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T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
November 1926
“ The Challenge of a N ew Order DEAN JOHN M. MACINNIS
"in the fourth place “ coming to Jesus” means coming to God, the Judge of all. In Him we reach the final reality and therefore we find in Him the final test. He that hath seen Jesus hath seen the Father, and we know that when we touch the life of 'Jesus Christ and experience Him as a Saviour, we are in touch ,with the life of God. We do not understand Him in all the mystery of His life but we know that in everything that we do understand about Him, He is like God. We behold the glory of God in nature, in his tory, and we know something of the presence of God in the inner life, but in Jesus Christ we come face -to face with God as He looks upon us in a form that we can understand, and speaks to us in the words that are common to the human family, and we know that whatever else God is besides what is manifested in Jesus Christ, He is all that Jesus was. This makes Jesus the final revelation because there is nothing to reveal beyond God. It makes Him the final standard, for God is the final law, and it puts at our disposal the full resources of our universe because in God "we live, move and have our being.” This opens up a whole world of thought that we cannot discuSs at this point. In the fifth place, when we come to Jesus we come “ to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven.” That is to say, in Jesus we have the center of union and fellowship with all the saved of all ages, and the man who has consciously experienced God in Jesus Christ has come into fellowship with the truly redeemed of all times and in all the world as well as with those who have gone beyond and are now beholding Him in His glory. We may limit our fellowship upon earth by our little standards and interpretations, but when we come to the final reality in the experience of a life of the new order there is no limit to our fellowship only as it is limited in Jesus Christ. Our fellowship is as narrow as He is hut it is also as broad as His life manifested in all who are truly identified with Him in the new birth. In the sixth place we come to the ministry of "an innum erable company of angels.” More than the royal ministry of the richest monarchs of earth is the ministry that is put at the disposal of the redeemed through the new order of this covenant in Jesus Christ. But finally it is suggested that we come "unto Mount Sion and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem." In other words we come to an organized order governed by Jesus Christ as its King, and moving toward the realization of His purposes which shall be consummated in His coming glory when He shall come to “ reign where’er the sun doth his successive journeys’ run.” This is a hint at the riches of this order into which we are brought when we come to Jesus Christ. Now what is the challenge of such an Qrder as thatt In the first place it is a challenge to obedience. "See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh.” “ How can we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” The writer seems to think that it is almost unthinkable that people should refuse to
PH jm wN the Letter to the Hebrews the writer calls our jUB attention to the fact that we are come “ to Jesus H & the mediator of the new covenant,” and the state- ™ ment in its context clearly indicates that this means a new order which brings us into a larger life which puts at our disposal richer resources and creates a new responsibility. This responsibility is an immediate chal lenge. The average Christian uses that term “ coming to Jesus” without realizing the significance of the fact repre sented by it. The writer of this Epistle in writing to a group of people who had become panicky as they saw the old order passing, assured them that everything that was real in that order was fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and that in Him we come to the final reality and therefore to the real ization of life at its best. It is in the light of this fact that we must understand his statement here in the twelfth chap ter, verses twenty-two to twenty-nine. Dr. Stuart Holden of London, in a chapter in his book "The God-Lit Road,” suggests that the statement of the things that we have come to so far as experience is con cerned, must be studied beginning with the last thing stated instead of the first. Following that suggestion we find that “ coming to Jesus Christ” means first of all the coming “ to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.” . In other words “ coming to Jesus Christ” means that we find in Him a solution for the sin question. The blood'of Abel and of the sacrifices of the Old Testament had their meaning and significance but they could not make atonement for sin. All that they could suggest would be that the way into the holiest of all was not yet open, but when we face Jesus Christ in His dying love and sacrifice we realize that at last we have found a basis for the forgiveness of sins and a way into the holiest -of all. In the second place "coming to Jesus Christ” means com ing to the Mediator of the new covenant. This covenant is a covenant of life in which is realized a thing that could not be realized under the old covenant, therefore the first is taken away in order that He may establish this second and new covenant (Heb. 10 :9 ). This new covenant'is one in which we have not only the taking care of the sins and iniquities of those who come to Him but the recreation of the life so that the laws of God are put in the heart and written upon the mind. It is a récréation of life in which the nature of God is imparted to the one coming to Christ. That means that coming to Jesus Christ involves being born into a new order. In the third place this new order brings us "to the spirits of Just men made perfect.” When Jesus Christ died, He accomplished something that had to do not alone with the people who were to follow Him but with those who went before. “ He led captivity captive.” We do not know all the mystic meanings of that great declaration but we may depend upon it that it meant something in the perfecting of those who had witness borne to them through faith, and we are brought into fellowship with them in this new life.
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