By the Editor
What is Jesus, the Son of God to Me?
MY Dear Friends,
Another month has gone into eternity. Will you, with me, this month, face the solemn question, What is Jesus, the Son of God, to you and me? I want you to share with me the joy of knowing Him, whom to know is life eternal. In the Lord’s Prayer to His Father (John 17:33And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. (John 17:3)), He says, “And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.” This is the foundation truth on which all salvation rests-the knowledge of the Father and the Son, through the teaching of the Holy Spirit. To destroy the truth of that heavenly Oneness (for Jesus said, “I and My Father are One”), has been the aim of Satan for nigh two thousand years. Today the Modernist is preaching the denial of the Deity of Christ, and, inspired by Satan, is using all the logic of “seducing spirits,” to weaken in the minds of men and women their belief in the Oneness of the Father and the Son. These men are not only taking away from themselves all their hopes of salvation, but are leading others in the same darkness of unbelief. Peter says clearly and distinctly in Acts 4:12,12Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12) speaking of the Lord Jesus, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other Name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” This truth in this verse I wholeheartedly believe—I stake my soul for all eternity upon it. It is the rock-foundation, amid all the sandy wastes of error.
Now I will tell you a little what Jesus the Son of God is to me.
He is my Saviour. He has saved me. He has redeemed me with His blood. “He has bought me with a price” (1 Cor. 6:2020For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. (1 Corinthians 6:20)). I am His for time, and for eternity; His in life, and His in death; His here and His hereafter. I was a prisoner, and condemned to death on account of my sins; He came, and wore my chains, and took my place―He bore the judgment of my many sins―yes, He died to set me free from sin. I was lost in the darkness of my guilt, “sitting in darkness, and the shadow of death,” and He sought and found me, and led me into paths of light and peace. I was unhappy, and ill at ease, and He made me happy and cheered me with His own words, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love; fear not, I have redeemed thee, thou art Mine.” Yes, He is my Saviour. Reader! He is willing to be your Saviour, willing to save you. Only those who have a Saviour can enter heaven, where the Saviour is. Have you this Saviour? Jesus is my Friend. Yes, He was my Friend when I was a sinner in my sins. He is called “the Friend... of sinners.” He is my eternal Friend now―One “that sticketh closer than a brother.” There is no friend on earth like Him. I have tried human hearts, and they have often failed me when most I needed them; but His love remains unchanged and unchanging. He has said to me, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” I know that for all eternity He will be my Friend. I have often been in sorrow, and my heart has been sad and sore with trials and temptations, and He has been my support. I have often been weary of the way and longed for rest and home; and He has spoken to my soul of heaven, and the rest to come. He has bidden me lean my head upon His loving breast, and I have felt the everlasting arms around me then. Reader, is He your Friend? Come with me and gaze on Jesus now. See Him ‘mid the glory of heaven! He is there because He has put away sin; He is there to receive the sinner, for whom He died. Gaze upon Him! Believe in Him; come to Him. “He is the chiefest among ten thousand, the altogether lovely.” Is He beautiful to you? Is He dearer than the ones you love best on earth? Can you single Him out from all others, and seat Him on the highest throne in your hearts, and say to one and all, “This is my beloved, and this is my Friend?” God grant that the sinners’ Friend may be your Friend now. It is a glorious truth that enables me to speak of my Saviour as my Friend.
Jesus is my Light. How dark the world would be without Him! How could I find my way did He not shine upon me? When I sat in darkness the Light shone round about me. It showed me myself, and it showed me my Saviour.
There are false lights. As the wreckers in days gone by used to light their cruel false lights along the cliffs on the stormy night to allure the unconscious mariners to destruction, so Satan has his beacon lights that shine upon the cliffs of time.
There is the light of good works, that shines with alluring beam; and many a poor sinner has been lost, lured on to eternal shipwreck by its false guidance. There is the light of forms and ceremonies, a light that dances ‘mid the foam of the waves of spiritual death, that flashes but to lead to destruction. One day all these false lights will be quenched, and only the clear shining of the true light will be left. Christ, the Light of heaven, will glorify eternity; and the children of the Light will be with Him there. Oh! what of you? Do you love darkness better than light? God forbid. Jesus is the Light. Jesus alone can save you, and enlighten your darkness.
Jesus is my all in all. He is the consummation of all joy: the climax of all peace, the everlasting Amen to all the blessedness of heaven. He is all in all to the Christian. We shall see Him, and shall be like Him. We lose ourselves in Christ. “Our life is hid with Christ in God.” There is nothing beyond Christ. The Christian’s eternity is Christ. All the apostle could say of the future was, “To depart and to be with Christ”; and again, “Absent from the body, at home with the Lord.” The Christian looks to the end of life’s journey, and he sees Jesus. God opens the gates of praise and lets out the melody of heaven; and it is, “Unto Him that lo\ eth us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and He made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion, forever and ever, Amen.” Yes, it is nothing but Christ, the beginning and end of all the praise in heaven. God opens the flood-gates of divine love; and the river flows, widening and deepening in an eternity of rapture: “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.” O reader, what is to be the end and purpose of your life? Will you believe this glorious gospel, that makes everything of Christ, and nothing of you apart from Christ?
Oh! glorious gospel, that speaks of eternal happiness; that is eloquent of the love of God; that tells of the sufferings of the Son of God, the Saviour; that speaks of the presence and power of the Holy Ghost! Oh, glorious gospel, that points to a risen, ascended and glorified Christ; that is radiant with the promises of God, and beautified by the invitations of Christ!
Ask yourself, my reader, the question now, What is Jesus, the Son of God, to me?
Dear friend, one solemn text in closing, to show you the doom that will come to you if you follow the Modernist in his contempt of the only and all-sufficient Saviour: “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha (accursed at the Lord’s coming).” 1 Corinthians 16:2222If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha. (1 Corinthians 16:22).)
I leave you, dear friend, facing these solemn words―leave you saying to your heart, I trust, What is the Lord Jesus Christ to me?
Yours for Christ’s sake,
Heyman Wreford.