Mary chose. Martha blamed her for idleness. The Lord says, “Mary has chosen that good part.” What is the good part? It is the Lord’s things. It cannot be taken away. We might be using our wealth for the Lord, and it might all be taken away; but if I get to His side of things and let Him open that out to me so that I become His guest, and He entertains me with His things, it is a good part that cannot be taken away.
Mary, Martha, Lazarus, and Judas
Turn now to John 12:1-8, and you will find a yet further advance. The Lord has reached Jerusalem and His circumstances are greatly altered. The Lord’s heart was most gratified to turn aside to Bethany and to find those who would appreciate Him. There will be a moment in the history of the earth when the rejected One will know a people who will gladly receive and welcome Him. This is foreshadowed here in Martha. Her brother Lazarus, who had recently been raised to life again by the Lord, is also there. He represents the nation of Israel that will be brought back again to life in this world. It will be a wonderful thing when the remnant of Israel receives Him and the nation is brought back as from death. Judas, as one who had companied with the Lord, represents apostate Christendom, those who have had to do with Christianity and its blessings and yet who will turn and give up Christianity and apostatize from Christ. Judas was about to sell Christ; he had not the smallest appreciation of Him. Only think how people may have all the love and grace of Christ put before them, and yet not appreciate Him. They may do good to men, and yet not have one atom of appreciation of Christ. How very much even Christians are tainted with this spirit of the world!
But finally we have in Mary one who already in spirit had gone to the Lord’s side of things. She stands out beautifully and represents the affections of the true Church. She has a sense, no doubt taught of God, that Christ is going out of the world. The most precious thing she has she pours out on Him for His burial. Christ interpreted it so. I do not say she fully understood the meaning of her act; but a kind of instinct in her apprehended the danger that awaited Him, and she appreciated Him the more. But the Lord understands and puts the full meaning on it:“Against the day of My burying has she kept this.” If drawn into His company, where do our affections go? Are we free from the spirit of the world that can have all the grace of Christ before it, and yet withhold from Him? May the Lord give us to understand how He lays hold of our hearts to draw us into His company, and to lead us outside this world to where He has gone!
Mary Magdalene
In John 20:14-18 the Lord has come out of death in resurrection. In Mary Magdalene we have one greatly attached to Him. He had cast out from her seven demons, and she, along with other women, “ministered unto Him of their substance” (Luke 8:2,3). Now she seeks Him in death, but in very deep affection. She thinks she has lost Him. When we have lost a friend, we find out how much we love him. Mary’s affections for Him make her inconsolable; the one thing she wants is Himself. Would to God we had more of such affection for the Lord! He must be first in His love drawing forth ours; we often want to put our love first. George Herbert puts it thus:“As when the heart says (sighing to be approved), Oh, could I love! and stops; God writes—Loved.”
Do not say, “Oh, could I love!” Be occupied with His love and love because He loves (1 John 4:19). Mary Magdalene loved Him and she was the one to whom the Lord first appeared. He said unto her, “Mary.” She is a figure of the Church learning Him in resurrection. At first she thought she had got Him back here again; she sprang forward as much as to say, “I have got Him back.” “No,” says the Lord, “touch Me not.” He is conducting her out of the place of the Jewish remnant into the place of the Church. “I ascend unto My Father, and your Father, and to My God, and your God.” He is going to re-enter, as a man, that scene of holy love where He was before. “Go and tell My brethren”—they were to be with Him where He is. He brings us to His position as sons before the Father, into the affections that He knows with the Father. Surely that is deep and blessed intimacy! If you have been conducted along this line, if you know the Lord now in resurrection and in ascension, you will be prepared for the next thing to take place—His coming again.
The Bride of Christ
Turn now to Revelation 22:16-20. Here, at the close of the book, the person of the Lord shines out. Throughout the book He has been revealed in many and various characters, as Jehovah, the First and the Last, the One clad in a priestly garment, the Lamb, and others. Spiritual perceptions may say in many cases, “I see the Lord in these varied characters”; but when we come to this last chapter, all at once the sweet words break in, “I Jesus.” It is as when the disciples were in the storm. “They were afraid.” But He said unto them, “It is I, be not afraid. Then they willingly received Him into the ship” (John 6:20,21). It is the Person of the Lord there brought out. So here, at the close of the book, “I, Jesus … am the Root and the Offspring of David.” That is what He is for the earth:the Sun of righteousness will arise and the remnant will receive and know the Lord.
“The bright and Morning Star” is a heavenly Christ, the portion of the Church. She belongs to Christ while He is in heaven and she knows Him there. The Jews will not know Him till He comes back to earth. His relationship will be renewed with them on earth. The Church belongs to heaven, associated with a heavenly Christ, but her light—and a heavenly Christ is her light—will be seen on earth. It is the privilege of the Church here to respond for both the earth and the heavens. “The Spirit and the Bride say, Come.” All the administration of heavenly glory to the earth will be by the Bride. The Church must go into heavenly glory before the earth can get its blessing.
“I Jesus.” Do you say, “I know Him”? You may not understand all connected with His person; but can you say, “I know Him”? Immediately “the Spirit and the Bride say, Come.” If I know what it is to be found in the company of Christ, to have tasted His love in the smallest way, I must surely know a little what it is to desire His coming. I do not doubt there are many hindrances; but the Lord is expressing to us His affection in the words, “I come quickly,” and He counts on a response from His Church. The Spirit utters it in the Bride, “Come, Lord Jesus.” The Lord is bringing His own person before His beloved saints, conducting them to intimacy with Himself. The response will be, “Come!” It does not hinder service, for we shall surely all the more invite thirsty souls. We shall say, “Let him who is athirst, Come.” May the Lord lead our hearts more into full communion with Himself, for His name’s sake!