The center of Paul’s gospel is Romans chapter 8. Here he unveils the dispensing of the Triune God as life into the tripartite man. This is the focus of God’s economy: God coming into us to be our life so that we may be His corporate expression. This is experiential. The law of the Spirit of life (v. 2) is the Triune God operating in us. He first makes our spirit life (v. 10) then spreads to make our mind life (v. 6), then to impart life to our mortal body (v. 11) and to enable us to put to death all our natural living (v. 13). By this spreading of life within, we mature from children (v. 16) to sons (read more in 8:14, note 3). The goal of this expanding dispensation is our conformation to the image of God’s firstborn Son (v. 29). Lord, daily spread Yourself in our entire being until we fully express You. [guest post as the last part of the series, The Four Great Pillars in the Lord’s Recovery, ITERO 2011]
The Center of Paul’s Gospel – Romans chapter 8, God’s dispensing, and the sonship
the gospel is the answer and the key to the five main mysteries in the universe
The Bible unveils the keys to the mystery of God, man, the universe, the church, and the future. God is a mystery – no one has ever seen or touched God, but He exists and He is a mystery to man. The universe is also a mystery – immeasurable, uncomprehensible. Man is a mystery both to himself and to others! The church is a mystery – especially in its definition and its purpose. Also, our future is a mystery, especially the future of the mankind. The Bible reveals these mysteries, and Romans 8 especially unveils and explains these mysteries! [continue reading this portion online + add your comment as a strengthening]
Paul’s gospel is a gospel of sonship – God’s intention is to bring many sons into glory
Saints, it is enough! We should no longer preach the poor gospel telling people that “God doesn’t want them to go to hell but to go to heaven if they believe in Jesus”! We need to preach the gospel by speaking the truth revealed in the gospel of God in Romans! Tell people that once they believe in the Lord, their sins will be forgiven and they will be redeemed and justified by God, reconciled to God, and accepted by God! Let us speak the high and complete gospel! [continue reading this portion online + add your own comment / portion]
Paul’s gospel includes the entire book of Romans, from God’s condemnation to the local churches
The gospel of God – which is the gospel of Paul as seen in the book of Romans – concerns not an outward physical Christ living among men but Christ as the Spirit living within the believers after His resurrection. This is a higher and more subjective gospel than what is presented in the Gospels. Christ is now the life-giving Spirit living in our spirit, making our spirit life! When we set our mind on the spirit, our soul becomes life (Rom. 8:6). Eventually, even our physical body will be filled and saturated with the divine life (Rom. 8:16). This is the gospel! [continue reading this portion online]
Paul’s gospel is the complete gospel, including all the aspects of the four gospels
Praise the Lord, the gospel is not about an outward historical Christ but it concerns the Triune God being processed and consummated through Christ’s incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, to become the life-giving, all-inclusive, compounded, indwelling Spirit who mingles Himself with our spirit to accomplish in us God’s purpose in creating man. This is what Paul’s gospel reveals, and his Epistles form the heart of the divine revelation in the New Testament, the center of the New Testament. [continue reading this portion of enjoyment online + add your comment to it]
man cannot be justified out of works of law but out of faith in Christ, in the organic union!
It is so easy to have a low appreciation and view of the truth of the gospel in its basic principle of the justification by faith. We are fallen in our concept, our way of thinking, even in this respect. We need to have an uplifted view of justification by faith – to be justified by faith in Christ, we need to believe into the Lord Jesus out of an appreciation of His preciousness! The speaking of the gospel brings us into a sweet appreciation of the Lord, and we believe into Him! When we call on His name, we are regenerated and we are organically one with Him! In this organic union, God MUST reckon Christ as our righteousness! [continue reading online + comment with your enjoyment of today’s morning revival]
the real gospel preaching is the speaking of the truth (see: blood and water, the double cure!)
Our daily and continual constitution with the truth and learning the truth by reading the Bible, enjoying the footnotes, reading the life-studies and the ministry books, etc will put a rich deposit of the divine truths into our being. Then, when we open our mouth to speak, we will tell others concerning the Triune God – the Father, the Son, and the Spirit – who is dispensing Himself into us – sinful, tripartite men – so that our sins may be forgiven and that we may receive God’s life and become sons of God who are being transformed to be the same as Christ is! Praise the Lord! [continue reading this portion online]
