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Originally Posted by UntoHim
Well the title is "What the Gospel means to me" so I guess you could call it a declaration if you want...
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I realize we are here to discuss Witness Lee to some degree. But under such threads as these, we each account for the gospel we have heard and received. I think, that many use their positive or negative experiences with Witness Lee to filter and try to pigeon hole others. You have not found in my writing anything about "higher" or "lower" gospel. The gospel is the gospel. We either have it or we don't.
I am a gentile. As such, when Jesus came it was not to me. Surely His blood was effective even for me, but He came to the house of Israel. I don't have a gospel unless the Lord had opened the door by Peter and sent Paul through it. When that gospel is taken up by me, I am surely equipt to walk in the reality of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. But I have no way in unless I have the gospel Paul has brought to me.
Paul brought the right hand of the fellowship only Israel possessed. With that right hand, I am able to handle the Word of the truth, which is the gospel of my salvation. Ephesians 1:13 BY the gospel I am able to take up my cross daily and measure my steps in holiness.
Paul came through the region of Galatia annoucing the gospel. Barbarians received. Churches were raised up in a number of Galation cities. Paul laid hands on the believers but then had to leave them and move on to other cities. He expected that they would treasure the unspeakable gift his hand put upon them. He expected that they would daily handle the Word and be taught of God. He knew the Word would grow in them and mature in them, opening their eyes to all the vast riches of the gospel. What he did not expect was that Jews would come from Jerusalem with another gospel. In fact, he was stunned, and shocked, when he heard that the Galations were being swayed by these Messianic Jews. Surely the gentile believers thought highly of Jews coming from the apostles in Jerusalem. But I must say, It is only because the Word was young in their hands, and had not yet established the vision in their writing, that these Jews could draw them away. These ones propagated two errors. 1. that we need the law plus grace to be saved. 2. and once we are His, we need to add in law to be perfected. Both of these took them away from the simplicity he had placed in their hand. So in furry, Paul turns his pen back to Galatia. He shows clearly that his gospel is one of direct revelation and all that have it also have direct revelation. By this revelation Christ lives in them and they abide in Him. I do not see "a higher" gospel.....I just see the gospel that is the Word of the Truth. Nor do I see a "lower" gospel, but there is "another" gospel. The gospel brings me to the total condemnation that is upon all men. Then the gospel justifies me by the blood of Christ. This blood alone deals with our sins and accounts us righteous. Then the gospel arms me with the Word that sanctifies by hands on writing. That Word deals with my sin nature. In the growth of sanctification the gospel brings us into glory. In this glory we then see Israel. The gospel then uses us as a vehicle to raise up Israel and guide Israel into transformation by again handling the Word.(which makes us active in bringing Israel into Matthew, Mark, Luke and John reality). And then the gospel goes out again from Israel to shepherd the nations into the glorious millennium of His sabbath. This is the gospel.
As Paul turns back to Galatia he is fierce. He doesn't send any well wishes or blessings in the introduction. Nor does he send any greetings to any in the close. He is set to war for the gospel. His gospel is not sent to bring us into the religious world, but out of it. In the religious world all are too pour to handle the Word. (as I have written in other plases, todays Judaism forbids writing on sabbath. But until Jews can writing in the gospel on sabbath, they shall be held in darkness and shall oppose any that enter. That evil world is crucified to him and he to it by the very Word of truth he writes daily. He calls the Galations to take up the cross in hand for it is the gospel. Again, this is why he takes us to Abraham at Galations 3:8, to show that as Abraham wrote the gospel spoke to him. And to Habakkuk 2:2-4 at Galations 3:11, to show that to write the vision is the way of the faith of the gospel. Any gospel that does not arm me with the Word of the cross that I take up and write daily is the "another gospel" and is a curse. The gospel is the living God walking hand in hand with His people. "As many as shall walk by this RULE, peace be upon them" Galations 6:16.
Scribe