The Purpose Is to Remove Sin
By C. P. BOLLMAN
He Asks Us to Know Him Really — He
Assumes Our Frailties and
THE name "Jesus" was divinely given to our Lord before His birth, for the reason that He would "save His people from their sins." Matt. 1:21. To save "from sin" certainly does not mean to save in sin. "Ye know," says the apostle John, "that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin." 1 John 3:5. That this means not merely escape from punishment for sin, but separation from sin itself, freedom from the reigning power of sin, is made clear by the next verse: "Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not." There can be no doubt concerning the meaning of these words. The language used admits of no interpretation. It teaches the actual and absolute putting away of sin — that is, the putting of it out of the heart and out of the life. "My little children," says the apostle, in 1 John 2:1, "these things write I unto you, that ye sin not." That was the goal to which he would point every believer. He would have every man who names the name of Christ know that such an experience is possible of attainment. Yet he would discourage no one, for he adds: "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." But while the apostle would have none sink under discouragement, even though overtaken by sin, he would give no encouragement to sin; therefore he adds: "And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth His word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that are in Him." Verses 3-5. To have merely a theoretical faith in Christ is to be in possession of only the shell of Christianity. We must not only know about Jesus, but we must know Him. "And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." John 17:3. It is well to believe the Bible as history, to know the story of the Gospels as we know the history of our own families; but we may know all this and yet miss the life-giving power in the divine Word. Jesus Christ wants us to enter with Him into the inner circle; to know Him as the disciples knew Him after the day of Pentecost. He wants us to become one with Him by being born into the same family, so that we shall be joint heirs with Him of all that the Father has given Him as the second Adam. He invites us to the experience described by the apostle in these words: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Gal. 2:20. This description of Christian experience is from the standpoint of the human subject. Rev. 3:20, 21 gives us the divine side. "Behold," says our Saviour, "I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne." He sups with us by partaking of our frailties, bearing our griefs, carrying our sorrows, being touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He gives us to sup with Him by bringing to us His own perfections, which He not only imputes to us in answer to our faith, but which, by the incomprehensible alchemy of grace, He actually instills into our lives. How this work is wrought we can not know. No Bible writer has sought to explain it further than to tell us that it is by the transforming power of the divine Word. "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you," writes the apostle, "through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as His divine power hath given unto us3all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." 2 Peter 1:2-4. It is a sad fact that very many Christians are satisfied with a poor, weak experience, when they might have an experience rich in everything that goes to beautify Christian character, to give power to missionary endeavor, and to honor the Master by giving Him opportunity to manifest His power to overcome sin in human flesh now, as He overcame sin in human flesh when He Himself was bodily upon earth. The fifty-ninth chapter of Isaiah gives the only possible reason for suffering defeat in that wherein the Lord would have us gain victory: "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it can not save; neither His ear heavy, that it can not hear: but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear." Verses 1, 2. But the Lord wants to give forgiveness and victory; and to His people now He says, as He said to His people anciently, "If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land."