The Gospel of God Concerning His Son Jesus Christ Our Lord

by T. Austin-Sparks

Chapter 5 - The Power by Which God's End is Reached

"The gospel of God... concerning His Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead; Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 1:1,3-4).

"The exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to that working of the strength of His might which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and made Him to sit at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: and He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that fills all in all" (Eph. 1:19-23).

"For the perfecting (the making complete) of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ, till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Eph. 4:12-13).

Ezekiel 37

The power by which God's end is reached is the power of His resurrection. Dispensationally, or in point of application, Ezekiel, Romans and Ephesians represent two different things, or two different aspects of God's purpose. But the principle, the power, by which they are both brought to consummation, is the same. And one, while it has its own history of an appointed time and its own peculiar features, is an illustration of the other. That is, Ezekiel is an illustration of Ephesians, and Romans 1:4 sets forth the principle of both: "Declared the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead". Resurrection in Ezekiel 37 applies to Israel, resurrection in Ephesians applies to the church, but it is the same power in relation to both.

I am not going to speak much about the Israel side of things dispensationally, but I am going to call your attention to the illustration that is given to us in the case of Israel and that which is so much greater than Israel - the church.

God has a fixed end, called His eternal purpose. God has to reach that end along certain lines. He cannot reach it mechanically or automatically. It requires that there shall be something of response, and, by response, a formation in those concerned. That formation is something which cannot be made by those concerned in their own resources; only the power of God working in them can produce that formation.

The Power of Resurrection Life

Now, in Ezekiel 37 we have a wonderful illustration of Ephesians 4 as working according to this principle of resurrection Life. Life is the key to everything. Life is God's mystic secret. Life is God's solution to every problem, and you have a terrible problem presented to you in Ezekiel 37. Take what it represents so far as Israel is concerned. The bones: very many, very dry, scattered throughout the whole valley, are as God sees Israel. The word there is "scattered among the nations", very dry. There is no doubt about it, the problem is, how shall all those scattered bones, those scattered members of the Israel body, be gathered out of all the nations, and be constituted a corporate whole with nourished, healthy flesh, covered, protected, a whole, standing up in strength, in might, and planted as one nation in their own land with the whole land in their possession, with one king, one shepherd? How shall it be?

There have been, in recent years, efforts made in that direction. It is a problem; you ask the statesmen who have been trying to solve it! You look at it today. To get Israel gathered out of all nations, to become a constituted nation, a nation to be reckoned with, healthy and strong and vital, in absolute oneness among themselves, in perfect fellowship, perfect articulation, and possessing their own land with their own government, their own king - that is a problem. That is a problem that will defeat all statesmanship, which will defy all the wit and wisdom and ingenuity of the best brains on this earth. God has that problem to deal with. How will He solve it?

Well, how it will work I cannot tell you, but I can tell you the secret, the law. It will be a new Life coming which will deal with the matter at every point, a new movement of Life from God, and things will happen. After all, God only has to breathe, and a universe will pass away and another universe will come in. That is the illustration. It is given especially for two reasons: one to indicate God's principle by which He realizes His purpose; the other to at least suggest what immense power is required to reach God's end and what superhuman power is demanded if God's full end is going to be reached and His purpose wholly realized.

We are ready now to pass to Ephesians, for while in one way Israel interests us and is a very important aspect of God's programme, we are called to that greater thing, the fuller purpose of God; indeed, to that which is peculiarly God's eternal purpose: a higher and greater thing concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, and our union with Him in the purposes of God for all coming ages. Unto that, one corporate man is essential, a man in unity, a man in strength, a man well-nourished. How will it be done? Well, Ephesians 1:19 gives the principle and the power. Ephesians 4 gives the result of its working.

The principle and the power is the power of His resurrection, and language is used there which we can now appreciate in view of the tremendous thing that has to be accomplished. "The exceeding greatness of His power". What has that power got to do? It has to raise from the dead, it has to carry through all realms of spiritual antagonism, it has to overcome all the difficulties and problems of articulation, of oneness, of fellowship, of up-building, of spiritual nourishment and spiritual health, and finally it has to land that body in the place of supreme pre-eminence with Christ, far above all. "The exceeding greatness of His power" is God's secret. It is Life that will do it. There is nothing which can withstand the power of His resurrection; there is nothing which is a match for the risen Life of the Lord Jesus.

You notice in Ezekiel the prophet says, "and when I prophesied there was an earthquake", and we are told in the gospel that when Jesus rose there was an earthquake and many of the dead came out of their graves and appeared to many in the city. I believe that the fact of the earthquake and the reference to it is just God's way of showing what a tremendous thing resurrection is. It will tear the very earth asunder, it will brush aside every obstruction. Life is a tremendous thing, even natural life, that is, life in the realm of nature. What it will do! How it will split the rocks! The tiny shoot, so apparently feeble, so delicate, a tiny shoot forcing its way up, breaking the crust of the earth, working into the crevice of a mighty rock and opening that crevice until you have got the size of a great tree between the two halves of that great rock! What is it that has done it? Just the quiet, secret, imperceptible action of life, life - that mighty force. It is not the shoot; it is the life in the shoot. It is not the thing itself, but it is the principle, and nothing can withstand it. A tremendous thing, is life!

But oh, this risen Life of Christ is immeasurably greater than natural life, and it is the secret and the solution of every problem that God has in this universe.

Unity by the Power of Resurrection

Now to come and be very practical. There is the problem of articulation - that is a medical phrase, of course [a joining or connecting together loosely to allow motion between parts] the problem of relatedness. That is, every bond in its right place, a perfect order, a perfect relatedness, something that expresses God's mind as to heavenly order and oneness. What a problem! How is that problem going to be solved? Well, you may attempt to solve it along many lines, but every time you attempt to solve the problem of fellowship, oneness, and relatedness from the outside, you are doomed to failure. It cannot be done. You may have your "fellowships" and find them the sphere of the greatest discord and disunity. You may have your fraternities, you may have all sorts of things by which you intend to solve the problem of discordant relationships, divisions, and so on, and they can never be solved from the outside. How will that wonderful unity of the faith - "till we all attain unto the unity of the faith" - come about?

There is only one way, but there is a way. It can be. What is true in the microcosm can be true in the whole. What is true in a small sphere can be true in the whole sphere. It is a question of Life, that is all. It will do it; new Life coming in from the Lord Himself. Oh beloved, if we pray for an accession of divine Life for the Body of Christ or for any company of the Lord's people, the answer to that prayer will be manifested in a new love, a new beautiful and glorious fellowship. The problem is always solved along the line of Life.

You can test it when the spiritual life of any individual gets low. What happens? Well, not only is that individual the most difficult person to get on with, but they are constantly making difficulties between other peoples' relationships. They are a menace to the fellowship of the Lord's people and they are a cause of division where division ought not to be. But when there is Life, full, free, unimpeded, the wonderful unifying factor drawing together (oh, it is blessed when the risen Lord is in the midst and we are all conscious of the Life which comes from Him!), we spontaneously flow together, our praise is one, our word is one. It is all oneness when the Life is triumphant.

God deals with the scatteredness by the principle of Life, resurrection Life, for that Life itself is one life and it is not an abstract thing. We never speak of Life as some abstract element. We have to speak of Life always in the terms of the Holy Spirit Himself who is the Spirit of Life, and He, the Spirit of Life, is one. His presence is manifested by Life. Life is the evidence of the Spirit's presence. He being present and being one Life means that all are made one when He fills all.

And so Ephesians is all one, "one Lord, one faith, one baptism", one Spirit, we are all baptized into one body, one new man, all constituted by the power of resurrection Life: oneness, each in its own place and each rightly related to the other. You cannot bring that about by any amount of organisation or outward effort, but it comes about spontaneously when the Spirit of Life has His way.

Growth by the Power of Resurrection Life

What about spiritual development? Oh, there is such a lack of real wholesome flesh! These bones are so bare. We are so thin, so undernourished, there is so little of that real mark of being well-nourished and fed, and built up, and in a healthy condition. The Lord's Body should not be like that. The Lord's thought for His people is fulness, is having all things and being in a position to help others, not always having to look after ourselves and hold everything, get everything, because we are so terribly needy. The Lord would have us enjoying His fulness and being in a flourishing state with flesh upon the bones - spiritual nourishment. How is it going to be?

Let me say this. It is not going to be by teaching. That is proved again and again. It is one of the tragedies, it is one of the heartbreaks to the teachers that you may teach, you may give for years of the richest and the fullest, you may impart the great revelation of Jesus Christ over any length of time, and that does not necessarily mean that those who receive it are growing spiritually and increasing with the increase of God. They may still, at the end of a long period of that, be spiritually very thin, scraggy and poor. They may still be like Pharaoh's lean kine spiritually. It is the tragedy, when there is so much teaching, that there is so little spiritual growth. What is the matter? Oh, we do not grow by teaching, we grow by Life! It needs Life in us to take hold of the truth and turn it to account.

That is the principle of the human body. We have in this body, this physical body, a life-stream, and when we take food into the body, that life-stream challenges that food, the lymph stream challenges the food that we take in and it says to that last meal, 'What have you got in you that is good?' It looks into it and enquires as to what is good in what we have just eaten and when it discovers that there is something good, it lays hold of it and it breaks it up and transmits it into living tissue, and if the food has little good in it and all the rest is rubbish, that lymph stream acts as a rejector and says, 'I have no use for you - pass on!' If the body is in health, it will pass on. But if the life is at low ebb, that useless food will become poison and kill and do us injury, but it is this life-stream within taking hold of that which has life in it and breaking it up and making living tissue of it.

The Word is given. There is Life in it, but it demands Life in you to turn it to your own up-building. You have to have the Life in you that lays hold and says, "What is there here that is good?" and use it for building up. It is Life that does it. Life is the secret of spiritual growth. The Spirit of Life in us knows what there is in the Word of God for us and would take hold of that and build us up inwardly by that. But supposing the Spirit in us is grieved or quenched because of our neglect of prayer, because of our neglect of the Word, or for some other reason, or a thousand reasons, the Life is at low ebb. Then we may receive all the teaching and it be to no profit. Life is the secret of nourishment and building up - not information, not teaching in itself. We need the teaching, as Ephesians 4 shows - pastors and teachers for the building up of the saints - yes, they are there for that, but there has got to be something in the saints as well.

Victory by the Power of Resurrection

Unity, spiritual growth, nourishment, building up. And you notice Ezekiel passes on that when this has happened, they stood up a mighty army. The figure has changed from one body - still one body, all the bones in position, nourished, covered - now the metaphor changes. A mighty army! You pass from Ephesians 4 to Ephesians 6: "Our wrestling is... against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenlies." What is the secret of overcoming? Well, what have you got to overcome, then you will know. What are these forces set upon, what is the nature of these forces? They are forces of death; they are set upon quenching the Life of the people of God. Oh, we know that. That is our experience every day. The spiritual life is a constant battle for Life, for spiritual Life, the Life which is triumphant, the Life which overcomes, the Life which puts down the enemy within and without, the Life which takes the ascendancy. The battle for Life! How are we going to overcome death? Only by Life. The secret then, God's secret of victory in the warfare, is Life. That has always proved the undoing of the enemy.

You see the history of things both ways, the history in the first Adam and the history in the Last Adam. The history in the first Adam: he chose the tree of the knowledge of good and evil instead of the tree of Life. Death came and that whole race was engulfed in death, and satan took the ascendancy as master of the race. The Lord Jesus meets all that realm in the power of Life, of a true, abiding, immovable relationship with the Father. That is Life, relationship with the fountain of Life, and never allowing any consideration whatever to come between and cut Him off from the Father. He is always holding that position - "the Father's will, not Mine, nothing for Me, but the Father" - and, maintaining that position which Adam forsook, He maintained the position of Life and satan was defeated all the way through.

That little clause in Romans 1:4 is very significant. "Declared the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." According to the spirit of holiness. You will see that the Revisers are correct in spelling 'spirit' there with a small 's'. It was that human spirit of Jesus; it was holy. And, maintaining a position of holiness, refusing all ground for the enemy and the enemy having no ground in Him, he was defeated. God found in Him a spirit of holiness and therefore He could raise Him from the dead. God has never yet raised to eternal life any unholy thing and never will. Resurrection demands a state of holiness - that is, this resurrection. I know there is a general resurrection, some unto damnation and some unto life: I am not speaking of that. But this resurrection unto life, unto glory, demands a state of holiness, and it was found in Him. A spirit of holiness. That is indicated in Ezekiel when the Lord says, "I will wash you with pure water from all your iniquity and open your graves". The principle is there. There has got to be the washing unto holiness for the purpose and values of resurrection. Here in the Lord Jesus death is conquered because of a holy state. Blessed be God, we know the washing, the power, of the precious Blood, by which the Life comes. That is another line, we will not go off on to that at the moment.

The point is that the Lord Jesus, the Last Adam, destroyed in Himself as well as outside of Himself all the power of satan and the power of death, and is therefore the resurrection and the Life. He is that, and so, as the risen One within us by the Spirit of Life, we have the secret of victory over the powers of death. I believe (and this is only a word for those who are on further and are knowing something of the deeper spiritual history) that what God is seeking to do in you and me is to bring about, by our own dying, our own passing out, such a measure of Christ in resurrection that satan is losing power where we are concerned. I believe that that is the issue for the church, that the church is not going just to be mechanically raised and put up there in the throne with Him, but in that company in the church, that Man-child company in the church, that overcomer company in the church, there will have been done something which has deprived satan of his power and the inherent power of resurrection will take it to the throne, and all satan's power of death will be vanquished in that as in Him.

The sharing of the throne is no mere objective thing; it is coming to a place of spiritual pre-eminence by something wrought within, and this may explain our conflicts with death, why we are often "in deaths" in a spiritual way, why it is that those who are going right on with God do know this battle of Life and death so much more acutely than others. Many will not understand that language. If you do not, do not worry, but it may be a word for some who do know. The Lord is destroying in us satan's ground of death by implanting and increasing the power of His resurrection. That means that we know, on the one side, death in order to know the power of resurrection. It is the secret of final triumph over all principalities and powers.

You have got that in Ephesians 1:19: "The exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to that working of the strength of His might which He wrought (energized) in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and made Him to sit at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion". It was resurrection Life that did that. Resurrection power put Him there. It will be exactly the same with the church. That power is to us-ward who believe to get us where Christ is, far above all, and that is for daily history.

Maybe you have got a problem, the problem of your place of business. It is all death, it is deadly. You feel that you live in a realm of active death. You wonder sometimes if ever you, as a child of God, can survive in that place of business where you have to work so many hours every day. It is sapping the life out of you. Well, "the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe". Do not think that if you got out of that into a place of 'full time service' that it would be quite alright, it would be all Life and you would escape from that terrible impact of death. Don't you imagine that. You might discover that you had gone from bad to worse. The more closely in touch with spiritual things you are, the more you meet the deadly power of the enemy. Oh yes, we know it is so, but how shall we survive, how shall we get through? Moreover, how shall we overcome? "The exceeding greatness of His power which is to us-ward who believe, according to that working of the strength of His might". Oh, the Greek language is so much more forceful than ours! As far as our English language will help us, it is this, "According to that energizing of the strength of His might which He energized in Christ when He raised Him from the dead". The exceeding greatness of God's energy! The Psalmist would say, "Selah! Amen!" The exceeding greatness of God's energy to us-ward who believe, for victory.

All the problems of the Body of Christ are solved along the line of Life. You cannot take a New Testament mould and set something according to that and call it "the church". The church only comes into being by Life, and it is only as people, having Life, who see because they have Life, that you can have a going on in perfect harmony. People who do not have Life do not see, and they are always a cause of friction, they are always discontented, they are always pointing out the faults; but, given the Life, you come together, you go on together, and you are built up in mutuality. Oh, the Lord make this a reality individually in our case, so far as we represent assemblies of His people, to us and through us together. And do let us take this matter of the life of God's people upon our hearts.

We should take Esther's position; when there is a great threat from the enemy to destroy the life of the people of God, we ought to go before the throne continually for the life of our people. We ought to resort unto Him who has it in His power to reverse the plan of the enemy, to overthrow it, even to engulf him in his own plan and bring the people of God to a good day and a sending of gifts - a ministry to others. Oh, let us take this place. There are many lonely children of God, isolated children of God, fighting a lonely battle, meeting the power of death alone and God only knows how real and desperate the battle is when you are alone. Let us take them on our hearts for Life, to minister Life to them, to support them in Life, and let us ever have this matter of Life as a primary one in view, because upon it depends everything.

If it is a costly way (and it will be a costly way in ourselves) it will be a costly way outside of ourselves, nevertheless it is worth it to the Lord and it means spiritual gain all along the line. Oh, my friends, let go, let go unto Life. You are holding tenaciously to some position which you have taken up, some conviction which you, you have come to. If you are doing that and it is a matter of your will and your position, you may be defeating all God's purpose. Is your position working more Life? Whatever it is, however deep and strong may be your conviction, however you may be able to support it even through Scripture, I ask you to test it by this infallible test: is it Life to the Body of Christ? Is it Life to you? Is it Life to your fellow-members, bringing spiritual Life, spiritual increase, or is it death? You can determine the rightness of your position by that. I say, let go if it is not Life.

May the Lord interpret His Word to us!