Jesus Glorified - the Spirit Given

by T. Austin-Sparks

Chapter 2 - The Crisis and Process of Faith

Reading: Psalm 2.

(3) The Crisis and Process of the Spirit's Work

We have often said that in the Gospels we have the great truths which are afterward fully expounded. In the passage in John 7, "On the last great day of the feast Jesus stood and cried... he that believeth on Me out of him shall flow rivers of living water..."; there is the majestic truth in relation to Christ glorified and the Holy Spirit's coming brought to us in germ form. We need the whole Bible to give us the full value of a little fragment like this. We shall see that as we go on.

We have to seek to understand, by the enablement of the Lord, the Spirit, the basis and nature of the Holy Spirit's coming, and fulfilling His purpose bound up in a crisis and a process.

The Crisis and Process of Faith

The crisis is the crisis of the Cross. Faith in a crisis and a process, is the ground of the coming and operation of the Holy Spirit. It is faith engendered and then developed. The engendering of the faith is in a new birth, representing a tremendous crisis by which we are brought into oneness with God in all the fulness of His intention. The Holy Spirit then makes real and actual the fact that Jesus is the Author of faith (Heb. 12:2). Jesus glorified and the Holy Spirit coming because Jesus is glorified to engender or initiate faith, then by a process to perfect faith in relation to Jesus glorified.

Let us illustrate from the Old Testament. Genesis is the book of the foundation, so that great spiritual laws are represented by persons in that book.

Abel - The Cross

Abel stands at the portal of divine revelation. Cain tried to get on by ignoring the Cross, but found only judgement. If we are to get anywhere in the purpose of God, we have to come to the Cross, which means an end of everything of ourselves, where Christ becomes first and last, beginning and end; our only hope is Christ crucified, not just for the forgiveness of sins, but union with Christ in death to all that has come in through Adam. It is the end of the government of one personality and the beginning of the government of Another; the end of one spirit and the introducing of Another. The Cross is the crisis, "I have been crucified with Christ". The process follows, "I live by the faith of the Son of God". Faith is the basis and the issue of the Cross. Abel brings in the Cross as foundational to everything.

Abraham - Faith

Galatians 3 tells us that the promise was made unto Abraham, that in his seed all nations of the earth should be blest. And then we read, "that we might receive the promise which was made unto Abraham in Jesus Christ". The promise is the Holy Spirit given on the ground of faith. In Abraham faith had a crisis and was a process: "By faith Abram... went out not knowing whither..." (Heb. 11). It was the end, in the thought of God, of everything in one realm, and the beginning of something altogether new. "Unto a land that I will shew thee"; beyond sight, beyond grasp, lying in the direction of faith's venture upon God. Even when he got there it seemed a contradiction. Then it was a case of the development of faith all the way to the end of his life.

When Christ said, "He that believeth on Me...", He was universally rejected. It was a tremendous venture of faith to believe in the Lord Jesus. Abraham did no more than we can do: turned round, and faced the path of faith. The Author of faith takes things up at that point and we can begin to move. The Holy Spirit empties of all that is not faith, all that obstructs the way of faith. But the Lord never weakens without the intention to make us know His strength.

Isaac - Resurrection

He to whom the promise was made (Abraham) was found offering his only son in whom the promises were secured. Abraham believed that although he might slay his son, the promises would be fulfilled all the same; God was able to raise him, for He could not break His promise. The promises are secured in resurrection. The prospect of everything is Christ risen. If He does not rise, our faith is in vain. The first phase of our union with Christ is union in death. The next is union with Him in resurrection. And in resurrection union we inherit the promises. The death will be worked out, but so will the resurrection; every fresh experience of death issuing in a fresh experience of resurrection.

Jacob - Service

Jacob represents service. One half of Jacob's history is service in the ingenuity, wit, cunning, craftiness, and energy of the old man. Then he meets his crisis, and after that goes on a crutch for the rest of his life, and it is no more Jacob, but Israel. "He that believeth on Me, out of him shall flow rivers of living water". Service is Jesus glorified going on with His work by the Holy Spirit - not what we are doing, but what He is doing.

Joseph - Reigning

Everything from Abel to Jacob is gathered up in Joseph. Abel represents the Cross. Joseph knew death and burial in the dungeon. Abraham represents faith. In the dungeon, in the prison, it is marvellous how Joseph believed God. Isaac represents resurrection. Surely Joseph knew resurrection. Jacob represents service. Joseph's whole story is that he might be used to save life. The supreme feature of Joseph is that he was in the throne, glorified.

All this has to become true of us. There is a whole life, condition, nature, and order of things in us personally which has to be ended in a crisis, so that from that point we have to say, "I cannot!" There must be an acceptance of union in Christ's resurrection, as alive from the dead. Then we definitely repose faith in Him to see to the process, to work this out to its full and final end.