The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, vol. 73
March 24, 1896
The Christ of Judea - 3
W. W. Prescott
(Concluded.)
The image of God had long been lost, but Jesus Christ came, and has shown to the human family the character of the ideal man. He did not come as a full-grown man, but as a child, a young man, and a man at full age. He was in every stage of life the ideal for humanity. “Even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps.” 1 Peter 2:21. He was the example to the world of what God intended humanity should be. “He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.” 1 John 2:6. The walking of Jesus Christ was the pattern for man’s walk. Then a further purpose of Christ’s mission to this world was to reveal the possibility of a life wholly dependent upon God, and yet in perfect harmony with the will of God. We are called upon to be perfect, as the Father in heaven is perfect; he also says, “Be ye holy, for I am holy.” But the power for perfection and holiness dwells not in man; he cannot of himself do anything, but Christ was both perfect and holy as the Son of man and the Son of God. Clothing his divinity with humanity, and taking upon himself all the conditions of fallen humanity, he was in his humanity an example to us of what it is possible for humanity to be by dependence on God. ARSH March 24, 1896, page 185.1
In his work here as the man Christ Jesus, he did not avail himself of his own divine power in order to assist him to live the life of God. He might have done it for himself; but had he done so, he would not have been our example; we cannot do it; we have no divine power of our own. He voluntarily took that place of weakness with us. “For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you.” 2 Corinthians 13:4. He took a place where he would not obtain strength in any other way than that open to us; and let it be remembered for our encouragement, that our Saviour, when he was here in the flesh, did not use any power for a righteous life which is not at our command to-day. It shows the possibility for humanity. “As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.” “Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.” John 6:57; 5:19. He voluntarily took that place where he could do nothing of himself. Why did Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God, give up heaven, and come here as the Son of man, and voluntarily put himself in our place?-So that everything he gained as the Son of man might come to us. “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcome, and am set down with my Father on his throne.” And the very place at his own right hand belongs to Jesus Christ as Son of man; and as he won it as the Son of man, that same place belongs to every believer in Jesus. So Jesus Christ came here to reveal to us, in the flesh, what God’s ideal for humanity is, and how it may be lived out. ARSH March 24, 1896, page 185.2
What was accomplished for us by the Christ of Judea, our brother in the flesh, by his life and his death on the earth? “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” John 1:29. The Christ of Judea came here to provide the sacrifice; not to appease the wrath of God, but to render stable the very foundation of his government, that God might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. “And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.” 1 John 3:5. He was the I AM as he says, “Before Abraham was, I am;” but it was needful that he should be manifested, in order that he might carry out God’s plan, that there might be a sacrifice to take away sin. Angels could praise God; angels could do deeds for God; but only Jesus Christ the Son of God could be God in the flesh. So what was accomplished for us by his being here in the flesh?-A sacrifice was provided to take away the sin of the world, and this Lamb of God was also to be a substitute for us. The law having been broken, it demanded death. “The wages of sin is death.” “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” These are the words of God. Christ came to do all this for us. ARSH March 24, 1896, page 186.1
It was before any one repented that all this was worked out in the mind of God. He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Whether one believes on him or not, all this was done for him just as much and just the same as though he repented. “Behold the Lamb of God which beareth [margin] the sin of the world”-not simply the sins of those who believe, but the sins of the world. So he was our substitute, as we read in Isaiah 53:2-4: “He shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.” He bore not simply the iniquities of those who believe on him, but the iniquities of us all. He bore them all, and Jesus Christ suffered and died and paid the penalty for the sins of the whole world. “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And 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.” 1 John 2:1, 2. God took the whole world into account when be gave Christ, and he provided a sacrifice sufficient for all. Every man’s sin has been atoned for. “The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many;” “who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified is due time.” Matthew 20:28; 1 Timothy 2:6. The work of Jesus Christ is for all, and if every sinner should to-day repent and accept Christ, no further provision would need to be made: for the penalty has been met, the price paid, and the ransom is sufficient for all. Nothing more could be given; nothing more need be given. He asks us simply to accept what he has done, on the conditions which he has established. Jesus Christ, the divine Saviour, can come in only when self goes out. He says, Take up thy cross, and follow me. Jesus Christ comes in when self goes out, and he takes the place of self. These are the conditions upon which he asks us to receive him. ARSH March 24, 1896, page 186.2
Not only this, but he has provided for us, by his life on the earth, the righteousness which is wrought into human flesh. There is the righteousness of God,-God the Father, the eternal God, the everlasting God,-but his righteousness, his glory, and character cannot come to our humanity directly from the divinity of God; there must be a mediator, and Jesus Christ came in his flesh and humanity, and wrought into his humanity, which is ours, the very righteousness and character of God, in order that he might present to us the righteousness which he has wrought into human flesh. “Therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.” Romans 5:18. These are some of the results which were accomplished for us in the life and death of the man Christ Jesus, the Christ of Judea. ARSH March 24, 1896, page 186.3
Let us add one more; and that is, by the work of the Christ of Judea in his life and death on behalf of the human family, that which otherwise would have been eternal death, is changed into sleep: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” 1 Corinthians 15:22. When Paul was preaching, he preached that there would be a resurrection both of the just and the unjust. When Christ spoke to his disciples concerning Lazarus, he said, “Our friend Lazarus, sleepeth.” So by the life, death, and resurrection of the man Christ Jesus, the Christ of Judea, in our flesh, that which otherwise would have been eternal death has been changed into a sleep for every son and daughter of Adam; and so all shall come forth from the grave. The work of Jesus Christ does not save us from this death, but it changes it into a sleep. At the resurrection we are rewarded according to our works, according as we have continued in Adam, or have been translated into the kingdom of Christ. ARSH March 24, 1896, page 186.4
This is something of the work of Jesus of Nazareth, the man Christ Jesus in our humanity, the Christ of Judea. It is beyond the human mind to enter into it fully; but God designs that we shall enter into the experience, even though we are not able to enter into the philosophy of it. W. W. P. ARSH March 24, 1896, page 186.5