Books by T. Austin-Sparks

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Chapter 7 - Functional Union

5. Functional Union

"For even as we have many members in one body, and all the members have not the same office: so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and severally members one of another" (Rom. 12:4,5).

"For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ. For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all made to drink of one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; it is not therefore not of the body. And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; it is not therefore not of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members each one of them in the body, even as it pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now they are many members, but one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee: or again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary: and those parts of the body, which we think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness; whereas our comely parts have no need: but God tempered the body together, giving more abundant honour to that part which lacked, that there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffereth all the members suffer with it; or one member is honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and severally members thereof'" (1 Cor. 12:12-27).

"...His body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all" (Ephesians 1:23).

"That he... might reconcile them both in one body unto God" (Ephesians 2:15,16).

"...For the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ" (Ephesians 4:12).

"Christ... from whom all the body fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplieth... maketh... increase" (Ephesians 4:15,16).

"He is the head of the body, the church" (Col. 1:18).

"For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, being himself the saviour of the body" (Ephesians 5:23).

"We are members of his body" (Ephesians 5:30).

We continue with our consideration of this great and many-sided revelation of union with Christ. We come now to the fifth aspect of union with Christ, which we are calling Functional Union: that is, as a body, with head and members.

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Inclusive Function: Expressing the Personality - Christ

I am going to begin with the inclusive function of the Body of Christ. That function is the expressing of the personality of the Body, which is Christ. The Body of Christ, the Church as the Body of Christ, does not exist for self-expression. It does not exist for any other purpose at all than that of expressing the inward personality, the personality dwelling within the Body, that is, Christ. We never rightly speak of a corpse as a man. We can speak of it as the body of a man, but never as a man. The man is not there. His body may be there. We may, on the other hand, speak of a living body as a man, but we know quite well that the body, even though it is animated, is not the man, or is at most only a small part of him. The body is only the vehicle or vessel for the expression and activity of the man. The real man is what is inside the body.

So it is with the Body of Christ. We discriminate between Himself and His Body and yet we identify them: that is, we identify Him with His Body, and in a sense we identify His Body with Him, and yet there remains that difference. It is important to keep this in mind. Christ is not merged into something called His Body and His own personality lost. He remains the personality of His Body. There may be the framework without the personality, just as there can be the personality without the Body; but - and this is the teaching concerning the Church as His Body - for all practical purposes the two are one. That is, Christ demands His Body, and the Body demands Him. The Body is dominated by Him in order that, according to one passage we have just read, it may be His completeness, "the fullness of him that filleth all in all."

So, then, the Body has as its function two main things. One is to LOCATE the person or the personality, to bring Christ where the Body is, so that, where the Body is, there Christ should be. He has decided and chosen so to bind Himself up with His Body, that that Body, the Church, should be the place where He is found; that, in the minimum of representation - two members - it should bring Him into any place, that by it He should be able to come into any location or situation. One purpose of the Body, then, is to locate Christ.

Secondly, its function is to express the personality, to be the means, the vessel, wherein and whereby He can express Himself, make Himself known - bring people to see the Lord, to know the Lord, to understand the Lord. That is quite simple, but it is quite challenging.

There are several matters connected with this. Let us look in the first place at some things of relative or secondary account. It is possible to exaggerate the Body. That is sometimes done in the physical, human realm! Such an assertiveness, such an elaboration, such an aggrandizement, such an adornment and decoration of the external, the body, the fabric - to the hiding of the personality - so that the thing which impresses is the form, the pageantry, the external, not the presence of the Lord. It is that which touches the senses of men, so that their sight is taken up and their human natural senses of perception are occupied with the externals of the Church and often with the people themselves making an impression, and the Lord Himself is not to be found. It is possible to exaggerate the body; and apart from that - possibly exaggerated - observation, in many other ways we can bring the TECHNIQUE of the Church, of the Body of Christ, how it must be done and so on, so much into view, that all this is occupying the attention instead of the Lord Himself. The very teaching can obscure, if we are not very careful. Unless the Lord, the personality within, transcends all the means employed, then there is something wrong and we had better reconsider our means.

In the next place, it is possible to make the body ARTIFICIAL - now I am on very thin ice! - by titivating and decorating and painting. And what is it all about? It is an attempt to create personality where it is felt to be lacking. Forgive me if this makes any reader feel uncomfortable! But that is its underlying object - to make an impression, to carry weight, to give a sense of personality, or to make up some conscious lack. It is possible to be so occupied with this elaboration in connection with the Church in order to make an impression. How much of it, indeed, is already being done by the organized Church, with this object in view. All sorts of things are being put on, taken on, employed, all the paint and gilt and tinsel, all the artificial, in order to try to overcome this sense of a lack of impact, in order to make an impression because the impression is not there naturally; and it is quite possible to make the Body of Christ artificial, and its registration an artificial one, which will wear off unless you put more paint on and still more. You have to keep it going or it will fade out. It has to be done every morning!

On the other hand, it is possible to underestimate and be careless about the body, and that is equally evil. To be careless, slovenly, shabby in your bodily presence dishonors the personality, it takes something from the man, it degrades him. That could be applied in many ways. We make the observation as we go on that we must honor the Body of Christ. We are under obligation to keep the Body in respect for the sake of the One who is inside. While I speak, of course, of the fellowship of the Lord's people - the mutual honoring and respecting and helping and trying to elevate the standard of spiritual life; keeping things from becoming spiritually shabby and threadbare and down at heel, it does have - and forgive the somewhat mundane application - it does have an application to our personal presence, as to whether we, as Christians, in our personal appearance are really discrediting our Lord, by carelessness in habits or in dress, in behavior or manners. These things let the Lord down. As Christians we ought to be far above them. Now I am not suggesting to you that you at once go and begin to elaborate your personal adornments, but I do say that Christ deserves to be honored by the body and in the body, and it is possible to sin against Christ by carelessness with regard to the body. I would like to follow that more closely in our mutual care of one another - what the Word calls "provoking one another to good works," and "washing one another's feet"; that is, helping one another to keep from the earth, to keep out of touch with the low level of this world.

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Functional Relatedness

We turn now to look at some things of primary account. The things that we have just been considering are perhaps only relatively important but there are also the greater things, the things of primary account for the full expression of the personality. I am using that word deliberately, for the time being, instead of Christ, because you will get the point better, I think, if I do so. For the full expression of the personality, which is Christ, there must be first of all a body, and a body, as we have read in 1 Cor. 12, is not so many individual scattered members. The body is not so many disconnected or unconnected members. The Body of Christ is the fellowship of believers, in the Holy Spirit, in a very definite, conscious relatedness, involving an inward registration and recognition that we are related to all the Lord's people, that locality in this matter is not the final criterion, that we are related to the Lord's people everywhere. That is, indeed, most definitely emphasized in the New Testament as an absolute necessity for the full expression of Christ. The full expression of Christ cannot come through unrelated individual believers. There may be some small, some partial expression of Christ in such, but fullness requires relatedness, and I challenge you on this matter. It is open to proof and it is constantly demonstrated. Your measure of Christ depends upon your relatedness. You will never get beyond a certain small degree of the expression of Christ in isolation, in separation, in independence, in apartness. The increase of your measure of the expression of Christ demands that you are in vital union with other members of His Body. I cannot be too emphatic about that, because I see everywhere the spiritual limitations and even the spiritual ravages resulting from the loss of that great reality. The Body must exist; there must be relatedness. And not just as an abstract thing; it must be real, it must be conscious, it must be deliberate, it must be a part of the very life. We know it - and if we do not know it, Satan knows it - but the Lord knows it.

Interrelatedness

And then there must be interrelatedness. Interrelatedness is essential to the full expression of this union, this fellowship, this relatedness; there must be a working together, there must be a mutual consideration with a view to helping one another, definitely helping one another. We are members not only of Christ - we have read that twice already - but "severally one of another." That is interrelatedness, and it is the very practical aspect of the Body of Christ that there is mutual support and mutual helpfulness, and that we are really laying ourselves out for the good of other members of the Body of Christ. That is the only way of the fullness of His expression. I said this is subject to test, to proof. You will find that your measure of Christ increases when you go to help another member of Christ; when you consider the need of other members of the Body and do what you can to meet it, Christ is coming out in fuller expression in your own life. If you are wrapped up in yourself, circling around yourself, occupied with yourself, nursing your own grievances and sufferings and trials and difficulties, and so becoming more and more isolated and imprisoned within yourself, your measure of Christ is diminishing all the time. It is that outward movement to His own that means spiritual increase to the one who makes it. It is necessary, it is essential, for the full expression of the personality. The New Testament is largely constructed upon that truth.

Interdependence

And in the next place, interdependence. It is only another phase of the same thing. This brings in a general spirit of meekness. One member cannot say to another, "I have no need of you." It is not, perhaps, likely that you would say that in so many words. It may have been said in Corinth. It does seem as though something like that was going on there, and those actual words may have been used by some about others. "We can do without you!" "You do not count!" But it is not likely that spiritual people would use those actual phrases. Yet we act them. We behave like that too often. It is one of the lessons that we have got to learn. We really must consider this matter - that somehow or other the members which are least honorable are necessary. Somehow or other, those whom we would discount are necessary. It may be difficult sometimes to see how they are necessary. At any rate, it is to be an attitude. Can the Lord do without that one? Does not all the grace of God in salvation and in glorification come down to that least one? And am I not the least one, after all? Do we feel we are more important than others, and that we therefore merit the grace of God more than some others do? You see, the whole question of meekness arises. Interdependence means that somehow we need one another. That is true, and that is a necessary basis for the full expression of Christ - mutual recognition, mutual honoring; so that we take the attitude, "Now, this child of God, with all the faults and weaknesses, cannot be despised, cannot be cut off as of no account. Somewhere they fit into the whole in the realm of the Spirit, and the measure of Christ is increased." In that way we try to make the most of the least. There must be an acceptance of the fact of the Body.

Functional Constitution and Appointment

Then we must accept, definitely accept, the fact of the constitutional function of each member: that is, that each member, if really a member of Christ - and so possessing the indwelling Holy Spirit - each member, by the Holy Spirit, is in some way constituted with a function. Now, we must take that to ourselves. You may feel that you have not any place or function; you have always been trying to find out what it is, but you have never discovered it. How many people have come to me and said something like this - "Do you really believe that I represent some function in the Body of Christ? I wish you would tell me what it is!" I will answer that in another way. I am saying that we must accept the fact as stated in the Word of God, that, if this is not just some picture, some illustration, this figure of the body; if it is a reality, if the body is more than a metaphor, if it is a living reality and the Church is constituted on the very principles of the physical body of a man, as undoubtedly it is, if that is true, then these facts hold good, they are facts and we have got to accept the facts.

Now you can theorize about the functions of your body, if you like, but you will sooner or later have to accept the facts of it: they are facts. And so are these things that I am mentioning. We have to accept the fact that as members of Christ, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we are constituted with a function in the Body of Christ and we have got to function. We have to recognize that we are there to function, not to be parasites or passengers, but to fulfil vital functions in the Body of Christ. If we accept the fact, and adjust ourselves to the fact, the Holy Spirit can do things; but if we become passive, if we sit down and decide that we do not count for anything and therefore what is the good of it - today we are eggs, tomorrow we are feather-dusters! - if we adopt that kind of attitude, the Holy Spirit will not do anything. The Holy Spirit says, Now then, on your feet and give Me an opportunity; take a positive attitude toward this reality, this truth, that you are a member of Christ's Body and that He has no paralyzed members.

That means, of course, more than the acceptance of the fact of our position in the Body and of our having a function in the Body. It means the acceptance of our RESPONSIBILITY, that we regard ourselves as responsible people in the Body of Christ, that we take responsibility for the expression of Christ - not personal importance, assertiveness, self-realization, but the expression of Christ. I am here as a member of a Body, the function of which is to express the indwelling personality, which is Christ. That is a serious responsibility, a solemn charge and obligation, as well as a privilege. We must take this up. Why am I joined to Christ? Why am I a member of Christ's Body? For such I am if I am in Christ. Why am I in that position? For no other and no lesser purpose than to be the vehicle of the expression of Christ, and if I am not doing that I am contradicting the very meaning of my union with Christ. We have to take responsibility over it. Every day we have to feel responsible about this matter of the expression of Christ. Of course, that will come down to many things. We slip up, we make mistakes; we speak a wrong thing, or a right thing in a wrong way; somehow or other we default; and at once we say, "That is not Christ, I must put that right; that has made a false impression, that has dishonored my Lord, let me clear that up." That is taking responsibility. There will be many small things like that - though nothing is truly small in the Body of Christ; and we could speak of many other things.

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Unconscious Functioning a Sign of Health

Now in a healthy body all this exists very largely unconsciously. Coming back to what I said, asking, What is my function? - your trouble will be that you will not know. In a healthy body, everything happens without your being conscious of it. You do not mentally reason out, work out and think and decide when you are going to take the next breath. You just do it. You never thought anything about it. That is going on in your body if you are healthy. It is all functioning so largely unconsciously. There is an unconscious sense in our physical system. It registers before we register. When we are pulled up by some symptom, some feeling, we begin to realize that something has gone wrong physically. But the system registered that before we were conscious of it. It is only bringing us to recognize what it has already recognized. That is going on all the time. In a healthy body there is no self-occupation with - What am I, who am I, where am I, what is my function? And when the Body of Christ is healthy, there is a spontaneous expression of Christ. It just happens, and it is most healthy when it is like that - indeed it is only healthy when it is like that. When people are self-conscious, when people are letting you know that they are trying to do something for the Lord - there is something wrong there. That is the Body occupied with itself instead of with the Lord. If we are really occupied with the Lord, a very great deal of this self-occupation disappears. Do not worry as to what your function is. You live in union with the Lord and you will function. You may not be able to see what it is that represents your value, but it will be there; you may not be able to see how it is that you are serving the purpose of the Body, but it will be served. Is it not true that we have known those who have felt themselves the poorest, the weakest, the most foolish, and we have found a fragrance of Christ, a beautiful fragrance of Christ, in that life, and they were all the time so troubled because they did not feel they were any good at all? We have met Christ. It is quite a healthy state to be in - far better than the opposite. There is an unconscious registration going on.

And when there is this unconscious registration, if anything does go wrong, what has been registered in the spirit within begins to make itself felt outwardly, and we become aware of the symptoms. We know there is something wrong. It has come up somewhere from the depths; something is not right. What I am saying is that there is a fact of things before there is an understanding of things. Before there is a mental apprehension, there is a fact, the fact of function before we understand. We said in an earlier chapter in this series that sometimes there can be a true living, beautiful expression of the real meaning of the Body of Christ without any of the teaching or the technique. That does not mean that teaching becomes unnecessary; but the right order is that the thing should be there first, and that you should come to something more by understanding what is there: whereas if you put it the other way and get all the teaching and technique and then try to get reality, it does not work - it is the wrong way round.

Christ's Headship

I am going to close with this, the key to all - and there is a great deal more than I have said: you know how much we could say about the Body of Christ and its function, it is just full of wonderful Divine meaning - but the key to all is Christ's Headship expressed in every member, in every part. There is a sense in which our heads, physically, naturally can be said to be present in every part of a healthy body. You can take the finest point and touch any part of the body to the farthest extremity - and how do you sense it? you know it in your head, you register it there. In a healthy body, the head, if it is free to function and is really functioning, is in touch with, and as it were represented in, every part. In the same way the Headship of Christ - His absolute Headship, Lordship, sovereignty, call it what you will - being expressed in any and every part of the Body and in every function, is the key to everything.

This means, of course, simply that every one of us, howsoever many we be, must be immediately and utterly under the absolute Lordship of Jesus Christ if the foregoing is to be true. The expression of Christ demands the Lordship of Christ, the manifestation of Christ demands that He have His place as Head in every part.

Now do take that as the sum of everything; but do remember, do believe it - for you are going to prove it - you are going out or you are going on, you are going down or you are going up; we are all either going to make spiritual progress or we are going to retrogress. There is no standing still in this. We are on a slippery slope, and the only way is to keep going up or else we shall go down, and it is going to be like that all the way. Have no mistake about it. We are not just going to be stationary. If we do not go on we are going to lose ground. It is a fact which is borne out by the experience of every one of us, that we just CANNOT cease to be positive. It is a most perilous thing to cease to be positive in the Christian life. Lack of fervency of spirit uncovers us, it takes our defenses away, and we shall be steadily undone, steadily disintegrated, steadily made to lose out. This matter of the Body of Christ as a living organism, with relatedness and interrelatedness and interdependence, is no theory or technique. These are vital relationships connected with the increase of spiritual life, the enlargement of the expression of Christ, the justification of our very existence. But they are necessary things. You let your fellowship with the Lord's people suffer and you let your own spiritual life suffer. If you in any way become detached and isolated in spirit, in mind, in action, you cut the very vitals of your own spiritual life. It is like that. This functional union with Christ in His Body is essential. It is essential to Him, for the fulfillment of His purpose. It is essential to us in the fulfillment of our very life as Christians.

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Chapter 8 - Vital and Organic Union

6. Vital and Organic Union

"Every one... that doeth righteousness is begotten of him" (1 John 2:29).

"...Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (1 John 1:13).

"Of his own will he brought us forth [begat he us, A.V.] by the word of truth" (James 1:18).

"Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3).
And of course the whole of John 15 should be placed there. "I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me..." and so on.

"As newborn babes, long for the spiritual milk which is without guile, that ye may grow thereby unto salvation" (1 Peter 2:2).

"...But speaking truth in love, may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, even Christ" (Ephesians 4:15).

There will be no new profundities of truth delved into in what follows, and to many it will perhaps seem like coming back to the most elementary things, the very beginnings, of the Christian life, but I feel that it is very necessary for us to take nothing for granted. We who may know these things, and may have known them for a long time, will be the better for constant refresher courses in such matters, to help us to remember these basic truths and basic laws of our life and growth. There being such a large proportion of younger people among our readers, who are undoubtedly seeking the way of the quickest entrance into spiritual fullness, who are concerned to get on in the spiritual life just as quickly as possible, I think this word may prove helpful to them. At least it will be a re-emphasis upon things which it is so necessary always to keep in mind.

The Seed-Principle

Now the principle of being and growing is life. The means and method of being and growing is a seed, with life in it, in which the whole organism of its kind exists. That is, indeed, the principle upon which God has constructed the greater part of his animate creation. It is not a machine - it is an organism. It is not made to run and go by artificial means or external energies. Of course, it requires food from outside, but it must have life in order to feed. It is sustained by life in itself. The seed of every species has, within itself, all that characterizes the particular organism. The particular nature of that species, its shape, its size, its color, its form, its features, its capacities, are all there in the seed where the life is. Of course, that is the wonder of nature. It is an amazing thing: just a seed with its tiny germ of life in it, and then, when grown, developed and in full expression, coming true to type in all its features. It is a marvelous thing. That is God's method of being and growing. It is all there.

(a) Begetting

We have read passages in which the word "begotten" is used concerning certain people, a certain type of creation, "begotten of God." The seed, the fertilizing principle, is the Word of God, and the life is the Spirit of God, who is the Spirit of life. Within the Word of God - of course specifically within the Word of truth in the Scriptures, but in anything that God says, that really comes from God to us - there are contained all the wonderful possibilities, potentialities, of what is of God, of what is like God, of God's nature, of God's mind, of God's features, of all the dimensions to which God would bring a life; the very shape of the life which God would produce. It is all there when God speaks. When God says something, and His Word falls into suitable ground and has that corresponding answer of fertilizing faith, it is all potentially there. (You will remember that it was said of some that the Word spoken profited them nothing, not being mingled with faith in them that heard it (Heb. 4:2), so that there was no begetting. There are always two sides to this matter, but we are not going to be too detailed and analytical. Some things will have to be taken for granted.) But when God says something and sees in us a response, an answer back to God, all that wonderful fullness of Divine meaning, intention, possibility, kind, order, shape, size and everything else, is there in what God has said. Something has happened and wonderful possibilities exist. It is possible, of course, for God to come with His Word, with all the mighty potentialities of begetting, and for nothing to happen because of our attitude, but, given the response, given the counterpart of faith, and anything within the compass of Divine intention and conception is possible.

Now I am stressing this very much because I feel that we have become too familiar with hearing the truth of God. So often nothing happens. We have not sufficiently recognized the tremendous things that are bound up with the Lord speaking to us. If the Lord has said anything to you, be very careful that you give heed, that you do not let that go, that you do not despise that. God does not come for nothing with such an object in view, and with such tremendous possibilities; He is not playing with us. It is the most solemn as well as the most glorious thing, in possibility and prospect, if, and when, the Lord speaks to us. Do believe that. You see, within His speaking, within His Word, there is all the possibility of God coming into expression.

I have illustrated this before in days gone by by the seed merchant who has a double window to his shop. On one side of the door, he has the seeds and the bulbs to look at - very uninteresting-looking, unpromising things. There is nothing attractive in their appearance; you do not want to take out your artist's palette and make paintings of seeds and bulbs. But, on the other side of his window, he has the full flower - the flower fully developed in its exquisite colors and wonderful form and he says, "This is that; all this is in that." That is the marvel of living things.

And when God speaks, all that is of God is there in that speaking, and when you and I get to glory and are glorified together with Him, He will only say, "This is that. You gave heed to something I said, and this is the result. I spoke to you: you received, you obeyed, you gave diligence: well, this is that - this is not something extra; it is just that." Do believe, do remember, that the Lord is constantly wanting to speak and to speak in the nature of a begetting - the bringing into being of an organism which is produced in heaven and has all heavenly features in it.

But of course this is in the power and custodianship of the Spirit of life. We have to receive the Spirit; the Spirit has to be in us to work out all these wonderful things in God's speaking. If we have the Spirit of God within, as we should do, or if the Spirit of God is accompanying the Word to us before we have actually received Him within: if the Spirit of God works upon that Word, then the purpose of God is realized. For us as Christians, it is most important that when we hear what God has to say we should be in the Spirit. It is most important that, when you go to meetings, if God should speak, you should be in the Spirit. You should take every measure to see that you are in the Spirit, that there is nothing there hindering the Spirit, nothing of which you know grieving the Spirit, working against the Spirit of God; because nothing is going to happen if that is so. With all the hearing, nothing will happen. But, being in the Spirit, all the mighty possibilities of God are taken up by the Spirit of God to be made real.

In this begetting, there may be a period of hidden activity, when we do not know what is happening, and perhaps we cannot sense anything happening; but God has spoken, and something has happened: we have answered. For the moment, for the time being, we do not know that anything is taking place, but it will come to light. Presently there will be a sensing that God has done something. That period may be longer or shorter, but it will surely be known that God has said something and God in saying something did something, started something, and His work will be manifested, something will be going on secretly. That is the meaning of being "begotten of God."

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(b) Birth

That leads us, of course, to the next step. Many people have confused these two things - begetting and birth. They are not the same, either in nature or in grace. Birth - what is birth? Birth is the point at which manifestation begins, when what God has been doing begins to show itself, comes out into manifestation; life manifested now in some Divine organism, a new life, a new order of things.

I wonder if you have followed what I have been saying. You see, it is like this so often in the early part of the Christian life. God says something, and His Spirit is with us in the saying, and we make a response. Then, for the moment, we do not know that anything very much has happened. But something has happened. Sooner or later - it may be very soon, almost simultaneously with the act of God in us, or it may be after a period of secret operation within, and faith is being tested as to whether anything has happened at all - something comes out, and we find that we just cannot do what we did before, and we have now got to do things we never did before, and our way of thinking and speaking is becoming challenged and changed and transformed. We find that some new order has come into being, and it is making all the differences, and we are able more and more clearly and definitely to draw the line between what was and what is now, what we were and what we are now. That is the course of the normal Christian life: that this new thing has now begun to manifest itself, and we are aware that something new has been born, and we just cannot be what we were, we just cannot do what we did; we are behaving in new ways; something has come from another world; a new beginning has been made. It is a new organism altogether. "If any man is in Christ, there is a new creation" (2 Cor. 5:17).

The main point about a constitution of a particular kind is that it begins to manifest its kind. That is birth - something of a particular kind. "Except one be born anew [or 'from above'] he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). The kingdom of God is a kind of order, a nature of things; not just a sphere, a place, but how things are done with God, in God's realm of things; what is fitting to God's realm, suitable to God's realm; how things happen and work in God's realm. And this new organism shows the nature of what is born in God's realm. Well, sometimes a little baby does act like a monkey, but normally it acts like a human being! I mean, it conforms to type. Some baby Christians act very strangely, but it is not long before you begin to realize that they are of another mold, everybody else begins to realize they are of another order, a new kind of being has been brought into manifestation, and now quite spontaneously they act according to their species, a heavenly order. That is being born from God - a manifestation of something, the bringing to light of something. That is very elementary, but it is testing.

(c) Growth

And if that is true as to the beginnings, then it must be true, increasingly true, in the matter of growth, following begetting and birth. Here a few quite simple but very vital things have to be noted.

(1) Christ Imparted

What is the principle and the basis of the growth of this heavenly organism, begotten of God, born from above? Well, the principle of growth is, from beginning to end, Christ imparted. All the Scriptures as the Word of God center in Christ. So is the begetting, the birth and the growth, all related to Christ. It is Christ imparted. Any ministry claiming to be the Word of God, which does not center in Christ, will not have God's effect. It is very important always to keep Christ to the fore if you are going to have God's ends reached: because from start to finish, initially, progressively and finally, God's object is the imparting of Christ - the imparting of Christ through the Word, by teaching, and the Holy Spirit working upon the Word, upon the teaching, concerning Christ.

It is something more than information about Christ. It is a ministration of Christ by the Spirit in the Word. I am quite sure you have learned, one way or the other - that is, negatively or positively, by failure or by success - you have learned that if you neglect the Word of God, if you neglect the ministry of the Word, your spiritual life is going to fall away, your spiritual growth is going to be stultified, arrested. If your Bible is kept to the fore all the time - I do not mean that you are reading it all day and night, but that it has the foremost place, so that if you can by any means get some few minutes with the Word of God you are after it - that is the way of growth, the way of the Spirit, the way of spiritual formation. Neglect the Word and neglect the ministry of Christ, and you lose out spiritually.

That is very elementary, but it is true. If Satan can raise up any excuse for your Bible remaining closed and out of hand, if he can fill your hands and your mind and your time with anything to keep you from the Word of God or from the ministry of the Word, he will do it. He is out to cut clean across your growth spiritually, because it is the increase of Christ. It is against the increase of Christ that he is set.

Take that quite solemnly. I say you prove it one way or the other. We have all proved it. We know that if we lose the ministration of the Word we lose our spiritual life. Christ is ministered to us for growth. And what is true of the Word is equally true of prayer: because, although we make prayer nine-tenths a matter of trying to get the Lord to serve our convenience, to be at hand just to give us the things we want, the real meaning of prayer is that we truly receive the Lord, we receive Christ. If we are seeking Christ in prayer, prayer will have a wonderfully refreshing, renewing, strengthening ministry. How often, in the weariness, the terrible weariness, of the way, when it seems impossible to drag on any farther, if we just get away quietly for a few minutes with the Lord and draw in prayer upon Him - "Lord, I need You, I need strength, I need renewal" - how refreshed we are. It is so. If only we would make prayer more a matter of a ministry of Christ to us - not of asking for a lot of things that will make our lives a bit easier and more pleasant, but the increase of Christ -! The Holy Spirit works on that, He responds to that. So then, growth is a ministry of Christ through the Word - the teaching, the instruction, the ministry - and through prayer.

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(2) Christ Assimilated

But then there is something further. After you have taken your meal, it may do you no good - it may do you a lot of harm. Food is not everything. There is such a thing as assimilation, and this is where the enemy usually scores. If he cannot stop us from the one thing and the other, the Word and the prayer, he will make frantic efforts to break in here. We must therefore make sure that, whatever has to be suspended for it, we do have at least a brief time for dwelling on the impartation, dwelling on Christ, dwelling on the Word.

That means an inward attitude. If you take food, and you have not, as it were, the right inward attitude toward that food, it does not do you any good. There is a complaint which has to do with what is called the pancreas, and if the pancreas is not functioning properly the food does not nourish the body. You can take as much as you like but it does not do any good. You can eat and eat, but the food does not profit the body. You need something to stimulate or restore the function of the pancreas. You know what I mean - this assimilation business, this inward attitude that draws upon the Word, draws upon the Lord, that dwells upon Him, just a few minutes perhaps in a day, but a quiet time of assimilation. That is the way of growth. You may come through eleven meetings of a conference, and what a heap of stuff you get, and it may profit you not a little bit. There is enough in one meeting to carry us a very long time, to accomplish a very great deal of spiritual growth and yet it may effect nothing at all. What do you do about it? Do you lay hold inwardly? Is your attitude, "I must have this! If this can help my spiritual life and growth, I lay hold of this, I break this up!" - do you take this attitude? It is essential to growth. Growth is organic, it is vital.

(3) Christ Known

And then, in the third place, growth is by Christ known - what the New Testament calls spiritual understanding. The Holy Spirit, working through the Word, working through prayer, working through our meditation, would bring us into an intelligence concerning the Lord, so that we are able to say, "Yes, I heard that, I received that; I have laid hold of that, I have been exercised over that; but I understand now, I see the meaning, the importance, the value: I see." And there is a great deal connected with spiritual understanding in our spiritual growth. You know how true that is shown to be in the Word. Even one who had seen so much, and been given so much; who could say, "Well, coming to visions and revelations of the Lord, I knew a man about fourteen years ago caught up into heaven, shown unspeakable things not lawful for a man to utter" (2 Cor. 12:1-4); even such a man, who had had all that and much more, could say, as his life, his course here, was coming to an end, "'that I may know him' - that is still my ambition." It is growth by knowledge.

And that man wrote, as we know so well, to those who had some fairly rich impartation of Divine ministry - for consider how long Paul was at Ephesus. He said concerning his ministry: "I shrank not from declaring unto you the whole counsel of God" (Acts 20:27). What a lot he had given those Ephesian believers! And yet he says, in writing to them at last, toward the end: "I... cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him" ("the full knowledge of Him" is the word used); "having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling. what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe" (Eph. 1:15-19). There is something in knowing, in seeing, in understanding. It is the way of enlargement, the way of growth.

Of course, that is normal in a normal human being. We grow, and as we grow our understanding increases, and as our understanding increases so we grow. Spiritual understanding works both ways. It is a grand thing to find Christians, and even young Christians, who are getting to know the Lord - not just living on addresses and externalities, but themselves growing in the knowledge of the Lord.

All this is certainly vital union with Christ, and it is certainly organic. It is a matter of life, and it is a way of life, and it is all a matter of our union with our Lord. That is what provides it, that is what provokes it, that is what stimulates it, that is what begins it, that is what maintains it, that is what completes it. So you may come to John 15, and you have it all there, "In Me"; "abide in Me"; "in Me bear fruit"; "abide in Me, bear much fruit"; and so it goes on. It is all "in Christ."

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Chapter 9 - Consummated Union

7. Consummated Union

"And it came to pass about eight days after these sayings, that he took with him Peter and John and James, and went up into the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment became white and dazzling. And behold, there talked with him two men, who were Moses and Elijah; who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep: but when they were fully awake, they saw his glory, and the two men that stood with him. And it came to pass, as they were parting from him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah: not knowing what he said. And while he said these things, there came a cloud, and overshadowed them: and they feared as they entered into the cloud. And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my Son, my chosen: hear ye him. And when the voice came, Jesus was found alone" (Luke 4:28-36).

"And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him... For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God" (Romans 8:17,19-21).

"...When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be marvelled at in all them that believed... in that day" (2 Thess. 1:10).

"Behold, I tell you a mystery: We all shall not sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?" (1 Cor. 15:51-55).

"The Lord Jesus Christ... shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory" (Phil. 3:20-21).

"For it became him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings" (Heb. 2:10).

"And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God" (Rev. 21:10-11).

We have, first of all, to take a far backward look to remind ourselves that, when God made man, He constituted him with a view to transfiguration: that is, with a view to Divine glory. That was His intention. But man revolted against God and committed spiritual suicide and, in his rebellion and failure, forfeited that wonderful destiny and, as we have read, God instantly pronounced "Vanity" upon the whole creation, or, as we expressed it earlier in this series, wrote at the heart of this creation and of man: "Disappointment." But God made His appointment with another man, the Man after His own heart, His own Son, who became Son of Man; and in that other Man, the Man Christ Jesus, eternal union was secured between those whom God foreknew as believers in Christ and His Son. He secured in His Son a new creation which could be transfigured or glorified. When we see the Lord Jesus in transfiguration on that mountain, we see in Him personally what the first Adam ought to have come to - man glorified, man transfigured; and when we read all these things later about being glorified together with Him, His bringing many sons to glory, our bodies being made like unto the body of His glory and the heavenly Jerusalem having the glory of God, and all those wonderful things, we just see the realization of the original intention. This is what God meant to be from the beginning, and which might, without any trouble or tragedy, have taken place so much earlier, through man's triumph in the time of his probation and testing.

But it is all now consummated in Christ Jesus, the Man in the glory. Glory, as we are never tired of saying, is the gratification of God the Creator and of His whole creation. Glory is simply being able to say, in the full wonderful enjoyment and realization: "This is how it ought to be!" That is glory. You know that even in little ways. You perhaps do not call it glory, but you feel it. If anything is just as you feel it ought to be, then inside you have a touch, a tinge, of glory. But conceive of mankind as a whole, and the whole creation, being just as they were meant to be, and everybody, without reservation or question, being able to say, "Well, this is as it ought to be!" - and that is glory. And when God can say - and His standard is very high, it is absolute - when God from His standpoint can say, "This is exactly as it ought to be, as I intended it to be": well, that indeed will be the day of glory.

That, then, is the consummation of this union with Christ, the union which we have been considering from its various aspects. The eternal union of being chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world; the creational and racial union of our being a new creation in Christ Jesus as the last Adam, the second Man; the marital union when the bride shall have made herself ready, when all those affectional relationships between Him and her and her and Him have been brought to fullness, when no longer any question or doubt, hesitation or reservation of confidence exists: a perfect merging of two lives, His and His Church's - the marriage supper of the Lamb: this is the consummation of that. Further, the vocational union where the house of God has been established and God's heavenly order has been set up and manifested; the functional union of the Body of Christ, where that Body has served for the manifestation of Himself as its indwelling personality; and vital union, organic union, where His life, His Divine heavenly life, has brought the organism to its perfect expression and fulfillment. These are the aspects of union, all of which are taken up in this ultimate consummation - the consummation of all His glory.

Now you see that, in the passages we have read, all of which deserve much fuller consideration than we are giving them, this consummation is viewed in various ways and connections.

First we note the individual consummation, spiritual and physical. There are the individual sons being brought to glory, and in being brought to glory the individual physical body is transformed. It is a wonderful statement: "the body of our humiliation (shall) be conformed to the body of his glory" - all doctors and nurses out of a job, and all undoubtedly very glad to be so! All that realm of things finished, wound up; bodies of glory, glorified bodies "like unto the body of his glory." It is called the change from corruptible to incorruptible. How marvelous - incapable of being corrupted!

Oh, we would like to stop for a little while on the resurrection body of the Lord Jesus. It was a most wonderful thing, that raising of the Lord Jesus from the dead. Joseph begged the body of Jesus, and then, being given it, he and Nicodemus bought a hundred pounds' weight of embalming spices. It is a fairly good weight, a hundred pounds! You can picture those two old fellows carrying that tremendous load. And then they wrapped Him in the linen garment, and inside the garment all that weight of spices was wrapped up. And when they came into the tomb; after His resurrection they found it all there in order - no scattering of the spices all over the tomb; it is all there in order, the shape is unaltered. He has come through it all. Just as He passed through the closed doors later on, He has come out and left the shell. That is some indication of what a glorified body can do.

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To be "conformed to the body of his glory": that is an individual consummation of union with Christ. The spirit is already joined with Him. "He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit" (1 Cor. 6:17), and that union of spirit is going to be consummated in a glorification of body, a new body of glory. That is the end of it. We have seen the corporate aspect of it. There are sons, but there is a seed. It is the same thing under another title or designation. It is the corporate Body of Christ: the Church glorified, "having the glory of God." The Church, having been His Body, having been in this manifold union with Him, is going to be a "glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing"; the Church of glory having the glory of God.

And then - wonderful passage! - Christ is going to be vindicated in His saints, Christ vindicated in those in whom He has been dwelling. "He shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be marvelled at in all them that believed": Christ vindicated in His saints - a glorious thing. We who, here and now in this world, have been despised, who have been thought little or nothing of, we who have been set aside, who have been maligned, have been persecuted, who have suffered simply because Christ is in us, simply because of our union with Christ - oh, what it has meant, what it has sometimes cost! - that Christ in us is going to be glorified in us and marveled at in us. The scene is going to change: the indwelling of Christ is not always going to be a thing which means suffering, adversity, persecution, sorrow and trial. The indwelling of Christ ultimately in the consummation is going to be a most glorious thing - glorified in His saints and marveled at. We can understand that, if we view Him objectively, we shall marvel at Him when we see Him. But here the statement is that He is going to be marveled at in all them that have believed. It is the vindication of Christ and the vindication of the saints.

Now let us note that this is not only a future prospect. We could get excited about our visions and our dreams, our illusions - as they might be. We could have these wonderful ideas and conceptions, simply because they constitute the Christian faith. Christians believe such things as these. These are the things which go to make up what is called the religion of Christianity. But it is not just that. Oh, no: Christianity is, being different from all other religions, subject to experiment. It allows of being put to the test, and it stands up to the test and bears present evidence of its full reality. The hopes and expectations and anticipations of Christians are not just and only lying in the future. In the day in which you and I become, or in which any man or woman becomes, joined to the Lord, in a definite act, there is instantly an evidence of the ultimate glory.

Your experience and history may bear that out - so much so, that you find yourself looking back to those days, to the beginning, almost with longing eyes, with a wistful heart. There are people who sing, and who sing quite in accordance with their spirit:

 "Where is the blessedness I knew
When first I saw the Lord?
Where is the soul-refreshing view
Of Jesus and His Word?"

"Return, O holy Dove, return
Sweet messenger of rest!"

They go on,

"The dearest idol I have known,
Whate'er that idol be,
Help me to tear it from Thy throne,
And worship only Thee."

Yes, many have come to have to sing like that; but whether you sing like that or not, whether that is true or not - and it ought not to be true of Christians - there is always a looking back to those first days. For many of us it is like that. I remember so clearly my own first days and months, when the Lord got a full, clear, free way in my heart and life; they were wonderful. Not that they have not been wonderful since! But what happened? Why, we just had a taste of the glory! The evidence was born there and then that we were made for glory: our coming into the new creation in Christ Jesus is at once sealed and stamped with the destiny of the new creation - glory. God's new beginnings are always with glory.

But this is not only at the beginning - it happens repeatedly in the course of the Christian life. Sadly enough, we do not just go straight on without some tumbles, falls, blunders, sinning, slipping up, making grievous and sad mistakes in our Christian life, and when we do it the enemy is not slow to rush in and seek to put us right out altogether. We begin to feel very sad and very sorry for ourselves, and down we go; our spirits droop, and we get locked up with this thing. The glory has gone, and we think it is never going to come back again. But then somehow the Lord says something to us, He speaks to us again His word of reassurance, and the thing is put right; we lay hold in faith again, and the glory comes back. The Lord has not forsaken us, the destiny is not lost - it comes back again.

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We go away from the Lord and we are miserable. There is no glory in being away from the Lord. You can see the difference between people when they were going on with the Lord and what they are now. But come back and you find glory is waiting. It is the experience again and again in our lives. The glory is waiting: we were made for it: our union with Christ is the assurance of it. Our drifting from Christ suspends the glory: we come back and it is there again. Get a controversy with the Lord, or let the Lord have a controversy with you - something about which the Lord has spoken, something that He has indicated as not according to His mind, or perhaps some experience, trial, difficulty, through which He allows us to pass - and we become bitter, sour, grieved; we allow ourselves to be gripped in the cold hand of that grievance with the Lord, and the glory all goes. But when we come back and put right the thing that the Lord has required, or return to the Lord and hand over the grievance, and say, "Well, this is only ruining the whole of my life, spoiling everything; it must not remain I am going on with the Lord whatever it costs" - the glory comes back.

This glorification at the end is no fiction and it is no mere future expectation. It is a thing to which the Holy Spirit is witnessing all the way along. And may that not be one of the reasons why He brings about these crises in our lives - so that we shall not take too much for granted, that there shall be something continuously or repeatedly wonderful in our union with Christ? But what is the real purpose of these crises? Why does the Lord bring these crises in our lives? When we come up against things or are taken through difficult experiences and the necessity arises for some fresh adjustment, some fresh letting go, what is it all about? Well, you see, it all amounts to just this - making more room for the Lord Jesus because it is Christ who is the ground of glory: God's appointment is with His Son. Away from His Son it is disappointment: but when the Son gets a fuller place, a larger place, in us - perhaps through a crisis, through a battle, a re-adjustment - when He gets a fuller place there is still more ground for the glory of God. It is Christ in us who is the hope of glory; it is Christ in us who is the ground of glory. It is, in other words, our union with Christ that is to issue in glory, and as that union becomes deeper, stronger, fuller, more settled, so the ground for glory increases. We seem, as we go on in the Christian life, to have deeper crises all the way along. Somehow or other we come to the place where we think we have touched bottom, we can never go deeper; then we do get taken into something deeper, and the situation seems more hopeless than ever; but the Lord brings us through, and there is more life than ever, more of the Lord than ever, more glory than ever. Well, the word in the New Testament is: "the Spirit of glory resteth upon you" (1 Pet. 4:14). The way to glory is the suffering: as it was with the Head, so it must be with the members; as it was with the Master, so it must be with the servant; as with Him, so with us. It is the suffering and the glory - that is the way.

I will close there. It is the glorious end that is in view, and the end, let me repeat, can be put to the test now. You will perhaps remember my saying on former occasions that with me the matter of the Lord's coming does not rest and remain just as a matter of prophecy. I do not find a very great deal of exhilaration and inspiration in studying prophecy about the coming of the Lord. That is all right - do not misunderstand me! If you like to study prophecy, study it; but it does not always result in glory. But I do find this, that when we sing about the Lord's coming, it is not just the effervescence and enthusiasm of a few people singing. Something extra seems to come in, and that something extra is the Spirit of glory: because the Holy Spirit is not past, present and future - the Holy Spirit is timeless. The Holy Spirit is eternally - now - eternity in any one minute. With the Holy Spirit, the coming of the Lord Jesus is as though it were now. Speak of the coming, and the Holy Spirit says, "Yes, here is the evidence of it!" He gives it in the midst of the saints, and something of the glory is there when you sing about the coming of the Lord. It is not just a reminder that things are going to be better in the future. It is a touch and a taste of that future coming into the "now." That is a good note on which to close: a note of the present reality of these things, all put to the test and experienced now, because the glory is not only future. We have the Spirit of glory resting upon us now, to attest the end all along the way. May the Lord keep us Christians like that, living in the spiritual good of our faith; not upon doctrine alone, not upon truths, but in the reality of those things in the Holy Spirit now.

The End

Up next: The Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ

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In keeping with T. Austin-Sparks' wishes that what was freely received should be freely given, his writings are not copyrighted. Therefore you are free to use these writings as you are led, however we ask if you choose to share writings from this site with others, please offer them freely - free of changes, free of charge and free of copyright.

The Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ

by T. Austin-Sparks

Chapter 1 - Reality Through the Cross

I have often said to friends, when we get to glory at last, we shall look at one another and just say, “Well, we’re here”. We often thought it would not be, we wondered, but at last, here we are. So our being here this evening in this place is a very small representation of that great truth and reality; it’s been battle all the way. We were ready and started out early yesterday morning, frustration upon frustration found us at six o'clock or half past six in the evening back again in our home after being in airports and other places all day long. We got away this morning and just as we were going through to the plane the loudspeaker called “Will Mr Austin-Sparks please call at the TWA desk and see the representative” and I said “Oh no, what’s this one?” Well, we got away and as our brothers will tell you, we took the wrong turning this evening on our way from Washington and went I suppose twenty miles out of our way, and I said here’s another one! But here we are and that’s how it will be and it has often been; many frustrations, many problems, many difficulties along the way... sometimes “shall we ever get there?” that is, to glory. But we shall.

I was early this morning reading the Word before setting out again and I read this: “Jesus Christ, He is Lord of all” and that came as you see right in the midst of all this yesterday and today. I just had to lay hold of that; He is Lord of all. Now, that by way of introduction and we spend no more time on personal matters and for this little while you will not expect too much I am sure, for my time, my time in London time is twenty minutes to one in the morning! Well, the Lord will help us.

So now I do not think that I shall get really into that which is on my heart for ministry this week just now, but I think I can move toward it in this way: by reminding you that there is one fear that ought to be characteristic of every true Christian. I know there’s much that forbids fear and tells us to fear not. There’s very much about that and that’s the kind of fear that we must not indulge in. But there is one fear that ought to characterize every true Christian and child of God and that is the fear of unreality: the fear of having divine truth without divine power, of having divine light without divine character, of having knowledge of things without the formation of Christ in our lives. That is, having a great deal of teaching without it becoming effective in our lives. That is what I mean by "unreality". There’s a vast amount of that - teaching, truth, mental knowledge - given to us in a spoken ministry and in book form and yet... no corresponding measure of Life, Power, and Christ-likeness. Reality. That is the ultimate test of everything that we have or think that we have. That’s the test.

The test will never be how much we know of what is in the Bible, how much truth we have received, the test will be ever and always: what does that amount to in our case, in a practical way? Now that is the burden with which I have come here. I don’t know whether the devil has been trying to play upon my fear and my reservation, for in a very real sense I have not wanted to come to Wabanna this year. Not a second guess but in a very real sense I’m afraid, afraid of more talking, more addresses, more unfolding of biblical content and truth. I’ve been doing it, you see, for so many years; sixty years I’ve been preaching and I at this time have to look out and say: what has it amounted to? What does it amount to? I know it is not all without blessing, help, usefulness to the Lord, but... seeing the mountains of teaching over these years, dare I add to that? Have I the assurance that if I go and do more, it’s going to lead somewhere? That’s my fear, my question. So I want, right at the beginning (I don’t know what has been said to you already last night and today) but this is what I want to say is I come amongst you that we must have this fear this week, a right kind of fear, I believe a divine fear, that we do not fill our notebooks or our minds with more teaching, truth, substance, but that every time as far as there is something that can really affect us, result in something in us, so far as we are concerned we are going to apply our hearts to that. Then day by day and when the days are past, we are different people. That’s the only justification of our coming, friends, we are different people. We certainly are not the same in spiritual life at the end as when we came.

And it does not require a very large or deep knowledge of the Lord Jesus - His Life, His movement amongst people, His teaching - it does not require profound knowledge to recognize that this was a characteristic of Himself. The one thing that He hated... with all the beautiful things that He said, the kind things, the gracious things He said and did; He said some terrible things - words of wrath, anger, came out of His mouth like fiery swords. Some of his denunciations are really terrible! Really terrible. There was this element about Him... it was about his forerunner John the Baptist. John the Baptist said some pretty terrible things if you get the literal meaning and statement of what he said. He turned to these people who came out from Jerusalem to see him, hear him, he said: “You generation of vipers! Who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” You get the picture? There’s a bush fire, it’s spreading and as it spreads the vipers leap out and make for the river to escape the flames. John says, “That’s what some of you people are doing coming down here to the river where I’m baptizing. You’re a generation of vipers just seeking to escape the wrath to come.” That’s a pretty terrible thing to say to people isn’t it? But the Lord Jesus said equally strong things, “Ye hypocrites! Ye hypocrites! You whited sepulchers!” and much more like that. His words... all because His soul was consumed with this passion for reality. One thing he could not tolerate was hypocrisy, falsehood, unreality, pretense, make-believe, play-acting. No!

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Reality

Not even a Nicodemus, a great teacher in Israel, stalwart upholder of the best traditions... he’s not going to escape, he will be told very frankly that it counts for nothing in the kingdom of God. If this is the effect of the Lord’s words, if there is not reality (and what Christ meant by reality is the heavenliness of nature; not even the best nature amongst men, but another, by another) well, I need say little more. It’s perfectly clear that the one thing that Jesus was set upon with all His heart was that there should be no gap whatever between truth as truth, teaching as teaching, doctrine as doctrine, Bible knowledge as Bible knowledge, and life and heavenly character and Christ-likeness. No gap between the two! One may be very good, but if it stops short of this, it counts for nothing after all. The Lord Jesus was so definitely set upon this reality and He is now. And I want you to remember and to note that both the Bible in its teaching and history as it unfolds and is moving now so swiftly toward its consummation, both of the scriptures and history and especially the end of this dispensation, are marked by this: that as we go on with God, if we are, let me put it this way. If we are going on with God and as we go on with God, we shall have a deepening, deepening concern about reality. That is, that the very essence of things will become more and more our concern.

You see, the parables of the Lord Jesus were along that line. What about the wheat and the so-called tares? Well, the suggestion of it was “Let’s pluck up the tares”. The Lord said in so doing you may destroy the wheat as well; let a process ensue, give it time and, sure, sure as can be, in time that process of intensification will reveal without any doubt or possibility of making a mistake, what is what and which is which. And other parables are on the same principle. You see the sower... itself such a simple parable it seems, but what is it? One sowing, two sowing, three sowing, four sowing... failure. Failure. Next, reality in two degrees: sixty, less or more? The measure of reality.

The issue is this: in the end after all the giving of the Word, all the broadcasting of the Truth, all the preaching of the Gospel, in the end, what is the criterion? Not how much has been given, or how much has been in a general way received, but how much of the real thing comes out at last? At last, what have you got? Now, of course I could spend much time on the Word showing that, both in the teaching of the Lord Himself and later in the New Testament but history is bearing this out that it is a true law, a true principle. And who is so blind today amongst Christians as to fail to see this process of intensification going on? It’s spreading; it’s spreading. It has tested everything in China to the last degree; what is going to be found after all the years of missionary enterprise and expense and cost and what-not? What is going to be found in the end that is the thing which stands eternally?

It’s spreading all over the world isn’t it? Oh, ask some of these dear Christians in Africa, in Egypt today, in Israel today, it’s coming on you know, it’s coming on here. The Sovereignty of God is going to press it over more and more this issue: “After all that I have given to the nations of this world, after all that has come to people from heaven during these centuries, what will there be that is essential reality?” Am I wrong? Isn’t it obvious? It’s patent that is what’s happening, and even if there are not the outward persecutions in our part of the world, the western hemisphere, that there are in the East, my mail, dear friends, brings continually letters from everywhere; people, dear people of God saying: I never in my life knew so much pressure as I’m knowing today, spiritual pressure, spiritual trials, sometimes I just do not know where I am, which way to turn or to look, the conflict is so intense. Well, some of you here perhaps know something about that.

It is increasingly difficult to go on in the utter way with God. The enemy is going to stop that if he can by any means. And so, we here will be receiving one and another much, I trust, from the Lord. That must not be the end of it. We’ve heard it, we know it, but let us step back and say but do I? Do I?

Now, dear friends, I am not standing before you to preach, that’s not the idea, I want to say to you that after these many years of seeking to walk with the Lord, and know the Lord, and to serve the Lord, minister to the Lord and to His people… with a very wide and, I think, deep experience spiritually, I say to you that the year between now and when we were here before has been the most terrible year of my life from a spiritual standpoint. The conflict, the pressure! The intense determination of the devil that if it is possible he will get us out before we reach the end. Does that sound too serious, heavy? No, I want to say to you that you are bound sooner or later to come up against this issue: has all that I have heard, and received and know, become Life to me? My very life? A part of my being? Or is it here, just stored here. That’s the thing which must govern us and the fear of it being otherwise must be with us continually.

I expect somebody will say to me afterward: well you have put a heavy load on, you have brought heaviness on the whole thing. No, no, this has got to be a time of fortification, of knowing the Lord in an inward way, of an increase of Christ to go through triumphantly to the end and stand at last - having stood and withstood - stand at last, triumphant here.

Now that just brings me to the point where I can only indicate what it is that I feel the Lord is going to have me say to you this week. All that I have been saying and the much more that I could say on this matter of reality, is focused, in the Word of God, is focused and concentrated and summed up in one thing. Apart from the person of the Lord Jesus (we take that for granted) but after the recognition of the place, the immense place of the Lord Jesus, the next thing in the Bible which is central, which is supreme, which is all-governing and which is persistent, is the Cross of the Lord Jesus. He is the supreme reality but after himself, the, the predominant reality of the Bible is the Cross. It is!

No one can truly contemplate the cross of our Lord Jesus without being overwhelmed with the sense of what a real thing it was, there’s no fiction about that, there’s no imagination about that, there’s no pretense about that. Terribly, terribly real was that cross... to Him, to His first disciples. The Cross. And the Cross is not only a reality in history, the New Testament makes it perfectly clear that the Cross is as real in experience for the child of God as ever it was in history. Today it is just as real in the spiritual experience and history of the child of God as it was when it was enacted those centuries ago at that spot called Calvary. Why it is so real is for us to see in what little time we shall have this week, but I want to draw your attention to this, focus it upon this as the central reality in God’s universe, in creation, in human history.

The Cross... as the apostle Paul calls it -

[Shammu]

The Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ

In every book of the New Testament the Cross is either explicit or implicit. That is, it is either definitely referred to, mentioned, brought clearly into view, or it is implied. It is in the very heart of things as you read through the New Testament.

In the gospels, the four gospels, they vary in their content, what one writer leaves out another puts in. You find only a little of John in the others. They all have their own different points of teaching, of the work of the Lord, but they are on common ground over this one thing. Not one of them fails to head everything up to the Cross, they crown all they have said in that. And John said what he had written was a mere modicum of what he could have written, he said if everything were to be put down the world couldn’t contain the books! Well, was he exaggerating? Well we’ve learned through 2000 years that the world is full of the books and they’re still pouring out but whatever it was, the lesser or the greater measure, not one of them failed to make this perfectly clear: that the Cross is the crown. The Cross is the great and consummate point of everything, which gives meaning to everything else, both the person, the work, and the teaching; the Cross it is that gives power to everything else. Yes, they’re on common ground there, whatever they’ve had to say, they all find themselves being led up to that one thing as the end. But in the gospels it is the historic facts of the Cross, something enacted in history at a certain time, in a certain place, because of certain things; took place in history. It had to be like that.

When you move over from the gospels to the book of the Acts you find that out of the history has come a gospel, a preaching, and those who are found in that book are heralds of the Cross. Note the place that they give to the Cross and how they hold everything to that centre.

The day of Pentecost... Peter has come to see now what he didn’t see at the time that he denied his Lord. He can see now and now he is telling the people very frankly and very strongly that the Cross is the key to everything that’s happening, “Whom ye crucified, God raised”. Out of that everything proceeds and the whole book of the Acts is based upon the Cross. The heralds of the Cross are going forth to the ends of the earth.

You move on to the letters, they’re called the epistles, you will find as I have said, the Cross is either explicit or implicit in every one! That is what we are going to see, I trust, as far as we can get, but in every one of these, some particular aspect and application of the Cross is brought to light and applied. Is the Cross being applied on this situation or that situation, because of this and because of that? Every letter has in it in some way the law, the principle of the Cross to touch a particular need, or condition, or state and situation. There’s the many sided Cross running right through all these letters.

This, with this, I perhaps will close for the present. This surely is enough to impress us that there’s something here that we’ve got to know and understand, more than we do, about this... about this, what we call the Cross, “the message of the Cross”. I told you last year how tired I am of that phrase... people write and people speak and seem to think that I’m a kind of either a crank or an expert on this matter of what they call “the message of the Cross”. Oh no, may the Lord save us from “the message of the cross” as that, as such, and show us the tremendous, the eternal significance of this central theme in Christianity. Not only as basic to becoming a Christian, the Cross as “the Cross where I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away”. That’s good; never get away from that blessedness, but dear friends, that’s not all that the Cross has got to say and to do. It is going to follow us through, follow us through all our years if we are going to move with God. And at the end, at the end we shall not have got away from the Cross. We will need it as much at the end as at any time beginning or subsequently.

I think what I’ll call them to you, an American audience, may sound strange but perhaps you know the phrase: what are called the Victorians, the Victorian era. Does that convey anything to you? Well, if you don’t know about the phrase you’ll find it in your hymnbooks. The Victorians, I think, had the more ready apprehension of the place of the Cross for the end of the Christian life. They may have been a bit morbid, I think they were a bit! Well, so many of those hymns you know, you take up Moody and Sankey’s hymnbooks, you know how many hymns you will find closing with the last gasp of breath when I pass, you know it sounds a bit morbid doesn’t it?

I did hear, I think it was Miss Carmichael of Dohnavur, who said that she was a child and taken to church and so wearied with the church service and not least with the preacher, that she opened her hymnbook and made a study of all that people were going to say when they died; a collection of all their last words in the hymns when the last breath comes and so on. Well, that may be a bit morbid, depressing. We don’t sing those hymns so much today, we do sing some of them, but I think those people had a more ready apprehension of the place of the deliverance, the victory, the triumph of the Cross at the end than perhaps is common.

We put so much emphasis upon the beginning of the Christian life and the place of the Cross there, forgiveness and so on. Thank God, thank God for it, never lose our appreciation of that but, we’re going to need all that mighty work of the Cross more and more as we go on with God and at the end. Yes, we are going to need to know the reality of what Christ has done by His Cross and what that Cross stands for, for us, for time, and our eternal destiny.

Well, that’s my introduction. I do feel I want right at this point to come in on this: dear friends, get adjusted in mind and heart over this week if you have not already done so. It may have already had the appeal, I don’t know; but get adjusted to this: I am not here just to get my notebook full of what the preachers are saying, either to have it for myself or to use it for some other people. I’m not here to accumulate fresh stores of truth, I am here to come under the hand of God that He may effect in me what yet remains to be effected and can be at this time. Would you adjust to that? Say to the Lord at the close of this day and every day and in the morning, “Lord, now, not just teaching today, but power, power effecting something. If it’s going to be the Word like a sharp two edged sword piercing to dividing asunder, alright Lord, better that than that I should be whole in unreality.” Will you do that?

The Lord help you, I trust that although what I have said may seem to make the Cross rather terrible, rather dreadful, I trust we shall see the other side and be really with the apostles, “God forbid that I should glory, glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ”. May the glory of the Cross come to us as well as its challenge in a new way in these days.

[Shammu]

The Cross and the Two Humanities

Once more, oh Lord, we ask for the miracle of the opening of the ear, the inner ear; the opening of the inner eye, that by the Spirit of the Living God we may hear and see what is impossible for us to hear and see but for Thy supernatural work. Lord, do that, we pray, for Thy glory, in the name of the Lord Jesus, amen.

We are occupied with what the apostle Paul in the end of his letter to the Galatians referred to as “the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ”. In the opening and introductory time we just mentioned that in every book of the New Testament the Cross is to be found; in either a definite and positive placement, or it is to be found by implication in what is written. That is, everywhere in the New Testament the Cross in some way is kept in view. And then we went on to break that up and in the letter to the Romans last night we were seeing the all-inclusiveness of the Cross; how in that letter the Cross is seen as touching every dimension, every realm, every sphere, every aspect of life. It’s all gathered into that letter. The Cross is seen to be central to it all. Now, after the all-inclusiveness, we begin to break that down by looking at some of these letters as far as we are able to get this week and that will not be very far. And this evening we come to the first letter to the Corinthians.

The Cross in the first letter to the Corinthians... and it is here in what I am going to call “the Cross and the two humanities”. You need not be worried for the moment about the title, you’ll understand before we’re through, I think. But let us just be reminded how definite the Cross is in this letter, right at its early part in chapter 1 and verse 17 and verse 18.

“For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not in wisdom of words, lest the Cross of Christ should be made void. For the word of the Cross is to them that are perishing foolishness; but unto us which are being saved it is the power of God.”

Unto us who are being saved the Cross is the power of God. In verse 23, “But we preach Christ crucified.” Chapter two, verse two: “I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” See how soon the apostle is on the basic matter of the whole letter!

I want, for a later purpose, just to add to those passages the fragment known well to you, from the letter to the Hebrews, chapter 4 verses 12 and 13, beginning with a conjunction of very real significance, at which we will look or to which we will refer later: “for”. It is a continuation of something. “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joint and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature that is not manifest in His sight.” For the moment just know it: the thought of the heart. Have you ever thought with your heart? Not the common way is it, in speaking about thinking? We’re supposed to think with our heads, “the thoughts and intents of our hearts...” I’ll just leave that for the time being.

Now to the message. And in order to really understand and to appreciate the place of the Cross in this first letter to the Corinthians it is important - indeed it is essential - that we know the situation to which the letter was addressed. So, with the briefest of introductory words, let me remind you that the apostle Paul was in Corinth for two whole years and what we know of him, about his visits and his ministry, lead us to the very certain conclusion that he wasted no time during those two years. He did have a habit of preaching all night, and one young man at any rate knew something about that!

For two whole years the apostle was there in Corinth and we may conclude that for hours on hours, every day, he was ministering. And then he went away and he was away from Corinth for four or five years. During this time a very terrible deterioration in the situation, the spiritual situation, set in and rumors of it reached the ears of the apostle, brought by the members of the household of Chloe; evidently, I think, the servants in that household who visited the apostle and brought the report of this sad and tragic spiritual deterioration. Apollos was dispatched and he went to Corinth to investigate and returned to the apostle with the news that it was all too true. The situation was indeed very bad and the apostle sat down to write letters. He probably wrote three letters, one possibly lost. Two we have. And in the first letter, which we are now considering, the situation is uncovered, the tragedy is exposed. We have this that is perhaps the most terrible of all the New Testament documents as to spiritual declension.

[Shammu]

I pause there for the moment, not rushing on, to once more indicate that it is not the amount of teaching that you have that guarantees your spiritual growth. You and I would agree that if the apostle Paul, and what we know of him, were with us for two whole years every day pouring himself out, as he said in other connections and other times, making sure that they received the whole counsel of God... If the apostle Paul had two years with us, well that would settle the whole matter of our spiritual growth, and measure, our going on. Not necessarily. We are very, very little things compared with Paul and here we are having ministry day after day, three times a day, and it is no guarantee of anything unless we learn the lesson that the apostle tried to teach in this letter, this first letter by which such a terrible, almost unthinkable result would ensue from his ministry.

So he wrote the first letter... and this letter does disclose a lot of terrible things. You know what it contains about behaviour of these Christians at Corinth, going to law before the world and the ungodly against one another. I’m not going to stay with all the details but the moral decline was such a low, low level, almost unthinkable like the very lowest level of incest; a moral level. Divisions, there are divisions among them, "there are divisions among you".

Well, evidently some at Corinth were exercised about the situation and they had sent to the apostle eleven questions for him to answer. I’ll leave that to you, they’re answered in this letter: eleven questions. But the point, oh let it come home to us, it’s going to hurt us, it really is going to hurt us. It’s going to pierce us if we listen and take heed. The Spirit is going to be like the two edged sword. Listen then: after all that ministering of such a man pouring out his heart perhaps night and day with tears, because the Lord had said to him when he arrived in Corinth, “I have much people in this city” I have! Now after all of that, out of the heart of this church, there comes this questionnaire. Eleven questions on not very profound matters, indeed, rather staple matters some of them. You would think “Oh, surely they’ve got past that!” But the point is: indications indicated an almost utter lack of inward spiritual perception, judgment, understanding. A lot of mental questions, perhaps on practical matters, but questions...

I dare not say what I’m almost inclined to say, you know we can just be full of mental questions indicating how little we have inwardly of divine understanding. Well, by the way, that’s how it is here. It’s a bad situation isn’t it? On almost every aspect of life and you would hardly think of a Christian life, because there was a time when first handling this letter I said “Well, are these people born again people at all? Is it possible that such people should be Christians?” That’s it, that’s the position to which the apostle addressed himself and note: right at the outset of his addressing himself to the situation, he introduces in this three-fold way with such precision: the Cross. “I determined, I made up my mind, I resolved to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”

Now you’ve got onto the line you see there. These people were not on the line of the Cross apparently and that was the reason for this situation. That explains everything. They were on another line. That is what we’re going to come to presently. They were on another line and it was the line of this world brought within the area here of Christian things; always a most dangerous thing with most terrible results. Of course you would think that to be addressed like this would have no application, but wait a moment please. I’m not saying that in this congregation or in this company these things are being perpetrated: immorality of the grossest type, and form, and other such things, of a moral kind. I don’t know about divisions... Don’t know about divisions, depends on what you mean. You see, after all, divisions are in the spirit before they are on the outside. However, leave it for the moment.

It may not be and it may yet be that some of these things are true. Whether all or few, they represent a position, a situation, which is a denial of the Cross and which will explain Corinthian position which is, Paul calls it, a position of carnality which means: “Why, you haven’t grown at all! I could not speak to you as unto spiritual but as unto carnal! Ye are yet babes!” Babes? After two years of his ministry like that and being left for another four or five years to work it out? Yes, all that... still babes. Still babes! Fed you with milk, not with meat, you're not, they’re not yet able. What a terrible position!

Now I say again, whether that be wholly or only partly the situation with us, any of us, we’re in the presence of something that is going to be our deliverance from any such course or situation sooner or later. That is why I stressed that little fragment, “we who are being saved”. The Cross for those who are being saved; got that? Well now, this whole letter just is built up upon two words, two words which represent two different humanities, two contrary kinds of people who can be in Christianity and who can be Christians. I’m not talking now about saved and unsaved; I'm talking about we who are in the course of being saved, we've got inside, we’re on the road. And even so, if this letter means anything, even so, after we have come in and are the Lord’s on this mysterious ground... we make out by the apostle’s beginning of the letter, so kind and generous he is: unto the saints which are at Corinth.

Well I won’t stop with that, we’ve got a wrong idea of what a saint is. Two or three weeks ago I came across something which I thought was very good on this matter of sainthood. A mother took her little girl to a church building with stained glass windows and there were figures in the windows, the stained glass windows. The little girl looked at these and said to her mother, “Mother, who are those people?” The mother said, “Oh, they are the saints.”  The little girl put that in her mind and went away. Thereto afterwards the mother took the little girl to the home of a dear old child of God and had a wonderful time with this old believer. And when they came away the mother said to the girl: “She’s a real saint”.  Stained glass windows... and saints... how can these both be saints? She thought and thought and she said “Oh, I know! I know now what a saint is! A saint is one who lets the light through!” A saint is one who lets the light through.

Well I don’t know how much these Corinthians were letting the light through but Paul said they were saints, and the point is they were on the inside of the Christian community. And on the inside you can have these two humanities represented by these two words which I’m going to give you (keep you in suspense for a minute or two) but I’m wanting to lay a very sure foundation for what I’m saying. I’m not just giving you doctrine and truth and theory. I’m here to get right down to the roots of the Christian life. That is what we all want isn’t it? We want reality. All right.

These two words then that constitute this whole letter are the basis upon which everything that follows in the New Testament rests. Until that is settled which is represented by these two words, you can’t go into second Corinthians for that is a big advance upon the first. You cannot proceed to Galatians, we’re still moving on. You cannot go into Ephesians or Philippians and Colossians with all that they represent of the mind, the thought of God for us. We cannot go on to any of them until this is settled.

And herein I see the sovereign providence of God by the Holy Spirit putting this as the first practical application of the Cross in the Christian life. For I say upon this, this, rests everything that follows, right to the end. And this is distinction represented by the two words; it explains the very incarnation itself. It explains the baptism of the Lord Jesus. It explains the anointing of the Lord Jesus with the Holy Spirit. It explains the battle into which the Lord Jesus was precipitated with satan and his kingdom. It explains the very Cross itself, including the resurrection. It explains the advent of the Holy Spirit, the very coming of the Holy Spirit and it explains the training under the Holy Spirit’s government of the life of the Christian. That’s a few things isn’t it, fundamental to the Christian life, you got them all? All those things are explained by the two words that I am going to remind you of and if I added one other thing to all those that I have mentioned, I would add the building of the church because that comes here doesn’t it, in chapter three, “other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, let every man take heed how he build thereon”. It's the building of the church (and it’s the building of the Christian life) and there are two possible issues, two possible issues connected with that building. It depends on what you put on it; on the foundations... Wood, hay, stubble, going up in flames and smoke and you being saved yet as by fire and all your life’s work gone up in smoke. That’s a terrible prospect and the apostle’s saying that’s possible for you Corinthians. Or on the other side, gold, silver, precious stones which I’m not going to explain, as symbols, but these which will abide, and secure not just being saved and creeping into heaven (we have a way of saying in England I don’t know whether you say it, by the very skin of your teeth, just getting in) or having an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom. These are the issues with this basic distinction represented by these two words. Are you ready now for them?