祂为我们的罪作了挽回祭,不是单为我们的罪,也是为普天下人的罪。(约翰一书2:2)

宣教信息的钥匙是耶稣基督的赎罪。试拿基督任何其他方面的工作看——医治、拯救、成圣;这些都不是无限的。“神的羔羊,除去世人罪孽的。(约翰福音1:29)”这才是无限的。宣教的信息就是耶稣基督为普天下人的罪作了挽回祭,一位宣教士就是被这启示浸透的人。

宣教信息的钥匙,不是耶稣基督的仁慈和良善,也不是祂彰显了父神;而是基督把我们从罪中释放,那是最无限的重点,就是祂为我们的罪作了挽回祭。宣教的信息不是爱国主义,不是单为某国或某人,乃是为整个世界的。圣灵进到我里面,并不投我的喜好,祂来是要带我与主耶稣联合。

宣教士是与他的主联合,他传扬的不是自己的观点,而是神的羔羊。归属于一个宣传“主为我们作过什么”的集团更容易,成为一个热衷于神迹治病或成圣或灵洗的份子是更容易的。可是,保罗并不是说:“我若不传主为我所作的,我就有祸了。”他乃是说:“若不传福音,我便有祸了。(哥林多前书9:16)”,“神的羔羊,除去世人罪孽的。(约翰福音1:29)”这就是福音。

October 15: The Key To The Missionary Message

“And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” 1 John 2:2

The key to the missionary message is the propitiation of Christ Jesus. Take any phase of Christ’s work – the healing phase, the saving and sanctifying phase; there is nothing limitless about those. “The Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world! ” – that is limitless. The missionary message is the limitless significance of Jesus Christ as the propitiation for our sins, and a missionary is one who is soaked in that revelation.

The key to the missionary message is the remissionary aspect of Christ’s life, not His kindness and His goodness, and His revealing of the Fatherhood of God; the great limitless significance is that He is the propitiation for our sins. The missionary message is not patriotic, it is irrespective of nations and of individuals, it is for the whole world. When the Holy Ghost comes in He does not consider my predilections, He brings me into union with the Lord Jesus.

A missionary is one who is wedded to the charter of his Lord and Master, he has not to proclaim his own point of view, but to proclaim the Lamb of God. It is easier to belong to a coterie which tells what Jesus Christ has done for me, easier to become a devotee to Divine healing, or to a special type of sanctification, or to the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Paul did not say – “Woe is unto me, if I do not preach what Christ has done for me,” but – “Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel.” This is the Gospel – “The Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!”