The Gospel of God Concerning His Son Jesus Christ Our Lord

by T. Austin-Sparks

Chapter 2 - The Key to the Eternal Purpose

"Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which He promised afore through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead; Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 1:1-4).

"Whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of His Son" (Rom. 1:9).

In this meditation, we shall deal with one particular aspect of this matter of the gospel of God concerning His Son.

I would like just to say this at the outset, that the language will be very familiar language, and I would urge upon you not to allow that fact in any way to affect your attitude. Familiar language can blunt our sense of the importance of things said. I promise you that I would not say anything for the sake of saying it. This word is a living heart-burden so far as the Lord's messenger is concerned.

We were thinking in our previous meditation about the eternal purpose which has become now the good news or gospel of God concerning His Son, something that God proclaims; God has some good news. There never was such good news, the greatest and best news ever brought to this universe. It is not our gospel in the first instance; it is God's gospel. It becomes ours afterwards and then we can say, "Whom we serve in our spirit in the gospel of His Son".

But, in the first place, it is God's gospel. It is a great thing to get the sense of that. God has broken into this universe with good news, and that good news is concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. We need to see the background of that good news in order to recognize what good news it is. We saw just a little of that in our previous meditation, what has happened to the creation as it has lost the eternal purpose for which it exists, and God has brought in His Son and the good news is concerning Him. The purpose is not lost, though this creation may have lost it, the purpose is going to be realized. The purpose is secured in His Son. The groaning creation is going to be delivered, and it is going to divulge God's intention which lies at its heart. The sons of God are going to be manifested.

Well now, that gives us our key for this meditation. The key to the eternal purpose is sonship.

We will just start at Romans 1 - the gospel of God concerning His Son.

"Declared (or determined, or better still: designated) the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead" (Rom. 1:4).

"The gospel of His Son" (Rom. 1:9).

"We were reconciled to God through the death of His Son" (Rom. 5:10).

"What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh" (Rom. 8:3).

"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God" (Rom. 8:14).

"For the earnest expectation of the creation waits for the revealing of the sons of God" (Rom. 8:19).

"For whom He foreknew, He also foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren" (Rom. 8:29).

"He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies" (Rom. 8:32-33).

Those are some passages in Romans, but I would like to pass on to the twin letter with the Romans, that is Galatians.

"It pleased God... to reveal His Son in me" (Gal. 1:15-16).

"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me; and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God" (Gal. 2:20).

"When the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that He might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons" (Gal. 4:4-5).

"And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So that thou art no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God" (Gal. 4:6-7).

"Howbeit what says the Scripture? Cast out the handmaid and her son: for the son of the handmaid shall not inherit with the son of the freewoman" (Gal. 4:30).

The key to the eternal purpose is sonship. Reading backwards with the Word of God, that is, taking the later things first and working back from them, we are led to recognize this wonderful truth, that, when God appointed His Son heir of all things, when the eternal purpose concerning His Son was fixed, that in the fulness of the times all things should be gathered up into Him, things in heaven, things in the earth, at that same time God foresaw, according to purpose, a corporate sonship, an elect company sharing the sonship of His Son, being sons in Him. So that the whole of that purpose concerning the Son should find its expression in that particular company, that elect body, and that in terms of sonship.

What I want to emphasize at the outset is this. That sonship of which we are speaking, of which the New Testament speaks in this connection, is not merely a matter of relatedness to Christ, it is not just a question of relationship. Sonship is something more than relationship. Sonship is spiritual maturity, spiritual full growth; it is what our translation so often calls 'perfection'. But the New Testament never uses that word in a sense of spiritual perfection, that is, sinlessness. A good many people have gone astray on that. In this particular connection, the use of the word 'perfect' is only a word chosen by translators. The real meaning which lies behind the word chosen by the translators is completeness, and it means having come to maturity, or coming to maturity, or when we are come to maturity. Now, you can just take the word as you have it and see it in those connections. It is not speaking of sinlessness. Of course, that will be so at the end, but with its present or progressive application, it simply means completeness. It is represented sometimes in the matter of a piece of machinery without a missing wheel or a fishing-net without a break. The thing is complete; it is whole. That is the meaning of perfection in the New Testament. Of course many of you do not need to be told that, but we want to help the younger folk to lay a good and right foundation.

Sonship is that realization of the fulness, the completeness of Jesus Christ, and the corporate sonship in perfection is when He is all in all, and if it is 'all', there cannot be anything else. It is as complete as Christ. That is God's object, the thing which is the key to God's eternal purpose, that there shall be a Body, not the only company that will be saved, but this particular elect Body stands in relation to God's eternal purpose in a specific way. It is to be the very heart and pivot of God's universe. It is to be that which mediates all the fulness that is in Christ to this universe. It is that which is to shine with the glory of God as the sun shines today and fills our universe, so that life and health and every fruitfulness is the result of that shining. It is for the purpose concerning God's Son that the church is chosen, this Body is chosen, and it is to be expressed, realized, not simply by being joined to the Lord, belonging to the Lord, but by coming to that condition and position which is called 'sonship'.

Belonging to the Lord is only the first step and it should be the supreme business of every child of God to see that it is only the first step. The whole New Testament comes to bear down upon that with tremendous force, and especially the writings of the apostle Paul, to whom was given the peculiar revelation of this. Hear him as he tells believers how he prays! "Striving according to His energizing which energizes in me mightily". For what? "To present every man perfect (complete, full-grown) in Christ" (Col. 1:28-29). Paul was never satisfied to have just converts. His most strenuous spiritual activities were to see that they went on, because the purpose governs, the purpose demands sonship and sonship leads to the realization of the purpose, and he can see quite well that God's eternal purpose can only be realized as believers go on to full growth, as sonship is the thing which is governing them, drawing them on. Oh, it is a great thing in view! While we should have a deep, strong concern that children should be born of the Spirit, that is, that there should be many multitudes brought to the Lord, we ought to have at least an equally deep and great concern that we, and they, should go on because the purpose is there.

I cannot use that word 'purpose' strongly enough! We are called according to His great vocational purpose through the ages to come, something, as we saw in our previous meditation, so much greater than the millennial kingdom. Oh yes, the twelve apostles will sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. That is good and great for them, but the apostle Paul is not one of them, and he is occupied with something more than twelve thrones of the twelve tribes of Israel. He is occupied with the throne of the universe, and he is saying: 'It is to that we are called!' We may come in and have a share in the millennial kingdom, but that is only a small bit for us. Oh, how much people have made of that! They have spoken of the millennium as though it was the greatest thing that ever could be. They speak of the millennium in such glowing terms. Well, I suppose it will be a great time, but let me say it without in any way taking away from the glory of that Sabbath rest, it is but a shadow of the great kingdom of the Son of God's love, and it is unto that the church in this dispensation is called.

The Inception of Sonship

Now, that being the eternal purpose demanding sonship (not only, let me repeat, a relatedness but a quality of relatedness - sonship is a spiritual quality and a spiritual measure), what is the inception of sonship? I think it is in those words of Galatians 1:16: "It pleased God... to reveal His Son in me." I know that that implies and involves the Holy Spirit working in an inward way, but what that means is: "He revealed His Son in me." "God who said, Light shall shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6). In our hearts - this is the inception of sonship - the revelation of His Son in us. All who are born again do not have that. There has been a revelation of His Son to them as sin-bearer, as the expression of the redeeming love of God, as the Saviour. Happy are those who had a fuller revelation at the beginning, but the majority do not have more than that. But for spiritual fulness, something more is needed, and if you do not understand that, if your experience makes difficulties for you, let me urge upon you this one thing - and it is never too late, it should be a thing which continually goes on in us to the end - let me urge upon you that you make it your constant prayer that God will reveal His Son in you, and yet again and yet more, reveal His Son in you.

It is only in recent years that I have come to see what that means - the significance of God's Son, the implications of God's Son, the momentousness to this universe of God's Son. Why, all that is in Christ, all that is bound up with Christ, all that Christ signifies to this universe, is a theme for eternity! We will never exhaust that here. We are going to discover more and more throughout eternity the significance of Jesus Christ our Lord to this universe, but we begin to know that in an inward way now, so that we see Christ. Now, who can explain that? Who can express it? When you have seen Christ, your one question for others is: Have you seen Christ? Now, that is not mental visions and certainly it is not ocular visions; it is revelation to the heart. You recognize in some fuller way the significance and meaning of the Lord Jesus Christ. Beloved, when you begin there, sonship has started, sonship has had its inception.

It is a great day when from the objective Christ you get also - not as a substitute, but as the complement - the subjective, the inward revelation. We must always hold to our objective revelation of Christ. Do not forget that. He is there for us, He has done all this for us, He is our representative in heaven, He is our mediator, He is our high priest. His being there at God's right hand is a guarantee, an assurance, a security, an earnest; His being there means that something has been done for us which is foundational. Never lose your objective revelation of Christ, but remember that relates to your position in Christ, to your standing, to your acceptance, to your salvation. Now for your growth and maturity, you need the inward revelation of Christ. That is sonship. "It pleased God... to reveal His Son in me." That links at once with the eternal counsels, with the purpose of God before times eternal concerning His Son - the inward revelation. It will not all come at once. Do not expect there is going to be a blaze of light, something tremendous and terrific. No, you are going to begin quietly to see: 'I have seen something of which I have heard, which I knew very well as a matter of information; I heard it, but now I am seeing!' That is all. You may never be able to explain to others what you are seeing. It may be altogether beyond you even to explain it to yourself, but you know you are beginning to see. You are making a discovery, and all discoveries that are good, produce a new sense of competence, a new sense of strength.

When a little child makes a discovery for itself, it produces a sense of self-importance, a sense of competence. They know something now! It does not matter if father said that thing a thousand times; father never knew anything about that till the boy found it out for himself, and then he can tell father what father never knew!

My point is this, that sonship means that God is bringing us to a state of responsibility, competence, where we are not living upon what others know, upon information. We know! It does not make us boastful or proud. We very soon get over that, because that glimmer enlightens us at the same time to all that there is yet to know that we do not know. Oh, it is a mark of maturity that people who do know something of the Lord let it be quite clearly seen that they feel more than anyone else that they have everything to learn. The longer you live, the more hopeless you become as to the knowing of all that you have seen that ought to be known. You have got a glimpse of a universe. How little you know! Ah, but that is a mark of growth. You may take it that a person who knows everything and has no more to learn, has not got very far.

"Reveal His Son in me" - that is the first step of sonship. What is the last cry of sonship in the case of the same man? "That I may know Him". "I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord" (Phil. 3:8). Here is a man who is at the end of his life and he is saying, "It is as though I know nothing; my great, intense desire is to know!" That is sonship.

Oh, that there was more sonship, and that it was showing itself in the saints being able quite clearly to say, "I am seeing, I am beginning to see!" Yes, then you have something to share and that means the building up of the Body of Christ.

The Basis of Sonship

What is the basis of sonship? It is Romans 1:4. "Declared (determined, designated) the Son of God in power by the resurrection of the dead". The basis of sonship is resurrection, that is, resurrection as a living experience. It is true in the objective sense, that when He rose, we rose with Him. It is true that because He lives, we shall live, or do live, also. There is the great, objective, doctrinal fact that Christ's resurrection is our resurrection. We may have the earnest of that in His life imparted to us at new birth, but, as we have so often pointed out, resurrection as an experience is so often a subsequent thing to birth, and here you have it in this very statement. Designated, determined - no, not demonstrated, that is not the word here. It does not say that He was demonstrated as being the Son of God in power by the resurrection of the dead. It is not a question of demonstrating it. It is 'designated', it is 'determined', or if you like, it is 'appointed'. It is the same word - appointed. It can even be translated 'ordained'.

But then again, there is this - "by the resurrection of the dead". 'Dead' there is in the plural, and it does not relate only to Christ, but Christ as a first-fruit and those who are Christ's, raised with Him. Resurrection of the dead ones, Christ and others joined with Him in resurrection; designated the Son by that. Resurrection becomes a living thing as a part of sonship, that peculiar thing called sonship.

We were saying that resurrection is so often set forth as subsequent to birth. Isaac is the great type. He was born by a miraculous act of God; he was a supernaturally produced son. But then Isaac had to die in type and be raised as from the dead in order to be the perfect type of sonship. That is what God had in view with Isaac; it was sonship, not just childhood, or the relationship of child to father. It was something more than that. You see the value of Isaac's life and you will see the value of sonship. What was the chief characteristic of Isaac after his resurrection? It was re-opening old wells, going up and down opening wells that had been stopped up by the enemy, and although the enemy came along and stopped them up again, at last Isaac triumphed with his well. There was no stopping up of that one. Sonship is that which opens up Life for others. The service of sonship is to make what is in Christ available to others in spite of the enemy - fighting the battle of Life. That is sonship. You can test sonship by that. There is an enemy in the land seeking to stop up the wells of Life, and sonship comes out against that enemy and fights the battle for Life for the people of God, and triumphs. That is the Man-child who wins through, conquering for the saints. Sonship! That is the power of resurrection.

It is costly. You are allowed to taste the bitterness of death. Paul would put it in other words right in this connection and say, "I fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body's sake, which is the church" (Col. 1:24). That is only another way of saying the same thing. You are in the battle of Life, for Life. You know the awful conflict with the powers of death. There is never going to be a new well opened and people are never going to get something more of the Lord's Life without a fresh battle with death. No, every time the well is going to be available to the Lord's people, there is going to be a battle beforehand to get that well opened. The type is imperfect, but the truth is perfect, and it is true to experience. But this is sonship. This is the value of sonship, and the basis of sonship is resurrection.

So, right at the end again, right at the end, mark you, this spirit of sonship in the apostle is crying, the spirit of sonship is reaching out to perfection, and that spirit of sonship is saying, "That I may know Him", but also - "and the power of His resurrection". That is sonship. It is costly, this way. It is a way fraught with terrible conflict. We will touch that again presently.

The Law of Sonship

What is the law of sonship? Well, it is in Romans 8:14: "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God", raising at once the difficult, perplexing question of guidance. The law of sonship is spiritual guidance. Now you are all expecting to get a clue to your problem and guidance in the immediate situation! Do you think that that is what the apostle meant? I do not. You cannot take this fragment out of the whole chapter. You have got to keep it in its setting, and you get the greatest help by doing that. Let us approach it along another line and with other words.

We usually put it something like this, 'that we might know the Lord's will'. Of course, we mean the Lord's will in this thing and in that thing and in all the details of life where we need guidance. I think it was brother Nee who used to say, "We think about the little will of God, that is, where it touches our particular difficulty," and he said, "It is the big Will of God we have got to be concerned with. When the Scripture speaks about the Will of God, it is speaking about the big Will of God." "Called according to eternal purpose". That is the big Will of God.

Where does the leading of the Spirit come in? It is always related to that purpose, always in the direction of that goal, always working in connection with that Will of God which is comprehensive and all inclusive. And those who are led by the Spirit of God are those who are moving in line with God's eternal purpose, and who are therefore becoming governed by the purpose of God - not what I would like, what I should do, where I shall go; but, how does this relate to God's end? Do I want to know whether I should live here or there? How does it affect the fulness of Christ? That is to be your ruling consideration. Is there anything in my heart, after much prayer and enquiry of the Lord, that says it will be unto an increase of the Lord Jesus if I go and live there, or if I do, it will be loss, limitation, curtailing? Oh, that young people would take that into account when they got married and chose the place of their dwelling. They choose the place that is nice - nice surroundings, a nice neighbourhood, a nice house, but the dominating question is not always: Is this going to represent an increase of Christ, or is it going to mean spiritual limitation?

You see, there is a governing consideration with the Holy Spirit always, and where we have personal interests, the Holy Spirit just leaves us, He cannot guide us. Being led of the Spirit is always on the basis of God's ultimate end - the eternal purpose. That is why I say you cannot take this out of Romans 8, because you are coming so soon to this whole matter. Why "according to His purpose", and what is it? "Whom He foreknew, He also foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son" (Rom. 8:29).

Now the basis for such guidance is an absolute openness to the Lord with all personal considerations set aside, where the Lord is perfectly free and we are most definitely set upon His having His full end, which is a growing fulness of Christ; not always in ourselves, but in others, however that may apply. That is the basis of being led of the Spirit. It is in connection with that Will of God that we have made the will of God too small. The Will of God is a very big will; it is as big as the eternal purpose and it is always bearing down upon that. The Spirit of God works in relation to that. You have to work it out and apply it, but there you have the law of sonship. "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God", and remember the leading of the Spirit is always to one end, and in effect it means that we have only one end in view, and that at any personal cost, we are set upon that course: the end [purpose] of God.

The Course of Sonship

"Whom He foreknew, He also foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren" (Rom. 8:29).

The course of sonship is conformity to the image of God's Son. The thing God is ever seeking to do, in you and in me, is to bring about that conformity to the image of His Son, and this is one of the most practical aspects of spiritual experience. The phrase itself sounds far away, up in the clouds, "to be conformed to the image of His Son". However, it is the nearest thing to us of which we have any knowledge. It is the most immediately practical thing in our experience.

If the Lord really gets hold of us (and notice that we pass through Romans 6 to get to Romans 8) if the Lord really gets hold of your life and my life, what will He do with us? Well, you know you and I have a certain make-up. It is a make-up all our own; we may be like others in some things, but not in everything. In any case, we are ourselves, we are not someone else, and we are made, each one of us, in a certain way. Do you know what the Lord will do with you and me if He really gets hold of us? Oh, we have prayed that the Lord would lead us into His Will, that His Will may govern our lives, that in every detail we shall be one with His Will. We say we have given ourselves, surrendered ourselves, to the Lord. And then what do we expect? I tell you what we expect: that the Lord is going to give us a very comfortable job in which we are going to be successful and get on well and people are going to think well of us and speak well of us. They will say what a nice person we are and how well we are doing. We expect that is going to be the seal of God upon our consecration, that is going to be the proof that we are in the Will of God - and it works just the other way!

The position, the situation into which you and I get (or, may I say, are brought) is one which goes absolutely the opposite to our nature, our constitution, our temperament, and therefore our expectation. We are ambitious, we are not getting on very well, and what a time we have! Success - oh, it is our goal, and there is no mark of success. All that sort of thing is all against us and what we are, and we have to suffer humiliation. We have to suffer that which simply goes against the grain all the time, our grain. God is breaking us down, and in the place of our pride, He is going to put the humility of His Son. In the place of ourselves in every respect He is going to put Christ. It is a very practical thing.

Now, do not resign. Do not seek a new job, a new sphere. Do not take yourself out of God's hand. You will only jump out of the frying pan into the fire. It is quite serious and it is quite true. God is doing the greatest thing and angels are looking on; principalities and powers are looking on. Men may not see; you may be hidden. Your life may be remote from public view. The history may be an altogether hidden one, a secret one, and no other one knows your travail or anguish, how the iron is entering into your soul, but principalities are looking on. The manifold wisdom and grace of God are being displayed. He is conforming you to the image of His Son. You may not feel it. All you feel is the breaking down and the emptying and the misery of it all, but God knows what He is doing, and Christ is coming out, Christ is going to fill all things. The universe is going to be filled with Christ and that is how it happens. It is happening there where you are having that bitter time and you know that you dare not break away, you know you dare not give up and run, and yet how hard it is.

"Conformed to the image of His Son" said Paul, that great heart so concerned over this very matter, "My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be fully formed in you" (Gal. 4:19). That is what God is after. That is the course of sonship. "For our light affliction (we do not always call it light, but we have only to see the end and we should call it light) which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen" (2 Cor. 4:17-18).

The Nature of Sonship

It is spiritual mindedness. Get the right sense of that word 'mindedness'. It does not mean that your mind is always occupied with spiritual things to the detriment of practical matters of everyday life. I think that is the idea some people have about being spiritual: to be truly spiritual you must not wash up a dish; it is degrading. You must not sweep a floor; you lose out spiritually if you do that. That is not what it means. If you lived in Scotland you would understand. In Scotland people speak like this: "Are you minded to go to so-and-so and do so-and-so?" That is, 'Have you a mind? Are you drawn out in any certain direction?' That is spiritual mindedness. It is that your heart is set pre-eminently upon the things of the Spirit, and remember that very often the things of the Spirit spring up in a wonderful way when we are rightly and properly devoted to our duty. We want a time of detachment for prayer and study. That is alright in its place, but trying to escape from those other things also comes into the consideration. We may break away and not get very far, and we come back very disappointed with our time of retreat. But there is something needed, very ordinary, mundane, trivial - but it is needed. It is all of a piece with helpfulness, with mutual burden-bearing, all of a piece with making the wheels run more smoothly without grinding and without straining, and without others having too much on their shoulders, and remembering the word of the Lord, "Whatsoever thy hand finds to do, do it with thy might" (Eccl. 9:10) and "Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Cor. 10:31). We give ourselves on that line to something which perhaps naturally is not a thing that we like doing, and we get a spiritual blessing out of it. Perhaps the Lord speaks to us in that work, whereas all the intensity of our application does not really get spiritual increase, not always. I know that we have to keep the balance of these things, and I am not saying that you must never have your time of retreat with the Lord.

Spiritual-mindedness is that your heart is set upon the things of the Lord as the first primary consideration. These are the things which are life to you; these are the things which mean everything to you. Nothing can take the place of those things - the things of the Lord. That, beloved, is the nature of sonship - spiritual mindedness.

Sonship the Object of Satan's Greatest Animosity

Sonship is the object of satan's most bitter animosity. By any means within the range of his diabolical wit and cunning, he will seek to frustrate sonship. He will even get you over-occupied with what you call 'the work of the Lord', if by so doing he can curtail or limit your spiritual sonship. It is the cry of a multitude of men and women on this earth today who are in a system of organized Christian work, that it is at the peril of their spiritual life. They are starving, the work does not allow of spiritual considerations, of necessary indispensable prayer time, time with the Word of God. They know that they are out of the fight; they know that they are beaten and defeated and cannot stand up to it, and it is the work that has done it. That is only one of satan's methods. If he cannot get you occupied with building Philistine pyramids for a glorious kingdom in this earth so that the fulfilment of God's demand "Let my son go" shall be hindered, he will get you occupied in some other way in building a 'kingdom of God' which is not the kingdom of the Son of His love. You understand what I mean - working for God when it is not the work of God. This is where it is dangerous to begin to try and apply principles. You miss so much, but remember, if the Lord's people are going to get increased measure, if there is going to be some increase of the Lord by gatherings or by some other way, you may be sure that satan is set dead against that, and spiritual growth will be the object of his most venomous spite.

Oh, in the light of God's eternal purpose, what a sad thing it is that so many today are quite content with being saved and with getting others saved and left there. What a sad thing! And what a sad thing it is that multitudes of the Lord's people are mainly concerned with getting blessing. Is it not true? Oh, if I began to speak to you about how to get power, you would be all ears! Yes, you can today get great crowds of the Lord's own children together, if you speak on blessings, whatever the blessings might be - sanctification, power, and so on. Speak of God's eternal purpose and it is too abstract, too remote, and yet it is the thing. Oh, when we lose sight of our blessing in view of His inheritance in the saints, when we change the direction from ourselves to Him, we are on the line of God.

But notice that all this speaks of some vantage ground of satan, that there should be so many Christians who are supremely concerned about spiritual blessing for themselves, because they know that they have no power, because they know that the question of sanctification is still a live question, because of this and that and something else they have got to find in order to make good. And what is the key to all good and all fulness? It is God's eternal purpose. I cannot say that emphatically enough. Get Christ in view, all God's fulness in Christ. See that He is the fulness of God and moving in the direction of Christ's manifest glory, of God's inheritance in the saints, that is the line of power, that is the line of Life, that is the line of holiness. I am quite sure that this is the key to everything - the eternal purpose of God.

Speaking generally, how much do we hear today about the eternal purpose? Subjects are all sorts of things, phases of the truth. The great, all-inclusive thing - God's eternal purpose concerning His Son - that is the point. Get your heart set on God's Son and God's purpose concerning His Son, and the door will be opened to light, to power, to victory. That is the way.

If you do not understand that, ask the Lord to make it clear. I have gone through this. I have experienced years of struggle, failure, weakness and defeat, and crying to God day and night for something - power, victory, sanctification, holiness and so on, and never getting there. While there is so much yet to be done, I can say to you that a marvellous increase of fulness of the Lord, something of the knowledge of the power of His resurrection, has come by seeing this: that it is Christ, it is concerning His Son, it is God's inheritance in the saints. It is not what I can get, but what God can get; not what I can have, but what God is after, and God is after everything concerning His Son.

You see, our motives are so mixed. That is the trouble. Why do we want power? To have influence with men. We do not know our hearts. We think, we believe, that it is in order to lead men to the Lord and so on, but oh, how dangerous it is to be used like that, to have power for that. Let us get the objective right and clear, let us be directed altogether from things to Him, the Person. Let us have before our eyes the One whom God has always before His eyes, and we have got the secret of everything, the key to everything. It is the gospel of God concerning His Son. Let that ring in your ears. When our object is God's object, we have got the key to everything, for in Him all fulness dwells.

The Lord write His word in our hearts!