Acts 10:43

CHRIST AND THE HOLY SCRIPTURES

‘To Him give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins.’

Acts 10:43

Here we have an unequivocal testimony to the Divine authority of the Word inspired, and to the Word incarnate as the source of the forgiveness of sin. These twin doctrines are cardinal truths of the Christian faith.

I. Why do I believe the Old Testament to be the Word, the message of God?

(a) Its historical portions receive fresh confirmation from the discoveries that are constantly made by the researches of antiquarians.

(b) Our Saviour ever spoke of the Old Testament with profound reverence. He nowhere casts the shadow of a doubt on its authority.

(c) And as the Master, so the disciples. Their attitude on the Old Testament is identical with His.

(d) And in this as in other things our Church faithfully follows in the footsteps of her Lord and His Apostles. In this our Liturgy bears a striking resemblance to the New Testament. As our Lord in the Gospels and the Apostles in the Acts and the Epistles appeals to the Bible of the Jewish Church, so does our Church to the larger Bible of the Christian Church. Not only is the vastly greater portion of her services made up of the pure Word of God, but in her prefaces and her rubrics, in her articles and her homilies, and especially in her solemn ordination services, she sets forth that Word as the exclusive source of her children’s faith.

II. Remission of sins.—‘That through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins.’ This is another essential article of the Christian creed. ‘I believe in the remission of sins.’ It seems to me not a little remarkable that the drift of prophetic utterances in the Old Testament should be thus specifically asserted by an Apostle of Christ to have taught the remission of sins through His Name. His Name includes for us all that He is, and all that He has done, His Person and His offices, His mission and His message, the infinite value and virtue of His vicarious sacrifice on the Cross, His resurrection from the dead and His intercessory pleading at the right hand of God. ‘Through His Name,’ the name that is above every name. Such is the ground on which we are offered remission of sins; the pledge and promise of all other blessings.

III. This is the gospel.—There are other gospels abroad I know. There is the gospel of culture, the gospel of legislation, the gospel of ceremonialism, the gospel of science, of evolution. But they have no good news for the man who is burdened by the guilt of sin and bound by its chains. Their power is limited, their process of education is slow, and sin’s captive is hurrying on to his doom. These cold comforts do but mock his dire needs. They cannot reclaim lost character; they cannot revive lost hopes; they cannot recover lost power; they cannot endow the soul with the moral forces that will rescue it from its bondage. For this you must have the assurance and the help of God. In the name of Jesus, which we preach unto you, infinite love and infinite power are allied in working out the salvation of the lost. ‘Through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins.’

Canon David Jones.

Illustration

‘Man, like the grass of morning,

Droops ere the evening hour;

His goodliness and beauty

Fade as a fading flower.

But who may shake the pillars

Of God’s unchanging Word?

Amen: Himself hath spoken;

Amen: Thus saith the Lord.

Death’s shadows fall around us

Our path with storms is rife:

O God, vouchsafe Thy servants

To grasp the word of life,

Until the life eternal,

The life and light of men,

With clouds of glory mantled

Returns to earth again.’