Obtaining

Two intimate friends were once lunching together, and after the host had said the usual grace, “For what we are about to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful,” his friend asked him when he was expecting to have that prayer answered. “What do you mean,” was the reply. “Why,” was the rejoinder, “to my certain knowledge you have been praying for the last twenty-five years to be made thankful: is it not about time that you were thankful?” In the same way in the Christian life there comes a time when we should cease asking and commence obtaining. This is the value of distinction between God’s promises and God’s facts. The promises are to be pleaded and their fulfillment expected. The facts are to be accepted and their blessings at once used. When we read, “My grace is sufficient for thee,” it is not a promise to be pleaded, but a fact to be at once accepted and enjoyed. When we say “The Lord is my shepherd,” we are not dealing with a promise or the groundwork of prayer, we are concerned with one of the present realities of the Christian experience.

Until He Comes

Our Lord Jesus Christ during the latter part of His earthly ministry laid special stress on two great facts associated with Himself; His death (Matt. xvi. 21; John vi. 51; viii. 28; xii. 32); and His coming again (Matt. xvi. 27; xix. 28; xxiv. 27, 37, and 44; ch. xxv.). His death was to be “for the life of the world” and “a ransom for many”; His coming was to be the crown of His revelation and the constant hope of His followers. On the first occasion when the Lord revealed to His perplexed disciples the fact of His approaching death (Matt. xvi. 21), He spoke also of His coming and glory (Matt. xvi. 27) thereby linking the two great events and showing the latter to be the complement and perfect explanation of the former. Then, “on the same night in which He was betrayed,” our Lord instituted an ordinance which was to combine in its full spiritual meaning a reference to His atoning death and His glorious coming; an ordinance which would be a standing to both, and serve for the sustenance and expression of His disciples’ faith in the one and of their hope in the other (Matt. xxvi. 26-29; I Cor. xi. 26).

Hope in His Coming

The fulness of God is the fulness of hope. “That ye may abound in hope.” Hope in the New Testament is a Christian grace wrought in the soul by the Holy Spirit. It is to be carefully distinguished from our modern use of the word as equivalent to hopefulness, just as a mere matter of buoyancy of temperament. The Christian hope will undoubtedly produce hopefulness, but the two are never to be confused, much less identified. The one is the cause, the other the effect. Hope always looks on the future and is concerned with that great object which is put before us in the New Testament. The Christian hope is fixed on the coming of our Lord, and this is a very prominent element of New Testament teaching. It is to be feared that it does not obtain great prominence in much of present day Christianity. Most people look forward, not to the coming of the Lord, but to death; yet the one object of expectation set before us in the New Testament is the coming of our Lord. Now-a-days, the general idea is that death will come, and the Lord may come; but Scripture reverses this and says, “Death may come, but the Lord will come.” There is something in the very fact of dying which is abhorrent to the Christian man. It is not that he is afraid to die, but that he naturally shrinks from that which is ever spoken of in the Bible as man’s “enemy.” “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death” (1 Cor. xv. 26). The Lord’s coming, on the contrary, is a subject of joy, satisfaction, blessedness, and the contemplation of it can do nothing but good to the soul.

Perfect Peace

The fullness of God is the fullness of peace. “Fill you with all…peace.” This brings before us the passive, as joy gives the active side of the Christian life. As with joy, so also there is a twofold peace in the Word of God, the peace of reconciliation and the peace of restfulness. The peace of reconciliation is the foundation: “Being justified by faith we have peace with God” (Rom. v. 1). The enmity has been removed, the barriers are broken down and the soul is reconciled with God through Him Who is our peace. And then comes the peace of restfulness: “The peace of God” (Phil. iv. 7). The soul at peace with God enjoys precious realisation of His presence as the God of peace, and restfulness arises and abides moment by moment in the heart. This again is part of the fullness of life which God intends for us in Christ Jesus, the fullness of His own peace. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee” (Isa. xxvi. 3).

Satisfaction

The fullness of God is the fullness of joy. “Fill you with all joy.” Joy is one of the most important and prominent elements of the Christian life. It is a condition of soul which is the immediate result of our definite personal relation to Christ. There is a twofold joy in the Bible – the joy of salvation and the joy of satisfaction. The joy of salvation comes from the experience of sin forgiven, from the consciousness that the burden has been rolled away, and that all the past is covered in the righteousness of Christ. This was the experience of the jailer at Philippi, who “rejoiced, believing in God” (Acts xvi. 34). It was the restoration of this joy for which David prayed (Ps. li. 12).

The joy of satisfaction is the other element of the fullness of joy. “Satisfaction!” some one answers, “is it possible to use such a word in connection with the Christian life of the present?” Should we not limit this idea of satisfaction to the life to come? Satisfied with what? Not with ourselves, not with our attainments or service, but satisfied with Christ. The Apostle Peter’s glowing words are not to be postponed to the life to come, “whom, having not seen, ye love; in whom, though ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory” (1 Pet. i. 8). This is one of the searching and supreme tests of life – our satisfaction with our Lord.

Abundant Entrance

A Christian man was on his death-bed. He had spent a long life of service in the Kingdom of God, and a friend at his side was encouraging him with the thought of his approaching entrance into the Home above, and the joy of meeting his Lord after all his earnest labour and faithful service. The dying man responded with beautiful humility, “I shall be satisfied if I can but creep into heaven on my hands and knees.” We can easily understand the spirit which prompted these words; he felt that his service was nothing compared with his need of the Mercy of God through which alone he would reach the heavenly Kingdom. At the same time there is another sense in which the words are not rightly applicable to the Christian, for St. Peter speaks of our having “an abundant entrance ministered unto us into the everlasting kingdom” (2 Pet. i. 11). In keeping with this St. Paul was constantly emphasising the Christian life under such figures of speech as “wealth,” “riches,” “abundance,” “fullness,” and he prays that Christians “might be filled with all the fullness of God.” He was not satisfied with a bare entrance into heaven, he wished his converts and himself to have the fullest possible Christian life and experience here below, and then enter fully into the joy of the Lord above. This is the true Christian life, the life of fullness, depth, power and reality; the only life emphasized in the Word of God, the only life that can glorify God or satisfy His purpose concerning us.

Appointment

Shall we not therefore make an appointment with God from this moment? There is no special place of meeting now, only a special Person through Whom we come. Christ our Saviour and our Lord is willing to make an appointment with us, if only we are willing to respond to Him, and definitely arrange to meet with Him day by day.

Walking in Agreement (iv)

God met His people at the Altar of Incense. “Thou shalt make it a perfume…and put of it before the testimony in the tabernacle…where I will meet with thee,” (Exod. xxx. 35, 36). This Altar was in the Holy Place of the Tabernacle, and was used day by day for the daily offering of incense (Luke i. 9). We can see the spiritual meaning of it in the Psalmist’s words, “Let my prayer be set forth before Thee as the incense” (Psalm cxli. 2). The underlying thought is that of worship and communion, for the incense rose day by day in the Tabernacle, so the people of Israel were to worship and commune with their God day by day. The spiritual meaning for us is evident: we are called to daily communion with God through prayer and His Word. In prayer the soul speaks to God; in the Bible God speaks to the soul, and this is another of the meeting places with God. God meets us by appointment in daily worship and spiritual communion.

This everyday experience of prayer and meditation is at the root of all genuine Christian life. It is only as we “wait upon the Lord” that we shall “renew our strength” (Isa. xl. 31) and glorify God day by day.

Walking in Agreement (iii)

God met His people at the Altar of Burnt Offering. “A continual offering…at the door of the tabernacle…where I will meet you” (Exodus xxix. 42). The Burnt Offering was offered in the outer court of the Tabernacle by morning, and it was wholly consumed on the altar. The predominant spiritual meaning was not propitiation, though that element was included, but consecration. It implied the whole-hearted devotion and complete surrender of the offerer; as his gift was was wholly consumed by the fire, so his life was to be wholly dedicated to God. The Christian counterpart of this is very clear in the New Testament. As propitiation is seen in Rom. iii. 25, so consecration is seen in Rom. xii. 1, “I beseech you therefore by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice.” In this whole-hearted surrender of soul God meets with us, and we are thereby enabled to walk with Him.

It is possible that one secret of our failure to walk with God lies just at this point. We have accepted our Lord as the propitiation, but we have not surrendered wholly to Him as our Master and Lord; and yet He can never be wholly our Saviour unless He is also our Lord. The woman with an issue of blood attempted to obtain the blessing of healing without giving Jesus Christ credit in open testimony and confession, and in like manner it would seem as if many professed Christians desired to obtain the benefits of Calvary without yielding their lives to Him in grateful devotion as their Master and Lord. But as long as this is the case, there can be no walking with God. He must be Lord of all if we are to have fellowship with Him. Whenever, therefore, we are prepared to say from the heart, “Here we offer and present unto Thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy and living sacrifice unto Thee,” we shall find that He will meet with us and enable us to walk step by step…

Walking in Agreement (ii)

God met His people at the Mercy Seat. “There I will meet with thee” (Exodus xxv. 22). The Mercy Seat was in the Holy of Holies, and was approached only once a year by the High Priest alone. He brought the blood of sacrifice with him, and sprinkled that blood in front of and upon the Mercy Seat; the Holy Ghost thus signifying that God and His people were now at peace, reconciled on the basis of sacrifice. The predominant thought of the Mercy Seat was that of propitiation, and in that propitiation God “met His people by appointment.” For us today the spiritual meaning and antitype are found in the Cross of Christ. “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood” (Rom. iii. 25). God meets us by appointment at the Cross, and fellowship with Him is only possible on the basis of that sacrifice. The intimate connection of the believer with the Cross of Christ is not to be limited to the moment of conversion, or even to the elementary experiences of the Christian life. The death of Christ touches the Christian life at all points and at all times, and is concerned with the deepest and most mature experiences of the Christian soul. The teaching of the Apostle Paul (Rom. vi.; Col. v.) clearly connects the death of our Lord with the whole course of our Christian life. We are not only justified by His blood (Rom. v. 9), we are also sanctified thereby (Heb. xiii. 12). Never for an instant can we get away from or pass beyond the power of the propitiation of Calvary; it is there that God continues to meet with us day by day, and at this meeting place we have the first part of a truly blessed walk with our Heavenly Father.

Walking in Agreement

How then can this life of walking with God be realised? “Can two walk together except they be agreed?” We know how true this is in an earthly walk. The two friends must be agreed as to the time of starting, the direction of the walk, and also as to the topics of conversation.

In like manner, there must be “agreement” between God and the believer if there is to be a walk together. What, however, does it really mean for the believer and his God to “be agreed”? In the margin of the R.V. there is a very interesting reading – “Can two walk together, except they make an appointment?” A still closer rendering of the Hebrew would be, “Except they meet by appointment.” In the proper interpretation of this word lies the secret of walking with God. The Hebrew root from which the word comes is used in connection with the Jewish Tabernacle, which it will be remembered is, literally, “the tent of meeting,” and there are three passages in particular which suggest to us the secret of walking with God.

To be continued…

Friends Indeed

One man and one man only in the Old Testament has the great privilege of being called “the friend of God” (2 Chron. xx. 7; Isa. xli. 8; James ii. 23); and to this very day in the Arabian desert Abraham is spoken of as El Khalil, God’s friend. But this very title is applied in the New Testament to all the Master’s disciples: “I have called you friends” (John xv. 15), “Ye are My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you” (John xv. 14).

Friends of God

Enoch and Noah seem to represent the two aspects of the Christian life – the inner and outer; character and conduct; contemplation and its action. It is not quite correct to imagine Enoch as living entirely the life of adoration, contemplation and communion, for we are told (Jude 14, 15) of his faithful testimony to the ungodly around him, and no one can be so faithful amidst surrounding idolatry and wickedness without experiencing opposition and real discipline of soul. In the case of Noah, however, there is no possible doubt about his being a man of affairs, a practical, hard-working servant of God who in the midst of his labours and testimony was nevertheless enabled to walk with God. It is impossible, therefore, for anyone to say that this walk with God is impracticable and beyond our power. What man has done, man can do, for the grace of God is the same in all ages and the Lord is “rich unto all that call upon Him.”

Prepositions

It is interesting to note the various prepositions that are found in Scripture connected with the Christian walk. “Walk before me” (Gen. xvii. 1). Abraham is called to sincerity, to live his life in the presence of God. “Ye shall walk after the Lord your God” (Deut. xiii. 4). The believer is also required to follow God in close, careful obedience. “As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him” (Col. ii. 6). The believer is commanded to walk in union with his Lord. But highest of all we read of walking “humbly with God” (Mic. vi. 8). This is our highest and truest companionship, keeping step with God day by day.

Walking Together in Love

Dead people do not walk, and it is impossible to think of a Christian “walking” until we realise that he possesses spiritual life in order to enable him to do so. “He that hath the Son that life,” and when we receive into our hearts by faith the life of God in Christ we have the certain guarantee of our Christian walk.

The Christian walk means activity in Christ and for Him. The life is not to be quiescent, but energetic. The proof of our possession of life lies in our Christian walk.

The Christian walk is not a solitary one, for, there is companionship in it; the Christian does not go it alone. This is true with reference to our fellow-Christians, and the New Testament is very clear in its emphasis on Christian love and fellowship. A purely individualistic Christian is no Christian at all. A solitary Christian is an utter misnomer. No one can be a New Testament Christian apart from fellowship with other Christians. In this companionship there is joy and strength and inspiration, and truly to be a saint in the Bible meaning of that word requires an experience of “the Communion of Saints.”

The Walk

The Christian life is described and illustrated in Holy Scripture by means of several faculties and actions of the human body. Sometimes the eye is used: “Look unto Me, and be ye saved” (Isa. xlv. 22). At others times the ear is mentioned: “Hear, and your soul shall live” (Isa. lv. 3). Yet again we have the hand: “Let him take hold of my strength” (Isa. xxvii. 5). And not infrequently the mouth is employed: “O taste and see that the Lord is good” (Ps. xxxiv. 8). But perhaps the commonest, and in some respects the most suggestive, is the illustration of the “walk” which is found very frequently both in the Old and the New Testaments. In the Epistle to the Ephesians the metaphor of “walking” is found no less than seven times. There is a remarkable appropriateness in this use of the metaphor to express the Christian life. Walking is one of the few perfect forms of exercise, those in which all parts of the body are brought into play; and its suggestiveness and appropriateness for Christianity are evident when we remember that religion is intended to affect with vital, practical reality every part of our being, and that every faculty of our nature is to be exercised to the fullness possible extent, “ever, only, all” for God.

Lift Up Your Heads

Prophecy is history written beforehand. With God promise is reality, truth is fact. In the coming of the Lord is the hope of the world. It is not the “larger hope” but the “blessed hope” that is the true and substantial hope of God’s people and all humanity; and this revelation of eternal Kingship makes its claim upon us, and is intended to elicit a response of joyful confidence. We are to live and work in the light of this glorious day. It will give tone and power to our service, it will save us from despair, it will give fibre and force to all our endeavors, it will make us radiantly optimistic and never gloomily pessimistic. Not for an instance must we ever be discouraged, even by the gravest problems in the present condition of the world. “He must reign, He shall reign.” There must be no looking backward, even to what are called the “good old days.” Doubtless they were good old days; but as God is true, as Christ is real, as the Spirit is powerful, the present days are better, and the best is yet to come. Never must we tremble for the ark of God, though may well tremble for everything else. “Cease ye from man,” and live and work only in the light of “glorious day that is coming by-and-by.”

All Power

Most modern Lives of Christ begin in Bethlehem and end at Olivet, but the New Testament begins earlier and continues later. There is nothing more definite, clear, and unmistakable in the New Testament than the truth of our Lord’s present life and service in heaven. His work on earth is finished, but not so His work in heaven. He intercedes, He bestows the Spirit, He guides the Church, He is interested in individuals, He uses people, He controls affairs. We hear a great deal of going “Back to Christ.” The truer expression is “Up to Christ”; to the Christ on the throne – the living, exalted, and ever-present Lord. The Book of the Acts of the Apostles is really the Book of the Acts of the Ascended Christ; and this revelation of our Lord’s perpetual presence makes its claim upon us. How can we talk of retrenchment when “all things are ours” and “all power” is given to Christ for us?

Provision

Pentecost means power to live, to labour, to love; power to work, to witness, to wait; power to serve, to stand, to suffer; power “to resist, to insist, to persist”; power, if needs be, to die. “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” It means that our Lord’s Divine Power has provided for us all things that pertain to life, godliness and service, and that there is no excuse for barrenness and unfruitfulness. Work done in the energy of the flesh or in the power of mere human enthusiasm will fail, but work done in the power of the Spirit will abide and abound and glorify God; and if we would realise this, and rest entirely for all holiness and all service on the gift of the exalted Christ, our lives would be “satisfied with favour, full with the blessing of the Lord,” and “thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”

On High

Though He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high, it does not mean that He is inactive or at ease in that exalted position. He ascended as Priest; He abides there as Priest and King. This revelation makes it claim upon us, and is intended to elicit a response of spiritual fellowship. The Ascension means entrance into the holiest, and not only for the Lord, but for us. It means access, liberty, fellowship, power, and blessing; and hence the Epistle to the Hebrews can say: “We have a High Priest; therefore let us draw near, let us hold fast, let us consider one another.” The fact that through the Ascension we have all these privileges and blessings should be the means and incentive to spiritual blessing, spiritual fellowship, and spiritual influence. We rob ourselves of blessing, strength, and joy if we do not see in the fact of the Ascension not merely the opportunity of complete spiritual provision, but an absolute duty to appropriate and use that provision for the illumination and satisfaction of our lives.

Raised to be Lord

His resurrection is a revelation of Absolute Lordship. He was thereby “declared to be the Son of God with power.” The Servant of God becomes the Lord of man, and this revelation makes it claim upon us, and is intended to elicit a response of unquestioning obedience. “To this end, Christ both died and rose again and revived, that he might be Lord.” Through that Resurrection, and because of it, we are to yield Him our allegiance. “Jesus Christ our Lord” is the favourite designation of the Apostle Paul, “My Lord and my God” is the adoring submissive confession of Thomas. “Lord and Saviour” is Peter’s repeated title of his Master. “Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.” So He is; and as we realise this and yield Him our loving loyalty, we shall find peace and joy, the power and blessing of resurrection of Him Whom God hath raised up as the Servant of Jehovah, the Lord of Mankind.

Sacrifice

The Lord’s death is first and foremost an atoning sacrifice, and as such is absolutely unique; but there are aspects of this death which we are called to imitate. As a revelation of love it makes a claim upon us, and is intended to elicit a response of grateful self-sacrifice. “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid His life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” Here is the great obligation, “We ought”; here is the great source of that great obligation, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.” In the death of our Lord we have the highest expression of love… That love binds us to Him with cords of devotion. “We love, because He first loved us,” and in loving service even unto death we shall “fill up that which is behind in the afflictions of Christ for His body’s sake, the Church,” and reveal to the world the greatest of all powers, the power of loving self-sacrifice.

Work

Our Lord inaugurated His earthly ministry by His act of consecration in the rite of baptism, with its keynote, “Thus is becometh us to fulfil all righteousness,” and all through the three years, service for God was the dominant note. His preaching, His miracles, His training of the twelve Apostles, all meant work. The entire picture of Jesus in the Gospel of St. John is that of One Whose supreme desire and determination were to do the will of God. “I must work the works of Him that sent Me while it is day” was His constant thought, until at the end He is able to say, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.”

This revelation makes its claim upon us, and is intended to elicit a response of whole-hearted consecration. “For their sakes I consecrate Myself, that they may be consecrated through the Truth.” The Lord’s earthly ministry is a call to steadfast purpose, to strenuous endeavor, and to genuine work for our Master.

“That all our powers with all their might,
In His sole glory may unite.”

Goodness

Christ’s example is a revelation of Perfect Manhood. It was a manifestation of what human nature was intended to be, and what it can be by the grace of God. “Who did no sin.” This is the negative aspect of His example. “I do always those things which please Him.” This is the positive side. The absence of sin and the presence of righteousness are God’s purpose for us also, and this revelation of our Lord’s perfect life makes a claim on us, and is intended to elicit a response of holy character. “Leaving us an example, that ye should follow in His steps.” Conduct is the expression of character, character the result of goodness, and goodness is the outcome of continual contact with God. “The fruit of the Spirit is goodness,” and nothing can make up for the lack of this all-embracing element. Orthodoxy, privilege, opportunity, are all intended only as means towards goodness, and the example of our Lord is a standing testimony to the demand for and possibility and power of holiness of life and goodness of character.

Humility

The Incarnation is a revelation of Supreme Condescension . “Who, being in the form of God, counted not equality with God a thing to be retained as a prize, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of man; and being found in fashion as a man He humbled Himself.”

Humility of mind, heart, and soul is one of the fundamental requirements of true Christianity. Augustine was asked: “What is the first step to heaven?” He answered: “Humility.” “And the second step?” “Humility.” “And the third?” “Humility.” Humility has been well defined by Caroline Fry, in her invaluable little book Christ our Example, as “unconscious self-forgetfulness.” Mark the force and depth in that thought of the unconsciousness of our humility, for conscious humility is none other than the most terrible form of pride. The servant of God who realises most fully what His Master did in becoming incarnate will ever remember that unconscious self-effacement is the one great requisite of all true work for God. “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

Servant of God

The motto of the Prince of Wales is a short but very expressive one: “I serve.” At first sight it may seem peculiar that “I serve” should be the motto of a prince, but a prince is never more really a prince than when he is giving himself to the service of others. The true prince is a servant.

The figure of the Servant of Jehovah in Isaiah xl.-lxvi. is the unique and magnificent contribution of that evangelical prophet to the revelation of the Messiah. In a series of chapters, from xli.-liii. various aspects of the Servant are brought before us; He is a Divine Messenger, a Prophetic Witness, a Suffering Martyr, a Sacrificial Victim, and a Victorious King. Yet in all these offices He is essentially and predominately the Servant.

The idea of Messiah as Servant finds its beautiful fulfillment in the New Testament in the revelation of Jesus of Nazareth, Son of Man and Son of God. From the earliest recorded word, “I must be about My Father’s business,” we have illustration after illustration of our Lord as the Servant of God. “I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but to do the will of Him that sent Me”; “The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

This conception of our Lord as the Servant of Jehovah is necessarily something far more and deeper than a mere picture of Divine love and perfect service. It is intended to have a practical effect on all who profess and call themselves followers of Christ. The “Servant of God” is the Master of men, and His Service which wrought their salvation also bought their lives; and now the Apostolic word says: “Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Cor. vi. 19, 20).

Revelation

It is only as God reveals Himself that we can respond to Him or receive grace to serve our fellowmen. The only adequate motive power for true service between man and man is the revelation of God’s grace in Christ. Altruism is only possible and actually powerful in the light of Calvary.

It is only as we answer to God’s revelation that the revelation becomes effectual in our experience, or energetic in our service. The grace of God has been so conditioned that it requires human reception and response before it can become effective. It is sufficient for all the human race; but it only becomes efficient in those who welcome it to heart and life.

Loyalty and Love

Loyalty to Christ brings with it loyalty to man for whom Christ died; and wherever there is a human being needing help, there the true Christian heart will run, with its glad “Here am I.” We need more and more of this readiness to be at the service of our fellows, for it is by our service for our brother that we best prove our loyalty to our Lord.

Loyalty and love are not mere emotions, but mastering energies. They are not simply feelings, but solid facts. They are not summed up in dreamy sentiments, but in definite sacrifices. In the Bible loyalty and love are always expressed in acts and facts, not in mere aspirations and fancies. “God so loved the world that He gave. Christ loved the Church, …and gave. “Who loved me, and gave.” So it must be with us. Love is proved by labour, by service, by expenditure of thought, prayer, effort, yea, of our very selves. This is the true attitude of the believer as he stands witnessing for God to others. The whole of his life is speaking to all around: “Let me serve you in any possible way.” “Here am I.”

Power

Christianity is Christ, and civilization is not necessarily Christianity. Christianity means the Gospel, and the Gospel means redemption from sin; and it behoves those at home and those abroad to seek to proclaim by lip and life the message of that Gospel as “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.”

Reasonable Service

When the believer says “Here I am” to God, he places himself at God’s disposal. This whole-hearted response is the natural outcome of the reception of God’s relation to the soul. We can see this truth on every page of the New Testament. God comes to the soul, and then man yields himself to God as belonging to Him. “Ye are not your own, ye are bought.” This is the meaning of St. Paul’s great word translated “yield” in Rom. vi. 13, 19, and [the verb] “present” in ch. xii. 1. In the latter passage the Apostle bases his exhortation on the “mercies of God,” on the revelation of God saying “Here I am” to man; and after urging his readers to “present” their bodies as a sacrifice to God he speaks of this surrender as their “logical service,” the rational, necessary outcome of their acceptance of “the mercies of God.” The Gospel does not come to the soul simply for personal enjoyment; it comes to awaken in it a sense of its true life… “Christ is all” to us from the outset; and we should be “all to Him.” There should be no hiatus, no gap, no interval, between acceptance of Christ as Saviour and the surrender to Him as Lord. His full title is “Jesus Christ our Lord”; and the full extent of its meaning (though of course not its full depth) is intended to be realised from our very first experience of His saving presence and power. And if we have never realised this, and if we have been, at least in measure, enjoying His grace without yielding to Him His full rights, now is the time to bow before Him, and with a definite act of loving trust and surrender to say, “Lord Jesus, here am I.”

Presence

A Chinese catechist once depicted the sinner as fallen into a deep and dangerous pit, and helpless and hopeless. First came Confucius, and, looking down, said: “I am very sorry for you. If you get out of that, take care that you do not fall in again.” Next came Buddha, who, looking down in pity, said: “If only you could get up half way, I could come to meet you half way, and so raise you up.” Last of all Jesus came by, and went down to the very depth of that pit, lifted up the poor, wounded sinner, “set his feet on a rock, and established his goings.”

It is the unique and crowning glory of Christianity that it saves mankind by the presence of God in the world. In no other religion or religious system is the presence of God a reality in human life. In Islam He is exalted far above man and entirely separated from human sins and needs. In Buddhism He is lost in the world of nature and has no personal contact with human hearts. In Islam God is lost to man by reason of His transcendence, and in Buddhism by reason of His supposed immanence. The same results accrue from the Unitarian conception of God, and are also manifest in the various philosophical systems which occupy much of human thought today. God is either regarded as dwelling in solitary abstraction and out of all touch with human life, or else He is absorbed in the created world, and in no sense a power over individual hearts.

Only in Christianity are the two great complementary truths of God’s transcendence and immanence preserved, reconciled and balanced. God is assuredly transcendent in all the glory of His unique splendour and divine majesty, but He is also immanent, divinely and blessedly present, in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. The Christian revelation of the Holy Trinity alone preserves God to us as a personal presence and practical power.

To every sinner comes the message, “The Word is nigh unto thee.” Man has not to strive and climb in order to reach up to God and find Him. God is here, waiting to be gracious, not willing that any should lose or miss Him. And it is the entrance of God into the soul that really constitutes salvation. He does not send a gift; He comes Himself. Salvation is not so much a gift as the presence of the Divine Giver. “Here am I.”

Take Us the Foxes

As we consider the Christian life and try to realise something of its responsibilities and possibilities, it will be well for us to ponder afresh the secret of true living, the way to meet not only the extraordinary, but, what is far more difficult, the ordinary demands of daily life. It is comparatively easy to shine on great occasions and to meet special emergencies. It is not so easy to shine on ordinary duties and to meet the momentary requirements of everyday living. We need, it is true, our great experiences, “to mount up with wings as eagles.” Nor must we be without power for times of exceptional pressure, “to run and not be weary.” But far above all we need grace for the little things in life, “the daily round, the common task,” to “walk, and not faint” (Isa. xl. 31).

Union and Unction

When a coin has been long in use, and its impression has become effaced, it is not easy to recall what it was like when it came forth new from the mint. We may also say that words in this respect are very much like coins; usage wears them and often entirely changes their meaning. Something like this has happened to the word “Christian,” though the change in the meaning of the word is due to a very different idea of the fact, a different view of what it means to be a Christian. In the early days of Christianity it was difficult to be a Christian, but nowadays people think it quite an easy and simple matter. In those days it meant very much to be a Christian, for it was a real test of life and character, but to some people in the present day it means practically nothing.

Christians love Christ, because He first loved them (1 John iv. 19). This love shows itself in loyalty. They respond to His call and realise they are not their own but His. His person is the Object of our worship; His sacrifice is the basis of our trust; His life is the standard of our example; His truth is the light of our conduct; His glory is the motive of our endeavors; His coming is the hope of our soul. Christ for us is our atonement; Christ in us is our power; Christ under us is our foundation; Christ around us is our protection; Christ before us is our hope.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Power; He gives the believer power with God in prayer and intercession. He also endues with power in relation to man, enabling the believer to show sympathy with man and do service for God. The anointing with the Holy Ghost is thus the essential feature and necessary equipment of the true Christian life.

The combination of these two elements must ever be kept in view – Union and Unction. The Christian is one who is united to Christ and anointed by Him. When we look at the New Testament we can see that in the Apostolic Church the Christian was not only united to Christ by faith, but was also an active, aggressive worker, fully consecrated and endued with power from on high.

The Power of His Resurrection

Saul of Tarsus, the promising pupil of Gamaliel, who seemed the coming man of Judaism, threw away all his prospects for the belief in Christ’s resurrection, turned his friends into foes, and exchanged a life of honourable ease for a life of toil and shame – surely common sense requires us to believe that that for which he so suffered was in his eyes established beyond the possibility of doubt. (Prof. Kennett)

It is a well-known story how that Lord Lyttleton and his friend Gilbert West left the University at the close of one academic year each determining to give attention respectively during the long vacation to the conversion of St. Paul and the resurrection of Christ, in order to prove the baselessness of both. They met again in the autumn and compared experiences. Lord Lyttleton had become convinced of the truth of St. Paul’s conversion, and Gilbert West of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If, therefore, Paul’s twenty-five years of suffering and service for Christ was a reality, his conversion was true, for everything he did began with that sudden change. And if his conversion was true, Jesus Christ rose from the dead, for everything Paul was and did he attributed to the sight of the risen Christ.

By One Spirit

From the earliest words of the Old Testament we are reminded of the presence of “The Spirit of God” (Gen. i. 2), and all through the Old Testament times we find the Holy Spirit at work filling men with power (Exod. xxxi. 3; Judges xiv. 6), and enabling the servants of God to do their Divine service (1 Sam. x. 10; 2 Sam. xxiii. 2). When we come to the New Testament the presence of the Spirit of God becomes still clearer as we read of His work, His influence upon such men as John the Baptist (Luke i. 80), and also upon our Lord Himself (Luke i. 35; John iii. 34). Still further revelation is given to us concerning the Spirit by our Lord. He is called the Comforter (John xiv. 25), the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit, and His work includes such personal actions as teaching, reproving, speaking, and witnessing (John xiv. 26; xvi. 8, 13). We are thus led to the conviction that the Holy Ghost is God, for no less than God could do that which is attributed to Him, or occupy the position given to Him in the New Testament. He can be grieved by the sins of men (Eph. iv. 30). It is possible to blaspheme against Him (Matt. xii. 31, 32), and to lie unto Him is to lie unto God (Acts v. 4). Hence, in the Nicene Creed we have that remarkable fulness of statement of what the Holy Spirit is, who He is, and what He does.

(a) He it is Who unites us to Christ, and thereby makes us members of “the holy catholic Church” (1 Cor. xii. 13)
(b) He it is Who indwells every believer, and enables us to realize the “communion of saints,” i.e., the union and fellowship of all who belong to God.
(c) He it is Who applies to our souls the efficacy of the atoning Sacrifice whereby we are enabled to receive “the forgiveness of sins.”
(d) He it is Who will be the means of our resurrection hereafter, and for this reason we confess our belief in “the resurrection of the body” (Rom. viii. 11).
(e) He it is Who by His indwelling presence now gives us the pledge, foretaste, and guarantee of “life everlasting,” which will be ours in fulness in the world to come.

Come and See

“Thou art permitted to speak for thyself” [Acts 26:1]. This is what the Gospel desires, and for three reasons:

Hearsay evidence is often erroneous. In this very books of Acts we find glaring instances of the danger of hearsay. The Church was regarded as an obscure Jewish sect, with some peculiar ideas of “one Jesus.” There was a smattering, a second-hand smattering of knowledge; and, unfortunately, we find the same only too prevalent to-day. There is sadly too much second-hand religion, religion gathered only from common report, ordinary conversation, and literary tradition. Very frequently the Bible is condemned without having been read, very often St. Paul’s Epistles are criticized without having been studied. It is simply astounding to find error about the Gospel, and even about simple Bible facts, in many whose position and education warrant something vastly different. There is error, because there is no real knowledge; error, because hearsay evidence is so often erroneous. But we may go further and say that

Christian testimony is only partial. Paul here gives his own testimony, and there can be no possible doubt that the well-known change in his life had a great effect on his hearers, and was a fact they could not get over. His conversion and subsequent life counted for something, and it was as though he said, “I experienced this; deny it, and you say I lie.” St. Paul’s character was questioned by any who dared to deny the change. Yet when we have said all that we can for the power of this, it remains true that Christian testimony is only partial and incomplete. While Christians are what they are, there will always be slips and failures and sins, and I pity the man who takes his Christianity from Christians only. There is no doubt that we Christians ought to show much more of the Christ-life than we do, and may God pardon us for so often being stumbling-blocks instead of stepping-stones. Yet, such testimony, however real, can only be partial, and this leads us to say that

Personal experience is always sure. This was the goal of the Apostle; to this he was trying to lead his hearers; for this purpose he gave his own testimony. He desired Agrippa to test Christianity for himself; not only to hear of Paul’s Christ, but to have his own Christ, confident that Agrippa would find Christ what he himself had found Him. The primal necessity is to get our religion direct from Christ, not to ask this man or that man, not to follow this book or that book, but to go direct to the Book of books and find Christ for ourselves. When Nathaniel questioned whether any good thing could come out of Nazareth, Philip did not preach, or argue, or denounce; he simply said, “Come and see.” Read the Word for yourselves: see who He is, and what He asks, comply with His demands, surrender the life, and the result will be similar to that of the Samaritans: “Now we believe, not because of thy saying, for we have heard Him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.”

Esau and Jacob

An anecdote from Dr. J. Vernon McGee:

Dr. Griffith Thomas was approached one day by one of his Old Testament students. The young man said, “Dr. Thomas, I am struggling with Malachi 1:2-3: ‘I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.’ How is it that God hated Esau?”

Dr. Thomas answered, “I find that passage rather difficult as well. Only, my struggle is with how God could find it to love Jacob.”

Of One Being With the Father

The perfect blending of grace and truth, although unique, is not absolutely conclusive proof of anything more than exceptional Manhood; but as we continue to read the story of Jesus Christ in the Gospels we are soon brought face to face with a truly unique element. He is seen to be entirely without sin.

Pilate and Herod, who were incarnations of cleverness and cruelty, could find no fault in Him.

One of His earliest followers said of Him that He “did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth.”

The universal history of the highest and noblest saints shows that the nearer they approached the infinite holiness of God the more conscious they became of their own lack of holiness, and yet in the case of Jesus Christ there is not only the absence of sin, but from time to time declarations of His own holiness and meekness.

Christianity as a religion is unique in its claim to deliver from sin, and its claim is based on the sinlessness of Christ.

Either Jesus Christ was God, or else He is not a good man.

We find ourselves face to face with the problem of how to account for the Person, life, and character of Jesus of Nazareth. [T]he ordinary factors of life cannot possibly account for Him. Everything in Him is at once perfectly natural and yet manifestly supernatural. He is unique in the history of mankind.

He must be considered. He demands the attention of all true men. The supreme question today, as ever, is “What think ye of Christ?”

Full of Grace and Truth

Grace by itself might easily lead to weakness and mere sentimentality. Truth by itself might easily be expressed in rigour, sternness, severity. But when grace is strengthened by truth, and truth is mellowed by grace, we have the perfect character and true life of man. It is the union of these opposites in Jesus Christ in perfect balance and consistency that demands our attention. Other men are fragmentary, one-sided, biased. He is complete, balanced, perfect. Ordinary men often manifest unequally one or other of these two elements; Jesus Christ manifested them both in harmony and exquisite proportion. There is no weakness, no exaggeration or strain, no strong and weak points, as is the case with the rest of mankind. Still more, there are certain elements and traits of character which are not found elsewhere, such as absolute humility, entire unselfishness, whole-hearted willingness to forgive, and the most beautiful and perfect holiness. Nor must we overlook the wonderful blending of contrasts which are seen in Jesus Christ; the combination of keeness and integrity, of caution and courage, of tenderness and severity, of sociability and aloofness. Or we may think of the elements of sorrow without moroseness, of joy without lightness, of spirituality without asceticism, of conscientiousness without morbidness, of freedom without license, of earnestness without fanaticism.

[H]ow it is that no better man has since appeared, after nineteen centuries? Why should not evolution lead to a still higher type? Yet Jesus Christ continues to tower high above humanity. The acutest examination only confirms the truth of John Stuart Mill’s well-known statement that Christ is “a unique Figure, not more unlike all His predecessors than all His followers.”

The Energy of Grace

Grace is a general word including all those gifts for the spiritual life which have been provided for us through the redeeming work of Christ, and which are bestowed on the soul by the Holy Spirit of God. The word “Grace” is associated with two things: (a) God’s attitude of favour towards His people; His graciousness to us in Christ. (b) God’s action in freely bestowing all needful power and blessing. In regard to the former, “grace” means God’s bounty or blessing, emphasising the freeness of His gift. In regard to the latter, a good modern equivalent for a number (but not all) of the New Testament passages where this word "grace" is found is “energy,” and several of such passages read in this light will show what “His special grace” means for daily living.

“The ‘energy’ of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. xvi. 20; Gal. vi. 18; Phil. iv. 23).

“By the ‘energy’ of God I am what I am” (1 Cor. xv. 10).

To speak of grace is another way of saying that we receive the Lord Jesus Christ in all the glory of His presence and power as the indwelling energy for holiness and obedience. The Holy Spirit applies with power to our inner being the life of our Lord Jesus, and in this is “grace to help in time of need” (Heb. iv. 16). From the earliest moment of the Christian life our need of grace is to be emphasized, and notwithstanding all our growth in grace, and our deepening experience of the love of God in Christ, our need of grace never grows less, but in some respects is an ever-increasing requirement. God’s Divine power has provided “all things that pertain unto life and godliness” (1 Pet. i. 3), and no heart need be discouraged or cast down with the thought of life’s difficulties and perplexities in view of the marvellous and bountiful provision of grace to meet every contingency.

Beating the Bounds

[T]he policy of Elizabeth I and Archbishop Whitgift was neither wise nor true, as the words of so weighty an authority as the late Bishop Creighton amply testify. Speaking of the late Elizabethan Church, the Bishop says –

”It tended to lose the appearance of a free and self-governing body, and seemed to be an instrument of the policy of the State. Its pleadings and its arguments lost half their weight because they were backed by coercive authority. The dangerous formula ‘Obey the law’ was introduced into the settlement of questions which concerned the relations of the individual conscience and God.”

It is only common fairness to say that a great deal of the Nonconformity and Dissent of the past two hundred and fifty years has been no fault of their own, and was for the most part excusable and unavoidable. Our truer attitude would be to follow the advice of Bishop Stubbs when he says –

”The initial question is, How and why are they Nonconformists, how and why are they competing communities? The answer, Simply because they, as communities, hold some points so important as to outweigh the advantages of communion with the Church.”

We shall do well to inform ourselves on the points which Nonconformists consider essential to their position, for there is no better way of arriving at a true conclusion than by endeavoring to understand the opinions of those who differ from us.

We must also bear in mind that a ministry may be historically irregular without being spiritually invalid... when we remember how much of Nonconformity is due to past failures of our Church, we shall be wronging the deepest principles of Christianity if we refuse to admit the spiritual validity, efficacy and blessing of their ministrations. We owe to Nonconformity some of our choicest saints and profoundest theologians, and no one who realizes what the Spirit of Christ is can doubt for an instant the spiritual power and blessing to be found in the Nonconformist Churches:

…the insistence on definite personal relation to God, as urged by the Baptists, the fervour of the Methodists, and the love of the Word of God and earnest expectation of the Lord’s Coming, which characterize the Plymouth Brethren.

The whole truth is not with one side alone. No one can doubt the present divisions of Christendom are a stumbling-block to non-Christians, and no one who reads the New Testament teaching on unity can help deploring the tendency to continual division and separation among certain sections of the Protestant world. Sectarianism has been well defined as individualism run mad, and it would be well for Nonconformity if it could realize more than it does of the corporate side of Christianity and the Christian life.

He Shall Come Again

The coming of our Lord is set before us in the New Testament as the hope of the Church. There are over three hundred references in one form or another to this great event. Not death, but the Lord’s coming should fill the horizon of the Christian’s outlook on the future. This was the attitude of the early Christians, and this should be our attitude if we would be true followers of our Master… no one can think of the Coming of the Lord without finding in it an incentive to holiness, an inspiration to service, and a spiritual joy and satisfaction in the consciousness of reunion with the Master. The Creed simply states, in most simple terms, the Coming of our Lord to judgment, but Scripture goes very much more into detail, and distinguishes between the Lord coming to judge and reward His own people and His subsequent judgment of all men. Perhaps the truth is best stated when we say that the Lord will first come for His people (1 Thess. iv. 14-17), and then at some time afterwards He will come with His people (Jude 14), when they will be associated with Him in the judgment of the world (1 Cor. vi. 2).

Amid all the difficulties of modern life, the differences among Christian people, and the pressing problems awaiting solution, the one expectation of the Church is the Coming of the Lord. While we strain with every nerve to evangelize the world in this generation, our hope must ever be fixed on “that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus ii. 13).

The Lord our Righteousness

“Can believers fall away from grace and be lost forever?” We may perhaps say that the question ought not to be considered from such an abstract and speculative standpoint. We ought not to ask, “Can they”? but “Will they”? Will those that have tasted that the Lord is gracious, and have experienced the sweetness, strength, and satisfaction of His presence, leave Him? Surely not. If the matter were considered solely from the standpoint of abstract possibility; if sin be conceived of as going on unchecked and unhindered, there could not be a doubt that a Christian could fall away and be lost; but we are not to consider this matter in any such speculative and impossible way, but instead to remember the provision God makes, and the means He uses to prevent lapses from Himself. We may assuredly say if we will, “I have a logical conviction that in myself I can fall away, but I also have a moral conviction that, by God’s grace, I shall not fall away.” The Christian is never to be considered in himself, and by himself, but as he is in Christ by God’s grace, and with all the safeguards and privileges of Divine power surrounding and supporting him.

Faith in man answers to grace in God. Faith is the correlative of Promise. Faith renounces self and receives the Saviour. There is, therefore, no merit in faith; it is only the instrument, not the ground, of Justification… or, as we may put it, we are not justified by faith, but by Christ through faith. Faith is nothing apart from its Object, and it is only of use as it leads us directly to Him Who has wrought a perfect Righteousness, and as it enables us to appropriate Him as “The Lord our Righteousness.”

The Blood of Christ

Sin, being man’s revolt from God and the setting up of his own independence, has placed a barrier between God and man. This was symbolised in the Old Testament by the veil of the tabernacle, showing that there was no access, no entrance into the presence of God, except in God’s own particular way. This way was that once a year, and only once, the high priest, divested of all his priestly garments, entered into the most holy place with blood. Before him stood the ark covered with gold, and over which was the cloud of glory. All these betokened God’s character of perfect righteousness and holiness. Then the high priest drew near to this throne of God and sprinkled the Mercy Seat, that is, the cover of the ark, once and once only. Thus, God’s eye rested on blood, and His law of righteousness was satisfied, for the blood was the witness of death for sin. The high priest then proceeded to sprinkle the floor around the ark, that is, the sandy deserts, with blood seven times. Why this? It signified that by means of atoning blood the worshipper could draw near to God and stand accepted and complete.

Now see the fulfilment of this in Christ. First, He suffered outside the camp, that is, in this world. Then, having risen, He ascended into Heaven, into the true Holy of Holies, in human form as Man, and there appears in God’s presence for us, our Advocate, our Intercessor, and our Forerunner, the barriers all removed, the enmity abolished. This is what Paul meant when he said, “Having made peace through the Blood of His Cross” (Col. 1:20). This is what he meant when he said, “Ye who sometimes were afar off are made nigh by the Blood of Christ” (Eph. 2:13), and “Through Him we have access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Eph 2:18). Again, “Having, therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Jesus” (Heb. 10:19). Thus, the veil being rent, the way made manifest, we have peace with God, access to God, boldness to approach Him. Now it is by faith, but ere long by the same Blood we shall enter Heaven, for is it not written, “These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God”? (Rev. 7:14, 15).

The Blood cleanses from the guilt through the Death of Christ. This is what Paul meant when he said, “In whom we have the forgiveness of sins” (Eph. 1:7). This is the meaning of Romans 3:25, “A propitiation for the remission of sins that are past.” This is the meaning of the words in the institution of the Lord’s Supper, “My blood... shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matt. 26:28). But we have more than forgiveness, we have justification; we are reckoned just. Not only are we forgiven criminals, but we are regarded as perfectly innocent men, for Paul says we are “justified by His Blood.”

The Blood of Christ releases from the bondage of sin by the resurrection of Christ. By the resurrection He triumphed over sin, hence the apostle says, “In whom we have redemption through His Blood” (Col. 1:14). Redemption is the buying back, the purchase, the deliverance from the slavery and bondage of sin. Hence it is said that the Church is “purchased with His own Blood” (Acts 20:28), and the song of Heaven will be, “Thou hast redeemed us to God by Thy Blood.” Thank God that, once redeemed, there can be no more slavery for us, for it is written that Christ has “obtained eternal redemption for us” (Heb. 9:12).

But this is not all. A slave may be redeemed and yet have no power to live as a free man. Therefore Christ's deliverance includes the restoration of our sin-weakened powers. In union with Him, His life becomes our life, and we have sanctification by His Blood. Lest any sin should afterward defile and weaken us, we have the assurance that “the Blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from every sin” (1 John 1:7). It is much to know, as we have seen, that His Blood blots out our guilt and opens Heaven but it is much more to know that we are made partakers of His sanctifying virtues, that the holiness of Christ passes into us and that His life becomes the wellspring of a new existence. Thus we go on from strength to strength, until at last it shall be said of us, “They overcame by the Blood of the Lamb” (Rev. 12:11).

This, then, is the need, the meaning, and the power of Christ’s Blood. And now let us accept it. There is no other hope and no other means of salvation.

One Lord, Jesus Christ

“To this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord” (Rom. xiv. 9). “Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am” (John xiii. 13).

We see then how the Creed concentrates our attention on the Person of Christ as the Object of our faith. Christianity is best understood as “devotion to a Person,” and that Person a Divine One, and the devotion is the trustful dependence on Him and whole-hearted surrender to Him. Having thus learned to trust in a Person, we are at once led to know all we can about Him, and especially the most important facts of His manifestation which are brought before us in Holy Scripture.

It is necessary to fix our attention first of all on the fact of our Lord’s Death, which is central in Scripture, Prayer Book, and all history. The meaning of the Death is best stated in one word, “Sacrifice.” It was a sacrificial Death, not the death of a martyr or merely of an example, but of One Who gave Himself for a sacrifice. He died, “the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Pet. iii. 18). “Who His own self bare our sins in His Own Body on the tree” (1 Cor. xv. 3). For this reason we call the Death an Atonement, because it was caused by sin and was for the purpose of putting an end to sin.

The atoning work having been accomplished, our Lord “sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on High” (Heb. i. 3). He has nothing more to offer, for there is no need of anything beyond that one “full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world,” offered on Calvary. The Lord is our High Priest on the Throne, a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. In and through His heavenly Priesthood we have “access into the Holiest,” and can “draw near in full assurance of faith” (Heb. x. 19,22)… When we realize the power and blessing of our Lord’s heavenly Priesthood and His Divine advocacy on our behalf, we realize the completeness, assurance, and guarantee of our redemption, and can rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (1920)

The Righteousness of God

Righteousness by works would mean that we attain it; righteousness by faith means that we obtain it. There is no virtue or merit in faith, for it finds all its value in the Object the One in Whom we believe. Faith thus implies acceptance, reliance, dependence, confidence, all of which are opposed to self-effort, self-reliance, self-confidence.

Christ thus died for two reasons: to rescue the righteousness of God from all possible misunderstanding and at the same time to provide for and secure the righteousness of man.

The Church

(1) We must not overrate the position and importance of the Church. It is only too possible to do this. But it will mean spiritual loss and disaster. If we exalt the Church we are likely to forget Christ. High views of the Church often mean low views of Christ. If we emphasize the Church as the depository of grace we tend to neglect Christ as the Source of grace. If we place the Church between the sinner and the Saviour we may easily shut Christ out of the sinner's view. But if we exalt Christ the Church finds her proper place. If we honour Christ we shall value the Church aright.

(2) We must not underrate the position and importance of the Church. It is only too easy to do this. But this too will mean spiritual loss. The individual Christian needs the Church for fellowship, growth, love, and progress. The world needs the Church for witness and blessing. We must therefore honour the Church, value her life, further her progress, and enable her to realize God's purpose. We must foster Church life, Church unity, Church fellowship in every possible way. We must pray for the Church, that she may realize her high calling and glorify God in the world. Thus shall we be Churchpeople in the truest sense, members of the family of God, branches of the Vine, members of the Body, and stones in the Living Temple. (1920)