Month: June 2021

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Seeing it Through

Soon after I published my last post, I came across this passage from a book by T. Austin-Sparks. It confirms and goes beyond what I was trying to say:

In the end it will be the End that judges our Christian life. And so it is the Holy Spirit’s work, His interest, concern, energy and activity; not only to bring people to the door and to get them inside the door, but to make them know that that door is but the opening of a Way, on the other side of the door everything lies. It is not the door alone, but it is what lies beyond the door, and that is this renewal, this making anew after the image of Him that created. The End governs: it is Christ in all that He signifies and means and stands for. It is that vast All that He is. “Christ is All, and in all” is the last clause. It is Christ in that fullness, which is more than our salvation, more than our initial salvation. The door is essential, but it is what it leads to that justifies going in it at all.

Christ Himself, when He was here, never failed to let people know that when they entered that door, or that straight and narrow way, they were in for trouble…. Now that may sound like a very terrible thing to say, especially to you young Christians who are not far inside the door, but be perfectly clear about it; the Lord Jesus never deceived anybody about this, never at all. He let people know that to “follow Him,” as He put it at that time, involved them in difficulty and suffering and persecution and trial and a lifelong thing. There is a cost here, a great cost. And we shall discover that while there are the compensations, for there are undoubtedly the compensations in this life, and the mighty compensations for eternity, this is a way which is not easy for the natural man by any means. This work of the Holy Spirit is drastic, exacting, and very trying to the flesh. Make no mistake about it; it will take all the energy that the Holy Spirit Himself has to accomplish this work. It really will. So the Lord Jesus has not left us in any doubt about this. (From God’s Supreme Interest in Man)

Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Way of our transformation and the End of our journey. The work of the Holy Spirit is to increase the measure of Christ in us. The life of Christ is incompatible with our fallen nature. As He increases, the influence of the old nature fades. This is transformation, and the Spirit is willing to spend whatever effort it takes to accomplish it. May we find encouragement in the assurance that all three Persons of the Trinity are intent on seeing us through.

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Learning Christ

As individual followers of Christ, we grow spiritually just as children grow physically, intellectually and emotionally. Little children are on the steepest part of the learning curve but at the same time they are the most limited in terms of participating in their own education. They learn primarily by observation. So also do we learn Christ. When we commit our lives to Him, we begin the life of the new creation. We are like infants toward Him. We learn who He is by spending time with Him and His people—people who display His life. That’s how we get to know His Father, too. As Jesus pointed out to Philip, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).

You might object, saying that we are learning by experience in addition to observation. It seems to me, however, that experience is observation, as we live with the aftermath of a decision. There is a saying among surgeons: “Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.” Of course, the sooner the consequence follows on the decision, the easier it is for us to make the connection between the two.

For my own part, I am coming to see how little I know Jesus Christ and His ways. I try to walk, only to stumble and fall. I recognize in myself a lack of His characteristics. But I keep getting up and going back to Him. I have decided that I want to know Him, and not merely know about Him. The knowledge that counts is the knowledge that enlarges and solidifies His life in me.

This fragment of a verse from Isaiah 30:15 has been before me: “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” These are the words of the Lord, originally addressed to the people of Israel, but now applicable to us. He asks us to keep turning to Him, to rest in Him, to calmly place our trust in Him—exclusively. These are the conditions under which we learn Christ. Then His life can grow in us in an organic way. Not all at once, but as a process that requires only our continuing consent. 

I am coming to understand that I can’t know Him apart from Him. That is, I can’t know Him apart from spending time in His presence, following Him and paying attention to Him. He alone has the words that give life. The work that He wants to do, in me and in you, is His work and the objective also is His. He is the end of the work of transformation, when His life is fully formed in us.

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