EXTRACTS FROM ‘CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP’ 2

It is of great importance to see that when God in His grace laid hold of us and brought us to the knowledge of Himself, it was not His will to leave us as isolated individuals. Nor was it His mind that we should take a course of our own choosing as to fellowship with other saints. He has called us to the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

All believers are divinely called to this holy fellowship. Many may not have understood what they are called to; many may fail to answer to it, or may even be acting entirely contrary to it; but all who have received the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Spirit are called by God to the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. This makes it very clear at the very outset that the bond of Christian fellowship … is a Person – God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. It could not possibly be asserted that there is anything sectarian or narrow about such a fellowship. …

Now what was God’s great object in making Himself thus known? It was to break down all our self-willed distrust of Him, so that we might accept His authority and control. The authority of God and the power of His right hand are set forth in “Jesus Christ our Lord”. When we receive the knowledge of God in grace and love it makes us willing to accept His authority, because we are assured that it is an authority ever exercised for blessing towards us, and for our security from all that is evil. We receive the kingdom of God, and find it to be “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Darby). These things are conditional on God having His right place in our souls.

Romans 6 brings us to the point that we yield ourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead, and our members as instruments of righteousness to God. There are three important points in the chapter – knowing, reckoning and yielding …

“For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord”, verses 10,11. This supposes that the affections are so set upon Christ that we are prepared to take account of ourselves as being in the same relation to things as He is. He has died to the whole sphere where man’s will is active – that is, to the world socially, politically and religiously. If we love Him we shall not care to go on with things in which He has no place, and in which He takes no part …

Then in verse 13 it is yielding. “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God”. Knowing is by faith, reckoning is by love, but yielding is by the Spirit. The kingdom of God is maintained in our souls in its practical power by the Spirit, and in coming thus under God’s control we escape from the innumerable evils of a lawless will.

Edited and published monthly by Alistair Brown and Paul Martin

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