without feeling ashamed of their own impurity. Man cannot feel the love of Christ without repudiating their own hatred. Man cannot read of the poverty of Christ without feel ing guilty about the money for which he strives. Man cannot see the dedi cation of Christ without being alarmed at his own aimlessness. Man cannot read the Scriptures concern ing the sacrifice of Christ without asking, “Why am I even alive ? What is the meaning of my life?” Full meaning in life is only to be found in Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ came to re deem. This was His ultimate purpose and why He died on the cross. Jesus was God’s love in action. We think of the beautiful phrase from Scrip ture concerning the marriage cere mony, “As Christ loved the church.” This is a vicarious love. The Saviour bore man’s sin and shame, suffering hell itself for us. This was done that we might be made “the righteousness of God in Him.” Jesus knew that man is a totality and cannot be divided. He came to reconcile man with God, and man with man. He came to become the very life of the born-again believer. We are now new creatures in Christ through faith. This is the miracle of the new birth. Jesus conquered death. He rose again physically, corporeally, bodily from the grave. There are two main things which we must get straight about Christ: 1. He is God, 2. He rose from the dead. This was not in the imagination of His disciples. He predicted that He would die and rise again. This is the Christ by whom the calendar is reckoned. This is the Christ who changed Western culture’s day of worship from Satur day to Sunday. This is the Christ who transformed history. This is the Christ who can regenerate your life by His compassion, His shed blood, the power of His Holy Spirit, as He says to guilt-ridden you, “Thy sins be forgiven thee. Go, sin no more.” 13
matter of fact, we are just like those whom Jesus sought out. We are all sinners regardless of the century in which we live. We need Jesus to come after us, looking us in the eye and saying, “I’ve come not to invite the righteous, but sinners to repen tance.” The Lord doesn’t turn any of us aside because we are unlovely or sinful. He desires to give us His peace and salvation no matter what our condition or need may be. As we read the Gospel accounts in the New Testament of the four writers, who wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we view the Saviour from four different angles. Think of the miracles of healing Jesus per formed ! This shows that He was con cerned about the total man. Even so, the church must be involved in a similar manner. The day must come when most local churches can have a total healing ministry for soul, mind, and body. In addition, the Lord taught the Word. His was not the evident philosophies of the world to day, such as “Happy are the pushers, for they get on in this world; happy are the hard-boiled, for they never let life hurt them; happy are they who complain, for they get their own way in the end; happy are the blase, for they never worry over their sins; happy are the slave drivers, for they get results; happy are the knowl edgeable men of the world, for they know their way around; happy are the trouble makers, for they make people get out of the way.” None of these things are right; in fact, just the opposite is true. “Happy are those who claim nothing, for the whole world belongs to them. Happy are those who are hungry and thirsty for goodness, for they shall be satis fied. Happy are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy. Happy are the utterly sincere, for they shall see God. Happy are those who have suffered persecution, because of goodness and for God’s sake, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.” Man cannot look at Christ’s purity
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