Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

by H. J. Vine.

The Father’s Love and God’s

We have already seen that all who have been born of God and have believed on the Name of the SON, have been given the right by Him to take their place as children of God, and that the HOLY SPIRIT witnesses with their spirits that they are the children of God. We must now consider them in relation to the FATHER’S love. Four times in his Epistle John speaks of them in this way. John always speaks of “children,” not “sons,” as sometimes translated in the Authorised Version, for he dwells on the relationship itself.

We read, “Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God; therefore the world knows us not, because it knew Him not. Beloved, now are we the children of God … Whosoever is born of God doth not commit (practice) sin … In this are manifest the children of God, and the children of the devil: whosoever does not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loves not his brother … By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments.” The love bestowed upon us by THE FATHER, the right given to us by THE SON, and the witness of THE SPIRIT, unite in granting a threefold assurance to God’s children, before they reach their prepared home in the Father’s house, where Jesus already is. So it says, “Beloved, NOW are we the children of God.”

When our Lord Jesus Christ was here on earth, He told His own of the Father’s love. He knew it well. They heard Him say to the Father, “Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world.” In that eternal love of the Father for the Son He continued while passing through the bitter trials of time. In its changeless blessedness He dwells; as He said, “I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.” The world did not know its Maker. Israel did not know its sovereign Lord and King, but He knew the Father’s holy love. Nothing moved Him from it. He abode in it at all times. There He rested amidst the world’s restless surgings. His coming brought the Father’s eternal love for the Son here. it still remains. We are invited to “behold it,” and to abide in it also. The Son was the Object of it before the world was; and He was the Object of it when in the world; He is still the Object of it on high with His Father. But His atoning sufferings and death have secured others to share in this love. He drank the cup which the Father gave Him to drink, and that He might fill our cup now with the love He knows so well. His going away did not take the Father’s love away. The Father now has others who know His love as they pass through the world to where Jesus is. For our comfort, cheer and instruction it is said, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God; therefore the world knows us not, because it knew Him not.”

“The Father’s love, the source of all,

Sweeter than all it gives,

Shines on us now without recall,

And lasts while Jesus lives.”

From His present place on high with the Father, Jesus brings home to our hearts the knowledge of what the Father is, giving us to know His Name, that His eternal love might be in us. Not only upon us; but dwelling richly in us. The world did not know its Maker; and the world does not know God’s children. They may be known in business and other relationships; but not as the children of God by the world. God’s children carry the secret of this relationship, and of the Father’s love with them, unknown by the world. This spring of joy is theirs and they may enjoy it constantly. The Scripture we have quoted, reads as if the world did not know the Father. That is right, for Jesus said, “He that has seen Me has seen the Father.” In Him the Father was expressed; therefore He also said, “They have both seen and hated both Me and My Father” (John 15:24). But He has won many out of the world to rejoice with Him in the Father’s love; and the world does not know them, for they are God’s children.

We have spoken of the activities of the three Persons of the Godhead. In regard to THE SON, we repeat, it is said, “He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not,” although He was “the True Light.” Of THE HOLY SPIRIT, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, we read, “Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knows Him.” And of THE FATHER, Jesus said, “O RIGHTEOUS FATHER, the world has not known Thee; but I have known Thee, and these have known that Thou hast sent Me.” Again Jesus said, “Ye neither know Me, nor My Father: if ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also.” These words help us to understand better the hallowed nearness given to the children of God; for we read also, “Therefore the world knows is not, because it knew HIM not.”

We are likewise helped by them to understand the Spirit’s use in I John of the endearing “HIM”, for to those who know the Father expressed in the Son, the Unction received from Him, delights in filling their hearts with Himself through whom God is known. So we are told, the same Unction teaches us, just as it has taught them,—“Ye shall abide in HIM.” It continues, “And now, little children, ABIDE IN HIM” (1 John 2:27-28) having also previously said, ye shall “continue in THE SON, and in THE FATHER” (verse 24). THE SON is here instructively placed first, for it is by Him and in Him we come to, and know the Father.

In these days of declension; when the lying denial that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah of Israel still obtains; when the seductive teaching is spreading, which denies the Father and the Son, we do well to “abide in Him,” and thus have our confiding hearts well nourished and garrisoned in the knowledge of the Father’s love. John also says assuringly, “He who confesses the SON has THE FATHER also” (2:23). It is not put the opposite way. And to the elect lady he writes, “He that abides in the doctrine of the Christ, he has both THE FATHER and THE SON” (2 John 9). To advance beyond that is to be without God. We see then the immense importance of that oft repeated Word,—“Abide in Him.” May we do so in faith and affection, growing intelligently in the divine unfoldings which are there; responding in the power of the Spirit to the known love of the Father, which has given us to be God’s children. Blessed be His holy Name for such wonderful love.

Father, we worship, blessed in Thy love so true,—

The love that Jesus ever knew:

From every danger be our shield,—

Thyself our joy,—Thyself revealed.

Wonderful too is the hope connected with the relationship, which the Father’s love has granted to us. It cheers our souls as we abide in the present home of our faith; esteeming with deepening joy the divinely given right to be there. What a dwelling for the children of God on their way to be with Jesus for ever,—the Father’s changeless love! What a sure and certain hope is ours,—to be like the One, and see the One, who has made known that eternal love, and brought us into it! “BELOVED, now are we the children of God … We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” Blessed is that “now” of love and relationship! Bright and glorious the hope to be “like Him” and to “see Him”—our present “hope in Him,” which soon shall be ours actually, along with Himself in glory”! To see Him “as He is” will bless our adoring gaze truly! To see Him as He will be—“King of kings and Lord of lords”—will call forth glad songs of victorious rejoicing and loud hosannas; but to behold Him “as He is” with the Father, in the deep love and blessedness of His Father’s house,—where we shall be like Him and dwell with Him—where the eternal love of the Father for the Son is ours too through Him—where our God and Father shall rest and rejoice in His love—where the designs of His heart of eternal love shall display their beauty and blessedness—where the cup is full—where Jesus, who suffered and once died for us, is supreme in radiant glory—to be with Him and like Him there—to see Him as He is—will move every heart to over-flowing worship and adoration.

The present effects of such hope in Him must be great and powerful! And indeed they are. The practical results are healthful and far reaching. Even the ultra-violet rays of the Solar centre, reaching us through this earth’s murky atmosphere, impart health-giving benefits. Much more so the sunshine of our sure hope in the Son. Therefore we read, “And every one that has this hope in Him purifies himself even as He is pure.” That does not mean we should set about trying to be purer than we are. Such self-centred efforts are useless. This sweet purifying goes on as the hope shines in—the hope which God’s children have in the Son.

Love, too, for one another will increase; for we read, “Everyone that loves Him that begat loves him also that is begotten of Him” (1 John 5:1). Hatred marks the children of the devil; love marks the children of God. Nor are we left to wonder if we really love them. Divine assurance is given to us in the Word as to this. “By this we now that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments.” Pureness, love and obedience prosper here. “His commandments are not grievous,” we are told (5:3). Grief does not mark this pathway; for John wrote, “that your joy may be full.” The “true light” shines here; the Son, “the eternal life,” is known here; the Father’s love and the liberty of the children of God are here, for the Holy Spirit gives the loving cry in the heart, “ABBA, FATHER.”

“Father, we Thy children bless Thee

For such love on us bestowed,

Source of blessing! we confess Thee

Now our Father and our God.”

The Father’s Name

Descending in a cloud the Lord proclaimed to Moses the name of JEHOVAH; and somewhat of the wealth of that name is found in Exodus 4:5-7; also the value of it in the experience of others in a multitude of Scriptures which follow (Psalm 86:15; Jon. 4:2, etc., etc.).

Previously the Lord said to Moses, “I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of GOD ALMIGHTY, but by My name JEHOVAH was I not known to them” (Exodus 6:3).

It remained for the Son to come, our adorable Lord and Saviour, to disclose to us THE FATHER’S NAME. He was here in lowliness, and in love and grace, not in fiery majesty, with tempest, terror, and the sound of trumpet as at Sinai. Found amongst men full of heavenly favour and truth the Son said, “All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me, and him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37); and as to the inestimable preciousness of the Father’s Name, we have recorded in John 17 what He has said in holy intimacy and intercession concerning it

1. Verse 6—“I have manifested Thy name unto the men which Thou gavest Me out of the world.” All that the Father is was seen in the Son: in Him His ineffable name found MANIFESTATION.

2. Verses 11 and 12—“Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given Me … I kept them in Thy name.” While passing through this world, in the Father’s name may he found true PRESERVATION.

3. Verse 26—“I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it.” As we said before, it was necessary for the Son Himself to come to disclose the Father’s name; and having done this, He continues to sustain the making known of it from His exalted seat on high. It is that the Father’s love for the Son might be ours we have this DECLARATION. Blessed be God for the revelation of THE FATHER’S NAME in His beloved Son.

The Father’s Name for Preservation

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God; and those who own Him to be the Christ, the Son of the living God, have not learned this from flesh and blood, but the Father has revealed it to them. This we learn from the Lord’s words to Simon Peter, in Matthew 16. Upon this rock the Son of Man is building His assembly. Those who know the Father, do so because it has pleased the Son to reveal Him to them; for, apart from this, no one knows the Father at all (Matthew 11:27).

The Father’s Name has been manifested by the Son, and He has also declared (or made known) that Name. In the Lord’s prayer, recorded in John 17, He demands that preservation in that Name should be granted to those whom the Father had given Him.

Some seek for salvation and preservation in religious systems such as the Romish church, but the Holy Spirit emphasizes the fact that those are only found in Him who came in His Father’s Name. Great evils began to invade the church of God, the assembly, very early in its history, and in view of this Jude addresses “the called ones, beloved in God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ” (New Translation). He has made, and does make known the Father’s Name for the welfare and blessing of God’s children. It is their joy and privilege to learn of Him, as they abide in Him, and experience what it means to be kept in the Name He delights to endear to their hearts. The infinite blessedness of the grace, love and holiness of the Father—of all that He is—become increasingly known to them. While they are thus preserved in Him who makes this known to them, His own joy is fulfilled in them; and they are kept from the evil, and in oneness of purpose and pursuit, as the Father and the Son. The incorruptible riches of the Father’s Name are disclosed to this end.

“Love divine their present portion,

Heaven’s choicest store.”

In regard to men generally Romans 1:19-20 says, “What is known of God is manifest among them, for God has manifested it to them—for from the world’s creation the invisible things of Him are perceived, being apprehended by the mind through the things that are made, both His eternal power and divinity (not deity here)—so as to render them inexcusable” (New Translation). Then in regard to Israel, the out-called nation, in Deuteronomy 4:32-39, we read, “Ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there has been any such thing as this great thing is, or has been heard like it? Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live? Or has God assayed to go and take Him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders? … Unto thee it was showed, that thou mightest know that Jehovah He is God; there is none else beside Him! Out of heaven He made thee to hear His voice, that He might instruct thee … Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that Jehovah He is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else!” And Exodus 34:5-7 gives Jehovah’s Name; but it was the practical denial of this Name which brought about Israel’s distresses, and caused God’s Name to be blasphemed among the Gentiles. It is the same in Christendom today as regards the Father’s Name.

Men are inexcusable if they disregard the voice of creation, speaking of God’s divinity and power. Those who are wise will seek also to know God as made known to the fathers, and to the separated nations of Israel. The supreme manifestation of the Father, however, is by the Son exclusively; who said, “He that has seen Me has seen the Father.” The understanding of this, and the right appreciation of it, will give colour to the children of God at the present time, when Christendom largely ignores its surpassing favour. True blessing, and preservation also, are found there, nevertheless.

Jesus prayed, “Holy Father, KEEP THROUGH THINE OWN NAME those whom Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Thy Name; those that Thou gavest Me I have guarded, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. And now I come to Thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves … I demand not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” Preservation, oneness, and His own joy in them, are the things Jesus desired for His own. He kept them in the Father’s Name when on earth, and now He is on high He asks the Father also to keep them in His Name. Here we may discover the Source of true preservation from the evil of the world today.

In this respect, it should be observed, God is addressed as Holy Father; preservation from the evil of an unholy world being in view. So in verse 25, when the darkness and ignorance of this sinful world are contrasted, it is Righteous Father. When life in a world of death is the subject, the Lord Jesus speaks of Him as the Living Father; and referring to the glory and the love He had known along with Him before the world was, He says in intimate nearness, “Father”; and when He had put away sin by His sacrifice, and was risen from the tomb, He connected His own with Himself in eternal relationship of love, saying, “My Father and your Father, My God and your God.”

“We bless Thee, God and Father,

We share Thy Son’s blest place;

We know Thy love and favour,

The shining of Thy face.”

And in this connection His oft-repeated words should specially be noticed—“Those whom Thou hast given Me”—for these words express how deeply and divinely the Son valued the love-gift of the Father to Himself; and show how tenderly He cares for all those who are thus His in a unique way, having been given to Him by the Father as a worthy gift—poor sinners though we were—for His Son to cherish—made suitable by divine and intimate grace; taken out of an evil world to shine resplendent for His pleasure in heavenly glory. Well may the Father’s Name be joy meanwhile, as that day draws nigh, so that we may be preserved for His pleasure.

At the very close of the Old Testament days, a picture of living interest and instruction is shown to us in Malachi 3:16. A preserved remnant, valuing Jehovah’s Name are seen in frequent converse! Nine times His “Name” is so mentioned in that short book, in which is disclosed the sinful backsliding of both priests and people! The preserved, however, make no vain attempt at national recovery! but, falling back on the Name of their faithful Jehovah, they find a uniting Theme in Himself; and “they that feared Jehovah spake often one to another”! They “thought upon His Name!” What He is was their entrancing subject! and what engaged them called forth His special interest!—“the Lord hearkened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them!” Moreover, so precious were they in His eyes, it is recorded, “And they shall be Mine, says the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels!” If the Lord so valued the preserved among His people, then, what must He think of those who are preserved in the Father’s Name at the close of this day of grace? May that wondrous Name, manifested and made known by His Son, more habitually colour our converse as His coming draws nigh; and may no glamour or pride of worldly religion be permitted to rob us of our hallowed privileges.

Jehovah was often named, “The Holy One of Israel”; the Lord Jesus is often called, “The Holy One of God”; and the Spirit of Truth, the Comforter, given from the Father, sent by the Son, and come Himself, is named, “The Holy Spirit.” In His prayer for our preservation, as we have pointed out, the Lord addressed God as “Holy Father”; for, although infinite grace and love mark that precious Name, holiness does also. Another vivid picture in the Old Testament strikingly emphasizes this. When Isaiah saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, he heard one seraphim cry to another, “Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah of hosts” (Isaiah 6:1-8). John 12:41 says the glory of Jesus was seen then—“These things said Esaias, when he saw His glory, and spake of Him.” The King is there named; in Acts 28:25 it says, the Holy Spirit then spoke through Isaiah; and the description, “Holy, holy, holy,” is doubtless descriptive of our thrice holy God, for there it is also said, “Who will go for US?”

The children of God today are asked to “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us”; the eternal and unchanging relation of children having been given to us by that love. Therefore we may well sing with grace and melody in our hearts

“O Holy Father, keep us here

In that blest Name of love,

Walking before Thee without fear,

Till all be joy above.”

Salvation and the life eternal are ours now through Him who has made known the Father’s Name! What a contrast this is to the condemnation and death which accompanied the law-giving to Israel and the proclamation of Jehovah’s Name! for if the announcing of the law was followed by the death of 3000, the introduction of saving grace with the gift of the Spirit was blessed by the salvation of 3000! God’s Name of grace and love has been disclosed! The Father is seen in the Son! His words, the words of life, have been uttered! When Jesus said, “No man can come unto Me, except it were given unto him of My Father,” many ceased to follow Him; but Simon Peter said, “Lord to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of life eternal: and we have believed and known that Thou art the Holy One of God.” The Son making known the Father’s Name and the words of eternal life go together. Peter was preserved by the Son in the Name of the Father.

The Father’s Name in Manifestation

The Father’s Name has been manifested by His Son in the world—manifested in pure and sovereign grace. Of old He was revealed as the Creator, as the Almighty, or as the All-sufficient One, and as Jehovah; but by the Son the ineffable Name of Father has been manifested. Until the Son came to reveal Him as Father He could not so be known, for Jesus said, “Neither knows any man the Father save the Son.”

Faith might apprehend Him as the Source of all things,—the “one God and Father of all”; and as “the Father of mercies” and “the Father of lights”; but by the Son alone is the Father made known, according to His own divine pleasure. The world is incapable of knowing the children of God in their relationship with Him as such; but God’s children know the Father and His Name is made known to them, so that His wondrous love for His own Son might rest on them and be their hallowed portion.

The time is drawing near which was foretold by the Lord when Antichrist will appear, and coming in all the glamour of his own importance, the world will welcome him. He will appeal strongly to the admiration of men, but the exaltation of himself will vividly contrast with the meekness and lowliness of the Lord Jesus, who said, “I am come in My Father’s Name, and ye receive Me not: if another shall come in His own name, him ye will receive.” The short and blasphemous success of this deceiver will be the everlasting ruin of many, but eternal life and glory, and endless blessing, will be shared by those who receive the Son of God. Let us be glad and rejoice that our hearts have been opened to receive the Son of God, for how terrible will be the doom of those who reject Him and receive Antichrist instead. Being born of God, we are even now the children of God, and the Father’s Name is precious to us.

It was to His Father the Son said, “I have manifested Thy Name unto the men which Thou gavest Me out of the world.” That which is manifested is to be seen. That which is declared is to be heard. Jesus both manifested and declared the Father’s Name. What He did showed what the Father is, manifesting to sight what His Name represents; so He said to the Jews, “The works that I do in My Father’s Name, they bear witness of Me. But ye believe not, because ye are not of My sheep”; and, again, “Ye neither know Me, nor My Father; if ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also.” He said, “He that sees Me sees Him that sent Me.” What the Father is was found in perfect manifestation in the Son, and those in whom the Spirit has wrought are capable of appreciating the heavenly grace of God made visible in the Lord Jesus, who has manifested His Father’s Name to those given to Him “out of the world.”

The supreme blessedness connected with this Name, and with those divinely favoured in knowing it, finds marked contrast to the world.

This comes out in the Lord’s prayer to His Father. “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (John 17:14, 16); “O righteous Father, the world has not known Thee”; and in 1 John 2:15, the Spirit says, “if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him”; and then in chapter 3:1, we are encouraged to “Behold, what love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God. For this reason the world knows us not, because it knew Him not” (New Translation). The Father was made visible in the Son on earth, “and the world knew Him not,”—not even the religious world! It is the same now in regard to God’s children,”—“the world knows us not!” i.e., in this heavenly and eternal relationship,—the divine relationship, where the life eternal is known in holy nearness to the true God and His Son Jesus Christ.

How important it is, therefore, that we should earnestly value the preciousness of the Father’s Name, made known as we have said, by His Son. He came in His Name, His works were done in that Name; He said, “Many good works have I showed you from My Father”; and again, “The Father that dwells in Me, He does the works”; “He that has seen Me has seen the Father.” To behold Him was to behold the manifestation of the Father. Inspired by the Spirit, John could say, “We beheld His glory,” for wondrous sign-miracles were done by Him in His Father’s Name “in the presence of His disciples.” To see God’s mercy, grace and love, with power, in holy activity in Jesus was to see the Father’s Name represented,—the Father’s Name manifested.

We may see how the ways and worship of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were affected by the Name of God made known to them; also of Moses and those in Israel who had the Name of Jehovah given to them; and, where the Father’s Name has become precious to the faith of God’s children, their walk, ways and worship are correspondingly affected. They are designated, “The true worshippers,” who “worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship Him” (John 4:23). Differing widely from the walk and ways of other men, Abraham was a pilgrim on earth, but a worshipper of God as He was known to him. Differing vastly from other nations, the nation of Israel was called out of Egypt and separated; and abundant sweet savour offerings ascended to God from their midst, expressing their worship according to God’s known Name of Jehovah. Differing still more greatly from other families, the children of God are in the world, but not of it, and unknown by it; and their worship is in spirit and in truth, rendering to God, in the unction of the Holy Ghost, their sweet savour offerings of praise, in response to the disclosure of the Father’s Name by the Son. The ‘true worshippers’ are thus found today.

Being born of God, redeemed in Christ, set in relationship to God as children, the manifestation of the Father’s Name by His Son is ours to rejoice in! The works done in that Name made this manifestation. What cause there was to bless God when His Son gave sight to the blind man, who afterwards worshipped in His presence! The works of God were manifest in him! Yet the religious leaders cast out the one who had received the benefit (John 9:35), and persecuted the Benefactor! He said to them, “Many good works have I showed you from My Father.” “Though ye believe not Me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.” Sight for blindness!—Divine grace manifesting itself! Hearing for the deaf! Strength for the palsied! Health for the sick! Healing for multitudes suffering from all sorts of diseases! and speech given to the dumb! all showed grace acting in power, manifesting the Father’s Name! No wonder they exclaimed, “He has done all things well!” and spiritual sight sees the Father in the Son thus made visible.

Behold Him giving thanks, and feeding the multitude with five loaves and two fishes! Behold His glory manifested forth at Cana of Galilee, when He turned the water of purification into the wine of gladness!

Behold Him when He says, “Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard Me!” and Lazarus came forth from death, and from corruption also! Again, when He said, “FATHER, GLORIFY THY NAME!” and the voice from heaven answered, “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again!” It was glorified in the resurrection of Lazarus, and again in the resurrection of the Son of God! Oh! what a sight for Mary to behold!—Jesus, her Saviour and Lord, alive to die no more!—actually “raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father!” What could surpass the gracious words Mary heard from our risen Lord’s holy lips!—words she was honoured to carry to those He was not ashamed to call brethren. “Go to My brethren,” He said, “and say unto them, I ascend unto MY FATHER, AND YOUR FATHER; AND TO MY GOD, AND YOUR GOD.” Was ever such a divine disclosure of near relationship before made like this? Worship and blessing are the becoming response.

The Father’s Name Made Known

“O righteous Father, the world has not known Thee: but I have known Thee, and these have known that Thou hast sent Me” (John 17:25).

Everyone that the Father has given to His Son will come to Him; and He has said, “No man can come to Me, except the Father which has sent Me draw Him”; also, “They shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that has heard, and has learned of the Father, comes unto Me.” It is to them the Father’s Name is made known by the Son. The Father draws to the Son, and the Son makes known the Father’s Name.

In His prayer to the Father He said, “Righteous Father, the world has not known Thee, but I have known Thee, and these have known that Thou hast sent Me. And I have made known to them Thy Name, and will make it known: that the love with which Thou hast loved Me may be in them and I in them” (John 17:25-26, New Translation). This shows why the Father’s Name is made known to us; that the love of which the Son was the worthy Object might be ours also, and that He who is so loved might be in us. Wonderful is this love of relationship, the Father’s love for His Son. Who could have thought of such infinite blessedness for us, save our thrice holy God? Once sinners, undone, deserving just judgment! but now forgiven and saved through Jesus, who bore that judgment! and given to Him He gives us to know the Father’s love, wherewith He was loved before the world’s foundation!

“He the prodigal has pardoned,

Kissed us with a father’s love.”

Those who are born of God are granted this surpassing favour. They have received Christ in faith. Even the babes in this family know the Father, and have a nature capable of development in this. None are thus blessed because of some distinction of heredity or consanguinity, or the descendants of such as Aaron and David might get the advantage! None are thus honoured because of fleshly energy socially and religiously, or some prosperous and bigoted peoples might have the advantage! None are brought into such a divine relation with the Father because of national and priestly pre-eminence, or the chosen nation of Israel would have this right! but the Spirit of God has left us without one doubt in regard to it, saying, “To them gave He the right to be the children of God, to those that believe on His Name; who have been born, not of blood, nor of flesh’s will, nor of man’s will, but of God” (John 1:12-13, New Translation). Wonderful indeed is the Father’s love which has put us in the children’s place! Of His own will He begat us! Divinely, Sovereignly, and righteously He has given us this right of relationship! His wisdom and love designed it, and it is for His own pleasure, and for our joy also.

What the Father is has been declared and manifested. His Name has been made known and made discernible in the Son. This is the way God is specially made known today. The heavens declare His glory as Creator, and the firmament shows His handiwork … Creation pronounces and manifests somewhat of His glory and greatness. The separated nation of Israel declared and bore witness to Him as Jehovah, God; and He said concerning them, “Ye are My witnesses, says Jehovah … before Me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after Me. I, even I, am Jehovah; and beside Me there is no Saviour. I have declared, I have showed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are My witnesses, says Jehovah, that I am God. Yea, before the day was I am He … I am Jehovah, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King” (Isaiah 43:10-15).

We are told what God is as Jehovah in the proclamation of His Name—“Merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,” etc. We see how this gave character to men of faith in the Old Testament, but it was not till the Son came that the Name of divine love—the Father’s Name—was made known.

The inspired writings pointed on to Him. The law and the prophets testified of the One that was to come—the One who should speak God’s words.

Moses and Elias had both been at Horeb, the mount of God, where Jehovah’s Name was once proclaimed; but when they appeared with Jesus on “the holy mount,” they spake with Him of what He was to accomplish at Jerusalem, and then disappeared from view; while from the bright cloud, the excellent glory, Jesus was honoured by God the Father—such a voice from heaven being uttered to Him, “This is My beloved Son, hear Him.” Peter, James, and John were witnesses of this. It actually took place! Pointing on to Him, the Old Testament said, “Him shall ye hear!” Singling Him out, the voice from the excellent glory said, “HEAR HIM!”

The disciples viewed His glory, when in His company on earth; and John writes, “We contemplated His glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a Father.” It was said of Isaac to Abraham, “Thy son, thine only one, Isaac, whom thou lovest.” He had other sons, but Isaac was His only one in an unique sense. The Son with the Father is without compeer; yet His glory was seen to be, not like a mighty Samson or a warrior-king David, but like an only son with a father! This is the One who makes known the Father’s Name, and we are divinely instructed to “hear Him!” Who else could manifest and make known what He is, save the Son of the Father’s love? It is said, “No one has seen God at any time, the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” He could make Him known perfectly and only He; for none other had “seen the Father, except He who is of God, He has seen the Father”; and He said, “He that has seen Me has seen the Father.” The Invisible was visible in His Son. Jesus manifested Him, but none other could.

“Son of His bosom, come from heaven above,

We see in Thee incarnate ‘God is Love.’”

We rejoice in being limited to Him for the gracious making known of His Father’s Name. He manifested it to those who were given to Him out of the world. He preserved them in that Name when here on earth, and prayed, “Holy Father, keep through Thine own Name those whom Thou hast given Me.” If, as Proverbs 18:10 tells us, “The Name of Jehovah is a strong tower,” into which the righteous runs and is safe; the Name of the righteous Father, unknown by the world, is a dwelling of divine love, where there is safety truly, but also infinite riches of holy joy; for it is as risen in triumph from among the dead and ascended, the Lord Jesus brings His own into this today, and they rightly sing with heavenly gladness:

“Now the Father’s name Thou tellest, joy is in Thine heart!

In His love in which Thou dwellest we have part.”

Eternal life, as well as eternal love, in its highest privilege, is immediately connected with the knowledge of the Father. Like a new creation, like the precious anointing, like the dew, Jehovah may command the blessing of it presently on the earthly side upon the restored priestly nation of Israel when they arise from the dust, as Daniel says. It will be like life from the dead! On the heavenly side the children of God are granted this now, in peculiar and family nearness with the Son of the Father. To Him authority is given over all flesh, so that He should give eternal life to all that the Father gives to Him; and this eternal life, wonderful to say, is that we should know the Father, the only true God, and Jesus Christ His sent One. The eternal life is given today to this end. The capability is also given to us—“an understanding, that we should know Him that is true; and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God, and eternal life” (read 1 John 5:20 with John 17:2-3). What unmeasured favour is here! Both the eternal life and the understanding are divinely given, that the incomparable knowledge of the Father and Jesus Christ might be our exalted portion! When all this blessedness is being slighted by so many, well may we earnestly heed the word addressed to the babes of the family in 1 John 2:24-25—“Continue in the Son, and in the Father. And this is the promise that He has promised us, even eternal life.” The Son is named first here, for it is as we abide in Him, who makes the Father’s Name known, we abide also in the Father.

So the Spirit teaches us to “abide in Him!” (verse 27) and then in verse 28 the exhortation is given to all the children of God—not to the young only—“ABIDE IN HIM!” It is said, “He who confesses the Son has the Father also,” but not vice versa.

The Father loves the Son, yea, He dearly loves Him, giving all things into His hand, and showing Him all that He does. The Father works and the Son does likewise. The Father quickens, and the Son does also. He does nothing independently. Perfect in love, power and co-operation, yet the Father does not “judge anyone, but has given all judgment to the Son; that all may honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He who honours not the Son, honours not the Father who has sent Him.” The works which He did were done in the Father’s Name, and He spake the Father’s words, that His Name might be known. Even deeper than making the declaration, to His own He makes known His Father’s Name. A declaration might be made without its becoming intelligible. Jesus gives us to know the Name of eternal love. Being the Son He can do this. Eternal praise to His holy Name.

In this day of grace upon grace rich favours are bestowed upon the children of God! It is granted to them to know that their sins are forgiven for His Son’s Name sake! to know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him! to know the things that are freely given to us of God! to know that we have eternal life in the Son, who said, “Ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you”; for it is as we are in Him we are in the Father, whose wondrous Name He makes known, as we have said, that the eternal love of His Father might be in us, and He in us. “ENDLESS PRAISE AND ADORATION TO THE FATHER AND THE SON.”

This ends our reading for this session. Until next time, have a great day, and God bless.