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T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
April, 1938
it may become a solemn duty to inform the church, but we now are talking about only the criticism which has its basis in jealousy. God help us to be Christian in our liv ing as well as in our doctrine I Funda mentalists must appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Our motives, words, and deeds are going to be judged. Charles G. Trumbull, who is an ardent fundamental ist and premillenarian, has noted the correspondence between fundamentalism and faith, between premillenarianism and hope, and has paraphrased 1 Corinthians 13:13 as follows: “ And now abideth Fundamentalism, Premillenarianism, Love, these three; but the greatest of these is Love.” Selah: “think of that” ! Let us be ethical in all of our relationships. The resurrection is a fundamental fact of the gospel. Its value was seen by the early church and manifested in their elec tion of Matthias to be “ a witness with us of his resurrection” that the company of twelve witnesses might be complete. The Acts of the Apostles teems with references to Christ’s resurrection. Again and again the fact of Christ’s rising from the tomb is linked with His redeeming and atoning work. Romans 1:4 sums up all previous references: “ Declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holi ness, by the resurrection from the dead.” The resurrection is the basis of Christian hope. Paul puts the truth plainly in 1 Corinthians 15:14: “ If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.” It is the pledge of victory for the believer: “ If we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more . . . Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God” (Rom. 6:8-11). Again, since the Head is risen, His body — the church—will rise also. A t that day, in the body of each believer, what a change will have been wrought! “ Sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption: . . . It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body . . . And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly” (1 Cor. 15:42-49). The realization of all this glorious truth robs death of its sting. No wonder our grandfathers sang, as they carried their believing dead to their sepulchres: Why should we tremble to convey Their bodies to the tomb? There the dear flesh of Jesus lay And left a rich perfume. The graves of all His saints He blest And sweetened every bed: Where should the dying members rest But with their dying Head? What Is the Resurrection? By W ILL IAM OLNEY
Pastor Hedstrom. She kept her promise to the Lord, and from the day of her con version she never appeared in opera and only sang at concerts for philanthropic pur poses. Some years later, a visitor found Jenny Lind reading her Bible. “Why did you leave the stage?” asked the visitor. Looking toward a beautiful sunset, the singer said simply, “ Because it blinded my eyes to that.” And looking down at her open Bible, she added, “ And because it blinded my eyes to this.” She was comprehending more fully a statement she had made at the time of her conversion: “ There is no peace in created things. They cannot give happiness but only increase my anxiety. There is no peace, O God, until my soul finds peace in Thee.” Soul out of Christ, there is no peace and no true joy apart from Christ. Honor and wealth cannot satisfy the thirst of the soul. “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.” Only Christ can satisfy and bestow peace that passeth understanding and give joy unspeakable and full of glory. Come to Christ just as Jenny Lind did. Accept Him as your personal Saviour, and He will forgive your sins, cleanse your heart, save your soul, and give you eternal life. Hear His wonderful assurance: “ Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24). Doctrine and Ethics There are many teachers in our day who proclaim the ethics of Christianity without presenting its dynamic. They tell us many things that are true and many things that need to be emphasized, and yet their mes sage is powerless to change lives. They forget, ignore, or deny that man is a fallen being with a depraved nature that hinders him from doing the good things he should do, a sinful nature that impels him to do the evil things that he should not do. Be cause he is in this condition, man must be regenerated and be made a partaker of the divine nature and thereby become a new creation. When the Word of God is preached in power, the Holy Spirit convicts man of his lost and undone state and creates a long ing in his heart for deliverance from the guilt and power of sin. When the thus awakened sinner turns in repentance and faith to Christ, who shed His blood for our sins, the Holy Spirit through the Word re generates the sinner—gives him a new birth. That soul thereby passes from death to life and receives eternal life. The Holy Spirit now indwells the be liever and enables him to have victory over sinful inclinations. However, the saved soul finds that there is still a downward pull in his nature, and he learns that he can have victory only as he surrenders his whole being to the Lord, exercising faith in the omnipotent Christ moment by moment. Through the initial act of surrender, the Holy Spirit takes control of the life, and
By Ransom D. Marvin
"But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Gal. 6:14). then in response to faith He enables and empowers the Christian for holy living. As the believer feeds upon the Word and en gages in prayer, the Holy Spirit works within, causing him both “to will and to do” that which is well-pleasing to God. T o present an ethic without the dynamic is to lure with an ideal impossible of at tainment. The preacher who is truly a gosfel preacher reveals the provision of God’s grace for forgiveness, restoration, impartation, and victory. Consequently, all gospel preaching has a doctrinal basis, and it is obvious that we cannot divorce doc trine from life. Without the atoning death of Christ—His death for sinners— there could be no spiritual life for men. The atonement would not be efficacious unless Christ rose from the dead; and therefore, in order to be saved, the sinner must be lieve that Christ died and rose again (cf. Rom. 10:9, 10). Every evangelical Christian will recog nize the truth of the foregoing statements as to the necessity for doctrine and for the acceptance of the basic facts of Christ’s death and resurrection and their meaning. W e find, however, that there are men who hold the fundamentals of the faith and are ready to fight for them, but who are not ethical in their relationships. They will slander their brethren who cannot see eye to eye with them in every detail. Some times this slander has its basis not in dis agreement over doctrinal details but in jealousy. For example, a preacher is about to be called to a church. Another preacher de sires this pastorate and determines to hin der his brother from being called. He may dea-T in innuendos or may only raise his eyebrows or shrug his shoulders. He raises question marks in the minds of those in volved. Of course, if the brother in ques tion is disqualified doctrinally or otherwise,
Hence He arose, ascending high, And showed our feet the way; Up to the Lord our steps shall fly At the great advent' day.
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