Eternal Life
(As taught in John 1.-6)
No doctrine is divinely learnt that is not learnt in its connection with our blessed Lord and His love and glory. No knowledge of truth that is held by the believer is sanctifying, unless it is the means of exalting, and glorifying, and endearing the Savior to the heart. Every truth in Scripture is revealed in its connection with the one and blessed center of all God's purposes—the Lord Jesus Christ. The Spirit in the prophets is the Spirit of Christ, as Peter teaches us; and Jesus appeals to God's written word as His great witness, saying to the Jews, "Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of Me." These truths press themselves upon one in searching the early chapters of John's gospel as to the blessed truth of eternal life. The gospel opens' by showing the believer the One in whom this life is. The reader is at once in the presence of his divine Savior. There, before the world was, is the Word of God, the divine and eternal One, who as God made all things, and was before all things which He made. "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." No cold doctrine of a believer's security, but a living and divine person, who is the source of the life which afterwards He gives us as man. And here we learn, that when He made man He made him a being capable of relationship with this life; so that the life is the light of men, a life suited to man according to eternal counsels.
In the third chapter we have passed from eternity to time, and from the glories of the Word of God, Creator of all things, to the Son of man on earth, who has come down from the glory to die a Substitute for men. "The Son of man," says the blessed Lord to Nicodemus, "must be lifted up." He has come down to open heaven for men, and for sinners; and having told Nicodemus what must be, as regards fallen man, if any see God's kingdom—they must be born anew—He now speaks of what must be if He is to give His life to the sinner—He must take man's death, and all its consequences, upon Him to give men eternal life. For' though by creation this life was the light of men, sin had brought man under the penalty of death eternal, and he must perish unless the Son of man should become the Substitute by being lifted up in the sinner's stead. Oh how willingly did He, who alone could stand in such a breach as this, give Himself up to meet all God's holy and righteous claims as to sin, that whosoever "believeth in aim should not perish, but have everlasting life. But Jesus leads us to the love of God, and presents Himself as the gift of God's love, that we might know the blessed truth, that "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." We are in the presence of the Savior in this third chapter; and in His gift of eternal life to us who believe are secured the abiding favor of God, and the deliverance from all penalty. "He that believeth on Him is not judged" (as the word should be), and the wrath of God does not abide on him. He is, in the favor of God, accepted in Christ, and possesses the life to which no judgment is attached.
In John 4 the teaching goes further. There we read of the gift of the Holy Spirit—Jesus' gift to poor thirsty souls—a well of living and thirst-quenching water, which is in the believer springing up unto eternal life. Here we are entering into the joys of our reconciliation; we are empowered of God to delight in Him, and to rise to the fount whence our blessings flow down; our communion is in eternal life, and we can thus worship the Father, with whom was that eternal life which has been manifested to us, so that our joy should be full; and thus, as our Lord says, "He that drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.”
In the fifth chapter we have another aspect of this glorious truth. We are here in the presence of the Son of God, who works in grace beyond the narrow limits of ordinances. He gives life to dead souls, to those who, besides lying under the sentence of death, as in the third chapter, ready to perish, and the wrath of God abiding on them, are even now spiritually dead and alienated from the life of God. Here the glory of God's dear Son shines out in carrying out His Father's grace, who had wrought in all the Old Testament saints, from Abel downwards. He, the Father's Son, gives life, and quickens the dead. Thus are we now possessors of a life that has called us out from among our fellows, who are under death and judgment. In hearing Jesus' word, and believing on Him that sent Him, we have everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but have passed from the region of death unto life. Here we stand on resurrection ground, and only wait to hear His voice, which shall quicken or change our mortal bodies, to introduce us into the full fruition of life in the resurrection of life.
Let us turn now to the sixth chapter, and we shall see Jesus, the humbled Son of man, whose body was broken, and whose blood was shed, that we might have through Him the daily and hourly food of our newborn souls until that day when, as He says, there “I will raise him up at the last day." What more can our souls need? what more could He say to endear Himself to our souls? In eternity we see Him God over all, blessed forever, the possessor of life, which is our light. In our sins, under God's wrath, ready to perish, we see Him become a man lifted up, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, to give us life and salvation, and further separating us to His own divine joys, making us capable by the Spirit of rising to the sphere of that eternal life in the Father's presence, and putting us in the place of life, leaving forever behind death and judgment; and then, till our bodies share this fullness of life, victorious over sin and death, He becomes our meat and our drink, and we dwell in Him and He in us, who has not only died for us, but who has ascended for us as man, where He was before as God, that He may raise us up to be with Him at the last day, even at His ever-nearing advent. Oh, by His free and changeless love to yield ourselves to Him, that we who live should no more live unto ourselves, but unto Him who died for us and arose again
On Prayer
No. 3
IT is very interesting to notice the prominence given to prayer by the Holy Ghost in the Epistles. The immense importance of prayer, its simple, definite, and direct character, and the blessed results to be expected, are alike strikingly set forth.
In the first chapter of Romans, Paul not only speaks of mentioning them always in his prayers, but that he definitely made this request, that he might by the will of God, be made a blessing and a comfort to them, and be comforted also by their faith (v. 10-12.) In the fifteenth chapter, he beseeches them for the Lord Jesus' sake to pray also that he might come unto them by the will of God, and may with them be refreshed; and he also desires that they may be so earnest, as to strive together with him in prayer for two other things, which are most distinctly and definitely named, viz., that he might be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that his service which he had for Jerusalem might be accepted by the saints (v. 30-32.)
In the first epistle to the Corinthians, we have little said as to prayer, further than it should be in the spirit and intelligent—"I will pray with the spirit, and with the understanding also;" the main object of the epistle being to correct the disorders of the assembly, and to give fresh instructions on the subject. It is true that saints giving themselves to prayer and fasting is enjoined to guard from the temptation of Satan—a most important principle.
In the second epistle to the Corinthians, the apostle again shews how much he valued the help of saints in prayer. "Ye also helping together by prayer for us." (ch. 1:11.) He prayed for them, "that they might do no evil." (13:7.)
In Galatians, we have nothing about prayer, the object of the Holy Ghost being to rebuke in the sternest way the attempts to undermine the gospel of the grace of God by adding something to it, thus giving the flesh importance, instead of holding to its entire judgment unto death in the cross of Christ— the crucifixion of the old man. It was not the place, therefore, to expect the subject of prayer to be introduced. Very different indeed is the epistle to the Ephesians, for he is there contemplating God in His grace, eternal counsels, and ways towards us, when dead in sins, in and through Christ Jesus. The sense of this upon his heart necessarily bowed him before the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ in prayer and thanksgiving for them. His prayer in the first chapter is that they might have the knowledge of God's grace and power toward them in Christ risen and ascended, as well as the hope of His calling.
In the third chapter, the contemplation of the unsearchable riches of Christ brought out in the mystery now made known, of the body the Church, so bowed him again before the Father, that he prays that, not according to His rich mercy, but according to the riches of His glory, they may be so strengthened by the Spirit as to so enjoy Christ that He may dwell in their hearts by faith, &c. At the close of the epistle when he thinks how Satan opposes the saints, and tries to hinder their standing in the new place God has brought them into in heavenly places in Christ, the apostle most earnestly urges the saints to habitual and continual dealing with God in prayer, and that not for themselves only but for every member of the body, and for the gospel too. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; and for me that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, &c. (ch. 6:18, 19.)
In Philippians where the prominent subject' is devotedness, we might expect something, about prayer, and so there is. In chapter 1:4, Paul assures their hearts that he makes request for them with joy always and in every prayer; and in the 19th verse he counts also upon their prayers. He told them that he prayed de finitely for two things; 1st, "That their love may abound more and more in knowledge and in all judgment;" 2nd, "That they may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God." (v. 9-11.) In the fourth chapter, the saints are enjoined to pray about everything, as one of the necessary ways of enjoying the peace of God. So free is the child of God to feel in the presence of his heavenly Father, that he is to keep back nothing, but make known his requests to God. God does not say He will answer every request, but it is clearly His will that we should tell them out before God. "In everything (great matters, or very small, as we call them) by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God." (ch. 4:6, 7.)