CHRISTIANITY IN THE CONTEXT OF THE
CHRISTIAN GOSPEL
he word ‘gospel’ means
‘good news’, and the term “Christian gospel” simply the good news about Jesus
Christ.
One of the first
Christian missionaries was a man called Paul. He was a religious Jew and he
himself tells the story of his conversion to Jesus Christ in Acts chapter
26. [Please read it for yourself.] He hated Jesus Christ and those who were
his followers and was actively engaged in persecuting them to the extent of
putting them in prison and was even involved in their deaths. Yet this is the
man that God used to spread the Christian gospel as no one else has ever done.
He became what the Bible calls ‘an apostle.’ That is someone sent directly by
the Lord Jesus Christ to preach his gospel. Those who believed the gospel and
became followers of the Lord Jesus were soon labelled Christians; a name that,
as we all know, has stuck to the present day.
Christianity contrasted with religion
Here then we have some indication of the beginnings of
Christianity, but what is it? Is it
properly speaking a religion? If we mean that someone that has a belief in God
is a religious person then we may consider Christianity to be a religion.
Religion however, while involving belief in God, generally assumes the
character of effort on man’s part to gain God’s favour and usually consists of
ritualistic observances and the taking of sacraments in holy places such as
churches or temples. From there the devotee goes out into the wider world to do
his best in the hope that all this taken together will make him more acceptable
to God. We think that people generally view Christianity in this way and thus
make a religion out of it.
You may say to me, look at the Old Testament! It is full
of religious ritual! True, but is this Christianity? We answer that we don’t
think so; it is Judaism that you find there. You then enquire, what is the
difference between what we find in the New Testament compared with what we find
in the Old Testament? Is Christianity not simply an evolution of Judaism? In
the ritualistic Christian churches you will certainly find a mixture of Judaism
with some elements of Christianity, which may suggest to many minds that
Christianity is indeed such an evolution. To come to a right conclusion it is
necessary therefore to examine what the Bible teaches in respect of these
matters.
The apostle Paul
was a religious man, a Jew, and he said this, “After the strictest sect of my
religion I lived a Pharisee.” He also added, “touching the law
blameless.” He was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, the great teacher of
the law, so he was familiar with all its details and as far as keeping it was
concerned the finger could not be pointed at him. At least as far as man could
see this was the case. Yet here was a man who, until his conversion, hated the
very name of Jesus of Nazareth. He certainly felt that the faith centred in
Jesus was incompatible with Judaism and until his conversion his efforts were
concentrated in stamping it out.
The Jewish
religion was not given to the world. It was Paul that later wrote the words, “that
what so ever the law says it says to them who are under the law.” Rom.3:
19. It was given to Israel
not the world; they were God’s chosen people and his law would be a test of
what they really were, in fact a test of what man really is. It was a test
against an inflexible divine standard. Sin was in the world before the law was
given and all men were sinners, but man is ever reluctant to admit that this is
the case. The law was introduced to show him what he really is in his very
nature – a sinner. It was given to demonstrate and make man feel the
sinfulness of sin by making him a transgressor; it was not given to justify the
sinner. Rom.5: 20. This was a test of man under the very best of
circumstances. The Jew chosen of God and hedged around by every care and
protection had witnessed the mighty power of his God in delivering him from
Pharaoh and the slavery of Egypt.
Surely if ever a people could have met the divine standard it was going to be
them. Yet the law had scarcely come into the Israelites camp before they were
worshiping a golden calf. However God, in grace, allowed Moses to break the
tables of stone before they were brought in to the camp, otherwise there might
not have been a single soul left alive. He did nevertheless deal with them
governmentally while not casting them off completely. Down through the years he tested them in this
way and that way and bore long with their disobedience until finally he said, “I
will send my son perhaps they will reverence him” but they finished up
crucifying him, their own Messiah. This all happened under the only religion
that ever had divine sanction. In this we see that man in his natural, even
if religious, state is a total failure and so Paul writing to the Christians in
the district of Galatia has this to say “On the principle of works of law
no flesh shall be justified.” Gal.2: 6. In other words
justification depends on God; it is He who justifies.
It was Job in
the Old Testament who asked the question “How can a man be just with God.”
Job 25: 4. You respond by asking, why does a man need to be just with
God? The answer is that he is a moral being responsible to God;
this is demonstrated by his conscience when after having disobeyed he hid from
his presence in the Garden of Eden. Man as a sinner naturally dreads the idea
of the presence of God because the very thought of that holy presence (where
sin, all sin, must be judged) activates his conscience.
Man, as a
sinner, may have a conscience but the introduction of the law, acting as plumb
line for a divine standard, increases significantly the effect on that
conscience. Religious men, like the Pharisees however, whose consciences were
not activated, used the law as a means to boast as one did saying in his prayer
“Lord I thank thee that I am not as other men are or even as this poor tax
gatherer” The Bible tells us that he prayed with himself. Luke18:
11. God was certainly not interested in his prayer. The tax gatherer could
not as much as lift up his eyes to heaven but prayed “God be me merciful to
me a sinner.” Luke18: 13. Once recognize the fact that you are a
sinner then your only hope lies in mercy (If you bring in the law it will only
condemn you) and the Bible says that God is rich in mercy, Eph 2: 4.
Because of this ‘rich mercy’ you can with every confidence pray the tax
gatherer's prayer knowing that God will hear and answer it. The Lord Jesus said
about the tax gatherer that he went down to his house justified rather
than the Pharisee. Self-righteous, self-satisfied religious persons will miss
things all together but the repentant sinner will most certainly be justified.
Therefore man has a need that cannot be met by religious effort. Religious
effort is man trying to establish his own righteousness albeit against a divine
standard, e.g. the law, and it just doesn’t work. That is why Paul says, “that
I may be found in him,” i.e. in Christ. “Not having my righteousness,
which [would] be on the principle of law, but that which is by
faith of Christ, the righteousness which [is] of God
through faith.” Phil. 3 v 9. That is, keeping the law would be the
righteousness of man, it would be a man’s self attainment, whereas a man is only
accounted righteous on the basis of faith which in fact is the righteousness
of God which is of God. It has nothing to do with man’s attainment.
Paul then tells us that, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness,”
Rom 5: 20, that is, it is the finish of the law as a means of obtaining
righteousness; it is indeed the deathblow to religion.
Christianity
therefore is a departure from the religious way of trying to please God and it
is we believe a mistake to mix the two together; they are incompatible.
The Christian gospel tells how man can be reconciled to God
.
Two questions
were asked of man in early times: -
·
To Adam – Where are you?
·
To Cain – What have you done?
Both these questions were framed to provoke his conscience
firstly in relation to his alienation from God and secondly the guilt which
caused it. This is surely the situation that we all find ourselves in as Adam’s
sons.
On the basis of the
foregoing we would reasonably conclude that for man to be at peace in the
presence of God his conscience would require to be inactive. Therefore the
question of his sins must have been taken up and effectively dealt with once
and for all; he must have the sure knowledge that neither tomorrow, nor the
next day, nor ever, will they be used to bring him into judgment. Listen to
Paul writing to the Christians at Rome
– “Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ.” Rom 5, and again, “There is therefore now
no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” Rom 8. John in his
epistle writes to the Christian believers, saying, “I write unto you, little
children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake.” 1
John 2: 12. This situation can never be reversed although reality will be
seen in walking the walk.
What was it then
that had to be done to reconcile us to God? The holiness of God demands that
sin, all sin, must be judged. The Bible says that, “It is appointed unto men
once to die and after death the judgment - - -,” Heb 9: 27. Therefore
it must either be judged in the creature who has committed it which means his
judgment by, and his banishment from God or alternatively, another means of
dealing with it must be found which is consistent with God’s holiness and
leaves his glory untarnished. Thankfully, the Christian gospel is the story of
how that means has been found which allows mercy to be directed towards the
whole world and the scripture continues, “so Christ was once offered to bear
the sins of many - - -,” Heb 9: 28. What motivated God to do this?
Was there some merit in man? No it lay in the very nature of God himself – “God
is love” and so we read that, “That God so loved the world that he gave
his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have
everlasting life,” John 3: 16.
The work to
remove our sins was carried out on the cross in the three hours of darkness
when Jesus cried, “My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me?” Mat 27:
46 (The reason was that he was being made sin and God was holy, see Psalm
22: 3.) and was completed when he cried, “It is finished!” John
19: 30. The prophet Isaiah says of him,” “But he was wounded for our
transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our
peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed etc.” Isaiah 53:5.
This is spoken prophetically about a future repentant remnant of Israel
(realising how despicably they have treated their Messiah and confessing that
they have all gone astray like sheep and when it, the remnant, turns to the
Lord the veil that hides the glory of that Messiah will be removed from their
eyes. 2 Cor 3: 16.) but the
Apostle Philip does not hesitate to apply it to the Ethiopian eunuch in the
Christian gospel. Acts 8: 27. The Apostle Peter says, “who bore our
sins in his body on the tree.”1 Pet 2: 24. It is on this basis that
Paul says “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in
Christ Jesus.”
The judgment for
our sins coming down on Jesus’ head instead of our own demonstrates how that
God is just in justifying the believer. It is a quality of God that he is
just but in justifying the believer one might have wondered how he could be
so.
God could not pass the
sinner by,
Justice demands that he
should die;
But in the cross of Christ we see
How God can save, yet
righteous be.
A.Midlane
In Christianity,
contrasted with law, grace reigns through righteousness to eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord. cf. Rom 5: 21
To be ‘In
Christ’ is to be clear of condemnation now and free from any future prospect of
ever coming under judgment, John 5: 24. Dear Christian believer you can
rest secure here, ‘In Christ’ you are absolutely safe. You have Christ, then
you certainly do not need religion; it will only draw you away from him to rest
on self, which will lead to doubts and you will lose the peace in your own
soul. In him you have every thing; without him you have nothing.
On Christ the solid rock I stand;
All other
ground is sinking sand.
E.
Mote
The sacrificial death of Christ.
That atonement for
sin can only be by means of sacrifice is indicated from the very outset of
man’s wayward history from God. We read – That God covered Adam and Eve with
coats of skin – the first instance of death recorded in scripture. Also – “By
faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he
obtained testimony of being righteous.” Heb 11: 4. – “And Abraham
said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.” Gen
22: 8. –“Our Passover, Christ, has been sacrificed.”
1 Cor 5: 7.
It has been said, and I believe rightly, that it is who and what
Christ is that gives value to his sacrificial work. With this in mind let us
have a look at the Passover lamb in Exodus 12. From the scripture quoted
in 1 Cor 5:7, we see that the Passover lamb was a type of Christ, who was the
lamb that God was going to provide. John the Baptist identified him as such
when he declared, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the
world.” John 1: 29. Returning then to Exodus 12– The lamb was to be a
yearling male, from the sheep or from the goats without blemish and kept for
fourteen days. Time is allowed to scrutinise the lamb for defects; it must
be without blemish; any defect would make it wholly unsuitable for the
purpose of sacrifice. In connection with Christ we read, “Knowing that you
have been redeemed - - - by precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and
without spot.” 1 Peter 1: 19. For thirty years, or so, the Lord
Jesus lived his life, rather privately, under the eye of God and at the end of
that time, God publicly declared that he was his beloved Son in whom he was
well pleased. The Spirit then drives him into the desert where Satan
immediately challenges the assertion that he is the Son of God. How many since
that time have dared to challenge that fact and all that is implied in it? For
forty days he was without food and tempted of the Devil. What our blessed Lord
went through no one will ever know. After the forty days the Devil, defeated,
left him for a season. He would return again on the night in which he was
betrayed. Here all goes to show the spotless purity of the Son of God become
man. The message to Mary was, “that holy thing that shall be
born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” Luke 1: 35. His life
in this world, delighting The Father, was not a fight to become holy; (perish
the thought) it demonstrated the fact.
Many Christian
groups, these days, issue statements of faith. Most of these contain an article
to the effect that they believe in the sinless life of the Lord Jesus and as
far as it goes it is good. – Indeed Scripture says of him, “Who did no sin.”
1 Peter 2: 22. However, their statement is not enough. The Lord
Jesus was in himself intrinsically holy which is much more than leading a
sinless life; tempted in all things in like manner, sin apart, says the
scripture. Note well that the “yet without sin” of the A.V. as another
has said, has been foisted in and is most derogatory to Christ. He was
incapable of it. It is painful that it needs to be said, but the denial of his
intrinsic holiness is sadly to be found around us in professing Christian
circles today. To deny his intrinsic holiness is in reality to deny the
atonement, in which case we have no gospel.
Returning again to Exodus 12 we find that
after the fourteen days the lamb had to be killed, the blood then being taken
and applied to the door- posts and the lintel of the Israelite’s houses. That
night judgment was going to fall throughout the land of Egypt
but the Lord said, “When I see the blood I will pass over you.”
All this is a picture of
how God can righteously pass over the believing sinner, the death of the Lord
Jesus and the shedding of his blood meeting every just claim of a holy God. “Without
shedding of blood there is no remission.” Heb. 9: 22.
Christianity
is based on resurrection
In the First Epistle to
The Corinthians Chapter 15 the Apostle Paul speaks about the first man
Adam. He also speaks about the second man whom he calls the last Adam. The
first man was the head of the human race and similarly the second man as the ‘last
Adam’ (and who, as such, will have no successor) is the head of a new race
of mankind. Adam was but a figure of him that was to come. Others have said
(and I believe rightly) that, scripture is really the history of these two men
i.e. Adam and Christ. (We, by nature, are only Adam reproduced.)
Scripture views all men as
being either ‘in Adam’ or ‘in Christ.’ Rom. 5. Being ‘in
Adam’ which is our lot by natural birth, all die. By the new birth (commonly
referred to as being ‘born again’) and
the indwelling of the Holy Spirit the Christian is no longer ‘in Adam’ but is
‘in Christ,’ the ‘last Adam.’ This is the standing and position that
Christianity gives the believer before God; “if any man be in Christ
there is a new creation.” Therefore, those who are ‘in Adam’ need ‘new
birth’ and not some process of reformation because “that which is born of
the flesh is flesh,” John 3: 6 and it will never be anything
else.
By coming into
the world Christ though a real man in every sense of the word i.e. body soul
and spirit did not unite humanity (i.e. the ‘In Adam’ race) to himself. His
miraculous birth left him untouched by man’s fallen nature and hence the
angel’s words to Mary describe him as “that holy thing that shall be
born.”
Scripture
prophetically foretells the words of the Lord Jesus thus, “Behold I and the
children which thou hast given me.” And he himself said “Except a grain
of wheat fall into the ground and die it abides alone but if it die it brings
forth much fruit” John 12: 24. Therefore, we can only be united to
him as the risen man and as the grain of wheat brings forth its own living kind
so also does Christ risen from the dead. Those then who are united to this man
share in his life as risen from the dead.
From the book of
Genesis we learn that, “God breathed into man’s nostrils the breath
of life; and man became a living soul.” 1 Corinthians 15: 45 telling
us that, “The first man Adam became a living soul” immediately adds, “The
last Adam a life giving spirit.” In John’s Gospel chapter 20: 22 we
read that Jesus breathed into his disciples and says to them “Receive the
Holy Spirit.” See also Rom. 8: 2 where the Holy Spirit is spoken of
as ‘The Spirit of life.’ The connection between these New Testament scriptures
and the book of Genesis is I think apparent. The last Adam has breathed
into his disciples who now derive their life from him as risen from the dead.
In the previous chapter the Lord had told Mary Magdalene not to touch him as he had not yet ascended to his
Father, “but go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and
your Father, and [to] my God and your God.” She had wanted to hold
on to him as she had known him here but now everything had changed, and those
he calls his brethren would now be associated with and know him as the risen
and ascended man. They would now know him in the closeness of relationship with
his and their Father and God. This is the Christian’s position and privilege
today as indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Paul not having known the Lord while he
was here on earth says, “But if even we have known Christ according to the
flesh, yet we know [him thus] no longer.” Christ is now the head of
the new creation and as the risen man he has now linked us with himself in it.
“If any man be in Christ there is a new creation.” This is not
reformation, you cannot reform the old man.
GWD
May 2004