Looking Unto Jesus

PREFACE

No apology is needed for a new book upon a new subject, nor for a new book with a new treatment of an old subject. All this book claims to be is a new treatment of an old subject. To “look unto Jesus,” is one of the most prominent injunctions of the word of God. In him is found the acme of all divine excellence. We are to look to him as the one sent forth by the Father, to be, in his own person, his representative among men. We look to him as our teacher and guide. We look to him as our example, “the author and finisher of our faith.” But above all we look to him as our Saviour and Redeemer, the hope and source of everlasting life. LUJ 3.1

But in this field many false beacons have been erected, not to give warning of danger, but to lure to disaster; for the one end, which the enemy of all righteousness has sought and still seeks, to gain, is to have our Lord Jesus Christ placed in a false light before the world. So we are asked by some to look unto Jesus as only a man; one most perfect man, to be sure, that ever lived, but still only human, not the divine Son of the Eternal Father and one with the Father in essential perfection. We are told to look at him as a created being, not as the one who proceeded and came forth from God, in such a way that the mysterious expression, “the only begotten Son of God,” can be applied to him. We are asked to regard him as one that had no personal existence previous to the time when he was born of the Virgin Mary, thus ignoring his glorious achievements in the beginning, and the glory he had with the Father before the world was. We are called upon to look at him as the one who will be simply the author of the happiness of the future world, instead of being the sole author and source of even the life itself that will be manifested in that future world. Thus is our Lord misrepresented in his nature, his being, and his marvelous doings. The object of this work is so to present him that the view of those under whose eyes it may come, may no longer be subject to the aberrations of these false media, but see him as he is, indeed and in truth, “the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” LUJ 3.2

If we can assist any reader to look unto Jesus from every Scriptural point of view, who would otherwise lose some precious ray of light, the object sought will be gained. Especially is it deemed important that the present position and work of our Lord be set forth in its true light. This is of paramount importance and thrilling interest. Here will be found considerations which, we trust, will not only be seen to be essential to a correct view of the great plan of salvation by Jesus Christ, but be regarded as of the greatest practical advantage to every believer. What will doubtless most surprise the reader, will be the fact that a subject so intimately connected with, and throwing such light on, the absorbing theme of human redemption, should have been suffered to fall so largely into oblivion in the religious world. LUJ 4.1

We commend the contents of this volume to the careful study of all, not only on account of the theoretical and practical importance, in any system of truth, of the view set forth, but because it has a broader bearing on an understanding of the Scriptures, and involves the consideration of a greater number of topics, than any other subject to which the attention of the world has been called by the unfoldings of prophecy in these latter days. LUJ 4.2

U.S.
Battle Creek, Mich., July. 1898.