THE GIFT OF GOD by P. T. MAGAN

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 9, 1901

THE GIFT OF GOD

By P. T. MAGAN

The plan of salvation originated in a gift. “God so loved the world, that He GAVE his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Without God's gift of His own dear Son to the human family, salvation for any man would be utterly impossible. Without Christ's gift of His own life to fallen men and women, there could be no hope of an endless life of joy beyond the grave.

The gift of Christ forms the foundation of the whole scheme of salvation for lost mankind. The gift of Christ is the keystone in that wondrous arch of redemption which binds two eternities together. The gift of Christ is the all and in all of the whole system which imparts security from sin, in heaven; salvation on earth; and immortality hereafter.

Therefore, seeing that all that we have, and all that we can ever hope to have, emanates from a gift, and is in itself a gift,—to study that gift, to make it our science, our song, and our life, is a duty and pleasure the most supreme that is committed to the candidates for admission into the eternal and universal realms of thought and action and life.

Of all the scriptures no words are better known than the simple sentence which composes the sixteenth verse of the third chapter of the Gospel of John. There are hundreds, yea, thousands, of texts in Bible story that are unknown to the great majority of men and women. But of sinner and saint alike it is true that almost all are familiar with this, the gift verse of the Bible. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Mark it! God did not loan Jesus Christ to the human family. The Father did not lend the Son to sinners simply for a few brief years of sojourn here on earth. Nor did the Almighty merely lease His only beloved Son to the world for use during their experiment of sin.

No, no! There was neither loan nor lease, but a gift. Christ was a free gift from the Eternal to the human. The world's Redeemer was not given to be the Son of God. He was given to become the Son of man. He was not only given to man: far greater was the sacrifice of God,—He was given to be man. He was given to be a man in order that He might redeem man. He was a “free gift”—not for three and thirty years; not for the short period of this world's history; but forever, and for evermore.

Through all eternity Christ will never be again what He was before He “gave himself.” He will not be less good, He will not be less pure, He will not be less glorious; but so long as the ceaseless ages roll, He will be the Son of man, a member of the lost, the redeemed, the human family. He was a member of the family of God; He gave himself to become a member of the family of man, that by adoption He might cause the children of earth to become the sons and daughters of heaven.

“In taking our nature, the Saviour has bound himself to humanity by a tie that is never to be

broken. Through the eternal ages He is linked with us. ‘God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.’ He gave Him not only to bear our sins, but to die as our sacrifice; He gave Him to the fallen race. To assure us of His immutable counsel of peace, God gave His only begotten Son to become one of the human family, forever to retain His human nature.”

Hearken to the words of Isaiah the seer: “Unto US a Child is born, unto US a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder.” A Child was to be born to the human family. A Son was to be given to mankind. This Child was Christ; this Son was the Saviour. And it is upon His shoulder that the government is to be. Christ will share the throne of the universe with His Father; but He shares it as the Son of man.

How well may every human lip break forth in tones of holiest joy: “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us.” In the beautiful land beyond, we shall stand more closely related to Christ the King than do the angels who have never sinned; for Christ, the King of all the worlds, the Lord of all the beings in all the worlds, is a member of the human family.

How beautifully did the greatest and yet the least of the apostles, tracing words under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, pencil this precious story, in his letter to the Hebrews: “Unto the angels hath He [God] not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.”

Remember now, Paul is speaking of the world to come; he is telling us that God hath not put the world to come in subjection to the angels.

“But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him [man] a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him [man] with glory and honor, and didst set him [man] over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things in subjection under his [man's] feet. For in that He [God] put all in subjection under him [man], He left nothing that is not put under him [man]. But now we see not yet all things put under him [man]. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man.”

Oh, yes; He is speaking of the world to come; He is telling how it is put in subjection to man; He is telling how man is crowned with glory and honor, and how man is set over the works of His hands. But Jesus is the man. It is the man Christ Jesus who blesses the universe with His rule in the great days so soon to dawn.

“For it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both He [Christ] that sanctifieth and they [men and women] who are sanctified are all of one [one human family]: for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the Church will I sing praise unto thee. And again, I will put my trust in Him. And again, behold I and the children which God hath given me. Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also himself likewise took part of the same [flesh and blood]; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily He [Christ] took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham.”

God's gift of His own dear Son to fallen man was a real, not a make-believe, gift. God did really give away His only begotten Son. Christ was the only one of His kind in the universe. To be sure, the angels were all sons of God, but Christ was the only begotten Son of the Father. When God gave Him to the human family, God made a real sacrifice. The Father not only gave His Son to man, but He gave Him to be a man; and through all eternity Christ will never be what He was before the fall of man,—before His own and His Father's voluntary gift of himself. He is and ever will be divine; His divinity remains unchanged and unchangeable. But every human being who will know in his own life the best experience of the gift of giving must first know and recognize that gift as a divine reality in the very life and experience of God and of God's dear Son. P. T. MAGAN.