Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1911-04-25

Ing as New Creature
Three and One-haIf Years Our Lord
Was a Dual Being.
Hence, during the period of our
Lords ministry. for three and half
years. He was a dual parsonage. So
far as form and organism were con-
cerned He was a man. but so far
as mind and purpose and interests
were concerned He was chdnged-a
New Creature. spirit being; earthly
things had passed away The New
Creature followed the instructions of
the Divine Word and providences to
the extent of Notifying the flesh
surrendering it fully for the accom-
plishment in it of the Divine will
''The cup which My Father hath pour
ed for Me shall | not drink it?''
The great Teacher Himself gives US
the picture of a human birth as illus
trating the experiences through which
He passed and the similar experiences
through which all of His faithful fol-
lowers must pass in order to reach
the plane of heavenly glory. This pic
ture contains three distinctive views
a. begetting-t2p qUickening-(3) birth.
These three steps were illustrated by
our Lords own experiences. He was
begotten of the Holy Spirit at the time
of His conservation at baptism. He
was quickened or energized by that
Holy Spirit after His forty days ex-
perience in the wilderness when He
began His dctiUe service as 1.-The Mes
senger of the Covenant" selecting His
Bride. the Church.
When He finished His sacrifice at
Calvary the man Jesus was dead. and
the New Creature Jesus. spirit begot-
ten and quickened and developed. was
three and a half years old. According
to the Divine Program He slept in
hGdeS. the tomb and on the third day
was born from the dead. raised up by
Divine power as a New Creature
being given a spirit body of divine
nature glory, honor. Immortality;
Him hath God highly exalted" Phi-
lippians ii. 81. He did not lose His
personality. His identity. and could
therefore properly say. 81 am He that
liveth and was dead" Rev. i. 49,.
"Now the Lord Is That Spirit"
II Corinthians iii, II.
Thus was our Lord put to death in
flesh and quickened in spirit
alive in spirit, Spirit Being. True,
He was also quickened by the Spirit
1t was the Fathers Spirit or Power
which raised Him from the dead, as
the Scriptures declare (Romans viii,
III. Indeed. as the Apostle reminds us,
all the blessings of Divine providence
are Of the Father. From Him cometh
every good and every perfect gift.
He Who thus assembled up ON high.
( the Prince Of glory and partaker of tie
divine nature. is the same Who first
descended to the earthly nature, yea,
Who was humbled even unto death,
even the death of the Cross, and went
to the tomb as the sinners substitute
or ransom-price. The forty days which
interviewed between the Redeemer's
resurrection and His ascension taught
two great lessons:
a. That the crucified One was no
longer held in the bonds of death. no
longer a prisoner in the grave.
(2l 1t also taught that the Risen One
was different in many respects from
what He was before He died. No long
er was He man. No longer was He
I flesh. The body of flesh prepared for
Him for the suffering Of death had
served its purpose. He needed it no
longer The Father had raised Him
up to the plane of glory again. AS a
Quickenin0 Sririt He was with the dis
ciples during the forty days, instruct
ing them during the few moments of
each of His seven or eight appearances.
But He was teaching them equally
when invisible to them. He noted their
perplexities. His several appearances
were in different forms-as a gardener,
as a traveller, as a purchaser Of fish
on the shore Of Lake Liberals, calling
out, "Have you any fishY' and then,
drop the net on the other side"
He revealed" Himself to the disci-
pies in various ways in connection with
those materidlizdtioRS and then straight
way He vanished out of their sight,
to be present with them. unseen. for
days. For Identification He appeared
on two occasions in a body bearing the
marks of His crucifxion. During those
forty days the faithful Teacher estab-
lished the faith of His followers in
Himself as the glorifed Messiah, their
Heavenly Bridegroom, Who would lat
er come again and receive them unto
Himself and at that time give to them
also a similar resurrection change
that they should be like Him, ''see Him
| as He is" and not as He t0Gs, and share
His glory-because flesh and blood
cannot inherit the Kingdom of God" q
Corinthians XIV. 50).
above the Brightness of the Sum-"
st. Paul. the last of the twelve Apos-
ties to be called Ito take the place of
Judas, needed, as we'll as the others.
to be able to teitReSS to the resurrec-
ton of Jesus. OF this He tells us,
saying, "He was seen of Cephas, then
of the twelve: after that He was seen
Of above five hundred brethren at
once: after that He was seen of James;
then Of all the Apostles; and, last of
| all. He was seen of me also, as of
one prematurely born" q Corinthians
XIV, So.
In the ordinary course of events ST.
Paul would not have seen the Lord I'M
i'll His resurrection, when he himself
would come forth as a member of 'the
Church of the First-born." He there
| fore describes his view of Jesus on his
way TO Damascus as being like that
of one born before the time. In other
words. st. Paul saw the Lord as He
is and not as He t0dS He saw the
Lord of glory. and not the man Jesus.
The appearance was glorious indeed
In various parts of the Bible angels In
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