“In that day you shall ask Me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give it to you. Hitherto you have asked Me nothing in My name; ask and you shall receive, that your joy may be full” (Jn 16:23, 24). [Note: “In that day you shall ask Me nothing.” “In that day” is in reference to the most important Day, which is when we shall be with Him; then there will be no need to ask the Lord Jesus anything, because we will know of all that He knows (1Jn 4:17). –NC]
What did our Lord mean when He said in that day you shall ask Me nothing? This was what the disciples had been doing while He was with them upon the earth; they always went to Him as their blessed and gracious Savior, and were quite right in doing so. Yet He said they had asked Me nothing in His name.
But had they not been using the Lord’s Prayer for some years? Certainly they had; and yet they had asked nothing in His name. Now He says to them, you are going to be placed on new ground—no longer to be coming to Me and asking Me, but asking the Father and asking in My name.
What is meant by asking in Christ's name? Is it simply saying “for Christ's sake at the end of a prayer? No. The meaning seems no less than this: that, by virtue of redemption when accomplished, by the Holy Spirit, uniting them to the Lord Jesus in heaven, they would be placed in the same position as Himself. Therefore it is said in 1 John 4, “As He is, so are we in the world.” And in 1 Corinthians 6, “He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” This may illustrate the meaning of asking in the name of Jesus, or rather of the ground on which it rests.
It is not merely to ask the Father in the consciousness of all their sins being put away, and of their being actually brought nigh to God, and in full enjoyment of His favor, without a question or cloud between Him and their souls: but going to the Father and making application to Him as standing in the full possession and the full blessing to which Christ, and the Holy Spirit below, should entitle them in that day: This is asking the Father in the Son's name.
The Lord had given the prayer already, and the disciples had been using it. Yet He intimates to them here that there is a new position into which they had to be placed, and that the old ground would no longer do. Their position being changed by the gift of the Holy Spirit, prayer must now take its form from the new standing, the full grace into which they were to be brought at Pentecost.
But what is the effect of believers now putting themselves back into the state of disciples under the law and before redemption was accomplished. They never can know what it is to have settled peace; they cannot take the place of worshipers once purged, having no more conscience of sins. In a word, they forfeit, as far as testimony and enjoyment go, the vast and entire sum of blessing which the Lord Jesus' death, resurrection, and ascension have procured for them.
May we by faith rise above our natural thoughts and become thoroughly “rooted up and built up in Him, established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding with thanksgiving” (Col 2:7).
—J N Darby (1800-1882)
MJS daily devotional excerpt for September 21
"It is this quiet expectation and confidence, resting on the Word of the Lord Jesus that in Him there is an abiding place prepared, which is so sadly wanting among Christians. The idea many have of grace is that their conversion and pardon are God’s work, but that now, in gratitude to Him, it is their work to live as Christians (it’s God’s part to continue to work godliness into the believer—NC). There is always the thought of work (law) that has to be done, and even though they pray for help, still the work is theirs. They fail continually, and become helpless; and the despondency only increases the helplessness.
"Abiding in the Lord Jesus is not a work that we have to do as the condition for enjoying His salvation, but a consenting to let Him do all for us and in us, and through us. It is a work He does for us—the fruit and power of His redeeming love. Our part is simply to yield, to trust, to abide, and to wait for what He has engaged to perform. As it was the Lord Jesus who drew thee when He said ‘Come,’ so it is the Lord Jesus Who keeps thee when He says ‘Abide.’" –Andrew Murray (1828-1917)
What did our Lord mean when He said in that day you shall ask Me nothing? This was what the disciples had been doing while He was with them upon the earth; they always went to Him as their blessed and gracious Savior, and were quite right in doing so. Yet He said they had asked Me nothing in His name.
But had they not been using the Lord’s Prayer for some years? Certainly they had; and yet they had asked nothing in His name. Now He says to them, you are going to be placed on new ground—no longer to be coming to Me and asking Me, but asking the Father and asking in My name.
What is meant by asking in Christ's name? Is it simply saying “for Christ's sake at the end of a prayer? No. The meaning seems no less than this: that, by virtue of redemption when accomplished, by the Holy Spirit, uniting them to the Lord Jesus in heaven, they would be placed in the same position as Himself. Therefore it is said in 1 John 4, “As He is, so are we in the world.” And in 1 Corinthians 6, “He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” This may illustrate the meaning of asking in the name of Jesus, or rather of the ground on which it rests.
It is not merely to ask the Father in the consciousness of all their sins being put away, and of their being actually brought nigh to God, and in full enjoyment of His favor, without a question or cloud between Him and their souls: but going to the Father and making application to Him as standing in the full possession and the full blessing to which Christ, and the Holy Spirit below, should entitle them in that day: This is asking the Father in the Son's name.
The Lord had given the prayer already, and the disciples had been using it. Yet He intimates to them here that there is a new position into which they had to be placed, and that the old ground would no longer do. Their position being changed by the gift of the Holy Spirit, prayer must now take its form from the new standing, the full grace into which they were to be brought at Pentecost.
But what is the effect of believers now putting themselves back into the state of disciples under the law and before redemption was accomplished. They never can know what it is to have settled peace; they cannot take the place of worshipers once purged, having no more conscience of sins. In a word, they forfeit, as far as testimony and enjoyment go, the vast and entire sum of blessing which the Lord Jesus' death, resurrection, and ascension have procured for them.
May we by faith rise above our natural thoughts and become thoroughly “rooted up and built up in Him, established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding with thanksgiving” (Col 2:7).
—J N Darby (1800-1882)
MJS daily devotional excerpt for September 21
"It is this quiet expectation and confidence, resting on the Word of the Lord Jesus that in Him there is an abiding place prepared, which is so sadly wanting among Christians. The idea many have of grace is that their conversion and pardon are God’s work, but that now, in gratitude to Him, it is their work to live as Christians (it’s God’s part to continue to work godliness into the believer—NC). There is always the thought of work (law) that has to be done, and even though they pray for help, still the work is theirs. They fail continually, and become helpless; and the despondency only increases the helplessness.
"Abiding in the Lord Jesus is not a work that we have to do as the condition for enjoying His salvation, but a consenting to let Him do all for us and in us, and through us. It is a work He does for us—the fruit and power of His redeeming love. Our part is simply to yield, to trust, to abide, and to wait for what He has engaged to perform. As it was the Lord Jesus who drew thee when He said ‘Come,’ so it is the Lord Jesus Who keeps thee when He says ‘Abide.’" –Andrew Murray (1828-1917)
