T. Austin-Sparks · 1 of 3

The Supreme Message of the New Testament

"There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1).

"He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit" (1 Cor. 6:17).

"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me; and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, which is in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me" (Gal. 2:20).

If our life with the Lord is really a living one, that is, if we are in living fellowship with Him in and by the Holy Spirit, if we are really alive unto the Lord, there will be one thing about us. That is: we shall always be in a state of seeking to know the things that matter, that are the living and supreme matters as to the Lord's mind concerning us, as to the Lord's thoughts for His own. And that feature of our lives will be, because it is a work of the Holy Spirit, something which makes it possible and makes actual a continual new revelation, that nothing becomes fixed, static, final, set, stagnant, but everything is fluid. We are seeing (not to the repudiation of other things) with clearer eyes those things which lie right at the very heart of what God has purposed and how He has determined to reach His end. I say it is a state of quest all the time, not necessarily one of spiritual restlessness, but of reaching out going on in us. It is a mark of real spiritual life. If you have not got that, you had better look to the matter and ask the Lord about it.

And so it comes that we find ourselves from time to time standing back from all that we know, all that we have been taught, and asking questions, new questions, or questions are arising with new insistence: big questions, fundamental questions, ultimate questions. Now I am not just going to say that that is so, but I want to show you what that means, or what that is.

I stand back from my New Testament or from my Bible very often from time to time, and ask big, comprehensive, ultimate questions. I have got into the minutia of the Scriptures, to the detail, and I want to extricate myself and stand back and survey the whole thing and find great big questions about this: now, what does it all resolve itself into? What does it all mean, what is the ultimate implication, what does it work out at? What is it meant to bring about? Where is this intended to get us, the whole thing? Questions like this arise, not just mental inquisitiveness, but out of your own spiritual life and experience, because one great urge of the Spirit is to attain.

You see, that was the mark of Paul, this Holy Spirit urge in him to attain. "Brethren, I count not myself to have attained", "that I may attain" this thing, and out of that Spirit urge inside, pressure inside, largely born of the experiences through which he passed: difficulty, trial, tests of faith, big problems, questions arising. You cannot be content with theories, you cannot be content with just doctrines, the whole practical issue arises. You are forced to face these practical consequences of it all, and say, "Is it all myth, or what does it mean?" That is a mark of a Spirit-governed life, and so from time to time we stand back and make these enquiries. I have been doing that with my New Testament and I have had opportunity of doing it lately, standing back from my New Testament and asking some big questions. I give you the result of that enquiry in one matter this evening.

What is it that arises from the New Testament as the primary thing? It comes out, yes, through the Gospels in measure, particularly through John, and lying there in Luke, and then in the Epistles, and finding its fullest, most comprehensive and most profound expression through the apostle Paul. What is it that becomes the one thing, the great consequence of it all? I can put that in another way, focusing upon Paul particularly. What is the distinctive message and revelation that has come through that servant of God, not through him in an isolated way, in an unrelated way, but through the New Testament as a whole, and yet through him in a fuller way than perhaps anyone else?

Let me say some of the things which it is not. It may surprise you, especially when you think of Paul. The upshot, the special message, the great note, is not salvation. It is a note, it is a related note, it is a part of the whole score of the glorious harmony. It is not the note. When I speak of salvation, let me break that up. Even bearing in mind the great message of the letter to the Romans, the great issue coming out in its fullest volume and force through Paul is not justification by faith. That is a great note. Oh, thank God for the letter to the Romans. Thank God that Paul gave, by the Holy Spirit, such a marvellous and wonderful unveiling of the truth of justification by faith. But that is not Paul's peculiar and supreme message.

It is not reconciliation; though Paul says much about reconciliation, that is not the revelation. It is not redemption, though there is much about redemption in the New Testament and in Paul. It is not sanctification, though that is there and there is much about sanctification, and a great emphasis upon the necessity for it, that is not it. It is not glorification, though that is the one thing in view so often, the thing which casts its ray on the path, that is held up to us as the prize at the end of the road - "glorified together with Him" (Rom. 8:17). But that is not the revelation particularly, it is a part of it.

It is not evangelisation. There is much about evangelisation in the New Testament, and of course Paul did a very great deal in that matter, but that is not the message, that is not the word; and with Paul particularly in mind, it is not that the Gentiles are to be evangelised and that Israel's limitation among the nations is to be overstepped to open a door for the Gentiles. Some people think that is Paul's particular revelation and message. No; it is there, it is a part of it, but it is not it.

Now listen - neither is it the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, much as that has its place and is in view and is stressed, yet even the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is not the great revelation. Now, it sounds like going back on many things that we have said, when we say that neither is it the Church. Yes, we have said that the Church is peculiarly Paul's revelation and ministry. It is peculiarly his, but not uniquely his, not his alone, and neither in Paul, nor in all the apostles put together, is the Church the supreme revelation.

There are other things that have a very large place, such things as resurrection. Well, Paul has touched on resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15 and given us something that we can find nowhere else as to the fact and nature, the glory of the resurrection. It is not the great revelation. It is there, it is a part, but it is not it.

Then what is it? Well, this is what has come to my own heart with new and great force, gathering all else into itself, all these other things as a part of it, but becoming like the hub of the wheel of which all these are but the spokes, in which they find their centre and from which they radiate. What is it - the great revelation, the great message?