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The Fulness of Life in Jesus Christ

by T. Austin-Sparks

First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazines, 1929.

Contents

Chapter 1 - A Vital Secret

Chapter 2 - The Young Christian's Page - The God-Glorifying Life

Chapter 3 - The Victorious Life

Chapter 1 - A Vital Secret

We are going to speak of that which is the all-inclusive and most vital secret of this superlative life. Everything will stand or fall according to our apprehension of the truth now to be considered, and a right understanding and application of it is calculated to revolutionise and transform our entire outlook and experience. It is necessary that we appear to be a little technical, but really it amounts to a re-study of familiar passages of Scripture. When we speak of the Christo-centric Life, we mean the life which has Christ right at its very centre as a living, vital reality. This will be explained as we proceed.

Now, this Christo-centric Life is an eternal truth born within those who come really into right relationship with God. In a phrase, it is "Christ in you." This truth, all its power and glory, is repeatedly spoken of in the New Testament as a "mystery." Not something beyond knowledge, but something kept from knowledge until a certain time. Thus we have such passages as these:-

"The mystery which hath been hid from all ages and generations which is Christ in you" (Col. 1:26-27).

"This mystery is great... we are members of His Body" (Eph. 5:30-32).

"That God may open a door... to speak the mystery of Christ" (Col. 4:3).

The truth was hid in Christ from the foundation of the world, but with the revelation of the Son of God it was made known unto those that received Him as Lord and Saviour. Thus we may now go on to study it as revealed truth. Firstly, consider Christ's own teaching on the matter:-

John 15:1-7: "I am the Vine - every branch in Me."

John 14:20: "In that day ye shall know - that ye are in Me and I in you." (This concerning the post-resurrection days, when the Holy Spirit is sent. See context.)

When Christ is in Possession

John 14:23: "If a man love Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him and make Our abode in him."

John 17:23: "I in them and Thou in me."

Matt. 28:20: "And lo, I am with you alway."

Rev. 3:20: "If any man will hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him."

Now, if the Holy Spirit was to continue the work of revealing Divine Truth as Christ said He would, we must expect to see that those who received Him continued to teach others this wonderful and all-inclusive secret of Christian fulness. Therefore, we will gather up references made to it by the Apostles. Here are just a few of Paul's phrases in this connection:-

Rom. 8:10: "If Christ is in you - the body is dead."

Gal. 4:19: "Until Christ be formed in you."

Eph. 3:17: "That Christ may dwell in your hearts."

2 Cor. 13:5: "Jesus Christ is in you."

Phil. 1:21: "For me to live is Christ."

Gal. 2:20: "I have been crucified with Christ, yet I live, and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me."

John seems to have caught this significance and entered into its meaning. His Gospel record is particularly rich with the Christo-centric truth, and, naturally, he would refer to it in his epistles also. Thus we have in 1 John 3:24: "He that keepeth His commandments abideth in Him, and He in him."

1 John 4:4: "Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world." And in the 12th verse: "If we love one another, God abideth in us."

Truths that are Overlooked

There are numerous other passages bearing upon the subject, and in view of its importance we urge careful study with a good reference Bible.

One of the most remarkable things is that, although these things have been so familiar as Scripture to numerous Christians for many years, the true significance, the glory and the power, have not "dawned upon" them often for a great time.

Many earnest and devoted souls have endured years of that up and down, struggling, oft-defeated, ineffective life, until the whole thing has become an anguish almost unto despair.

Thus, in some quiet way, like the gentle dew, a soft stealing ray of light has illumined the familiar phrase, and it has appeared to them in its true signficance, and forever the fret and care, the striving and the anguish, have died away, and peace with power and ecstatic joy has flooded their whole hearts.

The Way of Deliverance

So wrote Dr. Trumbull in relating the secret of the great change in his life and work: "I realised for the first time that the many references in the New Testament to 'Christ in you,' 'Christ our Life,' 'Abiding in Christ,' are literal, actual, blessed facts, and not figures of speech. I had always known that Christ was my Saviour; but I had looked upon Him as an external Saviour, one who did a saving work for me from the outside, helping me in all that I needed, giving me power and strength and salvation. But now I know something better than that. At last I realised that Jesus Christ was actually and literally within me; that He had constituted Himself my whole life."

We may also quote from the experience of soul-anguish through which Mr. Hudson Taylor passed even after many years of Christian life and service, and of how deliverance came to him.

"As I thought of the Vine and the branches, what light the blessed Spirit poured direct into my soul! How great seemed my mistake in having wished to get the sap, the fulness out of Him! I saw not only that Jesus would never leave me, but that I was a member of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. The Vine now I see is not the root merely, but all - root, stem, branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, fruit; and Jesus is not only that: He is soil and sunshine, air and showers, and ten thousand times more than we have ever dreamed, wished for, or needed. Oh, the joy of seeing this truth!"

A careful consideration of this matter will make clear some fundamental differences, and some important discriminations will be necessary. The whole centre of gravity is changed. Instead of Christ being objective, He is subjective. He is the inward dynamic and life, and not an outward pattern or example to be copied or imitated. The Christian life is not a theory or a creed, not a ritual or a morality; it is experimental, the spontaneous manifestation of a divine nature.

It is not the Church, not even the Book, but it is the living Christ: Christ within, God within, Heaven within. We can only understand the teaching of the New Testament as we have this conception. If the mind of Christ is in us, and the mind is the seat of unity, wisdom, understanding, control, direction; then a higher type and standard of life is both possible and inevitable than that which is the mere outcome of blindly and weakly struggling to discover and imitate an outward example. Think further of all the boundless resources of such a truth:-

"That ye may be filled with all the fulness of God" (Eph. 3:19).

"In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead, and in Him ye are made full" (Col. 2:9,10).

"In Him should all fulness dwell" (Col. 1:19).

"All authority is given unto Me in heaven and in earth... and lo, I am with you alway" (Matt. 28:18,20).

That such a Christ is really within us, and that we are a corporate part of Him gives almost unthinkable possibilities to our lives, and should - as it can - dismiss all fear, doubt, despair, and misgivings. We should be filled with hope and confidence, and the song of victory, actual and anticipated, should be more often in our mouths. There is one thing which we must interpret here. We have noticed that the people who have really come to see and know this wonderful secret and fulness of life have almost invariably been such as have been characterised by a desperate earnestness in matters of spiritual life; they have been men of prayer, and have jealously preserved time for meditation (not only reading) upon the Word of God. The careless, superficial and casual will never know these secrets of the Lord; they are the rich harvest of the quiet hour and the single eye.

In concluding, it is necessary to point out that Christ dwells in us in order that we may be conformed to His likeness. It is a progressive work of fashioning us after His image. This is the predestined purpose of God. "Foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son" (Rom. 8:29).

"Until we attain unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13. This in relation to all the members of His Body.)

The inevitable sequence of the indwelling Christ is, if we yield and submit to Him, that more of His nature and likeness, spirit and mind, will be seen and manifest in us as the days come and go, until at length we shall awake in His likeness.

It may seem to some that all that we have said, while being obviously the teaching of Scripture, does, however, clash with many other passages which speak of Christ as seated at the right hand of God. Spiritual geography is beyond finite comprehension, and omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence, have all to be admitted into our consideration. He is the all-pervading, but in a special sense He is with and in those who consciously open their hearts to Him, and enthrone Him as Lord of their lives. We look for His coming in person, for to us He has already come in spirit and power.

Chapter 2 - The Young Christian's Page - The God-Glorifying Life

"And they glorified God in me." - Gal. 1:24.

Not initially or finally for our own enjoyment, or peace, or influence, or power; not for the fulfilment of our best and deepest convictions; neither for the good of other people, must we surrender ourselves without reserve to God, seek the fulness of the Spirit's indwelling, and crave the life of victory, love, and fruitfulness; but from first to last that He may be glorified.

The Motive of Service

In a missionary training class the leader once asked the students to give their reasons for going as missionaries into the foreign field. Some gave their reason as being their personal experience of salvation making them wish to lead others to the same. Others were going out of obedience to the command of Christ, and the conviction that it was His will that the world should be evangelised; but although these and many other reasons were all splendid and true, there can be no doubt that the highest level was reached by one who said that it was purely that "He might see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied." There are numerous motives behind our Christian lives and service - e.g., fear, strong conviction, high ideals, interest; admiration, duty, and many others, and there are some which are much less worthy, savouring of personal interests and selfish ends, but we reach the highest point of Christian character when all other elements are lost in the transcendant and all-absorbing desire that in and through everything the name of our Lord should be glorified.

This was Paul's supreme aim. Everyone who is truly alive has one dominating objective in life.

Paul was a most ambitious man, but not in the direction of the limelight for himself; not to impress others with his own ability, importance, and significance. He lived, laboured, studied, and endured with the one object of commending the Christ of his Gospel and the Gospel of his Christ. Every man is known for some peculiarity of nature, habit, interest, or aim. To mention people's names is usually to bring at once into mind something with which they are closely associated.

A Mirror Reflecting God

Now, if we are to take the true significance of the words at the head of this article, and many other such allusions, we are to understand that Paul was never thought of by some people apart from God. That is, to mention Paul in certain circles was at once to conjure up in the minds of those people the Grace of God. They saw the Grace of God in him. His life and presence made God real to them. Their faith was strengthened their lives enriched, God came very near to them when Paul was there. They glorified God in him.

This was the dominating ambition of his life, and there is no greater or higher. It was not always thus. In the same verse he tells us that he had once been known as the man who persecuted and made havoc of the Church. To have mentioned his name at one time would have suggested very different ideas and created very different feelings. It was the contrast - read the context - which underpinned this glorifying of God on Paul's account, and we must very carefully bear in mind that God can be glorified in us first of all by the difference that His grace makes. We have heard people blame their peculiar temperament and make-up for certain things which were not very honouring to their Lord. Others have excused certain distinct faults - such as rashness of speech, hasteness of temper, impetuosity of spirit or impulsiveness of action, on the grounds that they were like Simon Peter, with whom the Lord was very patient. Now this sort of thing will not do. Simon Peter was a very different man after the Cross and Pentecost, so was every other disciple, and let us repeat, it was the contrast made by grace in Paul that made men give glory to Paul's Lord.

We shall arrest men and make them remark upon the wonders of grace when they see patience where there was once impetuosity, love where there was once cruelty, intolerance, or bitterness; quietness where bluster and rage prevailed; generosity and magnanimity in the place of meanness, bigotry, and selfishness, and so on.

From the Divine Standpoint

It is a pleasure to be able to say that there are some known to us who really do, by contact with them, make us feel nearer God, who do give us more hope in Him and infect us with His joy and love.

For them we cannot help thanking God, and we pray that we, too, may be the means of some glorifying God in us.

This principle of God's glory is the key with which we can unlock the doors of mysterious experiences. It was the custom of the Jews to account for suffering and death by the sin of the afflicted, and the disciples, seeing a man born blind, made it quite clear that they were not exceptions to such a narrow judgment. They said, "Who did sin, this man or his parents?" Whereupon Christ exploded their theory by introducing another which it is very difficult for people of weak faith to accept. He gave as the reason for the man's blindness, "That the works of God should be manifest in him." Something quite similar was said about the sickness and death of Lazarus, and many other things which occurred during those days can fairly truthfully be interpreted in the same light. It is certain that Paul viewed things thus. Said he: "The things which happened unto us have fallen out for the furtherance of the Gospel." Many difficulties might have been prevented, many apparent calamities have been averted, many episodes of extreme gravity might never have been inculcated into the apostolic programme, were it not that they were serving a purpose to the glory of God which could not have been served without them. It does seem - as we read both Old and New Testaments - that very often God either raises up difficulties or permits them to arise in order that by their very destruction or removal He may be glorified. God give us the love for His glory which shall create in us a faith which interprets every sorrow, disappointment, reverse, temptation, and conflict, in the light of a possible contribution to His honour, either by the grace given us to bear it, or by the actual removal of it, or by the method of its removal, or by what it may achieve in someone else.

A Broad Guiding Principle

"God worketh in all things good to those that love Him and are the called according to His purpose," but His activity is not primarily for their good, but for the manifestation unto the world of His own power, love, and wisdom.

Then, again, this principle should be the governing motive of Christian conduct. We are always hearing discussions upon questionable or doubtful things, lawfulness and expediency. For those who are unreservedly out-and-out for Christ, the last word in all matters of this kind is "can this thing really contribute to the supreme end for which I have a being and have dedicated myself - i.e., the glory of God, and that Christ may be all in all?"

We lay it down as a broad guiding principle. Our lives must be of a positive character, having not a single negative or neutral element in them. We cannot live on the bulkhead principle, shutting physical, mental, and spiritual into watertight compartments. Our unity is so absolute that unhealthiness in the least member has an effect upon the whole constitution. It is a grand thing when every sphere of life is made to definitely contribute to the glory of God, but we must remember that there are elements in life which are totally foreign to any such idea. We are sure that no greater epitaph could be inscribed to any man's memory than that "they glorified God in me," and we write with one object only - that there may be more who, by the high principle of their lives, and the regulation of all other matters, the way in which they regard the things that happen unto them, the pure and joyful disinterestedness of sacrifice and service, reveal to the darkened minds and shadowed lives around them the glory of Him Whose they are and Whom they serve.

"Now unto Him who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you before His presence without spot, in exceeding joy; to the only God our Saviour, be glory, honour, dominion, and power, through all time, now and for evermore. Amen."

Chapter 3 - The Victorious Life

It is not likely that we shall be challenged when we state that the experience of the great majority of Christian people is not that of constant victorious progress. We are compelled to come to this conclusion by listening to their prayers, by watching as those who have to give an account, and by a very widespread ineffectiveness on the part of the Christian Body.

Confessions of Failure

Many who have afterwards found the way of victory have placed on record the pathetic story of their strenuous quest and conscious failure. Here are one or two typical instances.

"There were great fluctuations in my spiritual life, in my conscious closeness of fellowship with God. At times God would seem very close and my spiritual life deep; but it would not last. Sometimes by some failure before temptation, sometimes by a gradual downhill process, my best experiences would be lost, and I would find myself on the lower levels. Another conscious lack of my life was in the matter of failure before besetting sins. I had prayed, oh! so earnestly and yet the habitual deliverance had not come. A third conscious lack was in the matter of dynamic, convincing spiritual power, that would work changes in other men's lives, I was doing a lot of Christian work. Once in a great while I would see a little in the way of results of course, but not much. I comforted myself with the old assurance that it was not for me to see results. But that did not satisfy me, and I was sometimes heartsick over the spiritual barrenness of my Christian service. After a time I began to get intimations that certain men to whom I looked up as conspicuously blessed in their Christian service seemed to have a conception or consciousness of Christ that I did not have; that was beyond any thought of Christ I ever had." We leave the sequel for the moment in order to give another instance of the same kind.

"My mind has been greatly exercised," wrote Hudson Taylor to his sister, "for some months past, feeling the need personally, and for our Mission, of more holiness, life, power in our souls. But personal need stood first and was the greatest. I felt the ingratitude, the danger, the sin, of not living nearer to God. I prayed, agonised, fasted, strove, made resolutions, read the Word diligently, sought more time for retirement and meditation; but all was without effect. Every day, almost every hour, the consciousness of sin oppressed me. I knew that if I could only abide in Christ all would be well, but I COULD NOT. I began the day with prayer, determined not to take my eye from Him for a moment: but pressure of duties, constant interruptions apt to be so wearing, often caused me to forget Him. Then one's nerves get so fretted in this climate that temptations to irritability, hard thoughts, and sometimes unkind words, are all more difficult to control.

A Soul's Agonising Cry

"Each day brought its register of sin and failure, of lack of power. To will was indeed present with me; but how to perform I found not. Then came the question, 'Is there NO rescue? Must it be thus to the end - constant conflict, and instead of victory, too often defeat?' Instead of growing stronger, I seemed to be getting weaker, and to have less power against sin. I hated myself, I hated my sin. I felt that I was a child of God, but to rise to my privileges as a child I was utterly powerless."

As we write we have before us sufficient material of this kind to make a fair-sized volume, and all this only helps to confirm us in the belief that for a great many earnest Christian people the Christian life is for the most part one of strain, reverses, anxiety, uncertainty, and one in which the great and superlative meaning of "grace," "love," "joy," "peace," and "triumph" have but a doubtful and limited realisation.

Of course, the instrument of this life of defeat is for the most part the Law, and the field is mainly the Flesh. We are obsessed by the "Thou shalt" and "Thou shalt not," and our state is one of constant repression. Thoughts, words, deeds, imaginations, and desires keep us in a state of constant effort and endeavour to check and control them. What are the results? They are just what the enemy wishes for the most successful achievement of his purposes. Fluctuation, undulation, variableness, instability, agitation, restlessness, and finally exhaustion. By such means the adversary can cripple and hinder the progress of the truth more than in any other way; and thus he blinds the eyes of so many to the true way of the fulness of life in Christ.

The Way of Deliverance

Yet, all these anxious and earnest souls are conscious in their heart of hearts that there must be a way of escape and deliverance. They feel sure that there is a superlative life, and in their hearts they have the vision of such a life. The vision is, in the first place, created by the very need. Unless life and our very nature and make up are a colossal mockery, then this vision is not a mere illusion, for our whole nature craves for it, and nothing less than it can ever bring us rest and satisfaction. It is the fulfilment and consummation of our very spiritual constitution. This leads us to point out that, not only is the vision created by the need, but it is revealed in the Word of God.

How many times do such words as "overcome," "overcometh," occur in the New Testament with a present application! Think, again, of such phrases as the following:-

"This is the victory that overcometh the world, even your faith."

"Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world."

"Who always causeth us to triumph."

"Who giveth us the victory."

"Sin shall not have dominion over you."

"We are more than conquerors."

It would take a very great deal of space to gather up all the statements in God's Word, which not only imply, but emphatically affirm, that here and now the song of victory may be in our mouths.

There is a third basis for trusting this vision, and it is a very practical one, namely, the experience of others.

We gave the negative side of the experience of two great Christian leaders; let us quote briefly from the sequel:-

"The three great lacks of which I spoke have been miraculously met.

"1. There has been a sustained fellowship with God, utterly different from anything I had ever known in all my life before. Christ has permitted no extended dreary fluctuations in my spiritual life.

From Failure to Triumph

"2. There has been habitual victory over certain besetting sins, the old ones that used to throttle and wreck me. There is yet much ground to be occupied by Christ; of that I am more painfully aware than I used to be. But many of the old constant and sickening soul-destroying failures are done away with by Him, and, as I have faith to believe, for ever.

"3. And, lastly, the spiritual results in service have given me such a sharing of the joy of heaven as I never knew was possible on earth. Several of my most intimate friends, most of them mature Christians, have had their lives completely revolutionised by Christ, laying hold of Him in this new way, and receiving Him unto all the fulness of God. Life fairly teems with the evidences of what Christ is willing and able to do."

Then take later lines from Hudson Taylor's letter: "When my agony of soul was at its height, a sentence in a letter from _____ was used to remove the scales from my eyes, and the Spirit of God revealed the truth of our oneness with Jesus as I had never known it before.

"How to get faith strengthened? Not by striving after faith, but by resting in the Faithful One.

"As I read I saw it! 'If we believe not, He abideth faithful.' I looked to Jesus and saw (and when I saw, Oh, how joy flowed!) that He had said, 'I will never leave you.' 'Ah, there is rest,' I thought. 'I have striven in vain to rest in Him. I'll strive no more. For has He not promised to abide with me - never to leave me - never to fail me?' The sweetest part, if one may speak of one part being sweeter than another, is the rest.

"I am no longer anxious about anything. It makes no matter where He places me, or how."

In these words, which are but typical of the testimony of many others which we should like to give, we have the fact and experience of the victorious life definitely stated. It is not our purpose to deal at length with the secret until the next chapter, but simply to emphasise the reality and describe the nature and basis of this triumphant Christian experience. We shall, therefore, conclude by saying a little about the victory in possession.

Appropriating the Inheritance

Firstly, we must remember that it will not be our achievement. The victory over sin with all its accompaniments is an already achieved thing. Christ accomplished that Himself, and victory is already completed in heaven. We are not called upon to fight sin to the death. Victory is a gift according to the measure of Christ. "Thanks be unto God Who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

It is our growing up into Him by surrender, and the activity of the Holy Spirit in the Spirit-filled life. Victory is God's Gift in Christ to faith. It is faith appropriating the inheritance of union with Christ.

It is progressive, not a finality in our immediate experience. We grow in this Grace. It is not the eradication of sin in a single act, but it is sure progressive triumph over sin. Only as we get nearer to God, to Heaven, and to Christ's likeness do we really understand sin.

This victorious life is expression, not repression. We are no more harassed by the "Thou shalt not," but we are partakers of the Divine Nature, so that we spontaneously gravitate toward doing the right.

We have said that the Holy Spirit brings this victory, and a short study in two words in Romans 7 and 8 will show how this is so. Romans 7 is the chapter of defeat and failure, and the central word is "I." That word occurs no fewer than thirty times in that chapter. Chapter 8 is the chapter of victory and deliverance, and the central word is "Spirit," which word occurs twenty-one times.

Let these two chapters be carefully and prayerfully read, and the inevitable result must be that we shall see that the victorious life is not of our own effort and straining, but the natural result of the Spirit-filled life, and its three-fold element is Faith appropriating, Hope rejoicing, Love living and serving.