The Spirit and Liberty

W. Carl Ketcherside

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     Perhaps no other journalistic ability should be coveted quite so much as that which would enable one to portray the relation of the Spirit of God to the community of saints when the believers were first welded into one body by this divine Agent. More than nineteen receding centuries have subjected the majestic dream of heaven to the abrasive action of human stubborness and the corrosive attitude of human reasoning, and now the vital pulsating faith which drove men on to almost incredible conquests seems but a faint whisper from a faraway yesterday. But it was real!

     The company of the reconciled ones lived in the Spirit, walked in the Spirit and rejoiced in the Spirit. Apart from the Spirit they would have been helpless, a mere coalition of men set free to wallow in a sea of indecision and insecurity. But in the Spirit they were fearless and powerful and "more than conquerors." Once they had not been a people. Now they were the people of God. And to be "the people" is the most important thing in the universe when they are the people of God.

     The people of God are more than a mere group of individuals who believe in God, or who acknowledge that he is the creator and benefactor of the world. They are God at work in his world, actively affecting it according to his ultimate design. They are the salt which preserves, the light which penetrates, and the leaven which permeates. They are the temple of God, not as a shrine to be venerated by men who come to it, but as a living vehicle to take God to men. God dwells in them through the Spirit.

     One of their number prayed in their behalf in these words, "As you live this new life, we pray that you will be strengthened from God's boundless resources, so that you will find yourselves able to pass through any experience and endure it with joy." They experienced persecution of every kind. Their houses were entered, their possessions stolen, and their property destroyed. They were arrested, humiliated, imprisoned and beaten. But they drew upon the boundless resources and their joy was undimmed.

     They had come to know "how tremendous is the power available to us who believe in God. That power is the same divine energy which was demonstrated in Christ when he raised him from the dead." Seldom indeed do we think of tremendous power as available unto us. We are occupied in printing programs, preparing brochures, and designing advertisements which we hope will catch jaded eyes and entice tired hearts. In a world of clever propaganda we have been seduced into believing that if we can just get the right set of words and phrases, they will act as a magnet and reluctant souls will inevitably be drawn into our systems.

     And we must work constantly to keep our dynamos in repair, oiled and running

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smoothly. For when there is no power from above we must generate our own. And this means that we must have our plants clean and sanitary, meeting the requirements of the city inspection. We must give attention to the liturgy and ritual for the timing must be perfect. The hand of the clock rather than the hand of God must determine when the "Amen" is pronounced.

     The workmen who man the machinery must be trained. There must be no sabotage through ignorance or inefficiency. The co-ordinator must check everything in the weekly movement of the body, for a body which functions but once per week may be rheumatic, stolid, and dull of senses. A body which has no power within itself must create a power structure which is of it and yet outside of it, and which can supply the power lacking in the organism. It is like a man who carries a battery in his coat pocket with wires running into his heart to keep it palpitating in rhythm.

     It would help us, I think if we could bring ourselves to be absolutely frank and honest, and admit that the structure which we have created is dead. Of course this is very difficult to do and probably we will never arrive at the point where we are that objective. We have so long equated our own creation with the creation of God which cannot die, that to admit our own structure is dead would seem almost like accusing God of failure. And this is unthinkable, for God could not accomplish his purpose without us.

     Too, we like to deceive ourselves. It is easier to live in a realm of dreams and fantasy. None of us want to be jerked rudely back into a world of reality. We point to our spasmodic muscle twitches and to our blinking eyelids and urge that the body is alive. But the truth is that the lungs expand and contract by artificial respiration. The system provides for one who has taken a course in lifesaving to breathe down our throats, but the life really is not that of the body at all. It is the life of the system. When the system cannot supply "a breather" the body expires.

     In such a state we must develop projects, crusades and movements. There must be rally days and spiritual emphasis weeks. Because we mistake mass enthusiasm for the dynamic of God we mill around and congratulate one another on our success and assure ourselves that God is with us. In our frustration we know that we cannot overcome the world so we create a little universe of our own to attack. In this lilliputian world every anthill becomes a mountain and we go on a binge of attacking first one and then another as if it were the last great stronghold of Satan.

     The congregation is whipped into a fever pitch. Tracts are distributed, fears are aroused, and whatever the hated thing may be it can be seen leering from behind the most innocent-looking objects. A few weeks of high pressure campaigning and the fervor subsides. The gallant knights hang up their armor and start nodding in the pews again. The leaders of the host start reading Time magazine and the third class mail to determine from what direction the next dragon is approaching. And the devil smirks in glee that the energies have been expended upon a phantom. The world makes no record of the skirmish in its annals.

     In spite of all the horror and despair which exists upon many parts of our globe I must confess that I know no sense of despondency. I have come to

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appreciate the words of the apostle, "We are handicapped on all sides, but we are never frustrated; we are puzzled, but never in despair. We are persecuted, but we never have to stand it alone; we may be knocked down, but we are never knocked out!" And I can also acknowledge the validity of the statement, "Every day we experience something of the death of Jesus, so that we may also know the power of the life of Jesus in these bodies of ours."

     But what can we do? The answer is quite simple. We must leave our nets and follow Jesus. This is what he said. What are our nets? Obviously they are the things with which we have been fishing. They are the things in which we have trusted for our security, our support, our success and our welfare. But have we not heard the call of Jesus? Of course we have, but we brought our nets along. We were not ready to trust in his power so we have lugged along the schemes and methods that we used in the world to build up powerful organizations and corporations. And we have reasoned that by employing these same means we could build a strong organization to "sell Jesus" to the world. Jesus was our product! We were to promote him!

     We succeeded in building up the structure. We constructed the plant. We organized it, installed the machinery, and created the auxiliary institutions to supply material and manpower, including the trained personnel. We now have sprawling institutions and trust funds to sustain them. But we overlooked one thing. You cannot "sell Jesus" to the world. Jesus is not for sale. So here we are caught in our own trap. We have the latest scientific nets, the most powerful propulsion machinery to eject them into the teeming sea of humanity, and the most elaborate winches to draw them back into our shores.

     But where is Jesus? He is still passing by and saying, "Leave your nets and follow me!" There is every indication that his voice is being heard. The clanking and the clanging of our machinery cannot drown it out. The roar of the breakers cannot stifle it. It is not lost amidst the raucous calls of the peddlers nor amidst the cries for power tinged by color or tainted by creed.

     Men and women who are weary of pouring time and money and effort into machines which isolate them from Jesus even while making the claim that they exist to lead others to him, are leaving their nets. They have heard the call anew. They want to be close to Him. It is easier to carry a cross if you are going somewhere--even to Calvary--than to turn the crank of a merry-go-round day after day until you drop in the same track where you started.

     Our task is to recover for our generation the sense of closeness to God which results from a recognition of the power and purpose of the Holy Spirit. There must come again the feeling of urgency and destiny. The expectancy of the coming of our Lord must give meaning to what transpires in our world and in our lives. We must stop tinkering with gadgets and gimmicks to allure and entice, so that we may say as did one of yesterday, "Our only object was to help you to live lives worthy of the God who has called you to share the splendor of his own kingdom."

     1. The believers who were incorporate in Christ Jesus were granted strength and power through the Spirit in their inner being, out of the treasures of God's glory (Ephesians 3:16). The vast resources of heaven constituted a depository upon which they could draw in order to face any emergency and do so unflinchingly. They were scourged, stoned and subjected to imprisonment. Death stalked their steps by day and by night, but they faced it without fear.

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     We are afraid of dying because we do not know how to die. And the reason we do not know how to die is because we do not know how to live. When we have something worth living for, we will have something worth dying for. If we live dangerously we can die dramatically. Both life and death will be an adventure in which we can glorify Christ. The design of the Spirit makes every act of life a curtain call, and the final one is the key which gives meaning to all of the rest.

     2. It was through the Spirit that the saints overpowered and overcame the temptations of the flesh. There are some habits and inclinations which render men powerless in their grip. They are prisoners under the law that is in their members, slaves to the law of sin. Their very struggles to overcome add to the pain of their predicament as one in handcuffs cuts his wrists to the bone by straining and tugging at his fetters.

     In such an emergency the Spirit can provide freedom by killing or destroying the frightful desires and urges which drive men onward to the brink of despair and destruction. "It follows, my friends, that our lower nature has no claim upon us; we are not obliged to live on that level. If you do so, you must die. But if by the Spirit you put to death all the base pursuits of the body, then you will live" (Romans 12:13). The Spirit is the deliverer who slays the great red dragon which holds us captive inside the castle of our own body.

     3. The Spirit makes possible a life on an altogether different level for those in the flesh. It lifts men from the cave to the penthouse. Those who flounder through the swamps of sin, exposed to every moral malady bred in such a miasma, are elevated to the peaks of the mountains of faith. Here they can breathe the life-giving oxygen of the higher realms.

     "Those who live on the level of our lower nature have their outlook formed by it, and that spells death; but those who live on the level of the Spirit have the spiritual outlook, and that is life and peace. For the outlook of the lower nature is enmity with God...those who live on such a level cannot possibly please God. But that is not how you live. You are on the spiritual level, if only God's Spirit dwells within you" (Romans 8:5-9).

     4. The believer who is declared guiltless before God upon the basis of his trust in Jesus Christ is allowed to enter the sphere of God's grace. Here he is introduced to a whole new set of values created by this transcendent spiritual relationship. By reconciliation he achieved a state of harmony with God where his being is attuned to the vibrations of the divine, so there is no discord. This is designated "peace with God." The apostle puts it thus, "Through him we have confidently entered into this new relationship of grace, and here we take our stand, in happy certainty of the glorious things he has for us in the future" (Romans 5:1,2).

     The thing that sets the Christian apart is his confidence, his happy certainty. He knows what the ultimate future holds, because he knows Him. who holds the future. And because he knows this he can meet his current condition without wrath and doubting. He endures present sufferings, because suffering trains in endurance, and endurance develops a mature character, which produces a steady hope. "Such a hope is no mockery because God's love has flooded our inmost heart through the Holy Spirit he has given us."

     The Holy Spirit breaks up the dams

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and barriers, and overflows the heart with the love which is God's essence or nature. This enables us to love all men without regard to color, creed, ethnic or cultural background. We can love our enemies. We can pray for our persecutors. In short, we can love like God loves. "Though God has never been seen by any man, God himself dwells in us if we love one another; his love is brought to perfection within us" (1 John 4:12).

     5. The Spirit articulates our deepest yearnings, translating them into the language of heaven. In spite of the tremendous advancements made in the realm of communications and of the multiplied thousands of words appearing in our dictionaries, we realize that the sound combinations which we verbalize are always too limited. We are continually adopting and adapting new words to convey our sentiments in interpersonal relationships.

     Hidden within our spirits are longings which struggle to rise to the surface and clothe themselves in expression. But we are weak and helpless as we confront our own frustrations. We want to be free to soar toward the infinite but we are held back by the skeins of habit and environment which hold us imprisoned in a backlash of the flesh. The indwelling Spirit cuts the red tape and breaks the sound barrier for us. He decodes our groans and translates them into words which appear on the news-tickers of glory where all is made plain.

     This service is available only to the saints. Only these have their directional finders beamed toward heaven. The Spirit does not force the longing upon those who have no feeling for God. "In the same way the Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness. We do not even know how we ought to pray, but through our inarticulate groans the Spirit himself is pleading for us, and God who searches our inmost being knows what the Spirit means, because he pleads for God's own people in God's own way."

     We conclude by saying that our life in Christ is dependent upon our relationship with the Spirit through faith. If we have not the Spirit we are none of His. Power is available to us, power that will make us more than conquerors. We can rise above the bigotry and sterility of the sect and party only as we are led of the Spirit. We pray for all of our readers that you will be spiritually vital. May your lives be real!