1 Timothy 3:16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels… I. JUSTIFYING IS THE ABSOLVING FROM A CHARGE AND PRONOUNCING INNOCENT. Thus, wisdom is justified of her children. They clear her from the accusations of her enemies, and declare their sentiments of her as excellent and lovely. But from what charge was He justified? It is an important truth that, by His glorious resurrection, and the consequent effusion of the Spirit, He was declared absolved from the sins which were laid upon Him as our Surety and Substitute. 1. He was justified by His Divine nature, or by those beams of Divinity which often broke forth, and brightly shone, in His darkest nights of humiliation and suffering. He did not display His royalty by a splendid equipage, by sumptuous entertainments, or by advancing His followers to worldly honours. But He displayed it more gloriously by giving, what no earthly prince could give, health to the diseased, life to the dead, virtue to the profligate, and pardon to the guilty. When He discovered the signs of human infirmity He also discovered the attributes of Divine glory and power. 2. Jesus was justified; and the charges of enthusiasm or imposture, which ignorance or malice brought against Him, were confuted by the Holy Ghost. The character of the Messiah, which inspired prophets had delineated, fully proved that Jesus was indeed the Christ. His Spirit that was in them testified, long before His appearance, the time, place, and manner of His birth; the circumstances of His life and death, His deep humiliation and abasement; and the glory which should follow. John, who was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb, pointed Him out as the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. In the meantime, let your temper and conduct justify those claims of Jesus, which others reject and condemn. Justify His claim of divinity. Did Jesus, by the Spirit, justify His claims? Under the influence of the Spirit, justify your pretensions to the character of Christians, and display the excellency of that character. (J. Erskine, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. |
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