The
Pilgrim's Messenger
"Have a pattern of sound words
which you hear from me, in faith and love
which are in Christ Jesus."--11 Timothy 1:13
Published Monthly By W. B. SCREWS, Glennville, Georgia
Twenty-five Cents a Year
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Volume XXXIV |
May, 1955 |
Number 10 |
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Entered at the postoffice
at Glennville, Ga., as second-class matter. |
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"If
anyone is in Christ, a new creation, the primitive passed by. Lo! there
has come to be new,"
II Cor. 5:16.
Becoming a new creation is not something one does for himself. God is
the Creator. The many failures in so-called Christian living are due to
the fact that too many people are trying to live a reformed life, and
think it is a new creation. There is a great pressure exerted by
preachers to get people to say they have accepted Christ when the facts
later prove that they have not done so. Accepting Him is more than a
sudden enthusiasm that dies out Paul tells us in the passage following
our text, that all is of God. What "all". What he has just mentioned.
Becoming a new creation. Man does not do this Himself. God does it. What
are the recognizable effects? He conciliates us to Himself through
Christ. In other words, He causes us to love Him. We are not merely
reformed. We are made
new. The primitive is the old creation, which is characterized by
blindness to the real value of God. This passes by. Our emotions and our
desires become new, because we have a new life. This becoming new is
shown by the fact that we have new desires, new emotions, new abilities,
new devotions, a new outlook, a new uplook, a new mission. It is not an
experience that is brought about by fear; it is brought about by new
life.
God has given to the heralds of His message, a new "preachment". It is
the word of the conciliation. It is not a message of fear and cowardice.
It is the glad news that God is conciliating the entire world. When He
does this for anyone, He does not reckon their offensives to them. He
can do this because He is working through Christ, the Sin-Bearer. Then
when He conciliates another, He does the same thing for him --- ceases
to reckon that person's offenses to him. This is to be kept up until the
entire world of mankind is conciliated to God. God is not pressed for
time. He can do it. He WILL.
How are we to deliver our message? Not by threatening sinners with hell.
We are to say to them, "All is of God, Who conciliates us to Himself
through Christ Jesus, and is giving us the dispensation of the
conciliation how that God was in Christ, conciliating world to Himself,
not reckoning their offenses to them, and placing in us the word of the
conciliation. For Christ, then we are ambassadors as of God entreating
through us. We are beseeching: 'For Christ's sake be conciliated to
God'. For the One not knowing sin, He makes to be a sin offering for our
sakes, that we may be becoming God's righteousness in Him", II Cor.
5:18-21.
I am reminded of a day when an old man came to me on the street and
said, "Preacher, I love God. I was reared to think that He had it in for
me, and, to tell you the truth, I had it in for Him. But since I have
learned that He loves me, and made His Son a sin offering for my sake, I
love Him, and I don't want to ever sin again". What had taken place? I
had faithfully preached the love of God for him, and had begged him to
be conciliated to God. The message was sent into his heart by the God
who loves him, and he had been made a new creation. A few days before
that, he would not have accosted me on the street and said he loves God.
But now the primitive had passed by, and he had new desires, a new
outlook, and a new ambition. He was God's friend. This is the sign of
the new creation.
It should be noticed that in that entire passage nothing was said about
hell. The love of God is what was stressed. If that does not "get" you,
hell-scare will not.
It is as unreasonable for a person who belongs to the new creation to go
on in degradation, as it is for a sheep to wallow in a mud hole like a
hog. If the hog should be made into a sheep, he wouldn't do it. He would
be a new creation. He would be a creature that hates mud holes.
Preachers would not have so much trouble with degradation in the church
if they had not taken in so many who are merely a reformation, instead
of a new creation.
The safety of the person who is in Christ, a new creation, is shown by
the following passage: "For I am persuaded that neither death nor life,
nor messengers, nor sovereignties, nor the present, nor the future, nor
powers, nor height, nor depth nor any other creation, will be able to
separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord", Romans
8:38, 39.
In the passage II Corinthians Paul continues: Now working together, we
are also entreating you not to receive the favor of God for naught".
That is, don't receive the favor as if it were nothing. Don't despise
it. What favor? The kindness manifested in making Christ a sin offering
for the world. Spend a long while meditating on what it embraces. Think
of the patience, the suffering, the death of God's own Son. We spend
much time celebrating the exploits of warriors. We have special days on
which to honor them. As I write this people all over the South are
honoring and remembering the sacrifices of soldiers of the Confederacy.
This is well. But how many minutes have we spent honoring Christ for His
sacrifices for us? We can hardly take a minute to even think of Him.
Remember, Paul is still entreating. He was asking us to be conciliated
to God. Now he is begging us to not disdain the favor of God---as
manifested in the sufferings of Christ, and also in the kindness of God
in making us a new creation, and in conciliating us to Himself, and in
not reckoning our offenses to us. What a FAVOR all this is! Yet we go
our way as if it were nothing. The way we regard it, some times makes it
nothing, in our thoughts. The literal rendering of the passage is: "not
to receive the favor of God INTO nothing". In other words, "don't turn
it into no value in your thoughts".
Paul speaking for God, and is saying, or God is saying through him, "In
a season acceptable I hear you. In a day of salvation I help you!"
I think it will be beneficial if you will take time out from your busy
life, to say, 'When my condition as a sinner was crying to God, even
before I was born, He heard me. He had said, 'Before they call I will
answer them'. He had me in mind when I had no existence except in His
thought. In answer to my unconscious cry, long before I was born --- a
cry that He, alone, heard, He sent One to be a sin offering for me. It
was then a day of salvation with Him, even long before I existed to need
it. He extended His help, to be here when I should need it. Let me now
not disdain His favor. I am unworthy, but the Sin Bearer has made
provision for my salvation, I cannot afford to require such love with
unconcern. I want to be His friend now. Lord, make me Your friend!
Conciliate me. I can't do it myself, but You stand ready! No longer will
I disregard your favor".
There has grown up a vicious theory that we need not be concerned about
anyone, since God has made the provision. Paul taught election. This is
all we need to know!
But wait! Not so hasty with your conclusions! The same Paul who taught
election, also said. "I am enduring all because of those who are
elected, that they may be having the salvation which is in Christ Jesus
with glory for the ages", II Timothy 2:10. Remember when he said what he
did about conciliation in II Corinthians, he did not say, as the King
James Version has rendered it, "We pray YOU in Christ's stead, be YOU
reconciled to God", as if he might have been beseeching only a certain
class. He had already mentioned THE WORLD. So he says, "We are
beseeching, 'For Christ's sake be conciliated to God'. Since he had
already included the world in the conciliation, it is reasonable to
think that now he includes the same world in his beseeching. To be
conciliated is to be friendly. Is it wrong for me to entreat ANYONE in
all the human family to be God's friend. This I do, depending on God to
make the message effective.
THE
SPIRIT OF A NEW COVENANT
When
Paul, in II Cor. 3:6, mentions A new covenant, think not that he is
discussing THE new covenant of which the prophets speak. THAT is for
Israel. The one of which Paul wrote is one of which the Hebrew prophets
had no inkling. It is A (not THE), new covenant. It is for us. It is one
not of the latter, but of the spirit. One trouble with the old one given
to Israel it was a covenant of the letter, and had no life-giving or
life-sustaining qualities. This is one NOT of the letter, but of the
spirit. For the letter is killing. The spirit is making alive.
He is not speaking so much of a personal spirit, as of spirit as an
intelligent principle of action. It is a covenant of intelligence. We
may kill people by insisting on certain forms and ceremonies being
letter-perfect. But if we insist on this covenant as being a principle
of devotion to God, and dependence on Him, through Christ, without any
hard and fast traditions, we render it possible for saints to be both
joined together in spirit, and free to render their devotions in a way
that is best adapted to their individual needs and capacities.
What is the spirit of this covenant? "The Lord is that spirit", verse
17. This being true, there is freedom in exercising its privileges, for
"where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom".
When you are viewing the reflection of yourself in a mirror, you are not
seeing anything that you take hold of---nothing tangible. In creeds you
view what you think is the glory of the Lord in the different forms and
ceremonies of the church. But in this covenant, you see the glory as
something intangible. It is not in things that distinguish one church
from one of another denomination. Seeing it is mentioned as looking in a
mirror. It is something you cannot describe. Can you tell how the Lord
looks? You only know that He is glorious in a way that appeals to your
spirit, not to your natural eyes. This is a most wholesome viewing, for
it is in spirit that you view His glory. You forget creeds, forms,
ceremonies, denominational names. The view you have in spirit transcends
all these. It makes you happy.
And, best of all, it transforms you into the spiritual image that you
see. This is the way to become like the Lord!
IN
LOVING MEMORY OF OUR MOTHER, MRS. A. W. LAWSON,
WHO PASSED AWAY ONE YEAR AGO, MAY 15.
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I think we'd smile instead of weep---
If we could see her there,
So safe for all eternity---
So free from every care.
I think we'd bear our lonliness,
Without a mournful thought,
If we could realize the joy
That her "home-coming" brought.
Sleep on, Dear Mamma, sleep and
take thy rest;
Lay down thy head upon thy Savior's breast.
We love you so much, but Jesus
loves you best.
Good-night.
Nona Belle, Sallie Lee, Alton, Lucile, Carl,
Bertha, Georgia, Ethlyn, and Tina. |
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