The
Book of the Revelation — a book which discloses the
changed spiritual conditions in the early post-apostolic
days, and perhaps, prophetically, the state at the
end-time in the church — speaks of certain losses.
It reproachfully uses the words: “first”,
“first love”, “first works”.
This
is only another way of saying: “As it was in the
beginning”.
We
are, in these reflections, seeking to note some of these
changes and losses, with a view to creating exercise for
recovery.
A
further very evident change from the beginning,
especially in Western Christianity, is indicated by the
two words at the head of this page — meaning and
reality.
Perhaps
because of long tradition and familiarity, our accepted
system and established order, or perhaps because of an
oversimplification and superficial presentation of the
involvement, we are in a time and condition when
Christianity is very largely a matter of things without
their meaning. “Conversion” is something less
— if not other — than regeneration, a new
creation. Baptism is something DONE, either as a
bit of ritual, the requirement of association, a
compliance with a demanded ordinance, an adherence to
certain parts of Scripture, or — at most — the
expression of a desire to follow the Lord. The
“Communion service”, “Lord’s
table”, is very much in the same realm and of the
same nature as baptism. Membership of the church or of A
church, and Christian work are the expected things, and
things to be maintained.
How
great is the loss of the tremendous and demanding meaning
of these matters.
It is
not possible to read any part of the New Testament
without being made aware of the costliness connected with
ANY step in relation to Jesus as the Christ. The
very contemplation of association with Him raised the
most serious issues. Confession of Him and baptism
involved in deep and far-reaching difficulties. Testimony
to Him and just representing Him in the world produced
spontaneous trouble. The further the believers and
servants of Christ went, the more costly the way became.
The believers, the churches, just had to stand and fight
for their very lives spiritually. It is so manifestly
true, even in our time, that where it is costly to stand
true to the Lord — as in East Germany, Russia, etc.
— there you find the most real and true kind of
believers. It is known that some have deliberately chosen
to return to such places and accept the suffering after
having tasted or seen the spiritual poverty and unreality
of Christians in what are called “free
countries”. It is not necessary to go behind the
“Iron Curtain”, or the “Bamboo
Curtain”, or to “heathen lands” in order
to know persecution and thereby find reality. In such
case millions of Christians in the West would never find
it.
Utterness
for the Lord ANYWHERE will produce spiritual
conditions which will test, challenge and make for
reality and bring out the real and deep meaning of
everything. Utterness means willingness to let the Lord
dictate every aspect of life and, when He faces with a
question or test, to go through with it, whatever the
cost. It means being committed to knowing the deepest and
fullest meaning of every bit of our Christianity.
What
does the Holy Spirit through the Scriptures mean by new
birth, baptism, the Lord’s table, fellowship, the
church, ministry and service, etc.? Indeed, what does it
mean to HAVE the Holy Spirit? There is such a
great amount of assuming and taking for granted, which MAY
work out in presumption — PREsumption.
Most
Christians accept the doctrines, the traditions and the
ordinances, but, in the beginning, it was the
implications, the significance, and the meaning which
gave reality to everything. This reality provided a place
for a wholesome fear. Violations or ignoring of vital
principles can go on with impunity in our times and
because the judgments of God are not prompt sudden and
apparent but work slowly and almost imperceptibly on a
long-term course, it is assumed — if thought about
at all — that it does not matter. There ARE
many conditions and situations, confusions and
frustrations, limitations and complications, which —
if we but knew it — ARE judgments. May we not
have taken far too much for granted?
One
thing is very clear: the apostles and their
fellow-workers sought to make the believers take their
Christianity very seriously and left them in no doubt as
to serious consequences following — sooner or later
— if they did not do so.
We may
take up some of the matters mentioned in a more specific
and fuller way, but for the moment we want to put the
emphasis upon this: that the Lord has never made
provision for anything less than downright reality.
Stresses
are certain to be brought to bear upon our profession
which will find us out, and we shall be tested on the
threshing-floor. The disciples understood the
implications of the Lord’s teaching when they asked
“Lord, are there few that be saved?”
Dr.
Billy Graham has reason for asking why it is that, of all
the thousands that make “decision”, so few go
through, and so many go back. The answer might very well
be that the full implications and the deep significance
of what it MEANS to be a Christian are not
generally presented.