May 9
The word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged
sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it
judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (Hebrews 4:12 NIV).
The whole thought of God, running right
through this letter, is spiritual fullness; and any religion – even
Christianity – mixing and confusing soul and spirit, the sentient and the
spiritual (as did the Christian-Judaism and as does organized Christianity) is
doomed to the destiny of Judaism. If we draw upon the soul resources of people
to build up Christianity, instead of recognizing that “all things are out from
God” – that all must first come from Him and have its first point of contact
with man in his spirit, which, being renewed (made anew) becomes the vessel and
vehicle of all Divine things for ever after – no matter how immense may be our
structure, it is going to crash when the great “shaking” comes. Christianity
now is very largely a built up thing with many Jewish features in it; i.e., outward orders, forms, vestments, titles, buildings
and rigidly fixed boundaries of apprehension of truth. Viewed from a heavenly
standpoint, it is all so much nonsense, child's play; albeit so seriously
regarded by its children.
It is important to recognize that this
letter was addressed to a people who – for a long period – had held the
position nationally of a people whom God had taken out of the world unto
Himself. It seeks to explain their nature and history in the light of Christ
and true spiritual Christianity. It shows that even such a people may make their
separation earthly and earthbound, and that for so doing they have been
“overthrown,” and will – even as Christians – be overthrown again if they
repeat in Christianity what their fathers did in Judaism. There is something
here much more than typology interpreted and the interpretation accepted as to
salvation from sin and judgment; it is the essential and indispensable heavenly
relatedness and life of the Lord's people as inwardly detached from
the natural life even in a religious sense.
From: “God Hath
Spoken” - Chapter 1.
This photograph is by Radha Stendl.
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