by T. Austin-Sparks
Where shall we begin when we want to consider the revelation of the
heart of God in Jesus Christ in those years? "God so loved the
world." Think of John's usage of the very term "Father." That is a
new revelation, for the most part, to humanity. It comes in in a
fulness and depth of meaning in the New Testament which is quite
fresh. The heart of God is laid bare in the Lord Jesus. Oh yes, to
the shame of us Christians so often, to my shaming, perhaps to
yours, our attitude towards sinners, the discredited, the
loathsome, the repulsive, the antagonistic, the rejecting, the
despising, the malicious, so often, is such a different attitude
from His. What an attitude He took. Without condoning sin, and never
justifying evil, nevertheless, He went on with a love and a
forbearance and a patience and a yearning that, I say, shames us.
One has a reason and an object in view in saying this, to which we
are working in a minute. And then, of course, His three and a half
years were for the manifestation of the power of God, the mighty
works of God which were wrought by Him and through Him. The power of
God was clearly set forth and administered by Him. Men had very
ample opportunity of seeing the power of God manifested through Him.
Of course, the appreciation of men, carnal men, worldly men, lies
very largely within their own realm of what is physically
demonstrated. They cannot appreciate spiritual power in the
spiritual realm. But the power of God was displayed to them in the
realm where they could recognise it. All manner of sicknesses and
infirmities, as well as power over nature, power over temporal
conditions, power in many realms, and, of course, power in the
spiritual realm, but man could not go that far; but these years were
occupied with the display of the Father's power, mainly in the
behalf of man for his good and blessing and benefit. Well, that is
all very clear, I think.
But what about the third phase, the forty days? It is a testing
phase. It has a meaning of its own, and it was unto the establishing
of the fact and nature of the perfect redemption which He had
accomplished for man in spirit and soul and body. The record is that
"by many infallible proofs" He appeared unto them - was made known
unto them - after His resurrection. There was the establishment
first of all of the fact that He was risen, the fact that Christ who
had died was alive. Read in Acts 17:31 "God hath appointed a day in
the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom
He hath ordained."
Here in the resurrection you have - while God, very God - yet Man in
a state of perfect redemption where the whole man is represented in
his completely redeemed state. The forty days represent man in
Christ as God intends man to be. Why does He call attention to
Himself as He does, "Handle me and see: a spirit hath not flesh and
bones as ye see me have." "Reach hither thy hand and put it into my
side" - "feel these hands, it is I myself - handle me and see." Why
is it? And yet that body, that humanity, which could be handled,
felt, touched, could pass through doors that were bolted, and be
found at great distances in a moment of time. That is not a spirit,
this is a spiritual body. There is all the difference between a
spirit and a spiritual body. We are not going to be disembodied
spirits floating, about in the air. We are going to have glorified
bodies, and here is the earnest, here is the type, here is the
representation.
Forty days is the Bible probation period which is always intended to
issue in glory. Forty years for Israel ought, in the purpose of God,
to have issued in Canaan. His forty days were a probation period for
manifestation ere He entered into glory:- the manifestation, the
establishment of the fact and nature of redemption for man, which He
had accomplished and which He gathered up in His own Person as
representing man fully redeemed, spirit, soul, and body. That is why
Christ spent thirty years, three and a half years, and forty days
here on the earth.
Now then, what has that to do with the Holy Spirit? Beloved, why did
the Holy Spirit come? We said, to take Christ's place here. In other
words, the Holy Spirit is here to inwardly work towards that in the
believer:- as the Spirit of the glorified Christ, to bring to birth,
so to speak, Christ within. The One who fully forms Christ in that
believer, and conforms that believer to the image of Christ until,
apart from His Deity and His Godhead, there is a manifestation of
Christ glorified in every believer in the consummation of the
redemptive activity of God. That is the Holy Spirit's purpose in
being here. To take up Christ in the completeness of His work and
Person as Son of Man glorified, and work toward that in every
believer. But go back over the ground. The Holy Spirit is here in
relation to the thirty years to bring Christ glorified into a vital
relationship to us, a vital relationship; there is the spiritual
counterpart of the thirty years. "He that is joined to the Lord is
one spirit" and the Holy Spirit is here to link Christ with us and
us with Christ in a vital oneness and relationship so that it is
"Christ in us" and "Christ our life." You cannot have anything more
utter than that. Christ our life. There is the relationship. It does
not mean He loses His personality or His individual identity, but it
does mean that He links Himself with us and us with Himself in new
birth so that we are one, and we can say "I am His and He is mine
for ever," the oneness is absolute.
Then the Holy Spirit is here also in relation to the purpose of the
three and a half years, the manifestation of the mind of God in the
believer:- taking of the heavenly, the Divine things, and showing
them. There is no knowledge of God in reality, apart from the Holy
Spirit. There is no knowledge of the mind of God without the Holy
Spirit. But He has come that within us there might be a revelation
of the Father's mind in Jesus Christ. Says the apostle John, "The
anointing which you have received abideth in you and ye have no need
that any man should teach you, the anointing in you teacheth you all
things." "He that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is
judged of no man." Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath
entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared
for them that love Him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his
Spirit." The revelation inwardly of the mind of God is the work of
the Holy Spirit, "He shall take of mine and reveal it unto you." "He
shall not speak of Himself but whatsoever He shall hear that shall
He speak" "All things that the Father hath are mine, therefore said
I, he shall take of mine and shew it unto you." You see it is the
Father's things given to Christ, taken by the Holy Spirit and
revealed to us:- the mind, the love. Oh, let us stay here in heart
if we cannot in word, stay here in heart for this is where we need
the Holy Spirit, if we need the Holy Spirit anywhere. A revelation
of the Father's heart. The Holy Spirit has come as the Spirit of
Christ glorified, to take up that object of His being here, and work
that object out now, not as merely a public historic testimony, but
as an inward spiritual reality, "the love of God shed abroad in our
hearts by the Holy Ghost." It is the work of the Holy Spirit to do
that, and there is no love that is truly the love of God, and will
stand the test and go all the way that God's love goes without the
Holy Spirit, but given the Holy Spirit love becomes almost, I was
going to say - omnipotent, given the Holy Spirit there is little
impossible in the realm of love: but oh, we know so little of that.
That is why I am talking about the need of the Holy Spirit; but if
you and I need one thing more than anything else, it is more of that
love of God shed abroad in the heart, poured forth in the heart by
the Holy Spirit. We will have to come back to that again before we
are through, I think.
Then the third thing concerning the three and a half years - the
power of God. This again is a thing to be considered by itself, but
we merely mention it in this connection. "It is expedient for you
that I go away; for if I go not away the Comforter will not come
unto you; but if I depart I will send Him unto you." "But if I go
away." What is bound up for us in the coming of the Spirit? "The
works that I do shall ye do and greater than these shall ye do,
because I go to the Father." This is, in effect, because in My going
the Holy Spirit comes! "And greater works than these shall ye do."
How? Why? In as much as the spiritual and eternal are greater than
the physical and the temporal, in that degree the greater works are
wrought by you in the power of the Holy Spirit. They could not
appreciate that in those days. Whether it takes more power to say
'Rise, take up thy bed and walk' or 'Thy sins be forgiven thee' -
'But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power to forgive
sins' - a sign of that greater thing - "He said to the sick of the
palsy, 'Rise, take up thy bed.'" It was a sign of greater power in
the spiritual realm. It is a far greater thing to raise the
spiritually dead than the physically dead; a far greater thing to
open spiritually blind eyes than the natural. The physically raised
from the dead will die again, those who are blind physically may
have their eyes opened and be given their sight, but it is only for
three-score years and ten "and if by reason of strength they be
fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow." The
opening of spiritually deaf ears is greater than opening naturally
deaf ears. "Greater works than these shall ye do because I go to the
Father." 'The Holy Spirit is coming to do in the spiritual realm
what I have been doing in three and a half years as only a sign.' Well, they passed from that realm to a realm where everything was
heavenly, everything spiritual, where God was no longer going to do
things to judge and condemn doubly an unbelieving race.
"Greater
works... because I go to the Father." You see the power of God is to
be manifested by the Holy Spirit in the higher realm of spiritual
resurrection, enlightenment, quickening, and all those counterpart
activities of what Christ did in the three and a half years. The
Spirit is here to take up the three and a half years, but He is also
here to take up the forty days. Oh no, not to give us glorified or
spiritualised bodies now, but, beloved, if the Holy Spirit does not
come inside and begin to make us spiritual men and women, with a
spiritual mind and spiritual apprehension and spiritual
sensibilities, senses and faculties, and develop them, you may take
it for granted you will never have a spiritual body. It will take a
spiritual inner man to have a spiritual outer man. "And to every
seed its own body." The seed of the resurrection body is the New
Man, the Christ within, and that man is being formed now. As Paul
prayed, "My little children for whom I travail again till Christ be
fully formed in you." That forming of Christ within, and that
conforming to the image of Christ is the Spirit's movement toward
clothing that inner new man with the heavenly body. "To every seed
its own body." And the forty days represent that full model, pattern
of God's glorified humanity towards which the Holy Spirit's incoming
and activity is directed for every man.
Now that is all elementary and simple, for I said we would reduce it
to a few concrete propositions. There are some basic primary facts
which must be laid down once and for all by us, and in mentioning
these perhaps we will close.
Firstly, salvation from the start to finish, from the first simple
exercise of faith right on through all its course and development to
the last touch of an instantaneous glorification, the whole from
beginning to end is inseparable from the Lord Jesus in Person. That
is a simple statement. You need not use as many words as I have
used, put it in your own way. Salvation from the start to finish is
inseparable from the Lord Jesus in Person. It is the "salvation
which is in Christ Jesus" and there is none outside. That is the
first thing that has got to be settled once and for all. You cannot
come to the Lord Jesus as you would go to the grocer's shop and get
salvation and take it away in a parcel. Forgive that way of putting
it but some people talk about salvation as though it was some thing they got. We never get
salvation as some thing,
but as some One. The whole
of salvation in every part and fragment is bound up with Christ in
Person and you cannot separate the thing from Him. It is Christ, and
not salvation as something in itself.
Secondly, Christ is the personal representative of God's new
creation, that is, in resurrection. See Christ in resurrection and
you see the personal representative in fulness of God's new
creation, God's new creation man.
Thirdly, the Holy Spirit is the personal representative of Christ.
They are one, He is the Spirit of Christ. As such, He is the Spirit
of the new creation.
Now you put those three together before we go further and you see;
salvation in its entirety is inseparable from Christ in Person.
Christ is the representative of God's new creation: you have Christ,
you have God's new creation, you have got all that is included in
the new creation. The Holy Spirit is the personal representative of
Christ; they are one, and He is the Spirit of the new creation;
therefore, when we are saved, it is that the Holy Spirit has brought
Christ as God's new creation into our hearts, the representative of
God's new creation has come in, and from that moment everything is
related to Christ within us, the Holy Spirit working in relation to
Christ in us. And then finally, the new creation therefore, is all
of God. If Christ is all of God, and the new creation is Christ
dwelling within the renewed spirit, then the new creation has a new
nature. That is not in our own selves, that is Christ, and that is
Christ in our renewed spirit. Whether we live in the new or in the
old depends upon whether we are living in the spirit or in the
flesh; that opens up the whole of that realm of flesh and spirit. If
we walk in the Spirit we shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh,
but there is that indwelling Representative of God's new creation
which is all and utterly of God in its nature. Yes, in mind, the
mind of Christ; the heart, yes, the heart of Christ; the will, yes,
the will of Christ, as the mind, heart and will of God were in Him
now they are in us by the Holy Spirit. Divine disposition is there
by the Holy Spirit as Personal Representative of Christ, it is
there, a divine disposition.
Now as we have just said, everything for us from that time depends
upon whether we are going to be utterly, absolutely surrendered to
and governed by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, and let Him
so work in us and we so co-operate with Him in His working in us
that the mind which is the mind of the Lord, the heart which is the
heart of the Lord, the will which is the will of the Lord, the
disposition which is the disposition of the Lord, grows,
transcending all the time the old mind, heart, will, disposition,
and Christ thus being fully formed in us. That is new creation in
Christ Jesus.
My emphasis at the moment is upon this, that the new creation is all
of God, and in so far, beloved, as we are not all of God in mind,
heart, will, disposition, or in any other way, in that degree we
have come short of the full work of the Holy Spirit. Now that is not
said to condemn or judge, for who on this earth can ever claim to
have reached the fulness of the Holy Spirit's work in them? Not one
of us here would make such a claim, but one says it in order to
point out that when we
come into evidence, with our
mind, will, disposition, when we begin to allow that to assert
itself, show itself, intrude itself, when we permit that in any way
whatever, and do not immediately turn upon it in the power of
Christ's death and repudiate it, in that measure we are not walking
after the Spirit, in that measure we are failing to recognise this
great thing, that the new creation is all of God. Oh, that we should
immediately turn upon any kind of showing of ourselves and say "that
is not of God," not excusing it, not covering it up, not saying that
that is my weakness, infirmity, my temperament; no, that is not of
God, that is not the new creation, that is not the Holy Spirit! That
is the way we must deal with things. You and I must learn to deal
with things thus and that is walking after the spirit. You find the
Holy Spirit co-operates with that, for He has come as the Spirit of
the glorified Christ. And what is that? Everything that cannot be
glorified has to be put away by that cross, for God has never
glorified the old man yet and the Spirit has not come in to glorify
or excuse our old man, He has come in to do with him what Christ did
with him in the cross, rule him out.
We have got a lot of work to do, haven't we? But remember this is
the Spirit's way and while that may seem to be an appalling
proposition from the positive side, beloved, "He that is in you is
greater than he that is in the world." The Holy Spirit is mightier
than our flesh. The Holy Spirit is mightier than the old man.
Christ, by the Eternal Spirit gathered up all the old man of
thousands of generations and proved more than a match, triumphant
over all the power of fallen humanity; and the power of the Spirit,
that Spirit of the glorified One is for us. To me it is tremendous
that God has glorified man, a thing that He could not do with one
man of all the teeming millions from Adam to Christ; He could never
glorify a man until Christ came and put away that man for ever, and
all the sin associated with him, and then arose as apart from Adam's
humanity into a new humanity, God-glorified man, and He is the type
and representative of the humanity that God will have when
redemption has run its course. That is our hope, and that One is in
us by the Holy Spirit. What hope - "Christ in you the hope of
glory."
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