The Christian's Triumph

"Having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it" (the cross). — Col. 2:15.

Here and in one other passage Paul uses the verb θριαμβεύω (thriambuo), to triumph. It is found but twice in the Bible, and only as descriptive of pentecostal grace, or, as in this text, of Christ's complete victory over all evil angels and spirits, even the highest in dignity and power. The cross was the Waterloo defeat of all malignant personalities. In what way? Let me explain. Love is power. The highest expression of love is the highest power. The cross is the highest manifestation of love possible in the universe. When Christ, the Son of God, voluntarily bowed his head in death, as a self-sacrifice for men, even for his enemies, he shook the empire of sin to its very foundations. His last cry on the cross, with a loud voice, was the shout of eternal triumph and victory. In a celebrated cathedral in Europe there is behind the altar a cross, with a ladder leaning against it, as if it had been just used in taking down the body of Christ. Beyond a hill in the background of the picture are seen the heads of four men who are bearing it reverently to the tomb. At the foot of the cross a stream of blood is running down the hill towards the spectator. In rapid flight from that crimson rill is seen a serpent instinctively hastening from his conqueror — the painter was a good theologian. But how does this victory of Christ help the Christian when hard pressed by the tempter? It gives great courage to continue the fight, when we are assured that we are battling with a vanquished foe, and that the victor is still in the field and within call, shouting to all his soldiers, "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." Faith makes his victory ours.

— Half-Hours With St. Paul, Chapter 17.

Saved to the Uttermost

"Wherefore also he is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near unto God through him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." (Hebrews 7:25 ASV.)

The Greek for "uttermost" is παντελὲς (panteles). This is the only place in the New Testament where it is used, except negatively, "in no wise," in Luke 13:11.

It is a strong compound word, meaning "all to the end." The R.V., margin, is "completely." This is its true meaning "perfectly, completely, to the very end" says Delitzsch, "but without necessarily any reference to time." Again he says, "Christ is able to save in every way, in all respects, unto the uttermost; so that every want and need, in all its breadth and depth. is utterly done away." This annotation is a perfect answer to his argument in his Biblical psychology in proof of "the unabolished antinomy' in Rom. 7. "The law in the members" warring until death against the law of the mind, and bringing the Christian at his best earthly estate into captivity to the law or uniform sway of sin. Let us believe the exegete rather than the theologian. It is always safer to trust an honest and scholarly expounder than a warped and traditional dogmatist. Modern interpreters unanimously reject the idea of some of the ancient annotators that "uttermost" has here reference to illimitable future time. Besides being unscholarly, this view involves the heresy of Canon Farrar's "eternal hope" for wicked souls after death.

Why was Paul constrained to invent these new and strong terms? Because he was divinely called to describe what never existed before Pentecost, and for that reason had no name — human souls entirely sanctified through the mission of the Comforter. Why did he not do the same wonderful works before Pentecost, seeing that as God he was omnipresent and omnipotent? He had not the same tools to work with, the completed facts of the gospel ending with the ascension of Christ from the footstool to the throne. "Sanctify them through the truth."

— edited from Half-Hours With St. Paul, Chapter 16.

Sanctified Wholly

"And the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who will also do it." (1 Thessalonians 5:23, 24 ASV.)

1 Thess. 5:23 is a text which implies that the regenerate are not entirely purified, and that they may be in answer to prayer. This implies that it is in this life. The expanded "amen" after this prayer "Faithful is he that calleth you, who will also do it," is a declaration that it is God, and not death, who is the author of this work.

There is an important word, ὁλοτελής (holoteles), which is found nowhere else in the New Testament nor in the Septuagint. It is an adjective in form with an adverbial meaning (Kuhner, 264.3). If Paul intended to pray that the Thessalonians might all be sanctified, there were three everyday adjectives which he might have used to express "all." He employed this unique term, meaning "wholly to the end," or "quite completely," because he had realized in his own experience the uttermost sanctification, and he saw that it was the privilege of every believer. This rare and peculiar word is rendered in the Vulgate per omnia, "in your collective powers and parts." "Marking," says Ellicott, "more emphatically that thoroughness and pervasive holiness which the following words specify with further exactness." He thus translates it: "But may the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved whole without blame in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." A Greek version of the Old Testament was made by Aquila in which this word occurs in Deut. 13:16, to express the idea of "every whit." We have been explicit in defining this word as indicating the completeness of individual sanctification which is presently presented in detail, and not the cleansing of the totality of the Thessalonian church — may God sanctify you all. Of course the apostle's prayer for the entire purification of the individual includes every individual in the church.

Putting Off the Body of the Flesh

"...in whom ye were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ..." (Colossians 2:11 ASV)

Col. 2:11 contains a notable instance of the apostle Paul strengthening his assertion of the completeness of the cleansing of the believer, by the invention of a noun found nowhere else in the whole range of Greek literature. The word is ἀπέκδυσις (apekdusis), "putting off the body of the flesh" (R.V.), not "of the sins" of the flesh, as in the K.J.V., which is a gloss teaching deliverance from sinning. The R.V. teaches the greater deliverance from the sin-principle or tendency called original sin. Let us scrutinize Paul's invented compound noun, made up of two prepositions, ἀπό (apo) and ἐκ (ek), and the verb δύο (duo), all signifying the putting off and laying aside, as a garment, an allusion to actual circumcision. Meyer's comment shows the strength of this word:

Whereas the spiritual circumcision divinely performed consisted in a complete parting and doing away with this body [of sin], in so far as God, by means of this ethical circumcision, has taken off and removed the sinful body from man [the two acts are expressed by the double compound], like a garment drawn off and laid aside.

The italics are Meyer's. If this does not mean the complete and eternal separation of depravity, like the perpetual effect of cutting off and casting away the foreskin then it is impossible to express the idea of entire cleansing in any human language. This radical change of nature from sinful to holy is effected "by or by means of, the circumcision of Christ," i.e., which is produced through Christ by the agency of the Holy Spirit, procured by him. We do not accept the suggestion of Meyer that this Christian transformation is represented in its ideal aspect. God does not tantalize his children with unattainable ideals. He does not command perfection where it cannot be realized through his grace. He is not a hard master, reaping perfection where he has sown only imperfection. "His commandments are not grievous."

— edited and adapted from Half-Hours With St. Paul, Chapter 16.

Abounding Love

"Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way unto you: and the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we also do toward you; to the end he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints." (1Thessalonians 3:11-13 ASV)

Turning now to another prayer of St. Paul in 1 Thess. 3:12, 13, we find that there is to be an ever "increasing and abounding love one toward another, and toward all men," in order to establishment in holiness.

It is taught elsewhere in St. Paul's epistles that love is the element in which holiness exists (Eph. 1:4; 1 Tim. 1:5); but here we are assured that this love must have a man-ward, as well as a God-ward direction. Hence, a tart holiness, a bitter holiness, a sour holiness, an envious holiness, is a contradiction and an impossibility. Nor will the careful student of Paul's magnificent lyric on love, in 1 Cor. 13, find any such combination possible as perfect love and arrogance, or censoriousness, or self-conceit, or head-strongness. "Love," when purged of all dross, "suffereth long and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, and doth not behave itself unseemly." Professors of heart purity especially those who associate themselves together almost exclusively, are in danger of taking on some of these unamiable qualities, and of cherishing uncharitable feelings toward those Christians whose weaker wings of faith have not borne them up to the Pisgah tops of grace. As a safeguard against this peril we recommend a frequent and searching self-examination, with this chapter as a touchstone. The result would be an increase in the number of "hearts unblamable in holiness before God," whose "eyes run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in behalf of them whose hearts are perfect towards him." — 2 Chron. 16:9.

Pastoral Ministry and Spirit-Inspired Love

"And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment..." (Philippians 1:9 ASV)

There was a very strong tie which bound the apostle Paul to the brethren in Philippi: he had suffered for them in the stocks, under the lash, and in the nether prison. Sacrifice and suffering for others invest them with a peculiar preciousness.

In a course of lectures at Yale University on pastoral duties, the speaker insisted that love is the only adequate motive to a successful ministry — love of the souls of the people. He was asked, "How can I get this love?" The answer was defective, because it did not recognize the Holy Ghost as the Inspirer of love. The speaker, H. W. Beecher replied "Go to work in earnest for the salvation of souls, and make sacrifices for them, and you will begin to love them." This is true in the case of a pastor already filled with the Spirit of God. In the absence of the Spirit-baptism, self-sacrifice for others, especially the vile and thankless, is a difficult if not impossible achievement. It requires great love to prompt to self-abnegation and voluntary suffering: and this love is of God.

The Biblical Chronology of Creation

QUESTION: Harmonize the Biblical chronology of the Creation of Adam 4004 years B. C. with the Babylonian, 6158 years.

ANSWER: The Bible is an infallible directory to eternal life, but not to the age of the world or to an accurate scientific chronology. McClintock & Strong name forty-four authors, all of whom arrive at different results. The Septuagint, the Greek version often quoted in the New Testament, makes the period from Adam to Abraham 1486 years more than the Hebrew text does. Most modern writers adopt the Septuagint numbers in preference to the Hebrew.

— Steele's Answers p. 159.

The Historicity of the Bible Characters

QUESTION: I have recently read a book which denies the historicity of all the Bible characters before Josiah. Several eminent Christian scholars are quoted as endorsing this theory. Must I accept this as truth?

ANSWER: Wait awhile and see what perplexity these wiseacres are in writing history without Genesis, especially the 10th chapter, the great seedbed of ethnology, the science of nations. Not Josiah, but Adam, is the first real human personality in the Bible. The manner of his creation and that of the material universe may be pictorially stated in Genesis in order to impress the fact that God is the Creator upon every mind, the simple as well as the wise, "The writer of this record is obviously aiming at the religious, not the scientific, training of the people for whom he writes." Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and Joshua, are as real men as Herodotus, Lycurgus, Socrates, and Plato. Job is not a myth, but a genuine, historical person dramatized. David, the poet king, is as real as Milton, the author of Paradise Lost.

— Steele's Answers p. 158.

The Greeks Who Wanted to See Jesus (John 12:20-23)

QUESTION: Did the Greeks who desired to have an interview with Christ (John 12:20-23) secure an introduction to him?

ANSWER: The sacred scholars disagree in their answer. Christ's reply to the request was evidently made to Andrew and Philip with the intention of granting the request, but the voice from heaven interrupted and changed the scene. If these monotheistic Greeks were anxious to ask Jesus whether they were excluded from the benefits of his mission, they would find an encouraging answer in his declaration, "If I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto myself." If they did not secure a personal interview, they doubtless were in the multitude of listeners to Christ's address.

— Steele's Answers pp. 157, 158.

The Post-Resurrection Christ

QUESTION: (1) Why did not the disciples know Christ when he arose from the dead? (2) Did he have a glorified body?

ANSWER: The visible presence of supernatural power produces an instinctive chill in the spinal column, such as the sudden appearance of one known to be dead and buried, entering the room without opening the door, probably bloodless and pale as a ghost (see Bengel on Heb. 12:24,) in mysterious robes. This would startle the most courageous men. In the case of two disciples it is said "their eyes were holden (restrained) that they should not see him." (2) We do not know when his body met with the change called glorification. It is probable that it took place after his ascension. The only one who has since seen him was Saul near Damascus. The vision of dying Stephen and that of John in the Revelation were subjective, or in a trance. Christ's glorified person is too dazzling for mortals to see. It almost killed Saul.

— Steele's Answers p. 157.