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“In the knowledge of Him” (Eph 1:17). We will not learn truth in reality except in the deepening knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ (4:17). It is the lack of this which is the cause of weakness and immaturity among believers; knowing bare doctrine is not abiding in the Lord Jesus. When the flower is separated from that which is its source, its substance and support, it becomes a dying (weakening but never perishing—NC) flower from that time. We have that which is lovely and full of blessings in Him; but if we are to know it as such, to prove its truth, to enjoy it increasingly, it must be taking these things as in union with Him (realizing “life and godliness” - 2Pe 1:3 – in its fullness is ever applied within the believer’s soul since rebirth in order to also apply them in his understanding and walk—NC).
Let me look upon the Lord Jesus and I see there the very life my Father has given me. Who would dare to say, it is presumption for Him to have life? Nay, but it is what is due Him. The Father loves and delight in Him as man so well, that He could not keep back a single thing that He has made for Him. He is heir of it all; and we, hidden in Him, can enter into the fullness “of His calling” (Eph 1:18), and into the inheritance, because we merge in union with the Son if His love.
The Father has given His Son the supreme seat of glory. No matter what could be conceived of the highest angel or archangel, the Lord Jesus has received a higher dignity, and this place He holds in present association with us while we are here. It is One who not only owns us and loves us, and uses the greatness of His glory for our good, but far more. The sovereign that is exalted to the throne can use that throne for the glory of those whom he desires to honor; but there is no positive, personal association with him. This is what the Christian has in the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing less than to be one with Him is what we have and are (one with Him in the eternal position of son-ship with the Father, but not in His eternal sovereign deity—NC).
This blessed One, under whose feet the Father has put everything, He has also been given “to be Head over all things to the Church. It is not said, “head over the church,” but “Head over all things to the Church” (Eph 1:22). The Church shares His position of headship over all as His Body, but still in inseparable union with Him. The glorified Man has universal exaltation over all the creatures of God; and this He shares with us, and will soon manifest as our portion with Him.
The believer is now a member of the Lord Jesus’ Body; now, therefore, by the Holy Spirit, in the most intimate association with Him, not only as having life in Him, but as enjoying oneness with Him who is the supreme exalted Head over all. He is a member of His Body, and although it was not to Eve directly that God gave dominion, yet she did share it by His will. It was given to Adam, but by association Eve had it too.
So the Church has dominion as the dependent and associated Eve of the heavenly Man, the Last Adam. This gives us at one a bright view of what our calling is, and why our Father looks for complete separation from the world. We belong to the Lord Jesus, and the Father would have our hearts lifted above all this present scene. “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye did, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:2, 3).
As Son of God the Lord Jesus, of course, requires nothing to complete His glory; but as man He does. He would no more be complete in His ascension-glory without the Church, than Adam would have been without Eve. The Father meant, from all eternity, that when His Son became this blessed, glorified man, He should share for His own honor and praise all the glory He had as the ascended man, with those who were by nature poor, dead sinners, but now delivered from their sins, and made one with Him in glory. By the Spirit and the Word now given He communicates the knowledge of it to us while in this world, that we might be in spirit and ways entirely above it all.
— Wm Kelly (1821 – 1906)
MJS devotional excerpt for March 4:
“We must remember that our death to sin was once for all accomplished at the Cross. There the believer shared the death of the Lord Jesus; for when he became a believer, the life he received was life in Christ, that is, life out of death, resurrection life, ‘newness of life’; and the relation to sin and the law which Christ had, became those of the believer! Our experience of it all is simply the entering by faith into what has already happened at the Cross.” – William R Newell (1868-1956)
Let me look upon the Lord Jesus and I see there the very life my Father has given me. Who would dare to say, it is presumption for Him to have life? Nay, but it is what is due Him. The Father loves and delight in Him as man so well, that He could not keep back a single thing that He has made for Him. He is heir of it all; and we, hidden in Him, can enter into the fullness “of His calling” (Eph 1:18), and into the inheritance, because we merge in union with the Son if His love.
The Father has given His Son the supreme seat of glory. No matter what could be conceived of the highest angel or archangel, the Lord Jesus has received a higher dignity, and this place He holds in present association with us while we are here. It is One who not only owns us and loves us, and uses the greatness of His glory for our good, but far more. The sovereign that is exalted to the throne can use that throne for the glory of those whom he desires to honor; but there is no positive, personal association with him. This is what the Christian has in the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing less than to be one with Him is what we have and are (one with Him in the eternal position of son-ship with the Father, but not in His eternal sovereign deity—NC).
This blessed One, under whose feet the Father has put everything, He has also been given “to be Head over all things to the Church. It is not said, “head over the church,” but “Head over all things to the Church” (Eph 1:22). The Church shares His position of headship over all as His Body, but still in inseparable union with Him. The glorified Man has universal exaltation over all the creatures of God; and this He shares with us, and will soon manifest as our portion with Him.
The believer is now a member of the Lord Jesus’ Body; now, therefore, by the Holy Spirit, in the most intimate association with Him, not only as having life in Him, but as enjoying oneness with Him who is the supreme exalted Head over all. He is a member of His Body, and although it was not to Eve directly that God gave dominion, yet she did share it by His will. It was given to Adam, but by association Eve had it too.
So the Church has dominion as the dependent and associated Eve of the heavenly Man, the Last Adam. This gives us at one a bright view of what our calling is, and why our Father looks for complete separation from the world. We belong to the Lord Jesus, and the Father would have our hearts lifted above all this present scene. “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye did, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:2, 3).
As Son of God the Lord Jesus, of course, requires nothing to complete His glory; but as man He does. He would no more be complete in His ascension-glory without the Church, than Adam would have been without Eve. The Father meant, from all eternity, that when His Son became this blessed, glorified man, He should share for His own honor and praise all the glory He had as the ascended man, with those who were by nature poor, dead sinners, but now delivered from their sins, and made one with Him in glory. By the Spirit and the Word now given He communicates the knowledge of it to us while in this world, that we might be in spirit and ways entirely above it all.
— Wm Kelly (1821 – 1906)
MJS devotional excerpt for March 4:
“We must remember that our death to sin was once for all accomplished at the Cross. There the believer shared the death of the Lord Jesus; for when he became a believer, the life he received was life in Christ, that is, life out of death, resurrection life, ‘newness of life’; and the relation to sin and the law which Christ had, became those of the believer! Our experience of it all is simply the entering by faith into what has already happened at the Cross.” – William R Newell (1868-1956)
