He Is Risen. Hallelujah!
“Death cannot keep his prey,
Jesus, my Saviour;
He tore the bars away,
Jesus, my Lord”
(Robert Lowry, 1826-99, “Low In The Grave He Lay’).
James was living at Tengyueh under the leadership of the China Inland Mission work of Mr and Mrs Embery. When the first assignment to preach in the chapel came, James was very nervous. He spent a long time preparing notes for this message, asking the question, “What exactly has a missionary come to say?
James wrote: “In preparing my address, I first went through the Acts of the Apostles and some other passages, comparing them with a view to finding out the actual Gospel we are bidden to preach. The result was very instructive to me. I had never imagined the Gospel was so simple. Why, Peter and Paul both preached the Gospel in words which would not take one minute to say. And I found out that there are just four things which seem to be essential in preaching the Gospel.
- The crucifixion of Jesus Christ. No theological explanation needed.
- The resurrection of Jesus Christ. Most important of all. The Gospel was never preached without this being brought in.
- Exhortation to hearers to repent of their sins.
- Promise to all who believe on Jesus Christ that they will receive remission of their sins.
Beyond these four points, others are mentioned occasionally, but they are not many. In teaching Christians, it is quite another matter. To them we are to declare ‘the whole counsel of God’, as far as they can receive it. But the Gospel as preached to the unsaved is as simple as it could be. I should not care to take the responsibility of preaching ‘another Gospel’.”
(Taken from “Mountain Rain”, a biography of James O. Fraser by Eileen Fraser Crossman.)
Thoughts by Selwyn Hughes:
An Aggressive Lover. “This is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us” (1 John 4:10). The way in which the revelation of God’s love at the cross transforms and converts our love is a mystery that has intrigued Christians down the ages. How can it be explained? We know both by observation and experience that before we can love, we must first be loved. A child who grows up in a home where love is not demonstrated will find it difficult to become a loving and outgoing person.Love is basically a response. We love because we are loved.
When I stand before the cross, I discover as nowhere else in the universe that I am deeply loved, and not loved for what I can do or contribute to God’s universe, but loved simply for who I am. When I see that there are no strings attached to God’s love, and that it is an unconditional love, He does not love me if I will do this or if I will do that, the scales fall from my eyes and my own love answers back. The revelation of His love brought home to my heart by the Holy Spirit evokes a response in me that is almost automatic. One writer puts it like this, “In the midst of such a revelation, my heart plays truant and runs to its rightful Lord.”
Professor Hocking expressed it this way, “The self is not a closed system. It is capable of responding to the highest. There is, as the moving spirit of the world, an Aggressive Lover, able and disposed to break in upon my temper of critical egotism and win my response.” This is precisely what happened at the cross. An Aggressive Lover broke in upon our ‘temper of critical egotism’ and won our response. And how!
“Gracious Father, I am so glad that my personality is not a closed system. You made me to respond to love, Your love. I do so now wholeheartedly. Thank You, dear Father. Amen.”
