THE NATURAL AND THE SPIRITUAL
Christianity is a spiritual system, to be spiritually discerned by spiritual persons, 1 Cor 2: 15. It is, moreover, a heavenly and eternal system. A Christian is normally a spiritual person, born of the Spirit, indwelt by the Spirit, controlled by the Spirit. Our blessings are spiritual and therefore can only be known and enjoyed in the Spirit, Eph 2: 3. We live in the Spirit, John 20: 22; Rom 8: 2; Gal 5: 25. Our worship is spiritual, and must be in the power of the Spirit, John 4: 23, 24; Phil 3: 3; Eph 2: 18; 1 Pet 2: 5. Our testimony must be in the power of the Spirit, if it is to be living, John 7: 38, 39; 15: 26, 27; Acts 2: 4, 17, 18. Our power for walk is in the Spirit, Rom 8: 4; Gal 5: 25. Our links with God, with Christ, with one another, are spiritual, Rom 8: 9; 1 Cor 12: 13. Our fellowship is spiritual, 2 Cor 13: 14; Phil 2: 1. Even the body when raised up will be a spiritual body, 1 Cor 15: 44. All our blessings are in Christ, they are prepared and given to us in Him, and we are in Christ by receiving His Spirit. What is given to us in Christ we take possession of and enjoy in the Spirit; as to actual experimental possession, we have nothing except in the Spirit. We know nothing except as taught by the Spirit, 1 John 2: 27. Sonship is a spiritual privilege given us in Christ Jesus, but we only know and enjoy it in the Spirit, Rom 8: 14, 15; Gal 4: 6.
We have said that normally all Christians are spiritual, but actually many are not spiritual; many, alas, are like the saints at Corinth, of whom the apostle had to say, “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even unto babes in Christ”, 1 Cor 3: 1. Hence we need to see to it that we give place to the Spirit, allow Him to teach and control us, and carry on His work in us. This involves the constant disallowance of the flesh in every form, its lusts, its will, its energy. “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption”, Eph 4: 30. If the Spirit is grieved, we are as weak as other men, we have no power for anything except in the Spirit.
While in Christ we belong to this spiritual and heavenly system in which we shall live eternally; as long as we are on the earth in bodies of flesh and blood we still have links with that which is natural, in things which belong to this world and which belong to the first creation. This is recognised in the epistles in which the spiritual system is most fully developed, namely, Romans, Colossians and Ephesians. We still have our responsible life as men in this world, in which we are to be governed by the will of God and fulfil our righteous obligations to God, to our brethren, and toward all men. We are called upon to glorify God in our bodies. We are still in natural relationships which have been ordained of God, and therefore must be honoured. All these things belong to the first creation, and to this world. They do not belong to that other world. The children of this world marry and are given in marriage, but the sons of the resurrection are as the angels, they neither marry nor are given in marriage. In the spiritual system, in Christ, there is neither male nor female, all are one in Christ Jesus. It is a new creation in which these distinctions do not exist. All that is natural belongs to the time state, to this world. We shall carry none of these natural relationships over to the other side; when we pass out of this world we shall leave them all behind, but our spiritual relationships will abide for ever. The time is short, and we use the things of this world as lent to us for the time being; we cannot dispose of them as our own things, 1 Cor 7: 29, 31. Our own things belong to another sphere.
For the present it is our privilege to take up these natural relationships in the Lord, that is, in subjection to the Lord, and in dependence on His support. Wives are to be subject to their husbands in the Lord, children are to obey their parents in the Lord, servants are to obey and serve their masters as serving the Lord Christ, and whatsoever we do, we are to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. This is very far-reaching. Even marriage is to be taken up in the Lord, that is, subject to the will of the Lord, 1 Cor 7: 39. If we speak of doing this or that, we should say, “If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this or that”, Jas 4: 15.
It is evident that what is spiritual is infinitely greater and more important than that which is natural, and should therefore have the first place in our minds. It will abide when all that is natural will have passed away. Hence we must see to it that the spiritual has the first place with us, for naturally the tendency with us is to cultivate that which is natural. Often God has to come in by discipline to remove the things which hinder, and to make room for the things which are our true inheritance. How frequently we have seen that as the natural diminishes the spiritual increases. One might lose property, friends, and bodily health, and at the same time gain such an enlargement in the knowledge of God, in the appreciation of Christ and in the sense of the reality and value of the unseen and eternal things, that one becomes conscious of very real spiritual increase and of true happiness. “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day”, 2 Cor 4: 16.
From The Believer’s Friend vol 16 (1924)