FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
September 1
CHRIST UPLIFTED: ‘BEHOLD THE SON OF MAN’-NOT THE ‘MAN OF SIN’! (Part 15)
Before the night time one-soul audience of Nicodemus with Christ, He had just shocked Jerusalem with His first dramatic public purging of the Jerusalem temple during the Passover feast. See John 2: 13-25. Now this:
“The Jews whom Jesus had driven from the temple claimed to be CHILDREN OF ABRAHAM, but they had fled from the Savior’s presence because they could NOT ENDURE the GLORY of God which was manifested in Him [One of the occasions when Christ’s undiminished yet quiescent divinity flashed through humanity].
Thus they have evidence that they such professed ‘children of Abraham’ or the ‘chosen people’] were NOT FITTED BY THE GRACE OF GOD to participate in the sacred services in the temple. They were zealous to maintain an APPEARANCE OF HOLINESS, but they neglected HOLINESS OF HEART.
While they were sticklers for the LETTER of the law, they were constantly violating its SPIRIT. [‘The letter killeth but the spirit giveth life.’ 2 Cor. 3: 6]. The GREAT NEED was that very CHANGE which Christ had been explaining to Nicodemus—a NEW MORAL BIRTH, a cleansing from sin [transgression of God’s law], and a renewing of knowledge and holiness.”- The Desire of Ages, pp. 173, 174. New Ed., 13th Printing, April 1950, PPA.
(To be continued). God bless all, NMF.