THE K I N G ’ S BUS INESS
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His fellow students hurried to, their Bibles to investigate, and then in turn to examine their own lives; How often the “old man” does show signs of life! You have seen reflex action in a dying animal. It thrashes convulsively at first, and then the movement becomes less and less. If the animal thrashed about indefinite ly, we would begin to suspect that it was not dead after all. How is it with you? Does the old nature stir to life beyond the point of reflex action? Or are you as one who is dead tosih and ,“ alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” ?
from death to life. How much greater is this miracle! The Old Man of Sin God’s Word does not say that we be come sinless when we are saved. But we are to reckon ourselves as being dead to sin. “Our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin” (Rom. 6:6). An ingenious seminary student once made a placard to hang in his room that challenged the curiosity of his classmates. The sign read, “How’s Your Old Man?—See Romans 6:6.”
that gave the blind man sight (cf. John 9:1-11). Yes, it was faith—plus the will to obey! The right of free will does not permit God to do any thing for us that we can do for our selves. We either accept or reject Christ by right of choice. The inference in John 8:12 is that we all are born in sin and blind to the Light of the world. Each of us re ceives spiritual sight, if we do receive it, by the personal touch of the Son of . God, as the blind man in the Gospel record obtained his physical eyesight. It is obvious that those who never have come to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ as personal Saviour are blind. Besides them, there are many Christian backsliders today who are walking in darkness. i Christians who are asleep can be of no possible good to these “ blind” peo ple. . And yet what a need for help is evident on every hand! For example, the records in our de partment show that of the 1,500 indi viduals arrested last year, an alarm ing percentage were teen-age boys and girls. This condition is the same the country over. We face a heartbreak ing story of sin, immorality, vice, de bauchery, and crime.' It is high time we got back to God, back to our knees in prayer. Wake up, Christians! The police can not save this generation of youth. Nor can God save our children if we do not have the spiritual foresight to point the way. They are wandering in confusion in the devil’s territory. They are without compass, often following Christians who have been “weighed in the balances and found wanting.” The answer arises, "Are they Chris tians?” Let God certify the answer. His Word is plain: “By their fruits ye shall know them.” true in the spiritual realm. The unre generate man cannot understand God. He is deaf to God. He does not respond to God. He cannot do a thing to please God. But, by the grace of God and through faith in Jesus Christ, life is imparted to that one who was dead in sin, and he becomes “ alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” It- is at this point that God would have all of us to reckon ourselves dead to sin. God wants us to live as though we were deaf to the beckoning call of sin, altogether unresponsive to sin, but “alive unto God” and walking in "newness of life.” The contrast will be as the darkness of night and the dazzling light of a midday sun. We are to reckon our selves to be dead to sin. We marvel at the mirade of Lazarus’ being raised W H O IS DEAD? [Continued from Page 8]
Dr. Talbot ' s Que s t i on Box
John 2:4). From that time, on, It was His supernatural parentage that He emphasized—He was the only begot ten Son of the Father in heaven. QUE .: What form did God take when He walked in the Garden of Eden? The appearances of God in O ld Testament times were pre-incarnate manifestations of our L o r d J e s u s Christ. God’s appearance in the Gar den of-Eden was one of these revela tions. Sometimes these theophanies reveal the appearance of God in the form of an angel. However, when He is described as “the angel of th e Lord,” or “ the angel of the covenant,” it must be remembered t h a t this “angel” is entirely distinct from the created angels. We read that when God talked to Abraham, “three men stood by him” (Gen. 18:2); and we learn from verse 1 of this chapter that one of the “men” was the Lord. Again He appeared to Joshua as the “captain of the host of the Lord” (Josh. 5:14); He walked with the three Hebrew men in the fiery furnace as the One “like the Son of God” (Dan. 3:25); He was “the angel of the Lord,” before whom “Joshua the high priest” stood, Satan also “standing at his right hand to resist him” (Zech. 3:1). From the con text of these Scriptures, we note that in several of these appearances of our Lord, the descriptive terms are either “men,” “man,” or another which is suggestive ‘ of human form. However, in the light of the fact that our Lord did not receive His human body until he “was made flesh” (John 1:14) in Bethlehem’s manger, we conclude that His appearances in the Old Testa ment period probably were in an gelic form.
Questions for answer in this depart ment should be sent to the Editorial Department, THE KING'S BUSINESS, 558 So. Hope St., Los Angeles 13, Calif. QUE .: Why did the Lord Jesus address His mother as “ woman” ? Was this not a title of disrespect? (See John 2 :4 .) Not at all. When JesuS was on the cross, He addressed her in the same way—“When Jesus Therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he ioved, he saith unto his mother, Wo ma n , behold thy son!” (John 19:26) It is thought by some that in those days the term was almost equal to our word “lady.” It was a title of re spect; for wheft one woman went to Jesus, exercising great faith, and He wished to commend her, He said, "O woman, great is thy faith” (Matt. 15:28). There is, however, no evidence that the Lord Jesus ever used the title “mother” when speaking to M a r y after He entered upon His public ministry. A new relationship had been established the moment He stepped out of His home life at Nazareth, and began His ministry. (See Matt. 12:46;
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