A WARFARE OF ENVY

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jul 19, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 29.

A WARFARE OF ENVY.

GOD has commissioned neither human being nor angel to stand as an intermediary between Christ and His children. That price, the life of the Son of God and Son of Man, was not given that another might step in between Him and the object of His redemptive work.

Upon this very point of His right to retain what His blood purchased, our Lord declares: “For Mine own sake, even for Mine own sake, will I do it; for how should My name be polluted? and I will not give My glory to another.” Isa. 48:11. Christ achieved glory by His sacrifice for man. By the glorious work which He there accomplished, He won the right and the glorious position of Mediator between God and man. So we read: “And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us unto Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to-wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.” 2 Cor. 5:18, 19.

Whatever other glory Christ may have achieved, whatever other position He may be now holding, He did achieve that glory of redeeming man and the earth that sin had cursed, and He does occupy that position of Mediator between God and man. That it is, then, that He will not relinquish to another. There is no power that can deprive Him of His well-earned bishopric. Of Judas it is said prophetically: “Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein; and his bishopric let another take.” Acts 1:20; Ps. 109:8. Why?—Because his character was the very antithesis of righteousness. The reward he sought is called “the reward of iniquity.” Acts 1:18. How fitting that the betrayal price, the reward of his traitorous act, should be used for the purchase of a grave! On the other hand, the reward sought of Christ was an eternal habitation for every child of His.

“But of the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever; and the scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.” That preeminence of Christ always has stirred the animosity of Satan, even as did the Father’s council with Christ over the creation of man.

Therefore, how natural it is that the enemy of Christ and His cause, he who inspired Judas to his infamous act, should seek to wrest from Christ His office, His bishopric, His glory, in the estimation of mankind. Satan’s representative lost his office; therefore he will try to rob Christ of His, so far as the estimation of men is concerned. Christ’s position is between the Father and the people. He says: “Whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it you.” John 15:16. Again: “If ye shall ask anything of the Father, He will give it you in My name. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name.” John 16:23, 24. That is Christ’s own definition of His position; and nowhere in the sacred Word is any intimation given that any person or any being of any order whatsoever is ever to come between Him and those He redeemed.

What means, then, this human exaltation of the name of the Virgin Mary as an intercessor between human beings and the Christ that died to save them?—It means simply the outworking of Satan’s envy at the exaltation of Christ. Lucifer had conceived the mischievous purpose of being like the Most High. That purpose was his ruin; and so he has set himself in every possible way to war against the purpose of Jehovah. It is consistent with his plan, therefore, that he use the same great power in the earth in more than one line of opposition to Christ and His work. The same power that has instituted Mariolatry (the worship of the Virgin Mary), that has made Mary an intermediary between the people and their Saviour, putting her in the place of Christ, that same power it is that has thought “to change the times and the law” of God, as foretold by the prophet Daniel. Through that same power has come to us the pseudo-sabbath, usurping the place of the Eden-blest Sabbath of the Lord. Through that same powerful organization we have been given a doctrine which would rob Christ of His position as Lifegiver; that doctrine is the immortality of the soul. Through Christ only we have life; but that dogma would make life inherent in us, independent of Christ and His glorious work in our behalf.

So we might continue on to the end of the whole roster of false doctrines, and find them aimed at the position and glory of our blessed Redeemer; but His own word is sufficient: “My glory will I not give to another.” He is ours, and we are His; and to Him who is

“touched with the feeling of our infirmities,” “tempted in all points like as we are,” we can come direct for forgiveness, blessing, and every temporal and spiritual necessity.