Taken from 'The True Power of Christianity':
THE TRUE GOSPEL- Chapter Six
The gospel message offers selfish people {sinners} an opportunity to be transformed into the nature of the Son of God. We are not offering mere words to be believed, but a real source of power to be totally transformed. “For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power.” (1 Cor. 4:20) Offering anything less than the Son’s life of divine love is not the true gospel.
This is the singular glory of the full gospel message. The Son of God has come to recover a bad nature from her awful fall and to remake man into His spiritual image. Our Lord has given everyone an opportunity to “put on the new man, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Eph. 4:24) Yes, we can now become like Him in His nature of love. “Love has been perfected among us in this...because as He is, so are we in this world.” (1 John 4:17)
When Christians become living witnesses to our Lord’s Kingdom-life of love and begin displaying the light of this salvation message, the world begins to see not only that there is a King in heaven, not only that there is a loving Father in heaven who will care for them, but more significantly, that there is a Savior who can save men from their fallen nature.
Each one of us therefore needs to become a living witness of our Lord’s Kingdom-life. We all need to become ambassadors who have been enabled to show forth the light of His life from heaven.
Is this not the testimony that the world needs to hear? There are few things in religion which men doubt more than whether it is possible for them, as individuals, to escape from their sinful nature. It is not apologetics that men need the most. Nothing can more effectively convince an unbelieving heart that Jesus Christ is the one true Savior of the world than to see weak and self- centered men being changed into the Son’s spiritual nature and walking “just as He walked.” (1 John 2:6)
Seeing a completely transformed nature says to them, “There is a Savior who has power on earth to save from sin.” Of all the Christian evidences, this transformation into the Son’s life of love is the one real proof that our Savior is indeed risen from the grave and that He now has all power and authority in heaven and on earth. There is no greater evidence than to see Christ’s prophetic words fulfilled: “...they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me...” (John 17:23)
While there will always be false converts and tares among the wheat, along with Christians still seeking to be delivered from their carnal nature, the transformation that took place in the lives of these early believers, outshines everything else. A large multitude of people had truly lost their old life and were walking in the Son’s life of love. They gave of themselves with a sacrificial love that is not normal in this fallen and self-centered world. They were leading such lives that “Both the One who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.” (Heb. 2:11 NIV)
When people have their emotions worked up by human motivational techniques, they can display a self-giving life for a while. But a close examination of their works will show how their nature has basically remained selfish. The church still has people like Ananias and Sapphira in her midst. They want to make everyone think they are generous in their giving, but their heart is still centered on their own personal lives. They will not have the capacity to maintain an unbroken life of sacrificial giving for long. Their natural tendency to both fall into selfish sins and to look for happiness in this world will inevitably expose the remains of their self-centered nature.
Our Lord’s first disciples, however, once they were baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire, were continually united with our Lord’s life of self-sacrificing and self-denying love. While their knowledge of God’s purposes was not always complete, they were enabled to continually lay down their lives for their Lord. The deep transformation that took place in their lives shows that it reached the bottom of their heart and changed their very nature. As Peter himself later explained, the power from on high had “purified their hearts.” (Acts 15:8-9)
It is not a natural change that turns a man from his own ways, turns him against his own interests, and leads him to place all that he holds dear in continual jeopardy, purely for the sake of goodness. It is a life that would be too laborious to maintain for long if the heart was not first united “as one” with God’s life of love. There is simply insufficient strength in human effort to fight against the self-centered nature for long.
To make the heart pure requires an act of God’s creative power. When David said, “Create in me a pure heart” (Ps. 51:10 NIV), the word he used for “create” is one that suggests the same creative power that God used to make the heavens and the earth. David did not merely want some help in being good. He knew there was only one thing that would enable him to be delivered from his self-centered condition. He needed to have a heart that was newly created in God’s image. And, of course, he knew that God possesses this kind of power. “For with God nothing will be impossible.” (Luke 1:37) Unfortunately for David, people in his age were not permitted to enter into a real participation with God in His divine nature. (Heb. 11:39-40) The promise was not available until this New Testament age of fulfillment.
The most dangerous perversion ever introduced to the church was the idea that man could not be saved from his sinful nature until after the soul leaves the body. While our mortal bodies will remain weak and subject to the curse, God can just as easily give His children a holy and loving heart in this world as He can do it in the world to come. Nothing in this cursed world prevents God from using His power to create pure hearts in His children of faith, except for the sin of unbelief.
God has predestined His children to be conformed to the Son’s spiritual image in this world. (Rom. 8:29; 1 John 4:17) This is the message of the true gospel. Let us turn from the perversion that teaches people they cannot become a holy community of saints who are perfected in love until they physically die and go to heaven.
The church is made up of individual members. Each individual will therefore be responsible for entering into the Lord’s Kingdom-life of divine love. The spotless church that Jesus Christ will one day present to Himself will be made up of those who have either permitted Him to establish His Kingdom-life within their hearts in this world, or are seeking it with their whole heart.
Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her...that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that she should be holy and without blemish. (Eph. 5:25, 27)
Pursue...holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God... (Heb. 12:14-15)
Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless. (2 Pet. 3:14)
Satan is not concerned about a religion that keeps turning over the sub-soil but never produces the fruit of pure love. The “evil one” loves to use the tilled soil that self-centered Christians keep turning over. He knows that those who go on living by the flesh will die. (Rom. 8:13) He also takes their self-produced righteousness and turns it into thorns and briars. He knows that his kingdom of darkness, a place where people still basically live for themselves, will not be disturbed by carnal Christians.
In contrast, the true Christian faith will produce the “light of life” from heaven. When the real gospel message is preached, and the children of perfect love are being raised up by the power of God, this heavenly fruit will begin to renew the face of an earth that was made desolate by the introduction of Satan’s self-seeking and self-serving nature.
What kind of fruit is displayed in a Spirit-filled life? Paul says, “The fruit of the Spirit is {divine} love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Gal. 5:22-23 NIV) This fruit forms a single nature that flows like an endless river from the lives of Christians who are currently filled with the Holy Spirit.
The character of the Christian church as a whole, must always be ruled by the character of individual Christians. When individual Christians are not displaying the spiritual nature of Jesus Christ, then the church cannot manifest the light of His life in this world.
Since everything depends on the relationship that each individual soul has with God, everyone will be individually accountable to God for not entering into a relationship with Christ that permits Him to display His “light of life” in this world. In other words, no one should be waiting for a church-wide revival in order to be perfected in love. If you are waiting for the church as a whole to enter into the Lord’s Kingdom-life of love, you may never have an opportunity to stand with boldness before your Maker on the Day of Judgment.
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; (Phil. 2:12 Emphasis added) God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. (1 John 4:16-17)
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