The Ohio Independent Baptist, December 1963

B Ralph T. Nordlund The Greatness of His Son 111 "t 11, "1cri11g thl' grcatnc,, l)f l1()(i .... .... at l 11, t1111t..' l'~ , t.'ar. it 1, ~11111r(.)111,1tc • t "' )~ tl't tl1,1t grt..',1t11c,, 111 111, ')n . .. the l l,tli Jt,t1, ( hr1,t t tl1i1t tl1i, , r t~r think. · t r nc 1111nt1tc that J c, t1, ,, ,1~· hl)fn Dec. 25 He began ht · 1l11n1str, Jt the ,1gc of 3() a11d '"i1cti thret: and a half , l:ar" later in • the earl~ da," f . pril. o it ,vot1ld b~ 111l re log1 al t ti ppo c that he ,, a horn ~- t1n1e,, h re bet,\ een ept . 1.:- .:ind O t. 1.:-. In fact there i a , er~ old traditi n that pt1t hi birth n the ept. 25. and it might be cor– re t . B o,, e, er. Chri tma , ill co11tinue to be celebrated in D ecember. and for u 1n thi tudy it n1ake... no dif– feren:e. The birth of Chri t, with all it heaven])' pageanty and human patho . re,'eal the greatne of the F ather \Vho ent him. A a human father feel honored in any honor that come to hi on o in a far more exact \\'a)' ~ e can ay that the great– ne of J e u Chri t i but the revealed greatne of God. ..... The Greatness of His Birth e need only review briefly the main fact of the ativity that i in e\·er) one· though t at pre ent. Think of the great prophecie that heralded hi coming: '·Behold, a virgin hall conceive, and bear a on, and hall call hi name Immanuel ;' ... "Un– to u a child i born, unto u a son i given: and the government shall be upon hi houlder; · ... "And thi i his name whereby he sh all be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUS– - ESS. ·· The e are but a few of the Old Testament promise tha t make clear that J e u wa not only the Son of God in a spiritual way , but God the son of the Second Person of the Trinit) 1 incarnate in human flesh! The moment we understand thi truth. all our modern difficul t ie with the Chr1stma story· disappear. · M yth and folk-lore, do we hear m odern scholars a)ring? Away with their condescending praises that the myth 1 beautiful - we insi t that it i beau– titul because it is true! The 1,;ondes– cension "'as all on Christ' s part - he laid aside hi eternal glory to reveal • himself to un~lorthy men: and )'et tn la)' ing aside his glory-robes. shall we Page 4, 1963 rea ness llt)t1l1t tl1at fl .. 1,l1c, 1t glt)I' shone in a ,tar. ()t that cchoc'i of angelic hoir, tell t111t1n car~ of \On1c t1e l1cv– i 11g ~hcphcrtl "? 1 oti 'c; l ... a~ w a~ g iv en n1111d,t cnrtht1t1a1'c a nd fire: 1c; it not concci , al1lc that C1od'. grace wa\ rc,'calcd in gt1iding tar and in con1 - forting 111t1 ic and a ho ly Infant ' cry? The Greatness of His Ministry 1uch a the world love to hear the tory of hri t' birth we who believe 1n finding and keeping the Bible empha i mu t tre hi min– i try, d eath and re urrection . The Chri tma tory would indeed be un– believable if the Bible told it as if it were only the royal visit of one who wanted to impre the world with hi own greatne . o, he himself said that the Son of man came to serve. He came to do the work of his Father who ent him. He in i ted that hi work glorified hi Father, ( J ohn 17: 4) and o our the i is correct that we ee the greatne of God in the greatne s of hi.. Son. What a mini try of devine mercy from his first preaching that the kingdom of God had come near to his las t words in the Upper Roon1 ! And all of thi in three and a half years! We preacher today hardly get s tarted in that time. We may have our eminary education, and type– writer , tape recorders, radios .. . and the go pel that H e gave u s to preach ; but who among us can say at the end Jife "I have fini shed the work which thou gavest me to do?" I know we have a few great preach– ers to boast about a dozen or so in each century. They are u sually very humble, though and insis t that if they have those "greater works" that Jesus promised it is only b ecau e they had a cross to ,preach and the power of the Holy Spirit to ble s what they preached. There may even be some since the apostle who have had unu ual power to heal the s ick (Spurgeon became famous for it in the last London plague, though he refused to c laim any credit for it) ~ but one thing sur e no one has been able to say what J esu s aid "The blind rei:eive their s ight, a nd the lame walk, the leper are clean ed , and the deaf hear1 the dead are raised up" not the last part, at any rate. Modern healer never top funeral proces ions nor have we heard of any that went to Indi a to empty lepro ariumc;! And yet if J e u wa God the Son come to earth, and all saved peopl e believe that there i no difficulty in b eliev– ing that bent back straightened up in hi pre ence, withered limbs filled out and began to function , ears that had never heard did h ear and even the dead were restored to life! If God the father had come to earth, al l tho e thing would have hap pened, or else al l of u s s inners would have burned up! Either alternative would reveal the greatness of God: aren t you glad that he cho e to come in the per on of his Son and m agnify hi grace? The Greatness of His Death D eath is an ugly thing that bout to us proud mortal that we are only du t and inful du t at that· but strange as it may seem the uglie t death of all , the death of a con- demned man on a cro ha been , o lauded in poetry and mu ic in sermon and service, only one cro s ha been magnified among thou and . we must a k ourselves what m ade it great. It wa great becau e of the One who died, according to the centurion who nailed him to the cro . H e o triumphed ,over injustice, ribaldry and human cruelty, and bowed uch grace a nd con ideration for other while uffering agony him elf, that , this R oman o ldier fir t aid, ' 'Certain– ly thi wa a righteou man.' Then when the earth began to tremble and rock began to roll down hill, he added according to Matthew and Mark ' 'Surely this man wa the on of God. We agree that a great per on add omething of hi own greatne to hi death ; but if thi were all, it would only add to its tragedy and ( Cotitinited on page 14) THE OHIO INDEPENDENT BAPTIST