6. Vital and Organic
Union
"Every one...
that doeth righteousness is begotten of him" (1 John
2:29).
"...Who were
born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of
the will of man, but of God" (1 John 1:13).
"Of his own
will he brought us forth [begat he us, A.V.] by the word
of truth" (James 1:18).
"Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born anew, he
cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3).
And of course the whole of John 15 should be placed
there. "I am the true vine, and my Father is the
husbandman. Every branch in me..." and so on.
"As newborn
babes, long for the spiritual milk which is without
guile, that ye may grow thereby unto salvation" (1
Peter 2:2).
"...But
speaking truth in love, may grow up in all things into
him, who is the head, even Christ" (Ephesians 4:15).
There will be no new
profundities of truth delved into in what follows, and to
many it will perhaps seem like coming back to the most
elementary things, the very beginnings, of the Christian
life, but I feel that it is very necessary for us to take
nothing for granted. We who may know these things, and
may have known them for a long time, will be the better
for constant refresher courses in such matters, to help
us to remember these basic truths and basic laws of our
life and growth. There being such a large proportion of
younger people among our readers, who are undoubtedly
seeking the way of the quickest entrance into spiritual
fullness, who are concerned to get on in the spiritual
life just as quickly as possible, I think this word may
prove helpful to them. At least it will be a re-emphasis
upon things which it is so necessary always to keep in
mind.
The
Seed-Principle
Now the principle of
being and growing is life. The means and method of being
and growing is a seed, with life in it, in which the
whole organism of its kind exists. That is, indeed, the
principle upon which God has constructed the greater part
of his animate creation. It is not a machine - it is an
organism. It is not made to run and go by artificial
means or external energies. Of course, it requires food
from outside, but it must have life in order to feed. It
is sustained by life in itself. The seed of every species
has, within itself, all that characterizes the particular
organism. The particular nature of that species, its
shape, its size, its color, its form, its features, its
capacities, are all there in the seed where the life is.
Of course, that is the wonder of nature. It is an amazing
thing: just a seed with its tiny germ of life in it, and
then, when grown, developed and in full expression,
coming true to type in all its features. It is a
marvelous thing. That is God's method of being and
growing. It is all there.
(a)
Begetting
We have read passages
in which the word "begotten" is used concerning
certain people, a certain type of creation,
"begotten of God." The seed, the fertilizing
principle, is the Word of God, and the life is the Spirit
of God, who is the Spirit of life. Within the Word of God
- of course specifically within the Word of truth in the
Scriptures, but in anything that God says, that really
comes from God to us - there are contained all the
wonderful possibilities, potentialities, of what is of
God, of what is like God, of God's nature, of God's mind,
of God's features, of all the dimensions to which God
would bring a life; the very shape of the life which God
would produce. It is all there when God speaks. When God
says something, and His Word falls into suitable ground
and has that corresponding answer of fertilizing faith,
it is all potentially there. (You will remember that it
was said of some that the Word spoken profited them
nothing, not being mingled with faith in them that heard
it (Heb. 4:2), so that there was no begetting. There are
always two sides to this matter, but we are not going to
be too detailed and analytical. Some things will have to
be taken for granted.) But when God says something and
sees in us a response, an answer back to God, all that
wonderful fullness of Divine meaning, intention,
possibility, kind, order, shape, size and everything
else, is there in what God has said. Something has
happened and wonderful possibilities exist. It is
possible, of course, for God to come with His Word, with
all the mighty potentialities of begetting, and for
nothing to happen because of our attitude, but, given the
response, given the counterpart of faith, and anything
within the compass of Divine intention and conception is
possible.
Now I am stressing this
very much because I feel that we have become too familiar
with hearing the truth of God. So often nothing happens.
We have not sufficiently recognized the tremendous things
that are bound up with the Lord speaking to us. If the
Lord has said anything to you, be very careful that you
give heed, that you do not let that go, that you do not
despise that. God does not come for nothing with such an
object in view, and with such tremendous possibilities;
He is not playing with us. It is the most solemn as well
as the most glorious thing, in possibility and prospect,
if, and when, the Lord speaks to us. Do believe that. You
see, within His speaking, within His Word, there is all
the possibility of God coming into expression.
I have illustrated this
before in days gone by by the seed merchant who has a
double window to his shop. On one side of the door, he
has the seeds and the bulbs to look at - very
uninteresting-looking, unpromising things. There is
nothing attractive in their appearance; you do not want
to take out your artist's palette and make paintings of
seeds and bulbs. But, on the other side of his window, he
has the full flower - the flower fully developed in its
exquisite colors and wonderful form and he says,
"This is that; all this is in that."
That is the marvel of living things.
And when God speaks,
all that is of God is there in that speaking, and when
you and I get to glory and are glorified together with
Him, He will only say, "This is that. You gave heed
to something I said, and this is the result. I spoke to
you: you received, you obeyed, you gave diligence: well,
this is that - this is not something extra; it is just
that." Do believe, do remember, that the Lord is
constantly wanting to speak and to speak in the nature of
a begetting - the bringing into being of an organism
which is produced in heaven and has all heavenly features
in it.
But of course this is
in the power and custodianship of the Spirit of life. We
have to receive the Spirit; the Spirit has to be in us to
work out all these wonderful things in God's speaking. If
we have the Spirit of God within, as we should do, or if
the Spirit of God is accompanying the Word to us before
we have actually received Him within: if the Spirit of
God works upon that Word, then the purpose of God is
realized. For us as Christians, it is most important that
when we hear what God has to say we should be in the
Spirit. It is most important that, when you go to
meetings, if God should speak, you should be in the
Spirit. You should take every measure to see that you are
in the Spirit, that there is nothing there hindering the
Spirit, nothing of which you know grieving the Spirit,
working against the Spirit of God; because nothing is
going to happen if that is so. With all the hearing,
nothing will happen. But, being in the Spirit, all the
mighty possibilities of God are taken up by the Spirit of
God to be made real.
In this begetting,
there may be a period of hidden activity, when we do not
know what is happening, and perhaps we cannot sense
anything happening; but God has spoken, and something has
happened: we have answered. For the moment, for the
time being, we do not know that anything is taking place,
but it will come to light. Presently there will be a
sensing that God has done something. That period may be
longer or shorter, but it will surely be known that God
has said something and God in saying something did something,
started something, and His work will be manifested,
something will be going on secretly. That is the meaning
of being "begotten of God."
(b)
Birth
That leads us, of
course, to the next step. Many people have confused these
two things - begetting and birth. They are not the same,
either in nature or in grace. Birth - what is birth?
Birth is the point at which manifestation begins, when
what God has been doing begins to show itself, comes out
into manifestation; life manifested now in some Divine
organism, a new life, a new order of things.
I wonder if you have
followed what I have been saying. You see, it is like
this so often in the early part of the Christian life.
God says something, and His Spirit is with us in the
saying, and we make a response. Then, for the moment, we
do not know that anything very much has happened. But
something has happened. Sooner or later - it may be very
soon, almost simultaneously with the act of God in us, or
it may be after a period of secret operation within, and
faith is being tested as to whether anything has happened
at all - something comes out, and we find that we just
cannot do what we did before, and we have now got to do
things we never did before, and our way of thinking and
speaking is becoming challenged and changed and
transformed. We find that some new order has come into
being, and it is making all the differences, and we are
able more and more clearly and definitely to draw the
line between what was and what is now, what we were and
what we are now. That is the course of the normal
Christian life: that this new thing has now begun to
manifest itself, and we are aware that something new has
been born, and we just cannot be what we were, we just
cannot do what we did; we are behaving in new ways;
something has come from another world; a new beginning
has been made. It is a new organism altogether. "If
any man is in Christ, there is a new creation" (2
Cor. 5:17).
The main point about a
constitution of a particular kind is that it begins to
manifest its kind. That is birth - something of a
particular kind. "Except one be born anew [or 'from
above'] he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John
3:3). The kingdom of God is a kind of order, a nature of
things; not just a sphere, a place, but how things are
done with God, in God's realm of things; what is fitting
to God's realm, suitable to God's realm; how things
happen and work in God's realm. And this new organism
shows the nature of what is born in God's realm. Well,
sometimes a little baby does act like a monkey, but
normally it acts like a human being! I mean, it conforms
to type. Some baby Christians act very strangely, but it
is not long before you begin to realize that they are of
another mold, everybody else begins to realize they are
of another order, a new kind of being has been brought
into manifestation, and now quite spontaneously they act
according to their species, a heavenly order. That is
being born from God - a manifestation of something, the
bringing to light of something. That is very elementary,
but it is testing.
(c)
Growth
And if that is true as
to the beginnings, then it must be true, increasingly
true, in the matter of growth, following begetting and
birth. Here a few quite simple but very vital things have
to be noted.
(1)
Christ Imparted
What is the principle
and the basis of the growth of this heavenly organism,
begotten of God, born from above? Well, the principle of
growth is, from beginning to end, Christ imparted. All
the Scriptures as the Word of God center in Christ. So is
the begetting, the birth and the growth, all related to
Christ. It is Christ imparted. Any ministry claiming to
be the Word of God, which does not center in Christ, will
not have God's effect. It is very important always to
keep Christ to the fore if you are going to have God's
ends reached: because from start to finish, initially,
progressively and finally, God's object is the imparting
of Christ - the imparting of Christ through the Word, by
teaching, and the Holy Spirit working upon the Word, upon
the teaching, concerning Christ.
It is
something more than information about Christ. It is a
ministration of Christ by the Spirit in the Word. I am
quite sure you have learned, one way or the other - that
is, negatively or positively, by failure or by success -
you have learned that if you neglect the Word of God, if
you neglect the ministry of the Word, your spiritual life
is going to fall away, your spiritual growth is going to
be stultified, arrested. If your Bible is kept to the
fore all the time - I do not mean that you are reading it
all day and night, but that it has the foremost place, so
that if you can by any means get some few minutes with
the Word of God you are after it - that is the way of
growth, the way of the Spirit, the way of spiritual
formation. Neglect the Word and neglect the ministry of
Christ, and you lose out spiritually.
That is
very elementary, but it is true. If Satan can raise up
any excuse for your Bible remaining closed and out of
hand, if he can fill your hands and your mind and your
time with anything to keep you from the Word of God or
from the ministry of the Word, he will do it. He is out
to cut clean across your growth spiritually, because it
is the increase of Christ. It is against the increase of
Christ that he is set.
Take that
quite solemnly. I say you prove it one way or the other.
We have all proved it. We know that if we lose the
ministration of the Word we lose our spiritual life.
Christ is ministered to us for growth. And what is true
of the Word is equally true of prayer: because, although
we make prayer nine-tenths a matter of trying to get the
Lord to serve our convenience, to be at hand just to give
us the things we want, the real meaning of prayer is that
we truly receive the Lord, we receive Christ. If we are
seeking Christ in prayer, prayer will have a wonderfully
refreshing, renewing, strengthening ministry. How often,
in the weariness, the terrible weariness, of the way,
when it seems impossible to drag on any farther, if we
just get away quietly for a few minutes with the Lord and
draw in prayer upon Him - "Lord, I need You, I need
strength, I need renewal" - how refreshed we are. It
is so. If only we would make prayer more a matter of a
ministry of Christ to us - not of asking for a lot of
things that will make our lives a bit easier and more
pleasant, but the increase of Christ -! The Holy Spirit
works on that, He responds to that. So then, growth is a
ministry of Christ through the Word - the teaching, the
instruction, the ministry - and through prayer.
(2)
Christ Assimilated
But then
there is something further. After you have taken your
meal, it may do you no good - it may do you a lot of
harm. Food is not everything. There is such a thing as
assimilation, and this is where the enemy usually scores.
If he cannot stop us from the one thing and the other,
the Word and the prayer, he will make frantic efforts to
break in here. We must therefore make sure that, whatever
has to be suspended for it, we do have at least a brief
time for dwelling on the impartation, dwelling on Christ,
dwelling on the Word.
That means
an inward attitude. If you take food, and you have not,
as it were, the right inward attitude toward that food,
it does not do you any good. There is a complaint which
has to do with what is called the pancreas, and if the
pancreas is not functioning properly the food does not
nourish the body. You can take as much as you like but it
does not do any good. You can eat and eat, but the food
does not profit the body. You need something to stimulate
or restore the function of the pancreas. You know what I
mean - this assimilation business, this inward attitude
that draws upon the Word, draws upon the Lord, that
dwells upon Him, just a few minutes perhaps in a day, but
a quiet time of assimilation. That is the way of growth.
You may come through eleven meetings of a conference, and
what a heap of stuff you get, and it may profit you not a
little bit. There is enough in one meeting to carry us a
very long time, to accomplish a very great deal of
spiritual growth and yet it may effect nothing at all.
What do you do about it? Do you lay hold inwardly? Is
your attitude, "I must have this! If this can help
my spiritual life and growth, I lay hold of this, I break
this up!" - do you take this attitude? It is
essential to growth. Growth is organic, it is vital.
(3)
Christ Known
And then,
in the third place, growth is by Christ known - what the
New Testament calls spiritual understanding. The Holy
Spirit, working through the Word, working through prayer,
working through our meditation, would bring us into an
intelligence concerning the Lord, so that we are able to
say, "Yes, I heard that, I received that; I have
laid hold of that, I have been exercised over that; but I
understand now, I see the meaning, the importance, the
value: I see." And there is a great deal connected
with spiritual understanding in our spiritual growth. You
know how true that is shown to be in the Word. Even one
who had seen so much, and been given so much; who could
say, "Well, coming to visions and revelations of the
Lord, I knew a man about fourteen years ago caught up
into heaven, shown unspeakable things not lawful for a
man to utter" (2 Cor. 12:1-4); even such a man, who
had had all that and much more, could say, as his life,
his course here, was coming to an end, "'that I may
know him' - that is still my ambition." It is growth
by knowledge.
And that
man wrote, as we know so well, to those who had some
fairly rich impartation of Divine ministry - for consider
how long Paul was at Ephesus. He said concerning his
ministry: "I shrank not from declaring unto you the
whole counsel of God" (Acts 20:27). What a lot he
had given those Ephesian believers! And yet he says, in
writing to them at last, toward the end: "I... cease
not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my
prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and
revelation in the knowledge of him" ("the full
knowledge of Him" is the word used); "having
the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know what
is the hope of his calling. what the riches of the glory
of his inheritance in the saints, and what the exceeding
greatness of his power to us-ward who believe" (Eph.
1:15-19). There is something in knowing, in seeing, in
understanding. It is the way of enlargement, the way of
growth.
Of course,
that is normal in a normal human being. We grow, and as
we grow our understanding increases, and as our
understanding increases so we grow. Spiritual
understanding works both ways. It is a grand thing to
find Christians, and even young Christians, who are
getting to know the Lord - not just living on addresses
and externalities, but themselves growing in the
knowledge of the Lord.
All this
is certainly vital union with Christ, and it is certainly
organic. It is a matter of life, and it is a way of life,
and it is all a matter of our union with our Lord. That
is what provides it, that is what provokes it, that is
what stimulates it, that is what begins it, that is what
maintains it, that is what completes it. So you may come
to John 15, and you have it all there, "In Me";
"abide in Me"; "in Me bear fruit";
"abide in Me, bear much fruit"; and so it goes
on. It is all "in Christ."