The Gospel of Experience

Let us look further into Paul's ex­perience. He states, "It pleased God . . . to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him." You remember Paul went to Athens and met those wise men,—the Epicureans, the Stoic philosophers,—and he reasoned with them. Do you ever find among his letters a letter to the church in Athens? Why not?—He did not raise up a church there. He went from Athens to Corinth. He had learned His lesson. "I determined not to  know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." 1 Cor. 2:2. There were some at Athens who believed, but we have no letter to the church. When I read that passage in 1 Corinthians 2:2, I put the emphasis on the pronoun, because of the con­nection. "I determined not to know anything among you." I learned my lesson in Athens. I met philosophy with philosophy. I met argument with argument. I tried to meet them on common ground. I came to Cor­inth, a city noted for its impurity, its idolatry. I determined not to know anything among them save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Did Paul preach a complete gospel to the Corinthians? Can we preach a complete gospel now and do exactly what he did? Do we? Do we take that as our model, as our guide, and act upon it,—go among people, sinful people, heathen people in America, or in mission lands, and be determined not to know anything among them save Jesus Christ and Him crucified? Can you follow that plan and raise up a company of faithful Seventh-day Adventists? [Voice: Yes.] Do you do it?

Now I myself frankly say that I have heard subjects announced that I thought would prove a problem to me to know how to preach Christ crucified under that subject. It may be that by wandering away from the subject announced, Christ could be preached. But certainly He could not be sug­gested in the subject. I think these things are extremely practical to us preachers. I am asking you these questions to cause you to think. Thinking over your own experience in preaching, have you followed this principle? Suppose I ask you a simple question: Do you preach the second chapter of Daniel that way? I do not mean to expound the history and then at the end to give some texts for the gospel; I mean to preach the gospel of Christ in the second chapter of Daniel, and not bring the gospel in from some other place. I want to tell you in frankness that I preached the second chapter of Daniel a long while before I preached any Christ in it, or saw any Christ in it, and I may say (although there is no one here to whom I am referring) that I have heard sermons preached on the second chapter of Daniel that sounded like my own sermons before I saw the gospel there. I hope I shall never hear another such sermon. I hope we all have come to preach prophecy, not merely as a prediction of something that is going to happen in the future, but as the presentation of a Person in whom things happen now and will happen. I mean just this way: Christ will not come the second time to save a person in whom He has not already taken up His abode. Think of that when you preach the second advent. Christ will not come as a Saviour at the second advent to one to whom He has not already become a Saviour.

Now another statement in this first epistle to the Corinthians concerning Paul's preaching: "We preach Christ crucified." 1 Cor. 1:23, 24. What is the difference between preaching the crucifixion of Christ and preaching Christ crucified? Now you know as well as I, that it is possible to make a very deep impression upon an audi­ence if we are gifted in language, in presenting that terrible scene on Cal­vary, and yet not convert a single person by doing it. The crucifixion is a great fact; Christ crucified is a great Saviour. We cannot get on without the fact. Certainly not. Paul didn't. But it is not simply a fact, something that happened long ago. It is the Person who was crucified living as the crucified Christ. You remember His own words when He appeared in such glory to the apostle John after His resurrection that the apostle fell at His feet as one dead. "He laid His right hand upon me, saying, Fear not; I am the first and the last, and the Living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades." Rev. 1:17, 18. It is the living Christ who died and who lives now. It was not simply the facts about a Person who lived long ago, and was put to death. It was the fact that that Person conquered death, and lives as a Saviour, the living Christ.

Paul says, "We preach Christ cru­cified." How was he able to preach Christ crucified? He tells us himself in Galatians 2:20: "I have been cru­cified with Christ." Let me empha­size the fact that no one can preach Christ crucified who has not himself been crucified with Christ. Is that right? [Amen.] That means some­thing in experience, doesn't it? That means a fellowship with a Person.

It is very interesting to note the way the apostle Paul writes concerning this union with Christ. I jotted down some statements: "Crucified with Christ." Gal. 2:20. Buried with Christ. Rom. 6:4. Raised up to­gether with Christ. Eph. 2:6. Ex­alted with Christ. Eph. 2:6. Suffer­ing with Christ. Rom. 8:17. Glorified with Christ. Rom. 8:17. Reigning with Christ. 2 Tim. 2:12. How does it begin?—In death. How does it end? —In reigning with Him on His throne. But the death, the crucifixion with Him, is an absolutely necessary step to reigning with Him. "He that over­cometh, I will give to him to sit down with Me in My throne, as I also over­came, and sat down with My father in His throne." The one who is united with Him in His death, His resurrec­tion, His burial, His ascension, in suf­fering, will be glorified with Him and will reign with Him. It is absolutely impossible to omit the first step.

Let us note just a bit further this union with Christ and what it means to accept Him. Everything must be personality. "Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption." 1 Cor. 1:30. He is made sanctification to us. He is made redemption. He is made justification. He is all. Christ is all.

The apostle Paul writes quite fully about justification, you remember. He teaches that we are "justified freely by His grace," "justified by His blood" "justified by faith." The apostle James wrote about Abraham's being justified by works. Take those four expressions,—grace, blood (death), faith, works. But the apostle Paul summed it up in one expression in Galatians 2:17: "Justified in Christ." That is the fulfillment of that proph­ecy in Isaiah 45:25, "In Jehovah shall all the seed of Israel be justified." Jehovah became Jesus, the God-man. And the apostle Paul expounded it in just those words, "justified in Christ."

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual bless­ing in the heavenly places in Christ." Eph. 1:3. There is no spiritual bless­ing apart from the Person. In having the Person, we have every blessing. But we ourselves do not realize it. It takes study, prayer, personal experi­ence, to realize what we have in Christ. "In whom we have our redemption, . . . the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace." Eph. 1:7. Where do we have forgive­ness?—In Him. Where do we have righteousness?—In Him. Where do we have sanctification?—In Him. Where do we have our redemption? In Him. What more do we need?

I would like to read some titles that will perhaps suggest more to you than anything I can say as to this Person:

"The inexhaustible Christ

The incomparable Christ

The infinite Christ

The incarnate Christ

The infallible Christ

The immaculate Christ

The immolated Christ

The immortal Christ

The ideal Christ

The invisible Christ

The interceding Christ

The immutable Christ

The indestructible Christ

The influential Christ

The illustrious Christ

The imperial Christ

The inevitable Christ

The irresistible Christ

The indwelling Christ

The indispensable Christ."

"Christ is love to bleed;

Christ is grace for need;

Christ is food to feed;

Christ is guide to lead;

Christ is power to speed;

Christ is truth indeed;

Christ is living seed;

Christ doth ever plead;

Christ is all we need." 

Put with that the statement in "Gospel Workers," bottom of page 282, "Christ is Christianity."

We have just touched upon this sub­ject. However, I think we have enough to think about.