CHRIST FIRST
‘We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord.’
The Apostle not satisfied with convincing his countrymen and others that Jesus Christ of Nazareth was a good man, nor with enforcing the lessons of heavenly wisdom which proceeded out of His mouth. The Gospel he preached went further and deeper than all this.
It was the Gospel of salvation from sin; the Gospel of a loving, living Saviour and Lord. He preached Christ Jesus as Lord for the perfecting of man in body, soul, and spirit.
I. What is meant by preaching Christ Jesus as Lord?—Isaac Barrow declares that Jesus Christ is Lord:—
(a) In the highest sense of Godhead, Lord Jehovah, as one with the Father in His Divine nature;
(b) As being Master and supreme Controller, and especially Lord of the whole family in heaven and earth who are named of Him;
(c) As Lord of all, especially Lord of all who believe in Him as their Redeemer; and
(d) As having received power over all flesh.
It was upon this fact and truth that the Apostle constructed the Christian system of morals, of obedience to rulers and nations, of liberty and civilisation; everything was to be done ‘as unto the Lord.’ What a changed world this would become were this principle actuating the lives of all now.
—Rev. Canon Emery.
Illustration
‘The wrong order of right things is often the most serious of evils. Disproportionate truth is the worst of errors. Therefore we are told that one feature of the restored world will be that “the last shall be first and the first last.” This is one of the great ends which the Gospel is labouring to carry out: to re-establish the series; to show us which should be first and which should be second; to place things in the foreground which sin has put in the rear, and to put at a distance as secondary what man has been accustomed to put foremost as primary. Christian, see that Christ is first.’