The Gospel in Christ Jesus
By Charles L. Taylor
“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.” GOD would have all men truly to know His Son, the Christ of the Bible. He has therefore introduced Him as One who is “the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.” To know the Christ of “to-day” we must know the Christ of “yesterday.” To-day He is “the same” that He was yesterday. When one has been taught Him as He was yesterday, he is able to trust Him as He is to-day; and being able to trust Him as He is to-day, the believer enjoys in anticipation all that He will be thruout the “forever.” “The same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.” What a marvelous “yesterday”! What a glorious “to-day”! What a sublime “forever”! What was our Lord’s “yesterday”? And what the “forever”? Ah, “yesterday” was the eternal past, even as “forever” is the eternal future. And from the standpoint of the little moment called “to-day,” we are permitted to view the Christ of those two eternities, and to know that into “to-day” God would press for our salvation all the glory of Him who is “from everlasting to everlasting” (Ps. 90:2), “whose goings forth have been from of old, from the days of eternity” (Micah 5:2, margin). Jesus Christ is the “I Am” of Scripture. Of Himself He said (John 8:58), “Before Abraham was, I am.” By prophetic pen He caused it also to be written: “The Lord possessed Me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting. . . . When He appointed the foundations of the earth, then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him; and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him.” Prov. 8:22-30. “Before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4), away back in the unknown, eternal past, Jesus Christ was one with the Father in might, in wisdom, and in counsel. “The Sovereign of the universe was not alone in His work of beneficence. He had an Associate,—a Coworker who could appreciate His purposes, and could share His joy in giving happiness to created beings,” as “Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9:6). He united with the Father in planning the great universe, and as supreme Commander of the forces of heaven, He carried into execution the divine scheme. This is all told in the beautiful, familiar words of the beloved disciple: “In the beginning was the Word; and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.” John 1:1-3. See also Col. 1:13-16. But while Jesus Christ is thus placed before us as the great Creator, we must bear in mind that the Father also wrought in the work. That Father and Son were together in framing the worlds and their inhabitants is clearly set forth in the record of man’s creation: “And God said, Let Us make man in Our image.” The Christ of “yesterday” was most emphatically the Creator of all things “that are in heaven, and that are in earth.” By the word of Christ of “yesterday” “were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.” “For He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.” Ps. 33:6, 9. The Christ of “yesterday” spoke, and forth from the depths of His own eternal infinitude sprang the worlds of the universe. He could and did speak of “things which be not as tho they were” (Rom. 4:17); for when He uttered His creative word, things which had not been came into existence. But, listen! The Christ of “yesterday” is “the same” to-day. He is our Creator (Isa. 40:28), and He is also our Redeemer (Isa. 41:14). The power that operated to give the world a being and form and beauty is the power which in the Gospel recreates man unto everlasting life; for “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.” 2 Cor. 5:17. He who at the beginning said, “Let there be light” (Gen. 1:3), is He who to-day speaks light and life and joy to mankind (2 Cor. 4:6). And He who created worlds and who, by His power, upholds them and keeps them moving on in their ceaseless rounds (Isa. 40:26), is He who to-day can and does uphold every man, woman, and child (Heb. 7:25; Jude 24). Thank God, the Christ of “yesterday” is the Christ of “to-day.” Creator and Upholder of all things in heaven and earth yesterday, He is Creator and Upholder of all things in heaven and earth to-day. He is “our dwelling-place in all generations.” Ps. 90:1. Truly, the child of God, tho often travel-stained, footsore, and weary, has been given “a strong consolation,” “an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast” (Heb. 6:18-20) in the Creator-Christ of to-day.