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THIS SAME JESUS

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 10, 1900

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 77, No. 15.

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“THIS SAME JESUS.”

By J. E. Evans

J. E. EVANS.
(Phoenix, Ariz.)
The words, “this same Jesus,” spoken by the angels to the sorrowing disciples, who saw their Saviour taken up from among them into heaven, teach us that the Lord, when he comes in the clouds of heaven, will be the same Jesus that went away.
He will always be the Son of God. He has been, and will ever be, the Creator of all things; but he did not always bear human nature. This he took upon him when he came into this world a sacrifice for sinners. “He took on him the seed of Abraham.” “In all things” he was “made like unto his brethren.” “He also himself likewise took part of” flesh and blood. Thus he “was in all points tempted like as we are,” and can “be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,” and “can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way.” “This same Jesus” is now our High Priest, and in the fullest and truest sense can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way. I am glad that we have a complete Saviour, the same to-day as when he was on earth.
This truth is also taught in Heb. 13: 8: “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.” In this time of changes and uncertainty, it is a great comfort to every child of God to know that there is one thing that does not change. “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.” Lam. 3: 22. “I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” Mal. 3: 6.
Constancy is a desirable quality when found in a righteous cause. Constancy, coupled with active vigor, tempered with wisdom, and molded by cool, deliberate thought, is synonymous with responsibility, reliability, surety. Perilous times have come, but Jesus is our surety. Instability and unrest have shattered the confidence of men, and uncertainty confronts perseverance and ambition. This applies to everything of an earthly nature. Banks fail, and investment in any business may prove disastrous. Only in God and his Son Jesus Christ can we confide with absolute certainty of no loss nor disappointment.
“Change and decay in all around I see, O Thou who changest not, abide with me.”
Man has changed; the earth has changed; and even the products of nature have not escaped the change caused by adulteration; and only “pure religion and undefiled,” can give confidence to the people of earth. “They shall be all taught of God.” John 6: 45. “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine.” John 7: 17.
In taking our nature upon him, Jesus was made a little lower than the angels. See Heb. 2: 9. This is on the same plane with man—Verse 7. On the mount Jesus was glorified bodily. At the resurrection man will be thus glorified. Christ was glorified in character before that; so man must be glorified in character before the change in body. This is taught also in 1 John 3: 2, which says, “When he shall appear, we shall be like him.” Since we are then to be like him, it follows that he will be like us at that time. Christ was humanity united with divinity, and the divinity glorified the humanity. So we may, by the exceeding great and precious promises of God, become partakers of the divine nature. 2 Peter 1: 4. It is by the promises of God that we are justified, “and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” Rom. 8: 30.