SACRAMENTAL SERVICE

Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up
that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ… .

— Colossians 1:2

The Christian worker has to be a sacramental “go-between,” to be so
identified with his Lord and the reality of His Redemption that He
can continually bring His creating life through him. It is not the
strength of one man’s personality being superimposed on another, but
the real presence of Christ coming through the elements of the
worker’s life. When we preach the historic facts of the life and
death of Our Lord as they are conveyed in the New Testament, our
words are made sacramental, God uses them on the ground of His
Redemption to create in those who listen that which is not created
otherwise. If we preach the effects of Redemption in human life
instead of the revelation regarding Jesus, the result in those who
listen is not new birth, but refined spiritual culture, and the
Spirit of God cannot witness to it because such preaching is in
another domain. We have to see that we are in such living sympathy
with God that as we proclaim His truth He can create in souls the
things which He alone can do.

What a wonderful personality! What a fascinating man! Such marvellous
insight! What chance has the Gospel of God through all that? It
cannot get through, because the line of attraction is always the line
of appeal. If a man attracts by his personality, his appeal is along
that line; if he is identified with his Lord’s personality, then the
appeal is along the line of what Jesus Christ can do. The danger is
to glory in men; Jesus says we are to lift Him up.

On this day…

• Psalm 99 – 2024
• Introduction to Philippians – 2024
• 2 Samuel 4 – 2023
• 2 Samuel 3 – 2023
• Ecclesiology can and must be measured – 2011
• Open your hands to God – 2011
• It doesn’t take long before everyone knows – 2011
• Stir Your Mind – 2011
• 1 Peter 5 – 2011
• What Is the Recession For? Some of God’s Purposes – 2009