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The God-Man
12. The affection and devotion to His glory, which Jesus demands, are such as can be properly yielded only to God. As we are to trust Christ for everything, so we are to give up everything for Him, should He demand the sacrifice. This was a doctrine which the Lord repeatedly taught. Let our read- ers study Matt. 10:37-39, and the parallel passage, Luke 14:26, 27, and they will see at once how uncompromising is the Sav- iour’s demand. Father, mother, son, daughter, wife, and even life itself are all to be sacrificed, if devotion to Christ neces- sitates the surrender. All creatures, and all things, and our very lives are to be to us as nothing when compared with Christ. God Himself demands no less of us, and no more. What more could the Eternal Creator require? The moral law says: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and Him only shalt thou serve.” But Christ bids us love Him thus, and demands of us the homage and sacrifice of our whole being; now, if He be not the Author of our being, what right has He to urge such a demand upon us? I could not love Christ as He requires to be loved, if I did not believe in Him as the Incarnate God. To do so with Socinian views would be idolatry. Yet the motives which reigned in the hearts of inspired apostles are summed up in this one: “The love of Christ constraineth us,” and they laid down the law, that all men are henceforth to live “not to themselves, but to Him who died for them and rose again” (2 Cor. 5:14, 15). And Jesus declared that our eternal des- tiny will take its character from our compliance or non-com- pliance with His demands: “Whosoever therefore shall con- fess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father who is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me be- fore men, him will I also deny before My Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 10:32, 33, 38-42, cf. Matt. 25: 45, 46), and ' the sentiment is echoed in apostolical teaching, the language of which is, “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha” (1 Cor. 16:22). But clearly I | V a I I 1 J i r | 4 J JSjl IIP
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