“Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept.” “Let us now look at the words of our lesson, and see that they are in full accord with what we previously set forth to be the Scriptural teaching. Our text mentions the dead as asleep, and declares that Christ was the first one to experience a resurrection from death. Let us note these two points: (1) In what sense is death a sleep? We answer…
“But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead…Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we…
BEGINNINGS OF COMPREHENSION. As the mental eyes and ears of the believer begin to take in the fulness of God’s provision for his creatures, his former fears begin to subside; and he begins to get a realizing sense of the goodness and love of God, as never before. But still, he will have queries. He will want to know when this day of which the Apostle speaks will begin; – the day of the world’s judgment, or trial in righteousness,…
“Procrastination is the thief of time,” is an old proverb and a true one: and time lost means opportunities lost, and the advantages and privileges which went with the opportunities, also lost. If Christian people (all the truly consecrated) could get the proper view of the divine plan, and could see clearly, with the eyes of their understanding, the great work which God is now doing amongst mankind, and could see their privileges in connection therewith, life would become much…
As stated in our previous post, “All that, by the Lord’s grace, we shall ultimately have through the “change” of the resurrection as members of the body of Christ – all the heavenly things, including full fellowship and communion with the Father and with our Lord – are reckoned as having their beginning in the present life. He, therefore, who knows not such a beginning of the new life, and its holy spirit now, has no reason whatever to believe…
“By grace are ye saved through faith.” (Eph 2:8) It was from his Roman prison that the Apostle Paul wrote the Epistle to the Ephesians, one of the most beautiful of all his letters to the churches; full of deep spiritual instruction. Its keynote is “IN Christ,” this expression, or its equivalents, occurring at least twenty times in this Epistle. As the first chapter points out that the Church is chosen IN Christ Jesus, so our lesson shows that we have life…
CROSS-BEARERS MUST BATTLE WITH THE FLESH, ALSO. “While we pointed out, foregoing, that cross-bearing is quite separate from battling with the weaknesses of the flesh, nevertheless whoever has the mind of Christ, whoever is seeking to be a cross-bearer and to stand up as a representative of the Lord and the Truth in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation, as an ambassador of God, will surely realize that he could not be an acceptable ambassador and could not…
IN WHAT DOES CROSS-BEARING CONSIST? The Master’s cross-bearing did not consist in fighting the weaknesses of the flesh, for he had none; nor are these weaknesses of the flesh our crosses. Because all our weaknesses of the flesh are fully covered by the merit of our Lord’s sacrifice; our standing before God is as New Creatures and not as imperfect fleshly creatures – the imperfections of the flesh, which are contrary to our wills and opposed by them, being fully…
“GOD KINDLY VEILS OUR EYES.” “It is fortunate for us that in the outstart we do not, cannot, estimate or appreciate the full meaning of the words, sacrifice, cross-bearing, etc. If we could look into the future and see from the start the various trials and difficulties to be encountered in the “narrow way,” doubtless few of us would have the courage to make the consecration and the start – if we could not see or appreciate, beforehand, the rewards…
Continued from previous post. “Some might be inclined to think that urging to accept the Lord and to seek to be his follower, with the thought that any other course would mean eternal torment, might be considered a deception which would work out benefit to the deceived ones – a deception which would do good rather than harm. We dispute this. We hold, on the contrary, that the erroneous teaching has done great injury in various ways. (1) Its misrepresentation of…