A SPECTACLE TO THE WORLD
By John O. Corliss
THE apostle speaks of a certain class who are made a spectacle to the world, and to angels. 1 Cor. 4: 9. The marginal rendering of this word "spectacle" is "theater." Thus the Christian is represented as an actor on the stage of life. A theater is a place where performers personate various characters of history or of fiction. To do this properly, actors must not only dress after the fashion of the ones to be represented, but also imitate their speech and bearing. To fail in any one of these, brings discredit to the actor.476 There must be certain humiliation when one fails to meet the approval of human auditors. But in the case under consideration, not only the world, but heavenly angels, are attendants as interested judges of the performance, because their beloved Master is held forth for the benefit of a lost world. If He is fitly represented, His very life, in detail, must be revealed in the actor's mortal flesh. 2 Cor. 4: 11. Not only this, but the dying of the Lord Jesus, with its soul agony for the lost, will be seen in the daily deportment. Verse 10. It must be conceded that a preparation for such an achievement requires more than ordinary effort. One must be lifted above the merely human to act the divine. He who has been born in, and actually borne the image of, the earthly, must be brought to "bear the image of the heavenly" before being capable of acting the life of the heavenly Sacrifice. 1 Cor. 15: 49. This will mean to let the human nature give way to, and be supplanted by, the divine. 2 Peter 1: 3, 4. This transformation is the personal unfolding of that great mystery of God's fleshly indwelling. One of the purposes of Christ in coming to earth as God in the flesh, was to show what man was by creation, and what God designs him to be by redemption. We know that man's flesh was made from the "dust of the ground," but that his perfect being was accomplished by the life of God breathed into his body. Gen. 2: 7. It was thus that he became "a living soul," and was accounted as being in the image of God. But through sin, his Godlikeness departed, leaving him subject to every device of the wicked one. The promise of the God-man was, that whosoever would believe in Him should be endowed with "everlasting life." John 5: 24. This return of God's everlasting life to the reclaimed one, is really God returning to make His abode again in the flesh (John 14: 23; 2 Cor. 4: 11), and so living within him, to be his defense against attacks of the evil one. CAME IN THE LIKENESS OF SINFUL MEN
To secure this infinite boon for the downtrodden and lost, God permitted His only-begotten Son to take upon Himself the "likeness of sinful flesh" (Rom. 8: 3), and then "laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Isa. 53: 6. Under this condition, one cannot wonder why He groaned in Gethsemane, and pleaded for the cup to pass. Not only was He bearing to death the load of one vile sinner's iniquity, but He was carrying the broken vows, the heated passions, the dire unbelief, and the neglected opportunities, of earth's untold millions. He never could have borne all this had not an angel from heaven appeared to strengthen Him for the ordeal. In fact, everything possible to secure man's release from sinful bondage was done. We do indeed have forgiveness and redemption through Christ, equal to the riches of God's grace. And He has adapted His power of mind to make known to sin-darkened intellects the mystery of His will, to carry out His eternal purpose toward fallen humanity. Eph. 1: 7-9. So one need not preach, or himself act in the great drama; because the same God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, has ordered the light to shine in men's hearts, that the light of the knowledge of God's glory may be theirs. This is an infinite treasure of stored wealth committed to "earthen vessels," that the excellency may be of God, and not of humanity. It is thus that one becomes Heaven's ambassador, and a true actor on life's stage. J. O. C.