THEN, in claiming lordship over the Sabbath He was
showing Himself able to act in terms of GOD HIMSELF, since it was HE who
appointed it. Here is deity in action, preparing to substitute the day of
REDEMPTION for the day of CREATION, as the greatest work of God, while
retaining rest, now heightened in its perception, for it came not now alone
in the Old Covenant, in preparation, but in the New, in consummation.
Thus it came to be, that
when HE died, the REST that HE supplied by doing once and for all what had to be done in His sacrifice and
breach of death itself in resurrection, became the index for the new DAY of
rest (I Corinthians 16:2, John 20:19, 20:26, Acts 20:7, Revelation 1:10), not only commemorating creation, but now the new creation. The day and
the way are now new, for it is the New Testament, and lingering in the shadows
of the Saturday of the Old Sabbath day is merely rebellion.
Why is this so ? It is because God's greatest work of the new creation from
the desecration on the Cross, and the power of the resurrection, persons
indeed drawn from many nations, is now manifest. Intolerable is any attempt
to turn back to the pre-Cross era, as if deity in flesh, Christ on the
Cross, the redemption divine, were an additive, and not the centre (Gal.
6:14).Power has pulsed once
more, and the new man in Christ is created (Colossins 3:10). Neither is
formalistic facade nor reckless wandering from the word of God, the way to
God: but rather faith in Him according to His word, and by this is made new
the person whose lineage is now spiritually from God, through whom He works,
far from the ceremonial pretensions (Isaiah 1), and the functionless
speechifying which is no substitute for faith. As He speaks, and as
Christ spoke to the Pharisees, so He is: penetrating, clear, clean and
indefectible, sharp as light, intractable in truth.
In our dealings with Christ, as His people, therefore, let us
realise with whom we deal, His power and compassion alike! He is both fearless
in word and deed, and always confirmed. Even when at first sight, some fear He
is attacking what is right, He is in fact illuminating, bringing to life the
light of truth, so that not forms but facts, not figments but spiritual
functions should proceed. In this, He does what He has always done (cf. Isaiah
1, 59), and in so doing, He is as He always was.
NOTHING in the Lord changes: if it is challenge, He meets it,
if it is blindness, He awakes it to faith, if it is doubt, He confronts it with
truth, if it is death, He breaks death, if it is life, He provides it eternally,
so that like His word, it never fails.
Since there is none like Him, it is imperative for one and for
all, to avoid the slithering and serpentine suggestions of flesh, which neither
does nor could do what He has done, and to LET CHRIST BE CHRIST. The duplicitous
and the suppositious alike, are but vain. Reality is its own attestation.
AN
APPLICATION FROM HISTORY
HOW THE RECEPTION OF
CHRIST AS THE BREAD OF LIFE HAS POWERFUL CONSEQUENCES, NUTRITIOUS FOR ALL, IN
SPIRIT
How wonderful is the new life
and the new freedom in the Spirit of God, to feed on the faithfulness of
God, to relish His sacrificial love given once for all at the utmost, in
death, His marvellous power shown once and for all in His resurrection!
Truly this is for the taste of the new palate in the new person made in the
New Covenant by the new work, now finished, of the Cross. Its power stays
till the ‘bread of life’ (John 6:48ff.) comes once again, to deliver His
people and to judge this world.
It is wise not to starve in
the interim! It is necessary to eat NOW, and being strengthened, to FOLLOW
now in the ways of love, life and grace, fearless and fortified in the
Spirit (Ephesians 3:16).
Having received Christ once
for all as Lord and Saviour therefore, let us constantly be RECEPTIVE, to
His word, for those who continue or ABIDE in His word, said He (John 8:31),
these are truly His disciples. Those made new, love what is true. Let us
ponder one example of this.
This resurrection power (as
in Ephesians 1:19, available for His work), was strikingly shown in the
persistent fidelity of Tyndale who, seeking to honour the Lord in terms of
His word, and to have it available to all in England, actually secured the
type-setting that went with what he had newly translated of it. Carrying
this precious tool with him in Europe, when it was clear that the Bishop of London has no
interest in having him translate the Bible, Tyndale assiduously rendered and
printed, printed and rendered.
Translate it ? Was a new
translation still necessary in Tyndale's day ? Had not Wyclif and associates
translated it into English over a century before ? Yes, but price of forty
pounds in those days scarcely made it practically available! It had to be
copied by hand. Further, it was merely a translation of a translation, being
from the Vulgate. Now from the Greek would the New Testament be rendered,
and this Tyndale tirelessly sought to do, fleeing when pursued, ahead of the
enemies of truth, whose Romanist persecutions were death and dearth alike,
to those whom they afflicted.
What, in the name of a
CHURCH,
withhold the word of God in
understandable form ?
when it is necessary to abide
in it ?
and become MASTER over souls,
taught traditions, against the whole force of Mark 7:7ff.: what cruel
mockery of names is this!
Truth is to be forwarded, not
affronted; presented, not burnt, made available, not so covered with
tradition that a ship in such a state would not only need early dry dock,
but would sink first before it could even reach it. If the original is not
available, who can test ?
If traditions are bound, who
but Christ need be consulted, who condemned precisely this MANNER OF
APPROACH, as in Mark! If MASTERS are involve, to give or withhold the word
of God, how then is Christ the ONLY Master (Matthew 23:8-10); and if such
commands over the word of God are to be in force, HOW on earth are those
doing so, 'brethren' under ONE Master, even Christ
(cf. SMR pp.
1032-1088H
which covers many such issues in depth). .
Did Christ have to be
interpreted by the Pharisees, then, for the benefit of the people in His own
day ? Certainly He was, and their very masterful 'interpretation' did not in
that case lead to His burning, for He was not a book, but to His
crucifixion, in order to suppress His words and the 'danger' they were felt
to bring.
Such silencing brought
devastation from Rome in 40 years! Such ultra-divine wisdom led to
destruction. Such pompous presumption, then as now, leads only to slavery,
when men, acting as if God, and in this case, as if able to create Him in
bread, when if this were true, He would have committed suicide at the Last
Supper in breaking the bread, usurp truth and provide fiction. This alas has
no nourishment. It is the word of God, that is needed, and faith in Him
according to it, not in men! What then happened to Tyndale in his pure
pursuits of the word of God for the people of England ?
Eventually, two notable
things happened, to enable the rest which Christ brings to come near to the
people, not that this annulled the commandments, but it brought their
meaning near to the heart in a fallen Age. The meat and meaning of rest is
within; but the occasion and provision is without, as on the day of rest,
which does not change because men defile it, or lack faith.
This we see from early times,
in Exodus 20:8-10, where its occasion is statedly our creation in the past,
not events in the future, and as to this, not only has the provision of a
day of rest not changed, but it CANNOT change, since both the past and its
application are in history and in the word of God! Christ did not come to
annul but to fulfil, and there is no fulfilment of creation! It happened.
(Cf. Biblical Blessings
Appendix II and
III.)
The word of God solves all
such things, allowing one to rest in Christ, the way of rest, and providing
the day of rest for His nearer devotion and service. It is this which must
rule, and ruling, gives rest to the believer who, being shown the way, comes
to Him whose it is, and in His mercy, delights to follow Him. Yet there was
little rest as far as Romanism in England was concerned!
First, the Bishop of London
acted vigorously, hating the dissemination of the truth, of the word of God,
as if any could POSSIBLY do worse than trying to turn bread into flesh, when
Christ in John 6 made it clear that "My words are
spirit and they are life", and that indeed He personally was
returning to heaven!
Would Tyndale's testaments
come into England ? Very well. Unknowingly speaking to a friend of Tyndale,
he commissioned the purchase of the New Testaments so arrived from Europe. A good price is needed! was the challenge. Yes, he would
pay. He did, bought them up, burned them in a public ceremony forever
significant of Romanism's approach to truth, since it is notorious for
affirming constantly its failure to change from its past councils and
traditions, even to this day, as in Vatican II itself; and the Bishop felt
good for a time, it seems.
However, the money going back
to Tyndale, allowed a new edition which stormed into the Kingdom of
England, the truth reinforced by this pagan presumption which effectually had
provided for the new inrush of the word of God! So does God mock the mighty!
(cf. Psalm 82). Romanism's arrogation of the power of God by banishing what
it will when it will, and its insistence on ITS word OVER God's word, so
that this is binding, this remains, whatever changing circumstances and
discretion may occasion. Co-operation there is collision with the word of
God (cf. Romans
16:17). Liberty was bought at extreme cost; its languorous
dissipation is unworthy of such a history.
The second occurrence was
this, that Tyndale met an intriguer, a false friend who, Judas style,
betrayed him by having hidden motives. Becoming close to the printer, this
character affected pleasantness, but leading Tyndale into a narrow lane
where he had, again just like Judas, positioned guards, he pointed him out
to them, so that for the third time just as with Judas, he was placed in
the hands, quite directly, of those who arrested him. Left in a cold and
horrid cell in a castle for a long time, he eventually, amid the most
saintly behaviour, was strangled after being left to suffer sickness. This
was no violence from those interested in truth, who were pursuing it, but
from those who explicitly were intent on one thing only, SUPPRESSING IT.
Despite this, in a very few
years, one Miles Coverdale, who had worked on the Continent with Tyndale on
the translation into English of the first five books of the Old Testament,
was able to bring out a translation of the whole Bible, and before long in
English, the Bible was authorised, Tyndale again being victorious, but this
time posthumously; but the word of God did not vanquish posthumously, for it
is never dead, but lively ever (Hebrews 4:13). It is never removed,
obliterated, or chained.
Men die for it, in Christ's
service; men slave with it, to bring it to the people, and despite enemies
who even use His name, it prevails, the dead traditions merging in every
unclean direction (cf. A Spiritual Potpourri
Ch. 17), while the word of God remains, itself alone inviolable,
indefectible, testable, verified to the uttermost. It is so powerful that
all but incredible endeavours have been made to suppress it, in the subtlest
ways, as likewise to obliterate Him whose it is, but neither has availed.
It continues to be a witness
till judgment come, and its pangs are already at work in the suffering
creation, according to His word, so it is (Answers to Questions
Ch. 5), precisely in our own day, and what a wonder of fulfilment abides
here, that the prophetic word, just as Peter declared, should be a light in
a dark place. The light however that surpasses will soon arrive, ensuring
then as always it has been, that to the jot and tittle all the word of God
is fulfilled (II Peter 2:19).
The word of God itself, was
the issue. It always is. It always prevails, for God Almighty has in it the
redemption which brings rest to the soul, the righteousness which brings
peace to the brethren, and the cost analysis, which brings Christ to His
place, Redeemer Divine, only Saviour and just Lord (Galatians 6:14). As Paul
here says, "God forbid that we should glory EXCEPT
in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to us
and we to the world."
This cross, it is not papal
billions, or pieces of bread! It was not in the private place, nor is it,
but in the public domain of Calvary. Nor is it philosophies (cf. I Corinthians 1), which
similarly seek to seduce it, but it merely smiles and despises defections,
encouraging all always to return to Him whose it is, and so loving Him, keep
His words (John 14:21-23). Philosophies die like the deranged, in chains and
indeed, in their cases, often with contempt.
They cannot stand. Men pity
them or despise; they come in glory, depart in shame. Christ comes in
humility, works in wonder, dies in shame vicariously, predicted victim to
bear in love the shame of man, and arises, His word intact, intractable,
immutable, true for ever, unharnessed; and happy he who in the Lord, rests
on its rocky stability (cf. Matthew 7:24ff.).
Christ is the calling of
sinful man, and ignoring Him removes no sin, but augments it (John 3:19);
and His words insist that the word of God be followed (Matthew 5:17-21),
even declaring roundly that here the mightiest fall, and the least is
exalted. Finally, let the saints of God, the believers in the Lord's Christ
(Luke 2:36ff.), and not some other, remember John
15:7
(cf. 16:25-26), for with God NOTHING shall be called impossible.
Abide in Him, follow His
word, and find in practice the love of God which empowers, the power which
is that of love, and the truth which sets free from the ways of man, in the
service of the majesty and humility of Christ. If you suffer, does not love
suffer ? If you are faithful, is not love faithful ? If you fail in
something, is not God merciful, and does not Christ cleanse from all
unrighteousness (I John 1:6ff.).
Nothing is omitted in the Christ who IS
Christ; and nothing is found in the christs, false ones as predicted in
Matthew 24:7, 24, false prophets who misuse His name as do Romanist and
Moslem alike, neither glory nor honour nor truth nor a destiny in deity; for
where Christ is not present, neither is the way, and where there is no way,
there is no end in the beauty of His presence.
Of Him, it is written in word
(Hebrews 1:12), as it is indited into history: "You
are the same, and Your years will not fail." Again we read (Hebrews
8): "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and
forever." How many have been the new christs manufactured by
philosophy, coveted for theology, branded and broken, supplied to fallen
churches and sneering cynics. Yet they do not endure; they do nothing, have
nothing, accomplish nothing, are tested in nothing except there be failure,
are mirages of the mind, millenia too late, suitable for those afflicted by
them (cf. SMR
Ch. 6,
Ch. 10).
It is men or Christ, God as
man; it is man's words, be it those of 'churches' which bellow without
submission to His written word, or actual Mastery, or of philosophy, or
God's word, which focussing ONE ONLY CHRIST, suffers no other. To be born to
die in AD 30, this is a strong and difficult task for those who affect to be
the christ (Highway of Holiness
Ch. 4); and to find a substitute for the Bible, which alone has ruled in
truth and indefectibility these more than three millenia, this too is
impossible.
ONLY ONE THING is possible concerning Christ, and concerning
truth (cf.
SMR), and this, it is the testimony, unchanging and standing while
scientific theories and philosophies alike change like the tides, which
endures. You cannot invent one three thousand years ago, instead. There is
nothing else but this; and in it, nothing else but Christ, and in Him,
nothing less than rest, and in that, nothing that can maul peace, of which
He is prince.
There is no other Christ.
LET CHRIST BE CHRIST.
It is not for nothing that
Simeon referred to the babe in his arms as THE LORD’S CHRIST! (Luke 2:26).
Nor is it for nought that Paul warns of the other Jesus, the other Gospel,
the other spirit, all of which are not other (cf. Galatians 1:6-9), but
freakish failures, where men make what has made them, and become asinine in
their pretension (cf. Romans 1).
Men can make what they will,
but God has sent, will send and has indicated the sending of but ONE
(Ephesians 1:10). This man’s Christ, or this body’s Christ, made of
philosophy or bread or arms, it is mere abuse of terminology. The only one
who matters, is the One who earned the name, and mixes His deity with NONE
(Luke 6:46), will return Himself the same (Acts 1), and judge according to
the truth (John 12:48-50). There are no options with God. HE IS, and says
accordingly, I AM, and again, Before Abraham was, I AM! (John 8:58, Exodus
3:14). From Age to Age the same, from people to people He is the same Judge,
the only Saviour, the One who did what it took, and took what it required,
whose word rules, whose royalty is attested, whose deity has invested in
man, what none other can pay (cf. Psalm 49:7,15).
He who works at the level of
God, speaks at His level, is accorded His own name by Him (Psalm 45), who
has done what none other is equipped to do (Hebrews 1-2, 9 -10), this is the
Lord’s Christ, gift of heaven, cure for earth, judge of those who despise
His mercy, grace of heaven embodied in the beauty of holiness.