p. 730 | JESUS CHRIST IS OURS by Tyler E. Bowen

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, Cal. · Nov 23, 1915

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 46.

JESUS CHRIST IS OURS

By Tyler E. Bowen

He Connects Us with Royalty — He Lived a Continuous Victory, and Gives That Victory to Us — He Suffered Everything for Us, and Now He Lives for Us

By TYLER E. BOWEN

WE but faintly comprehend what Jesus, the Son of God, really is to us. God’s enemy, Christ’s foe, and our adversary has for his constant objective the setting aside, in some manner, of the Lord Jesus Christ. He cares not whether he leads us to count the gift so high as to be out of our reach, or so common that it is of no value. Either, he knows, will deprive the sinner of the saving, life-giving touch of Jesus. He suits his temptations to each individual, or to that class to which the individual belongs.

CONNECTED WITH ROYALTY

To have royalty connected with a family is esteemed a great honor. No little stress is laid upon this by the members of such a household. It is something in which they glory. Christ occupies the highest place of honor next to the Father’s throne, is the only Son of the Sovereign of the universe; but nevertheless He is ours. The glory He once had, He laid aside, and descended to the lowest depths, that there He might clasp hands with the veriest sinner; and there, too, He is ours.

IN HEAVEN FOR US

Some think that when Jesus ascended on high, He left the world, to enter again the same place He had with the Father before the world was. This is not so. When He ascended on high, He ascended there as the Son of man, as well as the Son of God. He went up there to the throne of the universe for us, to represent us in an infinitude beyond that which we can comprehend or think.

When the Father proclaimed Christ’s name above every name in heaven and in earth,—when to that beloved Son was ascribed by Jehovah all power both in heaven and in earth,—all this, brother, sister, was for us in all the blessedness of its actuality, and that, too, to be ours forever.

Right here is where we are likely to underestimate the Christ. The enemy plans it thus. He desires to eclipse all this blessedness which is possible for you and me. He does not want us actually to lay hold by living faith upon this blessed fact that the Son of God really belongs to us. He knows that if he can lead us away from this glorious truth, he can then whip us into discouragement, or even on to despair. When we look within our own hearts, or to any other fallible human being, no matter who he may be, we become an easy prey to Satan’s devices. But here we must fight, as did Jesus, with the weapons provided for our spiritual warfare, and hold our ground. Christ Jesus is ours. Never must this point be yielded.

JESUS LIVED THE VICTORIOUS LIFE FOR US

When Jesus, among tantalizing half brothers, lived the victorious home life, He lived it for you and me. When He went to John at the Jordan, and was baptized by him there, it was for us. When, upon the bank of the river, Jesus bowed in humble, earnest prayer, and the heavens opened, and the Father’s voice was heard saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” that message from God was spoken to the human race, to us, sinners though we are, in the person of our Representative, the divine Son of man. These terrible forty days of temptation following were endured, and the victory was won, for the race, from Adam down. All the blessed ministry of Jesus’ three years and more, belongs to us; for it all was performed because Jesus was here in our world, ours, sent to us, yea, more, given to us by the Father.

The Gethsemane experience, when the weight of the sins of us all was upon Him, was because our own Brother, our “elder Brother,” was then representing you and me, taking from the Father’s hand that bitter cup belonging to us. Oh, the depths of both the love and the goodness of God! And as Jesus took the cruel mocking, and was spit upon and beaten, in the palace of the high priest, before Pilate’s judgment seat and that of Herod, He was there because He loved you and me, and could not bear to think that we must perish. He attempted to bear to Calvary the cross that you and I should have been slain upon, because He had been born into a sinful race, to bear its woe, and even receive the death stroke due us. The divine Son of God died as man must die when, without God, the wicked go down to their eternal doom from the presence of the living God. He died with “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” upon His holy lips. Why this cry?—Oh, it was because He was ours, and bore in His body our sins upon the tree, “that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man.” Heb. 2: 9.

But three days later, there was a glorious climax. While at the cross Satan, as an African native put it, as related by Missionary Dan Crawford, “did his very, very, very worst, the Father for us was doing His very, very, very best,” and it was all for us. God did not leave our Brother in Joseph’s new tomb. That would have been a great triumph for Satan, who, through hatred, had killed Him. Ah, no! The Father sent a mighty angel to call forth His sleeping Son. He came forth gloriously triumphant. Still He is ours. Glorified?—Yes; but even yet, the Representative of lost man, ours still. Let us revel in the preciousness of this glorious truth every day. To do so spells our victory.

‘UNTO US A SON IS BORN’

When the devil approaches you and me with those subtle insinuations that “if such a one as you can be a son of God, can be a Christian,” etc., let us quote this: “Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” This is as Isaiah of old had said: “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given.” Ah, He is ours, and that, too, forever! Our glory comes in holding to this precious truth with a grip like the grip of death.

“In the world,” said Jesus, among His last words to His disciples before He suffered, “ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” John 16: 33. O brother, there is a world of comfort, of holy cheer, in these words! We stumble and fall. We find ourselves outwitted and defeated by our foe; but our elder Brother, never. He bound the strong man in his own house, in his kingdom; and that, too, as a man. No sin was found in Him.

‘I GIVE YOU MY VICTORY’

This word to us is as though He said: “Be of good cheer, then, in the midst of tribulation; for I have overcome the world for you. I give you My victory. I thus have put you on vantage ground. Use My victory, and win. The hideousness of sin in its every form I overcome. Distrust of God, disobedience, worldly ambition for wealth and fame, murder, hate, adultery, lying, cheating, drunkenness, evil of every description—these temptations I faced. I encountered them all in the world, right where you live, and overcame them for you. Be of good cheer. This victory I now give to you. It is all yours. Use it. I won it for you. With it you too may overcome all the evil, in My name. Use it; for I am yours, and will be yours to the end.” This is His message to you and me when He said, “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

(Continued on page 13)

Jesus Christ Is Ours

(Continued from page 10)

NOW YOURS, THOUGH HIGHLY EXALTED

Christ Jesus to-day is not so highly exalted that He will not listen to the prayer of every struggling brother or sister of His on earth. Look directly to Him. Go into your closet, or aside anywhere, and talk to Him. He hears. Present the mighty argument that He is your Brother, that He lived and died for you. No matter how sinful you may have been; this has nothing to do with it. The question is, Will you believe that He lived for you on earth, and now ministers in your behalf before the Most High in heaven? Believing this, you can claim Him and all His power in your struggles with the flesh and the devil here in this present evil world.

How true to-day, as when first uttered, are the following lines from Charles Wesley:

“Arise, my soul, arise! Shake off thy guilty fears! The bleeding Sacrifice In my behalf appears. Before the throne my Surety stands. My name is written on His hands.

“He ever lives above, For me to intercede; His all-redeeming love, His precious blood, to plead. His blood was shed for all our race, And sprinkles now the throne of grace.

“Five bleeding wounds He bears, Received on Calvary. They pour effectual prayers, They strongly speak for me: ‘Forgive him, oh, forgive,’ they cry, ‘Nor let the contrite sinner die!’

“The Father hears Him pray, His dear anointed One. He would not turn away The presence of His Son. His Spirit answers to the blood, And tells me I am born of God.”