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Our last two lessons have been upon the Lordship of Christ who is the head of the New Creation. Colossians 1:18 "And He is the head of the body, the Church; who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the pre-eminence."
We have seen that the Lordship of Christ, our head, over sin, disease, Satan, and circumstances, means that we are as free from them as He is. The Lordship of Christ means that sin and disease are no longer problems, no longer issues to the New Creation. There need be no more struggles with sin, no more battles with the adversary — just an acting upon the Word of God.
As we study the history of the Church, we find how little the great spiritual leaders have understood redemption. For a period of a thousand years during the Dark Ages, the revelation of redemption in Christ, independent of works, was lost to the Church. The dark period has had its influence upon the period from the Reformation of 1517 to the present, so that it has been difficult for the Church to see a complete redemption.
By reading any book upon the experience of famous Christians in the past, we can see how the sin and weakness problem majored in their lives, and how little they understood redemption. The message of this revelation of redemption is that God is clearly showing us that the sin problem is settled. The book of Hebrews is His commentary upon this fact. He shows us that once and for all Christ put sin away, and that there need be no more offering for sin. He is satisfied with His work in Christ.
Read and study carefully the following scriptures: Hebrews 9:12, 26; Hebrews 10:10, 14, 18.
The church has struggled with the sin problem in the face of the fact that God declares in His Word that He has settled it, and that there need be no more offering for sin, no more dealing with it.
God shows us that the new creation is freed from even the consciousness of sin. Notice Hebrews 10:1-3 "For the law having a shadow of good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices which they offer continually make perfect them that draw nigh. Else would they not have ceased to be offered? Because the worshippers would have been freed from the consciousness of sin.
Therefore, God was not satisfied (read 5th & 14th verses of Hebrews chapter 10) and sent His son that He ought do what the law and its sacrifice could not do, namely perfect those who offered them. He declares in the 14th verse: "For by one offering hath He perfected forever them that are sanctified." He has perfected the New Creation by a complete eternal redemption.
Hebrews 9:12 "But through His own blood entered once for all into the Holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." Thus, He has freed the New Creation from even the consciousness of sin.
Satan has made the church sin-conscious when it should have been love-conscious. With its mind upon the sin problem, the church has missed the real issues. With a mind ruled by a sin-consciousness the church has failed to have the mind of Christ. Read and study carefully the following scriptures: Hebrews 9:12, 26; Hebrews 10:10, 14, 18 in connection with this truth.
There is only one issue to the New Creation, and that is "Walking in Love." There is only one law that governs the New Creation, and that is the law of love. There is only one commandment given, the commandment of love. "A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:34-35)
The one problem that the New Creation confronts is given to us in Philippians 2:5-6 "Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who existing in the form of God, counted not being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man. He humbled Himself and became obedient even unto death, yea the death on the cross."
He makes known to us here that He expects the New Creation to be the same mind that Christ has. This reveals a complete redemption. The omnipotent God of the universe is saying: "I have so completely redeemed you from sin, weakness, disease, circumstances, and all the workings of the adversary that I expect you to be of the same mind as my Son. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he."
He is saying, "I want you to think as my son thinks, I want you to be like Him. To live as He would live, if He were in your place, to act as He would act, to be what He would be. Have this mind in you that was in Christ Jesus." This is the issue that the New Creation faces. The mind of Christ was the love attitude. We know what love is, through the revelation of His life.
1 John 3:16 "Hereby we know love, because He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."
He existed in the form of God. All that God was, He was. He was the very image of His substance (Hebrews 1:3). He thought as God thought; He lived as God lived; He loved as God loved, He existed in the form of God.
He was so utterly one with God that He said to Philip, "He that has seen me has see the Father." (John 14:9). He could have said, "Philip, during the three years that you have been with me, you have seen the Father, the very substance of His nature. In my actions you have seen the Father’s actions; in my words you have heard the Father’s words; in me you have seen the Father, for we are one."
He existed in the form of God. All the word "God" means, He was to men in His earth life. He lived on an absolute equally with God — our heavenly Father. Yet, He voluntarily humbled Himself to die.
Our minds fail to grasp the word "God" and its meaning, for our minds are the work of His hands. But "the heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork."
We study the universe around us, conscious of the fact that it is "His handiwork." The greatness of the universe is beyond our comprehension. We cannot fathom the distance of the stars that are thousands of light-years away. Light travels 186,000 miles per second, yet some planets move in their orbits so far removed from the earth that an object traveling at the speed of light would require 2,000 years or more to reach the earth from many of the known stars. Out beyond the reach of our telescopes, lie other millions of universes known only to the Creator. We know that the Creator of this handiwork is greater than all the things He has made. We also know that the domain of the invisible atom is a world of design by itself and there is manifested the same invisible order that rules the universe of stars. We know that the Creator is as intelligent as the intelligent order of His creation.
The universe contains personal beings who think, feel, love, suffer, choose, and determine. We know that the creator of personal beings must be as personal as the persons He made.
The word "God" means that to us. All that it means He is. He is a God of love, and love compelled Him to do the following: He emptied Himself of this glory; He took the form of a servant; He was equal with God; He was found in the fashion and likeness of men; He exchanged the form of God for the form of man.
He, the creator, took the form of His own handiwork. He, the creator, emptied and limited Himself to the extent that He lived and walked on His own Creation. He, through whom this vast limitless universe had been created (Hebrews 1:1-2), took up His abode upon this small planet, our earth. Then He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, yea the death of the cross. Then He who was as Holy as God was, as untouched by sin as His father was, became sin!
2 Corinthians 5:21 This divine suffering caused by Christ’s becoming sin is unique. It has no analogy. We cannot measure it by anything with which we are acquainted. The sin of Adam, the sin-nature that passed upon all men, all its horribleness, penetrates the heart of God Himself!
We ask why He did this, why this tremendous sacrifice by one so great? The answer is: the Son of God believed in love. God is love. Herein is His love manifested. Romans 5:6-8, "For while we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely will a righteous man die: yet preadventure for perhaps a good man one would even dare to die. But God shows His own love toward us that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 15:3 "For Christ also pleased not himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproached thee fell upon me."
The reproaches of man who had reproached God fell upon Jesus. The sins of man who had sinned against God fell upon Jesus. The judgment of man fell upon Jesus. The diseases, the weaknesses of man fell upon Jesus.
Herein is the love manifested. The Son of God faced the problem of sin, its entrance into the world through Adam's crime of high treason, and sin's reign over the human race.
He knew that by the sacrifice of Himself that He could put it away. He knew He could suffer in man's stead. He knew that He could bring Satan to naught on behalf of man. He believed in love and He obeyed the dictates of love. He also knew love's reward. He knew the joy set before Him when love had triumphed. He knew the harvest that love would reap. He knew that love would conquer.
Now the problem, the issue that the New Creation faces, is the same problem that Christ faced. The man who has become a new Creation in Christ, faces the need of spiritually-dead man. It is not given to him to die for them as Christ did, but his place is as essential as was Christ’s. Unto the New Creation is given the message of redemption to be given to humanity.
Study carefully 2 Corinthians 5:18-19. "But all things are of God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave unto us the ministry of reconciliation, to know that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not reckoning unto them their trespasses, and having committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation, we are ambassadors therefore on behalf of Christ."
Christ’s work was to provide the reconciliation between God and man. Colossians 1:20 states "And through Him to reconcile all things unto Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him I say, whether things upon the earth or things in Heaven." Also in Colossians 1:21-22 "Yet now has He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death to present you holy and without blemish and unreprovable before Him."
Ephesians 2:11-22 also shows us His reconciliation for God and man. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself; He has committed unto us — the new man in Christ, the message of reconciliation.
Christ believed in love and did His part. Seemingly redemption has failed. How few have been reached with the message of reconciliation. Yet God has not failed; Christ has not failed. It is the body of Christ that has failed to give the message of redemption to humanity. If the body of Christ had been of the same mind as Christ, the world’s history would have been different.
Paul saw the real issue which the New Creation faces. He gives it to us in 2 Corinthians 5:13-14 "For whether we are beside ourselves it is unto God; or whether we are of sober mind it is unto you. For the love of Christ constrains us for thus we judge, that one died for all — therefore all died."
Paul believed in love to the extent, that he was believed to be beside himself. Paul’s answer was "The love of Christ has taken hold of my heart," and "I realize that Christ’s death was every man’s death." The same love that caused Christ to die for man had constrained Paul’s heart and was causing him to live for them. The attitude of love is this: "I love as though I had died for them."
Love will make us ambassadors that are anxious to win as though we had died to provide the reconciliation. Paul had caught this vision of love. The great Roman Empire was evangelized largely through his efforts. Paul believed in love, so in to the pagan world he went as Christ’s ambassador, fully conscious that his message would be an offense to the Jew, foolishness to the Greek, and a jest to the Roman. Yet he knew that only the message of reconciliation in Christ would meet man’s need.
Love’s testimony is the following: "I will most gladly spend and be spent for soul." (2 Corinthians 13:15) God is saying, "I want you to love as my son loved, for we are one. My nature is yours. My love is yours." He is asking us to yield to the Lordship of His love within us. Romans 6:5 "Because the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts, through the Holy Spirit that is given to us."
Ephesians 3:16-19 is ours, "That He would grant you according to the riches of His glory that ye may be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inward man; that Christ may dwell in you hearts through faith to the end that you may be rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God."
He fills us with His fullness that we might love as He loves. The attitude of love is given to us in Romans 15:1-3, "Now we that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves. Let each one please his neighbor for that which is good unto edifying. For Christ also pleased not Himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproached thee fell upon me."
Love bears the weaknesses of the weak as though it were its own infirmity. Christ did not please Himself, but took over the sins, diseases, and judgment of others. Love doesn’t criticize or condemn, but love will cause the New Creatures in Christ to pray for the one ruled by sin, as though he had been made sin for that one. Love will cause us to pray for the sick as though we were the ones who had born their diseases and carried their pains. To love is to have the mind of Christ. The new man in Christ, taking Christ’s place here on earth, has a debt of love to pay to humanity. Romans 13:8 "Owe no man anything save to love one another." This is the issue that the New Creation faces. A study of the Bible in the light of our redemption in Christ would not be complete without a study of 1 Corinthians 13, in which we have a study in love. We shall study it in our next lesson.