If, then, we leave the sphere of nature for that of the church to seek
an expression of the power which is working here, we find one formed by
Paul the apostle: _The power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ_.
But as God's power in nature chiefly acts according to certain laws
and plans, unheeding them only now and then--so does the power of His
Son in the church. It acts regularly, determined by laws and order,
and unrestrained only now and then. In this there is, in both cases, a
very great blessedness to be found. We have been created to abide by
conditions which are determined by well-defined plans and laws, and we
would be seriously troubled by being the objects of merely arbitrary
and unrestrained powers.
When Jesus made bread for the hungry multitude in the desert, it
happened through the free interference of powers--not in accordance
with accepted laws and plans. But now suppose that the farmer were
to expect bread in this manner--that certainly would lead him into
a painful state of doubt: He had not sown his seed in the spring,
for he was sure a miracle would be wrought so that the crop would be
ready by harvest time. Summer elapsed and he looked anxiously for the
miracle which was to bring him the crop. According to the ways of
human thinking it lasted too long before the miracle happened! What
painful restlessness and uncertainty! No, there is greater surety and
satisfaction in the order predicated upon laws, that seedtime and
harvest shall not cease, and that whatsoever a man soweth, that shall
he reap.
But as God thus has endowed nature with His power so as to make it
adopt certain laws with the end in view that man's worldly existence
shall be based thereon, so Christ has endowed His church with the power
of resurrection which works through His institutions according to laws,
and _upon this action, regulated and determined by laws, rests the
existence of Christians_. By doing so He has not, however, exhausted
Himself or confined Himself so as to make it impossible for Him to work
through other methods, but we are restrained even as are those means
through which the power of His resurrection comes to us.
It would be wrong on the part of the farmer to demand that bread should
be made in any other way than that which God has designed for its
production from the soil--and it would be just as wrong on the part of
Christians to demand miracles. We must abide by the church _in which
the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ acts, regulated and
law-restrained, at the baptismal font and communion, upon all those who
will choose the right attitude toward them_.
But has not the miracle, this unrestrained action of the powers,
disappeared from the church? Miracles do not happen nowadays as in the
time of the apostles.
People are often heard to speak like this, and here we must first of
all call attention to the fact that one period in the history of the
church may be profuse in miracles while the other is devoid of them.
It does not go according to our desires and thoughts, but according
to what the Lord in His wisdom deems well for the fulfillment of His
eternal thoughts. Furthermore, our age is not in a very receptive mood
for the "miracle"--it might face _the strange things_ gapingly instead
of believingly accepting the "miracle" as a "miracle" and give God the
glory therefor. Yet I am convinced that the unrestrained interference
of powers has not ceased in our age, but it takes place only according
to the counsel of the Lord, and where receptivity is present. Nowadays,
this applies especially in heathen lands and in secret where the
faithful pray and receive unseen by the eyes of the world.
But, in this connection, I would call attention to the following:
The greatest miracle is not that some sick person may be restored to
health, or freed of some bodily weakness, but that _I, the sinner that
I am, may be resurrected in spirit, soul and body, in accordance with
the eternal thoughts of glory of God_. This miracle is a thousand times
greater than that which took place at the door of the temple when Peter
said to him who was lame from his mother's womb: "Rise up and walk!"
For this does not apply to a certain part of the body nor to certain
bodily weaknesses, but to _the entire being with all its weaknesses_.
This is the greatest miracle of all, and it takes place until the very
end of time within the church of the Lord.
Here we truly have reason for saying: Praise be to God that we are
not expected to look for the unrestrained interference of the powers
for the sake of the restitution of our entire being, but that we can
adhere to the regulated, law-restrained acts of the powers, fully
convinced that the good work which is thus begun shall be completed in
this manner, in spite of the devil and in spite of death.
The power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ does not work here in
the same way as in the case of the resurrection of Lazarus; for there
it acted unrestrainedly and visibly, even to the unbelieving Jewish
people. Here it works invisibly, but none the less tangibly, and a far
greater goal is to be attained. I am not to be resurrected like Lazarus
to once more live under conditions of sin, and to once more face death.
I am to be resurrected from death and from the conditions of sin wholly
prepared to be at home in the halls of Heaven. In order to achieve this
I am not to look for _sensations_ and _movements_ in bluish dimness,
but to adhere faithfully to the regulated, law-restrained acts of the
powers within the church of the Lord.
It is in the faith in this action of the powers that we are, with Paul
the apostle, to look forward to the resurrection of all things. I do
not think that through the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ
all things are to be restored to the extent, as some have thought, that
even the devil himself is to enter into the kingdom of God and become
a leader of angels as he had been before; nor do I think that the
godless and the infidels will be placed among the Godfearing and the
faithful in the Kingdom of Heaven without repentance and faith. But I
do believe for a certainty that all things are to be restored according
to the eternal design of God in which the power of the resurrection of
Jesus Christ is allowed to act. And for that we are yearning within the
church.
But nature also yearns; that, too, is subject to corruption. That, too,
shall be freed of the thraldom of corruption into the glorious freedom
of the children of God. When the power of the resurrection of Jesus
Christ has penetrated nature, then it will appear as the new earth in
which justice abideth. But just as man must pass through death, through
perdition, humanly seen, so the ancient earth must pass through death
and perdition, and the scripture testifies with equal firmness in the
case of both, that man must die and the earth must perish.
Then the great miracle has happened that everywhere in the life of man
and in nature where the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is
working, the restoration of all things has taken place, and the rest
has been completely segregated from us so that it no longer may tempt
or ensnare us. All bonds have broken. The miracle has been accomplished
in its entire extent in accordance with the counsel of the wisdom of
God--that miracle which was begun when the only begotten Son of God was
conceived by a woman--that miracle which, as far as you are concerned,
took place when He was conceived within you at the sacred moment of
baptism.
It is said about the miracle of Jesus at Cana that it was a _token_,
and that may be said about all the miracles of the Lord. But, of what
are they tokens? Of the fact that His power can conquer everywhere,
_in nature, in the life of mankind, and in the spiritual world_.
Tokens of His mastery of nature were witnessed at the marriage at
Cana where He turned water into wine; when He stilled the storm on
Gennesaret lake; and when He filled the nets of the fishermen: In the
life of mankind when blind became seeing; deaf became hearing; the lame
walked and the dead arose: In the spiritual world when Jesus drove the
evil spirits away from those who had become obsessed by them--indeed,
even the prince of the evil spirits, the devil, was forced to yield
defeated. All these are tokens that the power of Jesus Christ can do
everything, can master anything from the deep of the sea to the highest
arch of the sky, and that it is capable of attaining victory in the
struggle with principalities and powers, with the spiritual hosts of
evil beneath the sky.
But these tokens, furthermore, are _small beginnings of the
restoration_ and when they have been perfected, everywhere and
all-inclusive, then that new Heaven and that new earth where justice
dwelleth, has become a fact.
God is the God of order. Therefore we find plans, system and laws in
nature as well as in the church. It has been given especially to our
own age to realize this so that an expression like "the law of nature
in the spiritual world" has been recognized. Science has perceived this
regulated, law-restrained order of things in nature as keenly as never
before, but, alas, it became dizzy thereat. Otherwise it would have
exclaimed even as Paul did: O, world of wisdom and power! Who would
have known how to plan thus? Who would have the strength to subdue and
master the giant powers?
In the church of the Lord we respond: _God the Almighty Father, the
creator of Heaven and earth!_
* * * * *
An atheist was lecturing at a village in England and ended by
self-confidently inviting the audience to take part in a discussion.
Then an old woman, her back bent with the weariness of life and years,
arose, saying:
"Sir, I have a question to ask you?"
"All right, my good woman," the atheist answered, "what is it then?"
"Ten years ago I was left a widow with eight unsupported children.
I had nothing but a Bible, but by following its directions and by
believing in God I have been enabled to support my dear ones and
myself. I am now approaching the grave, but I am perfectly happy, for I
am looking forward to an eternally blessed life with Jesus. _My faith
has done this for me: What has your way of thinking done for you?_"
"Well, well, my good woman," the atheist said, "please, understand me
right--I have no desire to disrupt your happiness, but----"
"O, that wasn't the question at all," the old woman interrupted--"don't
beat about the bush, but tell us: _What has your atheism done for you?_"
Once more the atheist tried to evade the question, but the audience
applauded the old woman so vigorously that he felt it necessary to
withdraw, defeated by a woman who, during a life of hardships, had
experienced the power and the blessedness of Christianity.
* * * * *
The late Dr. Ahlfeld in Leipsic once said in his final address to a
class of children about to be confirmed:
"Infidels will shake their heads at your faith. They will speak of
their unbelief as progress. They will tell you that progress has been
made in everything, and they will ask you why you then should abide by
the ancient faith. Then you shall answer: The ancient sun has shone
for thousands of years, and no one can give us one that is better. We
make no progress by rejecting it but by learning how to make better use
of its rays. Thus, also, with Christ. He shines through all ages as
the Sun of mankind. He is the very same today and tomorrow and in all
infinity, and it is not progress to reject Him. We must learn how to
make increasingly better use of the rays of His grace. That, children,
_is our progress_!"