Transcribed
from a spoken message given by T. Austin-Sparks in 1958. The original spoken message can be found on the Audio Page of this website.
In the
letter to the Hebrews chapter 3 and the first verse:
"Wherefore,
holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider
the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, even
Jesus."
I want to
put a ring round that fourth word: "partakers"
- of a heavenly calling. That is, for the moment, the
purpose of this brief meditation; the focal point. But,
as you see, it is in the course of a process suggested by
the first word of the sentence, 'wherefore'. It is a
matter of common knowledge that this letter to the
Hebrews is one full of comparisons and contrasts. They
are very many. At this point they relate to two houses
and two people responsible for and in those two houses.
Two houses, as you notice in the immediately following
words, on the one side, in the first place, that of Moses
in which he was faithful as a servant. On the other side,
the house of Jesus in which He is Son and over which He
is Head.
The word
'house' of course, is more literally 'an economy', an
order of God in this dispensation. So on the one side
there is the earthly house, on the other side the
heavenly in contrast. On one side the temporal, on the
other side the spiritual. On the one side, as it says
'that which came through angels'; on the other side, that
which has come through God's Son. The whole letter has
that as its object; the superiority, the greatness of the
latter over the former.
These words
with which this chapter begins tell us something or
indicate something as to the constitution of this
heavenly, spiritual, so much superior house, when it uses
these words: "wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of
a heavenly calling". Holy brethren... they
constitute this house. The holy house then, is comprised
and composed of those who are separated from one whole
system, realm and nature, unto God; unto another order.
Separated from the world, from sin, from death; that is
the meaning of the word 'holy', holy - separated.
Brethren -
holy brethren. Beautiful title for the house of God! A
family of holy ones, of separated ones. This is the
superior nature of THIS house. We would like to stay much
with that because there's much said about it earlier,
about Christ singing in the midst of His brethren and not
ashamed to call them brethren, saying "I and the
children which God has given me" and so on, all
leading up to this: 'holy brethren...' The heavenly,
spiritual house is a house of sanctified brothers and
sisters. It's a HOLY FAMILY.
But then we
come to the special point for the moment, the particular
designation and conception of those who are of this
house. "Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers..."
- an unfortunate translation. In the original it is
"partners". Partners - the same word occurs in
Luke 5:7 about the disciples and the fishes, "they
beckoned unto their partners". That is exactly the
same word here; why did they want to change it into
partakers instead of saying, "wherefore, holy
brethren, PARTNERS of a heavenly calling"? There are
many designations in the Word of God of the Lord's
servants. We're familiar with bond slaves of Jesus
Christ, ministers of Christ, stewards of the mystery,
fellow-workers; and so we could go on - a great number of
titles and conceptions of the Lord's servants in the
Lord's house. But here is one by itself. And if we could
really just catch its peculiar and particular meaning to
see that it goes a little further than many of the
others... Practically all of those other titles carry the
idea of delegated responsibility. A servant, for
instance, well, he is entrusted as a servant with
responsibility. A steward, he is entrusted with
resources, it's something delegated to him. And so all
the other titles have that idea bound up with them. But
here is something which goes beyond - PARTNERS! Partners
in a heavenly calling... brought into partnership with
Christ and with one another concerning this house. This
house is a partnership.
I'm quite
sure, dear friends, that you are impressed almost every
day that you live with the difference between an employee
and a partner. We all see it, it shouts at us everywhere.
I've been in the house in Kilcreggan during this week
while the work has been going on. The employees have been
at work. They think nothing of working and then going off
to their meal and leaving ALL the electric light on! I
saw a young fellow with a large light on, working,
putting on his coat and making for the door. I said to
him, "Where are you going?" "Going home to
dinner." "Why leave the light on?"
"Oh, I never thought about that!" You see,
"employee" is one thing - I felt the hurt, I've
got to meet the liabilities and all that. If he had been
a partner - a partner, a co-owner - he'd have been very,
very careful about that house, about all sorts of little
details, because as a partner he is involved in all the
liabilities. There's all that difference, it may seem
very simple, but there's ALL that difference in the house
of God between employees (servants, in a sense) and
partners. And seeing that the partnership here spoken of
is a FAMILY affair, the family is in partnership over the
house, over the economy, over the order; a joint family
responsibility - that's what's here. A joint FAMILY
responsibility for this house.
It brings
the house very near to the heart doesn't it? To REAL
concern, REAL watchfulness, REAL jealousy. We're INVOLVED
as partners! You see, the losses are going to be our
losses, they're not the losses of the boss, the owner,
someone for whom we're working and he's got to bear that;
they're OUR losses. The gains are OUR gains! We are so
deeply in this house matter that what touches it, touches
us. The losses and the gains, everything to do with it is
a matter of our very life, our very life. Joint
responsibility, because, and it's a tremendous thing when
we hear it said here, GOD'S house - God's house, yes it's
the house of God and yet it's our house - it's our house.
Whose house are we? And it is said we are heirs of God
and JOINT heirs with Jesus Christ; this is our house, it
is a joint ownership. It belongs to us in a spiritual
sense, it's a part of us and we are joint sharers in all
the interests of this house.
I put my
ring round the word 'partners'; it's all I want to say,
you think about it. It conveys a lot. I think it goes to
the heart of everything, it really does. It's a beautiful
idea, we are no longer just employees of the Lord -
servants in that official or professional sense - we are
partners. Think about those disciples in partnership on
the lake, I'm quite sure that what affected one boat,
affected all the partners. What affected one partner
affected all the others. It was a joint thing and the
loss of any part was the loss to the whole; the gain to
any part was the gain to the whole. And when one boat was
nigh unto sinking by reason of the greatness of the
draught of the fishes, they didn't keep it all to
themselves, their blessing; they beckoned unto their
partners - they shared their blessing. That's the house
of God.
May He just
convey to us His own meaning in this: "holy
brethren, partners in a heavenly calling".