Malcolm Webber
In eternity there was the Godhead – in living fellowship. This was not religious observance. This was fellowship. This was not duty. This was spontaneous. This was not church again on Sunday morning. This was life. The very life and nature of God is fellowship – the loving, joyful, delighted, spontaneous fellowship that has existed from eternity within the Godhead!
This is God. This was God before anything else was created. This is pure, uncreated, infinite, eternal Spirit. And in Him is fellowship. And in Him is life.
In eternity, before the creation of the world, before the creation of the angels, before the creation of Lucifer who fell to become the devil, before the creation of man, before the invention of religion, there was God, and in Him was life.
Before the first idol was ever made of rock or wood, before the first philosopher ever thought up his first abstraction, before the first creed was ever written, before the first doxology was ever sung, before Aristotle devised his first system of definition, there was God, and in Him was life.
In this God of fellowship, this God of love, this God of joy and rejoicing, this God of glory: in Him was life.
Life is found only in Him. Life is not found in any of those other things – philosophies, religions, creeds, duties, doxologies or definitions. Life was before them all. Life is not found in anything that has been created. In Him, and in Him alone, is life. And His nature is fellowship. So in Divine fellowship, and in Divine fellowship alone, is life.
That is where we “creatures of time” find life: in eternity – in Him – in His fellowship. Life, and all that life produces – faith, holiness, righteousness, love, the fruits and gifts of the Spirit, church life – are only found in Him – in His fellowship.
In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. (John 1:4)
The life is the light of men. This Divine life – this living, spontaneous, eternal fellowship – is the light of men. Participation in the life and fellowship of God is the Christian life, and is the source of all Christian character and fruit.
And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. (John 17:3)
Fellowship is the very life of God. It is the eternal nature and infinite being of God. It is the very essence and heart of the Godhead. Fellowship is not just something God does in His spare time, when He has nothing better to do. It is what He is. Fellowship is the eternal nature of God. It is His being.
In eternity was God, and in Him was life. And in Him was fellowship. But God did not purpose to keep this life to Himself; and He has invited us to participate in His fellowship – in this same fellowship of the Godhead!
That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. (1 John 1:3)
This is what the Christian life is: participation in the joyful, delighted, spontaneous, eternal fellowship of the Godhead!
About In Him Was Life, by Malcolm Webber:
For many, Christianity is the “lesser of two evils.” We don’t want to go to Hell, so we believe in Jesus, say the sinner’s prayer and become “Christians.” Then we submit ourselves to lives of powerless, dry piety and dull religious observance, thinking that such is Christianity.
In the New Testament, however, the Christian life is a very positive thing. It is a thing of celebration and blessing – a thing of true life.
Christianity is our enjoyment of God, and God’s enjoyment of us. Church life is corporate participation in the eternal fellowship of the Godhead. The purpose of this book is to explore those themes.
In Him Was Life is available for purchase here. To purchase more of our books, visit https://www.strategicpress.org/.