p. 9 | Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 23, 1901

Question Corner

1112. A Subscriber. Resurrection of Moses.—See article in another column, entitled “Moses and Elijah.” “First-fruits” and “first-born” are used to denote pre-eminence as well as priority. Thus the Lord calls Israel His first-born, tho Esau was born first. He calls Ephraim the first-born, tho Manasseh was older. Christ was the “first-fruits” in priority, because all His subsequent experience was in His first act of giving Himself to the world, and, pre-eminently, because He is the One thru whom all others bear fruit.

1113. J. F. B. Matt. 9:16, 17.—The old garment and the old bottles represented the Pharisees who, creed-bound by their tradition, could not receive the new life-working teaching of Christ. The Gospel is life. It can not be patched onto human creeds, can not be received by hearts not responsive to its life-giving power. It is just as true now of all who are bound by cramped, lifeless creeds as it was of the Pharisees of old. But just as in those days Zacharias and Elizabeth, Simon and Anna, who walked with God, saw and received additional light, so it is to-day. If God’s life is in the heart, the heart will respond to the ever-unfolding truth. But the heart satisfied with the human can never make the divine a part of it.

1114. B. 2 Cor. 5:17. The new things which God requires is a new heart, soul, and mind. It is not that the Lord throws away His truth, His law, His Gospel. To the sinner all these are antagonistic; but when the man becomes a new creature, all God’s truth is new. The “old commandment which ye had from the beginning” becomes new to the converted soul, “because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.” 1 John 2:7, 8. God is eternal; His truth, His law, His Gospel, are eternal; and they are always new to the soul alive with the life of God.