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He Represents the Father, January 22
O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee,
and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them
thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou has loved me may
be in them, and I in them.
John 17:25, 26
.
Christ came into the world to represent the Father to man; for Satan had presented
Him before the world in a false light. Because God is a God of justice, of terrible
majesty, who has power to destroy as well as to preserve man, Satan caused men to
regard Him with fear, to look upon Him as a tyrant. Jesus had been with the Father
from the everlasting ages, before the creation of man, and He came to reveal the
Father, declaring, “God is love.” Jesus represented God as a kind Father, who careth
for the subjects of His kingdom. He declared that not a sparrow falls to the ground
without the notice of the Father, and that the children of men are of more value in
His sight than many sparrows, that the very hairs of their head are all numbered.
The Lord is represented in the Old Testament as well as in the New Testament
not only as a God of justice but as a Father of infinite love. The psalmist says: “The
Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.... The Lord is
merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.... He hath not dealt
with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven
is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him”....
Satan had clothed the Father in his own attributes, but Christ represented Him
in His true character of benevolence and love. In the character in which Christ
presented Him to the world it was as if He gave a new gift to man....
The Son of God declared in positive terms that the world was destitute of the
knowledge of God; but this knowledge was of the highest value, and it was His
own peculiar gift, the inestimable treasure which He brought into the world. In the
exercise of His sovereign prerogative He imparted to His disciples the knowledge
of the character of God, in order that they might communicate it to the world....
Everyone who believes the message of God should lift up Jesus, point men to Christ,
and say, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world”....
The soul imbued with the love of Christ is one with Him; he communes with
Christ, Christ is formed within, the hope of glory, and the Christian goes forth to
represent the Father and the Son to the world (
The Signs of the Times, June 27,
1892
).
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