"Seeing
that Jews ask for signs, and Greeks seek after wisdom:
but we preach Christ crucified, unto Jews a
stumblingblock, and unto Gentiles foolishness; but unto
them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the
power of God, and the wisdom of God" (1
Corinthians 1:22-24).
"And blessed is he, whosoever shall find no
occasion of stumbling in me" (Matthew 11:6).
With
most of you who read these lines, it would be altogether
out of place to ask the question: Does Christ signify?
For us, He signifies above all other and beyond all else
in this universe. But we do just put that question
forward in order to draw our attention again, and to give
a swift, almost instantaneous review of how immensely
Christ has come to signify in this world. What an immense
significance has arisen with the name of Jesus! - and not
only amongst believers but in history. Does He signify?
Well, that is answered by our hearts very strongly and
finally, but we have to go further in our contemplation
of what He signifies. What is His significance? In our
previous studies we were seeking to see something of the
significance of Christ in relation to the race as it is,
and then to pass to the significance of Christ in
relation to the race as God intended and intends it to
be.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DIFFERENCE
OF CHRIST
That
leads to the further question: How and why does He
signify? I could answer that in what might be a somewhat
abstruse, and would certainly be a very imperfect, way,
but in a way nevertheless which would set us in the right
direction of discovering this significance of Christ. I
would say that the answer to the 'how' and the 'why' is
found in the fact that He is so different - utterly
different - from all the rest of mankind. That is how He
signifies, and that is why He signifies. He is not only
different, but He is of another order. Yes: very Man,
true humanity, but of another order; and that other order
was not perceivable on the outside as He moved amongst
men. But that was the great, the basic, feature of His
signification - there was that which was so completely
different in order, in inward constitution.
Jesus
was a stranger in this world - but not only a stranger.
He was an enemy in this world; He was definitely up
against this world, what was here, and His very presence
was a provocation to it. It found Him a problem, a
difficulty, and often unbearable - because "the
whole world lieth in the evil one" (1 John 5:19).
The world was and is in the power of Satan, and in that
realm His significance was fully recognized; so that a
clash between Him, who was of another realm and another
spiritual order, and this realm and this spiritual order,
was inevitable.
ISRAEL PECULIARLY IN THE POWER OF
SATAN
Now,
here is a very interesting and significant thing. While
the whole world was in the power of Satan, the Jewish
nation was peculiarly and particularly so. Here we touch
one of those principles in the Divine order and economy.
God has always had to have a representation of His
thoughts. Israel was raised up to be a national
representation of God's thoughts to the world, among the
nations; to be the servant of God to make God's thoughts
known. Israel failed. And it was not only that Israel FAILED
in their calling, their great vocation. It was worse
than that. Israel, like the first Adam, fell clean into
the hands of Satan to be used to misrepresent God and His
thoughts: that is, to turn right round on their Divine
calling and present exactly the opposite. As we said in
our last study, Israel so fell into the hands of Satan
that he could even use that nation against God, to kill
the very Son of God Himself.
That was
the corporate expression of exactly what took place in
the individual in the Garden. Adam not only fell from his
calling and the Divine intention. He went lower than
that. He fell right into the hands of the devil, to be,
himself and his seed, a misrepresentation of God's
intentions and thoughts - to be the direct opposite of
what God meant. That is Satan's work.
THE LORD JESUS A STRANGER IN THIS
WORLD
So, when
He came into the world - He who, in His very
constitution, was not of this world, but of another realm
and another order - He was a stranger. "The world
knew him not" (John 1:10). And He was an enemy: the
world hated Him. John says both of those things. He tells
the Church not to be surprised if the world does not know
them - "the world knew him not"; and not to be
surprised if the world hates them - it 'hated Him before
it hated them' (John 15:18). Where does this come from?
It is strange that you find this spontaneous hatred and
alienation from Christ in the world. It is there
naturally and they do not know why. Sometimes when you
get down alongside of a person who has shown real
objection, animosity or hatred, distance from Christ, and
begin to talk to them quietly, they change altogether and
do not know why they ever took that attitude. They become
milder and more reasonable, and you can talk with them.
So often that happens. They do not know why. Well, we
know why. "The whole world" - ignorantly in
very large degree - "lieth in the evil one" (1
John 5:19).
Christ
is a stranger in this world. "The world knew him
not." That applied primarily to His Deity. The world
knew Him not in His Deity: that of course is the great
point of John's writings, the gospel and his letters -
who Jesus Christ essentially was. The world knew Him not
in that sense primarily; but that is true in a larger
sense also. The world knew Him not in His true human
nature. It did not know this kind of MAN. He is
another kind of man - to them a very irritating man, a
very annoying man, a very disturbing man. It was not
simply because, from their standpoint, He was an upstart
and a revolutionary and 'agin everybody' - no, not that.
There is something about this Man Himself that they
cannot understand, they cannot fathom; they cannot cope
with Him. They knew Him not in His real Manhood. He was
at variance with their whole mentality. They were
mentally constituted after a different order from what He
was. Jesus was in conflict with the whole natural make-up
of man as he is found on the earth since Adam: with man's
thought-life, yes; but deeper than that - with man's
motives, man's UN-thought-out way of life. He
was in conflict with it in its very essence, its
uttermost depth. And from the other side, for that very
reason, it was impossible for man on this earth to grasp
and appreciate Him. He was so differently constituted in
the very depths of His being - not in His thought-out
philosophy of life, His creed, but in what He was. The
natural man cannot grasp and appreciate Jesus.
And now
we come very near home. That is as true of you and of
me as Christians as it is of non-Christians. That is
the basis of so large an amount of our trouble, and is
the basis of all God's work with us: to create an
entirely different mentality from what we are naturally,
to bring about an altogether different constitution - not
in our philosophy of life, but in the very springs of our
being, in what comes up spontaneously, without thought,
without premeditation. It is there that the work of the
Spirit of God goes on. Christ and Christians can be just
as much at variance as Christ and worldlings, because we
Christians are still so much actuated by the world's
ideas. Certainly organized Christianity, as it is called,
proceeds along the lines of the world's ideas.
THE QUESTION OF POWER THE ROOT OF
THE DIFFERENCE
I come
back to that point with which we were dealing earlier:
the very root of this difference - the whole question of
power. The natural man's ideas of power are as far
removed from Jesus Christ as the heavens are removed from
the earth. I said that this matter of power is the very
root of all the trouble in this world, in the individual
and in the whole race. The whole matter of power as an
instrument in the hands of self sprang up with Satan. It
brought that first mighty clash between God and that
perhaps highest of His created beings - with what
results, with what havoc, we are unable to measure. And
then the same principle of power for personal use, power
for personal 'being something', was insinuated into the
race through Adam, when he fell to the temptation to have
that power in himself and not in God. It is a very, very
far expansive reach that is gathered into that little
phrase, that little clause, in Ps. 62:11: "God
hath spoken once, twice have I heard this, that power
belongeth unto God!" It belongs to God. You take
it from God into your own hands, and get away with it,
and you get the far reach from the poor iron cannon-ball
to the atomic bomb. That looks like a tremendous advance
in power. Take it out of God's hands, and see where it
will land you. The very thing that you have clamoured for
may be given. God seems to be giving - until it becomes
your very doom. There is a terrible history bound up with
this matter of power. "God hath spoken once, twice
have I heard this, that power belongeth UNTO
GOD."
Seeing,
then, that there is such a mighty gap between the race,
in its mentality about this, and the Lord Jesus, the
necessity does arise for a new birth. We have to learn
yet about the new birth. We have never comprehended one
small fraction of what it means to be born again, or
anew, or from above, born from another world, with that
world's mentality. Now step back one step and we will
come on to that again.
"To
this end was the Son of God manifested, that he might
destroy the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8). The
"works of the devil" are found concentrated in
this word 'power'. He made a bid for that power which
would put God out of His place. He caused man to do the
same, and thus we have all this wrong, false and
disastrous mentality about power.
FEAR THE COMPANION OF THE QUEST
FOR POWER
What is
the, perhaps imperceptible, but very real thing which
lies behind all the trouble in this world, all the
'nerves' of the individual or of the race? It is FEAR:
fear of being overwhelmed, of being overcome,
subjected, of going under, losing out - put it how you
like - in many, many ways. It is fear that lies behind
all this hankering and craving and working for power. Now
look at the Lord Jesus. Was there ever a sign of fear in
Him? Everything gathered round Him that would make for
fear. His whole position, not only from his enemies' but
from this world's standpoint, was a most precarious one.
Nothing seemed naturally to be sure, to be safe. Indeed,
everything conspired to become a tremendous threat to His
security, His personal security, the security of His
cause. But there is never the suggestion of a moment's
fear. There is perfect confidence, assurance,
tranquility. He goes on quietly, unperturbed. That was
the thing that made everybody wonder. They could not
understand this Man, in His precarious position in the
judgment Hall, being so utterly tranquil, self-possessed,
self-confident. As has been said many times, it was
Pilate before Christ, not Christ before Pilate. They
could not understand this perfect absence of fear. Fear
comes from hell, and it is the companion of this quest
for power. The rush today for power, to get the upper
hand in the nations, is simply born of fear. How
different the Lord Jesus was and is! Fear is the result
of the work of the enemy, of Satan.
Let me
say to you in the very simplest way: In the simplest
matters of life, if you ever fear about some movement,
some step, you are going to take, if ever the element of
fear comes in with a proposition - stop; do not move;
wait. If Satan can, he will bring in an element of fear.
You and I have got to move with God in quiet,
steady restfulness. You keep your eye upon the fact of a
fear. Whenever it comes, you say, 'This is not of God'.
"God gave us not a spirit of fearfulness" (2
Tim. 1:7). That comes from somewhere else.
THE LORD WAS WITHOUT FEAR
Did
Jesus signify? Does He signify? How does He signify?
Because He is different. The question of power with Him
had no fear associated with it. Oh, how He was urged to
act in a precautionary, in a safeguarding way, in a
self-preserving way - lest this or that should happen.
The exigencies and the contingencies of the way He was
taking were constantly brought before Him, and so the
emergency element was constantly introduced, to get Him
to act to safeguard either Himself or the mission on
which He had come, the work committed to Him. But they
never could get Him to act on that emergency basis at
all. He was perfectly at rest, and in His case that
represented tremendous power. Their ideas of power were
other: 'You must do this, you must do that; you must
build up here, you must safeguard there; your security
will come along the line of your own doing something.'
You see, it all hung upon the question of faith - for the
greatest factor in power is faith. That is how it was
with Jesus at the beginning. Will He trust God? The voice
of the tempter said, 'If you are not quite sure of God,
you must do something yourself or the day is lost,
everything is lost.' So we see that, in this matter of
our attitude in regard to power, we have to be 'born
again', 'born from above' - to get an entirely different
mentality, from another world, which brings in another
nature, a disposition altogether different.
THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
There is
a paradox of power in the Word of God. On the one hand
you can see how evil it can be - not, however, that power
in itself is evil - but how when man takes it into his
own hands, to use it as an instrument of his selfhood, it
becomes an evil thing, the very root of iniquity in the
universe, because it puts God out of His place. That is
one side.
And yet
the Bible is just full of exhortations to be powerful, to
be strong. It is the great word on which Christians rest
for the accomplishment of the work of God in this
dispensation. "Ye shall receive power, when the Holy
Spirit is come upon you" (Acts 1:8). What is this
power? You have to look again and again at the Lord
Jesus. Do not think that power is invariably or
preeminently demonstrated or manifested by miracles.
There were miracles, there were manifestations, there
were the phenomena of power, but they were for a purpose.
You do not find either Christ or the apostles spending
every minute, every hour, of their lives working
miracles. There may be many recorded, but it was not the
miracles that were the foundation of Christianity, and
they are not the foundation of Christianity now. They are
not the proofs positive and final that Christianity is
Divine. Satan can simulate miracles, Satan can always
work miracles, and it may sometimes be difficult to
discriminate between the Divine and Satanic, for often
they are psychical miracles. Antichrist will work
miracles, and it will not be easy to detect that they are
of Antichrist. Miracles do not represent the power,
essentially and basically, of God. They are only one
means of fulfilling His purpose at times, under given
circumstances.
THE POWER OF WHAT WE ARE
The real
power of Christ, the real power of Christianity, the real
power of the Church, is essentially spiritual: it is what
Christ WAS and IS, and what you and I ARE,
not what we DO at all. The power of God is not
in our activities: that is, our activities are not just
the proof of the power of God. If that were so, the
Church would be a mighty force on earth today. It never
was more active, more busy, more engaged in DOING, than
it is now. I venture to say that the spiritual power is
far, far from commensurate with the Church's activities,
and its mentality is so different. It has made bigness
take the place of greatness. Loudness now seems to be
regarded as force. No, power is a spiritual thing, and it
is a matter of what we are. Our presence, without our
words or actions, ought to be far more than both words
and actions put together. After all, our words and our
actions may only touch men as seen. What we are touches
the world unseen. "I know thee who thou
art, the Holy One of God" (Mark 1:24). "Jesus
I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?" (Acts
19:15). It is not that you have embraced Christianity; it
is that you now belong to another realm, which realm is
destined utterly to set aside this realm - which Kingdom
of Heaven is destined to put aside this kingdom of Satan.
It is not going to be official; it is not going to be
done objectively. It is going to be done, and it is being
done, spiritually. It is just in proportion to the
measure of Christ represented in individuals, in
companies, in the Church, that the kingdom of Satan is
put out. And that means Christ's ideas, Christ's
mentality, Christ's constitution.
THE POWER OF LETTING GO TO GOD
It works
out, as we tried to show earlier, in this way, that very
often the most mighty thing that a believer can do is to
let go to God. Everything is locked up while they are
holding on, while they are not going to give anything
away or let anybody have their work; while they are not
going to relax or 'eat humble pie'; while they are
determined to stick to it on the ground that God has
given it, and they hold it in their hands and will not
let go. A terrific battle goes on, very often. But when
at last that child of God lets go to God, relaxes the
grip and says, 'Lord, I hand it back to You: it is Yours,
not mine; it is for You to guard, it is for me to be the
custodian of Your things; this is not my work, it is
Yours, I am not going to hold on to it' - when that
happens, something else happens. The lock-up gives way,
there is a mighty release. God comes in, and He in
freedom does something, something wonderful. He may give
back, but He will give back with something very much more
added in of spiritual power. It was not until Jacob, with
all his effort and strain through the hours of the night,
recognized that he was, after all, weaker than God, that
he came to be Israel - a prince with God. The Lord Jesus
was never holding on in fear of losing something. It was
in the Father's hand, He trusted the Father, He let go to
the Father. That is His way, that is His nature, that is
His mentality - and that is power. Heaven comes in along
that line, and it is then that the significance of a life
arises. That is why He signified, and signifies.
Do you
desire to signify something for God, to be, after all, of
a right kind of significance, accountability, meaning?
You see the need of getting Christ's Holy constitution in
us. The most powerful thing, we have often said, with God
and as bringing God alongside, is meekness. Power is
spiritual. That is the point. You see the place of
weakness in the New Testament. "When I am weak, then
am I strong" (2 Cor. 12:10). "Most gladly...
will I... glory in my weaknesses, that the power of
Christ may rest upon me" (2 Cor. 12:9). There is a
lot said about human weakness. It is just the opposite of
the devil; it is just the opposite of what the devil made
man. I am only hinting. There is far too much in this of
detail to stay to speak of.
What is
your idea of power? What is your mentality concerning
power? Are you clamouring for power, wanting power? Well,
it all works out this way. True power from God's
standpoint is Calvary power. Christ crucified is the
power of God. What is Calvary power? Well, it is
emptiness of self, you and I being emptied of self - and
truly, that is easier said than endured! Oh, how very
much there is of this self about us still! How we hate -
how we suffer - being emptied of ourselves! What a
terrible thing it is to feel our inability - to know that
we do not count in ourselves. Oh, to be ABLE! And
yet have we not proved, again and again, that our times
of greatest emptiness and weakness have been the times
when God has done most, and got glory by what He has
done? Yes, it has been true. We have learnt it along
various lines and different ways, but God has been
working right into the very inside of us, so that the
thing is done - it becomes a part of us. He does not have
to maintain it by external conditions. But He frequently
uses such - very often physical - conditions, to bring us
to that place of utter dependence upon Himself. It is
really not good enough, is it, to be forced to it,
compelled to it? That is God's way of education, but it
would be very much better for us to be fit and well and
as dependent upon God as ever.
"Power
belongeth unto God." Power is a spiritual thing. The
true nature of power is of a totally different order from
our natural idea and conception of it. The Lord is so
different. Power is not a temporal matter, it is not a
physical matter, it is not an intellectual matter, it is
not a social, a positional, or a possessional matter, at
all. Power is essentially spiritual: I say again, it is
what we are. Do believe that Satan is far more afraid of
you being Christlike than he is of all your phraseology,
and your epithets against him, and your hurling at him
certain terms about the Blood. He laughs - he snaps his
fingers at a lot of that. He says, 'I will catch you one
of these days, and you will rue it!' But if you are
spiritual, what can he do? "The prince of this
world cometh: and he hath nothing in me" (John
14:30), said the Lord. So, in the hour of the power of
darkness, He could say, "Now shall the
prince of this world be cast out" (John 12:31).
I say again, that was not objectively and officially
done. It was done by what He was. Satan had no ground,
and so no power. This Man defeated every contemplation of
Satan as he walked round Him. 'How can I get in? I have
been trying all these years to find some little gap; I
cannot find it, I am beaten, I can do nothing with Him,
He does not give me a chance. I offer Him prizes - He
snaps His fingers at them; I threaten Him with the direst
consequences of the course He is taking - it does not
make any difference! I cannot get this Man.' That is how
the prince of this world is cast out.
So it
all resolves itself into the need, in the first place,
for what is meant by being born from above: an entirely
new nature and disposition, to begin with, and then a
letting God do His work of conforming us to the image of
His Son. I am not saying that works and words do not come
in, but it is a heartbreaking business to be working and
speaking with no power, no registration of heaven.
The Lord
give us light as to what He means by this.