The Inward and the Outward
“Ye fools, did not He that made that which is without make that which is within also.” — Luke xi. 40.
Every spirit seeks to create for itself a form or shape in which its life is embodied. The outward is the visible expression of the hidden inward life. The outward is generally known before the inward; through it the inward is developed and reaches its full perfection, as the apostle says in 1 Cor. xv. 46. “Howbeit that is not first which is spiritual but which is natural, then that which is spiritual.” To understand and maintain the right relation between the inward and the outward is one of the greatest secrets of the Christian life.
If Adam in paradise had not listened to the tempter, his trial would have resulted in the perfecting of his inward life. It was his sin and his ruin, and the cause of all his misery, that he gave himself up to the power of the visible outward world. Instead of seeking his happiness in the hidden inward life of a heart in which Gods command was honoured, in the inward dispositions of love and faith, of obedience and dependence, he fixed his desire on the world without him, on the pleasure and the knowledge of good and evil that it could give him.
All false religion, from the most degrading idolatry to the corruption of Judaism and Christianity, has its root in this, that what is outward, what can please the eye, or interest the mind, or gratify the taste, takes the place of that truth in the inward part, that hidden wisdom in the heart and life which God seeks and gives.
The great mark of the New Testament is that it is a dispensation of the inner life. The promise of the new covenant is: “I will put My law in Their Inward Parts and in Their Hearts will I write it.^’ “A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put Within You and I will put my Spirit Within You.’’ The promise of our Lord Jesus was” The Spirit of truth Shall Be in You. In that day ye shall know that I Am IN You.^’ It is in the state of heart that religion consists, in a heart into which God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son, a heart in which the love of God is shed abroad, that true salvation is found. The inner chamber, with its secret intercourse with the Father, who seeth in secret, is the symbol and the training school of the inner life. The true and faithful daily use of the inner chamber will make the inner hidden life strong and glad.
In all our religion the great danger is giving more time and interest to the outward means than the inward reality. It is not the intensity of your Bible study, it is not the frequency or the fervency of your prayers or good works, that necessarily constitutes a true spiritual life. No! what we need is, to realise that, as God is a Spirit, so there is a spirit within us that can know and receive Him and become conformed to His likeness, and be partaker of the very dispositions that animate Him as God in His goodness and love.
“Firmly settle this in thy mind, that all our salvation consists in the manifestation of the nature, life and spirit of Christ Jesus in our outward and inward new man. This alone renews and regains the first life of God in the soul of man. Wherever thou goest, whatever thou doest, at home or abroad in the field, do all in a desire of union with Christ, in imitation of His tempers and inclinations, and long for nothing, desire nothing so much, as that which exercises and increases the spirit and life of Christ in thy soul, and to have all within thee changed into the temper and spirit of the holy Jesus.
Consider the treasure thou hast within thee, the Saviour of the world, the eternal Word of God, hid in thy heart as a seed of the Divine Nature which is to overcome sin and death within thee, and generate the life of heaven again in thy soul.
Turn to thy heart, and thy heart will find its Saviour, its God, within itself. Thou seest and feelest nothing of God, because thou seekest for Him abroad, in books, in the church, in outward exercises; but there thou wilt not find Him till thou hast first found Him in thy heart. Seek for Him in thy heart and thou wilt never seek in vain, for there He dwells, there is the seat of His light and Holy Spirit P^