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.

Baptism With the Holy Spirit

QUESTION: Does the baptism with the Holy Spirit entirely sanctify?

ANSWER: It does, if the believer is fu1filling the conditions by consecration and an all-surrendering faith. The Spirit may fill one who is not in this attitude and inspire in him a transient fullness of joy, which Fletcher likens to a spring freshet. At the same time the careless and. impenitent in the same assembly may powerfully convicted, and converted, if they receive Christ. Thus the manifold offices of the Paraclete may realized as predicted in John 16:8-11. The phrases, "baptism of the Spirit, and fullness of the Spirit," do not specifically designate entire sanctification, or perfect love.

— Steele's Answers pp. 155, 156.

How the Atonement Saves Dying Infants

QUESTION: Show with Bible proofs how the Atonement saves dying infants.

ANSWER: The Bible shows the fact of infant salvation, not the "how." "Jesus... by the grace of God tasteth death for every man" (Heb. 1:9). "Therefore, as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even some by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification, of life." (Rom. 5:18). The sin of Adam and the merits of Christ are pronounced, to be co-extensive. The free gift exempts the whole human race from the punishment of Adam's sin. Infants have no sins, no guilt of their own. Hence there is no ground for their "sentence to the easiest room in hell," as tender hearted Calvinists used to say. Heaven is the only place appropriate for their abode. Adults have sins of their own which are conditionally covered by Christ's free gift. Faith in Christ is the condition. John 3:16, "whosoever believeth." The sin of which the Paraclete convicts the world is "because they believe not on me," said Christ. Infants are incapable of this sin. Hence, "He that believeth not shall be damned," does not apply to them. The poet represents Christ as tenderly saying:

"Death may the bands of life unloose,
But can't dissolve my love,
Millions of infant souls compose
The family above."

— Steele's Answers pp 155, 156.

A Two Stage Expereince of Christ

QUESTION: (1) When was Paul converted? (2) Can a person be converted and be baptized with the Holy Spirit at the same time?

ANSWER: On his way to Damascus he was converted. He turned to the Lord then, for he says, "I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision." He received the witness of the Spirit when the good class leader Ananias laid his hands on him. The result was that he received his sight and was baptized. The experience which he speaks of in Gal. 1:15, as "called through his grace," must be differentiated from the next clause, "to reveal his Son in Me." This later manifestation of Christ was a subsequent experience dependent on the conditions named in John 14:21, "He that hath my commandments and keepeth them." The experts agree that the revelation of Christ "to" Paul must be distinguished from the subsequent revelation of the Son "in" him. The first was to his natural eyes which were blinded by the unusual light; the last was to his spiritual eyes purged from the film of depraved tendency. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." It was a great and memorable event in St. John's life when he first saw Christ with his natural eyes. He remembers the very hour, about 4 o'clock. p.m. (John 1:39). To see him with the spiritual eyes is a greater privilege. (2) In the normal experience there is an interval between them. But in abnormal experiences, such as that of the thief on the cross, they may be simultaneous.

— Steele's Answers pp. 154, 155.

Confession and Restitution

QUESTION: I am not a subscriber to your paper, but I need advice. How much confession and restitution does God require of an awakened soul?

ANSWER: I will let Gypsy Smith answer. While in Boston recently he received several anonymous letters from one man earnestly requesting prayers. At last he requested him, if in the audience, to meet him in the inquiry room. Here the man whispered to the evangelist that he wished to become a Christian, but he had been stealing money of his employers. Gypsy Smith told him to get right with God first, then he would, be in a better way to get right with men. In a few days he reported that after getting right with God by the experience of forgiveness, he confessed to his astonished employers, stating his willingness to make restitution so far as was in his power, or to go to jail. When they asked what had happened to induce this confession, he replied, "I have been converted to Christ and he has forgiven me." They replied, "Then we, too, will forgive you." I am not sure that every confessing thief would come off in the same way, but I am sure that it is best to get right with God first. This will prepare the way to get right with man.

— Steele's Answers pp. 153, 154.

The Natural and the Spiritual

"But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Cor 2:14 KJV).

In 1 Cor. 2:14 St. Paul describes the natural man as utterly devoid of spiritual perception. Spiritual realities "are foolishness unto him"; and "he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged or examined" (R. V.). Christ foretold this state of things when he declared that "the world," the aggregate of natural men, "cannot receive the Spirit of truth, because they see him not." They have in exercise only sense-perception and reason, neither of which apprehends God and spiritual things. Spiritual intuition is an attribute of spiritual life; and spiritual life is absent, because unbelief bars out the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life. Hence, St. Jude describes "natural or sensual [animal, R. V. margin] men as having not the Spirit."

Just the opposite is the characteristic of spiritual men, "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God." While the natural man is, by the perverse attitude of his will, an agnostic, the spiritual man is an epignostic, having a clear perception of divine realities, which he is enabled to speak of, not in the terms of groveling human philosophy, but in the words which the Spirit teacheth (1 Cor. 2:13, R. V., margin), "interpreting spiritual things to spiritual men."

— Half-Hours With St. Paul and Other Bible Readings Chapter 14.

Crucifixion with Christ

Love made perfect requires as its antecedent that perfect surrender which, in the strong language of St. Paul, is crucifixion with Christ. The difficulty with average Christians is, that they faint beneath the cross on the via dolorosa, the way of grief, and never reach their Calvary. They do not by faith gird on strength for the hour when they must be stretched upon the cross. They shrink from the torturing spike, and from the spear aimed at the heart of their self-life. This betokens weakness of faith. But when the promise is grasped with the grip of a giant, no terrors, no agonies, can daunt the soul. In confidence that there will be after the crucifixion a glorious resurrection to spiritual life and blessedness, the believer yields his hand to the nail, and his head to the thorn crown. That flinty center of the personality, the will, which has up to this hour stood forth in resistance to the complete will of God, suddenly flows down, a molten stream under the furnace blast of divine love, melted into oneness with "the sweet will of God." After such a death there is always a resurrection unto life. An interval of hours or even of days may take place before the angels shall descend and roll away the stone from the sepulchre of the crucified soul, and the pulsations of a new and blissful life be felt through every fiber and atom of the being. It is not the old life that rises, but a new life is breathed forth by the Holy Ghost. "I am crucified with Christ, it is no longer I that live, but Christ that liveth in me." (R. V. Am. Committee.) "Dead indeed unto sin," "but alive unto God through Jesus Christ."

"He walks in glorious liberty,
To sin entirely dead:
The Truth, the Son, hath made him free,
And he is free indeed.
"Throughout his Soul Thy glories shine;
His soul is all renewed,
And deck'd in righteousness divine,
And clothed and filled with God."

He who enjoys this repose is brought so intimately into sympathy with Jesus Christ that he is all aflame with zeal, and aroused to the utmost activity to save lost men. As a venerable preacher, widely known, quaintly expressed it, "I enjoy the rest of faith that keeps me in perpetual motion."

— Half-Hours with St. Paul, Chapter 10.

Trust and Consecration

Some writers on advanced Christian experience magnify the will, and say to inquirers, Yield, bow, submit, to the law of Christ. While the evangelist of the Wesleyan type says, Believe, believe Christ's every word. Both are right. Perfect trust cannot exist without perfect consecration. Nor can we make over all our interests into Christ's hands without the utmost confidence in his word.

Hence, crucifixion with Christ implies perfect faith in him, not only when he is riding in triumph into Jerusalem amid the huzzas of enthusiastic men and the hosannas of willing children, but when the fickle multitude are crying, "Crucify him." From the beginning Jesus intimated that discipleship must be grounded on an acceptance of himself, stripped of all the attractions of riches or honor. To know him after the flesh, from some selfish and worldly motive, is to fail to know him in that way which insures eternal life. To an enthusiastic scribe who had just seen the glorious display of power in the healing of Peter's wife's mother and the casting out of demons, and who was taking only a romantic, rose-colored view of discipleship prompting the thoughtless promise, "I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest," Jesus replied, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head." "Let him who follows me know that he is following a pauper, fed at the tables of friends, and soon to be buried as a beggar at their expense." "If any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me."

Here over the very gateway of the kingdom of Christ, stand chiseled the stoney words "Crucifixion of self." Hence, it is no stern requirement of the so-called higher Christian life; it is the condition of the lowest degree of spiritual life. The higher the degree of life the higher the required consecration.

— Half-Hours with St. Paul Chapter 10.

Giving Up Self to Christ

Many people are perplexed to understand the exhortation to give up self to Christ and to have no will of their own. We are so created that we must regard our own welfare. Self-love is implanted in our natures. If it would be destroyed, there would be nothing to which God or man could appeal. Neither threatening nor promise would move such a soul. Moreover, self-love has the approval of Christ in his epitome of the moral law. He makes it the measure of our love to our neighbor — "Love thy neighbor as thyself."

But selfishness differs from self-love in this, that self is exalted into the supreme law of action. The well-being of others, and the will of God are not regarded. This is the self that is to be crucified. Says St. Paul, "I am crucified with Christ, but it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me" — Gal. 2:20 — as punctuated by Alford. The former ego of selfishness has met with violent death, having been nailed to the cross, and Christ has taken the supreme place in the soul. The very fact that this death was violent implies that it was instantaneous, a very sharply defined transition in St. Paul's consciousness. There is some one last rallying point of selfishness, a last ditch in which the evil ego intrenches itself. It may be some very trifling thing that is to be exempted from the dominion of Christ, some preference, some indulgence, some humiliating duty some association to be broken, some adornment to be discarded. "Reign. Jesus, over all but this," is the real language of that unyielding heart. This trifle, held fast, has been the bar which has kept thousands out of that harmony with the divine will which precedes the fullness of the Spirit.

But when this last entrenchment of self-will has been surrendered to Christ, he is not long in taking possession. The fullness, as well as the immediateness, depends on the faith of the soul in the divine promise. For there is a difference between the subjugation of the rebel and his reconstruction in loyal citizenship, between the death of sin and the fullness of the Christ-life. But the great distinctive and god-like feature of man is his free will. The memorable event, the pivotal point on which destiny, heaven, or hell hinges, is the hour of intense spiritual illumination, conviction of sin, when sin is deliberately chosen — "evil, be thou my good" — or voluntarily rejected. Submission to Christ is an act of faith. It could not be possible without confidence in his veracity and goodness. Hence, justification and emergence into "the higher life" frequently take place when the only preceding act which impressed itself on the memory was not an act of faith, but of surrender, which is grounded on trust as its indispensable condition.

— Half-Hours with St. Paul, Chapter 10.