SUNDAY READING

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXVI, Issue 7899, 7 September 1929, Page 3

SUNDAY READING

IHE LIFE AND TEACHING OF CHRIST WITNESS OF OUR FAITH KEEPING THE LORD’S DAY (By Rev. B. S. Wayne) Romans, X, 10; “For with the heart man helieveth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Belief that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, without the courage to confess that belief before men, is of no more value than that kind of faith of which St'. . James wrote, “Faith without works is dead.” for there is no provision, made in the Gospel for the coward or the shirker. Let us try and see this from St. Paul’s point of view. Twenty years earlier our Lord had said: “Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven; but whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven.” We do not know if St. Paul had heard the words for the earliest account of our Lord’s life and teaching which we call the Gospel, was written at that time. The earliest writings we have in the New Testament are St. Paxil’s two letters to the Thessalonins. They are the simplest and most direct of all his epistles. First he told them how glad he was to hear of their continued faith in, and love for, Jesus Christ. Then he reminded them of what he had done for them, and claimed authority to speak as an apostle, warning them against temptation to fall back into heathen ways, and to enforce the need of holiness told them to be prepared for their Lord’s second coming. Then he tells them, not to mourn for their dead as those who would miss that coming; “for the dead in Christ shall rise first.” His closing prayer is to God to preserve their whole spirit, soul and body blameless unto the coming of their Lord. A few months later he wrote his second letter to tell them-that they had mistaken his teaching about preparation for the Lord’s second coming, for true preparation is to go on quietly doing one’s duty.

EPISTLE OP ST. PAUL The New Testament began in these simple letters, but deadly dangers were gathering not only around but within the church, and about four years later he was forced to take up his pen again and write the three great fighting epistles in which he contended for the life of the church. Members of the church in Corinth were falling back into degrading vice, and the congregations were dis-

tracted by contending parties. The remedy was the same for both evils, submission to Jesus Christ and fellowship with each other as His disciples. But things had gone too far to be quickly settled, and he wrote again to defend his right to be heard as an apostle and to prepare them for his coming to them. Another danger was threatening. Jewish converts were trying to make Christianity no more than another way of following their law. St. Paul saw, as he had seen from the

beginning. that, this would destroy the spiritual power of the Gospel and wrote the most severe of his letters. “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you? This only would I learn of you—received ye the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are ye no foolish? Having begun in the spirit are ye now made perfect by

the flesh?” He had triumphed, but it was too soon for him to know it and now he thinks of Rome where he could not yet go. The danger that had threatened to destroy the church would be felt severely there. So we And in the Epistle to the Romans the same questions asked and answered: What was the standard of life required of Christians in a heathen land. Was justification by the works of the law or by faith in Jesus Christ? But this epistle is far more than a letter, 'it is a Gospel. It is the good news about Jesus Christ, not written hv one who had lived with Him, nor

even much with those who had. so there is little about the -Lords, Actions and words, like the Gospels that were soon to be written. But St. Paul was equally certain of tne human and divine life of the risen Christ, his letter is of double interest because it was written before the Gospels in which we learn from our Lord’s life and words to know Him, and teaches the same truths, but he begins his message where others leave off .at the Resurrection: If thou shall confess with thy mouth Se Lord Jesus ,and .shall* believe in thy heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shall be saved, lor with the heart this is, b® lie y® d unto righteousness, and with the mouth it is confessed unto salvation.”

JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH

This teaching of justification by faith, not by works, is intensely practical. It calls for the truest courage and conviction, ami therefore unwavering service. In it there „ no place for materially »» sodleesness. We cannot tmn» of St Paul being influenced by the fool S said in his heart there is no Tod ” For he shows that departure from God deadens the conscience, lowers morality and is wasted opportunity "When they know God, they glorified Him' not as God, neithei were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened.” Clearly also the life that is required, of those who believe in the Resurrection is shown

and its end: righteousness. But we have to think more deeply Pf the words; "Confession is made unto Salvation.” Yet the meaning is just as simple and practical, for it is only want of faith, or false shame or cowardice that keeps us from acknowledging that Christ died for our sms, and rose again for our justification. So we remember what St. t'aui meant by confession: the simplest possible assent to the truth of our Lord’s Resurrection, showing m our lives that we believe He - died and rose again for us. The Apostles bore witness to their belief by keeping the first day of the 1 week as a weekly

memorial of His Resurrection. So today the clearest witness to our faith is the way we keep the Lord’s Day. Our truest confession before God and man is the regularity with which we show forth His death till He comes again, doing our duty day by day to God, and to men as brothers. Living lejss for self and more for others with the passing years, not because He has promised that if we confess Him before men He will also confess us before His Father which is in I heaven, but because of the love ■wherewith He has loved us,