Reading: Rom. 8:19,29: 1 Cor. 3:1-3; 2
Cor. 3:18; Gal. 3:26-27; 4:6,19; Eph. 1:5, 18-19;
3:18-19; 4:13; Phil. 3:12-14; Col. 1:28; Heb. 5:12-14;
6:1.
This
selection of passages is quite sufficient to show that
the dominating objective of the Lord for His people is
full growth, the full measure of Christ. Every apostolic
letter has that object in view, and every one of these
apostolic letters deals with some factor related to full
growth. If that is true, then surely it is incumbent upon
us as the Lord’s people to have His goal before us,
and to be found in the same spirit as was the apostle who
said, “…that I may apprehend that for which
also I was apprehended of Christ Jesus”. The force
of that statement may not have come to our hearts. The
apostle has there said in very clear and precise language
that when the Lord Jesus laid hold of him, it was for
something more than that he should just become a saved
man. It was in relation to a goal with which there was
bound up a prize, and unto that there was to be an
attaining. He said that everything for him was regarded
as of value only in so far as it would help him to reach
that goal, and nothing was of value at all which in no
way contributed to that end. So should the Lord’s
people be, at all times, on full stretch for the purpose
for which they have been apprehended. Everywhere in the
Word of God His thought for His people is set forth as
being that they should come to a full measure, to full
growth, to the measure of Christ.
A Fact of Great Significance
It
seems to me that the New Testament assumes that increase,
along the line of expansion, that is, the adding to the
church, comes by spiritual increase in the church along
the line of spiritual growth amongst the Lord’s
people. I say, it seems to be assumed, for it is a very
impressive thing that the New Testament is so very
largely occupied with this one thing. The fact that all
these letters — every one of them — were
addressed to believers with one object, that of their
spiritual growth, and so many of them embody the actual
word “full growth” (often in the Authorised
Version translated “perfection” or
“perfect”), does not mean that the church
ceased to be an evangelising instrument. They were going
on with their work in relation to the unsaved, but the
fact is that very little is actually said about that, and
what we have here as the record is all to do with the
church’s own spiritual increase. That is
tremendously significant, and its significance is of
great importance to the Lord’s people. It would
almost seem that the church has forgotten this. In a very
considerable circle there is a great concern for the
evangelism side of the church’s life and work —
a concern which is right and proper, and should never be
less than it is, perhaps always more — but so often
and so largely the essential background of that work is
overlooked, namely, an indispensable building-up and
teaching ministry. The result is that the church is
seeking to move out to meet the world situation with
inadequate spiritual resources, and is very largely weak
in face of the difficulties, and the results are of such
a character as hardly to be an expression of the real
power of God and fullness of Christ. That by the way,
however.
It is
that you and I might come to recognise this, that the
Lord has set before us in His Word an overwhelming amount
of evidence and proof that His dominating objective for
His own is full growth, and that every child of God
should have that always before him. We should be
concerned about spiritual maturity, and should give it
the place in our hearts, in our consideration, in our
concern which it evidently occupies in the heart of the
Lord Himself. We have referred to fragments in the
letters of Paul, which bear directly upon this matter of
spiritual full growth, showing that it is the Lord’s
will for His people. We have said that each of these
apostolic letters deals with some factor which is
immediately related to that divine object, full growth.
We are not going to attempt to go through all the letters
at this time, but we are going to make a beginning as the
Lord enables. We are coming to feel something of what
Paul felt when he wrote those words,
“…admonishing every man and warning every man,
that we may present every man perfect (full grown,
complete) in Christ”.
Christ Our Righteousness
Let us
look for a moment at the letter to the Romans in this
very connection. We remind ourselves of the words which
are in chapter 8 verses 19 and 29. This letter to the
Romans lays the foundation for all the Lord’s work
in His own people and in relation to this end which He
has in view, and which is governing all that He has to
say to them, and to do with them. This letter provides
the ground upon which the Lord can go forward with His
work in perfecting the saints. We ask, What is that
ground? We know what the theme of the letter to the
Romans is, the object for which the apostle wrote it. We
know that its great outstanding truth is that of
righteousness by faith, or, as it is sometimes called,
justification by faith. What, then, is the issue of such
faith? In this letter faith is set forth as that through
which we are brought to the ground of what Christ is in
resurrection. He “rose again for our
justification”. Christ in resurrection provides the
ground of our justification and our righteousness. In
death He has dealt with all unrighteousness, and
therefore with all that alienated and separated from God
and meant condemnation, judgment and death. Having dealt
with that in death, in resurrection the ground is clear
of all that. Sin has been met and dealt with and all its
consequences, right to the end, and in resurrection
God’s way is open, and there is righteousness where
there was unrighteousness, communion where there was
alienation, fellowship where there was distance. Christ
in resurrection is the ground of our righteousness, and
faith in the Lord Jesus is here shown to be that by which
we are brought on to the ground of what Christ is in
resurrection, and so the relationship with God is
established in Christ risen, and is established
unshakeably. That is the glorious issue of this chapter,
as you observe.
We
want to get the full force of the words at the end of
chapter 8. Verses 35 to 39 must be taken in conjunction
with verses 31 to 34. Now you see this unshakeable
ground, this inseparable union, this indestructible life
is because of what the Lord Jesus has done in His death
and resurrection, and of what He is in His Person at
God’s right hand. I think there may have been times
when we have been rather hesitant in quoting these words
at the end of Romans 8. We have had a little tremor
within as we have essayed to say those words and follow
up: “…neither death nor life…”
wondering whether we were being a little over-bold, a
little overconfident; whether at some time we might not
be put to the test and find that, after all, our use of
the words was not unlike Peter’s self-confident
assertion — “I will follow thee even unto
death” — we have had a catch in the
declaration. I confess that has been true of me, but now
I am glad to say that there is no need for hesitation.
There is a ground that is settled and fixed, unshakeable
in the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. That
ground is the expression of the love of God in Christ
Jesus for me; not my love for Him, not anything that I
have done or can do, not anything that is in me or that I
can produce, but it is all what He is, what He has done,
what He has given, and what He has established in His own
Person at the right hand of God. That is divine love, and
that has been made to rest upon you and upon me
“whom he foreknew…”. He has done it all in
relation to us, the thing is finished, and there is not a
power in God’s universe that can alter it, that can
change it, that can shake it. It is something which God
has done. It is a manifestation of His own love in
Christ, which nothing in the creation can touch, and it
is bound up with God’s elect. Therefore: “Who
shall lay anything to the charge of God’s
elect?” This chapter reaches the point where we have
put faith in God on that ground. That faith brings us
onto the ground of what Christ is as risen, and that
means that there is not a being that can lay anything to
our charge. What a position! You can find many faults in
me. I may find some faults in you. We may see much that
is yet of the imperfections that are ours, but you cannot
bring me under condemnation and separate me from the
ground of my justification. You can find all the faults
that there are to be found, and can go on doing that for
the rest of your life, but you cannot upset the ground of
my justification before God, you cannot touch that
position of my experience with Him. The blood of Jesus
Christ has settled and ratified that forever. If you can
tear Jesus Christ from His place at God’s right
hand, then you can destroy my ground of salvation, of
justification, but you cannot do that. It is fixed in
heaven in Him.
To be Firmly Rooted in the
Foundation Essential to Full Growth
The
Lord lays that as our foundation. It is a security which
is ours through faith by the grace of God. That is the
message of the letter to the Romans. The grace of God to
us in Jesus Christ provides such a ground that no part of
the creation can lay anything to our charge, can bring us
under condemnation. There is no power in this universe
that can disturb what God has done for us in Christ. The
Word tells us to take our place in faith upon that. Do
not say, Oh the trials, the difficulties, the
adversities, the sufferings; life, death, principalities,
and all these things! They do make such a difference to
us. They come upon us. They affect us, and upset us, and
we come to feel that we do not love the Lord as much as
we did the other day, that we are not so much in
fellowship with the Lord as we were once, and we feel
that is the upsetting of things. It is nothing of the
kind. You and I must come finally to the place where we
recognise that God is unchangeable, without variation,
and that in the work of His cross our salvation will not
move one hair’s breadth; it is as surely established
as His throne. On that ground our salvation rests, and
faith must take hold of that. Then we are able to say,
“If God be for us…” and He is for us like
that. Oh, the wonder of that word, “…God…
for us”! He delivered up His Son for us, and with
Him gave us all things. Through His cross He has
justified us from all our sins, our iniquities, and in
His Son there sees us as without sin, perfected! He says,
Now, if only you will let your faith come and rest upon
that, and will not move away from your faith onto your
own ground of what you are in yourself, but will stay
there, Satan’s power is destroyed over your life,
and there is nothing whatever in this universe that can
prevent your reaching My end. Nothing that arises, be it
life, or death, or things present, or things to come, or
height, or depth, or principality, or any other creation
— nothing in this universe can prevent you reaching
My end if you will keep your feet there in faith. That is
the foundation for God, and He can never get us anywhere
until we have come to that position. You know how true
that is, that if there is any question, any uncertainty,
any variation in any one of us at any time, we stop dead,
and God is arrested, the Spirit of the Lord can go no
further. While we believe God He goes on, no matter what
He has to deal with. It amounts to this: Are we going to
believe God or not? If we are not, then we may as well
abandon everything, for everything depends upon that,
upon whether we are going to believe God.
Now
here is the foundation for faith. Full growth rests upon
that foundation. You never make one bit of progress
toward God’s end until that foundation is settled.
It is important that we stand upon the firm foundation of
God. Do let us seek to get to this position. It is a word
for believers, and more than ever perhaps a word for
today, that we should come to the place where we
recognise how altogether apart from variation God is. Of
course, there are some people who do not vary a great
deal, but there are others who know all the variations of
this natural life; the variations of feelings, the
variations of thoughts, the variations which come about
by the circumstances around them. We find ourselves very
largely influenced by how we are physically, or how
circumstances are, or for some other reason; in different
moods, in different states, as we think spiritually. We
vary, sometimes from day to day if not from hour to hour.
God is not like that. God’s work is not like that.
What God has accomplished in His Son by the cross and
resurrection is not subject to influences of change; it
stands, it is fixed. God has taken that attitude. He is
not variable. If only we would come back and recognise
that God is a God of infinite grace, that grace has been
demonstrated to the uttermost, and it is unchanging! If
we go from it, that makes no difference to it. It is the
same. We come back and find God just there where we left
Him. He has not moved a little bit.
This
is not said to justify weakness, but to bring to a
certain settled position as to the grace of God.
Everything is by His grace, because of His grace, the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. If we get
settled there, God can go on with His work. Full growth?
Yes, when you believe God fundamentally, when you trust
God, and when your trust in God is on the ground of that
perfect justification which He has granted, the removal
of every obstacle in the way of His full purpose. The
letter to the Romans tells of that. The foundation is
laid in faith for all God’s purpose, and after that
you move on to the superstructure. The other letters have
to do with factors in full growth when the foundation is
laid.