The Horizon of Christ - Part 5 — T. Austin-Sparks

God's Eternal Purpose in His Son

Especially for those who join us for the first time in this conference, let me say we are in these gatherings within eternal appointment of His Son, our Lord Jesus, horizon the utmost of all His activities and His interests to comprehend everything in His Son, His Son, the nature and character of everything.

This was established before the world was. This divine decision was the cause of an upheaval first in heaven, a revolt and a rupture brought its repercussions into creation to man there in the rupture in earth between man and God in history on the line of His Son in spiritual principle and law.

The Old Testament is a record of God so moving on the one side by discipline to undo the mischief and on the other side to constitute according to His own mind. The Old Testament closes in failure. People chosen, dealt with, with that divine purpose, failed God and then in the fullness of the time, God sent forth His Son made in the likeness of sin.

The embodiment of all His thoughts and intentions and the expression of His own nature to which He will conform all those coming to the way of the Son, the way of a complete repudiation of all rebellion, of all departure, of all insubmission and insubordination, the way of the Son, utter capitulation to the will of God.

God will proceed with His twofold work in a new spiritual nation in this dispensation, not an earthly nation this time, but a spiritual nation. We call it the Church or the New Testament calls it the Church.

Read the title for the moment and see it as this new people chosen by God to be the vessel in which all His thoughts as summed up in His Son are to find expression in the end. The whole creation to manifest the nature of His Son and to be entirely governed by that character.

That in brief, in very few words is what has occupied us now for these two days. We have been latterly looking at some of those epochs in the life of the Lord Jesus which are related to this great purpose of God.

The Mountain Peaks of Christ's Earthly Mission

They are like a series of mountain peaks, the birth by heaven, the baptism by heaven, the temptation in the wilderness, reaching far beyond the wilderness and this earth out into the cosmic realm of the prince of this world.

Tonight we come to the next peak, the transfiguration. We must note that from each of these peaks the next one comes into view in a related sequence. That is, contemplate the birth of the Lord Jesus, its meaning, purpose, nature and association.

It is not difficult to foresee that the time will come in the life of that child when a great act of renunciation, a great act of committal, great act, utter yieldedness to the will of God on redemptive lines come about.

And so surely the baptism is related to the birth as the sequel of the birth. The baptism is his full and complete committal to the will of the Father. From that point, by the descending spirit upon him, to abide upon him, to rest upon him, he was bound as a bond-servant to the will of the Father.

It is not difficult to see from that peak of the baptism that it is all going to be very definitely challenged. The sequel to that committal is going to be conflict and not only personal conflict but cosmic conflict.

The whole world and its surroundings are going to be involved. Kingdoms of this world and their ruler will become involved in this committal, the baptism. And so in quite natural sequence from the baptism we move to the temptation in the The issue of that we read was then Jesus returned full of the Holy Spirit, in the power of the Spirit, turned from the wilderness, to take up his work to which he had there committed himself, the battle for which he had initially gained a victory.

It is not the end of the battle. Impressive that the end of that temptation is then the devil leaveth him for a season. You can almost see the devil defeated, crestfallen, looking over his shoulder and saying, but I'll be back again, I'll be back again.

So it was many times right to the hour of his death on the cross. The battle was started. Now we come to the transfigurations, the next mountain peak. You like to have 16th and 17th chapters of the gospel by Matthew open before you.

You want to check me up as I go along. There it is. The transfiguration is not an isolated incident in the life of the Lord Jesus. It is a link in the chain and it must be seen from the standpoint of the temptation.

You cannot understand rightly and sufficiently the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus unless you do view it in the light of the temptation in the wilderness. Because, for one thing, the transfiguration was a climax.

It was a climax and it was also the beginning of a new phase. There is a very real and true sense in which at this point, so far as he himself was concerned, it could have been the end of the journey.

He could have gone through into glory. We'll come back to that again in a minute. This is the climax of all that has preceded. It's Christ glorified. The end. That is the ultimate issue of birth for which he was born.

Of committal for which he so utterly surrendered himself. Of trial and temptation, conflict and suffering. The climax had to be glory, so far as he himself was concerned. And if it had been just himself, that would have been the end of his earthly story.

I was saying you have to, in another context, connection. A new phase as well as the end of one. A new phase is not only personal. It's a way that he need never have gone for himself. Well, let us look at this.

It's a great pity that these chapters are divided into 16 and 17. Only for convenience, but certainly very inconvenient for understanding. They ought to run right on without any break. And it is to be noted that the three writers, Matthew, Mark and Luke, all record this and all put it at the same point in the life of the Lord Jesus.

And all give the same associated features. They don't do that about everything, but in this they do. And there is, therefore, something to take account of in that fact. You notice how the thing begins.

Peter's Confession of Christ

It begins in verse 13. Now when Jesus came into the parts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Who do men say that the Son of Man is, or that I, the Son of Man? They said, Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.

He saith unto them, But who say ye that I am? Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Everything for the future hung upon who Jesus was. That is basic to it. The key to everything.

And he knew it. Until that was established by him, and that was settled, he couldn't. Jesus was. Who Jesus is. Who do men say that I am? Who do you say that I am? There is a very, very deep reason for that seemingly strange question.

No one else in the human race dare talk like that, or the duties of any man. Who do you think I am? Who do people say that I am? What do you say about me? We just wouldn't tolerate it, would we? But he could do it because he knew how much hung upon their recognition of who he was.

Everything. God had made him, and he knew it. The horizon of everything. It's very necessary, therefore, for those who are to be within that horizon, to know the identity, the character of the one who forms that horizon.

Something has got to be done that is going to survive a terrible ordeal. You'll see that in a minute. And the only thing that will survive the ordeal through which they were about to pass, and through which all of us will have to pass, is the real inward knowledge of who the Lord Jesus is.

An adequate knowledge. A clear and definite knowledge. If we have any doubts about him, we'll not survive. We are not clear on this matter. It may sound foolish to be talking to Christians like this, but you'll see in a minute that there was very, very good reason for talking to these very disciples like this.

The point is, at the moment, that he had to challenge them on this matter, as to his person, had to draw out from them a committal, a confession and a committal. Simon got it by revelation. Thou art the Christ, son of the living God.

The Shock of the Cross After Revelation

Notice what follows immediately. The next. Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall never be unto thee. Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. Nothing like that could happen to you.

Now here is a terribly disconcerting thing on the part of the Lord. He has drawn out this. He has established himself and his identity with them as the son of the living God. And now, in this most disconcerting way, right at that point he begins to talk about going to Jerusalem and being treated in this shameful way.

Here, that the very pronouncement itself of the confession went right to the heart of this declaration, son of the living God, into the hands of men, to be treated like this. How could that be? It was a terrible shock to these men.

Make no mistake about it. Such a shock that Peter lost his morale. He took him and began to rebuke him. Such a shock that Peter at that moment fell out of the Lord into the way of the devil. Jesus turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan.

Thou art a stumbling block unto me. Now mind this, not the things of God, but the things of men. What a fall. What a shock it must have been. After having made a confession like that, to have this stunning statement about Jerusalem there.

After six days, Jesus taketh with him Peter, Peter and James, and John his brother, bringing them up into a high mountain, and he was transfigured. How gracious. How merciful. How redeeming. How saving.

How confirming. Shall we pause? Put something in parenthesis. Something we said this afternoon in another connection. How often it is when a committal has been made to a challenge from the Lord, a surrender to his will, to his way, to his purpose, that submission and that acceptance of the will of God.

The Eclipse of Spiritual Revelation

A position has been taken, a stand has been made, and we have declared ourselves, declared ourselves, how often it is, that there comes something so soon afterwards that is absolutely disconcerting, so that the vision, faith, all that, all that which came from the open heaven, flesh and blood have not revealed this unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven, that which came by way of an open heaven, seems to have come into eclipse now, the whole picture changed, glory, wonder, and ecstasy, to suffering and disappointment, and loss.

We would say, tragedy. Was it all true? Was it all right? Now, dear friends, this is very true to spiritual history. It's true to individual spiritual history. And it is true in the history of the church, and the churches.

God gives a revelation, a vista, a presentation. He opens up a heavenly revelation concerning his Son. And there is a reaction of acceptance, and embracing, and committal, of testimony, and then there comes a phase and a period, features and characteristics of which are so difficult and so dark that you wonder if ever it was the truth, if ever it really was God's truth at all.

You have not accepted some illusion, something which for the time was very wonderful, but now, is it right? Is it all right? Have you gone that way? Is it time when you seem to be just? Disintegrated?

Torn to pieces? You don't know what to say? You think this is all wrong? I feel it. This is all wrong, it can't be right. It's so contrary to what we were led to expect, all together, the vision that we embraced.

The wonder of the Lord Jesus broke upon our hearts as from heaven, and we committed ourselves. And now, and now, has it all gone? The dark clouds gathered over it, you asking questions as to the past, whether it was right, that it was true, that it was of man, or just yourself.

Your own response? Every revelation of the Lord Jesus will be sooner or later subjected to a tremendous test and a trial. A trial of seeming eclipse, when you can doubt it all. Now, what is the point of the transfiguration?

Transfiguration as the Horizon of Glory

Calvary is not the end. The cross is not the end. The darkness, the shadows are not the end. The testing and the trial and the suffering, the eclipse of everything is not the end. The end is glory. The end is magnificence.

The Lord Jesus just puts the transfiguration, or God the Father puts the transfiguration there. I don't know that the Lord Jesus went up into the mountain knowing that he was going to be transfigured.

He just withdrew into the mountain. One of the writers says it was for prayer with his disciples. And while he was there, he was transfigured. But God took this in hand to show that although there must be this, this cave of the cross, this terrible thing that's represented by Jerusalem, all that was centered in Jerusalem, that's not the end.

It is not the suffering and the shame and the reproach that is the horizon of God. It's the glory of his Son. His Son glorified. On the way to that, you may go by Calvary. But the end is transfiguration.

And do not forget, dear friends, that this transfiguration of the Lord Jesus has a counterpart in believers. Paul writing his second letter to the Corinthians said, we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory.

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews says the same thing in other words. We see Jesus crowned with glory and honor. Many sons to glory. Peter after this wrote his letters. He's got through the darkness now, through the clouds, through the shadows, got through all the perplexity and he said and this voice we heard when we were with him in the holy mount.

And there came from the excellent glory such a word. See it all clear now. Not be clouded by the cross. Transfiguration is there not only as an isolated incident or epoch in the life of the Son of Man.

It's there as representing the horizon of God for all. His redeemed one. Transformed and transfigured and glorified with his glory. Let us believe. Let us ask the Lord to strengthen us to believe. That if all that to which we did commit ourselves, the full belief that it was heaven's revelation to us has passed into the shadows and the clouds, surrounded with questions and difficulties.

It seems no longer to be so gloriously real as it once was. There's a meaning in this faith. But the end, the end is not this faith. The end is the glory. The mountain top of transfiguration. Christ transfigured is the horizon for God's redeemed creation.

Nothing less than that. Whatever may intervene in the meantime. But here ultimate horizon is brought into view as glory. The way to its realization is the way of the cross. It is the way of the cross.

It cannot be otherwise. But this is something to note. When you or we really do get something from God. It really does come from God. If it could truly be said that flesh and blood did not reveal this to you.

But my father, if it is not just a mental apprehension which will not stand up to the oddity. If it is not just an acceptance. If it is not just an acceptance of an ascent to some doctrine, some truth which will not carry us through.

The Revelation That Survives the Trial

But if it can be said truly, if it is a fact that the thing came from God to our hearts. Right from God, the Father. Something is done. Something is done. And there may be a period of dark eclipse. Deep sorrow and suffering and perplexity and bewilderment.

But that something done will survive. We will come back again. Look at Peter. As represented. He got it from the Father. The very story of Jerusalem. Thoroughly threw him off his balance. Disconcerted him.

Broke him to pieces. Awful story isn't it? We read it this afternoon. That story in the court of the High Priest. The denial. The forsaking. The ordeal is a terrible one. Is something most devastating to the natural man.

But something has been done. Put within. That is going to come up again. Out of that depth. Survive. And Peter will forget the intervening darkness. And the Mount of Transfiguration and his own spiritual position will be linked.

And this voice we heard when we were with him in the Holy Mount. And there is no reference at all to what came between. To Jerusalem. He is himself on that spiritual mount or on that mount spiritually now.

You read his letter. His letter. Full of glory. Full of glory. Full of grace. Right there. Something has been done. This is why the cross must come in. Or one of the reasons why this devastating experience must come.

To find out and prove that God has done something in us. If you and I can go back upon anything that we in the past have called a revelation from God. Something shown us by the Lord. And we can just throw it overboard.

And we will write it off and say well that belongs to the past. It doesn't hold good any longer. Let it be understood that that never came into us by revelation of the Holy Ghost. You cannot. You cannot depart from something that God has done in you.

No matter what the time, the testing, yes the devastation, the pain perhaps long drawn out. You can't depart from it. It is something done. It is yourself. Become a part of yourself. You cannot say well I have left that now.

Or I have gone beyond that now. Or that is something that I once thought was very good but I can dispense with that now. Well nothing that comes from God, even though it might be in first stages, elementary things, from which you have got to move forward.

Nothing in the future cancels out anything that God has done. So I see this man with his committal and confession. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And then I see that same man broken, shattered, devastated.

I see that man afterward, transfigured. The thing that was done on that mountain has, perhaps not in his consciousness during the ordeal, has nevertheless survived the ordeal. That is how it must be. Oh do take that to heart.

Do take it to heart. It will be the test, reality, whether it has been real or imitation, artificial, something less than revelation into our very being. Can you give it up? Can you let it go? Can you discard it?

Can you write it off? Can you write it down? Then God Almighty never revealed that to your heart. He can. It will hold fast. Though it may all seem to have gone, it will come back with glory. This is the foundation which is laid deeper, deeper than our human frailty.

Deeper than Peter's human frailty. Say all that you like about Peter, weakness and breakdown and all that. Yes, it's all true. All true. And Peter would be the first to confess and admit it, that something has been done deeper than human frailty.

Thank God. If it were left to our strength, it would be a poor lookout for the truth. God must do something that is stronger than all the forces in us and outside of us. Now then, we close. And you can see in the last phase of this Transfiguration, the great principle coming up again.

Christ Chooses the Cross for Many Sons

The great principle of the horizon and its realisation. We have said that had it been for the Lord Jesus himself personally and alone, there could have been his way into glory. Other men on lesser ground have gone into glory.

Two men who appeared with him on this mount, Moses, has not seen death. He's been gone into glory, went into glory. Elijah was caught up in the chariot of fire, they went in, but they never made anything perfect.

They went away with their work still imperfect. They had their personal reward of glory. All right. It's quite good to have a personal reward of glory, but at that point when he could have gone through, and you know that some translators translate that word, whom for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despised the shame.

Some translated, who instead of the joy set before him endured the cross. And whether the translation is correct or not, the fact is there. At that very point, when on his own account, by his own merit, in his own right, he could have gone through, the glorified son of man, he turned round from the glory and came down.

You know what was there at the foot of the mountain? A world in suffering, in sorrow, in misery, a devout, devout, torn world turned round and came down. Renounced the glory again, said no to the open door, into a heaven for himself.

And in effect said, I can't accept that alone. I must bring many sons to share it with me. I must go down, for that's why I came. God's horizon is not myself individually or personally. It never is with any of us.

God's horizon is mankind to be brought to glory. So he came down, accepted the cross, accepted all that shame and that sorrow, that ignominy. We are more amazed every time we read the story of his trial and death and all that accompanied it.

And then think, this is God incarnate. This is the Lord of Glory. This is the Prince of Life. This is the Eternal Son of God. Oh, it's beyond us. Why? Simply because he knew that he had not come for his own glory.

He had come for the glory of his Father, which was to be manifested in the mankind that he had made. God has made man. And God is not going to be satisfied to have all men as they are. He'll only be satisfied when men are glorified.

Men can refuse to be glorified. And accept God's horizon, can refuse Christ as God, and miss it all. You and I, dear friends, are called, says the word, unto his eternal glory. That is where the Father will be satisfied.

The Horizon of Serving One Another

And having committed himself to the will and pleasure of the Father, he has come down from the mount of all persons as a servant spirit, for the Father, for men. Shall we be born with it, we repeat, when the great end is finally reached?

And all things, as the word says, are gathered together, summed up in Christ. And God reaches that end where everything is not only horizon as a ring, but as a character by the Lord Jesus. The chief, the chief feature and characteristic of heaven will be this abandonment to serving one another.

And serving, that's what it'll be. I like to think that it's like that, that it'll be like that. It's everybody, everybody thinking of what they can do for somebody else, without any thought of what they're going to get out of it.

Either praise, or exaltation, or reputation, reward or anything else, just abandon to the interests of one another all the time, for the Lord's sake, as unto the Lord. This is foreshadowed in the Word.

We are told to begin that now. Everything as unto the Lord. In the church as unto the Lord. May the Lord bless His Word.