2 Kings 2:1-11 Golden Text: – “He was not, for God took him.” – Gen 5:24 (R3416) The words, “When the Lord would take up Elijah,” suggest that Elijah had a specially protected life – that it was not subject to the power of his enemies – that he was wholly under divine control. And this is true also of the antitypical Elijah class of this Gospel age. It was true, we remember, of the great Head of this class, Jesus…
CHRIST OUR REDEMPTION, OR DELIVERANCE. Many confound the words redemption and redeem, found in the New Testament, whereas they refer to different features of the work of Christ. The word redeem in its every use in the New Testament signifies to acquire by the payment of a price, while the word redemption in its every New Testament use signifies the deliverance or setting free of that which was acquired by the payment of a price. “We were redeemed [purchased] with the precious blood [the sacrificed life, the death] of Christ.” We…
CHRIST OUR SANCTIFICATION, continued But the exaltation of our Lord, who already was the chief of all creation, was even less remarkable than another feature of the divine plan, foreordained before the foundation of the world (1 Pet 1:2; Eph 1:4); namely, that he would make to some of his human creatures (of the race sentenced as unworthy of any future life, but redeemed from that sentence by Christ’s sacrifice) an offer of joint-heirship and companionship with his beloved Son, in the order of…
CHRIST OUR SANCTIFICATION. The term “Sanctification,” used in this text, means, set apart, consecrated, devoted to, or marked out for a holy use or purpose. Christ by God is made unto us sanctification. That is to say, God through Christ sets apart or marks out for a special share in his great plan “us” – the Church. Many make the serious error of supposing that God is sanctifying the world, – sanctifying sinners. As a consequence of this error, many are seeking to copy…
CHRIST OUR JUSTIFICATION. That Christ is made unto us righteousness or justification implies, – (1) That we are unjust, or unrighteous in the sight of God, and unworthy of his favor. (2) That, in view of our unworthiness, God had in some manner arranged that Christ’s righteousness should stand good for “us,” and thus give “us” a standing before God which we could not otherwise have because of our imperfections – our unrighteousness. (3) This scripture does not imply that Christ’s righteousness covers…
CHRIST, THE INSTRUCTOR, JUSTIFIER, SANCTIFIER AND DELIVERER OF HIS PEOPLE. “Who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, [justification], and sanctification, and redemption [deliverance].” –1 Cor 1:30 – CHRIST OUR WISDOM. Since God’s dealings with his creatures recognize their wills, the first step in his dealings with them, therefore, is to give them knowledge, or “wisdom,” as it is translated in the above Scripture. It is for this reason that preaching was the first command of the Gospel…
“It will be noticed that the translators of the Revised Version have usually avoided the use of the word “hell” throughout the Scriptures, substituting therefor in the Old Testament the Hebrew word “Sheol,” and in the New Testament the Greek word, “hades.” Evidently, in view of the meaning attaching to the word “hell” the translators could not conscientiously so render Sheol and hades and, therefore, avoided any translation; – not wishing to translate these words “grave,” for fear, perhaps, that the public should quickly see that they had…
“The thought of some, that resurrection “change” has come to each individual at the moment of dying throughout the Gospel age – that resurrection has all along followed the dying of all, is abundantly contradicted again, when the Apostle definitely fixes the time of the First Resurrection of the Church, the body of Christ, to be “at the last trump” – when the seventh trumpet shall sound – then “the dead [in Christ, – his members] shall be raised incorruptible,…
“Having thus established the general principle of a resurrection, and its applicability to ALL mankind, because the redemption was “a ransom for ALL” (1 Tim 2:6), the Apostle proceeds to discuss particularly the First Resurrection, in which the Church is especially interested (he was not addressing his words to the world, but to the “sanctified in Christ Jesus” – 1 Cor 1:2). His words, found in Verses 42-44, describe, as clearly as it is possible for us to understand things so far beyond our…
“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…