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Morning Meditation has replace Soul Foods

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“I will do for you all that you request, for all the people of my town know that you are a virtuous woman. Now it is true that I am a close relative [“near kinsman,” KJV]; however, there is a relative closer than I. …If he will perform the duty of a close relative for you-good; let him do it. But if he does not want to perform the duty for you, then I will perform the duty for you, as the Lord lives” (Ruth 3:11-13)

Who was the redeemer in the book of Ruth? The nearest of kin. The redeemer must be not only one who was near of kin, but he must be the nearest among those who were near. Therefore Boaz could not step into the place of redeemer until, by another stepping out of place, he became really the nearest. That is the point made in the second chapter of Hebrews.

In Ruth, you remember Naomi’s husband had died. The inheritance has fallen into the hands of others. When she came back from Moab, it had to be redeemed. This is the story also in the second chapter of Hebrews. Adam had an inheritance, the earth, and he lost it, and he himself was brought into bondage. In the gospel in Leviticus, if one had lost his inheritance, it could be redeemed; but only the nearest of kin could redeem (Lev. 25:25, 26, 47-49).

We need a redeemer! But only he who is nearest in blood relationship can perform the office of redeemer. Jesus Christ is nearer than a brother, nearer than anyone. He is nearest among the brethren-nearest of kin. Not only one with us, but He is one of us, and one with us by being one of us.

In all points of temptation, wherever we are tempted, He is ourselves right there. In all points in which it is possible for me to be tempted, He stood right there against all the knowledge and ingenuity of Satan to tempt me. And thus comprehending the whole human race, He stands in every point where any one of the human race can be tempted. In Him we are complete against the power of temptation. In Him we are overcomers. “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (Jn. 16:33).

Jones, General Conference Bulletin, 1895, pp. 232,233

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“Oh wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God- through Jesus Christ our Lord!...There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 7:24, 25; 8:1)

In these words lies a practical thought. And from it arises a question which troubles many.

They say, “I believe all that in theory, and I know that Christ can cleanse me from sin. If I confess my sins, he is faithful and just to forgive me, and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness. But my question is, Have I confessed all my sins? If I were only sure that I have, then I could claim that promise and believe that there is no condemnation in me.”

How are we going to know that we’re not under condemnation? Of course, confess everything the Lord shows you. But don’t stop halfway. Believe that God forgives it, and take His peace into your heart. And if He shows you other sins, confess them, believe that they are forgiven, and keep His peace still. But honest souls deprive themselves of a blessing and go into darkness because when they have confessed their sins they do not take the forgiveness, and thank God for the freedom that must follow.

The idea that we have confessed all the sins we know of, but still they’re not acknowledged freedom from condemnation, is really bringing a serious charge against God. It is making the Lord out to be the forgiver of the person who has the best memory. But was it your memory alone that enabled you to remember those sins that you did confess? Who quickened your memory? It was the Spirit of God. Are we going to charge God with doing a partial work? He sent His Holy Spirit to show you those sins. Shall we say He kept back a part of them that He did not reveal to us? He showed us just what He wanted us to confess, and when we have confessed that, we have met the mind of the Spirit of God, and we are free.

Jones, General Conference Bulletin, 1895, pp. 265,266

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“The children of a family share the same flesh and blood; and so He too shared ours, so that through death He might break the power of him who had death at his command, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14 NEB)

Yes, in Christ we meet in Satan a completely conquered and completed exhausted enemy [the KJV says “destroy him” but the Greek means to paralyze him, or break his power].

This is not to say that we have no more fighting to do. But it is to say, and to say emphatically and joyfully, that in Christ we fight the fight of victory. Out of Christ, we fight-but it is all defeat. In Him our victory is complete, as well as in all things in Him we are complete. But, oh do not forget the expression: it is in Him!

Then as Satan has exhausted all the temptations that he knows, or possibly can know, and has exhausted all his power in the temptation too, what is he in the presence of Christ? The answer is: powerless. And when he finds us in Christ and then would reach us and harass us, what is he? Powerless. Praise and magnify the Lord.

Let us rejoice in this, for in Him we are victors. In Him we are free. In Him Satan is powerless toward us. Let us be thankful for that. In Him we are complete.

“Whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world-our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 Jn. 5:4,5)
Jones, General Conference Bulletin, 1895, p.232

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“The law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression.” “But God demonstrates His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him” (Rom. 4:15; 5:8,9)

It is a good law which says that everything shall have a tendency to go toward the center of the earth. we could not get along without that law. it holds us upon the earth, add enables us to walk and move about upon it. if our feet slip out from under us, the law works and brings us down with a terrible jolt, you know. Well, the same law that enables us to live and move and walk around the earth comfortably, so basically while we act in harmony with it, that all things work when we get out of harmony with it; but it hurts.

That is an illustration of this law of human nature. if man had remained the God put him, the law would have looked uneasily. since man has got out of harmony with it, it still works directly; but it hurts.

The law of heredity reached from Adam to the flesh of Jesus Christ as certainly as it reaches from Adam to the flesh of any of [the] rest of us. In Him there were things that reached Him from Adam; thus in the flesh of Jesus Christ, not in Himself, but in His flesh, our flesh which He took in human nature, there were just the same tendencies to sin that are in you and me. And when He was tempted, it was the “drawing away of these desires that were in the flesh.” These drew upon Him, and sought to entice Him, to consent to the wrong. But by the love of God and by His trust in God, He received the power and the strength and the grace to say “No” to all of this, and put it all under foot. And thus, being “in the likeness of sinful flesh, He condemned sin in the flesh.”
Jones, General Conference Bulletin, 1895, pp. 232, 233.

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“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.” “The devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time” (Rev. 12: 11,12)

Satan is interested in seeing that we are tempted just as much as possible. But he does not have to employ much of his time nor very much of his power in temptation to get us to yield.

That same one was specially interested in getting Jesus to yield to temptation. Satan tried Him upon every point upon which he would ever have to try me and to get me to sin; but he tried in vain. He utterly failed to get Jesus to consent in sin in any single point upon which I can ever be tempted.

He also tried Jesus upon every point upon which he has ever tried you or can ever try you, to get you to sin; and he actually failed there too. Then that takes you and me both; and Jesus has conquered in all points for both you and me.

But when he tried Jesus upon all the points that he has tried both you and me, and failed, he had to try Him more than that yet. He had to try Him also upon all the points upon which he has tried the other man, to get him to yield. Satan has completely failed there. Satan is the author of all temptation, and he had to try Jesus upon every point upon which it is possible for Satan himself to raise a temptation. He also had to try Jesus with a good deal more power than he ever had to exert upon me. So you are free in Christ. There is a complete failure on the devil's part all around. He has [was] absolutely conquered. And in Christ we are conquerors. Jesus said, “The ruler [“Prince,” KJV] of this world is coming, and he has nothing in me” (John 14: 30). In Christ we meet in Satan a completely conquered and a completely exhausted enemy.
Waggoner, Christ and His Righteousness, p.22

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Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren” (James 1:14-16).

These tendencies to sin that are in us have appeared in action, and have become sins committed in the open. There’s a difference between a tendency to sin and the open appearing of that sin in the actions. There are tendencies to sin in us that have not yet appeared; but multitudes have appeared.

Now all the tendencies to sin that have not appeared, Christ conquered. What about the sins that have actually appeared in us? “The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53: 6). “Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness- by whose stripes you are healed” (1 Peter 2:24). Thus it is plain that all tendencies to sin that are in us and all the sins which have appeared, were laid upon Him. It is terrible; it is true. But, oh, joy! In that terrible truth lies the completeness of our salvation. He conquered them all, and in Him we all have victory over them all.

We ourselves have felt the guilt of those sins we have committed, we were conscious of condemnation because of them. These were all imputed to Christ; they were all laid upon Him. Now a question: did He feel the guilt of the sins that were imputed to Him? He was never conscious of sins that He committed, for He did not commit any. But our sins were laid upon Him, and we were guilty. We will look at that in such a way that every soul shall say, “Yes.” There may be some who have not had the experience that I will bring for the illustration, but many have; they can say, “Yes.” All others who have had the experience will say, “Yes” at once.

Waggoner, Christ and His Righteousness, p.28

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“No temptation has overtaken you except such that is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it” (1 Cor. 10:13)

There are things that will tempt you strongly, that will draw hard on you, that are no more to me than a zephyr in a summer day. Something will draw hard on me, even to overthrowing me, that would not affect you at all. What strongly tempts one person may not affect another.

Then, in order to help me Jesus must be where He can feel what I feel, and be tempted in all points where I could be tempted with any power at all.

But as things that tempt me may not tempt you at all, and things may affect you that will not affect me, Christ has to stand where you and I both are, so as to meet all the temptations of both. He must feel all those which you meet that do not affect me, and also all those which I meet that do not affect you. He has to take the place of both of us.

Jesus had to take all the feelings and the nature of my self, of your self, and of the other man also. He must be tempted in all points like as I am, and in all points like as you are, and in all points like the other man is. How many does that embrace? That takes in the whole human race.

And this is exactly the truth. Christ was in the place, and He had the nature, of the whole human race. And in Him meet all the weaknesses of mankind, so that every man on earth who can be tempted at all finds in Jesus Christ power against temptation. For every soul there is in Jesus Christ victory against all temptation, and relief from the power of it.

Jones, General Conference Bulletin, 1895, p.219

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“Paul, a bond servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God…concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh” (Rom. 1:1,3)

In noticing how Christ became one of us, we found that it was by birth from the flesh. He is “the seed of David according to the flesh.” His genealogy goes to Adam.

Everyone is tempted, “when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed” (James 1:14). That is the definition of “temptation.” There is not a single drawing toward sin, there is not a single tendency to sin in you and me that was not in Adam when he stepped out of the Garden of Eden. All the iniquity and all the sin that have come into the world came from him as he was there. It did not all appear in him in open action; but it has manifested itself in open action in those who have come from him.

But Jesus Christ felt all these temptations. He was tempted upon all these points in the flesh which He derived from David, from Abraham, and from Adam. In His genealogy is Manasseh, who did worse than any other king in Judah; Solomon is there; Rehab, Judah, Jacob- all are there just as they were. Jesus came “according to the flesh” at the end of that line of mankind.

There is such a thing as heredity. You and I have traits of character that have come to us from away back-perhaps from great-great grandfather.

The new birth completely supersedes the old. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Cor. 5:17). He who takes God for the portion of his inheritance has a power working in him for righteousness as much stronger than the power of inherited tendencies to evil, as our heavenly Father is greater than our earthly parents.

Jones, General Conference Bulletin, 1895, pp. 232, 233