CHRIST THE WAY | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 6, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 14.

CHRIST THE WAY.

THE Bible reveals, what every man at some time in his life, at least, is conscious of, that mankind are sinners. “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Rom. 3:23. “There is none righteous, no, not one.” “They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” “The way of peace have they not known.” Rom. 3:10, 12, 17.

These are a few of the many expressions which show man’s condition before God. “Sin,” say the Scriptures, “is the transgression of the law.” 1 John 3:4. Says Paul, “I had not known sin, but by the law.” Rom. 7:7. “All unrighteousness is sin,” is another declaration of God’s word; while another scripture declares that “all thy [God’s] commandments are righteousness.” “Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.” Ps. 119:172, 142. As God’s commandments, his holy law, is the expression of his righteousness, of all righteousness, and as all sin, or unrighteousness, is the transgression of that law, and as man in sinning has gone out of the way, therefore the law of God was that way in which man should have walked, and in which he would have found peace. This also is shown by Rom. 3:19, in immediate connection with the texts already quoted: “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.”

This is man’s condition. He is out of the highway of holiness; he is in the byways of sin, and there is no exception. This does not mean that all are positively wicked in their acts, but all are sinners; and being sinners, they cannot of themselves do good. Their best service comes short of God’s righteousness. Their way is the way of sin, and sin ends in death. James 1:15. Not only has man sinned, but in himself he must continue in sin. He cannot rise above the weakness of sinful flesh, to which he is bound. See Rom. 7:14–23; 8:3. It is just as impossible for man of himself to rise above this condition as it is for him to raise himself by lifting on his boot straps, or to fly.

But right here God’s goodness is revealed. Man is responsible for his sin; God will proffer him the free gift of righteousness. The eternal Son of God leaves his lofty throne, empties himself of his transcendent glory, and takes upon himself the form of a servant, that he might help man, that he might do for man what man could not do for himself. See Phil. 2:5–8, Revised Version. “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God [did by] sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us.” Rom. 8:3, 4.

Christ having emptied himself of all his glory, God filled him with his fullness, so that when Jesus Christ was in this world, he did not show forth himself, but the Father. It was the Father’s love, it was the Father’s righteousness, it was the Father’s doctrine, as Jesus declared over and over again. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.” This does not mean that Christ’s offering or sacrifice was not free; for “he gave himself” for the world, that thus God might work through him. It pleased Christ to empty himself (Phil. 2:5–7), and it pleased the Father that in Christ should all the fullness dwell (Col. 1:19). Of course this fullness includes the righteousness of God. Jesus was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him (2 Cor. 5:21); that we might be made complete in him by his fullness (Col. 2:9, 10). “Who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” 1 Cor. 1:30.

How is this righteousness obtained?—Simply by faith, no more no less. “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference.” Rom. 3:21, 22. Two points we especially note here as proved by this text: (1) The righteousness given to all by faith; and (2) it is the same righteousness taught as in the law, because the law testifies or witnesses to it. The sinner thus accepting of Christ by faith is complete in the fullness which is in Christ. Col. 2:9, 10. Having faith in God, he yields all to God; he shows that faith to the world by being baptized into Christ, and thus showing forth the inward union that faith and the Spirit of God has made by the ceremony of baptism, the marriage ceremony between the believer and Christ. “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” Gal. 3:27. By the power of God we are lifted from the world of sin, and “created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” Eph. 2:10. These good works have been wrought out in Christ, who overcame all that we might overcome, who was made like man, tempted as man, and overcame for us that we might overcome in him. And in Christ is in the way from which man departed; for man departed “out of the way” of righteousness, but in Christ he finds that righteousness in all its fullness, and finding that righteousness he also finds the peace. Rom. 5:1.

It is because of this that Jesus, in speaking of the blessed eternal home to come and how it may be reached, says, “I am the way.” John 14:6. Says Paul: “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.” Col. 2:6. In him we are to walk. His perfections include all fullness. In all the breadth and depth and height of the way of righteousness Christ fills all. We are to develop a character in that fullness. Our deed may come short of the fullness, but faith lays hold of the fullness, and the fullness completes the deed.

Christ is not the Way for a little while, he is the Way all the way. From the first step heavenward till our feet stand on the celestial shore, no more to wander on the barren deserts of sin, or to press the sometimes weary way of earthly pilgrimage, Christ is the Way. He is with us in the sore heart-breaking repentance, in the humble confession of sin, in the pruning of superfluous growths, in the persecutions, the trials, in the blessed joys of glad companionship—everywhere, at all times, Christ is there. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the whole alphabet of our earthly education for the better world. He is the Beginner and Finisher of our faith. He is Saviour, Master, Friend, Father. It is all summed up in the words, “I am the Way.” Reader, will you not walk in this way?