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Why Christ Came
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Have you ever asked yourself why the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world? Have you ever “searched the Scriptures” to find out why? The majority of religious leaders and their followers seem to think that Christ lived on earth to teach us by His words and His example how we should live. But let’s think this through.

Our Lord did indeed show men how they should live with each other and before God. But what were the results? Did the people say: “How wonderful! Now we know how to live together and enjoy life! Let’s follow His teachings and the world will be a happier place to live in!” Is this what they said? Far from it! As the record indicates, they hated Him, they ridiculed Him, they heckled Him and finally nailed Him to a cross.

As to His example: Have you ever seen how a jeweler will put a diamond on a piece of black felt to show it to a prospective customer? The diamond is seen most clearly in all its brilliance against a dark, black background — and vice versa. In the same way, man has never really followed Christ’s example — he couldn’t. Rather, the pure white light of Christ’s holiness only shows up the dark, black character of the human heart, and man by contrast stands rebuked and condemned.

But why, then, did Christ come into the world? The whole volume of Scripture bears witness to St. Paul’s answer in I Tim. 1:15: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”

Consider the Old Testament types and prophecies. Consider its Psalms and poems. Consider the words of Christ Himself and you will see that He came, not to live, primarily, but to die — to die “for our sins” (I Cor. 15:3), to pay our penalty that we might be justified — cleared of all the charges which the Law held against us.

These same Scriptures also declare that He, the Prince of Peace, arose from the dead and will come again as King of kings and Lord of lords. But meantime we may trust in the rejected Savior and enjoy “peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1).

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What The World Needs
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Strange, is it not, that when men are successful, they generally credit themselves liberally for their success but when things go wrong they begin to blame others — even God.

The writer does not have up-to-date information about two particular plots of ground in Moscow, but some years ago one of these was a beautiful garden, the other a patch of weeds. Above each there was a sign. Over the one: “This plot is cared for by the United Soviet Socialist Republic,” over the other: “This plot is cared for by God”!

Evidently the atheistic Soviets who hatched this “bright idea” did not stop to think that only God could produce the beautiful flowers in the USSR plot. All their watering and cultivating would have been in vain except for the God they deny.

As to the other plot, they probably did not even know that even in Eden God put the garden in man’s charge “to dress it and to keep it” (Gen. 2:15), and later, when man sinned, God said to Adam, “Cursed is the ground for thy sake” (Gen. 3:17). This is why the Soviets must employ a gardener to control the weeds in even their garden! How wrong and foolish, then, for man ever to blame God for anything that goes wrong for him or causes him trouble!

Actually, when I have been asked: “If God is a God of love, why does He allow all this trouble and misery, and all this wickedness?” I have replied: “That’s easy. When God sent His Son into this world offering peace and righteousness and prosperity they cried: ‘Away with Him’ and nailed Him to a cross. If the Bible is true, and in this case it has surely proved to be true, how can this world expect peace while they still reject the Prince of Peace?”

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God Hath Spoken
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


In his farewell address to the nation Israel, Moses said:

    “Ask now of the days that are past… since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it? Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live?” (Deut. 4:32,33).

Moses referred, of course, to the giving of the Law, when God spoke to Israel by word of mouth amid the lightnings and thunders of Sinai. In Israel’s case alone “God spake all these words” audibly. Never before had He undertaken to address a nation personally.

This was indeed a great honor for Israel, but God has since spoken to all mankind in an even more striking manner, for in Heb. 1:1,2 we read:

    “God… hath in these last days spoken unto us by [in] His Son… who… when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”

At Sinai God spoke the words of the Law, but now, in Christ, He speaks of mercy and grace. There He spoke of the righteousness which He demands, but here He tells of the righteousness which He provides in Christ.

Some suppose that the absence of miraculous demonstrations, the want of divine intervention in the affairs of men, etc., indicate indifference on God’s part, but actually this apparent indifference speaks to us of His love and grace.

Remember, the Psalms and all prophecy had predicted God’s judgment upon men for their rejection of Christ, yet today the Son still remains a voluntary Exile from His own world, while neither He nor the Father do anything to avenge His cruel crucifixion. Meanwhile, still lingering in mercy, He sends His ambassadors to offer reconciliation to His enemies by grace through faith. Thus His silence actually cries: “The door of grace is still open. Be reconciled while you may. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”

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The Forgiveness Of Sins
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Some three thousand years ago, and about one thousand years before Christ, the Psalmist said:

    “If Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with Thee…” (Psa. 130:3,4).

The Psalmist did not explain, however, upon what basis a just and holy God could forgive a guilty sinner. This was to be proclaimed one thousand years later by the Apostle Paul, himself once “a blasphemer, and a persecutor and injurious”; the “chief” of sinners, but forgiven and saved by the infinite grace of God (Tim. 1:13-15).

Preaching Christ at Antioch, in the province of Pisidia, Paul declared:

    “Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that THROUGH THIS MAN IS PREACHED UNTO YOU THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS, AND BY HIM ALL THAT BELIEVE ARE JUSTIFIED FROM ALL THINGS, FROM WHICH YE COULD NOT BE JUSTIFIED BY THE LAW OF MOSES” (Acts 13:38,39).

But even this does not fully answer our question, for we must still ask: On what basis does God forgive sins through “this Man”? The answer is: on the basis of His payment for our sins on Calvary’s cross. Thus the Apostle wrote to the Romans, explaining how we may be…

    “…justified freely by His [God's] grace, THROUGH THE REDEMPTION THAT IS IN CHRIST JESUS” (Rom. 3:24).

Now, thank God, through Christ’s finished work, there is not a sinner who needs to remain unforgiven, for:

    “In [Christ] we have redemption, through His blood, THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS ACCORDING TO THE RICHES OF HIS GRACE” (Eph. 1:7).

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Power Perfected In Weakness
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


To Paul was committed the greatest revelation of all time. He was divinely commissioned to proclaim the glorious all-sufficiency of Christ’s redemptive work, God’s offer of salvation by free grace to all who trust in Christ and their heavenly position, blessings and prospect.

Lest he should become puffed up by the glory of these great truths, God gave him what he calls “a thorn in the flesh”, an aggravating physical infirmity of some sort. “For this thing,” he says, “I besought the Lord thrice [three times], that it might depart from me” (II Cor. 12:8.). But the Lord knew better than Paul what was best for him:

    “And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee; for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (Ver. 9).

How right God was! Every Christian knows that with brimming health and “good fortune” comes the tendency to forget our need of Him, while infirmity causes us to lean harder and to pray more and this is where our spiritual power lies. Every believer should acknowledge this and say with Paul:

    “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities…for when I am weak, then am I strong” (II Cor. 12:9,10).

Infirmities of the flesh are common even to God’s choicest saints. What satisfaction there is, then, in just believing God’s Word: “My grace is sufficient for thee, for My strength is made perfect in weakness”.

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Maker Of The Universe
by F. W. Pitt


The Maker of the universe
as Man, for man, was made a curse.

The claims of Law which He had made,
unto the uttermost He paid.

His holy fingers made the bough,
which grew the thorns that crowned His brow.

The nails that pierced His hands were mined
in secret places He designed.

He made the forest whence there sprung
the tree on which His body hung.

He died upon a cross of wood,
yet made the hill on which it stood.

The sky that darkened o’er His head,
by Him above the earth was spread.

The sun that hid from Him its face
by His decree was poised in space.

The spear which spilled His precious blood
was tempered in the fires of God.

The grave in which His form was laid
was hewn in rocks His hands had made.

The throne on which He now appears
was His for everlasting years.

But a new glory crowns His brow
and every knee to Him shall bow.

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The Fruit Of The Spirit
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


    “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law” (Gal. 5:22,23).

The “fruit of the Spirit” is that combination of graces evidenced in the lives of believers who “walk in the Spirit.” Let us never make the mistake of supposing that “the Spirit,” in Gal. 5:22,23, refers to “the spirit of man which is in him” (I Cor. 2:11). It refers rather to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, who indwells believers. The spiritual virtues listed above do not spring from any goodness in us, but from the Spirit of God dwelling within.

Next, we should observe that these graces are not the product of human effort. The passage above declares that they are fruit, and fruit is the natural product of life and growth. Indeed, “the fruit of the Spirit” is here contrasted with “the works of the flesh” (Vers. 19-21), and these are all bad!

Finally, it is a remarkable fact that the graces which the Holy Spirit produces in yielded believers are certainly not those which the world admires. The world admires self-confidence, self-respect, self-made men, intellectual prowess, personal magnetism, authority, etc., while the Spirit produces “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” But consider the difference. A man may have self-confidence, intellectual acumen, political or other power — and he may still be very difficult to live with, but not so with the virtues which the Spirit produces. Of those who possess these graces the Apostle says: “Against such there is no law.”

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Who Shall Separate Us?
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


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

True Christians have been saved from the penalty of sin for one reason alone: because of “the love of God, which is [manifested] in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

St. John wrote by divine inspiration:

    “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation [satisfaction] for our sin.

    “We love Him because He first loved us” (I John 4:10,19).

Let us understand this clearly and remember it always. It is not our love to Him, but His love to us, that saves us — and it is His love to us that keeps us saved. This is where we must begin the Christian life.

A wayward husband returned to his grieving wife one day, after many months of living in sin. Sobbing his heart out in remorse and shame, he told her how often he had longed to be home again with the wife he knew to be so true to him. Asked why, then, he had not returned sooner, he explained that he was ashamed; to which his wife replied: “John, I want you to know something and never forget it: I love you.” John sobbed in response: “Who wouldn’t want to live for a woman like this!”

Just so it is the knowledge that Christ loves us no matter what; that nothing shall ever separate us from His love; it is this that makes the sincere believer determine, by God’s grace, to be always true to Him.

Thus the Scripture doctrine of the believer’s eternal security in Christ by no means leads to careless living. On the contrary, it affords the greatest possible motivation to “live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world” (Titus 2:11,12).

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Light For The Soul
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


A Christian believer talking to an atheistic evolutionist one time, took his watch out of his pocket, noted the time and put it back in again, saying to his friend: “This is a wonderful watch; never misses a second. I never have to do anything to it, yet it keeps perfect time.”

“What make is it?” asked the evolutionist. “Oh, no make,” was the reply. “Well who manufactured it?” “Oh, no one. It just put itself together somehow.”

“Nonsense!” said the atheist. “A watch can’t just come into existence. Somebody had to manufacture it.”

“That’s true,” replied the Christian, “yet you expect me to believe that this vast universe with its billions of planets and stars, all revolving in perfect order, just came about by itself; that it has no Designer, no Creator, and no one to keep it running. Isn’t that nonsense!”

According to the Bible God holds the pagan world responsible for its idolatry and declares: “They are without excuse” (Rom. 1:20) because all that the heathen witness about God every day calls for their worship and praise and thanksgiving (Rom. 1:20,21). But they have not had this attitude. They have denied and rejected God and, as St. Paul says, they “became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened” (Ver. 21). It was thus that pagan idolatry, the worship of the creation, rather than the Creator (Ver. 25) had its beginning.

All this is very much like what we read in Ephesians 4:17,18 where God exhorts His people not to live like “the Gentiles,” in “the vanity [shallowness] of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.”

Not very complimentary, is it? But it does reflect the condition of the human heart without God and apart from faith in Christ our Savior. It explains why the world, with all its increased technical knowledge is worse off than ever.

How wonderful to know that “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,” can give light and joy and blessing to the simplest soul who places his faith in Christ, who died for our sins! (See II Cor. 4:3-6; Acts 16:31; I Cor. 15:3,4).

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The Father Of Our Country And The Apostle To The Nations
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Millions highly honor George Washington as “the father of our country,” but how few know about Paul, God’s apostle to the nations!

Not Matthew, or Mark or Luke; not Peter or James or John, but Paul alone wrote:

    “FOR I SPEAK TO YOU GENTILES (or, YOU OF THE NATIONS] INASMUCH AS I AM THE APOSTLE OF THE GENTILES [NATIONS]: I MAGNIFY MINE OFFICE” (Rom. 11:13).

And remember, Paul wrote this by divine inspiration. But note well that Paul did not magnify himself, but his office, to which he had been appointed by the glorified Lord. In defending his apostleship before the Galatians, he wrote:

    “But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.

    “For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ” (Gal. 1:11,12).

In many other passages the Apostle claims to speak as a direct representative of Christ (See I Cor. 11:23; 15:3; Eph. 3:2,3; I Thes. 4:15; etc.). To Timothy Paul wrote in I Tim. 6:3-5 concerning his own writings:

    “If any man teach OTHERWISE, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing…”

This could not demonstrate more emphatically Paul’s claim that his words were “the words of our Lord Jesus Christ,” received from Him by direct revelation. To the Corinthians, who questioned this, the Apostle wrote:

    “…IF I COME AGAIN I WILL NOT SPARE, SINCE YE SEEK A PROOF OF CHRIST SPEAKING IN ME” (II Cor. 13:2,3).

The proof of this claim? This was overwhelming indeed, for Paul was used more than any other apostle to found churches and lead men into the knowledge and joy of salvation. To the Corinthian believers he wrote what he could have written to many thousands of others: “The seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord” (I Cor. 9:2).

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The Apostle Of Grace
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


The conversion of Saul of Tarsus was an amazing event. Saul loathed the very name of Christ. He blasphemed Him and caused others to be tortured so as to compel them to blaspheme that holy name. He led his nation and the world in rebellion against the resurrected, glorified Christ — the world which had already disowned and crucified the lowly Jesus.

But as Saul went to Damascus, still “breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord” (Acts 9:1), God did a wonderful thing. Rather than crush the leader of the world’s rebellion, He saved him. Christ broke through the heavens, as it were, to speak words of pity to His greatest enemy on earth. As a result Saul’s rebellious spirit was broken and in one moment the pitiless persecutor became the docile, indeed the devoted follower of Christ.

More than this, Saul of Tarsus, the persecutor, became Paul the Apostle. To him the glorified Lord committed “the dispensation of the grace of God” (Eph. 3:2) and “the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24). Now he went everywhere proclaiming grace, telling men how God loved them, how Christ had come into the world and had gone to Calvary to pay man’s debt of sin so that believing sinners might be saved.

“The gospel of the grace of God,” found in Paul’s epistles, does not blame anyone for the death of Christ. Rather it presents the cross as good news. It declares that “we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace” (Eph. 1:7). It says that “God hath concluded them all in unbelief that He might have mercy upon all” (Rom. 11:32) and that “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Rom. 5:20). Thus the vilest sinner may believe and rejoice in the consciousness of sins forgiven.

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God Is Central
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Paul’s Epistle to the Romans is the foundation book of Christian theology. It brings us face to face with facts we ought to know and must know to be saved.

In the 16th and 17th verses of the first chapter, the apostle declares that he is proud of the gospel because therein the “righteousness”, or rightness of God is revealed.

God had to deal righteously with sin before He could offer salvation to sinners. Sin is not merely an affliction; it is moral wrong and kindles the wrath of a just and holy God.

The wrath of God is too little discussed by modern evangelists and preachers. They like to talk about the love and mercy of God, as though He were a Grand Old Man with a tolerant attitude toward sin. But they never fully appreciate His love and mercy because they do not understand His infinite wrath against sin.

Much evangelism today has become sort of a “try God” gimmick. The pleasures of the world don’t satisfy? Try God. You can’t shake off some terrible bondage? Try God. When all else fails, Try God!

But this humanistic approach is foreign to Scripture. God, His holiness, His wrath against sin and His love in providing salvation — these are central in Scripture, not man and his condition and his needs.

We are not to look upon God as our servant, who will help us in time of need, but as the Holy One whose justice we have offended but who, in infinite grace, paid for our sins Himself so that we might be redeemed. This is why the Epistle to the Romans begins its mighty argument with almost three chapters on the subject of sin. Then follows the Good News of God’s grace in settling the sin question so that we might be “justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24).

And thus the same inspired writer declares in Ephesians 2:2-4 that we were “the children of disobedience” and therefore “the children of wrath”, but then goes on to show “God, who is rich in mercy” and “great” in “love”, saves believers by grace, giving them eternal life in Christ, who died for our sins.

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Repentance And Grace
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


When the sinner is convicted by the Holy Spirit of the seriousness of sin and of judgment to come, and cries to the Lord to save him, he has, of course, repented, or changed his mind, as the Greek word signifies. Many of God’s servants, however, considering only the fact that sinners need such a change of mind, conclude that the way to produce the greatest results in their ministry is to stress repentance.

Such should take note of the response to the three great calls to repentance by which the dispensation of the Law was brought to a close: John the Baptist called Israel to repentance but was beheaded as a result (Matt. 3:1-12; 14:3-10). The Lord Jesus took up the cry where John had left off (4:17), but was crucified for it. After the resurrection He sent His disciples to preach “repentance and remission of sin…in His name” (Luke 24:47) but Jerusalem refused to repent and it was not long before blood again flowed, as Stephen was stoned to death and a great persecution followed (Acts 8:3).

The guilt of Israel’s impenitence increased too, as the call to repentance was intensified, for while John’s murder was permitted by the people, Christ’s was demanded by them, and Stephen’s was actually committed by them. Thus the so-called “Great Commission” was bogged down at the very start, for if Jerusalem and the covenant people refused to repent, what hope was there that the “nations”(Luke 24:47) would do so?

    “But where sin abounded, GRACE did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might GRACE reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom.5:20,21).

After calls to repentance had failed, the ascended Lord stooped down to save Saul, the chief of sinners, on the road to Damascus, in anything but a repentant mood. Not by threatening or dealing with him in judgment, but by speaking to him in the tenderest tones He showed him the glory of His grace. This “trophy of grace” was then sent forth to proclaim “the gospel of grace”, and the merits of his crucified, glorified Lord.

This is why repentance was emphasized, indeed was the theme of God’s message, from John until Paul, while grace, proclaimed through the cross and received by faith, gradually displaced it as the theme of God’s message for “this present evil age” (Acts 20:24).

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Church On Fire
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


The Chicago newspapers carried an account the other day of a large church, burned to the ground, at a loss of about half a million dollars. Our sympathy goes out to the pastor and congregation who, at best, will have to carry on for a time under makeshift arrangements.

But the account reminded me of the story of another church on fire. The crowds had gathered to see the fire engines pour water on the burning building, when one man spotted a friend in the crowd. “Hi Bob!” he shouted: “This is the first time I’ve seen you at church!” “Well,” responded the other, “This is the first time I’ve seen a church on fire.”

We write this as a special appeal to true, born-again Christians. Isn’t it true that if believers were more “on fire” for Christ, more completely sold out to Him, those who are now disinterested would be more apt to become interested and come to know Him as their Savior? We so soon lose interest or become discouraged, and quit. This is why the Apostle Paul, that tireless ambassador for Christ, wrote:

    “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (I Cor. 15:58.).

This, we repeat, is his exhortation to believers only, for God will not accept our money or our good works, until we have first accepted “the gift of God,” which is “eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:23).

Accept this gift; trust the Christ who died for your sins and He will give you plenty to do — the most rewarding service any man could possibly render.

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The Noble Bereans
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Many Christian groups and organizations call themselves Bereans, but it is surprising how few people know what a true Berean is.

The 17th chapter of Acts relates how Paul called upon his kinsmen at Thessalonica and for three sabbath days “reasoned with them out of the Scriptures,” trying to show them that Jesus was the Christ.

Steeped in their own religion, however, the majority were unwilling even to consider the truths Paul proclaimed. Indeed, they resented the fact that some did believe and, in their bigotry, “set all the city on an uproar.” Finally Paul’s life was in such peril that the Christians there sent him away by night to Berea, a town about forty miles away.

At Berea Paul again sought out his “kinsmen according to the flesh” — and what a different reception! Here is what the record says:

    “THESE WERE MORE NOBLE THAN THOSE IN THESSALONICA, IN THAT THEY RECEIVED THE WORD WITH ALL READINESS OF MIND, AND SEARCHED THE SCRIPTURES DAILY, WHETHER THOSE THINGS WERE SO” (Acts 17:11).

These people did not immediately close their eyes to further light. On the contrary, they gave Paul an interested hearing, listening with open minds to what he had to say. But they were not gullible either for, having listened to Paul, they subjected his word to God’s Word, searching the Scriptures daily to see whether those things were so. For this God called them “noble.” They were the true spiritual aristocracy of their day.

We should all be Bereans, spiritually big enough to listen with open minds to the teachings of men, and then big enough too to subject their teachings to the Word of God, the Bible, to see for ourselves whether these things are so. Our Lord said: “Search the Scriptures… for… they… testify of Me” (John 5:39). As we do this we will find eternal life — and more — in Christ.