FOUR
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Outside the Camp
The effect of these two great facts upon the individual saint is strikingly set forth in the history of Stephen. In this devoted servant we see a characteristic-saint of the Christian period, according to God's thought, and hence the display of the moral features which should have marked the whole Church during the absence of Christ.
The closing verses of Acts 7 present a man on earth indwelt by a Divine Person — the Holy Spirit — and drawing all his resources from a Man in the glory. As we read "He being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up stedfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God" (v. 55). Blessed effects follow:
1. He "looked up." A man on earth full of the Holy Spirit looks up! Such an one is not indifferent to what is within or what is around, but characteristically he is not marked by looking within or looking around. To look within is to be depressed, to look around is to be confused, but to look up is to see no man anymore except Jesus only.
2. He looked up "stedfastly." As a better translation has it, he "fixed his eyes" on another scene and refused to be distracted by the evil of this world on the one hand, or detained by its attractions on the other.
3. He "looked up stedfastly into heaven." The man filled with the Holy Spirit is linked with heaven while passing through the earth. Such an one realizes that he is a partaker of the heavenly calling. Insomuch as we yield to the control of the Holy Spirit, we shall be led into the heavenly calling even as Rebekah of old, consenting to go with the servant, was led from the land of her fathers to have part with Isaac in a new land (Gen. 24). Ignoring the presence of the Holy Spirit the Church has settled down in the earth, quieting its conscience by much zeal for the good of man.
4. Stephen, looking up to heaven, sees "the glory of God." Everything in this world speaks of the glory of man. But the man filled with the Holy Spirit is no longer occupied with the fading glory of dying men, but looks into a scene where everything and everyone speaks of the glory of God. "In His temple doth everyone say, Glory" (Ps. 29: 9, JND)!
5. Not only does he see glory, but he sees the glory of God "and Jesus." He sees a Man in the glory. In the brightest spot of the universe, where God is fully displayed in all His infinite perfections, he sees a Man. All other men may come short of the glory of God, but at last a man is found — the Man Christ Jesus — who has answered to the glory, maintained the glory and passed into the glory. The chapter opens with the God of glory appearing to a man on earth and ends with a Man appearing in the glory of God in heaven.
6. Furthermore the Man whom he sees in heaven — Jesus — is standing on "the right hand of God." Not only is there a Man in the glory, but that Man is set in the place of supreme power and honour. The One who came into the world in circumstances of weakness, who passed through it as a poor Man, who in passing out of it was crucified in weakness, in heaven now holds the place of highest power and glory.
Every mark of dark dishonour,
Heaped upon the thorn-crowned brow,
All the depths of His heart's sorrow
Told in answering glory now.
7. Lastly, Stephen can say, "Behold I see the heavens opened." There has been unrolled before his vision a heavenly scene wherein he sees the glory of God. In the glory he sees a Man — the Man Christ Jesus, and that Man he sees in the place of supreme power. But he sees more; he sees that the heavens are opened so that all the glory and the power of the Man in heaven is at the disposal of a man on earth. If the Lord Jesus has gone back to heaven to occupy a place of supreme power, He has left the heavens open behind Him so that all the love and power and grace of the Man in heaven may stream down upon a man on earth.
The result of this seven-fold vision, if we may so speak, is very blessedly set forth in the closing scene of Stephen's earthly life. He is a man on earth controlled by the Holy Spirit, and consequently drawing all his resources from Christ in glory. In result we see in Stephen a beautiful example of a man on earth in the midst of the most terrible circumstances, supported by the Man in heaven. We further see that just as the man on earth is supported by the Man in the glory, so the Man in the glory is represented in the man on earth. Stephen, lifted above all thought of self, becomes a shining witness to the character of Christ in heaven. Like his Master he prays for his enemies, commits his spirit to the Lord and leads the long line of martyrs by sealing his testimony with his blood.
In Stephen then we are permitted to see the practical results that flow from an individual believer being controlled by the Holy Spirit on earth and drawing his resources from Christ in heaven. What was so blessedly set forth in Stephen is still God's thought for His people today, and seeing that Christ is in the glory and the Holy Spirit is yet on earth, it is still possible to answer to the mind of God.