It is thrilling to trace through the New Testament and find the word “made,” and to observe how our Lord Jesus Christ, the great Creator of all, humbled Himself, died on Calvary’s cross and arose again from the dead to save, justify and glorify sinners.
St. Paul says of Christ: “All things were created by Him and for Him” (Col. 1:16), and St. John adds by inspiration: “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made… The world was made by Him” (John 1:3,10).
How wonderful it is, then, that He, the Creator of all, came to be one with us — yes, one of us! John tells us again that the Maker of all was “made flesh” (John 1:14) and Paul declares that “when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law…” (Gal. 4:4), that He “made Himself of no reputation …and was made in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:6,7). In his letter to the Hebrews he adds that Christ was “made [for] a little [while] lower than the angels for the suffering of death” (Heb. 2:9). More than that, he declares that our Lord was “made a curse for us” (Gal. 3:13) to redeem us from the curse of the law, and that God “made Him to be sin for us…” (II Cor. 5:21).
Thus in one stroke, at Calvary , our Lord, the great Creator, bore the penalty for sin that would have sunk a world to hell, and for this “God also hath highly exalted Him” (Phil. 2:9), having “raised him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all…” (Eph. 1:20,21). “God hath made that same Jesus… both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36) so that now He has been “made higher than the heavens” (Heb. 7:26).
As a result the simplest believer in this mighty Savior is “made… accepted in the Beloved One” (Eph. 1:6) and “made [to] sit… in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6). He is “made the righteousness of God in Him” (II Cor. 5:21), “that being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Tit. 3:7).
To the Reader:
Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:
"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."
To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.
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