오스틴 스팍스가 본 진정한 교회의 모습

오스틴 스팍스(T. Austin-Sparks)의 책(1931년 7월)중에서 발췌한 메시지를 함께 나누고자 합니다. 현대 기독교의 모습과 성경이 말하는 교회의 모습을 그의 글을 통해 봅니다. 오늘날 교회안에는 하늘에 속한(heavenly) 다스림이 필요합니다.  물론 이는 성령님의 다스림이어야 할것입니다. 우리는 제도화되버린 기독교안에 이와 같은 것이 없음을 보게 됩니다. 많은 영에 속한 사람(영적인) 사람들이 이 오래된 기독교라는 제도에서 분리되어야 할 필요를 더욱더 절실히 느끼고 있습니다...... 많은 그리스도인들이 이러한 기독교라는 이름의 종교적 제도에 깊은 불만감을 갖게 되었습니다. 그리고 영적인 실재에 대해 심히 갈급해 하고 있습니다. 많은 설교들이 지식적인 방향으로 흐르고 있으며, 지적인 유희들로 가득합니다. 영적 기근의 상태인것입니다. 사람들이 하늘에 속한 것들을 장악하였고, 그것들을 땅에 속한 것들로 만들어 버렸습니다. 그렇게함으로써 모든것들이 애초부터 뒤틀리게 된것입니다. 처음에는 모든것들이 영적으로(of the Spirit) 시작되었습니다. 사람들은 가정에서 모였으며, 특정한 장소가 아니라, 모일 수 있는 곳이라면 어느곳에서나 모였습니다.   장소가 문제가 될 수 없었습니다. 교파라는것은 있지도 않았습니다. 오직 주님만이 있었습니다. 사람들은 주님을 중심으로 모였습니다. 그러나 언젠가부터 사람들이 다음과 같은 말을 하기 시작했습니다. "우리에게 공식적인 장소, 건물이 필요하다!"...... 그들은, 땅에 속한 세상사람들이 보고 인정해줄 눈에 보이는 어떠한것들(세상적인 것)을 교회안에 받아들였습니다. 그들은 세상사람들에게 매력적으로 보이고자 하여 하나님이 아닌 자신들을 나타내게 되었습니다. 그것이야말로 교회를 타락하게 한 첫번째 단계였습니다. 교회안의 많은것들이 인간의 명예와 권세를 위해 행해졌습니다. 세상의 환심을 사기위해 교회가 세상의 많은것들을 받아들였습니다...... 그러한 결과로 인해 교회안으로 많은 불신자들이 유입되어 신자들과 함께 있게 되었습니다. 당신이 교회에 어떠한 "큰 이름"(교파의 이름)을 붙인다면 많은 사람들을 끌어들일 수 있을것입니다. 교회사를 통해 마귀의 가장 큰 성공을 하나 꼽는다면, 다름아닌 교회를 대중의 구미에 맞게 세속화시킨것입니다.   그럼으로 해서 우리는 가장 중요한것(근본적인 것)을 잃어버리고 말았습니다. 그것은 바로 교회와 그리스도입니다. 교회는 천연적인 사람(세상사람, the natural man)에게는 감춰진 비밀입니다....... 천연적인 세상사람들이 교회를 이해하기 바라는것은 무리이며 가능하지도 않습니다. 하나님의 마음 중심에 있어서 교회란 본질적으로 "영적인 무엇"입니다. 이 세상의 모든것을 지배하는 단 하나의 법칙이 있어야 한다면, 그것은 우리의 관념(관점)이 아닌 하나님의 관념이어야 할것입니다. 우리가 진정으로 주님과 함께 나아가기를 원한다면, 우리의 모든 사상적 체계와 제도에 있어서 변화가 있어야 할것입니다...... 그렇다면, 우리는 하나님의 관점에서 많은것들을 하나씩 하나씩 보게 될 것입니다. 당신이 하늘에 속한 결과를 얻으려면, 마땅히 하늘에 속한 제도(the heavenly system)안에 자신을 두어야 할것입니다.     HEAVENLY THINGS  To the natural man everything, which relates utterly to God, is a mystery and can only be apprehended by spiritual revelation and understanding on the ground of a man’s having himself become a spiritual being. It is here, you see, that mere cleverness is ruled out. It does not stand here. Intellectual development and power, as such, are set aside. Scholarship, as such, has nothing to do with the things of the Spirit. The natural man, good or bad cannot come in here. Human efficiency cannot come into this realm. The natural man will count on the things of nature, so God must rule him out. The proud cannot enter into the things of the Spirit.   And yet, we so very often come before men as if we knew something. We have here on the earth certain advantages and abilities, and we display them before men. That is just the terrible danger of the present system, which makes something of man and puts man in a certain place and gives him a position of power over crowds of people.   God beholdest the proud afar off . . . and when you want the real essence of spiritual blessing, you have to come to the one who had been broken, shaken, and ground to powder — who in himself is absolutely nothing. Then God begins to pour of Himself through that one, and He has what He wants. What God wants are spiritual people in this deepest sense—wholly spiritual?   What is the essence of what is from God? That he should come into it from above (i.e., vertically). You can come to things on the horizontal (i.e., the earthly) -- through a certain amount of college or other preparation for it—and you can enter into something here on the earth, which is called "the ministry." You can enter into Bible teaching on the horizontal. You may know the Bible, and you may be able to cite it; you are in all the doctrines of the Scripture. You can come into the church that way. You call it "joining the church," and when you come in that way, you are not in it at all. You are in a false position entirely. They only way to come into the things which is especially of God are that you have come in the Spirit.   Then "the ministry" is no longer a matter of churches, pulpits, and congregations, etc. The ministry is not governed by anything outward . . .. You may come into the Word of God by cleverly apprehending it mentally. When that is over, they say, "That was a clever address"; but is there a mighty change? The dynamic impact of God upon their innermost being what about that? What does it do with reference to their conformity to the image of God’s Son?   You can inter into a ministry from above (heavenly—vertically), not horizontally (earthly). No servant of God fulfills the full measure of the Divine purpose except as he comes into it from above. And that represents something in the nature of a terrific upheaval in one’s life when he comes in that way. This is why imitation is so fruitless. The imitation of Christ is cold — there is there is no dynamic in it. It is very beautiful and mystical, but it does not change the very substrata of your being and conform you to the image of His Son. You cannot put things into Scriptural mold and have life. Everything that is of God has got to be wrought out by the Holy Spirit.   There is a great need today that there should be the rule of the heavenly. But the Holy Spirit has got to do it, and we have got to come to recognize the fact that what we see in organized Christianity is not it. The spiritual people of God are more and more feeling separate from the old system of Christianity, "churches," and ecclesiastical systems. People are recognizing a deep dissatisfaction with what has held the ground so long, and there is a cry for spiritual reality. Many sermons are clever and full of mental ability, but they are starvations to the spirit. There is all the activity, but it is not spiritual life; and I believe the Lord is going to show us the nature of the heavenly. The thing that man has brought and perpetuated is only at best a poor imitation of the heavenly.   Man has taken hold of heavenly things and made them earthly things. At the first, things were of the Spirit. The people gathered in their homes or anywhere. It was not the place. It was not the ministry. It was the Lord, and they were circled around Him. But then the day came when they said, "We must have public buildings": then the architecture became a factor, and so things developed . . . and they became something on the earth for men to take note of. They wanted men to be attracted, and that was the first step in one of the greatest perils that have overtaken the Church. Things were done for prestige, for recognition, for the attracting of the world . . . with the result that you get the mixed multitudes in the Church. If you can attach some big names to it, you can attract the people; and one of the devil’s greatest measures has been the popularizing of the Church. Lost is the preeminent thing — that the Church and Christ are a mystery to the natural man . . . and that it is no use to expect the natural man to appreciate it. The Church according to the mind of God is essentially a spiritual thing. What really governs everything is God’s conception of things, not ours; and if we are going on with the Lord, there is going to be a whole system of change . . . and we are going more and more to view things from the heavenly standpoint. You have got to get into the heavenly system to get heavenly results.     <table width="624" cellspacing="0"> <tbody> <tr> <td width="33%" valign="middle">T. Austin-Sparks  July, 1931</td></tr></tbody></table>