Wonderful! Wonderful!
By the late Rev. John W. Shenton, F.R.G.S.

Editor’s Note: As always, we tried to fill this issue of our magazine with a variety of good articles from dedicated writers. But, if there is one article that is a must read, it is this one. I don’t think you can read it without a tear coming to your eye and a feeling of wonderful gratitude to your heart. We have such a loving Lord and throughout it all He is preparing His followers for something perhaps too immense to imagine. Rev. Shenton managed to capture so much of the wonder of the Almighty God in this article and his words cannot help but strengthen our resolve as we go about the business of our personal ministries.

IT will be agreed by all that we live in an age of inconceivable wonders. Wonder follows wonder until the mind reels and the imagination fails as we try to follow the discoveries of our times. In the daily newspapers we can read in a few paragraphs of events and inventions which past writers would have taken volumes to describe. Looking on our times we can readily cry: "Wonderful! Wonderful!" We are constantly being surprised by what was once considered absolutely impossible.

With these things in mind a special significance attaches to the prophecy of Isaiah in which it is foretold that the Great One who should come into the world would be called among other names "Wonderful." He was to do the impossible.

When Christ came at the first Advent, how often not only His disciples but also the multitudes were taken by surprise: they were " amazed," they "wondered," and often they were "afraid". Surely one of the central features of the religion of Christ is that it is full of "wonders," "surprises," that which was once thought impossible becoming gloriously possible! He stirred the minds and hearts of the people not only by the wonder of His Personality, but by the extraordinary acts of His power. It is these features which make Christianity the most wonderful thing in the whole world.

Wonderful in the Realm of Creation

Few of us stop to think of the time when there was no universe as we know it today: no order, beauty, movement or sound, but just one vast, immeasurable void. Think of it, then look at the universe now, with all its mystery, its majesty and wonder. This is the work of the marvellous Christ. "All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made." (John 1 : 3-14)

The Holy Spirit through Paul confirms the same great truth: "By Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him: and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist" (Col. 1 : 16, 17).

The amazing wonder of it all! Christ saw the first foundations laid. He antedated the creation of our universe. He sent forth the stars and lesser worlds to move in their appointed orbits. All things were made by Him. Once we are gripped by this stupendous fact all arguments about the miracles of Jesus vanish: He Himself is the greatest of all miracles. He is really Wonderful in the realm of creation.

Wonderful in the Realm of History

Let us not fail to see Christ in the history of His people Israel, and trace the wonder of His ways, words and works from the call of Abraham to the going down of His people Israel into Egypt and their deliverance by His might. He leads Israel through the wilderness to the promised land. What do the Scriptures say of Him? "In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bare them, and carried them all the days of old" (Isa. 63 9). Again we read, "For they drank of that spiritual rock that went with them: and that Rock was Christ" (1 Cor. 10 : 4, margin).

All through the Old Testament we read the wonderful story of the Presence of Christ with His People Israel, speaking through His prophets to them and to the world: "rising up betimes, and sending; because He had compassion on His people, and on His dwelling place" (2 Chron. 36:15). Yes, He was wonderful, in the past history of His people Israel. He is wonderful in the preservation and development of His modern people Israel, the Anglo-Saxon Commonwealth of nations.

Wonderful in the Realm of Redemption

How few people realize the wonder of Christ's Redemption of Israel. One of the outstanding messages of the Bible is God's intention of re­deeming Israel.

God promised to Abraham that his descendants would be formed into a nation to be used to bring the whole world to a knowledge of His Love and His Law. These laws were codified at Sinai and given as a trust to the nation Israel. So great and sacred was this task that a special covenant relating only to Israel was incorporated in the Law. Under this Covenant Israel under­took to demonstrate to the other nations the blessedness of God's Law; and He, in return for Israel's obedience, undertook to bestow certain blessings upon them. Later, Israel broke the Mosaic Covenant and brought upon herself the evil consequences. It was from this curse that Christ came to redeem Israel. As Israel's blessed Redeemer Jesus introduced a New Covenant. This New Covenant, which had been made known to Jeremiah (Jer. 33:31-37), was established upon "better promises"' than the Mosaic Covenant - the better promises being "the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." Notice the absolute certainty of the terms, “they shall" and "I will." By sealing the New Covenant with His blood, Jesus brought the Mosaic Covenant (not the Law of God) to an end. By this wonderful act of redeeming Israel, Jesus brought Israel back again as a nation set apart and dedicated to the service of Almighty God. Think of the wonder of it. God is still working out His great purposes for world blessing through His ancient people Israel! It is now Israel's responsibility to declare the salvation of God through the death of Christ to the whole world, also to show forth in her national life the superiority of the Divine Law. She has to give a demonstration of the meaning of the Kingdom of God on earth. Wonderful ! Of course it is.

Wonderful in the Realm of the World's Salvation

Not only did Christ come to redeem Israel, but the Bible declares that He is also to save His people from their sins, and again, in His Name will the Gentiles hope.

Are not events driving us to see a very fundamental truth, that there is no prospect nor possibility of a new world order until all peoples have undergone a spiritual change of heart and mind? The most urgent need to-day is spiritual conversion. Who but Christ holds out any hope or prospect of this being accomplished? The Scriptures tell of the time when Israel is to be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation, and when the non-Israel peoples are also to come under the converting power of Christ: for the whole earth is to be filled with the glory of God! Sin, like a malady, a cancer, is to be torn from the human heart, and men and nations are to be brought back again through Christ into right relationship with each other and with God. Surely this is a wonderful prospect !

Wonderful in the Realm of the Future

What glories lie ahead under the Kingly sway of Christ ? Isaiah rightly declares that it is only as the government of Christ spreads that there will be peace. He is indeed called the "Prince of Peace." The Kingdoms of this world are to become the Kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ. Earth's evils will only be removed under His Government and by the administration of His Laws: but the wonder of it all is that evil is actually going to be removed and the world cleansed and made glorious.

We are only at the beginning of wonderful things. The Christian life is not dull, dead, empty, uninteresting, it is the most satisfying thing in the world.

His Name shall be called Wonderful!