by Dr. Thomas H. Lawrence Pastor, Burholme Baptist Church death is sin. To abolish death as a claimant upon us, Christ Himself re ceived the terrible sting. In His own body He bore our sins on the tree. The poisonous fangs have been re moved from the mouth of our enemy. Thanks be unto God for this glori ous victory! Now we have the glorious antici pation of immortality. Christ “hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” This means in corruptibility. Job’s old question was, “If a man die, shall he live again?” is now answered by divine revela tion. Satan succeeded in deceiving Eve by declaring, “Thou shalt sure ly die.” Adam and Eve had not yet seen any of their race succumb to death. Now that it is a fact; the Satanic lie has been exposed. The “father of lies” now tells us that man shall surely die, but in so doing he attaches a different meaning to the word die. He wants us to believe that death means extinction, annihi lation or cessation of being. That means that if death is extinction of being, Christ, having died upon the cross, ceased to exist. This is pre posterous. It shows the absurdity of unbelief. Christ literally died. Thank God He physically arose. These are Gospel facts. It is true that adherence to the Gospel has been accomplished by suffering on the part of many of God’s faithful servants. Paul wrote these words in Second Timothy just a little while before his martyrdom. His creative workshop under the Spirit’s inspiration, was a prison. He was experiencing some of the afflic tions which accompany an out-and- out testimony for the Lord Jesus Christ. They that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. When 19
GOD’S ÿ jtb M n i IN US
I N t h e W o r d of God, we have the assured testimony of the Lord’s concern and interest in us from eter nity to eternity. Such a blessed pas sage is II Timothy 1:8-12. Consider, first of all, the antiquity of salvation. Our redemption is according to His own purpose and grace, given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. The Lord is the source of all that is spiritual. He is the omnipotent Crea tor of the material world. But before manifesting His power in any realm of nature, He gave consideration to the salvation of sinners. ■His sov ereignty can never be questioned. God saves us on His own terms, not ac cording to ours. We have demonstrat ed for us the fact that God’s plan is inviolable. We can thank Him for the record concerning the appear ance of Christ. The plan of salva tion antedates time. When the ful ness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem those who were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons. Christ appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Christ did not come to judge or to blame the world. His purpose was to seek and to save. Calling Him “Saviour,” we use His rightful name. Our Lord abolished death for us. His conquest is so complete that the fear of death, which is natural to man, has been dissipated forever for the believer. We no longer look for death but for our Saviour’s return. If death greets us before that blessed moment we have no fear, Christ abolished death; it is no longer hov ering over us, but rather is a serv ant subject to us. As far as the be liever is concerned, the sting of death has been removed. Now the sting of
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