Charlevoix county herald., 1912-07-13

@okh\ | the teachings OIL
| - his word. 1t robs
the Christian Of a
great deal Of present comfort. too, for
every true believer on Jesus Christ
is a saint, and becomes such the mo-
ment he so believes. Saint" is the
substantive of the verb ito sanctify,"
word Of two meanings.
What sanetify Means.
To "sanctify" means, first, to set
apart thing or a person for holy
use. II l 1.-THE my income. and set
aside one dollar out of every ten for
Gods service, that dollar Is sanctified
in the instant OF its being set aside.
and IL 1t were a person 1t might be
called a saint.
Again "sanctify" means to make a
thing inrinsically clean. The dollar
set aside Is much soiled, and after
setting 1t aside l send it to bank.
note company, which puts 1t through
process Of cleansing by means Of
which 1t comes back to me almost as
| fresh and crisp as when It was first
put into circulation. 1t Is now sane.
tilted in a second sense. This two
fold transaction represents saintship,
For example, the moment a man
takes Jesus Christ by faith to be his
Savior he is set apart by God and for
| God, and becomes a saint. But In
that same moment he enters upon a
process, or rather a process enters
upon or within him. 1t is process
Of cleansing. The operator Is the
Holy Spirit, who takes up his abode
in him, and the means he uses Is the
Word Of God. "Now are we clean,
said Jesus, through the word l have
spoken unto YOU"
Sanctification in the first case pretty
nearly agrees with justification, which
is instantaneous, but in the second
case it Is continuous and progressive
as the Christian yields himself to the
Holy Spirit, and admits the Word OF
| God into his heart and life.
We now reach the consideration OF
what l think is the deepest truth re.
vealed in the Bible, for the apostle Is
addressing not only the saints which
are at Ephesus, but also the faithful
in Christ Jesus" In other words,
| there are saints and there are faith.
| full saints, the latter being those who
are in the experience Of the process
| just referred to.
Notice the proposition Gin" What
a small word it is, and yet when IT
Is used as here, to indicate the rela-
! ton between Christ and the believer
on Christ, 1t becomes one Of the most
important words in the Bible. How
can one be said to be in Jesus Christ /?
The answer is, just as a member Of
my body can be said to be in me.
Christ Is represented as the head Of
the body, the church, and believers on
him are members of that body. The
relationship thus Is not merely gov
ernmental, but vital.
"FaithfuI In Christ Jesus"
This suggests what 1t means to be
faithful In Christ Jesus" My eye, or
ear, or tongue, or hand, or foot, Is
faithful in me as 1t surrenders itself
to my will, and obeys my behests. This
is what Paul teaches when in Romans
he exhorts Christians to present their
bodies unto God as living sacrifice.
My members should be faithful in me
because ! live and express myself
through them, and for this same rea-
son Christians need to be faithful In
Christ, else how shall he be known
and maintained In the earth?
Here Is lesson for our home life,
oI ri
as we'll. Everyone who knows
Christ should be able to say with the
apostle, For me to live is for Christ
to live"
The chapter now goes on to speak
OF the spiritual blessings the Christian
has In Christ as member OF his
body. All the blessings Of the head
belong to the members. In Christ
they are chosen. redeemed, inherited
and sealed
The teaching Is not only that they
have an Inheritance in God through
Jesus Christ, but that God has an in
heritance In them. And this inheri-
lance he has made sure to himself
and to them by giving them his Holy
Spirit to dwell within them as tho
seal OF his ownership until the re-
demption OF the purchased possession
Il. G., the resurrection and glorifica-
ton Of their bodies.
He who trusts in Christ need not
fear for his ultimate salvation, and
need not doubt the promise of glory.
But the question arises, Have you yet
trusted in Christi The Christ OF the
Bible, mean. not some ideal Christ
such as many ara talking about In
these days.
-