THE GOSPEL IN ETERNITY.
By H. F. PHELPS
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isa. 55:8, 9. This being so, when we read this: “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth” (Rom. 1:16), and this, “Christ the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:24), we are reading thoughts of God, which are as far above our thoughts as are the heavens above the earth. And this being so, no one should expect that he himself has seen all there is in these thoughts, for it is not in man to exhaust the thoughts of God. Much has been said concerning the Gospel, and much more can be said; much more will yet remain to be said, and that will be said through the eternal ages; and its immeasurable fulness will not yet be fully understood or comprehended. Then let us study the Gospel for a little while. What is the Gospel?—“It is the power of God.” And so is “Christ the power of God.” And the Gospel being the power of God and Christ being the power of God, Christ has ever been and ever will be the Gospel of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. And so it is called the “everlasting Gospel.” Rev. 14:6. Of course the Gospel, the power of God, Jesus Christ, is everlasting; for his “goings forth have been from old, from everlasting.” “The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting.” Micah 5:2; Prov. 8:22–30. These are the words of Christ concerning himself. And this is what we might expect; for it is “even his eternal power.” Rom. 1:20. Then as he is from “everlasting,” and that power is “eternal power,” and Christ is that power, even the Gospel of God, it follows that the Gospel embraces the eternal past and the eternal future. It further follows that the Gospel, Jesus Christ, the power of God, is not and never was a newly-devised plan, devised to meet an emergency—the emergency of sin—in this small world, whose inhabitants are accounted “as the small dust of the balance” (Isa. 40:15), in comparison with all the other worlds and their inhabitants. Then for whom was the Gospel ordained as a means of life? And to whom was that Gospel, that power, that Christ, first manifested? Evidently, the Gospel, which is the power of God, Jesus Christ, was ordained as a means of life to every created intelligence, and that by believing in Him who alone could perpetuate life. And that Gospel, Jesus Christ, the power of God, was first manifested to the first created being; and offered to that one if he would believe. The inhabitants6of other worlds believed, and therefore they live. This world did not believe; and the sin was not in believing the tempter, but in disbelieving God; and so this world is lost in sin. Yet, inasmuch as “the Gospel is the power of God” to all that believe, and as Christ is that power, that Gospel, it is still offered to every sinner who will believe. Yet again, whenever or wherever that power is, or has ever been manifested, that power itself being a manifestation of the Gospel, the manifestation of that power has ever been, and ever will be, the proclamation of “the everlasting Gospel.” It has in itself been preaching the Gospel to every intelligent creature. It therefore follows that, whenever that power was made known to an intelligent being through creation, that power, or Gospel, was made known to them “unto salvation,” a salvation to eternal life through obedience; for we read, the man that doeth them, shall “live in them” (Rom. 10:5), and that through faith in their divine Instructor, even faith in Jesus Christ, the power of God, the inhabitants of other worlds did believe, and do “live in them.” This world refused to believe, and so does not “live in them”—the commands of their Creator. Nevertheless this same power, Jesus Christ, is pledged for salvation from unbelief of all who will yet believe in Christ as their Saviour. And so it is “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27), for Christ dwells in the heart by faith (Eph. 3:17). And as it is “Christ in you,” the believer, who has sinned, so also it is Christ in the believer who has not sinned; for God is no respecter of persons, and requires no more of one than of another. And so we can easily see that the power of God in Jesus Christ, who is the power of God, the Gospel of God, began to be made known in the eternal past, when creation first began, as a means of an eternal existence, “that ye [they] might be filled with all the fulness of God,” and thus be made eternally happy in the enjoyment of that blessed, immeasurable, everlasting fulness. This was the purpose of God; was and is the purpose of the Gospel of God; not for a lost world only, but for all the worlds, that they may at last all be one great family of God. Eph. 3:15; 1:10. Once more: The Gospel of Christ being the power of God, as revealed to him and through him in creation, it follows that creation and creation’s work has ever been proclaiming, and still proclaims, and ever will proclaim, that power, that Gospel, that Christ, who will soon be crowned King of kings and Lord of lords. And so every created being and thing, both animate and inanimate, has ever been and ever will be preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And this they do in unmistakable language; in the very fact of their organization and existence they speak of the power of God, which is offered, and ever has been offered, “unto salvation to every one that believeth.” And so David, by the holy Spirit declares that “the heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.” Ps. 19:1–4. And this language of the heavens declaring the power of God, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, will be heard to all eternity. Not only this, but that language, the voice of the heavens, has been heard by every intelligent creature, so that the unbeliever is without excuse; for his own existence tells him to his face that he is a monument of the power of God, and may be a monument to all eternity if he will only believe. Therefore we see that the Gospel of Christ is no new thing; it is not a newly-devised scheme to meet the emergency of sin; but it is “the everlasting Gospel,” even the “eternal power” of the “Almighty God” (Gen. 17:1), the “everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9:6), made known to all the worlds on high. That power, that Gospel, that Jesus Christ as creator, was offered to every intelligent creature in all the universe of God, unto salvation, upon the one condition of believing in that power. It is that same power of God that was offered to the representatives of this race; made known to them in creation and in creation’s work, and in their own creation; the which, if they had believed and received, this world never would have fallen. Inasmuch as it is the same power, even Jesus Christ the power of God, he is able to carry on to perfection that which he has begun, because he alone has the power to finish it. He is the Author and therefore the Finisher of our faith, and of our salvation if we believe. And notwithstanding the channel of creation (by which life was to have been given to our race as well as to other worlds) has been broken by sin, it is to be renewed by a recreation in all who will believe; and to us it is salvation from sin and all its consequences. While the sinless inhabitants of other worlds have ever believed, acting out that faith by works, by obedience, they are justified by works; the reward of life is reckoned to them of debt; they live in Him, through Him, and by Him; and Christ lives in them, and is one with them. Yet this same power of God in Christ may be accepted by sinful man, that he too may work works of righteousness; and this too, by Christ dwelling within by faith. But because of sin, he can not be justified by these works; yet he may be justified by his faith in the perfect life of another, even the life of his Creator, the perfect life of his Saviour, his recreation. Thus God requires perfection, a perfect life in all intelligences, requiring no more of one than of another. Those who never have sinned can present that perfect life in themselves, by and through the power of God in creation; and those who have sinned can present the perfect life of Jesus Christ by faith just as tho it were their own. And so, while the perfection of character that is required can never be found in the sinner himself, because of his sins, that perfect life is found in the Creator, offered freely, to be accepted by faith. And therefore we see that while God requires no more of the men in this world than he does of the inhabitants of other worlds, even of angels, yet he has done infinitely more for this world than for any other; and this because of his infinite power by which he could do it, and because of his infinite love that led him to do it. And all his saints can, and ever will, praise his holy name that he has done it, that having begun it, he is able to finish it. H. F. PHELPS.