Personal and essential glory (as of Jehovah), and official glory (as of Lordship conferred), however high, are very distinct things.
It is of all-importance ever to remember the personal glory found in Him who, as a servant, became obedient unto death, the death of the cross; and therefore was highly exalted, and had a name given to Him above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth; “and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Universal lordship belongs to the faithful servant—the Father will force all to bow before Him, one way or the other. But He before whom all must bow is not only the Nazarene, made ruler over all, but He is personally Son of God in the Highest. No service, no position, however low they might be, could ever undo the deep personal glory of the Son of God—of Him who, humble Himself as He might, was still ever essentially Jehovah.
And it should be noticed how, in connection with God's display of redemption, the practical recognition of the Lord Jesus by the soul is salvation—not to recognize it is to be in a lost estate.
2 Cor. 4; 3-6 “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. 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.” This gives God's display of Himself in redemption... “the light of the glorious gospel of [the] Christ, who is the image of God;.... the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
Its shining into a heart is by divine power and is salvation. But the salvation, how is that marked by the actings of the individual? merely by light? No, by a great practical change also, as a result of the light. Such call upon the name of the Lord; such believe in the Lord. “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Rom. 10:13, 913For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Romans 10:13)
9That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (Romans 10:9)). “No man can call Jesus Lord but by the Holy Ghost” (1 Cor. 12:33Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. (1 Corinthians 12:3)). Jehovah of Hosts, God the Son, who humbled Himself, and as Son of man died on the cross, is now, as Son of man, glorified on the throne of the Father, and in the majesty of the Highest in heaven. The soul's being apart from fellowship with Him is its perdition, the soul's being brought into subjection to Him is its salvation.
I do not now speak of acts of prayer or praise to Him, but of the posture of a soul toward Him. Acts of prayer and praise may, as we shall see, be modified by other things; but the right position, the right condition, the right dependence and bearing of a soul toward Himself can never be but one. A redeemed soul now knows Him as Jesus the Christ, as Jehovah, as the only-begotten Son, and knows Him so always. Obedience, entire personal surrender to Him (of all that we have and all that we are), to Him through whom divine glory has shined forth, and by whom it is to be established in redemption, is our part. If a first ray of light shining in bids me call upon Him that I may be saved— “Behold he prayeth,” “Who art thou, Lord?” “What wilt thou have me to do?” (Acts 9:5, 6,5And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. 6And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. (Acts 9:5‑6)) were Saul's first two addresses; if a disciple in severe trial find His presence in sympathy, then again he prays as did Stephen, “calling upon and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit;” and again, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge” (Acts 7:59, 6059And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. 60And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. (Acts 7:59‑60).)
These things show the devotional dependent bearing toward the Lord, of souls divinely taught. So does another truth. The baptizing in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Matt. 28; 19,) is the same as the baptizing “in the name of Jesus Christ” (Acts 2:38,38Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. (Acts 2:38) &c.) So at least I judge. The glory of the display of God as Jehovah was one name; the glory of the display of God as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost was another name; but this name was made in and by Jesus Christ, earth rejected and heaven-honored. To believe in Christ, (John 14; 1,) to be baptized in His name, to receive remission of sins and the Holy Ghost from Him, all mark a specialty of position in man, as well as a specialty of glory in Him Faith makes men own Jesus of Nazareth as Son of God and as Jehovah—Lord of all.
I have adverted to Stephen's and to Paul's experience as similar conduct, but in one respect they are contrasted. Stephen's saw Jesus [that is the Nazarene who had been known by that name] standing on the right hand of God— “the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.” He address's Him as “Lord Jesus” and as “Lord.” Son of man, the Lord, Jehovah, were revealed to him To Paul it was Jehovah, Jesus, the Lord, Son of God; and that “he is the Son of God” was first preached by Paul (Acts 9:2020And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God. (Acts 9:20)).
I again refer to Stephen's prayer to the Lord Jesus (in Acts 7:59, 6059And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. 60And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. (Acts 7:59‑60)), to Paul's addresses in prayer to the Lord Jesus (in 9:5, 6), and I refer also to the burst of praise from John, “And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty” (Rev. 1:5-85And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, 6And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. 7Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. 8I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. (Revelation 1:5‑8)); and to the declaration (chap. 12:17), “The Spirit and the bride say, Come;” and to the closing cry (verse 20), “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” This is the continuous cry of every soul that is converted, and has light from the beginning of its course to the end; and not only so, but of the whole chain of Christians, from the hour Christ went on high until the hour of His corning again. Yes! this cry to Him, “even so, come, Lord, Jesus,” is faith's voice, heard though the whole wilderness course But I refer to these passages (and I might add other similar ones) that it may be seen that I recognize plainly the passages in scripture for the practice of the faithful making addresses, both in prayer and in praise, to the Lord Jesus.
God has given to us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ; the recognition, by faith, of Him puts us into the position of calling on Him, becoming subject to Him, and discovering in Him—the Lord Jesus—not only Jehovah and Son of God, the Lord of all, but the very name of the Father, and the power of the Spirit as the Holy Ghost the Comforter. A life begins in the wilderness, its every acting owns Him to be thus the object of our worship; and when the wilderness is past, we shall hi the glory worship God and the Lamb I thought it well—due to the Lord Jesus, and through mercy due to oneself—to put these remarks forward, before returning to take up a matter previously adverted to, where I said that the actings in prayer and praise toward the Lord Jesus might be modified by other things—though the soul's posture and position toward Him never varied as to its being one of worship, subjection and dependence. Eternal life, the knowledge of the possessing it, and the modes of its acting are distinct. Every member of the household of faith must have had life, though life and immortality were only brought to light by the gospel—not by the law. Now the mode of action depends upon the position in which Christ is looked at at any given time, and what, when He has placed and holds us in that position, we have to render. Is He teacher in Israel? There are His twelve apostles and His seventy teachers through grace associated with Him. Is He risen from the dead, and in Jerusalem is it declared that He has been proclaimed Lord and Christ on heaven's high throne? The Holy Ghost has come down, and there are the twelve witnesses of the resurrection, and there is the company in their fellowship. Has He set Himself for a testimony among the uncircumcision and the Gentiles to the uttermost parts of the earth? Paul and his yokefellow have their labor, and they that are scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. When looked at in this connection, not prayer and praise, but labor, had to be rendered: not, of course, that they ceased to recognize Him in His personal and essential glory, or to know the sweetness of their relation to, and connection with, Him as being such.
Hereafter, even in glory, when the Church shall be the tabernacle of God, when the time for glory and for unmingled joy shall be come—when prayer shall cease together with the want and need and the feebleness that now provoke it, when praise and glory shall be unhindered—still, even then, as servants, we shall serve Him as much as we shall worship Him as worshippers.
But there is another thing I must speak of as in another way modifying prayer and praise as directly addressed to the Lord Jesus. Personally Son of God, essentially Jehovah, He in grace holds a position and the place of being the medium through which all flows out from God, even the Father, through whom alone there is any access to God. If not personally God the Son, if not essentially Jehovah, He could not be the revealer of God and of the Father—that is clear. But being thus able to do so, and through His work as Redeemer able also to present that light in a way suited to man as a sinner, He, in grace, holds this position of being the medium through whom what has to shine forth—of life, light, and love—may shine forth—and through whom the way of return for that which the revelation, applied in power by the Holy Ghost to us, creates in us, may be secured and maintained. Love divine has formed a system for associating God and us together: the Lord Jesus in that system is the medium, as the Holy Ghost is the power. Nothing can proclaim the personal and essential glory of the Son and of the Spirit more than this—nothing ought to humble our hearts more thoroughly than the truths:-1St, that grace has brought us into a system with every part of which God in the highest is associated and every part of which is associated with Him; and 2ndly, that this might be so, this was immediately through the Son of God—Jehovah—the Redeemer and Savior, and by the power of the Holy Ghost.
It in no wise derogates from the personal glory of the Son, as God and as Jehovah, that having come forth from God to make known the mercy and compassion of God, He should jealously direct the affections and the thoughts of the souls He saves to the God and Father from whom He came forth, to whom He leads back those whom He saves. It does tell of living grace still active in Him who thus mediates.
If any one looks at the more formal prayers and praises of Paul, &c., in the New Testament, they are generally and habitually addressed to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; as for instance, the prayers in Eph. 1 and 3 &c. and the doxologies, Rom. 11:25-2725For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. 26And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: 27For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. (Romans 11:25‑27); Jude 25,25To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. (Jude 25) &c. &c. So again, if the instances in which the various Greek words which are rendered in English, thanks, worship, pray, prayer, praise, &c., are looked at in such a book as the Englishman's Greek Concordance, the same is the general rule. All our springs are in God, though the water gushes from the Rock that was smitten.
The double use of Κύπιος Lord, at times for Jehovah, and at times for lord or universal master, leads a simple mind into no error; because He who is the universal master, the lord, in honor and office, is essentially Jehovah, and personally God. It is important to notice it, however, in order that the simple mind may both perceive the double glory in Him, and may be able to answer the corrupt and perplexed reasoning of minds unlearned and unstable in the truth.
Heathen idolaters have “gods many and lords many” —a god perchance for every virtue and for every vice too; and a lord for every separate place. To the Christian there is none other God but one. For though there be that are called gods whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many and lords many,) but to us there is but one God the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him (1 Cor. 8:4-64As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. 5For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,) 6But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him. (1 Corinthians 8:4‑6)).
That there is but one God, and that worship may be offered to God alone, was taught among the Jews as concerning Jehovah. But to them the glory of the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost was not known. The Lord Jesus claimed to be God (John 5 and 8:53-58; 10:36), and as such never repudiated worship when offered to Him in the days of His humiliation (Matt. 8:2; 9:18; 18:26:28, 182And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. (Matthew 8:2)
18While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live. (Matthew 9:18); John 11:38,38Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. (John 11:38) &c). See in contrast with this Peter, Acts 10:2626But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man. (Acts 10:26); the angel, Rev. 22:9,9Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God. (Revelation 22:9) &c.
Because in the revelation of the heavenly bearing of the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, it appears that the Son officially holds in heaven the place of Lord of all, and the Holy Ghost fulfills services in us down here—am I to deny that the Son or that the Spirit is God? Most surely not; but rather am I, with adoring heart to own the grace, which, for the sake of revealing what we need to know, planned and has executed a work which needed that the Son of God and the Spirit of God should stoop to, and sustain, offices, without which it had been impossible that we could have known and enjoyed the glory of God even the Father.
If any one could say, “I know not what it is to address the Lord Jesus in prayer, in praise,” he would dishonor his own self. He is not of the company of Stephen, Paul, John, the faithful, nor of the number of those that know the true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. On the other hand, not to know, not to acknowledge, not to act upon the grace which leads the Lord Jesus to retain and to use the mediate place for us, is something very like alas! dishonoring His highest honor and richest fullest grace.
As to the rest of the passages in which, after the resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ, He is spoken of simply as Jesus:
Notice, 1St,
20:4. The souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus.
19:10. I am fellow-servant of thee and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
17:6. The woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.
14:12. The faith of Jesus.
These five passages are very worthy of consideration in the book of “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which gave God unto him to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass.”
12:24. To Jesus the mediator.
2. Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.
See also 10:19, the blood of Jesus, 7:22; 6:20; 4:14; 2:9.
1:10. Whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus.
4:14. Shall raise us up by Jesus.
11. Delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
10. That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
3:26. The justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.
26:9, 15. Contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest (Compare 22:8, 9:5).
25:19. And of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive.
19:13, 15. We adjure you by Jesus, whom Paul preacheth.... And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye?
18:5, 28. That Jesus was the Christ.
17:18. He preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection (verse 7, another king, one Jesus).
3. This Jesus, whom I preach unto you is Christ.
33, (32). In that he hath raised up Jesus again.
23. A Savior, Jesus.
10:38. God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power.
9:27. Boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.
8:35. Philip... preached unto him Jesus.
7:55. Stephen saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God.
See also 6:14; 5:40, 30; 4:30, 27, 18, 13; 3:26.
The simple perusal of these passages as the only exceptions after the resurrection and ascension in which He is spoken of simply as Jesus, and no title, (as Lord, the Christ, &c.,) immediately added, may suffice for most. They are not above thirty at the very outside, even if we accept the many I have inserted in the list which have no title immediately annexed, though one be in the immediate context, and are the exceptions to a rule which is sustained by upwards of 300 examples at least. Some of these exceptions are very interesting, however, when the reason for the usage is weighed. Jesus is a name the sweetness and power of which endures forever.
The subject is too boundless a one for such an article as this; but for the present I must close, feebly and faintly as I have traced it.
Ln.