Is Christianity A Legal System? # 17

The Matter Which Is Of Supreme Importance Is: "Christ Fully Formed In You"

Now we have to hurry to a close. We come back to Galatians four, and verse nineteen, because this gathers up everything. What was it that Paul was working for? What had he given his life for? What was he suffering for? What was he so troubled about with these Galatians? You can rule out a whole number of things, and you can say it was not that, and it was not that. He said, "I am again in travail until Christ be fully formed in you." When he uses the word "again," that is, a second time. He means that I was in travail for your new birth. 'It cost me a great deal of suffering and pain to see you truly born again. It meant a great deal to me to see that Christ was really planted in you. Your new birth was a travail to me. But now I am having to go through it all again.'

My real object was not just to get Christ into you, my real object was that Christ should be fully formed in you, that Christ would grow up in you and you should grow up in Christ. And so I am today in travail again because you stopped. You are putting others things in the place of Christ. You are putting "form" in the place of Christ. You are putting mere teaching in the place of Christ. You are putting law in the place of Christ. You are putting a legal system in the place of Christ. Paul says that just throws me into agony.

I am going to apply that to ourselves. If we are suffering at all, what are we suffering for? If as in the case of Paul we have enemies, those who are against us, and who are working against us, why are we suffering? What is the nature of our suffering? Is it because of something personal? Are they working against us? Is it because of some piece of work for which we are jealous? Is it for some place in which we are interested? And against our way of going on? Is it any of these things? Is that why we are suffering? I say, the Lord deliver us from all of that! The only real and true reason for any spiritual suffering is that Christ is being hindered. We see that these things limit the Lord. They dishonor the Lord. And they will cause spiritual limitation. They are against the enlargement of Christ in us. All our suffering ought to be for the sake of the Lord Jesus, and not for anything else, "Until Christ be fully formed." That is the last word I am going to leave with you for this time.

I know something about your troubles. And I know something about the cause of your troubles. But I am going to bring it back here. Are you and I in travail over things, or for the full formation of Christ? Is all our suffering in our hearts related to the increase of the Lord Jesus? Is it that He may have His fullest place? Is it that He shall be fully formed in us? Have we, therefore, got this true kind of travail - not travail for something, but travail for Christ? I ask you a question, if you are suffering at all, and you ought to be suffering, what are you suffering for? Is your genuine concern for the honor and glory of the Lord Jesus? Is it that in every one of  these believers, from the children, to the young men and women, to the grown up people, that in every one of them, Christ should have a full place? Are we travailing in pain for that?

So all that we have said this week about these contrasts: Legalism and spirituality, Judaism and Christianity, all these other differences, they focus down upon this one question: THE FULL FORMATION OF CHRIST. How far does legalism limit the growth of Christ in us? How far does our technique get in the way of Christ? It is all a matter of Christ.

So I leave that question with you. I leave that emphasis with you. Now when I go away from you, the one thing that I want to be sure of is that I preached Christ to you, that I was not just giving you Bible teaching. And I was not trying to put you right on the technique of the Church, or the churches. But I was keeping Christ always in full view, and telling you that the matter which is of supreme importance is: CHRIST FULLY FORMED IN YOU - CHRIST FULLY FORMED IN US!"


A Sword Shall Pierce Through Thy Own Soul"

Will you please turn to the Gospel by Luke, chapter two, verse twenty-five.

"And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon."

And verse thirty-five,

"Yea and a sword shall pierce through thine own soul; that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed."

I want to add verse thirty-four to that verse thirty-five,

"This Child is set for a sign which is spoken against." "Yea and a sword shall pierce through thine own soul; that thought out of many hearts may be revealed."

Now turn to the last chapter of the Book of the Acts, chapter twenty-eight, and verse twenty-two,

"But we desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest; for as concerning this sect, it is known to us that everywhere it is spoken against." "This Child is set for a sign which is spoken against." "Concerning this sect, it is known to us, that everywhere it is spoken against"

We do not worship or pray to Mary, the mother of Jesus. We do not ask things from her as though she were God. We do not put her alongside of the Divine Trinity. But we do honor her. We give her respect and honor because of the great service which she rendered unto God. And we find some real help from some of the things which have come to us through her. Some of the things which were said to her by an angel, by Simeon, by others, have very real value in them for us. Some of these helpful things are in the Word which we have read; in the prophecy of this old man Simeon. And we shall this morning seek to draw from what he said about some of the helpful implications.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 18)