ARE WE MISSING THE MARK?

ARE WE MISSING

THE MARK?

As Christians we are often bewildered by the “many winds of doctrine” (Eph. 4:14) blowing about in Christendom today. As a result many find themselves “halting between two opinions” (1 Ki. 18:21), just as ancient Israel did when confronted with a choice between serving the Lord or Baal. Significantly when Elijah challenged the people of Israel, saying: “If the Lord be God, follow Him: but if Baal, then follow him”, the people answered him not a word.

Nor today does Christendom have anything much to say in response when confronted with the God-given biblical and apostolic command to grace-saved Bible believers to “all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13).

Indeed, Christendom at large is in such a state of confusion many are led astray “by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive” (Eph. 4:14). Big churches and big ministries require big money to function. Who can deny that their services and teaching are carefully crafted to ensure maximised offerings? Fact is 80 per cent of giving in most churches goes on paying then pastor’s salary and upkeep of the building. Yet Jesus never built a church; rather in 70 AD He pulled the Jerusalem temple down.

Thankfully, there is a divinely prescribed way to hit the mark. It is to “grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, even Christ” (Eph. 4:15). Today though this receives scant acknowledgement.

The truth is many believers, called to follow Paul’s upward path to grow up into Christ Himself, give up soon on starting. They find the climb too steep, the path too narrow. Like the reluctant hearers of Jesus in his earthly ministry they eschew the way forward and fall back on what God did and said yesterday. Or rather, what pastors and teachers think God did in times past and will still repeat today.

Hence the surge of interest in churches claiming to be able to reproduce the healings and miracles of the Acts period but actually failing to do so. In effect they are falling back down the mountain side of truth having stopped trying to reach the summit.

But today God is calling all those who believe in Him to strive to reach the mountain peak of his latest revelation, that of grace and the “mystery” given to us through them ministry of one man. He is urging us to believe the latest word He has spoken through his chosen Apostle Paul.

In Philippians chapter three Paul describes the “high calling” that God is bidding us to follow.

Brethren I count not myself to have apprehended; but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth to those things which are before, I press towards the MARK for the prize of the HIGH CALLING of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded, and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this to you (Phil. 3: 13:15).

Many Christians ignore this commandment of God to be “thus minded” with Paul and “press toward the MARK”.  [Why is it a command and not just an option, you ask? Answer: Because only Paul was “made a minister according to the dispensation of God” to preach the gospel “to every creature” under heaven, to “fulfil the word of God” (Col. 23-25). And through Paul the Lord Jesus Christ in glory is summoning all believers in Him to now heed the call to climb higher to heavenly things. Therefore to climb is the commandment of the Lord Himself.

Remember Paul said “that if think he is a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge the things I write unto you ARE the commandments of the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 14:37].

It is also the Lord’s command to “follow Paul as he follows Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1) all the way to the top of the mountain. But Christendom at large refuses to do so. I know not one church in the region in which I live which preaches and teaches “present truth” doctrine solely from the prison epistles of Paul. Yet these writings alone contain the truth about the MARK and the PRIZE of the HIGH CALLING. Only in them can be found the truth about the ONE NEW MAN that God is now calling us to become.

Why is the “sound doctrine” found in Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus and Philemon largely held in disregard, not treated as urgent truth the Lord wants us to rejoice in now? The answer may lie in what wine we drink and what wineskin we cling to. Thus, in Luke 5:39 the Lord pinpoints the ongoing mistake believers make down the ages.

                And no one having drunk old wine immediately desires new; for he says the old is better.

Today much of Christendom is still trying to drink “old wine”. For example, Pentecostals still seek to reproduce the miracles of the Acts period Church of God though they stopped at Acts 28:28 and God moved on to bring in the “dispensation of the grace of God” (Eph. 3:1-4). And today traditional churches still conduct rituals that owe more to Judaism than grace Bible truth.

Against this reductionism a good old hymn pleads, “Lord, plant my feet on higher ground”, but today it seems very few want to scale such heights. Like tired climbers defeated by the mountain’s height they fall back to the comfort of base camp.

But the Lord can’t be found at base camp. He is on the very mountain peak of revealed truth, speaking through the Apostle Paul the riches of his grace and pointing out the upward path to glory He calls all of us to climb.

So, are we missing the mark? Come to that are we missing out on the wonderful blessings only to be found in the uplands of grace as detailed in Ephesians and Colossians. They are available only to those who are “faithful in Christ Jesus”, who are willing to “press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil, 3:14). We cannot afford to miss out on them.

  • Grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:2).
  • God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ (Eph. 1:3).
  • Chosen in Him (Christ) before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4).
  • Chosen that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love (Eph. 1:4).
  • Already we are predestined to be adopted as children by Jesus Christ to Himself (Eph. 1:5).
  • God has already made us accepted in the Beloved who is Christ (Eph. 1:6).
  • In Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace in which He has abounded to us in all wisdom and prudence (Eph. 1:7-8).
  • He has made known to us the mystery of his will and his eternal purpose (Eph. 1:9).
  • In Christ we have already obtained an inheritance, being predestinated for that very purpose (Eph. 1:11).
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  • We who were dead in sins have been quickened (made alive) together with Christ (Eph.2:1) and thus saved by grace (Eph. 2:5).
  • We have been raised together with Christ and made to sit together (with Christ) in heavenly places (Eph. 2:6).
  • Our conversation (place of citizenship) is now in heaven (Phil. 3:20).
  • The Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, will change our vile body to be like his glorious body (Phil. 3:21).
  • We are now complete in Christ, for in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and He is the Head of all principality and power (Col. 2: 10).
  • We have been circumcised by God Himself who had put off from us the body of the sins of the flesh (Col2:11).
  • God Himself has baptised us into resurrection (Col. 2:13).
  • The Lord has forgiven us all trespasses, and blotted out the written commandments that were against us, nailing them to his cross (Col. 2:14).
  • As to our destiny, our life at present is hid with Christ in God, but when Christ who is our life shall appear we shall also appear with Him in glory (Col. 3:3-4).

It is highly significant that all these blessings are given freely by God Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ and that they are not conditional upon anything other than our belief in and grateful acceptance of them. The fullness of them is not be found in the earlier blessings given to Israel, nor to the Church of God in the Acts period.

John Dudley Aldworth

Email: john.aldworth@hotmail.com

You are invited to visit the website: Day of Christ Ministries.