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4. Remember Him as the Risen One. The résurrec tion proved Him “the Son o f God with power” (Rom. 1:4). “He was delivered for our offences and raised for our justification” (Rom. 4:25). All preaching that evap orates the resurrection is in vain (1 Cor. 15 :14). Our new life dates from the tomb. His resurrection certifies and seals His redemption, and, assures all believers that they also shall rise in glory (1 Cor. 15:20). 5. Remember Him as the Ascended One. He is our High Priest at God’s right hand (Eph. 1 :20-21), our Advocate with the Father (1 Jn. 2 :1), who, “because He ever liveth,” can “save us unto the uttermost” (Heb. 7: 25). He is the Christian’s Attorney, Who Himself pre sents before the Father the value of His own sacrifice for us (Rom. 8 :34 ), Live the throne life by living in con scious fellowship with the Intercessor. 6 . Remember Him as the Indwelling One. Gal. 2 :20. We may be fully satisfied with His work for us, but we should never be satisfied with His work in us. Is He really a present Companion? If so, shall be able to “do all things through Him” (Phil. 4:13). 7. Remember Hjm as the Coming 4
“O year that is going, take with you Some evil that dwells in my heart; Let selfishness, doubt, With the old year go out— With joy I would see them depart. “O year that is coming, bring with you Some virtue of which I have need; More patience to bear, And more kindness to share, And more love that is true love, indeed.'
Remember Jesus Christ 2 T im , 2:8 . W HOSOEVER abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God.” Such is the plain statement of Scripture (2 John 9-10). However man may pride himself upon his proficiency in the - advanced thought of the day, God is his-^if he receives not the clearly defined doctrine of God’s Word concerning the person of Hi§ Son Our spiritual condition will depend upon our vision of the Christ. We must see Him in the totality,of His work as re vealed in His Word, to expe rience to the full the power of. His presence for service. The New Testament reveals Him in a seven-fold relation ship. 1. We must, remember Him ’ as the Preexistent One. He is the Christ of Eternity, “whose goings forth have been from ever lasting” (Mie. 5:2). He “came forth from the Father" (Jn. 16:28) and re turned to the “glory which He had before the world was” (Jn. 17:5). He was “in the beginning with.God” Qn. 1 :2). One’s conception of His love loses its unparalleled glory when His preexistence is: denied, for Scripture teaches that He laid aside the gar ments of glory to take: upon Himself the form of m an ' and redeem us. 2. Remember Him as the Virgin-born One. So He was seen by the prophets hundreds of years before His: advent: “A virgin shall conceive , and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Isa. 7:14). -The angel informed the Virgin Mary that the Holy Ghost should conceive in her a holy Child, the Son of God (Isa. 9:6). The babe was “God manifest in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16). He could not have so lived and died and risen again unless He had been of miraculous origin. : 3. Remember Him as the Crucified Ohe, “Who His dkvn self bore our sins” (1 Pet. 2 :24)—thè One who was “wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniqui ties’’ (Isa. 53 :5). Suppose He had seen fit to return to the glory from the Transfiguration. Mount, escaping the Cross. It would have been a logical thing to do, but— He would have gone alone and remained alone. By the way of Calvary, He leads a host with Him to heaven. The cross where hung the “Lamb of God” (Jn. 1:29) was a necessity, not. a second thought.. He came to die, not to rule on earth.
One. Rev. 1 :7. •This hope was made an integral part of the Gospel and " early faith ( 1 Thess. 1 :9-10). If you are con scious of a lack of steadiness and power in testimony, be' sure that you have the three elements Paul here defines. The Holy Spirit attaches some importance to it since it is referred to 318 times in the New Testament and 1527 times in the Old. The Christ formed in Eternity, the Christ revealed in time, is coming again— visibly, personally, even as He went away (Acts 1:10-11).
v Why Did He Die? C HRIST did not die to make it possible for God to save men,” said a modern preacher, “but to remove the obstacles in the Way of men’s believing in God. He gave men a new sense of God’s nearness by dying on the cross as a martyr for great principles.” There are many who seem to exalt the- Cross who give it an entirely different meaning from that given in Scrip ture. Only those who have spiritual discernment become aware of these subtle errors. It is difficult to make many church members realize that these up-to-date versions of the Cross are but presentations of the same counterfeit Gospel that Satan for many centuries has sought to sub stitute for the true. The orthodox doctrine of the Cross, we are told by some of the LiberaliSts, is built upon mistaken ideas of the Apostle Paul. But even though Paul is elbowed out of the way, surely the One who died on the Cross understood the pur pose in it. It was He who declared that His life was to be given as a “ransom” (Mt. 20:28), which means “a price paid to redeem another from the curse of the law” (cf. Gal. 3)10, 13). It was He who said that His blood was to be “shed for the remission of sins” (Mt. 26:28).
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