'The Way, the Truth, and the Life'
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The Lord Jesus Christ is the eternal dwelling place of the God of Heaven. In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form. Yet, Christ returned to the Father. Here is a mystery.
In the Kingdom of God, Christ is in us and the Father in Him. Yet, we will go to Christ and the Father one day. The mystery of the Gospel is Christ in us, the hope of glory to come.
We understand, then, that there is both an internal and also an external aspect of the Kingdom of God. It is essential to our spiritual maturing that we maintain both aspects in proper balance.
When the Word of God comes to maturity in our personality we will possess a transformed inner nature, and also strong bonds to the Father in Heaven through Christ. Both aspects are necessary.
Going to Heaven when we die produces neither maturity of character nor union with God through Christ. It is as Christ is formed in us, not as we go to Heaven, that internal and external relationships to the Godhead are established.
In Christ is eternal Life, and that Life is the Light of men. How often the Christian churches have misunderstood this most fundamental of Kingdom truths! The Light of God does not come to us through words addressed to our mind. Mental comprehension is not the source of the Light of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is not in word but in the Life of Christ.
It is Christ Himself who is our Light, and it is His Life that is our Light. It is the Life of Christ formed in us and dwelling in us that enables us to abide in God and God in us.
Christ does not show us the way, tell us the truth, and then breathe life into us. This is not how the Kingdom of God comes.
Rather, Christ Himself Is the Way. Christ Himself Is the Truth. Christ Himself Is the Life. Christ Himself Is Yahweh, the I Am. He Is, "I am whatever I choose to be—all you ever will need or desire."
There is an eternal gulf between Christ speaking to us and showing us the way, and Christ Himself becoming all we need or desire.
"I am the Resurrection and the Life." "Before Abraham was, I am."
In the first concept, that of Christ showing us the way and telling us the truth concerning God, Christ remains external to our being. Man is an incredibly self-centered, self-willed creature. In his lust to exalt himself he will attempt to learn the way and the truth from Christ in order to use the Divine knowledge and skill to build monuments to his own glory. This is the motive behind the Tower of Babel, the "three tabernacles" of Peter, and church movements and denominations.
In the second concept, that of Christ becoming the Way, the Truth, and the Life, we come into union with Christ. We are not gaining anything from Christ or using Him to accomplish our own ends. Rather, He is the one who gains. He gains the unhindered use of our spirit, soul, and body in order to accomplish His own ends. Christ’s ends are the Father’s ends because the Father uses the Spirit, Soul, and body of Christ in order to accomplish God’s ends.
No one is to attempt to use God as a means to an end. God always is the End of every worthy quest. Self-seeking, self-motivated religious man would attempt to use God for his own ends. This religious spirit always has and always will murder the prophets of God. It is the False Prophet.
The False Prophet is the imitation of Christ. It is a religious spirit and proceeds from the soul of man. The "faith" and "prosperity" doctrines are modern expressions of the False Prophet.
The question of who is serving whom is an important one in the Kingdom of God. The true saint is a slave, a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the Servant of God.
Today we are willing to be a friend of Christ but not a slave of Christ. We have Scripture to "prove" our position. Our hearts are dreadfully wrong.
It is impossible for any human being to become a living stone in the eternal Temple of God until he specifically and resolutely determines that he is seeking union with Christ, and not the power and things of Christ for his own purposes and advantage.
This is a difficult, a crucifying decision for an ambitious Christian to make. After the correct decision has been verbalized it requires Job-like tribulations before the truth of it has entered the inner parts of our personality.
This is what is so terribly dangerous about the current emphasis on "speaking the word of faith." This teaching and practice tends to emphasize how man benefits rather than how Christ benefits. As a result it rejects all hindrances, tribulations, and afflictions as being "of the devil," not realizing or accepting the fact that much or most of what the Christian suffers in this life is the necessary chastening of the Lord.
The suffering of the saint, by slaying his self-will, prepares him to rule with Christ. Apart from such suffering no human being ever will rule as a coheir with Christ.
As for speaking the word of faith, Christ could have commanded the stone to become bread. He refrained from doing so. Why? Because man cannot live by bread alone but must be hearing from God in every situation; and God was not leading Christ to create bread.
Tribulation works patience, and patience is one of the massive pillars of the Temple of God. Impatience is the image of Satan. Self-seeking religious man, being filled with the spirit of Satan, rejects all forms of self-denial, all that appears to be negative and injurious to his pursuit of liberty and happiness.
The "faith message," as it often is preached, is of the False Prophet. It is presented today as the Gospel of Christ. Those who are destined for destruction will hear it, believe it, and never understand the error of it until the Day of the Lord.
The true saint rejects the idea of attempting to use faith for his own benefit and instead is seeking to become the eternal dwelling place of the Father and the Son through the Spirit.
We cannot be adequately prepared to dwell in God, and God in us, merely by being instructed with words. Rather, Christ Himself must be formed in our personality; and then He must come in Person through the Holy Spirit, bringing His Father with Him.
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