25. Topical Methods of Study

Topical Methods of Study

Chapter 24 To examine the scriptures topically is very fruitful in results. Taking great leading subjects or themes, we should seek to find the total testimony of the Inspired Word upon each, gathering up and arranging scattered or fragmentary hints in an orderly and complete form. In the nature of the case, the Bible could not present a system of doctrine, yet it contains the material for such a system. It is the quarry rather than the structure; and it is for the student to bring together the material, discover its mutual relation, and construct out of it a full testimony to the truth.

Special themes need to be studied in the light of the Word as a whole. Without being in form a philosophical or theological treatise, it contains sufficient guidance as to all truth and duty. To search out its witness wherever found, classify and combine it, yields such instruction that upon any needful question, the mind of God is disclosed in a remarkable manner and measure. Grand themes, that suffice for lifelong study, are found set like shining gems all along the circlet of the Scriptures, such as the following:

Such great themes remind us of Kepler’s exclamation when, after eighteen experiments, he found the key that unlocked astronomical problems: “O Almighty God! I am thinking Thy thoughts after Thee.” Grattan said of Fox, “you must measure the magnitude of his mind by parallels of latitude;” but, in measuring the infinite mind, all such standards fail us; and, in research into the Scriptures, it is this constant recurrence of infinite ideas and ideals that transcend alike all human expression and conception that convinces us of their divine originality and authority. The level of the thinking which they suggest is so exalted as to be unapproachable.

We have instanced a score of subjects, treated in single passages; but in many cases for anything like a complete view, various Scriptures must be collated and compared, because in no one place are these themes fully presented. Sometimes different writers suggest various aspects of a common theme, or there is a historic development of it, in the succession of events, or ideas. A few of these may be likewise cited as examples of hundreds.

1. The Fire of God, represented in the Shekinah, the miraculous flame kindled on His altars, the Pillar of Fire, etc., and above all, the Pentecostal Flame, and tongues of fire.

2. The Angel of the Lord, the constant wonder worker in all human history, the great Defender, Protector, Avenger, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, invisible, irresistible.

3. The moral code of Jehovah, embraced in the Decalogue, and modified and applied in the Sermon on the Mount—a complete and sublime ethical foundation for human character.

4. The Spirit of God, revealed officially and occasionally in the Old Testament, individually and perpetually in the New, as source of light, life, love and power to the human spirit.

5. The God-man. A new order of Being, with divine and human natures perfectly combined in one personality—a mysterious blending of the finite and the infinite.

6. The Prophetic Vision—divine sight, foresight and insight imparted to human agents so that they have a backward vision of prehistoric events and a forward vision of the future.

7. The conception of substitutionary Sacrifice—the obedience and suffering of a sinless being accepted in behalf of the sinner, so as to make pardon and reconciliation possible without sacrificing righteousness.

8. Eternal Life through believing, or the impartation of the nature of God to Man, through faith as a means of union and identification—the mystery of a perfect salvation through a new birth.

9. The Rewards and Retributions of the Future State, completing the partial administration of Justice in this age by the final awards of eternity and the settlement of destiny.

10. The church of God, as a called out body of believers and witnesses—indwelt by the Spirit of God, constituting one invisible organism of which Christ is Head.

11. The World of Spirits—invisible and innumerable—and divided into two great hosts—the unfallen and loyal, and the fallen and lost, with Satan at their head.

12. The Whole Conception of the Godhead—trinity yet unity—omnipresent yet not pantheistic; infinite and eternal, yet exercising providential care over all creatures however minute and events however trifling.

These are a few specimens of the wealth of the mines of thought which in the Holy Scriptures invite exploration and yet defy exhaustion. Not one of all these magnificent themes finds treatment in uninspired writings except as first suggested here, and therefore without this unique and unrivaled Book of God, the race would have been left in midnight darkness as to these and all co-related truths. Who shall even glance at such topics and still say that no such revelation from God was needed! In three Psalms, there is a singular tribute to “the Law of the Lord”—one title for Old Testament Scripture as a whole, naturally arising from the fact that of the three popular divisions of the Old Testament the Law was first. The Psalms are Psalms 1; Psalms 19; Psalms 119, the second and third taking up the subject where the previous one left it, and no two covering the same ground. Psalms 1 depicts the blessedness of him whose delight is found in meditating upon Holy Scripture; Psalms 19 compares it with the Heavens as a field for the display of its author’s glorious perfections; and Psalms 119 exhaustively presents its manifold attractions as a law of life, a counselor and guide. Comparison of these three Psalms is very suggestive. In the first the lover and doer of God’s word and the hater and scorner are contrasted in character, conduct and destiny. In Psalms 19 the heavens are compared in ten respects with as many of the perfections of Scripture; then in Psalms 119 every letter of the Hebrew alphabet heads an eightfold acrostic, as though to hint that if all possible combinations of letters are exhausted the excellence of the Holy Scriptures as a practical and personal guide to doctrine and duty cannot be expressed. The Putting Away of Sin is one of the great conceptions of the whole scripture. The goat that fell by lot to Jehovah as Law-giver and Judge, presents that aspect of the work of Christ, according to which He by His shed blood expiates guilt, pays penalty, and so vindicates the holiness and righteousness of God as expressed in His Law. It is expiatory. But the live goat presents and typifies that companion aspect of Christ’s work which puts away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, securing for us not only exemption from judgment but justification before God, peace with God, access to God and finally glory in God (Romans 5:1-4). This aspect is propitiatory. It is for us as though we had never sinned (Hebrews 9:26; Romans 8:33-34). The Word of God presents this great truth in many forms. The phrase, “put away sin,” is very common and emphatic, as when Nathan said to the penitent David: “The Lord also hath put away thy sin” (2 Samuel 12:13). The same thought is otherwise expressed. The following are the main forms in which it is embodied:

1. The comprehensive expression “covered,” as in Psalms 32:1-2. “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered; blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity.” Here, besides forgiveness, there is a covering of sin, a hiding of it beneath the blood, so that it is no more imputed or reckoned to the sinner as having been committed.

2. Hence the phrase “abundantly pardon,” as found in Isaiah 55:7, where God is represented not only as having mercy upon a returning penitent, but as “multiplying to pardon”—an attempt to express by a sort of mathematical metaphor the thoroughness of forgiveness.

3. In Psalms 103:12 occurs the phrase “so far hath He removed our transgressions from us,” where the immeasurable heights and breadths of infinite space are used to illustrate the distance to which forgiveness is banished.

4. Isaiah 38:17 conveys the thought by the phrase “Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back”—drawn from human inability to see at all what is behind us.

5. Isaiah 44:22 : “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions”—another figure drawn from the utter dissipation and disappearance of a cloud that has obscured heaven’s blue.

6. Micah 7:19, expresses the same thought, by a reference to the drowning of Pharaoh’s hosts in the Red Sea. “Thou will cast all their sins into the depth of the sea”—too deep for any dredging instrument to bring them up.

7. Jeremiah 31:34 touches the climax—“I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more”—a promise so remarkable that it becomes the leading mark of the New Covenant and is twice quoted as such in the Epistle to the Hebrews (Hebrews 8:12; Hebrews 10:17). This means practical annihilation of forgiven sins—and shows us how and why the pardoned, penitent, believing sinner has “boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him” (Ephesians 3:12). The word Sanctification is used of what is separated and of what is subjugated. The root idea is separation, from evil to good. It may be profitably studied under the following heads:

1. Its relations to the Will of God—His Eternal Purpose in Salvation (Romans 8:29-30; 1 Peter 1:2). This is judicial sanctification, immediate and complete from the first. It is sanctification as God sees it, in His purpose and plan, and determines the believer’s standing in Christ

2. Its relations to the Blood of Christ (Hebrews 13:12; Leviticus 27:32). Its basis and ground is identity with Him. We are sanctified in Him. Hence that dominant phrase “in Christ,” or “in Christ Jesus” that interprets every epistle.

3. Its relations to the Truth—the Word of God—which is largely its instrument—the means used for its accomplishment (John 17:17). It is a sort of atmosphere or element in which we live, move and have our being as saints.

4. Its relation to the Holy Spirit (1 Peter 1:2), nothing is more important. The new life of God absolutely begins when He recreates us—Sin has made the spirit in man dead and He quickens it again. His double office is to show ourselves and God. He makes our state consist with our standing—the actual correspond with the judicial (comp.1 Corinthians 6:17; Galatians 5:16-25). This is like grafting a live nerve upon a dead one—that triumph of modern surgery.

5. Its relations to the Example of Christ—our model and standard of sanctification (John 17:19; 1 Peter 2:21-23).

6. Its relations to our own Will (Romans 6; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Peter 1:1-16; 1 Peter 4:1-3; 2 Corinthians 6:14; 2 Corinthians 7:1; Exodus 29). In this last chapter we have a fine illustration: What was first sanctified to God’s glory He afterward sanctified by His glory? Three incentives are urged to promote voluntary separation unto God; His purchase of us, possession of us, and inhabitation in us.

7. Its relation to the Glory of God (Exodus 29).

Three stages: Separation and Self-presentation—our part Consecration and Transformation—God’s part. The Scriptures suggest four conspicuous snares to sanctification:

1. False criteria: feelings and caprices—vs. faith and love.

2. Legalism and its bondage—and self-righteous spirit.

3. Antinomianism—or practical lawlessness.

4. Spiritual pride—self-confidence, loss of vigilance.

Again, notice the promises to prayer, and conditions of answer.

1. Faith in God—fundamental, rudimental (Hebrews 11:6; James 1:5-7; Matthew 14:29-30; 1 John 5:14-15. The confidence).

2. Threefold condition—Asking, Seeking, Knocking (Matthew 7:7). Supplication, earnest desire, importunate continuance (Ephesians 3:20; Hebrews 4:13-16; Matthew 6:7-8; Mark 10:51-52; James 5:16-18; Hosea 12:4-6; Luke 11:5-10; Luke 18:1-8).

3. Abandonment of Sin (Psalms 66:18-19; Proverbs 15:29; Isaiah 1:15; Isaiah 59:2; John 9:31; 1 John 3:20-22).

4. Anticipating Answer (Mark 11:22-24). Such holding to the faith, or faithfulness of God, as to believe the blessing already received (Romans 8:26-27; Jude 1:20).

5. Boldness of Approach (1 John 5:14-15; Hebrews 4:16; John 15:7; John 14:13-14; John 15:16; John 16:23-26). In the Name of Jesus (Jeremiah 14:21; Psalms 78:41; Matthew 13:58).

6. Individual and Solitary Approach (Matthew 6:6). Secrecy, silence, solitude. Habit of closet communion. “Practice of the Presence of God” (Luke 6:12).

7. Collective, corporate prayer (Matthew 18:19-20; 1 Chronicles 17:1-4; Daniel 2:17-19; Acts 1:14; Acts 2:1-4; Acts 4:31; Acts 12:15-17; Acts 16:25-26; Deuteronomy 32:30). The relation of Believers to this world-age can be fully seen only by a comparison of at least seven conspicuous passages of Scripture, where different phases of the subject appear: Matthew 6:19-34 : Worldly avarice and anxiety, foes to faith. John 15:18-24; John 17 : Worldly hatred of our Lord and His disciples. Romans 12:1-2 : Duty of nonconformity to the world and its standards. Ephesians 2:1-7 : The connection of the world with the flesh and the devil. James 4:4-5 : The friendship of the world enmity toward God. 1 John 2:15-17; 1 John 5:19 : The love of the world forbidden, as not of God. Revelation 16-18 : The greatness and glory and doom of the world. When these Scriptures are compared there will be no mistaking the fact that, with singular uniformity, the world is held up as the foe of faith and Godliness. The Old Testament writes large the word separation over the very portals of a holy life; and the New Testament repeats it and forbids even conformity to the world’s standards and methods.

Orcagna, in his great picture, in the Strozzi Chapel—The Last Judgment—represents Solomon, the worldly and idolatrous King, as rising out of his sepulcher in robe and crown, at the trump of the archangel, uncertain whether he is to turn to the right hand or to the left—a terrible satire on carnal discipleship.