Books by T. Austin-Sparks

[Shammu]

The Servant of the Lord

And that leads us to the whole comprehensive context of the question. The wider context takes us back to chapter 42:1 “Behold My Servant, Whom I uphold; My chosen, in Whom My soul delighteth; I have put My spirit upon Him: He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles,” and so on. But that phrase, “Behold My Servant,” brings us also to the immediate context of our chapter 53, for we find it echoed, as it were, in verse 13 of chapter 52. There ought, in fact, never to have been a break between 52:13 and 53:1, for this whole section really begins at verse 13: “Behold, My Servant shall deal wisely, He shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high.” We are thus brought into the wider context of the servant of the Lord, and of what real service to the Lord is: that is, what is that service that the Lord vindicates, what is that servanthood that the Lord stands by. You and I are surely very much concerned with that, to be those to whom the Lord can say: “Behold My servant, whom I uphold”—and “whom I uphold” is only another way of saying: ‘to whom I show My mighty Arm’.

Now this term, ‘Servant of the Lord’, is used by Isaiah in a three fold way.

In the first place (e.g. in chapter 41:8; 44:1,2,21), he uses it of Israel: Israel is called ‘the servant of the Lord’, raised up to serve Him in His great purposes in the midst of the nations. But Israel failed the Lord as a servant, tragically failed.

Then, out of the midst of Israel, God raised up One, His Messiah, His Anointed One, and transferred the title to Him “My Servant, Whom I uphold... I have put My spirit upon Him” ... “Behold, My Servant... He shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high.” That is the second way in which the title is used. It opens up a very profitable line of study, if you care to follow it, for you find that Isaiah 52–53 is quoted no fewer than eleven times in the New Testament, these very words being transferred to the Lord Jesus. For instance Matthew 8:17 says: “That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah”; then he quotes from Isaiah 53 in relation to the Lord Jesus. One might say that the whole New Testament can be bracketed into Isaiah 53, and into this title ‘The Servant of the Lord’, His Person and His work.

The third way in which Isaiah uses the title ‘Servant of the Lord’ is in a collective or plural way of faithful believers. In chapter 54:17 (compare also 65:13–14) the faithful people of the Lord are given this very title, “the servants of the Lord”. There is, therefore, a sense in which you and I come within the compass of this great Divine vindication.

But here we must pause to make a fundamental distinction: the distinction between the unique servanthood, the unique work of the Lord Jesus, and that which relates to others. This must ever be borne in mind. For Isaiah 53 sets forth that unique servanthood of Christ, that unique work of Christ in which no one else shares at all. And, thank God, no such sharing is necessary! He has fulfilled it all Himself, alone. We shall follow that through in a moment more closely. But, while it is true that we do not in any way share in the atoning work of the Lord Jesus, or come into this vicarious service, nevertheless we do come into a service, and a service that is based upon the same spiritual principles as His. That is very important: for it is upon those principles that the Arm of the Lord is revealed.

The Unique Work and Servanthood of Christ

Let us, then, spend a few minutes in looking at His unique work and service. I think it is impressive to note that this section begins with the glorious end to which God is moving. “Behold, My Servant... shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high” (52:13). It is always good to get the end right into view at the beginning, and see how it is all going to work out. All this tragedy of chapter 53, all this terrible story—how is it going to end? Well, here God begins with His end. He says: ‘This is how it is going to end: before I tell you all about the course of things, which might terribly distress and depress you, I will tell you how it is all going to end. This Servant, Whom I am going to describe in His Person and His work, in the end shall be exalted, shall be high, shall be lifted up!’

Of course, this word immediately carries us over to those great passages in the New Testament, such as Acts 1 and 2; Philippians 2: ‘He became obedient unto death...’ “God highly exalted Him, and gave unto Him the name which is above every name; that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow...”; and Hebrews 1:3 “He... sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high....” That is not how it is going to end; that is how it has ended! And that is how the terrible story is introduced. It is all found in this repeated phrase of two words: “He shall...” ‘He shall be exalted... He shall be lifted up... He shall be very high... He shall see of the travail of His soul... He shall be satisfied’. It is established from the beginning. That is vindication; that is the Arm of the Lord! Let all this transpire—nevertheless, the Arm of the Lord will see to it that it leads to a glorious end. Before anything happens—before the Cross, before the rejection—it is established in the counsels of God: “He shall....”

And if you and I come into the true spiritual principles of Christ’s service, that is exactly how it will be with us. God will see to it that that is how the end will be. “If so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be glorified with Him” (Rom. 8:17). “If we endure, we shall also reign with Him” (2 Tim. 2:12).

Having noted how this matter is introduced, let us now look at the story of His unique servanthood.

[Shammu]

His Vicarious Sufferings

There are eleven expressions in chapter 53 which describe the vicarious character of the sufferings of the Servant of the Lord.

1. ‘He bore our griefs’ (v. 4).
2. ‘He carried our sorrows’ (v. 4).
3. ‘He was wounded for our transgressions’ (v. 5).
4. ‘He was bruised for our iniquities’ (v. 5).
5. ‘The chastisement of our peace was upon Him’ (v. 5).
6. ‘By His stripes we are healed’ (v. 5).
7. ‘The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all’ (v. 6).
8. ‘For the transgression of My people was He stricken’ (v. .
9. ‘Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin’ (v. 10).
10. ‘He shall bear their iniquities’ (v. 11).
11. ‘He bare the sin of many’ (v. 12).

It is very instructive to notice the three words, used here, descriptive of what He bore. The three terms are: ‘iniquity’, ‘transgression’ and ‘sin’. If you turn to the Book of Leviticus, chapter 16, you will understand what Isaiah was talking about, and what the Holy Spirit, through Isaiah, was pointing to.

“He shall make atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleannesses of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, even all their sins: and so shall he do for the tent of meeting, that dwelleth with them in the midst of their uncleannesses...” (Lev. 16:16).

“And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, even all their sins” (v. 21). Here we have our three words of Isaiah 53.

“And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a solitary land: and he shall let go the goat into the wilderness” (v. 22).

“For on this day shall atonement be made for you, to cleanse you; from all your sins shall ye be clean before the Lord” (v. 30).

“And this shall be an everlasting statute unto you, to make atonement for the children of Israel because of all their sins once in the year” (v. 34).

Here in Isaiah, then, we have the work which corresponds to the work of the scape goat. That term fits into this chapter so perfectly. This suffering Servant is the ‘scape goat’, bearing iniquities, transgressions, sins, and driven out into the wilderness into desolation.

What are we to conclude from this as to the Arm of the Lord, in relation to His service?

The Arm of the Lord: Related (1) To the Cross

The Arm of the Lord, with all that that means, is inseparably related to the Cross of the Lord Jesus. There you have the heart and the sum of the whole matter. Do you want the Arm of the Lord? Do you want vindication? Do you want the Lord to stand by and support, to uphold, to carry through, to commit Himself, to be on your side, to be with you in your life, and with you in your company of believers, in the work of the Lord? The Arm of the Lord is inseparably related to the Cross, and none of us will ever find the Lord with us otherwise than on the ground of the Cross.

I spoke, at the beginning of this message, of the situations of spiritual tragedy obtaining in so many places amongst the Lord’s people. The root cause of these situations comes to light again and again, both in personal conversation, and in the letters that one receives, in some such terms as these: ‘It seems that the Cross hasn’t done its work in us yet!’ Yes, that is it! A deeper work of the Cross is the one answer, and the sure answer, to all this spiritual tragedy. The absence of such a work explains all the lack of support from the Lord. Isaiah 53 covers everything. The support of the Lord, the presence of the Lord, the power of the Lord, the Lord’s committing of Himself to us and to the work, will only be—can only be—on the ground of the Cross of the Lord Jesus, as being the ground upon which we stand and live, whether individually or collectively. The Arm of the Lord only operates by the Cross. You may say, indeed, that the Cross is the Arm of the Lord. It is there that Divine vindication is found. “Christ crucified... the power of God”—the Arm of the Lord!

Related (2) To a Seed, the Fruit of His Travail

The Arm of the Lord is inseparably related, also, to a seed which is the fruit of the travail of this Servant of the Lord. “To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” To this One: “He shall see His seed”; “He shall see of the travail of His soul”. The Church is essentially the fruit of His travail, not the making or the building of men. It is something that has come right out of His own anguish and passion; something born out of His Cross. The Arm of the Lord is inseparably bound up with that.

I am sure you recognize, then, how important it is that you and I should be a part of that. I say, ‘a part of that’, advisedly. There is always a danger that we may make things too personal—in this sense, that very often we are not so happy to be a part of something larger; we want attention to focus down upon ourselves: if it focuses down on us we are happy! To have to say: ‘I'm just a bit of something more; I am only a bit of something’—well, that is not very interesting! Ah, but the Arm of the Lord is bound up with the larger thing, of which we are perhaps only small bits, and we come into the value of the Arm of the Lord as parts of that whole. For instance, if the Arm of the Lord is with a local company, we shall only find the Arm of the Lord for ourselves as we are really integrated into that local company. If we take an independent and personal line we may not find the Arm of the Lord; the Lord will not stand by us on that ground at all. It is a very important thing that we should let go our own independence and individualism (though not, of course, our individuality) into that in which the Lord is finding His fullest interest and concern. We should live for that, for it is there that we shall find the Arm of the Lord.

Related (3) To the Vindication of God’s Son

And finally, for the moment, the Arm of the Lord, with all that it means, is inseparably bound up with the vindication of His Son. That is a test of our lives! Paul said: “For me to live is Christ”, and God has vindicated Paul. What enemies he had in his own life time, and how many more he has had since, and still has! I think nothing has been left untried in efforts to discredit the Apostle Paul; but he has a greater place today than he has ever had in history. The Arm of the Lord is with that man! Why? Because for him to live was Christ. He had one all absorbing concern—the vindication of God’s Son. Read again Paul’s sad, bitter words about his earlier life against the Lord Jesus. Again and again he tells us of what he did: how he persecuted the Church, how he haled men and women to prison; but now his whole being, to the last ounce of his strength, is set upon vindicating the One Whom he persecuted, and God is with him.

Remember that! A life really poured out for the vindication of God’s Son will have God with it. If we are serving ourselves, or some piece of work, trying to make something go and be successful, God may leave us to carry the whole responsibility, and all the troubles associated with it. But let us have a passion for the Honour, the Glory, the Name of His Son, and God will take care of the rest.

“To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” These are a few of the things which answer the question. We shall find that Arm revealed on the ground of the Cross, on the ground of the Name, and the ground of the Glory of the Lord Jesus.

[Shammu]

Chapter 3 - The Ground of the Revealing of the Arm

In this fifty third chapter of Isaiah (with which we include the last three verses of chapter 52), we believe there are to be found certain Divine thoughts, Divine laws, Divine principles, of abiding and universal application, upon which the Arm of the Lord can be revealed. We continue our investigation to discover what these Divine thoughts are. There are certain things which lie clearly upon the surface, as we have the record before us.

Man’s Attitude to the Servant

First of all, one thing which is very apparent is the difference between the attitude of man and attitude of God to this suffering Servant of the Lord. These two attitudes are very clearly defined, and represent two entirely different realms. What is said as to the attitude or judgment of man concerning this One—‘My Servant’ —falls into two parts: firstly, that of the Gentiles; secondly, that of Israel.

(1) The Gentiles

The reaction of the Gentiles, on hearing the report and receiving the description, is found in those last verses of chapter 52: “Like as many were astonied at Thee, (His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men, so shall He startle” (for that is the word, not ‘sprinkle’) “many nations; kings shall shut their mouths at Him for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.”

The ‘report’ of Him (mentioned in the next verse, chapter 53:1) which has gone forth, has caused the nations and the kings to be startled. They shut their mouths in horrified consternation. The description produces an attitude of dumb amazement and incredulity. ‘Who has received the report?’ Not these! They are incredulous— this could never be the Servant of the Lord! Such an one! ‘Do you tell us that this is the servant of Jehovah?—that such a weakling stands within the pale of Divine approval? Never!’ They shut their mouths; their jaws are fixed. That is the Gentile reaction.

(2) Israel

(a) As to His Life

What is the attitude of Israel? His whole career is here brought before us. First of all, as to His birth and youth, He is described as “a root out of a dry ground”. There was a sense in which this was a true description, for the seed of David had seemed to have become very dry; and yet the nation is discrediting Him in this way. “When we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him”. There is no shining glory or splendour perceptible in His coming into this world. Who is He, after all? Where did He come from? Of course we know more, but you must remember that Matthew and Luke wrote their records of His birth long years after He had gone to glory. They had set themselves with pains to trace His ancestry, and to find out all the circumstances of His birth, and we have them in their Gospel narratives. But these were not common knowledge in Israel. “Search”, they said, “and see that out of Galilee ariseth no prophet” (John 7:52). “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46). No, there was no carry over of human glories and grandeurs into this life naturally; He was born with no human prestige.

As to His life—well, in the description here, there are more negative things than positive; there are more handicaps than advantages. He had “no form”; He had no “comeliness”; He had “no beauty that we should desire Him”. We must not attempt mental pictures of the appearance of the Lord Jesus, but this is how they looked upon Him. He had a heritage of woes—“a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief”. In His life, linked as it was with the tragedies of human inheritance and experience, there were only sorrows, griefs and woes— that is how they viewed it; that was man’s judgment. In their view there was not one positive factor about Him that would attest Him as the chosen and anointed Servant of the Lord, the Redeemer and Messiah.

(b) As to His Death

What is Israel’s judgment on receiving the ‘report’ of His death? How does Israel look upon Him? “A root out of a dry ground”. There is nothing beautiful or attractive about that: it is the sort of thing that you might find in the way and kick out of your path. That is their estimate of it. “Despised and rejected”—that is Israel’s judgment. “A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief”. ‘Tell us that is the Messiah! Tell us that is the Anointed of the Lord! Tell us that is the Servant of Jehovah! Tell us that is the Redeemer of Israel! No, never, a thousand times never!’ “As One from whom men hide their face He was despised; and we esteemed Him not.” It is not difficult to visualize the gestures, the attitudes, the looks on these faces. “We did esteem Him smitten of God....” (‘Smitten of God! That is the meaning of His Cross—He deserved it! God has smitten Him!’) “...smitten of God, and afflicted.” God has put upon Him the judgment which He deserved and earned.’ “They made His grave with the wicked”—that is, no doubt, what would have happened, had Joseph of Arimathaea not intervened and begged His body from Pilate. He would have been flung into the common grave with the malefactors.

What a full description there is of His death! “He was oppressed, yet He humbled Himself and opened not His mouth; as a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before her shearers is dumb; yea, He opened not His mouth.” He was like something for the slaughter —terrible, horrible word! Slaughter! “Smitten of God” —that was the interpretation of the Cross. “From... judgment He was taken away”. The fact was that at that time the judgment was being exercised by Him over His oppressors: but their view was, ‘He is rightly deprived of judgment; all His franchise is removed, all His rights are eliminated, and deservedly so.’ “He was cut off out of the land of the living”: ‘God has just cut Him off—God has done it!’ This is the judgment of Israel, the judgment of man. Man’s judgment of Divine things, Divine Persons and Divine works, is based entirely upon objective consideration, without any knowledge of inward reality.

[Shammu]

Why These Strange Ways of God?

Now, when we take all these reactions together, we find ourselves in the presence of the deep ways of God as He moves toward revealing His Arm. How deep are His ways! how mysterious! how past finding out! And oh, how startling, when you begin to recognize them! As we consider this interpretation and judgment of the human mind, the mind of this world about this One Whom we know to be the Divine Son of God, the Redeemer of men, we have to recognize that these are the profound ways of God, as He is moving—moving steadily, moving with determination, moving resolutely—toward the point of revealing His Arm. Is it not tremendous, that this should be His way?

Now, two questions arise here. First, why this universal reaction of the world of men to this Servant of Jehovah? From our standpoint, as Christians, it is an astonishing thing that such judgments and reactions should be possible on the part of men universally, but we know they were there, for a fact. What is more, we know that they are still a fact. The mind of this world sees nothing desirable in this Crucified One.

Second—and this question perhaps goes even nearer to the heart and root of the whole matter: Why this deliberate method of God, making this reaction on the part of man inevitable? It is such a strange thing. It seems as though God has gone out of His way to produce such a reaction from man. Why did not God give One “altogether lovely”, Whom all would appreciate; One Who would stand in a position of acceptance with all men at first sight? Why did He not bring Him into the world in state, in grandeur, in glory? Why was He not at the beginning embellished with all the signs of Heaven, for all men to see? Why did God deliberately, it would seem, take a line that would produce reactions of this kind? They would be inevitable. Draw this picture, as it is drawn by Isaiah: “His visage... marred more than any man”—distorted “more than the sons of men”, and all the other details—and then hold it up and say, ‘That is your Redeemer!’ It would seem that God has deliberately taken a course to upset and to scandalize.

And so He did! But why?

Because of Man’s False Standard of Values

We are getting very near now to the real point. Man’s standard of values is an entirely false one, and God knows it. It is utterly, utterly false—because it is the result of man’s pride. It is offended pride, is it not, that speaks like this: ‘Tell us that we have got to come down to that! That we have got to accept that for our salvation! That we have got to condescend to that level! No, never! It is contrary to human nature!’ Yes, it is, because human nature has an utterly false standard of values, produced by man’s pride. So the idea of the Suffering Servant is an affront to human pride, an offence and a scandal to man’s standard of things. For this very reason, neither Jew nor Gentile would receive the report —pride would not allow it. We sing:

‘When I survey the wondrous Cross...
I... pour contempt on all my pride.’

That ought to be the effect of the Cross. But no. Man being what he is, his pride will not accept that; and therefore ‘He is despised, rejected’; ‘He has no beauty that we should desire Him.’

The Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ represents the deep undercutting of all false glory. It goes right to the very root of man’s self esteem and self-importance. It goes to the very root of life that is based upon man’s own prestige and value. Even though, from this world’s standpoint and by this world’s standards, a man may be something and have something; even if, by birth, or by acquisition, by his brains or his cleverness, by his hard work or study, he may have acquired some position, some glory, some success, some prestige: if you or I base our life, before God, upon anything like that, we are numbered with those here who are in absolute contradiction to the Divine standard of values.

[Shammu]

Man’s Pride Emptied by the Cross

The fact is that, when we come to the Cross, even our rightful glories, as this world regards them, are going to be emptied out—just poured down the drain. Look at Saul of Tarsus—had he something to glory in? He tells us of all his advantages by ancestry, by birth, by upbringing and by training, by acquisition and by success. He had climbed to the top of the ladder. What did he think of it when he came into the presence of the Cross of the Lord Jesus? He called it just ‘refuse’! For him, life was not based upon that at all. He knew quite well that that was out of the Divine court as the basis of any standing with God. And if you or I are coming into the ‘fellowship of God’s Son’—God’s Servant—in heart, in spirit, in truth, that is the way all our natural values will go. We are destined to come to the place where everything that we have, whether from before birth, or at birth, or since birth, as something that we might glory in, will become nothing to us. We shall see that that thing always contains a threat to our spiritual life, if we are not very careful.

I am speaking, of course, about basing our life before God upon that sort of thing. I am not saying that there are no values in those things; but if we should begin to bring them into the presence of God, and to calculate with them, and make something of them, it is clear, is it not, in whose company we find ourselves? We do not come into account with God; God has discredited all human pride. In the Cross of the Lord Jesus, He has utterly undercut all man’s glory. The picture that is painted here of the Suffering Servant of Jehovah, with all the agony, all the distortion, all that is so terrible, is a portrait of what sin does—what pride does—in the eyes of God. That is how God views man. These people who would not receive the report, because of pride, are here depicted as they are in the sight of God, in the Person of that Man hanging on the Cross. He bore our sins, our iniquities, our transgressions; all that we are was put upon Him. That is how we are in God’s sight. He was not brought into that position because it was true of Him, but because it was true of us; that is the whole argument of the chapter.

But it is not only life based upon things that in their own realm are legitimate and true, upon merits and values either inherited or acquired, that has no standing with God, but life based upon assumed importance. This may be more subtle, and it is certainly more terrible: when a person, who has no natural rights to be anything, begins to assume that he is something, to display self-importance, to take position and strut about in the very house of God. How contrary to the spirit of this Servant of the Lord! “He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause His voice to be heard” (Is. 42:2). There is nothing about Him that is assertive, loud, noisy. Yet people can assume positions, even in the very house of God, making themselves noisy and assertive, drawing attention to themselves. This is something that is very horrible to God.

The Psalmist says: “Thou desirest truth in the inward parts” (Ps. 51:6). What is true of us, after all? What is true of you, what is true of me, before God? For it is before God that things are weighed rightly (1 Sam. 2:3). The Apostle said: “Love... is not puffed up” (1 Cor. 13:4). What a phrase, ‘puffed up’—full of air and nothing else! Love is not ‘puffed up’; there can be no inflation of man in the presence of God. When we come into the presence of God, we become completely deflated. It always was so—“When I saw Him, I fell on my face” (Ezek. 1:28; Dan. 8:17; Rev. 1:17).

So we see man’s standard of values, and God’s in contrast. What a difference! This disfigured, marred Servant is God’s way of showing us what we are in His sight. There is something very deep in the ways of God. Man has ever, since the day of the Fall, sought to draw attention to himself, to be something in himself, to have glory for himself; and at the heart of the whole thing was pride. It brought Satan from his high estate, and it brought man from his. And God has repudiated the whole thing in the Cross of the Lord Jesus. “To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” Not to anybody who has anything of that about him. Here are your principles of Divine committal. “To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit” (Is. 66:2). “The haughty He knoweth from afar” (Ps. 138:6). “Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination unto the Lord” (Prov. 16:5).

On the one side, therefore, the Cross of the Lord Jesus is the undercutting of all our pride, all our self-importance; of life based upon a false standard of values. But on the other side, the Cross is the uncovering of that which is God’s standard of values. What is His standard?

[Shammu]

God’s Standard of Values

Paul’s Letter to the Philippians is the great letter of the Cross, is it not? The second chapter of that letter is the most perfect complement to Isaiah 53. Listen to how this part of the letter begins:

“If there is therefore any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassions, make full my joy, that ye be of the same mind, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind; doing nothing through faction or through vainglory, but in lowliness of mind each counting other better than himself”.

What a challenge! Would that not undercut all our criticism, even of those in whom we feel we have something to criticize? That brother, that sister, may have some very glaring faults—but, God only knows, I may have very much worse!

“Each counting other better than himself; not looking each of you to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others. Have this mind in you”—notice how frequently this word ‘mind’ occurs—“Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be held on to, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondslave, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross”.

This is the complement, I said, of Isaiah 53. What immediately follows is the complement of the end of Isaiah 52 (“My Servant... shall be very high”):
“Wherefore also God highly exalted Him, and gave unto Him the name which is above every name....”

What is the basis of the Arm of the Lord being revealed? To whom...? To these, to these, described or addressed in this second chapter of the letter to the Philippians. When you pass into the third chapter, you find a list of those things in which man glories, of which man takes account, on which man builds, as exemplified in the past life of Paul. But God did not at that time look toward him in this way of approval and blessing; He did not say, ‘I will stand by that man.’ He first met him and laid him low in the dust, broke him and shattered him; and then, afterward, He lifted him up. The principle is so clear. The chief evil with God is pride! The chief virtue with God is meekness! So this is but a confirmation of what we have in this great chapter in Isaiah. To whom will the Arm of the Lord be revealed? To this One, and to those like Him—to those who are of ‘this mind that was in Christ Jesus.’

But are we not ever more and more amazed, when we think of this Servant of the Lord—knowing beforehand, as He did, what He was going to experience and suffer, and all that it was going to mean—being willing to take that course, in order to redeem us from our pride —the iniquity of our pride? The root of that word ‘iniquity’ in the Hebrew means ‘perversity’. It was in order to deliver us from that perversity—really an inward alliance with Satan, in his pride of heart—that the Servant of the Lord went down to the depths of degradation! This gives us a true estimate of pride: we see what pride is in the eyes of God, as well as man’s utterly false standard of values. And surely there opens up to our eyes the infinite value of self emptiness, of ‘having no confidence in the flesh’ (Phil. 3:3), of the “meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price” (1 Pet. 3:4).

So then, if we want the Arm of the Lord for us, and not against us; if we want its girding, its support, its strength, in our lives, in our fellowships, our assemblies, and in our service—this is the ground. Nothing that is a contradiction to this will find that Arm lifted up on our behalf. He will leave us to wallow in the mire of our own creating, until, at the Cross, we are prepared to ‘pour contempt on all our pride’, and to find what it means to be ‘dead to all the world’—most particularly the world of our own hearts.

[Shammu]

Chapter 4 - The Cross

Most of us, as the Lord’s people, would probably agree that there is at the present day a very great need for the Lord to show His power. That might be a personal confession: we would each say, individually, ‘There is a great need for the Lord to do something in my life—to do some new thing, some mighty thing, in me personally, and perhaps in my ministry.’ Further, many of us would confess that such a need exists in the circle of believers with whom we are connected and related—a need for the Lord to move in power in a new way. But could we not widen the field to the farthest limit, and say that there is a very great need for the Lord to do something mighty in the whole Church and in the whole world?

To whom, then, is the Arm of the Lord revealed in this way? Before going further with that matter, let me present a hypothetical situation.

An Imaginary Situation

Suppose that a very complicated and serious malady has afflicted a patient—let that patient be ourselves, or a company, or the Church, or the world—and a doctor is consulted, who, after serious and careful consideration, with some considerable experience and knowledge, and no small amount of good authority, comes to a quite definite conclusion about this matter, and says he knows he has the remedy. He has no question about it at all. But certain factors present him with considerable difficulty in his desire to help.

Firstly, he has to explain that his remedy is not going to be pleasant—indeed, it is going to be painful; it will go against all the predisposition of the patient; and it will demand real co-operation and persistence, perhaps over an extended period, calling for much patience and faith. Then, he meets another thing. The patient has heard about the remedy before, perhaps many times, and the reaction is: ‘I have heard such a lot about that cure; there has been so much talk about it. I think you are a one track man, who has nothing but that one thing; perhaps you are even a crank. Can’t you vary it a bit? Can’t you introduce some other line a little more palatable? Must we be tied down to this one course?’ A further objection is: ‘You know, this is not a very popular thing. Public opinion has got criticisms about this; there are many different minds on the matter.’

These are things with which he is confronted. What should he do? Should he give way to these deterring factors, and abandon the case, or should he get on with the job? Let us look at the matter from another angle— from the standpoint of the patient. What should be the logical attitude of the patient in this matter? Should it not be—‘Well, the situation is serious, there is no doubt about that, and it is very complicated. What are the alternatives? Do I know of any alternatives? Are there prospects or ways and means in other directions? Ought I not to be fair and honest, and give this a thorough trial? Do I sense the seriousness of my condition sufficiently to make me brush aside all public opinion, all personal feelings and reactions, likes and dislikes, and really give myself to this matter?’

Now, that is exactly the position in which we are. The great need in the spiritual life of God’s people is widely acknowledged. And yet there are all these arguments flying about: that there is so much talk about this particular thing—we have heard it again and again; that public opinion is so greatly divided on this matter; and that this is something that goes altogether against our grain. But does not the crux of the matter lie, firstly, in whether we realize that the situation is serious enough to warrant our brushing aside all secondary considerations, and really giving the remedy a thorough chance and test; and, secondly, in whether we have any alternatives—whether there are prospects of this whole thing being bettered along any line other than this?

The Only Remedy

Of course, you are saying: What is the line? what is the remedy? what is it that you are talking about? Perhaps you have already drawn your conclusion. The remedy, the only remedy, but the sure remedy, for the whole of our spiritual maladies, is the Cross—the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not pleasant to our flesh; it runs counter to all our likes and predispositions; it is not popular; Christian opinion is greatly divided on this matter of the work of the Cross. And so on... But, after all, we are left with our condition; we are left with our need; we are left with the situation; and whether you realize it or not, the situation in Christianity, amongst Christians, is a very critical one. Take, for instance, the whole matter of divisions amongst the Lord’s people. It is a blight; it is an evil thing; it is the working of a deep seated disease; it is undermining the constitution of the whole Church of God. So we could go round the need, facing it from many standpoints; and we should find that, without exaggeration, the situation is a serious one.

The Word of God offers us this one remedy. It is fully and thoroughly documented; it has the most established authority behind it. Again and again, both in individual life and in collective life, it has proved itself to be the answer. The Word of God offers us no alternative, no prospect along any other line. The Cross is the answer.

Let us look again for a moment at the prophecies of Isaiah. This section that we have been considering, from verse 13 of chapter 52 to the end of chapter 53, shows the Cross to be the remedy for a many-sided and most complicated situation in this world. You see here all the things that go to make up the situation. Sin! sin! “He bare the sin of many”—the word there is ‘error’, ‘failure’. Transgressions!—a stronger word still, meaning ‘rebellions’ —“He was wounded for our transgressions”. Iniquity!— which means ‘our perversity’—“The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Errors and failures and rebellions and perversities—these are the beginning of the malady. Sicknesses, griefs, sorrows—so you can fill in more and more details of the case from the words of this chapter; and when you put them all together, you say: ‘That patient is in a very poor state; that indeed is a serious outlook!’ And the chapter as a whole has just one object: to show that the Cross of the Lord Jesus is the remedy for it all, the answer to it all. The whole thing is dealt with and cleared up by the Cross.

[Shammu]

The Exaltation and Vindication of Christ

But here we must stand back for a moment to take account of two things. At this point a question is asked, “To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” and then the rest of the chapter is the answer to that question. That Arm of the Lord is God coming into this situation, coming in with skill, with power, with wisdom, with ability, to deal with it and to clear it up. And the chapter says that the Cross is the Arm of the Lord, coming in against this whole condition. The arm of the Lord is against this state of things. That is the first thing.

But there is something further. The arm of the Lord comes in with a new condition, a certain, clearly defined end, in view, which is nothing less than the exaltation and vindication of Jesus Christ. That is our second thing. The Arm of the Lord is for that, but His exaltation and vindication demand that the Cross shall clear up this situation. Of course that gathers the New Testament into it: it was because the situation was cleared up at Calvary that Jesus was exalted and vindicated. Note that the exaltation and vindication of Christ is in power and posterity. Those two things bound this section. Right at the beginning (52:13) we have: “My Servant... shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high.” And then, towards the end of the section 53:10–11): “He shall see His seed... He shall see of the travail of His soul...” In power: “very high”; in posterity: “His seed”—in other words, His Church.

Now, that brings matters very closely home to us, because the first challenge of all this is as to our concern for Christ’s exaltation and Christ’s vindication. That is the issue that is raised. Let us ask ourselves, individually, this question: ‘How much am I, personally, really concerned for the exaltation and vindication of the Lord Jesus?’ If you were asked this question, personally, in private conversation, I have no doubt you would say: ‘I am very greatly concerned about it. Indeed, there is nothing that I would desire and work for more than for His exaltation and vindication. What greater thing have we to live for or work for than this?’ You would say that, I am sure. But do we realize that the proof of our concern, and that which measures our concern, is our preparedness to accept the Cross? There is no way to the exaltation and vindication of the Lord Jesus other than the way of the Cross. We shall prove whether we really are concerned, and, if so, how much we are concerned, by the extent to which we are prepared to accept in ourselves this work of the Cross, clearing up every situation that is dishonouring to the Lord.

The Cross the Only Way to this

It is so easy for us to talk or preach about the exaltation of the Lord Jesus, His enthronement, His glorifying—it is wonderful to talk about these things; and of course, this Church of His, the Church of Christ, the Church which is His Body, is a very great thing—the great Masterpiece of God. Yes, we like to talk about it. But the test as to whether all this has a grip upon our inward life is just how much we will let the Cross work in us: for these great things—His exaltation and His Church—are not possible of realization, except by the work of the Cross in believers.

This is a challenge which arises at once, and it is very searching. It will come to that, sooner or later, in any case, as we go on with the Lord. All our language, all our talk, and all our pretensions, will be challenged by this. The Lord will say: ‘Yes—but are you prepared to allow the Cross to work in you in this particular matter, and in that—in that particular relationship, in this thing about yourself, and in that thing in your connections? Are you prepared to let the Cross deal with those things?’ The answer to that will prove whether after all we have a concern for Christ’s exaltation and vindication. Our concern for these will be shown in our estimate of, and our attitude toward, the Cross.

If, on the other hand, we take the line: ‘Oh, we have heard so much about the Cross; it is this one-track thing’—if we can take any such attitude as that, in any way to belittle the Cross, or make it something less than God has made it; if our attitude can be one which under-estimates the importance of the Cross: then that is proof that we have not yet become inwardly gripped by this concern for the exaltation of the Lord Jesus.

Do not forget that He Himself would never have been exalted, but for His Cross. There was that mighty “Wherefore...” Wherefore? “...Becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross. Wherefore... God highly exalted Him...” (Phil. 2:8–9). But for the Cross, He would never have been exalted; and, in principle, He never is exalted, except in so far as there is a work of the Cross in His people. It is so clear, is it not, that, if the Cross has not dealt with things in you and in me, the Lord Jesus cannot be glorified in our lives. And as for His Church—the Church would never have come into existence but for the Cross, and, but for the Cross, it can never have a present expression. Its beginning, its continuation, its growth, its consummation, are always by the law of the Cross; and every bit of addition to, or increase in, the Church, whether spiritually or numerically, is by means of the Cross. There is no other way. So it is a very real test and very real challenge to us.

The Cross Positive, Not Negative

Now here, again, the Spirit of God shows that God’s ways and means are always positive and not negative. I want to say that with emphasis; let us underline it in our minds. God’s ways are always constructive and not destructive; they are purposeful, and not just ends in themselves. And if God’s inclusive, comprehensive means is the Cross, let it be understood, once and for ever, that by the Cross He is working to an end—a large end. The Cross is never intended to end with destruction; it is never intended to end with a negative. God is working for some great thing, and He uses the Cross in this positive way.

You see, the weakness in our apprehension of the Cross is largely due to a misapprehension of the Cross. Our idea of the Cross is that it is destructive, it is negative, it is death. We revolt against that; we don’t want to be always talked to about this death of the Cross—death, death, death. It is indeed possible so to preach the Cross as to bring in death; but that is a mis-preaching. That is not God’s interpretation of the Cross at all. Let me repeat: the Holy Spirit here shows quite clearly that God’s ways and means are always positive and not negative; they always have in view something more, and not something less; not an end, but a new fulness.

If only we could really grasp that, it would transfigure the Cross. When the Lord confronts us with the challenge, what do we do? We revolt, we draw back—we don’t like it! Why? Simply because we have not seen that, in this application of the Cross, God is set upon securing something more in our lives—in our fellowships, in our companies, in His Church—something more than there has ever been before. That is God’s law. God is not a negative God. Other gods are negative gods, but our God is not a negative god. He is not working to bring things to annihilation; He has very large purposes before Him in all His ways and in all His means.

What we really have to see is that, whatever the Cross may negate—and it will, of course, negate some things—it is God’s most positive instrument for securing spiritual, heavenly, eternal values. The Cross is God’s most positive instrument for securing the enlargement— not the annihilation—of that which will abide for ever. While it is true that the Cross, in the first place, does represent God’s ‘No’, and that we cannot have God’s ‘Yes’—the Arm of the Lord—until we have accepted His ‘No’: yet once we are willing to come and accept God’s ‘No’, then the way is clear for us to come right into His ‘Yes’. And, mark you, God’s Name is not ‘No’! His Name is ‘Yea and Amen’ (2 Cor. 1:20)—He is “the God of Amen” (Is. 65:16)—the Positive, the ‘Verily’, the God of purpose.

So it is very necessary for us to move on to this settled basis, that God always comes in with a mind to create (or to recover), to build and to increase. If only we could believe that of the Lord—even in our most devastating times, when everything seems to be taken away, and all is stripped from us; when everything seems to be going, and we think we can see an end coming: if only we could believe then that God is working—not to bring values to an end, but to increase them! That must be our ground—that He is ploughing, He is digging; He intends a harvest; He intends something more. He knows why He is doing it in that way—we don’t. But we can be sure of one thing: God is at work by the Cross to make things safe for Himself.

[Shammu]

The Cross Makes Things Safe for the Lord

Now, just supposing the Arm of the Lord were revealed to you or to me; supposing the Arm of the Lord were revealed in the locality where we live, in the place of work where we are engaged, or in the company with which we are connected, supposing the Lord came out with His mighty arm, and showed that arm in prospering, in increasing: what would happen? Perhaps you will not agree with this, because you feel that it would not be true in your case; but that is just where our hearts are deceived. I can tell you what would happen. You and I would come into the picture; you and I would begin to strut about in this thing, now that it is growing and enlarging and prospering and becoming something to be taken note of. We should be walking round just like peacocks, with our tails all spread out; we should be metaphorically, if not literally, wearing a badge with ‘Superintendent’, or ‘General Manager’, or something like that, written large across it! We should begin to talk about the thing; and if people began to talk about us, how pleased we should be!

That is the infinite peril, and God will not run the risk of allowing that in something that is wholly of Himself. The Lord must make things safe for Himself, so that, if He does stretch out His mighty arm and do something, you and I will not begin to pocket the credit; we shall be a hidden and a covered people.

It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of this. Has this not been perhaps one of the deepest underlying laws of the revealing of the Arm of the Lord through the whole course of Christianity? Why was there that growth, that expansion, at the beginning, which has never been paralleled through the centuries since? Because the Church was stripped and peeled and emptied, broken and battered and bruised and persecuted, because it preached Christ crucified as the wisdom of God and the power of God—and the world would not have it. The Arm of the Lord was revealed to that. The Church was not trying to avoid the offence of the Cross in order to find a place in this world. No, it preached the Cross; it was not ashamed to preach Christ crucified. It cost everything—but the Arm of the Lord was revealed.

What a tremendous lesson for us!

We are brought back to this chapter in Isaiah. This chapter, which is the quintessence of the New Testament and of all God’s ways, shows that the Arm of the Lord is revealed to that humbled, emptied, despised, broken and crucified Servant. It is an abiding law. Let there be no mistake about it—if you and I have an assertive spirit, a self-confident spirit, a ‘managerial’ spirit, or anything like that, the Arm of the Lord will not be revealed. But if we find that He is stripping, emptying and pouring out, seeming to bring to nought, we may be sure He is doing it to make things safe for Him to stretch out His arm. Do you believe that? I say again—He is the God of the positive and not of the negative; He will stretch out His arm if only He is allowed to complete, to perfect, that work of undercutting everything that would take glory from Himself. You and I do not know how much there is in us of that kind, do we? We think we have just about touched bottom, we have come to the end; there is nothing left in us. But what would happen if the whole situation suddenly changed—took the upward road, and began to enlarge? We should come in again—our inveterate flesh would at once begin to assert itself! The Cross is the great clearing instrument; it is the only way of the glory.

The Central Place of the Cross

Now, I want you to note what a wonderful place this chapter occupies in Isaiah. You will recall the analysis of these prophecies. The first thirty five chapters are occupied with a wide sweep of judgments, beginning, as always—note that—with the people of God. That is a Divine law: how can He judge the world until He has judged His own people? Chapters 36 to 39 form a short interlude dealing with Hezekiah; and then the final section, chapters 40 to 66, is occupied with restoration and rebuilding. Now, midway in the last section, which has twenty six chapters, and is occupied with the new prospect, with recovery and rebuilding, comes this chapter 53. Is that not significant? It gives the Cross the central place in building, in recovery, and that is always true, is it not? But perhaps you might react, and say, ‘Isaiah is ancient history—far away and long ago!’ I would therefore like to put in here a long parenthesis.

This whole sequence that we have just considered is carried right into the dispensation in which you and I are living. It is brought in, or introduced, in Paul’s letter to the Romans; and (as we shall see in the next chapter) it is completed in that same Apostle’s first letter to the Corinthians. You remember the letter to the Romans. The first section opens up the sweep of Divine judgment over the whole race of Adam; it is God’s ‘No’. It leads up to the focal point of chapter 6: the Cross. That chapter is placed over against the whole situation which has gone before, declaring that the Cross says for ever ‘No’ to all that. But when we pass from chapter 6, through chapter 7, into chapter 8, we find we are moving out of that old situation into a new, from the negative to the positive. In chapter 8 we come into an altogether new prospect, an altogether new opening up. “There is therefore now no condemnation...” All that which was condemned has been dealt with in the Cross. We are “in Christ Jesus”; and ‘the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death’.

This new and wonderful prospect, then, is in view. What does it amount to? It says this: God, Who ever had in view the building of His wonderful and glorious Church, “without spot or wrinkle or any such thing”, looked at the situation among men, in order to find that which would serve as a foundation for His building. But what did He find? He found the state of things that is described in those early chapters of the letter to the Romans. What a description it is—the sin, the corruption, the tangles, the complication—a hopeless picture of human depravity. That is what He found when He came to lay a foundation for His glorious Church, and He said: ‘I cannot put a foundation on that; I cannot found My Church upon that. I must clear the ground, clean up this whole situation, burn it in fire’— and so the Cross did that. The Cross, in the intense fires of judgment, like the mighty Brazen Altar, dealt with that twisted, distorted tangle of human nature. Now God has His foundation—Christ crucified. Now He can proceed to build His Church.

This is the interpretation of the Cross. It is God’s means of getting rid of everything that makes it impossible for Him to do what He wants to do, to carry out what He has in mind. He has a mighty purpose in view, but He finds things in the way, and He says: ‘These must be dealt with.’

Let us, however, in closing this chapter, return to the positive note again. When we hear the phrase, ‘The Cross’, let us guard our minds against that sudden uprising—‘Oh, the Cross again, the Cross again, the Cross! It is all death, it is all crucifixion, it is all negative!’ That suggestion must be resolutely refused—it is Satan’s twist given to God’s most wonderful instrument for realizing His glorious purpose. When we hear ‘The Cross’, let us say: ‘Ah, that means prospect! That means a clearing of the way; that means something more, not less; that means that God’s Arm is going to be revealed!’ Let us join with Paul in saying: ‘God forbid that I should glory in anything, save in the Cross...’ (Gal. 6:14).

[Shammu]

Chapter 5 - Building Upon God’s Foundation

We have seen that, with chapter 54 of Isaiah’s prophecies, there commences a movement of God toward recovery and rebuilding. The Cross has cleared the way for this new prospect. From chapter 54 onwards, a number of bright, hopeful notes are struck. For instance, at the beginning of chapter 60:
“Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.”

The way having been opened, the ground cleared, and the foundation laid by the Cross, the Lord is facing the whole matter of the recovery, restoration, and rebuilding of His people. There is a new prospect, a new hope, a new message of encouragement. But, with it, a new note is struck. In these later chapters of Isaiah, there are both lights and shades in this new prospect. The sun shines: “Thy light is come... the glory of the Lord is risen”—it is like the sun rising on an early summer day; and then it is as if a heavy cloud comes over the face of the sun. It may be only passing over, it may be only temporary, but you wonder whether the whole prospect is going to change; whether the bright time is passing, if that is the end.

It is just like that in these later chapters of Isaiah. The sun—the glory of the Lord—has risen; there is a bright prospect; but then, here and there, you come on darker things, such as chapter 58, beginning:
“Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and declare unto My People their transgression....”

From time to time there are these dark clouds, that seem to pass over the face of the sun, even in the presence of this new prospect; and they bring to the heart a feeling of uncertainty. Is this ‘radiant morn’ too soon to pass away? We are conscious of mixed feelings: we do not yet feel assured that all is going to follow through on this new prospect, to work out according to the seeming promise.

From the Lord’s side, of course, there is no question: the Lord has for Himself His new ground, and He shows Himself as One Who means to be positive. He is not of two minds; there is no shadow cast by His turning or changing. Everything from the Lord’s side shows Him to be One Who is out for something—really after a new day, a new situation. Yes: for His part, the Lord is positive.

A Check on the Arm of the Lord

But it would seem that He is having to go carefully. He wants to go right out, to have no reserves, but... but... there seems to be something that is still holding His Arm in check; He just cannot go right ahead, as He indicates He would do. The old ground has suffered a fiery purging in the Cross; all that stubble, all that tangle and network of thorns and briars, has been dealt with by the fires. He has come in and got His foundation: but... there seems still to be a question. You cannot read through these chapters without feeling: ‘We are not through this business yet; we are not right out on the other side; we are not sure how it is going to work out yet.’ The Lord is pretty sure; the Lord is encouraging; the Lord is saying that, as for Himself, He is not holding back for any reason from His side; but there is something that He is encountering.

Let me put it like this. The ground has been cleared, and the foundation has been laid; but now comes the question: What is going to be built upon that foundation? And that is just where the uncertainty comes in, not as to the foundation, for that is settled in the Cross—but as to the superstructure: what is going to be imposed upon the foundation? The Lord is not sure what His people are going to put upon His foundation.

So far as the Old Testament is concerned, the more immediate answer to the question as to the new building on that new ground is found in what we call the post exilic prophets, the prophets after the Exile— Zechariah, Haggai and Malachi. We see there what the people would put upon the foundation; the new building, ‘of what sort it was’. But if you should raise the objection, again, that that is ‘Old Testament’, let me remind you that I said in the previous chapter that the counterpart of this can be found in the New Testament, in our very own dispensation. We saw that Isaiah 53 finds its parallel in the letter to the Romans, where the Cross encounters all the rubbish and evil and tangle, deals with it in fiery judgment, and clears the ground for a new prospect. That new prospect is brought into view in chapter 8 of Romans; God has now got His foundation. But what is the counterpart of these later chapters of Isaiah?

Right and Wrong Building Illustrated in 1 Corinthians

The counterpart—so patent as you look at it—is in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. Writing of his first arrival in Corinth, the Apostle said: “When I came unto you... I determined”—The language is ‘I deliberately made up my mind’—“not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:1–2). The foundation has been laid: “As a wise masterbuilder I laid a foundation” (3:10), and the foundation is Christ crucified. The Cross, as Paul so clearly sets forth in his letter to the Romans, has provided the foundation, and that foundation has been laid in Corinth. But as you read on in this verse (3:10), your heart almost stands still. You hear Paul saying: “I laid a foundation, and another buildeth thereon.” He shows that it is possible to build on this, either “wood, hay, stubble”, or “gold, silver, costly stones”; and that every man’s work is going to be tried by fire, to discover what sort it is. If any man’s work is burnt up—what happens? Well, “he himself shall be saved”—he will just get in—“yet so as through fire”; he will have lost everything.

So there comes this very big question: What are you going to put upon that foundation? what are you going to superimpose upon that ground of the Cross? Are you going to bring back things that are absolutely contradictory to the Cross? If so, you see what happens.

Now in this first letter to the Corinthians there is much about building, in many connections. It is perhaps a little unfortunate that, in a number of passages in the New Testament, and consistently throughout the letters to the Corinthians, the original words for ‘build’ and ‘building’ have been rendered ‘edify’ and ‘edification’— although the Revised Version often gives ‘build’ or ‘build up’ in the margin, and the compound verb, ‘build upon’, is usually—for example in 1 Corinthians 3:10–15— translated thus. But during the 300 years since our Authorized Version was made, the word ‘edify’ has lost some of its force, and present day usage might tend to give us the idea of the acquisition of head knowledge, which of course is not Paul’s meaning at all. The root meaning of the word survives in our word ‘edifice’, and Paul is all the time talking about spiritual building—the building up of true spiritual character.

I would suggest to you that you should follow through the nine occasions in this first letter where the words ‘edify’ or ‘edification’ are used. The whole matter of spiritual gifts, for instance, is summed up in that one word—Do they build up? If they do not, they are of no value in the purpose of God; they can be ruled out; they have missed their point—for even Divine gifts can miss the point or be side tracked; we shall have to touch on that again. It is the spiritually constructive side of things which receives such emphasis in this first letter to the Corinthians. The foundation—Christ crucified— is laid. Now for the building!

[Shammu]

What God Will Not  Allow on His Foundation

And, when you come to the building, a real battle starts up. The question is: What is God going to allow to be put on His foundation? For right through this letter we find a long series of ‘No’s’—things to which God says: ‘No, not that on My foundation, please; I have no place for that. You may spend your whole life on that, but it will all go up in smoke. It is not suitable to My foundation; it is not according to the Cross of the Lord Jesus.’

Now, it would take a long time to consider all the things in this letter to which God says: ‘No’. We will just touch on two or three, as representative of much more. As we read the letter, with this in mind—Will God allow anything like that to be put on His foundation?—and as we see the answer, surely our reaction must be: Very well, let us have the Cross deal with that immediately. We don’t want that to be held over until it is too late, and we just scramble into Heaven, without anything that we can take with us of a life work—for that is the issue. We don’t want to postpone or refuse the operation of the Cross until it is too late to save our life work, to save the fruit of all our energies.

(1) Carnality

We begin with chapter 3. “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, as unto babes in Christ. I fed you with milk, not with meat; for ye were not yet able to bear it: nay, not even now are ye able; for ye are yet carnal: FOR”—this is the description of carnality—“for whereas there is among you JEALOUSY....” Let us weigh it, even if it be to our own judgment and condemnation; it is better that the Cross come right in now. ‘There is jealousy among you’? God says ‘No’ to that: ‘I cannot have that on My foundation. My foundation is the Cross, and it says No to that.’

Paul continues: “There is among you jealousy AND STRIFE...” Strife! We must think this through and face it honestly. It may seem very elementary, but we are not facing the world, the unconverted, here; we are right in the Church, amongst believers; we are dealing with those amongst whom God’s foundation has been laid; with those who are “called to be saints” (1 Cor. 1:2); that is, who are regarded by God as His own people. Strife? God says ‘No’ to that on His foundation. Is that found among us? You know what is going to happen? Sooner or later, it is going to be exposed as wood, hay and stubble—that is the value of it—and it is going up in smoke.

“Are ye not carnal, and walk after the manner of men?” You are not allowed to walk after the manner of men on God’s foundation—you are just not allowed. God says ‘No’ to “the manner of men” on His foundation. “For when one saith, I am of... and another, I am of....” Here we must fill in the appropriate names ourselves: names that are right up to date; names right in our own circle, in our own assembly; names of our own Christian world, or historic religious names. ‘One says, I am of... and another, I am of...; and yet another, I am of....’ They all express human partialities, human preferences, human likes and human dislikes, which produce divisions. God says: ‘No, not on My foundation; that is not My Church, not My building. I never build with material like that, and neither may you. You may have a wonderful set up—of your own making—with stuff of that kind: but it is all going up in smoke. However much you may have seemed to have, in the end you will have nothing.’

(2) Worldly Wisdom

And how much there is here in this early section about “the wisdom of the world” (1:20)—the wisdom of man, man’s mind about things. God says: ‘None of that on My foundation; there is no place at all for your mind on My foundation; there is only place for the mind of the Spirit.’ If we have not got the mind of the Spirit, we have no right to be doing anything on God’s foundation. But after all, are not these the very things, the very troubles, that are blighting Christianity today? They are! And do not let us think of Christianity in a detached, objective way. This comes very close to home. These very things may be causing mischief, even amongst ourselves: we may be bringing on to God’s foundation a mind, a mentality, which is not the mentality of the Spirit. For that is what it amounts to—a mentality. “Who among men knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of the man, which is in him? even so the things of God none knoweth, save the Spirit of God” (2:11). These are two different mentalities, you see—the natural mind and the spiritual mind. God says: ‘None of the natural mind or mentality at all on My foundation.’

Paul here calls this the ‘world’ coming in, and constructing something upon God’s foundation; and God says: ‘There is no place for the world in any form on My foundation.’ If you look at it closely, you find that this searches out so much: the world’s standards or judgments or values—how the world thinks, how the world does things. These Corinthians were trying to make an impression, and moreover by natural means. The Cross of Isaiah 53 is not a very ‘impressive’ thing, judged by worldly standards, is it? There is nothing there that would popularize the Gospel—rather does it cause offence.

(3) Soulish Appeal

Are you trying to make the work of God successful by an appeal to the natural man? Now, I hold no brief for ugliness or for crudeness; I believe that God is a God of beauty. But if we think we are going to make God’s work successful or acceptable by display, by appeal to the soul of man—artistically, aesthetically, and so on—we are on wrong lines. Let me put it another way: the source of any ‘appeal’, any ‘impression’, any ‘grip’, any ‘overwhelming’, must lie essentially and only in spiritual values, of an inward kind, not in what captivates or gratifies the natural fancies of people. The Arm of the Lord will not be revealed to the ‘natural man’ or to the ‘world’ in any way for its good; only against it.

As we move on in this letter, we find that the Cross touches so many other things. It touches our feelings— our natural emotions, our natural passions; there is much about that here. And, as with our mentality, so also with our emotions, the Lord says: ‘None of that on My foundation, none whatever.’ There is so much here to which the Cross says ‘No’, as to building. I invite you to look at it more closely; it is not my purpose to give an exposition of the letter to the Corinthians. I want to come to the positive side.

For there is a positive side to this letter. What is it that God says may be put on His foundation? It would be very pathetic, would it not, if the letter were all negative, all: No, no! never! Take note of that, because you may recall that I said, earlier, that you can never come into God’s ‘Yes’ until you have accepted God’s ‘No’. But there is a very mighty ‘Yes’, in this letter. What is it? Perhaps we think we know it. Well, maybe we do know it, as to the words; but I suggest that we know practically nothing of the thing itself.

[Shammu]

Misapplied Spiritual Gifts

Let us look, then, at Chapter 13. Here the Apostle writes off everything that is not spiritually constructive. It may have been something that God gave, but it has been taken hold of by man and used for man’s satisfaction, gratification, pleasure, or even glory. The mentality and emotion of the natural man have been brought to bear upon Divine things—spiritual gifts, such as tongues, and so on—and have robbed them of their value to build up, and made them just occasions for display. There has been glorying in these spiritual gifts. The Apostle here writes that all off, and says that they were never given for that; even though given of God, they amount to ‘nothing’—that is the very word he uses here—when it comes to building. “If I... have not love, I am nothing.” Paul dismisses these things; but notice that he is all the time reaching after the positive through the negative.

“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.” Exeunt spiritual gifts which have failed to fulfil their purpose in building the House of God. Let us not cling to anything that does not serve that purpose.

“And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains....” That is quite scriptural—that is what the Lord Jesus said: “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove” (Matt. 17:20). That is perfectly scriptural, and yet you can be perfectly scriptural and have faith like that, and it can mean nothing. If it fails to build up the House of God, if it does not result in this scriptural structure, it becomes negative. Exit all knowledge of mysteries, and secret lore, and faith that removes mountains. ‘Out you go if you do not build up! That is the value of you—nothing!’ “If I have all faith... but have not love, I am nothing”. With all that, I am nothing!

“And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned....” If I am a philanthropist, and am most charitable, even sacrificial, in my giving; even if I am a martyr, and give my body to be burned; that can all be done without any constructive value in the building of the House of God. If I do all these things, “but have not love, it profiteth me nothing”.

That, then, is the showing out of court of things— wonderful things in themselves—but which have failed to serve the purpose for which they were given, namely, ‘spiritual building’.

What God Will Allow on His Foundation: Love

Now for the positive. Let us bring in that to which God says: Yes! He says ‘No’ to that, and to that, and to that; but now, where does His ‘Yes’ lie? Here it is—Love!

“Love suffereth long....” There were some who, because their rights were injured or taken from them, dragged their brethren before the magistrate, right away. “Love suffereth long, and is kind....” You may put that on the foundation; that is something constructive, is it not? “Love envieth not....” When you quietly work your way, like this, into and through every clause, do you not want to stop and say: ‘Say no more—that finds me out too much’? But we must go on, for, after all, it is what God is calling for.

“Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up....” Go back to the beginning of chapter 8, and you will read this: “Knowledge puffeth up, but love buildeth up”. There is a great deal of difference between ‘puffing up’ and ‘building up’. ‘Love is not puffed up’: there is nothing false, artificial, make believe, pretend, about love. The false thing is like a rubber balloon: you can blow it up pretty big, but you have only to put the tiniest point of a needle in it—and where is it? It is gone. Paul says it is no use putting that on God’s foundation.

“Love... doth not behave itself unseemly....” Unseemly behaviour: we could spend much time on that, could we not? Is this seemly? does it become a Christian? does it become the Lord Jesus? does it become that holy House of God? does it become the Cross of the Lord Jesus? Love is seemly; it does not behave itself unseemly. “Love... seeketh not its own”—does not want its own way, does not work to its own ends; does not draw to itself; “is not provoked, taketh not account of evil; rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Love never faileth....”

You may think that I am not saying very much, but I am saying a great deal. I would like to give you that passage in a translation which I think a classic:

“I may speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but if I have no love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal; I may prophesy, fathom all mysteries and secret lore, I may have such absolute faith that I can move hills from their place, but if I have no love, I count for nothing; I may distribute all I possess in charity, I may give up my body to be burnt, but if I have no love, I make nothing of it. Love is very patient, very kind. Love knows no jealousy; love makes no parade, gives itself no airs, is never rude, never selfish, never irritated, never resentful; love is never glad when others go wrong, love is gladdened by goodness, always slow to expose, always eager to believe the best, always hopeful, always patient. Love never disappears.”

You may put that on the foundation, for God says Yes to all that. “To whom is the Arm of the Lord revealed?” To that; just to that.

There is a most pressing need that we should face this matter of what the Cross sets aside, and what the Cross brings in; what may be put on God’s foundation, and what may not. It concerns every one of us quite seriously, as to what there will be at the end: not what there is now, however showy and popular, and however enjoying of man’s approval and applause it may be. God is moving to build up: He shows what He cannot and will not use in His building, and then He says: ‘This is what I will use; this is the material for the building of My Church. This is what really builds: “Love buildeth up”.’

May the Lord smite our hearts, if need be, to enlighten us as to what the real values are. Not even spiritual gifts are the real values, unless the effect of them is real spiritual increase amongst the believers. That is the test. It is not the things themselves, not their presence, not even the fact that the Lord gave them. The test of every gift is: Does it really build the Church? does it really build the House? is it really resulting in a larger measure of Christ?

For these things may be an obstruction to Christ. This letter to the Corinthians makes it so clear that the possession of spiritual gifts is no guarantee of spiritual maturity. Here you have the most immature of the churches—Paul says: ‘I have fed you with milk; you are still babes’—and yet characterized by all these gifts. It is not that the gifts are wrong, but that they have been sidetracked; they have not served the purpose for which they were given—that is, bringing to the full measure of Christ. That is the object, and that object is only achieved by love.

May the Lord give us that kind of love! This is not natural love; this love springs out of the Cross. It is the love which comes right out of the work of the Cross within us. We cannot get it by striving after it; but, as the Cross does its work in our hearts and in our natures, it will rise and grow. The Lord increase our love!

[Shammu]

Chapter 6 - Resurrection

When we come to chapter 54 of the prophecies of Isaiah, we have what we may call a sample chapter of resurrection—a sample of the conditions which the Lord would have as characterizing His ‘New Day’. We find in this chapter eight features, or characteristics, of the New Day; eight, as you know, being the number of resurrection. Let us cast our eye down the chapter, and note them briefly in order.

(1) In verse 1, we see the movement from barrenness to fruitfulness. “Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord.”

(2) Verses 2 and 3: from straitness to enlargement. “Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations; spare not: lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes. For thou shalt spread abroad on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall possess the nations, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.” How true that was of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus!

(3) Verses 4 and 5: from shame to honour. “Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth...” ; and so on.

(4) Verses 6 and 7: from forsakenness to fellowship. “For the Lord hath called thee as a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, even a wife of youth, when she is cast off, saith thy God. For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.”

(5) Verses 8 to 10: from wrath to mercy. “In overflowing wrath I hid My face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.” You see the look back to the Cross, in which all those things were true; but now it is resurrection, and they have passed. It is a mighty and wonderful change.

(6) Verses 11 and 12: from affliction and desolation, to comfort and glory. “O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will set thy stones in fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. And I will make thy pinnacles of rubies, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy border of pleasant stones.”

(7) Verses 14 and 15: from oppression to security. “In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression, for thou shalt not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near thee. Behold, they may gather together, but not by Me: whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall because of thee.”

( Verses 16 and 17: from reproach to vindication. “Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the fire of coals, and bringeth forth a weapon for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness which is of Me, saith the Lord.”

Is this not a wonderful sample of resurrection life, power and glory? As in other connections, so in this, we carry it all over from Old Testament history into New Testament, into this very dispensation in which we live—the Day of Resurrection. How true all this was— and is—of the Lord Jesus, in the first place. There had been the negative side—all the straitness of which He spoke: “How am I straitened till it be accomplished!” (Luke 12:50); the stripping, the barrenness and desolation of the Cross; the shame and ignominy; the forsakenness, even of His own Father and God—the very wrath of God rested upon Him; He suffered affliction, oppression and reproach. All those things were true, as we saw in chapter 53. But now the whole scene has changed. What fruitfulness has taken the place of barrenness! Yes, the ‘corn of wheat, falling into the ground and dying’, has indeed borne very much fruit—fruit out of many nations. What a great joy it is to us to know, and in so many cases to know personally, something of the fruitfulness of His sufferings, in the ‘seeing of His seed’. Out of barrenness into fruitfulness; out of His straitness, against which He groaned, into the great enlargement which has come to Him—and what enlargement!—out of shame into honour: multitudes and multitudes ever since, and multitudes today, all over the world, are just heaping honour upon Him. And so we could go on.

But you can see also how true this became of that little band of disciples. You can say that, at the time of the Cross, these negative and dark things were in a certain sense true of them. Yes, everything was gone; the trees were stripped bare; it was barrenness indeed. In their hearts they were saying: ‘What has it all been for? It has all gone; we have lost everything.’ But see the change from the Day of Pentecost onwards. From barrenness to fruitfulness—again you go through this list of characteristics—from straitness, as a little band, a little handful of men, hedged up in a few miles of Jerusalem, of Judæa, of Palestine, a little country—unto what? “Their sound”, said Paul, “went out into all the earth, ...unto the ends of the world” (Rom. 10:18). What enlargement! it was the lengthening of cords, the strengthening of stakes in resurrection. Their aloneness —the terrible loneliness that had come over them when He, as they thought, was dead—has given place to a marvellous fellowship, that is being established in relationship with an ever-growing company of fellow believers. All these things came about: this wonderful change over was true for the disciples.

But does it stop there? No! The same thing became true in every new believer; and it has been true from then on until now. These are the things which are the characteristics of the true believer’s life—a believer’s life! If you are living on the other side of the Cross, or even if you are living in the day of His death, just living with Christ dead, these things are not true. But if we are living, as true believers should, on the ground of His resurrection, then all these things are true. It is a very blessed thing for us to be able to say, without any hesitation or reserve, that He has changed our life from barrenness to fruitfulness; from straitness to enlargement; from shame to honour; from forsakenness and aloneness to fellowship; and so on. This is the heritage of every true believer.

[Shammu]

Immediate Effects of Christ’s Resurrection

In the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, there is struck and sounded forth this wonderful note—a new life, a new hope, a new assurance! We see it clearly in the New Testament. It is worth noting the marvellous effect that His appearances had upon the people concerned. As far as we can see, there were about ten appearances of the Lord after His resurrection. Five of them took place on one day, between sunrise and perhaps a little after sunset; the other five were scattered over a period, in different places. But it is most impressive, most instructive, to see the tremendous change that came over the people, and over the whole situation, between the time before He appeared, and the time He disappeared. Let us run through some of those appearances.

The first, undoubtedly, was with Mary Magdalene, who came early to the tomb, with spices, to anoint His body (Mark 16:9; John 20:1–18). What a poor, sad, desolate, empty sort of person she was that morning! What a plaintive note there is as she beholds Him without recognizing Him, and takes Him for the gardener: ‘Sir, if you have borne Him away, tell me where you have laid Him’. Jesus only speaks her name—“Mary”—and the whole situation is transformed, transfigured! She hurries from the tomb—hurries away to tell the disciples. It would seem, too, that there were other women near by, and that, as they were going, she and they, to tell the disciples, Jesus met them on the way—another transforming scene and experience (Matt. 28:8–10; Mark 16:10–11).

And then, we are told, He appeared to Simon Peter (Luke 24:34; 1 Cor. 15:5). It does not need very much imagination to picture what kind of Simon he was when Jesus appeared to him. He was not a very happy sort of man! If ever there was a man who felt he was bereft—bereft of everything, stripped, stark, alone, forsaken, and in utter despair—it must have been Simon Peter. And then Jesus appeared to him—gave him a private interview! Ah! that changed the whole situation, completely transformed the whole outlook for Simon.

Then there were the two disciples on their way to Emmaus (Luke 24:13–35; Mark 16:12–13). What sad, doleful, desolate men they were! As they walked those three miles, it must have seemed the longest three miles that two men had ever walked! But then Jesus appeared.... Their eyes were opened, they saw... He went... and those three miles back were the shortest three miles that ever men had run! I don’t know what their time was for the course!—but I am quite sure they were not conscious of those three miles. Distance and time lost all their meaning as they raced back, fleet of foot, to Jerusalem, to tell the others. And as they came in, before they could get out anything of what had happened to them, they were met with this from the other disciples: “The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared unto Simon”! They were changed men, and it was a changed scene in Jerusalem into which they came.

And He appeared to the apostles themselves, and to James, and to “above five hundred brethren at once” (1 Cor. 15:6–7). His appearance—that is, His coming in resurrection—brought about a marvellous change on every occasion, in every situation. It represented a very real fulfilment of Isaiah 54—Isaiah 54 is resurrection!

Can this Be a Present day Experience?

Now, the big question that arises for us is: Have we any ground for believing that this can be our own up to date experience? And I want to say that the New Testament presents us with very solid ground for just that. We find very much, in the experiences of men and women after the Lord had gone to glory, that had this effect. I need only turn you to the Book of the Acts, and remind you of that Ethiopian on his way home, disappointed and desolate, sorrowful and perplexed. Surely we may say that, through His servant Philip and through the word of Isaiah 53, the Risen Lord met that man. The whole scene was changed. The last thing we hear of him is: “he went on his way rejoicing” (Acts 8:39). Here is a transfigured life, a transfigured situation, because one has come into touch with the Risen Lord. That incident is typical of the marvellous transformation that took place when the Spirit of the Lord touched people, came into their lives, came into their midst. They met sometimes in much perplexity and oppression, in much affliction and suffering with the threats of the rulers, and they went away changed people, full of joy, full of confidence.

Has the dispensation changed since the time of the Acts? That book has never had a conclusion; it is just broken off. The Holy Spirit never intended Luke to write the end of the story, because it had to go on and on and on to the end of the dispensation. What was true then is to be true in our experience now. Yes, we have plenty of ground and evidence for this. But then, you say, ‘On what ground can this experience be mine?’ If the Scripture gives that which justifies an expectation that it should be true in our case, if we really have it in the Word that it ought to be like that with us, then the question arises, ‘How can this be true of me?’ Let me therefore try to say, as concisely as possible, how it can be—how we really can know this.

The Need for (1) A Positive Stand Upon the Ground of the Cross

Firstly, we must take our stand most positively on that ground which God has provided for us through the Cross of the Lord Jesus. That is, we must appropriate all the values of Isaiah 53, as being provided for us. Isaiah 53 tells us all that has been done for us. “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him”. “He bare the sin of many”. Our whole state and condition, under condemnation and judgment, was put on Him by God Himself. ‘He, He made His soul an offering for sin.’ That was on the Divine side. If you and I will still linger on the ground of question or doubt as to whether the Lord Jesus has done that, for us, as men and women, for our sins, past, present and future, there is no hope of this transforming experience of resurrection! If you are still nursing condemnation, still opening your heart or your mind to accusations, you are, in effect, denying the work of the Lord Jesus on the Cross, and God cannot show you His mighty arm.

“To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” Never to the man or woman who brings in any question as to the work of the Lord Jesus in His Cross! Never! You must get right off that ground in every way. If you are so fond of doubting and questioning, if you will so tenaciously hold on to condemnation, can you not swing right over in the opposite direction, put all that capacity for doubting and unbelieving round the other way, and say about your condemnation: ‘I don’t believe it! Isaiah 53 says that He took all that for me: then I definitely do not believe, I will not believe—the Cross of the Lord Jesus forbids me to believe—that there is condemnation.’ Yes, put your strong and mighty capacity for unbelieving the other way round—let it be converted! Put it over against all the work of the accusing spirits, the accusing conscience and the accusing heart. Meet the whole thing in reverse!

No, we shall never know this mighty, many-sided transformation and transfiguration of life, until we quite positively take our stand upon the values which we see secured for us in Isaiah 53. We shall once again, and in the simplicity of a beginner, have to sit down with that chapter, and, as has been so often said, put our own name in there: ‘He was wounded for my transgressions; He was bruised for my iniquities; the chastisement of my peace was upon Him; with His stripes I am healed.’ We shall never experience resurrection glory until we have our feet firmly planted on that ground. You see, it is we ourselves who constitute the ground of death: it is in us—it is not in Christ; we must therefore repudiate our own ground. We must say, when the Accuser would bring all our sins to remembrance: ‘Yes, I know them well, and thousands more; but... there is One Who died in my place.’ Faith must credit God and Christ with the full meaning of the Cross.

[Shammu]

(2) A Positive Drawing upon the Power of His Resurrection

Next, we must take a positive attitude at all times to “the power of His resurrection” (Phil. 3:10)—the attitude of faith in ‘God Who raises the dead’ (2 Cor. 1:9). We must really reckon upon that ‘extra’, and that ‘other’, which is represented by the power of His resurrection. It is all true—that this is this and that is that, and things are as they are; it is all true. We are not putting on blinkers, trying to make believe that we are not as bad as we are, or things are not as bad as they are: we know that they are just as bad as they can be, inside and out. But... there is something more than that—an altogether transcendent factor: and that is, the power of His resurrection. We must take a very positive attitude at all times toward that.

(a) For Personal Life

This means, in practical terms, a definite drawing upon His risen life. But it does not mean that we are thereby entitled to break the laws of God. For instance, if you speak at three or four or five meetings a day, for something like eleven weeks, without one day’s rest, you are breaking the laws of God, and God will not protect you. That is exactly what I have known to happen. How long it takes us to learn these lessons—sometimes a whole life time! We get drawn out by need and appeal and so on. I believe the Lord is very sympathetic, but, nevertheless, He does not set aside His laws. So I have to say, that, while avoiding breaking Divine laws, the laws of nature, the laws of our bodies (and you can never speak of the laws of nature without meaning God, for the laws of nature are an expression of God, and God is Himself the supreme Law of Nature: that is not Pantheism, but it does mean that the laws of nature bring you right into touch with God)—I say, while not violating God in His laws, in the body and so on, we must deliberately at all times draw upon His resurrection life. We must do it; we must keep a tight hold, so to speak, on the risen life of the Lord, and draw upon it; make a very practical thing of it.

When I was a small boy, I remember my mother telling me something that has remained with me to this day. She was describing to me the death of my grandfather, an old man of eighty four. She was sitting by his bed, holding his hand, as he was slowly, very slowly passing away. He had been a very strong man, physically, and this is what she told me. ‘He had hold of my hand’, she said, ‘in a tremendous grip: I was praying for him, but he was gradually sinking away: but I felt as though he was drawing the very life out of me; I felt my very vitality being sapped; he was pulling something out of me, to hold on to life: and at last I could stand it no longer—I just had to wrench my hand out of his; and when I did so, he went.’

Well, I do not know how much scientific truth there is in that; but to me it is an illustration. We have literally got to draw on the vitality of our Lord. It is an attitude, a grip of faith: we must ‘lay hold on life’, as Paul said to Timothy (1 Tim. 6:12). It must be something that we do.

I fear we are far too indefinite in this matter of our relationship to our Risen Lord. We believe in the resurrection; we believe in resurrection life; and we believe that it is for us: but we are not definite enough about it. We must first ask ourselves: ‘Do I need resurrection life? Am I in need of the power of His resurrection?’ Of course, if you have no sense of need, you will not be definite about it; but if, in any way, you really feel your need of the power of His resurrection, that the Arm of the Lord should be revealed to you in that way, then ask yourself the further question: ‘Are there any Scriptures, any statements in the Word of God, which justify me in believing that that life is for me?’ Then, if you believe the answer to that to be in the affirmative, say to yourself: ‘Let me get to the Word, and find out what it says about this; let me gather up, search out, all that the Word of God says about this matter of resurrection life— for me!’

Do it as an exercise, not just picking out random texts; get a strong foundation of Scripture under your feet. “If the Spirit of Him That raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, He That raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall quicken also your mortal bodies through His Spirit That dwelleth in you” (Rom. 8:11). That is in the Bible! “Always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus... that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh” (2 Cor. 4:10–11). That is Scripture! Gather up in this way all that you can find; take it to the Lord, and say: ‘Lord, Your Word clearly says...’ (and here you can quote Scripture to Him, if you like: it is a very healthy thing to remind the Lord of His Word). ‘Now, Lord, You have said that the power of the resurrection is to be known in Your people, in believers, as a present experience: here is Your Word about it.’ Bring it to the Lord; present it to Him, all that you can find, be very definite in this matter. We might see marvellous things, wonderful things, have a far greater testimony of resurrection life, if only we would be more definite about it. It is not just going to ‘happen’; it is not going to be casual. Any dilly dallying about this thing will not find us coming into the good of it. We must be positive; we must be definite; we must make this a very real matter.

For it is not just personal, for our own private good; the whole testimony of our Risen Lord is bound up with this. There is, of course, thank God, the personal application, and this may be either spiritual—for we are surely all, individually, in constant need of new accessions of life spiritually—or it may be physical. Blessed be God, that we can take life for our bodies! We may know resurrection life carrying us through impossible situations, physically. Or it may be that we need a new accession of life, the ‘baring of His arm’, in our ministry: for all ministry, if it is to be true spiritual ministry, has to be fulfilled in the power of His resurrection.

(b) For Corporate Life

But then, widening out beyond personal, individual need, it may apply to a company of the Lord’s people of which we are a part, or in which we may have some responsibility. Things are going down into death, straitness and dishonour; the situation is not glorifying to the Lord; and we are greatly burdened with the need—Oh, that the Arm of the Lord might be revealed! Oh, that the power of resurrection might be manifested! What are you going to do about it? Well, it requires the same exercise. This resurrection of the Lord Jesus is for every aspect of the life of the believer and the Church.

But... it does not just happen. I say once again: we have got to take a very definite and positive attitude to this matter. If we will, and if we do, there are those who can testify, from a long history, that this really does work—that repeated miracles of sustenance and enablement and supply, of raising up and carrying on, will result again and again, from a definite laying hold of the fact that Christ is risen for us. He died for us—He is risen for us. He died in our place—He lives in our stead. He is the Living One!