WHAT THE GOSPEL ANTICIPATES.
By L. S. Wheeler
What the Gospel means to most people to-day is summed up in the “salvation of the soul,” and by the soul is meant what is left of man when he is dead—something intangible, “without form or substance.” If this is all the plan of redemption embraces, no wonder it is “losing its hold upon the masses.” But it is not. The substance of the Gospel is stated in the words of Christ, “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” This world came from the hand of God an Edenic creation, of which man was the head, the noblest work of God, clothed in light, and having access to the tree of life, which would perpetuate his existence. Gen. 1:26-28. By sin man was shorn of his glory, and doomed to just what he was before created. Gen. 3:19. The ground was cursed to bring forth “thorns and thistles.” Verse 18. It was cursed again because of Cain’s crime, and again by the deluge. Gen. 4:10-12; 8:21. The whole animal creation fell under the curse. The fear of man and of death which he brought on them is in their hearts; enmity reigns instead of love; and all that which God in its completion pronounced “very good” (Gen. 1:31) is undone. But redemption reaches all of this. Says Paul in Romans 8:— “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” Verses 22-24. Christ glorified man’s body through his resurrection, and every child of his is waiting for the same glory. Says John, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” 1 John 3:2. And Paul says again, “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.” Phil. 3:20, 21. Herein is the triumph of the Gospel. “For,” says Paul, in the beginning of the passage before quoted from Romans 8, “I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to usward.” And the next verse adds: “For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of9the glory of the children of God.” Verses 18-21, R. V. The lost Eden and tree of life are sighted again through the Gospel. Rev. 2:7. “As in Adam all die, so even in Christ shall all be made alive.” 1 Cor. 15:22. “Whereof he [God] hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him [Christ] from the dead.” Acts 17:31. Redemption means the “restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.” Acts 3:21. So it is said, “There shall be no more curse.” Rev. 22:3. And, as the realization of these things clusters about the second coming of Christ, it is called “that blessed hope” (Titus 2:13), “the day of redemption” (Eph. 4:30).