The Stewardship of the Mystery # 9

"The Manifestation of the Glory of God (continued)

The Purpose of the Ages (continued)

The fact which stands out clearly for us, and which is one of tremendous value, is that God intended that there should be ages, times, periods in which there should be an increasing revelation, manifestation, and apprehension of Himself. Perhaps it sounds speculative, but let us ask: Now what would have happened if the fall had never taken place? If man had survived his testing in the garden and had not broke down, what would have happened? I believe man would have grown, grown, grown in his apprehension and knowledge of God, grown in his personal expression of God. God would have thus secured a progressive, ever-developing expression of Himself and, seeing that God is what He is, there would have been no limit to this; it could have gone on through successive ages, with movements in this universe into ever greater fullnesses of God.

We are not speaking of individual man but of collective man. That is what God intends, and that is what will be. Bridge the gap. Get right across the whole gap that has been filled by the redemptive program, and take the matter up at the point where redemption is complete. Get back on to God's first level, triumphant over the enemy, and take things up there. What are you going to have? You are going to have a progressive, ever-growing expression of the fullness of God displayed in ages, in ever-widening circles of the revelation of God. It is not possible to comprehend the fullness of God. It will take eternity to express that.

All that fullness is in Christ; and our point at the moment is, how great is that fullness! What a Christ we have! It will take eternity to discover Christ. There is no small meaning about that statement. We recall the words of the Lord Jesus Himself: "...no one knoweth the Son, save the Father ..." That, of course, does not merely imply a question of identification, that no one knows Who Christ is except the Father. It signifies what Christ stands for in the history of this universe, all that He is in His position in it. I believe it is unto an understanding of that that the Lord is calling us. The Lord wants us to come to a new understanding and apprehension of His Son, Jesus Christ, and that apprehension is our way out, our way up, our way to fullness. This, is as we have said, came to be related to purpose, to Divine counsels concerning the universe, and man in particular.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 10 - (The Personification of The Divine Thought In A Being)