August, 1935
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WHERE ARE THE MARKS OF THE CROSS? [Continued from page 285] I was down on my knees beside a chair and crying to God, for the sake of Jesus Christ to save me. The pastor came downstairs. I got up from my knees. The pastor came in and said, ‘Good morning, brother, are you saved ?’ I an swered, ‘Yes,’ and the pastor was surprised and said, ‘How long have you been saved ?’ And I replied, ‘Oh, just about a minute.’ ” C h r ist R eproduced It was what that pastor was that counted. He loved the Lord Jesus, and he loved the souls of men. If you love the Lord Jesus Christ, you love the souls of men. The two go together. Christian work is not a matter of exhibition or performance. I should like to give it to you as my solemn conclusion, that a greater enemy than modernism is at work in the church of Jesus Christ. And that enemy is profes sionalism—a professional minister, a professional Christ ian service, men and women who have found employment in religion and who are busy in perfunctory fashion, pass ing around doctrinal statements that are perfectly sound. But they are doing it of themselves and not of the power of the Holy Spirit. They do not know the life that is Christ. They are not making Christ central in their lives, and the" world is still saying in consequence, “Except I shall see the print of the nails, I will not believe.” The world has its own idea of what the Lord Jesus Christ would do and would be if He were here today. And the world has its own idea about what we who are followers of Jesus Christ, we who are representatives of Jesus Christ, should be and do. I remember my good friend Dr. W. H. Griffith Thomas said th is: “The Christian life can be gathered up in three terse words, ‘Christ received, Christ realized, and Christ reproduced.’ ” “As many as received him, to them gave he power” is the beginning of it, but it continues in “Christ realized.” There are many people of God who do not realize the Lord Jesus Christ. They are orthodox in doc trine. They are fundamental, but they do not realize Him —they do1not know Him as He is, a living Christ day by day. And there are some who are not reproducing Christ. “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God.” By grace I am in some measure a repro duction of the Son of God, and the world is expecting that. The world is saying, “Except I shall see the print of the nails, I will not believe.” T h e G en tlen ess of C hr ist If you were preaching a sermon on this text, you would mention some of the marks of the cross—gentleness, for instance. Let me just say that gentleness is one mark of the Christ I think we overlook. I know He was firm at times. But there was the proper blending of both qualities. Jesus said to His disciples one day: “Who do men say that the Son of man is?” They said: “Some say . . . E lijah; and others, Jeremiah.” They were referring to two entire ly different types of men. The meaning of their statement was: “Some say you are the stern prophet returned, and some say you are the weeping prophet returned.” They found the two sides in His character. He could take the scourge of small cords and drive men out of the temple, but He could also Weep over the city of Jerusalem and yearn over the multitude. Are we never to contend ? Oh, yes, but with a spirit of love, loving men, loving individuals, recognizing their frailty, their ignorance, dealing with them in gentleness, for gentleness is a mark of the Lord Jesus. I can understand the prayer of the little girl who said, “Dear Lord, make all the bad people good and make the
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good people nice.” There are some religious people, some orthodox folks, some fundamentalists, that I should not want to live with. I should not want to live in the same house with some fundamentalists. But I should love to live in the same house with the Lord Jesus, wouldn’t you? I should have loved to have been His neighbor in the days of His earthly pilgrimage, and I should have loved to walk and talk with Him. And the world is saying of fundamen talists, “Except I shall see the print of the nails, that which shows the death of the Lord Jesus, your identification with Him in His death and His life—e&cept I shall see the print of the nails, I will not believe.” S alvation U nto C h r is t l ik e C haracter We do not believe in salvation by character. But let us not ignore the fact that Christ went about doing good. Let us not ignore the fact that He is living in us to produce character. We are not saved by character, but we are saved to character by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. We are saved to be something first of all, before we ever do something. It is not what you get here in,school by way of a notebook, nor is it the development of ' your mental strength, that will count. It is 'what you get here during the days of your studying by way of character that will count. It is what you are as a Christian, as a representative, as a reproduction of Jesus Christ, that really matters.. It is what you are that will count. I am certain of that. Too often we have in Christian service the ideals of suc cess that belong to the world—that the successful man or woman is one who climbs over others in order to get to the top—and we are encouraging ambition in Christian service. But the world is saying, “Except I shall see the print of the nails, I will not believe.” What is the world to see ? “Agonize*’— “Organize*’ “Agonize” is not a popular word in the modern church’s vocabulary. “Organize” appears to have the supreme place. But it is in agonizing intercession that the real conflict in our time is to be won /S j. H. J owett .
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