The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1915, Page 66

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

66

The Lutheran Pioneer.

“Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean,”
whereupon Jesus said, “Z will; be thou clean.”
And immediately his leprosy was cleansed, Matt.
8, 2.43. Only after God had “hearkened to the
yoice” of Joshua, the son of Nun-caused the sun
to stand still “about a whole day,” until the people
had avenged themselves upon their enemies, Josh.
10, 12—1+, while we read of Jesus that He simply
arose from His sleep in the ship during the tem-
pest, and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there
was a great calm. “But the men marveled, saying,
What manner of man is this that even the winds
and the sea obey Him!” Matt. 8, 26. 27.

Is it surprising, dear readers, that the wind and
the sea, yea, all nature, obeys this J/an, to whom
Scripture ascribes the divine works of creation and
preservation? In Heb. 1, 2. 3 Jesus appears as
the Creator and Preserver of the universe. Here
we are told that God made the worlds by His Son,
who upholds all things.

Heb. 1, S—12 we read: “Unto the Son God
saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever;
a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Thy king-
dom. ‘Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated
iniquity; therefore God, even Thy God, hath
anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy
fellows. And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast
laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens
are the works of Thine hands. ‘They shall perish,
but Thou remainest; and they shall wax old as
doth a garment; and as a yesture shalt Thou fold
them up, and they shall be changed: But Thou
art the same, and Thy years shaJl not fail.” Here
not only the divine work of creation is ascribed to
Christ (our Catechism mentions other divine works
which He performs), but this text directly and em-

phatically calls Him God and Lord. Furthermore,

John says that Jesus is “the true God and eternal
life”? 1 John 5, 20. Paul says that He is “over
all, God blessed. forever,” Rom. 9, 5.
speaks of Him as being Jehovah, God’s Son, God’s
only-begotten Son, God’s own Son, God. Then,
too, Christ said concerning Himself: “I and My
Father are onc,’ John 10, 30; “He that hath seen
Me hath seen the Father,” John 14,9; and, aVculy,

verily, I say unto you, EO ctr was, I am,’

John 8, 58. -+
* We have also an abundance of texts where divine

‘attributes are ascribed to Him, for instance, Heb.

13, 8; Matt. 28.18; John 21,17; Matt. 28, 20,
and many others.
Hence Christ has two natures, the divine and

The Bible

the human nature, united in one Person. So closely
are these two natures united in Christ “that in
this one Person cach of the two natures parlakes

of the properties of the other.’ Sec Is. 9,6; Matt.
28,18; 1 John 1, 7, ete.
Christ is the God-man. H. Ostreritus.

pee

Loss and Gain.

One day a simple laborer found himself in the
company of a number of people that were deriding
the Christian religion because, as they claimed, it
took all pleasure and happiness out of life. Having
listened to the expressions of the various members
of the company for a long time, he finally arose
and said, “Yes, it is true; a person certainly does
lose much when he becomes a Christian.” ‘The
others, knowing him to be a Christian, were sur-
prised, and looked at him with great curiosity,
wondering what more he would have to say. Ile
continued: “Yes, I mean it; a person sustains

great losses when he embraces Christianity. I used
to have an inordinate love for whisky, but since
I have become a Christian, I have lost it. Chris-

tianity was also the cause of my losing my ragged
coat and old tattered hat. Christianity has taken
my bad conscience from me, and taken hell out
of my house. Whoever wants to lose things like
these I have just mentioned should become a Chris-
tian.”

How about you, dear reader? Have you any-
thing along these lines to lose? How about that
dreadful habit of cursing? Come to Christ, and
He will help you to get rid of it. And how about
those other evil habits that fetter and chain you?
Christ, and Christ alone, can truly take them from
you. ‘Those dark blots on your soul: the blood of
Christ can wash them away. All those doubts and
fears: Christ can deliver you from them. And
in place of all these losses which you will sustain
by coming to Christ, you will be given inexpressible
riches.

To offset your losses, yours will be wonderfully |
great gains. In place of sin you will have rightcous-
ness; instead of punishment, pardon; instead of
filth, cleanliness; instead of want, riches. The
insulted and angry God will become your gracious
and forgiving Father; the stern Judge will be your
kind and loving Savior. You will lose your own
self-righteousness, but gain the righteousness of
Jesus; you will lose confidence in your own merits,

/