Winter 1989
The Completeness of our Redemption
Selected

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto Salvation unto every one that believeth.

The Word of God presents the way to receive this Salvation so clearly that anyone will be able to understand how to receive it. Yet this way, as taught by many teachers, is made so intricate that even those who have understanding in the Word of God are hindered in embracing the fullness of this marvelous Salvation. This is true, not only concerning the initial experience of sins forgiven, but also in an on-going spiritual experience by which we are enabled to live the life.

Many come in touch with God and are saved as they search through these confusing teachings for the way to Salvation. Because of this, even after being born again and having the assurance in their hearts that they are saved, these are unable to tell how they came into this blessed experience. Neither are they able to point out to another seeking soul the path over which they traveled, as they passed out of darkness into light, out of death into life, and out of a lost condition into Salvation in Christ.

It is not the will of God that His children should be thus in ignorance and bewilderment when He has provided a Gospel that is so simple, that even a child can understand it and live it by the grace of God.

The whole Gospel, as revealed to and taught by the Apostle Paul is embraced in I Cor 15:1-4. "Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures."

The Holy Spirit repeats the words, "According to the Scriptures" twice. This implies a warning, lest we add to or take from that which the Scriptures set forth as the truth of the Gospel. The Lord made known to Paul, by revelation, the Gospel of His Son. Paul told the Corinthians that he delivered to them only that which he had received. In Galatians, he declares that he did not receive it from man, but that it came to him through the revelation of Jesus Christ. He added nothing to it and he took nothing from it.

We will do well to take heed, lest we add to or take from the Gospel; lest we wrest it to fit our experiences or our own ideas, and not give it forth as recorded in the Scriptures.

"Who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification" Romans 4:25. The far-reaching depth of meaning in the word "Justification" has been so misunderstood that the significance of what it stands for and embraces has been lost. Some teach that Justification is an initiative work of grace which deals only with the outward sins and transgressions, and leaves the sinful nature to be dealt with in another way.

If we inquire prayerfully into the foundational meaning of the word "justify" we find that the literal translation is "to make just, righteous innocent". To be justified is to be released, or made free from. By not losing sight of the significance of this word "justify," we will receive much light upon the passages of Scripture which set forth the act of the "Justification" of man by God. We will begin to comprehend the all-embracing work that God does, when He justifies a man.

God never justifies sin, or the "Adamic nature". From the time of the transgression of Adam and Eve, condemnation rested upon the "old man" and he was sentenced to death. If God could justify him, then Christ's death was in vain; but this could not be, and only through the Work of Christ upon the Cross was a way opened by which the body of sin might be done away, and man could find peace with God. "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" Rom 5:1.

"Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" Romans 8:7. Hence it is clearly manifest that before we can have peace with God, the sinful nature must be done away with, in that it is enmity against God and cannot have peace with God. Thus we see that for God to justify a man means nothing less than the death of the "old man".

"Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should be no longer in bondage to sin" Romans6:6. It was for the very purpose of doing away with the body of sin, with the sinful nature, that our Lord died upon the cross as our substitute. For in Salvation, as in all other things, God always works upon the inside first. He works from the inside out, and never from the outside in. God's work is always an inner working, while man is always doing an outward work.

In the death of His Son as our substitute, God struck at the very root of all sin and evil in humanity, the Adamic nature. He destroyed this Adamic nature, from which all sin and transgression came. In its place, He planted the divine life of His Son, and we became a new creation in Him.

Through the trespass of the one man, Adam, death and condemnation reigned through the whole human race. All were under condemnation; all were under sentence of death; all were sinners and partook of the sinful nature, the nature which was at enmity against God and could not be subject to the law o God. Helpless and lost, man could do nothing. He could not redeem himself, for he was already under condemnation. Only through a sacrifice which was without sin, without spot or blemish, could the human race be redeemed.

"And God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." God put the whole human race in Christ as He hung upon Calvary. When man, by faith, believes that he was crucified in Christ, God makes it real and the sinful nature dies. Not only does the sinful nature, or the old man, die, but the man becomes a new creature. "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" 2 Cor 5:17.

Every man is in one of two conditions. He is either "in" Christ, or he is "out" of Christ. He is either saved, or he is lost. He is either free from condemnation, or he is under condemnation. If a man has been crucified with Christ, he is in Christ and the sinful nature has been done away. In the place of the "sinful nature" which he inherited from Adam, he has been made a partaker of the "divine nature". He is a new creature; old things have passed away and all things have become new. Not SOME things have become new, but ALL things have become new. He is free from condemnation and has peace with God.

He cannot be in Christ and in Adam at the same time. He cannot be in the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness at the same time. He cannot have the Spirit of Christ and the sinful Adamic nature in him at the same time: for condemnation is upon the Adamic nature, but freedom from condemnation is upon the new nature which is from Jesus Christ. A man cannot be under condemnation and free from condemnation at the same time.

What rich Grace we have received. What a goodly foundation has been laid under the path that leads to spiritual maturity. To every honest, humble heart God is ready to open His Word and make known the completeness of this marvelous redemption which we have received.