by T. Austin-Sparks
Beloved of our Lord,
"'Tis life of which our nerves are scant," writes one of our
own poets, and to this the scriptures well agree. Said not our Lord,
the Great Physician, "I came that they may have life, and have
abundance"?
How comes it that of this life we remain so scant, and so dubious
even? The Prince of Life has still to declare, perhaps to those who
call Him "Lord," - "Ye will not come to Me that ye may have life."
This surely was our attitude as sinners when the lord of death held
us in the illusion of that false life, naturally ours, which is
spiritual death, "having no hope, and without God in the world." But
now, having seen that life (soul) poured out in blood for us on the
Cross, a life condemned and sacrificed in our stead, is not the
Fountain of His Eternal life opened also for us? Wherefore is our
lack?
May it not be that we are still self-centred in our
spiritual experience? Are we looking unto Him as the Fountain of
that life or seeking to create or to discover one within ourselves?
For this Life is in Him; it is the Life of Jesus Ascended, Glorified
in the Godhead, and therefore Holy-Ghost-Life, - not a life
self-centred even as in our renewed spirit, but life God-centred,
proceeding out of that actual Vine of Whom we are branches. "Apart
from (that is, severed, or cut-off-from) Me ye can do
nothing." Oh, there is a deep distinction here which many failing to
discern are impoverished both in life and service. For though I be
born again it is not out of myself I live henceforth, but out of
God, the Father. And how? By abiding in the Son. And this? By the
continual renewings of the Holy Spirit which He desires to shed upon
me abundantly, that is, upon my spirit, causing me to know the
fulness of God. Life, full, unlimited, and pure thus flows out of
the Divine Being into my spirit as I acknowledge the Holy Spirit to
be Lord, that is to be the Spirit of the Father and the Son, Who
thus make an abode in me.
Beloved, it is the simplicity of that word, "ME." Ye will not come
unto Me. We must still and continually come unto Him as by
the Spirit. Through Him we have access unto the Father in the
fellowship of One Spirit. This is the law of the Spirit of Life in
Christ Jesus, that as the living Father sent Him into the world,
born of the Holy Spirit, and He lived in One Spirit because of the
Father, even so we who are now also born of the Holy Spirit through
and out of Him, should in like manner live in One Spirit because of
Him. Or as He said it, "He that eateth (ruminateth, constantly
eateth) Me shall live because, of Me." And so through various homely
terms of speech the Lord impresses upon us the reality and the
necessity of our partaking of Him.
Let us come unto Him, Jesus, as the Living God, the True God, in
Whom and upon Whom by the Eternal Spirit the Invisible Father
dwells, - for He says, "Eat, oh friends. Drink, yea, drink
abundantly, oh beloved!"
Yours in this desire for Him,
T. Austin-Sparks
T. Madoc-Jeffreys.
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