THE KING’S BUSINESS
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was because God already loved us that He gave His son to die for us, and thus made it possible with Him, a holy God, to deal with mercy with us, sinners though we were. Friday, June 29 . Rom. 5 : 9 - 11 . As believers in' Christ we are already “justified.” We are justified “by (more exactly, in) His blood,” i.e.,; the blood of the Lord Jesus is the ground of our justification (cf. ch. 3:25). But there is a coming wrath of God (ch. 2:5; 1 Thess. 1:10 R.V.). What about our relation to that ? Paul answers the question in v. 9. Being already “justified in His blood” we certainly shall be saved from that coming wrath. But how shall we be saved from that coming wrath? ! “In His life,” i.e., in His resurrection life. Some very care less readers of the Bible, ignoring the con text, would make the “life” of Christ men tioned in v. 10 to mean His earthly life, His example, His character, and would thus interpret v. 10 to mean that we are saved by the example of Christ. But if anyone will note well the context, e.g. 4:25 and the whole of the 6 th chapter, and Paul’s usage of the word “life” everywhere, he will readily see that nothing was further from Paul’s thought than that Jesus saves by His example. It is the resurrection life of Christ, of which we are made partakers, that saves us (cf. ch. 6 :4, 5; 7 :4) from the coming wrath. Having imputed righteous ness to us on the ground of the atoning death of Christ and on condition of our faith, God imparts the resurrection life of Christ to us and in the power of that life we get victory over sin and bring forth fruit unto God and the coming wrath will not and cannot touch us. Not only are we sure of this coming salvation from the wrath that is to come, but we already “rejoice in God” and this, just as the peace and access to God, is “through our Lord Jesus Christ;” through Him also we have received that reconciliation with God on the ground of His shed blood that makes rejoicing in God possible.
Sunday, June 30 . Rom. 5 : 12 - 21 .
Verses 12 to 21 contain one of the most obscure and difficult passages in the book until one gets the key to it. When one has found the key it opens easily and is found to be full of precious truth. This key can be expressed in one word, “REP RESENTATIVE.” Adam was our repre sentative, Jesus was our representative. When Adam sinned, he sinned as the rep resentative of the whole race. Indeed he was the race, all there was to it, and so “all Sinned” (notice, not “all have sinned,” as in the Authorized Version, but “all sinned” as in the Revised Version. The Revised Version is undoubtedly the cor rect translation of the Greek). It is true that ‘‘all have sinned,” but this is not the truth that Paul here brings forward. Paul’s statement is that “all sinned” in that defi nite point of time when Adam sinned. We sinned in his sin, for he was our represen tative, he was the race. On the other hand, when Jesus performed the “one act of righteousness” (v. 18, R.V.), viz. gave His life a ransom on the cross to die as the representative of the whole race, we all died in Him, and because we died in Him and our sin was thus settled, “the free gift came unto all men to justification of life,” i.e., justification was provided for every member of the race and all we have to do is simply to take it by faith. There are many who object to this doctrine of representation. They say, “I would pre fer to stand for myself rather than have Adam stand for me.” That is very foolish. God’s plan is much more gracious than that. If we had, each of us, stood for ourself, we would each one of us have done pre cisely what Adam did, sinned, and there could have been no hope of redemption, the case would have been-forever settled against us. But because the first Adam was a representative it made it possible for a second Adam, Jesus, also to be a representative. And this second Adam, this second representative, did for us what not one of us would have done for him-
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