The Brotherhood of Christ B y P . W . P h i l p o t t
There is a marvelous oneness between Christ and the believer
l i ne of the great and glorious truths 11 of divine revelation is the fact of v the vital, eternal union that ex ists between Christ and His Church. This truth is so important and blessed that the Holy Spirit has taken the most exquisite figure of human affec tion to describe the bond that binds His heart to the hearts of those whom He calls His own. It is not the love of a comrade, or the love of a brother, or even the more sacred love of a mother. But it is that love which links two hearts in an exclusive un ion that is all their own and into which none other dare intrude. It is the love of the husband and the wife, of the bride and the bridegroom. Even that beautiful figure fails to set forth this union in all its perfec tion; hence several other metaphors are used. For instance, in John’s Gos pel we read of the shepherd and the sheep. Christ is the shepherd and we are the sheep. In the fifteenth chap ter we have the figure of the vine and the branches. He is the vine and we are the branches. In the epistles we have the figure of a building. The foundation is Christ and we are the material that makes up the whole. Then we have the figure of the hu man body. He is the head and we are the members of that body, “mem bers . . . of his flesh, and of his bones.” But the most sublime metaphor is that of the husband and the wife. The Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Corinthians, speaking of the mar riage bond, says when the twain are joined they are “One flesh, but he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.” You may separate the sheep from the shepherd; you may cut away the branches from the vine; you may sever a member from the body; you may tear away the material from the cornerstone and the foundation; you may divorce the wife or the husband; THE AU THO R Dr. P. W. Philpott celebrated his 70th anniversary of gospel ministry on January 10. Dr. Philpott, widely-traveled evange list, conference speaker and writer, is an assistant pastor of the People's Church, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
but there is no line of cleavage in one’s spirit. Oh, what a sanctifying and satisfying truth! I have come to think that all real Christians are equally secure no mat ter what they believe, whether Cal vinists or Arminians. But all Chris tians are not equally happy, and it is because this great truth has never gripped them. There is a tradition that comes down to us from the days of the Passover in Egypt, of two He brew maidens who, on the night that the death angel was passing through the land, were behind the closed door that had been sprinkled with the blood of the lamb. One was seated at the table feasting on the roasted lamb while the other was walking the floor in anguish of mind and agony of heart. She kept wondering if the death angel had passed by. Her sis ter said, “It makes no difference whether he has passed by or not. The blood is on the door and God has said, ‘When I see the blood, I will pass over you.’ ” You see, both were safe, but they were not equally sure. It matters a great deal whether we believe the Word of God or not—it makes a difference in our happiness. In the first chapters of this won derful Epistle to the Hebrews the writer, suggests several blessed aspects of this glorious union. Christ One With Us in Our Humanity Christ is one with us in our hu manity. “Forasmuch,” we read in the fourteenth verse of the second chap ter, “as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself like wise took part of the same.” And in verse sixteen: “For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the' seed of Abraham.” In the first chapter the emphasis is upon the deity of the Lord Jesus. He is “heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of his glory, and the ex press image of his person, and up holding all things' by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” Here He is very God of very God. But in the second chapter He is very
man of very man. In our day many are denying His deity. It is just as great an error to deny His humanity. There is a very popular religion that denies the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ, that denies that God has been manifest in the flesh. John in his epistle tells us that we are to “try the spirits whether they be of God.” Here is one of the tests: “Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: and every spir it that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist.” The only way we can account for Jesus Christ is to believe the story of His incarnation as it is recorded in the Gospels. How can I account for this Man except by believing that the Babe lying in the manger is Imman uel, which, being interpreted, is “God with us”? That is the only way we can explain His matchless ministry, His wonderful teaching, His holy life, His marvelous miracles. We Are Made One With Him in Deity He has made it possible that we might be one with Him in deity. “He is not ashamed to call us breth ren.” It is a wonderful thing to be born of God. The new birth is real and vital. When we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and take Him as Saviour we “pass out of death into life” and “are made partakers of the divine nature.” “He hath redeemed us,” Paul tells us, “from the curse of the law” that we might receive the adoption of sonship. By His death on the cross He closed forever the door of hell for all who receive Him as Saviour. But that is not all. He died “the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.” We receive the spirit of adoption and “because we are sons,”' says Paul, “God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” I shall never forget that night when I accepted Jesus Christ as my Saviour. When I knelt down to pray that night I found myself intuitively calling God, my father. I wonder who taught me to do that? I had thought of God as the Almighty. I was afraid of God. The very name terrified me.
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