26. The Totality of Scripture Testimony

The Totality of Scripture Testimony

Chapter 25 No investigation of scripture, in its various parts and separate texts, however important, must impair the sense of the supreme value of its united witness. There is not a form of evil doctrine or practice that may not claim apparent sanction and support from isolated passages; but nothing erroneous or vicious can ever find countenance from the Word of God when the whole united testimony of scripture is weighed against it. Partial examination will result in partial views of truth which are necessarily imperfect; only careful comparison will show the complete mind of God. For example, the doctrine of justification by works might find seeming approval in James 2:14-26, which taken by itself would seem to teach that faith alone is insufficient. But, when compared with such Scripture as Romans 3:21; Romans 4:25, Galatians 2:15; Galatians 3:14, etc., that is seen to be untenable error, and we are compelled to find some point of consistency and harmony which on further study proves to be this:

Paul is showing how a sinner is justified before God: James, how a saint is justified before men. Justification, in Romans, means imputed righteousness, reconciling a sinner to a righteous God; justification, in James, means actual rectitude, justifying the faith by proving it genuine, and reconciling confession of faith with consistency of conduct. Paul was rebuking and refuting pharisaic self-righteousness and formalism; James, antinomian license and lawlessness. Here it is the totality of Scripture testimony that saves us from the peril of both legalism on the one hand, and a liberty which is only freedom to sin, on the other. The doctrine of sinless perfection finds apparent foundation in such texts as “he that is born of God doth not commit sin,” etc. (1 John 3:3-9). In this passage no room seems left for even an occasional lapse from duty, or stumble in the chosen path of obedience. “Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him neither known Him.” The seed of God is represented as so abiding in a disciple that he cannot sin.

This, however, is inconsistent alike with the experience of the most saintly souls and the testimony of other Scriptures. In fact, the writer of this Epistle, himself, says: “These things write I unto you that ye sin not; but, if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but for the whole world.” Here he tells us that, while he is writing unto us in order to prevent our sinning, if we do fall into sin, we have a resort in the Advocacy and propitiation of our risen Lord: and it is the disciple’s sins to which he refers, for he distinguishes between “our sins” and the world’s needs. Here, again, it is the sum total of Scripture testimony that saves us from error, and compels us to seek some point of harmony. And we find that these verbs have a continuous present force—he that abideth in Him doth not continue, or go on sinning—sinning is not his habit, as with the devil who goes on sinning from the beginning. In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest. Saints habitually obey but occasionally sin: sinners habitually sin, even if occasionally they obey or conform to a right standard. It is a question of which way the face is turned and in what direction the main trend of the life is. Thus we are not only saved from serious errors by referring to the totality of Scripture testimony, but we are forced to that deeper study which unveils a fuller truth and gives a wider vision.

Another example of the corrective value of comparative study of Scripture and the totality of its testimony may be found in 1 Samuel 15. Twice in this chapter Jehovah is represented as repenting that He had made Saul king (1 Samuel 15:11; 1 Samuel 15:35), and yet it is positively affirmed: “The strength of Israel will not lie nor repent; for He is not a man that He should repent” (1 Samuel 15:29). The repentance attributed to God must therefore be explained and qualified by His own repudiation of all that is capricious, mutable and changeable as in human passions. When bad men break covenant with Him, and make void its provisions, compelling Him to change His course toward them and His method of procedure, there is really no change whatever in Him—it is in them. He is eternally and unchangeably the Lover of Good and the Hater of Evil. But when men instead of holding fast the good turn to the evil, by the same immutable law of His perfection, they incur His holy anger instead of favor. It is the same attribute of holiness which attracts or repels according to the character of that which approaches it. When God is said to repent, therefore it is simply a fact of appearance—a relative statement drawn from human usage and language, and strictly cannot be applied to Him in whom there is no variableness.

Comparative study of Scripture has often a high value as a corrective to false impressions, inferences and conclusions. For example, in 2 Samuel 24:1, we read that “the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them, to say go, number Israel and Judah.” This seems unaccountable, since it was this very numbering which further kindled the anger of the Lord and brought one of His signal judgments upon both King and Kingdom. But when we turn to 1 Chronicles 21:1, we find the solution of our perplexity and the reconciliation of the discrepancy: “And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.” The two narratives are harmonized by making the former to read: “And one moved David to say, go number Israel and Judah.”

Possibly in no one instance does a partial view of Scripture truth more mislead than in the difficult and perplexing doctrines of justification by Faith, and Election with its corresponding and correlated truths. Predestination has proved probably the greatest stumbling block of any doctrine taught in the Word not only to unbelievers but to believers, and has been practically the wedge that split the whole church into two opposing bodies—“Arminians” and “Calvinists.” To most readers of Scripture both Justification and Predestination are like the Domes of the Yosemite—while a few daring adventurers seek to scale their precipitous sides, most others can only look up with awe and despair of ever mounting to such summits. Yet, if studied in the light of the whole Word, there is seen to be a practical side from which the ascent is gradual and easy, and like those Domes, these truths are seen as half truths, united in God’s mind, but rent asunder by man’s controversies. No doubt justification teaches acceptance with God on the ground of another’s righteousness imputed to us; and predestination makes salvation primarily depend not on man’s choice but God’s choice. Yet, when the entire testimony of Scripture is examined, we find that these statements are but partial and incomplete.

If on the one hand justification is by faith, the faith is not a mere acceptance of a doctrine, but a living bond of union with the risen Christ—a faith that must justify itself as genuine by works of obedience; and, if God elects a soul to salvation, so does that soul elect God as Savior and Sovereign. Our Lord did not talk of justification through imputed righteousness, but told the parable of the Prodigal Son, who forfeited all claim to a father’s love and care, went far from home, spent all his money, and, when he came back with only rags and wretchedness, the father’s love and grace put on him a robe, shoes and a ring and set him at his own banquet table. From the first two parts of the threefold parable in Luke 15 it might be inferred that, in salvation, God does all; for the sheep is sought till found, and then neither driven nor led back but lifted and carried by the shepherd; and the lost piece of silver cannot recover itself and does not even know it is lost, but must be searched for and found and restored to its place on the necklace of the woman. Had we no other Scripture but 1 Corinthians 9:25-27, we might infer that life is a race course and heaven the goal and salvation the crown: and that Paul was keeping his body under and bringing it into subjection, as a way of earning or winning heaven. But this will not stand the test of other Scripture, in which salvation is always represented as a gift, not wages, to be accepted nor merited. Thus we see clearly that the race course must represent service, and the crown, its reward; and that while Paul had no fear of failing of salvation, he was solicitous not to forfeit his reward.

Very important also is it to discriminate between the terms of salvation and the conditions of sanctification and service. We enter an emphatic protest against the current interpretation that the race we are called upon to run is a race in order that we might win heaven. As Dr. Campbell Morgan well says, “Here is one reason why the churches are half empty: men have been so long acting as if Christianity were a kind of fire insurance, which takes individuals and makes them safe so that they might never reach hell, but might reach heaven, and that all they had to do was to run as hard as they could to get out of the world into heaven. That is a false interpretation both of Christianity and of the passage. The race we are called to run is not in order that we might win heaven, but that God might win earth. The cities are hotbeds of iniquity, and our aim should be to make them cities of God. To run that race the weight which hinders progress, whatever it is, must be dropped, and each must find out what his is and drop it. The most comprehensive of all is unbelief. Many show a tendency to think their education not complete, unless they have a little unbelief in their Maker. The most crying sin is that Christian people do not believe, or else fail to act as if they believed. It is one thing to sit at home and sing ‘Rescue the Perishing,’ and another to go down to the perishing and lift them up.”

There are several other important themes upon which we need the verdict of the whole Scripture to prevent error, particularly the following:

1. The Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and His equality with the Father. Such sayings as “My Father is greater than I,” need to be put side by side with “I and my Father are one;” and His utterances as a servant, during the period of His humiliation, with His language as a sovereign, after His glorification. Compare Hebrews 1:1-4, and Revelation 1; Revelation 2; Revelation 3.

2. The Sleep of saints in Death. Many passages give countenance to this idea that not only the body but the soul also sleep in the grave till the resurrection. But other passages clearly show that, while the body sleeps, the spirit is with Christ. Compare Luke 20:37-38; Luke 23:42-43; 2 Corinthians 5:6-8; Php 1:23; Revelation 14:13, etc.

3. The Personality of the Holy Spirit. The word “spirit,” being the equivalent of “wind,” or “breath,” some language of Scripture might imply that the Spirit of God is a mere influence; but other Scripture attributes to Him personal attributes and activities and preclude this notion. Compare John 14:16-17; John 16:8-10; John 16:13-14, etc. The same may be said of the personality of the Devil. The Judgments of God seem to be unintelligible unless we discriminate the subjects, periods, places and times, and manner of different judicial transactions. The old idea of one general and all comprehensive assize seems scarcely borne out by a careful comparative study. The following presentation of the subject may at least stimulate study. It bears the initials, “J.C.T.”