p. 4 | The Seeking Saviour by J. F. Tolson

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Aug 26, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 33.

The Seeking Saviour

By J. F. Tolson

ALL God's people rejoice in the assurance of the divinity of Christ; but is it not of great importance that we keep in our hearts the equal assurance that He is also the Son of Man, the second Adam, a quickening spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), the link between divinity and poor, weak, sinful humanity? "Son of Man" is the title our Saviour always loved to call Himself, as it shows clearly the indissoluble union between God and man; for He was very God and very man — God in the very nature and exercise of His power, and in His ability to save to the utmost; and man in the incarnation of sinful flesh, a man acquainted with all the griefs, sufferings, and sorrows that flesh is heir to.

Luke, "the beloved physician," dwells more on the human side of our Saviour than any other of the sacred writers. Matthew traces His genealogy to Abraham; John, the "beloved disciple," shows His divine genealogy — "The Word was God;" but Luke traces Him back to Adam, the first man.

Great and excellent instruction is given us, in the book of Luke, in the parables of the good Samaritan, the lost sheep, the lost piece of silver, the prodigal son, the penitent thief, the penitent publican, Zacchaeus in the tree, etc. In the nineteenth chapter we have the story of Zacchaeus, the chief tax-gatherer. Being very desirous of seeing the Man of whom he had heard so much, the Man Jesus, but being small of stature, he could not see Him for the crowd, but soon found a position of advantage in a sycamore-tree.

The Master, knowing, all along, the small spark of faith that was in him, announced Himself his Guest. The people murmured, saying that He was gone to be guest with a man that was a sinner. In vindication of His course, Jesus declares, "The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." Let us now consider some of the reasons for salvation coming to that publican's house.

(1.) The person — Son of Man; (2.) His work — to seek and to save; (3.) The objects of His work — that which was lost.

1. "Son of Man" — O, wondrous name! The eternal Son of God, yet Son of Man! The eternal Jehovah in the flesh of weak, sinful man, and for man, to lift him out of the mire of sin and death! What wondrous humiliation for the King of Glory, the Creator and Upholder of the universe! Son of God, yet Son of Man! Well may we with rapture sound abroad the name to earth's remotest bounds.

2. "To seek and to save." If you were going through the streets and dropped a straw, you would never think or speak of it; but if you dropped a five dollar note, you would think and speak to others about it, because you could ill afford to spare it. Whenever we lose anything we value highly, we immediately set about trying to find it. Can less be said of God? — No; for here we find Him trying to seek and to save.

3. Then He has surely lost something He values very highly, something He can ill afford to spare. What is it that He who holds the world in the hollow of His hands, and to whom belong the gold and the silver, and the cattle upon a thousand hills — what

is it He could have lost that He could ill afford to spare? O, vicegerent of God, lord of creation, crowning work of all the creation of God — man — it is thou!

Listen to the tender, pleading voice of the seeking Saviour ringing through the lovely bowers of Eden: "Adam, where are thou?" Adam has fallen from his holy and sinless estate, and in his shame and unbelief, seeks to hide from his Saviour. He is ashamed of his nakedness, afraid to discover his sin. But already the Saviour is out, seeking to save that which was lost. Still ringing down through the ages we hear that voice pleading in infinite tenderness and pathos, "Adam [man], where art thou?" "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters." "Turn ye, turn ye; . . . for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; tho your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; tho they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

"The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." The word "lost" conveys (1) the idea-guilt; (2) the idea-corrupt; (3) the idea-valued; for what can be considered lost that is not valued?

1. The lost is guilty — guilty of transgressing God's holy law. "All we like sheep have gone astray." We are all bound up in the same humanity which received Peter's accusation, "Ye have killed the Prince of Life." So we are all guilty.

2. The lost is corrupt. Intended for the Creator's use, we are now, by nature and practise, of no use to Him, utterly unprofitable. Intended to show His Godhead and power, we have sunk beneath the level of beasts; for humanity has even worshiped "birds, four-footed beasts, and creeping things." We have not only been guilty of transgressing the law, but our natures have become utterly depraved. Every imagination of the thoughts of the heart is only evil continually. Self-will, self-seeking, self-pleasing, have taken the place of God's will, God-seeking, and God-pleasing.

3. The lost valued. If you, poor, lost sinner, would know how much God values you, even tho you may have sunk to the very depths of depravity, look at Calvary, and behold the seeking Saviour enduring the agony of the cross, and bearing in His body your sins, that He may save you from them and from the terrible results of the same. The lost is valued, the lost is loved; and O, how greatly loved! He who holds the reins of ten thousands of stars and systems in His hands; who has ten thousand times ten thousand angels that excel in strength to do His bidding; He who measures the earth in the hollow of His hand, and who spreads out the heavens as a curtain to dwell in; even He who holds in His hand the breath of every living thing, says to you: O lost sinner, I love you, and have lost you! I have lost something I value very highly, even your love and obedience. I want you to love Me. I want to save you, and have you to dwell with Me through the eternal ages. I have loved you so much, that I have, from the depths of My yearning heart, given up My dearly beloved Son, to show you by His sinless life, by His labors of self-sacrificing love, how much I love you; and finally gave Him up to the cruel death of the cross, that He may, for you, and in your place, meet the penalty of an outraged law, that you may be spared the terrible penalty of your sins, and again have a chance to stand pure and sinless in My sight. Will you not come to Me, and accept My love and pardon so freely offered?

And what is the answer, my fellow lost one, that you and I have to make? Let us answer: Yes, Lord, we are lost, we are corrupt, we are guilty. We would write "lost" on the palms of our hands, on the soles of our feet, and on our entire being, our faculties, our intellects, our affections, our all. We would not wait for the judgment-bar to hear the sentence which would then seal our doom. We accept Thy word for it now. We are lost, and joyfully we hear the echo of that word — loved. We take the lost sinner's place, and joyfully claim the lost sinner's Saviour, who brings to us salvation full and free.

All hail the power of Jesus' name!