There are two great objectives in redemption. The first is relationship. God is working to the end that man may legally become His child, a partaker of His very nature, so that he will be a genuine heir and joint heir with Jesus.
The second objective is to restore to man his lost fellowship. This can only come as righteousness is restored to him. Job 33:26 (ASV) says, “He restoreth unto man his righteousness.”
There can be no fellowship unless man can stand in the presence of God the Father without the consciousness of guilt, of sin, or of inferiority.
There can be no fellowship of the type that the Father craves unless man is utterly free from sin consciousness and free from the fear of Satan’s dominion.
So, the whole redemptive processes have been to the end that He might have children, and that these children should live in the closest fellowship of love and freedom with Himself.
Sonship, then, must be based upon legal grounds. There must be no question as to man’s legal standing in the family of God.
The sin problem must be settled on legal grounds so that God will have a perfect right to impart to man His own nature, thereby making this man an absolute new creation.
The sin in his nature must be driven out by the nature of God coming in.
His spirit must be in perfect harmony with the Father. Man is a spirit. The part of man that had to be recreated was the spirit of man.
His mind is renewed, and his body brought into subjection to the Word.
That constitutes the first phase of a perfect redemption.
Man must become an actual child of God, as truly as was Jesus in His earth walk. This can only come by a rebirth of his spirit, a real new creation of which Jesus speaks:
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.… Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. (John 3:3–7)
James 1:18 tells us that we are begotten of the will of the Father: “Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.”
Two facts are shown here: we are born of His will and we are born of His Word. It is all of God.
Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
That new creation is all of God, wrought through the Word and of the Holy Spirit.
It is a God-planned and a God-executed relationship.
That new creation is all of God. Man is actually a child of God, as that boy is a child of that man and woman.
As soon as he is recreated, the Father begins the beautiful process of renewing his mind.
And be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:2 ASV)
That word “transformed” comes from the same Greek word from which the word “transfigured” comes in speaking of Jesus’s transfiguration on the Mount.
The renewing of the mind will be a transfiguration of our minds.
No one can overestimate this wonderful fact.
These minds of ours have been dominated by the senses, so that all the knowledge that we have has been sense knowledge.
This mind is going to be renewed by the Spirit, and by our meditation in the Word and practicing of the Word, until our mind is in perfect fellowship with our recreated spirit and with the Word.
Few believers have a renewed mind.
Consequently, only a few of them ever get into the deep things of God, and their prayer life seldom becomes a reality.
Only a few of them know the riches of His grace.
First Corinthians 2:10–13 tells how the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God, so that we may know the things that were freely given to us of God. These things we also speak, not in words that man’s wisdom teaches but which the Spirit alone can give.
The renewed mind, coming into this deep, rich fellowship with the Father through the Word, is able to appreciate and understand the wealth of the redemptive work that was wrought in Christ.
Ephesians 1:3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.”
That falls dead upon the ears of the average believer, and yet that average believer is a possessor of all the things that Christ wrought in his redemption.
He has been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
Christianity is the life of God imparted to a man, plus the wealth of the riches of God’s nature that is imparted to us, and the Spirit’s unveiling of the wealth of God that was revealed in Christ in His redemptive work.
It was a faith-provoking thing, a love-stimulating thing.
It revolutionizes the intellect; it thrills the spirit.
It lifts a man out of the natural into the supernatural.
When his mind is renewed on the basis of his sonship rights, he can take his place as a son.
He can enjoy a son’s rights and privileges. He can assume a son’s responsibility and step into all the riches of the grace of God.
This comes when man loses his sin consciousness, his sense of inferiority.
He never does this until he knows about righteousness.
The church is so woefully ignorant of righteousness today. She thinks righteousness only means doing right deeds.
But in the Revelation He gave to Paul, righteousness means the ability to stand in the Father’s presence without a sense of guilt, inferiority, or sin, just as free in the Father’s presence as was Jesus.
The church thinks we will have to wait until we die before this is possible.
It is ours now, in this present, evil world.
Right here, right now, we may have as sweet a fellowship and communion with the Father as Jesus had in His earth walk.
Speaking of the gifts and sacrifices under the first covenant, Hebrews 9:9 (ASV) says, “That cannot, as touching the conscience, make the worshipper perfect.”
The blood of bulls and goats could only cover sin, and the scapegoat could only bear sins away typically.
But when the fullness of time came, and Jesus put sin away by the sacrifice of Himself, then Hebrews 9:14 became a reality: “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
Hebrews 10:1–3, speaking of the first covenant, says:
The law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
There was nothing perfect about the old covenant.
When He came, He made one sacrifice for sins forever. (See Hebrews 9:26.) Then, He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.
He had put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. He had made the new creation possible.
He made remission of sins possible. All the sins we committed were remitted, wiped out as though they never were.
That new creation is to be free from sin consciousness so that the believer is no longer held in bondage to Satan’s condemnation.
Romans 8:1 becomes a reality: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.”
Romans 8:33 says, “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect?” It is God who has declared them righteous.
God Himself has done it.
“Him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21 ASV).
We not only have righteousness reckoned to us, and righteousness imputed to us, but we have had righteousness imparted to us in the new creation.
Ephesians 4:24 (ASV) says, “Put on the new man, that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth.” We have been created out of righteousness and holiness of truth.
That thrills the heart.
The very fact of a new creation and of sonship demands a perfect righteousness.
Could you think of a son who could not stand in his Father’s presence? Sonship would have no meaning, no significance whatever.
We have now a perfect relationship. God is our very Father; we are his very sons and daughters.
Our relationship cannot be challenged because it is based upon the finished work of Christ.
God has wrought it Himself.
When we accepted Christ as our Savior and confessed Him as our Lord, then God Himself, through the Word, by the Holy Spirit’s energy, recreated us, imparting to us His own nature, eternal life.
“He that believeth on me hath everlasting life” (John 6:47).
These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. (1 John 5:13)
He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24)
The death out of which he has passed is spiritual death, union with Satan.
He has passed out of that, by being born out of it.
Now he is in the realm of supernatural life.
Romans 5:17 (MOFF) says, “For if the trespass of one man allowed death to reign through that one man, much more shall those who receive the overflowing grace and free gift of righteousness reign in life through One, through Jesus Christ.”
Here we get the whole picture: through the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, we reign as kings in the realm of life—as conquerors, as overcomers.
That is a triumphant strain right from the heart of the Father, not to become a fact only in heaven, but right here and now.
FELLOWSHIP
Fellowship is based upon righteousness. Fellowship means sharing together.
Marriage is a good illustration. It is partnership. It is getting under the burden as one.
It is an equal exchange, both giving of their best. Another word that it suggests is communion.
That means the two are pouring into the same cup, and they become perfectly one in the blending, just as God says a man and his wife “shall be one flesh” (Genesis 2:24).
That is fellowship. Jesus said, “I am the vine, ye are the branches” (John 15:5).
Our fellowship with the Father is based upon relationship.
Fellowship between husband and wife is based upon relationship.
Fellowship is the one thing that makes married life beautiful.
The law that binds the man or woman together does not make fellowship. It is not the fact that the woman is a good cook and housekeeper, or that the man is a splendid provider and a gentleman at all times.
It is when that man and woman are blended together into one, spiritually, physically, and mentally.
That is communion. That is real fellowship.
We often have in our home life a limited fellowship. In the church, we have a limited fellowship with the brethren; that means we also have limited fellowship with the Father.
It is unlimited fellowship that brings happiness into the home. It is unlimited fellowship with the Father and with one another that brings the richest, deepest joy into the believer’s life.
God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. (1 Corinthians 1:9)
We were called into fellowship with His Son.
This is a heavenly calling.
We are to bear the burdens of Jesus, in bringing a lost world to the knowledge of the truth.
We are fellowshipping Jesus when we go to Africa, India, or China as a missionary.
We are fellowshipping Jesus when we fellowship the missionary who goes with our money and prayers.
Fellowshipping means giving.
I fellowship the missionary by sending him my offerings.
I have been called into this fellowship of Jesus, and now I am fellowshipping the Master and carrying out His will in the world.
The new birth and righteousness are to one end: that we may enjoy the sweetest fellowship with the Father and with the Son.
Fellowship is the parent of real faith. If you find someone whose faith is weak, you may know that his fellowship has been broken, or it is of a low type.
Fellowship between a husband and wife can be easily broken. The marriage is not broken. It takes the court that married them to do that.
This broken fellowship does not break your relationship, but it mars it and robs that relationship of its richest blessings and benefits.
All low-grade faith comes from a low grade of fellowship.
Most Christians have lost their fellowship and are putting duty in the place of it.
They are like a husband and wife whose fellowship has been broken.
The husband brings home presents that only bring tears to the eyes of his wife.
She does not want the presents. She wants fellowship restored.
Broken fellowship is one of the saddest facts of human experience.
Here is a couple who have lived in absolute heaven. Then an unkind word or a thoughtless act has marred their lives.
They are both too proud to acknowledge the fault, and the gulf between them becomes almost impassable because they are unwilling to ask each other’s forgiveness.
The Holy Spirit has given us the way to restore broken fellowship in the first epistle of John.
This short epistle was written to tell us how to maintain our fellowship and how to restore it when it is broken.
That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. (1 John 1:3–4)
Joy cannot be made full without full fellowship.
This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. (1 John 1:5–6)
God is light, and as long as you are in fellowship with Him, you are in the light.
But the instant your fellowship is broken, you go into the dark.
Hatred is darkness. That hatred has blinded our eyes.
But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes. (1 John 2:11)
This man is out of fellowship. He is walking in darkness. He does not know where he is going.
How many Christians are like that! They refuse to walk in the light of the Word.
That means walking in love. Every step out of love is a step into the dark.
If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)
As long as we walk in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses all the blunders and mistakes that we make.
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
But “if we say that we have no sin”—when we have broken fellowship, and are walking in the darkness—”we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just [righteous] to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8–9).
This Scripture is not written to the world. It is written to the church, the family of God.
It has to do with broken fellowship.
The instant that you confess your sins, in that instant, He is faithful and righteous to forgive you.
Now you are to forgive yourself and forget your sins and go on in love with Him.
For you to continually remind yourself of your past errors and sins is to deny the efficacy of His forgiveness and the value of His Word.
My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. (1 John 2:1)
Jesus is the righteous advocate. He can go into the Father’s presence when we are under condemnation and shrink from meeting Him.
He is always righteous. He can always plead our case.
The instant we ask the Father’s forgiveness, Jesus takes up our case before the Father and our fellowship is restored.
There is no need of walking in broken fellowship a minute after you have committed sin.
The devil is the author of that sin.
Then to walk on in broken fellowship, grieving over your blunder, is only adding joy and glory to the devil.
The instant you have done wrong and your fellowship is impaired, ask the Father’s forgiveness and go on in fellowship with Him. (See 1 John 1:9; 2:1–2.)
Restoring fellowship is restoring joy, restoring power with God.
The richer the fellowship, the deeper one gets into the Word.
Deep, rich fellowship means that we go far below the surface in this mine of wealth.
You cannot walk in love without fellowship.
To walk in love is to walk in fellowship.
To live the love life is to live the fellowship life.
It is bringing joy to the heart of the Father.
It is the sweetest, biggest, richest thing the world ever knew, this fellowship life with Him.
The church knows very little about it. Almost no one ever preaches about it, yet it is the heart of the whole thing.
There can be no growth in faith, or growth in grace, or growth in knowledge, or growth in joy, with broken fellowship.
Every person who has lost power with God has lost it through loss of fellowship.
If their faith has been impaired so their prayer life is but a form, it is because fellowship has been broken.
If their joy has all seeped out, it is because the vessel that held it has been cracked; their usefulness and testimony have lost their grip and power. It is mere empty words because fellowship has been broken.
If you want your testimony rich and full, then you must have fellowship that is rich and full.
There are three things that characterize fellowship.
You are taking advantage of your righteousness. You are bearing the fruits of righteousness. What are those fruits? You are now able to pray with the sick, cast out demons, open the Scriptures, and lead lost men to Christ with unspeakable freedom.
There is joy in this life in Christ. When you are walking in righteousness, you are walking as Jesus walked when He was on earth. There is fullness of joy. It is the joy of Christianity that makes Christianity the most attractive thing in the world. When joy goes, the Word loses its power, its freshness, and its richness. It is only when fellowship is at flood tide, and we are walking in the fullness of righteousness, that God is honored and souls are saved.
A third thing is that there will be no development of faith. There is the Word: it is just as rich and full today as it ever was, but somehow or other, the lips seem paralyzed.
There is no longer light on the Word. The sick cry for help, but find no release because fellowship is broken and faith is slowly ebbing away.
Fellowship in its fullness is the joy life with the throttle wide open on a down grade.
Fellowship in its fullness is the soil out of which living faith grows to fruition.
Faith dies on a low type of fellowship.
It shrivels up.
It is like a desert plant.
By taking your place in righteousness, you will find joy in the Word, freedom to use the name of Jesus, and conquering faith that will master every circumstance that confronts you.
Then the maintaining of a rich, full fellowship is vastly important.
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Colossians 3:16).
That is the key. It is the Word dwelling in us in all its fullness, its variety, its beauty, and its graciousness that produces a rich type of fellowship.
It will give place to love. It will produce all the fruits of righteousness. Faith cannot grow rich on any other soil.
A rich prayer life depends on your fellowship.
You must be in fellowship, or you can’t enjoy the throne of grace.
If your fellowship is broken, you know what to do to have it restored.
You can’t afford to stay in the dark; too many issues are at stake.