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Who Shall Separate Us From Christ
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


    “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (Rom. 8:35).

There have been individuals who thought the doctrine of the believer’s eternal security in Christ to be a dangerous heresy. They countered every Scripture on the subject with another to refute it. But in each of these cases it was this great truth, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ”, that finally persuaded them.

It is significant that the Apostle Paul never tells us about his love for Christ, but he is always telling us about Christ’s love for him and for others! The Law commands: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God”, but grace puts it the other way, telling us how deeply God loves us — and this begets love in return. The Apostle experienced discouragements that would have caused him to give up the work of the Lord a thousand times, but he could not. Why? He says, “the love of Christ constraineth us?”(II Cor. 5:14); it bore him along like a strong tide. No doubt he had this very thing in mind when he continued writing in Romans 8.

    “For Thy sake we are killed all the day long…accounted as sheep for the slaughter” (Ver.36).

And therefore defeated? Far from it!

    “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us” (Ver.37).

Not only do we win the battle; we are “more than conquerors”, for these adversities serve to draw us into still closer fellowship with Him, thus enriching our Christian experience.

When people or nations engage in battle, generally no one wins; both lose. But Paul’s personal experience serves as the foremost example that in the Christian life, “tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril [and] sword”bring us more than victory when borne for Him who loved us.

Thus this great chapter opens with “no condemnation” and closes with “no separation”, and the Apostle, gathering all the forces of creation together, whether they be time, space, or matter, declares that none of them can separate us from “the love of God, which is [manifested] in Christ Jesus” (Vers. 38, 39). Whether it be death or life, heavenly principalities, things present or things to come, height or depth or any other created thing — none of them, nor all together — can threaten our security or separate us from the love of God, which He has manifested to us in Christ Jesus.

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Who Can Be Against Us?
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


We have shown in a previous article that God is for sinners and desires their good. We have shown how He proved this by paying for their sins Himself as God the Son at Calvary. But if this is true, how much more must it be so with regard to His own children who have trusted Christ as their Savior?

How often — and how significantly — the Apostle Paul uses the words “for us” in this connection!

In Eph. 5:2 we read that “Christ… loved us, and hath given Himself for us.” In Rom. 5:8 we are told that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” In II Cor. 5:21: “[God] hath made Him to be sin for us.” And in Gal. 3:13 we read: “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.”

And the love that brought Him down from heaven to die in shame and disgrace for our sins is not affected by our many failures as Christians now. In Heb. 9:24 we read that our Lord has ascended to heaven “now to appear in the presence of God for us.” In Rom. 8:34 we learn that He is “at the right hand of God” to “make intercession for us.” And in Heb. 7:25 we read that He is able to save us “to the uttermost” because “He ever lives to make intercession for us.”

Our failures now, after having trusted Christ as Savior, may — and should — trouble our consciences and thus hinder our fellowship with God, but this does not change the fact that we are God’s dear children through faith in Christ, who died for all our sins. Unworthy though we still may be, therefore, God would have us come into His presence to be spiritually renewed.

    “What shall we then say to these things? IF GOD BE FOR US WHO CAN BE AGAINST US?” (Rom. 8:31).

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But Now
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


The words “but now” are found in many places in the Bible, but most often in the Epistles of Paul. These two words are deeply significant, for they indicate a change in program. If my secretary is transcribing some dictation and I say: “But now I would like you to take a letter,” this indicates a change in program.

So it is with this phrase as we find it in Rom. 3:21: “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested.” Prior to this time God’s people were under the Law. There was no other way to approach Him. But though under the Law, they constantly broke the Law, so that those who sought salvation by the Law stood before God condemned rather than justified. Thus the Apostle says in Verse 20:

    “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”

    “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested” (Ver. 21).

How can this be? How can a man be declared righteous apart from the Law? The answer, the only answer is, by grace through faith in Christ. Though perfect and sinless, Christ died for sin. Whose sin? Yours and mine. Thus as Paul declares in Acts 13:38, 39:

    “Through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by Him all who believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.”

    “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith, without the deeds of the law”
    (Rom. 3:28.).

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Delay In Judgment
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


The Scriptures leave no doubt that the Lord Jesus Christ will come to this earth again, “in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God” and who “receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved” (II Thes. 1:8; 2:10). Nor will He forget His promise to give the twelve apostles thrones in His kingdom (Matt. 19:28.). There can be no successors to Peter and the eleven, for they themselves are to reign with Christ in glory. What is happening now is a parenthesis in God’s prophesied program. Delaying Christ’s return to judge and reign. God chose another apostle, separate from the twelve, to bring a message of grace to this Christ-rejecting world. How great is His mercy and love!

And how are men saved today? How are their sins remitted? Must they come to some recognized authority and be “baptized for the remission of sins”? Some, still following Peter rather than Paul, say, “Yes.” But let us see what St. Paul, by divine inspiration, has to say about this.

    “FOR BY GRACE ARE YE SAVED, THROUGH FAITH, AND THAT NOT OF YOURSELVES: IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD: NOT OF WORKS, LEST ANY MAN SHOULD BOAST” (Eph. 2:8,9).

    “NOT BY WORKS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, WHICH WE HAVE DONE, BUT ACCORDING TO HIS MERCY HE SAVED US, BY THE WASHING OF REGENERATION, AND THE RENEWING OF THE HOLY GHOST” (Titus 3:5).

This stands in striking contrast to Peter’s “Repent and be baptized… for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38.). It stands in contrast, also, to the words of the so-called “Great Commission”: “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved” (Mark 16:16). Does not this indicate that a change in dispensation took place with the raising up of Paul, that other apostle?

But what about the kingdom? Does some man on earth hold the keys? No, for both the King and His kingdom are in exile. When a sinner obeys God and receives Christ as His Savior he is “translated into the kingdom of His dear Son” (Col. 1:13), and “made accepted in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:6).

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Paul's Three I Am's
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Three times in Romans 1:14-16, the Apostle Paul uses the phrase “I am”, and each one carries an important message for every true believer in Christ.

First, he says in verse 14: “I am debtor” — debtor to all men, to tell them about the saving work of Christ. But why was he indebted to people he had never even seen? For several reasons:

First, he had in his hand what they needed to be saved from the penalty and power of sin. If I see a drunkard lying across the railroad track and I do nothing about it, am I not a murderer if he is killed by the train? If I see a man drowning and I have a life buoy in my hand but do not throw it to him, am I not a murderer if he goes down for the last time? If I see millions of lost souls about me and, knowing the message of salvation, do not tell them, am I not guilty if they die without Christ?

Further, Paul felt himself a debtor to others, because the Christ who had died for his sins had also died for the sins of others. As he says in II Corinthians 5:14,15: “Christ died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him who died for them and rose again.”

Finally, the Christ who had died for Paul’s sins, had commissioned him to tell others of His saving grace. Thus he says in I Corinthians 9:16,17:

    “Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel! For…a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me” (I Cor. 9:16,17).

Paul could say further what every true believer should be able to say: Not “I am debtor, but“, but rather, “I am debtor…SO, as much as in me is, I AM READY…” (Rom. 1:15). He was ready to discharge his debt because he had that with which to discharge it — the wonderful “gospel of the grace of God”. And he did indeed make this the message known to others with all that was in him.

And now the third “I am”: “I am debtor…So I am ready… For I AM NOT ASHAMED of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth…” (Ver. 16). Paul was always proud to own Christ as the mighty Saviour from sin. Do you know Christ as your Saviour? Do you tell others of His saving grace?

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The Maker Of All Made Sin For Us
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


It is thrilling to trace through the New Testament and find the word “made,” and to observe how our Lord Jesus Christ, the great Creator of all, humbled Himself, died on Calvary’s cross and arose again from the dead to save, justify and glorify sinners.

St. Paul says of Christ: “All things were created by Him and for Him” (Col. 1:16), and St. John adds by inspiration: “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made… The world was made by Him” (John 1:3,10).

How wonderful it is, then, that He, the Creator of all, came to be one with us — yes, one of us! John tells us again that the Maker of all was “made flesh” (John 1:14) and Paul declares that “when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law…” (Gal. 4:4), that He “made Himself of no reputation …and was made in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:6,7). In his letter to the Hebrews he adds that Christ was “made [for] a little [while] lower than the angels for the suffering of death” (Heb. 2:9). More than that, he declares that our Lord was “made a curse for us” (Gal. 3:13) to redeem us from the curse of the law, and that God “made Him to be sin for us…” (II Cor. 5:21).

Thus in one stroke, at Calvary , our Lord, the great Creator, bore the penalty for sin that would have sunk a world to hell, and for this “God also hath highly exalted Him” (Phil. 2:9), having “raised him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all…” (Eph. 1:20,21). “God hath made that same Jesus… both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36) so that now He has been “made higher than the heavens” (Heb. 7:26).

As a result the simplest believer in this mighty Savior is “made… accepted in the Beloved One” (Eph. 1:6) and “made [to] sit… in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6). He is “made the righteousness of God in Him” (II Cor. 5:21), “that being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:7).

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The Privilege Of Prayer
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


    “He shall pray for thee” (Gen. 20:7).

Abimelech, king of Gerar, had taken Abraham’s wife as his own, but had done so innocently. Sarah was a beautiful woman and Abraham, fearful for his life, had said: “She is my sister,” and Sarah had vouched for Abraham’s subterfuge, telling Abimelech: “He is my brother.”

But to save the errant couple from the consequences of their own sin God appeared to Abimelech, warning him that if he valued his life he would immediately return Sarah to her husband — “and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live.”

What is this? Will God hear the prayers of guilty Abraham for innocent Abimelech? Yes, for Abimelech was a pagan who served other gods, while Abraham, with all his failure and sin, was God’s own child.

Abraham’s prayer would, of course, be a confession of his sin and a plea that it might not be laid to the charge of innocent Abimelech — innocent of this particular sin — but nevertheless it was Abraham, not Abimelech, who had access to God.

Many unsaved people point to the failures of God’s children and say: “I would not be guilty of that.” Nevertheless, such “good” people are lost, while poor sinners who have trusted Christ for salvation are “accepted in the Beloved.”

    “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16).

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The New Nature In The Believer
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


It has been well said that if there is anything good in any man it is because it was put there by God. And something good — a new, sinless nature — has been imparted by God to every believer.

While there is still within us “that which is begotten of the flesh,” there is also “that which is begotten of the Spirit,” and just as the one is totally depraved and “cannot please God,” so the other is absolutely perfect and always pleases Him.

Adam was originally created in the image and likeness of God, but he fell into sin and later “begat a son in his own likeness, after his image” (Gen. 5:3). It could not be otherwise. Fallen Adam could generate and beget only fallen, sinful offspring, whom even the Law could not change. But “what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin,” accomplished, “that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Rom. 8:3,4),

As Adam was made in the likeness of God, but fell, so Christ was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, to redeem us from the fall, that by grace, through the operation of the Spirit, a new creation might be brought into being, a “new man… renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him” (Col. 3:10) a “new man, which, after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Eph. 4:24). Referring to this “new man,” John says:

    “Whosoever is born [begotten] of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born [begotten] of God” (I John 3:9).

    “We know that whosoever is born [begotten] of God sinneth not…” (I John 5:18.).

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Paul And His Good News
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


St. Paul opens his Epistle to the Romans by declaring that he has been “separated unto the gospel [good news] of God” (1:1). This agrees with Galatians 1:15,16, where he says:

    “It pleased God, who separated me, from my mother’s womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me…”

The last book of the Bible tells of the coming “revelation of Jesus Christ” in glory, to judge the world and reign on earth, but here in Galatians we have “the revelation of Jesus Christ” in Paul, the chief of sinners, saved by grace. The salvation of Paul, the one-time leader of the world’s rebellion against Christ, indicated God’s willingness, yes His desire, to save sinners. Thus it was appropriate that God should choose him as the apostle of His grace, making the good news known “to all nations for the obedience of faith.”

Let us not suppose, however, that Paul’s gospel concerned only himself or God’s grace to him. Apart from Christ’s payment for sin at Calvary God could not justly have saved Paul — or any of us. Thus the Apostle goes on, in Romans 1, to explain that this good news which God has sent him to proclaim is “concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1:3).

All through Paul’s epistles he proclaims salvation by grace, on the basis of Christ’s finished work of redemption:

    “Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24).

    “Who was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (4:25; 5:1).

    “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, that… grace might reign through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord” (5:20,21).

So the message of salvation by grace is essentially good news about Christ and what He has wrought to purchase our redemption.

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Dinosaurs
by Pastor Paul M. Sadler


Many years ago, I worked at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. When I entered the building, I had to pass by the dinosaur exhibit, which never ceased to amaze me. One of the largest ones on display at the time was a brontosaurus. This particular dinosaur made the Tyrannosaurus rex beside it look small and insignificant. After the lights were dimmed in the evening, the exhibit was unnerving to consider crossing paths with one of these monsters, back when they roamed the earth. If you have ever wondered if men and dinosaurs coexisted, the answer is a definite yes!

    “Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox. Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly. He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together. His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron” (Job 40:15-24).

The behemoth in these passages is the Hebrew word for “great beast.” Notice that this beast has all the same characteristics of a brontosaurus, which we know to have been a vegetarian. Its strength is said to be in its loins—large and powerful! The tail was like the mighty cedars of Lebanon. Huge! And the bones of the behemoth were like bars of iron, crushing everything in its path. It also had an insatiable thirst and it could not be snared. He was the chief of God’s ways!

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The Triumph Of Faith
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


    “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith” (I John 5:4).

There are many who look upon faith as an abstract sort of thing. Some suppose faith is merely looking on the bright side of things; to others it is will-power; still others confuse it with a person’s view-point.

In the Bible, faith is simply believing God. “Faith” is the noun and “believe” the verb. This is seen in Rom. 4:5, where the Apostle Paul declares:

    “To him that worketh not but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”

The above passage from I John 5 also makes this plain, when seen in its context:

    “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

    “Who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God” (Vers. 4,5).

It is, then, the believer in Christ, and only the believer in Christ, who can overcome the world. Unbelievers are swept away by the attractions and the pretentions of this world- system, but the believer in Christ need not be.

St. Paul declared by divine inspiration that unbelievers follow “the course of this world,” directed by Satan, “the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2).

We do not mean to imply that believers are not often tempted to follow “the course of this world.” Indeed the world would sometimes entice or intimidate us, but “this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”

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Faith, Hope And Love
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


    “And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love” (I Cor. 13:13).

St. Paul had been discussing, in I Cor. 13, some of the miraculous signs that were to vanish away as God’s revelation became complete. But faith, hope and love, he declared, would abide as a triune evidence of true Christianity.

These three are all we need in the present “dispensation of the grace of God.” Any church where faith, hope and love are found in abundant measure is a “full” church. It may have but a few members, but what greater blessing could it wish for than faith, hope and love in its fellowship?

Faith, hope and love are a trinity often referred to in St. Paul’s epistles. Each is of basic importance in its way, and none can exist without the other two.

Faith is of primary importance. “Without faith it is impossible to please [God]” (Heb. 11:6), and how can there be hope and love without faith?

Hope holds the central place among the three. Hope in the Bible is more than a wish; it is the opposite of despair, an eager anticipation of blessings to come. Hope is the Christian’s experience, his living with eternity’s glory in view.

Love is the crowning virtue of the three; it is the fruit of faith and hope, and is greatest in the sense that it is “the bond of perfectness.” Moreover, love is eternal. Some day, for every true believer, “faith will vanish into sight; hope be emptied in delight” and love will reign supreme.

May God help us, in our fellowship with each other, to evidence a full measure of faith, hope and love.

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Facing Up To Facts
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, Chapters One and Two, present a dark picture of the human race, but acknowledge the facts they record and you have taken the first step to salvation. By nature we shrink from facing up to our sins, but we are better off if we do.

If a man has early indications of cancer, and his physician keeps the truth from him, the patient will die of cancer. A good and wise physician will say: “You have cancer and we should do something about it without delay.”

Thus God, in His Word, tells us very frankly about our sinful condition, but only to save us from it.

This is where most philosophies and the Bible clash head-on. Most philosophies close their eyes to man’s sinful nature. They presume that man is good by nature when overwhelming evidence bears witness that he is sinful by nature. Thus human philosophies offer no salvation from sin and its just penalty. Only “the gospel of the grace of God” does that.

The Bible says of the whole human race: “All have sinned” (Rom. 3:23), and to each individual: “Thou art inexcusable” (Rom.2:1). But the same Bible says: “Christ died for our sins” (I Cor. 15:3), and “We have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, accord-ing to the riches of His grace” (Eph. 1:7).

Trust in Christ for salvation and you have accepted God’s great message to the world. Then, as you consider that great Book, and especially the Epistle to the Romans, you will say with Fawcett:

    “It shows to man his wand’ring ways
    And where his feet have trod;
    But brings to view the matchless grace
    Of a forgiving God.”

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A Twofold Purpose
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Have you ever noticed the wording of the majestic statement with which the Bible opens?

    “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen. 1:1).

It does not say that God created “the universe,” but “the heaven” and “the earth.”

This is because God had a special purpose for the earth quite distinct from His purpose for the rest of the universe. This purpose concerning the earth and the nations to dwell upon it is progressively revealed in the Scriptures. We look forward to its glorious consummation when “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” — when the Christ who was crucified here shall come into His right, reigning as King of kings and Lord of lords.

But God also had a very special purpose concerning heaven which He kept hidden in His own heart of love until man’s sin and rebellion had reached their climax. Then He stooped down, saved the “chief of sinners” and used him to make known the wondrous secret of His purpose to offer to sinners everywhere, salvation by grace through faith alone, reconciling them to Himself in one body by the cross and giving them a present position and a future prospect in the highest heavens.

God’s purpose concerning the earth and Christ’s reign upon it is the subject of prophecy (Luke 1:68-76), His purpose concerning heaven and our exaltation there with Christ is the subject of “the mystery” (Eph. 2:4-10; 3:1-4). Into these two great subjects the Scriptures are basically divided.

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It Is I
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


    “Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid” (Mark 6:50).

They thought they had seen a ghost!

Already bone-weary from “toiling and rowing” against a “contrary” wind, and still “in the midst of the sea” though the night was far gone, they saw something in the distance that frightened them even more than the storm itself.

It was a ghost — they thought — and a chilling fear gripped them as they were made to face something they had never experienced before. At first, doubtless, they were petrified, gripped with unspeakable terror. Then they “cried out” and in response came the reassuring voice of their own blessed Master and Lord: “Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid”. The grim specter that had filled them with stark dread had turned out to be the Lord Himself, the One whom they loved more deeply than any other on earth. See their faces! Looks of terror have given way now to looks of relief and joy. Their faces now are wreathed in smiles.

What a lesson for God’s people in times of crisis! When caught in the grip of unspeakable fear, unable to face what seems to lie ahead, it is infinitely blessed to hear His voice, saying, “It is I“; not merely “I am here too”, but “it is I”. “I am in this trouble you fear to face. Indeed, it is I you will find in all your troubles if you will look at them more closely.”

Those who are so careless as to confuse the believer’s standing with his condition and experience should take note that it is Paul, the one who writes of our position in the heavenlies, who says in his very last epistle and in its very last chapter: “At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me… Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me…” (II Tim. 4:16,17).

It was a frightening experience to have to stand as a Christian before the wicked monster, Nero. And standing there alone, forsaken by all, served to add hopelessness to fear. Ah, but in his darkest hour “the Lord stood with him, and strengthened him”. Yes, Paul knew something of this, and so might we when crises alarm us. So might we hear those encouraging, comforting words: “Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid”.