The Tremendous Necessity for Going On to God's End - T. Austin-Sparks

We hear a lot of rhetoric about 'growing up in Christ.'   We can have sincerely 'good intentions,' yet miserably fail and fall short of ever reaching spiritual maturity.  This is an enormous frustration every sincere believer will encounter, as they press in and seek to truly know the Lord and walk in the Spirit.   Growing up in Christ is an imperative, integral part of our calling, yet our words and actions reveal that we know far more about how to be relgious... how to appease men and gain their admiration, without ever achieving any measureable spiritual growth in our inner man. 

I have been sharing some of the writings of T. Austin-Sparks here for the very reason that he addresses the 'how to' in an easily understood way that I have found very beneficial.  The following is an excerpt from his book, Filled Unto All the Fulness of God, Chapter 5 - The Tremendous Necessity for Going On to God's End.

....It is very necessary for us to recognise the tremendous necessity for going on to God’s end. We cannot be too strong in our emphasis upon this. And if we contemplate the perils of not doing so, we shall assuredly come to see how important it is that we should be fully stretched out toward the Lord’s end. There is very little doubt but that failure to go on to God’s end is, and has always been, the root out of which there have sprung most of the failures of God’s people. It is a root failure which has many branches, and many shoots of failure. The tragic (the pathetic, we might say), the appalling conditions which have come to prevail and obtain amongst the people of God from time to time, can usually be traced to this root: failure at some point to go on. People stop at quite a lot of things.


A great many people stop at conversion. We dare not use the word “salvation”, because it is a comprehensive word, and salvation goes on to the end; but we refer to that first phase of salvation: conversion. Multitudes stop there. Stopping there produces quite a large number of unhappy, unfortunate, and unsatisfactory conditions, not the least of which is that with many, after having been converted for a long stretch of years, there is very little more of the fulness of Christ than they knew at the beginning; and they are very little more capable and responsible people in relation to the purposes of God than they were when they were converted. They are still dependent upon everything outside of themselves; dependent upon what is given them for their food, dependent upon what is told them or advised them for their guidance, dependent upon things and persons for their support, dependent upon outside resources for their spiritual energy.

The root of the matter is not in themselves and so the Lord has a very, very large family of children who have grown old, so far as time is concerned, and never developed so far as spiritual faculties are concerned. That is a terrible tragedy. People stop at conversion, and so, whereas the Lord ought to have in all His people those who are able to take responsibility in His Name and teach the children spiritually and lead them on, multitudes, even after years, still have to be treated as children and led on from the outside.

I saw three little swallows sitting on the gutter of the roof outside the window this morning, closely huddled together, having never yet learned to fly and get their own food; and the mother bird was coming and going all the time, just dropping things into those large, wide-open mouths. That was a very beautiful sight, and a proper thing, but if I had seen three full-grown swallows sitting in that position, and another one feeding them, I should have said: There is something wrong here. And yet that is the condition spiritually of not a few of those who have known the Lord for many years. Paul said: "Warning and admonishing... to present every man perfect" (complete, full-grown). Many, then, stop at conversion and many evils follow.

Many stop with tradition. They have either been brought up in a tradition, or they have accepted a tradition, or have been introduced into a tradition in the early days of their Christian life. And the traditions, which have become the encompassment (the scaffolding, shall we say), have remained, and they have remained a part of the tradition. And that tradition - which may have been good in measure - intended to lead on to something else instead of being a scaffolding in which a structure should go on which should outgrow the scaffolding, has become a prison. Multitudes of the Lord’s people are in an imprisonment to tradition; something which has become set and static. This bondage to tradition is a terrible tyranny. They see nothing beyond that set thing which is merely the outward mould, and any appeal to many such Christians, made along the lines of a fuller knowledge of the Lord and a fuller presentation of the Lord, is met with: "Well, I have not been brought up to think like that. I have not been taught to accept that. All my training, all that in which I have been nurtured, all that in which I have lived my Christian life had no place for that." Tradition, whether it be church, or ecclesiastical system, creed, or any of the things which are traditional, become a prison house for many. So many stop there, and it seems impossible to move them out of that rut.

Further, many stop with truth. This is just as dangerous, and perhaps pernicious, in its results as any other. That may apply in two ways. It may apply in the direction of a set conviction. There may be no question about it being the truth, but that thing becomes a set conviction. People can become so set in their convictions that they are not prepared to accept any further light. There they stop with their convictions instead of being open to add to their faith, knowledge. This is a barrier which is very difficult to pass. We often meet such people who have settled the thing finally, and, while there is no desire whatever to oppose their settled position as to truth, the very fact that they have settled there is, in their case, a hindrance to something more that the Lord would give. They seem to think - though it is in truth - that to move on is of necessity to move away from their position. That does not necessarily follow.

There is another way in which we may stop with truth, and that is with the fascination of truth. Here is a dangerous thing. It is the fascination of discovering new ideas, new thoughts, something original in the Word of God. It is, shall we say, the freshness, the originality, the interest as something in itself with which many stop. They have found a new interpretation, they have got a new thought, a new idea, and they go on just concentrating upon that line of things. That works out too often in a strained, straw-splitting, hair-splitting fancifulness in the Word of God that sometimes becomes almost nauseating. It is reading into the Word something; it is taking out of the Word something that is not in it; and for even a masculine mind it seems to be just like children playing with toys, toying with the Word of God. There are multitudes who are doing that. They have got truth, and they are staying with it and playing with it and turning it over and exploring it, to find something fresh, something original; always looking into the Word of God to get a new idea; something that has not been seen before. There is a fascination about getting new ideas, and the Word is used like that. It is a perilous thing; the greed of the mind - we might almost say the lust of the mind - to get freshness about the Word of God, for freshness itself.

There is all the difference between that kind of thing, and the Holy Spirit breaking through and giving the insight that challenges, that perhaps startles; that touches as with a touch of life, but creates a crisis. We may have the most fascinating presentation of Biblical truth without any challenge, without any practical value. The Lord deliver us from that. It is a realm that is barren, that is unfruitful. There are those who can give you the last interpretation, the unique thing about any portion of Scripture. But what about spiritual progress? What about the spiritual growth? What about the increase of Christ? What about the conquest, the fighting power? What about the enlarged manifestation of the Lord? That is quite another thing. So you meet people who have a wonderful comprehension and a detailed and perhaps unique grasp of truth, with terrible contradictions in their moral life, in their business relationships, in questions of integrity, in the realm of love, forbearance, longsuffering, kindness and gentleness. These two things do not go together.

The letters to the Ephesians and Colossians make it perfectly clear that the increase of Christ is spiritual. It is not the increase of knowledge as such, but many stop there, and oh, what results follow! Whereas at the beginning when the Lord was giving light, things were living and there was an increase of the Lord and something of the Lord being manifested, there has come about this mental laying hold of that truth and playing with it, breaking it up, making something more of it mentally, and in the end you have something which, though large, is very dead.

We must be very careful about this lust of the mind for uniqueness and originality and freshness of idea, because secretly that only means that there is a desire for power. There is power in being able to pass over something that has never been seen before. There is a subtle, lurking danger when people are able to say: "I have never seen that before." That puts the one who has passed on that which has never been seen before, in a position of influence and very often that one wants a fresh idea, and still another, and will pursue ideas because of the influence it gives.

We are not out to criticise or condemn; we are showing the necessity for spiritual growth, for the increase of Christ, for going on. If we stop with any of these other things then terrible contradictions will arise.

There is another thing with which many stop, and that is with experience. Not a few of the Lord’s people are simply living, after many years, with an experience that they had years ago. They are making everything of some experience that lies back there in earlier years. There is a sense in which an experience should be carried on right through; but the point is, is that experience in its power up to date? Or is it something which happened, and there it finished so far as its virtue, its value, was concerned? It is useless for us to try and live upon an experience, the real energy and vitality of which ceased long ago. Is there a present value in that experience? Is it a memory, or is it something living now? Paul had an experience on the Damascus road, the power of which remained right to the end, and was his stimulus in the day of trial and carried him through.

But there are many who have had experiences which have become something in themselves, and they are simply living upon a past. As to their present history, there is no real vitality about them. There is no going on now because they had an experience and that is the sum total. Let us be careful that we do not live upon the past. It is like a commercial institution, trying to live upon a reputation. Sooner or later it is found that a reputation will not carry through all the complications of the present day, and old established firms find that they have to come up to date, or else, no matter how good their reputation was and is, they will be superseded, and all experience has got to be brought up to date. It is not what Christ became to you so long ago, and what you experienced then. It is: What is Christ to you at this very moment? Is He more now than He was then? If not, the experience is only a limiting thing.

All these things are full of danger if we stop at any one of them, and we could mention others. It is all one strong emphasis upon the necessity for our going on to God’s end, which is the fulness of Christ.

Let us say a word about what progress is. Of course, in a word, it is Christ. The apostle, in representing the race, says: “Looking off unto Jesus”. In other words: “That I may gain Christ”. Gaining Christ is progress. We have read: “You have not so learned Christ.” It is learning Christ that is progress.

To bring that nearer home: What is gaining Christ? Let us take an illustration from the Old Testament. In the book of Joshua, Israel failed to take full possession of the inheritance. One tribe after another failed to possess their possessions. The result is the book of Judges, covering four hundred years of tragedy, because they did not dispossess and possess. They did not cast out the enemy; they allowed the enemy to remain and live side by side with them. That, in the course of time by reason of relationships and inter¬mixture, brought them down under the power of the enemy concerning whom the Lord commissioned them to exercise absolute dominion, exterminating dominion. When we come to the book of Judges and see the result, we have a whole series of illustrations of what it means to fail to gain Christ. The very first enemy being dealt with in the book of Judges is Cushan-rishathaim, who is the king of Aram. “Aram” means “exalted”; “Cushan” means “black man”; “rishathaim” means “double iniquity”. Exalted, black man, double iniquity! Is not that embodiment of all that the Scriptures have to say about the sin of pride? What is pride? It is a double-iniquity! It is the blackest thing in God’s sight, an abomination with the Lord. The Israelites did not exterminate that foe, and that foe got the upper hand. What was it? Pride!

Turn to the Ephesian and Colossian letters again, and you will see that the gaining of Christ is in all lowliness and meekness. That is the first thing in those letters to do with the inheritance: “Walk worthily of the calling wherewith you were called, with all lowliness and meekness.” Becoming possessed of the inheritance is not some romantic thing in the atmosphere, some abstract thing; it is gaining the humility and the lowliness of Jesus Christ. What is the value of that? “He humbled Himself... God highly exalted Him...”. This is a very real thing. “In all lowliness and meekness”. That is one of the riches of Christ; one of the superlative values of Christ; one of the most powerful factors in Christ. Othniel, the judge raised up to deal with this particular adversary, is marked peculiarly by the spirit of faith in utter reliance upon God.

You see how at the back of all this history there are spiritual principles. The man who is the embodiment of pride, the double-iniquity, exalted, is dominating the people of God. They have fallen to pride. How shall they be delivered? By the man who is marked by the spirit of dependence upon God. What is humility but utter dependence upon God? How did Christ conquer? By His dependence upon the Father: “I can do nothing of myself.” That is how we gain Christ. Being increased with the increase of Christ is simply becoming more humble, more lowly, more dependent upon God. In other words, more selfless. It is very practical. There is nothing which will rob of the inheritance more quickly than pride. Spiritual pride is a ruinous thing as to coming to the inheritance, to God’s end. You may take it that if you meet spiritual pride, you have not met any of the fulness of Christ. It always assumes to have a good deal of fulness; that is its nature. Those who are truly humble, and meek, and lowly in heart, are those who are very conscious, and are marked by the consciousness, of how little they know and have of the Lord. They may be the people who really do know the Lord. You may say about them: I wish I knew the Lord as they know Him; and yet they themselves know nothing of the Lord. They think they have everything to learn. That is a mighty thing. That is advance; that is progress; that is gaining Christ.

The biggest battles that rage in our experience are the battles with pride. It is because so many have been used of God that they have fallen there; through popularity; through being used; through having opportunity. They have ceased to grow; they have stopped; and come under arrest.

What is true in the case of this first adversary is true of all the others; they represent spiritual things. But we have simply indicated this thing. What is progress, the inheritance? It is the increase of Christ. What is Christ? First of all: “Learn of Me for I am meek and lowly in heart...”. That is spiritual elevation; that is what it means to be in victory. We shall never know what power over the devil is, until we know what it is to be meek and lowly in heart. We shall never know what the riches of Christ are until that is a feature of us.

This comes home. We are getting away from the historical, away from the abstract. Come back to Ephesians, and see that the increase, the inheritance, is there. It is all spiritual: “in all lowliness and meekness...”. You find that the bounds of the inheritance are: “...the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge...”.

We find ourselves confronted with the real spiritual value of this whole matter. Every bit of the gain of Christ will be fraught with conflict; but that makes it all the more precious, and that causes it to become all the more settled and established.