And again, behold, I and the children which God hath given Me.'
These words come from the immediate neighbourhood of the last quotation. In their original application the prophet regards his own family, and the little knot of disciples who had been drawn to him, as being associated with him in his prophetic office, set for signs and wonders,' and the salt of the nation, which without them was rotting to dissolution. So our writer sees in the prophet's humility, which associates in his office, and admits to its prerogatives, the children to whom he had given natural life, and the little ones who through him had received spiritual life, the dim foreshadowing of that great Saviour who by His becoming our Brother, makes us God's children.
For it is to be noticed that the unity referred to in the word children,' in this last quotation, does not apply to the same sphere as the unity referred to in the former word brethren.' Brethren' referred to the kindred which consisted of the common possession of humanity; children' refers to the kindred, consisting in the common possession of spiritual life. Thus, in this last quotation of our text we have presented the other side of Christ's Incarnation and its effects. Here we have to deal, not so much with His becoming like us, as with our becoming like Him.
The words open out into thoughts which I can only specify without attempting to enlarge upon them. Jesus Christ has become our Brother, that from Him we may each of us draw a life, stored in Him, though having its source in God, which will make us His brethren, and God's children. The central blessing of the gospel is the communication to every trustful heart of an actual divine life which comes from Christ. Do not be satisfied with any more superficial conception of what God gives us in His Son than this, that He gives us a spark of Himself, that He comes into us through Christ, and bestows upon our deadness a real, mystical, spiritual life, which will unfold itself in forms worthy of its kindred, and like unto its source.
For that gift of the life there is more than Incarnation needed. There is Crucifixion needed. The death of Death by death gives Death his death; and then, and then only, can He give us who were dead His life. The box must be broken, though it be alabaster very precious, that through its lustrous surface there may shine lambent the light of the indwelling spirit; the body must be broken, that the house may be filled with the odour of the ointment. Christ dies and life escapes from Him as it were, and passes into the world.
That life is a life of sonship. The children are God's children, being Christ's brethren. They are brought into a new unity; and the one foundation of true brotherhood amongst men is the common possession of a common relation to the One Divine Father.
And that life which leads thus to sonship leads likewise to a marvellous participation in the offices, functions and relations of the Christ who bestows it. Just as the prophet gathered his children and disciples into a family, and gave them to partake in his prophetic office, in his relation to God, and to the world, so Christ gathers us into oneness with Himself; having become like us, He makes us like Him and invests us with a similar relationship to the Father. Being the Son, He gives us the adoption of sons, and lays upon our shoulders the responsibilities and the honours of a similar relation to the world, making us kindled lights' derived from Himself the fontal source, making us, in our measure and degree, sons of God and Messiahs for the world.
This oneness of life--which thus leads to a participation in sonship, an identity of function, and of interest --remains for ever. If we love and trust Christ,"He will never leave us until He' presents us faultless before the presence of His glory, with exceeding joy.'
So, dear friends, it all comes to this; there is one way to know God and only one. He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.' All else is darkness. There is one life, noble, pure, worthy of humanity, and only one: the life of trust in Christ, who is at once the object and pattern of our faith; and believing in whom we believe in the Father also. There is but one fountain of life opened in the graveyard of this world, and that is in the Son, drinking of whom there shall be in us a fountain springing up to life everlasting. There is but one way by which we can become sons of God, through the eider Brother, who grudges the prodigal neither the ring nor the feast, but Himself has provided them both. So listen to Him declaring the name; say, I will put my trust in Him'; for you trust God when you have faith in Christ; and then be sure that He will give you of His own life; that He will invest you with the spirit of adoption and the standing of sons, that He will keep His hand about you, and never lose you. Them whom Thou hast given Me, I have kept,' He will say at last, pointing to us; and there we shall stand, no wanderer lost, a family in Heaven,' whilst our brother presents us to His Father and ours, with the triumphant words--Behold I and all the children whom Thou hast given Me.'
