P R O P H E C Y EDITED BY CHARLES L. FEINBERG, Th.D., Ph.D. DIRECTOR, TALBOT THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY Jfc ie e rffrfte& iù tyà
Hebrews 9:24-28 the infinite heights of faith and the exuberant ozone of heaven are ex changed for the restricted and low altitude of sight; man is transferred from a dreamer to a drudge, from a romancer, to a rationalist; from a worshipper to a worker. He is absorbed in his own puny do ings in behalf of man, rather than being awe-inspired through contem plation of what God in His infinite grace has wrought in man’s behalf. There is ever the danger that the child of God shall be so interested in his labors for God, as to lose sight of the mighty doings of God in his be half. There are times when we need to call a halt to our restless doings and rest in the divinely-accomplished work. Peace, sweet peace, is never to be gained so long as we are occupied with self or self-activity. In the upper room Christ showed them his nail- pierced hands and breathed upon them and said, “ Peace be unto you.” First, they must look upon the nail- pierced hands of the resurrected Christ, then experience His imparted peace. Our peace is based upon the apprehension of the finished work of Christ. This order is found in the great doctrinal epistle of the Apostle Paul. The first eleven chapters of the Book of Romans reveal man’s awful state and God’s work in his behalf, to con clude with five chapters of exhorta tion to go forth to live and to labor in the light of this revelation. “ I be seech you therefore, brethren,” says the Apostle. Likewise in the Book of Ephesians three chapters tell of the marvels of divine grace, then three chapters exhort the Christian to “ walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.” Now look at our text and consider what God has done, is doing, and shall do for us: The whole work of redemption for earth and heaven is compressed into the three appearings of Christ. Someone has reminded us; first, that the greatest fact in history
C h r is t ia n it y is not only built about the person of Christ, but He is the source and center of its life. To attempt to separate Christianity from its mystical Head and expect it to survive is as unreasonable as to expect the heart to beat when the head has been severed. The body re mains, but the life is gone. Christ, in defining His relationship to His own, said, “ I am the way, the truth and the life.” Not a way, a truth and a life, for such would suffer competi tion. What Jesus actually said leaves no room for other claimants. Since life, energy and wisdom emanate from Christ, and all of God’s dealings and blessings must flow through Him, there certainly can be no robustness of spiritual health for the believer or the church apart from a keen appre hension and a spiritual understand ing concerning God’s eternal pur poses. To be taken up with the person, the work and the glory of our Lord is to insure the greatest possible bless ing. On the other hand, to divert the attention from Him — it matters not how worthy the cause may appear — is to divert from the center of God’s will and purposes in Christ Jesus. We are living in an age when service is stressed. Society is taken up with humanitarianism; the church has shifted the emphasis from doc trine and consideration of the God head and the laws of spiritual opera tion to that of man and society. This gospel of present-day Christianity is no longer “ good news” of what God has done, but a program of what man may do and become. It seems that Christendom is tending more and more in the direction of humanism — emphasis upon man here and now during his brief sojourn upon the earth — leading to a program which concerns itself with physical, moral, sdcial and intellectual needs. Man is found looking in the wrong direction and in so doing the ocean of eternity is swapped for a mud-puddle of time;
is that Jesus Christ the Son of God has been in this world; second, that the most important present fact is that truth concerning our Lord’s pres ence in heaven for us as our high priest; third, that the greatest event yet future is the return to this earth of the blessed Son of God. A ll of these are displayed in our present text. Hath Appeared as Our Sacrifice (v. 26) “ For then must he often have suf fered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” He hath appeared to put away our sins. How very much is wrapped up in these few words reaching all the way back to the counsels of the Godhead where the purpose was conceived, de picting the flight from the ivory pal aces, winged by love divine, to this earth below, to be greeted by Bethle hem’s manger and the mysteries of incarnation; then to live in His full humanity among the sins so common to this world of ours with its joys and sorrows and disappointments, to be climaxed in the midst of deep sorrow and rejection on a Roman cross plant ed on a hill far away! Surely no lan guage can describe and no words can depict the stupendous magnitude of an event that enlisted the interest of heaven, earth and hell! He hath ap peared to put away sin! This was the climax of all history; the crisis of the world began with our Lord’s first ap pearance. This Christian dispensation opens with the blazing portals of Cal vary after four thousand years of trial and failure. The problem of this world was sin; the need of this world was redemp tion. Christ, the Son of God, was the answer — not by His teachings nor by His example, but by the sacrifice of Himself. Before His coming, tens of thousands of priests had ministered and offered oftentimes the same sac rifices; but these were partial and
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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