PART 1 \A Call to holiness From the Epistle to the Hebrews Introduction As we carefully read through the Epistle to the Hebrews we would soon find that our writer’s main objective and theme is a serious and urgent call unto holiness, like most other Epistels. But first, to understand the content to follow, it is imperative that we also understand the Gospel and what is meant by the term. Although we have but one Gospel; God became a man in the Person of Jesus Christ, lived a sinless and perfect live and died for our sin on Calvary, rose again on the third day, ascended to heaven where He is sitting at the right hand of the Almighty God our Father ever interceding for us. That is the Gospel in a nutshell, respectfully said, but even though it is one Gospel we certainly do have various aspects of that same Gospel. For instance, sometimes the writers of the Holy Scriptures will talk about the Gospel of peace (Ephesians 6:15), at other times the Gospel of the Kingdom will be mentioned (Matthew 9:35), the Psalmist called it the Gospel (good tidings) of His salvation (Psalm 96:2) and Paul even called it my Gospel (Romans 2:16). Nevertheless it is still one Gospel, but various aspects of the Gospel are stressed through the different names. According to the best of my knowledge and believe, doctrinally speaking, we could also divide the Gospel into four main aspects, as it was clearly so taught by our Messiah, Jesus THE Christ, as well as by His disciples inspired by the very Spirit of God, who has written the different books of the New Testament. 1. The Gospel of Justification which will focus on Jesus Christ as our Saviour. This will be the teaching of His first coming and His preaching of repentance from a sinful live or from dead works, and the Good news of Salvation, that we could be forgiven for our sins through the Blood atonement of Jesus and could be born again by the Spirit of God through Jesus Christ our Lord and be set free from the power of sin. Jesus Crucified for our transgressions. 2. The Gospel of Sanctification and of Holiness which will focus on Christ Jesus as our Sanctifier. This will then be the teaching of the coming of the Holy Spirit to empower God’s children and the preaching of self denial, complete surrender, living a crucified live and the Good news of Sanctification, to be able to live a Spirit filled live of victory through Christ Jesus our Lord by the powerful working of His Spirit. That we could be cleansed from all sin, even from the very principle of sin which is worldliness and carnality. The teaching which some have called perfect love, others called it Christian perfection, the Spirit filled live, the Gospel of the Comforter and so forth. Jesus Crucified for our sanctification. 3. The Gospel of Glorification or final redemption, which will focus on Jesus Christ our coming King. This will be the teaching of Christ’s second coming as King and His preaching of perseverance, patience and of being alert at all times lest ye be mislead and of a watchful prayer live and the Good news of our coming adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies (Romans 8:23); that soon we will see Christ as He is for we will be the same because these earthen vessels will be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye and we will receive glorified bodies. Often the Gospel would also be called the Gospel of His return or of His second coming. Jesus Crucified for our glorification. 4. The Gospel of the gifts and calling of our Lord Jesus Christ which will focus on Jesus as our Healer, Teacher, Prophet, Helper, Leader and so forth. The teaching of the gifts of the Spirit and their purpose in our calling to minister to fallen man in his desperate state of poverty, brokenness, sickness, loneliness and most of all sinfulness and the Good news of Him who brings the Gospel of peace, and of Him who is a Father to the fatherless, a Friend of the lonely, a Healer of the sick, a Helper to them which are in need and a Provider to them which have not. The first tree legs of the Gospel focuses on our heavenly calling, to be made right with God spiritually in order to be able to inherit the Kingdom of God, to be made holy so that we could be able to keep right with God in order to inherit the Kingdom of God, and finally to be made perfect bodily so that we could forever live with God in heaven. The fourth leg focuses on our earthly calling to minister to each other and to the fallen world, which is in fact an extension of our call to holiness, the Gospel of Sanctification. Lest any man have met Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit as the Great Healer and believe Him to be THE Healer can be in healing Ministry and the same could be said of any man who have not yet met Jesus as the Prince of peace would not be able to be in the ministry of the Gospel of peace and likewise if one have never met Jesus as his Teacher he would have no place in the teaching ministry. Much more could be said about this fourth leg but should be left for another topic. Many, I believe, has mistaken this fourth leg as being only about Christ as Healer which I believe to be in error for then each of the other gifts of the Spirit should also be considered and preached with equally as much emphasis as that of healing. Our main focus should always be on the three most important aspects of the Gospel; The Gospel of justification, the Gospel of Sanctification and the Gospel of Glorification, with due consideration to all of them and a good balance, and the fourth leg as the proof and practice of our faith. The reason though for this explanation of the Gospel is that as we continue to read through the Epistle to the Hebrews we should remember that it was written to the believing Jews who already heard and accepted the Gospel massage. Therefore if the writer again urges them to consider the Gospel massage and to believe it, he might just be dealing with a different aspect of the Gospel but it will still be called the Gospel. We have to look at the text, co-text and the context to understand what is meant by the Gospel. With this in view lets then carefully study the massage of the Gospel of Sanctification as presented by the Hebrews writer. Greetings in Christ
Posted on: Thu, 23 Jan 2014 04:36:24 +0000
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