AN IMPORTANT SUMMARY by H. A. St. John

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · May 9, 1906

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 32, No. 19.

AN IMPORTANT SUMMARY.

By H. A. St. John

"LET us hear the conclusion of the whole matter." It is highly important that we view often the summary of the most striking features of the life of our Saviour, from His lowly birth in Bethlehem to His ignominious death upon the cross,—in all of which we have found that truly He lived our Example, and died our Sacrifice. Hence, if His experience is to be our experience, how important it is that the experimental part of His earthly life be studied and made a subject of much reflection. Losing sight of this, we may be led to think that strange things happen unto us when tempted.

It is truly comforting to know and remember, when dangers, darkness, and discouragements press in upon us, and fierce, fiery trials beset us from without, that Jesus knows all about these from actual experience, and with infinite wisdom, power, and love, ever waits to strengthen us according to our day and need.

It is also a comforting thought that the sinner may share in the same blessed experiences of the Lord Jesus, such as being born of the Spirit, anointed of the Spirit, receiving the witness of the Spirit to their sonship, the communion and fellowship of the Spirit, and the ministration of holy angels continually. The same love of the same loving Father is extended to all who believe.

It may also be well to briefly note some of the more prominent features in the work of the Son of God, as a missionary or minister from the throne of God to a wicked and rebellious world. In all this we find that Jesus is the Christian’s Example, the ideal God-man. Every follower of Christ is called and sent out into the world by the same living and loving Father, as representatives of the same divine government, to be living illustrations of the same holy religion. As the Son of God finished the work given Him to do, with the fullest approbation of His Father, and was then highly exalted to a place at His right hand, so the sons of God may as surely finish the work committed to their hands, walk worthy of the vocation wherein they are called, hear the "Well done" from the same heavenly Father, and then be highly exalted to a place at the right hand of the Son of God, and have a seat upon His throne.

Again, it should be observed that the character and work of Christ as an ambassador from heaven to earth is set before the Christian as an example. In Jesus, man has a true, and the only true, ideal of an acceptable subject and servant of the living God. With Jesus, when among men, it was His Father’s doctrine, His Father’s words, His Father’s will, His Father’s commandments, and His Father’s good pleasure in everything, and continually, that He delighted in. And thus should it be, and will be, with all His followers.

Attention is now directed to some of the inexpressible honors conferred upon the Son of God after He had trodden the winepress alone. In the gift of Christ for sinful man, the Father poured out the richest of heaven’s treasures. When Christ had finished the mission planned by infinite love, and had returned to glory, then the Father again poured out the richest of heaven’s blessings to do Him honor. Likewise all the sons of God will follow Him into the realms of glory, behold His glory, and share His glory while the ages of eternity roll. Says Jesus, "They shall walk with Me in white; for they are worthy." Rev. 3:4.

And in the new creation, the new heavens and the new earth, with the New Jerusalem and Paradise restored, surrounded by all the travail of His soul—the church of the first-born, the church triumphant—the glorified Redeemer will attain to that superlative degree of exaltation, honor, and glory to which the Word of the Lord points. The hope of sharing with Him in that exaltation, honor, and glory is enough to create in us, even now, exceeding great joy, the joy of a well-founded faith.

But the joy of expectation can never measure with the joy of realization. "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." Rom. 8:14; 1 John 3:2.

H. A. ST. JOHN.