Centrality Of The Cross 6 - THE CROSS AND LIFE IN THE SPIRIT
By Jessie Penn Lewis
We have died . . . new service of the Spirit" Romans 7: 6
THIS morning when speaking of the life side of the Cross, we were more occupied with the word 'life' than the word 'Spirit'. On the life, or resurrection side of the Cross, we have seen there is the joining of the spirit to the Spirit of Christ, for "he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit". In the early days of my Christian life I thought that everything that took place in my spirit was the action of the Holy Spirit, not understanding clearly all that the Bible says about the human spirit. Let us trace it out.
1. There is a human spirit. I Corinthians 2: 1 1 shows this clearly. "Who can know what belongs to man, but the spirit of man which is within him?" i.e., who can know what is going on within us, but the spirit which is within us? "Even so," says the Apostle, "none can know what belongs to God, but the Spirit of God alone." Even as others can only know our inmost thoughts as we choose to reveal them, so we can only know God as His Spirit reveals Him. "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might understand those things which have been freely given us by God." We see by this passage that there is a 'spirit of man,' which knows the man, as the 'Spirit of God' knows the 'depths of God'. Also that God gives to men who will receive Him, His Spirit, so that by His Spirit they may be enabled to understand the things of God-things which they could not know apart from the teaching of His Spirit.
2. The spirit of man is a distinct entity or organism (I Corinthians 5: 4)"You convene an assembly, and when you, and my spirit with you, are gathered together. . . ." Here is Paul talking about his own spirit being present with the assembled believers in Corinth. Here we have the fact of there being a spirit of man as a distinct entity, or organism. Again in I Corinthians 14: 14, Paul says, "If I utter prayers in a tongue, my spirit indeed prays, but my understanding bears no fruit". So 'spirit' and mind, or understanding, are not the same thing! "My spirit prays" says the Apostle, apart entirely from the 'soul'--or understanding. This shows that there is prayer which takes place only in the spirit, without the 'understanding' of what the prayer is about (see Romans 8:26), and without expression by the voice, or 'feelings' of the body. So, the Apostle says, "I will pray indeed with my spirit, but I will pray with my understanding also; I will sing praises with my spirit, but I will sing with my understanding also". This prayer in the spirit is not of value to others gathered in a meeting, "For if thou, with thy spirit, offerest praise" only, "how shall the Amen be said" by others who are present? The 'understanding' prayer is needed in the assembly.
3. The varied characteristics of the spirit. Now look at the varied expressions which are used concerning the spirit. These characteristics may belong to the spirit of man itself, or be brought about in it by the action of the Holy Spirit. Romans 12: 1 1 speaks of a 'fervent' spirit. Something quite different to 'enthusiasm' or fervour in the soul. The 'fervent' spirit is the same in a revival meeting, and in the cold drudgery of daily life. It is this fervency that the world misses in the children of God. People have the counterfeit of it in the things of the world, stirred by the life of nature: surely the children of God should have it from the source of the Spirit of God, setting their spirits on fire. Then it would come out in every detail of life-in action and service, even in handshaking-which can be the warm, heartening, expression of a fervent spirit. We are needing sorely, in a selfish world, an intensity which comes from a true fervency of spirit.
In Corinthians 7: 13, Paul says that the 'spirit' of Titus had been 'refreshed' by seeing the zeal (fervency) of the Corinthian believers in the things of God. Some of you are getting your spirits 'refreshed' here! Again in Acts 18:5 ,we read that Paul was 'pressed in spirit' to 'testify to the Jews that Jesus was Christ'. This shows the action of the Holy Spirit in the man's spirit urging him to a certain course of action. It is when testimony, or preaching, has its source in this pressure of the spirit-not merely the impulse or emotion of the soul that there are eternal results in blessing to those who are prepared by the Holy Spirit to respond to it. Sometimes the pressure in the spirit is so strong that the man can hardly breathe until the 'testimony' is given. Those who know the active in-working of the Holy Ghost learn to recognize His working in them in this way, and how to discern all that is spurious, or arises from the counterfeit produced by Satan as an 'angel of light'.
In reference to this we have in Acts 20: 22 a remarkable passage, showing the way Paul was able to read the mind of the Holy Spirit, as made known in his own spirit. He said to the elders at Miletus, "As for me, behold I go to Jerusalem in spirit foredoomed to chains ... in every city the Holy Spirit gives the same testimony that bonds and afflictions abide in me". In his own spirit Paul knew that he was going forward into 'bonds', and knew this to be the testimony of the Holy Spirit in his spirit. Here is seen clearly the co-action of the Holy Spirit with the human spirit-the spirit of man as the organ, and the Spirit of God working in and through it. This pure spirit working is distinct from the soul (natural), or the life after the flesh, i.e., the emotional of the soul, or the 'feelings' of the body.
In Romans 1: 9, again we read "Whom I serve with the worship of my spirit". The Apostle knew the life of the spirit, not only as the organ through which the Holy Spirit moved him in prayer, in fervency, in testimony, but also in service to his Lord. This does not mean that the spirit is not under the man's control. That it always is so is seen in I Corinthians 14: 32, where Paul says that the gift of prophecy does not take from the prophets the control of their own spirits. They have not control over the Holy Spirit of course, but the man has control over his own spirit in its co-action with the Spirit of God, for the Holy Spirit does not deprive the redeemed soul of his freedom of action and decision of will to voluntarily work with God.
4. The work to be done in the spirit of man: In Romans 7: 6, the Apostle speaks about 'newness of spirit'. "A new spirit will I put within you" was the promise of God to Israel, made through Ezekiel, long before the time of Paul. The new birth therefore, or regeneration, takes place in the spirit. The spirit of man by nature is a fallen spirit. It is 'spirit', but it is separate from God-in darkness and emptiness. It is consequently open to the spirits of Satan, and able to give place to evil spirits and become their medium of communication with others. But in the new birth the spirit is brought back to God by regeneration, and man is given again power to know God.
In 2 Corinthians 7: 1, we read "Having these promises (i.e., the indwelling of God, ch. 6: 16-18) ... let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement, either of flesh or spirit". Here we see that the 'spirit' can be defiled. There are sins of the spirit. For the indwelling of God it is necessary to have a spirit without guile. "Blessed is the man in whose spirit there is no guile . . .," no duplicity, no mixture. This is enough to show that the spirit needs cleansing. And the believer is to do this, by acknowledging these sins, applying to God to have them dealt with by the Cross, and by putting them away. We are to 'cleanse ourselves' , not only from the defilement of the flesh, but of the spirit. What may we describe as sins of the spirit? Take, for example, a jealous spirit, an unkind spirit, a crooked spirit. You may trace all these in the Bible. In the Psalms and Proverbs you will find all kinds of things said about the spirit. And alas! when there are sins of the spirit, they invite the evil spirits to become attached to the man's spirit. For example: when a man has a jealous spirit, an evil spirit of jealousy takes hold of him and dominates him, so that he loses all control of himself. The most mischievous things of life are those that come from the spirit. We prove this perpetually in daily life. You say: If the man's spirit is all right we can get on! And it is so. Mistakes and blunders of judgment and action can all be put right, but when the spirit is wrong-all is wrong. "Lord, cleanse my heart" you say. But we consist of more than 'hearts'. The heart is the seat of the affections. It is true that out of the heart are the issues of life, and the heart is described as the 'reins' of man, for he is governed by his affections. But the heart may be right, and the 'spirit' still needs cleaning from, for example, 'guile'! How few are 'without guile', i.e., without mixture-without 'suspicion' of others-without duplicity, saying something they do not mean; pretending something they do not feel. There are people with a suspicious spirit, always watching for, and expecting something wrong. They cannot believe anything good. They have not a spirit 'without guile'! How beautiful it is not to be looking for evil, and to take what others say with purity of spirit! Not thinking always that others have ulterior motives. How quickly conscious a sensitive spirit is of this spirit among God's people. Oh, that we may put away this thing, and have a spirit 'without guile'.
In the light of this you will now see why the 'spirit' needs to be divided from the soul. This must be emphasized again here. "The Word of God is quick and powerful ... piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit." This is the deepest work to be done by the Word of God for the renewal of the believer through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. We have already seen that before the Fall, as God created man, the spirit was the dominant power, ruling the soul-the personality of the man-for the expression of the life of God, with the body as the slave. Then we see how man fell so that the flesh ruled instead of the spirit (Genesis 6: 3, 6). Then how the Son of God came, and as the Representative Man, took the fallen Adam to the Cross, where in its stead He suffered the penalty of death for sin, and in Him the fallen Adam died. "If One died for all-then all died" (2 Corinthians 5: 14)Now the work of the Spirit through the Word of God is to apply the Lord Christ's finished work on the Cross to every man, and reverse the results of the Fall. The spirit of man, joined to the Risen Lord, is to be again the ruling power, governing the 'soul', controlling the mind, the emotions and dispositions, and then the body the obedient vehicle (Romans 6:13) at the command of God through the new creation'. This is the meaning of the Cross. The precious blood cleanses the heart, the affections, but the Cross deals with the old creation.
Someone asks me, Is there not a difference between the 'flesh' and the 'old man'? The Word of God throws light on this. In some passages we find Paul speaking of the 'flesh' as purely 'flesh and blood'. "Though living in 'the flesh', my warfare is not waged according to 'the flesh' " (2 Corinthians 10: 3), he writes. So in this sense we are 'in the flesh', even when the 'old man' is crucified. But the Apostle adds that even though we are thus "living in the flesh", we are not to act "according to the flesh", but "according to God in the spirit". "Living in the flesh," in a right sense, is not to be an excuse for yielding to it, or being governed by it in any degree.
