“The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” In the light of this fact, would it not be well to take a broader view of this precept than some are in the habit of doing?
Did not the entering sin, the one which opened the flood-gates of iniquity to our fair world, involve a direct violation of the eighth command? Our parents took that which the Lord had reserved. But since the earth is His, and He made it, has not the Creator a right to say what man shall appropriate to himself, and what he shall not?
“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” And the matter was fully understood; for when tempted, “the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.”
The whole earth, and especially the garden of Eden, was teeming with fruits in a profusion so overflowing as to beggar description. Man had been lavishly provided for. And yet, to test them; that God might cultivate in the first pair the glorious principle of unselfishness; that they might learn to recognize the rights of others before there were any others of their kind, their loving Father reserved to Himself one tree with the contents thereof.
The command had already been given them that they be “fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” Very soon, therefore, they must begin to teach their descendants to respect the rights of others. (“God is not the author of confusion.”) But how can they teach that in which they have had no experience?
Failing to recognize the rights of the Almighty, will man regard the rights of his fellows? Will the robber of God refrain himself from the possessions of men? How can he? Was it not, therefore, of the utmost importance that the progenitors of our race should be thoroughly tested on the point of recognition of property rights? They failed to stand the test. They did not withhold their hand from the forbidden tree. We have inherited their fallen nature; and must be restrained not only from the things reserved by God, but also from the belongings of our associates. “Thou shalt not steal.”
“The earth is [still] the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof.” And the same One who, in the beginning, made the reservation of a tree, has reserved to himself a tenth of the whole earth’s increase. “All the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s; it is holy unto the Lord.” Nor is tithing Levitical in its origin; for Abraham and Jacob are expressly cited as adhering to it; also the Lord Jesus gave it His approbation. Said He, when referring to the custom of those who had only a form of godliness, “Ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith; these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.”
“Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed Me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed Thee? In tithes and offerings.” Why do not all men return to the Lord a tenth of all He gives them? Because they do not acknowledge that He has any possessions here. Some even deny His existence.
But the tithe is not all; for when the Maker of heaven and earth tabernacled among men, He commanded: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Christ has also commanded that we “give to every man that asketh,” and from him that would borrow, we should “not turn away.” Also, that we “lend, hoping for nothing again.” Of course these requirements are carefully guarded elsewhere in the Scriptures, that designing persons shall not be able to impoverish the obedient sons of God; and yet the conscientious people of earth, when attending to the needs of the worthy poor, have usually had little surplus remaining. But in case there is a surplus, the Master says, “Lay [it] not up for yourselves.” It is subject to the call of God. Those who obey God are thus enabled to outwit the thieves. Their treasure is beyond their reach—laid up in heaven.
To the selfish man these requirements seem hard and cruel; but to the redeemed man they are the joy of his heart. At one time in the world’s history, a body of men were convicted of sin, led to repentance and confession; were baptized in water, and with the Holy Ghost. “And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul; neither said any of them that aught of the things which he possessed was his own.” The Holy Spirit, once admitted, takes all the selfishness out of a man.
But men have hugged to themselves the gifts of God, until many think they created them. They recognize not His right of ownership; they are not thankful for His bounties. “Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue forever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names.” God is wholly supplanted. Self reigns. “Their eyes stand out with fatness; they have more than heart could wish. They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression; they speak loftily. They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth. . . . And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the Most High? Behold, these are the ungodly who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.”
And yet have such as are here described defrauded only God? Have they stolen only from Him? “Behold, the hire of your laborers, . . . which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.” (That is, the Lord of hosts.)
Is not every penny of ill-gotten gain obtained in violation of the eighth precept of Jehovah’s law? Is not every untruthful, deceptive, or overdrawn statement in reference to their goods or wares, meant by advertisers to draw from the pockets of the people more money than these things are worth? Time5and space would fail us in an attempt to mention the thousands of ways in which men obtain from each other money or its equivalent through dishonest or oppressive means. The legal way of stealing is the most lucrative, and the least liable to punishment here below; but those who practise it will not escape the righteous judgment of God. Whether practised through the opportunities presented in government office, in private corporations, or in any other place or manner, we all know in our calmer moments, and in our innermost souls, that every penny gotten through fraud, deception, or violence is gotten through the violation of the eighth commandment. If estimated by the One who can not lie, I fear that a far greater proportion of the earth’s inhabitants than we have been wont to so think of, would be classed as thieves and robbers. Would not many of the respectable people even of the “smart set,” be confounded to have the search-light of God’s Holy Spirit turned upon them on this particular point? The thieves and thugs and robbers who take the money or valuables from our homes or places of business, will not be the only ones to be reckoned with in the great day. Nor will the poor little waifs who steal their “eatin’s” from the hucksters and fruit-dealers be the central figures at the bar of God. What a sight it will be, in that day, to see most of those who have accused the thieves in this world, stand in their company in the next. What a sight to see the lawyers and judges, who through bribery have pleaded wrongfully, or rendered unjust decisions here, stand at the bar of God with the culprits they have released from justice. What a sight to see many who have been condemned unjustly by these same tribunals, seated with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom, while those who have been their persecutors here are thrust out.
But we have seen that no man can steal from men without first becoming a robber of God. Once get the man right with God, and he will not only cease his depredations against men, but will restore, so far as lies within his power, every cent he has taken.
In the days of Christ, the publicans, or those who farmed the taxes from their countrymen, the Jews, were supposed to have oftentimes exacted more than was their due. Now there was one of their number, “Zaccheus, which was chief among the publicans, and he was rich.” Immediately, when this man had received the Lord Jesus, he made this statement: “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house.” Not that a half of a rich man’s estate had ever been asked of the Lord for the poor; but the change of nature made the man liberal, and he voluntarily offered the half of his goods to be distributed to the poor; and if he had taken anything wrongfully from any man, he was willing to restore, not the same amount, but fourfold. No danger of that man stealing now. He could be trusted with a mint of money. Not a penny would be missing.
At this present moment, and for about six years in the past, one of the most notorious thieves that the United States ever held, has been given charge of a large plant as night watchman. He has spent decades of “time” in prisons and penitentiaries, was the very chiefest of safe-crackers and vault-blowers. He now occupies a place where at any time he could get thousands of dollars by theft if he chose, but he does nothing of the kind. He is as harmless as a lamb. With every other precept of our God, the eighth one is written in his heart. He could be safely trusted with a million dollars of any man’s money, to keep or to carry anywhere. “What happened to him?” The same that happened to Zaccheus. The same Christ has entered his life, that entered the chief of the publicans.
Not only do those who are renewed by His grace have no disposition to call that which is another’s their own; but, as we have seen, no man among that class can ever say “that aught of the things which HE possesseth are his own.” Such men do not steal. They have no disposition to violate the eighth commandment.
E. J. HIBBARD.
THE FOOT-PATH TO PEACE.
By Henry Van Dyke
To be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars; to be satisfied with your possessions, but not content with yourself until you have made the best of them; to despise nothing in the world except falseness and meanness, and to fear nothing except cowardice; to be governed by your admirations rather than by your disgusts; to covet nothing that is your neighbor's except his kindness of heart and gentleness of manners; to think seldom of your enemies, often of your friends, and every day of Christ, and to spend as much time as you can with body and spirit in God's out-of-doors—these are the little guide-posts on the foot-path to peace.—Henry Van Dyke.
Everybody Has Something to Do
“EVERYBODY has something to do for somebody.”
Meekness and Weakness
“MEEKNESS and weakness are not the same thing.”
Failure as Success in Embryo
“A WELL-DIGESTED failure is success in embryo.”
THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM.
By Edison Driver
“AND this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Matt. 24:14.
Our ideas of the Gospel, as Christ presented it, are very indefinite. He said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor: He hath sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” Luke 4:18, 19, R. V. All this was included in the Gospel, the good tidings, which He came to bring men. The wonderful power which He used in healing the sick, raising the dead, and controlling the forces of nature, was but a part of that same Gospel. We are apt to look on these manifestations as something apart from the real central Gospel of the kingdom. But let us see.
Something like six thousand years ago, God created this world a part of His kingdom. He ruled it. Then He said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, and let them have dominion.” So God let him have dominion, power to rule the earth, as His representative here in this part of the kingdom of heaven.
Then sin entered the world and separated it from the rest of God’s kingdom. Satan was the king, and as king he tried to establish his kingdom firmly. To do this he has striven to keep his subjects ignorant in regard to the other country, because the other was a better country, and only through misrepresentation could he hope to retain his kingship over men. To this end he has bent the energies of his great mind from the first of sin’s dark course.
In ignorance and death our world is an island separated from the great continent of God’s life and power. Men have lost sight of the true King and of the true kingdom. Mesmerized by Satan, they take this present world as their country, knowing nothing of the other.
So when Christ came to preach the Gospel of the kingdom, He came to them that sat in darkness, yea, in the valley of the shadow of death. Matt. 4:16. He came to these captives of Satan, “to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house.” Isa. 42:7, R. V. He came to be Immanuel, “God-with-us!” Why?—That man might get a true idea of God; that he might see the goodness, the character, the love of the true King. More: He came to reveal the true kingdom! Men could realize the nature of the true King, having seen Christ, His representative. But likewise they were to see the true kingdom, the better country! They must see it as verily as they must see the true King.
Men do not go to a country simply because they are told that it has a good king. So Christ must bring not only the King, but also the kingdom to men, that they might with their eyes and ears—the senses which they had—have opportunity of seeing, of knowing again, the true kingdom, and comparing the two.
So “Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of the kingdom of God.” Mark 1:14. He “went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And His fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto Him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and He healed them.” Matt. 4:23, 24. And when they accused Him of working by the power of Satan, He said, “If I cast out devils by the power of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.” Matt. 12:28. Ah, yes, that was a part of the Gospel then, that men should see the kingdom of God right among them.
Christ has been called “the second Adam,” and so He was. As Adam had dominion over all the earth and over the creatures that were in it (Gen. 1:26), the life of Jesus shows that He had the same power. The waves of the sea heard His voice, “Peace, be still.” The wind and the water obeyed. The men who witnessed the miracle marveled and wondered, but Jesus said, “O ye of little faith!” Did it indeed seem strange to them that He whom God had placed in the world to represent the King and the kingdom of heaven, should “have dominion,” should be able to exercise the power of God? It seems so. When the disciples were unable to perform a certain miracle, they asked Christ why it was so. He said, “Because of your unbelief; for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you!” In the fulness of His faith, Christ brought back the lost dominion that men might see a glimpse of the better country than Adam had lost. But they said, “What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him!” Man had forgotten what it was to be a man—to be “every inch a king!” And they have forgotten it now.
The world needs the whole Gospel to-day as much as it did then. And moreover it is God’s purpose that the whole Gospel shall be proclaimed. For He says, “This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Matt. 24:14. “And He said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. And these signs shall follow them that believe: In My name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” Mark 16:15, 17, 18. They did so. “They went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following.” Verse 20. But as Paul said, some came in “who would pervert the Gospel of Christ.” Gal. 1:7. The church lost its power, and the Gospel of the kingdom is not preached as Christ preached it.
This Gospel is yet to be preached. It is to be preached with power in our day. Let us then set no standard for ourselves short of being witnesses of this Gospel of the kingdom in its fulness.
EDISON DRIVER.
YOUR BODY A TEMPLE OF GOD.
How Do You Treat It?
Says the apostle Paul, in addressing the church: “Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man destroyeth the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” 1 Cor. 3:16, 17, R.V.
The same apostle says again to the believer: “Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have from God? and ye are not your own; for ye were bought with a price: glorify God therefore in your body.” Ch. 6:19, 20, R.V.
Man is doubly the Lord’s—by creation and redemption; in the creation of the first pair from whom all sprang, and in the payment of the purchase price of the death of the Son of God.
When man was created, his body, his flesh, was a fit dwelling for the Spirit, the life of God. God dwelt in him, and was thereby glorified. God was incarnate, enfleshed. Man was His son, reflecting the Father’s image. But man sinned. He yielded the sanctuary of his body to Satan, who entered and took possession of that which was not his. Sin became incarnate, enfleshed; and the mind became enchained, the carnal mind, not subject to the law of the great King, but at enmity to God. Rom. 8:7. The temple still of right belonged to God, but God had departed. He could not share its throne with the enemy. He will not, He can not, give His glory to another who counterworks His blessed plans. “Know ye not that he that is joined to a harlot is one body? for, The twain, saith He, shall become one flesh.” 1 Cor. 6:16. When the members of man are yielded to any of God’s foes, the man, tho belonging to God by right, becomes identified with the enemy in fact. The temple becomes a den of thieves, and the Lord devotes it to the destruction chosen.
And yet God does not without divine effort put away the defiled temple. He pleads for admittance as long as there is hope. And if the soul choose, if the body be yielded, the gracious owner will come in again. So had He done with the Corinthians. “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with men, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you; but ye were washed, but ye were sanctified, but ye were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.” Ch. 6:9–11. God had cleansed the temple that He might dwell in it. They were by His grace to keep it pure.
The cleansed one can not go back to old habits of lust and worldliness and sin. He must abide in God; “for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? or what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what portion hath a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement hath a temple of God with idols? for we are a temple of the living God; even as God said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” Then the conditions are stated: “Wherefore come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; and I will receive you, and I will be to you a Father, and ye shall be to Me sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” 2 Cor. 6:14–18.
God will take up His abode only in the cleansed heart. He will plead with the vile to be cleansed, but He will dwell only in the one purified by His grace. His temple is “the upright heart and pure.” How truly, then, ought every Christian to heed the inspired exhortation: “Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement [“filthiness,” A.V.] of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” 2 Cor. 7:1. This means much. Failure to do this is one of the great reasons why the church of Jesus Christ is so weak to-day. If it were done whole-heartedly, it would bring mighty power. But there is more to be said later on.
At the Bar of Destiny.
By S.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and upon the earth He placed man with a code of morals essential to his existence,—a code of morals in whose spirit rested the government of the whole universe. Man broke that law, that moral code, that eternal principle of right doing, and brought upon himself the penalty of the breaking. Death was that penalty; but before it fell upon the race, the life of Christ was interposed, and the possibility of eternal life was again held out to man.
Then the Son of God became the Advocate of the prisoner at the bar, and the Father and Ruler of the universe became the Judge upon the bench of ultimate justice. Now, what is man's case? and what is his hope of acquittal or pardon? Is his case safe in the hands of his Advocate? and what is the standing of his Advocate in the court of last resort?
Speaking of those who had professed His name, the Lord declares: “They have transgressed My covenant, and trespassed against My law.” Hosea 8:1. The prophet of the Lord declares in Ezra 9:6, “Our iniquities have increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens.” So desperate was our condition that Inspiration declares we “were dead in trespasses and sins.” Eph. 2:1. And that this desperate condition of man involved the whole race is shown by this positive statement of the inspired Word: “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Rom. 3:23. That is the condition which man occupies before God,—a transgressor of His holy law, a breaker of His covenant.
Altho that is our condition in His sight, yet the record that is kept of all our doings is not a prejudiced or partial one. Faithful are they who write it down, and faithful He who must pass upon the records. “Thou tellest my wanderings: put Thou my tears into Thy bottle: are they not in Thy book?” Ps. 56:8. Along with the record of the wanderings goes the record of our sorrow for sin. Nothing that we of ourselves can do can change the record of our deeds; for “tho thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before Me, saith the Lord.” Jer. 2:22. The impartiality of the record which is kept of our case is shown in the fact that everything that can witness in man's favor is given a hearing in that court, even to the man's environment, as the following scripture shows: “The Lord shall count, when He writeth up the people, that this man was born there.” Ps. 87:6. And that is not all; He even takes account of the good things which they say who are trying to honor and follow Him. Mal. 3:16. Certainly none can justly accuse God of wronging any in His judgment, or of failing to give to any the hearing they should have.
But man can not be his own saviour by any works that he may do; for the Scripture declares that “all have sinned.” As soon as man sinned he made necessary a salvation which must come through another. The Lord declares of the man who has sinned, “In his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die.” Eze. 18:24. Again: “The wages of sin is death.” Rom. 6:23. “And so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” Rom. 5:12.
In such a condition, with such a penalty hanging over his head, unable to save himself (to say nothing of saving others), what foundation has man for hoping to escape that death from which there is no waking? Ah, there comes in the glorious provision voluntarily made by the self-sacrificing Son of God. He might have stayed in heaven, refused the humility of the human, escaped the torturing death of the cross, and still have retained the glory which He had with the Father “before the world was.” But He did not choose thus to do. Speaking of Him the Word says, “Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Heb. 12:2. In fact, He “emptied Himself” of His own glory, that He might restore man to the glory which he had lost. He “became obedient unto death,” that He might provide a way whereby man could triumph over death. He died, “the just for the unjust,” rose again because He could not be holden of death, and thus became “the Captain of our salvation.” Because man had sinned—because we had sinned—Christ, to bear the penalty which we deserved, was made “to be sin for us,” while He Himself was sinless, that we might appear, in the eyes of the law, blameless as He. 2 Cor. 5:21. He did all this while we were yet in sin, in rebellion against the authority of heaven—died for us while we were still standing with our backs turned upon Him, spurning the offers of His grace.
While all that was true, the provision was made, the way was opened, whereby the righteousness of Christ might be imputed to man, whereby the hitherto ungodly might be justified; that is, through faith in Christ, “who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification.” Rom. 4:5, 8, 25. Thus was the door to eternal life unbarred for man. But that there might be no possibility of a misjudging of man, that there might be no ground even for man to declare that he was being unfairly treated, the Word tells us that, “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same.” Heb. 2:14. That is, because we are human, He also became human, that He might be better able to sympathize with the human in all the trials and temptations that beset humanity. As a Saviour for man, He was made “perfect through sufferings,” the sufferings that come to man. Heb. 2:10. That is what the Bible is telling us in this text: “We have not an High Priest which can not be touched by the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” Heb. 4:15. All this He did for man, in order that Judgment might not ever appear to be sitting in the seat of Mercy; in order that man might lack nothing that would tend to help him upward.
But He has done even more than that. He has engaged to present man's case in that court of last resort. That blessed fact is announced in the following unmistakable language: “If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” This does not mean that He will plead the cause of those who persist in sin. Far from it; death is the portion of the one who will not forsake his sin. But Christ is the Advocate of all who confess their sins, forsake their evil ways, and come unto God by Him. “Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, . . . but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.” Heb. 9:24. Again: “He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.” Heb. 7:25. And Christ says of Himself, “Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven.” Matt. 10:32. The earnestness of that work which is now being done for man is shown in the following: “The Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which can not be uttered.” Rom. 8:26.
We have seen how desperate was man's case, that the doom of eternal death was hanging over him; that the only hope of pardon or acquittal lay in the willing substitute which God permitted His Son to become. Man's case is safe when entrusted to Him, because He knows our frame, He has passed through all our experiences, was tempted as we are tempted, and conquered all. His standing in that court is unquestioned; for He is the sinless Son of the merciful Judge, and has already been received at the right hand of the throne of Jehovah. Then has not everything been done that even Infinity could do to make possible for man a way of escape from eternal death and a way of attaining eternal life? We can not answer no. The only thing now that stands between man and life everlasting in the kingdom of God is man's refusal to repent of sin, and put his case in the hands of Him who is at once his Friend, his Brother, his Redeemer, and his all-powerful Advocate at the bar of eternity. Our eternal destiny hangs upon our willingness or unwillingness to submit our case to the only One in all God's universe who is able to carry it through.
Our case is at the bar of destiny. The important question for each of us should be, Is my case in safe hands, the hands of the one Advocate who has a right to plead for me there? S.
LIFE AND LIFE.
Jesus, the Prince of Life, said: “I am come that they might have life.” “I give unto them eternal life.” John 10: 10, 28.
Christ came to give them that which they did not have; therefore “they,” the children of men, have not the life which Christ alone can give. The unregenerate are “alienated from [strangers to] the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.” Eph. 4: 18. And if they continue on in that unbelieving ignorance, they “shall not see life.” John 3: 36.
And yet it is true that all of these of whom these scriptures are written (and in these are included all unbelieving sinners) have a kind of life. God has given them existence, consciousness, natural, soulical life, through the natural processes of physical generation and birth; and in His mercy He prolongs this life from hour to hour, from day to day, from year to year, in order that man, during its continuance, may “lay hold on eternal life,” become acquainted with “the life of God.” This soulical life is common to all creatures. But it is not the ultimate life. It is not the life which God desires His children to be satisfied with. It is the time of preparation for the higher life, and has been such ever since man sinned. Satan and his minions of messengers, man and beast alike, possess this creature life.
“But did not this life come from God?” asks one. “Yes, it did, and does. “Then is it not His life?”—No, not as it exists in these imperfect, perverted creatures. While God gives it, He never calls it His. Never in all His Word does Inspiration attach to it the attribute of continuance. He never calls it everlasting or eternal.
A parallel to this is found in the vehicle of this life. Man’s body is rightly “the temple of God,” rightly the kingdom of God. But God does not count that His temple or kingdom that is perverted, subjected, or given up to evil uses. He will make our heart His throne, our body His temple, if we will let Him in unreservedly; but if we ultimately refuse, the temple, the kingdom, will be devoted to the death we choose. So the life which God gave man has passed through perverted media, members and laws subject to the reign of sin; and God does not count it His life, and it is bound to come to an end. Yielded to God, He will give His own life; held, it will go out into everlasting darkness. See Luke 9: 24; 14: 26; 17: 33.
But is it not said that “in Him [Christ] was life; and the life was the light of men;” and that “that was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world”?—Yes; it says just that; and in saying that it clearly teaches that man does not of himself possess that life. That light is from above.
Man’s life—the natural life—comes in the New Testament, in nearly all cases, from the Greek term psuchē, often translated soul. This is the life that men are to lose for Christ’s sake; lay it down to be spent and used for His sake. Never is it said to be eternal, everlasting, or of God. But the life which Christ gives is from the Greek word zōē, life. This is the eternal life, the everlasting life, which is in Jesus Christ, and which comes to us through faith. Read the following scriptures, and see how this eternal life comes only in this way:—
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3: 16.
“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” John 3: 36.
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” John 5: 24.
“For as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself.” John 5: 26.
“And ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life.” John 5: 40.
“For the bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.” John 6: 33.
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life.” John 6: 47.
“Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you.” John 6: 53.
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no man cometh unto the Father but by Me.” John 14: 6.
“Thou hast given Him [Christ] power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him. And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.” John 17: 2, 3.
“Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer; and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.” 1 John 3: 15.
“He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” 1 John 5: 12.
There are many other scriptures teaching the same thing. Life, eternal life in abundance, awaits in Christ Jesus all who will believe Him, all who will yield to have God’s righteous will wrought in them; for only “in the way of righteousness is life, and in the pathway thereof there is no death.”
Reader, yield all to God, accept of Jesus Christ the Life, and so obtain power above sin and sinning.
