Wholesome Words for Spiritual Guidance

THE SON OF GOD

There is a threefold aspect of this title, as applied to the Lord Jesus, unfolded in the Scriptures.

1. He is the Son of God as the "Only Begotten" (John 3:16), the Word, who was ever with God and who was God. It is in this relation that He is spoken of in Heb. 1:3, as "being the brightness of His glory and the very image of His substance" (R.V.). We must carefully distinguish between what He was, and what He became. We must observe the distinction so plainly set forth of His being in relation to the Godhead, and of His becoming in relation to His Manhood. In Heb. l:2, as in John 1:2, His essential Godhead is spoken of. He was - ever was - God: one in nature and essence with the Father. But in Heb. 1:4, speaking of the result of His incarnation, it is what He became "Having become so much better than the angels", as also in John 1:14, where "the Word became flesh". Thus the title "only begotten" tells what He was, and is exclusively applied in John's writings to the Divine nature. It is always to be distinguished from the title "First-born" or "First-begotten" (Rom.8:29; Col.1:18), which He bears in resurrection. As "only begotten" He stood, and ever stands alone, "God, blessed forever" (Rom.9:5). But as "First begotten" He has "many brethren". Thus the perfect oneness of the Father with the Son in Godhead glory, and the perfect relationship between them is revealed, as existing before the incarnation.

2. He Is Son of God as touching His humanity. We read in Luke 1:35 in the angel's word to Mary regarding His miraculous conception, "That holy thing which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God". (There is no article in the Greek). He was "the Woman's Seed", and to fulfil the promise given in Eden, it was essential that He should be made like unto Adam, who was "the figure of Him who was to come" (Rom.5:14). But His Manhood was perfect. He descended into all the circumstances of fallen man, but not into the sinfulness of his being, not into sinful flesh, but into its "likeness", Rom.8:3. As regards His Manhood, He was the Holy One of God, to whom a body prepared for Him was given. In His Manhood, therefore, as well as in His Godhead. Jesus is the Son of God.

3. He is the Son of God In Resurrection. This is revealed in Acts 13:33,34, where a quotation from Psa.2 is given - "Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee". To this, Col.1:15-18 bears witness, and in this relation He becomes "the Firstborn of all creation". In relation to the first creation He is creator, but in him as risen from the dead, its new head, it stands as before it fell in Adam.

Before the incarnation we see Him as God, only God. After the incarnation as perfect Man, who while He was ever Divine, yet took on Him the servant's form and veiled His glory. Now in resurrection, His Godhead is no longer hid, nor His Manhood left behind, but both are manifestly united in unutterable majesty and beauty. It is in this character of God-man that all the quotations found in Hebrews I apply to the Lord. In verse 3 He inherits a more excellent name than the angels. In verse 8, "Thy throne, 0 God, is for ever and ever", refers to His resurrection glory, as the words which follow prove - "Thy God hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows." He is no longer alone, but pre-emminent among many brethren. It is to this third aspect of His Sonship that the words in I Cor.15:28 refer "Then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all". For after death has been destroyed, He, as the First begotten, will hold all in the liberty of Sonship, and in that perfect subjection of heart and will to God, in which the freedom and harmony of heaven exists.

We need to discriminate such varied glories of the person of Christ in order to comprehend in any measure the infinite height and depth of the glorious fullness that dwells in Him. And let us ever remember that "no man knoweth the Son but the Father" (Matt. 11:27), and that He alone can reveal Him to the soul (Matt.16:17)

-Henry Groves.

Two contrasting circumstances are indicated in this exhortation. The first is separation, the second is attraction. It is the drawing character and power of Christ that inspires the act of turning our back on all that is contrary to Him. He suffered for us "without the gate". To realize this and all that it meant for Him, leads to a whole-hearted separation from all that is inconsistent with his mind and will.

To go forth to Him is to go "outside the camp". This has a far wider significance than abstention from mere Judiastic observances. Truly it means abstention from all that substitutes outward legal observances and ritual for that which is ministered by the Holy Spirit, but more than this is involved in going forth to him. In one aspect, the camp consists of every form of religion, systematized and arranged by the traditions of men, the result of denominational departure from the teachings of the Word of God. As Judaism established its own religion as a substitute for what God has prescribed in His Word, Christendom has become a sphere in which human tradition, ecclesiastical and otherwise, has replaced the instructions and principles of the New Testament. Everything of that sort is represented by "the camp".

To come out from it all and go forth to Christ, has meant and still means reproach; but it is "His reproach" and it is the privilege and joy of the true follower of Christ to bear it for his sake, and in identification with Him. In the wider sense of the exhortation, we are called upon to be separate from every thing that would corrupt our minds "from the simplicity and purity that is toward Christ" (2 Cor.11:3,R.V.). Simplicity means singleness of mind, that singleness by which "we make it our aim....to be well-pleasing to him" (2 Cor.5:9).

The Cross of Christ was "outside the camp". During the days of His flesh He had borne a faithful witness against both religious and moral departure from God. His testimony, by life and by lip, brought Him reproach and bitter hatred. At length He turned His back on it all, giving Himself up voluntarily to go forth "outside the gate", to endure the Cross. All this was in undeviating devotion to the Father. "For Thy sake", He says, "I have borne reproach".

When we remember that all this was on our behalf, not only to deliver us from eternal doom, but that He might "sanctify us with His own blood", how can we refrain from going forth "unto Him?". His very sanctifying grace, making us His own, and separating us unto Himself, ought to inspire us with the utmost devotion to Him. It is easy to avoid reproach. Demas avoided it, loving this present world . It meant his eternal and unutterable loss hereafter.

We have a triple foe against our highest interests of loyalty to Christ - the world, the flesh and the Devil. To go forth to Him enables the true believer to say "The world has been crucified unto me, and I unto the world", and to realize that "they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts" (Gal.5:24).

Let us then awaken to a fuller response to His attracting power, to a deeper apprehension of our indebtedness to Him, and to a more loyal identification with Him "outside the camp". For "here we have no abiding city, but we seek after the city which is to come".

- One of the last articles written by the late W. E. Vine.

SOME LAST WORDS OF SCRIPTURE - 1

The last words spoken by those dear to us are particularly precious. On the last page of our Bibles we have the last words of the Lord Jesus Christ to His people: "Surely I come quickly". To His own in the upper room He gave the promise of His coming again. "I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go... I will come again and receive you to Myself". Here, in the last words of the New Testament revelation, we have the promise of His coming affirmed. May we never lose sight of this fact; the Lord is coming. The present order of things will not continue unchanged. Soon the Bright and Morning Star will be seen, and the Day Star arise in our hearts. How it behooves us to ever live in the consciousness of the Lord's coming, and of our gathering together unto Him, and to "be as men that wait for their Lord".

In the second letter to Timothy we have the last recorded words of the Apostle Paul. There he writes to his companion, son in the faith and fellow soldier, Timothy, "I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a (or the) good fight. I have finished my course, I have kept the faith". (2 Tim,4:6,7). Paul has gone before us as our example. He wrote "Be ye imitators of me even as I also am of Christ" (l Cor. 11:1). Frequently in his writings he alludes to the Christian pathway as a race. Now he had finished his course. He had pressed to the end for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. He had kept the teachings committed to him, and walked in them, maintaining loyalty to the Lord he served. He had not withdrawn from engaging in the spiritual conflict. Now that he has finished his course he would urge Timothy, and us, to take up the baton and press on, that we might fulfil whatever service the Lord may have committed to us.

The last recorded words of Peter are found in 2 Peter 3:17,18, with a warning to maintain steadfastness in v.17 and an exhortation to grow in v.18. Peter, as he wrote, was also about to depart. He records that he was shortly to put oft this tabernacle even as the Lord Jesus Christ had showed him (2 Peter l:14). His last desire for those to whom he addresses his letter is that they might "grow in the grace and knowledge (RV) of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ". Peter himself had known what it was to grow in this way. The Lord first called him as Simon, but he became Peter, a stone, and able to strengthen his brethren. Peter also in his first letter refers to the need for spiritual growth. "As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby" (I Pet,2:2). He is not writing to those who were newly come to the faith, for those believers had passed through difficult trials and sufferings (I Pet. l:6). He rather desired that their appetite for the word of God would be like the desire of babes for milk, so that spiritual development would be evident in their lives. This would be shown by an absence of the evils of malice, guile, hypocrisy, envies and evil speaking (I Pet. 2:1). We can measure our own growth in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ by this yardstick.

When we consider the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, exhibited in His becoming poor for our sakes (2 Cor. 8:9), how much scope there is in our lives for growth. The last words of the Lord Jesus spoken to Peter were "Follow thou Me" (John 21:22). There was a time when Peter had "followed afar off" (Luke 22:54), but as thereafter he followed more closely, so he had become more like the One who left us an example that we should follow His steps (I Pet. 2:21). So Peter, as he leaves the Jewish Christians whom he addresses in his last letter, desires that they may be true and diligent disciples of the Lord Jesus, and that they may learn of Him.

- A.C. McEwan

GROWING IN GRACE

If we are really growing in grace we shall feel our need of Christ more and more each day. We shall make more use of Christ every day, until at last it will be, "I am nothing, Christ is all".

- Selected

8. Giving. "Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase; so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine" (Prov.3:9, 10). So spoke Solomon, and thus placed upon the page of Scripture a principle of far reaching importance. This means simply that God has the first claim upon all we have and are. There is also a law of spiritual recompense operating, under which God's blessing is poured into the life of the individual who puts God first in this way.

In Old Testament times in the days before the law was given, Abraham recognized the Divine claim by paying tithes to Melchisdec. Jacob at Bethel, in the first crisis of his life, also recognized God's claim upon him by vowing that he would pay Him a tenth. Under the law tithing became a recognized practice in the life of the Israelite (see Mal.3:8-10).

In the New Testament the subject is placed on an even higher plane and is associated with the grace of God acting in human lives. In 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9, giving is regarded as a grace, and the subject could well be designated "the grace of giving". The pivot on which the grace of God turns is the example of the Lord Jesus Christ in His stoop and humiliation.

The following features of giving may be noted:-

(a) True giving is sacrificial (see Mark 12:41-44). The Lord estimated the greatness of the widow's giving by the fact that she gave her all.

(b) The disciples gave according to their ability (Acts 11:29). God did not expect them to give that which they did not possess.

(c) According to I Cor.16:2 giving should be regular - "on the first day of the week"; universal - "every one of you"; definite - "lay by him in store"; proportionate - "as God hath prospered him".

(d) We should give bountifully (2 Cor. 9:6).

(e) We should give purposefully (2 Cor. 9:7).

(f) We should also give willingly and cheerfully (2 Cor. 9:7).

One way in which the Gospel demonstrated its power in the first century was by the expression in believing lives of God's grace in this matter of giving. May our hearts be depositories of His grace in our day, so that the needs of His people and His work may be met.

9. The Position and Ministry of Women. Women occupy an honoured place in both Old and New Testaments. We think of Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Deborah, Hannah and others in the Old Testament, and Mary, Elizabeth, Anna, Mary of Magdala, Martha and Mary her sister, not to mention others in the New Testament. The woman is not man's inferior and she enjoys with him the same salvation and privileges. While this is the case, the Lord in His wisdom has assigned to her a distinctive position, and has given her a special ministry. She is able to do what man cannot do, and happy it is for her if she recognizes and owns the place given her by God. Both the man and the woman have their spheres in the Church, but they are not competitive. The man has been called to occupy a public sphere and the woman a private one. It is not to the woman's advantage when she attempts to compete with the man in the public sphere. This matter is fully dealt with by Paul in I Cor.11:1-16. He shows that there is a Divine order; God is the Head of Christ; Christ is the Head of the man, and the man is the head of the woman. The man is not to cover his head in the assembly because he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is to wear a head covering because she is the glory of the man. Apart from this temporary head covering, or veil, there is the permanent covering of her long hair. The long hair of the woman (and the word used means long hair) is the sign of her subjection to the man. Paul states that long hair is a shame to a man, "but if a woman have long hair it is a glory to her". In the light of this important Scripture surely every Christian woman will endeavour at all costs to preserve her distinctive glory given her by God.

The ministry of women is exercised in her home and among her own sex. It is none the less effective because rendered privately. In spite of present day tendencies to bring Christian women into the public sphere, the teaching of the New Testament is emphatic that this is not her place. The reader should compare I Cor.11, also chapter 14 and I Tim. 2. It has been put forward that provided a woman has her head covered she is free to pray publicly. If this be the case her head covering is a contradiction of terms, for it is a sign of her subjection to the authority of the man. If she prays or prophesies publicly she sets aside his authority, and also the authority of Christ and of God. It should also be noted that the subject of I Cor. 11-16 is not the right of either the man or the woman to take part publicly, but it is a question of head covering as expressive of God's order in the churches.

Let the Scriptures be final in this matter. "Let your women keep silence in the churches", for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the Law" (I Cor.14:34). In case any should think that these are merely the words of Paul, the passage goes on to say: "If any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord".

Happy shall we all be, brethren and sisters alike, if we seek to serve the Lord with all our might in the distinctive sphere assigned to us by God.

- G. Maclachlan.

CONSCIENCE

It would be correct, I believe, to say that a conscience was the I only thing our first parents got by the Fall; and of course man has a conscience still, though its voice, by repeated disregard, may become very weak, or indeed be silenced. But it will make itself heard one day. The actual word "conscience" does not occur in Scripture before the Fall, nor indeed in the Old Testament at all. But the working of conscience is referred to in Rom.2:15, the Gentiles' "conscience hearing them witness", surely a retrospective reference. Possibly we have a reference to this very conscience in the devil's words in Eden, "Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil" - the knowledge of sin without avoiding it, and the knowledge of good without attaining it. If this is a correct definition, it is clear our first parents had no conscience before the fall.

Conscience has been compared to a sun-dial, which will only work in the sunlight. By any other light, you can make it say what time you like. Like the sun-dial, conscience will only work correctly if enlightened by the Word of God.

The Lord warned His disciples that the time would come when men, in killing them, would think that they were doing God service; that is, with a perfectly easy conscience. Thus a man may have "an easy conscience" and do wrong, like Saul of Tarsus, who thought he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus Christ. In John 8:9 the accusers "were convicted of their own consciences"; they knew that they were not without sin in this respect, and they were aware that God knew it too.

Then a conscience may be weak; that is, excessively punctilious through not being enlightened, as those in Romans 14 who would not eat certain meats owing to religious scruples. Our Lord's accusers would not go inside the law-court at Jerusalem "lest they should be defiled" (see John 18:28).

A conscience may be evil through not being p urged by the blood of Christ (Heb. 10:22), and good through being purged by that blood (Heb. 9:14), or as it is described in v.9, "perfect as pertaining to the conscience". But when we read in chapter 10:2 that the worshippers once purged should have "no more conscience of sins", we are not to understand that they are not conscious of evil within or of failure without, still less that they have no conscience: but that they see that the sacrifice of Christ has so fully met all God's holy claims, that He is fully satisfied as to the sin question, and they are satisfied too. They rest where He rests.

Then again, a man's conscience may become defiled through sinning with a high hand (Tit. l:15), or "seared with a hot iron" through sinning repeatedly against the light (I Tim. 4:2).

We ought to live "in all good conscience", that is with a tender and enlightened conscience. We ought also to "exercise ourselves to have a conscience void of offense toward God and man.

- W. Hoste.

EDITORIAL

With another year of publication of Wholesome Words completed it is fitting that we should magnify the Lord again, and exalt His Name together. How true are the words of the Psalmist, "His faithfulness is unto all generations". As we continue in this ministry, we look to Him to guide us in the selection of timely and suitable messages, and to provide for all the needs as He sees them, and now we gratefully acknowledge the many evidences of His gracious provision in all these things.

We are grateful too for the fellowship and help of so many of our readers; those who help us in prayer; in expenses; in receiving and distributing the magazine, and for the willing help of Mr. and Mrs. Gabites who envelope and mail each issue from Timaru. All this help is greatly appreciated.

We would remind our readers again of the necessity to advise us promptly of any changes of address, and any changes in numbers of copies required. Please make cheques payable to Wholesome Words.

As we look forward toward 1998 in the will of the Lord, we do not know what it may hold for us in joy or trial. But let us remember the assurance given to us in I Cor.10:13, "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way of escape, that ye may be able to hear it". And He has said, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee".

-Editor

THE NEW YEAR

Another year is dawning
The old has passed away
We hail the cloudless morning
Of God's eternal day
And in our heart arises
The bright and morning star
O day of sweet surprises
We hail thee from afar

Another year invites us
To fellowship with God
Another time to ponder
Within His precious Word
Once more to taste like Mary
His blessed sympathy
Or know again like Peter
Forgiveness full and free

Another year constrains us
To serve our absent Lord
For soon the golden harvest
Will all have been secured
When victor's crowns will gladden
The Blessed Saviour's heart
Then in that great rejoicing
We too would share a part

Another year is dawning
The old has passed away
We hail the glorious morning
Of God's unclouded day.
So let us serve and follow
Till faith and hope withdraw
And love has full dominion
Henceforth forevermore.