About the Book

Table of Contents

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Part V

Part VI

Part VII

Part VIII

     

 Vol.3: Man in Adam and in Christ

     The papers in this volume were published over a period of some fifteen years. The experiences of those fifteen years only confirm in my mind that man is indeed a fallen creature in whom there is no thought, word, or deed that is not corrupted in one way or another. This is the burden of the first Paper, "The Fall Was Down".
     To pretend that human nature has improved or is improvable by natural means is the worst form of deception. Other creatures do not suffer this fatal sickness, except in so far as man has corrupted their God-given instincts -- which are surely nothing less than the laws of God written in their hearts. In this sense, animals (all living things, in fact, apart from man) are still "in God" and therefore part of His kingdom. This is the subject matter of the second Paper, "Nature as Part of the Kingdom of God".
     But man has possibilities which these other creatures do not have, because he was once stamped with something which Scripture calls God's image. Many different interpretations of what this image is have been proposed. The third Paper, "The Terms 'Image' and 'Likeness' as Used in Genesis 1:26", explores some of these and proposes one which has obvious merits of its own.
     Once this image is restored by an act of re-creation on God's part in response to a saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, a new work then begins: the formation of a personality pleasing to God. The fourth Paper, "The Development of Personality: The Old and the New", looks at this process to see how much is entirely new and how much is retained of the old; that is, in what way man is both entirely a new creation in Christ, yet still recognizably the same individual
     The fifth Paper, "The Place of Handicaps in Human Achievement", is really self-explanatory by its title.
     The sixth Paper, "The Subconscious and Forgiveness of Sins", deals with one particular aspect of forgiveness that is not usually 

     pg.1 of  2    

the subject of much discussion -- though it is quite fundamental to an understanding of the distinction between the forgiveness of God in Christ and the kind of forgiveness we can exercise towards one another.
     The seventh Paper, "The Compelling Logic of the Plan of Salvation", deals analytically with the difference between Original Sin, the diseased condition that we inherit as children of Adam, and the symptoms of that disease as they literally work themselves out in our daily lives: in short, the difference in Scripture between Sin and Sins.
     The last Paper, "The Two Species of Homo sapiens", is, I think, an entirely new approach to the meaning of the term "the Body of Christ." It is not a new truth that is being discussed, but an old and wonderful truth arrived at by a different route. And it has profound implications for the child of God, who, after once having walked in newness of life, attempts in a time of spiritual decline to escape from the momentary embarrassment of membership in the blameless family of God in order to recover his status as a man of the world. This Paper shows that such a return can never be successful in anything more than a very superficial sense; and it indicates one of the profound reasons for the failure of all such attempts.

     The Doorway Papers are a collection of writings published earlier by the author. This volume consists of several papers relating to a general theme; as a collection of papers, it is not to be regarded as a unified treatment of the subject, and there may be some duplication of material from one paper to the next.

  pg.2 of  2