Faith Unto Enlargement Through Adversity # 7

Life, Liberty, Enlargement For Us In Christ (continued)

So this glorious Psalm, with its wonderful background in the life of the Lord Jesus and by the Cross of the Lord Jesus, gathers us in. We are in this collective "I". We come into the good of this. "I shall not die, but live." "The Lord answered me and set me in a large place." It is true, is it not? It is true. We have that life triumphant over death. He has given that life to us; it is ours. It is not only ours in that general way - "the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23) - but it is a testimony for all our live, something for now. It is a life which has come out of His death, and has overcome death in Him. It is for us. Do not let us lose the force of that by familiarity. It is to be a testimony every day. What we have in Christ is to be experienced and manifested every day, and it can be.

But then, and upon this we shall dwell very much more fully - what enlargement we have in Christ from our limitation! How infinitely great is the place into which we have been brought, how immeasurable are the resources, how vast are the ranges, how potent are the forces into which we have come in Christ through His death!

I close by reminding you of this - that while it is all concluded in Him, that where He is concerned there is nothing more to be done in this matter: it is full and it is final, and He has entered into His rest, has sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens; nothing through which we go can add to that, nothing which we experience can take from it; nevertheless, in a sense - not vicariously, not atoningly, not in the sense of His great redemptive work - but in a sense of fellowship with Him while He is still rejected in this world, and of humiliation in fellowship with Him, the principle still remains: that is, that life and enlargement come through adversity and faith's triumph therein. It is the law of life. Faith's triumph in adversity issues in life and enlargement.

We shall see more fully how true that is. The Bible is just full of it. Given a real test of faith, much adversity and opposition, everything hemming in, circling round - "all nations compassed me about, they compassed me about, they compassed me about" - you see, it is reiterated, it is very real - nevertheless, nevertheless, that only constitutes the challenge to faith. Faith looks upon that as its opportunity, and when faith  comes out in its declaration over against all that, and says, "I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord," that is the highway to a new experience of life and a new range of fullness - to enlargement by way of faith's challenge and faith's victory.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 8 - (The Key of Faith)