The Development of Jesus Christ in the Life

 The following is from "That They May All Be One, Even As We Are One" - Volume 1 by T. Austn-Sparks:

"I think we all recognize that Christianity has become a great built-up system. And very soon after the apostles had gone to the Lord, men began to put their hand upon Christianity. They put its truths into a set system of creeds. They put its testimonies into a form of ritual. Somehow or other man must put his hand on things. From the day when Adam put his hand on the tree of knowledge of good and evil, man has always wanted to put his hand on the things of God. That is, to bring the things of God into his own control. We use our hands in order to bring things under our control.

"But when it comes to the things of God, that is a wrong use of our hands.

". .  . Christianity began in a simple beautiful living way. It was all in the life and the liberty of the Spirit. And while the Holy Spirit has His hand on things, everything is all right. Now men came in and they took hold of Christianity and the result is what we have today. There is no place where there is more confusion than in Christianity. The Lord's testimony is under arrest. It is in limitation because man's hands are upon it. Man has brought it under his control. That is always a dangerous and a disastrous thing. The Lord's attitude is like this. 'I will keep My hands off until you take yours off. While your hands are on My things I will leave it to you.' And things go from bad to worse.

"Now I think we all recognize that. The more a man or any man puts their hands on the things of God, the more confusion there is. When man brings the things of God under his control and dominates them, that means trouble. That is why the Lord so often had to weaken man and make man know his own weakness.

". . . The new dispensation is the dispensation of Jesus Christ. Christ is the new dispensation. 'I am here,' He said. You go through that Gospel of John. He is centering everything in Himself. 'I am the Way; I am the Truth; I am the Life; I am the Shepherd; I am the Vine; I am the Resurrection.' IT IS A PERSON. It is that which lies behind everything. Christianity is Christ. Christ is Christianity. That is where it all begins and it never departs from HIM. The development of the Christian life is only the development of Jesus Christ in the life."