Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 January 1914 — The Great Christmas Gift [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Great Christmas Gift

By REV. JAMES M. CRAY. D. D.

Dm Maodr BMa laatiM* a iurn

TEXT*—For God so loved the world* that he gave his only begotten eon, that whoeoever bejieveth on him, should not gerleh, but have eternal life.—John S:tS

l Martin Lnther used to call this verse "The Little Gospel,” because it gathered up within itself so, concisely and yet comprehensive 1 y, the good news of Christ's salvation. 1 What . verse It better known, or more often quoted than this, and 1 what text has been used to preach more sermons! Missionaries tell us that It is’ the. first

part of the Bible they translate into heathen tongues or teach to heathen people, and we may believe that it has won more souls to Jesus Christ than any other collocation of lnspfred words that can be named. Its theme is human salvation, and it tells us of God’s great Christmas gift to the world.

1. As a revelation of salvation, it speaks first of the source tofi it—" God so loved the world.” There would have been ho salvation without that love. What God saw in us to love, while we were yet sinners and rebels in his sight, passes human understanding; but doubtless, it was what we might become In Christ through his grace, and not what we actually were that moved that love. At all events, we must not give currency to the thought of some that it was the sacrifice of Christ that made God love us. This Is to caricature his grace, because the very opposite is true, as we see in the next place. 2. The text shows the ground of our v salvation,, which is the work of Christ —“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son.” Gave him, that is, as a sacrifice and a substitute for us., In vain did God love us except as his wisdom and grace should provide some way for the putting away of our guilt consistent with his own character of holiness, justice, and truth. This way be found in tba offering of his son, who "was wounded for our transgressions,” and “bruised for our iniquities,” and with. whose “stripes we are healed" (Isaiah! >6315). God thus can be just at tha same time that he is “this justifler of him who believeth on Jesus" (Romans 3:2«).

3. We have,, further, the means of our salvation—“that whosoever believeth on him should not perish.” To believe is to exercise faith, but faith Is more than mere knowledge or assent, It is absolute trust or reliance. Ton are on an ocean steamer, let ns say, and as yon go to bed you read a notice that a life-preserver Is under your berth, or over your head. That is knowledge, but not faith. You are informed that If belted around your body It will keep you afloat te water, which you admit. But that is assent and not faith. In the middle of the night when the collision occurs, and the vessel is sinking, and you belt the life-preserver around you, and plunge into the sea, that is faith. You then trust yourself to the lifepreserver, putting your reliance upon It absolutely and only. Hare you yet done this with reference to Jesus Christ and your salvation? X 4. We see the need of salvation—"that whosoever believeth on him should not perish.” To "perish" does not mean to become “annihilated" simply, or go out of existence. It that were all, then we had as much punishment for sin before we were bora, or before we ever sinned at all, because we were not then In existence indeed, but In separation from God and all that that Implies of conscious loss, and disappointment, and misery, and suffering. Christ gives us a picture of the perishing In the story of the rich man and Laxarsus, Lake 16:19-31, which you are urged to read again in order that you may be moved to lay hold of him ere It la too late. 6. We see the blessing of sal ratios In the words, “hut have eternal life.” This agrees with the teaching la another place. "The wages of tin Is death; bnt the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Here “life” means not merely a continuation of existence, but that existence carried on in the favor of God. in the joy of hie presence, la the freedom of his service, and as a sharer In an Inheritance which includes all things. Ttfu good things of this Mfe are only a shadow of the reality beyond.