DUPLICATED and changed from book of same name, chapter 1.
It
pleased God
to reveal His Son in me, that I might
preach Him. (Gal.1:15,16)
1. Everything Tested by Inwardness
Since
Pauls day so very much of Christian activity has
been the furthering of a movement, the propagating of a
teaching, and the furthering of the interests of an
institution. It is not a movement, nor to establish
a movement in the Earth and to get followers, adherents,
members, support. It is not an institution, even
though we might call that institution the church. The
church has no existence in the thought of God apart from
the revelation of Jesus Christ, and it is judged
according to the measure in which Christ the Son of
Gods love is in evidence by its existence. It
is not a testimony, if by that you mean a specific form
of teaching, a systematized doctrine. No, it is not
a testimony. Let us be careful what we mean when we
speak about the testimony. We may have
in our minds some arrangement of truth, and that truth
couched in certain phraseology, form of words, and thus
speak about the testimony; it is not the
testimony in that sense. It is not a denomination,
and it is not a non-denomination, and it is
not an inter-denomination. It is not
Christianity. It is not the work
oh, we are always talking about the
work: How is the work getting on?
we are giving ourselves to the work, we are
interested in the work, we are out in the work. It
is not a mission. It is Christ!
That I might preach Him. If that
had remained central and preeminent all these horrible
disintegrating jealousies would never have had a
chance. All the wretched mess that exists in the
organization of Christianity today would never have come
about. It is because something specific in itself,
a movement, a mission, a teaching, a testimony, a
fellowship, has taken the place of Christ. People
have gone out to further that, to project that, to
establish that. It would not be confessed;
nevertheless it is true, that today it is not so much
Christ that is our work.
Now beloved, an inward revelation is the cure of all
that. Am I saying too hard a thing, too sweeping a
thing? The existence of all that represents the
absence of an adequate inward revelation of Christ.
If Christ the Son of Gods love is central and
supreme in the heart of the believer so much else goes
down, it must go down. Controversies with God will
divide, but those artificial things, those things
resultant from mans activity and his projecting of
himself, insinuating of himself into the interests of
God, those things cannot abide where there is an adequate
inward revelation of the Lord Jesus; they cannot
be. These two things are before us: one,
because of the revelation of Jesus Christ in our hearts
we have a passion for Him; on the other hand, because of
the absence of a
sufficient revelation of Christ in our hearts we are out
for other things which we would say are in His interests,
and for Him, but which can never, never satisfy
Gods heart. It is the satisfaction of the
heart of the Father, which is in view.
Beloved I am speaking about the individual. I am
not justified, and you are not justified, in claiming to
be Christians except in the measure in which Christ is
manifested in me, in you; and all the force and weight
and ingenuity of hell is out against that.
Believers have far more to provoke them to
un-Christ-likeness than anyone else in the world.
Believers have far more assaults to churn them up and to
make them betray Christ than anyone else. Hell is
dead set against the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Everything begins with this, the revelation of Jesus
Christ within.
2.
Christ - The Unifying Center and Object
As I have said before,
if we have any other interest that we are trying to
further, something that we call a testimony, perhaps
meaning by that a system of teaching, or a fellowship, or
a denomination, or the contrary, the opposite, any of
these things, well, the history will still be more
divisions, it is bound to be. If it is Christ, only
Christ, central and supreme, we have the answer to the
Devil; we have the secret of victory, we have the secret
of fellowship, we have the power of His
resurrection. Oh, how important it is for us to see
that the body represents His victory. The body is
His victory in the sense that it is the reversing of all
independence, and that independence of spirit or action
is a violation not only of the truth of the body of
Christ, but of the power of His resurrection.
3.
Our Place in Christs Supremacy
It is necessary to carry
the work of the cross to the full issue of Christs
absolute victory in the realm of all principality and
power, in the realm of the authority of darkness.
Forgiveness of sins is a great blessing, the atonement
for our sins is a great blessing, and to be saved from
hell at last and go to heaven is a great blessing.
We would not minimize them for a moment or take from the
greatness and grandeur of those things because of the
infinite cost with which they were purchased for us, but
I say again, it is necessary for us to carry the work of
Christ through to its full issue, and its full issue lies
in the realm of principalities and powers. It lies
in the realm of the authority of darkness, the
jurisdiction of darkness. That is important for the
sinner to know, that it is not only a matter of being
forgiven his sins and saved from sin, but that the sinner
should know that in salvation all the authority, the
jurisdiction of principalities and powers, of the
adversary, Satan himself, has been destroyed and broken,
and out of that jurisdiction, that authority, that
rightful hold of Satan, they have been rescued
rescued by Christ in His cross. It means that Satan
has no more power because he has no more right. His
power depends on his right, and his right is based upon
the state of things in our hearts, and the cross deals
with the state of things in our hearts and destroys or
removes the ground of his right, and breaks his power.
Carry it right through. Now all that is in Christ
for us. Christ in Himself embodies His supremacy
over the adversary because in Him there is no one of that
ground that that adversary must have upon which to encamp
and construct his rightful authority to hold in
bondage. In Christ there is no such ground; Christ
is in us when we believe and the authority of Satan is
broken because Christ is in us. Christ being in us
there is no ground for the jurisdiction of Satan.
To be delivered not only from sin (let me say it again)
but also from the authority of Satan is a tremendous
thing. Who shall lay anything to the charge
of Gods elect? It is God who justifies. Who
is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and
furthermore is also risen
(Rom.8:33,34). What is the value of that? The
accuser comes along and tries to lay a charge against
us. What is our ground of answer? Oh, our
ground of answer is this: It is Christ that
died, and is also risen. That is the way to answer
the accusation of the enemy. Christ has triumphed
over sin and over all the ground of Satans
authority. You and I can never meet the enemy in
ourselves. He would win the argument every time.
But if we present him with Christ, what can he do?
The prince of this world comes, and has nothing in
Me (John 14:30). These are the words of the
Lord Jesus Christ. What power does the devil
have? In Christs death and resurrection all
his power has been destroyed. Who shall lay
anything to the charge of Gods elect?
(Rom.8:33).
Christ in you, the hope of glory
(Col.1:27). Do you follow that? That is the
provision God has made, and if only we had a fuller,
readier apprehension of Christ we should find that to be
the way of victory. What is it that the Holy Spirit
works upon in order to make the victory in us
actual? It is not our struggles to be better.
The Holy Spirit never helps us in a struggle to be
better. We may struggle on forever, and die
struggling, and the Holy Spirit will not help us if that
is the way in which we think we are going to be either
saved or sanctified. What is it with which the Holy
Spirit will cooperate? It is our faith apprehension
and appropriation of Christ as our perfection, as our
salvation. Oh, you say, yes, but
we are sinful and there is so much wrong about us; are we
to close our eyes to our own faults and sins?
You are to open your eyes to Christ. Stop looking at
yourself and your own sin and get your eyes fixed upon
the Lord Jesus as perfection for you to God, and from God
to you, and as you take Him by faith Not
what I am, O Lord, but what thou art I
in myself am bad. In me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no
good thing, but Lord, You are my salvation, You are my
righteousness, You are my holiness, You are my
sanctification, I hold on to You for all that
the Holy Spirit makes that good to us. It is
our appreciation of Christ that is the Holy Spirits
ground of activity; that is the way of deliverance.