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| Chapter IX.—Let us live with Christ.
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Chapter IX.—Let us live with Christ.
If, therefore, those who
were brought up in the ancient order of things680
| 680 Literally, “in old
things.” | have come to the possession of a new681
hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living
in the observance682
of the Lord’s Day, on which
also our life has sprung up again by Him and by His death—whom
some deny, by which mystery we have obtained faith,683
| 683 Literally, “we have received to
believe.” | and therefore endure, that we may be found
the disciples of Jesus Christ, our only Master—how shall we be
able to live apart from Him, whose disciples the prophets themselves in
the Spirit did wait for Him as their Teacher? And therefore He whom they
rightly waited for, being come, raised them from the dead.684
If, then, those who were conversant with the ancient
Scriptures came to newness of hope, expecting the coming of Christ, as
the Lord teaches us when He says, “If ye had believed Moses, ye
would have believed Me, for he wrote of Me;”685
and again, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and
he saw it, and was glad; for before Abraham was, I am;”686
how shall we be able to live without Him? The
prophets were His servants, and foresaw Him by the Spirit, and waited for
Him as their Teacher, and expected Him as their Lord and Saviour, saying,
“He will come and save us.”687
Let us therefore no longer
keep the Sabbath after the Jewish manner, and rejoice in days of
idleness; for “he that does not work, let him not eat.”688
For say the [holy] oracles, “In the
sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread.”689
But let every one of you keep
the Sabbath after a spiritual manner, rejoicing in meditation on the law,
not in relaxation of the body, admiring the workmanship of God, and not
eating things prepared the day before, nor using lukewarm drinks, and
walking within a prescribed space, nor finding delight in dancing and
plaudits which have no sense in them.690
| 690 Reference is here made to well-known Jewish opinions and
practices with respect to the Sabbath. The Talmud fixes 2000 cubits as
the space lawful to be traversed. Philo (De Therap.) refers to the
dancing, etc. | And after
the observance of the Sabbath, let every friend of Christ keep the
Lord’s Day as a festival, the resurrection-day, the queen and chief
of all the days [of the week]. Looking forward to this, the prophet
declared, “To the end, for the eighth day,”691
| 691 Ps. vi.,
Ps. xii. (inscrip.). [N.B.—The reference is
to the title of these two psalms, as rendered by the LXX. Εἰς τὸ τέλος ὑπὲρ τῆς ὀγδόης.] |
on which our life both sprang up again, and the victory over death was
obtained in Christ, whom the children of perdition, the enemies of the
Saviour, deny, “whose god is their belly, who mind earthly
things,”692
who are “lovers
of pleasure, and not lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but
denying the power thereof.”693
These
make merchandise of Christ, corrupting His word, and giving up Jesus to
sale: they are corrupters of women, and covetous of other men’s
possessions, swallowing up wealth694
| 694 Literally, “whirlpools of wealth.”
| insatiably; from whom may ye be delivered by the mercy of God
through our Lord Jesus Christ!E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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