46
February, 1937
THE K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
Around the King's Table
By PAUL W . R O O D
^ _ It may be a shocking statement to say What Is a tjlat njnety per cent 0f the worldly people Christian ! i;v;ng au about us do not know what it means to be a Christian, and yet a simple experiment will prove the truth of the affirmation. Go to a prominent cor ner of your city, stop the first ten people that pass you, and ask the'question, “ What does it mean to be a Christian?” Nine out of the ten will answer in one of the following Ways. They will say that it means to be honest, to be a good neighbor, to be a good lodge member, to obey the Golden Rule, to be confirmed, to be baptized, or to join the church. Not one of them has come within a million miles of the true answer. The tragedy of the situation is that even a majority of the people in the church are self-, deceived; they think they are right with God because of decency, respectability, membership in an organization, or mental assent to a creed. A ll of these four things are good and commendable, but they do not make a person right with God. W ho is a Christian, and how can a person be right with G od? A Christian is one in whom Christ dwells: “ Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1 :27 ). A Christian is one who has been made a partaker of the divine nature (cf. 2 Pet. 1 :4 ). A Christian is a new creation: “ Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor. 5 :17 ). A Christian is one who has had a miraculous experience of the new birth so that he has passed from the realm of death into the realm of life and has received eternal life: “ Ye must be born again” (John 3 :7 ). A Christian is one who has the witness of the Spirit in his heart that he is a child of G o d : “ The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God” (Rom. 8:16, R .V .). A Christian is one who, by his life, reveals that he has a new nature, a new disposition, and a new objective in life. His supreme desire is to honor and glorify Christ by conduct and testimony. It has been said that a Christian is one who believes what Christ believes, hates what Christ hates, and loves what Christ loves. What does Christ believe? A study of the New Testament will answer that question. The individual who has the divine nature will of course be lieve what Christ believes regarding the Bible and con cerning God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. What does Christ hate? He hates sin in all its forms, and the person who has a new nature will share that hatred. What does Christ love? He loves truth and righteousness; He loves men and women, boys and girls. The one who has Christ dwelling within will love the souls of his fellow men. A Christian is a person with a supernatural experience of Christ’s miracle-working power in his life and minis try ; he is right with God and in contact with God, and he is on his way to God’s eternal home. Let me ask you frankly and tenderly : Are you a real Christian ? Has the Holy Spirit done a real work in your heart? Do you know that you are born again? The question naturally arises: How can one become a Christian? God has the answer: “ That if thou shalt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Rom. 10:9 ). Tw o conditions of salvation are stated here. First, it is necessary to believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead. That trust in the risen Lord involves, of course, belief in the atoning death of Christ: “ Christ died for our sins ac cording to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15 :3 ). If the ques tion be asked, “ What does it mean to believe in Christ?” the answer is found in John 1:12: “ But as many as re ceived him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” T o believe on Christ is to receive Him as a personal Saviour. It is a heart apprehension and acceptance of the atoning death of Christ as our only hope. Realizing that we are but sinners by nature and practice, and that we are lost and on our way to hell, we come to Christ, confessing our condition and our need, our utter dependence upon Him. W e accept Christ as the One who took our place and died in our stead, and we rest in His finished work of redemption accomplished for us on Calvary’s cross. W e say, in the words of the hymn writer: Just as I am, without one plea, But that Thy blood was shed for me, And that Thou bidd’st me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come! I come! When we so accept Christ, the Spirit of God through the Word of God performs the miracle of God that makes us the children of God. W e then rest in the word of our Lord: “ Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6 :37 ), and we meet the second condition of salvation, which is to “ confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,” for the Word of God says: “ With the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Rom. 10:10). Have you received Christ and confessed Him as your Lord and Saviour? tacts w i(-h this remarkable personality. The first was in Omaha about;, twenty-six years ago. Mr. Smith was speaking to a capacity audience of men in the Civic Auditorium. After a stirring message, several hun dred indicated their desire to begin the Christian life. The next contact that stands out was in Los Angeles a few years ago. M r. Smith was one of the speakers at a modernistic conference; he was not giving an evangel istic challenge on this occasion. A change had taken place in his attitude. He stated that we were now living in a new world. He declared he would sell all the sermons he preached before 1914 for fifteen cents. These sermons must have been the evangelistic messages M r. Smith had used in his great mass meetings for men. There was an ache in the writer’s heart as he listened to this statement. There was something winsome about Smith’s personality. One could not bear to give this man up. He was a good [Continued on page 51] T l T The recent death of Fred B. Smith j P° * f nCe calls t0 the writer’s mind several con- ot M od e rn ism
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