"The Knowledge of God" part IV

By E.W, Bullinger

With some He is altogether impersonal. Those who know nothing of Him coin a new name for Him, and speak of Him as “Providence”. Thus they lose the blessed fact that He is their Provider. He reveals Himself as the FATHER for His people in His eternal Love and purpose; the SON with His people in present Grace and future glory; and the SPIRIT in His people, recreating, restoring, and comforting them.

This, however, brings us into another branch of our subject.

In Relation To His Children

Having considered the revelation of our God, in what He has made known of Himself, we are now in a position to know how He has revealed Himself in relation to ourselves, as His children. And, if we include Old Testament Scriptures addressed to Israel and not directly to the members of the Church of God in the Epistles, it is because there is a blessed application which is infinitely more true of us as God’s children. Thus while the interpretation belongs to, and remains true of Israel, it falls far short of what is true, now, of the Church. If that which is spoken of God’s favor to Israel is true; how much more true is it now of the members of the spiritual Body of Christ?

Interspersed with dispensational truth and teaching addressed to Israel, and even to the Gentiles, there are Divine statements which are eternally true independently of all persons and all times. We may not give up these. That would be a very wrong way of dividing the Word of Truth. Therefore, in quoting now and again passages from the Old Testament, it must not be supposed that we are forgetting or neglecting the Divine precept to rightly divide the Word of Truth (2 Tim. 2:15).

In our former paper we confined ourselves to passages where Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were all equally engaged in the salvation and blessing of each member of the One Body. But we now wish to approach the subject from another standpoint. Instead of taking one passage with three different statements, we will take one subject or statement, with three different passages of Scripture. For example, as to:

(1) The Family of Church of God

1. We have the FATHER blessing it with all spiritual blessings. “ALL,” not some; not many; but “all”. “All” that He has wherewith to bless; and “all” that are needful for them to receive. These “blessings” are not entrusted to the keeping (or losing) of the individual members of that One Family, but
2. The SON is revealed as holding all these blessings in inviolable security. They are said to be not in us; but “in Christ” for us (Ephesians 1:3). So that, He as the head of the body, fills “all” the members of the Body with “all” blessings as they may need them, and as they are able to bear and to use them (verse 23). This is the filling up of the ellipsis, “all in all,” which, otherwise, is a meaningless expression. Then we have
3. The SPIRIT revealing and communicating all these blessings to us, and in us, according to the Will of the Father and the work of the Son (1 Corinthians 2:10).

(2) The Quickening of God’s Children

1. The FATHER quickens them (John 5:21).
2. The SON quickens them (John5:21). and
3. It is the SPIRIT that quickens (John 6:63)

(3) The Relationship of God’s Children

1. The FATHER says to each one of these, “you shall call Me my FATHER, and shall not turn away from Me” (Jer. 3:19). And we call Him “Abba”, ie., “my Father” (Rom. 8:15).
2. The SON said, “All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me” (John 6:37).
3. The SPIRIT assures us that all these are “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation! (1 Peter 1:5).

(4) The Teaching and Training of God’s Children

1. Of the FATHER, Christ said: “They shall all be taught of God, Everyone therefore that has heard and has learned of the Father comes to Me” (John 6:45).
2. Of the SON it is written: “They came to Him again; and as he was wont, He taught them again” (Mark 10:1).
3. Of the SPIRIT it is written: That the deep things of God can be learned only
“in the words...which the Holy Ghost teaches” (1 Corinthians 2:13).

(5) The Inheritance of God’s Children

1. It is provided for them in the purpose of the FATHER; and “predestinated according to the purpose of Him who works all things after the counsel of His own Will” (Eph. 1:11).
2. It is procured and possessed in the SON “in whom we have obtained an inheritance” (Eph. 1:11). Our right and title to it being only the merits of His righteousness.
3. The SPIRIT is the “earnest of our inheritance”, the seal which we received on believing (Eph. 1:14).

(6) The Searching in and for God’s Children is similarly spoken of.

1. The FATHER: “O Lord, You have searched me out, and known me” (Psalm. 139:1).
2, The SON declares: “I am He that searches the reins and the heart” (Revelation 2:23).
3. The SPIRIT searches all things, yes, the deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10).

(7) The Salvation of God’s Children

Oh! what a wonderful work Salvation is. It is a great, grand, definite fact; a work

wrought out by the FATHER,
wrought for us by the SON, and
wrought in us by the HOLY SPIRIT.

Salvation is not a mere subject to be preached about; but it is a blessed reality to be enjoyed and experienced. It is not the salvation of man, but “the Salvation of God” (Exodus 14:13; 2 Chronicles 20:17; Jonah 2:9). It is God’s Salvation which He has procured and secured for His people. It is not an “offer” to be bandied about and rejected or accepted by man; but it is an accomplished fact, Divinely purposed, Divinely prepared, and Divinely imparted.

It flows for us from the Will of the Father.
It flows to us through the Work of the Son.
It flows in us by the Witness of the Holy Spirit.
This is the teaching of Hebrews 10:7-15.

There we see that

The will of the FATHER, is the source of our salvation,
The work of the SON is the channel of it, and
The witness of the SPIRIT is the power of it.

This we have more fully set out in verses 5-15.
In verses 7 and 8 we learn that it was the WILL of the Father that His people who were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4) should be saved by the WORK of the Son; and that the WITNESS of the Holy Spirit should reveal this to them in the Word, and in their hearts: and thus be “testified in due time” (1 Timothy 2:6).

This tells us that our salvation, as redeemed, saved sinners, had its origin in the Will of God in eternity past. It was no after-thought consequent on man’s fall. “Lo, I come to do THY WILL.” This was written of Christ “in the volume of the book”.