Gospel is the Proclamation of Jesus Christ according to the Revelation of the Mystery

The book of Romans – the gospel of Paul – shows us the gospel of God, the proclamation of Jesus Christ, which is to make sinners sons of God to constitute the Body of Christ, which is expressed as the local churches.

The gospel that Paul preached was not a low gospel, and he didn’t merely announce Christ as the Savior of the world; Paul preached a full and complete gospel composed of God’s judicial redemption, His organic salvation, the Body of Christ, and the local churches.

God loves man, but He is also righteous; based on His righteousness, all sinners must die – so Christ became our Substitute, and through believing into Him we are justified before God, and there is now no more condemnation for us, because we are in Christ Jesus.

Through believing into Christ we are brought into an organic union with Him so that we may receive, enjoy, and be infused with all His riches, and the Triune God is dispensing Himself into our spirit (through regeneration), our soul (through setting our mind on our spirit to be renewed, transformed, and conformed), and our body (through glorification, the redemption of our body) so that our entire tripartite being would be organically saved, filled with God’s life.

Furthermore, as believers in Christ who are in the process of being daily saved in God’s life, we are the members of the Body of Christ – He is the Head, and we as the many members are one with Him, expressing Him corporately. The Body of Christ is expressed in the many local churches: one church in each locality, for the local expression of the universal Body of Christ. This is the gospel.

The gospel includes Christ’s redemption, God’s love for us, His justification, our believing into Him, our being saved in His life organically day by day, the Body of Christ, and the local churches.

We need to see, know, and be constituted with the full and complete gospel – the gospel of Paul, which is also the gospel of God – and we need to preach the full gospel to all the nations and to all believers so that sinners would be saved and become sons of God to constitute the Body of Christ which is expressed as the local churches.

We are Being Established According to the Pure and Full Gospel of God

At the end of Romans, after Paul spoke extensively concerning the full gospel of God, he said,

Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel, that is, the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which has been kept in silence in the times of the ages but has now been manifested, and through the prophetic writings, according to the command of the eternal God, has been made known to all the Gentiles for the obedience of faith; to the only wise God through Jesus Christ, to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. (Rom. 16:25-27)

Paul’s gospel is concerning the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been hidden from the ages but in the last days, it has been revealed to us. God had something in His heart concerning man in His economy, but this was a mystery until the last days, when it has been revealed to the holy apostles and prophets in spirit, and now to all of us.

Paul’s gospel is the full gospel, including the teaching concerning Christ, the Body, and the local churches (see Rom. 1:3-4; 2:16; 3:23-26; 12:4-5; 16:1, 4, 16, 25). Paul didn’t speak only of Christ, nor was his emphasis merely on the church; his gospel included Christ, the Body, and the local churches. This full gospel, the pure and full gospel of God, is what establishes us today.

We are not established according to doctrines or dispensational truths but according to the gospel, which is the preaching of Christ and the revelation of the mystery.

We are rescued from divisive doctrines and dividing practices by being established by the pure and full gospel of God, by the preaching and ministering of the living and all-inclusive Christ, and by the revelation of God’s mystery!

When we preach the gospel we should speak of the wonderful Christ, our Savior and Lord, for people to be saved from their sins and regenerated with the life of God; then, we should continue to speak concerning the Body of Christ, so that believers would be saved even more from their individualism and into the Body of Christ.

This is our commission today: on the one hand, to allow the pure and full gospel of God (Rom. 16:25) to establish us and solidify us, and on the other, to preach the full gospel to unbelievers and believers alike so that men would be saved from sins and individualism and enter into the kingdom of God and practice the church life in the reality of the Body of Christ.

Today we are commissioned to preach not only Christ to save people from eternal perdition but also preach the Body of Christ to save people from their self to produce the unique Body of Christ, expressed everywhere as the local churches. Such a pure and full gospel establishes us, and through us it establishes the believers.

Lord Jesus, we believe that You are able to establish us according to the pure and full gospel, that is, the proclamation of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery! Amen! Thank You for revealing to us the mystery deep in Your heart: Christ and the church. Lord, we want to fulfill our commission to preach the full and pure gospel of God by announcing Christ, the Body of Christ, and the local churches as the gospel. Hallelujah, we now have a full and pure gospel which establishes us in faith!

The Gospel is the Proclamation of Jesus Christ according to the Revelation of the Mystery

Paul was a herald of the gospel, a proclaimer of the gospel of Christ, an official reporter of God’s New Testament economy; also, he was an apostle, one sent by God with a divine commission to set up churches for God, an ambassador from God to the world for the carrying out of His purpose.

Furthermore, Paul was a teacher, a tutor who teaches, defines, and explains the contents of God’s eternal purpose and His New Testament economy to others (see 1 Tim. 2:7, footnote 1, Recovery Version).

As a herald of the gospel, Paul preached the gospel, which is the proclamation of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery. The gospel of God is a proclamation, an official public announcement; first, the Lord Jesus preached the gospel, and then the apostles proclaimed the gospel (see Matt. 26:13; Mark 1:14; 16:15; Rom. 1:15; 10:15; Col. 1:27-28).

The gospel is simply the proclamation of Jesus Christ; what we proclaim as the gospel is Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery. This mystery is mainly of two aspects: the mystery of God – Christ, and the mystery of Christ – the church.

The mystery of God is Christ, who is now in us, His believers, to be our life and our everything for His Body (Col. 2:2; 1:26-27; 3:4-11; Rom. 12:4-5). The mystery of Christ is the church as His Body to express His fulness (see Eph. 3:4-6; 1:22-23).

Christ and the church are the great mystery (Eph. 5:32). Romans firstly tells us how the believers have been baptized into Christ (6:3), how Christ has been wrought into the believers (8:10), and how the believers have put on Christ (13:14). Then it reveals how all these believers are built together into one Body (12:4-5) to express Christ. Thus the churches have come into existence in many cities in a local and practical way, with all the saints loving one another and fellowshipping with one another among all the churches to express the Body of Christ for the fulfillment of God’s mystery. This is the ultimate consummation of the full gospel of God. It is through this that Satan is crushed under the feet of the saints (16:20), that the grace of Christ is dispensed to all the saints (16:20), and that the glory is and will be to God unto the ages of the ages (16:27). The eternal God has made known this mystery to all the nations unto obedience of faith. (Witness Lee, Life-study of Romans, pp. 365-366)

This is the full gospel: Christ and the church, the great mystery. Christ is the mystery of God and the church is the mystery of Christ.

When the Lord was on earth, people asked Him a lot of questions ranging from religion to marriage and murder, but then He asked them a question, Who do you say that the Son of Man is? If He is the son of David, why does David call Him in spirit, Lord? – this is the question of questions.

People today may ask us a lot of questions, but in our gospel preaching we need to ask them concerning Christ, preaching Christ as the mystery of God. Furthermore, after people are saved, we need to continue to preach the gospel by speaking concerning the church.

All believers love the Lord Jesus and have received Him, but who knows what the church is, what are the materials for the building up of the church, what is the ground of the church, and how to build up the church? Some may say that the church is too complicated, and there are so many churches… – but we need to be brought back to the divine revelation in God’s word, know the church according to God’s heart, and speak to others concerning the church, the Body of Christ.

To the unbelievers, we preach Christ as the gospel to be saved, and to believers, we preach the church as the gospel for them to be saved from the self and independence.

Watchman Nee preached such a gospel: he preached Christ as life and the church as the Body of Christ; however, many believers who receive his ministry pick-and-choose only the speaking concerning Christ but refuse his speaking concerning the church.

The Apostle Paul preached Christ and the church as the gospel – this is the great mystery, which has been revealed to us, and we need to preach the gospel as the proclamation of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery today.

There’s much chaos today in Christianity regarding the church, and most believers are not clear what the church is and how to build up the church. Even if all the people in the world are saved, if there’s no built up church as the Body of Christ, the Lord cannot gain His purpose.

Praise the Lord for His recovery: here we are being recovered to Christ and the church, and the gospel is complete and full, covering God’s judicial redemption, His organic salvation, the Body of Christ, and the local churches.

Lord Jesus, thank You for commissioning us with the gospel, the proclamation of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery. Thank You for revealing to us Christ – the mystery of God – and the church – the mystery of Christ. Lord, may our gospel preaching be a proclamation of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of Christ and the church, preaching Christ to sinners for them to be saved from eternal perdition, and preaching the church to the believers for them to be saved from self for the building up of the Body of Christ!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message for this week, and Life-study of Romans, msgs. 2, 30 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Gospel (2016 International Chinese-speaking Conference), week 4 / msg. 4, Paul’s Gospel — the Gospel of Completion.
• All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Now to Him Who is able, / Able to establish you according to my gospel; / The proclamation of Jesus Christ / According to the revelation of the mystery; / To the only wise God through Jesus Christ, / The only wise God, To Him be the glory forever, / Forever and ever. Amen. Amen. (Scripture song)
  # Christ is the mystery of God; / God is invisible, unshown, / His image man hath never seen, / But Christ the Son hath made Him known. / The Church the myst’ry is of Christ, / For He is now to man unshown; / No man on earth may see Him now, / But thru the Church He is made known. (Hymns #818)
  # Now we know the purpose of our God, / Visible the mystery became: / Christ, the church, together now we see, / And together put the enemy to shame. (Hymns #1232)