"This is the Testimony"

by T. Austin-Sparks

Chapter 7 - The Glory of God in the Church

Through these messages we have, from the writings of the Lord through His servant John, been seeing the testimony of Jesus as gathered up into three things: Light, Life and Love.

The letter to the Ephesians is Paul's letter on the same subject.

Light - "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him; having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe..." (Eph. 1:17-19).

Life - "When He raised Him from the dead, and made Him to sit at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come... and you did He make alive, when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins... even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ... and raised us up with Him" (Eph. 1:20-21; 2:1,5-6).

Love - "That ye... may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God" (Eph. 3:17-19).

Light, Life, Love; and then -

"Unto Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 3:21).

"As He is, so are we" (1 John 4:17). "Glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations for ever and ever" (Eph. 3:21).

What is the glory of God in the church? The glory of God in the church is the measure in which Christ, in terms of Light, Life and Love, is there. I think that sums up this letter. Yes, glory to God in the church in the measure in which this heavenly Light in Christ is there.

You know quite well that when the Spirit opens the eyes of our hearts and in His Light we see light, when, by the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit, Christ breaks upon our hearts, how we feel the glory. The glory breaks out in joy and praise. It is a great thing to suddenly see by a flash of illumination something concerning Christ that you never saw before, and to be in a way where that is happening all the time and enlarging. It is very heart-ravishing, it is very satisfying, it is very blessed. You want to be there all the time, it is the place of glory for you where the Light is, and this letter was written with the object that it should be so.

I say that because it is not generally so, it is not always so, and not everywhere so, but it is what the Lord wants. And if we get on to the Lord's basis, if He has a church constituted according to His mind and principles, it is like that, there is glory in that church. It is the glory of Light that 'groweth not pale'; it is the glory of growing, increasing Light.

When the Lord has things as He would have them among His people, there is the glory of Life. When you feel the Life, when you come into the atmosphere of the Life, when the Life is really abounding, how blessed it is! Not always do you understand what is being said, not always do you grasp the significance of what is being taught, but you have to say, "Well, there is heart-satisfying Life there; I find Life there!" That is the glory of the Lord in terms of Life.

And so with Love. If the Lord has things as He would have them, then Love abounds, and mutual love one for another increases and it is a glorious thing. That is simply what is here in this letter.

Glory to God in the church - what is that? Well, in the Old Testament in the tabernacle and in the temple, it was the Shekinah Glory. In the New Testament, it is not that objective pillar of fire, it is the glory in our hearts. God has "shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6). In our hearts; and this being a heart matter, it is a matter of Light in the heart, and Life in the heart, and Love in the heart.

But as we look at this letter, we find that an emphasis is laid upon this matter in particular ways of application. Let us run through the letter underlining certain words.

The Glory of Grace

"Grace to you" (Eph. 1:2).

"To the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved: in whom we have our redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace" (1:6,7).

"Even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace have ye been saved)" (2:5).

"That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus" (2:7).

(Formerly it was "the riches of His grace"; now it is "the exceeding riches of His grace").

"For by grace have ye been saved" (2:8).

"If so be that ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given me to you-ward" (3:2).

"Through the gospel, whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of that grace of God which was given me according to the working of His power" (3:6,7).

"Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, was this grace given..." (3:8).

"But unto each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ" (4:7).

"Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ with a love incorruptible" (6:24).

Glory to God in the church in terms of grace. We have said earlier that grace is love in action; it is another word for love. What a theme that is - glory in the church because of the grace of God. That is where glory takes its rise, and you notice that grace is here seen in three ways. Grace as the source - "by grace have ye been saved"; grace as the river flowing on - "every one of us is given grace"; "was this grace given to me" grace all the way along; and grace as the mighty ocean into which the river empties itself - "in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace"; source, and river, and ocean.

Grace - glory to God in the church. You do not need that I preach on that; I should be making myself ridiculous if I tried. It is just something stated. What is it that brings the glory of God in the church? It is the marvellous, marvellous mystery of His grace. If we apprehend the grace of God, there will be glory in the church. If in any life there is no glory, it is because that life has not really apprehended the grace of God. For glory, we really do want to grasp the fact of the grace of God.

We cannot define that word 'grace'. It beats and defies all definitions; it always goes beyond us. It goes right down to the very depths and finds the lowest soul and takes that soul right up to the topmost rung, as He raised Him and set Him at His right hand, far above all, and God "hath quickened us together with Christ... and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" - raised us from the depths right up to the heavenlies. That is the grace of God, and we have nothing to do with it but to believe. That is the simple gospel, but a glorious thing: "glory in the church".

Now, the point is this: the church is eternally predestined by God to be, before and above all other things, the vessel in which His grace is displayed for all time and for all eternity. If you get onto any other ground, you are altogether outside of church ground. Anybody who claims to be upon Body ground, church ground, is a person who is absolutely, from the very first syllable to the last sentence, on the ground of grace, because it is within that bound of the church that God has determined from all eternity to all eternity to display the exceeding riches of His grace.

We should try to grasp that language, for in this letter there are more superlatives than anywhere else in the Bible. Paul just tumbles over himself to try to express himself. He uses superlative upon superlative. "Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think" (Eph. 3:20). He cannot get away from it, it is too much for him, and it is all grace. This letter, then, is full of superlatives, and they are all brought on to this ground, into this connection.

In order to understand this language, you will have to understand how much everything must be of grace, and therefore when you get into God's hands, you are destined to one experience, to one history. You are destined to be brought to the place where you know without any question that, but for the grace of God, there is no hope, but because of the grace of God there is every hope. That is the glory of God. This grace is in Christ Jesus in the church.

The Glory of Love

Then you could do the same thing with this word 'love'. I must leave you to do it. Run through the letter and underline the word 'love'. Start with the first verse of the letter, and you go right through to that glorious revelation in chapter 5:25 "Christ loved the church, and gave Himself up for it; that He might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, that He might present the church to Himself a glorious church" (glory in the church) "not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing". And in between those two, the first and the last, you have these other things: the breadth, length, height and depth, the knowledge-surpassing Love; rooted and grounded in love; the body building itself up in love. It is all love! Glory in the church. How? Yes, by the grace of God, but also by the manifestation of the Love of Christ in the church.

If we are concerned for the glory of God, it becomes a very practical matter. We have to love one another; we have somehow got to find a way to resolve our problems with one another. We must take the attitude that this strained relationship, this difficulty between us and someone else, is not to the glory of God, and we are not going to accept it simply on that ground. The glory of God is injured in this situation, whether it be something between one and another, or whether it be something in our own personal lives, whether it be something in the whole church. The way to handle it is: this is not to the glory of God, and that is a sufficient reason why it has to be dealt with and can be dealt with. If the glory of God can be in the church by dealing with this thing, then we have a right to go to the Lord for the solution. Let us face our problems, our difficulties, the situations which are among us on that ground, that God can get some glory out of this and therefore that is the motive for taking it up and getting it settled.

Glory in the church is along the line of Love, and mutual love. "That ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth". Paul says to the Thessalonians "the love of each one of you all toward one another aboundeth" (2 Thess. 1:3). There is a glorious church; glory to God in the church.

The Glory of Mutual Upbuilding

One other thing. Everyone, as in a body, must take his or her own share of responsibility to minister to all the others for the mutual building up. 'Edifying' is the word so often used, but it is a pity, literally it is 'for the building up of itself'. There is a glory, a measure of glory, bound up with every member of this Body, every part of it, and Paul is simply saying about himself as a member of the Body: "This grace, this stewardship of grace, the grace which was given to me for this particular ministry. Each part is, through grace, endowed with a certain responsibility, has a certain place to take, a certain ministry to fulfil, a contribution to make".

I do feel that this is a necessary word because there are so many passengers in the church, so many people who have to be carried, so many who are to and fro, year in and year out, never making any positive contribution, and therefore there is a limitation of the Lord; there is not the glory that there might be. I want to say to you that we will miss the glory. We do not know what glory there is to be known in our heart if only we will seek to be a positive factor, contributing to the building of the whole.

Paul has a lot to say in this letter, as you know, about mutual building up, and he says quite clearly that these people that have the specific ministries, who are the outstanding ones, the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, are only there to help the church to fulfil the ministry: to build itself up. They are not there to do the building up and to fulfil the ministry, only to help to do it. But the church is leaving it all to them. Therefore there is not the glory that there might be in the church, that there might be in your heart, if you took responsibility for the Lord's interest, to make the church your matter, to make the Lord's interests your matter.

Now, you may not feel the force of that, but there is a lot bound up with this as to the glory of God - that every one really is seeking in exercise before the Lord to have a contribution to make, not necessarily an address to give, but a contribution to make in his and her own way as the Lord enables, to be not one always just taking and never giving. It is when "every joint supplieth", every part in due measure, that increase is made and the glory is there.

"Glory in the church", and what is the church? Well, for all practical purposes, it is every individual, it is you. There would be no church if there were no individuals. Get rid of individuals and there is no church. While collective, do not let us make that something that weakens individual responsibility. We can hide behind the corporate and save ourselves from our own individual responsibility. It is when all, each several part, all are exercised about the Lord's interests that the Lord is glorified. Grace, love, practical responsibility.

The Glory of Unity

If I say any more, I shall only launch out into new realms and we shall find ourselves involved, but I do want to lay this emphasis upon the matter of unity. It is the outworking of love. There is so much here in this letter about it, "Till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13). How is the fulness of Christ reached so that the glory of God is in the church? Along this line of unity.

You know the glory in the Old Testament was suspended when that unity broke down, when in the camp there was disaffection. Aaron and Miriam, Dathan and Abiram and their company were disaffected; something was going on in a corner. As you read the story, you can feel the cloud, you can feel something is all wrong, the glory is not here, and until that is all cleared up, the atmosphere is not right, you cannot breathe. Have you felt that as you have read these stories? I have. You can feel the atmosphere of it. When it is all cleared up, when that is dealt with and out of the way, we can go on, the glory appears. It is like that. The matter of unity is a great factor in glory; the glory of God is greatly bound up with our unity as the Lord's people.

The glory of God should be the thing which governs all our interests and concerns. In every relationship, in every matter, the thing that we have to ask is: 'How does this touch the glory of God?' Not, 'How does it affect me?'; not, 'Well, is there anything wrong about it?' Not these subsidiary questions at all, but primarily, 'How does it affect the glory of God?' "Now unto Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above...". Do you see what that follows? It is not something by itself. It is this – "may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God. Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations for ever and ever." That is the ground of the glory and that is the way of the glory.

If we are concerned about the glory of God, then the church becomes a very practical matter. The grace of God can be viewed at once and apprehended in an altogether new way. Oh, it says this: "Well, if God is jealous for His own glory, then grace is the only way in which He can get any glory where I am concerned". I believe God is jealous for His glory. I cannot bring Him any glory; if there is any glory in me, it will have to be by the grace of God. He is jealous for His glory, therefore He will deal with us in grace, not only for now but forever and ever. "That in the ages to come...". It is very difficult to grasp the future and to make everything of the future, especially when you are young. The present is so much, this life and this world is so much, but the life that we have commenced to live in union with Christ goes on through all the generations of the ages of the ages, and the grace by which we have been saved is to be displayed in the exceeding riches thereof throughout all that period, and who can put a full stop to it? No one! The glory of God through grace! So we say, "To Him be the glory", and if you are a candidate for grace, you are a candidate for glory, and if you are in hope of the glory, then you may be assured of the grace.