The Mind of Christ
The Youth's Instructor
February 11, 1897
The Mind of Christ
"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; who, being in
the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself
of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the
likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."
Jesus Christ "counted it not a thing to be grasped to be equal with
God." Because divinity
alone could be efficacious in the restoration of man from the poisonous bruise
of the serpent, God himself, in his only begotten Son,
assumed human nature, and in the weakness of human nature sustained the
character of God, vindicated his holy law in every particular, and accepted the
sentence of wrath and death for the sons of men. What a thought is this! He who
was one with the Father before the world was made, had such compassion for a
world lost and ruined by transgression, that he gave his life a ransom for it.
He who was the brightness of the Father's glory, the express image of his
person, bore our sins in his own body on the tree, suffering the penalty
of man's transgression until justice was satisfied, and required no more.
How great is the redemption
that has been worked out for us! so great that the Son
of God died the cruel death of the cross, to bring to us life and immortality
through faith in him.
This wonderful problem—how God could be just, and yet
the justifier of sinners—is beyond human ken. As we attempt to fathom it, it
broadens and deepens beyond our comprehension. When we look with the eye of
faith upon the cross of Calvary, and see our sins laid
upon the victim hanging in weakness and ignominy there,—when we grasp the fact
that this is God, the
everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace,—we are led to
exclaim, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon
us!" Christ could at any moment have called legions of angels to his side;
he could have swept every sinner from the face of the earth, and created new
beings by his power; but God so loved the world, degraded as it was by sin,
that "he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him
should not perish, but have everlasting life."
This love, understood by the human agent, gives inexpressible
preciousness and importance to the plan of salvation. It shows him the value
God places upon the creatures of his hand. When man can measure
the exalted character of the Lord of Hosts, and distinguish between the eternal
God and finite humanity, he will know how great has been the sacrifice of
Heaven to bring man from where he has fallen through disobedience, to become
part of the family of God. In neglecting the great salvation thus provided, man
throws scorn upon the world's Redeemer.
Looking unto Jesus with the eye of faith, we can exclaim with the psalmist,
"For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see
light." It will require a
sanctified perception to know and acknowledge the existence of Christ
before he clothed his divinity with humanity. The word of God is a bright and
shining light upon the pathway of the student who will study it with prayer.
The divinity of Christ
is our assurance of eternal life. "For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God
giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. The Father loveth
the Son, and hath given all things into his hand. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life;
but the wrath of God abideth on him." He, the sin-bearer of the world, is
our only medium of reconciliation with a holy God. But there are some who deny
the divinity of Christ. They do not realize the sacredness of the word of the
infinite God. That word opens to them the mystery of the
incarnation of Christ. But unless the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness
illuminate its pages, revealing by the
Spirit the relation which Christ sustains to God and to humanity, it will
remain a mystery to them, and will not be accepted as truth.
But with this light
upon it, those things that have been hidden for ages are revealed.
Yet while the word of God explains the doctrines of Christ, and clearly points
out every step which it is essential for sinners to take in the plan of
salvation, it does not satisfy the curiosity that would pry into those things
which the Lord has reserved unto himself.
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