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 Excerpt from devotional "The Hidden Life"

This author was named Adolph Saphir and he was a Jewish man of the last century who was saved along with his natural family - father, mother, brothers and sisters. It's no real big thing he wrote here but sometimes things just bless you you know. This is from a chapter from his devotional and this chapter was titled "The Experienced Reality of Revelation." Amen for the word revealed to us by a risen Christ!

(BEGIN)
How gladly do we then receive the mystery of His death and resurrection, that by the sacrifice of Himself Jesus has clearly taken away all that separates us from God, and has Himself become the new and living way of access unto the Father; that by His resurrection He became the First-born among many brethren, and that, as the quickening Spirit, He is now our life.

Here is the point from which all revelation is seen as possible and real. It was only after the disciples understood the mystery of Christ's death and resurrection, that they "understood the Scriptures." The had always believed the Scriptures to be the "oracles of God," and regarded them with profound veneration as the very word of the Most High. They had gathered around Jesus, drawn by the sweet and irresistible magnet of His light and love, and an inward conviction made them exclaim joyfully, "We have found the Messiah - Him of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write!" And yet, as the evangelist John testifies, they did not know the Scripture, even when the words and facts, which they heard and saw, were the clearest and fullest comment on the written record. "Jesus spake of the temple of His body....When therefore He was risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this unto them; and they believed the Scripture, and the Word which Jesus had said."

The same misconception, which fancies a collocation of Messianic passages, and their fulfillment in the New Testament, is all that is needed to convince a Jew of the truth of Christianity, prevents a realization of the manner in which the apostles believed. The Messianic passages are indeed numerous, forcible, and, viewed in their connection, they form the grand foundation of apostolic doctrine. But, excepting acquaintance with their general tenor, and the expectation of the Messiah, we may say it was Jesus who led the disciples to the Messianic passages, and not the observed fulfillment of the predictions which brought the disciples to the Lord.

It is the risen Saviour who explains to us the mystery, :through suffering unto glory.” This is the key, and the only one which opens to us the Scriptures. Jesus is the true David, who possesses the key. And while He thus speaks, our hearts burn within us; and it is the glowing heart which receives the indelible impression: Jesus is the Christ of Scripture, and Scripture is the word of God. As truly is Jesus is the Word, the Son of God, the Saviour sinners, the source of resurrection-life, so true is it that the Scripture is the divinely-given record, testifying of Him.

"Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day." This is the strong and indissoluble, the tender and thrilling bond, which connects our deepest experience of the revelation love of God in Christ Jesus, with the inspired Scriptures. Our communion with Jesus introduces us into the full acceptance of the divine record. And as Jesus, in whose name we pray, and who is the fulfillment of our petitions, prayed Himself, and thus is the true Mediator, so Jesus, sum and substance, centre and glory, of the written Word, lived Himself in the constant faith, meditation, and comfort of the Scriptures, and thus leads all His disciples to be followers of Him, knowing the Scriptures and the power of God.

Now Scripture is seen in its beauty, and we feel at home in this vast and magnificent temple. From the height of God’s eternal counsel, and out of the depth of God’s infinite love, Scripture beholds all things, comprehends all ages, and is sufficient for the guidance and perfecting of souls in all generations.

But while we thus stand in awe, beholding the grandeur and infinite depth of the Scripture as one organic spirit-built temple, and the beauty, perfection, and exquisite skill which characterize the most minute portion of this structure, we feel at home as in a peaceful and fragrant garden. We see Jesus, the Centre, and though many things are obscure, and all things of unfathomable depth, yet all is full of light and peace.

And this also betokens the divine origin of Scripture, that while it forms one organism, every portion of it is complete, is spirit and life. All ages of the Church cannot exhaust its fullness, and yet Timothy knows it from a little child, and is made wise unto salvation. To take comprehensive views is granted unto us at times, but one single verse or psalm, one name of God or promise, brings unto us, as it were, the power and consolation of the whole. Nothing made of man possesses this wonderful peculiarity of the Spirit’s work.

There is no book which so reveals to us our inmost self - sin in its depth of guilt and misery - and which at the same time testifies of the love of God, redeeming, healing, and restoring. Nowhere but here do we see the depth of the fall, and the height of glory to which God is His omnipotent grace raises redeemed man. The grandeur of the remedy both unfolds the depth of our misery, and comforts us in our sorrow. Men have often pointed out the sinfulness and wretchedness of man, and they either degrade him, forgetting his high nature and destiny, or leave him in despondency. Where else but in this divine Word do we learn the dignity and elevation of humility before God; so that, lying at the footstool of divine mercy, the contrite and broken heart does not feel degraded, but exalted? Where but here do we see man raised to communion with the Most High - yea, to union with the incarnate Son of God - and yet retain the spirit of lowliness, of self-condemnation, of utter dependence on divine grace? It is this combination of the full revelation of our sin, disease, and misery, and of the abundant grace of God, which produces in us, in our inmost soul, the assured conviction of the divine authority of Scripture, of God’s own voice speaking to us in this inspired Word.




:-)


_________________
David Winter

 2008/5/4 11:06Profile





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