Bible Commentaries
1 Corinthians 3

Verse 1

SPIRITUAL BABYHOOD

1. “ And, brethren, I was not able to speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even babes in Christ.” The class of the Corinthian church here addressed are most assuredly regenerated people, because they are here recognized as the children of God, i. e., “babes in Christ”; yet they did not rank as spiritual, but were yet carnal.

Verse 2

2. “ I have fed you with milk, and not meat; for ye were not yet able. But neither are ye yet now able:

Verse 3

3. “ For ye are yet carnal.” No human sophistry can possibly evade the truth here revealed. The Holy Ghost repeatedly affirms that these Christians are carnal and have never been otherwise, several times using the adverb

“yet,” denoting positively that they had been carnal from the beginning. Oh! we have need to go into the churches today and shout aloud, like Paul: “Ye are yet carnal.” It is superfluous here to state to the intelligent reader that there were a diversity of people in that great Corinthian church consisting of many Jews and Gentiles. While many of them were not only sanctified wholly, and addressed as “elect saints,” here is another class, and doubtless not a few, who had never progressed out of spiritual babyhood. As they had not cut their teeth, they could not eat solid food, but, like millions nowadays, were dependent on sucking bottles. “For where there is envy and strife among you, are you not carnal and walking about like men?

Verse 4

4. “ For when one may say, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not men?

Verse 5

5. “ And what is Paul, what is Apollos, but ministers through whom ye believed as the Lord gave to each one?” Of course Paul had his admirers as their spiritual father and founder of their church, while Apollos had won them by his wonderful eloquence as well as argumentative power; while still others rallied around Peter, the senior apostle, having sojourned with our Lord during His entire earthly ministry, and having been the honored instrument in the inauguration of the Holy Ghost dispensation on the day of Pentecost.

These parties had not crystallized into sects, neither did they in the apostolic age, because all of the apostles, like Paul, turned the battering-rams of inspired truth against every manifestation of that sort. But, oh! what wonderful development this party spirit has received! confusing the world with six thousand religious denominations. Babylon means confusion. Surely we have it in paradoxical superfluity. It is a shame for a Christian to say: “I am a Methodist,” “I am a Baptist,” “I am a Presbyterian.” If you are and were so born, it is not worth telling, and thus displaying the foibles of your spiritual infancy. Who was John Wesley? Who was John Bunyan? Who was John Knox? While these noble Johns are the reputed founders of the three great denominations above mentioned, yet it is true these paragon saints had something else to do besides building sectarian temples. They lived heroes, and left the world in triumph. Their unsanctified spiritual children have built up these mammoth ecclesiasticisms. Spiritual adults talk about Jesus instead of sectarian parties. Babyhood is all right in its time. The tallest saints have all been babies. But babyhood perpetuated means dwarfhood and death. If a baby does not progress into manhood, it either dies or becomes a pitiful stinted dwarf. That is the trouble with the church at the present day. Christendom is not simply in babyhood, but in dwarfhood. Oh! how I pity the pastors! Instead of commanding an army of giants clothed with shining panoply, roaring the battle shout, and burning for the conflict with the powers of darkness, ready to run the devil out of the country, the poor pastor has on his hands five hundred babies, all wanting the sucking bottle at the same time, bawling and squalling because he can’t wait on them all at once. Quite a lot of them are sick and need constant attention, not a few of them are dead and need coffins and interment; no wonder the devil is everywhere triumphant. He doesn’t care for an army of babies. The New Testament constantly speaks of the two classes, neepioi, i. e., babes, and the telioi, the perfect or adults. Neither of these states denotes the beginning of existence, but only certain notable and salient epochs thereof. Regeneration makes you a neepios, i. e., an infant, and sanctification makes you a telios, i. e., an adult; i. e., it takes you out of spiritual infancy, removing your depravity which locks you tight in spiritual babyhood. Instead of being the ultimatum of all progress, it is the beginning of grand, glorious and rapid progress. Children must be born before they can be treated for hereditary diseases. These diseases must be removed before they can make rapid growth and become stalwart men. Depravity in the Bible is illustrated by leprosy, a hereditary blood trouble which God alone can heal. It takes the blood of Jesus to remove out of the human spirit that hereditary alient and extricate the taint of inbred sin. Infants born of leprous people so know disease in the beginning; but soon the awful destroyer begins to tell its own sad story. Until inbred sin is removed we are held fast in the disabilities of spiritual infancy. The moment this native evil is extirpated we rank as spiritual adults, and enter at once the stadium of illimitable progress, not only in this life, being unencumbered racers for glory, but to sweep on through all eternity. We see here in these plain statements of Paul that spiritual infancy is characterized by envy and strife and party spirit. That is the trouble with Christendom today. Little rival churches are wasting ammunition fighting each other, while the devil is running at large and gobbling up all. That the experience of sanctification destroys party spirit, envy and strife, and unifies the people of God, is everywhere observable. In our great holiness camps people and preachers of all denominations, races and nationalities are heterogeneously mixed up, and it is impossible to discriminate one from another. In the same pulpit we hear the preachers from the babbling sects of Christendom, and it is impossible to discriminate their theological shibboleths. They are all one in Jesus and lost in God!

Verse 6

6. “ I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase:

Verse 7

7. “ So neither is he that planteth or he that watereth anything, but God who giveth the increase.” Paul was the first gospel preacher ever at Corinth, and signally honored of God in planting there the largest and most spiritual church of the apostolic age. By the statement “most spiritual,” I mean especially their wonderful and extraordinary enduements with spiritual gifts. Paul having labored there constantly eighteen months, and seen there the mighty works of God, feeling constrained by the calls of duty to his spiritual children in his native land to return to Asia and visit all the multitude of churches founded through his instrumentality, is very soon succeeded at Corinth by Apollos (Acts 18:27), whom God made a wonderful blessing, not only in the confirmation of the Pauline converts, but in the conversion of many more, especially among the Jews. So Apollos, having arrived after Paul had planted the crop, was signally honored of God in its irrigation.

Verse 8

8. “ And he that planteth and he that watereth are one, but each one shall receive his own reward according to his own labor.” What a disposition do we find to honor the revivalist who has been instrumental in the conversion of many, and lose sight of his faithful successors who came on and irrigated the crop, without which it certainly would have died. Lord, save us from worshipping men! We must remember that God Himself is the only efficient worker, and that He uses an infinite diversity of human instrumentality.

Verse 9

9. “ For we are God’s fellow laborers.” Oh! what a privilege to be participants with God in the glorious work of saving the world. “ Ye are God’s farm.” Do not forget this. Nineteen years after I was converted to God I was all the time under the misapprehension that I was the farmer. Hence I toiled hard and incessantly, wielding the ax, mattock, spade, shovel, rake, pitchfork and plow, toiling and sweating. Terrible was my conflict with the briars, brambles, black-jack, dwarfed pine, sedge grass, dogfennel, pennyroyal, cockle-burs, Spanish needles and Canada thistles. Anon I congratulated myself upon victory, and again to my sorrow I found they had the run on me worse than ever. Nineteen years had rolled away. My eye caught this wonderful statement in the Greek Testament, “Ye are God’s farm.” I soliloquized, “Why! I thought I was the farmer. Oh! how I have been mistaken! If I am the farm, then God is the farmer. Is He not a model in agriculture? Does He want any filth in His farm? Nay, verily, is He not omnipotent? Has He not all power in Heaven and in earth? Does He not speak of the raging sea and rolling worlds? Do not planets, comets, suns, systems, oceans and storms fear and obey His sovereign mandate? What a little thing for Him to breathe on all this crop of filth that gives me toil, sorrow, aches and pains, and bid it evanesce forever!” About that time I tossed my mattock one way, my spade another, my pitchfork another, and began to leap and shout; my eyes turned heavenward, while a Niagara from the upper ocean inundated my soul, oblivion possessing me as to the enemies which all these years had infested my farm. Ere long I dropped my vision earthward. Behold I the briars, brambles, cockle-burs, Spanish needles and Canada thistles are all withered and dead, black-jack, hazel bushes and dwarfed pines, salt briars all out by the roots and sinking down in a grand bonfire. Behold! my farm was clean. Thirty years have rolled away. The devil has not failed to come back ever and anon with his bag of cockle-burs, Spanish needles and thistle seed swinging round his neck, while he goes on sowing the obnoxious filth broadcast, but the fires of the Holy Ghost, kindled when Jesus baptized my soul with the Holy Ghost and fire, still continue rolling their billows of heavenly flame on all sides. They consume all the obnoxious seeds of inbred sin the devil can possibly sow, transforming them into ashes, which fall upon my soil, adding valuable fertilization; so the devil is in fact running a manure cart much conducively to the enrichment of my soil. Is not this in harmony with God’s Word?

“All things work together for good to them that love God” (Romans 8:28).

Could you have all things and leave the devil out? I know not, for the devil is not only a “thing,” but quite a big “thing.” Do you not know that these terrible conflicts which we have with the strong intellect of Satan rank among the greatest means of grace this side of Heaven? Such is the wonderful redemption of Christ that everything becomes a blessing to God’s true people. “ Ye are God’s building.” The foundation is by far the most important part of the house; yet it is not the house. You receive the foundation when you are born from above, but the superstructure of a holy experience was built on it when you were sanctified. I was converted forty- nine years ago. Then I received the foundation of the glorious Christian experience I enjoy today. Though I never actually lost my foundation, yet ever and anon it suffered great damage from pelting rains and winter freezes; meanwhile during the summer it became the rendezvous of doleful creatures. Why did I not build the house at once? My money gave out (faith failed) and the mechanics went away. During my boyhood it was a death struggle for me to hold my religion until our campmeeting came on, when I was satisfied I would get a new supply. So I made a raise of money, resumed the work, the foundation being so dilapidated that it had to be taken up and laid over. We get the walls up, it is now weather-boarded; money fails, the mechanics leave, dilapidations ensue, rain pours in, the snow accumulates. After decay has wrought sad havoc, I get into another revival, get some more money, the mechanics come back, the work is resumed, every passer-by waves his hat and say’ Hurrah! we will soon have a house built.” Money again fails and the work is abandoned, and dilapidation ensues. As in former years passers-by groan and say, “What a pity; this house is never going to be finished! It is all a failure, labor lost.” Ere long I strike a bonanza, get plenty of money, rally all the mechanics; much of the work is so dilapidated that it has to be renewed. This is done, and the whole job in every ramification with life and energy is pushed right on to completion amid the joyous congratulations of the whole town shouting on all sides, “Why! don’t you see that house which has been on hand nineteen years is at last finished in elegant and beautiful style?” You know people don’t live in unfinished houses, incompetent to protect them from the storms of winter and the heat of summer. Now that the house is finished, of course it is to be inhabited. King Jesus is the Proprietor. Now He beautifies it and furnishes it ad libitum and moves in, accompanied by a joyous group of angels. Glory to God! He has come to stay! All was cheer in former years during those periods when the work was going on, i. e., those revivals when the Holy Ghost came back and resumed His work. What a pity I ever let the mechanics abandon the work and go away after they first laid the foundation! If I had furnished the money, i. e., had the faith, they would have pushed it right through to completion soon after the foundation was laid. Then King Jesus would have moved in at once and have given me a Heaven in my soul from that early day. But He will not settle down and abide in an unfinished house. He will stay so long as you use Him as a builder, pushing the work right along to completion. Are you a finished house? If so, Jesus abides in your heart and fills every chamber of your soul. If you have not the clear witness of the Spirit that Jesus is abiding within, rest assured the house is not finished. So turn it over to the Holy Ghost; let Him have the job to execute the work in His own way. Do not meddle with Him. See that your faith does not fail. He is certain to do the work according to your faith. So have faith in Him this moment and incessantly to finish the house and turn the key over to King Jesus, that He may come in and abide forever.

Verse 10

DIVERSITY OF REWARDS

10. “ According to the grace of God which was given unto me as a wise master builder I laid the foundation; and another buildeth thereon.” Paul had been instrumental in founding the Corinthian church. Apollos and other God-sent laborers had followed on, lending a helping hand to rear up this stupendous superstructure on the foundation laid by the great apostle to the Gentiles.

Verse 11

11. “ For other foundation is no one able to lay except that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” He is the impregnable rock on which every soul must build his heavenly superstructure, there being no other alternative except the drifting, sinking sand.

Verse 12

12. “ But if any one build on the foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble,

Verse 13

13. “ The work of each one shall be made manifest, for the day will reveal it.” The great judgment day, for which all other days were made, will reveal the work of every human being. There are many other days constituting salient and notable epochs in Christian experience, and significantly adumbratory of the final Judgment, “because it is revealed in fire, and the same fire shall prove the work of each one what sort it is.” These are prominent allusions to the fires of the final judgment. This whole earth is to be sanctified by fire (2 Peter 3:10), consuming out of it all the effects of sin, utterly cremating it preparatory to its transformation into a new heavenly sphere (Revelation 21:0), to be occupied by redeemed saints and unfallen angels forever. This combustion of the earth will be going on during the Judgment, which will be no twenty-four-hours day, but a period adequate to the magnitude of the occasion. Fire throughout the Bible symbolizes purity, and consequently typifies all the castigatory judgments of the Almighty conducively to the purification of humanity and the earth, and the vindication of Divine government. Hence fire is prominently characteristic of the final judgment.

Verse 14

14. “ If the work of any one which he has built upon it abides, he shall receive a reward.” You see here that regeneration is the foundation; neither of these representative characters becomes an apostate, because in that case the foundation would be destroyed, which is not true in the transaction here described. On the contrary, the foundation of each one abides, the difference being in the superstructure built on it. The one builds a superstructure consisting of gold, silver and precious stones, which are fire-proof and competent to endure all the seventies of God’s castigatory and scrutinizing judgments, not only in this life, but at the last day. While the other having the same foundation and hence just as good substratum on which to build as his neighbor, instead of using fire-proof materials, builds a house consisting of wood, hay and stubble, all of which are not only very evanescent, but exceedingly combustible. Therefore, in times of fiery trial, he finds his superstructure utterly incompetent to resist the flames. Hence it must go down in ashes, utterly incompetent to endure the seventies of the Divine judgments.

Verse 15

15. “ If the work of any one shall be burnt up, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, but truly as through fire.” Here you see the case is clear and lucid: this man whose foundation is all right, for the Holy Ghost laid it, has been truly regenerated, and has as good a foundation as his neighbor who builds on his foundation a fire-proof superstructure. But, unfortunately, this man builds on his foundation a house out of wood, hay and stubble, which he is bound to lose when fiery trials come. Now, it says he shall lose his house “it shall be utterly consumed,” which is the meaning of the Greek, much stronger than E.V. “But he himself shall be saved through the fire;” i. e., he shall go to Heaven, but go through the fire, which will burn his house and everything he possesses, so that he will barely escape by the skin of his teeth, leaping out of a second-story window and running away for his life. So we find both of these vividly contrasted characters get to Heaven, the one rich in gold, silver and precious stones, and the other utterly impoverished, but merely squeezing in through the pearly gates, entering Heaven in spiritual infancy, where he must begin de novo to build his heavenly superstructure, which shall continue, tower and brighten through all eternity. Now, who is this man? He is no apostate, for in that case he would have lost his foundation, i. e., his regeneration. Rest assured, he is the man who, having been truly converted, blessedly born from above, has failed to go on to perfection. He has not been idle: he has built a great mansion, but, unfortunately, made it out of wood, hay and stubble; i. e., instead of going for holiness to the Lord, bottom-rock sanctification, the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire, Christ crowned within, the fullness of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit, he said, like a noted religious editor recently: “The conversion God gave me in an old log school-house out in the country, when a boy, is good enough for me; I am satisfied with it.” This man is none of your deadheads, as you see he builds a great house. I know he becomes very active in the church, builds fine edifices, is a successful financier, looking after all the (human) institutions of the church. They make him a doctor of divinity, and send him to the general conference. Truly he is no ordinary man. He is beloved and honored by thousands, a popular and acceptable pastor, his Christian and ministerial character is irreproachable. He is Heaven-bound. Justification is a title-deed to Heaven, and holiness before we get there as a necessary qualification. So this good man comes to life’s end. He has not fought holiness, and backslidden in that way, but simply neglected it, holding fast his justification and thinking that it is enough. Here he has a title-deed to Heaven; but he can not go without entire sanctification. Therefore, like all genuine Christians who reach life’s end, and like all infants, he must receive it as the old theologians all tell us, in articulo mortis, i. e., in the article of death. The fires of the Holy Ghost coming on him, to sanctify him for Heaven, burn up his life-work, which was simply ecclesiastical, socialistic and philanthropic, in its very nature only appertaining to this world, and utterly heterogeneous to the heavenly state. Consequently he loses his life-work, because it will not do for Heaven, but himself, through the fires of the Holy Ghost in a death-bed sanctification, makes his way into Heaven, entering glory in spiritual infancy much as if he had died when a boy, soon after he was converted. Hence you see he has lost the opportunities of this life in the grand curriculum of heavenly holiness and perennial glory which shall constitute the employment and fruition of the saints through all eternity. Quite different was the case of his comrade who got converted at the same altar, but went for radical holiness and entire sanctification with all his might, the theme of his ministry and the battle-cry of his life being “Holiness to the Lord.” Consequently he built upon his foundation a holy experience, and spent his life in the straight line of holiness, making the salvation of sinners and the sanctification of believers his constant theme and lifework. Therefore he actually entered the heavenly state when he got sanctified wholly, and spent his whole life building a heavenly superstructure made out of heavenly materials, fire-proof, water- proof and time-proof. Consequently, when he rises from the battlefield to the mount of victory, the work of his whole life goes with him; is fully recognized in Heaven, valid and satisfactory, and becomes the glorious substratum of the heavenly superstructure which all the saints in glory build on through all eternity, ever towering and brightening, the admiration of angels and archangels, and the song of cherubim and seraphim, while the cycles of eternity speed their flight.

“Ye are God’s Temple . ”

Verse 16

16. “ Do you not know that ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” The Holy Spirit dwells in every sanctified human spirit. As He is holy, He is unwilling to dwell in anything which is unholy. Hence He will never make you His temple until you let Him sanctify you wholly. Solomon’s temple beautifully symbolizes the sanctified heart. While they were felling the trees in Mount Lebanon and hewing out the cedar timbers, there was heard a great noise, roar of axes, clangor of saws and crash of the falling trees. All that symbolized the stir and commotion produced by the conviction of the Holy Ghost in the unregenerate heart. Then the temple was built without the sound of a hammer or the clangor of a saw, thus symbolizing the silent lightning of the Holy Ghost in regeneration. After the temple was built, King Solomon, who emblematizes Christ, slaughtered twenty-two thousand oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep, thus quantity for quality typifying the blood of Jesus, which sanctifies the heart. After the dedication, i. e., the sanctification of the temple, by this enormous effusion of blood, God came down and filled it with His presence, manifesting His glory. So your heart, convicted amid the thunders and earthquakes of the Sinai gospel, regenerated by the silent interior work of the Holy Ghost, and sanctified by the precious blood of Jesus, then becomes the temple of the Holy Ghost. He comes in to abide. As your spirit, now the temple of the Holy Ghost, fills your whole body, therefore your body also becomes the temple of the Holy Ghost. If you would have the Holy Ghost take your body for His temple, move in and abide forever, you must “cleanse yourself from all the filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (1 Corinthians 7:1).

Your tobacco, opium, beer, whisky, gluttony, and slovenliness must all go, and go forever. Oh! what a glory to be the temple of the Holy Ghost.

Verse 17

17. “ If any one destroy the temple of God, him will God destroy, for the temple of God is holy, which ye are.” There are many ways to destroy soul and body, not only in case of yourself, but others. God claims every human being as his temple. His Son has redeemed every son and daughter of Adam’s race by His precious blood. Hence every word and act, having a sinward tendency, conduces to the destruction of soul and body in Hell. God’s eye is on everyone. He never forgets anything. Millions of people make their living by destroying others, like whales and sharks devouring the finny tribes of the deep. What awful reckonings in the Judgment Day!

Verses 18-19

18-19. “ Let no one deceive himself: if any one among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may be wise.” This is the age of Satan’s dominion and folly, occupying the dark night between Eden and the Millennium. There is no true wisdom in the present age. The so-called wisdom of this age is nothing but another name for Satan’s folly. Sanctification is the Millennial experience bringing you faithfully and spiritually into the “age to come” (Hebrews 6:5), i. e., the reign of Christ in the heart, a Millennial prelibation. We see from this verse that the first lesson we learned in the school of Christ is that we are fools. Millions stumble over that lesson and never learn it. When that lesson is properly received and understood the future curriculum in the New Jerusalem college becomes easy and delightful. “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness along with God.” Truly this world has been captured by the devil, the great counterfeiter. Consequently everything in it means the opposite of what it says. For it has been written: “He taketh the wise in their own craftiness;”

e. g., Pharaoh pouring out his money to pay Moses’ mother to nurse him, while he had his army out killing all the boy babies, fearing lest some great leader might arise and take Israel out of bondage.

Verse 20

20. “ And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise that they are empty.” The wise people of this world wear out their eyes, craze their brains and paralyze their nerves to accumulate the wisdom of the world, which is all empty bosh when they get it, wearing them out, making them prematurely old, bringing down their gray hairs with sorrow to the grave for naught.

Verse 21

21. “ So let no one boast among men.” Vainly do the millionaires, scholars and aristocrats of this world boast over the Lord’s poor ignoramuses. They know not what they are doing. We have all things and they are our slaves. “ For all things are yours.”

Verse 22

22. “ Whether of Paul or Apollos or Peter.” Instead of being silly enough to follow these leaders, as party leaders, thus grieving the Holy Spirit and driving away the light, we should recognize each one of these preachers, with his peculiar gifts and graces, as a valuable spiritual treasure. God has made no two things alike. If Paul, Apollos and Peter were all just alike, the three would only be the equivalent of one. What a glorious blessing they had in Paul, their spiritual father; and so have we, because we are Europeans, and participants of the Pauline gospel established at that time with our ancestors. What an invaluable treasure we have in the masterly intellectual power and tremendous depth of Pauline wisdom, as well as the fire and dynamite flashing from his terrifically rough, plain style! What an invaluable blessing we have in Apollos: his glorious eloquence, iron logic and profound theology which we have in the epistle he wrote to the Hebrews (Volume II). What an unutterable benediction and inspiring uplift we get when we read those red-hot thunderbolts which flash and flame from the Alpha to the Omega of Peter’s epistles! How silly for those unsanctified Corinthians to divide up into parties, some following Paul, some Apollos, and still others Peter, instead of each one taking all of them! While it is equally silly for the people in our day to be forming parties around Martin Luther, John Calvin, Wesley, and Knox, instead of all following Jesus on a bee-line and praising God for all of these good men whom He has made a blessing to millions. If you are only true to God, He will make everybody and everything a blessing to you. “Whether the world.” Why, certainly this world, bad as it is, is a great blessing to us, furnishing us a glorious and inexhaustible field of labor in which to exemplify Christ, win souls and lay up treasures in Heaven. It is doubtful whether in all the flight of eternal ages we will ever enjoy such a chance to win a crown of glory as this poor, wicked world affords us. “ Or life.” Oh, what a blessing is this life! the embarkation into an eternal existence encompassed with millions of opportunities for achievement and the glorification of God, replete with invaluable probationary privileges, flying from us with the velocity of a weaver’s shuttle, never to return, but destined to meet us with an awful account at the Judgment Bar! “ Or death.” Why, certainly physical death, sure and inevitable, is a great blessing to us, a constant terror to all evil-doing and an incessant inspiration to every noble, laudable, philanthropic and holy enterprise. “ Or things present.” Everything around us is a constant inspiration to industry, enterprise, holiness, truth, and heroism for God and souls. If we are true to the Holy Ghost, we actually get good out of everything transpiring around us; ministering to us, warning, opportunity, edification, correction and inspiration. “ Or things to come.” What wonderful blessings does the future constantly shed down on us! Damnation inspiring us with every incentive to flee the wrath to come, and glorification reaching from the skies blooming festoons of fadeless flowers, revealing fields of splendor and worlds of bliss. “ All things are yours;”

Verse 23

23. “ Ye are Christ’s and Christ is God’s.” Everything in the universe is a golden chain binding us to Christ, if duly appreciated and utilized; while Christ is our only way to God, leading suffering humanity back to the loving Heavenly Father they lost in the Fall. Christ has thrown His omnipotent arms around the world, utilizing and sanctifying everything in all the earth to those who will be true to Him. Like all the roads in England leading to London, everything in all the world, viewed in the light of God’s Word, Providence and grace, points to Christ, and He brings all back to the God they lost in the Fall.