The advocate. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1901-1913, 1912-06-27

altenated and enc
lAQQR. RQSSELD mics in your mind
by wicked works,
yet now hath He reconciled in the body
of His flesh through death, to present
you holy and unblameable and unre-
provable In his sight. If ye continue In
the faith" etc.-ColOssians |, 2l-23.
Our text is q wonderfully condensed
statement Of the grace and power of
the Lord operating in His Church-His
faithful footstep followers. The more
we ponder our text and It's context the
more we must admire the lengths,
breadths, depths and heights of the
Divine Power enlisted on our behalf
and admire also the faithfulness and
ability of the Apostle as the Divine
mouthpiece- 1t is really too wonderful
for the natural man to believe that the
grace Of God could ever present before
the Divine presence and glory, perfect
ed, holy, faultless, irreprovable, such
imperfect unworthy creatures as we
by nature are! Well did the poet ex-
press our sentiments in the words: "Tm
miracle of gracew'
The Apostle is not speaking of q
Power Divine working in the heart Of
perfect man, fitting him for glory,
honor and Immortality on the Heaven
~ plane. He declares, on the contrary,
that His words apply to those who
were at one time alienated from God,
opposed to Him in their minds as re-
suit Of wicked works. Such even Di-
vine power is able to transform. The
key to this transformation lies in the
human will. If it be fully surrendered
to the great Redeemer He undertakes
to, bring about the grand results, de-.
clared IN oar text: Force indeed could
be used, and the Scriptures assure us
that force to some extent will be used
during the period Of Messiah's reign,
but now, in selecting those who will
be Jesus companions In glory, none
are dealt with except such as give to
the Lord their hearts, their wills, de-
string Him "to work In them to will
and to do Of His good pleasure"
Reconciliation tho First Stop.
The great Apostle did not neglect to
here reiterate the Ract that before any
thing could be done by way Of recon-
CLING sinners to God sacrifcial work
was necessary. The great Creators
sentence Of death upon the race could
neither be ignored by Himself nor by
any other. No reconciliation to God
could possibly be accomplished which
would bring the sinner back into full
fellowship and the enjoyment Of Di-
vine favor and everlasting life except
as the penalty for original sin should
first be met. SO the Apostle reminds
us that the One who is able to pre-
sent US holy and blameless and unre-
provable is He who has already made
reconciliation for us lin the body Of
His flesh through death"
Let us pause here long enough to i'm
press upon our minds this great Bib
lical fact, that it was the death of
Jesus which secures for Father Adam
(and incidentally for all Of his race con-
demned in him) q release from the
death sentence which came upon him
as violator of the Divine Law. And
let us not forget that there is an In
finite difference between O death SEN
tence which God did inf1ict and an eter-
nal torment sentence which the creeds
Of the Dark Ages misled us into be-
lievtng was the Divine penalty pro-
nounced against the sinner.
1t was because the sentence, Dying,
thou shalt die" was pronounced
against Father Adam that the death
Of Jesus was Ransom-price sufficient
to secure the sinners release-and the
release from death by q resurrection Of
oil of Adams posterity who shared
the results of his sentence. Thus we
SEQ the force Of the Scriptural declara-
ton that "as by man came death, by
Man also came the resurrection from
the dead; for as all In Adam die, even
SO all In Christ shall be made alive
every man In bis own order."~-I Co
rinth1ans XIV, 21-23.
But the Fathers grace operating In
Christ Jesus designs more than merely
the adjustment Of the death sentence.
TO merely redeem US and merely bring
uS back into the condition in which
death overlook us is not the Divine
Program. 1t Is further reaching; 1t
aims at our complete uplift out Of sin,
rs well as out Of death. its penalty
out Of weakness and out Of Imperfect
ton OF every kind. 1t aims to make
us holy, righteous; and the Apostle
leaves no room for any miSUnderstand-
ting respecting the degree Of righteous,
ness. The result is not to be merely II
righteous will or n righteous DurDoSp