The Great Transition From One Humanity to Another # 6

The New Testament: The Great Transition (continued)

The Climax of the Full Knowledge of Christ (continued)

I do not want to just go on with material. There is an application of this to us. I am convinced, I know it is true, that what the Lord is doing with so many of us is stripping us, stripping us of the things which we have taken on or we have gotten into; He is stripping them off and bringing us down to the place where it is the Lord Jesus or it is nothing! If the Lord Jesus fails, there is nothing to live for, and some of us have come to the place where we have said to the Lord, "Lord, if You are not going to come in and fill this place, please take us away: there is nothing more to live for." Is that exaggeration?

I believe the Lord is doing that with many of His people today, taking away their ministry, taking away the fellowship on which they rested so much, taking away the things, even the Christian things - their work, their preaching. When you start preaching there becomes a fascination about preaching; you get over that as you get older ... you say, "Lord, don't let me preach unless You're going to do the preaching." The Lord is doing that sort of thing, just stripping us, stripping us of things, even Christian things; and He is going to fill the place with HIMSELF.

Now is not that the real climax revealed?! Put it into these words of the Apostle Paul, "Till we all attain unto ..." what? Oh, what a pity our translators have not given us an exact translation! They have said, "until we all attain to ... the knowledge of the Son of God." NO! it is "to the full knowledge of the Son of God ... to the measure of the stature of ..." what? A Man. The climax of the knowledge of Christ, the full knowledge of Christ, is our attainment. And what is it? - a kind of a Man which is the reproduction of, if I may put it this way, Jesus Christ the Man. And so we are coming more and more to this - that it is only the Lord: it is Christ.

I am Christ's, Let the Name Suffice.
Oh, if only we have got a large enough apprehension of Him!

Well, now I am going to break off here, and if the Lord wills, continue from that point getting nearer to this tomorrow morning. With all this greatness of setting, of background, in which we are if we are in Christ, does not that very phrase open up to this conception of God's purpose that in Christ there is Another Humanity?!

This is what the Lord is doing with you, with me, making something different; oh, it is too slow, I know, for us. We do not seem to be making much progress that way, but He is undoing and He is adding.

But, what do we know? But, what do I know? Oh, I feel worse than ever I did in my life in myself. If it were not for Christ, I would not be here today. No, I would have gone out; I would not be here through all the stresses, all the strains, all the experiences, all the devastations, all those times when down in the dust I have simply said, "Lord, You have made a mistake. You ought never to have brought me into this position." It always seems like that in our experiences; but here we are. We have survived, and more than survived; we are here. And we believe we are here by the power of God in Jesus Christ. That we do know, and so we can say, "it is Christ, it is Christ, and it is a mighty Christ in our history."

Well, this is enough for this morning. See what He is doing?! May He show us that He has marvelous thoughts for what He has conceived - Humanity as His crown and His goal. Shall we pray ...

"Lord, we do beseech Thee, we entreat Thee, to open the eyes of our understanding. Do not let this be so much more talking, teaching - certainly not an end in itself. But Lord, bow us in Thy Presence. We know that the real discovery of whether we are in with Thee at this time will not just be in our attending the meetings; it will be in the prayer that is behind, outside of the meetings, in our rooms, in our hearts. Lead us, we pray Thee. Deep exercise about this matter of what Thou art working toward, and why Thou art dealing with us as Thou art. So help us, by Thy grace, in the Name of the Lord Jesus, Amen

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 7 - (Practical Devastation of Our Old Humanity)