What The Gospel Means to Me

[UntoHim]

The secular world has a saying " the gospel truth". Yes, even the world knows it's true, even more importantly they know it's the highest truth. Other things and other events may be true, but no other truth means so much or has affected the course of history so much. No matter how much this truth is discounted by the lost men of this world, or corrupted by well meaning (and almost as lost) religionists, this truth stands alone at the top of the mountain of all truths. Even all the other truths revealed in the Word of God must take a subordinate position to this truth, for if The Gospel is not true then every other so-called truth means nothing. I think the apostle Paul was trying to get this point across to the Corinthians when he wrote "and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins." Wow Paul, you mean if this one thing, this one truth is not true, then our faith is worthless? What about all those other wonderful, deep and lofty truths you taught about?

The most amazing thing about the gospel is that it is a truth only for us humans. All the principalities and powers, and even the angles have to sit back and watch in wonder and amazement. Regarding this phenomenon the apostle Peter wrote: "It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven-- things into which angels long to look" I would think the angels would want to look into all sorts of things, like the creation of the heavens and earth, but what they really want to know about is this Gospel, this truth. Why would the God of the universe come to these "lower" creatures, stepping down to their lower level? Apparently 1/3rd of the angels rebelled and fell along with Satan, but what about these lower creatures, it seems that they all rebelled, they all fell. As far as we know, those fallen angels do not get a second chance, but will be thrown into the abyss with Satan, but we earthly creatures get a second chance. This is The Gospel, and this is the highest truth revealed in the Word of God. As far as we humans are concerned there is nothing positive without this gospel. There is no redemption, no salvation, no transformation. There is no church, no kingdom, no resurrection and no heaven.

Witness Lee was not the first one to come tickling people's ears with a "higher gospel", and he will certainly not be the last, but for the purposes of this forum we can and should discuss his "higher" gospel. Over the years on these forums there has been a lot of heated discussions on whether or not Lee preached "another gospel", and even "another Jesus". As one who heard hundreds and hundreds of Lee's messages, I find any contention regarding these matters almost amusing. Of course Lee preached another gospel, for he practically came right out and said as much - in so many words. Actually Lee's gospel is not so much another gospel as it is an additional gospel, but the affect it has on those who imbibe it is the very same as if it were another gospel. As for "another Jesus", well in my experience and observation over the years, anybody who preaches another gospel IS preaching another Jesus. Another gospel IS another Jesus. I have much to say regarding this but won't ramble on further here, except to give all thanks and praise to the Lord that I am being delivered from another gospel and am returning to "the simplicity which is in Christ". I've got a long way to go but at least I feel I'm heading in the right direction.

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This is the balled of a cross and a crown
and the man who was so punished
though no fault in him was found
The scoffers would mocked him
even his own would flee
Still with his last breath
"Father forgive" was his plea

This is the balled of a cross and a crown
and the man who dreaded the first
then in the garden fell down
For He knew his Father
and he knew his good will
So he stood in our place
He stands as our Advocate still

This is the balled of a cross and a crown
and the man who suffered and died
for all the sinners he found
Seeking them first
and then he would save
Then the lost that he found
became the gifts that he gave

This is the balled of a cross and a crown
and those who must pick up their own
and come follow him now
For a cross must come first
only then comes reward
along with the cherished
"well done" from our Lord

[Scribe]

UntoHim,

This is a good line you have began. What is the gospel? What is another gospel? What does it mean to me? When we write of "another gospel" we are in the book of Galations 1:6-11. We thus mean, a gospel which is not that which Paul has brought to us. Paul's gospel is the measuring line. It is not Witness, or Watchman, or Wesley, or Luther's gospel. It is Paul's! "Another" is a gospel that is not that which Paul has brought to us.

Blessed be Paul's gospel.

Scribe

[ZNPaaneah]

I am reminded of when I first prayed to Jesus. I was raised as an Episcopalian. Around my 13th birthday I was seeking, got down on my knees and prayed "Lord I want to see You when You come down in those clouds". The Lord responded "You will, and furthermore I say unto you that you are a son of God". That really blew my mind, I had never had the thought that I could be a child of God. All things were new after that.

[Scribe]

"In the day that God judges the secrets of men according to my gospel through Jesus Christ" Paul Romans 1:16.

Paul's gospel is our judge. Peter tells us , " our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them concerning these things, in which some things are hard to understand, which the unlearned and unstable twist, as also the rest of the scriptures, to their own destruction." 2 Peter 3:15-16

At Romans Paul has laid his gospel before us. He sets forth his introduction in 1:1-17. Then he lays his gospel before us in seven parts. The gospel is really the glad tidings. It is the Word of the oath coming to us in it's sevening. Each tide must develop by the Holy Spirits work in us to give ground for the next.

1. Condemnation 1:18-3:20. Here the Holy Spirit brings us to full condemnation. At this stage none can judge for all are judged equally condemned. Only when the Spirits work is mature in condemantion does the second tide come.

2. Justification: 3:21- 5:11. Here we see that the Lord's shed blood has removed all our sins and we are thus righteous. Most of christianity waffles back and forth between condemnation and justification because the condemantion work is not mature enought to fully open justification. There is still trust in self. But when we see we are fully justified by his blood, then the third tide comes.

3. Sanctification. 5:12- 8:13 In the first two our mouth is sufficient, but in the third measure our hand must be discovered and applied. Justification deals with our sins by his blood and the testimony of our mouth. But at sanctification the glad tidings deals with Sin and transfers the holy nature into us. Here the unspeakable gift branches into our hand. Here John 17:17-20 activate to us. We measure our steps in holiness. This leads to the fourth tide.

4. Glorification. 8;14-39. At each measure of sanctifications maturity the church enters glory. Glory is the result of sanctification. In glory the church is fully mature. Out of foretastes of glory we have the holy way to approach Israel. Then out of the glory comes the fifth measure of the glad tidings.

5. Selection. 9-11. This is where we remember Israel. Out of the glory we reach forth to remember and recover Israel into the sanctification fellowship. This is where Revelation chapter one opens. The faith in the glorious church reaches out on the right hand and connects with the faith of Israel on the left. From faith (ours) to faith (theirs) the righteousness of God is made known. 1:17. Together the glorious church walks hand in hand into the sixth measure....the transformation of the selected Israel.

6. Transformation. 12:1-15:13. Hand in hand with the church Israel matures into transformation and is ready to shepherd the nations the church is called out of. This brings in the rest of the seventh measure of the gospel.

7. Consumation 15:14-16:27 the nations offered acceptable in the hands of Israel, with the church.

This gospel judges the secrets of all men.

Scribe

[OBW]

Originally Posted by Scribe

"In the day that God judges the secrets of men according to my gospel through Jesus Christ" Paul Romans 1:16.

I was about to suggest you had really lost it. But I eventually found your verse; Romans 2:16. But what do you think that means? What translation are you using? That is an entirely different series of words than in all others I have found. For example, the NIV:

This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.

First, your version seems to say that God judges "according to my gospel" whereas the NIV more clearly puts the judging in context of "through Jesus Christ" first, then Paul adds that it is consistent with the gospel he is preaching. He is not saying that God is acting according to Paul's gospel, but that Paul has correctly understood how God will judge and has included that in his gospel.

But your snippet is out of context. In context, excluding the parenthetical portion in verses 14 and 15, Paul says:

For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.... This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.

So the whole of Paul's writing here can be summarized into the little phrase (which has already been misread in earlier posts) of being doers of the word and not hearers only. And while Paul says a lot of truly wonderful things, they are too often taken as substitutes for the gospel that Jesus spoke. I hate that some will take what I am going to say as an endorsement of a particular ministry that wants to ignore all of scripture outside of the 4 gospels, but here goes. The gospel is primarily found in the "gospels." You can find a lot of commentary in the other NT books, but the source is the gospels. When we read Paul and determine that there are a lot of "spiritual" things that have to be done to move through the various stages of spiritual growth, we are misreading Paul. He is not adding to the needs. He is explaining what is happening spiritually when you actually do and obey. But the doing and obeying is in relation to what Jesus says. What God has said.

Just like we need James to remind us that if we are not doing, the spiritual is just a farce, we need Paul to remind us that there are spiritual things that underpin the doing. Paul does not say to ignore doing and instead be spiritual. But that is what Nee taught, and what Lee taught. These are your "watchman" and your "witness" who lead you. Yes they lead you away from the "simplicity of the gospel." They lead you away from doing and into being spiritual. And whether they lead you to this "writing" thing I cannot say. But it would not be an unreasonable extension of their impractical, uber-spiritual worldview that requires no foundation of doing real life, through the Spirit, in a righteous manner.

Yes, sanctification, transformation, glorification, etc., are wonderful things. But they are not rungs of a ladder that we willfully climb. They are spiritual realities that occur as we deepen our love and our faith by living and doing according to that faith and love. This notion of writing, and all the LRC focus on uber-spiritual "activities" is a distraction from the real Christian job of living and obeying. To the extent that they have correctly understood and identified spiritual realities, they have cheapened them by thinking that they can pursue those realities without undertaking the activities of obedience and faith in their daily walk in the world.

[ZNPaaneah]

So, OBW, what does the gospel mean to you?