Published as an E-book

by

Austin-Sparks.Net

Email: info@austin-sparks.net

ISBN: 978-1-927219-21-8

In keeping with T. Austin-Sparks' wishes that what was freely received should be freely given and not sold for profit, and that his messages be reproduced word for word, we ask if you choose to share these messages with others, to please respect his wishes and offer them freely - free of any changes, free of any charge (except necessary distribution costs) and with this statement included.

Horizoned by Resurrection

by T. Austin-Sparks

First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazines, 1961-62

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2 - The Change Made by Resurrection

Chapter 3 - Thomas

Chapter 4 - Simon Peter

Chapter 5 - James - The Lord's Brother

Chapter 6 - God's Answer to Every Challenge

Chapter 1

Romans 1:4 (1 Corinthians 15:1,12-22,45; 2 Corinthians 5:14-18).

"Declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead."

The word 'declared' or 'designated' there is the verb horizo, i.e., "horizoned the Son by resurrection".

In resurrection Christ is declared or made the horizon or frontier of a new creation (2 Cor 5:17). This is positively stated in 1 Corinthians 15:12-30, and that chapter or part of the letter should be read in that light.

When we refer - as we so often do - to resurrection, we usually and almost entirely have in mind the idea of power, i.e., "the power of his resurrection". It is in this connection that the matter is mainly referred to in the Bible, and essentially so, for it is here that the uniqueness and exceedingness of Divine power is displayed. But there is another aspect which governs the power-factor, it is the character-aspect. Resurrection means a kind of person who comes into being thereby. For the power and life of resurrection to be continually effective the risen ones must correspond to the Risen One in the deepest reality of their being. There is a "like as" in this matter, and a "so also" (Romans 6).

This brings us to the particular significance of the two Corinthians letters.

The first reveals a painfully disgraceful state of things amongst the Christians there. The word which could rightly cover so much of the first letter is the word 'shame'. The word which is so much in evidence in the second letter is 'glory'. The turning-point is Christ in resurrection. This is the inclusive and predominant thing. Indeed, it would appear that the Apostle brought this very matter forward as the answer and solution to the problem of that shameful state. Note the approach by the Apostle to this situation. It was by nailing the Corinthian Christians down to the name of Christ.

Christ in Resurrection the Great Corrective

In no letter is the name of Christ so continuously introduced and reiterated as it is in First Corinthians. It occurs no fewer than nine times in the first nine verses.

This gives the name a comprehensive application to all that needs dealing with, but it can be instanced in a particular way in relation to the making of names into rallying points, e.g. "I am of Paul", "I am of Apollos", "I am of Peter", "I am of Christ" (in a partisan and wrong sense).

Paul will have none of it as to his own name, and, while not being rude and discourteous to his brother apostles, he equally rejects their names as focal points of partisanship. It is important to note that Paul designates the Gospel as the Gospel of the Resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:1).

To understand the Gospel is to understand the meaning of resurrection as that of "a new creation". The great basic statement is: "If any man be in Christ, there is a new creation", but being "in Christ" means being in Christ risen, in resurrection, and Christ in resurrection implies or postulates a new order of man - "not after the flesh, but after the spirit" (2 Corinthians 5:14).

This is why the Bible is a book of people.

The Bible a Book of People

The people imply living experience; not doctrines, forms, orders, systems, techniques, things. All these can be found in the Bible, but there they have to do with living people. God is not interested in things in themselves; e.g., places, names, systems, etc. He may use them as instruments, and then - as history overwhelmingly shows - He may discard them: "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living".

If God raises up something to serve a special purpose, and that purpose is discarded, lost, or abandoned, the instrument may have a measure of life for a time, like the branch severed from the tree, but its days are numbered, its continuance is in increasing limitation; man will be put to it to keep it going. Its remaining tenure will be the history of human effort to maintain it. The world has very many examples of such things, places, and names, which once had a name rightly and truly for life, power, faithfulness, but today are either merely shells or organizations. Like the churches in Asia their great former testimony has gone. The Lord leaves to its own resources that which ceases to fulfil the purpose for which He exercised His power of resurrection. God has but one interest, it is His Son in resurrection: its meaning, and then its power.

The Two Racial Men

The two Corinthian Letters circle around two representative men, or two types of men.

1. The Natural Man.

This is the man on the pre-Calvary side, conditionally. This man - as Paul shows - may be positionally in Christ, but conditionally he is not living according to his position. He is a contradiction to the meaning of resurrection in Christ.

This failure to understand the meaning of resurrection-ground is drawn in dark lines in First Corinthians. The word 'natural' is 'soulical' - the man of soul. The soul is the human ego, or selfhood. This man is ego-centric, or self-centred.

Paul focuses this condition very largely upon the 'mind' or 'judgment' (1 Cor. 1:10; 2:16).

This is connected with:

(a) "The things of the Spirit of God", and it is categorically stated that this man, not living in the meaning of resurrection, is totally incapacitated as to understanding or 'judging' those things.

(b) Fellow believers.

This man only judges others after the flesh. His estimate of them and his conduct toward them is a wholly uncrucified one: he judges as other men do.

(c) The World.

The standards of the natural man are those of worldly-wisdom, the wisdom of the world, and it can be so false as to have dictated the crucifying of the Son of God.

Likewise the natural man's ideas of power are entirely those of this world; the idea that human strength, strength of soul, will achieve Divine ends. This is wholly false and deceptive, and Paul has no compromise with this false idea. He gives a large place to weakness and dependence upon God. He knows that God has said: "By strength shall no man prevail", and, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord...". He also knows the terrible history of the Satan-energized human soul and how Satan originally made his link with man by means of his ego. Egoism brought Satan's downfall, and is always his hallmark upon his instruments. Power-politics is the mark of this world's policies, and is proving to be its doom.

(d) The Lord's Servants.

The natural man as in Corinth appraises the Lord's servants wholly on human and natural grounds. "Paul", "Apollos", "Cephas" are not appraised for their spiritual value, but because of human likes or dislikes, approval or disapproval. Paul had a bad time with these natural-minded Christians because they allowed any features which they did not like in him to eclipse his great spiritual values. This is a common fault of Christians who do not know what it means to be "raised together with Christ", although they may be well-versed in the doctrine, as such.

The ruination of the Church today lies largely in this very direction. Christendom at large, and many a local community of Christians is wrecked and ruined by this failure to make as much as is possible of the spiritual values present, and to know as much after the spirit as can be.

This brings us to the opposite.

The spiritual man, or the man after the Spirit, is the man who is truly on the after-side of the Cross. Not ego-centric, but Christ-centred is this man. Here we are at the very heart and core - not only of the two Corinthian letters, but - of Christianity itself.

Christ in Resurrection - A Spiritual Order

Upon this fact and its meaning the dispensations completely changed. If Christianity today is not what it was right at the beginning; if its impact and effectiveness is less than in its first decades; if it is lacking in authority, so that the world no longer regards it as something to be reckoned with seriously, the loss can be largely traced to failure to recognize the nature of this dispensational change. The tragedy of the Corinthian lapse has, for the same reason, become the tragedy of so much Christianity today. The error of the Corinthians was to exalt the natural man instead of to recognize that he was displaced. The natural man may be learned, - as the world calls him - 'wise'. He may be in power. He may be successful. He may have great natural ability, influence, and prestige. But with all, he may not account for anything spiritually.

This crisic change did not come first to be intimated by Paul. Jesus Himself was always speaking of a coming change in what He called "that day", and He clearly and emphatically indicated what the change would be. It was implicit and explicit in His words to Nicodemus in John 3, but in John 4, to the woman of Samaria, He was most definitely explicit. Said He, "...the hour cometh, and now is, when, neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem shall men worship God. God is spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."

"Neither... nor... but" marks a transition and a change. To Nicodemus it was "that which is born of the Spirit is spirit". To Sychar's woman it was "in spirit and in truth".

The "neither... nor" indicated the past system of fixed localities and orders, which is now set aside. The "hour" which has come is the day of the Spirit. The "whosoever" of John 3:16 in relation to salvation leads on to the "wheresoever" of Matt. 18. Neither Israel nor Jerusalem exclusively, but "whosoever" and "wheresoever" govern the new day of the Spirit.

With the resurrection of Christ and Pentecost a new spiritual order was constituted, an order of essentially spiritual men and women, with spiritual capacities, consciousness, and abilities. The embargo resting upon the natural man is removed, and "he that is spiritual judgeth all things". The darkened mind and understanding of Corinthians 4:20-24* has been released and enlightened; "God, who said, Let light be, has shined into our hearts...": the "veil" (2 Corinthians 3, 4:6) has been taken away; the "second man", the "last Adam", "the life-giving spirit" has given birth to a "new creation" race of men.

Behind the Corinthian conditions we see the incursion of the results of the first Adam's fall, Cosmic and earthly strife, confusion, dissension, rivalries, factions, enmities - these are Satanic in origin, and Satan ever pursues his original quest for an open door by the soul of man to reproduce these evil works. They have become so elemental, constitutional, inherent in human nature that "Christ crucified" and "Christ risen" is the only answer.

This represents the overthrow of an entire régime, to make way for an utterly new one.

The character of this new order is

The Absolute Sovereignty of the Holy Spirit

This is implied in 1 Cor. 2:10-16, where we have "Spirit" five times; "spiritual" and "spiritually" four times. It is definitely stated in 2 Cor. 2:14-3:17,18 margin.

Christ had taught it, i.e., John 3:8; John 16.

"Acts" demonstrated it, chapter 2; 10:17.

Paul was a supreme example of it. His teaching concerning the Spirit issued from what had happened to him. He called this event in his history a being "apprehended". He conceived that he had been brought under arrest, perhaps like a fugitive slave. Hence he continued to speak of himself as "the bondslave of Jesus Christ", and as "bearing in his body, branded, the marks of Jesus Christ".

It was for Paul, as for the whole Church, a meeting with and union with Christ risen that led to the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit always waits upon such an apprehension. Resurrection is the Spirit's work, and is His ground of every new beginning. There may have been all the teaching of Jesus: there may have been the commission: there may have been the work of the Cross, so far as Christ was concerned; but all was in suspense. Forty days marked a period of inaugurating and establishing a new spiritual régime. Everything was to be new and different. In their apprehension and knowledge of Christ: in their relationship to one another: in their influence in the world: in their authority among men, and so on; the resurrection constituted an entirely new horizon.

We shall later see what this meant as to the individuals to whom Jesus appeared during that period, for it is in them that the effect of this changed relationship is so clearly seen.

There is a sense in which - in most ways - the end of the phase of Christ's earthly life has to have 'failure' written over it - failure in the world: failure in Israel: failure with His disciples: the failure of His teaching: the failure of His works and of His claims. These latter failures especially were due to the natural and earthly level or horizon within which they were living. It was in themselves that He was "straitened"; their spiritual bondage and mental limitation. The Forty Days were not only the evidence of His resurrection, but of the change which the resurrection makes.

This, as we have said, is demonstrated in the cases of His contact during that period.

In our next chapter we shall take up these instances.

* We are unsure exactly what reference the author was intending here, presumably 2 Corinthians 3 & 4 which he went on to quote from.

Chapter 2 - The Change Made by Resurrection

Reading: Mark 16:9; John 20:1,11-18; 1 Cor. 15:3-8.

The forty days after the Resurrection established a new spiritual régime. The end of the phase of Christ's earthly life has - from some standpoints and in some ways - to have "Failure" written over it - failure in the world: failure with the disciples: failure of His teaching: failure of His works: failure of His claims. These failures were due to the natural and earthly level or horizon within which those concerned were living. It was in themselves that He was "straitened"; their spiritual bondage and mental darkness. The forty days were not only evidence of His resurrection, but of the change which resurrection makes. This is demonstrated in the cases of His contact during that period. The first in order was

(1) Mary Magdalene

The record seems to be quite precise about this priority and precedence. Much that is sentimental has been made of it. Viewed from the standpoint of our present purpose, that is, the spiritual change by resurrection, there is little doubt that this priority is the right one. It does contain the most definite and emphatic change of position and footing in resurrection.

The words of the risen Lord to Mary were certainly not a rebuff, as they seem to be. This was surely not a time or occasion for a rebuff, when, apparently, the Lord allowed other women to take Him by the feet, and invited Thomas to touch Him, and disciples to "handle" Him. There must be something special here. As we see it, it is nothing less than the change in dispensation, to which He had so often alluded and given intimation, as, for instance, with the woman at Sychar's well (John 4:21,23).

Some have explained it on the basis of His further words: "For I have not yet ascended... Whether this pre-ascension ascension be true or not, the real meaning is not in our text as translated - "Touch me not"; but, as the margin corrects - "Lay not hold on me".

After all that Mary had experienced and gone through His words would imply that she was not letting Him go again, not even to the Father! She had got Him back, and she was keeping Him. This would have reversed all His teaching, and this would have been to her own very serious loss. It pointed to

The New Way of Possessing Christ

It represented the change from the outward to the inward, which is the very essence of the new order. It represented the change from the earthly to the heavenly, which is equally characteristic of this dispensation. "I go", He had said. Mary's attempted hold meant, "I will not let you go". Here, once more, we are in the presence of that incorrigible tendency and habit of the natural man, the man of soul rather than spirit, to bring Christ and heavenly things down to earth in some form that can be held by man. This is the way of systematization, formality, crystallization, organization, and aspects of materialism: the 'we must do something' propensity, we must attach titles, reputations, symbols of success, human honours, and a thousand-and-one other things to Christ to give substance to Him in this world. How impossible it is for well-meaning and even deeply-devoted people, like Mary, to keep their hands off spiritual things. How well-nigh impossible it is to believe that the Lord can do anything without the aid of organization, publicity, advertisement, committees, etc.

But His best and most real work has been, and still is, without all this. There are works of God, beautiful, fruitful, and powerful, of which you will never read in the press, secular or religious. That such should be come upon often provokes astonished exclamations - "But we have never read about this in the press". "Why have you never published this?"

Somehow man's flesh must insinuate itself into heavenly things and draw them to himself. There is a battle related to keeping things truly spiritual and all of God. The risen Lord will not put Himself in the hands that want to use Him in any way to make something for man's soul-gratification.

There is a holding which is unto loss: there is a letting go which is unto gain.

Ask Abraham. Ask David. Ask Paul. Yes, above all, ask Jesus.

If there is tragedy in Church history, surely it can be traced to this very earth-gravitation. The two letters to Timothy clearly point to the beginnings of this down-grade movement; this change from the pure spirit to the clericalism and secularism which took possession as the Apostolic age was closing. It was with this that John was contending in all of his writings.

As with Israel and Saul in days of spiritual declension, it is ever and always - "make us... like unto..." It can even be - 'make churches like unto New Testament churches'! And so a certain technique, form, practice, etc., is established, without the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit, the anointing, and the heaven-given instruments. It is all dead, imitation, make-believe, and artificial.

Mary Magdalene wept because - "They have taken away my Lord". Jesus asked why the tears. Really He was given to her in a fuller, more intimate, and more enduring way than ever before. Heaven took Him away later, but Mary did not weep then. She came to see the immense gains and advantages of the changed dispensation.

What an immense content this first appearance of the risen Lord has! We do not read things into it. The whole later New Testament shows this to be its meaning. In that tearful and yet glorious eternal few moments the Lord laid the foundation, and established the principle of His relationship to the Church for the whole of a new dispensation; a dispensation horizoned by resurrection.

(2) The Two on the Emmaus Road

Luke 24:13-31.

This story of the Emmaus Road could be described as the story of seven-and-a-half miles transformed by a touch of the Risen Lord.

These two were disciples; probably living at Emmaus. Many efforts have been made to identify them, especially the unnamed one, but with unconvincing results. At some time, somewhere, they had come into disciple-relationship with Jesus. There must have been a first outward eventful journey which ended in this relationship, and perhaps a period before returning home. This period of companying with Him either created or stimulated their hopes and led them to the conclusion - "We hoped that it should be he who would redeem Israel". They came to esteem Him as "a prophet, mighty in deed and word". Then clouds began to gather on the horizon, and rumblings of the coming storm became increasingly audible. At length the storm broke. He was taken and cruelly killed and laid in the tomb. Their hopes were shattered. The vision was desolated. Their Sun was in eclipse. Their minds were bewildered. After a day or two they heard some rumours that He was alive, but rumours are not enough to mend and restore broken hearts and desolated lives. So - 'Let us go home'. 'Let us get away from it all, and think.'

Thus on their mournful and so-different, homeward journey, as they talk in melancholy and hushed tones, the Stranger joins them. He asks a question. Then with deft touch He helps them to their own conclusions, that is, the conclusions of the Scriptures with which they were already familiar. A touch of reproach and then the matchless exposition. Was there ever such a 'Bible Reading'? The embers upon their hearts which had almost died began to glow afresh as He talked; the dawn sent streaks of new light across their horizon - a dawn at eventide. 'Come in', they said as they reached home, and He made as if He would go further. 'Come in and abide.' We know the rest - the simple repast: the mysterious something bringing back a memory so vividly: the rent Heaven, the recognition, and He is gone.

Never were seven-and-a-half miles of familiar and lately despairingly-sombre travel so transformed. A light heart takes miles off the road says the song.

There are some incidentally helpful things here.

1. The Risen Lord knows where we are.

2. The Risen Lord knows how we are.

3. The Risen Lord knows what we need.

4. The Risen Lord is the answer to all our need.

The Risen Lord is new light; new hope; new motive; new energy; new testimony.

But when we have said all that, we have not touched the heart of this event.

Note. 1. These men knew the Scriptures; that is assumed.

2. These men had a knowledge of 'Jesus of Nazareth'.

(a) They had been associated with Him.

(b) They knew His teaching and His works.

This represented a considerable fulness. But, they were none the better for it all in the day of crisis. They were 'straitened in themselves', and 'He was straitened in them'. They lacked spiritual 'understanding', and upon that deficiency they foundered.

But the "many things" which He had said that He had to say to them, but could not, are now released.

Why? and How? Because the law of spiritual release is that we must go through experience so deep that we must know or die; we must be in a condition which makes revelation the only way of life and survival. Our souls must be broken. It is not enough to possess objective knowledge, by ear and eye. It is not enough to have pain and despair when our ideas and ambitions suffer a set-back and reverse. What we must have is an experience of resurrection in a spiritual way. We must have an open Heaven, which means

(a) A new Lord.

(b) A new Bible.

(c) A new anointing

(d) A new commission and vocation.

This is what vital union with the Risen Lord, in the power of the Spirit, means.

Chapter 3 - Thomas

Having instanced the changed position which the resurrection of the Lord Jesus effected in the cases of Mary Magdalene and the two disciples on the Emmaus Road, we proceed to consider the case of Thomas.

If among the group of associates of Jesus there was one to whom the resurrection was a greater problem, challenge, and demand for a new ground, that one was Thomas. As in each case being considered we are not embarking upon a biography, but only concentrating upon this difference that resurrection demands and makes; so, whatever we say of Thomas is with this object in view. We ask that this shall be kept in view, because it would be so easy to be taken up and occupied with the natural side. Whether it be Thomas, or any other, we only give a description in order to reach the general truth that, whatever the human category, a conquest is necessary. Not only a conquest, but a change in the person and of the ground upon which the person lives.

Thomas belongs to a category of human constitution which is easily recognizable. He is always near at hand. We will give a general delineation, and we are sure that he will be recognized.

This is the type which is marked by what is called (perhaps mis-named) commonsense - not so 'common' as to be superfluous. These are the people who are never gushing, never enthusiastic, and never flattering. They are slow to pay compliments, and would give the impression of being ungrateful for any kindness, and they seem to take such for granted or as a matter of course. They are heavy-going; more of the steam-roller or bulldozer than of the racing-car type.

They are deliberate, exact, and particular, and meticulous to a fault. They will not tolerate carelessness. If a good job is to be done, these are the people to do it, even if they take long over it. Public opinion and adverse criticism do not trouble them a great deal. Decision, fixity of mind, and stubbornness make them difficult to move. Frugality, economy, carefulness hold all their transactions in stern control. They are masters of detail, exact, pernickety, and free from anything approaching the slipshod. Perfection is their standard. They are conscientious to the point of burdensomeness. Caution clogs their wheels and makes for slow going. They do not know what it means to give way, and once they take a decision or a judgment they are unrelenting.

Much is missed by them, even opportunities for larger and greater valuable usefulness because they cannot adjust. Their ships can be locked to harbour because they miss the tide.

Too often people of this category are immovably convinced that a thing must be right because they themselves believe it to be so. It is next to impossible to them to believe that they may possibly be wrong. They believe so strongly in themselves that it is hard for them to believe others. Habit, routine, and rut are their prison chains. Self-concentration is their curse. They suffer from an exaggeration of individualism, therefore they separate themselves and tend to be independent. Narrow outlook and short views spoil the real values which they have in other directions. They frown much and sigh heavily, and may often carry about with them an impression of something akin to despair.

From what we can put together of the references to Thomas in the Gospels, it is not difficult to see how he fits into this category.

But having said all that, and we admit that it is not a very happy portrait, for Thomas - while having many attractive features - is not by nature a happy person, we must hasten to say some redeeming things about him. Firstly: Thomas was one of the 'Twelve'. Thomas was to be representative in part of the Church. The Lord saw, and was in need of the values of this type when they are redeemed from their complications and handicaps; from the limitations, frustrations, and self-assurance. Yes, release is the particular and crying need here.

So, in a peculiar way, resurrection was - and is - a clash and a crisis with Thomas and his class. Unless released he will miss much himself and rob the Church of much. This nearly happened with him because of his "Unless... I will not". The crisis is that of enlargement, and resurrection means that supremely.

The Lord called Thomas, and He calls us with full knowledge of our particular and peculiar makeup.

The Lord has a particular place and sphere, and function for each type.

The Lord calls - and only calls - with the knowledge of what He can do with the material in His hand, if He is allowed to do it. There is a vital place for an emancipated Thomas. Do not let us dismiss him with the cheap epithet - 'Doubting Thomas'. The Lord did not do that.

Some things are necessary on our part, and the thing to be mentioned first is particularly applicable to Thomas.

We must not take ourselves, as we are, so seriously as to measure and fix everything and everybody by ourselves. We must seek ever and always the grace of adjustableness.

We must remember that the last word to Thomas as the natural Thomas, was one of comparative rather than absolute blessedness, and who wants that? (John 20:29). There are levels and degrees of blessedness according to how much we are saved from ourselves, however devout! There is a higher level than that of having brought things to our own criterion of literal, technical, physical, evidence and proof. The spiritual is higher than the rational, i.e., human reason.

The resurrection has to be a soul-splitting, human-nature-rending experience; a crisis, not only of will, but of disposition. Every devout Christian will say with Thomas, "My Lord, and my God"; but with Thomas it was a capitulation, an evacuation of himself, a broken-hearted surrender of his own predisposition.

He was still Thomas, but different, so different!

Chapter 4 - Simon Peter

"Go tell his disciples, and Peter" (Mark 16:7).

"He appeared to Cephas" (1 Corinthians 15:5)

In our consideration of what the Resurrection of Jesus meant in representative cases, we come next to

Simon Peter

There are two things that meet us immediately we think of Peter. One is, how very human he is; so like many ordinary people. The other is, his unquestioned primacy amongst the Twelve. It is helpful and encouraging to put these two things together, or to see them as together in this man. Sometimes either one or the other side has been violated with disastrous consequences. On the human side Peter has often been 'played down' with a cheap epithet - 'Impulsive Peter'; just as Thomas is dismissed with - 'Doubting Thomas'. Many people have taken cover for their weakness by making "impulsive Peter" their patron saint. This, as we shall see, will not do, for to do that is to dismiss the meaning of the Resurrection.

On the other hand, Peter has been so elevated as to be near infallible, the figurehead of the Church; even the 'Rock' on which the Church is built. Resurrection, when rightly understood as to its meaning and effect, will correct both of these errors and extremes, and bring Peter into his true place. To reach this understanding we have to do with Peter what we have done with Mary Magdalene and Thomas, and shall do with others; that is, see his category and analyse his constitution to see what was necessary and then how it happened.

The Human Category of Peter

It is unnecessary to say that the kind of people to which Simon Peter naturally belonged is a very likeable kind. Sometimes you may smile at their blustering and fussy ways; you may, at other times, blush for their foolhardy claims for themselves; and there are times when you feel that their impulsiveness creates uncertainty and reserve of confidence. But, withal, they win your affection because they are so transparent, free from inhibitions, and so well-meaning. They have a surface gift of pleasing, although they often get themselves into a terrible mess.

Anyone who is familiar with the works of Charles Dickens will see Mr. Micawber as a good example of this type and he has provided the English language with an adjective, so that an over-confident person is described as being very 'Micawber'.

These are the irrepressible people. They face life blithely. Optimistic to a fault, they have swift reactions to any rebuke or set-back. Almost always hopeful and happy, they effuse sunshine. The party is dull and sluggish until one of this kind arrives, and then it really begins. They just cannot be hidden or suppressed. These people are excellent advertisers and they can make an attractive show even of limited goods. Yes, they blunder, but they are most irresistible when they have covered themselves with confusion and are effusively apologetic. Their passions are quick and they may blaze up in apparent fury, but it does not last long; indeed, in a short time you would think from their manner that nothing had ever happened.

These are the people who do all the nicest things, especially after a lapse into the disagreeable. They never mean one-hundredth part of the things said by them in such lapses. They always make the best of things and circumstances. Their favourite hymn - or sentiment - is "Count your blessings". Introspection never beclouds their spirits, and from the most pressing assaults upon their sincerity they will instantly forget themselves and say, "And this man, what...?" or "And what shall this (the other) man do?"

If you want help in a forlorn hope you will get it from these people, although it may be more in word or spirit than in its solidarity. But when we have said this and much more there is another aspect. It is true that the type under consideration can rise to great heights of enjoyment of life, they can drop into deep depression and even despair of themselves. "Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man" shows how Simon Peter, the otherwise self-confident and self-assured, can suffer reactions. So, from great heights of assurance they can plunge to deep depths of depression. Their self-assurance makes them the people who take big risks without counting the cost. This is why the epithet 'impulsive' has been attached to Peter and his kind. He, and they, will take on liabilities in their good nature which will almost drown them later. Heedless risks are characteristic of these, and they will therefore often be found to be in debt, but altogether free from vice. To their ventures they will sacrifice the security and comfort of those they love most. How good-natured they are! They live to please, and yet they get themselves and their dependants into troubled waters.

What does all this say as to their real need?

For the purpose of our present consideration of Resurrection meaning, it says very much, and leads on to the tremendous thing that Resurrection effected in Simon Peter.

It requires very little perception to recognize that, with all the delightful and attractive features of this category the fatal flaw is in their lack of

The Dimension of Depth

They are - let us be frank - superficial both in their exhilarations and in their depressions; their heights and their depths (?). Their confidence has a shallow foundation. Their boasting will not bear the strain. Their optimism will have to be fed by social occasions. Their cheerfulness will not survive an atmosphere of depression or lack of appreciation. Their fundamental need is of spiritual rigidity and stamina. Their enthusiasms so often being short-lived need the strengthening "supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ". Their rapidity of change demands a deepening of their foundations. John Bunyan has given their classic example in Mr. Pliable who, in the hour of real testing, fell into the slough of despond and climbed out of the mire on that side which was nearest to his own house.

This then is the kind which has many more beginnings than completions. They often commit themselves to a course which they cannot sustain, and from which, in more mature consideration they would fain escape.

Simon Peter was an excellent example of this type, and the end of his career before the Resurrection shows to what lengths he will go to evade the consequences of his own impulsive commitments or protestations.

We have said far less than could be said on both sides of this makeup, its good and its weakness, but we have said enough to make it clear that, to bear the strain and the responsibility, the honour and the glory that Peter came to inherit, something very real had to be done in him.

While the Cross was the occasion and the means of exposing Simon, especially to himself, and of bringing him to the depths of self-despair, it was the Resurrection that saved him and supplied his lack.

Simon Peter's 'Conversion'

From the words of the Lord to Simon in which He told him of what was going to happen we gather two things:

1. That there was a much deeper meaning in Simon's defection and breakdown than just the natural outworking of his temperament. It lies in that mysterious realm mentioned not infrequently in the Bible and notably at the beginning of the Book of Job. Satan is represented as having a peculiar interest in the downfall of servants of God. Moreover, he is represented as having some kind of access to God with that interest. Further, he is represented as having a measure of success in his quest, and obtaining a limited permission to affect such servants. So we read of Jesus saying to Simon, "Simon, Simon, Satan hath obtained thee by asking that he may sift thee as wheat." That is the first phase. In some mysterious way the terrible collapse of Simon in the denial of Christ was a working of Satan, and it was to sift Simon as wheat. It was similar to the experience of wheat when the flail gets to work and it is relentlessly beaten out. What a shaking! What a ruthless ordeal! But what is the effect? It is first to expose, to make manifest and evident what is false and worthless, and what is true and real. Then it is to put each into its category, the one to go, the other to stay. But this ordeal is like the ordeal of death, devastating and desolating.

2. Jesus had, however, in the same mystery, known this quest of Satan and its partial or controlled consent; but, said He, "I have made intercession for thee that thy faith fail not". In other words, "I have made a counter quest and asking, and mine has prevailed. Simon, you will turn again (be 'converted') and when thou art turned again, strengthen thy brethren". For the strengthening of brethren it required something much more than was in the old and natural Simon Peter.

The type which we have considered, with all its social and human values, needs something added to make the Peter of Pentecost of the subsequent court of the murderous rulers; of the house of Cornelius; of the tranquil sleeper in prison on the night before execution; of the Council of Apostles and Elders in Jerusalem; and of the Letters which go by his name. Something mighty had happened in Simon Peter. What was it?

In His resurrection Jesus had not only thrown out that other one of the quest against Simon; this He had done: He, through His Cross, had released the very life that was in Himself; that life with all its potentialities of endurance and victory, and, at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit had taken that life to impart to such as the restored Simon Peter, so that he came to know what Paul was so fond of speaking about - "the power of his resurrection".

Thus, Resurrection became the horizon of new potentialities for men who so ignominiously failed on the ground of their own makeup. The depth, the stamina, the ability to go through the once-dreaded death, all of which things were so conspicuously absent from the pre-resurrection man, were added by union with Christ in resurrection, in the power of the Holy Spirit. This union and its mighty virtues are - so the New Testament teaches - the inheritance of every born-anew child of God, to be claimed and appropriated by faith.

Chapter 5 - James - The Lord's Brother

Read: John 7:5; 1 Cor. 15:7; Gal. 1:18,19; Acts 12:17, 15:13, 21:18.

Let us remind ourselves of the particular object that we have in view in this message on Horizons. We are pointing out that Resurrection - the Resurrection of Christ - sets the sphere within which, and by which, everything in the New Testament is governed. Resurrection pre-supposes death, but Resurrection is more than resuscitation (which was the case in the 'sign-raisings' of the physically dead, both in the Old and New Testaments). Resurrection, as differing from resuscitation, carries with it an absolute difference in character and spiritual position. Therefore Resurrection, both in the case of Christ, and in that of believers in relationship with Him, involves a test, a challenge, a demand, and a possibility.

In order to understand this, and all the teaching of the New Testament regarding believer's union with Christ in death and resurrection, we are looking at some of the people most closely in touch with Him before and after the Cross. We are seeking to see what Resurrection required where they were concerned. It is evident that it did mean something very drastic in them, but the measure of that effect varied in the different cases, although it was meant to be utter in every one. So we come to the next in the group -

James - The Lord's Brother

As in each previous case we are to find our clue by identifying his human type. You should have carefully read the Scriptures which we have given at the head of this consideration, for it is they which lead to the verifying of our conclusions.

It is far from easy to delineate the category of James without doing injury to the very real values of that category, and, while it is so necessary to show how much the demands of Resurrection apply to this type, we shall certainly seek to be both fair to, and appreciative of, those values.

We must remember that James lived with his brother Jesus in Nazareth for nearly thirty years. That is a long time to be at such close quarters with an elder brother. After that he was never far away from Jesus during the three and a half years of His ministry and work. Then he was somewhere not remote from Jesus during the scenes of the trial and crucifixion.

Upon those thirty three and a half years with all that they held the verdict as to James is that he did not believe in his brother Jesus. No more terrible verdict could ever be passed in the light of everything that was true, and what an 'everything' it was!

This needs explaining and the explanation can be largely found in the kind of person that James was. That kind or type is not difficult to identify, for it is the largest category of all, and it is all around us. There is one word that defines and explains it, and into that word all the truly good and the truly perilous is gathered. That word is the word 'practical'.

It sounds good; yes, and it so largely is, but if you have already found James a big question and problem, it is because of this particular constitution. Let us analyse it.

Firstly, the people of this 'Practical' category are the people for whom success is the criterion of everything. They will reserve their confidence until they are sure that you are going to make a success of life, and be a success yourself. If you are successful according to their ideas and standards you will be accepted and trusted. If you are not a success - as they judge success - then they have no place for you and nothing will substitute this with them. They will just not believe in you. No doubt there was plenty in the nature, behaviour, and disposition of Jesus in Nazareth that was not of that tough and forceful and 'practical' (?) kind that James believed was necessary to position and power, and this made him definitely apprehensive and reserved as to Jesus and as to what kind of a success He would be in the world.

But when it came to the period of public life, every reserve was - as he believed - justified, and all his natural susceptibilities were offended. This category is the one which is absolutely unwilling to jeopardize position, prestige, and standing, especially where the top people are concerned. It will suspect and mistrust the common people's reactions, and only be influenced by the attitude of 'the people who count and matter'. The way that Jesus was taking was positively dangerous and completely contrary to all 'success' where the 'high-ups' were concerned. From his own standpoint and according to his own standards the judgment of James was quite correct; Jesus was 'riding for a fall', and the end of His life would have 'failure' written large over it. His whole course was - in spite of the temporary popularity - dangerous to success!

We leave the question as to whether Jesus was - from Heaven's standpoint - really a failure. There are some 'failures' which are immense successes.

Secondly, this category consists of those who seriously lack imagination. They just cannot see beyond what they would call 'present hard facts'. Everything for them lies on the surface, and what is to them 'obvious' is the last argument. Their watchword being 'Be practical', they are intolerant of the 'spiritual' and what they would (wrongly) call 'mystical', and 'up in the clouds'. For them the hard facts are the immediate or short-term results. Yes, 'results' are more important than how you get them: get results, that is what matters. Policy is more than principle with them. Get your end and don't worry too much as to how.

The result is very often a cold cruelty; insensitive to the feelings of others. The finer elements of sympathy, kindness, consideration, and even courtesy do not occur to them to be important or indispensable. They have a 'blind-spot' where the sensitive feelings of others are concerned. They are strangers to true imagination, and foes of what they interpret that word to mean. Their idea of imagination is that it means conjuring up pictures - mental pictures - which are unreal and impossible, whereas true imagination is the faculty which enables one to place himself in circumstances which demand understanding.

The 'practical' makeup can crush down anything which gets in the way of its set purpose, and ride rough-shod over friendship, family relationships, and all that is deemed competitive. It is the temperament of commerce and commercialism.

Of course, the intensity of the temperament varies in different individual cases. Some are softer and kindlier than others, but, nevertheless, the disposition is more or less a distinct one.

There are paradoxes and anomalies in this category. Full of activities of real value, service of necessity, and hard-working - often sacrificial - labours, without which the world would be a desolate place, they - at the same time - cannot stay to go beneath the surface, and are impatient with those who do. We just must have our Marthas as well as our Marys or we might not get our dinner, but a balance of the two would make the ideal, whereas Martha before Resurrection thinks that everybody ought to be a Martha and that Mary is a time-waster and not 'practical'.

We go on. This type is that which holds things with an iron hand and will never let go unless forced to do so by being completely frustrated. It is marked by a superiority of judgment. Seldom do they know what they do not know. Indeed, they can do things better than anyone else, and they find it the most difficult function in the orchestra to play 'second fiddle', while often they are not qualified to do otherwise.

While this is a general and by no means exhaustive delineation of this particular category of human nature, it is sufficient for us to delineate the natural class to which James, the Lord's brother, belonged.

Up to the Crucifixion of Jesus, James was evidently rigidly true to type, and was definitely an unbeliever in the deity and Messiahship of his brother (John 7:3-5). At some time - probably late - in the forty days after the Resurrection, Jesus made a personal appearance to James (1 Cor. 15:7). Thereafter James comes into view as holding a prominent position in the Church in Jerusalem, firstly as equal with Peter, and then, as Peter moved out to wider ministry (which James seems never to have done), James takes leadership there.

All the relevant references need to be read, but a very significant statement occurs in Galatians 2:12: "...certain came from James", with serious immediate effects - even with Peter.

There is no question as to the conversion of James regarding the Person of Jesus. His Letter has such statements as: "James, a bondservant of the Lord Jesus Christ" (1:1), "...our Lord Jesus Christ" (2:1); and "...the coming of the Lord" (5:7,8).

As we have said, there are things of great importance in his Letter and it is not a matter of either rejecting or discounting them. But - and it is a very big 'but' - we can only feel that there was an element of tragedy in James. The Cross and the Resurrection went no further than halfway into the constitution of James, and therefore we have to regard him as for ever a halfway Christian. He kept one foot in Judaism and the other in Christianity, playing for safety. He always maintained a 'go slow' policy over extra-Jewish expansion. He cautioned care in opening the door to what was not of the tradition; what was not the 'established order'; to any innovation or change. His influence kept a large part of the Church in Jerusalem in fear and bondage. Dr. Alexander White has some rather strong things to say about James in his Bible Characters.

But our purpose is to show one thing. If the Cross and the nature of Resurrection-life do not go more than half-way into our natural constitution, while our 'Fundamentalism' or 'Evangelicalism', our personal faith and devotion to the Lord Jesus may be unquestionable, we may yet be a spiritual tragedy.

Do think of all that James was associated with: thirty years of the closest contact with Christ; three-and-a-half years of His ministry, teaching, and work; a personal witness and experience of the risen Lord, and Pentecost! But - he had never seen the immense universal significance of that One. The apprehension of Stephen and Paul was almost foreign to him, and he found no difficulty in holding things locally into a set, historic mould. 'Heavenliness', 'Spirituality', 'Universality', such like terms as are characteristic of Paul and John are not the vocabulary of James, indeed they are suspect.

Were it not that we are familiar with this tragedy in our own time we would not have believed it possible. To have so much and be so limited; to have been so closely in touch with greater fulnesses and then to show that we have not really seen their meaning and reality. To be so full of devotion, of good works, of sacrificial service, but that people should meet so little of the Lord Himself in us, and that our effect should be to limit the Lord rather than magnify Him, this surely is tragedy.

It would seem that the real explanation was that James had never been really broken. He remained intact. The devastation and desolating which came on Paul, and in a lesser degree on Peter, never was allowed to get through the frigid soul of James. We value so much in what he wrote and recognize the great importance of practicality in the Christian life. We cannot do without this contribution. We see the beauty of the Bethany home when, through sorrow, suffering, death, and resurrection, the friction has gone and Mary and Martha are complementary and adjusted, both necessary.

James holds a warning, it is a historic warning. The slogan: 'Back to Jerusalem', if that means back to the Jerusalem of James, may mean back to limitation, back to the static and legal.

Dr. Campbell Morgan had very real insight when he said in his lectures on 'Acts ' (chapter 8:1-13):

'The martyrdom of Stephen created a crisis in the history of the Church. In reading the Acts, we find that from this point onward Jerusalem is no longer the centre of interest. It almost fades from the page. This is not loss; but great gain. When Jerusalem ceases to be the centre of interest, the record does not suffer in any way, nor does it reflect upon Jerusalem. The local, the temporal, the material, are of little importance in the Church of God. The universal, the eternal, the spiritual are supreme. It was of the very spirit of an old and past economy to fasten upon a geographical centre, and to depend upon material symbols. The Church now moves out on the great pathway of her victorious business, independent of Jerusalem. This is the supreme revelation of this book of the Acts of the Apostles. Not easily did they learn the lesson, for the Apostles clung to Jerusalem, but the great spiritual movement, independent of Jerusalem... went forward; not slighting Jerusalem, not unmindful of Jerusalem, nor careless of its past history and early contribution, but far more influenced by the vision of Jerusalem from on high, the mother of us all... No longer hampered by localities and temporalities, the surging spiritual life of the Church swept them all away, and quietly and majestically on to new quests and new triumphs. Church failure has invariably resulted from an attempt to check that spiritual movement which is independent of locality, and of all things material. Whenever the Church is governed from Jerusalem, or Rome, or from anywhere other than from Heaven, it is hindered and hampered and prevented from fulfilling the great function of its life.'

There is no doubt that the book of the 'Acts' is the record of an essentially spiritual movement, but who will say that it is not practical. The truly spiritual is really practical and the rightly practical should be truly spiritual. These things should not be confused. But the adjustment and balance will only be found on Resurrection ground where the Cross has deeply touched our natural life, correcting its disorder, and establishing that true government of the Holy Spirit - the disposition of Christ.

Take all that James has to offer, but recognize that there is vastly more when "the power of his resurrection" is ever going deeper. The 'horizon' of resurrection is a very great one.

Chapter 6 - God's Answer to Every Challenge

As a matter of both interest and further instruction, we could follow our recent course and bring under consideration other typical characters to show what resurrection means in the totality of human categories. But we did not set out to study human life comprehensively. Our purpose was to try to show that, in Christ, a new humanity has been introduced in resurrection, and that Christ as such challenges our humanity and demands - and makes possible - adjustment to Himself; that is, conformity to His image.

Having illustrated this by such cases and categories as Mary Magdalene, the two disciples on the Emmaus Road; Simon Peter; James the Lord's brother: we proceed now to gather this whole matter into a final emphasis.

The first thing that the New Testament makes perfectly clear is

The Transcendent Power of Resurrection

Resurrection is the paramount miracle.

Death is the greatest power against God's work, God's likeness, God's purpose. Death is the greatest power in this universe against man; his labours, his hopes, his wellbeing. Death is the last word in the creation as it is. Outside of God there is no power in this universe as great as death. When it has intervened and done its work there is nothing that can reverse or destroy it. In the realm of evil there is no power that exceeds the power of death. This is why, in referring to the resurrection of Christ from the dead, the words are used: "the exceeding greatness of his power" (Eph. 1:19). When death has exceeded every other evil power - sin, suffering, sorrow, and destruction, then God's unique and exclusive answer is the only hope, and the one answer.

More importance and glory is placed upon resurrection in the New Testament than upon any other matter. Indeed, everything else is declared to be in vain and worthless until resurrection is established. Resurrection is stated to give the value to every testimony and every work. Death, spiritual death (not cessation of being) - of which the physical is only one small aspect - is Satan's horizon. Resurrection is God's horizon in Christ.

Resurrection, we repeat, is the answer to death in all its forms and aspects: God's answer in His Son, Jesus Christ.

Having said that, let us proceed to note that the next thing revealed in the New Testament is that this supreme truth in Jesus Christ is the birthright of every one born into God's spiritual family; the heritage of every truly born-again child of God.

But the point for special realisation is that we must not make the mistake that Martha of Bethany made, when she received such a revealing correction. She said, concerning her brother: "I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection." It is not something in the future for believers, but for the moment when they believe on the Lord Jesus and receive Him. The order now is first the resurrection of the human spirit and at last the resurrection body. This, for any born-anew Christian needs no stating, although the meaning may take years to learn. It will come up again in our next series on 'Horizons'.

What immediately arises out of this fact is that, while resurrection is a spiritual crisis and experience,

Resurrection is a Growing Experience.

The history and experience both of the Church and individuals as in the New Testament is a revelation and manifestation of what Paul calls "the power of his resurrection". Again and again, and in ever-deeper and fuller ways situations arose in which the issues were nothing less than an end or a new beginning; death or new life. This is a fact, but there are one or two things to note in this connection.

The reason is found in a repeated word - 'That': "Always bearing about in the body the dying [the putting to death] of the Lord Jesus, THAT the life also of Jesus might be manifested in our mortal flesh" (2 Cor. 4:10); "We had the sentence of death within ourselves, THAT we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raiseth the dead" (2 Cor. 1:9); "For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, THAT the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh" (2 Cor. 4:11).

The great fact is that the Church and individual believers are intended to be the vessels of "the testimony of Jesus", and "the testimony of Jesus" is that God raised Christ from the dead and He lives by an indestructible life. Whatever and whoever has Christ within it or them cannot die. There may be allowed many assaults of death; many deep and dark experiences; but resurrection is God's answer to faith every time.

There is another factor to be recognized. Death is an agent in God's hands. When Jesus died He bore away a whole condemned order. Death nullified what could not stand with God. Although He died atoningly and vicariously, and we do not extend that, yet, the principle remains that every fresh experience and working of "the dying of Jesus" is intended to remove something in order to make still more room for Christ risen. The outcome should be both a new knowing of the power of His resurrection, and a clearer and fuller place for Himself. Thus, the experience on both its sides is necessary. In the final issue all corruption will have been removed, and Christ will be all in all.

The first picture in the Bible is of resurrection as to the creation. The last picture is that of resurrection consummated.

So we are right in saying that

IN CHRIST ALL THINGS ARE HORIZONED BY RESURRECTION.