Doctrine And Experience: How to resolve the two!

Doctrine and Experience: How to Resolve the Two!

Let us keep well in mind that the truth as given in the Bible does not refer to the doctrine preached from the pulpit but to the fact before God. Doctrine is something people try to explain on earth; truth is what I become before God owing to what the Lord Jesus has accomplished. Through the work of Christ, God has transformed me to be another person. And such is the truth; such is the reality. We must remember that the work of Jesus Christ has already been accomplished before God and that what becomes of me through that finished work is the truth. For the truth is none other than Christ himself. All realities are in Christ, all facts are in Christ.

Consequently, when truth is preached, it becomes doctrine if there is no enlightenment. But when it is preached with the light of God shining upon it, this truth becomes a revelation. Having revelation is possessing truth. All who have doctrines have their minds full of ideas; but all who have revelation have life and reality.

The Lord Jesus is that reality. And God through the Holy Spirit brings us into reality so that what we have is no longer simply doctrine or teaching. We shall no longer live in our own feeling or experience; rather, we shall live in the facts which Christ has accomplished for us.

How often the work of God suffers because the seed in our hand is merely some objective doctrines which have not subjectively transformed us to be sons of the kingdom. Note that the 33 questions for Apostles and 18 questions for Elders have been borne out of experience and being subjectively transformed in conjunction with the Word of God and testimony with the apostles in agreement.

Many words are delivered up as but a mere dissertation: only the words spoken by those who intimately know God are truly seed for planting. Let us not tell people of the various things and teachings which our clever minds conceive; rather, we must sow into people’s ears the word which we have seen and known before God. For in proclaiming the word of God, it is not so much a matter of our eloquence as it is the incorporation of Christ into our lives. Do we speak an objective doctrine or utter what we have subjectively experienced? Many can only deliver objective truths or doctrines which fail to become operative in people’s lives. Only when the speaker is also the very word he delivers can he help people. For the word of God is not for mental appreciation; otherwise the clever would have a real advantage over the foolish. But God never differentiates between the clever and the foolish. When His word comes upon us, it will be tested, just as the paint on porcelain will be brushed off if it has not passed through fire; but if the paint has been burned into the porcelain, it cannot be removed even if washed with water.

How many doctrines can so easily be brushed off in people’s lives! Only by the grace of God can these doctrines be made fast and secure as He burns them as it were into us by environment and revelation. God will work time and again until His word becomes that which has been deeply worked into our lives. Then we ourselves become that word [that is, the word we issue forth flows from the Word]. Through the discipline and the revelation of the Holy Spirit, a certain word is inwrought into one’s life until he becomes that very word [flowing in that word]. And when later you meet that person, you will not deem him eloquent in delivering that word but will instead acknowledge him as being that word: veritably, that man has become the seed of God. Now it is precisely in this way that God spreads His word. Otherwise, the preaching of God’s gospel descends into merely being the passing of a word from one mind to another mind. With the result that the church will become shallower and shallower and fall far short of spiritual life and reality.

Consequently, the issue before us is whether or not we can be God’s seed. What part in our life may be considered God’s seed? Suppose He today were to sow you and me as seed. What would we produce? Whatever a man sows, that he shall reap. There is no exception to this rule. How very sad if the fruit we produce constitutes nothing more than causing people to know a little more about facts, teachings and doctrines but failing to help them touch the Lord’s life!

God’s purpose in sowing is of course for reaping. Let us therefore look for a moment at the principle of God’s reaping: “Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit” (John 12.24). This verse unfolds how the Lord Jesus must die if He is to distribute life to us. We see, then, that the path of reaping lies in dying—it lies in the cross. God’s purpose in sowing is to obtain fruit; His aim for a grain of wheat is for it to bear many more grains. He did not send a prophet or even many prophets to expound clearly His doctrines; He instead sent His own Son as a seed of wheat to fall into the earth and die that He might bear much fruit. Fruit bearing is not the result of clear exposition of the teachings and doctrines of the church, nor is it the consequence of familiarity with Scripture passages. It is the result of a falling into the earth and dying. And such is the work of the cross. Consequently, proper teaching will flow forth as a result.

The cross is an experience, not only a doctrine. If there has really been death, then there will really be fruit. But if no death, then there will be no fruit. The degree of death determines the amount of life; the number of stripes measures the totality of life overflowing.