And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. [Genesis 1:31]

The Creator Himself took a moment to pause and admire the grandeur of creation. In everything that He saw it was very good. There was nothing at that moment that was bad, corrupt, indecent, despicable or shameful. All of Creation was pure splendor and greatness. God Himself says, “behold it was very good”. Thus, the first land Sabath was established long before a day of rest was required by God of the Israelites. It is no wonder that the Lord is serious about the stewardship of the land He gives to His people and other nations. Since land was originally intended for supporting life, it is a natural extension that from a “land rest” would spring a “people rest”.

Noah Webster defined the word Sabbath in 1828 as, “Intermission of pain or sorrow; time of rest”. He also references Leviticus 25.

There are seven verses in the Bible containing the words “land” and “Sabbath” and all are in the Old Testament. Of those, only four have to do with real property. Those verses are found in Leviticus 25 and 2 Chronicles 26. Deuteronomy 5:15 and Nehemiah 10:31 both make reference to people from a particular place (“land”) and their activities on a particular day (“Sabbath”). In Leviticus 23:39 God tell the Israelites to have a feast after their harvest time on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. They are instructed to keep the first day of this feast time as a Sabbath and the eight day (the day following the feast time) as a Sabbath. These three verses seem unrelated to the resting period for land after it has been used for production purposes.

And the LORD spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land. And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee, And for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat. [Leviticus 25:1-7]

Leviticus 25 is the place where the land Sabbath is fully commissioned to the Israelites. The chapter begins with the Lord giving clear instructions to Moses about the land which He is giving to Moses and hence to the Israelites. He is spelling out the principle of “land Sabbath”, and through this teaching Moses that the land needs and intermission every seven years.

It is noteworthy that the land itself was to “keep a Sabbath” in verse 2. The land would not be able to keep anything were it not permitted to do so. We can easily infer from this statement that the people of Israel were to allow the land to have its seventh year to recuperate. In verses 3 and 4 the people are taught to work hard and diligently in pruning their vineyards and sowing their fields. They are to sow their own fields and prune their own vineyards – not those of the neighbours. At the end of six years they are commanded to stop sowing and pruning. This is in keeping with the principle that God had established many generations earlier in Genesis 1 at the time of creation. God takes the matter of caring for His land very seriously.

Why take a year off? Well, verse 5 explains this easily. During that seventh year, the land would naturally bring forth crops of “its own accord“. The people are commanded to not harvest or reap anything form that land during the land Sabbath (the seventh year). They are not to gather any grapes and they are not even allowed to care for the vines. The people were to avoid the land and allow it to rest or catch its breath.

In verses 6 and 7 all classes of people are told that the Sabbath of the land is “meat” for them. It is meat for the Israelite, the servant, the maid, the hired servant, and the sojourner in the land. The inferences are both physical and spiritual.

In scripture, spiritual meat is that which sustains and nourishes spiritual life or holiness. The people were to stop and smell the roses for that seventh year. This was a time of spiritual comfort, delighting the sould. Jesus taught in John 4 that, “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me.” Even in Hebrews 13 the Holy Spirit teaches that the heart is to be established with grace, not in “meats, which have not profited them“. If Jesus was constrained to keep the boundaries of the Creator then the creation is also bound by those boundaries.

While the people were giving the land a Sabbath, they were also going to be blessed at the end of or during the seventh year because of their waiting (obedience). Encapsulating verses 6 and 7 we see at the end of verse 7 where the “increase thereof” shall be meat – for the people, the cattle, and the beasts. The Scriptures are replete with examples of blessing as a result of obedience. Isaiah 40:31 teaches, “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint“.

Waiting upon Him necessitates obedient faith

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More glorious words have not been spoken!  It is great news that He died on the cross to pay the price for our sins, but without the resurrection, we would be as the apostle Paul said, “Above men most miserable.”

As we approach April 4th, the day we celebrate Christ’s resurrection from the grave, let us remember that because He conquered the grave we can have victory over the grave.  Life on the earth can be difficult, and it can often seem as if there is no way to win.  No matter what situation you are facing, it is good to remember that there is Someone who has faced the impossible and Who has gone before us and conquered the impossible.

As many will be gathering at churches this Easter, some will go to fulfill an obligation they feel to be in church, and others will go to appease their conscience.  Let us remember that the reason we should gather that day and every Sunday is to celebrate Christ raising from the dead and to celebrate and lift up the name of Jesus so that all men may be drawn unto Him.

As we grow closer to that day, let us be mindful of what Christ has already done for us and how we can share Christ with our neighbors and others whom God brings across our path.

By R. A Torrey

“While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he?” Matthew 22:41, 42

There is no room left to doubt the absolute Deity of Jesus Christ. It is a glorious truth. The Saviour in Whom we believe is God, a Saviour for Whom nothing is too hard, a Saviour Who can save from the uttermost and save to the uttermost. Oh, how we should rejoice that we have no merely human Saviour, but a saviour Who is absolutely God in all of His fulness and perfection.

On the other hand, how black is the guilt of rejecting such a Saviour as this! Whoever refuses to accept Jesus as his Divine Saviour and Lord is guilty of the enormous sin of rejecting a Saviour Who is God. Many a man thinks he is good because he never stole, or committed murder, or cheated. “Of what great sin am I guilty?” he complacently asks. Have you ever accepted Jesus Christ? “No” Well, then, you are guilty of the awful and damning sin of rejecting a Saviour Who is God.

“But,” you answer, “I do not believe that He is God.” That does not change the fact nor lessen your guilt before God. Questioning a fact or denying a fact never changes it, regardless of what Mary Baker Eddy may say to the contrary.

Suppose a man had a wife ho was one of the noblest, purest, truest,women that ever lived,would her husband’s questioning her purity and nobility change the fact? It would not. It would simply make that husband guilty of awful slander; it would simply prove that man to be an outrageous scoundrel.

So,denying that Deity of Jesus Christ does not make His Deity any less a fact,but it does make the denier of His Deity guilty of awful, incredible blasphemous slander against the Lord God of  Heaven. It also proves that you who deny His deity to be .I leave your own conscience to finish the sentence thus begun.

By R. A Torrey

“While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he?” Matthew 22:41, 42

The six lines of proof of the Deity of Jesus Christ which I have given you leave no possibility of doubting that Jesus Christ is God, that Jesus of Nazareth is God manifested in a human person, that He is a being to be worshipped, even as God the Father is worshipped. But there are also incidental proofs of His absolute Deity which, if possible, are in some ways even more convincing that the direct assertions of his Deity.

1. Our Lord Jesus says in Matthew 11:28, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Now any one that makes a promise like that must either be God, or a lunatic, or an impostor. NO one can give rest to all who labour and are heavy laden who come to him unless he is God, and yet Jesus Christ offers to do it. If He offers to do it and fails to do it when men come to Him, then He is either a lunatic or an impostor. If He actually does it, then beyond a question, He is God. And thousands can testify that He really does it. Thousands and tens of thousands who have labored and were heavy laden and crushed, and for whom there was no help in man, have come to Jesus Christ and He actually has given them rest. Surely then he is not merely a great man, but He is in fact God.

2. Again in John 14:1 Jesus Christ demands that we put the same faith in Him that we put in God the Father and promises that in  such faith we will find a cure for all trouble and anxiety of heart. his words are, ” Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.” It is clear that He demands the same absolute faith to be put in Himself, that is to be put in God Almighty. Now in Jeremiah 17:5, Scripture with which our Lord Jesus was perfectly familiar, we read ” Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man,” and yet with this clear curse pronounced upon all who trust in man, Jesus Christ demands that we put trust in Him just as we put trust in God. It is the strongest possible assertion of Deity on His part. No one but God has a right to make such a demand, and Jesus Christ, when He makes this demand, must either be God or an  impostor; but thousands and tens of thousands have found that when they did believe in Him just ass they believe in God, their hearts were delivered from trouble no matter what their bereavement or circumstances might be.

3. Again, the Lord Jesus demanded supreme and absolute love for Himself. It is clear as day that no one but God has a right to demand such a love, but there can be no question that Jesus did demand it. In Matthew 10:37 He said to His disciples, “He  that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me,” and in Luke 14:26,33, he says “If any man come to me, and hate not his father,and mother,and wife ,and children,and brethren,and sisters,yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. SO likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.”

There can be no question that this is a demand on Jesus’ part of supreme and absolute love to Himself, a love that puts even the dearest relations of life in an entirely secondary place. No one but God has a right to make any such demand, but our Lord Jesus made it, and therefore, He must be God.

4. In John 10:30  the Lord Jesus claimed absolute equality with the Father. He said,” I and my Father are one.”

5. In John 14:9 our Lord Jesus went so far as to say,”…  he that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” He claims here to be so absolutely God that to see Him is to see the Father Who dwelleth in Him.

6. In John 17:3 He says,” And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” In other words, He claims that the knowledge of Himself is as essential a part of eternal life as knowledge of God the Father.

By R. A Torrey

“While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he?” Matthew 22:41, 42

There is a sixth line of proof of the absolute Deity of our Lord Jesus. Those already given have been decisive, each one of the five have decisive, but this, if possible, is the most decisive of them all, and that is that we are taught in so many words that Jesus Christ should be worshipped as God, both by angels and men. In numerous places in the gospels we see Jesus Christ accepting without hesitation a worship which good men and angels declined with fear and which He Himself taught should be rendered only to God( Matt. 28:9; Luke 24:52; Matt. 14:33; Acts 10:25-26; Rev. 22:8-9; Matt.4:9-10). A curious and very misleading comment is made in the margin of the American Standard Revision upon the meaning of the word translated “worship” in these passages, and that is that ” the Greek word translated worship denotes an act of reverence, whether paid to a ‘creature’ or to the ‘ Creator’.”

Now this is true, but it is utterly misleading; for while this word is used to denote ” an act of  reverence paid to a creature” by idolaters, our Lord Jesus Himself distinctly says, using exactly the same Greek word, “thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve,” and on the other hand he says in John 5:23 that “all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the father.”

And in Revelation 5:8-13 the four living creatures and the four and twenty elders are represented as falling down before the Lamb and offering worship to Him just as worship is offered to Him that sitteth upon the throne, that is, God the Father. In Hebrews 1:6 we are told in so many words,” And again, when he bringeth the first begotten into the world, he saith, And let all angels of God worship him.”

One night in the inquiry room in Chicago I stepped up to an intelligent-looking man at the back of the room and said to him,” Are you a Christian?” He replied,”I do not suppose you would consider me a Christian.” I said,”Why not?” He said,” I am a Unitarian.” I said,”What you mean then is that you do not think that Jesus Christ is a person that should be worshipped.” HE replied,”that is exactly what I thin,” and added,”the Bible nowhere says we ought to worship Him.” I said,”who told you that?” He replied,”My pastor,” mentioning a prominent Unitarian minister in the city of Boston. I said,”let me show you something,” and I opened my Bible to Hebrews 1:6 and read,” And again, when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.” And he said,”Does it say that?” I handed him the Bible and said,”Read it for yourself,” and he read it and said,”I did not know that was in the Bible.” I said,”Well it is there isn’t it?” “Yes it is there.” Language could not make it plainer. The Bible clearly teaches that Jesus, the Son of God, is to be worshipped as God the Father by angels and men, even as God the Father is worshipped.

By R. A Torrey

“While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he?” Matthew 22:41, 42

The fifth line of proof of the absolute Deity of our Lord is found on the way in which the name of Jesus Christ is coupled with that of God the Father. In numerous passages His name is coupled with the name of God the Father in a way in which it would be impossible to couple the of any finite being with that of the Deity. We have time for but a few illustrations that might be given. A striking instance is in the words of our Lord Himself  in John 14:23  where we read,” Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” Here our Lord Jesus does not hesitate to couple Himself with the Father in such a way as to say,” We,” that is, God the Father and I, will come and make our abode with him. In John 14:1 He said,” Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.” If Jesus Christ was not God, this is shocking blasphemy. There is absolutely no middle ground between admitting the Deity of Jesus Christ and charging Christ with the most daring and appalling blasphemy of which any man was ever guilty.

By R. A Torrey

“While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he?” Matthew 22:41, 42

The fourth line of proof of the absolute Deity of Jesus Christ is found in the fact that over and over again statements which found in the Old Testament are made distinctly of Jehovah, God, are taken in the New Testament to refer to the Lord Jesus Christ. We have not time to illustrate this at length, but will give one illustration where might be given. In Jeremiah 11:20 the prophet says, “ But, O Lord of hosts, that judgest righteously, that triest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I revealed my cause.” Here the prophet distinctly says that it is Jehovah of Hosts Who judgest and triest the reins and the heart. And in the 17th chapter and the 10th verse Jeremiah represents Jehovah Himself as saying the same thing in these words, “I the Lord, search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.”

But in the New Testament in Revelation 2:23 the Lord Jesus says,”…I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.” We are distinctly told in the context that it is “The Son of God” who is speaking here. So Jesus claims for Himself in the N.T. what the Lord in the O.T.  says is true of Himself and of himself alone.In very many other instances, statements which in the Old Testament are made distinctly of God the Father, are taken to refer to Jesus Christ. That is to say, in the New Testament thought and doctrine, Jesus Christ occupies the place that God the Father occupies in the Old Testament thought and doctrine.

By R. A Torrey

“While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he?” Matthew 22:41, 42

The first line of proof of the absolute Deity of our Lord Jesus is that many names and title clearly imply8ing Deity are used of Jesus Christ in the Bible, some of them over and over again,the total number of passages reaching far into the hundreds.Of course, I can only give you a few illustrations at this time.Turn with me first of all to Revelation 1:17,”And when I saw him,I fell at his feet as dead.And he laid his right hand upon me,saying unto me,Fear not;I am the first and the last.” The text shows clearly that our Lord Jesus was the speaker, and here the Lord Jesus distinctly calls Himself ” The First and the Last.” Now this, beyond question, is a Divine name, for in Isaiah 44:6 we read,”Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel, and his redeemer the Lord of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; beside me there is no God.” In Revelation 22:12,13, our Lord Jesus says that He is Alpha and Omega. His words are,” And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me,to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.” Now in this same book in the first chapter and the eight verse the Lord God declared that He is the Alpha and the Omega.His words are,” I am Alpha, and Omega, the beginning and the end, saith the Lord,which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” In 1 Corinthians 2:8, the apostle Paul speaks of our crucified Lord Jesus as ” The Lord of glory.” His exact words are,” Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” There can be no question that ” The Lord of glory” is Jehovah God,for we read in Psalm 24:8-10,” Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors;and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of  hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah.” And we are told in the passage already referred to as that our crucified Lord Jesus was the King of glory; therefore, He must be Jehovah.

In John 20:28 Thomas addressed the Lord Jesus as his Lord and his God:” And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.” Unitarians have endeavoured to get around the force of this utterance made by Thomas by saying that Thomas was excited and that he was not addressing the Lord Jesus, but was saying ” my Lord and my God” as an ejaculation of astonishment, just the way that profane people sometimes use the exclamations today.But this interpretation is impossible and shows to what desperate  straits the Unitarians are driven, for Jesus Himself commended Thomas for seeing it and saying it. Our Lord Jesus’ words immediately following those of  Thomas are, ” Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:29).

In Titus 2:13 our Lord Jesus is spoken of as our “great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” In Romans 9:5 Paul tells us that “Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever.” The Unitarians have made desperate efforts to overcome the force of these words, but the only fair translation and interpretation of these words are found in our Authorized Version. There can be no honest doubt to one who goes to the Bible to find out what it actually teaches, and not to read his own thought into It, that Jesus is spoken of by various names and titles that beyond question imply deity, and that He in so man words is called God. In Hebrews 1:8 it is said in so many words, of the Son,”But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.” If we should go no further it is evidently the clear and often repeated teaching of the Bible that Jesus is really God.

By R. A Torrey

“While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he?” Matthew 22:41, 42

But we do not need to rest the case here.There is a third unanswerable line of proof that Jesus Christ is God, namely, all the distinctively Divine offices are predicated of Jesus Christ. There are seven distinctively Divine offices. That is to say, there are seven things that God alone can do, and each one of these seven distinctively Divine offices is ascribed to Jesus Christ. The seven distinctively Divine offices are: Creation, Preservation, Forgiveness of Sin, the Raising of the Dead, the Transformation of Bodies, Judgement and the Bestowal of Eternal Life, and each of these is ascribed to Jesus Christ.

Creation is ascribed to Him. In Hebrews 1:10 these words are spoken of our Lord: ” And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands.” The context clearly shows that the Lord addressed is the Lord Jesus. In John 1:3 we are told that ” All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” Preservation of the universe and of everything is also ascribed to Him in Hebrews 1:3 where it is said of the Lord Jesus, “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person [God's], and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand if the Majesty on high.”

The forgiveness of sin is ascribed to Him. He Himself says in Mark 2:5-10 when His power to forgive sins was questioned, because that was recognized as a Divine power,”But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins.”

The future raising of dead is distinctly ascribed to Him in John 6:39,44,” And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.”

The transformation of our bodies is ascribed to Him in Philippians3:21. In 2 Timothy 4:2 judgement is ascribed to Him. We are told that He shall “judge the quick and the dead.” Jesus Himself declared that He would be the judge of all mankind and emphasized the fact of the Divine character of that office. In John 5:22-23 He said, ” For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgement unto the Son: That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father.”

The bestowal of eternal life is ascribe to Him time and time again. In John 10:28 He Himself says,” and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand,” and in John 17:1-2, He says,” Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.” Here the, we have the seven distinctively Divine offices all predicated of Jesus Christ. This alone would prove that He is God, and we might rest the case here, but there are other proofs of His absolute Deity.