Reading: 2 Corinthians 3.
We do not make a great deal of the ecclesiastical
calendar as such - the special times and seasons of the
year because it is a part of our religion - but
sometimes it is good and well to dwell upon the great
epochs which lie at the very foundation of our faith,
such as the birth of our Lord, His death, His
resurrection, His ascension, and the coming of the
Spirit. Today that latter is in many minds, the day of
Pentecost, the coming of the Spirit. And I think, dear
friends, nay, I am sure, that we, the Lord's people are
always in need of both reminders and fuller instruction
as to what that really means. For it was indeed a great,
a great thing that happened. The whole of the
dispensations turned upon it. Up to the time of the
coming of the Holy Spirit, the conditions of one
dispensation obtained. From that day the whole
dispensation changed, and entirely new conditions came
in. I say today we need to know the greatness of the
change and the changes which have come with the coming
of the Holy Spirit.
The chapter which we have
just read, as a portion of a much larger argument or setting
forth of truth, ought not to be confined or restricted to the
verses marked by chapter 3. This chapter embodies something
momentous and tremendous of that very change of dispensations,
from Moses to Christ and from Moses to Christ ministered in the
power of the Holy Spirit. And the difference is marked by the
prevailing word throughout the chapter: glory! Glory! Underline
it: verse 7, verse 8, twice in verse 9, twice in verse 10, verse
11, three times in verse 18. In eighteen verses, the one word
occurring ten times, really indicating what this is about. And
then lay beside it the word or the Name: "Spirit". You find that
this is a governing and ruling matter: the Spirit and Glory. And
the argument of the apostle is just this: that there was a glory
which faded, which went out in the Old Dispensation, and that
dispensation resolved itself into a dispensation which was
anything but glory. But, by the coming of the Spirit, a
dispensation of glory came in, and a glory which never
was before: a new glory, a fuller glory, and a glory with a new
meaning.
To just analyse and sum
up this chapter, we may put over it the statement that the theme
here is glory;
let that be said. The medium of glory is the Spirit; He
is clearly set forth here as the Spirit of glory, the medium of
the Glory. The instrument of the glory - the Word of God, the
Word of God becoming alive by the Spirit and producing glory, as
we shall see. The sum of the glory is Christ: "when it
shall... turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away" - the glory
breaks out. Or, if we pursue this a little further than the mark
of chapter 3, we come on to this: "God who commanded light to
shine out of darkness has shined into our hearts, to give the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ"; the sum of glory is Christ. The place of the glory is
the heart of the believer: "has shined in our hearts... has
written on hearts... tables of flesh". The place of the glory is
the heart of the believer. The effect of the glory in
the heart is transformation. We are being transformed as
we behold the glory, into the same image "from glory to glory".
And the power of the glory is liberty; "where
the Spirit of the Lord is (or where the Spirit is Lord) there is liberty".
That's the chapter in brief, in outline. Don't think I am going
to take all that and comment upon it, it's simply a statement:
that with the coming of the Spirit the way has been opened up
and the glory has come in.
But you notice, through
this chapter and what Paul is writing, there are these
fundamental contrasts. These fundamental contrasts which are of
such tremendous importance. And dear friends, I do not
feel that I can put sufficient emphasis and stress upon this
matter; it goes far deeper, and more into the
present situation than most of us realise. My difficulty is to
make it clear, make it plain. Here we are in the presence of
something of tremendous importance to Christians,
because after all, and this I'm sure you will agree with, the
real need where we Christians are concerned is that our
Christianity shall be glorious! And that we should be glorious
Christians, in the right sense. Well, you agree with that, but
how? And it is by, not only recognising, but coming into the
good of these fundamental contrasts which are presented to us in
this chapter. There is this contrast at the heart of the others:
the contrast between the Law given by Moses, and the Revelation
given in Jesus Christ. There's the contrast between tables of
stones, and hearts of flesh and so on. But right at the centre
of these contrasts there is this one:
"The Letter Killeth,
the Spirit Giveth Life."
Now let us be very clear
as to what that means; that is not a contrast between the Word
of God and the Holy Spirit. It cannot be that. The "letter", the
letter there is the Word of God, but it is not set in contrast
to the Holy Spirit as necessarily bringing death while the
Spirit brings Life. I want you to be very clear in your mind
about that. You see, when you use that phrase: "the letter
killeth", don't think for a moment that that means that
the Word of God brings death! You have got to get it in its
setting, and understand what it is the apostle is saying here.
It is between legalism in relation to the letter or the
Word of God, and Life which comes by the Holy Spirit's action
upon the Word of God. This is what the apostle is saying here,
as he has said much more fully in other parts of his writings.
He is saying: "Look here, because of a state in persons,
'their heart was hardened', because of a state in persons, the
Word only comes to them as a legal statement of 'thou shalt' and
'thou shalt not'." It is something imposed upon them; it becomes
a heavy and dead weight upon them; it just is a matter of
oppression: "Now you must do this, and you must do that, you
must do the other thing and you may not do these things".
And so it may be the Word of God, but because of a state
in those concerned, it becomes simply legalistic, and therefore
it becomes bondage. It is the same Word, it's the same Word, it
is all the Word of God, but it is the effect that it has upon
us, and that depends entirely upon our state.
In his first letter to
the Corinthians the apostle had a lot to say at the beginning,
which bears I think, very much upon this matter. You remember
how in that part which is marked by our chapter 2, he is
speaking about "the wisdom of this world". The wisdom of this
world. Now, he is talking to Christians, "the wisdom of
this world" and the utter inability to understand the
things of the Spirit of God by reason of natural wisdom. Yes,
you may have all the wisdom of the philosophers, all the wisdom
of the great Greek world and empire, and yet you are utterly
incapacitated where the things of the Spirit of God are
concerned. It is no use! It is no use approaching the things of
God, the Word of God, with the most complete intellectual outfit
naturally, whether you are born with it, or whether you're
trained to it. You may bring the fullest, ripest scholarship,
the best education, the finest brain to the Word of God, and...
there's no Life. It doesn't produce Life; it is all dead. You
handle the Word of God in that way and it does not communicate Life
to anybody. It is very wonderful, of course, it may be very
interesting, almost fascinating, but afterwards... has it
ministered Life? And has it resulted in this transformation into
the same image? No! And I am going further.
We may have the most
thoroughgoing knowledge of the Bible, so that we are able to
analyse every book of the Bible, and have it there in our head
clearly, and tell anybody at any moment what is in this book,
and this chapter and that. We may have the whole thing, and
yet it may still be in the natural mind, and neither change us
nor the people to whom we give it. And worse than that, worse
than that, it may entirely incapacitate us for understanding
spiritual things. We may be altogether in another realm from
what is real spiritual understanding. It is necessary, dear
friends, for you to recognise this, that it is not a matter of
Bible knowledge, though that is so important. It is not a matter
of brain and intellect and scholarship, it is not at all a
matter of our attainments in that realm, however valuable such
things may be, given the other. But it is a matter of "God
having shined into our hearts to give the knowledge".
Another Kind of Knowledge by the In-Shining
An altogether
different knowledge comes by the in-shining. Now, I take it that
this natural knowledge, this natural wisdom of which the apostle
spoke in his first letter corresponds to the tables of stone.
After all, tables of stone are cold, dead things! Hearts of
flesh are warm, living things! And that's the difference between
a natural apprehending, grasping and handling of the
Word of God, however great may be the natural ability in that
realm, the difference between that and the Spirit revealing
God's Christ in His Word in our hearts: they are two
different worlds! I am not talking now about the unsaved
on the one hand and the saved on the other; I am discriminating
as this word does, between the people of God! Israel were the
people of God; but you see, there was just this objective
attitude to things, they were not spiritual people; spiritual
men and women. And when we say "not spiritual" we mean they had
not got the Holy Spirit indwelling and working. After all,
everything was outward. And so they came to the Law as something
written on tables of stone, and said: "Now, it says, 'Thou
shalt, thou shalt and thou shalt not, thou shalt not.'" And it
was all there like that as cold commandments and there was no
corresponding light in their hearts; no Spirit indwelling! And
so, it was dead; and it killed.
I know how hopeless it is
to try and explain this. But you see, take even the commandments
written on tables of stone: how do they affect you, dear friend?
How do they affect you? Now you can take any one of those
commandments, "Thou shalt not... steal" you feel bad about that? As
a Christian, do you feel bad about that? That's a terrible,
terrible rebuke to you, and terrible warning, terrible
commandment... if you do that in any way whatsoever, and there
are ten thousand ways in which you can do it. How do you look at
that? What does that say to you? Does it just say, "Thou shalt
not steal"; a cold commandment, imposing something upon you? Or
has the Spirit of God in you taken up that with all the rest,
and said: "Look here, here's Christ. Christ, rather than draw to
Himself, even what belonged to Him, to say nothing of what
belonged to other people and didn't belong to Him, rather than
draw to Himself, simply was always thinking rather of how He
could give rather than get." It's a principle, you see. Stealing
embodies a principle. It means that you are drawing to yourself;
you are going to have for yourself willy-nilly, anyhow you are
going to get that because you want it! It's a spirit, it's a
principle. And lawfully or unlawfully.
Stealing is unlawful, but
when you lift it into the realm of the spiritual, you see
something infinitely more than just, "You shall not go out and
take something from somebody that doesn't belong to you";
stealing, in that ordinary sense. You see behind... behind
there's the nature and the disposition of God. Behind there is
the disposition of God; behind every commandment. We need to
have every commandment dealt with in this way to see behind
there is the disposition of God, the nature of God. That is
mediated to us in Christ by the Holy Spirit, that a really Holy
Spirit governed life doesn't want to be "getting" all the time,
even to the point of taking what they have no right to have.
But, right round the other way, right round the other way: the
really Holy Spirit-governed child of God doesn't need to come
under an awful weight of condemnation when it's said, "thou shalt
not steal," or thou shalt not do any of the other things. The
Spirit inside has dealt with that quite alright, quite well,
quite thoroughly and changed the disposition, changed the
desire. But you see something has got to be done inwardly,
otherwise the "letter kills", brings death. But the same
"letter" taken up by the Holy Spirit, illuminated, brings Life.
It brings Life. The Word comes to life, and makes us live. "Written",
says the apostle, "in our hearts"; written, "not on
tables of stone", but "in our hearts", in hearts of
flesh. Along one line, there's no glory at all; no glory, but
along this other line there is glory.
I am compelled to close
at this point, but I want you to grasp one thing, just to carry
away with you this one thing. There is a tremendous
difference, indeed, there is all the difference of two worlds,
even amongst Christians, of those on the one side who have the
Word of God, believe it to be the Word of God, would lay down
their lives for it as the inspired Word of God and yet, and
yet... it is just a book of commandments, and laws, and
regulations and what-not. Then on the other hand, those to whom
this Book has come alive by the Holy Spirit, and they are seeing
by the Holy Spirit far more than just the written letter. If you
get into the one realm, you see, you get a dozen, more, a score,
a hundred different interpretations of the same passage of
Scripture, and you are all at variance. One says it means this,
and another says it means that, and that's because it is all
approached by the natural mind. It's still the Word of God;
it's still the Word of God. The only way to get over that, the
only way to come to oneness of mind, oneness of heart, oneness
of understanding, and to move livingly with the Lord, is for the
Spirit Himself, who knows what the meaning is, dwelling
in our hearts, to tell us that. Not to go beyond the Scripture,
that's not what we're talking about, extra to the Scripture, but
bearing witness in our hearts that this is God's mind about
that.
And so I say to you: the Holy Spirit has come, He
has come to take up the Word of God, and pass it from becoming
just a book of commandments, into the realm where it becomes the
Book of Life, that we really live by every word that
proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord, that His Word is made alive
to us by the Holy Spirit in that true sense of Life. We may be
fascinated with its studies and its subjects, and think that's
life, but that's not what I am talking about. It may be
tremendously interesting, but that's not what I mean. Life is
something which changes us, that's the point; transforms us. Now
the test then, of whether we have even the Word of God in a
legal realm, or an intellectual realm, or whether we have it in
the Spirit, is the effect that it has in our lives: the
transforming effect or, to gather it all up again into this word
- glory! Glory! And if you know what I am trying to talk about,
you know how great a thing that is.
Have you, have you really,
dear friends, come to know so truly, so really, the Holy Spirit
indwelling as Teacher, as Illuminator, that you have passed out
of the merely intellectual realm where the Word of God is
concerned, into the realm where the Heavens are opened and the
Word of God lives for you? That is a dispensational matter. And
it makes a very great deal of difference in which realm we live.
I'm trying to say to you that the greatest treasure that a
Christian can have, is a Holy Spirit-illuminated Word of God. It
makes a tremendous amount of difference. It doesn't mean that we
know everything that is here all at once, for we go on in this
realm of vast, vast fulnesses and we shall never exhaust them.
But, it's alive, it's alive! We are not just studying it as dead
matter - it is alive to us! Is it like that with you? Well, you
see, it is a question of whether you have really grasped the
significance of the day of Pentecost; the dispensation changed
on that day from the one to the other. Are you living in the
old... tables of stone, objective presentations of Divine
commandments? Or are you living in this dispensation
where, "God has shined into your heart, to give the light of
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus"?
Mark you, always through the Scriptures, by the Word of God; not
something extra but something there. And yet, and yet, and yet
something more than the letter... there is the blessed, powerful
witness of the Spirit to the meaning, the meaning there.
You may have that; that is our birthright in this dispensation.
Oh, for more Holy Spirit
indwelt and taught children of God! Taught children of
God who really know what is theirs by right in this
dispensation: to have the Holy Spirit within. Not just believing
in the truth, the doctrine, the statement that it is so, but
being in the good of it, knowing it to be true: the Holy Spirit
is in me! And the Holy
Spirit is teaching me, and the Holy Spirit is
showing me what God means by His Word. I am coming as
the Holy Spirit teaches and instructs and illuminates, to see
God meant more than ever I realised He meant when He said that,
and that, and that! You see, it is a living relationship
by the Holy Spirit, and when it is like that, it is glory;
the burden goes, the strain goes, the onus goes off of us. It's
Life, it's really Life - indeed it is glory!
Now it is a fact, you
see, that you can pass from one realm into the other, even as a
Christian; pass from that realm where, though you believe in the
Lord and you have the Lord, and you know you are saved, and yet
there is a dome over you, a brass dome over your head where the
Word of God is concerned, and you fumble and try to find your
way about, and what does it all mean? And then you can have that
dome removed or split, and the Spirit shine right into your
spirit and the whole thing becomes illuminated. It is the same
Word, but it is two different dispensations.
Well, I have stated the facts, and I
know them to be facts. But you, if you do not know what I am
speaking about, well, you go and have some dealings with the
Lord on this matter. It must be like that, for the ministration
of the Spirit is glory in relation to the Word of God.