Resurrection, the Holy Spirit, and the church (2)
Date:June 20, 1948Place:Customs Lane, Foochow Scripture Reading:Eph. 1:19
Death being the greatest limitation
Last Lord’s Day we spoke about resurrection, the Holy Spirit, and the church. Today I will add a few words based on our Scripture reading. Last Lord’s Day we saw how death is a great limitation. I have to repeat and emphasize this point. All living creatures meet their end when they die. Death is the greatest limitation to a living organism. A small animal ceases to exist when it dies. A large animal also ceases to exist when it dies. Every living organism, whether it is a plant or an animal, is limited by death. The same is true with man. Even if a man’s mind becomes more clever than it is today and even if he makes plans for himself like the rich man in the Lord’s parable, whom God called “foolish,” he is finished once God calls for his soul (Luke 12:16-21). All of our loved ones, our father, mother, and children, are gone once they die. No one can call them back. This can be said of all the great men of this world. No matter how powerful they are and what position they hold, they are finished once they die. Death is the greatest limitation.
God being after a man of resurrection
When the Lord was on the earth, He was a prototype of all men. He was a prototype during the first forty days after His resurrection. During the thirty-three and a half years He lived on the earth, He was a prototype of human moral virtues. During the forty days after His resurrection, He was a prototype of power. These forty days speak of His power. For years orthodox theology has acknowledged that the earthly Lord Jesus is a pattern. It views the Lord’s death as a satisfaction of God’s requirement, without which God would condemn us for our sins. We failed and were under God’s condemnation. Unless the Lord died for us and the veil of the Holy of Holies was rent for us, we would never have been saved. We would be condemned instead. However, theologians in the past have not seen the truth of Christ’s resurrection. Only after 1926 did men begin to see the truth about resurrection. Only He who passed through resurrection can fulfill God’s plan. Hebrews 1:5 says, “You are My Son; this day have I begotten You.” This word refers to the Lord’s ascent from the grave. After His resurrection, the Lord rose from the grave, and God said to Him, “This day have I begotten You.” When God said, “This day have I begotten You,” He had found the man He was after.
Therefore, we became God’s sons on the day of the Lord’s resurrection. Since the fall, man has come short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). Unless we pass through resurrection, we cannot be saved. We have come short of God’s glory. The Lord is the only One who has not come short of His glory. The Lord is the only perfect man, but God needs something more than a perfect man. He has an additional demand: Such a perfect man must also be a man of power. God’s need is not only a moral man but a man of power. Since His birth at Bethlehem, the Lord was a moral man. But after His resurrection, He was manifested to be a man of power. After His resurrection, He became omnipresent. Time and space could limit Him no longer. He became a man endowed with resurrection power. He is now the man God wants, and God’s plan of creating man is fulfilled.
Resurrection transcending everything
After the Lord resurrected, time and space were no longer constraints to Him. Death could not contain Him. Through His resurrection He broke the barrier of death. Lazarus’s resurrection was different from the Lord’s resurrection. The former was only a kind of resuscitation to life; it was not actually a resurrection. Lazarus was not able to break even the bondage of his grave clothes. In the end he still had to go through death. The limitation of death still remained with him. When the Lord resurrected, however, He broke the barrier of death. He passed through death but was not held by death (Acts 2:24). The gates of Hades could not stop Him; they could not swallow Him. He resurrected, and He will die no more. Death has no power or leverage over Him. When the Lord resurrected, not even His disciples like Peter and Thomas could believe it. When Mary the Magdalene went and told Peter and John about the Lord’s disappearance from the grave, the two disciples went to look for Him. They only found the linen cloths and the handkerchief which had been over His head folded up in one place; however, the Lord was not there (John 20:1-8). It was like a man who had put on his coat and buttoned it, but who had disappeared out of it altogether! When Lazarus resurrected, he was still wrapped up in his linen cloths and handkerchief; he was still bound and limited. When the Lord resurrected, He left the linen cloths and the handkerchief behind. This means that He transcended all barriers. The Lord’s resurrection was fundamentally different from Lazarus’s resurrection.
Mr. T. Austin-Sparks said two things about the Lord in His resurrection: He does not come, but He appears. Neither does He go away, but He disappears. When the Lord resurrected, nothing could hold Him back. He is not limited by death, and He has broken all barriers of time and space. This is not all. God has exalted Him to the highest, and He has given Him a name that is above all names, not only in this age but in the age to come (Eph. 1:20-21). Our Christ has transcended everything in resurrection. Today the Lord is leading us to be as perfect morally as He is as a man. At the same time, He is leading us to experience as much of the power of resurrection as He experienced after His death. God is after a man who is perfect both in moral virtues as well as in power.
The church after the Lord’s resurrection — born of the spirit to be the Body of the resurrected Christ, being one with the Head
Christ became the Head of the church after His resurrection. Before resurrection, in His status as a man, the Lord was not the Head of the church. After resurrection, when He ascended to the Father, received from the Father the promised Spirit, and poured Him out to men, the church was produced. The Lord resurrected to be the Head to the church. Moreover, He has joined us together to be the one Body. Modern biologists can reconstruct the model of an entire animal from a single bone. Today God has made the Lord Jesus the Head, and He has made us His Body. Therefore, the nature of the Head becomes the nature of the Body. God’s Word shows us that just as the Lord is in resurrection, the church is in resurrection. What then is the church? It is that which is impregnated in the resurrection of Christ.
The church is built upon the ground of resurrection. Without this, the church is not the church. Ephesians 1:19 speaks of the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. This power is the resurrection power manifested by God in Christ through His resurrection from the dead. Today the same resurrection power is operating within us. When this power operated in Christ, it made Him the Head. When this power operates in us, it makes us the Body. This is the church. Therefore, unless we experience the resurrection power of Christ, we do not know what the church is. The church is the same as Christ is in resurrection; it should be as unlimited and as victorious over everything as Christ is.
We say that Ephesians contains the highest truth in the Bible because it shows us the Body of Christ. In nature and in power, the Body of Christ is the same as Christ. In order for us to know the Body of Christ, we need revelation. Without this, the Body will only be a term to us. In our experience, we need to stand on the ground of the church. At least two persons have to come together to touch the resurrection power of the Lord and to pray in one accord. The Lord’s Word says clearly that all authority in heaven and on earth is given to Him. Today the Lord wants us to execute this authority (Matt. 28:18-20) because we are His Body. Other than having an earthly body, there is no difference between us and the Lord; we are the same as He is spiritually. This is indeed a great thing.
The need for a spirit of wisdom and revelation
Once we see resurrection, we will know what the Body is. After the Lord resurrected, He poured out the Holy Spirit and produced the church. Through this act He became the Head, and the church became His Body. How great the Body is! No thought can be higher than the thought of accepting another person as a member of one’s own body. The Lord Jesus has accepted us as His members, and He has given us His authority. We can freely use it now. How high and transcendent He is!
Mr. T. Austin-Sparks said that the work of the Holy Spirit is the operation of the power of the Lord’s resurrection. Unless a work bears the mark of the operation of the Lord’s resurrection power, it cannot be called a work of the Spirit. This matter is truly beyond man’s mental apprehension. We have to pray for a spirit of wisdom and revelation. We need a revelation today to see the power that God has granted to us. As long as two or three see this revelation and stand on resurrection ground to pray in one accord, they will execute heavenly authority.
Hallelujah, we do not need anything more than what we already have! All we need to see is the glory, the riches, and the vastness of what we already possess. The authority in heaven is glorious and great, but it is limited by the earth. As long as there are two persons on earth who know resurrection and who stand on resurrection ground today, they will shake the ends of the earth. Presently, we have only touched the hem of the garment of resurrection. The Lord has released His speaking on resurrection to us in these years. Praise Him! What He has given us is the topmost portion; there cannot be any further improvement because we have become the same as the Lord. This matter rests entirely on our seeing today. May we all pray humbly before God, saying, “O Lord, grant me a spirit of wisdom and revelation so that I can see.”