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The Fulness of Christ

by T. Austin-Sparks

First published in A Witness and A Testimony magazines, 1934-1935.

Contents

Chapter 1 - God's Purpose

Chapter 2 - On Resurrection Ground

Chapter 1 - God's Purpose

The field of our meditation mainly will be the book of Joshua and the letters to the Ephesians and Colossians. The fragment which is the key to this meditation is in Ephesians 4:13:

"Till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."

This verse might very well be placed at the commencement of the book of Joshua, and it would give a very good interpretation to that book, and be a guide for the spiritual reading and study of the book. It would explain all that is happening after Israel has crossed the Jordan and entered the land. It would explain things from both sides; from the side of the Divine intention, and from the side of the adversary's withstanding. It would represent what the Lord is seeking, and what the foes are against.

"Till we all attain unto the unity of the faith..." Carry that first clause of the verse through the book of Joshua, and it is very illuminating.

"...and of the knowledge of the Son of God..." the same applies there. It will be necessary to take just a fragment from the letter to the Hebrews perhaps, to help us in that connection as to Joshua being appointed to bring into rest. But Joshua did not fully accomplish that purpose in bringing into rest "There remaineth therefore, a rest for the people of God" (Hebrew 4:9). That "rest remaining" is found in Christ. The book of Joshua is intended to point to the fulness of the knowledge of the Son of God in the saints; of coming to finality, to rest; "...unto a fullgrown man..." and that clearly stands in contradistinction from the wilderness life of spiritual immaturity.

"... unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." It is only possible to understand the land in the light of the fulness of Christ. All the superlative promises connected with that land are transferred spiritually to the Lord Jesus. He is God's fulness for His people in every respect.

Truly this 13th verse of Ephesians 4 is a magnificent introduction to the book of Joshua. The last clause embodies all the other clauses: "...the fulness of Christ." That is the end in view.

The letters to the Ephesians and Colossians as a whole have to do with the fulness of Christ. In the Colossian letter it is the fulness of Christ as Head; in the Ephesian letter it is the fulness of Christ as Head over all things to the Church which is His Body, which is the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.

The Trinity in Action

Returning to the typical, or illustrative side of this spiritual truth as brought out in the life of Israel, we might begin by noticing the three sections of Israel's history. Firstly in Egypt and the deliverance; secondly, in the wilderness; thirdly, in the land. Each of these represents a specific relation of the Godhead.

1. The Father in Egypt.

The first - Egypt and the deliverance - sees God the Father acting in Sovereign grace. The thought of the Father is very definitely introduced when the commission is given to Moses. Moses was told to say to Pharaoh: "Let my son go that he may serve me"; and "Thou hast refused to let him go; behold, I will slay thy son, thy firstborn." It is God the Father acting in Sovereign grace in relation to Israel in Egypt, and Israel's deliverance. It is God, Whose heart is set upon His family, His children, Who takes the initiative in relation to men and women in the bondage of the world of sin, and Satan. It is God who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. The paternal element is there in Sovereign grace to secure a family.

2. The Son in the Wilderness.

In the second case - in the wilderness - it is Christ as the pattern and basis of life. The pattern, perhaps consummately represented in the Tabernacle and all the ordinances of the Tabernacle, is Christ in Person, and Christ as a heavenly order, a spiritual system, to which the people of God are to be conformed, unto which likeness they are to be brought. It is brought out very clearly in the New Testament. Christ is there spoken of as the basis of life. In the wilderness there were many types of Christ as the life of the heavenly people, the Manna, the Bread: "I am the bread of life"; "Your fathers did eat the manna in the wilderness..."; "I am the living bread." The water from the rock, is referred to by the Apostle Paul: "I would not have you ignorant brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptised unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea... and did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ." And so on many other occasions we find Christ in the wilderness as the basis of life.

3. The Spirit in the Land.

When we come to the third case - in the land - we come to the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit in energy concerning attaining unto the fulness of Christ. Joshua, as we well know, is a type of the energy of the Holy Ghost. Joshua came under the government of the Captain of Jehovah's hosts - the Holy Spirit in relation to Christ in the place of absolute authority.

These three sections of Israel's history bring into view the three relationships of the Godhead in their specific expression; the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. The Father and redemption; the Son and the redemptive object; the Holy Spirit and the redemptive energy.

Four Features of the Book of Joshua

The book of Joshua corresponds to Ephesians and Colossians in four things, in the main:-

Firstly, in Christ risen - on the far side of Jordan.

Secondly, in the heavenlies in Christ. A people who are regarded as entirely detached from this world and who are forbidden to have any kind of voluntary relationship therewith.

Thirdly, spiritual increase - going on unto full growth, to God's end.

Fourthly, spiritual government.

Those are the four things which are the main lines of the book of Joshua, and they are the four things which characterise in an outstanding way the letters to the Ephesians and the Colossians.

The important thing to see is that these are successive steps, each of which makes the other necessary, both before and after.

If you are in Christ risen, then, as Paul says in Colossians 3:1, you must seek those things which are above, where Christ is. The risen life with Christ demands the heavenly position and the heavenly life in Christ.

To have a heavenly life with Christ now you must know resurrection life in Christ. It is impossible to know a life in heavenly fellowship with the Lord if you do not know Him in the power of His resurrection. It is a thing which is basic. It is a crisis at a certain point, but it is a thing which goes on all the time. Every day, in order to maintain and continuously enjoy our heavenly life and position in Christ we have to apply the power of His resurrection; that is, live upon His risen life. If we are daily and really living upon the risen life of the Lord Jesus, we shall know what heavenly fellowship is. These things demand each other, both ways.

Then, if we are risen with Christ, and in a heavenly fellowship, we shall move to the third thing spontaneously - spiritual increase; growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ; moving on to maturity, to fulness.

Let us work back again. There can be no spiritual increase only as we are living out of voluntary contact with what is meant by the world spiritually and morally. We can never grow in Christ if we have any kind of root in, or link with the world spiritually or morally. If we have, it will keep us back from spiritual growth. We can never know spiritual increase only as we know the energy of the risen life of the Lord Jesus.

Then the fourth thing follows - spiritual government, ascendancy, authority, power, dominion. That is something more than position. That is putting your position into an executive form. You may have a position in which you are not functioning. That wants explaining, but it is easily made very simple and very practical. What is spiritual government? What is spiritual ascendancy? Some people have, it seems, reduced this question of authority, government and power to apply merely to the realm of direct power over the enemy, and whenever authority or government is mentioned they have some idea of exorcism and dealing with demons, and so on. That may be quite a proper realm for the exercise of authority in Christ, but more often than not the experience of the average Christian is dealing with demons indirectly, and not directly. If someone just crosses a desire, a preference, a like of ours, and becomes thereby a means of irritation or annoyance, there is plenty of room for losing your position and breaking down in your ascendancy. There is, on the other hand, the very opportunity for proving that you are above and not beneath. In a thousand different ways in ordinary everyday life, the whole question of government is involved. Every provocation is a test of spiritual government. Why does the Lord not remove difficult and awkward people from the sphere of our lives, but leaves them there? We may have prayed many times for the Lord to take them out of our range, to deliver us from them; and the Lord ignores all such prayers. He is simply saying: This is unto the enlargement of Christ! How? Simply by our getting on top of the situation by faith's appropriation of Christ. That is the government of Christ. That is spiritual increase. That is spiritual ascendancy.

Countless are the ways in which we can go up or go down almost any day, and many times in a day; and whether we go up or down depends entirely upon the measure of Christ that is in us, to which we have attained. If there is a large measure of Christ, then we shall be able to meet evil with good, and so triumph. That is government. Indirectly we are simply dealing with the foe. The enemy counts upon that ground of fleshly reaction for his victories all the time. If he has no ground of fleshly reaction - that is, if we do not react in the flesh - the enemy is a defeated foe, and we are in the place of authority over him. Authority is not simply official; it is spiritual, it is moral, it is "Christ in you..."

Spiritual and Moral Ascendancy - God's Desire For Us

That is what the Lord is after. He is after getting His people into a place of spiritual elevation, above with Himself. That should be the outworking of our risen union with Christ, our heavenly fellowship with Christ and of our spiritual increase in Christ. Working backward, it is so plain, so patent, that you can never know spiritual dominion, moral elevation, unless you have the increase of Christ, growing spiritually, and unless you know what heavenly union with Christ is, and unless you know the power of His resurrection.

Note some of the corresponding features of Joshua, Ephesians and Colossians. Here is a little basis of study in these three books. See how many times in the first chapter of the book of Joshua there is a call for spiritual strength, or to be strong. In that first chapter the Lord says again and again to Joshua: "Be strong, and of a good courage"; "Have not I commanded thee, be strong..." Turn to the letter to the Ephesians, chapter 3 verse 10:- "That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory, that ye may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man."

Chapter 1, verses 19-21: "...that ye may know... 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 own right hand... far above all..."

Or again, in Chapter 6, verse 10:- "Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might."

We must recognise that all that is unto something. It comes in the first chapter of the book of Joshua, and in Ephesians what is in view is brought so clearly out. It is a spiritual conflict, for which nature makes no provision, and for which man finds nothing in himself.

Turn to the Colossian letter, Chapter 1, verse 11:- "Strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory..."

Look again at Joshua, chapter 3. There you have the crossing of the Jordan. The typical meaning of Jordan is identification with Christ in death, burial and resurrection. It is the Romans 6, position.

Turn to Ephesians, and in chapters 2 and 3, you will find the Jordan aspect of things referred to quite definitely:- "And you did he quicken, when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins... and raised us up together with him..."

Then in Colossians, chapter 2, verses 10-12:- "And in him ye are made full... in whom ye were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with him in baptism, wherein ye were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead."

Three Features of the Land

In the book of Joshua you are at length in the land, and being in the land represents three things:-

1. Resurrection life with Christ.

2. Heavenly union with Christ.

3. Fulness in Christ: the measure of Christ.

When you turn to these two New Testament letters, you see how much there is said about these three things.

In Ephesians it is: "And raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenlies, in Christ Jesus."

In Colossians it is: "If ye then were raised with Christ, seek the things which are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God. Set your affections on the things that are above, not on the things that are upon the earth. For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God."

The fulness in Ephesians is: "That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that ye may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that ye... may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the knowledge surpassing love..."

The fulness in Colossians is the matchless representation of Christ's fulness, and then we are told that we are made full in Him. So that over Jordan, in the land, all these things as spiritual realities obtain.

Further, in the book of Joshua there is the conquest. In Ephesians, in the heavenlies, "our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness..." That is a Joshua touch.

As you pass on in the book of Joshua you find that you come to the question of relationships. A very interesting and illuminating section of Joshua has to do with relationships in the inheritance. In the corresponding Scriptures in Ephesians there is so much about relationships in Christ. Chapters 4 and 5 have to do mainly with relationships in the Body of Christ. The same thing is in Colossians.

Then as to government. Joshua brings the government very clearly into view. One little touch alone will at once show that line of things in the book of Joshua - the bringing of the kings, and the command to put the feet upon the necks of the kings. That will carry us to the New Testament, and on our way through (so to speak) to Ephesians and Colossians we pass through Romans, and we see: "And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly." (16:20).

In Ephesians the word is: "Far above all rule and authority and principality and power." We are called into that heavenly union with Him in ascendancy over these spiritual forces.

So we see the corresponding features between these books of the Old and New Testaments. Having paved the way for a meditation we can go a little further in seeing the present spiritual value of all this. What we need to see, in the main, is God's purpose, and then God's means and methods of reaching His purpose.

God's Purpose

God's purpose is clearly revealed to be the bringing of the saints to the fulness of Christ. Paul would put that in various ways. He uses that word: "Till we all attain unto the fulness of Christ." In another place he will express it in this way: "That we may present every man perfect in Christ." To go through Paul's letters alone with the thought of spiritual completeness, perfection (in the right usage and meaning of that word "perfection" - it means completeness, fulness), is to see how tremendous this matter is in the Divine thought. God's purpose is shown to be, by an overwhelming amount of Scripture, the bringing of the saints to the fulness of Christ. What follows is God's means and methods of reaching that end.

Some Things which are Basic to the Purpose

If God is going to get His end; that is, the saints brought to the fulness of Christ, then some things are necessary to Him for His end, as well as to us to get to God's end.

The first thing is a heart which is wholly set upon the Lord. Unless the Lord has that in us He has no hope, no chance; and unless our hearts are wholly set upon the Lord, all the Lord's purpose can never be our blessed experience.

Joshua and Caleb, as embodying the company that went into the land, clearly represent that principle. They wholly followed the Lord, and, doing so, they are set in contrast with the ten spies who accompanied them in the first investigation of the land. The others did not wholly follow the Lord, simply because their hearts were not wholly set upon the Lord; and the history of the generation which fell in the wilderness is simply the history of a heart not wholly set upon the Lord.

If you want proof of that from the Word, you may have it in such portions as we find in Psalm 78:37, or in Psalm 106:24:- "They despised the pleasant land..." That shows quite clearly that their heart was not set upon the land, and wholly after the Lord.

If you want a more vivid, and perhaps more terrible analytical commentary upon their history you have it in 1 Corinthians 10:6-11. That is a statement that their hearts were not wholly set upon the Lord; therefore, they did not enter into the land, come to the inheritance, nor attain unto God's end.

A heart wholly set upon the Lord is one which has clearly discriminated between salvation for its own sake, for blessing and gain; and salvation with God's purpose in view. There is all the difference between those things. Salvation for its own sake, just to know that you are saved, for blessing and gain to the one who is saved, is one thing. But salvation with God's purpose in view is quite another thing. Of course, that generation of Israelites wanted to be saved. The idea of salvation in Egypt was a great idea, they would respond to it; but in their minds salvation meant something better for themselves. When at any point it seemed as though salvation was not working out as they had expected it would work out, for their own good, and they were being tested, then they regarded salvation as not being the blessing that they thought it was. This showed quite clearly that salvation for them was purely a matter of personal good, personal gain, personal blessing. It was salvation for its own sake. Joshua and Caleb, and the people who were of their spirit, went in with God's end in view. It was the Lord's delight which was in view. What was it they said? Was it not this: "If the Lord delight in us..." It is a question of the Lord's delight. They had their hearts adjusted to the delight of the Lord.

The wilderness is a very great demonstration of the larger purpose of salvation; that is, that the Lord has interests, and that His people can only know the full meaning of their salvation as the Lord has His object. The fact that they perished in the wilderness shows quite clearly that failure to apprehend the Lord's interests and the Lord's object means that we never come to the full enjoyment of our own salvation. To put that the other way; to enjoy salvation to the full it must be swung right away from ourselves and be regarded in the light of the Lord's glory, the Lord's interests, the Lord's object. The wilderness is a great demonstration of that. They never came to the full blessing of their salvation because they fell short of what the Lord was after in their salvation. The Lord said of them: "This people have I formed for myself." Over against that, this people sought to have all that the Lord meant for themselves, instead of for the Lord.

The wilderness represents the life outwardly in relation to the Lord, but inwardly in relation to self. On the outside they would claim to be the Lord's people. On the outside there would be all that which was the constituent of a people of God. But on the inside the whole relationship was with self.

Chapter 2 - On Resurrection Ground

The letters to the Ephesians and Colossians have clearly in view the fulness of Christ and the inheritance of the saints. In both letters a very definite and positive place is given to the fact that the reaching of the inheritance, and the coming to the fulness, is only upon the basis of that which corresponds to Jordan having been definitely recognised and accepted. That is, the Cross of the Lord Jesus as bringing to a judicial end all that is of man himself; Christ's death being our death: not only the removal of our sin, but the removal of ourselves as related to Adam, in order that there might be another relationship brought about to the last Adam.

The Meaning of Our "Judicial" Death

We have used the word "judicial," and that may stumble some; but it is very simply explained. There is all the difference between a judicial death and actual death. We are not, even when we have most thoroughly and utterly accepted our death union with the Lord Jesus by faith - according to His own word and requirement - in a position to say that we, so far as the Adam life is concerned, are utterly dead and non-existent, because there is still much of the old Adam associated with us. But that does not alter the fact that a judicial death has taken place. A judicial death is simply the fact that a sentence has been passed, and in the eyes of the one who has passed the sentence, the death is taken for granted, as though it has already happened. God has passed the sentence of death upon the whole race in Adam. That sentence was carried out in a Representative, and that One Who represented the race voluntarily - the Lord Jesus - accepted the sentence voluntarily.

The sentence being carried out in the case of the Representative, means that all who were represented have died in the eyes of God. God says: That is My position with regard to you; My Son voluntarily took your place as under the sentence of death. (It could not be otherwise than voluntary, because He was not involved in our sin; He was not in any way by nature linked with our condition. He accepted our place as one who had sinned, yet in Whom there was no sin). God says: In the moment in which I turned My face from Him on that Cross I closed forever the door to the Adam race; I abandoned the Adam race, so far as it ever had a chance of being accepted by Me or coming into My purpose. That was an eternal moment. If ever we should know what it is to have God forsake us for an instant of time, that instant would be like an eternity if we were fully conscious of it. If we knew that God had utterly and absolutely abandoned us, with all that it meant, that moment would be the moment of an eternity; that moment would be capable of changing our hair from the blackness of the raven to the whiteness of the snow. That is God's attitude to the Adam race, as far as His purpose is concerned. All that He has to say to the Adam race is: "Ye must be born again"; there is no hope for you in your present birth.

That is the judicial death which has been carried out in relation to every one of us, and the point is that we have to recognise the fact in regarding the flesh as wholly corrupt, even at its best. We have to accept by faith the fact that the flesh can never come into the presence of God, and then that God has made a provision for our giving expression to that position spiritually. Romans and Colossians particularly speak of that. In Romans 6 it is: "We were buried with him in baptism." In Colossians it is said that baptism was appointed by God as a means of openly declaring the fact that we forever have accepted God's attitude toward our Adam life. That makes possible everything else. The Jordan was Israel's national baptism into the death of Christ, from the standpoint of the end of the life of nature. That is an essential and indispensable thing in coming to God's end, the fulness of Christ. There can be no hope or chance whatever for the fulness of Christ until there has been an acceptance of that position.

The "Old Man" not Obliterated

Even when that position has been taken, when we have made that declaration and been baptised as a testimony to that, the self life has not gone - it will crop up - but something else has happened. What is that? We have definitely put that thing, in an act of faith, under the hand of God. We have said, in effect, that whole realm and range of the self life, of the life of nature, of the flesh, has been put under condemnation, and judgment, and death; now I count upon God to look after that. Then what happens? Whenever that thing comes up, you find it is smitten at once. You know quite well that if you are walking in the Spirit the uprising of any bit of self meets with the impact of the Holy Spirit, and you have a wretched time until you have gone back to the Lord and said: Lord, I have been allowing something to come up that you had judged. That is the way of progress and development. But you see the necessity for the judicial recognition, as giving God something to work upon.

The New Position

In the wilderness there is not that, but in the land there is. Achan was a survival of something, and there is an instant reckoning with that by God. Everything is held up and a terrific crisis is precipitated by one thing. Before the Jordan the Lord witnessed against it, but this is a different situation. After Jordan you are in a new position, in the heavenlies, and here the thing cannot be tolerated for a moment. It is the position that makes the difference. There must be a judicial end to self; that is, an acceptance quite definitely of the end of man's own life by nature, that there may be a commencement, growth, continuation of God's life, with only God's life in the ascendent.

The Energy of the Holy Spirit

See how clear this is in the historical illustration. Joshua represents the energies of the Holy Spirit in relation to God's end; that is, the inheritance, the fulness of Christ. Do you remember where Joshua first came into view? It was at Rephidim, where the waters gushed from the rock; the type of the Holy Spirit becoming the basis of the life of the believer. In the wilderness you are getting patterns; in the land you are getting realities. The pattern is given in the wilderness. In the land there is a working out of the pattern. So that in the wilderness there is the type of the Holy Spirit being the indwelling life of the believer. That is God's thought made known. You do not get that in its full expression as the living reality until you get over Jordan.

Joshua came in at that point, where the waters gushed from the rock. Joshua is one with the Holy Spirit as the inner life and energy of the Lord's people. The two come together at Rephidim, but immediately that happens Amalek comes out, and it is Joshua who is appointed to meet Amalek. Joshua - the energy of the Spirit - in connection with the water at Rephidim, called upon to meet the activities of the flesh, and, through Joshua, Amalek - the activities and energies of the flesh - was overcome. It is the Spirit warring against the flesh and getting the mastery. That can never be in its abiding reality, and in its full expression, until that judicial thing has been accepted, that the flesh is under a ban. God's attitude toward Amalek was one of uncompromising antagonism. "Smite Amalek (that was God's attitude) and utterly destroy." The attitude of the Spirit toward the flesh is uncompromising. That has to be made very real when we come into the realm of spiritual, heavenly life. That is the normal course of experience, when you come to the place where you have accepted the end of the self life in the death of the Lord Jesus.

On Resurrection Ground

Having recognised the necessity for this judicial end to self, the next thing that is essential, as a basis upon which God will work to His end, is a resurrection life with the Lord: "We were buried with him through baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life"; "If ye then be risen with Christ...." It is the completeness in every way of our separation, detachment from the world. You cannot fail to see that in the case of the Lord Jesus. Relationships are entirely changed on resurrection ground. Mary would fain have touched Him in the garden, would have embraced Him, but He said: "Touch me not...." In effect: Things are changed; the holding of yore is no longer; a different realm has been entered, a different relationship. Yes! still your Lord, still your Saviour, still your Friend, but a difference. I am not to be held as though I belonged to this earth; I am not to be taken hold of, as though this were My place. "Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended unto the Father." The first thing in resurrection is the recognition of our heavenly relationship, not our earthly relationship. All that is heavenly now makes first claim, and what is earthly, even in a religious way, has to be put back. There is a good deal of earthly religiousness, and religious earthliness. There is a good deal in religion that is earthly, of this world, earth bound, of man. Resurrection union cuts clean and clear of everything that belongs to this world, even though it may be religious. What is of God only has a testimony in this world, it has no other relationship. Its business here is merely to testify in the world, but to have no other kind of tie.

Resurrection represents the completeness of our separation from the world. "If then ye be raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above...." In other words, to all that is here: Touch me not; my Father has first claim. That is a most elementary thing, but it is true. It means that heaven has first and primary claim upon everything, because now all relationships are heavenly, all interests are heavenly.

That is a position essential to God's end. We know quite well, in the practical outworking of this truth, that in the degree in which any believer has a voluntary relationship to this world, or is held by anything of this world, that believer is stunted in his or her spiritual development. The world is an obstruction to the fulness of Christ. It is impossible to go on if there is a bit of the world holding. Putting that round the other way; it is just wonderful, amazing, and blessedly joyous to notice how those who really do go on with the Lord spontaneously drop off the world. That is the effect of spiritual growth. Habits, in which there seemed to be no harm whatever at one time, now have an element of controversy about them. Things which in earlier stages, even of the Christian life, never provoked any concern, now, because there is growth, raise the question in the heart, and the very going on with the Lord solves all the problems. You never have to say to one whose heart is wholly set upon God - You must give up this and give up that. Leave such a one with the Lord, and you will find those things go. It is a very blessed thing to see a heart set upon the Lord. You need have no worry in that direction. All the anxiety lies in the realm where the heart is not wholly for the Lord. The Apostle's two letters to the Thessalonians are full of joy. He thanked the Lord on every remembrance of them. He could not speak too highly of them, in terms too glowing, simply because they turned from idols unto God, "to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven," and he had no anxiety about them. When you turn to the Corinthians there is a good deal of trouble. It is the wilderness situation again - a divided heart.

A resurrection basis gives God a chance; that is, right out to the Lord from the world. All that that means we have to learn. We shall come to things we never expected if we are going on with the Lord. Things on which we were so clearly settled, as being of God, and never for one moment expected to have a question about, become challenged. Not that they were not of God, but they were only of God up to a point, and now there is something more beyond them, and unless we go on to the something more the good becomes the enemy of the best. And so, because of comparative values, we have to leave what is good for the better; and then later the better for the best. It can only come about as we are really going on with the Lord, but that requires, first of all, that we have made a clean cut, and have said: I am out on resurrection ground; I am out with the Lord utterly.

The Corporate Vessel of Fulness

Another thing as basic to the Lord's purpose is the necessity for an apprehension of the inclusiveness of Christ as to the Church which is His Body. In those parts of the revelation given to us in the Word of God, such as the letters to the Ephesians and Colossians, where the fulness of Christ is brought into view most definitely, the thing that is right before us is the Church, which is His Body. The ultimate thing, the great end, is the fulness of Christ, but, unto that, the Church, His Body is brought into view. Does Ephesians bring in the vast dimensions of Divine fulness in Christ? "Filled unto all the fulness of Christ"; "The fulness of Him that filleth all in all." What is connected with that? "The Church, which is His Body." The Church is essential for the expression of the ultimate fulness of Christ. That means that unto the fulness of Christ we must have an apprehension of the inclusiveness of Christ in His Church. That is the collective nature of the instrument, the vessel, which is to express the fulness of Christ. Over against that is the impossibility of an individual, or any number of individuals as such, ever expressing the fulness of Christ. The necessity is for a life of corporate relationship unto the fulness of Christ.

We must recognise this right at the outset as a law of the book of Joshua. What is that book working toward? It is the fulness of Christ; the whole inheritance! Is the inheritance going to be given to one, two or three? No! Is it going to be given to unrelated, detached fragments? No! The inheritance is going to come to all in fellowship, in relationship, and it can only come on that basis. That is laid down as a law, and that is the explanation of what took place in the case of Achan. When Achan sinned, and took of the devoted thing, the whole nation was brought under arrest, and the Lord's uncovering of the thing was after this manner: "Israel hath sinned." It is a terrific enforcing of a law. It is not: One man has sinned; let him be judged and put away! No! All Israel must come and be exercised about this matter. All Israel is involved; and therefore all Israel must judge it. All Israel was involved in the arrest, and all Israel was involved in the necessity for judging the sin.

Fellowship and Fulness.

This is God's way of illustrating what we have in the New Testament: "The body is one." There must be an apprehension of the corporate, the collective life of the Church, the Body of Christ, before we can go on to fulness. We demand this fellowship for fulness; it is essential. Limitation is always brought about by separation. The defeat of God's end is always accomplished by breaking up the Lord's people into fragments. Schism is a real device of the devil to frustrate God's end concerning His Son, the Lord Jesus. He has pursued that course from the beginning. It is very impressive and very significant that when the fulness of Christ is brought into view in these letters, there is such a tremendous emphasis laid upon the relationships of the members of the Body one to another. The Lord Jesus stands to suffer loss in the expression of His fulness when the saints are out of fellowship with one another; and we can strike the greatest blows at the adversary by a solid, determined stand, when on no ground, save apostasy, will we be divided in spirit from our brethren. To strive for fellowship, to stand for fellowship, to refuse a break in fellowship, is the way of defeating some of the forms of Satanic activity. It is quite easy to take the other line. It is the most difficult thing to refuse spiritual division, because all the power of hell is out to bring that about. It is only as we see how much is bound up with fellowship, with relationship, the fulness of Christ, shall we be able to move on toward that fulness, for the Lord counts upon it for His ends.

This is no organised one-ness. This is not the unity that is outward. This is not anything that can be brought about by agreements externally. This is not the uniting of the Churches. This is not consenting to a common agreement of credal expression; this is the unity of the Spirit. This works two ways. It is necessary for us to go on in the Spirit, in order that we may have the fullest measure of fellowship. We do not mean that fellowship is impossible between the mature and the less mature. We must be very careful that we do not allow any larger measure of light - as we may conceive it - to interfere with our fellowship with those whom we think have not so much light. There ought to be fellowship between children and adults spiritually, but any kind of refusal of light, of the revealed will of God, is bound sooner or later to limit fellowship, so that unto full fellowship there must be a walking according to the light given. The other way round operates, of course, that as we walk in the light we have fellowship one with another. Going on in the light means an increase of fellowship, and that makes the measure of Christ to increase.

The Necessity for Spiritual Illumination.

This comes up quite clearly both in Joshua and in Ephesians. "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know...." and then there is given a list of things to know, and you find that list moves out into the dimensions of the knowledge-surpassing love: "...that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God." Spiritual illumination leads on to being filled unto all the fulness. Spiritual illumination, therefore, is a basic thing to God's end. We can never come to the fulness of Christ by the mere inquiry and investigation of our own brains into spiritual things. There must of necessity be the Holy Spirit giving revelation concerning Christ. The Testimony of Jesus has as its essential law spiritual illumination, revelation - through the Word. The Testimony of Jesus can never be something static, something that you take up and say: This is the Testimony of Jesus; and then put it into a formula. The Testimony of Jesus is something that has been revealed. The Testimony of Jesus is: "I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God." Stephen died for that Testimony. "At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them that journeyed with me. And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice...." The inner meaning of that is not something apart from the Word, but something that comes by the Holy Ghost through the Word. That is more than the letter; it is life. It is something that makes you say: I have read the Scriptures on that for a long time, but I have really never seen that before.

The Holy Spirit's illumination concerning the Church is a thing so difficult to explain to any who may not have experienced it, but to those who have, it needs no explanation. It makes such a difference on all these matters. You will be able to preach Ephesians, Colossians, Romans; preach all about the Church as the Body of Christ; you may read it all in books; and still there be no real expression of it. Then one day it is as though the heavens opened and the thing broke upon your spirit, and you saw it; and all kinds of adjustments become necessary in life. You can say: I saw that the Church was no denominational or national thing; I believed in the oneness of all believers. Yes! all that; and yet there is something more. That something can only come by revelation. You can have the other, and it will just take you so far, but get that something more, and it will take you a long way ahead. It brings you into the realm of the conflict and cost, but you are out in an altogether new realm. It is necessary to God's end.

It is one thing to say these things, point them out, emphasise them. You say: "How do you get it? We see what you mean, it is all quite clear, but we have not got it!" Well, if you really are of the undivided heart, if your heart is wholly set upon the Lord and you see, as far as you can see, these things, and have very definite dealings with the Lord about it; it may not be in a day, it may be slowly, steadily, quietly, you begin to move into a new realm of understanding, and you find that your point of view changes, your standard of values changes, your insight changes. It may take months, but at the end of the time you say: I am changed; something has happened to me; I can no longer accept what I used to accept! It may be like that, or it may come in a flash. How it comes does not matter very much, the fact is the thing - spiritual illumination. The Apostle prayed that those to whom he wrote might have it. Let us pray that we might have it, and that all the Lord's people might come into that.