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THE KING’S BUSINESS
tion and a prophecy of what ,He will do when He is here again in person, when all sickness shall flee from His presence. _ What is the significance of the word “witnesses," in Heb. 12 : 1 ? Does it mean that the men of faith spoken of are spec tators of our acts here below, or that they in their day witnessed for God? It means the latter. The twelfth chap ter must be read in connection with the eleventh which immediately precedes it. The verse begins with the word “Wherefore” (R. V., “Therefore”), pointing us back to what the writer has just been saying. The writer has cited a great many men who bore witness to the truth in their day, and who won victories by faith. Paul speaks of them as “a cloud of witnesses” who compass us about. The word translated “witness” in this passage does not mean witness in the sense in which we use the word “witness” to mean an on-looker, or spectator, it means “witness” in the strict sense, one who, testifies. We have no rea son whatever for supposing that good men and women of the past and saved men and women of the past surround us today and look at us. Such teaching is entirely inconsistent with the general teaching of the Bible regarding the departed. They “depart to be with Chrisf’ (Phil. 1:23), they do not h)over around us here, It is doubtful if they have very much knowledge of what is going on here except as Christ may be pleased to reveal it to them. It is true that there is a record that Samuel came back to Saul, but that was altogether exceptional. Samuel protested against being thus brought back and Saul was destroyed for his action in this matter. Our beloved ones who sleep in Jesus are better occupied than hovering around us here. But the men and women of the past who have been faithful in their witness to the truth and won victories by faith should be an inspira tion to us in our endeavors to run with patience the race that is set before us. b
groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body, etc.” There can be no question that' the quickening referred to in Romans 8:11 is this quickening in “the redemption of our body”' which is to take place at the return of our Lord Jesus (Phil. 3:20, 21) and Romans 8:11 has no direct and imme diate reference to the healing of our bodies by the quickening power of the Holy Spirit in the present dispensation. But it is else where taught that there is a quickening of our bodies, or a physical strengthening of our bodies, ,by thè Holy Spirit’s power. Jestis said in Matt. 12:28 that He cast out demons by the Spirit of God, and in Acts 10:38 we are taught that Jesus of Nazareth was anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power, and because of this power of the Holy Ghost He went about “healing all that were oppressed of the devil,” and in James 5:14 we are instructed when we pray for the sick to anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. Now oil is a type of the Holy Spirit, and sets forth on one side the' healing power of the Holy Ghost in these bodies of ours. Even in the pres-' ent life we have the first fruits of the Spirit, we have the earnest of His quickening work which will be completely consum mated in the resurrection of our bodies, and while it is true that we who do “have the firstffuits of the Spirit” still groan, nevertheless we do have the anticipation of that fullness of physical, life that shall be ours when the Lord comes again and per fectly transforms the body of our humili ation into the likeness of His glorious body. But we should never go beyond what is written along this line, and take the ground that some do, and which is entirely unwar ranted by the Scripture, that by the power of the Spirit in the present dispensation every believer may be absolutely free from physical infirmity. What our Lord did when He was here upon earth in the way of »giving complete healing to those who came in contact With Him was an anticipa
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