"And as Moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be
lifted up" (John 3:14).
"Jesus therefore said,
When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I
am he, and that I do nothing of myself, but as the Father taught
me, I speak these things" (John 8:28).
"And I, if I be lifted
up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself" (John
12:32).
In the Scriptures cited above we
have the Lord Jesus three times speaking of being "lifted
up". Of course, it means on the Cross. In connection with
that lifting up He uses two phrases:
"Whosoever" and "All men". The issue of the
Cross, then, is said to be a unifying of humanity. When we think
of the Cross, we usually, and almost entirely, think of sin. This
is right, if we understand what is meant by sin. There are sins,
and there is sin. The Cross is His bearing of our sins in
His body on the tree. The Cross is also the judgment upon,
and destruction of, the effect of sin.
In the Bible sin is regarded as
spiritual disease. There the greatest illustration of spiritual
disease is leprosy, and the effect of leprosy is to disintegrate
the body, to break down its unity. It does that first in the
individual, and then in the society; for the leper must go
outside of his family and away from other people. This breaking
up principle and power of sin is also represented in another
type, which has an embargo upon it when the Cross (in figure) is
present, and that is leaven. The effect of leaven is to break up,
disintegrate, and inflate.
Jesus says that the Cross, and
the lifting up will be against that effect of sin.
Sin separates between man and God; between man and a heavenly
society; between the "natural man" and the spiritual
man in the Church. (See 1 Corinthians.) It was because
of that divisive effect of sin that the Apostle said that he
would know nothing among them but "Jesus Christ,
and him crucified".
The only cure for divisions in
any realm is the power of the Cross. We have in these
messages been seeing the course of disruption, from
Satans jealousy of Gods Son in the "before the
world was" (John 17:5). and the resultant schism there, to
the earth in its chaos as possibly Satans earlier
"princedom" ("the prince of this world"),
then to and in the Garden man and wife; then to the
family, the tribe, and the whole race.
That long and terrible history
was destined by Divine Counsels to be met and destroyed, and
"reconciliation", reunification, reintegration, to be
accomplished in the same dimensions as the evil. The instigator
and his work were to be destroyed and cast out of Gods
domain of light, life, and love, for ever. The Person to do it,
and rightly constituted for it, was Gods Son, and the
instrument for its accomplishment was His Cross. Every aspect of
the cosmic universe was focused in that Cross. The Cross is a
factual position, basic, fundamental, final as to this
schismatic power of sin. Then it is a progressive principle to be
applied and made effective in the Church. The final and
consummate vision of the Cross is a great multitude out of every
tribe and nation singing in unison or harmony
the Song of the Lamb.
This is all a very great test
and challenge as to the place and work of the Cross in ourselves
personally; in our relationships; in the local assemblies, and in
the Church universally. The heart of the disrupted universe, and
the heart of all disrupted situations contains an I.
It commenced there when "Lucifer" said in his heart,
"I will be equal with the Most High". The principle of
self-hood, in some form of grasping and not letting
go to God, is accountable for all schisms which affect Divine
interests and glory. (See Philippians 2:9 onwards.)
So, coming back to our main
subject, the Divine order is in the Person of Gods Son. It
is secured by His Cross. It is increased by the principle of the
Cross at work in believers. It is the real meaning of
knowing Christ, and it is consummated when the Lamb
in the throne is the adored Centre of a new Creation.
Let us not just view all this
objectively, but continually challenge all motives and situations
by it.
The
Application of the the Message to Local Assemblies
While the disruptive work of the
enemy of Christ is extended to the whole Church the
true Church to effect its disunity by every possible
means because the true Church the Elect of God is
destined in the eternal counsels to occupy the position of
administration of the new heaven and new earth, it is
of particular interest and concern to the enemy to disrupt and
discredit all local representations of Christ and His Body. This
he will do and does by bringing about wrong order.
Order Divine order is absolutely indispensable to
growth, strength, and effectiveness. This fact is greatly
overlooked and therefore much advantage is given to the
disruptive forces. Because the Divine order is heavenly and
spiritual, only the Holy Spirit, sent down from heaven, knows
what it is and can administer and constitute it. Immediately man
puts his hand upon the Church local to organize, form, arrange,
and control it, disorder or un-order will set in,
with the results of confusion, limitation, artificiality,
make-believe, and in time an end in itself. It can
be worse even shame and disgrace.
Therefore, to have the Divine
order it is basically essential as in the beginning
that the Holy Spirit shall be in complete control in terms of the
absolute headship and lordship of Christ. This means that everything
shall be meticulously referred and deferred to the Holy Spirit.
This is the principle embodied in fasting with prayer.
We say the principle, because there is no virtue in
fasting without its meaning. To some men it might
be costly to go without a meal or two; to others meals are not of
such account, indeed, they feel better without a few. The principle
of fasting (not only or merely in going without food for a day)
is the refraining from what is of man in any way to give
the Lord a full way through occupation with Him, which
is the function of prayer. The Lord does not want us to go on
hunger strike to get what we want, but to go on
self-strength strike to let Him have what He wants. It
was out of this prayer with fasting that the
Holy Spirit instigated the Divine order at the beginning. (Acts
13, etc.) Note: the appointments were made firstly through
abandoned prayer, then by Holy Spirit direction, then in the
midst of the (local) Church, and evidently by the Churchs
unity. Who will ever estimate the values which issued from that
microcosm of the heavenly order? The most impressive thing, and
the most significant, is that the local emerged into the
universal. Souls saved, companies born, and saints fed in
far-reaching ministry, and all-time values. Mans
arrangements and appointments do not work out in that way!
Every assembly ought to be a
vessel of light and food for all the Lords people,
as well as of evangelism to the unsaved.
The law of order as governing
development, growth, strength, effectiveness, and reproduction is
written large by God in all organic nature, and not least in the
human body.
Order is the spontaneous
outworking of life. It proves that life is unimpeded,
unobstructed, and working normally. What is true in nature is
equally true in the spiritual organism the Church. It is
when there is an invasion of something contrary to "the law
of the Spirit of life", from selfhood or the world, that the
life is obstructed and there is a loss of power, effectiveness,
and productiveness. The Bible calls this "the
Anointing". Every vessel, every ministry, every
"office", every position, every function in
the local Church should manifestly be under the
anointing. It should be evident to all that that man in that
position, doing what he is doing, is unmistakably there and
functioning under the anointing; that God put him in
that position, and therefore life flows through him and his
function.
When we have said this (and we
could add very much more concerning Divine order in the
local assembly), we are brought back to an all-inclusive and
comprehensive work and meaning of the sovereignty of the Holy
Spirit: it is to reveal Christ. We have said that Christ
the Son of God is the full embodiment of the heavenly
order. By the Anointing He expressed that order. We need to get
right away from our man-crystallized systems of Christianity to a
new Holy Spirit revealed apprehension of Christ. If the Holy
Spirit is really governing He will organically constitute all
things according to Christ, and the Church and churches will not
be institutions, organizations, or even churches, but
representations and expressions of Christ.