Last Letters of JN Darby
JN Darby passed into the presence of the Lord on 4/29/1882, among his last letters are these two, the first penned apparently sometime after March 10th 1882,
MY BELOVED BRETHREN: After years of communion in weakness, I have only bodily strength to write a few lines, more of affection than of aught else. I bear witness to the love, not only of the Lord ever faithful, but in my beloved brethren in all patience towards me - how much more then, from God: unfeignedly do I bear witness to it. Yet I can say that Christ has been my only object - thank God, my righteousness too. I am not aware of anything to recall - little now to add. Hold fast to Him. Count on abundant grace in Him, to reproduce Him in the power of the Father's love; and be watching and waiting for Christ. I have no more to add but my unfeigned affection in Him. I do add, let not John's ministry be forgotten in insisting upon Paul's. One (Paul-ed.) gives the dispensation in which the display is; the other (John-ed.), that which is displayed.
[from the French to FW Grant]
The first and the essential question for every living man before God is, how can he be in His presence, well-pleasing to Him. (Phil 3:7-9). It is no question of a righteousness which should satisfy the claims which He has on man - he is already a sinner, and entirely alienated from the glory of God; he perishes without the law; he is condemned by the law. (See Rom. 2-3). Now the infinite love of God, seeing him in this condition, spared not His own Son (see Rom. 8) in order to blot out all the sins of those who believe on Him, and by accomplishing a work which, while perfectly glorifying God, rendered at the same time those who have part in it fit, as the Man who had accomplished it, for the glory of God, so that they became the righteousness of God in Him. It was a part of this righteousness to put them in the glory where Christ was, without which He would not have seen the fruit of the travail of His soul. Many benefits and a new life accompany this blessing; but I have only laid this foundation. Receive, beloved reader, this testimony to the efficacy of the love of which I speak, and that He has given peace with God for eternity. March 28, 1882
From the Letters of JND
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