Christ, His People, the Church and the Cross

In preparing for this first post, I have been considering what is the most general description that would capture the thrust of the books on this site. These writing do not deal with self-help or social justice. Nor are they merely attempts to expound the Bible. There is an attempt at an underlying agenda, which I think is best captured in an editor's letter written by T. Austin-Sparks in November of 1967. Looking back on his many years of ministry, he simplified the thrust of his ministry into four pillars.

The first pillar is Christ and His grandeur. It is impossible to fully explain the extent and importance of Christ in man's salvation and God's eternal workings. He is too grand, too large, to intricate, too perfect, too wonderful, and too mysterious. Sparks writes,

• The eternal counsels of God, firstly in relation to His Son, who became Jesus Christ, the Christ our Lord. The superlative and transcendent place and greatness of God's Son in the eternal counsels of God from everlasting to everlasting. We have been extended far beyond our ability in seeking to convey to our readers the greatness of Christ, and to indicate His significance in God's universe.

The second pillar is God's people. The Bible is full of descriptions of man's relationship with God. Genesis contains only two chapters on creation, but forty-eight chapters on God's relationship with his people. God's salvation is wrapped up with redeeming man, sanctifying man, transforming man, and eventually bringing man fully into glory. Sparks describes his second pillar to be

• The greatness of man in those thoughts of God. 'What is man?' has remained an unanswered question as to its fullness in God's purpose concerning him. With all his "fall" and depravity; his ruin and evil propensities, he still remains a conception of God for glory, honor, and dominion over 'the inhabited earth to come.' This is not 'humanism,' the antichrist counterfeit of God's thought.

The third pillar is God's church, which is not a temporary contraption designed by God for this age alone, but is the theater and result of God's eternal working. The grand and the practical elements of God's church are subjects for the believers enlargement, eternal workings, and day-to-day experiences. Sparks writes,

• The greatness of the church; the 'one new man,' the counterpart of Christ. We have given much time and space to trying to show the true nature, vocation of this elect Body of Christ; its present out-calling and preparation, and its glorious destiny and function in the ages to come. What the word calls, 'a glorious church.'

The fourth pillar is the cross. Our self-life and self-interest usurp God's throne and authority. The battle must be won. The decision concerning who sits on the throne must be made, realized, applied and lived out. Only then can we experience the fullness of God's salvation and kingdom. On this final pillar, Sparks writes,

• The greatness of the cross, by which Christ gains His preeminence of victory. By which alone man-redeemed man-can reach his purposed nature, glory, honor, and dominion. By which the church can attain to its 'eternal purpose.'

The revelation of Christ in his fullness, man in his salvation, the church in its glory, and the cross in its victory will ever and always be our purpose and goal.