December, 1936
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
465
ever known. He came specifically to redeem men. He was born to bleed. A story is on record that, on one occa sion, Alexander, the Emperor of Russia, passing through a room, found one of his aides-de-camp sleeping at a table and in front of him was a long list of his debts drawn up on a piece of paper. A t the foot were these words : “ W ho is to pay all of this?” The Emperor, without disturbing the sleeper, wrote “ I, Alexander.” Great was the sleeper’s joy when he awoke and found that the Emperor himself had undertaken to pay all of his debts. And this is exactly what Christ has done. “ In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (Eph. 1 :7 ). “ The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (M k . 10 :45 ). “ Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood” (Rev. 5 :9 ). N o one can do justice to the facts of the New Testament and deny that redemption by the blood of Christ is its central doctrine. Paul, writing in 1 Corinthians 15:3, 4, declares: “ I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” “ First of all”— first, not in order of time, but of precedence. The primacy of the atonement is indicated over and over again. Christ was sent into the world, not “ to condemn the w orld ; but that the world through him might be saved.” In the stupendous self- sacrifice of His death, we have thé only expiation to which guilty and fearful consciences can look as absolving the penitent from guilt, and purging the conscience from dead works to serve the living God. There is no other expia tion that can set the conscience free. The realization/that the great sacrifice has been offered for the sin o f the world, and pardon and peace ratified to believers in [ Continued on page 502]
we, in this year of grace, can hardly realize what the life of the old world was without them. The normal condi tion of things “ before Christ” is plain to any student of history. The weak were the natural prey of the strong. Lust and passion were absolutely unbridled. Cruelty was a commonplace. The greedy eyes of refined Roman ladies could gloat over the agonies of men, women, and children being torn asunder by wild beasts in the amphitheater and show no shred of pity or remorse. ’Mankind, left to natural reason, grew hopelessly and utterly corrupt. The Incarnation was a predestined event, and it took place just when it ought to have occurred. T h e P rocess “ Born of a woman, born under the law" (R . V .) The birth o f Jesus is not regarded as the beginning of His being. He was before He was sent. He was from all eternity the Son of God. “ In the beginning was the W ord, and the W ord was with God, and the W o rd was G od ” (John 1 :1 ), “ and the W o rd was made flesh” (John 1 :14 ). Thus in the mystery of the Incarnation, He, who from all eternity had been in the bosom o f the Father, became the woman’s seed that should bruise the serpent’s head (cf. Gen. 3 :1 5 ). The words not only affirm but deny. Nothing is said of another earthly parent. “ And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus” (M att. 1 :1 6 ). There is no “ begat” now. Jesus was not begotten of natural generation. He had no earth ly father. He was conceived by the Holy Ghost. The Virgin Birth may, as Harry Emerson Fosdick says, con tain “ a biological miracle which is unacceptable to the modern mind,” but it is a fundamental doctrine of genuine Christianity. Had our Lord entered upon His human manifestation through the channels that produce ordinary mortals, He would have partaken of a sinful nature and could not have been the Saviour of sinners. “ Made under the law “ He, who was the Son of God, voluntarily took His place under the law in order to ful fill its obligations and in order to pay the penalty for us. “ Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us” - (Gal. 3 :1 3 ). The chosen race had had its opportunity to test and try whether men could by themselves live up to a perfect law when it was revealed, and they had demonstrated that, left to themselves, they could not. The flesh was too weak, and the passions of the natural man too strong; and the law, which in itself was holy, just, and good, was turned into a matter of petty superstitious scruples, and outward ceremonies of worship. But our Lord Jesus Christ came and rendered perfect obedience to that law, honored its most minute require ments, and, in the wealth of His perfect obedience, bore its penalty for those who came under its curse through disobedience. “ For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be ful filled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Rom . 8:3, 4 ). Then the Spirit of the Highest on a virgin meek came down, And He burdened her with blessing, and He pained her with renown, For she bare the Lord’s Anointed for His cross and for His crown. T h e P urpose “ To redeem them that were under the law.” This was His great goal. Christ Jesus did not come into the world merely to give to men a radiant example of lofty living, nor to teach them the highest code of ethics the world has
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter