The Works of the Spiritual Man # 6

Life On The Highest Plane

So one goes to the Bible itself to see if he can run down this "modern mind" that he may know where and how to classify it. He finds only two types of "mind" mentioned; "the mind of Christ" and "the carnal mind". In Phil. 2:5-11 he finds that "the mind of Christ "believes and accepts Christ as the eternal Son, the One who was equal with God because He was God; the incarnate Son who emptied Himself of His divine glory and humbled Himself by entering into this world through the virgin's womb, thus becoming Man; the crucified Son who in obedience to His Father's will went to the death of the Cross; the ascended Son who hath been exalted to the Father's right hand and given a name above every name; the kingly Son before whom every knee shall bow some day and every tongue shall confess that He is Jesus Christ the Lord. "The mind of Christ" cannot be "the modern mind" which denies and rejects in whole or in part these glorious truths concerning the Lord Jesus.

Then it must be "the carnal mind." But "the carnal mind" is as old as Eden. The only way we can discover whether the self-styled "modern mind" is really the antiquated "carnal mind" dressed in the disguise of twentieth century scholarship is to take its finger prints. That will be adequate proof. "Hath God said?" "Ye shall not surely die." "Ye shall be as gods." Doubt and disbelief of God's Word; denial of God's Word; and deification of man and man's intellect! No further evidence  is needed. This threefold finger print marks "the modern mind" as "the carnal mind" which is enmity toward God, and His arch antagonist. The Bible of the modern preacher is "another" Bible and not "the Word of God."

Such an appalling condition in the pulpit inevitably creates an equally appalling condition in the pew. The people in many churches today are starved; they are like the famine sufferers, having to live on shrubs, bark, husks and fodder. Probably the Church was never so perfectly organized as it is today, yet it is pitifully ineffective before its tremendous task. The apostasy in the pulpit has created dwindling congregations, doubting Christians and drifting churches. The Church has drifted so far back toward the world that ofttimes the boundary line between the two spheres is almost indiscernible. Worldly policies are resorted to in the conduct of the affairs of the Church; worldly methods are employed to attract people to attend its services; worldly entertainments are given them after they come. Whatsoever a church soweth, that shall it also reap. There is a tragic harvest of thoroughly worldly churches in Christendom today.

Let us come back to the individual Christian's responsibility for the kind of work he does as a member of the body of Christ. The works of every believer in Christ will be judged and he will receive or lose his reward according to the kind of work which he has done. If he has built a superstructure upon the foundation of the pure Gospel that is gold, silver and precious stones, then his work will abide. But, if he has fashioned the superstructure out of the wood, hay and stubble of "another gospel which is not the gospel" (Galatians 1:6-7) then his work will be burned. It will not stand the test of the fire of God's judgment.

1 Corinthians 3:11-15, "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ ... Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is ... If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire."

It is a terrifically solemn thought that in the work which we do we are either the tool of Christ or of satan and that in the message we give we are either the mouthpiece of Christ or of the devil.

Romans 6:13, "Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God."

Matthew 16:23, "But he turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me satan: thou art an offense unto me: for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men."

But there is no need for any Christian to be ignorant of the kind of work that abides nor will he have any excuse to present to Christ at the judgment seat if he does the kind that must be burned. God has given us the pattern in His Book and has bestowed upon us the power in His Spirit to accomplish our part in this blessed partnership. If we fail to do, it will be because we have failed to discern.

God's Work in this Age is Accomplished Through Supernatural Power

The works of the incarnate Son were supernatural and beyond the power of any man to accomplish in himself. Those who tried to copy or to counterfeit them failed miserably. yet He told His disciples that they were to do the same works and ever greater. It is truly a supernatural task which Christ gives the Christian to do. Bringing spiritually dead men to life and making them into the image of the Son of God is in deed and truth a task beyond human power.

John 14:12, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and even greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father."

In the last cause of this wonderful promise He gives a clue as to how they were to be empowered for such a work. "Because I go unto my Father." By His return to Heaven supernatural power to do supernatural tasks was to be transmitted  to them. Let us follow this clue until we find the secret.

After His crucifixion and resurrection and immediately preceding His ascension He gives to His disciples the commission in which He makes mention of this power. He tells them three things: first, that all power in Heaven and upon earth resides in Him; second, that they ill be endued with this power; third, that they will receive this power through the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

The crucified, risen, ascended, exalted Lord in whom dwells all power in Heaven and upon earth Himself lives in all the fullness of His supernatural power in the believer through the infilling and anointing of the Holy Spirit. Some one has tersely said, "Calvary creates the worker; Pentecost empowers him."

The disciples and apostles of the first century Church were equipped and energized to do "the greater works' by the limitless power of God through the fullness of the Holy Spirit (Acts 4:8; Acts 13:9; Romans 15:18-19; 1 Thess. 1:5).

The same power bestowed by the same Person is open to every disciple of the twentieth century Church for the accomplishment of the same God-given task. Is that power yours today? Have you been anointed by the Holy Spirit? Are you doing "the greater works"?

~Ruth Paxson~

(continued with # 1 - "The Relationships of the Spiritual Man")