NEWS The Foundation of the Great Life
As I look back over the past couple of weeks at what I have posted on this blog, two themes are clearly present: One, the importance of brokenness and the Cross as a gateway to Christ via the Holy Spirit. The second theme is the significance and preeminence of Love, Light and Life in the Spiritual realm. Christ is Love, Light and Life.
Today, as I was meditating, I came across some wonderful material from T. Austin-Sparks' book, "The Centrality and Universality of the Cross," that amplifies the second theme. Love, Light and Life are intertwined with the Cross and Christ. Sparks' notes that Light is based upon Love. Light and Love are the foundation of Life - the foundation of Christ. Here is how Sparks put it:
"In the Letter to the Ephesians it is most impressively made clear that even
Light Is Based Upon Love
"Ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend..." (3:17-18).
Earlier in the letter we have these words: "having the eyes of your heart enlightened..." (1:18). Then what immense things follow as to be known by the Church! We do not dwell upon them, but upon this fact, that light, knowledge, is the fruit which springs from rooting in love. It would seem that God not only gives, but gives abundantly, spiritual knowledge to those whose main characteristic is love. Love for Him, yes! but love for His own and for all men.
"I love the Father" (John 14:31). "The Father loveth the Son and sheweth Him all things..." (John 5:20).
So Christ attributed His own knowing all things from the Father to mutual love between them. But Christ was the personal embodiment and manifestation of God's love for the elect and for the world (John 3:16; 17:23). (See also Eph. 5:25) John is known as the Apostle of love. What a wealth of spiritual light has come to us through him! Paul was behind no one in this matter of Divine love and has given us the classic of all time as to it (1 Cor. 13). What fullness and depths of revelation the Church owes to him!
A scientist may describe a tear in terms of water, salt, and mucus, but the mother or lover UNDERSTANDS it in terms of its real meaning. A head knowledge is no knowledge at all in spiritual values. Only the knowledge which comes through the heart - travail, suffering, longing, heart-break over souls, toward the Lord - is vital knowledge. How much of the wealth of knowledge possessed by John, Paul, and others came out of their heart travail for the Church? Take that out, and there is not much left.
Love Buildeth Up
"...The increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love" (Ephesians 4:16).
You might not have thought of that when considering the material for building the Church. Truth, yes! Teaching, yes! Knowledge, yes! But the Holy Spirit singles out love for the main emphasis. Ephesus evidently stood for something in the matter of spiritual values. The fact that the Holy Spirit was so unrestrained in giving such light, light exceeding anything else in the whole Bible, is a fairly good proof of capacity. How well we know that when we minister in the Spirit we have liberty or restraint governed by the spiritual capacity of our hearers. We would often go further, but we just cannot. It comes back at us. At other times or places we can go all the way. Paul was just caught away with superlatives which piled themselves one upon another when he wrote that letter. The longest sentence without a full period in the Bible is found there. He could not stop for the rules and regulations of punctuation. Surely the explanation of this release of the Lord is found in His address to Ephesus in the Revelation (2:4) "Thou didst leave thy first love." "Thy first love." There must have been something very precious to the Lord at the beginnings of the church in Ephesus. It is like the cry and sob of a broken-hearted lover, whose love moves into jealousy and heat against the detractor and the unfaithfulness. He sees the triumph of the "god of this world" in blinding the mind, and is angry with Ephesus for complicity with him. Well, much, very much, can be added on this matter, but enough! Remember that the way in which the Church will be built inwardly and outwardly will not be alone by meetings, conferences, addresses, teaching, nor by campaigns, but by the bathing of all in love, and sometimes just pure love without lectures.
But - and is it necessary to say it? - this love is the fruit of a deeply crucified life. It is only in a true and adequate apprehension and appreciation of the Cross that the heart is enlarged to ALL men. 'Love to the loveless.' It is only as the Cross has struck deeply at the roots of pride, personal interest, ambition, reputation, selfishness, and concern for something less than the whole purpose of God, that God will really build His Church. The Church is the Lamb's WIFE. It is a LOVE matter! These two are one. She takes her very object in life from Him. She leaves all personal and former interests and relationships, and they two become one flesh."
Source: The Centrality and Universality of the Cross
Light is based upon Love and Love builds up. God builds His church on a foundation of love and it is this love that produces light and life. How beautiful!
The love that guides those who have fallen on the stone and have been utterly broken is the fruit of a deeply crucified life. The love that guides a deeply crucified life is a love that never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8). Jesus showed us the way to God's heart - The Way. It is a narrow gate. Few find it. But it is there for all who are willing to let go and let God - to fall on the stone and be broken and crucified.
As I have noted before, crucifixion on the Cross leads to death of self/ego. Our wills - what we want - becomes irrelevant. God's will becomes our will.
God's will is for us to love - to love Him with all of our heart, mind and soul, and to love our neighbors and enemies (Matthew 5:43-44; 22:37-39).
God is love (1 John 4:8).
We can summarize everything we have been discussing over the past couple of weeks very simply:
Crucifixion via the Cross produces Love, Light and Life
Love produces Light
Light produces Life
Christ is Love, Light and Life
What God revealed through Jesus was a path directly to His heart of a love that never fails. The Spirit instructed us through Paul to imitate God and walk in love (Ephesians 5:1-2). We do this through crucifixion on the Cross.
Brokenness and crucifixion is a painful process. It is not easy! It takes time - sometimes a long, long time, depending on one's willingness to be utterly broken. As I have noted before, many people just flat out refuse to be broken. It has been and will always be about them and what they want. Hence, they never enter through the narrow gate and find the path to life.
However, if we are willing to fall on the stone and be broken, a miracle will occur. Our death will lead to a burial and a resurrection - we become new creations, born of the Spirit. As we die and our selves/egos become increasingly irrelevant, He increases. We begin to bear Spiritual fruit. The more He increases and the more we decrease the more fruit we bear. It is a direct correlation.
On the crucifixion side of the Cross lies the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control (Galatians 5:22-23). Christ is the true vine and His vine produces the sweetest fruit. The best of the best!
May you become a part of His vine via the Cross, and may you bear wonderful Spiritual fruit.
Agape,
Steve
Today, as I was meditating, I came across some wonderful material from T. Austin-Sparks' book, "The Centrality and Universality of the Cross," that amplifies the second theme. Love, Light and Life are intertwined with the Cross and Christ. Sparks' notes that Light is based upon Love. Light and Love are the foundation of Life - the foundation of Christ. Here is how Sparks put it:
"In the Letter to the Ephesians it is most impressively made clear that even
Light Is Based Upon Love
"Ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend..." (3:17-18).
Earlier in the letter we have these words: "having the eyes of your heart enlightened..." (1:18). Then what immense things follow as to be known by the Church! We do not dwell upon them, but upon this fact, that light, knowledge, is the fruit which springs from rooting in love. It would seem that God not only gives, but gives abundantly, spiritual knowledge to those whose main characteristic is love. Love for Him, yes! but love for His own and for all men.
"I love the Father" (John 14:31). "The Father loveth the Son and sheweth Him all things..." (John 5:20).
So Christ attributed His own knowing all things from the Father to mutual love between them. But Christ was the personal embodiment and manifestation of God's love for the elect and for the world (John 3:16; 17:23). (See also Eph. 5:25) John is known as the Apostle of love. What a wealth of spiritual light has come to us through him! Paul was behind no one in this matter of Divine love and has given us the classic of all time as to it (1 Cor. 13). What fullness and depths of revelation the Church owes to him!
A scientist may describe a tear in terms of water, salt, and mucus, but the mother or lover UNDERSTANDS it in terms of its real meaning. A head knowledge is no knowledge at all in spiritual values. Only the knowledge which comes through the heart - travail, suffering, longing, heart-break over souls, toward the Lord - is vital knowledge. How much of the wealth of knowledge possessed by John, Paul, and others came out of their heart travail for the Church? Take that out, and there is not much left.
Love Buildeth Up
"...The increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love" (Ephesians 4:16).
You might not have thought of that when considering the material for building the Church. Truth, yes! Teaching, yes! Knowledge, yes! But the Holy Spirit singles out love for the main emphasis. Ephesus evidently stood for something in the matter of spiritual values. The fact that the Holy Spirit was so unrestrained in giving such light, light exceeding anything else in the whole Bible, is a fairly good proof of capacity. How well we know that when we minister in the Spirit we have liberty or restraint governed by the spiritual capacity of our hearers. We would often go further, but we just cannot. It comes back at us. At other times or places we can go all the way. Paul was just caught away with superlatives which piled themselves one upon another when he wrote that letter. The longest sentence without a full period in the Bible is found there. He could not stop for the rules and regulations of punctuation. Surely the explanation of this release of the Lord is found in His address to Ephesus in the Revelation (2:4) "Thou didst leave thy first love." "Thy first love." There must have been something very precious to the Lord at the beginnings of the church in Ephesus. It is like the cry and sob of a broken-hearted lover, whose love moves into jealousy and heat against the detractor and the unfaithfulness. He sees the triumph of the "god of this world" in blinding the mind, and is angry with Ephesus for complicity with him. Well, much, very much, can be added on this matter, but enough! Remember that the way in which the Church will be built inwardly and outwardly will not be alone by meetings, conferences, addresses, teaching, nor by campaigns, but by the bathing of all in love, and sometimes just pure love without lectures.
But - and is it necessary to say it? - this love is the fruit of a deeply crucified life. It is only in a true and adequate apprehension and appreciation of the Cross that the heart is enlarged to ALL men. 'Love to the loveless.' It is only as the Cross has struck deeply at the roots of pride, personal interest, ambition, reputation, selfishness, and concern for something less than the whole purpose of God, that God will really build His Church. The Church is the Lamb's WIFE. It is a LOVE matter! These two are one. She takes her very object in life from Him. She leaves all personal and former interests and relationships, and they two become one flesh."
Source: The Centrality and Universality of the Cross
Light is based upon Love and Love builds up. God builds His church on a foundation of love and it is this love that produces light and life. How beautiful!
The love that guides those who have fallen on the stone and have been utterly broken is the fruit of a deeply crucified life. The love that guides a deeply crucified life is a love that never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8). Jesus showed us the way to God's heart - The Way. It is a narrow gate. Few find it. But it is there for all who are willing to let go and let God - to fall on the stone and be broken and crucified.
As I have noted before, crucifixion on the Cross leads to death of self/ego. Our wills - what we want - becomes irrelevant. God's will becomes our will.
God's will is for us to love - to love Him with all of our heart, mind and soul, and to love our neighbors and enemies (Matthew 5:43-44; 22:37-39).
God is love (1 John 4:8).
We can summarize everything we have been discussing over the past couple of weeks very simply:
Crucifixion via the Cross produces Love, Light and Life
Love produces Light
Light produces Life
Christ is Love, Light and Life
What God revealed through Jesus was a path directly to His heart of a love that never fails. The Spirit instructed us through Paul to imitate God and walk in love (Ephesians 5:1-2). We do this through crucifixion on the Cross.
Brokenness and crucifixion is a painful process. It is not easy! It takes time - sometimes a long, long time, depending on one's willingness to be utterly broken. As I have noted before, many people just flat out refuse to be broken. It has been and will always be about them and what they want. Hence, they never enter through the narrow gate and find the path to life.
However, if we are willing to fall on the stone and be broken, a miracle will occur. Our death will lead to a burial and a resurrection - we become new creations, born of the Spirit. As we die and our selves/egos become increasingly irrelevant, He increases. We begin to bear Spiritual fruit. The more He increases and the more we decrease the more fruit we bear. It is a direct correlation.
On the crucifixion side of the Cross lies the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control (Galatians 5:22-23). Christ is the true vine and His vine produces the sweetest fruit. The best of the best!
May you become a part of His vine via the Cross, and may you bear wonderful Spiritual fruit.
Agape,
Steve
posted by Steve at
11:55 AM
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