Both as free, and in bonds, Paul insisted upon seeking out “the lost sheep the house of Israel,” persistently offering them, in the first place (Rom 1:16), “the salvation of God,” But, consistently, “they agreed not among themselves,” and at last Paul was constrained to say, “Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive: For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it” (Acts 28:25-28).
Thus closes the Acts of the Apostles, which, like the gospels is predominantly connected with the testimony of Israel. So long as Israel could be regarded as the object of testimony, so long the testimony continued; but when they were shut up to the judicial blindness, they cease to come within the range of testimony, wherefore the testimony ceased and was offered to the Gentiles. Enter Romans.
Now let us see what this “mystery,” this “Gospel,” this “salvation” really was, and where its peculiarity consisted. It was not so much in reference to God’s way of dealing with the sinner as with the saint; it was not so much in how God justified a sinner as what He did with him when justified. It was the position
into which Paul’s Gospel conducted the saint that marked its peculiarity: into the Body of the glorified Lord Jesus Christ, rather than into His earthly kingdom. As regards the justification of a sinner, there could be but one way, namely, through faith in the one offering of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross.
A saint in the opening of Acts had higher privileges than a saint under the Law. Moses, the prophets and John the Baptist, our Lord in His personal ministry (Jesus ministry was only to the Jews, thus all were taught via the Twelve - Mat 15:24), all brought out various aspects of the believer’s position before God. But Paul’s gospel went far beyond them all. It was not the kingdom offered to Israel on the ground of repentance, as by the Baptist and our Lord (if Israel repented at that time, the kingdom would have begun then, but it would still be on the earth until the new earth—NC); nor was it the kingdom opened to the Jew and Gentile by Peter in Acts 3 and 10; but it was the heavenly calling of the Church of God composed of Jew and Gentile, in one Body, united to a glorified Lord Jesus Christ by the presence of the Holy Spirit.
The Epistle to the Ephesians fully develops the mystery of the will of God concerning this. There we find ample instruction as to our heavenly position. Paul does not contemplate the believer as a pilgrim on earth but as sitting in heaven: not as toiling here, but as resting There. “He hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:6). This in the counsel of God, is to be actualized in the process of time by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven.
But it may be asked, how can believers be said to be seated in heavenly places when they are yet in the world, experiencing its difficulties, its sorrows and temptations? The same questions may be asked in reference to the vital doctrines of Romans Six: How can believers be represented as dead to sin when they find sin working in them continually? The answer to both is one and the same.
The Father sees the believer as having died unto sin with the Lord Jesus, and He also sees him as raised with and seated in the Lord Jesus in glory; but it is the province of faith in those truths to lead the believer into the reality of both. Reckon yourselves to be what the Father says you are (Ro 6:12). The believer’s freedom from the “reign” of indwelling sin consists in his reckoning himself dead to it, coupled with his reckoning himself to be raised and seated with the Lord Jesus before the Father.
We must never forget that every tendency of the human mind (carnal mind—NC) not only falls short of, but stands actually opposed to all this divine truth about the Church. We have seen how long it was before man could take hold of it, how it was forced out, as it were, and pressed upon him (Mat 11:12); and we have only to glance at the history of the Church for the last nineteen centuries to see how feebly it was held and how speedily it was let go. The heart naturally clings to the earth, and the thought of an earthly corporation is attractive to it.
It is not to be supposed that the Protestant Reformers exercised their thoughts on this momentous subject (spiritual growth—NC). They were made instrumental in bringing out the priceless doctrine of justification by faith from amid the rubbish of Romanish superstition (Roman Catholic doctrines—NC), and also in letting in upon the human conscience the light of inspiration in opposition to the false and ensnaring dogmas of human tradition (e.g. “teachings of men” - Mat 15:9). This was doing not a little; yet it must be admitted that the position and hopes of the Church engaged not much of their attention (The majority of Christians are not as concerned as they should be concerning spiritual growth matters—NC).
It would have been a bold step from the church of Rome to the Church of God; and yet it will be found in the end that there is not distinct different ground between the two; for every Church, or, to speak more accurately, every “religious” denomination, reared up and carried on by the wisdom and resources of man, be its principle ever so pure and ever so hostile to Catholicism, when judged by the Word of God, to partake more or less of the element of the Romish system—the usurper of Judaism.
Hence those who will maintain Paul’s gospel will find themselves, like Christ, deserted and despised amid the splendid pomp and glitter of the world. The clashing of ecclesiastical systems, jarring of sects, and the din of religious controversy, will surely drown the voices of those who would speak of the heavenly calling and rapture of the Church.
But let the spiritual believer who finds himself in the midst of all this heart-sickening confusion remember the following simple principle: Every system of ecclesiastical discipline, and every system of prophetic interpretation, which would connect the Church in any one way with the world, or things of the world, must be contrary to the spirit and principles of the great mystery (the Church is the Body of Christ—NC) developed by the Holy Spirit in the Apostle Paul to the Gentiles. “The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His” (2Tim 2:19).
— Charles Henry Mackintosh (1820-1896)
MJS daily devotional for February 13
“The great secret of the Christian life is found in ceasing from self, in which the power of the Cross manifests itself in us (the “old man” is still on the Cross yelling orders” - Rom 6:6—NC). We all know how our Lord Jesus, ere He could receive the new life from the Father in glory, and the gift of the Holy Spirit through whom He could impart His life to His people, had first to give up the life He lived upon earth. He had to take His place among the dead in utter weakness and helplessness before He could live again by the power of God. His death on the Cross was indispensable to the life of the Spirit.
“And as it was with Christ, so it must be with us. As we yield ourselves to be united with Him in the likeness of His death, we can share with Him in the glory and power of the life of the Spirit. To know what the Holy Spirit means, implies the knowing of what death means. The Cross and the Spirit are inseparable. The soul that understands that the death to self is in Christ the gate to true life, is in the right way to learn what and who the Holy Spirit is.” -Andrew Murray (1828-1917)
http://www.abideabove.com/hungry-heart/day/2026/02/16/
Thus closes the Acts of the Apostles, which, like the gospels is predominantly connected with the testimony of Israel. So long as Israel could be regarded as the object of testimony, so long the testimony continued; but when they were shut up to the judicial blindness, they cease to come within the range of testimony, wherefore the testimony ceased and was offered to the Gentiles. Enter Romans.
Now let us see what this “mystery,” this “Gospel,” this “salvation” really was, and where its peculiarity consisted. It was not so much in reference to God’s way of dealing with the sinner as with the saint; it was not so much in how God justified a sinner as what He did with him when justified. It was the position
into which Paul’s Gospel conducted the saint that marked its peculiarity: into the Body of the glorified Lord Jesus Christ, rather than into His earthly kingdom. As regards the justification of a sinner, there could be but one way, namely, through faith in the one offering of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross.
A saint in the opening of Acts had higher privileges than a saint under the Law. Moses, the prophets and John the Baptist, our Lord in His personal ministry (Jesus ministry was only to the Jews, thus all were taught via the Twelve - Mat 15:24), all brought out various aspects of the believer’s position before God. But Paul’s gospel went far beyond them all. It was not the kingdom offered to Israel on the ground of repentance, as by the Baptist and our Lord (if Israel repented at that time, the kingdom would have begun then, but it would still be on the earth until the new earth—NC); nor was it the kingdom opened to the Jew and Gentile by Peter in Acts 3 and 10; but it was the heavenly calling of the Church of God composed of Jew and Gentile, in one Body, united to a glorified Lord Jesus Christ by the presence of the Holy Spirit.
The Epistle to the Ephesians fully develops the mystery of the will of God concerning this. There we find ample instruction as to our heavenly position. Paul does not contemplate the believer as a pilgrim on earth but as sitting in heaven: not as toiling here, but as resting There. “He hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:6). This in the counsel of God, is to be actualized in the process of time by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven.
But it may be asked, how can believers be said to be seated in heavenly places when they are yet in the world, experiencing its difficulties, its sorrows and temptations? The same questions may be asked in reference to the vital doctrines of Romans Six: How can believers be represented as dead to sin when they find sin working in them continually? The answer to both is one and the same.
The Father sees the believer as having died unto sin with the Lord Jesus, and He also sees him as raised with and seated in the Lord Jesus in glory; but it is the province of faith in those truths to lead the believer into the reality of both. Reckon yourselves to be what the Father says you are (Ro 6:12). The believer’s freedom from the “reign” of indwelling sin consists in his reckoning himself dead to it, coupled with his reckoning himself to be raised and seated with the Lord Jesus before the Father.
We must never forget that every tendency of the human mind (carnal mind—NC) not only falls short of, but stands actually opposed to all this divine truth about the Church. We have seen how long it was before man could take hold of it, how it was forced out, as it were, and pressed upon him (Mat 11:12); and we have only to glance at the history of the Church for the last nineteen centuries to see how feebly it was held and how speedily it was let go. The heart naturally clings to the earth, and the thought of an earthly corporation is attractive to it.
It is not to be supposed that the Protestant Reformers exercised their thoughts on this momentous subject (spiritual growth—NC). They were made instrumental in bringing out the priceless doctrine of justification by faith from amid the rubbish of Romanish superstition (Roman Catholic doctrines—NC), and also in letting in upon the human conscience the light of inspiration in opposition to the false and ensnaring dogmas of human tradition (e.g. “teachings of men” - Mat 15:9). This was doing not a little; yet it must be admitted that the position and hopes of the Church engaged not much of their attention (The majority of Christians are not as concerned as they should be concerning spiritual growth matters—NC).
It would have been a bold step from the church of Rome to the Church of God; and yet it will be found in the end that there is not distinct different ground between the two; for every Church, or, to speak more accurately, every “religious” denomination, reared up and carried on by the wisdom and resources of man, be its principle ever so pure and ever so hostile to Catholicism, when judged by the Word of God, to partake more or less of the element of the Romish system—the usurper of Judaism.
Hence those who will maintain Paul’s gospel will find themselves, like Christ, deserted and despised amid the splendid pomp and glitter of the world. The clashing of ecclesiastical systems, jarring of sects, and the din of religious controversy, will surely drown the voices of those who would speak of the heavenly calling and rapture of the Church.
But let the spiritual believer who finds himself in the midst of all this heart-sickening confusion remember the following simple principle: Every system of ecclesiastical discipline, and every system of prophetic interpretation, which would connect the Church in any one way with the world, or things of the world, must be contrary to the spirit and principles of the great mystery (the Church is the Body of Christ—NC) developed by the Holy Spirit in the Apostle Paul to the Gentiles. “The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His” (2Tim 2:19).
— Charles Henry Mackintosh (1820-1896)
MJS daily devotional for February 13
“The great secret of the Christian life is found in ceasing from self, in which the power of the Cross manifests itself in us (the “old man” is still on the Cross yelling orders” - Rom 6:6—NC). We all know how our Lord Jesus, ere He could receive the new life from the Father in glory, and the gift of the Holy Spirit through whom He could impart His life to His people, had first to give up the life He lived upon earth. He had to take His place among the dead in utter weakness and helplessness before He could live again by the power of God. His death on the Cross was indispensable to the life of the Spirit.
“And as it was with Christ, so it must be with us. As we yield ourselves to be united with Him in the likeness of His death, we can share with Him in the glory and power of the life of the Spirit. To know what the Holy Spirit means, implies the knowing of what death means. The Cross and the Spirit are inseparable. The soul that understands that the death to self is in Christ the gate to true life, is in the right way to learn what and who the Holy Spirit is.” -Andrew Murray (1828-1917)
http://www.abideabove.com/hungry-heart/day/2026/02/16/
