Not
by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. (Zechariah
4:6)
Does it not strike you
as significant, and very impressive, that when the veil was rent Israel was set
aside? Israel had been called in to maintain a testimony in types. Christ had
come and fulfilled all the types, and being the center of all the types, the
veil, all that kept God shut off from man, was now dealt with, and the way was
open. There was no need for types now. So the custodian of the types departs with
the types. This is not the dispensation of the types: this is the dispensation
of the reality, the dispensation of a heavenly union with a risen Lord, and of
all that that means. Our danger is of bringing back types. The types have gone
and that is the whole message of this letter to the Hebrews. Christ is
everything. The outward order of the Old Testament is set aside, and now all
that obtains is Christ Himself. He is the Priest; you no longer have priests on
earth in the Old Testament sense. He is the Sacrifice; there is no need for any
other sacrifices. He is the Tabernacle; He is the Temple; He is the Church.
What is the Church? It
is Christ in living union with His own, that wheresoever two or three are
gathered together in His name there He is in the midst. That is the Church. You
do not build special buildings and call them "the Church." You do not
have special organizations, religious institutions, which you call "the
Church." Believers in living union with the risen Lord constitute the
Church. This is the reality, not the figure. That is to say, His flesh, human
limitation, is done away. Now in union with Christ risen all human limitations
are transcended. This is one of the wonders of Christ risen as a living
reality. We are brought into a realm of capacities which are more than human
capacities, where, because of Christ in us, we can do what we never could do
naturally. Our relationships are new relationships; they are with heaven. Our
resources are new resources: they are in heaven. That is why the Apostle wrote
to the Corinthians and said that God hath chosen the weak things, the foolish
things. The things which are despised, and the things which are
not, that He by them might bring to naught the wise, the mighty, the
things which are. Why did God appoint it so? Because it is not by might,
nor by power, but by His Spirit; and to show that there are powers, energies,
abilities for His own which transcend all the greatest powers and abilities of
this world.
By T. Austin-Sparks from: The Risen Lord
and the Things Which Cannot be Shaken - Chapter 4
This photograph is by Eric Jonas Swensson of Sound Shore Media.
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