The Person of Christ is a work by various authors about the most precious subject in all the scriptures - God's Son, Jesus Christ.  Some subjects include the Perfect Servant, the Eternal Sonship of Christ, the Incarnation of Christ, the Deity of Christ, the Impeccability of Christ, His Pre-existance, His Moral Glories, the Atonement  Work and others.

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Becky MacLeod

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 Here's the Difference

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How to write your testimony effectively - Telling your own story is perhaps one of the most effective methods in sharing the gospel message.  It's Biblical, attractive and effective if done right.  “The problem with some writing isn’t that it’s bad writing. It’s just boring,” - Ginger Kolbaba, managing editor of Marriage Partnership magazine...

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THE SPIRIT’S GUIDANCE

Is the Breaking of Bread meeting open for ministry, etc., under the Spirit’s guidance, in a way which would not equally apply to a Conference, a Gospel meeting or a Prayer meeting?

I certainly think it is; but in order to understand why, it is necessary to apprehend the special character attaching to meetings of different kinds. Each has in effect its special character, which predominates, though there is a certain latitude, and other things may have their place up to a point. Thus a Gospel meeting is for the preaching of the good news to sinners; that should characterise the meeting, though a short word to believers present may sometimes be in place and cannot be forbidden. A teaching meeting is for teaching the truth of God to believers, and need not be taken up too much with long prayers and hymn singing; an exhortation meeting is for exhortation, also to believers. In these cases it is a question of the exercise of gift manward. All are not evangelists or teachers; all are not called to exhort, etc. “He gave some, evangelists, some, pastors and teachers” (Ephesians 4:11);" TARGET="_blank">Ephesians 4:11); and in Romans 12:6" TARGET="_blank">Romans 12:6 we are reminded that “we have gifts differing according to the grace given,” either for prophesying (a foundation gift that no longer exists) or for ministry of various kinds—teaching, exhortation, etc. To apply the principle of equality of opportunity to all in such cases is clearly to set on one side the Lordship of Christ, who has given gifts according to His own will. We may invite men known to be qualified to evangelise or teach to the more general meetings for teaching (wrongly called “conferences,” for rarely does anyone confer). Where there are several teachers present, unless some special brother has been invited to minister the Word, there may well be an opportunity for open ministry, not however to all present, but only to those known to possess the gifts needful for edification.

Too often what is called “the open platform” has been abused, either because of too much liberty granted by elder brethren convening the meetings, or because of too much liberty taken by brethren present, who are not truly qualified to teach, but who get up on the plea of “the liberty of the Spirit,” and waste valuable time by unedifying talk. Let those who are gifted to teach wait on their ministry, and consider their brethren. The liberty of the Spirit is not anybody’s liberty to do as they like, but for the Spirit to do as He wills and use whom He chooses. The breaking of bread meeting is quite different; it is not primarily for ministry, though there may be secondary opportunities for this, when the true object of the meeting is over, which is to “shew the Lord’s death” (thus remembering Him in the breaking of bread), and to worship the Father. The object of those present is not to receive instruction, but to obey the Lord’s command, and as priests to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. As all believers, by the fact of the new birth, are constituted priests, the meeting is left open for all present to worship the Father, whether silently or vocally.

In the 1 Corinthians 11" TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 11:  passage there is not a hint of any arrangement of speakers for ministry, and much less of anyone to preside and, as clergyman, minister, or pastor, “administer the sacrament” or “dispense the elements.” The bread is “the bread which we break,” the cup is “the cup of blessing which we bless.” These are terms which make breaking the bread and giving thanks for the cup a general privilege, rather than an ecclesiastical monopoly. The same principle applies to a prayer-meeting. All may pray, the women silently (1 Corinthians  14:34), the men “everywhere lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting” (1 Timothy 2:8);" TARGET="_blank">1 Timothy 2:8); that is, it is they who lead in prayer. How can a prayer-meeting be rightly anything but “open” for the Spirit’s guidance? He alone knows the state of each soul; He alone knows the particular needs, and can make known that need to each and give suitable words to express it. Accordingly, there is not a hint in 1 Timothy 2" TARGET="_blank">1 Timothy 2: of anyone presiding over or directing the prayer-meeting.

W.H.

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THE BREAD

At the Lord’s Supper is the loaf a symbol of the human Body of the Lord, and also a symbol of His mystical Body—the Church?

When thus gathered, are we an expression of that Body on earth? It has been stated by a well-known teacher that “the Church which is Christ’s Body” (Ephesians 1:22-23)" TARGET="_blank">Ephesians 1:22-23) is spiritual, and spiritually discerned, lying altogether beyond the range of the natural senses and is without organisation or expression on earth.”
It has often been remarked that the order of things in 1 Corinthians 10" TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 10: differs from that of the following chapter, in that in the ioth the cup precedes the bread, whereas it is the bread which comes first in the i ith chapter, where we have the actual order of the celebration. In the former chapter, it is a question of communion which rests on the blood; in the latter, of remembrance, which views primarily the Person. Certainly in 1 Corinthians 11" TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 11: , the loaf represents the literal human Body of the Lord, according to His words: “This is My body, which is given for you.” How else could such words be understood, than as referring to His literal Body, which was crucified for us, and in which He bore our sins, and which the bread represents?

But in 1 Corinthians 10:17," TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 10:17, we read: “For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread,” or as the R.V. margin has it, more clearly and I judge, more correctly: “Seeing that there is one bread, we, who are many are one body.” I do not think it is necessary for us to assert that “we are an expression of the body on earth,” for this may, as it has too often done in the past, savour of pretension, but rather that the one loaf is the expression of the one mystical Body of Christ. I do not think that this is out of harmony with the statement quoted above by the “well-known teacher.” The one loaf does not define the unity of the Body, it affirms it and we say, “Amen”!

W.H.

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Please explain Matthew 12:43-45," TARGET="_blank">Matthew 12:43-45, and Luke 11:24-26;" TARGET="_blank">Luke 11:24-26; also why does Mr. Newberry insert the word, “it”, in his margin for the word, “he”, in Luke 11:24" TARGET="_blank">Luke 11:24?

Mathew 12:43-45  When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.  (44)  Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.  (45)  Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.

Luke 11:24-26" TARGET="_blank">Luke 11:24-26  When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out.  (25)  And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished.  (26)  Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.
 

There are certain important words in this section which, if understood, will enable us to grasp the general meaning of the passage.
The “house” refers, I believe, to the house of Israel. “Generation” refers to the class of people then living, a people hostile to the Lord Jesus. The unclean spirit is, I believe, the spirit of idolatry which once found a resting place in Israel, but of which Israel were cured as the result of their Babylonian captivity. That idolatrous spirit will find no resting place save in apostate Israel, to which house it will later return, leading them to worship a mere man—the Man of Sin—the worst form of idolatry. This will bring upon them a far more severe judgment than ever hitherto they have known and so their last end will be worse than the first.
What has been effected by Christ Who came to that house is that he swept and garnished it, turning out from it things that hitherto occupied it. The spirit of idolatry in full force (with seven other spirits) will return to that house with, as I have said, disastrous consequences. The “generation” will persist until the end. They would not have Him Who came in His Father’s Name: another shall come in his own name and him theywill receive.

W.R.

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