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    April 21, 1896

    The Christ for To-Day - 3

    WWP

    W. W. Prescott

    (Concluded.)

    The purpose of our body of flesh is that we may express ourselves through it. We use these organs of sense in order to express ourselves one to another. Christ dwelt in a body just like ours; but instead of using that body to express himself, he simply used it to express God’s self. So the words he spoke were God’s words; the actions that he wrought were wrought in him by the Father; and his will was to do the Father’s will, and that the Father should be expressed in him. One who is born of the flesh can express himself only; but the flesh of one who is born of the Spirit is used to express Christ. Christ by his spirit dwells in the inner life, and the organs of sense are used to give expression to his words and acts. We submit everything, that he shall express himself in our life. That is the Christian life. This life is made possible to us from the fact that that was the very life that Christ lived himself. He wrought into humanity a divine life. The life which he imparts unto us for living this life, is the resurrection life, the life of victory.ARSH April 21, 1896, page 248.1

    His life was the fulfilment of God’s law. “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” Matthew 5:17. The law of God comes to us as a law which has been fulfilled in his flesh, that with our consent, by our yielding, that fulfilled law may rule in our lives, and that which was fulfilled in Christ for us may be fulfilled by Christ in us. “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Romans 8:3, 4. It was fulfilled in him, that it might be fulfilled in us. That which makes it possible for the very righteousness of the law to be fulfilled in us, is that it has already been fulfilled in the humanity of Jesus Christ, and it comes to us as a law fulfilled in our humanity, making it possible for it to be fulfilled in us through Christ. This is the very purpose of the life of Christ.ARSH April 21, 1896, page 248.2

    “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 3:18. Christ was the imago of God. God made man in his image. Man lost that image, but Christ came in this same flesh as ours, and he was the image of the invisible God. “Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature.” Colossians 1:15. God was visible in him. We are to behold that image in humanity, and by beholding, we are to be changed into the same image. “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.” 2 Corinthians 4:3. Now Christ is the outshining, the effulgence, of the glory of God. The gospel is the gospel of the glory of Christ, and the glory of Christ is the glory of God. “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath sinned in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.” Verses 6-11. Christ, who is the forth-shining of God’s glory, has shined forth into our hearts.ARSH April 21, 1896, page 249.1

    That is Christian experience. God desires that Christ’s life should be made manifest in our mortal flesh. Christ came here and wrought all this in our flesh, as our substitute, as our representative, for this express purpose, and those who think that Christ’s work for us was completed on earth, lose the very heart and soul of Christian experience. If Christ’s work was completed for us on earth, his life was simply an example which we are to copy. But Christ’s work is not completed; Christ’s work is going on for us to-day in heaven, where he is ministering in our behalf. The Christ for to-day is the one who lives in us, and works in us. “Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” Philippians 2:12, 13. We read in the Scriptures that Christ is to be the indwelling Saviour, who lives in us to work in us the very life that he wrought when he was here in the flesh, the Christ of Judea.ARSH April 21, 1896, page 249.2

    To-day there is a great lack both of the teaching and the experience of this truth, and as a result, much of the professed Christianity has degenerated into that which has the form of godliness, but denies the power thereof. It makes no difference by what name we are called; unless we have the very power of God in Jeans Christ, our profession is vain; for he is the only power for godliness. “They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.” Titus 1:16. If we profess that we know God, and yet in works go contrary to God, we are of that class spoken of in 2 Timothy 3:1-5: “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.” The whole work of Christ was just to bring this about, that the very life of Christ might be wrought in our humanity. This has always been the very heart of Christianity. Jesus Christ, the Christ of Judea, who came as the Son of man in our flesh, is to-day our High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary, there to appear in the presence of God for us, as our advocate to make intercession for us, and to dispense heavenly blessings to us.ARSH April 21, 1896, page 249.3

    This same Christ is soon to come to this earth once more,-not now as a lowly peasant, but he will come with power and great glory. “For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.” “For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father’s, and of the holy angels.” Matthew 16:27; Luke 9:26. Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him. When he comes, he comes as the Son of man. John saw one like the Son of man coming in the clouds. He comes as he went. “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself.” John 14:1-3. This is his own prophecy. The angels told the disciples, as they watched Christ ascend into heaven, that he would so come in like manner as they had seen him go into heaven; and he left on record for us signs that should tell us when his coming is near. No prophetic period reaches to the coming of Christ, but it fixes the time so that we may know that he is near, even at the doors. We are in that time to-day; the coming of Jesus Christ draweth nigh, and he is coming to receive his own. When he came the first time, he came to his own, and his own received him not; but when he comes the second time, there is to be a people who are looking for him, and who shall say, “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us.” There will be a people watching and hoping for his return; and when he comes, they will be ready to receive him, and he will receive them. Now, in this time, he is working out by his power, his own image in those who will receive him, that when he comes he may see himself in his own people. That is why at this day this experience for us is especially to be emphasized; it must be entered upon, and everything else must be as nothing, compared with the experience of being like Jesus Christ, no matter what it costs or what the sacrifice is. Come out and be ye separate. Let this very life of Christ, the Christ of Judea, be wrought in our flesh by the power of Christ himself, that we may be transformed into his image, and be ready to hail his coming with joy. w. w. p.ARSH April 21, 1896, page 249.4

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