Basic HTML Version
The Gospel for Both Dispensations, March 23
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh
down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning.
James 1:17
.
Since the fall of Adam, it has been the fashion of the world to sin,
and it is for our interest to know what sin is. John declares: “Whosoever
committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of
the law.”
1 John 3:4
.
God’s purpose is ... to save from sin.... The soul, corrupted and
deformed, is to be purified, transformed.
Through the gospel, souls that are degraded and enslaved by Satan
are to be redeemed to share the glorious liberty of the sons of God.
The gospel is the power and wisdom of God.
Christ had been sent to earth to represent God in character.... He
Himself was the gospel.
Many who claim to believe and to teach the gospel ... set aside the
Old Testament Scriptures, of which Christ declared, “They are they
which testify of me.”
John 5:39
. In rejecting the Old, they virtually
reject the New; for both are parts of an inseparable whole. No man
can rightly present the law of God without the gospel, or the gospel
without the law. The law is the gospel embodied, and the gospel is the
law unfolded. The law is the root, the gospel is the fragrant blossom
and fruit which it bears.
He who proclaimed the law from Sinai, and delivered to Moses the
precepts of the ritual law, is the same that spoke the sermon on the
mount....The teacher is the same in both dispensations. God’s claims
are the same. The principles of His government are the same. For all
proceed from Him “with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of
turning.”
The gospel of the New Testament is not the Old Testament standard
lowered to meet the sinner and save him in his sins. God requires of all
His subjects obedience, entire obedience to all His commandments.
[89]
90