We noticed in the previous chapter that this is not an outward
law of commandments contained in ordinances, but a vital inward
principle of action working; not in any haphazard way, but in
fixed and regular ways which correspond to a law. We also said
that, since we have the Spirit of Life in us, He who, having begun
a good work, is obliged to perfect it. Our wisdom and our maturity
lie in the direction of obedience to the law of the Spirit.
We saw in Ezekiel that when everything lives and it is all glory
because the river is in full flood, it is not just something that
has happened casually. Ezekiel was taken right to the source and
shown that that river has its principles, its laws and, speaking
broadly, we may say they are threefold.
There is the altar; that is the explanation of the river.
There is the throne. It does not actually say in Ezekiel
47 that the throne is there, but in an earlier chapter, in Ezekiel
43:7, the Lord had said concerning that place: "Son of man, this
is the place of My feet". You will recollect that in Revelation
where the great spiritual reality of it all is finally
demonstrated, the river of the water of Life flows from the throne
of God and of the Lamb. And then, of course, there is the
house. So, when we speak of the law of the Spirit of Life in
Christ Jesus, we may, for convenience, include in that law three
lesser contributory laws. It is a threefold law: the law of the
altar, the law of the throne, and the law of the house. When these
laws are obeyed, the Spirit will see to it that we reach the day
of the manifestation of the sons of God in glory.
The Law of the Altar
Now I want to talk about the first of them, that which
corresponds to the altar. In each of the three we can find an Old
Testament character peculiarly illustrative of the law. This first
one, the law of the altar, can be illustrated by Abraham. And I
will not call it the law of the altar any more, but call it now
the law of resurrection; that includes the Cross, because it
brings the true issue of the Cross into view. Yes, indeed, it is
the Law of the Cross.
The Holy Spirit came in His great fulness to the church, and
comes to your life and mine on the basis of the Cross, but the
Holy Spirit also leads to the Cross. The Lord Jesus Christ was
here on earth as a Man full of the Spirit. The Spirit's direction,
the Spirit's law in His life led Him to the cross. It looked as
though that was a path of lessening and fading out. He began His
ministry with the crowds and the multitudes, the signs and
wonders, the popular response of the masses. But the disciples
found, to their perplexity, that the course which the Lord Jesus
deliberately took during the years of His ministry, led Him
steadily, directly, undeviatingly, to the cross. And they thought,
"What a pity!" - "Lord, that shall never be to Thee", said Peter,
but it was so. Why did the Spirit do that? It was, of course, for
your salvation and mine. But why did He do it peculiarly in
relation to the Lord Jesus, who was so responsive to His gentle
government? He did it because He was seeking enlargement; He was
seeking resurrection.
Speaking in purely human terms, what comparison could there
possibly be between the life that the Lord Jesus, as a Man, was
living in those little hamlets and byways of a very small country
(even when the crowds were round Him, it was all very small and
limited) what comparison could there be between that day and the
day in which, in a thousand languages, in every continent, through
the ages, God is known through Jesus Christ? Well, there is no
comparison. The Lord Jesus, of course, being a Man of the Spirit,
knew what the disciples did not know, and He Himself said, "I have
a baptism to be baptised with, and how am I straitened until it be
accomplished". He knew it and therefore was prepared to pay the
price and so be guided by the Spirit to the cross. For the Cross
is the law of the Spirit, but not as an end in itself, but rather
as a means of new Life, fulness of Life.
That is the law, and if you read Romans 8, this is exactly what
the Holy Spirit does to us and with us, "If ye through the Spirit
do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live" (v.12). There is
a superficial attitude towards the Cross that assumes that, with
one recognition of, and capitulation to the crucified Lord,
everything is settled, and now it is no more Cross, but all Spirit
- no more death, but just an easy life and glory, that the Spirit
leads us away from the Cross. Oh no! He begins at the Cross, but
He is always leading us back to it. It is one of His principles
that from that death there might emerge the true Life. It is the
law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, and the Life in Christ
Jesus for us is always resurrection Life.
Abraham is the great type of this law of the Spirit. In the Old
Testament it does not say that Abraham was anointed, nor is there
any particular reference made to the Holy Spirit in his case, but
when we come over to the letter to the Galatians we find that in
the thought of God, he is very much associated with the Holy
Spirit. Christ is made a curse for us that on us may come the
blessing of Abraham, that we might receive the promise of the
Spirit, through faith. Abraham speaks to us of the promise. It is
a significant word: "the promise of the Spirit". And he speaks to
us of faith. For Abraham was a man who came to know at various
stages of his life the practical power of the Cross, and each time
his experience of the Cross brought him into a very enlarged and
full experience of Life.
You will remember how he began, how God appeared to him when he
lived in Ur, and virtually said to him, "Abraham, I know who you
are and what you are". We do not know what Abraham was, what
position he held, but we may be sure that it was dear to him, just
as what we are is always dear to us. God said to him, "Whatever
you are, Abraham, and whatever you have, I want you to leave it. I
want that to be finished. Get out! Get thee out". So the Cross, in
the first place, as applied by the Holy Spirit, divides and severs
us from the position that we hold here on the earth. We are not
told in Genesis that there were any evil associations in Ur from
which Abraham was to separate himself. Not until the end of the
book of Joshua do we hear about the idolatry that was practised in
those days. It is not that it is merely a deliverance from evil, a
separation from that which is not right, but something far deeper
than that. The Holy Spirit impresses upon us that His first law is
that the cross has got to cut us clean away from the position that
we hold here on the earth; that is a law of the Spirit. "Get thee
out... So Abraham went out".
Abraham was prepared to pay the price: to move from what he was
and from what he held and had, from what, doubtless, was of value
and interest to him - from that which constituted his life. He
went a long way and he had a delayed journey, and then in the end,
he came into the land which the Lord had promised him. But,
perhaps to his surprise, and to our surprise if we had never read
the story before, we would find that God never did what we might
have expected Him to do. He took Abraham out of one home, but He
did not give him another home. He took him from a great city, but
gave him no city to come into. He said, "Get thee out... from your
father's house and your country" to get out of one land, but He
gave him no possession in the other.
As Stephen impressed upon his hearers in Acts 7, nothing ever
came to Abraham by way of possession, as a result of his coming
out of Ur. What does that mean? Well, the letter to the Hebrews
will tell us. Abraham learned that he was not to look for a city
in Canaan, in Palestine; he was to look for a city in heaven. He
was not to look for an exchange of possessions on earth, out of
one earthly position into another earthly position, but he was
lifted out from the earth and the life that he knew here. The
riches and the glory that came to him were not in another earthly
realm in another country, but in a realm which does not belong to
earth, but belongs to heaven, although he lived and walked down
here. That is a law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus.
Now, much has been said about Abraham leaving his home, being
willing to go at the Lord's call, not knowing where he was going.
We can talk about Abraham, and quite enjoy talking about Abraham,
but we are not here to talk about Abraham, except as it relates to
us. What is this law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus? It is
that the first thing that the Cross has to do once we belong to
the Lord is to slay in us every desire, every craving for
security, position and recognition here on earth. That is how it
worked with Abraham, and that is how it works with you and me. It
is a law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. That makes it
sound, perhaps, rather a severe law. Well, in one sense, it was
severe for Abraham: the land of his fathers, the associations, the
friends, the interests, the position. Ur was no small city, but a
very great, highly developed one. For all we know, Abraham may
have had a good position in it; doubtless, he would enjoy the
amenities and importance of being associated with it. From that
point of view, Abraham lost a lot. But, just as in the case of the
Lord Jesus, the path that seemed to lead downwards into ever
greater limitation was the Spirit's way of bringing him into great
fulness and abundance and glory.
What a great man in the Scriptures is Abraham! What a tremendous
thing that, when the apostle is writing to the Galatians, he can
think of no greater description of the blessing, the fulness, the
glory of the Holy Spirit, than to describe it as the blessing of
Abraham; the promise of the Spirit through faith. And Abraham knew
that from the first. The Cross may have come to him with a
challenge, but when Abraham left Ur, he left it with the light of
glory on his face. It was not because the Lord had come to him and
said, "Look here, Abraham, this is a bad place you are in; there
is a lot of compromise, there are a lot of unsatisfactory things
here, this life is a disappointing life, this life is not right.
You must get out of this". That is often the way we move, and we
move from bad to worse on that basis. That is not the Cross. The
God of glory appeared unto Abraham, and though the Cross struck
deeply into his heart at what he had to leave, the glory shone on
his face as he turned towards that to which he was going, "Get
thee out; get thee out".
No doubt they said in Abraham's day, as they have said ever
since, "What a pity Abraham is leaving us! Abraham is getting out;
what is he going to belong to now?" And if they get news from
Palestine that he has joined another city over there, that is all
right. But the news went from bad to worse: "He does not belong to
anything. What has happened to poor Abraham?" What happened to the
poor people who stayed in Ur? You don't hear anything more about
them; they stayed there. Abraham was a man of faith. He did not
just get out for getting out's sake. He got out to go on with the
Lord, and it cost him to go on with the Lord. Some of us get out
because things get so difficult, "Rotten place, Ur! We don't seem
able to get on with anybody in Ur. I will get out; everybody is
difficult, and I think I will get out." It is just the very
opposite. If Abraham had felt like that about Ur, the Lord would
probably have said, "Abraham, you stay there and live for Me
there; and I will meet you there. That will be your Cross."
Abraham did not want to go. It cost him everything to go, and it
was the way of faith, the way of the Cross it is true, but also
the way of resurrection.
Application
Now, how does this apply to us? I have made these remarks about
getting out, and I think it is incumbent upon me, therefore, to
continue upon this line. What really is represented to us by what
Abraham did? I think it may mean, with many of us, the severing of
earthly ties which have had real value, but which are now holding
us to earth. But that is something which we must leave with the
Lord. That is not the immediate lesson of Abraham's move.
Abraham's move speaks to us, not of handing in our resignation
anywhere, or leaving anything, but of getting clear from this
earth in spirit: "Get out", the Lord says. What He meant, and what
He means to us is, "Get lifted up to another realm". You may not
move geographically; you may live and remain just where you are.
In fact, you must do that until any movement that you make is an
expression of a spiritual removal. You only hinder what the Lord
is trying to do with you when you precipitate movement in this
sphere as it were, horizontal movement out of one place into
another, looking about to try and be like Abraham. You have missed
the point. This getting out is a getting up and away and that is a
costly thing; it is really costly.
We have sometimes been very distressed that the Lord has not
raised up - as we had expected - local assemblies on a large
scale, to express His mind. I do not pretend to know why He has
not, but one of the dangers which might have arisen if He had,
would be that if people saw something a bit more scriptural, a bit
more according to what they felt was the Lord and corresponded to
the Lord's will, it would be to them but one more thing on this
earth. They would be very glad to move out of the particular
situations that they are in, which are unsatisfactory, to new ones
that are much more satisfactory, but it would be a move on an
earth level, and they would not be any different in themselves.
Abraham not only went to another country; he became another man,
and that is far more important. He did not set up an Ur in
Palestine, he hadn't an inch of territory to call his own; he
became a heavenly man. "A pilgrim and a stranger", is what the
Bible calls him and others in Hebrews 11. What the law of the
Spirit is working towards in every life that is yielded to Him is
to reach this goal by means of leading us to the Cross, that it
might do its work of severance from things as they are on the
earth: what we are, and what we have as people down here.
This may sound interesting, but it is so much easier to talk
about it than to experience it. When we are in the hands of the
Spirit it is not merely a crisis for us, as expressed in the life
of Abraham, it is a lifelong law; the law of the Spirit of Life.
If you take the position with the Lord that you want heavenly, and
not earthly glory, the Lord, the devil, and sometimes the Lord's
people will see to it that that matter is pressed home to you and
it becomes a question: is it what you are, or who you are that
matters, after all? And we all find how quick we are to respond,
and how resentful we are at anything that sets us aside, that does
not recognise us, that fails to give us our place. This work will
go on all the time, if we are going on to glory, when this
principle of being nothing and having nothing here on the earth is
pressed in, deeper and ever deeper. If there is one thing I want
the Lord to say, more than another, it is this: that the Cross is
not merely an initial experience, but opens the way for the
fulness of the Spirit in our lives. True as that may be, it is
only half the truth. The Cross is an abiding rule and principle,
which the Spirit is all the time bringing us back to, and is all
the time calling for our surrender and acceptance in that respect.
Spiritual growth is not one great crisis of acceptance of the
Cross in a more or less theoretical and imaginary way, spiritual
growth is the daily taking up of the Cross, the daily acceptance
of the Lord's Word saying, "Nothing here, Abraham, you have got
nothing here; you are nobody and you have nothing". And all the
time Abraham said, "I do not care; I have the God of glory. I have
nothing here, but I have everything". Why, we can hear the apostle
Paul speaking! It is the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ
Jesus.
How we need the Holy Spirit to help us co-operate with Him in
this matter, to remember that every painful experience, every
humiliation, every difficulty, everything that goes against the
grain, is not just the difficulty of things, and it is not because
the Lord does not love us. It is the Lord once again saying, "If
you will take this Cross, I have the other side of it - a new
resurrection morning for you. There is fulness of Life and power
and glory this way". You say, "I do not like this way". No, it
would not be the Cross if we liked it; or, rather, you would not
be you if you liked the Cross. Our nature and the Cross are
incompatible. We do not like it, and if we begin to look at it as
merely that which threatens our lives and challenges our desires,
we shall never get on with the Lord. I am afraid that some are not
moving on with the Lord for that very reason. Oh, you would have
other explanations, and yet you know that in six months, a year,
two years or more you have not grown spiritually; you do not count
more for the Lord than before... you are, perhaps, further away
from the Lord. Why is this? You have believed on Him, the Spirit
is in you; He is the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. You can quite
sincerely say that you have not wandered away into sin, that you
have not disobeyed the Lord in that sense, and yet you know, and
it may be that others watching you and praying for you know, that
yours is not a satisfactory spiritual life. The river may have got
to the ankles, but it seems to get shallower again, rather than
otherwise. It does not show any signs of flowing on to that full
flood. Well, may not this be the reason? In some one matter that
may be very clear to you, or perhaps in some little points that
you could not recollect if you tried, the Lord has brought you up
against this law of the Spirit, this Law of the Cross, or, as I
prefer to call it, this Law of Resurrection. You know that
resurrection can only come after death, and there is only one
death that can lead us to resurrection, and that is the death of
the Cross. This may be because of some matter - it may be very
small - in some attitude or outlook in life, in the things of the
Lord or the people of the Lord, or some challenge of the Lord
which has hurt or annoyed you, and you have said "No", and you
have felt right in saying no.
When the God of glory withdrew from Ur and the light of a new day
dawned, if Abraham had stopped to reason as the men of Ur
reasoned, to think and feel as they all felt and thought around
him, he would have said, "No, it is better here; I am not going".
But he kept his eyes on the glory, and stopped his ears and closed
his eyes to everything else; and so he came out, but you have not,
because you have taken your eyes off the glory and have said, "Why
should I?" And you have had a thousand arguments as to the
position you hold and you can justify the way you have taken.
Perhaps you can, but is it the way of the Spirit? Is it leading
you on to greater fulness in the Spirit? Well no, you know it is
not. Well then, the God of glory says there is only one way
through for you, and that is to accept the Cross, to change your
position, to stop arguing. Maybe you have a critical attitude
towards the people of God, the testimony of the Lord, and because
you have seen real or imaginary faults you have held aloof, and
you have held your position and chosen your way. The Cross says to
you, "You have got to relinquish that position; you have got to
capitulate on that matter and you have got to say 'Yes' to the
Lord." It is the law of the Spirit of Life, and the unsatisfactory
spiritual state of a multitude of the people of God today can be
traced back to this fact; not that they are in surroundings or
associations that are unscriptural or unspiritual, but that they
themselves have said "No" to the Lord when He has called them to
follow Him in spirit, saying, "Get thee out".
We say this and preach it, not in an earthly way, but from a
spiritual, heavenly attitude - get out of yourself, get out of
things as men see them, get out of this position of being tied
down to earth and belonging to earth; get out of it! What will God
give you? On the one hand, you can say God will give you nothing,
as He gave Abraham nothing; on the other hand, you can say God
will give you everything. Abraham has become the heir, and through
his seed the inheritance has been realised. The blessings of
Abraham are for those who obey the law of the Spirit, which is the
law of the Cross. Well, this is the beginning. I have not hurried,
because we are not trying to finish a particular set message, but
to allow the Lord to speak.
The Cross had many applications to Abraham. Leaving Ur was only
the beginning. Abraham thought it was quite enough. He did not
want any more; nor do we. But it will never end until we reach the
glory, because it is a law of the spiritual life; it must be. And
so they came into the land, and, no doubt, in many lesser ways
Abraham was all the time learning this lesson and proving the
Lord.
The Cross in the Matter of Isaac
But then the narrative focuses on to the more concentrated
expression of the principle in the matter of the son that God
promised to him, and Abraham had to learn that the Cross not only
slew in him any personal ability to serve the Lord, but also any
natural capacity for producing what God wanted and what God has
promised.
There was this matter of the son arising, of Isaac. That was the
will of God for Abraham. It was the promise and yet we are told
that for ten long years Abraham waited in vain. God did nothing.
Well, that was the Cross all the time. God did nothing because He
was seeking to impress on Abraham that when He did it, it was
going to be all of Him, and if Abraham was under any
misapprehension as to his ability to do the Lord's work, he had to
realise this, learn his lesson, and be disillusioned. I wonder
whether, perhaps, the time had almost come, for ten years is the
time of testing and, as is so often the case, God's great thing
was just round the corner. Anyhow, Abraham could not wait, and
neither can any of us, for if there is one common mark of the
natural man that seems to be found in us all, it is that the
natural man cannot wait for God; he must do something.
To go back to that matter that I have spoken of - the
disappointment that God did not raise up in many places a local
expression of His will, as we had hoped - I wonder whether, in
quite a few instances, the reason has not been that some "Abraham"
has gone out in the will of God, that that might be realised, and
then could not wait for God to do it. At any rate, that is what
happened in Abraham's case; he could not wait any longer. And then
Sarah comes into the story, and she has a solution to offer, and
Egypt is near at hand, providing a means for the realisation. And
the result of that attempt to help God out of His difficulty
provided God with one of the greatest difficulties that He has
ever had in this world. And that is what we do when we try and
help the Lord.
We must not imagine that the birth of Ishmael was some moral
lapse upon Abraham's part. It was nothing of the kind. It was
nothing that, humanly, he had any reason to be ashamed of even as
before God, in the circumstances in which he lived. There was no
shame attached to the birth of Ishmael, except this greatest shame
to a man who would be spiritual: that he has got in the Lord's
way, that he has not waited for the Lord to do the thing
absolutely and altogether. He listened to Sarah which he should
not have done. Now, that is not saying anything wrong about Sarah.
She is one of the most honoured women in the Bible. She is the
only woman whose age is mentioned when she died; that, at least,
is a peculiar position! There is nothing to be said against Sarah,
nor against a man listening to his wife; there is a lot to be said
for it. But the spiritual meaning is that Abraham listened and
responded to that which was expressing natural ideas and emotions,
and was not the voice of God. Because his was the responsibility,
as Adam's had been in his day, he should have refused to accept
that advice. It was very natural; it was done with the best of
intentions. Sarah really wanted to be helpful to Abraham and there
is always somebody who really wants to be helpful to you. They
come along and say, "You have waited too long. Look! I will show
you what to do, and you can reach the Lord's end." This business
of waiting for the Lord is very unpractical, "Be a practical
Christian and help the Lord a little" - that is the advice that
Abraham got, and he fell into the trap. So do we so often, alas!
And then Ishmael came.
God would never accept Ishmael. It is seen as time goes on that
Abraham is fond of Ishmael. You know, there are some things which
we do in the flesh and we are glad when the Lord says, "Turn this
out". We want to get rid of it. We realise that Ishmael was a
blunder, and if the Lord will despatch it and its mother as far as
possible, we shall be thankful. There are expressions of the
natural life that are like that, but this is something far more
spiritual and deep than that - Abraham loved Ishmael. It was a
grievous thing to Abraham when the suggestion arose that Ishmael
should leave the home. And when, on the very verge of the
appearance of Isaac Abraham was communing with the Lord and had
had the promise renewed to him once again after thirteen years,
you find him saying, "Oh that Ishmael might live before Thee... I
wish You would accept Ishmael!" The Lord never would. That was a
great sorrow to Abraham, and it may be a sorrow to us who have
tried to help the Lord. It is not a blunder, in our opinion, but
something very dear that has been produced. We say, "Lord, if only
You would accept this; if only this could have Your blessing..."
but the Lord says "No". "But Lord, it was done after prayer! It
was done with the best of intentions. It was done because the
promise had to be realised." But the Lord still says, "No". "Well,
Lord, there is nothing else possible now. It was impossible
thirteen years ago; it is far more impossible now." The Lord says,
"Never mind what you think about possible or impossible. Will you
let go of your doubts and questions and abandon all your efforts
and trust Me?"
The word is recorded and written again and again by the apostle
Paul, (and there seems to come a sense of awe over him as he
writes) it is one of the most wonderful things in history:
"Abraham believed God". His own body was as good as dead. The
whole situation spoke of death; but God said "No", and He said, "I
want you to take action, to do something which will express, once
and for all, that this whole Ishmael principle is repudiated by
you." And the Lord brought in the institution, the ordinance, of
circumcision, and it was at the time when Abraham believed God.
You cannot believe God and have something of the flesh in which
you are still trusting. That circumcision meant the cutting off of
a whole order of things, a whole life which can never fulfil the
law of God; and so he did it. So strangely earthbound is man that
the very thing which was to be the mark of the repudiation of all
earthliness became, in the hands of the Judaizers, the hallmark of
religion. That is how deceitful the human heart is. It turns the
very things that were meant to lift us up to heaven and it makes
them bind us down to earth. Baptism can do the same thing in our
day, as circumcision did in Abraham's day.
The whole point of miracles and manifestations of the power of
the Lord in the early church, the whole point of them was to make
people know that heaven was come upon them, and the very meaning
of them was to lift them out of the earth. The whole point of them
in our day seems to be to bend man back to earth, to keep the
glory of the Lord away, instead of lifting man up to glory. It is
the tragedy of the human heart that will turn anything, the
holiest or the best thing, from heaven to earth, if it can.
Well, Isaac was born, and in Isaac all the promises of God found
realisation. It is not the end of the story, but it is the end of
our consideration of it. Once more, do not go away thinking about
Abraham. Let the Lord apply the lesson to you and to me. How ready
we are to try and help the Lord to do His work, to provide for the
Lord that which will meet His end! Indeed, the law of the Spirit
is all the time, through all our lives, bringing us back to the
place where we know we can do nothing, and where we accept the
fact that we can do nothing. Instead of rebelling, resisting,
striving, we must take up the position that Abraham took up: that
God is the God of resurrection and that if the Cross, through
Jesus Christ, smites me and places me in an impossible position in
which all His promises and all the vision I have received seem
most impossible, well, it is up to Him to get me out of that
difficulty. But it is up to me to yield to Him. The law of the
Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, not the law of the spirit of
death, thank God, it takes us from death, because death is the way
through to Life.
May the Lord lead us there, for His Name's sake.