Called Unto Holiness # 21

Wrestlers For Christ

That wonderful Epistle to the Ephesians, in which we have the highest truth regarding the mutual relationship between Christ and the Christian, is divided very naturally and easily into three parts, and it follows the divine order:

The Wealth of the Christian
The Walk of the Christian
The Warfare of the Christian

In the first three chapters we have a revelation of the riches of Christ, the riches of His glory, the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ. They are the possession of the one who is in Him. Then, beginning with 4:1, and on through 6:9, we are given a revelation of the seven-fold walk of the Christian, who is to walk worthy of the high calling to which he has been called in Christ Jesus. It is in this part of the epistle that we have the greatest of all commands in the New Testament for the Christian: "Be filled with the Spirit," that experience of the Spirit-filled life, the greatest experience, the deepest experience that one can have this side of heaven.

The Call to Warfare

One would almost thing that that was the place to stop, but God does not think so. In 6:10 there is the word "Finally," and that word "finally" indicates not only the close, but the "climax" of the truth of the epistle. The Christian is not through yet. It is not enough for him to luxuriate in the life that is his as a child of God and an heir of God. It is not enough for him just to walk with the Lord worthily and consistently. The Christian has a task set before him, and that task is nothing short of warfare. When you enter chapter 6 at verse 10 and go on to verse 12, you are immediately on the battlefield; there is a real warfare begin waged. Who is so prepared for the warfare as the one who has entered into the fullness of his inheritance in Christ, as the one who is walking worthily and consistently with God, who has indeed been filled with the Holy Spirit? It is only such a one that God can trust to be a part of that great army under the captain of the host, going forth into this terrible spiritual warfare. So it is inevitable that this Epistle to the Ephesians should end on a battlefield.

We have heard messages revealing to us to clearly what are the unsearchable riches of Christ. I trust it means for every one of us that we have entered more fully and more perfectly into our inheritance in Christ Jesus, and that we shall go from here infinitely richer in Him than when we came. I trust it means, too, that as we have heard these messages from God's Word pointing out to us what is the consistent, upright walk of the Christian, that we have begun to walk more worthily. Then we came up to Thursday, to that day of climax in a way, when in one message after another, the message of the Spirit-filled life, a life lived in the power of the Holy Spirit, was presented in each successive gathering [Ms. Paxson was attending a conference]. The day ended with that glorious meeting where there were many who, for the first time, took the fullness of the Holy Spirit by faith. And others, who had had that fullness, but had lost it, came again into that precious experience.  On Friday and again yesterday there were set before us the great spiritual battlefields of the world, and the far-flung frontiers of the vast mission field. And we have just as big a battlefield here in the homeland; here also a spiritual warfare is going on. To whom will God look? To whom can He entrust this spiritual warfare? Is it not to us who have entered more fully into our wealth in Christ, who are going out to walk more worthy of Him? Are we prepared today to hear His call for spiritual wrestlers, spiritual warriors, for the great conflict of today and tomorrow? We have been witnesses for Him; we have been workers together with Him; but there is something even beyond that.

~Ruth Paxson~

(continued with # 22)