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THE KING’S BUSINESS
well to speak o f an advanced learning, but let us not forget that, as some one has well said, “there is an advance, even in the doctrine o f Christ, which is not prog ress but apostasy” (2 John 9). There is a world o f difference between progress in the truth and progress away from the truth. The Deity o f Jesus Christ: That Jesus Christ Was Very God (1 John iv. 2, IS, 16; cf. ii. 18, 22, 28; v. 5, 9-13, 20). The true doctrine of Christ is not merely that He was divine, but that He was deity; not that He was Godlike, but very God. There is a teaching today which admits that Jesus was divine just as all men are divine, only He was more, so ¿¿that Jesus was the son o f God as all men-are the sons o f God; that there is divinity in us all as there was in Christ. This is false doctrine. Jesus Christ was the Son o f God in a unique sense—a sense which can never be pred icated o f any other o f the sons o f men : He is the; “only-begottën” Son o f the Father; we are-of the “many sons:” We “ become” sons o f God by faith in Christ (John i. 12)/; Jésus never became a Son; He always was such. It makes no differ ence whether you lift humanity up to Christ or bring Christ down to humanity; the very moment you make both equally the sons pf God in kind, you are teaching what is contrary to New Testament doc trine. The claims o f Jesus were for a unique Sonship. The Jews did not attempt to stone Him because He claimed that God was His Father in the same sense that He was their Father also. Jesus claimed that God was his’ifown” Father (John v. 18 R. V .). It is clear frorh the spirit and actions o f the : Jews what they under stood by süch a claim (John v. 17- 31). T o say that Jesus was no more divine than we are is to concede the righteous ness^ o f the judgment which was pro nounced upon Jesus by the Jews and which resulted in His death. This is serious indeed. That Jesus and the Christ Are One and
Inseparable (1 John iv. 2, 3; ii. 22; v. 1). There must be no separation between Jesus and the Christ, such as the Gnostics in John’s day and certain sects today which are a rehash o f Gnosticism would have us believe. Jesus Christ is the same yester day, today, and forever (Hebrews xiii. 8). Jesus is not the appearance which the Christ assumed, nor is the Christ "the appearance which Jesus o f Nazareth assumed. Jesus Christ is one and indivis ible,. To thus “annul,” or “ dissolve,” Christ (1 John iv. 3, literally) is contrary to sound doctrine, and is the mark o f a false teacher and false teaching. That the Death o f Jesus Christ Was the Sacrificial Dying o f One■who Was both God and Man (1 John v. 6). “ This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood.” To hold that Jesus Christ was a mere man and that at His baptism the Christ came upon Him and remained with Him until He reached the cross, at which moment' it left Him—that it was a mere man that came to the Jordan and a mere man that died upon the cross—is to teach what is erroneous. It was Jesus Christ, the divine-human, God-man, very God and very man, who lay in that manger and who hung upon that cross. This' is He that came by water and blood. That the Death o f Jesus Christ upon the Cross was a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of Mankind (1 John iv. 9, 10, 14; cf. ii. 2 ; iii. 16; v. 6). “ Propitiation” means “mercy-seat” and suggests to us the blood- sprinkled seat o f the ark -of the covenant which covered the law o f God. The sprink ling o f blood upon this’ ’“mercy-seat” con stituted a ground on which a righteous God could justly pardon those who had broken His law and yet maintain and manifest His righteousness. So the death o f Jesus Christ is the ground on which a righteous God can give pardon to penitent sinners (see -Romans iii. 25—the death o f Christ exhibits the righteousness o f God as well as, even if not more than, His love). Here, then, we see the perfect harmony
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