We have already considered the Christ of Judea,-Christ in his humanity, the apostle of our profession, the one who was sent of God to this world to accomplish in his life and death here certain definite results. We found him as our brother in the flesh, having been made in all things like unto his brethren, who are partakers of flesh and blood. We will now consider the High Priest of our profession,-the Christ for to-day.ARSH April 7, 1896, page 217.1

The Christ for to-day lives in heaven, that he may make effective in us all that the Christ of Judea accomplished for us when he was here in the flesh. This one thought carried in the mind, meditated upon, and its meaning entered into as an experience, is enough. That is to say, Jesus Christ lived on earth to show us the pathway. Jesus Christ lives in heaven to-day, that he may be unto us the power for the pathway. Jesus Christ was the apostle of our profession, who came in our own humanity, and lived here on the earth a life of dependence upon God, a life wholly given to God, a life wholly devoted to the work of God. He lives in heaven as High Priest of our profession, to give unto us the same blessings, the same heavenly life, the same heavenly power, that characterized his life in the flesh. It will be our present study to make as clear as possible from the word of God how we should live on the earth, through Christ who was in the flesh and is now in heaven. We have followed briefly the life of Christ until we came to his death; we wish to speak a word now of his resurrection.ARSH April 7, 1896, page 217.2

Jesus Christ was here in the flesh, and lived that he might die. He came here and joined himself to our flesh, and took upon himself our mode of mortal existence for the very purpose of dying, that he might die for us. When Jesus Christ lived on the earth, he was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. He was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. He had the same temptation all through his life that we have,-a temptation that covers in itself all possible temptations. His temptation was, that after he had come here to live in the flesh, and to enter upon all the conditions of our fallen humanity, he should display himself rather than display wholly and only the character of God. His temptation all the time was to live by himself and not to live by the Father. He had a will all the time, and his will was set to this one thing continuously, that the Father’s will should be wrought in him, and that every moment of his life should be an expression of the character of God in human flesh. The temptation brought to bear upon him was that he should express his own character in the flesh. His own character expressed would have been a divine character, but he was here as our example. Christ came to live his life in the flesh to show that it was possible by the grace of God to live in the flesh of sin, and still not reveal self. Our temptation comes under the same principle, and that is, to reveal ourselves.ARSH April 7, 1896, page 218.1

Christ came to do the will of God. He says, “In the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.” “I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.” “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.” These were his statements.ARSH April 7, 1896, page 218.2

Now Jesus Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. It was impossible that he should be held by death, because the sting of death is sin, and as he had no sin, there was no sting in his death. He was raised from the dead to a newness of life. Now there came to him the life he had wrought out,-that perfect life, that life of victory over sin. That was the resurrection life of Jesus Christ. He ascended on high. Before his departure, he said to his disciples, “Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.” He told them to wait for the promise of the Father. He had promised them before he left that there should be another Comforter to abide with them forever: “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?” John 14:16-22. Here is the answer: “Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” Verse 23. The receiving of the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Ghost was shed forth. Acts 2:33. They knew that the fulfilment of that word was granted to them on that day. By the giving of the Holy Spirit, by opening up the way for this gift to come to man, Christ opened the way for dispensing to man the heavenly life, the heavenly power, the heavenly blessing, which he lived on earth to win for us.ARSH April 7, 1896, page 218.3

What we ought to be able to see clearly and simply, is just this, that what Christ wrought in his own body, when he was here in the flesh, in the way of righteousness and a life fulfilling the law of God,-the will of God,-he will to-day work again in his own body,-the church,-by the power of the Holy Spirit, by his presence in the church as the Comforter; and not only in the church as a whole, but in each individual case, for that is the way he accomplishes it in the church. Let us see this point clearly. The very character of God, which was wrought in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, is by his manifestation of the Holy Spirit to be wrought in us individually while we are here in the flesh. If there is anything to Christianity, it means a life like Christ’s life. It is not simply an attempt to be like Christ; it is to live the life of the man Christ Jesus. Now all the work that Christ wrought for us as the Christ of Judea in the flesh on this earth, he wrought for the whole human family without exception, and he wrought for us without our request and without our co-operation. The ministry of Christ as High Priest of our profession is to minister this heavenly life with our co-operation. With our co-operation, by our request, Jesus Christ, by his Spirit, is to live that life over again in us. This is made possible by the fact that Jesus Christ lived is our flesh. He then united divinity and humanity in the life of the flesh, thus making it possible, and joining the human and the divine, in order that we might enter into that experience of the human and divine elements in our life. “According as his divine power hath gives unto as all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtus: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through last.” 2 Peter 1:3, 4. In Christ Jesus in the flesh there was a uniting of these two elements, the divine and the human nature, so that in every member of the human family it should be possible for this same experience to be entered upon, that there should be in every one the uniting of the divine and the human nature.ARSH April 7, 1896, page 218.4

It is of no use in the power of the flesh to attempt to copy the life of Christ. Every one who has attempted it has failed, and will always fail, because the only one that can live the life of Jesus Christ is Christ himself, and the only life that can show forth the divine characteristics, the virtues and excellences, is that same life of Jesus Christ. We may talk about efforts in striving to copy the life of Christ, but no one can copy the life of Christ except Christ himself, and this is the very heart and center of the Christian experience, to be partakers of, participators in, the divine nature which Jesus Christ has wrought into humanity. Christ was not simply given for us as a substitute, as a ransom. He gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from the world, and redeem us from all iniquity; but this was not all: he gave himself to us, “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.” God gave his Son to us.ARSH April 7, 1896, page 218.5

(Concluded next week.)

March 24, 1896

April 14, 1896