The Glory of God In Resurrection # 1

The Glory of God in Resurrection # 1

You notice that the opening of John chapter 5 has to do with the lame man at the Pool of Bethesda, and the Lord's making him to rise up and walk, and the resultant persecution. Then at verse 17 we have, "Jesus answered them, My Father worketh even until now, and I work ... Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what he seeth the Father doing; for what things soever He doeth, these things the Son also doeth in like manner...As the Father raiseth the dead and giveth them life, even so the Son also giveth life to whom He will" (vv. 17-21).

"And as He passed by, He saw a man blind from his birth. And his disciples asked Him, saying, Rabbi, who sinned, this man, or his patents, that he should be born blind? Jesus answered, Neither did this man sin, nor his parents; but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. We must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day; the nigh cometh when no man can work" (John 9:1-4).

"But when Jesus heard it, He said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified thereby" (John 11:4).

"Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou believedst, thou shouldest see the glory of God?" (John 11:40).

Our brother has led our thoughts in the direction of that all-important work of the Cross in clearing ground for God and for us. We are able to pass over for a few minutes to the other side of the Cross, the Life side, and these words in John 11:4 contain the essence of things: "not unto death, but for the glory of God". You notice things which are set over against each other there, not even, "not death, but Life", or "not unto death, but unto Life'; it does not say that (although that is how it works out, or that is the way) but the opposites are death and the glory of God. Death stands against the glory of God and the glory of God is altogether ruled out where there is death. But, on the other hand, the glory of God rules out death, and where the glory of God is, there is no death.

Now, we have in these several passages references to the work of God or the works of God: "My Father worketh and I work", "My Father worketh", Neither did this man sin, nor his parents; but that the works of God should be made manifest in him", "Said I not unto thee, that, if thou believedst, thou shouldest see the  glory of God?" So that the work of God, or the works of God which are unto the glory of God, are works of resurrection. Resurrection is God's way of getting glory, and if we are really coming into the sphere of Divine activities and the works of God, we must expect that everything in those works of God leading to the glory of God, will be in terms of resurrection; so that the works of God in us and through us by His Son, Jesus Christ, will be resurrection works. And in order that glory might really come to the Lord, we, being brought into the presence of the utter necessity for the Lord has got to work. There will be no doubt about it that the Lord has got to work and unless the Lord does work, then that is an end of it. And if the Lord's works are resurrection, then, the necessities unto which we shall be brought will be necessities for resurrection. This will mean that we shall have to have a very deep realization, on the one hand, of the hopelessness of the situation, and a deep strong apprehension, on the other hand, of the God of resurrection. And the Lord will see to it that we have a very lively sense of how bad things are and how necessary it is for Him to enter in.

No Place for the Glory of God in the Flesh

This story of Lazarus, for instance, does bring out, among other things, this: that the Lord will see to it that we have a horror of the uncovering of the flesh. You notice when they came to the tomb and the Lord said, "Take away the stone", they stood back horrified. "Lord, by this time he stinketh." A horror of really what the flesh is from God's standpoint: the real corruption that is there, the real hopelessness of things there.

Do you realize, that it is an important factor in the realm of the works of God that we have a horror of the flesh? There is a necessity for the cutting off, the putting away, of it. It does not come into the realm of the work of God. Let me just add to the strength of what he said by this: that the Lord would have us, rather than work in the energy of the flesh, have a perfect horror of the flesh in the presence of the Lord Jesus. It is not until we have that loathing, that awful sense of what the flesh is before God, that we can come into the great work of God on that side of Divine life. That is one thing. I do not think that anybody ever really knows the works of God and glory of God in resurrection until they have come to a very deep apprehension of the utter worthlessness and abhorrence of the natural life as in the sight of God, so that it cries out, "Woe is me, I am undone!" That is what Lazarus would have said if he could have spoken from the tomb. At any rate, that represents his position. "Woe is me, for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips" (Isa. 6:5). Until we come to that, we cannot know the glory of God because thee is no place for the glory of God in the flesh. No flesh shall glory in His presence.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 2)