THE OBJECTIVES OF THE GLAD TIDINGS
Kevin R Oliver
Acts 4: 33
Romans 8: 28-30
Philippians 1: 17-20
Philippians 3: 8-12, 20-21
John 17: 19-23
The impression one has is in relation to the objectives of the glad tidings. We often think of the glad tidings with reference to the seeking of salvation for sinners such as you and me, and that is certainly a fundamental objective of the glad tidings. How wonderfully precious it is to be cognisant of the Lord who came into this scene “to seek and to save that which is lost”, Luke 19: 10.
Thus we are subjects and objects of the glad tidings. This also applies to our fellow creature man; the word is for all. There is one message of salvation that goes out to a wayward generation and has gone out now in this character for nearly two thousand years. Think of God’s patient workings, according to His purpose, that urges sinners to come into blessing - “neither is there another name under heaven which is given among men by which we must be saved”, Acts 4: 12.
I was struck as to what is objectively for God in the glad tidings. We often say that, ultimately, all that is transpiring in this dispensation, in part secured through the glad tidings, is for Him. That it is for Him reminds me of how we have been exhorted to seek the divine perspective. It struck me in reading some ministry this week - and somewhat confirmed by what we had in our reading earlier today - as to the matter of the apostles giving “witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 4: 33), speaking to how pure and unadulterated the testimony was in the early days in the formation of the assembly. It says, “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (v 31) - what was being borne witness to was objectively pleasurable to God . They were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they commenced the work of this dispensation by announcing the glad tidings in order to secure God’s objectives.
I read these passages in Romans and Philippians because Paul had a wonderful, unparalleled insight to God’s objectives in the glad tidings. In Romans, we have the theme of salvation through a personal transaction with the Lord Jesus as Saviour; the One who has taken away our sins and has annulled the penalty, which is death. What relief and joy comes from having the enormity of this burden removed. I would pause and ask whether all in this room know the reality of this relief, the deliverance from the penalty of death which lies upon every man, woman and child?
Where we read in Romans 8 is where we understand more as to what is objectively for God in the glad tidings. Verse 29 says, “whom he has foreknown, he has also predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son”. This is the core of one’s exercise: not only is the divine objective - and God’s desire - that we come under the shelter of the precious blood of the Lord Jesus in which God has declared to us His love, mercy and grace, but that we become “conformed to the image of his Son“.
This is something one feels very limited in speaking about, but what the Father sees in the believer is a reflection of what Christ is; an attribute undoubtedly of this great matter of conformation “to the image of his Son”. God seeks from this generation, as He has sought from preceding generations and will continue to seek from those that succeed us in this dispensation, to have that return in sons that are in conformity with “the image of his Son”.
Therefore the objective of the glad tidings is not just a matter of forgiveness and salvation, as great as these matters are, it is a matter deeper than that for the Father; He sees the fruit of the work of the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit coming to light in His people and the bringing into conformity of their natures to that of His Son - the One who was perfect and spotless, the One who declared and revealed the Father’s love in complete perfection. Not one step was inconsistent with the Father’s will. In that sense, just as the Son answers perfectly to the Father, so the many sons are to be conformed with the Lord Jesus - how great are God’s sovereign operations!
We also touched in our reading the thought of the Lord Jesus being a model. This linked with my impression for this gospel, the objective of the glad tidings, and He being the Object. Speaking reverently, we have Him as a Model in His walk, His disposition, His demeanour. We have a Model whom we can imitate, with the Holy Spirit’s power, resulting in pleasure for God now and eternally. It impresses me that in all of this, the great answer and objective for God is secured from the glad tidings. We are the beneficiaries of it because we are relieved from the penalty of death and we come into eternal blessing - life everlasting and the knowledge of eternal life as in relationship with the Son in the Father’s house, but ultimately the Father Himself has His return. And Romans 8 emphasises that there is no uncertainty in this - “whom he has predestinated, these also he has called; and whom he has called, these also he has justified; but whom he has justified, these also he has glorified”, v 30.
In Philippians 1: 20 we have a further thought, “Christ shall be magnified in my body whether by life or by death”. Paul knew that his sins were forgiven, but spiritual sight allowed him to apprehend what was to be seen in him consequent upon his salvation. We often refer to salvation as not simply what we are saved from, but rather what we are saved to. I wonder if this is also what Paul is touching on by apprehending the divine perspective, that Christ should be “magnified” in his body. May we each know something of this great matter!
Philippians 3 pertains to what we leave behind as coming into the joy of our salvation. “I count also all things to be loss … and count them to be filth, that I may gain Christ; and that I may be found in him, not having my righteousness, which would be on the principle of law, but that which is by faith of Christ”, v 8. Paul’s epistles, particularly Philippians, illuminate the apostle reaching the joyous heights of his salvation; he anticipates the prize and being perfected; and he says that he would rather be with Christ, that that would be gain. But he is satisfied to remain here to secure more of what ultimately would be objectively for the Father’s glory. I raise that for each one of us, that we may be more elevated in our thoughts as to what is for God resulting from the glad tidings, so that we might lay aside what would occupy us in this scene, and “pursue”, so as to move forward in the testimony, “I pursue, looking towards the goal, for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus”, v 14.
Philippians 3: 21 re-emphasises the end result that is for God - the transformation of “our body of humiliation into conformity to his body of glory, according to the working of the power which he has even to subdue all things to himself”. In simplicity, transformation renders us Christ-like. We apprehend this now by faith, but in time it will take place in actuality. In the waiting time, let us gaze upon where He is; to have our eyes on that Model. The apostle Paul appeals that his followers should be his imitators - he had laid hold of the truth of conformity to His body having judged his body of humiliation such that what was seen of Christ in him could be imitated with a view that the Father should be glorified.
John 17 further illustrates the objective that is in view for God - “that they may be all one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us”. And then Jesus says, “the glory which thou hast given me I have given them”. We see there the expression of the divine intent and objective; all that has been secured in love and righteousness by the offering in perfection of the Lord Jesus. Alongside the oneness of mind of divine Persons, the end result should be in the fullest extent what is Christ-like in us, and in union. We often say we will never be deity, but may we rejoice in the fulness of the divine objective and what God has secured in persons that display features of Christ. Maybe we often feel our display of those features may be small or fleeting, but they are formed in perfection. Think of the holy city, new Jerusalem, in Revelation 21, “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (v: 2); the foundations of its wall “adorned with every precious stone” (v 19), each with variation, but as one whole reflecting the glory of Christ and what is suitable for Him.
It is a simple impression; may the Spirit furnish this further as we contemplate these scriptures. The objectives of the glad tidings are both to secure salvation for sinners like you and me, and further to secure for the Father sons conformed to the image of His only-begotten Son.
May the Lord bless the word.
Denton
3rd December 2023