We have been occupied with
personal things until now. It is very important that we should
have that side of things put before us first of all, but we do
not stop there. When we have come to the place of our own
personal appropriation of the resources which are in Christ for
us, then we have to recognise that bound up with such
appropriation there is a purpose that reaches far beyond
ourselves alone. It is at this point that we begin to turn our
eyes outward rather than inward, while still occupied with the
same supreme matter, Christ risen, and the things which cannot be
shaken. So we are being led to meditate upon the reproduction of
an adequate life in the Church, to its essential and vital
outworking.
Adam and Eve have often been
set forth as types of Christ and the Church, and perhaps rightly
so. The injunction given to them was that they should be fruitful
and multiply, and that law in a spiritual way is also carried
over to the anti-type, Christ and the Church. The law of this one
life, of this oneness in life into which Christ and His own have
been brought, is fruitfulness, increase, reproduction.
We should remember that life is
a trust: by it a stewardship is created. Life is not something to
be received, and, so to speak, pocketed, appropriated just for
the good of the recipient. Life is a trust with which we are
called upon to trade, and by means of which we are under an
obligation to secure increase. Life demands a right of way for
transmission, and to deny that right of way is to violate life,
to be disloyal to the greatest of all trusts.
In the history of peoples
Israel stands out as perhaps the most conspicuous example of this
law. Israel, of course, was chosen to be a representation of
great Divine, spiritual laws amongst all the peoples of this
earth, and Israel's national life was therefore the embodiment of
a spiritual principle, the outward representation of something
deeper, something heavenly, Divine. You will probably not have
failed to recognise in your reading of the Old Testament how in
the life of Israel the family had a very large place, and the
larger the family the happier the people. Not to have a family
was a tragedy and a shame; if that were not possible, then the
whole life was regarded as being blighted, spoiled. That was a
ruling fact in Israel.
The fact is one which lies near
the surface, and, as we have said, you can hardly fail to
recognise it; but as you do so, you will see that in that
particular, as in many others which perhaps are more obvious,
there is embodied a spiritual law. Israel was chosen for the
reproduction and propagation of the things of God. The Lord
deposited His heavenly things with Israel, not that Israel should
appropriate them and shut them up within herself, but should
trade with them, and regard them as a stewardship. The oracles
were for a stewardship. The Divine blessings were a stewardship
entrusted to Israel for the world. The great word to Abraham was
that all the families of the earth should be blessed in
his seed. The covenant with Abraham, therefore, was for the
general good and blessing of mankind, and there were the elements
of a stewardship deposited with the covenant of promise.
Israel failed in the trust, and
in so doing sealed her own doom. That is shown by the barren fig
tree. The Lord Jesus, suffering hunger, came to the fig tree
expecting to find fruit thereon, and He found nothing but leaves.
We know that that fig tree was a type of Israel. It represented
Israel. He cursed the fig tree, and it withered away. So, with
the close of the life of the Lord Jesus here, Israel passed out
of the place of the Divine stewardship, and has never occupied it
since. The trust was removed and transferred. "The kingdom
of heaven shall be taken away from you" said the Lord,
"and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits
thereof". That is but another way of saying, You have failed
to bring forth the fruit of that which was offered you, which was
entrusted to you; you have defaulted in the matter of your
stewardship; you have been barren when you ought to have been
fruitful; you have sealed your own doom. The doom of an
instrumentality is sealed by failure to fulfil the vocation for
which it was raised up.
An organism is never an end in
itself, and is never something for itself. It is a means to a
larger end, a channel for larger purposes, and the object of an
organism is to reproduce itself by life. That reproduction is
always sacrificial. It always costs. It is always by the vessel's
yielding up of itself in some way. That is to say, death is the
way to increase. Reproduction is sacrificial.
That brings us to the passage
of Scripture in which the Lord summed up everything with regard
to His future relationship with His own, and the result of His
having come into this world. The passage, you will note, is John
12:24: "Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die,
it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much
fruit". Verse 25: "He that loveth his life shall lose
it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto
life eternal". That embraces and embodies all that we have
been saying. Unless a life propagates it remains without being
marked by any purpose. It is an end in itself, and God never
meant any organism to be that. It saves its own life by letting
it go, that increase may be the result. The law of increase is
sacrifice - "Except a corn of wheat fall into the earth and
die...". There is no propagation, there is no increase,
there is no reproduction except by letting all that is merely
personal go, in the interest of what is other and more.
This then leads us to several
things. The first is:
The Meaning
and Value of Christ Risen as an Inward Life
Christ risen is shown to be a
reality for inward expression, experience. The risen life
of the Lord is to be in us. Christ is to be in us by His life,
and by His Spirit of life. The inward meaning and value of Christ
risen is the reproduction of His life in all those in whom He is,
that all such as have Him dwelling in them in the power of His
risen life should be an expression of Christ in life, should
manifest Him in the power of that life. It is reproduction of the
Christ life in us. The law of that reproduction in us is that we
ourselves should die, should accept the place of death, so that
all personal life, personal interest is entirely put away, is
shed, is parted with, and Christ becomes all. That is what Paul
meant when he said, "I have been crucified with Christ; yet
I live, and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me". Here
is the expression of Christ produced because all life which is
not of Christ has been yielded to the Cross, has died. It has
fallen into the grave of the Lord Jesus, and out of the grave of
the Lord Jesus there has come an expression of Him.
In our union with Christ in His
death we cease and He begins, and from the beginning He becomes
the all. That is a progressive thing, as well as a basic thing.
It is a thing all-inclusive in its meaning, in its intent, but it
is also progressive. We have to accept the fulness of that thing
in an act. We have to take the position quite definitely and
consciously that now, in accepting our union with Christ in His
death, this is to work out in our having no more place at all,
and that whenever we come into evidence we shall be smitten, we
shall be put aside, we shall not be allowed to go on. We have to
accept that once for all in a definite act of commitment, that
from henceforth everything that is of self is going to be smitten
unsparingly with that Cross, and whenever self comes in it will
not be allowed to have a standing. We had better settle it once
for all, and have a dealing with the Lord on that inclusive,
comprehensive, and utter ground, that He will make His own
meaning in that real; not our understanding of it, not our grasp
or apprehension of it, not what we think to be the "I"
which is to be forbidden, but what He knows to be the 'I'; not
the measure of our knowledge of ourselves, but His knowledge of
us. There will be revealed a very great deal more that is
"I" than has ever entered into our thought or
imagination. Self, then, not as we know it, but as He knows it
through and through, is to be brought under the power of that
Cross, and this we accept in an act.
Then it becomes progressive. To
die daily, to be always bearing about in the body the dying or
the deadness of the Lord Jesus, so that His death is a working
thing every day by which self is denied, is the issue of our
initial acceptance. But as that takes place, that sacrificial
yielding over to the Cross, the life of Christ is being
reproduced. By the power of His own life He is increasing while
we decrease. We shall never meet a challenge to set ourselves
aside but what, in meeting that challenge, and answering to it,
there will be the occasion for an increase of Christ. Everything
which demands that we accept a fresh measure of the meaning of
His death means that, as we accept it, there will be a larger
measure of Him in risen life.
So that the meaning and value
of Christ risen as an inward life is reproduction. And there is
no other way. There is no way to make Christians according to the
New Testament but that way. The increase of the number of the
Lord's own is not by joining something from the outside; it is by
coming to the Cross and dying. That is the only way. There is no
Christian on any other ground than that he died with Christ, and
has been raised together with Him.
The Necessity
for Everything to be of a Living Character
That is the second thing. This
takes us back to the first things which were said in these
considerations, that it is contrary to the mind of God to
systematise Christianity, Christian truth, Christian order, and
appropriate it or apply it as a system. It must be the issue and
outcome of life. Reproduction is only by life. It is not by truth
as a system of doctrine. Reproduction is not by the setting up of
some Christian order. It is by life. And herein is the necessity
for everything to be of a living character. If Christ is to be
multiplied, using that word in the right sense - and not one of
us will think that we mean that there will be a multiplication of
Christ in any literal sense - if that is to be so, it can only be
through everything being living, of a vital order.
That brings us to the third
thing, which will, to some extent, elucidate and explain what we
have just said.
The Nature of
the Church
(a) Constitution
What is it that constitutes the
Church? The Church is not constituted upon the Christian creed;
nor upon a set of beliefs; nor by assent to certain doctrinal
propositions. The Church is not constituted by asking people to
join it, become members of it, adherents, but the Church is
constituted by the transmission of the risen life of the Lord.
Reproduction is its law of increase.
Increase may be brought about
in two ways. One is the way of imitation. You can turn out
so many things as by a mould, that is, by making so many things
on the same pattern, and thus increasing, multiplying by
imitation. It hardly needs saying that such is not the New
Testament way with regard to the growth of the Church. That is
not the New Testament way of reproduction. The other way is by
conception, that is, the out-growth of life from within, the
form which life takes when it expresses itself, when it has its
way. It is inward rather than outward. The difference between
imitation and what is conceived is the difference between what is
dead and what is alive. One is made, the other is born, and the
constitution of the Church is the result of the activity and
energy of a life, the Lord's own risen life, being transmitted,
passed on. Whatever you may develop, you will never get a
development of the true Church unless the risen life of Christ is
operative and is there in sufficient measure to be transmitted by
the Spirit.
(b) Order
The same law holds good as to
the order of the Church. It is the result of His life. Again, two
kinds of things are possible. You can appoint to office,
and set apart with certain titles and names, which represent
certain spheres of activity or kinds of work and responsibility.
You can elect or vote into such office or position, and proceed
along that line, setting up the Church order. Or you can follow
another line, and be ruled by the law of life, whereby
account is taken of the working and expression of the Lord's life
in the members of the Church, of the way in which the members, by
that life, begin to show marks of certain spiritual ability.
Ability is coming out and manifesting itself in this way, or in
that way, and in due course, by a spontaneous expression, and by
the result of the life of the Lord having its way in such
members, the Church is compelled to take account of the fact that
such-and-such in its midst are spiritually qualified, and that as
spiritually qualified they are already, by the very operation of
this Divine life, the fit and proper persons for such-and-such
ministry. The expression of life comes out perhaps in a ministry
of teaching, or in a ministry of administration. It is not just
natural ability. It is not the result of natural advantages, of
training and so on, but there is the spiritual mark about it.
Then the Lord's people take account of it, and say: Well,
evidently the Lord has gifted so-and-so in this way, and we must
take account of it, and allow that to have its expression. Thus
the Church comes into its order along the line of life.
A question may present itself
to us in connection with the familiar passage in Ephesians:
"He gave some apostles; and some prophets; and some
evangelists; and some pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of
the saints unto the work of ministering..." When the Lord
did that, did He announce to the Church what He had done? Did He
say, Now I have definitely given into your midst so-and-so as
your apostle, as your prophet, as your evangelist, as your pastor
and teacher? Did He say, Now so-and-so is an apostle in your
midst, and so-and-so is a teacher in your midst? Or was His gift
in the first place secret, only manifesting itself as these
believers respectively went on with Him, and it became noticed
that they were developing in certain ways? Was it like that? I
think that is the truth, speaking generally. As the fruit of
obedience the perpetuation of His heavenly order was not
mechanical, not official, not ecclesiastical, but vital, living,
spiritual. True order is the expression of life.
That is tremendously important.
The Lord does not leave it in our hands to appoint our ministers,
to make either the ministry or the minister. The Lord develops
ministry by life, and where the Lord develops ministry the Church
has to take notice. It may be perfectly true that the appointment
has been made by God, but it may be equally true that it has to
be made manifest by life before it comes to function. I believe
that is partly why Barnabas and Paul were detained at Antioch so
long. Paul was definitely called, chosen. There was no doubt
whatever that heaven had ordained him as an apostle, and all the
signs of an apostle were in him, the supreme sign being that he
had seen first hand the risen Lord. Yet, with the sovereign
choice, and with the personal commission to him, he had first to
go into Damascus to be told what he should do as one in the
church, the assembly, and subsequently he had to tarry at Antioch
as a member of the assembly there for over a year. Even then the
Lord did not come to Saul or to Barnabas, his companion, and say,
Now go out to the work to which you know I have called you, the
work of which I have told you, the work for which you were
chosen! Go out and get on with it! The Lord gave direction
through the leading members of that assembly: "Separate me
Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them".
And the Church was able to do that, not simply on the basis of a
command, but because it had been proved in their own midst that
these men were called for this ministry. They had revealed in the
assembly by life that they were called to a ministry. That is the
way by which the Lord reveals His ministers.
That brings us to this point.
You do not know what your ministry is, save as you go on with the
Lord. You may have been Divinely ordained, sovereignly chosen.
There may be related with your life a ministry of great value.
You may not know anything about it yet, but it may be perfectly
true that the Lord could say that you are a chosen vessel unto
Him; but you will only discover what your ministry is as you go
on with the Lord in life. As the Lord's life increases in you,
and your communion with the Lord goes on unhindered in all its
meaning and value, then you will discover that the Lord is moving
in you in a certain direction, and that you are becoming
exercised unto a certain ministry. None of us really discerns his
ministry by being told beforehand. We only know it as we go on
with God, and His life has its way.
That is an important thing, for
ministry hangs upon life. It does not rest upon mechanical
appointment. We cannot make ministers. It is only the risen
Christ Who can make ministers, and He makes them in the power of
His risen life. Disaster lies before the man who tries to be a
minister without the risen life of Christ. The Lord deliver us
from ever trying in any way to be ministers without its being the
outcome of His life in us. The life of the risen Lord takes its
own form, expresses itself in its own way, according to the mind
of Him Whose life it is.
The Growth of
the Church
We have already touched upon
this, but let us repeat and re-emphasise that the growth of the
Church is on the principle of life. We can never go about this
world gathering people together, asking them to accept certain
things which we say about Christ, and then forming them into
churches. The Lord has not called upon us to form churches. That
is not our business. Would to God men had recognised the fact. A
very different situation would obtain today from what exists, if
that had been recognised. It is the Lord Who expands His Church,
Who governs its growth. What we have to do is to live in the
place of His appointment in the power of His resurrection. If, in
the midst of others, the Lord can get but two of His children, in
whom His life is full and free, to live on the basis of that
life, and not to seek to gather others to themselves or to get
them to congregate together on the basis of their acceptance of
certain truths or teaching, but simply to witness to what Christ
means and is to them, then He has an open way. As witness is
simply and livingly borne in this way, one and another will be
provoked at length to say: I do wish I had what they have! And
another will say: I covet that one's experience. It is just what
I have been seeking for! Such as these will either come to
inquire the way of salvation, or opportunity will be found to
lead them to the Lord. It is in this way that the Church grows.
Its growth may be furthered at a street corner as you preach
Christ and someone responds, and believing on Christ with the
heart and confessing Him as Lord with the mouth, life is given by
the Spirit, and that one becomes the Lord's. The Church is not
increased by your going and taking a building and trying to get
people to come to it, and to your meetings, and then forming
them, by a church roll, into a local church. That is not the way.
Growth is by life, and this, to begin with, may be by the
entering into life of but one soul, and then after a long waiting
time of another; or it may be more rapid. But the point is that
it is increase because of life. That is the growth of the Church.
For the growth of His Church, the Lord must have life channels,
life centres. I believe that, given a life centre, sooner or
later one of two things will happen, that it will be abundantly
manifest that Christ is fully and finally rejected there, or else
there will be an adding, a growth. There is tremendous power in
life, and the life of the Lord either kills or quickens. It
depends on the attitude taken toward it. He is a savour of life
unto life, or of death unto death. Things can never remain
neutral. What the Lord needs is life centres.
The irreducible minimum, and
yet the adequate means, to begin with, is two; two who are one in
His life, two in whom there is co-operation in that life. He sent
them forth two by two. That is the nucleus of the Church. It is
such as these that the enemy will endeavour to kill, to quench,
or to separate, and thus to ruin them spiritually, so far as
their value to the Lord is concerned for propagation. Remember
that! The Lord's advantage is bound up with a fellowship of two
in the one life.
We can see now why in the main
issue it is so important that all the resources of the risen Lord
should be tapped by us, should be lived upon, drawn upon, why
these spiritual, secret, heavenly resources of His life, His
fulness, should thus become the basis of our lives. Their purpose
does not end with ourselves, nor is it something for ourselves,
and if we turn them to that end we shall die. That provision is
for the Lord's end, which is reproduction, the reproduction of
His own risen life.