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Our Divine Redeemer, January 29
Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal
with God.
Philippians 2:6
.
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” (
1 John 3:1
)! ...
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.... The
divinity of Christ is our assurance of eternal life.... He, the Sin Bearer of
the world, is our only medium of reconciliation with a holy God
[36]
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The Youth’s Instructor, February 11, 1897
.
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