The first chapter of John is considered one of the primary proof texts of the commonly-accepted doctrine of the Preexistence of Christ — i.e., that Christ had a personal, individual, and sentient existence before his conception and birth; indeed, that he was coexistent with the Father as a second person of the “trinity”.

Christadelphians often seek to refute this teaching, in John 1 at least, by asserting that the “Word” was not Christ literally, but the “Idea” or “Logos” of Christ, existing in the mind of the Father long before his conception and birth of the Son, and that this Idea found expression in Jesus when he was born (v 14?), as the embodiment of the Purpose of Almighty God.

This general idea — that the “Word” of God from the beginning (the Law and the prophets of the OT) described and pointed toward the Messiah who was yet to come — is certainly correct, but… is that what this passage is about?

The usual Christadelphian approach to John 1 is to assume that (1) “beginning” refers to Genesis 1, or earlier, and that (2) “Word” therefore cannot refer literally to Christ, at least at that “beginning”.

The following is a slightly different approach, which (1) has no problem with the “Word” being a title of Christ, but (2) interprets “beginning” in an entirely different way:

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Joh 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (NIV).

The word for “beginning” is the Greek “archee”; signifying “first in order”, from the root “arch, archon” = a ruler. “The beginning” is a characteristic phrase of John, referring to the beginning of the NEW CREATION in Christ: consider carefully Joh 15:27; 16:4; 8:25; 6:64; 1Jo 1:1; 2:7,13,14,24; 2Jo 1:6. [Notice in some of these passages that the KJV translation shows certain words italicized, and that omitting these words actually enhances the sense of the passages.]

The “beginning” of the Gospel of John is obviously patterned after the “beginning” of Genesis — hence there is much similarity of language, and connection of ideas. But it is the beginning of a new, or spiritual “creation” in Christ. As there was a Sun, created and ordained in the heavens by God, in the Genesis-beginning when He decreed, “Let there be light”, so likewise… “In the (new, spiritual) beginning” God testified of Christ: “Let there be light” (cp Gen 1:3 with 2Co 4:6; Mat 4:17; Mar 1:1; Luk 1:1,2; Act 10:37), and this time a new spiritual Light came into the world. And so God made and ordained His Son Jesus Christ the “beginning” and the first cause of His new spiritual creation (Rev 3:14).

It is instructive and significant that each gospel begins with a “beginning”: cp Mat 1:1 (genesis); Mar 1:1 (archee); Luk 1:3 (anothen); and that the four gospel accounts are placed at the head of the New Testament. Here, in the coming of His Son, God has begun the work of His new, spiritual, “creation” — the corner piece, the foundation stone of which is His Son.

As a separate point, it may be noted how often the Greek “ktisis” (creation) — when used in the NT — signifies, not the material, physical creation of Genesis, but the new, spiritual creation, in Christ, of regenerated and forgiven men and women who bear his name.

Jesus was the “Word of God”

Jesus was a man (Act 2:22; 1Ti 2:5; Rom 8:3; Heb 2:14) who spoke God’s words (Joh 8:28; 7:16). Thus, one of his names is “the word of God” (1Jo 1:1; Rev 19:13; 1:2 — there are only three other instances of John’s use of the phrase “word of God”, all referring to Christ personally). In Greek philosophy, “logos” means an impersonal, abstract wisdom; but in Hebrew thought, “logos” refers to God Himself. Yahweh is the source of all wisdom! Here in John 1 “logos” occurs with the definite article (“ho”) which serves to strengthen its meaning. Hence, ‘THE Word’ can also be seen to be THE “Divine Expression”. Christ was exactly this. It was in Christ that God fully revealed Himself to mankind. It was through Christ’s life and mission that God expressed and illustrated His new covenant, showing us the better way — which is the power of salvation for those who believe.

Jesus as the “Word” was “with” God. The Greek “pros” signifies facing toward or moving toward.

“The Word was God”

As John used the definite article (“ho”) to strengthen the meaning of “logos”, so here there is no definite article: i.e., “THE word” was not THE God personally, but rather “of God”, or “godly”, or A (manifestation of) God. (In v 14 John writes, “We beheld his glory”, i.e., the glory of the One who came from God, and was thus “divine”.) This phrase is translated, “The word was DIVINE” (Moffatt). John is affirming Christ’s divinity, not his deity. Christ was the Son of God, the ‘Divine Expression’ from heaven which dwelt among us, “the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being” (Heb 1:3).

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Joh 1:2: “He was with God in the beginning.”

This verse may be understood most literally if we define and circumscribe “beginning” to mean to the beginning of the “New Creation” in Christ. Truly Christ was with the Father in all the work of the New, spiritual, Creation in Himself; he was the prototype and the catalyst; such a Creation could not be without him!

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Joh 1:3: “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”

There is plainly an intended, and extended, parallel between the material creation of Gen 1 and the spiritual creation of new men and women in Christ: Col 1:15-18; 3:10; 2Co 5:17; 4:6; 1Pe 1:23; 1Co 8:6. “All things” refer to men and women (Joh 5:17,20,21; 3:35; 13:3; 16:14,15; 17:10; Col 1:16; Eph 3:9). Cp 1Co 8:6: “To us there is but one God the Father, of whom are ALL THINGS (even we unto him), and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are ALL THINGS (even we through him).”

“Without him nothing was made”

There should be a period (full stop) here. “Without me you can do nothing” (Joh 15:5). Then there is required a slight rearrangement, repunctuation, and retranslation of the text, which puts together the last portion of our v 3 with the first bit of v 4, and yields:

“That which has been made (v 3b) was life in him (v 4a).”

Should this relative clause [‘that (or what) has been made’] go with v 3 or with v 4? The earliest NT manuscripts had no punctuation. Many of the later manuscripts — which do have punctuation marks — place the equivalent of a period before this phrase, thus putting it with v 4.

It has even been suggested that the editors of some later manuscripts introduced their own unusual punctuation to place this phrase (wrongly) at the end of v 3 (as it appears in most modern translations); and that this was done in a specific attempt to bolster the erroneous doctrine of the “Trinity” during the so-called “Arian controversy” of the 4th century — in other words, to suggest that Jesus Christ himself was the Creator (or was with the Creator) in Genesis.

So the whole of these verses should probably read:

“Through him (ie, Christ himself) all things were made. Without him (Christ) nothing was made. What has been made was ‘life in him’, and that life was the light of men.”

Read this way, it may be seen that John’s focus is unequivocally on the spiritual creation (‘life in HIM) and not the earlier, physical, creation of Genesis.

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Joh 1:4: “In him was life, and that life was the light of men.”

“What was made was life in him” (RV footnote).

“That life was the light of men” proves that this is spiritual life, which is produced by the light of God’s word — not natural life! And thereby are set the parameters of “beginning” and “creation” in this passage: the “beginning” of God’s revelation of His Son to the world, and the new, spiritual “creation” of believers in him.

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Joh 1:5: “The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood {or overcome] it.”

Briefly this states a parable of the Gospel: the epic battle between light and darkness: Jesus = the light, and the Pharisees, etc = the darkness. Cp 2Co 4:3,6.

“Understood” is the Greek “katalambano”, which may be “comprehended” (Act 4:13; 10:34) or “overcome” (RV mg). God’s word will not return to Him void (Isa 55:7; 1Th 5:4). Both meanings are relevant: the enemies of Christ did not “understand” him, nor could they “overcome” or defeat him!

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Joh 1:9: “The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.”

Notice: it is the Light [not every man] which was coming into the world (in contrast to the KJV translation): cp Joh 12:46; 16:28.

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Joh 1:10: “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.”

This verse is difficult too, until we recognize that Christ “made” the world in this sense: that his sacrifice was efficacious backward into the past, even for earlier believers in Old Testament times (Rom 3:25; Heb 9:15). Cp vv 3/4: “What was made was life in him”… even for Adam and Abraham. (In this sense, the new or spiritual “creation” did have a sort of beginning — at least prophetically and typically — in the history of God’s covenant peoples in the Old Testament.)

Or, “the world was enlightened through him” (Diag), which is essentially the same thing: spiritual “enlightenment” leads, in faith, to a new and spiritual creation!

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Joh 1:11: “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.”

“He came to his own (‘idia’: neuter plural): i.e., his own land or country; but his own (‘idioi’: masculine plural): i.e., his own people… did not receive him” (John Thomas, Eureka 1:29).

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Joh 1:12: “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…”

Vv 12,13 — looking back to vv 1-4 — describe more literally the “creative process” at the “beginning”. These vv (12,13) demonstrate quite clearly that what is being discussed here is a spiritual “creation”! Those who believe in Christ’s Name are re-created as “children of God”.

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Joh 1:14: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the Only Begotten, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

“The Word became flesh” is here a straightforward reference to Christ’s nature, not merely his birth (cp 1Jo 4:2). God manifested Himself in the flesh of humanity (1Ti 3:16), not in stone (Exo 34:6). Jesus was of David’s seed (Rom 1:3); under a curse (Gal 3:13); being born of a woman, under the law (Gal 4:4); and made “sin” (2Co 5:21). He was of sinful flesh (Rom 8:3); in the likeness of men, of no reputation (Phi 2:7); and like his brethren (Heb 2:17).

The conception of Jesus in the virgin womb is likened to the original “Creation” of Genesis; in fact, it is the beginning of the new, spiritual “creation”: cp Gen 1:2 (the Spirit of God hovering over the waters) like a mother bird brooding over her young: Deu 32:11; Exo 19:4). The words portray the energy-giving presence of God — wrapping, protecting, and caressing the chaos of the unfinished earth as He prepared to complete His creation. And THIS SAME ENERGY IN CREATIVE PROCESS is described in Luk 1:35 (“the Holy Spirit will… overshadow you…”): The language of Gabriel calls to mind that of Genesis (cp Gen 1:2, LXX); the Spirit of God “overshadowing”, or “moving upon” the face of the waters to bring forth life, as a mother hen brooding over her eggs and then her chicks. This is a direct parallel to the natural creation; this is the beginning of the spiritual, or new, creation. It is a picture of vast creative power, yet nonetheless tenderness and love.

“Made his dwelling” is “tabernacled” (RV mg): Exo 25:8,9. Jesus Christ is Immanuel, a sanctuary (Isa 8:14; Exo 33:9; 40:35). The child, and the man, Jesus was set up on earth as the perfect tabernacle or temple, in which the glory of the Father dwelt: Joh 2:19-21; Mat 12:6.

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Joh 1:15: “John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.” ‘ ”

He has “surpassed” me, John said; he stands in front of me, because he was “before me”: “Protos” means: first, in sense of rank. It signifies “first” or “chief”: Mar 6:21; Act 13:50; 17:4; 28:7,17. There are numerous cases of younger men surpassing their older brothers: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, David, etc. Jesus is but one more, and the greatest, of younger men who surpass their elders.

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Joh 1:17: “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

It may be said that the giving of the Law, by which Israel was constituted the people and nation of God, was a continuance of God’s original creation — or even the first, rudimentary, steps of His spiritual creation: men and women were being reconstituted or reborn as His own special family. So it is reasonable that the first, elementary, part of the Spiritual Creation would be seen by John as yet another pattern pointing forward to the fullness of the Spiritual Creation as it would be realized in the Son of God. What Yahweh began in Moses He finished — or rather, will finish — in Christ.

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Joh 1:18: “No one has ever seen God, but the only begotten Son, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.”

The only begotten Son is ‘in the bosom of the Father’, an idiom for closeness or nearness: cp Joh 13:23. (Is this phrase a commentary of John, after the facts of the history, referring to Christ who was then in heaven?)

The Son has declared, or interpreted, the Father. In this final verse of the prologue is the climactic and ultimate statement of the career of the Logos, “the Word of God made flesh”, Jesus of Nazareth. His whole life, all his teachings, and at last and especially his death and resurrection and ascension to heaven, all “expound” or “interpret” his heavenly Father.

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Thus it is possible to read all of John’s Prologue as a statement about Christ, the Logos or “Word” of God in human form and expression, and the work of a new, spiritual Creation which God is carrying on through him. Indeed, this is a “Creation” which is far from finished — but one at which the Father, and the Son, continue to work to this very day. It will not be finished until every last redeemed one has been gathered in the great multitude standing before the throne of God. Indeed, so far as we know, it may not be finished even then!

Its decisions are immutable (Isa 8:20). Its doctrines are holy (Psa 19:80). Its precepts are binding (Deu 6:6). Its histories are true (Isa 55:11). It has light to direct you (Psa 119:105). It has food to nourish you (1Pe 2:2). It has comfort to cheer you (Psa 119:50). It is the traveler’s map (Isa 30:21). It is the pilgrim’s staff (Isa 41:10). It is the soldier’s sword (Eph 6:17). It is the pilot’s compass (John 16:13). It is the river of pleasure (Jer 15:16). It is a mine of wealth (Psa 14:10). Read it to be wise (Isa 55:4). Believe it to be safe (John 5:24). Practice it to be holy (2Co 7:1). Let it fill the memory (2Ti 3:4). Let it guide the feet (Psa 73:24). Let it rule the heart (Rom 10:10).

Jesus was praying during his last evening with his loved ones. He very much needed his Father’s support and that of his disciples. His Father was awake and listening, but his friends fell asleep for “their eyes were heavy” — as undoubtedly were their minds. It had been a long, hard day and all were weary.

To “watch” is defined as “the act or fact of keeping awake, especially of keeping awake and alert, in order to look after, protect or guard”. There are other meanings also, but none that are relative to these verses.

We all spend a lot of time “watching”. We might be clock watchers at school or work; we might be watching children at play; we might be watching TV; we might be watching traffic. The examples could go on and on. We spend a lot of our time watching (and waiting).

One hour… a mere 60 minutes of 60 seconds each… not much of our “threescore years and ten”. But what a long time that hour can be if you’re watching the time and patients ahead of you at the doctor’s office; or it could seem a LONG time if your loved one’s flight was delayed and you are left watching (and waiting).

And yet how short one hour can seem if you’re cramming for a test… or saying goodbye to a loved one.

We know that our Father in heaven has spent countless days and years, watching. He watched “in the beginning” as creation proceeded… for He saw everything that He had made… and it was very good. He watched probably with sadness as Adam and Eve disobeyed and then tried to cover their sin; He watched as wickedness grew upon the earth and Noah and his family were the only ones righteous enough to be saved; He watched as the floodgates of heaven and earth opened up. Yes, He watched throughout countless times… and He watches over us and His land even now.

And there are many examples in Scripture of those who have watched:

Abraham watched as the smoke of the Sodom/Gomorrah area went up as the smoke of a furnace.

Joseph watched his brothers… and his brothers watched him; later Joseph watched over the house of Potiphar and then over the prison house and then over the entire land of Egypt (and the world).

Moses and Israel watched as the Egyptians were destroyed in the Red Sea.

Eli sat watching… his heart trembling for the ark of God.

Saul watched for David… and David watched for Saul.

King Belshazzar watched as the finger of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall… and his knees knocked together in fear.

The examples continue on down to the Pharisees and Sadducees, who watched John the Baptist and then Jesus. They watched him constantly even as he hung on a cross.

But in Mat 26:36-45 Jesus asked his disciples, his friends, to watch with him as he struggled with his humanity there in sad Gethsemane. But they couldn’t and didn’t… not even for just an hour.

And what of us, brothers and sisters? How well do we watch? for an hour? how often do our minds wander during this meeting… during this exhortation… as the emblems are passed?

Can we… do we… give an hour a day for readings? prayer? contemplation of our hope? Or are our thoughts and prayers only fleeting? How many times have we fallen asleep as we said our prayers? An hour isn’t much… indeed, as Duncan Heaster says, “The 6,000 years of humanity is an absolute pin prick in the spectrum of eternity. And our 70 years is even less significant.”

One day soon our 70 years… our brief hour… will be complete, and the kingdom we have prayed for since childhood will be a reality.

“No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch. Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back — whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: Watch” (Mar 13:32-37).

(BBk)

“But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification… Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life” (Rom 5:15-18).

Who wouldn’t want a “free gift”? And that’s what salvation is, isn’t it? The free gift of God, given — like all free gifts — with no strings attached?

Well, let me tell you about “free gifts”. Or, rather, let Wayne tell us about free gifts…

You see, Wayne is a school teacher, a group that haven’t exactly taken a vow of poverty, but they’ve come close! And it certainly was close enough some years ago, when Wayne discovered that, according to a special set of federal guidelines, his beginning teacher’s salary qualified him for a particular government give-away program.

It seems that the federal government, through one of those high-level bureaucratic management decisions, had somehow financed a vast nationwide overproduction of cheese. Millions of pounds of the stuff was stacked up in warehouses around the country, where even with all the proper refrigeration and other precautions it could only be stored for so long.

So what to do? Moving rapidly (for a change?), the federal government let it be known that individuals and families falling below certain levels of annual income would be eligible for… free cheese! And sure enough, Wayne’s full-time teacher salary qualified for this special benefit. Ten pounds of free cheese! What could be better?

Now comes the interesting part.

All you have to do, it turns out, is show up at a certain government building at a certain time, with all the proper paperwork (pay stubs, past years’ tax returns, photo ID, etc), wait in line for what seems an interminable time, answer a number of questions… and then the “free cheese” can be yours… IF you meet all the qualifications!

And so Wayne finally returned home with the free cheese… and a valuable lesson: Very few things in life, certainly very few things of any value, come with no price tag. Even things that are “free” cost something!

And so it is on the infinitely grander scale of human interactions with the Almighty. So it is with what Paul called the “free gift” of justification, or righteousness, or salvation.

What does this “free gift” really cost?

• First, we need to know that we qualify for the “free gift”. So many actually qualify, who never know about it… and they perish for lack of knowledge: how terribly sad!

• Secondly, we need to know where the “free gift” will be dispensed. They don’t just give it away anywhere: you have to know the location. In this case, the “location” is Christ, the mercy-seat of God. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

• Then, of course, we need to know when the “free gift” will be dispensed. And we need to be in the right place at the right time to receive it. Fortunately, there are many “right places” to receive this gift… wherever other believers are gathered together, raising their petitions to heaven, through the one mediator. Or even if the single believer is all alone, on a mountaintop or in a closet, he or she can still find the way to the throne of God: “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb 10:19-22).

• And we must not forget our proper support documents… not pay stubs and tax returns, but our names, through confession and repentance and baptism, properly inscribed on heavenly “documents”: “Rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (Luk 10:20). “But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God… to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven” (Heb 12:22,23).

• Finally… if we are willing to wait, and wait, and wait some more… then, at last, we will receive our “free gift”: “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer” (Rom 12:12). “Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm” (Jam 5:7,8).

Now here’s the marvelous thing. Despite the “price” that must be paid — despite the knowledge, the time, the place, the credentials, the waiting — despite all these “qualifications”, the gift — when it finally comes — will still be a “free gift”. No amount of knowledge, no amount of “good works”, no amount of patient waiting, will ever be enough to “earn” such a gift!

When it comes, it comes from the blessed Hand of a loving Father, who desires that we share all His bounty. But it does not come to those who do not know, it does not come to those who do not act on their knowledge, and it does not come to those who do not wait, patiently and prayerfully, for it. In that sense, it has a real “price tag”! In that sense the “free gift” of eternal life will cost us our whole life: “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his life? Or what can a man give in exchange for his life?” (Mar 8:35-37).

But who wouldn’t gladly pay over his whole life to “buy” such a “free gift”?

My life is but a weaving Between my Lord and me… I may not choose the colors; He knows what they should be. For he can view the pattern Upon the upper side, While I can see it only On this, the underside.

Sometimes He weaveth sorrow, Which seemeth strange to me; But I will trust His judgment And work on faithfully. ‘Tis He who fills the shuttle. He knows just what is best. So I shall weave in earnest and leave to Him the rest.

Not till the loom is silent And the shuttles cease to fly, Shall God unroll the canvas, And explain the reason why The dark threads are as needful In the weaver’s skillful hand As the threads of gold and silver In the pattern He has planned.

When there is a failure to maintain the principle of balance, the greatest danger is that the very first principles of right conduct may be neglected, while all attention is bestowed upon matters of little importance which for the moment chance to loom large.

This indifference to essentials and scrupulous whitening of exteriors is such a common failing of humanity that we can gather lessons from almost all parts of history. The essentials do not change. They can be expressed in a few laws, perfectly beautiful, appealing to our intelligence so completely that no man dares to call them in question. They are never disputed, but they are continually obscured and thrust into the background by mutable man – made laws.

The essential duties enumerated by the prophet Micah are substantially the same as those laid down by Christ. The prophet declared that the ideal was “to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with God. Christ declared that the weightier matters of the law were judgment, mercy, faith and the love of God. Justice and judgment here surely have the same meaning. There can be no doubt as to the meaning of mercy. An infidel might be humble, but mere humility is not all that is required. A man cannot walk humbly with his God apart from faith. Conversely, if a man has the true faith and a proper appreciation of the love of God, he will be guided to the true humility. Why is it that these principles, though never disputed, are nearly always neglected in favour of something which seems large in human affairs just for the moment, but which, after the lapse of a century or so, is seen even by men to be of little consequence?

The Pharisees would not have disputed the fundamental principles laid down by Micah. They might have been quite able to point out the faults of their forefathers in neglecting those principles. They were blind to their own faults, however, as men are nearly always. With the deceitfulness of the human heart they were able to satisfy themselves that all their worst actions were due to a zeal for God. It was zeal for the law that made them want to stone the sinful woman; a punctilious regard for the Sabbath that caused them to condemn the works of healing on that holy day; and doubtless after the crucifixion, many pious adversaries of the Lord went home to their families each man “proclaiming his own goodness”, and explaining that his apparently severe action was only a righteous zeal for God.

How can we escape from this frightful self deception which makes men become so unbalanced that they put too much emphasis on relatively small duties and neglect the weightier matters of the law? We are all liable to fall into such errors, and the causes axe so different in different generations that unless we maintain a very clear view of principles, the faults of men in the past do not enlighten us as to our own mistakes. We see clearly that there was lack of balance in former days. We are under no misapprehension as to the relative size of ancient gnats and camels. It is the near gnats under the microscope of our present concentration that seem so large, and if once we make a mistake all the instincts of the deceitful human heart tend to exaggerate it, in the effort to build up defenses of our judgment.

The first step we must take if we desire to avoid such evil is to impress the mind with a clear recognition of the possibility that we may have erred. We must try to recognize this as a practical possibility, not merely as an abstraction. Here again the factor of time effects great changes. Even the span of an individual life is enough to enable us to correct our judgments. A man can be far more just and impartial in reviewing his actions of ten years ago than those of yesterday. In bitter controversies of the past there always seemed absolute conviction of right and the most vehement expressions of sincerity, even by those who were working havoc. In some instances the passing of a decade sufficed to effect a complete change of view, and brethren in private conversation have heard some pathetic admissions of mistaken judgment and vain regrets for evil wrought.

There is an explanation of this obtuseness, but an effort to lay bare some of the deceitful labyrinths of the human mind would lead away from the present subject. We may be able to examine the wicked and deceitful heart a little later, but for the moment the subject is the principle of balance in relation to the weighty matters of God’s law. In this matter we shall probably find help by taking a distant view rather than by introspection. When we are painfully crawling up a steep hill it may seem the greatest object in all the landscape; but at a distance of a few miles it is perhaps invisible, or only seen as one of many insignificant hillocks at the foot of a great mountain.

In the same way we obtain a truer view of human duties and privileges when we can look at them without the prejudice which comes with personal contact. We can easily imagine that two Pharisees might agree as to the great principles laid down by Micah. They might so fully agree, in fact, that their minds would never be agitated over these essential virtues. Truths admitted by everyone may become dead truths. The mind grows along the line of its activities. That is why men always tend to exaggerate the importance of matters to which they have given much attention or which have been the subject of their discussion. Our two Pharisees might have a lifelong dispute over some matter of ceremonial washing or of keeping separate from others of their nation. In the most natural manner they would exaggerate the importance of these subjects while the essential principles on which they agreed received no attention. In the final result they might do unjustly, hate mercy and walk arrogantly without God, though never for a moment denying that the prophet Micah was right.

Christ’s condemnation of the Pharisees was mainly because of their arrogant assumption of righteousness and their merciless treatment of more unfortunate sinners. He continually urged the importance of the essential principles of right conduct rather than the exteriors to which they devoted attention. He told them that in their zeal for little duties they had neglected the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, faith and the love of God. He told them that if they had known the meaning of scriptural injunctions regarding mercy they would not have condemned the guiltless, and he told them — no doubt it seemed to them a most scandalous statement that the grosser sinners of humanity, harlots and publicans, should go into the Kingdom of God before them.

To his disciples the Lord gave similar instruction. Mat 25 gives more consecutive teaching on this subject than has been generally recognized. The very emphatic lesson concerning positive virtues follows the parable of the talents. What are the real talents? Are they not the opportunities to give to the least of Christ’s servants the life-giving bread and water and the protecting garment? In the parable the one who hid the money and brought upon himself the disapproval of his lord is not represented as a waster who had spent his talent in having a good time in service to the flesh. He hid the money because he feared his lord as a hard man who would want to reap where he had not sown. It was only logical that this servant should be condemned out of his own mouth. If his lord was a hard man, expecting to reap where he had not sown, surely he would demand to reap where he had sown. The unprofitable servant apparently hid the talent he had received and then puzzled his brains trying to produce something for which his lord had not asked, but which it was assumed that — being a hard man — he would demand. Is not the history of Christendom full of such anomalies? The fruits for which Christ asks have not been rendered, but tremendous efforts have been made to produce fruit where Christ has never sown. It is the worst of all the ill effects of lack of balance, and the danger threatens us all the time.

The picture of the judgment which follows puts all the emphasis on the positives. The righteous are approved for doing good, not merely for abstaining from evil. The rejected are condemned for their neglect of duty, not for evil they have wrought. “Come, ye blessed, because ye have fed the hungry, given drink to the thirsty, visited the sick and clothed the naked with a garment. Depart, ye cursed, because ye have not done these things.” The principle is laid down that what we render or fail to render to the least of Christ’s servants provides the measure of our attitude toward the Lord himself.

In the final day of judgment we shall not be able to excuse sterility in these essentials by reference to our strenuous labours to produce fruit for which Christ never asked. If any such excuses came to mind we should surely think of the unfaithful servant in the parable and become dumb. We have not a hard master who will demand fruit where he has never planted, who will require a personal rectitude of super refined separation which he never commanded; but we have a just Master who will require the performance of those essential duties that he so patiently explained. If we give bread and water, either natural or spiritual, to servants of Christ who hunger and thirst, we give to the Lord himself. If we neglect our opportunities to give, we neglect Christ. If we sin against the brethren and wound their weak conscience we sin against Christ, and assuredly if we cut off those whom he approves we cut off Christ.

It is strange that some fail to realize even the possibility of sinning in this matter of cutting off brethren who have offended or are supposed to be of unsound views. We have heard earnest members defend what seems to us an extreme in the matter of withdrawals, by saying, “I grieve for this but I dare not imperil my salvation by fellowshipping one who is not sound on this point.” As if there were many scriptural reasons for dreading utter condemnation if we fellowship one who is not quite sound in his understanding of duty; but no fear whatever of imperiling our salvation by cutting off and condemning and even traducing those who differ from us in judgment but are still hearty believers in the Gospel of Christ and the magnified and holy scriptures in which that gospel is enshrined. It is difficult to see how such a conception of the will of Christ has arisen. It cannot be from Christ’s treatment of his immediate disciples. It cannot be from the letters to the ecclesias which give us much instruction as to ecclesial relationships if only we will receive it. The idea that there is safety in severe judgments should not be gathered from the letters of the apostle Paul, for though he commands disciples to withdraw from those who walk in a disorderly manner, from fornicators, from those who work not at all, and who do not conform to his righteous teaching, he is almost as explicit as the Lord himself in warning us of the danger of condemning ourselves in judging others.

The truth is that we might imperil our salvation either by an extreme toleration or an extreme of separation. We must take the whole counsel of God and apply the lessons to the circumstances of our day as honestly and faithfully as we can. We must not be drawn to extremes in a competitive zeal for purity. We must certainly not allow a feeling of resentment at the repudiation of our judgment to make a difference of judgment the end of all fellowship. We must certainly try to avoid the horrible blight of a kind of party politics, with its astute manoeuvres, its personalities and its unholy alliances for a common offensive. We must be taught of God and try with all our powers, at whatever cost of loss of friends or of personal humiliation, to take the course which Christ would approve so that if we have to go before him this year we shall be able to claim that we have really tried to be faithful stewards. We are weak and erring, with fleshly desires and many evil taints which make us sadly in need of divine mercy; but let us be able to claim that in the administration of his truth we have at least been honest, caring nothing for the counsels of mere men, but trying with all our powers to put the weighty matters of God’s law in the right place. In short, let us be able to claim that we have paid attention to the essentials that Christ explained so patiently, instead of hiding away our talent and wasting our energies by hard exactions regarding which he has not spoken.

(PrPr)

Nearly two hundred years ago — 1784 was the precise date — there was born in an obscure village in Wales a girl whose zeal for the Word of God was destined to leave its mark on world history. Mary Jones’ parents were poverty-stricken tuberculous weavers in Llanfihangel. Life was hard in that poor cottage and luxuries of the smallest sort unknown. But there was godliness.

From her earliest days Mary loved to hear the telling of Bible stories. It is difficult to know how accurately these were told by her parents, for there was no Bible in the house, and if there had been, no ability to read it. Nor, as she grew older was there opportunity for Mary to attend school. Llanfihangel had no school. But when she was ten opportunity came to go to school at Abergynolwyn 3 miles away.

Of course Mary had to walk. No school bus in those days! And she was far too poor to own a pony. She was a quick pupil, and before very long was being used unofficial auxiliary teacher (unpaid) to instruct younger children.

All this time she had no Bible, but as her eagerness to know the Book grew so also did her determination to have a copy of her own. A relation of the family, Mrs Evans Evans, who lived two miles away, had a Welsh Bible and was willing for Mary to go as often as she wished in order to read it. Almost daily, Mary walked those four miles for the pleasure of reading the Scriptures.

But she must have a copy of her own! And this meant eager disciplined self-denying saving for a long time. She took on any additional activity which might add to the meagre store of pennies she was setting aside. She chopped wood for old Mrs Rees, she looked after the neighbours’ children, she spent long hours hemming sheets. And it was a great day when Mrs Evans gave her three chickens for even at the pathetic prices ruling then, eggs meant more than pennies. That first year’s saving yielded the princely sum of one shilling! The next year, two shillings and seven pence — and Mary looked forward with shining eyes to the day when she would have a Bible of her own.

But then her ailing father fell more sick than he had ever been, and what little money Mary was able to get had to go towards keeping the home going. However, she never relaxed her efforts or her determination. So it took six years of dedicated labour before there was money enough for that long coveted copy of the scriptures. But now there was the money, where to get the Bible? There was no bookshop within miles of Llanfihangel. Mary was told that Mr Thomas Charles, a minister in Bala, would probably help her. So one day with a little bread and cheese to help her on the way, she walked barefoot by lonely paths through the mountains more than twenty-five miles to the home of Mr Charles. There, in the minister’s study, tired pathetic, strained, but eager as ever, Mary held out her money and asked for a Bible. “But I have only one spare copy,” he said, “and that is already ear-marked for someone else.” But then he heard her story, and in his mind’s eye saw her, dogged and footsore, walking those endless miles through the mountains. “No matter,” he added, “you shall have it. Others can wait till I get a further supply.” So next day, with a springy stride, Mary returned home with her precious Bible, pausing now and then to rest a while and to use the opportunity to read from the Scriptures, a lamp to her feet a light to her path.

And there the story of Mary Jones ends. No more is known about her.

Her legacy to the world

But not long after this, in 1802 at a meeting In London, Mr Charles told the story of Mary Jones and her Bible, and pleaded for the founding of a society to print the Bible in Welsh. The idea met with immediate approval However, one member of the company, with more vision and faith than the rest, stood up and declared with passionate emphasis, “But I say, if for Wales, why not for the world?” The proposal was taken up with acclaim. Two years later The British and Foreign Bible Society formally came into existence, with the avowed objective of making the Bible available in all the tongues of Babel. In 1814 the Bible Society of the Netherlands was formed. Two years later came the American Bible Society. Today they are the United Bible Society, operating on a massive scale with the financial help and support of Bible-minded people everywhere. How many millions of Bibles have been printed during that one-and-a-half centuries? [Now almost two.] “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations.” Mary Jones never had the slightest inkling of the mighty work her simple single-minded zeal for the Scriptures would get going. In this sophisticated, materialistic twentieth century, how many bring to the Bible a fraction of the zeal which took Mary Jones through the hills to Bala?

(WEnj)

When propounding questions concerning the future, we must be careful to distinguish between the “What” and the “How”. “What hath the Lord spoken?” is always a legitimate question, and it will find in the Bible’s pages a complete answer. But Nicodemus’ question, “How can these things be?”, is quite another matter. God does not always choose to spell out the details of His plan in advance. Consequently, a revelation of the future often involves difficulties; sometimes the whole matter seems impossible, inconceivable. But a man is never so foolish as when he sets himself to “explain away” the simplest sense of a Bible passage only because he cannot see how it could mean just what it says. Many so-called “spiritual interpretations” represent such efforts to bring the word of prophecy within the scope of our little notions and dim comprehensions of things.

This was the point of the Sadducees’ argument against the resurrection. The Lord swept aside their small objections with his great answer: “Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God” (Mat 22:29; Mark 12:24). This is still the perfect answer to all human objections against the plain meaning of God’s word. Men tend to feel so wise in their preconceptions, so sure they know how everything must be, that they often reject instantly anything that does not harmonize with their own ideas and traditions. Unfortunately, Christadelphians are not immune to the follies of ordinary men; we invite friends to “come to the Bible with an open mind”, but often our own minds were made up years ago, and are now locked into a rigid system of knowledge, even on such non-fundamentals as the details of prophecy. A couple of examples come quickly to mind here:

• The Location of Christ’s Judgment Seat: A number of Scriptures point very strongly toward (we might almost say “prove”) Jerusalem as the site of the saints’ glorification (Isa 24:23 with 25:7,8; Psa 133:3; 87:5,6; Mat 25:31-34; Isa 4:2,3; Joel 2:28,32) and the wicked’s punishment (Mat 3:12 with 2Ch 3:1 — the “threshingfloor” is the temple mount; Mat 10:28 and others — “Gehenna” is adjacent to Jerusalem). On the other hand, three passages are customarily interpreted as an implication (no stronger word is possible) that the judgment of the responsible will take place at Sinai (Deu 33:2,3; Psa 68:17; Hab 3:1-3). We believe that even the proponents of the “Sinai view” would in all fairness admit that these passages do not really prove their contention.

Without arguing at length the relative merits of either view, what strikes our attention here is this: The justifications for Sinai as the seat of judgment run heavily to just such an “explaining away” as we mentioned above. The justifications become in actuality objections: “How can this be — that Jerusalem will be the site of judgment? We can easily contemplate the gathering of resurrected millions to Sinai. It is the appropriate place, physically and geographically. But we cannot easily imagine this happening in the present Jerusalem. It is in too public a place for such a purpose. In the first place, where would everybody stand?” Such objections are really quite frivolous. Indeed, they are very much reminiscent of the Sadducees’ “seven husbands” argument; and they are readily answerable in the same way — by an appeal to “the power of God”. Such questions can always be raised — more questions than a dozen wise men working overtime could ever answer! But after all the “difficulties” have been raised, and answered, or gone unanswered, as the case may be, the Word of God still stands. God will fulfill all He has promised, to the last letter. Our “practical objections” are meaningless to Him. [Just as one thought, by no means dogmatic: If Elisha could lead an unfriendly army into Samaria, their eyes blinded to their surroundings (2Ki 6), then could not Christ just as easily hold the eyes of the mortal inhabitants of Jerusalem from observing the great spectacle of judgment going on in their midst?]

• Signs in the sun, moon, and stars: We as Christadelphians are always very quick to see symbolic significance in the heavenly bodies. Perhaps this characteristic is an outgrowth of our wrestlings with the traditional error of “heaven-going”; once we set out to show that the “heavens” are sometimes to be understood in a political sense, we scarcely know where to stop. We become almost afraid to consider that references to heaven or the heavenly bodies can ever be taken as literal.

And yet our Faith is built on the bed-rock of literality. If there is a single message that the Christadelphian body has sought to put across to the world more than any other, it is this: “The Bible means what it says. It is always preferable to take the most literal view of a passage unless there is a clear indication to the contrary in the context itself.”

What are we to make then of such a passage as Luke 21:25? Almost by reflex we begin to recite, “The sun, moon, stars, and heavenly bodies denote kings, queens, rulers, and persons in greater power: their increase of splendor denotes increase of prosperity; their declining, setting, or falling, denotes a reverse of fortune… ” (from the earliest “Declaration”). Is it inconceivable that there might, in the last days, be literal signs and wonders in the literal heavens? The first advent of Jesus was heralded by a literal star, or at least a literal light in the heavens; why not his second advent? True, we may not be able to say exactly what the sign will consist of, or how it will appear, or when. But prophecy was not given to us that we might be prophets, Scriptural “fortune-tellers” like Jeanne Dixon. The prophecy is God’s; we may properly ask, “What hath God said?” and the answer is in Luke 21:25,27: “There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars… And then shall they see the Son of Man coming… ”

But the follow-up question, “How can this be?”, would seem to border on arrogance. It is as though we are saying, “This is too much for me to comprehend. I will bring God’s message down to my level. I will grapple with it until it fits as smoothly as possible into my limited notion of the fitness of things.” Let it be suggested that this is hardly the most reverential way to treat God’s word, to “spiritualize” literal words just because the alternative seems too extraordinary!

An example of such symbolic interpretation that pales before the wondrous literal fulfillment is 2Pe 3:7,10-12. In this passage the “heavens” have been long considered as political, for how else could the literal heavens “pass away”, or the literal elements melt with fervent heat, or the literal earth be burned up? But since those awesome days at the end of World War II, the literal character of this prophecy has become appallingly obvious. In a terrifyingly real way twentieth-century man now has in hand the potential to split the foundation blocks of his material world, to explode the atmospheric elements, and to incinerate the very earth (or a portion thereof) on which he walks. Who dare say in these days that 2Pe 3 cannot be fulfilled literally? And if this passage, why not many others that we have been so cautious about?

***

We might imagine a similar controversy during the days before the birth of Jesus. Perhaps an elderly rabbi, Samuel by name, unspoiled by the “colleges” in Jerusalem, knows nothing better than to read the Scriptures literally. He has never heard, in the relative isolation of Galilee, the Sanhedrin’s “authoritative” interpretations of the passages we know as Psa 22; 1110; Isa 7; 53; and such like. Thus he believes and teaches that the Messiah will be literally the Son of God, born of a virgin of David’s lineage; that he will be not only a king but also a man of sorrow and grief, rejected and despised; that he will literally die, but his life will be the ransom for many; that he will be literally raised from the dead to sit at God’s right hand in the literal heavens. What a wave of protest, of opposition and even scorn, this teaching would have raised in the courts of learning! What “unanswerable” questions his antagonists would ask; what “unassailable” difficulties they would solemnly raise! How absurd, how heretical, they would say, was Rabbi Samuel’s doctrine! Does he really believe that God could actually have a son? What a wild literalism, when we can all see that Isa 7:14 is “highly figurative”! And how could the King of Israel be hated and killed, by his own people no less? It is the most farcical speculation. Why, we can think off-hand of at least fifty good reasons why God would never allow such a thing! To all of which simple old Rabbi Samuel could only answer that the Scriptures say so.

If there is any lesson here for us as a community, may we have the grace and humility to take it to heart. Almighty God, who has created the heavens and given us the written word, will scarcely be limited in His actions by our own imagined “difficulties”.

Johnny Oates is a retired baseball manager. He was never more than a mediocre baseball player, but — like some other athletes of marginal abilities — he had a keen eye for the strategy and flow of a game, and was a quick learner. Ultimately he became a very successful manager: his team, the Texas Rangers, won their first three divisional championships under his guidance.

Johnny Oates is also dying of an inoperable brain tumor.

Just recently, he was honored — along with three retired players — by induction into the Texas Rangers Baseball Hall of Fame. The ceremony preceded a game in Arlington, Texas, and over 30,000 fans were in attendance. Almost needless to say, they reserved their loudest cheers for their favorite manager.

Johnny Oates is an avowed Christian, not one of the “closet” variety. He flourished in a profession not particularly known for Christian beliefs or conduct (though of course there are a number of baseball men who practice their faith while being professional athletes).

Johnny Oates succeeded at his chosen profession by employing a keen tactical sense, and a positive, constructive approach to dealing with lots of supersize egos. He did not yell, curse, or argue (very much!) with umpires. He treated every man, great star and bit player, alike — with honesty and dignity. When his team did poorly, he shouldered the responsibility, and resigned from a very well-paying job.

At the induction, the current manager of the Texas Rangers, Buck Showalter, spoke of Johnny Oates as “a really good manager, but — besides that — he was the most honorable and moral man I ever knew.”

Big, rich, tough professional athletes cried, and hugged and kissed their old manager Johnny Oates.

When Johnny stood to address the crowd, he moved carefully and awkwardly with his cane (he is now partially paralyzed on one side), but his words were strong and clear. After acknowledging certain dignitaries, and thanking the current management for their hospitality, and the fans for their support, he said: “It’s quite an honor to be here. There’s one big difference between each of the other inductees and myself. Each of them are here tonight because of what they did. I’m fortunate enough to be here tonight because of WHAT OTHERS DID FOR ME.”

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The believer in Christ is surely where he is because of what others did for him! There is no truer statement than that. But do we remember it? And do we thank the people who made us — at least the better parts of us — what we are?

The athlete may pat himself on the back, and say to himself (or even publicly) that he has gotten where he is by hard work and practice alone — but that is not true. He did not create for himself his bone and muscle structure, and his reflexes — those came from his parents and grandparents, but in the most meaningful sense they came from God. And the raw materials of the athlete required molding and training by coaches. Many of the multimillionaire professional athletes owe much of their success, if the truth be known and acknowledged, to volunteer youth league coaches and low-paid high school coaches who reshaped their natural talents into a supremely marketable skill. And sometimes, those who have climbed to the pinnacles of the athletic world even remember to thank those who helped them along their way.

The rich man may hold himself out to the world — and may be praised by others — for his hard, relentless work that brought him a great fortune, or for his brilliant foresight. He may have gotten “ahead of the curve”, out on the frontier where vast sums of money accrue to the fellow who builds a better mousetrap, or writes a faster computer program, or develops a more efficient engine, or discovers a new life-saving drug. But look a little deeper, below the surface — and you will often find a not-so-pretty story: a story of scheming and trickery; or a story of other, “little” people who were stepped on, or pushed aside, or manipulated, or stolen from… so the rich man might reach the heights. Certainly this is not always true, it may be granted, but it does happen all too often.

And many of those who achieve great wealth can thank parents whose nest eggs gave them a start, and benefactors or sponsors in business — who saw their potential and gave them a valuable opportunity.

And others can thank family connections, or simply the fortuitous circumstance of being in the right place at the right time:

“I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all” (Eccl 9:11). Here it’s worth pointing out too, that “chance” doesn’t really mean “chance” — so much as the “providence (of God)”. What may look like a mere “roll of the dice”, or “the luck of the draw”, is really — in the eyes of the Bible writer — the design of the God, who sees the end from the beginning.

The educated man, the great scholar, may say, “I studied hard to get where I am. Nobody helped ME!” But again, his brain — like the athlete’s body — is to a large degree the result of a fortunate arrangement of his parents’ genetic material by a Creator God.

And besides that, many great men and women of learning — like the proverbial twigs — were given their early bent in a scholarly direction by those same parents, or grandparents, or perhaps teachers, or other mentors. And, for that matter, we have not mentioned nearly all the other factors that make scholars what they ultimately become:

• school systems, and libraries, and free education for all, in many advanced countries;

• governments which provide safe and secure access to places of learning;

• all the scholars who have gone before, whose work and writings have paved the way to greater advancements; and

• quite possibly, not just parents who sacrificed so that they might have the best possible educations, but sometimes spouses and children, who gave up their quality time with them so they might follow their own specialized pursuits.

Those who have succeeded, to any degree, in their workaday lives, has done so — in no small part — because of coworkers and subordinates. The woman who rises to a management position has benefited, quite directly, from the labors of others beneath her on the corporate chart. Like Johnny Oates, she can — and should — say, “I am fortunate enough to be here because of what others did for me!”

And more than all this, the very air we breathe in, and the capacity and ability to breathe it in — a thousand times while we have been sitting here together — so that we can achieve ANYTHING at all, is through no achievement of our own. It is only because the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth has given us life, and nurtured and protected that life, in a multitude of ways we can scarcely understand. “For in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). As the hymn writer put it,

“Unnumbered comforts to my soul Thy tender care bestowed, Before my infant heart conceived From whom those blessings flowed.”

I’ll speak from personal experience for a moment. It only dawned on me, some years after the fact, that I was alive because of medical advancements over which I had absolutely no control. When I was a youngster, I had more than one case of pneumonia, and related respiratory problems; and the doctor said I was “lucky” to be alive, and that the only thing that saved me was penicillin. This I heard from a fairly early age. What I didn’t learn until much later was that penicillin became a widely used antibiotic only in the 1940s. That’s when it dawned on me that if I had been born a mere 5 or 10 years earlier, I could easily have died as a small child — never having access to the drug that saved my life. Truly I am here because of what others (even people I never met) did for me!

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But especially it is the believer in Christ who should say, “I am here because of what others did for me!” We might think to ourselves, “I am here because I learned the Truth!” But for most of us, we did not so much learn the Truth as we were taught the Truth — perhaps at a quite early age (though it took more years to bring that early learning to fruition) by parents and grandparents and Sunday School teachers. To all them we owe a debt of gratitude that is simply too big ever to repay.

Many of us sitting here are directly descended from early families in Texas who happened to be in the right place at the right time, and were touched by a couple of pioneer Christadelphians. The Oatman brothers were physicians who learned the true gospel in Illinois from John Thomas, and migrated to Texas in the 1850s. These men traveled all over the hill country of Texas, healing the sick and preaching the Truth everywhere they went, finding one or two here and there, who learned and were baptized. In turn, many of these folks held out steadfast over whole lifetimes, in tough living conditions on the frontier, managing to teach their children the same truths they held most dear, and passing on to the next generation the precious promises of the Bible. We are here because of what they did for us.

Some of us sitting here have, much more recently, made their own choices to accept the teaching of the Bible, and be baptized, because of one particular person who introduced us to these concepts. Our “family line” or “family roots” don’t go back nearly so far as those of some others, but they are no less precious — and maybe they are held more dear because we have experienced more of the “other side”:

“I once was lost, but now am found… Was blind, but now I see!” (cp John 9:25).

For us who have more recently learned the Truth, there may be an immediacy and power to these ideas that changed our lives — which make us especially thankful for what others did for us! And perhaps more eager to do for others what has been done for us!

****

For parents who provided a settled environment in which to grow up, safe from fear…

For a grandmother who lived nearby and encouraged us, in her own outspoken and unique way, to think of spiritual things…

For the example, learned at an early age, of driving an hour each way to attend Christadelphian Sunday school and meeting, practically every Sunday (“No, Mom, I want to sleep. I’m tired. I don’t feel well.” “Get up anyway; you can sleep in the car; you’ll feel better when you get there. It’s the right thing to do!” So off we would go!)…

For the old brother, who — every time he exhorted — repeated the same Bible verse, until it drove us to distraction: “For whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” Yes, it drove us crazy, and we laughed about it… but what we didn’t realize at the time was that we were learning it so well, that we could never forget it!

For all these things, and more, we must say, “We are what we are because of what others did for us!”

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But, most especially, as believers in Christ, we are what we are because of what one man did for us! And from this one supreme act of love, under the guidance of a Loving Father, all the other blessings flow. BECAUSE OF WHAT HE DID FOR US, WE ARE WHAT WE ARE!

“This is what the LORD says: ‘Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,’ declares the LORD” (Jer 9:23,24).

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

“But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 6:22,23).

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20).

“For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, so that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2Co 5:14-17).