The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1904, Page 74

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74

The Lutheran Pioneer.

Gospel through His servant Dr. Martin Luther. And
if that Gospel is precious to us, let us, like Luther,
earnestly labor for the spread of that Gospel, so

- that others also may be brought into the true way
of salvation by faith in the Gospel of Jesus.

Blotting Out Sins.

“J, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions.”’
Is. $3, 25.

There was once a deaetmute® named John.
Though he never heard. any other voice, he heard
the voice of Jesus in the Gospel, knew it, loved it,
and followed it. One day he told the lady who had
taught him, partly on his fingers and partly by
signs, that he had had a wonderful dream. God
had shown him a great black book, and all John’s

‘sins were written in it, so many, so black! And
God had shown him hell, all open and fiery, wait-
ing for him because of all his sins. But Jesus
Christ had come and put His red hand, red with
the blood of His cross; all over the page, and the
red hand had blotted all John’s sins out; and when
God held up the book to the light He could not see
one left.

It is no dream, no fancy or mere feeling, but
God’s truth, that Jesus Christ’s blood has been
shed—nothing can alter that, and that His blood
blotteth out our transgressions, as St. Paul says:
‘<Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that
was against us.’’? Christ Himself says to you: “‘I,
even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions.”
Will you believe it? ‘‘Only believe” and ‘‘accord-
ing to your faith it shall be unto you.’’ Take Christ
at His word, and just believe that it is true, and true
for you—‘‘T have blotted out as a thick cloud thy
transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins; return
unto me, for I have redeemed thee.’’ 1
polieying heart:

“TY am trusting Thee for cleansing
Through the crimson flood;
2 Trusting Thee to make me holy
By Thy blood.”

——__—__+- e+. —-—_-

Christ’s Descent into Hell.

The Bible tells us but little of Christ’s descent
into hell. The principal passage is found 1 Pet. 8,
18. 19: ‘‘Christ was put to death in the flesh, but

quickened by the Spirit: by which also He went
and preached unto the spirits in prison.’’? In con-
' sidering this passage, we 6ee, in the first place, when
this descent into hell took place. Christ was put to
death in the flesh, that is, He died according to His

- self to the spirits of hell.

Say with a

human nature (though it was the whole God-man
Christ that died), and was quickened by the Spirit,
that is, by His divine nature. This quickened
Christ, then, went and preached unto the spirits
in hell. Christ descended into hell; not only His
divine nature, but the whole Christ exhibited Him-
On Easter morning, im-
mediately upon being quickened, Christ descended
into hell.

In the second place, we learn from this passage
why Christ descended into prison. Peter says He
went and preached unto the spirits in hell. What
did He preach to the spirits in hell? Salvation?
Yes, salvation for us, but not salvation for them.
Did He. proclaim to them the Gospel? Yes, the
Gospel; but the proclamation of the Gospel meant
not their salvation, but their condemnation, their
everlasting damnation. Even as the proclamation of
the first Gospel in the garden of Eden was the an-
nouncement of life for Adam and Eve, but the pass-
ing of the death sentence upon the serpent, so the
proclamation of the Gospel to the spirits in prison
did not announce liberty, but everlasting chains to
Christ’s infernal enemies.- Christ’s descent into hell
had the purpose of bringing home to Satan and his
hosts the fact that they had lost the battle. Christ
had spoiled the infernal principalities and powers by
His suffering and death, and no sooner was He come
back to life than He went and made a show of them
openly, triumphing over them in it, Col. 2,15. On
the cross the dying Saviour had exclaimed, ‘‘It is
finished,’ that is, My work of redemption is done,
Satan’s head is bruised, sin is overcome, death is
slain, and hell’s power is gone; on Easter morn
the quickened Saviour triumphantly enters Satan’s
fortress and without gainsay proclaims Himself the
Victor.

Christ’s descent into hell, then, was the procla-
mation to the vanquished enemy that he had no
pardon to expect.

The foe, no more withstanding,
His weapons on the ground
Throws down; his hellish power
To Christ he must give o’er,

And to the Victor’s bands
Must yield his feet and hands.

* Hell and its prince, the devil,
Now of their power are shorn,
I now am safe from evil,

And sin I laugh to scorn;

Grim death with all his might

Cannot my soul affright;

He is a powerless form,
~Howe’er he rage and storm.

¥F. J. L.

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