A newly re-edited book
By Brother Steve Phillips
A returned missionary from West Africa
CHRIST IS ALL
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain
Phil.1:21
“Christianity is no moral reformation. It is a new creation. Existing raw materials have not been
employed. Nothing in the natural realm is contributory. Our God does not utilize what is at hand to fashion
something new. He did not do so in the beginning. He does not do so now.
“What is seen was not made out of things which are visible -Heb.11:3. All was brought into being by His
Word. He spoke and it came to pass. He commanded and it stood forth. Substance and reality result from
omnipotence.
“And creative power is as surely required to bring forth spiritual life. Darkness is upon the face of the
deep of our hearts [Gen.1:2]. Sin has rendered us more formless and void than the first ancient ocean.
But the Spirit of God is moving over this vast waste as He did then. Order can yet arise out of chaos.
Light may still diffuse darkness. And the God of heaven is still in the business of making men in His own image.
“But it is His work to do so.
“Residual in dust is not to be found the image of heaven. We are of earth. It was into this that the breath
of God exhaled. Then life animated the clay and the image of God was seen. “The Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground” -Gen.2:7. This body, fashioned as it was by God, was not yet in His image.
It was merely the shell; a tangible dwelling. It was an earthly tent to house the Divine. It remained a
lifeless form until imbued with life from above. And the clay had no hand in it. That dust, named Adam, could not arise from where he lay. He had neither power nor will to do so. He was nothing but dust apart from the breath of God.
“Only the Lord of heaven can create something out of nothing; And we are not that creator. Life comes
from above. The image of God in man was a creative act in Eden. It is ever as much so in the church. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus” -Eph.2:10. “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, all things are become new” -2 Cor.5:17.
“The old was discarded. It had no value. It will not be discovered as annexed into the new. An amalgam
of human contrivance and Divine creation will never be forged. Only in the fantasy of an alchemist can the flesh bring forth spirit. They are mutually exclusive realms. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” -Jn.3:6.”“Christ: Head of His Church” for more info