In Parts I-III
of this series we considered Scriptural evidence for the deity of Christ, some
ancient and modern heresies concerning the deity of Christ, and some specific
Scriptures used to support heretical teachings concerning the deity of Christ.
We now move on to consider the Scriptural evidence for

     The Humanity of Christ.

 In all of the
following ways the Lord Jesus showed He was human:

1. He was
conceived in Mary’s womb:“And the angel said unto her … you shall conceive
in your womb and bring forth a son” (Luke 1:31).

2. He was born
in the usual manner for humans:“Mary [was] great with child. And so it was,
that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be
delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped Him in
swaddling clothes” (Luke 2:5-7). It would be appropriate here to introduce the
theological term, “Incarnation,” which refers to the eternal Son of God taking
on a human form and nature.

3. He was
circumcised:“And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the
child, His name was called Jesus” (Luke 2:21).

4. He grew
physically:“And the child grew … and Jesus increased in wisdom and stature”
(Luke 2:40,52).

5. He advanced
in age:“And when He was 12 years old, they went up to Jerusalem” (Luke 2:42).
“Then said the Jews unto Him, Thou art not yet 50 years old, and hast Thou seen
Abraham?” (John 8:57).

6. He got
hungry and thirsty:“And when He had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, He was
afterward hungry” (Matt. 4:2; 21:18). “After this, Jesus … said, I thirst”
(John 19:28).

7. He ate and
drank:“They gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and of a honeycomb. And He took
it and did eat before them” (Luke 24:43). “When Jesus therefore had received
the vinegar, He said, It is finished” (John 19:30).

8. He got tired
and slept:“Jesus therefore, being wearied with His journey, sat thus on the
well” (John 4:6). “And He was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a
pillow” (Mark 4:38).

9. He
experienced and expressed human emotions such as (a) affection and sympathy:
“Jesus wept. Then said the Jews, Behold how He loved him!” (John 11:35,36); (b)
compassion:“When He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion on them
because they fainted and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd”
(Matt. 9:36); (c) feeling troubled and in mental agony:“And being in an agony
He prayed more earnestly; and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood
falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44; John 12:27); and (d) desiring the
company of others:“And He comes unto the disciples and finds them asleep, and
says unto Peter, What, could you not watch with Me one hour?” (Matt. 26:40).

10. He died and
was buried:“Jesus, when He had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the
ghost” (Matt. 27:50; Mark 14:37; Luke 23:46; John 19:30,33). “And when Joseph
had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his
own new tomb … and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulcher”
(Matt. 27:59,60; Mark 15:46,47; Luke 23:53; John 19:38-42).

 To be sure,
there were miraculous elements in all of this. For example, (1) He was
conceived by the Holy Spirit, not by a man (Luke 1:35); (2) He was born of a
virgin (Matt. 1:23); (3) He rose above His physical needs (John 4:31-34); and
(4) He laid down His life by His own power and will (John 10:18). But this
doesn’t take away from His being fully human. Rather it means that He was more
than human—He was God as well.

In addition to
all of this, we have the clear, distinct statement of Scripture that the Lord
Jesus Christ was, and is, Man:“There is one Mediator between God and men, the
Man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5).

Human, yet
without sin. “We have not a high priest who cannot be touched with the
feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet
without sin [or sin apart]” (Heb. 4:15). Jesus was, and is, fully
God and fully man. He is human in every way that you and I are, but with one
exception:He is without sin. The New Testament abounds with testimonies to the
sinlessness of the Man Christ Jesus:He “did no sin, neither was guile found in
His mouth” (1 Pet. 2:22). He challenged the skeptics, “Which of you convinces
[or convicts] Me of sin?” (John 8:46). He passed the severe temptations of
Satan during 40 days of fasting in the wilderness, as well as the agony in the
Garden of Gethsemane, without sinning by asserting His own will or by
disobeying the Word of God (Matt. 4:1-10; 26:39). Others, including Pilate and
the thief on the cross, could not find fault in Him (Luke 23:41; John 18:38).

But could
Jesus have sinned? Practically every student of the Word of God would agree
that the Lord Jesus Christ did not sin during His life here on earth. But a
debate has been going on for centuries as to whether the Lord Jesus could
have sinned. Some teach that just as the first Adam had the capability of
sinning, so the Last Adam, Jesus Christ, in order to be fully Man, had this
same capability.

What does the
Bible say about this? First, not only does it say that Christ “did no sin” (1
Pet. 2:22), but that He “knew no sin” (2 Cor. 5:21) and “in Him is no sin” (1
John 3:5).

Second, in
several places Christ is called “holy” (Luke 1:35; 4:34; Acts 2:27; 3:14; 4:27;
Heb. 7:26). Holiness supposes the knowledge of good and evil and total
separation from the evil (2 Tim. 2:21). Adam is never referred to as “holy.”

Third, Christ
was and is fully God as well as fully Man. If it were possible for Him to sin,
then it would also be possible for God to sin.

Fourth, some
argue that Christ’s temptation in the wilderness by Satan had no meaning if
Christ was incapable of yielding to that temptation. But that is not a valid
argument. If one tests a bright metal to see if it is gold and it turns out to
be pure gold, was it foolish to do the test in the first place? Just so,
Christ’s temptation by Satan only helped to prove His sinless perfection.

Fifth, in 1
John 3:9 we read, “Whosoever is born of God … cannot sin, because he
is born of God.” If the believer possesses a new, Christ-like nature that
“cannot sin,” then surely Christ Himself, whose nature we possess, could not
sin.

Sixth, we are
taught in the Scriptures that heaven is a holy place (Isa. 6:3; Rev. 4:8), that
all of the results of sin—death, sorrow, crying, and pain—will be a thing of
the past (Rev. 21:4), that nothing sinful or unholy can enter therein (Rev.
21:8,27; 22:15), and that believers in Christ look forward to being “conformed
to the image of [God’s] Son” (Rom. 8:29; 1 John 3:2). So when we are caught up
to heaven, our old, sinful nature will be taken away and all we will have left
is our new, Christ-like nature. At the same time, we will still be human
beings. So the argument that for Christ to be fully human He had to be capable
of sinning like Adam, does not carry any weight. Or else, if Christ Himself and
our new, Christ-like nature will forever be capable of sinning, how can we even
look forward to heaven?

Christ the
Son of Man. This is the title by which Jesus most often referred to
Himself. For example, “Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” (Matt.
16:13). Every man, wom­an, and child born into this world is a son (or
daughter) of man. But none of us would dare refer to ourselves as ”the
son of man.” The Old Testament tells us of one called “the Son of Man” who is
coming to set up an everlasting kingdom over the earth (Dan. 7:13,14). When
Jesus rightfully applied this title to Himself, the Jewish leaders resented it
(see Matt. 26:64). It is an expression of His being fully Man, but in a totally
unique way, that is, being also fully God at the same time.

The doctrine
of the kenosis. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but
made Himself of no reputation [or emptied Himself], and took upon Him the form
of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion
as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross” (Phil. 2:5-8).

“Kenosis” is a
theological term that refers to the self-emptying of the Son of God in coming
down to earth to be “made in the likeness of men.” It comes from the Greek word
kenos meaning “empty.” The Jews in Christ’s day (like many people today)
objected to the idea of a man making himself God:“The Jews answered Him,
saying, For a good work we stone Thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that
Thou, being a man, makest Thyself God” (John 10:33). But they had it all
backward! The Man Christ Jesus wasn’t elevating Himself to be God. Rather, the
eternal Son of God humbled Himself to become a man! He existed from all eternity
“in the form of God” (Phil. 2:5), that is, He was truly, fully God. No created
being could exist in the form of God. Lucifer attempted to elevate himself:“I
will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God … I
will be like the Most High” (Isa. 14:12-14). In so doing he was cast down from
his position of probably the highest, or one of the highest, of all the angels
(see Ezek. 28:12-17). Eve ate the fruit so that she might be elevated to be “as
God [JND], knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:5), and we know the far-reaching
consequences of that act of pride. But the eternal Son of God was in the full
enjoyment of this by right. “He thought it not robbery to be equal with God,”
that is, He thought equality with God was not a thing to be held on to at all
costs. He chose voluntarily to leave “the glory which [He] had with [the
Father] before the world was” (John 17:5) to take a place of subjection and
lowliness, and then rejection, reproach, pain, suffering, and the most awful
kind of death imaginable!

Yes, He emptied
Himself—but of what? Not of His deity, surely, nor of His divine attributes; He
could never stop being God. He was ever and always the Son of God and thus
co-equal with God. Of what, then, did He empty Himself? He emptied Himself of
His divine prerogatives, His rights and privileges, we might say, of exercising
His divine attributes such as omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. As a
Man on earth, He often manifested His divine power in the miracles that He
wrought, and His divine omniscience in knowing people’s  thoughts (John
2:24,25; 16:30; 21:17). However, He only drew upon His divine powers when given
permission to do so by the Father. This is why we find the Lord Jesus so often
praying to the Father (Luke 3:21; 5:16; 6:12; 9:18; 11:1; 22:32,41,44). When
tempted by the devil to make the stones bread, while He had the divine power to
do so, He did not have the permission of His Father to do so (Matt. 4:4). When
speaking of “the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory” He
intimated that He was dependent upon the Father for knowing all of the
details:“But of that day and that hour knows no man, not the angels which are
in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father” (Mark 13:32).

In summary,
Christ never gave up His personal equality with God, but He gave up His positional
equality with the Father by coming down from that scene of glory and honor. The
hymn writers express it in these ways:“Came from Godhead’s fullest glory down
to Calvary’s depth of woe” (Robert Robinson) and “O what wondrous love and
mercy! Thou didst lay Thy glory by, and for us didst come from heaven as the
Lamb of God to die” (J.G. Deck).

It is often
failure to understand the doctrine of the kenosis that leads people to question
the deity of Christ. They point to verses that speak of His submission to the
Father as evidence that He is lower than the Father. (See also the final
section of Part III of this series concerning the verse, “My Father is greater
than I.”)

The doctrine of
the kenosis is not merely a statement of theology. It is given to Christians as
a challenge:“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil.
2:5). The hymn-writer expresses it so pointedly:“When we survey the wondrous
cross on which the Lord of glory died, our richest gain we count but loss, and
pour contempt on all our pride” (Isaac Watts).

Why did the
Son of God become a Man? At the risk of being a bit repetitive, here are a
few of the reasons:

1. He came to reveal
God to man and help man to communicate with God (1 Tim. 2:5).

2. He came to
provide a sacrifice for man’s sin by dying on the cross (Matt. 1:21; Heb.
9:26). (He could not have represented us on the cross if He had not been fully
human.)

3. As a Man He
experienced trials and troubles so that He might be able fully to understand
us, sympathize with us, and help us (Heb. 2:17,18; 4:15,16).

4. He came to
be an example for those who believe in Him and follow Him (John 13:15; Phil. 2:5;
1 Pet. 2:21).

What is the
difference between a theophany and the Incarnation? A theophany (meaning,
“appearance of God”) is a manifestation of God in visible and bodily form
before the Incarnation. Sometimes the theophany is spoken of as “the LORD” (Gen.
18:1-15), sometimes as “the angel of the LORD” (Judg. 13:3-23), and sometimes
as “a man” (Gen. 32:24-30). These theophanies are usually considered to be the
Second Person of the Trinity, God the Son in visible form. The difference
between a theophany and the Incarnation is that a theophany had the appearance
of a man but was not truly human, whereas in the Incarnation, the Son of God
became truly human while remaining truly God.

The theophany
was abrupt and temporary. God appeared to different people at different times
for specific purposes. When the purpose was accomplished, the theophany
disappeared until the next time. There was no organic link between the
appearances.

In contrast,
the Incarnation began with a conception (not an ordinary conception, to be
sure) in the body of a human mother. Christ was born a human infant in the
normal process of childbirth. (There is no Scriptural basis for the medieval
idea that Christ was born in some miraculous way so that Mary’s physical
virginity remained intact and she experienced no pain.) Christ had a real
genealogy with real people in it. Had He abruptly appeared as a full-grown man
in the manner of the theophanies, His true humanity could have been questioned
along with His ability to be the Mediator between God and man and the High
Priest who was tried in all ways as His people were. Only as a true descendant
of Adam, Abraham, and David could He be the Last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45), the seed
of Abraham through whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed (Gen.
22:18; Gal. 3:16), and the Son of David who would occupy the throne of David
forever (Matt. 21:9; 22:42; Rev. 22:16).

In the next
issue, Lord willing, we shall consider some of the heresies, past and present,
relating to the humanity of Christ.

“You have
forgotten the exhortation that speaks unto you as unto children, My son,
despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked of
him:for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He
receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons….
Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh who corrected us, and we gave them
reverence:shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of
spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own
pleasure; but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness.
Now no chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous:
nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them
which are exercised thereby” (Heb. 12:5-11).

In view of the
tendencies of our nature, how needful it is to keep it in check. Thus we are
told in this passage in Hebrews that if you are a child you must expect
chastening. “He who spares his rod hates his son; but he who loves him chastens
him betimes [or promptly]” (Prov. 13:24). In love God is pledged to chasten us.
His rod we are to receive as a part of the proof of that love which gave His
own precious Son for us.

It is interesting
to notice the character of these chastisements. They are persecution, scorn,
hatred, the reproach of man. You say, if God would only lay me on a bed of
sickness, I could stand it. If it were God who had done these things I could
tolerate it; but it is just the wretched malice of man. I cannot see Him in it.
Well, faith sees God in it. Whom did the Lord Jesus see in all that He
passed through—which was not, I need hardly say, for His discipline, for He
needed neither correction nor prevention? If He could say of the bitterest part
of the cup, “The cup which My Father has given Me to drink, shall I not drink
it?” He could say it of everything else. These things which we bear, no matter
how much they seem to come from malignity, envy, or hatred, we know they also
come from a Father’s heart who permits them for our blessing.

Look at Job,
for instance:Satan was let loose upon him. He took away his property and his
family. He afflicted him with grievous sickness. And then the wife of his bosom
unconsciously lends herself as an emissary of Satan. She says, “Curse God and
die.” See his noble answer:“Shall we receive good at the hands of God, and
shall we not receive evil?” He does not attribute his trial to Satan. In fact,
we do not even read that Job knew it was Satan who was acting in it all.
Whatever the chastening might be, it was the chastening of God. Oh for faith to
look past the poor tools that Satan may use—whether it be the world or the
flesh in fellow Christians—to look past all second causes into the Father’s
loving heart.

Now that is not
an easy thing to do, for, as he says further, “No chastening for the present
seems to be joyous, but grievous.” Do you know what we all have a desire for?
It is a kind of chastening that does not hurt—that might be a pleasure to go
through. But that would be no chastening. It must be grievous in order to be a
chastening.

Then he reminds
us of the effect of this. We have had earthly parents who corrected us
according to their pleasure. A father smote us with the rod, rebuked us with
his lips, cut off some pleasure, or did something that showed his desire to
deliver us from evil; and the effect of it was that we gave him respect and
reverence. But now he says, Shall we not much rather, if our Father sends
affliction, bow to Him? It is not for a few days with Him, but forever. Earthly
parents have done the best they could for our temporal profit, but He has done
so that we might be partakers of His holiness.

Notice that
expression, “partakers of His holiness.” There are given unto us “exceeding
great and precious promises,” whereby we might be “partakers of the divine
nature” (2 Pet. 1:4)—brought to the place where we can drink from the
fountain-source of holiness, the divine nature itself. God chastens us in order
that we may partake of His nature, that we may drink that in, as it were, and
have the fruits of holiness in our outward life as the result. After the
chastening come the peaceable fruits of righteousness to those who are exercised
thereby.

You will notice
here that there are three ways in which we can be affected by chastening. We
can despise the chastening of the Lord—we may think it a trifle and throw it
off. We have been speaking about reproach and scorn. A man may say, “I don’t
care for people’s opinion—that is nothing to me”; he may brave it out in his
own strength. He is despising the chastening of the Lord. It cannot be a severe
chastening that does not bring us to God.

Then, on the
other hand, there are those who “faint” when they are rebuked of Him. They are
overwhelmed and the hands hang down; they are discouraged.

These are the
two extremes—neither of which is faith. But now we have, “To those who are
exercised thereby.” We are to be exercised by what we pass through, not to
despise it, not to faint under it. We are to learn the lessons that God would
teach us, to go to Him for comfort, help, and guidance, to lay hold upon His
grace and mercy.

(From Lectures
on Hebrews.)

There is such a
thing as becoming one-sided in regard to the truth of God. This is true in
regard to the doctrine of “Faith Healing.” The Scriptures surely do teach us
that it is our privilege to go to God with all our difficulties and needs,
spiritual and physical. Many a child of God has had the answer to believing
prayer in the form of renewed health or deliverance from diseases of various
forms. Far be it from us to weaken in anyone the sense of dependence upon God
for the healing of the body, for we believe that did Christians trust the Lord
more and man less about such matters it would be more honoring to God.

While it is
certainly true that God does answer faith, we desire to present another side to
the Scriptural teaching as to divine healing. It is hoped that this will
provide our readers with a balanced view of this topic.

Let us note,
first of all, that sickness is sometimes the result of sin:“He who eats and
drinks unworthily, eats and drinks damnation to himself, not discerning the
Lord’s body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.
For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged” (1 Cor. 11:29-31).
Unjudged sin was bringing weakness, sickness, and even death upon the
Corinthian Christians. God’s reason for sending death to them was that they
“should not be condemned with the world” (verse 32). In Jas. 5:14,15 as well we
find that it may be sins that caused the sickness:“If he have committed sins,
they shall be forgiven him.”

This is not to
say that all ill health and sickness is caused by sin. In fact, we are
plainly given to understand that earnest, faithful work for the Lord Jesus
Christ may be the cause of ill health which nearly terminates in death. The
apostle Paul says of Epaphroditus, “Indeed he was sick nigh unto death, but God
had mercy on him…. For the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not
regarding his life, to supply your lack of service toward me” (Phil. 2:27-30).

Let us now turn
our thoughts to the one whom the apostle Paul calls his own son in the faith.
Would that more of the Christian young men of our day were filled with the same
faith and love as was Timothy! Paul says of Timothy, “I have no man like-minded
who will naturally care for your state” (Phil. 2:21). Yet, though Timothy was
faithful to the Lord, to His people in general, and to the apostle Paul in
particular, he was one who had often infirmities and stomach
difficulties. This being the case, should he not exercise faith and thus be
cured of his trouble? Will the apostle not write recommending him to do so?
This is what the apostle did write through the leading of the Holy
Spirit:“Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for your stomach’s sake
and your often infirmities” (1 Tim. 5:23). Paul advised Timothy to take a
little medicine, in the form of wine. True, it was a little he was to
use, and as a medicine; and being in the habit of taking water, he had to be told
to take wine.

The apostle
Paul had power to heal persons of diseases. Is it not strange that he should
leave one of his helpers at Miletum sick? “Trophimus have I left at Miletum
sick” (2 Tim. 4:20). Neither Trophimus nor Paul exercised faith as to the
restoration to health. Has the Lord nothing to teach us by this fact? Can we
not learn by it that it is not always the Lord’s will that His children should
receive faith for the healing of disease?

Once more, the
apostle speaks of “Luke the beloved physician” (Col. 4:14). Here was one
of the Lord’s people who was a physician; not only so, he was a beloved one to
Paul. If sickness is always a sign of unjudged sin in the one who is sick, and
it is sinful to take medicine for relief, would Paul refer to one whose
profession was to administer medicine as the “beloved” physician, when he
knew that his was a profession whose very nature led him to prescribe a
course of treatment which would then be actually sinful? Thus we see that the
Word of God does not lead us to suppose that one who is a physician is
following a profession which is contrary to the will of God, seeing the word
“beloved” is a term of special affection.

On the one
hand, the Scriptures teach that the One who, while upon the earth, said,
“According to your faith be it unto you” (Matt. 9:29), is still able to give
faith to trust Him about bodily ailments, and in response to faith is able to
heal the disease. On the other hand, it is well to remember that, in wisdom
that no man can rightly question, God’s will may be that one who is sick not
be healed in a miraculous way, or perhaps not at all (as in 2 Cor.
12:7-9). The object in writing the foregoing is not to weaken in any degree a
humble dependence upon God for the healing of the body, but to bring out the
other side of truth from the Word of God which seems to be passed over by many.

Should God
enable any to trust Him for healing, be sure to give God the glory, and do not
think of it as though it were a thing of merit to man that God healed
the sick.

(From Help
and Food, Vol. 13.)

“David and the
captains of the host separated to the service of the sons of Asaph, and of
Heman, and of Jeduthun, who should prophesy with harps, with psalteries, and
with cymbals” (1 Chron. 25:1).

In 1 Kings 1 we
see King David as a decrepit old man; Abishag ministered to him, seeking almost
in vain to keep the spark of life from going out. But when Solomon’s title to
the throne was disputed by Adonijah, David blazed forth as much the king and
man of might as ever, and secured for Solomon the throne and the succession.
The “man after [God’s] own heart” (Acts 13:22), realizing as his end drew near
the glory that awaited his successor, made full and ample provision not merely
for Solomon’s own throne, but above all, for the glory and the worship and
service of the house of God—that which was dearest to his heart.

David provided
not only for the building of the temple, but for the worship of the Levites,
the courses of the priests, the porters at the gates, and all the details. We
can imagine with what keen delight this old man would arrange all. Faith could
see, not the bare threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite (1 Chron. 21:28; 2
Chron. 3:1), but the stately temple filled with worshiping priests and singing
Levites, and over all, the overshadowing glory. And faith could rejoice, though
for sight there was nothing. So it should ever be for us. Sight has nothing to
show, but how lively the view that faith opens up!

It is in
connection with the ordering of the Levite service of worship that we have an
expression that should arrest our attention:“David … separated to the
service … [those] who should prophesy with harps.” We would naturally
think of harps being used to play upon to aid in the melody of the worship, but
there seems to be distinct meaning, as we know there is in every word of
Scripture, in this word “prophesy.” They were to prophesy with harps;
that is, they were to speak for God, which is really the thought of
prophesying. And does it not seem a strange combination? The harp suggests
praise, worship, and joy offered to God; the prophesying suggests, as it were,
God’s voice for His people to hear. Without doubt, the thought that underlies
it, first of all, is that their playing with harps was not a natural exercise,
but under divine guidance. As the incense was made according to the formula
given to Moses, and nothing could be added or taken from it, so the melody
which was to accompany the sweet psalms of praise was also ordered of God.
This, of course, does not set aside the thought of their being men of gift and
of training, but it reminds us of the fact that everything connected with God
must be under His control.

We have another
mention of an instrument of music in connection with the exercise of prophecy
in the life of Elisha—when the kings of Judah and Israel and Edom were stranded
in the wilderness without water, and the enemy threatened them. In their
helplessness they turned to the prophet of the Lord who, for the sake of
Jehoshaphat, came to their relief. “Bring me a minstrel,” Elisha said. “And it
came to pass, when the minstrel played, that the hand of the LORD came upon
him.” It was in connection with what we might call praise that God gave His
word of deliverance for these kings.

This opens up a
very important thought for us and one that we forget all too easily. Nothing is
more needed among the people of God than prophecy. What would we be without
God’s word for us? Of course, we have the written Word, that which embodies all
the truth of God revealed to us, and which it is at once our privilege and
responsibility to feed upon and to be filled with. But the word in season, the
word from the Lord out of His written Word, that which appeals to conscience
and to heart and ministers “edification, and exhortation, and comfort” (1 Cor.
14:3), how important, how necessary to receive this!

If we turn to
the Old Testament prophets, we see that their message consisted largely of
warning, of denunciation of evil, of lamentation over the declension of a
people privileged as no other nation. The pages of the prophets are stained
with their tears, and yet who that has read, “Isaiah’s wild measure” but has
heard the sound of the harp mingling its melody even when the theme was most
sad, and sending a glimmer of hope over the darkest pages. Rising above and
reaching beyond all the gloom is that clear, triumphant note of victory that
looks on to the end, assured that at the last the harps will have not a
message of sorrow but one of unmingled joy and delight.

Putting it very
simply, the thought suggested by the harps is the spirit of praise and worship.
Even our sins ought to be sung out to God, as it were. The book of Psalms as a
whole gives us this thought. No matter how humbling the sin, how deep the
humiliation, how sore the oppression of the enemy, the harp is never laid
aside. It all goes up, as it were, to God in worship. And is there not deep
instruction in this? None are more easily discouraged than the people of God
when their failures are brought to remembrance. They are overwhelmed. Mere
calling sin to mind will never give deliverance from it; but here comes in the
harp of praise too; for in spite of all weakness and manifold shortcomings, how
much we have to praise for!

There is
lacking among us, no doubt, much of that faithfulness that marked the prophets
of old. “He who has My Word, let him speak My Word faithfully” (Jer. 23:28) is
too easily forgotten, and while we do not prophesy “smooth things” of deceit
(Isa. 30:10), there may be the passing over, the avoiding those painful “wounds
of a friend” (Prov. 27:6) that heal while they smite. This is included in the
“exhortation” that the apostle Paul speaks of in 1 Cor. 14:3. We must deal
faithfully with one another and we may all prophesy. But let us always take our
harp when we prophesy. Let us always remember that we can praise God and that
the accompaniment to the saddest message that we may have to bring to our
brethren is the sweet song of redemption. Oh, how this illumines whatever may
have to be said! How it changes denunciation into entreaty! How anger is melted
to tears, and even over those who have gone farthest astray, how the yearning
pity mingles with the faith to count upon their recovery as we deliver, it may
be, a message of sorrow!

In quite
another connection we have a similar thought:“Be careful [or anxious] for
nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let
your requests be made known unto God” (Phil. 4:6). The supplication suggests
strong entreaty of hearts that have a sense of need and must have an answer
from God. Yet coupled with it is that “thanksgiving” that lightens the burden
and, in anticipation, praises God for the answer. Do we always remember to
mingle thanks with our prayers as we wait long for the answer, as it is
deferred until the heart well nigh grows sick? Let us remember the
thanksgiving, for our God does hear and will in His own way and time give an
answer of peace. Meanwhile, too, “the peace of God that passes all
understanding [keeps our] hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

We have been
speaking of admonition. This is connected, in Col. 3:16, with psalms and hymns:
“Teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” Be the punctuation altered as
it may, the close connection between the admonition and the psalms and hymns
is, to say the least, suggestive of prophesying with the harp. In our own
experience, have we not oftentimes received the tenderest and most effectual
admonitions in the melody of praise?

Yet, gracious Lord, when we reflect

How apt to turn the eye from Thee,

Forget Thee, too, with sad neglect

And listen to the enemy,

And yet to find Thee still the same,

‘Tis this that humbles us with shame.

It seems as
though the very joy of God’s grace, instead of making us forget our own wrong,
leaves us not hopeless and discouraged but draws us closer to Himself:

Astonished at Thy feet we fall.

Thy love exceeds our highest thought.

Henceforth be Thou our all in all,

Thou who our souls with blood hast

bought.

May we henceforth more faithful prove

And ne’er forget Thy ceaseless love.

This is but one
illustration of what, without doubt, has been frequently the experience of
God’s beloved people. Have we not often expected a blow, felt that we deserved
it, that nothing short of some correction from the rod of God could move us,
and been surprised and melted into deepest contrition by the sweet voice of the
harp bringing the message of love that never changes?

Then, too, the
one who brings the needed message of admonition is also prone to discouragement
sometimes, forgetting his own weaknesses as he things of those of his brethren.
He goes in gloom, with but little hope of seeing results, to do that which is a
most unpleasant duty, and he does it faithfully, but in a hard way. He goes
away unsuccessful and doubly depressed. How different it might have been had he
taken his harp with him and remembered that it is grace alone that restores, as
it is grace alone that saves.

We must not
think that all prophecy is admonition or that every message from God is a word
of warning. How far this is from the truth! Has a father nothing but correction
for his children? It is the exception, rather than the rule. What happy family
is there where admonition is the prevailing atmosphere? It comes with all the
greater force because of its comparative rarity. But prophecy goes on always.
The Father is always speaking to His children and would use us as His
mouthpieces for His message. Exhortation, edification, and comfort are all
included in it, and how everything is lightened and rendered effective by the
spirit of praise! We come with happy hearts and speak to one another for
edification, and how different it is when, in a mere perfunctory way, we go
over truths clear to the mind, but lacking in just that one thing which makes
them effective and which the spirit of praise furnishes! Is there not, too
often, an atmosphere of depression among the people of God? They are looking at
one another, and like Joseph’s brethren, starving as they look into one
another’s faces, and yet their Bibles are in their hands, full of most priceless
truth. Constraint, the fear of man, and occupation with one’s brethren have
hindered the free outflow of that which should come in all its simplicity and
with all its power. What is the remedy? Take the harp. Strike a few notes.
Think of the love of God, of His grace and goodness; think of what redemption
is, and how all constraint vanishes! The Spirit of the Lord is free because we
are occupied, not with one another, but with Christ, and thus there is the
liberty which comes from the Spirit’s freedom.

Take again the
meeting for prayer. How many heavy hearts come to the prayer meeting. Do they
go away heavy or light? It is a libel upon the grace and love of God to carry a
heavy heart away from where we have met with Him. He will surely give a word of
help and blessing if the eye has been turned to Him, or if the harp of praise
has become the vehicle for the message of prophecy.

It is needless
to enlarge. We have simply dwelt upon one idea, looking at a few of its many
sides. The spirit of praise is absolutely essential. God dwells amid the
praises of His people (Psa. 22:22; Heb. 2:12). There can be no sense of His
presence without worship, and there can be no true liberty without praise
accompanying it. Let us then take a lesson from David’s provision. Let us learn
more than ever to prophesy with the harp, and to do everything with
thanksgiving. How light it would make our lives, and what a foretaste it would
give us of that time near at hand—we know not how near—when the melody of the
harp will sound out in all its entrancing sweetness as we sing:“Unto Him who
loves us and has washed us from our sins in His own blood … to Him be glory
and dominion for ever and ever” (Rev. 1:5,6).

(From Help
and Food, Vol. 19.)

Awhile in the
earthen vessel

The treasures of
glory gleam;

In heaven the
fount eternal,

In the desert
the living stream.

And looking on
Christ in glory,

That glory so
still, so fair,

There passes a
change upon me,

Till I am as He
who is there.

Then no more in
the earthen vessel

The treasure of
God shall be,

But in full and
unclouded beauty,

O Lord, wilt
Thou shine through me.

Afar through
the golden vessel

Will the glory
of God shine bright;

There shall be
no need for the sunshine,

For the Lamb
shall be the light.

Undimmed in
that wondrous vessel,

That light of
surpassing love

Shall illumine
the earth in its gladness,

And shall fill
the heavens above.

All, all in His
new creation,

The glory of God
shall see;

And the lamp
for that light eternal

The Lamb for the
Bride shall be.

A golden lamp
in the heavens,

That all may see
and adore

The Lamb who
was slain and who liveth,

Who liveth for
evermore.

The September
11 terrorist attacks on America continue to weigh heavily on the minds of most
Americans. How wonderful it is for those who have been saved by the blood of
Christ that we can face tragic events like these with the knowledge that our
eternal future is secure in our Father’s hands (John 10:29)!

Many people are
asking questions such as “Where was God in all of this?” “Why did He allow it
to happen?” “Can any good come out of all this?” While wrestling with such
questions, my thinking has taken me down several different roads. All of the
articles in this issue relate to our attempts to learn God’s lessons for us
from the terrorist attacks.

1. Perhaps God
has allowed the attacks on America to reflect back to us our own attitudes and
behavior. These ideas are explored in “Reflections from the Towers.”

2. A parallel
might be drawn between Osama bin Laden, the presumed mastermind behind the
terrorist attacks, and the ancient Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar. Three times
the LORD referred to Nebuchadnezzar as “My servant” (Jer. 25:4-9; 27:4-7;
43:8-13).  The LORD used this godless, God-hating (Dan. 3:14-20) monarch to
bring the nation of Israel to its knees (2 Ki. 24,25; 2 Chron. 36).  When that
work was complete, God brought Nebuchadnezzar himself to his knees (Dan. 4:32).
Is it possible that bin Laden, who has no love for the God of Christians, has
been raised up by God to be His “servant” to scourge a nation that is
increasingly turning away from their God and His Son Jesus Christ? If this is
so, then we surely can count upon the Lord Himself to bring bin Laden down …
but not until He has first brought America to its knees. Two articles help us
to learn more about King Nebuchadnezzar.

3. The lesson
Jesus gave to the people concerning the collapse of a tower in Siloam may apply
as well to the collapse of the towers in New York City. The enclosed gospel
tract, “The Twin Towers,” examines this connection.

4. A Christian
woman recently asked my wife and me how the events of September 11 tied in with
biblical prophecies concerning the end times. Her particular reason for asking
this question was to find out whether she should quit her job and spend the
rest of her days until the Lord’s coming ministering the gospel to the unsaved.
Isn’t that neat? Would that we all had such a love for souls! Actually,
Scripture does not give us any specific events—wars or otherwise—that help us
to predict when the rapture (that is, the Lord’s coming for His people) will
occur. The article, “The Second Coming of Christ,” discusses this point. Any
decision as to giving up our regular employment in order to devote our lives to
the gospel should be made, not with respect to events around us, but with the
firm conviction that it is the Lord who is calling us to do so.
Meanwhile, all believers are called upon to “do the work of an evangelist” (2
Tim. 4:5); there is much that we can do during our coffee breaks, lunch hours,
evenings, weekends, and retirement years for the Lord. Let us redeem the time (Eph.
5:16).

5. If we were
called upon to give counsel to the families of the victims, what would we say?
“Counseling the Grieving and Hurting” makes a few suggestions.

6. The recent
events serve as a poignant reminder of the brevity of life and the suddenness
of death. The following hymn expresses it well:

Life at best is very brief,

Like the falling of a leaf,

Life the binding of a sheaf,

Be in time.

Fleeting days are telling fast

That the die will soon be cast,

And the fatal line be passed,

Be in time.

Time is gliding swiftly by,

Death and judgment draweth nigh,

To the arms of Jesus fly,

Be in time.

Oh, I pray you count the cost,

Ere the fatal line be crossed,

And your soul in hell be lost,

Be in time.

May the Lord
help each of us as we talk to others about these tragic events and what they
may mean.  May we be given wisdom from above to provide answers from the Bible
to peoples’ questions.

In Job 33:14-17
we are told, “For God speaks once, yea twice, yet man perceives it not. In a
dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, in slumberings
upon the bed. Then He opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction, that
He may withdraw man from his purpose [or work], and hide pride from man.” This
is how God often speaks to men where they have not open Bibles to give them the
clear revelation of His will. He has many ways of reaching those who seem bent
upon their own destruction. The fourth chapter of Daniel is a remarkable
example of God’s matchless grace, and illustrates most preciously the words
just quoted.

God had spoken the
first time to Nebuchadnezzar in giving him the dream of the great image of
the times of the Gentiles (Dan. 2). But the heart of the king was willful, and
he continued to go on with his own purpose, in his pride and folly. God spoke
to Nebuchadnezzar the second time by the marvelous vision of the Son of
God in the midst of the fiery furnace, keeping His faithful witnesses from all
danger and harm (Dan. 3). But again the proud king kept on his way, with
insubmissive heart and unsubdued will. Now God speaks the third time,
and this in a most humiliating manner, to the confusion of this great
world-ruler before his princes.

In the passage
in Job, Elihu goes on to show that when dreams and visions do not avail, God
sometimes allows disease to grip the body till the poor sinner is broken in
spirit and crushed in heart, ready at last to cry, “I have sinned, and
perverted that which was right, and it profited me not!” (Job 33:27). Then “He
will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the
light” (verse 28).

So in Daniel 4,
written by Nebuchadnezzar himself, and preserved and incorporated into the
volume of inspiration by Daniel, we have the interesting account of the means
God used to bring this haughty king to the end of himself, and lead him to
abase himself before the Majesty in the heavens. In other words, this is
Nebuchadnezzar’s conversion, and seems clearly to show that a work of grace
took place in his soul before he laid down the scepter entrusted to his hand by
Jehovah.

There is a
typical meaning too, no doubt. In Nebuchadnezzar we see a picture of all
Gentile power and its departure from God, its degradation and bestial
character, and its final subjugation to God in the time of the end, when Christ
shall return in glory and all nations shall bow before Him, owning His
righteous rule.

Nebuchadnezzar
was the embodiment of authority given from heaven:“The powers that be are
ordained of God” (Rom. 13:1). But the king’s madness depicts the turning away
of the nations from God and the corruption of governments to serve human ends.
Has not this been characteristic of the great ones of this world? Instead of
kings standing for God and acting as His representatives to maintain justice
and judgment in the earth, do we not find pride, self-will, covetousness, and
self-seeking generally controlling them? All this is pictured by the debasement
of Nebuchadnezzar when his heart was changed to the heart of a beast, and he
was driven forth to eat grass like the oxen of the fields.

But the day
draws near when God will assert Himself, and all Gentile dominion shall come to
an end. Then the long-promised King will shine forth in His glorious majesty,
and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory and honor unto the new
Jerusalem, the heavenly throne-city of the coming kingdom. Then will the
nations look up as redeemed men, and not down as the beasts that perish.

Even in this
present age history teaches us the value of a national recognition of God’s
moral government. We have heard of the heathen chieftain who came from his
distant domain to visit Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. One day he asked
her if she would tell him the secret of England’s progress and greatness. For
answer, it is said, the queen presented him with a Bible, saying, “This book
will tell you.” Who can doubt that according to the measure in which that Book
of books has been believed and loved by any people, God has honored them; and
you will find that every nation that has welcomed and protected the gospel has
been cared for and blessed in a special way. On the other hand, let there be a
national rejection of His Word, as in the case of the French nation, who were
among the first favored by Him in Reformation times, but drove out the truth He
gave them, and you will find disaster following disaster.

But let us now
turn directly to our chapter for a concrete example of all this. It begins
with:“Nebuchadnezzar the king, unto all people, nations, and languages, that
dwell in all the earth” (Dan. 4:1). This comes home to my heart in a most
marked way. I realize that I am reading the personal testimony of one who was
in some respects the greatest monarch this world has ever known; I am
privileged to have his own account of how he—a proud, self-willed man—was
brought to repentance and to the saving knowledge of the God of all grace!

What a miracle
this is! In fact, every conversion is a miracle—every soul that is saved knows
that it is to be dealt with in supernatural power. It is God alone who changes
men about like this. He picks up a vile, wretched sinner and makes him a holy,
happy saint. He works in the drunkard’s soul and changes him to a sober, useful
member of society. He breaks down the proud and stubborn, and they become meek
and lowly, easy to be entreated. Are not these things miracles? Indeed they
are, and they are being enacted all around us; yet men sneer and say that the
miraculous never happens in this law-controlled, workaday world of ours! Oh
that men might have their eyes opened to see and their ears to hear
what God in His grace is doing on the basis of the one offering for sin of His
blessed Son upon the cross!

“I thought it
good,” Nebuchadnezzar goes on, “to show the signs and wonders that the high God
has wrought toward me. How great are His signs! and how mighty are His wonders!
His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion is from generation to
generation” (Dan. 4:2,3). What a splendid confession this is, and how different
from his previous acknowledgments in chapters 2 and 3! Ah, his conscience has
been reached now, and he knows God for himself, and delights to tell of His
signs and wonders wrought toward him! He owns Him now not as a
god, but as the one true and living God whose kingdom rules over all, and shall
continue forevermore. This is not the millennial kingdom of Christ of which he
speaks, but God’s moral government of the universe, which nothing ever alters
for a moment.

And now I would
like to be very personal, and press some questions home upon each listener.
Have you ever been brought into direct contact with Him, so that you can speak
confidently of what He has done for your soul? Have you been humbled by getting
a sight of yourself as a lost, undone sinner before Him? Have you owned
yourself unclean and undone, in dire need of sovereign mercy? And do you know
what it is to have fled for refuge to the very God against whom you have sinned
so grievously, and to have found in His Son our Lord Jesus Christ a hiding
place from the judgment your sins deserved?

Before God
awakened Nebuchadnezzar, he had been “at rest in [his] house, and flourishing
in [his] palace” (verse 4). There is a deceitful rest and peace that lulls many
a soul into a false security. To be untroubled is no evidence of safety. Be
sure that your peace is founded on the blood of Christ shed upon the cross.

Nebuchadnezzar
tells us how he was aroused from that false security in which he had dwelt so
long. “I saw a dream,” he says, “that made me afraid, and the thoughts upon my
bed and the visions of my head troubled me” (verse 5). God saw that he needed
to be troubled—he needed to be awakened from his sleep of death. It was grace
that thus exercised him. And in some way every soul that is saved has to pass
through this period of soul-anxiety and concern. Nebuchadnezzar turned, as
before, to the wrong source for help in his time of difficulty. He called in
his magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers, to whom he narrated his
dream, but to no avail. At last Daniel came in, and to him the king turned
expectantly and related his dream (verses 6-18).

The meaning was
evidently clear to Daniel from the first, but we are told that he was
astonished for one hour, and his thoughts troubled him. Nebuchadnezzar must
have discerned the anxiety and sorrow in the face of his minister, for he spoke
in a way to give him confidence to proceed with the interpretation. It is a
blessed thing for any soul to get to the place where he can say, “Give me God’s
word, and let me know it is His word, and I will receive it, no matter
how it cuts and interferes with my most cherished thoughts.”

“My lord,
Daniel answered, “the dream be to those who hate you, and the interpretation
thereof to your enemies. He then proceeded to explain the dream. Nebuchadnezzar
had been set by God in a special place of prominence in the earth as the head
of all peoples and dominions. But he was to be humbled to the very lowest
depths (verses 19-27).

All happened
exactly as Daniel had said, for Nebuchadnezzar, still not humbled, though he
had listened so respectfully to the words of the prophet, walked one day, a
year later, in the palace of his kingdom overlooking the city. As he walked he
said to himself, “Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of
the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty?” (verses
28-30). Thus did Nebuchadnezzar forget how he was indebted to the most high God
for the position he occupied and the riches and the glory of it, and took all
the credit to himself. While the word was in his mouth the decree was spoken,
and he was informed by a voice from heaven that the time had come when the
dream should be fulfilled. The same hour he lost his reason and became a
pitiable spectacle, unfit to associate with his fellows. He was driven from men
into the open fields where he became like the beasts that perish (verses
31-33).

After seven
years Nebuchadnezzar lifted up his eyes; his reason returned to him; he saw
that God had been dealing with him; his lesson was learned; he blessed the most
high God; he turned to Him in repentance; he owned Him as his God; and then he
wrote out this account of his conversion, that others might, with him, be
humbled before the only true God and bless Him for His mercy.

Thus will it be
with the spared nations after the judgments that are to take place in the time
of the end. Nebuchadnezzar aptly typifies all Gentile power, as we have already
noticed. It has been haughty, insolent, and heaven-defying. Forgetting God, the
true source of authority and power, it has become like the beasts of the earth.
You know something of its course since it crucified the Lord of glory. The
nations have been mad—as utterly bereft of all true reason as was the demented
king of Babylon. But the day is nearing when God, in His grace, is going to end
all this and deliver a groaning world from the evils of selfish despotism and
national jealousies. Christ’s personal return from heaven will conclude the
long period of Gentile misrule. Creation groans for the hour when the one true
King will be manifested, when our Lord Jesus Christ “in His times will show who
is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords” (1
Tim. 6:15).

“The blessed
Potentate” means a truly happy ruler! The world has never seen a happy
potentate in the past. Shakespeare’s line has passed into a proverb:“Uneasy
lies the head that wears a crown.” But in the days of our Lord Jesus Christ,
when He takes the rod of power and reigns in righteousness, the world, for the
first time, will see a happy Potentate. Who can measure the happiness of
the Son of God when He descends to take the kingdom for which He has waited so
long; when He has His own beloved bride with Himself to share His glory! Then
“He shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied” (Isa. 53:11).

“That happy
Potentate” excludes all sorrow and disappointment. “That only Potentate”
excludes every other rule. Upon His head will be many crowns. Every other crown
will be cast at His feet, and He will reign as King of kings and Lord of lords.
Happy for those, in that day, who have humbled themselves in this, and who,
like Nebuchadnezzar, have owned the righteousness of His dealings with them;
who have confessed their sins before Him; and who will be able to exclaim with
joy, when He descends in majesty, “This is our God:we have waited for Him”
(Isa. 25:9).

Have you bowed
in contrition at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, and trusted Him as your own
Saviour, and owned Him as your rightful Lord? If you have, you can look up and
say with happy confidence, “Come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20).

(From Lectures
on Daniel the Prophet, Loizeaux, Neptune, NJ; used by permission.)

How lost was my condition,

Till Jesus made me whole!

There is but one Physician

Can cure a sin-sick soul!

Next door to death He found me,

And snatched me from the grave;

To tell to all around me

His wondrous power to save.

The worst of all diseases

Is light compared with sin;

On every part it seizes,

But rages most within:

‘Tis palsy, dropsy, fear,

And madness—all combined;

And none but a believer,

The least relief can find.

From men great skill professing

I thought a cure to gain;

But this proved more distressing,

And added to my pain:

Some said that nothing ailed me,

Some gave me up for lost;

Their every refuge failed me,

And all my hopes were crossed.

At length this great Physician—

How matchless is His grace!—

Accepted my petition,

And undertook my case:

First gave me sight to view Him,

For sin my sight had sealed;

Then bid me look unto Him;

I looked, and I was healed.

A dying, risen Jesus,

Seen by the eye of faith,

At once from anguish frees us,

And saves the soul from death:

Come then to this Physician,

His help He’ll freely give,

He makes no hard condition,

‘Tis only—look and live.

(From Olney
Hymns, 1811.)

“Abide in Me,
and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the
vine, no more can you, except you abide in Me. I am the Vine, you are the
branches; He who abides in Me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit,
for without Me you can do nothing…. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in
you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:4-7).

The beloved
apostle John, who heard these farewell words from the lips of the Lord, also
spoke of them in his Epistle:“He who says he abides in Him ought himself also
so to walk, even as He walked…. Little children, abide in Him, that, when He
shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His
coming…. Whosoever abides in Him sins not” (1 John 2:6,28; 3:6).

What are we to
understand by the Lord’s words, “Abide in Me”? (1) They imply a walk in such
nearness to Christ that the soul delights in all His loveliness and moral
excellencies, and thus finds in Him its object and perfect pattern. (2) They
suppose a heart in communion with Christ, that delights to confide in Him and
learn of Him. (3) Above all, they imply a life lived under the influence of His
presence and realized by faith.

If a Christlike
man of God visited our home, would not his presence have a restraining
influence upon everyone in the home? We should probably be a little more
careful than usual of our words and ways. If this would be the effect of the
presence of a man of like passions with ourselves, what would be the effect of
the realized presence of Christ Himself? To walk in the consciousness that He
listens to our words, sees our every act, and reads our thoughts, is to walk
under the blessed influence of His presence and thus abide in Him.

The Scriptures
that exhort us to abide in Christ tell us also of the blessedness we shall
enjoy if we do abide in Him.

     By Abiding in Christ We

     Shall Bring Forth Fruit

The fruit in
this passage is not service or the exercise of gift, however important these
may be in their place. Rather, it is the expression of something of the
loveliness of Christ—the reproduction of His own character— in our lives (see
Gal. 5:22,23, “the fruit of the Spirit”). Any little setting forth of the
graces of Christ goes up as fruit to the Father, and goes out as testimony to
the world. We shall never exhibit the character of Christ by simply trying to
be like Christ. If, however, we seek His company and come under His influence
by abiding in Him, we shall be changed into His image from glory to glory (2
Cor. 3:18).

    By Abiding in Christ Our

    Prayers Will Be Answered

If we are under
the blessed influence of His presence, with His words abiding in our hearts,
our thoughts will be formed by His thoughts and our prayers will be in accord
with His mind. Thus praying, we will have answers to our prayers.

     By Abiding in Christ We

     Will Walk As He Walked

How did Christ
walk? Of Him we read, “Christ pleased not Himself” (Rom. 15:3). And the Lord
could say, “I do always those things that please Him [that is, the Father]”
(John 8:29). This is the perfect pattern for the believer’s walk, just as the
apostle Paul exhorts believers to “walk in love, as Christ also has loved us”
(Eph. 5:2). The outstanding marks of the Lord’s path were the entire absence of
self-will in doing the Father’s will, and the serving of others in love. For
us, it is possible to tread such a path only as we abide in Christ.

We may know the
doctrines of Christianity; we may rightly hold the great essential truths of
our faith. But, as another has said, “No amount of knowledge, however correct,
no amount of intelligence, however exact, will ever put upon your soul the
impress of the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ.” If we are to wear the impress of
Christ, we must be in His company and walk with Him. Every man is formed by the
company that he keeps:the character of the one in whose company we walk is the
character we shall reflect. We must abide in Christ and thus walk with
Christ if we are to be like Christ and walk as He walked.

     By Abiding in Christ We

      Shall Not Be Ashamed

Often our walk,
ways, speech, and manners may be acceptable according to human standards. But
if we were to judge ourselves, our words, and our ways in the light of the
coming glory of the appearing of Christ, would we not find much that we would
have to condemn, and confess with shame as far short of the standard of glory?
Only as we abide in Christ, walking in self-judgment, will we be preserved from
all that would cause shame in the day of glory.

      By Abiding in Christ

          We Do Not Sin

“Sin is
lawlessness” (1 John 3:4 JND), that is, the essence of sin is doing one’s own
will without reference to God or man. The world around is increasingly marked
by lawlessness—everyone doing what is right in his own eyes. How are we to
escape the evil principle of lawlessness and self-will? Only by abiding in
Christ, for “whosoever abides in Him sins not” (1 John 3:6). Only as we are
held under the influence of the One who could say, “I came … not to do Mine
own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 6:38) shall we escape the
self-will that is the very essence of sin.

These, then,
are the blessed results of abiding in Christ.