He (the Lord Jesus) is
the sum of all Divine thoughts, and the Incarnation is
the supreme expression of this one thought of God, to be
truly, adequately, fully, perfectly represented; so that
it was possible for the Lord Jesus to say, ''He that hath
seen Me hath seen the Father'' (John 14:9). There is the
mystery of Christ.
What is the mystery of
Christ? The mystery of Christ is God veiled in this
Representative. Here is God in representation, but how
many saw Him? ''He that hath seen Me hath seen the
Father.'' But I think that word ''seen'' means something
very much more than just looking upon Him as a man. Peter
said, ''Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God." And He said, ''Blessed art thou, Simon
Bar-Jonah: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto
thee, but my Father Who is in heaven'' (Matt 16:13-17).
That is what it means to see; it is by revelation. It is
that which is the mystery. The fact is there, the true
representation or representative of God in person, yet
unrecognized, unseen.
Now, the Resurrection
and Pentecost seem to me to have meant just this one
thing, the seeing of Christ. You remember when He was
considered dead and buried, even disciples were in black
despair and eclipse of faith and hope, and some went on
the way to Emmaus very sad indeed; and their words were,
''We hoped that it was He Who should redeem Israel''
(Luke 24:21). But before the end of that episode was
reached, we are told that He opened their understanding
that they might know the Scriptures. Having taken up the
Scriptures right from the beginning and spoken to them
things concerning Himself, He opened their understanding,
and it was just that that was marking His appearances
during the forty days after His resurrection. They were
in some altogether new way coming to see Him. Oh no, not
now physically merely, that He was alive, that He had a
body; it was not merely this that was being borne in upon
them very powerfully. They were seeing Him - Who He was;
the mystery of His Person was breaking down. They were
seeing Him, and the day of Pentecost seemed to bring that
through to full birth. The forty days were moving up to
that day, and then on that day by the coming of the Holy
Spirit the thing was consummated, and in the full blaze
of Who He was the Church was born. It seems to me that
the Church was born - yes, by the Holy Spirit, but by the
Holy Spirit's breaking open to men who Jesus was after
all. It seems to me that is how every one came into the
Church. They saw by an operation of the Holy Spirit Who
Jesus was. That is how Paul came in on the Damascus road;
he saw who Jesus of Nazareth was. On the day of
Pentecost, Peter stood up with the Eleven, as under the
power of the Holy Spirit they opened their mouths, and
the spontaneous declaration was all about Who Jesus was,
and they are men in a new revelation.
Oh, I know from our
fundamentalist standpoint, this is nothing very much. I
do not suppose there is one here who does not believe
that Jesus was the Son of God, God manifest in the flesh.
You all believe that as a bit of your faith; but what is
the effect of it? What was the effect of that at the
beginning? The witnessing, the representation, is not
just attesting historical facts, nor doctrinal facts.
When they went out as witnesses unto Him, it wasnt
just to say things which, while they were true, were only
truths. They went out in the power of having seen, having
had their eyes opened to the Lord Jesus. It was as though
they had been men moving in the shadows during those
years, groping, sometimes feeling an assurance, a certain
amount of certainty, but then questionings, uncertainties
coming in, shadows all the time. But at last the heavens
were rent, the blaze broke through, and they saw. It was
in the light of that they were constituted
witnesses, representatives. It was in the light of that
the Church was born. It was in the light of that
the Church went on its way so effectively. The fact was
that, wherever they came, it was the impact of God in
Christ by their presence. Their presence stirred hell,
because hell felt anew - God is here!
First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine, Sep-Oct 1943, Vol 21-5