"THERE are two schools of doctrine among professing Christians as to the offices and relations of the Lord. The first speaks thus; Any work or office, held by Christ, cannot be held by us; it usurps His right if we pretend to share them. The other, which is the old doctrine, answers thus: If the Incarnation means anything, if Christ and His church are really one body, all Christ's offices first held and exercised by Him on behalf of men must likewise be held and shared by His members, because He lives in them just as they apprehend that for which they were apprehended. The former view, which I feel assured is a mistake, arises from a misconception of the first great truth of Christ for us, to the denial of the greater truth of Christ in us, and we His members. The latter opens the riches of the glory of the mystery, which is now revealed, which is Christ in us, the hope of glory. The latter is the Church's faith which, however caricatured and abused cannot be denied without sore loss to the deniers. For this faith confesses the Incarnation, that the Lord still dwells in flesh and blood, and that because He dwells in us, though in ourselves we can do tothing, we can yet do all things through Christ, who is the power in us; and because He is 'the same yesterday, to-day and forever,' if He live in us, He will yet do His proper works, in and through those who grow up out of self to live in Him." Andrew Jukes. VIII. POWER FOR SONSHIP AND POWER FOR SERVICE. 66 S many as received him, to them gave he "A to sons Α "We power to become the sons of God," says the Scripture. Christ for us, as our life must first of all be appropriated in order that we may stand in the place of sonship to the Father. We do not work for life, but from life; we do not by our own power attain unto Christ, but we receive Christ in order that we may have power to attain. preach Christ crucified the power of God," * the apostle. That is, we hold up this external fact of the Son of God bearing our sins and putting them away, and we beseech the sinner to look at this fact and accept it and rest in it. This is the gospel, and the Scriptures declare that this gospel of Christ is "the power of God unto salvation † to every one that believeth." By no striving of our says own, by no energy of will or strength of repentance can we attain unto salvation. Eternal life is the gift of God, which, when we receive it, makes us partakers of "the power of an endless life;" it is not an attainment which we can grasp by the power of our own finite life. In other words, we are first of all to accept Christ's life and work and redemption for us, as that which can alone put us into relations of sonship and justification and fellowship with the Father. But to such as have already become the sons of God, there is a promise given of still greater attainment, the power of the indwelling Spirit. "But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me." Before it was power to become the sons of God; now it is power to serve as the sons of God. And it is very significant to observe how constantly this kind of energy is connected in the Scriptures with the Holy Ghost. "The power of the Spirit of God."* Spirit and of power." "The demonstration of the "With the Holy Ghost and power."-These are illustrations, which might be greatly multiplied, of the constant association of *Romans 15: 10. † 1 Cor. 2: 4. + Acts 10: 38. |