THE RING’S BUSINESS
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no messenger, not even Gabriel will be entrusted with this work, He comes Him self (1 Thess. 4:16; Acts, 1:11), the Bridegroom for* His bride. Any one who has learned to interpret Scripture by Scrip ture .can easily satisfy himself that the coming here referred to is the personal Sec ond coming of Christ. In 1 Thess. 4:16, 17, about which.there can be no possible doubt as to its reference to the personal return, of our Lord, there is an inspired commentary on the words of our Lord: “The Lord Himself shall descend” inter prets “receive you unto myself;” “so shall we ever be with the Lord” interprets “that where I am, there ye may be also” ; and “comfort one another with these words” corresponds to “Let not your heart be troubled:” ' The return of our Lord has ever been the “blessed hope” (Tit. 2:13) of believers. Jesus here speaks of it to banish heart trouhles, and when Paul speaks of. it in the interpretative passage he closes by saying, “Comfort one another with these words” There are many today who seek to substitute poetic fancies Lor revealed tfuth in comforting God’s chil dren. But we cannot improve upon the method of Paul and Jesus. Comfort them with the precious truth of Christ’s per sonal return (cf. Acts 1:11). Sunday, July 23 . John 14 : 4 - 6 . And now Jesus gives them another com forting thought, viz., that He was not only going to prepare a place for them and when the place was prepared for them and they were prepared for the place coming back for them, but further, that they already knew the way to the place whither He was - going. To this statement Thomas inter posed a doubt. Thomas was always doubt ing and objecting, but in this case, as in the case ‘of his doubt about the resurrec tion of Jesus, the doubt was the occasion of some very precious teaching. Verse six is one of the mountain peaks of Scripture; it tells-Us the way to God; Jesus Himself is the way, i. e., we come to God through Him and in no other way, and that way is
open to all (ch. 10:9; 6:37). How Jesus is the way the Bible makes very plain: (1) By the shedding of IJis blood (Eph. 2:13, 18; Heb. - 10:19, 2 0 ) ; ( 2 ) by imparting to us not only by His teaching, but by His person, a true knowledge of God, whom to know is eternal life (Matt. 11:27; cf. John 17:3) ; (3) by being Himself the brightness of the Father’s glory in the express image of His person, and as $uch by Himself purgjng our sins, and then sitting down on the right hand of the Maj esty on' high (Heb. 1;l-3) in the. place of power, where He ever liveth to make inter cession for us and to save us to the utter most (Heb. 7 :25). But how may we walk in this way and so get (o God ?. Simply by 1 resting upon His atoning blood for pardon, and looking to His resurrectioh power for deliverance from sin’s power, and by com ing to know God as Christ reveals Him in His own person. But Jesus is not only, the way, He is something more, He is “the truth.” He not merely teaches the truth, He is the truth, He is truth incarnate. Other messengers of God teach the truth at least in a measure, but Jesus alone is the truth. If, then, we are to know the truth, all that is necessary is to know Him (Col. 2:3; Jno. 17:3). The man who does not know Jesus is ignorant of the truth no matter how many other things, or How- many other persons, he may know. And He not only is the way and the truth, He is alsp “the life.” He does not merely give life, He is the life. If then, you wish life, you must take Him, take not merely His doc trine, but take Himself. As soon as you have taken Jesus you have life ( 1 Jno. 5:11, 12). If you have not taken Jesus definitely you may have existence, but you have not life. If you desire to know what life, real life, eternal life is, look at Jesus and you will see what it is (1 Jno. 1:2), and take Him and you will know what it is by personal experience. Monday, Julyf 24 . John 14 : 7 - 11 . If Jesus were a mere man and not Divine in a unique sense, then verse 7 would be
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