John the Baptist introduced our Lord with the proclamation: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (Matt.3:2). Throughout His earthly ministry Christ was known as “the Son of David”, the king with whom God made a covenant to establish His Kingdom forever.
The Old Testament prophets predicted that Christ would — and He will — reign on earth upon the throne of His father David. While His Kingdom was being proclaimed “at hand”, He walked and talked and ate with men as “the Son of Man”. Wearied with travelling, He sat at Jacob’s well and asked for a drink of water. Pressed by the throng, He got into a fishing boat and addressed the multitudes from the sea. Hated by His adversaries, He was tried, scourged, spit upon, and nailed to a tree. This was indeed “Christ manifest in the flesh”.
With regard to His humiliation, however, the Apostle Paul says, by divine inspiration: “God also hath highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name” (Phil.2:9).
Again, the Apostle declares that God’s mighty power was “wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, FAR ABOVE ALL…” (Eph.1:20). He is no longer to be known as “the lowly Jesus”, but as the exalted “Lord” in heaven. And this has its bearing on us too:
“Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now, henceforth, know we Him no more” (IICor.5:16). Our blessed Saviour is now to be known as the glorified Son of God, the Great Dispenser of Grace to a lost humanity; the One who in love and mercy “tasted death for every man” (Heb.2:9).
To the Reader:
Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:
"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."
To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.