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May 1930
T h e . K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
| Qrumbs ^Jrom the K ing’s able j gj„— h —„. By t he Ed itor —■— ItoRtoAMTtfiikOGiy Can God Pardon Sm? pajfeagg*HERE is only one answer if we have not a
Can God Give a Pardoned Sinner a New Nature? T HE second question is as vital as the first. It also is unanswerable without divine revelation. Can God take away my desire and tendency to sin ? Can He give to me a real love for holiness? Can God ever make me like Jesus Christ? One of old said, “1 shall be satisfied when I awake in his likeness.” Who would not be satisfied to be like Jesus Christ Himself? Can God do that for me?
divine revelation. When a governor pardons a man who has been convicted of a crime it is evident that there is something the matter with the governor, or there is something the matter with the law, or there is something the matter with the execution of the law. There cannot be pardon in a p e r f e c t state. In Paul’s day, as in
He says He can, and more than that, He says He will. Jesus Christ is made unto us sanctification as well as redemption. I am al ready a partaker of the divine nature. Thank God f o r t h e eighth chapter of Romans. God is able to per fect the good work that He began in us when the Holy Spirit came in as our abiding guest. Christ is able. All his tory demonstrates it. Our ow n experience confirms it. “He is able,” says Peter the denier and blasphemer. “He is a b 1e,” says Zacchaeus, the cheat. “He is able,” says the woman who was a sin ner. “He is able,” says the dying thief. “He is able,” says Paul, the persecutor. “He is able,” says Mark, the coward. “He is able,” says Onesimus, the run away. “He is able,” says the great army of fornicators and idol aters and adulterers a n d drunkards an d
our own, the most ter rible and obtrusive fact in the world was the fact of sin. It was do ing its deadly work on every hand. What an appalling picture of the unspeakable a n d hideous r u i n wrought by sin we have in the first of Romans! It polluted men’s bodies, it defiled men’s minds, it destroyed their souls. It made the past a very nightmare; it made the present a sheer misery; it filled the future with a nameless and terrible dread. The w o r l d is no better today. The whole creation g r o a n s and travails beneath t h e burden of sin. It is the source of all the w o r l d ’ s wo e a nd wretchedness and pain. The vision of th 'e world’s sin would have d r i v e n Paul, as it drove some contempor ary moralists, into bit ter and angry despair, but for one thing—God
A Mistaken Idea J N a recent trip to Washington, D\C., Philadelphia, New York, Montreal, Chicago, and other cities, I met with a large number o f Christian business men and women who are rejoicing over the splendid conditions existing at the Bible Institute o f L os Angeles. But, without exception, these friends are laboring under the delusion that the Institute is endowed. In the fe a r that our readers have the same mistaken idea, let me State positively that the Bible Institute o f L os Angeles is not endenved and never was. Those splendid men o f God, Mr. Lyman Stewart and Mr. Milton Stewart, gave millions fo r great missionary enterprises at home and abroad, but they did not leave any endowment fo r this Institute. Since the death o f Mr. Lyman Stewart we have su f fered fo r the lack o f funds because our many friends think we have plenty o f money to carry on. Most o f us on the present Board o f Directors had nothing to do with the past troubles o f the Institute. The entire Board is in perfect harmony with the present poli cies. We are giving our best to keep the Institute going on the present high standard. I plead with you, my dear friends, in the name o f our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, help us bear this burden, and please do it at once. Faithfully yours,
revelers and extortioners who have been washed and sanc tified and justified, and from the halls of heaven there comes to us a sound as of the sound of many waters, all the hosts of the redeemed, praising the Lamb and saying, “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless b efore the presence o f his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.” And backed by the testimony of all the saints, I say this is not a guess, or a perhaps, but as a matter of certain and absolute knowledge, I know and am
has provided a way to pardon sin. He sent His Son, coequal with Himself, and the Son suffered the penalty of our sin. And when we accept the Son, we accept the pardon which God bestows through Him without violating justice or lowering the standard of His holy law. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begot ten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not per ish, but have everlasting life.” “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the, propitiation fo r our sins.” “On the Cross He sealed my pardon, paid the debt and made me free.” ■
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