The Word of Life - Part One

                                                      The Word of Life

Part One

I John 1:1

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;”

“The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations,” (Psalm 33:11). The counsel of the Lord, the thoughts of his heart: are eternal as is God himself, and as they are eternal, they must also be immutable, and they are immutable because they are perfect. “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect,” (Matthew 5:48). The thoughts of the heart of God are perfectly conformed to every attribute of God and are expressed in and by the Word of God; (that is the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ) who is the brightness of the glory of God, (Hebrews 1:3). “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,” (II Corinthians 4:6).

God hath shined in the hearts of the regenerate, the brightness of his glory in the preached gospel of Jesus Christ; to give the knowledge of God, and that is to us eternal life. “And this is eternal life, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent,” (John 17:3). “And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life,” (I John 5:20). This shining in our heart the knowledge of the glory of God, is eternal life, it is the act of regeneration, or the new birth, it is of the Holy Ghost; “and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit,” (John 3:6). “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever,” (I Peter 1:23). “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God,” (Matthew 4:4). “It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life,” (John 6:63) “Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.” (Acts 5:20). “Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain neither labored in vain.” (Philippians 2:16) “Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures,” (James 1:18).

Now we “beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord,” (II Corinthians 3:18). This being changed into the same image, is the effect of the operation of the Holy Ghost in the new heart in the believer, for “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write them in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord: for they shall all know me, (which is eternal life, John 17:3) from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more,” (Jeremiah 31:33-34).  Now it is God; “(9) Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, (10) But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,” (II Timothy 1:9-10).

A.J.Ison

The Word of Life - Part Two

The Word of Life

 Part Two

I John 1:1

            In part one; the way in which God gives us eternal life was stated, and that is his shining in our hearts the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, (II Corinthians 4:6). “In him was life; and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). Our Lord Jesus is a vital, vivifying, and enlivening light and therefore is capable of being the source of life to others (Matthew Poole). Our Lord is the fountain or origin of life; “For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will,” (John 5:21); “For as the Father has life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man,” (John 5:26) and our Lord said, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die” (John 11:25, 26); and again “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me,” (John 14:6). Also it is written; “And this is the record, (see verse ten) that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son,” (I John 5:11).

            Now since the word, may signify the gospel; as in I John 2:5; and Philippians 2:16: we may understand how God doth shine in our hearts the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ; through the preaching of the gospel. “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent?” (Romans 10:13-15). So that our Savior Jesus Christ, “hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:” (II Timothy 1:10), that is, for the Children of God.

            John begins his first general epistle with “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the word of life:” Now “the Word of life” which is that infinite, eternal, perfect Spirit, was manifested; and took to himself a body that was prepared for him, (Hebrews 10:5). The Son of God in his essential essence is perfect, pure, and eternal Spirit; as omnipotent God; he took the body of flesh into union with His Eternal Person and became the only visible Jehovah; as such he might be heard with natural ears, seen with natural eyes, handled by the Apostles; in order that they might give their positive testimony of the perfections of His Person. In that body Christ Jesus lived, died, and rose again from the dead, as the propitiation (satisfaction to God’s law and justice) for the sin of the elect.  Every opportunity was given the Apostles to thoroughly examine the risen Lord, they saw Him, heard Him, looked upon Him with their faculties and reason in order to prove to themselves that what they saw, heard, and felt was not a dilution, but the very same Person that they had witnessed hanging on the tree. The risen Lord invited them to examine the wounds in his hands and feet, (Luke 24:39; John 20:25).

            All this was done so that we may know that Christ is indeed risen from the dead, and has become the first fruits of them that slept. The acceptance of the first fruit is the pledge of the resurrection and acceptance of all who are Christ’s. In his death Christ Jesus put away the sin of all His chosen people, in His resurrection He demonstrated the fact that our sins are no more. As it is written of Christ “Who was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification. (Romans 4:25).

A.J.Ison 

The Promise of God

The Promise of God

“I will” and “Ye shall”

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Ezekiel 36:24-38

            Concerning the children of men and their salvation from sin and death; God has promised to do certain things for some persons. “Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of world,” (Acts 15:18). Those things that God has from eternity determined to do, are surely the things that he has promised to do.

First: “I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel,” (Jeremiah 31:31). God promised a new covenant, for the house of Israel, that is of course “the Israel of God,” (Galatians 6:16) or the church of his elect, the spiritual seed of Abraham (Hebrews 2:16; Romans 2:28, 29; Isaiah 11:10). The reason for a new covenant is that the children of men could not meet the requirements of the old covenant, because it required perfect obedience. The old covenant is the Old Testament Law, or the Law as given to Moses at Mount Sinai, called (by some) the moral law. Because the children of men are sinners by birth, practice, and choice; they have neither the ability nor the desire to obey the law of God, therefore the law can only sentence to death eternal, for “the wages of sin is death,” (Romans 6:23). And so “finding fault with them” (Hebrews 8:8). God promised a new covenant.

Now the New Testament or the Everlasting Covenant of Grace is conditioned on the finished work of Jesus Christ who is the surety of the New Testament (Hebrews 7:22). Therefore when Christ Jesus finished the work committed to his trust by the Father, all the persons interested in that covenant were actually redeemed, they had been virtually so from everlasting; and since they were and are redeemed they must be (at the time appointed or predestinated) regenerated by the Holy Spirit. The law is “weak through the flesh” (Romans 8:3) but the law is only weak as an instrument of justification, but is a mighty instrument to condemnation, (II Corinthians 3:9) and it is an instrument of condemnation in order to show men their inability to be justified by their own work or merit.

Stated simply; the Old Testament covenant of works could not bring the children of God before him in perfection; which is that condition, that is required. “For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God” (Hebrews 7:19). Therefore God provided another covenant which could and did justify his children and bring them before him in perfection; “For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14). Jesus Christ perfected the whole and entire election of grace by his one offering; that is, he perfected in the sight of God the entire church of God, whether male or female, bond or free, of what ever nation or class, or any other distinction. This course of bringing salvation by Jesus Christ in the New Testament or covenant is not reactionary but is that course settled on by the three persons of the Godhead from everlasting.

Second: “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts,” (Jeremiah 31:33) This is the same promise that is given in Ezekiel 36:26, 27 “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh, (27) And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. See also Jeremiah 32:39. The fulfillment of this promise is the operation of the Spirit of God on the hearts of men and is called, Sanctification of the Spirit, (I Peter 1:2 and II Thessalonians 2:13) it is the new birth and “the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost” (Titus 3:5). Our Lord Jesus said “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7) and this is that work of grace, by the Spirit of God, on the souls of men that takes away the hard and stony heart and gives a new heart, or stated in another way; it replaces the rebellious heart, which is the natural heart, (Romans 8:7) with a willing heart, which is the gift of God, (Psalm 110:3; Ephesians 2:8, 9; Philippians 2:13;1:29; John 3:8; 1:13; Romans 9:16) Therefore the call of the gospel is “whosoever will” anyone who is willing may come to Christ for life eternal, the requirement is a willing heart. A willing heart may be manifested by honest desire to be accepted of God, and a willingness to come to God in his way. This willingness of heart is the gift and operation of God upon the hearts of men and is life from the dead (Ephesians 2:1).

Third: “Ye shall keep my judgments and do them” (Ezekiel 36:27) this keeping the judgments of God and doing them is the effect of the (before mentioned) operations of the Spirit of God. The cause is the effectual working of the Spirit of God (I Thessalonians 2:13; Ephesians 3:7; 4:16), the effect is a willing heart, and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as the only Savior of any of the sons of men and the all sufficient Savior of all who “must be saved” (Acts 4:12).