THE PROGRESS OF A SOUL FROM LIGHT TO ITS PLACE IN TESTIMONY

^[p. 441] THE PROGRESS OF A SOUL FROM LIGHT TO ITS PLACE IN TESTIMONY

I think that it may be said that light and testimony are the two extremities in Christian progress and experience, though other things come in between. Nothing can be more certain than that we all began our Christian course by the reception of light — for the natural heart of man is all darkness in regard to God. The result of the reception of light is to bring us into the kingdom of God, under the sway of grace, with all its attendant blessings. By grace our wills are subdued, through the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and we are made conscious that, while man’s will brings in confusion, God’s will is good and perfect and acceptable. And thus we are brought in our souls to the apprehension of God’s glory, and learn the truth of the mystery, of our place in association with Christ, the object and centre of the glory, so that we are conscious of being a priestly company, as risen together with Christ — having boldness for entering the holiest; and then Christ assumes such complete possession of the heart, that, simply and without effort, we become vessels for God’s testimony — full of intelligence and love, we are filled unto all the fulness of God. I desire to show how Christ is necessary to every step of this blessed progress.

I may be pardoned for introducing here a word of caution in regard to expressions which are not uncommon — namely, ‘subjective’ and ‘objective’ truth, for they indicate a defective idea of what truth is. Truth is the expression of God and of His will; and hence may be explained as ‘that which may be known of God’; and nothing else is truth. Now this is evidently ‘objective’. The work of God may produce in us a reflection of Himself and of His will — but that,

^[p. 442] though true, is not truth — it is but a reflection of the truth; hence in speaking of the progress of souls one seeks to speak of Him on whom such progress is dependent, namely, of Christ — the true expression of God, and of His will as to us.

As we have already said, the starting-point for us is the revelation of God, and this we have fully in the death and resurrection of Christ. In the death of Christ we have the revelation of God in love and righteousness, removing that which had affected Himself, and made man obnoxious to Him — hence the rending of the veil. In the resurrection of Christ we see God breaking the power of all that which affects man, namely, death, the fear of judgment, and, connected with these, the power of the enemy of souls. The mind of man has to be brought into accord with what God has done, in the way of repentance toward God, as to the sin that affected Him, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Mediator, who is the means and expression of the salvation of God’s grace. Thus we are, so to speak, instinctively brought into the kingdom, under the moral sway of the Lord Jesus. We are in the light of the grace and power of God, and can appreciate His grace because it has been confirmed by His power, as in the case of the paralytic; his forgiveness was confirmed by the power that enabled him to take up his bed and walk. Now being in the light of grace, and justified in grace, we come readily under the sway of the One in whom God’s will has been revealed to us and in whom that will has been effected. It could not be otherwise than this — for there must necessarily be the consciousness that He claims, and is entitled to the allegiance of our hearts. They that live, live to Him who died for them and rose again; and thus we are brought experimentally under the sway and teaching of grace; we come under the nurture and discipline of the Lord; and the end and purpose of that is to set aside practically in us that which has in the cross been removed ^[p. 443] for God. Workings of will and their tendencies are exposed, so that in judging them we may be freed from their power, and in this way from all that exposes us to the influence or accusation of the enemy, and obscures our apprehension of God’s will.

We see thus the immense value and importance to us of the kingdom — the throne of grace. As our wills are practically subdued the will of God comes more distinctly into view as that which is good and acceptable and perfect; we rejoice in hope of the glory of God, and we become sensitive to the presence of the Spirit. Here we get the passage from death into life — from the mind of the flesh, which is death, to the mind of the Spirit, which is life and peace.

Now in coming to the will of God we discern by the Spirit’s teaching the place which Christ Himself has taken in connection with that will. That not simply was He to reconcile all things to God, but that it is “through himself”. He Himself is to be, as Man, the Head and centre of the system which is for God — He is the second Man — the beginning, the Firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the pre-eminence. Christ is now seen not only as Lord but as Head, that is, as on our side, as identified with saints. And now it is not, as in the kingdom, the exercise of discipline to subdue our wills, but the working of divine affection in Christ towards those whom the Father has given to Him, that He may draw them close to Himself in the presence of the Father’s love. Thus we have reached the truth of the assembly — the Sanctifier and the sanctified are all of one, He is not ashamed to call them brethren. And here comes in the Father’s discipline, which has in view to confirm us in sonship, and to make us partakers of His holiness. There is the having put off the old man and put on the new.

But there is yet a point further — which is connected with the special place of glory which has been given to Christ, and the knowledge of the power that is toward us ^[p. 444] which has wrought in His resurrection. We have learnt the truth and reality of God’s love to us in Christ, and that, for the satisfaction of that love, He has, in Christ, given us a place together with Christ in heaven, in His own habitation, according to eternal counsel. The effect of this is that, having thus gone in to God, we come out from God to be here the expression of Christ, in the place of testimony; filled unto all the fulness of God. Now in the prayer in Ephesians 3, we learn how we are fitted morally for this. To be here as Christ’s body it is evident that we must be here in the Spirit of His Father, in the full and blessed light of the Father’s love and will. We are strengthened with all might (the might of affection) by the Spirit of the Father in the inner man — thus we become strong in the consciousness of the Father’s love, and the sovereignty and effectuality of that love; and the Christ, the supreme object of the Father’s counsels, dwells by faith in our hearts, so that we should be full of divinely given intelligence, both as to largeness and love; we are filled unto all the fulness of God. We have in our souls reached the place of the Church’s testimony here. The prayer of the Lord is realised “that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me”. It is in this way that grace works to the end that there may be glory to God in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages — and whatever may have been the defection of the Church, God’s purpose remains steadfast. May He fill our hearts with the light of it.