The next thing to note is this: That while it was the Sovereign Act of God, as we said yesterday, Jesus Christ rose from His throne in glory and came right down to this man. It was therefore A SOVEREIGN ACT FROM HEAVEN. Yet at the same time there was something upon which God could act. There was something in this man which gave the Lord the ground for acting. It was not merit, but there was something there. What was that something? Now I ask every one of you here to take note of this, God had ground on which to act in this man because he was a man who meant business with God. You must remember that although Saul of Tarsus was doing the wrong thing, he was doing to according to the light of his conscience. He afterward said that he did it in ignorance, that he thought that he was doing God's service. And however darkened his mind was, and however wrong his conduct was, he was a man who meant business with God. In his ignorance, he was doing it for God. He thought that this was what God wanted. There is a sense in which he had a heart for God. And there was no mistake in that. His zeal, as he calls it, was very great for what he believed to be for the Lord. That was a ground upon which God could work.
Listen to this, brethren, those who are indifferent, and do not care very much, will never get very far with the Lord. If things do not matter very much, then the Lord does not matter very much. There is an Old Testament word which says, "To the upright Thou will show Thyself upright; to the pure Thou will show Thyself pure; but to the froward Thou will show Thyself froward." God is going to be to us what we are to Him. If we are indifferent, if we are careless, if we do not care very much, the Lord will not come to us in this way. If you look at the men and the women who had counted most for God, you will know that at the beginning there was a very serious crisis. What was the Lord doing? He was getting this ground of reality. He was testing them as to whether they wanted Him just for their own good and pleasure or whether they wanted Him for Himself.
A young man who had great wealth came to Jesus, and he said, "Good Master, what must I do that I may inherit eternal life?" And it looks as though Jesus played with him, first of all, He said, 'Why do you call Me good? There is only One that is good, and that is God.' There is a real test in that. Well, you know what is written in the law, "Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself." Still the Lord is drawing him out. And the young man said, "All this have I kept from my youth." All right then, we will bring it right to the test. Go, sell all that you have, give to the poor and come follow Me, come and follow Me without anything. Follow Me without a penny, follow Me without a reputation. Is eternal life more important to you than all that you can have in this world? And you see, the Lord had found the spot, "What must I do that I may inherit eternal life?" Why do you want eternal life? Are yo prepared to let go of everything in this world for eternal life? The young man dropped his head dropped his hands, turned quietly round and walked away. You see the point?
The Lord wants to know whether we really mean business. We shall get nothing unless we really do mean business with God. We may be wrong in our way of life. Our minds may be very blind and darkened, but even so we can mean business with God. And although it was a sovereign Act, yet the Lord had ground upon which He could work. That zeal, although it was misdirected, meant something to God. What is our attitude toward the Lord and the things of the Lord? Are we only half alive to this matter? Are we asleep? Or are we on full stretch, saying, "What the Lord wants for me I am going to have, if it can be had. No matter what it costs me, my heart is set upon what the Lord wants for my life." So we have considered the crisis behind this man, and we must leave it there this morning. And if the Lord wills, take it up from there tomorrow morning.
The Only True Emancipation From All Forms of Legalism Is To See Christ
(Read Galatians)
We continue with our consideration of this great fundamental question as to the true nature of this dispensation. The question being: Is Christianity a legal system or a spiritual movement from heaven? We have seen that this question became a very serious battleground right at the beginning. It was on this question that Stephen was martyred; and his great successor, the Apostle Paul, became the focal point of this battle. So with the Letter to the Galatians before us, we are seeking to see what the apostle had to say about this. In as much as he was made the very center of the controversy, we have to consider the apostle himself. So far, we have looked at the source of his apostleship. He said that it was not from men, nor from a man, but by revelation of Jesus Christ - an apostle of Jesus Christ and God the Father. Then we went on yesterday to consider the great crisis behind his apostleship.
This morning we are going to consider the constituting of his apostleship. We turn then to the Letter to the Galatians. Chapter one, and verse fifteen:
"When it was the good pleasure of God, Who separated me, even from my mother's womb, and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the nations". It was the good pleasure of God to reveal His Son in me.
And then the well known words in chapter two, and verse twenty:
"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith which is in the Son of God."
Now may I remind you that the thing of importance for us is that this spiritual experience of the Apostle Paul contain all the principles of this new dispensation. If we ask the question, "What is true Christianity?" Then the answer is found in the spiritual history of this man, the dispensation in which we live is founded upon these principles. So that which constitutes this dispensation is that which constituted the the apostleship of Paul. After emphatically stating that he did not receive it from men, not even from those who were apostles before him, he goes right to the heart of this matter, and he says, "It pleased God to reveal His Son in me." So this dispensation is founded upon an inward revelation of Jesus Christ. If you and I want to know what it is that we are supposed to be in, it is that.
Our true Christian life rests upon an inward revelation of God's Son. The Apostle Paul had come to see the immense significance of the Son of God. Here is a man who was absolutely intoxicated with Jesus Christ. In everything he saw Christ. And as we said yesterday, in this very short letter of Galatians, the name "Jesus Christ" occurs no fewer than forty-three times.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 6)
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