EXCERPTS FROM "THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION (1932)” BY T. AUSTIN-SPARKS
Rom. 6:5 ”“
For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,
Col. 3:1-2 ”“
Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
Sparks:
"The proof of union with the Lord Jesus in resurrection life is that: that now everything for us is related to Him where He is, and to the things above, things heavenly.”
THAT FROM WHICH WE HAVE BEEN RAISED
Eph. 2:1-3 ”“
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
Sparks:
"Now all those clauses are features of our past state, out of which the power of His resurrection has brought us……”
(1)
The power of His resurrection has brought us out of death.
Eph. 2:5-6 ”“
……even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus……
Sparks:
"……a terrible thing is spiritual death. The power of His resurrection has conquered that, broken that, destroyed that, and if we have been united with Him in His resurrection, if the power of His resurrection has brought us to new birth, we need never know anything about that. We have been delivered from that for all eternity and never need taste it…… The power of His resurrection has come into the most hopeless realm, where there is no power whatever in the universe that can help but the power of His resurrection.”
(2)
The power of His resurrection has delivered us from "the course of this world/age.”
Sparks:
"We have been delivered from the course of this age. What is the course of this age? Well, it is a state of things which lies definitely under a Divine curse. A curse, as we have often pointed out, in the Word of God, always bears certain signs and has certain features, and those features are there, that a thing that lies under a curse can never realise the object for which it was created. The realising of that end of its creation has been rendered impossible and it will go so far and then it will fall, never get further than that.”
2 Kings 2:19-22 (English Revised Version)”“
And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, we pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth: but the water is naught, and the land miscarrieth.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges:
the water is naught] This word is of frequent occurrence in the English of the 16th century in the sense of ‘bad’.
R.V. and the land miscarrieth. The R.V. is explained in a margin ‘casteth her fruit’. The evil effect was clearly in consequence of the hurtful water, for the healing of the spring is to bring a remedy for the other evils. It seems therefore that the water was such as caused the trees to shed their fruit prematurely and the cattle which fed on the herbage which it watered to cast their young untimely, and it may be that the mischief extended also to the human beings who drank thereof.
Sparks:
"As you know, in the case of the curse pronounced by Joshua upon Jericho, later the people came to the prophet Elisha and said "The situation of this city is pleasant, but the waters are bad and the trees cast their fruit before their time." That is the curse, that nothing comes to ripeness, everything falls before it reaches perfection. That is the course of this age. It can never attain unto God's end, God's purpose in its creation, it will break down, it will fail. Men talk about the conquest of this and that, supremacy in this realm and that. There is no such thing. The conquest of the air! There never will be the conquest of the air. They may bring things to a certain point of efficiency, but the thing will break down. The conquest of the ocean! Yes, when the Titanic was launched the chief officials who saw her launched said, ‘God Almighty could not sink that ship’; there goes the conquest of the ocean; and on her maiden voyage they were banqueting in honour of the conquest of the ocean and the 'unsinkable' ship and suddenly the crash and down she went within seven minutes, the most terrible marine disaster in history. You see what I mean?
"There is no consummation, no finality, no completeness, no perfection, no attainment unto supremacy, but a breakdown when it reaches a certain point. And we were in that realm of activity where it was utterly impossible for us to reach the destiny God had intended for us because we were under the curse of God upon a creation that had departed from Him. A hopeless situation; born into it, children of it. Here in this age, in this world, born under a curse, ‘children of wrath,’ impossible of realising the end for which the world was created, and we were created; a hopeless situation, by nature utterly hopeless. But the power of His resurrection has dealt with the curse, He was ‘made a curse for us’ in order that we might be delivered and reach God's intended end, the manifestation of the sons of God in glory. The power of His resurrection has done that, broken in upon this cursed creation and delivered us out of it so that we can go right on to perfection.”
(3)
The power of His resurrection has delivered us from "the prince of the power of the air”.
Sparks:
"’The prince of the power of the air.’ You see we have got first of all a state in ourselves, spiritual death. And then we are in a state immediately around us, ‘the course of this world,’ the death, the curse. And then you widen the circle, ‘The prince of the power of the air’ around that. How hopeless the situation. The whole satanic force holding the creation and the age and every one in it in bondage and in death. The tremendous power of Satan! The tremendous range of his organised kingdom to see to it that so far as his ingenuity and cunning and wit and strength can possibly affect the end, not one soul shall escape, and if one soul does escape he will pursue, persecute that soul right on to the end to try and recover his lost property. ‘The prince of the power of the air.’ When Christ went to the Cross He ‘stripped off principalities and powers.’ The power of His resurrection has dealt with that also. The power of His resurrection has become effective for our deliverance. ‘So great salvation,’ Paul calls it. Are we rejoicing in the greatness of our salvation? Have we apprehended the meaning of this verse, ‘...the power of His resurrection’?
UNTO WHAT WE HAVE BEEN RAISED
Sparks:
"The apostle goes on and shows what the power of that resurrection did in Christ. It not only raised Him from the dead, not only took Him out from this age, but took Him through the ranks of principalities and powers as a conquest; for as He passed through He stripped off, He broke through and triumphed; but not only so, God put Him there at His own right hand far above all these, and put all things in subjection to Him. That was all the outworking of this power of His resurrection, what God ‘wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenlies, far above principality and power and might and dominion... and hath put all things under his feet....’
"The Holy Spirit says, through the Apostle, ‘that power is to usward who believe,’ and He is able ‘to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us...’ that power! You see how far that life that you and I received in new birth is capable of taking us. We have received it, as it were, in its infant form in new birth, but oh, within that infant life there are all the potentialities of that vast range of triumph right up to the throne. All that which was accomplished in Christ is possible in us by exactly the same power that worketh in us; it is all there.’”
WHAT THE BELIEVER MUST DO
Col. 3:1-2 ”“
Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
Sparks:
"Now, then, the fact that we have possessed that, become possessed of that, puts us under an obligation and a responsibility, ‘If, then, ye be risen with Christ set your affection on things above,’ ‘Where Christ is.’ It is only another way of saying ‘Put yourselves in line with the direction of the life that is in you, for the direction of that life is thitherward to Christ, in conformity to His image.’ Put yourselves right in line with the direction of the life within you, that is the way it is going. Set your heart upon that, get into oneness with the upward movement, the spiritual and moral upward movement of that life. Because of the tremendous potentialities of that life you must be in fellowship with it in its direction, otherwise you will not come to the realisation of those possibilities and potentialities. Because it is the life of Christ, victorious, it is intended to lead you on in victory in every realm. The hope of victory over spiritual death is in that life; the hope of victory over the lusts of the flesh, the desires of the mind, is in that life which is given to us, a life which is a victorious life in its very nature. The hope of our being delivered from all forms and phases of the operation of that curse which brings us under arrest, that we go so far and no further, is in that life. The hope of our rising triumphant over spiritual forces, intelligences, principalities and powers, is in that life. The hope of our reaching Christ and gaining Christ, and being conformed to the image of Christ is in the life that we have already received.
"’Set your affection upon things above.’ If we have been raised with Christ, what is contained in that union with Christ is victory over all the power of the enemy. Victory in the spiritual realm back of things seen. The enemy's strategy to bring that victory to an end is to get us to mind something earthly, to just form the link again between us and that which is the realm of death and the whole of our conquest is paralysed, we have touched something that is under the Divine ban; we have just reversed the direction of our inner life; we have violated the law of ‘the Spirit of Life in Christ.’
"Beloved, if we will adjust ourselves to the course of that resurrection life we can go on in victory, and from victory to victory, and go right on to God's end: but there is a responsibility with us to see to it that voluntarily we do not form a link between us and that from which we have been delivered in the power of His resurrection. We set our affection on things above, not on things that are upon the earth, we mind heavenly things: all our life is above. It is a blessed thing, and it ought to be a constant source of strength and comfort to us that having received eternal life in being born again we have received, potentially, the perfect work of God in Christ, and that now, God, by that very life, is bringing us to His own finality of perfection in Christ.”
Phil. 3:10 ”“
……that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection
Sparks:
"We must not regard this life as something apart from the Person. It is ‘Christ in us the hope of glory,’ but Christ in us in the mighty energy of His resurrection life.”
