James S. Gray
THE NECESSITY OF THE GOSPEL
I am impressed to say that the announcement of the gospel does not really involve an option for anyone; it involves necessity. Each one of us must come into contact with God and that must be through our Lord Jesus Christ. There are things presented these days which offer options, but the things of God are not optional. They involve issues of life and death, and time and eternity, and they include the thought of commandment, because it says that God “enjoins men that they shall all everywhere repent”, and that is connected with the set day of judgment (Acts 17: 30,21). If you think about it, it is quite easy to see that God must bring things into judgment. God must have the last word as to everything. Someone may say, I have expert opinion about this or that, but that is not good enough for God. The judgment of everything must be according to God and I present that, beloved hearers, as a necessity. Those who know the Old Testament a little will remember that Solomon spoke about God bringing everything into judgment (see Eccl 12: 14). I do not think that means so much penal judgment as an assessment according to God of everything, under the sun, in Solomon’s words. And you and I are under the sun and our lives are under the eye of God, and our histories, and so it is a necessity to have to do with God, for example, as to right and wrong. What a great issue that is in the world to-day! Who is going to tell us what it is? The word of God in its penetrating character, bringing with it grace and power in view of salvation. The glad tidings, as Paul says, are “God’s power to salvation, to everyone that believes”, Rom 1: 6.
There are two things about that: one is that salvation, according to this scripture we read first is a necessity. You must be saved. It is as if to say, what is the alternative? And the other is that you must be saved individually. It is no good thinking that, because we have been brought up in certain circumstances or we have favours through baptism and being continually under the sound of the word of God, we can have eternal salvation that way. Salvation, in the sense of preservation, certainly involves being in the circle where God’s word is read and He honoured and worshipped; but salvation through faith in Christ from sin and its consequences and for eternity is a necessity for everyone, and that individually.
Now, the One in whom salvation is, is the One about whom we want to speak, and that is Jesus. What I want to ask each one of us from this passage in Acts 4 is, simply, what place has the Lord Jesus Christ in your life so far? I may say, what place has Jesus in your plans? You have made plans. You thought you would do this or that. The apostle James speaks about that. He says that people say, We will go into such and such a city and we will traffic there, do business, instead of saying, “If the Lord should so will and we should live, we will also do this or that”, James 4: 13-15. So, I say to myself and to all of us, am I taking the Lord Jesus into account in what I plan to do? Have I taken Him into account in what I have done so far?
The background to this passage in Acts was that there was a lame man sitting at the gate of the temple (chap 3) and as we commonly see people these days, he was asking for money, “alms”, ‘please give me’. The gospel changes people from wanting to receive to being givers and Peter says to him, with the support of John, “Silver and gold I have not; but what I have, this give I to thee”. How full the gospel is from God’s side! Dear friend, if you need salvation, it is available. God is ready to give the blessings of the gospel through faith in Christ to whosoever will. Make it personal for yourself! You need salvation, do you not? This man was lame from birth, the state of humanity pointed out, helpless, dependent on others. I say that for salvation you need help outside of yourself. Look to Jesus! He is the One in whom salvation can be found. And Peter is here answering the questions about how he did it. I suppose that is understandable: how did you do it? It is as if they would line up all the lame people if they could be saved like that. And that is what - I speak reverently - God would desire to do, to convey to you the impression that He has the power and the resource to meet every condition, whatever it is. Do not exclude yourself, dear friend, because God’s glad tidings are His “power to salvation, to everyone that believes”. But Peter says it is through Jesus. ‘It is through His name. We did not do this in our power; it was through His name’, and that involves the greatness, I believe of all that He has accomplished in His atoning work.
This passage shows that there is no-one else who can save you: “for neither is there another name under heaven which is given among men by which we must be saved”. The need of salvation is absolute for everyone, but the question is whether you have, for yourself, come to Jesus. Peter points out that the people who were asking this question were the people who had been directly responsible for the rejection of the Saviour. You may say, I am not like that, but, dear friend, God has appointed the Lord Jesus Christ as the only One in whom salvation is. Peter says, “He is the stone which has been set at nought by you the builders, which is become the corner stone”. Dear friend, I raise the question whether you are prepared to continue in contradiction to what God has done as to the Lord Jesus Christ. They had a religious system in Jerusalem and they said, “We have a law, and according to our law he ought to die …”, John 19:7. What a thing to say about the Son of God, come into manhood to die, to make atonement, to satisfy God’s holy claims as to sin in the human race. And they set Him at nought. God has given Him the highest place. God has made Jesus both Lord and Christ. As it says here, “He … is become the corner stone”.
I want to speak of that just a little because God delights in the One whom He proclaims in the glad tidings. He has made Him the corner stone. Much could be said about that, but one thought is that everything hangs upon Him. Everything for God depends upon Jesus. It is not here exactly the foundation, great as that is - He is the foundation of everything for God too in man - but He is the corner stone, and it is as if it is the answer to the ignorant despisal by men of the Son of God, come in love and in grace and in goodness and in sacrifice to be the means of our salvation. “He is the stone which has been set at nought by you the builders”. Think of this figure of a structure being reared up and Jesus being given no place in it! What about a life being lived and Jesus being given no place in it? But “God has made him … both Lord and Christ”, Acts 2: 36. “He … is become the corner stone”. You say, it does not appear so. Well, no, not yet. It will be publicly, quite soon, no doubt, but God presents His glad tidings to faith and it is accomplished for God. “He … is become the corner stone”. He is the One who adorns everything for God, the whole building, the whole structure of what God is working out in men for His own satisfaction, for response to Him. God loves to hear men’s voices in thanksgiving. Are all our voices set free in thanksgiving to God? Do it alone! Give thanks to God for the Saviour! Give thanks to God for the grace in which He has moved to provide such a full means of salvation in the One who came to die. But do not leave Jesus out, because He is the One who is the centre of everything for God.
Peter says a little earlier, “Be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazaraean, whom ye have crucified, whom God has raised from among the dead, by him this man stands here before you sound in body”. The man was cured; the man was healed through the power of the name of Jesus. God is not now speaking only of physical healing - He may do it; He can do it - but He is speaking in the glad tidings of the salvation of souls. This same apostle speaks of that in his epistle, does he not, “receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls”, 1 Pet. 1:9. That is what God is concerned about. And it is a necessity that each one should have salvation of soul through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He was crucified. Why was that? Because of men’s hatred, yes. Peter says does he not, earlier, “him, given up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye, by the hand of lawless men, have crucified and slain”, 1 Pet. 2:23. Think of the grace of the Saviour coming to take up the issue of distance from God in which we were! What a Saviour we present to you! I ask myself whether I take in the greatness of what Jesus has accomplished. Sin brings in distance. Have you known it? Dear friend, God hates distance between man and Himself. He would have everything clear and Jesus has gone the suffering way so that God’s holy claims as to sin might be met. On the cross Jesus bore the judgment of God against sin. That was a necessity - we will come to that in a moment in the other passage - but He bore the judgment of God against sin so that we might go free. He bore the judgment as the only One who could. He was a spotless, holy offering to God, and the claims of God as to righteousness were perfectly and fully maintained in Jesus; that life of devotion, of energy in devotion, of love, of singleness of outlook, seen so perfectly in Jesus, that life laid down and offered to God as a sacrifice. Nothing else could suffice, but that was sufficient to meet God’s holy claims and it is sufficient, dear friend, to purge away your sins if you have put your faith in Him. Of course, it was necessary also for salvation and for the setting free of those who believe, that Jesus should enter into death itself. The judgment on the cross was borne, the penalty for sin, death, was borne too, and Jesus, as it says, “having bowed his head … delivered up his spirit”, John 19: 30. It is a wonderful thing to think of the Son of God, having come into manhood and offering Himself to bear all that lay upon us as a result of sin and its distance, the distance it had brought in between us and God.
And then Peter says, “whom God has raised from among the dead”. That is a wonderful part of the gospel. That is a necessity too, as to the wondrous work of Jesus, that the satisfaction of God in it should be witnessed, should be proved, by His being raised from among the dead. That is to say, in another way, that God is fully pleased and satisfied, with the glorious Saviour. He is pleased with the work He has done, but He rejoices in Jesus Himself and He has raised Him from among the dead. It has been pointed out - it was mentioned with us recently - that the Jews who, I suppose, were mainly the audience here, were accustomed from the Old Testament to the general thought of resurrection, but they did not accept the selective resurrection of Jesus from among the dead. As we know, they spread a lie about it - but “whom God has raised from among the dead”. And the victory of Jesus is complete. His work proved to be entirely satisfying to God and He is now exalted to the highest place. As Peter says, “He … is become the corner stone”.
The gospel writer John, later in chapter 3 where we read, says that “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hand” (v 35). I wonder, dear friend, if you have thought about the possibility of being outside of the range of the blessing of that administration in the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, how vital it is that we should each come to know Jesus for ourselves, speak to Him, acknowledge our true state before God, and receive the Saviour by faith. We shall then come into the benefit of the great blessings which are in His hand from God because He would bring us into liberty from the power of sin. I wanted to speak about how God has dealt with the whole issue of the state of man after the flesh.
In this passage which we read, verse 13 points out that “… no one has gone up into heaven, save he who came down out of heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven”. How mysterious, yet how wonderful that is, that it is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself who has accomplished the great work which was needed to settle for ever the great issue of sin before God. And He goes on to say, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, thus must the Son of man be lifted up …” You will remember that the lifting up of the serpent in the wilderness was the cure for the plague which came in among the people according to the book of Numbers, and it speaks of the poison of sin in human flesh, our natural condition according to flesh, which involves the inability to overcome the power of sin as it is against God. Moses was told to make a serpent of brass, that is an image or figure of the serpents that bit the people, and to put it upon a pole. It means that One who had no sin, Jesus, has been lifted up so that we might look upon Him and be cured. Every one that looked lived, it says. So the Lord is saying to Nicodemus, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, thus must the Son of man by lifted up …”, that is, that it is a necessity that sin in the flesh should be judged in the sight of God. God is finished with it because He has judged it finally in the Lord Jesus Christ. But He is One who is on our behalf, the Son of man: “thus must the Son of man be lifted up, that every one who believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal”.
Now, I would like to point out that in God’s view we are either lost or saved. These are vital questions for each one of us, dear friends. The apostle Paul says, in speaking about his gospel, “But if also our gospel is veiled” - that is people do not see it - “it is veiled in those that are lost; in whom the god of this world has blinded the thoughts of the unbelieving, so that the radiancy of the glad tidings of the glory of the Christ, who is the image of God, should not shine forth for them” (2 Cor 4: 3,4), the radiancy of Christ glorified. Dear friend, this verse brings this home to me that people are either perishing or they are saved, and my burden is that it is a necessity that you should have to do with Jesus for yourself in view of salvation and eternal life. There is death, moral death, outside of knowing the Lord Jesus Christ in whom salvation is, but then life eternal is God’s answer to the total dealing with sin in the flesh. Paul says again, does he not, that “God, having sent his own Son, in likeness” - that is like this figure - “of flesh of sin, and for sin, has condemned sin in the flesh”, Rom 8: 3. Do not look for improvement! It is condemned, but in view of God giving those who believe eternal life, that which will never fail to satisfy you, which will never leave a void, that will never, like the sin system, leave you dissatisfied or unsuccessful. No, life eternal is God’s desire for you, that you should be set free from the bondage of sin, as knowing Jesus, the One in whom life is. He is now at the right hand of God and He is the One in whom God would give us eternal life as the answer to this great issue, which has been solved by the condemning of sin in the flesh in Jesus when He was made sin.
What a solemn thing it is that Jesus was made sin and God judged sin in Him in our place. He was lifted up. What a spectacle it was! It was reproach: the cross was reproach for Jesus. It was shame. One word which Paul uses is “scandal” (see Gal. 5:11). Think for a moment of the lowly Jesus, the suffering One, come in grace to be our Saviour, and man, as the hymn says, awarded the cross to Him and crucified Him. What do you think God felt about that? Darkness came over the whole land. God was dealing alone in Jesus with the issue of sin and its judgment, and He was forsaken by God. The whole work has been done because Jesus bore the judgment and then, as I said, He went into death and is now risen again. We need to direct our view to Jesus.
And He said here, “that every one who believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal”. I say again that it is a necessity that everyone should believe, individually, for themselves. And it says in this well-known verse, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son …” - what love that was! God desired that men should come to know Him in the One who was so precious to Him. He gave His only-begotten Son. What God has expended in order that we might be saved! And it says, “that whosoever believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal. For God has not sent his Son into the world that he may judge the world, but that the world may be saved through him”. What a wonderful thing to think of God’s disposition, His desires towards all men. He has established His righteousness in the judgment of sin; He has upheld His holy claims; He has glorified Himself in the atoning work of Jesus. And that precious blood, which was shed when the Saviour’s side was pierced, is the proof of the life given up, but it is that which satisfied God for atonement. “For the redemption of their soul is costly and must be given up for ever”, Ps 49: 8. A life had to be given up for the satisfaction of God’s holy claims, but the life of Jesus has been given up and God’s righteousness established and His love made known at the same time. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal”. How wonderful that atoning work that lays the basis for God to proclaim glad tidings to whosoever will - a wonderful thing! - and the results are proved.
How powerful the gospel is! Take Saul of Tarsus as, in a way, the prime example of the abounding of grace, and he says, eventually in his writing, “I am crucified with Christ, and no longer live, I, but Christ lives in me”, Gal 2: 20. How can that be? In your heart, dear friend, in your heart because you love Him, because He gave Himself for you. Let us be simple and personal and earnest as to these things and then, too, as to the value of the blood before God.
And then, as to receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, the administration in the hands of Jesus implied at the close of this chapter, includes the great blessing of the gift of the Holy Spirit. How otherwise are we to live according to God? How otherwise are we to be maintained in power in our outlook and committal to the Saviour whom we love? The Holy Spirit has come from Jesus in glory and He has resources which are infinite. He is a Comforter; He is a Guide; He has power to help. If any of us is not sure as to whether we have received the Holy Spirit, let us speak to God the Father about it because it is a great blessing to know that there is power in One who is here in the assembly, the vessel of God’s pleasure, the circle of the saints. God’s house is here and the Holy Spirit is here and the resource and power are available so that we might be pleasing to God while we wait for the coming of the Lord Jesus Himself.
I wanted to refer briefly in closing to two other necessities. One is, it says, (I think in another of Peter’s preachings early in Acts), “whom heaven indeed must receive” (chap 3: 21). I love to think of the distinctiveness of the place which Jesus has in heaven because of the great work which He has accomplished: “heaven indeed must receive”. If men reject Him, heaven must receive Him. God has honoured Him by giving Him the highest place in the universe. Then it says too, in one of Paul’s epistles to the Corinthians, in the resurrection chapter, “For he must reign until he put all enemies under his feet”, 1 Cor 15: 25. I just leave these two necessities with you also because we should think of the glory of Jesus where He is now but also what is going to be accomplished yet, in a public way, that all enemies are going to be put under his feet and, as Paul says there, “The last enemy that is annulled is death”. Does it not interfere with things? Does it not bring a stain? Does it not bring sorrow? When those who are without Christ face death - how serious! how sorrowful! But, “… God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal”.
And Jesus is soon to reign publicly and everything will be put under His feet. How wonderful to think of such a One, who gave Himself, being the One in whom God will be made known in the day to come in all His supremacy and glory as administering things according to God in righteousness. May we have our faith and trust in that glorious, living Saviour and prove the blessing and joy and liberty and peace of the gift of the Holy Spirit for the enjoyment of the blessings of the gospel, even now, for the Lord’s sake.
ST. ALBANS
26 September 1999