We have spoken about the way in the footprints of the Lamb. Now let us investigate the goal of that way. Only he who has a goal before him will hasten onward and with joy overcome the difficulties of the way. The destiny of the Christian is the visible union with the Lamb. In Ephesians 5:31-32, we read: “. . . and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the Church.” Consequently, to be “one flesh” with Him is more than to be one spirit with Him. Two young people become engaged because they are of one spirit; but both look forward to the day when they shall stand by each other’s side as man and wife. So is it with Christ and the Church. The Church longs for the moment when as the Bride, she shall stand with a glorified body at His side. When the Scriptures speak about the eternal destiny of the believers, it gives them two names: “a kingdom of priests,” (Rev. 1:6) and “the wife of the Lamb.” (Rev. 19:7). This has not yet been fulfilled in us. At best we are this in a spiritual sense; but this is not the perfected state. A merely spiritual interpretation, especially of these two names, is a great hindrance to the coming of the Kingdom of God. We must learn to understand that we have to do with a Person and not with things, that we must not stop with our experiences, that spiritual enjoyment is not sufficient: we must press on to something much higher. Not long ago someone said to me: “Only recently has it become clear to me that we are not concerned only with personal salvation. Conversion is an experience; the forgiveness of sins is an actuality; peace with God brings deep joy. But all these things, which we have experienced and must possess, are not themselves the goal, but only the means of attaining it. Our destiny is a visible union with the Son of God. We must, therefore, not stop here lest we be numbered among the foolish virgins. For through all this the Kingdom of God is not furthered to any great extent—and this, of course, is of first significance.” We ourselves are saved in order to help in the salvation of others, and this salvation includes not only the lost world but the whole creation which groans in pain. When Paul speaks of the proclamation of the Gospel, he enlarges the circle to include all men; but when he speaks about salvation, he makes the circle yet larger and includes within it the whole groaning creation. (Rom. 8:19-23). The travail of creation does not concern God’s ear, but ours. The earnest expectation of creation is not for the revealing of the Son of God, but for the revealing of the sons of God (Rom. 8:19). Thereby some responsibility for the redemption of creation is laid upon our shoulders and written as a debt on our account. This gives us a larger vision of our task and tells us that our ultimate goal cannot be “to come to heaven” in order to rest forever there. He who stops here does not understand his calling as a Christian and does not know what the real issues are in our time and for the future. We are all members of Christ’s body; He Himself is the Head and from Him “every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth” awaits a complete salvation. (Rev. 5). We may stop only where Christ, our Head, stops, and He is finished only when He has laid all things under the Father’s feet, in order that God may be all in all (1 Cor. 15:20-28). Until that time our blessedness consists in serving (Rev. 22:3), that together with the Son we may bring a lost world into subjection to the Father. Thus, will the Kingdom of God come, as Jesus has taught us to pray in the Lord’s Prayer. The final and perfect state is, therefore, not the “Kingdom of the Son” but the “Kingdom of the Father,” for this is the Father’s house. The Kingdom of God has two aspects: an earthly aspect and a heavenly aspect. The earthly one is the “Kingdom of the Spirit” in which we now live, and the “Kingdom of the Son” which is fast approaching; the heavenly one is the “Kingdom of the Father,” where He is Father and all those present are His children. God never gives up but always begins anew. Every time things seem to go backward, the Lord, nevertheless, wins a step forward, as we see in the history of the Kingdom of God. Jesus began with twelve men. To them He gave His Holy Spirit. According to Acts 15:14, they were given the task of “gathering a people for His name” among the Gentiles. When this is completed, the Lord will come again in order to begin anew with this saved people, and by them “show light” (Acts 26:23) to those who yet sit in darkness and the shadow of death. This is concerning the “first fruits.” According to the Scriptures, it is not now the work of the Holy Spirit to convert the world, but to choose out a people from the world. In Acts 15 we read about the first general meeting of the servants of Christ. There they agreed as to the lines along which they should work, and as to the goal they should seek to attain. The goal was clearly and definitely marked out. This also concerns us. Every work that is not done according to these directions cannot be confirmed by the Holy Spirit. It is not enough that we give people guidance as to conversion to Christ; we ourselves must lead them to Christ. Then we are doing a work according to the instructions given by the Holy Spirit, a work which has significance for the Kingdom of God. The conversion and life of many believers have value only for their own personal salvation, but not for the Kingdom of God. There is a difference between “dying happy and saved”—as we sometimes say—and serving God as a king and priest in the coming Kingdom! Paul says to the Corinthians that he is “jealous over them with a godly jealousy” in order that he may “present them as a pure virgin to Christ.” To the Philippians he says that if he does not attain to this goal, he has run and laboured in vain. (Phil. 2:15-16). Oh, how many of our labourers, seen from this viewpoint, will on that day will be seen as a “great mistake” and will receive the mark: “In vain!” Yes, many a work will be seen to have been a great mistake! Thus, we can understand why, in spite of all the work being done, so little is accomplished. The seal of the Spirit is lacking! And more than that, because one does not work according to the plan of the Holy Spirit, one grieves the Holy Spirit by the very work one desires to carry out for God. For in the light of their context, the words, “Grieve not the Holy Spirit,” point forward to the day of salvation—that is, to the coming of the Lord. Every member of the body of Christ who halts and does not allow himself to be led on to maturity, grieves the Holy Spirit, the Master-builder of the body of Christ. This hinders the development of the whole body. When I sin today, I sin not only against God and against myself, but I sin against the whole body of Christ, of which I am a member. Thus, too, we are to understand the deeper meaning of that word: “Whether one member suffers, all the members suffer with it.” (1 Cor. 12:26). We must not stop with assurance of salvation, for this, according to Hebrews 6, belongs to the beginnings of the Christian life, but not to the full growth. There is something much deeper than assurance of salvation, and that is the consciousness that we belong together with Christ. We are called and chosen, predestined from eternity for the Son. There is a great difference between these two things: whether I consider myself as one who is “found” or as one who is “chosen.” There is something accidental about being found, but when I am chosen, I acknowledge the eternal grace of God over me. Scripture designates us called and elected, and we must always stand on scriptural ground. When a person is converted, he begins the life of fellowship with God; but God’s beginning with that person reaches back much farther, all the way into eternity. In Ephesians 1:4 we read that we are “chosen in Him before the foundation of the world.” And in John 6:37, Jesus says: “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me . . .” If I have come to Jesus, it proves to me that I am among those blessed souls whom the Father has given to the Son. If we have understood this truth of our belonging together with the Son of God, we shall do three things: 1. For the first time we shall thank God from the depths of our heart that we have been born as a human being—a thing which perhaps many of us until this hour have never done. Then the moment has come when the love of God is richly shed abroad in our hearts. God is justified in our spirit. (1 Tim. 3:16). We are touched with that spiritual nobility which lifts us above the joys and sorrows of our earthly life. (Isaiah 58:14; Deuteronomy 32:10-13). 2. We no longer shall draw the Word of God down to the level of our experience, as we so long have been doing. Instead, we shall permit the ideals and goals of Scripture to stand, and shall strive toward them, as Paul says, “that I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus.” For we do not receive the Word of God merely with reference to our feelings, but with reference to what God feels and has need of. 3. We shall live as strangers in this world. Its pleasures no longer shall attract us, and its sufferings no longer bring us down. When Rebekah had seen her bridegroom, Isaac, she dismounted hurriedly from her camel and veiled her face. From that moment she did not want to please any other, did not want to be attractive to any other than to him. Such will also be our attitude when it has become clear to us that we belong to Him.G. Steinberger

“Far above all!” Yes, this can be the continuous experience of every child of God. However great the difficulties, our Mighty Keeper is able to keep fully at all times and in all places. Joined to the Risen Lord we may truly be kept “far above all” our surroundings. The enemy would use these to drag us down, but Jesus can keep us “far above” as we learn to live in His faithfulness, and cease to struggle and resist, but lie down in His will day by day and say, “Yes, Lord” to all that comes. “Far above all!” How can this be? Only by knowing God’s deliverance from the life which keeps us in bondage to the things of the earth. Only by knowing, in the power of the Spirit, the full meaning of Calvary’s Cross. Not only has Christ died that that we might be “forgiven all trespasses,” but, as the apostle Paul tells us again and again, that we too died with Him and were buried with Him “through baptism into death.” (Romans 6:4) The one condition for setting us free to live “far above all” in the power of His endless life is “faith in the working of God, Who raised Him from the dead” (Colossians 2:12). But first, we need to ask if we are really and honestly purposed to be separated from all that holds us down, and to let the Holy Spirit make to die “all” doings not of God? (Romans 8:13). The Holy Spirit will bear witness to our death in the death of our Lord Jesus, if we are true in our desire to know all that it means, and so fully prove the life of “far above all” with the risen Lord. “Far above all!” If the things around us fret us, then the enemy has pulled us down enough for that to happen. “For freedom, did Christ set us free: stand fast therefore, and be not entangled again, in bondage.” (Galatians 5:1). We need to simply recognize our freedom and, as we go in and out among the things that try us, trust and praise our God that He is keeping us “far above all.” “Far above all!” Lifted above earthly things and earthly surroundings the spirit dwells in God (Psalm 90:1, Psalm 32:7, John 6:56, 1 John 3:24). Here it sees the King in His beauty and gets such a vision of eternal realities, that the things of time sink into their right place and are valued at their true worth. Here it hides in the “secret place of the Most High” and finds “no plague comes near to its dwelling.” (see Psalm 91:1-10 A.V.). “The Eternal God is thy dwelling place.” (Deuteronomy 33:27). “Blessed are they that dwell” (Psalm 84:4). “Your hidden ones” (Psalm 83:3). Hid “with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). Hidden “in His pavilion” (Psalm 27:5, A.V.). His “chambers” (Song of Solomon 1:4), Hidden “from the strife of tongues” (Psalm 31:20). Hidden “in the day of trouble” (Psalm 27:5). Hidden “manna given to them” (Revelation 2:17). Hidden “wisdom revealed to them” (1 Corinthians 2:7, Matthew 11:25). Hidden “riches of secret places” (Isaiah 45:3), Dwelling “at ease upon His heart” (Psalm 25:3). Dwelling “in quiet resting places” (Isaiah 32:18). “Far above all!” Here everything is the will of God to His child. Here we reverently say with Jesus, “Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?” (not withstanding that the cup of sorrow was given to our suffering Lord by the hand of Judas). There are no second causes to the soul hidden in God. Misunderstanding, sorrows, trials may come, but it yearns to follow, in its earthward life, the footsteps of Christ in His gentleness, meekness, lowliness and love. For “Far above all” in spirit with God, makes us rejoice to be the servant of all in our interactions with others. “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.” (Matthew 9:28).

By Andrew Murray “That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death.” Phil. 3:10. We know that the death of Christ was a death of the cross. We know that that death of the cross was His chief victory. Without that death He would not be the Christ. The distinguishing characteristic, the one mark by which He is separated here in earth and in heaven from all other persons, both in the Divine and human, is this one: He is the Crucified Son of God. Of all the articles of conformity, this must necessarily be the chief and most glorious one—conformity to His death. This is what made it so attractive to Paul. What were Christ’s glory and blessedness must be his victory, too: he knows that the most intimate likeness to Christ is conformity to His death. What that death had been to Christ it would be to him as he grew conformed to it. Christ’s death on the cross had been the end of sin. During His life it could tempt Him: when He died on the cross, He died to sin; it could no longer reach Him. Conformity to Christ’s death is the power to keep us from the power of sin. As I by the grace of the Holy Spirit am kept in my position as crucified with Christ and live out my crucified life as the Crucified One lives it within me, I am kept from sinning. Christ’s death on the cross was to the Father a sweet-smelling sacrifice, infinitely pleasing. And the closer I can get to Him, and the more like I am to His disposition, the more conformed to His death I can become, the more surely shall I enter into the very bosom of His love.Christ’s death on the cross was the entrance to the power of the resurrection life, the unchanging life force of eternity. In our spiritual life we often have to mourn the failures, falls, and deficiencies that prove to us that there is still something wanting that prevents the resurrection life asserting its full power. In the conformity to Christ’s death there is an end of self: we give up ourselves to live and die for others: we are full of the faith that our surrender of ourselves to bear the weaknesses of others is accepted of the Father. Out of this death we rise, with the power to love and to bless. And now, what is this conformity to the death of the cross that brings such blessings, and what does it consist of? We see it in Jesus. The cross means entire self-denial. The cross means the death of self—the utter surrender of our own will and our life to be lost in the will of God, to let God’s will do with us what it pleases. This was what the cross meant to Jesus. It cost Him a terrible struggle before He could give Himself up to it. When He was sore amazed and very heavy, and His soul exceeding sorrowful unto death, it was because His whole being shrank back from that cross and its curse. Three times He had to pray before He could fully say, “yet not My will, but Yours be done.” But He did say it. And His giving Himself up to the cross is to say: Let Me do anything, rather than that God’s will should not be done. I give up everything—only God’s will must be done. And this is being made conformable to Christ’s death, that we give away ourselves and our whole life, with its power of willing and acting, to God, that we learn to be and work, and do nothing but what God reveals to us as His will. And such a life is called conformity to the death of Christ, not only because it is somewhat similar to His, but because it is Himself, by His Holy Spirit, just repeating and acting over again in us the life that animated Him in His crucifixion. Were it not for this, the very thought of such conformity would be akin to blasphemy. But now it is not so. In the power of the Holy Spirit, as the Spirit of the Crucified Jesus, the believer knows that the blessed resurrection life has its power and its glory from its being a crucified life, begotten from the cross. He yields himself to it, he believes that it has possession of him. Realizing that he himself does not have the power to think or do anything that is good or holy, or rather, that the power of the flesh asserts itself and defiles everything that is in him, he yields and holds every power of his being as far as his disposal of them goes in the place of crucifixion and condemnation. And so he yields and holds every power of his being, every faculty of body, soul, and spirit, at the disposal of Jesus. The distrust and denial of self in everything, the trust of Jesus in everything, mark his life. The very spirit of the cross breathes through his whole being. And so far is it from being, as might appear, a matter of painful strain and weary effort to maintain the crucifixion position, to one who knows Christ in the power of His resurrection—for Paul puts this first—and so is made conformed to His death, it is rest and strength and victory. Because it is not the dead cross, not self’s self-denial, not a work in his own strength that he has to do with, but the living Jesus, in whom the crucifixion is an accomplished thing, already passed into the life of resurrection. “I have been crucified with Christ: Christ dwells in me;” this is what gives the courage and the desire for an ever-growing, ever deeper entrance into most perfect conformity with His death. And how is this blessed conformity to be attained? Paul will give us the answer. “What things were gain to me, these I counted loss for Christ.” What is more, “I count all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord, that I may know Him, being made conformed to His death.” The pearl is of great price; but oh! it is worth the purchase. Let us give up all, yes, all, to be admitted by Jesus to a place with Him on the cross. And if it appears hard to give up all and then, as our reward, only have a whole lifetime on the cross, oh, let us listen again to Paul as he tells us what made him so willingly give up all, and so intently choose the cross. It was Jesus—Christ Jesus, my Lord. The cross was the place where he could get into fullest union with his Lord. To know Him, to win Him, to be found in Him, to be made like Him—this was the burning passion that made it easy to cast away all, that gave the cross such mighty attractive power. Anything to come nearer to Jesus. All for Jesus, was his motto. It contains the twofold answer to the question, how to attain this conformity to Christ’s death? The one is, cast out all: the other, and let Jesus come in. All for Jesus. Yes, it is only knowing Jesus that can make the conformity to His death at all possible. But let the soul win Him, and be found in Him, and know Him in the power of the resurrection, and it becomes more than possible, a blessed reality. Therefore, beloved follower of Jesus, look to Him, look to Him, the Crucified One. Gaze on Him until your soul has learnt to say: O my Lord, I must be like you. Gaze until you have seen how He Himself, the Crucified One, in His ever-present omnipotence, tabernacles within you and breathes through your being His crucified life. It was through the Eternal Spirit that He offered Himself unto God; that Spirit brings and imparts all that that death on the cross is, and means, and effected, to you as your life. By that Holy Spirit, Jesus Himself maintains in each soul who can trust Him for it, the power of the cross as an abiding death to sin and self, and a never-ceasing source of resurrection life and power. Therefore, once again, look to Him, the Living Crucified Jesus. But remember, above all, that while you must seek the best and the highest with all your might, the full blessing comes not as the fruit of your efforts, but unsought, a free gift to whom it is given from above. It is as it pleases the Lord Jesus to reveal Himself, that we are made conformable to His death. Therefore, seek and get it from Himself.

“That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.” 1 John 1:3-4. To speak only what a person has seen and heard in the Spirit demands faithfulness. Those who are faithful in this have fellowship with one another and with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. Pretense is excluded, and joy becomes full. Unfaithfulness and pretense about what people have seen and heard has produced many doctrines, none of which foster fellowship or bring joy. A disciple of Christ, however, who does the will of God will learn from what he hears, sees and understands. Faithfulness in preaching these things leads to fellowship and joy. Not everything you hear and see produces fellowship. Only what you hear and see in communion with the Spirit of Christ can create fellowship. What did John see? How can we have fellowship with him? He saw that he had sin in his flesh. If he had said that he did not have sin, he would have deceived himself, and the truth would not have been in him. We have made a good start if we, like John, can see that we have sin in our flesh. Through the light of the Spirit, Paul also saw sin in his flesh; he beseeches us not to allow sin to reign in our mortal body. Rom. 6:12. John and Paul had fellowship in this. We still have sin in our body, even if it does not reign. How can we get rid of it? Paul points us in the right direction by reminding us that the old man is crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be the slaves of sin. Rom. 6:6. Sin, or the body of sin, must not reign. The old man is crucified, and sin in the body (the body of sin) will be destroyed. During this process of the destruction of the body of sin or, in other words, being conformed to Christ in His death (Phil. 3:10), many of the mysteries of the kingdom of God are revealed to us. This is because the veil that hangs before the Holiest of Holies is being rent. If you want to tell others what you have heard and seen, you will need to use the word of the cross, which is the power of God, because this word is able to break through the flesh into these eternal and glorious treasures. A common understanding of these things produces fellowship and fullness of joy. Christ has appeared at the end of the ages in order to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. By His sacrifice He took away sin in the flesh. Heb. 9:26. He suffered death according to the flesh but was made alive in the Spirit. Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. Godly fear gives us a glimpse into the mysteries of Christ. We get a vision for fellowship and the fullness of joy. John the Baptist says, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” It is obvious that all the sins of the world include not only sin that is outside the body, but also sin that is present in the body. James says, “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your lusts that war in your members?” James 4:1. (Norw.). “Do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.” We see that sin dwells within the body. Since Jesus bore the sin of the world, did He then bear the sin that we have within our body, outside of His body? Or did God condemn sin outside of the flesh? Romans 8:3 says that God condemned sin in the flesh. We conclude from this that Jesus, the Lamb of God, bore our sin upon His body and within His body. He was numbered with the transgressors, and as such He can save those who transgress the law. The sins we commit or have committed, which are the result of sin reigning in our body, were laid upon Him, whereas the inherited sin in the flesh became a part of His flesh so that it could be condemned in the flesh. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, who saves us from sin both inside and outside the body. He has become for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. The Spirit, the water and the blood testify to these things. If all the sins of the world were only laid upon Jesus outwardly, as people teach, how then could the blood cleanse? How can the blood testify? Since the blood both cleanses and testifies, it is evident that sin was in the members together with the blood. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Since sin dwells in the body, and my body is a member of the body of Christ, it is clear that He has sin in His flesh. Not only in glory will we be united with Him: First, we will be united with Him in humiliation and will suffer with Him, and after that we will be glorified with Him. Jesus, God’s Son, relinquished His glory and took upon Himself the seed of Abraham, being made like His brethren in all things. Then He humbled Himself again, becoming obedient to death, even the death of the cross. We must follow Him in this humiliation if we want to become partakers of His glory. “And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight . . . .” Col. 1:21-22. Since He has reconciled us in the body of His flesh through death, and we continually commit ourselves into this death in the body of His flesh, it is indisputable that sin in our flesh receives its judgment and death along with the judgment and death over sin in the flesh of Christ. If we could have grasped these truths with our intellect alone, we would have understood them a long time ago. They must, however, be understood in the Spirit; and that is the difficulty, because we are carnal and slow to understand.Johan O. Smith