sinner’s substitute, that sinners might be saved. How could the death o f one be com mensurate with the rigid require ments o f infinite justice in relation to the whole ruined race? The essential deity, the divine dignity and worth o f the One who died on Calvary gives an efficacy to that substitutionary death, providing a redemption as wide as the need o f the world. Well might all creation stand in awe and wonderment when the Creator, co equal with the Father, the God-Man, gave Himself as the undefiled Lamb o f God, to be crucified on the cross of shame, that He might bear away the sin o f the world. Well might the sun in darkness hide, And shut his glories in ; When Christ, the mighty Maker died, For man, the creature’s sin. It takes all revelation to show what Christ accomplished by His grand re demption; but let us turn again to the Colossian letter. Here we see for whom this redemption was wrought -4-“ And you, that were sometime alien ated and enemies in your mind by w i c k e d w o r k s ” ; what redemption saved us from — “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness” ; what redemption saved us for — “ and hath translated us into the kingdom o f his dear Son” ; the Person, and the price He paid fo r our redemp tion — “ In whom we have redemption through his blood” ; the gracious ex perience fo r sinners through redemp tion —-“ In whom we have . . . the for giveness o f sins” ; a heart at ypace through His redemption — “ And, hav ing made peace through the blood of his cross” ; from rebellion to recon ciliation — “ And you . . . alienated and enemies . . . yet now hath he recon ciled in the body o f his flesh through death” ; the glorious trinity o f result in the sight of God — “ to present you holy and unblameable and unreprove- able in his sight.” May our heavenly Father give us grace and an appro priating faith to enter experimental ly into what our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ has done for us, and made possible for us. Then shall our hearts be filled with a Spirit-inspired hallelujah! Christ Incomparable In Humiliation That the Messiah should come was not an unfamiliar thought to those who had read the Old Testament prophecies, but that He should come in lowly guise, be born as a babe in Bethlehem, live as a Galilean peasant,
hunger, and thirst, and be rejected o f men, this seemed altogether incom patible with Messiahship. In this hu mility, the glory o f Christ is seen. If He would die fo r sinners, He must lay aside the insignia o f His eternal glory and majesty, and become Man that He might go to the Cross. Sound ing the depths o f His humiliation, the Apostle Paul, by the Holy Spirit, w rote: “ Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form o f God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself o f no reputation, and took upon him the form of a serv ant, and was made in the likeness o f men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and be came obedient unto death, even the death o f the cross” (Phil. 2 :5 -8 ). What He endured “ in the body o f his flesh through death” no tongue can tell, but He “Who did no sin, nei ther was guile found in his mouth . . . bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” If for our sakes, the Lord o f Glory, the Creator o f all, traveled the road o f deepest humiliation, even to the cross o f shame, and there, the man Christ Jesus, shed His precious blood to ran som our never-dying souls, ought not we to be willing to tread the path o f humility, and complete self-abandon ment, that His will may be perfected in us to His own glory? Christ Incomparable In Glory Glories upon glories Hath our God prepared, By the souls that love Him One day to be shared: Eye hath not beheld them, Ear hath never heard; Nor of these hath uttered Thought or speech a word: Forward, marching forward, Where the heaven is bright, Till the veil be lifted, Till our faith be sight. Our blessed Lord stands incompara ble in resurrection glory, in that He arose from the grave, victorious over death, becoming our risen Lord. And, wonder o f wonders, the redeemed of the Lord, are privileged to share in this “ exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working o f his mighty power, (Continued on Page 2A) T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
veals Him as the Sustainer o f all things within His creation. “ And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.” By Him all things are held together, are sustained, “ up holding all things by the word o f his power.” We ask, how does our all- important world, our earth, hang upon nothing? He does it! (Job 26 :7 ). How does the blazing sun endure ? He does it! How do the flaming suns, millions o f light years removed from ours, continue ? By His hand! As we think o f our tiny world, with all its upheavals and tumbling thrones, it is well for us to turn our eyes on God’s unshaken throne, and to remember that the hand which up holds all in God’s vast universe, is outstretched to save. Christ Incomparable In Revelation As the written Word reveals the living Word, so the living Word is the Light o f the written Word. Christ, who fills all Scripture from Genesis to the Revelation, is the. light o f the mind o f God, pouring beneficent rays into the darkened mind and heart of h u m a n i t y . Divine enlightenment streams from the mind o f God through this precious Book, as the Colossian epistle affirms, “ that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.” In prophecy, type, and history, God has spoken. Of all this, Christ is the key, and the Holy Spirit, the infallible Guide into all truth. The prophets spoke of Him; the tabernacle, in its ministry and furniture, spoke of Christ in His Person, His ministry, and His sacrifice on Calvary. The feasts, the offerings, the names of deity, spoke of Him. Our Lord him self declared, “ Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life : and they are they which testify o f me” (John 5 :39 ). As Octavius Winslow said, speaking of the Scrip tures, “ They unite in a holy alliance, in a sublime unity o f purpose, to show forth the glory of the incarnate God. Divine book! Precious volume!” Christ Incomparable In Redemption Christ by His creative power might scatter flaming suns through the depths o f space; He might come to earth and multiply miracles before the wondering gaze o f men; He might live before men a pattern life of peerless purity, to show men how to live; yet all this would have been of no avail had He not given His life an atonement for sin, dying as the Page Twelve
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