August, 1945
283
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By J. C. Macaulay
Second in a series on the subject of our Lord‘s present ministry on our behalf, this article will be most helpful to every believer.
S O THEN the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken unto them, was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God" (Mk. 16:19, R.V.). Such is Mark’s brief account of the ascension of our Lord. But when Stephen, “full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stead fastly into heaven," he “saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God” (Acts 7:55). The first statement refers to the finished work of Christ, for the writer to the Hebrews declares, “ But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God" (Heb. 10:12). A finished work has earned the seat of rest. The martyr Stephen’s vision and testimony are in line with Luke’s significant statement in the prologue to the Acts: “The former treatise I made, O Theophilus, con cerning all that Jesus began both to do and to teach” (Acts 1:1 R.V.). This standing posture suggests activity. Once again we turn to Hebrews for the key to unlock this treasure: “Christ entered not into a holy place made with hands, like in pattern to the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us" (Heb. 9:24 R.V.). He finished a work on Calvary for us; there He. paid the full price of our redemption. But His “for u's" activity did not end at the Cross; it continues “ before the face of God.” What then is now the nature of our Lord’s activity on our behalf? An exhaustive answer is not attempted. Three considerations are suggested, all in keeping with the priestly office to which our Lord has been elevated; as it is written, “Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek” (Heb. 5:6 R.V.). Christ Deals With the Sins of the Saints What-a paradox—“the sins of the saints” ! Yes, even when we think of a saint in correct New Testament meaning, and not in the perverted medieval sense, it is still an anomaly—yet unfortunately it is a fact. Indeed, so universal is the experience of sinning saints that the Apostle John defied any saint to think himself an excep tion in this respect. “If we say that we have no sin,” he wrotti “we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us”
(1 John 1:8). This does not lessen the shame of it. Sins of the saints are a reproach to Christ, a denial of the Cross, a contradiction of our high calling, a grief to the Holy Spirit, a hindrance to the testimony of the Gospel, a blight on the Church. Yet, here they are, witnessing against us. They might be less if we did not regard them so lightly. If only the sinfulness of sin were impressed upon us, it would be easier from our lives to distinguish between “ the saint” and “the sinner.” If the sins of the saints are admittedly a tragic fact, certainly they are not a necessity. “These things write I unto you that ye may not sin” (1 John 2:1 R.V.). It is always possible to sin, but it is not obligatory. Whatever the common experience, the standard of Christian living is not sinning, but overcoming. So John did not say, “ Since it must be that we sin, we have the provision of an advocate.” He said rather, “If any man sin, we have an advocate” (1 John 2:1). The sprinkler system in the factory d o e s not proclaim the inevitability of a fire; neither do the life-boats on a liner declare that there must be a shipwreck. In like manner, God’s provision of His Son as our advocate does not imply that sin is an imperative of the Christian life. Sin is regarded by Scrip ture as the exception, not the rule; the perversion, not the norm. We refuse to accept present experiences as ultimate goals. We press on, “That to perfection’s sacred height We nearer still may rise, And all we think, and all we do Be pleasing in Thine eyes.” The saint stands in an entirely different relation to God from that of the sinner. The sinner is “condemned
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