Christ Our Refuge by R. A. MORTON

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, Cal. · Nov 11, 1875

Christ Our Refuge.

By R. A. MORTON

“COME UNTO ME, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matt. 11: 28–30.

This language expresses the mission of our Saviour in few words. The Scriptures bear us out in asserting that Christ's mission here was that the sinner might have a refuge from the burden of sin and its baneful consequences, and that this refuge is the Son of God. Hence his earnest entreaty: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money come.” That he will receive such is well attested by every act of his life. He made the dumb to speak, the deaf to hear, the blind to see, the lame to walk. He healed the sick and forgave their sins, cleansed the lepers and raised the dead. He spoke words of cheer to the desponding, and bound up the broken heart. He was moved with love and tender compassion to yield up his spotless life on Mt. Calvary that you and I, dear reader, might have faith in his name to cleanse us from the leprosy of sin.

But whom does the Saviour so earnestly entreat? It is not those who feel no need of him; not the proud, the worldly, the unconcerned. No; it is not even they who, from the force of evidence, acknowledge the need of a Saviour; but it is they who feel condemned, and, with godly sorrow, cry day and night from the depths of their soul for rest from the mighty burden of sin. A few tears, with no deep feeling of regret for having offended our Heavenly Father, is not striving to have eternal life. Not very well will it compare with the grief and anguish of soul our Saviour bore for us.

The evidences that our Saviour has power to give rest to burdened souls are too numerous to mention. All who have fled to him for refuge are so many witnesses that the Son of God has power to fulfill his promise. Yes; every fagot that has been kindled around them, every instrument of torture and death that has been invented to take away the lives of these refugees are so many unimpeachable witnesses that Jesus has power to give joy and peace to the troubled. But this is not all he was to do. The prophet Isaiah tells us that he was to magnify the law and make it honorable.

The text does not tell us what it is that condemns the sinner, nor how he is made to feel his load of sin. Christ did not come to condemn the world. “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” John 3: 17. But why is man condemned? It is by reason of sin. What is sin? It is the transgression of the law, says the Scriptures. Therefore the law by being transgressed condemns the transgressor.

“Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” Rom. 3: 19. How does the world become guilty before God? By hearing what the law saith. It is the law that condemns, and the Saviour that redeems.

So long as man is ignorant of sin he can not repent. He must therefore have a knowledge of it before he can come to Christ. This is by the law, “for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”

Paul says: “I had not known sin, but by the law; for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” Rom. 7: 7.

This also shows by what law the sinner is condemned. It is the law of God. It was by contemplating the claims of this law that Paul found himself condemned. Then he exclaims from the depth of his soul: “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Then his ears were opened and he heard that same voice which had said “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” He found peace in Jesus, and became a true and an everlasting witness that Jesus can and will fulfill his promise.

But what did he say of the law? He said: “The law is holy. I delight in the law of God after the inward man.” “The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Is this the language of many professed Christians at the present time? It is not.

Though they may appear to elevate the standard of Christ with all the zeal of a zealot; though their voice may be heard on the street day and night lauding the name of Jesus; if they abrogate the law of God by word or act when light has come, they are treading under foot that which the Lord our Saviour magnified and made honorable; that which shows the sinner his lost condition that he may take refuge in Jesus. Oh, that they would acknowledge the authority of God and live!

Dear reader, let us examine ourselves daily, in the light of His holy law, lest we be found with an unconscious load of sin at his appearing. Jesus is pleading for us. He is able, he is willing to receive us if we feel our need of him. I want to be meek and lowly in heart.

“Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness; it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger.” Zeph. 2: 3. R. A. MORTON.