The Spiritual & Natural Man - Part 2 — T. Austin-Sparks

The Natural and Spiritual Man

One of the difficulties of meetings of this kind, which are consecutive, is that the company changes all the way through in some cases. Fresh friends come in from meeting to meeting, and it's just difficult to follow straight on.

I say that because we have started on a course which is consecutive, and we cannot go back over what has been every time. But for those who are with us, and you, I will try to help them in. And perhaps the best thing to do is just to pick out one or two of the fragments of the word by which we are being led, and then come to the special part which is for this morning.

In the first letter to the Corinthians, first letter to the Corinthians in chapter two, it is the whole chapter that needs to be in mind, but we cannot read that now. So you will notice what it is about in the line that the apostle is following, and I just pick out these two fragments.

It is verse fourteen,. Now the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness unto him, he cannot know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual discerneth, or examineth, all things, as those two designations, the natural man and he that is spiritual.

In the second letter to the Corinthians, in chapter three, at verse eighteen, that we, all with unveiled face, reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image. We are transformed into the same image.

I will add a fragment from the letter to the Romans, chapter eight, well known, but helpful in this connection, at verse twenty-nine. For whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son.

Foreordained to be conformed, made with the form of his Son. We are being transformed into the same image, from the natural man to he that is spiritual. Now you are going to have some surprise, when on this day, when we are thinking so much about the resurrection, I am going to take you right away from the end of the life of the Lord Jesus, here on this earth, to its beginning.

The Supernatural Birth of Christ

In the gospel by Luke, you will please turn to chapter one, at verse twenty-six and onward, chapter one of Luke's gospel, at verse twenty-six. Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin, betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David.

The virgin's name was Mary. He came in unto her and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee. But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this might be.

The angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God. Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, shall be called the Son of the Most High.

The Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever. And of his kingdom there shall be no end. Mary said unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?

The angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. Wherefore, also that which is to be born shall be called the Son of God.

Christ as the Substance of Christianity

This falls right into line with our present consideration. We are seeing that Christ is Christianity. We do need, as we do, to understand, know what Christianity really is. Amidst all the confusion that has arisen within the compass of that word, Christianity, to understand the real nature of this into which we have come requires that we shall have a true, a genuine, spiritual understanding of, and that is not as simple as it sounds when it's stated like that.

For the oldest believer, one who has gone longest and farthest with the Lord still realizes how much he or she needs to know and understand the Lord Jesus. And if we want proof of a statement like that, let us remember that so great a servant of Jesus Christ with so great a revelation, who could say that he had at a certain time been caught up into the third heaven and shown unspeakable things, which is not lawful for a man to utter, who could say, I will come to visions and revelations.

A man with all his spiritual history and spiritual knowledge in the closing days of his life in his prison is still crying, that I may know him, that I may know him. Still the predominating ambition and quest of a man with all that, everything, therefore, is a matter of knowing in a spiritual way, the Lord Jesus, so that Christ is really Christianity.

It is not a system of truth, doctrine, teaching, practice, creed, and so on. It is a person, and yet a person beyond all comprehending. Well now, we come to this next phase of our present consideration.

Jesus Christ and a New Humanity

Paul said here to the Corinthians, I determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ. Amongst you, all I intend to know is Jesus Christ. And then he said, and him crucified, and him crucified, Jesus Christ, to know Jesus Christ among you.

That was excluding one whole realm of things, and focusing and concentrating everything upon this person, Jesus. Why? Here again is the key to our New Testament, as well as to these letters. Jesus Christ has come into this world as the first and representative of a different type of humanity.

A different type of man has broken into history in the person of Jesus Christ. And it is this that gives the meaning, the explanation to the Incarnation. The miraculous birth of the Lord Jesus, the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus.

And you know that the two things about which there has been more controversy than anything else, where Jesus Christ is concerned, where all the schools of theological interpretation have been in conflict.

The two things were the birth and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Many other things, of course, in his life and so on. But the two main points of controversy have been the virgin birth and the bodily resurrection.

Very significant that it is so. Leaving the resurrection for the moment, we get there in these days, remains to be seen. A long way to go. Let's start here, with this birth of which we have just read.

What is called, and scripturally called, the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus. I have said that this is the point of controversy and the point of difficulty in its real spiritual understanding. And the battle began, the spiritual battle of these ages began at that point.

When there emerged into this world and into history, this one after this kind, this particular kind of humanity. So soon after his birth, all hell rose up to quench that flame, to blot out that life and its testimony.

Herod, that devil-dominated and driven man, went as far as to massacre all infant boys with the object of getting this one. Just this one. And that was not Herod only. Lord Jesus later himself said of other men than Herod, Fear of your father, the devil.

He was a murderer from the beginning. The works of your father he do. The murderer behind Herod. And all of his kind rose up. Immediately this of humanity broke into this world. Well, that's patent, isn't it?

The Two Humanities: Satanic and God-Produced

And the explanation? The explanation? You see, you have two alternative humanities for mankind. You have the one that Satan made. When he got hold of Adam, he changed the humanity. The kind of being that man was, he changed that man.

By an evil spiritual fornication, he produced a race after his own mind. After his mind. Comprehensively the word declares the whole world lies in the wicked one. A race after Satan's mind. Which he is.

Confessedly by the Lord Jesus. The Prince and the God. A kind of humanity. On the other side, there is this kind. This brought into history, into this world by God. Another, an alternative humanity to that other.

In whom all that was going to be judged. And if unrepentant, and if not transformed. Passed over from the one to the other. Doomed to be blotted out of God's universe. Therefore, all the painstaking work, labor and effort of the evil one.

And all the evil powers in the whole Adam race. Is going to be upset by this new kind of humanity. Going to be, all his work is going to be undone. In this, all that ever Satan set himself to do in spoiling God's kind.

Is just going to be undercut. Blotted out. In this one, who has now broken into this world. You can understand why Satan said we must as soon as possible. In his earliest days, blot him out. Dismiss him, get rid of him.

That lies behind this kind of humanity that is God produced and not man produced. And not Satan produced. This kind of man that is in his very conception, God's act, a miracle. You can understand why the rationalists who don't know anything about new birth.

Take offense and objection to the virgin birth. What is after all the best testimony to and confirmation of. The miraculous supernatural birth of the Lord Jesus. It's our new birth. We don't have to argue it as theology.

Or mere Christian doctrine and creed. We know that Jesus Christ is a miracle because he is a miracle in us. But the rationalists don't know about new birth. Therefore, they can be caught in this controversy over the birth of the Lord Jesus.

The New Testament's Pattern of Transformation

Well, the explanation you see of this antagonism and this animosity. And all this confusion. The enemy is the author of confusion. All this confusion about the Lord Jesus in his very conception and inception.

And nature and being is because of this one thing which runs right through the New Testament. Another kind of manhood, mankind, has been introduced into history. And introduced not as an afterthought.

Not as an afterthought, but foreordained to be conformed to the image of his son. Out from the eternal thought and intention of God. The image is introduced to which the believers, the church, has to be conformed.

Into whose likeness we are being transformed. Now you see, this is all worked out in your New Testament. If you want to understand your New Testament anywhere, anywhere, read it in this light. What is this all about?

What does it mean? What is it after? What is the portent of this? Every bit of it is to bring Christ into view and to show this transforming work of believers. Isn't it all through the New Testament there?

First, you have the magnificent presentation of him in person. In four portraits of four gospels. The great wisdom and sovereignty of God. It all begins with a four-fold portrait of the man. And then, from then onward, by the Holy Spirit, the work begins and proceeds.

To transform and conform a people to that man. So different. So different. That a mystery and a miracle lies right at the very heart and root of this thing. The Christian life begins, in truth, begins with a miracle.

A supernatural act. You and I know that, if we are born again. And it proceeds on the basis of that miracle and that mystery of something other. Something other and something different that God is doing.

He's not just allowing us to go on our natural course. Not encompassed by a statement like that, isn't it? That under the Holy Spirit's government we are not allowed to go on our natural course. We are continuously brought up against the demand for something supernatural.

Something above the natural. More than the natural. We are continually brought up against the fact that naturally we cannot rise to this standard. We cannot meet this demand. We cannot go through this experience and challenge.

We need something more than we have in ourselves. We need something supernatural. That's the whole history of the Christian life. It begins on that supernatural basis. For no man can beget this type. That which is born of the flesh is flesh.

That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Which were born not flesh, not at the will of man, cannot be done. Cannot be done. Cannot produce this order by any natural means whatsoever. It's only produced by God.

Two Orders of Creation in Christ

I'm saying things that you all know and agree with, I'm quite sure. But I have just said that the whole New Testament opens out along this very line. We were in 1 Corinthians 15 for a few moments this morning.

In Adam, all die. In Christ, all made alive. And the contrasts are simply the contrasts of two orders of creation altogether. Between the two. First and last. The second man and the last Adam. Always be careful how you quote scripture.

Second man, yes. But the last Adam, no more races after Christ. There's not going to be another race after Christ. Finality in humanity is in him. The end. If any man be in Christ, there is a new creation.

In Christ, a new creation. So we come back to our starting place. We are being, in process of being transformed into the same image. And all I'm going to say again this morning, in this briefer time, is where I closed last night.

It depends entirely upon which of these two orders in each one of us is predominating. The Corinthians were Christian. They were born again believers. They were addressed as such. During the five years between Paul's visit, first visit to them and sojourn amongst them, and his letter, there had become such a degeneration and decline in their spiritual life.

They had opened the door so widely to this world that, as Christians, predominantly the natural man was in charge. So you have this terrible letter of all these things, belonging to the natural man. He has to say, I could not speak to you other than as babes.

As babes. Well, they were babes. They were babes. It's all right to be a babe while it's time to be a babe. But after seven years, he was there with them two years, and then five years later he wrote his letter.

After seven years, you ought to at least begin to emerge from babyhood, oughtn't you? You'd think it strange, a child of seven years. By the way, seven years is the most original time of life. A child of seven is the most original person in creation.

It's all original now. You parents know that quite well by the questions that are asked. My eldest daughter, about that age, after coming to the service and hearing the chapter read about the end of the age, the end of the world, rather, as it is in the Authorized, the end of the world, that phrase, when we got home, she said, Daddy, if a man went up in a balloon and while he was up, the end of the world came, what would he come down on?

Well, seven years can put some poses to you. It's original, but that's just by the way. By the time you get to seven years of the spiritual life, you ought to begin to emerge from that infant state of irresponsibility.

And here they were at that time in their spiritual life. He says, Babe, still, I have to feed you with milk, not with meat. You're not able. That's a terrible situation. Terrible situation. It's a matter of which of our two, the two sides of our makeup is really in the ascendant, the natural or the spiritual.

God's Discipline and Spiritual Maturity

Or in other words, whether we are really in the process of being transformed and conformed. The answer will depend entirely, as I said before last night, upon our reaction to God's dealings with us as children.

Over to Hebrews. Hebrews, God dealeth with you as with some. Despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor think when thou art reproved. Him whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. Your reaction to his dealings with you.

If it is, like Israel in the wilderness, murmuring, complaining, and shirking. And all the time rebelling. And wanting to get out of it and say let's go back. Forgetting, forgetting the tyranny of Egypt.

Go back from under the hand of the one who was seeking to make them in difficulties and adversities discover things about himself. What he could do. Now to bring that right up to date, dear friends, you and I are really in a school and a very practical school under the hand of God.

Knowing Christ Through Resurrection Power

Where it is necessary for us to know Christ. Thy may know him. And here is a focal point of the knowledge and the power of his resurrection. Anyone here tell me they don't need to know that. The power of his resurrection.

Well, we are here under his hand to learn that, to know that. It's a wonderful, wonderful thing to know the power of his resurrection. Maintaining us, enabling us, causing us to supersede those things which limit and make impossible our life and our service.

We are up against this all the time. We are in this battle with forces of death to quench, put us out. The Lord doesn't put us into situations and circumstances where it's all easy, straight sailing. He doesn't do that.

He does just the opposite for Christians. He puts us down in places where, my word, we can't go through. We really cannot live unless the Lord Almighty sees us through this. And that's what we're there for, to discover the Lord Almighty, the power of his resurrection.

If we say, well, I'm going to resign, I'm going to quit, I'm going to find an easier way than this, a simpler way than this. You take yourself right out of the hands of God and out of the realm of making spiritual discoveries of Jesus Christ.

You take yourself right out of the hands of God and out of the realm of making spiritual discoveries of Jesus Christ. We'll leave it there. You see, this is very true, isn't it? Very practical. The spirituality is very practical.

Beholding Christ and Being Transformed

We are being transformed, passed from one order to another. The Adam order to the Christ order. From the natural to the spiritual. And this is the way, a practical way. But keep always in mind this. There's an image.

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews puts it this way. Looking off unto Jesus, the author and perfecter. Remember, God has got his pattern. His order in his Son, he's there. And we behold him. Behold him.

As in a mirror, glory the Lord. Are changed, are transformed into the same image. From glory to glory. Again, while we look not at the things which are seen so near and pressing upon our consciousness, trying to obsess us with themselves, but we look through to him, who through these things, which are very real, is seeking to produce something more of Christ.

Lord, help us so to view and interpret his ways with us.