TREASURES OF TRUTH, VOLUME 3
THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST AND OUR UNION WITH HIM
BY: GEORGE R. HAWTIN
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CHAPTERS 1-4
CHAPTER ONE
HOW REVELATION UNFOLDS THE MYSTERIES
In the hearts of millions of people in this hour there is an inward knowledge that the world is now seeing the final impressive moments of the great drama that has occupied earth’s vast theatre for the past six thousand years. It is my earnest longing and continual prayer to God that all who read the lines which follow may feel their spirits arrested and awakened by the wisdom and power of that great omniscient Person of whom our Lord Jesus fervently spoke, saying, “When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth; for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you.” John 16: 13, 14 If God’s people could but see the limitless store of wisdom and knowledge offered to us here, they would quickly abandon the vanities of earth and religion, cleanse their temple, and become the continual abiding place of this heavenly person-age.
The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep until that hour of which it is written, “The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” Then God said, “Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light that it was good.” Gen. 1: 2-4 The same mysterious pattern followed by our God in creation is followed in the regeneration of every man. In the unregenerated and unconverted state our lives, our hearts, our spirits, our souls, and our minds are all without form and void, and darkness, gross darkness, outer darkness that can be felt, shrouds our beings as a thick cloud until the day comes in the grace and wisdom of God that the Holy Spirit moves like a breath from heaven upon us, dispelling the covering clouds of darkness and causing the Sun (Son) of righteousness to shine into the vain, void wilderness of our hopeless hearts.
What man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man that is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Well did Jesus know all our human limitations. Well did He know that our understanding could not possibly ascend beyond the things of man. He did not leave us thus comfortless and confined, but promised in words that cannot fail, “When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth.” And yet again, “When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me.” John 15:26
It is the Spirit that quickeneth (maketh alive); the flesh (with all its learning and natural understanding) profiteth nothing. John 6: 63 As a brilliant light dispels the darkness of a dank and gloomy cave, so the light of the Holy Spirit, shining in the sullen darkness of the human heart, obliterates the gloom of death and breaks the chains of darkness that saints may joyfully proclaim, “The city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.” Rev. 21: 23 “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 1 Cor. 4:6 Be merciful unto us, 0 God, and bless us, and cause Thy face to shine upon us, “that Thy way may be known upon the earth, Thy saving health among all the nations. Let the people praise Thee, 0 God; let all the people praise Thee. 0 let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for Thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Let the people praise Thee, 0 God; let all the people praise Thee. Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our God, shall bless us. God shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him.” Psa. 67
I solemnly tell every person who reads these lines that where the things of God are concerned human knowledge is insufficient. The institutions of learning devised by the cleverness and art of men can never point a man to life. They are capable only of partaking of the tree of human knowledge, which is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Scientists and educators vainly imagine that, given sufficient knowledge, every evil can be abolished from the earth, but their darkened minds will not let them see that the more man partakes of human knowledge the deeper he sinks into the sea of corruption and violence. He does not know that the death-dealing pollution of the land, the sea, and the air, with all its attendant train of sickness and disease, stems from the noxious fertility of his own corrupt and polluted mind, which with gluttonous and voracious appetite has feasted long upon the tree of human wisdom and carnal understanding. The more men eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil the more the jaws of death take hold upon us until at last, if man were allowed to continue, no flesh would be saved. But for the sake of the elect the days of man’s ravenous appetite for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil shall be shortened.
“There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto Him, Rabbi, we know that Thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that Thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:1-3 I know what Jesus meant when He made the significant and all important statement, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God”, and many people now reading these lines know from personal experience the mystery of the truth He spoke. But you who now understand the mystery of the new birth will readily concede that you did not understand it until its truth became experience in your heart. Furthermore, you will have found that even now it is quite beyond your power to explain this blessed experience to unregenerate men. You may tell them of the necessity of being born again. You may patiently explain the wonderful work accomplished by the Holy Spirit in your life when you believed on Christ, but for each man the understanding of the new birth must await the hour when he himself is touched by that kingdom of God from above.
Have you ever listened to a man preach or heard him teach on a subject that was beyond his personal experience? It is pitiful to listen while unregenerate men try to explain the new birth, but in their blindness they try, and even the unregenerate listener can discern that the speaker does not have the experience he is trying to explain, or should I say, explain away. Not long after I had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, I heard a minister preach on the subject. He had not gone very far in his explanation before I and many others knew that he had never received the experience at all. He was trying desperately to make the word of God confirm his experience rather than seeking an experience that conformed to the word of God.
It is completely impossible to see the kingdom until its new life has touched you from above. It is Jesus Christ and He alone who opens the eyes of men who are blind from birth. It is God’s only begotten Son who gives the life of the ages to men dead in trespasses and sins. The new birth defies all explanation in the natural realm. Every son of Adam, born as he is in trespasses and sins, is hermetically sealed in the realm and kingdom of death until he is touched by the life of the resurrected Son of God. In Him is life, and the life is the light of men. Just think of that beautiful truth! “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.” John 1:4. Everything everywhere outside of Him belongs to the realm of death and, because it belongs to the realm of death, it likewise belongs to the realm of darkness. It was into this realm of outer darkness and death that Adam went when he partook of that strange tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God, his Father, had already told him which trees were good and which were evil, but man is never satisfied to believe God. He must always reach out his inquisitive hand to prove for himself whether or not God is speaking the truth. Hence, when he partook of that which God had said was evil, then he died, as God had spoken, and we all died in him. Thus death passed upon all men, for all have sinned. Has mankind not fully proved throughout the centuries that he is in truth the son of Adam? Which of all God’s commandments have we not broken, justifying ourselves in having done so even as Adam seemed to do.
“The dead know not anything.” Eccles. 9: 5. Furthermore, the dead see not anything, nor do they hear or feel anything. How then can a natural man who is dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1) hope to see or understand the things that belong to the wonderful realm of life, since death has closed his eyes to them? It is Christ and Christ alone who raises the dead. It matters not to Him nor to His resurrection power whether those dead be corpses buried in the earth or whether they be men walking on top of the ground, dead while they live. “Let the dead bury their dead,” said Jesus, because He understood the mystery I seek now to explain. Well did the Son of God know that outside of Him both the man who was being buried and the men who cast the earth into his grave belonged to the realm of death and were alike dead.
In Him is life! In Him is life, and, when He comes into our hearts, then His life becomes the life of men. John: 4, 5. It is when that life from above, which is Jesus Christ, touches us in the deadness and death of our walking tomb that we are born from above. We are born again. We receive again the life that was in Adam before he partook of the tree of death. “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink,” said Jesus. And again, “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst: but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” John 4:14 Amid the unbelief of a sinful world, the doubt and fear, the bigotry and hate of the religious multitudes of His day, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, rose to His feet at the great feast of tabernacles and cried with a loud voice that all the world might hear, “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. This spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” John 7: 37-39
Ah, sweet mystery of the ages, that a man dead in sins, his soul covered with darkness as a thick cloud, should be lighted with the light which Jesus Christ is and be touched with His life, which knows no death! Who can but marvel that we should be thus born from above, born anew with the life of the Son of God? Surely the scripture is doubly true when it boldly affirms, “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory.” To men now dead in trespasses and sins He calls, “I am the bread of life… This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread, which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” John 6: 48, 50, 51
For many months my spirit has longed with a God-given desire to help men see that there is only one life in the universe, and that one life is Jesus Christ. In Him is life, and outside of Him even that which men call life is death. Many millions of God’s people have stumbled over the scripture we have quoted above. “If any man eat this bread, he shall live forever.” John 6:51. The Jews stumbled over it and argued and fought about it. “Abraham,” they said, “is dead and the prophets are dead, and Thou sayest, If a man keep My sayings, he shall never see death.” The mistake the Jews were making sprang from their faulty understanding of what life is. They thought, as Christians also do, that this living and breathing that we now enjoy is life. They, as men today, were content to believe that all men not in their graves had life and only those beneath the ground were dead. But this is not the truth, and Jesus more than all others knew it was not so. He knew, as Paul also forcefully stated, that “she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth,“ and taught the same when He said, “Let the dead bury their dead.” Everything outside of Christ is death. May God make this truth real to your hearts! Not only is the spirit dead in trespasses and sins, but the body, too, is “the body of this death”. Rom. 7: 24 Furthermore, I must testify, as the scripture also bears record, that even unto those whose spirits have been reborn, never to die again, the apostle Paul distinctly said, “The body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive (life) because of righteousness.” Rom. 8:10 When Jesus taught that those who partook of Him would never die (John 6: 50), He was not saying that they would never go into the grave; otherwise He would not later have said, “I will raise him up at the last day.” John 6:54 But He was saying that, once a man receives the life of Christ, that life will never depart from him. The grave does not and cannot separate a man from the life that Jesus gives. His life is the only life there is anywhere.
The only life you have and the only life you ever will have is the life that Jesus gave you when you believed on Him. “I give unto them eternal life (the life of the ages), and they shall never perish.” John 10:28 May God, the giver of all light and understanding, open our minds to see that the life which Jesus is and the life which Jesus gives has nothing in common with that frail, flickering candle of which James spoke, saying, “What is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” Jas. 4:14 “All flesh,” said Peter, “is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away.” 1 Pet. 1:24 Surely this misty shadow that men call life is not one and the same thing with that life which Jesus spoke of as enduring forever! No! It is not this vanishing flower, this withering grass, this flickering candle that Jesus said would live forever.” The life that never ends, the life of the ages, is the life that He gives to you and me when we believe. When we believe on Him, He gives us Himself. He comes within to be our life. “He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” The tomb to me holds no terror at all. Christians who lie buried in the grave are no more in death than they were when they walked on the earth, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves shall hear His voice and shall come forth.
To every saint of God there must come a time when the truth that Christ is all in all dawns as the morning on the meadows of His soul. He is the truth. He is the light. He is the way. He is the life. He is the resurrection. He is wisdom. He is understanding. He is goodness. He is righteousness. He is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the A and the Z. He is the beginning and the end. It is He who liveth and was dead and, behold, is alive forevermore. All truth must come to the heart of mankind by revelation from above. To incorporate these truths into your theories and doctrines will not do. Christ and all He is and does must come as a light shining in the darkness, a living revelation and reality from on high. “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” John 6: 63
“Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?” Jesus once enquired of His disciples; and their reply showed clearly how varied and useless are the deductions of the natural mind. “Some say that Thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias: and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.” “But whom say ye that I am?” He asked. To this Peter replied with great conviction, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Matt. 16:13-16 What a world of difference there is between the theories and conclusions of men and the heavenly revelation of the Holy Spirit as it shines into our hearts, bringing the knowledge of the glory of God from the very face of Jesus Christ! And Jesus, hearing Peter’s words, joyfully exulted, “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven.” Matt. 16:17 At this moment Jesus gave forth a revelation of His own. It was a revelation from God concerning the ministry of this lowly man. Turning to Peter, He said, “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build My church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Matt. 16:18 Thus you will see that even a God-given ministry cannot be recognized except by revelation from on high. Thousands of men today are claiming to be great ministries, exalting self with many high-sounding names as they point to their spectacular programs, but it just may be that Christ does not know them in spite of all their great works. It is unto all such as these that He will say, “I never knew you,” (Matt. 7:23), but Peter He knew by the Holy Spirit.
We stated above that there must come a time when the truth is revealed to us from heaven that Christ is all and in all; and for that heaven sent understanding we beseech Thee, 0, Lord! Open our eyes as the eyes of Gehazi were opened when Elisha prayed. (2 Kings 6:17) Enlighten our understanding as you did when Jesus opened their understanding that they might understand the scripture. (Luke 24:45) Remember again the prayer of Paul, who prayed, “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.” Eph. 1:18 Open our eyes and send the Holy Spirit to reveal Jesus Christ that we, with those who stood in the holy mount, may see no man but Jesus only. (Matt. 17:8) Take us, 0 Lord, beyond the realm of the natural mind. Deliver us from man’s way of looking at things. Remember again Thy promise, “When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth”, that He may abide in our hearts of whom it is written, “He will receive of Mine and shall show it unto you.” John 16:14
It would be very simple to fill this book with instance after instance from Holy Scripture, which loudly and beautifully proclaim the glory of eternal things as the Holy Spirit opens and reveals them to our hearts. Search where you will in the Old Testament or the New and you will find ever increasing evidence of the transforming power of spiritual revelation. “No man can see God and live,” the Word declares; but may I ask this solemn question: Have you ever known of a man who, upon seeing God, dropped dead? As it is faithfully true that no man can see God and live, it is also equally certain that no man can see God and die. And, because this statement is true, we must search in greater depth for a right understanding of this wonderful fact. The truth is that, the moment God in any form is revealed to man, right there and then that man is completely changed. Old things pass away and die; all things become living and new. The old life and the old loves, together with old theories and all human understanding, shrivel up and pass away, but from the deadness and outer darkness of their tomb shines forth a life in the image of Him who revealed Himself. Old things have passed away; behold, all things are new! Is not this Paul’s experience when he said, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Gal. 2:20
No man hath seen God at any time. How is it then that Moses saw God, Job saw God, and Isaiah saw God? Again we must conclude that the real truth of the statement lies beneath the surface. No man hath seen God at any time nor is it possible for a natural man with natural eyes to see God at any time. Our physical eyes are restricted to the natural realm. But, when the blessed Christ, who opened the eyes of the man blind from birth, passes our way, then our eyes, being touched from above, behold that which is invisible, our ears are made to hear that which is inaudible, and the tongue of the dumb is loosed to give glory to God in the speech of men and angels.
Job was a good man. By the testimony of the Lord he was a perfect man and upright, one who feared God and kept clear of all evil. But let it be known that the goodness he possessed was on the level of men; the perfection he had was the perfection of the natural man; the awe, the respect, the reverence he had for God was that of a good-living, God-fearing man, righteous in excess of any about him. But, when the day came that God revealed Himself, spoke to him out of the whirlwind, then all his righteousness fell apart as rotten and filthy rags. His long cherished goodness languished in the dust and ashes of nothingness. Every argument he had presented before God and men to support and bolster his self-righteous claim made him the more ashamed and ready to drink the cup of humiliation to the dregs; and, when at last he found the courage to open his mouth, the words he uttered sprang from the heart of a new man. The old Job with his personal righteousness had passed away. The old high-minded Job had died, and from the ashes of his dead self a new man came forth in resurrection in the image and likeness of the Lord who had revealed Himself. “I know that Thou canst do everything,” he wept in his adoration, “and that no thought can be withholden from Thee. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Hear, I beseech Thee, and I will speak: I will demand (ask) of Thee, and declare Thou unto me. I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth Thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” Job 42:2-6
No man can see God and live. No man can remain as he used to be. The revelation of the Almighty in whatsoever form it may be given will kill the beast of your old self to make way for the new man in the image of Jesus Christ. “Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars: She hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table.” Prov. 9: 1, 2 The killing of the beast of self is the one thing above all else always accomplished by the revelation of God to our hearts. “For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.” Rom. 7:18 It is wrong, very, very wrong and very unscriptural, for any man to pray to God for ability to do better, and, because this oft repeated prayer is wrong, foundationally and fundamentally wrong, it can never be answered by the God of righteousness. Oh how often in the past I have prayed that I might be a better man; And oh how often it seemed that instead of being better I was worse! How often I have promised myself that I would do better in the future only to find that there was no ability in me to do better or to be better! God open our minds that we may clearly see that goodness cannot spring from corruption nor can righteousness rise from unrighteousness. Can a bitter fountain send forth sweet waters, or a corrupt tree bear good fruit? Righteousness that grows on the tree of unrighteousness is that self-righteousness of which the Lord has said, “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” Can we satisfy God with filthy rags? Can that which is crooked be made straight? Can that which is old be made new, or that which is wanting be numbered? God is not interested in our being better or doing better or in our improving ourselves. All these things are the righteousness of the beast of self. God hates it all and will not accept it. There is but one righteousness. Christ is our righteousness and God has faith in Him.
That God has faith in the righteousness of His Son Paul plainly stated when he wrote to the Romans, saying, “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference; for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” Rom. 3:21-26 When Paul says here, “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood,” he means that God Himself had faith in the blood of His Son as sufficient to propitiate man (not God) and reconcile man to God. Propitiate means to appease or dispose to kindness one who is offended. Nowhere in scripture do we ever find that God is offended or that God needs to be reconciled to man. It is man who is offended, man who is estranged, and man who must be reconciled.
Our failure to see the purpose of the fall leads us into all manner of error and misunderstanding. There is a divine purpose in the fall of man and unimaginable blessings for future ages will devolve from it. God our Father has never once blamed man for the fall, but takes the responsibility for it Himself when He says, “The creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope!” There is no blame attached to the fall. It is not a matter of blame either to God or man. It is a matter of understanding the infinite purpose of God. With what profound words of inspiration the poet wrote:
I sorrow if I shock you, for I seek
To comfort and inspire. I see around
A silent company of doubting souls;
But I may challenge any one of them
To quote the meanest blessing of his life,
And prove that evil did not make the gift,
Or bear it from the Giver’s hand
Because man above all God’s creatures has suffered in this divine process of making man in God’s image, the perfection of Christ is offered as a perfect satisfaction to him (man), a satisfaction in which the Father has perfect confidence to propitiate him and reconcile him to God. Thus it is that Jesus Christ is God’s propitiation toward man. This is the grace of God and He, the Father, has faith in the blood of His Son to accomplish the good and perfect act of reconciling man to Himself, giving men the righteousness of God as they receive His only begotten Son.
Again I say that all such vital truth as this lies as dead and dormant as the natural mind itself until that moment sublime in which the glory light of revelation shines into our hearts and we understand and comprehend in the revealing light of the Lord. We cannot overcome the flesh because we are flesh, and the flesh cannot overcome or conquer itself. Stop trying to be better or do better or to become more like Jesus. It simply cannot be done. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and always will be. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit and always will be. Marvel not that Jesus said, “Ye must be born again.”
Year after year the millions of earth celebrate Christmas, but Christ to the vast majority of men is nothing more than an historic babe. The day of His birth is naught but a convenient occasion for drunken revelry and much feasting of the flesh. And why, you ask, is this the case? Simply because the natural man can never see beyond the veil of the flesh. His eyes can never look into the world of the Spirit. But, when the Holy Spirit, who moved upon the waters in Gen. 1, reveals to our hearts that Christ is God’s Son, by whom and for whom all things were created and made, then our eyes are opened as the eyes of Jacob were opened on that famous night when from his pillow of stone a ladder reached from the lowly earth to the vaulted heavens while angels ascended and descended on that stairway to the skies. And when fearful, trembling Jacob awakened from his dreaming, the words of revelation started from his stammering lips, “Surely God was in this place, and I knew it not.” Gen. 28:16
“How is it that Thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me who am a woman of Samaria?” demanded the careworn woman who drew her water from Jacob’s well. “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldst have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water,” replied the Lord. Back and forth the conversation went of Jacob and the fathers, of wells and waters until the Wisdom of God said to the woman, “Go, call thy husband, and come hither.” “I have no husband,” protested the woman, to which the Savior in grace replied, “Thou hast well said, I have no husband: For thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband. In that saidst thou truly.” I have always loved Christ for this statement of kindness, gentleness and truth, but it came as such a shock to the spirit of the woman that she immediately knew that this kindly man with whom she spoke was something much more than a tactful gentleman, but one in whom was the knowledge of God. It was with unconcealed astonishment that she ventured the words, “Sir, I perceive that Thou art a prophet.” Understanding was beginning to dawn upon her darkened mind. The light of the Son of righteousness was dispelling the thick clouds of the outer darkness in which she long had dwelt. “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain,” she confidently affirmed, “but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” “Woman, believe Me,” He answered, “the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” “I know that Messias cometh, which is called the Christ,” ventured the woman, “and when He is come, He will tell us all things.” “I that speak unto thee am He,” was Christ’s revealing reply. And she, who moments before had said in the darkness of her heart,
“How is it that Thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me who am a woman of Samaria,“ now ran off with the message on her trembling lips, “Come see a man who told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?” Revelation from God opens the mind to the realm of the Spirit that weary men on the pillows of stone may receive the message of God from an open heaven, and the eyes of women benighted by sin may behold in the dusty traveler the Savior of all mankind.
For centuries now men have studied the doctrine of the resurrection. Theologians (if there be such a thing) have filled pages and books with the arguments pro and con to prove that Christ did or did not arise from the dead. Many of their arguments are sensible and undeniable, but it is one thing to prove that nineteen hundred years ago a man called Jesus rose from the dead, and it is another thing entirely when the truth that He is alive forevermore comes flooding into the darkness of the soul from the glory world on high. Thomas had heard the promise of the resurrection from the lips of Jesus Himself, but he like all the others wondered what the rising from the dead could mean. Mark 9:10. Peter saw with his own eyes that the body of Jesus was missing from the tomb, yet he departed, wondering in himself. Luke 24:12. Sweet and gentle Mary, who perhaps had heard more about the resurrection than any other, seeing a man who she thought was the gardener, mournfully sobbed out this plaintive request, “Sir, if thou hast borne Him hence, tell me where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away.” With one word and one only the Lord addressed her, “Mary“ But that one word dispelled all darkness and misunderstanding from her troubled soul, and she knew, even as angels knew, that He was alive. I am sure, had all the silver tongued orators of earth been present to describe the wonders of that moment, their speeches would have been as sounding brass and tinkling cymbal compared to her one triumphant word of revelation, “Rabboni’.” (John 20:16)
0 Rabboni! Rabboni! Thou Son of the living God! Thou art the resurrection and the life. Thou wast alive; Thou wast dead; and, behold, Thou art alive forevermore and in Thy nail-pierced hand dost hold in triumph the keys of hell and death. 0 death, where is thy sting? 0 grave, where is thy victory? 0 gates of hell, thou shalt not prevail, for the Redeemer of Israel and the Saviour of the world holds in His triumphant hand thy key. “Lift up your heads, 0 ye gates: and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, 0 ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory.” Psa. 24:7-10
And Thomas, too, poor doubting man, who was not with them when Jesus came, could not drive his doubts away nor calm his awful fears though his dearest friends told him with great assurance that Jesus was not only alive, but had appeared to them all. “Except I see in His hands the print of the nails and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe” he despondently moaned. And Jesus eight days later, standing in the midst though the doors were locked and the windows barred, said to Thomas, “Reach hither thy finger and behold My hands; and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into My side; and be not faithless, but believing.” But Thomas, the light of revelation streaming from heaven into his doubting heart, no longer needing any of these things, cried out with the eloquence of heaven,
“My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28) That awe-filled statement, my Lord and my God, is more, far more, than an acceptance of the fact of the resurrection. This, I am sure, was the first time in his life that he had known by the Spirit that Jesus was both Lord and God. For three years he had seen indisputable evidence that Jesus was the Son of God. This bold man would no doubt have willingly given his life for Jesus and the truth He preached, but, 0 friend, it is one thing to be convinced of a truth with the intellect. It is another thing to have it revealed by the Spirit of God. “When it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen,” said Paul, “immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood.” Gal. 1:15, 16
Dear man of God; dear woman of God; dear friend and brother of mine! Is your Jesus, even though He be Jesus of Nazareth, only an historic Jesus who, men and even devils admit, was the Son of God? Or has your raptured soul in the glory light of revelation cried out with Mary, “Rabboni!” Or with Thomas, whom men call doubting, breathed the eternal words of revelation, “My Lord and my God!” There is such a world of difference between the letter and the Spirit! There is such a contrast between the cold, dead acceptance of a fact and the warm pulsating vitality of the living reality which comes when the Holy Spirit takes the things of God and shows them unto us!
Two men looked through prison bars;
One saw mud; the other saw stars
It is ever thus, and what we see and know and clearly understand will depend upon our relationship with that wonderful Holy Spirit sent forth by Jesus Christ to guide us into all truth. I think the poem by John Whittier, which we will quote here, though needing careful reading and concentration, shows very clearly the difference between those who rejoice in the letter with its outward show and those who dwell in the reality of the Spirit and the light of heaven.
THE MYSTIC CHRISTMAS
“All hail!” the bells of Christmas rang;
“All hail!” the monks at Christmas sang;
The merry monks who kept with cheer
The gladdest day of all their year.
But still apart unmoved thereat
A pious elder brother sat
Silent in his accustomed place,
With God’s sweet peace upon his face.
“Why sitt’st thou thus?” his brethren cried.
“It is the blessed Christmas-tide;
The Christmas lights are all aglow;
The sacred lilies bud and blow.
“Above our heads the joy-bells ring,
Without the happy children sing,
And all God’s creatures hail the morn,
On which the holy Christ was born.
“Rejoice with us; no more rebuke
Our gladness with thy quiet look.”
The gray monk answered: “Keep, I pray,
Even as ye list the Lord’s birthday.
“Let heathen Yule fires flicker red
Where thronged refectory feasts are spread;
With mystery-play and mask and mime
And wait-song speed the holy time.
“The blindest faith may haply save;
The Lord accepts the things we have,
And reverence howsoe’er it strays
May find at last the shining ways.
“They needs must grope who cannot see;
The blade before the ear must be;
As ye are feeling, I have felt,
And where ye dwell I too have dwelt.
“But now, beyond the things of sense,
Beyond occasions and events,
I know, through God’s exceeding grace,
Release from form and time and place.
“I listen, from no mortal tongue,
To hear the song the angels sung;
And wait within myself to know
The Christmas lilies bud and blow.
“The outward symbols disappear
From him whose inward sight is clear;
And small must be the choice of days
To him who fills them all with praise!
“Keep while you need it, brothers mine,
With honest zeal your Christmas sign;
But judge not him who every morn
Feels in his heart the Christ, new-born.”
I am afraid l am becoming a little impatient with the multiplicity of words and sentences. There must come a time when men enter in. I grow a little weary of hearing people talk about the sonship message. Sonship is much more than a message. It is a relationship. It is the relationship of a son to his Father. It is the spirit of adoption that in adoring contemplation causes the spirit to recite again and again, “Thou are my Father and I am Thy son. Thou knewest me and lovedst me before the foundation of the ages. What wilt Thou have me to do, 0 heavenly Father, for I do only those things that please Thee” As the months pass swiftly by, my spirit has been made urgently aware of an extreme need among the people of God. The greatest need Christians have is to hear the truth unfolded by the Spirit, and, having heard it by the Spirit, to embrace it with understanding and to enter in to it in experience. Many centuries ago Jesus taught us that the key of knowledge was to enter in. This He taught when He said, “Woe unto you, lawyers, for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.” Luke 11:52 Would you not say then that the key of knowledge is to enter inl God’s people stand still and progress not at all century after century, because they hear and re-hear the truth but fail to enter in to partake of the feast that is spread before them. Publicans and harlots come and enter in to the kingdom of God by faith while those who have the promises waste their time dissecting and deciphering instead of believing and receiving.
The way to sonship is not doing, but dying. It is not a spirit of pride that speculates covetously of the personal glories to be attained as a manifested Son of God, but a broken and a contrite heart that the Lord will not despise. If perchance you wonder at the statement I have made above, I must tell you with great sadness of spirit that I have observed a multitude both of men and women whose only interest in sonship was their hope of personal exaltation. Sonship, to them, is something to be attained because they imagine it will produce in their lives all manner of spectacular things. They will then heal all the sick. They will see signs and wonders. They will be admired and honored of all men and nothing will be beyond their power. They are not unlike the seventy who returned from their ministry among the lost ten tribes of the house of Israel. Back they came from far and distant places, rejoicing greatly that even the demons were subject to them through Christ’s name. And Jesus said, “Rejoice not that the demons are subject to you, but that your names are written in heaven.” This is truth hidden from wise and prudent men, but revealed to us who are babes by our Lord. See also Luke 10:17-20 We should, I think, care not a straw for doing or for any sort of accomplishment. Our care and concern should be for being and that being a Son of God. The moment the light dawns upon your spirit that God our Father is working all things according to the counsel of His will, then your soul will respond with the words of that first begotten Son, “I do only the things that please the Father.” What other work is of any possible value, seeing that He is the architect and builder of an eternal temple from which He will govern the universe throughout unending ages?
If you will cease from your frantic rushing here and there, working, as you think, for the Lord, if you will cease for a few weeks from your church activity, from your do-gooding, your almsgiving, and from a thousand other things that have caught Christians up in this end time whirlwind of religious excitement and pseudo devotion, and if in the place of all this you will seek the face of Christ with fasting and prayer, if you desire of Him that He will give you a broken spirit and a heart that is obedient to His hidden will, then understanding will begin to possess you and bring light from heaven to your heart. Furthermore you will see why it was that Jesus warned men like you and me, saying, “Many will come to Me in that day, saying, ‘Lord! Lord! Have we not prophesied in Thy name, and in Thy name cast out devils, and in Thy name done many wonderful works’! Then I will profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.” Matt. 7:22, 23
Christians are always saying, “But how could Christ say to people who have cast out devils and healed sick and done great works, “I never knew you?” Well, the answer is very simple. God, the author and finisher of our faith, does not thank men for doing that which He did not instruct them to do. It is rebellion for one to attempt to build into His temple that which is not on the divine blue print. Iniquity, wherever the word is found in scripture, means not sin, but rebellion. Search and you will see that this is so. Preachers and evangelists of the twentieth century are foremost in this iniquity. Preachers and miracle workers above all others fit the description Jesus faithfully gave in the scripture we have quoted. Those who diligently seek the face of Christ will soon find themselves drifting away from the carnality of modern religious activity. By their fruits you shall know them, and, if you will dismount from their band-wagon long enough to take a prayerful look, you will soon conclude that, if all the people were being healed who they say are being healed, there would be few sick left in the nation; but the truth is that there is more sickness and disease than ever in history. Something is wrong somewhere. If the multitudes were being saved in such numbers as they claim, whole cities would be rejoicing in the love of Christ; but, instead, evil men and seducers are waxing worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. The thing that men now term revival is not the work of the Holy Spirit, but the work of their own hands. There are many who will say, “In Thy name we have cast out demons, and in Thy name done many wonderful works.” Blind and foolish is the man who, being so obviously warned by Christ, yet falls prey to the cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive.
We are living in the end of the age. This is the age of Laodicea. These are the final hours of that lukewarm age. Have you not heard the message of the hour? It is a message that singles out the individual, a message peculiar only to this age and different from that of any other age. The message is to “any man”, a message that abandons the multitude to their religious play, to their church creeds and their church Christs, a message that says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and sup with him and he with Me.” Rev. 3:20-23 The church of the last day is the church of the individual. It is the individual believer with a personal relationship to Christ. For the man who will forsake all else and sup with Christ this is an age of glory, an hour of preparation such as we have never known. This is a time when the Spirit of God is speaking to you as an individual. He seeks to sup and dine and feast with you apart from all the confusion about us. It is a glorious day when we see the promise that is ours in this hour. As I have prepared the pages of this little book, I have frequently felt the melting presence of the Holy Spirit urging God’s people to enter in to the glories that lie just beyond the veil of their own flesh.
Enoch was the seventh from Adam. As you and I are citizens of the kingdom of God, we, too, are therefore the seventh from Adam and should, I believe, have many things in common with that man Enoch, of whom so little is spoken in the Bible, but of whom a world of truth and revelation is unfolded in this one sentence: “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.” Gen. 22:24 The long lost Book of Jasher, twice mentioned in the pages of Holy Scripture (2 Sam. 1:18 and Josh. 10:13), bears valuable historical record of some of the marvelous events in the life of Enoch. I undertake here to quote the story as it is recorded in this book, fervently hoping that those who read will reverently behold the awesome estate for which God is preparing those who may truly be called the seventh from Adam. The following record I quote from the Book of Jasher.
“And Enoch lived sixty-five years and he begat Methuselah; and Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah, and he served the Lord, and despised the evil ways of men. And the soul of Enoch was wrapped up in the instruction of the Lord, in knowledge and in understanding; and he wisely retired from the sons of men, and secreted himself from them for many days. And it was at the expiration of many years, whilst he was serving the Lord, and praying before Him in his house, that an angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and he said, Here am I. And he said, Rise, go forth from thy house and from the place where thou dost hide thyself, and appear to the sons of men in order that thou mayest teach them the way in which they should go, and the work that they must accomplish to enter in the ways of God.
“And Enoch rose up according to the word of the Lord, and went forth from his house, from his place and from the chamber in which he was concealed; and he went to the sons of men and taught them the ways of the Lord, and at that time assembled the sons of men and acquainted them with the instruction of the Lord. And he ordered it to be proclaimed in all the places where the sons of men dwelt, saying. Where is the man who wishes to know the ways of the Lord and good works? Let him come to Enoch. And all the sons of men then assembled to him, for all who desired this thing went to Enoch and Enoch reigned over the sons of men according to the word of the Lord, and they came and bowed to him and they heard his word. And the Spirit of God was upon Enoch, and he taught all his men the Wisdom of God and His ways, and the sons of men served the Lord all the days of Enoch, and they came to hear his wisdom.
“And all the kings of the sons of men, both first and last, together with their princes and judges, came to Enoch when they heard of his wisdom, and they bowed down to him, and they also required of Enoch to reign over them, to which he consented. And they assembled in all one hundred and thirty kings and princes, and they made Enoch king over them, and they were all under his power and command. And Enoch taught them wisdom, knowledge, and the ways of the Lord; and he made peace amongst them, and peace was throughout the earth during the life of Enoch. And Enoch reigned over the sons of men two hundred and forty-three years, and he did justice and righteousness with all his people, and he led them in the ways of the Lord.
“And these are the generations of Enoch: Methuselah, Elisha, and Elimelech, three sons; and their sisters were Meica and Nahmah; and Methuselah lived eighty-seven years and he begat Lamech. And it was in the fifty-sixth year of the life of Lamech when Adam died; nine hundred and thirty years old was he at his death, and his two sons, with Enoch and Methuselah his son, buried him with great pomp as at the burial of kings, in the cave which God had told him. And in that place all the sons of men made a great mourning and weeping on account of Adam; it has therefore become a custom among the sons of men to this day. And Adam died because he ate of the tree of knowledge; he and his children after him, as the Lord God had spoken. And it was in the year of Adam’s death which was the two hundred and forty-third year of the reign of Enoch, in that time Enoch resolved to separate himself from the sons of men and to secrete himself as at first in order to serve the Lord.
“And Enoch did so, but did not entirely secrete himself from them, but kept away from the sons of men three days and then went to them for one day. And during the three days that he was in his chamber, he prayed to, and praised the Lord his God, and the day on which he went and appeared to his subjects he taught them the ways of the Lord, and all they asked him about the Lord he told them. And he did in this manner for many years, and he afterward concealed himself for six days, and appeared to his people one day in seven; and after that once in a month, and then once a year, until all the kings and princes and sons of men sought for him, and desired again to see the face of Enoch, and to hear his word; but they could not, as all the sons of men were greatly afraid of Enoch, and they feared to approach him on account of the Godlike awe that was seated upon his countenance; therefore no man could look at him, fearing he might be punished and die.
“And all the kings and princes resolved to assemble the sons of men, and to come to Enoch, thinking that they might all speak to him at the time when he should come forth amongst them, and they did so. And the day came when Enoch went forth and they all assembled and came to him, and Enoch spoke to them the words of the Lord and he taught them wisdom and knowledge, and they bowed down before him and they said, May the king live, may the king live! And in some time after, when the kings and princes and sons of men were speaking to Enoch, and Enoch was teaching them the ways of God behold, an angel of the Lord then called unto Enoch from heaven, and wished to bring him up to heaven to make him reign there over the sons of God, as he had reigned over the sons of men on earth.
“When at that time Enoch heard this, he went and assembled all the inhabitants of the earth, and taught them wisdom and knowledge and gave them divine instructions, and he said to them, I have been required to ascend into heaven; I therefore do not know the day of my going. And now therefore I will teach you wisdom and knowledge and will give you instruction before I leave you, how to act upon earth whereby you may live; and he did so. And he taught them wisdom and knowledge, and gave them instruction, and he reproved them, and he placed before them statutes and judgments to do upon earth, and he made peace among them, and he taught them everlasting life, and dwelt with them some time teaching them these things. And at that time the sons of men were with Enoch, and Enoch was speaking to them, and they lifted up their eyes and the likeness of a great horse descending from heaven, and the horse paced the air. And they told Enoch what they had seen, and Enoch said to them. On my account does this horse descend upon the earth; the time is come when I must go from you and I shall no more be seen by you. And the horse descended at that time and stood before Enoch, and all the sons of men that were with Enoch saw him. And Enoch then again ordered a voice to be proclaimed, saying, Where is the man who delighteth to know the ways of the Lord his God, let him come this day to Enoch before he is taken from us. And all the sons of men assembled and came to Enoch that day; and all the kings of the earth with their princes and counselors remained with him that day; and Enoch then taught the sons of men wisdom and knowledge, and gave them divine instruction; and he bade them serve the Lord and walk in His ways all the days of their lives, and he continued to make peace among them.
“And it was after this that he rose up and rode upon the horse; and he went forth and all the sons of men went after him, about eight hundred thousand men; and they went with him one day’s journey. And the second day he said to them, Return home to your tents, why will ye go? Perhaps you may die. And some of them went from him, and those that remained went with him six day’s journey; and Enoch said to them every day, Return to your tents, lest ye die; but they were not willing to return, and they went with him. And on the sixth day some of the men remained and clung to him, and they said to him, We will go with thee to the place where thou goest: as the Lord liveth, only death shall separate us. And they urged him so much to go with him that he ceased speaking to them; and they went after him and would not return.
“And when the kings returned, they caused a census to be taken in order to know the number of the remaining men that went with Enoch; and it was upon the seventh day that Enoch ascended into heaven in a whirlwind, with horses and chariots of fire. And on the eighth day all the kings that had been with Enoch sent to bring back the number of men that were with Enoch, in that place from which he ascended to heaven. And all those kings went to the place and they found the earth there filled with snow, and upon the snow were large stones of snow, and one said to the other. Come, let us break through this snow and see; perhaps the men that remained with Enoch are dead, and are now under the stones of snow. And they searched but could not find him, for he had ascended into heaven.”26
