Well then, if the
Church is the Divine outcome of the Cross, it must define
the nature and meaning of the Cross. What does the Cross
do? What is the function of the Cross? We have viewed
that in three directions in our previous meditation -
God-ward, man-ward and Satan-ward. Now, let us see it in
one or two other connections which touch all three of
these at the same time.
The
Cross an End to All Idolatry
Firstly, the Cross puts
an end to all idolatry. Take that away and think about
it. It is a long story, and it is a very far-reaching
story, is idolatry. I am going to say something which
would take a very long time to verify, so far as the data
and events are concerned, but which can be verified from
the beginning to the end of the Scriptures. It is this:
if we knew the truth, idolatry lies behind everything for
which the Cross of Christ came into being, and when the
Cross is really made active, what it is doing is to deal
with idolatry in some form or another. Now that, perhaps,
you cannot grasp for the moment. But we will go a little
way further with it.
You see, the Cross,
right at its very heart and centre, relates to worship.
That is the final word, the ultimate matter in this
universe, and now the universe has become Cross-centric;
that is, the Cross of Christ now, since the Fall, has
become the centre of this universe, and that Cross is to
touch this universe from centre to circumference. There
is a centrality and universality of the Cross, and at the
very centre and circumference of this universe the one
thing which is pre-eminent is worship. If you understand
what worship is, then idolatry is simply, but
comprehensively, anything and everything which in
principle takes from, or even tends to take from, the
utterness of God as the very life of man. God has
made Himself the spring, the source, the centre of life,
and for his life man is utterly dependent upon God, and
can only find his life in God. God has bound man to
Himself inseparably for his life, and will not allow man
to have life, in the real sense, apart from Himself. He
has made it a law in His universe that man cannot live
apart from God, in the sense in which God means him to
live and in God's meaning of life. God is man's life.
Anything which becomes for man a substitute for God in
life, for God Himself for life, is idolatry. Anything
that draws man away from God, or tends to draw man away
from God, is idolatry in principle: and, mark you, it is
God Himself in Person Who is man's life, and man's
centre. In a moment, I will say more about what that
means.
What
Idolatry Is
Idolatry is all that is
not God as the basis or object of man's life. That is
tremendously comprehensive. We think of idolatry, of
course, in terms of heathen idols. We might perhaps bring
it into a closer realm, where people clearly put things
in the place of God but oh! it goes much deeper than
that, and, in the Scriptures, idolatry is never regarded
as merely negative or passive. There idolatry is always
seen to be an active thing, inasmuch as it is the work of
an intelligence which is opposed to God; and that Satanic
intelligence is always making it its first object and
aim, persistently, continuously, and by every means, to
get something into the place of the Lord personally. You
see, it is possible to have the things of the Lord in the
place of the Lord Himself; and that is idolatry in
principle. Yes, it may be the things of Jehovah not other
gods. In place of the Lord, Who is the object of man's
life, His things may be given precedence, and in
principle that is idolatry, and the Cross is ever being
used by the Holy Spirit to strike at everything, no
matter what it is, that comes to occupy the place of the
Lord Himself, the place that the Lord Himself should
occupy. Idolatry is always religious, and it may be the
Christian religion as well as any other religion that is
marked by idolatry.
I am saying some strong
things, but there is cause. You see, idolatry exists in
principle whenever or wherever anything, even good in
itself, becomes an object in itself rather than God, the
Lord Himself. There are many things which are not only
harmless but good in themselves, which have,
nevertheless, been allowed to take the place of the Lord
Himself, and good things can therefore embody the
principle of idolatry in the one in whom the devotion is
found. Touch some Christians, or Christian institutions,
and let the touch be even in relation to something more
of the Lord Himself, and you will find an uprising of
jealous regard for the institution which utterly blinds
to that possibility of an extra measure of the Lord
Himself. You can be so devoted to a denomination, a
missionary society, a piece of Christian work, that there
is no room for any extra measure of the Lord. The thing
itself has become the end, the object for which you live,
and when the Lord wants to get you moved on into
something more of Himself, the obstacle is that good
Christian work, association, institution, tradition,
connection. Yes, and that is idolatry in principle, and
we see from history how the Lord again and again has had
to smite with smashing blows things which in themselves
were good, in order to save His people unto Himself
personally. Even things which He gave at one time, have
had to be taken away or shattered because the gift has
become the end, the object. That is what is happening:
and a very necessary thing it is too. The Lord is not
protecting good things today. If those have become
something to which men have become devoted, with which
they have become bound up, He is allowing them to be
broken and destroyed.
God
Himself Man's Life and Entire Good
What is He after? It is
Himself which He is seeking to establish as the object of
man's life, and not the things that have relation to
Himself: and I say again, you meet something intensely
fierce if you touch a thing, even though you are touching
it maybe with a view to getting people to move on with
the Lord Himself. To put that in the other way, if your
appeal for moving on with the Lord seems to people to
involve their having to move away from this or that or
some other thing, then there is warfare; which shows that
Satan in his eternal campaign of idolatry, has got a
footing amongst Christians in relation to things which
take the place of the Lord Himself, good things though
they be in themselves; and you find, if you are
spiritually sensitive, that you are not just encountering
the established institutions, but you are encountering a
terrific spiritual force. Is that true? It is true. Had I
never come up against it, never would I have believed the
terrific force there is lying behind Christian
institutions if your ministry touches them. You meet
something which turns upon you, and it is not just the
thing or the people. It is something that threatens your
very life, to slay, and this in principle and essence,
beloved, is idolatry; because its ultimate effect is that
even the Lord cannot have what His heart is set upon and
get His people spiritually where He wants them, because
they are so bound up with His things. They are not able
to discriminate between His things and Himself.
The Cross will deal
with all that, and the wonderful thing is that this is
just the spontaneous effect of a real work of the Cross,
when it is by the Holy Ghost. Now, put it to the test, or
bring in your test cases. What about Saul of Tarsus? You
touch the institutions of Saul of Tarsus, Judaism and its
whole system, you touch it and see what you meet. You not
only meet the strength of a bigot, you meet the spiritual
force of hell: and so it was. What is there in God's
universe that can meet that, deal with that, break that
down, put that out of the way, so that it no longer has
any power over the man? There is no force in God's
universe save the Cross of the Lord Jesus. That will do
it; and it did it, and it did it right there on the spot.
It was not a case of growing out of Judaism, absorbing
new ideas which supplanted the old; the thing was done.
The Cross, Jesus Christ crucified, did it. Yes, and there
are many other cases like that. The Cross does come with
shattering power, if it gets a chance, upon those things
which take the Lord's place, and gives Him a real way to
become Himself the life, as He has determined to be, the
All which He has claimed to be. The Cross does that. It
gets rid of idolatry, not only in its various forms, but
in its very principle, and in this way destroys the works
of the Devil, removes the ground of Satanic strength. The
Cross of the Lord Jesus gives God His full place, His
utter place.
This may further
explain why it is that the Lord has to take away things
which He Himself gave, His own gifts, why the Lord seeks
to have us hold everything in relation to Himself, and
not as something in itself; that is, to keep us in that
detached way inwardly, so that at any time we can without
any difficulty let go our position, our ministry, our
work for the Lord - anything, everything. We hold it for
the Lord. Others can come and take our place, and there
be no jealousy, no debate. That is why the Lord could
speak so highly about Moses. Moses, My servant! Moses,
the man of God! These are the titles, the designations,
of Moses. Why? Well, you remember Moses' position was
challenged by certain [ones] in Israel. "Hath the
Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken by
us also?" And again later, when the company of
Dathan and Abiram chided with both him and Aaron:
"Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the
congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is
among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above
the assembly of the Lord?" What did Moses do? Fight
for his position, seek to vindicate himself? Did he go
into dark despair because he saw that his place was being
usurped or challenged? No, he just went to the Lord and,
in effect, said, If You put me into this position, while
You want me here You must look after me and see to it
that I am able to fulfil my ministry: if You want me out
of the way, I am quite ready to stand out; if You want
them in, it is all right! Would God that all the Lord's
people were prophets! He took that position, and the Lord
said, I can come alongside of a situation like that, I
can commit Myself there: and He did. You know what
happened to the company of Dathan and Abiram. The
meekness of Moses is the great feature of his life.
"The man Moses was very meek, above all the men that
were upon the face of the earth" (Numbers 12:3).
What did that mean in Moses' case? He held everything for
the Lord, in relation to the Lord Himself, not for
himself; and there is no difficulty whatever at any time
in letting any given thing go when that is the case.
But oh, that is not
always so with Christians. You chance to touch their
work, or get in the way of their ministry, and you meet
something. It is idolatry. Well, the Cross deals with
that, and when the Cross has done its work in us, we will
be very meek; in this sense, that we hold things only in
relation to the Lord and His glory, and we have no
difficulty in letting them go. We can stand back quite
easily and let others go on. It is for the Lord to
decide, and we give the Lord a clear way. The Cross does
that. Beloved, no one need ever worry about the
fulfilment of their ministry if, by the work of the Cross
in them, they are thus abandoned to the Lord's interests.
The Lord will see that, in the long run, that which He
intended will be realised through that life, whatever men
and demons do. It may not be as they thought it would be,
but it will be. The values of their lives will be
conserved by God, and not lost. All that is to the
contrary is in principle idolatry, and the Cross is
against it. That is why, as we were saying, the Lord so
often has to take away His own gifts, because in the
course of time they have taken His place.