(Kersten, Heidelberg Catechism, Vol.1. part 7)
The Person of the Mediator Revealed
Lord's Day 6
Psalter No. 135 st. 1, 2
Read John 5:1-18
Psalter No. 124 st. 1-5
Psalter No. 333 st. 3, 4
Psalter No. 227 st. 1, 2
Beloved:
For those who acknowledge that the old Reformed doctrine is
entirely based upon God's Word and is accordingly confessed in Forms
of Unity, it is very sure, that no sinner can be saved outside of
Christ. Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, spoke of Him, when he
said to the inimical Jewish counsel, "This is the stone which was
set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the
corner. Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none
other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."
The Lord Jesus Himself testified, to quote no other Scripture, that
He was come into the world to save sinners. He invites by His Word
all those that hear that Word, to come unto Him so that they shall
have life in His Name.
Notwithstanding the good confession to which we agree,
notwithstanding the fact that Christ is presented to us in the
Gospel, nobody can or will come to Him. The Lord tells us so in John
5:40, "And ye will not come unto Me, that ye might have life," and
in John 6:44 Christ says, "No man can come to Me, except the Father
which has sent Me draw him." Our pride, our self-righteousness, our
enmity prevent our coming to Christ to be saved by grace. Only by
the effectual drawing of the Father shall a sinner who has learned
by faith to see his sins and misery, seek refuge in Christ.
In the history of the Netherlands there is a clear illustration
of this. John Van Oldenbarnevelt, having been sentenced to death by
twenty-four judges, refused to ask for pardon when given the
opportunity by Prince Maurice. He would rather die on the scaffold
than ask for pardon, because that would be an admission of guilt
which he would not acknowledge. We also would rather be eternally
lost than be saved by grace through Christ, unless by the
irresistible operation of the Holy Spirit, we are convinced of guilt
and sin.
The Catechism then also, after having cut off all hope of
deliverance out of the deep state of man's misery by any creature,
has maintained the justice and pointed out the only way of escaping
the righteous judgment and of being again received into the favour
of God. That way of escape is in such a Mediator Who is very man,
and perfectly righteous; and yet more powerful than all creatures,
that is, one who is also very God. Who that Mediator is, is shown to
us in the sixth Lord's Day of the Heidelberg Catechism, which now
asks our attention.
Lord's Day 6
Q. 16: Why must He be very man, and also perfectly righteous?
A. Because the justice of God requires that the same human nature
which has sinned, should likewise make satisfaction for sin;
and one, who is himself a sinner, cannot satisfy for others.
Q. 17: Why must He in one person be also very God?
A. That He might, by the power of His Godhead sustain in His human
nature, the burden of God's wrath; and might obtain for, and
restore to us, righteousness and life.
Q. 18: Who then is that Mediator, who is in one person both very
God, and a real righteous man?
A. Our Lord Jesus Christ: "who of God is made unto us wisdom, and
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption."
Q. 19: Whence knowest thou this?
A. From the Holy Gospel, which God Himself first revealed in
Paradise; and afterwards published by the patriarchs and
prophets, and represented by the sacrifices and other
ceremonies of the law; and lastly, has fulfilled it by His only
begotten Son.
In this Lord's Day the Person of the Mediator is revealed, Who
has the necessary qualifications, and this is done so that
I we are given the reasons why He must be very man and
perfectly righteous,
II it is explained why He must be very God;
III the Person of the Mediator is made known to us;
IV Scripture is shown to be the only source of knowledge of
Him.
I
Not until the 6th Lord's Day does the Catechism reveal the
Person of the Mediator of the Covenant of Grace. The previous Lord's
Day did speak of the possibility of man's redemption by a Mediator,
but the characteristic of Lord's Day 5 is that it speaks only of the
state of deliverance, but keeps the Person of the Mediator hidden.
It spoke of the riches of that deliverance that not only brought
atonement for sin, but also would restore the sinner to God's
communion. Full salvation was shown us. The soul crushed by the
righteousness of God cannot be content with less. Oh, the soul has
learned by the light of the Spirit to know its deep misery, as
condemned by God's justice, and banned from God's fellowship. Then
in the fifth Lord's Day, his hope of perfect restoration in the
communion of God was revived. Thus the Lord wishes to restore the
weary soul and show him the salvation He has prepared for His
church. Those are the encouragements of love by which the soul lives
and which causes it to hope, regardless of what condemns it. Oh,
there is a possibility for a lost soul, and hope for a guilty soul.
The question, how God's justice is satisfied, and by whom salvation
is merited remains still hidden. Whenever the law makes the soul
feel its condemning power, the soul seems to lose all its
foundations, so that no refuge remains. Although the treasures of
Christ are shown, yea, given to the soul, as Rebekah received of
Eliezer precious gifts from Isaac, as long as He Himself does not
come to the soul and enlighten the eyes to know Him, all firm
grounds are lacking, and in spite of all instructions, the sinner
keeps turning to his own powers. All God's children must experience
that historical knowledge of the truth cannot give light. It seems
to them as though they had never heard the name of Jesus.
Thus the Heidelberger makes you understand what agonies the
convicted soul experiences before it goes to Jesus. And all this
serves to make us know the greatness of the deliverance and the
glory of the Mediator. Notice how the Catechism seems to prepare the
sinner according to the Word of God for the revelation of the
Mediator. First it shows the possibility, then the greatness of the
deliverance as requiring a Mediator who is both very God and very
man, and now at last it shows the reasons why those requirements
must be met. Thus the seeking soul inquires:
"Why must He be very man and also perfectly righteous?" It is
more than mere curiosity that prompts this question, the questioner
is prompted by his soul's longing after the only Mediator, Who must
be very man and also perfectly righteous: "Because the justice of
God requires that the same human nature which has sinned, should
likewise make satisfaction for sin, and one who is himself a sinner
cannot satisfy for others."
The Mediator must be very man, hence he must possess all that
belongs to the human nature, that means both body and soul, like
unto His brethren in all things, sin excepted. God's justice
required it.
"The same human nature which has sinned must make satisfaction
for sin", says the Instructor. Does not God's Word say, "The soul
that sinneth, it shall die", and again, "They know the judgment of
God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death."
Therefore, according to Gods immutable justice, the human nature
which sinned must be punished, and it would be unjust and therefore
entirely impossible for God to punish any nature other than the one
that sinned, even if that could be done. Hence the Mediator must be
very man. Moreover, He must be a man out of men, out of the race of
Adam. No, He did not bring from heaven a human nature formed by the
omnipotence of God, without man's intervention. Then He would have
been outside of the human race, and would have had no fellowship
with men, and hence could not take our guilt upon Himself. He
engaged His heart to approach unto God for His elect, to take our
nature upon Himself from a virgin in the fulness of time, and to be
the matured fruit of Mary's womb. He showed Himself to be very man
during His sojourn upon earth from day to day. He ate and drank and
slept; He was tired and hungry; He wept. In short, He was like unto
men in all things, sin excepted; according to body and soul He was
one of us, very man. I will not now speak of the fountain of comfort
that lies in Him as the sympathizing High Priest, Who knows our
wants, and can now sympathize with us in all things, Who understands
His people in whatever circumstances they may be. In this Lord's
Day, just the necessity of Christ's truly human nature to satisfy
the demands of God's justice is shown. "Forasmuch then, as the
children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise
took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that
had the power of death, that is, the devil."
He must then be very man, according to Paul's explanation, in
order to conquer in our nature death and the devil, and to deliver
His people out of their claws. "For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be
made righteous." Only in the true human nature could sin be avenged
and God's justice satisfied. The Mediator was also promised as such;
He was the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob;
He was the kinsman Redeemer, the High Priest, taken out of men.
"Wherefore in all things it behaved Him to be made like unto His
brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in
things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the
people." (Hebr. 2:17) Oh that our soul might see that Mediator by
faith. In paradise, man blinded by Satan's deception, aspired to the
glory of God. God spoke, "The man is become as one of Us." But in
the Mediator, the second Adam, God became man, to be subject to the
law which man is obliged to obey, and to bear the punishment that
rests upon us, and thereby reconcile us to God.
Because of God's justice the Mediator had to be very man, that
is, having body and soul, as we, a man taken from men, the true seed
of David. Only thus can He be our High Priest. "For every high
priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining
to God." (Hebr. 5:1)
But He must also be a perfectly righteous man, that means He
must be without sin, without original and without actual sin. How
could the Divine nature enter into such a close union with the human
nature, that they are united into one person, if that human nature
of the Mediator were not entirely sinless! How could the Mediator
approach unto God if He had sin! Indeed, how could He be a Mediator
for others if any guilt rested upon Himself! Then He would be
subject unto death for Himself. To be able to plead for hell-worthy
creatures, the Mediator had to be very man and perfectly righteous.
Moreover, as we have already heard in the fifth Lord's Day, the
Mediator and Redeemer must also be very God. Let us then give ear to
the instructor, as he declares,
II
why He must be very God.
The punishment of sin is an eternal punishment, that is,
punishment without end; there is no completing of it. Supposing that
a mediator came who was a real and righteous man, he would have had
to suffer eternally. Never, no never could he have cried out, "It is
finished", never would God's justice be satisfied, never would
salvation be accomplished for God's elect. Although it is necessary
that the Mediator be very man and perfectly righteous, He must also
be more than all creatures. He must also be very God, in order to
bring His work to completion. How clear, how understandable the
lesson of the Catechism is in Qu. 17:
"Why must He in one person also be very God?"
"That He might by the power of His Godhead, sustain in His human
nature the burden of God's wrath; and might obtain for and restore
to us, righteousness and life."
Because of His Godhead, His human nature was able to bear the
burden on God's wrath. He suffered only in His human nature; God
cannot suffer, nor die. In soul and body, hence in His complete
human nature, but in His human nature alone Christ bore the burden
of God's wrath. His divinity sustained His humanity and therefore He
could finish bearing it. How could He have withstood Satan's
temptations after forty days of fasting in the wilderness, if His
divinity had not sustained His humanity? How could He have left
Gethsemane where His soul was exceeding sorrowful unto death, if He
were not very God? How, let me conclude with this, could He arise
from the dead if His divine nature had not given to the human nature
such a victorious power, that death nor the grave could bind Him?
Only as God could He give eternal value to His suffering which
(figured from birth to death) lasted thirty three years, so that
this temporary suffering would be sufficient to remove the eternal
punishment of sin and to bring life and immortality to light.
Moreover, the Mediator had to be very God both to merit life, and to
restore life. Not only must the punishment be removed, and life
brought in, but that life must be brought in both by meriting and by
application. We cannot go to Jesus and in our own strength accept
and enter into the life He has merited. It is the work of Christ to
apply the blessings He has merited.
Joshua the High Priest had the filthy garments taken away from
him and was clothed with change of raiment; he did not do all this
himself. How many want to accept Jesus in their own power! Of how
many we fear, that they are accepting Jesus with an historical
faith, and are comforting their souls with a fancied salvation,
because they do not understand that the Mediator can only be a
complete Savior when He not only merits, but also applies eternal
life? The practical denial of the Mediator's work in giving life,
which is so prevalent in these days, is no less than the total
negation of the Mediator's ability to fulfill the demand that He be
very God. We are dead in sin, and no more than a corpse can accept,
though the whole world be proffered to him, no more can our souls
accept the merited salvation. The Mediator must be God, in order
that He may merit and apply the righteousness and life that we have
forfeited and lost.
The Mediator who was to redeem Adam's lost sons had to be God
and man - the one Mediator; He must therefore in one person be
really righteous man and very God; He must possess both natures
united in one person. Hence there are no two mediators, one being
God and one being man, no! only one Mediator, Who combined both
natures in the unity of His Person; God, the Son, the Second Person
in the blessed Trinity Who took upon Himself a human nature, not a
human person; one Mediator Who in answer to the question, "*Who* art
Thou?" can say, "I am the Son of God," and at the same time to the
question, "*What* art Thou?" can say, "Very God and very man." What
an incomprehensible mystery! Two natures united so closely in one
person that all that is done in the human nature was an act of the
Son of God! "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." God was
manifest in the flesh, was justified in the Spirit, was seen of the
angels;" God was seen in our nature, the Second Person in our flesh;
God was judged guilty and was justified since He became man; God
suffered; God died, not in the Divine, but in the human nature. What
He accomplished in the human nature was the work of the Divine
Person, and was therefore of eternal value, could therefore pay the
eternal debt, and could therefore conquer death, since the eternal
One even in death remained united with the human nature. We deprived
ourselves of life; He merited life and restored life. Oh, how great
is the redemption of the sinner fallen in Adam; it is a work of God.
There is no other foundation for reconciliation than the death of
the Mediator, Who is in one person both very God and a real
righteous man.
Now then, the instructor in the third place
III
reveals the Person of the Mediator.
"Who then is that Mediator, who is in one person both very God,
and a real righteous man?"
"Our Lord Jesus Christ, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption."
Up to now the Mediator Himself remained concealed; His name was
not given; but now, after the qualifications of the Mediator were
determined, after the soul must acknowledge that none other than the
Son of God can be the Mediator, now the Catechism tells you, that
Mediator is our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you see how the Mediator is
born in the soul of His people as the fully matured fruit of the
soul? Oh, how long God's children can roam about without Him,
seeking Him for years, for long years in an empty sepulchre, feeling
within themselves the insufficiency of all comforts, the
consciousness that all is too short to cover them before the
judgment seat of God, and feeling also a strong desire to learn to
know that Mediator, and yet complaining, "I do not see Him."
Now I do not say that all are led in the same way, no, indeed;
contrariwise the ministrations of the Holy Spirit are so rich, so
manifold, that we should dishonor God if we would attempt to make a
model of His organic work. But I do fear for those who, without
understanding that the revelation of Christ is a miracle of God's
grace, think they possess Him. The saving knowledge of the Mediator
is a work of the Holy Spirit, so that the soul shall testify, "It
pleased God to reveal His Son in me."
There He stands before us, the Mediator, as He is, very God and
man, our Lord Jesus Christ. No, those to whom He revealed Himself
will never be able to express what lies in that revelation. John
makes you feel something of the wonder of it when he mentions the
hour in which it happened. When he with Andrew followed Jesus, saw
where He dwelt and stayed with Him that day, when his eyes were
opened for His glory, for Him, never, no, never will he forget that
moment. "It was the tenth hour." Thus when all hope of salvation is
gone, and all that is of man proves insufficient, that people who,
when they perished in self, learned to know the Lord Jesus, will
never forget the hour. Of Him they must cry out, "He is altogether
lovely." In Him there is an all-sufficiency of salvation for lost
sinners. He of the Father is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness,
and sanctification, and redemption. The instructor has literally
quoted what Paul wrote in I Cor. 1:30, where he presents Christ as
having been given of the Father. We have a given Jesus, one given of
the Father.
The Mediator once said, "My Father giveth you the true bread
from heaven," and also "No man can come to Me, except the Father
which has sent Me draw him."
May the given Jesus be our portion, the One given in Bethlehem's
manger, One given into death and into glory, also given in our
heart.
The grounds for all true communion with Christ, not only for the
church of God in general, but also for each believer in particular,
lie in the fact that the Mediator is given us by the Father.
Accepting Jesus by faith is only saying "Amen" to the gift of the
Father, and causes us to know Him as He was given by the Father,
first of all, says Paul, for wisdom. We are all foolish in the ways
of the Lord. However much knowledge we gather, we do not know the
way of life. However highly the world praises his wisdom, man could
never have devised a way by which the sinner could come to God, and
never shall man by himself understand what God has planned for his
salvation. Even God's children must ever again bemoan their
spiritual ignorance, and they would wander from the right way had
not Christ been made true wisdom for them. He is Wisdom itself. He
enlightens our darkened understanding, and shows himself to be the
light of the world, so that even fools shall not err therein. Oh,
precious Savior. Would not everyone who hears the words of life from
Him, who is enlightened by His wisdom, answer Jesus' question, "Will
ye also go away?" as the disciples did, "Lord, to whom shall we go?
Thou hast the words of eternal life?" We shall be saved as fools;
the way to heaven is above our comprehension. The more this secret
is discovered to us, the less it is understood, and the more it is
adored. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He
will show them His covenant." The Lord Jesus was also given unto
righteousness and sanctification. These two belong together. His
righteousness covers the guilt of sin and sanctification takes away
the pollution of sin. We must be delivered from both.
The Mediator of the Covenant of Grace took all the guilt of the
elect upon Himself and brought the all-sufficient sacrifice upon
Calvary, to be quickened on the third day by the Father, for our
justification. By Him the righteousness of God without the law is
manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the
righteousness of God which is by faith in Jesus Christ unto all and
upon all that believe, for there is no difference. The original
righteousness, therefore, which we had lost in Adam, Christ has
restored to apply it to His own. In His name therefore is "preached
the forgiveness of sins, and that from all things from which ye
could not be justified by the law of Moses."
Furthermore, the Father gave His Only begotten Son in our flesh
to sanctification. Sin corrupted us. It not only made us guilty
before God, but it also corrupted our entire being. And now Christ
Who knew no sin, was made to be sin for us, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. He is the fountain opened to the
house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for
uncleanness. In Him, in His resurrection and His sitting at the
right hand of God, all His people are glorified. In Him they are
perfect, free from guilt and cleansed from the pollution of sin, as
if they had neither known nor done any sin. Christ is also made unto
His people sanctification to renew them by His Holy Spirit, so that
sin will be suppressed in the soul, our flesh will be crucified, and
we mortify our own will and pleasure day by day. Thus He prepares
for Himself a church which shall one day serve Him without sin, and
He is glorified among those who are sold under sin, so that as a
branch of the vine, bearing fruit, it may be purged that it may
bring forth more fruit. He has both the power and the ability to do
so. He bowed Himself under guilt and sin, so that His people,
reconciled and sanctified, can sing with the Psalmist in Psalm 103:
"Far as east from west is distant,
He has all our sins removed."
By faith God's children learn to know something of this here,
either in a greater or lesser degree. No, Christ does not leave His
work halftone; His deliverance is complete. For that purpose He was
given of the Father, and whoever finds salvation in Him shall have
the full salvation. That is the secret in which all the people of
God, both small and great, rejoice. If only an eye of faith may fall
upon that Emmanuel, our soul has full salvation in Him, whether we
are the most timid and fearful, or the most established in grace.
And yet, a greater deliverance tarries still. Soon when our race is
ended, when we have served God's counsel, and He receives us in
glory, then, yea, then the people purchased by Christ shall sing of
the complete deliverance, and will glorify the Lamb because He
bought them with His blood. In heaven there shall be no
imperfection, but the perfect redemption for which God gave Christ,
demands also the eternal glorification of our body.
Both soul and body must be freed from all bonds of sin and of
the results of sin; then in the adoration of Him that sitteth upon
the throne and of the Lamb, the church shall receive the complete
redemption to all eternity.
Although the true knowledge of the only Mediator and Redeemer is
experimental, obtained by the instruction of the Holy Spirit, yet
that experience does not stand alone. God leads His people according
to His Word. If men speak not according to that Word, it is because
there is no light in them. God's own Word, the holy Gospel, is
therefore shown to be as our final point tells us
IV
the only source of our knowledge of the Mediator.
Question 19 asks: "Whence knowest thou this?" And the answer is,
"From the holy gospel."
By the law is the knowledge of sin, and by the Gospel we learn
to know the only true Mediator as very God and very man. That makes
this knowledge so sure. We have not followed cunningly devised
fables. They have followed cunningly devised fables who build upon
vain philosophy and worldly wisdom; they devise a way of salvation
which is nothing but a deceptive path to hell. "Beware lest any man
spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of
men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." How
they are to be pitied that place their hope upon man's imaginations.
"To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to
this word, it is because there is no light in them." God's Word is
the light in which the church of old has walked, "a lamp for our
feet." Oh, that our soul also might rejoice in that light, and would
not forsake it for the will-o-the-wisp of our feeling. No, there is
no life without feeling; everything that has natural life has
feeling, whether it be plant, animal, or human; would then God's
quickened people be without spiritual feelings? To be unfeeling
regarding God and spiritual matters is a product of death.
Nevertheless, if we float upon our feelings, and that feeling
becomes our foundation and our life, we wander away from the firm
foundation upon which Zion is built, for Zion is built upon the
foundation of the apostles and prophets.
This our Catechism tells us: Christ is to be known by the light
of the Spirit, through the Gospel only. The more our soul is
exercised in the Word of God, the more brightly that heavenly light
shines upon us, the clearer our knowledge shall be of Christ, the
Mediator of the Covenant of Grace; while leaning upon felt
impressions darkens the knowledge and we are tortured with many
doubts, with unbelief and despair, and Satan's attacks, which causes
God's people to deny God's grace whenever they lose the actual sense
of God's nearness, all that God has wrought in their soul, and thus
they grieve the Spirit and minimize God's love.
With all seriousness I would call you back to the Word of God.
Let us come down from our heights, people of God! The myrtle tree
grows in low places.
Tell me, who would ever have found the way of life without the
Word of God? Shall one blind heathen ever come to Christ if the
Gospel is not preached to him? Do not thousands upon thousands year
after year go to eternity lost, because they remained strangers of
the truth that alone can speak to them of the only Savior? Has the
Lord then in vain revealed Himself in that Word? The upright always
turn to the truth to try their soul's experience by it, and to
refresh his afflicted, weary, and thirsty soul at this fountain of
God's revelations.
Only the Gospel tells us that Jesus Christ came into this world
to save sinners, that He is the Mediator, the Fountain of salvation.
It is that holy gospel "which God Himself first revealed in
Paradise; and afterwards published by the patriarchs and prophets,
and represented by the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the law;
and lastly, has fulfilled it by His only begotten Son."
"I will put enmity between thee and the woman; and between thy
seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise
his heel", thus was the gospel revealed in Paradise by God Himself,
just when man had cast himself into the claws of Satan, who thought
he had won the victory over God's creature.
The glad tiding is from God and was brought by Himself to lost
man. Also the patriarchs from Adam to Jacob, and the prophets, both
major and minor from the days of Moses, spoke only through Him,
moved by the Holy Ghost; while the sacrifices and other ceremonies
represent the Gospel, only because God had given them; and much was
contained therein. Every sacrifice was thus a presentation of
Christ; all the ceremonies are a revelation of the blessings of the
covenant, which was fulfilled in the Father's only begotten Son. For
Christ is the end of the law to every one that believes. Oh, that
dear Word of God; when I found it, I did eat it, and it was sweeter
than honey and the honey comb.
No, indeed, the church of old did not receive a half gospel, but
the full revelation of Christ was given to them also, and was shown
in many examples and in living types, as in Joseph, Joshua, Samson,
David, and others. Indeed, Israel itself was a type of the promised
Mediator. That entire nation and all that God had given it pointed
to Him, the true seed of David, of Whom Paul could write, "And
without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness."
Come, let us sing of it, Psalter No. 333 st. 3, 4.
Application
Despisers of God's Word, you have reason to tremble. You scorn
the revelation of God to your condemnation. Your likeness is found
in Israel in the days of Zedekiah: They mocked the messengers of
God, and despised His words, and misused His prophets, until (oh,
hear this:) until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people
till there was no remedy." Oh, that you might learn to bow to His
truth before you reach that stage, before your breech is
irreparable, and you will hear throughout all eternity--"no remedy".
You are still living in the day of grace, in the possibility of
being saved.
Were life and death not presented to you? Dare you deny it? If
not, my fellow-traveler to eternity, what is left for you but to
reproach yourself, and say, "It is my own fault! I would not!"
The Gospel also opens to God's people the way of life. May that
opening become ever wider. May our souls obtain a true knowledge of
Christ. Would He then not become most precious to you? Be hungry for
the Word of God. There may come a time also for you that the Lord
shall "send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a
thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord." Appreciate
then what the Lord still gives. Make much use of the Gospel. In your
thinking and reading and hearing stay close to the mind of the
Spirit. Do not spiritualize. God's Word is Spirit and life and needs
not to be spiritualized. Try to understand the thoughts of God
recorded in the Gospel, and the Lord bless your use of the
Scriptures, that your soul may embrace the promises of God and that
you may glory by faith, saying, "It is fulfilled, fulfilled in
Christ", for in Him all the promises of God are yea, and Amen, unto
the glory of God.
May your soul live out of that fulfillment in Christ of which
the Gospel gives us such a rich testimony.
Those of you who are convinced of your sin and guilt, seek to
know that only Mediator by faith. We cannot be saved without Jesus.
May He manifest Himself unto you as He does not unto the world.
Persevere with Him, seek Him in the streets and in the broad ways of
Jerusalem, until you have found Him. Then your life will be so
different! Then He will have the highest place in your life and His
banner over you will be love. Then you shall feel more and more the
necessity of being found in Him, for in Him is the rest that remains
to the people of God. Exercise yourself much in the Word, in which
He is revealed in all His mediatorial gravings. May those who are
confirmed in their state receive ever more out of His fulness grace
for grace, so that they may come up out of the wilderness like
pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all
powders of the merchant, glorious in stature through Him who of God
is made unto them wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and
redemption. Amen.
(continued in part 8...)
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