other
part of Scripture, that so early in the development of the Church's
history, and to people so recently dragged from idolatry, and having
received but such necessarily partial instruction in revealed truth,
this had not been omitted, that the Christ in whom they trusted was the
Everlasting Son of the Father. And it takes it for granted that, so
deeply was that truth embedded in their new consciousness that an
allusion to it was all that was needed for their understanding and their
faith. That is the first part of the testimony.

II. Now, secondly, let us ask what this witness has to say about the
dying Christ.

There is no doctrinal theology in the Epistle to the Thessalonians, they
tell us. Granted that there is no articulate argumentative setting forth
of great doctrinal truths. But these are implied and involved in almost
every word of it; and are definitely stated thus incidentally in more
places than one. Let us hear the witness about the dying Christ.

First, as to the fact, 'The Jews killed the Lord Jesus.' The historical
fact is here set forth distinctly. And then, beyond the fact, there is
as distinctly, though in the same incidental fashion, set forth the
meaning of that fact--'God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain
salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us.'

Here are at least two things--one, the allusion, as to a well-known and
received truth, proclaimed before now to them, that Jesus Christ in His
death had died for them; and the other, that Jesus Christ was the medium
through whom the Father had appointed that men should obtain all the
blessings which are wrapped up in that sovereign word 'salvation.' I
need but mention in this connection another verse, from another part of
the letter, which speaks of Jesus as 'He that delivereth us from the
wrath to come.' Remark that there our Authorised Version fails to give
the whole significance of the words, because it translates _delivered_,
instead of, as the Revised Version correctly does, _delivereth_. It is a
continuous deliverance, running all through the life of the Christian
man, and not merely to be realised away yonder at the far end; because
by the mighty providence of God, and by the automatic working of the
consequences of every transgression and disobedience, that 'wrath' is
ever coming, coming, coming towards men, and lighting on them, and a
continual Deliverer, who delivers us by His death, is what the human
heart needs.