The Gospel (Romans 1): December 2014
Table of Contents
The Gospel
The gospel, the good news, is spoken of in a variety of ways. It is an “everlasting gospel,” for in spite of man’s fall, God through His Son purposed man’s blessing and provided for it. It is called “the gospel of God,” because it comes out from God and finds its spring in His own heart. It is the “gospel of His Son,” because Christ is the object; it is God’s testimony to men concerning His Son. It is “the gospel of the glory of Christ,” for it bears witness to the present exaltation of Christ as Man at the right hand of God in glory. There is a “gospel of the kingdom,” for the Son of Man shall reign in power, establishing peace and happiness for man on earth. It is also called “the gospel of peace,” for it reconciles man to God, man who by sin had become alienated from God. It is “the gospel of the grace of God,” for it brings God’s unmerited blessing to man, who by his own efforts only brings condemnation upon himself. The Spirit says “the gospel of your salvation,” for it is the glad tidings, not only that all trespasses are forgiven in virtue of Christ’s blood and that sin is condemned in His death, but also that the believer in Him is brought into complete salvation, a totally new place of heavenly blessing before God.
W. W. Fereday (adapted)
The Gospel of God
It has always been God’s purpose to bless man. More than this, it has been God’s purpose from a past eternity to exalt His beloved Son as man and to place Him as head over all things, both in heaven and on earth. Thus, when God created man and placed him in the Garden of Eden, He came down “in the cool of the day” to enjoy fellowship with His creature. But then sin came in, and all seemed spoiled. Man no longer felt comfortable in God’s company, and eventually he had to be put out of the garden, lest he eat of the tree of life. Even in all this, however, God’s purposes would not be frustrated, but rather God would use the fall of man to exalt His Son and to bring man into far greater blessing than if sin had never come in. A hymn puts it well:
“Though our nature’s fall in Adam
Seemed to shut us out from God,
Thus it was His counsel brought us
Nearer still, through Jesus’ blood.”
The Everlasting Gospel
This brings us to the subject of the gospel, which literally means “good news.” In spite of the fall, God had good news for man, which was announced right at the very beginning. In pronouncing the curse on the serpent (Satan), the Lord said, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise [or crush] thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Gen. 3:15). Here we have the essence of what is termed “the everlasting gospel” in Revelation 14:6. Right at the very beginning, God assured Satan, in man’s hearing, that while he (Satan) might crush the heel of the seed of the woman (Christ), he (Satan) would not be victorious in the end. No, God will have the victory in Christ, and man blessed in spite of the fall.
Although the term is not used until the end of the Bible, the everlasting gospel pervades the whole of Scripture, and especially during the Old Testament times, when as yet “life and incorruptibility” had not been “brought to light ... by the glad tidings” (2 Tim. 1:10 JND). Thus believers during this time of limited revelation took hold of God’s statement of future blessing and trusted in God for its fulfillment, while not knowing just how it would all happen.
Connected with the term “the everlasting gospel” is the expression found in Revelation 10:7: “In the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as He hath declared to His servants the prophets.” All through the centuries, ungodly men have questioned God’s dealings with this world and have often found fault with the suffering and evil in the world, as if God were at least allowing it, if not perhaps the author of it. When Christ will appear to set up His glorious millennial kingdom, this mystery will be finished, and men will see the full result of all God’s ways, some of which seemed hard to understand. At that time the world will see Christ displayed in glory, with His church, and head over all things, whether in heaven or on earth. It will be the culmination of the everlasting gospel.
The Gospel of the Kingdom
Connected with the term “the everlasting gospel” is what Scripture calls “the gospel of the kingdom.” This term is first used in the Word of God in Matthew 4:23, where we find that “Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom.” It was really the same gospel that had already been preached by John the Baptist, who had gone about saying, “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 3:2). It is part of the everlasting gospel, but with a specific message at that time to a specific people — the Jews. Many believed, and the result of faith in the message was evidenced by their being baptized with “the baptism of repentance.” The evidence of faith was a change in their lives and a turning away from their sins, so as to be ready for the coming King. The gospel of the kingdom announced the coming of the rightful King and promised earthly blessings, as had been clearly brought out by many Old Testament prophets. It never promised heavenly blessings; it was, and will be in a coming day, earthly in character.
We well know that the rightful King — the Lord Jesus — was rejected and crucified, and thus the glorious kingdom for which the Jews were waiting was postponed. However, after the church is called home, we know that this same gospel of the kingdom will be preached again. This is clear from Matthew 24:14, where the Lord Jesus prophesied that “this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” It will be preached by those of the nation of Israel, some of whom God has preserved with Jewish hopes and aspirations and who will, after the Lord has called the church home, quickly go out and begin to announce the coming of the Messiah to set up His kingdom. This time, however, the message will not merely be to Israel; it will go out “for a witness unto all nations.” As a result, not only will many from Israel be saved through believing this gospel, but also “a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues” (Rev. 7:9). These will be saved, not for heavenly blessings, but for earthly blessing in the millennium.
Between these two distinct preachings of the gospel of the kingdom, we have the gospel presented in an entirely different way. The gospel preached by the apostles after the Lord’s resurrection took on a fullness and breadth that was not known before our Lord’s resurrection. In John 20:22, it is recorded that Jesus “breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” Thus the preaching was characterized by the coming of the Holy Spirit, bringing with it the power of a risen Christ in glory. Works of healing attested to the truth of the message and confirmed the Word. The truth of the Lord’s resurrection and His place now in heaven were urged on the listeners, and as a result, eternal forgiveness of sins could be theirs through faith in that One now risen from the dead.
However, this gospel, while preached from a risen Christ in glory, did not detach believers from this earth. It was preached mainly to the nation of Israel, giving them “one last chance” to accept the Person of Christ as risen from the dead. While those who believed looked for the Lord to return, it was a return to this world that was before them. Doubtless there was a wonderful unity among believers that had been formed by the coming of the Holy Spirit, and they were all members of one body, but they did not as yet know this truth. As another has aptly put it, “The scene was a beautiful expression of God’s grace to man on the earth.” The two cardinal truths presented were the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and the coming down of the Holy Spirit as a witness of this fact. But the whole picture is still one of earthly hopes and earthly blessings.
Paul’s Gospel
But this wonderful message, while it was believed by many, was rejected by the bulk of the Jews. They gave expression to this hatred of the Lord Jesus by stoning Stephen, thus sending a messenger after the Lord, saying, “We will not have this man to reign over us” (Luke 19:14). As a result, God set Israel as a nation aside for a time, and we read, “Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in” (Rom. 11:25). God then saved from among the Jews one of the worst persecutors of believers and sends him, not to the Jews, but to the Gentiles. Unlike the other apostles, Paul’s first contact with the Lord Jesus was to hear Him speak from heaven, and his ministry, also unlike the other apostles, was characterized by a heavenly, not an earthly, calling.
After being struck down on the road to Damascus, Paul (then Saul of Tarsus) spent several days without sight, not eating or drinking, and was evidently spoken to by the Lord. He received revelations from the Lord concerning the church — revelations of truth that had been “hid in God” from before the foundation of the world. When he preached, he did not merely preach Jesus as Lord and Christ; he preached Him as “the Son of God” (Acts 9:20). His ministry took men up to heaven rather than leaving them in this world, for earthly blessing.
What Paul preached had a dimension that was never known before, for God was bringing out a gospel that was given directly to Paul and to no other. Elsewhere in this issue we have elaborated on the gospel Paul preached, so we will not repeat it all here. However, it is important to notice that the other apostles preached mainly about man’s need and how God had met that need through Christ’s work on the cross. Paul preached all this too, but began, not with man’s need, but with God’s purposes in Christ — purposes that originated before the foundation of the world.
Thus Paul’s preaching — what he calls “my gospel” — is a gospel that is called both “the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24) and “the glad tidings of the glory of the Christ” (2 Cor. 4:4 JND). God has glorified His beloved Son, but He is going to have His church associated with Him in that glory — a church “not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing” (Eph. 5:27). What Paul calls “my gospel” (Rom. 16:25) is associated with the revelation of the mystery — the mystery [or revealed secret] of Christ and the church. All the counsels of God have now been revealed, and all of God’s ways from a past eternity to a coming eternity have now been brought out in Paul’s ministry. This is the fullest gospel that was ever or will ever be preached to man.
This gospel will come to an end when the Lord Jesus comes to take His church home. At that time all who are part of that church will be snatched away, to spend eternity with Christ in glory (1 Thess. 4:15-17). Then, as we have mentioned, the gospel of the kingdom will again be preached.
There are many other details that could be mentioned, but these will, I trust, give the reader a brief outline of the word “gospel” as it is used in Scripture and help us to be “rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15).
W. J. Prost
The Everlasting Gospel
God from the very earliest time in man’s history brings in what the Book of Revelation calls the “everlasting gospel.” How remarkable a phrase is this! Many a man has read and cited these words in Revelation 14; many have thought of them, and some have explained the thought unwisely, no doubt. The phrase never occurs except in this one place. Why is it called the “everlasting gospel”? There is always a propriety and a force in every word of Scripture.
In the last book of the New Testament the Spirit of God recalls the first revelation of Christ in the Old Testament. In the garden of Eden, in the paradise that was blighted and lost by sin, God did not fail to point to the Seed of the woman — the bruised Seed of the woman — that was to bruise the serpent’s head. Is not this gospel? Has it not been blessed gospel from the very first? Is it not also the gospel to the very last — “everlasting gospel”? There is as yet no allusion to His being sacrificed for us. This could not be until offering or sacrifices distinctly came in. Nor was there yet a revelation of Him as Saviour of His people from their sins. His people, of course, had to be called first, and their ruin shown first and last, salvation being fitly explained afterwards. It is not the notion of priesthood. It is not the figure of a captain. Still less is it the truth of the head of the church. All these things were revealed in their due season. But the last book in the New Testament sends you back to the first book of the Old, and thus you hear the blessed voice of Christ, as it were, reverberating through all Scripture an “everlasting gospel.” And why so? Because God always takes pleasure in saving souls, and, in order to save sinners, there must always be an “everlasting gospel.”
W. Kelly
The Gospel of the Kingdom
The preaching of Jesus announcing the kingdom showed that the time was fulfilled, that the kingdom of God was at hand, and that the people must repent and believe the gospel. We should distinguish between the gospel of the kingdom and the gospel of our salvation. Christ is the center of both, but there is a great difference between the preaching of a kingdom which is drawing near and that of an eternal redemption accomplished upon the cross. It is quite possible that the two truths should be announced together. Indeed, we find that the Apostle Paul preached the kingdom, but he certainly also proclaimed an eternal redemption accomplished for us on the cross. Christ prophesied of His death and announced that the Son of Man should give His life for the ransom of many, but He could not announce an accomplished redemption during His life. Men ought to have received Him and not to have put Him to death: hence His testimony was about the kingdom which was drawing nigh.
The kingdom in its public power has been delayed because Christ has been rejected (see Rev. 11:17), and this delay lasts all the time that Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, until the time when He shall arise from the throne of His Father to judge. God has said, “Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool” (Psalm 110). It is nevertheless true that the kingdom was already come in mystery, according to Matthew 13; this goes on during the time that Jesus is seated at the right hand of God. But when God’s appointed moment shall come, the Lord will arise and set up the kingdom, and with His own power He will judge the living, and peace and happiness shall be established upon the earth. And we who have received Him, while the world has rejected Him, shall go to meet Him in the air; we shall be forever with the Lord and shall come with Him in glory when He shall appear before the world and shall reign with Him, and, what is still far better, we shall be like Him and always with Him in the heavenly places in the Father’s house.
J. N. Darby
God’s Gospel
We are all familiar with the word “gospel”; it means “good news.” Here then, in Romans 1, we meet with some good news that is described as being God’s. Could any news be greater or better than that belonging to and originating with God Himself? Surely not. From the outset we are brought consciously to the thought of having to do with God — a God that has good news. From the rich and unfathomable depths of Himself comes forth the fountain called His gospel, and so it is, and must be, worthy of its blessed Source. And while man’s deep and dire need of the gospel is not mentioned first, it is self-evident that God’s good news must be for some persons who are in need of it. A man of great wealth would not consider news that he had been given a trifling sum as particularly good. News, to be truly good, must be suited to the need and urgency of the person’s state. We see what ruin the whole human race is in because of sin, and we believe that the great God could devise a plan suited to the need; the news of such a plan would surely be good, for it would bring hope and deliverance to the wretched and lost.
This wondrous gospel of God has been promised in the Old Testament through the prophets, but it could not be proclaimed until the work on which it was based was accomplished.
God’s Son
If God is the source of the gospel, God’s Son is the means by which it was accomplished; therefore the “gospel of God” is “concerning His Son.” We naturally think of the gospel as it meets our need, but we must not forget that it originated in the heart of God, nor should we overlook that it concerns His Son. If it comes forth from God and is worthy of Him, it must also begin at God, and we should view it first as it concerns Him. Before man’s need is mentioned, we learn that God’s interest in His gospel centers in His Son who alone could lay the foundation for the gospel; He alone could glorify God about sin so that God could announce His glad tidings. God is interested in the gospel first because it centers in and around His dear Son. All that concerns God’s Son is precious to His heart. It reminds us of the parable of the marriage of the king’s son (Matt. 22). The guests that partook of that marriage feast were happy, but the king was primarily occupied with the happiness of his son.
God’s Son came into this world according to all the promises and prophecies, and so the early verses of Romans 1 connect with the Old Testament. The Son of God He ever was, but He came as the Son of David to fulfill the promises — He became a man — nevertheless He was declared to be the Son of God, and that by His victory over all the power of death — by resurrection. And those who had faith to discern could see that Spirit of holiness all through His life — the same Spirit by whom was the power in resurrection.
The Obedience of Faith
This gospel then concerns God’s Son, but it is announced for the obedience of faith among all nations. Not that all nations are to be saved through it, but it is set forth to be received in faith among all nations. It is not restricted to the Jews; no race or tongue can lay sole claim to God’s gospel. It comes for men wherever they are, for all have sinned and all need it; however, it is not for mere intellectual knowledge, but for faith obedience. Wherever it is thus received, it bows the heart before God in true contrition and acknowledges Jesus as Saviour and Lord.
The Apostle says he is not ashamed of that wondrous gospel, for he knows what it is — the power of God unto salvation. Knowing something of its source, its means, its scope, its power, the Apostle is not ashamed of it nor of his mission, but rather glories in it as something of inestimable value. What could be more powerful than something described as the “power of God”? Nothing! And nothing short of this very power could have met the need of fallen man. Lower he could not have fallen, and nothing short of God’s power could lift him out of such depths.
The Epistle to the Romans later goes on to show how God could do such a thing righteously. Man was utterly powerless — “without strength” — and so all must be done for him by another. Mephibosheth being “fetched” by David from the place of “no pasture” (Lodebar) when he was lame on both his feet and being brought by another to the king’s table is but a very feeble illustration of what the power of God does for the sinner. This power is His gospel, and it reaches down to the lowest depths for the vile sinner and will not stop until he is safely seated in the glory, with and like Christ. Oh, what a power the power of God is! And it is “unto salvation,” which here involves the complete salvation — when “we shall be like Him.” And if the gospel is for some among all nations, it is only received by faith: “to everyone that believeth.”
God’s Righteousness
Now this gospel, which is the display of God’s power, is that which reveals His righteousness. Man had no righteousness for God, but God’s gospel brings out His righteousness for man. Fallen man might labor hard and long to produce a righteousness for God, but he could not begin to accomplish so great a thing; therefore, the glorious news of God’s righteousness must sound a wondrous note in the ears of him who has none.
Christ went into death for us, and there on the cross He fully glorified God about the question of sin; now God is righteous in raising Him from the dead and seating Him on His own right hand in heaven. And God does not stop there, but places the believer in Christ in the same place; he is seated in Him in heavenly places. God is righteous in placing that redeemed sinner in the glory with Christ. God’s gospel then reveals God’s righteousness, not only in glorifying Christ, but in lifting up the believer in Him to the same heights — it is due to Christ that it should be so. And God accounts the sinner who believes righteous, and he is made the righteousness of God in Him, and Christ Himself is the believer’s righteousness.
The Law
All this — God’s gospel concerning His Son, God’s power, and God’s righteousness — are in sharp contrast to all that went before. Israel was under the law of God, but that was not the gospel; it certainly was not “good news.” It said that the man that did not do the things it required should die. In Exodus 32, the law written on the tables of stone was described as the “writing of God,” and the tables as the “work of God,” but certainly it was not the “gospel of God.” And the law did not give a man power, nor could it be said to be the power of God. It only condemned the guilty, and everyone that came under the law was verily proved to be guilty. The law was not power, nor did it bring power, except to condemn.
And the law did not bring in God’s righteousness. None ever kept the law, and so there was not even human righteousness. If man had kept the law and obtained a righteousness, it would have been his own righteousness, not God’s. Therefore, when it was proved that man did not and could not have a righteousness of his own, God brought out His in the gospel.
God’s Wrath
But there is another word in Romans 1 that we must not forget — God’s wrath revealed from heaven (vs. 18). This is not exactly in the gospel, but goes along with it. If the gospel brought out what was in the heart of God and what was accomplished by His Son, then along with it there came the revelation of the wrath of God. This had not been disclosed in the Old Testament, but now those that neglect or despise God’s salvation through His gospel must know that He has wrath for the sinner who will not have Christ. In previous times God had punished certain cities and certain peoples for their iniquities, but in Romans 1 we read of wrath being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. How solemn — how terrible — this wrath of God must be. Well may the Apostle say to the Corinthians, “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.” If God’s gospel is glorious, His power infinite, His righteousness perfect and intrinsic, what must His wrath be! Well may we say to the sinner today, “Flee from the wrath to come,” while we know the Lord Jesus as our deliverer from the coming wrath (1 Thess. 1:10).
Paul Wilson,
Christian Truth, 21:172
Paul’s Gospel
There are two expressions in Romans which indicate the special character of Paul’s ministry. “The gospel of God” (Rom. 1:1-17) clearly points to the source of the gospel, while “my gospel” (Rom. 16:25), introduced in a sort of doxology, speaks of a blessed revelation, though not developed, which distinguished the Apostle’s teaching from that of the other apostles. It would be difficult to estimate our loss if we fail to grasp these two important truths. Many are perplexed by the condition of things in both the political and the religious world. This, doubtless, is the result of the soul not being established in the truth, often due to wrong teaching as to the scope and purpose of the gospel. ”Has Christianity failed in its mission?” is a question raised on wrong premises; it could never be asked were the natural man’s condition and the purpose of God in the gospel understood. In the minds of many an idea exists that God has sent the gospel to improve the world, to make it a more congenial place for men to live in. To find the world more hopelessly evil than ever, after strenuously preaching its improvement, has dismayed many a “twentieth-century” preacher and thrown his listeners into confusion and despondency as to the outcome of what they thought was the gospel. Scripture has been misapplied to support the teaching that gradually the gospel preached must permeate the world and result in the establishment of the millennium; this is entirely foreign to the teaching of the Word.
Peter and Paul
Nowhere do we find the apostleship of Paul placed on more positive ground than in Romans. He had not yet been at Rome, but, as the apostle of the Gentiles, he would fulfill his mission, which he had received from the Lord Himself for the Gentiles (Acts 26:17-18). According to God’s administrative order, Peter was specially commissioned to the Jews and Paul to the nations or Gentiles (Gal. 2:7-8). As recorded in the Acts, Peter preached forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ, but he did not associate with this the truth of justification; Paul, in his first recorded sermon, added this blessed truth (Acts 13:38-39). The gospel (or good news) was not about man, though it was sent to man; there was nothing joyous to say about him — in heathenism, wantonly corrupt; in philosophy, hypocritical; under law, a transgressor: every mouth was stopped and all the world was shown to be “guilty before God” (Rom. 3:19). Man conclusively proved himself unable to bring forth righteousness for God. God’s Son is the blessed theme of the gospel; the glad tidings are concerning Him. He is presented in a twofold way: (1) in connection with the promises, “Seed of David according to the flesh,” and (2) “Son of God with power” by resurrection of the dead. The gospel of God had been announced by the prophets in the Old Testament; it had been promised before it came. Thus every possible objection which might be raised should be silenced before the unfolding of what God’s gospel is. In the person of the Son, God has found One able to accomplish all His purposes and make known all His thoughts of love for men. He alone could solve the problem that man raised centuries before and could not settle — of good and evil — and settle it to God’s eternal glory. What marvelous grace that He should enter the dark domain of death where man lay in ruin and exposed to eternal wrath, taking upon Himself all the weakness of man, once and forever rob the enemy of his spoils, and completely triumph in resurrection over all the enemy’s power!
New Life
The new life received by the believer is a life given and founded on the eternal value of what has been accomplished by the Son of God. In this blessed gospel God reveals a righteousness for man who has none, but a righteousness of God that is revealed to and on the principle of faith. This is the grand theme of the epistle. In Romans the believer is looked at as justified, righteousness being imputed to him through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, that he may walk here in this world in the power of the risen life of Christ, having the glory in view. This epistle, and that to the Ephesians, are the only two written by the Apostle to the saints which are not corrective; the others had in view certain existing conditions to correct. In these two epistles we have the unfolding of positive truth: the former laying the sure foundation, and the latter giving the blessed structure built thereon.
J. W. H. Nichols (adapted)
The Source of the Gospel
It is most interesting to observe how the Apostle Paul preached the gospel. It is called “the gospel of God” (Rom. 1:1), which means that it has its source in God. It is also called “the gospel of Christ,” because it reveals Him. God’s love to man is fully revealed. The lost sinner is assured that the spring of his salvation is the heart of God — that the One whom he so fears and seeks to avoid is the Author of all his mercies and the One who meets him in the gospel, with all the blessings of His grace. What a thought! What a gospel! The God of all grace goes out in His own goodness — in the activities of His own nature, with the joyous message of salvation.
God in grace announces His righteousness in the salvation of the sinner through faith. Both the righteousness and the salvation are directly from God Himself. The Apostle tells us that he is not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, “for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:16-17). Here we have salvation and righteousness revealed.
Christ, the Object for Faith
The name of Christ is now the grand object of faith and the rule of the believer’s life. The power, value and authority of the name of Jesus have also great prominence in the preaching of Peter in the early chapters of the Acts of the Apostles. There, too, the burden of the preacher is the death, resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus. All who had faith then and who have it now are associated with the risen Christ and are partakers of the blessings of the gospel of God. But on the other hand, it is said that the wrath of God is revealed against all who refuse obedience to the name of Jesus, whether they be ungodly Gentiles or unrighteous Jews. All is now seen to be “of God,” whether it be the gospel, salvation, righteousness or wrath. We are said to be justified by God, not merely before Him. And “who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” And again, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” This is a great feature of the Epistle to the Romans. God is seen in the foreground, and everything is spoken of as coming from Him.
Man is thus brought, by faith, into the possession of salvation, without adding anything to it. It remains wholly and entirely the salvation of God. And what a mercy it is so! We are saved according to the thoughts of God. All is of God. “Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith” (Rom. 3:27). How perfectly simple the demands — how eternally glorious the results — of the gospel of the grace of God!
This is the gospel of God — the righteousness of God. Christ so revealed and magnified God by His great work on the cross and in the whole of His perfect, blessed obedience up to the cross that He made Him, as it were, His debtor. Hence the fullness, freeness and delight of the Father’s heart to bless all who honor His Son. This is His grand purpose in the gospel — the honor of His Son. This is His love. But God also speaks of this as His righteousness, or His faithfulness to Christ.
A. Miller (adapted)
The Gospel Paul Preached
Six Precious Revelations Which He Received From Christ in Glory
1. the Believer Justified
From All Things
The first time we hear the inspired voice of Paul preaching is in Acts 13. In verse 39 Paul reached beyond that which had heretofore been preached and communicated the precious truth that “in Him [JND] all that believe are justified from all things.” Paul alone teaches that the believer is “in Christ” (Rom. 8:1). Peter tells us of forgiveness of sins and coming glory, but Paul tells us that Christ is our life (Col. 3:4), that Christ is our righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30), that we are “risen with Christ” (Col. 3:1), and that even now we are made to “sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6). In a future day, we shall also be “glorified together” with Him (Rom. 8:17).
2. the Truth of the One Body
There was no revelation of the church as the body of Christ in the Old Testament. The church as the body of Christ was formed at Pentecost, when by one Spirit all believers were baptized into one body (see 1 Cor. 12:12-13). The word “church” simply means “called-out ones,” and in that sense all believers in every dispensation were “called-out ones” (Acts 7:38), but when the church is viewed as the body of Christ, we must always remember that it was formed as such at Pentecost. Paul received this wondrous revelation from Christ in glory (see Eph. 3:1-6). The other apostles doubtless learned it from Paul.
3. the Special Significance of the Lord’s Supper
Previous to Paul’s revelation, they were breaking bread, thus commemorating the Lord’s death (Acts 2:42). Now Paul gives them the added blessedness of the truth that the one loaf is a precious symbol of our oneness with Christ. He received it “of the Lord” — that is, by revelation (see 1 Cor. 10:15-17 and 1 Cor. 11:23-26). The first day of the week (the Lord’s day) is the Christian’s day, for it is the sign of new creation, and we are part of that new creation (2 Cor. 5:17).
All believers are now members of the body of Christ, and before the loaf is broken it symbolizes this precious glorious truth, so that we (if intelligent) do not break bread just as forgiven sinners, or even as saints, but as members of the body of Christ. After the loaf is broken, it speaks to our hearts of His death. Oh, how it touches our hearts as we think of the Lord of glory in death for us!
4. the Coming of Christ
for His Bride
The coming of Christ for His bride, in its proper Christian character, is given us only in Paul’s revelation. Every time the Lord’s coming is spoken of in the Old Testament, it is His coming in judgment and for the setting up of the kingdom on earth.
The first intimation of His coming in its proper Christian character (the rapture) is in John 14:1-3. Now note there is nothing said there about war, pestilence or famine, for these things precede the Lord’s coming to earth to set up the kingdom, but they are not mentioned as preceding His coming for His heavenly saints.
Now Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 that he had received this precious truth from the Lord. These verses give us the Christian’s present hope. We wait for God’s Son from heaven and seek, by spreading the gospel, to save sinners from the judgment that will follow His coming for His heavenly saints and from the everlasting punishment that awaits all who have not believed the gospel.
5. Absent From the Body ...
Present With the Lord
Previous to this precious revelation given by Paul, there was no scriptural light as to the interval between death and the resurrection of the body (see 2 Tim. 1:9-10 JND). Here Paul tells us that life and incorruptibility have come to light by the gospel.
The dying thief was the first believer to have the revelation of this precious truth, that to depart from this life is to be “with Christ.” This was an individual revelation for himself alone, but now Paul has given us this glorious truth in Philippians 1:23 and 2 Corinthians 5:8 for all saints. In Luke 16 the curtain is brushed aside a little, but “Abraham’s bosom” is the figure used, and we are not told where Abraham was.
6. the Resurrection Body
of Glory
Paul alone gives us the precious revelation that in resurrection we shall have bodies of glory, like Christ (see Phil. 3:21 and 1 Cor. 15:51-54). Those departed to be with Christ wait, in a brighter waiting room than we here on earth, for the glorious resurrection morning, when “the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thess. 4:16-17). Then we shall be escorted by the Lord Himself to the Father’s house and introduced there with these words: “Behold I and the children which God hath given Me” (Heb. 2:13).
H. E. Hayhoe (adapted)
The Gospel of the Glory of Christ
In 2 Corinthians 4:4, the “glorious gospel” does not merely express the quality of the gospel, but the source of the gospel as the glory of Christ in the exalted position in which He now is. God has found such glory in the work of righteousness accomplished by the Lord that He has exalted Him above all heavens. In 2 Corinthians 3, the law had promised life on the condition of doing, but to be able “to do” required life, and so it was necessary for the Spirit to give life. That was a contrast to the letter of the law which could only kill or condemn. It is evident that the glory of Christ concealed under the letter of the Old Testament had been in the mind of God. Now in this dispensation, the Spirit reveals Him to faith and so gives life alone in Christ. As we have seen, the law required righteousness but could not bring it, and there was no righteousness in man. Therefore the law became a ministry of condemnation and death. On the other hand, the gospel is a ministry of righteousness from the glory where Christ is; the righteousness of God was so perfectly adapted to His glory that it took Christ there as man from the bottom of the judgment where love had taken Him on our account. God “made Him to be sin for us ... that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). To those who have received Christ as life and righteousness, the Holy Spirit has come as the power to enjoy the wonderful revelation.
Unveiled Glory
The end of 2 Corinthians 3 brings us to the point of contrast between the position of the Christian and that of Israel, where we read, “We all, looking on the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18 JND). The glory of the Lord in our face is unveiled; Moses had to put a veil on his face for Israel. The Lord does not do so for us. But there is a great difference. It was only the reflection of a partial glory in the face of Moses, but the whole glory of God streams from the face of the Lord Jesus. What would have destroyed Moses is the liberty of the Christian in the power of the Holy Spirit. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty” (2 Cor. 3:17). The glory conveys the intelligence of peace made by the blood of His cross. In all the perfect character of that work we are identified with Him in life and righteousness. His love leads our hearts to be occupied with the radiant glory shining in His face. By faith, we wait for the glory of God, which is the hope of righteousness. That hope becomes so real as to be the support of overflowing joy in our lives.
The Glory of Moses and of Christ
The Apostle unfolds the contrast between the glory of the era in which Moses lived (which was to be done away) and the excellent glory brought in by Christ. The contrast is also between the powerlessness of the law and the power of the gospel of the glory of Christ, forming the assembly as a letter commending the virtues of Christ to the attention of all. The ministry was through Paul, by means of which the Spirit of the living God wrote Christ on the affections. The realization of the wonderful, responsible place is dependent on the response of the hearts of individuals to the ministry. The formative power is (1) by the object presented to our hearts and (2) by the indwelling Spirit. Viewing the glory of the Lord, we are transformed into the same image by the Lord the Spirit. The Spirit dwelling in us is the power both for the objective presentation and the subjective result. The affections take the impression of the object; the glory of Christ is reflected in the lives of those who belong to Him. Moses bore the effects of the partial glory he had witnessed. So with so much greater force should the glory in the face of Jesus result in the features of His glory and lowly life being reproduced in us. Here it will only be in measure; perfection will be reached only when we are with Him. That will be the consequence of seeing Him as He is. Growth in His likeness will depend on our continually being occupied with Him. We shall not be occupied with the results. Moses did not know that his face shone, but Israel saw the glory in his face! So the people around us will take knowledge that we have been with Jesus. We shall then answer increasingly to the description of being the epistles of Christ known and read of all men!
J. A. Trench (adapted)
Gospel of Humiliation and Glory
As to the difference between the gospel of the glory and the gospel of the humiliation, the latter is pure grace in God, manifested in Christ here. John’s writings show God revealing Himself in Christ to man in His life down here. What we have habitually in Paul is man manifested in righteousness before God. The gospel of humiliation is perfect grace; it is God coming down here to man where he is, visiting him in his condition as such a one on earth. The gospel of the glory takes this treasure and unfolds it. In Philippians 2 we have the whole line from the time when Christ was in the form of God till He was on the cross, when, being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death. The women that was a sinner loved much; she did not know her sins were forgiven, nor could she have explained it theologically, but she trusted Christ and loved much, and that is the bearing of the humiliation. But in the gospel of the glory man is looked at as the old man totally set aside, yet man is in glory in virtue of the complete work that redeems us and justifies us and gives us a place in the glory. The glory is the testimony to the efficacy of the work; the humiliation is the testimony to the greatness of the love. Of course, it is all the same gospel.
J. N. Darby
The Story Must Be Told
Oh, precious gospel story,
How it tells of love to all!
How the Saviour in compassion
Died to save us from the fall;
How He came to seek the lost ones
And to bring them to His fold:
Let us hasten to proclaim it,
For the story must be told.
Oh, the blessed gospel story
Of His meek and lowly birth,
And the welcome of the angels
When they sang goodwill to earth —
Of the cross on which He suffered,
As by prophets seen of old;
Of His death and resurrection,
Let the story now be told.
Oh, the wondrous gospel story!
There is life in every word;
There is hope and consolation
Where the message sweet is heard;
Let us tell it to the weary
And its beauties all unfold;
’Tis the only guide to heaven,
And the story must be told.
Fanny J. Crosby