God And Christ

by
William Mealand

To us there is one God, the Father, out of Whom all is, and we for Him, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through Whom all is, and we through Him (1 Corinthians 8:6). HOW simple yet sublime a creed is expressed in this lucid utterance! It touches head and heart alike, gathering up in one grand pronouncement statements in similar strain, which reveal the conception we should cherish of God and Christ.

Faith to live upon must ever be linked with intelligence. There must be grasp of truth in ways which bring God and Christ rightly before our minds. And in such an epitome of faith and truth the apostle Paul conveys much. It is like looking at a great picture in which all details of form and coloring conspire to the effective wealth of the whole. Orderly design is blended with living warmth, and the grip of its conception grows upon the gaze. The more we look, the more we see.

And so, in this fine and forceful language, intensity of gaze brings out beauty upon beauty for the joy and peace of belief. In the opening pronoun we not only become sightseers, but recipients. For "to us," creatures of a brief and checkered day, as to this earth life, is given the glad knowledge which lifts us from the welter of gods many, and of lords many.

"To us there is one God, the Father." What self-interpretation! "One God, the Father! How much is enshrined in the thought! Towering far above the wisdom of continents, the lore of sages, all that meets our need as erring children is resident in the words.

"One God." And to us, as to Israel, comes the great declaration, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord" (Deut.6:4).

Then comes all the tenderness and wealth of the words, "The Father." "The Father." Therefore, a Son. One upon Whom to lavish all that a father truly finds it in head and heart to bestow. And even in our weak conception of the filial relationship there come glimpses of its outreaching greatness. But we are always learning, and ever to find that the divine constructions placed upon the word are fully borne out by faith's experience. And, as the massive, basic support of all that this may mean, we read farther, that it is "the Father, out of Whom all is."

Creation, of which we are but frail yet precious units, not only out of God august, omnipotent and supreme, but forth-flowing even out of the Father, and that through the beloved one Lord, Jesus Christ. Think of it! All that God, the Father, would fain reveal in the holding of such a title, such a relationship, poured out in and through the Son of His love.

Is God love? Has He shown it? Let us mark the words. It is not only that out of Him "all is" but that through the Son, "all is." So, through the one Lord, Jesus Christ, is the ebb and flow of that great stream of life we call humanity. And not only humanity, but all intelligences which are out of God--all, all are through Him.

There is the going forth of the wonderful, throbbing creation, still God's creation, in spite of all its shame and tears, its tarnished glory. And then the sweet and glowing return. "We for Him." "We through Him." Thus we live, move, and have our being for God, and it is "through Him," Whose pre-eminence is so signally graced throughout the ages. And this "precedence of all" is the great pledge of fulfillment of the words "for Him." He stands first, bearing in His gracious pre-eminence the potentiality which reaches out to the utmost bounds of time and space.

Let us take in the full force and meaning of such precedence, and the stupendous possibilities of Christ's coming forth out of God. The sweetness of our meditation of Him will be enhanced, too, as we discern the beautiful character of the filial bond. In terms of simple grace and truth Christ emphasizes this again and again.

Said He: "I came forth and am arriving out of God" (John 8:42).

"The Father is loving the Son and has given all into His hand" (John 3:35).

"The Father is fond of the Son, and is showing Him all that He is doing" (John 5:20).

Do we not see in these statements the magnitude of the Father's love? And the Son is the recipient of its highest charges, the One through Whom they will take effect. And the Sonship reflects the Fatherhood. The triumph of love waits on both.

Christ's arrival out of God stood for complete manifestation of God's love. He came forth vested with all its grand essentials to fully accomplish the purpose of it. And it is the love as thus shown, that we must always look at when we consider the character and destiny of this, our sphere. Men generally, and some believers, too, are so readily apt to associate events with an issue of their own calculation. To such, love is not the persistent, pursuing and permanent thing which lies back of all that is and shall be. Yet this is the love which inheres the filial tie in the relationship of God and Christ.

Would we know God aright? Then we must take the true measure of His love as displayed by Christ, for in Him such love is given its desired expression. The phrase immediately preceding Christ's great title as the "Image of the invisible God," is that sweet, alluring sentence, "the Son of His love."

Never was there such Sonship, as never such Fatherhood. In the depth of each sublime quality lies the assurance of creation's high destiny. Absolute perfection pertains to each. From start to finish, love is the presiding element. Right to the end of an infinite purpose this love flashes forth via the Son. Not intermittently, like the flashing of those publicity signs we often see, but with permanent luster. There is no break. Hence the beauty of Peter's words, "Whom, not perceiving, you are loving, in Whom, not seeing at present, yet believing, you are exulting with joy ineffable and glorious."

Via the Son. He Who could say with such fervency, "My Father," "My God," thus passing to us that blessed right. Moment by moment He lived in the sweetness and strength which dwelt in the words. They empowered Him to empower us. Note how the spirit of sonship breathes through the intercessory prayer of our Lord, as set forth in John's account.

The dignity and preciousness of our own position as "among the celestials," is foreshadowed in the glorious language which graced the lips of Christ, "I in them and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in one, and that the world may be knowing that Thou dost commission Me and dost love them according as Thou dost love Me" (John 17:23). And into such an affinity and fondness are we brought by the will and designation of God.

Even so, are "we for Him." And then, as Paul so aptly puts it in Romans eight, "God is for us." God for us! Could words be more heartening? Yet, at times, how long it takes us to realize them in the value they possess. How long to find sanctuary in "the love of God in Christ Jesus." And then, in quietness and confidence, are we indeed "more than conquerors through Him Who loves us."

Through Him, the Channel supreme, God is for us, and we for Him. Such are the simple but glorious dimensions of our faith. "One God, the Father, out of Whom all is." What scientific or philosophic phrase could convey so much? It is the last and best word on Creator and creation, linked as it is with the harmonious language, "one Lord, Jesus Christ, through Whom all is."

And we? How great our place, how meet our praise! O that in all He came first, as befits His precedence of all. Then indeed, through Him, should we realize how much we are for God. We should thus be growing in the realization of God, and in the giving of thanks to the Father.

And being more and more "for Him," we should become "imitators of God, as beloved children, and be walking in love." And it is a great thing to display to others the manner and attitude which we know God so faithfully displays to us. What honor, too, is conferred upon us by the injunction!

God and Christ. Father and Son. Did we but imitate God more as Father, through Christ, the Son of His love, we should be more capable in the expression of our faith, both for ourselves and others. And we should maintain the dignity of our calling, for as members of the body of Christ we have a position to maintain. To this end may the greatness of our faith, as enshrined in the words we have studied, keep us more completely and satisfyingly under the sway of the spirit.

"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."

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