The Difference Between the Natural and the Spiritual
Natural capacity. Natural disposition. Natural ability. Natural direction. Natural energy. Natural courage. It is so evident that the coming of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost meant a change in this whole realm. Note that this was just the point at which things went astray. The Lord had "charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father" (Acts 1:4). Peter said: "I go a fishing." Jesus had said much about the coming Holy Spirit. Peter said "I," and they said "We." Very well, then, there can only be "nothing" along that line! This is the age of the Holy Spirit, and apart from His absolute government the story must be one of toil for nothing where the Church is concerned.
Peter seems to have had little capacity for the spiritual, he seems to have broken down at that point all along. See such instances as: "Lord, thou shalt never wash my feet"; "Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall never be unto thee"; etc. But this capacity came in a new and wonderful way with the Holy Spirit. The same was true on all the other points mentioned above.
The Lord turned this many-sided difference upon one point, both in the symbolic act and in a final word. The point was -
Absolute Subjection to the Lordship of Christ
All the natural grounds of assurance being exhausted - training, experience, facility, ability, the suitable season, etc. - the Lord issued a challenge. It was a critical moment. All natural arguments would have been naturally justified in flouting the suggestion.
But it may have been the last resort of a forlorn hope, or something in the tone and manner of the command they obeyed.
Peter ever stands out afterward as the man who, when Christ prevailed, moved into a new fullness in a new realm - I leave you to follow that out. He is the great example of the principle that subjection to Christ is the way of spiritual fullness. This was the lesson of the early morning - the new day. This was the Lord's meaning when He said: "Truly, truly, I say unto thee, When thou was young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not."
The Lord knew Peter - that there was, and always would be, that element in him of "thou wouldest" or "wouldest not," but that in progressive and final submission he should "glorify God."
In this Lordship of Christ two further factors existed.
One, the whole question of the nature and quality of his love for Christ. It is well known that in His threefold challenge to Peter (verses 15-17) the Lord used one word for love, while Peter used another and a lesser. We do not enlarge upon this, beyond pointing out that the quality of love is tested by our ability to let go to the Lord and empty ourselves of ourselves before Him.
The other thing is that -
Service Flows from Subjection and Love
The Lord had more than once sought to inculcate this principle with His disciples - notably in the feet-washing incident (chapter 12). It was the principle of His own coming and service. Through Paul it came out in its fullness (Phil. 2:5-8_. He, our Shepherd, laying down His life for the sheep. It was actuated, not by "fondness," but by "love." Not by protestations of love (as with Peter), but by proved and faithful - undenying - love.
This is the heart of this dialogue between the Master and the servant; the Chief Shepherd and the under-shepherd, in our chapter.
As we have said, it represents a change of disposition in Peter. Some thoughtful, patient and humble care is required to "feed my sheep," "feed my lambs," and impulsive, erratic, blustering hotheadedness will not do; neither will self-will and self-confidence.
So the "third time that Jesus was manifested to the disciples, after that he was risen ..." (verse 14) taught them the great principles of the new age of the Spirit into which they were entering:
1. Christ can, and must, be known only after the Spirit now, not after the flesh.
2. When we have become spiritual men and women by having received the Spirit, this is actually a more real way of knowing Him.
3. Working in the flesh from our own impulses; reactions or lapses from this heavenly resurrection position into natural efforts and energies, will result in "nothing."
4. The Lord, in mercy and grace, does not leave us finally in the despair of such failure, but even allows or orders the failure, to teach us the lesson that the way of abundant fullness is that of resurrection life and power.
5. The absolute Lordship of Christ is the supreme and inclusive law of life and service in this age, involving our utter submission.
6. That law may mean work for which we are not naturally qualified, or to which we are not temperamentally disposed, but for which ability comes by the fullness of the Spirit.
7. Although the situation is so strange and mysterious to all our natural makeup, and we need new and other capacities, yet it is more potent, fruitful and permanent than all that we could do on the level of human natural abilities.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 76 - "A Retrospect")
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