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D a il$ Devotional Home Readings Connected with International Sunday) School Lessons By FREDERIC W. FARR, D. D. QfV?lfoVVYYYYyYYYY^frlYY''^A'YY9?yWWW9ffiWWW92$?9999W9W99999999999999999999999999P99999V9999P0VVl FRIDAY, Oct. 1. Matt. 2:1-15. The Birth of Jesus. SUNDAY, Oct. 8. Isaiah 9:1-7. The Kingship of Christ.
We are not saved by the incarnation. That would make individual fdith superfluous. Nevertheless it is the foundation of redemption. At this point there is Divine intervention. A creative miracle by the Holy Spirit brought the Son of God into the human family. In Christ Jesus there is an inexplicable union of the perfect Divine and the: per fect human. On his mother’s side he was inseparably identified with human ity. On the Divine side he was separate from sinners. Hip pre-natal name fore casts the purpose of his coming. Other men are born into the world to live. Jesus came into the world to die. He was born with distinct reference to the sin of the human race. If Jesus is not the Saviour, he is nothing. He is not even a good man for he claimed to be the Saviour. He saves from the guilt of sin, from the love of sin, from the power of sin, from the penalty of sin. I John 3:8. He saves from the utter most to the uttermost. Man’s first need is a Saviour.: SATURDAY, Oct. 2. Matt. 2:16-23. The Childhood of Jesus. Jesus must have been a simple, nat ural, lovable child. He learned to walk and talk like other children. He in creased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. Luke 2:52. Only once is the curtain lifted in the thirty silent years. We are given a glimpse of him in the temple at the age of twelve. He is a perfectly normal but precocious child. He is asking, not an swering questions. Children mature earlier in the east than in the west. Twelve years in the Orient may be the equivalent of eighteen in the Occident. We do not know how much is to be included or implied in the phrase “ the things of my Father.” Luke 2:49. It is useless to speculate where Scripture is silent. His filial submission and obe dience are especially noteworthy if not prophetic of his after life. Rom. 15:3.
Jesus was a king de jure from his birth. He will be a king de facto at his second coming. As Son of God and son of David he was royal by Divine and human lineage. The Magi recog nized him and worshipped him. Mat thew wrote his Gospel particularly for the Jews and traces the genealogy of Jesus to David and Abraham. He dwells much upon Christ’s establish ment of the kingdom and therefore his gospel has been called the gospel of the kingdom. Jesus is the only living legal and literal heir to the throne oi David. All other claimants are pretend ers or usurpers. His kingship in the heavenly realm seems in some sense to begin when he takes his place at the right hand of the Father, Luke 19:11, Eph. 1:20, 1 Pet. 3:22, but his complete dominion over all, which he attains in his redemptive work, he exercises through Israel on the earth and his glorified church. MONDAY, Oct. 4. Matt. 3:18-17. The Baptism of Jesus. John’s baptism was unto repentance and he therefore protested against bap tizing Jesus who had nothing to repent of, Thus early did the Saviour identify himself with the race he came to save by taking the sinner’s place. This first act of submission called forth an ex pression of the Father’s approval. For the first and only time in human his tory the three persons o f the Trinity be came manifest to mortal sense together. Each one appealed to a different sense. The. Father was audible. , The Son was tangible. The Spirit was vis ible. The senses of sound, touch and sight formed a three-fold cord not easily broken. The doctrine of the Trinity is above the human reason but not against it. It helps us to apprehend the self- sufficiency of God. It has been called the greatest of all mysteries and the key to all mysteries but it hath no key itself.
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