September 1928
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O ur H igh P riest and M ediator Is Jesus Christ still man then? Not mortal man, to be sure, not corruptible man, not man in the condition in which he exists here, subject to pain, hunger, thirst, weari ness, under bondage to physical laws— that goes without saying. But is He Man? Let Scripture answer: “ For there is one God, one Mediator also between God and man, him self man, Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2 :5 ). Jesus is Man, now B-super-exalted, glorious, immortalized, but M an f ’. God has declared it : that is enough. Indeed He could not be Mediator between God and man, if He were not Man, but He is allied to us as Man, as He is allied to the Father in His Godhead. Therein consists His High-Priesthood also. For a high priest is a mediator, the people’s representative before God. It is necessary that the high priest should be one o f those whom he represents, a man chosen from among the people. “ For every high priest, being taken from among men, is appointed fo r men in things pertaining to God” (Heb. 5 :1). In order that he may sympathize with those whose cause he pleads, that he may know how to bear gently with the ignorant and erring, that in his important office he may be merciful as well as faithful, he must bear the common lot of his people, So did Jesus also, the per fect High Priest of God’s appointing, become one o f us, sharing our burdens, being tempted as we are (though always without sin) and learning obedience by the things which He suffered. Being then, in His resurrection, per fected forevermore, He became our High Priest, carrying our humanity sinleSs and spotless into the very Sanctuary o f God to represent His people in God’s presence. “ For Christ entered not into a holy place made with hands, like in pattern to the true; but into heaven itself, there to ap pear before the face o f God fo r us” (Heb. 9:24.) This He could not have done in His pure Deity, before “ the Word became flesh,” and before He had taken upon Him self the form o f a servant, being made in the likeness o f men. His present position as High Priest and Mediator necessitates His present Manhood. T he M an W ho I s J udge It is God’s wise and righteous appointment that man should nol; be judged but by man. No other being, how ever great or wise, shall exercise this function— yea, God Himself will not do it. “ For neither, doth the Father judge any man, but he hath committed all judgment unto the Son . . . and he gave him authority to execute judg ment becausd he is a son o f man” (John 5 :22-27 ). As in human law a man is to be tried before a tribunal o f his peers, so God will have a Man to judge man—but a Man infinite in grace and truth as God Himself— the Man Christ Jesus. - “H e hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained; Whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead’* (Acts' 17: 31). To deny, then, the present humanity o f our Lord Jesus is to deny His right and title to judgeship. When He comes again He comes as the Son o f man-jg$, the specific title that declares His humanity. “ For the Son o f man shall come in the glory o f his Father [and in his own glory] and then shall he render to every man accord ingJo his works” (Matt. 16:27; Luke 9 :26 ). This also refutes the stra,nge idea advanced by some that Jesus Christ, though raised from the dead in His human body, exchanged bodies again upon His ascension to heaven, and that now He has a “ glorious” body. It is a human infer ence drawn (a needless, unwarranted inference) from the statement that “ flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom
Helping the Helpless B y R obert L. S elle I walked into a church one day And was the first one there fo r prayer. A little bird had found its way Into the church from out somewhere. When I appeared it was afraid, And flew around and round and rounds In frantic efforts to escape, And yet somehow no way it found. I tried in vain to drive it out A t open window or at door; But on and on it flew and flew Until its wings could hold no more! And then it fell, and there it lay, Defenseless, panting fo r its breath; It thought, if birds can think at all, That all I wanted was its death! I picked it | up and,took it out And put) it high upon a tre e j ,X And left it there in its own realm Where, it was happy,, safe and free! I gave,fit what it waited most, A s quickly as it would accept; I could not help it anyway While its own will and way it kept!
whom they had walked and talked, whom they had seen and heard, whom they had beheld with their eyes, and their hands had handled; this same Jesus would so come as they had beheld Him going into heaven, bodily, visibly, palpably. Not only would the coming be in the same manner as the departure, but also that same Jesus whom they had beheld going shall so come again. “ The Lord himself shall de scend from heaven” (1 Thess. 4 :16 ). It follows that that same Jesus is up in heaven now. And so He is. Stephen saw Him there. He “ looked steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory o f God and Jesus standing on the right .hand o f God” — “ the Son o f man standing on the right hand o f God” (Acts 7 :55, 56). Note the unmistakable reference to the present humanity o f our Lord. To Saul o f Tarsus this same Glorious One spake on the Damascus road, “ I am Jesus o f Nazareth whom thou persecutest” (Acts 22 :8 ). The Jesus who was from Nazareth now spoke to Saul out of heaven. This was dis tinctly His human designation.
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