Not Always Threshing (1)

Rev. W.C. Lamain (1900-1984)

The testimony given here in the text by the Holy Spirit speaks of the bruising of bread corn. In connection with this grain, we have a description of agriculture. Both in the Old as well as the New Testament many signs and symbols are found which are derived from daily life. Even Christ, who is the chief Wisdom, spoke often in parables, many of which were derived from agriculture. He was willing to condescend so low in order that we might have a better understanding of spiritual matters.

A farmer is not constantly busy with plowing and harrowing. Everything has a fixed season. There are times when the ground lies fallow, a time when the farmer does not go out into the field, but a time also arrives when the farmer does go out into the field with his implements. He knows the exact time when he should go because God has instructed and taught him in these matters. God must give us knowledge for everything, and as soon as the field is ready, the farmer begins to sow and to plant. He uses the knowledge and insight which God has given him in determining how each item should be planted.

Likewise, at a later date, when the field has yielded its fruits, then that which has been harvested is handled in different ways. In the East, the farmers often threshed with a threshing sled or cart which was drawn by oxen or horses. This sled was pulled over the corn which was threshed either by sharp stones or iron discs under the wagon, but the fitches and the cumin would be entirely ruined by such a method. Hence, the fitches were beaten with a staff and the cumin with a rod to get the grain out of the pods.

Although corn was threshed in the prescribed manner, it still had to be threshed intelligently. The farmer took care not to destroy it, which would happen if he drove over it with his horse-drawn cart. Each farmer knows exactly when he has to stop, and that wisdom, used in threshing as well as in sowing, must come from the Lord of Hosts. The fountain of wisdom is not with man. God is great in counsel and prudence, and from His fullness He imparts to man. When we consider everything in the world, but especially in agriculture, a foolish man must surely be amazed at the wisdom of God. We are perplexed about everything. We are incapable in everything and can only say, “Lord, I would do everything wrong.”

Much seed is placed in the ground in the fall, and in our foolishness we would sometimes say, “Why not wait until spring?” There are times that it is so cold during the winter, or it can rain so much that the fields are covered with water. At times, there is a heavy layer of snow upon the field, or it is frozen solid because of the frost. How long, also, must we wait before anything can be seen of that which was sown? In our ignorance we would say to the farmer, “I would start all over again.” When we look at the field, we see nothing, but if we get down a little lower, or if we are not embarrassed to lie down on the ground, then we will be amazed what we can see, and we will no longer say, “Nothing will come of it.”

That is also how it is when the corn ripens and the time for harvest is here. If we have no knowledge of farming or agriculture, then we will always be at a loss. We constantly think nothing will come of it, but the farmer waits patiently. God has given him wisdom and experience, and then such a person stands over against it much differently from someone who knows nothing about it. Oh, that also spiritually we may get on our knees more often and with Ezra lie flat on the ground. Our earthly life, however, teaches us that it is a work of God to be brought to that place, not only in the beginning but also in continuance. What a wonder it becomes when God grants us that wisdom. We are so blind to the ways of heaven, and we will only become aware of it when God opens our eyes by His Spirit. Those that receive a heart of flesh commence to complain about their heart of stone; those who are enlightened by God’s Spirit realize more and more how great their darkness is, but God gives them understanding enlightened with divine light, and Christ is also given unto them for wisdom, so that wisdom is justified of her children (Matthew 11:19).

Now, God, who is called and is also known as the all-wise God, gives the farmer counsel and wisdom. He Himself acts likewise with prudence toward His people, for He prepares the soil of our heart by His Spirit to break our hard heart and to make it amenable for His ministration. His Word is as a fire and as a hammer to break the rocks and makes it as soil under the plow to rip open the field of our heart so that the seed of the Word may fall into well-prepared ground that it shall bear fruit worthy of repentance.

Christ has said in John 12:24, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” Christ was like unto the corn or the wheat. He was sent from heaven not to reign but to die. The coming of Christ into the world was an offense to the Jews. He even told His disciples, “Ye shall all be offended in Me.” Oh, how blind they were for the discharge of the ministration of His Mediatorship. They all forsook Him, and even after His resurrection and on the morning when they went with Christ to the Mount of Olives, they still asked Him, “Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?”

The justice and truth of God demanded the death of the Mediator of the covenant; otherwise, payment could not be made for our sins. There was no other way to satisfy God’s justice and to redeem the elect, but He must also be bruised as that “seed.” “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him” (Isaiah 53:10a). To that end the Father has chosen Him from all eternity. To that end He has made a covenant with Him from eternity, that the Man who was God’s Fellow would in the fullness of time become the Man of Sorrows. God did not spare his own Son and that out of love for His virtues and out of love for His people. It is an eternal, unfathomable wonder that the Son, as we read in Philippians 2:6-8, “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” The will of the Father was also the will of the Son.

No, Christ was not forced to give Himself, but He has done it freely, yea, out of love, with His whole heart. “The zeal of Thine house hath eaten Me up.” “I delight to do Thy will, O my God: yea, Thy law is within My heart.” Christ has known from all eternity not only what was required to glorify the violated virtues of God but also what would be required to save His people. He knew everything that would come over Him. Christ as the only eternal and natural Son of God had to come to the threshing floor, and as that great Bread Corn to be bruised, bruised beneath the virtues of God which we had tarnished with our sins and which demanded satisfaction. Christ has never been an object of God’s wrath such as we are. He was and remained the Son of God. He has, however, borne the entire load of God’s eternal wrath against the sins of mankind. He came beneath that full, undivided wrath. The full weight of our sins and guilt and the curse of the law came upon Him. Christ was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separated from sinners. He Himself never knew nor committed any sin. He was the spotless, Holy and Righteous One, but He was willing to place Himself in the room of His people, for those who are nothing but sin and unrighteousness. Oh, what an unfathomable love of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; an eternity will be necessary to adore the value of it.

In the state of His deep humiliation Christ was made a curse for sin. This caused Him to cry out, “Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from Me.” His sweat became as great drops of blood, which fell upon the earth, and like one of our departed preachers expressed it, “That Holy divine Christ was placed between the millstones of God’s vengeance demanding justice in order that He, who is the noblest of all grains, would be food for His people.”

Christ has been bruised and threshed only once, “for by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.” Being fully conscious He assumed His suffering, and because of the joy which was set before Him, He has borne the cross and despised the shame. Christ suffered in His human nature according to soul and body. Never a man spoke like He, but neither has any man suffered like that Surety of the covenant. No suffering upon earth is to be compared to His suffering. It was a vicarious and substitutionary suffering. Christ drank the bitter cup of God’s indignation to the last drop, but after that cup was emptied, and after He had been bruised in those three hours of darkness, He cried out, “It is finished.” God was satisfied, the debt was paid, and full salvation had been obtained. Then there came an end to His suffering.

He saw His strife rewarded. The Father cried out from heaven, “I have glorified Him, and I will glorify Him again.” Paul writes about this in Romans 6:9&10, “Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died unto sin once: but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God.”

Christ, as the Servant of the Father, has finished the work which the Father had given Him to do. It is for that reason that the Father has highly exalted Him and has given Him a name above every name. Christ removed the unrighteousness of the land in one day, and on the morning of His resurrection the Surety received the receipt from the hand of His Father showing that everything was paid, so that there was nothing more to demand. Hell was closed and heaven was opened, for Christ said, “I have the keys of hell and of death.” Because of the ascension of Christ, heaven, which had been locked because of sin, was opened again.

The Father has placed Him at His right hand and has given Him honor and glory. Here upon earth Christ once wore a crown of thorns, but now one of fine gold has been placed upon His head. “He asked life of Thee, and Thou gavest it Him, even length of days for ever and ever.” Christ would never have to return to His state of humiliation because He has brought about perfect satisfaction. After His bruising, He received the reward which the Father had sworn to Him with an oath, and now He shall dash all His enemies to pieces with an iron scepter. “Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel” (Psalm 2:9b).

Christ, through the operation of the Holy Ghost, has also merited the broken hearts of the chosen ones. Because of our sins, we ought to be broken forever by the sword of vengeance of the divine justice. David confessed in Psalm 51:2 (rhymed), “Hence, Lord, I am doubly worthy of Thy wrath.” The thief on the cross, who was savingly converted in the last hour of his life, did not ask the Lord Jesus to be saved from the cross but acknowledged before God and men, “And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this Man hath done nothing amiss” (Luke 23:41).

When by the light of the Spirit and the divine operation of the law we learn to see and know our sin and guilt as having been committed against the Highest Majesty of God, then we will not disagree with the fact that we have merited hell. On the contrary, we will accept that fact with our whole heart, and it becomes a wonder unto us that we have not been cast away long ago. Such people acknowledge that God is just and that He cannot relinquish His justice. Their salvation is not a case of indifference, and it is not with them as it was with Gallio who cared for none of these things. These people take God’s side, which they are able to do because the love of God has been shed abroad in their hearts, and through that love they get to love not only God but also His virtues, and the maintaining of God’s glory supersedes their own salvation. Now it becomes so great to these people when it is revealed in their souls that they can be saved not in the offending but in the glorification of God’s justice. Christ has become the complete Surety. He has trodden the winepress alone, and there were none of the people with Him, but all these words must be applied to us personally. If we only have it in our head and we have nothing more than a speculative knowledge, such knowledge shall be insufficient for the great eternity, for our hearts must be broken.

It is necessary that we are broken judiciously—by, under, and before the Judge, who must maintain His justice because we have sinned against Him. Christ came under that justice as a Surety in a very unique relationship, but we must come under God’s justice as transgressors of all God’s commandments when we have been stricken and cast down in order that we may receive and accept the sentence. Only in such a way shall it be learned that Zion must be delivered with judgment. There everything of us must fall away and disappear as snow before the sun. There it becomes a perishing of self but only upon the foundation of that righteousness which has been obtained by a broken Christ, to be acquitted of guilt and punishment and to there receive a right to eternal life.

Alas, how many people there are who acquit and assure themselves. So many save themselves and consider themselves happy with texts which they have appropriated to themselves. How sad their end will be. They are people who place the mercy of God before His righteousness, but they have never been broken before and by God; hence, they have never come into contact with a broken Christ. God’s people go lost righteously, but they are also saved righteously. Upon that acquittal this people will be enabled to say with Paul, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth?” God, in Christ, is satisfied with His people, and He will never be angry with them anymore nor rebuke them. The anguish which they felt when they stood before the divine tribunal shall not arise again a second time. The law can no more condemn them unto condemnation.

God, in Christ, is now reconciled with the elect sinner, and in Christ they are with God. Thus, the two broken ones come together; Christ comes to the child of God, and that child comes to Christ. There the conscious union of the Mediator and a broken people is effected. Christ was bruised only once, and He will never have to go in that way again for all those who have forever been delivered from the punishment. Also pertaining to the Father, those people are broken during their lifetime beneath His unfathomable eternal love. They are broken by justice as well as love. All the revelations from heaven in the hearts of God’s favorites are full of love. “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him” (1 John 4:9). That causes the heart to melt.

Also, whenever the life and suffering of the Mediator is uncovered for them, His people may behold Him by faith and learn to understand that with those wounds He was wounded in the house of His friends. They learn that all the comforts of their soul flow to them out of the wounds of the Lord Jesus, and they experience that by His stripes they are healed. And for whom? For those who have learned to know themselves to be nothing but sin and misery—loathsome, rejectable, and condemnable, leprous from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot. Oh, whenever those people are led into these inner chambers, there remains no more spirit in them, and as broken ones they sink away. Then they are without words, but within their heart resounds, “I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength.” John, favored with a revelation of the glorified Christ while on the isle of Patmos, fell as one dead before His feet. The Lord Jesus put His right hand upon him and spoke encouragingly and comfortably to him. Indeed, there is nothing which humbles or breaks a soul more than to behold, by faith, that blessed Mediator. Such a soul becomes aware that He is a God who is to be praised to all eternity.

— To be continued —

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