Factors in Our Relationship With God

by T. Austin-Sparks

Chapter 2 - Life

It is necessary to say that spiritual light is the fruit of obedient faith, and spiritual light can never be had apart from the obedience of faith; hence every increase of spiritual light proceeds out from some test of faith along practical lines. Faith is put to the test, and that faith is called into operation to prove itself in some definite form, and having been tested and proved, the result is more light, with all that that light means of a new position, a new usefulness, a new power, a new fellowship with the Lord, a new intelligent cooperation.

We shall have something more to say about that in a moment, but we just mention it because doubtless some say: "Well, you have said much about spiritual light and that is just what we want; it is one thing to talk about spiritual light and another thing to tell us how to have it." And so we immediately put that word in there, that spiritual light is, from its earliest and smallest measure, the fruit of obedient faith. Even the light of salvation comes through that test, and everything afterwards.

Now we are moving on towards a second factor in our relationship to God, and that is joined with this first by a link. We are following the order of creation in order to illustrate the order of redemption and all the outworkings of redemption.

Light presupposes an organ and a faculty, and that organ and faculty is sight: an eye which can see. Light means nothing where there are no eyes, or where there are eyes which are not functioning. There may be all the wonderful light possible, but if the organ and the faculty are not either in existence or functioning, then that light means nothing.

God's order is very wonderful and very true to the highest wisdom and the most beautiful conception that first He said: "There shall be light" and there was light. "And God saw the light that it was (very) good." That is, He brought in a state of things concerning which He could say: "It is very good." Then He proceeded to create men with an organ and a faculty to appreciate what He appreciated, to enjoy what He enjoyed, of entering into what He had provided. It is all there in the goodness of God; it only waits for an organ and a faculty in operation for it to be made fruitful and of real value in the purposes of God. Carrying that over to redemption it is a very blessed thing to realise that in redemption, in Christ, God has brought about an order concerning which He can say: "It is very good."

In chapter one we pointed out that the word 'the' occurring in the sentence: "And God saw the light", is an emphatic word in the Hebrew which corresponds to the word 'Amen'; it is a word of strong emphasis. "God saw the light and God proclaimed to the light, Day": "You are Day." Now I draw attention to that emphasis with this other thought in the back of my mind, that when the Lord Jesus comes to the point of the completed work of redemption, God looks upon Him as His emphatic 'Amen'.

God saw the Light: "I am the light of the world", and said: "It is very good." And God has that which answers to His fullest desire in the Person of His Son. And all that is already provided before ever you or I come to see the first glimmer. It is all there, all waiting for us. God has not got to go on creating something afterwards to meet our demand. We enter into a progressive development of God's goodness, into an inheritance already completed in Christ. It is not a question that God may some day stop short in His provision. He has already provided to the very last degree, and He has called us into something that is already done, concerning which God says: "It is very good; now you come into that."

Everything, then, depends upon firstly the organ, and then the organ functioning and continuing to function; and that is the start of the New Testament spiritually. So that after He had said: "There shall be light", and there was light, and He saw the light and said: "It is very good", He proceeded to do something else (now follow me closely) He proceeded to create man with an organ and a faculty corresponding with what He had already done.

That light in itself did not produce life where man was concerned. Light, as such, does not automatically produce life. There has to be a corresponding activity of God to bring about a state of life in relation to the light. These things are linked.

You cannot very well divide between them without rendering God as foolish, because for God to make light and then have no one able to see it, would be folly. The very wisdom of God is a unity, and the two things in the wisdom of God are so related that you cannot divide between them without destroying the unity of God. And yet in the order of things there has to be a twofold action: one, in the provision made by God objectively, and the other in the provision made by God subjectively. There has to be Light, which Christ is and which is in Christ, but there has to be a faculty of perception and apprehension created in the individual in relation to that Light; and that is where things break down with a good many people. They think that they have entered into the Light because they have got hold of a very great deal of doctrine, teaching, what is called truth. And the corresponding and inseparable activity of God in relation to true Light has not taken place, and therefore that is not light at all. That is, it is not living truth. It is still dead.

Now God proceeds as a part of the completeness of His work, not in watertight compartments, but as a whole He proceeds, having made the provision, to bring into being the faculty for apprehending and enjoying His provision, and that is another divine act. He created man with eyes to behold what He had already done. So that light presupposes the organ and the faculty. They must go together in the work of God. God is only justified as He brings these two things together, for sight without light is as fruitless as light without sight. In the realm of redemption and spiritual things, this is true.

Now, darkness and blindness in the Scriptures are symbols of judgment and symbols of helplessness. Blindness was excluded, in the Old Testament economy, from the sanctuary. Blindness was a disqualifying factor in things pertaining to fellowship with God. It is a symbol. I emphasise that it is a symbol because some of us here are finding in old age that our eyes are not as they once were, and we want not to allow a shadow of the thought of judgment to come over us, so we stress that it was a symbol. You can go to the Old Testament and read up this matter again and find that it was so.

That thought was carried over in the mentality of men into the New Testament. "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?" (John 9:2). You see the thought of judgment associated with it. The Lord Jesus had a lot to say both about and to do with blindness. He spoke about it: "they be blind leaders of the blind." He had much to do with it, and His active association with blindness was symbolic. You read the setting of those activities in relation to the blind and you will find the setting brings you immediately into touch with some spiritual situation.

On one occasion it will be an exhibition of the spiritual state of the religious people of His day, of the Jew. Over against that it will be an exhibition of divine grace reaching out beyond the limits of mere religious tradition. Then it will be His way of teaching in action, in parable, in sign - what fellowship with Himself means as differing from cold, dead religiosity, as in John 9, the man born blind. The very giving to him of sight aroused the religious animosity of the Jews and led to the man's excommunication from the synagogue or temple. Immediately the Lord Jesus goes on to say: "I am the good shepherd; and I know My own... When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them... and leads them out." You see, this principle has been laid down, that relationship to the Lord Jesus is upon a basis of eyes opened, spiritual illumination. The Jews are out of fellowship with Him because they are against having eyes opened, so that the whole of the background of blindness and darkness is one of judgment, disqualifying, helplessness. The Lord comes into that realm and proclaims His works of grace. The whole world lies in judgment and in the wicked one and therefore, the whole world is represented as being in darkness and the kingdom of darkness; and we were once darkness, who are now light in the Lord.

Now the Holy Spirit's business is in relation to the revelation of Jesus Christ; therefore the Holy Spirit is represented as active along two lines. One, the giving of the faculty of spiritual perception and apprehension; the law of the Spirit of life in Christ. And the other, taking the things of Christ and revealing them to those opened eyes. And the whole work of the Spirit can be gathered up into that: taking Christ and revealing, and giving spiritual capacity for apprehending Christ. And the whole of the Christian life can be gathered up inside of that twofold work of the Spirit: receiving Christ by the Spirit in revelation progressively as capacity develops through obedience.

Now we see that life and light always go together in God's Word, and I just want to add one or two other simple things to what we have said in this connection. The first is this: that every fragment of the material which God uses in relation to His eternal purpose, is living material. I want you to get hold of that because there is a lot bound up with that and hanging on to that.

God uses no dead matter. God incorporates nothing into His purpose which is not alive. Just as Light is the characteristic of all His works, so is Life, and the work of God can be proved by this feature, that it is something in which there is Life which is unquenchable by all the power of death. It is a tremendous thing to be in that realm, where in our own innermost being, where we have been renewed, though the outward man perishes, there is that which is indestructible, imperishable, unquenchable - the innermost and deepest secret of the believer's being against which all the power of death has no victory.

Now that being true there is another thing which is true, that is, that the work, the service, if you like the fruit of the believer's life, as it is carried out in the power and under the direction of the Holy Spirit, is equally indestructible. "You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain" (John 15:16), and there is no limit put to that remaining.

What is the basis and background of that great word of comfort which comes from the apostle Paul, the last fragment of which we so often use for our encouragement: "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord" (1 Cor. 15:58)? We take the last fragment: "your toil is not in vain in the Lord", but we do not get the full value of the statement without the context.

What is 1 Corinthians 15? It is Paul's magna thesis on resurrection; his great argument for the resurrection of the believer. The resurrection of the believer rests upon the resurrection of Christ. The resurrection of Christ has been proved in the experience, in the knowledge, in the sight of many saints. The great declaration is made upon the ground of tremendous evidence: "But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep" (1 Cor. 15:20). God's Christ has been raised from the dead; the great triumphant shout goes up: "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? ... but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 15:55,57). Victory over all the power of death and the grave: "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord." Why not in vain in the Lord? Because Christ has conquered the only enemy that can make your labour vain, that is, death. If death is victorious then our labours are in vain; but, no! God gives us the victory over death: "Therefore... always abounding...".

The inspiration of increased and persistent labour is because the enemy which could make the labour vain, has been destroyed. It is the power of Life, you see, the power of Life in Christ, through Christ, first of all making us in the deepest reality of our being indestructible, and then making our labours indestructible. That is the realm to be in.

Every fragment of the material which God employs is living, is that in which that Life has been planted, to which that Life has been given, and God employs nothing which does not have that Life, the Life of Christ's victory over death, in it. Why should He? It would be folly to employ anything else; as foolish as it is for us to do it, God is not going to use something which can be subject to death and prove all His labours vain. God is only going to use that which is bound to succeed because there is no enemy to destroy it; He has destroyed that enemy.

Now you see what this means in practical experience. It means that something has got to happen to us all the way along by which God can get that Life into everything. And the thing that happens is that everything in our experience which is linked with us as children of time, as mortals, has to be taken into a realm where what is mortal is taken out of it, and what is of time is taken out of it, and the thing comes back with mere time and mortality elements eliminated, possessed of divine Life. So that spiritual growth and spiritual service is just along that line.

You go to Kew Gardens, and you will find in some of the greenhouses there, sections of great trees. You look at those sections and you can count the rings from the centre, perhaps three dozen or more rings. It is the story of the tree's history. Each ring is a year; but what was each year? It was a death and a resurrection. The tree has reached those dimensions by a continuous repetition of death and life, dying and rising again every year. Its whole history is that. And now you look at it, at last perhaps fully developed, come to that stage of maturity, grandeur, that magnificence, that strength, that glory, but only by constant dying and rising from the dead. As each year ended it laid down its life, and as each year began it took it again. Perhaps this is an imperfect way of putting it because resurrection life was already at work, for it would never have shed its leaves if it had not that life to push them off. You see, more life comes in with every fresh death.

Spiritual development is along that line. We take up the work of the Lord, and there is a mixture of us in it. Somehow it is impossible, however much we want it to be otherwise - and we are sincere, we want it to be all of the Lord, but because we are called into it there is an association of us in it. We do not know it, in some cases it is blatant; but the Lord knows just how much of what is of the individual is associated in that, perhaps in strength, or weakness. And the Lord has got to put that work altogether beyond what is human, whether bad human or good human; it has got to be put beyond that because it has to be established beyond the capacity or duration of what is of man and has to be put in the capacity of what is eternal, infinite.

So we enter into the work of the Lord and He begins with us and our work, taking us into an experience of death; taking us and a new bit of light into an experience of death, taking us and our wonderful enjoyment of Himself into an experience of death. It is true to experience if there is a true spiritual life. After a time the whole of that relationship with the Lord, whether along the line of light, or along the line of an experience of the Lord in enjoyment, along the line of service, having been tested, tried, and put through the furnace, and faith having been brought to a new place in the Lord, the thing comes back. But it comes back in a different realm with something in it which is not ourselves, which is of God. There is something of God associated with that which has taken the place of the association of ourselves.

It is a mighty thing and difficult to explain; a thing which many of you have heard many times said. God takes pains to see to it that you and I, in every part of our spiritual lives are proved beyond the reach of what is mortal, earthly, human. Every fragment of His material is to be living, and that explains all His dealings with us. And this fact ought to be the very strength of our lives, that is, the understanding of this fact ought to be the strength of our lives.

It is strange, but true, that very often the Lord does not do anything until you have made a declaration. You have come to a place where you believe or feel fairly assured that such and such is the Lord's course, the Lord's way, and you say: "I will not say anything about it in case it is not right; I will keep it inside myself." Nothing happens. You shut it up inside and you are going to get proof before you commit yourself, or allow anybody to say you were misdirected, you were wrong; you are going to get plenty of evidence. And the Lord leaves you and nothing happens at all. He waits until you have made a declaration, until you have committed yourself. You have said: "I believe such and such is the Lord's course for me." It is out now! You have taken a position in relation to something and your position is made known. Oh, how very difficult it is when you have committed yourself, to find yourself being knocked all over the place over that thing, and it seems that all the evidence is that you are wrong, and you have let other people know, and all are looking at you and saying: "Well, misdirected, false guidance...", and you come under a cloud. It is a bitter test of faith.

Now the question is: are you going back upon the thing? Or are you going to stand in the Lord? Mark you, I am supposing that your course is the result of very real fellowship with the Lord and that it is not some uprising of personal ambition, but that this has come to you after exercise, it is a true position. You may have to hold on to that position when everything works against you, and even the Lord seems to leave you with it in ruins. It was like that with Abraham, Joseph, and many another servant of the Lord. But you have held on, you have battled, faith has been tested.

Nothing would have happened if you had made no proclamation on the thing; the Lord demanded that you had to say you believed that was of God in your heart of hearts, without any personal elements coming in. On your very statement God has tried you out to the end, on the very position you have taken. Eventually things begin to come round, and where death came in on that which at one time seemed to be so much alive, now there is a renewing of life. That old thing is coming back into life as from the dead, but coming back with a power which it never had before, and with a deep restfulness which was never associated with it before, as though the thing had been taken entirely out of your hands.

Before it was a thing so much to you that you watched over it; it was your precious, personal thing. It has gone out of that realm now. You are perfectly at rest; it is in other hands. It is alive to God now. You are related to it in a new way; not in the feverish, fretful, carnal, anxious way, but in a deep, solemn way; you have rest. It has gone from one realm of association with you into the realm where now it is possessed of what is of God in a new way. It is alive with the indestructible Life which has proved more than a match for death. That will be the history of our work in the Lord and that will be the history of ourselves.

Where is a true spiritual believer who has any spiritual history behind them, who will not say that they know something of that in their spiritual life? I venture to say that when we all get to glory, those of us who have gone on spiritually with the Lord, our confessed position will be: 'Well, there were times when we went so deep down into death we could well-nigh despair of ever being here. And we are here because there was something more than ourselves within us which was more than a match for death, for death was allowed to try itself on us, allowed to work, but we are here in spite of death.' That will be our history at last.

You remember that God's object is to have that Life which is His own incorruptible, indestructible Life in every fragment of that which is going to stand as His eternal monument. In order to have it so, He has to take all that is of man related to it into death; and when that which is of man, related to what is of God, goes into death, it looks as though everything is lost. God raises the dead, and there is that of Himself which can never die. That is the history of spiritual growth.

One further little word and we close. Let us remember that what is true of inward spiritual progress is also true of the outward progress of the church. Life is only possible as from Life.

Some years ago a very, very clever, an all too clever man, said that he was expecting to be able to produce a living organism himself apart from any original organs. In other words, he was going to make a living thing from start to finish. Well, his story is finished. He never did it. And no one else has ever done it, and I think men have grown wiser since then and they are not saying those things now. The fact is, that cannot be done.

Life is only from life and it is impossible to have Life apart from Life. We are speaking now of this eternal Life. It is true in nature. If it is true in nature, it is just as true in the realm of spiritual things. The true growth of the church is not just the addition of members, the increase of heads. The growth of the church is nothing outward in the first place. The true growth of the church is by reason of the church's giving its life. Shall I put it another way to protect myself from misunderstanding? It is Christ giving His Life through the church. But if the church is His Body and He is Head, and the church as members form one, it is Christ and His Body coming into contact with the dead and transmitting Life, and that is the only true growth of the church; which means that we have got to have Life for the growth of the church - it is that others come into Life, and they only come into Life as there is a medium of that Life to them.

God's extraordinary way is to do it apart from some servant. He has been known to go out of His way because there was no possibility of an instrument being available on the spot, but God's way is to get a living instrument, individual or collective, and bring that into touch with the realm of death and register the power of Life over death through that instrument. Just as the prophet stretched himself upon the child, the corpse of that lad, hands to hands, his feet to his feet, his mouth to his mouth and literally dragged that lad out of the realm of death back to life because he himself, the prophet, was in vital union with God, thus the church will grow and can only grow, in so far as it has Life adequate for growth, for transmitting, for registration. Any other kind of growth is not true growth and will not abide or stand, but a growth like that is something which can never be destroyed. We need, then, more Life. It is not just what we say, what we preach; it is the impact of that mighty, unconquerable Life of the Lord Jesus.

What is the impression we make? We asked that question in chapter one. Do we make the impression of Light in contrast with darkness? We ask it again in this connection. Is there the contrasting feature and factor of Life as against death marking us? That is the testimony of the Lord Jesus.

And you and I must have no fellowship with anything that is in death any more than we may have fellowship with what is in darkness. These two things cannot go together hand in hand: light and darkness. The apostle asks the question, which is almost humorous, I think: "and what communion has light with darkness?" Try it - there is no communion. That light cannot tolerate that darkness for an instant, and that darkness cannot tolerate that light. What communion has light with darkness? How much? How long? Before you can get the words out of your mouth, the communion is broken. That is the answer. And it is true of Life and death. When the Life comes, the death has to go, has to give way. We have to recognise the law of Light and Life.

The law of Light and Life is this: that there must be no trying to do the impossible, to have the two together. To try to be a son of Light and have voluntary connection with something that is dark, is setting up an impossible situation in the eyes of God. The law of Life is that you must not touch what is death. If you do, you are bringing about a situation which before God is impossible, is unknown to Him, so utterly are these things apart.

The Lord bring us into a place of Life, full Life, where we have a living testimony, where we are Life, as we are Light in the Lord; where the impression we make is that there is that depth of impact which speaks of the impossibility of spiritual death reigning when we are present. May that be the testimony.