T.Austin-Sparks and Local Church II - Seeing Christ

Concerning the church in general and local church specifically, T.Austin-Sparks struggled at times during his lifetime to communicate what it was a true church would be, as there are enormous dangers and variables associated with the telling, as people almost always organize, bureaucratize and institutionalize something when they discover it; especially when it's passed on to the next generation, or at least attempted to be passed on.

Here's the revelation of the church - universal and local - that Sparks saw:

"There we have touched the very heart of the true nature of the Church. The touchstone of the Church is a seeing by Divine -- supernatural - Holy Spirit revelation and illumination the real significance and meaning of Jesus Christ and His mission. It is so evident that the great Apostle of 'the Mystery' -- the Church, came to his knowledge and understanding of the true Church by way of the revelation of Christ to, and in, him (Galatians 1:16)."

"...a Person who was to be reproduced by the Church, as the Corn of Wheat, through death, being reproduced in resurrection in a corporate body."

"To truly see Christ is to see the Church, and only so can there be a true church."

"So spirituality, which is a heavenly other nature and endowment, is the first basic principle of the Church. Let us repeat that the Church is the vessel and embodiment of 'the mystery' so often referred to in the New Testament, especially by Paul, and the mystery was and is the hidden meaning of things, and of Israel, but which mystery is now revealed to and in the new order, the new Israel, the Church. The 'mystery of Christ' is the meaning of Christ, inscrutable to all but those who have 'the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the Knowledge of him.'"

"This all means, that fundamentally, a true expression of the Church, locally, is not more, nor less, nor other, than the spiritual apprehension of Christ by believers. The Church, local or universal, is not traditional. That would make it second-hand and therefore artificial. The Church cannot be seen through other people's eyes, whether those others be of the past (Apostles, etc.) or present (teachers)."

In the interest of being extremely exact, sometimes by the time Sparks ended up explaining something the reader could get lost because of memory lapse, especially in the short-term memory world we live in today.

To make it short. What Sparks is saying is the same way an individual believer must be born from above to be saved, so must a corporate group of believers be born of the Spirit to be a church Christ recognizes as such. That which born of the Spirit is Spirit, and nothing else. This is what he rightly called 'spirituality.' Anything else, whatever you want to call it, isn't spiritual; including an alleged church.

The only way to see Christ is to be born from above. The only way a body of believers can meet God's expectations is to come together as a result of that revelation of Christ within them, forming a spiritual dwelling place for Christ Himself. That was the mystery hidden from the ages and revealed by the Spirit through Paul the apostle.