What It Means to be Filled with the Holy Spirit # 21

"Out of His Belly Shall Flow Rivers of Living Water" (continued)

The mighty power and glory of God was manifested when Christ raised Lazarus from the dead, and because of this, many of the Jews believed in Him. Nevertheless, the ultimate result of Lazarus being raised from the dead was the Cross, the Crucifixion of Christ. When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard what Jesus had done, they were greatly disturbed. They feared that all men would believe on Him and that they would loose their religious and political positions. So they called a council, and they decided that they must kill this Jesus as soon as possible. Now the instigator of this wicked gathering was satan himself. The raising of Lazarus from the dead brought the hostility of satan against Christ to a climax, for his evil claim to the power of death was threatened. Hence, through these religious leaders of the Jews, satan set his final strategy into motion, a strategy that would result in the crucifixion of Christ, a strategy that satan believed would place Christ under his power of death. The Word of God makes it quite clear that satan, the devil, had tried over and over again to stop The Christ, The Seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15), through the power of death - Abel, Joseph, Baby Moses, Israel at the Red Sea, David and his seed, the whole nation in Esther's time, etc.

So in a little town called Bethany, about one and three fourths miles from Jerusalem, the greatest battle of the ages was in process. He that is the Resurrection, and the Life, met him that had the power of death! And this battle would find both its end and triumph upon the Cross of Christ. Through the raising of Lazarus from the dead, God was revealing one of the greatest principles in His New Creation in Christ, Life out of death = Resurrection Life.

Therefore, as Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha, suffered under the throes of the power of death, Jesus said: "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby." Let us note the preposition, "for," in the phrase, "for the Glory of God"; because, in this instance, the word "for", has the underlying sense of "a sacrifice in behalf of". Therefore this sickness of Lazarus was not unto death, but it was a sacrifice in behalf of the Glory of God.

God did not cause Lazarus to be sick - this was the work of him that had the power of death, the devil. But God, through His Omniscient Foreknowledge, knew what would take place in that little village of Bethany, not many days before His Son would lay down His Life. And so, before He laid the foundation of the world, He planned that the sickness of Lazarus would not be unto death, it would not be a victory for him who had the power of death, but it would be for "the glory of God" in order that "the Son of God might be glorified thereby." Behind Lazarus' sickness was the glory of God's sacrifice of His Son - and through the sacrifice of His Son, through the Son laying down His Life for the Father and for ALL that His Father had purposed, the Son would be glorified - His Cross, His Resurrection, His Ascension would become an Eternal Living Reality!

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 22 - "Christ Glorified - The Holy Spirit Given")