WHAT'S THE GOOD NEWS?

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. To wit, that GOD WAS IN CHRIST, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation". (2 Corinthians 5.17-19).

The progressive revelation of THE FATHER, and of THE SON is vitally requisite to the life of the believer: "And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent" (John 17.3, NASB). There are those who believe that the born again Christian stops growing the minute he's reborn, and that he cannot progress further until after death and resurrection, or the unscriptural "rapture" takes place. I'm not one of those -- and as Paul said, so say I: "The Good News I proclaim is not such as man approves of, for in fact, it was not from man that I received or learned it, but by a revelation of Jesus Christ". No, I don't strive to please man -- churched-man, unchurched-man, prophet, priest, or pagan. By His grace I shall strive to please only Him who saved me, delivered me from darkness and is disciplining me so that in His good time He may "place" me as an adult son -- a member of His many membered body.

"Phillip said, 'Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us".

"Jesus answered: 'Don't you know me, Phillip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father living in me, who is doing His work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me". (John 14. 8-11 NIV)

GOD WAS IN CHRIST! That's enough gospel to keep the church's tremellose theologians and a host of holy humbuggers busy for years, trying to explain it away. That glorious truth reveals our Father vitally involved in the outworking of the new covenant with mankind. And make no mistake -- GOD IS STILL IN CHRIST. God didn't just send His Son to reconcile the world to Himself! GOD truly INDWELT THE SON, -- so it is GOD HIMSELF showing His love and mercy to His wayward creation. "I am in the Father and the Father is in me" is at the very heart-core of reconciliation, because in the sending of His own Son to be our Saviour, HE HIMSELF WAS THERE IN HIS SON, so it is truly said in 1 Timothy 3.16, "He, (GOD) was made visible in human flesh ...(Amplified Bible). "He who was revealed in the flesh ..." (NASB). And it doesn't stop there, with "God in Christ", because WE are to be "IN CHRIST", thus in vital union with GOD HIMSELF, so that His life will be our life also.

The question: "What is the Gospel, the tidings of great joy?" has been responded to with a variety of answers. One of the answers you may hear is: "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners -- of whom I am the worst" (1 Timothy 1.15, NIV).

THAT'S TRULY GOOD NEWS! He is the Saviour of sinners. It is man's portion to sin, to err, to fall short, and miss the mark, for: "All have sinned and come short of the the glory of God". (Romans 3.23). So, "Thou shalt call His name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their sins". (Matthew 1.21).

But the GOOD NEWS is far more, far greater, than just the forgiveness of our sins of the past; it is the Glad Tidings of a Salvation, of coming into HIS WHOLENESS, HIS SOUNDNESS, so that we will NEVER sin again. The Gospel is HAVING IN COMMON HIS DIVINE NATURE which cannot be corrupted. We will no longer come short of His glory, but actually share as participants in common that Glory of God: "The glory which Thou gavest ME I have given them: that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one" (John 17.22-23).

Another answer to "What is the Gospel?" might be found in Acts 13.38-39: "Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by HIM all that believe are justified from all things which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses".

To be justified is to be declared righteous, and now we have more than forgiveness of sins, because there is an inclusion of justification, that is, being made righteous in God's sight. This is far better than the "justification" received by those observing the Law of Moses with its ceremonial and ritual, "...in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining the conscience". (Hebrews 9.9).

The first covenant, the LAW, with all its rigamorole of ceremonial hyperactivity could NOT render man "just" or righteous. It couldn't make him whole (perfect, complete) in his innermost being because it was a system of works, designed for outward observance, things to DO or NOT DO, and could not affect the hidden man of the heart. It was not LIFE that could be lived from the inside out.

But, "Therefore being justified by FAITH, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by FAITH into this GRACE wherein we stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God". (Romans 5.1-2, emphasis mine). So we are justified, DECLARED RIGHTEOUS; and we are declared righteous because we are made partakers, participants in, sharers-in-common of and in HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS. And how? Through faith and the superabundance of grace which He GIVES us, enabling us to participate fully in HIS holiness and HIS glory.

Some search for a fuller answer to "What is the Gospel?" and quote John 3.16: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life". And further: "He is the propitiation (mercy seat) for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the WHOLE WORLD". (1 John 2.2). Thus the searcher expands his consciousness of salvation and justification to the fact that God gave His Son for the whole world, and the whole world He SHALL receive to Himself -- fully cleansed, fully redeemed, and restored to His absolute righteousness and quickened with His Very Own LIFE!

The fulness of this promise was made through Isaiah. "There is no God beside Me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside Me. Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by Myself, the word is gone out of My mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that unto Me EVERY knee shall bow, EVERY tongue shall swear. 'Surely', shall one say,'in the Lord have I righteousness and strength'". (Isaiah 45.21-24).

EVERY knee shall bow, EVERY tongue shall swear! That's universal coverage, an outreach that's overwhelming! "SURELY IN THE LORD HAVE I RIGHTEOUSNESS AND STRENGTH". There we have the fulness of the New Covenant confirmed in Jesus Christ our Redeemer!

The three answers given unfold a revelation: He came to save sinners, He came to justify those who could not be justified by the Law and He came to bring salvation to the whole world.

But, there's at least one more answer to the question, "What is the Gospel?" This answer includes the three given, and adds another greater dimension. By the coming forth of the ETERNAL WORD, a NEW MAN is revealed, brought forth out of our divided nature, and this NEW MAN is truly son of God and son of man. NOT half and half -- but 100% God and 100% man. God comes to DWELL IN MAN, the breach made by sin is healed, so that the NEW MAN may do the works of God; and that NEW MAN may truly come to DWELL IN GOD. THIS is the very heart of the New Covenant -- the union of God and man, so that God shall live in man and live out His righteousness through man. "IN THE LORD HAVE I RIGHTEOUSNESS AND STRENGTH". AMEN!

Jesus Christ is the mediator of the New Covenant, identified as "Son of God, Son of man". This is essential, for He is the BRIDGE, HE is the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE, and no man comes to the Father except by Him. HE draws God and Man together.

Now, Galatians 3.19 tells us that even the old (first) covenant was ordained (arranged) by angels in the hand of a mediator.

There were two realms: (1) God, (the divine, the celestial) and (2) man (the earth, the carnal). In order for these two realms to be brought together a mediator (literally, a go-between) was required.

In the first covenant we had, as it were, two mediators, two "go-betweens": God was represented by the angels and man was represented by Moses. The angels were God's spokesmen, Moses spoke for the community of Israel. Acts 7.53 confirms the angels participation in arranging the first covenant . This was the working of God, but NOT a permanent arrangement because it was ordained only until THE SEED should come, through whom the NEW and BETTER covenant could be arranged. God used temporary help for a temporary order.

On the earth side, Moses was the go-between. "They (the Israelites) said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die". (Exodus 20.19). Moses was a faithful servant, and he could tell the people of the law, he could deliver the words of God, but he could not impart the nature of God to them so that they could do God's will. God said to Moses in one place, "O that there was such a heart in them, that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever" (Deuteronomy 5.29). This desire of God will be fulfilled in the day He fulfills the promise made in Ezekiel 11.19-20, "I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God" (NIV translation).

Since the law is holy, the commandment holy, righteous and good (Romans 7.12) then the problem wasn't with the law, but with the administration of that law. Angels could deliver messages, bear the sword, and put to death the disobedient. God's human spokesman could ardently declare God's will -- but neither Moses nor the angels (messengers) could change the inner man, and without that change man COULD NOT keep the covenant. Paul says in Romans 7.10: "I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death" and he goes further in verse 14, "We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual (carnal, flesh-minded), sold as a slave to sin". (my parenthesis).

So long as the law was spiritual, but man remained carnal, the GO-BETWEEN ministry couldn't bring the two realms together. The administration failed completely, just as God ordained. Since the ministration of death and condemnation needed to be superseded by a new one which would bring LIFE, how could this be accomplished?

GOD INTERPOSED HIMSELF.

He placed Himself as Mediator, as the GO-BETWEEN. "And He saw that there was no man, and was astonished that there was no one to intercede; then His Own arm brought salvation to Him; and His righteousness upheld Him." (Isaiah 59.16, NASB).

In order to rightly represent the two realms herein discussed, it is absolutely necessary that the Mediator be on equal terms with both. He must be able to converse freely with the realm of the divine and at the same time identify with the lowly realm of man -- total identity, with both spirit and flesh. "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ, who gave Himself a ransom for all..." (1 Timothy 2.5-6). (Please note ALL !)

Our Mediator came from the very heart of God so He is most intimately conversant with God's realm, and He was born of a woman, thus becoming a member of humanity. "Since then, 'the children' have a common physical nature as human beings, He also became a human being, ..." (Hebrews 2.14, Phillips translation). And He was in every respect tested and "tempted" as we are according to Hebrews 4.15, and without sin!

He was (and is) fully equipped and able to bring the spiritual and carnal dominions together, for He was both SON OF GOD, and SON OF MAN. In HIMSELF the reconciliation was complete. He, being BOTH man and God in One, is able to work that same reconciliation in us, so that we who have tasted and drunk so deeply of the earth, might also become, experientialy, partakers of the blessed reality of the heavenly.

Lest I confuse you with past-tense and present-tense verbs concerning our Lord, I remind you here that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today and for the ages. He never loses His identity -- and Jesus is the name of identification with our earth realm; Christ is the identification with the heavenly dominion, that blessed anointing Spirit. As long as there remains one being in God's universe in whom reconciliation is incomplete, OUR LORD IS THERE AS MEDIATOR. He is the One who can identify with their need and unite them with God the Father. No matter what the bamboozling brotherhood of mystic mountebanks have preached and prated concerning this, THE SON WILL REIGN UNTIL ALL enemies are subdued and ALL is reconciled. Yes, ALL!!

Now THIS IS GOOD NEWS! God takes us, "the son of men", and so thoroughly transforms us that we can be called "sons of God"! It's far more than saving us from our sins; it is the whole process of TRANSFORMATION into the very image of God; so "That He might be the first born among many brethren" (Romans 8.29). Indeed, we will be so fully "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1.4), that in due time it is said, "as He is, so are we in this world". (1 John 4.17.)

It is foolish to make premature, rash announcements that we are as He is because our state of being belies the declaration. Not until we have FULLY BECOME, can we say that we are "as He is". A complete outworking of His process, in Spirit, soul, and body is required. Yes, a truly enlivened spirit, a renewed and anointed mind, and a changed body is required. Rest assured -- He who began a good work in you will perfect it and surely bring it to the conclusion He foreordained. Our full salvation is secure in Christ.

The father relationship is inherent in the very core of the New Covenant and it is made manifest in our Lord Jesus Christ. In the natural realm, in order to be a "father" there must be a bringing forth of a "son" - "offsping", "child". A man may live a hundred years, be mature in physical form, mental powers and spiritual integrity -- in short, be a man in all respects and yet never be a father. A "father" is defined in its most basic meaning as "one who has begotten an offspring". So, when we truly receive the revelation of God as our Father, it includes the revelation of that relationship: -- we are His sons and daughters, begotten of God.

"No man has ever seen God at any time; the only unique Son, the only-begotten God, Who is in the bosom [that is, in the intimate presence] of the Father, He has declared Him -- He has revealed Him, brought Him out where He can be seen; He has interpreted Him, and He has made Him known" (John 1.18, Amplified Bible). Jesus Christ came to reveal the heart of the Father so that He might be the Father of many. He revealed that there is absolute eternal love between Him who begets and the begotten -- a union and communion between the begotten and Him who is the source of ALL being.

All sons have once been in the loins of the father from whom they come, and whose image and likeness they are called to bear. Some said of Jesus, "Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary, and aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren't all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?" And they took offense at him. (Matthew 13.55-57, NIV) And they said, 'Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, "I came down from heaven"'?" (John 6.42, NIV). Be assured, they say the same of any Son of God.

People were always astonished at the teaching, wisdom, the power and authority of this peasant carpenter, this hick-town joiner, who only visited God's temple on feast days and probably didn't even know the names of the renowned scribes and teachers of the law who busied themselves multiplying "do its" and "don'ts", lawyering and priesting the people into thraldom.

Sure, they thought they knew his father, but what Jesus was saying and doing was not in the image of Joseph the carpenter. If the people had asked Mary who Jesus' father was she could have told them -- but they wouldn't have believed her, either.

When Jesus expressed the nature of His real Father, they didn't know Him, couldn't recognize Him for Who He was. And why not? Because they didn't know His Father. Mary provided His humanity -- BUT HIS NATURE WAS (and still is!!) DIVINE. Thus, IN HIMSELF, He brought together the heavenly and the earthy.

Let's carry this a little further. Matthew tells us that on one occasion when the Pharisees and Sadducees were questioning Jesus, He asked them,

What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?

"The son of David", they replied.

He said to them, "How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit calls him 'Lord'? For he says, "The Lord said to my Lord: 'Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.'"

If then David calls him 'Lord', how can he be his son?' No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions. (Matthew 22.42- 46,NIV).

They couldn't answer Jesus because their understanding was limited to the human relationship and they weren't able to comprehend the spiritual, the Divine relationship of Father-Son. They were totally baffled because He was and is BOTH Son of God and Son of man: His earthen vessel came from David's line but His TRUE NATURE came from His Father: GOD.

And isn't it great that we can read: "For he himself is our peace who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create IN HIMSELF one new man out of the two (our dual nature) thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility" (Ephesians 2.14-16, my emphasis and parentheses). He who has an ear to hear let him hear!

We have suffered long under our duality and we long for it to cease so that of "the twain" He may make us "ONE NEW MAN" -- a NEW MAN with a completely divine nature and a body "fashioned like unto His glorious body" (Phillipians 3.21). Why? So we can freely and absolutely express the nature of our Father, God.

With a father there is a relationship in blood, and in nature; a love that is unchanging, even if the son deserts the protection of the father and flees His presence to indulge in other relationships. Jesus gave us the parable of what we call "the prodigal son", and in the parable we read that the son is still beloved of his father despite the son's wallowing in the vainglorious vices of carnality. You recall how the father received the son in that parable.

And it is so with us. "For God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners Christ died for us" (Romans 5.8). Far from the Father we have drunk the dregs of the earthly nature, impoverished in soul, in spirit, and in body, wasting the Father's substance, destitute, without even the sense to comprehend our deplorable condition. But the Father's love reaches out to us and He draws us to Himself, and He receives us even though we are covered with the filthy rags of that self-country -- HIS LOVE NEVER FAILS!

Time after time, parable after parable, Jesus, the Son, declared the precious truths of THE FATHER, -- of His love, His mercy, His unbounded compassion, His Father's heart reaching out to draw us in. Throughout the Scriptures the Father's plan for our ultimate good is declared; and yet even those who profess to be His children malign His name and sink back into fear and quasi-belief, granting Evil the victory over the ever-victorious Jesus Christ. But even those quakers are provided for and the very wickedness and backsliding of those benighted souls shall be their correction and salvation. (See Jeremiah 2.19).

What a great revelation The Son becomes to us! Truly He is "The True Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (John 1.9). He said, "I made your name known to them and revealed your character, and your very self, and I will continue to make [you] known, that the love which you have bestowed upon Me may be in them -- felt in their hearts -- and that I [MYSELF] MAY BE IN THEM" (John 17.26, Amplified Bible).

Jesus Christ was manifested to become the LIVING EXPRESSION of the name and nature of the Father. There's a progressive revelation of the Father's nature in the revelation of His name.

"And God appeared unto Moses, and said unto him, I AM the LORD (Jehovah): And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by My name Jehovah was I not known to them" (Exodus 6.23).

There are specific revelations for what some call specific "dispensations", and these revelations are given to us by God for the outworking of His purpose through the ages. In the Scripture above cited, the time of the Law, the first covenant, was at hand, so there was a specific name of God to be revealed for that time. Abraham knew Him as the ALMIGHTY, El Shaddai, a combination of two of God's names: El = Almighty, and Shaddai = all bountiful, all sufficient one. So the name Almighty Sufficient One was revealed to Abraham, et al, and it was more than enough to see them through their days. But at the specific time when God began His first covenant dealings with Israel, He revealed a NAME which would identify that era and outworking, a NAME that would emphasize all that He wished to bring into focus.

I think it's significant that Abraham, that remarkable man of faith, didn't need a particular revelation of this name, Jehovah. "The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the Gospel in advance to Abraham: 'All nations will be blessed through you'" (Galatians 3.8, NIV). God leapt over an age, and revealed to Abraham the Good News which belonged to an age still to come, the realm of Faith, and Grace, and superabounding Mercy of the New Covenant. It wasn't needed that he be given a revelation of the "dispensation" name which preceded that glorious age. "By my name Jehovah (Yahweh) was I not known to them". Let's not get hung up on the "letter" of this name Yahweh (which is from a Hebrew tetragram, YHWH) meaning, I AM THAT I AM. Instead, let's listen to the Spirit and Reality of the message it brings, and go on to receive more revelation of the unfolding Name of God as it pertains to us in this grace-full age of processing.

This exploration will be continued.