The Living Epistle of Christ

 

 

The Living Epistle of Christ

 

II Corinthians 3: 2-3

 

Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

 

Ye are our epistle written in our hearts. The words of our Lord Jesus Christ had been written on the hearts of the apostles in their regeneration. The words of Christ which were written on the hearts of the apostles had become the words which they had preached. Those words reveal the gospel in their hearts, the apostle Paul called it my gospel: “In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel” (Romans 2:16; see Romans 16:25; II Timothy 2:8).

 

The word of the apostles which they had preached was the gospel truth concerning Jesus Christ written on their hearts. In the prayer of Christ our Great High Priest just before His arrest in the garden of gethsemane, he uttered these words; “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word” (John 17:20). In these words our Great High Priest prayed that the word of truth in the hearts of the apostles should be written on the hearts of the children of God through their word, or their preaching. It is the office of God the Holy Ghost to transcribe from faith to faith (Romans 1:17) or from heart to heart, the gospel of Jesus Christ. The words that Christ Jesus speaks to His children of the covenant by the power of the Holy Ghost using the instrumentality of preaching bring new life to the hearers, as it is written: “the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). And it is written: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live” (John 5:24-25). This is the spiritual resurrection of the spiritual dead.  Sinners are raised from spiritual death in themselves to eternal life in Jesus Christ by the hearing of the gospel which is the word of life (Philippians 2:16).

 

Our Lord Jesus Christ gives eternal life to the children of the covenant of God by the preaching of the gospel as it is made effectual by the power of the Holy Ghost. As it is written: “And you hath he quickened, (made alive, writer)  who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:1-6).

 

Those who are made to live by the word of God, have that word written on their heart. The word of life is passed from faith to faith, from the written word to the heart of the preacher, and preached by the anointing of the Holy Ghost, and written on the heart of those hearers to whom He makes it effectual. As it is written: “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God” (I Corinthians 1:21-24). And again it is written: “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. 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? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:10-17).

 

The word of God sown in the heart by the Holy Ghost through the preaching of the gospel is the seed that brings offspring like unto itself, For it is written: “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” (I Peter 1:23). The same truth is declared in the epistle of James: “Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures” (James 1:18). “Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:20).

 

In every birth, something is born. And that which is “born of the Spirit is spirit” as it is written: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:8). That which is born of the Spirit in the birth from above has the law of God written on the heart. This law written on the heart is the new principle of spiritual life. It is the life that God hath given unto us. It is eternal life and it is the life that is in Jesus Christ, as it is written: “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son” (I John 5:11). Our Lord Jesus said “I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish” (John10:28). Every life has its nature, its likes and dislikes, its predispositions, its attractions, and repulsions. So it is with the new life that is in the believer. The believers mind is no more enmity against God, but is now desirous of complete subjection to the will of God. However the fleshly nature is still with him, sin is still in the flesh (I John 1:8) and in its rebellion would resist the will of God. So that as the apostle Paul wrote “Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members” (Romans 7:17-23).

 

Sin is in the members of the children of God and the law of God is in their hearts. Therefore there is a war going on in each believer continually. Sin would rule as in the unregenerate days of life, but the new life is dominate, so that the walk is seasoned with the grace of the covenant of God as believers walk in the Spirit, for it is written: “ This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would” (Galatians 5:16-17). With the law of God written on the heart of the believer he cannot fulfill the desires of the flesh with pleasure as was the case in his unregenerate state. On the other hand with sin in his members the believer cannot fulfill the desire for complete conformity to the image of Christ because of sin that is in his members, therefore the war of sin, and real desire after holiness in life and walk are always in opposition the one to the other.

 

The epistle of Christ written on the heart of the believer separates him from the world. His real desire is to love and worship God as he should. His desire is to conform to the image of Christ in all things. The world having no God-ward inclinations runs on swiftly after the gratification of the lusts of the flesh until hampered by the laws of man or of nature. But the child of God has a higher law in his heart, the epistle of Christ written on the heart, so that although first impulses may lean toward that which is evil, the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2) restrains and corrects his motive so that he is content, desirous, and determined to walk after the Spirit of the living God. “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death” (Romans 7:24)? Thank God that Jesus Christ has finished that deliverance.

 

AJ Ison

 

See the writers blog at www.hebrews915.blogspot.com hear the true gospel of Jesus Christ preached at www.13thstbaptist.org webcasting live at listed service times.