Many people living on earth today have heard, in one form/way or another, the gospel being preached to them. And especially in the highly cultured / civilized countries, there are more and more people that do NOT really want to be a Christian, but would rather adhere to atheism.
The gospel that is preached today is many times “a low gospel”, or a gospel that does not meet the need of humanity today.
Who today speaks about God becoming a man in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ so that man – you and me – may become God in life and in nature, but not in the Godhead? Who today speaks about Christ as the gospel, the all-inclusive all-extensive all-encompassing Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God coming to be the full gospel to us?
Who today speaks about the crucified, resurrected, ascended, and outpoured Christ as the Spirit to be our life within, our living without, and who makes us the New Jerusalem? Who today speaks about God’s full salvation – not just salvation from the perdition, and not just being saved “to go to heaven” – but God’s full intent and His full salvation for humanity?
There is so much in the gospel that we the believers need to repent and turned to the Lord so that we ourselves may receive from Him the Gospel again – through His Word and also through the members of the Body! The key to speaking such a high gospel is that we firstly are saved again by hearing it and believing it! We need to be freshly saved before we go out to speak the gospel!
I have to confess that I was freshly saved these last few days when I heard again God’s full salvation as the gospel! God’s intention with humanity is, after creating man, to come into man and be man’s satisfaction. He wants to be the fountain of living waters for man to drink and be satisfied.
And even more, the gospel includes Redemption, Regeneration, God’s Organic Salvation, the Body of Christ, the Local Churches, The New Man, The Bride of Christ, and the New Jerusalem!
Here are some things pertaining to the full gospel of God for man – in these aspects:
- Redemption – God did not give up on man when man fell in the garden of Eden – He Himself came as a man, humbled Himself, paid the highest price: His own human life, and bought us back to Himself. He redeemed us back to God, so now by simply believing into Him, we are being brought back to our inheritance: God Himself!
- Regeneration – not just redeemed(which can be positional mainly), but also regenerated! When we believe in the Lord, He comes into us as the life-giving Spirit to germinate us with the divine life! A Christian is not one who abides by a set of rules, but one who receives the divine life and enjoys this life daily, and he lives out this life in a spontaneous way! Regeneration as the greatest miracle in the universe makes a man to be a God-man, one who is born of God!
- God’s Organic Salvation – Regeneration is just the beginning – in His full salvation for all man, God wants to not just regenerate us but also renew us, transform us, conform us, and eventually glorify us! By His divine life within and by arranging all things around us, God works Himself into us more and more every day, until our mind is renewed, our soul is transformed, even outwardly our expression is just Christ, and then eventually we are just expressing Him in glory – filled with Christ and expressing Christ! What a purpose for our life – which becomes our reality!
- The Body of Christ – our salvation is not individualistic, but it is corporate: we are being saved even from our self! What God desires is not individuals expressing Him and shining apart from one another, but He desires a Body for Christ, a full expression of Himself in a corporate way! And all the believers in Christ are organically the Body of Christ, built up by Christ Himself through all the members, as they exercise in their portion and measure! We are one in life with all the believers in Christ everywhere on earth: we have the same divine life within!
- The Local Churches – practically, the Body of Christ can be met, touched, and expressed as the local churches: one church in each locality! There is only one Body in this universe, and we express it in each locality as the unique expression of the Body of Christ! This is so simple and un-complicated that the enemy of God, Satan, tries to make it complex and complicating so that he may distract the people from what God desires! We are one with all the believers and meet locally in the place where God put us, and, even more practically, we meet in the homes of the believers having a practical family-type-church life!
- The New Man – In the aspect of life, we are the Body of Christ; in the aspect of the person, though we are so many persons, nationalities, opinions, cultures, education levels, etc – there is only One person, Christ, who becomes our all and in all! As our mind is renewed daily in the Word of God and we put on the new man, which is being renewed unto the image of the One who created Him, we become One Man on the whole earth, having one mind, one desire, and one action! Christ replaces us in our continual enjoyment and contact with Him!
- The Bride of Christ – we just love the Lord with our first love! His Word is actually a love letter to us – He courts us, attracts us, and draws us to Himself daily…. as we enjoy Him every day, we love Him more. And we fall in love with this wonderful Person so much that we give Him the first place, even the preeminence, in everything we do. We keep ourselves from any defilement – to be pure for Him. We appreciate Him so much that we have eyes only for Him – nothing can distract us! Until He comes to rapture us because He can’t resist our utmost love for Him, we just love Him and open to Him!
- The New Jerusalem – the consummation of God’s salvation is a miraculous structure of treasure where God and man are so mingled together, blent together, and built up together that there’s no way to tell them apart! God is in man, and man is in God; God shines in Christ as the light, and this light is seen everywhere on earth through man(as the walls of the New Jerusalem). God is on the throne governing and ruling, and He does so in oneness with man and through man. There’s a river flowing from the throne, reaching out to everywhere on the earth – God flows out and reaches everyone through us, His believers, the co-kings and co-rulers with Him for eternity!
All I can say is – WOW! What a full salvation! And these aspects of God’s salvation are only a few of the many things He wants to do in man, with man, and through man! This is what gives meaning to our human life, and it is so much higher than anything else out there. This is the purpose for our human existence! Why won’t we speak such a high gospel?
[read this portion in Spanish also via, ¡El evangelio elevado de la salvación completa de Dios, desde la redención hasta el Cuerpo de Cristo y la Nueva Jerusalén!]
I am currently working on a tract for UCR christians on campus on the matter of the high gospel and was wondering if i could use some of the content from this post on the tract?
sure, go ahead, brother, just let me also know the final product(the tract) if it will be available in electronic form 🙂
What do we have that it has not been given to us? The Triune God flows into us – it's not of us, it's of Him! 🙂 Lord, keep us enjoying You and speaking the high truth until Your Body is built up and New Jerusalem comes into being!