We Beheld His Glory # 20

All Related to Christ Personally

Then a final word. The whole matter is related to Christ. Notice what He says here when the woman turns to talk about their temple, their worship, and the temple and worship of Jerusalem. He breaks in with on of His strong arrests and says: "Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father ... But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship him."

There are two things there to be recognized. The force of : "But the hour cometh, and now is..."; that, as He uses it, represents a change of history. That phrase means that the whole course of history takes another form. Jerusalem worship, Samaritan worship - they are ended, as such they are finished. Worship is neither here nor there on the old lines. "But the hour cometh, and now is ..." What hour? What is the nature of this hour? What is it that in this hour makes that change? In a word - Christ has come, and all the worship that ever was at Jerusalem with the whole system of that worship was all pointing to Him. The Temple? Yes He is the Temple. "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up ... he spake of the temple of his body." They thought He spake of the temple at Jerusalem. He was saying, in effect: That is the type, I am the Anti-type! Was there a priesthood? He is the High Priest! Were there sacrifices? He is the Lamb of God! Those sacrifices never took away sin. "Behold the lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." Every fragment of that worship was typical, pointing to something typified. That has come, He is here, and now from the external, formal, traditional you come into the true spiritual meaning of that by being spiritually united with Him by the indwelling Spirit.

The other thing clearly is this, that the true worshipers from this hour onward are not those who worship formally, but who are spiritual. The difference between formal and spiritual worship is tremendous. What He is saying is that a spiritual state is basic to real fellowship with the Father Who is a Spirit. A spiritual state! How is that spiritual state brought about? By the Holy Spirit being within. On what ground does he Holy Spirit come within? On the ground that we have taken our place in death and have been born from above.

That is only analyzing the law of eternal life. It is the fact of the indwelling Spirit; the nature of the indwelling Spirit; the result of the indwelling Spirit. The result of the indwelling Spirit is to make us spiritual in all our relationships with the Lord; to make us spiritual people; a spiritual state by reason of the Holy Spirit indwelling making everything now true. The traditional, the formal was not the eternal, it always lacked a sense of being eternal. If we are linked up with what is a traditional system of religion, however good it may be, we know there is a lack about it, if it is just that; but when we come by the Holy Spirit to know Him, Who is for us the Sanctuary of God, the One in Whom we meet the Father, we come to know Him spiritually by the Holy Spirit as our High Priest, as our Sacrifice, as our everything in relation to God; we have come into the truth because we have come by the Spirit:  "... in spirit and in truth." You can only know the truth by the Spirit, but when you know the Spirit, then you know the truth.

It may be that some know all about the traditional thing, the formal thing, and do not know the truth. What such need is eternal life. What is needed is the living experience of the Holy Spirit within making alive unto God.

Now it is a tremendous question, a tremendous issue, which is at stake for us. Really, have we eternal life? Do we know the activity and energy of eternal life? Many of us do know this. I hope that can be said of you; if not, well, the issue is tremendous. The Lord lead us by faith to receive the gift, the free gift of God, which is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 21 - "Walking in the Power of God")