September 1928
T h e
539
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
Wholly Sanctified
The Perfecting of Saints To H. E. R. B. W e are asked if Hebrews 2:10, where we are told that the Captain o f our salvation was made per fect through sufferings, would imply the necessity of something being added to Him or o f the purging of some thing. from his moral nature. If Christ was perfect to begin with, how could He be made perfect? W e believe that the sense o f the passage is that our Lord suffered in order to become a perfect Redeemer. No child o f God can say that the Saviour was exempt from hardship. He could not be a true. Comrade of ours had He not been a Man of Sorrows, acquainted with grief. He might have founded some new religious cult or have been a great Reformer, but there is no question but that Jesus has gotten into the world’s heart by the things which He suffered. W e must have a Saviour who thoroughly knows the valley o f humiliation through which we have to pass.. “ Though life’s shadows dark are falling, Jesus knows and cares. Though the future seems appalling, Jesus knows and cares. Though the years their griefs are bringing, Our correspondent finds seeming discrepancy between the statement o f 2 Kings 2 4 :8 and 2 Chron. 3 6 :9. The first passage states that Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign and reigned in Jerusalem three months. The second states that he was eight years old and reigned three months and ten days. Some o f the best authorities agree that the figure “ 8” in 2 Chron. 36:9 should read “ 18.” It is so found in some manuscripts (Syriac and Arabic). What Ezekiel says of him could not apply to a mere child. The difference turns upon the omission of the smallest Hebrew letter, yod, which, as a numeral, represents 10. As to the length o f time he reigned, the two manuscripts mentioned above give simply “ 100 days.” This would be, in Hebrew reckoning, three months and ten days as in 2 Chron. 36:9. Our correspondent further points out that one passage makes Jehoiachin’s successor Zedekiah to be his brother while the other represents him to be an uncle. Ellicott’s Commentary says that the word rendered “ brother” in 2 Chron. 36:1 is equivalent to “ kinsman.” — o— Discerning the Lord’s Body To D. S. “ What is it to ‘discern the Lord’s body’ (1 Cor. 11: 29) ? Could the Lord’s body mean the Church, the Bride, or the Body of Christ?” Dr. Ellicott points out that the words' “ the Lord’s body” in this verse are in the original simply “ not discern- Hushing every voice o f singing, Fear ye not, the word is ringing, Jesus knows and cares.” Seeming Discrepancies To R. H. K.
To M rs . M. B. C. P LEASE explain 1 Thess. 5 :23— ‘ The very God o f peace sanctify you wholly ; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming o f our Lord Jesus Christ.’ ” The apostle’s; prayer is that the Thessalonian believers might be wholly “ set apart” for God, that is, in every part o f the threefold nature-—spirit, soul and body. He recog nized that this is a work for God alone, for he adds (v. 24) : “ Faithful is He that calleth you, who also W ILL do it.” There is a progressive work of sanctification going on in the life o f every true believer. It neceSsar.ly must affect the entire man, and Paul shows that the ideal shall be perfectly attained when the glorified believer appears with Christ in His second advent. It should indeed reach a very high state of development in this present life. We have no excuse for being without any o f the graces of the Holy Spirit. W e should note the inspired order here as to “ spirit, soul and body.” The spirit is the highest part of man and is receptive of the quickening influences of the Holy Spirit. It has to do with spiritual insight, worship, faith, hope, love, fellowship. The soul has to do with mental vision, perception, conception, memory, imagination, affections. The body has to do with sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch. We have the knowledge of God and spiritual things through the spirit; the knowledge of the world without and within through the soul ; the physical per ception through the body, God works from above, touchA ing the spirit by the Holy Spirit and illuminating it by His truth. Through this He reaches the soul (emotions, desires, etc.) and through the soul reaches the body with its lusts. The unregenerate starts improving the physical and mental, but never can get higher. His spirit is steeped in slumber until aroused by the Holy Spirit. It needs also to be pointed out that some religious sects go wrong by working too much upon the soulish nature, often pro ducing effects which are mistaken for the manifestations o f the Holy Spirit. The distinction between soul and spirit is of the great est moment. Satan has deceived many children of God. The Spirit o f God uses the faculties o f the soul in a con secrated man as a vehicle for the expression of the life of God, but He does not use the natural forces o f the soul for carrying out His purposes. Dr. Andrew Murray rightly said : “ The greatest danger the religion o f the church or the individual has to dread is the inordinate activity o f the soul with its powers of mind and emotion.” Jude, looking to the last days, warned against reli gious leaders who “separate themselves, sensual [the word is “ soulish” ], having not the Spirit” (v. 19). Men and women who play upon the soulish nature are not fit to direct people in spiritual matters. How important, then, it is that we should be set apart for God -or divinely con trolled according to God’s order— spirit, soul, body !
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