Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 169, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 July 1916 — The Lord Jesus [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Lord Jesus

By REV. J. H. RALSTON

Secretary of Correspondence Department, Moody Bible Institute of Chicago

TEXT—We exhort you by the Lord Jesus that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God. soi ye would abound ■ more and more.—l Thess. 4:1. It is only to the meaning of the two words “Lord Jesus,” that attention

is now asked. They are not of very frequent occurrence in the - New Testament, but sufficiently so to indicate that their meaning is very significant. They peculiarly Interest Christians, but they have as well a very deep significance for those who are not Christians; for to such persons the son. of God will appear

as Lord, and the acceptance of such will depend on their treatment of him as Jesus. The Son of God I* Savior. The attitude of thq son of God up to the present time that is directly inviting attention is that of savior, which is the meaning of the word Jesus. The term savior at once implies that there is something from which a man is saved, and we may note briefly that by the son of God man is saved, first, from the penalty of sin in this life as in the life to come. Whether one is saved as to the future penalty or not, he is not saved from the consequences of sin in this life, the law of Galatians 6:1 obtaining in the case of the regenerate man as in the case of the unregenerate, “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” There is a beyond; there is eternal death to the one that is not saved from It; and the son of God saves from that. Hell id not a myth; nor eternal exclusion from the presence of God; they are realities and the son of God came to save men from these on the simple condition of faith.

Jesus saves also from the power of Satan. This salvation applies very largely to this life, for after a man believes and is justified Satan’s grip on him loosens —he is no longer his Lord. The man is legally free, and after the struggles of this life are over, he will be perfectly free. The son of God also saves from the power of sin. In the unregenerate state a man Is the slave of sin, but when he Is saved by the grace of God that slavery is broken—ls practically gone. A new life enters and persists, and never gives up until it is victorious, and so the subject of this struggle enters the other world free from not only the penalty, but from the power of Satan and sin—his salvation is perfect. Son of God as Lord. But possibly the work of the son of God as savior will so absorb attention that man forgets that the son of God Is Lord as well. When on earth Jesus said: “Ye call me Lord and master and so I am.” The moment a man is saved spiritually, that moment has he come .nwler the control of another Lordjhb? son of God. This lordship must be supreme, reaching to the whole man.

The body is to be preserved as under the lordship of Jesus Christ. As well must the intellect also acknowledge this lordship; a spiritual man must -yield his thoughts to those of God. Equally so must his affections or desires be in subjection. He cannot love what his Lord does not leve; nor hate what his Lord does not hate. Here is the place where Christians easily fall, many of them having loves that belong to the world, and in just so far they deny their savior’s lordship. Equally so must the will be in subjection; the Christian has no right to his own will. The supreme moment of the earthly career of our Lord was when he said: “Not my will, but thine, be done.” Time, Influence and Wealth. While all a man’s personality is embraced in the things just noted, it is well to note that a man’s time is not his own, for it is only in the lapse of time that his personality can operate. If the Lord says “work," the Christian must work; if he says “rest,’’ the Christian must rest; and possibly a man can sin as really in disobeying the latter command As the formef. Naturally, too, a man’s influence must acknowledge the lordship of the son of God; “No man llveth unto himself, and no man dieth unto himself.” X man’s proper consideration of his influence will often enable him to judge as to right action in connection with the body, mind, affections or will. It is not always a question when a certain action is before one for consideration whether this will injure or benefit the individual, but what will be its influence on others. Quite logically,, also, this lordship extends to material possessions.

There is no knowledge for which I so great a price is paid as a knowledge of the world; and no one ever became an adept in it except at the! expense of a hardened and a wound- j ed heart. —Countess of Blessington. >