555 message than that? I wish I could say no; but not a few missionaries at home and abroad are bringing a message that at least lays very little emphasis on the blood, and often ignores the blood, and some even positively renounce and oppose the doc trine o f the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ as the ground, -the only ground, upon which God forgives our sins. 2. But while the fact that “ Christ died for our sins” and purchased our redemp tion by His own atoning blood, is part of the missionary’s message, it is not all o f it. The second fact in the missionary’s mes sage is that Jesus Christ “ hath been raised on the third day according to the scrip tures r” (1 Cor. 15:4). While the atoning death, the atoning blood, is a central part o f the missionary’s message, it is not all o f the missionary’s message. The mis sionary must also declare and emphasize the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the fact of the actual resurrection from the dead of His body that was crucified. Indeed, it was the resurrection o f Christ from the dead upon which the first missionaries constantly rang the changes. Peter on the day of Pentecost makes his whole message cen ter in that fact. He sums up all that he said before in these words, “Who seeing this before, spake o f the resurrection of Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. This Jesus did God raise up,, whereof we are witnesses,” (Acts 2:31, 32), and then he makes the practical application : of these words : “Let all the - house o f Israel therefore (i. e. because Jesus. Christ had been raised from the dead) know assuredly, that God hath made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom ye crucified.” So With every., other sermon that Peter preached, he made the center o f it the actual, literal resurrection o f Jesus Christ from the dead. For example, he sums up his wonderful Sermon in the house, o f Cor nelius with these words, “Him (Jesus)' God raised up thé third day, and gave Him to be made manifest, not to all people, but unto witnesses that were chosen before of God, THE KING’S BUSINESS “W e have our redemption through His blood, the forgiveness o f our trespasses, according to the riches o f His grace.” Here again and again we find the same thought, as the central thought of his mis sionary message, the thought o f Christ dying for our sins, and the “ Good News” that forgiveness is given to us on the ground o f the shed blood o f Christ. The first part then, o f the missionary’s mes sage as given by God Himself, is the doc trine o f substitution, o f atonement by the shed blood of Jesus Christ, the doctrine that the Lord Jesus Christ bore every one o f our sins in His own body on the cross, and that He by the shedding o f His blood made a perfect atonement for our sins and that any men of any nation may obtain for giveness o f sin simply on the ground that Jesus shed His blood and thus made atone ment and on the single condition that they believe in Him who shed the blood. Any missionary who does not make the doc trine of the substitutionary atonement of Jestis Christ an integral and central part, and a continually appearing part, of his message, is not true to his commission and should be recalled and will be punished by God, whether he is by his ecclesiastical superiors or not. Any Gospel that leaves out the. atoning blood is something sub stituted fo r the one and only Gospel God has commissioned the missionary to declare. And the one who' Substitutes another Gospel for God’s Gospel brings a curse apd a punishment instead o f a bless ing and a reward upon his own -head. About this;the Bible is unmistakable in its teaching. The Apostle Paul Says in Gal. 1 :8, “ Though I, or an angel from heaven, should preach unto, you any Gos pel other than that which we preached unto you (viz., the Gospel that Christ died for our sins and Secured redemption for us on the ground o f His shed blood and on that ground .alone), let him be anathema. As we have, said before, so say I now again, if any man preacheth unto you any Gospel other than that which ye received, le.t him be anathema” (Gal, 1:8, 9). And does any missionary ever' bring any other
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs