Christianity is NOT a natural life lived on a high moral plane. It is a divine life which is manifested by the “fruits of the Spirit.” That is what is meant by the words “to be born again.” The Lord Jesus Christ said to Nicodemus, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God,”[John 3, verses 3 and 5]. You cannot live a Christian life until you have a Christian life to live—a new life in Christ. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation,” Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17.

Our fourth and final point: All men are readers of our epistle. As an “epistle of Christ,” we are “known and read of all men,” 2 Corinthians 3:2. There are some letters which only a few are permitted to read. There are letters of private business, of personal friendship—perhaps documents which are considered classified in nature. But as an “epistle of Christ,” we are known and read by all men. Once again, we repeat what Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven,” [Matthew 5:16]. It is not God’s Will that we merely do good to be seen of men, or to seek their praise. But, we are to let our light shine before men, to be known and read of all men, to glorify our Father, which is in heaven.

In Old Testament times, there was no message going out into the world such as we have today. Judaism [the religion of the Jewish people] was not a missionary religion. The message written in tablets of stone never went out into the Gentile world. [All people who were not of the Israelite nation—who were not Jews—were called “Gentiles.”] In fact, you never really hear today of the representatives of the Jewish religion going into the world to proclaim the glories of the Old Testament religion. Judaism has no missionary message, or messengers.

But now, things have changed. Jesus commissioned His apostles: “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature,” Mark 16:15. Therefore, the representatives of Christianity, with a world-wide timeless message of salvation, are to be known and read of all men.

In conclusion, let me say that God must write in our hearts. Paul said, “…for it is GOD which worketh in you both to will and to do His good pleasure,” Philippians 2, verse 13. An epistle, if it is to be worth anything, must COME FROM GOD. We often refer to “Paul’s epistles,” or “Peter’s epistles,” or perhaps “John’s epistles”, etc. But if this adequately describes them, then they are nothing! In a TRUE SENSE, they are God’s epistles, because “…men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit,” 2 Peter 1, verse 20. So it is with us. If we are the “epistle of Christ,” we must be of God-written—NOT with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.

As we leave this evening and go out into the world, I hope you remember the points of this lesson: That we are the “epistle of Christ”; that Christianity written on the heart is Christianity in the most legible, the most positive, the most convincing and the most enduring form. And remember that Christianity is a supernatural thing AND that all men are readers of our epistle.