Worship of the Letter: A Denial of the Spirit # 2

Worship of the Letter: A Denial of the Spirit # 2

Since calling Jesus Lord must be more than mere words, what could so fully oppose the Holy Spirit as that worship of the letter of Scripture that is so prevalent among Christians today? When this empty, powerless knowledge of the letter of spiritual truth is held to be the possession of the truth itself, then darkness, delusion, and death overshadow Christendom. For gospel Christianity is in its whole nature a ministration of the Spirit: it has but one life, and that is the life of God by the divine nature brought to birth and power in the believing heart. It has but one light, and that is the Lamb of God. Whatever is not of and from this life and governed by the Holy Spirit in possession of the heart, call it by what high name you will, is no more a part of the gospel state nor will better influence man's final end that a similar learned knowledge of secular history.

"Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10). What is God's kingdom in heaven but the manifestation of what God is and does in His heavenly creature? How is His will done there, except that His Holy Spirit is the life, the power, and mover of all that live in heaven? We daily read this prayer, and yet (for the sake of sound doctrine, it is supposed) preach and write against all that is prayed for in it. Nothing less than the manifestation of the life of Christ through mortal flesh in the power of His Holy Spirit can do that which we pray may be done. Where can God's kingdom reign? Only where every other power but His ceases to be. How can His will be done? Only as the Spirit that wills in God also wills in the creature.

What then can a learned knowledge of literature and language and oratorical abilities perform in this kingdom? Just as much as they can do towards the resurrection of the dead; for all that is to be done in this heavenly kingdom is nothing less than resurrection into divine life from the death of sin. Therefore the power which gave eyes to the blind, cleansed the lepers,cast out devils, and raised the dead can and must alone do that that is to be done in this gospel Kingdom of God. Every smallest work of grace must be solely done by God as the greatest miracle, because in every work of grace is the same overcoming of nature and sin as when the dead are raised to life. A letter learned zeal, far from making any man a partaker of the divine nature, only confirms his in his own fallen state: for his proud glorying in the letter blinds him to his emptiness and lack of reality in the Holy Spirit. One can be so proud of his doctrinal soundness that the Holy Spirit cannot convict him of the unsoundness of his life.

Vain men give to one another a special recognition as having great power and position in this heavenly kingdom by virtue of as proficient learning in languages and Biblical history, or skill in doctrinal  analysis. If the faith of illiterate fishermen did more for the establishment of the church in a few years than centuries of prodigious scholarship, one may readily understand that a trust in the wisdom of men and the letter of Scripture has caused the church to fall from its eating of the same tree of knowledge. The Bible teacher and religious leader who gain and hold a church position through intellectual attainments and oratorical skills can be said to differ from lesser men only as the serpent differed from the other beasts of the field - in that it was more subtle. And the old serpent has elevated many of his servants through this same subtlety into places of authority and influence within that which pretends to be the Church of Christ.

In this fallen state of the Church today, Bible scholars are everywhere given over to the self-assuming workings of their own natural intellectual powers. Preachers and teachers come forth to play the orator with gospel mysteries as though the kingdom of God were a kingdom of words, and not as it is in reality the inward work of the Triune God in the soul and spirit of man. Paul said that his gospel was not in word only, but in the power of the Holy Spirit. But these men profess to preach the same gospel as Paul, while denying that same power of the Holy Spirit that he knew; and the gospel in their mouths has become a play upon words, so that they are always studying new ways to present them. They maintain a form of godliness while denying the power thereof. The truth has become in their hands no longer the piercing sword of the Spirit of Truth, but the persuasion of cleverly fashioned phrases. In this way the living Word of God has died in the hands of those who profess to be its dearest friends.

Nor do such men always handle the Word of God with apparent deception or obvious unbelief. They are often most careful to "rightly divide the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15), and frequently foremost in pointing out doctrinal errors held by others less astute in the Scriptures. This very consciousness of being sound in the letter of doctrine has blinded them to the need of a real and constant working of the Holy Spirit in their daily lives. The kingdom of God has become to them and to their disciples, not a matter of practical  righteousness, triumphant peace and boundless, overflowing joy in the Holy Spirit; but that kingdom consists for them in doctrinal teachings and new-found phrases about these things. Such a false kingdom of creeds can only be maintained and extended by defining and disputing the meaning of words. And so the apostle's warning is manifested to be true, that "the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life" (2 Corinthians 3:6).

Jesus said, "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life" (John 6:63). As soon as any man makes a dead letter out of Christ's words, he can no longer the living experience of that which Christ taught. When Scripture creates a hunger and thirst to be filled and blessed with His divine nature through the Holy Spirit, then the letter kills not, but leads directly to life.

All the truths and doctrines of Scripture have but one errand; to call men to the Christ who said, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you" (Matthew 11:28). This risen Christ, "who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption" (1 Corinthians 1:30), must live His life in us and be our all, or His words only make an outward sound upon our ears and a passing image in our minds, while our hearts remain empty of His life and power. The one thing taught and meant by all that is so variously said in Scripture is, "He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life" (1 John 5:12), "but the wrath of God abideth on him" (John 3:36). If the living Word, who is Christ Himself, is not living as Lord and Master in the depths of our spirit now, then those outward words He spoke can only condemn us in that coming day; and the more familiar we have been with the letter of doctrine, the greater will be our judgment for having neglected that reality which these words continually held out to us in the truths we professed with our lips but denied with our lives.

The letter of Scripture has so long been the province of intellect and reason that the difference between opinions about words and a living divine knowledge is all but lost in the professing Church. And if any awakened Christian suggests that something more dynamic and vital may be known of God in daily experience than that which every scholar can know of words and ideas, immediately the cry of "enthusiast" is raised after him, whether he be a priest or one of the laity. Such an accusation could have some justification only if it could first be proved that the apostle's text ought to be thus read, "The Spirit killeth, but the letter giveth life."

To justify the lack within his own heart of the fire of the Holy Spirit, the well-read theologian explains that the ancient way of knowing the things of God, taught and practiced by apostles and early Christians, is not for this present age. Primitive Christians indeed needed to have the fullness of the Holy Spirit's manifestation given to every man - but this was only for a time, until the completeness of the written canon of Scriptures should give scholarship sufficient words to study and teach. Behold the folly of human reasoning!! For as soon as this first power and illumination of the Spirit of God as a present work among men is denied for today, then nothing is left but the fleshly work and carnal wisdom of the old man. And the Church of Christ has become a kingdom of scribes and Pharisees!

Christ said to those who sought after the letter, "In them (the Scriptures) ye think ye have eternal life; but these are they which testify of me: and ye will not come to me that ye might have life." To come to the Scriptures and to know all the letter of them is of no avail unless through them we are led to the crucified Saviour to receive life from Him. Christ Himself, brought to life in us through the new birth, is our whole redemption, justification, and hope of glory. This is the one thing said and meant by Christ. "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10).

All the New Testament with one voice testifies that every true Christian must be indwelt by the same Holy Spirit as were the first Christians. And in none of the New Testament can a verse be found to show that Christ intended the gifts, workings and power of the Holy Spirit to diminish in the Church; indeed, He Himself said, "Verily, verily I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater..." (John 14:12).

Now as surely as Christ never told His disciples to tarry at Jerusalem until the power of education or learning should come upon them, so surely did He not refer to the completed letter of Scripture when He said, "He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever" (John 14:16); and "He will guide you into all truth" (John 16:13). The letter of Scripture can only direct to the doing of that which it cannot perform, and give notice of a living reality that it cannot supply. It is the coming of Christ Himself as the fulfiller of the law and the prophets; and of His Holy Spirit, as the fulfiller and powerful inward and outward working of Christ's gospel, that alone can give the possession and life of all that to which the Scriptures direct us.

~William Law~

(The End)