Let us briefly review our former study on "The Gospel of Experience:"
1. Our mission is to preach the everlasting gospel to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.
2. The only gospel that saves from sin is the gospel of experience.
3. The only theology that is of real value is the theology that has been translated into personal experience.
4. The only effective preacher of the gospel is the one who preaches the gospel of experience.
You will notice that Revelation 14:6 is the only place where that expression, "the everlasting gospel," is found in the Scriptures. It is not a new gospel in this closing message; it is "the everlasting gospel." It is the gospel that was announced in Eden,—"I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed" (Gen. 3:15) ; the gospel that was preached to Abraham, "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." Gen. 22:18. It is the gospel that was preached unto David in the announcement that his house and his kingdom should stand forever. 1 Chron. 17:12. It is the gospel of the Person opened up to us in the New Testament, in the facts contained in the four Gospels concerning the birth, the life and work, the death and the resurrection of Christ. It is the gospel which was preached by the disciples after Pentecost in the power of the Spirit, in which preaching they pointed to Jesus, the crucified and risen Saviour. It is the gospel that is interpreted to us in the Epistles, in which we have unfolded the meaning of the facts that are set forth in the four Gospels.
To get a little touch of the breadth of this one word "gospel," I wish to call your attention to some of the phrases found in the New Testament combining, as it were, or suggesting the meaning bound up in the mere word "gospel." And remember this, —that the gospel is good news; not simply good advice.
Note some of these phrases:
1 Thess. 2:8: "The gospel of God."
1 Tim. 1:11: "The gospel of the glory of the blessed God."
Phil. 1:27 (and many other places): "The gospel of Christ."
Mark 1:1: "The gospel of Jesus Christ."
2 Cor. 4:4: "The gospel of the glory of Christ."
Eph. 1:13: "The gospel of your salvation."
Eph. 6:15: "The gospel of peace." Acts 20:24:"The gospel of the grace of God."
Matt. 24:14: "This gospel of the kingdom."
Rom. 1:1-4: "The gospel . . . concerning His Son." "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which He promised afore through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead; even Jesus Christ our Lord."
In those first four verses of Romans is found the fullest statement of the meaning of the gospel to be found in any one place in the Scriptures.
Think what is bound up in all those expressions. Take just one, "the gospel of the grace of God"—good news! What is the good news? Man was made in the image, or character, of God, and crowned with glory and honor, but through disobedience he lost that character. The good news is that provision-has been made whereby that character can be restored to man. That is the "gospel of the glory of the blessed God" that is granted us in the person of Christ. The gospel of the glory of God is the gospel of the glory of Christ. The gospel that brings peace to the soul, that brings salvation, restores the kingdom, is the gospel of the kingdom. All this is bound up in the one expression, "the gospel . . . concerning His Son." I think that whole scripture expounds to us this Person,—who He is, what He has done, what He is doing, what He will do. And mark this: The value of what He has done, or is doing, or will do, depends upon what He is. That is all. We must put emphasis upon the statement that it is good news concerning the Son of God, the Son of man. It is in Him and through Him that the blessings of the gospel come to us. As I tried to point out in our previous study, there is bound up in that simple statement in the Scriptures,—"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),—this one feature of the gospel, the gopd news, and this is what I desire especially to emphasize in our study at this time.
As stated in the previous study, in this gospel of the kingdom the central person is Jesus Christ, who is Himself the gospel. The gospel is not a philosophy; it is not made up of theological terms or abstract propositions. The gospel is embodied in a Person, who is Himself the gospel,—the "I AM." Note His own words again: "I am the bread of life," "I am the light of the world," "I am the door," "I am the good shepherd," "I am the resurrection and the life," "I am the way, the truth. and the life," "I am the true vine."
Fellowship With Christ
Now the blessed thing about this is the central experience of the gospel,—fellowship, union with Christ. It is well to stop and muse a bit on that thought. It is so easy to repeat words without much real thought of the meaning contained in the words. Let us take the central thought,—fellowship with Christ: think of Him; think of who He is; think of the place He occupies. Make it very real that He, bearing humanity as our own brother, is really seated on the throne, at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, and yet that He offers personal acquaintance, fellowship, with me and with you in a more intimate sense than it is possible for us to have fellowship with each other. Think of it, brethren! Fellowship with the Son of God, a fellowship which is more intimate than is possible between us! That is the privilege which is offered to us in the gospel. That is the good news.
Now turn to 1 Corinthians 1:9: "God is faithful, through whom ye were called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord." Note that we are called into that fellowship. Then to 1 John 1:3: "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you also, that ye may have fellowship with us: yea, and our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ." The apostle John was very intimately associated with Christ when He was here in the flesh,—lived with Him, talked with Him, heard His teaching, saw His works; but in his first epistle, written at least sixty years after that Person had left him—apparently left him—he states, "our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son."
That we may better comprehend just what "fellowship" with Christ means, I call attention to brief extracts from the writings of the Spirit of prophecy:
"Christianity—how many there are who do not know what it is! It is not something put on the outside. It is a life inwrought with the life of Jesus."—"Testimonies to Ministers," page 131.
Christianity is "a life inwrought with the life of Jesus." That is what is meant by fellowship with Him,—our life and His life in absolute union; our life inwrought with His life.
"Christianity has a much broader meaning than many have hitherto given it. It is not a creed. It is the word of Him who liveth and abideth forever. It is a living, animating principle, that takes possession of mind, heart, motives, and the entire man." —Id., pp. 421, 422.
In these statements we have, not a dictionary definition of Christianity, not a theological phrase, but the very essence of the meaning of Christianity —it is an experience.
Have you ever noticed the apostle Paul's definition of a Christian? I do not mean to say that he formally gives a definition, but he speaks of himself, as you will remember, and says, "I know a man in Christ." That is the definition—"a man in Christ." That relationship is mutual: when one is in Christ, Christ is in him. And if you will read thoughtfully the epistles of Paul, you will find him using such expressions as "in Christ," "in the Lord," "in Him," over and over again.
Ephesians 1:4: "According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world." Christianity is this relationship of life with Life, spirit with Spirit, person with Person, —we in Him, He in us.
Now, what is involved in this fellowship? I know that what I am going to read to you may sound a bit heavy, but still I have enjoyed it, and I think you will: "The Scriptures declare that, through the operation of God, there is constituted a union of the soul with Christ different in kind from God's natural and providential concursus with all spirits, as well as from, all unions of mere association or sympathy, moral likeness, or moral influence,—a union of life, in which the human spirit, while then most truly possessing its own individuality and personal distinctness, is interpenetrated and energized by the Spirit of Christ."
That is to say, this union, though real, does not destroy our individuality; it does not destroy our personality; but is so fully energized by His Spirit that, while we are truly ourselves, we are also truly in Him,—our life inwrought with the life of Jesus.
"The human spirit . . . is made inscrutably but indissolubly one with Him, and so becomes a member and partaker of that regenerated, believing, and justified humanity of which He is the head. Union with Christ is not union with a system of doctrine, nor with external religious influences, nor with an organized church, nor with an ideal man, but rather, with a personal, risen, living, omnipresent Lord. . . . This doctrine of the union of the believer with Christ is the central truth of all theology and of all religion.' " [Quotation from "Union With Christ," by Augustus Hopkins Strong, D. D., LL. D., pp. 16, 17.]
Does that statement mean anything, or is it simply words? It is an experience beyond any other experience possible to a human being.
You ask how—how is it that there can thus be a union with a Person? Turn to 2 Corinthians 3:17, 18, and note the language used there. "Now the Lord is the Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit." Mark those two phrases: first, "The Lord is the Spirit;" and second, "even as from the Lord the Spirit." The Christ with whom we are to have fellowship is "the Lord the Spirit;" and this fellowship is the fellowship of spirit with Spirit. That is not explainable by any human philosophy, but that is the heart of the good news.
Man was made in the character of God, and he lost that high privilege by a deliberate and rebellious act of his own; but the goal of the gospel is to restore that privilege. This fellowship is fellowship of spirit with Spirit. When man separated himself from God by his rebellious act, he lost his intimate touch with his Creator; and in order that that fellowship might be restored, -it is necessary that the Son of God should become the Son of man, —yield Himself as a man, to be filled with that spirit; that spirit becomes the Spirit of God; the spirit of man the Spirit of the God-man; and (if I may express it this way) by His becoming a man and becoming filled with the Spirit, the Holy Spirit became accommodated to, accustomed to, a human dwelling place. I cannot explain that. I am telling you what was meant by His coming here, and becoming just as really man as humanity itself is real, and yet has retained His divinity just as really as when He was in heaven before He came down to earth. And He was filled with the Spirit because He was a sinless man, a moral miracle in the world; and the Holy Spirit could take up His abode in that sinless man, and thus humanity would become a dwelling place of the Spirit.
"He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit." 1 Cor. 6:17. That, it appears to me, is what is meant by "fellowship with His Son." It is not that we may shake hands and have a little talk together. No. "We have fellowship one with another." Human fellowship may come far from being real fellowship. It is possible for a man whose heart is breaking because of sorrow, worry, or anxiety, to meet a friend who may shake hands with him, and say, "I am glad to see you today," and this may bring forth a smile of appreciation; but the friend does not know that behind that smile is an experience of abiding grief. Why does he not know it? Because he does not really enter into fellowship with that person. But in this fellowship which I am talking about, a man really knows Christ. It is not simply to attract His attention, not simply a look, as it were; this fellowship means knowing Him because of that intimate, personal, conscious nearness to Him, so that He reveals Himself so completely in us that, while the will, the personality, the individuality, remains untouched, the person is absolutely transformed and absolutely changed. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature"—the same, yet not the same. He recognizes himself, yet he recognizes he is not the same. He has been changed, remade, re-created. And he knows it. He knows he is different, yet he knows that he is himself.
There is another thing that he knows, and that is that he can separate himself from Christ, if he will, at any moment. He has absolute freedom. The apostle Paul delighted to call himself the "bondslave of Christ," yet he is the one who has announced perfect freedom in Christ. Paul sets forth that there is absolute freedom in Christ, never any compulsion; and he knows that he is free, and yet he gladly pronounces himself the "bond-slave of Christ,"—a slavery in which there is perfect freedom.
The Provisions for Fellowship
How is this fellowship obtained or entered into? Every provision for this fellowship has already been made. It only remains for us to accept the provision which has been made. And I would suggest, just briefly, that in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth chapters of the Gospel of John, this provision is more fully opened up to us.
When Christ had finished His work here on the earth—and let me pause right here to call your particular attention to how real the gospel is. Let us get entirely away from the idea that the gospel is a system of theology to which we give our assent. It is essential that we get away from that. Christianity is not a creed; it is not union with a doctrine. Christianity is an experience of fellowship with a Person. That is the real heart and reality of it. It is essential to see how real is this provision, how real is the gospel.
The second Person of the Godhead had His definite part to perform. This is all a settled plan, a very real plan, planned before times eternal. Sin did not take God by surprise. The Father and the Son had entered into a covenant, the covenant of grace. According to that covenant, the second Person of the Godhead, the Son of God, was to come here and become a man. He was to be born of a woman, He was to do a certain work here, including the final act of His self-sacrifice on the cross and His resurrection; and then, having done the work assigned to Him, and the work which He had agreed to do, He was to return to the place from which He came. This we must consider as being just as definite a transaction as though Brother Blank had agreed with me to do a certain work in a certain place, and then come back. The Son of God came here according to that agreement. He did exactly what He agreed to do, and then the time came for Him to go back. When He went back, then, according to the terms of the covenant, the third Person of the Godhead, the executive of the Godhead, was to enter upon His part of the work. That is, when the second Person went back, the third Person came down to this earth and began His work. What is the work of this third Person of the Godhead? It is just as definite a work as the work of the second Person of the Godhead. It is different, but just as real and definite.
What was the purpose of the work of Christ when He was here upon the earth? Note the scripture found in Galatians 3:13, 14: "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." What is the purpose stated in that scripture, and concluded in the next verse? He redeemed us "from the curse of the law . . . that upon the Gentiles might come the blessing of Abraham in Christ Jesus; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith."
What was the goal of Christ's work? His part in the covenant of grace—taking upon Himself the nature of sinful man, living His life on earth as a man, and suffering death upon the cross—was all voluntary. Christ said, "I lay it down of Myself;" "no matt taketh it away from Me. . . . I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again." John 10:18. It was absolutely voluntary. He entered upon His work voluntarily; He completed the work by the voluntary sacrifice of His life; He was then raised from the dead and took His life again. Note the intimacies, the absolute union between the Father and the Son in this work. We read that "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself." 2 Cor. 5:19. So absolute was this union that Christ speaks concerning the giving of His life as a sacrifice for sin in the following words: "I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again;" and yet we read that He was raised from the dead "by the glory of the Father." Rom. 6:4. Such scriptures can be understood only when we understand the absolute union.
Now the second Person of the Godhead dees His work here on earth, and returns to the place from which He came in His human body. He retains the human body forever. But before He went away, He promised to send the Comforter. Note how the promise is stated: "But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name." John 14:26. "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you." John 15:26. Such is the union that what one does, the other does.
What is the office of the third Person of the Godhead when He comes?—He comes to make effectual in us what Christ did for us.
Now these are distinct provisions in the gospel plan, and the work of the second Person of the Godhead, and the work of the third Person of the Godhead is just as definite and real as we would understand by two or three individuals' engaging in some work whereby one individual did one part, and another did another part, and both contributed to the final result. And what is the final result in the work of Christ and of the Holy Spirit? It is the fellowship of life with Life; the indwelling of power for righteousness; the operation of an absolutely new life.
We must guard against confounding this conclusion as to the final result of the work of Christ and of the Holy Spirit, with a bit of feeling or emotion. Don't confound the two. Remember it is a new order of being, a new life, a new experience, something absolutely different. And it lifts up the human being to the plane of the divine. "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature." 2 Peter 1:4. That is to become reality. You know what human nature means. You do not need to be told anything about the reality of human nature. The divine nature is just as really an experience here on this earth as is the human nature, brought about through the gospel. The divine nature is absolutely different from human nature; it is on a higher plane altogether.
Perhaps it will help to make this point more clear if I state it in this way: Here, we will say, is the plane of absolute unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—the plane of untreated beings. Next to that is the plane of angels—created beings. And next is the plane of man, made a little lower than the angels. Then below that is the plane of fallen man—man far down from the place in which he was originally placed.
Now, when the Son of God started on His errand "to seek and to save that which was lost," how far down did He come? Was it to the plane of the angels? or was it still farther down, to the plane of man made in the image of God, as he was before sin came into the world? How far down did the Son of God come? "Since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood, He also Himself in like manner partook of the same." Heb. 2:14. That word "same" is plural in number—the same flesh and blood.
When the Son of God started back, after He had accomplished His work, how far back did He go in His humanity? Did he go back to where Adam was before he fell, or back to the plane of angels—created beings; or did He go back to the original plane of existence from which He came? The answer is clear: "When He had made, purification of sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." Heb. 1:3.
When Christ returned to that plane which is above angels, humanity went back there with Him. Therefore this fellowship which we are permitted to have with Him, this intimate union of life with Life, means the uniting of divinity with humanity in the final work of the everlasting gospel. Humanity is lifted, not to the plane where man was originally, not to the plane where angels are, but to the plane of God Himself and His Son, Jesus Christ. Is that good news? [Voices: "Praise His name!" Amens! ] Do you think that is too good to be true? Is that fanciful, philosophical theory worked out? Is that the gospel? Is that good news?
All that is made possible because the Son of God came down to where we are, and when He, the sinless One, went back to be with His Father, He took humanity with Him. He is our Elder Brother; He still bears our humanity; and He wants us with Him. That is Christianity. That is the good news.
(To be concluded in December)
