The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1903, Page 30

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30

The Lutheran Pioneer.

Of the Saviour’s Person.

Jesus Curist 1s TRuE Gop.

“YT believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son,
our Lord.’? Thus we confess in the Second
Article. And in the explanation we declare:
“I believe that Jesus Christ [is] true God,
begotten of the Father from eternity.’’ In
these words we say of our Saviour in the
plainest terms that He is true God. Born of
the Father, He is of the same essence with
God the Father; begotten of the Father in all
eternity, He is the same eternal, unchangeable
God as is the Father, very God of very God,
begotten, not made, of one substance with the
Father, coeternal and coequal; and yet not the
same person with the Father, but the second
person of the Godhead.

This is our confession, and this our belief
is based on the immovable foundation of the
Holy Scriptures.

And what does the Bible tell us of our
Saviour concerning His Godhead? It first of
all plainly calls Him God. John says of Him,
“This is the true God, and eternal life,’’
1 John 5, 20. Paul declares that Christ ‘‘is
over all, God blessed forever,’’? Rom. 9, 5.
John 20, 28 we read that Thomas, convinced
that Christ is risen, addresses Him, “My Lord,
and my God/’’ And Christ accepts this hom-
age. Jeremiah, in speaking of Christ, says,
ch. 23, 6: ‘'This is His name, whereby He
shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness.’’

So also is Christ called God’s Son. Ps. 2,7
the Father says to Him, ‘Thou art my Son,
this day have I begotten Thee.”’ John 3, 16
Christ, in His conversation with Nicodemus,
refers to Himself as the only-begotten Son of
God. And Rom. 8, 32 the apostle refers to
the Saviour as God’s only Son. These and
similar passages put it beyond all doubt that
the Scriptures want the Saviour to be regarded
as the very God, since they plainly and ex-
pressly say that He is God, that He is God’s
only-begotten Son.

The Bible, however, proves Christ’s divinity
by another class of passages in which it as-
cribes to Him attributes that belong to God
only. Thus it declares Christ to be eternal,
when it says, John 1, 1. 2: ‘‘In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and God was the Word. The same was in the
beginning with God;”’ it says that He is un-
- changeable when it asserts, Hebr. 13, 8, that

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to-

day, and for ever.’”’ Christ lays claim to
_ Omnipotence, when He says, Matt. 28, 18:

_ “All power is given unto me in heaven and in
th;’” and He does not deny the assertion
Peter: ‘Lord, Thou knowest all things,”’
1, 17, which ascribes to Him omnis-
_ Matt. 28, 20 Christ declares that He
present, when He gives His disciples the
romise: ‘Lo, Lam with you alway, even unto
ind of the world.” In thus ascribing to the
vine attributes, the Holy Scriptures
to be true God with the Father.

In the third place, the Bible attributes divine
works to Christ. John 1, 3 the work of Crea-
tion is attributed to Him: ‘‘All things were
made by Him; and without Him was not any-
thing made that was made.’’ Likewise are we
told that we owe to Him our Preservation, for
‘‘He upholds all things by the Word of His
power,’’ Hebr. 3, 1. He has power to forgive
sins, Matt. 9, 6; and He is to be the Judge
of the quick and the dead, John 5, 27. From
these Scripture texts it is again plain that
Christ must be true God.

Finally, the Soriptures demand us to pay
Christ the same honor and homage that we pay
the Father, and declare that if we honor not
the Son, neither do we honor the Father that
sent Him, John 5, 23. Hebr. 1, 6 all the an-
gels of God are called upon to worship Him.
But now it is plain that if Christ were not true
God the Scriptures could not ask us or the
angels to honor and worship Him as we do the
Father, since in that case we would be asked
to commit idolatry. That the Bible, how-
ever, could not demand such a thing of us is
certain; therefore it is equally certain that
Jesus Christ, our Saviour, is ‘‘God of God,
Light of Light, very God of very God.’

F. J. L.

———s~+o< or oe

Salvation for You.

- There is salvation in Jesus for all sinners;
there is salvation for you. There is no neces-
sity for you to go to hell, unless you create
that necessity yourself by living in sin and
rejecting the Saviour. Who says there is no
salvation for you? Who has aright to say so?
If you are not saved it will not be because
there is no Saviour, for ‘‘Jesus Christ came
into the world to save sinners.’’ It will not
be because there is not eflicacy in His blood,
for ‘‘the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from
all sin.’? It will not be because He refuses
to receive and save you, for in the Gospel He
invites you to come to Him for salvation and
assures you, ‘‘I will in no wise cast out.’ It
will not be because He is unwilling that you
should be saved, for ‘‘God was in Christ, rec-
onciling the world unto Himself, not imput-
ing their trespasses unto them;’’ and He has
sent His ministers unto you as ‘‘ambassadors
for Christ’’ beseeching you by them, ‘‘Be ye
reconciled to God!’’

There is a way of salvation, but will you
walk init? There is a fountain open for sin
and uncleanness, but will you wash in it and
be clean? There is a righteousness presented
to you in the Gospel—the righteousness of
Christ—, a righteousness that will justify you
from all things; but will you receive it, put it
on, and wear it?

Yes, there is salvation in Jesus for all sin-
ners ; there is salvation for you. If you go to
hell it is for your own sin, for your sin of un-
belief; itis because you prefer going there to
going to heaven by the Lord Jesus Christ.

But if you go to heaven, it is by free grace;
it is through the salvation which is in Jesus
Christ for all sinners, and also for you; it is
to the honor and praise of God.

The Devil’s Devices.

‘“‘For we are not ignorant of his devices.”
2 Cor. 2, 11.

Rowland Hill once illustrated this passage
of Scripture in the following way:

‘(Many years since I met a drove of pigs
in one of the streets of a large town, and to
my surprise they were not driven, but quietly
followed their leader. This singular fact ex-
cited my curiosity, and I pursued the swine
until they all quietly entered the butchery.
I then asked the man how he succeeded in
getting the poor, stupid, stubborn pigs so will-
ingly to follow him, and he told me the secret.

“Tt seems he had a basket of beans under
his arm, and kept dropping them as he pro-
ceeded, and so secured his object.. Ah! my
dear hearers, the devil has got his basket of
beans, and he knows how to suit his tempta-
tions to every sinner. He drops them by the
way, and the poor sinner is thus led captive
by the devil at his own will, and, if the grace
of God prevent not, he will get him at last into
his butchery. Oh! it is because ‘we are not
ignorant of his devices’ that we are anxious
this evening to guard you against them.”’

An interesting fact about the story is, that
the very night Rowland Hill told it two gentle-
men of culture had entered his church to hear
him, one of whom, a fine young fellow, was
shortly to leave his country for India. After
the service the friends walked side by side in
silence for a while, but then the younger man
remarked : ‘‘What a singular statement we had
to-night about the pigs, and yet how striking
and convincing it was.’? Years after, writing
from India to his friend in the home land,
this gentleman mentioned the incident again,
saying that the homely illustration used by
Mr. Hill to expose the devices of Satan had
made an abiding impression on his mind, and
had helped him to walk in straight paths.

A gentleman visited a deaf-and-dumb asy-
lum, and having looked upon the silent in-
mates, he was requested. to ask some of them
a question by writing it upon the blackboard.
After some hesitation he ventured to write the
inquiry in chalk upon the board : —

‘‘Why did God make you deaf and dumb,
and make me so that I could hear and speak?”’

The eyes of the silent ones were filled with
tears; it was a great mystery. ‘Their clever-
ness made no answer, but their piety made
eloquent reply. One of the little fellows went
up to the board, and taking the chalk, wrote
under the question this answer: ‘‘Eyen £0,
Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight.”’

The Worker.