The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1906, Page 2

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

2

The Lutheran Pioneer.

our place under the Law to fulfill all righteousness
in our stead and to bear the curse which was our

due. Thus He redeemed them that were under the
Law. “Christ is the end of the Law for righteous-

ness to every one that believeth,” Rom. 10, 4. Be-
lieving in Him, we need not fear the Law’s threat-
enings and curse. Believing in Him, we enter the
new year, not as trembling slaves, but as God’s
happy children, free from the bondage and the curse
of the Law.

His NAME WAS CALLED JEsuS.— The thought
of our many sins committed in the past and the
thought that also in the new year we must confess:
“We daily sin much, and indeed deserve nothing
but punishment,” may lie heavily upon us and drive
away all joy. There could be no happiness for us
in the new year, if there were no forgiveness of sins.
But there is forgiveness of sins. When the Child
born at Bethlehem was circumcised, His name was
called Jesus. Jesus means Savior, and the angel,
speaking of that Child, said to Joseph: “Thou shalt
call His name Jesus; for He shall save His people
from their sins.” Jesus! Savior! Blessed name!
“To Him give all the prophets witness, that through
His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive
remission of sins,” Acts 10, 48. “Your sins are
forgiven you for His name’s sake,” 1 John 2, 12.
Jesus! That name is a bottomless sea of love. We
cast all our sins into it, and they sink and disappear
forever. Jesus!— pardon for sinners, rest for the
weary, peace for the troubled, life for the dying,
salvation for the lost!

“Jesus is the name we treasure,
Name beyond what words can tell;
Name of gladness, name of pleasure,
Saving us from sin and hell.”

WHICH WAS SO NAMED OF THE ANGEL BEFORE
HE WAS CONCEIVED IN THE wos. — As we enter
the new year we know not what it has in store for us.
It may bring losses, and sorrows, and troubles, and
sickness, and death. But we need not fear and
worry. God’s children know that their lives are
not governed by blind fate or cruel chance, but by
a most wise and merciful God. It was not by acci-
dent that the name Jesus was given to the Child
born at Bethlehem. Already before His conception

and birth that name was directed to be given to.

Him. As it was ordained in eternity that He
should be Jesus, the Savior, so it was also directed
that He should be named Jesus. We may rest
assured that all the events of our lives are ordained

and directed by our heavenly Father who cares even
for the little sparrow and who has numbered the
hairs of our head. God rules, and He rules all
things for the best of His children. “We know
that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are the called according to
His purpose,” Rom. 8, 28. So we need not worry,
but trust in God. _The future is in His hands, and
it is well. The path which He leads us may often
seem dark to us, but it is the best for our eternal:

welfare.
“Whatever God ordains is good!

Holy His will abideth;

I will be still whate’er He doth,
And follow where He guideth,

He is my God; though dark the road,
He knoweth how to shield me,
Wherefore to Him I yicld ine.”

—-— —-—+ e+

Jesus.

The name Jesus means Savior, bringing salva-
tion to every one. Why this name was given to
Christ is explained by the angel Gabriel, when he
said to Joseph (Matt. 1, 21): “Thou shalt call His
name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their
sins.” But the fact that He was thus “named of the
angel before He was conceived in the womb” shows
that every one may know, that this name was pleas-
ing to God, inasmuch as God Himself has named
His Child by this name. Now let us give all dili-
gence to learn the true meaning of this blessed
name; namely, that this child, called Jesus, is a
Savior to deliver us, not-from the little worries -and
embarrassments of this present life, but from our
worst and greatest misery and distress, namely,
from our sins. The world has kings and emperors,
fathers and mothers, physicians, etc., but all those
are poor saviors compared to Him who saves His
people from their sin. Whosoever, then, will accept
this Child as his Jesus and Savior must look upon
Him in this light that He will help him, not par-
ticularly for this present life, but from sin and
death unto everlasting life. It is true, where men
will not or cannot help us in our bodily needs, Jesus
will still be with us and assist us. But this is not
His principal and particular office. It is this that
He helps us from sin, from everlasting death, and
from the kingdom of the devil. And for this all
sinners need Him. ‘There are men who tell us:
Good works are, and are to be called, our Jesus. But
this is not true: this Child alone is to be called by
this precious name. The Holy Ghost insists that

Jl