Author's Rights

Published as an E-book

by

Austin-Sparks.Net

Email: info@austin-sparks.net

ISBN: 978-1-927326-10-7

In keeping with T. Austin-Sparks' wishes that what was freely received should be freely given and not sold for profit, and that his messages be reproduced word for word, we ask if you choose to share these messages with others, to please respect his wishes and offer them freely - free of any changes, free of any charge (except necessary distribution costs) and with this statement included.

World Dominion in Union With the Son of Man Through the Cross

by T. Austin-Sparks

Messages given in Kilcreggan, 1932. From unpublished manuscripts supplied by the Golden Candlestick Trust.

Contents

Chapter 1 - The Son of Man

Chapter 2 - Meeting the Devil's Accusations

Chapter 3 - Dominion - A Moral and Spiritual Thing

Chapter 4 - Christ's House of Victory

Chapter 1 - The Son of Man

Reading: Psalm 2:1-9; 8:1,6-9; Dan. 7:13-15; Heb. 2:1-3:1; 12:2.

Keep the Word open at Hebrews 2. Note the quotation from Psalm 8:6-9. World dominion in union with the Son of Man through the Cross; this covers a wide range in the Word of God. The two main sections in which we shall move in connection with this thought, are the gospel according to Luke and the letter to the Hebrews.

That phrase 'the son of man' is a title which the Lord Jesus took on Himself, which He assumed with definite purpose. We have it prophetically in the Old Testament, in a peculiar and significant connection between Ezekiel and the Lord Jesus. And the conditions and situation show a closer link between him and the Lord Jesus. That title 'Son of Man' put the Lord Jesus in a representative position. Now, Ezekiel is said by the Lord to be constituted a sign, "I have set thee for a sign"; and he is called 'son of man' very many times by the Lord. The very term 'son of man' embodies the principle of representation. He is called by that name as representative of God's thought and God's mind. And the Lord Jesus assumed that title Himself.

In Luke's gospel we see He is the representative Man according to God's thought. And it is significant and important to see there is a definite period in which He deliberately took that title. Luke 9:18-22: "Who do the multitudes say that I am? ....but who do ye say that I am? Thou art the Christ the Son of God... but He charged them and commanded them to tell this to no man, saying, The Son of man must suffer many things and be rejected... and be killed, and the third day be raised up." "The Son of Man" -  that was His assumed title for the first time. He does not deny the title "Son of God", but charges them not to tell that to any man, it is something deeper. He took that title at a point where the Jews definitely rejected Him. He had been offered to the Jewish nation as their King, and on being rejected by that nation as its King, He takes the title of Son of Man - a racial term which embodies the whole race, and not just the Jewish nation. And at the point where one nation, the Jewish, reject Him, He embraces all nations; that is Psalm 2. It is a vain thing to meditate to cast Him out; they did attempt it. And in Acts 4 that very thing is taken up and they relate the second Psalm to Pilate and the Jews - something which these people fulfilled. But when Psalm 2 was carried out on the rejection side, it leads on to Psalm 8, where He is seen as the Son of Man. From one nation's rejection of Him, all nations are captured for the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus.

The point which has to be kept in view in all this is that the Lord Jesus has been constituted God's representative Man in glory in whom God has vested sovereignty and universal dominion, and the whole new race is gathered up into Christ to share that dominion with Him: "What is man that thou takest account of him? Thou madest him to have dominion" (Ps. 8:5-7; Heb. 2:6-8). In order for God to secure His end in Christ certain things are necessary. And it is important to see that the object and design of the death of the Lord Jesus is seen after He has been crowned with glory and honour. He is crowned with glory and honour before He is crucified and that gives colour and meaning to His death. And it explains the meaning of His transfiguration. When in the holy Mount He is crowned with glory and honour unto the suffering of death, glory was His personal transformation. What is the glory? The perfecting of His humanity. Christ as Man is spiritually and morally perfect before God and therefore capable of being glorified; for nothing imperfect will ever be glorified, to be glorified there must be spiritual and moral perfection.

Peter unwisely, not knowing what he said, put Him on a level with Moses and Elijah. He is honoured above them, "Hear My Son" is God's answer to this. Moses and Elijah are representatives of dispensations, the law and the prophets; so the whole of the dispensations are gathered up and excelled and surpassed in the Lord Jesus and that prior to His crucifixion. It means this One who is crucified is crucified as a perfect Man, and has already been glorified on the ground of His perfect humanity.

Now, there is a great deliverance for us here, this is a message for the overcomer at the end-time. When He was crucified He had already been glorified on the ground of perfection as Son of MAN. What is the value of all this? "Since then the children are partakers of blood and flesh, He also Himself in like manner partook of the same, that through death He might destroy him that had the hold of death, that is the devil" (Heb. 2:14,15). "He partook of blood and flesh". This is the literal Greek translation and means 'humanity, human nature'. "That through death... destroy him that had the hold [Gr. kratos] of death and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage". In what way had Satan the hold of death? This takes you on to Revelation 12:11: "They overcame him because of the blood of the lamb." That overcoming is at the point where the accuser of the brethren is cast down. Now this in Hebrews 2 links with that of Revelation 12. That is the way the enemy has the hold of death; he accuses man before God, and on God's own ground. He faces God with His own eternal word. He says, "You have said, 'the soul that sinneth it shall surely die.'" And he accuses them before God day and night as having sinned. See the cruelty of the enemy. He first provokes them to sin, and then charges them before God as having sinned, and in effect says to God, "You, to be true to Your own word and nature, must pronounce judgment and death upon them according to Your own law".

But you have One who has reached the perfection of manhood, who has a perfected human nature, and who is already glorified as Son of Man, and that ONE has gathered up into Himself the whole race. For God can see no man outside of Christ, for every man has been redeemed by that mighty death, and a man is only lost because he has rejected the redemption which God has provided in Christ, the Son of Man, this representative Person. He is a perfect One in whom there is no sin, and it is this One who through death destroyed him that had the hold of death. For where can you accuse this One of sin and bring this One to judgment and death? He tasted death for everyone, tasted death, not for Himself, but on the behalf of others. It is in what He is that He breaks the power of death, the devil can no longer have the hold of death over this One, He has utterly triumphed over death and holds the authority of death: "I became dead and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and hades" (Rev. 1:18). God must have a company who has come to recognise this and who stand upon the absolute perfection of Christ as the glorified Son of Man on their behalf, and in Him they are forever beyond the accusations of the devil.

It is a moral casting down, and the way of deliverance is to recognise what the Son of Man is morally for us before the Father, and as the answer of God to the accusations of the adversary.

The Son of Man was anointed of God. God anointed Jesus of Nazareth (Acts 10:38). Now we see that Luke's gospel introduces the Son of Man (Luke 4). He is anointed as the Son of MAN with the Holy Spirit, the anointing gives Him an official character; anointing is always unto office. Immediately He is anointed as Son of Man and put by the anointing into His official position, He meets the Adversary. What is the meaning of the anointing? By the anointing He is not now an ordinary man but God has committed Himself to that Man, and the two are joined together in an official capacity. When that happens the adversary recognises something and that is, that with God joined to that Man, he (the adversary) is going to be ousted, and lose his dominion and kingdom. From that time therefore, the enemy must seek to destroy that Man or His official capacity, put Him out of functioning, and to frustrate the meaning of that anointing. And the enemy goes right through from the beginning to the end with that definite intention, and it almost seems at the very end he loses his morale, if he had any to lose! And he seeks to rush through the crucifixion of Christ, as the scenes so rapidly follow one another during those few hours, as if he would hurl one thing after another - anything to murder that One - but in the sovereignty of God, the enemy's last stroke fulfilled the very purpose of God.

We are called in Christ to share His anointing as members of His Body under whom, as Head, and upon whom the anointing rests for all His members; we in Him and with Him move into all the meaning of that anointing. And the object of our sharing the anointing is unto the destroying of Satan's kingdom and dominion, and the taking of dominion and authority which he has hitherto held. So it means, if we are going to stand in the power of that anointing, we are going, in a peculiar way, to meet the forces of hell; you will not have to go out to meet the enemy, all you have to do is to stand by faith in that anointing under your sovereign Head. And as you by faith stand into the fulness of the meaning of that anointing, it is a safe place and a place of triumph and spiritual ascendency over all the power of the enemy and his forces; for you stand in and fight in that victory already fully secured in the Head.

The church, His Body, is going to take the place of principalities and powers and the anointing secures that union with Christ as the Son of Man. To be in that position means the enemy is our sworn foe to fight us to the death. What ground of a full triumph do we have? Not in our fighting force, no matter how zealous or persistent we may be. No! It is in our faith position. Faith takes position in definitely appropriating and standing into what Christ did as Son of Man in His cross. We are driven into this position by the pressure of the enemy. The adversary is seeking to bring us under death in spirit and soul, and to bring death upon the body before God's time; seeking to bring death upon us in all realms, sometimes in one way and sometimes in another. I am not now speaking of that fragment of death related to mortal dying of the body, but death. And death is awful; it involves eternity, it means utter separation from God.

The devil's method of trying to bring under the dominion of death is to bring us under accusation, condemnation; to get us so under what we are by nature, so occupied with ourselves in our own evil nature in sin and failure, and so that we ignore what the Lord Jesus has done on His cross as representative Man, so that we are, in our attitude, repudiating what the Lord Jesus has done! Once we lose sight of Him and His accomplished work on our behalf, we come under the accusation and condemnation of the adversary and into the dominion of death. Therefore our ground of victory is to be "looking off unto Jesus seeing Him... crowned with glory and honour". He is there, exalted at the right hand of God as the perfect Man, who went to the cross in all His perfection and is now in the presence of the Father for me in my imperfection. That Son of Man represents me in glory, as "accepted in the Beloved One" I stand justified in Him in the very presence of a Holy God. That is our ground of victory, standing in all the merit and virtue of that shed blood. This is the secret of victory over the enemy at the time of the end.

Do we see the necessity of making everything of what the Lord Jesus is and did as Son of Man? This is the faith that overcomes. May the Lord show us what this means for spiritual victory; overcoming all the accusing work of the devil by the blood of the Lamb, the Blood that represents His incorruptible life, His absolute perfect moral Being as presented before God on my behalf. "If we confess our sins the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin". Bring that ground upon which the enemy would encamp in confession to God, and stand in the virtue of that blood, in all its cleansing, annulling, overcoming power, and it brings you into ascendency over all the power of the enemy.

The Lord Jesus is crowned with glory and honour as Son of Man. This was never said of Adam, he was never the son of man. He may have come to the place in God's thought for him through probation, if he had gone with the Lord.

Chapter 2 - Meeting the Devil's Accusations

Reading: Hebrews 1:13-2:9.

The main thing in view in this passage is "world dominion in fellowship with the Son of Man through the Cross".

"What is man that thou shouldest make mention of him? And the Son of man that thou shouldest put him in charge? Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands. Thou didst put all things in subjection under his feet."

This is entered into in fellowship with the Son of Man: "What is man that thou puttest him in charge?"

"Since the children are sharers in flesh and blood He also Himself in like manner partook of the same, that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death."

In these passages we see the crowning of the race in Christ as its representative (and ultimately to be actually) with Christ in glory. We read of a bringing into the place of a company which is related to the dominion of God's new creation in Christ. That is said to be the "so great salvation". It is salvation in its finality, bringing the sons of God to the place of complete dominion in fellowship with the glorified Son of Man through the Cross.

How much larger is the Holy Spirit's revelation of things said in the Old Testament in the meaning He gives to them in the New Testament. "In divers portions and in divers manners" (Heb. 1:1) of Old Testament truth we find its full range is never given, but only hinted at, and the thing stopped short at a point. And when these same Old Testament things are taken up in the New Testament the Holy Spirit always enlarges them, expands them. In Psalm 8 "every beast" (the earthly creation) is mentioned as the range of dominion, but when we come into the New Testament with that passage and bring in the Son of Man, we find the expanding of revelation in limitless ways and the reference is to universal dominion. And go to Ephesians and find the universal subjecting of all things to Christ in His glorious exaltation. See also Psalm 8, Psalm 22, 1 Samuel 2 and Isaiah 8. In Isaiah 8 there is a most remarkable quotation about Isaiah and his sons, and that fragment is taken and brought over and related to Christ and all the sons He is bringing to glory. The Holy Spirit brought in the fulness of that fragment in relation to Christ which was only hinted at in the Old Testament in a very limited and earthly way. And again and again there is a marvellous expanding of things in the New Testament which was only hinted at in the Old Testament.

This matter of dominion is also expanded and enlarged from the earthly into the universal and eternal. Psalm 8 may in the main have related to Adam, but Adam was not in any way the Son of Man; but if permitted in a limited way to bring that Psalm in relation to Adam, he never attained unto that dominion in full; he missed it. Adam was on probation unto dominion and missed it because he failed in the probation. But the Son of Man not only secures that of which Adam failed, fell short, but in HIM there is an expanding which was not in the Divine thought for Adam; we gain more "in Christ" than we lost "in Adam". The Lord Jesus brings in far more than was in view in the Adam dominion.

Here we have dominion invested in Christ for the sons whom He is bringing to glory, and that dominion is by way of the Cross. The specific thing in the securing of that dominion by way of the Cross is in the matter of the destroying of death and setting up the testimony of Life in the Hebrew letter. There is a tremendous place given to life triumphant over death. Right at the beginning of the letter the second psalm is quoted: "Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee" (v.5). That specific declaration is made in relation to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. When 'they' carried out the vain thing, they meditated against Him: "they meditated", but God raised Him from the dead. So you have the letter beginning with the testimony to the resurrection in the power of that triumphant Life. The whole letter is founded on that great fact.

Now the House of God is a corporate representation of Christ personal, and the House of God comes in to display the truth of the Son of man as He is now at the right hand of God. The whole testimony of Jesus is gathered up into His conquest of death. His conquest of sin and conquest of the devil are fragments only, but in His conquest of death you gather up sin and its moral consequences - the devil and his kingdom, and the human race, all is included in this great inclusive triumph and conquest. In dealing with death He has dealt with everything and has established the testimony, which is Life triumphant over death. "The testimony of Jesus" is that He conquered death in all that death means, and lives in the power of a death-conquering Life. It is again gathered up in the Man-child (Rev. 12), and the same things are said of the Man-child as are said of the Son of Man. In Revelation 1 and 12 the identical words are said of each; the Man-child is coming to the throne "by the word of their testimony" which is simply the testimony to the blood; Life conquering death.

The testimony which God is more concerned to have set up and maintained on this earth and in this universe more than anything else is the testimony to Christ's conquering of spiritual death. In the end-time the death pressure will be more intense and the activities of the enemy will be more intensified along this line. The force of the power of death will be very great, and many of us are being forced into the testimony of Christ's conquest of death by the very daily pressure we meet. We meet death as a mighty working principle in this universe, to body, soul and spirit, (to the body out of God's time and will and the devil-dragon seeking to bring death upon it), to mind, will, and atmosphere. We are in that - the battle of the age, and the battle of the age is concerning death. The issue for this time is the testimony concerning Life, the mighty power of Christ's Life, which is the blood that effectuates there against that force of death as a mighty death-conquering force; that force which was in the Cross of the Lord Jesus and which has overcome death in every realm.

"What is man that Thou art mindful of him?" Christ is brought in as the Son of Man. "We see Jesus... made lower than the angels, because of the suffering of death." The apostle's comment on that is, "because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour," then, "that by the grace of God He should taste death for every man". And a little later on, "He partook of flesh and blood that through death He might destroy him that had the hold of death, that is the devil" (Heb. 2:14). What is the meaning of this? Why "made a little lower than angels because of the suffering of death"? (I know there are differences of interpretation of the words 'a little lower', but whether 'little' is in time, 'for a little while', or in degree, is not really the point; the fact is His condition). God has made man capable of suffering death; when God made Adam, he so constituted him that he could suffer death, not merely die as a mortal being, but He made him capable of suffering death. This is said in the same way as we would say, "You shall suffer punishment, as a penalty or as a judgment", "The day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die". And when Adam sinned in disobedience, he "suffered death". The children of that race have entered into that penalty and judgment, they are suffering death - under the fear and the power of death.

Now because the children of that race are sharers in blood and flesh, He also in like manner partook of the same, that is, He came into relationship with that race. He came with blood and flesh because that race was a suffering, death race. It is the question of the dominion of death, the devil's hold of death; he has got it in his hands and is using it along the line of the accuser. The devil has tempted man to sin, and God has said, "the soul that sinneth it shall die." "The day thou shalt eat thereof Thou shalt surely die." And the devil has gone to God and said, "Death is the penalty of sin. If You are true to Your own word, pronounce death upon him". And God has to do it, not because of the devil, but because He is God. God, because of what He is, has to pronounce death over His own creation.

But here is One who allies Himself with the children of that sinning race, but in Himself there is no sin, therefore death has no legal hold over Him; in Himself He is perfectly sinless. The devil cannot go to God and say He has sinned. No! He is paralysed and in that sense destroyed, for the word translated "destroy" does not mean annihilate, but is used in the sense of 'annulling': "Annul him that had the power of death". So all the accusing work of the devil when face to face with the Son of Man is nullified, silenced. And the Lord Jesus has taken that whole race into death and before God that race is no longer seen. What remains? One Man is sinless and He has met all that charge and the devil is absolutely at a standstill. That Man is your answer to the accusations of the accuser. And God points to Him, the Son of Man.

Where do the saints come in? We have no right to "suffer death". The enemy is seeking to get us to take on condemnation, and when we do so, we in effect repudiate what Christ has done in His Cross on our behalf, and by accepting the enemy's accusations we open the way to condemnation. The way of victory is faith's appropriation of all Christ is now for us at the right hand of God in the glory of His exaltation as Son of Man. In ourselves there may be many true things upon which the enemy can pounce, but there is such a thing as turning to the Lord and repudiating that thing, and in faith taking hold of His moral perfections and meeting the devil's accusations with Him.

When any child of God accepts accusation from the enemy and loses sight of the Lord Jesus in them, and before God for them in all His moral perfection, they come into the domain of death and defeat. It is a battle of holding on to the Lord as our answer on every point.

The pathway to heaven seems a growing consciousness of our utter worthlessness; the enemy keeps your own wretched, worthless self before your eyes to crush and press you out. But there is another side to that worthlessness of nature: there should be a growing appreciation of what Christ is as the perfect Man for us. And we see growingly what the Lord Jesus is on our behalf before the Father for us, and what Christ is universally for us; that is Life triumphant over death. As Christ is seen in His mighty victory over death, this is the way of Life; a growing appreciation of the Lord Jesus. He destroyed him that had the hold of death! The way of victory for us is by presenting the accuser with a Life against which nothing can be laid. We stand in faith believing Christ satisfies God for us. He is the One who answers every accusation of the enemy against us in what He is for us. And, holding on to that by a mighty faith, we win through with a mighty triumph.

The appreciation of the Lord Jesus and faith's appropriation of Him is the power by which the enemy, the Accuser, Death is destroyed; it is by a large enjoyment of the Lord Jesus. The secret of life-triumphant is the enjoyment of the Lord Jesus. That is not a little thing; it is a mighty thing, an ultimate thing, it represents a mighty thing to enjoy the Lord Jesus.

When the enemy comes in like a flood on the ground of our moral defectiveness (and that he will do with the elect of God, it is one way in which he will centre upon the people of God) the way of victory is still, in the presence of that attack, to enjoy the Lord Jesus. It is a mighty faith that holds on to the Lord Jesus as our answer. As long as you recognise the absolute flawlessness of Christ, you are in victory, and you triumph over the enemy as you keep your hands full of Him. Our rest is coming into God's estimate of the Lord Jesus; that means something of the power of Christ's resurrection is established in us, not as information and doctrine, but Life is the testimony. The light will come. God builds upon the testimony of Christ's victory over death.

In the Old Testament we see David, when the pestilence raged and death was abroad, was commanded by God to go to the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite and offer burnt offerings and peace offerings. And immediately, the plague was stayed, death was arrested; and upon which David said, "This is the house of God and this is the altar of burnt-offering". When death is taken hold of and its power overcome by the blood of the altar, then God begins to build His House. The building is on the basis of Life triumphant over death.

Everything in the House of God has got to be a revelation of this foundational thing: victory over death. The Body of Christ grows by Life, not teaching. It is not built by truth, it is Life that builds.

Chapter 3 - Dominion - A Moral and Spiritual Thing

Reading: Hebrews 2.

"The Son of man made a little lower than the angels". This is with a specific object in view, because angels cannot die, they are not mortal beings, therefore He was made a "little lower" because of the suffering of death. So that Christ was brought into line with the race which had been created with the possibility of suffering death - as that possibility had become actual in the race of Adam, death became actual. And "He tasted death for every man." He partook of flesh and blood and by that was brought into vital relationship with the children, sharers of flesh and blood. Partaking of flesh and blood always involves responsibility with others. And God looks upon the race as a corporate whole, one, represented by one Man. That old race represented by Adam is called Adam - man. It is one by reason of the nature of flesh and blood it shares.

In the new creation, one Man is its corporate nature, the Man Christ Jesus. Sharing in the risen life of Christ, not blood now as in the old race, but oneness of life in Christ Jesus. In eating of His flesh - one corporate Man - He in partaking of flesh and blood involved Himself in responsibility for others, for the race. He took that which was the corporate life of the race by sharing that which made the race one corporate entity, flesh and blood. This involves the principle of responsibility. He took that on when He was made a partaker with them of flesh and blood.

Man was created for dominion and Adam failed in that Divine destiny; but in the Son of Man the Divine desire that was missed and lost in the first man, is gained, attained unto in the "second Man", the "last Adam". In the course of the Divine destiny there is training for dominion by obedience and suffering. And finally man is designed by God to attain unto bodily glory. The Lord Jesus represents the meaning of bodily glory; in the mount His transfiguration came by the very perfection of His humanity. The Lord Jesus as Son of Man gathers up all the Divine thought concerning man and realises it in Himself. God's thought for man is secured in Him in glory, and the Holy Spirit is given to produce that in the "children", "brethren", "sons".

The apostle draws on the Old Testament very freely by which to introduce the family in the House of God. The Lord Jesus as Son of man had to be glorified before He could be crucified. After His crucifixion He entered into His glory permanently; the death of the Lord Jesus takes its character from the fact that He had already been glorified on the ground of His perfected Manhood, His sinless humanity. If the Lord Jesus had gone to the cross before He had reached His perfection, He could not have answered the accuser, could not have met the prince of darkness. In His manhood He was perfect before He reached the cross, before He met and overcame all the powers of darkness. It was necessary for God to be able to say to the full, "a man after My own heart".

The transfiguration of the Lord Jesus was on the ground of the perfecting of His humanity; He was also representing the destiny of the race in Christ attaining unto the glorified body. The physical body is not glorified; it is a spiritual body that is glorified. That destiny was reached in the Mount of Transfiguration in the Son of Man; to make possible the mighty impact of that perfect humanity upon the powers of darkness.

What is before us in these seven things, is the Son of Man in representation. When God, having created a man without a sinful environment, but in which everything was to call out the best in him and with nothing in the strain of his blood to work against him, and yet with all these advantages, and in direct communication and fellowship with God Himself, and being the highest creation outside of God, he had utterly failed, God said, "There is nothing for it but for Me as man to reveal My thought for man". So God accepted the limitation and dependence and came to live upon man's level of life, in weakness in Himself, in utter dependence of Life from above.

Here in Christ as Son of Man you have God setting up His standard in Christ as Man, and going through triumphantly where the best man in a perfect environment had failed. All God's thoughts concerning man were wrought out in this Man, and then He went back to the glory with that perfection and the Holy Spirit was sent out to bring others with that moral glory wrought into them. In the exaltation and exalting of the Lord Jesus as Son of Man, the race has been enthroned and put into its destined position. The racial Man is there in the glory at the right hand of the Majesty on High.

Ezekiel brings that in very much. How many times in that book comes the phrase, "son of man"! And Luke is peculiarly the gospel which presents the Lord Jesus to us as the Son of Man; and then that is also so very fully in the letter to the Hebrews. We have got to see more of the content that is "in Christ" as the Corporate Man in the House of God. When God comes in Christ into this world He approaches the race, approaches man along the line of priesthood. When God approaches man to recover His original design for man, it is always along the line of priesthood. Now the Son of Man came in to recover the original destiny for man.

The exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt is a microcosm of the whole thing. Here we have a people sold to sin, under the bondage of darkness, who have lost their life of freedom in God. This is a type of the race in sin and under the power of darkness, in bondage to Satan, in spiritual death. God regards that nation in the light of one man, a corporate entity in him, and says to Pharaoh: "Let My son go that he may serve Me". So we see God's thought from eternity has always been the same: a corporate people, one man. It is important to notice the tenses of God's utterances. When dealing with the lamb of the Passover, hundreds of lambs were slain that night, but God speaks of it as the lamb; there is only one Lamb in the thought of God. Israel was not regarded as so many people, but as a race.

When God comes to bring out a man to Himself with that thought in it: "to Himself", to make of them a people having dominion in the earth, subjecting all things under them, He says to them, "I would have you above only, not beneath". In that typical movement of God which is a type of a greater thing, to be representative of His thought - world dominion - He approaches along the line of priesthood. For in Israel that night the head of the house became a priest. And the threshold of every house became the altar, the most sacred part of the house. The threshold was a marked place, even a robber would climb up by some other way! Because of the sacredness of the threshold, some people have the custom of hanging up horseshoes etcetera for protection. The blood was taken from the threshold and sprinkled on the two side posts and lintel and so you had a complete circle of blood; thus passing through an encircling of blood from death unto life. And God was approached along the line of priesthood in virtue of shed blood - to secure His end.

Now in Ezekiel you come into the book by way of the priest: "The word came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest" (Ezek. 1:3), and in that book you pass on in a very full way to the House of God. The Divine thoughts are expressed in that house in every detail; it is the corporate people. In Ezekiel you have the House of God with Life; predominant Life is everywhere in Ezekiel. In the very first chapter, mighty, victorious Life is brought into view. You have a four-fold representation of the Son of Man, with the features of the four gospels, and this is carried on into Revelation and the four Living Creatures. This is a representation of Christ the Son of Man, but ultimately the whole creation in relation with Him as the Son of Man. "Full of eyes" signifies perfect spiritual vision, perfect cognisance, and moving in perfect Life! Then later on you have the "dry bones" coming forth out of their graves and Life given to them. And in Ezekiel 47 you have the river coming out from the threshold of the House of God by way of the altar, till there are "waters to swim in" and on either side of the bank of the river trees bearing fruit; a beautiful picture of Life.

The book opens with priesthood, and how frequently to him is said, "son of man". He is a representation of God's thought, and the House is seen coming in as God's thought; yes, but the way of God's approach is by priesthood.

In Luke, the key word is "Son of Man". It is used twenty-five times of our Lord. The Lord Jesus is a representation of God's thought. God is approaching... in Christ as Son of Man. Where does God begin? With the priest Zacharias (there are two dozen Zacharias priests). Priesthood is the way of approach.

Come over to the letter to the Hebrews. The basic thing in the letter is priesthood, and the House of God is brought in by way of the priesthood; the Son of Man is there as the, "High priest who sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high" (Heb. 8:1). Why all this? Firstly, the priesthood always carries with it the principle of sympathy. We have this in this very letter clearly stated, "Jesus the Son of God... we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, One that hath been tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin" (Heb. 4:14-15). This is said of the faithful High Priest having understanding; the priesthood always carried with it that element of understanding sympathy.

Aaron added the sympathy side to the administrative side carried out by Moses; they two made one man. This is a very helpful truth for us, that when God comes in to seek to recover that which has been lost and missed the way, He always approaches man along the line of sympathy. Priesthood is always the way of God's approach to man. How different is man's thought of God, and the adversary has made it his continual business to malign God. We see this in Psalm 2, quoted by the little company in Acts 4 verse 26, when men provoked by the devil take counsel "against the Lord". The adversary has been against God from the time that God cast him out of heaven and his whole intent and purpose is to injure God. He presses that in with the saint more than with the ungodly and he never gives up hope of provoking thoughts against God, raising questions about His love, or doubts concerning His dealings with us in some subtle way. And he will try to use that which comes out of our experience to make us bitter against God. In order to malign God, the enemy will give a complexion to anything that is not true, such as: "The Lord is against you, the Lord is displeased with you. He has left you, He does not hear you". In this way he seeks to inject his own malignity into our hearts. The more saintly the Lord's people are, the more they know the intenseness and agony of this conflict. Those who go on most with the Lord will know more of this battle. Sometimes faith is so tested by the enemy, as he pounces upon everything God intended to bring us to overcome, that it becomes the very thing that destroys us, casts us down, nullifies our fighting force and our ascendency in spirit.

God has not come in judgment, He has come in sympathy, "The Son of man is not come to judge the world but to save the world", the keynote of Luke; not to judge, but to save. The Lord is seeking to recover us; we may have to suffer, but it is along the line of sympathy. "My son regard not lightly the chastening of the Lord... for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He places at His side" (literal translation). And the word "chastening" is more truly rendered "child-training". God comes along the line of sympathy; priesthood is sympathy. This is one more of those secrets of victory!

In His priesthood, by the offering of Himself, the shedding of His blood is a demonstration of the love of God. To overcome is to apprehend the truth about God in Christ, and to see this approaching in sympathy. By so doing we have undercut the malignity of the devil and destroyed his power. Satan has a ground in our fallen soul to work upon. And the way of victory is faith in God as approaching us along the sympathetic line. It is God taking the initiative in sympathy, and He Himself stretched out in love to recover man. In that shed blood we have the expression of love coming to recover. His recovering love does not mean there may not be scourging, but when we can see it is all in love and unto the ultimate of love, the ground is taken from the feet of the devil and we go through the chastening in triumph and obtain God's purpose for us in it.

The sharing of this world dominion with the Son of His love is along the line of chastening. What has God in view in relation to our suffering? The throne! The most successful way of preventing that man-child from coming to the throne is to get doubts about God's goodness to us in our hearts. Satan lost his throne and turned against God. He saw God's intention to bring a race to that place which he himself lost, and even higher than that, "in Christ". Then he set about how to defeat that intention. He will put antagonism into the heart of man concerning God's chastening in love to bring him into that state and position.

If, in the chastening, (and "all chastening for the time seemeth not to be joyous but grievous") we would say, "The Lord has some loving and higher purpose in this, the Lord has some glory in this, and I am out after that", and faith lays hold of God's intention, then we have qualified in that measure for our Divine destiny: 'world dominion in fellowship with the Son of Man through the Cross'. Dominion is a moral and a spiritual thing.

Chapter 4 - Christ's House of Victory

Reading: Hebrews 1:5; 3:1-6; 10:19-22.

World dominion in union with the Son of Man is brought before us in a concrete way in Hebrews 2. The point from which we proceed is that the term 'Son of Man' is a representative term. The Lord Jesus as "Son of Man" is a representation of all God's thought for man and gathered up into Him represents all the intention of God concerning man.

The work of God by which the thoughts of God are made possible of realisation are all accomplished in the Lord Jesus; this is stated in Hebrews 4 where it speaks of God's rest and takes us back to Genesis 2: "And on the seventh day God finished His work... and God rested on the seventh day from all His works". Those works of creation or recreation which He did, were the outcome of a state of darkness, emptiness, barrenness into which this world had sunk; a state probably brought about by previous judgment, and Genesis 1 shows us God entering into a state of activity in relation to that condition of things.

All that is taken up spiritually in the Lord Jesus in relation to the new creation which is prefigured in type in the old. God has entered into works which are a bringing of a new creation out of a similar state. All God's work has been carried out in Christ, and God has reached the end of His new activities in His Son, He has finished His work: "It is finished". God has entered into His rest in His Son. He is God's Sabbath. The Sabbath ceases to be a day; it becomes a Person, and in that Person God reaches His end, His ultimate thought and intention concerning man. The fulness of God's work is in Christ; and we find our rest in God's rest, we find our satisfaction in God's satisfaction: Christ Jesus the Son of Man satisfies God. We come to our rest and satisfaction by faith's appropriation of the fulness in Christ of the new creation activities. That brings in a new dominion in a new creation, of which Christ is seen to be the completion in His enthronement at God's right hand as Son of Man.

Christ in the presence of God is the embodiment of all God's thought for this new man, and Christ becomes the "first-born" of many brethren. And with Christ as the First-born - the Son of Man - in glory at the throne of God, there immediately comes into view "the House of God". Notice the various terms used, "brethren", "children", "sons"; it is a family situation which is brought in, it is the House of God.

"Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling..." (Heb. 3:1). There ought not to be a chapter division between Hebrews 2 and 3, for it is a continuation of what has gone before. What is that heavenly calling? We are called as brethren, as members of a family, of the House of God, called to be where Christ is in throne union with the Father; that is the place of dominion. Paul had an increasing revelation of the meaning of the manner of coming to this heavenly calling. It was not just a calling out from the heavens. No! It was a position to be occupied, a vocational position, and in Philippians 3 we have Paul's final word about this thing: he speaks of "the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus". He brings into view the goal, and the goal is undoubtedly world dominion from the exalted place with Christ. This is the calling to the brethren, to the family, to the sons. When you see that in a general way, you are able to analyse it and see something more of what it means in particular.

Hebrews is linked with Luke and Ezekiel. This presentation of the House of God is a very comprehensive and all-embracing one. Hebrews 1:5b the quotation is almost startling, and it is very significant: "And again, I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son." That was said to David about Solomon. Now, literally you leave it with Solomon, but the Holy Spirit does not leave it there, He has always something greater in mind than a type. And when the Holy Spirit said that to David, He had David's greater Son in view, and He links this to David concerning his son Solomon right on to the Lord Jesus. And more, He links it with the House of God and the throne of God as related to His eternal Son: Son of God, Son of Man. The God-Man. "Thy throne, O God is for ever and ever". So that the House comes into view on the ground of the enthronement of Christ; the Son of Man exalted at the right hand of God. The first link here is with the temple built by Solomon, and as you go on with the letter you find it takes you back to Moses, "Moses indeed was faithful in all God's House". This "House" is seen to be inclusive with the tabernacle and all Israel is linked with the tabernacle, which is the very centre of their life and by it all their life is governed. Moses was not just faithful in the tabernacle, but in all God's House. This included the whole range of Israel.

Now Israel, tabernacle and temple are all carried over into Christ the Son of Man: "Christ as a Son over His house, whose house we are, if we hold fast" (Heb. 3:6). He is the embodiment of it all and we, the members, are in Him as the Head and all the type in Him becomes a spiritual reality of all that is in the Old Testament and in Israel as a people, a House. In the tabernacle as the dwelling place of God and in the temple itself, all that in its manifold typology is gathered up into Christ and He is seen to be the embodiment of that whole mass of Old Testament typology.

We have got to see in Christ in exaltation all those spiritual principles and laws in order to know what the House of God is. How do we come to know what the House of God is? Not by study, that may be a channel, but the immediate way of knowing what the House of God is, is by a personal knowing of the Lord Jesus through the Holy Spirit's dealing with us. It is by the way the Holy Spirit deals with me in relation to the Lord Jesus. The Lord by the Spirit takes hold of us and deals with us in a certain way when He gets a purchase in our lives. When the Holy Spirit gets us really into His hands then He begins to deal with us. And beloved, He never does get us into His hands until we have recognised and accepted in a very full way our identification with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection, in a living way. That is unto an absolute putting away of man by nature, of that natural life; only then has the Holy Spirit got us into His hands. To refuse our death union with the Lord Jesus, which is the sum total of identification, is to abide in self-will and frustrates the Holy Spirit's work in us to lead us into all truth.

Do you want to know experimentally all God's thought for man, and all its practical outworking? All the good of our inheritance in Christ can only be by the setting aside of that natural man. He has to be broken, taken out of the way, the very sinew of his strength withered. This is a most costly thing; but it is the only way to revelation and all revelation is a costly business; it is a tremendous cost. See the price of the men in the Bible upon whom the Lord's hand came unto revelation. Look at Daniel, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Moses and John. The price is the price of the Cross by which the natural strength is shattered, man by nature is broken, finished. This natural strength of ours has to be broken, the domination of our natural will broken; it must be if we are to come into all God's thought for us as secured in His Son at His right hand. And when by faith we have come into that identification with the Lord Jesus in His death, and know God has dealt with that natural will of ours, we know when there is any uprising of that thing. We know when we have any contact with it, for it brings a battle which is an agony, and we know we have touched a forbidden thing, touched that which is not permitted by the Holy Spirit. He has dealt with that in us by the Cross of the Lord Jesus, and we may not have any dealings with it but at cost and at peril. It is not eradication of the 'old man', not the uprooting of my self-will, but that the 'old man' and his natural will has been touched by God; therefore we are not now permitted to touch him. Do get this, it is so important; this is why the Cross by the Holy Spirit has ever to be applied, to keep that natural life out of the way - not operating, but cut off, "reckoned dead". This leads to an open heaven, and we can never know an open heaven if we have any dealings or permittings of the old man active in us.

Christ as our representative went that way at Jordan. The natural man was set aside, and upon that setting aside the Holy Spirit came to take control and establish the design of God for man. We must come into a translation from the doctrine to the living truth. Do we know this setting aside of the man by nature as a living daily experience? The natural man can never come into God's thought for man in Christ Jesus. Unless our natural man is set aside, God's purpose for us in His Son will be missed and lost. As in Jacob's case, the person has to be suitable for the House of God. And when the House is first introduced, Jacob cries out: "How awful is this place, it is none other than the House of God." And twenty years later when God told Jacob to go up to Bethel he immediately sought to adjust himself and his house to a suitability to the House, and called for a putting away of all the idols. The person has to be suitable to that House and all that is not suitable has to be put aside.

Here in this Hebrew letter you have Christ as the sum total of God's thought concerning His House. HE is the House and gathers up into Himself all its principles and laws, and then that House becomes a corporate thing in the "children", "Behold I and the children whom God hath given Me"; the "brethren", "I will declare Thy Name unto My brethren"; and the "sons", "In bringing many sons to glory". Christ as Son over His own house, whose house are we. We are that House!

This thing is brought in on the ground of Christ's exaltation: "We see Him crowned with glory and honour". "He left nothing that is not subject to Him." That is potentially and virtually. I say that because later on in this same letter we read: "Waiting until His enemies be made the footstool of His feet". But potentially and virtually by His Cross all is under His feet and that position which He occupies in the throne is because of the accomplishment He achieved by His Cross. It is on the ground of His utter triumph over all the power of the enemy, of His destroying him who had the hold of death. The House always takes its character from the one who builds it, or the head of the house; it is the head of the house who gives it the character. And this spiritual house comes in the first place on the ground of Christ's exaltation, His enthronement in glory. This itself is a testimony to the absolute sovereignty, ascendency and pre-eminence of the Lord Jesus. The very building of the House is a testimony to the fact of His enthronement on the ground of a complete and perfect triumph in every realm. And it is not that the House is going to be ultimately in the victory; it is that its very existence is upon that victory. It is true that it is to be the instrument of that victory, but its power to accomplish its vocation is based on the victory of its Head which is already won. It is founded upon His triumph; faith should encamp on this fact. We must come more definitely to the place where by faith we recognise and take the position that our very existence in the House of God rests upon the fact that in Christ all the victory is an accomplished fact, and the House is for the display of that eternal fact.

Exodus 15 is a glorious song of triumph, "The Lord HATH triumphed gloriously... Pharaoh's chariots, his hosts... chosen captains are sunk in the Red sea, the deeps cover them, they sank as lead in the mighty waters" (v.1-5). This is faith's retrospective glance.

And then faith leaps right on into the Land, and sees in the strength and virtue of it the victory of the Lord, the enemies of that land trembling and in fear and dread of the Lord's triumph. Faith sees them, "by the greatness of thine arm they are as still as a stone". Then the House comes in on the ground of that triumph and in that land dispossessed of the enemy and occupied by the Lord's triumphant people, rejoicing in HIS victory; this is faith's prospective glance. Faith sees all the past enemy and all the future enemies swallowed up in His victory. This is a secret to come into, that the House of God is established in the fact of Christ exalted at the throne of God. We have not got to fight toward a victory, but to fight on the ground of a victory already won; we have got to take that position positively, and to maintain it. Whatever the position is, or howsoever fierce the conflict may be, faith takes the issue which Calvary secured, and faith entering into the full meaning of the exaltation of the Son of man is the means of encompassing the enemy, and it is that which brings us into world dominion. We shall never have dominion literally until faith takes it in advance.

This explains the strange experiences we have - we ask the Lord for a new coming in to His fulness, or a new fulness of victory or power, and we enter into a period of what seems to be the very opposite. And it seems as if our prayer is unanswered, or the very opposite of what we asked. Our experience is more intense than before we prayed so earnestly about that thing. This is the Lord's way of extending our faith unto the realisation and experience of the very thing we have asked of Him. He exercises our faith unto that; this exercise of faith is a very real thing. It is the challenge to your faith to bring you beyond where you are, for we receive in faith, we enter through faith. And the present course of things is to bring us spiritually in through faith. This is suitability to God's thought in Christ concerning His House, "The household of faith". Faith sees the Lord Jesus crowned with glory and honour at the throne of God, and the House is based on the exaltation of the Son of man.

We have not entered into the depths of Stephen's experience, in the midst of the awful hate, malice, cruelty and the enemy seeming to have things all his own way, to be in power. Stephen, in spite of all the suffering, testifies, "I see the Son of man standing at the right hand of God"! Hell is not at the right hand of God; the devil is not there. No, but the Son of Man is there! And though I die under this malice and onslaught, the issue is not here, but there! Faith encamps on the ground which Christ occupies as the Son of Man at the right hand of God. It is a House of victory, the House of His triumph.

It is a very practical thing for us if we are in the hands of the Holy Spirit. He, by the Cross, puts aside the strength of nature. The exercise of faith is a most real thing for us. In the things and experiences that come our way we can take in them and toward them the ascendency of faith and so learn to reign in Life by Christ Jesus, or let doubt get in and we go under in that very situation which God has allowed to bring us experimentally into a position of faith ascendency. It all depends on the attitude we take.

And it is not merely a matter of coming into the House, but God's eternal design for the House. Therefore God's provisional "if": "Whose House are we IF we hold fast our boldness and the glorying of our hope firm unto the end" (Heb. 3:6). We are that House and in all God's thought concerning the end of that House. This is a great thing and we must remember Israel failed because of unbelief: "They failed to enter in because of unbelief". Faith alone appropriating and standing on the ground that Christ occupies for us will bring us through to world dominion. We can fail in the "if" if we fail in faith. May God give us grace to go through in faith. We must see the foundation of the House - it begins with Christ at the right hand of God and faith's union with Him in the throne as the issue of His fully accomplished victory.

Table of Contents

Author's Rights

Contents

Chapter 1 - The Son of Man

Chapter 2 - Meeting the Devil's Accusations

Chapter 3 - Dominion - A Moral and Spiritual Thing

Chapter 4 - Christ's House of Victory