J. Sidlow Baxter Quotes

“Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.” Note the “I Am.” In the Greek it is the strongest possible form of expression – Ego Eimi. Both ego and eimi mean “I am” but the former puts the emphasis on the “I” while the latter puts it on the “am.” Taken together they are the strongest Greek form to express the name of God as the great “I AM.” That is how the risen Christ here refers to Himself. “Lo, I AM with you!” But there is a lovely feature in the Greek construction here which does not reveal itself in our English translation. It reads like this: “And lo, I with you AM…” You and I dear fellow believer, are in between the “I” and the “AM.” He is not only with us, He is all around us. Not only now and then, but “always” which literally translated is, “all the days” … this day, this hour, this moment. Why, when we reflect on it, were not our Lord’s sudden appearings & disappearings during the 40 days between His resurrection and His ascension meant to teach those early disciples (and ourselves) this very thing, that even when He is invisible He is none the less present, hearing, watching, knowing, sympathizing, overruling? Let us never forget that the special promise of His presence is given in connection with our going forth as winners of others to Him.”

by J. Sidlow Baxter

More by J. Sidlow Baxter

Far too many Christians live their spiritual life on the “battery system.” Lest that sounds a strangely peculiar idea, let me explain at once what I mean. I can dimly remember how, when I was a very little boy, my dear mother sometimes took me to a town where, if I remember rightly, about that time there was a change-over in the street-car system. The older type of street-car used to run on the battery system. There was an electric battery on the front or rear platform of the car, and so long as the battery was “alive” the car would run; but as soon as the battery was exhausted, the car would stop dead. It was far from satisfactory, hence the change-over. There are Christian believers who seem to run their spiritual life and service on that system. They go to a convention on the deeper life and when they return home, they are altogether different—for three weeks! Or they read some epochal Christian biography, and as they close the book they say, “Ah, life can never be the same again” nor is it—for three weeks! Or they have an all-night of prayer. Things have been going from bad to worse with them, so they bring things to a crisis. While others sleep, they wrestle on the banks of their nocturnal brook Jabbok (Genesis 23:22), and when the sun rises they are transfigured—for three weeks, after which they lapse again to the dull average. Why! Because they are resting on a crisis instead of on Christ. The Christian life was never meant to run on the battery system. It was meant to run on the electric circuit principle. You know what that is. Put simply, it is just this: continuous current through continuous contact. You and I have no power over the current; but we do have power over the contact; and when, by regular prayer-times, daily meditation in the written Word, consecration to Christ, and separation from unworthy ways, we maintain the “contact” then the heavenly current, the Holy Spirit, the life of Christ, is continuously communicated to us.

by J. Sidlow Baxter