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The Pre-eminence of the Lord Jesus Christ
and His Coming Glory
by Arno C. Gaebelein
"Who is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in
heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones,
or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and
for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is
the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the
dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence." Colossians 1:15-18.
We meet in this Prophetic Conference to exalt
and glorify one Person and one Name, the Name which is above every other Name.
And He whom we desire and delight to honor is in our midst, for He has said
"Where two or three are gathered together in my Name, there am I in the midst"
and again "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." May we
remember in each service that the unseen One, our Saviour-Lord is with us.
There was a brief moment in the earthly life
of our Lord, when suddenly His garb of humiliation was changed into glory. It
took place upon that mountain where He had taken His three disciples. All at
once the glory of the Father covered Him. His blessed face shone like the sun
and His raiment was white as light. That transfiguration glory was the foregleam
of His coming glory. Such is His glory now at the right hand of God; with such
glory He is, some day, coming back to earth again.
Yet it was then that human lips uttered words
which marred that glory. Peter said "Lord, it is good for us to be here." He
suggested to make this glory permanent. He spoke as if there could be glory
without suffering, a crown without a cross. Greater still was his mistake when
he added "If thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, one
for Moses, and one for Elias." What was his error? He put the Lord of glory into
the company of mortal, sinful men, such as Moses and Elias were. He lowered His
dignity and glory. It was therefore while He was yet speaking that the voice of
another was heard. It was a voice which spoke from above. It was the voice of
God the Father vindicating the honor and glory of His own Son, the Lord Jesus.
Listen! "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him." Not a
man like other men; not a saint like other saints; not a lawgiver like Moses;
not a prophet or reformer like Elias, but my beloved Son.
What was suggested on that mountain by Peter,
to place the Lord on the same level with other men, is the common thing today
throughout Christendom. They call Him the carpenter, the man of Galilee, a good
man, a great man, the best of man. They place Him alongside of Buddha, Confucius
and Socrates. In doing this His fullest glory is denied and the Lord of all is
dishonored.
The portion of the Scriptures read at this
time tells us that pre-eminence belongs to our Lord Jesus Christ. In all things
He has the pre-eminence. Let us then see the sevenfold pre-eminence of our Lord
we find revealed in the Bible.
1. His is first of all the pre-eminence in
creation.
Creation itself is for man an unsolvable mystery. How did the things we see,
this earth, the universe the fathomless heavens with their millions of stars
come into existence? When and how did it all originate? Is matter eternal or had
it a beginning? What is the future of this universe? These are but a few of the
many questions which man has asked. Sages and philosophers of all races and ages
have been occupied with such questions concerning the origin of creation. It
would greatly amuse us if we were to state some of the utterly ridiculous
theories which great thinkers of different nations in the past invented to
explain how things seen came into existence. Not less foolish is the theory
which is so widely taught throughout our country, in our schools and colleges —
the so-called evolution theory. It is nothing less than an attempt to find some
other cause for the existence of nature than nature's God as revealed in His
infallible Word. Without answering the claims of evolution let me give you two
reasons why a Christian must reject it.
In the first place the evolution theory makes
God the author of evil. He must be held responsible for all the misery, sorrow,
suffering and death which are in the world today, for He Himself imparted it
when He started the supposed protoplasm evolving. If that were true then God
would indeed be the author of all the horrors in the world and man would be
without any responsibility at all. And furthermore evolution knows no remedy for
the evil which is in creation. It denies and rejects the great redemption as
made known in the Gospel of God.
If the creature is to know anything about
creation, since searching cannot find it out, it must be made known by
revelation. And such a revelation we have in the Bible.
"In the beginning God created the heaven and
the earth." Creation is the work of God. When we examine the New Testament
Scriptures we discover that creation is ascribed to the Son of God. What a great
statement we have here in the Epistle to the Colossians, who like so many
professing Christians today, had listened to false teachers and were being
misled by evil doctrines. Listen again. "For by Him [the Son of God] were all
things created, that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible
... all things were created by Him and for Him." Was this the opinion of the
Apostle Paul? How could he ever have made such a great statement unless God
revealed it unto him by His Spirit! Nor is he the only writer of the New
Testament who makes this known. John in the beginning of his gospel gives the
same testimony. "All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything
made that was made." And again, "The world was made by Him." John 1:3,10. From
these inspired statements we learn that the pre-eminence in creation belongs to
Him whom we worship as our Saviour-Lord. Therefore all who believe the Bible
believe on Him as the omnipotent Lord, the creator of all things.
Nor must we forget how wonderfully He
manifested the Creator's power and the attributes of the Godhead when He walked
among men in deepest humiliation in the form of a servant. That humble Nazarene,
as they called Him, displayed omnipotence. Look at Him as majestically He spoke
to the waves and the wind with His command "Peace, be still." The wind was
hushed; the waves became a calm. Who else but the Creator, who made the sea,
could do this? And so it took the power of an omnipotent One to change the water
into wine. And look again and see sickness and pain banished by the loving touch
of His hand; and more than that He raised the dead. How great too was His
omniscience! He knew the secret thoughts of His disciples and the plotting's of
His enemies so that His own confessed "Lord, Thou knowest all things." Away then
with the miserable and lying inventions of the enemy, so prominent in the
twentieth century, by which it is claimed that Christ was only divine in the
sense as every other human being possesses divinity and other inventions which
deny His Godhead and rob Him of His highest glory.
2. He also has the pre-eminence as the
Upholder and Sustainer of all things.
The Bible tells us that "by Him all things consist" and that He "upholds all
things by the Word of His power." It means that He sustains this universe, that
without Him all would collapse. He occupies a throne and in His hands rests all
power. Well may we remember this in days when thrones crumble into dust, when
everything is shaken, and testing times are upon man and man's government as
never before, that there is a throne which cannot be shaken, nor can it be
affected by what is going on down here. His throne is an everlasting throne of
righteousness, and ultimately righteousness will be victorious. The Son of God
our Lord has the pre-eminence in government, upholding and sustaining His
creation. And think of it child of God, that He is your Lord. The hands which
uphold all things uphold His people down here in conflict, in sorrow and in
every trial.
3. But furthermore He has the pre-eminence in
the Bible, the revelation of God.
And well it is that we speak of this blessed Book as the infallible, the
inerrant Word of God. How tersely it was put some two years ago by our good
President Mr. Woodrow Wilson when he penned the inscription for the soldiers New
Testaments, beginning with this statement "The Bible is the Word of life" and
closing with the testimony "The Bible is the Word of God." Well said — the
Bible, the Word of Life and the Word of God. Many voices throughout Christendom
ridicule and deny these statements, which embody the faith of our fathers. They
tell us that perhaps the Bible contains here and there some kind of a
revelation, but they claim it takes scholarship to ascertain what is really
truth and what is merely human opinion, myth or legend. And blessed little
scholarship some of these critics possess. The solid truth the Bible is the Word
of God, as God's people always believed, has been changed to a statement of
camouflage — the Bible contains the Word of God. How prominently the horrors of
the past four years are connected with the rejection of this Book divine as
God's Word and God's revelation must be clear to every thinking Christian.
Destructive Criticism and the new Theology robbed Germany of the faith in the
Word of God and the Gospel of Christ; and then they were, under Satanic
delusion, plunged into that which outraged the laws of God and man. Let a nation
stand by the Bible as the Word of God; honor the Bible, read the Bible, believe
the Bible and its message of God's love in His Son and that nation will always
prosper. And here permit me to say that we have a message to give from the
President. We wrote Mr. Wilson asking him for a message to this Bible
Conference. His Secretary replied that on account of the pressure of his
official life he could not do so, but sent instead the copy of an address he
delivered several years ago, with the permission to use anything of it. Let me
then read to you this sentence and let us consider it as his message. "I have a
very simple thing to ask of you. I ask every man and woman in this audience that
from this night on they will realize that part of the destiny of America lies in
their daily perusal of this great book of revelation — the Holy Scriptures."
Our good Vice-President Mr. Thomas R. Marshall
sent from Washington to the speaker a direct message. He writes "Out of the
Babel of tongues now in the world proclaiming — Lo here is salvation, lo there
is salvation — all history proves that the only sure salvation for the
individual or the nation is the knowledge of and obedience to the revealed Word
of God. Read it. Strive to obey it."
In this wonderful Book the Son of God, our
Lord Jesus Christ has the place of pre-eminence. Years ago a certain father
brought home to his children a children's game by which he intended to teach
them the geography of our land. It consisted of a paste board map of the United
States, cut up in small pieces of different shape. They were to fit piece to
piece till the map was reconstructed. It took them five minutes to complete the
task. And when the father inquired how they succeeded so soon, they turned the
map over. On the other side was the figure of George Washington. All they did
was to put the man together, the arms and legs, hands and feet; and thus the
difficulty of the map on the other side was completely solved. In this Book of
all books there is revealed a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He
is the key to the Scriptures. Not "Science and Health" as it is claimed is the
key to the Scriptures, nor the mad ravenings of Russellism, or any other ism,
but the Lord Jesus Christ is the key to the whole revelation of God, the key
which unlocks the treasure house of God to the human soul. Wherever we turn in
this Book, which has outlived every attack, the anvil upon which infidelity has
broken its hammers, we behold this majestic Person and all His glory.
From the Book of Genesis, the book of the
beginnings of all things, to the great capstone, the Book of Revelation with its
unveiling of the future, He stands out in solitary majesty. Moses speaks of Him;
every prophet tells out His matchless person, His work and His glory. We see Him
and His work in the offerings and sacrifices, in Israel's earthly worship, in
historical events — His face may be seen on every page in this Book. And then
the names He bears! Hundreds of names which tell out His worth, His love, His
grace as well as His glory.
Christian! Whenever you read your Bible, and
daily you must read it prayerfully if your Christianity is to be a reality, look
always first for Himself. Remember the written Word makes known to your soul the
living Word, the Son of God. He Himself said concerning the Scriptures "They
testify of Me." Approach then this Book with the simple prayer "Father by Thy
Spirit show me Christ and His glory, show me Him who is altogether lovely." Pray
this and you will never pray in vain.
4. But let us see next His pre-eminence in
Redemption.
Man is the lost creature of God. Man is a sinner and alienated from God,
destitute of righteousness; he is in the place of death and therefore on the
road to an eternity of darkness and separation from God. Man therefore needs
redemption. He cannot redeem himself. Well did Job cry out, uttering the old,
old question "How should man be just with God?" And afterward he confessed the
hopelessness of his own efforts when he said "if I wash myself with snow water
and make my hands never so clean, Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch and mine
own clothes shall abhor me." Job 9:30-31. Nor can an angel or any other created
being redeem and save man from the horrible place into which sin has brought
him. If man is to be redeemed, God must do it Himself. The One who alone is able
to redeem and to save man is the Son of God, the Lord of Creation. To accomplish
the great work of redemption He left the bosom of God. He left the glory behind
and came down to this earth of sin and death. He who was rich became poor. Born
of the Virgin He became man and as the God-man He lived that perfect life, that
holy life, that blessed life, that life of trust and obedience and in it all He
made God, the invisible God known to man. He brought God to man but to bring man
back to God something else besides incarnation and a holy life was needed.
Redemption could only be procured for a guilty race by the Cross. On that cross,
He who knew no sin was made sin for us. There He met and owned God's Holiness
and righteousness — there He took the sinners place in judgment. On that cross
He was forsaken of a holy God and all the waves and billows of divine judgment
passed over His head. On that cross He paid the price of redemption and shed His
precious blood, by which the believing sinner is cleansed from all sin and put
beyond condemnation. Oh that wonderful Cross with its wonderful work!
A few months ago I looked once more upon that
great, majestic mountain on the pacific coast, Mount Rainier. Twilight came on.
And then the great giant, towering almost fifteen thousand feet above sea level,
with its summit capped in eternal ice and snow, was suddenly glorified by the
rays of the setting sun. The summit seemed partly bathed in blood red and over
yonder the red merged into a tinge of yellow like shining gold. And as I looked
upon it the Cross came back to my mind, the cross on which the Lord of Glory
died. Calvary is such a peak reaching from earth to heaven. The blood was given
there and the glory secured. In that cross His glory as the redeemer is made
known, the Lamb of God who meets perfectly God's righteousness and reveals His
great love. What a glory then is His through the work of the Cross! He has, by
His work, procured the power to bring sinners from eternal night to eternal
light, from eternal shame to eternal glory, from the dunghill of sin and death
to the throne of life and glory. And that cross can never lose its glory. It can
never be dimmed; its glory will never diminish; it can never be forgotten in all
eternity, even as it was known from before the foundation of the world.
And therefore He has the pre-eminence in
redemption. There is no salvation in any other "for there is none other name
under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." Acts 4:12. There is but
one way to glory and that is the way of the cross, to believe on the Son of God
who died for our sins. All who will be in the Father's house were brought there
through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every other gospel, so called,
salvation by character or the new thought gospel, or anything else is a
miserable counterfeit. And that includes the foolish invention, which for a time
became so popular in Great Britain, that the soldier who dies on the battlefield
goes straight to glory because he gave his life in a good cause. No! a thousand
times No! Christ alone can save. His then is the pre-eminence in redemption.
5. There is another pre-eminence, His
pre-eminence as the risen Man in glory.
We speak of the created heavens. But there is also an uncreated Heaven. God is a
Person. He has no beginning. For Him there must have been a dwelling place
before all time and all creation. That place is the third heaven, the uncreated
heaven. When the Son of God had finished the work and God raised Him from the
dead, He passed through the heavens and entered into the heaven of heavens.
There He received as the risen Man, in His glorified body the highest place
which God could give to Him. He seated Him at His own right hand in the heavenly
places, far above all principality, and power, and might and dominion, and every
name that is named, not only in this world but also in that which is to come. He
put all things under His feet. And now as the glorified Man He fills the throne,
angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto Him. There too He
receives the homage of the heavenly hosts. All heaven glorifies and adores Him.
In such glory John in the isle of Patmos beheld Him when He saw Him in the midst
of the golden candlesticks. Wonderful sight to see the One whom Isaiah announced
as the Wonderful, the Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the
Prince of Peace, to see Him, who was once made a little lower than the angels
for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, to see Him as the
Priest in yonder Holiest ever living and interceding for His own blood bought
people.
6. There is also His pre-eminence in the new
Creation.
The old creation has upon it the stamp of sin and death, the new creation is
life and glory. The only way which leads into this new creation is the new
birth. To belong to the new creation one has to be in Christ. "Therefore if any
man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all
things are become new." 2 Cor. 5:17. He is both, the author of this new
creation, and the Head of it. All sinners saved by grace form the body of
Christ, which is the church and He is the head of that body. He sustains and
keeps and ministers to this spiritual body as He sustains His physical creation.
And some coming day this new creation will be complete. The redeemed body will
be joined to the glorified head, the Lord Jesus Christ. All the redeemed will
share His glory.
When that blessed consummation comes then His
pre-eminence in that new Creation will be acclaimed in that never ending glory
song "Thou art worthy ... for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by
thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast
made us unto God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth." Rev. 5:9.
And hear how this hymn of worship and praise increases, rises higher and higher
in the coming day of glory. "And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels
round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was
ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; Saying with a loud
voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and
wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing." Rev. 5:11-12. Such
is His glory which He will receive as the pre-eminent One in the new creation,
the head of the body. And this is the glory which awaits all who are in Christ.
Oh, the blessed thought that some day we shall see Him as He is! Oh, how it
thrills the heart to think that we shall look into that face of glory, that we
all shall have a face to face meeting with the Lord of glory, the pre-eminent
Christ! And what a destiny it is to be ultimately like Him, to share the vast
inheritance of glory with Him and to live on, and on, and on in the glory
fellowship with the Lord.
7. Finally He will receive the pre-eminence as
King of kings and Lord of lords over this earth.
This is His coming, future glory. What will the future bring for this earth and
the human race? This has been and is still the important question all thinking
people ask. Throughout the past four years of the world war with its unspeakable
horrors and suffering, uncountable thousands have asked "what shall be the end
of these things?" And now that victory has come, autocracy is dethroned and
democracy is enthroned, we still have our questions concerning the future. Will
the coming league of nations maintain peace on earth? Will the sword never again
be unsheathed? Listen to wise words of another, I believe spoken from the
platform of this great hall. Col. Roosevelt said: "Let us never forget that any
promise that such a league of nations or any other piece of machinery, will
definitely do away with war, is either sheer nonsense or rank hypocrisy." Very
true Mr. Roosevelt! What about the dark shadow of lawlessness, the beast of the
pit which despises all government and would sweep away every law and order?
Indeed never before in the history of this age has the human race faced such
problems and perplexities as we face today. It is as our Lord told us. "...Upon
the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;
Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are
coming on the earth..." Luke 21:25-26. What then is the future to bring for this
earth and the people upon it? No Christian needs to speculate about it, for we
have a sure word of prophecy in which the Lord, who knows the end from the
beginning, has revealed the future. Oh! the pity that the church of Jesus Christ
has neglected this magnificent portion of God's holy Word, so full of light, of
hope and comfort.
This Word
tells us all about the things to come. It tells us that the time will come when
Monarchies and democracies will give way to another form of government. God
Himself will set up on this earth a Kingdom, the Kingdom of heaven, the Kingdom
of the Son of His Love, the Kingdom of righteousness and peace. A Kingdom will
ultimately come into which all the nations of the earth will be gathered, a
Kingdom which extends from sea to sea, in which nations learn war no more; a
Kingdom in which God's will is done as it is done in heaven. And God's Word is
equally clear how that Kingdom comes. Not by the efforts of man; not by the
progress of civilization; not by reformation or education. Not even by the work
of the church. That Kingdom comes when the Lord Jesus Christ comes back to earth
again. Some day these heavens will be covered with His glory and He who lived
once upon this earth, who died the sinners death, was raised from the dead and
ascended upon high, He who is now at the right hand of God, yea this same Jesus,
will come again. Then He receives that Kingdom and the glory time for this poor
world will come. But above all it will be His glory time, for He who was once
crowned with thorns will then be crowned the Lord of all. These great, forgotten
and neglected truths will be more fully unfolded in this conference. Before our
brother Dr. Torrey speaks to us on "that blessed Hope" let me ask you this
question. In all things the Lord Jesus has the pre-eminence, have you given Him
the pre-eminence, the first place in your life? He is your creator, your
sustainer, your Saviour, the Lord who loves you. Why then is He not the
pre-eminent One in your life? No real happiness, no real peace and joy can you
know till you give Him the pre-eminence, as your Saviour and your Lord. All our
troubles and difficulties in our Christian lives have but one source — we have
never crowned Him Lord of all in our lives. This very first meeting give Him the
pre-eminent place in your heart and
life.
Copied from Christ and Glory...
Addresses delivered at the New York Prophetic Conference, Carnegie Hall,
November 25-28, 1918. Edited by Arno C. Gaebelein. New York: Publications Office
"Our Hope," [1919]. |
