|
 Most
everyone soon learns about the relationship between cause and
effect, even if by another name. To the cook, for instance, it
may be the relationship between the recipe and the pie. That
special apple pie is the result (effect) of mixing certain
ingredients in certain proportions and baking according to
instructions. Only that recipe makes that pie.
Even the most conscientious cook could not produce an apple pie
by following a hushpuppy recipe — or, even by partly
using the right recipe. Any alteration of the recipe
necessarily alters the end product. The same is true with the
seamstress who knows cause and effect as pattern and dress or
with the builder who knows it as blueprint and house. They all
well understand that personal preferences and optionals cannot
be substituted for explicit instructions in making that
pie, dress, or house. At least, we hope they understand it when
we engage them to do work for us!
Accordingly,
in the spiritual realm we see cause and effect in the gospel and
the Christian. This important and fundamental truth is set forth
in the Bible under several different figures. First, in the
parable of the sower (Lk. 8), the seed is identified as the word
of God (v. 11), which, when received into the honest and good
heart, achieves its God-intended purpose. Only the pure word of
God can produce that fruit-bearing child of God; that kind of
character God wants in man. The sowing determines the reaping.
Mixing the creeds and opinions of uninspired men with God’s
pure gospel is bound to result in less than that man God wants.
|
|
In
another sense, God’s word is a pattern for men to live by. As
Moses was admonished to “make all things according to the
pattern” (Heb. 8:5), so must God’s will be the pattern for
our spiritual service. All that God says about how men are to be
saved, for instance, is God’s pattern for saving men. That
pattern includes faith, repentance, confession and baptism. (Mk.
16:15,16; Acts 2:38; 8:36, 37; 22:16). Following this divine
pattern produces saved men. Changing the pattern changes
the result, just as with the recipe and the blueprint. Further,
all that men can know about what pleases God in worship is found
on the pages of the NT— and all the NT says on the subject
comprises the divine pattern for worship, nothing more and
nothing less. That pattern includes preaching, singing, praying,
giving and partaking of the Lord’s Supper (Acts 20:7; Eph.
5:19; 1 Tim. 2:1,2; 1 Cor. 16:1,2). This is God’s blueprint
for worship and must be followed if God is to be truly honored.
When
Paul writes of the Romans being obedient to “that form of
teaching whereunto ye were delivered”, he pictures the gospel
(teaching) as the mold or cast (tupos) into which the obedient
is “poured” by submission to be shaped into a Christ-like
character. Thus, following God’s pattern conforms men to His
Son’s image (Rom. 8:29) and makes them to be partakers of the
divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). The honest and good-hearted man
knows that he cannot direct his own steps (Jer. 10:23) and so
yields himself to walk by faith and in so doing becomes the
fruition of God’s eternal purpose, complete in Christ. Dan S.
Shipley
[Previous
Article] [Next
Article]
|
