First, "IT PLEASED GOD TO REVEAL HIS SON IN ME." And then, I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me." In that Cross of Christ, one man, Saul of Tarsus, has gone out. The Cross has dismissed one kind of man. And the resurrection has brought in another kind of man; and that other kind of man is Christ. So Christ takes the place of Saul of Tarsus. This is foundational, the basis of this whole dispensation. What an immense difference if would make if we saw Christ as Paul saw Him; it is hard work for our imagination to do that.
Paul had come to see Who Jesus of Nazareth was. You remember that on the Damascus road, when he said, "Who art Thou, Lord?" Jesus answered, "I am Jesus of Nazareth." He did not say, "I am the eternal Son of God." He did not say, "I am God Who became incarnate." He said, "I AM JESUS OF NAZARETH." And Paul was on the ground, he was helpless and blind. The brightness of that glory had laid him to the earth, and the very first sensation that this man had was, "This glory, this power, Jesus of Nazareth? Jesus of Nazareth, all this?" I say it is very difficult for us to understand. You remember some of the things that Paul wrote later about Christ? When he wrote his letter to the Philippians, he spoke of Jesus as, "before times eternal, existing as equal with God." He said, "He was on equality with God." And then, when he wrote his letter to the Colossians, he gave a matchless picture of Christ. He says that, "He was before all things, and all things were created through Him, whether things in heaven, or things in earth, whether principality, or power: all things had been created by Him, and through Him, and in Him all things consist. It was the pleasure of the Father that in Him should all the fullness dwell." And that is Jesus of Nazareth. You see, Paul had come to see the significance of God's Son.
Now just think of that again: Existing on equality with God; the instrument and the heir of all creation by the will of the Father; all things being put into Him by the appointment of the Father; He had to have the preeminence in all things, and on and one. This was the One Whom Paul, or Saul of Tarsus, and his friends and his nation crucified. Persecuting and crucifying God manifest in the flesh. Persecuting and crucifying the One Who created all things. See how vast this One is! Now here is a little man who is crucifying Him! Can you enter into that? Can you realize at all what this man felt when he saw Who Jesus of Nazareth was? No wonder Paul wanted to be liberated from a system that could do that. Paul's whole being cried out, 'Let me be emancipated from a thing that can do that. Let me escape from a system that can do that.' No wonder this word "liberty" was such a big word with Paul. And no wonder Paul was so angry about this system. In this letter he says, "If we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other Gospel that that which we preached, let him be anathema." And he said it again. He said, "I repeat that." How angry he was! The Gospel was the Gospel of God concerning His Son. Nowhere in all his writings, with all that he had to meet, is Paul found to be so angry as in this letter. He seems to throw all discretion to the winds. He completely discards all compromise. And he says, "There can be no compromise with a system which can have this effect."
Legalism always crucifies Christ afresh. BECAUSE! legalism cuts out the greatest word in Christianity. The word over the door into true Christianity is the word: "GRACE." Legalism always wipes out "Grace", and puts in its place "LAW."
Grace is the chief word in the vocabulary of the Christian. Do you notice that where legalism reaches its fullest expression, it always puts the crucifix in the place of the empty tomb? The badge of the Christian is the empty tomb. That is "Life from the dead." The badge of legalism is a crucifix, "a dead Christ." Legalism always brings death, and the chief thing about Christ is resurrection. It is Life from the dead. This was something that Paul came to see when it pleased God to reveal His Son in him. And he said, let me get out of all this legalistic system. Jesus of Nazareth Whom we crucified is alive. He has been revealed alive in my heart.
The only true emancipation from all forms of legalism is to see Christ. Not all the forces in this world would have emancipated Saul of Tarsus from Judaism. The only thing that did was that seeing Jesus. And so, I repeat, the only thing that will emancipate us from all forms of dead legalism is to really see the Lord Jesus. And that would do it. It does not matter what you are bound by - a dead traditional Christianity, or any other kind of bondage. If you truly see the significance of the Lord Jesus, you will be emancipated. We must not go about telling people that they must come out of this or that. Whatever it may be, it is not our business to tell them they have got to come out of that and come into this. Let me emphasize that, that is not our business. If you do that sort of thing, you will only make matters very much worse. A great deal of mess and confusion always follows that sort of thing. Anyone who says, 'Now you must leave that and you must come into this is going to make trouble - trouble that will not glorify the Lord Jesus.'
The thing that will do it for anyone is to really see Jesus. It is not our business to preach the church in the first place. You hear what I have said? It is not our business to go about the world preaching the church. Whether it be the Church universal or the church local. We are NOT commissioned to go and preach that. We shall never know what the Church is until we have seen Jesus, because Jesus is the Church in corporate expression, or to put it another way, the Church is the corporate expression of Jesus. We can never understand what the Church is until we understand Who Jesus is. Otherwise, the Church for us will be something so small, so limited, so exclusive. Jesus is NOT like that. How great He is! How wonderful He is! Paul says: "The Church is the fullness of Him that filleth ALL in ALL."
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 7)
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