TREASURES FROM OUR CHRISTIAN HERITAGE--Here is a chapter
from the First Epistle, of Clement. This was the same Clement spoken of by Paul in his Epistles. Clement became the third Bishop over the ancient Church of Rome. Clement was trained by Peter and Paul. His writings have a special closeness to the original Apostles. Praise
God for inspiring His Body, the Christian Church, to preserving these priceless Christian records for our edification. These precious writings, along with the Holy Word of God, were preserved and dissiminated by the Roman and Orthodox Christian Peoples for the first sixteen hundred years of the Church. Their avaiability greatly increased after the Protestant Christian brethren.
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CHAP. XVI.--CHRIST AS AN EXAMPLE OF
HUMILITY.
For Christ is of those who are humble-minded, and not of those who exalt themselves
over His
flock. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Sceptre of the majesty of God, did not come in the
pomp of
pride or arrogance, although He might have done so, but in a lowly condition, as the
Holy Spirit
had declared regarding Him. For He says, "Lord, who hath believed our report, and to
whom is
the arm of the Lord revealed ? We have declared [our message] in His presence: He
is, as it were,
a child, and like a root in thirsty ground; He has no form nor glory, yea, we saw Him,
and He had
no form nor comeliness; but His form was without eminence, yea, deficient in
comparison with the
[ordinary] form of men. He is a man exposed to stripes and suffering, anti acquainted
with the
endurance of grief: for His countenance was turned away; He was despised, and not
esteemed.
He bears our iniquities, and is in sorrow for our sakes; yet we supposed that [on His
own
account] He was exposed to labour, and stripes, and affliction. But He was wounded
for our
transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon
Him, and
by His stripes we were healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray; [every] man has
wandered in
his own way; and the Lord has delivered Him up for our sins, while He in the midst of
His
sufferings openeth not His mouth. He was brought as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a
lamb
before her shearer is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth. In His humiliation His
judgment was
taken away; who shall declare His generation? for His life is taken from the earth. For
the
transgressions of my people was He brought down to death. And I will give the
wicked for His
sepulchre, and the rich for His death? because He did no iniquity, neither was guile
found in His
mouth. And the Lord is pleased to purify Him by stripes.(8) If ye make(9) an offering
for sin, your
soul shall see a long-lived seed. And the Lord is pleased to relieve Him of the affliction
of His soul,
to show Him light, and to form Him with understanding,(10) to justify the Just One who
ministereth
well to many; and the Himself shall carry their sins. On this account He shall inherit
many, and shall
divide the spoil of the strong; because His soul was delivered to death, and He was
reckoned
among the transgressors, and He bare the sins of many, and for their sins was He
delivered."(11)
And again He saith, "I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of
the people.
All that see Me have derided Me; they have spoken with their lips; they have wagged
their head,
[saying] He hoped in God, let Him deliver Him, let Him save Him, since He delighteth
in Him."(12)
Ye see, beloved, what is the example which has been given us; for if the Lord thus
humbled
Himself, what shall we do who have through Him come under the yoke of His grace ? |
