The Nature of the Christian Life # 2

(A Talk to Young Christians - part # 2)


The Gateway to the Christian Life


Chapter 8 presents to us the real nature of the life into which we have come. And I suppose it is one of the most elementary things, which you have heard and noted many times, that in this chapter there is one word that stands out - one word. One of the first things I did in Bible study, as a young fellow, was to underline the words in different chapters, to see how many times particular words occurred. When I got to this chapter, and underlined one particular word, I found that the chapter was simply smothered with this word. You are familiar with it: it is the word "Spirit". If you go through this chapter, you will see that there is really very little else left to talk about. It all springs from, centers in, and circles around this matter of the Spirit. It begins there: "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" (v. 2). We are now in, through the door; you see; we are in; and what we find here is what we may call -


The Life in the Spirit


We need to understand what kind of life that is, what it really means; because with it we come into the peculiar character of a dispensation that is altogether new. There have been other dispensations in the past - dispensations in the Old Testament - which we will not mention in particular.


But now those dispensations are past; one has followed the other, and the Old Testament, with all its different phases and stages, is closed. With the New Testament, a completely new age has been introduced, with a character all of its own, a character that never was before. You and I live in a period of time marked off by the coming of the Lord Jesus in the first place, and by the coming of the Lord Jesus again, which is a particular phase in the whole course of the ages, with its own peculiar aspect and character.


Now, the peculiar characteristic of this time in which you and I live, is that it is the dispensation of the Holy Spirit. I am sure you will agree with me that we do need to know what is the order of things, from God's standpoint, in the time in which we live. In the Old Testament, they had to learn that for themselves, as to their own times - what times they were living in. You and I have got to know this: what is the time we are living in? And the answer is that this is the age, or dispensation, of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has come; He has introduced a new order of things entirely; and, until we understand that order, we shall not make any progress in our Christian life. It is very necessary for us to understand that.


"Joined to the Lord"


In the first place, the effect of the Holy Spirit, simply but fundamentally, is that he joins us to Christ; He brings about a vital union with the Lord Jesus. "He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit" (1 Corinthians 6:17); it is a spiritual and INWARD union with the Lord Jesus. The words and language are, I know, so simple, and perhaps so well-known, that they may not grip you very forcefully, but out of this everything comes. You and I, if we are truly born again children of God, have got to know that, right inside of us, a union has been effected between Christ and ourselves, and ourselves and Christ; that we are joined to Christ. That union has been effected; we have been made one - one.


Now, you see, if you are one, you are not two! That seems quite obvious, of course; but there is more to it than it sounds. Very often, you know, we are two: even in the Christian life, the Lord is "that", and I am "this"! The Lord's way of illustrating this, you remember, is the marriage bond. Paul says: "The twain shall become one flesh. This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church" (Ephesians 5:31, 32). "One flesh". Now, if that union is what it ought to be, those two people are so one, that to separate them is to cut one person in two, and only leave two bits, two halves, and not a whole. That is the illustration of our union with Christ. We are not complete until we are united with Christ; our completeness is in union with Christ.


If we haven't got Christ with us, we are only half here. If we lose the Lord, we have torn our very person in two; we have torn ourselves asunder, or we have been torn asunder - that is the effect of it. You know that spiritually, although the division may not be ultimate and utter and final, we can - by disobedience, by playing with sin, by disobeying the Lord, bring about such an effect, so that we feel: Well, something has happened; the Lord is there and I am here, and we are not together. It is as though we have been torn in two, are not complete.


We could dwell much upon that. But, you see, that is the beginning of the Christian life; that is the very foundation and basis of the Christian life: We and Christ have been made one- one; not two - one! To divide, now, is not merely to walk away and have an independent life- it is to destroy your own identity, to tear your own spiritual personality in pieces; and that is how it is, if we get away from the Lord in any way.


So here, the very first thing we find about this life in the Spirit, is that  there has come about between us and Christ, and between Christ and ourselves, a oneness, which is not in any outward sense, but in a vital, inward reality. And, in greater or lesser degree, I am sure you know that that is quite true.




~T. Austin-Sparks~


(continued with # 3 - "The Witness of the Spirit")