By Richard H. Morton
I truly believe that in the hour we are living - the greatest need of most Christians is a greater understanding (revelation) of redemption. The reason I say this is because I have personally witnessed how a greater understanding of the finished work of Christ can change a persons life. After going through a horrible personal experience in my life I have given the last five years to a concentrated study of redemption (the finished work of Christ) and what that means to me. The change it has made in me is greater than what I could have imagined only a few short years before. The peace that it has brought to me, and the change of heart and mind, have been tremendous: I can only imagine what the next five years will be like.
"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us." (Ephesians 3:20, NKJV).
He is able to do EXCEEDINGLY ABUNDANTLY ABOVE all that I (or you) can think or ask (and I can think and ask a lot!), and He does this through the power that works in us (the Gospel). What an awesome promise this is to us. Do you believe it? Well I come to tell you it is true, you can take this promise for your future and turn it into a statement of fact for your present; all you have to do is give yourself to a committed relationship with Christ and to study the gospel and you will be changed.
In Eph. 1:17, Paul prayed for the believers to have a SPIRIT OF WISDOM AND REVELATION IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF HIM (we need to pray for this too), THAT THE EYES OF THEIR UNDERSTANDING WOULD BE ENLIGHTENED (we also need the eyes of our understanding flooded with light), THAT THEY WOULD KNOW THE HOPE OF HIS CALLING, AND THE RICHES OF HIS INHERITANCE IN THEM: we need to know the hope of His calling, and the richness of His inheritance in us. We need a greater understanding of the gospel. We need a revelation (unveiling) of Christ!
Now, I do not claim to know all that there is to know about the gospel (or anything else for that matter), but I do know that what I have learned about the gospel has made a great change in me and in others that I personally know. I know that if you give yourself to it - you will be changed! "Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, And your justice as the noonday." (Ps. 37:5,6).
UNDERSTANDING OUR REDEMPTION: Part 2
"It is through him, at the cost of his own blood, that we are redeemed, freely forgiven through that free and generous grace which has overflowed into our lives and given us wisdom and insight." - Col. 1:14 Phillips Modern English.
WHY THE GOSPEL?
Someone may ask me, "why do you preach the gospel?" I would have to answer, because it is the POWER OF GOD! That's right, the gospel is the power of God. I know first hand just how powerful the GOSPEL OF CHRIST is. I have seen it bring lives up out of the ash heap, and put families back together again. When someone commits themselves to the gospel it is the power of God in their lives to bring redemption and restoration to whatever problem is bothering them.
In the gospel your right-standing with God is revealed: You stand righteous before God in the Gospel of Christ. The gospel is so powerful that it will make you, and everything in your life new. I, like Paul, must admit, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for IT IS THE POWER OF GOD to salvation for everyone who believes" (Rom. 1:16). In the gospel we are- "saved from the penalty, power, presence and most importantly the pleasure of sin." -A.W. Pink.
"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but TO US WHO ARE BEING SAVED IT IS THE POWER OF GOD." (1 Corinthians 1:18 NKJ).
The power of God to those who are being saved is the message of the cross -- THE GOSPEL. Many people today think the power of God is the gifts of the Spirit, or the laying on of hands, or to be slain in the Spirit; but the word of God does not say that, men may say that, but the Bible doesn't say that. THE POWER OF GOD IS THE MESSAGE OF THE DEATH, BURIAL, AND RESURRECTION OF CHRIST AND WHAT THAT MEANS TO YOU. Every need that you have, any problem you are facing, the answer is found in the gospel. Now I must add - this is only true for those who are BEING saved, but for those who are perishing (separated in fellowship) the message of the cross is foolishness. If you or someone you know thinks this gospel message to not be the power of God, and maybe a little foolish, then that will pretty much tell you where they are at.
CHRIST IS THE POWER OF GOD AND THE WISDOM OF GOD (1 Cor. 1:24). I am telling you my brethren - CHRIST IS ALL WE NEED. Now I am not writing about knowing things about Him, but "KNOWING HIM." Paul longed to know Him in the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed unto His death (Phi. 3:10). To know Christ is to know His redemptive work in a personal way, not just knowing about it, but to really know it - so that His work of the cross is your work, His death is your death, His resurrection is your resurrection; this is the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
"But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST JESUS MY LORD, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I MAY GAIN CHRIST" (Philippians 3:7-9 NKJ).
THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST JESUS.....THAT I MAY GAIN CHRIST. To know Him is to gain Him. The more of Christ we know the more of Him is gained and working in our lives. His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, THROUGH THE KNOWLEDGE OF HIM (2 Pet. 1:3). Everything that we need in life can be found in Christ! And I mean EVERYTHING!! There is nothing that you have need of that can't be found in the person and work of Christ. Every answer to every problem that humanity has, can be, and will be, found in the Christ. I know this sounds bold, and at one time I would have doubted this; but now that God through His Holy Spirit has blessed me with, and taught me a greater understanding of redemption and of His Christ; I can now see just how true this is. The whole creation is waiting for the revealing of Christ through the mature sons of God, for they will have the answers that the world is looking for (Rom. 8:18-23). I am telling you my brethren, all the issues of life, great and small, that the world faces can be worked out in the Knowledge of Christ. "FOR I AM NOT ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL. I SEE IT AS THE VERY POWER OF GOD WORKING FOR THE SALVATION OF EVERYONE WHO BELIEVES IT" (Rom. 1:16 Phillips modern English). Do you believe it? I pray that you do.
WHAT IS MAN?
"What is man, that You should exalt him, That You should set Your heart on him, That You should visit him every morning, And test him every moment?" (Job 7:17-18, NKJ).
To truly understand the gospel one must first know the answer to this question and understand what man is. In the next few lessons I will try to lay out for you - what we are, who we were, and who we are now in Christ. I promise you this is vital to understanding redemption, for this is what it is all about.
"And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole SPIRIT AND SOUL AND BODY be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Thessalonians 5:23, KJV).
Man is a marvelous creation. In fact, I would say that man is God's greatest creation. Greater than all of the other created things in the universe. Greater than any galaxy, or any other living creature on the face of this earth, or in the heavenly realms. For in man was the image of God created. None other of God's creations can say that they were created in the image of God. In Gen. 1:26, when God said "let us make man in Our image, according to our likeness;" just what did He mean? Did He mean that He would create a being with two arms and two legs, with two eyes and a nose and a mouth with teeth in it? I think not. God placed the very essence of His nature and being in man when He created him. The word "image" means "to shade," so you could say that MAN WAS THE SHADOW OF GOD. The invisible God who could not be seen cast a shadow of Himself on the earth when He made man. Man was the image of God in creation.
First of all, man is a SPIRIT CREATION for God is a Spirit (Jn. 4:24), and the Father of spirits (Heb. 12:9). Man's body was formed from the dust or elements of the earth, to which then God breathed His Spirit life into the man, and man became a living soul (Gen. 2:7). So, you could say that man is a threefold being - spirit, soul, and body.
Man is a spirit - a spiritual creation; he has a soul - the mind, will, and emotions that make up how we express ourselves; and we have a body - the house for our spirit and soul to live in.
The first man Adam was given dominion over all the earth (Gen. 1:26), and was to rule it as God's ruler in the earth. In fact, man's authority was so great that he was given dominion over all the works of God's hands; and all things were put under his feet (Ps. 8:6). The original man was crowned with glory and honor and was truly an awesome and perfect creation until the day sin found its way into his heart.
"And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress (work) it and to keep (guard) it," (Gen. 2:15, KJV).
The first man was in the garden of God He communed and fellowshiped with God in the cool (spirit) of the day. He was an anointed blessing that was a covering to the earth; perfect in all his ways, from the day he was created, till iniquity was found in him. Man was God's perfect creation over all His creation, till that day he chose to disobey God. His heart became proud because of his perfection (Man's pride has always come before his fall), and he choose to disobey God his creator, and he fell into sin and death.
"And ADAM WAS NOT DECEIVED, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression" (1 Timothy 2:14, KJV).
Adam was not deceived when he sinned; he knew what he was doing when he ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He wanted to be as God. He was not content with having charge of Eden, but wanted to be as El Elyon, "Most high." This is why he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he wanted to become something greater than what God had created him to be. But insted of becoming as El Elyon, he became a profane thing, polluted with sin and death, and forever changed what man was.
Instead of being a spirit-man, ruled by, and living out of the very life of God Himself; he became a soul-man, ruled by, and dominated by his mind, will and emotions: Living out of his fallen, carnal, nature that is now under death. Death became his new realm of existence, where the devil had power over man, "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him THAT HAD THE POWER OF DEATH, that is, THE DEVIL," (Hebrews 2:14, KJV). The devil had the power of death and he held it sway over Man.
Man became the instrument by which death entered into all creation. He no longer brought blessing to the creation, but now he brought sin and death, and the curse; and everything else that came along with the judgment he brought us into. By one man sin and death entered into the creation (Rom. 5:12); and that sin and death spread to all mankind. The whole creation was brought under the bondage of Adam's transgression.
Man was now a dead man, spiritually speaking. He became spiritually dead and entered into a lower realm of existence when he left the Garden of Eden. The garden didn't go anywhere, man did; and this garden experience, this paradise that Paul was caught up into is still there waiting to be entered. But no fallen man will go into it, only a NEW CREATION MAN will be able to enter into the garden experience.
Adam is forever rejected, cast out of the mountain of God, his doom is destruction, "...You have become a horror, and shall be no more forever" (Ez. 28:19). The only hope that could ever come to man would be for someone to take his place in death, and the judgment that were to be his, so that he could be raised a brand new creation, the old one "no more forever" existing.
Creation was sent spiraling downward into death and destruction under the judgment of God. God had said to Adam, not to do this - eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; or this - judgment of death, would happen (Gen. 1:17). So man became spiritually dead; dead to God, dead to the ZOE life of God, dead to all that God had created him to be. A lost son, gone his own way an on his own journey and course of life; all we like sheep have gone astray.
This has been the condition of MAN on this planet for the last six thousand years. We have had a dead man ruling the world, always trying to be as God, still saying with his proud heart ,"I will be like the Most High." Man is forever trying to fix his mistake, this planet, and all that God created, though he never will. Only God, El Elyon, El Olam, El Shaddai, the "Most High," "Everlasting God," "Almighty God," will be able to accomplish such a task through a mighty and awesome work that only He could do.
Man brought a legacy of sin and death and the judgment of God overshadowing him. But God, not willing that any should perish (2 Pet. 3:9), had a plan. He had a plan of a SECOND MAN that would redeem the first man. A plan that is so glorious that is actually a brand new creation of a brand new man. A brand new creation, the old passing away, and man becoming a brand new race of being; not the old one fixed up, but a NEW CREATION MAN. He would not be like the first man formed out of dust, but a new man birthed out of God. The first is done away with that He may establish the second. A two man plan, to have a new man in the earth.
Man has now been brought back into union with God through the redemptive work of the Second Man; perfect in spirit, soon to be in his soul, and then his body. The first man had to be destroyed, and he was at the death of Christ, and a brand new man is being raised through the Second Man.
The Second Man, the New Creation Man, is a King and a Priest, as was the first man, but of a higher order - the order of Melchizedek. He is the firstborn over all creation, heir of all things; created in the brightness of God's glory and the express image of His (the Father's) Person. He is reproducing Himself in the earth, as did the first; but this Second Man has abolished sin and death, and brought life and immortality to all who would believe on His name (2Tim. 1:10).
The name of the Second Man, by which no other name in heaven or on earth can be saved is JESUS - "Jehovah is salvation." He is the head of the new creation race, the firstborn from the dead (Col. 1:18), and He is the only way in which man can be saved from the doom and despair Adam brought all humanity into (John 14:6).
Through the work of Christ Jesus, God is birthing Himself a family of sons and daughters who will be the image of the heavenly Man. "And as we have borne the image of the earthy (Adam), WE SHALL ALSO BEAR THE IMAGE OF THE HEAVENLY (Jesus)," (1 Corinthians 15:49, KJV). "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order," (1Cor. 15:22). This is what the gospel is all about. That is why it is called "The Good News." The good news is that the first man who got us all into trouble is doomed to death; but a Second Man came to redeem us all out of that death and into a NEW CREATION RELATIONSHIP with our God and Father who loves us and sent His Son Jesus to become who we used to be and die as us so we could become everything He is when He was raised from the grave.
Hallelujah, Praise His Holy Name, Man is a brand new creation, and he is to be everything that Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.