Ministries of the Holy Spirit

THE ETERNAL PURPOSE

THE ETERNAL PURPOSE

By Watchman Nee

      We have spoken of the need of revelation, of faith and of consecration, if we are to live the normal Christian life. But unless we see the end God has in view we shall never clearly understand why these steps are necessary to lead us to that end. Before therefore we consider further the question of inward experience, let us first look at the great Divine goal before us.

      What is God's purpose in creation and what is His purpose in redemption? It may be summed up in two phrases, one from each of our two sections of Romans. It is: " The glory of God " (Romans 3. 23), and " The glory of the children of God " (Romans 8. 2 1).

      In Romans 3. 2 3 we read: "All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God ". God's purpose for man was glory, but sin thwarted that purpose by causing man to miss God's glory. When we think of sin we instinctively think of the judgment it brings ; we invariably associate it with condemnation and hell. Man's thought is always of the punishment that will come to him if he sins, but God's thought is always of the glory man will miss if he sins. The result of sin is that we forfeit God's glory: the result of redemption is that we are qualified again for glory. God's purpose in redemption is glory, glory, glory.

      FIRSTBORN AMONG MANY BRETHREN

      This consideration takes us forward into Romans chapter 8 where the topic is developed in verses 16 to 18 and again in verses 29 and 30. Paul says: " We are children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us-ward " (Romans 8. 16 18) ; and again : " Whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren: and whom he foreordained, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified" (Romans 8. 29, 30). What was God's objective? It was that His Son Jesus Christ might be the firstborn among many brethren, all of whom should be conformed to His image. How did God realise that objective? " Whom he justified, them he also glorified." God's purpose, then, in creation and redemption was to make Christ the firstborn Son among many glorified sons. That may perhaps at first convey very little to many of us, but let us look into it more carefully.

      In John 1. 14 we are told that the Lord Jesus was God's only begotten Son: " The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father)". That He was God's only begotten Son signifies that God had no other Son but this one. He was with the Father from all eternity. But, we are told, God was not satisfied that Christ should remain the only begotten Son; He wanted also to make Him His first begotten. How could an only begotten Son become a first begotten? The answer is simple: by the Father having more children. If you have but one son then he is the only begotten, but if thereafter you have other children then the only begotten becomes the first begotten.

      The Divine purpose in creation and redemption was that God should have many children. He wanted us, and could not be satisfied without us. Some time ago I called to see Mr. George Cutting, the writer of the wellknown tract Safety, Certainty and Enjoyment. When I was ushered into the presence of this old saint of ninetythree years, he took my hand in his and in a quiet, deliberate way he said: 'Brother, do you know, I cannot do without Him? And do you know, He cannot do without me?' Though I was with him for over an hour, his great age and physical frailty made any sustained conversation impossible. But what remains in my memory of that interview was his frequent repetition of these two questions: 'Brother, do you know, I cannot do without Him? And do you know, He cannot do without me?'

    In reading the story of the prodigal son most people are impressed with all the troubles the prodigal meets; they are occupied in thinking what a bad time he is having. But that is not the point of the parable. " My son ... was lost, and is found "-there is the heart of the story. It is not a question of what the son suffers but of what the Father loses. He is the sufferer ; He is the loser. A sheep is lost: whose is the loss? The shepherd's. A coin is lost: whose is the loss? The woman's. A son is lost: whose is the loss? The Father's. That is the lesson of Luke chapter 15.

      The Lord Jesus was the only begotten Son, and as the only begotten He had no brothers. But the Father sent the Son in order that the only begotten might also be the first begotten, and the beloved Son have many brethren. There you have the whole story of the Incarnation and the Cross; and there you have at the last the purpose of God fulfilled in His " bringing many sons unto glory." (Heb. 2. 10).

      In Romans 8. 29 we read of " many brethren "; in Hebrews 2. 10 of " many sons ". From the point of view of the Lord Jesus it is " brethren from the point of view of God the Father it is " sons Both words in this context convey the idea of maturity. God is seeking fullgrown sons ; but He does not stop even there. For He does not want His sons to live in a barn or a garage or a field; He wants them in His home; He wants them to share His glory. That is the explanation of Romans 8.30: "Whom he justified, them he also glorified." Sonship-the full expression of His Son-is God's goal in the many sons. How could He bring that about? By justifying them and then by glorifying them. In His dealings with them God will never stop short of that goal. He set Himself to have sons, and to have those sons, mature and responsible, with Him in glory. He made provision for the whole of Heaven to be peopled with glorified sons. That was His purpose in redemption. 

THE GRAIN OF WHEAT

      But how could God's only begotten Son become His first begotten? The method is explained in John 12. 24: " Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone ; but if it die, it beareth much fruit." Who was that grain? It was the Lord Jesus. In the whole universe God had only one 'grain of wheat'; He had no second grain. God put His one grain of wheat into the ground and it died, and in resurrection the only begotten grain became the first begotten grain, and from the one grain there have sprung many grains.

      In respect of His divinity the Lord Jesus remains uniquely " the only begotten Son of God ". Yet there is a sense in which, from the resurrection onward through all eternity, He is also the first begotten, and His life from that time is found in many brethren. For we who are born of the Spirit are made thereby " partakers of the divine nature " (2 Peter 1. 4), though not, mark you, as of ourselves but only, as we shall see in a moment, in dependence upon God and by virtue of our being' in Christ'. We have " received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God " (Rom. 8. 15, 16). It was by way of the Incarnation and the Cross that the Lord Jesus made this possible. Therein was the Father-heart of God satisfied, for in the Son's obedience unto death the Father has secured His many sons.

      The first and the twentieth chapters of John are in this respect most precious. In the beginning of his Gospel John tells us that Jesus was " the only begotten from the Father ". At the end of his Gospel he tells us how, after the Lord Jesus died and rose again, He said to Mary Magdalene, " Go unto my brethren, and say to them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and my God and your God " (John 20.17). Hitherto in this Gospel the Lord had spoken often of " the Father or of "my Father". Now, in resurrection, He adds, " . . and your Father ". It is the eldest Son, the first begotten, speaking. By His death and resurrection many brethren have been brought into God's family, and so, in the same verse He uses this very name for them: "My brethren ". " He is not ashamed to call them brethren " (Heb. 2. 11).

The Jealousy of God

The Jealousy of God 
by T. Austin-Sparks

"Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me" Ex. 20:5. 

"For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God" Ex. 34:14. 

"For Jehovah thy God is a devouring fire, a jealous God" Deut. 4:24. 

"So the angel that talked with me said unto me, Cry thou, saying, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy" Zech. 1:14. 

"And he said, I have been very jealous for Jehovah, the God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword: and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away" 1 Kings 19:10,14. 

"Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame" Song of Songs 8:6. 

"His disciples remembered that it was written, Zeal for thy house shall eat me up" John 2:17. 

"For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy: for I espoused you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ" 2 Cor. 11:2.

The Nature of the Jealousy

You will see from these passages that there is something of a paradox in relation to jealousy. On the one hand the very worst things are said about it. Jealousy is as cruel as the grave, and we know that the very worst things recorded in the Scriptures were done through jealousy. We are even informed that the Lord Jesus Himself was put to death through jealousy; that is, on the human side. And yet, on the other hand, it is shown to be a Divine attribute, one of the outstanding features of God: "The Lord thy God is a jealous God"; "the Lord, whose name is Jealous".

The only way in which to reconcile the two things is to understand what jealousy is. We only need to be quiet with the word for a few moments and we shall soon arrive at the nature of jealousy. Jealousy is the desire to be in absolute and undivided possession of an object, whether that object be a person, or a place, or a position. It is the desire that, in relation to that object, no one else shall have any part, but there shall be an unreserved monopoly. It may be as to the affections; it may be as to the esteem, the recognition, the adoration. It may be in any one of a great many directions that there is this desire to have everything and no one else to share. That is behind jealousy, so that if that object is shared, that position is shared, that recognition is shared, those affections are shared, that attention is shared, that consideration is shared, then jealousy arises, because someone else is receiving what the individual concerned desires to have all for himself or herself. That is the nature of jealousy.

On the Human Side No Individual has a Right to Monopoly

Now we can come immediately to the point, and, so far as men and women are concerned, so far as human beings are concerned in this creation, no individual has a right to a monopoly. The person does not exist who has unreserved and undivided rights as to objects, places, positions or any kind of interest. God did not create men for that purpose. The whole principle of the creation is that of fellowship, communion, intercourse, interchange, mutual participation, mutual recognition, and everything that spreads interest over the company rather than concentrates them upon the individual. That on the human side.

On the Divine Side 

God is the only Being Who has absolute right to undivided recognition and position.

God is the only one of Whom it can ever be said properly and rightly that He is a jealous God. His Name is Jealous; He is a jealous God! Why? Because all things are His by absolute right, and that distinguishes Him from all the rest of the creation, because He has the right to the absolute place of adoration, affection, consideration, and every other kind of attention and interest. Therefore, at root, jealousy is a tendency, at least, to take God's place. He is the only One Who has a right to be jealous.

We are not dealing with jealousy as a thing. We are for the moment defining it, in order to get to something that is more important than our talking about human faults and failings.

God's Place of Absoluteness in this Universe and in Our Lives

He created all things for Himself. Everything has its very being and existence by Him. Nothing would ever be, but for Him. Everything and everyone owes its very being to Him, and He stands, therefore, in the position of having the right, the absolute right, to pre­-eminent place - to have everything, to have undivided, unreserved place. The first sin in this universe was the sin of jealousy. From the first sin all the havoc in this universe has proceeded, and it is not just an objective thing. It is something which, like a poison, has entered into the very being of man, so that man's natural tendency is to draw to himself, to have for himself, to be an object of interest, of importance, of consideration, sometimes of adoration. All that is the working of an evil which takes away from God, draws away from God, puts God out of His place. And inasmuch as you or I seek place, position, reputation, or consideration, it may be just the working of that sinister thing.

The cross of the Lord Jesus is the scene of the blazing forth of the Divine jealousy. Divine jealousy is represented as a fire: "Our God is a consuming fire." Divine jealousy is not passive; it is a mighty burning; it must have; it will be; it will devour. The cross of the Lord Jesus is the scene of the work of that jealousy in its intense heat. It reveals how God must, and will, have everything. In the Old Testament it is defined by the whole burnt offering. The fire devours everything. The Lord Jesus is that matchless, universal, representative Person in which there is gathered up everything in this universe. That is saying a tremendous thing, a thing which we have not yet ranged or fathomed; that the whole universe is gathered up and centred in the Person of Jesus Christ. Heaven and earth and all therein bring back to God in the Person of Christ everything which has been taken away from God, everything which has challenged God's supreme position, God's utterness of right. It is all laid hold of in the Person of Jesus Christ; by Him and brought back to Him, in the cross. So that in the Person of the Lord Jesus, representatively, actually, and yet potentially, all things are restored to God. God, through the cross, possesses in Christ the place which has from eternity been His by absolute right. The battle of Calvary was the battle for God's rights in His universe, and those rights were secured through the cross in Christ.

Then what does the cross mean? We speak much about the cross. We say that we stand upon the ground of the cross. We proclaim the cross. Ours is the message of the cross. Do we really understand and recognise that the cross is the place where the Divine jealousy is at white heat, and to come to the cross means that there is nothing left to ourselves? Nothing whatever remains for us; no place, no position, no personal interests. The cross says: God is everything. To the very last ounce it is God's. Every kind of personal direction, desire for self is finished in the cross. Do we recognise then, that having taken the position with Christ crucified, two things must follow.

Firstly, or on the one hand, it is all of the Lord; and we shall be tested, tried, on that one single issue at every point of our lives. The Lord will touch us with the meaning of the cross at every point of these lives of ours, every position, every relationship, everything. No matter what has a place in our lives, He will touch that with the cross, and say: "Am I all there, or do you have some place there?" The cross means that. Those who accept the utter or even the fuller meaning of Calvary as a living reality will be brought into the sphere where the Divine jealousy operates and touches everything. God says: "Do I have absolute place?" That will be His interrogation on all matters. There is no place for anything or anyone (when the cross has been established) which divides with the Lord. The Lord has taken that position all along. His grace may make the operation of that position progressive, so that it does not apply practically all at once, but the Lord's position is that from the beginning. In the long run we shall be brought back to the utterness of God. God does not accept the partiality of our surrender, the dividedness of our consecration. He does not accept it. He never has. He never will. He may be bearing with it, so that we progressively come to the recognition of it and voluntarily accept it, but His position is utter from the beginning.

Secondly, or on the other hand, Divine jealousy is the very nature of hell. That is, the everlasting burnings are the activities of that jealousy, that consuming fire which is against us when, having been presented with the meaning of the cross, we do not accept it. If we come into the realm of Calvary, into the realm of the meaning of the cross, where the cross is not merely a doctrine, a theme, a teaching; not merely something objective, external, but where the cross is a living reality, where the cross is in the hands of the Holy Ghost, and not in the hands of man for application; when we come within the compass of the living activity of the cross and we are not yielding to that Divine jealousy so that God is having all, that Divine jealousy works as a fire against us and consumes. It is a terrible thing, as well as a glorious thing, to come within the compass of Holy Ghost activity in relation to the cross of the Lord Jesus.

Ananias and Sapphira are early illustrations of how terrible a thing it is. What was the principle? Why, that of God having everything! Calvary was an accomplished thing, the Holy Ghost had come on the ground of that utterness of God having everything in the cross. The Holy Spirit having His way in the hearts of those people simply meant that they were letting go all to the Lord, and then there came along a man and a woman who kept something back from the Lord; and thus, right in the presence of an activity in relation to the deepest meaning of Calvary, they held something for themselves, and they therefore denied the cross and came into collision with the Divine jealousy. The Divine jealousy was, on the one hand, bringing these into joy, into gladness, because of God having His place (and there is no more joyous life than when God has His full place - the Divine jealousy works out to great joy, great rest, great peace when it has its way), but to withstand it meant to be consumed. The Divine jealousy works for and it works against.

Go through the Scriptures with that thought. "I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion" (Zech. 1:14); "My jealousy shall burn as a fire." Let Babylon, let Chaldea, let anybody get in the way of that fire, and see what happens. God is for His people with a burning jealousy, and when His people are wholly for Him, that jealousy will stand at nothing for their defence, for their preservation. It is a great thing to stand with the burnings, where the burnings have you utterly. You have all the fury of His jealousy on your side when you are with Him on the ground of the cross. But you see, if that is not operating to have full, utter, complete place, then the burnings are against and not for.

The whole purpose of this little word is to seek to constrain to a recognition of the fact that the Holy Spirit is still as jealous for God's full rights, for God's full place. In other words, He is still as jealous for the practical operation of the meaning of the cross of the Lord Jesus as ever He was. The cross gathers up all that history: "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me". "Nothing, no one, in My place, or to divide My place with Me!" The cross gathers up all that, and settles it as an issue, and now we have to reckon with the cross of the Lord Jesus as in the hands of no lesser Person than the Holy Ghost Himself.

There are two sides to that. It works both ways in the Scriptures. In the Old Testament it worked historically. In the New Testament it worked spiritually: "For this cause many among you are sick and not a few die." Why? Because they violated the meaning of the cross! The Holy Spirit is looking after Christ's cross. That cross of Calvary is a thing of infinite regard in the eyes and the hands of the Holy Spirit. To come into touch with it is not to come into touch with a teaching. It is to come into touch with the burnings of God, the consuming fire.

I was very much impressed in reading through Hebrews 12 in the section of the chapter which says: "We are not come unto a mount... that burned with fire (and then all that terrible description of the voice and the thunder, and the stoning should even a beast touch the mount; a scene of terror, of destruction, of judgment and reproach) ...But ye are come unto mount Zion", and then all the superior blessedness of coming to what we do come to, and yet, the close of that is: "ye are come unto the heavenly Jerusalem... to the... church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven". And it concludes: "Wherefore... let us have grace whereby we may offer service, well-pleasing to God with reverence and awe: for our God is a consuming fire". It does not change the position. It only lifts it into a realm where it says that coming to Christ, and coming to Calvary, is even more than coming to Sinai, and it means greater responsibility, and not less. Grace does not put away responsibility: "Our God is a consuming fire. "

We can rejoice while we are working with the jealousy of God, because the jealousy of God is working for us. We can leave our case in the hands of Divine jealousy. He will look after our interests if we are wholly His. On the other hand, it does behove us to remember that a touch with Calvary, a touch with the cross, involves us in the utterest abandonment to the Lord, with nothing whatever that separates us from Him. We must not hold back, for to hold back is to find the jealousy, which would work for us, working against us. The Lord preserve us from that.

Edited and supplied by the Golden Candlestick Trust.

The Realm Of The Real

The Realm Of The Real

By Oswald Chambers

      'In your patience possess ye your souls.'
      Luke 21:19

      When a man is born again, there is not the same robustness in his thinking or reasoning for a time as formerly. We have to make an expression of the new life, to form the mind of Christ. "Acquire your soul with patience." Many of us prefer to stay at the threshold of the Christian life instead of going on to construct a soul in accordance with the new life God has put within. We fail because we are ignorant of the way we are made, we put things down to the devil instead of our own undisciplined natures. Think what we can be when we are roused!

      There are certain things we must not pray about - moods, for instance. Moods never go by praying, moods go by kicking. A mood nearly always has its seat in the physical condition, not in the moral. It is a continual effort not to listen to the moods which arise from a physical condition, never submit to them for a second. We have to take ourselves by the scruff of the neck and shake ourselves, and we will find that we can do what we said we could not. The curse with most of us is that we won't. The Christian life is one of incarnate spiritual pluck.

THE LORD OF ALL BEAUTY

THE LORD OF ALL BEAUTY

By A.W. Tozer

      Think with me about beauty-and about this matchless One who is the Lord of all beauty, our Savior! God has surely deposited something within our human beings that is capable of understanding and appreciating beauty - the love of harmonious forms, appreciation of colors and beautiful sounds. 

Brother, these are only the external counterparts of a deeper and more enduring beauty-that which we call moral beauty. It has been the uniqueness and the perfection of Christ's moral beauty that have charmed even those who claimed to be His enemies throughout the centuries of history. 

We do not have any record of Hitler saying anything against the moral perfection of Jesus. One of the great philosophers, Nietzsche, objected to Paul's theology of justification by faith, but he was strangely moved within himself by the perfection of moral beauty found in the life and character of Jesus, the Christ. We should thank God for the promise of heaven being the place of supreme beauty-and the One who is all-beautiful is there!

Deborah's Praise of Jael, the "Murderess"

Difficulties in the Bible: 11. Deborah's Praise of Jael, the "Murderess"

By Reuben Archer Torrey


It is frequently argued against the divine origin of the Bible that it defends and glorifies the treacherous murder of Sisera by Jael, and that any book that defends so violent and cruel and deceitful an action as this cannot have God for its author.

The very simple answer to this objection is that the Bible does not defend or glorify the action of Jael. The Bible records the act in all its details. It also records the fact that Deborah, the prophetess who judged Israel at that time (Judges 4:4), predicted that the Lord would sell Sisera into the hand of a woman (Judges 4:9). It also records the fact that Deborah and Barak, in their joyful song of praise to the Lord after their deliverance from the cruel oppression of Sisera did say: "Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent" (Judges 5:24). But it is nowhere hinted in the Bible account that Deborah and Barak were speaking by divine inspiration in this song of thanksgiving and praise. The Bible, by speaking of Deborah as a prophetess, no more endorses every action and every utterance of Deborah than it endorses every action and utterance of Balaam, of whom it likewise speaks as a "prophet" (2 Peter 2:16). In the very passage in which it speaks of Balaam as a prophet, it speaks about his being rebuked for his iniquities. It is not the teaching of the Bible that every utterance of every prophet is the inspired Word of God. On the contrary, the Bible teaches that a prophet may tell lies (1 Kings 13:11-18).

The Bible nowhere justifies Jael's action. It records the action. It records Deborah and Barak's praise of the action, but it nowhere endorses this praise. We are under no necessity, therefore, of trying to justify all the details of Jael's conduct, nor indeed of trying to justify her conduct at all.

But on the other hand, we must not unjustly judge Jael. We cannot judge her in the light of New Testament ethics, for she lived some 1,300 years before Christ. She lived in a cruel age. Furthermore, she had to deal with a cruel oppressor who was working ruin among the people. It was a time of war, and war not conducted according to modern ideas of war, and we must judge her in the light of the conditions in which she lived. But even if her conduct were absolutely without excuse, it does not in the least affect the proven fact of the divine origin of the Bible. For that Book makes absolutely no attempt to defend her conduct. It simply describes it.

Helping and Over-Helping

Making the Most of Life: Chapter 15 - Helping and Over-Helping

By J.R. Miller

         "As we meet and touch each day
         The many travellers on our way,
         Let every such brief contact be
         A glorious, helpful ministry;
         The contact of the soil and seed,
         Each giving to the other's need,
         Each helping on the other's best,
         And blessing each as well as blest."

      Even kindness may be overdone. One may be too gentle. Love may hold others back from duty, and thus may wreck destinies. We need to guard against meddling with God's discipline, softening the experience that he means to be hard, sheltering our friend from the wind that he intends to blow chillingly. All summer does not make a good zone to live in; we need autumn and winter to temper the heat, and keep vegetation from luxuriant overgrowth. The best thing we can do for others is not always to take their load or do their duty for them.

      Of course we are to be helpful to others. No aim should be put higher in our life-plans than that of personal helpfulness. The motto of the true Christian cannot be other than that of the Master: "Not to be ministered unto, but to minister." Even in the ambition to gather and retain wealth, the spirit of the desire must be, if we are Christians at all, that thereby we may become more helpful to others; that through, or by means of, our wealth, we may be enabled to do larger and greater good. Whatever gift, power, or possession we have that we do not seek to use in this way is not yet truly devoted to God. Fruit is the test of character, and the purpose of fruit is not to adorn the tree or vine, but to feed hunger. 

Whatever we are, whatever we have, is fruit, and must be held for the feeding of the hunger of others. Thus personal helpfulness is the aim of all truly consecrated life. In so far as we are living for ourselves, we are not Christians.

      Then there are many ways of helping others. Some people help us in material ways. It is a still higher kind of help which we get from those who minister to our mental needs, who write the books which charm, instruct, and entertain us. Mind is greater than body. Bread, and clothing, and furniture, and houses will not satisfy our intellectual cravings. There are those, however, who do help us in these loftier ranges. Music, poetry, and art minister both to our gratification and our culture. Good books bring to us inestimable benefits. They tell us of new worlds, and inspire us to conquer them. They show us lofty and noble ideals, and stimulate us to attain them. They make us larger, better, stronger. The help we get from books is incalculable.

      Yet the truest and best help any one can give to others is not in material things, but in ways that make them stronger and better. 

Money is good alms when money is really needed, but in comparison with the divine gifts of hope, friendship, courage, sympathy, and love, it is paltry and poor. Usually the help people need is not so much the lightening of their burden, as fresh strength to enable them to bear their burden, and stand up under it. The best thing we can do for another, some one has said, is not to make some things easy for him, but to make something of him.