GOD MANIFESTED IN FLESH. THE MAN CHRIST JESUS NO. 11
GOD MANIFESTED IN FLESH. THE MAN CHRIST JESUS NO. 11
I am sometimes afraid that the Synopsis (though the best of man’s works) is more imbibed than the Bible. J.N.D. used to say that we should not only go to scripture for thoughts but that we should think in scripture.... I quite agree with you that if you do away with the truth of the Lord’s perfect humanity — that He had a life which was laid down at the cross, if this be not held, where is the atonement? This must be insisted on and maintained unequivocally. Here ———— and ———— in 1866 slipped away,
[p. 134] when they opposed J.N.D. for saying that our Lord gave up the life to which sin attached. Surely it could not attach to eternal life. I cannot believe that any one questioning the Lord’s perfect humanity — a life which was laid down at the cross — could in his soul realise the atonement. I do not say that such an one is not saved, but I maintain that he does not in faith apprehend that a real man has borne the judgment on man. See Hebrews 2: 14, 15. Many a one is saved who believes in Jesus who yet knows very little of His work. Many speak only of the suffering of Christ — of His ‘passion‘ and such like; they have not in faith, that is, before God, apprehended the death of Christ. Unless His death is appropriated His life is not enjoyed. See John 6. I cannot enjoy Christ who is my life, where He is, except as by faith I am over Jordan, that is — dead with Him. Everything according to the Father’s pleasure, has been obtained for you by the death of Christ; as you accept in faith His death, you enjoy what has been obtained for you, though you are still alive in the body. There is a great reluctance to accept the distinction of living in heaven — ‘outside of the senses’, as J.N.D. says, because of the cost — the break with things here which it entails. I heard of a man who wanted to surrender the honour of knighthood, because of the cost of the patent! Many limit the death of Christ to the putting away of sins. It would entail too great a cost to accept the dignity of being in His life now, through the self-same death.