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First we have the Gospel
of the Kingdom that was offered to the Jews in the person of the
Heir. "Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came into
Galilee, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, and saying, The
time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and
believe the Gospel" (Mark 1:14, 15). "And it came to
pass afterward, that He went throughout every city and village,
preaching and showing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God; and the
Twelve were with Him" (Luke 8:1).
The effect of repenting and
believing this Gospel is set forth in the prayer that our Lord taught
His disciples, who, as the faithful of that day, had accepted this
Gospel. It was good tidings that God was offering men, His kingdom
and His Son, the Heir of all. The disciples believed this, and
hence our Lord teaches them a prayer expressive of the state of soul
which they as believing in this Gospel should have.
The Disciple’s Prayer
- "And it came to pass that, as He was praying in a certain place,
when He ceased, one of His disciples said unto Him, Lord, teach us to
pray, as John also taught his disciples. And He said unto them,
When ye pray, say, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy
Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so
on earth. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us
our sins; for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. And
lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil" (Luke 11:1–4).
If this prayer is suitable
for the disciples at that time, before the Saviour’s death, and before
the gift of the Holy Spirit, it must be evident that it could not
be suitable after they had known the blessings of redemption and their
union with the risen Lord.
In this prayer there is a
knowledge of the Father, because Christ was declaring Him on earth, but
His will had not yet been done. Christ came to do His will, and
now He has done it; so that we could not now pray for it to be
done, though it was right for the disciples to pray that it might be
done. Besides, there is no knowledge of the forgiveness of sins;
it is looking for forgiveness on the ground of work rather than
rejoicing in it through grace. It is a prayer regarding man
in the flesh rather than in the Spirit.
Christ and the Spirit are
in no way referred to in this prayer, and this is consistent, for Christ
had not yet finished His work, and therefore He does not lead their
souls into it; and as the Holy Spirit has not yet come He finds no place
in it. The prayer suited the disciples, and it shows us where they
were [in their experience]. If a soul now goes back to their
state, then the prayer will suit them; but the soul using it
intelligently must feel that he has neither forgiveness of sins nor the
life of Christ, in which through the Spirit he is free from the law of
sin and death (Rom. 8:2).
Instead of growing up in
Christ and reaching unto "perfection," this prayer is to get
daily bread, to escape from temptation, and for deliverance from evil—all
necessary in their place, but not occupying the individual with the
higher realities of Christianity. If Christianity had a place in
their prayer, it would manifestly have been suited to the disciples; and
inasmuch as Christianity is left out, it cannot be a suitable
prayer for members of the Body of Christ.
Limited Apprehension
- And if I go further and note the manner and way of the apostles at
this time, I see in them no moral power, no correct idea of the things
of God, though they, to the joy and rest of their hearts, were in a
surpassing way sheltered by Jesus in person. Would saints in the
present day approve of being, or consent to be, no better in hope or
intelligence than the apostles before the resurrection, who slept when
asked to watch with Him, and who forsook Him and fled?
And "as yet they knew
not the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead."
Now these were believers in the Gospel of the Kingdom, and in the
spirit of their minds they were according to this prayer in Luke 11, the
so-called Lord’s Prayer. Hence, when saints nowadays limit their
standing to that prayer, they cannot practically rise above the apostles
at that hour of prayer, hope or intelligence, and, sad as it is to say
it, they literally do not!
Progression - Now on
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus the Gospel obtains a remarkable
breadth and fullness not known before that great event. The Lord
not only stands in their midst a risen One, assuring them of peace, but
He breathes on them and says, "Receive ye the Holy Spirit"
(John 20:22). Now they are to realize that they not only believe
in God, but also in Him.
And they received from Him
the Commission, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to
every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved;
but he that believeth not shall be damned" (Mark 16:15, 16).
Here in precise and
unmistakable language is declared to us the Gospel they were now to
proclaim. The Gospel at that time was that everyone
believing in Jesus risen, and taking his place in accordance with this
fact on earth through baptism, should be saved. The Gospel then
conveyed salvation and the power of the Spirit on earth, but
nothing beyond this.
It is important to notice
the nature and character of the Gospel presented, because according to
it must be the consequent blessing; and if I, like Apollos, preach only
the baptism of John, as he did at Ephesus, is it any wonder that the
believers at Ephesus, as we see from Acts 19, knew nothing more and
never heard that the Holy Spirit was now on earth? It is of all
importance what Gospel is preached, for though God saves and
secures blessing for me according to His love in Christ, still my sense
of it, my joy and strength because of the blessing, must be determined
by my knowledge and faith in the nature of the blessing.
Now if some have not advanced beyond the
Gospel preached during our Lord’s life here, many more think they have
gained the heights of grace when they proclaim with much energy and
faithfulness the truth that salvation follows, and is assured to the
soul, on believing in a risen Christ. It is doubtless a truth of
unspeakable magnitude that a lost sinner, at a distance from God and
under fear of judgment, finds himself now through faith in Jesus Christ
fully and finally saved by Him. |
This marks a new and
wondrous era in the grace and mercy of God, and on the descent of the
Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2). Peter insists on this blessed truth,
showing that the manifestation of the power of the Spirit was indicative
of the time when it should be fulfilled—"It
shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved" (Acts 2:21). And further (v. 36),
"Let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made
that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ."
Progressive Revelation
- We can see where the Gospel then preached set souls. Saved
was the great leading characteristic of those who had accepted the
Gospel. And on earth they were in the unity of Christ’s Body by
the Holy Spirit, though that truth had not as yet been revealed.
This Gospel, as one can see, does not present heaven before the soul,
nor does it separate men from the earth.
True, it set men so in the
power of the Spirit that selfishness has lost its influence and rule,
for they "had all things in common." But a hope apart
from and outside earth was not presented, nor were they regarded as no
longer connected with men as men on earth. On the contrary, they
were a beautiful expression of God’s grace to man on earth; individual
selfishness set aside in the power of the bond which united them,
"they, continuing daily with one accord in the Temple, and
breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and
singleness of heart" (Acts 2:46).
The Gospel that these had
received was that Jesus was risen, and that He was appointed of God both
Lord and Christ. And now in the power of the Holy Spirit they were
in unity, but still as yet their hope was not apart from earth, nor did
they regard themselves as apart from relation thereto, though they held
that relation in view of their risen Lord, whose Return to it they
announced.
Still Kingdom Level
- There is a great necessity for thus tracing the history of the Gospel,
for it will be found that most souls to the present have not progressed
beyond the Gospel of Acts 2, though, alas! without arriving at the
blessed results manifested there, which could not really be manifest now
because the earthly connection has terminated.
Are there not saints now
who, being assured of salvation, meet as saved ones to support an
earthly order, which the breaking of bread indicates; who are thinking
more of their relation to earth than of their hope and position in
heaven; and who regard the coming of the Lord in the light of His Return
to the earth, more than in that of their meeting Him in the air?
More earthly kingdom, than the heavenly Rapture?
Stephen Juncture -
In Acts 3 the lame man was healed through Peter and John, and it was
then that Peter preached to the gathered multitude of Israelites that
"the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
and He shall send Jesus Christ, who before was preached unto you, whom
the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things,
which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the
age began." "This same Jesus, which is taken up from you
into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into
heaven" (Acts 3:19–21; 1:11).
They knew their Lord had
gone to heaven, but they expected His Return; and they connected all
their ideas of the place He went to prepare for them with His Return to
earth. His promise to them in John 14 was that He would come again
to receive them unto Himself, that where He was they should be also; but
however they understood this, it is evident from Peter’s sermon, as
well as the testimony of the angels, that up to this moment His Return
to earth was their great cardinal hope.
But soon the leaders of
Israel began to reject the Gospel and persecute the apostles. And
in Acts 6 and 7 we are told how both the people and the elders and the
scribes came upon Stephen and caught him and brought him to the Council;
and then deliberately, they not only rejected but stoned to death the
witness of the Holy Spirit, by whom the Word of God appealed to their
consciences not to resist Him.
Thus, as before in the
death of John the Baptist, they have proclaimed their opposition to Him
whom John presented; so now by the stoning of Stephen they openly unmask
and expose the hatred and rebellion of their hearts to a glorified
Christ. It is now declared that there is no acceptance of Him on
earth by His own people, but on the contrary, there is an open avowal,
"We will not have this man to reign over us"!
Hence it is easy to see
that the hope of Christ’s Return to earth to set up the kingdom, which
was the hope of the Gospel preached by Peter and the apostles up to this
time, can no longer be insisted on. Stephen is taken to glory with
the Lord Jesus instead of waiting here for His Return to earth as its
true and only King.
Disciples To Stephen To
Paul - Here we can see the transition, the point of juncture
between the earthly Gospel preached by the Apostles and that which,
consequent on the death of Stephen, was committed to Saul of
Tarsus. Christ coming from heaven to earth has been deliberately,
defiantly and outrageously refused. His witness, being stoned, has
been taken to be with Him where He is; now comes the call of Saul
of Tarsus; and the Gospel which is now revealed and committed to him
sets forth how God in His grace and according to Himself will disclose
the purpose and fullness of His heart. |
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."
"Acts 13 introduces the Spirit's
testimony in Paul's mission, beginning formally at Antioch, based on the
fact that the church, which is the body of Christ (Eph. 1:22,23), was
formed by the baptism in the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13), at Pentecost, once
for all. All added since that baptism in the Spirit receive the
same "Holy Spirit of promise (Eph. 1:13; Luke 24:29; Acts
1:4; John 14:16,26, 16:7). Such are "in Christ" and so
there were those "who also were in Christ before me" (Rom.
16:7). Paul's mission included the unfolding of the truth of the
mystery of Christ and the church, as well as the gospel of the
glory. As the Jews refused the Spirit's testimony to Christ in
glory, so they refused the Spirit's testimony of grace to the
Gentiles" RAH |