SET FREE FROM OTHER GOSPELS
04/10/24 07:45
The Christ of God and His Gospel are not revealed to us by additional ‘revelations’ or extra-biblical interpretations of the Gospel of Jesus, Paul and John. Paul warned us that ‘another gospel’ if spoken by himself or by angels invokes a curse. We curse ourselves into a debilitated version of humanity when we alter the Gospel of Jesus, the apostles and of scripture. ‘Other Gospels’ suffocate the spirit-life that would have been ours in Christ. Because of this, charismatic Christianity and the gifts that are not rooted in the authentic Gospel of Jesus and the apostles fade and leave Believers in un-fulfilled hopes and disillusionment. Holy Spirit will not sustain dud gospels.
WE KNOW GOD THROUGH JESUS
“Torrance maintains that Calvin .. held that ‘since God alone knows himself, he may not be known by us except through himself and his own self-witness or testimony’
Karl Barth also insisted that God could be known only through God. The point of all this is that according to Matt. 11:27 and Lk. 10:22 there is an exclusive relation of knowing between the Father and Son and we are drawn into that relation through the Spirit as is taught in 1 Cor. 2:9-12.
WE SHARE JESUS’ KNOWLEDGE OF FATHER
[This means that] it is only by receiving the Spirit of God from Christ that we can share in the Son’s knowledge of the Father and the Father’s knowledge of the Son which would otherwise be closed to us.
This is what was embodied in Jesus himself in the incarnation. Hence, the actualisation of that unique revelation of God the Father in Jesus Christ and its mediation to us in the Holy Spirit sent by the Father in the name of the Son, tell us that God may not now be known by us in his undifferentiated and unnameable oneness, behind the back of Jesus Christ, or without the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (1)
HOLY SPIRIT LEADING
The implications are these: Holy Spirit enlightens us and leads us into the real Gospel of Jesus as our Savour and life. Jesus is the One means by whom we can know Himself and our Father. Furthermore, Jesus is the complete revelation of God and there is no extrinsic referent. To see Jesus is to see and know Father. There is no extraneous entity such as the law that is the actuality of God. Jesus is the transparent window on God and what it means for us to be a self who is a son in Jesus. The actuality of God is Trinity and it is in Jesus that we are included in this fellowship of divine love and life. In Christ you live in the Trinity and the Trinity lives in you. You live in the Presence.
CHRIST IN YOU IS YOUR MEETING WITH GOD
“When John says the Word of God “made his home among us,” he means that the Eternal Word of God “pitched his tent among us.” John is referring to the “tent of meeting,” or “tabernacle,” in the wilderness, where the people of Old Testament Israel met with God (see Exodus 25:8; 33:7-11). John is using descriptive language to show that Jesus is the tabernacle; that is, Jesus is the meeting place between God and humanity.” (2)
(1) Torrance, Thomas F.. The Christian Doctrine of God, One Being Three Persons (T&T Clark Cornerstones) . Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.
(2) Davis Ph.D., Martin M.. The Christian Doctrine of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit (pp. 19-20). AsiAfrica Ministries, Inc.. Kindle Edition.
