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Grace Abounding In Paul's Ministry
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


    “But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and THE MINISTRY WHICH I HAVE RECEIVED OF THE LORD JESUS, TO TESTIFY THE GOSPEL OF THE GRACE OF GOD.”
    –The Apostle Paul in Acts 20:24.

    “GRACE to you, and peace” (Rom. 1:7);
    “Being justified freely by His GRACE” (Rom. 3:24);
    “we have access by faith into this GRACE wherein we stand” (Rom. 5:2);
    “the GRACE of God, and gift by GRACE…is by one Man” (Rom. 5:15);
    “the abundance of GRACE and of the gift of righteousness” (Rom. 5:17);
    “where sin abounded, GRACE did much more abound…that GRACE might reign” (Rom. 5:20,21);
    “for ye are not under the law, but under GRACE” (Rom. 6:14);
    “not under the law, but under GRACE” (Rom. 6:15);
    “there is a remnant according to the election of GRACE” (Rom. 11:5);
    “if by GRACE, then it is no more of works; otherwise GRACE is no more GRACE…. But if it be of works, then is it no more GRACE” (Rom. 11:6);
    “By the GRACE of God I am what I am; and His GRACE… was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the GRACE of God which was with me” (I Cor. 15:10);
    “that the abundant GRACE might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God” (II Cor. 4:15);
    “receive not the GRACE of God in vain” (II Cor. 6:1);
    “ye know the GRACE of our Lord Jesus Christ” (II Cor. 8:9);
    “God is able to make all GRACE abound toward you” (II Cor. 9:8.);
    “the exceeding GRACE of God” (II Cor. 9:14);
    “My GRACE is sufficient for thee” (II Cor. 12:9);
    “I do not frustrate the GRACE of God” (Gal. 2:21);
    “the praise of the glory of His GRACE” (Eph. 1:6);
    “the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His GRACE” (Eph. 1:7);
    “the exceeding riches of His GRACE” (Eph. 2:7);
    “For by GRACE are ye saved, through faith” (Eph. 2:8.);
    “the dispensation of the GRACE of God… given me to you-ward” (Eph. 3:2);
    “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly…singing with GRACE in your hearts to the Lord” (Col. 3:16);
    “the GRACE of our Lord was exceeding abundant” (I Tim. 1:14);
    “who hath saved us…according to His own purpose and GRACE, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (II Tim. 1:9);
    “Be strong in the GRACE that is in Christ Jesus” (II Tim. 2:1);
    “GRACE be with you all” (Titus 3:15).

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Salesmen And Soldiers
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


It is true indeed that salvation is bestowed by grace and received through faith — entirely apart from works, religious or otherwise. But it is equally true that it costs to embrace the truth and costs even more to stand for it, rather than selling out. This is why Proverbs 23:23 exhorts us to “buy the truth and sell it not”. In this sense we are not to sell the truth. Yet in another sense we are salesmen of the truth, urging men to buy it.

As we do this we find that there are those who would actually seek to hinder men from buying the truth. Yet it is not primarily they who oppose our efforts, but Satan and his hosts.

    “FOR WE WRESTLE NOT AGAINST FLESH AND BLOOD, BUT AGAINST PRINCIPALITIES, AGAINST POWERS, AGAINST THE RULERS OF THE DARKNESS OF THIS WORLD [age], AGAINST SPIRITUAL WICKEDNESS [wicked spirits] IN HIGH PLACES” (Eph. 6:12).

This is why God’s salesmen must also be “good soldiers of Jesus Christ” (II Tim. 2:3). We must make the glorious message known despite the opposition. We must “put on the whole armour of God” and meet our adversaries with “the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God”(Eph. 6:11,17). When they would shut our mouths we must pray for ourselves and each other:

    “…that utterance may be given unto me, THAT I MAY OPEN MY MOUTH BOLDLY, to make known the mystery of the [Paul's] gospel.

    “…THAT THEREIN I MAY SPEAK BOLDLY, AS I OUGHT TO SPEAK” (Eph. 6:19,20; Rom.16:25, 26).

This, by the grace of God, is our prayer and our resolve.

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Disciples And Apostles
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


    “And when it was day, He called unto Him His disciples: and of them He chose twelve, whom also He named apostles” (Luke 6:13).

Many people fail to distinguish between our Lord’s disciples and His apostles. They suppose they are the same. This is incorrect, however, for our Lord had a multitude of disciples while He had only a few apostles. His apostles were chosen from among His disciples, as we learn from the above message from Luke’s gospel.

A disciple is a follower; an apostle is a “sent one”. A disciple is a learner; an apostle is a teacher. There is a great lesson here for us all to learn.

We must come before we can go. We must follow before we can be sent. We must learn before we can teach. We must listen to the Lord before we can speak for the Lord.

“Thus saith the Lord”, was the familiar phrase with which the Old Testament prophets began their messages. But at the head of the long list of Old Testament prophets we find Samuel, a young lad, saying: “SPEAK LORD, FOR THY SERVANT HEARETH” (I Sam.3:9).

Before we can do or say anything for God, then, we must listen to God. This explains why the reading and study of the Word of God is so important.

First, salvation itself comes by hearing and believing God’s Word, especially about Christ, and His death for our sins. Romans 10:17 says: “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God”, and I Peter 1:23: “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever”. Then, having been saved, we can serve God acceptably only by diligent study of His Word. Perhaps the most important passage in the Bible on this subject is II Timothy 2:15:

    “STUDY TO SHOW THYSELF APPROVED UNTO GOD, A WORKMAN THAT NEEDETH NOT TO BE ASHAMED, RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD OF TRUTH.”

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Understandest Thou What Thou Readest?
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


This was the question Philip asked of the Ethiopian prince as he sat reading from Isaiah’s prophecy (Acts 8:30), and it is a question which we should continually keep asking ourselves as we read the Holy Scriptures.

There are always those among God’s people who do not much care whether or not they understand what they read, if only it warms their hearts! To them the Bible is little more than a fetish. Taking only those Scriptures which appeal to them, and leaving the rest, they actually feel themselves quite spiritual and often talk about believing the Bible whether they understand it or not!

But such “spirituality” is far from genuine, and such “faith” is blind and superstitious at best.

While it is true that the Bible teaches many truths which we believe, although they are beyond our comprehension (such as its opening verse!), yet how can we believe what the Bible says unless we understand what it says? God would have us understand what we read and believe it intelligently. Indeed, true faith will want to know and understand more and more of God’s Word. One who does not care whether or not he understands what God has said is not interested in knowing what God has said at all. His faith is based on his own will rather than on God’s Word, for regardless of the meaning of Scripture, he will take any passage that suits his fancy and use it as he wishes.

How great an emphasis God Himself puts upon the importance of understanding His Word! On one occasion, when our Lord saw the multitudes, He “was moved with compassion toward them because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and He began to teach them many things” (Mark 6:34).

And now that the secret of God’s great plan has been made known, how much more reason there is to study the Scriptures with a view to understanding them! How Paul, by the Spirit, emphasizes this as he writes of his prayers for the saints:

    “THAT the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, MAY GIVE UNTO YOU THE SPIRIT OF WISDOM AND REVELATION IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF HIM:

    “THE EYES OF YOUR UNDERSTANDING BEING ENLIGHTENED; THAT YE MAY KNOW WHAT IS THE HOPE OF HIS CALLING…” (Eph. 1:17,18.).

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Knowing Christ As He Should Be Known
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


John the Baptist introduced our Lord with the proclamation: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (Matt. 3:2). Throughout His earthly ministry Christ was known as “the Son of David”, the king with whom God made a covenant to establish His Kingdom forever.

The Old Testament prophets predicted that Christ would — and He will — reign on earth upon the throne of His father David. While His Kingdom was being proclaimed “at hand”, He walked and talked and ate with men as “the Son of Man”. Wearied with travelling, He sat at Jacob’s well and asked for a drink of water. Pressed by the throng, He got into a fishing boat and addressed the multitudes from the sea. Hated by His adversaries, He was tried, scourged, spit upon, and nailed to a tree. This was indeed “Christ manifest in the flesh”.

With regard to His humiliation, however, the Apostle Paul says, by divine inspiration: “God also hath highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name” (Phil. 2:9).

Again, the Apostle declares that God’s mighty power was “wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, FAR ABOVE ALL…” (Eph. 1:20). He is no longer to be known as “the lowly Jesus”, but as the exalted “Lord” in heaven. And this has its bearing on us too:

“Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now, henceforth, know we Him no more” (II Cor. 5:16). Our blessed Saviour is now to be known as the glorified Son of God, the Great Dispenser of Grace to a lost humanity; the One who in love and mercy “tasted death for every man” (Heb. 2:9).

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Sad, But True
by Pastor Paul M. Sadler


Scripture Reading:

    “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” — I Corinthians 10:12

Heard a story told by a Grace Believer who met another Grace Believer in the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge:

“I was standing in the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge admiring the view when another tourist walked up alongside of me to do the same. I heard him say quietly, as he took in the beauty of the view, ‘What an awesome God.’

“I turned to him and said, ‘You a Christian?’

“He said, ‘Yes, I am a Christian.’

“I said, ‘So am I,’ and we shook hands. I said, ‘Are you a liberal or a fundamental Christian?’

“He said, ‘I am a fundamental Christian.’

“I said, ‘So am I,’ and we smiled and nodded to each other.” I said, ‘Are you a Covenant or dispensational, fundamental Christian?’

“He said, ‘I am a dispensational, fundamental Christian.’

“I said, ‘So am I,’ and we slapped one another on the back.” I said, ‘Are you an early Acts, mid-Acts or late Acts, dispensational, fundamental Christian?’

“He said ‘I am a mid-Acts, dispensational, fundamental Christian.’

“I said, ‘So am I’ and we agreed to exchange Christmas cards each year. I said, ‘Are you an Acts 9 or 13, mid-Acts, dispensational, fundamental Christian?’

“He said, ‘I am an Acts 9, mid-Acts, dispensational, fundamental Christian.’

“I said, ‘So am I’ and we hugged one another right there on the bridge. I said, ‘Are you a pre-trib, or post-trib, Acts 9, mid-Acts, dispensational, fundamental Christian?’

“He said, ‘I am a pre-trib, Acts 9, mid-Acts, dispensational, fundamental Christian.’

“I said, ‘So am I,’ and we decided to exchange kids for the summer.”I said, ‘Are you a 12 in or 12 out, pre-trib, Acts 9, mid-Acts, dispensational, fundamental Christian?’

“He said, ‘I am a 12 in, pre-trib, Acts 9, mid-Acts, dispensational, fundamental Christian.’”I said, ‘You heretic, and I pushed him off the bridge!’” — Author Unknown

The above is sad but all too true, with the exception of being pushed off a bridge, although some may have even considered that! Of course, the shoe could have been on the other foot; that is, the weary traveler might have held the 12 out position — heaven forbid! The point is, no matter how deeply our convictions may run on secondary issues, they should never disrupt our fellowship together. Issues such as: Are the 12 in or out of the Body of Christ? Was Paul the author of Hebrews? Should we observe holidays? Was Paul in or out of the will of God in Acts 21? Where did the Church begin — Acts 9, 11, or 13? And on and on we could go.

Our Fellowship in Christ must rest solely on the Fundamentals of the Faith and the Doctrines of Grace found in Ephesians 4:4-6. There is no room for further discussion on these matters. On other areas of the Word of God where we may find ourselves in disagreement, let us “agree to disagree” in a Christ-like manner. This will help maintain the unity of the Spirit among us and glorify God in the process.

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The Sword of the Spirit
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


    “The Sword of the Spirit… is the Word of God” (Eph. 6: 17).

Of all the spiritual armor which believers are told to “put on” in Eph. 6:11-18, there is only one offensive weapon. This is “the Sword of the Spirit… the Word of God.” The Bible is called “the Sword of the Spirit,” because the Spirit of God is its Author. It is called “the Sword of the Spirit” because, thus written by God who knows all, it can cut deeply. This makes it, for the believer, a formidable weapon against Satan and the forces of evil. We are told in Heb. 4:12,13:

    “The Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

    “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.”

As David said long ago:

    “O Lord, Thou hast searched me, and known me.

    “Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising; Thou understandest my thought afar off” (Psa. 139:1,2).

It is because God knows and understands us so thoroughly that His Word can sometimes cut us so deeply. How wise, then, to bow before that Blessed Book, acknowledge its condemnation of sin and trust the Savior it presents! And, having done this, how wise to “put on the whole armor of God” in our stand against Satan and sin, not forgetting to “take… the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God”!

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It's a Matter of the Heart
by Pastor John Fredericksen


In recent months, my wife’s father has had a series of issues with his heart that required different pacemakers to be implanted. After two previous by-pass operations, there have been justifiable reasons to be concerned about him. So, when we see or call him, we frequently ask, “How is your heart today?”

The condition of one’s heart is just as important in the spiritual realm as it is in the physical realm. It is for this reason the Scriptures say so much about the heart and why Solomon wrote, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Prov. 4:23). The spiritual condition of one’s heart will determine how one responds to the Lord and, ultimately, it will have a huge impact on each of us in eternity.

Since God is “not willing that any should perish” (II Pet. 3:9) and “lighteth [or draws to Himself] every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:9), everyone has the option to be saved from eternal punishment. The Lord seeks with every individual to do what He did with Lydia, “whose heart the Lord opened” (Acts 16:14): drawing him or her to a personal decision of saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. However, because many resist and refuse this internal wooing of the Lord, they remain as some to whom Paul wrote in the Roman epistle: “But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and… righteous judgment of God” (Rom. 2:5).

Thankfully, many choose to open their hearts to the salvation God offers. Countless numbers of people have “call[ed] on the Lord out of a pure heart” (II Tim. 2:22). Hosts of believers today seek to leave behind the regular practice of sin because they “have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you” (Rom. 6:17). On a daily basis, most believers pursue a walk that will please the Lord because “in singleness of heart, fearing God…[they choose to] serve the Lord Christ” (Col. 3:22-24). Many believers are “doing the will of God from the heart” (Eph. 6:6). Those who choose such a path do so because they are choosing to “keep their heart with all diligence.” They do so by regularly taking in the Word of God and applying proper truth to the way they live each day.

It is, of course, possible for a believer to choose a path of sinful living. Every believer can choose to allow his heart to grow cold to the things of the Lord. For those who do, the Apostle Paul warned that, while still saved, they could reach a spiritual condition of “having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God… because of the blindness of their heart” (Eph. 4:18.). Such a condition is the spiritual equivalent of a blockage to the heart. Knowing that as believers “we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ… [and] every one of us shall give an account of himself to God” (Rom. 14:10,12), it behooves every believer to maintain a soft, responsive heart to the Lord.

Dear believer, how is your heart today, in a spiritual sense? If you have made past decisions of sinfulness that have hardened your heart, you can choose to open the door of your heart and begin to live for the Lord again. You can begin today. You can begin to read the Scriptures again, talk to the Lord in prayer, and seek a church where the truths of God’s Word are faithfully taught. If your heart has been faithfully following the Lord, “Praise His Name.” May we all seek to apply the wise counsel from Solomon to “keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”

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Why God Waits
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


St. Peter was not wrong when he declared at Pentecost that the last days had begun (Acts 2:16,17). They had indeed begun, but God had a secret plan to give the world a period of grace before putting down its rebellion and sending Christ to reign.

This secret purpose concerning “the dispensation of the grace of God” is the subject of Paul’s epistles. However, it is interesting to see how Peter’s last message explains the reason for this interruption in God’s prophesied program and the delay in Christ’s return to reign. First, he says in II Peter 3:8:

    “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years years as one day.”

Mark well, this is not our feeble explanation now as to the delay in Christ’s return. This statement was made at the beginning of this time of waiting, at the dawn of the age of grace. But let us go on with Peter’s declaration:

    “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise… but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (Ver. 9).

So the delay in Christ’s return to judge and reign should not be counted “slackness” or laxness, but longsuffering. Thus the Apostle goes on to say:

    “And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation…”

Where did Peter get this information? How did he know about “the dispensation of the grace of God”? Verse 15 explains:

    “Even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you.”

To Paul particularly was committed “the gospel of the grace of God” which we proclaim today (Acts 20:24). Peter recognized this (Gal. 2:2,7,9), and closed his second epistle with the exhortation:

    “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (II Pet. 3:18.)

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Full Assurance
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


It is wonderful to have the full assurance of salvation, and it is God’s will that every one of us enjoy this assurance. Toward the close of his life the Apostle John wrote by divine inspiration:

    “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…” (I John 5:13).

There are three bases upon which believers in Christ may enjoy the full assurance of salvation: First, God urges every true believer: “Let us draw near, with a sincere heart, in full assurance of faith…” (Heb. 10:22). This is the full assurance that results from simply believing God; much as a child implicitly believes what his father has said and is absolutely sure that it is true. God says: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life” (John 3:36). We may simply — and with good reason — believe His Word and enjoy the full assurance of faith.

Second, we may enjoy what Heb. 6:11 calls “the full assurance of hope.” The hope of the Bible, however, must not be confused with wishing. The Christian’s “hope” is “an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast” (Ver. 19). It comes from having proved God. Thus the full assurance of hope is the confidence that results from having accepted God’s Word.

But third, and best of all, is what Col. 2:2 calls “riches of the full assurance of understanding.” This full assurance is God’s reward to Christians who study His Word and His purposes, beginning with His plan of salvation as revealed in “the gospel of the grace of God.” When one not only believes God’s Word, but begins to understand it he cannot but be gripped by its sublime reasonableness, its powerful logic, and its provision for his deepest needs, and thus he comes to enjoy “all [the] riches of the full assurance of understanding.”

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Peace And Access
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


    “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom also we have access…” (Rom. 5:1,2).

“Being justified… we have peace with God”!

What a priceless blessing! We believers are prone to take this blessing altogether too much for granted. Since the day we trusted Christ and the burden of sin rolled away, most of us have never had another question about our eternal destiny. Hence the danger of taking our salvation for granted.

We often fail to appreciate sufficiently what it means to be able to arise in the morning, go about our business during the day and give ourselves up to unconsciousness at night, always assured that through our Lord’s redemptive work we have “peace with God” and our eternal destiny is secure. Surely this knowledge should overwhelm our hearts with constant gratitude and have a profound effect upon our daily conduct.

The companion blessing to “peace with God” is our full and free access into His presence: another blessing of grace far too little appreciated. Think of the wonder of our free access to God; how He, the Ruler of the Universe, invites us to come confidently before His “throne of grace” at our convenience — “in time of need.”

    “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16).

We should never forget that this high privilege was purchased for us by the precious blood of Christ, and that having thus been purchased, it is His will that we believers avail ourselves of “this grace.” Could there be greater proof of His love for us?

    “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,

    “…a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh.

    “….Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith…” (Heb. 10:19-22).

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The Truth Of The Gospel
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Twice in Galatians 2 Paul speaks of “the truth of the gospel.” In both cases the Apostle had been forced to speak out to defend the purity of “the gospel of the grace of God.”

In Verses 4,5 he refers to his contest with those at Jerusalem who would have brought the Gentile believers under the law of Moses. Among them were “false brethren,” he says, “unawares brought in… to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage: to whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.”

In the second case he refers to a controversy with Peter who, having enjoyed blessed fellowship with Gentile Christians, had been intimidated by some of his Jewish brethren into separating himself from the Gentiles. Concerning this, Paul writes: “But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed” (Ver. 11). Why was Peter to be blamed? Verse 14 answers: Because he “walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel,” i.e., “the gospel of the grace of God,” in which believing Jews and Gentiles are “one body in Christ.”

How we should all thank God for Paul’s vigorous defense of the gospel of grace, under which all who trust in Christ as Savior are baptized by the Holy Spirit into the one true Bible Church (I Cor. 12:13).

Doubtless Paul’s stand for “the gospel of the grace of God” stemmed from the fact that he himself had experienced the truth of this blessed message. As the chief of sinners he had been gloriously saved. All his power and prestige as a Pharisee, all his intellectual achievement, all his rigid Law observance meant nothing now, as in the presence of the glorified Lord he saw himself a sinner, the chief of sinners, and was saved by the matchless grace of God.

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The Holy Spirit Today
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


The believers at Pentecost “were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:4), but the Apostle Paul never anywhere says that all the members of the Body of Christ are filled with the Holy Spirit. It is surely clear from the record that the Corinthians and the Galatians, for example, were not filled with the Spirit, for Paul’s letters to these churches contain much of rebuke and correction. And it is also evident that believers today are not — even the best of them — wholly filled with the Spirit. The filling with the Spirit is now a goal, an attainment, which the Apostle, by inspiration, sets before us. We are not all filled with the Spirit as a matter of fact, as were the Pentecostal believers. While the Spirit does indeed dwell within us by God’s grace, we must daily appropriate His help by faith.

Hence the Apostle now exhorts believers: “Be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18.) just as he exhorts them and prays for them, that they may be “filled with the fruits of righteousness” (Phil. 1:11); “filled with the knowledge of His will” (Col. 1:9); “filled with all the fulness of God” (Eph. 3:19), yet none of us have been filled with any of these.

The reason why we are not automatically filled with the Spirit is another matter, but let the reader not fail to first recognize the fact that while the believers gathered in the upper room at Pentecost were all filled with the Spirit, the believers under Paul, and since that time, have not all been filled with the Spirit. Moreover, while it is distinctly stated, again and again, that the Pentecostal believers were, or were to be, baptized with the Spirit, not once does Paul in his epistles teach that members of the Body of Christ are baptized with or in the Spirit. Instead he exhorts them to appropriate God’s grace by faith so that they may be filled with the Spirit.

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God's Two Poems
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


In Romans 1:18-20 the Apostle Paul declares that ungodly men are “without excuse” because they are surrounded by the evidences of the Creator’s “eternal power and Godhead.”

Our Authorized Version calls the creation, in this passage, “the things that are made,” but in the Greek it is called literally “the poyeema,” from which we get our word poem. The Apostle refers, of course, to the harmony of God’s creation, and is it not indeed amazing how billions of heavenly bodies can continually revolve in the vastness of space and never collide! And are not the flowers, the seasons, the sunsets all part of a harmonious creation, which God alone could have conceived and set to music?

But very interestingly, this word poyeema is used just once more in Scripture. We find it in Eph. 2:10, where it is translated “workmanship.” Let us consider this passage in its context:

    “For by grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of your- selves; it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.

For we are His workmanship [Gr., poyeema], created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:8-10).

Romans speaks of the poem of creation, Ephesians of the poem of redemption, and the latter is the more wonderful. An old hymn says: “‘Twas great to speak a world from naught; ’tis greater to redeem.”

In this poem of redemption which God has composed, we believers too often want to change some word or phrase. We would like this or that in our circumstances to be different. Ah, but this would destroy the meter and meaning of God’s new creation.

Thank God, when we believers go to be with Christ, we will see the beauty and glory of the poem of redemption. Then we will rejoice that He did indeed “work all things together for good” for us.

[nChrist]

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The Spirit Of Sonship
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


    “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the spirit of adoption [Lit., sonship], whereby we cry, Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15).

The position of the believer in the family of God is amply illustrated for us in the Epistles of Paul. In Gal. 4:1-5 the Apostle alludes to the fact that in the life of every Hebrew boy there came a time, appointed by the father, when the lad was formally declared to be a full-grown son, with all the rights and privileges of sonship.

It was now assumed that the young man would no longer need overseers to keep him in check. There would be natural understanding and co-operation between father and son. And so the “adoption” [Gr., son-placing] proceedings took place, indicating that the child, now a full-grown son, was no longer under law, but under grace.

    “And because ye are sons,” says the Apostle, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a [full-grown] son” (Gal. 4:6,7).

This is the position of every believer in Christ. He may, like the Corinthians, still be a babe in his spiritual experience (I Cor. 3:1), but in Christ he occupies the position of a full-grown son, and to grow spiritually it will do him no good to go back under the Law; he must rather recognize his standing before God in grace. This is why the Apostle says in Rom. 8:15:

    “Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the spirit of adoption [sonship], whereby we cry, Abba, Father.”

A recognition of this position will do far more to help us live godly lives than will the “dos and dont’s” of the Law.