John 11:52

THE GATHERED ONES

‘But that also He should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.’

John 11:52

This prophecy is the more remarkable as being—with the exception of Balaam’s—the only prophecy in the Bible which was spoken by a bad man. The great design of the whole work of Christ was ‘to gather in one’; to make oneness. And He did it in this order. First, a mystic oneness of a soul with Himself. Then, a oneness of every pardoned sinner with the Father. Then, a oneness of the whole man within himself, when every part of his being was in unity, by an act of consecration, of everything he is, and everything he has, for one single object, the glory of God. And then the oneness of man with man—the Unity of the Church, the Communion of Saints.

Thus formed, let us see in what this oneness always consists; its nature, and its extent.

I. One City.—We can fancy—in one of ‘the cities of refuge’—what a oneness there must have been of all the inhabitants. All one—in the same condemnation. All saved upon the same conditions: all within, all safe, and all necessarily kept together by the same bonds. Their shame, their joys, were all alike. The theme of their conversation must always be the same. What they had done: the danger they had incurred: how they had escaped: when they should be quite free. They had the same interests; the same hope; and equally all owed all to the same law of mercy. And there is not a believer upon this earth who is not an inhabitant of ‘the city of refuge.’ And here is our oneness. No one can reproach, no one can set himself above another. All once as good as dead; all alive now; all saved; and all by the same grace; and all bound to the same caution, least they should take one step of trespass! And all intent upon the same happy future of liberty and hope.

II. One Family.—But we may extend the illustration from ‘the city’ to ‘the family.’ What are we all again but ‘ one family,’ on which ‘one Name is named in earth and heaven,’ and that name ‘Father!’ ‘My Father!’ And all owing the right to use that dear Name of ‘Father’ to One—to One only—and that One the Elder Brother of us all—alike to the highest saint in heaven, and to the poorest, blood-washed sinner that walks this earth! And it is one house. They, up there, are in the higher chambers of it; but we, as many as are His, are in the lower rooms. It is the same ‘house.’ ‘In My Father’s house are many mansions.’ And this is one.

III. One Body.—But we are more than a family, we are one body. Some members have more honour than other members. But all are in the same great spiritual framework. The One Head gives life to all. From that Head all the guidings come. And in that Head all the sympathies meet. All beat, as with one pulse. The sorrow of one is the sorrow of all: the joy of one is the joy of all. And there is ‘no schism in the body.’