◄ All Things in Christ ►

Author: T. Austin-Sparks

I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. (Philippians 3:8 NIV)

The saving of men from sin,death, and hell, and getting them to heaven, was as nothingcompared with what Paul saw as to the significance of a believernow. All that which he has seen concerning Christ in His eternalpurpose eternal, universal, vast, infinite now relates tobelievers: "Even as He chose us in Him before the foundationof the world, that we should be... unto the praise of His glory... in the ages to come" (Eph. 1:4,12,21). Believers also are liftedout of time, and are given a significance altogether beyondanything here.... What a Christ!

It is Christ Who will lift us out, Christ Who will set us free; but let me say this, that it will not be by His coming and putting His hands under us and lifting us out, but by being revealed in our hearts. How did Paul come out of his narrow Jewish conceptions about the Messiah? Simply by the revelation of Christ in him, and as that revelation grew his liberation increased. There were some things which he did not shake off for a long time. He clung to Jerusalem almost to the last. He still had a longing for his brethren after the flesh, and made further attempts for their deliverance on national grounds. But at last he saw the meaning of the heavenly Christ in such a way as to make it possible for him to write the letter to the Ephesians, and the letter to the Colossians, and then Judaism as such, Israel after the flesh, ceased to weigh with him. It was the revelation of Christ which was emancipating him, leading him out, freeing him all the time. In that way Christ is our Deliverer and Emancipator. It is just the Lord Jesus that we need to know. Everything small will go as we see Him. Everything of earth and time will go as we see Him, and in the background of our lives there will be something adequate to keep us through difficult and hard times. We shall see the greatness of Christ and the corresponding greatness of our salvation "...according to His eternal purpose."

By T. Austin-Sparks from: All Things in Christ - Chapter 1

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