BLESSED WITH ALL SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." (Ephesians 1:3)
Without Christ men are lost. Though they may seek salvation elsewhere, they will not find it wherever they look. There is no salvation outside the Lord Jesus.
“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
Unless we encounter the Person of Christ in this life, we are without hope in the next. Unless we have a soul knowledge of the Saviour, salvation is still beyond us. We need to be very clear: it is not enough simply to know or even to believe the truth of the Gospel. Something more than a simple mental acceptance of the truth of the Gospel is required. It must reach our hearts and extend to our whole being.
Knowing the Gospel can lead to salvation, make us alive; but it can also condemn us, kill us, and send us to eternal loss should its reality not reach our hearts. Remember, there is no place outside heaven itself filled with more knowledge of the truth than in hell: “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.” (James 2:19).
A PERFECT SALVATION, A PERFECT REVELATION OF SALVATION
All that we need to be saved God has revealed in His Son so that no further revelation than Christ Himself is needed. He is the revealed Word of God incarnate.
“God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things.” (Hebrews 1:1-2)
God’s revelation in Christ is complete in itself. Equally, the revelation of Christ in His written Word will be identical. Nothing can be added to Christ and what he has accomplished for us sinners. To deny, dilute or add anything to the Scriptures, is to do the same to the Person and work of Christ. If we refuse the adequacy of the written Word, we also refuse that of the living Word, of the Lord Jesus Himself. It amounts to a refusal of His Person and His completed work. There is no difference; it is precisely the same. His is a finished work and His Word a completed revelation. Nothing more remains to be done, so God needs to say nothing more than He has already said.
The Scriptures and the Lord
Bear one tremendous Name.
The Written and the Incarnate Word,
In all things are the same.
(Joseph Hart, 1712-68)
God has given His only begotten Son, to humble Himself and to allow Himself to be taken and crucified to save His people.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
What more than that do we expect of God? What more must God do more in demonstration of His love than to give His Son?
"He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32)
The Lord Jesus ascended into heaven and today sits at the right hand of God the Father. He is not physically available to us; we cannot yet see Him with our physical eyes. Jesus said to the disciple Thomas: “because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” (John 20:29)
The revelation that we do have to hand is the inscripturated Word of God. God has given us the Scriptures that we might find Christ and be saved from eternal loss. The entire revelation of the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation speaks to us of Christ. To miss this is to fail even to begin to understand what Scripture is about.
Christ has nothing more to do to obtain salvation for His own and everything we need comes from His finished work. Were the work of Christ still ongoing, we would need yet further revelation. As the work of Christ is completed and all that we need to know is contained in Scripture, there is no further need of additional revelation as there is nothing more to be revealed.
It being so that the Christ has finished His work, it remains that the revelation of God cannot now be amplified or increased. What God has revealed can only be made clear though the witness of the apostles and the preaching to all nations. Revelation is now complete and ready to be shared with all mankind. As there is nothing to be added to the work of Christ, so there is nothing needed to be added to His Word.
There is one objective, verbal, authoritative final revelation of Christ today on earth, one direct line, one voice from heaven: the inspired Scriptures, preserved perfectly by God, to be illuminated to our hearts and minds by the Holy Spirit. In the pages of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments we have the infallible, inspired, revelation of God, all that we need to interpret everything we encounter. The Bible is an ‘oracular’ book, when it speaks, God speaks. We can, we must, trust every word. As the Word of the living God, it demands we submit.
"I do not understand that loyalty to Christ which is accompanied by indifference to His words. How can we reverence His person, if His own words and those of His apostles are treated with disrespect?"(C.H. Spurgeon)
What else is there to be said about a finished work?
These eyes do not see our Saviour, nor these ears hear His voice. How then can we who are on earth have access to God’s final and perfect Word, when He is no longer on earth? We need an authoritative Word. Where shall we find a lamp to our feet and a light unto our path? There is one objective, verbal, authoritative revelation of Christ today on earth, one direct line, one voice from heaven: the inspired Scriptures, preserved perfectly by God, and illuminated to our hearts and minds by the Holy Spirit. With this last inscripturation, revelation is completed. Men may cry to heaven for a word from God, they will hear nothing, and see nothing. The work of Christ is complete, God has nothing more to say than He has said in Christ and this we find infallibly recorded in the Bible. How can we possibly think we need more than is to be found in Christ, who is "made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption" (1 Corinthians 1:30)? Shall we exhaust the riches in Christ and then still ask for more?
"For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe." (1 Thessalonians 2:13)
Any spurious ‘revelation’ placed alongside God’s Word actually deprives it of its final authority in the same way as does tradition and the ‘living voice of Christ’ in the church of Rome. The ‘perpetual sacrifice’ of the Roman Mass does despite to the redemptive work of Christ, suggesting as it does that what He did at Calvary is not completed but continuing. A continuing revelation suggests a continuing sacrifice. As He was about to face the cross Jesus breathed this prayer to His Father: “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.”(John 17:4). All that we will ever need is to be found in the Lord Jesus and will issue from His once-for-all-time accomplished work of redemption. Only were the redemptive work of Christ still ongoing would we need further information, further revelation. We have in Scripture a once-for-all time written revelation of a complete and once-for-all time perfect salvation. The whole of Scripture, Old and New Testaments, is about Christ. All that we need to know about Christ has been revealed in the inspired Word of God. Anything additional coming from anywhere else will be spurious and false.
What we are being told is that the Word of God must have something added to it. What is really happening is that men are heaping their own inventions upon what God has given us in Christ. The Scriptures say, "God imputeth righteousness without works" (Romans 4:6). Should our faith embrace Christ plus anything, then we remain lost sinners. There is nothing to be added to what Christ has done on our behalf, there is nothing new to be added to what God has said about what Christ has done.
Martin Luther said that he would rather obey than work miracles. Longing for more than is found in Scriptures is not a sign of spirituality and faith, but of apostasy and unbelief. This is as true of those who demand miracles, signs and wonders as it is of those who expect God to somehow step into our age and do something more than is to be found in the Gospel given in Scripture. There is nothing we can possibly need that is not already ours in Christ.
It is not surprising that Protestant charismatics should link arms with their Roman ‘brethren’ for both recognise the authority of ongoing extra-biblical revelation. The collateral to the authority in the Roman Catholic church of an apostolic succession is in modern Pentecostal churches the continuance in this day of ‘apostolic gifts’, gifts that in fact passed away with the apostles. These so-called charismatic ‘gifts’ not only make continued revelation possible but give it apostolic authority. There is no way round this conclusion, despite protestations to the contrary by more moderate Pentecostals. The authority of Rome is an ‘apostolic’ office, whilst ‘apostolic’ gifts constitute the authority of pentecostalism and the charismatic movement. The only apostolic ‘succession’ recognised by true believers is the succession of apostolic teaching perfectly preserved for us by God in the Scriptures. A genuine gathering of the Lord’s people is very easily recognised.
"Then they that gladly received his word were baptised ...And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers." (Acts 2:41-42)
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." Ephesians 1:3
All present blessings stem from what God has already given us in His Son. God has done all there is to do in Christ, and all we need to know about Him is in Scripture!
"An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."(Matthew 12:39-40)
This is the only sign with power to save, we refuse it at our peril. If we refuse the greatest sign of all, let us expect no other from God. The truth is, if we are not ready to accept what God has already given, shall we respond any differently should He speak again? Clearly, we would not.
"If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead" Luke 16:31
Those who ask for more would be no more ready to submit and believe even were God to grant their request. Those who would meet Christ Jesus today will receive no blinding flash from heaven. Would we be led to Christ? We shall meet Him as the Holy Spirit illuminates the pages of Scripture until what we read there becomes our own experience through faith.
Only where God has all things in His hands can there be a once-for-all revelation, and a once-for-all act of salvation on behalf of sinners. The two stand together. His work is finished, and God has given us a completed interpretation of it in Scripture through the apostles. We have a finished work and a finished revelation in the Bible, a true and certain salvation. Believers submit to Scripture; no tradition, no pope stand between.
CHRIST IN ALL SCRIPTURE
God’s authentic written Word is to be found and is preserved, as it always was, among His people.
The New Testament is the fulfilment of that promised in the Old. The apostle Paul writes:
“Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, ((Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.” (Romans 1:1-4)
It is the body that has replaced the shadow, the reality that has superseded the image.
“Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.” (Colossians 2:17)
“For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.” (Hebrews 10:1)
Just as in the New, the real content of the Old Testament revelation is the Lord Jesus. “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” (John 5:39). He is the crown of the new covenant now established in His blood: “For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:28). He is the fulfilment of the law and of all righteousness: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil” (Matthew 5:17). In Christ all promises are yea and amen in Him: “For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us” (2 Corinthians 1:20).
The Lord Jesus is in His person and appearance the fulfilment of all that went before, in his person and appearance, in His words and works, in His birth and life, but above all in His death and resurrection, and in his ascension and sitting at the right hand of God the Father. All the content of the Old Testament led up to the coming of Christ and everything found in the New Testament is derived from Him.
The sacrifices of the Old Testament had to be repeated, not so the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross.
“For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. … By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. … And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God.” (Hebrews 10:4, 10, 11-12)
The sacrifice of Christ was a once-for-all-time sacrifice, never to be repeated.
“For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” (Hebrews 9:26)
“For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” (Hebrews 10:14)
As all before pointed to a coming Christ, so all afterwards points back to His completed work. Without faith in that finished work there is no way to be saved. There is no blessing God has to give to anyone apart from in Christ. There is nothing that does not stem from our Saviour’s once-and-forever sacrifice of Himself. Even the godless experience God’s goodness day by day only for our Saviour’s sake, they would otherwise not be spared.
CHRIST IN YOU THE HOPE OF GLORY
It is Scripture that at its heart reveals the Lord Jesus Christ, not so much a doctrine or a creed, certainly that, but as a Person, Christ Jesus ― whom to know is life eternal. The completed revelation of God is a person, the Son of Man, the only-begotten Son of God. In Scripture this revelation of the Saviour is replicated in written form, it is the sacred Word of God. The Bible is unlike any other book. It is the infallible Word of the living God. These are His words, written by human hands under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, truly able to be received only under the His illumination.
What now remains is to establish how the revelation of Christ and the knowledge of Him becomes a reality in our hearts. The knowledge of the Lord Jesus, whilst it comes to us through the Scriptures, cannot remain something external to ourselves. It becomes a light that shines in our heart revealing God’s glory in the face of our Saviour.
“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. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” (2 Corinthians 4: 6-7)
If anyone is to be saved through reading Holy Scripture, there must be something more than an objective understanding of the work of Christ in His death and resurrection, and it certainly will be that, but there must be that which is able to bring about a transformative inner change within the human heart, that turns rebellion into obedience. A purely objective revelation of bare doctrine that is external to the sinner, even if accepted and believed, will bring no effective change in and of itself. As a result of sin, we need a work of God’s grace and renewed power within such as issues in the faith that saves. “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17). Yet without a work of God’s Spirit within, the Scriptures will remain just another book, and a dead letter, a testimony against us.
In John chapter 3 we read about Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews who came to Jesus under the cover of darkness. He understood many things; he was a teacher of others, a ‘master of Israel’. Based on the miracles Jesus had done, He was quite prepared to acknowledge Him as a teacher from God, even addressing Him as ‘Rabbi’. Yet the Lord had to point out to Nicodemus the one thing that was lacking, knowledge he had, but if he were to see or enter the kingdom of God, he needed to be born again.
“Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3)
According to the Scriptures, genuine Christian believers are: “born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” (1 Peter 1:23) The instrumentality of regeneration, of being born again, is the Word of God.
“If we allow any other standard or instrumentality of regeneration than the Word, there will be no barrier to the confounding of every crude impulse of nature and Satan, with those of the Holy Ghost” (Robert L. Dabney, “Lectures in Systematic Theology”, p.560)
Regeneration is a work of God’s grace wrought within us by the Spirit of God and not brought about by anything of ourselves. It cannot be inherited from our parents.
“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:12-13)
“The creature cannot create itself, the child beget itself, the dead body re-animate itself, the stony heart change itself, the darkness illuminate itself at the prompting of inducements. An external and almighty power is prerequisite. …in this change an external power is exerted on the soul, which the latter can have no share in originating.” (Robert L. Dabney, “Lectures in Systematic Theology”, p.568)
Regeneration, or being ‘born again’, is a supernatural renovation of our whole being and sets a wholly new direction to our lives and to our thinking. It brings about a new and permanent conversion with respect to personal sin and holiness. The most hardened sinner will have renewed heart that inclines now to godliness rather than sin. It issues initially in genuine repentance and faith in Christ alone for salvation.
It is through the faith that God gives us that we are brought to salvation. We recognize what God says about us in His Word is a reality: that we are sinners worthy only of damnation. Then we see Christ as having died in our place, taking our sins and guilt with Him; that He is our own Saviour who has also promised to come and live within us by His Holy Spirit. The result is that we turn from sin and sinning, repent of it all, and trust and accept what the Lord Jesus has done for us, relying only on Him. Even this our faith is a gift of God.
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:8-10)
Repentance is not simply saying sorry for all the wrong we have done, it is to see the burden of sin roll from our back at the foot of the Cross, not to take it up again, but to strike out in the opposite direction. Faith is not just a decision to ‘accept’ Christ, it is to throw ourselves upon Him and to trust Him for cleansing in every area of our lives. We have parted company with sin in our manner of life as well as in our manner of thought. We have received pardon and the power to overcome it, one day to be taken even from its presence. God’s holy name be praised. Amen.
SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE AND THE WORD OF GOD
The Scriptures as the revelation of Christ are the measure by which we know whether the experience we presume to have of the Lord Jesus is genuine or not. It can never be the other way round. A genuine experience of the Lord will mirror precisely what we read in Scripture. We cannot interpret Scripture by considering our own spiritual experiences or those of others. Our knowledge of Christ will flow out from the one revelation of Scripture, always pointing back to Him. If it is something outside, additional or contrary to the Word of God, it will be suspect. Human experience may be heard and the confession of the lips, but only when it is seen to be a clear reflection of what the Word of God reveals. Bible teaching first, then experience flowing from it.
To say, or even to imply, that the revelation of Scripture on its own is insufficient or incomplete, and that more revelation is needed, is to suppose that the work of the Lord Jesus is also unfinished and continuing and that as a result we stand in need of being kept constantly up-to-date by a new ‘word’ from God. Those trusting an unfinished salvation are most certainly not trusting Christ and are still in their sins.
Charles Spurgeon expressed it like this:
“I have heard many fanatical persons say the Holy Spirit revealed this and that to them. Now that is very generally revealed nonsense. The Holy Ghost does not reveal anything fresh now. He brings old things to our remembrance. “He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have told you.” – John 14:26
The canon of revelation is closed; there is no more to be added. God does not give a fresh revelation, but he rivets the old one. When it has been forgotten, and laid in the dusty chamber of our memory, he fetches it out and cleans the picture, but does not paint a new one. There are no new doctrines, but the old ones are often revived. It is not, I say, by any new revelation that the Spirit comforts. He does so by telling us old things over again; he brings a fresh lamp to manifest the treasures hidden in Scripture; he unlocks the strong chests in which the truth had long lain, and he points to secret chambers filled with untold riches; but he coins no more, for enough is done.” (Charles Haddon Spurgeon: The New Park Street Pulpit, Vol. I (1855), p. 38)
There is nothing to be added to the finished work of Christ therefore not to Scripture and all that we need to know of Christ is revealed in its pages.
A GODLY MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL PREACHES CHRIST
“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.” (1 Corinthians 1:23-24)
What above all else distinguishes a genuine minister of the Gospel from all others? Is there something that marks such men out or do they need to carry about their person a licence or some kind of certification, a letter, a written testimony to validate their office? These may be all well and good in the appropriate circumstances. However, for a true minister of the Gospel there will be something more: a letter, a testimony, not one written on paper that few may see, but one written in the hearts of those to whom he has brought the message of Christ, evidence that is clear for all to see. Ministered unto by the preacher expounding the Word of God, they were once sinners lost in sin, but now their lives have been transformed by the light of the Gospel shining in unto them. A change recognized by everyone who comes into contact with them. It will be unmistakeable evidence of a work or God wrought by the Spirit of God, not carved in stone, not written in ink but engraved on the fleshy tables of the heart, but visible and clear. Paul writes:
“Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you? 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.” (2 Corinthians 3:1-3)
The evident work of the Holy Spirit and blessing of God in the souls of them to whom they have ministered is more than sufficient testimony to their calling no matter how contemptible they may appear to some. What God has worked in the hearts of the godly preacher’s hearers is testimony enough that he is sent of God. They are the epistles known and read of all men. There is nothing more delightful to faithful preachers of the Word to see those to whom they have ministered walking with the Lord. The Apostle John writes: “For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” (3 John, 3-4)
Here through the preaching of God’s Word in the power of God’s Spirit men and women are led to a personal soul knowledge of the Lord Jesus and learn to walk with Him. However, all praise must go to God when a congregation has been wrought upon by the Spirit of Christ.
“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 an heart of flesh. 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.” (Ezekiel 36:26)
Sadly, many preachers speak to the head but not to the heart; they inform the mind but never reach the soul. To persuade a congregation of the truth is one thing, and that is good. Preachers need not only to inform and to do so according to the Scriptures but to reach our hearts, stir and move our souls, fire us with love to the Lord Jesus, lead us to a close walk and life with Him. Congregations need a Saviour, this is the whole point of expounding the Word of God, and failure to preach Christ is failure indeed.
The only preaching that is in the end worthwhile is that which reaches into men’s souls, into their hearts, with the message of Christ. This is not something that can be achieved by any gift of our own or power of persuasion. This can only happen where the words of the preacher are accompanied by a powerful working of the Holy Spirit and the effects of this working will be seen by all, testifying that this preacher is indeed a true messenger of God who needs no further human testimony to that fact.
BLESSED WITH ALL SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS
The people of God are blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ from eternity:
"According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love." Ephesians 1:4
There is here an unbroken line of communication from God to man throughout all ages, and at every stage it is the work of God’s Spirit.
"Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual."(1 Corinthians 2:12-13)
Spiritual things are always spiritually given, spiritually communicated, spiritually received.
"But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ." (1 Corinthians 2:14-16)
Ultimately, we know Scripture to be the Word of God because the Holy Spirit has opened our eyes to this fact. It is evidence of truly being born of God. It simply is not possible to be a Christian and accept any other authority beside God’s Word. Apart from the Scriptures, we can know nothing of Christ. All other routes lead to another ‘Jesus’.
"Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass: The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you."(1 Peter 1:23-25)
Following the Lord Jesus is not an alternative way of life, it is the only true pathway. There can be no other. All other roads lead to the fires of eternal damnation.
Our Christian life begins not with anything we are called upon to do, to attain or embrace, but with that which Christ Himself has already done and accomplished on our behalf. We are to rest, to repose in the Lord Jesus. For six days God worked and completed His creation. He then rested. Adam’s first day was a day of rest. Even so, our Christian life begins with resting in a completed salvation. By faith we rest in that which our Lord has completed at to which nothing needs to be added. Jesus said, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work” (John 5:17). Then when His atoning work was completed, when the price was paid, He cried out in triumph: “It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.” (John 19:30)
God has in Christ already done everything with nothing remaining. It is His work, not ours. Our Christian experience begins with the discovery from the Word He has given of what God has provided in Christ. Every step we take in our spiritual experience will begin with a new insight of what God has already done for us in Christ. Not through anything we may do, nothing we can claim to merit, but redemption though the blood of Christ, through what He has done. We do not need to agonize or plead, simply to rest in what He has accomplished. Christ will do no more than He has already done. There is no need; He has accomplished all that is required. This means there is no need for Him to reveal to us anything more about Himself than that He has done already. No new revelations are needed for all is to be found in the completed revelation of His Word.
Our Saviour’s death and resurrection are complete and sufficient in and of themselves. If we are going to grow in our faith, it will not be on the basis of anything new He needs to do, but on the basis of His finished work. Our death and resurrection in Christ is as much an historic fact as that of Christ Himself. His history is our history.
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)
We should not be looking for God to do anything more for us than He has already done in Christ.
David W. Norris