December 1928
T h e K i n g ’ s B u s i n e s s God." Let us advance by all means, but let our progress be along healthy lines, at all times sticking close to the Word of the living God “which abideth forever." , It is well to recall first of all that the Christ of our New Testament story was perfectly pictured in Old Testament prophecies many long centuries before He appeared. The world’s Saviour was to be born of a virgin (Isa. 7:14); at Bethlehem (Mic. 5 :2) ; anointed of the Spirit (Isa. 11:2) ; enter into Jerusalem (Zech. 9:9); to be betrayed by friends (Psa. 41:9-55) ; forsaken by His disciples (Zech. 13:17); sold for silver (Zech. 11: 12) ; a potter’s field bought for His bur ial place (Zech. 11:13) ; spit upon (Isa. 50,:6) ; not a bone was to be broken (Exo. 12:46; Psa. 34:20); gall and vinegar would be given Him (Psa. 69:21); His hands and feet would be pierced and lots cast (Psa. 22) ; garments parted (Psa. 22:18) ; He would be gazed at (Psa. 22; 17); mocked (Psa. 22:7-8); God-for saken (Psa. 22:1) ; He would pray for His persecutors (Isa. 53: 12 ) ; buried with the rich (Isa. 53:9). The whole character of His suffering is described in Isa. 53. “God laid upon Him the iniquity of us all." “He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquitiesJm He was the seed of the woman predicted in Gen. 3 :15 who should be bruised by Satan, but who should turn upon the enemy of souls and defeat his infamous purpose, eventually crushing the serpent’s head. Who can read the Gospel story and fail to see that in every detail Jesus accomplished exactly what was prophesied of the Messiah’s first appearance? We wish to emphasize the fact that careful examination of all New Testa ment teaching has convinced us that Jesus Christ had but one program before Him in'. His first advent. We have been compelled utterly to reject the extreme teaching, held by some orthodox leaders today, that our Lord first undertook to appeal only to the Jews with the purpose of overturning the governments of the world and establishing the Davidic throne for Himself in Jerusalem, that the mission of His forerunner, John the Baptist* and the program He undertook failed for lack of Jewish support and had tb be postponed and another plan sub stituted. We are told that the church came in as a “parenthesis,” a special mystery revealed only to Paul, and that in bur Lord’s second coming, the “king dom plan” will be forcibly carried thrqugh. After tabulating every statement of the Gospels bearing upon the purpose of our Lord in His first advent, the testimony proves overwhelmingly that He was born into this world with a special mission in relation to the sins of mankind. The very first chapter of Matthew records the an gel’s words of our Golden Text: “Thou shalt call His name Jesus [Jehovah—Sav iour] for He shall save His people from their sins.” This at once shows that His mission was spiritual, not temporal. Following through Matthew’s Gospel (which some say presents Christ as tem poral King to rule on earth), we find the most precise statements as to His mission. “Baptize with the Holy Ghost” (3:11-12; cf. Acts 2:1-4»). “Fulfil the law” (5:17; cf. Rom. 10:4). “Save the Gentiles" (12: 18; cf. Acts 15:14). Inaugurate the church (Matthew alone speaks of the
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UNDER WHAT CONDITIONS MAY IT BE SAID:— 1:5—“WE have heard of him” ? 1: 6 —“WE lie” ? 1:7—“WE have fellowship” ? 1: 8 —“WE deceive ourselves” ? 1:10—“WE make him a liar” ? 2:1—“WE have an advocate” ? 2 :3—“WE know that we know him” ? 2 :5—“WE know that we are in him” ? 2:6—WE “ought . . . to walk even as he walked” ?
church) (16:18; cf. Eph. 5:31-32). “To seek and save the lost” (18:11; cf. Jno. 11-12). “To give His life a ransom” (20: 28; cf. Rom. 3:24). “To make remission for sins” (26:28; cf. 1.. Pet. 1:18-19). Our Lord’s forerunner, in his public and official testimony of Him, made no reference to Him as King (although it is true He was born with the kingly rights of David—Mt. 2:2) and dropped no hint of any plan to take over world govern ment at that time. He placed all his em phasis upon one aspect of His work—that of “Lamb of God," the Sinbearer of the whole world (Jn. 1:29). Not once did John the Baptist mention the kingly title “Lion of the tribe of Judah." The Jews would have flocked to Christ had he done so. They wanted a king (Jn. 6:15). John pointed to Jesus as “the Son of God” (Jn. 1 :34) and'J'the Lamb of God,” stressing His divine nature and the effi cacy of His sacrifice for the remission of sins. This is the Gospel in a nutshell. The foundations of “grace” were in the process of laying (Jn. 1 :17). The “Gos pel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God," proclaimed throughout the church age, is specifically dated back to the announce ment of John the Baptist, by Mark (Mk. 1:1-3). Luke likewise emphasizes this point (Lk. 16:16). We believe it most essential to under stand that the glory of our Lord’s ap pearance among men was His Saviour- hood. No other plan could be injected ahead of the necessity of dealing with the sin question. At the Saviour’s birth the angel of the Lord announced to the shep herds the “.good tidings of great joy” (Lk. 2:10-11). What were those tidings? “There is born this day in the city of David, A SAVIOUR, Christ the Lord." The virgin, overjoyed with the news that she had been chosen to bring the Son of the Highest into the world, said: “My soul doth magnify the Lord and my spirit hath ■ rejoiced in God my SAV IOU R " (Lk. 1:46-47). Zacharias, father of John the Baptist, filled with the Holy Ghost, rejoiced that the Redeemer was about to come and that God was to “raise up a horn of SALVA TION" (Lk. 1:68-69). Zacharias, to be sure, quoted the prophecies so dear to the Jewish heart, looking to the regathering and reestablishing of Israel according to the Abrahamic covenant (Lk. 1:70-75), but the Spirit of Gpd held him to the pri mary thing, that the Coming One was to “give the knowledge of SALVATION" by the “remission of sins” (Lk. 1:77) and “light to them that sit in darkness" (v. 79). This was the program of Jesus, laid out in Old Testament prophecy ahead of God’s purpose for establishing Israel again in the earth (1 Pet. 1:10-11). He was tempted of Satan to omit His work as Saviour (Mt. 4:8-9). He sternly re buked the suggestion. Later Satan ap proached Him again through Peter, with the same suggestion, drawing forth our Lord’s scorching censure: “Get thee be hind me, Satan” (Mt. 16:23). There is no question but that the dis ciples, until after the resurrection, were continually dominated by the hope that He would at that time restore the king dom to Israel (Acts 1 : 6 ) and that they persistently misunderstood the nature of the heavenly kingdom which Jesus sought to establish then. We are repeatedly told that “they understood not" (Mk. 9:32: Lk. 9:45; Jn. 10:6; Lk. 18:34; Jn. 12:16;
January 20, 1929 Christ the Saviour
Texts: Lk. 2:11, 30-32; 15:3-7; Jn, 3: 14-17; 10:9-11, 14-16, 27, 28; Acts 3:1-18; Rom. 5:1-11; Phil. 2:5-11; 2 Tim. 1:9,10 L esson in O utline I. Christ the Saviour Born. Lk. 2:11. II. Christ the Saviour, the Salvation. Lk. 2:30-32. III. Christ the Saviour in Quest of the Lost. Lk. 15 \2~7. IV. Christ the Saviour Crucified, an Ex pression of the Father’s Love. Jno. 3:14-17. V. Christ the Saviour, the Good Shep herd. Jno. 10:9-11, 14-16, 27, 28. VI. Christ the Saviour, God Manifest in the Flesh. Phil. 2:5-11. VII. Christ the Saviour Bringing Light and Immortality into the Light. 2 Tim. 9, 10. —o— CHRISTIANITY gives us a direct and ' —’ personal object for our faith and love. A theology which finds its center in One who was “God manifest in the flesh," per ing death must satisfy God, and the all- sufficiency of His advocacy must satisfy the believer. The Apostle John declares (2 Jn. 9)— “Whosoever transgresseth [lit. “goeth on ward” or “advances beyond”] the .doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abid-r eth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son." These are solemn words' for our day, when'we hear so much of .“advanced thinking.” There is such a thing as advancing over a preci pice, and all who think they can go be- jyond the Gospel, will certainly come tb ruin. There is a progress that is apos tasy. It is not going forward but going backward to the devil’s lie. The doctrine of Christ is the doctrine Appointed of God to guide men into sal vation. The great God has placed His seal and value to it. Pity the man who undertakes to dilute it. He plays with fire. He sets at naught the vital expe rience of millions of redeemed sinners. He meddles with the one thing God has used to pluck men out of hell on earth. However the apostate may pride himself on his “advanced thinking,” he “hath not fect Man and very God, cannot be a barren, abstract sys tem, for its Saviour is both human in His sympathies and omnipotent in His power. The infinite value of His aton
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