by
T. Austin-Sparks
Chapter 1
(Romans 8:2.)
The first thing in experience on the subjective side is not the
Cross, if by the Cross you mean the death. The first thing in
experience on the subjective side is the Resurrection, and the
Resurrection of the Lord Jesus made experimental by the inward
reception of His Risen Life is the basis of everything else. The
Cross has a place prior to that, but not subjectively. Where then,
and how then, does the Cross take the prior place? Objectively! Now,
it is important that we recognise this, that death union with the
Lord Jesus Christ is a thing to be recognised as having already
transpired, long ago, milleniums ago - "The Lamb was slain before
the foundation of the world," but of course this thing was put into
action on this earth in Calvary, and if you like to begin there you
may. We will, for our purpose begin there, that, as we so often say,
the Lord Jesus Christ died an inclusive death - "We thus judge
that one died in the stead of all, therefore all are dead." Now that
is an objective fact. He did that, and we have got to recognise that
we died at least two thousand years ago in Christ. By faith we
accept that. That is objective.
"My faith would lay her hand on that dear head of Thine." That is
the objective fact that the all-inclusive, all-meaning death of
Christ was mine, by faith. I accept that, and take my position in
that. I look at that, and I say there I am in Calvary; there I died.
Now most of the trouble has arisen through an inadequate recognition
of that fact; that we have merely seen that Christ did something for
us in the matter of our sins, and not that He did something as
us. There is a lot of difference, and what so many of the Lord's
children come to recognise after many years of trusting in the Lord
for salvation from the guilt and penalty of sin is that they did not
know that they, with all that they are, good as well as bad, were
abolished in that death. They thought of someTHING having happened,
someTHING of themselves having been in that death, and not
THEMSELVES as having died. It is most important that we should have
the inclusive and conclusive recognition of that fact, and accept it
by faith, for that is the basis upon which God begins His activity
in us. Now faith begins by recognising and accepting and submitting
to an all-inclusive fact as objective there in Christ.
Faith immediately demands obedience, for faith and obedience are one
law with two sides, and you cannot separate them. You have to be
obedient unto that death by faith, and give a very definite
declaration of faith to that fact and bear testimony thereto. There
is a practical side to it in which you are involved. Now having in
the obedience of that faith in the objective thing come to that
point where you accept your death you have come just to the point
where God gives you the gift of Eternal Life.
Now the first thing which is subjective, and not objective, is that
union with Him in His Risen Life, and having taken your place in the
objective fact you come to know the subjective result that you are
raised together with Him. That is, you receive the Life of His
Resurrection. You only receive it, true, in its beginnings as it
were, as a babe, an infant, but you have IT, and then from that time
that Life is the basis of everything. It makes possible everything.
Beloved, if you were to come experimentally into Calvary without
that Life there would be nothing left of you. The Lord dare not take
us experimentally into Calvary until He has got something in us that
will bring us up, but He can do anything with us when once that Life
is really there.
Now the order is firstly, faith in the objective fact, and our
obedience of faith in an acceptance thereof, and a declaration of
our position therein. That is the first phase of the divine order.
The next is, the inward, the subjective, the receiving of His Risen
Life by faith. Then the third thing is the Cross being made
subjective.
I am perfectly certain that much confusion and a terrible amount of
paralysis and death is resultant from a continual emphasis upon the
subjective death of the Lord Jesus before the Life has had a chance.
I wonder if you understand me. I don't want to confuse you, but a
continual emphasis upon death, crucified! crucified! will bring you
into death, unless you really do know, and unless you do count
utterly upon the power of His Risen Life within you. Every bit of
the prospect in Life and in service depends upon His Resurrection.
If you study that as a truth in the word of God right through, not
only in the New Testament, but in the Old, and especially in the New
Testament in the actuality of the thing, you will find that
everything rested upon the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus. You will
find that every movement, the slightest gesture, every step of
progress toward the realisation of the Eternal Purpose of God, was
by reason of an uprising of that Risen Life; was upon a basis of
Resurrection. Now you are launched out into a fairly large realm,
but once you get that key, and once the Lord says that in your
spirit you will find that your Bible will become a new book,
absolutely alive, and wherever you look you will see the law and
truth of Resurrection. You know that Pentecost was upon Resurrection
ground. Listen to Peter preaching again and see what He is saying.
What is his theme? Here is the church merging into its great world
testimony, its world vocation by the uprising of the Risen Life of
the Lord within it. Now I dare not stay just for the moment to show
how far-reaching that truth is: but we must recognise this as the
law, that everything, without a single exception depends upon the
Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ being made a subjective
reality in us, and it will only be by that life that we are able to
put to death the deeds of the flesh. That is, to make the Cross
subjective it will only be as that Life is the actuating principle,
the dynamic of your experience that you are able to do anything at
all inside, or outside.
The Cross becomes subjective when the Life has become subjective by
reason of an attitude and an obedience of faith toward all that the
Cross means objectively. You see the order. Now I am not saying this
without, I think, an indisputable background - I am as confident of
this, as I am of anything in the universe, and the Lord has shown me
this so clearly and so thoroughly for sometime past now that I can
see that this is the way through, the way out, the law of
everything, and there are no possibilities at all until we recognise
this fact, that the Resurrection is the supreme thing in the
universe. It gives birth and rise to every other possibility in our
union with God, and that fact of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus
becoming an inward reality in the members of the Body of Christ is
the guarantee, - provided it is given a clear way, a free course and
not checked, - of the accomplishment and the achievement of
everything that is in the mind and will of God.
Now one is not for a moment putting the Cross in a secondary place -
do not misunderstand me - the Cross is absolutely essential, you
never get into the Resurrection until you have recognised the Cross;
you will never get into the fulness of the Life until, firstly, by
faith, you have accepted all that that Cross means for yourself and
your whole life, and then having so accepted it you receive the Life
of the Resurrection within your spirit. The order of spiritual
experience is this: There stands the Cross, there is Christ
crucified, and in that One Person God has included all of us, we are
all in Him. We recognise that His death is our death. His death is
not only the pardon and propitiation for our sins (it is that,
blessed be God); it is not only our salvation from hell, and our
assurance of heaven (it is that, blessed be God), but that is not
enough, it is that it is linked with that great Purpose of God
before the world was to have for Himself an instrument for the
universal manifestation of His glory, and that instrument a
glorified humanity. It is that the Cross represents the putting away
of a humanity that can never be glorified, and in the Resurrection
the producing of a humanity that can be glorified. You get an
adequate background for this, and you see why you ought to mortify
the deeds of the flesh by the power of His Risen Life. Not just
because the Lord wants you to go without this and that, and to rob
you of anything that is yours, and to narrow down your life and cut
off. When people get that conception of the Cross, that the thing is
one continuous cutting off, giving up, saying, die, die, all the
time, oh, they get such miserable, such lifeless people, such
confused and confounded people, always introspective, looking round
to see whether this ought to be, or that ought to be. Oh, it is an
awful state of things to be there.
Get your background, this vast thing that God has concerning the
universe, the revelation of His glory in the universe through a
glorified humanity, then put the Cross there, and say, I can never
have a place in that as I am. My humanity, thus poisoned at its very
spring by sin God can never glorify, therefore that which is
impossible of being glorified must be put away, and I pass out in
the humanity that is sin-poisoned and impregnated. But I accept that
by faith, I cannot bring that about in myself, but I accept His act
for me in that by faith, and I give my deliberate and definite and
practical testimony to the fact that when the Lord Jesus died He
died in my place - I died. Now I take that as the objective fact by
faith, then claim, upon the ground of my faith in that death of the
Lord Jesus, His Resurrection Life, the gift of God, which is the
Life of the ages, Eternal Life in Christ Jesus our Lord, and then
that Life becomes the principle and basis of making all that that
Cross held objectively in itself subjective in me. I can now by a
law put to death the deeds of the flesh; I can now, because I am in
a place of risen ascendency, say no to my "old man," to my own
natural will, No! I could not do it whilst I was down there in
death. You see what people are trying to do - dead people are trying
to get the better of dead people! Death cannot cast out death! It
wants LIFE to conquer death - "The Life whereby Jesus conquered
death," says Paul. Now we, by the Life, have a spiritual ascendency
and can say, No! effectually from a vantage ground of our Life with
the Lord. That is to be our attitude, so that what was in the Cross
objectively, can now be made by God subjective in us, and the life
increases and abounds as by the Life we conquer the death. We take
our position over death in all its forms of expression. Now you see
that is the order. I hope it is very clear. Just ask the Lord to
write that within.
Resurrection Life
Now one has said this is the basis of everything. You have received
a new Life; it is a brand new one such as you knew nothing of
before. It is so absolutely fresh to us that in most things we are
utter strangers to it in all its laws and workings; so that we now
in a new life have got to learn everything over again from, the
beginning. We are babes - "Except ye become as babes ye cannot enter
into the realm of the heavens." You cannot enter the Life of the
Heavenly Man without beginning all over again. In the first place
you have got to know all over again how to live by a new Life, and
not by an old one which is called life, but which God calls "Death,"
and you will discover if you are really going on with the Lord in
his own power, He will teach you that your life is utterly incapable
of meeting the requirements of a Heavenly Life; that in no phase or
resource of our own natural life can we rise to the demands of a
Heavenly Life, and the Lord will all the time be smiting our life,
and saying to us, no, you cannot attain unto this in your own
resource, this thing can only be done by this new Life. Some of us
who have so much of this old life - it is so strong in us - have to
be very badly broken all the while in that realm and shown in a very
drastic way that this can only be done by His Life, and it will be
utterly fatal for us to attempt to do it otherwise. It will be fatal
to all the purpose of God in us and through us if our life tries to
get in there to do it. It is His Risen Life which is the
accomplishing, the achieving, the executive principle of this new
realm, and oh, it is so new.
That is where you start, and you will find the Lord works that out.
If your life gets up and tries to intrude into the realm of things
heavenly, the things of God, you will get smitten, and you will go
down. You will discover the Lord simply brings you back to where you
were, and you have to start all over again. That is the history of
Christendom; it is the history of multitudes of those who profess to
be the Lord's people, and everything has got to be learned all over
again from babyhood. You have to learn how to walk in this Life and
according to this Life, and the baby learning to walk just takes one
step at a time - it may be in too much of a hurry with sometimes a
tumble and much reaching out to cling on to something. It is
learning to walk, finding its feet. It is just where we are in this
thing, it is all so new, but we are learning how "to walk not after
the flesh, but after the Spirit," and we are learning by the law of
this Life.
I do not want to be guilty of underrating your intelligence, but I
wonder if you are able to see how this works; how this Life operates
to dictate to you in the simplest things, the most commonplace
things. You are about to say something, and if really you did listen
inside you would hear something, not in word, but in feeling saying,
"steady, careful now"; but then you say it. You did not give heed to
that Life principle - what is the result? Well, a mess, and you know
it; and when you come to sit down and reflect upon it you say,
"really I did have a check inside, if only I had listened." It is
"the law of the Spirit of Life" trying to "make you free from that
law of sin and death." But you see you have learned now, and next
time you listen. So in deed, so in methods; and the remarkable thing
is that things you never for one moment had any shade of a doubt as
to whether they were right and proper come into a realm of question.
That is quite all right, you are moving on, you are discovering
things, you are in a new world altogether. Things which were to the
highest moral sense of the natural man quite correct, come into
doubt now you have come into another realm so much higher. You see
you are learning how to walk by a new law of Life. And, beloved,
listen, you may have accepted some system from
without of laws for daily life, but the Life dictates what
you should do, and what you should not do. You have this thing
inside which is saying all the time, "yes," and "no"; "you may," and
"you may not," and what we have to learn is to walk by that - the
Life. And we learn very often by violating it, as we discover by its
violation, death, and we have to have in that a hand to hand tussle
with the Lord's enemy, with the death which has resulted from the
resisting of that very, very sensitive still small voice of Life
within. Of course, it is the Holy Spirit in all His intelligence
working by the law of Life, because this is "the law of the Spirit
of Life." The Spirit of Life in intelligence is not an abstract
influence of some kind that is given unto us, it is the Holy Ghost
Himself resident within, but His law is Life, and when the Holy
Spirit is against the thing there is death, and that is how we know.
Resurrection Tongues
Now we want to get right back here at the beginning. I have not got
past that stage; here I make lots of blunders, and when I sit down
and think it over, I know that I was warned, if only I had paused
and waited and listened a little longer inside. But we are learning
to talk all over again. Then we have to learn to TALK in newness of
life. You remember the word of the wise man "Death and Life are in
the power of the tongue." You remember what James says, "The tongue
is a little member, but see how great a forest is kindled by this
little fire. A ship is a mighty thing, but see how mighty a ship a
little rudder can turn," and he says "You can tame any beast in
creation, but the tongue can no man tame."
"Death and Life are in the power of the tongue." And what we need is
Resurrection tongues! Oh, the death streams that go out through our
talk, our conversation, our criticism, our talking people over; no
bad intention, but just talking them over - death; and you know it.
And after a little bit of that you know things have gone wrong; you
have dropped down somewhere, and your spiritual life has been
checked, blighted, and you have got to have a real good time with
the Lord to be able to breathe freely again. You are learning all
over again how to talk life.
The Lord wants to make us talk in Life, instead of death; to cut off
by this Life the stream of death. You cannot do it until you get
Life, more Life to overcome the deadly poison of talk. You begin
there, and don't let anybody think that the Lord will be able to use
them with a message of life out to the world until they have learned
how to speak in the ordinary way of life, according to Life. Your
testimony in the gospel, in spoken ministry, beloved, will be based
upon this, that He hath touched your lips. "I am a man of unclean
lips," and that testimony in that ministry will be completely
crippled, paralysed, if in the ordinary conversation of life there
is not this principle of Life at work controlling the death. Well,
the Lord must teach us that.
I can see that more and more clearly we have got to learn how, by
the Spirit, to refuse to discuss people, criticise people, talk
people over. With some it is a greater besetment than with others,
but with all of us there is a need for this hold of Life over death
in our lips. We learn to talk all over afresh, we stutter and
splutter to begin with and put things wrongly, but we learn by this
inward law that says all the time, "you know you ought not to have
said that." If only you had waited, you knew there was something
that would have stopped you from saying it. There is this all the
time - to live - to walk - to talk - to know.
Resurrection Knowledge
We are learning a new knowledge according to the heavenly wisdom.
One need not stay to speak about that at length, but we have got to
come to know things all over afresh from a heavenly standpoint, and
our natural wisdom as an expression of our natural life and
resource, can never get us through on spiritual matters. You come up
against some of the simplest spiritual matters, matters of God, and
you will find your most highly and fully developed natural wisdom
and knowledge cannot stand you in stead. You are beaten, you cannot
handle this thing, and it is only a simple spiritual problem. You
cannot get through with any resource of natural understanding, and
you come to see that there is something behind these familiar
admonitions of the Word - "Trust in the Lord with all thy
heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding." There is a big
truth there, that your understanding can never get you through on
spiritual matters, and that though we may have all knowledge
according to this world, we simply fall right short of the simplest
Divine knowledge, the gift of wisdom and revelation. It is a new
knowledge. You can break that up into its many phases. We know we
cannot do things now as we used to do them, we have come to see that
our works for the Lord are not necessarily
the works of the Lord; that our multitude of
activities in the Name of the Lord with the very best of motives and
the purest of desires do not accomplish the end of God. We do not
get through, we are beaten; we have gone out to do the Lord's work
instead of coming to the place where He can do His own work through
us. A big difference, a mighty difference! Beloved, unless the Lord
does every bit of the work it will never be done, and the Lord's end
will never be accomplished. And that is why the Lord has to tie us
up sooner or later so that our own work - that is - our works
for the Lord come to an end, and we recognise that it is death.
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