The Urgency and the Way of Spiritual Reality (continued)
The Holy Spirit Came to Glorify Christ ...And He Is Here to Make Christ Real In Us (continued)
But we come to the Epistles. What is the Holy Spirit here to do? When we turn to the first of the Epistles, the Epistle to the Romans, it says: "Them that are called according to His purpose" (8:28). Now those of you who know your Bibles, know that the primary chapter concerning the Holy Spirit is Romans, chapter 8. And the Holy Spirit is doing everything, everything. You see, in the earlier part of the Epistle, the way of salvation has been made clear. And the way of deliverance from sin has been made clear. In Romans 6, you have seen that with Christ we are dead to sin, and alive unto God. And by the end of Romans 6, you are rejoicing and saying, "Well, praise the Lord, sin shall not have dominion over me." Yes, but why is it that chapter 7 goes into a sort of muddle again? It seems all wrong, because you have got free from sin in chapter 6, but in chapter 7 there is an awful battle going on trying to make it real. You now a lot of people are trying to make it real. You know a lot of people are trying to make it real; an awful effort and strain to make real the thing that somehow or other God has been speaking about, and then in chapter 8, you get the secret: it is the Spirit of Life that makes it real. It is the Holy Spirit Who makes Romans 6 real. Romans 8, is really only Romans 6 made real, is it not? It is the Holy Spirit making real. Why, "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and of death." Yes, of course, it was the Cross that really delivered us, that is Romans 6, but the Holy Spirit makes real what the Cross has done. And I believe that everyone of us has to come to the actual reality of Romans 8 and say, 'Lord, I trust You to make Calvary real as my deliverance, and I trust the Spirit to maintain me in this new position, which is in Christ Jesus. I trust the Holy Spirit to do it.' And the Word is, "You are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit" (verse 9). It is the Holy Spirit.
Yes, but what is the purpose of the Holy Spirit applying the Cross? Because there is a lot of application in Romans 8: There is a lot of suffering, there are things happening to us; it is not just a doctrinal position, you get to verse 28, "For all things work together for good to them that love God." And we usually use that verse about people having some awful trials do we not? Whenever anyone has a dreadful time we say, well, Romans 8:28. Yes, that means together for good, in what way? "For them who are called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He did foreordain to be conformed to the image of His Son." The purpose is likeness to Christ: it is being changed into what Christ is.
Yes, in fact the Holy Spirit is here set upon this one thing, to change us, to change us into that image, to change us into that Likeness. And all of our trials and all of our disciplines are to change us, to transform us into the likeness of His beloved Son. That is what's happening, but the Holy Spirit is doing it as we trust Him, as we obey Him.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 29 - (Fellowship With Christ and Fellowship In Christ)
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