"Men Whose Eyes Have Seen the King" (Transcript)
by T. Austin-Sparks
It is always a very dangerous thing for me to say that I will try to be brief. Many of you have good reason to be sceptical, but it is, at any rate, in my heart to try and gather into a few words the predominant note and message of this conference. And as a key to that, I turn you to the first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 15, at verse 25: "He must reign, till He hath put all His enemies under His feet. He must reign, till He hath put all His enemies under His feet".
Our eyes have been turned in these hours to that throne seen by Ezekiel through the opened heavens, with the Man: "appearance as of a Man upon it above". And we have seen, I trust, a little of the truth that everything, everything that follows is just the expression and manifestation of that throne - the absolute exaltation of the Lord Jesus above all things.
Now, when Paul wrote these words we have just read, he was not thinking of some future time when Christ would reign and put all His enemies under His feet. He was not thinking of Jesus as waiting for a time to come when something would be done that would put Him in that position and bring about that result. Whenever Paul (or, for that matter, any of the apostles) referred to Christ's exaltation and Lordship, he (and they) always regarded it and spoke of it as a present thing. They looked on into the future and saw something more of its outworking, but to them it was not a future thing in its beginning or in its actuality; to them it was now. And when he said, 'He must reign', he meant, 'He is reigning, and must continue to reign, until He has made all His enemies, put all His enemies under His feet.'
That is a thing that has to be recovered in our consciousness and in our conviction. That is the thing which has to be restored to its place in the church's life and the church's consciousness continually. For, to a very large extent, while the church adheres to the doctrine of the exaltation of Christ and His Kingship and Lordship, the reality, the power and the consciousness of it has been lost, to a very large extent. The church, in the beginning, lived in the consciousness and in the power of the fact - as it was to them - that Jesus was on the throne - undoubtedly, unquestionably He was on the throne - He was Lord of all. Peter affirmed it: "He is Lord of all"! Paul said: "God did set Him far above all rule and authority" - it's something accomplished. That was their view of the matter; that was their conviction; that was their consciousness. And it was so powerful with them as to affect every aspect of their lives.
It was so at the beginning, and until that is as true, as true in the life and realisation of the church in our time, the same results and effects will not be found in the church or through the church. Believe me, dear friends, that if, if the progress of the gospel, if the mighty impact and registration of Christ at that time was such as to not allow with comparison with the deplorable state today in the church, it was due to this one thing. If you wish to trace the secret of their power, their influence, their progress, their onward march - in spite of a world of terrible hostility, persecution, martyrdom and every other kind of adversity, they marched forward 'terrible as an army with banners', described as the people who had "turned the world upside down" - if you wish to discover the secret, you will find it here: "He must reign - He must reign, till He hath put all His enemies under His feet".
He is Reigning
Now, I could do nothing, I know quite well, to straighten your conviction as to the truth as a truth, but that's where we are left so helpless. We can but emphasise the matter and are cast so much upon the Holy Spirit to make the thing live. Nevertheless, nevertheless we can be called back, we can be warned, we can be counselled, we can be exhorted. And, as far as that can be, it shall be tonight. But let us get into this thing a little more deeply.
We have said that for the apostles the reign of Christ had already begun; it did obtain in their time. How did they come to that conviction, to that knowledge? We will, for our purpose, keep to the man whose words we have extracted, the man Paul.
Paul's knowledge of Christ as reigning sprang out of his personal experience of that fact. He had had an encounter in his life with the reigning, the glorified Lord; and the Lord from Heaven had had an encounter with him. It had become something in his own personal experience, history, and life. Yes, it was something very personal. It has to be that. Until it is that, it can be very theoretical. It has to be personally experimental. And it was with Paul. In that encounter, on the way to Damascus, two very personal words had been used, and I think it all centres in that fact.
First of all, Paul had been spoken to by his own personal name: "Saul, Saul!" His own name - called and reiterated. He is being nailed down to this personally; he is not getting away with it; he is not being allowed to mistake what he hears. It's being directed to the man in his own personal name. He is not mixed up in a crowd; he is not just met in a teaching, this thing has come right straight at him as a man, as an individual - "Saul, Saul!"
Dear friends, while I am not suggesting that we have all to have the same form of encounter, we have all to have the same crisis; that is, we are all to have, and can have, a point in our life when we come face to face with the absolute Lordship of Jesus Christ. And there is the crisis upon which all the future turns. It is a tremendous thing to come face to face with the Lordship; it is a greater thing than coming face to face with the Saviourhood. There are many people who are saved by the Saviour, and own Him as Saviour, but whose lives are seriously lacking in the power of Lordship - His Lordship. That's a statement - we leave it.
And then the other very personal word was when he said, "Who art Thou, Lord?" The answer came: "I am Jesus..."; and, lest Saul should prevaricate and try to evade, get round, by saying, "Yes, but our country is full of men by that name; which Jesus do you mean?" - the Lord safeguarded by saying: "Whom thou persecutest - the Jesus Whom thou persecutest - that's the One!" [I'm improvising.] And Saul knew Who that One was, Saul knew Who that One was. He had but one Jesus in all his thoughts and in all his plans, and that one Jesus he was determined to blot out and wipe out of the world's memory; he was out to eradicate every trace of that Jesus. He knew that one right enough, it was filling his consciousness at this very time, this Jesus. "I am Jesus - the One that you are persecuting". You see how personal the Lord made this matter. He brought it right home to the man himself, and then to the very purpose of his life - the very thing to which he had dedicated and consecrated all his strength of mind and body for its destruction, brought it right home there: "I am Jesus".
Something like that, something like that is necessary, is really necessary if the after results in his life are to have any kind of repetition in the church and in us; that He has got to make this a matter where we are not just one of a multitude, but a matter where we, personally and individually, have come under His personal domination and Lordship, absolutely. And our whole life, our whole life - yes, all our ambitions, all our enterprises, all our commitments, everything is now brought under His Lordship. It's a tremendous thing, but the glory of that throne waits upon the acceptance of its government, its Lordship.
From that transaction, shall we call it: that crisis, that "vision" (I'm always afraid of that word, that "seeing", and you don't need to have it visually in a physical way, we all know what that means inwardly) from that vision and that encounter and that crisis, everything else took its rise in the life of Paul the apostle. Everything from that moment was transfigured, transformed, and seen in an entirely new way: in the light of Jesus as on the throne. I'm not straining or trying to exaggerate, I'm only stressing what is so true and so evident.
You see, after that, Paul went for a little while to Damascus, and then he went away into Arabia and spent a long time there. And he went there with his Bible, I am quite sure; all the evidence is of it. And the Bible in one hand, and Jesus on the throne, in the other! If you want to know your Bible, that's the way; that's the key; that's the door - Jesus on the Throne, and the Bible. And he got a transfigured Bible! He got a new Bible, he saw his Bible (with which he was very familiar) in a new and a living light, through, through that great truth: Jesus on the throne! And as he went back over the Bible that he had, right the way back, he saw, "Yes, yes! That's what's here, inherent everywhere!" He saw that the Bible was really the Book of one thing: God's intention to have a Man and His kind in dominion, reigning in glory. This matter of the glory of a Man in heaven interpreted everything, explained everything.
When you come to think of it, it does open the Bible. Why these awful conditions? Because that's contrary to what God intended; it declares it. It declares it! You see, dear friends, if you could realise it as you look out on the world, the awful conditions in the nations, you need not look far afield although it's very terrible out there, we only have to look round about us: the terrible conditions of suffering, of misery, of evil and what-not. Why? Why? Why? Ask the question of the doubter, of the cynic. The answer is here: God allows that which is contrary to Him to shout at men that it is contrary - He never meant it to be like that. When things go wrong, God doesn't just pass it over, smooth it over, and let it go as though it didn't matter: He makes it shout its own crime and its own tragedy. The world is screaming with its own tragedy, and it's the tragedy of a missed purpose of God. Interpret that to the world, and you've got a way for bringing in the gospel. But we mustn't stay with all that.
You see, the Bible sprang into life for Paul, and it's an amazing thing how, from that moment, he took his Bible with him everywhere, and the one thing he is preaching is: "Jesus is Lord; Jesus Christ is Lord!" The exalted Lord, the exalted Christ, the glorified Christ, was his theme; and Paul preached from the Bible. From the Bible! It changed his Bible for him. It was responsible for, and accounted for, his whole mission and work. What constituted him an apostle? What was it, the great business to which he was committed? Well, his mission and his work was impassioned and motivated and controlled by just this one thing - the absolute glory of the Lord Jesus, that Jesus should come into His rightful place in this world and in human hearts. That was the one motive, the one object, the one dominating thing in all his work, in all his mission. It was not this and that, and a number of things; one central, but all-inclusive passion: Jesus as Lord, to be that in human lives. His work and his mission were both transfigured and controlled by this that had come into his experience.
His sufferings and his endurance were made possible by this vision. Sometimes he makes light of his sufferings. If ever a man suffered, I think that man suffered. I don't know that there were many ways in which he did not suffer, he suffered; greatly - many sufferings, and heavy sufferings. But listen: "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are unseen" and amongst those supremely and over them all, was "Whom having not seen ye love;" says Peter, "in Whom, now believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory". Well, that's mixing Peter up with Paul, but they're all in the same category and book. But the point - how was it that he was able to endure and suffer triumphantly? Just because of this basic and central thing - the deep, strong sense, consciousness, and conviction that Jesus was on the throne.
I believe that this also was the key to Paul's understanding of the church. As no one else, perhaps, Paul had the greatest comprehension and understanding of the church. 'From eternity to eternity', he goes right back into the counsels 'before the world was', and sees it there in the heart and thought of God; he comes right through and sees it in the great consummation of the ages of the ages. He has a marvellous comprehension of the church. But listen to the things he says - the highest things, the fullest things - the most complete expression of the meaning of the church, the vocation of the church. As we have before said, he sums it up in this matchless phrase: "Now unto Him Who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us (the church), unto Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all ages for ever and ever".
Glory in the Church
What glory? The glory of the glorified Christ! I could stay long, as you know, with that matter of the church and its eternal vocation and election to be the vessel of the glory of Christ. John puts it in his own symbolic way at the end, in terms of the City - it's simply the glory of Christ in expression at last. That's what the church was chosen for; that is what the church is called unto - to be the vessel, the seat of this authority, this government, and this glory. Christ in glory gave the clue to Paul as to the church, and gave an ever-growing explanation of its meaning.
This same thing accounted for his concern for the churches. Now, no one will question that Paul had tremendous concern for the churches. He says that he travailed for them; he wept day and night for them; he longed and yearned over them, spent himself for them. But why? What was the motive? What prompted all that? Ah, it was the glory of his Lord Jesus! The churches existed for the glory of Christ. He said so. It was all just for that one thing - the glory of Christ. And if there was any deflection, if there was anything that was not right in a church, or in the churches; if anything could be done whatsoever to help them, it was all motivated by this one thing: that the Lord Jesus should in all things be glorified. See, he was governed in everything by this thing.
And if we pass to the end of it all, and look at Paul's writings about the coming again of the Lord, what is it, what is it that's uppermost with him in the coming of the Lord? Is it the end of his troubles? Is it just for his own joy and pleasure in getting to heaven? Is it anything like that at all? Oh no. It's the reign of his Lord; that his Lord is coming into His own, coming into His kingdom, coming into His rights, coming to the place that He ought to have, and be ceded that place universally - that's the great thing, the one thing giving birth and giving rise to everything else.
He Must Reign
He reigns, Christ is reigning. Christ is active. On several occasions He is spoken of as on ascension having 'sat down' in heaven, having: "sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven". He sat down. But if you notice, whenever it is said that He sat down, it is invariably related to the finishing of His redemptive work. That's done. On the other hand, He stands. There's no contradiction, it's only an implication of a different meaning. Stephen saw Him, "I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God". Standing! He is spoken of as standing. When it's a matter of the work of redemption, it's finished; there's nothing more to do - He can sit down. He can sit down! When it's a matter of the working out of that redemption here in this world, He's on His feet. When there's a challenge to what He has done, He rises up. Stephen is in the presence of that challenge, and the exalted Lord is on His feet, He's on His feet for His testimony. He is active, that's the point. He is active, He is not just passively sitting down and waiting, and waiting till His enemies are put under Him: He is putting them under! He is putting them under, He stands to work this thing out.
Now, the activity of the reigning Lord is seen in several ways, only to be mentioned. Firstly, He is "taking out of the nations a people for His name" - for His name, a people. The great illustration in the Old Testament of that, of course, is Israel in Egypt. The taking of a people out for His name. It's a tremendous business that - you can't do that sitting down! What a business it was to get that people out of Egypt for His name. He extended the prince of this world and exhausted all his power and all his resources and all his endurance, and got them out. We are left in no doubt about it that it was the Old Testament, the Old Testament demonstration of the supreme power of God. There is only one demonstration that exceeds that, and that's New Testament - when He raised Him from the dead, "the exceeding greatness of the power" and set Him at His own right hand. That's exceeding greatness of power! But it was a tremendous thing to get Israel out of Egypt as a people for His Name.
And it is no less a thing to get this people out of the nations for His Name. The prince of this world withstands and challenges at every point, in every way. No soul is going to be released from that bondage and that kingdom without a fight. It's made far too easy; people are put into a false position by it being made too easy. If we did but know, we have got to stand into the throne for souls, to get them out, but He's doing it in spite of so much. Some of you here have come from those parts of the world where the prince of this world has a terrible hold, a very terrible hold, and so much at his command; and you know, you know something of what it means to get just one soul out of that. The suffering, and the travail, and the anguish, and the cost bound up with getting one soul out of a nation for His name! It's a tremendous business, it wants the throne, the mighty throne. But He is doing it. The point is that there is so much like Pharaoh and Egypt - but even greater than that against this; and yet He is doing it. We here in our little company, from a number of nations, and we are here as a testimony to the fact that His power is greater than any other power. He is taking out of the nations a people; for our present liking: too slowly, but He's doing it.
The second thing He is doing is He is constituting the life of that people on heavenly principles. We wish He had freer scope, fuller scope to do it. But He is doing that. That is, He is inculcating the Life and laws of heaven into that people. And again the illustration is Israel at Sinai, and in the wilderness. There the heavenly laws were given, and they were constituted according to heavenly principles - tested, tried, proved - according to the laws of heaven. There was a long time their very daily bread had to come from heaven: they had to live out of heaven, live on heaven. Their life had to be, indeed, a heavenly life. There was nothing here to constitute them God's people. They had to be constituted on a heavenly basis. And that is what the Lord, the risen Lord, is seeking to do and is doing with His people. If only we understood, again, our experiences, we should see that's the explanation and interpretation. He is seeking to re-constitute us on a heavenly basis of Life. I can only state it, but He is energetically trying to do it. Because we don't understand what He is doing, we are so slow in the change-over. So let us recognise the fact and take it to heart.
And the third thing that He is doing is putting all His enemies under His feet. And that takes us, with Israel, over the Jordan, into the Land. See there how those nations were put under the feet of Joshua through the people. And the counterpart of that now is that it is through His church that the Lord Jesus is bringing His enemies under His feet. Oh, that we were more efficient in this, that it were more true of us that we, like the people, are putting the enemies under our Joshua's feet! That's a challenge, it's a truth that He is doing it, putting His enemies under His feet, and doing it through His church - so imperfectly with such limitations, but that is His way. Old Gurnall, the writer of The Christian in Armour, speaking of the serpent's head being put under the Lord's heel, in imagination sees the Lord saying to His church: "I have put him under My heel, come you and put your heel upon him!" - co-operation with the Lord Jesus in this matter. Let us speak softly, carefully, it's something He's doing.
And you can see the temptation that at once arises, to see how He has done it through the centuries. It's a tremendous story! The very long-term nature of it, the extension of it over time, may rob it of some of its force in our consciousness. But if you could bring it all together, just put it all together, the story of how He has done it through the centuries, what a story it would be! Israel vaunted itself against Him and His Lordship. Where is Israel? Where's Israel? Can Israel lift up its head? All through these centuries it has been bruised, unable to lift itself up: impotent, paralyzed; it vaunted itself against the throne of the exalted Christ. Rome entered into the battle to try this thing, and there's Caesar, with all his mighty power and resources, determined, determined to destroy that Name and that power. Where is Caesar? Where is Rome and all its mighty power? It's gone down in the shame and into the dust, and has not been able to lift itself up again. I could go on like that.
In our own life-time, most of us, we have seen men who have made a bid for world-dominion, and heaven says: "That's reserved for One only!" And what has happened? Man after man has ended his career in ignominy, and worse than that, who made that bid for the place of God's Son, for the throne, right up to date. And it will be the same thing with the rest of them. It's reserved to Him. "He must reign, till He has put all His enemies under His feet." He will do it, He will do it.
Back to Ezekiel, where we have found so much on this very matter. Ezekiel, how did he put it? Right in the midst of his prophecies, right at the very centre of the book, with this state of things with Israel in captivity; the captivity itself, the mighty power of Babylon, all these world powers enthralling, holding, seeking this place of absolute supremacy. Ezekiel cries, as from God: "I will overturn, overturn, overturn... till He shall come Whose right, Whose right it is. He must reign, till He has put all His enemies under His feet."
May that transfigure the way for us.