(Hebrews 2:5-9)
E. J. Waggoner
Where We See Jesus
Our attention has been directed to man in his first dominion, crowned with glory and honor. As we look, we see him fall, and as we continue to gaze, with our eyes fixed on the place where he fell, “we see Jesus.” Where do we see Him?—Just where man fell. Jesus came “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10), and the only way to find a thing that is lost, is to go where it is; the only way to pick up one who has fallen, and who cannot help himself, is to go to the very place where he fell. This is what the text tells us. If we would see Jesus, we must go where there are fallen men. In this there is an exhortation, an indication of how we should labor; but there is also comfort, and the comfort comes first. Wherever there are fallen men, there we may see Jesus; but we are fallen men; therefore we may see Jesus in us. “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:8, 9). The knowledge that Christ dwells in us, sinful men, is the only thing that can enable us to carry the blessed assurance of the Gospel to others.***
Casting the Burden on the Lord
In this thought there is blessed hope and courage. “How can I lay my sin, on the Lord?” Ah, that is already done; for “the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). Because Christ “has come in the flesh” (1 John 4:3), He bears the sins of all flesh. Not that He will take them, but He has them. They are on Him as soon as they are committed. Our part is simply to confess Him,—to confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus,—that is, confess that He is come in the flesh—in our flesh. Thus He bears our sins. But He bears the curse on the cross; therefore when we confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus, we confess Him crucified in the flesh,—in our flesh,—and so that we are crucified with Him. And then we have only to believe in our heart—and to continue believing—that God has raised Him from the dead, to know that He dwells in us with the resurrection power. What a blessed Gospel to believe unto salvation, and how blessed to be permitted to proclaim it to fallen men!
The Present Truth 13, 33 (August 19, 1897), pp. 514-516.
*** “The incarnation of Jesus Christ, the divine son of God, “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” is the great theme of the gospel. “In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him.” Colossians 1:27; 2:9, 10.
(Christian Experience and Teachings of Ellen G. White, p. 241).