488
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
August 1928
The Mystery o f Glorification A t Christ’s Coming'.
We are redeemed by one who is “the image o f the invisible God” (Col.: 1:14- 15). Only a divine act could send away our evil doing. Bishop Moule says: “A Saviour not quite God is a bridge broken at the farther end.” “He bare the sin of many” (Isa. 53 A,- 12 ). ' . “Who His own self bare our sins” (1 Pet. 2:24). The thought in each of these verses is, Christ bearing our sifis up to the tree in order to bear them away, as the sacrificial victim was led to the altar as a substitute! to be put to death. Luther strongly put it when he said: “ God laid upon Him our sins . . . saying, ‘Be Thou Peter the denier; Paul the persecutor, blasphemer, and cruel oppressor; that sinner that ate the fruit in Paradise; that thief which hanged upon the cross; and briefly, be Thou the sinner who hath committed the sin of all.’ ” Some who do not wish to believe in the deity of Christ and other doctrines con cerning His person, say, “The sermon on the mount is good enough for me.” Have they noted in this sermon, the tremendous claims made by Christ, Himself? He de clares Himself the fulfiller of the law and prophets (Matt. 5:1 7 ); claims authority to brush aside former laws ( 5 : 21 - 22 ) ; claims- to be absolute Lord and Master over men ( 7 : 21 - 22 ) ; claims unique re lationship to the Father ( 7 :21) ¡ claims to be Judge of all the world ( 7 :23). Nothing can warrant such words but Deity. ///‘Take no thought,” in Matt. '6:25, does not mean that we should have no' fore thought, but that we should not forebode. It is anxious thought or distraction that is condemned. * -------------------------:--------------------- :— -*f j POINTERS FOR PREACHERS Lord Chesterfield once said: “The man ner of your speaking is fully as important as the matter.” —o— The greatest Atheists are they who are ever handling holy things without feeling them.—Whyte. —o— It is better not to try dehorning a ram in the midst o f the flock; but to get him in a corner where he can’t trample on the lambs. -^o— Often the homes the pastor is tempted to pass by, are the ones where the great est good can be done. Sickness and af fliction often open the door for personal work, but that must never be the only time we visit the afflicted home. It; is' said o f George Whitefield that when he began to preach, he wrote one sermon,, which produced a profound im pression. He preached it to two hundred persons, then to two thousand, then to four thousand. It is said he was not at his best till he preached a sermon forty times. |j
Spurgeon says, “ Christ’s merit covers out demerit.” “ Cover” is the Old Testa ment word for expiation and propitiation. —o— The word “constraineth” found in 2 Cor.. 5 :14 is the word used in connection with Paul when he was “pressed in spirit” (Acts 18:5). Christ was pressed, thronged, impelled, by the mighty love He had for us, hence, He went through.
I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily (1 Cor. 15:31). —Believer’s Magazine. V—--------:-----------:---- :---- - ------------------- :------ WEIGHTY WORDS *■ ---------------------------------------------------- Jntellect 7 ^ ^ ffection? That.great scholar and divine Bishop Horsley, and Dr. Cyril Jackson, dean o f Christ Church, once sat late into the night de bating the question whether God could be better reached through the exercise of the intellect, or the exercise o f the affection. Unwillingly, but step by step, the B i s h o p , wJbS advocated the claims o f intellect, retreated be fore the arguments o f his friend, till at length, in a spirit which did no less honor to his humility than to his candor, he exclaim- ed Then my whole life has been one great mistake/’ ’ • _ The atonement as -such, ¡¿ only men tioned once in the New Testament “We have now received the atonement” (Rom. 5:11), and here the word should be rec onciliation,-and is so rendered in 2 Cor. 5 :18, 19. The word “atonement” is an Old Testament word, therefore it is to the Old Testament we turn to find its meaning.' 1 —o— The completeness of Christ’s victory over the evil one is indicated in the word “ bruise” in Gen. 3 :15. Parkhurst, in his Hebrew lexicon, says upon this verb, “ It means ‘to covet,’ ‘to overwhelm,’ as with a tempest oF diarkness,” Job 9 :17—“Who will .overwhelm me with a tempest.” Psa. 139:11— “ Surely'the darkness will cover me,” — o — W e have been bought with a price, hence are slaves. We have been ransomed, hence are free. “He who is called being free, is a slave o f Christ. You are bought with a price. Do' fiot become the slaves of men” (1 Cor. 7:22, 23). — o — The word “image” used in Col: 1:15 means more than similarity. It means representation —a derived likeness and manifestation. Christ is God manifest (Jn. 14:9; Heb. 1:3), not only God-like. The word “rest” occurs 9 times in the ^pntext o f Heb, 4, but in verse 9 a Greek word is used,: found nowhere -else' in Greek literature except in one passage in Plutarch. It is Sabbatismos, “ There re- maineth a Sabbath-keeping to the people o f God.” To the Hebrew, no word could convey a deeper sense o f rest. It would be suggestive o f the Jubilee year, every seventh seven years o f Sabbaths.
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