Chapter 1
Chapter 1
The Christian experience can be compared to a suite of royal apartments, of which the first opens into the second, which again opens into the third, and so on. Of course, it’s true that believers, since they are born into the royal, divine household, come into possession of it all. But, as a matter of fact, certain truths stand out more clearly to them at different stages of their spiritual journey, and as a result, their successive experiences can be compared to the chambers of a palace, through which they pass into the throne room and presence of their King.
The King Himself is waiting at the threshold to act as a guide. The key is in His hand, which opens, and no man shuts; which shuts, and no man opens (Revelation 3:7). Have you entered the first of those chambers? If not, He waits to unlock the first door to you, to all this at this moment, and to lead you forward from stage to stage, until you have realized everything that can be enjoyed by godly hearts on this side of the gates of pearl. Only be sure to follow where Jesus leads the way.
Draw me after thee, we will run. (Song of Solomon 1:4)
The First Chamber in the King’s Holy Palace Is the Chamber of New Birth
The first chamber is preceded by a porch known as Conviction for Sin. But since the porch isn’t part of the house, and we don’t need to linger to describe it further.
Over the door of this chamber are inscribed the words: Except a person be born again from above, . . . he cannot enter (John 3:3, 5).
By nature, we are destitute of life − dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). For that reason, we don’t need a new creed first, but a new life. The prophet’s staff is good enough where there is life, but it’s useless on the face of a dead babe (2 Kings 4:29-32). The first privilege is life. This is what the Holy Spirit gives us at the moment of conversion. He comes to us through some truth of the incorruptible Word of God and implants the first spark of the new life; and we who were dead, live. And he has made you alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). Consequently, we enter the first room in our Father’s palace, where the newborn babes are welcomed and nursed and fed.
We may remember the day and place of our new birth, or we may be as ignorant of them as we are of the circumstances of our natural birth. But what does it matter whether a person can recall his birthday or not, so long as he knows that he is alive?
In the same way an outstretched hand has two sides − the upper, called the back, and the under, called the palm − so there are two sides and names for the act of entrance into The Chamber of New Birth. Angels looking at it from the heaven side call it “being born again.” Men, looking at it from the earth side call it “trusting Jesus.” Them that believe on his name and as many as received him, to them gave the power to become sons of God (John 1:12). If you are born again, you will trust. And if you are trusting Jesus, however many your doubts and fears, you are certainly born again and have entered the palace. If you go no further, you will be saved, but you will miss countless blessings.
From the chamber of birth, where the newborn ones realize the throbbing of the life of God for the first time and rejoice together, there is a door that leads into a second chamber, which can be called The Chamber of Assurance.
Over that door, where the King awaits us with beckoning hand, these words are engraved: Beloved, now we are the sons of God (1 John 3:2). In many cases, of course, assurance follows immediately on conversion, like a father’s kiss on his words of forgiveness to the contrite child. But it is also true that there are some truly saved souls who pass through weeks, months, and sometimes years without being sure of their standing in Jesus or deriving any comfort from it.
True assurance comes from the work of the Holy Spirit through the sacred Scriptures. Read the Word and look for His teaching. Think ten times about Christ for every once you think about yourself. Think extensively on all the mentions of His finished work. Understand that you are so truly one with Him that you died in Him, laid with Him in the garden tomb, rose with Him, ascended with Him back to God, and have already been welcomed and accepted in the beloved. Even as we were dead in sins, he has made us alive together with the Christ (by whose grace ye are saved) and has raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:5-6).
Remember that His Father is your Father, and that you are a son in the Son. As you live in these truths, opening your heart to the Holy Spirit, He will permeate your soul with a blessed conviction that you have eternal life and that you are a child − not because you feel it, but because God says so (John 3:36; Romans 8:16).
The door at the further end of this apartment leads into another chamber of the King. It is the door of consecration, leading into The Chamber of a Surrendered Will.
Above the doorway stand the words: From now on let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus; whose I am and whom I serve (Galatians 6:17; Acts 27:23). Consecration is giving Jesus His own. We are His by right because He bought us with His blood. Sadly, He hasn’t received His money’s worth. He paid for all but has had only a fragment of our energy, time, and earnings. By an act of consecration, let us ask Him to forgive the robbery of the past, and let us acknowledge our desire to be utterly and only for Him from this time forward − His slaves, His possessions, owning no master other than Him.
As soon as we say this, He will test our sincerity like He did the young ruler’s in Luke 18:18-30, by asking something of us. He will lay His finger on something within us that He wants us to change − obeying some command or abstaining from some indulgence. If we instantly give up our will and way to Him, we pass through the narrow doorway into the chamber of surrender, which has a southern characteristic and is always warm and radiant with His presence, because obedience is the condition of manifested love. Jesus answered and said unto him, He who loves me will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and dwell with him (John 14:23).
This doorway is very narrow, and the entrance is only possible for those who lay aside weights as well as sins. A weight is anything which, without being essentially wrong or hurtful to others, is still a hindrance to us. We can always identify a weight by three signs: first, we are uneasy about it; second, we argue for it against our conscience; and third, we go about asking people’s advice as to whether or not we can continue it without harm. All these things must be laid aside in the strength which Jesus waits to give. Ask Him to deal with them for you, so you can be ready and act together in every good work to do his will (Hebrews 13:21).
At the further end of this apartment, another door invites us to enter The Chamber of the Filling of the Spirit. Above the entrance glistens the words: Be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). We gladly admit that the Holy Spirit is literally in the heart of every true believer, the Spirit of God dwells in you (Romans 8:9), and that the whole work of grace in our souls is due to Him, from the first desire to be saved to the last prayer breathed on the threshold of heaven. But it is also true that a time comes in our education when we become more easily impressed regarding the necessity of the Holy Spirit and seek for more of His all-pervading, heart-filling presence.
Many of us have been startled to discover we’ve been content with too little of the Holy Spirit. There has been enough throne water to cover the stones in the riverbed but not to fill its channel. Instead of occupying all, our gracious Guest has been confined to one or two back rooms of our heart, in the same way a poor housekeeper sometimes dwells in the attic or the cellar to keep a mansion, while the suites of splendid apartments are consigned to layers of dust and cobwebs, shuttered, dismantled, and locked.
Each Christian has the Holy Spirit, but each Christian needs more and more of Him until the whole nature is filled. Rather, it would be truer to say the Holy Spirit wants more and more of us. Let us ask our heavenly Father to give us of His Spirit in always increasing measures, and as we ask, let us yield ourselves continually to His indwelling and inworking. Then let us believe we are filled, not because we feel it, but because we are sure God is keeping His Word to us: Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain; yet this valley shall be filled with water (2 Kings 3:17).
It is true that the filling of the Spirit involves a separation, a giving up, a living apart, which is keenly bitter to the flesh. The filling of Pentecost is a baptism of fire, but the Son of God walks beside us amid the flames where there is joy as the bonds shrivel and limbs are freed.
But this chamber leads to another of surpassing blessedness, The Chamber of Abiding in Christ. Around the doorway a vine is sculptured with trailing branches and dangling grapes; and intertwined among the foliage, these words appear: Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abides in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me (John 15:4). The Holy Spirit never reveals Himself. Those who have most of His grace, “think it not.” His chosen work is to reveal the Lord. We are not necessarily conscious of the Spirit, but of Him who is the Alpha and the Omega of our life. I AM the Alpha and the Omega, beginning and end, saith the Lord, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty (Revelation 1:8). Where the Spirit is in full possession, Christ’s loveliness fills the soul like the scent of the ointment filled the house at Bethany.
Our Lord is with us every day, but often our eyes assert that we don’t know Him, and if we discern Him for a radiant moment, He vanishes from our sight. However, there are times when we not only believe He is near, but we also perceive His presence by the instinct of the heart. He becomes a living, bright reality, sitting over our hearth, walking beside us through the crowded streets, sailing with us across the stormy lake, standing beside the graves that hold our dead, sharing our crosses and our burdens, turning the water of common joys into the wine of holy sacraments. Then the believer leans hard on the ever-present Lord, drawing on His fullness, appropriating His unsearchable riches, and claiming His grace to turn every temptation into ways of increasing our likeness to Himself. And if the branch abides constantly in the Vine, it can’t help bearing fruit. No, the difficulty would be to keep the fruit back. I AM the vine, ye are the branches: he that abides in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing (John 15:5).
We have to do with the death and not with the life part of our experience. For if ye live according to the flesh, ye shall die; but if through the Spirit ye mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live (Romans 8:13). The more often we sow ourselves in the clods of daily self-denial, falling into the furrows to die, the more fruit we bear. It is by always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body (2 Corinthians 4:10). Prune off every bud on the old stock, and all the energy will pass up to the rare flowers and fruits grafted there by heaven.
But see the King summoning us forward into The Chamber of Victory over Sin. Above the door are the words: Whosoever abides in him does not sin (1 John 3:6). Around the walls hang various instruments of war: Therefore, take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day and stand fast, all the work having been finished (Ephesians 6:13), and murals of the overcomers receiving the just rewards which the King has promised. He that overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out no more, and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God which is the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from and with my God, and I will write upon him my new name (Revelation 3:12). We must be careful of the order in which we put these things. Many seek victory over sin before yielding themselves entirely to God. But you can never enter this chamber where the palm branch waves unless you have passed through the chamber of consecration. Give yourself up entirely to Jesus, and He will keep you.
Will you dare to say that He can hold the oceans in the hollow of His hand, and sustain the arch of heaven, and fill the sun with light for millenniums, but that He can’t keep you from being overcome by sin or filled with the impulsive rush of unholy passion? Can He not deliver His saints from the sword, His children from the power of those outside the church? Is all power given Him in heaven and on earth, and yet He must stand paralyzed before the devils that possess you, unable to cast them out? To ask such questions is to answer them. I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep (2 Timothy 1:12).
We can expect to be tempted until we die, and we will certainly carry with us an evil nature, which could manifest itself, unless it is kept in check by the grace of God. But if we abide in Christ, and He abides in us − if we live under the power of the Holy Spirit − temptation won’t excite any fascination in us. On the contrary, it shall horrify us with the least stirring of our self-life instantly noticed and met by the name and blood and Spirit of Jesus. The tides of His purity and life will flow so strongly over our being that they will sweep away any black drops of ink oozing upward from the sands.
In spite of this, you must once and for all shut the back door as well as the front door against sin. You must make every effort not to linger with it in any form. You must see that by the purpose of God you are limited to godliness. For unto those whom he knew beforehand, he also marked out beforehand the way that they might be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren (Romans 8:29). You must definitely and forever opt for the cross as the destiny of your self-life, and you will find that He will save you from all that you dare to trust Him with. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you (Joshua 1:3). And His work within us is most perfect when it is least apparent, and when the flesh is kept so completely in check that we begin to think it has been altogether extracted.
Yet another door at the far end of this chamber summons us to come forward to The Chamber of Heart Rest.
The King Himself spoke this motto in Matthew 11:29: Take my yoke . . . and ye shall find rest for your souls. Soft notes of a tune float on the air; the peace of God stands sentry against intruding care. Of course, the soul learns something about rest at the very beginning, but these words of the Master indicate there are at least two kinds of rest. And so, the rest of forgiveness passes into the rest of surrender and satisfaction.
We lay our worries and cares where once we only laid our sins. We lose the unrestrained fever and swiftness of earlier days and become oblivious to praise on the one hand and censure on the other. Our soul is poised on God, satisfied with God, and seeks nothing outside of God. It regards all things from the standpoint of eternity and of God. The life loses the senseless babble of its earlier course and sweeps onward to the ocean from which it derived its life, with a stillness which speaks of its depth and a serenity which foretells its destiny. The very face communicates the tale of the sweet, still life within, which is in harmony with the everlasting chime of the land where storms, conflict, and alarm do not come.
Some say that the door at the end of this chamber leads into The Chamber of Fellowship in Christ’s Sufferings, and that may be so. All along the Christian’s course there is a great and growing love for the world for which He died. But there are times when that love feels more like an agony of compassion and desire; and there are sufferings caused by the thorn-crown, including the sneer, the mockery, the cross, the spear, and the baptism of blood and tears. All these fall to the portion of the followers of the King, and possibly they come most plentifully to the godliest who are most like the Lord. But it is certain that those who suffer in this way are those who reign. Their sufferings aren’t for a moment to be compared to the glory revealed in their lives. And out of their bitter griefs, sweetened by the cross, gush springs of water to refresh the weary inheritance of God, like the waters of Exodus. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter; therefore the name of it was called Marah. Then the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD showed him a tree, which when he had cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet (Exodus 15:23-25).
Beyond all these − separated from them by a very slight distance − are The Mansions of the Father’s House into which the King will soon lead us, with chamber after chamber of delight, and stretch after stretch of golden glory, until these natures of ours, which are only like an infant’s, have developed to the measure of the stature of our full growth into the likeness of the Son of God.
O soul! Where have you gone to? Don’t linger inside the first chamber but press onward making forward progress. If any door seems locked, knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you (Matthew 7:7). Never think you’ve already achieved the goal or are already perfect, but follow onward to apprehend all for which Jesus Christ apprehended you. Press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14).