BlessedinHim
June 29th, 2007, 01:08 PM
THE CHURCH GOSPEL
NT: Acts 9 to Philemon
The glorified Lord Jesus Christ tells Saul, "I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in which I will appear unto thee." And what does Saul see? Not only Christ risen, but also Christ ascended in glory. Stephen has seen Him there, and had consigned his spirit to Him whom he had seen there; but Saul sees Him and is commissioned to be a minister and a witness of the things that he sees.
Here, then, was the introduction of the Gospel of God according to the fullness of His heart and purpose. Can anyone for a moment hesitate to accept the beautiful order of this wondrous Gospel, beginning and consummating in the bright, full circle of the Father’s presence and glory?
We have already seen that salvation through a risen Saviour could be and was known, and the saints maintained, through the Holy Spirit here on earth, in one mind, one soul, remembering the death of the Lord in the breaking of bread. This was while they were still linked to earth and to the Temple services, and their hope entirely connected with the earth as waiting their Lord’s return to establish His kingdom (Acts 1:6).
Church Gospel - But now that this hope could no longer be presented on account of Christ’s rejection from the earth, God unfolds through Christ the deep, full counsel of His heart; and the scene where all this can be displayed is the glory into which Saul in now introduced; and seeing the Lord Jesus in the glory is the pivot and center of that Gospel which is now entrusted to him.
[Acts 13 represents an unfolding of the truth of the Mystery, not the advent of the Body of Christ as some erroneously teach. See quotation below.]
"Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages hath been hidden in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ" (Eph. 3:8, 9).
The nature and scope of this Gospel we shall best ascertain by tracing the lines of truth expounded in Paul’s writings, which, like rays emanating from Christ, the Center and Source, lead the heart back to Himself and feed it with His excellency and glory. Saul’s first sermon gives us a clear idea of the power and greatness of the Gospel committed to him. "He preached Christ… that He is the Son of God" (Acts 9:20).
In the Epistle to the Romans, where Paul calls the Gospel "the Gospel of God (Rom. 1:1), "the Gospel of His Son" (v. 9), and "my Gospel" (Rom. 16:25), the first characteristic we find of it is justification through faith, because God’s righteousness is revealed in Christ. The righteousness of God is thus characteristic of Paul’s Gospel.
Now the righteousness of God is established in the Cross of Christ—He bearing in Himself the judgment on man, so that there is an end of that which offended God. He was made to be sin for us, that we should be made the righteousness of God in Him. There is an end of man as man was (in the First Adam); the old man was crucified with Christ. Hence, with the righteousness of God there is another characteristic, namely, the end of man in the flesh.
Then comes eternal life: grace reigns "through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 5:21). A further characteristic is that "ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit" (8:9). It is "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" which has "made me free from the law of sin and death" (8:2), and "if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His" (8:9).
Let the soul endeavor to embrace all that is conferred on it in this epistle by Paul’s Gospel: righteousness— the righteousness of God established by Christ; the judicial ending of the old man; the gift of eternal life; the Spirit of Christ; so that Christ in me is the summing up, as well as the fullness, of blessing.
Paul’s Gospel - Paul’s Gospel produces, for those that believe, a new order of existence after another order of man. Christ lives in me. It is not that the old man has received additions and advantages as in a legal religion—a former Gospel—but that I am made anew of Him who is the Son of God, and that the old man has been superseded and judicially put an end to in His Cross. Being crucified with Christ, it has no longer any recognized existence before God; while I, in my new creation, am in Christ before the Father, and He lives in me. This is the very kernel of Paul’s Gospel.
Thus we see how the "Gospel of His Son" positions the believer before God in relation to Him, and also in relation to the old Adamic man. This is very partially presented in the Gospel preached by Peter. He preached salvation, perfect and final, through a risen Saviour, and the present indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Great elements, it must be admitted; but they did not set aside man as entirely and judicially ended in the Cross of Christ, nor connect the individual with Christ as his Life and Head (as in the truth revealed to Paul), though the saints possessed it through the Holy Spirit. They [early saints] did not know who they were, and where they were, "hidden with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3).
William Kelly stated, "The evangelical ‘revival,’ whether of Wesley or Whitfield, was a pious reaction which insisted on the new birth and earnestness on behalf of lost souls, from the cold ethics and formality, if not deism, of the century before.
"But the heavenly calling and the inheritance of the saints, the purpose of God for His glory in Christ, never really dawned upon evangelical hearts, any more than of the Puritans, or even the Reformers who preceded."
NT: Acts 9 to Philemon
The glorified Lord Jesus Christ tells Saul, "I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in which I will appear unto thee." And what does Saul see? Not only Christ risen, but also Christ ascended in glory. Stephen has seen Him there, and had consigned his spirit to Him whom he had seen there; but Saul sees Him and is commissioned to be a minister and a witness of the things that he sees.
Here, then, was the introduction of the Gospel of God according to the fullness of His heart and purpose. Can anyone for a moment hesitate to accept the beautiful order of this wondrous Gospel, beginning and consummating in the bright, full circle of the Father’s presence and glory?
We have already seen that salvation through a risen Saviour could be and was known, and the saints maintained, through the Holy Spirit here on earth, in one mind, one soul, remembering the death of the Lord in the breaking of bread. This was while they were still linked to earth and to the Temple services, and their hope entirely connected with the earth as waiting their Lord’s return to establish His kingdom (Acts 1:6).
Church Gospel - But now that this hope could no longer be presented on account of Christ’s rejection from the earth, God unfolds through Christ the deep, full counsel of His heart; and the scene where all this can be displayed is the glory into which Saul in now introduced; and seeing the Lord Jesus in the glory is the pivot and center of that Gospel which is now entrusted to him.
[Acts 13 represents an unfolding of the truth of the Mystery, not the advent of the Body of Christ as some erroneously teach. See quotation below.]
"Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages hath been hidden in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ" (Eph. 3:8, 9).
The nature and scope of this Gospel we shall best ascertain by tracing the lines of truth expounded in Paul’s writings, which, like rays emanating from Christ, the Center and Source, lead the heart back to Himself and feed it with His excellency and glory. Saul’s first sermon gives us a clear idea of the power and greatness of the Gospel committed to him. "He preached Christ… that He is the Son of God" (Acts 9:20).
In the Epistle to the Romans, where Paul calls the Gospel "the Gospel of God (Rom. 1:1), "the Gospel of His Son" (v. 9), and "my Gospel" (Rom. 16:25), the first characteristic we find of it is justification through faith, because God’s righteousness is revealed in Christ. The righteousness of God is thus characteristic of Paul’s Gospel.
Now the righteousness of God is established in the Cross of Christ—He bearing in Himself the judgment on man, so that there is an end of that which offended God. He was made to be sin for us, that we should be made the righteousness of God in Him. There is an end of man as man was (in the First Adam); the old man was crucified with Christ. Hence, with the righteousness of God there is another characteristic, namely, the end of man in the flesh.
Then comes eternal life: grace reigns "through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 5:21). A further characteristic is that "ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit" (8:9). It is "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" which has "made me free from the law of sin and death" (8:2), and "if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His" (8:9).
Let the soul endeavor to embrace all that is conferred on it in this epistle by Paul’s Gospel: righteousness— the righteousness of God established by Christ; the judicial ending of the old man; the gift of eternal life; the Spirit of Christ; so that Christ in me is the summing up, as well as the fullness, of blessing.
Paul’s Gospel - Paul’s Gospel produces, for those that believe, a new order of existence after another order of man. Christ lives in me. It is not that the old man has received additions and advantages as in a legal religion—a former Gospel—but that I am made anew of Him who is the Son of God, and that the old man has been superseded and judicially put an end to in His Cross. Being crucified with Christ, it has no longer any recognized existence before God; while I, in my new creation, am in Christ before the Father, and He lives in me. This is the very kernel of Paul’s Gospel.
Thus we see how the "Gospel of His Son" positions the believer before God in relation to Him, and also in relation to the old Adamic man. This is very partially presented in the Gospel preached by Peter. He preached salvation, perfect and final, through a risen Saviour, and the present indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Great elements, it must be admitted; but they did not set aside man as entirely and judicially ended in the Cross of Christ, nor connect the individual with Christ as his Life and Head (as in the truth revealed to Paul), though the saints possessed it through the Holy Spirit. They [early saints] did not know who they were, and where they were, "hidden with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3).
William Kelly stated, "The evangelical ‘revival,’ whether of Wesley or Whitfield, was a pious reaction which insisted on the new birth and earnestness on behalf of lost souls, from the cold ethics and formality, if not deism, of the century before.
"But the heavenly calling and the inheritance of the saints, the purpose of God for His glory in Christ, never really dawned upon evangelical hearts, any more than of the Puritans, or even the Reformers who preceded."