I N D E X
4
All Spiritual Blessings
OR
From Israel's Table.
CRUMBS
Which?
An appeal and a challenge.
Some of us stay at the Cross,
Some of us wait at the Tomb,
Quickened, raised, seated together with Christ,
Yet living still in gloom.
Some of us bide at the Passover Feast
With Ascension all unknown -
The triumphs of grace in the heavenly place
That our Lord has made our own.
If the Christ Who died had stopped at the Cross
His work had been incomplete;
If the Christ Who was buried had stayed in the Tomb
He had only known defeat.
But the way of the Cross never stops at the Cross,
And the way of the Tomb leads on
To victorious grace in the heavenly place
Where the risen Lord has gone.
(Adapted from C.S.S.M. magazine of April 1933 by A. H. M. and printed in The Berean Expositor Vol. 23, page
160).
Some believers, alas, do not even `stay at the Cross', for much of their reading and private devotion is based
upon the Gospels, and the only one of the four that definitely announces eternal life as a gift of God upon believing
is John. Luke's Gospel, written by one who so faithfully served with the apostle Paul, has a Gentile aspect, but the
actual Cross, Death, Burial, Resurrection and Ascension of Christ, do not appear until the closing chapter is reached.
Even after the Resurrection the attitude of the apostles and most of the followers is expressed in the fatalistic
announcement of Peter `I go fishing', or merited the rebuke administered by the risen Christ to the two on the road
to Emmaus, `Fools and slow of heart to believe'. Peter, whose attitude in Matthew 16:21-23 makes it clear that he
had no idea that Christ would suffer, nevertheless preached the gospel of the Kingdom, and did so acceptably for it
was confirmed by `signs following' which included even the raising of the dead (Matt. 10:7,8). Is THAT GOSPEL the
good news for today? We are sure that those to whom we write these lines, would not tolerate a gospel where `Jesus
Christ and Him Crucified' was unknown, yet without, apparently, any conception of how inconsistent they are, some
take to themselves the Sermon on the Mount, the Parables of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, the Prophecy
of the Second Coming in Matthew 24, together with moral and doctrinal passages ALL OF WHICH was truth for those
who neither knew nor believed the Cross or the Resurrection!
Perhaps the earliest and the sweetest result of believing the Gospel of Christ, is to learn of the forgiveness of
sins, and we can well imagine those who have been in the habit of reciting the Lord's Prayer will feel that they have
here evidence from Scripture that our estimate of the early chapters of Matthew is wrong and dangerous. This
prayer is given in the Sermon on the Mount, where there is not one reference to faith, redemption, justification or
atonement, in spite of the categorical statements of Scripture that `Without shedding of blood is no remission
(forgiveness)' (Heb. 9:22), or as announced by the apostle concerning Christ:
`In Whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins' (Eph. 1:7).
According to the revelation of truth found in the epistles, forgiveness is IRREVERSIBLE, being based upon redemption
and justification, and issues in `No condemnation' and `No separation' (Rom. 8:1, 31-39). Even an unsaved man,