T. Austin-Sparks · 1 of 3

God's Thought-Intention Concerning Manhood

"Ye must be born anew (from above)" (John 3:3).

"Ötill we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13).

"Ye have put off the old man with his doings, and have put on the new man... where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman, - but Christ is all, and in all" (Col. 3:9-11).

"(He) emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a Man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the Cross" (Phil. 2:7,8).

It is at least interesting, but more impressive, to recognize that the passages above - cited from Paul's letters are the full development of John's recorded word of Christ - "Ye must be born anew" or "from above". John's Gospel was one of the last of the New Testament writings to be written. When all the Apostles had gone to the Lord and the first apostolic century was nearing its end, John wrote his Gospel. He wrote because Christianity was fast changing its form. From being essentially characterized by life, it was fast declining into tradition. From being an inward thing of the spirit it was becoming an outward thing of formality. From being heavenly it was becoming earthly. From treating of the eternal Son of God it was becoming a matter of the Jesus of History. The universal Church of his Epistles, and the local churches of his Revelation had lost their spirituality and set aside or repudiated the great revelation given them through Paul. "All that are in Asia turned away from me" (2 Tim. 1:15). John's Gospel was written as a corrective to all the above, and much more. Take those points one by one and see that corrective character.

Having introduced the Son in His eternal Godhead, and then indicated or stated the heavenly relationship of His manhood, he soon arrives at his contrasting of that heavenly Man with the best type of (religious) earthly man, and at that point, in that connection, introduces Christ's words "Ye must be born anew". We are thus brought at once into the light of the eternal thought-intention for manhood - albeit, Deity apart, so far as all but Christ are concerned.

One inclusive effect of a right apprehension of John's writings (as of Paul's and Peter's) would be to deliver Christianity from the smallness into which it has been brought, into the greatness, the immensity, of God's intentions. At the centre of these intentions stands - so far as creation is concerned - a Divine conception of manhood.

Men Representing Constituents Of Manhood According To God's Thought

"Let us make man" - that was a conception, that was a thought, and it proved to be an intention. "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Gen. 1:26). God made man. He made him, and then he was marred; that man was spoiled by the works of the devil, permitted by man in himself. From that point you find a course of history in which there was a chain of men under God's hand in each of whom there is seen some feature of manhood according to God. That is why these men are mentioned, why we have what we have about them - Abel, Enoch, Abraham, and all the rest. They are men under God's hand and every one of them represents some feature of manhood according to God's thought-intention. There were many other things about those men, but one thing in every case was uppermost, and that is this Divine thought, this man-factor in accordance with God's mind. Not one of these men was complete as a man according to God. Perhaps in most things they were very imperfect and in most of them there were many contradictions; but there was one thing about them all. It was not the same thing in every one, but a different thing in nearly all of them. There was one thing which stood out, upon which God looked, to which God committed Himself, because of which God went on with that man; because that man was, in his heart-relationship with God, being made to reveal one of these marks of manhood as God intended it to be. But, as we have said, they were all imperfect. No one of them was complete as a man after God's Own heart. They failed and passed on, just leaving this outstanding characteristic to be noted for all time. We do not stay now to indicate what those characteristics were in each case - you know them. We simply intimate the fact. Each link in the chain of these men represented some feature, but the chain ended in imperfection, incompleteness, no one having in all respects satisfied God, but God having had a testimony in everyone.

The Incarnation

The next stage and step is the incarnation, the coming in flesh of the Word Who was God, the heavenly Man in the world, the Son of Man: and immediately He became the central object of universal contemplation. Heaven looked on and watched and was most interested. At the birth, angels were present looking on; they were tremendously interested in it. From time to time during His life on earth angels attended, visited, and ministered, succouring in the wilderness, in the garden. In His resurrection they were there at the tomb. It is the manhood that is the object of interest. Hell was very much interested. At the birth, Herod; in the wilderness, Satan; in the Cross, principalities and powers. To use the simile of the Psalmist - "They compassed me about like bees" (Psa. 118:12) - swarms of evil spirits investing Him. Hell was tremendously interested in this manhood. And earth was interested, men were interested, watching, perplexed. He is the centre of universal interest.

The Purpose Of The Incarnation

(a) The Destruction Of The Works Of The Devil In Man

Then you ask, What is the meaning and the purpose of God coming in this form, in man-form? Well, the answer is that the purpose is twofold. One, to bring in a Man fully in accord with Divine thought-intention, and set Him forth as heaven's pattern: and the other to destroy the works of the devil in man. "The Son of God was manifested (in man-form) that He might destroy the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8). I just want to intimate here - we will come back to it more fully - that the destroying of the works of the devil by the Son of Man was not just some objective thing, as I might take up a book and tear it to pieces. It was done inwardly, and it was not first of all done in man outside of Jesus Christ. It was done in the Son of Man Himself. That wants explaining. It would get me into trouble if I left it there. He was doing something by being something. He was destroying something by being the opposite of that something. "The prince of the world cometh" - to destroy Me, that is the meaning - "and he hath nothing in Me" (John 14:30), nothing to work upon; therefore he was utterly defeated, and he was defeated in a man because he had not got the ground. His works are destroyed because he has not got the required ground for success. The Son of God was manifested to destroy the works of the devil as Son of Man, and so supplant the first man, Adam, in whom the works of the devil had been wrought.