The Unsearchable Riches of Christ
by T. Austin-Sparks

Chapter 2 - The Spirit of Grace

“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past tracing out!” (Rom. 11:33; A.S.V.).

“Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach unto the nations the unsearchable riches of Christ" (Eph. 3:8).

We begin again, with the Lord’s help, with “The unsearchable riches of Christ.” Having noted that this word “riches” is linked with a number of things in the New Testament, we have commenced our meditation with the first of these connections, “the riches of His grace.” We have said a little about the basic character of grace. Something about the works of grace and the works of law, and we have gone on to look at God’s work of grace, of His finishing His work for man before ever man comes into the picture at all and is then called into the work which God has finished. This is the grace of God.

Now, for a few minutes, let us look at the free action of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Grace. You know, do you not, that the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Grace? (Heb. 10:29). What does it mean that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Grace? It simply means that the Holy Spirit is that Spirit of grace which came from God and is freely given to us through faith. Again, here is the Grace of God. We shall never earn nor merit the Holy Spirit. He is freely given to faith. Although it may sound like repetition and labouring the point, I do want that we should be impressed with this: that the Holy Spirit is given freely as the Spirit of Grace. He is the One Who brings to us from God all that Grace means. If we have the Holy Spirit in possession, in-dwelling, we have in Himself, in His very Person and Presence all that Divine Grace means. He is That Spirit of Grace.

Now, with Him, we have the free action of God. The Bible begins in a very simple way, so simple that you hardly notice it. It is something written, something set down, and you read it and you hardly know or notice what you have read. ‘Now the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God brooded upon the face of the deep,’ and on you go. What was there in that condition of things to merit the Presence and action of the Holy Spirit? The initiative was all with the Spirit of God over against a set of conditions utterly contrary to Himself. Yet this brooding was a very active thing, a very energetic thing, a very purposeful thing; in a word, the Spirit of God brooding, hovering over that state of things was the Presence of God to change the whole situation, because God wanted it changed. That was all. He just wanted it changed. So He took the matter in hand and there was not only the lack of merit, but plenty of demerit. We do not know, but there has been surmising, perhaps guessing, perhaps right guessing, that that state of things was due to some judgment which had come upon the creation, which we may not speculate about at all. But, nevertheless, there was a state which was altogether contrary to the mind of God and the state of things could do nothing about it for itself. It took the free action of the Holy Spirit, just the free, voluntary, unearned initiative and action of the Spirit of God to bring about a new beginning.

Now, dear friends, you and I were here in such a state, and we believe that there are multitudes in that position, but as we believed, we were saved, were born anew, became children of God. Who would say we are a new creation in Christ? And how did it happen? Did we go up into heaven to call Him down? Did we go into the deep to bring Him up? Did we go into the uttermost parts of the earth to find Him and persuade Him? We really did nothing about it at all. We are where we are and what we are by an action of grace altogether apart from anything that we did in the matter. He did it, He did it all. We did nothing toward it, indeed our condition was all against God’s thought and God’s mind and yet He took the initiative and He did it by His Spirit. That is the Spirit of Grace, you see, taking things in hand to have them changed, to make a beginning in order to have things not as they were, but as God intended and intends them to be.

That is all very simple, is it not? But there is much more in that for our heart-ravishing than we are aware of, because perhaps our salvation is taken too cheaply, or taken too much for granted. It is those people who know best, more than most, what a ruin they were, what a chaos they were, what darkness they were in, what disruption there was in their lives—it is those people who know that their salvation was nothing of their doing; it was the free action of the Spirit of Grace.

Therefore, the Holy Spirit has brought God to us. He is God, and as God He has brought God to us, but what does that mean? In other words, what are the riches of His grace? Now we are going to dwell upon that in part. We will begin with another three things with which we are so familiar: The Spirit of Power, The Spirit of Wisdom, and The Spirit of Life.

(1.) The Spirit Of Power

First of all, let us begin with the Spirit of Grace coming as God to us; He comes as the Power of God into our lives to do all that God wants done. Now that is a simple statement, I know, but He has come to do it. It is no more of ourselves to do that than it was of the first natural, material creation that brought about the change. No, it is no more of ourselves, it is the Power of God that has taken this thing up to do it. Now, is this too common place as to evoke no response in our hearts? Are we not more and ever more aware that whatever has been done or is being done or has got to be done in our lives is by the Power of God. And what great power it took, what Great Power of God!

Now is there another power at work? Is darkness a power? Is it a power? Well, perhaps you have some experience as to be able to make it possible for you to say, “yes.” I know that when you have got to move into this world, where the Lord is neither known nor recognized nor acknowledged, and apparently not wanted, you realize that darkness is an awful power, “darkness covers the earth, and gross darkness the people” (Isa. 60:2). You see, the people are in darkness, and what can you do about it? You can talk, you can do all that is in your power, but you cannot break this dark thing until the Spirit of Power as the Spirit of Light breaks in upon that soul, on that life in that realm of darkness: it needs the Power of God because darkness is an awful power.

If that is true in this side of the world where there has been so much light given and so much truth given, and there is so much Christian tradition, you just go to the other side of the world—you go to those dark places of heathendom, and you have only got to move in a country where the gospel has not touched that side of the world, and you can feel the darkness. It is evil. It is positively evil. It is like that.

Now you may even feel the darkness in a traditionally Christian world or realm. I will never forget my first visit to the city of Rome; and I wanted to see the various things. I went to the Colosseum to see the place where the Christians were flung to the lions. I went to this place and that place and then I went into one of the most well-known and prominent churches in the world, and, you know, I just could not stay. After a very short time, I had to go out. I felt physically ill, a sense of awful death had come upon me physically, and I was glad to get out of the place. It was an atmosphere of death and darkness to the spirit. But, if that is true there, you go to other parts of the world and you can cut the darkness. It is so strong. It is a terrible thing.

When the Spirit of God as the Spirit of Light entered into this darkness which was over the face of the earth, the Spirit met an awful power, it was dealing with an awful power, and it called for the exercise of the Infinite Power of God to break that reign of darkness. It called for the Divine Fiat, “Let there be light”—the Word of His Power. Oh, how our hearts cry and crave for more of the knowledge of That Power in His Word. If the smallest percentage of all our speaking had the real Power of God in it, something would happen. It would be a Fiat, an act of God to speak. That is why the Lord Jesus is called “the Word,” because where He comes as the Word something happens, something happens! The devil is exposed, as when He was here and the evil spirit cried out, “I know Thee Who Thou art, the Holy One of God” (Mark 1:23–24). Hell felt the impact of the Word. Men, sinful men, cried out in His Presence like that. But the point is, darkness is a terrible power.

The disruption in our humanity is a terribly strong thing. We are every day, almost every moment of our lives, up against that breakup in the humanity which is ours, or the breakdown of it, the disorder of it, the disintegration of it, the disruption of it. We know that our humanity is a broken down thing. We are all the time striving to pick it up and build it up and hold it up. We know it is a power, it is a terrible power— the disorder and chaos in ourselves. The Spirit of God came of His Own accord as the Spirit of Power to deal with what no other power in this universe could deal with; He came to change it. And that is where we are in the new creation; it is what the Spirit of God has undertaken to do with us. And surely there are many in this place tonight who would echo the words of the apostle, “Kept by the power of God” (1 Peter 1:5). You know you would not be a Christian today, you would not be going on with the Lord, you would not be standing true to the Lord, but for the keeping Power of God. In a world like this, there is such a power against what is the Lord’s.

Well, this is the Spirit of Grace, you see, that has come to take it over. The Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Grace is the custodian of the Divine Perfection. The Spirit of Grace has taken responsibility for realizing God’s End. Oh, thank God for that. Knowing ourselves and the awful forces that there are in our nature; knowing the world, or something of it, and the awful forces that there are in this world; and knowing the devil and something of his inimical hatred and opposition to what is of God, to anything that is of God, we certainly have to say, “Well, the only possibility is if God Almighty does it, if God sees to it.” And that is the Spirit of Grace that has come to take up God’s End and to do it. It is the free action of the Holy Spirit.

Now I wonder if I were to ask you what is in John 16 if you would be able to answer. Well, you know John 16 says, ‘I am going away, I am going away. You see Me now, but you will not see Me anymore. I return unto My Father... for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I go, I will send Him unto you.’ And it goes on to say what He will do, when He is come. It is all so natural it seems; it is all effortless; it is just going to be in the order of things. He is coming and He is going to do this and that; and that is all there is to it. It is just that He is coming, ‘I am going to send Him.’ And when we read John 16, we know the content of the Word, but do we realize that all this means that the Holy Spirit is taking over all that Christ came to initiate, and to carry it right through to its End. He is just going to do that for which He has come for. He is the Spirit of Grace, and grace is just God doing all that God can do without asking for any merit or any payment. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of that Grace as the Power of God, but that is one of the riches, you see, it is the riches of His power through grace.

We ought to get down our Bibles and have a word study, and a passage study on that word, “Grace.” Perhaps if I only just remind you, it will start off something. Have you not noticed that grace is many-sided in the New Testament, and one of the sides, or aspects of grace is that it is an energy. It is a power. It is a power-force in our lives. “There was given to me the messenger of Satan to buffet me.” And although these are not the exact words that the apostle used, this is what he meant, ‘I cried out to the Lord, take this away, because I cannot endure it. I shall not be able to go on with this thing. I will not be able to get through; this is too much, this is too great a burden. It is going to limit me; it is going to spoil my life.’ And He said unto me, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Grace there is introduced as over against the conscious inability of the apostle to go on with what he had been called for, and what had been put on him to do. His natural reaction was “I just cannot. If I have got to have this thing, I just will not be able to go on. Take it away, Lord. I asked Him three times to take it away. Lord, take it away. Lord, take it away, life is impossible.” He said, “My grace is sufficient for thee,” everything is possible to grace. It is a power, you see. It is an energy in the life. Perhaps, we do know this in measure, but not as much as we ought. We have had to say many times, but for the grace of God I should have acted very differently than from what I did. But for the grace of God, grace saved me. Grace kept me. Grace held me. It is the Power of God that is the Spirit of Grace. But that is where the riches began.

(2.) The Spirit Of Wisdom

But what is the second thing? Well, He is called the Spirit of Wisdom. Later we will have something more to say about Wisdom. But for the moment what does that mean, ‘What is Wisdom?’ To begin with what is Wisdom? Wisdom is more than knowledge. You know, you may have a lot of knowledge and have no wisdom at all. The people that have the most knowledge have got the least wisdom. They are the most foolish people with all their knowledge. What is Wisdom? It is knowing how to do it. That is a simple formula for wisdom. But as I have said, there is more to say in another connection about wisdom, and here it is.

I remember many years ago I heard or read of a little incident of a firm of engineers who were given a contract to do a certain job, and when it was done they sent in their account, more or less general, and it was a very big account. And the people who had to pay the bill sent it back and said, ‘Look here, this is not good enough, I want you to explain this and tell us how you made up this bill.’ The firm sent back, ‘Materials so much, time of workmen so much, and one or two other practical things’; but when those things were added together, they did not come up to the whole account. And they wrote underneath: the balance—‘knowing how to do it.’

Ah, well, knowing how to do it. It is quite a big part, you see, in the whole business, is it not? They might have had the materials, and they might have had the workmen, and they might have had all the other things, but not knowing how to do it, what would have been the good at all. They never would have done it.

Wisdom is knowing how to do it, and here is the Spirit of Grace. In this way Grace knows how to do it. We have to learn a lot about that. But Grace knows how to do it. Grace knows how to take up the problems and handle them and solve them and negotiate the situation to a successful and triumphant issue. Grace knows how to handle the people concerned and, oh, to handle a thousand other things which requires knowing how to do it.

Now I am quite sure that I am speaking the truth, that you and I are brought many times to the place where we do not know how to do it, or what to do. We just do not know, we have not got the wisdom for the situation. Perhaps you are in it now, as I am. But the Spirit of Grace is the Spirit of Wisdom, and He knows how to do it. We have had some experience upon which we can say, ‘I never thought it would be done, and I never imagined it would be done like that, the way the Lord has done it. What the Lord has done, and how He has done it. That never would have occurred to me to do it like that.’ And when you think of it, was there any better way that it could have been done. No, the riches of His grace is the riches of His Wisdom.

If you and I do believe in the grace of God brought to us by the Spirit of Wisdom—and I almost hesitate to say it because I know I am involving myself as well as you—we ought never to despair of a situation. He knows how to handle that difficulty. He knows how to get us through that dilemma. He knows how to resolve that matter. We do not know what to do, and in the presence of this quandary, this problem, we cry out because it wants something so deep and so great that it is altogether beyond us. It may be that way in time, but certainly in eternity we will say, ‘O the depth of the Wisdom, how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out.’

(3.) The Spirit Of Life

The Spirit of Grace is the Spirit of Power, and the Spirit of Grace is the Spirit of Wisdom, and the Spirit of Grace is the Spirit of Life. You may know that He is called the Spirit of Life—“the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:2). By the Spirit, we are told that Jesus was raised from the dead, through the eternal Spirit—the Spirit of Life (Heb. 9:14).

We need not go back again for our analogy to the first creation, the operation of the brooding Spirit, and the result of the life in the creation. In the animate creation and in man is the other kind of life. So the result of the presence of the Spirit in the new creation is like that. But here again, it is not just a Christian truth, a Christian doctrine, the gift of eternal life is not just one of those things that we come into when we become Christians. This Resurrection Life is a continuous abiding from day-to-day in power and experience. It is put in all the tenses of the Christian life and salvation: ‘We were raised together with Him, that we should walk in newness of life.’ That is in the past tense. We are now living in the good of that, so that the life whereby Jesus conquered death should be manifested in our mortal flesh. That is in the present tense. And this goes on to the future, the future of the great revelation of life in its final, full and perfect expression. This Resurrection Life is not something only that happened when we are saved. It is a Power to work in us continually now. Well, you know it so well in hearing and teaching, but this is the Spirit of Grace.

Oh, thank God for the Power of this Divine Life, which is demonstrating itself so continually. And it seems to me, and I ought to have said this in the past, but it seems to me, more and more to be the case that the further you go on, the deeper this life has to go, because you are taken so much more deeply into death. It seems the experiences of going down become deeper and greater than ever they had been before and, therefore, the Power of His Resurrection becomes greater all the way along. This is a very hopeful thing for us. Perhaps some of you are feeling today that you are touching bottom and perhaps you say, ‘Well, this is the end.’ But do not forget that Resurrection is a reality. It is not a theory. It is not just a doctrine. It is an experience; it is a continuous experience. And, dear friends, the great revelation in the Word of God is that in the end it is going to be up and not down.

We know how it is going to finish, it is an elevated life that we have. However, we may from time to time descend, but we are going to ascend as many times as we descend. But, as the Lord’s people, the final movement is an ascension. Although this life is that way, it must seek out and find its own Source of Life. Now where it began, it will End. It began in God, and it will End in God. This is the Spirit of Grace, and the Spirit of Life.

I know, dear friends, that I have only said things with which you are familiar. But sometimes our most familiar things, because of their familiarity, lose their power and it is well to be reminded of them.

Now I have mentioned these three aspects of grace as three great and primary riches of grace and of how rich they are. What I have next to say, if the Lord wills, would take considerable longer than we would have time for this evening, because they really do take us into the depths.

So I will leave it there for now and take it up later, but you have enough to get on with what I have said this evening, or what I trust the Lord has said. You go away and let your hearts, as well as your minds, dwell upon this that has been said; because we can really miss a lot, dear friends, if we only hear and go away and do nothing with what we have heard. All is for our good. But the real value will be if, after tonight, we just recall these things, and go to the Lord very quickly and say:

“Oh, Lord, if what is said is true, if this is the truth, I look to You to make that good in me. The Spirit of Power, and the Spirit of Wisdom, and the Spirit of Life: You have said that these are features of Your grace brought in the Person of the Holy Spirit. This is the teaching of the Word of God. It must not stay in the Book. It must come into reality in my own life. Lord, I count on You to make this true, to make this real, and so, more than ever, make this a reality in me.”


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