The Nature of the Christian Life # 5

A Talk to Young Christians on the Nature of the Christian Life


Led By the Spirit


Now, we have been constituted by the Holy Spirit according to a Divine and heavenly order, and the course of our Christian life should be one of getting further and further away from the old order (the old natural man). I believe that that is what is meant by the words here in this chapter: "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God" (v. 14). "Led by the Spirit of God." Now you may take hold o that and apply it to "leading" in many things. It may apply to being "led" about things; this is what we call "guidance". But, whatever it means for such guidance in particular matters, I believe the setting of these words demands a wider interpretation than that. You cannot lift these things out of their great context; and this is, as we have seen, a tremendous context - "from eternity to eternity."


You see, God started up something - that is the point that this chapter brings into view - He started up something, and swept down into the ages with that purpose, moving toward that great goal. And what was that goal? - conformity to the image of His Son!


Now, what is being "led by the Spirit"? Well, take the illustration of Israel. God came down into Egypt, into the dark world of their bondage and tyranny in Egypt: He came down with His great purpose; He took possession of them; and then He gave them the symbol and figure of the Holy Spirit in the Pillar of Cloud and Fire. Paul says: "They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud" (1 Corinthians 10:2). What was the pillar of cloud and fire given for? Well, it is an illustration. It is a type of the Holy Spirit. It was given to lead them into the Land of Promise, where God had intended them to be. That was the purpose for which He had come down into Egypt, and got hold of them, and pulled them out, and brought them into the Wilderness. The Spirit was ever moving ahead of them, in the Pillar, to get them into the Land.


That is being "led by the Spirit'. As the Lord said, speaking of His people: "Israel is my son ... Let my son go ..." (Exodus 4:22, 23) - "Now these are the sons of God, who are led by the Spirit of God". But what does it mean? It means that you are moving on, ever moving on in this way of the Spirit, in this leaving of the old order (the natural man) further and further behind, and getting nearer and nearer to the heavenly order. Now, if the Christian life is normal, this is true of the Christian life. This is not something abnormal; this is "the normal Christian life."  This is what is real about it - that the more you go on with the Lord, the less and less you find it possible to accept this world and to settle down here, and the further you seem to get away from it. Or it seems to get away from you. The things of the Lord get nearer and nearer, and more and more engrossing, taking up more and more of your life. You find that, whereas at one time, you could divide your time, you could spread it out over things, now you are more and more being absorbed - not obsessed, but absorbed in the things of the Lord; you have not time for other things.


Even your work - well, you go to work, you do your work, you give yourself to your work, you do it honestly ... but - but - the thing that has got a grip of you inside, is the Lord's interests - the Lord's interests! "Being let go", you go to your own people! (Acts 4:23); and they are the Lord's people. Is that not true? If you are going on with the Lord, oh, what you want is more and more of that which belongs to your own constitution, the heavenly order of things. That is what it means to be "led by the Spirit of God". Whatever "guidance by the Spirit" means in things, in details, this is what it means here in this great context: it means that the Spirit is leading us on nearer and nearer to the fullness of Christ. We can, of course, test our lives by that.


~T. Austin-Sparks~


(continued with # 6 - "Spiritual Qualification")