Feb 25
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“LET THESE GO THEIR WAY” John
18:8
Our Lord Jesus Christ was in the garden, and the soldiers came to arrest him. When they came to take him away, our Saviour gave this commandment to the soldiers concerning his beloved disciples – “If therefore ye seek me, let these go their way: that the saying might be fulfilled, which he spake, of them which thou gavest me have I lost none.
Do you see the love and care which our Lord manifested toward his people, even in the hour of his trial? His love is strong as death. He voluntarily gave himself up to the enemy, but demands that his people be set free as a condition of his surrender. As a sheep before her shearers is dumb, he opens not his mouth for his own sake; but for the sake of his disciples he gives a commandment of sovereign authority. This is love, constant, free, self-denying, unchanging love. But there is far more here than is to be found upon the surface.
This is a beautiful picture of our great Substitute in his work of redemption. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep, but the condition is this – THOSE SHEEP FOR WHOM HE DIED MUST THEREFORE GO FREE. Our Surety was bound and slain for us; and justice demands that those for whom he stands as a Substitute must be set free to go their way. In the midst of Egyptian bondage, that voice rings out as a word of power, “Let these go their way”. Out of the slavery of sin, out of the bondage of Satan, out from under the curse of the law the redeemed of the Lord must come. He says, upon the merits of his own infinite sacrifice, “Let these go their way”. With the eye of his justice upon the blood of his Son, the Lord God says of all his elect, “Let these go their way. Deliver them from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom.” The thunder-cloud of Divine wrath burst upon our Savior’s head, as he hung upon the cross of Calvary, and God’s elect, his chosen sheep, those sinners who, being called by his grace, believe on Christ shall never be smitten by the bolts of the law’s justice and vengeance. They must go free!
Don Fortner
“Holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.” –Hebrews 12:14
J.C.Philpot
To possess this holiness is a necessary and indispensable fitness for the inheritance of the saints in light; but this fitness must be wrought in us by the power of God’s grace, for I am sure that in ourselves of it we have none. But see its necessity. What happiness could there be in the courts of bliss unless we had a nature to enjoy it? Unless we were made capable of seeing Christ as he is, and enjoying his presence for evermore, heaven would be no heaven to us. Nothing unclean or unholy can enter there. Sanctification therefore must be wrought in us by the power of God, to make us fit for the heavenly inheritance, and he therefore communicates of his Spirit and grace to give us heavenly affections, holy desires, gracious thoughts, tender feelings; and above all that love whereby he is loved as the altogether lovely One.
By the sanctifying operations of his Spirit, he separates us from everything evil, plants his fear deep in the heart, that it may be a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death; and works in us a conformity to his suffering image here that we may be conformed to his glorified image hereafter. Thus there is a perfect and an imperfect sanctification–perfect by imputation, imperfect in its present operations. But the one is the pledge of the other; so that as surely as Christ now represents his people in heaven as their holy Head, so will he eventually bring them to be forever with him in those abodes of perfect holiness and perfect happiness which are prepared for them as mansions of eternal light and love.
“Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fully framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord.”–Ephesians 2:20-21
J.C.Philpot
Christ is the Head of every member individually, as he is the Head of the whole body collectively. Growth of the body, from babyhood to manhood, is the growth of individual members in the body. If, then, I am a member of the mystical body of Christ Jesus, I shall grow. My growth may be so slow and gradual as to be scarcely perceptible; but it will be growth still. If I have union with Christ, I shall be supplied, at least in some measure, out of his fullness. He is my life, and he has promised, because he lives, I shall live also; and if I live by him, I shall live upon and unto him. Paul could say, “The life which I live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God;” and also, “And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again” (2 Cor. 5:15).
By a sound gospel ministry our souls are fed. Christ is set before us in all the glories of his divine Person–in his Deity and Sonship, and in all the graces of his suffering humanity. His covenant characters and gracious relationships, his blood and righteousness, his death and resurrection, his ascension and glorification at the right hand of the Father, his present mediation and intercession, his sympathy as a once suffering but now exalted high Priest, and his ability to save to the uttermost all that come to God by him, are brought before us as the food of our faith; and as we taste that he is gracious, and feed upon him as the bread of life, there is a growth into him.
“In the beginning was the Word.”
John 1:1
John calls our Lord Jesus Christ “the Word.” This is a term used in the New Testament almost exclusively by John, identifying Christ as one who is God, and yet a distinct Person from the Father. I can think of only two places in which other inspired writers used this term in the New Testament with reference to our Saviour. In Hebrews 4:12-13 we read: — “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.” In 2nd Peter 3:5 we read, “that by the Word of God the heavens were of old.”
Deity Expressing Itself
A word is an expression, a means of manifestation, communication and revelation. Christ manifests the invisible God, communicates the love, mercy and grace of God, and reveals the attributes and perfections of God. The Word of God, then, is Deity expressing itself. Therefore Christ is called the Word of God.
Heb. 1:1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
Heb. 1:2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
Heb. 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
Heb. 1:4 Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
In Revelation 1:8 our Saviour declares himself to be God’s alphabet. — “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” Christ is the Word in and by whom the triune God makes himself known to men, the personal enunciation of Jehovah. — “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1:18).
Record in Heaven
Christ, the Word, is one of the Holy Three-in-One that bear record in heaven. — “There are three that bear record in heaven” (1 John 5:7). Bear record of what? That Jesus is the Son of God? No. Heaven needs no evidence of that! These three bear record in heaven that God has given us eternal life, in strict accordance with his just and righteous law, by the merits of Christ’s obedience and death as our Substitute. The three Persons of the Holy Trinity bear record in heaven that Christ has accomplished redemption for God’s elect by his blood
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atonement. — “There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.”
God the Father bears record that redemption is accomplished by his acceptance of Christ as our Representative and Surety (Hebrews 1:1-9; 6:19-20; 10:11-14). When the Father raised Christ from the dead and received him back into heaven as our Mediator, he accepted all his elect in Christ and bare record that redemption’s work was done (Ephesians 1:6; John 17:1-5).
God the Son, the living, eternal Word, the second person of the blessed Trinity, bears record of his people’s right to eternal life by his perpetual advocacy and intercession at the Father’s right hand (Romans 8:34; 1 John 2:1-2; Hebrews 6:20; 7:24-25). The record he bears, which secures the eternal salvation of God’s elect, by which we merit heaven and eternal life, is twofold: — His righteousness as our Representative and his satisfaction as our Substitute.
God the Holy Spirit, the third person of the holy Trinity, bears record of the accomplishment of redemption, by effectually applying the blood of Christ to the hearts of God’s elect in effectual calling (John 16:14; Hebrews 9:13-14). The Spirit of God takes the merit of Christ’s blood and righteousness and reveals our acceptance with God to us by the gospel. In effectual calling chosen, redeemed sinners hear the gospel. But they hear more than the bare word of the gospel. They hear the Spirit of God speak in their hearts! Each one hears God speak pardon to his own soul by the gospel of his salvation (Ephesians 1:13; 2 Corinthians 5:16). — This is the record of heaven. The Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit point to the blood and righteousness of Christ and say, “It is finished! Redemption is accomplished!”
“And these three are one.” — The three Divine Persons are one God. But more, the record of the Father, the record of the Word, and the record of the Spirit are one. What is that record? — Redemption is accomplished by Christ alone! Every chosen sinner has the right to enter into heaven by the blood gate, through the merits of Christ. — “God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.”
The Word
Look at this name and title John gives to the Lord Jesus again, — “The Word.” — “In the beginning was the Word.” That is a statement so full of meaning that I have no hope of expounding it. Christ is called the Word because he is the Wisdom of God. He is called the Word because he is the Person spoken of in all the Old Testament prophecies and the sum of all the promises. Our Redeemer is called the Word because he is the Speaker, the Revealer and the Interpreter of the Father’s will. And he is called the Word because he is the Image of the invisible God, the Offspring of the Father’s mind, the Express Image of his Person, just as our words (if honestly spoken) are the express image of our minds.
Don Fortner
On our learning this
lesson depends our comforting walk heavenward
(Letters of William Romaine, 1714-1795)
When the Holy Spirit takes of the things of Christ and preaches them to the
heart – oh, what a sweet peace follows! For the believer then finds himself
saved from all the miseries of sin, and entitled to all the blessings of
eternal glory.
Being thus persuaded of his safety by believing in the sin-atoning blood of our
Great High Priest, the Holy Spirit then teaches him how to live upon
Christ, and how to make use of Christ’s fullness.
On our learning this lesson depends our comforting walk heavenward. For
Christ does not give us a stock of grace and expect us to improve it by being
faithful to grace given. No, no, that is not His way. Our souls must depend
upon Him, just as our bodies do upon the elements of this world. Every
moment we must live by faith upon His fullness, and be every moment receiving
out of it grace upon grace.
And this is our happiness-to have all in Christ!
A beggar in myself, but rich with unsearchable eternal riches in Him.
Ignorant still in myself, but led and taught by His unerring wisdom.
A sinner still, but saved by His blood and righteousness.
Weak and helpless still, but kept by His Almighty love.
Nothing but sorrow in myself, nothing but joy in Him.
Oh, this is a blessed life!
No tongue can tell what a Heaven it is, thus to live by faith upon the
Son of God. Thanks be to Him, that I do know a little of it. Surely I
could not have thought, some years ago, that there was such a Heaven
upon earth as I now find. May you find it more and more! Sweet Jesus
keep you, my dear friend!
Yours,
William Romaine
Living upon Christ!
(Octavius Winslow, “The God of Grace”)
We are as much to live upon Christ for sanctification – as for pardon and justification.
The grace which delivers us
from Hell – also fits us for Heaven.
That grace which cancels our guilt – also subdues our corruptions.
That grace which emancipates us from our bondage to sin – equally dethrones the
tyrant.
O wondrous, precious grace that, by its divine sanctity and power – brings first one, and then another indwelling corrupt principle, passion, and desire of our hearts – into subjection to Christ.
Precious and marvellous grace – that moulds and fashions us into the image of Jesus!
It is good to live near the grave for it is in the light of the grave that we see this life as it really is – vanity. No matter the kind of life a person lives, it comes to the grave. The grave also teaches us that our hope must lie beyond what is found in this world: If everything here is vanity, then things of value and substance must be found elsewhere. The grave also teaches us how to live this present life: We must live our lives in the pursuit of Christ and the things concerning Him. Even as we enjoy the transient things of this life, let our eyes be fixed on things above, where Christ is.
For the one whose heart is in this world, the grave puts an end to all he hoped for. But for the one whose heart is set on the world beyond the grave, the grave is merely the portal to the realization of all he has hoped for.
Joe Terrell