======================================================================== WRITINGS OF A W PINK - VOLUME 1 by A.W. Pink ======================================================================== A collection of theological writings, sermons, and essays by A.W. Pink (Volume 1), compiled for study and devotional reading. Chapters: 100 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TABLE OF CONTENTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. 000.00. Pink, A. W. - Library 2. 001.00. 1 John, An Exposition 3. 001.000. Introduction 4. 001.01. Chapter 1 5. 001.02. Chapter 2 6. 001.03. Chapter 3 7. 001.04. Chapter 4 8. 001.05. Chapter 5 9. 001.06. Chapter 6 10. 001.07. Chapter 7 11. 001.08. Chapter 8 12. 001.09. Chapter 9 13. 001.10. 2 Peter 1:2, 3 14. 001.10. Chapter 10 15. 001.11. Chapter 11 16. 001.12. Chapter 12 17. 001.13. Chapter 13 18. 001.14. Chapter 14 19. 001.15. Chapter 15 20. 001.16. Chapter 16 21. 001.17. Chapter 17 22. 001.18. Chapter 18 23. 001.19. Chapter 19 24. 001.20. Chapter 20 25. 001.21. Chapter 21 26. 001.22. Chapter 22 27. 001.23. Chapter 23 28. 001.24. Chapter 24 29. 001.25. Chapter 25 30. 001.26. Chapter 26 31. 001.27. Chapter 27 32. 001.28. Chapter 28 33. 001.29. Chapter 29 34. 001.30. Chapter 30 35. 001.31. Chapter 31 36. 001.32. Chapter 32 37. 001.33. Chapter 33 38. 001.34. Chapter 34 39. 001.35. Chapter 35 40. 001.36. Chapter 36 41. 001.37. Chapter 37 42. 001.38. Chapter 38 43. 001.39. Chapter 39 44. 002.00. A Fourfold Salvation 45. 002.000. Preface 46. 002.01. Chapter 1 47. 002.02. Chapter 2 48. 002.03. Chapter 3 49. 002.04. Chapter 4 50. 003.00. A Guide to Frevent Prayer 51. 003.000. Introduction 52. 003.01. Hebrews 13:20, 21, Part 1 53. 003.02. Hebrews 13:20, 21, Part 2 54. 003.03. Hebrews 13:20, 21, Part 3 55. 003.04. 1 Peter 1:3-5, Part 1 56. 003.05. 1 Peter 1:3-5, Part 2 57. 003.06. 1 Peter 1:3-5, Part 3 58. 003.07. 1 Peter 5:10, 11, Part 1 59. 003.08. 1 Peter 5:10, 11, Part 2 60. 003.09. 1 Peter 5:10, 11, Part 3 61. 003.11. Jude 24, 25, Part 1 62. 003.12. Jude 24, 25, Part 2 63. 003.13. Revelation 1:5, 6, Part 1 64. 003.14. Revelation 1:5, 6, Part 2 65. 004.00. A Study of Dispensationalism 66. 004.01. Chapter 1 67. 004.02. Chapter 2 68. 004.03. Chapter 3 69. 004.04. Chapter 4 70. 004.05. Chapter 5 71. 005.00. An Exposition of Hebrews 72. 005.000. Table of Contents 73. 005.001. Chapter 1 74. 005.002. Chapter 2 75. 005.003. Chapter 3 76. 005.004. Chapter 4 77. 005.005. Chapter 5 78. 005.006. Chapter 6 79. 005.007. Chapter 7 80. 005.008. Chapter 8 81. 005.009. Chapter 9 82. 005.010. Chapter 10 83. 005.011. Chapter 11 84. 005.012. Chapter 12 85. 005.013. Chapter 13 86. 005.014. Chapter 14 87. 005.015. Chapter 15 88. 005.016. Chapter 16 89. 005.017. Chapter 17 90. 005.018. Chapter 18 91. 005.019. Chapter 19 92. 005.020. Chapter 20 93. 005.021. Chapter 21 94. 005.022. Chapter 22 95. 005.023. Chapter 23 96. 005.024. Chapter 24 97. 005.025. Chapter 25 98. 005.026. Chapter 26 99. 005.027. Chapter 27 100. 005.028. Chapter 28 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 1: 000.00. PINK, A. W. - LIBRARY ======================================================================== Pink, A. W. - Library Pink, A. W. - 1 John, An Exposition Pink, A. W. - A Fourfold Salvation Pink, A. W. - A Guide to Fervent Prayer Pink, A. W. - A Study of Dispensationalism Pink, A. W. - An Exposition of Hebrews Pink, A. W. - An Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount Pink, A. W. - Assurance Pink, A. W. - Comfort for Christians Pink, A. W. - Divine Healing: Is it Scriptural? Pink, A. W. - Eternal Punishment Pink, A. W. - Eternal Security Pink, A. W. - Exposition of the Gospel of John (3 Vol) Pink, A. W. - Gleanings From Elisha Pink, A. W. - Gleanings from Paul Pink, A. W. - Gleanings in Exodus Pink, A. W. - Gleanings in Genesis Pink, A. W. - Gleanings in Joshua Pink, A. W. - Gleanings in the Godhead Pink, A. W. - Interpretation of the Scriptures Pink, A. W. - Practical Christianity Pink, A. W. - Profiting from the Word of God Pink, A. W. - Regeneration or the New Birth Pink, A. W. - Sins of the Saints Pink, A. W. - Spiritual Growth Pink, A. W. - Spiritual Union and Communion Pink, A. W. - Studies on Saving Faith Pink, A. W. - The Antichrist Pink, A. W. - The Application of the Scriptures Pink, A. W. - The Attributes of God Pink, A. W. - The Beatitudes Pink, A. W. - The Christian Sabbath Pink, A. W. - The Divine Covenants Pink, A. W. - The Divine Inspiration of the Bible Pink, A. W. - The Doctrine of Election Pink, A. W. - The Doctrine of Justification Pink, A. W. - The Doctrine of Man’s Impotence Pink, A. W. - The Doctrine of Reconciliation Pink, A. W. - The Doctrine of Revelation Pink, A. W. - The Doctrine of Sanctification Pink, A. W. - The Doctrine of the Saint’s Perseverance Pink, A. W. - The Godhood of God Pink, A. W. - The Heroes of Faith (Heb 11) Pink, A. W. - The Holy Sabbath Pink, A. W. - The Holy Spirit Pink, A. W. - The Law and the Saint Pink, A. W. - The Life of David (2 Vol) Pink, A. W. - The Life of Elijah Pink, A. W. - The Life of Faith Pink, A. W. - The Lord’s Prayer Pink, A. W. - The Prophetic Parables of Matthew 13 Pink, A. W. - The Redeemer Returns Pink, A. W. - The Satisfaction of Christ Pink, A. W. - The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross Pink, A. W. - The Sovereignty of God Pink, A. W. - The Ten Commandments Pink, A. W. - The Total Depravity of Man Pink, A. W. - Tithing Pink, A. W. - Why Four Gospels S. 1 John 2:2 S. 1 Peter 2:25 S. A Call to Separation S. A Good Beginning S. A GREAT DECEPTION S. A Legal Spirit S. A Prosperous New Year S. A Searching Question S. A Tender Heart S. A WORD OF WARNING S. A Word to Parents S. Acceptable Worship S. Access to God S. Affliction and Glory S. Afflictions of the Godly S. All Things S. An Evangelical Spirit S. An Honest Heart S. Another Gospel S. Anxiety S. BEARING THE ROD S. Beholding the Crucified Christ S. Bible Study S. Brethren, Beware! S. Burden Bearing S. By Me Kings Reign S. Chosen to Salvation S. Christ Despised S. Christ our Exemplar S. Christian Employees S. CHRISTIAN FOOLS S. Christian Homes S. CHRISTIAN PERFECTION S. Christian Resurrection S. Christian Service S. Christian Submission S. Churches of God S. Commanded Subjection S. COMMUNION S. Conditions in the Past S. Contentment S. CREDULOUS SIMPLETONS S. Cross Bearing S. Curiosity Rebuked S. DANGEROUS DAINTIES S. Date Fixing S. David’s Flight S. David’s Terrible Sin S. DISCOURAGEMENT S. Divine Chastisement S. Divine Comfort S. DIVINE GUIDANCE S. Divine Healing S. Divine Inspiration of the Scriptures S. Divine Providence S. DIVORCE S. DOCTOR" OR "BROTHER" S. DOES 1 Corinthians 12:1-31 MEAN THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH S. Duty-Faith S. Elijah’s Dramatic Appearance S. Enjoying God’s Best S. Eternal Punishment S. Evangelical Preaching S. Evangelism S. Evil Speaking S. Experimental Preaching S. Experimental Salvation S. Faith S. Faith as a Masticator S. Faith as a Shield S. Faith as an Overcomer S. Faith to Work Miracles S. Faithfulness S. Family Worship S. FEEBLE FAITH S. First Things First S. Forbidden Subjection S. FURNACE CONDUCT S. Glorious Sinai S. Go Forward! S. GO SLOW! S. God Governing the Nations S. God Securing His Inheritance S. GOD’S AGENCY IN WAR S. Godly Companions S. Godly Sorrow S. God’s Estimate of Obedience S. God’s Inheritance S. GOD’S JEWELS S. God’s Loving-kindness S. God’s Sovereignty Defined S. God’s Voice in Judgments S. God’s Word and Obedience S. Good Cheer for the Whole Year S. Gospel Preaching Commanded S. Grace Preparing for Glory S. Gradual Conquest S. HAVE YOU TRULY COME TO CHRIST S. He Instructed Him S. HEARING THE ROD S. Heart Purity S. HEART WORK S. Hebrews 12:28 S. His Presence S. Honoring God S. Hungering S. I am the Way, Truth, Life S. Identification of the Godly S. Ignorance and Knowledge S. Ignorance Enjoined S. In the Potter’s House S. Inquiry Rewarded S. Internal Salvation S. Inward Impressions S. It Is Finished S. Keeping the Heart S. KNOWING GOD S. Last Things Last S. Learn of Me S. Licentious Preaching S. Look Upward S. LORD AND SAVIOR S. Love of the Truth or For the Truth? S. Love Reproving S. Ministerial Thieves S. Missing God’s Best S. Mourning S. National Owning of God S. New Year’s Comfort S. No Condemnation S. NOT ASHAMED S. Objections to God’s Sovereignty Answered S. Oil in the Vessel S. One Thing S. Our Annual Letter S. Our Righteous Redeemer S. Over-Righteous S. PEACE S. PEACE: TRUE AND FALSE S. Perfect Peace S. PERSEVERANCE/PRESERVATION S. Personal Holiness S. Personal Owning of God S. POOR YET RICH S. Practical Godliness S. PRAYER S. Prayer Sighs S. Prayer Sins S. Preaching False and True S. Precious Death S. Present Day Evangelism S. Preserving Grace S. Private Prayer S. REAL CHRISTIANITY S. Receiving Divine Chastisement S. Regeneration or The New Birth S. Rejoice in the Lord always S. Rejoicing in the Lord S. Repent or Perish S. REPENTANCE S. REWARDS S. Salvation from Sin S. Salvation from the Pleasure of Sin S. Saving Faith S. SELF KNOWLEDGE S. SELF-JUDGMENT S. Servants of God S. Signs of the Times S. Sin’s Presence S. Sleepy Saints! S. SOUND THE ALARM S. Spiritual Converse S. Spiritual Fluctuations S. SPIRITUAL HELPLESSNESS S. Spiritual Liars S. Spiritual Nourishment S. Spiritual Nurses S. Spiritual Oneness S. Spiritual Singing S. Strange Fire S. Subjection Under God’s Chastisement S. SUBMISSION TO OUR SOVEREIGN S. Suffering Saints S. Sufferings Compensated S. Take Heed What You Read S. THAT WORTHY NAME S. THE "god" OF THIS GENERATION S. The Atonement S. The Beauty of Holiness S. The Believer’s Paradox S. The Blessed Man S. The Call of Christ S. The Changing Years—the Unchanging God S. THE CHRISTIAN IN Romans 7:1-25 S. THE CHRISTIAN’S ARMOR S. The Christian’s Assurance S. The Covenant Allegory S. The Cross and Self S. The Cure for Despondency S. The Destruction of Dagon S. The Divine Rememberer S. The Divine Servant S. The Example of Christ S. The Eye of Faith S. THE FAITH OF CHRIST S. The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" S. The Friendship of Christ S. The Glorious Gospel S. The God of Jacob S. The God of This Generation S. The Golden Rule S. The Good Samaritan S. THE GOSPEL OF SATAN S. The Great Change S. The Great Giver S. The Hidden Manna S. THE HOLINESS OF GOD S. The Holy Spirit’s Work in Salvation S. The Hope of His Calling S. The Impeccability of Christ S. THE IMPOTENCY OF THE HUMAN WILL S. The Justice of God S. The Leading of the Holy Spirit S. The Longsuffering Of God S. THE LORDSHIP OF CHRIST S. The marks of a true shepherd S. The Meaning of "KOSMOS" in John 3:16 S. The Mission and Miracles of Elisha S. The Narrow Way S. The Nature of Christ’s Salvation Misrepresented by the Present-day "Evangelist." S. THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST S. The Ordained Lamp S. The Path of Duty S. The Precepts and Liberty S. The Precepts and Understanding S. The Prodigal Son S. The Rest of Christ S. The Right Beginning S. THE SCRIPTURES AND CHRIST S. THE SCRIPTURES AND GOD S. THE SCRIPTURES AND GOOD WORKS S. THE SCRIPTURES AND JOY S. THE SCRIPTURES AND LOVE S. THE SCRIPTURES AND OBEDIENCE S. THE SCRIPTURES AND PRAYER S. THE SCRIPTURES AND SIN S. THE SCRIPTURES AND THE PROMISES S. THE SCRIPTURES AND THE WORLD S. The Service of Christ S. THE SNARE OF SERVICE S. THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD IN CREATION S. The Sovereignty of God: Appendixes S. The Two Natures S. The Wonderful Unity of the Bible Attests Its Divine Authorship S. The Word of FAITH S. The Word of His GRACE S. The Word of RIGHTEOUSNESS S. The Word of TRUTH S. The Wrath of God S. THE WRONG EMPHASIS! S. The Yoke of Christ S. Think about such things S. Threefold Marvel S. TO A STRICKEN SOUL S. To the Unsaved S. Tried by Fire S. TRUE CHRISTIAN LOVE S. Unpardonable Sin S. Unworthiness S. Vile! S. Welcome Tidings S. What is Truth? S. What Ought to be Our Attitude Toward the Sovereignty of God? S. Why Doctrinal Preaching Declines S. Wisdom for the Wise S. Worldly Sorrow S. WORSHIP S. WRONGS RIGHTED S. Xmas ======================================================================== CHAPTER 2: 001.00. 1 JOHN, AN EXPOSITION ======================================================================== 1 John, Part One 1 John 1:1-10, 1 John 2:1-11 Exposition by A. W. Pink Contents Introduction 1. The Humanity of Christ 1 John 1:1 2. The Life Manifested 1 John 1:2 3. Fellowship—part one 1 John 1:3 4. Fellowship—part two 1 John 1:3 5. Fullness of Joy—part one 1 John 1:4 6. Fullness of Joy—part two 1 John 1:4 7. Light and Darkness 1 John 1:5 8. Light and Darkness 1 John 1:6 9. Walking in the Light 1 John 1:7 10. Sin Denied 1 John 1:8, 1 John 1:10 11. Sins Confessed 1 John 1:9 12. Sin Prohibited 1 John 2:1 13. Sins Provided For 1 John 2:1-2 14. Obediential Assurance 1 John 2:3 15. Obediential Assurance 1 John 2:4-5 16. Christ Our Exemplar 1 John 2:6 17. The New–Old Commandment 1 John 2:7-8 18. The Commandment Bellied 1 John 2:8-9 19. Light and Love 1 John 2:10 20. Hatred and Darkness 1 John 2:11 1 John, Part Two 1 John 2:12-29, 1 John 3:1 Exposition by A. W. Pink Contents 21. Forgiven Children 1 John 2:12 22. The Family Graded 1 John 2:13-14 23. The Family Delineated 1 John 2:13-14 24. The World Prohibited 1 John 2:15 25. The World Described 1 John 2:16 26. The World Doomed 1 John 2:17 27. The Last Time 1 John 2:18 28. Apostates 1 John 2:19 29. Our Anointing 1 John 2:20 30. Christian Knowledge 1 John 2:21 31. Lies and Liars 1 John 2:21-22 32. Antichrists 1 John 2:22-23 33. The Application 1 John 2:24 34. The Promise 1 John 2:25 35. Seducers 1 John 2:26 36. Our Anointing 1 John 2:27 37. Abiding in Christ 1 John 2:28 38. Righteousness 1 John 2:29 39. Amazing Grace 1 John 3:1 © Copyright 2005 by Chapel Library, Pensacola, Florida. Published in the USA. Permission is expressly granted to reproduce this material by any means, provided: 1) it is not charged for beyond a nominal sum for cost of duplication 2) this copyright notice and all the text on this page is included. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 3: 001.000. INTRODUCTION ======================================================================== INTRODUCTION When we completed our 1,500-page exposition of John’s Gospel more than twenty years ago, we were urged to take up the First Epistle of John, but felt quite incompetent to engage in it. The closing books of the New Testament, as their position indicates, require their expositor to possess a fuller knowledge of God’s Word and a more mature spiritual experience than do the earlier ones. The style of John’s Epistle is quite different from that of the other apostles, being more abstract, and for that reason more difficult of apprehension and elucidation. We still feel very unfit for the task upon which we are now entering, but if we wait until we deem ourselves spiritually qualified it will never be essayed. During the past quarter of a century we have given no little prayerful thought to its contents, and have studied carefully all the writings of others on it which the Divine providence has brought our way. The benefits of, and gleanings from this we shall now share with our Christian friends. Not only is John’s Epistle much more difficult than his Gospel (which is manifestly designed for babes in Christ, though even the ‘fathers’ never outgrow it) and the other apostolic writings, but it does not lend itself so readily to expositions of equal length. Some of its contents afford much more scope to a sermonizer than do others; and thus, while a whole article may be profitably devoted to certain single verses, others require to be grouped together, and because of this the reader is likely to be disappointed at the varying lengths of their treatment. It is perhaps for these reasons that comparatively little has been written upon this epistle—scarcely anything during the past fifty years. So far as we know, none of the Puritans attempted a systematic exposition of the same, for N. Hardy’s (1665) scarcely comes under that category. Yet this portion of God’s Word is equally necessary, important, and valuable for His children as are all the others, though what they are likely to get out of it will largely depend upon their acquaintance with all preceding books and with the constancy and intimacy of their communion with the Triune God. A brief word concerning its writer. So far as we are aware, no evangelical of any weight has ever denied that this epistle was written by the same person of blessed memory as the one to whom the fourth Gospel is unanimously attributed. There is clear and conclusive evidence, both external and internal, of this. As Barnes stated of the epistle: “It is referred to by Polycarp at the beginning of the second century, it is quoted by Papias and also by Ireneus.” It is found in the old Syriac version, which was probably made very early in the second century. Internally the evidence is strong that the same hand wrote this epistle as penned the fourth Gospel. The resemblances are many and striking, the modes of expression sufficient to identify the one employing them. The similarity of the opening verse of each is too close, yet the variations too marked, to have been made by an imposter. The reference to the “new commandment” (never mentioned by the other apostles) in 1 John 2:8 (and see 1 John 3:11) find its source in John 13:34, of John’s Gospel. The reader may also compare 1 John 3:1 with John 1:12; 1 John 3:2 with John 17:24; 1 John 3:8 with John 8:44; 1 John 3:13 with John 15:20; 1 John 4:9 with John 3:16, etc. To whom it was written. It is correctly designated one of the “General Epistles,” for it is not addressed to any particular individual or local assembly. Obviously it is designed for the whole family of God. Yet, as one reads it through, one gets a clear impression that John was intimately acquainted with those who first read his letter, that the majority of them were the seals of his own ministry, as his repeated “my little children” seems to indicate. As we shall yet have occasion to show it was Jewish Christians who were immediately concerned; 1 John 5:13 makes it evident that John wrote to believers, and by linking that verse with 1 John 2:3-5, we perceive that it was his design to aid them in the important task of selfexamination, that they might be more fully assured of their interest in Christ. From 1 John 2:18-26, we learn that the original recipients of this epistle were being assailed by false teachers, and it was John’s object to counteract (not refute seriatim!) their error, and confirm the same in their most holy faith. Though there is nothing in the epistle to tell us the date when it was written, yet we may approximate it pretty closely. That it was penned much later than Paul’s epistles appears from the fact that with John “the world” and “the whole world” (1 John 5:19) comprise all that is outside Christianity. Not so with Paul: in his time there were two distinct camps hostile to Christianity—Judaism and heathendom. But the ancient kingdom of God had now passed away. The temple of Jerusalem was destroyed. After A.D. 70 the Jews had no power to persecute Christians. It was manifestly written after his Gospel, for such statements as 1 John 2:17 and 1 John 5:6 are unintelligible unless the reader has a knowledge of his Gospel—not only in general, but in its detailed expressions. The entire absence of such terms as affliction, suffering, tribulation, intimates that this letter was composed when external opposition to Christianity had largely subsided, when outward hostility was giving place to the corruption of the Truth from within. Thus it must have first seen the light very near the close of the first century. In this epistle the enemies of the saints are neither Jews nor Gentiles as such, but “Antichrists,” counterfeit Christians. Just as Satan himself is presented to us in the Scriptures under two outstanding characters—as the lion and as the serpent, as adversary and as seducer—so are his emissaries and his children. There are two distinct classes by which the Truth of God is dishonoured: by those who oppose and corrupt it in doctrine, and by those who misrepresent and malign it in practice—cf. the Sadducees (Acts 23:8) and the Pharisees (Matthew 23:3). Heretics, who pervert the Scriptures or openly contradict the fundamentals of the Faith, are the more easily recognized: against them the apostle warns in 1 John 2:18, 1 John 2:26; 1 John 3:7; 1 John 4:1-3. But numerous formalists and hypocrites shelter behind an empty profession, and are not so readily identified, for they hold the letter of the Truth, acknowledging it with their lips, though they walk not in it nor are their lives transformed by it. Concerning these John has much to say. Right from the beginning he distinguishes sharply between the real Christian and the nominal one (1 John 1:6-7) and continues doing so (1 John 2:3-5, etc.). The several aims of the apostle are easily perceived: in general it was to make a practical application of his Gospel, as appears from a comparison of 1 John 5:13, with John 20:31, and as 1 John 2:7, confirms. John sought that his beloved children should have just views of their Divine Saviour, an intelligent faith in Him, and that they might adorn their profession by a holy and consistent walk—1 John 2:1. It is evident from his “I have not written unto you because you know not the Truth, but because you know it” (1 John 2:21) that he was not addressing himself to those who were uninstructed, but rather to those who were well indoctrinated—compare also 1 John 2:20, 1 John 2:27. Thus his purpose was not so much to inform as to edify, not to tell them something new, but to confirm them in what they had already heard. This was the more necessary because some of their original number had apostatized (1 John 2:19) and false teachers were seeking to corrupt them. Let not their faith be shaken by the former, and let them heed his warnings and then they would not be drawn away by the wiles of the latter. A careful reading of the epistle makes it plain that another important end which the apostle had before him was to confute those who taught that because salvation is by grace God’s people are not “under the Law” or required to keep the Divine commandments. Antinomianism had raised its hideous head even in his day, and it devolved upon John to counteract the same. This it is which explains his frequent reference to “the commandments” (1 John 2:4, etc.) which, in its singular or plural form, occurs no less than thirteen times in this epistle. As students of ecclesiastical history are aware, those known as “The Libertines” had attained unto considerable prominence by the end of the first century. Their very name is sufficient to indicate their character. Peter, in his second epistle, described their forerunners as “false prophets” who, “while they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption” (1 John 2:1, 1 John 2:19), and Jude had spoken of them as “ungodly men turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness,” in this way, “denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 John 2:4). John denounces them as “Antichrists.” There is little indication that John wrote according to a preconceived and definite plan, yet his thoughts are orderly. While the epistle is far from being a systematic doctrinal treatise, nevertheless, for its understanding, a close acquaintance with the distinctively doctrinal epistles preceding it is requisite. One expositor thereon said, “I am deeply convinced, after years of thought about it, that it can be studied aright exegetically only when it is studied theologically... no one is competent to deal in detail with this wonderful book who is not familiar with the evangelical system as a whole, and able therefore to appreciate the bearing of John’s line of thought in connection with it” (R. Candlish, 1866). That remark is, in our judgment, borne out by the position his epistle occupies in the Sacred Canon. Yet another and higher qualification is needed, namely that spiritual-mindedness which is the fruit of mature Christian experience. But the most difficult part of the expositor’s task here is to trace the connection of the apostle’s successive lines of thought. Our main endeavour will be to bring out the general scope and tenor of his teaching as simply as we can. “The true knowledge of Christ is the one only key by which all the treasures contained in this epistle can be opened, for it contains a spiritual treatise on communion with Christ, and with the Father in Him, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in us. We can have no communion with the Three in Jehovah but as we have a distinct Scriptural knowledge of the revelation given concerning Them in the sacred record. No man can call Jesus Lord, but by the Holy Spirit. This epistle ... sets forth the real fellowship which the apostles and saints in that age had with the Holy Trinity, and what all the saints in all succeeding ages are to expect and enjoy, in their measure and degree, until the same is consummated with the Eternal Three in the state of everlasting glory. As this epistle begins with this most sublime subject, so it is pursued throughout the whole of it: in showing the fruits and effects which the true knowledge of and communion with the Lord produce in the minds, lives and conversations of such as know Him, and have free and frequent access to Him” (S. E. Pierce, 1817). What has just been quoted gives much the best summary and coincides most closely with our own concept of anything we have seen on the subject. It intimates that its grand theme is fellowship with God in and through Christ. Where that is enjoyed by individual saints, it necessarily leads to fellowship one with another. As usual, the key is hung upon the door, for in 1 John 1:3 the apostle states that the design before him is “that you also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.” This fellowship is the quintessence of blessedness, but only the regenerate enter into it. It is “in the light,” with the Holy One, and therefore impossible for those who are dead in trespasses and sins (1 John 1:5, 1 John 1:7). Yet the Christian’s infirmities, be they what they may, are not to be considered as hindrances to his communion with the Lord, since full provision has been made for him in the all-sufficient antidote of Christ’s blood (1 John 1:7) and advocacy (1 John 2:1). Later, John goes on to show that this fellowship is in righteousness and in love; but we will not further anticipate. Among the many peculiarities of style which mark John in this epistle, we may mention that, negatively, there is almost an entire absence of that logical reasoning that is so prominent in Paul’s epistles—which is just what might be expected from a simple fisherman in contradistinction from a scholar. There is no “according as” or “for this cause.” “Wherefore” occurs but once (1 John 3:12), and there it is a question “why?” “Therefore” is found in 1 John 2:24; 1 John 3:1, and 1 John 4:5; yet in neither instance as a conclusion drawn from a preceding train of thought. Instead of the argumentative method, John is all for direct and positive assertions. Paul lays down a premise as a foundation on which he builds what follows; John simply affirms the Truth in simple form. And so it is in connection with the ministry of the Word. Some of God’s servants deal with their subjects principally in a doctrinal way, others in a solemn method of pointed averment, yet both are used by the Spirit of God, and are best suited to different types of Christians. The Lord is pleased to bestow a variety of gifts on His servants for the good of His people at large. John indeed has a style all his own, differing noticeably from all other New Testament writers. This epistle contains no salutation, yet it breathes a spirit of warmth unto those addressed. No reference is made to either of the ordinances. No prayer is recorded in it, though definite encouragement and instruction are given to praying souls. There are no predictions in it, no delineation of the future as in the epistles of all his fellow apostles. Instead of describing the conditions which should characterize “the last days,” he declares “it is the last time” (1 John 2:18). Instead of foretelling the appearing of a future Antichrist, John refers to the Antichrists who were then upon the stage (1 John 2:18, and 1 John 4:3). Turning to the positive side, one who attentively reads through the epistle at a sitting will at once be struck by the fact that it possesses and combines certain definite qualities which at first sight seem quite opposed to each other. Its style of expression is simple and unadorned. It abounds in words of one syllable and contains few that a child would have difficulty in pronouncing. Its sense is clear and patent. Nevertheless, there is no lack of dignity in its language, and its matter is elevated and sublime. Its tone warms our hearts, yet the Truth it expresses causes us to stand in awe. In it profoundest mysteries are touched upon and depths are sounded which no finite mind can fathom; still, its speech is plain, and the terms used are non-technical. “He writes at once with the most commanding authority and most loving tenderness; with the profoundest wisdom and the most touching simplicity; the most searching knowledge of the heart, its difficulties and frailties, and the most elevating and bracing courage and confidence; the gentlest affection, and the most pitiless and sternest condemnation of willful departure from the Truth in practice or opinion” (Ellicott). Much is said about love, and nowhere is a spirit of charity more admirably and forcibly inculcated. But there are also a bold outspokenness and sternness which make us shrink. The love enjoined is far from being a sickly sentiment or effeminate weakness, being a holy grace, which instead of preventing faithful rebuke and severe denunciation promotes them. In such verses as 1 John 1:5; 1 John 2:22; 1 John 3:8, 1 John 3:10, 1 John 3:15; 1 John 4:20; 1 John 5:10, we hear the voice of “the son of thunder” (Mark 3:17), vehement against every insult to the majesty of the Lord. It is ostensibly written to promote assurance in the saints (1 John 5:13), yet nowhere else in the Word are we so often called upon to close self-examination and unsparing testing of ourselves. This epistle might well be termed a touchstone by which we may discern between the genuine gold and the counterfeit. It frequently utters the language of confidence, yet as often uses that which is discriminating. As Spurgeon well said, “The apostle mingles caution with caress, and qualifies the most soothing consolations with such stern warning that in wellnigh every sentence he constrains us to deep searching of heart.” In our opening paragraph we mentioned the abstract (and absolute) character of many of John’s statements. It is most important that the reader should understand this and bear it in mind. Failure to do so will lead to a serious misapprehension of many verses. In 1 John 1:3, he says “truly our fellowship is with the Father”—not “ought to be”; he speaks characteristically, taking no notice of the things which hinder it. To the “young men” he says, “You have overcome the wicked one” (1 John 2:13), making no mention of their failures. “He that loves his brother abides in the light” (1 John 2:10)—nothing is said about the degree of love, it is simply contrasted with “hatred” (1 John 2:11). “For whosoever is born of God overcomes the world” (1 John 5:4)—no account is there taken of the presence of the flesh with its unbelief and self-will. John abounds in brief factual statements. “We know all things ... you need not that any man teach you” (1 John 2:20, 1 John 2:27) is left unqualified. To John there are only two postures of heart: for or against—the points of transition from the one to the other are ignored. Contrasts are put in their sharpest form: light and darkness—no intermediate twilight; life and death—nothing which answers to mere existence. Throughout the epistle there rings loudly the note of certainty. The two Greek words used for “know” occur no less than thirty-six times in its five chapters, examples of which are: “We know that we have passed from death unto life ... by this we know that we are of the Truth” (1 John 3:14, 1 John 3:19). “By this we know that we dwell in Him and He in us ... and we have known and believed the love that God has to us” (1 John 4:13, 1 John 4:16). The epistle closes with another threefold “we know” (1 John 5:18-20). Again and again the apostle describes simple but definite marks by which the child of God may be identified, and distinguish himself from self-deceivers and hypocrites. Thus, it was not addressed to those who resided in “Doubting Castle,” and any who dwell in its dismal dungeons should find here that which, by the Divine blessing, will deliver him from there. Nor was it only a small and particularly favoured class which shared the apostle’s own assurance, or only mature Christians, as his “I write unto little children, because you have known the Father” (1 John 2:13) shows. That his epistle is an intensely practical one is evinced in many ways. For example, not once is the word “knowledge” found in the form of a noun, but always as a verb. The same is true of “faith”; he almost invariably uses the verbal form. With John doctrine is not mere dogma, but faith in action. Truth is not merely a theory, but an energy, which lives and moves in the new life. There is scarcely any strictly “doctrinal” teaching, and very few direct exhortations. It is mainly the vital and experimental side of things, and thus it is that the line of demarcation and separation is so sharply and often drawn between genuine and graceless professors—not to discourage believers, but to inform and safeguard them against being deceived and imposed upon. John did far more than deal with forms of error which were local and ephemeral, refuting those of his day in a manner by which he enunciated principles of universal importance and of almost illimitable application—equally suited to the exposure of error in every age. It is remarkable how many different topics are introduced into this brief letter, so that we are almost justified in saying with J. Morgan, “The whole realm of evangelical truth is traversed by the apostle.” Blessed it is to see how the balance of Truth is preserved there. No one would regard it as a theological treatise, yet most of the fundamentals of our faith are briefly set forth in it. The Divine incarnation (1 John 1:1-3), the nature of God (1 John 1:5; 1 John 4:8), the atonement and advocacy of Christ (1 John 2:1-2), the person and work of the Holy Spirit (1 John 3:24), regeneration (1 John 2:29), the Trinity (1 John 5:7), etc. The epistle is far from being an appeal to emotionalism, yet it bids believers, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon them” (1 John 3:1), and while affording no encouragement to rest upon feelings (as its repeated dogmatic “we know” shows), yet it is written that “our joy may be full.” While it is not a discourse on humanitarianism, it stresses practical altruism (1 John 3:17-18). Though not a discussion of eschatology, yet the return of Christ (1 John 2:28) and, “the day of judgment” (1 John 4:17) are mentioned. Thus this epistle supplies an admirable corrective to one-sided views of the Christian life. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 4: 001.01. CHAPTER 1 ======================================================================== Chapter 1 THE HUMANITY OF CHRIST 1 John 1:1 “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life” This epistle bears no superscription as do all others (save Hebrews), including John’s own second and third ones, and makes no reference to any particular class of persons by which we may ascertain to whom it was first addressed. We know from Galatians 2:9, that John was one of the apostles who ministered to the circumcision, and such expressions as “from the beginning” in 1 John 2:7, “you have known Him” in 1 John 2:13, and “you have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists ... they went out from us” (1 John 2:18-19) intimate that it was primarily Jewish Christians to whom John wrote. Yet mention of “the world” in 1 John 4:14, and the “whole world” in 1 John 2:2, and the admonition “keep yourselves from idols” in 1 John 5:21, are more than hints that it was designed for Gentile believers too. The epistle is remarkable for the absence of any local coloring or personal references. While enunciating vital truths and combating fundamental errors, the names of no places or persons are mentioned. Thus it contains nothing which is merely ephemeral or provincial, but that only which is suited to all God’s children till the end of time. It is, then, a general epistle: not to any particular assembly, but for the whole family of God. In accordance with that fact we find no reference is here made to elders or deacons. The privileges described and the duties enjoined pertain alike to the entire Household of Faith. John deals with vital and basic principles, and does not (like the other apostles) point out how they are to be applied to the various relationships of life. Though he treats in some detail of both righteousness and love, he gives no specific instances of how they are to be exercised between husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants, subjects and kings. He even avoids the term “saints” preferring to address his readers by the more familiar “brethren” (1 John 2:7) and “my brethren” (1 John 3:13), though more frequently employing the endearing expression “little children” and “my little children” which no other apostle did (unless Galatians 4:19, be the sole exception). This has led the thoughtful to conclude that John must have been of a great age—certainly there would be no propriety in one of fewer years so addressing even the “fathers” (1 John 2:12-13). Since the apostle was about to write on fellowship, his design and scope in the opening verses appear to be twofold. First, he intimates that the initial requirement for communion with God is the possession of Divine life in the soul, and that this life is found in the incarnate Son, here designated “the Word of life” and “that Eternal Life.” Calvin came very near the mark when he opened his commentary on this epistle by saying, “He shows first that life has been exhibited to us in Christ; which, as it is an incomparable good, ought to rouse and inflame all our powers with a marvelous desire for it and with the love of it. It is said, indeed, in a few plain words, that life is manifested; but if we consider how miserable and horrible a condition death is, and what is the kingdom of glory and immortality, we shall perceive that there is something here more magnificent than can be expressed in any words.” It is ever the Spirit’s object to magnify that blessed One who is despised and rejected of men, and here He does so by presenting Him as the Source and Fount of life. The second obvious aim of the apostle in his introductory sentence was to confirm the assurance of God’s children, and show what a firm foundation has been laid for their fellowship with the Father and with His Son. “These words ‘which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes,’ etc. serve to strengthen our faith in the Gospel. Nor does he, indeed, without reason, make so many asseverations; for since our salvation depends upon the Gospel, its certainty is in the highest degree necessary. And how difficult it is to believe, every one of us knows too well by his own experience. To believe is not lightly to form an opinion, or to assent only to what is said, but is a firm, undoubting conviction, so that we may dare to subscribe to the Truth as fully proved. It is for this reason that the apostle here heaps together so many things in confirmation of the Gospel” (Calvin). The Gospel is no spurious invention of men, but is the annunciation of reliable witnesses who personally consorted with Christ Himself (Luke 1:1-4). The absence of John’s name from the opening verses of this epistle is in full harmony with the fact that in his Gospel he never referred unto himself except when the occasion required him to do so, and then only by such a circumlocution as “that other disciple” (John 20:3-4), or “that disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 21:7, John 21:20)—not, it is observed, the boastful “that disciple who loved Jesus”! As there, so here, the writer retires into the background, unwilling to speak of himself, resembling in this his namesake, who, when asked, “What do you say of yourself?” answered, “I am the voice of One crying in the wilderness” (John 1:22-23)—heard, but not seen. It may also be noted that John’s silence about himself is in beautiful accord with his theme, for real fellowship so engages the heart with its Object as to lose sight of self. Yet, because his task required it, he gives plain indication that he stood in the nearest possible relation to the One he adored, just as in his Gospel he was wont to do so under similar circumstances. “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard... of the Word of life.” A superficial reading of this verse has led many to conclude that John begins his epistle in the same way as he had his Gospel—by affirming that eternality of the Son—but a more careful examination of its language should correct that impression. There are indeed several resemblances between the two verses, yet there are notable differences. Each opens at once by presenting the person of Christ: without any preliminaries, the Lord Jesus is immediately set before the reader. Both Gospel and epistle commence by referring to Him under the title of “the Logos.” In each mention is made of “the beginning.” The contrasts are equally marked. In John 1:1, Christ is viewed absolutely, in His Godhead; here, relatively, as incarnate: in the former, His deity is contemplated; in the latter, His humanity. There it is “in the beginning,” here “from the beginning,” which express entirely distinct concepts. Quite another “beginning” is treated of: in the former, before time and creation began; in the latter, the opening of this Christian era. Two different interpretations have been given to the clause “that which was from the beginning.” First, that it refers to Christ’s pre-incarnate and eternal existence, declaring what He was before He appeared on earth. Second, that it described what characterized Christ from the time of His incarnation, after He became “manifest” on earth. That all things were created by our Lord we firmly believe; of His eternal preexistence we have not a shadow of doubt; but we do not think that is in view here. Before anyone assumes that “in the beginning” and “from the beginning” are identical expressions, he should go to the trouble of very carefully examining every instance in the New Testament where the latter is found and ascertain how it is used. As he does so, he will discover it occurs in widely different connections and is employed in various senses. In 2 Thessalonians 2:13 (and probably there alone) it certainly has the force of eternity. In Matthew 19:8, “from the beginning” signifies the commencement of human history. But in John 8:25; John 15:27; John 16:4, it clearly means from the start of our Lord’s public ministry. The words “from the beginning” in our opening verse are found six times more in this epistle, and in none of them do they import eternity! “Brothers, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you have heard from the beginning” (1 John 2:7)—from the lips of Christ. “You have known Him from the beginning” (1 John 2:13)—when He was first made manifest to you. The same is meant in 1 John 2:24, and 1 John 3:11. “The Devil sins from the beginning” (1 John 3:8)—of human history, for “murderer” in John 8:44 is literally “manslayer.” In John 1:1 Christ is depicted in His eternal relation to the Godhead, but here in a time state, as incarnate, as the clauses which follow make clearly evident, for their obvious design is to demonstrate the reality of His manhood. The Son’s assumption of flesh and blood opened a new era, changing as it did the world’s calendar from A.M. to A.D. Christ’s descent to this earth inaugurated a fresh “beginning,” when there was to be a “new covenant.” Now began to be brought in the substance of all the Levitical shadows; now began the Messianic prophecies to receive their fulfillment. Quotations from several orthodox expositors of the highest repute could be given to show that in what we have said above no “strange doctrine” has been advanced. Let the following one suffice. The translator and annotator upon Calvin’s commentary on this epistle said in his footnote to verse one, “It is more consistent with the passage to take ‘from the beginning’ here as from the beginning of the Gospel, from the beginning of the ministry of our Saviour, because what had been from the beginning was what the apostles had heard and seen. That another view has been taken of those words has been owing to an over-anxiety on the part of many, especially of the fathers, to establish the deity of our Saviour; but that is what is sufficiently evident from 1 John 1:2.” It is the human nature of our Lord that 1 John 1:1 treats of, and most assuredly that had an historical “beginning.” Most of the commentators have had considerable difficulty with the prefatory “That which was from the beginning” and varied have been the speculations as to why the neuter gender was used rather than “He who was.” Obviously, the words are to be explained by the clauses which immediately follow: yet some deem even them to be too indefinite to enable us to arrive at any certainty. On the face of it, it appears incongruous to refer to a Divine Person as “that which”: on the other side, one can scarcely speak of seeing and handling with our hands a “Message.” But no difficulty remains if we take the whole verse to be treated of our Lord’s manhood. The humanity of Christ was not a person, but a thing which He condescended to assume and take into union with His person. Proof of this is found in the words of the Angel to Mary, “that holy thing which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35)—just as a woman is given the name of her husband as soon as she is wed to him. The Word’s becoming flesh and tabernacling among men marked a new beginning in the world’s history. “That which was from the beginning.” Those words, when taken by themselves, are admittedly indefinite and mysterious; yet men have greatly added to their difficulty by making “from the beginning” synonymous with “in the beginning,” i.e. without beginning. If “from the beginning” has the force of from eternity, then no satisfactory explanation can be given of the neuter and abstract “that which,” for the allusion could not be to anything created, since matter is not from everlasting; and so far as we have observed, none who take that view have made any real attempt to grapple with the difficulty. If “from the beginning” signifies from eternity, then it must be a Divine person that is in view, and in such case “He who was” would be required. On the other hand, if the reference is to the Divine incarnation, and more specifically still to the human nature which the Son of God took unto Himself, all difficulty vanishes. In our introductory remarks, reference was made to the fact that those whom John immediately addressed were being assailed by heretical teachers (1 John 2:26). Many conjectures have been made as to the precise nature of their errors, and the names of those who propagated them. Most probably they were a branch of the Gnostics, Ebion and Cerentheus being the leaders; but this cannot be determined for sure. What we may be certain about them is, (1) that those who were then seeking to seduce John’s converts had themselves once been professing Christians, but later apostatized (1 John 2:19); and (2) that they denied the reality of our Lord’s humanity (1 John 4:3). It is, then, with the design of counteracting that error that John here lays so much emphasis upon the evidences which the incarnate Word had presented to the very senses of His apostles. The “Christian [?] Gnostics” taught that Christ’s body was but a phantasm, a mere temporary appearance assumed for the benefit of the world. “That which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life”—the “that which was from the beginning” is repeated (identically in the Greek) in each of the three clauses, in this way explaining it! In those words, John intimates (as the following verse more explicitly states) his intention of describing an experience and knowledge of Christ with which he and his fellow apostles have been favoured. It was far more than a message about life which had been delivered by word of mouth, more than a perfect but abstract ideal of life, which he would treat of, namely that Life which had appeared in personal and human form in Jesus of Nazareth, the promised Messiah, the incarnate Son, who had exhibited a life which was eternal and indestructible, even the very life of God. John’s adding of one clause to another, in progressive and climacteric order, was designed not simply to show that he was speaking about Jesus Christ and none other, but rather to declare that that which was to be announced concerning Him was an absolute certainty and exhibited truth—not only the truth about Him, but what John himself had actually heard, seen, and handled of Him. Immediately after his opening clause, John proceeded to give proofs that Christ was really and verily man, bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh: that “in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brothers” (Hebrews 2:17). His body was a palpable one—visible, audible, tangible. By it the Saviour made full demonstration to each sense of their bodies that His was as real as were those of His apostles. The genuineness of Christ’s humanity—denied by the Gnostics and by those now calling themselves “Christian Scientists”—is a cardinal doctrine of the faith once delivered to the saints, and for which we are bidden to “contend earnestly.” In that body which God prepared Him (Hebrews 10:5)—which the Holy Spirit supernaturally produced from the substance of His mother—He lived, died, rose again, ascended to heaven, where He is now beheld in its glorified state; and in which He will yet come again (Acts 1:11). At the Divine incarnation the Son of God became what He was not before—“being found in fashion as a man” (Php 2:8). Our nature was taken into union with His divine person. Thus, the first verse of our epistle is parallel with John 1:14, rather than with the opening verse of his Gospel. John commences his epistle by setting before us God manifest in flesh, because He is the grand Subject of the Gospel, the Object of our faith, the Foundation of our hope, the One who brings us to and unites us in fellowship with the Father. The Gospel is no mere abstraction, but is inseparably connected with the Lord Jesus. As Levi Palmer so beautifully expressed it, “As the ray of light depends upon the sun, and a wave of sea upon the ocean, so Gospel truth is but the acts, and words, and glory of Christ.” As it is impossible to know and receive Christ apart from the Gospel, so we cannot receive the Gospel except from Him. It was John’s design to make known what sure and firm ground our faith in the Gospel rests upon. He relates not that which he had received second-hand, nor even what he had beheld in a vision, but rather that of which he had first-hand and ocular acquaintance. What he was advancing was real and true, in contrast with all that is merely imaginary, speculative, or dreamed about. His four verbs in verse one not only mark a progress from the more general to the more particular, but breathe a greater intensity as he proceeds. “That which we have heard.” John was with Christ throughout the whole of His ministry, and chronicled more of what He said than did any of his fellows. This is given the first place because the utterances of Christ are of more importance than His miracles; so in his Gospel John recorded a greater number of His discourses than did the other evangelists. This indicates the reverential esteem in which he held the Lord’s teaching, as well as supplies guarantee of the accuracy of his report. “Heard” includes more than the actual sound of His voice, namely all the gracious words which issued from His mouth, and also possibly having a special allusion to John 13:1-38, John 14:1-31, John 15:1-27, John 16:1-33. “We have heard” goes deeper than the words of Christ falling upon their ears: it signifies that their souls had felt the power of what He said—“did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us by the way?” (Luke 24:32). If the enemies of Christ acknowledged, “Never man spake like this man,” what must the regenerated apostles have felt? The Lord Jesus wrote nothing, but He spoke much, and we have great cause for thankfulness that God moved the apostles to record so much of what He said, that we too may hear Him (via the printed page) for ourselves. “That which we have seen.” This is by no means to be restricted to His miracles of healing and other supernatural works, but understood as including the perfections displayed by His character and conduct as He, untiringly, “went about doing good.” Seen, “with our eyes” is added for the purpose of emphasis, to show the verity and corporeality of Christ, that it is an historical entity which is here in view. Here too the reference is not limited to the mere sight of their bodily eyes, but implies also their spiritual perception of His peerless excellency. “That which we have looked upon.” This is no tautology, but expresses a closer and more deliberate inspection, for which John (as one of the three in the innermost circle) had peculiar opportunities. “Looked upon” is the same Greek word as “we beheld His glory” in John 1:14, and means to gaze at with desire and delight. “And our hands have handled” probably has both a special reference to His resurrection body and a more general one to the closeness of their contact with Him during the days of His flesh; such precluding all possibility of any optical illusion. The physical experience of the favoured apostles, as set forth by the four verbs in verse 1, is duplicated in the spiritual history of each Christian, and in the same progressive order. At first, his knowledge of Christ is limited to what he hears of Him in the Gospel. Then, when the miracle of grace has been wrought within him, he sees Christ with the eyes of faith—loving and giving Himself for him. Later, as he grows in grace, and becomes more and more enamoured of Him, he looks upon Him more steadfastly and closely with the eyes of love and adoration; the result of all being that, in a spiritual way, he handles Christ. He has become a bright, living, experiential reality to him. The matchless charms and superlative glories of the Saviour make everything else appear mean and contemptible to him. The soul now has before it a heavenly Object, infinitely excelling all the perishing things of earth. It is an inestimable privilege if reader and writer are among those who can say “we see Jesus” (Hebrews 2:9). Happy day, blessed hour, when our eyes were first opened to behold Him as the Redeemer of our souls. Oh, to behold Him more distinctly and devotedly. The more we contemplate His peerless person, amazing love, and perfect work, the sooner will sin lose its hold over us, the world its charms, and death be robbed of all terror. For the young preacher we would suggest the following outline, “The Divine Incarnation”: (1) The new era which it inaugurated—(Galatians 4:4). (2) Proofs of the reality of His humanity—(John 20:30-31). (3) The witnesses of it—the apostles—(Luke 1:2, Luke 1:4). (4) The title here accorded Christ: “The Word of life”—(Acts 3:15). (5) The bearing of this verse on the theme of the epistle. Under these heads may be arranged most of the material in this article. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 5: 001.02. CHAPTER 2 ======================================================================== Chapter 2 THE LIFE MANIFESTED 1 John 1:2 “For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us” It is very evident that John’s first epistle was designed as the sequel to and companion of his gospel (compare John 20:31 and 1 John 5:13), and since he opened the one by a presentation of the deity of Christ, it was most fitting that he should commence the other with a setting forth of His humanity. This he does in the first verse, where most convincing proofs are supplied by reliable witnesses. “That which” (namely our Lord’s manhood) “was from the beginning” (of this Christian era). “That which we have heard”—speaking personally and audibly to us, and in power to our hearts. “That which we have seen with our eyes” in tangible form, furnishing conclusive evidence of the reality of His manhood. “That which we have looked upon” as none of the world did: the surpassing splendour of His countenance when He was transfigured upon the holy mount; His anguished face in Gethsemane, when His features were more marred than any man’s; the marks of the cross in His resurrection-body; His beloved form as it gradually receded from our view at the time of His ascension (Acts 1:11). “And our hands have handled.” John, moved by the Holy Spirit, was determined to certify unto his readers the verity and corporeality of his Master’s manhood, that there might be no doubt whatever on that score. There was no possibility of the apostles being misled by an optical illusion. Peter had felt the firm grasp of Christ’s hand when He caught hold of him and delivered him from sinking in the sea. John himself had actually reclined upon His bosom. Thomas and his fellows had been invited to handle Him after He came forth triumphantly from the tomb. It was something far more substantial than an ecstatic vision which John was here relating. “The nature which Christ took when He was born of Mary, He lifted out of the grave at His resurrection. We have, therefore, a Saviour, who not merely became a man, but wears His glorified humanity in heaven. His incarnation is thus associated with the redemption of man. He took our nature, stood in our place, and has taken possession of heaven as our Representative” (James Morgan). “Of the Word of life,” or more accurately, “concerning the Word of life”; that is to say, what has been so much insisted upon in the preceding clauses is intimately related to Him—His manhood is an essential part of the Mediator’s complex person. This title “the Word of life” at once informs us that the One whom John had in view was more than a man. “Life” is one of the prominent terms of this epistle, occurring no less than fourteen times. Three different words are employed in the Greek: here it is “zoe” the one which has the fullest signification. It is used in John 1:4—“in Him was life”; all life resides in Him. But that hardly seems the thought here, for it is not the Word in His essential being, but as incarnate: “For as the Father has life in Himself; so has He given the Son to have life in Himself” (John 5:26)—to administer and impart unto others. John’s design here was not so much to declare what the Saviour is in Himself, as to show what He is to His people—the Communicator of life to them. “The Word of life” in this verse we regard as being almost parallel with His own averment in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life”—the Giver of life. As “the Word” (Logos) He is the highest expression of God’s mind, the Revealer of the Godhead unto us, as “the Word of life” He is the Bestower of life upon us, and thus is the Link connecting us with God. If it is asked, What is the precise character of the “life” which Christ gives to His people? the answer is, Every kind that can be conceived. First, natural life, for He is the Author of our beings (Colossians 1:16). Second, spiritual life: “The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live” (John 5:25), that is, those dead in trespasses and sins shall be quickened by Him. Third, resurrection life: “. . . the hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life” (John 5:28-29). Fourth, the life of glory: “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory” (Colossians 3:4). Well may He be designated “The Prince of life” (Acts 3:15)! We can see no reason whatever why 1 John 1:2 should be placed in parentheses, for it is obviously a continuation of the former one, though with most important additions. This is yet more evident in the Greek, for it opens with the word “kai” which is usually translated “and” and scarcely ever “for.” “And the life was manifested.” A Divine person descended into the human domain. It was into a realm of darkness that the Light entered. It was unto a fallen and sinful people, a world which lay in the wicked one, that the Son of God now came. It was in the midst of a scene where death reigned that the Life was manifested. This Divine title is very emphatic. He is life essentially, He is life manifestatively, He is life communicatively. Christ may well be styled “The Life” for the natural life of all creatures is in Him and from Him. He is the spiritual life of angels as well as the Church. From heaven He came to earth to exhibit a life which had no beginning, no limitation, no end, and for the express purpose of conquering death, and becoming eternal life to His people (John 17:2-3). In 1 John 1:1-2 sets before us Christ in His theanthropic character, His twofold nature of deity and humanity. This was frequently the manner of New Testament writers. Mark commences his Gospel thus: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Paul began his treatise to the Romans by announcing that the gospel unto which he was separated, the contents of which he was about to expound, concerned “God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh” (1 John 1:3). The epistle to the Hebrews opens with a setting forth of Christ as the final revelation of God in His sevenfold mediatorial glory. In the first chapter of his Gospel John had affirmed the absolute deity of his Master (John 1:1-4), and then spoke of Him as incarnate, tabernacling among men (John 1:10-14). The reason for this is not far to seek. “The assumption of human nature by the Son of God is the most stupendous fact in the history of providence. Angels ‘desire to look into it,’ and are amazed at it. It will be the subject of devout inquiry and adoring wonder to the whole intelligent and holy creation of God throughout eternity. In the meantime, the salvation of the sinner is suspended upon it. In the incarnation of the Word there is provided for him an allsufficient Saviour” (James Morgan). In the first verse the whole emphasis was thrown upon the visibility and tangibility of our Lord’s humanity. But John, ever jealous of His dignity and glory, would not have his readers form a false or inadequate concept of Christ, so in the second verse he makes clear His deity, both by the titles there accorded Him and by affirming His equality “with the Father.” In Christ all the perfections of God shine forth resplendently; through Him the whole Godhead is displayed. As another of His servants declared, the incarnate Son is “the brightness of God’s glory, and the express image of His person” (Hebrews 1:3). He is the Mirror in which all the Divine perfections are exhibited to us. “God, that He might help our weakness, and attract our faith to Himself, hath been pleased to come, as it were, out of His unapproachable light, and manifest Himself in attributes such as wisdom, holiness, justice, grace, mercy, power, with the like. These rays of the Divine perfections are let down (in Christ) that we might sanctify Him in our hearts, that our souls might be in a posture of holy humility, fear, love, joy, and obedience, suited to those excellencies in Him” (E. Polhill, 1678). “And the life was manifested” in flesh, in open view of men. Since fallen creatures could not ascend to heaven in their sins, the Son descended to earth to be a Saviour for the lost. In order for the Life to be evident and apparent, the Infinite took upon Himself the limitations of the finite. In order that the Invisible might become visible, He was clothed in flesh and blood. We consider that W. Lincoln, in his brief lectures on this epistle, brought out the most helpfully the thought here, by making the term “manifested” a summary of the preceding verse. “From the beginning” conveys the idea of issuing forth: Christ coming from heaven to earth, from God to men. The four verbs there show us Christ, as it were, approaching nearer and nearer, in ever clearer manifestation. A person at a distance may be heard. But “which we have seen with our eyes” means that person has come within the range of our vision “Which we have looked upon” or attentively considered signifies he is near. “Which our hands have handled”— all distance is now obliterated. It is Christ drawing closer and closer, with ever-increasing intimacy, until He is clearly “manifested.” But while the primary reference in “the life was manifested” is to the Divine incarnation, it is by no means to be restricted to that. The Life was manifested not only in bodily form, and through His gracious ministry, but still more especially in His salvation. As previously intimated, this title speaks not so much of what Christ is in Himself essentially considered, but what He is unto His people. “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10)—than what they originally had in Adam before the fall. Christ indeed had life in Himself (John 1:4) and therefore was He fully qualified to act the part of Mediator, interposing Himself between God and those who were dead in trespasses and sins, and thus become a Source of new life to them. But that necessarily involved His death in their behalf and in their stead. Therefore, right after announcing He had come “that they might have life,” He added, “I lay down My life for the sheep ... I lay down My life, that I might take it again” (John 10:15-17). These words in John 6:1-71 are to be regarded as a condensation of our Lord’s statement, “I am the living bread which came down from Heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he shall live forever. And the bread which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh... Unless you have eaten the flesh of the Son of man and have drunk His blood, you have no life in yourselves. He that eats My flesh and drinks My blood has everlasting life. And I will raise him up in the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He that eats My flesh and drinks My blood is living in Me, and I in him” (John 6:51, John 6:53-56). Those verses bring out more definitely the connection between the vicarious sacrifice of Christ and the communication of life. The atonement stands in causal relation to our receiving life from Christ: His crucified flesh is the fountain from which we derive spiritual life. So, 1 John 1:1-2 make known how perfectly qualified Christ is to bestow life and thus equip us for fellowship (1 John 1:3). “And we have seen” Him. The apostle now proceeds to amplify the foregoing statement, for in this connection “manifested” had the force of to be made visible. The “we have seen” is reiterated here because Christ’s tabernacling among men in tangible form was the most wonderful fact of all history. As S.E. Pierce expressed it. “The greatest event which ever took place in the world.” Yet, as that writer pointed out, “We are not so deeply sensible of this in our minds as we most certainly ought to be. The sufferings, agony, and bloody sweat of Christ, and His sustaining the very curse due to our transgressions, seem to fix a deeper impression of His love on our minds than His taking our nature. Yet there is more love expressed in the incarnation than we can ever possibly conceive. Out of it the whole execution of our salvation proceeded. He could love us in heaven with as great a degree of love as He will to the ages of eternity; but He could not be made sin and a curse for us in heaven.... The incarnation of Christ was a most astonishing proof of His love.” “We have seen.” The senses of the body have their place and value, being given to us by God for the purpose (among other things) of imparting knowledge to the mind. They are therefore a means of information and verification. The apostles had beheld Christ in a manner that the patriarchs and prophets had not done, for they had seen Him only in prophecy and promise, in types and visions. Though He had occasionally appeared unto them in human form (the “theophanies”) they had not looked upon Him as actually incarnate, clothed with flesh and blood, dwelling among and conversing with them as He did with the apostles. Thus, as Calvin pointed out, there is “an implied contrast” in this “we have seen.” Though the Old Testament saints were partakers of the same Life as us, and though their faith rested upon the sure promise of God, nevertheless they were shut up under a hope yet to be revealed; whereas in the case of the apostles that hope was manifested in bodily and visible form. “We have seen and bear witness.” It was not a second-hand report which they proclaimed, but something they had personally heard and seen for themselves. When Judas apostatized and another was needed to fill his office, it was required that he be “of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that He was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of His resurrection” (Acts 1:21-22). The apostles were eye-witnesses as well as ear-witnesses, and therefore did one of them declare: “For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of His majesty” (2 Peter 1:16). It is that very fact which renders excuseless all those who refuse to receive their testimony, for “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him?” (Hebrews 2:3). Christianity fears not the light, but welcomes the most searching investigation, for not only are the historical facts on which it is based attested by the most reliable witnesses and “by many infallible proofs” (Acts 1:3), but it is able to supply rational conviction and solid persuasion of its verity both to the understanding and to the conscience. Many others indeed heard and saw Christ during the days of His flesh, yet they enjoyed not personally that constant closeness to Him as had the twelve. They were not specially called, but supernaturally qualified, being given the power to work “both signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will” (Hebrews 2:4). Thus a peculiar dignity and position was theirs, for in the foundations of the new Jerusalem are “the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb” (Revelation 21:14). Thus, in the very nature of the case, they could have no “successors.” “And show [better, “report,” as the Greek word is rendered in the next verse] unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father.” This is brought in to guard the glory of the One spoken of in the preceding verse, telling us that “the Word of life” came from the bosom of the Father. Though He had only recently been “manifested,” it was not then that He began to be. On the contrary, He had ever been with the Father: thus the “which was with” rather than “which is”—after the ascension. Thus this declaration is parallel with the “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” of John 1:1. “The Life,” then, is a Divine Person, distinguishable from the Father yet in eternal fellowship with Him. One in the undivided essence of the Godhead, but possessing distinct personality. “That eternal life which was with the Father.” His duration evidences His excellency and sufficiency. In our judgment this statement indicates that “From the beginning” in 1 John 1:1 does not have the force of from everlasting: had it done so, there would not have been any need to say that the Life was “eternal.” “That eternal life which was with the Father.” “The preposition (pros) is very significant. It might be translated ‘toward’ or ‘to’ and suggests that the Eternal Life was face to face with the Eternal Father” (Levi Palmer). As Christ, speaking as “Wisdom” informs us, “Then [when God appointed the foundations of the earth] I was by Him, as one brought up with Him; and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him” (Proverbs 8:30). “Wonderful words! How can we apprehend their meaning and force? He dwelt with Him as His ‘Fellow,’ and partook in common with Him of eternal life. Christ, as the Son of God, is essentially possessed of life in its highest exercises and enjoyments. It is of Him John says in this epistle, ‘This is the true God and eternal life’ (1 John 5:20). Life is His to impart it to sinners. ‘This is the record, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son’ (1 John 5:11). It is laid up in Him, in His mediatorial person, as in a fountain, to which sinners may ever come and receive out of His fullness” (James Morgan). “And was manifested unto us.” This is by no means a repetition of the first clause of the verse: that was general, this particular—as the qualifying “unto us” shows. The reference is to the peculiar privilege enjoyed by the twelve. All the Lord’s ministers, and in a lesser degree His people, are witnesses unto Him; but not all in the same way, or to answer the same end for which the apostles were appointed. Christ prayed that, from His ascension till His return, all the election of grace might believe through their word (John 17:20). The Church is said to be “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone” (Ephesians 2:20). In them was specially fulfilled His promise, “When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13), so that they could not but give an accurate and Divine account of Christ in every particular which they delivered of and concerning Him. The apostles were under the immediate control of the Spirit. After the day of Pentecost their conceptions of the truth were directly from Him. They were infallibly taught by Him. We may therefore rely on their testimony with absolute assurance of its integrity. But something more is needed than a firm persuasion of the authenticity and trustworthiness of the apostolic report, namely a personal knowledge of and saving acquaintance with Christ for ourselves. In reading and re-reading 1 John 1:1-3, one cannot fail to be struck by the earnestness of John, how evidently he longed that Christ might be truly apprehended by his readers; and it is equally clear from much that follows that he feared, notwithstanding all his plainness and urgency, they might still remain ignorant of Him. The manifestation of Christ in the flesh is one thing, the manifestation of Him to the heart, by His Spirit and Word, is another. Have you, dear reader, an experiential acquaintance with Him? Have you proved Him to be “the Word of Life” by His effectual working in your own soul? “No man can say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3). Unless you are taught by Him you can neither discover your need or discern the sufficiency of Christ to meet it. But if He is your Instructor you will really feel and confess both. Pray, then, for His divine illumination and a fuller understanding of Christ. Were we to sermonize the last clause of 1 John 1:1, together with the whole of 1 John 1:2, our title and divisions would be: The Life openly revealed. (1) The Person spoken of; (2) The titles accorded Him; (3) The manifestation made by Him; (4) His eternal pre-existence; (5) The witnesses to it; (6) The peculiar privileges granted them. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 6: 001.03. CHAPTER 3 ======================================================================== Chapter 3 FELLOWSHIP—PART ONE 1 John 1:3 In the opening verses we have intimated the basic and vast importance of the doctrine of the Divine Incarnation. The Word’s becoming flesh and His birth at Bethlehem was the most wonderful event in the world’s history. Not only so, but the Son’s being made like unto His brothers most deeply concerned the welfare of God’s people, and is a matter of profound veneration and delight to them. The principal reason why John here began his letter by stressing so much the humanity of Christ, rather than His deity, lay in the particular design before him. That design was quite different from the one which guided him when penning his former and larger communication. The grand aim of his Gospel was to set forth the peerless glories of God’s Son, but the object of his epistle is to delineate the character and distinguishing marks of God’s regenerate sons. Therefore it is that he opens by showing us the Beloved of the Father descending to the place where those sons were by nature and in their fallen estate, in order that He might conduct them to His place on high. Thus the beautiful progressive order of his two productions at once appears: first, the personal incarnation of the Divine Redeemer, and then His inhabitation of the redeemed, with the blessed consequences and fruits of the same. The connection between 1 John 1:1-2 and 1 John 1:3 is equally evident. John commences by setting before his readers the adorable person of Christ, who is the only medium of communication with the Three-in-one God, and then states, “That which we have seen and heard we declare unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3). The “we” is that of the apostolate, and John’s was the last of their voices now heard speaking on earth. Beautifully did S.E. Pierce show how well equipped this one was to write on such a subject. “This apostle was in the New Testament Church what the prophet Daniel was in the Old. He was addressed by the angel ‘O man greatly beloved’ (Daniel 10:19), and John was known by the title of ‘that disciple whom Jesus loved.’ He was a high favorite with our Lord Jesus Christ. He was admitted to lie in His bosom; and like as Christ lay in the bosom of His Father before all time, and drew out all the love of the Father’s heart into His own, and shines in the full splendour of it, and reflects the glorious shine of it on His Church; so this apostle, being admitted to such familiar intercourse with our Lord, drew out the very heart of Christ into his own. And in this way he was most eminently qualified to write concerning one of the greatest of all subjects—communion with the Divine Persons.” Throughout 1 John 1:1-3 the “we” and the “our” have reference to the apostolate and John speaks in their name as well as his own. There were indeed many others of the saints who had both seen and heard the Lord in His incarnate state, yet they were not called to be public witnesses of the same as were the twelve. Nor did all of them alike see and hear as much of Christ. There were but two of them present with John when the Saviour restored the life of the daughter of Jairus. The same two were with him upon the holy mount. His brother James and Peter only were with him when they gazed upon Christ’s agony and bloody sweat in Gethsemane. Those in the innermost circle of privilege were in such immediate proximity to the Lord and enjoyed such intimate contact with Him as afforded the fullest satisfaction both to their minds and senses of the reality of His person. It may be pointed out that as all of the apostles were not equally favoured with the same views of Christ during the days of His flesh, so it is now with the spiritual views which Christians have of Him. As only three of them beheld His marred visage in the garden and His radiant countenance on the mount, so a few believers are privileged to enter experimentally more deeply into both Christ’s sufferings and glories than are many of their fellows. “That which we have seen and heard we declare unto you.” John’s reiteration of this intimates the deep importance we are to attach to the experience and testimony of the apostles. Their position and privileges were unique. The evidences which they had of Christ’s person and incarnation were different from ours. We receive ours from them, and that in a way of believing—taking into our minds from their Divinely inspired writings such a knowledge of the Lord Jesus, as by the effectual power of the Holy Spirit, brings us to commit ourselves and our interests unto Him for time and eternity. But the apostles had something more than that. Not only was the deity of Christ supernaturally revealed to their hearts (Matthew 16:17), but they had too the evidence of sense, an ocular and palpable demonstration of the Messiah was made to them. Christians today hear His voice in the Word, and hearing they live. With the eyes of their understanding they see Him shining in the glass of the Gospel. They handle Him mystically at His holy table. But all of this is quite different from what John is speaking of in the opening verses of his epistle. While our knowledge of Christ is effectual to our soul’s benefit as was theirs, yet the different ends served by the one and the other must be distinguished. They beheld what we never shall. They were with Him during the days of His humiliation, and that is forever past. We shall yet see Him with our bodily eyes, but it will be a glorified Christ that we behold. The practical application of the above pertains principally unto ministers of the Gospel, showing us that the first qualification for that holy calling is their own personal and saving acquaintance with Christ. The servants of the Lord Jesus are to declare unto others what they have themselves known and felt of the Divine Son’s grace and power. They are to communicate unto others what they have first received of the Lord (Matthew 14:19). “The heart of the wise teaches his mouth, and adds learning to his lips” (Proverbs 16:23). The discerning hearer will readily perceive the difference between the preacher who merely repeats what he has read or heard from men, and the one who tells forth from a burdened or burning heart that which he has tasted and found satisfying. The ministry of the one will be sapless and spiritless; that of the other fresh and invigorating. If the heart is taught of God, then out of its fullness the mouth will speak unto edification. It is those who can truly aver “We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen” (John 3:11) who express themselves with that assurance which carries conviction to others. The retailer of other men’s thoughts lacks not only warmth and savour, but unction and the note of authority. “That which we have seen and heard we declare unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us.” Here is a noble example of spiritual generosity (Romans 1:11-12). Instead of keeping their knowledge secret, the apostles longed to share with God’s children at large (so far as that was possible) the signal advantages which they had enjoyed during the time when the Word of life had tabernacled in their midst. Having found the honey, they would not eat it alone; having tasted that the Lord was gracious, they desired that others should prove it for themselves. The beloved John and his fellows did not live to themselves, but realized that the privilege of hearing and seeing involved the duty of testifying. They deemed themselves to be not so much garners for the storing of Truth, as sowers for the scattering of it. That is ever the effect of a saving apprehension of the Gospel—expanding the heart with a Christ-like benevolence. As it is the law of God’s being to give, so is it of the new nature received from Him. The apostles longed that others should participate with them in an inestimable good. “For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20) was the spirit which actuated them. “That you also may have fellowship with us” is very blessed, and worthy of our closest attention. The apostles had been eminently privileged, not only in being the immediate attendants of the Saviour for three years, sitting at His feet and drinking direct from the Fountain of living waters, but also in sharing something of His trials and humiliation (Luke 22:28). But all of that was peculiar unto themselves, and they could not make their converts sharers of the same. Not only so; strange to say, it had not fully satisfied either the one or the other if they could. They had themselves experienced a great and profitable change after the ascension of their Master, when the sensible means of knowledge and external opportunities for contact with Him had been withdrawn. They had to say “though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now from this time forward we know Him no more” (2 Corinthians 5:16)—rather did they know Him after a higher manner. As Christ promised them, the Comforter “shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said to you” (John 14:26). Then they understood much in Christ’s conduct and teaching which before had been dark to them, and with such spiritual apprehension they entered into a new and grander fellowship with Him. “And truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.” Wondrous and blessed is such an unspeakable privilege. Wonderful it verily is, something entirely peculiar to Christianity, for there is nothing which in the least resembles it in any of the religions of heathendom. Their “gods” are one and all regarded as remote, hostile, unrelated to their worshippers—viewed with horror rather than with veneration and delight. Almost the sole idea in the minds of their devotees is to placate their wrath and endeavour to win their favour. The idea of their loving their subjects, and taking them into intimate union and communion, never enters their thoughts. Nor is that to be wondered at. Such an inestimable favour had never entered ours had not the Scriptures clearly revealed this astonishing truth. What an amazing thing it is that the ineffably Holy One should take into fellowship with Himself those who are by nature fallen and depraved creatures, and in practice rebels against Himself. Oh, my soul, bow in adoration before such a marvel. But most wonderful of all is it that the great God not only desires the company of such, but fits them for and will have them with Him in His immediate presence for all eternity. Even now this glorious fact is revealed, many of God’s dear children find it difficult to apprehend, and still more so to avail themselves of the privilege and actually enter into the enjoyment of the same. Probably that is one reason why John expressed himself so emphatically here, for his “truly our fellowship is with the Father,” etc., seems to be inserted because there were some who doubted it—as altogether too good to be true. It was as though he said, I make this positive assertion for the benefit of the whole Church to the end of time, therefore let no believer in Christ entertain the thought that such an inexpressible favour was one which God designed for the apostles only; not so, rather is it the birthright of every member of His family. Let no saint be persuaded that there is a privilege so high above him as to be unattainable in this life. Every born-again soul has, through the mediation and merits of Christ, a right and title to this; and through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit possesses the necessary qualification and meetness for it. If any such enjoy it not, the fault is entirely their own. The grand design and end of God in salvation and the communication of His grace to us is that we may have fellowship with Himself. The term “fellowship,” which occurs twice in 1 John 1:3 and again in 1 John 1:6-7, is the second great word of the epistle. The first is “life,” which is found three times in the two preceding verses. The order of them is Divinely accurate and doctrinally significant, for there can be no fellowship with God on the part of fallen creatures until His life or “nature” has been imparted to them. But before we seek to outline the blessed theme comprehended in this important term, let us suggest a further reason why the apostle was so express in saying “truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” It is to be borne in mind that the earthly lot of Christians was very different in the early days of this era from what is now ours. At that time the saints were despised and hated; nevertheless a most honourable, desirable, and blessed spiritual portion was theirs. It was as though the apostle said, Though you are looked upon and treated as the filth of the world, be assured that is by no means all you have through believing in Christ and following us His apostles. A really astonishing and glorious heritage is yours. You have been made heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. As sharers of the Divine riches you are amply compensated for any temporal privations which your Christian profession may involve. That grand fact needs to be kept steadily in mind by the Lord’s people in the present hour, and nothing allowed to shake their confidence in the same or deprive them of the full enjoyment of it. For some of them are assailed by those who would fain make them believe that there is no Christian fellowship for any who do not accept their peculiar views and become followers of them. There are some who proudly imagine themselves to be the only ones who gather together on spiritual ground, and if they no longer assert it openly, they still convey the impression that none outside their circle can enjoy the fullest fellowship with Christ. There is also a species of high doctrinalists who will not regard any as regenerated who are not prepared to pronounce their shibboleths. Likewise there are experientialists who attach such importance to a certain type and order of experience that all who are strangers to the same are regarded as being entirely “out of the secret” and fatally deceived if they think they have fellowship with God. These are but variations of the arrogant claims of the Papacy that there is salvation for none outside of “holy mother church.” Let your reply to one and all be, “Truly our fellowship is with the Father and His Son”—which is infinitely better than fellowship with any body of professing Christians. Those words are addressed to all saints whatever their age or spiritual attainments, or whatever their denominational affiliation or lack of it. “Stand fast therefore in the liberty with which Christ has made us free” (Galatians 5:1), and enter into and enjoy the wondrous privilege which He has purchased for you. “Fellowship” is an old Saxon word, “communion” a Latin one which signifies more than to be a recipient of His grace or even a partaker of His love, and rises higher than the concept of companionship. Literally it means sharers together, a community of interests, having things in common. In its simple form the Greek word here rendered “fellowship” is translated “partners” in Luke 5:10, and 2 Corinthians 8:23: “James and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon”—they were co-owners of the ship; “Titus ... my partner and fellowhelper.” The Father and the Son desired not to enjoy one another alone for all eternity, but graciously purposed that a company should be brought into being not only fitted to enjoy Them, but also in whom They would everlastingly delight. Therefore did the Son declare unto the Father “The glory which You gave Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as We are one” (John 17:22). Thus, the basic idea of “fellowship” is sharing together. Yet we must be careful to interpret and understand the same in the light of the general “Analogy of Faith.” It does not mean that we have been taken into an equality with God, but that according to our finite measure we are made partakers of His life, His holiness, His ineffable blessedness; that as “the Lord’s portion is His people” (Deuteronomy 32:9), so “the Lord is my portion, says my soul, “(Lamentations 3:24); that as He declares “the saints that are in the earth, and the excellent, in whom is all My delight” (Psalms 16:3), so each of them avers “Whom have I in heaven but You? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside You” (Psalms 73:25). The Lord Himself is ours, and we are His: a joint participation—what an amazing dispensation! No wonder the apostle pressed the fact so emphatically: “truly our fellowship is with the Father and His Son”—I solemnly set my seal to it that such is the case. Not (we repeat) that this signifies an equality, but rather the dutiful but cheerful drawing near of an inferior to a superior, yet so as there is a holy intimacy and freedom in the same because we both love God and are beloved of Him. “Fellowship” with God necessarily presupposes that we have been taken into a near and dear relation to Him so that not only do we view Him as One who befriends us, but He condescends to regard and treat us as His friends. Abraham, the father or prototype of all believers, “was called the friend of God” (James 2:23)—admitted to share His company and converse with Him. But not only does “fellowship” presuppose our reconciliation with God, but also the reception of a nature and disposition which fits us to be with Him, for “can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (Amos 3:3). There cannot be friendship unless there is congeniality. Fellowship is not a one-sided thing, but mutual. It is the law of friendship to answer it with friendship. None is warranted in regarding himself as the friend of God unless he has the heart and carriage of one—delighting in Him, seeking to be conformed to His image, endeavouring to promote His interests. Thus we find the Lord Jesus saying to His disciples, “You are My friends, if you do whatsoever I command you” (John 15:14)—if you make it your sincere aim to please Me in all things. A “friend” is one who conducts himself in a friendly manner unto another, avoiding whatever would injure or grieve him. So long as we do not carnalize it, probably the figure of friendship best enables us to grasp what is meant by “fellowship.” One has a high regard for a friend, esteeming him above mere acquaintances. Thus it is between the Lord and His people. They highly esteem and value one another. What a word is that of David’s: “He delivered me, because He delighted in me” (2 Samuel 22:20); while the saint confesses “all my springs are in You” (Psalms 87:7). Real friends find genuine pleasure in each other’s company, being happiest when together: does not the spouse say, “His desire is toward me. Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field” (Song of Solomon 7:10-11), while she exclaims, “Make haste my beloved” (Song of Solomon 8:14)? Intimate converse and close communications characterize the dealings of one friend with another. Things I would not discuss with a stranger, matters about which I would be silent to a mere acquaintance, I freely open to one whose worth I have proved and in whom I delight. It is thus between God and His dear children. Did not “the Lord speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks unto his friend” (Exodus 33:11), and did not he, in return, express himself with great freedom unto the Lord—“show me now Your way that I may know You” (Exodus 33:13) more intimately? Fellowship is reciprocal. “When You said, Seek you My face: my heart said unto You, Your face, Lord, will I seek” (Psalms 27:8). Thus there is an interchange of confidence. “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant” (Psalms 25:14), while they freely open their hearts unto Him. God sends forth gracious influences into the soul, and we (by the assistance of His Spirit) make suitable responses unto Him. They pour out their souls unto Him, and He opens His ear unto them: “In the day when I cried. You answered me and strengthened me with strength in my soul” (Psalms 138:3). He makes known to them His will, and they seek to walk according to the same. They seek His glory as their highest end, and He makes all things work together for their good. The saints generally are most taken with and speak the oftenest about their communion with God, yet it is His with us which must take place before ours can be perceived even by ourselves. It is wholly a spiritual and supernatural exercise and doubtless is often carried on when we have no consciousness of the same. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 7: 001.04. CHAPTER 4 ======================================================================== Chapter 4 FELLOWSHIP—PART TWO 1 John 1:3 “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.” Here we have a communicated knowledge, an affectionate desire, an emphatic assertion, and a shared privilege. The apostles openly proclaimed what they had received immediately from Christ. They did so because they had an unselfish longing that others should also be benefited thereby. It was no figment of an enthusiastic imagination that they referred to, but a Divine and spiritual verity. Fellowship with God is the highest dignity and richest blessing we can be favoured with, either here or hereafter. It is one of the great mysteries of grace. Reason cannot comprehend it, and sense has nothing to do with it. None can have the least conception of its excellence save those who are actual participants in the same. In order thereto there must be oneness of nature, an intimate knowledge, concord of heart, unity of interests and aims, and an open acknowledgment of one another. Though this fellowship is the utmost of blessedness, it is one in which all the saints partake. Great is the honour, wondrous the privilege, of being admitted unto communion with the Lord God. Fellowship with Him is both an objective fact and a subjective realization: that is to say, it is based upon a relationship, and is enjoyed in the soul’s experience. Since all believers are regenerated and reconciled to God, they are in communion with Him—in a state of sacred friendship. That state consists of a reciprocal communication in giving and receiving after a holy manner; God’s in renewings of grace and fresh supplies of His spirit; ours in the outgoings of our hearts unto Him in the ways which He has appointed. It is consciously enjoyed by the exercise of faith and love (for they are the two hands of the soul by which we take hold of God), and by the heart’s being engaged with His ineffable perfections and gracious bestowments. Some believers enter into a much richer experience of this fellowship than do others of their fellows, and the degree in which he actually participates may vary considerably with the same believer from day to day. It is chiefly acted out by us in praise and prayer. It is maintained by avoiding those things which hinder and by using the means which further it—especially devout meditations upon God and His word. Opinions differ as to whether the Father and the Son are to be considered here conjointly or distinctly. Grammatically, each is permissible. For ourselves, we incline to the view taken by Candlish, namely that the Object of the Christian’s fellowship is one. Certain it is that we first have fellowship with the Son, for only through Him may sinners have access unto the Father. Christ is the only way, the new and living way, unto Him. But as that expositor pointed out, it is not thus that Christ is presented: rather is the Son here regarded as associated with the Father—“together in Their mutual relationship to one another, and Their mutual mind and heart to one another (and unto the saints), They constitute the one object of this fellowship.” In 1 Corinthians 1:9 we read, “God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord,” in view of which we, personally, prefer to say that our fellowship is with the Triune God in the person of the Mediator—borne out, we consider, by 1 John 1:5-6 where the Object of our fellowship is simply said to be “God,” without distinction of persons. Yet since They may indeed be contemplated separately, it is quite warrantable to distinguish between the communion which we have with Each, and so shall we treat thereof. Another consideration which supplies confirmation that, essentially regarded, our fellowship is with God in Christ is the fact that our communion is based upon union with Him. Now our union with God is not immediate or direct, but mediate, through the Lord Jesus. We are first joined to Christ, and then through Him with the Father (1 Peter 3:18). The saint’s oneness with Christ is a very wonderful and many-sided subject, which we can now but barely outline. First, from all eternity we had an election union with Christ, being chosen in Him. There was also a federal union, so that we were one with Him as the last Adam: it was as such that He took our place and discharged our legal obligations. There is likewise a vital union when, because of regeneration, it becomes true that “he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:17). From that issues a moral union, when by faith and love we are espoused to Him. That in turn leads to a practical union, when we take His yoke upon us and walk in subjection to Him. All of this issues in an experimental union in which we enjoy an intimate intercourse with Christ, drinking into His spirit. Now each aspect of that multiform union has a corresponding communion. By virtue of our election union with Christ, we are “blest with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies with Him” (Ephesians 1:3-4). Because of our federal union with Him we become legal partakers of His righteousness, and entitled to the full reward of His meritorious obedience. In consequence of our vital union with Him, we are made recipients of Christ’s life and are indwelt by His spirit. As the result of our moral union with Him we enter into His salvation and receive out of His fullness “grace for grace.” By our practical union with Him we walk together in agreement: we now “cleave unto the Lord” (Acts 11:23) in a life of dependence upon and devotedness unto Him, becoming more and more conformed to His holy image. From our experimental union with Christ we enter into His peace and joy, and become fruit-bearing branches of the Vine. “There is a friend which sticketh closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:24) expresses His side of this communion; “there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples whom Jesus loved” declares our side of it. This is the result of our practical union and communion: “He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me ... and I will love him, and manifest Myself to him” (John 14:21). The intimate union which there is between the Lord and His people is intimated in their very names: He is “the Christ”; they Christians: “for both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren” (Hebrews 2:11) and to treat them accordingly. The figure that is most frequently used in the New Testament to set forth the oneness of the Redeemer and the redeemed is that of His mystical “body” of which He is the head and they the members: “For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones” (Ephesians 5:30). The result of that union is communion, or sharing together: “my Beloved is mine, and I am His”—to mutually delight in, to further each other’s interests, to be together for all eternity. It is therefore my sacred privilege not only to have personal contact and converse with Him, but the most unreserved dealings. There is no aloofness of His part, and there should be none on mine. Christ has not only given Himself for His people, but to them—to make full use of: “casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you” (1 Peter 5:7). He is ours to feed upon (John 6:57), and as “the Lamb” (Exodus 12:5): that is, Christ in His sacrificial character—exactly suited to sin-harassed souls. Nor is that feasting a one-sided thing: Christ delights to commune with His own—“With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer” (Luke 22:15) illustrates the fact. He seeks such fellowship: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door [for He forces Himself upon none, see Luke 24:28-29], I will come into him and will sup with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20)—addressed, be it remembered, to a church! The intimate fellowship which there is between Christ and His Church is blessedly exhibited in the Song. He makes request, “let Me see thy countenance. Let Me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely” (Song of Solomon 2:14); while the spouse declares, “cause me to hear Thy voice: make haste, my Beloved” (Song of Solomon 8:13-14). He exclaims, Behold, thou art fair, My love” (Song of Solomon 4:1); and she rejoins, “my Beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand” (Song of Solomon 5:10). There is sweet entertainment on both sides: says she, “Let my Beloved come into His garden, and eat His pleasant fruits” (Song of Solomon 4:16); “Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved” (Song of Solomon 5:1) is His answering call. They are mutually charmed with each other: does she bear testimony, “I sat down under His shadow with great delight” (Song of Solomon 2:3), “How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights” (Song of Solomon 7:6) is His gracious acknowledgment. We will now consider that communion which we have with each of the Divine persons distinctly. Clearly there can be none with any of them except through the Mediator. We can only approach the Father through the Son incarnate. Our union with the one is via our union with the other. We are the sons of the Father (1 John 3:1) because made one with His Son, and therefore does the latter say, “Behold I and the children which God hath given Me” (Hebrews 2:13). After His resurrection He said to His disciples, “I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God” (John 20:17), thereby making it clear that the relation in which He stood to God was theirs also. That relation is further made good unto them by God’s sending forth “the Spirit of His Son into their hearts, crying Abba Father” (Galatians 4:6); and thus they cherish toward Him the affections of children. From whence we may perceive the character of that fellowship which the Christian has with the Father. As a child has near access to his father, so does the believer unto God. As a child enjoys his father’s favour, so does the believer that of God. As an earthly parent delights to gladden the heart of his child by special tokens of his love, “how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?” (Matthew 7:11). The nature of our fellowship with the Father is also indicated by the very meaning of that term, namely a community of interests, and that it is a reciprocal thing. Thus the Father and His children take mutual pleasure in His beloved Son. Blessedly was that depicted by the Saviour in what is known as the parable of the prodigal son. When the wanderer returns from the far country, and is welcomed home, the father says, “Bring hither the fatted calf and kill; and let us eat, and be merry” (Luke 15:23)—figure of them feasting on a once-slain Christ and rejoicing together. In like manner, as the glorifying of Christ is the chief end which the Father has before Him in all the out-workings of His eternal purpose, such is our grand aim too. Again, the Father makes us partakers of His holiness (Hebrews 12:10), even of His own nature (2 Peter 1:4), so that what He hates they hate, and what He delights in, they do also. Again, they have fellowship with the Father in His affectionate regard for all His dear children: “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren” (1 John 3:14). Further, a most blessed intercourse is maintained between the Father and His children through the means which He has appointed to that very end. As they endeavour to perform His will, He takes upon Him the care of all their concerns. “And with His Son Jesus Christ.” Yes, and in that precise order. First, we have fellowship with Him as God’s Son because made His sons, as being “His seed,” yea, “the travail of His soul” (Isaiah 53:10-11). This explains why Christ is designated “the everlasting Father” (Isaiah 9:6). Second, we have fellowship with Him as “Jesus,” for as faith lays hold of Him we become partakers of His so-great salvation—as those who believingly touched the hem of His garment were healed of their plagues. Since the exercise of effectual faith be a spiritual act we must first be made sons, spiritual persons, “new creatures in Christ” by regeneration. Faith gives a saving union to Christ, and He is then “made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30). Not only are our sins removed as far as the east is from the west, but we obtain a personal interest in all that He is and has. Third, we have fellowship with Him as “Christ,” that is, the Anointed One. As “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 10:38), so believers “have an unction [same word] from the Holy One,” and “the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you” (1 John 2:20, 1 John 2:27)—the anointing oil on the head of the High Priest (Exodus 29:7) “went down to the skirts of his garments” (Psalms 133:2)! The believer’s fellowship with his Saviour opens to him a perennial fountain of blessedness. Since He be God, He is fully competent to undertake for him in every situation and supply all his need. Since He be man, He is capable of being touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and is full of tender sympathy to His sorrowing people. He was tempted in all points as we are—sin excepted—and therefore fully understands our trials. He personally experienced poverty, neglect, reproach, injustice, harsh treatment. He was misunderstood by His friends and hated by the religious leaders. He knew what it was to suffer hunger and thirst, and weariness of body as well as anguish of soul. Consequently He is “a Brother born for adversity” (Proverbs 17:17) and is moved with compassion when He beholds the afflictions of the members of His mystical body; yea, it is written “in all their affliction, He was afflicted” (Isaiah 63:9). So close is the bond that unites the Redeemer to the redeemed, that when Saul of Tarsus (in the days of his unregenerate madness) ill-treated His children, Christ said unto him, “Why persecutest thou Me?” (Acts 22:7) - by assailing them, he “touched the apple of His eye” (Zechariah 2:8). Thus there is everything in Christ to invite and encourage us to seek and maintain the closest and freest communion with Him. He wears our nature, and we are recipients of His. All the infinite resources of Deity are exercised on our behalf. As He endured our poverty, so we are made the partners of His riches. His righteousness is as truly ours as He made our sins His own. His reward He shares with His redeemed, so that the glory which the Father gave Him He has given to them (John 17:22). There is a community of affections between them—running in the same channels, fixed upon the same objects: “I love them that love Me” (Proverbs 8:17). They have familiar intercourse together: they pour out their complaints unto Him, He communicates to them His consolations. They have mutual desires: “Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am” (John 17:24); “come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20) is their response. They participate in like privileges and honours: He is Priest and King, and He “hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father” (Revelation 1:6). They gladly endure loss for His sake, bear His reproach, and enter into “the fellowship of His sufferings” (Php 3:10). It may be asked, Why is no mention made in 1 John 1:3, of the believer’s fellowship with the Holy Spirit? Though He be not expressly referred to, He is necessarily implied, for none can have fellowship with the Father or with the Son save by Him. “For through Him [Christ] we both [believing Jews and Gentiles] have access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Ephesians 2:18). The Holy Spirit is the sole efficient cause of all spiritual fellowship. Necessarily so, for the Father and the Son are imperceptible to sense, the Objects on which our faith is exercised, and with whom communion is enjoyed; and it is the Spirit who makes Them real and precious unto us, drawing out our hearts unto Them. He it is who sheds abroad in our hearts the love of the Father, and who takes of the things of Christ and shows them unto us. Thus the Spirit is not specifically named here, because He is the author of our fellowship with the Triune God in Christ. He introduces us into the same, and is the only transactor of it, for it is by His enablement that we are lifted out of ourselves and our affections drawn unto things above. Yet it must not be overlooked that in 2 Corinthians 13:14, while “grace” is attributed to the Lord Jesus, and “love” unto God, “communion” is definitely ascribed to the Spirit. We are also sharers of His nature, and His mission to glorify Christ. A word now upon the fellowship which the saints have one with another. “If we have fellowship with the Father, then we are His children, and animated by His spirit. If we have fellowship with Jesus Christ, then we are His redeemed ones, and the subjects of His grace. It follows, therefore, as a necessary consequence, that wherever there is fellowship with the Father and the Son there must also be fellowship with those who believe in Them. And this is the very light in which the subject is presented in the text, where the three forms of fellowship are treated as indissolubly connected with one another” (J. Morgan). It is to be noted that whereas “that ye may have fellowship with us” is mentioned before “our fellowship is with the Father and the Son” (because, as previously explained, it is by means of the writings of the apostles that we obtain a full saving knowledge of Them), yet in experience fellowship with believers follows that of our fellowship with the Divine persons; for we are united first with the former ere we have any spiritual union with the latter. What that fellowship consists of Ephesians 4:4-6, tells us: “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” Believers are sharers together of the riches of God’s grace, joint partakers of all the benefits of Christ’s mediation and merits. They possess the same nature and associations of heart. They have common beliefs, experiences and hopes. They will be together with the Lord for ever. Therefore are they enjoined: “Endeavouring to keep [not “make”] the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3). But that is possible in a practical way only as they personally heed the preceding exhortation, “With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love.” Not only is it their mutual interest so to do, but thereby Christ is most honoured and glorified by them (John 13:35). Thus it should be their earnest and constant endeavour to cultivate this fellowship. If they do not, then their claim to enjoy communion with God is but an idle boast. As this very apostle declares: “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar; for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” (1 John 4:20). Not only are the objects of fellowship inseparable, but the enjoyment of the one is commensurate with the other: in proportion as we have fellowship with the Father and His Son shall we have fellowship (in prayer, at least) with all who believe. It is not our intention to supply a sermon outline on each verse, for we desire to stimulate unto study, and supply hints of how to go about it, rather than encourage laziness. With this article and the preceding one before him, the young preacher should have no difficulty in culling out sufficient material for at least one sermon on Fellowship—the simpler his style and the fewer his divisions, the better. Homiletically considered, the opening sentences of this article furnish an analysis of 1 John 1:3. By way of introduction the different things which prevent any fellowship between God and an unbeliever, and the Divine provisions to remove those hindrances, should be shown, such as sin divorcing from holiness—overcome by atoning blood; spiritual death—by the communication of life; alienation of heart—by reconciliation at conversion; the distance between the finite and the infinite—bridged by the Mediator. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 8: 001.05. CHAPTER 5 ======================================================================== Chapter 5 FULLNESS OF JOY—PART ONE 1 John 1:4 “These things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.” For the benefit of young preachers (and also those of God’s people who desire to form the habit of studying Scripture more closely) we may say that we began our own examination and meditation of this verse by framing the following questions, and then seeking answers thereto. • Exactly what is referred to by the “these things”? • Why the “we write” rather than the “I write” as in 1 John 2:1, 1 John 2:12, 1 John 2:26? • What is the connection between the “these things” and the “fullness of joy “? • What is the nature of the joy here spoken of? • Is a “fullness” of it attainable in this life? • Are we to read it as “that your joy may be full” or “our joy” as in the R.V. and in Bagster’s Interlinear? The results of our own searchings and ponderings will now be set before the reader, though we shall not adhere strictly to the order of those six queries. Personally, we have found that by means of such interrogations we are enabled to make a more definite approach to a verse, and thereby obtain something better than a general and vague idea of its contents. “And these things write we unto you.” We believe there is a twofold reference. As the opening word indicates, the principal allusion is unto that which immediately precedes. Here again the link connecting one verse with another is quite evident, and the order of their contents corresponds exactly with Christian experience. First, a setting forth of God’s Son as incarnate, and our saving apprehension of Him as such by His revelation to the soul as “the Word of life;” for as it is rationality and the exercise of it which fits men to be companionable with one another, so it is our being made recipients of a spiritual life which capacitates us to have intercourse with God. Second, the actual enjoyment of intimate fellowship with the Triune God in and through the Mediator, and with all His children as the consequence. Third, fullness of joy as the outcome. Thus the former stands related to the latter as does cause to effect, the tree to the fruit, the means to the end. And here too the one is commensurate with the other: as the measure of our fellowship with the Father and the Son determines the measure of our communion with fellow saints, so in proportion to the constancy and depth of this fellowship in its three forms will be the degree of our joy. More closely still 1 John 1:4 intimates one of the essential characteristics of the communion referred to in 1 John 1:3: that it is a fellowship of joy—the sharing together of a mutual delight. Thus we see once more the deep importance of paying close attention to the immediate context, that we may be better enabled to follow the order of thought and development of the subject under discussion. It is by observing the precise relation of one verse to another that much light is cast upon the whole, and the significance and perspective of each detail is more clearly perceived. But more largely the words “And these things write we unto you” must be regarded as including all that follows, for not only do 1 John 1:5-7 show that the subject of fellowship is there still under discussion, but John’s specific design in writing this epistle was to lead God’s children into a deeper and fuller experiential fellowship, with the resultant happiness inseparable therefrom. The whole contents of this epistle are to be regarded as a making known of the various means which promote both our fellowship with God and the increase of our joy in Him, and a setting forth of the different things which hinder the same. John’s purpose in saying, “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not” (1 John 2:1) was to warn against what would—if allowed and unrepented of—break their fellowship and quench their joy. When he exhorts them, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world” (1 John 2:15), he is telling us that any undue familiarity with those who are God’s enemies, or any inordinate affection for the creature, is inimical to our communion with and delighting ourselves in Him. Likewise, his “These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you” (1 John 2:26) signifies that they must ever be on their guard against false prophets, lest their joy be blighted by erroneous teaching. Fellowship with God must not be looked for outside the way of His assignment or the order which He has appointed: therefore we must earnestly avoid all tampering with sin, deny our curiosity to hear or read the proponents of strange doctrine, and flirt not with the world. Finally, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life” (1 John 5:13) was but a repetition in thought though varied in language of 1 John 1:4, for there can be no fullness of joy while the soul is in a state of uncertainty of its acceptance in the Beloved. “And these things write we unto you.” It will be remembered that John had employed the plural number throughout 1 John 1:1-3, for he was not only relating the special privileges which had been enjoyed by the twelve, but was speaking there as their mouthpiece. He longed that all of God’s children should (so far as their case admitted) enter into the same free and familiar intercourse with God in Christ. “That ye also may have fellowship with us” (1 John 1:3) imported that ye may enter more fully into an experiential knowledge of the truth set forth in 1 John 1:1-2, and thereby participate in the ineffable joy which comes through a believing apprehension of it; for Christian “fellowship” consists of association of heart, attachment to the same objects, having together thoughts, affections, hopes and joys in common. Thus it was at the beginning, and has (in varying degrees of intelligence) continued throughout this age. “They that gladly received His word were baptized. .. and they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship” (Acts 2:41-42). Moreover, the saints are “built upon the foundation of the apostles [cf. Revelation 21:14] and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone” (Ephesians 2:20), which means that the doctrine which the apostles taught, and which is embodied for us in their writings, is the basis on which the Church rests. Observe two things in the last-quoted Scripture. First, the plural number used again. The Church is not built upon Peter, as Rome erroneously insists, but, doctrinally considered, rests upon the teaching of the whole of the apostles—who were also “prophets,” i.e. endued with the gift of Divine utterance. But second, the Lord Jesus is “the chief comer stone,” for the entire validity and efficacy of the apostles’ testimony lay in the name of Him whose witnesses they were. In his second epistle Peter said, “I now write unto you ... that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord” (1 John 3:1-2). Though each of them wrote on different subjects, with a particular end and design, they were all inspired by the one Spirit. Characteristically speaking Paul was the apostle of faith, Peter of hope, John of love, James of good works, while Jude warned against apostasy or the abandonment of such. Being of one heart and soul, having the same desire and mission, it was fitting for any one to speak in the name of them all, using the term “we.” They proclaimed the same Gospel and bore witness to the excellence of the same Christ. Their aim was ever the same: to make Him known and gain unto Him a glorious name. Whenever they wrote, it was in order to build up the saints. In their doctrine they differed not one iota. The fountain from which all spiritual joy proceeds is that blessed One who is set before us in the foregoing verses. As He expressly declared, “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14). It is in intimate contact and converse with Christ that real communion with Him consists and satisfaction is found: in seeing, hearing, handling Him—we can only “handle” one who is near and dear to us. It is by having the mind engaged with His perfections and beauty, meditating thereon and reveling therein, that the heart is drawn out to Him. Nothing so warms and nourishes a Christian’s soul as a believing and adoring contemplation of the One who loved him and gave Himself for him. We should therefore see to it that, above all else, a realization of Christ’s surpassing love is kept fresh in our hearts; for this, in turn, will move us to seek yet closer and more constant fellowship with Him. That was the source and spring of Christ’s own joy—His absorption with the Father’s love unto Him: “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hands” (John 3:35). Note how frequently He dwelt upon the Father’s love: John 5:20; John 15:9; John 17:23-24. Fullness of joy is something which all men desire, but which very few attain unto. Nor is that difficult to explain: they seek it in the wrong place. Alas that many of God’s people are so often guilty of making the same mistake. In the pride of their hearts, they want to find something of self to rejoice in; yielding to a spirit of legality, they look for happiness in their own experiences or attainments. But that is to miss the substance and chase the shadows. As it is with our natural eyes, so with our spiritual: they are designed to look at external objects and not internal ones, “Rejoice in the Lord”, and that “always” (Php 4:4) is the delightful task which faith is to engage in. All real happiness is bound up in Him. Every other joy but that which issues from fellowship with the Lord is but a counterfeit one. That is sensual, as the rich fool’s “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry” (Luke 12:19); this is spiritual. The one is superficial and temporary; the other solid and lasting. The former comforts only in health and during a season of prosperity; whereas the latter sustains upon a bed of pain, cheers the soul in times of affliction, yea, enables its possessor to exult at the prospect of death. Now this joy is not to be regarded as a luxury, but rather as a spiritual necessity. We are obligated to be glad in God. It is something more than a sacred privilege, namely a bounden duty unto which we are expressly commanded. “Let all those that put their trust in Thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because Thou defendest them: let them also that love Thy name be joyful in Thee” (Psalms 5:11). “Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart” (Psalms 32:11). “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice” (Php 4:4). “Rejoice evermore” (1 Thessalonians 5:16). If we do not give unto Him, who is so excellent in Himself and so gracious and beneficial unto us, that esteem which rises to the degree of rejoicing in Him, then we sadly fail in rendering to Him that honour which is His due. Our thoughts and valuation of Him are utterly unworthy unless they bring us so to delight ourselves in Him as to fill us with joy. While we seek God’s favour in Christ, live in obedience to His will, and rest in His love, we are warranted to keep a holy feast continually. It is certainly not the revealed will of Christ that His followers should walk through this world in a spirit of dejection: rather are they a reproach unto Him if they do so. One chief reason why the Lord Jesus uttered His high priestly prayer in the presence of His disciples was that they might be filled with comfort and good cheer: “These things speak I in the world [in order] that they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves” (John 17:13). He was about to leave them and return to the Father, and He would dispel their sorrow and fill them with holy gladness by apprehensions of His joy. And of what did that consist? First, the realization that He had glorified the Father in the place where He had been so grievously slighted (John 17:1). Second, that He had finished the work given Him to do (John 17:4). Third, that He was about to return to that ineffable glory which He had with the Father before the world was (John 17:5). Christ was rejoicing at the prospect before Him, and He would have His disciples make His joy theirs. We are to rejoice in a triumphant Saviour who completed the work of our redemption. We are to rejoice in the blessed fact that the head once crowned with thorns is crowned with glory now. The knowledge of this should banish all gloom and fill us with joy unspeakable. But more, by giving us the wondrous privilege of hearing His prayer in John 17:1-26, Christ has made it known that His changed position has made no alteration in His attitude toward us, that His love for His people has not diminished in the least. By His generous act on that memorable occasion Christ assured His disciples (and us) that when He entered into His well-earned reward and took His seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high, His thoughts would still be engaged with His redeemed. They were inexpressibly dear unto Him—as the Father’s gift to Him, and as the travail of His own soul. Their names were inscribed upon the palms of His hands, yea, upon His very heart. He could not forget them: rather would He occupy Himself on high by constantly pleading their cause. If our hearts are suitably affected with the amazing fact that our great High Priest “ever liveth to make intercession for us” (Hebrews 7:25), we cannot but be full of joy. A considerable part of our happiness is to contemplate Christ’s joy in us! He rejoiced in His people before the world was made (Proverbs 8:31), He rejoices now in and over them to do them good (Jeremiah 32:41), and He will express it even more abundantly when He brings them home unto Himself. Further. The joy of the Christian will be promoted and increased by observing the various things for which Christ here petitioned the Father in John 17:1-26, for in them we discover what are the desires of His heart unto “His own.” First, He prayed for their preservation: “Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given Me” (John 17:11). Second, He sought their jubilation: “That they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves” (John 17:13). Third, for their emancipation from sin: “that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil” (John 17:15), so that none of them should be overwhelmed by it. Fourth, for their consecration: “sanctify them through Thy truth” (John 17:17), that they may grow in grace and adorn their profession. Fifth, for their unification: “that they all may be one” (John 17:21), which will be fully realized when “we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). Sixth, for their association with Himself: “that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am” (John 17:24). Seventh, for their eternal gratification: “that they may behold My glory” (John 17:24). Since all these requests will be granted (John 11:42), what cause have we constantly and fervently to rejoice! Yet further, Christ has made most gracious provision for the joy of His people in the gift of the Comforter. When His disciples were dismayed and dejected at the prospect of His departure, we find that again and again He reassured and cheered them by the promise of the Holy Spirit. “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you” (John 14:18), which He did in a most blessed manner on the day of Pentecost. Then it was that their sorrow was “turned into joy. The Comforter is here not only to convict of sin and bring souls unto repentance, but, following that operation, to fill them with gladness and to experience “joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17). This He does by opening and blessing the Word, by taking of the things of Christ and showing the same unto them, by witnessing with their spirits that they are the sons of God, by producing in them the spirit of praise. The blessed Spirit uses the words of Christ, especially those of John 17:1-26, to work upon the renewed mind, giving it some blessed apprehensions of the joy of which Christ is both the object and the subject, of the joy which comes from Him and centers in Him, bringing us into communion with the same and making our souls realize the satisfying portion we have in Him. A word now on the nature of this joy. That is the more necessary since not a few are apt to naturalize and carnalize the same, regarding it as a mere spirit of elation or happy feeling of exhilaration. Instead, it is a heavenly grace, a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), and therefore something spiritual, supernatural, and Divine. God is alike its Author, Object and Maintainer. As the peace which He gives “passeth all understanding” (Php 4:7), so the joy He communicates is said to be “unspeakable” (1 Peter 1:8)—not only excelling sense, but beyond full comprehension. It is an elevation of soul after the Lord and of things above. It is a delighting ourselves in God, for since all happiness be the enjoyment of the chief good, then all felicity is bound up in Him. Joy is heaven begun in the saint, for his blessedness here and hereafter differs not in kind but only in degree. It is therefore a joy which is pure and unalloyed. As spiritual love is far more than a sentiment, as God’s peace is more excellent than mere placidity or tranquility of mind, so the joy which Christ imparts to the believer is vastly superior to any natural emotion. It is a state of exultation, a complacence of heart, a full satisfaction of soul as it feasts upon a perfect Object. Spiritual joy results from the heart’s being engaged with the Lord: “My soul shall be joyful in the Lord: it shall rejoice in His salvation” (Psalms 35:9). “Because Thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise Thee. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise Thee with joyful lips” (Psalms 63:3, Psalms 63:5). We rejoice that all our sins are forgiven, that we are accepted in the Beloved, that we are made the friends of God, that our names are written in the Lamb’s book of life, that we have a building of God eternal in the heavens. Such a joy is something to which the natural man is a total stranger: “Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased” (Psalms 4:7)—the love of God and His goodness to us in Christ affords a pleasure and a satisfaction which no creature can. Spiritual joy is a very different thing from mere exuberance of spirits or ecstatic feelings, being entirely a holy and supernatural experience. No matter what may be his circumstances in this world, the Christian has ground and matter for rejoicing at all times, and is called upon to do so “evermore” being assured “your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you” (John 16:22). In view of what has been pointed out in the last two paragraphs, the Christian reader should more readily perceive the radical difference there is between natural hilarity and spiritual joy. The former is incapable of rising above the woes of earth. It wanes in the presence of life’s hardships. Its bloom departs when the sun of prosperity is beclouded. It cannot survive the loss of health or of loved ones. Vastly different is the joy of the Lord. It is restricted neither to surroundings nor temperaments, and fluctuates not with our varying moods or circumstances. Nature may indeed assert itself, as Christ wept by the grave of Lazarus, yet its possessor can say with Paul, “as sorrowful yet always rejoicing.” When the hurricane lashes the surface of the sea, the heart of it is undisturbed. Grace enables us to glory even in tribulations (Romans 5:3). While the bodies of the martyrs were burning at the stake, hallelujahs were on their lips. Joy is quite consistent with godly sorrow, for each fresh discovery of the worthlessness of self should lead us closer to God. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 9: 001.06. CHAPTER 6 ======================================================================== Chapter 6 FULLNESS OF JOY—PART TWO 1 John 1:4 “And these things write we unto you, that your joy [and “ours”] may be full.” A common desire animated and regulated the apostles: to promote the glory of their Master and the good of His people—the two things being inseparably connected. They had themselves experienced the unspeakable blessing and blessedness of intimate fellowship with Christ, and the bliss which ever accompanies it, and therefore they longed that their fellow saints should, according to their measure, freely and fully participate in the same. They desired that their converts should be bright and buoyant Christians, whose hearts would rise above the trials and troubles of this life, rejoicing in the Lord, finding their satisfying and everlasting portion in Him. Accordingly, they one and all, in both their oral and written ministry, employed themselves in setting forth the person and perfections, the offices and work, the Lordship and example, of the Christ of God, knowing full well that it was only by means of a spiritual knowledge of His excellency, an interest in His salvation, the maintaining of a close walk and daily communion with Him, that fullness of joy would be experienced in the souls of those whose welfare they had so much at heart. Those words “that your joy may be full” were not penned by an inexperienced visionary or youthful dreamer, aglow with an enthusiasm which would shortly be dampened by bitter disillusionment. Instead, they were written by a very aged person who was thoroughly acquainted with the dark side of life, with the sins and sorrows which beset a Christian, and who knew that it was through “much tribulation” that any entered into the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22). But it was to no mere natural emotion he had reference—an exuberance of spirit suited only to high festivals, an enthusiasm raised to the point of excitement. Radically different is the spiritual joy which he had in view. This is a Divine grace communicated to and situate in the depths of the soul, which the storms of this world cannot reach. It is something which is suited to everyday life and work, for it is a calm and serene frame of mind as well as a happy state of heart. Far more was implied than actually expressed in John’s language, for where fullness of joy exists there is a separation from the world, a close fellowship with God in Christ, a treading of wisdom’s ways, and thus the Lord is honoured and His people helped. Fellowship with the Lord is the grand marvel of redemption, and a fullness of joy in the redeemed is its crowning blessing. In Christ there is matter for perpetual delight. “Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound [of the Gospel]: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance. In Thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in Thy righteousness shall they be exalted” (Psalms 89:15-16). Such is the believer’s right and privilege, and if it be not actually realized in his experience the fault is all his own. The ministers of the Word are “helpers of your joy” (2 Corinthians 1:24). The one who feeds thereon will exclaim, “Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart” (Jeremiah 15:16). How the heart is gladdened by answered prayers (Psalms 116:1)! We have great reason to “call the sabbath a delight” (Isaiah 58:13), to “rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalms 118:24). Contemplations of God’s perfections: “My meditation of Him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord” (Psalms 104:34). The one who is baptized should “go on his way rejoicing” (Acts 8:39). The Lord’s supper is a spiritual feast for the elevating of the Christian’s heart. Piety, peace and joy are what ought most to characterize the saints. To “worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh” (Php 3:3) are the marks of the true circumcision. There are three things in connection with that rejoicing. First, an apprehension of our saving interest in Christ and of the glorious benefits we have by Him, for otherwise how can we glory in Him (1 Corinthians 1:30-31)? Second, corresponding affections which result therefrom: love to Him, exultation of soul, feasting upon Him, joy in Him. Third, an open expression of the same: evidencing that our satisfying portion in Him has made us lose all relish for the things of the world. What we prize most best demonstrates what we are, for where a man’s treasure is there will his heart be also (Matthew 6:21). Each of us is discovered by his complacency or displacency: “They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit” (Romans 8:5). Thus to be comparatively miserable manifests a Christian to be in a backslidden state, and places a question mark on the genuineness of his profession. A miserable believer is no credit to Christ, and has a depressing effect upon his brethren. The advantages and benefits of spiritual joy are real, many, and great. It diffuses sunshine over the whole life, supplying vigour for service, lightening our cares, animating for conflict, and making obedience a delight. Joy enlarges the heart and quickens us in the way of God: “the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). It overcomes that natural deadness and dullness in holy duties which arises partly from indwelling corruptions and partly from the remissness of our wills toward heavenly things. But when there is rejoicing in Christ, irksome and difficult tasks become pleasant and easy. The joy of the Lord is His cordial to fortify us against the infelicities and calamities of this world, whether they be the common afflictions incident to men or persecutions for righteousness’ sake—making bitter things sweet to us (see Habakkuk 3:17-18). It enables us to bear opposition and reproaches with courage and constancy: “They departed ... rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name” (Acts 5:41). It greatly encourages and cheers our fellows: “My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad” (Psalms 34:2). We cannot prosper in our souls nor flourish in the house of the Lord unless we be assured of that peace which He has made by the blood of His cross and are daily delighting ourselves in Him. Yet, though the Saviour has not only made His redeemed secure for eternity, but would have them happy in time, the fact remains that many of them are frequently oppressed with dullness and despondency. God does not appear to be the light of their countenance, and their spirits seem to have caught little of heaven’s luster. If they be children of light and of the day, why is it that they are so often gloomy and cast down, and manifest so little of that brightness which should mark those who have been given “everlasting consolation and good hope through grace” (2 Thessalonians 2:16)? No doubt cases differ considerably, and a variety of causes account for the failure of so many to enjoy their birthright. Space will permit us to name only two or three of the principal hindrances. Prominent among them is a defective ministry. In view of our text we place this first. How few ministers could warrantably say, “These things preach we unto you that your joy may be full!” What numbers of them are almost for ever talking about the increased wickedness which is in the world, the likelihood of another war, the menace of the atom bomb, or the waning spirituality of the churches—things that tend to horrify rather than edify, to depress rather than delight their hearers. Many others confine themselves very largely to a dwelling upon the shortcomings and failures of God’s people as though it were most desirable for them to cherish doubts and fears. Others are all for the performance of duty and discharge of obligations which, if stressed disproportionately, can but promote a proud and legal spirit. There is so very little of that preaching of Christ, which draws out the renewed heart unto Him, which leads to a closer walking and more intimate communing with Him, and which not only fills the saints with joy but at the same time instills a deep abhorrence of sin and inspires a stronger desire to honour and please Him. Second, the lack in many Christians of a definite assurance of their acceptance. How can one experience the peace of being reconciled to God, or the joy of knowing his sins are forgiven, while he be constantly debating whether or not he be His child? Not a few of His people dishonour the Father’s gift to them of His Son, in whom they have redemption and eternal life, by not estimating that gift at its true value. They do not take God at His word and believe that the death of Christ has cancelled all the guilt of His people, that He will by no means cast out any sinner who comes to Him for salvation, and that through Him they have full access and welcome to the Father’s house and heart. They have not really learnt the first lesson of the Gospel—the sufficiency of the Divine love. “Not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10); and consequently they withhold from Him that full confidence which the manifestation of such love calls for, and which He delights to receive from those upon whom He has bestowed such favours. Third, even when a Christian is well assured of his salvation he may dim and dampen the joy of it by failing to walk as a child of light (Ephesians 5:8). To do so he must cast off the “unfruitful works of darkness,” so far and so soon as he discovers them to be such. God hates sin, and sent His Son to save us from our sins. If then we turn again to folly, yield to the lusts of the flesh, and “allow” evil in our hearts and lives, then the Holy One will withdraw from us the light of His countenance. Yet even in this case He has made most gracious provision for our immediate and complete restoration to the knowledge of His favour and the joy of His smile: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). The moment any emotion, thought or deed is revealed to us as sin, we should penitently confess the same and then rejoice in the Divine declaration that the blood of Christ has washed away all the stain of it. Thus if we live up to our holy privilege, not even our sins should cloud the sunshine of God’s love or destroy the happy consciousness that He dwells in us and we in Him. When John penned the words, “These things write we unto you, that your joy may be full,” it is highly probable that he had in mind those statements which he had heard from his Master: “These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11), “These things speak I in the world, that they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves” (John 17:13). It is to be carefully observed that both these utterances fell from the lips of the Saviour upon the night of His betrayal. Very remarkable and blessed is it to hear Him—with the terrible crucifixion staring Him in the face—speaking of His joy. What a proof that spiritual joy is in no wise created or regulated by circumstances or external conditions! And how those striking declarations ought to correct a one-sided view which only too many have taken of Christ’s earthly life! Here too there is a balance to be preserved. He was indeed “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,” in a measure and degree which none else ever has been or can be, for His human sensibilities were more refined than ours. His were undulled by sin, and therefore He felt the effects of sin far more keenly and had a greater capacity for pain than we have. The sorrows and sufferings of Christ were many, poignant, inconceivable. It could not be otherwise with One of infinite purity surrounded by those who were hostile to God and enduring the contradiction of sinners against Himself. And while we must always keep sight of that fact and be deeply affected with the same in our souls, it is not to exclude from our view and thoughts the other side of His experience. Because He was a man of sorrows we are not to conclude that He was a miserable and melancholy person, that during the years He trod this earth He was a stranger unto joy. Admittedly we enter here the realm of mystery, and need to tread very cautiously and reverently, with unshodden feet; yet we must not close our eyes to what is clearly revealed in the Scriptures. Not only must we bear in mind that the One who then tabernacled in this scene of wickedness was God as well as man, not only need we to distinguish sharply between what He endured officially and what He experienced personally, but we are also required to take into careful consideration what is said of Him in the Psalms as well as in the Gospels if we are to obtain the complete picture. That the Lord Jesus possessed a real, deep, and abiding joy is clear not only from His own utterances in John 15:1-27 and John 17:1-26, but is equally evident from other considerations. He could aver, “The Lord is the portion of Mine inheritance and of My cup,” and add, “therefore My heart is glad” (Psalms 16:5, Psalms 16:9)—Jehovah was unto Him a fount of ceaseless consolation. As the connection between 1 John 1:3-4, imports, joy is inseparable from fellowship, and since the Son enjoyed unbroken fellowship with the Father until the three hours of darkness, fullness of joy must have been experienced by Him. Again, Christ found infinite satisfaction in discharging the commission assigned Him: “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work” (John 4:34). God’s commandments were never irksome or grievous to Him in the slightest degree, but rather were most blessed, as His “I delight to do Thy will, O My God” (Psalms 40:8) attests. Wisdom’s ways are “ways of pleasantness” (Proverbs 3:17), and Christ ever walked therein. He found His joy in concurring with the Father’s appointments: since God had ordered His lot, though He had not where to lay His head, He declared, “The lines are fallen unto Me in pleasant places” (Psalms 16:6). Contemplating the Father as “Lord of heaven and earth,” sovereignly hiding truth from one and revealing it to another, Christ “rejoiced in spirit” and said, “even so, Father: for so it seemed good in Thy sight” (Luke 10:21). Think not, then, of Christ during His earthly life as but “a man of sorrows;” contemplate Him too as One who was filled with joy. That the two things are in nowise incompatible is clear from the apostle’s experience: “as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing” (2 Corinthians 6:10). Christ’s joy consisted not only in the things which we have mentioned above, but also in the assurance of the Father’s full approbation that was ever His: that He did “always those things that pleased Him” (John 8:29). He found, too, unspeakable comfort in His consciousness of the Father’s abiding presence: “He that sent Me is with Me: the Father hath not left Me alone” (John 8:29). Since holiness and happiness are inseparably conjoined, deep joy must have been the portion of the Holy One, for He ever walked in the light of God’s countenance. What joy was His in the saving of sinners appears from His “layeth it [the recovered sheep] on His shoulders, rejoicing” (Luke 15:5). Finally, He endured the cross “for the joy that was set before Him” (Hebrews 12:2)—in faith’s apprehension and hope’s anticipation of the reward for His perfect work, He rejoiced. We come now to the question, Is fullness of joy attainable by the Christian in this life? Assuredly it must be, or John had never written our present text. Assuredly it must be, for why did the Lord Jesus say unto His disciples, “These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full” (John 15:11)? Therein Christ told out the fullness of His heart, intimating His desire concerning His own. If it were not attainable, then why has the Saviour also bidden us, “Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full” (John 16:24)? Ah, is not the littleness and feebleness of our joy due to the paucity of our faith and the smallness of our hope? Has not the eternal Lover of our souls freely invited us, “Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly” (Song of Solomon 5:1)? If fullness of joy be not experienced by us, then certainly we are living far below our privileges. The straitness is in ourselves, and not in Him or His revealed will. The Lord knows all about our temperaments, circumstances, trials and corruptions, yet, notwithstanding, bids us “rejoice evermore” (1 Thessalonians 5:16), having made full provision for us to do so. Did not this same John say to those whom he addressed in his second epistle, “I trust to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy may be full” (2 John 1:12)? Nor can we legitimately set aside the force of all these passages by saying they express the ideal rather than the actual, that they set before us the standard at which we are to aim, and not what is realized by any soul in this time state. Such an evasion is at once ruled out of court by Acts 13:52, “And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit”—and they were men subject to like temptations and passions as we are! As pardoned sinners, accepted in Christ, made sons and heirs of God, we should “rejoice in the Lord always.” We must not be content with a fitful and occasional joy, but rather see to it that we keep this holy fire ever aflame upon the altar of our hearts. It is both our privilege and our right to feed and feast upon the Lamb and satisfy our soul unto a holy satiety. Throughout our exposition of 1 John 1:4, we have followed the Authorized Version, but a word requires to be said upon the Revised rendering: “that our[“the apostles”] joy may be full.” Really, it comes to the same thing, for the joy of the minister is largely bound up in the spiritual prosperity of those to whom he ministers—their happiness being mutual. Paul called the Philippians his “joy and crown” (Php 4:1), and said of the Thessalonians, “Ye are our glory and joy” (1 Thessalonians 2:20): while John said to those addressed in his second epistle, “I rejoice greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth” (2 John 1:4), and in his third epistle, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth” (3 John 1:4). As the saints are partakers of the joy of God’s servants, so they, in turn, of theirs, for they rejoice in the same Saviour. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 10: 001.07. CHAPTER 7 ======================================================================== Chapter 7 LIGHT AND DARKNESS 1 John 1:5 “This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” We shall now consider, first, the connection of this verse with the immediately preceding ones—its bearing on the epistle as a whole will be shown under our exposition of 1 John 1:6. Second, its message or assertion. Third, its scope—in view of the teaching of Scripture on light and darkness. Fourth, its design, or the reasons why this declaration is here made. The A.V. is rather misleading, for the “then” suggests that the apostle is drawing an inference or pointing out a consequence from what he had stated previously. But such is not the case. The literal meaning of the Greek is “And this is the message,” and is so rendered in Bagster’s Interlinear, and the R.V. The opening “and” intimates not only a direct connection between this verse and the foregoing ones, but a continuation of the same subject. As usual, the Holy Spirit has graciously hung the key on the door for us by announcing the theme of this epistle in its opening verses, namely fellowship—with God, with the apostles, with fellow saints. Concerning that fellowship we have already seen that it has been made possible by the Son of God becoming incarnate and giving His people an experiential knowledge of Himself as the Word of life. It is regeneration which capacitates us to enter into this inestimable privilege. Not only is it a fellowship of spiritual life, but also in the Truth, consisting of a saving knowledge of Christ and the Father. It is likewise a gladsome fellowship, which, if entered into intimately and constantly, produces “fullness of joy.” Now we are informed it is a holy fellowship, for it is exercised only in “the light.” The blissful fellowship which the apostle was speaking of is radically different from anything known to natural man. The joy which it produces is greatly superior to any experienced by the senses. It is in nowise carnal, but wholly spiritual. It transcends all natural emotion. It was necessary to insist upon this so that neither congenial social intercourse nor religious excitement should be mistaken for it. There has always been a “mixed multitude” who attach themselves to the people of God, making a profession of Christ and claiming to enjoy communion with God. While this fellowship is open and free for all who are partakers of the Holy Spirit, yet no unregenerate persons can participate in this high favour. It was therefore a point of great practical importance that the apostle should make a clear statement thereon so as to guard against all erroneous conceptions of it and its joy. This he does by a most searching description of the One with whom such communion is had and by the solemn assertion that “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie.” Again, one can perceive almost at a glance, that “And this is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you” is intimately related to the contents of the previous verses. Both in 1 John 1:1 and 1 John 1:3 John had made mention of what he and his fellow apostles had heard from that blessed One who had been made manifest unto them, and which it was their mission to “declare” unto His redeemed (1 John 1:3). And now he gives an epitomized statement of what Christ had made known unto them: “this is the message.” The R.V. rendering is preferable: “heard from Him,” for it was not merely something about Christ which the apostles proclaimed, but rather what they had actually heard from His own lips. The “from Him” clearly has reference to the incarnate Word: because He is the principal Person spoken of in the immediate context, because He was the Sender of the apostles, and because He is the next antecedent in 1 John 1:3. The apostles and ministers of the Gospel are the messengers of the Lord Jesus, and it is their business to communicate His mind and will both to the churches and to the world. “But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:11-12). The Greek term translated “message” has several different shades of meaning when rendered into English. Young defines it as “promise,” for that word in 2 Peter 3:13, is derived from the same root and indicates its benign character. In Acts 22:30, it is translated “commandment,” which emphasizes its lordly nature. These agree with the first two statements made in the New Testament, concerning our Lord’s oral ministry: His hearers “wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth” (Luke 4:22); “the people were astonished at His doctrine: for He taught them as one having authority” (Matthew 7:28-29). But here in our text it is used to express the sum of the revelation communicated by Him. John here puts into a terse sentence what the apostles had gathered from Christ’s announcements. Or, if we place the emphasis on “And this is the message which we have heard from Him” its force would be, “This was the dominant and central doctrine our Master proclaimed, around which all others rotated and from which all others issued.” This “message” was one of the greatest importance, both in itself and also in the consequences of it, for it respected the ineffable purity of the Divine nature, and the imperishable glory of the same. John’s style here is similar to his opening words in the Apocalypse: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to show unto His servants,” which He sent “unto His servant John, who bare record of the word of God.” As the Son said unto the Father, “I have given them the words which You gave Me,” so they in turn communicated the same unto their converts (cf. 2 Timothy 2:2). Christ came here to declare and reveal the true and living God (John 1:18), and John here summarized His teaching: “this is the message which we have heard from Him, and declare unto you: that God is light.” This was not a discovery which the apostles made for themselves, nor an inference which they drew from the Divine works and ways. No, it was an authoritative communication which they had received from the Saviour, and therefore is to be accepted without question. We heartily agree with J. Morgan, who said of the substance of this message, “Its simplicity and comprehensiveness are amazing. It is so simple, a child perceives its meaning; while it is so comprehensive as to render a full exposition of it impossible.” “God is indefinable, because to define is to limit, and to speak of limiting infinitude is an absurdity. Names are ascribed to God in Scripture, and attributes, yet they convey only some faint notions of His exalted perfections; but sufficient is revealed to preserve the mind from vain imaginations or gross conceptions of His Being. Man knows nothing of God, and can know nothing, except what He has revealed. In condescension to our capacity God has revealed Himself under names and notions which may best strike our senses—the channel of all our reasonings and the medium by which we know” (A. Serle). Three statements are made (we dare not call them definitions) concerning what God is in Himself, which, for want of better terms, may be said to tell us something of His nature or character, and they should be reverently pondered in the order in which they occur in Scripture: “God is spirit” (John 4:24), “God is light” (1 John 1:5), “God is love” (1 John 4:8). “God is spirit.” The absence of the article (in the Greek) imports that God is spirit in the highest sense. The indefinite article in the English “a spirit” is objectionable, because it places Deity in a class with others. He is spirit itself, absolutely, the alone Source of spirit. The word “spirit” signifies in man’s lisping speech, “air” or “breath” or “wind,” being that subtle fluid by the respiration of which all things live. “What the air is in motion in the natural world, that the Divine Spirit is in the spiritual world... The Deity is revealed under the name of Spirit in order to declare that all existences, both corporate and incorporate, derive their spiritual life and being from Him. He is Spirit in the fount—the creatures are only so as streams proceeding from Him” (A. Serle). Life is a principle or power to act or move planted in a substance or being. A living creature then is one which can act from within itself, yet is wholly dependent upon its Giver—the living God, the Author and Sustainer of all life. Negatively, “God is spirit” signifies that He is both incorporeal and invisible. That declaration was necessary in order to correct the erroneous views entertained by those Jews and Samaritans who had, from the elaborate ritual of Judaism, formed a wrong concept of God. It was Jehovah Himself who ordained the imposing furnishings of the tabernacle and temple, with their vessels of silver and gold, their brilliantly coloured curtains, the gorgeous vestments of the high priest. But those things were never intended to intimate that the great God derived any personal satisfaction from them: rather were they appointed as types and emblems of Christ. “The most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands” (Acts 7:48). Nor is He charmed by elaborate services therein. God is spirit, immaterial, and therefore not sensual or influenced by the senses. God cannot be gratified with carnal things. It is not costly architecture, beautiful music, lovely flowers, fragrant incense, which please the eyes, ears and nostrils of the creature, but that which issues from renewed hearts He requires. “God is spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth”—spiritually and sincerely. “God is light” tells us very much more than the former statement. God is not only the light, but light itself—absolute, essential, infinite—the Source of all light. Scripture speaks of God in a peculiar and immediate relation to light. The pillar of fire was the symbol of His presence with Israel in the wilderness. Daniel tells us “His throne was like the fiery flame” (Daniel 7:9). Habakkuk declared, “His brightness was as the light” (Habakkuk 3:4). The Psalmist avers, “Who coverest Thyself with light as with a garment” (Psalms 104:2), on which Spurgeon remarked, “The concept is sublime: but it makes us feel how altogether inconceivable the personal glory of the Lord must be: if light itself is but His garment and veil, what must be the blazing splendour of His own essential being?” Perhaps the nearest we can come in framing an answer to that question is to employ the words of 1 Timothy 6:16—“dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see.” In James 1:17, He is denominated “the Father of lights.” “God is light” expresses all the excellence and glory of Deity. It is to be taken in its widest sense, as including the Divine essence and the three Persons therein, for though the Father be primarily in view, yet the Son and the Spirit are equally possessed of the Divine nature, and therefore are equally “light.” “God is light” is a word to search and awe us, for we “were sometimes darkness” (Ephesians 5:8), such being our woeful condition by nature. But it is also a word to gladden and warm us, for light shines for the benefit of others, as darkness is wrapped up in itself. Thus there is the Gospel in this word, for it tells us that Deity has been pleased to reveal and make Himself known unto men. “Light maketh all things visible on which it falls and from which it is reflected, but it becomes itself visible only in a radiant point or disc, like that of the insufferable sun, from which it floods the world. So God is unknown except in the person of Christ” (G. Smeaton). That is why Christ designated Himself “the light of the world” and why prophecy pointed to Him as “the Sun of righteousness” (Malachi 4:2), for where He is unknown, men “sit in darkness” and “in the region and shadow of death” (Matthew 4:16). “The supreme thing in the physical world is light. Apart from this there could hardly be a world at all, for all life and movement depend on it. It was the first of God’s creations, and it is the last thing that will fade before the approaching glory of the New Jerusalem. And yet of all things light is the most mysterious. The distance of the sun from the earth can be measured, the rate at which light travels across space can be gauged, and the rays can be passed through the prisms, divided and analysed. But the sun itself still dwells in light inaccessible. No eye can search its burning depths, and no mind can wrest from it its profound secret” (L. Palmer). “God is light:” “He is all that beauty and perfection that can be represented to us by light. He is self-acting, uncompounded spirituality, purity, wisdom, holiness and glory; and then the absoluteness and fullness of that excellency and perfection” (T. Reynolds). Most appropriate and comprehensive is the metaphor here used. “God is light” is a summarized expression of the Divine perfections. It tells us that He is the living God, for the rays of the sun exert a quickening influence, being a minister of vigour, health and growth to all creatures. It is the parent of all fruitfulness, for those regions (the poles) where the sun scarcely shines at all are barren wastes; so it is spiritually. It announces that God is a most glorious Being, for light is a thing of luster, dazzling the eyes of its beholder. It proclaims God’s excellency: “Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun” (Ecclesiastes 11:7). If it be a pleasant thing to behold the natural light, how much more so for the eyes of faith to behold the King in His beauty! It declares that He is a beneficent Being, the Fount of all blessedness. Light is the source of helpfulness and gladness to all who bask in its bright and genial rays. No beauty can appear anywhere without the light: exclude it and all charm at once disappears from every object. Nor can there be any beauty in the soul until God commands the light to shine in our hearts (2 Corinthians 4:6). More distinctly, light is the emblem of God’s holiness. Light is simple or pure. In it is neither mixture nor pollution, nor can there be. Its very nature and property repels defilement. It traverses unstained each object and medium of uncleanness. Snow is so bright that there is no other whiteness equal to it, but man’s step mars and defiles it. Water sparkles brightly as it issues from the spring, but man’s hand soils it. But none can make light’s purity less pure! Such is God in His ineffable purity. Again, light is a symbol of God’s omnipresence, for it is diffused throughout all creation, scattering its rays everywhere. In like manner, “Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord” (Jeremiah 23:24), which made the Psalmist exclaim, “Whither shall I go from Thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence” (Psalms 139:7). “Light is on the hill and in the valley, on sea and on land, in the city and in the desert. With its crystal fingers it clasps the round earth, and throws its mantle of brightness over all worlds” (Palmer). In a most striking way light also adumbrates God’s omniscience. Not only because it is the figure of knowledge and wisdom, but because of its searching power, entering into every corner and cranny of creation, revealing the hidden things of darkness. “All things that are discovered [margin] are made manifest by the light” (Ephesians 5:13). Light is allrevealing, equally so are the rays of Divine holiness, detecting sin and unmasking the world as a monster lying in the wicked one. As light reveals, so nothing can be hidden from God. He cannot be deceived, but sees things as they actually are. Our motives and aspirations are as palpable to Him as our bodies. “O Lord, Thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thoughts afar off... and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, Thou knowest it altogether ... Yea, the darkness hideth not from Thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to Thee” (Psalms 139:1-4, Psalms 139:12). In Scripture darkness and light are used in quite a number of figurative senses: among them, as signifying ignorance and knowledge (Ephesians 5:8), a state of nature and a state of grace (1 Peter 2:9), heaven (Colossians 1:12) and hell (Matthew 25:30). Thus, “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all” necessitates and draws the essential moral distinction between good and evil, holiness and sin, innocence and guilt. It also intimates that it is possible for creatures, yea, fallen creatures, to have fellowship with God, for light is diffusive, self-communicating, shining upon and illuminating dark bodies. Therein lies both its beneficence and its ascendancy over the darkness, as in Genesis 1:2-3. But more: this most comprehensive “message” elucidates the whole plan of redemption, wherein God acted throughout in this character, both exhibiting His opposition to the darkness and yet triumphing over it. In the person of His Son the light came to save those in darkness, yet preserving inviolable His own ineffable purity. Nor was there any surrender of the light to the darkness: no concession, no compromise. For when made sin (2 Corinthians 5:21), “God spared not His own Son”! Likewise, we are made to hate sin and repent before forgiveness is ours. Salvation is not only a miracle of grace, but the triumph of holiness. “And in Him is no darkness at all.” In the Greek there is a double negative. God is absolutely perfect: there is no blemish, no ignorance, no sin, no limitation, naught contrary to His perfection, nothing to mar or dim the splendour of His character; no possibility of any deterioration, for with the Father of lights there is “no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17). God is light which is never clouded, which never wanes. Therein we behold His paramount excellence. How radically different is the true and living God from every “god” of human invention or conception! While the heathen endowed their imaginary deities with certain virtues, they also attributed some vice or other to them. In the “god” of Pantheism and other systems of philosophy, the distinction between good and evil is only seeming and relative, and not real and absolute, for “he” is identified as much with the one as the other. Here, once more, we have illustrated the uniqueness of Holy Writ, for here alone is One made known to us in whom there is “no darkness at all.” That could not be said of the holy angels, whom He “charged with folly” (Job 4:18), because prior to their establishment in holiness they were liable to fall. Nor could it be said of Adam in his innocency, for his holiness was but a mutable one. But God is immutably holy, impeccable, for He “cannot be tempted with evil” (James 1:13). We cannot conceive of the least defect in God, for His holiness is His very being, and not a superadded thing like ours. “God is light:” He not only clothes Himself with the light, and dwells in the light, but He Himself is light, only light, and there is nothing in Him but light. Now to make this affirmation yet more emphatic, the negative is added to the positive: “And in Him is no darkness at all:” no kind of darkness, in any degree or manner; whatever falls under the appellation of “darkness” is excluded from His being. This has the value of intimating that we are to regard the term “light” in its widest possible latitude, and not to restrict it to holiness, for the antithesis, “darkness,” includes more than sin. No element enters into His light to obscure it; there is no limit to His knowledge, no stain on His holiness, no hindrance to His blessedness. The design of the apostle in 1 John 1:5 may be briefly summarized thus. First, to indicate the nature of that fellowship into which the saints are called: it is a holy one, “in the light.” That is its distinctive character, and is necessarily determined by the nature of God. Second, to impress upon believers the deep reverence of the Divine Majesty: that as light cannot mix with darkness, so they cannot converse with God except as their hearts are in a suitable frame and their minds filled with proper apprehensions of the great, holy, and glorious Being they are approaching. Third, to intimate to all succeeding generations of Christians that the holiness of God shines in and through every doctrine, every part of the Truth, every ordinance He has appointed. Fourth, to prepare his readers for what follows in his epistle. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 11: 001.08. CHAPTER 8 ======================================================================== Chapter 8 LIGHT AND DARKNESS 1 John 1:6 “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth.” In those words we have: (1) A lofty averment—claiming to have fellowship with God. (2) A flat contradiction—walk in darkness. (3) A solemn indictment—such are denounced as liars. (4) A sweeping inclusion: the “we” taking in the apostles themselves—if the cap fitted, they too must wear it. The connection between this verse and the one immediately preceding may be readily perceived: “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:1). John was writing on the subject of fellowship, and having described the character of the One with whom that fellowship is had, he makes application of his “message” unto two radically different classes, which together make up what is known as Christendom, or “the kingdom of heaven” in the parables of Matthew 13:1-58 and Matthew 25:1-10, which includes tares as well as wheat, bad fish as well as good, foolish virgins as well as wise ones. The first class comprises those who have a name to live, but are dead; the second, those who actually possess spiritual life. More specifically, the relation of 1 John 1:6 to 1 John 1:5 is that here we behold the Light detecting and exposing what is contrary thereto. Since in God there be no darkness at all, true piety is to be distinguished from its counterfeit by a walking in the light. By this criterion or test must we judge all who claim to hold converse with God: their characters must harmonize with His. In 1 John 1:6 John was not referring to the unregenerate as such, but to unrenewed professors, who boasted of their enjoying communion with the triune God. It was not the openly wicked and profane which he had in view, but those who unwarrantably bore the name of Christians, those who were in church fellowship. In his day, as now, there were in the Christian assemblies those who were born of God, and those who were not so. This is clear from those mentioned in 1 John 2:19, “They went out from us, but they were not of us;” originally members; later apostates. Jude refers to certain men who “crept in unawares,” ungodly men, who were “turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness” (Jude 1:4) Hence there was a real and pressing need for lip profession to be tested by the character of the daily life. This is done here by immediately following up the statement in 1 John 1:5 by a solemn warning against self-deception, insisting that fellowship with God is to be gauged by conformity unto Him in holiness and righteousness. So far as we can discern, the apostle’s design in the words before us was at least threefold. First, to stir up the saints themselves, and prevent their becoming careless and remiss. The apostle here warns them of how much need there was to watch their own hearts and to be circumspect and strict of their walk, avoiding everything which had a tendency unto sin, since that would interrupt their holding and maintaining communion with their heavenly Father. As the Psalmist declared, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” (Psalms 66:18): when I cherish that which is evil, the Holy will not connive at my sin. “If thou listen to the Devil, God will not listen to thee” (Spurgeon). Second, to convict and undeceive the deluded, that the ignorant and erring might discover their perilous state and be led to cry unto God for a real work of grace to be wrought in them. Third, to unmask hypocrites, and thereby prevent the children of God being imposed upon by those who had nothing in common with them; and to separate themselves from all such false pretenders. In seeking a closer view of our present verse, we not only need to attend to the context, but also to bear carefully in mind John’s peculiar style. We made a brief reference to this in the introductory chapter, when calling attention to the abstract (and absolute) character of many of his statements. Thus in 1 John 1:3, he declared “truly our fellowship is with the Father”—not “ought to be,” taking no notice of the things which hinder and break it. So it is here: he speaks of that which characterizes a person, and not of something which is exceptional. There are none on earth who enjoy unbroken and unclouded fellowship with God. Only One could say, “I have set the Lord always before Me” (Psalms 16:8). In like manner, there has never been a saint who walked uninterruptedly in the light, who never deviated from the paths of righteousness. None but Christ could aver “I do always those things that please Him” (John 8:29). He alone ever practiced what He preached and perfectly exemplified what He taught: hence the unique emphasis of “mighty in deed and word before God and all the people” (Luke 24:19), and “all that Jesus began both to do and teach” (Acts 1:1). “If we say that we have fellowship with Him.” Here is a lofty avowal supposed. “If we say” is a common mode of speaking in Scripture to express a definite affirmation or profession, as in “but now ye say, We see” (John 9:41), “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works?” (James 2:14); “He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar” (1 John 2:4), where in each instance, as here, the declaration is proved to be an idle boast. It is a bare assertion without any corresponding reality. There is a radical difference between profession and possession. To “have fellowship with God” presupposes regeneration and reconciliation unto Him. To state that we have fellowship with God is tantamount to claiming that we are His children, to be partakers of the Divine nature, to be delivered from this present evil world, and that we belong to that company whose desire and determination it is to please and glorify Him. To have fellowship with God means that our affections are set upon things above, that we bask in the light of His countenance. “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie.” Obviously the first task before the expositor here is to give a correct definition or explanation of what it means to “walk in darkness,” and strange as it may sound (heretical to some ears) that is not necessarily the same thing as a Scriptural one. There are many terms and expressions in God’s Word which are used by no means uniformly, and it is the interpreter’s duty to ascertain by a careful study of its setting, and then demonstrate to the reader, what is its precise meaning in any given instance. Thus, in Isaiah 50:10, the words “walketh in darkness” are found, yet their force there is quite different from that in our present text, and they respect very diverse characters. Let us, then, examine closely its language. In Scripture, a man’s “walk” refers not to any single act, or even habit, but rather to the general tenor of a person’s behaviour—the regular course followed by him. “Walking” is a voluntary act (Proverbs 2:13), continuous action (Isaiah 65:2), progressive action (2 Timothy 3:13). A man’s walk reveals the state of his heart, being a practical expression of what he is. Whatever that term may signify in other passages, to “walk in darkness” certainly does not here mean to be in doubt about our spiritual state, or to be totally lacking in assurance of our acceptance with God; nor even a deep depression and despondency of soul. It is indeed desirable for the saint to know he has passed from death unto life and to have the Spirit bearing witness with his spirit that he is a child of God, as it is also both his privilege and duty to “rejoice in the Lord always;” yet though he may lack both the one and the other (and such is to be greatly deplored, and never excused), the absence thereof is no proof that he is not a Christian. No, something very much graver than that is here in view. While “the darkness” has reference to the realm inhabited by this class, nevertheless it is also their activities in that realm which the apostle had before him. In general terms to walk in darkness is to order our lives in opposition to the revealed character and will of Him who is light. It is expressive of being in a state of nature and acting accordingly. More specifically, to walk in darkness is the condition of all the unregenerate, for they are total strangers to God and His so-great salvation. “For we were sometimes darkness” (Ephesians 5:8) describes our fearful state by nature. By his fall man was deprived of the favour of God, the Spirit of God, the image of God in his soul, and darkness became his element. Second, to walk in darkness is to be under the curse of God, for when Christ was made a curse for His people (Galatians 3:13) there was “darkness over all the land” (Matthew 27:45) for the space of three hours. Third, to walk in darkness is to be under the control of Satan, for salvation is a being turned “from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God” (Acts 26:18) and cf. Colossians 1:13. Fourth, to walk in darkness is to be completely under the dominion of sin (Proverbs 4:19). To walk in darkness is to tread the broad road which leads to destruction, and the one who does so ends by being “cast into outer darkness” (Matthew 22:13). To walk in darkness is to conduct ourselves unholily, to follow steadily a course of self-pleasing, for “the unfruitful works of darkness” are the products of the flesh. It is not simply to be betrayed by the force of temptation into inconsistent actions, but the ruling principle and power of our lives is the very reverse of godliness, demonstrating such to be complete strangers to a work of Divine grace. “Darkness” here has reference to the dominion and power of sin, with its awful effects upon the character and conduct of the unregenerate. Even though the grosser forms of sin appear not in the life, yet enmity against God rules the heart, regulates the thoughts and affections, and determines the motives; and though the ungodly may have little or no cognizance of the same, yet all these things are “naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do” (Hebrews 4:13). As the best fruits of grace are produced by the Spirit in the heart and are known and valued only by the Lord, so it is with indwelling sin—its principal and vilest productions are not seen by our fellows. Again, to walk in darkness is explained both by the contents of the preceding verse and the antithesis pointed in the following one. “Light” is transparent and translucent, open and clear, and it is so always and everywhere; whereas darkness is characterized by the opposite properties: it conceals, disguises, distorts. By his apostasy from God man lost that element of simplicity and openness in which he was created. Moreover, the clear and bright sunshine of the countenance of Him who is light became intolerant to the fallen creature—man fled and hid himself from God. Hence it is that insincerity and deceitfulness mark the natural man. He is not honest either with himself or in his dealings with God. He tries to make himself out to be other than he is. Men love darkness rather than light: “For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved” (John 3:20). Finally, let it be pointed out that to walk in darkness includes living under fundamental error concerning spiritual and eternal things. Every doctrine of men, everything which is contrary to the glorious Gospel of the blessed God, derogatory to the honour and dignity of Christ, or which is opposed to the free grace of God in election, effectual calling, final perseverance, and the inculcation of true piety, is sinful in the sight of God and morally evil in us. He has not given His Word for us to pass judgment upon, but to receive into our minds with all submissiveness. There can be no fellowship with God but in the belief and practice of the Truth. While we are walking in the reception and influence of anything contrary to Divine revelation, we can have no communion with Him, for we are in the darkness of error. Every part of the Truth is like its Author: light, pure, holy, perfect. His doctrine is “according to godliness” (1 Timothy 6:3), promoting and increasing it, supplying motives thereunto. But error is pernicious, and its words “eat as doth a canker” (2 Timothy 2:17). “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie.” Surely that is self-evident. Not only is the latter manifestly inconsistent with the former, but the two things are utterly irreconcilable. Purity and impurity are opposites. They are radically and essentially distinct. They are contrary in their nature, their properties, and their tendencies. Sin and holiness are diametrically antagonistic to each other. Truth and error can never agree: there can be no such thing as walking in the Truth and at the same time living in that which is flatly contradictory thereto. “What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial?” (2 Corinthians 6:14-15). None whatever: they are avowed enemies of each other. To make the claim that I am enjoying fellowship with God and at the same time for me to be ruled by Satan, acting in self-gratification and taking pleasure in the ways of sin, is not only a patent absurdity and an empty pretence, it is also a manifest falsehood, a wicked lie. Such glaring hypocrisy calls for strong denunciation. Very different was John from our mealy-mouthed men who gain a reputation for being “gracious” at the expense of fidelity. John did not merely say that this class of Christian professors erred or were “labouring under a delusion,” but spoke plainly and called them what they were. He was the apostle of love, and here gave proof thereof, for love is faithful. False pretences need to be dealt with sternly and their dishonesty condemned. The apostle used great plainness of speech, yet no more so than the case called for. It was not only that their lips were uttering what was untrue, but they were acting an untruth, their very lives were a falsehood, and therefore they were not to be spared. To be guilty of making such an outrageous claim is to traduce the character of God, for He holds no intercourse with the unholy; is to repudiate the Truth, for such have no access to God; and is grievously to dishonour the cause of Christ. “And this is the message which we have heard from Him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth.” By putting those verses together, not only is the proposition in the latter more self-evident, but the needs be for the former becomes plainer. At first sight it seems strange that John should announce so formally and emphatically such elementary truths. Surely, if there be anything which believers are clear upon it is the character of God, and that it precludes such an incongruity as is here refuted. Why then commence therewith right after the introductory verses? Because one of the chief designs of this epistle is the testing of Christian profession. Because there were, and have been ever since, many in Christendom who came under the description of 1 John 1:6. And because there is still a sad tendency remaining in real Christians practically to deny this proposition—to act deceitfully, to trifle with sin, fellowship the unfruitful works of darkness, and yet suppose they are in communion with God; which is virtually saying that He is not light. The love of approbation is the native trend of the human heart. Each person desires to be well thought of by his fellows, and the vast majority pose as being better than they are. Fear of censure and the contempt of others is another powerful motive which induces many to act the part of hypocrites, and such needs to be unsparingly mortified by the saint, for the extent to which he yields thereto makes him untruthful, and effectually hinders him from walking with the Holy One. Thus it is that so many of the unregenerate apply for Church membership: they profess the truth of the Gospel, but are strangers to its power. Many of them claim to have not only fellowship with God, but an exalted type and high degree thereof. They have much to say about the grace of God, but little or nothing of His holiness. They extol the imputed righteousness of Christ, but give no evidence of being recipients of His imparted righteousness. They prate about their peace and joy, but their daily lives are not ordered by the precepts of the Word. Their walk gives the lie to their profession. “If we say:” John here includes himself! Were we, the apostles of Christ, to be found walking in darkness and at the same time asserting that we have fellowship with God, we should brand ourselves as liars. The “if” does not signify that such a thing was possible; rather was John pointing out what was utterly impossible. The apostles had fellowship with God and gave clear proof of the same. The blessed effects thereof were felt in their souls and appeared in their lives. It preserved them from sin, and deepened their hatred of it. It is impossible to have fellowship with God and not become increasingly conformed to Him. If it be true that “he that walketh with wise men shall be wise” (Proverbs 13:20), how much more so will walking with God deliver from folly! If evil communications corrupt good manners, then certainly Divine communications will correct evil manners. Fellowship with God requires oneness of nature, and walking with Him produces sameness of character. Fellowship with God ever issues in spiritual fruitfulness. Thus it is the wisdom and duty of each of us to test himself by this rule, and then measure his associates thereby. “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth.” John here denounces such a sham, exposes its base inconsistency, and denies that such have any intercourse with Him who is light. “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (Amos 3:3). Neither can one walk with God without being radically influenced thereby. “What God communicates to us is not a base fiction, for it is necessary that the power and effect of this fellowship should shine forth in the life: otherwise our profession of the Gospel is fallacious” (Calvin). Yet the spirit of self-deception and hypocrisy prevails to such an extent that our churches are filled with those of high pretensions whose walk is entirely inconsistent therewith—they have no true sight of themselves nor sense of their peril. Their practice demonstrates the falsity of their profession. They “do not the truth;” they act not in accord with its holy requirements—they are not vitally influenced thereby. Christianity does not consist in “saying” but in being. Unspeakably solemn is what has been before us. We are plainly warned that “There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness” (Proverbs 30:12), and if I really value my eternal interests I shall seriously inquire, Do I belong to that company? Remember that self-love works presumption. Take nothing for granted; refuse to give yourself the benefit of any doubt. If you honestly desire to know the truth about yourself, then pray sincerely and earnestly, “Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my heart” (Psalms 26:2). No matter how well instructed your mind, or what be your happy feelings, measure yourself by this unerring rule. Truth is not only to be believed and loved, but practised. It is at this point that graceless professors are to be distinguished from the regenerate. The one who hears Christ’s sayings but does them not is building on the sand (Matthew 7:26). The one whom He owns as a spiritual kinsman is he who does the Father’s will (Matthew 12:50). Those whom Christ pronounces blessed are they who “hear the word of God, and keep it” (Luke 11:28). “Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 12: 001.09. CHAPTER 9 ======================================================================== Chapter 9 WALKING IN THE LIGHT 1 John 1:7 “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” Our present verse, especially its closing portion, is probably the best known and most frequently quoted in all the Epistle, yet our familiarity with its language is no proof that we rightly understand its meaning, still less that it calls for no careful study and prayerful pondering. It is only when we come to inquire closely into its terms and the relation of one clause to another that we discover the verse is not quite so obvious and simple as we thought. As it be slowly and thoughtfully examined, the following questions suggest themselves and call for answer: • Why is this statement made in the hypothetical form—“but if”? • What is signified by “walking in the light”? • How are we to understand the amplifying “as He is in the light”? • Who is the “one with another” between whom there is fellowship? • Is the “cleansing” here judicial or experimental, or does it include both justification and sanctification? • Does the present tense “cleanseth” oblige us to regard it as a process? • What is the exact relation of the final clause to the preceding ones—is the “cleansing” conditional upon our “walking in the light?” It should be obvious to any careful reader that several of these questions can only be satisfactorily answered by pondering the two verses which immediately precede our text. If it be detached therefrom, we are likely to misapprehend both its force and its terms. We shall, therefore, quote the same: “This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” Those three verses are, in turn, an amplification of “truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3). There the general fact was stated; here details are entered into. First, the essential nature or character of the One with whom fellowship is enjoyed is described. Then we are shown the characters of those who are debarred from such a privilege. Here we are informed who are the ones that have fellowship with God, and how that fellowship is established and maintained. Such is the transcendent excellency of God that none can hold converse or have fellowship with Him save those who are partakers of His nature and are being conformed unto His holy image. “If, therefore, our conversation be in darkness, if we wallow in the mire of untamed, unmortified lust, whatever our evangelical profession may be, or howsoever we may fancy ourselves entered into a fellowship with the Father by the means of the Mediator, it is but a lying imagination; for how can there be communion between two natures so different, between light and darkness, purity and impurity, heaven and hell, God and the Devil? But if our conversation (manner of life) be agreeable to Gospel precepts, we have then fellowship with Him” (Charnock). Here then is the reason why 1 John 1:7 opens with the word “but”—because it presents a contrast with those described in the preceding one. Here, too, is the answer to our first question above: both verses are introduced by an “if” because it is the testing of profession which is in view: in the former, it is shown to be worthless, false; in the latter, genuine and valid. By it each reader should honestly measure himself. The particular characters set over against each other in 1 John 1:6-7 are the same as those referred to by Christ in John 3:19-21, evil-doers who hate the light; truth-doers who welcome it—with the latter there is a concord between profession and performance, with all its blessed consequences. “In the context the apostle speaketh of communion with God. Now communion with God we cannot have till we be reconciled to Him by Christ, and none can be looked upon as reconciled to Him by Christ but those that endeavour conformity to God in purity and holiness” (Manton). In 1 John 1:6 the hypocrite is exposed and condemned; in 1 John 1:7 the real Christian is identified and confirmed. He furnishes evidence that he is in fellowship with God and has a saving interest in the cleansing blood of Christ, and that by the character of his walk. Thus the “if” is used in our present verse, as in the foregoing, to substantiate the truth contained in the assertion. So far from weakening the statement or rendering it doubtful, it makes it more positive and unequivocal—that is why instead of saying “ye” the apostle employed “we,” thereby including himself. “There can be no walking with God, who is light, but as we renounce and avoid every false way; and walk in Truth, in the light of it, and under the sacred energy of the same” (S.E. Pierce). Coming now to our second question, What is signified by “walking in the light?” There is less need for us to dwell at length upon this, since we entered so fully in our last upon walking in darkness. First, it necessarily presupposes regeneration, for certainly one cannot walk in the light unless he first be in the light, and this none are until they be born again. Then they are effectually called and brought “out of darkness into God’s marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). Then they are made “light in the Lord” (Ephesians 5:8), and therefore is it said of them, “Ye are all the children of light and the children of the day: we are not of the night nor of darkness” (1 Thessalonians 5:5). But, second, they give proof of this by acting accordingly, just as those who “are darkness” love darkness, walk in darkness, and produce “the unfruitful works of darkness” (Ephesians 5:11). Thus to “walk in the light” imports much more than the sphere in which the believer lives, namely the manner in which he conducts himself there. He is not only in the light positionally, but he walks in it practically. In other words, his external conduct reflects his internal condition. As his character corresponds to the nature of God, so his character is exhibited by his conduct. The tree is known by its fruits. There is a light to which the Christian is journeying—the realm of unclouded glory (Proverbs 4:18; Colossians 1:12). There is a light by which he walks—that of God’s Word (Psalms 119:105; Proverbs 6:23). There is also a light in which he walks—the highway of holiness (John 8:12). To “walk” connotes not an occasional step, but an habitual course. A person’s “walk” is a figurative expression which signifies the general tenor of his life. “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly” (Psalms 1:1)—whose ways and works are not regulated by carnal policy and self’s interests. “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7)—with our hearts engaged with the perfection of an invisible God and our wills subjected to His. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). Again, to “walk in the light”, is to live in separation from the world, with our affections set upon things above, laying up our treasure there. Darkness is the principle which actuates and governs the world, for it is inveterately opposed to the Father (1 John 2:16), and he who will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God (James 4:4). Thus it is clear that the fellowship with God estranges its subjects from the world. The Christian belongs to another sphere and manifests it by his deportment. We must be careful not to restrict the idea of walking in the light unto our external actions. God ever looks first upon the heart, and desires truth “in the inward parts” (Psalms 51:6). He will not tolerate dishonesty and cannot be imposed upon by any species of deception. The Holy One allows neither insincerity nor concealment from those with whom He communes. Two cannot walk together except they be agreed, and there is a radical lack of agreement if we distrust God or hide anything from Him. Light is clear and transparent, and to walk in it means that we are open and candid with Him. There must be complete frankness in all of our dealings with God. If I turn a blind eye to something suspicious in myself, or shrink from meeting a brother or fellow creature because I have an uneasy feeling that he has just cause of complaint against me, then I am seeking shelter from the darkness. But if I genuinely desire that my secret sins should be discovered to me, if I daily measure myself by God’s pure truth and judge myself in the light of His holiness, if I sincerely pray “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalms 139:23-24), then do I truly love the light and hate all shams. “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light.” The apostle explains what he intends in the first clause by drawing an illustration from the One who is Himself light and dwells in eternal purity and glory. The self-same Model is here presented to us by the apostle as his Master set before him and his fellows: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Nothing short of absolute perfection is the standard at which we ever must aim. But does not our present verse speak of something more than aim—even actual realization? Certainly. Yet it is that of likeness and not of sameness; or, rather, not of sameness in degree. As Trapp so well expressed it, “We walk in the light as God is in the light for quality, but not for equality.” We are indeed being conformed to His image, and bear His likeness, yet fall very short of His stature. As Spurgeon pointed out, “I can walk in the light of the sun, though I cannot dwell in it; and I can walk in the light as God is in the light, though I cannot attain to the same measure of excellence, purity, and truth in which the Lord Himself resides.” “We have fellowship one with another.” It strikes the writer as passing strange that any Christian should have difficulty with those words. In view of the ones immediately preceding, surely their meaning is plain. If we be walking in the light as God is in the light, it follows as a certain fact that we have fellowship with Him and He with us. We are one with Him in nature, in love of the Truth, in delighting in holiness. Those who are born of God are as truly attracted unto Him as the babe is to its mother. If we be walking with God then His secret is with us (Psalms 25:14) and our secret is with Him. He opens His heart to us, and we open our hearts to Him. He sups with us, and we with Him (Revelation 3:20). Yet our fellowship with God is neither perfect nor constant in this life, any more than our walk is. A godly walk both fits us for and evidences we are in communion with God. The previous verse, where the opposite is stated, removes all uncertainty: “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie ... But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.” “And the blood of Jesus Christ His Son [namely, the Son of Him with whom we have fellowship] cleanseth us from all sin.” Cleansing from sin is a sacrificial term, which can best be understood in the light of the Old Testament types, particularly that of Leviticus 16:30, “For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord.” That cleansing was effected by the shedding of blood. It was in nowise subjective, or something wrought within them, but, instead, a work done for them. It was not a matter of purifying their hearts, but of annulling their guilt and putting away their sins judicially from “before the Lord.” The blood of atonement not only propitiated God, it purged the people—freed them from God’s wrath, rendered them meet to worship Him. Again, in Numbers 35:31-33, we read of Israel’s land being “cleansed” by the penalty of the Law being enforced and guilt thereby expiated. The “land” signifies the people who resided there: when the claims of Divine justice and holiness had been met, sin was not imputed or charged to them. Though the blessings of justification and sanctification ever accompany each other, yet they must not be confounded, but considered distinctly. Justification has to do wholly with the legal side of our salvation. It consists of absolution from our sins, and being declared righteous by God on account of the perfect obedience of Christ being reckoned to the believer. Sanctification has to do more with the experiential and practical side, the fitting or rendering us meet for God’s presence, and where that is in view the operations of the Spirit and the water of the Word are mentioned. That, too, is equally a fruit of the redemptive work of Christ, which procured for His people the gift of the Spirit. But what we have here in our text is judicial only. First, because as a fact no believer is cleansed from all sin in this life in any other way. Second, because the cleansing is by blood, and that always respects the objective side of things: see Romans 5:9; Ephesians 1:7; Revelation 1:5. “When He had by Himself purged [or “made a cleansing of”] our sins” (Hebrews 1:3, and cf. Hebrews 9:26). It is the blood which gives us title to enter into the holiest (Hebrews 10:19)—“sanctified” by blood occurs only in Hebrews 10:10; Hebrews 13:12, in its sacrificial sense, of setting us apart before God in all the acceptableness of Christ’s perfect oblation. If the cleansing be a judicial one, relating to our justification, why is it spoken of in the present tense? First, to set forth the eternal efficacy of Christ’s blood, which may be considered distinctly as shed, as pleaded, and as applied or sprinkled (1 Peter 1:2). As Charnock so well put it, “The blood of Christ cleanseth, not hath cleansed or shall cleanse. This denotes a continued act. There is a perpetual pleading of it for us, a continual flowing of it to us. It is a fountain set open for sin (Zechariah 13:1). There is a perpetual stream of virtue from this blood, as there is of corruption from our nature. It was shed but once, but it is applied often, and the virtue of it is as durable as the person whose blood it is.” We do not immediately enter into the whole good of Christ’s redemption at the hour of conversion (Romans 8:23). As there are blessings procured for us by Christ that await us in the future, so there are others which are received by us gradually in this life. Our cleansing is one of them. Sin ever defiles, no matter who commits it. Some say, Though God sees sin in His children, He no longer sees sin on them. But He does, and deals with them accordingly. He no longer imputes it to their eternal condemnation, but He notices it to their temporal chastisement (Psalms 89:30-33). Second, our cleansing, even judicially, is, in fact, continual. This is denied by some, on the ground that it is dishonouring to the sacrifice of Christ, bringing it down to those offered under the Law, which produced only a temporary remission. But such an objection is pointless. It is true that at conversion all our previous iniquities are blotted out, but to speak of God’s forgiving us our future sins before they are committed is senseless; “having forgiven you all trespasses” (Colossians 2:13) is quoted by these Antinomians, but that refers to all pre-conversion ones, or, as 2 Peter 1:9, styles them, “purged from his old sins.” Until fresh sins are committed, further guilt accrues not, and therefore cannot be removed until it is there. We will say nothing further upon this point now, as it will come before us again (D.V.) when considering 1 John 1:9. Rather let us thank God that the cleansing blood is ever available for sinful creatures, and plead it in all our approaches unto Him. Christ’s blood is called “a new way” in Hebrews 10:20, and the word signifies “newly slain”—as suited to us today as when shed on the cross. When taking up the second half of our verse, honest Spurgeon said, “I have been driven to this text, and yet I have been afraid of it.” After pointing out that it had very often been handled out of its connection, he added the following. “I do feel that it is essential to the Christian ministry not to pick passages out of God’s Word and rend them away from the context, but to take them as they stand. God’s Word must be taken as God speaks it: we have no right to divide the living child of Divine Truth and detach the second half of our verse from the first half, or wrest it to make it mean other than it does. According to the text, special pardon of sin is the peculiar privilege of those who walk in the light as God is in the light; but it is not the privilege of anyone else. Only those who have been brought by Divine grace from a state of nature into a state of grace, and walk in the light, may claim the possession of perfect cleansing through the blood of Christ.” Manton, too, wavered in determining whether our walk in the light is an evidence of a saving interest in Christ’s blood or necessary thereunto, and declared, “It is best to say, It is both a sign and a condition without which we cannot have benefit by Christ’s death; but the first condition is faith; next, love and holiness to continue our interest in this privilege.” In the first three verses John testified that the apostles had fellowship with the Father and His Son, and declared this in order that “ye also may have fellowship with us.” But who are the “ye?” The children of God, those redeemed by Christ. But how are such to be identified? In 1 John 1:6-7 he tells us: not every one who professes to participate in this privilege, but those whose practice accords with their profession. Thus, in the clear light of the whole context, the first design of John in here linking together walking in the light and cleansing by the blood is to assure the hearts of believers: they may know their interest in the latter by their sincere endeavours after a more constant subjection to the Truth and a closer fellowship with God. As Charnock said, mutual fellowship between God and us “is a certain proof that we are interested in the expiatory virtue of the blood of Christ.” Second, it is intended to humble us. Our walking in separation from the world and enjoying fellowship with God is no ground for boasting, for they are impossible apart from Christ’s sacrifice—we owe them to His blood, and are here reminded of our complete dependence upon it. But, third, the second half of the verse is brought in for our instruction. “Nothing is said about Christian experience as a means of cleansing. What, says one, do not the first sentences of the verse imply that? Assuredly not. If I walk in the light as God is in the light, what then? Does my walking in the light take away my sins? Not at all. I am as much a sinner in the light as in the darkness, if it were possible for me to be in the light without first being washed in the blood. Well, but we have fellowship with God, and does not that take away sin? Beloved, do not misunderstand me. No man can have fellowship with God unless sin be taken away; but his fellowship with God does not take away his sin—not at all. The whole process of the removal of sin is here: the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth us from all sin. I beg to repeat: neither our walking in the light, nor having fellowship with God, cleanses us from sin: these go with the cleansing, but they have no connection as cause and results.” (Spurgeon). Fourth, the closing words of our text are designed for the comfort of the Christian. The more he walks in the light, the more are the hidden things of darkness (the corruption of his heart) revealed and exposed. The greater the sinner he comes to perceive himself, the more highly he prizes the atoning and cleansing blood of Christ, and the more completely does he rest his soul on its sufficiency and plead its virtues before God. Likewise, the closer he be admitted into fellowship with God, the more conscious does he become of those things in his heart and life which are out of harmony therewith, and beg Him for Christ’s sake to enable him to mortify and put them away. And when painfully aware that sinful conduct has broken his fellowship, he mourns over the same, acknowledges it to God, and betakes himself again to that fountain which has been opened for sin and for uncleanness, that the hindering cause may be removed and communion restored. The farther a Christian proceeds on the path of holiness, the viler he becomes in his own eyes, and the deeper his appreciation of Christ’s sacrifice. Our present verse emphasizes the enormity of sin: so exceedingly sinful is it that the blood of God’s Son must be shed in order for its removal. It teaches us the defiling effects of sin: it pollutes and renders us filthy. Then let us never think lightly of it, for naught but the blood of Christ can remove its horrible stains. Here too we behold the sufficiency of Christ’s atonement: it has made satisfaction unto God both for our original and personal sins. No sin a Christian ever commits is too black or crimson for it to be blotted out. The precious blood of Christ is of enduring virtue and perpetual efficacy—ever available for the befouled believer. But faith must lay hold of it, and there must be a return to walking in the light, in order to be sprinkled from an evil conscience. “Walk in the light because we are cleansed from our sin; but we are also cleansed from our sin because we walk in the light” (Levi Palmer). Our title for a sermon on 1 John 1:7 would be: Walking in the light, washed by the blood. 1. A definite contrast (with 1 John 1:6)—pointed by the “But.” 2. A spiritual performance: walking in the light. 3. A blessed privilege: mutual fellowship between God and us. 4. A gracious provision for failures: the cleansing blood. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 13: 001.10. 2 PETER 1:2, 3 ======================================================================== 10 2 Peter 1:2-3 No thorough study of the prayers of the apostles, or of the prayers of the Bible as a whole, would be complete without an examination of the benedictions with which the apostles (James excepted), prefaced their Epistles. Those opening salutations were very different from a mere act of politeness, as when the chief captain of the Roman soldiers at Jerusalem wrote a letter after this manner: "Claudius Lysias unto the most excellent governor Felix sendeth greeting" (Acts 23:26). Far more than a courteous formality were their introductory addresses, yea, even than the expressions of a kindly wish. Their "grace be unto you and peace" was a prayer, an act of worship, in which Christ was always addressed in union with the Father. It signifies that a request for these blessings had been made before the throne. Such benedictions evinced the warm affection in which the apostles held those to whom they wrote, and breathed forth their spiritual desires on their behalf. By putting these words of blessing at the very beginning of his Epistle, the Apostle Peter made manifest how powerfully his own heart was affected by the goodness of God toward his brethren. That which is now to engage our attention may be considered under the following heads. First we shall look at the substance of the prayer: "grace and peace"—these are the blessings besought of God. Secondly, we shall ponder the desired measure of their bestowal: "be multiplied unto you." Thirdly, we shall contemplate the medium of their conveyance: "through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord." Fourthly, we shall examine the motive prompting the request: "According as his Divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness" (2 Peter 1:3). Before filling in that outline or giving an exposition of those verses, let us point out (especially for the benefit of young preachers, for whom it is especially vital to learn how a text should be pondered) what is implied by this prayer. The Vital Implications of This Benediction In the apostle’s seeking from God such blessings as these for the saints the following vital lessons are taught by implication: (1) that none can merit anything at the hands of God, for grace and merit are opposites; (2) that there can be no real peace apart from Divine grace—"There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked" (Isaiah 57:21); (3) that even the regenerate stand in need, constant need, of grace from God; and (4) the regenerate, therefore, should be vile in their own eyes. If we would receive more from God, then we must present our hearts to Him as empty vessels. When Abraham was about to make request of the Lord, he demeaned himself as "dust and ashes" (Genesis 18:27); and Jacob acknowledged that he was not worthy of the least of His mercies (Genesis 32:10). (5) Such a request as Peter is here making is a tacit confession of the utter dependence of believers upon God’s bounty, that He alone is able to supply their need. (6) In asking for grace and peace to be multiplied to them, acknowledgment is made that not only the beginning and continuance of them, but also their increase proceeds from the good pleasure of God. (7) Intimation is hereby given that we may "open thy [our] mouth wide" (Psalms 81:10, brackets mine) to God. Yea, it is an ill sign to be contented with a little grace. "He was never good that doth not desire to grow better," says Manton. The Special Character of the Second Epistles A word needs also to be said upon the character of the book in which this particular prayer is found. Like all second Epistles, this one treats of a state of affairs where false teaching and apostasy had a more or less prominent place. One of the principal differences between his two Epistles is this: whereas in his first Epistle Peter’s main design was to strengthen and comfort his brethren amid the suffering to which they were exposed from the profane (heathen) world (see chapter 4), and he now graciously warns (2 Peter 2:1; 2 Peter 3:1-4) and confirms (2 Peter 1:5-11; 2 Peter 3:14) them against a worse peril from the professing world, from those within Christendom who menaced them. In his first Epistle Peter had represented their great adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8). But here, without directly naming him, he depicts Satan as an angel of light (but in reality the subtle serpent), who is no longer persecuting, but seeking to corrupt and poison them through false teaching. In the second chapter those false teachers are denounced (1) as men who had denied the Lord that bought them (2 Peter 1:1), and (2) as licentious (2 Peter 1:10-14, 2 Peter 1:19), giving free play to their carnal appetites. The Apostle Peter addresses his Epistle "to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of our God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:1; word order here is according to the Greek text and KJV marginal note). The word faith here refers to that act of the soul whereby Divinely revealed truth is savingly apprehended. Their faith is declared to be "precious," for it is one of God’s choicest gifts and the immediate fruit of His Spirit’s regenerating power. This is emphasized in the expression "have obtained" (lagchanō, no. 2975 in Strong and Thayer). It is the same Greek word found in Luke 1:9 : "his lot was to burn incense" (ital. mine). It appears again in John 19:14: "Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it" (ital. mine). Thus these saints were reminded that they owed their saving faith not to any superior sagacity of theirs, but solely to the allotments of grace. It had been with them as with Peter himself. A revelation had been made to them: not by flesh and blood, but by the heavenly Father (Matthew 16:17). In the dispensing of God’s favors a blessed portion had fallen to them, even "the faith of God’s elect" (Titus 1:1). The them whom Peter addresses are the Gentiles, and the us in which he includes himself are the Jews. Their faith had for its object the perfect righteousness of Christ their Surety, for the words "through the righteousness of" are probably better translated and understood "in the righteousness of" the Divine Savior. The Substance of Peter’s Benediction Having thus described his readers by their spiritual standing, Peter adds his apostolic benediction: "grace and peace be multiplied unto you." The combined apostolic benediction and greeting (which contains the elements grace and peace) is essentially the same as that employed by Paul in ten of his Epistles as well as by Peter in 1 Peter. In 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, Paul added the element mercy, as did John in 2 John. Jude used the elements mercy, peace, and love. Thus we learn that the apostles, in pronouncing Spirit-indited blessings upon the believers to whom they wrote, combined grace, the watchword of the New Covenant age (John 1:14, John 1:17) with peace, the distinctive Hebrew blessing. Those who have read the Old Testament attentively will remember how frequently the salutation "peace be unto thee" or something similar is found (Genesis 43:23; Judges 6:23; Judges 18:6; etc.). "Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces" (Psalms 122:7), cries David, as he expectantly contemplates the spiritual and temporal blessings that he desires for Jerusalem and thus for Israel (cf. Psalms 122:6, Psalms 122:8, as well as the whole Psalm, Psalms 122:1-9). This text shows that the word peace was a general term to denote welfare. From its use by the risen Savior in John 20:19, we gather that it was an all-inclusive summary of blessing. In the Epistles and the Book of Revelation (which was meant by Christ, the great Head of the Church, to circulate after the fashion of an Epistle), the terms grace and/or peace are frequently used in closing salutations and benedictions. The word peace is used in various ways eight times (Romans 16:20; 2 Corinthians 13:11; Ephesians 6:23; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; 2 Thessalonians 3:16; Hebrews 13:20; 1 Peter 5:14; 3 John 1:14), six of those times in greater or lesser proximity to the word grace, which is used eighteen times (Romans 16:20, Romans 16:24; 1 Corinthians 16:23; 2 Corinthians 13:14; Galatians 6:18; Ephesians 6:24; Php 4:23; Colossians 4:18; 1 Thessalonians 5:28; 2 Thessalonians 3:18; 1 Timothy 6:21; 2 Timothy 4:22; Titus 3:15; Philemon 1:24; Hebrews 13:25; 1 Peter 5:10; 2 Peter 3:18; Revelation 22:21). Obviously, the clause "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you," or some variation upon it, is the most characteristic benedictory close employed by the apostles. In light of his grasp of the glorious realities of the Gospel age (Acts 10:1-48, Acts 11:1-30, especially Acts 11:1-18), it is evident by this benediction that the Apostle Peter sees and embraces both believing Jews and believing Gentiles as united in sharing the full blessing of God’s great salvation. Having an earnest desire for their welfare, Peter sought for the saints the choicest bounties that could be conferred upon them, that they might be morally and spiritually enriched, both inwardly and outwardly. "Grace and peace" contain the sum of Gospel bestowals and the supply of our every need. Together they include all manner of blessings, and therefore they are the most comprehensive things that can be requested of God. They are the choicest favors we can desire for ourselves, and for our brethren! They are to be sought by faith from God our Father in reliance upon the mediation and merits of our Lord Jesus Christ. "Grace and peace" are the very essence, as well as the whole, of a believer’s true happiness in this life, which explains the apostle’s longing that his brethren in Christ might abundantly partake of them. Peter Prays for Growth in Grace in His Brethren Grace is not to be understood in the sense of God’s distinguishing, redeeming favor, for these saints were already the objects thereof; nor is it to be taken as an inward spiritual principle of nature, for that was imparted to them at the new birth. Rather, it refers to a greater manifestation of the spiritual nature and Divine likeness that one has received from God and a greater and more cheerful dependence upon the Giver (2 Corinthians 12:9). It also refers to the Divine gifts that induce such growth. Speaking of Christ, the Apostle John declares, "And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for ["upon," ASV margin] grace" (John 1:16, brackets mine). Matthew Poole comments as follows: And grace for grace: nor have we received drops, but grace upon grace; not only knowledge and instruction, but the love and favour of God, and spiritual habits, in proportion to the favour and grace which Christ hath (allowing for our short capacities); we have received grace freely and plentifully, all from Christ, and for His sake; which lets us see how much the grace-receiving soul is bound to acknowledge and adore Christ, and may be confirmed in the receiving of further grace, and the hopes of eternal life… (italics mine). It is evident from 1 Peter 4:10 that God’s grace is manifold, being dispensed to His saints in various forms and amounts according to their needs, yet for the edification not only of the individual but of the Body of Christ as a whole (Ephesians 4:7-16). At the very end of this Epistle Peter commands his readers, saying, "But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18; cf. Ephesians 4:15). Thus we see the propriety of Peter’s prayer, that God would further exercise His benignity toward them. We also see the necessity of our praying in the same way for ourselves and for each other. Thus we see that though the fundamental meaning and reference of grace is to the freely bestowed, redeeming favor of God, yet the term is often used in a wider sense to include all those blessings that flow from His sovereign kindness. In this way is it to be so understood in the apostolic benedictions: a prayer for the continued and increased expression and manifestation of the good work that He has already begun (Php 1:6). "Grace and peace." The two benefits are fitly joined together, for the one is never found without the other. Without reconciling grace there can be no solid and durable peace. The former is God’s good will toward us; the latter is His grand work in us. In the proportion that grace is communicated, peace is enjoyed: grace to sanctify the heart; peace to comfort the soul. Though Peace Begins with Justification, It Is Maintained by Our Obedience Peace is one of the principal fruits of the Gospel as it is received into a believing heart, being that tranquility of mind that arises from the sense of our acceptance with God. It is not an objective but a subjective peace that is here in view. "Peace with God" (Romans 5:1, ital. mine) is fundamentally judicial, being what Christ made for His people (Colossians 1:20). Yet faith conveys a response to the conscience concerning our amity with God. In the proportion that our faith rests upon the peace made with God by the blood of Christ, and of our acceptance in Him, will be our inward peace. In and through Christ, God is at peace with believers, and the happy effect of this in our hearts is a felt "righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost" (Romans 14:17). But we are not in a capacity to receive and enjoy those blessings until we have surrendered to Christ’s Lordship and taken His yoke upon us (Matthew 11:29-30). It is appropriate, therefore, for Paul to say, "And let the peace of God rule in your hearts" (Colossians 3:15, ital. mine). This is the kind of peace that the apostles prayed for on behalf of their brethren. This peace is the fruit of a Scriptural assurance of God’s favor, which, in turn, comes from the maintenance of communion with Him by an obedient walk. It is also peace with ourselves. We are at peace with ourselves when conscience ceases to accuse us, and when our affections and wills submit themselves to an enlightened mind. Furthermore, it includes concord and amity with our fellow Christians (Romans 5:5-6). What an excellent example was left us by the church in Jerusalem: "And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul" (Acts 4:32, ital. mine). The Measure of Bestowal Desired: A Multiplication of Grace and Peace Grace and peace are the present heritage of God’s people, and of them Peter desired that they should enjoy much, much more than a mere sip or taste. As 1 Peter 3:18 intimates, he longed that they should "grow in grace," and that they might be filled with peace (cf. Romans 15:13); he thus made request accordingly. "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you." By these words Peter calls upon God to visit them with still larger and more lavish displays of His goodness. He prays not only that God might grant to them greater and greater manifestations of His grace and peace, but also that their feeble capacities to apprehend what God had done for their souls might be greatly enlarged. He prays that an abundant supply of grace and peace should be conferred upon them. They were already the favored partakers of those Divine benefits, but request was made for a plentiful increase of them. Spiritual things (unlike material) do not cloy in the enjoyment of them, and therefore we cannot have too much of them. The words "peace be multiplied" intimate that there are degrees of assurance concerning our standing with God, and that we never cease to be dependent upon free grace. The dimensions of this request teach us that it is our privilege to ask God not only for more grace and peace, but for an amplitude thereof God is most honored when we make the largest demands upon His bounty. If our spirits are straitened in their enjoyment of God’s grace and peace, it is due to the paltriness of our prayers and never to any niggardliness in Him. The Medium by Which Grace and Peace Are Conveyed "Through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord." The careful reader, who is not too dilatory in comparing Scripture with Scripture, will have observed a variation from the salutation used by Peter in his first Epistle (1 Peter 1:2). There he prayed, "Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied." The addition ("through the knowledge of God," etc.) made here is a significant one, in keeping with Peter’s altered design and appropriate to his present aim. The student may also have noted that knowledge is one of the prominent words of this Epistle (see 2 Peter 1:2-3, 2 Peter 1:5-6, 2 Peter 1:8; 2 Peter 2:20; 2 Peter 3:18). We should also consider how frequently the Christ is designated "our Lord" or "our Saviour" (2 Peter 1:1-2, 2 Peter 1:8, 2 Peter 1:11, 2 Peter 1:14, 2 Peter 1:16; 2 Peter 3:15, 2 Peter 3:18), by which Peter draws a sharp contrast between true disciples and those false professors of Christianity who will not submit to Christ’s scepter. That "knowledge of God" alluded to here is not a natural but a spiritual knowledge, not speculative, but experiential. Nor is it merely a knowledge of the God of creation and providence, but of a God who is in covenant with men through Jesus the Christ. This is evident from its being mentioned in connection with the words "and of Jesus our Lord." It is therefore an evangelical knowledge of God that is here in view. He cannot be savingly known except in and through Christ even as Christ Himself declared: "neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him" (Matthew 11:27). Inasmuch as this prayer was for grace and peace to be "multiplied" to the saints "through [or in] the knowledge of God," there was a tacit intimation that they would both abide and advance in that knowledge. Calvin comments as follows: Through the knowledge, literally, in the knowledge; but the preposition en [no. 1722 in Strong and Thayer] often means "through" or "with": yet both senses may suit the context. I am, however, more disposed to adopt the former. For the more any one advances in the knowledge of God, every kind of blessing increases also equally with the sense of Divine love. A spiritual and experiential knowledge of God is the grand means by which all the influences of grace and peace are conveyed to us. God works upon us as rational creatures in a way that is agreeable to our intellectual and moral nature, with knowledge preceding all else. As there is no real peace apart from grace, so there is no grace or peace without a saving knowledge of God; and no such knowledge of Him is possible but in and through "Jesus our Lord," for Christ is the channel by which every blessing is transmitted to the members of His mystical Body. As the more windows a house has the more sunlight enters it, so the greater our knowledge of God the greater our measure of grace and peace. But the evangelical knowledge of the most mature saint is only fragmentary and feeble, and thus requires continual augmentation by the Divine blessing upon those means that have been appointed for its perfecting and strengthening. The Divine Accomplishment that Moved Peter to Prayer "According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue" (2 Peter 1:3). Therein the apostle found his motive for making the above request. It was because God had already wrought so wondrously on behalf of these saints that he was moved to ask Him to continue dealing lavishly with them. We may also regard this third verse as being brought in to encourage the faith of these Christians: that, since God had done such great things for them, they should expect further liberal supplies from Him. Notice that the inspiring motive was a purely evangelical one, and not legal or mercenary. God had bestowed upon them everything needful for the production and preservation of spirituality in their souls, and the apostle longed to see them maintained in a healthy and vigorous condition. Divine power is the foundation of spiritual life, grace is what supports it, and peace is the atmosphere in which it thrives. The words "all things that pertain unto life and godliness" may also be understood as referring ultimately to eternal life in glory: a right to it, a fitness for it, and an earnest of it had already been bestowed upon them. Finally, it is essential to our Christian growth to realize that the contents of 2 Peter 1:3 are to be regarded as the ground of the exhortation in 2 Peter 1:5-7. Thus the supply asked for in 2 Peter 1:2 is to be regarded as the necessary equipment for all spiritual fruit bearing and good works. Let us then exercise the greater diligence to abide in Christ (John 15:1-5) both in our prayers and in all our thoughts, words, and deeds. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 14: 001.10. CHAPTER 10 ======================================================================== Chapter 10 SIN DENIED 1 John 1:8, 1 John 1:10 We have linked together these two verses because they are so similar in their substance—giving a separate treatment of 1 John 2:9. Each of them opens with the words “If we say,” which indicates that it is the testing of Christian profession that is in view. In the second half of this chapter John is very discriminating. All through 1 John 1:6-10 and 1 John 2:1-2 (which complete this section), we behold the apostle distinguishing sharply between the wheat and the tares, or separating the good fish from the bad ones (Matthew 13:47-48)—in each instance dealing first with the latter. Those referred to in 1 John 1:6, 1 John 1:8, 1 John 1:10, are guilty of making an empty boast and are expressly charged with falsehood. Over against them are placed genuine Christians, their characteristic marks being described and their peculiar privileges and portions named: they walk in the light, confess their sins, have an Advocate with the Father. The careful reader will observe the absence of the word “say” in 1 John 1:7, 1 John 1:9; 1 John 2:1, because therein he was not exposing a worthless claim, but delineating the features of those who actually enjoyed fellowship with God. What has been pointed out above at once serves to refute superficial students of this epistle who have complained that the apostle followed not so orderly a method as Paul was wont to do. The structure of his opening chapter contains clear evidence that he wrote according to a definite plan and expressed his thoughts regularly and logically. The above paragraph also illustrates two features which are quite prominent in this epistle. First, John’s habit of drawing sharp contrasts: 1 John 1:6-7; 1 John 1:8-9—seen again in 1 John 2:3-4, 1 John 2:7-8; 1 John 3:8-9. Second, his fondness for combining triplicates of objects, as the three different classes of graceless professors described in 1 John 1:6, 1 John 1:8, 1 John 1:10. That is the first of several triads. For example, in 1 John 2:13, he divides the children of God into three grades—fathers, young men, little children. In 1 John 2:16, he makes the world to consist of “the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” Three references are made to the “antichrist:” 1 John 2:18, 1 John 2:22; 1 John 4:3, and three to “overcoming:” 1 John 2:13-14; 1 John 4:4; 1 John 5:4. In 1 John 5:7, mention is made of the “Three that bear record in heaven,” and in 1 John 5:8, of the three “that bear witness in earth.” “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). Five things in connection with this verse claim our best attention. First, its connection. Second, its comprehensiveness. Third, its proud boast. Fourth, its Divine diagnosis. Fifth, its solemn verdict. In view of what is affirmed in the verse immediately preceding, the avowal made at the beginning of the present one appears logically and necessarily to follow. If those who walk in the light as God is in the light have fellowship with Him and He with them, and if the blood of Jesus Christ His Son “cleanseth them from all sin,” it is to be expected that they would say “we have no sin.” Had 1 John 1:7 stood alone, that is the only conclusion that could be drawn. Let those who are so fond of repeating that “Scripture says what it means and means what it says” give due weight to this consideration—that in those two verses the same term “sin” is used, but with two very different shades of meaning, and that unless the distinction here drawn be clearly apprehended by the Lord’s people they are in real danger of misunderstanding what is so plainly declared at the close of 1 John 1:7. By noting the connection between the two verses, we perceive how the Holy Spirit in 1 John 1:8 guards us against drawing a wrong inference from 1 John 1:7, and how that the latter statement serves to fix the precise signification of the former—that the believer is cleansed from all sin judicially, but not so inherently. “While the apostle insisted on the necessity of an habitual holy walk, as the effect and evidence of the knowledge of God in Christ Jesus and of communion with Him, he guarded, with equal care, against the opposite error of selfrighteousness and pride” (T. Scott). Therein we have a striking example—and one which every preacher should most diligently heed—of how careful the blessed Spirit ever is to preserve the balance of Truth, and to prevent us drawing a false conclusion from one aspect of it by failing to supplement the same by bringing in its complementary aspect. To acquit the consciences of the saints of all sin and guilt on gospel grounds, and thereby raise up their minds to such conceptions of the virtue and efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ as will encourage them to hold communion with the Father in the clear and full apprehension that the blood of His Son cleanseth the believer from all sin, is one of the most blessed and important works in which His servant can engage. Yet it is also his duty to remind them that the blood of the Lamb has not cleansed their unholy natures or made them pure from sin. Instead, though their hearts are sprinkled from an evil conscience, and they have liberty to enter the holiest by the blood of Christ, nevertheless the inherency of sin is not yet taken away. By linking together 1 John 1:7-8 we perceive that the apostle would have his Christian readers learn how to distinguish sharply between what they were in Christ and what they still were in and of themselves. The blood of Christ is the believer’s everlasting purity in the eyes of Divine justice. By it he is completely cleansed from every spot and stain of sin. His purity in the sight of God’s Law is such as cannot be fully conceived by any of us, for not only was the whole of the Christian’s pollution removed when Christ was made sin for him, but he is made “the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21), the perfect obedience of his Surety being reckoned to his account. Nevertheless, neither his guilt being charged to the Lord Jesus nor the imputation unto him of the merits of His finished work has removed the inherency of sin out of him. His old evil nature still remains within him—unchanged, filthy, vile, with “no good thing” dwelling therein. That which we inherited from our first parents, which was a part of us at our birth, still defiles every member of our complex beings, and does so unto the very last moment of our earthly history; yet that in no wise contradicts or even qualifies the blessed fact that “the blood of Jesus Christ God’s Son cleanseth us from all sin.” As one with Adam, both federally and seminally, we have derived from him the total depravation of our whole persons. In consequence thereof we are “born like a wild ass’s colt” (Job 11:12)—stupid and intractable. By birth we are “all as an unclean thing,” and consequently “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). His inbred corruptions continue to be the Christian’s plague of heart (1 Kings 8:38) so long as he be left in this world. These are very humiliating facts, the consideration whereof ought at all times to humble us before the Lord. So far as our carnal nature be concerned, we are always one and the same, though indwelling sin is more manifest at some times than others. That should teach us to look outside of ourselves for our present and eternal purity before God. There is no other way of getting above the influences and effects of our natural depravity than by having our spiritual minds engaged in real fellowship with God, and in true apprehension of what is contained in the precious and efficacious remedy which His grace has provided. Nothing will so relieve the heart when oppressed by a sense of our vileness as believing views of what we are in Christ—“complete in Him” (Colossians 2:10), “perfected for ever” (Hebrews 10:14). It might naturally be supposed that walking in the light and enjoying fellowship with the Holy One will exert a cleansing effect upon our natures. Not so; it leaves “the flesh” unchanged. Yet many cherish the idea that if only they walked more fully in the light, and had closer and more constant fellowship with God, the flesh would cease opposing the spirit. And again we say, Not so; though in such a case they would be more delivered from fulfilling its lusts (Galatians 5:16). It is obvious, then, that one gracious design of the Holy Spirit in the verse before us is to comfort distressed believers, who are so apt to think that their own grievous case is such as none but themselves have any experience of. The more so if they listen to the glowing “testimonies” of certain ones, for fear is then awakened that they are strangers to the supernatural and saving operations of Divine grace. When beholding the cheerful countenance and exuberant spirit of some of their fellows, they are perhaps ready to conclude that they are yet in the bond of iniquity. But appearances are proverbially deceptive. Many a smiling face conceals a heavy heart. While the heart knows its own bitterness, it is not privy to the groans of others, who, in secret, frequently have occasion to cry, “Oh, wretched man that I am.” Look now at the comprehensiveness of this statement. It is not “if ye,” but “if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.” By that word John included himself and his fellow apostles—just as he had all through the foregoing verse. He did so with the design of showing that the predication here made is one which admits of no exception. No matter who be the person that affirms he has no sin, he is utterly deceived. Not even the eleven, who were favoured above all other believers; nay, not the very one who was privileged to recline on the Saviour’s bosom could truthfully aver that he was all pure within. See here the omniscience of God, with His foreview of the future, guiding His servant’s pen to use the pronoun “we” rather than “ye”! Undoubtedly the Holy Spirit was anticipating the fact that there would arise those of apparently exceptional piety and attainments who would lay claim to this very thing, and therefore He here cautions the children of God to give no heed unto their arrogant and absurd assertion, assuring us that all such are deluded souls. Listen attentively, my sin-harassed and distressed brother, to the language which John here employs, as he (by necessary implication) declares that I myself, and my fellow apostles, have sin within us. Mark how he is pointing out that your sad case is far from being unique; as he indirectly affirms, we too are but sinners saved by grace, and still have the root and seeds of all evil within us. Yet, on the other hand, observe well that he did not say they were under sin or that sin reigned in and over them. He could not say that of any of the regenerate, though to their senses there are times when such seems to be the case. No, sin is in them, and is ever more or less active, yet it does not have complete dominion over them: such a thing would be utterly incompatible with the state into which the saints are brought by the new birth, when, being made new creatures in Christ, they are freed from their former slavery and fitted to walk in newness of life, though, alas, they often fail to live up to their privileges. It is indeed the sincere desire and endeavour of every real child of God to walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing and be fruitful in every good work (Colossians 1:10), but to eradicate his carnal nature is altogether beyond him: “Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?” (Proverbs 20:9). But cannot the grace of God effect sinless perfection? “There is no channel for such a grace to run in, no promise in all the Word of God to bottom such a persuasion upon. There is a promise for the subduing of iniquity, but not for the annihilating of it; a promise that sin shall not reign in us, but none that it shall not be. Therefore, the believer would not seek for that in himself which is found only in Christ, nor for that on earth which is reserved for heaven” (E. Polhill, 1675). God leaves sin in His people to wean them from selflove and self-righteousness, and to develop in them the grace of perseverance, through oppositions and temptations from within and without. His power is rendered the more evident in preserving the plant of holiness in a heart so filled with noxious weeds. He would conform them to Christ’s sufferings: as He endured the contradiction of sinners against Himself, so they endure the contradiction of sin against themselves. The compassion of our great High Priest is demonstrated in bearing with our infirmities. “If we say that we have no sin.” Such an arrogant assertion goes much farther than saying we commit no sin. It is a declaration that they are without the root from which all evil fruits proceed: that their very nature is undefiled, clean. It seems almost incredible, yet there are those who make the audacious boast of moral perfection, that their hearts are holy, and that all their desires are regular. They are so puffed up with the conceit of their own attainments as to declare themselves to be as immaculate in heart and holy in life as the Law of God requires. They aver themselves to be so “entirely sanctified” that their “old man” has been wholly purged and purified. So imbued are they by a spirit of vainglory that such people profess to be without sin internally or externally, spotless in thought, word and deed, faultless before God and man. That such a preposterous boast should be made by the heathen Gnostics is, in measure, understandable, but that it is made by any professing Christians only shows the awful deceitfulness of sin and the blinding power of pride. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,” or “err ourselves”—not in the doctrinal but the ethical sense, for their state is far more serious than if only intellectual ignorance were involved, being like unto that of those of whom it was said “they do always err in their hearts” (Hebrews 3:10). They have so imposed on themselves as to be utterly led astray, regarding darkness as light. Such is the Divine diagnosis here made of their condition: the omniscient Physician declares them to be most awfully deluded. Imagining themselves to be the excellent of the earth, they are in reality a stench in God’s nostrils, for nothing is so abhorrent to Him as pride. So far from being holier than the rank and file of believers, they are in total spiritual darkness, for they have never seen themselves in God’s light or had an experiential discovery made to them of the depravity of their hearts. What is here in view is not deliberate hypocrisy, but a species of self-imposition, and such a state is well-nigh hopeless, for this is the most fatal of all forms of deception. “And the truth is not in us” is the Divine verdict. It is contrary to Scripture, to universal experience, to the confession of every saint recorded in the Word, for one and all acknowledged they were the subjects of sin, inwardly defiled and all their actions affected with it. Neither Abraham, Job, Moses, David, Elijah, Daniel, nor Paul could maintain any such thing. Thus it is such self-deception as proves these braggarts to be destitute of a saving acquaintance with the Gospel. Instead of having received what they term “the second blessing,” they were never the subjects of the first. Instead of occupying the highest rank in Christ’s army, they are not members of it at all. Had the Word of God been in them as a principle of life and light, they could never have made so gross a mistake as proves them to be completely ignorant of God and His holy Law and their own hearts. If they were not so, they would be painfully conscious of the evil which is ever at work within them, and would cry, “Who can understand his errors? Cleanse Thou me from secret faults.” Herein we are shown, from another angle, what a terrible thing sin is: it not only defiles us and renders us obnoxious to God, but it fatally deceives the natural man. “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us” (1 John 1:10). Since sin indwells us it cannot but follow that we must, more or less, have the evidence of the same in our experience. This is the ordination of Him who is too wise to err and too loving unto His own people to be unkind to them. But why? Would He not be more glorified had indwelling sin been destroyed and they lived sinless lives in this world? No, or He had so ordered it. Some of the reasons for His not doing so have been intimated above. In addition, we may perceive that, as things are, the saints obtain a much fuller realization of their total depravity and marvel the more at God’s amazing grace unto them. Thereby too they come to perceive more clearly their dire need of and to value more highly that Fountain which has been opened for sin and for uncleanness. Sometimes God permits their iniquities to prevail against them (Psalms 65:3), that they may be humbled and made to loathe and wholly renounce themselves, and wonder at His infinite patience and forbearance with them. Those known as “sinless perfectionists” are not the only ones to say they have not sinned, for this preposterous and wicked assertion is made by several other classes. It is the implicit if not the explicit avowal of those Satan-blinded people who call themselves “Christian Scientists,” for they emphatically deny that there is any such thing as sin, declaring it to be a delusion of mortal minds: and thus they are neither Christians or scientists—those who “know.” Some extreme Antinomians have taught that they are “in Christ” in such a way, so one with Him, that they not only do not but cannot sin, wresting such words as “dead indeed unto sin” (Romans 6:11), as they also do “dead to the law” (Romans 7:4). It is also the doctrine of the infatuated papists that a man may, all his lifetime, eschew every mortal sin, and do all that the Law of God requires of him; yea, that he can do more than he is obligated unto, and supererogate and merit for others who fall short of perfection. “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar,” for we flatly contradict the Word of Truth. In 1 John 1:6 it is the hypocrite who is exposed as a liar; in 1 John 1:8, those who so believe their own lie as to become fatally self-deceived; in 1 John 1:10, those whose consciences are so calloused and hearts hardened by unbelief that they blasphemously assert that which makes God a liar. He has expressly stated that “there is no man that sinneth not” (1 Kings 8:46), that “there is not a just man on earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not” (Ecclesiastes 7:20). It is not pre-conversion sins which are in view in our verse, but those committed after, as 1 John 1:9 clearly shows. No matter how strict he be over his outward walk, or what he appears in the eyes of his fellows, the most godly and favoured Christian cannot truthfully aver that he is without sin in thought and word and deed; nay, he has to acknowledge himself to be included in the Divine declaration, “in many things we all offend” (James 3:2)—even when those things wear a religious garb—and therefore does he make daily use of that petition in the family prayer, “Forgive us our sins.” It is highly important that we should understand what sin is, in its vile nature and exceeding sinfulness. Yet sin as it really is can be seen only in the light of God’s Word and Spirit. None but the regenerate have a true concept of that “abominable thing” which God hates (Jeremiah 44:4). Inherent sin is a self-acting principle and is always at work, whether we perceive it or not, defiling our whole being and all that we do. Some sin most in thought, others in words—the boiling over of a hot temper; others in deeds. Rightly did S.E. Pierce point out, “None of us are saved from sin so much as we conceive. We are saved from a state of sin and sinfulness; we are also saved from a gross way of sin and sinfulness; yet we are not always saved from cursed and carnal affections, nor from dispositions and expressions of our sinfulness;” and every regenerate person is taught of God honestly to acknowledge the same. I cannot say I have not sinned while reading the Scriptures, or when upon my knees, or in the pulpit. Atonement has to be made for our “holy things” (Leviticus 5:15)! The closer we walk with God, the more conscious are we of our sins. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 15: 001.11. CHAPTER 11 ======================================================================== Chapter 11 SINS CONFESSED 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” While our present verse be complete in itself, yet it is also a part of a larger whole, and an apprehension of its coherence with what precedes helps to a better understanding of it. It cannot be too frequently insisted upon that the Bible is not a collection of separate and unrelated texts, but rather a living body of Truth, one member of which is connected with and dependent upon another—as the fingers (though each one be complete in itself) upon the hand, the hand upon the arm, and it with the trunk. The principal subject of 1 John 1:1-10 is that of fellowship with God in Christ: made possible by the Divine incarnation (1 John 1:1-2), producing a fullness of joy (1 John 1:4), had with Him who is light (1 John 1:5). In 1 John 1:6, 1 John 1:8 and 1 John 1:10, we are shown how certain types of godless professors are cut off from this privilege. How then are we to identify those who do enjoy it? That is a most pressing question: What are the clear and infallible marks by which Christians may know themselves to be among those in fellowship with God? 1. Walking in the light (1 John 1:7). 2. Confessing their sins (1 John 1:9). 3. Obedience (1 John 2:3, 1 John 2:5). 4. Love to the brethren (1 John 3:14), etc. It is also to be noted that 1 John 1:7-10 all treat of some aspect of sin, for that is the great obstacle and hindrance to fellowship with the Holy One. Coming now to the more immediate context, it is obvious that 1 John 1:9 supplies the second member of the general thought begun in 1 John 1:7, giving the opposite alternative to the one specified in 1 John 1:8. First, the believer is judicially cleansed from all sin; yet, second, the root of evil still remains within him. The questions may therefore be asked: Are we still affected by it? Does it at times occasion us to fall? If so, what must we do? Since the sin which indwells the believer is an active principle, it cannot but be that he will be under the partial influence of the same, and thereby moved to act unworthily of his Christian calling. Nor is this to be wondered at, when we consider the vileness and power of the flesh, the implacable enmity of Satan against him, the world laying its snares in his path, ever setting before him a multitude of objects to turn away his heart and mind from Christ. Nor can he deliver himself—even inherent grace or “the new nature” is insufficient for such a task. None but the Lord can give the victory. Yet at times He is pleased to leave us, in some respects and in a variety of ways, unto ourselves, so that we stumble in the mire and befoul our garments. And why does He so act and withhold His supporting arm? That we may realize our weaknesses and have experiential proof that“without Me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5). That is a very humbling and painful lesson, yet it is one which God has ordained that all of His children shall learn. It is His will that they should have a fuller discovery of their ruined and corrupt condition by nature, and have a personal acquaintance with their weakness and impotency. It is His will that they feel, bewail, and own both the one and the other, that they may be more sensible alike of the disease and the remedy. When a real Christian sins, he smarts under it. He cannot but be affected and afflicted by it, for his peace and joy are temporarily lost, and his free access to God is broken into. That distresses his mind. Sometimes an old sin is revived, and he is greatly perturbed. Rightly so, for sin must never be regarded lightly or excused. Instead, it is to be loathed and lamented. Nevertheless, the saint must be careful that he does not confound his present case with his unchanging state. Though there be guilt on the conscience, pollution on the mind, grief in the heart, that is a very different thing from being in a sinful state—something which none of the Lord’s regenerate can ever be in again, though they may be over and over again in a sinful case and circumstance. But God has mercifully appointed a relief, exactly suited to this part of His people’s spiritual distress. Marvel with us, fellow Christian, at the grace which has provided for the restoration of ungrateful and undutiful children. In 1 John 1:9 God has given us directions how we are to act when in and under such sinful cases. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” And, my reader, there is no relief for the burdened conscience, no restoration to real fellowship with God, until we do so. Alas, that we are so slow, so reluctant to avail ourselves of the same. But pride hinders us, and we are loath to humble ourselves before the One against whom we have transgressed. When we realize who it is we have offended and grieved, call to mind the privileges we have enjoyed and abused, think upon the profession and promises we have made, dwell upon the heinousness of the sins into which we have fallen, there is a sad tendency in us to keep silent, and then to excuse ourselves. But that is fatal both to our present peace and future spiritual prosperity. Unjudged sins produce a cold reserve in the heart toward the Holy One, and if that be persisted in Divine chastisement will be our sure portion. What has just been said receives forcible illustration in Psalms 32:3-4 where David describes the painful experiences which befell him during those months when he had refused to acknowledge his foul offences. Said he, “When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer.” He was like a man in a fever—tossing about upon his bed, trying first one position and then another, but finding no rest. Such perturbation and disquietude of spirit in a believer is one of the surest signs that he is out of communion with the Lord. “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked” (Isaiah 57:21), and such is the case of a backslider. There is nothing more distressing for one who has walked with God than to have a spiritual relapse; and if he be overcome again and again by his chief besetting sin, then is he most wretched—far more so than had he suffered a temporal loss, were afflicted bodily, or had encountered persecution. And there is no relief for him, no ease for his conscience, no joy in the Lord, no delight in His Word, no liberty in prayer, until he unburdens his heart unto Him by free and frank confession. God has most graciously provided for just such emergencies. He is pleased to address Himself unto His people thus: “Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord; and I will not cause Mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful... Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers ... Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord, for I am married unto you” (Jeremiah 3:12-14). “I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus: Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn Thou me, and I shall be turned; for Thou art the Lord my God” (Jeremiah 31:18). “Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto Him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips” (Hosea 14:2). Such Scriptures are exactly suited to us when we are in particular cases and distressing spiritual circumstances arising from our inherent sinfulness and actual defilements. Let no Christian allow a lying Devil to rob him of such precious and needed portions of God’s word by listening to ‘dispensationalists’ who say they are not for him. They are as much a part of his spiritual heritage as is Psalms 23:1-6. Many such passages as the above would be meaningless to believers today were their experiences different from what they actually are. On God’s part they are blessed memorials of His grace; on our part they are solemn testifications unto sad wanderings of heart. Our cases vary much at different times. This morning I may be able to say, “Thou anointest my head with oil: my cup runneth over;” but ere night falls I may have to lament, “Iniquities prevail against me” (Psalms 65:3). When such be the case, the only thing to do is to pour out our hearts before the Lord. Not to conceal it in our minds, but to cry, “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness, according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions” (Psalms 51:1-3). He is the only one who can pardon us, and to Him we must go. “I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord: and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin” (Psalms 32:5). Then will the restored soul have reason to exclaim, “Thou, Lord, are good and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon Thee” (Psalms 86:5). Confession is not optional but obligatory, a necessary thing. First, that God Himself may be honoured (Joshua 7:19). Non-confession is a virtual and practical disowning of His rectoral office—“he confessed and denied not” (John 1:20). Second, that God may be obeyed. He has appointed that His children should daily acknowledge their sins and ask for His forgiveness (Luke 11:4). “God’s justice is satisfied by Christ, but it must be glorified and owned by us” (Manton). All through Scripture pardon presupposes confession (Leviticus 26:40; 1 Kings 8:33; Jeremiah 3:12-13; Luke 15:18). Nowhere is there a promise of forgiveness unless acknowledgment of sin is made. God requires us to sue out our pardon: as He said to the ascended Saviour, “Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance” (Psalms 2:8). Third, that we may be affected and afflicted by our offences in a due manner, for genuine confession is an expression of hatred of sin and grief for it. Failure at this point is a bar to our advancement: “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper” (Proverbs 28:13). Fourth, in order to the maintenance of our communion with the Holy One. “Only on the footing of sin daily confessed and pardoned can there be any fellowship between us and God this side of heaven” (Spurgeon). Confession of sin is both the consequent and the condition of fellowship with God, as also is walking in the light. Communion with God produced frank and honest dealings with Him, bringing things out into the open. Such a one not only walks in the light, but he owns whatever in him is opposed unto the light. Yet it is much more than a bare admission that he has sin (in contrast with 1 John 1:8): it is the acknowledgment of individual and specific sins which is the form that confession must ever take if it is to be real and valid. A merely general acknowledgment soon degenerates into an empty phrase. The God of Truth will tolerate no pretence. The flesh would have us gloss over things and call them by a pleasanter name than “sins,” but close dealing with God purges the spirit of guile. In the light, things are seen in their true colours; contact with God convicts of what is contrary to His holiness, and that leads to a contrite confession. As Candlish discerningly remarked, the confession here is from those who are walking in the light, and “such confession is very different from that in which the natural conscience seeks a lightening of its guilty burden, and a lessening of its guilty fears.” Rather does it proceed from an ardent longing of soul for everything to be put right between himself and his Beloved, refusing to hide anything from Him. The farther we proceed thus with God, the more intimate be our dealings with Him, the more discoveries do we make of what is displeasing to Him, and such discoveries are welcome to us. He desires truth in the inward parts, and we do so too, and therefore do we open our hearts fully to Him, and bring everything out into the light. Such confession is a spreading of our case before the Lord, concealing nothing, palliating nothing. It is the laying bare of our inner man to the loving and wise Physician, who alone knows how to deal with us. Of course, where sins are committed against our fellows they must be confessed unto them too (Matthew 5:23-24; James 5:16). Confession is alike a sign and adjunct of repentance, since it proceeds from both conviction and contrition. It begins by owning the fact of sin (Joshua 7:20), and then the fault of it, or as David called it, “the iniquity of my sin.” He not only acknowledged his crime of adultery, but the foulness and enormity of it. So again when his heart smote him for his pride and presumption in numbering Israel, he not only admitted what he had done, but added “I have sinned greatly in that I have done ... I have done very foolishly” (2 Samuel 24:10). The aggravations of our sins are to be declared: that they were committed against light, persuasions, warnings, conscience, the motions of the Spirit; for such things, especially after our being the recipients of countless privileges, mercies and blessings, greatly heighten the enormity of our iniquities, and are to be sorrowfully owned by us. Observe how Daniel did so when confessing the sins of his people: “Neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants” (Daniel 9:10). The guilt of our sins too must be confessed: what we should suffer did we receive our deserts (Ezra 9:13). Confession of sins is to be made freely, owning every known offence, making no attempt to hide anything, either from God or ourselves. We are not to generalize but to particularize, and acknowledge sins of omission, some of which—such as failure to perform duty, lack of love, absence of zeal, unthankfulness—are worse than many sins of commission. If we are definite and precise when making known our requests unto God, we should be equally so in specifying our sins. Contritely, with a due sense of the infinite evil of sin, as it is dishonouring to God’s holiness, an opposition to His sovereign majesty, a contempt of His law, a flying in the face of His Word, and a grieving of His Spirit. If there be a real apprehension of those things, a regenerate soul cannot but be filled with godly sorrow over his transgressions, and mourn before the Lord on their account. Sincerely, laying bare our case before God just as it stands, proffering no excuses, refusing to throw the blame upon others. Though an unpleasant exercise unto flesh and blood, nevertheless it is salutary to unburden the conscience, pour out our grief into the ears of One who is “very pitiful and of tender mercy.” Confession is to be accompanied with shamefacedness, lamenting our ingratitude unto Him who daily loads us with His benefits. The more we realize our base requital of God’s wondrous love to us, the more shall we say, with Ezra, “I am ashamed, and blush to lift up my face to Thee, my God” (Ezra 9:6). It is to be accompanied with hatred of sin and loathing of ourselves, such as marked those of whom the apostle could say, “Ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge” (2 Corinthians 7:11). It is to be made in faith, in the everlasting efficacy of the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ—just as when Aaron confessed the sins of Israel, he did so with “both his hands upon the head of the live goat” (Leviticus 16:21)—asking the Father to pardon you for Christ’s sake. It is to be done daily. Keep short accounts with God and suffer no cloud to remain between your heart and Him. “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Here is the grand encouragement for us to perform this painful duty: it makes way for blessing, for though confession be not the cause, yet it is the condition of Divine forgiveness. That forgiveness is what the penitent soul seeks from God, and as he does so, let him bear in mind the fact that one of the titles which Deity has been pleased to take unto Himself is “the God of pardons” (Nehemiah 9:17, margin)! Unto such we are to repair: unto Him who declares, “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:34). “Let us therefore come boldly [unhesitatingly and freely] unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). Unto us, considered in ourselves, Divine forgiveness is always an act of pure mercy or clemency, for it is something we deserve not. But more—and oh, the preciousness of it!—God’s forgiveness is also an act both of faithfulness and justice: faithfulness to His promises, His covenant engagements; justice unto Christ, in bestowing on His people what He purchased for them. We are inclined to think the Spirit has designedly duplicated terms here for the comfort of distressed believers. “Faithful and just” are of much the same import, and while they may be distinguished (as above), yet both have a regard to the everlasting covenant, the latter being brought in to supply an additional ground of confidence for us—that the fulfillment of God’s gracious promise is at the same time an act of strict righteousness on His part. As Calvin pointed out, “The penitent has here two of God’s attributes, faithfulness and justice, to encourage and support him.” Thus the contrite soul should have full and firm assurance of God’s readiness to pardon. Personally we believe that both the forgiveness and the cleansing here include alike a judicial and an experiential one, an objective and a subjective, but lack of space now prevents our enlarging upon that statement. Admittedly the point is a difficult one: not only to apprehend, but more so to express—such is always the case when the finite mind is occupied with things that are infinite. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 16: 001.12. CHAPTER 12 ======================================================================== Chapter 12 SIN PROHIBITED 1 John 2:1 “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” At the close of our last chapter we expressed the opinion that the forgiveness and cleansing of 1 John 1:9, includes both a judicial and experiential one, an objective and subjective, but that the same is difficult for the finite mind to grasp fully, and still more so to express clearly. It should ever be borne in mind that with God there is no such thing as past, present and future, though in condescension to our infirmities He sometimes so represents things in His Word. Time limitations do not exist with the eternal “I am:” all is an ever-present now. This needs to be remembered in connection with the Atonement. In the view of God, Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and therefore the Old Testament saints, from Abel onwards, enjoyed all those benefits which His sacrifice procured as truly as do believers in this Christian era. Therefore, theologians are only creating their own difficulties when they wrangle among themselves as to whether or not the sins which believers commit after their conversion were blotted out from before God when Christ cried “It is finished.” The important point to be concerned about is when do we enter into the good of Christ’s redemption. Certainly no one is saved by Christ’s sacrifice until he be converted, that is until he repents of his sins and trusts in the cleansing blood. Equally certain is it that we cannot repent of sins before they be committed. Those who insist that it is dishonouring to the blood of Christ to speak of repeated applications thereof to those who contritely acknowledge their sins need to be told that it is most dishonouring to the holiness and government of God to talk of His pardoning sins before they are owned before Him. Both Old and New Testament alike distinguish between the blood shed (Hebrews 9:22) and the blood of sprinkling (Hebrews 12:24), and we must do so too, especially in connection with the antitypical fulfillment of Leviticus 16:21, and Numbers 19:2-9. As shed, the blood of Christ has met all the claims of God, so that He can now righteously pardon those who plead its merits. As shed, the blood of Christ has a cleansing virtue, and as sprinkled it actually removes defilement, as the apostle declares in Hebrews 9:13-14, where he shows the antitypical fulfillment of Numbers 19:9, in that the blood of Christ purges the conscience. The question as to when the Christian’s sins were put away from before God and he was discharged from the guilt and penalty of them admits of more than one answer. Vicariously the penalty of his sins was fully borne by Christ upon the cross, and the guilt of them was remitted when God raised his Surety from the dead. Yet personally he is not formally forgiven any sins until he savingly believes on Christ. The Lord Jesus purchased and procured a right unto God’s elect receiving forgiveness, but they do not individually enter into the enjoyment of that blessing until their faith is placed in Him. At the cross the Saviour secured certain benefits for His people, but they do not become partakers thereof before they are converted. Distinction must also be made between that general pardon which is received the moment we first lay hold of Christ and the more specific and detailed forgiveness which we stand in need of repeatedly, daily. To say that there is no need for Christians to pray for forgiveness because all their sins were atoned for at the cross betrays great confusion of thought, and flatly contradicts Scripture. As well might an Israelite have argued against the offering of the daily lamb because all of his iniquities were remitted on the annual day of atonement (Leviticus 16:21). The satisfaction of Christ is indeed eternally valid before God and allows of no repetition or addition; but considering forgiveness as the act of God as the moral Governor of the world, it is continuous unto the same persons. It is the inconformity of sin to the Law of God and its loathsomeness to His holiness, and as it is attended with defilement and shame to us, that has to be confessed. Our daily sins displease the Holy One, and it is our duty to acknowledge them. It becomes us to humble ourselves before Him on their account. The righteousness of God requires that we own our guilt and seek His remission of it. The Old Testament saints asked for pardon, “O Lord, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great” (Psalms 25:11), and requested Him to “look upon the face of Thine anointed” (Psalms 84:9). And can New Testament saints do less? No, Christ Himself taught them to pray “Forgive us our debts” (Matthew 6:12), and that prayer is assuredly suited unto Christians today, for it is addressed “our Father!” In so making request, we ask Him to be gracious unto us for Christ’s sake and not to lay to our charge the sins we have committed (Acts 7:60; 2 Timothy 4:16)—“enter not into judgment with Thy servant” (Psalms 143:2). Applying unto God for the forgiveness of our sins is a coming to the throne of grace “that we may obtain mercy” (Hebrews 4:16). “To the very end of life the best Christian must come for forgiveness, just as he did at the first—not as the claimant of a right, but as a supplicant of favour” (J. Brown). We need to distinguish between the purchase of our pardon by Christ and its actual bestowment upon us by the Father. After David was assured “the Lord also hath put away thy sin” (2 Samuel 12:13), we find that he begged God’s forgiveness of the same (Psalms 51:1). Let it be distinctly pointed out that in asking God for forgiveness we do not pray as though the blood of Christ had never been shed, or as though our tears and prayers made any compensation to Divine justice. Nevertheless, renewed sins call for renewed repentance. While we do not need another Redeemer, we do need a fresh exercise of mercy unto us and a fresh application of the cleansing blood to our hearts. That, too, is included in the petition of Matthew 6:12 : grant a gracious manifestation of Thy mercy. “Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice” (Psalms 51:8). We ask for a comforting sense of His forgiveness, that we may again have “the joy of His salvation.” It is the assuring of our hearts of the Divine forgiveness, the same being efficaciously made known to the mind and conscience. As this writer understands 1 John 1:9, it is not a legal forgiveness of God considered as Judge which is in view, but the governmental pardon of God as the moral Governor of this world and the Father of His children. It necessarily follows from its language that if believers do not confess their sins, then those sins are neither forgiven nor cleansed. 1 Corinthians 11:31, appears to us a parallel passage: “If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged,” and as the preceding verse shows, those who failed to do so brought down upon themselves sickness and death. As Candlish pointed out, the forgiveness and cleansing includes more than the remission of punishment. “Our sins are so forgiven as to ensure that in the forgiveness of them we are cleansed from all unrighteousness—all unfair, deceitful and dishonest dealing about them; all such unrighteous dealing about them, either with our own conscience or with our God. The forgiveness is so free, so frank, so full, so unreserved, that it purges our bosom of all reserve, all reticence, all guile; in a word, of all unrighteousness. And it is so because it is dispensed in faithfulness and righteousness.” God deals with us neither complacently nor indulgently, but as equally true to Himself and to us. “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man [“any one” Greek] sin, we have an advocate with the Father” (1 John 2:1). As we shall see, these words are intimately related to what precedes; but before dwelling upon that we will outline the contents of our verse and consider them in order. First, there is the apostle’s affectionate address unto those he was here dehorting. Second, the immediate design which he had before him in now addressing them: that “ye sin not.” Third, the provision made in case there should be failure. Fourth, the striking balance of Truth here presented. “My little children.” Such indeed are all God’s people, metaphorically speaking, and it is Divine grace which has made them so. It is the power of the Spirit which casts down proud reasonings, self-righteous pretensions, “and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:5), and makes us “become as little children.” And such in spirit we are to continue—dependent, trustful, conscious of our weakness and helplessness: “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:2). There was, as others before us have pointed out, a peculiar pertinency in John’s thus addressing them. “It is probable that he was the only surviving apostle when he wrote this epistle, and his old age and long-continued usefulness, faithfulness and love for Christians must have given him a kind of parental authority over the whole Church, as far as it adhered to the pure Gospel of Christ. It was therefore peculiarly proper for him to address them as his spiritual family, whose welfare he had greatly at heart; and as most of them were young in years compared with this beloved and venerated disciple, who probably was the oldest Christian on earth at that time” (Scott). The form of salutation “My little children” combines the two notes of tenderness and authority. As someone has reminded us, “It is a notable triumph of godliness when age is redolent with the earnestness and diligence, of youth.” Throughout the first chapter John had been presenting objective doctrinal statements, but now he was going to make practical application of the same and address himself to the conscience of his readers. “In this there is an example to all who would be teachers of others, whether pastors or parents, or any who would be to them ‘helpers in Christ.’ It shows the spirit in which they should labour, and the object at which they should aim. That spirit should be affectionately ‘speaking the truth in love,’ ever in meekness instructing those who oppose themselves” (J. Morgan). Yet care needs to be taken against suffering that tender and gentle spirit to degenerate into a servile timidity, which brings the teacher almost to apologize for presuming to exhort others. There are not a few ministers in this effeminate age who need to heed that word: “These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee” (Titus 2:15). “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not.” The “these things” makes it plain that 1 John 2:1-2 are intimately related to what has been stated in the first, and thus in those words the Holy Spirit, through the apostle, emphasizes the need and importance of carefully observing the context. The real force of many a verse can only be perceived as we note and ponder its connection and coherence with what precedes. In this instance the reference looks back to all John had said from the opening of his epistle. First, he had set before his readers the glorious person of the Mediator as “the Word of life” and as the Author and Giver of eternal life. If, then, such be the Lord Jesus, and such His mission, what ought we to expect will issue therefrom? Surely that “He shall save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Second, he had shown that a saving knowledge of Christ produces fellowship and joy. And what but holiness must be the result thereof? Third, he had made clear his design and the tendency of his message by a presentation of the character of God and of those who enjoy communion with Him in Christ: they walk in the light, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses them from all sin. Thus, the purifying influence of such fellowship is obvious. Finally, John had given a brief but comprehensive outline of the Divine life in the soul of the believer. It is marked by the conviction of sin (1 John 1:8) and the confession of his sins (1 John 1:9). The effects of such exercises of soul must be the bringing forth of fruits meet for repentance, i.e. an increasing hatred of sin and godly sorrow for the same. In view of all this, the propriety of his applicatory injunction “sin not” is apparent. Between such things as he had mentioned and the practice or indulgence of sin there is an absolute contrariety: they are altogether incompatible with each other. Light and darkness are no more opposed than are fellowship with God and the allowance of sin. In view of all that I have said, this is the practical application you are to make. It might be summarized “therefore sin not.” By thus tracing the connection of his “these things write I unto you” and the dehortation “sin not” we perceive the fuller force of John’s “my little children,” in which, for the first time, he directly addressed his readers, namely that he was speaking of their responsibility, and therefore did he express both his warm love to them and his parental authority, and as Gill said, “it might serve to put them in mind of their weakness in faith, knowledge and spiritual strength, that they might not entertain too high notions of themselves, as if they were perfect, without infirmity.” More specifically 1 John 2:1 is to be connected with 1 John 1:6-10, wherein a double proposition is presented. First, that fellowship with God is conditioned upon a repudiation of, and separation from, “darkness.” Second, that fellowship is accompanied by an owning of the principle of indwelling sin and confession of its works. John had a definite design before him when he made those statements, which is plainly expressed in 1 John 2:1, and that design is likewise twofold: to exhort and comfort—to deter from moral laxity and afford relief unto those who, despite their endeavours to the contrary, often failed to realize their ideal. First, “sin not,” second, if you should, there is an Advocate to plead your cause. But how do these practical consequences follow from the preceding doctrinal propositions? Why that 1 John 1:6-7, lead to the conclusion that believers ought not to sin; yet 1 John 1:8-9 presuppose they will do so. Even fellowship with Him who is light does not eradicate innate darkness; nevertheless, that is not to be condoned or excused by us, but diligently and unsparingly resisted. Yet our best efforts therein are but partly successful, and this is deeply distressing to a tender conscience. “But though all sin that was pardoned, was pardoned upon the account of the blood of Christ, which had a property to cleanse from all sin, and that confession was a means to attain this forgiveness, purchased by our Saviour’s blood, yet men might suck in this poisonous doctrine of licentiousness, believing that upon confession they should immediately have forgiveness, though they walked on in the ways of their own hearts. And, on the other side, many good men might be dejected at the consideration of the relics of sin in them, which the apostle asserts no man was free from in this life. In 1 John 2:1, therefore, he prevents these two mistakes which men infer from the former doctrine: that we may not presume by the news of grace, nor despond by a reflection of our sin. Though I have told you that forgiveness of sin is to be had upon confession, yet the intent of my writing is not to encourage a voluntary commission. If you do commit sin, you must not be so cast down as if the door of mercy were clapped against you; no, there is One above to keep it open for every one that repents and believes” (S. Charnock, 1628-1680). “These things write I unto you, that ye sin not.” The standard of conduct which the Gospel sets before us is no less holy and perfect than that of the Law: no indulging of the flesh is permitted, no self-pleasing tolerated. When our Lord healed the impotent man His word to him was “sin no more” (John 5:14); and though it was not then His province to condemn to death the woman taken in adultery, so far from making light of her crime He said “go, and sin no more” (John 8:11). Nor was John the only one of the apostles who made this exacting demand upon the Lord’s people. “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21) said Paul; and again, “Awake to righteousness, and sin not” (1 Corinthians 15:34). Likewise Peter, in his first epistle: “But as He which called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation” (1 Peter 1:15). And again, “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, whichwar against the soul; having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation” (1 Peter 2:11-12). Everywhere in Scripture the Gospel is represented to be “the doctrine which is according to godliness” (1 Timothy 6:3), which forbids us to regard sin as the normal element of the Christian life, or even to consider its commission as inevitable. Not only are we to reject with abhorrence the devilish idea that the grace of God and the sacrifice of Christ give license to sin, but we are not even to view them as a provision for the weakness of the flesh. “Sin not” is the peremptory and unqualified demand. It was as though the apostle had said, I would have you so narrowly watch your hearts and ways that no evil might slip into your lives, no wrong thoughts be allowed, no idle words be uttered. I would have you make this your serious and constant aim: not merely that you are to sin as little as you can, but that you are not to sin at all. Great care needs to be taken against lowering or whittling down the exalted standard of moral purity which God has set before us. “Sin not” is not to be restricted unto the commission of merely gross and flagrant offences, nor to open acts in the outward life, but to all inward sinning too. Each statement of Holy Writ is to be given its full and fair meaning, and is never to be toned down or modified by us. “Sin not” is the standard of excellence which God has set before us, for the Holy One can claim nothing less, and our obligation fully to measure up to the same is beyond contradiction. It is the unabating requirement of the Gospel, for the object of Christ’s death was not only to make atonement for the sins committed by His people, but to supply motives to fortify and restrain their souls against continuing therein (2 Corinthians 5:14-15). To sin not is the Christian’s exalted ideal, the earnest pursuit of which is to engage all his faculties and powers. It is what every renewed heart ardently longs to attain unto. Few of our readers will be inclined to call into question the statement that nothing short of complete conformity to the image of Christ should be the daily endeavour of every saint, yet how few appear to make this their fixed resolution and purpose. Nothing short of abstaining from everything which is displeasing to Christ should be the task we set ourselves, and that without any secret reserve. Our eyes are to be fixed on our Rule and not on our infirmities. Say not beforehand a measure of failure is certain, but rather “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Php 4:13). The Gospel is designed to inspire love to God and holiness, and every part of it reveals the malignant nature and evil effects of sin, and bids us hate, dread and flee from it. “Sin not.” To make anything less than that the daily business of our lives is opposed to Divine grace, for it teaches its recipients to deny ungodly and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously and godly in this world (Titus 2:12). It is antagonistic to saving faith in Christ, for that receives Him as Lord as well as trusts Him as Saviour, and if we are being ruled by Satan instead of rendering obedience to Christ we are not partakers of His salvation (Hebrews 5:9). It is presumption and not faith which trifles with temptation. It is contradictory to repentance, which includes both a godly sorrow for sin and the sincere purpose to forsake it. That spiritual repentance which is the gift of God (Acts 5:31, 2 Timothy 2:25) not only turns the heart from sin, but against it, and therefore serves as a check against evil inclinations. It conflicts with sincere love to God, for that seeks to glorify Him in all things, and makes duty a delight. It is contrary to the injunction which a renewed conscience imposes upon the will, for though the will may, and does, oppose the conscience and follow the impulses of the flesh, yet conscience never consents or condones, but judges and condemns. Finally, for the Christian to allow himself in any sin is directly opposed to his redemption by the blood of Christ. What a word is that by the Spirit of God: “Ye are not your own. For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). “Your time is redeemed—use it as a consecrated talent in His cause. Your minds are redeemed—employ them to learn His truth and to meditate on His ways. Thus make them armouries of holy weapons. Your eyes are redeemed—let them not look on vanity; close them on all sights and books of folly. Your feet are redeemed—let them trample on the world and climb the upward hill of Zion, and bear you onward in the march of Christian zeal. Your tongues are redeemed—let them only sound His praise and testify of His love. Your hearts are redeemed—let them love Him wholly, and have no seat for rivals. A redeemed flock should live in redemption’s pastures. The Redeemer’s freedmen should evidence that they are called to holy liberty, and that their holy liberty is holy service. The chain of sin is broken. The chain of love now holds them” (H. Law of Wells, 1862). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 17: 001.13. CHAPTER 13 ======================================================================== Chapter 13 SINS PROVIDED FOR 1 John 2:1-2 “Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness” (1 Timothy 3:16). Not only so in connection with the two natures united in the person of the God-man Mediator, but also in regard to the two opposing natures which at present exist in all those on earth who are members of His mystical body. This it is which alone casts light upon the strange conflict which is being ceaselessly waged within them, and which explains many a paradox in Holy Writ. A forceful example of the latter is found in the first chapter of our epistle. In it “The apostle seems to have said both that believers are free from sin and also that they have sin (1 John 1:7-8); that they cannot sin and yet that they do sin (1 John 1:6, 1 John 1:10). The explanation is that these verses contain the antithesis of Christian experience. In all realms there are apparent contradictions. Night is a contradiction of day, winter a contradiction of summer, and infancy is at the antipodes of old age” (Levi Palmer). The same antithesis of Christian experience, or contradictory elements, is brought forward into 1 John 2:1, where the apostle declares: “My little children, these things I write unto you, that you sin not,” yet at once adds “And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father.” Admire the blessed balance of Truth there, and observe the order in which it is presented. There is no turning of the grace of God into lasciviousness by making light of sin, but a forbidding of us to commit any. “Sin not” needs to be turned into fervent prayer: “Hold up my goings in Thy paths, that my footsteps slip not” (Psalms 17:5). “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” “Cleanse Thou me from secret [unsuspected] faults” (Psalms 19:12). But more, “sin not” is to be made our firm and fixed resolution. So far from complacently expecting to fail, we must do as the Psalmist did: “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee” (Psalms 119:11). That is the use we are to make of God’s Word: to get it deeply rooted in our affections, so that holy conduct will result from it, and that we may be able to bear testimony: “by the word of Thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer” (Psalms 17:4). It must also be our diligent endeavour: “Herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men” (Acts 24:16). “Sin not.” Allow not yourself in any; no, not in what men term “little” ones. Yield to no temptation. Keep yourself unspotted from the world. Even though Divine provision is made for sin, yet God’s demand is “Cease to do evil; learn to do well” (Isaiah 1:16-17). “This is the order and method of the doctrine of the Gospel. First, to keep us from sin, and then to relieve us against sin. But here the deceit of sin enters. It puts this new wine into old bottles, whereby the bottles are broken, and the wine perishes as to our benefit from it. It changes this order of Gospel truth. It takes up the last first, and then excludes the use of the first utterly. If any man sins there is pardon provided, is all the Gospel that sin would willingly suffer to abide in the minds of men. When we would come to God by believing, it would be pressing the former part of being free from sin; when the Gospel proposes the latter principally, or the pardon of sin for our encouragement. When we are come to God and should walk with Him, it will have only the latter proposed, that there is pardon for sin, when the Gospel principally proposes the former, or, keeping ourselves from sin. The grace of God brings salvation, having appeared to us to that end and purpose” (John Owen). “These things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father.” Observe well how cautious and discriminating was John in the selection of his language here. First, so far from regarding the commission of sin as something which is to be expected as the common experience of all God’s children, he changes the number from “that ye sin not” to “if any man sin.” Second, even then such a fall is not contemplated as inevitable, but only as possible, and therefore, instead of saying “when,” he uses the hypothetical “if.” Third, the antithesis between the two sentences had been made even plainer and more direct had our translators rendered the opening word of the second member “But if any man sin”—as “kai” is translated in John 1:21; Acts 16:7; 1 John 2:27, which in each instance more suitably points a contrast. Finally, the tense of the verb which the apostle here employs is to be carefully noted: he did not say “But if any man sinneth,” but “sin.” It is not a continuous repetition which is in view, but a single and past act—as his use of the aorist connotes. “We have an advocate with the Father.” Here too we could call attention to the nicety of the apostle’s diction, as appears in his selection of the pronoun. It would naturally be expected that after saying “But if any man sin” John had written “he has an advocate.” Or, if he employed the plural number in keeping with the first part of the verse, he had continued to use the “you.” Why then this change to “we have an advocate”? Because he would include himself! Beautiful is it there to behold the apostle’s modesty. He does not address himself to his little children as from an elevated plane, as one whose spiritual experience was far removed from and superior to theirs, but instead he places himself on the same level as them, as personally needing the mediation of Christ—so far was he from imagining himself qualified to act as a mediator for others! How much we lose, dear Christian friends, through a careless reading of God’s Word, failing to note and weigh every jot and tittle in it! John’s change from the “ye” to “we” might well be made the text for a sermon on “The Humility of the Apostles.” By John’s inclusion of himself in the “we,” it is quite possible that he also intimated that his preceding “If any man sin” was to be understood as without any distinction. If any child of God, let him be what he will—a babe or a father in Christ, rich or poor, high or low—this Advocate belongs to him. Every believer is His client, for since He makes intercession for them “that come unto God by Him” (Hebrews 7:25), no such comer is excluded. Note well, it is not “But if any man sin he had an advocate,” as though Christ would no longer take the case of such a one, but “we have”—“in the present tense, which notes duration, a continued act. We have an Advocate, i.e. we constantly have, we have Him as long as life endures” (Charnock). Observe too that John did not say, “but if any man repents we have an advocate,” for in no sense is either our contrition or confession a moving cause of Christ’s mediation, rather are they the effects or fruits thereof. Nothing but the apprehension of the love of Christ and His present gracious advocacy is so well calculated to melt the backslider’s heart. In a most striking and blessed manner our present verse contains both exhortation and consolation. “But if any man sin” despite God’s prohibition, while he must not be unconcerned, neither should he yield to despondency. For on the one hand it was not their affections which clove to sin, but sin which did cleave to their affections. And on the other, while God makes no allowance for sin, He has made provision for it. Therefore, “We must not sin that grace may abound, but when we have sinned, we must make use of abounding grace” (Matthew Henry). From the inspired example left us here by the apostle, it is clearly as much the preacher’s duty to comfort as to admonish; it is as necessary for him to make known the Divinely provided relief for sin as to warn against it. “The valiant soldier will be most furiously attacked by the enemy, and may sometimes be foiled, and despondency is as inimical to watchfulness, diligence, and holy obedience, as even carnal security itself. No man, on Scriptural principles, can conclude himself to be any better than a hypocrite who habitually commits sin because God is ready to pardon the penitent; but the fallen, who desire to arise and renew the combat, have encouragement so to do” (T. Scott). If God’s children should sin, it is not “they are rejected by Christ and forfeit their salvation” but instead, “we have [not “had”] an advocate,” who undertakes for them and pleads their cause before God. “It is not an Advocate for sin, though for sinners. He does not vindicate the commission of sin or plead for the performance of it: He is no patron of iniquity. Nor does He deny that His clients have sinned, or affirm that their actions are not sins: He allows in court all their sins, with all their aggravating circumstances. Nor does He go about to excuse or extenuate them. But He is an Advocate for the non-imputation of them, and for the application of pardon to them. He pleads in their favour that these sins have been laid upon Himself, and He has borne them, and His blood has been shed for the remission of them, and that He has made full satisfaction for them; and therefore in justice they ought not to be laid to their charge, but that forgiveness of them should be applied unto them, for the relief and comfort of their burdened and distressed consciences” (John Gill). “We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” Most blessedly was this typed out under the Levitical economy. When Aaron entered the holy place, he bore the names of the twelve tribes upon his breast plate (Exodus 28:9), to signify that he was to have such care and love for them as those who were the dearest objects of his affections. And thus it is with the High Priest of the spiritual Israel. Christ presents His people before God as those who are inestimably dear unto Him. He not only died for them, but lives for them (Romans 5:10). He died to render satisfaction to God on their behalf; He lives to keep them secure. This was one chief end of His ascension and session at God’s right hand. Christ entered “into heaven itself” for what end?—“now to appear in the presence of God for us” (Hebrews 9:24). Though there is a great change in His condition from a state of humiliation to a state of exaltation, yet there is no change in His office or in His attitude unto His redeemed. He came here from the Father to make known His gracious purpose, and He has returned to Him to sue out the benefits which He so dearly purchased. “When His offering was accepted, He went to heaven, to the supreme Judge, to improve this acceptance of His sacrifice” (Charnock). Christ not only died for our offences, but He rose again for our justification (Romans 4:24). His redemptive work is not only a historic fact, but a present, living, efficacious reality, for He is seen on high “a Lamb as it had been slain” (Revelation 5:6). The present advocacy of Christ expresses the glorious truth that He has undertaken our cause before God, and performs for us all that such an office implies—defending us, securing our rights as His ransomed people. His being seated at “God’s right hand” imports that He is possessed of power and authority. It was promised that He should be “a priest upon His throne” (Zechariah 6:13). He is not begging for favours or gratuitous benefits, but suing out a right: all His transactions there are in a way of satisfaction and purchase. Christ sits at God’s right hand as no silent and inactive Spectator, but as an industrious and mighty Intercessor: to prevent the sins of His people making any breach, to preserve a perpetual amity between God and them. Thus we have “a Friend at court” who spreads before the Father the odours of His merits as the all-sufficient answer to every indictment which Satan prefers against us. An advocate presupposes an adversary, and that He appears to defend our cause. This is indeed a great mystery about which we can know nothing whatever save what God has been pleased to reveal. In Revelation 12:10, the Devil is termed “the accuser of our brethren... which accused them before our God day and night.” From this it appears that when the saints fall into sin the adversary charges them with the same before God, demanding sentence of judgment upon them—as he did Job of that of which he was not guilty. In Zechariah 3:1-10 we see the high priest in filthy garments and Satan resisting him. But Christ calls on the Father to rebuke him, saying, “Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?” Orders were given for his filthy garments to be taken away, his iniquity was caused to pass from him and he was clothed with change of raiment, and a “fair mitre” set on his head! The Advocate admitted the iniquity of His client, but defied Satan on the ground that his sin was pardoned and a righteousness had been procured for him. This is recorded to assure us that no charged preferred against any whom Christ represents will succeed. “We have an advocate with the Father.” That blessed statement is as much designed for our comfort as is the fact that Christ is now acting as the Attorney of His redeemed, for it tells of His gracious relation and disposition toward them on whose supreme will their case depends. It emphasizes the grand fact that the heart of the Judge of all (Hebrews 12:23) is toward and not against His people. And as Goodwin pointed out, “he says not only ‘an advocate with His Father,’ though that had given much assurance; or with ‘your Father,’ though that might afford much boldness; but indefinitely ‘with the Father,’ as intending to take in both—to assure us of the prevailing efficacy of Christ’s intercession from both.” “Jesus Christ the righteous;” in Himself (Jeremiah 23:5), in the ground of His admission into this office (Hebrews 1:9), and in the cause He pleads. He asks for nothing which is in the least degree opposed to the strict requirements of the Law. He requests not the Father to show mercy at the expense of justice. There is no compromise of holiness in God’s pardoning His children, for Christ made full atonement for all their sins. The work of advocacy belongs to and is part of Christ’s priestly office, as the type (Leviticus 16:12-14) evinces. As Aaron’s entering into the holy of holies after the atoning sacrifice had been offered was a figure of Christ’s ascension after His passion, so the incense he bore there adumbrated the prayers of Christ on high. Christ’s intercession respects the procuring of grace and mercy for His people, and all that they need while left in this scene; but His advocacy relates only to their sins—it is that part of His intercession wherein He undertakes our defense when accused by the adversary. That advocacy is inseparably connected with His being our “propitiation,” for His oblation on earth is the foundation of His intercession in heaven. The saint also has “another Advocate” within him, for the Greek word rendered “Comforter” in John 14:16, John 15:26, and John 16:7, is the one translated “advocate” in 1 John 2:1. As the result of Christ’s intercession on high, the Holy Spirit within the believer convicts him of his sins, moves him to confess them before God, and thereby our broken communion is restored. “And He is the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2:2). Those words are in part an explanation of the ground on which Christ’s advocacy rests, and in part an amplification of “the righteous” of the preceding verse. Christ’s advocacy is based upon the fact that He has taken away our unrighteousness. The word “propitiation” means precisely the same thing as the Old Testament term “atonement” (the same Greek word being found in the Septuagint version of Leviticus 23:27; Numbers 5:8, rendered by “atonement”), providing it is understood in its Scriptural signification, namely as a penal and sacrificial satisfaction unto Divine holiness and justice, for the expiation of sin and the averting of vengeance. That is what atonement is—“at-one-ment” or reconciliation is what it effected. The force of the Hebrew word appears plainly in such a passage as Numbers 16:46, namely as that which pacifies God’s wrath (compare 2 Samuel 24:15, 2 Samuel 24:18). Thus to atone or propitiate is to placate (it is rendered “appease” in Genesis 32:20) by means of an adequate compensation—“kaphar” is translated “satisfaction” in Numbers 35:31-32. As the word “vicarious” relates Christ’s sacrifice unto those in whose stead it was made, so the term “propitiation” relates it to God as the One to whom it was offered, as a reparation to His broken Law and the dishonor done Him by sin. The grand end of Christ’s mediation is the appeasing of God’s anger and the securing of His favour. Note carefully He “is our propitiation,” for the apostle is not referring to what Christ was in His death, but what He is in consequence thereof, to meet our present needs. He entered heaven as the propitiation of the Church and on that basis is now serving as the Medium of forgiveness and the Maintainer of communion. He is the Advocate with the Father on behalf of His sinning people, pleading His righteousness and blood for them. That plea is founded on His sacrifice, which was presented for the entire election of grace, and therefore God justly forgives them. It is because Christ is such that His erring people may have the most confident recourse to Him in every time of need. “And not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” Universalists and Arminians have misunderstood the sound of those words through failure to ascertain their sense. They cannot mean that Christ is the propitiation for the sins of all mankind, or every Scripture which teaches the eternal punishment of the lost would be falsified; or, on the other hand, the oblation of Christ is largely a failure and He will not “see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied” with the fruits. Those propositions ought to be so self-evident as to require no argument. Justice—Divine justice least of all—does not demand a double payment for the same debt, and if Christ rendered full satisfaction unto God for the sins of the entire human race, then not a single member of it can possibly perish. Our verse is not announcing a possibility, but an actuality: it is not Christ’s willingness to be a propitiation for “the whole world” if they threw down their weapons and trusted in Him, but that He is so, and therefore if the whole world here is to be understood without restriction, then the verse teaches universal salvation and Scripture contradicts itself. But it does not: as here we have a “world” saved, so in 1 Corinthians 11:32, a “world” lost! As its opening “And” indicates, this declaration of 1 John 2:2 must not be separated from 1 John 2:1. Beyond controversy, John is there addressing Christians, and Christians only. His design was to deter them from sinning, and to point out that in case they did it was not to be supposed that they had forfeited their salvation, for Divine provision was made for just such an emergency. The contrite believer (1 John 1:9) has a twofold ground of assurance set before him., First, he has an advocate with the Father, and second, He is the propitiation for his sins. Parallel passages show that none but Christians may draw comfort therefrom, for Christ is the Advocate of none others. Those for whom He makes intercession are defined by the “us” of Romans 8:34, and the “them that come unto God by Him” of Hebrews 7:25. “He disowns in His mediatory prayer the whole unbelieving world... As He prayed not for the world on earth (John 17:9), so much less does He in heaven” (Charnock), for He knows that no prayer of His can add one to the number of God’s elect. But why did John say “and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world”? To stain the pride of the Jews, and to comfort the despised Gentiles. Throughout the Mosaic economy the sacrifices were available for none but Israelites and proselytes who were circumcised and permitted to enjoy some of their privileges. During the days of His public ministry Christ forbade His disciples to go into the way of the Gentiles (Matthew 10:5-7), but after His resurrection He commissioned them to preach the Gospel to every creature and make disciples of all nations, for at the cross “the middle wall of partition” (Ephesians 2:14) was broken down; therefore did He die outside Jerusalem (Hebrews 13:12) to intimate that His sacrifice had been offered for the whole election of grace, and not for believing Israelites only. John was one of the three apostles “unto the circumcision” (Galatians 2:9) and that his epistle was addressed principally to saved Jews is evident: they alone had the old commandment from the beginning (1 John 2:7), had known Christ “from the beginning” (1 John 2:13), and only from Jewish Christian assemblies would “antichrists” have gone out (1 John 2:18-19). Thus “He is the propitiation for our sins” is Jewish Christians, and “also for the...whole world” signifies Gentile believers also. That interpretation is necessitated by John 11:51-52, which supplies a threefold parallel. First, “he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation”—“He is the propitiation for our sins.” Second, “and not for that nation only”—“and not for ours only.” Third, “but that also He should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad,” which explains “and also for the... whole world” in which God’s children were dispersed—cf. “both theirs and ours” (1 Corinthians 1:2): if the “whole world” signified the race, the previous clause would be meaningless, for there could be no “also”! That the word “world” is used as a general expression rather than an absolute one is clear from many passages. “All the world wondered after the beast” (Revelation 13:3), yet there were some who received not his mark nor worshipped his image (Revelation 20:4)! Satan, “deceiveth the whole world” (Revelation 12:9), yet not God’s elect (Matthew 24:24)! “The whole world lieth in wickedness” (1 John 5:19), not so those who are in Christ. Such expressions as “all flesh” (Acts 2:17), “the Gentiles” (Acts 11:18), “all men” (1 Timothy 2:4), “The Saviour of the world” (1 John 4:14) are indefinite expressions which include God’s elect at large, in contradistinction from Jews only. As they were too self-centered (Acts 11:1-2; Galatians 2:12), so individual Christians lay too much stress on what Christ did for me, instead of dwelling upon what He did for the whole Church! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 18: 001.14. CHAPTER 14 ======================================================================== Chapter 14 OBEDIENTIAL ASSURANCE 1 John 2:3 “And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.” Simple as this verse appears to be, and as it really is, yet a careful and critical examination of it raises five questions, on none of which do the commentators return a uniform answer. First, with what is its opening “And” to be linked, precisely what is the connection between 1 John 2:3 and those that follow with what has preceded? Second, which Person in the Godhead is specifically alluded to by the pronouns “Him” and “His”—the Father or the Son? Third, what is the meaning of the word “know” here, and what distinction are we required to make between its double usage? Fourth, what is the precise force of the “if”—is it a calling into question, the testing of profession, or the drawing of a logical inference? Fifth, whose precepts are referred to in the “His commandments,” and which particular ones are in view—those of the Law or those of the Gospel, or both? A hasty conclusion must not be jumped to on any of these points, but care taken to supply proof before definite answers are returned. Guesswork is impious where God’s Word is concerned. If 1 John 1:5-11, 1 John 2:1-2, is read consecutively, it should be evident that we have there a complete paragraph, in which the apostle has covered the whole subject of sin in relation to believers. A close reading of 1 John 2:3-11, also makes it clear that those verses are to be regarded as another distinct and complete section, wherein the obedience of God’s children is in view. But some may demur at the statement that a new division, treating of a different subject, commences at 1 John 2:3, seeing that it opens with the word “And.” While such an objection is not to be ignored, it must not be allowed to shake our impression that the two separate aspects of Truth are there set forth: rather must we seek the relation between them. That there is a connection and relation, and probably an intimate one, is certainly intimated by the conjunction uniting them, and it is a matter of no little importance to discover or trace out their coherence, otherwise we are liable to bring a legalistic element into our understanding of 1 John 2:3, 1 John 2:5. Nor is the link, or links, between the two passages at all difficult to discover. For a general statement, perhaps Calvin’s can scarcely be improved on, for he pointed out, “John here reminds us that the knowledge of God derived from the Gospel is not ineffectual, but that obedience flows from it.” Stating almost the same thing in another form, we may say that gratuitous remission of sin is not a thing apart, but is ever accompanied by those sanctifying operations of the Spirit which cause the pardoned to express their gratitude by subjection unto God’s revealed will. The grand truth of Christ’s advocacy and propitiation will not, when savingly apprehended, induce a careless walk or encourage a spirit of lawlessness. Where Christ is truly known as Lord and Saviour, His authority is gladly owned; if He is loved, there will be no question about obedience. A spiritual apprehension of what Christ has done and is now doing for us is the most effective means and motive unto a God-honouring life: as the heart is brought under the power of the same, it is blessedly disposed unto every good word and work. After mentioning the gracious provision which God has made for the sins of His people, and the maintenance of their fellowship with Him, the apostle turned to consider the outward evidences of a spiritual knowledge of and communion with Christ. But still more definitely: 1 John 2:3-6 is to be regarded as an amplification of 1 John 1:5-7, for the emphatic “This then is the message which we have heard of Him” must be steadily borne in mind as we go through the entire epistle. There the apostle summarized what he and his fellows had heard from the lips of their Master and had seen so perfectly exemplified in His own life, namely that “God is light,” and in order to enjoy communion with Him the darkness must be shunned. In 1 John 1:7, he had affirmed that “if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another,” and though the light will increasingly make manifest our imperfections and defilements, yet, if we duly confess the same, the blood of Christ will cleanse us from all sin. Now, here in 1 John 2:3-6, “walk in the light” is declared to be a keeping of the Divine commandments and a following of the example which Christ has left us; while the resultant fellowship is seen in the “we do know that we know Him” and the “abideth in Him.” Finally, the opening “And” confirms our interpretation that God’s people alone are referred to in the whole of 1 John 2:2. Several spiritually minded and scholarly expositors regard the pronouns “Him” and “His” in our text as relating to Jesus Christ, the nearest antecedent, but most of the more recent writers insist that they relate to “the Father” with whom Christ is the Advocate. After carefully weighing their respective opinions, we fail to see any argument which necessarily excludes either the One or the Other, and therefore we much prefer to follow the older commentators who included both Persons. Our present verse is speaking of a saving knowledge, and where that is in view, while the Divine Persons may be distinguished, they are not to be separated. None can approach the Father except by the Son (John 14:6), and none can come unto the Son unless the Father draw him (John 6:44). As Christ declared unto those who opposed Him, “You neither know Me nor My Father: if you had known Me, you should have known My Father also” (John 8:19), and as He told His disciples, “he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9). The One cannot be known apart from the Other: “no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him” (Matthew 11:27). As pointed out above, there is an intimate relation between 1 John 2:3-11, and 1 John 1:5-11, 1 John 2:1-2, and for exegetical reasons we consider the pronouns of 1 John 2:3, look back to the One spoken of in 1 John 1:5. There we are informed that “God is light”—here that we “know Him” as such and conduct ourselves accordingly, for it is not merely a notional but an influential knowledge which John treats of. Now “God is light” is to be understood of the Godhead, and particularly of the triune God made known through Christ, “for in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily [or personally]” (Colossians 2:9). It is true that God is light in Himself essentially, yet not so unto fallen men—outside of Christ God is unknown, and man is in total spiritual darkness. In like manner, “God is love.” He is so essentially, yet not unto fallen men—outside of Christ “God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29). “This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent” (John 17:3): here again the Two are joined together, for the Father cannot be known apart from the Mediator. “Hereby we do know that we know Him.” As one eminent expositor said, “It must be so as He is Father in Christ, so that hereby is implied that the knowing of God absolutely is not saving: it must be relative, in the glorious dispensation and mystery which is by Jesus Christ.” But we must now inquire, What is meant here by our knowing Him, and particularly knowing that we know Him? We say here, for this is another term which is far from being used uniformly in the Scriptures. In some passages, as, for example, Ecclesiastes 3:14, and the words of Nicodemus to Christ, “we know that Thou art a teacher come from God” (John 3:2), “know” has the force of “believe,” as it has also in John 17:3. In other places it signifies “approve,” as in “They have set up kings, but not by Me: they have made princes, and I knew it not” (Hosea 8:4, and cf. Matthew 7:23). In yet others it goes farther, and signifies “love:” “I am the good Shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine” (John 10:14, and cf. 1 Corinthians 8:3). But its commonest meaning is to be sure or assured, as in “One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see” (John 9:25) and “we know that all things work together for good to them that love God” (Romans 8:28). As it is with natural things so also with spiritual: there is a radical difference between a notional and experiential knowledge. I may be theoretically assured that a certain thing would be helpful or harmful to me, but I know actually and factually that fire burns, that water refreshes, that food strengthens, for I have proved it for myself. In like manner, there is a very real distinction between knowing about the Lord and in knowing the Lord Himself. As one can see the one consists merely of information concerning Him and the other is a personal and a saving acquaintance with Him. In the Scriptures we are told that at first “many of the Samaritans ... believed” in Christ because of the testimony borne to Him by the woman at the well; but later, when they came into His presence and listened to His teaching, they declared, “Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard Him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world” (John 4:29, John 4:42). Thus too Paul bore witness: “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day” (2 Timothy 1:12)—from what he had already received from Him, he could confidently trust Him for the future. Such knowledge is vastly different from mere conjecture, it is based on something more than a probability, namely a certainty. Christ can only be savingly known as we receive the Spirit’s testimony concerning Him, surrender ourselves fully unto His control, and trust in Him with all our hearts. Then shall we obtain inward evidence of His reality and the verity of His offer. It is said of Him that He “knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21): there the term connotes experience: that He had no practical acquaintance with it—having no carnal nature as we have. Thus to know Christ savingly is to have personal proof of His redemptive power: to pardon and cleanse, to subdue our passions, to speak peace to the conscience, to draw out our affections unto things above, and to have a vital realization of other Divine influences of that Spirit which proceeds from Him. Finally, the word “know” also imports to acknowledge, as we are told of a certain Pharaoh “which knew not Joseph” (Exodus 1:8), that is he had no regard for his memory, no sense of what Egypt owed to him, and therefore refused to be kind unto his people for his sake. In this sense, the term occurs in “the sheep follow Him: for they know His voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers” (John 10:4-5): the sheep respond to Christ’s voice: they publicly own Him, but refuse allegiance to all impostors. “The knowledge of Christ has become expressive of a personal and saving interest in His work and grace. There is great propriety in this use of the term. Knowledge is the result of observation and experience. It implies certainty. If we say we know a man, it supposes we have had intercourse with him, and have proved what sort he is. If we know a country we must have been there and seen it and become versant with its inhabitants, soil, and products. If we know a medicine, we must have used or analysed it, and so become acquainted with its constituents and properties. Now this is precisely the force of the term when we speak of the knowledge of Christ. Hence it is the characteristic of believers in our text: ‘we know Him.’ We know His power, for we have proved it; we know His wisdom, for we have been guided by it; we know His love, for we have enjoyed it; and we know His truth, for we have ever found Him faithful. How thankful we should be that this is the nature of true religion. It is not a speculation about which there is uncertainty. It is not a doubtful opinion. It is knowledge. It is a reality of which we may know ourselves. They who attained it may say ‘we know him’” (J. Morgan). But is this really the case with all of God’s children, uniformly so in their consciousness? No, indeed, far from it. Some of them are often full of doubts and made to question the reality of their relationship to Christ. And there is no little occasion for them to do so. As they behold what shipwreck some have made who started out so promisingly, apparently progressing more swiftly than themselves, they ask, Shall I end thus? As they hear the pratings of graceless professors who talk so fluently of Divine things, and behold their carnal. and worldly lives, they wonder if their knowledge of Christ be only a theoretical and theological one. As they are frequently made painfully conscious of the risings of indwelling sin, and often have to cry “Iniquities prevail against me” (Psalms 65:3), they are fearful of being deceived on this important matter. Yet none of these occasions affords a legitimate reason why any born-again soul should call into question his regeneration or saving knowledge of Christ. As Spurgeon said on this verse, “This ought not to be. It is too solemn a thing to be left to chance or conjecture. I believe there are saved ones who do not know of a surety that they are saved. They are raising the question often that never ought to be a question. “No man ought to be content to leave that unsettled, for mark thee, if thou art not a saved man, thou art a condemned man. If thou art not forgiven, thy sins lie on thee. Thou art now in danger of hell if thou art not secure of heaven, for there is no place between these two. Thou art either a child of God, or not. Why say ye ‘I hope I am a child of God, yet I do not know; I hope, yet know not I am forgiven?’ In such suspense ye ought not to be. Thou art either one or the other—either a saint or a sinner, either saved or lost, either walking in the light or walking in the darkness.” We fully endorse those sentiments, for there is Scriptural warrant for the same. John tells us that one of the very purposes for which the Spirit moved him to pen this epistle was to give assurance to the hearts of God’s people: “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe [more confidently] on the name of the Son of God” (1 John 5:13). Thus one of its chief designs is to resolve all doubts and displace them with certainty. That declaration of 1 John 5:13, shows that it is of deep importance that the Christian should know he has eternal life. For to be in doubt thereof is to reflect upon the veracity of God, whose Word declares that he has (John 5:24). It is to call into question the gracious work of the Spirit within him. It is much to his own spiritual loss. It deprives him of the greatest comfort which any soul can experience in this life, for to be assured that Christ is mine and I am his is a perennial joy and unfailing consolation under the heaviest trial. As one has said, “you who are living on ‘perhapses’ and ‘maybes’ are living on dust and ashes.” Such knowledge as John here treats of inspires confidence. What assurance it gives in prayer to know that I am making requests unto my Father—we can never ask believingly until such be the case. What courage it conveys for meeting temptations—shall a child of God panic and flee before the Devil? It kindles the highest degree of love. To know that I know Him cannot but draw out my affections unto Him, and cause me to ask “What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits unto me?” Now here in our text we are supplied with a sure recipe for the attainment and preservation of this sound state of the soul’s health. It is the first of seven passages in this epistle wherein are made known how a Scriptural assurance is secured (for the time being we will leave the reader to search for the other six), namely by a keeping of the Divine commandments: “hereby we do know that we know Him.” Here is another instance where the same word occurs in a passage with two distinct meanings. To make them clearer we would paraphrase our text thus: In this way may God’s children be sure that they have a saving faith in and acquaintance with Him—by fulfilling His precepts. It is by means of a willing, impartial and habitual compliance with God’s will that we obtain evidence of the genuineness of our profession and supply proof that we really love Him. It is by a walking in subjection to Him that we may be sure we are in the narrow way that leads unto life. It is for this reason that we have entitled our chapter “Obediential Assurance,” for the validity of their persuasion is attested by a practical subjection to God’s authority. It is to be duly noted that the apostle was here emulating his Master, for He had clearly taught the same thing: “Ye are My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you” (John 15:14). Friendship entails obligations—the pleasing of and promoting the interests of one another. As to the design of the “if” in our text, we regard it as being threefold. First, as investigative, a testing of profession or putting to the proof of those who averred a saving knowledge of God. Then, as now, there were many who claimed to know God in Christ, but their knowledge was a barren one. Second, as discriminative, supplying God’s people with a criterion which if put to use would preserve them from being imposed upon by hypocrites. Third, as demonstrative, the sure evidence by which a Christian may determine his own state before God. The tree is known by its fruits, and if mine be bearing that which is spiritual and heavenly it cannot be one of nature’s planting. Thus the force of the “if” is double: hereby we may be assured that we truly know God spiritually providing we keep His commandments, or/and inasmuch as we do so. There cannot be real fellowship with God without its having a vital influence on the heart and a transforming effect upon the life. But who is there who really keeps God’s commandments? All of His people, for whereas the unregenerate are designated “the children of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2), the regenerate are addressed “as obedient children” (1 Peter 1:14). There is a twofold keeping of God’s commandments: a legal and an evangelical. The former pertains to the Covenant of Works, wherein an absolute and perfect obedience, without failure or cessation, is demanded on pain of death. The latter marks the Covenant of Grace, wherein a filial and sincere obedience, though full of defects, is accepted by God—its blemishes being blotted out by the blood of Christ and its inadequacy covered by His merits. God looks at the heart, and where it beats true unto Him with a genuine desire and determination to please Him—grieving over and confessing that which displeases Him—He accepts the will for the deed. Love fastens not its eyes upon defects. Thus we find God testifying of David, notwithstanding his sad lapses, “he kept My commandments and My statutes” (1 Kings 11:34); Christ declaring of His apostles, despite their failures, “they have kept Thy word” (John 17:6); and the Holy Spirit bearing witness to the patience of Job (James 5:11), though he had not a little impatience. The keeping of God’s commandments signifies and includes that we make His will the rule of our lives, using His Word as a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. That it works effectually in our souls, inclining our hearts and governing our wills. That we hold it in our memories and delight to meditate daily thereon. That we genuinely endeavour and prayerfully strive to perform God’s precepts. That we obey them implicitly, simply because they are God’s commandments, and not because they commend themselves to our reason, are agreeable to our inclinations, or conducive to our interests. That we obey them impartially, for if we be regulated by what God commands, then we shall be by whatsoever He enjoins—without any picking or choosing. That we do so cheerfully, regarding each commandment as an expression of the will of Him who loves us and whom we love and long to please. That we do so perseveringly, for if we really love Him we shall not stop obeying Him. Such obedience is not in order to salvation, but from gratitude for having been saved; nor is it performed in our own strength, but by grace duly sought from above. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 19: 001.15. CHAPTER 15 ======================================================================== Chapter 15 OBEDIENTIAL ASSURANCE 1 John 2:4-55 “He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in Him. But whoso keepeth His word, in Him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in Him.” Our title suggests that there is more than one kind of assurance, and such is indeed the case; nor do we refer to the difference between a genuine and a false one, but to those that are real and true. Like so many other subjects treated of in Scripture, Christian assurance has more than one side to it, though many are unaware of the fact. Broadly speaking they may be reduced to two: an objective and a subjective. The one is a firm persuasion resting on something without us, namely the Word of God; the other upon something within us—the work of God’s Spirit. Each is obtained by faith, and both are equally sure, though the latter be not attended with the same degree of certainty. The former is foundational, the other evidential. “Although hypocrites and other unregenerate men may vainly deceive themselves with false hopes and carnal presumptions of being in the favour of God and estate of salvation, which hope of theirs shall perish? yet such as truly believe in the Lord Jesus, and love Him in sincerity, endeavouring to walk in all good conscience before Him, may in this life be certainly assured that they are in the state of grace, and may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God; which hope shall never make them ashamed. “This certainly is not a bare conjectural and probable persuasion, grounded upon a fallible hope; but an infallible assurance of faith, founded upon the Divine truth of the promises of salvation, the inward evidence of those graces unto which these promises are made, the testimony of the Spirit of adoption witnessing with our spirit that we are the children of God: which Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance, whereby we are sealed to the day of redemption” (Westminster Confession of Faith). It will be seen that that statement relates not to a simple assurance, but to a complex one, which rests on several grounds. There is an assurance conveyed by the direct action of faith, when it receives and rests upon Christ as He is freely offered in the Gospel, and His promise that He will never cast out such a one is relied upon. There is also an assurance which springs from the reflex action of faith, when the believer sees himself in the mirror of God’s Word and perceives in himself “the inward evidences of those graces” which are the Scriptural marks of a saving change wrought in his soul by the Holy Spirit. The latter cannot exist without the former, nor will the former be without the latter, except in those rare cases where regenerated souls are taken at once to heaven. Whereas the unsaved are to be plainly informed that there is a sure ground in the Gospel for the chief of sinners to rest his faith and hope upon, and that there can be no spiritual experience or inward evidence to confirm his hope until he looks away unto Christ as his Saviour; on the other hand, those who profess to have done so are to be exhorted to make their calling and election sure (2 Peter 1:10) unto themselves and their fellow saints, by bringing forth those fruits which manifest them to be trees of the Lord’s planting. Now in this epistle John enters into some detail in showing what those fruits consist of, the presence of which attests the saving nature of their possessor’s faith, and the absence of which demonstrates the emptiness of such a one’s profession. In other words, the fact of regeneration may be certainly inferred from the presence of those marks which according to God’s Word pertain unto those who have been born again. Conversely, of those who affirm themselves to be regenerate but tread not the highway of holiness, but instead “have corrupted themselves,” it has to be said “their spot is not the spot of His children: they are a perverse and crooked generation” (Deuteronomy 32:5). Now it is this evidential assurance of which John treats in the passage before us. First he declares, “Hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments:” in this way do we obtain sure confirmation that our acquaintance with Christ is a saving one. Christians may be convinced that a new nature has been imparted to them if they clearly perceive themselves to have new thoughts, tastes, impulses, desires, and acts. “As light proves the shining of the sun, as movement proves the existence of life, so this new experience assures us that our faith is not in vain. It is not without works, and therefore it is not dead” (L. Palmer). David could say, “I understand more than the ancients, because I keep Thy precepts” (Psalms 119:100)—not because he lived in a later and “more enlightened” age, nor by mental industry and extensive reading, but by entire submission to the supreme authority of the Divine will. “If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine” (John 7:17)—obedience is the grand means for removing doubts. “He that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in [or “by”] God” (John 3:21): he who acts uprightly and conscientiously fears not for God to scrutinize him and knows that Divine grace must be operating within him. So intimately connected are spiritual knowledge and obedience that it is most difficult to define that exact relation and interrelation between them. It has been remarked that the one is both the cause and the effect of the other, the root and fruit alike; but it would be more accurate to say they are completely interdependent. Thus we find David testifying, “Through Thy precepts I get understanding,” and then asking, “give me understanding, that I may know Thy testimonies” (Psalms 119:104, Psalms 119:125), yet there is not the least inconsistency between the two things. Paul prayed that the saints might be filled with spiritual understanding, in order that they should walk worthily of the Lord, thereby “increasing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:9-10). “Let me give you an illustration of this point. When our Lord met the disciples at Emmaus and talked with them, they did not know Him while He talked with them. But when think you did they know that they knew Him? Why, not until they performed an act of obedience by offering hospitality to a stranger. Then He was known to them in the breaking of bread” (Spurgeon). The lack of practical obedience to Christ lies at the root of the majority of doubts and fears! Well did T. Scott remark upon this verse, “What then shall we say to the unguarded language of some persons who have argued or asserted that sanctification is not the proper ground of assurance and evidence of our justification, and that it is legalistic for men to look to their works as the proof of their being true believers? We can only say that they directly contradict the apostle, and that they are most certainly mistaken.” There is a vast difference between saying that the ground of assurance for acceptance with God is my obedience to His commandments, and declaring that the genuineness of my profession is to be tested thereby. As Calvin pointed out, “But we are not hence to conclude that faith recumbs on works, for though every one receives a testimony to his faith from his works, yet it does not follow that it is founded on them, since they are added as an evidence. Then the certainty of faith depends on the grace of Christ alone; but piety and holiness of life distinguish true faith from that knowledge of God which is fictitious and dead: for the truth is that those who are in Christ, as Paul says, ‘have put off the old man’ (Colossians 3:9).” The soundness of our knowledge is to be gauged by the obedience which it produces. “He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:4). In those words the apostle declares that any knowledge of God which issues not in obedience to Him is worthless, and that the lawless one affirming a saving acquaintance with God is a deceiver. John’s immediate design was to expose the vain pretences of the Gnostics, who claimed to know God in a very profound and intimate way. They imagined that they understood the very essence of God’s being and the mysterious manner of His subsistence, and therefore acquired or appropriated the name of Gnostics, or “knowing ones.” But they kept not the Divine commandments, affecting themselves to be occupied with higher things, which raised them above God’s precepts; and therefore they disdained His ordinances. John was also refuting the error of Antinomians, who, under the guise of magnifying Divine grace, set aside the Law as the believer’s rule of conduct. Peter refers to them in his second epistle and declares that the “liberty” they preached was naught but “bondage” (1 John 2:19); while Jude branded them as deniers of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 John 2:4). But in its wider scope, our text is an exposure of all graceless professors. It is an easy matter for anyone to say “I know God,” but whether or not such be the case must be put to the trial. It raises the question, What kind of knowledge is mine? Is it merely a natural and notional one, or a spiritual and influential? Do I know Him with a filial fear and holy love, or just intellectually, as the demons do (Mark 1:24)? This calls to the duty of self-examination, and shows the importance of making sure that I really have a saving interest in Christ. It requires me to ascertain if that great change has been wrought in me which regeneration ever effects. The defects and deficiencies of the Christian’s life are indeed many, nevertheless the one who has been born again evidences it by habitually walking with God. Nor will the real children of God resent the challenging of their faith or the testing of their knowledge. Rather are they deeply concerned, and willing to go to considerable pains in order to be Scripturally assured that their knowledge is radically different from that of empty professors or conscienceless hypocrites, that their faith is a Divinely communicated one, that their experience is sound and genuine and not delusive and counterfeit, evidenced by a conscientious compliance with God’s will. Whether our knowledge of God be a saving one is not to be determined by the soundness of our creed nor by the depth and liveliness of our feelings, but by a radical change of heart which has produced a new disposition, which moves us to a willing, steady and diligent compliance with and conformity to God’s preceptive will. It is in this way that we may confirm the sincerity of our profession and the reality of our state. Contrariwise, anyone who avows himself to have passed from death unto life, yet makes no conscience of the Divine authority, but is a self-pleaser, supplies evidence that he is a liar. Thus it is that the Lord’s people are both to identify themselves and to be known unto others. See this principle illustrated in the case of Saul of Tarsus: when in response to his inquiry, “Who art Thou, Lord?” Christ was revealed to him, he at once asked, “What wilt Thou have me to do?” (Acts 9:5-6). As soon as he knew Christ, he desired to obey Him, and unmistakably and lastingly was that desire exemplified to the end of his course. Nor was his in any wise an exceptional case, rather was it in this respect “a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting” (1 Timothy 1:16). Unto all who are in Christ is that promise made good, “I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts” (Hebrews 8:10), so that they understand, love and obey them. It is in this way that we are renewed in knowledge after the image of God (Colossians 3:10). That knowledge is a practical and persuasive one, which powerfully influences its subject and produces a walking in the light. When God writes His laws upon our hearts, our affections and wills answer to every tittle in them, with a genuine desire and determination to perform the same. There is a complete harmony between the renewed soul and God and a correspondency of will. That correspondency was expressed by David thus: “When Thou saidst, Seek ye My face; my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek” (Psalms 27:8); and by Paul: “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man” (Romans 7:22). And though he was harassed with another and contrary law warring against the same and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin which was in his members, causing him to cry for deliverance, yet he not only thanked God that he would yet be fully delivered, but could say “with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.” “He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” The particular design of these verses is to take forth the precious from the vile. In them the apostle describes one of the vital differences which there is between the sheep and the goats. Of the latter it is said, “They profess that they know God; but in works they deny Him” (Titus 1:16). They adopt the same language as the saints, believe the same doctrines, claim to be resting on the finished work of Christ, and are quite sure of their salvation; yet evince little or no concern for His precepts. They talk glibly, but walk carelessly. This is exceedingly solemn, for those who tread not in the way of God’s precepts are strangers to Him. A man spiritually knows no more than he practices, for spiritual knowledge is radical and influential. It exerts both a restraining and a constraining power, causing its subject to loathe and shun evil and to love and pursue that which is good. Therefore they who keep not God’s commandments have no experiential acquaintance with Him. “We cannot know Him as Lord and Father, without being dutiful children and obedient servants” (Calvin). While John describes quite a number of distinct marks whereby God’s children may surely recognize themselves and also identify those who have a form of godliness but know nothing of its living and transforming power, it is both highly significant and deeply important to note that he has given the precedence unto obedience, for without it any other apparent features of spirituality are but spurious. Though this be by no means the only evidence of a saving knowledge of God, it is the first and foremost, and where it be absent it is useless to look for others. As Christ asked those whom He addressed, “Why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). Habitual disregard of His commandments is utterly incompatible with the owning of Him as our Lord. A disobedient life is a blank repudiation of a Christian profession. To avow that I know God savingly while self-will orders my life is a blatant assumption, for it is thoroughly lacking in reality. If I disregard that which Christ has appointed to be observed and done by His disciples, then that is absent which marks me as one. He “is a liar, and the truth is not in him,” As John proceeds to develop his subject his language becomes increasingly emphatic. In 1 John 1:7, he had affirmed that those who walk in the light have fellowship with God in Christ, but in 1 John 2:3, he used a stronger expression of those who keep His commandments—thereby they “do know that they know Him.” So, contrastedly, in 1 John 1:6, it was asserted that if we profess to have fellowship with God and yet walk in darkness “we lie, and do not the truth,” whereas here the apostle roundly and positively declares of the one who claims to know God and yet “keeps not [observe the tense!] His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” It should be pointed out that the final clause is much more than a bare repetition in a negative form of the preceding one, being explanatory not only of his being a liar but of his being disobedient: he kept not His commandments because he lacked the “impulsive power of a new affection,” which impels to holy action. And here we would answer the final question in the opening paragraph in our last chapter: “His” refers to God in Christ, and therefore the “commandments” include those of both the Law and the Gospel—amplification and verification of this statement will be given (D.V.) under our exposition of 1 John 2:7-8. “He is a liar,” for he professes that which his life refutes. He may know much about Christ and have many ideas of Him floating in his brain, but it is a glaring falsehood for one who makes no conscience of His Law to say he has a saving knowledge of Him. As Spurgeon pointed out, it is more than a verbal lie, namely a doctrinal one, for it is horrible heresy to aver a personal acquaintance with the Saviour and live a life of self-pleasing—the two things are utterly incompatible. It is a practical lie, for he completely falsifies such a profession. One who poses as a Christian when he is not “hangs out false colours on Sunday and all through the week plays the liar’s part.” It is a corrosive lie, eating into the soul of its utterer and corrupting it, for he who has no compunction in testifying falsely of his relation unto God soon becomes inured to deceiving his fellows. Some of the most shameless trickeries and robberies have been committed by those posing as ardent Christians. It is a damning lie, for the one who is guilty of this God-dishonouring falsehood is signing and sealing her own death warrant, challenging the dread sentence of eternal perdition (Revelation 21:8). “But whoso keepeth His word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in Him” (1 John 2:5). Here the apostle returns to the thought of 1 John 2:3, and describes those who know the grace of God in truth (Colossians 1:6 and cf. Ephesians 4:21), though the careful reader will observe the change from “His commandments” to “His word.” That was not simply for the avoidance of tautology, but because the latter is a more comprehensive expression, taking in the entire communication which God has made us. It is first and foremost a commanding Word, which demands the subordination of our reason and judgment to it, the submission of our affections and wills, the subjugation of our likes and dislikes. But it is also a Word of doctrine to be believed and held fast. We are required to be as jealous of God’s Truth as we are responsive to His will, to be as sound in our faith as holy in our conduct, to hate false teaching as we do the garment spotted by the flesh. It is also a Word of threatening, to be respected and treated with fear and trembling—as Joseph did (Genesis 39:9), and not trifled with as was the case with Adam and Eve. It is a Word of promise and consolation, to be embraced or appropriated (Hebrews 11:13) and rejoiced in (Jeremiah 15:16). As such that Word is to be kept as a whole, and in all its parts. The “love of God” is an ambiguous phrase, for it may be understood either objectively or subjectively, as the love which God Himself bears and manifests unto His people or as that which they exercise toward Him; but whichever it is it comes to much the same thing, since theirs is but the reflex of His—the outflowing of that which He has shed abroad in their hearts. As the expression comes before us again in 1 John 4:1-21, we will reserve till then (D.V.) a fuller consideration of its precise significance, as well as what is intended by its being “perfected:” suffice it now to say that by God’s love being “perfected” we understand its having accomplished its design or reached its end in producing obedience. The aim of God’s love in choosing His people is to make them holy (Ephesians 1:4). The purpose of Christ’s love in redeeming His people is that they may be “zealous of good works” (Titus 2:14). As Calvin pointed out with his usual perspicuity—greatly excelling that of most who have followed him—“this misunderstood clause intimates what a true keeping of God’s Word consists of, even love to Him.” “What doth the Lord thy God require of thee ... to love Him.. .. to keep the commandments of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 10:12-13); “therefore love is the fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13:10), for love is dynamical, the most effectual of all influences and motives. Love is intensely practical—seeking to promote the interests of its object—or it is an empty name. Where there be love in the heart it will soon appear in the life; of all the affections it is the hardest to conceal. Love for God and obedience to Him are inseparable. Love reaches its objective when we please God—as a grafted tree has when laden with fruit. Consequently the Word is precious unto those who love God because it is His Word, and therefore they treasure it in their affections and memories and give proof thereof in their daily walk. In 1 John 2:3 and 1 John 2:5 the Christian is shown how he may test the nature of his knowledge of God and the reality of his love for Him, namely by the effects they produce. If my knowledge of Him be something more than a self-acquired and notional one, namely that which the Spirit has wrought in me, then it has subdued my pride, humbled my heart, and brought me into subjection to God’s revealed will. It will produce in me that spirit which was manifested by Cornelius when he said to Peter, “Now therefore are we all here present before God, to hear all things that are commanded thee of God” (Acts 10:33). Our own wisdom and whims will be so subordinated to God’s authority that we shall be willing to be weighed in the balances of His Word, to bring everything to its touchstone, ready to be corrected and reproved by it; and that not spasmodically or only for a season, but constantly: “If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed” (John 8:31). God’s Word becomes everything to such a soul: his delight, his food, his rule, his chart. In like manner, if the love of God be in my heart it will operate powerfully, so that sin is hated and holiness panted after, and therefore my greatest burden and grief is to sin against Him, as my supreme delight is to commune with and enjoy Him: “Hereby know we that we are in Him”—belong to Him. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 20: 001.16. CHAPTER 16 ======================================================================== Chapter 16 CHRIST OUR EXEMPLAR 1 John 2:6 “He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked.” That is supplementary to 1 John 2:3-5, completing what is set forth therein. The “he that saith” intimates that it is the testing of profession which is still in view—here a yet severer and more searching trial is made. First, a saving knowledge of God must be demonstrated by a keeping of His commandments. Then the scope of our subjection unto God is enlarged upon, by showing it includes the keeping of His “Word”—a being regulated by the entire written revelation He has given us, regarding every jot and tittle in it as of Divine authority. Now the nature of that obedience is defined. A mere outward compliance with the Divine precepts, no matter how punctilious and comprehensive it be, is not sufficient: we are required to walk even as Christ walked—to be regulated by the same principles, actuated by the same motives, directed unto the same ends as His were. Thus this verse describes the kind of obedience which is necessary in order to our having fellowship with the Father and with His Son. Walking in the light is not enough: it must be such a walking as marked that of the Lord Jesus. It has been remarked that to have fellowship with God, to know Him, to love Him, to be in Him, and to abide in Him are expressions which, in John’s epistle, all mean substantially the same thing. No doubt this is so, nevertheless there are shades of distinction between them, and it is to our loss if we fail to perceive the same. In our judgment there is a designed gradation and intensification in the several expressions used in the passage we are now studying: just as there is in the different tests of profession there named. First, John shows how we may know that we know Him, then how we may be assured that we are in Him, and now of our abiding in Him. The first signifies a saving acquaintance with God in Christ: the second, that we are one with or united to Him: the third, that we are rooted and grounded in Him. It should be pointed out that the Old Testament saints knew God as truly and intimately as did the New Testament saints (for the latter were certainly not more favoured in this respect than were Enoch, Abram, Moses, David, etc.), and that they blessedly realized they were covered by the wings of El Shaddai, and underneath them were the everlasting arms. To come to Christ, to be in Christ, to abide in Christ, and to walk according to Christ express four of the principal aspects and distinguishing features of the Christian life. In 1 John 1:7, the walking is with God in holy communion; here it is walking before God, and outwardly before men. In 1 John 2:4, profession is made of knowing God in Christ, which is simply an avowal of His name and salvation; but in 1 John 2:6, the claim is made of abiding in Him, which signifies a continuation of the same, for perseverance is necessary to confirm it. As our Lord declared, “He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (Matthew 24:13). As a number of things are included by the term “coming” to Christ, and still more by being “in Him,” so several distinct concepts are imported by abiding in Him. It signifies to rest on Christ alone for the whole of our salvation, to continue in the belief, confession, and acknowledgment of the same, to remain steadfast in His doctrine or teaching, to persevere in obedience to Him. Hebrews 10:23, is an exhortation unto the same: “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering;” on the other hand, “no man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62). Abiding in Christ connotes a lasting experience, in contrast with those evanescent effects which a hearing of the Gospel produces in so many, which are likened to the early dew which soon evaporates (Hosea 6:4). Further light is cast upon the term by our Lord in John 15:4-5, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing”—and note the two verses that follow. Thus to “abide” in Christ means to live wholly on Him, to be completely dependent upon Him, to cleave thoroughly unto Him, to seek refuge constantly in Him, as in a strong tower, and to be established in Him. Now the onus resting on anyone who professes to abide in Christ is a very real and pressing one, a present and lasting one, namely to walk himself even as He walked, and thereby own Him as Lord and Master, making it manifest that he is a partaker of His holiness, indwelt by the same Spirit. In no other way can he substantiate his profession, and so honour and glorify Him. Such a walk is not optional but obligatory: there is a real necessity of so doing if we are to furnish clear proof that we belong to and are followers of the Lord Jesus. In addition to our remarks on the figurative force of “walk” in 1 John 1:6-7, we would here point out that it has respect principally to the practical side of things—believing in Christ and a hearty enjoyment of Him are to be translated into deeds. “As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him” (Colossians 2:6)—make the reality thereof apparent unto beholders by a Gospel practice souring the sweetest sin, making Christ’s yoke easy. Thereby is the trial of faith to be made: not by your degree of confidence, but by the extent of your conquest of sin, subduing your lusts, overcoming of the world. Thereby the beauty of faith is manifested—by letting its light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Faith cannot be seen by our fellows, but its fruits can in a godly walk. Hereby the comfort of faith accrues to ourselves. It is by Gospel conformity that a good conscience is maintained and the smile of the Lord enjoyed. “Great peace have they which love Thy law” (Psalms 119:165), and the effect of righteousness is “quietness and assurance for ever” (Isaiah 32:17). Thus a godly walk is an intensely practical thing. The term “walk” also imports progress, for to stand still is not to walk. Walking denotes growth from faith to faith, from strength to strength, from glory to glory. There is no such thing as remaining stationary in the Christian life: if we do not go forward by the strength of grace, we shall go backward by the power of corruption. There are indeed those who maintain the routine of outward religious duties, yet who make no advance—as a spinning wheel goes round, but is in the same place still. Spiritual walking is in contrast both with lazy listlessness and useless running around in circles. It signifies an increase in the experiential knowledge of Christ, a closer conformity to His death and a better acquaintance with the power of His resurrection, a deeper insight into the mysteries of the Gospel. It is true a believer may fall, relapse, backslide, so that his feet are so benumbed he ceases to “walk,” but if he really be a child of God he will profit from his falls; for when he gets to his feet again his falls make him more humble, more dependent, more watchful, more circumspect, and thereby he will run faster in the ways of God. The term “walk” also connotes permanency, both in the ways and the doctrine of Christ, as is clear from “rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith” (Colossians 2:7). A single step is not a walk: the figure expresses steady motion. True, different figures are used to set forth other aspects of the Christian life, as in the verse just quoted. The believer is to be active yet rooted, to walk and yet be stable. On the one hand “be ye steadfast, unmoveable;” on the other side “always abounding in the work of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58). “Like the two feet of a pair of compasses: the one foot of the compass stands steady in the centre, and the other draws the line and goes round. So it is with the believer: his faith is like the foot of the compass that stands fast in the centre, Christ and His doctrine; but his Gospel practice is the part that is like the other foot of the compass—it never stands, but ever moves in the way of the Lord” (R. Erskine). Thus, “walking” is also opposed to leaping, for in the former one foot is stationary while the other moves, whereas in the latter both are employed together—to leap out of one doctrine into another is neither walking nor being steadfast in the faith (Ephesians 4:14). “Ought himself also to walk, even as He walked.” This is one of several verses in this epistle which takes it for granted that its readers were already acquainted with John’s Gospel (see the fifth paragraph of the introduction of this book), for to walk as Christ walked assumes that they knew how He walked. Now everything recorded in Scripture of our blessed Lord should engage the devoutest attention of His people, yet it is to be feared that many of them give an entirely disproportionate consideration to His walk. While we should indeed be deeply impressed by what one termed “the crises of the Christ”—such as His incarnation, temptation, transfiguration, death, resurrection and ascension—yet between His virgin birth and His victorious resurrection lay His virtuous life, and that is described at much fuller length than any of those crises! It was by His holy walk that the Divine Law was magnified and made honourable in the very place where it had been so despised and dishonoured. It was by His immaculate life that Christ evinced Himself to be a fit sacrifice for sin, the Lamb “without blemish and without spot.” In the preceding verses the apostle had spoken of keeping God’s commandments and Word; here he makes reference to the only One who ever perfectly did so on this earth. Pre-eminently was the life of Christ a walk of obedience. His obedience was the absolute conformity of His entire spirit and soul unto the will of His Father, His ready and cheerful performance of every duty which God had appointed Him. This obedience He flawlessly carried out amid the sorest trials, with infinite respect unto Him whose “Servant” (Isaiah 42:1) He had voluntarily become. The laws which He kept were, first, those to which He was subject considered simply as man, namely the Ten Commandments; second, those to which He was subject considered as Son of David (Matthew 1:1), namely the ceremonial laws of Israel (see Luke 2:21-24, Matthew 8:4, and His keeping of “the feasts” for illustrations of His compliance therewith); third, those which devolved upon Him as Mediator, namely carrying out the stipulations of the everlasting covenant—such as becoming incarnate, preaching the Gospel, calling His disciples, putting away the sins of His people and bringing in an everlasting righteousness. The closer the four Gospels be read in the light of this fact, the more clearly will it be seen that obedience to His Father was Christ’s supreme mission when He came down to this earth. Psalms 40:7-10 reveals that it was to comply with what had been written of Him in the volume of God’s Book that He became incarnate and delighted to perform God’s pleasure. “I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me” (John 6:38). Every act of Christ during the thirty-three years that He tabernacled among men was distinctly and designedly an act of submission to God. He was baptized in order to fulfill all righteousness (Matthew 3:15). Satan’s design in the temptation was to turn aside the Saviour from the path of complete surrender to God’s will. But in vain: each assault of the enemy was repulsed by an “It is written”—I refuse to disobey My Father. The perfect Servant chose His ministerial headquarters in accordance with God’s revealed will: it was neither force of circumstances nor personal inclination which moved Christ to dwell in Capernaum, but that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah (Matthew 4:13-16). Though Christ was tender, sympathetic, and full of compassion, yet the motive prompting Him to heal the sick was the doing of God’s will: His miracles of mercy were wrought that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah (Matthew 8:16-27). The laying down of His life was in obedience to the Father (John 10:18). As the earthly life of the Lord Jesus was a walk of obedience, so also was it one of faith. In becoming incarnate God’s Son took upon Him a dependent nature, and therefore did He live a life of trust in His heavenly Father. The varied actings of His faith, in all its diversified phases, may be seen portrayed not only in the Gospels, but also in the Messianic Psalms and the announcements of Him by the prophets. As the kinsman Redeemer of His people Christ became truly “of one” with the many sons He was to bring to glory, and in all things was “made like unto His brethren” (Hebrews 2:11, Hebrews 2:17). Yet as the Firstborn, here too He has the pre-eminence and therefore is He seen not among those of Hebrews 11:1-40, but distinguished from them and placed apart in Hebrews 12:2, as the grand Model for all racers, the supreme Example of their faith. It is in the earthly life of Jesus, and nowhere else, that we have the ideal Pattern. Each of those mentioned in Hebrews 11:1-40 displayed some single aspect of the life of faith; but in the Saviour they were all combined in their consummate excellence. In Hebrews 12:2, the word for “Author” does not mean so much one who originates as one who “takes the lead,” while the term “Finisher” is rendered “Captain” in 1 John 2:10, and “Prince” in Acts 3:15. Thus it is as the One going in advance that our Lord is to be “looked to,” as the perfect Pattern of faith for us to follow. The earthly life of Jesus was one of entire dependence upon the Father. Hear Him saying, “Thou art He that took Me out of the womb: Thou didst make Me hope when I was upon My mother’s breasts. I was cast upon Thee from the womb: Thou art My God from My mother’s belly” (Psalms 22:9-10). How that brings out His uniqueness! In faith, as in everything else, He has “the pre-eminence!” It was not only in manhood, or even in childhood but from very earliest infancy that He drew His support from the Triune God. The whole of His prayer-life exemplified the same fact, expressing as it did His felt need of Divine strength and succour: “I live by the Father” (John 6:57) was His express avowal. A life of faith is one lived in communion with God, and never did another enjoy such a deep and constant realization of the Divine presence as did the man Christ Jesus: “I have set the Lord always before Me” (Psalms 16:8) was His confession. “He that sent Me is with Me” (John 8:29) was ever a present reality to His consciousness. From Bethlehem to Calvary He had, by faith, unbroken and unclouded fellowship with the Father. So too the life and walk of Jesus was one of hope, which is a sure expectation of desired good—sure because promised by Him who cannot lie. Hope is that spiritual grace which enables its possessor to look away from the perishing things of time and sense, above the shows and shams of this world, unto the enduring realities of eternity, and which gives him a present enjoyment (by confident anticipation) of the same. That which enthralls and enchains the ungodly had no power over the perfect man: “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33), He declared, and when the Devil offered Him all its kingdoms He bade him “get thee hence.” So vivid was His realization of the unseen that in the midst of earth’s engagements He spoke of Himself as “the Son of man which is in heaven” (John 3:13). It was “for the joy set before Him” that He endured the cross (Hebrews 12:2): that which sustained Him was having respect unto the recompense of the reward. That reward was the bliss of knowing He had finished the work which the Father had given Him to do, of being reinstated in the glory which He had with Him before the world was (John 17:5), and having effected the salvation of His Church; and so as He faced the immediate prospect of death He averred, “My flesh also shall rest in hope” (Psalms 16:9). The life and walk of Jesus was one of unbounded love. This supplies another link with the context, for in 1 John 2:6, we are told, “Whoso keepeth His word, in him verily is the love of God perfected”—has attained its proper end. Real obedience is nothing more and nothing less than the exercise of love and the directing of it unto what God has commanded—any external compliance with His precepts which proceeds not from holy affections is worthless. Now as none other kept the Word of God as Christ did, so none other manifested unto Him such pure and transcendent love. When He entered this world He did so declaring, “Lo, I come ... I delight to do Thy will, O My God: yea, Thy law is within My heart” (Psalms 40:7-8)—enshrined in My affections. Because He delighted in God’s will, His obedience was not only voluntary, but cheerful and universal, extending to every requirement of the Divine Law without any omission or violation. “But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave Me commandment, even so I do” (John 14:31), “I do always those things that please Him” (John 8:29). “I have manifested Thy name” (John 17:6)—all that God is in a manifestative and communicative way. The Son came down from heaven with this express purpose, that in His incarnation, person, walk, ministry, and atoning sacrifice He should declare the Father (John 1:18). In and through and by the incarnate Son the invisible God has opened to us the holy of holies and made known what has been kept secret from the foundation of the world. That which was beyond the reach of the human mind was beheld in the reality of a human life when the Word became flesh (John 1:14). Christ has presented to our view all the Divine attributes: He unfolded God’s wisdom, showed forth His power, revealed His grace, exhibited His faithfulness as the fulfiller of His prophecies and the performer of His promises. Now we cannot do so to the same extent, but we are required to be Godlike in our measure. He is light and we are to “walk as children of light” (Ephesians 5:8). God is holy, and so must we be in our lives (1 Peter 1:15). He is love, and we are to be “imitators of God, and walk in love as Christ also did” (Ephesians 5:1-2). Not only did the Lord Jesus honour God in His daily walk by perfectly performing the requirements of the first table of the Law, but equally so in regard to the second table, the demands of which are all comprehended in “thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Blessedly is that expressed in those words, “who went about doing good” (Acts 10:38), which like the “He hath done all things well” is one of the terse but pregnant summaries of His peerless life. It presents to us a general but vivid view of His varied and active ministry, the whole of which consisted in promoting the interests of His fellows. Benevolence characterized His entire course among men. His prayers, His teaching, His miracles, His every movement, were directed unto the well-being of others, ever and always He “Went about doing good;” unto friends and enemies, intimates and strangers alike, unto their bodies as well as their souls. Of none other could this be said absolutely; of others in their measure, and only as possessed of His spirit and as they learned of Him. “He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked.” The “even as” is not a note of equality, but of likeness: to make Christ’s life the rule of ours is a pressing Christian duty. But like that word “duty,” “ought” has an unpleasant sound to supercilious ears. Nevertheless, the fact remains that many passages set Christ before us as the Model at which it is incumbent that His people should ever aim: how else shall they distinguish themselves from carnal professors, and the unregenerate who walk “according to the course of this world” (Ephesians 2:2)? Repeatedly did Christ speak of His disciples following Him (Matthew 16:24, John 10:27, etc.). Paul bids us “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). “Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps” (1 Peter 2:21): He displayed in His walk that which He requires from His redeemed, that they “may grow up into Him in all things” (Ephesians 4:15). Conformity unto Him is ever to be our endeavour: not only in our conduct, but also in the spirit actuating it: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Php 2:5). To walk as Christ walked is a moral obligation resting upon the Christian, for he is not his own, but bought with a price. The sacrifice of Christ demands nothing less: the honour of His name requires it: His love should constrain us thereto. A life of self-pleasing is utterly inconsistent with our union with Him: the Head was holy and humble, shall His members be carnal and proud? In the routine of our daily lives, in each relation we are called to fill—social, commercial, domestic—we should make it a point of honour and esteem it a holy privilege to ask, How would Christ act in such circumstances? and seek by all that is within us to do likewise. We ought to in order that God may find in us every hour that which is a sweet savour of His Son. Only so shall we “walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing” (Colossians 1:10). Only so shall we “shine as lights in the world” (Php 2:15). Only so shall we “show forth His virtues” (1 Peter 2:9, margin). Only so shall we be His witnesses and representatives in this scene. Only so shall we truly glorify Him. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 21: 001.17. CHAPTER 17 ======================================================================== Chapter 17 THE NEW–OLD COMMANDMENT 1 John 2:7-8 “Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in Him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.” In order to an understanding of these verses it is necessary to seek answers to the following questions. What is the relation between them and the context? What is the “old commandment” which is not immediately and formally defined? What is “the beginning” here referred to? Why the seeming repetition in the last two sentences of 1 John 2:7? What is the “new commandment” and how is the first clause of 1 John 2:8 to be understood, in view of the first clause of 1 John 2:7? What is meant by “which thing is true in Him and in you”? What is the precise bearing of the “because” on what precedes, in view of the remainder of the sentence? What is referred to in “the darkness is past and the true light now shineth”? Finally, why is the whole introduced by the term “Brethren”? Obviously, the interpreter and teacher is called for here. It is a mistake, made by several of the commentators, to suppose that 1 John 2:7, begins a new division of the epistle. It does not: 1 John 2:7-11 are closely related to those immediately preceding. John is continuing to press for holiness of life, but passes from the general to the particular. In 1 John 2:3-6 the apostle had shown that the keeping of God’s commandments and following the example left His people by Christ are proofs of the genuineness of their love unto the Father and His Son, and therefore assurances for their hearts of their being and abiding in Him. Tacitly these verses contain an exhortation unto obedience to God and imitation of the perfect walk of Christ, and thus are an amplification of the opening sentence of the chapter: “these things write I unto you, that ye sin not.” In what follows he had intimated what was the positive implication of that prohibition: that his design was to inculcate and promote practical piety in the lives of the saints. 1 John 2:3 had laid the foundation in a general statement, by mentioning the keeping of God’s commandments at large; now, he singles out and dwells upon a more specific commandment, which was at once both old and new. As to precisely what commandment John had reference to, there does not seem to us the slightest room for doubt. With the great majority of the commentators we consider it is the precept which enjoins the exercise of brotherly love that is here in view. Candlish and one or two others who were prone to strain after “originality” dissented: on the ground that such an interpretation is awkward and unnatural, it being contrary to the apostle’s usual simplicity to spend two verses in describing a commandment which he had not yet mentioned, and brings in only at 1 John 2:9. But in 1 John 3:23, John tells us we should “love one another, as He gave us commandment,” and in 1 John 4:21, “This commandment have we from Him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.” While in his second epistle he declares, “not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another” (1 John 2:5), which surely removes all uncertainty. But that which settles the matter once and for all with the writer are the words of our Lord unto His apostles, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another” (John 13:34). This will be the best place (though we put it last in our list of questions) to consider why our present passage is addressed “Brethren.” That is an endearing term. They had all been born again of the same Spirit, had one and the same Father, even the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and had been delivered by the same Redeemer, and were alike interested in one complete and everlasting salvation. They were bound up in the same bundle of life with Christ, and so were in the highest and truest sense His brethren (Hebrews 2:11, Hebrews 2:17), and therefore brethren one of another—united to each other by the sacred tie of blood, even the blood of the Lamb. Since the apostle was about to address them more immediately on the subject of being “kindly affectioned one to another,” most appropriate was it that he should here address them as “Brethren”—thereby reminding them of the obligations involved by such a relationship. Only once more in this epistle does he employ this particular form of address, and that most significantly, when bidding them marvel not at the world’s hatred, when assuring them that love to the brethren is a proof of having passed from death unto life, and when pointing out that, if occasion required it, they were to seal their love by laying down their lives, for their brethren (1 John 3:13-14, 1 John 3:16). It is through our failure to examine carefully and weigh thoughtfully every detail of Scripture that we miss so many of its finer shades of beauty. Not only are we at a loss to understand much of that which passes so rapidly before our eyes, and still more so to retain it in our memories, but the minute perfections of the Word are unperceived by us. As we cannot enjoy the delicious flavour of fruit if it be eaten hurriedly, neither can we value the workmanship of the Spirit if we rapidly scan the sacred page. A pertinent illustration of this is found in the appellations employed by John when addressing his readers upon different parts of his message to them, for they are used not simply for the purpose of variety, but in strict accord with his change of subject. Thus it was most fitting that he should begin this chapter “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not,” for older Christians ought not to need such a dehortation. Equally suitable was it that now, when, for the first time, he was to write upon brotherly love, he should address them as “Brethren.” “Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning.” Let us consider the wider bearing of this statement ere taking up its more specific reference. John was introducing no novelty or innovation of his own. He desired to make it clear that in pressing a Divine commandment he was not adopting a hitherto unheard-of policy in this Christian dispensation, or following a strange procedure. He was acting in no wise inconsistently with a regime of pure grace, for grace ever works through righteousness (Romans 5:21) and never at the expense of it (Titus 2:11-12). Privileges do not release from the discharge of duty, but impose additional obligations, or at least furnish motives thereunto. It is a serious mistake to suppose that “commandments” are out of place where love dominates (Ephesians 5:24; 1 Peter 3:6), as it is to argue that the pressing of them upon God’s people in this era is “legalistic.” Such reasonings are once and for all refuted by Christ’s words in John 15:10, “If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.” In declaring that he wrote no new commandment unto his readers, John was emulating his Master. At the beginning of His public ministry Christ had said, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17). It was the desire both of the supreme Teacher and of His beloved disciple to allay the prejudices of hearers and readers, by preventing them from supposing they were bringing in something new. The apostle delighted to pattern himself after his Master, not only in his conduct, but also in the methods and manner of his teaching. Nor was there any need whatever for him to invent something new, for the Lord Jesus Himself had delivered all that was ever to be given as from Him: His ministers being required to teach others only those things which He had commanded them (Matthew 28:20; Hebrews 2:3). What a lesson there is here for present day preachers, not to pander to those who, like the Athenians, “spent their time in nothing else, but to tell, or hear some new thing” (Acts 17:21). Do not be ashamed to be dubbed “old-fashioned.” J. Reynolds (in Henry’s commentary) pointed out, “The precept of love must be as old as human nature; but it might admit of divers enactments, enforcements and motives. In the state of innocence, had human nature then been propagated, men must have loved one another, as being of one blood, made to dwell on the earth as God’s offspring, and bearing His image. In the state of sin and promised recovery, they must love one another as related to God their Maker, as related to each other by blood, and as partners in the same hope. When the Hebrews were peculiarly incorporated, they must accordingly love each other as being the privileged people, whose were the covenants and the adoption, and of whose race the Messiah and Head of the Church must spring; and the law of love must be conveyed with new obligations to the new Israel of God to the Gospel-church; and so it is the old commandment or the word which the children of the Gospel-Israel had heard from the beginning.” Though that is all doctrinally and historically true, and while the great majority of the commentators since then have, substantially, adopted this explanation of the new-old “commandment,” yet we personally consider it misses the mark exegetically, and that through failing rightly to understand what is meant in the repeated expression “from the beginning.” It should be carefully noted that the apostle did not say “an old commandment which was from the beginning,” but instead, “which ye had” and “which ye have heard from the beginning.” As we showed in our exposition of 1 John 1:1-2, this expression “the beginning” is used in the New Testament in quite a number of distinct senses, though in this epistle we regard it as having one uniform meaning, namely the beginning of this Christian era, and more particularly the commencement of our Lord’s public ministry, when He was openly revealed before the eyes of men, when it was made manifest that none other than Immanuel was tabernacling in their midst. This we are convinced is the reason why the Holy Spirit moved John to add the final clause to 1 John 2:7 : to explain to us the meaning of the preceding one, and let us know he referred to the “beginning” of their saving knowledge of God, to the time of their conversion—the start of their spiritual lives. Calvin pointed out that some explained the “old commandment” as referring back to Sinai, saying, “that Christ now proclaims no other rule of life under the Gospel than what God did formerly under the Law,” adding, “this is indeed most true, nor do I object.” Alas that so many who now call themselves or at least regard themselves as “Calvinists” do object thereto, that they emphatically deny the Moral Law is the Christian’s rule of life, and denounce subjection thereto as a species of “bondage”—a view which is not only falsified by Matthew 5:17, but the plain teaching of the epistles also (Romans 3:31; Romans 7:22, Romans 7:25; 1 Corinthians 9:21). Then, with his usual perspicuity, the justly renowned reformer and expositor gave it as his opinion that John “calls it the old commandment, not because it was taught the fathers ages before, but because it had been taught them on their very entrance into the religious life. This was one of the first elements of the Gospel that they had been thus taught from the beginning; and it served much to claim their faith that it had proceeded from Christ Himself, from whom they had received the Gospel.” With the above view we heartily concur, though we would supplement the fact that not only had Christ proclaimed this commandment (John 15:17), but had Himself perfectly exemplified the same (John 13:14-15). Now since the apostles had themselves experienced such a blessed commendation of it in their beloved Master’s treatment of them, we may be sure that they emphasized this law of fraternal benevolence wherever they ministered unto the saints. As others have pointed out, John himself here gave an instance of the same in his own example, and placed it on record: in the intimate appellation he here employed, for his “Brethren” signified that those to whom he wrote were near and dear to him, united by that bond of Christian charity unto the practice of which he was soliciting them. Thus in declaring, “I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning,” he assured them it was no novelty he was enjoining, but something they had been familiar with from the day they became Christians. Nor had this precept originated with him, for he had received it from Christ; it was thus a disclaimer that he was broaching any strange doctrine. But to what does he refer in his “Again, a new commandment I write unto you “? Not to an entirely different one, or he had said “And yet again.” The adverb “again” intimates that the same subject was being considered, but under another aspect. In the New Testament two Greek words are used for “new:” kainos, which refers especially to quality, and “neos” which alludes principally to time—it is the former one here. One commandment is in view throughout, but considered from different angles, namely that of brotherly love—not formally named, for all his readers would know the one he referred to. The same object may be at once both old and new: old in itself, new to us. Probably the reader heard the Gospel for years, but when the Holy Spirit applied it unto his heart in power it was thoroughly new in his experience. Some have illustrated this commandment’s being both old and new by the grand Reformation: that which was proclaimed by Luther and Calvin was “old,” for it had been taught by Christ and His apostles; again it was “new,” as purged from the adulterations of Rome. A more Scriptural example is found in the sermon on the mount, where we hear our Lord enunciating no absolutely new law, setting up no different standard of conduct, but renewing the Decalogue, freed from the glosses and corruptions of the rabbis and Pharisees. The apostle had, in the former verse, explained what he meant by the old commandment, declaring it to be the very same as they had been taught and had received “from the beginning”—that which respected brotherly love, as the verses which follow prove. As S.E. Pierce well expressed it, “It was the old commandment in the same sense as when we read of the old covenant and the new. There ever was but one and the same everlasting covenant: yet the different administrations thereof have been such as to give the denominations of the old and new covenant thereto.” That analogy is both pertinent and illuminating. It is on the basis of the everlasting covenant of grace made by God with Christ, that His elect were saved during the former economy (2 Samuel 23:5) and that they are so now (Hebrews 13:21), yet different privileges have been enjoyed by and different duties required from them under Judaism and Christianity. Likewise as our Lord’s commandment to His disciples to love one another required the names of old and new—from the distinct periods of His delivering it unto them—so also it is invested with higher privileges, enforced by superior motives, and contains different enactments from the former. Some commandments are old in the sense of being antiquated, like the ceremonial laws of Judaism; others are new absolutely, as the Christian ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s supper. Some are both old and new, as those given at Sinai, renewed by Christ and His disciples. At the beginning of His ministry Christ enforced the Decalogue, the sum of which is loving God with all our hearts and our neighbours as ourselves. At the close He said to His disciples, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you.” The Law required that I love my neighbour, which was a natural relationship; but the Gospel requires me to love my “brethren” in Christ, which is a spiritual relationship. The Law required me to love my neighbour as myself: to be as zealous in protecting his interests and forwarding his welfare as I am my own; Christ commands us “That ye love one another, as I have loved you” (John 15:12)—with a fervent, sacrificial and enduring love. His words in John 13:34, “as I have loved you,” are to be interpreted in the light of their context (1 John 2:14-15) where we behold the incarnate Son of God performing a slave’s part, washing the feet of His disciples. His was a self-renouncing, self-denying love which shrank not from the meanest office. Several broad hints have been given above, but we must now furnish a more definite and fuller answer to the question, Why is the old commandment of 1 John 2:7 called a new one in 1 John 2:8? The terms are used relatively and not absolutely: the old commandment is now considered in a new light and is to be laid hold of with a new vigour. Love for the brethren is now urged on grounds on which it was not under the Mosaic economy. First and foremost, from the example supplied by Christ. He not only expressly ratified the original precept, but had given a pattern of charity such as had never been seen in this world before. In Him it was supremely and sublimely personified. The Lord Jesus displayed a love which was superior to all the faults and failings of its objects, a love which never varied or cooled, which deemed no service too menial and no sacrifice too great. It was new then not in its substance, but in the form given to it by the Redeemer. Perfectly exemplified by Him, it shone with additional luster and appeared with new beauty. Thus we see how intimately this linked with 1 John 2:6 : in exhorting Christians to walk as their Master walked, the apostle singled out one particular feature thereof—how He conducted Himself toward His brethren. So far is Christianity from rendering the exercise of love and the performance of good works needless, it imposes additional obligations unto the same, and at the same time furnishes new incentives thereto. “By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples,” said Christ, “if ye have love one to another” (John 13:35). And as the example of Christ so plainly exhibited, love is very much more than a nebulous ideal or flowery expression, being an intensely practical thing; more than a beautiful sentiment, namely a mighty force and impelling dynamic. The followers of Christ are required to love one another for His sake, as bearing His image, and as imitating the copy He set before them of compassionate, patient, disinterested affection. They are to have a genuine regard to each other’s interests and comforts, a sympathy with their sorrows and a part in their joys. They are to delight in one another’s company, to live in peace and harmony, to bear and forbear with each other’s frailties. They are to unite together in prayer and worship, to bear each other’s burdens, to spare no pains in seeking to build them up in faith and holiness. This new commandment is to be kept for ever fresh in the hearts and minds of the saints. But there are many other respects in which the old commandment is now a new one. It is given to a new society or corporation, the Christian, “brotherhood” (1 Peter 2:17). It has received a new exemplification in the Head of that corporation, being abundantly and perfectly realized in Him who “loved the Church and gave Himself for it.” It is addressed unto those who are new creatures in Christ Jesus, and therefore are they to love one another for His sake. Thus it is kept from a new principle or nature, received at regeneration. It has come to them with a new power: under the old covenant it was inscribed upon tables of stone, but the Spirit writes it on the hearts of those who are under the new covenant, and it was for this reason that Paul said to the saints, “But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another” (1 Thessalonians 4:9). It is invested with new force, even the mediatorial authority of Christ, who, after His resurrection from the dead, was given all power in heaven and in earth, and “gave commandments unto the apostles” (Acts 1:2). It is to be obeyed in a new manner, according to its multiform application in the precepts found in the Epistles, which are given for the directing of brotherly love. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 22: 001.18. CHAPTER 18 ======================================================================== Chapter 18 THE COMMANDMENT BELLIED 1 John 2:8-9 As our title intimates, there is a close relation between the two verses we are here to consider, in fact the latter is so intimately connected with the foregoing that we will begin by setting both of them before the reader. “Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in Him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth. He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.” In the preceding chapter we sought to make it quite clear that the “commandment” referred to is not an entirely different one from what had previously been given, that the “new” one differs not from the old in substance, but receives this appellation from its having been renewed and beautified by Christ, and because it is now enforced by new considerations and motives. The same term is used again of the “new song” sung by the saints in heaven (Revelation 5:9), and that is not a fresh one absolutely, for, as Psalms 40:3 shows, the redeemed are learning to lisp it even now. By correctly defining “the beginning” of 1 John 2:7, as the commencement of Christian experience (in the case of the apostles, under the ministry of Christ) we learn that the precept of brotherly love is the law of the new life—the spiritual cement which in all generations has bound together the whole company and community of the saints. The old commandment received a new embodiment and manifestation in the eternal Lover of our souls, and by His example acquired a new significance and meaning. This is the more evident if we examine and ponder the context of John 13:34. There was no commandment which required Christ to wash the feet of His disciples: it was a spontaneous act, which rose above any mere deed of obedience, prompted by and as an expression of His love to His disciples—the gushing forth of His heart in a manner and measure as amazed them (John 13:6, John 13:8). In like manner, love is to be the spring and motive which moves His followers to serve one another, and to evince their union with Him. We cannot truly love Christ without also loving His brethren. Moreover, they too are joined to one another by a new bond of union, as fellow heirs and fellow travelers unto their heavenly inheritance. Therefore did the apostle go on to say, “which thing [namely the exercise of brotherly love] is true [is realized] in Him and in you.” The repetition of the preposition is very suggestive, marking as it does the minute accuracy of Scripture, and evidencing the Spirit’s jealousy of the honour of Christ. Had John said “true in Him and you,” he would have affirmed something which was common to both, without any difference—true alike in Christ and His members. But the insertion of the second “in” admits of a distinction, and implies that it is true in another sense, in a modified way, in us than what is true in Him. True in Him originally, in us derivatively; in Him essentially, in us reflectively; in Him radically, in us imitatively; in Him perfectly, in us faultily. Here too He has “the pre-eminence.” “Which thing is true” imports which is actually realized, which is a historical fact, a matter of present observation. “Because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.” Upon which S.E. Pierce said, “By which I conceive the Jewish state, and the present state of the Church is to be understood. The former dispensation is finally closed, it is past, never to return. The present Gospel state of the Church is such that the true or clear light of the Gospel and its ordinances now shineth, and will remain unshaken until our Lord’s second coming in His kingdom and glory.” The darkness is past because the Sun of righteousness has arisen, and a full and final revelation of God has been made unto men (Hebrews 1:1-2). The ineffable glory of God has been openly displayed in and by His incarnate Son. The mists of darkness or obscurity which hovered over things in the previous era have been dispelled, and light has been shed on all its symbols. This statement is parallel with 2 Corinthians 5:17, which expresses not the great change wrought in a soul at regeneration, but the dispensational alteration effected by the appearing of Christ, namely that change of state produced by the new covenant’s supplanting the old, the ordinances of the Mosaic economy being superseded by the Christian baptism and the Lord’s supper. “Because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.” That these words have also an experiential force, as well as a dispensational application, is clear from the fact that they are explanatory of the preceding clause—as its opening “because” makes apparent: “which thing is true in Him and in you.” The members must be conformed to their Head, believers must walk suitably to the Christian order. But that is possible only as a miracle of grace is wrought in them, and thus this sentence describes what takes place at their regeneration, when He who at the first “commanded the light to shine out of darkness” shone in our benighted hearts unto “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6), and He effectually called us “out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9), and when He “delivered us from the power of darkness,” and “translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son” (Colossians 1:13), so that now we are “the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not [any longer] of the night, nor of darkness” (1 Thessalonians 5:5). When the light of the glorious Gospel shone with power in our souls, the darkness of unregeneracy was past. It appears to this writer that the Holy Spirit provided us with a broad hint here that this clause possesses a double force, by employing a word which admits of an alternative rendering, for “parago” is also translated “passeth away” in 1 John 2:17. The dark shadows of Judaism are for ever past, but it is more accurate to say that the darkness of nature is passing for the Christian, since his path shines “more and more unto the perfect day.” The acute Calvin understood the words as having a relative force rather than an absolute one, for he remarked “not that every one of the faithful becomes wise the first day as much as he ought to be (for even Paul testifies that he laboured to apprehend- Php 3:12), but that the knowledge of Christ is sufficient to dissipate darkness. Hence daily progress is necessary and the faith of every one has its dawn before it reaches the noon-day. But as God continues the inculcation of the same doctrine, in which He bids us to make advances, the knowledge of the Gospel is justly said to be the true light.” In bringing to a conclusion our remarks upon 1 John 2:8 it should be pointed out that our English version fails to make clear the beautiful shading of the Greek. In the first clause of its second half “alethes” signifies true as opposed to lying and fictitious—cf. John 8:31, “My disciples indeed,” in contrast with the many nominal ones—whereas “alethinos” in the final clause means true and substantial, as opposed to what is vague, shadowy, symbolical. Hence it occurs again and again in connection with Christ, who is “the true light” (John 1:9), “the true bread” (John 6:32), “the true tabernacle” (Hebrews 8:2), “the faithful and true witness” (Revelation 3:14). Archbishop Trench, that master of words, says that our translators have erred in not rendering “very” as an adjective as well as an adverb—as in the Nicene Creed it is rendered “very God of very God.” John Wyclif’s version (see the Hexapla) translated John 15:1, “I am the very Vine.” Thus, as L. Palmer pointed out, “Christ is the great reality, the very light”—the substance of all the shadows and emblems of the Levitical system. “He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.” The pondering of this verse in the light of the whole of its context is not only a help to an understanding thereof, but is also another instance of such serving to bring out several features which are not perceptible if only a detached view be taken of it. In a previous chapter we pointed out that, contrary to the opinion of superficial students of this epistle, John presents his thoughts and develops his subjects in a most orderly manner. We also called attention to his fondness for triads and gave a number of examples of the same. Now in this second section of his letter, which runs from 1 John 2:3-12, we find both of these features exemplified. In his first division there was a threefold exposing of “liars” (1 John 1:6, 1 John 1:8, 1 John 1:10), and a threefold predication made of the saints (1 John 1:7, 1 John 1:9, 1 John 2:1). Likewise, in this second division there is a threefold testing of professing Christians, as is clear from the repeated “he that saith” at the beginning of 1 John 2:4, 1 John 2:6, 1 John 2:9. As others before us have pointed out, this testing is made by the commandment of God, the walk of Christ, and the operation of the Spirit, for by it alone is anyone brought into the light. Two out of three of those professions are discovered to be worthless (1 John 2:4 and 1 John 2:9), and over against them is set the twofold “we know” of 1 John 2:3 and 1 John 2:5. Thus the contents and structure of the whole of this passage evince painstaking deliberation. It is clear that from 1 John 2:3 onwards the apostle had before him a particular reference to the precept of brotherly love, for though the plural (“commandments”) be used in 1 John 2:3-4, yet he employs the singular (“word”) in 1 John 2:5. It reminds us of Paul’s statement in Galatians 5:14, “For all the law [in regard to our fellow men—for that was the point he was enforcing] is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” Equally clear is it that if the second division be interpreted in connection with the first its theme is, He who walks “in the light” must necessarily love his brother. Thus the two divisions correspond with 1 John 1:3 : “that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son,” denominated “light” in 1 John 1:5. Fellowship with God is dwelt upon in 1 John 1:6-7; fellowship with believers as the consequent in 1 John 2:7-11. Clearly, then, the knowledge of God spoken of in 1 John 2:3, is that of a participation of nature, which results in conformity of character. In view of what is stated so emphatically in 1 John 2:8 we are left in no doubt of exactly what is purported by anyone saying “he is in the light,” though the same may be expressed in several ways. It is making claim that he is in communion with God in Christ (1 John 1:5, 1 John 1:7). It is averring that he is a born-again soul, for it is only by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit that we are made “meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light” (Colossians 1:12). Thus it is to declare himself to be a real Christian. But if such a one hates his brother, his claim is invalid, for his profession is repudiated by his conduct. Such a one has mistaken an intellectual attainment for a spiritual experience. He may indeed be charmed by the magnanimous spirit of the Gospel, admire its sublime and transcendent ethics, or extol its logical doctrines and profound depths; nevertheless the very light which he eulogizes is still something outside himself, for he has never been experientially turned from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God (Acts 26:18), nor has the day star arisen in his heart (2 Peter 1:19). “He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness.” His language conforms to the Christian state, but his disposition agrees not therewith. In reality he belongs to that prolific generation who “profess that they know God; but in works they deny Him, being abominable and disobedient” (Titus 1:16). John is referring to one who makes a public acknowledgment that he loves Him who is “the true Light,” but if he did, then he would also love those who are His brethren, for Christ is in them (Galatians 2:20). True, there is still much of the flesh evidenced by them, nevertheless if they be “in Christ,” then He is in them, and He cannot be hid (Mark 7:24), and where any of His perfection shine forth, however feebly, a regenerated heart is drawn out unto the same. It is impossible to be in communion with God and not to love His people. When any heart be Divinely illuminated with a saving knowledge of God in Christ, it is so renovated and transformed as to produce an answerable disposition unto all others who have experienced a like miracle of grace within them. The one who claims to be a Christian but hates any bearing the image of Christ is to be charged with making a false profession. The two things are utterly inconsistent. No matter how fully assured he may be, or how loud his profession, he is yet in a state of nature—unregenerate. He is in the kingdom of Satan, and under the power of darkness: he was born therein, and has never been delivered from the same. So far from one who hates those who belong to the Lord Jesus enjoying fellowship with Him who is the light, he is still a subject of the prince of darkness, the instigator and director of all the malice and malevolence which is vented against and upon Christ’s seed. But alas, how many there are in the assemblies and churches today who assume what is not true; yea, comparatively few who lay claim to being spiritually enlightened give real proof of the same. Note well that John did not allow that such a one was in the light, but merely that he “saith he is.” We too should be very slow in accrediting the claims of those who do not satisfactorily attest the same. “He that hateth his brother is in darkness.” That all hatred is not sinful is clear from Psalms 45:7, for there it is said to the glory of the God-man, “Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness.” Really, love and hatred are but the opposite poles of the same moral principle: “Ye that love the Lord, hate evil” (Psalms 97:10, and cf. Psalms 119:113)—love for the One necessarily begets hatred of the other. Hatred becomes sinful only when it is exercised against that which is entitled to be loved. Love and hatred—two of the principal influencing principles of action—are natural affections, and they are good or evil according to the objects to which they are applied and affixed. The one has its use as much as the other: aversion and shunning are as necessary as longing and pursuit. Love was made for God and all good; hatred for sin—the latter being put in man at the beginning, that he might fly from temptation and evil. As carnal men hate the Truth (Psalms 50:17), so the saint is to hate all error and falsehood (Psalms 119:104). “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil” (Proverbs 8:13), and therefore it is our duty to arm ourselves and take every precaution against it. There are many who forbear sin who do not abominate it. Those powerful natural affections which God placed in man when He made him have been misplaced by the fall, so that he now loves what he ought to hate (John 3:19), and hates what he should love (Romans 8:7). Hence the Divine work of grace is to renovate and restore the disordered affections to their right centre and fix them upon their proper objects. The one or the other will inevitably regulate and dominate the life. “The human heart is a soil that must produce a crop of some sort. It cannot lie fallow. In the absence of the fruits of the Spirit, it will produce the weeds of sin ... He that is not with Christ is against Him (Matthew 12:30). Where life is absent death is present. The antithesis of light is darkness, and there is no twilight in the kingdom of heaven. He that is not in the light is in the darkness; and he that loves not his brother must therefore hate him. The human heart may be like the house that was cleansed and garnished, but still left vacant. Morality may, to some extent, restrain the passions and beautify the outward character; but unless love is enthroned, hatred must inevitably establish the reign of darkness” (L. Palmer). “He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness.” The “brother” is, of course, a real child of God, for there is not a single instance in the New Testament where a fellow man as man is designated a brother. The only brotherhood mentioned therein is the Household of Faith. The one who hates him (no matter what be his profession) is unregenerate. Therein is the awful malignity of this hatred seen, in the fact that it has a child of God for its object: hence the added words “even until now.” Such hatred attests the utter depravity of his moral judgment and demonstrates that he is led captive by the Devil at his will. As there is an innate contrariety between virtue and vice, fire and water, so there is between the seed of the serpent and the seed of Christ (Genesis 3:15). Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, it is so against all those who bear His image. There is ever that in true piety which stirs up the venom of the unregenerate. So far from one who hates the followers of Christ being in the light, he is both in and of the world (John 15:19). The hatred that is spoken of here is very much more than dislike of a person, for we may pity and desire to help one whom we dislike. But such is far from being the case with one who is abhorred. From the antithetical terms used by our Lord in Matthew 6:24, it is clear that to hate is to “despise.” It is to detest and hold another in utter contempt. It is not a transient motion of the affections, but a deeply rooted species of loathing. Hatred is all for injury; it is a murderous lust which desires the destruction of its object. This is clear from the cases of Cain and Abel, and of Esau and Jacob. In each of those instances hatred was called into exercise by a spirit of envy: the one being jealous because his brother’s offering was accepted by God, whereas his own was rejected; the other because his brother received from their father the blessing which he coveted. The same evil crop sprang up again in Jacob’s family, for because of his partiality unto Joseph; his brethren “hated him” (Genesis 37:4), and took the first opportunity which came their way to get rid of him. This hatred issues from an active and implacable enmity, causing its possessor to bear ill-will and malice unto another, to loathe and abhor him. Obviously such a malignant spirit cannot possess a regenerated soul, least of all be exercised against a brother or sister in Christ. This hatred is the exercise and manifestation of that enmity which God Himself has placed between the seed of the serpent and the seed of Christ. Whereas the Lord restrains its working in some more than in others, yet it is present in all of the unregenerate. Though it may not be vented equally upon every child of God, nevertheless all of them are its objects. The wicked hold in utter contempt everyone who treads the highway of holiness and shows forth the virtues of his Master. As those who truly love Christ love all who are manifestatively His, and that because they are His, so the children of the Devil hate all who are Christ’s, because they are His. They despise them as simpletons who are missing the best of this life. They are envious of their fortitude under stress and their peace in the midst of tribulation. The workers of iniquity are filled with a spirit of revenge against them, because their godliness condemns their ungodliness. The righteous are thorns in their sides, and they are so in proportion as they follow the example which Christ has left them, and walk in separation from the world. Those who are in the dark detest the children of light because they refuse to “run with them to the same excess of riot,” and therefore do they “speak evil” of them (1 Peter 4:4). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 23: 001.19. CHAPTER 19 ======================================================================== Chapter 19 LIGHT AND LOVE 1 John 2:10 “He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.” The apostle continues to develop his theme of the relation and interrelation of light and love. As might well be expected, he had begun with a reference to “the love of God,” for His is ever the fountain of ours, whether it be unto Himself or unto His children. As Calvin pertinently remarked, “He pursues the same metaphor. He said that love is the only true rule according to which our life is to be formed (1 John 2:5); he said that this rule or law is presented to us in the Gospel (1 John 2:7); he said lastly, that it is there as the meridian light which ought to be continually looked on (1 John 2:9). Now, on the other hand, he concludes that all are blind and walk in darkness who are strangers to love. But that he mentioned before the love of God and now the love of the brethren involves no more contrariety than there is between the effect and the cause. Besides, these are so connected together that they cannot be separated”—so united that where the one is the other is found also. More specifically: in 1 John 2:7-11 professing Christians are tested by their response to that Divine precept which enjoins the exercise of brotherly love. It is made the criterion of one’s being in the light or in the darkness. John began by reminding his readers that the commandment which he was pressing upon them was no invention of his, but rather what they had first heard from the lips of Christ (John 13:34). That it was the old commandment which required us to love our neighbour as ourselves, but which had been renewed by the Lord Jesus, perfectly exemplified by Him in His treatment of the apostles, and then enforced by new motives and considerations. Next he had declared that the claim made by anyone to being in the light while yet he hated his brother was a false one, for such conduct demonstrated that he was still in the darkness. Finally, he urges the duty of brotherly love by a high commendation of its exercise (1 John 2:10), and utters a most awful denunciation upon the one who violates the same (1 John 2:11). Such appears to us to be his train of thought. It is important to take note of the tense of the verbs in our present verse, for a more severe and searching test of Christian profession is in view than in the preceding one: there, it was a question of being in the light; here, of abiding in the light. Thus it is far more than a single act or fleeting affection which is referred to—perseverance is what crowns an action. Yet another link with the context should here be observed. At the close of 1 John 2:8 it was stated that “the true light now shineth,” where the reference was more an objective one; now the subjective application is made thereof—shineth in you, and so through you—and not simply upon us as in John 8:12. There is as much difference between external and internal light, and between intellectual and spiritual, as there would have been between the twelve spies returning with only a bare report of what they had seen in the land and their actually bringing with them clusters of the grapes of Canaan upon their shoulders—a beautiful figure of Gospel graces in the heart. As 1 John 1:6-7, has revealed, to walk in the light indicates that one is regenerate and in fellowship with God in Christ. What, then, is the relation of love to light? It is twofold: an effect thereof, and a necessary means for preserving us in the light. “Light is essential to love, and love is inseparable from this light. Light is love’s home, and love is light’s offspring. Love is born in the light. We have only to know God to love Him, and we have only o see God’s image in our brethren to love them. As the light transforms the chrysalis into the butterfly, so light creates love, and wings it for heaven. Love grows in the light. It is a tropical plant, and thrives best in the meridian of spiritual life. Love loves in the light. When God’s glory shines in the face of a Christian brother we cannot help loving him. In this sense we can love all through Christ. Onesimus the slave became in Christ Jesus a brother beloved. The nearest way to our brother is through the heart of Christ. Love conquers in the light. This light subdues the flesh and eclipses the glory of the world. Love abides in the light. It is lust that seeks the darkness. Those who love darkness rather than light show that their deeds are evil” (Levi Palmer). Brotherly love is one of the blessed fruits which issue from a soul’s enjoying communion with Him who is light. The exercise thereof is also essential to the maintenance of that communion, for where ill will is cherished against a fellow saint the Holy Spirit is grieved and communion with God is hindered. In 1 John 2:9 the existence and exercise of brotherly love is made a test of our being in the light, but in 1 John 2:10 it is both the effect and the means of continuing therein. As Candlish also pointed out, “The law of action and reaction is here very noticeable. Being in the light begets brotherly love. Brotherly love secures abiding in the light. For this brotherly love is love to the true light shining in my brother as in Christ. And such love to the true light, wherever and in whomsoever it is seen shining, as it shines in Christ, must needs cause me to grow up more and more into the true light, to grow up into Christ.” Our affections ever follow our apprehensions, for the heart is reached via the mind, and therefore the measure of our love makes manifest the measure of our spiritual light. It is no mere verbal claim which is here made, but something that speaks louder than words. It is far more than the use of endearing expressions by the lips being seen and felt in deeds. It is a real, active, benevolent affection, which suffers nothing in its object to quench the same. As hatred is a malignant disposition which fills with ill will against another, so love is a frame of mind that produces respect and esteem for another. As hatred is a murderous lust which seeks to injure, love is a principle which aims at the good of its object. That which is here in view is not a natural trait, but a spiritual grace, yea, the queen of the Christian graces. It is exercised in a great variety of ways: ministering to the body, comforting the mind, promoting the welfare of the soul. It is expressed in practical forms, as far as lies within the power of its possessor. Thus it supplies an external evidence of the inward reality of a real Christian profession, for such outgoings of good will fall more or less under the notice and observation of fellow saints. “He that loveth his brother” for Christ’s sake, and for what he sees of Christ in him, loves him sincerely and cordially—“ abideth in the light.” What a high commendation of brotherly love is this! He who freely expresses Christian affection unto fellow believers supplies clear evidence that he is a born-again person, in fellowship with God, for out of love to Him issues love to His children. Not only so, but he gives proof that he is walking according to the principles of the Gospel, that he is vitally influenced by the Truth he professes, for holy love unto the brethren is a sure criterion of spiritual illumination. Without it he who speaks with tongues is as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. Why so? Because unless love inspires my testimony it brings no gain to those who hear it, but is lost on the air. One might be endowed with the gift of prophecy, understand all mysteries, be possessed of all knowledge, yet if he be devoid of love he is “nothing”—a spiritual cipher, contributing naught unto the edification of his brethren. Therefore his most imposing deeds will receive no reward in the day to come. In that thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians a most sublime description is given of the nature, characteristics and workings of this holy and heavenly love. It is patient and forbearing toward its objects, refusing to take offence at a frown or word. It suffers long and is kind, being neither easily irritated nor repulsed by ingratitude. It is humble and lowly, for it neither envies the prosperity of others nor is puffed up by its own performances. It is unselfish and disinterested: “I seek not yours, but you” (2 Corinthians 12:14) is ever its aim. It “thinketh no evil,” harbouring no doubts or suspicions, but places the best construction upon the words and actions of others. It rejoices not in iniquity but rather is grieved when the sins of a brother are apparent. “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it” (Song of Solomon 8:7), for that love which is the fruit of the Spirit “beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.” Such is this spiritual love in the abstract, and such is it concretely in its manifestations. Yet it requires to be borne in mind that 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 takes no notice of the hindrances which the Christian meets with in the exercise of his love from the workings of the flesh within him or from the opposition of the Devil and his agents from without. Light is pure and radiant, but when it shines through a defective medium its beams are blurred. Fire burns and is hot, but when it encounters that which is wet and damp its action is checked. What love consists of in itself is one thing, the allowances which have to be made for our natural make-up, and especially for indwelling corruptions, are quite another. On the one hand we must not deny the fact that, so great is the change which Divine grace effects in its subjects, it is likened unto the wolf being fitted to dwell with the lamb, the leopard lying down with the kid, the young lion and the fatling together (Isaiah 11:6); and on the other hand we are not to ignore the fact that the regenerate require to be exhorted: “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice” (Ephesians 4:31)—set aside whatever corrodes your own mind or wounds the feelings of others. Let not the reader forget what was pointed out in the preceding chapter on the first clause of the second half of 1 John 2:8, according as its verb admits of a twofold rendition—as the translators of the Authorized Version gave it: “because the darkness is past,” and “the world passeth away” (1 John 2:17); the former having a dispensational reference to the relative darkness of the Mosaic economy, the symbols and ceremonies of the Levitical system having become obsolete now that they are made good in their antitypes; the latter rendering possessing a practical allusion to the experience of God’s children. Though there still be much darkness in them, and though they are more or less influenced by the darkness now surrounding them, nevertheless, as they grow in grace, and in proportion as they enter into God’s best for them, the darkness is passing and their path shines more and more unto the perfect day. Yet that perfect day is still future, and so is that complete conformity unto Christ which shall then be the condition of all the redeemed. Meanwhile the flesh opposes and none remains in the light fully and without intermission, and therefore none loves his brother perfectly. But as there ought to be an increase in knowledge and faith, so of love and all other graces. It is just here that we see again the intimate relation between light and love. When my love to God cools and my communion with Him is broken, then affection for my brethren is proportionately affected. As Candlish pointed out, “It is in the darkness that injuries are brooded over and angry passions are nursed. If you, brother, and I are at variance, it is almost certain to be because there is some darkness about us that hinders us from seeing one another clearly. Let in the light. Let us see one another clearly. Differences between us may still remain, our views on many things may still be as wide as the poles asunder, but we see that we are men of like passions and like appetites with one another. The light shows us we are true brethren in spite of all.” When love be in a healthy and vigorous state, we are far from taking offence at the manifestations of the flesh in a brother: rather will such move us to pray more earnestly for his refining and growth. Nothing is a more practical proof of love than to make supplication for those who slight and injure us; nothing is better evidence that we are in the light. Our verse adds a further commendation or mentions yet another advantage resulting from the exercise of brotherly love: “and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.” Not only does the expressing of this spiritual grace supply an evidence of regeneration, and is a means for maintaining our communion with God, but it also preserves from scandalous conduct. He who habitually shows himself disposed to goodness and mercy, and manifests a generous and self-denying affection unto his brethren, demonstrates that he is vitally influenced by the principles of the Gospel. True love will move us to dread everything which would hinder the spirituality of others, and therefore takes care to avoid what would be a stumblingblock to them. The Greek word for “occasion of stumbling” is “skandalos,” from which is derived our English word “scandal,” which primarily means a snare laid for an enemy. It is rendered “stumblingblock” in Romans 11:9; 1 Corinthians 1:23; Revelation 2:14; and nine times is translated “offence,” as in Matthew 16:23; Romans 9:33; Galatians 5:11. The general prevailing disposition of such a one’s heart will prevent Satan successfully tempting him to the commission of any gross sin, and his deportment will be such that his fellows will not be evilly influenced by him. There can be little doubt that when John penned the second half of 1 John 2:10 there was before his mind the closing part of Psalms 119:165, “Great peace have they which love Thy law: and nothing shall offend them,” for his words tally exactly with the Septuagint translation of that verse, except that the apostle changes the plural “them” to him. Spiritual love is a wonderful preservative from and preventive of injuries. Those who love God’s Law not only have “great peace” in their consciences and minds (for where the affections be set upon things above, the heart is content with whatever be its portion on earth), but “nothing shall offend,” or as the margin of Psalms 119:165, reads, “they shall have no stumblingblock”—nothing in God’s providential dealings will scandalize them. Those who love God’s Law are kept from the snares and temptations which the world is so full of, and which bring about the sin and ruin of so many. In the same way, genuine love unto the brethren induces a circumspect walk, delivering from those carnal and satanic pitfalls, because the light in which such affection dwells enables them to see and shun what would be an occasion of falling unto them. Offences or scandals are of various kinds. Very often offence is taken where none is given. An outstanding example of this is Christ Himself. He is unto the believer “a cornerstone, elect and precious,” but to the unbelieving and disobedient “a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence” (1 Peter 2:8). Such He was unto the Jews, for His humble appearance was a scandal to them: though He was exactly what their own Scriptures had foretold, yet He was not according to their ideas of what the Messiah should be and do. Christ crucified is still a stumbling block to the Jews, and to the Greeks foolishness (1 Corinthians 1:23). So too His doctrine was far from being agreeable to them: “the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying” (Matthew 15:12), and murmured when He declared “I am the bread which came down from heaven” (John 6:41). Some of His own disciples complained “This is a hard saying,” so that He asked them “Doth this offend you?” And many of them “went back, and walked no more with Him.” Much of the doctrine of Scripture is still a stumblingblock to the proud and self-willed. The simplicity and spirituality of that worship which alone is acceptable with God is despised by those who crave pomp and pageantry. Yet such offence is causeless, arising solely from human depravity. But there is also offence given where none is taken. Thus when Peter sought to dissuade Christ from His sufferings, He said “Get thee behind Me, Satan: thou art an offence unto Me” (Matthew 16:23)—not that Christ was stumbled thereby, for His heart was immune to evil counsel and to the infection of evil example. From the language of Hebrews 11:24-26, it is clear that Moses was upbraided for turning his back upon such a “golden opportunity,” and was severely censured because when he came of age, he “refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt.” The godly are unmoved by the world’s scorn, for they have respect unto a recompense greater than anything it can offer them. So too David, instead of being scandalized by the impiety of those surrounding him, and following their wicked course, exclaimed, “They have made void Thy law. Therefore I love Thy commandments above gold” (Psalms 119:126-127). They who dwell in the light can see honour in disgrace, and beauty in the very things of God most despised by their fellows. There are two principal things which the Devil employs as scandals or stumblingblocks to the saints: the persecutions and the enticements of the world—the one working on their sensibilities, the other on their lusts. By frowns and terrors of the world Satan seeks to draw us to think hardly of God and dislike the path of holiness. Therefore is it said concerning him, “whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world” (1 Peter 5:9). His temptations to the godly are often conveyed by afflictions from the unregenerate, seeking by means thereof to prevail with them to relinquish their Christian duties and grow weary of the ways of God. These tend the more to succeed if he can persuade them that they are the only sufferers. But there is no excuse for God’s people being deceived by such a lie, for there is much in the Scriptures which is designed to remove from us the fear of the world, and to comfort us in trials and tribulations for Christ’s sake, and such passages would be neither pertinent nor serviceable if there were no persecutions for the godly to endure. The allurements of the world are more dangerous than its oppositions. Though at first the Lord’s people may be discouraged and dismayed when meeting with unfriendliness from the enemies of Christ, yet “God giveth more grace,” and patience and fortitude from Him enable them to hold on their way. But the seductive snares of the world and its fleshattractive baits do not drive the saints to their knees and cast them upon God as do its cruel slights and threatenings. Present and visible things have a far greater attraction than future and invisible ones unto all except the spiritual. Paul had to lament, “Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world” (2 Timothy 4:10), and in all generations the servants of God have had to taste the same bitter experience. It is by the baits of sense that the majority of our fellows are prejudiced against the strictness of the Gospel’s requirements, and a base opinion of the same is nourished in their hearts by the knowledge that such clashes with their own lusts. Esau preferred the gratification of his fleshly affections to the blessing of the Lord. How the exercise of brotherly love preserves from such snares will be more definitely pointed out in our next. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 24: 001.20. CHAPTER 20 ======================================================================== Chapter 20 HATRED AND DARKNESS 1 John 2:11 “But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.” In 1 John 2:9-11, the apostle continues to draw the line of demarcation and to differentiate sharply between the genuine and the spurious, for his obvious design in those verses was to make further manifest the radical contrast there is between a merely formal professor and a real and practical possessor of Christ. Equally so it must have been his intention to strike conviction into the former. Open rebuke is better than secret love, and for one who made the claim—and most probably sincerely so—to be informed on apostolic authority that “He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now” ought most solemnly to affect him. To really believe and then to positively affirm that he was in the light of truth and grace, and to be walking in the same, and at the same time to make clear proof that he was wholly and altogether a stranger unto what he declared, was a most fearful and fatal delusion. That 1 John 2:9 contains the pith of the passage, 1 John 2:10 presenting the opposite character, and the eleventh amplifying the original statement. It is the testing of profession which is in view, the distinguishing of the true and living Christian from the nominal and lifeless one, the former being identified by that which makes clear the reality of what lies behind all surface appearances. When the Truth is applied in power to the heart by the Holy Spirit, it produces its own effects and bears fruit after its own kind. For one to hate a member of the body of Christ, to regard him with contempt, to have as little to do with him as possible, to speak ill of him, to desire his injury, is to demonstrate that he has no love to him, and that he is yet in a state of nature. Conversely, “He that loveth his brother abideth in the light,” his profession and practice accord, his claim is made good, his heart is made evident by his life, his relation to Christ is seen from his affection for His disciples. A saving knowledge of Christ is known by His Word dwelling in the heart, directing its actions, drawing out its affections both unto Him and unto those who are His. Love for the brethren is a proof of his being in the light, for the light is the cause of his love, as love is the effect and fruit of the light. “And there is none occasion of stumbling in him.” Personally, we much prefer the rendering of the annotator of Calvin, “To him there is no stumblingblock,” for while the “him” probably refers primarily to the lover, yet the beloved is not to be excluded. The Greek preposition “en” clearly has the force of “to” in the last clause of Colossians 1:23—“preached to every creature;” and is so rendered again in 1 Thessalonians 4:7, “unto holiness.” “No occasion of stumbling to him” widens the scope of the statement. “Stumblingblock” is, of course, used here in a moral sense. Literally the word means impediment, something against which one strikes one’s feet; but when employed figuratively it imports nothing which will occasion a fall into sin, as in “But if thy right eye offend thee”—margin “do cause thee to offend”—(Matthew 5:29), and “that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way” (Romans 14:13). Thus, first, there is nothing in himself which will cause him to act uncharitably; and, second, nothing in his brother from which he will take offence. The link between the two halves of our verse is a moral and practical one: “He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and [consequently] there is none occasion of stumbling in him.” To walk in the light and to exercise love unto the brethren are among the chief means of preserving the believer from those stumblingblocks which cause so many godless professors to forsake the way of holiness; for by the one he is enabled to perceive the snares of Satan, and by the other he is moved to avoid and shun them. The extent to which the Christian is practically in the light will determine the measure in which his old nature is held in check and the new one dominates his soul and regulates his conduct. The one who abides in the light will not act injuriously toward his brethren, and while love be cultivated he will not be readily stumbled at anything in or from them; for, as previously pointed out, “Charity [love] suffereth long, and is kind ... doth not behave itself unseemly…and is not easily provoked... beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things” (1 Corinthians 13:4-5, 1 Corinthians 13:7). It is to be carefully noted that it is not light alone which keeps us from stumbling. The knowledge of God’s Word is indeed of great value and importance, for it provides us with a sure rule to walk by, and also makes known those great and precious promises of God which we are to appropriate and build upon. Nevertheless, as 2 Peter 2:20 shows, something more is needed, for it is possible to escape the pollutions of the world through a bare knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and then be again entangled therein, as the cases of Demas and thousands since then have sadly demonstrated. Love must be joined with the light if we are to escape those snares which occasion the fall of so many: it is because “they received not the love of the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:10) that so many are fatally deceived by Satan. As one of the old writers expressed it, “A man is better held by the heart than by the head.” That is true Godward as well as manward, for as love is the living principle from which all acceptable obedience proceeds, so also that which receives unmurmuringly God’s most trying dealings. Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril and sword are unable to separate the saints from the love of Christ (Romans 8:35), where “love” is not only to be taken passively, for that love wherewith they are loved, but actively, for the love with which they love Him; for afflictions assail our love to Him and His to us. Where love is healthy and vigorous, trials cause us to cleave more closely to the Lord—“though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” Love will take nothing ill at His hand, causing us to submit meekly to His rod. So it is in connection with our brethren. The more we love them, the less likely are we to be offended with their infirmities. Love envies not their prosperity, and preserves from many sins, for it “worketh no ill” (Romans 13:10). Love not only prevents my treating a brother wrongly, but it delivers me from dwelling upon what is wrong in him, for “love covereth all sins” (Proverbs 10:12). As we shall see later (D.V.), John returns to this subject again and again, explaining and enforcing the Divine commandment which requires brotherly love. Since “He that loveth his brother abideth in the light,” it inevitably follows that “he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness” (1 John 2:11). There is the incontestable evidence against him, for hatred is the mark and badge of darkness. He is not a regenerate person at all: he knows nothing of practical Christianity. Let him no longer deceive himself. “The fruit of the Spirit is love” (Galatians 5:22), and where the one be absent so is the other. To be destitute of the Spirit is to be dead in sin; and where that be the case such a one will conduct himself accordingly, for the walk manifests the heart. No matter what specious excellency he may appear to possess, or how loud his claim, if he hates a saint he is not a child of God, but a stranger to Him. If he loved Christ, he would love His disciples too. To really hate a brother in Christ is altogether against nature, for if I be born of God there must be something in each of His people that I shall find to love; if therefore I hate such, that is entirely inconsistent with a holy profession, and is a sure proof that I am not in a state of grace. Hatred issues from enmity, and is in all men by nature, being one of the fearful effects of the fall. “For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another” (Titus 3:3). Note well the apostle’s use of the past tense, for he would by no means allow that such a horrible state of affairs could consist with those in whom a miracle of grace had been wrought. No, he was describing what the elect were while yet in a state of nature. That root of bitterness was in all, though it was not drawn out and made equally evident in all. It is at once drawn out when the unregenerate contact the regenerate, by the very contrariety of their natures, the latter being odious to the former, for the holiness that is in them irritates and condemns their sinfulness. Since “every one that doeth evil hateth the light” (John 3:20), it necessarily follows that they hate the children of light. Conversely, “he that doeth truth cometh to the light”—welcomes and loves it. This hatred is a settled, deeply rooted and thorough ill-will unto another. It consists of envy, which cannot bear for another to exceed him, or be more highly esteemed for gifts and graces than himself. The one who hates will seek by all means to establish his own reputation and ruin that of his brother. He goes to one and another who will grant him a hearing, reporting and giving an account of every infirmity which the one who hates is the subject of. Such a malignant spirit at once identifies him as a child of the Devil, fulfilling his evil desires (John 8:44). That hatred manifests itself by rejoicing when adversity overtakes a child of God, for instead of sympathizing with him it callously exclaims, “Serves him right.” It breaks forth in more evil speakings and actions. Alas, there are many such in the churches and assemblies: those with a considerable head knowledge of Scripture, orthodox in their beliefs, regular attenders at services, able to make long and beautiful prayers, but possessed of a spirit of malice. Theirs is merely a natural religion, for their hearts are unaffected by the Truth, uninfluenced by the principles of the Gospel, and therefore their profession is a vain pretence. No amount of theological lore is of any value if it slays not enmity both against God and against His people. It is to be duly observed that John knows no middle ground between love and hatred: as his Master declared, “He that is not with Me is against Me” (Matthew 12:30). As there is no third alternative between right and wrong, so there is no third quality between love and hatred. We therefore emphatically reject that miserable shift of human invention that hatred means to “love less,” though some men whose writings we highly respect adopted it. Through a misapprehension of our Lord’s words in Luke 14:26, they suppose that there was at least one passage which obliged them so to define the term. But whatever difficulty that verse might present, the force of the term in many others is unmistakable. Fancy rendering “the fear of the Lord is to love evil less,” or “they loved Me less without a cause” (John 15:25)! There is not the slightest need to resort unto such sophistry in explaining, “If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.” It is indeed true that the Gospel does not set aside natural affections, rather does it elevate and direct them. It is also a fact that Christ demands the first place in our hearts and must be loved supremely. Yet there is nothing whatever in Luke 14:26 to indicate that our Lord was there drawing a comparison between a superior and an inferior love. Nor was there anything in His words that contradicted the fifth commandment. Rather was Christ there insisting that He would brook no rival, that His claims were paramount, and therefore when those of subordinates clashed with His they must yield and be denied. Under certain circumstances, so far from “loving less” those who are nearest and dearest to us in the flesh, we must act as though we did not love them at all. If loyalty unto the Saviour requires it, we should cross their wills and antagonize their wishes. Thus, if godless parents should forbid their converted child to read his Bible or engage in prayer, his duty would be to disobey them. In thus acting, it might grieve him deeply to displease those who were kind to him in every other way, yet his actions would be hateful ones. It is not long before each Christian learns by painful experience that the calls of nature are unfavourable to the pursuits of grace, that the longing to please those who are near and dear to us by blood often leads us to the confines of sin, if not to the actual commission of it. Therefore to hate whatever opposes the rights of God or our own spiritual interests is among the clearest evidences of regeneration. A striking example of this is found in Exodus 32:1-35, where the Levites’ love and zeal for Jehovah triumphed over the ties of nature. When Moses perceived that Aaron had made the worshippers of the golden calf naked to their shame, he bade those who were on the Lord’s side to come to him, and when the Levites did so he commanded them in the name of his Master: “Put every man his sword by his side ... and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion” and they did so (Exodus 32:25-28). Later the Holy Spirit declared of Levi: “Who said unto his father [i.e. by his actions] and to his mother, I have not seen him; neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor know [love] his own children” (Deuteronomy 33:9), thereby signifying God’s approbation of their fidelity to His honour. Surely the last clause in our Lord’s declaration serves to explain the whole: “yea, and his own life also.” Life is precious, and the instinct of self-preservation is the endowment of every creature. Yet if the issue be drawn between prolonging my life at the cost of repudiating the Gospel and being burned at the stake, then loyalty to Christ makes my duty quite clear. Self-loathing is ever a mark of a real Christian character. And why does he loathe himself but because the flesh in him rises up against the Spirit? If then I am to hate or spurn the desires of my body when they are hostile to the welfare of my soul, then I must also hate the opposers of the Divine life, whoever or whatever they may be; yet without cherishing the least animosity against them. As in the case of Levi, regard to God’s glory must prevent our regard to any and every creature. Thus this hatred is not absolute but relative, not in my heart, but in my actions. In a word, the Christian is required to antagonize every tie of nature when it be found to run counter to the claims of the Lord Jesus Christ. One of the most grievous trials which a believer has to endure is when one whom he had good reason to regard as a fellow saint turns against him and treats him maliciously. He expects the profane world to oppose and persecute him, but when those in the professing world do so it is much harder to bear. It is indeed a bitter cup which the child of God is called upon to drink when one wearing the name of Christ acts spitefully unto him; yet it is no unprecedented experience, and with the Word of God in his hands should come as no surprise. David made sad complaint at Ahithophel’s conduct toward him: “Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me” (Psalms 41:9). In the context he had drawn up a list of his woes, recounting the unkindnesses of his enemies, but he reserved for the climax the abominable behaviour of that one whose only return for kindness was ingratitude, and who basely perverted his offices of hospitality. A still more touching reference is made thereto in Psalms 55:12-14 : “For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that [openly] hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him: but it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, walked into the house of God in company.” For apparent friends to become the open enemies of those who truly fear God is a great grief. For those who pretend to love us to insinuate themselves into our confidence and affections on purpose to injure us is to touch us in our tenderest spot. Yet thus was our blessed Lord treated by one who had been privileged to enjoy the closest intimacy with Him. The perfidy of Judas pierced Christ more deeply than did the unconcealed enmity of the priests and elders: His “yea” in Psalms 41:9—which He quoted as a prediction concerning Himself (John 13:18)—shows that He regarded the treachery of the son of perdition as the acme of His woes at the hands of men, as something almost inconceivable. The faithlessness of that favoured apostle cut Him to the very quick. Job lamented, “All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me” (Job 19:19). Those who should have concerned themselves about him, visited him in his sore afflictions, and performed whatever kindly offices lay in their power, evidenced no more solicitude than though he were a complete stranger unto them. Nay, they not only neglected, but abhorred him and turned against him, adding to his distress by maligning him. Human nature is fearfully fickle. “All the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the border: the men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee ... they that eat thy bread have laid a wound under thee” (Obadiah 1:7)—the Chaldeans, who were joined to the Edomites, became their enemies; so that it is no new thing for former allies to become bitter antagonists. Among the hardships endured by the apostle Paul was “in perils among false brethren” (2 Corinthians 11:26)—an experience more or less shared by most of God’s servants. Religious hatred is the most cruel and venomous of all, as Acts 7:52 and Revelation 17:6, show. With such examples recorded in Scripture let every Christian be forewarned, and put not his trust in any creature. Expect no mercy from traitors, for they will stick at nothing unless God restrains them. “But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.” He who so far from loving his brother cherishes a bitter and malignant spirit against him, who instead of seeking to promote his welfare desires to injure and ruin him, proves that darkness is his element, for it rules all his actions. He walks according to the course of this world, and, though distress and misery are in his ways, so thoroughly is he deluded by Satan and blinded by sin and pride that he knows not whither he is going, being quite unaware of the fatal path he is treading. Not only is he in the darkness, but the darkness is in him: it has blinded his eyes, sin has complete dominion over him, dominating all the faculties of his soul. Enmity in the heart blinds the judgment, causing its subject to be ignorant of himself, to know not the way of peace, and also to be utterly unable to perceive that he is making direct for “the blackness of darkness for ever” (Jude 1:13). In concluding this chapter, let it be pointed out that the history of the Jewish people supplies a graphic commentary upon our present verse. Solemnly indeed has each clause of it been exemplified in the case of that unhappy nation. Not only had they no love for Christ, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, but they murderously hated Him—proof that they were in spiritual darkness. And in what awful moral darkness have they walked since with respect to the Gospel, and the darkness of God’s afflictive providences! He has judicially blinded them. “Evil shall slay the wicked: and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate” (Psalms 34:21) has literally been their case for the past two thousand years. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 25: 001.21. CHAPTER 21 ======================================================================== Chapter 21 FORGIVEN CHILDREN 1 John 2:12 “I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.” The title of this chapter raises the question, Are there any unforgiven children? To which we reply, Certainly there are—the whole company of God’s elect remaining so while in their natural condition. “But surely such could hardly be denominated ‘children’—children of God.” Wrong, they are children of God when they enter this world, though they possess not then the Divine nature, and therefore are as yet unmanifested as such, and unknown either to themselves or to others until they be born again. They are God’s children by eternal predestination (Ephesians 1:5). It was as such that Christ died for them (John 11:52). It is because they are such that, in due time, the Holy Spirit is sent into their hearts (Galatians 4:6). But their sins are not forgiven them before they savingly believe in Christ, and that is not until the Holy Spirit is given them and they are quickened into newness of life, for it is impossible that anyone who is dead in trespasses and sins should really feel his dire need of a Saviour and come to Him for pardon. Thus our text speaks of the regenerated children of God whose sins are forgiven. What a truly amazing thing it is that there should be such a thing as Divine forgiveness of sins—transgressions of God’s Law, affronts to His holiness, rebellions against His exalted majesty. What a marvel that God does not deal with all mankind as He did with the angels when they fell—“delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment” (2 Peter 2:4)! Next to the gift of Christ Himself and the grace we receive from His fullness (John 1:16), forgiveness of sin is the greatest blessing God bestows, and therefore does it head the list of benefits for which the Psalmist blessed the Lord with all his soul (Psalms 103:2-3). Forgiveness may be defined as that judicial act of God whereby the penitent believer is released from the guilt of his transgressions against the Law, without receiving any satisfaction at his hands or inflicting any punishment upon him. It is the remitting of the penalty which he had incurred. It is a revoking of the sentence of justice, an acquittal of his person before the bar of God. It is described in Scripture by a variety of expressions, which serve to open unto us the nature of the thing itself. Several of them are brought together in Psalms 32:1-2. Before proceeding any further to develop the principal subject of our verse, let us outline its contents. “I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.” Five things call for consideration. • The connection between that statement and what precedes as well as follows. • The significance of “I write unto.” • The appellation which is here given to those addressed—“little children.” • The reason why the apostle sent this epistle unto them—“because your sins are forgiven.” • The ground of this blessing—“for His name’s sake.” First, the relation between 1 John 2:12-14, and its context. Hitherto we have had before us the fellowship of the Father with His children: the nature of that fellowship, the means appointed for its maintenance, and the obligations and privileges which the same entails. Now we are introduced, as it were, to the different members of God’s family, notice being taken of their several ages or stages of growth, with their corresponding spiritual attainments. But before John begins to divide the family into its component parts he addresses himself to the whole thereof, comprehending them all under the endearing expression of “little children,” announcing their sins to be forgiven. That was in strict accord with his central design in this epistle: “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life,” (1 John 2:13), for a saving faith in Christ which issues in forgiveness is a sure sign that the one exercising the same is already in possession of eternal life. “These verses (1 John 2:12-14) form a break or interruption in the apostle’s line of argument. There is, as it were, a pause. John calls upon those to whom he writes to consider, not only what he is writing to them, but what they themselves were to whom he is writing: what is their character and standing: what he is entitled to assume in and about them as likely to ensure a fair reception of his message. That was the common apostolic method. It is a courteous and complaisant way of insinuating advice; taking for granted the attainments to be enforced. But it is far more than that, and it is so emphatically here. It is a trumpet call summoning all the faithful to a recognition of their real and true position before God; and that with a view to their receiving aright what His servant is now writing to them” (R. Candlish). In other words, 1 John 2:12-14 pave the way for what follows. While stressing the necessity of a godly walk and a fruitful life, the foundation on which they rest must ever be insisted upon. “Holiness of life ought indeed to be urged, the fear of God to be carefully enjoined; men ought to be sharply goaded to repentance, newness of life, together with its fruits. But still we ought ever to take heed lest the doctrine of faith be smothered—that doctrine which teaches that Christ is the only Author of salvation and all its blessings. On the contrary, such moderation ought to be presented that faith may ever retain its primacy. This is the rule that is presented to us by John: having faithfully spoken of good works, lest he should seem to give them more importance than he ought to have done, he carefully calls us back to contemplate the grace of Christ” (Calvin). In other words, duly to observe the order and balance of Truth. Doubtless there is, too, a designed link with 1 John 2:10: real faith, saving faith, “worketh by love” (Galatians 5:6), and where it exists and is exercised, we may be assured that this results from God’s having pardoned our sins. “I write unto you.” Three things were intimated by that language. First, a holy privilege. It was the conferring of a great favour upon them. If the reader were to receive a letter from the official secretary of the king of England, he would feel himself highly honoured: how much more so to be addressed by one of the ambassadors of the King of kings! Second, a call to duty. As 1 John 2:1, shows, “I write unto you” is a hortatory expression. I John am telling you what to do, and what not to do: sin not (1 John 2:1), keep God’s commandments (1 John 2:3-5), follow the example Christ has left us (1 John 2:6), love the brethren (1 John 2:7-11), love not the world (1 John 2:15). Give heed then to my injunctions for they are invested with Divine authority. Third, a permanent record: writing conveys the idea of fixedness. The message delivered by the apostle was no mere transient one, allowing a subsequent revision, either of subtraction or addition. It was the imperial and imperishable Word of God for all generations, and a solemn curse is pronounced upon anyone who adds to or takes from the same (Revelation 22:18-19). Thereby God’s children are graciously provided for against all the attacks of Satan and his agents, who are ever to be met with “It is written”! “Little children.” The word used here is quite another from the one found in the next verse, and from “newborn babes” in 1 Peter 2:2. In the Greek there are two different words which are both translated “little children” in our English version without distinguishing between them. The one in our text is “teknion,” which occurs seven times in this epistle, and in each instance is applied to the whole company addressed: 1 John 2:1, 1 John 2:12, 1 John 2:28, 1 John 3:7; 1 John 3:18; 1 John 4:4; 1 John 5:21. The one in 1 John 2:13 is “paidion,” which occurs again only in 1 John 2:18, and is restricted to spiritual infants. The former is a term of affection, and is given to the entire believing family; whereas the latter is a discriminating word, which signifies those who are very young, and in 1 John 2:13 is limited unto a particular class in God’s family—the spiritual babes, in contradistinction from the “young men” and the “fathers.” “Teknion,” then, is used of believers of all ages and degrees of growth. This is clear from its first occurrence, for in both halves of 1 John 2:1, the whole household of faith is obviously in view: “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any one sin, we have an advocate with the Father.” The blessing which is predicated in our text of those written unto is not one that is peculiar to any special grade of Christians—as are the attainments of the several classes referred to separately in 1 John 2:13, but is true of all alike, for the forgiveness of sins pertains to every one of them. There is a community of life, and pardon is the portion of all saints. By the new life received at regeneration, they are related to God as Father and to each other as brethren; by forgiveness a title is conveyed which makes them heirs of heaven. In 1 John 2:12 the apostle postulates that which pertains to every believing child of God; but in 1 John 2:13 he describes that which characterizes their respective grades according to their measures of growth. In styling all “little children,” John expressed both his authority and his affection: it stamped his address with weight and dignity, and at the same time revealed the warmth of his heart unto them. From the remainder of the sentence he would have them know that it was out of love to Christ and to them that he penned this letter: not to distress, but to promote their spiritual happiness and mutual affection one to another. “I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you.” “As this epistle is what we style a catholic epistle, so the address is suited to this, and a universal blessing which belongs unto and is actually bestowed on all the members of the true Church of Christ is expressed. This is the reason he assigns for writing to them, and why he so lovingly addressed them. He had before declared that the blood of Christ, the Son of God, cleanseth them now, in the present tense, from all sin. He then proceeded to declare if any of them should sin, they had in Christ an all-prevailing Advocate. He was with the Father. He was their righteousness and their atonement. Then he showed what the true and spiritual knowledge of this, and communion with Christ in the blessings and benefits of the same, would consequently and evidentially produce. And now he addressed them because they were the pardoned ones of God. Thus here is consolation, abounding consolation, increasing consolation for them. They were brought to the knowledge of the Father and the Son; they were admitted into fellowship with Them; they were in Christ, pure and righteous. He was their High Priest before the Majesty in the heavens. Their sins were completely taken away, and they were in their individual persons pardoned” (S.E. Pierce). “For Thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon Thee” (Psalms 86:5). What a word is that in Nehemiah 9:17, “Thou art a God of pardons, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness”! It was on the basis of that blessed fact that Daniel prayed, “To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against Him.” In Psalms 32:1, forgiveness of sins is likened, first, to a removal of them: “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven” is literally “whose transgression is lifted up”—taken off him because laid on Christ. Second to a covering of them—by the blood of Christ. Sin is nauseous and abhorrent to the eye of the Holy One. Third, to a non-imputation of them: they are not reckoned to his account, because charged to his Surety. In Isaiah 43:25, to a blotting out of sins; in Luke 7:41-42, and Matthew 6:12, to the cancellation of debts; in Hebrews 8:12, to God’s no more remembering them—thinking no further about them, His justice having been satisfied; and in Isaiah 1:18, to a washing of them “as white as snow.” It is therefore very clear that one grand design of a Gospel ministry is the assuring and comforting of the saints, for unbelief is ever at work within them, and Satan constantly engaged in efforts to destroy or at least disturb their peace. No small part of the work assigned to the Lord’s servants is so to set the person and work of the Saviour before His redeemed that, by occupying their hearts with the same, they will be lifted out of themselves and delivered from their fears. The forgiveness of sins of those who believe is one of the first blessings announced by the Gospel: in fact there is no true proclamation of God’s good news where that is not plainly set forth. When the Lord Jesus gave the great commission to His apostles, He declared, “that repentance and remission [forgiveness] of sins should be preached in His name among all nations” (Luke 24:47), and accordingly we find that when Peter was sent to Cornelius and his friends he asserted of Christ, “To Him give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins” (Acts 10:43). Paul, too, bore witness at Antioch, “Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by Him all that believe are justified from all things” (Acts 13:38-39). The object of Divine pardon is a penitent believer, and the fruit thereof is a longing and determination to please the Bestower of it. “And He said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven... Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace” (Luke 7:48, Luke 7:50). Faith is as necessary in an instrumental way as Christ’s satisfaction in a meritorious way: “that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Me” (Acts 26:18). Christ purchased remission of sins, faith puts us in possession of it. It is fitting that those who are indebted to Christ for this benefit should give up themselves to Him, both in a way of dependence and of submission, putting their case into His hands as the Advocate with the Father, and devoting themselves in subjection to Him, for He is “the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him” (Hebrews 5:9). Evangelical repentance issues from the renewed heart’s sorrow and horror of sin—which cost the Saviour so dearly. Saving faith is that which clings to Christ as our only refuge and hope. Gratitude flows forth in affection to Him: “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven [in their own apprehension], the same loveth little” (Luke 7:47). This Divine pardon of sins is free, no charge being exacted of its subject: “the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7). Our redemption and recovery cost us nothing, and since it be by grace, then without our deserving. “Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money” (Isaiah 52:3). It is bestowed without respect to anything in us or from us: “and when they had nothing [wherewith] to pay, he frankly forgave them both” (Luke 7:42). Thus it is wholly gratuitous. “I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions, for Mine, own sake” (Isaiah 43:25)—whatever God does in our salvation it is to glorify His mercy, and out of compassion for our misery. “For Thy name’s sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great” (Psalms 25:11): the penitent believer has no other plea but the honour of God’s name engaged by gracious covenant. Well may we exclaim, “Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage?” (Micah 7:18). Divine forgiveness is full: “let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:7). And since He does so “according to the riches of His grace,” we may be sure it is neither niggard nor grudging. Possibly the reader has acknowledged a fault unto a fellow Christian, and he has said, “I forgive you,” but in such a tone of voice and expression of countenance that you felt you had been just as well without such a pardon. But when God forgives, there is—as Luke 15:20 reveals—just as much joy in His heart as there is in the recipient’s. God does things not by halves, but perfectly: “who forgiveth all thine iniquities” (Psalms 103:3), canceling the whole, so that not one is left on record in His book. A partial forgiveness would not shed sufficient glory on the blood of the Lamb. As John Gill said of His atoning sacrifice, “It reaches to all sins: original and actual, secret and open, past, present, and to come.” Divine forgiveness is final. When God pardons it is not merely for a season, but for ever. His sentence is irrevocable, releasing the believer from the whole guilt of his transgressions, so that the triumphant challenge goes forth, “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth?” (Romans 8:33-34). His sentence is never repealed; the saint is fully discharged from all punishment, for the Law can demand no penalty from him. “Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19), and the ocean, my reader, never casts up anything which has sunk into its depths. When God pardons sin it is never charged again to the culprit: “their sins and iniquities will I remember no more” (Hebrews 10:17). Divine forgiveness is permanent and continuous because of the everlasting value and validity of Christ’s atonement. It is the standing office of Christ to act as the great High Priest of His people, and His blood has not only cleansed, but “cleanseth from all sin.” The great assize is indeed at the last day, but God is exercising His judicial office even now. “Verily He is a God that judgeth in the earth” (Psalms 58:11) weighing every action, passing verdict on each person, forgiving or not forgiving. The final judgment is but a public proclamation and execution of the same. As Manton so aptly pointed out, there is a threefold distinction between God’s forgiving us now and then. First, during this life the sentence of the Law may be revoked, but then it is definitive and peremptory. One who is now condemned by the Law may be absolved. Every son of Adam is “condemned already” (John 3:18), and he binds that condemnation upon himself if he dies in his unbelief and impenitence, in contempt of the gracious offer of the Gospel. That his state is now capable of alteration is clear from John 5:24, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is [judicially] passed from death unto life.” But at the last great day the sentence is inexorable and irrevocable, and as the tree fell so will it for ever lie. Second, the Divine sentence is now given in private; then it shall be proclaimed publicly. At conversion the verdict is passed in the awakened conscience according to the Word of God, the Holy Spirit sealing upon the renewed and believing heart some sure promise of God. But when the dread tribunal is set up the sentence will be pronounced by the Judge’s own mouth before an assembled universe, saying either “Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared or you from the foundation of the world” or “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” As the believer now has the Spirit’s witness within him, then it will be ratified in open court, the Judge of all the earth publicly exonerating him. Third, then there will be an actual execution of the sentence. Now we have our everlasting portion either by promise or threat; but then both the promise and the threat will be fully made good. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 26: 001.22. CHAPTER 22 ======================================================================== Chapter 22 THE FAMILY GRADED 1 John 2:13-14 “I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father. I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.” All of God’s regenerated people are not of the same spiritual stature. Though all of them are quickened into newness of life, made partakers of the Divine nature, and are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, yet they vary from one another in several respects. Talents are not bestowed upon them uniformly, there are distinct stages in their growth in grace, their actual attainments differ considerably. In the passage at which we have now arrived, the apostle divides believers into three classes: fathers, young men, and babes. But before he describes their respective characteristics he first addresses himself to the entire family under the endearing appellation of “little children,” and predicates a basic blessing which pertains unto them all alike: “your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.” In our last, we dwelt upon the subject of forgiveness, but had to conclude before reaching the final clause of 1 John 2:12, which announces the ground on which God pardons the penitent believer. We shall therefore turn to it now, and consider first the force of “His;” second, explain the “for His name’s sake;” and third, show how He is conjoined with the Father Himself. Whom are we to understand by “for His name’s sake”—God or Christ? For the praise of the glory of the grace of the Former, or because of the redemption that is found in the Latter? A careful reading of the whole context supplies a clear answer. In 1 John 2:1 it is Christ who is the Advocate with the Father. In 1 John 2:2 He is mentioned as our Propitiation. In 1 John 2:6 He is presented as our Exemplar. In 1 John 2:4, 1 John 2:7 and 1 John 2:8 He is viewed as our Legislator. The new commandment of 1 John 2:7-8 is definitely from Christ, and so too believers receive the forgiveness of sins for His sake. “Nevertheless He saved them for His name’s sake” (Psalms 106:8). “O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do Thou it for Thy name’s sake” (Jeremiah 14:7): it is never for the sake of any good thing found in us or done by us. “His name” is here to be taken for His person, for that was what gave infinite value to His work. Our sins are forgiven because they were atoned for by Christ, pardon being purchased and procured by the shedding of His blood (Hebrews 1:3). Our sins were imputed to Christ, laid upon Him. He bore them in His own body on the tree: there He was paid their wages: the debt was discharged, and therefore they are eternally banished from the eyes of the Law. But though the believer’s sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake, yet not to the exclusion of the Father. No indeed, for though Christ be mentioned in many such passages without the Father, it is never but as conjoined with Him. Our salvation is a covenant one in which the eternal Three are equally engaged and concerned. Pardon comes from God the Father, but it flows down to us through Christ the blessed Mediator, being the effect and fruit of His mediation. When it is said that “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,” the reference is unto the Father, who is faithful to His covenant engagements and just to the claims of Christ’s sacrifice. So too our glorified Saviour is an Advocate with the Father. And thus here: while the forgiveness of our sins is due immediately to the offering of Christ, being sure proof of the everlasting efficacy thereof, it is equally an evidence of God’s grace and the exercise of His righteousness. “Then He is gracious unto Him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom” (Job 33:24); “God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32). Every spiritual blessing we receive comes to us from the Father’s bounty, but through the channel of Christ’s glorious and prevalent mediation. The salvation of the triune God shines forth in the person of Christ. Divine forgiveness can be known only by faith resting on the bare word of God. Reason cannot reach unto it, and often the dictates of conscience are dead against it. Yet a knowledge thereof does not always come to the saint the hour he believes in Christ, though the fact itself does. “The moment a sinner believes, And trusts in his crucified God, His pardon at once he receives, Redemption in full through Christ’s blood.” Yet it is the bounden duty of every Christian to labour after a clear realization of the same: “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith [i.e. with a firm trust in Christ and entire dependence upon Him], having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience” (Hebrews 10:22). Here are some of the marks of a forgiven soul. A spirit without guile (Psalms 32:2)—honest with self and in our dealings with God: hence, “Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity” (Ephesians 6:24). Mourning for sin and displeasing of God: “there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared” (Psalms 130:4). Deliverance from the dominion of sin (Micah 7:8). The forgiveness of others (Matthew 6:14). We turn now to 1 John 2:13-14. In this world nothing is brought to maturity immediately: instead, everything develops by orderly progress and gradual growth—“first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear” (Mark 4:28). The child of God is no exception, for at regeneration he is not fully developed spiritually, as the first Adam was naturally; but, in conformity to his Head, he is born like the last Adam—a babe, who “increased in wisdom and stature” (Luke 2:52) until He attained to manhood. All the parts and faculties of the new man indeed come into being at the new birth, but time is needed for their increase and manifestation. The apostle here makes mention of little children, young men, and fathers, and in so doing he grades them not according to their natural ages, nor by the length of time they had been believers, but according to the progress they had made in the Christian life. John himself was well qualified to deal therewith, for in his own case he knew what it once was to be a babe in Christ. Later, he had also known what it was, under the grace and teaching of the Spirit, to advance to the stage of being a young man in Christ. Ultimately, through the good hand of God, he had arrived at being a “father.” While it be true that the apostle does not here grade the children of God by their natural ages, but rather according to their spiritual attainments, nevertheless he describes the latter in terms which are characteristic of the former, for the different excellences ascribed to each group accord with those which are found in nature. Affection marks the regenerate infant, as it does the physical one; vigorous exploits distinguish the young men, and wisdom the fathers. Little children love to be carried in their parents’ bosoms, to be dandled on their knees, to be taken by the arms as they are taught to walk; and here the spiritual babes are said to know the Father. We are told that “the glory of young men is their strength” (Proverbs 20:29), and the same thing is predicated of the second class in 1 John 2:14; while “with the ancient is wisdom; and in length of days understanding” (Job 12:12)—exemplified in the case of the “fathers.” Thus the several qualities assigned to the three groups harmonize with the natural properties which pertain to those of corresponding ages. There are real and marked differences among the people of God: not all of them are of one uniform stature, strength, or growth in godliness. Some are sheep, others are lambs, and are to be dealt with accordingly (John 21:15-16). Some are strong, others are weak (Romans 15:1). Some are “babes,” others of “full age” (Hebrews 5:13-14). All are fertile, yet not all in the same measure: “and brought forth, some thirty, some sixty, and some an hundred” (Mark 4:8); similarly we read in John 15:1-27 of “fruit” (John 15:2), “more fruit” (John 15:2), and “much fruit” (John 15:5). Yet though there be different degrees of grace, knowledge and attainments among the sons and daughters of the Lord, they are all alike dear unto Him. Then let us not despise the least degree of grace in others. There was a time when the father in Christ was but a babe, and the time may come when the babe shall grow into a father. If by grace we have been enabled to go “from strength to strength” (Psalms 84:7) and “from glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18) let us bless God, for we have nothing to boast of. “Who maketh thee to differ from another [not only from the unregenerate, but also from thy feebler and more ignorant fellow Christians]? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive?” (1 Corinthians 4:7). Though the distinctions made by the apostle in our text respect not their natural ages, but rather their different measures of grace, still it is to be observed that God has always had His people of all sorts and sizes. Of “little children” we may cite Samuel, who was called at a very early age (1 Samuel 2:18); Timothy, whom Paul reminded “from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15). Little children also raised their hosannahs to the Son of David (Matthew 21:15-16), and He did not despise them, but defended them. Among young men, we think of Joseph, David (1 Samuel 17:33, 1 Samuel 17:37), and Josiah, who “while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father” (2 Chronicles 34:3). Among the “fathers” we read of “Mnason of Cyprus, an old disciple” (Acts 21:16), and of “Paul the aged” (Philemon 1:9). And thus it is still: some are plucked as brands from the burning while of tender years, others in the vigour of youth, and others when nearing the close of life. Here too God displays the sovereignty of His grace. It requires to be pointed out that all babes in Christ do not grow up into spiritual young men, nor do all Christian young men attain the status of fathers. In some instances they are taken home soon after their conversion, but in the majority of cases their development is checked through failing to make a proper use of the means of grace, and hindered by a number of other things. There are many who make a promising start, but later their zeal abates, they backslide, and become a grief to their brethren. To the Corinthians Paul had to say, “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:1); while to the Hebrews he complained, “For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat” (Hebrews 5:12). On the other hand, there are those who progress steadily and make such proficiency in the school of Christ that, long before their heads are hoary, they can say with David, “I understand more than the ancients, because I keep Thy precepts” (Psalms 119:100). That the believer ought to make constant advance in the Christian life is obvious, for we are expressly exhorted to “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). To the Ephesians Paul wrote, “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine... but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ” (Ephesians 4:14-15); and to the Corinthians, “Brethren, be not children in understanding; howbeit in malice be ye children; but in understanding be men” (1 Corinthians 14:20). Nevertheless, the fact remains that it is with individual Christians as it was (and still is) with corporate companies of the saints. To those at Rome Paul could say, “your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world”(Romans 1:8), but of the Galatians he had to say, “Ye did run well; who did hinder you?” (Galatians 5:7). To the Thessalonians he declared, “your faith groweth exceedingly,, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth” (2 Thessalonians 1:3); whereas of the Ephesians it is recorded, “thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works” (Revelation 2:4-5). In many instances growth in grace is far from corresponding with the increase of age. There are many professing Christians, and not a few real ones too, who are old in years and of long standing in the Church, yet are they but little children in knowledge and experience: they neither attain unto an apprehension of the deeper things of God, nor are they competent to counsel those who are much younger than themselves. How often we behold a verification of those words of Job 32:9 : “Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgment.” How few really spiritual Christians there are, qualified to restore a brother who has been overtaken in a fault (Galatians 6:1). Mortified young believers are far more spiritual than older ones who indulge their fleshly appetites and inordinately seek the things of this world. The youthful Elihu used milder language and better arguments when reasoning with the afflicted patriarch than did the three friends who were greatly his seniors. Gracious abilities come not from age, but from the Spirit. Those whose thoughts are formed and whose ways are regulated by the Word of Truth are wiser than they who confer much with flesh and blood. While the differences between the three classes in the school of Christ are more or less clearly marked (probably much more so in the apostle’s day than in ours), yet we need to be upon our guard against so partitioning off believers in our mind that we attribute all the knowledge to the fathers, or all the strength to the young men. That would be contrary to Scripture and experience alike: as the fathers have strength, so the young men possess knowledge, though not to the same extent. So too if the young men in Christ overcome the wicked one, so do the babes in their measure and degree—and the fathers also. It is also to be borne in mind that Christian experience is not always uniform or unvarying even in the same individual. The mature saint may in some respects be as weak as the most recent convert, and in certain regards be tempted as fiercely as the young men. In general, we may say that God so orders His providences with the different members of His family that each of them is given opportunity to exercise and make manifest these Christian characteristics in due course, so that in their season those graces shine forth with greater clearness. It will be noted that the apostle addresses the several classes according to the order of their dignity and responsibility; whereas in Ephesians 5:1-33 and Ephesians 6:1-24 it is the order of grace, for in each instance of the reciprocal relations it is the inferior party who is first exhorted, the wives before the husbands, children before their fathers, and servants before their masters. To notice first the weaker vessel, or the one occupying the lower place, is according to that wondrous grace which led the Lord of glory to take upon Him the form of a servant. Nothing in the Scriptures is without significance and importance, for they are the Word of Him who is a God of order. A further example of what we are here calling attention to is found in the contrast presented between the parable of the labourers (Matthew 20:1-34) and that of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30). In the former, where the Lord was acting in sovereign grace (Matthew 24:15), He began by rewarding the one who had done the least, who had wrought only one hour; but in the latter, where responsibility was in view, the one who had received the five talents was dealt with before those who had received only two and one. In accord with the different grades of intelligence and attainments among His people, the Lord graciously calls a variety of servants, whom He equips to minister unto them. The ministers of Christ are not all of the same spiritual stature, nor are they alike qualified to be of most help to the several classes in Christ’s school. Thus we are told that “He gave some apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-12). The first two of those offices have become obsolete, but the last three mentioned still obtain, and they correspond closely with the three groups mentioned in our text: the evangelist being best suited to the babes in Christ, the pastor to the young men, and the teacher to the fathers, who are capable of receiving profounder instruction than either of the others. Our Lord Himself, the perfect Servant, was Divinely fitted for and actually discharged all three functions, for not only did He go about evangelizing, but He went forth to “teach and preach in their cities” (Matthew 11:1, and cf. Matthew 4:23); as did also the most gifted one of His ambassadors—thus the two things are quite distinct. There are many who mistakenly suppose that all God-sent preachers are the same. In one sense they are, all being commissioned by Him and clothed with His authority; but they are not alike furnished to meet the peculiar needs of the several classes of the saints. There are ministerial “young men” and “fathers,” as well as among the rank and file of believers. Since there are always far more spiritual babes than fathers in the churches, the Lord appoints a greater number of His servants to minister “the milk of the word” unto those, and endows fewer of them with the ability to give forth “strong meat.” As Paul informed the Corinthians, “But we will not boast of things without our measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us, a measure to reach even unto you” (2 Corinthians 10:13). His traducers were accusing him of egotism and blaming him for ranking himself with such wise and eminent men as they deemed themselves to be. He refuted their charge, insisting that he had not gone beyond either the capacity or the territory which God had assigned him. The “rule” is the determiner of both the gifts and the sphere of each servant of God, and the “which God hath distributed” shows that He bestows them in varying measures. Still more to the point was his statement in the first Corinthian epistle, “For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers” (1 Corinthians 4:15). Upon which S.E. Pierce said: “None ever respected such as the Lord sent more than did Paul; yet he did not think alike of all them as it respected their station, qualities, and usefulness to the souls of men. Some of them were instructors in Christ, and they could go no further: the Lord Himself had neither fitted nor designed them for anything beyond this. It was a great honour conferred upon them to be such; yet they should be content and not exalt themselves above their brethren by thinking they were the only ministers who are useful in the Church of Christ. Most assuredly fathers in Christ are superior to them, and their usefulness must be of more service and importance. As amongst such are real saints the Lord will have the threefold division kept up, of fathers, young men, and babes in Christ, so He will have ministers suited to each of these. And whilst they shall all be useful in their respective situations, yet they cannot be so in the same way. The ministerial fathers will ever be distinguished from others. Their use will be of another kind from that of the brother who is to encourage the young men in Christ, and quite distinct again from those who feed the babes.” As there are always many fewer fathers among the saints, so far fewer men capable of ministering to them. The links between what is said in 1 John 2:12 to be the common portion of all the believing children of God and what is predicated of them in 1 John 2:13-14, where they are divided into three classes, are more or less apparent. First, “I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known Him that is from the beginning;” however lengthy or full be their acquaintance with Christ, their experiential knowledge of Him began by proving the sufficiency of His atoning blood to cleanse them from all the guilt of sin. Second, “I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one:” such victory was not possible unless there was the assurance of sins forgiven, for, as Revelation 12:11, declares: “they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb:” that is by faith in that blood. Third, “I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father:” but such a privilege and blessing cannot be apart from the Saviour, for, as He said, “no one cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6). It is blessed to see that the sins of the weakest babe are as truly forgiven him as are those of the maturest father. It is also to be noted that the forgiveness of sins is accompanied not only by the knowledge of the Father, but by conflict with the wicked one too. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 27: 001.23. CHAPTER 23 ======================================================================== Chapter 23 THE FAMILY DELINEATED 1 John 2:13-14 “I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father. I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.” In the verses before us the saints are viewed according to their several levels in the school of Christ, and the excellences ascribed to them correspond with and are proper to their stages of growth. In addressing the “fathers,” they are viewed not according to their age, but to their spiritual development. That which is here predicated of them is “ye have known Him that is from the beginning.” We think “that is” should be deleted, for this supplement inserted by the translators is quite unnecessary, the reference being to the One spoken of in the opening verse of our epistle. They had known Him from the beginning of their spiritual history, from the day when Christ had first been graciously revealed in them (Galatians 1:16). Doubtless some of them had personally seen and heard Christ in His incarnate state at the commencement of the Christian era. That which distinguished them from the young men and babes was that they had acquired a deeper, fuller, and richer acquaintance with Him. In their earlier days they were occupied with His work, what He had done and obtained for them. Later, they were more taken with their exploits and achievements, what His grace and strength had enabled them to accomplish. But now it was Himself that engaged their hearts and minds: the wonders and perfections of His blessed person which enthralled them. “I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord” (Php 3:8) is the language and longing of a “father.” That which characterizes such is a clearer insight into the marvels and mysteries of His ineffable person, of His manifold glories, of His distinctive offices. They know Him as the God-man Mediator. They apprehend something of His covenant engagements, and of His prophetic, priestly and kingly functions. They discern Him to be the Centre of all the Divine counsels (Ephesians 3:11), the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of every creature (Colossians 1:15). They know Him as “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24), and as the One in whom all the promises of God are yea and amen (2 Corinthians 1:20). They know Him as the Head of the Body the Church (Colossians 1:18), yea, as “the head over all things to the church” (Ephesians 1:22), angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto Him (1 Peter 3:22). They not only know Him as a personal and all-sufficient Saviour, but they have gone on to apprehend what He did for God and what He finds in His Son, as the One who magnified His law and made it honourable, glorifying Him in this very scene where He has been so grievously dishonoured: the One of whom the Father says, “Mine elect, in whom My soul delighteth” (Isaiah 42:1). “I write unto you, fathers:” the reference is to all that he says in this epistle. Though they had known Christ from the beginning and had so grown in grace and in the knowledge of Him, yet what he wrote was as much needed by them as by their younger and more immature brethren. No child of God ever gets beyond the need of instruction, exhortation and comfort in this life. The very fact that the fathers are so well acquainted with Christ should make them the more amenable and receptive to the apostle’s message. They had proved what a good master the Lord Jesus is to serve: how patiently He had borne with their dullness, how graciously He had pardoned their sins, how faithfully He had supplied their every need; and therefore they ought the more readily to attend unto the words of His servants. The proved goodness of Christ should engage them to lively gratitude, fervent love, and devoted obedience. They should be examples unto and the guides of their juniors. They must not abate in their zeal or entertain the idea that it was permissible to be less diligent and earnest than formerly, still less be puffed up with their attainments, but rather pray and strive to continue “increasing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:10). “I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one.” This second class comprised those who had emerged from their spiritual infancy, though they had not arrived at that maturity of growth the fathers had attained unto. What is here predicated of them has sorely puzzled not a few, yet if it be regarded in the light of the general analogy of faith, and more particularly with respect to John’s style of making abstract and absolute statements, it should present no serious obstacle. Whatever difficulty is here presented, let us be careful to avoid increasing the same by reading into it what is not there. The apostle did not say the young men had overcome the flesh. It is a most significant fact, and one which needs to be kept in mind, that while this epistle speaks of overcoming “the wicked one” and of overcoming “the world” (1 John 5:4) it makes no mention of believers overcoming their evil nature. They are indeed bidden to mortify their corruptions (Colossians 3:5), and in varying measures all the regenerate do so, for the grace of God effectually teaches its recipients to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world (Titus 2:12); but nowhere does Scripture affirm that any saint “overcame the flesh.” Thus, “ye have overcome the wicked one” is not to be understood absolutely and unqualifiedly, but relatively and within certain limits. These “young men” had successfully encountered the first temptations and trials which attended enlistment under the banner of Christ and their consequent separation from the world, so that Satan had been unable either to drag them down into his evil ways or to shut them up in the dungeon of despair. As they had continued following on to know the Lord, they had received many setbacks and been sorely wounded in their conflict with the powers of evil, yet Satan had been foiled in his efforts to induce them to give up the fight. That leads us to point out that the Lord’s people are far more aware of their defeats than they are of their frequent overcomings. Nor is the reason of that hard to discover. As we are naturally far more conscious of a painful illness than of our good health, so the Christian’s falls are more evident to him than are his victories—the more so since the latter be gained while his eyes are fixed on Christ rather than on himself. Satan never succeeds in prevailing finally or totally over any child of God. He is bent on the destruction of all the saints, but in no case can he accomplish his full desire—the intercession of Christ prevents him from so doing. In every instance those words of His hold good, “I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.” Nevertheless, that does not release us from the necessity of taking unto us the whole armour of God, or from the duty of unremitting watchfulness. Our very striving against the Devil is one degree of conquest. God does indeed postpone the full and ultimate victory, yet if we continue to resist the Devil we are not overcome by him. When he gains a temporary advantage over us, causing us to disgrace our profession and dishonour the name of Christ, he strives his utmost to drive us to abject despair, or to persuade us that we have committed the unpardonable sin; but if a sense of our failure drives us to our knees in humble and sincere confession to God, then we defeat his hellish designs. Poor Peter failed sadly in the high priest’s palace, and experienced an awful fall; nevertheless, when he went out and wept bitterly he overcame the wicked one. This overcoming of the wicked one by the saints—for the experience is by no means restricted unto the “young men” class—is in fulfillment of the terms of Genesis 3:15, for it is to be carefully observed that that remarkable prophecy is concerned not only with the serpent and the Saviour, but also with their respective seeds. The members of Christ have fellowship, in their measure, with the Head, both in His sufferings and in His victories. As it was not the serpent alone (though chiefly, and as the instigator of others) who bruised Christ’s heel, for both Jews and Gentiles were gathered together against Him (Acts 4:27), so it is not Christ alone (though He pre-eminently and His seed subordinately) who obtains conquest over the Devil. Thus the triumph of the Captain of our salvation over the arch-enemy of God and His people is twofold: personal and immediate, mediate and instrumental—in and by His soldiers, for He loves to have them share with Him in all things. Believers overcome the wicked one not only representatively in their Head, but personally through His strength, and therefore the glory is still His. In this respect also they are “predestinated to be conformed unto the image of God’s Son.” Far too little thought has been devoted to the terms of Genesis 3:15, in their application unto the children of God. While the Redeemer Himself be its prime subject, His redeemed are by no means to be excluded. They certainly have part in the conflict and are bruised in the heel by the serpent, and to them also extends the promise of bruising his head. This is confirmed by the fact that the “enmity” exists not only between Satan and Christ, but also between their respective seeds. This is according to the promise of “if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him” (2 Timothy 2:12). Their victory is set forth in the New Testament in very language drawn from Genesis 3:15. When the seventy, as representatives of all Christ’s ministers, said, “Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through Thy name,” He replied, “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you” (Luke 10:17-19). To the saints Paul wrote, “The God of peace shall bruise Satan [more completely] under your feet shortly” (Romans 16:20): it is indeed God who treads him down, but it is under their feet he is trodden. “I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father.” This accords with and is the fulfillment of the covenant promise: “all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest” (Hebrews 8:11). It is at this point that experiential Christianity begins: an apprehension of the Father’s love in Christ, the realization that He so loved them as to give His only begotten Son for them. It is their privilege, wisdom, comfort to know God as “Father.” It was His grace that chose them in Christ, His Spirit who was sent to seek them, His power that begat them. In natural life the very first thing which babes and little children discover is an acknowledgment—in their infantile way—of their parents, owning them by their names (“papa and mama”) in distinguishing them from others. And thus it is spiritually: the spirit of adoption is given them “whereby they cry, Father, Father” (Romans 8:15). The distinguishing act of babes in Christ is to own God as their Father, expressing in their way their attachment to Him, their delight in Him, their dependence upon Him, lisping out His name in their praises and petitions before the throne of grace. None can approach Him with any confidence or freedom until they know God in this relation—their Father, because the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. In 1 John 2:14 the apostle changes from his threefold “I write” of 1 John 2:13 and twice uses “I have written.” Why such repetition? For the purpose of emphasis: to make clear his warm affection for them, his deep concern for their spiritual welfare, and to emphasize the privilege and honour conferred upon them. At least six different explanations have been given of the change of tense, only two of which strike us as being feasible. The first is that John here contemplated his epistle from two different mental standpoints. Originally, his mind dwelt upon what he was engaged in penning (1 John 1:4); later, he contemplated his completed production (1 John 5:13). It was as though he said, I am telling you this and that; afterwards, remember what I told you. Second, that John was pondering a changed situation. He was then in the body, though very aged, and could not be here much longer. Soon his what “I wrote” would become what “I have written.” Considered thus, there is a pathos in it which is quite affecting: I write to you as a dying man; treasure what I wrote as my last charge to you. “I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known Him from the beginning” (1 John 2:14). They knew Him so as to approve of Him, trust in Him, and make Him their All in all. Theirs was not a bare theoretical and historical knowledge, but a spiritual and saving one, an experiential and heart-affecting knowledge, which receives the Truth not only in the light of it, but in the love of it (2 Thessalonians 2:10). Their knowledge is more deeply rooted (Colossians 1:23) than is that of the babes or young men. It is more influential (Php 1:9): their love is more stable (Ephesians 3:18): they are more settled in the Truth against error (Ephesians 4:14). They are more prudent, having learned to moderate their affections and activities within the bounds of sobriety (Titus 2:2). Nevertheless, despite their maturity of knowledge and experience, they require to be written unto, needing the same counsels, admonitions and encouragements as did their juniors. As one quaintly said, “The oldest Christian needs to go to heaven with the Bible in his hand.” They are not yet out of the reach of temptations, and need to beware lest a sense of security begets carelessness. Their responsibility is greater too: to see that the purity of the Gospel is preserved and discipline in the churches maintained. “I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one” (1 John 2:14). In making that statement the apostle was certainly far from seeking to flatter them, for he did not say “ye have made yourselves strong.” No, he was simply making a sober statement of fact. In so doing he first gave honour unto the Holy Spirit, for their state and achievements were the results of His operations in them. Second, he was giving expression unto his own personal joy: it was a matter of delight to him that they had, by the grace of God, emerged from a state of infantile weakness, and had reached this state of health and vigour. Third, it was said by way of encouragement to them. If on the other hand it be our duty to rebuke and reprove what is evil in fellow Christians, it equally becomes us to recognize and own whatever good is in them. A word of cheer and stimulus is often a real help. If there be a time to “break down,” there is also a time to “build up” (Ecclesiastes 3:3). Paul did not hesitate to tell the Thessalonians “your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth” (2 Thessalonians 1:3). But what are we to understand by “ye are strong”? Relatively. Through using the means of grace, by increased spiritual knowledge, by appropriating the strength which is in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 2:1), through exercising the graces of the new man, by improving (profiting from) the varied experiences through which they had passed, and by the assisting operations of the Spirit, they had developed from babes into a higher spiritual stature and were better able to use their spiritual muscles. It is written, “They that wait upon the Lord [which refers not so much to an act, but is descriptive of an attitude taken by all the regenerate who are in a healthy condition] shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31). It is indeed true that the believer’s strength, like his righteousness, is in the Lord, yet as there is an imparted righteousness (1 John 2:29), so also a communicated strength. David acknowledged, Thou “strengthenedst me with strength in my soul” (Psalms 138:3), so that he was no longer feeble in himself. There is such a thing as outgrowing spiritual babyhood and weakness, though not continued dependence upon the Lord. There is such an experience as going on “from strength to strength” (Psalms 84:7) and being able to do all things through Christ strengthening us (Php 4:13). But as increasing holiness is accompanied by increased realization of our filthiness, so increased strength makes us more conscious of our weakness. “And the word of God abideth in you.” Though we would not exclude a reference here to the personal Word Himself (John 1:1; Revelation 19:13), yet we consider that it was the written Word which John had primarily in view. It was by Christ living in them, putting forth His life and light in their souls, that they were strengthened. Nevertheless, it is by means of the written Word, by faith and meditation thereon as it abides in our renewed minds and hearts, that Christ lives and dwells in us. Hence that designation of the Scriptures when Paul exhorted the Colossians, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom” (Colossians 3:16). The two cannot be separated: it is by the written Word that Christ indwells the believer, as it is Christ who teaches how to use the Word. Thus this second clause is first of all explanatory of the preceding one, making known to us the principal means and source of the strength of these young men; as it also serves to define the nature of their strength, as inherent, something within themselves. It is by means of the pure milk of the Word that the babe in Christ grows (1 Peter 2:2). It is by that Word—through faith’s exercise, and meditating thereon, and the Spirit’s blessing—that the believer is quickened (Psalms 119:25, Psalms 119:28, etc.). And it is by that Word abiding in him that he becomes strong, that the faculties or graces of the new man are developed and energized. “And the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.” Thus the second clause is linked with both the former and the final ones, casting light upon each. It was by means of the Word of God dwelling in them that they were strengthened, and equally so was it the means of their overcoming the wicked one. The question “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?” receives answer “by taking heed thereto according to Thy word” (Psalms 119:9). So, too, David declared, “By the words of Thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer” (Psalms 17:4)—so blessedly exemplified by his greater Son in His conflict with the Devil (Matthew 4:1-25). The Word of God is expressly designated “the sword of the Spirit,” for it is the one offensive weapon given us to be used against the enemy (Ephesians 6:16-17). “And the word of God abideth in you” may also be regarded as being itself the grand proof that they had “overcome the wicked one,” for he had not been able to take away the good Seed sown in their hearts—as in the case of the wayside hearer (Mark 4:15; John 5:38), nor had he succeeded in inducing them to sell the Truth. In view of what follows in 1 John 2:18-26, we consider that the principal meaning of “ye have overcome the wicked one” in 1 John 2:14 is that they had withstood his attempts to poison their minds with fatal error. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 28: 001.24. CHAPTER 24 ======================================================================== Chapter 24 THE WORLD PROHIBITED 1 John 2:15 “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” The connection between our present verse and the foregoing ones may not be apparent at once, but a little reflection will make it evident that it is linked more or less closely to all that precedes. As we have previously pointed out, the contents of 1 John 2:12-14 were designed to pave the way for what follows. John would duly impress his readers with what the riches of grace had made them in themselves, and this in order to prepare them to respond cheerfully to the prohibition of 1 John 2:15. In view of what they now were in relation unto God in Christ, they should the more readily and heartily detest that which is directly opposed to Him. As we have repeatedly observed in those sections of the epistle already traversed, John is fond of presenting the Truth under the form of sharply defined antitheses. It is so again here. Having described the several members of God’s family, he sets over against them the world. They are solemnly reminded that they have to live their lives in an evil and hostile environment, and therefore are they warned against its menace, and instructed how to carry themselves toward it. At the beginning of our chapter the apostle had announced, “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not;” and to enforce that injunction he had stated the broad and basic principles by which the characters of believers are to be formed and their conduct regulated. They must fix their eyes upon the One who is their Advocate with the Father, keep God’s commandments, and walk even as Christ walked (1 John 2:1-6). Then he had descended from the general to the particular: calling upon them to exercise love unto their brethren (1 John 2:7-11). Next, he had expressed some strong assurances (1 John 2:12-14)—addressed to the different grades of Christians to whom he was writing—which were designed as motives and incentives unto a compliance with the exhortations to which he now returns. Following the command to love the brethren is the dehortation “Love not the world.” It gives additional point and weight unto these precepts if we bear in mind that they are not only rules for the direction of conduct, but also tests by which we are required to examine and measure ourselves, for proof that we personally possess a saving knowledge of the Truth. As the apostle proceeded to develop his subject and pursue the several designs which he had before him when writing this epistle, the different tests which are presented become increasingly searching, and the line of demarcation between a valid and an invalid Christian profession is drawn more sharply. On the other hand, the characteristics and walk of the regenerate are so delineated and their portion and privileges so described, that their comfort and assurance should be proportionately deepened. Thus it is both a needful and a salutary thing for every one of us carefully and honestly to try himself by each of these admonitions and precepts. As J. Morgan pointed out, “Without conformity to them we are not entitled to conclude that ‘we know’ Christ or that we are ‘in Him’ by faith. As, therefore, we would have our evidences clear of a saving interest in Him, and would enjoy the assurance of a living faith, we must cultivate a close conformity to the manner of life enjoined by the apostle.” It is with such considerations before us that we should prayerfully ponder the interdiction of our present text, and, instead of viewing it abstractedly, suffer ourselves to be searched by it. There is also an undoubted link between 1 John 2:15-17 and that which was before us in 1 John 2:9-11. There John had contrasted those who walk in darkness and those who abide in the light, and, as Haupt strikingly pointed out, “Here again (1 John 2:15) is the ‘darkness,’ though in its concrete form, where its kingdom is to be found.” It is not sufficiently recognized that the world is the domain where darkness works and holds sway. Nor is it sufficiently realized that, morally, darkness is not an objective thing only, but a subjective one too, an operative force within man; yet Scripture speaks expressly of “the power of darkness” (Luke 22:53, Colossians 1:13) and “the rulers of the darkness of this world” (Ephesians 6:12). Darkness is as truly the animating principle in the unregenerate as light is in the saints. All that is outside of God in Christ is under the dominion of sin and Satan, which is but another way of saying that it is the realm of darkness. That is the fundamental reason why the world is not to be loved by us: it is the very antipodes from Him who is light, as is made very plain in the verses which follow, where its hideous features are depicted. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” This verse contains one of the innumerable proofs of the Divine authorship of the Bible, for its teaching concerning the world is at direct variance with the beliefs and sentiments of humanity. If on the one hand that which is of great price in the sight of God (1 Peter 3:4) is despised by the world, on the other hand that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God (Luke 16:15). Now if there be anything which is highly esteemed by man it is the world. He thinks highly of it, and speaks loudly in its praise, for he regards it as his world. Since it be that which his labours have produced, man views the world with pride and satisfaction, boasts of its progress, and is assured that it will yet develop into a real Utopia. Certain it is then that none of mankind ever invented such a statement as “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (James 4:4). Equally evident is it that our text never originated with the human mind. The Bible uniformly condemns the world. Again and again Christ and His apostles indicted and warned the saints against it. When the Son of God became incarnate and tabernacled among men, “the world knew Him not” (John 1:10); yea, He declared, “Me it hateth” (John 7:7). He insisted that the whole world was of less value than a man’s soul (Matthew 16:26). He intimated that its cares and the deceitfulness of riches were the thorns which choked the Word and made its hearer unfruitful (Matthew 13:22). He solemnly said, “Woe unto the world because of offences” (Matthew 18:7). He announced that Satan was its prince (John 14:30). In reference to the Holy Spirit He stated, “whom the world cannot receive” (John 14:17). He averred, “I pray not for the world” (John 17:9). He “gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world” (Galatians 1:4), and therefore are His people forbidden to be conformed to it (Romans 12:2). The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God (1 Corinthians 3:19). “Ungodliness and worldly lusts” are linked together (Titus 2:12). 2 Peter 2:20 mentions “the pollutions of the world,” while 1 John 5:19 informs us that “the whole world lieth in wickedness.” Such declarations as these are radically opposed to all the beliefs and philosophies of men. The above passages greatly need pressing today upon all professing Christians: “all,” we say, genuine saints not excepted. A careful pondering of the same makes it very manifest that this dehortation “love not the world” is no incidental or secondary one, but rather one which is fundamental unto vital godliness. It is therefore a matter of great practical importance that we obtain a right understanding and definition of the world, the “things that are in it,” and especially of what is meant by loving the same; otherwise, how can we rightly keep this precept? There are some conscientious souls who are very apt to distress themselves needlessly through incorrectly interpreting the same, supposing that to have their thoughts engaged with secular things while performing their daily duties is a species of worldliness, and a contravention of this injunction. But that is not so: God requires every able-bodied person to be engaged in some useful occupation: “work with your own hands” (1 Thessalonians 4:11), and “if any would not work, neither should he eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10). Honest industry is incumbent upon all, and if our calling be a lawful one, then we should apply our minds to the same: “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might” (Ecclesiastes 9:10). “Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds” (Proverbs 27:23). If there be an eye single to God’s glory and a conscientious performance of duty, He is as truly honoured and pleased by the farmer as by the preacher, the labourer as his employer. Indolence or inattention to practical matters is very far from being an evidence of spirituality: “Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit, serving the Lord” therein (Romans 12:11) is one of the marks of a true disciple. It is not sinful to trade, to be industrious in the same, and to acquire money; yet constant watchfulness is necessary lest we be captivated and ensnared: “if riches increase, set not your heart upon them” (Psalms 62:10). Many a prosperous merchant has been a man of deep piety, and his wealth a power for good. Nor is it wrong for a Christian man to lay up in store for his family, agreeably to the bounty of the Lord toward him (2 Corinthians 12:14; 1 Timothy 5:8). No. Scripture does not require the saints to renounce the duties of relative life, or to become careless in the discharge of them. The proper evidence of being a Christian is not merely to talk about Divine things, but (by grace) to walk according to the rules of God’s Word in whatever position Providence has placed him: whether as a master or servant, husband or wife, parent or child, bearing rule or yielding obedience as unto the Lord. Diligence and fidelity in the management of temporal affairs are to be maintained, yet without a sinful conformity to the world. It is indeed necessary that the believer should ever bear in mind that “the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for Himself” (Psalms 4:3), and that as a stranger and pilgrim in this scene he must abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul (1 Peter 2:11). Yet that is far from signifying that he is to make himself conspicuous as an oddity. There is a happy medium between a sinful compliance with the world, being a slave to its opinions and an imitator of its fashions, and a scrupulous singularity which repudiates the spirit and liberty of the Gospel, and which is in reality nothing but a spirit of self-righteousness. “Love not the world.” In this and all similar passages the “world” is both a society and a system. The members of it are described as “men of the world, which have their portion in this life” (Psalms 17:14). Their chief good consists of the things of time and sense: their consuming desire is to crowd as much as possible of earthly joy into the present. Of each of its prosperous citizens it is said, “Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength; but trusted in the abundance of his riches” (Psalms 52:7). As a system, it is under the dominion of Satan: he is its “prince,” regulating its policy and politics; its “god” (2 Corinthians 4:4), directing its religions. It is therefore the embodiment of his spirit, bearing his image and wearing his livery. Thus it is said of the unregenerate that they walk “according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2). As Christ declared to some of its most respected devotees, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will [desire and are determined to] do” (John 8:44); they listen willingly to his solicitations and readily credit his lies. Considered morally, rather than materially, the world is synonymous with the kingdom of Satan (Matthew 12:26) or the unregenerate part of mankind, together with the things on which they set their hearts: all that is outside “the kingdom of God”—where His authority is owned. “It is the reign or kingdom of ‘the carnal mind’ which is ‘enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.’ Wherever that mind prevails, there is the world” (A. Candlish). It is fallen human nature acting out itself under the influence of the Devil, fashioning the framework of society after its own tendencies. Its very spirit is hostile to godliness, for it is dominated by carnal ambition, pride, avarice, self-pleasing, and sensuous desires and interests. Its opinions are false, its aims selfish, its pleasures sinful, its influence thoroughly demoralizing. The maxims which govern it, the springs which operate it, the ends which it seeks, are earthly, sensual, devilish. Its politics are corrupt, its honours empty baubles, its smiles fickle. Even to its own votaries it is a thing of bitter disappointments, for it is full of illusions and fierce rivalries. Now since the world is the sphere of rebellion against God, His people are commanded not to love it. They are not to esteem it as their portion or treasure. They are forbidden to set their affections upon it. Love is the supreme affection in whatever heart it dwells. It is jealous and will brook no rival. Its very nature is to make everything else subordinate to the object on which it is set, whether that object be God, a human creature, riches or pleasure. To love the world is to give it the first place in our hearts, to idolize it, to make everything else subordinate to the acquisition and enjoyment of it, to despise whatever comes into competition with it. Where the world be loved, it possesses and governs the soul, overcoming the scruples of conscience and the principles of integrity, for its influence is subtle and insidious, powerful and perilous. It dominates many who do not suspect it. To love the world is to make its vanities the chief objects of our pursuit, to share its friendships, to court its smiles, to conform to its ways, and to find our happiness in what it yields. Since the world is openly antagonistic to God, for any of His people to love it is to exercise a spirit of hostility to Him—it is to act a traitor’s part, to hold converse with the enemy’s camp. Even the habitable earth in which we reside must not be cherished by the Christian as though it were his eternal dwelling place: for “this is not your rest, because it is polluted” (Micah 2:10). As Henry remarked, “It was never intended to be so: it was designed for our passage, but not for our portion; our inn, but not our home… let us therefore sit loose to it, live above it, and think of leaving it.” All the time we spend here is but a night in comparison with eternity. Even the patriarchs were not satisfied with Canaan, though, it flowed with milk and honey; instead, they “confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth,” and desired a better country, that is a heavenly, “wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He hath prepared for them a city” (Hebrews 11:13, Hebrews 11:16). A loathness to leave this earth indicates that our affections cleave too much unto it. To be content with such a sinful scene as this is sure proof that any individual is in a sad state of heart. It is because of their proneness to cleave to it that God so often embitters this world unto them. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.” In the second clause the apostle descends from the general to the particular. One may renounce the world as a whole, and yet the heart still clings to some of its parts. Even an unregenerate religionist may separate himself from the grosser aspects of the world, refusing to have fellowship with the giddy and frivolous, scorn its carnal attractions, and yet remain a thorough worldling at heart. He may have no sympathy with its tone and spirit, and yet certain objects in it possess great attraction for and have power over him. It is all the same in essence whether I love the world collectively or any of the single things which comprise it. It is not sufficient that I eschew the ways of the world, I must also detach my affections from everything which seeks to claim them. I must not delight in anything which would cause me to lessen my esteem of Christ and heavenly things. I am not to value any object if it hinders the performance of my duties Godward, dulls my relish for His Word, or chills the spirit of praise and prayer. I am to prefer nothing to spiritual things. I may use many of the things that are in the world, but I must not abuse them, trust in them, or place my happiness in them. Manton most helpfully pointed out: “God doth not require that we should love nothing, think of nothing, but Himself: the state of this life will not permit that. But God must have all the heart so far (1) that nothing be loved against God—a prohibited object is forbidden: sin must not be loved. (2) Nothing above God with a superior love: ‘he that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me’ (Matthew 10:37). (3) Not equal with God, for then our love is but a partial and half love, divided between God and the creature. God above all, and our neighbour as ourselves. God can endure no rival. Love to man is but the second commandment, and must give way to the first. (4) Nothing apart from God, but as subservient to Him: God in the creature, Christ in His members: myself, wife, children, natural comforts in God and from God.” The Christian’s love is to be reserved for God, and not thrown away upon anything which is averse to Him, and therefore whatever present and sensible things exert a malignant influence upon the mind, as opposed to the influence and effect which spiritual and future things should have upon us, are to be shunned. As “love not the world” is not an order forbidding the believer to have any intercourse with the society of the world or to engage in commerce therein, so love not the things that are in the world is not a prohibition against his making a moderate use of the comforts and conveniences of this life, agreeable to the station to which the Lord has appointed him here. Christians are not required to cut themselves off from all contact with their fellow men and retire into a monastery or convent; nor are they directed to abstain from pleasant food or the wearing of clothes which become their station; still less is it wrong for them to admire the wonders and beauties of God’s handiwork in the material creation. While he is bidden to be temperate in all things, yet it is no virtue for a saint to adopt the austerities of the Spartans or to practice the bodily mortifications of the Brahmins. There is a “strictness” which arises from ignorance rather than knowledge, and a self-denial which is the fruit of fanaticism rather than spirituality. To be wholly concerned about externals is to gratify the spirit of self-righteousness, for it is possible to starve the body while feeding pride. “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” It comes to the same thing whether the love of the Father refers to His being shed abroad in the heart, or ours to Him, for the one cannot be without the other. If my prevailing desires be for the things which are in the world, if I conform to its carnal manners, comply with its sinful demands, and would do anything rather than antagonize it, then obviously I am an unregenerate person. If my affections be set upon the world which hounded His Son to death, and which hates His people in proportion as they see His image in them, how can the love of the Father dwell in me? It is impossible: the world, which lieth in the wicked, and the Father are irreconcilable, for they are diametrically opposed. Since they be thoroughly incompatible, love for the world and love to God cannot dwell together in the same heart. That was plainly taught by Christ: “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other” (Matthew 6:24). Both cannot rule the soul, for their governments and commands are contrary: their spirit and their course are diverse. Each person has to choose which of the two claimants for his heart shall be served and loved. Each Christian is required resolutely to resist the world in every respect in which it draws him away from God, and refuse to comply with it at the cost of disobeying Him. Here are some tests by which the reader should examine himself to determine whether he loves the world or the Father. Which do you seek with the more fervour: the wealth and honours of the world, or the riches of grace and the approbation of God? Which have the greater attraction: the pleasures of the world, which are but for a season, or those pleasures at God’s right hand, which are for evermore? Wherein lies your confidence: in the money you have “laid up for a rainy day,” or in the living and faithful God, who has promised to supply all the need of His people? Which occasions the deeper sorrow: a temporal loss, or the severance of fellowship with God? Which are you spending more money upon: personal comforts and luxuries, or the circulation of God’s Word and the spread of His Gospel? What most dominates your mind: thoughts and schemes after worldly advancements, or resolutions and efforts to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord? Do your “good intentions” materialize, or are they empty dreams? ======================================================================== CHAPTER 29: 001.25. CHAPTER 25 ======================================================================== Chapter 25 THE WORLD DESCRIBED 1 John 2:16 “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” The Divine precepts ought to be as highly esteemed by us as God’s promises; and if they be not, something is seriously wrong with our hearts. They are as much an integral part of God’s Word, are accorded a place of quite as much prominence, are revealed by the same Spirit, and rest upon the same foundation. They proceed from the self-same love, and are designed equally for our good. When God gave His commandments unto Israel, it was that, by their obedience, “it might be well with them, and with their children” (Deuteronomy 5:29). The preceptive part of the Gospel is designed to be our director in the path of filial obedience, the rule of our duty, and the standard at which our love is ever to aim. If it be true that God is glorified by our faith as we trust Him to fulfill His pledges, it is none the less a fact that He is honoured by our submission as we cheerfully keep His statutes. And if it be true that our hearts are strengthened and our lives enriched by laying hold of and feeding upon God’s promises, it is equally the case that we are greatly the gainers by cherishing and heeding His precepts. “His statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good” (Deuteronomy 10:13). Walking according to God’s Law is the only way to true happiness (Psalms 119:1). What has just been pointed out receives illustration in connection with our observing the precept of 1 John 2:15. It is both our wisdom and our welfare to comply with the prohibition, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world,” for, as a whole and in all its parts, it is the deadly enemy of God’s children. One of the distinctive properties of the Bible is that all its precepts are directed unto our affections. They are not intended to fashion the mere external, but are meant to mould the inner man. Satan is well aware of that, and therefore he is ever seeking to turn our affections away from God and wed them to the world. The very fact that we are enjoined, “Love not the world” intimates that its supreme assaults are upon the heart. It is only by heeding this commandment that we shall be delivered from the world’s fatal snares. It is therefore a matter of the deepest practical moment that we walk in separation from this deadly menace to spirituality, for in proportion as we fail to do so will there be a forfeiting of God’s smile and the loss of peace of conscience. Any measure of love of the world will stunt our growth, deprive us of joy in the Holy Spirit, undermine our assurance, and bring down upon us the chastening rod of God. That is God’s design in regeneration: “I will put My spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes” (Ezekiel 36:27). But though the Christian has renounced the world, with its God-defying and self-pleasing ways, yet for the enjoyment of communion with God in Christ, and to avoid the grieving of His Spirit, he needs to be continually on his guard that the world does not again possess his heart, for not only is it all around him, but its dominating principle (the “flesh”) is still within him—a deputy to do its evil work. By nature we were wedded to the world, thoroughly entangled in its vanities, and naught but love to God and heavenly things delivers the heart from its thraldom. It is indeed a most humbling thing that believers should be told to “love not the world,” yet they require that injunction, and ought to turn the same into earnest prayer, daily seeking grace that they may be Divinely enabled to decline its temptations and to mortify their desires after its carnal attractions, remembering that by the cross of Christ the world is (legally) crucified unto them and they unto the world (Galatians 6:14). If we diligently endeavour to cultivate a spirit of contentment with the temporal portion which God has given us, however small a one it be, then we shall be delivered from lusting after the husks which the swine feed on. It is altogether unreasonable for any man to look for satisfaction in anything which this world has to offer him, for how can material and transient things meet the needs of a soul that has been made for eternity? No real, still less any lasting, good is to be found in this world. Abundant proof of that is supplied by the book of Ecclesiastes. There we have placed upon imperishable record the experiences of one who was permitted to gratify every lust of the flesh. The resources at his command were practically limitless. He was a king, and not a poor one, but possessed of abundant means, so that he was able to procure everything that money could purchase. He surrounded himself with every conceivable luxury, form of pleasure, and object of beauty. His palace was filled unstintingly with everything the senses could crave. And what was the outcome? Was he able to say, “All is very good, I can now rest in the enjoyment of what I have acquired”? Very far from it. After he had taken his fill of all its pleasures, drunk deeply from all this world’s streams, he declared that “all is vanity and vexation of spirit.” And, my reader, if Solomon could find no satisfaction in all his worldly possessions and pursuits, none who comes after him will ever do so. Since God’s commandments be designed for our good, a careless neglect of them cannot but be harmful. In proportion as we imbibe the spirit of the world, our breathings after God are stifled and the soul becomes dull in holy duties. As one cannot handle pitch without soiling oneself, neither can a believer take a deep interest in the politics of the world without suffering loss spiritually. Conversely, the more we delight ourselves in the Lord, the less relish shall we have for the things on which the unregenerate set their hearts. The two things work in inverse ratio: love to God weans the soul from love to the world. Now the outstanding evidence of love is obedience: a fixed resolve to please Christ in all things. As He declared, “If a man love Me, he will keep My words” (John 14:23). Then how fervently should we pray for more love to Him (Ephesians 3:17-18; Php 1:9). How we should meditate daily upon His manifold perfections and feast on His excellency. How diligently we should cultivate a closer and more constant communion with Him. How we should keep short accounts with God, and make a practice of promptly confessing every known sin. How we should discipline ourselves and love the creature in subordination to Him. “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:16). As the opening “For” indicates, that is said by way of explanation and amplification of the previous verse, which is an instance of the gracious condescension of our God. We ought ever to give a ready and cheerful obedience to the Divine precepts on the bare authority of their Author, without His advancing any reasons for them, and whether or not we can perceive the wisdom and benevolence of the same. Sufficient for us to act on the merely revealed will of the Most High. It is not for us to ask the why or the wherefore, but to comply with His demands without demur or delay. But sometimes it pleases the Lord to elucidate, as He expounded His parables unto the apostles. Such is the case here: in support of the prohibition of His “love not the world,” He adds that all that pertains to it is evil, corrupt, and therefore to set our affections upon it is quite incompatible with devotion to God; equally so does love for such a world make clear demonstration that the love of the Father is not in such a person. Here are the contents and sum of the world: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. It is clear that the apostle is not referring to the natural world, which is full of the glorious handiwork of its Creator; but to the corrupt world of sense and sin, all in it which is esteemed by its carnal citizens, which shapes their thoughts, moves their affections, directs and consumes their energies. Those evil propensities and principles are said to be “in the world,” yet it is evident that they are principally in the subject rather than in the object. They are said to be “in the world” because the world gets into the heart, incorporates itself in the affections, and occupies its throne. As faith and God’s promises should be “mixed” (Hebrews 4:2), so temptations twine themselves around men’s lusts. Thus we do not have to go very far in order to frame a Scriptural definition of what constitutes the corrupt “world:” it is not something outside us, but within ourselves. It is not that which our natural hand can touch or our natural eye see, but that which fallen man carries in his own bosom. The world is simply the aggregate of all the hearts of unregenerate men that now dwell upon the earth. The external world only carries into practice the principles acting in its subjects, putting into operation the sin which is ever working in them. The things that are both in and of the world are divided into three classes, according to the three dominant inclinations of depraved human nature. “The lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” are the three harpies of man’s polluted soul to which the things of the world minister. Those are the prolific wombs from which issue all our sinful acts: the roots which convey life and sap unto that which appears openly above the ground; the branches on which grow all the evil fruits which abound in human life. Those are the “strongholds” of Satan which command all about them. They are the mighty conquerors of all mankind. It was so at the beginning, for it was through those avenues that the serpent attacked and overcame Eve. The inspired account is very brief, but its language corresponds exactly to what is here before us. First, we are told that “the woman saw that the tree was good for food:” there was “the lust of the flesh” at work. Second, “and that it was pleasant to the eyes:” there was “the lust of the eyes” operating. Third, “and a tree to be desired to make one wise;” there was “the pride of life” active, and yielding to the same, she disobeyed her Maker and took of the fruit. Let us now take a separate look at each of these evil propensities: “evil” we say, for sin has so vitiated the whole of man’s being that though the objects that God has provided for his needs be wholesome, yet the affection with which men crave them is impure. When the term “flesh” is employed in the Scriptures with a moral force, it is commonly used in the larger sense, as taking the whole of that corrupt nature which we inherited from Adam and bring with us into this world. So in its wider signification “the lusts of the flesh” is an expression which usually takes in all the works of our corrupt nature, whether in the understanding, by vain imaginations and evil thoughts; in the affections, by inordinate longing or unlawful inclinations; or in the will, by perversity and stubbornness. But here, since they are distinguished from the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, the “lusts of the flesh” are to be taken more strictly and narrowly for the sensual appetite: the immoderate craving for soft and sumptuous living, the intemperate use of pleasures, meats and drinks, all such things as gratify the body. While it be true that in the catalogue given in Galatians 5:19-21, the horrible products of the flesh are headed by different forms of immorality, yet they are by no means confined thereto. The lusts of the flesh, then, include the giving way to any form of intemperance, as well as uncleanness: the craving for and responding to any of the things which excite the irregularities and inordinate hankerings of the animal appetites, as in the case of Esau, who made a god of his belly. They comprehend every form of pampering the body, whether it be a feeding of it more than is required for its natural sustenance, or spending more time in sleep than is necessary. When God created man, He endowed him with an appetite for food, for marriage, for the beauties of Eden; but sin perverts those appetites and carries them to excess, so that their gratification becomes, only too often, gluttony, uncleanness, covetousness. Everything that pleases either the body or the mind, and gives us pleasure distinct from God Himself, may be included therein. Though men differ considerably in their constitutions, interests, pursuits, habits, and objects of desire, yet from first to last it all comes to the same thing; it is not of the Spirit or of grace; whatever be craved, whether something gross or refined, it is for the pleasing of carnal self. We have had but two common fathers, Adam and Noah, and both fell by indulging their fleshly appetites: Adam by eating, Noah by drinking. “And the lust of the eyes;” that is the second main avenue by which the world gains entrance into the heart. We contract far more sin through our visive organs than any of us are aware of, for they are the inlets to the mind, setting objects before the fancy which leave an impression and taint which are very difficult to get rid of. It is not so much the object beheld as the pleasure felt in seeing it, and the longing to possess the same. This then is the spring of wantonness, covetousness and avarice. But as from the lust of the flesh proceed not only the gluttony, drunkenness and immorality which the baser and more brutish part of mankind is taken up with, but also the inordinate love of pleasure, vain company and carnal delights with which the more refined are so often bewitched, so the lust of the eyes is not to be restricted to an evil gazing upon unlawful objects, but from it spring all forms of earthly-mindedness, and immoderate yearnings for the acquisition of a thousand things, such as costly apparel, jewels, elaborate home furnishings, sight-seeing, etc. In the mental realm, it creates a curiosity to pry into the unseen and tamper with things which pertain to the darkness rather than to the light. Scripture abounds in solemn examples of those who fell into grievous and fatal sins through indulging the lusts of the eyes: Lot’s wife (Genesis 19:26), Shechem (Genesis 34:2), Potiphar’s wife (Genesis 39:7), Achan (Joshua 7:21), Samson (Judges 16:1), David (2 Samuel 11:2). Like children, we can scarcely see a pleasant object without wanting to possess it: Ahab, not content with his palace gardens, fell sick for Naboth’s vineyard (1 Kings 21:4). What need is there, then, for us to pray, “Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken Thou me in Thy way” (Psalms 119:37). That is a request for restraining grace, that we may be enabled to look away from whatever entices us to evil. It is by our optics being fastened upon the world’s attractions that the heart is infected with the love of them, and thereby alienated from Divine things. But prayer is not sufficient: there must also be a walking circumspectly and cautiously. If we pray “lead us not into temptation,” we are also required to watch that we do not enter into it (Matthew 26:41). The more we are engaged with the beauties of the Lord of glory, the more will our hearts be delivered from the glittering toys of the world, and the less envy shall we have when beholding “the prosperity of the wicked” (Psalms 73:3). “And the pride of life,” which is the last of the evil triad. The word for “life” here is not ‘zoe’ which expresses essential being, but “bios,” which has to do more with the eternal life of man as pertaining to the natural world. The pride of life consists of vying with and outvying one another; in every possible way. It gives rise to a conceit of ourselves and a contempt of our neighbours, producing a spirit of self-superiority and arrogance. It grasps after power, seeks the chief places in the world, coveting positions of elevation, authority and influence, so that one may have dominion over his fellows. It may assume the extreme form of the tyrannical dictator, but it is just as truly active in the woman who aspires to be the mistress of a few servants. It thirsts after admiration, adulation and applause. It strives after the honours and dignities of the world, craves a position in society which will convey prestige and repute. It therefore seeks a variety of situations and circumstances which have in them an appearance of happiness and satisfaction in self-advancement. It loves pomp and parade, is fond of flattering titles and a glittering show. It covets a name or renown, eagerly pursues popularity, so that one may be distinguished above others. This “pride of life” expresses itself in many ways. It evidences itself in an ostentatious display, like the strutting of a peacock, so that there may be an outshining of our neighbours. It induces many to attempt the keeping up of an appearance which they can ill afford. It leads to much hypocrisy, a pretending to be and have what is possessed not: seen in facial make-up, the wearing of imitation jewelry, etc. It causes people to become the slaves of fashion and to be in bondage to the foolish conventions of the world, as, for example, extravagant and expensive funerals far beyond their means. Nor is this affectation of repute, lust for power and love of ostentation by any means confined unto those who have the largest incomes and most opportunity for gratifying themselves. It works just as powerfully in the poor and humble as it does in the rich and exalted. The peasant may be loud in his condemnation of the greed of the capitalist and denounce his prodigalities, but place him in the same position of affluence and influence, and often he proves to be worse than those whom he formerly censured: it is only the force of his present circumstances which prevents him from making the show he would like to. The “pride of life” includes much more than either the lust of the flesh or the lust of the eyes. They are restricted either by their end—the satisfying of our carnal desires, particularly those of the body—or by their instruments—the gratifying of the senses. But pride is not thus restricted. Man is ever prone to be puffed up by conceit of his own excellence: his strength, beauty, wisdom, talents, graces, achievements. It is, then, accurately designed, for it spreads through all the enjoyments and comforts of life: the entire span of our mortal existence, from the cradle to the grave, being its sphere. As Manton remarked, “He ascribes a universal and unlimited influence, and calls it ‘the pride of life’ because it taints every action, it serves itself of every enjoyment, it mingles with other lusts. Other vices destroy only their contraries: covetousness destroys liberality, drunkenness sobriety; but pride destroys them all. There is nothing so low but it yields fuel to pride: the hair, which is but an excrement, is often hung as a bush and ensign of vanity. And there is nothing so high and sacred but pride can abase it; like mistletoe, it grows on any tree, but most upon the best.” It will therefore be evident that these springs of evil are set forth in a climactic order: sensuality, covetousness, pride. Little as the majority may suppose, the last one is more heinous than the others. Sensuality is the corruption of the lower part of man’s being, an unlawful gratifying of his bodily appetites; but pride is the corruption of the higher part of his nature—the lifting up of his understanding and spirit. By sensuality man sinks to the level of the beasts, but by pride he rears up against God, and enters into fellowship with the Devil, for “being lifted up with pride” was his condemnation (1 Timothy 3:6; and cf. Isaiah 14:12-14). It was bad enough for the conceited king of Babylon to exclaim, “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built?” (Daniel 4:30) but it was far worse when the haughty monarch of Egypt asked, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go?” (Exodus 5:2). Thus does this abominable pride inflate puny creatures of the dust and cause them to exalt themselves against the Most High. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 30: 001.26. CHAPTER 26 ======================================================================== Chapter 26 THE WORLD DOOMED 1 John 2:17 “Love not the world” (1 John 2:15): either its policies or its pleasures, its maxims or its methods, its trends or its ends. Refuse all intimacy with its subjects. That prohibition is enforced, first, by the solemn consideration, “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” The great Searcher of hearts cannot be deceived: if I am living for the enjoyment of the world and seeking to win its favour, then I am waging warfare against heaven, bidding open defiance to the Lord of hosts (James 4:4). Anyone who makes the world his portion or supreme good is dead in sin. It is impossible to keep God’s commandments and to be on good terms with His open enemies. “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” This is the second reason why we are not to love the world: because the principles which operate therein, and the food which it provides for them to feed upon, are essentially evil. We are forbidden to set our affection upon things which gratify the carnal nature, which pander to a disordered imagination, and which minister unto pride. The world supplies an elaborate menu for its subjects. There are stalls and shows in Vanity Fair designed by its prince to appeal unto all tastes and temperaments. It should be pointed out that those three propensities of fallen human nature have had a corporate embodiment in that monstrous system which God has suffered for so long to devour both the souls and bodies of millions of mankind. We refer to “the mother of harlots,” which for the last thousand years has had the effrontery to term herself “The Holy Catholic Church” and “The Bride of Christ.” If there has been any religious organization outstandingly characterized by these three evils, it is undoubtedly the Papacy. What but “the lust of the flesh,” in its grossest form, has marked her gluttonous prelates, the “indulgences” which they sell to their poor dupes, and the moral filth which has obtained in her convents and monasteries—as converted nuns and monks have frequently testified? What are her imposing cathedrals, her elaborate ritual, her gorgeous vestments and her spectacular processions but so many alluring appeals to the “lust of the eyes”? And what are the flattering titles assumed by her dignitaries, the Pope’s usurpation of the alone prerogatives of Christ, and his claim to rule over kings, but clear evidences of “the pride of life”? And the more worldly other allegedly “Christian” denominations become, and the closer they draw to Rome, the more conspicuous are the same elements and features in them. In glorious contrast with what has been before us above, let the child of God ponder and feast upon the blessed ways of Immanuel, and bow in admiration and adoration before Him who differed as much from them as does the light from darkness. When about to descend to this earth, He “made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant” (Php 2:7). He was born not in a palace, but in a cattle shed. During the years that He remained in this scene, He disdained its pomp, and sought not His happiness in it. Yet the unworldliness of Christ was not that of the hermit, but of One whose ministry was upon the stage of public action, among all classes of people. When He selected the twelve apostles, who were to be His most intimate companions, and later His ambassadors, He chose not the mighty, the noble, or the wise of this world, but humble fishermen and a despised tax-gatherer. So far was He from seeking the limelight that, after He had healed the sick, again and again He bade one and another, “See thou tell no man” (Matthew 8:4; Matthew 9:30; Matthew 12:16). When His brethren after the flesh said, “If Thou do these things, show Thyself to the world,” He refused their request, and later went up to the feast at Jerusalem “not openly, but as it were in secret” (John 7:4, John 7:10)—unannounced, unobtrusively. After the Lord Jesus Christ had performed many mighty works, and the same had been noised abroad, Simon and his fellows said unto Him, “All men seek for Thee,” but He replied, “Let us go into the next towns” (Mark 1:37-38): rather than receive the plaudits of the crowd, He moved on. Instead of courting popularity, He ever shunned it. Said He, “I receive not honour from men” (John 5:41). In Mark 7:17, we are told, “And when He was entered into the house from the people” (and cf. Mark 3:19; Mark 9:28, Mark 9:33)—He went about doing His Father’s business quietly and unostentatiously. Upon His transfiguration, He charged those who beheld it, “Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead” (Matthew 17:9). When it became necessary to make a public presentation of His royal claims, He entered Jerusalem not in a chariot, but seated upon an ass—the King of meekness. He averred, “the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me” (John 14:30). There was no lust of the flesh, no lust of the eyes, no pride of life working within the Lord Jesus; and therefore naught to which the corrupt things of the world could appeal. Not only so, but positively there was everything in Him to repel them, for He was “the Holy One,” against whom all the shafts of the Devil were aimed in vain. Having explained at some length what is signified by the three evils announced in verse 16, let us return to the apostle’s principal designs in our passage, which were to warn the Lord’s people, and to expose graceless professors, for in neither the Old Testament nor the New does God own anyone as a lover of Him save he who keeps His commandments and walks in separation from the world. The Church and the world are sharply distinguished entities, their members two opposing companies. Therefore does God say to the former, “Walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind” (Ephesians 4:17): instead, they are required to keep themselves “unspotted from the world” (James 1:27), “hating even the garment spotted by the flesh” (Jude 1:23), witnessing against the world (Hebrews 11:7). The world makes its appeals to all of the bodily senses, but its main object is to capture the heart, for until that citadel be won all its arts and devices have failed; but the moment the heart is taken, man becomes the world’s captive, even though (to borrow the language of another) “he be bound in the silken fetters of love.” Hence the supreme importance of our complying with the precept, “Keep thy heart with all diligence” (Proverbs 4:23), for it is the throne where either Christ or Satan rules. Solomon tells us that “a threefold cord is not quickly broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:12), nevertheless the grace of God can and does effectually deliver from the love of pleasure, riches, honours, as appears with more or less clearness among the regenerate. A striking case in point is that of Moses, for we read of his “choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin [the lust of the flesh] for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt [the lust of the eyes] ... By faith he forsook Egypt,” abandoning his position there as “the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,” thereby disdaining the pride of life (Hebrews 11:24-27). Note well, my reader, the repeated “by faith” in those verses, for only so far as that grace be healthy and active will the saint be impervious to both the delights and the terrors of the world: “this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith” (1 John 5:4). Faith occupies the soul with invisible and eternal realities, and as we are engaged with them the things of time and sense lose their hold upon the heart. A sight of “the King in His beauty” and a sense of His dying love are the surest means of breaking their power. “I thirst, but not as once I did, The vain delights of earth to share: Thy wounds, Emmanuel, all forbid That I should seek my pleasures there.” As the Christian desires to ascertain whether or not he is growing in grace, let him frequently measure himself by this standard: Am I becoming less worldly? He may be innocent of all forms of intemperance and of a spirit of covetousness, he may not envy the prosperity of the wicked or join with them in their vanities, but is he indifferent to their opinion, caring not whether they smile or frown upon him? Is the reader afraid of being called “peculiar” because he ignores its fashions and defies its conventions? Nothing; is more pitiful than to see a citizen of heaven in bondage to the whims of Satan’s children: certain it is that if his daily life does not offend them, he is not being faithful to his Master. We shall become less worldly only as our love for God in Christ increases and becomes more vigorous, and therefore, as it is more important to act grace than to be assured that we have it, we should set ourselves with all our might to strengthen our love to the Lord, and then shall we know that we love Him. The example which Christ has left us should make it easier to deny ungodly and worldly lusts. How fully did He manifest His contempt of the world and all the glory thereof! Let us not affect a greater eminence in it than He had. If He was “a Man of sorrows” in this scene, does it become any follower of His to be addicted to its pleasures? If they called Him “Beelzebub” should we compromise in order to escape “bearing His reproach”? “Is not of the Father, but is of the world.” This is the third dissuasive against setting our affections thereon. Observe, first, that the apostle did not say “is not of God,” but “is not of the Father,” just as in the foregoing verse he had said, “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” As the Devil is opposed to Christ, the flesh hostile to the Spirit, so the world is antagonistic to the Father and hates His children (1 John 3:13). “All that is in the world... is not of the Father.” The things of the world are termed “the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” because they are the objects of them: just as the “doctrine of Christ” (2 John 1:9) is called “the faith” (Galatians 1:23; Jude 1:3), because it is the object of faith. Those three principles are the springs of action in its citizens; all that takes place in this mundane sphere (as considered apart from the Church and the operations of the Spirit) issues from them: every motive-power at work within the ungodly may be traced thereto. In its turn, the world caters fully for and to them. For the first there are carnal delights to entice the soul from the strictness and severity of the Christian profession. For the second there are all kinds of material profits and illicit gains to allure. For the third there are preferments and applause which the natural man is so fond of. Those sensible objects to which the old nature is so inclined are ever present, seeking to divert the heart from God and heavenly-mindedness. “All that is in the world... is not of the Father.” They are not of His creation, for at the beginning He pronounced all things, including our first parents, “very good.” No, as Christ declared of the field wherein tares were sown after He had sown it with wheat, “an enemy hath done this.” The idolatrous desire after its objects attached not nor pertained to them originally, but resulted from the fall. Nor are they of His infusion: “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man: but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away [from the path of rectitude] of his own lusts” (James 1:13-14). All such evil lusting is the outcome of indwelling sin. Nor are they of His preceptive will. He has not provided them for any such purposes, nor prescribed them to be so misused. And certainly such perversity of them is not of His approbation. No, rather are they “of the world” as it “lieth in the wicked one” (1 John 5:19), which does not, in either its prince or its subjects, respect God’s laws, acknowledge His claims, or seek to glorify Him. Such unlawful cravings are the effects of man’s apostasy and subjection to Satan, who now makes whatsoever is in the world to be his baits to seduce men into further sin. Thus, loyalty to God and regard for the welfare of our souls require that such a world be renounced by us, and every inordinate longing after it mortified. “And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof” (1 John 2:17). Here is still another reason why God’s people are not to love the world, an argument drawn from the vain and vanishing state of mundane things and man’s enjoyment of them. Those words may be understood two ways: relatively and absolutely, in regard both to ourselves and itself. In themselves, and in the pleasure which the ungodly derive from them, the things of the world are only transitory and can afford no lasting satisfaction. “The fashion of this world passeth away” (1 Corinthians 7:31). There is a “fashion” or outward form, which in its incidentals alters in each age and generation, after which its deluded votaries order their lives, being carried along hither and thither by the ebb and flow of its tides. Its customs and habits, its styles and modes, its pleasures and amusements, are ever varying. Yet it is by this very means that the multitudes are more and more deceived. The objects they sought so eagerly yesterday fulfilled not their expectations, so with equal earnestness they pursue the same or other objects today, assured that the attaining of them will rejoice them; only to find them broken cisterns which hold no water. “And the world passeth away.” It is but an amusing pageant: its alluring shows and sights are like a revolving stage, with its scenes changing rapidly, one set of actors soon following another. How frequently do houses and estates change hands. How many a monarchy has been overturned in this century, how many a kingdom had its boundaries altered, how many of its proud cities reduced to rubble. How frequently do riches take to themselves wings and fly away. “Change and decay in all around I see.” Its beauty is only transient, vanishing almost as soon as it appears. Its “fashion” is but an appearance, for there is nothing substantial in it. Its pleasures soon pall: the laughter of fools is compared to “the crackling of thorns under a pot” (Ecclesiastes 7:6)—a momentary blaze which disappears in smoke. Its honours are evanescent and disappointing. Its smiles are artificial and fickle. “And the lust thereof” Calvin pointed out that “lust” is here used metonymically, as signifying the objects coveted, or the things which captivate the desires of men; the things they deem most precious are but a shadowy phantom, which fails them in the hour of need. The carnal joys of the wicked are like the present sufferings of the saints—relatively “but for a moment,” but instead of working for them “a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory” they issue in everlasting shame and woe. “The world passeth away” also has reference to its citizens, for “all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass” (1 Peter 1:24). All mankind is in a perishing condition, hastening to the grave. The tombstones in our cemeteries bear solemn witness to the brevity of life: far more die in infancy and childhood than in old age. No class is exempt, the wealthy equally with the poor being often cut off in the prime of life. “For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass... so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways” (James 1:11). The uncertainty and transiency of mortal life is something which worldlings desire to forget, and therefore do they “put far away the evil day” (Amos 6:3), death being feared by them because it will summon them into the presence of their righteous Judge. The shortness and instability of life are set forth in the Scriptures by many comparisons: the wind (Job 7:7), a leaf before the wind (Job 13:25), a shadow (Job 14:2), the flower of the field (Isaiah 40:6), “vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (James 4:14), so unsubstantial and unreal, so impermanent and soon over, is human life, and all the prosperity, magnificence and enjoyment that may have attended it. Oh, my reader, at most we have but a little time to spend in this scene, and that little will soon be gone. “Then why set our hearts on worldly enjoyments? or why be overwhelmed with earthly cares? Possess what you must shortly leave without allowing yourself to be possessed by it. Why should your hearts be much set on what you must quickly resign?” (S. Brown). Hold loosely all earthly things. Build not your nest in any tree here, for the whole forest is doomed to destruction. Even now the world is under the judgment, the curse, the wrath, of a sin-hating God. That is evident every time we see a funeral, for death is the wages of sin, and daily we behold that grim reaper at work. Neighbors and friends, known and loved by us, are suddenly cut down. Soon the world will pass away absolutely and finally. It is not eternal: it had a beginning, and it will have an end. God has appointed a day when it shall no longer exist to oppose Him; and when that day arrives “the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10), and all its unsaved inhabitants will be cast into the lake of fire, there to be tormented day and night for ever and ever (Revelation 20:10). “But he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” It is not, as might be expected from 1 John 2:15, “he that loveth God,” but the fruit and proof thereof which is here named, for obedience to God is love in action. Nor is it simply “he that knoweth and [theoretically] approveth the Divine will,” but rather the one who actually performs it. This is the grand design and end of God’s work of grace in the soul: to make its subject the doer of His Word. The saint is here viewed not as an object of God’s everlasting love, nor as one for whom Christ purchased redemption, but rather as one who has been transformed by the renewing of his mind and made an obedient child. This is very searching. As Peter declared, “God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him,” (Acts 10:35-36). And as his Master taught, “For whosoever shall do the will of My Father which is in heaven, the same is My brother” (Matthew 12:50); “blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it” (Luke 11:28); “they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life” (John 5:29). “Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life” (Revelation 22:14). Such passages as those are almost universally ignored by Antinomians, who are for ever crying up grace at the expense of holiness. “He that doeth the will of God:” not grudgingly but heartily; not bits of it, but the whole. Such is the character and conduct of Wisdom’s children—the very opposite of the worldling’s. They willingly submit to God’s authority, seek to please Him in their daily lives, walk in the Law of the Lord. Not flawlessly so, but evangelically, sincerely, so that of his deviations therefrom the believer can honestly say, “That which I do I allow not” (Romans 7:15), condemning himself for, mourning over and penitently confessing the same. There is no such thing as sinless perfection in this life, either in being entirely rid of love for the things of the world or in doing the will of God. But “he that doeth the will of God” is characteristic of a Christian. And such a one “abideth for ever,” which imports far more than personal continuance (for such will be the case with all the unregenerate), namely in the favour of God and shall be eternally blessed. He shall abide for ever in the possession of that substantial good which he has been enabled to make choice of. Such a one is the heir of eternal life, a member of that kingdom which cannot be shaken. Durable riches are his, a crown of glory awaits him, fullness of joy and pleasures for evermore at God’s right hand. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 31: 001.27. CHAPTER 27 ======================================================================== Chapter 27 THE LAST TIME 1 John 2:18 “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.” Why is this verse prefaced with the particular address, “little children?” What is meant by “the last time”? What is signified by “antichrist”? Who are referred to by the “many antichrists?” In what way did the presence of many antichrists make it evident that the last time had even then begun? Why is this statement brought in at this point? What is the precise importance and value of it unto us today? In seeking to answer these questions and expound our present verse we are mindful of the fact that we shall clash with the teaching many of our readers have sat under, and therefore they will not readily accept a part of what we are about to advance. Moreover, it will differ from the prophetic outlook which we held personally in the early days of our Christian life. But we must write according to the measure of light God has vouchsafed for us, and request our friends to heed prayerfully the injunction, “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21). Why does our present verse open with the words “little children”? The term ought to have been translated “babes” in order to distinguish it from that which is used in 1 John 2:1, 1 John 2:12, etc. There the one employed is a term of endearment, being a general one in its scope, applied to the whole family of God. But the one found in our text is a descriptive and distinguishing one, being used only of the lowest grade of God’s children, namely spiritual infants. It will be remembered that in 1 John 2:12, John had employed the comprehensive term “teknion” when expressing his tender regard for all the saints. Then in 1 John 2:13 he had graded them into three distinct classes: “fathers,” “young men,” and “babes,” designating the last “paidion,” which term occurs again in this epistle only in the verse now before us. In 1 John 2:14 the “fathers” and in 1 John 2:15-17 the “young men” were each addressed a second time. Now in 1 John 2:18-27 the “babes” are again written to. Thus we perceive once more what care the apostle devoted to the structure of his epistle, and how particular he was to follow a strict and logical order. In 1 John 2:28, the general designation “teknion” is again found, to denote a resumption of address to the whole company. Hence it is apparent that, through failure to observe the plan followed in the context, the Revised Version erred in beginning a new paragraph with 1 John 2:18. Not only did the due balancing of this section (the speaking twice to each of the three classes) require that 1 John 2:18 should be directed to the “babes,” but in view of its contents there was a peculiar propriety in addressing it to the third and youngest group. It was really a word of warning to them. As the young men are most in danger of being allured and spoilt by “the world,” so the babes are the ones most liable to be beguiled and poisoned by the “antichrists.” It was therefore peculiarly pertinent to put the young converts on their guard, for being more inexperienced and less established in the Faith, they were apt to give ear unto those who were desirous of corrupting them. Though not so pointed, it was indirectly the equivalent of Paul’s exhortation to the Ephesians, “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive” (Ephesians 4:14). It is sad to see how little taken to heart are those words of Christ, “Take heed what ye hear” (Mark 4:24). Many professing Christians are as careless in this matter as ignorant children playing with sharp and dangerous weapons. “Little children, it is the last time.” The order of words in the Greek expresses it still more emphatically: “Little children [the] last time it is.” The word here translated “time” (hora) signifies an indefinite period, be it long or short. It is rendered “season,” “day,” “hour,” “instant.” The Revised Version gives “it is the last hour.” Personally, we prefer “the last time.” By affirming that it is the last time we consider the apostle was announcing that the Jewish economy had passed away—the temple lay in ruins, its priesthood no longer functioned, Jerusalem was trodden down by the Gentiles. Still more definitely, he was averring that this Christian economy is the final one. Calvin (in his Institutes) pointed out, “And for this reason the dispensation under which we live is designated in the Scriptures as ‘the last time,’ ‘these last times’ (1 Peter 1:20), ‘the last days’ (Acts 2:17), that no one might deceive himself with a vain expectation of any new doctrine or revelation.” This Christian dispensation is the one during which the history of this world will be brought to a close: whether or not it will include within its scope and be terminated by what is known as “the millennium” we are not prepared either to affirm or deny; but this we must believe, that no separate and distinct age will follow the present one. The coming of God’s Son to this earth in human nature introduced the concluding season for this world, in which all its affairs will be wound up. But as Barnes pertinently remarked, “The apostle does not, however, say that the end of the world would soon occur, nor does he intimate how long this dispensation would be. That period might continue through many ages or centuries, and still be the last dispensation.” The concluding era of God’s gracious government over men had arrived. “The world’s history is divided into two sections. The first is the preparatory, and the second is the final. The incarnation of Christ is the goal of the first, and the starting point of the second. John the Baptist, who closed the first period, might have written, ‘It is the first hour.’ And yet the life of John the Baptist was synchronous with the life of John the Apostle, who said, ‘It is the last hour.’ But between those two Johns there stood the milestone that divided the world’s history. To pass that way-mark was to pass from the preparatory to the final, from the old to the new, from law to grace, from prophecy to fulfillment. Before Christ one day had been as a thousand years, but now a thousand years were as one day” (Levi Palmer). So mighty and revolutionizing the change effected by the advent of God’s Son, that henceforth time is measured more by events than by duration. The birth, death and resurrection of Christ, and the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, were events which represented more than all the previous “hours” or seasons of human history. The proofs for the Scripturalness of the above assertions are many and decisive. It was “when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman” (Galatians 4:4), as it is in this “dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one [“family”—Galatians 3:15] all things in Christ, both which are in heaven [the holy angels], and which are on earth [redeemed sinners]; even in Him” (Ephesians 1:10). “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come” (1 Corinthians 10:11): not the end of the material world, but (as the Greek means) of the ages. All previous ones were but introductory: they furnished the types, this one has the substance. The last of those periods which God has assigned to the duration of this earth is the present order of things: no new administration of it will follow this era. “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son” (Hebrews 1:1-2). Finality has been reached: God has nothing further to communicate unto mankind. Christ is His ultimate revelation (compare “last of all he sent unto them his son”—Matthew 21:37): in Him there is the finishing of the unfolding of God’s mind, the conclusion of the making known of His will. There will be nothing higher, nothing further; what God has spoken through Christ will continue unaltered to the end of time. Another apostle declares that Christ was “foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you” (1 Peter 1:20). The Messianic age was at once the consummation of all that preceded it and itself the ultimate Divine economy. So also Jude reminded the saints that they had been forewarned how that there should be “mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts” (1 John 2:18), and that this prediction was being fulfilled before their very eyes. Some have wrongly concluded from 1 Peter 1:5, that “the last time” is yet future. There Christians are informed that they are “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.” While the “salvation” there mentioned is still future, for it has reference to the completion of their redemption (their resurrection and glorification) when the Lord Jesus shall “appear the second time without sin unto salvation” (Hebrews 9:28), when the open vision of Him will perfectly conform us unto His holy image (1 John 3:2); yet that blessed hope will be realized and that glorious event will take place “in the last time” and not in some subsequent age lying beyond the close of this present one. “John announced ‘that it was the last time’ or the last dispensation, which God intended to introduce on earth, under which He would establish the kingdom of His Son... and this kingdom should continue till all enemies were put under His feet” (T. Scott). As indicated above, this Christian dispensation is designated “the last time” for two reasons: first, in relation to former times, which were introductory, paving the way for it; second, in relation unto the remainder of human history, for at the end of it the curtain will fall. There is nothing in the expression itself to determine the length thereof, nothing to intimate that it might not last longer than any previous one or be even more protracted than all others put together. Certainly Christ gave no intimation that His absence would be a brief one. Instead, He foretold that “while the Bridegroom tarried” all would slumber and sleep. He spoke of His departure as “travelling into a far country,” and said that “after a long time” He would return and reckon with His servants (Matthew 25:14, Matthew 25:19). “Since then nineteen centuries have dragged their weary round, but compared to what happened in John’s day, they would not make one hour. And time’s hour glass may yet contain other centuries, or millenniums, or even half an eternity, but compared to what took place in the first century of the Christian era, they can only be as moments or minutes. It is the last hour (or time), although its moments may be centuries, and its minutes millenniums” (Levi Palmer). We shall give here only the briefest of answers to the third question, reserving our fuller remarks thereon for 1 John 2:22 (D.V.). Suffice it now to say that an “antichrist” is an antagonist of Christ and a corrupter of His doctrine. From those words “ye have heard that antichrist shall come,” it is clear that the saints of those days, even the youngest of them, were taught to expect that, so far from Christianity making a speedy and complete conquest of the world, there would be fierce opposition against it; that the servants and followers of Christ would be no more acceptable to the unregenerate than was their Master. Yet it must not be supposed that they were entertained with a cheap sensationalism under the guise of “expounding prophecy,” but rather were they informed that it was God’s will that the enmity which He put between the serpent’s seed and Christ’s seed would continue until the end. Therefore they must be prepared to encounter false prophets, and persecution if they withstood them. Implicitly, this “ye have heard that antichrist shall come” was a solemn and urgent exhortation unto believers to contend earnestly for the Faith, and to instruct new converts in the duty of watchfulness against deceivers. Nor is there any need for us to say much upon the “many antichrists” of the apostle’s day, the chief reference being to the Gnostics and to such men as Hymenaeus and Philetus (2 Timothy 2:17-18). In view of the faithful instruction and warnings which Christians were then receiving from the ministers of God, there was no excuse for any of them being taken unawares and imposed upon. But alas, how sadly were such warnings generally disregarded is only too evident from history. The Christ-hated doctrine of Balaam and the Nicolaitanes (Revelation 2:14-15), and the suffering of one who called herself a prophetess to seduce His servants (Revelation 2:20) were the precursors of many others in the next three hundred years, and by the close of the sixth century almost the whole of Christendom was as completely deceived as though God had given no warning against the anti-christ, and for almost a thousand years there followed what are known as the “dark ages.” Concerning antichrist Calvin remarked, “They who suppose that he would be only one man are indeed greatly mistaken,” and then pointed out that such influential heretics as Cerinthus, Marcion, Ebion, etc., “were members of that kingdom which the Devil afterward raised up [in the papacy] in opposition to Christ.” The question, In what way did the presence of many antichrists make it evident that “the last time” had even then begun? also admits of a short and simple answer. As increasing infirmities and failing faculties are sure signs that old age is upon us, so the presence of antichrists was proof that the true Christ had come, and since He had ushered in the final era for this earth, naught remained but the judgment of God—His longsufferance alone postponing the same. The outstanding characteristic of all former ages was the rejection of the Truth, not only in man’s refusal to be subject to God’s Law but particularly that revelation which He had made through the prophets concerning His Son; whereas the most prominent feature of this dispensation is the reception of error, especially seen in the corrupting of the Gospel. As the presence of counterfeit money argues the existence of the genuine, so those who set up themselves against the person and kingdom of Christ are tacit but real witnesses unto the same. The fact that those false prophets received such a welcome and favourable hearing in John’s day was proof that, to use the language of 1 Peter 4:7, “the end of all things is at hand.” As to why John brought in 1 John 2:18 at this point in his epistle, several reasons may be suggested. First of all, it gave point to his preceding statement. In 1 John 2:17 he had said, “the world passeth away,” and now he declares, “it is the last time”—its harvest was ready for the sickle. Thus, second, it was a note of imminency and urgency. In the whole context John had made it clear that the world in which believers are left as witnesses for Christ is a very evil one, and here they are informed that it has entered upon the final stage of its history. It must be “the last time,” for the lowest depths of human depravity have been exhibited in the world’s treatment of God’s Son: the climax of its sinfulness appeared in His precious blood being despised and trampled upon by man’s unbelief. Moreover, the presence of the “many antichrists” was a fearful omen that the final catastrophe was impending, for their evil activities made unmistakably plain the determined and continued antagonism of the world unto Christianity. How evident it is that our present verse, so far from beginning a new paragraph, is a continuation of what went before. In 1 John 2:16 we behold how the “darkness,” mentioned in 1 John 2:9 and 1 John 2:11, had corrupted the world; here we see the darkness opposing the Truth. Third, 1 John 2:18 was brought in for the special benefit of babes in Christ, who are less suspicious of false prophets, and not yet able to say of Satan “we are not ignorant of his devices” (2 Corinthians 2:11). Therefore they needed to beware of teachers of error lest they make shipwreck of the Faith, for the words of such “will eat as doth a canker” (2 Timothy 2:17). The very name “antichrists” should awaken the deepest horror and concern, for it imports that they are opposed to Christ and all who adhere to Him, ready to rob them of every blessing enjoyed in Him. The fact that there were many of them intimated that on every side were deadly enemies unto faith and holiness. Of this they “had heard.” No truth which was profitable had been kept from them; everything the apostles had heard from the lips of Christ they faithfully committed to their converts. It therefore behoved them to make a proper use of such instruction, especially since so much contrary to sound doctrine was prevailing. Finally, since this era is the completion of all previous ones, great are the privileges and obligations of the saints. The practical importance and value of 1 John 2:18 for us today lies, principally, in our noting and taking to heart its moral connection with 1 John 2:15-17, where a number of reasons are advanced why we must not love the world, while here we are warned against antichrists. There is a far more intimate relation between the state of our hearts and the receptivity or repulsion of our minds to error than is commonly supposed. Yet that relation is not far to seek nor difficult to understand. The doctrine of Scripture “is according to godliness” (1 Timothy 6:3), and therefore just so far as the heart be in a sound and healthy state will the holy and searching truth of God be acceptable to it. As John points out a little later concerning the false prophets, “They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them” (1 John 4:5). Such charlatans quote (and misquote) sufficient of the Bible to deceive the unwary, but they are careful to omit everything unpalatable to the unregenerate, which rebukes carnality or calls to a closer walking with God. They deliberately tone down the Truth and prophesy “smooth things.” And “the world heareth them,” because their rotten hearts fully accord with such preaching. As we pointed out in a previous article, the world is the sphere where the darkness reigns, and therefore the more a believer comes under its influence the less spiritual perception will he have and the less ability to “try things that differ” (Php 1:10). It is in God’s light that we see light (Psalms 36:9), and morally speaking we are far from Him when our affections be set upon things on earth. It is only so long as the sheep follow Christ (walk according to His example, in obedience to His commandments) that “a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him” (John 10:4-5). In proportion as the soul finds its satisfaction in Christ will the world repel it; but when the heart grows cold unto Him, the things of the world appeal to it. The first century supplies numerous examples of that sad fact, and not a few wonder how it was possible for so many of the early churches to be corrupted (Revelation 2:14-15; Revelation 2:20); the explanation is found in “thou hast left thy first love” (Revelation 2:4). When a soul or church does that, the door is open for the entry of every possible abomination. We have an illustration in the case of Isaac of a believer being deceived when his heart is not right with God. How came it that he was tricked by so clumsy a device as Jacob’s? He knew that the voice was Jacob’s; were then his neck and hands a surer test? Surely not. Then how are we to account for his being imposed upon in a way that no man of the world, with common sense, would be? The answer is, because he was out of communion with the Lord, and when that be the case with any saint he is likely to be deceived by the grossest of shams. It is quite clear from the preceding record that the eye of faith in Isaac was as dim as his natural ones, otherwise he would have discerned the sinfulness and madness of trying to fight against the Most High. He was displeased at God’s appointment regarding his two sons, that the elder should serve the younger (Genesis 25:23). He deliberately sought to turn the purpose of God into another channel, and in his intention gave to Esau the blessing which God had said should be Jacob’s. It was the flesh and not the spirit which was dominating him, and that dulled even his natural judgment. First, Isaac had done wrong in making Esau his favourite, and that because of the venison he provided for him (Genesis 25:28). Second, he condoned Esau’s act in marrying a Hittite (Genesis 26:34), for as Genesis 27:1 indicates, he continued to show partiality unto him. Third, in his old age and as death drew near, he yielded to the lusts of the flesh, determining to gratify his carnal appetite by eating of his savoury meat. No wonder his judgment was blinded. But later, when he was made conscious of his failure to recognize Jacob and of his attempt to set aside God’s choice, he “trembled very exceedingly” (Genesis 27:33). Then it was that his slumbering faith awoke, and the scales fell from his eyes. Now he bowed to the Divine will, and in spite of natural prejudice said of the one who had tricked him, “yea, and he shall be blessed.” Now as the allowing of carnality dulls the judgment of a believer, so does the entry into his heart of a spirit of worldliness; consequently he is likely not only to be imposed upon by natural things, but to mistake error for truth. “If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine” (John 7:17). In order to spiritual perception there must be a steadfast refusal to follow the ways of the world. Error always flourishes most in the soil of worldliness, and it is there that the antichrists meet with success. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 32: 001.28. CHAPTER 28 ======================================================================== Chapter 28 APOSTATES 1 John 2:19 The first of those “perilous times” announced to take place in “the last days”—i.e. the Christian dispensation—had begun. Those “having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof... ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” had appeared in John’s day; men of whom it had to be said: “Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith” (2 Timothy 3:5-8). The Spirit’s prediction in 1 Timothy 4:1 was likewise receiving a fulfillment: “in the latter times [i.e. the present era] some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.” Impostors and heretics were rising apace: antichrist had already begun to show himself in the false teachers and seducers who were his forerunners. It was therefore necessary for the apostle to make reference to a very great evil which had broken out among some of the congregations of the saints, for these apostates had formerly been numbered among and had enjoyed fellowship with them. As Jude also declared, “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness” (Jude 1:4), by coming out in their true colours as the opposers of His Christ. “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.” The opening word of our present verse at once makes it apparent that it is closely related to the preceding one, for the “they” has its antecedent in the “many antichrists” of 1 John 2:18. There John reminded the newly converted that they had heard antichrist should come, and that many of his tribe were even then in existence, whereby they might know that the last period of the world’s history had already dawned. It must be “the last time,” for God has nothing further to reveal, and therefore it is naught but His longsuffering which prolongs this final hour. Since it be the concluding season for mankind, no higher privileges will ever be vouchsafed to those on earth, and no other means of grace appointed by God than those which are now in existence: hence the urgent force of that exhortation, “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” (Hebrews 2:3). It was most needful that the saints should take notice of what the apostle had alluded to. First, to prevent them from being carried away with the error of the wicked, and thereby fall from their own steadfastness. The only safeguard against that was to continue cleaving unto the Lord, and maintain fellowship with Him by walking in separation from the world. It is when the heart departs from its anchorage that it is liable to be “tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine.” When the soul is not at rest, the mind cannot be: instead, it is ever seeking some fresh object to afford it satisfaction. It is the unstable who are always on the wing after some new opinion. King Saul forsook the Lord before he turned to the witch of Endor, as those mentioned in 1 Timothy 4:1, departed from the Faith ere they gave heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. A tender conscience is slow and cautious in receiving the Truth, and for that reason holds tenaciously to the same when assured it has it. A tender conscience examines carefully and weighs prayerfully whatever is presented to the mind. Not so a conscience which is seared by the world and put to sleep: with such there is no waiting on God for light, but an independence of mind which leans unto its own understanding, and a consequent running after novelties and an espousing of error. “They went out from us.” Those antichrists were not men who had from the beginning been open antagonists to the Truth, but, instead, professing Christians. They were not those who took their rise from among the rejecters of the Gospel, but rather were such as had avowed their belief in and acceptance of the same. Formerly they had walked with the Lord’s people, and then had deserted them. The Greek is even more emphatic: “From among us they went out:” originally, they were members of Christian assemblies. The word rendered “us” (hemon) occurs again in 1 John 1:3; 1 John 3:16, 1 John 3:20 (rendered “our”), 1 John 3:21; 1 John 4:6; 1 John 5:14-15. The statement that they went out signifies more than a local and corporeal departure, namely one in affection and doctrine. It was far more than their forsaking of any particular church for a season, and then walking irregularly: they became leaders of heretical sects contrary to the glory of Christ and the doctrine of His apostles, denying that the Son of God had come in the flesh. They were therefore apostates from the Faith, repudiators of the Gospel, though most of them still claimed to be “Christians,” yea, peculiarly enlightened and eminent ones. Our present verse makes still more evident the propriety of the whole passage being addressed more specifically to the spiritual babes, for though all of God’s children need to take the same to heart, the younger ones especially so, since they were the ones most liable to be stumbled by the defection of these apostates. It is always a very disturbing and distressing thing for any of God’s people to see some of those whom they regarded as their fellow Christians apostatizing, the more so when such were members of their own local assemblies. Particularly is that the case with the recently converted. In the glow of his first love and newly found joy, his zeal longs to see his unsaved loved ones brought into the fold. But to behold some of those with whom he was in communion forsaking the church is a severe shock to him, and should some of the preachers he had sat under prove to be traitors and set themselves up in opposition to the Truth, that is indeed a shattering blow. Inexperienced as he is, yet unacquainted with the fickleness of human nature and the prevalence of hypocrisy, he little expects to find those whom he considered to be quite orthodox suddenly becoming thoroughly heterodox. By thus going out, those men renounced all subjection to the headship of Christ over His churches. Thereby they proclaimed themselves as hypocrites, devoid of any love to Him and His Word. It was a terrible thing to do: they were guilty of the fatal sin of apostasy. They started up new sects, drew away many disciples after them, and corrupted the worship of God. In so doing they disrupted the unity of the Faith, producing disorder in Christendom. Now, says the apostle (for such was the scope and design of his words here), be not shaken by this sad sight, for, first, you were forewarned that “antichrist should come,” and therefore instead of being perplexed and staggered by what you are now witnessing it should strengthen your faith. Second, as I have told you, the appearing of these many antichrists furnishes proof that “the last time” has come. Third, it was a word of warning for them to take heed unto themselves, to keep their hearts with all diligence, and to close their ears unto the horrible doctrines which were being propagated by these false prophets. Finally, there was, as he went on to state, a needs be why God permitted this tragic occurrence—that the line should be drawn between the genuine and the spurious, the latter being exposed for what they really were. “They went out from us.” There have always been such. Even Moses had to say, “Certain men, the children of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods” (Deuteronomy 13:13). There were false prophets in Israel as well as true ones, as Jehoshaphat discovered (1 Kings 22:6-7). Through Jeremiah the Lord said, “Hearken not unto the words of the prophets ... for they... prophesy a lie in My name” (Jeremiah 27:14-15). Ezekiel was told to “prophesy against the prophets of Israel” and to pronounce a “woe” upon them (Ezekiel 13:2-3). Zephaniah declared, “her prophets are light and treacherous” (Zephaniah 3:4). At the beginning of His ministry the Lord Jesus gave warning, “Beware of false prophets” (Matthew 7:15). The church at Jerusalem found it necessary to send word to the Gentiles, “Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain men which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment” (Acts 15:24): The carnality and unbelief of men’s hearts always assure a welcome unto those who speak smooth things in order to win disciples. In his second epistle, Peter announced, “there shall be false prophets among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies,” adding “and many shall follow their pernicious ways: by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of” (2 Peter 2:1-2). “But they were not of us.” John is very definite in repudiating these apostates, careful to point out that they were never anything more than nominal Christians. They had professed faith in the Gospel, had been baptized, received into fellowship with the Lord’s people, and been admitted to His table; some of them had, perhaps, been church officers. John first informs us whence these antichrists sprang, and then he disowns them, denying that they were living branches of the Vine. They originated in Christian assemblies, but forsook the same. It was that which made them the more dangerous, for they knew the better how to sow their pernicious errors, and deceive the unwary. They were falsehearted professors who had cast off the sacred privileges of communion with the regenerate, and acknowledged no obligations to them. They pretended to have greater light, calling themselves Gnostics, or knowing ones. But the apostle here gives the lie to their proud boast, and then states a reason for and an explanation of their conduct: “they were not of us”—they were never of one heart and soul with God’s people, for such love the Truth above everything on earth, and abhor whatever detracts from it. “They were not of us.” It was very necessary to make this clear, for apparently the Church had produced these vipers and nurtured them in her bosom: John therefore denies that they ever belonged to Christ—“as chaff, though mixed with wheat on the same floor, cannot yet be deemed wheat” (Calvin). They had not obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which had been delivered unto them: so far from being all that they seemed, they were but wolves in sheep’s clothing. So it has been ever since. Almost all the heresies which have plagued the churches throughout the centuries originated from persons who were once in good standing in the assemblies. When some old error is revived, it is generally by those who were disaffected to the saints and apostatized from the Truth. Though for a season associated with believers, yet they were never united to them in spirit. As it was in the days of our Lord, “many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him” (John 6:66)—they were but nominal “disciples,” for John 6:64 tells us they were of those “that believe not.” Paul warned the Ephesian saints, “Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them” (Acts 20:30); and also lamented, “Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world” (2 Timothy 4:10). Strange as it may appear to those who closely examine our present text, it is one of the verses appealed to by those who deny the eternal security of the regenerate. Arminians quote it in proof of their contention that it is not only possible for those who have been saved by Divine grace to fall away and be lost, but that many such have actually done so. But certainly there is nothing here to support their erroneous theory, but that which directly refutes it. Instead of furnishing an example of real Christians falling from grace, it is evident that the characters which are here in view never had any grace. Though their names had been registered upon an earthly church roll, they were never written in the Lamb’s book of life. They may have had much head knowledge and zeal, but they were destitute of true piety. First, the apostle expressly declared “they were not of us,” and then he added “for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.” Instead of belonging to the company of God’s elect, they were reprobates. This is the case with all who repudiate the Truth and become teachers of error—they were never genuinely converted. It is a fundamental article of the Faith that no regenerate soul is ever suffered finally to apostatize: the honour of God is concerned in the preservation of such, the efficacy of Christ’s redemption secures it, the sufficiency of the Spirit’s indwelling and operations effects it. A sound expositor always feels himself to be on the safest ground when he is able to interpret Scripture by Scripture: that is when he can locate another passage which is more or less parallel with the one before him, which uses different language but treats of the same subject. If he knows his Bible, he will naturally turn to Jude, for the distinctive theme of that epistle is “apostasy,” the second half of it describing in detail the character of the false prophets in this “last time.” Now our present text and Jude 1:19 are a case in point, for the one throws light upon the other, the latter affirming: “These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.” The first clause corresponds with John’s “they went out from us.” It was not a brief lapse or temporary break in fellowship from the Church which is here in view, but an entire and total forsaking of the same, an unwillingness to be amenable any longer to its doctrine and discipline, and that because of worldly ends and the affectation of vainglory. The second half of the verse amplifies John’s “but they were not of us:” they were ‘sensual’—the Greek word being rendered “natural” in 1 Corinthians 2:14—unregenerate; “having not the Spirit” and therefore without any inward restraint upon their carnality, pride, and avarice—unsaved, abandoned by God. “For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.” There was not need for the supplementary “no doubt” of the translators, in fact it tends to weaken the apostle’s positive announcement. In those words he was supplying proof of his assertion in the foregoing clause. The force of his argument may be stated thus: the regenerate are endowed with a spirit of perseverance and run the race that is set before them, therefore those who quit the race and become apostates could never have been renewed in their hearts. It is the solemn engagement of God’s everlasting covenant that He would put His fear into the hearts of His people, promising “they shall not depart from Me” (Jeremiah 32:40)—from faith to infidelity, from Christ to Belial. Thus it is that steadfastness, loyalty and endurance are among the surest marks of the new birth. Said our Lord, “If ye continue in My word, then are ye [not “shall become such” because of so doing] My disciples indeed” (John 8:31, and cf. 1 Corinthians 15:2; Hebrews 3:6, Hebrews 3:14). Those who have been Divinely quickened will most assuredly remain true to the faith and persevere in holiness to the end of their earthly course. Such may indeed experience many a “fall,” (but they “shall not be utterly cast down”—Psalms 37:24). The new birth is a being made partaker of the Divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), and while that is far from signifying that they are deified, it does mean “such moral qualities as may be imparted to the creature” (Manton). That which is received at regeneration is sometimes called “the life of God” (Ephesians 4:18), because it is a vital principle of action; sometimes the “image of God” (Colossians 3:10), because they bear a likeness to Him. One of the “moral qualities” which is imparted to the Christian is that of stability. We read in the Psalms that “the goodness of God endureth continually” (Psalms 52:1), that “the glory of the Lord shall endure forever” (Psalms 104:31), that “His righteousness endureth forever” (Psalms 111:3), and that “His mercy endureth for ever” (Psalms 136:1). As Christ declared, “they shall never perish” (John 10:28). Such a thing is impossible, for they were “born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” (1 Peter 1:23). Thus it is that constancy characterizes them: “and now abideth faith, hope, charity” (1 Corinthians 13:13). Those graces may indeed wax and wane, but be quenched they shall not. God’s children are deeply rooted trees, and not chaff which the wind blows away. “They would have continued with us.” Those words were written for the encouragement of believers who feel their own weakness and have no confidence in the flesh; and not to provide a pillow for the presumptuous, nor for slothful fatalists. While they show that no Christian will fall from grace and be lost, yet they do not ignore his responsibility. They include within their scope not only the faithfulness of God in renewing their inner man day by day, but also the discharge of their duty in the use of means. The same power that made them Christians keeps them, yet “through faith” (1 Peter 1:5)—through the exercise and cultivation of faith, and of all other graces, and not independently thereof. Remember that it is only by cleaving firmly to the words of God’s lips that we can keep ourselves from the paths of the destroyer (Psalms 17:4): then heed the injunction “Prove all things” (1 Thessalonians 5:21), and give not place to “itching ears.” It is not sufficient for us to shun the hearing or reading of false teaching; we also need to be constantly on our guard against inward defection, mortifying our lusts, and taking heed to the first decay of our love. It is much cause for thankfulness when we can truly say, “I have stuck unto Thy testimonies” (Psalms 119:31). “But they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.” In this clause John states the reason why God had suffered the presence of antichrists, therefore it would probably be more perspicuous to supply “But [this occurred] that they might be made manifest,” for the “they went out” was already definitely stated. Such characters are raised up by God to disturb the peace of the churches in order that the true may be distinguished from the false. Error serves as a flail to separate the wheat from the chaff. “For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you” (1 Corinthians 11:19). Let some plausible and popular preacher come forward with an old error decked out in new clothes, and empty professors will at once flock to his standard; but not so those who are established in the Truth. Thus, by means of false prophets, God purges His garner, and makes it appear who are the ones who hold the Truth in sincerity. The genuine gold endures every test to which it is subjected. Those who turn away from orthodoxy to heterodoxy must not be regarded as real Christians. Had these men been truly one with God’s people in a personal experience of His saving grace, nothing could have induced them to apostatize. As God Himself raised up these antichrists for His own wise reasons, so He also caused them to forsake the assemblies of the saints—to make it evident that they were but formal members, and of a totally different family from His own children. Previously they had every appearance of being the genuine article, but by their defection and opposition to Christ they were now revealed as counterfeits. He who searches the heart and tries the reins was determined to give definite proof that they were unregenerate men. Let them boast as loudly as they pleased of being among the Lord’s beloved ones, their conduct gave the lie to such a claim; they never had any root in Christ, but were merely external and temporary followers. Those whom God gives up unto strong delusion to believe a lie are such as never truly received His Truth in the love of it, for none of His people are ever suffered to deny the Faith after their conversion. Since they never “knew the grace of God in truth” (Colossians 1:6), He left them to the pride and corruptions of their hearts and the wiles of Satan, to be deceived into the espousing and propagating of fatal heresies; and though they drew many professing Christians after them, their divisions served a useful and necessary purpose, inasmuch as they made manifest those who were the friends and those who were the enemies of Christ. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 33: 001.29. CHAPTER 29 ======================================================================== Chapter 29 OUR ANOINTING 1 John 2:20 “But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things” From what was before us in the last article it is clear that the preaching of the apostles themselves did not result in the conversion of all who were convinced of its verity. From a very early date God made it appear that the Gospel net enclosed bad fishes as well as good ones (Matthew 13:47-48), that not all who took upon them the name of Christ were His disciples indeed. What Paul predicted in Acts 20:30-31 was soon fulfilled: nominal Christians apostatized from the Faith, disturbed the peace and harmony of the churches, prejudicing many against God’s faithful servants, alluring such to follow them and organize themselves into heretical sects and schisms. Yet both 1 John 2:19, and Jude 1:19 furnish conclusive proof that such men were devoid of true piety. It is therefore a mark of God’s goodness and mercy unto His people when His providence so orders it that those who are not one with them at heart, but who in fact hate all that is holy, should withdraw from them. It is a blessing to the churches when those who are determined to walk after their own lusts forsake their fellowship, for while they remain they are but Achans who draw down the judgment of God upon the whole congregation. Some of the very worst sins men are guilty of may be committed under the purest preaching of the Gospel and the most spiritual administration of its ordinances. The antichrists referred to by John are a definite case in point. None can be supposed to have clearer light externally into the doctrine and practice, worship and discipline, of genuine Christianity than those apostates enjoyed; yet none ever sinned more willingly and perversely. We too have beheld those who departed from the Truth: men like blazing comets for a season, professing to have superior light and sanctity, who are greatly admired and secure a large following, yet who are of their father the Devil. Yet such occurrences should not shake the saints. When Paul made mention of two heretics of his day, “who concerning the truth have erred... and overthrow the faith of some,” he at once added “nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure” (2 Timothy 2:18-19)—the combined effort of Satan and all his agents cannot shake it. “The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations” (Psalms 33:11). His Church is built upon the Rock of ages and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Paul then went on to say, “The Lord knoweth them that are His,” which means not only that He recognizes them amid the mass of professors (which we are not always able to do), but that He loves them and makes all things work together for their good. Then the apostle added, “Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” The fact that God overrules the perfidy of apostates to His own glory and the good of His people, by making manifest hypocrites on the one hand and those who are approved of Him on the other, does not excuse the former nor must we palliate their awful guilt, but shun them as a plague. And while those who by grace remain steadfast to Christ and His Gospel are not to be stumbled by the infidelity of graceless professors, yet they are to take the same to heart and turn it into earnest prayer, crying, “O let me not wander from Thy commandments” (Psalms 119:10). Say not in a spirit of fatalism, If I have been born again I shall never perish, for God gives warning, “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12). God has not promised to preserve the reckless. To affirm that He will preserve us whether or not we use the means of grace is not the language of faith, but of presumption and impiety. True faith produces a spirit of humility and self-distrust. True faith causes us to work out our own salvation “with fear and trembling.” “But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things” (1 John 2:20). This is in sharp and blessed contrast with what has been before us in the preceding verses, and shows the gracious provision which the Lord has made for “His own,” to preserve them from embracing fatal error. The antichrists had formerly been admitted to communion with the saints, but their subsequent apostasy proved that (like Judas) they had been hypocrites from the beginning. They were of the world and not of God, for His Truth dwelt not in their “inward parts” (Psalms 51:6). Had they been born of Him they would have remained faithful to Christ and His Gospel. God permitted them to forsake the assemblies of His saints to make it evident that they had never received the anointing which is from above. By their defection they only made more apparent the real people of God, who will not sell the Truth at any price. Many appear to take the yoke of Christ upon them, but afterwards fall away and return to their wallowing in the mire; but those who are effectually called persevere unto the end, for the Spirit has been given to be with them “for ever” (John 14:16), and the prevalent intercession of Christ ensures their preservation (Hebrews 7:25). Thus the distinction between the two classes is made to be seen more clearly. The relation of our present verse to the one immediately preceding, which mentions the going out of certain ones from the churches, was well expressed by J. Morgan: “They had been exposed to the temptation of false teachers, and they did not endure the test. They were drawn away by the speculative errors presented to them, and so evidenced that they were not ‘rooted and grounded’ in the Truth. On the contrary those whom the apostle commends in our text had remained firm in the midst of all attempts to seduce them from the faith.” Thus the blessedness of our present verse is greatly enhanced by the sharp antithesis presented in the foregoing: the former supplying a dark background to bring out into clearer relief the excellence of this gift of the Saviour’s—the antichrists, the anointing. Those words clearly intimate that John entertained no fear that any of the saints would apostatize and bring reproach upon the cause of Christ. They had received such an unction from above as enabled them to understand and lay hold of those things which belonged to their everlasting peace, and which insured their perseverance in the Faith. Brief though our present verse be, it possesses a fullness which no expositor or commentator can exhaust. It treats of that which in our day receives but scant attention. It speaks of one of the outstanding benefits and blessings which God bestows on His people. “But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.” What is meant by the “unction” (or “anointing,” for that is the meaning of “chrisma,” and it is so translated in 1 John 2:27) which believers are here said to have? Who is meant by “the Holy One” from whom it comes? What is signified by “and ye know all things”? In what sense or senses do they “know” them? Important questions are these, yet none of them is difficult to answer. We shall, however, consider the second one first, and ponder the Anointer, then the anointing, and last the anointed. Who is the Anointer or “Holy One?” It is surprising that one of Albert Barnes’s acumen should say it is the Holy Spirit, for there is not the least room for doubt that it is the Lord Jesus Christ who is here in view. As the Son of God, He is essentially holy, as appears by comparing Isaiah 6:1, with John 12:41. In His humanity, impeccably holy (Luke 1:35). In His life upon earth, ineffably holy (Hebrews 7:26). In His official character He was prefigured by Israel’s high priest, who wore upon his forehead a plate of pure gold on which was inscribed “Holiness to the Lord” (Exodus 28:36). In Old Testament prophecy He was designated the “Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel” (Isaiah 41:14, and cf. Isaiah 54:5). In the days of His flesh the demons owned Him as “the Holy One of God” (Luke 4:34). After His ascension the apostles referred to Him as “the Holy One” (Acts 3:14). Thus it is abundantly clear from the Scriptures that “the Holy One” is one of the Redeemer’s Divine titles: for as none but God is essentially holy, and Christ is the Holy One, then He must be God! Further, that the Lord Jesus is the person from whom God’s people receive an unction appears from the fact that not only is He the “Holy One,” but He is also “the Christ” or the Anointed One. He was not only chosen and ordained to the mediatorial office, but furnished for the same by anointing. During the Old Testament economy, prophets, priests and kings were anointed unto and confirmed in their office by anointing (Leviticus 8:12; 2 Samuel 5:3; 1 Kings 19:16), pointing forward to Him who should be, in His own person, Prophet, Priest and Potentate alike. The anointing of the Redeemer was announced in Messianic prophecy: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me; because the Lord hath anointed Me to preach glad tidings unto the meek” (Isaiah 61:1). That was fulfilled at His entrance upon His public ministry, when “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil” (Acts 10:38), the historical reference being to what is recorded in Matthew 3:16, when the Spirit of God descended like a dove and lighted upon Him. It was the furnishing of the God-man Mediator with all the necessary gifts for the discharge of His office (Isaiah 11:1-2). Immediately after, He was said to be “full of the Holy Ghost” (Luke 4:1). The Lord Jesus is denominated the Messiah (the Hebrew term) and the Christ (the Greek) from this unction of the Spirit, for each of those two titles signifies “The Anointed One.” At the triumphant completion of His work, when He ascended into heaven, the Saviour was again anointed by God—anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows (Hebrews 1:9), when He received the Spirit to pour out upon His disciples; there termed “the oil of gladness” to celebrate His victory and exaltation, and to denote His deliverance from any further trouble and distress. As Peter declared of Christ on the day of Pentecost, “Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this” (Acts 2:33). “1 beheld...a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth” (Revelation 5:6). In each of those passages the ascended Christ is seen dispensing this gift, conferring the Spirit on His people. In His mediatorial work Christ fully met all the claims of God upon His people, and in proof thereof He has been given the Spirit to communicate to them. This is clear from Galatians 3:13-14 : Christ’s gift of the Spirit is the result of His removing God’s curse from us, and thereby putting away our sins. His forerunner declared, “He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost” (Mark 1:8). Christ had referred to the Comforter thus: “whom I will send unto you from the Father” (John 15:26). And again, “If I depart, I will send Him unto you” (John 16:7). Such passages as those contain the balancing truth to Isaiah 11:1-3; Isaiah 61:1-2, where the Mediator is viewed as subordinate to the Spirit; but in Revelation 3:1, He has the Spirit, in John 15:26, He promises to send the Spirit, and in Acts 2:33, He actually bestows Him; so there we see the Spirit subordinate to the Son. Put the two together, and we learn that there is a conjoined mission in which the Son and the Spirit act in unison for the salvation of God’s elect: the Son effecting their redemption, the Spirit applying it. Moreover, while the Spirit is from Christ, likewise His great mission is to direct souls to Christ. “As the Spirit never acts but in and through Christ with respect to His people, so Christ is never received but by and with the influences of the Spirit. They are as united in Their operations as in Their essence” (Ambrose Serle). That Christ received the Spirit to bestow upon His redeemed was blessedly prefigured in the anointing of the high priest, of which we read, “The precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments” (Psalms 133:2)—reaching to the lowest of his members! “But ye have an unction from the Holy One.” Believers have nothing but what they have in and from Christ: it is “of His fullness” that all of them receive “and grace for grace” (John 1:16). The Spirit is given to Christ immediately, to us derivatively, for in all things He has the pre-eminence. “For God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him” (John 3:34), whereas in our case “unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ” (Ephesians 4:7). The Spirit dwells in Christ by radiation, in us by operation. Therefore as communicating to us by the Saviour He is denominated the “Spirit of Christ” (Romans 8:9) and “the Spirit of His Son” (Galatians 4:6). This is one of the vital points on which “the Greek Catholic Church” errs, for she insists that the Spirit proceeds from the Father only. That is a most serious error, for there is no higher exhibition of the Godhead of the Saviour than the fact that He is represented in the Scriptures to be the Possessor and the Sender of the Spirit to His redeemed: nothing more clearly demonstrates the full equality of the Son with the Father. It is a decisive proof of His deity, for no mere servant of God, however exalted his station, could possibly confer such a gift as the Spirit Himself. There was a peculiar propriety in saying that the believer’s unction is “from the Holy One,” for the purpose of the same is to make him holy. As Haupt rightly pointed out, “The fundamental idea of anointing in the Old Testament is the setting apart of an object from a common use to the service of God—from the world to holy fellowship. It must be remembered that things as well as persons—the vessels of the tabernacle, etc. (Leviticus 8:10-11)—were anointed in order for a separation from a profane to a sacred use. The stone which Jacob anointed was set apart as the place where God had manifested Himself (Genesis 28:18).” Thus, here, the anointing is both the communication of a spiritual gift and an operation which separates the individual from the world and all that is opposed to God, consecrating him to Him. It was so with the Lord Jesus Himself, for the coming of the Spirit upon Him was both the endowing of Him for His mediatorial work (Isaiah 61:1) and the Divine setting apart of Him unto His mission (Matthew 3:16-17). Thus it is with His members. The unction He received He imparts to them. He is the Anointer, they are the anointed ones, and as such the christs of the Christ, He being designated “the Christ” (Matthew 16:16), “the Christ of God” (Luke 9:20), “the Lord Christ” (Colossians 3:24) by way of eminence. The Holy Spirit is the vital bond of union with Christ. The One cannot be without the Other. If we have Christ as our Saviour, we have the Spirit for our Indweller. When Christ takes possession of anyone, He puts the Spirit within him: if he lacks the latter, he has no saving interest in the former. That is unmistakably clear from, “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His” (Romans 8:9). He who claims to belong to the Lord Jesus and gives no evidence of being indwelt by the Spirit of Christ lacks the only irrefragable proof which establishes the validity of his claim, and thus his profession is falsified. We cannot be Christ’s “fellows” (Hebrews 1:9) unless we are His brethren or companions, and that cannot be without partaking of His anointing. This it is which distinguishes “the wise virgins” from the foolish ones, the actual possessors from graceless professors, the former having “oil in their vessels” (Matthew 25:4). In due course, all of God’s elect receive this unction: “Now He which establisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God” (2 Corinthians 1:21)—a decisive proof that Christ, our Anointer, is Divine. At regeneration we are made members of Christ’s mystical body, partakers in our measure of those gifts and graces which our Head received without measure. Both Christ and His Church come under this office-act of God the Spirit, for as the Redeemer could not have been the Messiah without His unction, neither could the Church have been His spouse without the same. As it was from the Spirit’s unction that the Lord Jesus received His name “the Christ,” so it is from their being anointed ones that believers receive their name—Christians (1 Peter 4:16), signifying that they are anointed with the Spirit. This it is which is the distinguishing mark of every truly born-again soul; he is made the temple of the Holy Spirit. Yet we say again, it is not the Spirit who anoints us: rather is He the unction wherewith we are anointed by Christ. Even where the Saviour Himself was concerned, the Spirit was not the Anointer, but His anointing, for He was anointed by the Father (Acts 4:27). Our anointing is by a holy Saviour (Romans 8:2) to fit us for holy converse and walking with Him. It is received out of His fullness (Colossians 2:9-10). We can have no gift or grace but in and by and from the Lamb of God. The love of the Father centers in Christ Jesus our Lord and flows through Him to us (Romans 8:39). The apostle, then, would keep our eyes fixed on Christ, the Holy One: then let us praise Him for this “unction,” which is the fruit of His death for us. The anointing of believers sanctifies and consecrates them as kings and priests unto God (Revelation 1:6) as those persons were typically during the Old Testament era. “Whereas, therefore, those titles denote the dignity of believers in their especial relation unto God, by this unction they are peculiarly dedicated and consecrated unto Him” (John Owen). The Spirit then takes up His abode within their hearts with all His graces, operations, gifts, and enablings. He does so on a twofold basis. First, on the ground of redemption: in the types, the oil (emblem of the Spirit) was always placed upon the blood (Leviticus 14:14, Leviticus 14:17)—it is on the ground of atonement accomplished that the Spirit comes to believers, which at once sets aside human merits. Yet, second, there must be a moral fitness as well. The Spirit of God will not dwell within unbelieving rebels: “After [or “when”] that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise” (Ephesians 1:13). When we repudiate all idols, surrender to Christ as Lord, and trust in the efficacy of His sacrifice, the heart is prepared for the Spirit to enter and take possession for Christ’s use. When we give up ourselves to Christ, He owns the dedication by making our bodies the temples of the Holy Spirit, there to maintain His interests against all the oppositions of the Devil. “But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.” The first benefit which believers have by this anointing is an illumination of their minds. Not that the Spirit imparts any superior mental endowment, or that anything over and above what is contained in Holy Writ is revealed to them: rather does He enable them to perceive what the natural man cannot discern (1 Corinthians 2:14), by His effectual application of the Truth to their hearts. In order to see, two things are necessary: the organ of vision within, and light from without—the Spirit imparts the former, the Scripture furnishes the latter. Their knowledge is such as to deliver from fatal delusions and preserve them from apostasy. As Levi Palmer aptly declared, “The departure of the antichrists [1 John 2:19] shows the supreme importance of our abiding discipleship. But in order thus to abide it is necessary to have what may be called a Divine tuition, whereby we may be able to detect error. Neither heart nor intellect will do—nothing can be sufficient less than the ‘seven eyes, which are the Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth’ (Revelation 5:6; R.V. margin). It is this power of spiritual discernment which all believers receive in the gift of the Spirit.” ======================================================================== CHAPTER 34: 001.30. CHAPTER 30 ======================================================================== Chapter 30 CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE 1 John 2:21 “I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth.” “But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things” (1 John 2:20). It is important to perceive the intimate connection between those two things: the believer’s anointing and his knowledge are related as are cause and effect. Not only are the regenerate separated from the world by this unction, but they are also distinguished from the unregenerate in point of essential knowledge. The gift of the Spirit consecrates their souls and bodies as His temples to dwell in, and His gracious operation within imparts to them the true knowledge of Divine things. As we saw in our last, when we dwelt almost entirely upon the first part of the verse, the Spirit which Christ received without measure He communicates to His redeemed in a degree suited to finite creatures. In consequence thereof they are sharers, in their measure, of His knowledge, so that they can say, “we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16). Himself the Wisdom of God, His saved ones are the children of wisdom (Matthew 11:19), the children of light. Thus, from another angle, 1 John 2:20 is a reiteration of “which thing [namely the exercise of brotherly love] is true [is realized] in Him and in you” (1 John 2:8): in Him originally, in us derivatively; in Him essentially, in us reflectively; in Him perfectly, in us faultily. “But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.” The last clause, equally with the first, calls for the expositor, that its meaning may be made clear. It is another example where we must distinguish between the sound and the sense of Scripture. To take the “ye know all things” at its face value, without restriction, would be to affirm that the regenerate are omniscient—a manifest absurdity. Let this be duly noted by those who are so fond of saying, “Scripture always means what it says, and requires no explaining by man.” There is not a little in the Bible which requires a Divinely qualified teacher to interpret, for it is God’s general way to make use of such in “opening” His Word to the rank and file of His people. “Ye know all things” signifies that those who have received the Spirit are given a saving apprehension of the fundamental parts of the Gospel, so that they are brought out of darkness into God’s marvelous light, and thereby fitted to commune with and obey Him. Believers can say that God “hath given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true” (1 John 5:20), and knowing Him they know all things which are necessary to their everlasting wellbeing. “And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent” (John 17:3). We can have no saving and sound knowledge of Divine things without this anointing, for the natural man is incapable of discerning spiritual things. All the teaching of men, even of the Lord’s most faithful and eminent servants, is inefficacious without it. God cannot be apprehended merely by the intellectual faculty, for He is spirit (John 4:24), and therefore can be known only by those who are made spiritual. A living knowledge of God consists of a personal discovery of Him to the heart, such as conveys a true, supernatural, affecting realization of His surpassing excellence. When He makes such a discovery of Himself to the soul, its favoured recipient exclaims, “I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth Thee” (Job 42:5), as a glorious Reality. Note well, John did not say “we know all things,” but “ye:” it was not a privilege peculiar to the apostles. Nor is this an experience reserved for the “fathers” in Christ only: rather is it shared by all the renewed. Said the Saviour to His Father, “Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes” (Matthew 11:25). Contextually the “and ye know all things” means that by the gracious teaching of the Spirit believers are granted an experiential and effectual knowledge of Divine things so that no propagator of error can fatally deceive them. He alone can impart that wisdom which secures against delusions. The Spirit of Truth communicates such a personal and practical acquaintance with the things of God as preserves from total apostasy. Still more narrowly: they are admitted into a saving acquaintance with the person and work of Christ, which the antichrists denied. Not that any are vouchsafed a perfect knowledge, for in this life we only “see through a glass, darkly” (1 Corinthians 13:12); nor all Christians to the same degree and extent. But each one has so opened to him the mysteries of grace that he is secured against all the ruinous cheats of the enemy: it is to be noted that in 2 Corinthians 1:21, “establisheth” and anointing are linked together. If, however, the “and ye know all things” be interpreted in the light of the general Analogy of Faith, it has a much wider meaning. “The whole truth concerning Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Father, in all its bearings on the Divine character and counsels, as well as on human experience and hope” (Calvin). Let us amplify the second part of the Reformer’s definition. It is with the desire to help some of our weaker and fearing brethren that we now enter into detail. Such are inclined seriously to doubt that they have “an anointing from the Holy One,” for so far from being assured that they savingly “know all things,” they are painfully conscious of their ignorance. Then, first, those who have received this anointing are firmly persuaded that the Bible is the Word of God, so that they doubt not its inspiration, nor question its authority. A work of grace is attended with a spiritual conviction of the judgment of the reality and certainty of Divine things. Its subjects are assured of the truth of the Gospel, so that they no longer halt between two opinions of its Origin. God’s way of salvation ceases to be a doubtful thing to them. These are matters which are settled in their minds beyond any dispute, so that they value them above all else. They know the Bible to be God’s Word, for it has judged and searched them, exposing the secrets of their hearts. They have the weight and power of it on their souls. Second, they have a humbling and experiential knowledge of sin: not merely from an awakened conscience, but more immediately from the anointing they have received. The former occupies the mind more with sin’s consequences, the latter with its nature. The Holy Spirit is the great Convicter of sin (John 16:8). It is an essential part of His office work to remove the scales from the eyes of those in whom He operates, so that they behold Him in the light of God’s holiness. As He does so, the soul perceives the awful sinfulness of sin: its excuselessness, its filthiness, its vileness; that it is “that abominable thing” which the Lord hates (Jeremiah 44:4). The soul now realizes what all sin really is, namely a revolt against God, an opposition to Him, the outbreaking of the heart’s inveterate enmity against Him. The Holy Spirit brings to light the hidden things of darkness and makes the convicted soul recognize that the whole of his life has been one of selfseeking and self-pleasing, of continuous insubjection to God. That brings him to condemn himself as a guilty criminal, as a vile leper, and to take his place before God in the dust. Third, they know what real repentance is: not only theoretically, but practically. As the sinner learns what he is in himself—in a state of depravity, darkness and death, utterly unfit for the presence of God—he is overwhelmed with horror and anguish. God now reproves him, setting his sins in order before his eyes (Psalms 50:16-21), so that he exclaims, “my sin is ever before me” (Psalms 51:3). “The arrows of the Almighty” stick in his heart (Job 6:4), so that he cannot get rid of them. He is made to feel what an evil and bitter thing it is to treat his Maker with contempt. He realizes that he has acted toward God with the basest ingratitude, abusing His goodness, perverting His mercies, despising His authority. His comeliness is turned into corruption (Daniel 10:8), and he cries, “Woe is me! for I am undone” (Isaiah 6:5). He is filled with the most poignant sorrow for having offended so infinitely gracious a Being as the Majesty of heaven. He confesses: “Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight” (Psalms 51:4). Fourth, they know Christ as the sinner’s Saviour. They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. None but those with an urgent sense of need really turn unto the great Physician. It is only those who are conscious of being heavily laden who come unto Christ for relief and rest. Yet so legalistic and self-righteous is the human heart that, generally, a convicted sinner sets about his reformation and gives himself earnestly to religious performances, hoping to find peace for his conscience therein. But proving all self-efforts to be utterly vain, he is driven to despair. Then it is that his heart is prepared to welcome the good news of the Gospel. Then it is that this anointing gives him to see that Christ is in every way suited to his wretchedness, that His finished work is perfect, that His blood and righteousness require nothing whatever to be added unto them, that His so-great salvation is free, without money and without price. The blessed Spirit now works faith in such a soul, causing him to place his entire confidence in the Lord Jesus for the whole of his salvation. Now it is that he personally knows Christ to be an all-sufficient Saviour. “I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth” (1 John 2:21). Once more the apostle inserts an explanatory word (compare 1 John 1:4; 1 John 2:1; 1 John 2:12-14), stating why he has penned this section of his epistle. The frequency with which he did so strikingly evinced his modesty. Can the reader imagine “the Pope” of Rome, when sending a message to his “cardinals and priests,” condescending to give any reason for his conduct? No indeed, he is far too self-important and arrogant to do so. Not so this honoured ambassador of Christ, who almost apologizes for writing what he has. He pauses to assure them that it is not because he deems them to be uninstructed, nor because he fears they are unsound, or even wavering, in the Faith. Those are points on which the saints are very tender, resenting any suspicion upon their orthodoxy. Thus, this explanatory word of John’s was not only a mark of his humility, but a delicate consideration of their feelings as well. He would at once relieve their minds by letting them know that he entertained no doubts about their spiritual intelligence, but assured them that, since they had received an unction from the Holy One, he was fully persuaded that they were savingly acquainted with the Gospel in all its parts. Yet as we first ponder this verse as a whole, there seems to be somewhat of a lack of coherence between it and the remainder of the passage of which it forms a part. After consulting many expositors, we consider that J. Gill best perceived its force. He suggested that the apostle was here obviating an objection which he saw might be made against what he had last said. Since he acknowledged that they “knew all things” why was it necessary for him to write as he was here doing? To this question John replies that he writes to them not as ill-informed but as instructed ones. They “knew the truth:” the Father as “the God of truth” (Jeremiah 10:10); Christ as the embodiment of the truth (John 14:6); the Spirit as “the Spirit of Truth” (John 15:26); the Scriptures as “the word of truth” (Ephesians 1:13), by which the truth is to be defended and confirmed. If they had not “known the truth,” it had been to no purpose for him to write them about the antichrists. Moreover, though they were already taught of God, it was very proper for him to declare afresh those things which were most surely believed by them (Luke 1:1), that they might be still further established in the Faith and fortified against false doctrine. The connection between our present verse and the preceding one appears too in that there the “ye know all things” (as the result of the Spirit’s anointing) is here defined more definitely as a knowledge of “the truth,” and therefore qualified to detect error. As Calvin expressed it, “they would be able readily to distinguish between light and darkness because they had the Spirit for their Guide.” From the above paragraph it will be seen that we do not restrict “the truth” in our text to either the personal Word or the written Word. We are always chary of limiting any biblical expression., Christ Himself is “the truth,” because the whole Truth of God is summed up and embodied in Him. Equally, as Christ said to the Father, “Thy Word is truth” (John 17:17). Even where the Truth is already known, there needs to be “precept upon precept, line upon line” (Isaiah 28:10). As Jude said, “I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this” (Jude 1:5), and Paul: “To write the same things to you, to me is not grievous, but for you it is safe” (Php 3:1). Not only are the eyes of our understanding opened gradually, but memory is weak, affections sluggish, and much opposition is made by the flesh. Truth requires to be driven home, blow upon blow, if it is to be fixed “as a nail in a sure place.” Christ often repeated the same thing. Having shown above something of the scope and contents of the believer’s knowledge, let us now consider the kind or nature of it. There is a real and radical difference between the knowledge which a Christian has of the things of God and that which non-Christians may obtain of them as there is between the substance and the shadow cast by it. The latter is but “the form of knowledge” (Romans 2:20), a merely traditional, intellectual and historical knowledge, such as children have when they are taught to read and memorize the Scriptures without believing or understanding them. Later, it becomes an opinionative knowledge, so that they form their own ideas about certain doctrines or aspects of the Truth, and are able to discuss and dispute about them; yet it cannot be said of them that “wisdom entereth into” their hearts (Proverbs 2:10). They do not act out what they talk about. Yet there is a further degree of this speculative and theoretical knowledge, which may in some measure exercise their conscience and work upon their natural affections so as to offer opposition to temptations from without. They may be influenced thereby to lead moral and decent lives, so as to escape “the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the [not “their”] Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 2:20), yet their knowledge falls far short of conforming them to the image of God’s Son. The difference between gracious and graceless professors as to their knowledge lies not so much in the matter as in the manner of it. Some of the latter may greatly outstrip the former in the extent of their theological lore, and yet know nothing yet as they ought to know, nothing in a right manner, nothing spiritually; whereas the excellence of a believer’s knowledge lies not in the largeness of his apprehension of Divine things, but that he sees them in the light and knows them in the power of the Spirit, so as to produce communion and walking with God. “The kingdom of God is not in word, but in power” (1 Corinthians 4:20), which means that the rule or dominion which God has over the hearts of His children is not a theory but a reality; it consists not in bare notions, nor in confident assertions, but in God’s working effectually in the soul. “For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance” (1 Thessalonians 1:5) inclining the heart to heavenly things. When the effects and fruits of the Gospel are accomplished in the inner man, an indelible and affecting impression is made upon the soul, such as the apostle had reference to when he said “even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you” (1 Corinthians 1:6). Christian knowledge is an experiential one. The different aspects of Truth are no longer abstract propositions to him, but are by the effectual operation of the Spirit wrought into the very warp and woof of his soul. Hitherto he had at best only a nominal information of them, but now he has an inward and intuitive realization of the same. To the Jews Christ said, “I am not come of Myself, but He that sent Me is true, whom you know not” (John 7:28). Despite all their boasted belief in the one only, true and living God (Romans 2:17-18), they were at heart complete strangers to Him: well informed theologically, they had no spiritual union with Him. Nor had the writer or the Christian reader until they could say, “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). It is only by an inward revelation that He is savingly known: “and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me” (Galatians 1:15-16). Christian knowledge is a soul-humbling and self-abasing one. That knowledge of Divine things which is received in a natural way from men or from the reading of books “puffeth up” (1 Corinthians 8:1), producing self-esteem and presumption. But that spiritual knowledge which comes from God reveals to a person his empty conceits, his ignorance, his worthlessness. The teaching of the Spirit convinces the soul what a miserable failure he is, how very far short he falls of measuring up to the standard of conduct set before him, what horrible corruptions indwell him, and that makes him little in his own eyes. Among those born of women was not greater than John the Baptist: wondrous were the privileges granted him, abundant the light he was favoured with; yet he felt that “I am not worthy to unloose” Christ’s shoe’s latchet. None granted such an insight into heavenly things as Paul, yet he regarded himself as being not “the greatest Bible teacher of the age,” but as “less than the least of all saints” (Ephesians 3:8). Christian knowledge is a certifying one. Its glorious Object is no longer known speculatively and inferentially, but truly and immediately: not by a process of reasoning, but directly. He who is spirit and invisible is made visible and palpable to the soul: Moses endured “as seeing Him who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27)—God was real to his faith though imperceptible to his senses. Believers know “the grace of God in truth” (Colossians 1:6) by a sensible experience. As it is one thing for a friend to call upon us and inform us that the wind is biting cold, and quite another for us to walk with him or her to the bus and have the frost nip our nose and ears, so it is a very different thing to hear the preacher saying God’s grace is sufficient for His children, and for them to prove the sustaining power of the same under the most trying and painful afflictions. So, too, to read that God is a prayer-hearing God, and for me to obtain definite and wonderful answers to my petitions. Again, as I ponder Romans 7:1-25 I know it is a true and accurate description of the saint’s inward conflict, for it is verified in myself. Christian knowledge is an operative one, for it is not a species of information which adds to our mental store, but an inspiration that stirs the soul unto action. However Scriptural be the notions possessed by the natural man, they exert no sanctifying influence upon him, and yield no godliness of character and conduct. His light is like that of the moon: it quickens not, nor produces fruit; however orthodox, it leaves the heart cold and barren. Whereas the light which the blessed Spirit communicates is like that of the sun: it not only illumines the understanding, but it searches the conscience, moves the will, and sets the heart on fire for God. His teaching is dynamical, having a vitalizing effect upon the whole of the inner man, stirring its subject unto holy endeavours. Spiritual knowledge is intensely practical, altering the disposition, producing obedience, conforming unto Christ. There are multitudes in Christendom today of whom it must be said that they are “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the Truth” (2 Timothy 3:7). They are not only regular attenders upon preaching, but many of them are even engaged in running around to one special “meeting” or “communion” to another, read much religious literature and have their heads stored with a mass of undigested theological details, yet arrive not at an experiential, practical, humbling, operative and transforming acquaintance with the things of God. And why is this? Because they have never received an anointing from the Holy One: that is what makes all the difference! But that anointing gives the regenerate a supernatural and sanctifying realization of the Truth. Not that they know as fully as they ought, or so as to preclude their duty of a diligent application on their part to make further progress therein. While they only “know in part” (1 Corinthians 13:9), and a very small part, yet they know it in a spiritual and saving way. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 35: 001.31. CHAPTER 31 ======================================================================== Chapter 31 LIES AND LIARS 1 John 2:21-22 Once more there is a very close connection between our present verses and the two immediately preceding them—a point which the expositor requires to keep ever before him. There the line of demarcation is drawn between apostates (1 John 2:19) and the anointed ones. Those who have an unction from the Holy One “know all things.” The scope and nature of their knowledge we have already explained: briefly, it consists of a saving and influential understanding of the Truth. It was because he was assured that those to whom he wrote were experientially acquainted with Christianity that John was persuaded they would heed the solemn warnings he was about to pen. “I have not written unto you because you know not the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth” (1 John 2:21). As. T. Scott well expressed it, “When we are thus established in the great truths of the Gospel, we shall know that no lie is of the Truth, and shall therefore disregard the eloquence, learning, ingenuity, and confidence of those who contradict the Bible; and be satisfied with opposing the express testimony of the Truth itself to their well-varnished and ably defended falsehoods.” It is by the knowledge of the Truth that the Lord’s people are able to discern whatever be contrary thereto. As an old adage declares, “The line which shows itself to be straight, shows also what line is crooked.” “No lie is of the truth:” either springs from it or is according to it, but the very reverse. Error often has a very plausible appearance, and by it multitudes are deceived. Not only is it propagated, frequently, by men of scholarship and seeming spirituality, but their lies are presented in most subtle and attractive forms, appearing to promote the glory of God and the good of souls—were it otherwise, the unwary would not be beguiled. Many a heresy seems to remove difficulties which perplex the thoughtful people of God, to solve doctrinal problems which are a real puzzle to them, to be favourable unto practical piety, and to give peace and happiness to those who accept the same. Nevertheless, if they are not foursquare with the Truth, but really conflict with the same, they are falsehoods, and therefore worthless, pernicious, dangerous. No matter how fair the fruits they bear, how apparently excellent their “results,” they are to be rejected and shunned. That declaration “no lie is of the truth” seems rather like a truism—something so self-evident as to need no stating. In reality it expresses a principle of deep moment. First, as S.E. Pierce pointed out, “here we have expressed the transcendent excellency of the everlasting Gospel: there is no darkness in it: there is no lie in it, there is no error can arise out of it.” Divine revelation is inerrant and flawless: “Thy Law [not only “contains” but] is the truth” (Psalms 119:142). “Every word of God is pure” (Proverbs 30:5). There are indeed in it “some things hard to be understood,” and not a little that is quite beyond our comprehension. It would be very strange were it otherwise, for the finite cannot comprehend the infinite. No amount of searching or inquiry by the keenest intellect can find out God to perfection, nor can it account for many of His ways or explain why He fore-ordained one unto salvation and not another, how the Eternal Three subsist in one essence, how the humanity of Christ never had a separate existence, but was from the first moment of its conception united to His Divine person. These and other mysteries are to be reverently received, and humbly submitted to, for they are true—the mouth of the Lord has spoken them. Second, this Divine declaration “no lie is of the truth” ought to warn all those who profess to be called of God to preach of their solemn duty to be diligent in preaching the preaching which the Lord bids them (Jonah 3:2): “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish aught from it” (Deuteronomy 4:2). Otherwise, they are in grave danger of falling under that terrible indictment, “The prophets prophesy lies in My name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they speak unto you... the deceit of their heart” (Jeremiah 14:14). “Christ is essential Truth. His Gospel is so, in and throughout every part thereof. Therefore no one thing, sentence, or call it doctrine if you will, which differs one hair’s breadth from that which the Lord hath delivered to His church... can be other than a lie” (Pierce). Third, “no lie is of the truth” was a word of warning against and an exposure of the method employed by those who seek to seduce the saints. It tells us that sophistries and frauds are not necessary in order to support or propagate it. There is no deceit in the Gospel, and there should be none in the handling of it. It requires no fleshly help, and cannot be advanced by cunning and trickery. Alas, how few there are who really believe that unless the Truth itself, under the blessing of God, convicts and converts men, nothing else will. Because they lack faith in the power of Truth itself, preachers resort to all sorts of carnal devices to render their message more palatable to the unregenerate, and those devices are nothing more than lying deceits, dishonest arts. The lure and love of popularity is too strong to resist for those who seek the praise of men rather than the approbation of God. Such preachers think less of the Author of the Word than they do of rendering it acceptable to the carnal mind. Recourse is had to abstruse philosophies, displays of oratory, histrionics, or musical attractions and worldly allurements, rather than the plain and faithful preaching of the Truth itself. “For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but.. as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:17) declared the beloved Paul. A most solemn proof is that of how early the Gospel was corrupted, and a portent of how extensively this evil was to spread among the professed servants of God and expounders of the Truth. The word “corrupted” signified adulterated: the mixing of it with a foreign element. Few indeed preserve the purity of the Truth, and fewer still preserve its holy balance or proclaim it in its fullness and entirety. Too many have sought to conciliate opposers by blunting the sharp edges of the Spirit’s sword. They deliberately explain away the most distasteful aspects of Divine revelation. Others resort to dishonest exegesis or attempt to “harmonize” the teaching of Holy Writ with the hypotheses of “science falsely so called.” But the faithful minister is “sincere”—open, above board, without guile. Sent of God, he speaks in His name and conducts himself as in the Divine presence, and refuses to stoop to any form of a lie in order to commend the Truth. Said the apostle again, We “have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God” (2 Corinthians 4:2). The apostle disdained his own wisdom, discarded all artifices to win the esteem of his hearers, refused an appeal to the traditions of men, declined to mingle anything human with his Divine message. He abjured and abhorred all dishonest tricks. His sole aim was to show himself approved unto God, and therefore he declared the whole of His counsel, keeping back nothing that was profitable. Even the winning of souls was made entirely subordinate to preaching the Truth in its purity. He therefore used great plainness of speech, and sought to humble and not to flatter, directing his message to the conscience rather than to the intellect or the emotions. “The veracity of God, and not the reasonableness of any doctrine, is the ground of our faith. It is the work of the Gospel to cast down reasonings against the knowledge of God, and bring into captivity every thought unto the obedience of Christ” (Reformed Presbyterian Testimony). Fourth, taking the verse as a whole, its last clause points an important practical lesson. The apostle addressed himself unto the saints with the confidence that they would readily accept what he was writing to them, that they would—like himself—detest and refuse error. That confidence shows that men’s reception or rejection of the Truth turns mainly upon the state of their hearts. Sufficient evidence must indeed be advanced to carry conviction, but if the heart be right, then the mind readily perceives the force of the evidence; whereas if the heart be wrong—prejudiced—no amount of evidence will satisfy it. “Convince a man against his will, and he is of the same opinion still” says the old proverb. It is the perversity of the will which so often blinds the judgment: let that be properly disposed, and the understanding will function properly. If any doctrine of Scripture be hated, no demonstration of its verity by a hundred proof texts will be of any avail—unless God removes the enmity. On the other hand, if the Word be received “with all readiness of mind,” and the Scriptures searched daily whether these things be true (Acts 17:11), assurance of them will soon be ours. This deeply important practical lesson was inculcated by Christ when He declared, “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness” (Matthew 6:22-23). The eye has no light of its own, but is merely the receptacle thereof, and the actions of the body are directed by the illumination it admits. The “eye” is here a figure of the understanding, and by its light conduct is regulated: “as he thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). A “single” eye has but one object—God, the pleasing and glorifying of Him. At regeneration the heart is renewed and its vision rectified, the eye of faith is Divinely opened, the understanding is spiritually illumined, and God becomes its all-absorbing object. In consequence, light is seen in God’s light (Psalms 36:9), and all the faculties of the soul come under its benign influence. A spirit of discrimination follows, so that the child of God discerns between the voice of Christ and that of a false shepherd (John 10:4-5), and by his spiritual judgment he distinguishes between truth and error, loving and heeding the one, eschewing and refusing the other. But since the children of God be spiritually illumined and able to discern between the truth and error, why are there such differences of belief among them? In fact, there is far more agreement than disagreement. But why not entire unanimity? Because God is sovereign and bestows varying measures of light. But why should anyone who has the Holy Spirit for his Teacher cling to or imbibe any error? Because of indwelling sin: the counteracting of the intellectual effects of the fall, like the nullifying of its moral effects, is not perfected in this life. Yet that is to our shame, and in no wise excuses us. There is nothing but light and truth in God’s most holy Word, and everything in it is expressed accurately. But alas, we do not receive our views wholly therefrom, nor are our minds so brought under the power and spiritual influence of the same as for its contents to be fixed in our understanding exactly as they are in the Scriptures. “No lie is of the truth:” error springs not therefrom, but from the darkness and sinfulness of our minds. Human depravity, acted upon by Satan, disposes men to put a false gloss on one passage, to wrest another, and to receive false doctrine. If we would avoid a lie, we must neither give heed to the reasonings of men upon the Word nor put our own interpretation upon it. Instead, we are to “hold fast the form of sound words” (2 Timothy 1:13), expressing truth in our minds and with our lips precisely as it is formulated in Scripture. Our first concern should ever be a seeking to know the mind of the Spirit therein; and our second to receive it meekly without any cavil or attempt to evade its meaning. It is men’s wrangling over the Word and altering the mode of God’s expression which leads so many into error, and renders them still more susceptible to Satan’s lies. The most effectual way to be preserved from false doctrine and practice is to accept God’s Word at its face value, to believe all that the Lord has spoken. “It should ever be our study and prayer, the utmost aim and bent of our minds, to have the truths of God received into our minds and stated in our understandings exactly as they are in the Word; for there they are expressed as they are in God” (S.E. Pierce). Alas, men prefer their own reasonings and statements thereon, and then turn to the Word to support them. “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son” (1 John 2:22). The Greek Interlinear and the Revised Version render it “Who is the liar,” not because any specific one is in view, but because the reference is to those who are guilty of the greatest falsehood of all. Who is the liar of all liars? John does not wait for a reply, but at once furnishes the answer: he that repudiates the Messiah, the Anointed of God—he is outstandingly the cheat of men, the false prophet, the imposter. Here then is the link between the two verses: when the apostle said, “no lie is of the truth,” he had particularly in view the antichrists or seducers of souls, who were propagating that which was flatly contrary to the Gospel, and as far removed from it as darkness is from light. As Haupt pointed out, “No lie is of the Truth seems so clear and self-evident as to require no explanation; but however plain theoretically, it very little governs the conduct of many professing Christians,” and therefore John is still more specific and amplifies his abstract aphorism with a concrete example. “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?” Once again we find “the apostle of love” refuses to mince words. He calls things by their right names. Love for Christ and fidelity unto the saints required that he declare plainly what their enemies really were. “Such was his zeal for the Truth, he makes no scruple of calling such by this term who would dare pronounce an untruth, let their profession and quality be what they might. We have had instances of this before: If any would venture to say they had fellowship with God, whilst they walked in darkness, he is bold to pronounce this to be a lie (1 John 1:6). If any professed they had no inward sinfulness, he declares this to be self-deceit; and it is also willful lying, and truth was not in such (1 John 1:8). If any professed himself to be in Christ, and lived carelessly, paying no regard to the Lord’s commandments, he pronounces such an one a liar (1 John 2:4). So here, having appealed to those unto whom he wrote concerning the truth of sound doctrine, and that no lie is of the Truth, he goes on to express more fully what he had in his eye and would bring forward” (Pierce). Note well the particular test here applied, the standard by which preachers are to be measured, namely the person of Christ—the liar is the one who denies Him. Christ is Himself the Truth, and therefore anyone who disowns Him is a false prophet. If we form false conceptions of Him, we cannot rightly apprehend any part of the Truth. “The denial of Christ is the greatest of all sins. To deny Him is not merely to turn away from a truth, but is the forsaking of the Truth. And to change the centre is to alter the whole circumference. If, then, Christ is not the centre of our life, no part of our life can be right. To break with Christ, therefore, is to part with Truth, and of all lies that which denies that Jesus is the Christ is the greatest” (L. Palmer). “What think ye of Christ is the test, To try both your state and your scheme; You cannot be right in the rest Unless you think rightly of Him.” The denial that Jesus is the Christ was the fearful and fatal sin of the Jewish nation. They rejected the claims of Jesus of Nazareth to be the Messiah promised in the Old Testament Scriptures: “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not” (John 1:11). In so doing, they sinned against the clearest light and fullest evidence. All the predicted marks were found in Him, but they were blinded by prejudice—from false teaching, their own conceits, and worldliness. He was the true light, but they, through their blindness, perceived it not: “For this people’s heart is waxed gross... their eyes they have closed” (Matthew 13:15). But to deny that Jesus is the Christ has yet both a deeper meaning and wider scope. It is necessary for us carefully to consider exactly what is connoted by “the Christ.” It means “The Anointed,” and as Candlish pointed out, “This appellation marks not only a certain relation to the Jewish Scriptures, but also, and still more, a relation to God, whose Christ He was.” This raises the question, For what was He anointed? During the Old Testament economy, prophets, priests and kings were set apart to their several offices by being anointed with oil. Therein they foreshadowed the Redeemer, who was the “Christ” or Anointed One from the moment of His birth (Luke 2:11) until His death (Romans 8:34). In this official character the Lord Jesus proclaimed Himself at the very beginning of His public ministry: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.. And He began to say unto them, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears” (Luke 4:18, Luke 4:21). The blessed Spirit had anointed Him to be the Prophet, Priest and King of His people, and it is to designate Him as bearing these offices that He is called “Christ.” He was owned as such by His disciples (John 1:41; John 4:29) and by God (Acts 2:36). Thus, to receive or reject Jesus as the Christ has respect to all His offices, and consequently to all the blessing which we may obtain or forfeit by accepting or refusing Him. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 36: 001.32. CHAPTER 32 ======================================================================== Chapter 32 ANTICHRISTS 1 John 2:22-23 What an immense amount of unedifying and worthless rubbish has been written on “the antichrist”! Yet that is hardly a thing to be wondered at, since it supplies an object which makes a strong appeal to lovers of the bizarre and sensational. Moreover, it is a subject which offers an opportunity for every conceited tyro to pose as a “deep student of prophecy.” Almost endless have been the conjectures as to the identity of “the antichrist:” whether an evil system or a separate individual; and if the latter, whether he has yet appeared on the stage of human action, or whether his advent is yet future. The Reformers and almost all of the Puritans held that “the man of sin” (which they regard as another title of this infamous character) signified the Papacy. Later, some who claimed to be more enlightened were quite sure that Napoleon Bonaparte was this son of perdition. Influenced by his early teachers and associations, this writer once deemed himself qualified to write a book of three hundred pages thereon (long since out of print), but trusts he has grown wiser with the passing of the years. During the last three decades many others have speculated upon the personality of “the antichrist.” Not a few who were regarded as eminent “Bible teachers” insisted that the Kaiser of Germany filled this iniquitous role, but when the closing years of his career falsified their theorizings, Mussolini (as “the restorer of the old Roman empire”) became their choice; then as he began to wane in power and be eclipsed by another, Hitler was preferred. Now those men of evil renown have been called to meet their God, Stalin has occupied the prophetic limelight. And so, we suppose, it will continue to the end, for human nature changes not, either in its arrogance, blindness, gullibility or refusal to acknowledge its ignorance. “Vain man would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass’s colt” (Job 11:12). There ever have been, and doubtless will continue to be unto the close of this world’s history, men who posed as being wise above that which is written, and a flock of admirers will credit their pretensions and receive as oracles their wild and profitless theorizings. Disregarding all speculations and controversies upon prophecies which may or may not bear upon the subject (for example, those in Daniel and the Revelation, to which so many appeal), let us concentrate upon the term itself. The actual word “antichrist” occurs only in John’s epistles. In other connections the prefix “anti” is used in various senses: e.g. over against, contrary to, a substitute for. Thus, abstractedly considered, “antichrist” might refer either to one who pretended to be the Messiah or to one who openly opposed Him: a pseudo Christ or a rival. It is by carefully observing how the term is used by the apostle and what he predicated thereof that we must determine its sense. It is true that our Lord announced, “Many shall come in My name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many,” which He explained as “there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders” (Matthew 24:5, Matthew 24:24), but that is nothing to the point of our present inquiry—we consider that history shows those predictions were fulfilled in the first century A.D. First, John had said, “ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists ... They went out from us, but they were not of us” (1 John 2:18-19). There we see that the early Christians had been forewarned that the Gospel of Christ would be opposed, that there were many such opposers by the close of the first century, and that such were apostates. “And hence we learn that antichrist is not a single person, but many: antichrist in the first clause is explained by antichrists in the latter” (J. Gill). Second, 1 John 2:22, identifies those antichrists by describing them as liars against the Truth and repudiators of the Christ of God. Third, John affirmed, “And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist” (1 John 4:3). As “the spirit of the world” (1 Corinthians 2:12) has reference to that principle of carnal reason and gratification which regulates its subjects, so “the spirit of antichrist” signifies that evil influence which produces hostility to Christ. Finally, he informs us “For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist” (2 John 1:7). “From this it is clear that John understood by the word all those who denied that Jesus is the Messiah” (Barnes). “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?” (1 John 2:22). To deny—either implicitly or explicitly—that Jesus is the Christ is to say that He is not the Messiah, the One announced and promised by the prophets of old. Second, it is to repudiate Him as the one appointed and endued by God to be the sole but sufficient Saviour of sinners. Third, it is the rejection of His person and official work, and that is a sin of the highest magnitude: “whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God” (2 John 1:9). As Gill remarked “The one who denied that Jesus is the Christ is not the only liar in the world, but he is the greatest of liars; this is a consummate lie, being opposed to a glaring truth.” It is the gainsaying of a fact clear and indisputable. It is opposed to the witness of the angels at His incarnation, and to that of His forerunner. It is opposed to the teaching of Him who is the Truth itself, for He clearly manifested Himself to be the Messiah. It flies in the face of His miraculous credentials, which authenticated His claim. It is contrary to the declaration of His apostles, who were eye-witnesses of His miracles, and to the sure Word of God Himself. The denial that Jesus is the Christ is a sin committed in many different ways and in varying degrees of culpability. Unitarians, who directly and explicitly repudiate His Godhead, are not the only liars and antichrists. There are many opposers in Christendom who indirectly and implicitly deny the Christ of God by devising a false Christ from their perverted imaginations. Thus, Pelagians, and in a lesser degree Arminians, are guilty of this horrible crime, for they transfer to the creature almost all the honour which rightly belongs to the Redeemer alone. And as Calvin pertinently remarked, “So the Papists at this day, setting up free will in opposition to the grace of the Holy Spirit, ascribing a part of their righteousness and salvation to the merits of works, feigning for themselves innumerable advocates, by whom they render God propitious to them, have a sort of fictitious Christ I know not what: but the living and genuine image of God which shines forth in Christ they deform by their wicked inventions: they lessen His power, subvert and pervert His office. Christ is denied whenever those things which belong to Him are taken away from Him.” “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.” Those terrible names of opprobrium cannot but fill the renewed heart with holy horror. Yet no terms of infamy and condemnation can be too strong to designate the opposers and blasphemers of the Christ of God. To deny that Jesus is the Christ is to repudiate His virgin birth, His vicarious character, His redemptive work, for those things were predicated of the Messiah. In the preceding chapter we explained that “the Christ” means “the Anointed One” and expresses His threefold office. Thus any man who denies that Jesus is the great Prophet of the Church, the infallible Teacher, the essential Word of God, is an antichrist—an arch-heretic. Anyone who denies that Jesus is the great High Priest, the sole Mediator between God and men, by whose one perfect offering He has perfected for ever the sanctified, is an antichrist—His open antagonist. Anyone who denies that Jesus is the King of the Church, the only one who has the right to command and be obeyed, is an antichrist—His avowed enemy. Yet this is not all that is included: “he is antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son.” The Messiahship of Christ is not an isolated fact: lying behind it is the all-important truth of the Holy Trinity. The denial of Christ is, at the same time, a repudiation of the mysterious and ineffable union which there is between the members of the Godhead. There is a most intimate and unique relation subsisting between the Father and the Son, one which is entirely beyond finite comprehension expressed in such terms as “the man ... My fellow, saith the Lord of hosts” (Zechariah 13:7), so that “all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father” (John 5:23), for, as He expressly declared, “I and Father are one” (John 10:30)—co-essential, co-eternal, co-glorious; “His own Son” (Romans 8:32) in a way that the regenerate are not: really, though incomprehensibly, “His own Son.” Now unless Christ be owned in this highest relation, He is virtually denied in all. Scripture presents the Father and the Son in eternity past, as engaged in mutual council (Zechariah 6:13). “A great covenant is negotiated. The Father and the Son, with the Spirit, are, if one may dare say so, in solemn conference together. From the bosom of the Father, in which He is dwelling evermore, the Son receives a commission to come forth. “He is appointed Heir of all things. Creation is assigned to Him as His proper work. All providence is to be His care; and, above all, the providence of this spot of earth. Here on this earth, from among a fallen race, He is to purchase for Himself, and for His Father, at a great price, a seed given Him by the Father, and to share with Him the blessedness of His being the Son. So it is announced between the Father and the Son from everlasting; the Holy Spirit being a party to the arrangement, as He is to have a large share in carrying it out. And so, accordingly, in the fullness of time, the Son appears among men. He appears as the Son: on the Father’s behalf, entrusted with His Father’s commission, to be about His Father’s business. He is the Son not merely in respect of His being the Holy Jesus, receiving proofs and pledges of God’s fatherly presence and approval, as any holy being might. He is the Son also, and chiefly, in respect of the work or office with a view to which He is the Christ. He is the Son consenting to be the Father’s Servant, and as such anointed for the accomplishment of the Father’s purpose. Only, therefore, in so far as you acknowledge Jesus as the Christ, do you really receive Him as the Son. “And denial, whether practical or doctrinal, of the proposition that Jesus is the Christ, is tantamount to a disowning of His personality as the Son. It is only when you recognize Him as anointed to do His Father’s will in the sacrifice of Himself, that you really own Him as the Son. Such, then, is the importance and significancy of the proposition that Jesus is the Christ, considered in itself; and such its bearing on the owning of His person as the Saviour and as the Son. It is a proposition which so vitally affects the essential character of Him to whom it relates, that the denial of it is virtually a denial of Himself ... For, in a word, the completeness of this illustrious personage depends on a full and adequate recognition of His double relation: to us as sinners, as our Jesus; and to God the Father, as His Son. Set aside His being Christ: the anointed Sacrificer and anointed Sacrifice, the anointed Priest and anointed Victim—the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world... and we have neither any Jesus fit to be our Saviour, nor any Son of God worth the owning... Hence he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ is not only a liar: he is antichrist. And being antichrist—setting himself against the Christ—he, as antichrist, denies the Father and the Son” (R. Candlish). Let none aspire to more “liberality and charity” than the one who was favoured to lean on the Master’s bosom: those who are opposed to the person, doctrine, gospel, and kingdom of Christ are liars and antichrists. Those who array themselves against Him and hold doctrines which are hostile to His Godhead, His official character, His redemptive work, are His adversaries. Yet there is no truth so sacred and well attested, but there have ever been those who controverted it. Some have denied the Saviour’s deity, some have explained away the reality and uniqueness of His humanity, and so the reality of His sufferings; while others set themselves against His headship and kingly authority; yet professing themselves to be and retaining the name of Christians, imposing their falsehoods on their deluded followers. In their bitter antagonism to the Lord Jesus, we may discover something more than an ebullition of human depravity, namely the agency of Satan. It is the enmity of that old serpent the Devil against the woman’s Seed. It demonstrates his age-long hatred of Christ and His gospel. “He is antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son.” How little is this realized today! Scriptural views of the Father cannot be ours if we err concerning the Son. “No man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him” (Matthew 11:27). The Father cannot be known apart from the Son, for He is the One who has “declared Him” (John 1:18) or made Him known. There is such an ineffable union between Them that He could aver, “he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.... I am in the Father, and the Father in Me” (John 14:9, John 14:11). Where Christ be denied, the whole revelation of God in and through Him (Hebrews 1:1-2; 2 Corinthians 5:19) is set aside. “As God has given Himself to us to be enjoyed only in Christ, He is elsewhere sought for in vain; or (if anyone prefers what is clearer) as in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Deity, there is no God apart from Him. It hence follows that Turks, Jews, and such as are like them, have a mere idol and not the true God. For by whatever titles they may honour the God which they worship, still, as they reject Him without whom they cannot come to God, and in whom God has really manifested Himself to us, they have but some creature or fiction of their own” (Calvin). “Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father” (1 John 2:23). How wide and sweeping is this solemn statement! No matter what his profession and pretensions, if he in any way denies the Son he cuts himself off from the Father. The Father can only be known (John 17:3), approached (John 14:6), worshipped (1 Peter 2:5) and glorified (Colossians 3:17) in and through His incarnate Son. Despite their boasted orthodoxy, Jesus Christ said to the Jews, “Ye neither know Me, nor My Father; if ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also” (John 8:19). To be without the One is to be without the Other. That is abundantly demonstrated in heathendom: their religions are Godless because they are Christless! In like manner, all who acknowledge “the Supreme Being,” “the Architect of the universe,” or even “the Almighty,” and at the same time refuse the Mediator, believe in one who has no existence. Moreover, if wrong views be entertained of the Son, erroneous conceptions of the Father are necessarily entertained. If Christ be the Son only by adoption, God is not His Father. If He be Son merely by office, equally so is the Father. If He be Son only by incarnation or resurrection, the Father is denied. “Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father” as his “Father.” This at once gives the lie to one of the most popular and widely accepted errors of the last century, namely “the universal fatherhood of God.” In the spiritual and highest sense God is the Father of none save of Christ and His redeemed: “For ye [namely the saints] are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26). Where there be no faith in Christ Jesus there is no spiritual sonship, and where that be absent, God cannot rightfully be regarded as our Father. Christ made that very plain when He exposed the empty boast of the unbelieving Jews, who claimed, “we have one Father, God,” and to whom He replied, “If God were your Father, ye would love Me” (John 8:41-42). How can one who despises and rejects the Son have God for his Father—have a filial relation to Him—when there is no bond of union between them? The Father thinks far too highly of His Son to love any who hate Him. He will not set a premium upon those who so grievously insult Him by disdaining His Beloved, for “Him hath God the Father sealed” (John 6:27). “But he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also” (1 John 2:23). We have placed that sentence in italics, for so it is found in the Authorized Version. As most of our readers are aware, that is to indicate that such words are not found in the Greek, but have been supplied by the translators. This instance serves to manifest the scrupulous fairness of those who produced that edition of the Bible: because it was found in some of the ancient manuscripts, they gave it a place; as it was omitted by others, they marked it as doubtful. The Revised Version includes it in the text without any question, and, we believe, warrantably so. The editorial note in Calvin’s commentary says, “The words are found in most of the manuscripts, and in most of the versions, and in many of the Fathers. Besides, they wholly comport with the usual style of the apostle, whose common practice it was to state things positively and negatively, and vice versa. See 1 John 5:12.” A. Barnes tells us that this passage “is found in the Vulgate, the Syriac, the Ethiopian, the Armenian and Arabic versions; and in the critical editions of Griesbach, Tittman, and Hahn. It is probable, therefore, that it should be regarded as a genuine portion of the sacred text.” Gill pointed out that the second half of 1 John 2:23 “confirms and illustrates what is before said: for as he who denies the sonship of Christ cannot hold the paternity of God, so he who owns the sonship of Christ, the second person, maintains the paternity of the first; for those two are correlates and mutually put or take away each other. No mention is made of the Spirit, because, as yet, no controversy had arisen concerning Him.” To which we would add: in Scripture, repetition is always for the purpose of emphasis, and often the same thing is stated both negatively and positively (as in 1 John 1:6-7) in order to impress us more deeply with that which is of first importance—as many of our Lord’s weightiest utterances were prefaced with a double “verily.” The fundamental truth of our present verse cannot be too clearly and emphatically stated or too frequently inculcated: that only by faith’s acceptance of Christ can we obtain any saving knowledge of God; and that all who believingly receive the Lord Jesus have in fact become the sons and daughters of the Almighty, and are made heirs of eternal life. “But he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.” “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us unto God” (1 Peter 3:18). By Christ all that believe are united to the Father, so that He could say, “I ascend unto My Father, and your Father” (John 20:17). As there is a most intimate relation between the Father and the Son, so there is in the doctrine and knowledge of Them. And as we cannot have the One without the Other, so on Christ’s becoming our Saviour we are received into the Father’s favour. The Father gives Himself to us in His Son, and by receiving the Latter we receive the Former. “He hath the Father” for his everlasting Portion: to commune with, to enjoy, to supply all his need. Thus, not only is the honour of Christ involved in our apprehensions of Him, but our blessings and privileges are bound up therein. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 37: 001.33. CHAPTER 33 ======================================================================== Chapter 33 THE APPLICATION 1 John 2:24 In our present verse John proceeded to make what the Puritans were wont to designate the “improvement” of the subject under discussion, by which they did not mean “to better,” but rather to employ to advantage. In present-day language, the apostle made a practical application of what he had written in 1 John 2:18-23. There he had treated of antichrists, and had explained how it was that believers had been preserved from those deceivers: they had received an unction from the Holy One, by which they had obtained the true knowledge of Divine and spiritual things. Consequently, he addressed them not as those who were ignorant, but as those who were personally acquainted with the Truth. Then, for their fuller information and guidance, he had plainly defined what an antichrist was. Now he made an appeal unto his readers which was based upon the foregoing. In so doing he turned from the false to the true. In the Greek the transition is more marked, for the pronoun “you” is placed at the beginning of the sentence, for the purpose of emphasis: “Ye therefore what ye have heard from the beginning, in you let it abide: if in you should abide what from the beginning ye heard, also ye in the Son and in the Father shall abide.” Our present text, then, is an exhortation unto the Lord’s people to persevere in the faith, to part not with the Truth, to heed not those who sought to entice them away from it. Thus we see once more that it was John’s aim not only to inform and establish his readers, but also to move them unto the performance of duty. That was the design of all the Epistle writers: urging the saints not to be content with a bare theoretical knowledge of the Gospel, but to seek to get their hearts fired therewith, so that faith and love should be active, and the works of holiness produced. They constantly intermingled doctrinal instruction with moral injunctions, so that the saints should be neither barren nor unfruitful in their knowledge of the Lord Jesus. So again in what immediately follows, for John at once passes from exhortation to remind them of the great promise, and then strikes afresh a note of warning. Therein we may perceive the spiritual wisdom of the apostles in holding so carefully the balance of Truth, and the admirable example which they have left preachers and writers to follow: to weave together that which illumines the mind and that which calls for the action of the will. “Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning.” As intimated above in the literal translation of our verse, the words “abide,” “remain” and “continue” are the same in the original, and had a uniform rendition been given the repetition had shown more clearly the deep importance which John attached to this precept—a case where exactness was unwarrantably sacrificed to variety. The expression “let that abide in you” is designedly antithetical to “the truth is not in us” or “in you” (1 John 1:8; 1 John 2:4), which means far more than that they were ignorant or unacquainted with it, namely that the Truth was not present as a vital principle in the soul, as an animating force in their lives. It is not sufficient to hear sound preaching and become mentally acquainted with God’s Word: the same must find a permanent lodgment in the heart if we are really to be benefited by it. Human nature being what it is—weak and unstable—there is a real danger of relinquishing the Truth under pressure of persecution for the Gospel’s sake, or through being absorbed with the “cares and riches and pleasures of this life” (Luke 8:14), and thus being only a thorny-ground hearer; yea, such is certain to be the outcome unless we be Divinely preserved—by God’s stirring us up to guard against the same, and by a diligent performance of our duty. “Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip,” or as the margin renders it, “run out as leaky vessels” (Hebrews 2:1). If they do so, the fault is entirely their own, through failing to give the more earnest heed to them. It is by being believed that the Gospel becomes efficacious, and “it cannot be believed unless it is understood; it cannot be understood, unless it be attended to. Truth must be kept before the mind in order to its producing an appropriate effect; and how can it be kept before the mind, but by our giving heed to it?” (J. Brown). There needs to be a serious and diligent fixing of the thoughts upon that which we hear, a bowing and bending of the will to yield unto it, a placing of the affections upon it, a bringing of the entire man into conformity with it. Knowledge of the Word must be accompanied by faith therein, obedience thereto, and all other due respects which in any way concern it. Otherwise, it will soon pass out of the mind, like water out of a leaky utensil. “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:1-2). “Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning,” namely that Gospel which you have embraced and confessed, that Gospel wherein the person and offices, the atoning sacrifice, and justifying righteousness, of the God-man Mediator is proclaimed, and wherein the example which He has left His disciples to follow is made known. The Gospel and its ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s supper contain a full revelation of the same. As Paul declared to the Galatians, “before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently [plainly] set forth crucified among you” (1 John 3:1). He is the glorious Object exhibited therein. The Gospel is the chariot in which He rides in His majesty. It is the glass in which He shines forth, by means of which He is seen by the eye of faith, through which His glory is reflected, and by which the adoring beholder is “changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18). The excellency, dignity and pre-eminence of His person are there set forth. His fathomless love and abounding grace are there published. His perfect and vicarious obedience, His everlasting righteousness, His cleansing blood, the abiding efficacy of His sacrifice, are expressly declared. His finished work, His blessed victory over the powers of darkness, His triumph over death and the grave, are plainly announced. The Gospel makes known the unsearchable riches of Christ, the glorious inheritance which He purchased for His people, His coming again to take them to be for ever with Himself. “Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning.” Here we see how the apostle magnified the great ordinance of preaching, by indicating the way in which the good news had been communicated unto them. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). Christ Himself was anointed to preach the Gospel (Isaiah 61:1), and commenced His ministry by so doing (Luke 4:21-22). Concerning Him, the Father said, “Hear ye Him” (Matthew 17:5). When He had completed His ministry, He committed the same work unto His ambassadors, saying, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15), and ever since it has pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe (1 Corinthians 1:21). Now it is a very great favour to hear the Gospel proclaimed, to sit under the ministry of one who exalts the Son of God as the sole and all-sufficient Saviour of sinners. “Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance” (Psalms 89:15); whereas those who know it not sit in darkness and in the region of the shadow of death (Matthew 4:16). Still better is it to know it in the heart and understand the reality of it. But best of all for us to abide in the acknowledgment of the Truth and for it to abide in us as a regulating principle. Every privilege carries with it a corresponding obligation, and therefore those who treat the Gospel lightly incur deeper guilt. “For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required” (Luke 12:48). Solemn indeed is the case of those who hear sermon after sermon that faithfully and searchingly warns them of the wrath to come and bids them flee from the same, yet regard them as no more to be remembered than ordinary discourses. Parlous the condition of all who listen to the preaching of God’s Word merely as a tale that is told, to be no more affected and influenced by it, to go on in their giddy way as though they had never heard it; to lay aside all thoughts of it as that which little concerns them; to stifle convictions, withstand reproofs, neglect exhortations, refuse the duties enjoined, reject the offers made, and continue in the very sins they hear reproved. Such close their ears to the truth, shut Christ out of their hearts, are possessed of Satan, and heap to themselves wrath against the day of wrath. “See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused Him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven” (Hebrews 12:25). . Then “let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning.” Of Lydia we are told, “whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul” (Acts 16:14). She not only listened to but gave heed unto the same, with readiness and resolution. In due proportion to our valuation of the Truth will be our earnestness and efforts to make it our own. “If thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God” (Proverbs 2:3-5). Silver and gold lie not on the surface of the ground to be picked up by any lazy person, but can be reached and secured only by hard work and persevering toil. Likewise in order to learn God’s will as He has revealed it the Scriptures must be searched (John 5:39), searched daily (Acts 17:11), one part carefully compared with another (1 Corinthians 2:13). And in order for that Word to quicken, govern, and make us fruitful, it has to be prayed over, meditated upon day and night (Psalms 1:2-3), made the food of the soul (Jeremiah 15:16), and put into practice (James 1:22), and thereby are we “throughly furnished unto all good works.” This exhortation, “Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning,” is no casual or trivial one, but one that in varied language occurs and recurs throughout the Scriptures. “Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life” (Deuteronomy 4:9, and cf. Deuteronomy 4:23; Deuteronomy 8:11). “Let thine heart retain My words ... Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of My mouth.” “Take fast hold of instruction: let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life” (Proverbs 4:4-5, Proverbs 4:13): that “Take fast hold of” implies that there must be deep interest, determination of purpose, perseverance of effort. “My son, attend to My words; incline thine ear unto My sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart” (Proverbs 4:20-21), yes, “in the midst of thine heart” and not merely on the threshold of it: there only will it be operative, for “out of the heart are the issues of life.” “Let these sayings sink down into your ears” (Luke 9:44), by storing them in your memory and ruminating on the same, which is what the mother of our Lord did: “Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19). That was in sharp and blessed contrast with the rocky-ground hearers, who though they “receive the word with joy” yet “have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away” (Luke 8:13). It is not enough to believe or receive the Truth: it must have a permanent place in the soul. As Paul informed the Colossians, Christ would yet present them unblamable and unreprovable to the Father: “If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel” (Colossians 1:23). In order thereto we need to make the Gospel our constant study, to become thoroughly acquainted with the Scriptures, and cordially assent to them, to receive the Truth in the love of it, to feed daily thereon, so that our judgments are formed by its teaching, our hearts cast into the mould of it, our consciences directed by it. Thereby shall we be enriched with true spiritual wisdom and knowledge, and be enabled to walk acceptably before God and adorn the doctrine we profess. “Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning.” The “therefore” has in view what the apostle treated of in 1 John 2:18-23, and points a solemn warning, as well as presses an urgent duty. Alas, the majority of professing Christians have nothing more than a few notions floating about in their heads, and consequently they are easily swayed by any plausible deceiver, carried hither and thither by every wind that blows, tossed about like a ship with no ballast in its hold. It is not by deliberate intention that so many depart from the faith and give heed to seducing spirits, but through inattention to what they heard at the beginning—because of their indolence and failure to make the Truth their own. The seed which remains on the surface of the ground is quickly devoured by the fowls of the air: only as it becomes “the engrafted word” is it able to save our souls (James 1:21); and in order thereto we must be able to say with David, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee” (Psalms 119:11). Only as God’s Word is stored and treasured in the heart will the heart be preserved from apostasy. “Let that therefore abide in you:” as a peculiar treasure, as a welcome guest, as your guide by day and companion by night. Imbibe it as the dry ground does the refreshing showers. Yield your entire being to its sway, so that it nourishes your soul, enlightens your understanding, purifies your affections, regulates your will. Let it so abide in you, that it is reduced to practice. Let it abide in you by the exercise of faith, by constant contemplation, by affectionate esteem. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom” (Colossians 3:16). The word “dwell” there means “to keep house,” to have authority over its arrangements, as having the right to control. We are to be governed by it, to receive our instructions and directions from it. The word “richly” signifies “largely,” as a whole, in its utmost compass—in contrast with sparsely or fragmentally. Make it your food and drink, your sustenance and strength, your comfort and joy: only by so doing will it have its proper influence over you. Then will the word abide in you not merely as a fact in the brain, but as that which is actually realized in your experience. “Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning.” The second clause conveys a double idea. First, it is an exhortation having the same force as that of Revelation 3:11, “Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown,” or shame you by despoiling you of your spiritual glory. You need to be constantly awake and on the alert, for the Devil will seek to rob your soul of that which is more precious than gold or rubies. If, in view of the fact that “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived,” Timothy needed the injunction, “But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of” (2 Timothy 3:14), much more so do the writer and the reader. Having bought the Truth, sell it not. Our adversary, the Devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour; but every believer ought to be able to say, “by the word of Thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer” (Psalms 17:4). But in order thereto he must store up that Word in his mind, in his affections, in his conscience, so that it is ever ready to hand when needed—as in the case of our Lord when tempted of Satan. Second, this exhortation imports, Forsake not for any novelties those things you heard at the beginning and which were blessed to your conversion. Be not like the Athenians, who “spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing” (Acts 17:21); but rather “ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls” (Jeremiah 6:16). Of old God complained that false prophets caused His people “to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up” by His appointment (Jeremiah 18:15). So too He foretold that a day would come in this Christian era “when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears” (2 Timothy 4:3). It was because of this evil tendency that we find the apostles went about “confirming the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith” (Acts 14:22). “Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning” means, Give it not up for any new doctrine propagated by antichrists, but cherish the Truth and incorporate it into your life. Spiritual progress, or growth in grace, does not mean that you will ever outgrow the Gospel, yet how many come to despise foundational truth and prefer human speculations on prophecy! “If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.” There is much difference of opinion among the commentators as to whether the “if” should be regarded as a conditional or a declaratory one; personally, we consider it is both. That it is conditional is clear from the verb employed in the last clause: it is not “if that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also do continue in the Son,” but “ye also shall” do so—providing you meet the required stipulation the latter will follow. In other words, the Truth remaining and operating in the soul as a vital principle, exerting a practical power in the life, is the means of maintaining communion with the Son and the Father. As there can be no knowledge of Christ except through or by means of the Gospel, so there can be no fellowship with Him but by believingly and adoringly cleaving to the Gospel. As Christ will not walk with those who pursue a course of self-will, neither will He have any concord with one who gives ear to His enemies and treads the path of error. Only by faith in and obedience to the Word is preserved our experiential union with the Lord. On the other hand, in view of the context it is equally plain that the “if” of our present verse is evidential or demonstrative. Speaking of some who had apostatized from the faith John declared, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us” (1 John 2:19): it was the turning of their backs upon the Truth which made it manifest that they never had any vital union with Christ. So too taught the Lord Himself: unto those who professed to believe in Him, He said: “If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed” (John 8:31); that is, your perseverance in the faith will demonstrate you to be such in truth—not that they became His disciples by so doing, but that they supplied evidence that they were such as He owned. And again, He averred: “If a man love Me, he will keep My words” (John 14:23), for true love ever endeavours to please its object. If there be no keeping of His words, no cleaving fast to His Gospel, no walking according to His precepts, no living upon His promises, then the claim to love Him is a false one. Thus steadfastness in the faith and obedience are the marks of our saving oneness with the Son. “Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning.” That clearly presupposes that they had previously received the Truth in the love of it, but that they are exhorted to fix and fasten the same “as a nail in a sure place”—by mixing faith therewith, setting their affections upon it and delighting therein. That which you received at the time of your conversion concerning the person, work and salvation of Christ must be the touchstone by which all that you hear and read is to be tested. Great will be the benefits from so doing: thereby you will be fortified against false teachers. As one pithily put it, “Revise the old Gospel and you devise another.” We must reserve for the opening paragraphs of the next chapter a further remark on the last half of our verse. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 38: 001.34. CHAPTER 34 ======================================================================== Chapter 34 THE PROMISE 1 John 2:25 “Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning” (1 John 2:24) means, in the light of the context, Suffer no enemy of Christ to rob you of the Gospel which was blessed to your conversion; but rather see to it that it becomes more deeply rooted in your hearts. It is of the utmost importance that the perfect revelation of God which has been made in and by Christ should have a permanent dwelling in your souls. Make it your deep concern that it abides in your minds and regulates your thoughts; in your consciences, to convict of sin and restrain it, and by stirring you up to the practice of holiness; in your affections, melting you with sorrow for sin, promoting a higher esteem of Christ and spiritual things; in your wills, bringing them into compliance with those things which are pleasing to God. Let it abide just as you first received it, living thereon. You need not any new revelation from God, but rather a better understanding and closer conformity to what He has vouchsafed to you. “If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father.” Here John names one of the benefits derived from obedience to the foregoing precept, namely maintenance of fellowship with God. Many are the blessings, great the advantages, which issue from a steadfast adherence to the hope of the Gospel and the ordering of our lives thereby. First, it secures us against being deceived by the plausible lies of false teachers. He who feeds upon and delights in wholesome and sweet fruits will refuse that which is bitter and poisonous. He who drinks from the River of life, “clear as crystal,” will disdain foul and brackish water. Second, it provides sure evidence of our saving oneness with Christ, and preserves and promotes our communion with Him. The privilege mentioned in the second half of the verse follows, obviously and necessarily, from the performance of the duty enjoined in the first half. The one cannot be without the other: where the Gospel is believingly received and affectionately cherished in the heart, there is fellowship with Christ; but where the former occurs not, the latter is unknown. The Lord Himself joined both together when He said, “If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you” (John 15:7). It is by means of the Word that we receive Christ into our understandings, and by exercising faith thereon that He dwells in our hearts, and thereby we continue in fellowship with Him. The Son is the Medium and Mediator by whom we are one with the Father. Other passages make known further results of the Word abiding in the soul. For instance, “The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide” (Psalms 37:31). As Spurgeon expressed it, “The best thing in the best place, producing the best results.” Where holiness is loved and obedience is predominant we are delivered from the slippery paths of sin and error. “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee” (Psalms 119:11), for taking heed thereto the heart is cleansed (Psalms 119:2). “My son, forget not My law; but let thine heart keep My commandment: for length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee” (Proverbs 3:1-2). Herein lies our interest, not less than our obligation. Long life is the highest earthly good, especially so when peace be added. “My son, let them not depart from thine eyes: keep sound wisdom and discretion: so shall they be life unto thy soul, and grace to thy neck” (Proverbs 3:21-22). If the Divine precepts be kept as thy much-loved treasure, as thy daily companion and guide, thou shalt find them to quicken thy soul and adorn thy profession. “If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7), for then our desires are regulated spiritually, and we ask not amiss. If the Word dwell in us richly “all wisdom” is ours (Colossians 3:16), strength too, and we “overcome the wicked one” (1 John 2:14). “And this is the promise that He hath promised us, even eternal life.” (1 John 2:25) The commentators differ as to whether this statement is to be understood as receiving its fulfillment in the present or in the future: whether it has reference to that which is made good in the believer’s experience in this life, or to the celestial bliss in the life to come. That this verse is closely linked to the one immediately preceding is intimated by its opening word. There, two distinct things are in view: an exhortation, and an incentive to heed the same. Personally, it seems to us that the double idea is continued: the precept being enforced, and the injunction amplified. It is by the Truth remaining and operating in us that we have communion with God in Christ, and thereby the promise is realized now, for “this is life eternal, that they might know Thee [i.e. the triune Jehovah] the only true God, and Jesus Christ [the alone Mediator], whom Thou hast sent” (John 17:3). As to the future, heaven is reached only by those who hold fast the hope of the Gospel and abide in Christ. “The sum of what is said is, that we cannot live otherwise than by nourishing to the end the seed of life sown in the heart. John insists much on this point, that not only the beginning of a blessed life is to be found in the knowledge of Christ, but also its perfection” (Calvin). It will be evident to the careful student that our perception of the precise connection between and the relation of 1 John 2:24-25 will largely turn upon what we understand to be signified by and included in “eternal life.” As we shall show below, that expression has a twofold force and application—a present and a future one—and in both senses the promise of it supplies a strong encouragement for believers to heed the injunction to let the Truth abide and work within them. For it is by adhering to the Gospel that fellowship with Christ is maintained, and in that fellowship “eternal life” is experienced in the soul. Equally so it is by faith’s keeping constantly in view the joy set before us in the promise that we are encouraged and strengthened to persevere in the faith. “As surely as you continue in the faith of the Gospel, you may be fully persuaded that this eternal life is actually bestowed on you, belongs to you, and shall be enjoyed by you, in uninterrupted communion with the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in the house eternal in the heavens, for ever and ever” (S.E. Pierce). We shall now consider: the Promiser—“He;” the blessing announced—“eternal life;” the form of the announcement—by “promise;” and the implications thereof. “And this is the promise that He hath promised us.” Without a doubt, the pronoun refers to the Father. First, because that is the nearest antecedent, the One mentioned at the close of 1 John 2:24. Second, because of the “order and economy of the sacred Trinity in their operations and actings in the economy of grace. The Father plans all. He proposes all. He provides all. He promises all. He gives all. The Son works from the Father. He performs all. He acts all. He obtains all. The Holy Spirit, in the order and dispensation of grace witnesseth to all, and sets His seal to all the Father hath revealed and declared concerning His love in Christ Jesus to the elect; as also concerning the person and mediatorial work of our Lord Jesus Christ. So that it can be only that which belongs to the Father which is here asserted. It is a peculiar glory which is the very perfection of the sacred writers to keep up in all their discourses the trinity and proper distinction of the co-equal Persons in the Godhead; and also the order in which they act distinct one from the other; as also the distinct way and manner in which they operate in us, upon us, and within us” (S.E. Pierce). Let the reader note how this order is observed in Matthew 28:19; Ephesians 1:3-4; 1 Peter 1:2-3. Third, because of the clear testimony of 1 John 5:11, “God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.” The blessing announced is “eternal life,” which in the following Scriptures is spoken of as the present possession of all who savingly trust in Christ. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life,” “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life,” “I give unto them eternal life” (John 3:36; John 5:24; John 10:28). “God hath given to us eternal life” (1 John 5:11). On the other hand, eternal life is viewed as a future prospect in “he shall receive... in the world to come eternal life” (Mark 10:30), “Ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life” (Romans 6:22), “he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:8), “in the hope of eternal life” (Titus 1:2). Those two sets of passages need “rightly dividing,” and adjusting thus. The Christian now has eternal life in Divine promise, and therefore it is certain. He has a title and right to it, because the same has been purchased for him by Christ. He already has it in Christ (Colossians 3:3). He has it by faith, which is the substance of things hoped for. He has it in hope (Titus 3:7), which is a confident expectation of a future good, and therefore he rejoices therein. He has the earnest in the gift of the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 5:5). He has the seed (1 John 3:9) or beginning of it in the spiritual nature which he received at the new birth. But he has it not yet in full possession and fruition. We come now to consider the form in which the blessing is announced, namely by the Father’s promise. That is more than a purpose, a doctrinal declaration or prophetic prediction. His eternal purpose was something hid in Himself. A doctrinal declaration is a matter making known to us the Divine purpose or will. A prophecy is the foretelling of things yet to be and may concern that which is evil as much as that which is good. But a promise concerns only that which is good. Moreover, the accomplishment of a prophecy is dependent upon God’s power and veracity, but the making good of His promise is secured by His faithfulness and righteousness also. The Divine promises are so many assurances unto us of God’s solemn engagements, by which He has graciously bound Himself to do some good unto or bestow some blessing upon His people. They are so many certifications of His good pleasure concerning them. They declare that He will lavish upon them the riches of His grace, out of His own mere bounty, according to His royal benignity. They are the revealed testifications of His heart who loved them from all eternity and foreappointed all things for them and respecting them. That they might have a true, clear and spiritual knowledge of His good will and favour to them, God has been pleased to set the same before them in hundreds of promises scattered throughout His Word. The Divine promises, then, are so many declarations to remove some ill or to impart some good unto the objects upon whom God set His heart from all eternity. As such they are a most blessed manifestation of His love unto His saints. Speaking after the manner of men, there are three steps in connection with the operations of God’s love. The first, His inward purpose to exercise it; the last, the actual execution of His purpose; but in between there is the gracious making known of that purpose to the beneficiaries of it—so that they may be assured of and enjoy the same by faith’s anticipation before the realization thereof. While love is concealed we cannot be comforted therewith. Now God, who is “love,” not only loves His own, and will in due time fully display His love unto them, but in the interim He will have them informed of His benevolent designs, that even now they may rest in His love and stretch themselves comfortably upon His sure promises. Thereby each of them has reason to exclaim adoringly, “How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!” (Psalms 139:17), for His promises make evident to us that assertion, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil” (Jeremiah 29:11). The triune God is not only the Author and Giver of the promises, but is the sum and substance of them too. All the persons of the Godhead form the subject of these blessed assurances. God the Father is not only the Promiser, but the matter of the promises, for He declares unto His saints, “I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” Thus He gives Himself unto them, so that they may have a propriety in Him and all His perfections. God the Son, in His person, His fullness, His suitability and sufficiency, is the promise of His redeemed, being expressly termed “the mercy promised to our fathers” (Luke 1:72)—given not only for but to them. God the Spirit, in His sevenfold gifts and graces, is equally the promise of the Church: one of His titles is “that holy Spirit of promise” (Ephesians 1:13). Thus the triune Jehovah makes Himself over unto His elect. No wonder that an apostle says, “whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises” (2 Peter 1:4). Rightly did Spurgeon remark: “Greatness and preciousness seldom go together, but in this instance they are united in an exceeding degree: they come from a great God, they come to great sinners, they deal with great matters, and they work for us great results.” Everything in the way of blessing, temporal, spiritual and eternal, comes to the believer by way of promise. “And this is the promise that He hath promised us, even eternal life.” Observe the perfect harmony there is between this statement and “there [namely Zion] the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore” (Psalms 133:3)—how greatly they do err who assert that Israel’s portion was a temporal one only! This is the grand promise, the all-inclusive one, which embraces and comprehends all others. This is the sum of all felicity: of all blessings life is the most desired (Job 2:4), and therefore it is made the emblem of spiritual and eternal bliss. Many things are promised the children of God, but this chiefly, outstandingly; yea, all other things are but steps and means thereto. As eternal death contains the essence of all evils, so eternal life contains the essence of all good. As the good Shepherd assured His sheep, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Life there is to be regarded in its widest possible latitude, as including the whole of God’s so-great salvation. It is a being enstated in His favour for evermore. It consists of a satisfying knowledge of the triune God (John 17:3). It is the inward enjoyment of Him, and the conforming of the soul to the image of His Son. “And this is the promise that He hath promised us.” Why that duplicating of language? For a double reason: first, because the promise was made originally unto Christ as the covenant head of His people, and then to the believer in the Gospel; second, because “eternal life” has both a present and a future aspect. The former is in view in 2 Timothy 1:9, “Who hath saved us [in His eternal decree], and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began”—given to us in Him by solemn compact as our Surety. So again in Titus 1:2 : “In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.” There was not only a purpose of grace in the heart of God from all eternity, but a real donation of eternal life unto us. “But hath in due times manifested His word through preaching” (Titus 1:3): that which was secretly and eternally agreed upon between God and Christ is now made known in the Gospel. The Gospel message is, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” There too “everlasting life” is an expression which is to be regarded as comprehending everything which Christ purchased for His people. Briefly summarized, eternal life is union with God Himself, in, through, and by Christ. “It is the most perfect fruition of God Himself, and that for evermore” (Witsius). It begins with the Divine operation of grace in our hearts “to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). It continues in our beholding by faith the glory of the Lord as it shines in the Word, by which we are experientially and progressively “changed into the same image from glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18). It is consummated at Christ’s return, when He will “change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body” (Php 3:21); when in spirit and soul and body “we shall be like Him” (1 John 3:2). It eventuates in dwelling with Him for ever in heaven. But let us consider more definitely its essential elements. First, it is a life-in-law. When Adam transgressed he incurred a double death—a legal and an experiential one; being cast out of God’s favour and losing the impress of His moral image in his soul. Correspondingly, God’s elect are given both a legal and a spiritual life. It was to the former that Christ referred when He defined eternal life as “and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24). That is entirely a judicial thing. In His atoning work Christ did two things: He bore the sins of His people and suffered the penalty of the law; He wrought out for them a perfect righteousness by obeying the precept of the law. Having met all its requirements, Christ merited its reward, which is “life” (Romans 7:10; Romans 10:5), namely a standing accepted before God in His cloudless favour; and that life is eternal because it is the award of the “everlasting righteousness” which He brought in (Daniel 9:24). When the first Adam sinned, he forfeited God’s favour and came under the curse of the law; because the last Adam obeyed, He earned for His people the approbation of God and the blessing of the law. Thus they are not only delivered from condemnation or legal death, but they have legal life, which is justification (Romans 6:10-11). It is most important to see that the believer has life in Christ before he has life from Him. In Christ he has met every requirement of the law, and not only is there now no condemnation to him, but he has received “the gift of righteousness” and must “reign in life by one, Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17). In consequence of this, second, “eternal life” is a life ofgrace in the soul, for at the new birth the life of God is imparted and we are made vitally one with Christ. It is then that we pass “from death unto life” (1 John 3:14) experientially, being Divinely quickened. The faculties of the soul are restored to their proper exercise: the eyes of the understanding are opened to see the glory of God, the ears unstopped to hear His voice, the affections raised unto things above, the tongue loosed in praise and petition. And they are infallibly assured that “He who has begun a good work in you will perform [or “finish”] it” (Php 1:6). This too is an intrinsic part of the fruit of the Saviour’s travail (Titus 3:5-7). Third, eternal life is consummated in everlasting celestial bliss, for God “hath begotten us again unto a lively [living] hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us” (1 Peter 1:3-4). The spiritual life begun here is fully realized there. Now it is but the bud, then the lovely flower. “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now we know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Corinthians 13:12). Even now we are made partakers of the Divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), but then shall we be perfectly conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29), and eternally share with Him that “fullness of joy,” and those pleasures which are at God’s right hand. Thus “eternal life” includes a life-in-law, a life in the soul, a life in heaven; or justification, regeneration and glorification. A few words on the implications of the particular form in which eternal life is presented. First, since it be by Divine “promise,” then it is a free gift. A promise supposes that the party making it is under no obligation to grant, and that the one to whom it is made can urge no claim. It is entirely gratuitous (see Galatians 3:18, Galatians 3:21). That eternal life is a “gift” is asserted in John 10:28, Romans 6:23. Second, it implies acceptance on our part, and that as a “gift.” Yet the very act of receiving it involves certain exercises of soul. There must be repentance, or a being sensible of our guilt and the desire for its removal. The exercise of faith, or the extending of an empty hand to receive alms. Those exercises will necessarily be followed by obedience and a holy life. Where there be repentance, there is hatred of sin. Where there be faith, there is gratitude to the bounteous Giver and the longing to please Him. Third, everlasting bliss is also certain, for it is promised by Him who cannot lie. The unchanging faithfulness of God is the guarantee of endless felicity. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 39: 001.35. CHAPTER 35 ======================================================================== Chapter 35 SEDUCERS 1 John 2:26 “These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.” It is likely that quite a number of our readers will consider that there is little or no occasion for us to devote a chapter to our present subject, or, at any rate, that they feel in no need of anything thereon. If so, they are lamentably ignorant of their own hearts. Anyone who imagines himself to be so well taught and established in the Truth as to be immune from being imposed upon by error is in a dangerous state of mind, for he is possessed by a spirit of pride and self-sufficiency, and therefore very liable to fall a victim to the wiles of the Devil. It is written, “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). There is nothing which God hates more than pride, and where it be allowed He humbles. Pride is “the condemnation of the devil” (1 Timothy 3:6), being that which brought about his ruin. It was the insensate pride of our first parents—the desire to be as God—which plunged the whole race to destruction. Pride or self-confidence was the cause of Peter’s sad fall. Those who think highly of themselves affront God, and will be brought low. “Be not high minded, but fear” (Romans 11:20), dear reader. “When Majesty humbled Himself, shall the worm swell with pride?” (Bernard). The Christian is exhorted to “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21): to examine carefully and critically everything which he hears or reads, testing it by the Word of God. There is pressing need for him to do so, for there is much error, cleverly disguised, abroad today. As another has pointed out, “We may know a straight line, and be assured that there is in it no curve, or twist, or angle; and yet much that appears straight will be found to be irregular, and bent, and twisted, when tested by a measuring rod. In like manner we may know the Truth, and yet much that appears to be true will be found false when tested by the Truth Himself. The only perfect line of rectitude is Christ. All who are opposed to Him, in thought, or word, or deed, are liars; even as all watches are false which contradict the sun.” The Christ of many a pulpit is radically different from the Christ of God, yet because the preacher invests the figment of his own imagination with the name of “Christ,” many unlearned and unstable souls are deceived into supposing that it is the Christ of Scripture which is being set before them. It was so in John’s day, and that is why he devoted this section of his epistle to an exposure of the same, and warning the saints against them. The apostle was very jealous of the spiritual welfare of Christ’s sheep, and anxious to secure them from the fierce wolves. In his other epistles he revealed the loving spirit that animated him when he declared, “I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth” (2 John 1:4), and “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth” (3 John 1:4). How greatly distressed, then, must he have been to discover that some had forsaken the same and espoused error (1 John 2:19)! He therefore wrote to instruct and warn those who might be wavering. He knew that in the most enlightened there is much ignorance. In the most determined there is yet irresolution. In the most spiritual there is still corruption. Especially in the case of the newly converted was there a need for precept upon precept, line upon line. His long experience had shown him how many defects and dangers encompassed the most favoured and advanced believers, and how requisite it was ever to address unto them the word of exhortation. In the case before us it appears that he was very hopeful of success in thus addressing them. In 1 John 2:21, he intimates that he set the Truth before them encouraged by the belief that there would be found in them a readiness of mind to receive it; while in 1 John 2:27 he expresses the confidence that the anointing they had received would ensure their abiding in Christ. A “seducer” is one who, by means of his blandishments or sophistries, seeks to allure another from the path of rectitude. The ungodly are allured by their own lusts. “The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour: but the way of the wicked seduceth them” (Proverbs 12:26). Even in this life the righteous are “more excellent” than others, in their character, their spiritual possessions, and their privileges. But the worker of iniquity is deceived by the way of the world, which tempts and cheats him by its promises of temporal gains, honours and pleasures, and blinds his mind to his eternal undoing. “He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside [from the paths of wisdom and holiness], that he cannot deliver his soul” (Isaiah 44:20). On the other hand, professing Christians are seduced by false teachers, who seek to corrupt their minds and turn them away from the Truth. They tacitly repudiate the total depravity of man, concealing the fact that he is dead in trespasses and sins, completely incapacitated to perform a single spiritual act; and flatter him by assuring him of his “free will,” and that he has power to decide his own eternal destiny. They pervert God’s way of salvation, omitting that which is abasing to pride, and substituting that which is pleasing to the flesh. They preach “another Gospel” than that of Christ. By “cunning craftiness... they lie in wait to deceive,” and “allure through the lusts of the flesh” (Ephesians 4:14; 2 Peter 2:18). Of old God declared, “Mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity, and that divine lies... Because, even because they have seduced My people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace; and one built up a wall, and, lo, others daubed it with untempered mortar” (Ezekiel 13:9-10). “The peculiar guilt of these prophets consisted in seducing the worshippers of God into idolatry and iniquity, and encouraging them to harden themselves in impenitence; by assuring them of peace and prosperity at the very time when Divine judgments were about to be poured on them... Thus they acted, as if a man were to build a wall with loose stones or bricks of earth without cement; and others should seek to give an appearance of stability by daubing it over with mortar, made of bad materials, and not properly mixed; and should then expect that such a wall would protect them” (T. Scott). And those men were not heathen soothsayers, but Israelites who claimed to be the mouthpieces of Jehovah. So it is in Christendom: many have entered the sacred ministry as a means to worldly advancement and applause. They pretend to speak in the name of Christ, but they are strangers to Him. They love money rather than souls, and prefer the praise of men to the approbation of God. “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:12-13). The seducers and the persecutors of God’s people are two very different types. The former seek to turn them away from the Truth, whereas the latter oppose them because of their fidelity unto the Truth. The former conceal their real character, but the latter come out in their true colours. The one feign themselves to be friends and helpers, the other make no attempt to disguise the fact that they are enemies and antagonists. The former are harder to detect, and we are very apt to be less on our guard against them. Constant vigilance is required lest we be deceived by their “good words and fair speeches” (Romans 16:18). Let us not overlook, but rather be awed by, the striking accuracy of this prophecy. It is not that persecutors would become fiercer and fiercer as the Christian era proceeded, but that evil men and seducers should wax worse and worse. And so it has been historically. Nothing comparable, either in scale or ferocity, has equaled the persecutions of the saints by Nero and others of the Roman emperors who followed him. On the other hand, efforts to corrupt the Truth and beguile Christians by those claiming to be the servants of Christ have increased in number, daring, and subtlety. The arch-seducer is Satan, who beguiled Eve through his wiles. He pretended to have her best interests at heart and to sympathize because of the restriction placed upon her liberty. He made her imagine that she was mistaken in supposing that she would be injured by eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, that such a thing was quite incompatible with God’s goodness and His interest in her well-being. He assured her that, on the contrary, she would be the gainer by partaking of its fruit. The gilded bait was swallowed, and fatal was the result. That was the beginning of his trade in seducing souls, and he has plied it energetically ever since. The Devil is the instigator of innumerable devices to cheat the unwary and ruin their souls. He often appears as an angel of light, and his ministers are disguised as those of righteousness. Such abounded at the commencement of this Christian era. The Lord revealed their method and aim in the parable where He spoke of the evil leaven being surreptitiously introduced into the meal (Matthew 13:33). The epistles contain many warnings against them. Paul declared, “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:13-15). It is so today. The wicked one has many of his seducing emissaries in Christendom, who pose as men of superior enlightenment, with great spiritual zeal and love for souls, yet are engaged in stealthily propagating error and undermining the fundamentals of the faith. And, as we have seen, it was Divinely foretold that these evil men and seducers should wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. The word “evil men” signifies wicked, being the same one as used in “the wicked one” (1 John 2:14). They have vile designs, though they appear under “a form of godliness” (2 Timothy 3:5). They are dissemblers, assuming a character which does not belong to them. They are tricksters, beguiling many by their arts to receive as good and true that which is pernicious and false. They are themselves deluded by the father of lies. They jettison the law of God under the pretence of magnifying His grace. They set aside the duty of the sinner to repent and believe, by overstressing his moral impotence. The most searching and humbling sections of Scripture are shelved by an erroneous system of what is termed “rightly dividing the word of truth.” Eternal punishment is represented as being incompatible with the goodness and mercy of God. In other instances, these seducers of souls and corrupters of the Truth introduce, gradually, practices not sanctioned by Scripture, until there is a fully developed system of superstitious observances. Such wax worse and worse both in principle and practice. They grow increasingly ambitious and audacious. An awful example of this is seen in the everadvancing blatancy and blasphemy of Romanism. In 1854 the dogma of “The Immaculate Conception” was invented and announced, Pope Pius proclaiming that the Virgin Mary was absolutely pure and sinless from the womb, and declaring the same to be “the established doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church”—thereby ascribing to her body what pertained alone to the Lord Jesus Christ. In 1870 the Vatican Council declared that the Pope was infallible in the execution of all that pertained to his pontifical functions, thus investing him with a Divine attribute. In 1951, amid unprecedented pomp and pageantry, the Pope published the dogma of Mary’s Assumption, wherein it was averred that she had been taken “body and soul into the glory of heaven,” placing her on a par with the Saviour. The same increasing wickedness is seen in thousands of non-papish churches, whose pulpits are now occupied by men voicing the skepticism (the denial of miracles) of infidels and agnostics. “These things I have written unto you concerning them that seduce you,” or, as the American Revised Version (often more literal and accurate in translating the Greek verb) has it, “These things have I written unto you concerning them that would lead thee astray.” The “these things” refers to what is contained in 1 John 2:18-25, and probably many would be helped if we briefly reviewed their contents. First, it is to be noted that John was here addressing the youngest in the family, the “little children,” or “babes,” as the word properly signifies. It is the newly converted who, in their ignorance and simplicity, most need to be warned against false teachers. They are informed that this Christian dispensation is “the last time” or concluding era of the world’s history, so that no further revelation from God is to be expected, and therefore any who claim to be favoured with such are impostors. The character and will of God have been fully and finally made known in and by His incarnate Son (Hebrews 1:1-2). The presence of “many antichrists” furnished evidence that “the last time” had even then begun, for their activities demonstrated that the true Christ had come, and since He had ushered in the final age, and they were opposing Him, naught remained but the judgment of God. Then the apostle intimated that there was no occasion for those young Christians to be stumbled because some of their fellows had given ear to the antichrists and had apostatized from the faith, for he assured them that those renegades were never anything more than nominal disciples. Though they had made a profession, had much head knowledge of the Truth, and appeared to be full of zeal for the Gospel, nevertheless they were graceless souls, strangers to the saving operations of the Holy Spirit. They “were not of us:” though members of the churches, they never had vital union with Christ and His people. Their going out made it “manifest that they were not all of us” (1 John 2:19). While it cannot but be a distressing and disturbing experience unto God’s people to behold some of those deserting the assemblies and proving to be traitors with whom they had enjoyed outward fellowship, yet it should not shatter their own faith, for God often suffers the chaff to be thus sifted and separated from the wheat. The Scripture gives plain warning that there are thornyground hearers as well as fruitful ones, that the Gospel net encloses bad fishes besides good ones, that many shall follow the pernicious ways of false prophets. Next, in 1 John 2:20, he assured the babes, “But ye have an unction from the Holy One,” which distinguished them radically from the apostates. That “unction” is God’s gracious provision for His own people, to preserve them from embracing fatal error. That unction or “anointing” is the coming of the Spirit from Christ upon those for whom He shed His blood: it is both the communication of a spiritual gift and a Divine operation which separates the recipient from the world and all that is opposed to God, consecrating him to Him. The first benefit which believers have by this anointing is an illumination of the mind: “Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.” The knowledge imparted to the Christian by the gift of the Spirit and His effectual application of the Truth unto the heart is radically different from the wisdom of the natural man, or any mental apprehension of spiritual things which he may obtain. It is a supernatural, spiritual and saving acquaintance with Divine things. It is an experiential and certifying knowledge, by which the soul is infallibly assured of the verity of God’s Word. It is a humbling and conforming knowledge, casting the heart into the mould of Divine doctrine (Romans 6:17). It is therefore a preservative knowledge, which prevents its possessor being fatally deceived by error. It is an operative knowledge which stirs the soul unto holy action. It was because these babes in Christ were savingly acquainted with the Truth that John thus addressed them, and because they knew “that no lie is of the truth” (1 John 2:21). When the eyes of the understanding be opened by God, there is the capacity to distinguish between light and darkness. Because the sheep recognize the voice of the shepherd, they refuse to follow the call of a stranger. Nevertheless it was needful for the apostle to put them on their guard against false prophets, that they might be still further established in the faith and fortified against specious error. Error often has a very plausible appearance, and many are deceived thereby: since they have no inward and saving experience of the Truth, they are unable to discern that which is opposed to it. But those who know and are established in the Gospel are assured that no lie can be found in or deduced from it: as well expect foul water from a clean fountain as heresy in the pure Word of God. Whatever be contrary to the Gospel of Christ cannot be sound and wholesome. From that general principle John proceeded to point out that anyone who denied that Jesus is the Christ was a liar and an antichrist, and no matter what be his pretensions “the same hath not the Father” (1 John 2:22-23)—a repudiator of the Truth, an antagonist of God’s Son, a seducer of souls, and therefore a deadly enemy of the saints. By such fearful names of opprobrium does God stigmatize the corrupters of His Gospel, and warn His people against them. In view of such a menace John made a practical application of the foregoing, exhorting the saints to persevere in the faith and heed not those who sought to entice away from it (1 John 2:24). It is only by means of the Truth abiding in our hearts and operating in our lives that we are rendered immune to the Devil’s lies and kept from apostasy. A cherishing of that which was blessed to our conversion, and the conforming of our characters and conduct thereto, maintains the soul in communion with the Lord, and that will make us turn a deaf ear unto those siren voices which seek to draw us from Him and bring about our eternal ruin. Finally, to encourage these young converts to hold fast the Truth and shun lying novelties, the apostle: reminded them, “And this is the promise that He hath promised us, even eternal life” (1 John 2:25). “Eternal life” is both a present possession and a future prospect. It is received by faith’s laying hold of the Gospel offer, and it is realized in the soul just so far as fellowship with Christ is practically maintained by subjection to His will. But the full possession and fruition of “eternal life” (the sum of the believer’s blessedness and the climax of his bliss) awaits the world to come, and it is by hope’s anticipation thereof—through faith’s keeping steadfastly in view the joy set before him—that the believer is strengthened to run the race set before him and kept from straying. Now there is nothing more pleasing to God than our making a good use of His promises. First, by collecting them, storing them in our minds, meditating much upon them, and making them our spiritual food. Second, by faith’s laying hold of the same and pleading them before the throne of grace: “do as Thou hast said” (2 Samuel 7:25; and cf. Psalms 119:49; Acts 27:25). Third, by cleansing ourselves from everything contrary to holiness (2 Corinthians 7:1). “These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.” From which we may see, first, that all teachers of error are beguilers of souls—what terrible appellations: liars, antichrists, seducers! How they should be feared and shunned! Second, how needful it is that we be well informed and instructed from the Scriptures, that we may be enabled to detect and reject everything that is contrary thereto. The welfare of our souls and the glory of God demand that we thoroughly familiarize ourselves with the Word of Truth. Third, “it is the duty of a good and diligent pastor not only to gather a flock, but also to drive away wolves; for what will it avail to proclaim the pure Gospel, if he connive at the impostures of Satan?” (Calvin). Error must be exposed and refuted if the minister is to “take the stumblingblock out of the way of My people” (Isaiah 57:14). Finally, we see how that, humanly speaking, we are beholden to the seducers of the first century for not a little in the Epistles, their attacks giving occasion to warn against them. Thus God can bring light out of darkness, and by error make way for a more complete discovery of the Truth. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 40: 001.36. CHAPTER 36 ======================================================================== Chapter 36 OUR ANOINTING 1 John 2:27 “But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him.” In this verse and the next one the apostle continues and virtually completes what he had said upon the saints’ abiding in Christ. Though our text be by no means free of difficulty, yet by carefully noting its coherence with the context its meaning is more or less obvious. In view of the defection of so many (1 John 2:19) and the continued activities of antichrists to draw away others, John had addressed their responsibility and bade them persevere in the faith, and heed not those who sought to entice them away from it. It was their duty to store the Truth in their minds and treasure it in their hearts, to yield their entire beings to its sway and reduce its substance to practice. Abandon it not for any specious novelty (1 John 2:24). In 1 John 2:25 an incentive was supplied to encourage and stimulate them in the performance of that duty. In 1 John 2:26 a solemn warning is added for the purpose of showing the necessity for their compliance therewith. The apostle’s design, then, in the verse now before us is threefold: explanatory, consolatory, cautionary. First, he states the reason why believers had stood firm under the testing which had shaken and overthrown so many of their fellows. It was not because of any superior native sagacity, but was to be attributed solely unto the gracious and effectual provision which God has made for the preservation of His children from the deceits of Satan. In 1 John 2:20 John had stated implicitly how it was that the saints had been delivered from serious error; now he affirms explicitly that they would continue to be kept from receiving lying vanities. Here, as everywhere else in the writings of the apostles, the grand end in view was to remove all ground for boasting from the saints and to move them to ascribe all the glory unto their Redeemer. Our security for abiding in God—in the Father and the Son—is here attributed to that which is imparted to us at regeneration: there is now that within us which preserves from the evil without us; we have been given a sure antidote against the poison of the serpent. At the new birth we received that which ensures our abiding in Christ. Second, whereas that clear statement redounded to the honour of Christ, for it was from Him that the preservative benefit was received, it could not fail to comfort and assure the hearts of those to whom it was addressed. It must not be overlooked that, at that time, those believers were in special need of solace. They had been witnessing a most mysterious and distressing spectacle. They had seen a large number of their professing brethren forsaking the churches to which they belonged, and not a few of the ministers themselves apostatizing. That was enough thoroughly to discourage mature Christians, and much more so the babes of the family. How strengthening then to their faith to be Divinely assured that the anointing which they had received from Christ was no temporary thing or evanescent experience which would soon wear off, but a durable and effective one, that would stand them in good stead unto the close of their earthly pilgrimage. How comforting to be authoritatively informed that the same Divine illumination which taught them at the beginning and which had imparted to them the saving knowledge of Christ would remain to instruct them so that they would be kept steadfast in the faith and would most certainly abide in Christ. Third, the above declaration was also intended to animate them unto increased watchfulness and diligence. While our last-made remarks stand in need of no qualification, they do need amplification, lest they be perverted to a wrong use. Such an assurance must not be abused to rashness and self-confidence. However sound and extensive their spiritual knowledge, they had real need of more. There is no remaining stationary in the Christian life: unless we progress, we retrogress. Unless we make good use of what God has given us, we are in real danger of losing what we seem to have (Luke 8:18). In order to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, we are required to make daily use of the means which God has provided. This anointing is not given to slothfulness and laziness. It is a vile perversion of this heavenly privilege to make God the patron of negligence and the indulger of the ease of the flesh. This Divine gift increases our obligations: “for unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required” (Luke 12:48). Nor must it be abused unto pride and self-sufficiency, so that we look contemptuously upon the more ignorant, for we have nothing good but what we have received (1 Corinthians 4:7). But we must now inquire into the precise nature of this inestimable gift. Some have thought that by this “anointing” the Truth itself is intended, that the doctrine of the Gospel which they had received would preserve them from the seducers warned against. But such a view accords not with either the text or the context, for the truth of the Gospel was the very thing which the antichrists were attacking, and it was a true and experiential knowledge thereof which constituted the saint’s safeguard. This “anointing” is here said to abide in those who were the favoured recipients of the same, whereas strictly speaking we are said to abide in the Truth. Again, this anointing is said to teach us all things, whereas the Truth is that which we are taught: thus we must distinguish between that which instructs and that wherein we are instructed. Finally, it must be borne in mind that everywhere else in Scripture the Holy Spirit is said to be the Teacher of the saints, the One who establishes them in the Truth, and there is nothing whatever in our text or the context which requires us to adopt any other signification. The Greek word for “anointing” in our text is identical with the one rendered “unction” in 1 John 2:20, and has reference to one and the same thing. In our exposition of that verse we showed, first, that under the Old Testament economy prophets, priests and kings were appointed unto and confirmed in their office by being anointed with the holy oil, and that they typified the anointing of Christ Himself, with the Holy Spirit (Isaiah 61:1; Acts 10:38). It was from that enduement He was denominated “the Christ,” which means “the Anointed One.” At His incarnation His humanity received a fullness of the Spirit’s grace, being born “that holy thing” (Luke 1:35); at His baptism and entrance upon His public ministry He received a fullness of the Spirit’s gifts (Isaiah 11:2; Matthew 3:17); while at His ascension He was anointed with the oil of gladness (Psalms 45:7; Acts 2:33). “And of His fullness have we all received, and grace for grace” (John 1:16)—the grace in us answering (according to our proportion) to the grace which is in Him: foreshadowed of old in the anointing of Israel’s high priest, concerning which we read, “The precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard... that went down to the skirts of his garments” (Psalms 133:2), reaching to the lowest of his members. In like manner, the believer’s anointing is an emanation from Christ. Christ is our Anointer, and the anointing which believers receive from Him is the Holy Spirit, and thus are the members conformed to their glorious Head, yet with this difference: He was anointed with the Spirit without measure (John 3:34), we “according to the measure of the gift of Christ” (Ephesians 4:7). This “anointing,” then, is nothing less than the gift of the Holy Spirit and supply of grace which is received from the Anointed One, who is “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). It is an invaluable blessing which cannot be too highly esteemed. It is a Divine gift, “without repentance” (Romans 11:29), never to be recalled or rescinded. It is incorruptible, and cannot be destroyed, being that good part which shall continue with them and which none can take away. This is the “oil in their vessels” (that is, in their hearts) which distinguishes the wise virgins from the foolish ones (Matthew 25:4). Both had the “lamp” in their hands; that which differentiates the gracious soul from the graceless professor is something within, namely the indwelling Spirit. By this Divine unction the regenerate receive light into the sacred mysteries of the Gospel, so that they have a saving and satisfying acquaintance with and experience thereof, which effectually preserves them from being imposed upon by counterfeits. The figure of “anointing” is a very comprehensive one, which more plainly appears when we compare all the passages where the holy oil was used under the Old Testament economy. It was employed with the design of dedicating a thing or a person unto God (Genesis 22:18). It was provided for the purpose of illumination, to furnish light (Exodus 25:6). It was designed to lubricate and refresh: “oil to make his face to shine” (Psalms 104:15). Since it was compounded of sweet spices (Exodus 30:24-25), it produced a fragrance in those using the same. In the blessing pronounced on Asher it was said, “let him dip his foot in oil. Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be” (Deuteronomy 33:24-25), which, in figurative language, signified the Spirit supplying power for the walk. Now in all these respects the antitypical substance is communicated by Christ through the unction of the Spirit. Thereby believers are set apart and consecrated to God, illuminated and instructed, quickened and comforted, made a sweet savour unto God and unto one another. There are two beautiful allusions unto the last in the Song of Solomon. First, the Spouse says of her Beloved, “Thy love is better than wine. Because of the savour of Thy good ointments Thy name is as ointment poured forth” (Song of Solomon 1:2-3); while He in turn declares, “How fair is thy love, My sister, My spouse! how much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices” (Song of Solomon 4:10), where He admires the graces which the Spirit has wrought in her. Now it is the second aspect of the above which is principally in view in our text, “But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him.” No less than seven things are here predicated of this anointing. First, it was from Christ that it proceeded. Those unto whom John was writing had remained steadfast in the Truth, unshaken by heresy, and he would have them know the reason for this or from whence their constancy originated: they were indebted to the Holy One for His unction. Thus were fulfilled the several promises which He made to His disciples ere He departed from this world. “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father... for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you” (John 15:26; John 16:7). It was the bestowment of the risen Saviour, for when He ascended on high He “gave gifts unto men” (Ephesians 4:8)—an earnest of which was imparted when He “breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). Second, this enduement was a subjective one: it “abideth in you.” It is a gracious experience in the inner man, which is entirely beyond the cognizance of the unregenerate. As the Lord Jesus had announced, “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” (John 14:17). This is made good when it can be said, “For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance” (1 Thessalonians 1:5). The external Word is now applied internally. The mind is Divinely illumined, so as to receive a clear, convincing, contenting knowledge of the Truth. At the same time the affections are purified and the heart turned unto God, so that it is fitted for spiritual and heavenly things: this is that “washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). Then it is that the Word is received “in much affliction [as we are convicted of our sins], with joy of the Holy Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 1:6) as He makes known to us our Divine pardon. In the latter respect this anointing is “the oil of gladness” (Psalms 45:7), for the Spirit is a Comforter as well as a Sanctifier. Combine Divine illumination, purification and consolation, and what a sure means are they for establishing in the Truth! Third, this anointing is a permanent blessing: it “abideth in you,” “that He [the Comforter] may abide with you for ever” (John 14:16). It is very much more than a fitful emotion or brief rapture of spirit which soon gives place to depression; namely, stable, and enduring. Therein it is to be distinguished from our varying frames and feelings. It is indeed exercised and manifested in different ways and directions: sometimes producing groans which cannot be uttered, sometimes bestowing sweet foretastes of celestial bliss. But beneath all surface perception it is exerting a steadying influence, keeping God and eternity before the soul, so that in the hour of temptation or tribulation it turns to Him for succour. Fourth, this unction is, in itself, sufficient: so truly so that it is affirmed of its beneficiaries, “ye need not that any man teach you”—either to convey authority to the Truth, to impart a saving knowledge of it to the soul, or to induce the regenerate to adhere firmly unto it in love and obedience. The Gospel carries its own witness, and when, through the Spirit’s anointing, it is applied to the heart in saving power, it is received “not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe” (1 Thessalonians 2:13). Fifth, it instructs its recipients: “the same anointing teacheth you of all things.” This is fulfillment of God’s newcovenant promise: “I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord” (Jeremiah 31:33-34). In the accomplishment of that promise the Lord works so effectually upon and within His elect that, to use the language of another apostle, they are made “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). There is a peculiar power accompanying the teaching of the Lord by His Spirit: “Behold, God exalteth by His power: who teacheth like Him?” (Job 36:22). So our Lord interpreted His promise, “All thy children shall be taught of the Lord” (Isaiah 54:13), as “every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto Me” (John 6:45). There is such an efficacy attending the Divine teaching that whosoever is favoured therewith is positively assured that the same is of and from God Himself, for he now has the certifying evidence of its verity within his own soul. The anointing of believers with the Spirit is for the purpose of giving them an experiential acquaintance and saving knowledge of the Gospel, enlightening their understandings and causing their hearts to receive the same with delight, casting their inner man into the holy image of the same (Romans 6:17). Thereby they are given the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God in Christ, the eyes of their understanding being enlightened, that they may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints (Ephesians 1:17-18). Such impressions of the holiness, righteousness, goodness and grace of God are indelibly left in their souls that Satan can no longer deceive them with lying substitutes. As another apostle said, “Ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart” (2 Corinthians 3:3). They have received the Spirit which is of God, that they may know the things which are freely given to them by God (1 Corinthians 2:12), that they may be assured of their reality, convinced of their value, appropriate, enjoy and embody them in their lives. They now have a spirit of discernment, but flee from hirelings (John 10:5). Sixth, it is genuine and wholesome: “and is truth, and is no lie”—no darkness mars the light. Thus it is simple or pure blessing, no heresy being mixed with it. Therefore it is reliable and trustworthy. The Spirit is like a seal, by which the Truth is testified and certified to the soul. “For while faith ought to look to God, He alone can be a witness to Himself, so as to convince our hearts that what our ears receive has come from Him” (Calvin). The added words “and is no lie” signify that God has so endowed the regenerate with sound judgment and discernment that they will not be deceived by falsehoods, or even left in a state of uncertainty and vacillation about them. There is no danger, no possibility, of anyone being misled by what this holy unction teaches; no erring while we walk according to this direction. Therefore we are to measure everything by what the Spirit teaches in the Word. Thus not only is it thorough and complete—for “By this teaching of God Himself, they were instructed in all things essential to salvation, and could not be deceived” (Thos. Scott)—it also conveys a conviction which cannot be called into question or shaken by man or devil. “There is truth and no lie in what the Spirit shows you of the love of God in Christ, and sheds abroad in your heart of that love. Be sure of that, and be not afraid to act upon the assurance of it. There is truth and no lie in what the Spirit opens up to you of the freeness and fullness of the Father’s overtures of mercy in the Son. Be sure of that, and be not afraid to act upon the assurance of it. There is truth and no lie in what the Spirit would have you grasp of the peace which passeth understanding, the hope that maketh not ashamed, the joy unspeakable that is full of glory. Be sure of that, and be not afraid to act upon the assurance of it. There is truth and no lie in that which ye have heard from the beginning, so abiding in you that you abide in the Son and in the Father. That really is the anointing which is truth and no lie. Be sure of that, and be not afraid to act out and out upon the assurance of it” (Robert Candlish). Instead of now taking up the seventh thing which is here predicated of our anointing (namely that it ensures our abiding in Christ), we defer it to our next chapter, and instead proffer some further remarks upon the oft-misunderstood clause “and ye need not that any man teach you.” That language calls for the expositor, to explain the force of its terms, for some ignorant souls who fail to understand the sense have been misled by its sound. Certain fanatics suppose it means that the Christian is independent of all preachers, and therefore have contended for the exclusion of oral ministry from the churches. Now it is obvious that John wrote not to promote a spirit of presumption and unwillingness to be taught by others—his own example contradicted any such idea, for he was then engaged in instructing these very persons. Nor was there any inconsistency between his statement and his practice. He taught the disciples and they were grateful and much edified. Yet supposing him to be withdrawn from them and his pen silenced, it did not follow that they must remain ignorant. The Spirit would teach them, by him and without him as He pleased. The child of God, with the Bible in his hand and the Holy Spirit in his heart, is capable of all spiritual knowledge. Whereas Divine teaching does not supersede ministerial instruction, it does surpass the same. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 41: 001.37. CHAPTER 37 ======================================================================== Chapter 37 ABIDING IN CHRIST 1 John 2:28 “And now, little children, abide in Him; that, when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at his coming.” The apostle was engaged in warning professing Christians against false teachers who desired to corrupt them, yea, who had already prevailed with many of their company (1 John 2:18-19). He had shown them up in their true colours, denouncing them as antichrists and liars (1 John 2:22). He had exhorted the saints to hold fast the beginning of their confidence steadfast to the end (1 John 2:24). He had reminded them of the grand promise given for their encouragement (1 John 2:25). Then he assured the regenerate that the anointing which they had received from Christ was no mere temporary benefit, but one which would remain in them as an incorruptible principle of life and light, supplying them with such spiritual discernment as no human teaching could impart. That “anointing” consisted, as we have seen, of the gift of the Holy Spirit and His saving grace. It is the Spirit as an illuminator and instructor which is here singled out for particular mention. He teaches nothing but infallible Truth, without the slightest mixture of error. He teaches “of all things:” that is, all things essential unto our ingrafting into and continuation in Christ—the essential and fundamental things of the Gospel, whatever be requisite for our obedience to Christ and communion with Him. That all believers are taught, however ignorant they be in matters of lesser importance. Paraphrasing the excellent Owen, we would say that, first, all Divine Truth which is necessary to be known and believed that we may live unto God, abide in Christ, and be preserved from seducers is revealed in the Scriptures (Acts 20:32). Second, but of ourselves we cannot understand the Scriptures unto the ends just specified (1 Corinthians 2:14): if we could there would be no need that we should be taught them by the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:12). Third, by the anointing of the Spirit believers are taught all those things, so that they are enabled to discern, understand and acknowledge them (1 John 2:27). The Spirit is given to Christ’s redeemed for this very purpose: that He may graciously and savingly instruct them in the truth of the Gospel by the supernatural enlightening of their minds, causing the soul to cling firmly unto it with love and delight, transforming them in the whole inner man into the image of the same. Thereby it answers to the anointing of the Lord Jesus with the same Spirit which made Him “of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord” (Isaiah 11:3). “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him; and He will show them His covenant” (Psalms 25:14). God will not conceal from them the knowledge of His will so far as their salvation is concerned in it, but will teach them the way wherein they should walk if they are to be acceptable to Him. The general end or design of God in the gift and teaching of the Spirit is to provide for believers remaining steadfast in Christ, and thus 1 John 2:27 closes with the emphatic statement, “and even as it [the anointing] hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him.” Whatever be required in order to maintain communion with Christ all believers are taught. The especial end in view that is here singled out is preservation and deliverance from all antichrists and seducers, with the lies and false doctrines which they propagate against Christ and His Gospel. The only means whereby we may be kept from such pernicious opinions and ways is by an assured knowledge and inward acquaintance with what is revealed in Holy Writ. Truth is the only antidote against error, and none but the Holy Spirit can lead anyone into the life-giving meaning of the Truth and quicken him into real fellowship with the Lord thereby. Those who lack this spiritual, sure and establishing knowledge, possessing but a bare conjectural and theoretical acquaintance with it, are Christians only in name, receiving the Gospel from men in the letter rather than in the substance of it; and, not being rooted and grounded in the faith, are subject to any wind of false doctrine. Nothing else ensures stability and fidelity. Man’s knowledge, skill, or disputing ability is insufficient to preserve from being inveigled with fair pretences or enticed with the cunning sleights of Satan, where he lies in wait to deceive. Yea, as Owen pointed out, “Temptations may come as a storm or tempest, which quickly drives men from their greatest fleshly confidences. Hence oftentimes those who are forwardest to say, Though all men should forsake the Truth yet would not they do so, are the forwardest upon trial so to do.” But this sacred anointing fails none who receive it, and because of it they never fail. First, because His teaching is not merely an external and doctrinal instruction, but an internal and effectual operation. Whereas He makes use indeed of the written Word and teaches nothing but what is revealed therein, He bestows an understanding that we may know Him that is true, and open our eyes so that we may see clearly the wondrous things that are in God’s Law. The degree of this knowledge varies considerably, both in the clearness with which Divine things are perceived and in the scope or extent of the same, the Spirit acting according to the sovereignty of His will (1 Corinthians 12:11); but none who receives His anointing comes short of whatever be necessary to ensure his abiding in Christ. Second, the Spirit so teaches as to give a love unto and delight in the things that are taught. This is the next principal cause of action and practice, being that which binds together the different means and instruments of our security, rendering them firm and stable. Even though the mind be informed and perceives a duty, if the will and the affections be not wrought upon and won over unto a hearty approbation of the same we shall never conform ourselves unto them in the diligent performance of that duty. That which is done merely from convictions of conscience, without any gladness of heart, will neither be acceptable unto God nor shall we be constant therein. No matter how well instructed we be by God’s ministers, or what light we personally acquire by study, unless there be genuine love of the Truth and the personal practice thereof it will prove insufficient unto our preservation and the saving profession of it. This is the outstanding characteristic feature of this Divine unction: it communicates a delight in the Truth wherein it instructs and promotes a glad obedience to what it requires. When the blessed Spirit by His teaching breathes into the soul a holy and spiritual complacence in the things which are taught, then we taste how gracious the Lord is in them, His Word is rendered sweeter to us than the honeycomb, and we run in the way of His commandments. This anointing imparts a secret and infallible assurance unto that which is communicated, for “it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth... He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself” (1 John 5:6, 1 John 5:10). Then, in such a connection, the “and ye need not that any man teach you” should be quite plain to all. They were not ignoramuses who were unacquainted with the Truth. They were not dependent upon Gnostics or any other “great” and wise men to indoctrinate them. No so-called ‘infallible church’ or ‘pope’ was required to authenticate God’s Word and persuade of its verity. As Divinely enlightened they already knew the things John was setting before them. Similarly, Paul wrote, “But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another” (1 Thessalonians 4:9). So here, yet as the well-balanced Calvin remarked, “There is another use to be made of this doctrine: that when men really understand what is needful for them, we are yet to warn and rouse them, that they may be more confirmed.” As every believer has faith, yet there is need for a further increase of it, so there is ever room for an enlarging and deepening of spiritual knowledge. “And ye need not that any man teach you” is also mentioned to counteract and put down that carnal tendency of idolizing the human instrument. There is a very great danger of this. Young believers especially are apt to think too highly of those who are made a blessing to their souls. Where the affections be fixed upon the messenger rather than upon the message itself, there the teacher comes between the heart and Christ. Nor must we esteem the most gifted as though his interpretation be an oracle of God, but rather test what he says by the Word. It is so easy to fix the eye on the servant who is seen, instead of on his unseen Master. How many go to church hoping to receive something from the preacher, instead of looking to the Lord for a blessing! Though teachers be needed, they must not be relied upon. “Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?... So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase” (1 Corinthians 3:5, 1 Corinthians 3:7). What a corrective for preacher-worship is that! Even an apostle could not open their minds to apprehend a single truth unless the Spirit was pleased to bless his efforts. “Even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him.” That is the seventh thing predicated of our Divine anointing: it produces a permanent stabilizing effect, preserving from dangerous error. It so instructs and establishes in the faith, imparts such a spirit of discernment of truth from falsehood, that it is now impossible for Satan to deceive them with his lies (Matthew 24:24). It not only illumines the mind, but sanctifies the heart and turns the will Godward. Such impressions are made upon the soul of the holiness, sovereignty and goodness of God, that they are instinctively repelled by any teaching which repudiates the same. They have a spiritual palate which is acute in distinguishing between what is wholesome and that which is poisonous. They have such a love of the Truth that nothing can induce them to sell it. God has given them the spirit “of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7) which enables them to perceive the sophistries of would-be seducers. It conveys to them a wisdom which makes wise the simple (Psalms 19:7), which none of the schools of this world can impart. And therefore many an unlettered peasant is often far sounder in the faith than preachers with their classical and theological degrees. Nor is their knowledge confined to merely a few simple truths: they have a deeper acquaintance with the entire doctrine of Christ, being taught in their own experience, and in such a way that none can shake them. “Ye shall abide in Him.” The careful reader will observe that the margin gives as an alternative rendering “or it”—that is, the Truth. The Greek allows either. To abide in Christ and to abide in the Truth are here equivalent. In the whole of this passage the contrast is between those who turn from Christ to antichrists and those who remain loyal to Him and steadfast in the faith. The apostle is comforting the distressed believers by assuring them of his confidence in them: that having received from Christ an anointing which had taught them of all things necessary to their salvation and preservation they would endure to the end. He is saying what another apostle declared of the Hebrew saints, “But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul” (Hebrews 10:39). “To ‘abide in Christ’ is to continue in the true faith and confession of Him, and of all which concerns Him—His truth, His ordinances, His worship. To abide in Christ is to persevere in the truth of His everlasting Gospel” (S.E. Pierce). To abide in Christ is to have Him for our supreme Object, to centre our affections upon Him, to make Him our centre and circumference—our all in all. “And now, little children, abide in Him; that, when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.” (1 John 2:28) Having completed his distinct instructions and exhortations to the fathers, young men and babes (1 John 2:13-17), John returns to and again addresses the whole family collectively under the same name of endearment (teknion) as in 1 John 2:12. With paternal affection the apostle now exhorts them to abide in Christ. That term “little children” was the one His beloved Master had employed that never-to-be-forgotten night when He so graciously instructed the eleven in the upper room on the eve of His crucifixion: “Little children, yet a little while I am with you” (John 13:33). Doubtless that tender word made a particularly deep impression upon the one who was wont to recline on His bosom, and was tenderly cherished in his memory: so much so that he in turn made use of it when addressing his dear converts. As his mind reverted to the great “paschal discourse,” he would recall how that the Saviour had used the word “abide” no less than eight times in John 15:4-11, for “continue ye in My love” (John 15:9) and “that My joy might remain in you” (John 15:11) are the same in the original as the “abide in Me” of John 15:4. Now this exhortation “abide in Him” is so blessed, so important, and so comprehensive, as to call for a fuller opening by the expositor. To abide, in the language of Scripture, means more than merely to remain in one place. It has a moral force, and signifies to adhere unto. Thus it implies a previous union or connection with a person or thing. To be in Christ, and to abide in Him, are distinct thoughts. In order to abide in Christ, one must first be in Him. The former respects a union which is effected by the gracious power of God, and cannot be dissolved or suspended. Accordingly, believers are never enjoined to “be in Christ,” for that could not be the subject of exhortation, since it already exists as an accomplished fact by new creation. But to “abide in Christ” is the subject of injunction, because the exercise of the believer’s responsibility is involved therein. Union with Christ has made possible a life of communion with Him, and that life may be suitably addressed, and is required to respond to His call. Unlike the being in Christ, the abiding is capable of interruption. When assured that “we are in Him that is true” (1 John 5:20), the reference is to a union which cannot be disannulled, to a standing which cannot be shaken. But when we hear the Lord saying “abide in Me” (or an apostle repeating His word) it implies that we are exposed to failure at this point, or have already failed therein. It is therefore a word which calls us to vigilance. In calling upon believers to abide in Christ, John was bidding them to adhere steadfastly to His Gospel, to live in constant dependence upon Him in faith and hope, to render loving obedience to His commandments, to enter into fellowship with Him. Thereby they would have the assurance of being approved disciples, and in the day to come would not be ashamed before Him, as will all hypocrites and apostates. Some may consider it needless, if not meaningless, to press the duty of perseverance when the exercise of it is certain. Having stated so emphatically, “Ye shall abide in Him,” why, in the very next breath, enjoin them to do that very thing? Because privileges do not cancel obligations, but rather increase them. While our abiding in Christ is ensured by the grace of the Spirit, that releases us not from the discharge of our accountability. The Spirit is not given to exempt us from the performance of duty, but to enable us to discharge it. It is just because He indwells us that we ought to be the more diligent and faithful. Talents are given us to use, and not to bury in the ground. It is the Spirit’s presence and power which makes failure on our part inexcusable. The Lord Jesus informed Peter, “I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not,” nevertheless, shortly after, He bade him “Pray that ye enter not into temptation” (Luke 22:32, Luke 22:40). He who regards those things as being “inconsistent” knows nothing yet as he ought to know. In 1 Corinthians 10:13, another apostle definitely assured the saints, “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” Then might they not remain passive and be carried down the stream of temptation? No indeed: very different is the use which he makes of that encouraging assurance, namely “Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry” (1 Corinthians 10:14). He drew an argument from that very promise for the performance of duty. Promises are given for the purpose of quickening industry, and animating us in the use of means. God does not preserve His people by physical force, and compel them to retain their standing in Christ—as He establishes the earth and the heavens by the forthputting of His might. Instead, He is pleased to use rational means which are suited to moral agents. The inward workings of His grace do not set aside or render nugatory external warnings, expositions and admonitions. In Php 2:12-13, Paul employed the same spiritual logic that he had used when addressing the Corinthians: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” There he argues that we ought to be active and diligent because God is working in us! Both the willing and the doing are freely ascribed unto God, and yet for that very reason we are to do. He will assist in the performing of it. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for God leaves you not alone. Though the task be far beyond your puny strength, He gives assurance, My grace is sufficient for thee, for My strength is made perfect in your weakness. Grace is a dynamic, an operating, principle, and, where it dwells, radically affects our thoughts, influences our desires, produces good works. Divine grace cannot tabernacle in a human heart without breaking forth to act in the life. It is evidenced by its fruits. Just because you have received a Divine anointing which assures your spiritual preservation from all seducers of souls, see to it that you abide in Christ—remain loyal to Him at all costs. We must now consider the reason or the motive by which the exhortation is enforced: “And now, little children, abide in Him; that, when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.” Christ is now hid from the eyes of the world, for He has gone into heaven itself “to appear in the presence of God” (Hebrews 9:24) as the great High Priest of those for whom He died. But the Scriptures plainly and repeatedly testify that Christ will appear again—personally, publicly (Acts 1:11), when He shall sit upon the throne of His glory (Matthew 25:31), when “every eye shall see Him” (Revelation 1:7). In view of this blessed and solemn fact the questions may well be asked, “But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth?” (Malachi 3:2). God’s Word makes answer. On the one hand, it assures the saints, “he that dwelleth [abideth] in love dwelleth in God, and God in him: Herein is our love made perfect [i.e. reaches its designed end], that we may have boldness [confidence] in the day of judgment” (1 John 4:16-17). On the other hand “the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment” but will be “like the chaff which the wind driveth away” (Psalms 1:4-5). In the great day to come, the searchlight of Divine holiness will be turned upon two radically different classes of persons, clearly revealing them for what they are, and each will, righteously, be dealt with accordingly. Those that have done good will come forth unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation (John 5:29); or, to cite an Old Testament passage whose language approximates more closely unto that of our present text, Daniel 12:2, speaking of the same event, declares that “many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” The two classes will be separated one from another, “as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats” (Matthew 25:32). On the one hand, Christ will take vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel; on the other, He will be glorified in His saints (2 Thessalonians 1:8, 2 Thessalonians 1:10). That same clear-cut and searching distinction is preserved in our text: those who abide in Christ will have confidence before Him at His appearing; but those who were disloyal and followed the antichrists will “be ashamed before Him at His coming.” As the Saviour announced, “Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when He cometh in the glory of His Father with the holy angels” (Mark 8:38). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 42: 001.38. CHAPTER 38 ======================================================================== Chapter 38 RIGHTEOUSNESS 1 John 2:29 “If ye know that He is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of Him.” “And now, little children” (1 John 2:28): in view of all that I have said from verse 12 onwards, and especially from 1 John 2:18, let me summarize in this one word, “Abide in Him.” Give continued evidence of your loyalty to Christ. Make Him the grand object of your hearts, the centre of your affections, the One with whom you converse daily. Follow the example He has left you. Seek all your joy in Him. Endeavour to become better established in His doctrine. Strive to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Him. It is of the utmost importance that you do so: nothing will so effectually preserve you from error as to keep your hearts and minds fixed on the Lord Jesus. As Calvin remarked, “Faith is not a naked and frigid apprehension of Christ, but a lively and real sense of His power, which produces confidence.” The Greek word for “confidence” here literally means liberty of utterance, free-spokenness, as may be seen from its force in Acts 4:13, Acts 4:29, Acts 4:31; 2 Corinthians 3:12. They who abide in Christ, who commune regularly with Him, have freedom of approach and liberty of speech at the throne of grace, for assurance of heart is ever the effect of true piety. “Hence it is that the godly calmly wait for Christ, nor do they dread His coming” (Calvin). All who trust in the atoning sacrifice of Christ, who genuinely endeavour to live unto Christ, die in Him (Hebrews 11:13; 1 Thessalonians 4:14). They shall be raised by Him and be made “like Him” (1 John 3:2), conformed to the image of God’s Son, glorified (Romans 8:29-30). They will meet Him with confidence and joy, for He is the One they most of all desire to behold. But different far will be the attitude and demeanour of those spoken of in 1 John 2:19, and all like unto them. Those who originally made profession of faith in Christ, but who turned away from Him unto His enemies, abandoning Him in order to follow the course of this world, will in the day of His appearing shrink from Him with terror and horror. They will be “ashamed before Him at His coming:” ashamed of their infidelity, of their mad policy, of their wretched choice of forsaking the living Fountain for cisterns which hold no water. Literally, “ashamed from Him,” their guilty consciences causing them to shrink from His holy presence. They will be put to the utmost confusion and dishonour. The word occurs again in Luke 16:3, Php 1:20. But, blessed be God, it is written, “Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed” (Romans 9:33). “And now, little children, abide in Him; that, when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.” That admits of two distinct interpretations, though the one by no means necessarily excludes the other. First, the “we” may legitimately be regarded as John speaking of himself and his fellow ministers as believers, taking his place alongside those for whom he wrote, intimating thereby that he was himself following the same course and prescribed for himself what he did for them—as he included himself personally in the “we” of 1 John 1:6, 1 John 1:8-9, etc. Second, the “we” of 1 John 2:28, may also be fairly considered as referring to himself and others as the servants of God—as in 1 John 1:1-4, he alludes to himself and his fellow apostles officially. In support of this is the significant change of person from the second to the first. In 1 John 2:20-27 he had uniformly used the “ye,” as a teacher instructing his disciples. He might well have kept to that form of address—he does return to it in the very next verse: “If ye know that He is righteous.” In what immediately follows, John had the ultimate in view—the great day of reckoning, when as a minister of Christ he would be called upon to render an account of his stewardship, particularly concerning those who, under God, he had begotten through the Gospel (1 Corinthians 4:15). Looked at from the latter standpoint, 1 John 2:28 is to be regarded both as the climax of the entire passage and as an affecting appeal to the Divine love in the saints. Quite a number of weighty reasons and strong inducements had been set before the Lord’s people to turn a deaf ear unto all false teachers, and remain steadfast in their allegiance to Christ; and now they are informed that it is not only to their advantage and security so to do, but in the day to come he will be the gainer thereby: “And now, little children, abide in Him; that [in order that] when He shall appear we [your spiritual fathers] may have confidence and not be ashamed [of you] before Him at His coming” That interpretation gives added force and pertinency to the tender form of address—“little children.” If you give ear to the antichrists and become followers of them, it will be a serious reflection upon us who were responsible for your indoctrination and establishment in the faith: your infidelity would impugn our fidelity. Thus our text is to be considered as a parallel appeal to the one found in John’s second epistle, and which throws light thereon: “Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.” There is not a little in the New Testament which reveals the special relation which pastors sustain to their children in the faith, and also which clearly intimates that the present conduct of Christians has a close bearing on the minister’s approbation and reward by Christ when He shall make good that word “My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be” (Revelation 22:12). “For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:2). He had been an instrument in the Spirit’s hand of moving them to give up themselves to the Lord, and take Him as their Husband and Head, and was much concerned that their affections should not be diverted from Christ, or they receive “another gospel” (2 Corinthians 11:4). Sustaining such an intimate relation to his converts, Paul was deeply interested in their spiritual welfare, and longed to present them unto Christ at His judgment-seat as those who had conducted themselves consistently with their dedication to Him, so that it would then appear that his labours on their behalf had not been in vain. As he said elsewhere, “Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man with wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus” (Colossians 1:28). The under-shepherds of Christ will be called upon to render an account unto the chief Shepherd of their ministerial stewardship in the day of reckoning, and therefore are the members of their flocks exhorted, “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief” (Hebrews 13:17). Ministers are expressly appointed of God for the guarding of their members from error and to warn against those sins which endanger the soul. They will have to render an account of how they discharged their duty, used their talents, redeemed their time: whether those committed to their care were built up in the faith, or whether souls were lost through their neglect—the lives of their members will be witnesses for or against them. It is in view of that solemn reckoning in the future that each minister is exhorted, “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom; Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine” (2 Timothy 4:1-2) for in that day his service will either be approved or disapproved by his Master. Thus “And now, little children, abide in Him; [so] that when He shall appear we may have confidence [His approval], and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.” Do you be careful how you walk, so that in the day of accounts we may not be put to the blush because you have profited so little from the grace and truth we have ministered unto you. If you give heed to the antichrists, that will be a serious reflection upon us; that we rejoiced over your apparent conversion, baptized you, received you into church fellowship, only for you to fall away and apostatize from the faith. In such a case it would show that our labours were fruitless and our expectations would be disappointed. It would then seem to prove that we had failed to set before you the only preservative from all false doctrine. See here, my readers, the solemn effect of careless walking: it brings reproach on your pastor that he should have such “seals” to his ministry. The apostle longed that both he and they together might “receive a full reward” (2 John 1:8), which would be the case only if they remained steadfast in the faith and in their obedience to Christ. As Paul also reminded the saints, “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? For ye are our glory and joy” (1 Thessalonians 2:19-20, cf. Hebrews 13:17). “If ye know that He is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of Him” (1 John 2:29). There is considerable difference of opinion as to how this verse fits into the framework of the epistle. Scarcely any of the commentators make any serious attempt to show its coherence with that which precedes, regarding it more or less as a detached statement. Candlish considered “The apostle passes to a new thought or theme.” Personally, we believe there is a very close connection between the words now before us and those which we have just finished expounding; yet our recognition of the same will depend largely upon a correct apprehension of the terms used. The opening “if” is not one of doubt, but rather of certainty; it is not the raising of a question, but an appeal to an established fact, having the force of “since”—forasmuch as you are assured that He is righteous. The pronoun has its antecedent in the One the apostle was speaking about in the foregoing verses, namely Jesus Christ. There He is seen as the One who shall separate the precious from the vile, and as the rewarder of His servants: in a word, as “the righteous judge” (2 Timothy 4:8), who shall deal faithfully and impartially with every one. Whereas it is evident and certain that Christ is righteous, it clearly follows that, “every one that doeth righteousness is born of Him.” He that “doeth righteousness” is a variant of he that “abideth in Him”—his abiding in Christ is manifested by submitting to Him, by actually doing His revealed will. Thus 1 John 2:29 is a further word of discrimination, the drawing of the line again between gracious and graceless professors. It announces one of the tests by which we may identify the regenerate and distinguish them from the unregenerate, namely by their conduct, for it is by the fruits which it bears that the tree is known. In sharp contrast with “the children of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2), the renewed child of God walks in obedience to Him, treads “the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake” (Psalms 23:3), heeding His precepts and keeping His statutes. 1 John 2:29 is very much more than an aphorism or mere abstract doctrinal statement: it is a clearly implied exhortation, bidding us examine the claims of those who profess to be Christians and desire fellowship with us as such. But this criterion of being a doer of righteousness we are to distinguish between the genuine and the spurious, and thus be delivered from being imposed upon by hypocrites. It scarcely needs pointing out that honesty requires that we first faithfully test ourselves by this rule before we apply it to others. There has always been a considerable number in Christendom who “hold the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18): Those who are well versed in theology, but devoid of any sanctifying effects therefrom; whose heads are filled with orthodox views, but whose hearts and lives are unaffected thereby. And John was very anxious to preserve the saints from wasting their affections upon those who were not entitled to the same. He would have them equipped to distinguish clearly between those who were for Christ and those who (despite their pretensions to the contrary) were against Him. He would have them know that there is a radical difference between the righteous and the unrighteous, so that they should walk in separation from the latter. All through his epistle he is most insistent on segregating the one from the other (1 John 1:6-7; 1 John 2:3-5, 1 John 2:9-11; 1 John 3:10, etc.). Here again in our text the apostle draws the picture of a real child of God: that there may be no mistaking him, he adds to the statement that he who has received the Spirit and abides in Christ is also a doer of righteousness. It therefore follows that those who are thoroughly worldly and carnal in their walk are not born of Christ. The unrighteous must not be regarded as righteous. “He is righteous.” We are more apt to think of Christ as gracious and compassionate, merciful and tender, than righteous; but there is much said in Scripture about His righteousness. As God He is essentially righteous. As man He is also perfectly righteous, fulfilling the law in thought, word and deed. As Mediator, He was righteous in faithfully discharging His commission and finishing the work given Him to do. He is the Author of that everlasting righteousness which is revealed in the Gospel and received by faith. In Isaiah 11:5, it was announced: “Righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the girdle of His reins.” In Old Testament times God spoke of Him as “My righteous servant” (Isaiah 53:11), as “a righteous Branch” (Jeremiah 23:5), as “the Sun of righteousness” (Malachi 4:2). By the spirit of prophecy Christ declared, “I have preached righteousness in the great congregation” (Psalms 40:9). How righteously He dealt with the rich young ruler, exposing the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, reproved His own disciples, accepted the awful cup in Gethsemane! Verily, He was the Lamb without blemish and without spot. When the Father crowned Him with glory and honour He bore testimony to Christ, “Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness” (Psalms 45:7). He is the antitypical “King of righteousness” (Hebrews 7:2). He is expressly declared to be “Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). And by amazing grace believers own Him as “The Lord our righteousness” (Jeremiah 23:6), for He has wrought out for them and covered them with the “robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10). “If ye know that He is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of Him.” It has been objected by those who ought to know better that the “He” cannot here refer to Christ, because nowhere else in Scripture is regeneration ascribed to the Son. Even were that the case, the objection would have no real validity—as well deny that it was “through the eternal Spirit” that Christ offered Himself without spot to God, because nowhere else are we told so except in Hebrews 9:14. But our text is by no means the sole passage where, by clear implication at least, Christ is represented as the Author of the new birth. He is denominated “the everlasting Father” (Isaiah 9:6), and says “Behold, 1 and the children whom the Lord hath given Me” (Isaiah 8:18, and cf. Hebrews 2:13). God expressly declared of the Saviour, “He shall see His seed,” yea, that “He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied” (Isaiah 53:10-11)—what are that “seed” and “travail of His soul” but those who are “born of Him”? As the Son Himself declared, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12:24). It is by Christ that we are given the power of privilege “to become the sons of God” (John 1:12) The saving operations of God are ascribed to each of the Persons in the Trinity. In one passage we are said to be justified “by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11), though elsewhere that is predicated of the Father (Romans 5:1) and of Christ (Acts 13:39). So too the new birth is attributed equally to the Spirit (John 3:6), to the Father (James 1:18), and to Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:10), the new spiritual nature being derived from Him as His “seed” (Psalms 22:30). Nor is it at all strange that John should here attribute our new birth immediately to Christ. His chief design in the whole of the context is to exalt Him in the esteem of His redeemed, to evince how deeply indebted they are to Him, and to emphasize the intimate and spiritual oneness which there is between Him and them. Christ is our Advocate with the Father (1 John 2:1). He is the Propitiation for our sins (1 John 2:2). He is our Exemplar (1 John 2:6). He is our Anointer (1 John 2:27). He is the Rewarder of our works (1 John 2:28). And He is the Author of our regeneration. The last mentioned supplies yet a further link with the context, furnishing as it does an additional reason or argument in support of the injunction to constancy. To “abide in Him” is enforced first by the consideration of the great day of accounts, and second by the consideration of the dignity of those called upon to be faithful to Him—they are His dear children. “If ye know that He is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of Him.” The twofold “ye know” is closely related to the repeated “teacheth you of all things” and “hath taught you” of 1 John 2:27. The anointing Spirit communicates a spiritual judgment and discernment, enabling its possessor to perceive that which is hidden from those who are wise and prudent in their own esteem. It imparts a true knowledge of Christ and the ability to identify their brethren and sisters in Him. Until we have a true concept of Christ’s character, we cannot form a just opinion of those who are His. But further, the anointing Spirit ensures an abiding in Christ, and it is the doing of righteousness which is the visible proof and practical fruit of such abiding; for doing righteousness is a complying with His revealed will. It was so with the Son Himself: “If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love” (John 15:10). It was by walking in full subjection to the Father that Christ demonstrated His Sonship. In the case of the Christian this knowledge is first objective—apprehended from the Scriptures; then subjective—realized in experience; then influential—expressing itself in the doing of righteousness; and, therefore, evidential—supplying proof of the new birth. In our text, then, the apostle enunciates the simple but obvious principle that like produces like, that it is an unvarying law of creation that everything should bring forth “after his kind.” That there must be and is a reproduction of the parent in the child was taught plainly by our Lord. Concerning Himself, “the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do; for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise” (John 5:19). To the Jews He said, “If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.” And again, “If God were your Father, ye would love Me”—nature and conduct must correspond. It did so in their case: “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do” (John 8:39, John 8:42, John 8:44). Since Christ be righteous, those born of Him are righteous: the members are conformed to their Head in nature, character and conduct. But the emphasis is here placed first on what they do rather than on what they are, the one serving to make manifest the other. Instead of arguing from cause to effect, as in “every good tree bringeth forth good fruit” (Matthew 7:17), the apostle reasons from actions back to principles. Where there are righteous works, there must be a righteous principle producing them. Since none of the fallen sons of men be righteous by nature, then the presence of righteous works evinces that the producer has been made a partaker of “the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:24). On the one hand, regeneration is the foundation of all righteousness in the soul, being that which inducts us into the kingdom of God (John 3:3), when Divine power gives us “all things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3). On the other hand, a righteous walk is one of the visible marks of a new birth, for we are “created in Christ Jesus unto good works” (Ephesians 2:10). The emphasis is placed here on the latter because it is the testing of profession which is in view, the drawing of the line between the real and the false. He “doeth righteousness” not in order to be saved, but in demonstration of the fact that Christ has saved him, Only those who bear Christ’s image and walk before Him in the ways of righteousness are born of Him. Those who give no evidence of so doing are either deliberate hypocrites or utterly deluded souls. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 43: 001.39. CHAPTER 39 ======================================================================== Chapter 39 AMAZING GRACE 1 John 3:1 “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not.” Having stated that “If ye know that He is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of Him” (1 John 2:29)—which means, in a word, that the performing of good works is one of the sure evidences of the new birth—the apostle’s mind was carried back to the originating cause, namely the eternal love of the Father. The contemplation thereof moved him to break forth into adoring and joyous celebration of the same. But human language is entirely inadequate to express and describe the Divine acts which produce our salvation, and great care needs to be taken lest we either carnalize or unduly restrict the terms that are employed in connection therewith. We agree with Calvin that “when he says love has bestowed, he means that it is from mere bounty and benevolence that God makes us His children... Love, then, is declared here to be gratuitous. There is, indeed, an impropriety in the language, but the apostle preferred speaking thus rather than not to express that the more abundantly God’s goodness has been manifested toward us the greater are our obligations to Him.” Thus by “love” here we understand the Divine benignity or His amazing grace. The chapter division at this point is apt to mislead, detaching in our minds that which is here said from what immediately precedes: 1 John 3:1, is closely connected with 1 John 2:29. The thought of sonship is carried forward, with the design of emphasizing the blessedness of such a high dignity and honour bestowed. That is first denoted by the call to “behold” it, and then by considering the “manner” of the same. So far from regarding 1 John 3:1, as the commencement of a new subject the perspicuous Calvin considered that it furnished the second (implied) argument in proving that faith is necessarily connected with a holy and pure life. “The first argument is that we are spiritually begotten after the likeness of Christ: it hence follows that no one is born of Him except he who lives righteously. The second argument is from the dignity and excellence of our calling, for it was no common honour he says that the heavenly Father bestowed upon us when He adopted us as His children. This being so great a favour, the desire for purity ought to be kindled in us, so as to be conformed to His image; nor, indeed, can it be otherwise but that he who acknowledges himself to be one of God’s children to purify himself. And to make this exhortation more forceful, he amplifies the favour of God.” The apostle was overwhelmed with astonishment as he contemplated the amazing grace which conferred such honour and felicity upon worms of the earth as to call them into the relation of sons. Whether he viewed the ineffable greatness and elevation of the Father, the insignificance and degradation of the subjects, the uniqueness and inestimable value of the blessing bestowed, or the manner and marvel of its communication, he was “lost to wonder, love, and praise.” That the Father should ever deign to notice us at all is an act of infinite condescension on His part: that He should so highly distinguish us as to set His heart upon us, choose in Christ, redeem and regenerate lifelong rebels against Him, completely passes knowledge, and so far exceeds human comprehension as to defy expression by tongue or pen. Such a prodigy is without parallel, not only on earth but in heaven also: as T. Scott rightly said, it is “incapable of being illustrated by any comparison”—any attempt to do so beclouds its uniqueness and is only a darkening of counsel by mere words. Rather let us earnestly seek grace to evince our gratitude thereat, and endeavour to walk worthy of such a calling by a humble and obedient walk. Our text opens with a call to attention, for while the word “behold” here is a word of adoring wonderment, an exclamation of astonishment at such a display of grace, yet it is much more than a bare interjection. It is a verb summoning to action. Manton, with his customary thoroughness, showed that there is a threefold “behold” in Scripture and that each of them is applicable in this place. First, the behold of demonstration, to denote the reality of the object, as in “Behold your King” (John 19:14)—there He is before your very eyes, said Pilate unto the Jews. When prefixed to a doctrinal statement, it avers the certainty of it, as in “Lo [“Behold”] this, we have searched it, so it is; hear it, and know thou it for thy good” (Job 5:27). Second, there is the behold of admiration, which is designed to awaken our drowsy minds when something extraordinary is presented to our attention, challenging our most serious thoughts, as in “Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow” (Lamentations 1:12). Third, the behold of gratulation, rejoicing and delighting ourselves in the privilege, as in “Behold, He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep” (Psalms 121:4)—take comfort therefrom. Now each of those senses is to be included here: “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us.” Behold it with faith and confidence. Though so astonishing and mysterious, entertain not the least doubt about it, for it is certified by a “Thus saith the Lord.” Behold it with adoring gratitude. It is of vast importance and inestimable value, so give the same your most careful and prayerful attention. Ponder it deeply, meditate much thereon, that the Father Himself has laid hold of depraved and hell-deserving sinners and made them the brethren of His dear Son. This too is “the Lord’s doing: it is marvelous in our eyes.” Behold it with exultation and jubilation, that so blessed a privilege and high a dignity is yours as to be made the children of God, the high favourites of heaven, more closely related to God than the holy angels. How that should bow us in wonderment and worship before the throne of grace! What comfort and consolation should it afford us amid the trials and tribulations of this life! How it should quicken our thankfulness and draw out our affections Godward—the chief motives and springs of Gospel obedience. How it should make us contented with our present portion—if you be a child of God, it matters little what your earthly possessions amount to. This word “behold” is used all through Scripture on particular and special occasions. When the Lord God made mention of the incarnation and mission of the Messiah, He said, “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel”; and again, “Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him; behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him” (Isaiah 7:14; Isaiah 40:10). When the Father would have us fix our hearts and minds on the person of His co-equal Son, He says, “Behold My servant, whom I uphold; Mine elect, in whom My soul delighteth” (Isaiah 42:1). When His forerunner introduced Him to the Jews he cried, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). During His earthly ministry, Christ prefaced many of His weightiest utterances with a “behold!” (Matthew 12:42; Matthew 23:38; Matthew 25:6, etc.). After His ascension, the Lord Jesus declared, “Behold, I come quickly” (Revelation 22:7, Revelation 22:12). So that this word “behold” is used in the sacred page by the Father, by the Son, by the Holy Spirit, by the prophets and by the apostles as introductory to the most blessed and momentous subjects revealed and recorded therein. John would have his little children contemplate this glorious truth of the Father’s love with reverence and awe, for he would stir up their pure minds to holy wonderment and admiration. He would have them engage their best thoughts thereon to the ravishing of their souls. The “behold” is intensified by the words immediately following. It is not simply take notice of and adore the love of the Father, but particularly the sort of love which is here in view—the wonderful expression thereof. The question has been raised as to whether the reference be to the kind or degree of His love. Personally, we consider that both ideas are included: its uniqueness and its greatness. According to its usage in the New Testament this expression is a contrastive one. When Gabriel addressed the virgin Mary as “thou that art highly favoured... blessed art thou among women,” she “cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be” (Luke 1:28-29)—she was mystified by such an unprecedented experience. When the Saviour calmed the raging tempest with a word of command His disciples marveled, saying, “What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him!” (Matthew 8:27)—they have witnessed the supernatural. “What manner of persons you ought to be in all holy conversation and godliness” (2 Peter 3:11). which means (in contrast with the wicked) what paragons of virtue you should be—signifying not only the kind but also the degree of piety which God requires from us. In view of the above examples (to which Luke 7:39 and Mark 13:1 may be added), “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us” imports, Consider and adore the nature and extent, the marvel and magnitude, the uniqueness and superlative excellence of that love. It is in marked contrast, both in character and in greatness, with all other. It is incomparable, transcendent, infinite. Its cause is inexplicable; its effects are most glorious. Perhaps this is one reason why the Divine benignity is here termed His love, rather than His grace. Love is especially sensitive: “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Thomas Goodwin pointed out, “Of all things in God or man love desires to have itself considered and taken notice of, as much as wisdom, and power, or any other thing; therefore he calls on them to behold God’s love. Above all, love desires notice taken by the parties beloved, to whom it is in special directed unto more than any other, for the emphasis lies in the speciality of it; therefore he would not have them run out in general thoughts admiring God’s love to mankind and giving His Son; but as having bestowed Him upon us”—His dear children. Our present verse is one of many which illustrates the importance of observing the connection between a statement and the setting in which it occurs—failure to take into account the context conveys a wrong idea of its scope, that which is qualified being taken in an unlimited sense. Such is the case here: a wrong use has been made of it. It is appealed to by those who believe in what is termed “the universal Fatherhood of God”—i.e. that all men are spiritually God’s children. Apart from any other consideration, the principles of honest exegesis exclude such an interpretation of this sentence. The question, Who are the “us” upon whom the Father has bestowed His love? requires answer. Obviously it is those whom the apostle is addressing. And who are they? 1 John 2:29 tells us plainly: they are those that give unmistakable evidence of being born of Christ by being doers of righteousness; and the only ones of whom that is the case are those who have received from Him the Holy Spirit (1 John 2:27). Thus the “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us” has no reference whatever to the unregenerate, nor is any individual warranted in regarding God as his heavenly Father unless he be walking in newness of life and bears His moral image. “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us.” John would have us look not only to the fountainhead or spring of our blessings, attentively consider the matchless mercy shown us, but he would engage our hearts with that which has been communicated to us personally. John is not here calling upon the saints to believe the love wherewith God has loved them, nor is he bidding them receive the knowledge of it into their minds, that they might rejoice over the same in their hearts. Rather is he exhorting them to contemplate that love in its grand original, in its freeness and sovereignty, in its nature and manner, in its gifts and blessedness; that it was actually bestowed upon them—that the Father had not only conceived love toward them, and willed it unto them, but that He had really and truly imparted it to them. That statement is almost parallel with “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us” (Romans 5:5). That is what the “behold” directs our attention unto: to ponder and adore that love not abstractly but concretely; that is not simply as it exists within the bosom of Deity, but in its outward manifestation, its actual bestowment upon us. We are invited to look upon and admire the Father’s love in its infinite condescension, in its gratuitous character, in its blessed application. It is indeed a great wonder that He preserves in being such worthless wretches, supplying our temporal needs, and having any love for us. It is yet more wonderful that His love should be actually engaged toward us. But it is surely most wonderful of all that His love should be communicated to us—given freely, disinterestedly, abundantly. No other cause can be assigned why He should have set His heart upon them other than His own determination: “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace” (Ephesians 1:5-6). The good pleasure of the Divine will is the originating cause; the manifestation of Divine grace the end and issue of all. That love is not one merely of pity and compassion, but of delight and complacency: as it is written, “The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing” (Zephaniah 3:17). To take that into our minds and have it realized in our hearts, to live in the apprehension thereof, is to have real communion with the Father in all the blessedness of His love. Consider the inestimable privilege which is here specified: “that we should be called the sons of God.” The word “called” does not here refer to God’s making us His children by an effectual or inward call from death unto life, but rather the acknowledging of us to be His children. It is not the act of regeneration which is in view, but the fact of our sonship which is affirmed. “In Isaac shall thy seed be called” (Genesis 21:12) means, The children of Isaac shall be regarded and recognized as thy seed. Yea, of Christ Himself after the flesh, it was said to Mary “that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35), which obviously signifies shall be acknowledged as such, and not made so. Thus it is here: the Father owning the ones born of Christ—mentioned in the previous verse. When the Father calls us His sons, it is not that He bestows the title upon us, but avers that relationship; as in Romans 9:26, where the apostle quotes from Hosea: “And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God,” that is, God recognizes none as His children but those born of His Spirit and conformed to the image of His Son. And again, “If thou ... call the Sabbath a delight” (Isaiah 58:13)—regard and treat it as such. This is what we are called upon to behold: the fathomless love of the Father in owning us not merely as His subjects or servants, but as His sons. It is a particular and peculiar relationship which pertains to the regenerate, for it is not a blessing which is common to all men. It originates in the Father’s love. It is based upon our union with Christ, our being born of Him. To be a child of God is to be an heir of glory (Romans 8:17), and to be regarded as such by the Father is a confirmation of it. It is a very high honour indeed to sustain this relationship, far, far greater than any which this world can bestow. David asked, “Seemeth it to you a light thing to be a king’s son in law?” (1 Samuel 18:23), then what is it to be acknowledged as a son of the King of kings! “Since thou wast precious in My sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee” (Isaiah 43:4) is His own blessed testimony. What weight should that have with us! What assurance it should convey to our minds! What wonderment it should evoke! Does it not move each of us to admit with the returning prodigal, I am not worthy “to be called Thy son” (Luke 15:19)? How it should influence our daily lives: “Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also loved us” (Ephesians 5:1-2). We must not conclude this chapter without pointing out the principal qualities of the Father’s love. It was spontaneous. Nothing outside God Himself moved Him to it. There was nothing in us to attract it, but everything to the contrary (Ezekiel 16:5-6). It was eternal (Jeremiah 31:3), for God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world and entered into an everlasting covenant of grace with Him on our behalf. It was sovereign, selective and discriminating, for He loves not all; it is peculiar to the elect—“Remember me, O Lord, with the favour that Thou bearest unto Thy people” (Psalms 106:4). It is sacrificial, for God “spared not His own Son” but delivered Him up to the cross in order that sinners might be saved. Christ shed not His blood in order to induce God to love His people: it was because God loved them that He provided such a costly offering for them. It is infinite. There is a depth to it which none can fathom, a height which none can reach, a length and breadth which cannot be measured. It is invincible. “Put not your trust in princes” said the Psalmist, for they will fail you; but God’s love is reliable and cannot be thwarted. It is immutable, knowing no change (Malachi 3:6), being without variableness or shadow of turning. Truly His love is unique. Equally blessed is it to observe how His love is exercised. Behold His foreordaining love “In love having predestinated us unto the adoption of children” (Ephesians 1:4-5). Deuteronomy 7:7-8, shows that election is the fruit of God’s love—likewise does 2 Thessalonians 2:13, teach us. Behold God’s redeeming love: “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10). Behold His regenerating love: “But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:4-5). Behold His drawing love: “I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee” (Jeremiah 31:3), sweetly wooing us unto Himself. Behold His communicating love: “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:5). Behold His comforting love: “even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation” (2 Thessalonians 2:16). Behold His preserving love: “nothing does or can separate us from it” (Romans 8:38-39). Thus its manner is as matchless as its nature. A brief word now on the present modification of our enjoyment of God’s love. “Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not.” Though so greatly honoured by the Father, that will not bring you into favour with those who are strangers to Him. No matter how lavish He be in the display of His love toward us, the unregenerate will not value us on that account. The natural man is devoid of spiritual discernment, and perceives not that the saints are “the excellent of the earth,” the blessed ones—rather does he regard them as fools and fanatics, who are turning their backs on the happiness of life. But so far from stumbling the Christian, or even discouraging him, it is just what he should expect. Nor will this disesteem be only from the openly godless—it is from professors that the most cruel treatment will come. It was the religious element which persecuted Christ! They perceived not His glory, though it shone constantly before them in His character and conduct, His ministry and miracles; but they were blind, seeing in Him no beauty. Sufficient for the disciple to be as his Master: to be unknown, despised, opposed, is part of our conformity to Him. The excellency of our sonship is not to be measured by the world’s judgment, for its opinion is worthless. Sufficient for the believer to be assured that his Father loves him, that he has His approbation. Suffer not the slights of godless professors to dim your joy in Him. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 44: 002.00. A FOURFOLD SALVATION ======================================================================== A FOURFOLD SALVATION by A.W. Pink 1889-1952 Table Of Contents PREFACE CHAPTER 1 Salvation from the Pleasure of Sin CHAPTER 2 Salvation from the Penalty of Sin CHAPTER 3 Salvation from the Power of Sin CHAPTER 4 Salvation from the Presence of Sin COPYRIGHT The data contained in this file is believed to be in the Public Domain. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 45: 002.000. PREFACE ======================================================================== PREFACE In 1929 we wrote a booklet entitled "A Threefold Salvation" based upon the instruction we had received during our spiritual infancy. Like most of that early teaching, it was defective because inadequate. As we continued our study of God’s Word further light has been granted us on this subject—yet alas how ignorant we still are—and this has enabled us to see that, in the past, we had started at the wrong point, for instead of beginning at the beginning, we commenced almost in the middle. instead of salvation from sin being threefold, as we once supposed, we now perceive it to be fourfold. How good is the Lord in vouchsafing us additional light, yet it is now our duty to walk therein, and, as Providence affords us opportunity, to give it out. May the Holy Spirit so graciously guide us that God may be glorified and His people edified. The subject of God’s "so-great-salvation" (Hebrews 2:3), as it is revealed to us in the Scriptures and made known in Christian experience, is worthy of a life’s study. Any one who supposes that there is now no longer any need for him to prayerfully search for a fuller understanding of the same needs to ponder "If any man think he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know" (1 Corinthians 8:2). The fact is that the moment any of us really takes it for granted that he already knows all that there is to be known on any subject treated of in Holy Writ, he at once cuts himself off from any further light thereon. That which is most needed by all of us in order to a better understanding of Divine things is not a brilliant intellect, but a truly humble heart and a teachable spirit, and for that we would daily and fervently pray, for we possess it not by nature. The subject of Divine salvation has, sad to say, provoked age-long controversy and bitter contentions even among Christians. There is comparatively little agreement even upon this elementary vet vital truth. Some have insisted that salvation is by Divine grace, others have argued that it is by human endeavor. A number have sought to defend the middle position, and while allowing that the salvation of a lost sinner must be by Divine grace, were not willing to concede that it is by Divine grace alone, alleging that God’s grace must be plussed by something from the creature, and very varied have been the opinions of what that ‘something must be—baptism, church-membership, the performing of good works, holding out faithful to the end, etc. On the other hand, there are those who not only grant that salvation is by grace alone, but who deny that God uses any means whatever in the accomplishment of His eternal purpose to save His elect—overlooking the fact that the sacrifice of Christ is the grand "means’! It is true that the Church of God was blessed with super-creation blessings, being chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world and predestinated unto the adoption of children, and nothing could or can alter that grand fact. It is equally true that if sin had never entered the world, none had been in need of salvation from it. But sin has entered, and the Church fell in Adam and came under the curse and condemnation of God’s Law. Consequently, the elect, equally with the reprobate, shared in the capital offence of their federal head, and partake of its fearful entail: "In Adam all die" (1 Corinthians 15:22): "By the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation" (Romans 5:18). The result of this is, that all are "alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts" (Ephesians 4:18), so that the members of the mystical Body of Christ are "by nature the children of wrath, even as others" (Ephesians 2:3), and hence they are alike in dire need of God’s salvation. Even when there is fundamental soundness in their views upon Divine salvation many have such inadequate and one-sided conceptions that other aspects of this truth, equally important and essential, are often overlooked and tacitly denied. How many, for example, would be capable of giving a simple exposition of the following texts: "Who hat/i saved us" (2 Timothy 1:9), "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling’ (Php 2:12), "Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed’ (Romans 13:11). Now those verses do not refer to three different salvations, but to three separate aspects of one, and unless we learn to distinguish sharply among them, there can be naught but confusion and cloudiness in our thinking. Those passages present three distinct phases and stages of salvation: salvation as an accomplished fact, as a present process, and as a future prospect. So many today ignore these distinctions, jumbling them together. Some contend for one and some argue against the other two; and vice versa. Some insist they are already saved, and deny that they are now being saved. Some declare that salvation is entirely future, and deny that it is in any sense already accomplished. Both are wrong. The fact is that the great majority of professing Christians fail to see that "salvation" is one of the most comprehensive terms in all the Scriptures, including predestination, regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. They have far too cramped an idea of the meaning and scope of the word "salvation" (as it is used in the Scriptures), narrowing its range too much, generally confining their thoughts to but a simple phase. They suppose "salvation" means no more than the new birth or the forgiveness of sins. Were one to tell them that salvation is a protracted process, they would view him with suspicion; and if he affirmed that salvation is something awaiting us in the future, they would at once dub him a heretic. Yet they would be the ones to err. Ask the average Christian, Are you saved? and he answers, Yes, I was saved in such and such a year; and that is as far as his thoughts on the subject go. Ask him, To what do you owe your salvation? and "the finished work of Christ" is the sum of his reply. Tell him that each of those answers is seriously defective, and he strongly resents your aspersion. As an example of the confusion that now prevails, we quote the following from a tract on Php 2:12 : "To whom are those instructions addressed? The opening words to the Epistle tell us: ‘To the saints in Christ Jesus.’ . . . Thus they were all believers! and could not be required to work for their salvation, for they already possessed it." Alas that so few people today perceive anything wrong in such a statement. Another "Bible teacher" tells us that "save thyself" (1 Timothy 4:16) must refer to deliverance from physical ills, as Timothy was already saved spiritually. True, yet it is equally true that he was then in the process of being saved, and also a fact that his salvation was then future. Let us now supplement the first three verses quoted and show that there are other passages in the New Testament which definitely refer to each distinct tense of salvation. First salvation is an accomplished fact: "Thy faith hath saved thee" (Luke 7:50); "by grace ye have been saved" (Greek, and so translated in the R. V.—Ephesians 2:8); "according to his mercy he saved us" (Titus 3:5). Second, salvation as a present process, in course of accomplishment; not yet completed: "Unto us which are being saved" (1 Corinthians 1:18 —R. V. and Bagster Interlinear); "Them that believe to the saving (not the ‘salvation’) of the soul" (Hebrews 10:39). Third, salvation as a future process: "Sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation" (Hebrews 1:14); "receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save your souls" (James 1:21); "kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time" (1 Peter 1:5). Thus, by putting together these different passages we are clearly warranted in formulating the following statement: every genuine Christian has been saved, is now being saved, and will yet be saved—how and from what we shall endeavor to show. As further proof of how many-sided is the subject of God’s great salvation, and how that in Scripture it is viewed from various angles, take the following: by grace are ye saved" (Ephesians 2:8); "saved by his (Christ’s) life," i.e., by His resurrection life (Romans 5:9); "thy faith hath saved thee" (Luke 7:50); "the engrafted Word which is able to save your souls" (James 1:21); "saved by hope" (Romans 8:24); "saved; yet so as by fire" (1 Corinthians 3:15); "the like figure whereunto baptism doth also now save us" (1 Peter 3:21). Ah, my reader, the Bible is not a lazy man’s book, nor can it be soundly expounded by those who do not devote the whole of their time, and that for years, to its prayerful study. It is not that God would bewilder us, but that He would humble us, drive us to our knees, make us dependent upon His Spirit. Not to the proud—those who are wise in their own esteem—are its heavenly secrets opened. In like manner it may be shown from Scripture that the cause of salvation is not a single one, as so many suppose—the blood of Christ. Here, too, it is necessary to distinguish between things which differ. First, the originating cause of salvation is the eternal purpose of God, or, in other words, the predestinating grace of the Father. Second, the meritorious cause of salvation is the mediation of Christ, this having particular respect to the legal side of things, or, in other words, His fully meeting the demands of the Law on the behalf and in the stead of those He redeems. Third, the efficient cause of salvation is the regenerating and sanctifying operations of the Holy Spirit, which respect the experimental side of it; or, in other words, the Spirit works in us what Christ purchased for us. Thus, we owe our personal salvation equally to each Person in the Trinity, and not to one (the Son) more than to the others. Fourth, the instrumental cause is our faith, obedience, and perseverance: though we are not saved because of them, equally true is it that we cannot be saved (according to God’s appointment) without them. In the opening paragraph, we have stated that in our earlier effort we erred as to the starting point. In writing upon a threefold salvation we began with salvation from the penalty of sin, which is our justification. But our salvation does not begin there, as we knew well enough even then: alas that we so blindly followed our erring preceptors. Our salvation originates, of course, in the eternal purpose of God, in His predestinating of us to everlasting glory. "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began" (2 Timothy 1:9). That has reference to God’s decree of election: His chosen people were then saved completely, in the Divine purpose, and all that we shall now say has to do with the performing of that purpose, the accomplishing of that decree, the actualization of that salvation. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 46: 002.01. CHAPTER 1 ======================================================================== Chapter 1 SALVATION FROM THE PLEASURE OF SIN It is here that God begins His actual application of salvation unto His elect. God saves us from the pleasure or love of sin before He delivers us from the penalty or punishment of sin. Necessarily so, for it would be neither an act of holiness nor of righteousness were He to grant full pardon to one who was still a rebel against Him, loving that which He hates. God is a God of order throughout, and nothing ever more evidences the perfections of His works than the orderliness of them. And how does God save His people from the pleasure of sin? The answer is, By imparting to them a nature which hates evil and loves holiness. This takes place when they are born again, so that actual salvation begins with regeneration. Of course it does: where else could it commence? Fallen man can never perceive his desperate need of salvation nor come to Christ for it, till he has been renewed by the Holy Spirit. "He hath made everything beautiful in his time" (Ecclesiastes 3:11), and much of the beauty of God’s spiritual handiwork is lost upon us unless we duly observe their "time." Has not the Spirit Himself emphasized this in the express enumeration He has given us in "For whom he did foreknow, he did also predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified" (Romans 8:29-30). Romans 8:29 announces the Divine foreordination; Romans 8:30 states the manner of its actualization. It seems passing strange that with this Divinely defined method before them, so many preachers begin with our justification, instead of with that effectual call (from death unto life, our regeneration) which precedes it. Surely it is most obvious that regeneration must first take place in order to lay a foundation for our justification. Justification is by faith (Acts 13:39; Romans 5:1; Galatians 3:8), and the sinner must be Divinely quickened before he is capable of believing savingly. Does not the last statement made throw light upon and explain what we have said is so "passing strange"? Preachers today are so thoroughly imbued with free-willism that they have departed almost wholly from that sound evangelism which marked our forefathers. The radical difference between Arminianism and Calvinism is that the system of the former revolves about the creature, whereas the system of the latter has the Creator for its centre of orbit. The Arminian allots to man the first place, the Calvinist gives God that position of honor. Thus the Arminian begins his discussion of salvation with justification, for the sinner must believe before he can be forgiven; further back he will not go, for he is unwilling that man should be made nothing of But the instructed Calvinist begins with election, descends to regeneration, and then shows that being born again (by the sovereign act of God, in which the creature has no part) the sinner is made capable of savingly believing the Gospel. Saved from the pleasure and love of sin. What multitudes of people would strongly resent being told that they delighted in evil! They would indignantly ask if we supposed them to be moral perverts. No indeed: a person may be thoroughly chaste and yet delight in evil. It may be that some of our own readers repudiate the charge that they have ever taken pleasure in sin, and would claim, on the contrary, that from earliest recollection they have detested wickedness in all its forms. Nor would we dare to call into question their sincerity; instead we point out that it only affords another exemplification of the solemn fact that "the heart is deceitful above all things" (Jeremiah 17:9). But this is a matter that is not open to argument: the plain teaching of God’s Word decides the point once and for all, and beyond its verdict there is no appeal. What, then, say the Scriptures? So far from God’s Word denying that there is any delight to be found therein, it expressly speaks of "the pleasures of sin," it immediately warns that those pleasures are but "for a season" (Hebrews 11:25), for the aftermath is painful and not pleasant; yea, unless God intervenes in His sovereign grace, they entail eternal torment. So too the Word refers to those who are "lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God" (2 Timothy 3:4). It is indeed striking to observe how often this discordant note is struck in Scripture. It mentions those who "love vanity" (Psalms 4:2); "him that loveth violence" (Psalms 11:5); "thou lovest evil more than good" (Psalms 52:3); "he loved lies" (Proverbs 1:22); "they which delight in their abominations" (Isaiah 66:3); "their abominations were according as they loved" (Hosea 9:10); who hated the good and loved the evil" (Micah 3:2); "if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1 John 2:15). To love sin is far worse than to commit it, for a man may be suddenly tripped up or commit it through frailty. The fact is, my reader, that we are not only born into this world with an evil nature, but with hearts that are thoroughly in love with sin. Sin is our native element. We are wedded to our lusts, and of ourselves are no more able to alter the bent of our corrupt nature than the Ethiopian can change his skin or the leopard his spots. But what is impossible with man, is possible with God, and when He takes us in hand this is where He begins—by saving us from the pleasure or love of sin. This is the great miracle of grace, for the Almighty stoops down and picks up a loathsome leper from the dunghill and makes him a new creature m Christ, so that the things he once hated he now loves. God commences by saving us from ourselves. He does not save us from the penalty until He has delivered us from the love of sin. And how is this miracle of grace accomplished, or rather, exactly what does it consist of? Negatively, not by eradicating the evil nature, nor even by refining it. Positively, by communicating a new nature, a holy nature, which loathes that which is evil, and delights in all that is truly good. To be more specific. First, God save His people from the pleasure or love of sin by puffing His holy awe in their hearts, for "the fear of the Lord is to hate evil" (Proverbs 8:13), and again, "the fear of the Lord is to depart from evil" (Proverbs 6:16). Second. God saves His people from the pleasure of sin by communicating to them a new and vital principle: ‘the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit" (Romans 5:5), and where the love of God rules the heart, the love of sin is dethroned. Third, God saves His people from the love of sin by the Holy Spirit’s drawing their affections unto things above, thereby taking them off the things which formerly enthralled them. If on the one hand the unbeliever hotly denies that lit is in love with sin, many a believer is often hard put to persuade himself that he has been saved from the love thereof With an understanding that has in part been enlightened by the Holy Spirit, he is the better able to discern things in their true colors. With a heart that has been made honest by grace, he refuses to call sweet bitter. With a conscience that has been sensitized by the new birth, he the more quickly feels the workings of sin and the hankering of his affections for that which is forbidden. Moreover, the flesh remains in him, unchanged, and as the raven constantly craves carrion, so this corrupt principle in which our mothers conceived us, lusts after and delights in that which is the opposite of holiness. It is these things which occasion and give rise to the disturbing questions that clamour for answer within the genuine believer. The sincere Christian is often made to seriously doubt if he has been delivered from the love of sin. Such questions as these plainly agitate his mind: Why do I so readily yield to temptation? Why do some of the vanities and pleasures of the world still possess so much attraction for me? Why do I chafe so much against any restraints being placed upon my lusts? Why do I find the work of mortification so difficult and distasteful? Could such things as these be if I were a new creature in Christ? Could such horrible experiences as these happen if God had saved me from taking pleasure in sin? Well do we know that we are here giving expression to the very doubts which exercise the minds of many of our readers, and those who are strangers thereto are to be pitied. But what shall we say in reply? How is this distressing problem to be resolved? How may one be assured that he has been saved from the love of sin? Let us point out first that the presence of that within us which still lusts after and takes delight in some evil things, is not incompatible with our having been saved from the love of sin, paradoxical as that may sound. It is part of the mystery of the Gospel that those who be saved are yet sinners in themselves. The point we are here dealing with is similar to and parallel with faith. The Divine principle of faith in the heart does not cast out unbelief. Faith and doubts exist side by side within a quickened soul, which is evident from those words, "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief" (Mark 9:24). In like manner the Christian may exclaim and pray, "Lord, I long after holiness, help Thou my lustings after sin." And why is this? Because of the existence of two separate natures, the one at complete variance with the other within the Christian. How, then, is the presence of faith to be ascertained? Not by the ceasing of unbelief, but by discovering its own fruit and works. Fruit may grow amid thorns as flowers among weeds, and yet it is fruit nonetheless. Faith exists amid many doubts and fears. Notwithstanding opposing forces within as well as from without us, faith still reaches out after God. Notwithstanding innumerable discouragements and defeats, faith continues to fight. Notwithstanding many refusals from God, it yet clings to Him and says, Except Thou bless me I will not let Thee go. Faith may be fearfully weak and fitful, often eclipsed by the clouds of unbelief, nevertheless the Devil himself cannot persuade its possessor to repudiate God’s Word, despite His Son, or abandon all hope. The presence of faith, then, may be ascertained in that it causes its possessor to come before God as an empty-handed beggar beseeching Him for mercy and blessing. Now just as the presence of faith may be known amid all the workings of unbelief, so our salvation from the love of sin may be ascertained notwithstanding all the lustings of the flesh after that which is evil. But in what way? How is this initial aspect of salvation to be identified? We have already anticipated this question in an earlier paragraph, wherein we stated that God saved us from delighting in sin by imparting a nature that hates evil and loves holiness, which takes place at the new birth. Consequently, the real question to be settled is, How may the Christian positively determine whether that new and holy nature has been imparted to him? The answer is, By observing its activities, particularly the opposition it makes (under the energizings of the Holy Spirit) unto indwelling sin. Not only does the flesh (that principle of sin) lust against the spirit, but the spirit (the principle of holiness) lusts and wars against the flesh. First, our salvation from the pleasure or love of sin may be recognized by sin’s becoming a burden to us. This is truly a spiritual experience. Many souls are loaded down with worldly anxieties, who know nothing of what it means to be bowed down with a sense of guilt. But when God takes us in hand, the iniquities and transgressions of our past life are made to lie as an intolerable load upon the conscience. When we are given a sight of ourselves as we appear before the eyes of the thrice holy God, we will exclaim with the Psalmist, "For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me" (Psalms 40:12). So far from sin being pleasant, it is now felt as a cruel incubus, a crushing weight, and unendurable load. The soul is "heavy laden" (Matthew 11:28) and bowed down. A sense of guilt oppresses and the conscience cannot bear the weight of it. Nor is this experience restricted to our first conviction: it continues with more or less acuteness throughout the Christian’s life. Second, our salvation from the pleasure of sin may be recognized by sin’s becoming bitter to us. True, there are millions of unregenerate who are filled with remorse over the harvest reaped from their sowing of wild oats. Yet that is not hatred of sin, but dislike of its consequences—ruined health, squandered opportunities, financial straitness, or social disgrace. No, what we have reference to is that anguish of heart which ever marks the one the Spirit takes in hand. When the veil of delusion is removed and we see sin in the light of God’s countenance; when we are given a discovery of the depravity of our very nature, then we perceive that we are sunk in carnality and death. When sin is opened to us in all its secret workings, we are made to feel the vileness of our hypocrisy, self-righteousness, unbelief, impatience, and the utter filthiness of our hearts. And when the penitent soul views the sufferings of Christ, he can say with Job, "God maketh my heart soft" (Job 23:16). Ah, my reader, it is this experience which prepares the heart to go out after Christ: those that are whole need not a physician, but they that are quickened and convicted by the spirit are anxious to be relieved by the great Physician. "The Lord killeth, and maketh alive; he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich; he bringeth low, and lifteth up" (1 Samuel 2:6-7). It is in this way that God slayeth our self righteousness, maketh poor and bringeth low—by making sin to be an intolerable burden and as bitter wormwood to us. There can be no saving faith till the soul is filled with evangelical repentance, and repentance is a godly sorrow for sin, a holy detestation of sin, a sincere purpose to forsake it. The Gospel calls upon men to repent of their sins, forsake their idols, and mortify their lusts, and thus it is utterly impossible for the Gospel to be a message of good tidings to those who are in love with sin and madly determined to perish rather than part with their idols. Nor is this experience of sin’s becoming bitter to us limited to our first awakening—it continues in varying degrees, to the end of our earthly pilgrimage. The Christian suffers under temptations, is pained by Satan’s fiery assaults, and bleeds from the wounds inflicted by the evil he commits. It grieves him deeply that he makes such a wretched return unto God for His goodness, that he requites Christ so evilly for His dying love, that he responds so fitfully to the promptings of the Spirit. The wanderings of his mind when he desires to meditate upon the Word, the dullness of his heart when he seeks to pray, the worldly thoughts which invade his mind on the Holy Sabbath, the coldness of his affections towards the Redeemer, cause him to groan daily; all of which goes to evidence that sin has been made bitter to him. He no longer welcomes those intruding thoughts which take his mind off God: rather does he sorrow over them. But, "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted: (Matthew 5:4). Third, our salvation from the pleasure of sin may be recognized by the felt bondage which sin produces. As it is not until a Divine faith is planted in the heart that we become aware of our native and inveterate unbelief, so it is not until God saves us from the love of sin that we are conscious of the fetters it has placed around us. Then it is we discover that we are "without strength," unable to do anything pleasing to God, incapable of running the race set before us. A Divinely drawn picture of the saved soul’s felt bondage is to be found in Romans 7:18 "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do . . . For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, waning against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin" (Romans 7:18-19, Romans 7:22-23). And what is the sequel? this the agonizing cry "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" If that be the sincere lamentation of your heart, then God has saved you from the pleasure of sin. Let it be pointed out though, that salvation from the love of sin is felt and evidenced in varying degrees by different Christians, and in different periods in the life of the same Christian, according to the measure of grace which God bestows, and according as that grace is active and operative. Some seem to have a more intense hatred of sin in all its forms than do others, yet the principle of hating sin is found in all real Christians. Some Christians, rarely if ever, commit any deliberate and premeditated sins: more often they are tripped up, suddenly tempted (to be angry or tell a lie) and are overcome. But with others the case is quite otherwise: they— fearful to say—actually plan evil acts. If any one indignantly denies that such a thing is possible in a saint, and insists that such a character is a stranger to saving grace, we would remind him of David: was not the murder of Uriah definitely planned? This second class of Christians find it doubly hard to believe they have been saved from the love of sin. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 47: 002.02. CHAPTER 2 ======================================================================== Chapter 2 SALVATION FROM THE PENALTY OF SIN This follows upon our regeneration which is evidenced by evangelical repentance and unfeigned faith. Every soul that truly puts his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ is then and there saved from the penalty—the guilt, the wages, the punishment—of sin. When the apostle said to the penitent jailor, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved," he signified that all his sins would be remitted by God; just as when the Lord said to the poor woman, "thy faith hath saved thee: go in peace" (Luke 7:50). He meant that all her sins were now forgiven her, for forgiveness has to do with the criminality and punishment of sin. To the same effect when we read "by grace are ye saved through faith" (Ephesians 2:8), it is to be understood the Lord has actually "delivered us from the wrath to come" (1 Thessalonians 1:10). This aspect of our salvation is to be contemplated from two separate viewpoints: the Divine and the human. The Divine side of it is found in the mediatorial office and work of Christ, who as the Sponsor and Surety of His people met the requirements of the law on their behalf, working out for them a perfect righteousness and enduring Himself the curse and condemnation which are due them, consummated at the Cross. It was there that He was "wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities" (Isaiah 53:5). It was there that He, judicially, "his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree" (1 Peter 2:24). It was there that He was "smitten of God and afflicted" while He was making atonement for the offenses of His people. Because Christ suffered in my stead, I go free; because He died, I live; because He was forsaken of God, I am reconciled to Him. This is the great marvel of grace, which will evoke ceaseless praise from the redeemed throughout eternity. The human side of our salvation from the penalty of sin respects our repentance and faith. Though these possess no merits whatever, and though they in no sense purchase our pardon, yet according to the order which God has appointed, they are (instrumentally) essential, for salvation does not become ours experimentally until they are exercised. Repentance is the hand releasing those filthy objects it had previously clung to so tenaciously; faith is extending an empty hand to God to receive His gift of grace. Repentance is a godly sorrow for sin; faith is receiving a sinner s Saviour. Repentance is a revulsion of the filth and pollution of sin; faith is a seeking of cleansing therefrom. Repentance is the sinner covering his mouth and crying, "Unclean, unclean!"; faith is the leper coming to Christ and saying, "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." So far from repentance and faith being meritorious graces, they are self-emptying ones. The one who truly repents takes his place as a lost sinner before God, confessing himself to be a guilty wretch deserving naught but unsparing judgment at the hands of Divine justice. Faith looks away from corrupt and ruined self, and views the amazing provision which God has made for such a Hell-deserving creature. Faith lays hold of the Son of God’s love, as a drowning man clutches at a passing spar. Faith surrenders to the Lordship of Christ, rests upon the merits and efficacy of His sacrifice, his sins are removed from God’s sight "as far as the east is from the west": he is now eternally saved from the wrath to come. We cannot do better here than quote these sublime lines of Augustus Toplady: From whence this fear and unbelief? Hast Thou, O Father, put to grief Thy spotless Son for me? And will the righteous Judge of men Condemn me for that debt of sin Which, Lord, was laid on Thee? If Thou hast my discharge procured, And freely in my place endured The whole of wrath Divine; Payment God cannot twice demand First at my bleeding Surety’s hand, And then again at mine. Complete atonement Thou hast made, And to the utmost farthing paid, What e’er Thy people owed; How then can wrath on me take place, If sheltered in Thy righteousness, And sprinkled with Thy blood? Turn, then, my soul, unto thy rest, The merits of thy great High Priest Speak peace and liberty. Trust in His efficacious blood, Nor fear thy banishment from God, Since Jesus died for thee. While deliverance from the love of sin has to do entirely with the experimental side of our salvation, remission of the penalty of sin concerns the legal aspect only, or in other words, the believer’s justification. Justification is a forensic term and has to do with the law-courts, for it is the decision or verdict of the judge. Justification is the opposite of condemnation. Condemnation means that a man has been charged with a crime, his guilt is established, and accordingly the law pronounces upon him sentence of punishment. On the contrary, justification means that the accused is found to be guiltless, the law has nothing against him, and therefore he is acquitted and exonerated, leaving the court without a stain upon his character. When we read in Scripture that believers are "justified from all things" (Acts 13:39), it signifies that their case has been tried in the high court of Heaven and that God, the Judge of all the earth, has acquitted them: "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1). But to be without condemnation is only the negative side: justification means to declare or pronounce righteous, up to the Law’s requirements. Justification implies that the Law has been fulfilled, obeyed, magnified, for nothing short of this would meet the just demands of God. Hence, as His people, fallen in Adam, were unable to measure up to the Divine standard, God appointed that His own Son should become incarnate, be the Surety of His people, and answer the demands of the Law in their stead. Here, then, is the sufficient answer which may be made to the two objections which unbelief is ready to raise: how can God acquit the guilty? How can He declare righteous one who is devoid of righteousness? Bring in the Lord Jesus Christ and all difficulty disappears. The guilt of our sins was imputed or legally transferred to Him, so that He suffered the full penalty of what was due them; the merits of His obedience are imputed or legally transferred to us, so that we stand before God in all the acceptableness of our Sponsor (Romans 5:18-19; 2 Corinthians 5:21, etc.). Not only has the Law nothing against us, but we are entitled to its reward. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 48: 002.03. CHAPTER 3 ======================================================================== Chapter 3 SALVATION FROM THE POWER OF SIN This is a present and protracted process, and is as yet incomplete. It is the most difficult part of our subject, and upon it the greatest confusion of thought prevails, especially among young Christians. Many there are who, having learned that the Lord Jesus is the Saviour of sinners, have jumped to the erroneous conclusion that if they but exercise faith in Him, surrender to His Lordship, commit their souls into His keeping, He will remove their corrupt nature and destroy their evil propensities. But after they have really trusted in Him, they discover that evil is still present with them, that their hearts are still deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, and that no matter how they strive to resist temptation, pray for overcoming grace, and use the means of God’s appointing, they seem to grow worse and worse instead of better, until they seriously doubt if they are saved at all. They are not being saved. Even when a person has been regenerated and justified, the flesh or corrupt nature remains within him, and ceaselessly harasses him. Yet this ought not to perplex hint To the saints at Rome Paul said, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body" (Romans 6:12), which would be entirely meaningless had sin been eradicated from them. Writing to the Corinthian saints he said, "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (2 Corinthians 7:1): obviously such an exhortation is needless if sin has been purged from our beings. "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time" (1 Peter 5:6): what need have Christians for such a word as this, except pride lurks and works within them. But all room for controversy on this point is excluded if we bow to that inspired declaration, "If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8). The old carnal nature remains in the believer: he is still a sinner, though a saved one. What, then, is the young Christian to do? Is he powerless? Must he resort to stoicism, and make up his mind there is naught but a life of defeat before him? Certainly not! The first thing for him to do is to learn the humiliating truth that in himself he is "without strength." It was here that Israel failed: when Moses made known to them the Law they boastfully declared "all that the Lord has said we will do and be obedient" (Exodus 24:7). AU how little did they realize that "in the flesh there dwelleth no good thing." It was here, too, that Peter failed: he was self-confident and boasted that "though all men be offended because of thee, yet will I not deny thee—how little he knew his own heart. This complacent spirit lurks within each of us. While we cherish the belief we can "do better next time" it is evident that we still have confidence in our own powers. Not until we heed the Saviour’s words "without me ye can do nothing" do we take the first step toward victory. Only when we are weak (in ourselves) are we strong. The believer still has the carnal nature within him, and he has no strength in himself to check its evil propensities, nor to overcome its sinful solicitations. But the believer in Christ also has another nature within him which is received at the new birth: "that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:6). The believer, then, has two natures within him: one which is sinful, the other which is spiritual. These two natures being totally different in character, are antagonistic to each other. To this antagonism or conflict the apostle referred when he said, "The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh" (Galatians 5:17). Now which of these two natures is to regulate the believer’s life? It is manifest that both cannot, for they are contrary to each other. It is equally evident that the stronger of the two will exert the more controlling power. It is also clear that in the young Christian the carnal nature is the stronger, because he was born with it, and hence it has many years start of the spiritual nature, which he did not receive until he was born again. Further, it is unnecessary to argue at length that the only way by which we can strengthen and develop the new nature, is by feeding it. In every realm growth is dependent upon food, suitable food, daily food. The nourishment which God has provided for our spiritual nature is found in His own Word, for "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4). It is to this that Peter has reference when he says, "As newborn babes desire the sincere (pure) milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby" (1 Peter 2:2). In proportion as we feed upon the heavenly Manna, such will be our spiritual growth. Of course there are other things besides food needful to growth: we must breathe, and in a pure atmosphere. This, translated into spiritual terms, signifies prayer. It is when we approach the throne of grace and meet our Lord face to face that our spiritual lungs are filled with the ozone of Heaven. Exercise is another essential to growth, and this finds its accomplishment in walking with the Lord. If, then, we heed these primary laws of spiritual health, the new nature will flourish. But not only must the new nature be fed, it is equally necessary for our spiritual well-being that the old nature should be starved. This is what the apostle had in mind when he said, "Make not provision for the flesh, unto the lusts thereof" (Romans 13:14). To starve the old nature, to make not provision for the flesh, means that we abstain from everything that would stimulate our carnality; that we avoid, as we would a plague, all that is calculated to prove injurious to our spiritual welfare. Not only must we deny ourselves the pleasures of sin, shun such things as the saloon, theatre, dance, card-table, etc., but we must separate ourselves from the worldly companions, cease to read worldly literature, abstain from everything upon which we cannot ask God’s blessing. Our affections are to be set upon things above, and not upon things upon the earth (Colossians 3:2). Does this seem a high standard, and sound impracticable? Holiness in all things is that at which we are to aim, and failure to do so explains the leanness of so many Christians. Let the young believer realize that whatever does not help his spiritual life hinders it. Here, then, in brief is the answer to our question, What is the young Christian to do in order for deliverance from indwelling sin. It is true that we are still in this world, but we are not "of’ it (John 17:14). It is true that we are forced to associate with godless people, but this is ordained of God in order that we may "let our light so shine before men that they may see our good works, and glorify our Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16). There is a wide difference between associating with sinners as we go about our daily tasks, and making them our intimate companions and friends. Only as we feed upon the Word can we "grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18). Only as we starve the old nature can we expect deliverance from its power and pollution. Then let us earnestly heed the exhortation "put ye off concerning the former conversation (behaviour) the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that ye put on the new man, which, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Ephesians 4:22-24). Above, we have dealt only with the human side of the problem as to how to obtain deliverance from the dominion of sin. Necessarily there is a Divine side too. It is only by God’s grace that we are enabled to use the means which He has provided us, as it is only by the power of His Spirit who dwells within us that we can truly "lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and run with patience the race that is set before us" (Hebrews 12:1). These two aspects (the Divine and the human) are brought together in a number of scriptures. We are bidden to "work out our own salvation with fear and trembling" but the apostle immediately added, "for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Php 2:12-13). Thus, we are to work out that which God has wrought within us; in other words, if we walk in the Spirit we shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh (Galatians 5:16). It has now been shown that salvation from the power of sin is a process which goes on throughout the believer’s life. It is to this Solomon referred when he said, "The path of the just is as a shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day" (Proverbs 4:18). As our salvation from the pleasure of sin is the consequence of our regeneration, and as salvation from the penalty of sin respects our justification, so salvation from the power of sin has to do with the practical side of our sanctification. The word sanctification signifies "separation"—separation from sin. We need hardly say that the word holiness is strictly synonymous with "sanctification," being an alternative rendering of the same Greek word. As the practical side of sanctification has to do with our separation from sin, we are told, "Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (2 Corinthians 7:1). That practical sanctification or holiness is a process, a progressive experience, is clear from this: "Follow . . . holiness without which no man shall see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14). The fact that we are to "follow" holiness clearly intimates that we have not yet attained unto the Divine standard which God requires of us. This is further seen in the passage just quoted: "perfecting holiness" or completing it. The Divine Side of Our Salvation We must now enter into a little fuller detail of the Divine side of our salvation from the power and pollution of sin. When a sinner truly receives Christ as his Lord and Saviour, God does not then and there take him to Heaven; on the contrary, he is likely to be left down here for many years, and this world is a place of danger, for it lieth in the Wicked one (1 John 5:19) and all pertaining to it is opposed to the Father (1 John 2:16). Therefore the believer needs daily salvation from this hostile system. Accordingly we read that Christ "gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God our Father (Galatians 1:4). Not only is the sinner not taken to Heaven when he first savingly believes, but, as we have seen, the evil nature is not taken out of him; nevertheless God does not leave him completely under its dominion, but graciously delivers him from its regal power. He uses a great variety of means to accomplish this. First, by granting us a clearer view of our inward depravity, so that we are made to abhor ourselves. By nature we are thoroughly in love with ourselves, but as the Divine work of grace is carried forward in our souls we come to loathe ourselves; and that, my reader, is a very distressing experience—one which is conveniently shelved by most of our modern preachers. The concept which many young Christians form from preachers is, that the experience of a genuine believer is a smooth, peaceful, and joyous one; but he soon discovers that this is not verified in his personal history, but rather is it completely falsified. And this staggers him: supposing the preacher to know more about such matters than himself, he is now filled with disturbing doubts about his very salvation, and the Devil promptly tells him he is only a hypocrite, and never was saved at all. Only those who have actually passed through or are passing through this painful experience have any real conception thereof: there is as much difference between an actual acquaintance with it and the mere reading a description of the same, as there is between personally visiting a country and examining it first hand and simply studying a map of it. But how are we to account for one who has been saved from the pleasure and penalty of sin, now being made increasingly conscious not only of its polluting presence but of its tyrannizing power? How explain the fact that the Christian now finds himself growing worse and worse, and the more closely he endeavours to walk with God, the more he finds the flesh bringing forth its horrible works in ways it had not done previously? The answer is because of increased light from God, by which he now discovers filth of which he was previously unaware: the sun shining into a neglected room does not create the dust and cobwebs, but simply reveals them. Thus it is with the Christian. The more the light of the Spirit is turned upon him inwardly, the more he discovers the horrible plague of his heart (1 Kings 8:38), and the more he realizes what a wretched failure he is. The fact is, dear discouraged soul, that the more you are growing out of love with yourself, the more you are being saved from the power of sin. Wherein lies its fearful potency? Why, in its power to deceive us. It lies to us. It did so to Adam and Eve. It gives us false estimates of values so that we mistake the tinsel for real gold. To be saved from the power of sin, is to have our eyes opened so that we see things in God’s light: it is to know the truth about things all around us, and the truth about ourselves. Satan has blinded the minds of them that believe not, but the Holy Spirit hath shined in our hearts "unto the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:4-6). But further: sin not only deceives, it puffs up, causing its infatuated victims to think highly of themselves. As 1 Timothy 3:6 tells us, to be "lifted up with pride" is to "fall into the condemnation of the devil." Ah, it was insane egotism which caused him to say, "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds: I will be like the Most High" (Isaiah 14:13-14). Is there any wonder then, that those in whom he works are filled with pride and complacency! Sin ever produces self-love and self-righteousness: the most abandoned of characters will tell you, "I know that I am weak, yet I have a good heart." But when God takes us in hand, it is the very opposite: the workings of the Spirit subdues our pride. How? By giving increasing discoveries of self and the exceeding sinfulness of sin, so that each one cries with Job "Behold! I am vile" (Job 40:4): such an one is being saved from the power of sin—its power to deceive and to inflate. Second, by sore chastenings. This is another means which God uses in delivering His people from sin’s dominion. "We have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their pleasure: but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness" (Hebrews 12:9-10). Those chastenings assume varied forms: sometimes they are external, sometimes internal, but whatever be their nature they are painful to flesh and blood. Sometimes these Divine chastisements are of long duration, and then the soul is apt to ask "why standest Thou afar off, O Lord? Why dost Thou hide Thyself in times of trouble?" (Psalms 10:1), for it seems as though God has deserted us. Earnest prayer is made for a mitigation of suffering, but no relief is granted; grace is earnestly sought for meekly bowing to the rod, but unbelief, impatience, rebellion, seems to wax stronger and stronger, and the soul is hard put to it to believe in God’s love; but as Hebrews 12:11 tells us, "Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceful (peaceable, AV) fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." This life is a schooling, and chastenings are one of the chief methods God employs in the training of His children. Sometimes they are sent for the correcting of our faults, and therefore we must pray, "Cause me to understand wherein I have erred" (Job 6:24). Let us steadily bear in mind that it is the "rod" and not the sword which is smiting us, held in the hand of our loving Father and not the avenging Judge. Sometimes they are sent for the prevention of sin, as Paul was given a thorn in the flesh, "lest he should be exalted above measure, through the abundance of the revelations" given him. Sometimes they are sent for our spiritual education, that by them we may be brought to a deeper experimental acquaintance with God: "It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn Thy statutes" (Psalms 119:71). Sometimes they are sent for the testing and strengthening of our graces: "We glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope" (Romans 5:3-4); "count it all joy when ye fall into varied trials: knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience" (James 1:2-3). Chastening is God’s sin-purging medicine, sent to wither our fleshly aspirations, to detach our heats from carnal objects. to deliver us from our idols, to wean us more thoroughly from the world. God has bidden us "Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers . . . come out from among them, and be ye separate" (2 Corinthians 6:14, 2 Corinthians 6:17); and we are slow to respond, and therefore does He take measures to drive us out lie has bidden us "love not the world," and if we disobey we must not be surprised if He causes some of our worldly friends to hate and persecute us. God has bidden us "mortify ye therefore your members which are upon the earth" (Colossians 3:5): if we refuse to comply with this unpleasant task, then we may expect God Himself to use the pruning-knife upon us. God has bidden us "cease ye from man" (Isaiah 2:22), and if we will trust our fellows, we are made to suffer for it. "Despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him" (Hebrews 12:5). This is a salutary warning. So far from despising it, we should be grateful for the same: that God cares so much and takes such trouble with us, and that His bitter physic produces such healthful effects. "In their affliction they will seek Me early" (Hosea 5:15): while everything is running smoothly for us, we are apt to be self-sufficient; but when trouble comes, we promptly turn unto the Lord. Own, then, with the Psalmist "In faithfulness Thou hast afflicted me" (Psalms 119:75). Not only do God’s chastisements, when sanctified to us, subdue the workings of pride and wean us more from the world, but they make the Divine promises more precious to the heart: such an one as this takes on new meaning; "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, . . . when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned" (Isaiah 43:2). Moreover, they break down selfishness and make us more sympathetic to our fellow-sufferers: "Who comfortest us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble" (2 Corinthians 1:4). Third, by bitter disappointments. God has plainly warned us that "all is vanity and vexation of spirit, and there is no profit under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 2:11), and that by one who was permitted to gratify the physical senses as none other ever has been. Yet we do not take this warning to heart, for we do not really believe it. On the contrary, we persuade ourselves that satisfaction is to be found in things under the sun, that the creature can give contentment to our hearts. As well attempt to fill a circle with a square! The heart was made for God, and He alone can meet its needs. But by nature we are idolaters, putting things into His place. Those things we invest with qualities they possess not, and sooner or later our delusions are rudely exposed to us, and we discover that the images in our minds are only dreams, that our golden idol is but clay after all. God so orders His providences that our earthly nest is destroyed. The winds of adversity compel us to leave the downy bed of carnal ease and luxuriation. Grievous losses are experienced in some form or other. Trusted friends prove fickle, and in the hour of need fail us. The family circle, which had so long sheltered us and where peace and happiness was found, is broken up by the grim hand of death. Health fails and weary nights are our portion. These frying experiences, these bitter disappointments, are another of the means which our gracious God employs to save us from the pleasure and pollution of sin. By them He discovers to us the vanity and vexation of the creature. By them He weans us more completely from the world. By them He teaches us that the objects in which we sought refreshment are but "broken cisterns," and this that we may turn to Christ and draw from Him who is the Well of living water, the One who alone can supply true satisfaction of soul. It is in this way we are experimentally taught to look off from the present to the future, for our rest is not here. "For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?" (Romans 8:24). Let it be duly noted that this comes immediately after "we ourselves groan within ourselves." Thus to be "saved by hope" respects our present salvation from the power of sin. Complete salvation is now the Christian’s only in title and expectation. It is not here said that we "shall be saved by hope,’ but we are saved by hope—that hope which looks for the fulfilling of God’s promises. Hope has to do with a future good, with something which as yet "is seen not:" we "hope" not for something which is already enjoyed. Herein hope differs from faith. Faith, as it is an assent, is in the mind; but hope is seated in the affections, stirred by the desirability of the things promised. And, my reader, the bitter disappointments of life are naught but a dark background upon which hope may shine forth the more brightly. Christ does not immediately take to Heaven the one who puts his trust in Him. No, He keeps him here upon earth for a while to be exercised and tried. While he is awaiting his complete blessedness there is such a difference between him and it, and he encounters many difficulties and trials. Not having yet received his inheritance, there is need and occasion of hope, for only by its exercise can things future be sought after. The stronger our hope, the more earnestly shall we be engaged in the pursuit of it. We have to be weaned from present things in order for the heart to be fixed upon a future good. Fourth, by the gift of the Spirit and His operations within us. God’s great gift of Christ for us is matched by the gift of the Spirit for us, for we owe as much to the One as we do to the Other. The new nature in the Christian is powerless apart from the Spirit’s daily renewing. It is by His gracious operations that we have discovered to us the nature and extent of sin, are made to strive against it, are brought to grieve over it. It is by the Spirit that faith, hope, prayer, is kept alive within the soul. It is by the Spirit we are moved to use the means of grace which God has appointed for our spiritual preservation and growth. It is by the spirit that sin is prevented from having complete dominion over us, for as the result of His indwelling us, there is something else besides sin in the believer’s heart and life, namely, the fruits of holiness and righteousness. To sum up this aspect of our subject. Salvation from the power of indwelling sin is not the taking of the evil nature out of the believer in this life, nor by effecting any improvement in it: "that which is born of the flesh is flesh" (John 3:6) and it remains so, unchanged to the end. Nor is it by the Spirit so subduing indwelling sin that it is rendered less active, for the flesh not merely lusts, but "lusteth (ceaselessly) against the spirit:" it never sleeps, not even when our bodies do, as our dreams evidence. No, and in some form or other, the flesh is constantly producing its evil works. It may not be in external acts, seen by the eyes of our fellows, but certainly so internally, in things seen by God—such as covetousness, discontent, pride, unbelief, self-will, ill-will towards others, and a hundred other evils. No, none is saved from sinning in this life. Present salvation from the power of sin consists in, first, delivering us from the love of it, which though begun at our regeneration is continued throughout out practical sanctification. Second, from its blinding delusiveness, so that it can no more deceive as it once did. Third, from our excusing it: "that which I do, I allow not" (Romans 7:15). This is one of the surest marks of regeneration. In the fullest sense of the word the believer "allows" it not before he sins, for every real Christian when in his right mind desires to be wholly kept from sinning. He "allows" it not fully when doing it, for in the actual committing thereof there is an inward reserve—the new nature consents not. He "allows" it not afterwards, as Psalm 51 evidences so plainly of the case of David. The force of this word "allow" in Romans 7:15 may be seen from "truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they killed them (the prophets) and ye build their sepulchers" (Luke 11:48). So far from those Jews being ashamed of their fathers and abhorring their wicked conduct, they erected a monument to their honour. Thus, to "allow" is the opposite of to be ashamed of and sorrow over: it is to condone and vindicate. Therefore, when it is said that the believer "allows not" the evil of which he is guilty, it means that he seeks not to justify himself or throw the blame on some one else, as both Adam and Eve did. That the Christian allows not sin is evident by his shame over it, his sorrow for it, his confession of it, his loathing himself because of it, his renewed resolution to forsake it. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 49: 002.04. CHAPTER 4 ======================================================================== Chapter 4 SALVATION FROM THE PRESENCE OF SIN We now turn to that aspect of our subject which has to do solely with the future. Sin is yet to be completely eradicated from the believer’s being, so that he shall appear before God without any spot or blemish. True, this is his legal status even now, yet it has not become so in his state or experience. As God views the believer in Christ, he appears before Him in all the excellency of his Sponsor; but as God views him as he yet is in himself (and that he does do so is proved by His chastenings), he beholds all the ruin which the Fall has wrought in him. But this will not always be the case: no, blessed be His name, the Lord is reserving the best wine for the last. And even now we have tasted that He is gracious, but the fullness of His grace will only be entered into and enjoyed by us after this world is left behind. Those Scriptures which present our salvation as a future prospect are all concerned with our final deliverance from the very inbeing of sin. To this Paul referred when he said, "Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed" (Romans 13:11)—not our salvation from the pleasure, the penalty, or the power of sin, but from its very presence. "For our citizenship is in heaven: from whence we also look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Php 3:20). Yes, it is the "Saviour" we await, for it is at His return that the whole election of grace shall enter into their full salvation; as it is written, "Unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation" (Hebrews 9:28). In like manner, when another apostle declares, "We are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last time" (1 Peter 1:5), he had reference to this grand consummation of the believer’s salvation, when he shall be forever rid of the very presence of sin. Our salvation from the pleasure of sin is effected by Christ’s taking up His abode in our hearts: "Christ liveth in me" (Galatians 2:20). Our salvation from the penalty of sin was secured by Christ’s sufferings on the cross, where He endured the punishment due our iniquities. Our salvation from the power of sin is obtained by the gracious operations of the Spirit which Christ sends to His people—therefore is He designated "the Spirit of Christ" (Romans 8:9 and cf. Galatians 4:6, Revelation 3:1). Our salvation from the presence of sin will be accomplished at Christ’s second advent: "for our citizenship is in Heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself" (Php 3:20-21). And again we are told, "We know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is" (1 John 3:2). It is all of Christ from beginning to end. Man was originally created in the image and likeness of God, reflecting the moral perfections of his Maker. But sin came in and he fell from his pristine glory, and by that fall God’s image in him was broken and His likeness marred. But in the redeemed that image is to be restored, yea, they are to be granted a far higher honour than what was bestowed upon the first Adam: they are to be made like the last Adam. It is written, "For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brethren" (Romans 8:29). This blessed purpose of God in our predestination will not be fully realized until the second coming of our Lord: then it will be that His people shall be completely emancipated from the thralldom and corruption of sin. Then shall Christ "present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having any spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish" (Ephesians 5:27). Salvation from the pleasure or love of sin takes place at our regeneration; salvation from the penalty or punishment of sin occurs at our justification; salvation from the power or dominion of sin is accomplished during our practical sanctification; salvation from the presence or inbeing of sin is consummated at our glorification: "Whom lie justified, them He also glorified" (Romans 8:30). Not so much is revealed in Scripture on this fourth aspect of our subject, for God’s Word was not given us to gratify curiosity. Yet sufficient is made known to feed faith, strengthen hope, draw out love, and make us "run with patience the race that is set before us." In our present state we are incapable of forming any real conception of the bliss awaiting us: yet as Israel’s spies brought back the bunch of "the grapes of Eschol" as a sample of the good things to be found in the land of Canaan, so the Christian is granted a foretaste and earnest of his inheritance on High. "Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13). It is to the image of a glorified Christ that we are predestinated to be conformed. Behold Him on the mount of transfiguration, when a fore-view of His glory was granted the favoured disciples. Such is the dazzling splendour of His person that Saul of Tarsus was temporarily blinded by a glimpse of it, and the beloved John in the isle of Patmos "fell at His feet as dead" (Revelation 1:7) when he beheld Him. That which awaits us can best be estimated as it is contemplated in the light of God’s wondrous love. The portion which Christ Himself has received, is the expression of God’s love for Him; and, as the Saviour has assured His people concerning His Father’s love unto them, "and hast loved them as Thou lovest Me" (John 17:23), and therefore, as He promised, "where I am, there ye may be also" (John 14:3). But is not the believer forever done with sin at death? Yes, thank God, such is the case; yet that is not his glorification, for his body goes to corruption, and that is the effect of sin. But it is written of the believer’s body, "It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown m dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown m weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body" (1 Corinthians 15:42-44). Nevertheless, at death itself the Christian’s soul is entirely freed from the presence of sin. This is clear from "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth, yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them" (Revelation 14:13). What is signified by "that they may rest from their labours?" Why, something more blessed than ceasing from earning their daily bread by the sweat of their brows, for that will be true of the unsaved also. Those who die in the Lord rest from their "labours" with sin: their painful conflicts with indwelling corruption, Satan, and the world. The fight which faith now wages is then ended, and full relief from sin is theirs forever. The fourfold salvation from sin of the Christian was strikingly typified in God’s dealings with the nation of Israel of old. First, we have a vivid portrayal of their deliverance from the pleasure or love of sin: "And the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. And God heard their groaning" (Exodus 2:23-24). What a contrast does that present from what we read of in the closing chapters of Genesis! There we hear the king of Egypt saying to Joseph, "The land of Egypt is before thee: in the best of the land make thy father and brethren to dwell; in the land of Goshen" (Genesis 47:6). Accordingly we are told, "And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions therein, and grew and multiplied exceedingly" (Genesis 47:27). Now Egypt is the O.T. symbol of the world, as a system opposed to God. And it was there, in the "best pan" of it, the descendants of Abraham had settled. But the Lord had designs of mercy and something far better for them: yet before they could appreciate Canaan they had to be weaned from Egypt. Hence we find them in cruel bondage there, smarting under the lash of the taskmasters. In this way they were made to loathe Egypt and long for deliverance therefrom. The theme of Exodus is redemption: how striking, then, to see that God begins His work of redemption by making His people to groan and cry out under their bondage! The portion Christ bestows is not welcome till we are made sick of this world. Second, in Exodus 12 we have a picture of God’s people being delivered from the penalty of sin. On the Passover night the angel of death came and slew all the firstborn of the Egyptians. But why spare the firstborn of the Israelites? Not because they were guiltless before God, for all had sinned and come short of His glory. The Israelites, equally with the Egyptians, were guilty in His sight, and deserving of unsparing judgment. It was at this very point that the grace of God came in and met their need. Another was slain in their room and died in their stead. An innocent victim was killed and its blood shed, pointing to the coming of "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." The head of each Israelitish household sprinkled the lamb’s blood on the lintel and posts of his door, and hence the firstborn in it was spared from the avenging angel: God promised, "when I see the blood I will pass over you" (Exodus 12:13). Thus, Israel was saved from the penalty of sin by means of the lamb dying in their stead. Third, Israel’s wilderness journey adumbrated the believer’s salvation from the power of sin. Israel did not enter Canaan immediately upon their exodus from Egypt: they had to face the temptations and trials of the desert where they spent not less than forty years. But what a gracious and full provision did God make for His people! Manna was given them daily from heaven—figure of that food which God’s Word now supplies for our spiritual nourishment. Water was given from the smitten rock— emblem of the Holy Spirit sent by the smitten Christ to dwell within us: John 7:38-39. A cloud and a pillar of fire guided them by day and guarded them by night, reminding us of how God directs our steps and shields us from our foes. Best of all, Moses, their great leader, was with them, counseling, admonishing, and interceding for them—figure of the Captain of our salvation: "In I am with you alway." Fourth, the actual entrance of Israel into the promised land foreshadowed the believer’s glorification, when he enters into the full enjoyment of that possession which Christ has purchased for hint The experiences Israel met with in Canaan have a double typical significance. From one viewpoint they presaged the conflict which faith encounters while the believer is left upon earth, for as the Hebrews had to overcome the original inhabitants of Canaan before they could enjoy their portion, so faith has to surmount many obstacles if it is to "possess its possessions." Nevertheless, that land of milk and honey into which Israel entered after the bondage of Egypt and the hardships of the wilderness were left behind, was manifestly a figure of the Christian’s portion in Heaven after he is forever done with sin in this world. "Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21). First, save them from the pleasure or love of sin by bestowing a nature which hates it: this is the great miracle of grace. Second, save them from the penalty or punishment of sin, by remitting all its guilt: this is the grand marvel of grace. Third, save them from the power or dominion of sin, by the workings of His Spirit: this reveals the wondrous might of grace. Fourth, save them from the presence or inbeing of sin: this will demonstrate the glorious magnitude of grace. May it please the Lord to bless these elementary but most important articles to many of His little ones, and make their "big" brothers and sisters smaller in their own esteem. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 50: 003.00. A GUIDE TO FREVENT PRAYER ======================================================================== A Guide to Frevent Prayer by Arthur Pink Introduction 1. Hebrews 13:20-21, Part 1 2. Hebrews 13:20-21, Part 2 3. Hebrews 13:20-21, Part 3 4. 1 Peter 1:3-5, Part 1 5. 1 Peter 1:3-5, Part 2 6. 1 Peter 1:3-5, Part 3 7. 1 Peter 5:10-11, Part 1 8. 1 Peter 5:10-11, Part 2 9. 1 Peter 5:10-11, Part 3 10. 2 Peter 1:2-3 11. Jude 1:24-25, Part 1 12. Jude 1:24-25, Part 2 13. Revelation 1:5-6, Part 1 14. Revelation 1:5-6, Part 2 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 51: 003.000. INTRODUCTION ======================================================================== INTRODUCTION Much has been written on what is usually called "the Lord’s Prayer" (which I prefer to term "the Family Prayer") and much upon the high priestly prayer of Christ in John 17:1-26, but very little upon the prayers of the apostles. Personally I know of no book devoted to the apostolic prayers, and except for a booklet on the two prayers of Ephesians 1:1-23 and Ephesians 3:1-21 have been scarcely any separate exposition of them. It is not easy to explain this omission. One would think that the apostolic prayers are so filled with important doctrine and practical value for believers that they should have attracted the attention of those who write on devotional subjects. While many of us very much deprecate the efforts of those who would have us believe that the prayers of the Old Testament are obsolete and inappropriate for the saints of this Gospel age, it seems to me that even Dispensational teachers should recognize and appreciate. the peculiar suitability to Christians of the prayers recorded in the Epistles and the Book of Revelation. With the exception of the prayers of our Redeemer, only in the Apostolic prayers are praises and petitions specifically addressed to "the Father." Of all the prayers of Scripture, only these are offered in the name of the Mediator. Furthermore, in these apostolic prayers alone do we find the full breathings of the Spirit of adoption. How blessed it is to hear some elderly saint, who has long walked with God and enjoyed intimate communion with Him, pouring out his heart before the Lord in adoration and supplication. But how much more blessed would we have esteemed ourselves had we had the privilege of listening to the Godward praises and appeals of those who had companied with Christ during the days of His tabernacling among men! And if one of the apostles were still here upon earth, what a high privilege we would deem it to hear him engage in prayer! Such a high one, methinks, that most of us would be quite willing to go to considerable inconvenience and to travel a long distance in order to be thus favored. And if our desire were granted, how closely would we listen to his words, how diligently would we seek to treasure them up in our memories. Well, no such inconvenience, no such journey, is required. It has pleased the Holy Spirit to record a number of the apostolic prayers for our instruction and satisfaction. Do we evidence our appreciation of such a boon? Have we ever made a list of them and meditated upon their import? No Apostolic Prayers In Acts In my preliminary task of surveying and tabulating the recorded prayers of the apostles, two things impressed me. The first observation came as a complete surprise, while the second was fully expected. That which is apt to strike us as strange—to some of my readers it may be almost startling—is this: the Book of Acts, which supplies most of the information we possess concerning the apostles, has not a single prayer of theirs in its twenty-eight chapters. Yet a little reflection should show us that this omission is in full accord with the special character of the book; for Acts is much more historical than devotional, consisting far more of a chronicle of what the Spirit wrought through the apostles than in them. The public deeds of Christ’s ambassadors are there made prominent, rather than their private exercises. They are certainly shown to be men of prayer, as is seen by their own words: "But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word" (Acts 6:4). Again and again we behold them engaged in this holy exercise (Acts 9:40; Acts 10:9; Acts 20:36; Acts 21:5; Acts 28:8), yet we are not told what they said. The closest Luke comes to recording words clearly attributable to apostles is in Acts 8:14-15, but even there he merely gives us the quintessence of that for which Peter and John prayed. I regard the prayer of Acts 1:24 as that of the 120 disciples. The great, effectual prayer recorded in Acts 4:24-30 is not that of Peter and John, but that of the whole company (Acts 4:23) who had assembled to hear their report. Paul, an Exemplar in Prayer The second feature that impressed me while contemplating the subject that is about to engage us, was that the great majority of the recorded prayers of the apostles issued from the heart of Paul. And this, as we have said, was really to be expected. If one should ask why this is so, several reasons might be given in reply. First, Paul was, preeminently, the apostle to the Gentiles. Peter, James, and John ministered principally to Jewish believers (Galatians 2:9), who, even in their unconverted days, had been accustomed to bow the knee before the Lord. But the Gentiles had come out of heathenism, and it was fitting that their spiritual father should also be their devotional exemplar. Furthermore, Paul wrote twice as many God-breathed epistles as all the other apostles added together, and he gave expression to eight times as many prayers in his Epistles as the rest did in all of theirs. But chiefly, we call to mind the first thing our Lord said of Paul after his conversion: "for, behold, he prayeth" (Acts 9:11, ital. mine). The Lord Christ was, as it were, striking the keynote of Paul’s subsequent life, for he was to be eminently distinguished as a man of prayer. It is not that the other apostles were devoid of this spirit. For God does not employ prayerless ministers, since He has no dumb children. "Cry[ing] day and night unto him" is given by Christ as one of the distinguishing marks of God’s elect (Luke 18:7, brackets mine). Yet certain of His servants and some of His saints are permitted to enjoy closer and more constant fellowship with the Lord than others, and such was obviously the case (with the exception of John) with the man who on one occasion was even caught up into Paradise (2 Corinthians 12:1-5). An extraordinary measure of "the spirit of grace and of supplications" (Zechariah 12:10) was vouchsafed him, so that he appears to have been anointed with that spirit of prayer above even his fellow apostles. Such was the fervor of his love for Christ and the members of His mystical Body, such was his intense solicitude for their spiritual wellbeing and growth, that there continually gushed from his soul a flow of prayer to God for them and of thanksgiving on their behalf. The Wide Spectrum of Prayer Before proceeding further it should be pointed out that in this series of studies I do not propose to confine myself to the petitionary prayers of the apostles, but rather to take in a wider range. In Scripture prayer includes much more than merely making known our requests to God. We need to be reminded of this. Moreover, we believers need to be instructed in all aspects of prayer in an age characterized by superficiality and ignorance of God-revealed religion. A key Scripture that presents to us the privilege of spreading our needs before the Lord emphasizes this very thing: "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God" (Php 4:6, ital. mine). Unless we express gratitude for mercies already received and give thanks to our Father for His granting us the continued favor of petitioning Him, how can we expect to obtain His ear and thus to receive answers of peace? Yet prayer, in its highest and fullest sense, rises above thanksgiving for gifts vouchsafed: the heart is drawn out in contemplating the Giver Himself, so that the soul is prostrated before Him in worship and adoration. Though we ought not to digress from our immediate theme and enter into the subject of prayer in general, yet it should be pointed out that there is still another aspect that ought to take precedence over thanksgiving and petition, namely self-abhorrence and confession of our own unworthiness and sinfulness. The soul must solemnly remind itself of Who it is that is to be approached, even the Most High, before whom the very seraphim veil their faces (Isaiah 6:2). Though Divine grace has made the Christian a son, nevertheless he is still a creature, and as such at an infinite and inconceivable distance below the Creator. It is only fitting that he should deeply feel this distance between himself and his Creator and acknowledge it by taking his place in the dust before God. Moreover, we need to remember what we are by nature: not merely creatures, but sinful creatures. Thus there needs to be both a sense and an owning of this as we bow before the Holy One. Only in this way can we, with any meaning and reality, plead the mediation and merits of Christ as the ground of our approach. Thus, broadly speaking, prayer includes confession of sin, petitions for the supply of our needs, and the homage of our hearts to the Giver Himself. Or, we may say that prayer’s principal branches are humiliation, supplication, and adoration. Hence we hope to embrace within the scope of this series not only passages like Ephesians 1:16-19 and Ephesians 3:14-21, but also single verses such as 2 Corinthians 1:3 and Ephesians 1:3. That the clause "blessed be God" is itself a form of prayer is clear from Psalms 100:4: "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name." Other references might be given, but let this suffice. The incense that was offered in the tabernacle and temple consisted of various spices compounded together (Exodus 30:34-35), and it was the blending of one with another that made the perfume so fragrant and refreshing. The incense was a type of the intercession of our great High Priest (Revelation 8:3-4) and of the prayers of saints (Malachi 1:11). In like manner there should be a proportioned mingling of humiliation, supplication, and adoration in our approaches to the throne of grace, not one to the exclusion of the others, but a blending of all of them together. Prayer, a Primary Duty of Ministers The fact that so many prayers are found in the New Testament Epistles calls attention to an important aspect of ministerial duty. The preacher’s obligations are not fully discharged when he leaves the pulpit, for he needs to water the seed which he has sown. For the sake of young preachers, allow me to enlarge a little upon this point. It has already been seen that the apostles devoted themselves "continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word" (Acts 6:4), and thereby they have left an excellent example to be observed by all who follow them in the sacred vocation. Observe the apostolic order; yet do not merely observe it, but heed and practice it. The most laboriously and carefully-prepared sermon is likely to fall unctionless upon the hearers unless it has been born out of travail of soul before God. Unless the sermon be the product of earnest prayer we must not expect it to awaken the spirit of prayer in those who hear it. As has been pointed out, Paul mingled supplications with his instructions. It is our privilege and duty to retire to the secret place after we leave the pulpit, there begging God to write His Word on the hearts of those who have listened to us, to prevent the enemy from snatching away the seed, and to so bless our efforts that they may bear fruit to His eternal praise. Luther was wont to say, "There are three things that go to the making of a successful preacher: supplication, meditation, and tribulation." I know not what elaboration the great Reformer made. But I suppose he meant this: that prayer is necessary to bring the preacher into a suitable frame to handle Divine things and to endue him with Divine power; that meditation on the Word is essential in order to supply him with material for his message; and that tribulation is required as ballast for his vessel, for the minister of the Gospel needs trials to keep him humble, just as the Apostle Paul was given a thorn in the flesh that he might not be unduly exalted by the abundance of the revelations granted to him. Prayer is the appointed means for receiving spiritual communications for the instruction of our people. We must be much with God before we can be fitted to go forth and speak in His name. Paul, in concluding his Epistle to the Colossians, informs them of the faithful intercess ions of Epaphras, one of their ministers, who was away from home visiting Paul. "Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. For I bear him record, that he hath a great zeal for you . . ." (Colossians 4:12-13 a). Could such a commendation of you be made to your congregation? Prayer, a Universal Duty Among Believers But let it not be thought that this marked emphasis of the Epistles indicates a duty for preachers only. Far from it. These Epistles are addressed to God’s children at large, and everything in them is both needed for, and suited to, their Christian walk. Believers, too, should pray much not only for themselves but for all their brothers and sisters in Christ. We should pray deliberately according to these apostolic models, petitioning for the particular blessings they specify. I have long been convinced there is no better way—no more practical, valuable, and effective way—of expressing solicitude and affection for our fellow saints than by bearing them up before God by prayer in the arms of our faith and love. By studying these prayers in the Epistles and pondering them clause by clause, we may learn more clearly what blessings we should desire for ourselves and for others, that is, the spiritual gifts and graces for which we have great need to be solicitous. The fact that these prayers, inspired by the Holy Spirit, have been placed on permanent record in the Sacred Volume declares that the particular favors sought herein are those which God has given us warrant to seek and to obtain from Himself (Romans 8:26-27; 1 John 5:14-15). Christians Are to Address God as Father We will conclude these preliminary and general observations by calling attention to a few of the more definite features of the apostolic prayers. Observe then, to Whom these prayers are addressed. While there is no wooden uniformity of expression but rather appropriate variety in this matter, yet the most frequent manner in which the Deity is addressed is as Father: "the Father of mercies" (2 Corinthians 1:3); "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 1:3; 1 Peter 1:3); "the Father of glory" (Ephesians 1:17); "the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 3:14). In this language we see clear evidence of how the holy apostles took heed to the injunction of their Master. For when they made request of Him, saying, "Lord, teach us to pray," He responded thus: "When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven" (Luke 11:1-2, ital. mine). This He also taught them by means of example in John 17:1, John 17:5, John 17:11, John 17:21, John 17:24, and John 17:25. Both Christ’s instruction and example have been recorded for our learning. We are not unmindful of how many have unlawfully and lightly addressed God as "Father," yet their abuse does not warrant our neglecting to acknowledge this blessed relationship. Nothing is more calculated to warm the heart and give liberty of utterance than a realization that we are approaching our Father. If we have received, of a truth, "the Spirit of adoption" (Romans 8:15), let us not quench Him, but by His promptings cry, "Abba, Father." The Brevity and Definiteness of Apostolic Praying Next, we note their brevity. The prayers of the apostles are short ones. Not some, or even most, but all of them are exceedingly brief, most of them encompassed in but one or two verses, and the longest in only seven verses. How this rebukes the lengthy, lifeless and wearisome prayers of many a pulpit. Wordy prayers are usually windy ones. I quote again from Martin Luther, this time from his comments on the Lord’s prayer directed to simple laymen: When thou prayest let thy words be few, but thy thoughts and affections many, and above all let them be profound. The less thou speakest the better thou prayest. . . . External and bodily prayer is that buzzing of the lips, that outside babble that is gone through without any attention, and which strikes the ears of men; but prayer in spirit and in truth is the inward desire, the motions, the sighs, which issue from the depths of the heart. The former is the prayer of hypocrites and of all who trust in themselves: the latter is the prayer of the children of God, who walk in His fear. Observe, too, their definiteness. Though exceedingly brief, yet their prayers are very explicit. There were no vague ramblings or mere generalizations, but specific requests for definite things. How much failure there is at this point. How many prayers have we heard that were so incoherent and aimless, so lacking in point and unity, that when the Amen was reached we could scarcely remember one thing for which thanks had been given or request had been made! Only a blurred impression remained on the mind, and a feeling that the supplicant had engaged more in a form of indirect preaching than direct praying. But examine any of the prayers of the apostles and it will be seen at a glance that theirs are like those of their Master’s in Matthew 6:9-13 and John 17:1-26, made up of definitive adorations and sharply-defined petitions. There is neither moralizing nor uttering of pious platitudes, but a spreading before God of certain needs and a simple asking for the supply of them. The Burden and Catholicity of the Apostles’ Prayers Consider also the burden of them. In the recorded apostolic prayers there is no supplicating God for the supply of temporal needs and (with a single exception) no asking Him to interpose on their behalf in a providential way (though petitions for these things are legitimate when kept in proper proportion to spiritual concerns. Instead, the things asked for are wholly of a spiritual and gracious nature: that the Father may give unto us the spirit of understanding and revelation in the knowledge of Himself, the eyes of our understanding being enlightened so that we may know what is the hope of His calling, the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe (Ephesians 1:17-19); that He would grant us, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith, that we might know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, and be filled with all the fulness of God (Ephesians 3:16-19); that our love may abound more and more, that we might be sincere and without offense, and be filled with the fruits of righteousness (Php 1:9 -il); that we might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing (Colossians 1:10); that we might be sanctified wholly (1 Thessalonians 5:23). Note also the catholicity of them. Not that it is either wrong or unspiritual to pray for ourselves individually, any more than it is to supplicate for temporal and providential mercies; I mean, rather, to direct attention to where the apostles placed their emphasis. In one only do we find Paul praying for himself, and rarely for particular individuals (as is to be expected with prayers that are a part of the public record of Holy Scripture, though no doubt he prayed much for individuals in secret). His general custom was to pray for the whole household of faith. In this he adheres closely to the pattern prayer given us by Christ, which I like to think of as the Family Prayer. All its pronouns are in the plural number: "Our Father," "give us" (not only "me"), "forgive us," and so forth. Accordingly we find the Apostle Paul exhorting us to be making "supplication for all saints" (Ephesians 6:18, ital. mine), and in his prayers he sets us an example of this very thing. He pleaded with the Father that the Ephesian church might "be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge" (Ephesians 3:18, ital. mine). What a corrective for self-centeredness! If I am praying for "all saints," I include myself. A Striking Omission Finally, let me point out a striking omission. if all the apostolic prayers be read attentively, it will be found that in none of them is any place given to that which occupies such prominence in the prayers of Arminians. Not once do we find God asked to save the world in general or to pour out His Spirit on all flesh without exception. The apostles did not so much as pray for the conversion of an entire city in which a particular Christian church was located. In this they conformed again to the example set for them by Christ: "I pray not for the world," said He, "but for them which thou hast given me" (John 17:9). Should it be objected that the Lord Jesus was there praying only for His immediate apostles or disciples, the answer is that when He extended His prayer beyond them it was not for the world that He prayed, but only for His believing people until the end of time (see John 17:20-21). It is true that Paul teaches "that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all [classes of] men; for kings, and for all that are in authority" (1 Timothy 2:1-2 a, brackets mine)—in which duty many are woefully remiss—yet it is not for their salvation, but "that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty" (1 Timothy 2:2 b, ital. mine). There is much to be learned from the prayers of the apostles. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 52: 003.01. HEBREWS 13:20, 21, PART 1 ======================================================================== 1 Hebrews 13:20-21 Part I This prayer contains a remarkable epitome of the entire epistle—an epistle to which every minister of the Gospel should devote special attention. Nothing else is so much needed today as expository sermons on the Epistles to the Romans and to the Hebrews: the former supplies that which is best suited to repel the legalism, antinomianism and Arminianism that are now so rife, while the latter refutes the cardinal errors of Rome and exposes the sacerdotal pretensions of her priests. It provides the Divine antidote to the poisonous spirit of ritualism that is now making such fatal inroads into so many sections of a decadent Protestantism. That which occupies the central portion in this vitally important and most blessed treatise is the priesthood of Christ, which embodies the substance of what was foreshadowed both in Melchizedek and Aaron. In the Book of Hebrews it is shown that His one perfect sacrifice has forever displaced the Levitical institutions and made an end of the whole Judaic system. That all-sufficient oblation of the Lord Jesus made complete atonement for the sins of His people, fully satisfying every legal claim that God’s Law had upon them, thereby rendering needless any efforts of theirs to placate Him. "For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified" (Hebrews 10:14). That is to say, Christ has infallibly, irrevocably set apart to the service of God those who have believed, and that by the excellence of His finished work. The Resurrection Declares God’s Acceptance of Christ’s Work God’s acceptance of Christ’s atoning sacrifice was demonstrated by His raising Christ from the dead and setting Him at the right hand of the Majesty on high. That which characterized Judaism was sin, death, and distance from God—the perpetual shedding of blood and the people shut out from the Divine presence. But that which marks Christianity is a risen and enthroned Savior, who has put away the sins of His people from before the face of God and has secured for them the right of access to Him. "Having therefore, brethren, boldness [liberty] to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; And having an high priest over the house of God; Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith" (Hebrews 10:19-22 a, brackets mine). Thus we are encouraged to draw nigh to God with full confidence in the infinite merits of Christ’s blood and righteousness, depending entirely thereon. In his prayer, the apostle makes request that the whole of what he had set before them in the doctrinal part of the Epistle might be effectually applied to their hearts. In a brief but comprehensive sentence, Paul prays that there might be worked out in the lives of the redeemed Hebrews every grace and virtue to which he had exhorted them in the previous chapters. We shall consider the object, plea, request, and doxology of this benedictory invocation. The Divine Titles Invoked Discriminately "The God of peace" is the One to whom this prayer is directed. As I intimated in some of the chapters of my book called Gleanings from Paul, the various titles by which the apostles addressed the Deity were not used at random, but were chosen with spiritual discrimination. They were neither so poverty-stricken in language as to always supplicate God under the same name, nor were they so careless as to speak with Him under the first one that came to mind. Instead, in their approaches to Him they carefully singled out that attribute of the Divine nature, or that particular relationship that God sustains to His people, which most accorded with the specific blessing they sought. The same principle of discrimination appears in the Old Testament prayers. When holy men of old sought strength, they looked to the Mighty One. When they desired forgiveness, they appealed to "the multitude of his tender mercies." When they cried for deliverance from their enemies, they pleaded His covenant faithfulness. The God of Peace I dwelt upon this title "the God of peace" in chapter 4 of Gleanings from Paul (pp. 41-46), but would like to explicate it further with several lines of thought. First, it is a distinctively Pauline title, since no other New Testament writer employs the expression. Its usage here is one of the many internal proofs that he was the penman of this Epistle. It occurs six times in his writings: Romans 15:33, and Romans 16:20; 2 Corinthians 13:11; Php 4:9; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; and here in Hebrews 13:20; "the Lord of peace" is used once in 2 Thessalonians 3:16. It is therefore evident that Paul had a special delight in contemplating God in this particular character. And well he might, for it is an exceedingly blessed and comprehensive one; and for that reason I have done my best, according to the measure of light granted to me, to open its meaning. A little later I shall suggest why Paul, rather than any of the other of the apostles, coined this expression. Secondly, it is a forensic title, viewing God in His official character as Judge. It tells us that He is now reconciled to believers. It signifies that the enmity and strife that formerly existed between God and elect sinners is now ended. The previous hostility had been occasioned by man’s apostasy from his Maker and Lord. The entrance of sin into this world disrupted the harmony between heaven and earth, severed communion between God and man, and ushered in discord and strife. Sin evoked God’s righteous displeasure and called for His judicial action. Mutual alienation ensued; for a holy God cannot be at peace with sin, being "angry with the wicked every day" (Psalms 7:11). But Divine wisdom had devised a way whereby rebels could be restored to His favor without the slightest diminution of His honor. Through the obedience and sufferings of Christ full reparation was made to the Law and peace was reestablished between God and sinners. By the gracious operations of God’s Spirit, the enmity that was in the hearts of His people is overcome, and they are brought into loyal subjection to Him. Thereby the discord has been removed and amity created. Thirdly, it is a restrictive title. God is "the God of peace" only to those who are savingly united to Christ, for there is now no condemnation to those who are in Him (Romans 8:1). But the case is far different with those who refuse to bow to the scepter of the Lord Jesus and take shelter beneath His atoning blood. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him" (John 3:36). Notice that it is not that the sinner shall yet fall beneath God’s wrath of the Divine Law, but that he is already under it. "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men" (Romans 1:18, ital. mine). Furthermore, by virtue of their federal relationship to Adam, all his descendants are "by nature the children of wrath" (Ephesians 2:3), entering this world as the objects of God’s judicial displeasure. So far from being "the God of peace" to those who are out of Christ, "The LORD is a man of war" (Exodus 15:3). "He is terrible to the kings of the earth" (Psalms 76:12). "The God of Peace," a Gospel Title Fourthly, this title, "the God of peace," is therefore an evangelical one. The good news that His servants are commissioned to preach to every creature is designated "the gospel of peace" (Romans 10:15). Most appropriately is it so named, for it sets forth the glorious Person of the Prince of peace and His all-sufficient work whereby He "made peace through the blood of his cross" (Colossians 1:20). It is the business of the evangelist to explain how Christ did so, namely, by His entering into the awful breach that sin had made between God and men, and by having transferred to Himself the iniquities of all who should believe on Him, suffering the full penalty due those iniquities. When the Sinless One was made sin for His people, He came under the curse of the Law and the wrath of God. It is in accordance with His own eternal purpose of grace (Revelation 13:8) that God the Father declares, "Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow" (Zechariah 13:7). Justice having been satisfied, God is now pacified; and all who are justified by faith "have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:" (Romans 5:1). Fifthly, it is therefore a covenant title, for all that was transacted between God and Christ was according to everlasting stipulation. "And the counsel of peace shall be between them both" (Zechariah 6:13). It had been eternally agreed that the good Shepherd should make complete satisfaction for the sins of His flock, reconciling God to them and them to God. That compact between God and the Surety of His elect is expressly denominated a "covenant of peace," and the inviolability of the same appears in that blessed declaration, "For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee" (Isaiah 54:10). The shedding of Christ’s blood was the sealing or ratifying of that covenant, as Hebrews 13:20 goes on to intimate. In consequence thereof, the face of the Supreme Judge is wreathed in smiles of benignity as He beholds His people in His Anointed One. Sixthly, this title "the God of peace" is also a dispensational one, and as such, it had a special appeal for the one who so frequently employed it. Though a Jew by birth, and a Hebrew of the Hebrews by training, Paul was called of God to "preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ" (Ephesians 3:8). This fact may indicate the reason that this appellation, "the God of peace," is peculiar to Paul; for, whereas the other apostles ministered and wrote principally to the Circumcision, Paul was preeminently the apostle to the Uncircumcision. Therefore he, more than any, would render adoration to God on account of the fact that peace was being preached to those who were afar off as well as to those who were nigh (Ephesians 2:13-17). A special revelation was made to him concerning Christ: "For he is our peace, who hath made both [believing Jews and Gentiles] one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition [the ceremonial law, which under Judaism had divided them] between us;. . . for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace [between them]; And that he might reconcile both unto God" (Ephesians 2:14-16, brackets mine). Thus, on account of his having received this special revelation, there was a particular propriety in the Apostle to the Gentiles addressing God by this title when making supplication for the Hebrews, just as there was when he employed it in prayer for the Gentiles. Lastly, this is a relative title. By this I mean that it is closely related to Christian experience. The saints are not only the subjects of that judicial peace which Christ made with God on their behalf, but they are also the partakers of Divine grace experientially. The measure of God’s peace that they enjoy is determined by the extent to which they are obedient to God, for piety and peace are inseparable. The intimate connection there is between the peace of God and the sanctifying of believers appears both in 1 Thessalonians 5:23, and here in Hebrews 13:20-21. For in each passage request is made for the promotion of practical holiness, and in each the "God of peace" is supplicated. When holiness reigned over the whole universe, peace prevailed also. There was no war in heaven until one of the chief of the angels became a devil, and fomented a rebellion against the thrice holy God. As sin brings strife and misery, so holiness begets peace of conscience. Holiness is well pleasing to God, and when He is well pleased all is peace. The more this prayer be pondered in detail, and as a whole, the more the appropriateness of its address will appear. God’s Resurrection of Christ Our Plea "Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant" (Hebrews 13:20). This reference to the deliverance of Christ from the tomb I regard as the plea on which the apostle bases the request that follows. Since I consider this to be one of the most important verses in the New Testament, I shall give my best attention to every word in it, the more so since part of its wondrous contents is so little comprehended today. We should observe, first, the character in which the Savior is here viewed; secondly, the act of God in bringing him forth from the dead; thirdly, the connection between that act and His office as "the God of peace"; fourthly, how that the meritorious cause of the same was "the blood of the everlasting covenant;" and fifthly, the powerful motive that the meritorious cause provides to encourage the saints to come boldly to the throne of grace where they may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. May the Holy Spirit deign to be our Guide as we prayerfully ponder this portion of the Truth. That Great Shepherd of the Sheep This title of Christ’s was most pertinent and appropriate in an Epistle to Jewish converts, for the Old Testament had taught them to look for the Messiah in that specific function. Moses and David, eminent types of Him, were shepherds. Concerning the first it is said, "Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron" (Psalms 77:20). Under the name of the second God promised the Messiah to Israel: "And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant [the antitypical] David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd" (Ezekiel 34:23, brackets mine). That Paul here made reference to that particular prophecy is clear from what it went on to say: "And I will. make with them a covenant of peace" (Ezekiel 34:25). Here in Hebrews 13:20, the same three things are brought together: the God of peace, the great Shepherd, the everlasting covenant, and in a manner (in perfect accord with the theme of the Epistle) that refuted the erroneous conception that the Jews had formed of their Messiah. They imagined that He would secure for them an external deliverance as Moses had done and a prosperous national state as David had set up. They had no idea that He would shed His precious blood and be brought down into the grave, though they should have known and understood it in the light of prophetic revelation. When Christ appeared in their midst, He definitely presented Himself to the Jews in this character. He not only declared, "I am the good shepherd:" but added this: "the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep" (John 10:11). John the Baptist, Christ’s forerunner, heralded His public manifestation in this wise: "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). In this dual character, or under this twofold revelation, the Lord Jesus had been prophesied in Isaiah 53 (as viewed against the backdrop of Ezekiel 34:1-31): "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him [i.e. the Shepherd, whose the sheep are!] the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6, brackets mine; cf. Zechariah 13:7). Note a wonderful congruity of expression between the next verse of Isaiah’s prophecy (Isaiah 53:7) and the prayer we are studying. Isaiah prophesies, "he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." (ital. mine) Notice how the same Spirit who inspired Isaiah prompts Paul to say in Hebrews 13:20 that God—not "raised," but—"brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep" (ital. mine). The fact that God brought back again from the dead this great Shepherd signifies that the Father had previously brought Him into death as a Substitute, a propitiatory Lamb, for the sins of His sheep. How minutely accurate is the language of Holy Writ and how perfect the harmony—verbal harmony—of the Old and New Testaments! Peter, in his first Epistle, under the Spirit, appropriated the same wonderful prophecy concerning the Lord Jesus. After referring to Him as the "lamb without blemish and without spot:" by Whom we are redeemed (1 Peter 1:18-19), he goes on to cite some of the predictive expressions of Isaiah 53:1-12 : that which speaks of us "as sheep going astray"; that which refers to the saving virtue of Christ’s expiatory passion—"by whose stripes ye were healed"; and the general teaching of the prophecy, that in bearing our sins in His own body on the tree Christ was transacting heavenly business with the righteous Judge as "the Shepherd and Bishop of your [our] souls" (1 Peter 2:24-25, brackets mine). Thus he was led to expound Isaiah portraying the Savior as a Lamb in death and a Shepherd in resurrection. The excuselessness of the Jews’ ignorance of Christ in this particular office appears still further in that, through yet another of their prophets, it had been announced that God would say, "Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the Shepherd. . . " (Zechariah 13:7). There God is viewed in His judicial character as being angry with the Shepherd for our sakes: since He bore our sins, justice must take satisfaction from Him. Thus was "the chastisement of our peace" laid upon Him, and the good Shepherd gave His life for the sheep as a satisfaction for the righteous claims of God. That Great Shepherd From what has been set forth above, we may the better perceive why it was that the Apostle Paul designated Him "that great shepherd": the One not only foreshadowed by Abel, by the patriarchal shepherds; typified by David, but also portrayed as the Shepherd of Jehovah in the Messianic predictions. We should note that both of His natures were contemplated under this appellation: "my Shepherd,. . . the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD" (Zechariah 13:7). As the profound Goodwin pointed out centuries ago, this title also implies all of Christ’s offices: His prophetic office—"He shall feed his flock like a shepherd" (Isaiah 40:11; cf. Psalms 23:1-2); His priestly office—"the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep" (John 10:11); His royal office—for the same passage that announced that He should be Shepherd over God’s people also denominated Him a "prince" (Ezekiel 34:23-24). Christ Himself points out the connection between His kingly office and His being described as a Shepherd: "When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats" (Matthew 25:31-32). He is indeed that "great Shepherd," all-sufficient for His flock. A Shepherd Must Have Sheep "Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep." See there the relation of the Redeemer to the redeemed. Shepherd and sheep are correlative terms: one cannot properly term any man a shepherd if he has no sheep. The idea of Christ as Shepherd necessarily implies that there is a chosen flock. Christ is the Shepherd of the sheep, and not of the wolves (Luke 10:3), nor even of the goats (Matthew 25:32-33), for He has received no charge from God to save them. How the basic truth of particular redemption stares us in the face in innumerable passages throughout the Scriptures! "He did not lay down His life for the whole herd of mankind, but for the flock of the elect which was given to Him by the Father, as He declared in John 10:14-16, John 10:26" (John Owen). Observe, too, how this title intimates His Mediatorship: as the Shepherd He is not the ultimate Lord of the flock, but the Father’s Servant who takes charge of and cares for it: "thine they were, and thou gavest them me" (John 17:6). Christ’s relation to us is further seen in the phrase "our [not the] Lord Jesus." He is therefore our Shepherd: ours in His pastoral office, which He is still discharging; ours, as brought from the dead, for we rose in Him (Colossians 3:1). The Superiority of Christ the Great Shepherd The words "that great shepherd of the sheep" emphasize Christ’s immeasurable superiority over all the typical and ministerial shepherds of Israel, just as the words "a great high priest" (Hebrews 4:14) stress His eminency over Aaron and the Levitical priests. In like manner, it denotes His authority over the pastors He sets over His churches, for He is "the chief Shepherd" (1 Peter 5:4) in relation to all undershepherds. He is the Shepherd of souls; and one of them is worth far more than the whole world, which is the value He sets upon them by redeeming them with His own blood. This adjective also looks at the excellence of His flock: He is the great Shepherd over an entire, indivisible flock composed both of Jews and Gentiles. Thus He declared, "And other sheep I have, which are not of this [Jewish] fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd" (John 10:16, brackets and ital. mine). This "one fold," a single flock, comprehends all the saints both of the Old Testament and the New Testament (see also how the Apostle Paul sets forth this unity of the people of God by his metaphor of the olive tree in Romans 11:1-36). The phrase "that great Shepherd" also has respect to His abilities: He has a particular knowledge of each and every one of His sheep (John 10:3); He has the skill to gather, to feed, and to heal them (Ezekiel 34:11-16); and He has the power to effectually preserve them. "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand" (John 10:28). Then how greatly should we trust, love, honor, worship, and obey Him! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 53: 003.02. HEBREWS 13:20, 21, PART 2 ======================================================================== 2 Hebrews 13:20-21 Part 2 "Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant." We must now carefully consider the particular act of God toward our Savior that the Apostle Paul here uses as his plea for the petition that follows. In the great mystery of redemption, God the Father sustains the office of supreme Judge (Hebrews 12:23). He it was who laid upon their Surety the sins of His people. He it was who called for the sword of vengeance to smite the Shepherd (Zechariah 13:7). He it was who richly rewarded and highly honored Him (Php 2:9). "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36; cf. Acts 10:36). So it is in the text now before us: the restoring of Christ from the grave is here viewed not as an act of Divine power but of Divine justice. That God is here seen exercising His judicial authority is clear from the term used. We are ever the losers if, in our carelessness, we fail to note and duly weigh every single variation in the language of Holy Writ. Our text does not say that God "raised," but rather that He "brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus." This sets before us a strikingly different yet most blessed aspect of truth, namely, the legal discharge of the body of our Surety from the prison of death. Christ’s Resurrection, Part of a Legal Process There was a formal legal process against Christ. Jehovah laid on Him all the iniquities of His elect, and thereby He was rendered guilty in the sight of the Divine Law. Thus He was justly condemned by Divine justice. Accordingly, He was cast into prison. God was wroth with Him as the Sinbearer. It pleased the Lord to bruise Him, to exact full satisfaction from Him. But the debt being paid, the penalty of the Law having been inflicted, justice was satisfied and God was pacified. In consequence, God the Father became "the God of peace" both toward Christ and toward those whom He represented (Ephesians 2:15-17). God’s anger being assuaged and His Law magnified and made honorable (Isaiah 42:21), He then exonerated the Surety, setting Him free and justifying Him (Isaiah 50:8; 1 Timothy 3:16). Thus it was foretold, "He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation?" (Isaiah 53:8). In his most excellent exposition of Isaiah 53:1-12—virtually unobtainable today—James Durham (1682) showed conclusively that Isaiah 53:8 described Christ’s exaltation following His humiliation. He demonstrated that the term generation there has reference to His duration or continuance (as it does in Joshua 22:27). "As His humiliation was low, so His exaltation was ineffable: it cannot be declared, nor adequately conceived, the continuance of it being for ever." Condensing it into a few words, Durham gave the following as his analysis of Isaiah 53:8. 1. Something is here asserted of Christ: "he was taken (or "lifted up") from prison and from judgment." 2. Something is hinted which cannot be expressed: "Who shall declare his generation [continuance]?" 3. A reason is given in reference to both: "for he was cut off out of the land of the living." The clause "He was taken from prison and from judgment" does not merely call to mind the fact that Christ was arrested, held in custody, and brought to trial before the Sanhedrin and the civil magistrates. Rather, it primarily reminds us that the straits of humiliation and suffering into which Christ was brought were on account of His arraignment before God’s tribunal as the Husband and legal Surety of His people (His sheep, John 10:14-15), the penalty of whose sin debts against God He was lawfully bound to pay (since He had voluntarily agreed to become their Husband). "For the transgression of my people was he stricken" (Isaiah 53:8). The envious Jewish leaders (and their followers), who with wicked hands crucified and slew the Prince of life (Acts 2:23; Acts 3:15) had not the slightest awareness of the great transactions between the Father and the Son now being legally enforced by their instrumentality. They were merely pursuing their rebellion against the Son of David, the popularly acclaimed King of Israel (John 1:49; John 12:13), in a way consistent with the preservation of their own selfish interests as men of power, wealth, and prestige among the Jews. Yet in their high treason against the Lord of glory, whom they knew not (1 Corinthians 2:8) they did God’s bidding (Acts 2:23; Acts 4:25-28; cf. Genesis 50:19-20) in bringing the appointed Substitute to justice as though He were a common criminal. The word prison may be taken more largely for those straits and pressures of spirit that the Lord Jesus endured while suffering the curse of the Law, and judgment for the awful sentence inflicted upon Him. It was to His impending judgment that Christ referred when He said, "I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!" (Luke 12:50). And it is to the pains and confinement of prison that His agony in the Garden and His cry of anguish on the Cross are to be attributed. Ultimately, the grave became His prison. The Significance of Christ’s Release from Death’s Prison The Hebrew word laqach rendered taken in the clause "He was taken from prison and from judgment" sometimes signifies to deliver or to free, as a captive is liberated (see Isaiah 49:24-25; cf. Jeremiah 37:17; Jeremiah 38:14; Jeremiah 39:14). From both prison and judgment the Surety was taken or freed, so that "death hath no more dominion over him" (Romans 6:9). Christ received the sentence of Divine absolution, just as one who is adjudged as having paid his debt is discharged by the court. Christ not only received absolution but was actually delivered from prison, having paid the utmost farthing demanded of Him. Though He was brought into prison and judgment, when the full demands of justice had been met He could no longer be detained. The Apostle Peter expressed it this way: "Whom God raised up, having loosed the pains [or "cords"] of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it" (Acts 2:24, ital. and brackets mine). Matthew Henry declares, "He was by an extraordinary order of Heaven taken out of the prison of the grave; an angel was sent on purpose to roll away the stone and set Him at liberty, by which the judgment against Him was reversed, and taken off." In this vein Thomas Manton insists that the clause "who shall declare His generation?" (Isaiah 53:8) means who shall "declare the glory of His resurrection, as the previous words do His humiliation, suffering, and death"? Manton rightly states, "While Christ was in the state of death He was in effect a prisoner, under the arrest of Divine vengeance; but when He rose again then was our Surety let out of prison." In a most helpful way he goes on to show that the peculiar force of the phrase "brought again from the dead" is best explained by the dignified carriage of the apostles when they were unlawfully cast into prison. The next day the magistrates sent sergeants to the prison, bidding their keeper to let them go. But Paul refused to be "thrust…out privily" and remained there until the magistrates themselves formally "brought them out" (Acts 16:35-39, ital. mine). So it was with Christ: He did not break out of prison. As God had "delivered him up" to death (Romans 8:32), so He "brought [Him] again from the dead." Says Manton, It was as it were an acquittal from those debts of ours which He undertook to pay: as Simeon was dismissed when the conditions were performed, and Joseph was satisfied with a sight of his brother, he "brought Simeon out unto them" (Genesis 43:23). It was God, in His official character as the Judge of all, who righteously freed our Substitute. Though Christ, as our Surety, was officially guilty and thus condemned (Isaiah 53:4-8), He was personally innocent and was thus acquitted by His resurrection (Isaiah 53:9-11; Hebrews 4:15; Hebrews 7:26-28; Hebrews 9:14; 1 Peter 1:19). By bringing His son forth from the grave God was saying that this Jesus, the true Messiah, did not die for His own sins but for the sins of others. The God of Peace Brought Christ from the Dead Let us now briefly observe that it was as the God of peace that the Father acted when He "brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus." The perfect obedience and atoning oblation of Christ had met every requirement of the Law, had put away the iniquities of those for whom it was offered, and had placated God and reconciled Him to them. While sin remained there could be no peace; but when sin was blotted out by the blood of the Lamb, God was propitiated. Christ had "made peace through the blood of his cross" (Colossians 1:20), but so long as He continued in the grave there was no open proclamation thereof. It was by His bringing of Christ forth from the dead that God made it known to the universe that His sacrifice had been accepted. By the resurrection of His Son did God the Father publicly declare that enmity was at an end and peace established. There was the grand evidence and proof that God was pacified toward His people. Christ had made an honorable peace, so that God could be both "just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus" (Romans 3:26). Take note also of the relation Christ sustained when God delivered Him from the dead: it was not as a private person but as the federal Head of His people that the Father dealt with Him, as "that great shepherd of the sheep," so that His people were then legally delivered from the prison of death with Him (Ephesians 2:5-6). Christ’s Petitions for His Own Deliverance It is very blessed to learn from the Psalms—where much light, not given in the New Testament, is cast upon the heart exercises of the Mediator—that Christ supplicated God for deliverance from the tomb. In Psalm 88 (the prophetic subject matter of which is the passion of the Lord Jesus) we find Him saying, "Let my prayer come before thee: incline thine ear unto my cry; For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave:" (Psalms 88:2-3). Since the transgressions of His people had been imputed to Him, those "troubles" were the sorrows and anguish that He experienced when the wages that were due to the sins of His people were inflicted and executed upon Him. He went on to exclaim to God, "Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves" (vv. Psalms 88:6-7). There we are granted an insight into what the Savior felt in His soul under the stroke of God, as He endured all that was contained in the Father’s just and holy curse upon sin. He could not have been brought into a lower state. He was in total darkness, the sun for a season refusing to shine upon Him, as God hid His face from Him. The sufferings of Christ’s soul were tantamount to "the second death." He suffered the whole of what was for Him, as the God-man, the equivalent of an eternity in hell. The smitten Redeemer went on to say, "I am shut up, and I cannot come forth" (Psalms 88:8). None but the Judge could lawfully deliver Him. "Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee?" (Psalms 88:10). In his remarkable exposition, S. E. Pierce declared: Those questions contain the most powerful plea Christ Himself could urge before the Father for His own emerging out of His present state of suffering and for His resurrection from the power of death. "Shall the dead arise and praise Thee?" Yet in Me Thou wilt show wonders in raising My body from the grave, or the salvation of Thine elect cannot be completed, nor Thy glory in the same fully shine forth. Thy wonders cannot be declared; the elect dead cannot rise again and praise Thee, as they must, but on the footing of My being raised up. "But unto Thee have I cried, O LORD" (Psalms 88:13). What light this Psalm casts upon these words of the apostle concerning Christ: "Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard. . . " (Hebrews 5:7). In the prophetic language of Psalms 2:8, God the Father says to His Son, "Ask of Me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." (ital. mine) In like manner, our Lord first cried for His deliverance from the prison of the tomb, and then the Father "brought him forth" in answer to His cry. Behold how perfectly the Son of man is conformed to our utter dependence on God. He, too, though the Sinless One, must pray for those blessings that God had already promised Him! Through the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant In the last place, consider that the great act of God here spoken of is said to be "through the blood of the everlasting covenant." As to the exact meaning of these words there has been no little confusion in the minds of different writers on this Epistle; and while a full canvassing of this interesting question is really outside the scope of the present article, yet some of the more erudite of our readers would be displeased if we failed to make a few remarks thereon. So I shall ask others kindly to bear with me while I deal with a somewhat technical detail. A careful reading through of the Epistle to the Hebrews shows that mention is made therein of "the covenant" (Hebrews 10:29), "a better covenant" (Hebrews 8:6), "a new covenant" (Hebrews 8:8), and here to "the everlasting covenant." Not a few able men have concluded that reference is made to the same thing throughout, but with them I cannot agree. It is quite clear from Hebrews 8:6-13 that the new and better covenant made with the spiritual Israel and Judah (that is, the Church) stands in opposition to the first (Hebrews 8:7) or old (Hebrews 8:13) covenant made with the nation of Israel at Sinai (that is "Israel after the flesh"). In other words, the contrast is between Judaism and Christianity under two different covenants or economies, whereas "the everlasting covenant" is the antitheses of that covenant of works made with Adam as the federal head of the human race. Though the covenant of works was first in manifestation, the everlasting covenant, or covenant of grace, was first in origination. In all things Christ must have the preeminence (Colossians 1:18), and thus God entered into compact with Him before Adam was created. That compact has been variously designated as the "covenant of redemption" and the "covenant of grace." In it God made full arrangements and provisions for the salvation of His elect. That everlasting covenant has been administered, under different economies, throughout human history, the blessings of the same being bestowed on favored individuals all through the ages. Under the Old Covenant, or Judaism, the requirements and provisions of the everlasting covenant were typified or foreshadowed particularly by means of the moral and ceremonial law; under the New Covenant, or Christianity, its requirements and provisions are set forth and proclaimed in and by the Gospel. In every generation repentance, faith, and obedience have been required of those who would (and do) partake of its inestimable blessings (Isaiah 55:3). In his Outlines of Theology, the renowned theologian A. A. Hodge says this: The phrase "mediator of the covenant" is applied to Christ three times in the New Testament (Hebrews 8:6; Hebrews 9:15; Hebrews 12:24), but as in each case the term for covenant is qualified by either the adjective "new" or "better," it evidently here is used to designate not the covenant of grace properly, but that new dispensation of that eternal covenant which Christ introduced in person in contrast with the less perfect administration of it which was instrumentally introduced by Moses. Christ, the Mediator of an Everlasting Covenant Thus we take those words "the blood of the everlasting covenant" at their face value, as referring to the eternal compact that God entered into with Christ. In the light of the preceding phrases of Hebrews 13:20, it is evident that "the blood of the everlasting covenant" has a threefold connection. First, it is connected to the Divine title here employed. God became historically "the God of peace" when Christ made propitiation and confirmed the eternal compact with His own blood (Colossians 1:20). From before the foundation of the world God had purposed and planned that peace between Himself and sinful men (Luke 2:13-14) that Christ was to make; everything connected with the same had been eternally agreed upon between Them. Secondly, it points to the fact of Christ’s death. As the righteous Judge of all, God the Father was moved by the shedding of Christ’s precious blood to restore Him from the grave and to exalt Him to a place of supreme honor and authority (Matthew 28:18; Php 2:5-11). Since the Surety had fully carried out His part of the contract, it behooved the Ruler of this world to deliver Him from prison as that which was righteously due to Him. Thirdly, this blessed phrase is connected to Christ’s office. It was by the shedding of His blood for them, according to covenant agreement, that our Lord Jesus became "that great shepherd of the sheep," the One who would seek out God’s elect, bring them into the fold, and there minister to, provide for, and protect them (John 10:11, John 10:15). God’s bringing back our Lord Jesus from the dead was not done simply by contract, but also on account of His merits, and therefore it is attributed not barely to "the covenant" but to "the blood" of it. As God the Son, He merited or purchased it not, for honor and glory were His due; but as the God-man Mediator He earned His deliverance from the grave as a just reward for His obedience and sufferings. Moreover, it was not as a private person but as the Head of His people that He was delivered, and that ensured their deliverance also. If He was restored from the tomb "through the blood of the everlasting covenant," equally so must they be. Scripture ascribes our deliverance from the grave not only to the death of Christ but to His resurrection as well. "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him:" (1 Thessalonians 4:14; cf. Romans 4:25). Thus assurance is given to the Church of its full and final redemption. God expressly made promise to the Shepherd of old: "As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water [that is, the grave]" (Zechariah 9:11, brackets mine). As it was "by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place" (Hebrews 9:12), so also on the ground of the infinite value of that blood we also enter the heavenly throne room (Hebrews 10:19). As He declared, "because I live, ye shall live also" (John 14:19). The Well-grounded Petition We turn now to the petition itself. "Now the God of peace . . . Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ." This verse is intimately related to the whole of the preceding one, and the blessed connection between them inculcates a lesson of great practical importance. It may be stated, simply, as follows: God’s wondrous working in the past should deepen our confidence in Him and make us to seek at His hands blessings and mercies for the present. Since He so graciously provided such a Shepherd for the sheep, since He has been pacified toward us and not a frown now remains upon His face, since He has so gloriously displayed both His power and His righteousness in bringing back Christ from the dead, a continuance of His favor may be safely counted upon. We should expectantly look to Him day by day for all needed supplies of grace. The One who raised our Savior is well able to quicken us and make us fruitful to every good work. Let us therefore eye "the God of peace" and plead "the blood of the everlasting covenant" in every approach to the mercyseat. More specifically, God’s bringing back Christ from the dead is His infallible guarantee to us that He will fulfill all His promises to the elect, even all the blessings of the everlasting covenant. This is clear from Acts 13:32-34 : "And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that He hath raised up Jesus again…and as concerning that He raised Him from the dead. . . He said [by that action], I will give you the sure mercies of David." (brackets mine) By restoring Christ from the dead, God fulfilled the grand promise made to the Old Testament saints (in which all His promises were virtually contained) and gave pledge for the performance and accomplishment of all future ones, thereby giving virtue to them. The "sure mercies of David" are the blessings that God swore to in the everlasting covenant (Isaiah 55:3). The shedding of Christ’s blood ratified, sealed, and established forever every article in that covenant. By bringing Him back from the dead God has ensured to His people that He will infallibly bestow upon them all those benefits which Christ obtained for them by His sacrifice. All those blessings of regeneration, pardon, cleansing, reconciliation, adoption, sanctification, preservation, and glorification were given to Christ for His redeemed, and are safe in His hand. By His mediatorial work Christ has opened a way whereby God can bestow, consistently with all the glory of His perfections, all the good things that flow from those Divine perfections. As Christ’s death was necessary that believers might receive those "sure mercies" according to the Divine counsels, so His resurrection was equally indispensable, so that living in heaven He might impart them to us as the fruits of His travail and the reward of His victory. God has fulfilled to Christ every article for which He engaged in the everlasting covenant: He has brought Him from the dead, exalted Him to His own right hand, invested Him with honor and glory, seated Him upon the mediatorial throne, and given Him that Name which is above every name. And what God has done for Christ, the Head, is the guarantee that He will perform all that He has promised to Christ’s members. It is a most glorious and blessed consideration that our all, both for time and eternity, depends wholly upon what passed between the Father and Jesus Christ: that God the Father remembers and is faithful to His engagements to the Son, and that we are in His hand (John 10:27-30). When faith truly apprehends that grand fact, all fear and uncertainty is at an end; all legality and talking about our unworthiness silenced. "Worthy is the Lamb" becomes our theme and song! This Kind of Praying Produces Spiritual Stability How tranquilizing and stabilizing it is to us when we consider that we have a personal interest in all the eternal acts that passed between God the Father and the Lord Christ on our behalf even before man was created, as well as in all those acts that were transacted between the Father and the Son in and throughout the whole of His mediatorial work that He wrought and finished here below. It is this covenant salvation, in its full blessedness and efficacy, apprehended by faith, that alone can lift us out of ourselves and above our spiritual enemies, that can enable us to triumph over our present corruptions, sins, and miseries. It is wholly a subject for faith to be engaged with, for feelings can never provide the basis for spiritual stability and peace. Such can only be obtained by a consistent feeding upon objective truth, the Divine counsels of wisdom and grace made known in the Scriptures. As faith is exercised thereon, as the record of the eternal engagements of the Father and Son are received into the spiritual mind, peace and joy will be our experience. And the more faith feeds upon objective truth, the more are we strengthened subjectively, that is, emotionally. Faith regards every past fulfillment of God’s promises as a certain evidence of His fulfilling all the rest of His promises to us, in His own good time and way. Especially will faith regard God’s fulfillment of His promise to bring back our Lord Jesus from the grave in this light. Has the Shepherd Himself been raised from the dead by the glory of the Father? Just as surely, then, will all His sheep be delivered from death in sin, quickened to newness of life, sanctified by the Spirit, received into Paradise when their warfare is ended, and raised bodily to immortality at the last day. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 54: 003.03. HEBREWS 13:20, 21, PART 3 ======================================================================== 3 Hebrews 13:20-21 Part 3 "Now the God of peace. . . make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ." As previously intimated, there is a very close connection between this verse and the preceding one. Here we have the request that the apostle offered up on behalf of the Hebrew saints, whereas the contents of the previous verse are to be regarded as the plea upon which he based his request. Just how appropriate, powerful, and moving that plea was, will readily be seen. The appeal is made to "the God of peace." As the One reconciled to His people He is besought to grant this blessing (cf. Romans 5:10). Moreover, since God had brought again our Lord Jesus from the dead, that was a most proper ground upon which He should quicken His spiritually dead elect by regeneration, recover them when they wander, and complete His work of grace in them. It was in the capacity of "that great Shepherd of the sheep" that Our Lord Jesus was raised by His gracious Father from the prison of the grave, in order that He might be able, as One alive forevermore, to care for the flock. Our great Shepherd is presently supplying every need of each of His sheep by His intercession on our behalf (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25). By this efficacious means He is now dispensing gifts to men, especially those gifts that promote the salvation of sinners such as we are (Ephesians 4:8 ff). Furthermore, the same everlasting covenant that promised the resurrection of Christ also guaranteed the glorification of His people. Thus the apostle calls upon God the Father to perfect them according to that engagement. A Prayer for Holiness and Fruitfulness "The God of peace. . . make you perfect in every good work to do his will." Substantially, this request is for the practical sanctification and fructification of God’s people. While the everlasting covenant has been suitably denominated "the covenant of redemption," we must carefully bear in mind that it was designed to secure the holiness of its beneficiaries. We do well to reflect upon the prophetic, Spirit-filled cry of Zecharias, that "the Lord God of Israel . . . [should] remember his holy covenant;…That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our [spiritual] enemies might serve him without [servile] fear, In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life" (Luke 1:68, Luke 1:72, Luke 1:74-75, brackets mine). And while it has also been appropriately designated "the covenant of grace," yet we must also remember that the Apostle Paul said, "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men [Gentiles as well as Jews], Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope. . . " (Titus 2:11-13, brackets mine). The grand purpose of the everlasting covenant, as of all the Divine works, was the glory of God and the good of His people. It was designed not only as a display of the Divine munificence, but also for securing and promoting the claims of Divine holiness. God did not enter into that compact with Christ in order to set aside human accountability, nor did the Son fulfill its terms so as to render unnecessary for His redeemed a life of obedience. Christ agreed not only to propitiate God, but to regenerate His elect. Christ undertook not only to meet all the requirements of the Law in their stead, but also to write it on their hearts and to enthrone it in their affections. Christ engaged not only to take away sin from before God, but to make it hateful and heinous to His saints. Before the world began, Christ undertook not only to satisfy the claims of Divine justice, but to sanctify His seed by sending forth His Spirit into their souls to conform them to His image and to incline them to follow the example that He would leave them. It has been far too little insisted on, in recent times, by those who have written or preached upon the Covenant of Grace, that Christ engaged not only for the debt of His people, but for their duty, too: that He should make a purchase of grace for them, including a full provision to give them a new heart and a new spirit, to bring them to know the Lord, to put His fear into their hearts, and to make them obedient to His will. He also engaged for their safety: that if they should forsake His Law and walk not in His judgments, He would visit their transgressions with the rod (Psalms 89:30-36); that if they should backslide and stray from Him, He would assuredly recover them. Paul Turns Messianic Prophecy into Prayer "Make you perfect. . . to do his will." It was with the contents of the Covenant in his eye that the apostle offered up this petition. In the preceding chapters it has been shown that Old Testament prophecy presented the promised Messiah as the Surety of a covenant of peace and as the "Shepherd" of His people. It now remains to be demonstrated that He was therein portrayed as a Shepherd who would perfect His sheep in holiness and good works. "And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd" (Ezekiel 37:24). Here the LORD declares that Messiah, the great Seed of David, shall in days to come unify the Israel of God as their King and shall shepherd them all without rival. In the same verse He further declares, "they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them." Thus, having owned God as "the God of peace," who has delivered our Lord Jesus from death’s dominion "through the blood of the everlasting covenant," Paul makes request that He work in His sheep "that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ." For though God has promised to do this, He declares, "I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel" (Ezekiel 36:37). It is ever the bounden duty of God’s covenant people to pray for the fulfillment of His promises (witness the various petitions of the Lord’s Prayer). We see, then, that this Spirit-indited, comprehensive prayer is not only an epitome of the contents of this entire Epistle, but also a summary of the Messianic prophecies. Faith in a Reconciled God Produces Desires for His Glory "Make you perfect in every good work to do His will." Such a petition as this can be rightly offered only as one contemplates God as "the God of peace." Faith must first regard Him as reconciled to us before there will be any true desire to glorify Him. While there be any sensible horror at the thought of God, any servile fear produced at the mention of His name, we cannot serve Him nor do that which is wellpleasing in His sight. "Without faith it is impossible to please him" (Hebrews 11:6), and faith is quite opposite to horror. We must first be assured that God is no longer an Enemy but our Friend, before love’s gratitude will move us to run in the way of His commandments. That assurance can only come to us by realizing that Christ has put away our sins and satisfied every legal claim of God against us. "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1). Christ has made a perfect and eternal peace "through the blood of his cross" (Colossians 1:20), in consequence of which God has made with those who surrender to Christ’s yoke and trust in His sacrifice "an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure" (2 Samuel 23:5). This must be apprehended by faith before there will be a confident seeking from Him of the grace necessary thereto. From yet another angle we may perceive the appropriateness of this request being addressed to "the God of peace," that He would now perfect us in every good work to do His will. For the doing of God’s will is most essential for our enjoyment of His peace in a practical way. "Great peace have they which love thy law" (Psalms 119:165), for Wisdom’s "ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace" (Proverbs 3:17). Therefore it is utterly vain to expect tranquility of heart if we forsake Wisdom’s paths for those of self-pleasing. Certainly there can be no peace of conscience while any known sin is entertained by us. The road to peace is the way of holiness. "And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them. . . " (Galatians 6:16). Unless we genuinely resolve and strive to do those things that are pleasing in God’s sight, there will be a state of turmoil and unrest within us instead of peace. There is a deeper spiritual significance than is usually perceived in that title "the Prince of peace," which pertains to the incarnate Son. He could say, "I do always those things that please him" (John 8:29), and therefore an unruffled calm was His portion. What emphasis was there in those words, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you" (John 14:27, ital. mine)! Paul Prays for the Strengthening of the Saints in Their Duties "Make you perfect in every good work to do his will." This petition sets before us, by clear implication, the human side of things. Those things for which the Apostle Paul made request on behalf of the saints were concerned with those duties that they were obligated to perform, but for the performing of which Divine assistance is imperative. The everlasting covenant anticipated the entrance of sin, and it thus made provision not only for the putting away of it but also for the bringing in of everlasting righteousness. That righteousness is the perfect obedience of Christ by which the Divine Law was honored and magnified. That perfect righteousness of Christ is imputed to all who believe, but none savingly believe in Him until His Spirit has implanted a principle of righteousness in their souls (Ephesians 4:24). And that new nature or principle of righteousness evidences itself by the performing of good works (Ephesians 2:10). We have no right to speak of the Lord Jesus as "The Lord our righteousness" unless we are personal doers of righteousness (1 John 2:29). The everlasting covenant by no means sets aside the necessity of obedience on the part of those who partake of its benefits, but supplies the most affecting and powerful motives to move us thereto! Saving faith works by love (Galatians 5:6), and aims at pleasing its Object. The more our prayers are regulated by the teaching of Holy Writ the more they will be marked by these two qualities: the Divine precepts will be turned into petitions; and the Divine character and promises will be used as our arguments. When the Psalmist, in the course of his meditations upon God’s Law, declared, "Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently," he was at once conscious of his failure and said, "O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!" (Psalms 119:4-5). But He did more than just lament the hindrances of indwelling sin; he cried, "Teach me, O LORD, the way of thy statutes;…Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight" (Psalms 119:33, Psalms 119:35). So also, when seeking the establishment of his house before the Lord, David pleaded the Divine promise: "And now, O LORD God, the word that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant, and concerning his house, establish it for ever, and do as thou hast said" (2 Samuel 7:25, ital. mine; see also 1 Kings 8:25-26; 2 Chronicles 6:17). As we become more familiar with God’s Word and discover the details of the exalted standard of conduct there set before us, we should be more definite and diligent in seeking grace to perform our several duties; and as we become better acquainted with "the Father of mercies" (2 Corinthians 1:3) and His "exceeding great and precious promises" (2 Peter 1:4), we shall count more confidently upon Him for those supplies. A Prayer for Restoration to Spiritual Vigor "Make you perfect in every good work." The original Greek word here rendered make perfect is katartizō, which James Strong defines as to complete thoroughly, that is, to repair (literally or figuratively), to adjust (see no. 2675 in the Greek Dictionary of Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance). Contrast this with the word teleioō used in Hebrews 2:10; Hebrews 10:1, Hebrews 10:14; Hebrews 11:40, which according to Strong means to complete, (literally) to accomplish, or (figuratively) to consummate in character (see no. 5048 in Strong’s Greek Dictionary). The word in our text, katartizō, is used to describe the activity engaged in by James and John, the sons of Zebedee, when Christ called them: they were "mending their nets" (Matthew 4:21, ital. mine). In Galatians 6:1, the Apostle Paul employs this word by way of exhortation: "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness;. . . " (ital. mine) It was, therefore, most appropriate that this term be applied to the case of the Hebrew Christians, who after believing the Gospel had met with such bitter and protracted opposition from the Jews at large that they had wavered and were in real need of being warned against apostasy (Hebrews 4:1; Hebrews 6:11-12; Hebrews 10:23, etc.). As stated at the beginning of our exposition, this prayer gathers up not only the whole of the doctrinal instruction but also the exhortations of the previous chapters. The Hebrews had faltered and failed (Hebrews 12:12), and the apostle here prays for their restoration. The lexicons (such as Liddell and Scott, p. 910) tell us that katartizō, here translated make perfect, literally has reference to the resetting of a dislocated bone. And is it not often so with the Christian? A sad fall breaks his communion with God, and none but the hand of the Divine Physician can repair the damage wrought. Thus this prayer is suited to all of us: that God would rectify every faculty of our beings to do His will and right us for His service each time we need it. Mark how comprehensive this prayer is: "Make you perfect in every good work." It includes, as Gouge pointed out, "all the fruits of holiness Godwards and of righteousness manwards." No reservation is allowed us by the extensive rule that God has set before us: we are required to love Him with our whole being, to be sanctified in our whole spirit and soul and body, and to grow up into Christ in all things (Deuteronomy 6:5; Luke 10:27; Ephesians 4:15; 1 Thessalonians 5:23). Nothing less than perfection in "every good work" is the standard at which we must aim. Absolute perfection is not attainable in this life, but the perfection of sincerity is demanded of us—honest endeavor, genuine effort to please God. The mortification of our lusts, submission to God under trials, and the performance of impartial and universal obedience are ever our bounden duty. Of ourselves we are quite incapable of discharging our duties, and therefore we must pray continually for supplies of grace to enable us to perform them. Not only are we dependent upon God for the beginning of every good work, but also for the continuance and progress of the same. Let us emulate Paul, who said, "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect;. . . Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Php 3:12-14). Divinely Revealed Knowledge Requires Obedience "Make you perfect in every good work to do his will ." May He who has already fully acquainted you with His mind now effectually incline you to the performing of it, even a continuance of solicitous attention to your duties as redeemed people to the end. It is not enough that we know His will; we must do it (Luke 6:46; John 13:17), and the more we do it, the better we shall understand it (John 7:17) and prove the excellency of the same (Romans 12:2). That will of God that we are to exercise ourselves to perform is not God’s secret will but His revealed or perceptive will, namely, those laws and statutes to which God requires our full obedience (Deuteronomy 29:29). God’s revealed will is to be the sole rule of our actions. There are many things done by professing Christians that, though admired by them and applauded by their fellows, are nothing but "will worship" and a following of the "commandments and doctrines of men" (Colossians 2:20-23). The Jews added their own traditions to the Divine Law, instituting fasts and feasts of their own invention. The deluded Papists, with their bodily austerities, idolatrous devotions, and impoverishing payments, are guilty of the same thing. Nor are some Protestants, with their self-devised deprivations and superstitious exercises, clear of this Romish evil. "Working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight." These words confirm what was just said above: only that is acceptable to God which conforms to the rule He has given us. The words "in his sight" show that our every action comes under His immediate notice and is weighed by Him. By comparing other Scriptures, we find that only those works are wellpleasing to Him that He has enjoined us to perform and that are performed in His fear (Hebrews 12:28). He will accept only those that proceed from love (2 Corinthians 5:14), and that are done with an eye singly set upon glorifying Him (1 Corinthians 10:31). Our constant aim and diligent endeavor must be nothing short of this: "That ye [we] might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work. . . " (Colossians 1:10, brackets and ital. mine). Nevertheless, we must receive Divine enablement in order to do this. What a blow to self-sufficiency and self-glory is this little phrase, "working in you"! Even after regeneration we are wholly dependent upon God. Notwithstanding the life, light, and liberty we have received from Him, we have no strength of our own to do what He requires. Each has to acknowledge, "for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not" (Romans 7:18). Herein Lies a Pride-withering Truth Herein, indeed, is a humbling truth, yet a fact it is that Christians are, in themselves, incapable of discharging their duty. Though the love of God has been shed abroad in their hearts and a principle of holiness (or new nature) communicated to them, yet they are unable to perform the good they ardently desire to do. Not only are they still very ignorant of many of the requirements of God’s revealed will, but indwelling sin ever opposes and seeks to incline their hearts in a contrary direction. Thus it is imperative that they daily seek from God fresh supplies of grace. Though assured that God shall surely complete His good work in us (Php 1:6), that does not render needless our crying to Him "that performeth all things for me [us]" (Psalms 57:2, brackets mine). Nor does the privilege of prayer release us from the obligation of obedience. Rather, in prayer we are to beg Him to quicken us to the performance of those duties He requires. The blessing of access to God is not designed to discharge us from the regular and diligent use of all the means God has appointed for our practical sanctification, but is meant to provide for our seeking of the Divine blessing on our use of all the means of grace. Our duty is this: to ask God to work in us "both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Php 2:13); to avoid quenching His Spirit by slothfulness and disobedience, especially after we have prayed for His sweet influences (1 Thessalonians 5:19); and to use the grace He has already given us. "Working in you that which is wellpleasing. . . through Jesus Christ." There is a double reference here: (1) to God’s working in us; and (2) to His acceptance of our works. It is by virtue of the Savior’s mediation that God works; there is no communication of grace to us from the God of peace but by and through our Redeemer. All that God does for us is for Christ’s sake. Every gracious operation of the Holy Spirit in us is the fruit of Christ’s meritorious work, for He has procured the Spirit for us (Ephesians 1:13-14; Titus 3:5-6) and presently is sending the Spirit to us (John 15:26). Every spiritual blessing bestowed upon us is in consequence of Christ’s intercession for us. Christ is not only our life (Colossians 3:4) and our righteousness (Jeremiah 23:6), but also our strength (Isaiah 45:24). "And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace" (John 1:16). The members of His mystical Body are completely dependent upon their Head (Ephesians 4:15-16). Our bearing fruit comes by means of having fellowship with Christ, by our abiding in Him (John 15:5). It is most important that we have a clear apprehension upon this truth, if the Lord Jesus is to have that place in our thoughts and affections which is His due. The wisdom of God has so contrived things that each Person of the Godhead is exalted in the esteem of His people: the Father as the Fountain of grace, the Son in His mediatorial office as the Channel through which all grace flows to us, and the Holy Spirit as the actual Bestower of it. Christ’s Infinite Merits, the Basis of God’s Acceptance of Our Works and Prayers But these words "through Jesus Christ" have also a more immediate connection with the phrase "that which is wellpleasing in His sight." Even though our works are good and are wrought in us by God, they are yet imperfect since they are marred by the instruments by which they are done—just as the purest light is dimmed by the cloudy or dusty lamp shade through which it shines. Yet though our works be defective, they are acceptable to God when done in the name of His Son. Our best performances are faulty and fall short of the excellence that the requirements of God’s holiness demand, but their defects are covered by the merits of Christ. Our prayers, too, are acceptable to God only because our great High Priest adds to them "much incense" and then offers them on the golden altar before the throne (Revelation 8:3). Our spiritual sacrifices are "acceptable to God by Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2:5). God can be "glorified through Jesus Christ" alone (1 Peter 4:11). We owe, then, to the Mediator not only the pardon of our sins and the sanctification of our persons, but also God’s acceptance of our imperfect worship and service. As Spurgeon aptly said in his comments on this phrase, "What nothings and nobodies we are! Our goodness is none of ours." A Doxology "To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." The glory of God was what the apostle eyed. And how are we to glorify Him? We are to glorify Him by an obedient walk, by doing His will, by performing those things that are wellpleasing in His sight, and by adoring Him. The construction of the whole sentence permits us to regard this ascription of praise as being offered to either the "God of peace," to whom the prayer is addressed, or to "that great shepherd of the sheep," who is the nearest antecedent to the pronoun. Since the grammar allows for it and the Analogy of Faith instructs us to include both Father and Son in our worship, then let glory be ascribed to both. Let God be praised because He is now "the God of peace," because He brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, because He is faithful to His engagements in the everlasting covenant, because all supplies of grace are from Him, and because He accepts our poor obedience "through Jesus Christ." Equally let us adore the Mediator: because He is "our Lord Jesus," who loved us and gave Himself for us; because He is "that great shepherd of the sheep"—caring for and ministering to His flock; because He ratified the covenant with His precious blood; and because it is by His merits and intercession that our persons and services are rendered "wellpleasing" to the Most High. "Amen." So be it! Let the praises of a redeeming and propitious God ring throughout eternity! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 55: 003.04. 1 PETER 1:3-5, PART 1 ======================================================================== 4 1 Peter 1:3-5 Part 1 Certain extremists among the Dispensationalists assert and insist that the last seven epistles of the New Testament (Hebrews through Jude) pertain not to all those who are members of the mystical body of Christ, but are entirely Jewish, penned by the apostles to the Circumcision and meant for them only. Such a wild and wicked assertion is an arbitrary invention of their own, for there is not a word in the Scriptures that substantiates their claim. On the contrary, there is much in those very Epistles that clearly repudiates such a view. One might as well affirm that the Epistles of Paul are "not for us" (twentieth-century saints) because they are addressed to companies of believers at Rome, Corinth, Galatia, and so forth. The precise identity of the professing Christians to whom the Epistle to the Hebrews was originally addressed cannot be discovered. It is vital to recognize, however, that the Epistle is addressed to those who are "partakers of the heavenly calling" (Hebrews 3:1, ital. mine), something that in no wise pertained to the Jewish nation as a whole. Though the Epistle of James was written to "the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad," yet it was addressed to those members of them who were begotten of God (James 1:18). The Epistles of John are manifestly the letters of a father in Christ to his dear children (1 John 2:12; 1 John 5:21)—and as such convey the solicitous care of the heavenly Father for His own—to those who had Jesus Christ for their Advocate (1 John 2:1). Jude’s Epistle is also a general one, directed to "them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ" (Jude 1:1). Those for Whom Peter Offers this Doxology The first Epistle of Peter is addressed to "the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia" (1 Peter 1:1). The American Standard Version more literally renders it, "to the elect who are sojourners of the Dispersion in Pontus,. . . " that is, to Jews who are absent from Palestine, residing in Gentile lands (cf. John 7:35). But care needs to be taken that the term sojourners be not limited to its literal force, but rather be given also its figurative meaning and spiritual application. It refers not strictly to the fleshly descendants of Abraham, but rather to his spiritual seed, who were partakers of the heavenly calling, and as such, were away from their home. The patriarchs "confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. . . For they. . . declare plainly that they seek a country. . . a better country [than the earthly Canaan], that is, an heavenly" (Hebrews 11:13-16, brackets mine). Even David, while reigning as king in Jerusalem, made a similar acknowledgment: "I am a stranger in the earth" (Psalms 119:19). All Christians are strangers in this world; for while they are "at home in the body," they are "absent from the Lord" (2 Corinthians 5:6). Their citizenship is in heaven (Php 3:20). Thus it was spiritual sojourners (temporary residents) to whom Peter wrote, those who had been begotten to an inheritance reserved for them in heaven (1 Peter 1:4). Nor were all the spiritual strangers from the natural stock of Abraham. There is more than one indication in this very Epistle that while possibly a majority of them were Jewish believers, yet by no means were all of them so. Thus, in 1 Peter 2:10, after stating that God had called them out of darkness into His marvelous light, the Apostle Peter goes on to describe them with these words: "Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy." This precisely delineates the case of the Gentile believers (cf. Ephesians 2:12-13). Peter is here quoting from Hosea 1:9-10 (where the "children of Israel" in v. 10 refers to the spiritual Israel), which is definitely interpreted for us in Romans 9:24-25: "Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles[.] As he saith also in Osee [Hosea], I will call them my people, which were not my people; . . ." (brackets mine). Again, in 1 Peter 4:3, Peter says by way of reminder to those to whom he is writing, "For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries." The last category of transgression could only refer to Gentiles; for the Jews (when considered as a nation), since the Babylonian captivity, had never fallen into idolatry. The Prayer Itself As we examine together the prayer contained in 1 Peter 1:3-5, let us consider eight things: (1) its connection—that we may perceive who all are included by the words "begotten us again"; (2) its nature—a doxology ("Blessed be"); (3) its Object—"the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ"; (4) its ascription—"His abundant mercy"; (5) its incitement—"hath begotten us again unto a lively hope"; (6) its acknowledgment—"by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead"; (7) its substance—"to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you"; and (8) its guaranty—"who are kept by the power of God through faith." There is much here of interest and deep importance. Therefore, it would be wrong for us to hurriedly dismiss such a passage with a few generalizations, especially since it contains such a wealth of spiritual, joyful reflection that cannot but edify the mind and stir up the will and affections of every saint who rightly meditates upon it. May we be duly affected by its contents and truly enter into its elevated spirit. First, we consider its connection. Those on whose behalf the apostle offered this doxology are spoken of according to their literal and figurative circumstances in 1 Peter 1:1, and then described by their spiritual characters: "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1:2). That description pertains equally to all the regenerate in every age. When connected with election, the "foreknowledge of God" refers not to His eternal and universal prescience, for that embraces all beings and events, past, present and future; and, therefore, it has for its objects the non-elect as well as the elect. Consequently, there is no allusion whatever to God’s preview of our believing or any other virtue in the objects of His choice. Rather, the term foreknowledge has respect to the spring or source of election, namely, God’s unmerited good will and approbation. For this sense of the word know see the following: Psalms 1:6; Amos 3:2; 2 Timothy 2:19. For a like sense of the word foreknow see Romans 11:2. Therefore, the phrase "elect according to the foreknowledge of God" signifies that the favored persons thus described were fore-loved by Him, that they were the objects of His eternal favor, unalterably delighted in by Him as He foreviewed them in Christ— "wherein he hath made us accepted [or "objects of grace"] in the beloved" (Ephesians 1:4-6, brackets mine). Obedience, an Indispensable Sign of the Spirit’s Saving Work "Through sanctification of the Spirit." It is by means of the Spirit’s gracious and effectual operations that our election by God the Father takes effect (see 2 Thessalonians 2:13). The words "sanctification of the Spirit" have reference to His work of regeneration, whereby we are quickened (made alive), anointed, and consecrated or set apart to God. The underlying idea of sanctification is almost always that of separation. By the new birth we are distinguished from those dead in sin. The words "unto obedience" here in 1 Peter 1:2 signify that by the Spirit’s effectual call we are made subject to the authoritative call of the Gospel (see 1 Peter 1:22and Romans 10:1, Romans 10:16) and subsequently to its precepts. Election never promotes license, but always produces holiness and good works (Ephesians 1:4; Ephesians 2:10). The Spirit regenerates sinners to a new life of hearty submission to Christ and not to a life of self-pleasing. When the Spirit sanctifies a soul, it is to the end that he may adorn the Gospel by a walk that is regulated thereby. It is by his obedience that a Christian makes evident his election by the Father, for previously he was one of "the children of disobedience" (Ephesians 5:6). By his new life of obedience he furnished proof of the Spirit’s supernatural work within him. "And sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." It is important for us to grasp the distinction between the sprinkling of Christ’s blood and the shedding of it (Hebrews 9:22). The shedding is Godward; whereas the sprinkling is its application to the believer, whereby he obtains forgiveness and peace of conscience (Hebrews 9:13-14; Hebrews 10:22), and by which his service is rendered acceptable to God (1 Peter 2:5). A careful reading of the whole Epistle makes it evident that these saints were passing through severe trials (see 1 Peter 1:6-7; 1 Peter 2:19-21; 1 Peter 3:16-18; 1 Peter 4:12-16; 1 Peter 5:8-9). Jewish Christians (who evidently made up the majority of those originally addressed by Peter) have ever been sorely oppressed, persecuted not so much by the profane world as by their own brethren according to the flesh. How bitter and fierce was the hatred of such unbelieving Jews appears not only from the case of Stephen, but from what the Apostle Paul suffered at their hands (2 Corinthians 11:24-26). As a means of encouragement, the Apostle Paul deliberately reminded his Hebrew brethren of the persecutions they had already endured for Christ’s sake. "But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions; . . . and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods" (Hebrews 10:32-34). By bearing this fact in mind a better understanding is had of many of the details of the Book of Hebrews. Furthermore, it becomes more apparent why Peter has so much to say upon affliction, and why he refers so often to the sufferings of Christ. His brethren were in need of a stimulating cordial that would nerve them to heroic endurance. He therefore dwelt on those aspects of Divine truth best adapted to support the soul, strengthen faith, inspire hope, and produce steadfastness and good works. This Prayer a Doxology, an Expression of Unmixed Praise to God Secondly, we examine its nature. It is a tribute of praise. In this prayer the apostle is not making supplication to God, but rather is offering adoration to Him! This is as much our privilege and duty as it is to spread our needs before Him; yea, the one should ever be accompanied by the other. It is "with thanksgiving" that we are bidden to let our "requests be made known unto God" (Php 4:6). And that is preceded by the exhortation, "Rejoice in the Lord alway," which rejoicing is to find its expression in gratitude and by the ascribing of glory to Him. If we be suitably affected by God’s bounties, we cannot but bless the Bestower of them. In 1 Peter 1:2, Peter had mentioned some of the most noteworthy and comprehensive of all the Divine benefits, and this exclamation, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!" is the echo, or better, the reflex of the Apostle Peter’s heart in response to God’s amazing grace toward himself and his brethren. This particular doxology is also to be regarded as a devout acknowledgment of the inestimable favors that God had bestowed on His elect, as enlarged upon in 1 Peter 1:3. As the apostle reflected upon the glorious blessings conferred on hell-deserving sinners, his heart was drawn out in fervent worship to the benign Author of them. Thus it should be, thus it must be, with Christians today. God has no dumb children (Luke 17:7). Not only do they cry to Him day and night in their distress, but they frequently praise Him for His excellency and give thanks for His benefits. As they meditate upon His abundant mercy in having begotten them to a living hope, as they anticipate by faith the glorious inheritance that is reserved for them in heaven, and as they realize that these flow from the sovereign favor of God to them through the death and resurrection of His dear Son, well may they exclaim, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!" Doxologies, then, are expressions of holy joy and adoring homage. Concerning the particular term blessed, Ellicott most helpfully remarks, This form of Greek word is consecrated to God alone: Mark 14:61; Romans 9:5; 2 Corinthians 11:31. It is a completely different word from the "blessed" or "happy" of the Beatitudes and different from the "blessed" of our Lord’s mother in Luke 1:28, Luke 1:42. This form of it [in 1 Peter 1:3] implies that blessing is always due on account of something inherent in the person, while that only implies a blessing has been received. Thus we see again how minutely discriminating and accurate is the language of Holy Writ. The Glorious Object of Praise Thirdly, we behold its Object. This doxology is addressed to "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," which is explained by Calvin thus: For as formerly, by calling Himself the God of Abraham, He designed to mark the difference between Him and all fictitious gods; so after He has manifested Himself in His own Son, His will is, not to be known otherwise than in Him. Hence they who form their ideas of God in His naked majesty apart from Christ, have an idol instead of the true God, as the case is with the Jews and the Turks [that is, the Mohammedans, to which we may add the Unitarians]. Whosoever, then, seeks really to know the only true God, must regard Him as the Father of Christ. Moreover, in Psalms 72:17, it is foretold of Christ that "men shall be blessed in him" and that "all nations shall call him blessed." Whereupon the sacred singer breaks forth into this adoring praise: "Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things" (Psalms 72:18). That was the Old Testament form of doxology (cf. 1 Kings 1:48; 1 Chronicles 29:10); but the New Testament doxology (2 Corinthians 1:3; Ephesians 1:3) is expressed in accordance with the self-revelation the Deity has made in the Person of Jesus Christ: "He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him" (John 5:23). God the Father is not here viewed absolutely but relatively, that is, as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord Himself is contemplated in His mediatonal character, that is, as the eternal Son vested with our nature. As such, the Father appointed and sent Him forth on His redeeming mission. In that capacity and office the Lord Jesus owned and served Him as His God and Father. From the beginning He was engaged in His Father’s business, ever doing those things that were pleasing in His sight. By God’s Word He was regulated in all things. Jehovah was His "portion" (Psalms 16:5), His "God" (Psalms 22:1), His "All." Christ was under Him (John 6:38; John 14:28): "the head of Christ is God" (1 Corinthians 11:3). In a covenant way, too, He was and is the God and Father of Christ (John 20:17), not only so while Christ was here on earth, but even now that He is in heaven. This is clear from Christ’s promise after His ascension: "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God. . ." (Revelation 3:12, ital. mine). Yet this official subordination of Christ to God the Father in no wise militates against nor modifies His essential equality with Him (John 1:1-3; John 5:23; John 10:30-33). Because the Father of Our Surety, He Is Our Father It is to be carefully noted that praise is here rendered not to "the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ" but of "our Lord Jesus Christ." In other words, God’s relationship to us is determined by His relationship to our Surety. He is the God and Father of sinners only in Christ. He is adored as the covenant Head of the Savior and of His elect in Him. This is a point of first importance: the connection that the Church sustains to God is fixed by that of the Redeemer to God, for she is Christ’s and Christ is God’s (1 Corinthians 3:23). The title "God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" is the peculiar and characteristic Christian designation of Deity, contemplating Him as the God of redemption (Romans 15:6; 2 Corinthians 11:31; Colossians 1:3). When an Israelite called on Him as "the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob," he recognized and owned Him not only as the Creator and moral Governor of the world, but also as the covenant God of his nation. So when the Christian addresses Him as "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," he acknowledges Him as the Author of eternal redemption through the incarnate Son, who voluntarily took the place of subserviency to and dependence upon Him. In the highest meaning of the word, God is the Father of no man until he is united to the One whom He commissioned and sent to be the Savior of sinners, the sole Mediator between God and men. The language in which God is here worshiped explains how it is that He can be so kind and bounteous to His people. All blessings come to the creature from God. He it is who gave them being and supplies their varied needs. Equally so, all spiritual blessings proceed from Him (Ephesians 1:3; James 1:17). The Highest is "kind unto the unthankful and to the evil" (Luke 6:35). But spiritual blessings issue from Him not simply as God, nor from the Father absolutely, but from "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." In what follows, the apostle makes mention of His abundant mercy, of His begetting the elect to a living hope, and of an inheritance that infinitely transcends all earthly good. And in the bestowment of these favors God is here acknowledged in the special character in which He confers them. If it be asked, How can a holy God endow sinful men with such blessings? the answer is, as "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." It is because God is well pleased with the Redeemer that He is well pleased with the redeemed. The work of Christ merited such a reward, and He shares it with His own (John 17:22). All comes to us from the Father through the Son. His Abundant Mercy, the Cause of God’s Gracious Choice Fourthly, let us ponder its ascription, which is found in the phrase "his abundant mercy." Just as God did not elect because He foresaw that any would savingly repent and believe the Gospel—for these are the effects of His invincible call, which in turn is the consequence and not the cause of election—but "according to his own purpose" (2 Timothy 1:9), neither does He regenerate because of any merits possessed by the subjects thereof, but solely of His own sovereign pleasure (James 1:18). His abundant mercy is here set oven against our abundant demerits, and to the degree that we are sensible of the latter shall we be moved to render praise for the former. Such is our woeful case through sin that naught but Divine mercy can relieve it. Give ear to the words of C. H. Spurgeon: No other attribute could have helped us had mercy refused. As we are by nature, justice condemns us, holiness frowns upon, power crushes us, truth confirms the threatening of the law, and wrath fulfils it. It is from the mercy of God that all our hopes begin. Mercy is needed for the miserable, and yet more for the sinful. Misery and sin are fully united in the human race, and mercy here performs her noblest deeds. My brethren, God has vouchsafed His mercy unto us, and we must thankfully acknowledge that in our case His mercy has been abundant mercy. We were defiled with abundant sin, and only the multitude of His loving kindnesses could have put those sins away. We were infected with an abundant evil, and only overflowing mercy can ever cure us of all our natural disease, and make us meet for heaven. We have received abundant grace up till now; we have made great drafts upon the exchequer of God, and of His fullness have all we received grace for grace. Where sin hath abounded, grace hath much more abounded. . . Everything in God is on a grand scale. Great power—He shakes the world. Great wisdom—He balances the clouds. His mercy is commensurate with His other attributes: it is Godlike mercy, infinite mercy! You must measure His Godhead before you can compute His mercy. Well may it be called "abundant" if it be infinite. It will always be abundant, for all that can be drawn from it will be but as the drop of a bucket to the sea itself. The mercy which deals with us is not man’s mercy, but God’s mercy, and therefore boundless mercy. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 56: 003.05. 1 PETER 1:3-5, PART 2 ======================================================================== 5 1 Peter 1:3-5 Part 2 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope." Let us begin this chapter with a continuation of our examination of the ascription of this doxology. God the Father is here viewed as the covenant Head of the Mediator and of God’s elect in Him, and is thus accorded His distinctive Christian title (see, for example, Ephesians 1:3). This title sets Him forth as the God of redemption. "Abundant mercy" is ascribed to Him. This is one of His ineffable perfections, yet the exercise of it—as of all His other attributes—is determined by His own imperial will (Romans 9:15). Much is said in Scripture concerning this Divine excellency. We read of His "tender mercy" (Luke 1:78). David declares, "For great is thy mercy" (Psalms 86:13); "thou, Lord, art. . . plenteous in mercy" (Psalms 86:5). Nehemiah speaks of His "manifold mercies" (Nehemiah 9:27). Listen to David describe the effect that meditating upon this attribute, as he had practically experienced it, had upon his worship: "But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple" (Psalms 5:7). Blessed be His name, "for his mercy endureth for ever" (Psalms 107:1). Well then may each believer join with the Psalmist in saying, "I will sing aloud of thy mercy. . ." (Psalms 59:16). To this attribute especially should erring saints look: "according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions" (Psalms 51:1). God’s General and Special Mercy Must Be Distinguished It must be pointed out that there is both a general and a special mercy. That distinction is a necessary and important one, yea, a vital one; for many poor souls are counting upon the former instead of looking by faith to the latter. "The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works" (Psalms 145:9). Considering how much wickedness abounds in this world, the discerning and contrite heart can say with the Psalmist, "The earth, O LORD, is full of thy mercy. . ." (Psalms 119:64). For the good of our souls it is essential that we grasp the distinction revealed in God’s Word between this general mercy and God’s special benignity to His elect. By virtue of His eminence as a gift of God, Christ is denominated "the Mercy promised to our fathers" (Luke 1:72, ital. mine). How aptly does the Psalmist declare, "Thy mercy is great above the heavens" (Psalms 108:4; cf. Ephesians 4:10); for there is God’s mercyseat found (see Hebrews 9:1-28, especially vv. Hebrews 9:5, Hebrews 9:23-24), upon which the exalted Savior is now seated administering the fruits of His redemptive work. It is thither that the convicted and sin-burdened soul must look for saving mercy. To conclude that God is too merciful to damn any one eternally is a delusion with which Satan fatally deceives multitudes. Pardoning mercy is obtainable only through faith in the atoning blood of the Savior. Reject Him, and Divine condemnation is inescapable. This Mercy Is Abundant Because It Is Covenant Mercy The mercy here celebrated by Peter is very clearly a particular and discriminating one. It is that of "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," and it flows to its favored objects "by [means of] the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." (brackets mine) It is between those two phrases that we find these words firmly lodged: "who according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope." Thus it is covenant mercy, redemptive mercy, regenerating mercy. Rightly is it styled "abundant mercy," especially in view of the Bestower. For this abundant mercy issues from the self-sufficient Jehovah, who is infinitely and immutably blessed in Himself, who would have incurred no personal loss had He abandoned the whole human race to destruction. It was of His mere good pleasure that He did not. It is seen to be "abundant mercy" when we view the character of its objects, namely, depraved rebels, whose minds were enmity against God. It also appears thus when we contemplate the nature of its peculiar blessings. They are not the common and temporal ones, such as health and strength, sustenance and preservation that are bestowed upon the wicked, but spiritual, celestial, and everlasting benefits such as had never entered the mind of man to conceive. Still more so is it seen to be "abundant mercy" when we contemplate the means through which those blessings are conveyed to us: "by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead," which necessarily presupposes His incarnation and crucifixion. What other language but "abundant mercy" could appropriately express the Father’s sending forth of His beloved Son to take upon Himself the form of a servant, to assume to Himself flesh and blood, and to be born in a manger all for the sake of those whose multitudinous iniquities deserved eternal punishment? That Blessed One came here to be the Surety of His people, to pay their debts, to suffer in their stead, to die the Just for the unjust. Therefore, God spared not His own Son but called upon the sword of justice to smite Him. He delivered Him up to the curse that He might "freely give us all things" (Romans 8:32). Thus it is a righteous mercy, even as the Psalmist declares: "Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other" (Psalms 85:10). It was at the cross that the seemingly conflicting attributes of mercy and justice, love and wrath, holiness and peace united, just as the various colors of the light, when separated by a natural prism of mist, are seen beautifully blended together in the rainbow—the token and emblem of the covenant (Genesis 9:12-17; Revelation 4:3). Meditation on the Miracle of the New Birth Evokes Fervent Praise Fifthly, let us consider the incitement of this doxology, which is found in the following words: "which [who] according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope." It was the realization that God had quickened those who were dead in sins that moved Peter to bless Him so fervently. The words "hath begotten us" have reference to their regeneration. Later in the chapter the apostle describes them as having been "born again" (1 Peter 1:23) and in the next chapter addresses them as "newborn babes" (1 Peter 2:2). A new and a spiritual life, Divine in its origin, was imparted to them, wrought in their souls by the power of the Holy Spirit (John 3:6). That new life was given for the purpose of forming a new character and for the transforming of their conduct. God had sent forth the Spirit of His Son into their hearts, thereby communicating to them a holy disposition, who, as the Spirit of adoption (Romans 8:15), was inclining them to love Him. It is styled a begetting, not only because it is then that the spiritual life begins and that a holy seed is implanted (1 John 3:9), but also because an image or likeness of the Begetter Himself is conveyed (1 John 5:1). As fallen Adam "begat a son in his own likeness, after his image" (Genesis 5:3), so at the new birth the Christian is "renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him" (Colossians 3:10). In the words "begotten us again" there is a twofold allusion: a comparison and a contrast. First, just as God is the efficient cause of our being, so He is also of our wellbeing; our natural life comes from Him, and so too does our spiritual life. Secondly, the Apostle Peter intends to distinguish our new birth from the old one. At our first begetting and birth we were conceived in sin and shapen in iniquity (Psalms 51:5); but at our regeneration we are "created in righteousness and true holiness" (Ephesians 4:24). By the new birth we are delivered from the reigning power of sin, for we are then made "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4). Henceforth there is a perpetual conflict within the believer. Not only does the flesh lust against the spirit, but the spirit lusts against the flesh (Galatians 5:17). It is not sufficiently recognized and realized that the new nature or principle of grace of necessity makes war upon the old nature or principle of evil. This spiritual begetting is attributed to God’s "abundant mercy," for it was induced by nothing in or from us. We had not so much as a desire after Him: in every instance He is able to declare, "I am found of them that sought me not" (Isaiah 65:1; cf. Romans 3:11). As believers love Him because He first loved them (1 John 4:19), likewise they did not become seekers after Christ until He first sought and effectually called them (Luke 15:1-32; John 6:44; John 10:16). This begetting is according to the abundant mercy of God. Mercy was most eminently displayed here. For regeneration is the fundamental blessing of all grace and glory, being the first open manifestation that the elect receive of God’s love to them. "But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost" (Titus 3:4-5). As Thomas Goodwin so aptly expressed it, God’s love is like a river or spring which runs underground, and hath done so from eternity. When breaks it forth first? When a man is effectually called, then that river, which hath been from everlasting underground, and through Christ on the cross, breaks out in a man’s own heart, too. It is then that we are experientially made God’s children, received into His favor, and conformed to His image. Therein is a remarkable display of His benignity. At the new birth the love of God is shed abroad in the heart, and that is the introduction into, as well as the sure pledge of, every other spiritual blessing for time and eternity. As the predestinating love of God ensures our effectual call or regeneration, so regeneration guarantees our justification and glorification (Romans 8:29-30). God’s Work of Regeneration Precedes Our Repentance and Faith Let us now retrace our steps, going over again the ground we have covered, but in the inverse order. Not until a soul has been begotten of God can we have any spiritual apprehension of the Divine mercy. Before that miracle of grace takes place he is possessed more or less of a pharisaical spirit. To sincerely bless the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for His abundant mercy is the heartfelt acknowledgment of one who has turned away with loathing from the filthy rags of his own righteousness (Isaiah 64:6) and who places no confidence in the flesh (Php 3:3). Equally true is it that no unregenerate person ever has his conscience sprinkled with the peace-producing blood of Christ, for until spiritual life is imparted evangelical repentance and saving faith are morally impossible. Therefore, there can be no realization of our desperate need of a Savior or any actual trusting in Him until we are quickened (made alive) by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 2:1), that is, born again (John 3:3). Still more evident is it that so long as a person remains dead in sin, with his mind set at enmity against God (Romans 8:7), there can be no acceptable obedience to Him; for He will neither be imposed upon nor bribed by rebels. And certain it is that none who are in love with this world’s painted baubles will conduct themselves as "strangers and pilgrims on the earth"; for they are perfectly at home here. Regeneration Produces a Living Hope "Begotten us again unto a lively hope." This is the immediate effect and fruit of the new birth, and is one of the characteristic marks that distinguishes the regenerate from the unregenerate. Hope always has respect to something in the future (Romans 8:24-25), being an eager expectation of something desirable, an anticipation of a promised good, whether real or imaginary. The heart of the natural man is largely buoyed up, and his spirits maintained, by contemplations of some improvement in his lot that will increase his happiness in this world. But in the majority of instances the things dreamed of never materialize, and even when they do the result is always disappointing. For no real satisfaction of soul is to be found in anything under the sun. If such disillusioned souls have come under the influence of man-made religion, then they will seek to persuade themselves of, and look forward to, something far better for themselves in the hereafter. But such expectations will prove equally vain, for they are but the fleshly imaginings of carnal men. The false hope of the hypocrite (Job 8:13), the presumptuous hope of those who neither revere God’s holiness nor fear His wrath but who count upon His mercy, and the dead hope of the graceless professor will but mock their subjects. The Christian’s Hope Is Both Living and Lively In contradistinction to the delusive expectations cherished by the unregenerate, God’s elect are begotten again to a real and substantial hope. This hope, which fills their minds and acts upon their wills and affections (thus radically altering the orientation of their thoughts, words, and deeds) is based upon the objective promises of God’s Word (which are summarized in 1 Peter 1:4). In most of its occurrences, the Greek adjectival participle from zaō (to live; no. 2198 in Strong’s Greek Dictionary) is translated living, though in Acts 7:38 (as here in 1 Peter 1:3) it is rendered lively. Both meanings are accurate and appropriate in this context. The Christian’s hope is a sure and steadfast one (Hebrews 6:19) because it rests upon the word and oath of Him that cannot lie. It is the gift of Divine grace (2 Thessalonians 2:16), a fruit of the Spirit (Romans 5:1-5), inseparably connected with faith and love (1 Corinthians 13:13). It is a living hope because it is exerted by a quickened soul, being an exercise of the new nature or principle of grace received at regeneration. It is a living hope because it has eternal life for its object (Titus 1:2). What a glorious change has taken place, for before we were begotten of God many of us were captivated by "a certain fearful looking for of judgment" (Hebrews 10:27), and through fear of death were "all their [our] lifetime subject to bondage" (Hebrews 2:15, brackets mine). It is also termed "a living hope" because it is imperishable, one that looks and lasts beyond the grave. Should death overtake its possessor, far from frustration, hope then enters into its fruition. This inward hope of the believer is not only a living but a lively one, for it is—like faith and love—an active principle in his soul, animating him to patience, steadfastness, and perseverance in the path of duty. Therein it differs radically from the dead hope of religious formalists and empty professors, for theirs never stirs them to spiritual activity or produces anything to distinguish them from respectable worldlings who make no profession at all. It is the possession and exercise of this lively hope that affords demonstration that we have been "begotten. . . again." By Divine begetting a spiritual life is communicated, and that life manifests itself by desires after spiritual things, by a seeking of satisfaction in spiritual objects, and by a cheerful performance of spiritual duties. The genuineness and reality of this "lively hope" is, in turn, evidenced by its producing a readiness to the denying of self and to the enduring of afflictions, thus acting as "an anchor of the soul" (Hebrews 6:19) amid the storms of life. This hope further distinguishes itself by purging its possessor. "And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure" (1 John 3:3). It is also a "lively hope" in that it cheers and enlivens its possessor; for as he views the blissful goal courage is imparted and inspiration afforded, enabling him to endure to the end of his trials. The Saving Virtue of Christ’s Resurrection Sixthly, let us consider the acknowledgment of this prayer, namely, "the resurrection of Jesus Christ." From the position occupied by these words, it is plain that they are related to and govern the preceding words as well as the verse that follows. Equally obvious it is that the resurrection of Christ implies His previous life and death, though each possesses its own distinctive value and virtue. The connection between the resurrection of Christ and the exercise of the abundant mercy of God the Father in His bringing us from death to life, His putting into our hearts a living hope, and His bringing us into a glorious inheritance is a very real and intimate one. As such it calls for our devout attention. The Savior’s rising again from the dead was the climacteric proof of the Divine origin of His mission and thus a ratification of His Gospel. It was the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies concerning Him, and thus proved Him to be the promised Messiah. It was the accomplishment of His own predictions, and thus certified Him to be a true prophet. It determined the context between Him and the Jewish leaders. They condemned Him to death as an impostor, but by restoring the temple of His body in three days He demonstrated that they were liars. It witnessed to the Father’s acceptance of His redemptive work. There is, however, a much closer connection between the resurrection of Christ from the dead and the hope of eternal life that is set before His people. His emerging in triumph from the tomb furnished indubitable proof of the efficacy of His propitiatory sacrifice, by which He had put away the sins of those for whom it was offered. This being accomplished, by His resurrection Christ brought in an everlasting righteousness (Daniel 9:24), thus securing for His people the eternal reward due Him by His fulfillment of God’s Law by His own perfect obedience. He who was delivered up to death for our offenses was raised again for our justification (Romans 4:25). Attend to the words of John Brown (to whose commentary on 1 Peter I am greatly indebted): When God "brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the everlasting covenant," He manifested Himself to be "the God of peace," the pacified Divinity. He "raised him from the dead, and gave him glory, that our faith and hope might be in himself" [1 Peter 1:21]. Had Jesus not risen, "our faith had been in vain; we should have been still in our sins" [1 Corinthians 15:17], and without hope. But now that He is risen, Our Surety freed, declares us free, For whose offences He was seized; In His release our own we see, And joy to view Jehovah pleased. But even this is not all. Our Lord’s resurrection is to be viewed not only in connection with His death, but with the following glory. Raised from the dead, He has received "all power in heaven and on earth, that he may give eternal life to as many as the Father had given him." How this is calculated to encourage hope, may be readily apprehended. "Because he lives, we shall live also." Having the keys of death and the unseen world, He can and will raise us from the dead, and give us eternal life. He sits at the right hand of God. "Our life is hid with him in God; and when he who is our life shall appear, we shall also appear with him in glory." We are not yet in possession of the inheritance; but He, our Head and Representative, is. "We see not yet all things put under us; but we see him," the Captain of our salvation, "for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour." The resurrection of Christ, when considered in reference to the death which preceded and the glory which followed it, is the grand means of producing and strengthening the hope of eternal life. By faith we now behold Christ seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high, from whence He is administering all the outworking of that redemption which He has accomplished. "Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to [the spiritual] Israel, and forgiveness of sins" (Acts 5:31, brackets mine). More specifically, not only is the resurrection of Christ the legal basis upon which God the Father imputes the righteousness of Christ to the accounts of believing sinners, but it is also the legal warrant upon which the Holy Spirit proceeds to regenerate those sinners in order that they might initially believe on Christ, turn from their sins, and be saved. Unfortunately, like so many other fine points of Gospel doctrine, this is little understood today. The spirit of a man must be brought forth from its death in sin before his body will be subject to being raised in glory at the last day. And while the Holy Spirit is the One who spiritually quickens God’s elect, it must be remembered that He is sent forth, to do His saving work, by the kingly power of the risen Christ, to whom that authority was given as the reward of His finished work (Matthew 28:18; Acts 2:33; Revelation 3:1). In James 1:18, the new birth is traced back to the sovereign will of the Father. In Ephesians 1:19 and following, the new birth and its gracious consequences are attributed to the gracious operation of the Spirit. Here in our text, while issuing from the abundant mercy of the Father, it is ascribed to the virtue of Christ’s triumph over death. It is to be observed that Christ’s own resurrection is termed a begetting of Him (Psalms 2:7; cf. Acts 13:33), while our spiritual resurrection is designated a regeneration (Titus 3:5). Christ is expressly called "the first begotten of the dead" (Revelation 1:5). This He is called because His resurrection marked a new beginning both for Him and for His people. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 57: 003.06. 1 PETER 1:3-5, PART 3 ======================================================================== 6 1 Peter 1:3-5 Part 3 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." Let us begin this chapter by continuing our consideration of the acknowledgment of the prayer. It is to be recalled that this Epistle is addressed to those who are strangers, scattered abroad (1 Peter 1:1). Most appropriate, then, is this reference to the Divine begetting of God’s elect, for it is by the Holy Spirit’s gracious begetting that the elect are constituted strangers or sojourners (that is, temporary residents of this world), both in heart and in conduct. The Lord Jesus was a stranger here (Psalms 69:8), for He was the Son of God from heaven; and so, too, are His people, for they have His Spirit within them. How that understanding enhances this miracle of grace! Divine begetting is not merely a doctrine, but the actual communication to the soul of the very life of God (John 1:13). Formerly the Christian was both in and of the world, but now his "conversation [citizenship—A.S.V.] is in heaven" (Php 3:20, brackets mine). "I am a stranger in the earth" (Psalms 119:19) is henceforth his confession. To the soul renewed by God this world becomes a barren wilderness. For his heritage, his home, is on high, and therefore he now views the things of time and sense in a very different light. The Great Interests of the Regenerate Soul Are Alien to this World The chief interests of a truly born-again soul lie not in this mundane sphere. His affections will be set upon things above; and in proportion as they are so, his heart is detached from this world. Their strangerhood is an essential mark that distinguishes the saints from the ungodly. They who heartily embrace the promises of God are suitably affected by them (Hebrews 11:13). One of the certain effects of Divine grace in the soul is to separate its possessor, both in spirit and in practice, from the world. His delight in heavenly things manifests itself in his being weaned from the things of earth, just as the woman at the well left her bucket behind when she had obtained from Christ the living water (John 4:28). Such a spirit constitutes him an alien among the worshipers of mammon. He is morally a foreigner in a strange land, surrounded by those who know him not (1 John 3:1), because they know not his Father. Nor do they understand his joys or sorrows, not appreciating the principles and motives that actuate him; for their pursuits and pleasures are radically different from his. Nay, he finds himself in the midst of enemies who hate him (John 15:19), and there are none with whom he can have communion save the very few who "have obtained like precious faith" (2 Peter 1:1). But though there be nothing in this wilderness of a world for the Christian, he has been "begotten. . . again unto a living hope." Previously he viewed death with horror, but now he perceives that it will provide a blessed release from all sin and sorrow and open the door into Paradise. The principle of grace received at the new birth not only inclines its possessor to love God and to act in faith upon His Word, but it also disposes him to "look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen" (2 Corinthians 4:17-18), inclining his aspirations away from the present toward his glorious future. Thomas Manton aptly declares, "The new nature was made for another world: it came from thence, and it carrieth the soul thither." Hope is an assured expectation of future good. While faith is in exercise, a vista of unclouded bliss is set before the heart, and hope enters into the enjoyment of the same. It is a living hope exercised within a dying environment, and it both supports and invigorates all of us who believe. While in healthy activity, hope not only sustains amid the trials of this life but lifts us above them. Oh, for hearts to be more engaged in joyous anticipations of the future! For such hopeful hearts will quicken us to duty and stimulate us to perseverance. In proportion to the intelligence and strength of our hope will we be delivered from the fear of death. Union with Christ in His Resurrection, the Cause of Our Regeneration A further word must now be said upon the relationship that the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead bears to the Father’s begetting of us to this living hope. Christ’s God-honoring work and triumphant emergence from the grave was the legal basis not only of the justification of His people, but of their regeneration also. Mystically, by virtue of their union with Christ in the mind and purpose of God, they were delivered from their death at the hands of the Law when their Surety arose from the dead. "But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together. . ." (Ephesians 2:4-6, ital. mine). Those words refer to the corporate union of the Church with her Head and her judicial participation in His victory, and not to an individual experience. Nevertheless, since all the elect rose federally when their Representative arose, they must in due time be regenerated; since they have been made alive legally, they must in due course be quickened spiritually. Had not Christ risen, none had been quickened (1 Corinthians 15:17); but because He lives, they shall live also. Jesus lives, and so shall I. Death! thy sting is gone forever! He who deigned for me to die, Lives, the bands of death to sever. He [hath raised] me from the dust: Jesus is my Hope and Trust. The life that is in the Head must be communicated to the members of His body. The resurrection of Christ is the virtual cause of our regeneration. The Holy Spirit would not have been given unless Christ had conquered the last enemy (1 Corinthians 15:26) and gone to the Father: "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us:. . . that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith" (Galatians 3:13-14). Regeneration issues as truly from the virtue of Christ’s resurrection as does our justification, which is the result of that saving faith in Christ that can only issue from a Spirit-renewed heart. He purchased for His people the blessed Spirit to raise them up to grace and glory. "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour" (Titus 3:5-6, ital. mine). God the Father has shed the Holy Spirit upon us in regenerating power because of the merits of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, and in response to His mediation on our behalf. The Holy Spirit is here to testify of Christ to God’s elect, to raise up faith in them toward Him in order that they "may abound in hope" (Romans 15:12-13). Our spiritual deliverance from the grave of sin’s guilt, power, and pollution is as much owing to the efficacy of Christ’s triumph over death as will be our physical vivification at His return. He is "the firstborn among many brethren" (Romans 8:29), the very life of Christ being imparted to them when they are begotten again. The Power that Raised Christ Physically Raises Sinners Spiritually The resurrection of Christ is also the dynamic prototype of our regeneration. The same power put forth in raising Christ’s body is employed in the recovering of our souls from spiritual death (Ephesians 1:19-20; Ephesians 2:1). The Lord Jesus is designated "the first begotten of the dead" (Revelation 1:5) because His emerging from the grave was not only the pledge but the likeness of both the regeneration of the spirits of His people and the raising of their bodies in the last day. The similitude is obvious. Begetting is the beginning of a new life. When Christ was born into this world it was "in the likeness of sinful flesh" (Romans 8:3). Though untouched by the taint of original sin (Luke 1:35) and undefiled by the pollution of actual transgressions, He was clothed with infirmity because of imputed iniquity. But when He rose from Joseph’s tomb in power and glory, it was in a body fitted for heaven. Likewise, at regeneration, we receive a nature that makes us meet for heaven. As God’s raising of Christ testified to His being pacified by His sacrifice (Hebrews 13:20), so by begetting us again He assures us of our personal interest therein. As Christ’s resurrection was the grand proof of His Divine Sonship (Romans 1:4), so the new birth is the first open manifestation of our adoption. As Christ’s resurrection was the first step into His glory and exaltation, so regeneration is the first stage of our entrance into all spiritual privileges. Glorification Is the Goal of Regeneration Our seventh consideration in examining this doxology is its substance: "to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you" (1 Peter 1:4). Regeneration is for the purpose of glorification. We are begotten spiritually to two realities: a living hope in the present, and a glorious heritage in the future. It is by God’s begetting that we obtain our title to the latter. Inheritances go by birth: "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (John 3:5). If not sons, then we cannot be heirs; and we must be born of God in order to become the children of God. But "if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ" (Romans 8:17). Not only does begetting confer title, but it also guarantees the inheritance. Already the Christian has received the Spirit, "[who] is the earnest of our inheritance" (Ephesians 1:14, brackets mine). As Christ’s part was to purchase the inheritance, so the Spirit’s part is to make it known to the heirs; for "the things which God hath prepared for them that love him" He "hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit" (1 Corinthians 2:9-10). It is the Spirit’s province to vouchsafe to the regenerate sweet foretastes of what is in store for them, to bring something of heaven’s joy into their souls on earth. The New Birth Fits Us Immediately for Heaven Not only does Divine begetting give title to and ensure the heavenly inheritance, but it also imparts a meetness for the same. At the new birth a nature is imparted that is suited to the celestial sphere, that qualifies the soul to dwell for ever with the thrice-holy God (as is evident from his present communion with Him); and at the close of his earthly pilgrimage, indwelling sin (which now hinders his communion) dies with the body. It is all too little realized by the saints that at regeneration they are at once fitted for heaven. Many of them—to the serious diminution of their peace and joy—suppose that they must still pass through a process of severe discipline and refining before they shall be ready to enter the courts above. That is but another relic of Romanism. The case of the dying thief, who was taken immediately from his spiritual birthplace into Paradise, should teach them better. But it does not. So legalistic remains the tendency of the heart even of a Christian that it is very difficult to convince him that the very hour he was born again he was made as suitable for heaven as ever he would be though he remained on earth another century. How difficult it is for us to believe that no growth in grace or passing through fiery trials is essential to prepare our souls for the Father’s house. Nowhere does Scripture say that believers are ripened, meetened, or gradually fitted for heaven. The Holy Spirit expressly declares that God the Father has, "according to His abundant mercy. . . begotten us again. . . to an inheritance." What could be plainer? Nor does our text by any means stand alone. Christians have already been made "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4), and what more can be needed to fit them for the Divine presence? Scripture emphatically declares, "Wherefore thou art no more a servant [slave], but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ" (Galatians 4:7, brackets mine). The inheritance is the child’s birthright or patrimony. To speak of heirs not being eligible for an estate is a contradiction in terms. Our fitness for the inheritance lies alone in our being the children of God. If it be true that except a man be born again he cannot enter or see the kingdom of God, then, conversely, it necessarily follows that once he has been born again he is qualified for an entrance into and enjoyment of God’s kingdom. All room for argument on this point is excluded by these words, which set forth one aspect of Paul’s prayers of thanksgiving on behalf of the Colossians: "Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made [past tense] us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light" (Colossians 1:12, ital. and brackets mine). By Regeneration We Are Wedded to Christ By regeneration we are made vitally one with Christ and thereby become joint-heirs with Him. The portion of the Bride is her participation in the portion of the Bridegroom. "And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them" (John 17:22), declares the Redeemer of His redeemed. This, too, needs stressing today, when so much error is parading itself as the truth. In their fanciful attempts to "rightly divide the Word," men have wrongly divided the family of God. Some Dispensationalists hold that not only is there a distinction of earthly privileges, but that the same distinctions will be perpetuated in the world to come; that the New Testament believers will look down from a superior elevation upon Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; that saints who lived and died before Pentecost will not participate in the glory of the Church or enter into the inheritance "reserved for us in heaven." To affirm that the saints of this Christian era are to occupy a higher position and to enjoy grander privileges than will those of previous ages is a serious and inexcusable mistake, for it clashes with the most fundamental teachings of Scripture concerning the purpose of the Father, the redemption of Christ, and the work of the Spirit, and repudiates the essential features of God’s great salvation. Writing to the churches in Galatia, largely composed of Gentiles, the Apostle Paul declares, "Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham (Galatians 3:7). This text alone is sufficient to prove that God’s way of salvation has never essentially changed. All of God’s elect are the common sharers of the riches of His wondrous grace, vessels whom He "afore prepared unto glory" (Romans 9:23), whom He predestinated to be "conformed to the image of his Son" (Romans 8:29). Christ acted as the Surety of the entire election of grace, and what His meritorious work secured for one of them it necessarily secured for all. The saints of all ages are fellow-heirs. Each of them was predestinated by the same Father (John 6:37; John 10:16, John 10:27-30; John 17:2, John 17:9-12, John 17:20-24); each of them was regenerated by the same Spirit (Ephesians 4:4), each of them looked to and trusted in the same Savior. Scripture knows of no salvation that does not issue in joint-heirship with Christ. Those to whom God gives His Son, namely, the whole company of His elect from Abel to the end of earth’s history, He also freely gives all things (Rom. 8:32). That both Abraham and David were justified by faith is plain from Romans 4, and there is no higher destiny or more glorious prospect than that to which justification gives full title. The renewing work of the Holy Spirit is identical in every member of God’s family: begetting them to, qualifying them for, a celestial heritage. All those who were effectually called by Him during the Old Testament era received "the promise of eternal inheritance" (Hebrews 9:15). Heaven-born children must have a heavenly portion. The Nature of Our Eternal Inheritance "An inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you." The heavenly portion reserved for the people of God is one that is agreeable to the new life received at regeneration, for it is a state of perfect holiness and happiness suited to spiritual beings who possess material bodies. Many and varied are the descriptions given in Scripture of the nature of our inheritance. In our text (v. 5) it is described as "the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (cf. Hebrews 9:28), that is, salvation in its fullness and perfection that shall be bestowed upon the redeemed at Christ’s glorious return. Our Lord Jesus describes it as His "Father’s house" in which there "are many mansions," which Christ Himself is now preparing for His people (John 14:1-2). The Apostle Paul refers to it as "the inheritance of the saints in light" (Colossians 1:12, ital. mine), and to the future inhabitants of that glorious realm as "the children of light" (1 Thessalonians 5:5, ital. mine). No doubt these expressions point to the moral perfection of Him in the blazing light of whose Presence (Isaiah 33:13; 1 Timothy 6:13-16; Hebrews 12:29; 1 John 1:5) all the saints shall one day dwell. Furthermore, they underscore the spotless purity that shall characterize each of those who shall "dwell in the house of the LORD for ever" (Psalms 23:6; cf. Daniel 12:3; Revelation 21:27). Paul further describes it as "a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God" (Heb. 11:10), upon which the hopeful, believing eye of Abraham was fixed. He also calls it "a kingdom which cannot be moved" or "shaken" (Hebrews 12:26-28; cf. Revelation 21:10-27). The Apostle Peter refers to Christians as those whom God has "called. . . unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus" (1 Peter 5:10). Elsewhere, he calls our inheritance "the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:11). The Lord Jesus prayed, "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory" (John 17:24). The glorified Christ, in His revelation to the Apostle John, describes the saints’ inheritance as "the paradise of God" (Revelation 2:7), from which we may infer that Eden was but a shadow. Looking forward to this Paradise, David declares, "Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore" (Psalms 16:11). The Significance of the Term Inheritance In his commentary on 1 Peter, John Brown makes the following pertinent observations on the significance of the use of the term inheritance: The celestial blessedness receives here, and in many other passages of Scripture, the appellation of "the inheritance," for two reasons: to mark its gratuitous nature, and to mark its secure tenure. An inheritance is something that is not obtained by the individual’s own exertions, but by the free gift or bequest of another. The earthly inheritance of the external people of God was not given them because they were greater or better than the other nations of the earth. It was "because the LORD had a delight in them to love them" [Deuteronomy 10:151. "They got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own right hand save them; but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, for thou hadst a favour unto them" [Psalms 44:3]. And the heavenly inheritance of the spiritual people of God is entirely the gift of sovereign kindness. "By grace are ye saved" [Ephesians 2:5]; "eternal life is the gift of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord" [Romans 6:23]. A second idea suggested by the figurative expression, "the inheritance," when used in reference to the celestial blessedness, is the security of the tenure by which it is held. No right is more indefeasible than the right of inheritance. If the right of the giver or bequeather be good, all is secure. The heavenly happiness, whether viewed as the gift of the Divine Father, or the bequest of the Divine Son, is "sure to all the seed." If the title of the claimant be but as valid as the right of the original proprietor, their tenure must be as secure as the throne of God and His Son. The Excellence of Our Inheritance The excellence of this inheritance or everlasting portion of the redeemed is described by four expressions. First, it is incorruptible, and thus it is like its Author "the uncorruptible God" (Romans 1:23). All corruption is a change from better to worse, but heaven is without change or end. Hence the word incorruptible has the force of enduring, imperishable. Nor will it corrupt its heirs, as many a worldly inheritance has done. Secondly, it is undefiled, and thus like its Purchaser, who passed through this depraved world as uncontaminated as a sunbeam is unsullied though it shines on a filthy object (Hebrews 7:26). All defilement is by sin, but no germ of it can ever enter heaven. Hence undefiled has the force of beneficent, incapable of injuring its possessors. Thirdly, it is unfading, and thus it is like the One who conducts us thither, "the eternal Spirit" (Hebrews 9:14, ital. mine), the Holy Spirit, "a pure river of water of life" (Revelation 22:1). The word undefiled tells of this River’s perennial and perpetual freshness; its splendor will never be marred nor its beauty diminished. Fourthly, the phrase reserved in heaven speaks of the location and security of our inheritance (see Colossians 1:5; 2 Timothy 4:18). As we consider the four descriptive expressions in verse 4, several characteristics of our inheritance come into view. To begin with, our inheritance is indestructible. Its substance is wholly unlike that of earthly kingdoms, the grandeur of which wears away. The mightiest empires of earth eventually dissipate by reason of inherent corruption. Consider the purity of our portion. No serpent shall ever enter this Paradise to defile it. Behold its changeless beauty. Neither rust shall tarnish nor moth mar it, nor shall endless ages produce a wrinkle on the countenance of any of its inhabitants. Ponder its security. It is guarded by Christ for His redeemed; no thief shall ever break into it. It seems to me that these four expressions are designed to cause us to make a series of contrasts with the glorious inheritance that awaits us. First, consider the inheritance of Adam. How soon was Eden corrupted! Secondly, think of the inheritance that "the most High divided to the nations" (Deuteronomy 32:8) and how they have defiled it by greed and bloodshed. Thirdly, contemplate the inheritance of Israel. How sadly the land flowing with milk and honey wilted under the droughts and famines that the Lord sent in order to chasten the nation for their sins. Fourthly, let us reflect on the glorious habitation that was forfeited by the fallen angels, who "kept not their first estate" (Jude 1:6). These woeful, benighted spirits have no gracious High Priest to intercede for them, but are "reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." Knowing our own remaining corruption, well might we shudder and ask with pious self-distrust (see Matthew 26:20-22), "What will keep us from such a doom?" The Guarantee that We Will Receive Our Inheritance We come, finally, to reflect upon the infallible guaranty of this doxology, which graciously answers the question of trembling saints just posited: "Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed at the last time." Here is the cordial for the fainting Christian! Not only is the inestimably glorious and precious inheritance secure, "reserved in heaven" for us, but we also are secure, "kept by the power of God." Here the Apostle Peter’s doctrine perfectly coincides with that of the Lord Jesus and of the other apostles. Our Lord taught that those who are born or begotten of God believe on His Son (John 1:11-13; John 3:3-5), and that those who believe have eternal life (John 3:15-16). "He that believeth on the Son hath [presently and continually possesses] everlasting life" (John 3:36, ital. and brackets mine). He further taught that those who believe not do not believe because they are not His sheep (John 10:26). But then He goes on: My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one (John 10:27-30). The Apostle Paul also declares the fact that none of Christ’s brethren shall ever perish. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?. . . Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:35, Romans 8:37-39). Yet the question remains to be answered, "What is the principal means that the power of God exercises in preserving us, in order that we might enter upon and enjoy our inheritance?" Faith Is the Means of Our Preservation "Who are kept by the power of God through faith." John Brown’s insights are of great value on this point: They are "kept"—preserved safe—amid the many dangers to which they are exposed, "by the power of God." The expression, "power of God," may here refer to the Divine power both as exercised in reference to the enemies of the Christian, controlling their malignant purposes, and as exercised in the form of spiritual influence on the mind of the Christian himself, keeping him in the faith of the truth [italics mine] "in the love of God, and in the patient waiting for our Lord Jesus Christ" [2 Thessalonians 3:5; cf. 2 Timothy 1:13-14]. It is probably to the last that the apostle principally alludes, for he adds "by faith." It is through the persevering faith of the truth that the Christian is by Divine influence preserved from falling, and kept in possession both of that state and character which are absolutely necessary to the enjoyment of the heavenly inheritance. The perseverance thus secured to the true Christian is perseverance in faith and holiness; and nothing can be more grossly absurd than for a person living in unbelief and sin to suppose that he can be in the way of obtaining celestial blessedness. Though God Keeps Us, We Must Believe By the almighty power of the Triune God, we are kept "unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." But the same gracious Spirit who keeps us also inspired Jude to write, "Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life" (Jude 1:21, ital. mine). By Him also the Apostle Paul wrote, "Put on the whole armour of God,. . . Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked" (Ephesians 6:11, Ephesians 6:16). Therefore ought we frequently to cry to the Lord with the apostles, "Increase our faith" (Luke 17:5). If our cry is genuine, then we may be certain that Jesus, who is "the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2) will hear and answer in a way best suited to our need, though perhaps by means of adversity. The apostle’s reference to the heavenly heritage of believers was a most appropriate one. He was writing to those who were, both naturally and spiritually, away from their homeland, aliens in a strange country. Many of them were converted Jews, and, as such, fiercely opposed and most cruelly treated. When a Jew became a Christian he forfeited much: he was excommunicated from the synagogue, becoming an outcast from among his own people. Nevertheless, there was rich compensation for him. He had been Divinely begotten to an inheritance infinitely superior, both in quality and duration, to the land of Palestine. Thus his gains far more than made up for his losses (see Matthew 19:23-29, especially Matthew 19:29). The Holy Spirit, then, from the outset of the Epistle, drew out the hearts of those suffering saints to God by setting before them His abundant mercy and the exceeding riches of His grace. The more they were occupied with the same the more their minds would be lifted above this scene and their hearts filled with praise to God. While few of us are experiencing any trials comparable to theirs, yet our lot is cast in a very dark day, and it behooves us to look away from the things that are seen and more and more to fix our attention upon the blissful future awaiting us. Since God has designed such for us, how we should glorify Him in heartfelt worship and by adhering to His promises by "the obedience of faith" (Romans 16:26) to the end! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 58: 003.07. 1 PETER 5:10, 11, PART 1 ======================================================================== 7 1 Peter 5:10-11 Part 1 We come now to an apostolic prayer the contents of which, as a whole, are very sublime. Its contents are remarkably full, and a careful study of, and devout meditation upon, it shall be richly repaid. My present task will be rendered the easier since I am making extensive use of Thomas Goodwin’s excellent and exhaustive exposition of the passage. He was favored with much light on this portion of Scripture, and I wish to share with my readers what has been of no little help and blessing to me personally. There are seven things that we should consider regarding this prayer: (1) the supplicant, for there is an intimate and striking relationship between the experiences of Peter and the terms of his prayer; (2) its setting, for it is closely connected with the context, particularly with 1 Peter 5:6-9 (3) its Object, namely, "the God of all grace"—a title especially dear to His people and most appropriate in this context; (4) its plea, for so ought the clause "who hath called us into his eternal glory by Christ Jesus" to be regarded; (5) its petition, "make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you"; (6) its qualification, "after that ye have suffered a while," for though that clause precedes the petition, yet it logically follows it when the verse is treated homiletically; and (7) its ascription, "to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." "But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you" (1 Peter 5:10). In these words the apostle begins his appeal to Him who is the Fountain of grace, and with such a One to look to the chief of sinners need not despair. Next, he mentions that which gives proof to all believers that He is indeed the God of all grace, namely, His having effectually called them from death to life and having brought them out of nature’s darkness into His own marvelous light. Nor is that all, for regeneration is but an earnest of what He has designed and prepared for them, since He has called them to His eternal glory. The realization of that truth moves the Apostle Peter to request that, following a season of testing and affliction, God would complete His work of grace within them. Herein we have it clearly implied that God will preserve His people from apostasy, will move them to persevere to the end, and, notwithstanding all the opposition of the world, the flesh, and the devil, will bring them safe to heaven. The Supplicant’s Experience of Restoring and Preserving Grace First let us consider this prayer’s supplicant. The one who approached God thus was Simon Peter. While Paul had much more to say about the grace of God than any other of the apostles, it was left to poor Peter to denominate Him "the God of all grace." We shall not have to seek far in order to discover the reason for this and its appropriateness. While Saul of Tarsus is the outstanding New Testament trophy of saving grace (for king Manasseh is an equally remarkable case in the Old Testament), surely it is Simon who is the most conspicuous New Testament example (David supplies a parallel under the Mosaic era) of the restoring and preserving grace of God. What is it that appears the greater marvel to a Christian, that most moves and melts his heart before God? Is it the grace shown to him while he was dead in sin, that which lifted him out of the miry clay and set him upon and within the Rock of ages? Or is it that grace exercised toward him after conversion that bears with his waywardness, ingratitude, departures from his first love, grievings of the Holy Spirit, dishonorings of Christ; and yet, notwithstanding all, loves him to the end and continues ministering to his every need? If the reader’s experience be anything like mine, he will have no difficulty in answering. Who but one who has been made painfully sensible of the plague within him, who has had so many sad proofs of the deceitfulness and desperate wickedness of his own heart, and who has perceived something of the exceeding sinfulness of sin—not only in the light of God’s holiness but as it is committed against the dying love of his Savior—can rightly estimate the sad fall of Peter? For he was not only accorded a place of honor among the twelve ambassadors of the King of glory, but was privileged to behold Him on the mount of transfiguration, and was one of the three who witnessed more than any others His agonies in the Garden. And then to hear him, a very short time afterwards, denying his Master and Friend with oaths! Who but one who has personally experienced the "longsuffering of God" (1 Peter 3:20; 2 Peter 3:9, 2 Peter 3:15), and has himself been the recipient of His "abundant mercy" (1 Peter 1:3), can really estimate and appreciate the amazing, infinite grace (1) that moved the Savior to look so sorrowfully yet tenderly upon the erring one as to cause him to go forth and "weep bitterly" (Luke 22:62), (2) that led Him to have a private interview with Peter after His resurrection (Luke 24:34; 1 Corinthians 15:5), and (3) that, above all, not only recovered His wandering sheep but restored him to the apostolate (John 21:15-17)? Well might Peter own Christ, together with the Father and the Spirit, as "the God of all grace"! The Twin Duties of Christian Pastors Secondly, let us ponder the setting of this prayer, for if we closely examine it we shall find that there is much to be learned and admired. Before entering into detail, let us observe the context generally. In the foregoing verses the apostle had been making a series of weighty exhortations. And since those in verses 6 through 9 are preceded by Peter’s impressing upon the public servants of God their several duties (vv. 1-4), allow me to address a word to them first. Let all Christ’s undershepherds emulate the example that is here set before them. Having bidden believers to walk circumspectly, the apostle bent his knees and commended them to the gracious care of their God, seeking for them those mercies that he felt they most needed. The minister of Christ has two principal offices to discharge for those souls that are committed to his care (Hebrews 13:17): to speak for God to them, and to supplicate God for them. The seed that the minister sows is not likely to produce much fruit unless he personally waters it with his prayers and tears. It is but a species of hypocrisy for him to exhort his hearers to spend more time in prayer if he be not a frequenter of the throne of grace. The pastor has only fulfilled half his commission when he has faithfully proclaimed all the counsel of God; the other part is to be performed in private. The Twin Duties of Hearers and Students of God’s Word The same principle holds good equally for those in the pew. The most searching sermon will profit the hearer little or nothing unless it be turned into fervent prayer. So too with what we read! The measure in which God is pleased to bless these chapters to you will be determined by the influence they have upon you and the effects they produce in you—the extent to which they bring you to your knees in earnest supplication seeking power from the Lord. From exhortation the apostle turned to supplication. Let us do likewise, or we shall be left without the necessary strength to obey the precepts. To the various duties inculcated in the context was added this prayer for Divine enablement for the discharge of them, however arduous, and for the patient endurance of every trial, however painful. Observe, too, the blessed contrast between the assaults of the enemy in 1 Peter 5:8-9 and the character in which God is here viewed in 1 Peter 5:10-11. Is not that designed to teach the saint that he has nothing to fear from his vile adversary so long as he has recourse to Him in whom resides every kind of grace that is needed for his present walk, work, warfare, and witness? Surely this is one of the principal practical lessons to be drawn from this prayer as we view it in the light of its context. Our Ability to Resist Satan Depends on Prayer Unless we daily look to and cast ourselves upon "the God of all grace," it is certain that we shall never be able to "resist stedfast in the faith" our adversary the devil, who, "as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8). And equally sure is it that Divine grace is needed by us if we are to "be sober, be vigilant." We need strengthening grace that we may successfully resist so powerful a foe as the devil; we need courage-producing grace if we are to do so steadfast in the faith; and we need patience-producing grace in order to meekly bear afflictions. Not only is every kind of grace available for us in God but every measure, so that when we find one exhausted we may obtain a fresh one. One of the reasons why God permits Satan to assail His people so frequently and so fiercely is that they may prove for themselves the efficacy of His grace. "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work" (2 Corinthians 9:8). Then let us bring to Him every pitcher of our needs and draw upon His inexhaustible fullness. Says F. B. Meyer, "The ocean is known by several names, according to the shores it washes, but it is the same ocean. So it is ever the same love of God, though each needy one perceives and admires its special adaptation to his needs." The Remarkable Correspondence Between Peter’s Experience and His Exhortation and Prayer But, as Thomas Goodwin has shown, there is a yet more definite relation between this prayer and its context, and between both of them and the experience of Peter. The parallels between them are so close and numerous that they cannot be undesigned. In Gethsemane Christ bade His servant, "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation" (Matthew 26:41), and in his Epistle Peter exhorts the saints, "be sober, be vigilant." Previously, the Savior had warned him, "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat" (Luke 22:31)— and as the Puritan expressed it, "and shake forth all grace out of him." So in 1 Peter 5:8 Peter gives point to his call for sobriety and vigilance by saying, "because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." But in connection with the loving admonition Christ comforted him: "But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not" (Luke 22:32). As Goodwin points out, "Faith’s not failing is Satan’s foiling." Likewise, the Apostle Peter, in his exhortation, adds, "Whom resist stedfast in the faith"—the gift of faith, as Calvin expounds it. Though Peter’s self-confidence and courage failed him, so that he fell, yet his faith delivered him from giving way to abject despair, as Luke 22:61-62, shows. Our Lord concluded His address to Simon by saying, "and when thou art converted [brought back, restored], strengthen thy brethren" (Luke 22:32, brackets mine). Likewise, our apostle wrote, "knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world" (1 Peter 5:9); and then he prayed that, after they had suffered awhile, the God of all grace would "perfect [or restore], stablish, strengthen, settle you [them]." He prayed for the same kind of deliverance for them as that which he himself had experienced. Finally, Goodwin observes that Christ, when strengthening Peter’s faith against Satan, set His "But I have prayed for thee" over against the worst the enemy could do. Therefore Peter also, after portraying the adversary of the saints in his fiercest character—as "a roaring lion"—brings in by way of contrast these words: "But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you." He thereby assures them that God will be their Guardian, Establisher, and Strengthener. If, notwithstanding his sad lapse, he was recovered and preserved to eternal glory, that is a sure pledge that all the truly regenerate will be also. How admirably Scripture (Luke 22:1-71) interprets Scripture (1 Peter 5:1-14)! God’s Choice of Instruments for Writing His Scriptures Amazingly Appropriate Before passing on to our next section, let us note and admire how the particular instruments whom God employs as His penmen in communicating His Word were personally qualified and experientially fitted for their several tasks. Who but Solomon was so well suited to write the Book of Ecclesiastes? For he was afforded exceptional opportunities to drink from all the poor cisterns of this world, and then to record the fact that no satisfaction was to be found in them. He thereby provided a fitting background for the Song of Solomon, wherein a Satisfying Object is displayed. How appropriate was the selection of Matthew to be the writer of the first Gospel, for he was the only one of the Twelve who held an official position before his call to the ministry (a tax-gatherer in the employ of the Romans). He of the four Evangelists presents Christ most clearly in His official character as the Messiah and King of Israel. Mark, the one who ministered to another (2 Timothy 4:11), is the one chosen to set forth Christ as the servant of Jehovah. Who was so eminently adapted to write upon the blessed theme of Divine love (as he does throughout his Epistles) as the one who was so highly favored as to lean upon the bosom of God’s Beloved? So here, Peter is the one who so feelingly styles the Deity "the God of all grace." And so it is today. When God calls any man to the ministry, He experientially equips him, qualifying him for the particular work He has for him to do. That He Is "the God of All Grace" Is Uniquely a Gospel Truth Thirdly, let us contemplate its Object: "The God of all grace." Nature does not reveal Him as such, for man has to work hard and earn what he obtains from her. The workings of Providence do not, for there is a stern aspect as well as a benign one to them; and, as a whole, they rather exemplify the truth that we reap as we sow. Still less does the Law, as such, exhibit God in this character, for its reward is a matter of debt and not of grace. It is only in the Gospel that He is clearly made manifest as "the God of all grace." Our valuation of Him as such is exactly proportioned by our devaluation of ourselves, for grace is the gratuitous favor of God to the undeserving and ill-deserving. Therefore we cannot truly appreciate it until we are made sensible of our utter unworthiness and vileness. He might well be the God of inflexible justice and unsparing wrath to rebels against His government. Such indeed He is to all who are outside of Christ, and will continue so for all eternity. But the glorious Gospel discovers to hell-deserving sinners the amazing grace of God to pardon, and to cleanse the foulest who repent and believe. Grace devised the plan of redemption; grace executed it; and grace applies it and makes it effectual. Peter previously made mention of "the manifold grace of God" (1 Peter 4:10, ital. mine), for nothing less will avail for those who are guilty of "manifold transgressions" and "mighty sins" (Amos 5:12). The grace of God is manifold not only numerically but in kind, in the rich variety of its manifestations. Every blessing we enjoy is to be ascribed to grace. But the appellation "the God of all grace" is even more comprehensive; yea, it is incomprehensible to all finite intelligences. This title, as we have seen, is set over against what is said of the devil in 1 Peter 5:8, where he is portrayed in all his terribleness: as our adversary for malice; likened to a lion for strength; to a roaring lion for dread; described as walking about for unwearied diligence, "seeking whom he may devour" unless God prevent. How blessed and consolatory is the contrast: "But God"—the Almighty, the Self-sufficient and All-sufficient One—"the God of all grace." How comforting is the singling out of this attribute when we have to do with Satan in temptation! If the God of all grace be for us, who can be against us? When Paul was so severely tried by the messenger (angel) of Satan who was sent to buffet him, and he thrice prayed for its removal, God assured him of His relief: "My grace is sufficient for thee" (2 Corinthians 12:9, ital. mine). The God of All Grace: A Great Encouragement to Prayer Though mention is made frequently in the Scriptures of the grace of God and of His being gracious, yet nowhere but in this verse do we find him denominated "the God of all grace." There is a special emphasis here that claims our best attention: not simply is He "the God of grace," but "the God of all grace." As Goodwin showed, He is "the God of all grace" (1) essentially in His own character, (2) in His eternal purpose concerning His people, and (3) in His actual dealings with them. God’s people personally receive constant proof that He is indeed so; and those of them whose thoughts are formed by His Word know that the benefits with which He daily loads them are the out-workings of His everlasting design of grace toward them. But they need to go still farther back, or raise their eyes yet higher, and perceive that all the riches of grace He ordained, and of which they are made the recipients, are from and in His very nature. "The grace in His nature is the fountain or spring; the grace of His purposes is the wellhead, and the grace in His dispensations the streams," says Goodwin. It was the grace of His nature that caused Him to form "thoughts of peace" toward His people (Jeremiah 29:11), as it is the grace in His heart that moves Him to fulfil the same. In other words, the grace of His very nature, what He is in Himself, is such that it guarantees the making good of all His benevolent designs. As He is the Almighty, self-sufficient and omnipotent, with whom all things are possible, so He is also an all-gracious God in Himself—lacking no perfection to make Him infinitely benign. There is therefore a sea of grace in God to feed all the streams of His purposes and dispensations that are to issue therefrom. Here then is our grand consolation: all the grace there is in His nature, which makes Him to be the "God of all grace" to His children, renders certain not only that He will manifest Himself as such to them, but guarantees the supply of their every need and ensures the lavishing of the exceeding riches of His grace upon them in the ages to come (Ephesians 2:7). Look then beyond those streams of grace of which you are now the partaker to the God-man, Jesus the Anointed One, who is "full of grace" (John 1:14), and ask for continual and larger supplies from Him. The straitness is in ourselves and not in Him, for in God there is a boundless and limitless supply. I beg you (as I urge myself) to remember that when you come to the mercyseat (to make known your requests) you are about to petition "the God of all grace." In Him there is an infinite ocean to draw upon, and He bids you come to Him, saying, "open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it" (Psalms 81:10, ital. mine). Not in vain has He declared, "According to your faith be it unto you." Only by Faith Can We Enjoy the God of All Grace The Giver is greater than all His gifts, yet there must be a personal and appropriating faith in order for any of us to enjoy Him. Only thus can we particularize what is general. God is the God of all grace to all saints, but faith has to be individually directed toward God by me if I am to know and delight in Him for what He actually is. We have an example of this in Psalms 59:1-17, where David declared, "The God of my mercy shall prevent [or "anticipate"] me" (Psalms 59:10, ital. and brackets mine). There we find him appropriating God to himself personally. Observe, first, how David lays hold of the essential mercy of God, that mercy which is embedded in His very nature. He exults again in Psalms 59:17 : "Unto thee, O my strength, will I sing: for God is my defence, and the God of my mercy" (ital. mine). The God of all grace is my Strength. He is my God, and therefore the God of my mercy. I lay claim to Him as such; all the mercy there is in Him is mine. Since He is my God, then all that is in Him is mine. It was, after all, the mercy and grace that are in Him that moved Him to set His love upon me and to enter into covenant with me, saying, "I will be his God, and he shall be my son" (Revelation 21:7). Says Goodwin: You [have] heard [it said], God is the God of all grace to the brotherhood; I tell thee, if any soul had all the needs that all the brotherhood have, if nothing would serve his turn, but all the grace of God that He hath for the whole, yea, in the whole of Himself, He would lay it out for thee. …Poor soul, thou usest to say, this or that is my sin, and it is so; a grievous sin perhaps, and I am prone to it. And again, this is my misery; but withal, I beseech thee to consider, that God is the God of thy mercy, and that all the mercy in God, upon occasion, and for a need, is thine, and all upon as good a title as that sin is thine; for the free donation of God, and of His will, is as good a title as the inheritance of sin in thee. Thus we see that God’s mercy shall be employed on our behalf in our hour of need as though each of us were His only child. Just as surely as we had inherited the guilt and miseries of Adam’s transgressions have we, who are in Christ, title to all of God’s grace and mercy. Furthermore, observe that David lays hold of the purposing mercy of God. Each individual saint has appointed and allotted to him that which he may call "my mercy." God has set apart in His decree a portion so abundant that it can never be exhausted either by your sins or your needs. "The God of all mercy shall prevent me." From all eternity He has anticipated and made full provision in advance for all my needs, just as a wise father has a medicine chest prepared with remedies for the ailments of his children. "And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear" (Isaiah 65:24, ital. mine). What an amazing condescension it is that God should make this a characteristic of Himself, that He becomes the God of the mercy of every particular child of His! Finally, let us lay hold of His dispensing mercy, that which is actually bestowed upon us moment by moment. Here, too, has the believer every occasion to say "The God of my mercy," for every blessing enjoyed by me proceeds from His hand. This is no empty title of His, for the fact that David’s use of it is recorded for us in Holy Writ ensures that He will make it good. When I use it in true faith and childlike dependence upon Him, He binds Himself to take care of my interests in every way. Not only is He my God personally, but also of my needs. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 59: 003.08. 1 PETER 5:10, 11, PART 2 ======================================================================== 8 1 Peter 5:10-11 Part 2 "But the God of all grace, who bath called us." In the last chapter (utilizing Goodwin’s analysis) it was pointed out that this most blessed title has respect to what God is in Himself, what He is in His eternal purpose, and what He is in His actings toward His people. Here, in the words just quoted, we see the three things joined together in a reference to God’s effectual call, whereby He brings a soul out of nature’s darkness into His own marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9). This special inward call of the Holy Spirit, which immediately and infallibly produces repentance and faith in its object, thus furnishes the first evident or outward proof that the new believer receives that God is in truth to him "the God of all grace." Though that was not the first outgoing of God’s heart to him, nevertheless, it is the proof that His love had been set upon him from all eternity. "Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called" (Romans 8:30). God has "from the beginning chosen you [His people] to salvation" (2 Thessalonians 2:13-14, brackets mine). In due time He brings about their salvation by the invincible operations of the Spirit, who capacitates and causes them to believe the Gospel. They believe through grace (Acts 18:27), for faith is the gift of Divine grace (Ephesians 2:8), and it is given them because they belong to "the election of grace" (Romans 11:5). They belong to that favored election because the God of all grace has, from eternity past, singled them out to be the everlasting monuments of His grace. Regeneration Is the Fruit of Election, Not Its Cause That it was the grace that was in the heart of God that moved Him to call us is clear from 2 Timothy 1:9 : "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." Regeneration (or effectual calling) is the consequence, and not the cause, of Divine predestination. God resolved to love us with an unchangeable love, and that love designed that we should be partakers of His eternal glory. His good will toward us moves Him so infallibly to carry out all the resolutions of His free grace toward us that nothing can thwart it, though in the exercise of His grace He always acts in a way that is consistent with His other perfections. None magnified the grace of God more than Goodwin; yet when asked, "Does the Divine prerogative of grace mean that God saves men, continue they what they will?" he answered, God forbid. We deny such a sovereignty so understood, as if it saved any man without rule, much less against rule. The very verse which speaks of God as "the God of all grace" in relation to our salvation adds "who hath called us," and our calling is a holy one (2 Timothy 1:9). Though the foundation of the Lord standeth sure, yet it is added, "Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity" (2 Timothy 2:19), or he cannot be saved. It helps us to gain a better understanding of this Divine title, "the God of all grace," if we compare it with another found in 2 Corinthians 1:3 : "the God of all comfort." The main distinction between the two lies in the latter being more restricted to the dispensing aspect of God’s grace, as the words that follow show: "Who comforteth us in all our tribulation" (2 Corinthians 1:4). As "the God of all comfort," He is not only the Bestower of all real consolation and the Sustainer under all trials, but also the Giver of all temporal comforts or mercies. For whatever natural refreshment or benefit we derive from His creatures is due alone to His blessing them to us. In like manner, He is the God of all grace: seeking grace, quickening grace, pardoning grace, cleansing grace, providing grace, recovering grace, preserving grace, glorifying grace—grace of every kind, and of full measure. Yet though the expression "the God of all comfort" serves to illustrate the title we are here considering, nevertheless, it falls short of it. For God’s dispensations of grace are more extensive than those of His comfort. In certain cases God gives grace where He does not give comfort. For instance, His illuminating grace brings with it the pangs of conviction of sin, which sometimes last a lengthy season before any relief is granted. Also, under His chastening rod, sustaining grace is vouchsafed where comfort is withheld. God Dispenses All Manner of Grace Precisely According to Need Not only is there every conceivable kind of grace available for us in God, but He often gives it forth precisely at the hour of our need; for then does His freely bestowed favor obtain the best opportunity in which to show itself. We are freely invited to come boldly to the throne of grace that we may "find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16), or as Solomon expressed it, that the Lord God might maintain the cause of His people Israel "at all times, as the matter shall require" (1 Kings 8:59). Such is our gracious God, ministering to us at all times as well as in all matters. The Apostle Paul declares (speaking to believers), "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man [that is, but such as is ordinary to fallen human nature, for the sin against the Holy Spirit is only committed by such as have an uncommon affinity with Satan and his evil designs to thwart the gracious reign of Christ]: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way of escape, that ye may be able to bear it" (1 Corinthians 10:13, brackets mine). The Lord Christ declared, "All manner of sin and blasphemy [with the exception just mentioned above] shall be forgiven unto men" (Matthew 12:31, brackets mine). For the God of all grace works repentance for and forgives all sorts of sins, those committed after conversion as well as those before—as the cases of David and Peter show. Says He, "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely" (Hosea 14:4). Full cause has each of us to say feelingly from experience, "the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant" (1 Timothy 1:14). The Infallible Proof of His Abundant Grace Toward Us Who Are His "But the God of all grace, who halt called us unto his eternal glory." Here is the greatest and grandest proof that He is indeed the God of all grace to His people. No more convincing and blessed evidence is needed to make manifest the good will that he bears them. The abundant grace that is in His heart toward them and the beneficent design He has for them are made clearly evident herein. They are "the called [ones] according to his purpose" (Romans 8:18, brackets mine), namely, that "eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Ephesians 3:11). The effectual call that brings forth from death to life is the first open breaking forth of God’s electing grace, and it is the foundation of all the actings of His grace toward them afterwards. It is then that He commences that "good work" of His in them that He ultimately shall complete in "the day of Jesus Christ" (Php 1:6). By it they are called to a life of holiness here and to a life of glory hereafter. In the clause "who hath called us unto his eternal glory," we are informed that those of us who were once "by nature the children of wrath" (Ephesians 2:3) but now by God’s grace are "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4) shall also be sharers of God’s own eternal glory. Though God’s effectual call does not bring them into the actual possession of it at once, yet it fully qualifies and fits them to partake of His glory forever. Thus the Apostle Paul tells the Colossians that he is "giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light" (Colossians 1:12). But let us look beyond the most delightful of the streams of grace to their common Fountain. It is the infinite grace that is in the nature of God that engages itself to make good His beneficent purpose and that continually supplies those streams. It is to be well noted that when God uttered that great charter of grace, "[I] will be gracious to whom I will be gracious," He prefaced it with these words: "I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee" (Exodus 33:19, brackets mine). All of that grace and mercy that is in Jehovah Himself, and that is to be made known to His people, was to engage the attention of Moses before his mind turned to consider the sum of His decrees or purposing grace. The veritable ocean of goodness that is in God is engaged in promoting the good of His people. It was that goodness that He caused to pass before His servant’s eyes. Moses was heartened by beholding such an illimitable wealth of benevolence, so much so that he was fully assured that the God of all grace would indeed be gracious to those whom He had chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. It is that essential grace rooted in the very being of God that is to be the first object of faith; and the more our faith is directed toward the same the more our souls will be upheld in the hour of trial, persuaded that such a One cannot fail us. The Argument on Which Peter Bases His Petition Fourthly, let us consider the plea upon which the Apostle Peter bases his request: "who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus." This clause is undoubtedly brought in to magnify God and to exemplify His wondrous grace. Yet considered separately, in relation to the prayer as a whole, it is the plea made by the apostle in support of the petition that follows. He was making request that God would perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle His saints. It was tantamount to arguing, "Since Thou hast already done the greater, grant them the lesser; seeing that they are to be sharers of Thine eternal glory in Christ, give them what they need while they remain in this world that is passing away." If our hearts were more engaged with who it is that has called us, and to what He has appointed us, not only would our mouths be opened wider but we should be more confident of their being filled with God’s praises. It is none other than Jehovah, who sits resplendent on His throne surrounded by the adoring celestial hosts, who will shortly say to each of us, "Come unto Me and feast thyself on My perfections." Think you that He will withhold anything that is truly for your good? If He has called me to heaven, is there anything needful on earth that He will deny me? A most powerful and prevalent plea this is! First, it is as though the apostle were saying, "Have Thou respect unto the works of Thy hand. Thou hast indeed called them out of darkness into light, but they are still fearfully ignorant. It is Thy gracious pleasure that they should spend eternity in Thine immediate presence on high, but they are here in the wilderness and are compassed with infirmities. Then, in view of both the one and the other, carry on all those other workings of grace toward and in them that are needful in order to bring them to glory." What God has already done for us should not only be a ground of confident expectation of what He shall yet do (2 Corinthians 1:10), but it should be used by us as an argument when making our requests to God. "Since Thou hast regenerated me, make me now to grow in grace. Since Thou hast put into my heart a hatred of sin and a hunger after righteousness, intensify the same. Since Thou hast made me a branch of the Vine, make me a very fruitful one. Since Thou hast united me to Thy dear Son, enable me to show forth His praises, to honor Him in my daily life, and thus to commend Him to those who know Him not." But I am somewhat anticipating the next division. Our Calling and Justification a Cause for Great Praise and Expectation In that one work of calling, God has shown Himself to be the God of all grace to you, and that should greatly strengthen and confirm your faith in Him. "Whom he cabled, them he also justified" (Romans 8:30, ital. mine). Justification consists of two things: (1) God’s forgiving us and pronouncing us to be "not guilty," just as though we had never sinned; and (2) God’s pronouncing us to be righteous," just as though we had obeyed all His commandments to perfection. To estimate the plenitude of His grace in forgiveness you must calculate the number and heinousness of your sins. They were more than the hairs of your head; for you were "born like a wild ass’s colt" (Job 11:12), and from the first dawnings of reason every imagination of the thoughts of your heart was only evil continually (Genesis 6:5). As for their criminality, most of your sins were committed against the voice of conscience, and they consisted of privileges despised and mercies abused. Nevertheless, His Word declares that He has "forgiven you all trespasses" (Colossians 2:13). How that should melt your heart and move you to adore "the God of all grace." How it should make you fully persuaded that He will continue dealing with you not according to your deserts but according to His own goodness and benignity. True, He has not yet rid you of indwelling corruption, but that affords further occasion for Him to display His longsuffering grace toward you. But wonderful as is such a favor, yet the forgiveness of sins is only half of the legal side of our salvation, and the negative and inferior part of it at that. Though everything recorded against me on the debit side has been blotted out, still there stands not a single item to my credit on the other side. From the hour of my birth to the moment of my conversion not one good deed has been registered to my account, for none of my actions proceeded from a pure principle, not being performed for God’s glory. Issuing from a filthy fountain, the streams of my best works were polluted (Isaiah 64:6). How then could God justify me, or declare me to have met the required standard? That standard is a perfect and perpetual conformity to the Divine Law, for nothing less secures its reward. Here again the wondrous riches of Divine grace appear. God has not only blotted out all my iniquities but has credited to my account a full and flawless righteousness, having imputed to me the perfect obedience of His incarnate Son. "For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ… For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made [that is, legally constituted] righteous" (Romans 5:17, Romans 5:19, ital. and brackets mine). When God effectually cabled you, He clothed you "with the robe of [Christ’s] righteousness" (Isaiah 61:10, brackets mine), and that investiture conveyed to you an inalienable right to the inheritance (Romans 8:17). Glorification Was, from the Beginning, God’s Ultimate Goal for Us "Who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus." When God regenerates a soul He gives him faith. By exercising faith in Christ, that which disqualified him for eternal glory (namely, his pollution, guilt, and love of sinning) is removed, and a sure title to heaven is bestowed. God’s effectual call is both our qualification for, and a down payment on, eternal glory. Our glorification was the grand end that God had in view from the beginning, and all that He does for us and works in us here are but means and prerequisites to that end. Next to His own glory therein, our glorification is God’s supreme design in electing and calling us. "God hath from the beginning chosen you… to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thessalonians 2:13-14, ital. mine). "Moreover whom he did predestinate… them he also glorified" (Romans 8:30). "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Luke 12:32). "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matthew 25:34). Each of these texts sets forth the fact that Christ’s believing people are to inherit the heavenly kingdom and eternal glory of the triune God. Nothing less than that was what the God of all grace set His heart upon as the portion of His dear children. Hence, when our election is first made manifest by His effectual call, God is so intent upon this glory that He immediately gives us a title to it. Goodwin gave a striking illustration of what we have just said from God’s dealings with David. While David was but a mere shepherd boy, God sent Samuel to anoint him king in the open view of his father and brethren (1 Samuel 16:13). By that solemn act God invested him with a visible and irrevocable right to the kingdom of Judah and Israel. His actual possession thereof God delayed for many years. Nevertheless, his Divine title thereto was bestowed at His anointing, and God engaged Himself to make it good, swearing not to repent of it. Then God suffered Saul (a figure of Satan), who marshaled all the military forces of his kingdom and most of his subjects, to do his worst. This He did in order to demonstrate that no counsel of His can be thwarted. Though for a season David was exposed like a partridge on the mountains and had to flee from place to place, nevertheless, he was miraculously preserved by God and ultimately brought to the throne. So at regeneration God anoints us with His Spirit, sets us apart, and gives us a title to everlasting glory. And though afterwards He lets loose fierce enemies upon us, leaving us to the hardest of wrestlings and fightings with them, yet His mighty hand is over us, succoring and strengthening us and restoring us when we are temporarily overcome and taken captive. Nothing Transitory About the Glory to Which We Are Called God has not called us to an evanescent but to an eternal glory, giving us title to it at the new birth. At that time a spiritual life was communicated to the soul, a life that is indestructible, incorruptible, and therefore everlasting. Moreover, we then received "the spirit of glory" (1 Peter 4:14) as "the earnest of our inheritance" (Ephesians 1:13-14). Further, the image of Christ is being progressively wrought in our hearts during this life, which the Apostle Paul calls being "changed… from glory to glory" (2 Corinthians 3:18). Not only are we thereby made "meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light" (Colossians 1:12), but we are then given an eternal right of glory. For by regeneration or effectual calling God begets us to the inheritance (1 Peter 1:3-4); a title thereto is given us at that moment that holds good forever. That title is ours both by the covenant stipulation of God and by the testamentary bequest of the Mediator (Hebrews 9:15). "If children, then heirs; heirs of God," says Paul (Romans 8:17). Thomas Goodwin sums it up this way: Put these three things together: first, that that glory we are called unto is in itself eternal; second, that that person who is called hath a degree of that glory begun in him that shall never die or perish; third, that he hath a right unto the eternity of it, and that from the time of his calling, and the argument is complete. That "eternal glory" is "the exceeding riches of his grace" that He will lavish upon His people in the endless ages to come (Ephesians 2:4-7), and as those verses tell us, even now we—legally and federally—"sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." "Who hath called us unto his eternal glory." God has not only called us into a state of grace—"this grace wherein we stand"—but to a state of glory, eternal glory, His eternal glory, so that we "rejoice in hope of the glory of God" (Romans 5:2). These two things are inseparably connected: "the LORD will give grace and glory" (Psalms 84:11). Although we are the persons to be glorified by it, it is His glory that is put upon us. Obviously so, for we are wholly poor, empty creatures whom God will fill with the riches of His glory. Truly it is "the God of all grace" who does this for us. Neither creation nor providence, nor even His dealings with the elect in this life, fully displays the abundance of His grace. Only in heaven will its utmost height be seen and enjoyed. It is there that the ultimate manifestation of God’s glory will be made, namely, the very honor and ineffable splendor with which Deity invests Himself. Not only shall we behold that glory forever, but it is to be communicated to us. "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father" (Matthew 13:43). The glory of God will so completely fill and irradiate our souls that it will break forth from our bodies. Then will the eternal purpose of God be fully accomplished. Then will all our fondest hopes be perfectly realized. Then will God be "all in all" (1 Corinthians 15:28). Eternal Glory Is Ours by Our Union with Christ "Who hath cabled us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus." The last part of this clause would perhaps better be translated "in Christ Jesus," signifying that our being called to bask in the eternal glory of God is by virtue of our union with Christ Jesus. The glory pertains to Him who is our Head, and it is communicated to us only because we are His members. Christ is the first and grand Proprietor of it, and He shares it with those whom the Father gave to Him (John 17:5, John 17:22, John 17:24). Christ Jesus is the Center of all the eternal counsels of God, which "he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Ephesians 3:11). All the promises of God "in him [Christ] are yea, and in him Amen" (2 Corinthians 1:20, brackets mine). God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). We are heirs of God because we are joint-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17). As all the Divine purposes of grace were formed in Christ, so they are effectually performed and established by Him. For Zecharias, while blessing God for having "raised up an horn of salvation," added, "To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant" (Luke 1:68-72 ). We are "preserved in Jesus Christ" (Jude 1:1). Since God has "called [us] unto the fellowship of his Son" (1 Corinthians 1:9, brackets mine), that is, to be partakers (in due proportion) of all that He is partaker of Himself, Christ our Joint-heir and Representative has entered into possession of that glorious inheritance and in our names is keeping it for us (Hebrews 6:20). All Our Hope Is Bound Up in Christ Alone Does it seem too good to be true that "the God of all grace" is your God? Are there times when you doubt whether He has personally called you? Does it surpass your faith, Christian reader, that God has actually cabled you to His eternal glory? Then let me leave this closing thought with you. All this is by and in Christ Jesus! His grace is stored up in Christ (John 1:14-18), the effectual call comes by Christ (Romans 1:6), and the eternal glory is reached through Him. Was not His blood sufficient to purchase everlasting blessings for hell-deserving sinners? Then book not at your unworthiness, but at the infinite worthiness and merits of Him who is the Friend of publicans and sinners. Whether our faith takes it in or not, infallibly certain it is this prayer of His will be answered: "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory" (John 17:24). That beholding will not be a transient one, such as the apostles enjoyed on the mount of transfiguration, but for evermore. As it has often been pointed out, when the queen of Sheba contrasted her brief visit to Solomon’s court with the privilege of those who resided there, she exclaimed, "Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee" (1 Kings 10:8, ital. mine). Such will be our blissful lot throughout the endless ages. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 60: 003.09. 1 PETER 5:10, 11, PART 3 ======================================================================== 9 1 Peter 5:10-11 Part 3 Having considered in the two previous chapters the supplicant, setting, Object, and plea of this prayer, let us now contemplate, fifthly, its petition: "the God of all grace… make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you." The proper force of the Greek grammar would make the petition read like this: "the God of all grace… Himself make you perfect: Himself stablish you, Himself strengthen you, Himself settle you." There is far more contained in these words than appears on their surface. The fullness of their meaning can be discovered only by a patient searching of the Scriptures, thereby ascertaining how the several terms are used in other passages. I regard the words "Himself make you perfect" as the principal thing requested. The three words that follow are in part an amplification and in part an explanation of the process by which the desired end is reached, though each of the four words requires to be considered separately. Ancient expositors, who went into things much more deeply and thoroughly than many of our modern expositors do, raised the question as to whether this prayer receives its fulfillment in the present life or in the life to come. After carefully weighing the pros and cons of their arguments, I have concluded—taking into view the remarkable scope of the Greek word katartizō (no. 2675 in Strong and Thayer), here rendered make perfect—that this petition is granted in a twofold answer: here and hereafter. I shall therefore take in both in my comments. Two Relevant Significations Katartizō signifies to make perfect (1) by adjusting or articulating so as to produce a flawless object; or (2) by restoring an object that has become imperfect. That you may be enabled to form your own judgment, I shall set before you the passages in which the Greek word is variously translated elsewhere. In each passage quoted the word or words placed in italics is the English rendering of the Greek word translated make perfect in our text. When the Savior says, "a body hast thou prepared me [or "thou hast fitted me," margin]" (Hebrews 10:5, ital. and brackets mine), we are to understand, as Goodwin said, that "that body was formed or articulated by the Holy Spirit, with the human soul, in all its parts, in one instant of its union with the Son of God," and that it was immaculately holy, impeccable, and without spot or blemish. Katartizō is used again to express the finishing and perfect consummation of God’s work of the first creation: "the worlds were framed by the Word of God" (Hebrews 11:3, ital. mine). That is to say, they were so completed that nothing more was needed for their perfection; for as Genesis 1:31 tells us, "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." But this same Greek word has a very different sense in other passages. In Matthew 4:21 it is found in the phrase "mending their nets," in which it denotes the repairing of what had been damaged. "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness" (Galatians 6:1, ital. mine). In this text it signifies a restoring such as of a limb that is out of joint. No doubt this was one of the significations that the Apostle Peter had in mind when he wrote this prayer, for those for whom he prayed had been disjointed or scattered by persecutions (1 Peter 1:1, 1 Peter 1:6-7). Paul also had this shade of meaning before him when he exhorted the divided Corinthians to "be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment" (1 Corinthians 1:10, ital. mine). Again, the word is sometimes used to express the supply of a deficiency, as it does in 1 Thessalonians 3:10: "that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith" (ital. mine). The word lacking implies a deficiency. Once more, the word occurs in Hebrews 13:21: "Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight." Here the apostle prays that the saints might advance to further degrees of faith and holiness in this life. Our Being Made Perfect Has to Do with the Process of Sanctification It will thus appear, from its usage in other passages, that the Greek word rendered make perfect in 1 Peter 5:10 may yield a significance something like this: "The God of all grace… Himself make you perfect in all these successive degrees of grace that are necessary in order for you to reach spiritual maturity." This significance does not necessarily imply any personal fault or failure in those prayed for, just as a child is not to be blamed for not having yet reached the full stature of an adult or not having attained to the knowledge that comes with mature manhood. It is with this principle in mind that God has promised to bring to perfection the good work He has begun in the souls of His people (Php 1:6). A Christian may walk up to the measure of grace received from above without any willful divergence in his course, and still be imperfect. This was the case with the Apostle Paul, one of the most favored of God’s children, who confessed, "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect" (Php 3:12). There have been, and are, some privileged souls who never left their first love, who have followed on swiftly in pursuing the knowledge of the Lord, and who (as to the general tenor of their lives) have carried themselves according to the light received. Yet even these have needed further additions of wisdom and holiness to make them more fruitful branches of the Vine and to move them ever in the direction of a consummation of holiness in heaven. An example of this appears in the case of the Thessalonian saints. Not only had they experienced a remarkable conversion (1 Thessalonians 1:9), but they conducted themselves in the most God-honoring and exemplary manner so that the apostle gave thanks to God always for them on account of their "work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thessalonians 1:2-3). Not only were their inward graces healthy and vigorous, but in their outward conduct they were made "ensamples [patterns] to all that believe" (1 Thessalonians 1:7, brackets mine). Nevertheless, Paul was most anxious to visit them again, that he might perfect that which was lacking in their faith (1 Thessalonians 3:10). He longed that they might be blessed with further supplies of knowledge and grace that would promote a closer walking with God and a greater resistance to and overcoming of temptations. To that faith which rests on Christ for pardon and acceptance with God, which He bestows at conversion, there is also a conscious faith that lays hold of our acceptance with God. Paul refers to this as the "full assurance of understanding" (Colossians 2:2). With this blessed assurance God gives us the rich experience of "joy unspeakable and full of glory" (1 Peter 1:8) and the making of our calling and election sure, so that an abundant entrance into His kingdom is begun in this life (2 Peter 1:10-11). Yet this perfecting also applies to the recovery and restoration of lapsed Christians, as is evident from Peter’s own case. Peter Prays for the Establishing or Confirming of Their Faith But suppose that God should thus mend and restore those overtaken in a fault, yet might they not fall again? Yes indeed, and evidently Peter had such a contingency in view. Thus he adds the word "stablish." Peter longed that they should be so confirmed in their faith that they would not fall away. For the fickle and vacillating it was a request that they should be no more tossed to and fro, but fixed in their beliefs. For the discouraged that, having put their hands to the plow, they should not look back because of the difficulties of the way. For those who were walking closely with the Lord, that they might be established in holiness before God (1 Thessalonians 3:13); for the most spiritual are daily in need of supporting grace. The Greek word (stērizō no. 4741 in Strong and Thayer) in a general way signifies to make firm or confirm. It occurs in Christ’s words in Luke 16:26, "there is a great gulf fixed" (ital. mine). It is found again in connection with Christ and is translated, "he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem" (Luke 9:51, ital. mine). It is the word directed by the Lord to Peter himself: "and when thou art converted, strengthen [or "fix firmly"] thy brethren" (Luke 22:32, ital. and brackets mine). Our Lord was commissioning Peter in advance to reestablish those of his fellow disciples who also would yield to the temptation to deny their Master. Likewise, Paul desired to establish and comfort concerning their faith the Thessalonian saints, and that in relation to temptation or trial (1 Thessalonians 3:1-5). Peter Prays that God Will Impart Moral Strength to Them But though we may be so confirmed by the grace of God that we cannot totally and finally fall away, yet we are weak and may be laboring under great infirmities. Therefore the apostle adds to his petition the word "strengthen." This Greek verb (sthenoō, no. 4599 in Strong and Thayer) is not used elsewhere in the New Testament, but from its position here between "stablish" and "settle" it appears to have the force of invigorating against weakness and corruptions. I am reminded of the prayer that Paul offered on behalf of the Ephesians, that they would be "strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man" (Ephesians 3:16). Paul employs a negative noun (asthenēs, no. 772 in Strong and Thayer), formed from the same root, in Romans 5:6 : "For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly" (ital. mine). In our unregenerate state we were entirely devoid of ability and enablement to do those things that are pleasing to God. Not only is the state of spiritual impotency of an unregenerate soul called being "without strength," but the state of the body when dead is expressed by a noun (astheneia, no. 769) derived from asthenēs (no. 772). "It is sown in weakness," that is, it is lifeless, utterly devoid of any vigor. But, by contrast, "it is raised in power" (1 Corinthians 15:43); that is, it is to be endued and furnished with all the abilities of rational creatures, even such as the angels have (Luke 20:36) who "excel in strength" (Psalms 103:20). Thus, this request for the strengthening of the saints is to be understood as supplies of grace that will energize weak hands and feeble knees and enable them to overcome every opposing force. Peter Prays that They May Be Settled In Faith, Love, and Hope Though we be confirmed so that we shall never be lost, and though we be strengthened to bear up against trials, yet we may become shaky and uncertain. Therefore Peter adds the word "settle" to his petition. He is concerned that they be unremitting in their faith in Christ, love toward God, and hope of eternal glory. The Greek verb (themelioō, no. 2311) is rendered founded in Matthew 7:25, lay the foundation of in Hebrews 1:10, and grounded in Ephesians 3:17. In our text it appears to be used as the opposite of waverings of spirit and doubtings of heart. Peter is saying something like this: I pray that you may be able confidently to say, "For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day" (2 Timothy 1:12), and that you turn not from the path of duty because of the opposition you encounter. No matter how good the tree, if it be not settled in the earth, but moved from place to place, it will bear little or no fruit. How many might trace the unfruitfulness of their lives to the unsettled state of their hearts and judgments! David could say, "My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed," and therefore he added, "I will sing and give praise" (Psalms 57:7). This, too, is a blessing that God alone can impart. "Now to him that is of power to stablish you," says Paul (Romans 16:25). Yet, as Deuteronomy 28:9 and 2 Chronicles 20:20 show, we must use the appointed means. "Himself make you perfect: stablish, strengthen, settle you." The ultimate object seems to be mentioned first, and then the steps by which it is to be reached. But whether regarded in conjunction or singly, they all have to do with our practical sanctification. The piling up of these emphatic terms indicates the difficulty of the Christian’s task and his urgent need of constant supplies of Divine grace. The saint’s warfare is one of no common difficulty, and his needs are deep and many; but he has to do with "the God of all grace"! Therefore, it is both our privilege and duty to draw upon Him by importunate supplication (2 Timothy 2:1; Hebrews 4:16). God has provided grace answerable to our every need, yet it flows through the means He has appointed. God will "perfect: stablish, strengthen, settle" us in response to fervent prayer, by the instrumentality of His Word, by His blessing to us the various ministries of His servants, and by sanctifying to us the discipline of His providences. He who has given His people a sure hope will also give everything necessary to the realization of the thing hoped for (2 Peter 1:3); but it is uniquely our part to seek the desired and necessary blessing by prayer (Ezekiel 36:37). Our Suffering with Christ Must Precede Our Being Glorified with Christ Sixthly, we come to ponder the qualification of this prayer: "after that ye have suffered a while." This clause is intimately connected with two others: (1) "who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus"; and (2) the petition "himself make you perfect. … "The apostle did not pray that believers be removed from this world as soon as they be regenerated, nor that they be immediately relieved of their sufferings. Rather, he prays that their sufferings should give way to eternal glory "after a while," or, as the Greek signifies, "after a little while," because all time is short in comparison with eternity. For the same reason the severest afflictions are to be regarded as "light" and "but for a moment" when set over against the "eternal weight of glory" that is awaiting us (2 Corinthians 4:17). The sufferings and the glory are inseparably connected, for "we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22). The Apostle Paul clearly teaches that those of us who are God’s children shall indeed share in Christ’s inheritance, "if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together" (Romans 8:17). If one bear no cross, he shall gain no crown (Luke 14:27). All who have suffered for Christ’s sake on earth shall be glorified in heaven; but none shall be glorified save those who, in some form or other, have been "made conformable unto his death" (Php 3:10). Some of the believer’s sufferings are from the hand of God’s providence, some from "false brethren" (2 Corinthians 11:26; Galatians 2:4), some from the profane world, some from Satan, and some from indwelling sin. Peter speaks of "manifold temptations" or "trials" (1 Peter 1:6), but they are counterbalanced by "manifold grace" (1 Peter 4:10). And both are directed by "the manifold wisdom of God" (Ephesians 3:10)! Our Conformity to Christ Necessarily Includes Our Having Fellowship with Him in His Sufferings The abounding grace of God does not preclude trials and afflictions, but those who are the recipients of Divine grace have been "appointed thereunto" (1 Thessalonians 3:3). Then let us not be dismayed or cast down by them, but seek grace to get them sanctified to us. Sufferings are necessary to the saints on various accounts. First and foremost, they are appointed in order that the members might be conformed to their Head. "For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings" (Hebrews 2:10). Sufficient then for the disciple to be like his Master, that he should be made perfect after he has suffered awhile. Peter himself alludes to this Divinely prescribed order in the way of salvation (namely humiliation, then exaltation, which applies not only to the Head but to His members also) when he refers to "the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow" (1 Peter 1:11). It was the Divine will that even the incarnate Son should "learn… obedience [submission] by the things which he suffered" (Hebrews 5:8, brackets mine). There was a turning point in His ministry when Jesus began "to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day" (Matthew 16:21, ital. mine). Why did He have to suffer thus? It is because God had ordained it (Acts 4:28). Was Christ tempted by the devil merely on account of Satan’s malice toward Him? No, for Jesus was "led up of [by] the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil" (Matthew 4:1, brackets mine; cf. Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-2). Remember, dear saints enduring trials, that the Savior Himself entered the kingdom of God "through much tribulation" (Acts 14:22), even as we must do. Thus, "in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor ["relieve" or "help"] them that are tempted" (Hebrews 2:18, brackets mine). Therefore, let us "count it all joy when ye [we] fall into divers temptations" (James 1:2, brackets mine), for suffering "as a Christian" is a means by which we can glorify our redeeming God (1 Peter 4:16). The privilege of experiencing "the fellowship of his sufferings" is one of God’s appointed means by which we may know that we are in Christ, and no longer identified with the world that now abides under God’s wrath (Php 3:7-11). Hear the words of our Master (Matthew 5:10-12): Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. God’s Grace Is Magnified in Meeting Our Needs and Confounding Our Enemies Secondly, the God of all grace has made this appointment because His grace is best seen in sustaining us and is most manifest by relieving us. Hence, we find the throne of grace magnified by God’s giving us "grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16). Much of the glory of God’s grace appears in His supporting the weak, in delivering the tempted, and in raising the fallen. The Lord exempts us not from conflict, but maintains us in it. Effectual calling ensures our final perseverance, yet it does not render needless continual supplies of grace. As Manton expressed it, "God will not only give them glory at the end of their journey, but bears their expenses by the way." Thirdly, our Father leads us through fiery trials in order to confound those who are opposed to us. Grace reigns (Romans 5:21), and the greatness of a monarchy is demonstrated by its subduing of rebels and vanquishing of enemies. God raised up the mighty Pharaoh in order to show forth His own power. In the context (1 Peter 5:8), as we have seen, He suffers the devil, as a roaring lion, to rage up and down opposing and assaulting us. But He does this only to foil him, for "the prey [shall] be taken from the mighty" (Isaiah 49:24, brackets mine), and shortly God shall "bruise Satan under your [our] feet" (Romans 16:20, brackets mine). Suffering Proves Our Graces and Makes Heaven More Glorious Fourthly, suffering is necessary for the trying and proving of our graces: "the trying of your faith worketh patience" (James 1:3). Consider what Peter says concerning us who have been "begotten… again unto a lively hope": Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:6-7). It is the wind of tribulation that separates the wheat from the chaff, the furnace that reveals the difference between dross and gold. The stony-ground hearer is offended and falls away "when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word" (Matthew 13:21). So, too, for the purifying and the brightening of our hope, our hearts have to be more completely weaned from this world before they become set upon things above. Fifthly, the glory of our eternal inheritance is enhanced by our enduring affliction. Hear the words of Thomas Goodwin: Heaven is not simply joy and happiness, but a glory, and a glory won by conquest—"to him that overcometh" [are the promises made] in each one of the seven epistles of Revelation 2:1-29 and Revelation 3:1-22. It is a crown won by mastery, and so by striving, according to certain laws set to be observed by those that win (2 Timothy 2:5). The glory won by conquest and masteries is the more valuable. The portion Jacob won "with my sword and with my bow" was the one he reserved for his beloved Joseph (Genesis 48:22). We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. Grace Is Provided for Both Internal and External Conflicts It is a mistake (made by some) to restrict either the afflictions of 1 Peter 5:9 or the suffering of 1 Peter 5:10 to outward persecutions and trials. But all inward assaults (whether from our own lusts or Satan), and so all temptations whatsoever, are to be included. The context requires this, for the words "be sober, be vigilant" have respect to our lusts as well as to every other provocation to evildoing, so that the call to resist the devil clearly relates to his inward temptations to sin. The experience of all saints requires it, for their acutest pangs are occasioned by their own corruptions. Moreover, as Goodwin has pointed out, our setting of God before the eyes of our faith as "the God of all grace" argues the same; for His grace stands principally ready to help us against inward sins and temptations to sin. Furthermore, the all of His grace extends not only to all sorts of external miseries, but to all internal maladies, which are our greatest grief, which require His abundant grace above all others, and to which His grace is chiefly directed (Psalms 19:14; Psalms 119:1-16; Proverbs 3:5-7; Proverbs 4:20-27). His grace is the grand remedy for every evil to which the believer is subject. Some are guilty of worse sins after conversion than before, and were not the God of all grace their God, where would they be? Perfection in Grace Is Both Progressive and Eschatological "After that ye have suffered a while, Himself make you perfect: stablish, strengthen, settle you." This may well be regarded as a request for grace to enable us to obey the exhortation found in 1 Corinthians 15:58 : "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord." We are to be constantly opposing sin and striving to be holy in all manner of conversation. This request receives a partial fulfillment in this life, but a complete and more transcendent one in heaven. Saints are advanced to further degrees of faith and holiness when, after seasons of wavering and suffering, God strengthens and establishes them in a more settled frame of spirit. Yet only in our fixed condition after death will these blessings be fully ours. Not till then shall we be made perfect in the sense of being fully conformed to the image of God’s Son. Our hearts will be established "unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thessalonians 3:13). Only then will all our weakness end and our bodies be "raised in power" (1 Corinthians 15:43). Then indeed shall we be eternally settled, for the Divine promise is this: "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out" (Revelation 3:12). A Doxology of Infallible Hope Seventh and finally, we come to the great ascription of this apostolic prayer: "to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." "The apostle, having added prayer to his doctrine, here added praise to his prayer," says Leighton. It expressed the apostle’s confidence that the God of all grace would grant his request. He was assured that what he had asked for on behalf of the saints would be to the Divine "glory," and that the Divine "dominion" would infallibly bring it to pass. There is thus a practical hint implied for us in this closing doxology. It intimates where relief is to be obtained and strength is to be found in the midst of our suffering: by eyeing the glory of God, which is the grand end He has in view in all His dealings with us; and by confidently trusting in God’s dominion in working all things together for our good (Romans 8:28). For if His be the dominion, and He has called us to His eternal glory, then what have we to fear? So certain is our glorification (Romans 8:30) that we should give thanks for it now. The abundant and infinite grace of God is engaged to effect it, and His omnipotent power guarantees its performance. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 61: 003.11. JUDE 24, 25, PART 1 ======================================================================== 11 Jude 1:24-25 Part 1 The prayer that is now to engage our attention is a particularly arresting one, but its beauty and blessedness appear even more conspicuously when it is examined in connection with its somber background. It concludes the most solemn Epistle in the New Testament, one that is to be read with fear and trembling, but that is to be put down with thanksgiving and praise. It contains a most awful description of graceless professors of Christianity, of those trees who appeared to give much promise of fruit to God’s glory but whose leaves soon dropped off and who quickly withered away. Its theme is apostasy, or, more specifically, the corrupting of much of the visible Church and the resulting ongoing corruption of an apostate Christendom. It presents a picture that all too tragically depicts things as they now are in the religious realm, in the majority of so-called "churches" at large. It informs us as to how the process of declension begins in reprobate professors of religion and how it works itself out until they are completely corrupted. It delineates the characters of those who lead others astray in this vile work. It makes known the sure doom awaiting both leaders and those who are led into apostasy. It closes with a glorious contrast. Many Pervert the Gospel of Free Grace into a License to Sin The Lord Jesus gave warning that the sowing of the good seed by Himself and His apostles would be followed with the sowing of tares in the same field by Satan and his agents. Paul also announced that, notwithstanding the widespread successes of the Gospel during his lifetime, there would be "a falling away" before the man of sin should be revealed (2 Thessalonians 2:3). That "falling away," or the apostasy of the visible Church corporately considered, is depicted by the Spirit in some detail through the pen of Jude. As Christ Himself had intimated, the initial work of corruption would be done stealthily, "while men slept" (Matthew 13:25), and Jude represents the evildoers as having "crept in unawares" (Jude 1:4), that is, having slipped in secretly or surreptitiously. They are spoken of as men who were "turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ." That is to say, while pretending to magnify free grace they perverted it, failing to enforce the balancing truth of holiness; and while professing to believe in Christ as a Savior they refused to surrender to His Lordship. Thus they were lustful and lawless. In view of this horrible menace, the saints were exhorted to "earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" (Jude 1:3). In this context, faith signifies nothing less than the whole counsel of God (cf. Acts 20:27-31). That exhortation is enforced by a reminder to three fearful and solemn examples of the punishment visited by God upon those who had apostatized. The first is that of the children of Israel whom the Lord saved out of Egypt, but who still lusted after its fleshpots; and because of their unbelief at Kadesh-Barnea a whole generation of them were destroyed in the wilderness (Jude 1:5; cf. Numbers 13:1-33; Numbers 14:1-39, especially Numbers 14:26-37. The second is the case of those angels who had apostatized from their privileged position, and are now "reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day" (Jude 1:6). The third is Sodom and Gomorrah, which, because of their common indulgence in the grossest form of lasciviousness, were destroyed by fire from heaven (Jude 1:7; cf. Genesis 19:1-25). To which the apostle adds that the corruptors of the visible Church "defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities," being less respectful to their superiors than Michael the archangel was to his inferior (Jude 1:8-9). He solemnly pronounces the Divine sentence: "Woe unto them!" (Jude 1:11). Without the slightest hesitation, he likens them and their works to three characters of evil notoriety: by "the way of Cain" we are to understand a flesh-gratifying, natural religion that is acceptable to the unregenerate; by "the error of Balaam for reward" a mercenary ministry that will pervert the pure "doctrine of true religion for the sake of filthy lucre" (Calvin); and by "the gainsaying of Korah" a despising of authority and discipline, an effort to obliterate the distinctions that God has made for His own glory and for our good (Numbers 16:1-3). Jude Gives Clear Indication that These Falsifiers Are Within the Churches Other characteristics of these religious evildoers are given in figurative terms in Jude 1:12-13. It should be particularly noted that they are said to "feast with you" (the saints), which supplies further evidence that such hypocrites, deceivers and self-deceived, are inside the churches. In the second half of Jude 1:13-15 their doom is pronounced. For backsliders there is a way of recovery; but for apostates there is none. In verse 16 Jude details other characteristics of false brethren, which traits are sadly conspicuous in many professing Christians of our own day. Then Jude bids God’s people to remember that the apostles of Christ had predicted there should be "mockers [or "scoffers," no. 1703 in Strong and Thayer (2 Peter 3:3)] in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts" (Jude 1:17-18). By "the last time" is meant this Christian or final dispensation (see 1 Peter 4:7; 1 John 2:18), with a possible reference to the climactic culmination of evil at its end. Next, Jude appeals to those to whom he is writing, addressing to them a number of needful and salutary exhortations (Jude 1:21-23). He ends with the prayer that we are now to ponder, concluding the most solemn of all the Epistles with a more glorious outburst of praise than is elsewhere to be found in them. Jude’s Concluding Paean to the Triumphant Grace of God "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen." Let us consider four things in our study of this prayer: (1) its general background; (2) its more immediate connection; (3) the reasons that moved Jude to pray thus; and (4) the nature and Object of this prayer. First, let me add something more to what has already been said, in a general way, upon the background of this prayer. It seems to me that, in view of what had been engaging the mind of the apostle in the previous verses, he could not restrain himself from giving vent to this paean of praise. After viewing the solemn case of a whole generation of Israel perishing in the wilderness because of their unbelief, he was moved to cry out in gladness, "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling." As he contemplated the experience of the sinless angels who fell from their first estate, he could not but tremble; but when he thought of the Savior and Protector of His Church, he burst forth into a strain of adoration. Jude found great comfort and assurance in the blessed fact that the One who begins a work of grace within those given to Him by the Father will never cease from it until He has perfected it (Php 1:6). He knew that were it not for everlasting love and infinite power, our case would yet be the same as that of the angels who fell, that but for an almighty Redeemer we too must enter everlasting darkness and endure the suffering of eternal fire. Realizing that, Jude could not but bless the One whose protecting hand covers each of those purchased by His blood. Jude Balances a Fearful Consideration of Apostasies with Confident Praise to a Preserving God After making mention of those fearful examples of falling, it is highly probable that the thoughts of the penman of this Epistle turned to another one much more recent, and which had come beneath his own immediate notice. It is quite possible that, when our Lord sent forth the twelve, "Judas [Jude] the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot" were paired together (Luke 6:16, brackets mine; Luke 9:1-6)—the great apostate "son of perdition" (John 17:12) and the one who was to write at length upon the great apostasy! It scarcely admits of doubt that as Jude’s mind reverted to the traitor it made him exclaim with added emphasis, "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling… be glory… both now and ever." He had probably respected Judas Iscariot as his fellow apostles had, and perhaps had heard him ask along with the others, "Lord, is it I?" in response to Christ’s statement that one of their number was about to betray Him. And no doubt he was shocked when Judas Iscariot began to openly reveal his true character. For immediately after receiving the sop that Jesus had dipped in the dish for him and hearing a woe pronounced upon himself, Judas hypocritically repeated the question, "Master, is it I?" then went forth to do that most despicable deed for which he had been appointed (John 6:70; Matthew 26:20-25; John 13:21-30; Psalms 41:9; John 17:12). He could not but be aware that in remorse the traitor had hanged himself: and I believe that the shadow of his awful doom fell upon Jude as he penned this Epistle. But Jude did not suffer these sad contemplations to sink him into a state of dejection. He knew that his omniscient Master had foretold that a rising tide of evil would spread through the visible Church, and that however mysterious such a phenomenon might be there was a wise reason for it in the Divine economy. He knew that however fiercely the storm might rage there was no occasion to fear, for Christ Himself was in the ship who had declared, "and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world [or "age"]" (Matthew 28:20, brackets mine). He knew that the gates of hell could not and would not prevail against the Church (Matthew 16:18). Therefore he lifted up his eyes above this present evil age and gazed by faith upon the enthroned Head and Preserver of the Church, rendering worship to Him. That is the all-important lesson to be drawn from the background of this prayer, and why I have dwelt so long upon it. Fellow Christians, let us duly heed it. Instead of being so much occupied with conditions in the world, with the menace of the atomic bomb, with the deepening apostasy, let our hearts be increasingly engaged with our beloved Lord; let us find our peace and joy in Him. God’s Promise to Keep Us from Falling Is Connected to Our Duty to Keep Ourselves Let us now consider the more immediate connection of this prayer. On former occasions we have seen how helpful it was to attend closely to the context. It is necessary to do so here if the balance of truth is to be maintained and a proneness to antinomianism is to be checked. It is not honest to lay hold of the promise implied in this prayer, "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling," unless we have first given heed to the commandment of Jude 1:21 : "Keep yourselves in the love of God, …" (ital. mine). The precepts and promises may be distinguished, yet they are not to be separated. The former make known our duty, while the latter are for our encouragement as long as we genuinely and earnestly seek to perform the same. But one who neglects his duty is entitled to no comfort. After describing at length the beginning, the course, and the end of the apostasy of the visible Church, the apostle adds seven brief exhortations to the saints in Jude 1:20-23. These call for the exercise of faith, prayer, love, hope, compassion, fear, and godly hatred. These exhortations are means to preserve us from apostasy. Calvin began his comments on these exhortations by saying this: He shows the manner in which they could overcome all the devices of Satan, that is, by having love connected with faith, and by standing on their guard as it were in their watch-tower, until the coming of Christ. The Proper Use of Precepts, Warnings, and Comforting Doctrines Let us give reverent attention to the faithful words of Adolph Saphir on this life-or-death subject: There is a one-sided and unscriptural forgetfulness of the actual position of the believer (or professing believer) as a man who is still on the road, in the battle; who has still the responsibility of trading with the talent entrusted, of watching for the return of the Master. Now there are many bypaths, dangers, precipices on the road, and we must persevere to the end. Only they who overcome and are faithful to death shall be crowned. It is not spiritual but carnal to take the blessed and solemn doctrines of our election in Christ and of the perseverance of the saints, given us as a cordial for fainting hours and as the inmost and ultimate secret of the soul in its dealings with God, and place them on the common and daily road of our duties and trials, instead of the precepts and warnings of the Divine Word. It is not merely that God keeps us through these warnings and commandments, but the attitude of soul which neglects and hurries over these portions of Scripture is not childlike, humble, and sincere. The attempts to explain away the fearful warnings of Scripture against apostasy are rooted in a very morbid and dangerous state of mind. A precipice is a precipice, and it is folly to deny it. "If we live after the flesh," says the apostle, "we shall die." Now, to keep people from falling over a precipice, we do not put up a slender and graceful hedge of flowers, but the strongest barrier we can; and piercing spikes or cutting pieces of glass to prevent calamities. But even this is only the surface of the matter. Our walk with God and our perseverance to the end are great and solemn realities. We are dealing with the living God, and only life with God, and in God, and unto God, can be of any avail here. He who brought us out of Egypt is now guiding us; and if we follow Him, and follow Him to the end, we shall enter into the final rest. It is outside my intended scope to give here a full exposition of the precepts found in Jude 1:20-23, yet a few remarks are needed if I am to be faithful in observing the inseparable link that exists between them and our text. Duty and privilege must not be divorced, nor dare we allow privilege to oust duty. If it be the Christian’s privilege to have his heart engaged with Christ in glory, it must be while treading the path that He has appointed and while engaged in those tasks that He has assigned him. Though Christ is most certainly the One who keeps him from making shipwreck of the faith, it is not apart from the disciple’s own earnest endeavors that He does so. Christ deals with His redeemed as responsible creatures. He requires them to conduct themselves as moral agents, putting forth every effort to overcome the evils that menace them. Though entirely dependent on Him, they are not to remain passive. Man is of an active nature, and therefore must grow either better or worse. Before regeneration he is indeed spiritually dead, but at the new birth he receives Divine life. Motion and exercise follow life, and those motions are to be directed by the Divine precepts. Hear the words of our Lord: He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. How these words must have reechoed in Jude’s memory as he wrote this Epistle (see John 14:21-22). Seven Exhortations to a Life of Holiness Jude 1:1-25 "But ye, beloved [in contrast with the apostates of the previous verse], building up yourselves on your most holy faith" (Jude 1:20, brackets mine). Truly, as Paul says, "the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his" (2 Timothy 2:19 a). Yet God requires that we wholeheartedly concur with Him, by our own endeavors, in His purpose for electing such as we to eternal salvation, namely, our entire sanctification (1 Thessalonians 4:3). For in the same verse Paul declares, "Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity" (2 Timothy 2:19 b). Therefore, we are to be solicitous about our growth and to exercise care both over ourselves and our fellow believers. It is not sufficient to be grounded in the faith; we must daily increase therein more and more. To grow in faith is one of the appointed means of our preservation. We build up ourselves on our faith by a deepened knowledge thereof. "A wise man will hear, and will increase learning"; says Solomon (Proverbs 1:5). We build up ourselves on our faith by meditating upon its substance or contents (Psalms 1:2; Luke 2:19), by believing and appropriating it, by applying it to ourselves, and by being governed by it. Observe that it is a "most holy faith," for it both requires and promotes personal holiness. Thereby do we distinguish ourselves from carnal professors and apostates. "Praying in the Holy Ghost." We are to fervently and constantly seek His presence and Divine energy, which can supply us with the strength of will and affections that are necessary in order to comply with these precepts. Jude 1:1-25 "Keep yourselves in the love of God" (Jude 1:21). See to it that your love for Him is preserved in a pure, healthy, and vigorous condition. See to it that your love to Christ is in constant exercise by rendering obedience to Him who said, "If ye love me, keep my commandments" (John 14:15). "Keep thy heart with all diligence" (Proverbs 4:23, ital. mine), for if your affections wane, your communion with Him will deteriorate and your witness for Him will be marred. Only as you keep yourselves in the love of God will you be distinguished from the carnal professors all around you. This exhortation is no needless one. The Christian is living in a world whose icy blasts will soon chill his love for God unless he guards it as the apple of his eye. A malicious adversary will do all he can to pour cold water upon it. Remember the solemn warning of Revelation 2:4. Oh, that Christ may never have to complain of you or me, "I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love" (ital. mine). Rather, may our love "abound yet more and more" (Php 1:9). In order thereto hope must be in exercise, "looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life" (Jude 1:21). Jude 1:22-23 make known our duty, and what is to be our attitude, toward those of our brethren who have fallen by the way. Toward some we are to show compassion, who by reason of tenderness can stand only mild rebukes and admonitions; whereas roughness would only drive them to despair and the postponement of their penitent looking to Christ. But others, who differ by temperament, or by reason of hardness of heart, require strong rebukes for their recovery, with frightening warnings concerning God’s judgment against obstinate sinners who hold out against His threats and overtures of mercy. These we are to "save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 62: 003.12. JUDE 24, 25, PART 2 ======================================================================== 12 Jude 1:24-25 Part 2 Jude 1:20-25 "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling." In further consideration of the connection of this prayer, the following question is crucial: who are the ones that the Lord Jesus thus preserves? Not everyone who professes to believe and to be a follower of His, as is clear from the case of Judas Iscariot, is preserved by God from apostasy. Then whom does He preserve? Without doubt God preserves those who make a genuine effort to obey the exhortations found in Jude 1:20-23, which were discussed at the end of the preceding chapter. These true believers, so far from being content with their present knowledge and spiritual attainments, sincerely endeavor to continue building up themselves on their most holy faith. These true lovers of God, so far from being indifferent to the state of their hearts, jealously watch their affections, in order that their love toward God might be preserved in a pure, healthy, and vigorous condition by regular exercise in acts of devotion and obedience. These true saints, so far from taking pleasure in flirting with the world and indulging their carnal lusts, have their hearts engaged in "hating even the garment spotted by the flesh." These true disciples pray fervently for the assistance of the Holy Spirit in the performance of all their duties, and are deeply solicitous about the welfare of their brothers and sisters in Christ. Such are the ones who will, despite all their weakness and frailties, be preserved by the power and grace of God from apostasy. Two Principles of Interpretation Necessary for Understanding This Prayer It is of vital importance to a sound knowledge of Scripture that we observe the order in which truth is therein set forth. For example, we find David saying, "Depart from me, ye evildoers: for I will keep the commandments of my God." This he said before praying the following prayer: "Uphold me according unto Thy word" (Psalms 119:115-116). There would have been no sincerity in praying for God to support him unless he had already resolved to obey the Divine precepts. It is horrible mockery for anyone to ask God to sustain him in a course of self-will. First must come a holy purposing and resolution on our part, and then the seeking of enabling grace. It is of equal importance to a right understanding of Scripture that we take special care not to separate what God has joined together by detaching a sentence from its qualifying context. We often read the quotation, "My sheep shall never perish." While that is substantially correct, those are not the precise words Christ used. This is what He actually said: "My sheep hear [heed!] my voice, and I know [approve] them, and they follow Me [contrary to their natural inclinations]: And I give unto them eternal life; and they [the heedful and obedient ones] shall never perish" (John 10:27-28, brackets and ital. mine). Faith Is the Instrumental Means of Our Preservation Jude 1:20-25 "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling." In these words we discover the first great reason behind the Apostle Jude’s prayer, namely, the Divine ability to preserve the saints from apostasy. The discerning reader will perceive in the above remarks that the question of how Christ preserves His people has been anticipated and answered. He does so in a manner very different from that in which He keeps the planets in their courses, which He does by physical energy. Christ preserves His own by spiritual power, by the effectual operations of His grace within their souls. Christ preserves His people not in a course of reckless self-pleasing, but in one of self-denial. He preserves them by moving them to heed His warnings, to practice His precepts, and to follow the example that He has left them. He preserves them by enabling them to persevere in faith and holiness. We who are His are "kept by the power of God through faith (1 Peter 1:5, ital. mine), and faith has respect to His commandments (Psalms 119:66; Hebrews 11:8) as well as to His promises. Christ indeed is "the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2), yet we are the ones who must exercise that faith and not He. Yet, by the Holy Spirit, He is working in us "both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Php 2:13). Just as faith is the instrumental means by which we are justified before God, our perseverance in faith is the instrumental means by which Christ preserves us until His coming (1 Thessalonians 5:23; Jude 1:1). After exhorting the saints as to their duties (Jude 1:20-23), Jude then intimates to whom they must look for their enablement and for blessing upon their endeavors: "unto him that is able to keep you from falling." His readers must place the whole of their dependence for preservation on the Lord Jesus. He does not say this in order to check their industry, but rather to encourage their hope of success. It is a great relief to faith to know that "God is able to make him [us] stand" (Romans 14:4). John Gill begins his comments on Jude 1:24 by saying, "The people of God are liable to fall into temptation, into sin, into errors… and even into final and total apostasy, were it not for Divine power." Yea, they are painfully sensible both of their evil proclivities and their frailty, and therefore do they frequently cry to the Lord, "Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe: and I will have respect unto thy statutes continually" (Psalms 119:117). As they read of Adam in a state of innocency being unable to keep himself from falling, and likewise the angels in heaven, they know full well that imperfect and sinful creatures such as they are cannot keep themselves. The way to heaven is a narrow one, and there are precipices on either side. There are foes within and without seeking my destruction, and I have no more strength of my own than poor Peter had when he was put to the test by a maid. Metaphors Describing the Inherent Weakness of Christians Are Meant to Direct Our Faith to God Almost every figure used in the Bible to describe a child of God emphasizes his weakness and helplessness: a sheep, a branch of the vine, a bruised reed, smoking flax. It is only as we experientially discover our weakness that we learn to prize more highly the One who is able to keep us from falling. Is one of my readers tremblingly saying, "I fear that I too may perish in the wilderness"? Not so, if your prayer be sincere when you cry, "Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not" (Psalms 17:5). Christ is able to protect you, because His power is limitless and His grace boundless. What strength this should give the wearied warrior! David comforted himself therewith when he declared, "I will fear no evil: for thou art with me" (Psalms 23:4). There is a twofold safeguarding of the elect spoken of in this Epistle: the one before regeneration, and the other after. In the opening verse of Jude they are spoken of as "sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called." They were set apart to salvation by the Father in His eternal decree (2 Thessalonians 2:13), and "preserved" before they were effectually called. A wonderful and blessed fact is that! Even while wandering from the fold, yea, even while they were despising the Shepherd of their souls, His love watched over them (Jer. 31:3) and His power delivered them from an untimely grave. Death cannot seize an elect sinner until he has been born again! Christ Does Not Raise Our Hopes Merely to Dash Them What has just been pointed out should make it very evident that there is no question whatever about the Lord’s willingness to preserve His people. if He has kept them from natural death while in a state of unregeneracy, much more will He deliver them from spiritual death now that He has made them new creatures (cf. Romans 5:9-10). if Christ were not willing to "make all grace abound" toward His people (2 Corinthians 9:8), to "keep that which I [they] have committed unto him against that day" (2 Timothy 1:12, brackets mine), to "succor them that are tempted" (Hebrews 2:18), and to "save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him" (Hebrews 7:25), He most certainly would not tantalize them by affirming in each passage that He is able to do these things. When Christ asked the two blind men, who besought Him to have mercy upon them, "Believe ye that I am able to do this?" (Matthew 9:28), He was not raising a doubt in their minds as to His readiness to give them sight; but He was evoking their faith, as the next verse makes evident. The words "unto him that is able to keep you from falling" is a general expression including not only His might and willingness, but His goodness and munificence, which He has already brought, and shall continue to bring, to bear for the preservation of His people. Christ Is Bound by Covenant Obligation to Preserve His People from Total, Final Apostasy It is indeed true that the power of Christ is far greater than what He actually exercises, for His power is infinite. Were He so disposed, He could keep His people altogether from sin; but for wise and holy reasons He does not. As His forerunner John the Baptist declared to the Pharisees and Sadducees, "God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham" (Matthew 3:9), so Christ could have commanded a legion of angels to deliver Him from His enemies (Matthew 26:53), but He would not. The exercise of His power was and is regulated by God’s eternal purpose; He puts it forth only so far as He has stipulated to do so by covenant engagement. Thus the words "unto him that is able to keep you from falling" have reference not to every kind of falling, but from falling prey to the fatal errors of those "ungodly men" mentioned in verse 4, from being led astray by the sophistries and examples of heretical teachers. As the Shepherd of God’s sheep, Christ has received a charge to preserve them: not from straying, but from destruction. It is the gross sins spoken of in the context, when joined with obstinacy and impenitence, from which Christ delivers His people. These are "presumptuous sins" (Psalms 19:13), which, if one continues in impenitent, are unpardonable sins (just like suicide). In other words, it is from total and final apostasy that Christ keeps all His own. As an almighty Savior, Christ has been charged with the work of preserving His people. They were given to Him by the Father with that end in view. He is in every way qualified for the task considering both His Deity and His humanity (Hebrews 2:18). All authority has been given to Him in heaven and earth (Matthew 28:18). He is as willing as He is competent, for it is the Father’s will that He should lose none of His people (John 6:39), and therein He delights. He has a personal interest in them, for He has bought them for Himself. He is accountable for their custody. He therefore preserves them from being devoured by sin. No feeble Savior is ours, but rather One that is clothed with omnipotence. That was made manifest even during the days of His humiliation, when He cast out demons, healed the sick, and stilled the tempest by His authoritative fiat. It was evidenced when by a single utterance He caused those who came to arrest Him to fall backward to the ground (John 18:6). It was supremely demonstrated in His personal victory over death and the grave. That same almighty power is exercised in ordering all the affairs of His people, and in continually directing their wills and actions throughout the whole of their earthly pilgrimage. Of His vineyard He declares, "I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day (Isaiah 27:3). The Glorious Reception with Which Christ Receives and Presents the Redeemed "And to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy." Here is the second reason that prompted this outburst of adoration. Christ not only protects His people here, but has provided for their felicity hereafter. Such is His grace and power that He makes good to them all that God has purposed and promised. The presentation of His people to Himself is both individual and corporate. The former is at death, when He takes the believer to Himself. Inexpressibly blessed is this: upon its dismissal from the body the spirit of the believer is conducted into the immediate presence of God, and the Savior Himself admits it into heaven and presents it before the throne. The disembodied spirit, rid of all corruption and defilement, is received by Christ to the glory of God. He will set that redeemed spirit of a justified sinner made perfect (Hebrews 12:23) before Himself with great complacence of heart, so that it will reflect His own perfections. He will advance it to the highest honor, fill it with glory, express to it the uttermost of His love, and behold it with delight. Christ receives each blood-washed spirit at death to His everlasting embraces, and presents it before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. Our present passage also looks forward to the time when Christ will publicly present His people corporately to Himself, when the Head and Savior who "loved the church, and gave himself for it" will "present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish" (Ephesians 5:25, Ephesians 5:27). This shall be the certain and triumphant result of His love, as it shall be the consummation of our redemption. The Greek word for present (No. 2476 in Strong and Thayer; cf. present, 3936, in Ephesians 5:27) can be used in the sense to set alongside of. Having cleansed the Church from all her natural pollution and prepared and adorned her for her destined place as the companion of His glory, He will, formally, and officially, take her to Himself. This jubilant declaration shall go forth: "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him [God]: for the marriage of the Lamb is come" (Revelation 19:7, brackets mine). Christ will have made the Church comely with His own perfections, and she will be full of beauty and splendor, like a bride adorned for her husband. He will then say, "Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee" (Song of Solomon 4:7). She shall be "all glorious within: her clothing is [shall be] of wrought gold." Of her it is said, "So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty" (Psalms 45:11, Psalms 45:13, brackets mine), and He shall be forever the satisfying Portion of her joy. The Scriptures also indicate that on the resurrection morn Christ shall also present the Church to His Father (2 Corinthians 4:14), and shall say exultantly, "Behold I and the children which God hath given me" (Hebrews 2:13; cf. Genesis 33:5; Isaiah 8:18). Not one shall be lost (John 6:39-40; John 10:27-30; John 17:12, John 17:24)! And all shall be perfectly conformed to His holy image (Romans 8:29). He will present us before God for His inspection, acceptance, and approbation. Says Albert Barnes, He will present us in the court of heaven, before the throne of the eternal Father, as His ransomed people, as recovered from the ruins of the fall, as saved by the merits of His blood. They shall not only be raised from the dead by Him, but publicly and solemnly presented to God as His, as recovered to His service and as having a title in the covenant of grace to the blessedness of heaven. It is Christ taking His place before God as the triumphant Mediator, owning the "children" as God’s gift to Him, confessing His oneness with them, and delighting in the fruits of His work. He presents them "faultless": justified, sanctified, glorified. The manner in which He does so will be "with exceeding joy," for He shall then "see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied" (Isaiah 53:11). In Jude 1:15 we learn of the doom awaiting the apostates; here we behold the bliss appointed to the redeemed. They shall forever shine in Christ’s righteousness, and He shall find His complacency in the Church as the partner of His blessedness. A Doxology of Grand Ascription Directed to a Divine Person of Infinite Perfections "To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen." We come to a consideration of the nature and Object of this prayer. It is a doxology, an expression of praise; and though it is brief, the Divine verities upon which it focuses are immense. Seeing that the Lord is arrayed with glory and beauty (Job 40:10), we should continually ascribe these excellencies to Him (Exodus 15:11; 1 Chronicles 29:11). The saints are to publish and proclaim the perfections of their God: "Sing forth the honour of his name: make his praise glorious" (Psalms 66:2). This is what the apostles did, and we should emulate them. Here He is adored for His wisdom. There is something here that may present a difficulty to young theologians who have learned to distinguish between the incommunicable attributes of God, such as His infinitude and immutability, and His communicable attributes, such as mercy, wisdom, and so forth. Seeing that God has endowed some of His creatures with wisdom, how can He be said to be "only wise"? First, He is superlatively wise. His wisdom is so vastly superior to that of men and angels that their creaturely wisdom is foolishness by comparison. Secondly, He is essentially wise. God’s wisdom is not a quality separate from Himself as ours is. There are many men who are far from being wise men; but God would not be God if He were not omniscient, being naturally endowed with all knowledge and Himself the very Fountainhead of all wisdom. Thirdly, He is originally wise, Without derivation. All wisdom is from God, because He possesses all wisdom in Himself. All the true wisdom of creatures is but a ray from His light. The glorious Object of this doxology is none other than the Mediator of the covenant of grace. The reasons for so honoring Him are the omnipotence and omniscience that He possesses, which are gloriously displayed in His saving of the Church. In view of what is predicated of Him in Jude 1:24, there should not be the slightest doubt in our minds that "the only wise God" of Jude 1:25 is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, for it is His particular province as the Shepherd to preserve His Church from destruction and to present it in glory to the Father. Furthermore, the added epithet, "God our Saviour," confirms the matter. Here absolute Deity is ascribed to Him: "the only wise God," as it also is in Titus 2:13 (where the Greek text would more accurately and literally be rendered, "the great God and Saviour of us, Jesus Christ"), 2 Peter 1:1 (where the Greek should be translated, "of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ," witness the marginal notes of the KJV and ASV), and many other places. Christ the Son is "the only wise God," though not to the exclusion of the Father and the Spirit. Probably He is here designated as such in designed contrast with the false and foolish "gods" of the heretical corruptors mentioned in the context. I might add that by comparison to the sovereign triune God of Holy Writ, who is most gloriously represented in the God-man Jesus the Christ (who now reigns as the absolute Lord of the universe), the fictitious God of the Unitarians, of twentieth-century Modernists, and of most Arminians is also foolish and puerile. Christ’s Unique Fitness for the Work Assigned to Him It is the strength and sufficiency of Christ for all the concerns of His redemptive mediation that is here magnified. He is adored as the One who will triumphantly complete the work given Him to do, a work that no mere creature, no, not even an archangel, could accomplish. None but One who is both God and man could act as Mediator. None but a Divine Person could offer an adequate satisfaction to Divine justice. None but one possessed of infinite merit could provide a sacrifice of infinite value. None but God could preserve sheep in the midst of wolves. In Proverbs 8:1-36, especially Proverbs 8:12-13, Proverbs 8:31-32, Christ is denominated "wisdom," and is heard speaking as a distinct Person. He was heralded as the "Wonderful Counsellor" (Isaiah 9:6). He designated Himself "wisdom" in Luke 7:35. He is expressly called "the wisdom of God" (1 Corinthians 1:24), "In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:3). His wisdom appears in His creating all things (John 1:3), in His governing and maintaining all things (Hebrews 1:3), and in that the Father "hath committed all judgment unto the Son" (John 5:22). The consummate wisdom of Christ was manifested during the days of His flesh. He opened to men the secrets of God (Matthew 13:11), He declared, "The Son can do nothing of himself [which in the light of the context following means that He does nothing independently of the Father’s will], but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise" (John 5:19, John 5:30 brackets and ital. mine). Christ thereby affirmed an equality of competency between Himself and His Father. He "needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man" (John 2:25). Those who heard Him teach "were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works?" (Matthew 13:54). Christ’s unique wisdom appeared in answering and silencing His enemies. "Never man spake like this man" (John 7:46), testified those sent to arrest Him. He so confounded His critics that at the end Matthew testified, "neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions" (Matthew 22:46). Since, therefore, He is endowed with omniscience, let us find no fault with any of His dealings with us. Let us rather take to Him all our problems; let us confide absolutely in Him, putting ourselves and all our affairs into His hands. The Highest Praise Is Due the Lord Christ Since He is "the only wise God our Saviour"—the sole, sufficient, and successful Savior—let us laud Him as such. As those in heaven cast their crowns before the Lamb and extol His peerless perfections, so should we who are still upon earth. Since Christ subjected Himself to such unspeakable dishonor and abasement for our sakes, yea, enduring suffering to death itself, and that the death of the cross, how readily and heartily should we honor and magnify Him, crying with the apostle, "Unto him be glory and majesty, dominion and power"! Glory is the displaying of excellence in such a way that gains approbation from all who behold it. Here the word signifies the high honor and esteem that is due to Christ because of His perfections, whereby He infinitely surpasses all creatures and things. Majesty refers to His exalted dignity and Divine greatness that make Him to be honored and preferred beyond all His creatures, having received a name that is above every name (Php 2:9). Dominion is that absolute rule or ownership that is gained by conquest and maintained by strength or might superior to that of all rivals. This the God-man exercises in such a way that "none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?" (Daniel 4:35). He has already crushed the head of Satan, His most powerful enemy (Genesis 3:15), and thrown his evil kingdom into chaos. "And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them" in His death on the cross (Colossians 2:15). Power here means that authority to rule which is derived from legal right. Because Christ "became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Php 2:8-9), God the Father has exalted Him to the place of universal authority and rule (Matthew 28:18) where He now reigns as "KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS" (Revelation 19:16). This universal rule Christ earned as a legal right by His perfect obedience as the second Adam (Genesis 1:26-28). As the God-man, Christ not only merits authority and dominion over the earth with all of its creatures but also over the entire universe that He Himself created. King Jesus Reigns Both Now and Forever "To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen." Note well the two words set in italics. Radically different was the inspired concept of Jude from that of so many "students of prophecy" who postpone Christ’s reign to some future "millennial" era. It is both the present and the endless dignities of the Mediator that are here in view. He has already been "crowned with glory and honour" (Hebrews 2:9). Majesty is His today, for He is exalted "Far above all principality, and power," for God "hath [not "will"!] put all things under his feet" (Ephesians 1:21-22, ital. and brackets mine). Dominion is also exercised by Him now, and in the strength by which He obtained dominion He is presently "upholding all things by the word of his power" (Hebrews 1:3). Even now the Lord Jesus is seated upon the throne of David (Acts 2:29-35), "angels and authorities and powers being made [having been] made subject unto him." (1 Peter 3:22). So shall He reign, not merely for a thousand years, but forever. Amen. Thus does Jude conclude the most solemn of all Epistles with this paean of holy exultation over the present and eternal glory of the Lamb. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 63: 003.13. REVELATION 1:5, 6, PART 1 ======================================================================== 13 Revelation 1:5-6 Part 1 The prayer now before us really forms the closing part of the salutation and benediction of Revelation 1:4-5, in which "grace and peace" are sought from the triune God in His distinct persons: (1) "from him which is, and which was, and which is to come," that is, from Jehovah as the self-existing and immutable One—He is addressed by the equivalent of His memorial name (Exodus 3:13-17) by which His eternal being and covenant-keeping faithfulness were to be remembered (Exodus 6:2-5; "the LORD" equals "Jehovah" throughout the Old Testament); (2) "from the seven Spirits which are before his throne," that is, from the Holy Spirit in the fullness of His power and diversity of His operations (Isaiah 11:1-2); and (3) "from Jesus Christ," who is mentioned last as the connecting Link between God and His people. A threefold appellation is here accorded the Savior: (1) "the faithful witness," which contemplates and covers the whole of His virtuous life from the manger to the cross; (2) "the first begotten [better, "Firstborn"] of the dead," (brackets mine) which celebrates His victory over the tomb—this is a title of dignity (Genesis 49:3), and signifies priority of rank rather than time; and (3) "and the prince of the kings of the earth," which announces His regal majesty and dominion. This third title views the Conqueror as exalted "Far above all principality, and power" (Ephesians 1:21), as the One upon whose shoulder the government of the universe has been laid (Isaiah 9:6), who is even now "upholding all things by the word of his power" (Hebrews 1:3), and before whom every knee shall yet bow (Php 2:10). An Analytical Synopsis of the Prayer The preceding recital of the Redeemer’s perfections and dignities evoked from the mouth of the Apostle John this adoring exclamation: "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." Thus the nature of our prayer is again a doxology. Its Object is the Son of God incarnate in His mediatorial character and office. Its adorers are those of "us" who are the beneficiaries of His mediation. Its inciting reasons are our apprehensions of His unfathomable love, the cleansing efficacy of His precious blood, and the wondrous dignities that He has conferred upon His redeemed. Its ascription is "to him be glory and dominion," not merely for a thousand years, but "for ever and ever," which closes with the assuring affirmation, "Amen"—it shall be so. For the benefit of young preachers I shall add a few more remarks on doxologies in general. The Doxologies Are Needed to Enlarge Our Conceptions of the Persons of the Godhead The doxologies of Scripture reveal our need to form more exalted conceptions of the Divine Persons. In order to do so, we must engage in more frequent and devout meditations on their ineffable attributes. How little do our thoughts dwell upon the display of them in the material creation. Divinity is "clearly seen" in the things that God has made, and even the heathen are charged with inexcusable guilt because of their failure to glorify God for His handiwork (Romans 1:19-21). Not only should our senses be regaled by the lovely colors of the trees and perfumes of the flowers, but our minds ought to dwell upon the motions and instincts of animals, admiring the Divine hand that so equipped them. How little do we reflect on the marvels of our own bodies, the structure, convenience, and perfect adaptedness of each member. How few unite with the Psalmist in exclaiming, "I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well" (Psalms 139:14). How much more wonderful are the faculties of our inner man, raising us high above all irrational creatures. How better can our reason be employed than in extolling the One who has so richly endowed us? Yet how little grateful acknowledgment is made to the beneficent Fashioner and Donor of our beings. How little do we consider the wisdom and power of God as manifested in the government of the world. Let us take, for example, the balance preserved between the sexes in the relative number of births and deaths, so that the population of the earth is maintained from generation to generation without any human contriving. Or let us take into account the various temperaments and talents given to men, so that some are wise for counsel, administration and management, some are better qualified for hard manual labor, and others to serve in clerical functions. Or consider how His government curbs the baser passions of men, so that such a measure of law and order obtains generally in society that the weak are not destroyed by the strong nor the good unable to live in a world that wholly "lieth in wickedness" (1 John 5:19). Or think how God sets bounds to the success of rapacious dictators, so that when it appears they are on the very point of carrying all before them, they are suddenly stopped by the One who has decreed that they shall go "no farther." Or ponder how, in His application of the law of retribution, individuals and nations are made to reap what they sow, whether it be good or evil. It is because we pay so little attention to these and a hundred other similar phenomena that we are so rarely moved to cry, "Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth" (Revelation 19:6). Doxologies Are Wholly Devoted to the Praises of Deity, Particularly to the Works of Divine Grace But it is the wondrous works of God in the realm of grace, rather than in creation and providence, that are most calculated to draw out the hearts of God’s people in adoring homage. More particularly, those works wherein the Darling of His own heart was and is engaged on our behalf draw forth our admiration and praise. Thus it is in the verses we are now pondering. No sooner was the peerless Person and perfections of the eternal Lover of his soul set before the mind and heart of the Apostle John than that he cried exultantly, "To Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever." And thus it is with all of God’s true saints. Such a cry is the spontaneous response and outgoing of their souls to Him. That leads me to point out the one thing that is common to all doxologies: in them praise is always offered exclusively to Deity, and never to any mere human agency or accomplishment. Self-occupation and self-gratulation have no place whatever in them. Different far is that from the low level of spirituality generally prevailing in the churches today. This writer was once present at a service where a hymn was sung, the chorus of which ran, "Oh, how I love Jesus." But I could not conscientiously join in singing it. None in heaven are guilty of lauding themselves or magnifying their graces, nor should any Christians do so here upon earth. The Particular Object of this Doxology The Object of this adoration and thanksgiving is that Blessed One who undertook, with the Father and the Spirit, to save His people from all their sins and miseries by the price of His blood and the arm of His power. In His essential Person, God the Son is co-equal and co-eternal with the Father and the Spirit "who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen" (Romans 9:5). He is the uncreated Sun of righteousness (Psalms 84:11; Malachi 4:2). In Him all the glory of the Godhead shines forth, and by Him all the perfections of Deity have been manifested. In response to this very homage, He declares, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty" (Revelation 1:8). Before the worlds were made He entered into covenant engagement to become incarnate, to be made in the likeness of sinful flesh (Romans 8:3) to serve as the Surety of His people, to be the Bridegroom of His Church—its complete and all-sufficient Savior. As such He is the Man of God’s right hand, the Fellow of the Lord of hosts, the King of glory. His work is honorable, His fullness infinite, His power omnipotent. His throne is for ever and ever. His name is above every name. His glory is above the heavens. It is impossible to extol Him too highly, for His glorious name "is exalted above all blessing and praise" (Nehemiah 9:5, ital. mine). In the immediate context this adorable One is viewed in His theanthropic person, as incarnate, as the God-man Mediator. He is set forth in His threefold office as Prophet, Priest, and Potentate. His prophetical office is clearly denoted in the title "the faithful Witness," for in Old Testament prophecy the Father announced, "I have given him for a witness to the people" (Isaiah 55:4). Christ Himself declared to Pilate, "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth" (John 18:37). As such He proclaimed the Gospel to the poor and confirmed it by mighty miracles. His sacerdotal office is necessarily implied in the expression "first begotten of the dead," for in death He offered Himself as a sacrifice to God to make satisfaction for the transgressions of His people. He then rose again that He might continue to exercise His priesthood by His constant intercession for them. His regal office appears plainly in the designation "prince of the kings of the earth," for He has absolute dominion over them. By Him they reign (Proverbs 8:15), and to Him they are commanded to render allegiance (Psalms 2:10-12). To Him we are to hearken, in Him we are to believe, and to Him we are to be subject. Singly and collectively these titles announce that He is to be greatly respected and revered. Angels Are Filled with Wonder over the Redeeming Love of Christ for His Church While an exile on the isle of Patmos, John was engaged in contemplating Immanuel in the excellencies of His Person, offices, and work. As he did so his heart was enraptured, and he exclaimed, "Unto him that loved us." The love of Christ is here expressed by the Apostle John in the past tense, not because it is inoperative in the present but to focus our attention upon its earlier exercises. The love of Christ is the grandest fact and mystery revealed in Holy Writ. That love originated in His heart and was in operation for all eternity, for before the mountains were formed His "delights were with the sons of men" (Proverbs 8:31). That wonderful love was put forth by Christ in connection with the everlasting covenant, wherein He agreed to serve as the Sponsor of His people and to discharge all their obligations. That He should take complacence in creatures of the dust is the marvel of heaven (Ephesians 3:8-10; 1 Peter 1:12). That He should set His heart upon them while viewed in their fallen estate is incomprehensible. That love was expressed openly in His incarnation, humiliation, obedience, sufferings, and death. Holy Scripture declares that "the love of Christ… passeth knowledge" (Ephesians 3:19). It is entirely beyond finite computation or comprehension. That the Son of God should ever deign to notice finite creatures was an act of great condescension on His part (Psalms 13:6). That he should go so far as to pity them is yet more wonderful. That He should love us in our pollution entirely transcends our understanding. That the outgoings of His heart toward the Church moved Him to lay aside the glory that He had with the Father before the world was (John 17:5), to take upon Him the form of a servant, and to become "obedient unto death" for their sakes, "even the death of the cross" (Php 2:7-8), surmounts all thought and is beyond all praise. That the Holy One should be willing to be made sin for His people (2 Corinthians 5:21) and to endure the curse that endless blessing should be their portion (Galatians 3:13-14) is altogether inconceivable. As S. E. Pierce so ably expressed it, His love is one perfect and continued act from everlasting to everlasting. It knows no abatement or decay. It is eternal and immutable love. It exceeds all conception and surpasses all expression. To give the utmost proof of it, "Christ died for the ungodly" (Romans 5:6). In His life He fully displayed His love. In His sufferings and death He stamped it with an everlasting emphasis. Christ’s Love Is Completely Impartial, Not Evoked by Any Merit in Its Objects The love of Christ was an entirely disinterested love, for it was uninfluenced by anything in its objects or any other considerations external to Himself. There was nothing whatever in His people, either actual or foreseen, to call His love into exercise: nothing actual, for they had rebelled against God and had deliberately chosen as their exemplar and master one who was a liar and murderer from the beginning; nothing foreseen, for no excellence could they bear but that which His own gracious hand wrought in them. The love of Christ infinitely excelled in purity, in intensity, in its disinterestedness, any that ever moved in a human breast. It was altogether free and spontaneous. He loved us when we were loveless and unlovely. We were entirely unable to render Him any proper compensation or return. His own essential blessedness and glory could neither be diminished by our damnation nor increased by our salvation. His love was uninvited, unattracted, altogether self-caused and self-motivated. It was His love that stirred every other attribute—His wisdom, power, holiness, and so forth—to activity. The words of David, "he delivered me, because he delighted in me" (Psalms 18:19, ital. mine), provide the Divine explanation of my redemption. The love of Christ was a discriminating one. "The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works" (Psalms 145:9). He is benevolent toward all His creatures, making His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sending rain on the just and on the unjust (Matthew 5:45). "He is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil" (Luke 6:35, ital. mine). But Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it with a love such as He does not bear toward all mankind. The Church is the one special and peculiar object of His affections. For her He reserves and entertains a unique love and devotion that makes her shine among all the created works of His hands with the unmistakable radiance of a favorite. Husbands are bidden to love their wives "even as Christ also loved the church" (Ephesians 5:25). The love of a husband toward his wife is a special and exclusive one; so Christ cherishes for His Church a particular affection. It is set upon His Bride rather than upon the human race at large. She is His peculiar treasure. "Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end" (John 13:1, ital. mine). Instead of caviling at this truth, let us enjoy its preciousness. Christ’s love is also a constant and durable one, exercised upon its objects "unto the end"; and, as we shall now see, it is a sacrificial and enriching love. Christ’s Love Addressed Itself to Our Greatest Need: The Purging of Our Sins The manifestations of Christ’s love correspond to our woe and want, its operations being suited to the condition and circumstances of its objects. Our direst need was the putting away of our sins, and that need has been fully met by Him. His love alone could not remove our transgressions "as far as the east is from the west." The claims of God had to be met; the penalty of the Law had to be endured. "Without shedding of blood is no remission" (Hebrews 9:22), and Christ so loved the Church as to shed His precious blood for her. Hence the Apostle John is here heard exclaiming, "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in [or "by"] his own blood." This is the second inspiring reason or motive behind this benediction. This reference to the blood of Christ necessarily underscores His Deity as well as His humanity. None but a creature can shed blood and die, but none but God can forgive sins. It is likewise a witness to the vicarious or substitutionary nature and efficacy of His sacrifice. How otherwise could it wash us from our sins? Moreover, it celebrates the supreme proof of His care for His people. "Love is strong as death; … Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the flood drown it" (Song of Solomon 8:6-7) demonstrated at the cross, where all the waves and billows of God’s wrath (Psalms 42:7) went over the Sinbearer. The surpassing love of Christ was evidenced by His espousing the persons of God’s elect, undertaking their cause, assuming their nature, obeying and suffering in their room and stead. The Apostle Paul brought this blessed truth home with application to believers when he said, Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour (Ephesians 5:1-2). The Lord Jesus knew what was necessary for our deliverance, and His love prompted Him to the accomplishment of the same. And the apostles Paul and John understood and taught concerning the heavy debt of love and gratitude that is laid upon all the happy beneficiaries of Christ’s saving work. To "wash us from our sins" was of the very essence of those things that are necessary for our salvation, and for that His blood must be shed. What stupendous proof was that of His love! Herein is love, that the Just should voluntarily and gladly suffer for the unjust, "that he might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18). "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). Amazing tidings, that Christ Jesus made full atonement for those who were at that very moment His enemies (Romans 5:10)! He chose to lay down His life for those who were by nature and by practice rebels against God, rather than that they should be a sacrifice to the wrath of God forever. The guilty transgress, but the innocent One is condemned. The ungodly offend, but the Holy One endures the penalty. The servant commits the crime, but the Lord of glory blots it out. What reason have we to adore Him! Christ’s Love Is Infinite and Immutable How can Christ ever manifest His love for His people in a way that exceeds that which He has already done? "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). Yet this was the God-man, and by so doing He showed that His love was infinite and eternal—incapable of amplification! He shone forth in the full meridian power and splendor of His love in Gethsemane and on Calvary. There he sustained in His soul the whole of the awful curse that was due and payable to the sins of His people. Then it was that it pleased the Father to bruise Him and put His soul to grief (Isaiah 53:10). His anguish was inconceivable. He cried out under it, "Why hast thou forsaken me?" It was thus that He loved us, and it was thereby that He provided the fountain to cleanse us from our iniquities. Through the shedding of His precious blood He has purged His people entirely from the guilt and defilement of sin. Let us join in the exultant praise of S. E. Pierce: Blessings, eternal blessings on the Lamb who bore our sins and carried our sorrows! His bloody sweat is our everlasting health and cure. His soul-travail is our everlasting deliverance from the curse of the Law and the wrath to come. His bearing our sins in His own body on the Tree is our everlasting discharge from them. His most precious bloodshedding is our everlasting purification. "And washed us from our sins in his own blood." Sin alike stains our record before God, pollutes the soul, and defiles the conscience; and naught can remove it but the atoning and cleansing blood of Christ. Sin is the only thing that the Lord Jesus hates. It is essential to His holiness that He should do so. He hates it immutably, and can as soon cease to love God as love it. Nevertheless His love to His people is even greater than His hatred of sin. Through their fall in Adam they are sinners; their fallen natures are totally depraved. By thought, word, and deed they are sinners. They are guilty of literally countless transgressions, for their sins are more in number than the hairs of their heads (Psalms 40:12). Yet Christ loved them! He did so before they sinned in Adam, and His forethoughts of them in their fallen estate produced no change in His love for them; rather, they afforded greater opportunity for Him to display that love. Therefore He became incarnate, that He might blot out their sins. Nothing was more loathsome to the Holy One of God. Yet He was willing to be an alien to His mother’s children, despised and rejected of men, mocked and scourged by them, yea, abandoned by God for a season, that His people might be cleansed. Christ’s Once-for-All Washing of His People I fully agree with John Gill’s comments on the words "washed us from our sins": This is not to be understood of the sanctification of their natures, which is the work of the Spirit, but of atonement for their sins and justification from them. In other words, it is the purchase of redemption, and not its application, that is here in view. The latter, of course, follows at regeneration, for all whom He washed judicially from the guilt and penalty of sin (once for all at Golgotha) are in due time cleansed and released from the love and dominion of sin. That which is signified in the clause before us is guilt cancelled, condemnation removed, the curse of the Law taken away, and the sentence of acquittal pronounced. This is the portion of all believers: "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1). We must distinguish between the justification of our persons once for all (Acts 13:39) and the pardon of those sins that we commit as Christians (1 John 1:9). The latter must be penitentially confessed, and then we are forgiven and cleansed on the ground of Christ’s blood. It is the former that is in view in Revelation 1:5, where the Apostle John is rejoicing in the love of Him whose blood has once and for all washed the persons of the saints. The ongoing cleansing from sin that is needed day by day is acknowledged in Revelation 7:13-14, where we behold the saints in brilliant white robes, previously travel-stained garments that they had cleansed day by day (cf. John 13:3-17). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 64: 003.14. REVELATION 1:5, 6, PART 2 ======================================================================== 14 Revelation 1:5-6 Part 2 Two evidences of the love of Christ for His people are mentioned in this prayer: His cleansing of them from their sins by His own blood, and His enriching of them by the dignities He bestows upon them. But there is also a third expression and manifestation of His love that, though not distinctly expressed, is necessarily implied here, namely, His provision for them. As the result of the work that His love prompted Him to perform on their behalf, He meritoriously secured the Holy Spirit for His people (Acts 2:33). Christ therefore sends the Holy Spirit to regenerate them, to take of the things of Christ and show the same to them (John 16:14-15), to impart an experiential and saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus, and to produce faith in their hearts so that they believe on Him to everlasting life. I say that all of this is necessarily implied, for only by these realities are they enabled truly and feelingly to exclaim "unto him that loved us," yea, so that each of them may aver that this Christ the Son of God "loved me, and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). This is the quintessence of real blessedness: to be assured by the Spirit from the Word that I am an object of Christ’s infinite and immutable love. The knowledge thereof makes Him "altogether lovely" in my esteem (Song of Solomon 5:16), rejoices my soul, and sanctifies my affections. By Saving Faith, One Looks Outside Oneself to Christ See here the appropriating nature of saving faith. It takes hold of Christ and His sacrifice for sinners as made known in the Word of truth. It says, Here is a love letter from heaven about the glorious Gospel of the Son of God, which gives an account of Christ’s love and the strongest and greatest possible proofs thereof. I see that this letter is for me, for it is addressed to sinners, yea, to the very chief of sinners. It both invites and commands me to receive this Divine Lover to myself and to believe unfeignedly in the sufficiency of His atoning blood for my sins. Therefore I take Him as He is freely proffered by the Gospel, and rely on His own word: "him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37). This faith comes not by feelings of my love to Christ, but by the hearing of His love for sinners (Romans 5:8; Romans 10:17). True, the Holy Spirit, in the day of His power, makes impressions on the heart by the Word. Yet the ground of faith is not those impressions, but the Gospel itself. The Object of faith is not Christ working on the heart and softening it, but rather Christ as He is presented to our acceptance in the Word. What we are called upon to hear is not Christ speaking secretly within us, but Christ speaking openly, objectively, without us. The Blessed Fruits of Saving Faith A most dreadful curse is pronounced upon all who "love not the Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 16:22). Solemn indeed is it to realize that that curse rests upon the vast majority of our fellows, even in those countries that are reputed to be Christian. But why does any sinner love Christ? One can only do so because he believes in the love of Christ toward sinners. He perceives the wonder and preciousness thereof; for "faith… worketh by love" (Galatians 5:6), even by the love of Christ manifested toward us. It receives or takes His love to the heart. Then it works peace in the conscience, gives conscious access to God (Ephesians 3:12), stirs up joy in Him, and promotes communion with and conformity to Him. That faith, implanted by the Holy Spirit, that works by love—the reflex of our apprehension and appropriation of Christ’s love—slays our enmity against God, and causes us to delight in His Law (Romans 7:22). Such faith knows, on the authority of the Word of God, that our sins—which were the cause of our separation and alienation from Him—have been washed away by the atoning blood of Christ. How inexpressibly blessed it is to know that in the fullness of time Christ appeared "to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself" (Hebrews 9:26) and that God says of all believers, "their sins and iniquities will I remember no more" (Hebrews 10:17). On our trust in the Divine testimonies of the Gospel depends, to a large extent, both our practical holiness and our comfort. Our love to Christ and adoration of Him will grow or diminish in proportion to our faith in the Person and work of Christ. Where there is a personal assurance of His love, there cannot but be a joining with the saints in heaven in praising Christ for washing us from our sins (Revelation 5:9-10). But many will object, "I still have so much sin in me; and it so often gets the mastery over me, that I dare not cherish the assurance that Christ has washed me from my sins." If that be your case, I ask, Do you mourn over your corruptions, and earnestly desire to be forever rid of them? If so, that is proof that you are entitled to rejoice in Christ’s atoning blood. God sees fit to leave sin in you, that in this life you may be kept humble before Him and marvel the more at His longsuffering. It is His appointment that the Lamb should now be eaten "with bitter herbs" (Exodus 12:8). This world is not the place of your rest. God suffers you to be harassed by your lusts, that you may look forward more eagerly to the deliverance and rest awaiting you. Though Romans 7:14-25 accurately describes your present experience, Romans 8:1 also declares, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus"! The Exalted Positions and Privileges Enjoyed by Christians by Virtue of Union with Christ "And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father." Here is the third inspiring reason for the ascription that follows. Having owned the indebtedness of the saints to the Savior’s love and sacrifice, the Apostle John now celebrates, in the language of "the spirits of just men made perfect" (Revelation 5:10; Hebrews 5:10), the high dignities that He has conferred upon them. We who are children of the most High, in due measure, are made partakers of the honors of Him who is both the King of kings and our great High Priest; and the apprehension of this fact evokes a song of praise to Him. As we realize that the Lord Jesus shares His own honors with His redeemed, conferring upon them both regal dignity and priestly nearness to God, we cannot but exultantly exclaim, "To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever." We were virtually made kings and priests when He contracted to fulfill the terms of the everlasting covenant, for by that engagement we were constituted such. By purchase we were made kings and priests when He paid the price of our redemption, for it was by His merits that He purchased these privileges for us. Federally we were made so when He ascended on high (Ephesians 4:8; Ephesians 2:6) and entered within the veil as our Forerunner (Hebrews 6:19-20). Actually we were made so at our regeneration, when we became participants in His anointing. "And hath made us kings and priests unto God." Here we have the Redeemer exalting and ennobling His redeemed. This presupposes and follows upon our pardon, and is the positive result of Christ’s meritorious obedience to God’s Law (without which He could not have died in the place of sinners). The One who loved us has not only removed our defilements but has also restored us to the Divine favor and fellowship. Furthermore, he has secured for us a glorious reward; He took our place that we might share His. In order that we may be protected from certain insidious errors, which have brought not a few of God’s children into bondage, it is important to perceive that these designations belong not merely to a very select and advanced class of Christians, but equally to all believers. It is also necessary, lest we be robbed by Dispensationalism, that we realize that these dignities pertain to us now. They are not postponed until our arrival in heaven, and still less till the dawn of the millennium. Every saint has these two honors conferred on him at once: he is a regal priest, and a priestly monarch. Herein we see the dignity and nobility of the Lord’s people. The world looks upon us as mean and contemptible, but He speaks of us as "the excellent, in whom is all my delight" (Psalms 16:3). When Paul states in 2 Corinthians 1:21 that God "stablisheth us… in Christ, and hath anointed us," (ital. mine) he is implying that God has made us kings and priests; for the word anointed is expressive of dignity. Kings and priests were anointed when inaugurated in their offices. Therefore when it is said that God has anointed all who are in Christ Jesus, it intimates that He has qualified and authorized them to the discharge of these high offices. In drawing a sharp contrast between true believers and false brethren and false teachers, the Apostle John says, "But ye have an unction from the Holy One. …But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you" (1 John 2:20, 1 John 2:27). We have a participation in Christ’s anointing (Acts 10:38), receiving the same Spirit wherewith He was anointed (a beautiful type of Christ’s anointing is set forth in Psalms 133:2). The blessedness of the elect appears in that they are made both kings and priests by virtue of the Name in which they are presented before God. They who "receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:17, ital. mine). Though in all things Christ has the preeminence, being "the King of kings"—for He has been "anointed… with the oil of gladness above thy [His] fellows" (Psalms 45:7, ital. and brackets mine)—yet His companions are invested with royalty; and "as he is, so are we in this world" (1 John 4:17, ital. mine). Oh, for faith to appropriate that fact, and for grace to conduct ourselves accordingly! Apparently there is a designed contrast between the two expressions, "the kings of the earth" and "hath made us kings and priests unto God." They are kings naturally, we spiritually; they unto men, we unto God. They are merely kings, but we are both kings and priests. The dominion of earthly monarchs is but fleeting; their regal glory quickly fades. Even the glory of Solomon, which surpassed that of all the kings of the earth, was but of brief duration. But we shall be co-regents with a King the foundation of whose throne (Revelation 3:21) is indestructible, whose scepter is everlasting, and whose dominion is universal (Matthew 28:18; Revelation 21:7). We shall be clothed with immortality and vested with a glory that shall never be dimmed. Believers are kings, not in the sense that they take any part in heaven’s rule over the earth, but as sharers in their Lord’s triumph over Satan, sin, and the world. In that Christians are also distinguished from the angels. For they are not kings, nor will they ever reign, for they are not anointed. They have no union with the incarnate Son of God, and therefore they are not "joint-heirs with Christ" as the redeemed are (Romans 8:17). So far from it, they are all "ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation" (Hebrews 1:14). A subordinate place and a subservient task is theirs! The Moral Dominion Exercised by the Christian Christ has not only done a great work for His people, but He accomplishes a grand work in them. He not only washes them from their sins, which He hates, but He also transforms by His power their persons, which He loves. He does not leave them as He first finds them—under the dominion of Satan, sin, and the world. No, but He makes them kings. A king is one who is called to rule, who is invested with authority, and who exercises dominion; and so do believers over their enemies. True, some of the subjects we are called to rule are both strong and turbulent, yet we are "more than conquerors through him that loved us" (Romans 8:37). The Christian is "a king, against whom there is no rising up" (Proverbs 30:31). Though he may often be overcome in his person, yet he shall never be overcome in his cause. There is still a law in his members warring against the law of his mind (Romans 8:23), yet sin shall not have dominion over him (Romans 6:14). Once the world kept him in bondage, presuming to dictate his conduct, so that he was afraid to defy its customs and ashamed to ignore its maxims. But "whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith" (1 John 5:4). By God’s gracious gift of faith, we are enabled to seek our portion and enjoyment in things above. Note well the words of Thomas Manton on this subject: King is a name of honour, power, and ample possession. Here we reign spiritually, as we vanquish the devil, the world, and the flesh in any measure. It is a princely thing to be above those inferior things and to trample them under our feet in a holy and heavenly pride. A heathen could say, "He is a king that fears nothing and desires nothing." He that is above the hopes and fears of the world, he that hath his heart in heaven and is above temporal trifles, the ups and downs of the world, the world beneath his affections; this man is of a kingly spirit. Christ’s kingdom is not of this world, neither is a believer’s. "Thou… hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth" (Revelation 5:10), namely, in a spiritual way. It is a beastly thing to serve our lusts, but kingly to have our conversation in heaven and vanquish the world—to live up to our faith and love with a noble spirit. Hereafter we shall reign visibly and gloriously when we shall sit upon thrones with Christ. The saints will yet judge the world, yea, and angels also (1 Corinthians 6:2-3). The Superiority of Self-Government over Secular Rule The work that is assigned to the Christian as a king is to govern himself. "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city" (Proverbs 16:32, ital. mine). As a king the Christian is called on to mortify his own flesh, to resist the devil, to discipline his temper, to subdue his lusts, and to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). That is a lifelong task. Nor can the Christian accomplish it in his own strength. It is his duty to seek enablement from above, and to draw upon the fullness of grace that is available for him in Christ. The heart is his kingdom (Proverbs 4:23); and it is his responsibility to make reason and conscience, both formed by God’s Word, to govern his desires so that his will is subject to God. He is required to be the master of his appetites and the regulator of his affections, to deny ungodly and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. He is to be "temperate in all things" (1 Corinthians 9:25). He is to subdue his impetuosity and impatience, to refuse to take revenge when others wrong him, to bridle his passions, to "overcome evil with good" (Romans 12:21), and to have such control of himself that he "rejoice[s] with trembling" (Psalms 2:11, brackets mine). He is to learn contentment in every state or condition of life that God in His wise and good providence may be pleased to put him (Php 4:11). Some earthly monarchs have not a few faithless and unruly subjects who envy and hate them, who chafe under their scepter, and who want to depose them. Nevertheless, they still maintain their thrones. In like manner, the Christian king has many rebellious lusts and traitorous dispositions that oppose and continually resist his rule, yet he must seek grace to restrain them. Instead of expecting defeat, it is his privilege to be assured, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Php 4:13). The Apostle Paul was exercising his royal office when he declared, "all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any" (1 Corinthians 6:12). Therein he has left us an example (1 Corinthians 11:1). He was also conducting himself as a king when he said, "But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection" (1 Corinthians 9:27). Yet, like everything else in this life, the exercise of our regal office is very imperfect. Not yet have we fully entered into our royal honors or acted out our royal dignity. Not yet have we received the crown, or sat down with Christ on His throne, which ceremonies of coronation are essential for the complete manifestation of our kingship. Yet the crown is laid up for us, a mansion (infinitely surpassing Buckingham Palace) is being prepared for us, and this promise is ours: "the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly" (Romans 16:20). The Sacerdotal Privileges and Duties of the Believer Following my usual custom, I have endeavored to supply the most help where the commentators and other expositors afford the least. Having sought to explain at some length the kingly office of the believer, less needs to be said upon the sacerdotal office. A priest is one who is given a place of nearness to God, who has access to Him, who holds holy intercourse with Him. It is his privilege to be admitted into the Father’s presence and to be given special tokens of His favor. He has a Divine service to perform. His office is one of high honor and dignity (Hebrews 5:4-5). However, it pertains to no ecclesiastical hierarchy, but is common to all believers. "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood." Christians are "an holy priesthood" ordained "to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2:5, 1 Peter 2:9). They are worshipers of the Divine majesty, and bring with them a sacrifice of praise (Hebrews 13:15). "The priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth" (Malachi 2:7). As priests they are to be intercessors for all men, especially for kings and for all that are in authority (1 Timothy 2:1-2). But the full and perfect exercise of our priesthood lies in the future, when, rid of sin and carnal fears, we shall see God face to face and worship Him uninterruptedly. A Fitting Doxology Based on Who Christ Is and What He Has Done "To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." This is an act of worship, an ascription of praise, a breathing of adoration to the Redeemer from the hearts of the redeemed. Christians vary a great deal in their capacities and attainments, and they differ in many minor views and practices. But they all unite with the apostle in this. All Christians have substantially the same views of Christ and the same love for Him.. Wherever the Gospel has been savingly apprehended, it cannot but produce this effect. First there is a devout acknowledgment of what the Lord Jesus has done for us, and then a doxology rendered to Him. As we contemplate who it was that loved us—not a fellow mortal, but the everlasting God— we cannot but prostrate ourselves before Him in worship. As we consider what He did for us—shed His precious blood—our hearts are drawn out in love to Him. As we realize how He has bestowed such marvelous dignities upon us—made us kings and priests—we cannot but cast our crowns at His feet (Revelation 4:10). Where such sentiments truly possess the soul, Christ will be accorded the throne of our hearts. Our deepest longing will be to please Him and to live to His glory. "To him be glory." This is a word that signifies (1) visible brightness or splendor, or (2) an excellence of character that places a person (or thing) in a position of good reputation, honor, and praise. The "glory of God" denotes primarily the excellence of the Divine being and the perfections of His character. The "glory of Christ" comprehends His essential Deity, the moral perfections of His humanity, and the high worth of all His offices. Secondarily, the physical manifestations of the glory of Jehovah (Exodus 3:2-6; Exodus 13:21-22) and of His Anointed (Matthew 17:1-9) are derived from the great holiness of the triune God (Exodus 20:18-19; Exodus 33:17-23; Judges 13:22; 1 Timothy 6:16). Christ has an intrinsic glory as God the Son (John 17:5). He has an official glory as the God-man Mediator (Hebrews 2:9). He has a merited glory as the reward of His work, and this He shares with His redeemed (John 17:5). In our text glory is ascribed to Him for each of the following reasons. Christ is here magnified both for the underived excellence of His Person that exalts Him infinitely above all creatures and for His acquired glory that will yet be displayed before an assembled universe. There is a glory that exalts Him infinitely above all creatures and for His acquired glory as the Redeemer that will yet be displayed before an assembled universe. There is a glory pertaining to Him as God incarnate, and this was proclaimed by the angels over the plains of Bethlehem (Luke 2:14). There is a glory belonging to Him in consequence of His mediatorial office and work, and that can be appropriately celebrated only by the redeemed. "And dominion." This, too, belongs to Him first by right as the eternal God. As such Christ’s dominion is underived and supreme. As such He has absolute sovereignty over all creatures, the devil himself being under His sway. Furthermore, universal dominion is also His by merit. God has made "that same Jesus," whom men crucified, "both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36). All authority is given to Him both in heaven and in earth (Matthew 28:18). It was promised Him in the everlasting covenant as the reward of His great undertaking. The mediatorial kingdom of Christ is founded upon His sacrificial death and triumphant resurrection. These dignities of His are "for ever and ever," for "Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end" (Isaiah 9:7; cf. Daniel 7:13-14). By a faithful "Amen" let us set our seal to the truthfulness of God’s declaration. How blessed is this, that before any announcement is made of the awful judgments described in the Apocalypse, before a trumpet of doom is sounded, before a vial of God’s wrath is poured on the earth, the saints (by John’s inspired benediction) are first heard lauding in song the Lamb: Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, And hath made us kings and priests [not unto ourselves, but] unto God and his Father [for his honor]; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 65: 004.00. A STUDY OF DISPENSATIONALISM ======================================================================== A study of Dispensationalism by Arthur Pink ======================================================================== CHAPTER 66: 004.01. CHAPTER 1 ======================================================================== Chapter 1 Having written so much upon both the inspiration and the interpretation of Holy Writ, it is necessary, in order to give completeness unto the same, to supply one or two articles upon the application thereof. First, because this is very closely related to exegesis itself: if a wrong application or use be made of a verse, then our explanation of it is certain to be erroneous. For example, Romanism insists that "Feed my sheep" (John 21:15-17) was Christ’s bestowal upon Peter of a special privilege and peculiar honour, being one of the passages to which that evil system appeals in support of her contention for the primacy of that Apostle. Yet there is nothing whatever in Peter’s own writings which indicates that he regarded those injunctions of his Master as constituting him "Universal Bishop." Instead, in his first Epistle there is plainly that to the contrary, for there we find him exhorting the elders or bishops, "Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock" (1 Peter 5:2-3). Thus it is quite clear from the above passage that Christ’s precepts in John 21:15-17, apply or pertain unto all pastors. On the other hand, our Lord’s words to Peter and Andrew, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men" (Matthew 4:19) do not apply to the rank and file of His disciples, but only unto those whom He calls into and qualifies for the ministry. That is evident from the fact that in none of the Epistles, where both the privileges and the duties of the saints are specifically defined, is there any such precept or promise. Thus, on the one hand, we must ever beware of unwarrantable restricting the scope of a verse; and, on the other hand, be constantly on our guard against making general what is manifestly particular. It is only by carefully taking heed to the general Analogy of Faith that we shall be preserved from either mistake. Scripture ever interprets Scripture, but much familiarity with the contents, and a diligent and prayerful comparing of one part with another, is necessary before anyone is justified in dogmatically deciding the precise meaning or application of any passage. But there is further reason, and a pressing one today, why we should write upon our present subject, and that is to expose the modern and pernicious error of Dispensationalism. This is a device of the Enemy, designed to rob the children of no small part of that bread which their heavenly Father has provided for their souls; a device wherein the wily serpent appears as an angel of light, feigning to "make the Bible a new book" by simplifying much in it which perplexes the spiritually unlearned. It is sad to see how widely successful the devil has been by means of this subtle innovation. It is likely that some of our own readers, when perusing the articles upon the interpretation of the Scriptures, felt more than once that we were taking an undue liberty with Holy Writ, that we made use of certain passages in a way altogether unjustifiable, that we appropriated to the saints of this Christian era what does not belong to them but is rather addressed unto those who lived in an entirely different dispensation of the past, or one which is yet future. This modern method of mishandling the Scriptures—for modern it certainly is, being quite unknown to Christendom till little more than a century ago, and only within recent years being adopted by those who are outside the narrow circle where it originated—is based upon 2 Timothy 2:15, "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." Very little or nothing at all is said upon the first two clauses of that verse, but on the third one, which is explained as "correctly partitioning the Scriptures unto the different peoples to whom they belong." These mutilators of the Word tell us that all of the Old Testament from Genesis 12 onwards belongs entirely to Israel after the flesh, and that none of its precepts (as such) are binding upon those who are members of the Church which is the Body of Christ, nor may any of the promises found therein be legitimately appropriated by them. And this, be it duly noted, without a single word to that effect by either the Lord or any of His Apostles, and despite the use which the Holy Spirit makes of the earliest Scriptures in every part of the New Testament. So far from the Holy Spirit teaching Christians practically to look upon the Old Testament much as they would upon an obsolete almanac, He declares, "For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the (Old Testament) Scriptures might have hope" (Romans 15:4). Not satisfied with their determined efforts to deprive us of the Old Testament, these would-be super-expositors dogmatically assert that the four Gospels are Jewish, and that the Epistles of James and Peter, John and Jude are designed for a "godly Jewish remnant" in a future "tribulation period," that nothing but the Pauline Epistles contain "Church truth," and thousands of gullible souls have accepted their ipse digit—those who decline so doing are regarded as untaught and superficial. Yet God Himself has not uttered a single word to that effect. Certainly there is nothing whatever in 2 Timothy 2:15, to justify such a revolutionizing method of interpreting the Word: that verse has no more to do with the sectioning of Scripture between different "dispensations" than it has with distinguishing between stars of varying magnitude. If that verse be carefully compared with Matthew 7:6, John 16:12 and 1 Corinthians 3:2, its meaning is clear. The occupant of the pulpit is to give diligence in becoming equipped to give the different classes of his hearer "their portion of meat in due season" (Luke 12:42). To rightly divide the Word of Truth is for him to minister it suitably unto the several cases and circumstances of his congregation: to sinners and saints, the indifferent and the inquiring, the babes and fathers, the tempted and afflicted, the backslidden and fallen. While there be great variety in the teaching of the Word, there is an unmistakable unity underlying the whole. Though He employed many mouthpieces, the Holy Scriptures have but one Author; and while He "at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets" and "hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son" (Hebrews 1:1-2), yet He who spoke by them was and is One "with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning" (James 1:17), who throughout all ages declares: "I am the Lord, I change not" (Malachi 3:6). Throughout there is perfect agreement between every part of the Word: it sets forth one system of doctrine (we never read of "the doctrines of God," but always "the doctrine": see Deuteronomy 32:2; Proverbs 4:2; Matthew 7:28; John 7:17; Romans 16:17, and contrast Mark 7:7; Colossians 2:22; 1 Timothy 4:1; Hebrews 13:9) because it is one single and organic whole. That Word presents uniformly one way of salvation, one rule of faith. From Genesis to Revelation there is one immutable Moral Law, one glorious Gospel for perishing sinners. The Old Testament believers were saved with the same salvation, were indebted to the same Redeemer, were renewed by the same Spirit, and were partakers of the same heavenly inheritance as are New Testament believers. It is quite true that the Epistle to the Hebrews makes mention of a better hope (Hebrews 7:19), a better testament or covenant (Hebrews 7:22), better promises (Hebrews 8:6), better sacrifices (Hebrews 9:23), some better thing for us (Hebrews 11:40), and yet it is important to recognize that the contrast is between the shadows and the substance. Romans 12:6, speaks of "the proportion [or "analogy"] of faith." There is a due proportion, a perfect balance, between the different parts of God’s revealed Truth which must needs be known and observed by all who would preach and write according to the mind of the Spirit. In arguing from this analogy, it is essential to recognize that what is made known in the Old Testament was typical of what is set forth in the New, and therefore the terms used in the former are strictly applicable unto the latter. Much needless wrangling has occurred over whether or not the nation of Israel were a regenerate people. That is quite beside the real point: outwardly they were regarded and addressed as the people of God, and, as the Spirit through Paul affirmed, "who are Israelites: to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises: whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came" (Romans 9:4-5). Regeneration or non-regeneration affected the salvation of individuals among them, but it did not affect the covenant relationship of the people as a whole. Again and again God addressed Israel as "backsliders," but never once did He so designate any heathen nation. It was not to the Egyptians or Canaanites that Jehovah said, "Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings," or "Turn, 0 backsliding children...for I am married unto you" (Jeremiah 3:22, Jeremiah 3:14). Now it is this analogy or similarity between the two covenants and the peoples under them which is the basis for the transfer of Old Testament terms to the New. Thus the word "circumcision" is used in the latter not with identity of meaning, but according to analogy, for circumcision is now "of the heart, in the spirit" (Romans 2:29), and not of the flesh. In like manner, when John closes his first Epistle with "Little children, keep yourselves from idols," he borrows an Old Testament term and uses it in a New Testament sense, for by "idols" he refers not to material statues made of wood and stone (as the prophets did when employing the same word), but to inward objects of carnal and sensual worship. So too are we to see the antitypical and spiritual "Israel" in Galatians 6:16, and the celestial and eternal "Mount Zion" in Hebrews 12:22. The Bible consists of many parts, exquisitely correlated and vitally interdependent upon each other. God so controlled all the agents which He employed in the writing of it, and so coordinated their efforts, as to produce a single living Book. Within that organic unity there is indeed much variety, but no contrariety. Man’s body is but one, though it be made up of many members, diverse in size, character, and operation. The rainbow is but one, nevertheless it reflects distinctly the seven prismatic rays, yet they are harmoniously blended together. So it is with the Bible: its unity appears in the perfect consistency throughout of its teachings. The oneness yet triunity of God, the deity and humanity of Christ united in one Person, the everlasting covenant which secures the salvation of all the election of grace, the highway of holiness and the only path which leads to heaven, are plainly revealed in Old and New Testament alike. The teaching of the prophets concerning the glorious character of God, the changeless requirements of His righteousness, the total depravity of human nature, and the way appointed for restoration therefrom, are identical with the Apostles’ teaching. If the question be raised, Since the sacred Scriptures be a strict unit, then why has God Himself divided them into two Testaments? perhaps it will simplify the matter if we ask why God has appointed two principal bodies to illuminate the earth—the sun and the moon. Why, too, is the human frame duplex, having two legs and arms, two lungs and kidneys, etc.? Is not the answer the same in each case: to augment and supplement each other? But, more directly, at least four reasons may be suggested. First, to set forth more distinctly the two covenants which are the basis of God’s dealings with all mankind: the covenant of works and the covenant of grace—shadowed forth by the "old" from Sinai and the "new" or Christian one. Second, to show more plainly the two separate companies which are united in that one Body which constitutes the Church of which Christ is the Head, namely redeemed Jews and redeemed Gentiles. Third, to demonstrate more clearly the wondrous providence of God: using the Jews for so many centuries to be the custodians of the Old Testament, which condemns them for their rejection of Christ; and in employing the papists throughout the dark ages to preserve the New Testament, which denounces their idolatrous practices. Fourth, that one might confirm the other: type by antitype, prophecy by fulfillment. "The mutual relations of the two Testaments. These two main divisions resemble the dual structure of the human body, where the two eyes and ears, hands and feet, correspond to and complement one another. Not only is there a general, but a special, mutual fitness. They need therefore to be studied together, side by side, to be compared even in lesser details, for in nothing are they independent of each other; and the closer the inspection the minuter appears the adaptation, and the more intimate the association. . . .The two Testaments are like the two cherubim of the mercy seat, facing in opposite directions, yet facing each other and overshadowing with glory one mercy seat; or again, they are like the human body bound together by joints and bands and ligaments, with one brain and heart, one pair of lungs, one system of respiration, circulation, digestion, sensor and motor nerves, where division is destruction" (A. T. Pierson, from Knowing the Scriptures). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 67: 004.02. CHAPTER 2 ======================================================================== Chapter 2 Some Dispensationalists do not go quite so far as others in arbitrarily erecting notice-boards over large sections of Scripture, warning Christians not to tread on ground which belongs to others, yet there is general agreement among them that the Gospel of Matthew—though it stands at the beginning of the New Testament and not at the close of the Old!—pertains not to those who are members of the mystical body of Christ, but is "entirely Jewish," that the sermon on the mount is "legalistic" and not evangelistic, and that its searching and flesh-withering precepts are not binding upon Christians. Some go so far as to insist that the great commission with which it closes is not designed for us today, but is meant for "a godly Jewish remnant" after the present era is ended. In support of this wild and wicked theory, appeal is made to and great stress laid upon the fact that Christ is represented, most prominently, as "the son of David" or King of the Jews; but they ignore another conspicuous fact, namely that in its opening verse the Lord Jesus is set forth as "the son of Abraham," and he was a Gentile! What is still more against this untenable hypothesis—and as though the Holy Spirit designedly anticipated and refuted it—is the fact that Matthew’s is the only one of the four Gospels where the Church is actually mentioned twice (Matthew 16:18; Matthew 18:17)!—though in John’s Gospel its members are portrayed as branches of the Vine, members of Christ’s flock, which are designations of saints which have no dispensational limitations. Equally remarkable is the fact that the very same Epistle which contains the verse (2 Timothy 2:15) on which this modern system is based emphatically declares: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Timothy 3:16-17). So far from large sections of Scripture being designed for other companies, and excluded from our immediate use, ALL Scripture is meant for and is needed by us. First, all of it is "profitable for doctrine," which could not be the case if it were true (as Dispensationalists dogmatically insist) that God has entirely different methods of dealing with men in past and future ages from the present one. Second, all Scripture is given us "for instruction in righteousness" or right doing, but we are at a complete loss to know how to regulate our conduct if the precepts in one part of the Bible are now outdated (as the teachers of error assert) and injunctions of a contrary character have displaced them; and if certain statutes are meant for others who will occupy this scene after the Church has been removed from it. Third, all Scripture is given that a man of God might be "perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works"—every part of the Word is required in order to supply him with all needed instructions and to produce a full-orbed life of godliness. When the Dispensationalist is hard pressed with those objections, he endeavors to wriggle out of his dilemma by declaring that though all Scripture be for us much of it is not addressed to us. But really, that is a distinction without a difference. In his exposition of Hebrews 3:7-11, Owen rightly pointed out that when making quotation from the Old Testament the Apostle prefaced it with "the Holy Spirit saith" (not "said"), and remarked, "Whatever was given by inspiration from the Holy Spirit and is recorded in the Scriptures for the use of the Church, He contrived to speak it to us unto this day. As He liveth for ever so He continues to speak for ever; that is, whilst His voice or word shall be of use for the Church—He speaks now unto us . . . .Many men have invented several ways to lessen the authority of the Scriptures, and few are willing to acknowledge an immediate speaking of God unto them therein." To the same effect wrote that sound commentator Thomas Scott, "Because of the immense advantages of perseverance, and the tremendous consequences of apostasy, we should consider the words of the Holy Spirit as addressed to us." Not only is the assertion that though all Scripture be for us all is not to us meaningless, but it is also impertinent and impudent, for there is nothing whatever in the Word of Truth to support and substantiate it. Nowhere has the Spirit given the slightest warning that such a passage is "not to the Christian," and still less that whole books belong to someone else. Moreover, such a principle is manifestly dishonest. What right have I to make any use of that which is the property of another? What would my neighbor think were I to take letters which were addressed to him and argue that they were meant for me? Furthermore, such a theory, when put to the test, is found to be unworkable. For example, to whom is the book of Proverbs addressed, or for that matter, the first Epistle of John? Personally, this writer, after having wasted much time in perusing scores of books which pretended to rightly divide the Word, still regards the whole of Scripture as God’s gracious revelation to him and for him, as though there were not another person on earth, conscious that he cannot afford to dispense with any portion of it; and he is heartily sorry for those who lack such a faith. Pertinent in this connection is that warning, "But fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve . . . so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ" (2 Corinthians 11:3). But are there not many passages in the Old Testament which have no direct bearing upon the Church today? Certainly not. In view of 1 Corinthians 10:11—"Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples [margin, "types"]: and they are written for our admonition"—Owen pithily remarked: "Old Testament examples are New Testament instructions." By their histories we are taught what to avoid and what to emulate. That is the principal reason why they are recorded: that which hindered or encouraged the Old Testament saints was chronicled for our benefit. But, more specifically, are not Christians unwarranted in applying to themselves many promises given to Israel according to the flesh during the Mosaic economy, and expecting a fulfillment of the same unto themselves? No indeed, for if that were the case, then it would not be true that "whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope" (Romans 15:4). What comfort can I derive from those sections of God’s Word which these people say "do not belong to me"? What "hope" (i.e. a well-grounded assurance of some future good) could possibly be inspired today in Christians by what pertains to none but Jews? Christ came here, my reader, not to cancel, but "to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy" (Romans 15:8-9)! It must also be borne in mind that, in keeping with the character of the covenant under which they were made, many of the precepts and the promises given unto the patriarchs and their descendants possessed a spiritual and typical significance and value, as well as a carnal and literal one. As an example of the former, take Deuteronomy 25:4, "Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn," and then mark the application made of those words in 1 Corinthians 9:9-10: "Doth God take care for oxen? Or saith He it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope." The word "altogether" is probably a little too strong here, for pantos is rendered "no doubt" in Acts 28:4, and "surely" in Luke 4:23, and in the text signifies "assuredly" (Amer. RV) or "mainly for our sakes." Deuteronomy 25:4 was designed to enforce the principle that labour should have its reward, so that men might work cheerfully. The precept enjoined equity and kindness: if so to beasts, much more so to men, and especially the ministers of the Gospel. It is a striking illustration of the freedom with which the Spirit of grace applies the Old Testament Scriptures, as a constituent part of the Word of Christ, unto Christians and their concerns. What is true of the Old Testament precepts (generally speaking, for there are, of course, exceptions to every rule) holds equally good to the Old Testament promises—believers today are fully warranted in mixing faith therewith and expecting to receive the substance of them. First, because those promises were made to saints as such, and what God gives to one He gives to all (2 Peter 1:4)—Christ purchased the self-same blessings for every one of His redeemed. Second, because most of the Old Testament promises were typical in their nature: earthly blessings adumbrated heavenly ones. That is no arbitrary assertion of ours, for anyone who has been taught of God knows that almost everything during the old economies had a figurative meaning, shadowing forth the better things to come. Many proofs of this will be given by us a little later. Third, a literal fulfillment to us of those promises must not be excluded, for since we be still on earth and in the body our temporal needs are the same as theirs, and if we meet the conditions attached to those promises (either expressed or implied), then we may count upon the fulfillment of them: according unto our faith and obedience so will it be unto us. But surely we must draw a definite and broad line between the Law and the Gospel. It is at this point that the Dispensationalist considers his position to be the strongest and most unassailable; yet nowhere else does he more display his ignorance, for he neither recognizes the grace of God abounding during the Mosaic era, nor can he see that Law has any rightful place in this Christian age. Law and grace are to him antagonistic elements, and (to quote one of his favorite slogans) "will no more mix than will oil and water." Not a few of those who are now regarded as the champions of orthodoxy tell their hearers that the principles of law and grace are such contrary elements that where the one be in exercise the other must necessarily be excluded. But this is a very serious error. How could the Law of God and the Gospel of the grace of God conflict? The one exhibits Him as "light," the other manifest Him as "love" (1 John 1:5; 1 John 4:8), and both are necessary in order fully to reveal His perfections: if either one be omitted only a one-sided concept of His character will be formed. The one makes known His righteousness, the other displays His mercy, and His wisdom has shown the perfect consistency there is between them. Instead of law and grace being contradictory, they are complementary. Both of them appeared in Eden before the Fall. What was it but grace which made a grant unto our first parents: "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat"? And it was law which said, "But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it." Both of them are seen at the time of the great deluge, for we are told that "Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord" (Genesis 6:8), as His subsequent dealings with him clearly demonstrated; while His righteousness brought in a flood upon the world of the ungodly. Both of them operated side by side at Sinai, for while the majesty and righteousness of Jehovah were expressed in the Decalogue, His mercy and grace were plainly evinced in the provisions He made in the whole Levitical system (with its priesthood and sacrifices) for the putting away of their sins. Both shone forth in their meridian glory at Calvary, for whereas on the one hand the abounding grace of God appeared in giving His own dear Son to be the Saviour of sinners, His justice called for the curse of the Law to be inflicted upon Him while bearing their guilt. In all of God’s works and ways we may discern a meeting together of seemingly conflicting elements—the centrifugal and the centripetal forces which are ever at work in the material realm illustrate this principle. So it is in connection with the operations of Divine providence: there is a constant interpenetrating of the natural and supernatural. So too in the giving of the sacred Scriptures: they are the product both of God’s and man’s agency: they are a Divine revelation, yet couched in human language, and communicated through human media; they are inerrantly true, yet written by fallible men. They are Divinely inspired in every jot and tittle, yet the superintending control of the Spirit over the penmen did not exclude nor interfere with the natural exercise of their faculties. Thus it is also in all of God’s dealings with mankind: though He exercises His high sovereignty, yet He treats with them as responsible creatures, putting forth His invincible power upon and within them, but in no wise destroying their moral agency. These may present deep and insoluble mysteries to the finite mind, nevertheless they are actual facts. In what has just been pointed out—to which other examples might be added (the person of Christ, for instance, with His two distinct yet conjoined natures, so that though He was omniscient yet He "grew in wisdom"; was omnipotent, yet wearied and slept; was eternal, yet died)—why should so many stumble at the phenomenon of Divine law and Divine grace being in exercise side by side, operating at the same season? Do law and grace present any greater contrast than the fathomless love of God unto His children, and His everlasting wrath upon His enemies? No indeed, not so great. Grace must not be regarded as an attribute of God which eclipses all His other perfections. As Romans 5:21 so plainly tells us, "That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness," and not at the expense of or to the exclusion of it. Divine grace and Divine righteousness, Divine love and Divine holiness, are as inseparable as light and heat from the sun. In bestowing grace, God never rescinds His claims upon us, but rather enables us to meet them. Was the prodigal son, after his penitential return and forgiveness, less obliged to conform to the laws of his Father’s house than before he left it? No indeed, but more so. That there is no conflict between the Law and the Gospel of the grace of God is plain enough in Romans 3:31 : "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law." Here the Apostle anticipates an objection which was likely to be brought against what he said in verses Romans 3:26-30. Does not the teaching that justification is entirely by grace through faith evince that God has relaxed His claims, changed the standard of His requirements, set aside the demands of His government? Very far from it. The Divine plan of redemption is in no way an annulling of the Law, but rather the honoring and enforcing of it. No greater respect could have been shown to the Law than in God’s determining to save His people from its course by sending His co-equal Son to fulfill all its requirements and Himself endure its penalty. Oh, marvel of marvels; the great Legislator humbled Himself unto entire obedience to the precepts of the Decalogue. The very One who gave the Law became incarnate, bled and died, under its condemning sentence, rather than that a tittle thereof should fail. Magnified thus was the Law indeed, and for ever "made honorable." God’s method of salvation by grace has "established the law" in a threefold way. First, by Christ, the Surety of God’s elect, being "made under the law" (Galatians 4:4), fulfilling its precepts (Matthew 5:17), suffering its penalty in the stead of His people, and thereby He has "brought everlasting righteousness" (Daniel 9:24). Second, by the Holy Spirit, for at regeneration He writes the Law on their hearts (Hebrews 8:10), drawing out their affections unto it, so that they "delight in the law of God after the inward man" (Romans 7:22). Third, as the fruit of his new nature, the Christian voluntarily and gladly takes the Law for his rule of life, so that he declares, "with the mind I myself serve the law" (Romans 7:25). Thus is the Law "established" not only in the high court of heaven, but in the souls of the redeemed. So far from law and grace being enemies, they are mutual handmaids: the former reveals the sinner’s need, the latter supplies it; the one makes known God’s requirements, the other enables us to meet them. Faith is not opposed to good works, but performs them in obedience to God out of love and gratitude. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 68: 004.03. CHAPTER 3 ======================================================================== Chapter 3 Before turning to the positive side of our present subject, it was necessary for us to expose and denounce that teaching which insists that much in the Bible has no immediate application unto us today. Such teaching is a reckless and irreverent handling of the Word, which has produced the most evil consequences in the hearts and lives of many—not the least of which is the promotion of a pharisaical spirit of self-superiority. Consciously or unconsciously, Dispensationalists are, in reality, repeating the sin of Jehoiakim, who mutilated God’s Word with his penknife (Jeremiah 36:23). Instead of "opening the Scriptures," they are bent in closing the major part of them from God’s people today. They are just as much engaged in doing the devil’s work as are the Higher Critics, who, with their dissecting knives, are wrongly "dividing the word of truth." They are seeking to force a stone down the throats of those who are asking for bread. These are indeed severe and solemn indictments, but not more so than the case calls for. We are well aware that they will be unacceptable unto some of our own readers; but medicine, though sometimes necessary, is rarely palatable. Instead of being engaged in the unholy work of pitting one part of the Scriptures against another, these men would be far better employed in showing the perfect unity of the Bible and the blessed harmony which there is between all of its teachings. But instead of demonstrating the concord of the two Testaments, they are more concerned in their efforts to show the discord which they say there is between that which pertained unto "the Dispensation of Law" and that which obtains under "the Dispensation of Grace," and in order to accomplish their evil design all sound principles of exegesis are cast to the wind. As a sample of what we have reference to, they cite "Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot" (Exodus 21:24) and then quote against it, "But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also" (Matthew 5:39), and then it is exultantly asserted that those two passages can only be "reconciled" by allocating them to different peoples in different ages; and with such superficial handling of Holy Writ thousands of gullible souls are deceived, and thousands more allow themselves to be bewildered. If those who possess a Scofield Bible turn to Exodus 21:24, they will see that in the margin opposite to it the editor refers his readers to Leviticus 24:20; Deuteronomy 19:21, and cf. Matthew 5:28-44; 1 Peter 2:19-21; upon which this brief comment is made: "The provision in Exodus is law and righteous; the New Testament passages, grace and merciful." How far Mr. Scofield was consistent with himself may be seen by a reference to what he states on page 989, at the beginning of the New Testament under the Four Gospels, where he expressly affirms "The sermon on the mount is law, not grace" [italics ours]: verily "the legs of the lame are not equal." In his marginal note to Exodus 21:24, Mr. Scofield cites Matthew 5:38-44, as "grace," whereas in his introduction to the Four Gospels he declares that Matthew 5:1-48, Matthew 6:1-34, Matthew 7:1-29 "is law, and not grace." Which of those assertions did he wish his readers to believe? Still the question may be asked, How are you going to reconcile Exodus 21:24, with Matthew 5:38-44? Our answer is, There is nothing between them to "reconcile," for there is nothing in them which clashes. The former passage is one of the statutes appointed for public magistrates to enforce, whereas the latter one lays down rules for private individuals to live by! Why do not these self-styled "rightly dividers" properly allocate the Scriptures, distinguishing between the different classes to which they are addressed? That Exodus 21:24 does contain statutes for public magistrates to enforce is clearly established by comparing Scripture with Scripture. In Deuteronomy 19:21, the same injunction is again recorded, and if the reader turns back to Deuteronomy 19:18 he will there read, "And the judges shall make diligent inquisition," etc. It would be real mercy unto the community if our judges today would set aside their sickly sentimentality and deal with conscienceless and brutal criminals in a manner which befits their deeds of violence—instead of making a mockery of justice. Ere leaving what has been before us in the last three paragraphs, let it be pointed out that when our blessed Lord added to Matthew 5:38, "But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you" (Matthew 5:44) He was not advancing a more benign precept than had ever been enunciated previously. No, the same gracious principle of conduct had been enforced in the Old Testament. In Exodus 23:4-5, Jehovah gave commandment through Moses, "If thou meet thine enemy’s ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again. If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him." Again in Proverbs 25:21, we read, "If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink." The same God who bids us, "Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath" (Romans 12:17-19), also commanded His people in the Old Testament, "Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord" (Leviticus 19:18); and therefore was David grateful to Abigail for dissuading him from taking vengeance on Nabal: "Blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand" (1 Samuel 25:33). So far was the Old Testament from allowing any spirit of bitterness, malice or revenge that it expressly declared, "Say not thou, I will recompense evil; but wait on the Lord, and He shall save thee" (Proverbs 20:22). And again, "Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth" (Proverbs 24:17). And again, "Say not, I will do so to him as he hath done to me: I will render to the man according to his work" (Proverbs 24:29). One more sample of the excuseless ignorance betrayed by these Dispensationalists—we quote from E.W. Bullinger’s How to Enjoy the Bible. On pages 108 and 110 he said under "Law and Grace": "For those who lived under the Law it could rightly and truly be said, ‘It shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as He hath commanded us’ (Deuteronomy 6:25). But to those who live in this present Dispensation of Grace it is as truly declared, ‘By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight’ (Romans 3:20). But this is the very opposite of Deuteronomy 6:25. What, then, are we to say, or to do? Which of these two statements is true and which is false? The answer is that neither is false. But both are true if we would rightly divide the Word of Truth as to its dispensational truth and teaching. . . .Two words distinguish the two dispensations: ‘Do’ distinguished the former; ‘Done’ the latter. Then salvation depended upon what man was to do, now it depends upon what Christ has done." It is by such statements as these that "unstable souls" are beguiled. Is it not amazing that one so renowned for his erudition and knowledge of the Scriptures should make such manifestly absurd statements as the above? In pitting Deuteronomy 6:25 against Romans 3:20, he might as well have argued that fire is "the very opposite" of water. They are indeed contrary elements, yet each has its own use in its proper place: the one to cook by, the other for refreshment. Think of one who set up himself as a teacher of preachers affirming that under the Mosaic economy "salvation depended on what man was to do." Why, in that case, for fifteen hundred years not a single Israelite had been saved. Had salvation then been obtainable by human efforts, there had been no need for God to send His Son here! Salvation has never been procurable by human merits, on the ground of human performance. Abel obtained witness that he was righteous, because he offered to God a slain lamb (Genesis 4:4; Hebrews 11:4). Abraham was justified by faith, and not by works (Romans 4:1-25). Under the Mosaic economy it was expressly announced that "it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul" (Leviticus 17:11). David realized, "If Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, 0 Lord, who shall stand?" (Psalms 130:3); and therefore did he confess, "I will make mention of Thy righteousness, even of Thine only" (Psalms 71:16). By all means let the Word of Truth be "rightly divided"; not by parceling it off to different "dispensations," but by distinguishing between what is doctrinal and what is practical, between that which pertains to the unsaved and that which is predicated of the saved. Deuteronomy 6:25 is addressed not to alien sinners, but to those who are in covenant relationship with the Lord; whereas Romans 3:20 is a statement which applies to every member of the human race. The one has to do with practical "righteousness" in the daily walk, which is acceptable to God; the other is a doctrinal declaration which asserts the impossibility of acceptance with God on the ground of creature doings. The former relates to our conduct in this life in connection with the Divine government; the latter concerns our eternal standing before the Divine throne. Both passages are equally applicable to Jews and Gentiles in all ages. "Our righteousness" in Deuteronomy 6:25 is a practical righteousness in the sight of God. It is the same aspect of righteousness as in "except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees" of Matthew 5:20, the "righteous man" of James 5:16, and the "doeth righteousness" of 1 John 2:29. The Old Testament saints were the subjects of the same everlasting covenant, had the same blessed Gospel, were begotten unto the same celestial heritage as the New Testament saints. From Abel onwards, God has dealt with sinners in sovereign grace, and according to the merits of Christ’s redemptive work—which was retroactive in its value and efficacy (Romans 3:25; 1 Peter 1:19-20). "Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord" (Genesis 6:8). That they were partakers of the same covenant blessings as we are is clear from a comparison of 2 Samuel 23:5, and Hebrews 13:20. The same Gospel was preached unto Abraham (Galatians 3:8), yea, unto the nation of Israel after they had received the Law (Hebrews 4:2), and therefore Abraham rejoiced to see Christ’s day and was glad (John 8:56). Dying Jacob declared, "I have waited for Thy salvation, 0 Lord" (Genesis 49:18). As Hebrews 11:16 states, the patriarchs desired "a better country [than the land of Canaan, in which they dwelt], that is, an heavenly." Moses "refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter...esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt" (Hebrews 11:24-26). Job exclaimed, "I know that my Redeemer liveth...in my flesh shall I see God" (Job 19:25-26). When Jehovah proclaimed His name unto Moses, He revealed Himself as "the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious" (Exodus 34:5-7). When Aaron pronounced the benediction on the congregation, he was bidden to say, "The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: the Lord make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: the Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace" (Numbers 6:24-26). No greater and grander blessings can be invoked today. Such a passage as that cannot possibly be harmonized with the constricted concept which is entertained and is being propagated by the Dispensationalists of the Mosaic economy. God dealt in grace with Israel all through their long and checkered history. Read through the book of Judges and observe how often He raised up deliverers for them. Pass on to Kings and Chronicles and note His longsuffering benignity in sending them prophet after prophet. Where in the New Testament is there a word which, for pure grace, exceeds "though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow" (Isaiah 1:18)? In the days of Jehoahaz "the Lord was gracious unto them" (2 Kings 13:22-23). They were invited to say unto the Lord, "Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously" (Hosea 14:2). Malachi bade Israel "beseech God that He will be gracious unto us" (Malachi 1:9). The conception which the pious remnant of Israel had of the Divine character during the Mosaic economy was radically different from the stern and forbidding presentation made thereof by Dispensationalists. Hear the Psalmist as he declared, "Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful" (Psalms 116:5). Hear him again, as he bursts forth into adoring praise, "Bless the Lord, 0 my soul, and forget not all His benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases...He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities" (Psalms 103:2-3, Psalms 103:10). Can Christians say more than that? No wonder David exclaimed, "Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides Thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever" (Psalms 73:25-26). If the question be asked, What, then, is the great distinction between the Mosaic and Christian eras? the answer is, God’s grace was then confirmed to one nation, but now it flows out to all nations. What is true in the general holds in the particular. Not only were God’s dealings with His people during Old Testament times substantially the same as those with His people now, but in detail too. There is no discord, but perfect accord and concord between them. Note carefully the following parallelisms. "His inheritance in the saints" (Ephesians 1:18): "The Lord’s portion is His people, Jacob is the lot of His inheritance" (Deuteronomy 32:9). "Beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation" (2 Thessalonians 2:13): "I have loved thee with an everlasting love" (Jeremiah 31:3). "In whom we have redemption" (Ephesians 1:7): "With Him is plenteous redemption" (Psalms 130:7). "That we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21): "In the Lord have I righteousness and strength" (Isaiah 45:24). "Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings...in Christ" (Ephesians 1:3): "Men shall be blessed in Him" (Psalms 72:17). "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7): "Thou art all fair, My love, there is no spot in thee" (Song of Solomon 4:7). "Strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man" (Ephesians 3:16): "In the day when I cried Thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul" (Psalms 138:3). "The Spirit of truth ... will guide you into all truth" (John 16:13): "Thou gayest also Thy good Spirit to instruct them" (Nehemiah 9:20). "I know that in me (that is, in my flesh), dwelleth no good thing" (Romans 7:18): "All our righteousness are as filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6). "I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims" (1 Peter 2:11): "Ye are strangers and sojourners" (Leviticus 25:23). "We walk by faith" (2 Corinthians 5:7): "The just shall live by his faith" (Habakkuk 2:4). "Strong in the Lord" (Ephesians 6:10): "I will strengthen them in the Lord" (Zechariah 10:12). "Neither shall any pluck them out of My hand" (John 10:28): "All His saints are in Thy hand" (Deuteronomy 33:3). "He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit" (John 15:5): "From Me is thy fruit found" (Hosea 14:8). "He which hath begun a good work in you will finish it" (Php 1:6, margin): "The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me" (Psalms 138:8). Innumerable other such harmonies might be added. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 69: 004.04. CHAPTER 4 ======================================================================== Chapter 4 As it is particularly the Old Testament promises of which Dispensationalists would deprive the Christian, a more definite and detailed refutation of this error is now required—coming, as it obviously does, within the compass of our present subject. We will here transcribe what we wrote thereon almost twenty years ago. Since the Fall alienated the creature from the Creator, there could be no intercourse between God and men but by some promise on His part. None can challenge anything from the Majesty on high without a warrant from Himself, nor could the conscience be satisfied unless it had a Divine grant for any good that we hope for from Him. God will in all ages have His people regulated by His promises, so that they may exercise faith, hope, prayer, dependence upon Himself: He gives them promises so as to test them, whether or not they really trust in and count upon Him. The Medium of the promises is the God-man Mediator, Jesus Christ, for there can be no intercourse between God and us except through the appointed Daysman. In other words, Christ must receive all good for us, and we must have it at second hand from Him. Let the Christian ever be on his guard against contemplating any promise of God apart from Christ. Whether the thing promised, the blessing desired, be temporal or spiritual, we cannot legitimately or truly enjoy it except in and by Christ. Therefore did the Apostle remind the Galatians, "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ" (Galatians 3:16)—in quoting Genesis 12:3, Paul was not proving, but affirming, that God’s promises to Abraham respected not all his natural posterity, but only those of his spiritual children—those united to Christ. All the promises of God to believers are made to Christ, the Surety of the everlasting covenant, and are conveyed from Him to us—both the promises themselves and the things promised. "This is the [all-inclusive] promise that He hath promised us, even eternal life" (1 John 2:25), and, as 1 John 5:11 tells us, "this life is in His Son"—so grace, and all other benefits. "If I read any of the promises I found that all and every one contained Christ in their bosom, He Himself being the one great Promise of the Bible. To Him they were all first given; from Him they derive all their efficacy, sweetness, value, and importance; by Him they are brought home to the heart; and in Him they are all yea, and amen" (R. Hawker, 1810). Since all the promises of God are made in Christ, it clearly follows that none of them are available to any who are out of Christ, for to be out of Him is to be out of the favour of God. God cannot look on such a person but as an object of His wrath, as fuel for His vengeance: there is no hope for any man until he be in Christ. But it may be asked, Does not God bestow any good things on them who are out of Christ, sending His rain upon the unjust, and filling the bellies of the wicked with good things (Psalms 17:14)? Yes, He does indeed. Then are not those temporal mercies blessings? Certainly not: far from it. As He says in Malachi 2:2, "I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart" (cf. Deuteronomy 28:15-20). Unto the wicked, the temporal mercies of God are like food given to bullocks—it does but "prepare them for the day of slaughter" (Jeremiah 12:3, and cf. James 5:5). Having presented above a brief outline on the subject of the Divine promises, let us now examine a striking yet little-noticed expression, namely "the children of the promise" (Romans 9:8). In the context the Apostle discusses God’s casting of the Jews and calling of the Gentiles, which was a particularly sore point with the former. After describing the unique privileges enjoyed by Israel as a nation (Romans 9:4-5), he points out the difference there is between them and the antitypical "Israel of God" (Romans 9:6-9), which he illustrates by the cases of Isaac and Jacob. Though the Jews had rejected the Gospel and had been cast off by God, it must not be supposed that His word had failed of accomplishment (Romans 9:6), for not only had the prophecies concerning the Messiah been fulfilled, but the promise respecting Abraham’s seed was being made good. But it was most important to apprehend aright what or whom that "seed" comprised. "For they are not all Israel [spiritually speaking], who are of Israel [naturally]: neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, in Isaac shall thy seed be called" (Romans 9:6-7). The Jews erroneously imagined (as modern Dispensationalists do) that the promises made to Abraham concerning his seed respected all of his descendants. Their boast was "we be Abraham’s seed" (John 8:33), to which Christ replied, "If ye were Abraham’s children ye would do the works of Abraham" (John 8:39 and see Romans 4:12). God’s rejection of Ishmael and Esau was decisive proof that the promises were not made to the natural descendants as such. The selection of Isaac and Jacob showed that the promise was restricted to an elect line. "The children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted [regarded] as the seed. For this is the word of promise. At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son (Romans 9:8-9). The "children of God" and the "children of promise" are one and the same, whether they be Jews or Gentiles. As Isaac was born supernaturally, so are all of God’s elect (John 1:13). As Isaac, on that account, was heir of the promised blessing, so are Christians (Galatians 4:29; Galatians 3:29). "Children of the promise" are identical with "the heirs of promise" (Hebrews 6:17, and cf. Romans 8:17). God’s promises are made to the spiritual children of Abraham (Romans 4:16; Galatians 3:7), and none of them can possibly fail of accomplishment. "For all the promises of God in Him [namely Christ] are yea, and in Him amen" (2 Corinthians 1:20). They are deposited in Christ, and in Him they find their affirmation and certification, for He is the sum and substance of them. Inexpressibly blessed is that declaration to the humble-minded child of God—yet a mystery hid from those who are wise in their own conceits. "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32). The promises of God are numerous: relating to this life and also that which is to come. They concern our temporal wellbeing, as well as our spiritual, covering the needs of the body as well as those of the soul. Whatever be their character, not one of them can be made good unto us except in and through and by Him who lived and died for us. The promises which God has given to His people are absolutely sure and trustworthy, for they were made to them in Christ: they are infallibly certain for fulfillment, for they are accomplished through and by Him. A blessed illustration, yea, exemplification, of what has just been pointed out above is found in Hebrews 8:8-13, and Hebrews 10:15-17, where the Apostle quotes the promises given in Jeremiah 31:31-34. The Dispensationalists would object and say that those promises belong to the natural descendants of Abraham, and are not to us. But Hebrews 10:15 prefaces the citation of those promises by expressly affirming, "Whereof the Holy Spirit is [not "was"] a witness to us." Those promises extend to Gentile believers also, for they are the assurance of grace founded in Christ, and in Him believing Jews and Gentiles are one (Galatians 3:26). Before the middle wall of partition was broken down, Gentiles were indeed "strangers unto the covenants of promise" (Ephesians 2:12), but when that wall was removed, Gentile believers became "fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel" (Ephesians 3:6)! As Romans 11:1-36 expresses it, they partake of the root and fatness of the olive tree (Romans 11:17)! Those promises in Jeremiah 31:1-40 are made not to the Jewish nation as such, but to "the Israel of God" (Galatians 6:16), that is to the entire election of grace, and they are made infallibly good unto all of them at the moment of their regeneration by the Spirit. In the clear light of other New Testament passages, it appears passing strange that anyone who is familiar with the same should deny that God has made this "new covenant" with those who are members of the mystical body of Christ. That Christians are partakers of its blessings is plain in 1 Corinthians 11:25, where quotation is made of the Savior’s words at the institution of His supper, saying, "This cup is the new testament [or "new covenant"] in My blood"; and again by 2 Corinthians 3:6, where the Apostle states that God "hath also made us able ministers of the new testament," or "covenant," for the same Greek word is used in those passages as in Hebrews 8:8, and Hebrews 10:16, where it is translated "covenant." In the very first sermon preached after the new covenant was established, Peter said, "For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off" i.e. the Gentiles: Ephesians 2:13—qualified by "as many as the Lord our God shall call" (Acts 2:39). Furthermore, the terms of Jeremiah 31:33-34 are most certainly made good unto all believers today: God is their covenant God (Hebrews 13:20), His law is enshrined in their affections (Romans 7:22), they know Him as their God, their iniquities are forgiven. The Holy Spirit’s statement in 2 Corinthians 7:1, must, for all who bow to the authority of Holy Writ, settle the matter once and for all of the Christian’s right to the Old Testament promises. "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." Which promises? Why, those mentioned at the close of the preceding chapter. There we read, "And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people" (2 Corinthians 6:16 ). And where had God said this? Why, as far back as Leviticus 26:12, "And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be My people." That promise was made to the nation of Israel in the days of Moses! And again we read, "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty" (2 Corinthians 6:17-18), which words are a manifest reference to Jeremiah 31:9, and Hosea 1:9-10. Now observe very particularly what the Holy Spirit says through Paul concerning those Old Testament promises. First, he says to the New Testament saints, "Having these promises." He declared that those ancient promises are theirs: that they have a personal interest in them and title to them. That they were theirs not merely in hope, but in hand. Theirs to make full use of, to feed upon and enjoy, to delight in and give God thanks for the same. Since Christ Himself be ours, all things are ours (1 Corinthians 3:22-23). Oh, Christian reader, suffer no man, under pretense of "rightly dividing the word," to cut you off from, to rob you of any of "the exceeding great and precious promises" of your Father (2 Peter 1:4). If he is content to confine himself unto a few of the New Testament Epistles, let him do so—that is his loss. But allow him not to confine you to so narrow a compass. Second, we are hereby taught to use those promises as motives and incentives to the cultivation of personal piety, in the private work of mortification and the positive duty of practical sanctification. A striking and conclusive proof that the Old Testament promises belong unto present-day saints is found in Hebrews 13:5, where practical use is again made of the same. There Christians are exhorted, "Let your conversation be without covetousness: be content with such things as ye have." That exhortation is enforced by this gracious consideration: "for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Since the living God be your portion your heart should rejoice in Him, and all anxiety about the supply of your every need be for ever removed. But what we are now more especially concerned with is the promise here cited: "For He hath said, I will never leave thee," etc. And to whom was that promise first given? Why, to the one who was about to lead Israel into the land of Canaan—as a reference to Joshua 1:5 shows. Thus it was made to a particular person on a special occasion, to a general who was to prosecute a great war under the immediate command of God. Facing that demanding ordeal, Joshua received assurance from God that His presence should ever be with him. But if the believer gives way to unbelief, the devil is very apt to tell him, That promise belongs not unto you. You are not the captain of armies, commissioned by God to overthrow the forces of an enemy: the virtue of that promise ceased when Canaan was conquered and died with him to whom it was made. Instead, as Owen pointed out in his comments on Hebrews 13:5, "To manifest the sameness of love that is in all the promises, with their establishment in the one Mediator, and the general concern of believers in every one of them, howsoever and on what occasion given to any, this promise to Joshua is here applied to the condition of the weakest, meanest, and poorest of the saints; to all and every one of them, be their case and condition what it will. And doubtless, believers are not a little wanting in themselves and their own consolation, that they do so more particularly close with those words of truth, grace, and faithfulness, which upon sundry occasions and at divers times have been given out unto the saints of old, even Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and the residue of them, who walked with God in their generation: these things in an especial manner are recorded for our consolation." Let us now observe closely the use which the Apostle made of that ancient but ever-living promise. First, he here availed himself of it in order to enforce his exhortation unto Christians to the duties of mortification and sanctification. Second, he draws a logical and practical inference from the same, declaring, "So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me" (Hebrews 13:6). Thus a double conclusion is reached: such a promise is to inspire all believers with confidence in God’s succour and assistance, and with boldness and courage before men—showing us to what purpose we should put the Divine pledges. Those conclusions are based upon the character of the Promiser: because God is infinitely good, faithful, and powerful, and because He changes not, I may trustfully declare with Abraham, "God will provide" (Genesis 22:8); with Jonathan, "There is no restraint to the Lord" (1 Samuel 14:6); with Jehoshaphat, "None is able to withstand Him" (2 Chronicles 20:6); with Paul, "If God be for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31). The abiding presence of the all-sufficient Lord ensures help, and therefore any alarm at man’s enmity should be removed from our hearts. My worst enemy can do nothing against me without my Savior’s permission. "So that we may boldly say [freely, without hesitating through unbelief], The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me." Note attentively the change in number from the plural to the singular, and learn therefrom that general principles are to be appropriated by us in particular, as general precepts are to be taken by us personally—the Lord Jesus individualized the "ye shall not tempt the Lord your God" of Deuteronomy 6:16, when assailed by Satan, saying, "It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God" (Matthew 4:7). It is only by taking the Divine promises and precepts unto ourselves personally that we can "mix faith" with the same, or make a proper and profitable use of them. It is also to be carefully noted that once more the Apostle confirmed his argument by a Divine testimony, for the words "The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me" are not his own, but a quotation of those use by David in Psalms 118:6. Thus again we are shown that the language of the Old Testament is exactly suited to the cases and circumstances of Christians today, and that it is their right and privilege freely to appropriate the same. "We may boldly say" just what the Psalmist did when he was sorely pressed. It was during a season of acute distress that David expressed his confidence in the living God, at a time when it looked as though his enemies were on the point of swallowing him up; but viewing the omnipotence of Jehovah and contrasting His might with the feebleness of the creature, his heart was strengthened and emboldened. But let the reader clearly perceive what that implied. It means that David turned his mind away from the seen to the unseen. It means that he was regulated by faith, rather than by sight— feelings or reasonings. It means that his heart was occupied with the Almighty. But it means much more: he was occupied with the relationship of that omnipotent One unto himself. It means that he recognized and realized the spiritual bond there was between them, so that he could truly and rightly aver, "the Lord is my helper." If He be my God, my Redeemer, my Father, then He may be counted upon to undertake for me when I am sorely oppressed, when my foes threaten to devour me, when my barrel of meal is almost empty. That "my" is the language of faith, and is the conclusion which faith’s assurance draws from the infallible promise of Him that cannot lie. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 70: 004.05. CHAPTER 5 ======================================================================== Chapter 5 In these articles we are seeking to show the use which believers should make of God’s Word: or more particularly, how that it is both their privilege and their duty to receive the whole of it as addressed immediately unto themselves, and to turn the same unto practical account, by appropriating its contents to their personal needs. The Bible is a book which calls not so much for the exertion of our intellect as it does for the exercise of our affections, conscience and will. God has given it to us not for our entertainment but for our education, to make known what He requires from us. It is to be the traveler’s guide as he journeys through the maze of this world, the mariner’s chart as he sails the sea of life. Therefore, whenever we open the Bible, the all-important consideration for each of us to keep before him is, What is there here for me today? What bearing does the passage now before me have upon my present case and circumstances—what warning, what encouragement, what information? What instruction is there to direct me in the management of my business, to guide me in the ordering of my domestic and social affairs, to promote a closer walking with God? I should see myself addressed in every precept, included in every promise. But it is greatly to be feared that, through failure to appropriate God’s Word unto their own case and circumstances, there is much Bible reading and study which is of little or no real benefit to the soul. Nothing else will secure us from the infections of this world, deliver from the temptations of Satan, and be so effectual a preservative from sin, as the Word of God received into our affections. "The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide" (Psalms 37:31) can only be said of the one who has made personal appropriation of that Law, and is able to aver with the Psalmist, "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee" (Psalms 119:11). Just so long as the Truth is actually working in us, influencing us in a practical way, is loved and revered by us, stirs the conscience, are we kept from falling into open sin—as Joseph was preserved when evilly solicited by his master’s wife (Genesis 39:9). And only as we personally go out and daily gather our portion of manna, and feed upon the same, will there be strength provided for the performing of duty and the bringing forth of fruit to the glory of God. Let us take Genesis 17:1 as a simple illustration. "And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before Me, and be thou perfect" or "sincere." How is the Christian to apply such a verse unto himsel? First of all, let him note to whom this signal favour and honour was shown: namely to him who is the "father of all them that believe" (Romans 4:11-12, Romans 4:16)—and he was the first person in the world to whom the Lord is said to have appeared! Second, observe when it was that Jehovah appeared unto him: namely in his old age, when nature’s force was spent and death was written on the flesh. Third, mark attentively the particular character in which the Lord was now revealed to him: "the Almighty God," or more literally "El Shaddai"—"the all-sufficient God." Fourth, consider the exhortation which accompanied the same: "walk before Me, and be thou sincere." Fifth, ponder those details in the light of the immediate sequel; God’s making promise that he should beget a son by Sarah, who was long past the age of child-bearing (Romans 4:15-19). Everything that is for God must be effected by His mighty power: He can and must do everything—the flesh profits nothing, no movement of mere nature is of any avail. Now as the believer ponders that memorable incident, hope should be inspired within him. El Shaddai is as truly his God as He was Abraham’s! That is clear from 2 Corinthians 7:1, for one of those promises is, "I will be a Father unto you. . . .saith the Lord Almighty" (2 Corinthians 6:18), and from Revelation 1:8, where the Lord Jesus says unto the churches, "I am Alpha and Omega. . . .the Almighty." It is a declaration of His omnipotence, to whom all things are possible. "The all-sufficient God" tells of what He is in Himself—independent, self-existent; and what He is unto His people—the Supplier of their every need. When Christ said to Paul, "My grace is sufficient for thee," (2 Corinthians 12:9) it was all one with what Jehovah said unto Abraham. Doubtless the Lord appeared unto the patriarch in visible (and human) form: He does so to us before the eyes of faith. Often He is pleased to meet with us in the ordinances of His grace, and send us on our way rejoicing. Sometimes He "manifests" Himself (John 14:21) to us in the retirements of privacy. Frequently He appears for us in His providences, showing Himself strong on our behalf. Now, says He, "Walk before Me sincerely" in the believing realization that I am all-sufficient for thee, conscious of My almightiness, and all will be well with thee. Let us now adduce some of the many proofs of the assertions made in our opening sentences, proofs supplied by the Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus in the application which They made of the Scriptures. It is very striking indeed to discover that the very first moral commandment which God gave to mankind, namely that which was to regulate the marriage relationship, was couched in such terms that it comprehended a Divine law which is universally and perpetually binding: "Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh" (Genesis 2:24)—quoted by Christ in Matthew 19:5. "When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favor in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement" (Deuteronomy 24:1). That statute was given in the days of Moses, nevertheless we find our Lord referring to the same and telling the Pharisees of His day, "For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept" (Mark 10:5). The principle for which we are here contending is beautifully illustrated in Psalms 27:8, "When Thou saidst, Seek ye My face; my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek." Thus David made particular what was general, applying to himself personally what was said to the saints collectively. That is ever the use each of us should make of every part of God’s Word—as we see the Saviour in Matthew 4:7, changing the "ye" of Deuteronomy 6:16, to "thou." So again in Acts 1:20, we find Peter, when alluding to the defection of Judas, altering the "let their habitation" of Psalms 69:25, to "let his habitation be desolate." That was not taking an undue liberty with Holy Writ, but, instead, making a specific application of what was indefinite. "Put not forth thyself in the presence of the king, and stand not in the place of great men: for better it is that it be said unto thee, Come up hither; than that thou shouldest be put lower in the presence of the prince whom thine eyes have seen" (Proverbs 25:6-7). Upon which Thomas Scott justly remarked, "There can be no reasonable doubt that our Lord referred to those words in His admonition to ambitious guests at the Pharisee’s table (Luke 14:7-11), and was understood to do so. While, therefore, this gives His sanction to the book of Proverbs, it also shows that those maxims may be applied to similar cases, and that we need not confine their interpretation exclusively to the subject which gave rise to the maxims." Not even the presence of Christ, His holy example, His heavenly instruction, could restrain the strife among His disciples over which should be the greatest. Loving to have the pre-eminence (3 John 1:9-10) is the bane of godliness in the churches. "I the Lord have called Thee. . . . and give Thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles"; "I will also give Thee for a light to the Gentiles, that Thou mayest be My salvation unto the end of the earth" (Isaiah 42:6; Isaiah 49:6). Those words were spoken by the Father unto the Messiah, yet in Acts 13:46-47 we find Paul saying of himself and Barnabas, "Lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so bath the Lord commanded us; saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth"! So again in Romans 10:15 we find the Apostle was inspired to make application unto Christ’s servant of that which was said immediately of Him: "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace" (Isaiah 52:7): "How shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace" (Romans 10:15). "He is near that justifieth Me. . . . who is he that shall condemn Me?" (Isaiah 50:8-9): the context shows unmistakably that Christ is there the speaker, yet in Romans 8:33-34 the Apostle hesitates not to apply those words unto the members of His body: "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth?" The unspeakably solemn commission given to Isaiah concerning his apostate generation (6:9,10) was applied by Christ to the people of His day, saying: "And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah" (Matthew 13:14-15). Again, in Isaiah 29:13, Isaiah announced that the Lord said, "This people draw near Me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour Me, but have removed their heart far from Me," while in Matthew 15:7 we find Christ saying to the scribes and Pharisees, "Hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth," etc. Even more striking is Christ’s rebuke unto the Sadducees, who denied the resurrection of the body, "Have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living" (Matthew 22:31-32). What God spoke immediately to Moses at the burning bush was designed equally for the instruction and comfort of all men unto the end of the world. What the Lord has said unto a particular person, He says unto everyone who is favored to read His Word. Thus does it concern us to hear and heed the same, for by that Word we shall be judged in the last great day (John 12:48). The fundamental principle for which we are here contending is plainly expressed again by Christ in Mark 13:37, "And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch." That exhortation to the Apostles is addressed directly to the saints in all generations and places. As Owen well said, "The Scriptures speak to every age, every church, every person, not less than to those to whom they were first directed. This showeth us how we should be affected in reading the Word: we should read it as a letter written by the Lord of grace from heaven, to us by name." If there be any books in the New Testament particularly restricted, it is the "pastoral Epistles," yet the exhortation found in 2 Timothy 2:19, is generalized: "Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity." Those who are so fond of restricting God’s Word would say that, "Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ" (2 Timothy 2:3) is addressed to the minister of the Gospel, and pertains not to the rank and file of believers. But Ephesians 6:10-17 shows (by necessary implication) that it applies to all the saints, for the militant figure is again used, and used there without limitation. The Bullinger school insist that James and Peter—who gave warning of those who in the last time should walk after their own ungodly lusts—wrote to Jewish believers; but Jude (addressed to all the sanctified) declares they "told you" (Jude 1:18). "Ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord" (Hebrews 12:5). That exhortation is taken from Proverbs 3:11, so that here is further evidence that the precepts of the Old Testament (like its promises) are not restricted unto those who were under the Mosaic economy, but apply with equal directness and force to those under the new covenant. Observe well the tense of the verb "which speaketh": though written a thousand years previously, Paul did not say "which hath spoken"—the Scriptures are a living Word through which their Author speaks today. Note too "which speaketh unto you"—New Testament saints: all that is contained in the book of Proverbs is as truly and as much the Father’s instruction to Christians as the contents of the Pauline Epistles. Throughout that book God addresses us individually as "My son" (Proverbs 2:1; Proverbs 3:1; Proverbs 4:1; Proverbs 5:1). That exhortation is as urgently needed by believers now as by any who lived in former ages. Though children of God, we are still children of Adam—willful, proud, independent, requiring to be disciplined, to be under the Father’s rod, to bear it meekly, and to be exercised thereby in our hearts and consciences. A word now upon transferred application, by which we mean giving a literal turn to language which is figurative, or vice versa. Thus, whenever the writer steps on to icy roads, he hesitates not to literalize the prayer, "Hold Thou me up, and I shall be safe" (Psalms 119:117). "I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for Thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety" (Psalms 4:8) is to be given its widest latitude, and regarded at both the rest of the body under the protection of Providence and the repose of the soul in the assurance of God’s protecting grace. In 2 Corinthians 8:14 Paul urges that there should be an equality of giving, or a fair distribution of the burden, in the collection being made to relieve the afflicted saints in Jerusalem. That appeal was backed up with, "As it is written, he that hath gathered much had nothing over; and he that had gathered little had no lack." That is a reference to the manna gathered by the Israelites (Exodus 16:18): those who gathered the largest quantity had more to give unto the aged and feeble; so rich Christians should use their surplus to provide for the poor of the flock. But great care needs to be taken lest we clash with the Analogy of the Faith: thus "the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker" (2 Samuel 3:1) certainly does not mean that "the flesh" becomes enervated as the believer grows in grace, for universal Christian experience testifies that indwelling sin rages as vigorously at the end as at the beginning. A brief word upon double application. Whereas preachers should ever be on their guard against taking the children’s bread and casting it to the dogs, by applying to the unsaved promises given to or statements made concerning the saints; on the other hand, they need to remind believers of the continuous force of the Scriptures and their present suitability to their cases. For instance, the gracious invitation of Christ, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28), and "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink" (John 7:37), must not be limited to our first approach to the Saviour as lost sinners, but as 1 Peter 2:4 says, "to whom coming"—in the present tense. Note too the "mourn" and not "have mourned" in Matthew 5:4, and "hunger" in verse 6. In like manner, the self-abasing word, "Who maketh thee to differ!" (1 Corinthians 4:7) today: first from the unsaved; second from what we were before the new birth; and third from other Christians with less grace and gifts. Why, a sovereign God, and therefore you have nothing to boast of and no cause for self-glorying. A word now upon the Spirit’s application of the Word unto the heart, and our task is completed. This is described in such a verse as, "For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance" (1 Thessalonians 1:5). That is very much more than having the mind informed or the emotions stirred, and something radically different from being deeply impressed by the preacher’s oratory, earnestness, etc. It is for the preaching of the Gospel to be accompanied by the supernatural operation of the Spirit, and the efficacious grace of God, so that souls are Divinely quickened, convicted, converted, delivered from the dominion of sin and Satan. When the Word is applied by the Spirit to a person, it acts like the entrance of a two-edged sword into his inner man, piercing, wounding, slaying his self-complacency and self-righteousness—as in the case of Saul of Tarsus (Romans 7:9-10). This is the "demonstration of the Spirit" (1 Corinthians 2:4), whereby He gives proof of the Truth by the effects produced in the individual to which it is sayingly applied, so that he has "much assurance"—i.e. he knows it is God’s Word because of the radical and permanent change wrought in him. Now the child of God is in daily need of this gracious working of the Holy Spirit: to make the Word work "effectually" (1 Thessalonians 2:13) within his soul and truly regulate his life, so that he can thankfully acknowledge, "I will never forget Thy precepts: for with them Thou hast quickened me" (Psalms 119:93). For that quickening it is his duty and privilege to pray (Psalms 119:25, Psalms 119:37, Psalms 119:40, Psalms 119:88, Psalms 119:107, Psalms 119:149, etc.). It is a fervent request that he may be "renewed day by day" in the inner man (2 Corinthians 4:16), that he may be "strengthened with might by His Spirit" (Ephesians 3:16), that he may be revived and animated to go in the path of God’s commandments (Psalms 119:35). It is an earnest petition that his heart may be awed by a continual sense of God’s majesty, and melted by a realization of His goodness, so that he may see light in God’s light, recognizing the evil in things forbidden and the blessedness of the things enjoined. "Quicken Thou me" is a prayer for vitalizing grace, that he may be taught to profit (Isaiah 48:17), for the increasing of his faith, the strengthening of his expectations, the firing of his zeal. It is equivalent to "draw me, we will run after Thee" (Song of Solomon 1:4). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 71: 005.00. AN EXPOSITION OF HEBREWS ======================================================================== AN EXPOSITION OF HEBREWS by A.W. Pink ***** This module is brought to you by www.DoctorDaveT.com For more Bible Study modules that are conservative evangelical Bible believing Christ honoring make sure you stop by www.DoctorDaveT.com! We have hundreds of modules easily organized by topics, like these: Old Testament Exposition (topic modules) New Testament Exposition (topic modules) Doctrinal Theology (topic modules) Commentary Modules Dictionary Modules and a whole lot more! Please visit www.DoctorDaveT.com! Dave ======================================================================== CHAPTER 72: 005.000. TABLE OF CONTENTS ======================================================================== AN EXPOSITION OF HEBREWS by A.W. Pink 1889-1952 Table Of Contents CHAPTER 1 Introduction CHAPTER 2 The Superiority of Christ over the Prophet CHAPTER 3 The Superiority of Christ over the Prophet CHAPTER 4 Christ Superior to Angels Hebrews 1:4-14 CHAPTER 5 Christ Superior to Angels Hebrews 1:7-9 CHAPTER 6 Christ Superior to Angels Hebrews 1:10-13 CHAPTER 7 Christ Superior to Angels Hebrews 2:1-4 CHAPTER 8 Christ Superior to Angels Hebrews 2:5-9 CHAPTER 9 Christ Superior to Angels Hebrews 2:9-11 CHAPTER 10 Christ Superior to Angels Hebrews 2:11-13 CHAPTER 11 Christ Superior to Angels Hebrews 2:14-16 CHAPTER 12 Christ Superior to Angels Hebrews 2:17-18 CHAPTER 13 Christ Superior to Moses Hebrews 3:1-6 CHAPTER 14 Christ Superior to Moses Hebrews 3:7-12 CHAPTER 15 Christ Superior to Moses Hebrews 3:13-19 CHAPTER 16 Christ Superior to Joshua Hebrews 4:1-3 CHAPTER 17 Christ Superior to Joshua Hebrews 4:3-10 CHAPTER 18 Christ Superior to Joshua Hebrews 4:11-16 CHAPTER 19 Christ Superior to Aaron Hebrews 5:1-4 CHAPTER 20 Christ Superior to Aaron Hebrews 5:5-7 CHAPTER 21 Christ Superior to Aaron Hebrews 5:8-10 CHAPTER 22 Christ Superior to Aaron Hebrews 5:11-14 CHAPTER 23 Infancy and Maturity Hebrews 6:1-3 CHAPTER 24 Apostasy Hebrews 6:4-6 CHAPTER 25 The Twofold Working of the Spirit Hebrews 6:4-6 CHAPTER 26 The Two Classes of Professors Hebrews 6:7-8 CHAPTER 27 Two Christians Described Hebrews 6:9-11 CHAPTER 28 Christian Perseverance Hebrews 6:12-15 CHAPTER 29 The Anchor of the Soul Hebrews 6:16-20 CHAPTER 30 Melchizedek Hebrews 7:1-3 CHAPTER 31 Melchizedek Hebrews 7:4-10 CHAPTER 32 The Priesthood Changed Hebrews 7:11-16 CHAPTER 33 Judaism Set Aside Hebrews 7:17-19 CHAPTER 34 Judaism Set Aside Hebrews 7:20-24 CHAPTER 35 The Perfect Priest Hebrews 7:25-28 CHAPTER 36 The Perfect Priest Hebrews 8:1-5 CHAPTER 37 The Two Covenants Hebrews 8:6-9 CHAPTER 38 The Two Covenants Hebrews 8:10-13 CHAPTER 39 The Typical Tabernacle Hebrews 9:1-5 CHAPTER 40 The Contrasted Priests Hebrews 9:6-10 CHAPTER 41 Eternal Redemption Hebrews 9:11-14 CHAPTER 42 The Mediator Hebrews 9:15 CHAPTER 43 The New Testament Hebrews 9:16-22 CHAPTER 44 The Great Sacrifice Hebrews 9:23-28 CHAPTER 45 The Typical Sacrifice Hebrews 10:1-4 CHAPTER 46 The Divine Incarnation Hebrews 10:5-7 CHAPTER 47 Christ’s Dedication Hebrews 10:7-10 CHAPTER 48 The Perfecting of the Church Hebrews 10:11-14 CHAPTER 49 Sanctification Hebrews 10:15-18 CHAPTER 50 Access to God Hebrews 10:19-23 CHAPTER 51 Christian Perseverance Hebrews 10:23-24 CHAPTER 52 Apostasy Hebrews 10:25-27 CHAPTER 53 The Apostates’ Doom Hebrews 10:28-31 CHAPTER 54 The Path of Tribulation Hebrews 10:32-34 CHAPTER 55 The Saving of the Soul Hebrews 10:35-39 CHAPTER 56 The Excellency of Faith Hebrews 11:1-3 CHAPTER 57 The Faith of Abel Hebrews 11:4 CHAPTER 58 The Faith of Enoch Hebrews 11:5-6 CHAPTER 59 The Faith of Noah Hebrews 11:6-7 CHAPTER 60 The Call of Abraham Hebrews 11:8 CHAPTER 61 The Life of Abraham Hebrews 11:9-10 CHAPTER 62 The Faith of Sarah Hebrews 11:11-12 CHAPTER 63 The Perseverance of Faith Hebrews 11:13-14 CHAPTER 64 The Reward of Faith Hebrews 11:15-16 CHAPTER 65 The Faith of Abraham Hebrews 11:17-19 CHAPTER 66 The Faith of Abraham Hebrews 11:17-19 CHAPTER 67 The Faith of Isaac Hebrews 11:20 CHAPTER 68 The Faith of Jacob Hebrews 11:21 CHAPTER 69 The Faith of Joseph Hebrews 11:22 CHAPTER 70 The Faith of Moses’ Parents Hebrews 11:23 CHAPTER 71 The Faith of Moses Hebrews 11:24-25 CHAPTER 72 The Faith of Moses Hebrews 11:25-26 CHAPTER 73 The Faith of Moses Hebrews 11:26-27 CHAPTER 74 The Faith of Moses Hebrews 11:28 CHAPTER 75 The Faith of Israel Hebrews 11:29 CHAPTER 76 The Faith of Israel Hebrews 11:30 CHAPTER 77 The Faith of Rahab Hebrews 11:31 CHAPTER 78 The Faith of the Judges Hebrews 11:32 CHAPTER 79 The Achievements of Faith Hebrews 11:33-34 CHAPTER 80 The Pinnacle of Faith Hebrews 11:35-36 CHAPTER 81 The Pinnacle of Faith Hebrews 11:37-38 CHAPTER 82 The Family of Faith Hebrews 11:39-40 CHAPTER 83 The Demands of Faith Hebrews 12:1 CHAPTER 84 The Object of Faith Hebrews 12:2. CHAPTER 85 A Call to Steadfastness Hebrews 12:3-4 CHAPTER 86 Divine Chastisement Hebrews 12:5 CHAPTER 87 Divine Chastisement Hebrews 12:5 CHAPTER 88 Divine Chastisement Hebrews 12:6 CHAPTER 89 Divine Chastisement Hebrews 12:7-8 CHAPTER 90 Divine Chastisement Hebrews 12:9 CHAPTER 91 Divine Chastisement Hebrews 12:10 CHAPTER 92 Divine Chastisement Hebrews 12:11 CHAPTER 93 A Call to Steadfastness Hebrews 12:12-13 CHAPTER 94 A Call to Diligence Hebrews 12:14 CHAPTER 95 A Call to Examination Hebrews 12:15 CHAPTER 96 A Warning against Apostasy Hebrews 12:16-17 CHAPTER 97 The Inferiority of Judaism Hebrews 12:18-19 CHAPTER 98 The Inferiority of Judaism Hebrews 12:20-21 CHAPTER 99 The Superiority of Christianity Hebrews 12:22-24 CHAPTER 100 The Superiority of Christianity Hebrews 12:22-24 CHAPTER 101 The Call to Hear Hebrews 12:25-26 CHAPTER 102 The Passing of Judaism Hebrews 12:26-27 CHAPTER 103 The Establishing of Christianity Hebrews 12:27 CHAPTER 104 The Kingdom of Christ Hebrews 12:28 CHAPTER 105 The Final Warning Hebrews 12:28-29 CHAPTER 106 Brotherly Love Hebrews 13:1 CHAPTER 107 Brotherly Love Hebrews 13:1-3 CHAPTER 108 Marriage Hebrews 13:4 CHAPTER 109 Covetousness Hebrews 13:5 CHAPTER 110 Contentment Hebrews 13:5-6 CHAPTER 111 Motives to Fidelity Hebrews 13:7-8 CHAPTER 112 The Heart Established Hebrews 13:8-9 CHAPTER 113 The Christian’s Altar Hebrews 13:10 CHAPTER 114 Christ Our Sin Offering Hebrews 13:11-12 CHAPTER 115 Outside the Camp Hebrews 13:12-13 CHAPTER 116 Outside the Camp Hebrews 13:13-14 CHAPTER 117 The Christian’s Sacrifices Hebrews 13:15-16 CHAPTER 118 The Christian’s Sacrifices Hebrews 13:15-16 CHAPTER 119 Christian Rulers Hebrews 13:17 CHAPTER 120 Christian Rulers Hebrews 13:17 CHAPTER 121 A Good Conscience Hebrews 13:18-19 CHAPTER 122 Praying for Ministers Hebrews 13:18-19 CHAPTER 123 The Apostle’s Prayer Hebrews 13:20-21 CHAPTER 124 The Apostle’s Prayer Hebrews 13:20-21 CHAPTER 125 Divine Exhortations Hebrews 13:22 CHAPTER 126 Spiritual Freedom Hebrews 13:23 CHAPTER 127 Conclusion Hebrews 13:24-25 COPYRIGHT The data contained in this file is believed to be in the Public Domain. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 73: 005.001. CHAPTER 1 ======================================================================== Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION Before taking up the study of this important Epistle let writer and reader humbly bow before its Divine Inspirer, and earnestly seek from Him that preparation of heart which is needed to bring us into fellowship with that One whose person, offices, and glories are here so sublimely displayed. Let us personally and definitely seek the help of that blessed Spirit who has been given to the saints of God for the purpose of guiding them into all truth, and taking of the things of Christ to show unto them. In Luke 24:45 we learn that Christ opened the understanding of the disciples "that they might understand the Scriptures." May He graciously do so with us, then the entrance of His words will "give light" (Psalms 119:130), and in His light we shall "see light." In this opening article we shall confine ourselves to things of an introductory character, things which it is necessary to weigh ere we take up the details of the Epistle. We shall consider its addressees, its purpose, its theme, its divisions, its characteristics, its value, and its writer. Before doing so, let us say that we expect to quote freely from other expositors, and where possible name them. In some cases we shall not be able to do so owing to the fact that extensive and long-distance traveling has obliged the writer to break up five libraries during the last twenty years. During those years he has read (and owned most of them) between thirty and forty commentaries on Hebrews, from which he has made notes in his Bible and taken helpful extracts for his own use when lecturing on this Epistle. As most of these commentaries have been disposed of, we can now do no more than make a general acknowledgement of help received from those written by Drs. John Owen, John Gill, Moses Stewart, Andrew Bonar, Griffith-Thomas, and Messrs. Pridham, Ridout, and Tucker. Let us now consider:— 1. Its Addressees. In our English Bibles we find the words "The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews" as the address. Perhaps some of our readers are not aware that the titles found at the head of the different books of the Bible are not Divinely inspired, and therefore are not accounted canonical as are the contents. No doubt these titles were originated by the early scribes, when making copies of the original manuscripts—manuscripts, all traces of which have long since disappeared. In some instances these titles are unsatisfactory; in a few, grossly erroneous. As an example of the latter, we may refer to the final book of Scripture. Here the title is "The Revelation of St. John the Divine," whereas the opening sentence of the book itself designates it "The Revelation of Jesus Christ!" While treating in general with the titles of the books of Scripture, we may note that in almost all of the Epistles there is a Divinely-named addressee in the opening verses. But we may add, the contents of each Epistle are not to be restricted to those immediately and locally addressed. It is important that the young Christian should grasp this firmly, so that he may be fortified against ultra-dispensational teaching. There are some, claiming to have great light, who would rob the saints today of the Epistle of James because it is addressed to "the Twelve Tribes which are scattered abroad." With equal propriety they might take from us the Epistles to the Philippians and Colossians because they were addressed only to the saints in those cities! The truth is that what Christ said to the apostles in Mark 13:17 —"What I say unto you, I say unto all"— may well be applied to the whole of the Bible. All Scripture is needed by us (2 Timothy 3:16-17), and all Scripture is God’s word to us. Note carefully that while at the beginning of his Epistle to Titus Paul only addresses Titus himself (Titus 1:4), yet at the close of this letter he expressly says, "Grace be with you all!" (Titus 3:15) Ignoring then the man-made title at the head of our Epistle, we are at once struck by the absence of any Divinely-given one in the opening verses. Nevertheless, its first sentence enables us to identify at once those to whom the Epistle was originally sent: see Hebrews 1:1-2. They to whom God spake through the prophets were the children of Israel, and it was also unto them He had spoken through His Son. In Hebrews 3:1, we find a word which, however, narrows the circle to which this Epistle was first sent. It was not the Jewish nation at large which was addressed, but the "holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling" among them. Clear confirmation of this is supplied in the Epistles of Peter. His first was addressed, locally, to "the elect sojourners of the Dispersion (Hebrews 1:1 —Gk., "eklektois parepidenois diasporas"). His second Epistle (see Hebrews 3:1) was addressed, locally and immediately, to the same company. Now in 2 Peter 3:15 the apostle makes specific reference to "our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you." Thus all doubt is removed as to whom our Epistle was first sent. The Epistle itself contains further details which serve to identify the addressees. That it was written to saints who were by no means young in the faith is clear from Hebrews 5:12. That it was sent to those who had suffered severe persecutions (cf. Acts 8:1) is plain from what we read in Hebrews 10:32. That it was addressed to a Christian community of considerable size is evident from Hebrews 13:24. From this last reference we are inclined to conclude that this Epistle was first delivered to the church in Jerusalem (Acts 11:22), or to the churches in Judea (Acts 9:31), copies of which would be made and forwarded to Jewish Christians in foreign lands. Thus, our Epistle was first addressed to those descendants of Abraham who, by grace, had believed on their Savior-Messiah. 2. Its Purpose. This, in a word, was to instruct Jewish believers that Judaism had been superceded by Christianity. It must be borne in mind that a very considerable proportion of the earliest converts to Christ were Jews by natural birth, who continued to labor under Jewish prejudices. In his early Epistles the apostle had touched several times on this point, and sought to wean them from an undue and now untimely attachment to the Mosaic institutions. But only in this Epistle does he deal fully and systematically with the subject. It is difficult for us to appreciate the position, at the time this Epistle was written, of those in Israel who had believed on the Lord Jesus. Unlike the Gentiles, who, for long centuries past, had lost all knowledge of the true God, and, in consequence, worshipped idols, the Jews had a Divine religion, and a Divinely-appointed place of worship. To be called upon to forsake these, which had been venerated by their fathers for over a thousand years, was to make a big demand upon them. It was natural that even those among them who had savingly believed on Christ should want to retain the forms and ceremonies amid which they had been brought up; the more so, seeing that the Temple still stood and the Levitical priesthood still functioned. An endeavor had been made to link Christianity on to Judaism, and as Acts 21:20 tells us there were many thousands of the early Jewish Christians who were "zealous of the law"—as the next verses clearly show, the ceremonial law. "Instead of perceiving that under the new economy of things, there was neither Jew nor Gentile, but, that, without reference to external distinctions, all believers in Christ Jesus were now to live together in the closest bonds of spiritual attachment in holy society, they dreamed of the Gentiles being admitted to the participation of the Jewish Church through means of the Messiah, and, that its external economy was to remain unaltered to the end of the world" (Dr. J. Brown). In addition to their natural prejudices, the temporal circumstances of the believing Jews became increasingly discouraging, yea, presented a sore temptation for them to abandon the profession of Christianity. Following the persecution spoken of in Acts 8:1, that eminent scholar, Adolph Saphir—himself a converted Jew—tells us: "Then arose another persecution of the believers, especially directed against the apostle Paul. Festus died about the year 63, and under the high priest Ananias, who favored the Sadducees, the Christian Hebrews were persecuted as transgressors of the law. Some of them were stoned to death; and though this extreme punishment could not be frequently inflicted by the Sanhedrim, they were able to subject their brethren to sufferings and reproaches which they felt keenly. It was a small thing that they confiscated their goods; but they banished them from the holy places. Hitherto they had enjoyed the privileges of devout Israelites: they could take part in the beautiful and God-appointed services of the sanctuary; but now they were treated as unclean and apostates. Unless they gave up faith in Jesus, and forsook the assembling of themselves together, they were not allowed to enter the Temple, they were banished from the altar, the sacrifice, the high priest, the house of Jehovah. "We can scarcely realize the piercing sword which thus wounded their inmost heart. That by clinging to the Messiah they were to be severed from Messiah’s people, was, indeed, a great and perplexing trial; that for the hope of Israel’s glory they were banished from the place which God had chosen, and where the divine Presence was revealed, and the symbols and ordinances had been the joy and strength of their fathers; that they were to be no longer children of the covenant and of the house, but worse than Gentiles, excluded from the outer court, cut off from the commonwealth of Israel. This was indeed a sore and mysterious trial. Cleaving to the promises made unto their fathers, cherishing the hope in constant prayer that their nation would yet accept the Messiah, it was the severest test to which their faith could be put, when their loyalty to Jesus involved separation from all the sacred rights and privileges of Jerusalem." Thus the need for an authoritative, lucid, and systematic setting forth of the real relation of Christianity to Judaism was a pressing one. Satan would not miss the opportunity of seeking to persuade these Hebrews that their faith in Jesus of Nazareth was a mistake, a delusion, a sin. Were they right, while the vast majority of their brethren, according to the flesh, among whom were almost all the respected members of the Sanhedrim and the priesthood, wrong? Had God prospered them since they had become followers of the crucified One? or, did not their temporal circumstances evidence that He was most displeased with them? Moreover, the believing remnant of Israel had looked for a speedy return of Christ to the earth, but thirty years had now passed and He had not come! Yes, their situation was critical, and there was an urgent need that their faith should be strengthened, their understanding enlightened, and a fuller explanation be given them of Christianity in the light of the Old Testament. It was to meet this need that God, in His tender mercy, moved His servant to write this Epistle to them. 3. Its Theme. This is, the super-abounding excellence of Christianity over Judaism. The sum and substance, the center and circumference, the light and life of Christianity, is Christ. Therefore, the method followed by the Holy Spirit in this Epistle, in developing its dominant theme, is to show the immeasurable superiority of Christ over all that had gone before. One by one the various objects in which the Jews boasted are taken up, and in the presence of the superlative glory of the Son of God they pale into utter insignificance. We are shown First, His superiority over the prophets, Hebrews 1:1-3. Second, His superiority over angels in Hebrews 1:4-14, Hebrews 2:1-18. Third, His superiority over Moses in Hebrews 3:1-19. Fourth, His superiority over Joshua, Hebrews 4:1-13. Fifth, His superiority over Aaron in Hebrews 5:14, Hebrews 6:1-20, Hebrews 7:1-18. Sixth, His superiority over the whole ritual of Judaism, which is developed by showing the surpassing excellency of the new covenant over the old, in Hebrews 7:19-28, Hebrews 8:1-13, Hebrews 9:1-28, Hebrews 10:1-39. Seventh, His superiority over each and all of the Old Testament saints, in Hebrews 11:1-40, Hebrews 12:1-3. In the Lord Jesus, Christians have the substance and reality, of which Judaism contained but the shadows and figures. If the Lord permits us to go through this Epistle—Oh that He may come for us before—many illustrations and exemplifications of our definition of its theme will come before us. At the moment, we may note how frequently the comparative term "better" is used, thus showing the superiority of what we have in Christianity over what the saints of old had in Judaism. In Hebrews 1:4, Christ is "better than angels;" in Hebrews 7:19, mention is made of a "better hope;" in Hebrews 7:22, of a "better testament" or "covenant; in Hebrews 8:6, of "better promises;" in Hebrews 9:23, of "better sacrifices;" in Hebrews 10:34 of a "better substance;" in Hebrews 11:16, of a "better country;" in Hebrews 11:35, of a "better resurrection," and in Hebrews 11:40, of the "better thing." So, too, we may observe the seven great things mentioned therein, namely: the "great salvation" (Hebrews 2:3), the "great High Priest" (Hebrews 4:14), the "great Tabernacle" (Hebrews 9:11), the "great fight of afflictions" (Hebrews 10:32), the "great recompense" (Hebrews 10:35), the "great cloud of witnesses" (Hebrews 12:1), the "great Shepherd of the sheep" (Hebrews 13:20). Again; in contrast from what the believing Hebrews were called upon to give up, they were reminded of what they had gained. Note how frequently occurs the "we have"—a great High Priest (Hebrews 4:14, Hebrews 8:1), an anchor of the soul (Hebrews 6:19), a better and enduring substance (Hebrews 10:34), an altar (Hebrews 13:10). Once more, we may note how these Hebrews were encouraged to forget the things which were behind and to press toward those which were before. All through this Epistle the forward look is prominent. In Hebrews 1:6 and Hebrews 2:5, mention is made of a "world (or ‘habitable earth’) to come;" in Hebrews 6:5, of an "age to come;" in Hebrews 8:10, of a "new covenant," yet to be made with the house of Israel; in Hebrews 9:11 and Hebrews 10:1, of "good things" to come; in Hebrews 9:28, of a "salvation" to be revealed; in Hebrews 10:37, of the coming Redeemer, in Hebrews 11:14 and Hebrews 13:14, of a "city" yet to be manifested. Throughout this Epistle great prominence is given to the Priesthood of Christ. The center of Judaism was its temple and the priesthood. Hence the Holy Spirit has here shown at length how that believers now have in Christ the substance of which these supplied but the shadows. The following passages should be carefully weighed:— Hebrews 2:17; Hebrews 3:1; Hebrews 4:14-15; Hebrews 5:6, Hebrews 5:10; Hebrews 6:20; Hebrews 7:26; Hebrews 8:1; Hebrews 9:11; Hebrews 10:21. "Though deprived of the temple, with its priesthood and altar and sacrifice, the apostle reminds the Hebrews, ‘we have’ the real and substantial temple, the great High Priest, the true altar, the one sacrifice, and with it all offerings, the true access into the very presence of the Most Holy" (Adolph Saphir). 4. Its Divisions. These have been set forth so simply by Dr. J. Brown we cannot do better than quote from him: "The Epistle divides itself into two parts—the first, doctrinal; the second, practice—though the division is not so accurately (closely, A.W.P.) observed, that there are no duties enjoined or urged in the first part, and no doctrines stated in the second. The first is by far the larger division, reaching from the beginning of the Epistle down to Hebrews 10:18. The second commences with Hebrews 10:19, and extends to the end of the Epistle. The superiority of Christianity to Judaism is the great doctrine which the Epistle teaches; and constancy in the faith and profession of that religion, is the great duty which it enjoins." 5. Its Characteristics. In several noticeable respects Hebrews differs from all the other Epistles of the New Testament. The name of the writer is omitted, there is no opening salutation, the ones to whom it was first specifically and locally sent are not mentioned. On the positive side we may note, that the typical teachings of the Old Testament are expounded here at greater length than elsewhere; the priesthood of Christ is opened up, fully, only in this Epistle; the warnings against apostasy are more frequent and more solemn, and the calls to steadfastness and perseverance are more emphatic and numerous than in any other New Testament book. All of these things are accounted for by the fleshly nationality of those addressed, and the circumstances they were then in. Unless we keep these features steadily in mind, not a little in this Epistle will necessarily remain obscure and dark. Much of the language used, the figures employed, the references made, are only intelligible in the light of the Old Testament Scriptures, on which Judaism was based. Except this be kept before us, such expressions as "purged our sins" (Hebrews 1:3), "there remaineth therefore a Sabbath-keeping to the people of God" (Hebrews 4:9), "leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection" (Hebrews 6:1), "our bodies washed with pure water" (Hebrews 10:22), "we have an altar" (Hebrews 13:10), etc., will remain unintelligible. The first time that Christ is referred to in this Epistle it is as seated at "the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Hebrews 1:3), for it is with a heavenly Christ that Christianity has to ‘do: note the other reference in this Epistle to the same fact— Hebrews 1:13, Hebrews 8:1, Hebrews 10:12, Hebrews 12:2. In perfect accord with Hebrews 1:3, which strikes the keynote of the Epistle, in addition to the heavenly Christ, reference is made to "the heavenly calling" (Hebrews 3:1), to "the heavenly gift" (Hebrews 6:4), to "heavenly things" (Hebrews 8:5), to "the heavenly Country" (Hebrews 11:16), to the "heavenly Jerusalem" (Hebrews 12:22), and to "the church of the First-born, whose names are written in Heaven" (Hebrews 12:23). This emphasis is easily understood when we remember that our Epistle is addressed to those whose inheritance, religious relationships, and hopes, had been all earthly. In Hebrews 13:22 there is a striking word which defines the character of this Epistle: "And I beseech you, brethren, suffer the word of exhortation, for I have written a letter unto you in few words." Upon this verse Saphir has well said, "The central idea of the Epistle is the glory of the New Covenant, contrasted with and excelling the glory of the old covenant; and while this idea is developed in a systematic manner, yet the aim of the writer throughout is eminently and directly practical. Everywhere his object is exhortation. He never loses sight of the dangers and wants of his brethren. The application to conscience and life is never forgotten. It is rather a sermon than an exposition.... In all his arguments, in every doctrine, in every illustration, the central aim of the Epistle is kept prominent—the exhortation to steadfastness." This is, indeed, a peculiarity about Hebrews. In his other Epistles, the apostle rarely breaks in on an argument to utter an admonition or exhortation; instead, his well-nigh uniform method was to open with doctrinal exposition, and then base upon this a series of practical exhortations. But the unusual situation which the Hebrews were in, and the peculiar love that the writer bore to them (cf. Romans 9:3) explains this exception. What has just been said above accounts for what we find in Hebrews 11. Nowhere else in the Bible do we find such a lengthy and complete description of the life of faith. But here a whole chapter, the longest in the Epistle, is devoted to it. The reason for this is not far to seek. Brought up in a system with an elaborate ritual, whose worship was primarily a matter of outward symbols and ceremonies; tempted as few ever have been to walk by sight, there was a special and most pressing need for a clear and detailed analysis and description of what it means to "walk by faith." Inasmuch as "example is better than precept," better because more easily grasped and because making a more powerful appeal to the heart, the Holy Spirit saw well to develop this important theme by an appeal to the history of saints recorded in the Scriptures of the Hebrews. But it is most important that we recognize the fullness of the term faith. As Saphir well said, "Throughout Scripture faith means more than trust in Jesus for personal safety. This is the central point, but we must take care that we understand it in a true and deep manner. Faith, as the apostle explains in the Epistle to the Corinthians, is looking at the things which are not seen and temporal: it is preferring spiritual and eternal realities to the things of time, sense, and sin; it is leaning on God and realizing His Word; it is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Thus every doctrine and illustration of this Epistle goes straight to the heart and conscience, appeals to life, addresses itself to faith. It is one continued and sustained fervent and intense appeal to cleave to Jesus, the High Priest; to the substantial, true, and real worship. A most urgent and loving exhortation to be steadfast, patient, hopeful, in the presence of God, in the love and sympathy of the Lord Jesus, in the fellowship of the great cloud of witnesses." Another prominent characteristic, concerning which there is no need for us now to enlarge upon, is the repeated warnings in this Epistle against apostasy. The most solemn and searching exhortations against the danger of falling away to be found anywhere in Holy Writ were given to these, Hebrews 2:1-3, most of the third and fourth chapters, Hebrews 6:4-6, Hebrews 10:26-29, Hebrews 12:15-17, will at once occur to all who are familiar with the contents of this Epistle. The occasion for and the need of them has already been pointed out: the disappointing of the hopes the Hebrews had cherished, the persecutions they were then enduring, and the Divine judgment which was on the very eve of falling on Jerusalem (in AD 70) made them imperative. 6. Its Value. Let us mention first its evidential value. The Epistle is particularly rich in proofs of the verbal inspiration of Scripture. This is seen in the way the apostle refers to the Old Testament, and the use he makes of it. Mark how in Hebrews 1:5-9 when quoting from the Psalms, 2nd Samuel, Deuteronomy, he refers these utterances to God Himself—"He saith," Hebrews 10:6-8. So in Hebrews 3:7 "the Holy Spirit saith." Observe how when quoting from the Old Testament the apostle attentively weighs every word, and often builds a fundamental truth on a single expression. Let us cite a few from the many examples of this: See how in Hebrews 2:8 the apostle argues from the authority of the word "all." In Hebrews 2:11, when quoting from Psalms 22:1-31, he deduces the conclusion from the expression "My brethren" that the Son of God took to Himself human nature. Observe that in Hebrews 3:7-19 and Hebrews 4:2-11, when quoting from Psalms 95:1-11, he builds on the words "Today," "I have sworn." and "My rest;" also in Hebrews 3:2-6 how his conclusions there are drawn from the words "servant," and "My house" in Numbers 12:7. His whole argument in Hebrews 8:1-13 is based on the word "new" found in Jeremiah 31:31. How blessedly he makes use of the words "My son" from Proverbs 3:11 in Hebrews 12:5-9! How emphatically he appeals in Hebrews 12:26-27 to the words "once more" in Haggai 2:6-7. Is it not abundantly clear that in the judgment of the apostle Paul the Scriptures were Divinely inspired even to the most minute expression? The evangelical value of this Epistle has been recognized by Christians of all schools of thought. Here is set forth with sunlight clearness the preciousness, design, efficacy and effects of the great Sacrifice offered once and for all. Christ has Himself purged our sins (Hebrews 1:3); He is able to save "to the uttermost" (Hebrews 7:25); by His one offering He has "perfected forever the sanctified" (Hebrews 10:14); by His blood a new and living way has been opened for His people into the Holiest (Hebrews 10:19-20): such are some of its wondrous declarations. Emphasizing the inestimable worth of His redemptive work, it is here that we read of an "eternal salvation" (Hebrews 5:9), "eternal redemption" (Hebrews 9:12), and of the "eternal inheritance" (Hebrews 9:15). The doctrinal importance of this book is exceeded by none, not even by the Roman Epistle. Where its teachings are believed, understood, and embodied in the life, ritualism and legalism (the two chief enemies of Christianity) receive their death blow. In no other book of Scripture are the sophistries and deceptions of Romanism so clearly and systematically exposed. So fully and pointedly are the errors of Popery refuted, it might well have been written since that satanic system became established. Well did one of the Puritans say, "God foreseeing what poisonous heresies would be hatched by the Papacy, prepared this antidote against them." But perhaps its chief distinctive value lies in its exposition of the Old Testament types. It is here we are taught that the Tabernacle and its furniture, the priesthood and their service, the various sacrifices and offerings, all pointed to the person, offices, and glories of the Lord Jesus. Of Israel’s priests it is said, "who served unto the example and shadow of heavenly things" (Hebrews 8:5); the first tabernacle was "a figure for the time then present" (Hebrews 9:9); the ceremonial law had "a shadow of good things to come" (Hebrews 10:1). Melchizedec was a type of Christ (Hebrews 7:15), Isaac was a figure of Him (Hebrews 11:9), and so on. The details of these will be considered, D.V., in due course. 7. Its Writer. This, we are fully assured, was the apostle Paul. Though he was distinctively and essentially the "apostle of the Gentiles" (Romans 11:13), yet his ministry was by no means confined to them, as the book of Acts clearly shows. At the time of his apprehension the Lord said, "He is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My Name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel" (Acts 9:15). It is significant that Israel is there mentioned last, in harmony with the fact that his Epistle to the Hebrews was written after most of his others to Gentile saints. That this Epistle was written by Paul is clear from 2 Peter 3:15. Peter was writing to saved Jews as the opening verses of his first Epistle intimates; 2 Peter 3:1 informs us that this letter was addressed to the same people as his former one had been. Then, in Hebrews 10:15, he declares that his beloved brother Paul "also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you." If the Epistle to the Hebrews be not that writing, where is it? ======================================================================== CHAPTER 74: 005.002. CHAPTER 2 ======================================================================== Chapter 2 THE SUPERIORITY OF CHRIST OVER THE PROPHETS Hebrews 1:1-3 Before taking up the study of the opening verses of our Epistle, let us adduce further evidence that the apostle Paul was the writer of it. To begin with, note its Pauline characteristics. First, a numerical one. There is a striking parallel between his enumeration in Romans 8:35-39 and in Hebrews 12:18-24. In the former he draws up a list of the things which shall not separate the saint from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. If the reader will count them, he will find they are seventeen in number, but divided into a seven and a ten. The first seven are given in Romans 8:35, the second ten in Hebrews 10:38-39. In Hebrews 12:18-23 he draws a contrast between Mount Sinai and Mount Sion, and he mentions seventeen details, and again the seventeen is divided into a seven and a ten. In Hebrews 10:18-19, he names seven things which the saints are not "come unto"; while in Hebrews 10:22-24 he mentions ten things they have "come unto," viz., to Mount Sion, the City of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, an innumerable company of angels, the general Assembly, the Church of the Firstborn, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator, to the Blood of sprinkling. Compare also Galatians 5:19-21, where the apostle, when describing the "works of the flesh," enumerates seventeen. So far as we are aware, no other Epistle writer of the New Testament used this number seventeen in such a manner. Again; the terms which he used. We single out one only. In Hebrews 2:10 he speaks of the many sons which Christ is bringing to glory. Now Paul is the only New Testament writer that employs the term "sons." The others used a different Greek word meaning "children." For doctrinal parallelisms compare Romans 8:16, with Hebrews 10:15, and 1 Corinthians 3:13 with Hebrews 5:12-14, and who can doubt that the Holy Spirit used the same penman in both cases? Note a devotional correspondency. In Hebrews 13:18, the writer of this Epistle says, "Pray for us." In his other Epistles we find Paul, more than once, making a similar request; but no other Epistle-writer is placed on record as soliciting prayer! Finally, it is to be noted that Timothy was the companion of the writer of this Epistle, see Hebrews 13:23. We know of no hint anywhere that Timothy was the fellow-worker of anyone else but the apostle Paul: that he companied with him is clear from 2 Corinthians 1:1, Colossians 1:1, 1 Thessalonians 3:1-2. In addition to the many Pauline characteristics stamped on this Epistle, we may further observe that it was written by one who had been in "bonds" (see Hebrews 10:34); by one who was now sundered from Jewish believers (Hebrews 13:19)—would not this indicate that Paul wrote this Epistle while in his hired house in Rome (Acts 28:30)? Again; here is a striking fact, which will have more force with some readers than others: if the Epistle to the Hebrews was not written by the apostle Paul, then the New Testament contains only thirteen Epistles from his pen—a number which, in Scripture, is ever associated with evil! But if Hebrews was also written by him, this brings the total number of his Epistles to fourteen, i.e., 7 x 2—seven being the number of perfection and two of witness. Thus, a perfect witness was given by this beloved servant of the Lord to Jew and Gentile! In the last place, there is one other evidence that the apostle Paul penned the Hebrews’ Epistle which is still more conclusive. In 2 Thessalonians 3:17-18 we read, "The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every Epistle, so I write, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all." Now, if the reader will turn to the closing verse of each of the first thirteen Epistles of this apostle, it will be found that this "token" is given in each one. Then, if he will refer to the close of the Epistles of James, Peter, John and Jude, he will discover a noticeable absence of it. Thus it was a distinctive "token" of the apostle Paul. It served to identify his writings. When, then at the close of Hebrews we read "grace be with you all" the proof is conclusive and complete that none other than Paul’s hand originally wrote this Epistle. Ere passing from this point a word should be added concerning the distinctive suitability of Paul as the penman of this Epistle. In our little work "Why Four Gospels" (pages 20-22), we have called attention to the wisdom of God displayed in the selection of the four men He employed to write the Gospels. In each one we may clearly perceive a special personal fitness for the task before him. Thus it is here. All through the Epistle of Hebrews Christ is presented as the glorified One in Heaven. Now, it was there the apostle Paul first saw the Lord (Acts 26:19); who, then, was so well suited, so experimentally equipped, to present to the Hebrews the rejected Messiah at God’s right hand! He had seen Him there; and with the exceptions of Stephen, and later, John of Patmos, he was the only one who had or has! Should it be asked, Why is the apostle Paul’s name omitted from the preface to this Epistle? a threefold answer may be suggested. First, it is addressed, primarily, to converted "Hebrews," and Paul was not characteristically or essentially an apostle to them: he was the apostle to the Gentiles. Second, the inscribing of his name at the beginning of this Epistle would, probably, have prejudiced many Jewish readers against it (cf. Acts 21:27-28; Acts 22:17-22). Third, the supreme purpose of the Epistle is to exalt Christ, and in this Epistle He is the "Apostle," see Hebrews 3:1. Therefore the impropriety of Paul making mention of his own apostleship. But let us now turn to the contents of the Epistle: Hebrews 1:1-3. These verses are not only a preface, but they contain a summary of the doctrinal section of the Epistle. The keynote is struck at once. Here we are shown, briefly but conclusively, the superiority of Christianity over Judaism. The apostle introduces his theme in a manner least calculated to provoke the antipathy of his Jewish readers. He begins by acknowledging that Judaism was of Divine authority: it was God who had spoken to their fathers. "He confirms and seals the doctrine which was held by the Hebrews, that unto them had been committed the oracles of God; and that in the writings of Moses and the prophets they possessed the Scripture which could not be broken, in which God had displayed unto them His will" (Adolph Saphir). It is worthy of note that the Gospels open with a summary of Old Testament history from Abraham to David, from David to the Captivity, and from the Captivity to Jesus, the Immanuel predicted by Isaiah (see Matthew 1:1-25), and that the Epistles also begin by telling us that the Gospel expounded by the prophets had been "promised afore by God’s prophets in the Holy Scriptures" (Romans 1:1-3). Having affirmed that God had spoken to the fathers by the prophets, the apostle at once points out that God has now spoken to us by His Son. "The great object of the Epistle is to describe the contrast between the old and new covenants. But this contrast is based upon their unity. It is impossible for us rightly to understand the contrast unless we know first the resemblance. The new covenant is contrasted with the old covenant, not in the way in which the light of the knowledge of God is contrasted with the darkness and ignorance of heathenism, for the old covenant is also of God, and is therefore possessed of Divine glory. Beautiful is the night in which the moon and the stars of prophecy and types are shining; but when the sun arises then we forget the hours of watchfulness and expectancy, and in the clear and joyous light of day there is revealed to us the reality and substance of the eternal and heavenly sanctuary" (Adolph Saphir). Let us now examine these opening verses word by word. "God" (Hebrews 1:1). The particular reference is to the Father, as the words "by (His) Son" in Hebrews 1:2 intimate. Yet the other Persons of the Trinity are not excluded. In Old Testament times the Godhead spoke by the Son, see Exodus 3:2-5; 1 Corinthians 10:9; and by the Holy Spirit, see Acts 28:26, Hebrews 3:7, etc. Being a Trinity in Unity, one Person is often said to work by Another. A striking example of this is found in Genesis 19:24, where Jehovah the Son is said to have rained down fire from Jehovah the Father. "God . . . spake." (Hebrews 1:1). Deity is not speechless. The true and living God, unlike the idols of the heathen, is no dumb Being. The God of Scripture, unlike that absolute and impersonal "first Cause" of philosophers and evolutionists, is not silent. At the beginning of earth’s history we find Him speaking: "God said, Let there be light: and there was light" (Genesis 1:4). "He spake and it was done, He commanded and it stood fast" (Psalms 33:9). To men He spake, and still speaks. For this we can never be sufficiently thankful. "God who at sundry times . . . spake" (Hebrews 1:1). Not once or twice, but many times, did God speak. The Greek for "at sundry times" literally means "by many parts," which necessarily implies, some at one time, some at another. From Abraham to Malachi was a period of fifteen hundred years, and during that time God spake frequently: to some a few words, to others many. The apostle was here paving the way for making manifest the superiority of Christianity. The Divine revelation vouchsafed under the Mosaic economy was but fragmentary. The Jew desired to set Moses against Christ (John 9:28). The apostle acknowledges that God had spoken to Israel. But how? Had He communicated to them the fullness of His mind? Nay. The Old Testament revelation was but the refracted rays, not the light unbroken and complete. As illustrations of this we may refer to the gradual making known of the Divine character through His different titles, or to the prophesies concerning the coming Messiah. It was "here a little and there a little." "God who . . . in divers manner spake" (Hebrews 1:1). The majority of the commentators regard these words as referring to the various ways in which God revealed Himself to the prophets—sometimes directly, at others indirectly—through an angel (Genesis 19:1, etc.); sometimes audibly, at others in dreams and visions. But, with Dr. J. Brown, we believe that the particular point here is how God spake to the fathers by the prophets, and not how He has made known His mind to the prophets themselves. "The revelation was sometimes communicated by typical representations and emblematical actions, sometimes in a continued parable, at other times by separate figures, at other times—though comparatively rarely—in plain explicit language. The revelation has sometimes the form of a narrative, at other times that of a prediction, at other times that of an argumentative discourse; sometimes it is given in prose, at other times in poetry" (Dr. J. B.). Thus we may see here an illustration of the sovereignty of God: He did not act uniformly or confine Himself to any one method of speaking to the fathers. He spake by way of promise and prediction, by types and symbols, by commandments and precepts, by warnings and exhortations. "God . . . spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets" (Hebrews 1:1). Thus the apostle sets his seal upon the Divine inspiration and authority of the Old Testament Scriptures. The "fathers" here goes right back to the beginning of God’s dealings with the Hebrews—cf. Luke 1:55. To "the fathers" God spake "by," or more literally and precisely, "in" the prophets. This denotes that God possessed their hearts, controlled their minds, ordered their tongues, so that they spake not their own words, but His words—see 2 Peter 1:21. At times the prophets were themselves conscious of this, see 2 Samuel 23:2, etc. We may add that the word "prophet" signifies the mouthpiece of God: see Genesis 20:7, Exodus 7:1, John 4:19 —she recognized God was speaking to her; Acts 3:21! "God . . . hath in these last days spoken unto us by"—better "in (His) Son" (Hebrews 1:2). "Having thus described the Jewish revelation he goes on to give an account of the Christians, and begins it in an antithetical form. The God who spake to ‘the fathers’ now speaks to ‘us.’ The God who spake in ‘times past,’ now speaks in these ‘last days.’ The God who spake ‘by the prophets,’ now speaks ‘by His Son.’ There is nothing in the description of the Gospel revelation that answers to the two phrases ‘at sundry times,’ and ‘in divers manners’; but the ideas which they necessarily suggest to the mind are, the completeness of the Gospel revelation compared with the imperfection of the Jewish, and the simplicity and clearness of the Gospel revelation compared with the multi-formity and obscurity of the Jewish" (Dr. J. Brown). "This manifesting of God’s will by parts (‘at sundry times,’ etc.), is here (Hebrews 1:1) noted by way of distinction and difference from God’s revealing His will under the Gospel; which was all at one time, viz., the times of His Son’s being on earth; for then the whole counsel of God was made known so far as was meet for the Church to know it while this world continueth. In this respect Christ said, ‘All things that I have heard of My Father, I have made known to you’ (John 15:15), and ‘the Comforter shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you’ (John 14:26). The woman of Samaria understood this much: ‘When the Messiah is come, He will tell us all things’ (John 4:25). Objection: the apostles had many things revealed to them later. Answer: those were no other things than what Christ had revealed before, while He lived" (Dr. Gouge). The central point of contrast here is between the Old Testament "prophets" and Christ "the Son." Though the Holy Spirit has not here developed the details of this contrast, we can ourselves, by going back to the Old Testament, supply them. Mr. Saphir has strikingly summarized them under seven heads. "First, they were many: one succeeded another: they lived in different periods. Second, they gave out God’s revelation in ‘divers manners’—similitudes, visions, symbols. Each prophet had his peculiar gift and character. Their stature and capacity varied. Third, they were sinful men— Isaiah 6:5, Daniel 10:8. Fourth, they did not possess the Spirit constantly. The ‘word’ came to them, but they did not possess the Word! Fifth, they did not understand the heights and depths of their own message— 1 Peter 1:10. Sixth, still less did they comprehend the whole of God’s revelation in Old Testament times. Seventh, like John the Baptist they had to testify ‘I am not the Light, I am only sent to bear witness of the Light.’" Now, the very opposite was the case in all these respects with the "Son." Though the revelation which God gave the prophets is equally inspired and authoritative, yet that through His Son possesses a greater dignity and value, for He has revealed all the secrets of the Father’s heart, the fullness of His counsel, and the riches of His grace. "In these last days" (Hebrews 1:2). This expression is not to be taken absolutely, but is a contrast from "in time past." The ministry of Christ marked "the last days." That which the Holy Spirit was pressing upon the Hebrews was the finality of the Gospel revelation. Through the "prophets" God had given predictions and foreshadowings; in the Son, the fulfillment and substance. The "fullness of time" had come when God sent forth His Son (Galatians 4:4). He has nothing now in reserve. He has no further revelation to make. Christ is the final Spokesman of Deity. The written Word is now complete. In conclusion, note how Christ divides history: everything before pointed toward Him, everything since points back to Him; He is the Center of all God’s counsels. "Spoken unto us" (Hebrews 1:2). "The pronoun us refers directly to the Jews of that age, to which class belonged both the writer and his readers; but the statement is equally true in reference to all, in every succeeding age, to whom the word of this salvation comes. God, in the completed revelation of His will, respecting the salvation of men through Christ Jesus, is still speaking to all who have an opportunity of reading the New Testament or of hearing the Gospel" (Dr. J. Brown). "In (His) Son" (Hebrews 1:2). Christ is the "Son of God" in two respects. First, eternally so, as the second Person in the Trinity, very God of very God. Second, He is also the "Son as incarnate." When He took upon Him sinless human nature He did not cease to be God, nor did He (as some blasphemously teach) "empty" Himself of His Divine attributes, which are inseparable from the Divine Being. "God was manifest in flesh" (1 Timothy 3:16). Before His Birth, God sent an angel to Mary, saying, "He (the Word become flesh) shall be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35). The One born in Bethlehem’s manger was the same Divine Person as had subsisted from all eternity, though He had now taken unto Him another, an additional nature, the human. But so perfect is the union between the Divine and the human natures in Christ that, in some instances, the properties of the one are ascribed to the other: see John 3:13, Romans 5:10. It is in the second of these respects that our blessed Savior is viewed in our present passage—as the Mediator, the God-man, God "spake" in and through Him: see John 17:8, John 17:14, etc. Summarizing what has been said, we may note how that this opening sentence of our Epistle points a threefold contrast between the communications which God has made through Judaism and through Christianity. First, in their respective characters: the one was fragmentary and incomplete; the other perfect and final. Second, in the instruments which He employed: in the former, it was sinful men; in the latter, His holy Son. Third, in the periods selected: the one was "in time past," the other in "these last days," intimating that God has now fully expressed Himself, that He has nothing in reserve. But is there not here something deeper and more blessed? We believe there is. Let us endeavor to set it forth. That which is central and vital in these opening verses is God speaking. A silent God is an unknown God: God "speaking" is God expressing, revealing Himself. All that we know or can now know of God is what He has revealed of Himself through His Word. But the opening verse of Hebrews presents a contrast between God’s "speakings." To Israel He gave a revelation of Himself in "time past"; to them He also gave another in "these last days." What, then, was the character of these two distinct revelations? As we all know, God’s Word is divided into two main sections, the Old and the New Testaments. Now, it is instructive to note that the distinctive character in which God is revealed in them strikingly corresponds to those two words about Him recorded in the first Epistle of John; "God is light" (Hebrews 1:5); "God is love" (Hebrews 4:8). Mark attentively the order of these two statements which make known to us what God actually is in Himself. "God is light." It was in this character that He was revealed in Old Testament times. What is the very first thing we hear Him saying in His Word? This: "Let there be light" (Genesis 1:3). In what character does He appear to our fallen first parents in Genesis 3:1-24? As "light," as the holy One, uncompromisingly judging sin. In what character was He revealed at the flood? As the "light," unsparingly dealing with that which was evil. How ‘did He make Himself known to Israel at Sinai? As the One who is "light." And so we might go on through the whole Old Testament. We do not say that His love was entirely unknown, but most assuredly it was not fully revealed. That which was characteristic of the revelation of the Divine character in the Mosaic dispensation was God as light. "God is love." It is in this character that He stands revealed in New Testament times. To make known His love. God sent forth the Son of His love. It is only in Christ that love is fully unveiled. Not that the light was absent; that could not be, seeing that He was and is God Himself. The love which he exercised and manifested was ever an holy love. But just as "God is light" was the characteristic revelation in Old Testament times, so "God is love" is characteristic of the New Testament revelation. In the final analysis, this is the contrast pointed to in the opening verses of Hebrews. In the prophets God "spoke" (revealed Himself) as light: the requirements, claims, demands of his holiness being insisted upon. But in the Son it is the sweet accents of love that we hear. It is the affections of God which the Son has expressed, appealing to ours; hence, it is by the heart, and not the head, that God can be known. "God . . . hath in these last days spoken unto us by (His) Son." It will be noted that the word "His" is in italics, which means there is no corresponding word in the original. But the omission of this word makes the sentence obscure; nor are we helped very much when we learn that the preposition "by" should be "in." "God hath spoken in Son." Yet really, this is not so obscure as at first it seems. Were a friend to tell you that he had visited a certain church, and that the preacher "spoke in Latin," you would have no difficulty in understanding what he meant: "spoke in Latin would intimate that that particular language marked his utterance. Such is the thought here. "In Son" has reference to that which characterized God’s revelation. The thought of the contrast is that God, who of old had spoken prophet-wise, now speaks son-wise. The thought is similar to that expressed in 1 Timothy 3:16, "God was manifest in flesh," the words "in flesh" referring to that which characterized the Divine manifestation. God was not manifested in intangible and invisible ether, nor did He appear in angelic form; but "in flesh." So He has now spoken "in Son," Son-wisely. The whole revelation and manifestation of God is now in Christ; He alone reveals the Father’s heart. It is not only that Christ declared or delivered God’s message, but that He himself was and is God’s message. All that God has to say to us is in His Son: all His thoughts, counsels, promises, gifts, are to be found in the Lord Jesus. Take the perfect life of Christ, His deportment, His ways; that is God "speaking"—revealing Himself—to us. Take His miracles, revealing His tender compassion, displaying His mighty power; they are God "speaking" to us. Take His death, commending to us the love of God, in that while we were yet sinners, He died for us; that is God "speaking" to us. Take His resurrection, triumphing over the grave, vanquishing him who had the power of death, coming forth as the "first fruits of them that slept"—the "earnest" of the "harvest" to follow; that is God "speaking" to us. That which is so blessed in this opening sentence of the Hebrews’ Epistle, and which it is so important that our hearts should lay hold of, is, that God has come out in an entirely new character—Son-wise. It is not so much that God speaks to us in the Son, but God addresses Himself to us in Son-like character, that is, in the character of love. God might have spoken "Almighty-wise," as He did at Sinai; but that would have terrified and overwhelmed us. God might have spoken "Judge-wise," as He will at the great white Throne; but that would have condemned us, and forever banished us from His presence. But, blessed be His name, He has spoken "Son-wise," in the tenderest relation which He could possibly assume. What was the announcement from Heaven as soon as the Son was revealed? "Unto you is born"—what? Not a "Judge," or even a "Teacher," but "a Savior, which is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11). There we have the heart of God revealed. It is the character in which God "spoke" or revealed Himself which this opening sentence of our Epistle emphasizes. He has appeared before us in the person of His beloved Son, to bring us a knowledge of the Divine affections, and this in order to engage our affections. In the very nature of the case there can be nothing higher. Through Christ, God is now fully, perfectly, finally revealed. We lose much if we fail to keep constantly in mind the fact that Christ is God—"God manliest in flesh." We profess to believe that He is Divine, the second person of the blessed Trinity. But it is to be feared that often we forget this when reading the record of His earthly life or when pondering the words which fell from His lips. How necessary it is when taking up a passage in the Gospels to realize that there it is God "speaking" to us "Son-wise," God’s affections made known. Take the familiar words of Luke 19:10, "The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which is lost." But who was this "Son of man?" It was God "manifested in flesh"; it was God revealing Himself in His "Son" character. Thus, this well-known verse shows us the heart of God, yearning over His fallen creatures. Take, again, that precious word of Matthew 11:28, "Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" Those words were uttered by "Jesus of Nazareth," yet they illustrate what is said in Hebrews 1:2 : it was God "speaking" Son-wisely, i.e., bringing to poor sinners a knowledge of Divine affections. Let us re-read the four Gospels with this glorious truth before us. Cannot we now discern the wondrous and blessed contrast pointed in the opening verses of Hebrews? How different are the two revelations which God has made of His character. In Old Testament times God "spoke," revealed Himself, according to what He is as light; and this, in keeping with the fact that it was "in the prophets"—those who made known His mind. In New Testament times God has "spoken," revealed Himself, according to what He is as love; and this, in keeping with the fact that it was "in Son" He is now made known. May we not only bow before Him in reverence and godly fear, but may our hearts be drawn out to Him in fervent love and adoration. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 75: 005.003. CHAPTER 3 ======================================================================== Chapter 3 THE SUPERIORITY OF CHRIST OVER THE PROPHETS Hebrews 1:1-3 That which distinguishes the Hebrews’ Epistle from all other books is that it has for its subject the superiority of Christianity over Judaism. Its theme is the super-abounding excellency of the new covenant. The method followed by the Holy Spirit in developing His theme is to take Him who is the center and circumference, the life and light of Christianity, even Christ, and hold before Him one object after another. As he does so, elevated, important, venerated, as some of those objects are, yet, in the presence of the "Son" their glories fade into utter insignificance. Someone has suggested an analogy with what is recorded in Matthew 17:1-27. There we see Christ upon the holy Mount, transfigured before His disciples; and, as they continue gazing on His flashing excellency, they saw no man "save Jesus only." At first, there appeared standing with Him, Moses and Elijah, and so real and tangible were they, Peter said, "If Thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for Thee, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." But as they looked "a blight cloud overshadowed them." and a Voice was heard saying, "This is My Beloved Son: hear Him" (Luke 9:35). How significant are the words that immediately followed: "And when the Voice was passed, Jesus was found alone." The glory associated with Moses and Elijah was so eclipsed by the infinitely greater glory connected with Christ, that they faded from view. Now it is something very much like this that we see here all through the Hebrews’ Epistle. The Holy Spirit takes up one object after another, holds each one up as it were in the presence of the all-excellent "Son," and as He does so, their glory is eclipsed, and the Lord Jesus is "found alone." The prophets, the angels, Moses, Joshua, the Levitical priesthood, the Old Testament men of faith, each come into view; each is compared with Christ, and each, in turn, fades away before His greater glory. Thus, the very things which Judaism most highly esteemed are shown to be far inferior to what God has now made known in the Christian revelation. In the opening verses the keynote of the Epistle is at once struck. As is usual in Scripture, the Spirit has placed the key for us over the very entrance. There we see an antithesis is drawn. There we behold a contrast between Judaism and Christianity. There we are shown the immeasurable superiority of the latter over the former. There we have brought before us the "Son" as the Speaker to whom we must listen, the Object on which to gaze, the Satisfier of the heart, the One through whom God is now perfectly and finally made known. God hath, in these last days, "spoken unto us in Son." As God is the Source from which all blessings flow, He is set before us in the very first word of the Epistle. As Christ is the Channel through which all blessing comes to us, He is mentioned next, and that, in His highest character, as "Son." The more these opening verses are prayerfully pondered, the more will their wondrous depths, exhaustless contents, and unspeakable preciousness be made apparent. In the preceding article we pointed out how that in the first two verses of Hebrews a contrast is drawn between Christ and the prophets. Israel regarded them with the highest veneration, and justly so, for they were the instruments Jehovah had condescended to employ in the giving forth of the revelation of His mind and will in Old Testament times. But Divine as were their communications, they were but introductory to something better and grander. The revelation which God made through them was neither complete nor final, as was hinted at in its fragmentary character: "in many parts and in many ways" God, of old, spake to the fathers in the prophets. Over against this, as transcending and excelling the Old Testament revelation, God has, in these last days "spoken to us in Son," i.e., in Christianity has given a new, perfect, final revelation of Himself. Thus, the superiority over Judaism of Christianity is here denoted in a twofold way: First, by necessary implication the latter, not being diverse and fragmentary, is one and complete; it is the grand consummation toward which the other was but introductory; it is the substance and reality, of which the former furnished but the shadows and types. Second, by the instruments employed: in the one God spoke "in the prophets," in the other "in (His) Son." Just as far as the personal glory of the Son excels that of the prophets, so is the revelation God made through Christ more sublime and exalted than that which He made under Judaism. In the one He was made known as light—the requirements, claims, demands of His holiness. In the other, He is manifested as love—the affections of His heart are displayed. Now, to prevent the Hebrews from concluding that Christ was nothing more than another instrument through which God had "spoken," the Holy Spirit in the verses which we are now to take up, brings before us some of the highest and most blessed of our Savior’s personal excellencies. He there proceeds to exalt the Hebrews’ conception of the Divine Prophet and Founder of the new economy. This He does by bringing into view seven of His wondrous glories. To the contemplation of those we now turn. Let us consider. 1. His Heirship. "Whom He hath appointed Heir of all things" (Hebrews 1:2). There are three things here claiming attention. First, the character in which Christ is viewed. Second, His appointment unto the inheritance. Third, the scope of the inheritance. First, this declaration that God has appointed the Savior "Heir of all things" is similar in scope to that word of Peter’s on the day of Pentecost. "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36). In both passages the reference is to the honor which has been conferred upon the Mediator, and in each case the design of speaker or writer was to magnify the Christian revelation by showing the exalted dignity of its Author and Head. That the title "Heir" is similar in force to "Lord" is clear from Galatians 4:1, "The heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all." Yet though there is a similarity between the terms "Heir" and "Lord," there is also a clear distinction between them; not only so, we may admire the Divine discrimination in the one used in Hebrews 1:2. Strikingly does it follow immediately after the reference to Him as "Son," in fact furnishing proof thereof, for the son is the father’s heir. The word "heir" suggests two things: dignity and dominion, with the additional implication of legal title thereto. For its force see Genesis 21:10-12; Galatians 4:1, etc. "An ‘heir’ is a successor to his father in all that his father hath. In connection with the Father and the Son, the supreme sovereignty of the One is nowise infringed upon by the supreme sovereignty of the Other—cf. John 5:19. The difference is only in the manner: the Father doeth all by the Son, and the Son doeth all from the Father" (Dr. Gouge). The title "Heir" here denotes Christ’s proprietorship. He is the Possessor and Disposer of all things. Second, unto an inheritance Christ was "appointed" by God. This at once shows us that the "Son" through whom God has revealed Himself, is here viewed not in His abstract Deity, but mediatorially, as incarnate. Only as such could He be "appointed" Heir; as God the Son, essentially, He could not be deputed to anything. This "appointment" was in the eternal counsels of the Godhead. Two things are hereby affirmed: certainty and valid title. Because God has predestined that the Mediator should be "Heir of all things," His inheritance is most sure and absolutely guaranteed, for "the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul?" (Isaiah 14:27); hath He not said, "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure" (Isaiah 46:10)! Again: because God has "appointed" the Mediator "Heir" we are assured of His indubitable right to this supreme dignity. That which is said of Christ’s being made priest, in Hebrews 5:5, may also be applied to this other dignity: Christ glorified not Himself to be an Heir, but He that saith to Him, "Thou art My Son, today have I begotten Thee," also "appointed" Him Heir. Above we have said, This appointment was in the eternal counsels of the Godhead. With our present passage should be compared Acts 2:23, "Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." Thus there were two chief things to which the Mediator was "appointed": sufferings (cf. also 1 Peter 1:19-20), and glory—cf. 1 Peter 1:11. How this shows us that, from the beginning, Christ was the Center of all the Divine counsels. Before a single creature was called into existence, God had appointed an "Heir" to all things, and that Heir was the Lord Jesus. It was the predestined reward of His Voluntary humiliation; He who had not where to lay His head, is now the lawful Possessor of the universe. This appointment of Christ to the inheritance was mentioned in Old Testament prophecy: "Also I will make Him My Firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth" (Psalms 89:27). "Firstborn" in Scripture refers not so much to primogeniture, as to dignity and inheritance: see Genesis 49:3 for the first occurrence. It is remarkable to observe and most solemn to discover that, in the days of His flesh, Israel recognized Him as such: "This is the Heir come let us kill Him, and the inheritance shall be ours" (Mark 12:7), was their terrible language. Third, a few words now on the extent of that Inheritance unto which the Mediator has been deputed: "Whom He hath appointed Heir of all things." The manifestation of this is yet future, but confirmation of it was made when the risen Savior said to the disciples, "All power is given unto Me in heaven and earth" (Matthew 28:18). At that time we will recall God’s words, "I will declare the decree (i.e., the "appointment"), Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee. Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the heaven for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession" (Psalms 2:7-8). His proprietorship of mankind will be evidenced when He shall "sit upon the throne of His glory: and before Him shall be gathered all nations; and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats" (Matthew 25:31-32). His right to dispose of all will be witnessed at the great white throne. But it is when this world has passed away that His universal Heirship will be fully and eternally displayed: on the new earth shall be "the throne of God and of the Lamb" (Revelation 22:1)! "How rich is our adorable Jesus! The blessed Lord, when He was upon the cross, had nothing. He had not where to lay His head; even His very garments were taken from Him. He was buried in a grave which belonged not to Him or to His family. On earth He was poor to the very last; none so absolutely poor as He. But as man, He is to inherit all things; as Jesus, God and man in one person. All angels, all human beings upon the earth, all powers in the universe, when asked, ‘Who is Lord of all?’ will answer, ‘Jesus the Son of Mary’" (Saphir). Such is the reward which God has ordained for the once humiliated One. But most wonderful of all is that word in Romans 8:16-17, "The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirits, that we are the children of God; and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ." This the angels are not. It is because of their indissoluable union with Him that His people shall also enjoy the Inheritance which God has appointed unto the Son. Herein we discover the Divine discrimination and propriety in here speaking of Christ not as "Lord of all things," but "Heir." We can never be "joint-lords," but grace has made us "joint-heirs." Because of this the Redeemer said to the Father, "the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them" (John 17:22). 2. His Creatorship. "By whom also He made the worlds" (Hebrews 1:2). The Greek term for the last word is "aionas," the primary meaning of which is ages. But here, by a metonymy, it seems to be applied to matter, and signifies, the universe. "Aion properly denotes time, either past or future; and then comes to signify things formed and done in time—the world . . .The aionas is plainly the synonym of the ta panta ("all things") in the preceding clause" (Dr. J. Brown). Two things incline us to this view. First, other scriptures ascribe creation to the Son: John 1:3; Colossians 1:16. Second, this gives force to the previous clause: He was, in the beginning, appointed Heir of all things because He was to be their Creator. Colossians 1:16 confirms this: "all things were created by Him and for Him." "By whom also He made the worlds." Here is furnished clear proof of the Mediator’s Diety: only God can create. This also is brought in for the purpose of emphasizing the immeasurable value of the new revelation which God has made. Attention is focused on the One in whom and through whom God has spoken in the "last days." Three things are told us in Hebrews 1:2 concerning Christ: first, we have His person—He is the "Son"; second, His dignity and dominion—He is the "Heir of all things"; third, His work—He has "made the worlds," heaven and earth. If, then, His dignity be so exalted, if His glory be so great, what must not be the word of such a "Son"! what the fullness of truth which God has made known to His people by Him! 3. His Effulgency. "Who being the brightness of (His) glory" (Hebrews 1:3). In this verse the Holy Spirit continues to set forth the excellencies of Christ, and in the same order as in the preceding one. First, the Divine dignity of His person, His relation to the Father—He is the Brightness of His glory. The Greek verb from which "brightness" is derived, signifies "to send forth brightness or light," and the noun here used, such brightness as cometh from light, as the sunbeams issuing from the sun. The term is thus used metaphorically. So ably has this been developed by Dr. Gouge we transcribe from his excellent commentary of 1650: "No resemblance taken from any other creature can more fully set out the mutual relation between the Father and the Son: "1. The brightness issuing from the sun is the same nature that the sun is—cf. John 10:30. 2. It is of as long continuance as the sun: never was the sun without the brightness of it—cf. John 1:1. 3. The brightness cannot be separated from the sun: the sun may as well be made no sun, as have the brightness thereof severed from it—cf. Proverbs 8:30. 4. This brightness though from the sun is not the sun itself—cf. John 8:42. 5. The sun and the brightness are distinct from each other: the one is not the other—cf. John 5:17. 6. All the glory of the sun is this brightness—cf. John 17:5; 2 Corinthians 4:6. 7. The light which the sun giveth the world is by this brightness—cf. John 14:9 . . . Thus the Son is no whit inferior to the Father, but every way His equal. He was brightness, the brightness of His Father, yea, also the brightness of His Father’s glory. Whatever excellency soever was in the Father, the same likewise was in the Son, and that in the most transplendent manner. Glory sets out excellency; brightness of glory, the excellency of excellency." That which is in view in this third item of our passage so far transcends the grasp of the finite mind that it is impossible to give it adequate expression in words. Christ is the irradiation of God’s glory. The Mediator’s relation to the Godhead is like that of the rays to the sun itself. We may conceive of the sun in the firmament, yet shining not: were there no rays, we should not see the sun. So, apart from Christ, the brightness of God’s "glory" could not be perceived by us. Without Christ, man is in the dark, utterly in the dark concerning God. It is in Christ that God is revealed. 4. His Being. "The express image of His person," or, more literally, "the impress of His substance" (Hebrews 1:3). The Greek for "express image" is a single word, and the verb from which it is derived signifies "to engrave," and in its noun form "that which is engraved," as the stamp on a coin, the print pressed on paper, the mark made by a seal. Nothing can be more like the original mold or seal than the image pressed out on the clay or wax, the one carrying the very form or features of the other. The Old Testament saints did not perfectly "express" God, nor can angels, for they are but finite creatures; but Christ, being Himself God, could, and did. All that God is, in His nature and character, is expressed and manifested, absolutely and perfectly, by the incarnate Son. "And the very impress of His substance." Here again we are faced with that which is difficult to comprehend, and harder still to express. Perhaps we may be helped to get the thought by comparing 1 Timothy 6:16 with Colossians 1:15 : "Dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see," "Who is the image of the invisible God." All true knowledge of God must come from His approach unto us, for we cannot by "reaching" find Him out. The approach must come from His side, and it has come, "the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him" (John 1:18). "The very impress of His substance." This is the nearest approach to defining God’s essence or essential existence. The word "substance" means essential being or essential existence; but how little we know about this! God—self-existent: One who never had a beginning, yet full of all that we know of blessed attributes. And Christ, the incarnate Son, is the very "impress," as it were, of that substance. As we have said, the original term is taken from the impress of a seal. Though we had never seen the seal we might, from beholding the impress of it (that which is exactly like it), form a true and accurate idea of the seal itself. So Christ is the Impress of the substance of God, the One in whom all the Divine perfections are found. Though essentially Light, He is also the Outshining of the "Light"; though in Himself essentially God, He is also the visible Representation of God. Being "with God" and being God, He is also the Manifestation of God; so that by and through Him we learn what God is. "The very impress of His substance." It is not enough to read Scripture, nor even to compare passage with passage; nor have we done all when we have prayed for light thereon; there must also be meditation, prolonged meditation. Of whom were these words spoken? Of the "Son," but as incarnate, i.e., as the Son of man; of Him who entered this world by mysterious and miraculous conception in the virgin’s womb. Men doubt and deny this, and no wonder, when they have nothing but a corrupt reason to guide them. How can a sin-darkened understanding lay hold of, believe, and love the truth that the great God should hide Himself in a frail human nature! That Omnipotence should be concealed in a Servant’s form! That the Eternal One should become an Infant of days! This is the "great mystery" of godliness, but to the family of God is "without controversy." But if the human mind, unaided, is incapable of grasping the fact of the great God hiding Himself in human form, how much less can it apprehend that that very hiding was a manifestation, that the concealing was a revealing of Himself—the Invisible becoming visible, the Infinite becoming cognizable to the finite. Yet such it was: "And the very impress of His substance." Who was? The incarnate Son, the Man Christ Jesus. Of whose "substance?" Of God’s! But how could that be? God is eternal, and Christ died! True, yet He manifested His Godhead in the very way that He died. He died as none other ever did: He "laid down" His life. More, He manifested His Godhead by rising again: "destroy this temple" (His body) said He, "And I will raise it again"; and He did. His Godhead is now manifested in that "He is alive forever more." But God is immutable and self-sufficient, and Christ hungered and thirsted/ True; because He was made "in all things like unto His brethren," and because that from actual experience of these things, He might be able to "succor them that are tempted." Moreover, He manifested His self-sufficiency by miraculously feeding the five thousand, and by His absolute power over all Nature—ruling the winds and waves, blasting the fig tree, etc. But God is Lord of all, and Christ was "Led as a lamb to the slaughter": He seemed so helpless when arrested and when hanging upon the cross! But appearances are deceptive; sometimes it is a greater thing to withhold the putting forth of power than to exert it! Yet glimpses of His Lordship flashed forth even then. See Him in the Garden, and those sent to apprehend Him prostrate on the ground (John 18:6)! See Him again on the Cross, putting forth His power and "plucking a brand from the burning": it was the power of God, for nothing short of that can free one of Satan’s captives! Yes, Christ was, ever was, the "very impress of His substance," "for in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (Colossians 2:9). 5. His Administration. "Upholding all things by the word of His power" (Hebrews 1:3). The Spirit of truth continues to describe the dignity and majesty of Him in whom God now "speaks" to us. Here is a declaration that is unequivocal in meaning and unlimited in its scope. Against the statement "by whom" God "made the worlds," it might be argued that, after all, the "Son" was only a minister, an agent whom God employed for that great work. In reply it would be sufficient to point out that there is no hint in Scripture of God ever having assigned to a mere creature, no matter how exalted his rank, a work which was in any wise comparable with the stupendous task of "making the worlds." But as if to anticipate such an objection, to show that the "Son" is high above the noblest and most honored of God’s ministers, it is here affirmed that "He upholdeth all things by the word of His power," that is, His own power; we may add that the Greek reads "His own" as in Matthew 16:26 —"his own soul"; and "His own house" (Hebrews 3:6). The "upholding" of all things is a Divine work. We have said that the term "Heir" connotes two things: dignity and dominion. In the opening clauses of Hebrews 1:3 the dignity of the Mediator is set forth; here, it is His dominion which is brought before us. As it was said that He is appointed Heir of "all things," so are we now told that He upholds "all things"—all things that are visible or invisible, in heaven or earth, or under the earth: "all things" not only creatures, but all events. The Greek word for "upholding" means to "carry or support," see Mark 2:3; it also signifies "to energize or impel," see 2 Peter 1:21. It is the word used in the Septuagint for "moved" in Genesis 1:2. That which is in view in this fifth glory of Christ is His Divine providence. "The term ‘uphold’ seems to refer both to preservation and government. ‘By Him the worlds were made’—their materials were called into being, and arranged in comely order: and by Him, too, they are preserved from running into confusion, or reverting back into nothing. The whole universe hangs on His arm; His unsearchable wisdom and boundless power are manifested in governing and directing the complicated movements of animate and inanimate, rational, and irrational beings, to the attainment of His own great and holy purposes; and He does this by the word of His power, or by His powerful word. All this is done without effort or difficulty. He speaks, and it is done; He commands, and it stands fast" (Dr. J. Brown). What a proof that the "Son" is God! He who appeared on earth in servant form, is the Sustainer of the universe. He is Lord over all. He has been given "power over all flesh" (John 17:2). The Roman legions who destroyed Jerusalem were "His armies" (Matthew 22:7). The angels are "His angels," see Matthew 13:41; Matthew 24:31. Every movement in heaven and earth is directed by Jesus Christ: "by Him all things consist" (Colossians 1:17). He is not only at the head of the spiritual realm, but he "upholds all things." All movements, developments, actions, are borne up and directed by the word of His power. Glimpses of this flashed forth even in the days of His flesh. The winds and the waves were subservient to His word. Sickness and disease fled before His command. Demons were subject to His authoritative bidding. Even the dead came forth in response to His mighty fiat. And all through the ages, today, the whole of creation is directed by the will and word of its Heir, Maker, and Upholder. 6. His Expiation. "When He had by Himself purged our sins" (Hebrews 1:3). Here is something still more wondrous. Striking is it to behold the point at which this statement is introduced. The cross was the great stumbling-block unto the Jews; but so far was the apostle from apologizing for the death of the "Son," he here includes it as among His highest glories. And such indeed it was. The putting away of the sins of His people was an even greater and grander work than was the making of the worlds or the upholding of all things by His mighty power. His sacrifice for sins has brought greater glory to the Godhead and greater blessing to the redeemed than have His works of creation or providence. "Why has this wonderful and glorious Being, in whom all things are summed up, and who is before all things the Father’s delight and the Father’s glory; why has this infinite light, this infinite power, this infinite majesty come down to our poor earth? For what purpose? To shine? To show forth the splendor of His majesty? To teach heavenly wisdom? To rule with just and holy right? No. He came to purge our sins. What height of glory! what depths of abasement! Infinite in His majesty, and infinite in His self-humiliation, and in the depths of His love. What a glorious Lord! And what an awful sacrifice of unspeakable love, to purge our sins by Himself"! (Saphir). "By Himself purged our sins." This has reference to the atonement which He has made. The metaphor of "purging" is borrowed from the language of the Mosaic economy—cf. Hebrews 9:22. The Greek word is sometimes put for the means of purging (John 2:6), sometimes for the act itself (Mark 1:44). Both are included here: the merits of Christ’s sacrifice, and the efficacy thereof. The tense of the verb, the aorist, denotes a finished work, literally, "having purged." Another has suggested an additional and humbling thought which is pointed by this metaphor—the filth of our sins, which needed "purging" away. The contrastive and superlative value and efficacy of Christ’s sacrifice is thus set before us. His blood is here distinguished from that of the legal and ceremonial purifications. None of them could purge away sins— Hebrews 10:4. All they did was to sanctify to "the purifying of the flesh" (Hebrews 9:13), not to the "purifying of the soul!" "The manner and power of this purification form the subject of this whole Epistle. But in this short expression, ‘by Himself He purged our sins,’ all is summed up. By Himself; the Son of God, the eternal Word in humanity. Himself: the priest, who is sacrifice, yea, altar, and everything that is needed for full and real expiation and reconciliation. Here is fulfilled what was prefigured on the day of atonement, when an atonement was made for Israel, to cleanse them from all sins, that they may be clean from all their sins before the Lord (Leviticus 16:30). Thus our great High Priest saith unto us, Ye are clean this day before God from all your sins. He is the fulfillment and the reality, because He is the Son of God. ‘The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin’ (1 John 1:7). The church is purchased by the blood of Him who is God (Acts 20:28, with His own blood). Behold the perfection of the sacrifice in the infinite dignity of the incarnate Son. Sin is taken away. Oh, what a wonderful thing is this!" (Saphir). 7. His Exaltation. "Sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Hebrews 1:3). Unspeakably blessed is this. The One who descended into such unfathomable depths of shame, who humbled Himself and became "obedient unto death, even the death of the cross," has been highly exalted above all principality and power, and dominion, and every name which is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. All-important is it, too, to mark carefully the connection between these two wondrous statements: "when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." We cannot rightly think of the God-man as where He now is, without realizing that the very circumstance of His being there, shows, in itself, that "our sins" are put away for ever. The present possession of glory by the Mediator is the conclusive evidence that my sins are put away. What blessed connection is there, then between our peace of soul, and His glory! "Sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." Three things are here denoted. First, high honor: "sitting," in Scripture, is often a posture of dignity, when superiors sit before inferiors: see Job 29:7-8; Daniel 7:9-10; Revelation 5:13. Second, it denotes settled continuance. In Genesis 49:24 Jacob said to Joseph that his "bow sat in strength," fittingly rendered "abode in strength." So in Leviticus 8:35, "abode" is literally "sit." Though He will vacate that seat when He descends into the air (1 Thessalonians 4:16) to receive His blood-bought people unto Himself, yet it is clear from Revelation 22:1 that this position of highest honor and glory belongs to Christ for ever and ever. Third, it signifies rest, cessation from His sacrificial services and sufferings. It has often been pointed out that no provision was made for Israel’s priests to sit down: there was no chair in the Tabernacle’s furniture. And why? Because their work was never completed—see Hebrews 10:1-3. But Christ’s work of expiation is completed; on the cross He declared, "It is finished" (John 19:30). In proof of this, He is now seated on High. The term "the Majesty on high" refers to God Himself. "Majesty" signifies such greatness as makes one to be honored of all and preferred above all. Hence it is a delegated title, proper to kings, cf. 2 Peter 1:16. In our passage it denotes God’s supreme sovereignty. It is brought in here to emphasize and magnify the exaltation of the Savior—elevated to the highest possible dignity and position. The "right hand" speaks of power (Exodus 15:6), and honor (1 Kings 2:19). "On high" is, in the Greek, a compound word, used nowhere else in the New Testament; literally, it signifies, "the highest height," the most elevated exaltation that could be conceived of or is possible. Thus we are shown that the highest seat in the universe now belongs to Him who once had not where to lay His head. It is to be observed that in Hebrews 10:2-3 the Holy Spirit has, briefly, set forth the three great offices of the Mediator. First, His prophetic: He is the final Spokesman of God. Second, His kingly: His royal majesty—upholding all things, and that, by the word of His power, which affirms His absolute sovereignty. Third, His priestly: the two parts of which are expiation of His people’s sins and intercession at God’s right hand. In conclusion, it should be pointed out how that everything in these opening verses of Hebrews is in striking contrast from what Israel enjoyed under the old economy. They had prophets; Christ is the final Spokesman of Diety. They were His people; He, God’s "Son." Abraham was constituted "heir of the world" (Romans 4:13); Christ is the "Heir" of the universe. Moses made the tabernacle; Christ, "the worlds." The law furnished "a shadow of good things to come"; Christ is the Brightness of God’s glory. In Old Testament times Israel enjoyed theophanic manifestations of Christ; now, He is revealed as the Image of God’s person. Moses bore the burden of Israel (Numbers 11:11-12); Christ, "upholds all things." The sacrifices of old took not sins away; Christ’s sacrifice did. Israel’s high priests never sat down; Christ has. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 76: 005.004. CHAPTER 4 ======================================================================== Chapter 4 CHRIST SUPERIOR TO ANGELS Hebrews 1:4-14 One of the first prerequisites for a spiritual workman who is approved of God, is that he must prayerfully and constantly aim at a "rightly dividing" of the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:15). Preeminently is this the case when he takes up those passages treating of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Unless we "rightly divide" or definitely distinguish between what is said of Him in His essential Being, and what is predicated of Him in His official character, we are certain to err, and err grievously. By His "essential Being" is meant what He always was and must ever remain as God the Son. By His "official character" reference is made to what may be postulated of Him as Mediator, that is, as God incarnate, the God-man. It is the same blessed person in each case, but looked at in different relationships. It is failure to thus rightly divide what is said in the Word of Truth concerning the Lord Jesus which has caused unregenerate men to entertain most dishonoring and degrading views of Him, and has led some regenerate men to err in their interpretation of many passages. As illustrations of the former we may cite some of the more devout unitarians, who, appealing to such statements as "My Father is greater than I" (John 14:28), "when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him" (1 Corinthians 15:28), etc., have argued that though the Son be superior to all creatures, yet is He inferior to the Father. But the passages cited do not relate to the "essential Being" of Christ, but speak of Him in His Mediatorial character. As an example of the latter we may mention how that such an able exegete as Dr. John Brown interprets the second half of Hebrews 1:4 as referring to the essential Being of the Savior. Thus it will be seen that that to which we have drawn attention above is something more than an arbitrary theological distinction; it vitally affects the forming of right views of Christ’s person and a sound interpretation of many passages of Holy Writ. Now in His Word God has not drawn the artificial lines which man is fond of making. That is to say, the essential and the official glories of Christ are often found intermingling, rather than being separately classified. A case in point occurs in the first three verses of Hebrews 1:1-14. First we are told that, at the close of the Mosaic dispensation, God spoke to the Hebrews by (in) His Son. Obviously this was upon earth, alter the Word had become flesh. Thus the reference is to Christ in His Mediatorial character. Second, "whom He hath appointed Heir of all things" manifestly views Him in the same character, for, in His essential Being no such "appointment" was needed—as God the Son "all things" are His. But when we come to the third clause, "by whom also He made the worlds" there is clearly a change of viewpoint. The worlds were made long before the Son became incarnate, therefore this postulate must be understood of Him in His eternal and essential Being. The inquiring mind will naturally ask, Why this change of viewpoint? Why introduce this higher glory of the Son in the midst of a list of His Mediatorial honors?—for it is clear that the Holy Spirit returns to these in the clauses which follow in Hebrews 1:3. The answer is not far to seek: it is to exalt the Mediator in our esteem; it is to show us that the One who appeared on earth in Servant form was possessed of a dignity and majesty which should bow our hearts in worship before Him. He who "by Himself purged our sins" is the same that "made the worlds." The crucified was the Creator! But this is not the wonder set forth in this passage. In order to be crucified it was needful for the Creator to become man. The Son of God (though never ceasing to be such) became the Son of man, and this Man has been exalted to the right hand of the Majesty on high. So beautifully has the late Mr. Saphir written on this point we transcribe from him at length:— "Is it more wonderful to see the Son of God in Bethlehem as a little babe, or to see the Son of man at the right hand of the Father? Is it more marvelous to see the Counselor, the Wonderful, the Mighty God, the Prince of Peace, the Everlasting Father, a child born unto us, and a Son given unto us—or to see the Son of man, and in Him the dust of earth, seated at the right hand of God? The high priest entered once a year into the holy of holies, but who would have ventured to abide there, or take up his position next to the cherubim, where the glory of the Most High was revealed? But Jesus, the Son of man, ascended, and by His own power, and in His own right, as well as by the appointment of the Father, He is enthroned, crowned with glory and majesty. On the wings of omnipotent love He came down from heaven, but to return to heaven, omnipotence and love were not sufficient. It was comparatively easy (if I may use this expression of the most stupendous miracle) for the Son of God to humble Himself, and to come down to this earth; but to return to heaven, it was necessary for Him to be baptized with the baptism of suffering, and to die the death upon the accursed tree. Not as He came down did He ascend again; for it was necessary that He who in infinite grace had taken our position should bow and remove our burden and overcome our enemies. Therefore was His soul straightened to be baptized with His baptism; and therefore, from the first moment that He appeared in Jerusalem, He knew that the temple of His sacred body was to be broken, and He looked forward to the decease which He should accomplish on that mount. Not as He came did He ascend again; for He came as the Son of God; but He returned not merely as the Son of God, but as the Son of God incarnate, the Son of David, our brother and our Lord. Not as He came did He ascend again; for He came alone, the Good Shepherd, moved with boundless compassion, when He thought of the lost and perishing sheep in the wilderness; but He returned with the saved sheep upon His shoulders, rejoicing, and bringing it to a heavenly and eternal home. He went back again, not merely triumphing, but He who had gone forth weeping, bearing precious seed, who Himself had been sown, by His sacrifice unto death, returned, bringing His sheaves with Him.... It was when He had by Himself purged our sins that He sat down at the right hand of God; by the power of His blood He entered into the holy of holies; as the Lamb slain God exalted Him, and gave Him a name which is above every name." Thus that which is prominent, yea dominant, in this opening chapter in Hebrews is the Mediatorial glories of the Son. True, His essential glory is referred to in Hebrews 1:2 : "By whom also He made the worlds," but, as already stated, this is introduced for the purpose of exalting the Mediator in our esteem, to prevent us forming an unworthy and erroneous conception of His person. The One who "by Himself purged our sins" is the same person as made the worlds, it is He who is "the Brightness of God’s glory, and the express Image of His substance." What ground, what cause have we for exclaiming, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches, and wisdom and strength, and honor and glory, and blessing" (Revelation 5:12)? To this the God-man is entitled. Because of this, God exalted Him to His own right hand. Having shown His infinite elevation above the prophets we have next revealed His immeasurable superiority over the angels. "Being made so much better than the angels, as He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they" (Hebrews 1:4). Before attempting to expound the details of this verse, it may be well for us first to inquire, Why does the Holy Spirit here introduce the "angels?" What was His particular purpose in showing Christ’s superiority over them? To these questions a threefold answer, at least, may be returned:— First, because the chief design of the Holy Spirit in this Epistle is to exalt the Lord Jesus, as the God-man, far above every name and dignity. In the next section (chapter 3) He shows the superiority of Christ over Moses. But to have commenced with Moses, would not have gone back far enough, for Moses the mediator, received the law by "the disposition of angels" (Acts 7:53). Inasmuch as angels are described in Holy Writ as "excelling in strength," and thus as far raised in the scale of being above man, it was necessary, in order to establish Christ’s superiority over all created beings, to show that He was much better than they. To prove that God the Son was superior to angels were superfluous, but to show that the Son of man has been exalted high above them was essential if the Hebrews were to ascribe to Him the glory which is His due. Second, the object before the Holy Spirit in this Epistle in presenting the supreme dignity and dominion of the Mediator was to demonstrate the immeasurable superiority of Christianity over Judaism. The method He has followed here is very striking and convincing. The old order or economy was given by "the disposition of angels" (Acts 7:53). Exactly what this means perhaps we cannot be quite sure, though there are several scriptures which throw light thereon, for in Deuteronomy 33:2 we read: "The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; He shined forth from Mount Paran, and He came with ten thousand of saints"—"holy ones," i.e., "angels." Again, Psalms 68:17 tells us, "The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them, as in Sinai." Finally, Galatians 3:19 says, "Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed would come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator." Thus, the glory of Jehovah at Sinai (the beginning of the Mosaic economy) was an angelic one, and the employment of angels in the giving of the law stamped a dignity and importance upon it. But the legal dispensation has been set aside by a new and higher glory revealed in "the Son," and Hebrews 1 shows us the angels subservient to Him, and not only so, closes with the statement that they are now the servants of the present "heirs of salvation!" Third, it is necessary to show the superiority of Christ (the Center and Life of Christianity) over the angels, because the Jews regarded them as the most exalted of all God’s creatures. And rightly so. It was as "the Angel of the covenant" (Malachi 3:1), the "Angel of the Lord" (Exodus 3:2), that Jehovah had appeared most frequently unto them. From earliest times angelic ministration had been a chief instrument of Divine power and medium of communication. It was "the Angel of the Lord" who delivered Hagar (Genesis 16:7), and who appeared to Abraham. Angels delivered Lot (Genesis 19:1). It was the Lord’s "angel" who protected Israel on the pass-over-night (Numbers 20:16). Thus the Jews esteemed angels more highly than man. To be told that the Messiah Himself, God the Son incarnate, had become man made Him, in their eyes, inferior to the angels. Therefore, was it necessary to show them from their own Scriptures that the Mediator, God manifest in flesh, possessed a dignity and glory as far excelling that of the angels as the heavens are higher than the earth. "Being made so much better than the angels." This verse may be termed the text, and the remainder of the chapter, the sermon—the exposition and application of it. The first key to its meaning and scope lies in its first two words (which are but one in the Greek), "being made." Grammatically it seems almost a blemish to open a new paragraph with a participle; in truth, it demonstrates the perfection of the Spirit’s handiwork. It illustrates a noticeable difference which ever distinguishes the living works of God from the lifeless productions of man—contrast the several parts of a chair or table with the various members of the human body: in the one the several sections of it are so put together that its pieces are quite distinct, and the joints between them clearly perceptible; in the other, the ending of one member is lost in the beginning of the next. Our analogy may be commonplace, but it serves to illustrate one of the great differences between the writings of men and the Scriptures of God. The latter is a living organism, a body of truth, vitalized by the breath of God! Though Hebrews 1:4 begins a distinct section of the Epistle it is closely and inseparably united to the introductory verses which precede, and more especially to the final clauses of Hebrews 1:3. Unless this be kept in mind we are certain to err in our interpretation of it. At the close of Hebrews 1:3, Christ is presented as the One who has purged the sins of His people, in other words, as the Son of man, God incarnate, and it was as such He has been exalted to the right hand of the Majesty on high. There is now a Man in the glory. And it is this Man, the "second Man (1 Corinthians 15:47) who has been made better than the angels," and who has obtained "a more excellent name than they." It is this which the opening participle makes clear, being designed to carry our thoughts back to what has been said at the close of Hebrews 1:3. "Being made so much better than the angels." To appreciate the force of this we must, briefly, consider the excellency of the "angels." Angels are the highest of all God’s creatures: heaven is their native home (Matthew 24:36). They "excel in strength" (Psalms 103:20). They are God’s "ministers" (Psalms 104:4). Like a king’s gentlemen-in-waiting, they are said to "minister unto the Ancient of days" (Daniel 7:10). They are "holy" (Matthew 25:31). Their countenances are like "lightning," and their raiment is as white as snow (Matthew 28:3). They surround God’s throne (Revelation 5:11). They carry on every development of nature. "God does not move and rule the world merely by laws and principles, by unconscious and inanimate powers, but by living beings full of light and love. His angels are like flames of fire; they have charge over the winds, and the earth, and the trees, and the sea (the book of Revelation shows this—A.W.P.). Through the angels He carries on the government of the world" (Saphir). But glorious as the angels are, elevated as is their station, great as is their work, they are, nevertheless, in subjection to the Lord Jesus as Man; for in His human nature God has enthroned Him high above all. "The apostle in the former verses proves Christ to be more excellent than the excellentest of men; even such as God extraordinarily inspired with his holy Spirit, and to whom he immediately revealed his will that they might make it known to others. Such were the priests, prophets, and heads of the people. But these, as well as all other men, notwithstanding their excellencies, were on earth mortal. Therefore he ascendeth higher, and calleth out the celestial and immortal spirits, which are called angels. Angels are of all mere creatures the most excellent. If Christ then be more excellent than the most excellent, He must needs be the most excellent of all. This excellency of Christ is so set out, as thereby the glory and royalty of His kingly office is magnified. For this is the first of Christ’s offices which the apostle doth in particular exemplify: in which exemplification He giveth many proofs of Christ’s divine nature, and showeth Him to be man as He is God also; and in the next chapter, so to be God as He is man also: ‘like to his brethren’ (Hebrews 2:17)" (Dr. Gouge). "Being made so much better than the angels." Through Isaiah God had promised that the "Man of sorrows" who was to be "cut off out of the land of the living" for the transgression of His people, should be richly rewarded for His travail: "Therefore, will I divide Him a portion with the great and He shall divide the spoil with the strong" (Isaiah 53:12). In Psalms 68:18, He is represented as ascending "on high," and that, as a mighty conqueror leading captives in His train and receiving gifts for men. In Php 2:1-30 we learn that He who took upon Him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men, who became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, "God also hath highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name, that at (in) the name of Jesus (given to Him at His incarnation) every knee should bow, of things in heaven and in earth, and under the earth" (Php 2:9-11). He has been "made so much better than the angels" first of all, by the position accorded Him—He is seated on the right hand of the Majesty on High: angels are "round about the throne" (Revelation 5:11), the Lamb is on the Throne! "As He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they" (Hebrews 1:4). "We who live in the West think a name of slight importance: but God always taught His people to attach great importance to names. The first petition in the Lord’s prayer is, ‘Hallowed be Thy name;’ and all the blessings and privileges which God bestowed upon Israel are summed up in this, that God revealed unto them His name. The name is the outward expression and the pledge and seal of all that a person really and substantially is; and when it says that the Son of God has received a higher name than angels, it means that, not only in dignity, but in kind, He is high above them" (A. Saphir). "The descriptive designation given to Christ Jesus, when contrasted to that given to angels, marks Him as belonging to a higher order of beings. Their name is created spirits; His name is the only-begotten Son of God" (Dr. J. Brown). "As He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they" (Hebrews 1:4). When commenting on the first part of this verse we endeavored to show that the reference is to the Father rewarding the Mediator for His sacrificial work, and attention was directed to the parallel supplied in Php 2:9-11. That passage begins by saying: "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him," and this finds its counterpart here in "being made so much better than the angels." Then follows the statement "and hath given Him a name which is above every name," the parallel being found in "a more excellent name than they," i.e., the highest of all created beings. Finally, His right to this exalted name is to be owned by every knee bowing before it; so also the last clause of Hebrews 1:4 affirms Christ’s right to His more excellent name. Is it not more than a coincidence that the corresponding passage to Hebrews 1:4 is found in one of the apostle Paul’s Epistles! "He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they." This affirms the right of Christ to His more excellent name. The English rendering here seems slightly misleading. The Greek for "He hath by inheritance obtained" is a single word. It is a technical term relating to legal title, secure tenure. The right of inheritance which Sarah would not that the son of the bondwoman should have, is expressed by this word: "shall not the heir" (Galatians 4:30) "Shall not by inheritance obtain," or, "shall not inherit." Christ’s right to His supreme dignity is twofold: first, because of the union between His humanity and essential Deity; Second, as a reward for His mediatorial sufferings and unparalleled obedience to His Father. "For unto which of the angels said He at any time, Thou art My Son?" (Hebrews 1:5). Having affirmed the superiority of Christ over angels, the Holy Spirit now supplies proof of this, drawing His evidence from the Old Testament Scriptures. The first passage appealed to is found in the second Psalm, and the manner in which it is introduced should be noted. It is put in the form of a question. This was to stir up the minds of those who read the Epistle. It is worthy of remark that this interrogative form of instruction is found quite frequently in the Pauline Epistles e.g., 1 Corinthians 9:4-10, Galatians 3:1-5 —and much more so than any other New Testament writer. This method of teaching was often employed by the Lord Jesus, as a glance at the Gospels will show. Observe, too, how the question asked in our text assumes that the Hebrews were familiar with the entire contents of Scripture. The interrogative way of presenting this quotation was tantamount to saying: Judge for yourselves whether what I say be true- where in the Sacred Writings is there any record of God’s addressing an angel as His "Son"? They could not thus judge unless they were well versed in the Word. "Unto which of the angels said He at any time, Thou art My Son"? The answer is, To none of them. Nowhere in the Old Testament Scriptures is there a single instance of God’s addressing an angel as "My Son." It is true that in Job 38:7 the angels are termed "sons of God," but this simply has reference to their creation. Adam is termed a "son of God" (Luke 3:38) in the same sense. So, regenerated saints are "sons of God" by virtue of new creation. But no individual angel was ever addressed by the Father as "My Son." The Lord Jesus was, both at His baptism and His transfiguration. Herein we perceive not only His pre-eminence, but His uniqueness. "Unto which of the angels said He at any time, Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee" (Hebrews 1:5)? This latter expression has occasioned not a little difficulty to some of the commentators, and, in the past, has been made the battleground of fierce theological fights. The issue raised was "the eternal Son-ship of Christ." Those affirming understood "this day (or "today") the Greek is the same as in Luke 23:43 —to be timeless, and "this day have I begotten Thee" to refer to the eternal generation of the Son by the Father. Much of the fighting was merely a strife "about words," which was to no profit. Though Scripture clearly teaches the Godhead and absolute Deity of the Son (Hebrews 1:8, etc.) and affirms His eternality (John 1:1, etc.), it nowhere speaks of His eternal "son-ship," and where Scripture is silent it behooves us to be silent too. Certainly this verse does not teach the eternal son-ship of Christ, for if we allow the apostle to define his own terms, we read in Hebrews 4:7, "He limiteth a certain day, saying in David, Today," etc. This, it appears to us, illustrates the Spirit’s foresight in thus preventing "today" in Hebrews 1:5 being understood as a timeless, limitless "day"—eternity. Further proof that the Spirit is not here treating of the essential Deity or eternal son-ship of Christ is seen by a glance at the passage from which these words are taken. Hebrews 1:5 contains far more than the mere quotation of a detached sentence from the Old Testament. The reference is to the second Psalm, and if the reader will turn to and read through it, he should at once see the striking propriety in the apostle’s reference to it here. This is the first Old Testament passage quoted in Hebrews, and like the first of anything in Scripture claims special attention because of its prime importance. Coming as it does right after what has been said in Hebrews 1:4, namely, that He who, positionally, had been made lower than the angels, is now exalted above them, an appeal to Psalms 2:1-12 was most appropriate. That has two divisions and treats of the humiliation and exaltation of the Messiah! In Psalms 2:3 counsel is taken against Him; in Psalms 2:10-12, kings and judges are bidden to pay homage to Him. Now it is in Psalms 2:1-12 that the Father is heard saying to the Messiah, "Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee" (Psalms 2:7). The whole context shows that it is the Father addressing the Son in time, not eternity; on earth, not in heaven; in His mediatorial character, not His essential Being. Nor is there any difficulty in the "today have I begotten Thee," the Holy Spirit having explained its force in Acts 13:33. There the apostle declared to the Jews that God had fulfilled the promise made unto the fathers, namely, that He had "raised up Jesus," i.e. had sent the Messiah unto them. Acts 13:33 has no reference to Christ’s resurrection, but relates to His incarnation and manifestation to Israel—cf. Deuteronomy 18:18, "I will raise them up a Prophet"; also Acts 3:26. It was not until Acts 13:34-35 that the apostle brought in His resurrection "raised Him up from the dead." Thus in Acts 13:1-52 Psalms 2:1-12 is cited to prove the Father had sent the Savior to Israel and His promise so to do had been fulfilled in the Divine incarnation. We may add that the word "again" in Acts 13:33 is not found in the Greek and is omitted in the Revised Version! If further proof be needed that the "This day have I begotten Thee" refers to the incarnation of Christ, Luke 2:11 supplies it, "unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord"—could so much be said of any but the only-begotten Son of God? Thus "this day" is here, by an angel’s voice expressly referred to the day of the Savior’s birth. "This day have I begotten Thee." This, then, is another verse which teaches the virgin-birth of Christ! His humanity was "begotten" by God the Father. Though the Son of man, He was not begotten by a man. Because His very humanity was begotten by the Father it was said unto His mother, "That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35). "And again, I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son" (Hebrews 1:5). The opening "and" connects this second quotation with the first; what follows clearly and conclusively fixes the scope of the first part of this verse. Here is indubitable proof that the Holy Spirit is speaking of Christ not according to His essential glory, but in His mediatorial character, as incarnate. Had the first part of Hebrews 1:5 referred to the eternal relationship of the Son of the Father as practically all of the older (Calvinistic) commentators insist, it would surely be meaningless to add the quotation which follows, "I will be" does not take us back into the timeless past! Nor was there any occasion for the first Person of the Trinity to assure the Second that He would be "a Father unto Him." Clearly, it is the Father accepting and owning as His Son the One whom the world had cast out. "And again, I will be to Him a Father and He shall be to Me a Son." This second quotation is from 2 Samuel 7:12-17, which forms part of one of the great Messianic predictions of the Old Testament. Like all prophecy it had a minor and major scope and receives a partial and ultimate fulfillment. Its first reference was to Solomon, who, in many respects, was a remarkable type of the Lord Jesus. But its chief application was to Christ Himself. That Solomon did not exhaust its fulfillment is clear enough from the language of 2 Samuel 7:13 itself, for, as Dr. Brown has pointed out, "It refers to a son to be raised up after David had gone to be with his fathers, whereas Solomon was not only born but crowned before David’s death; and the person to be raised up, whosoever he is, was to be settled ‘in God’s house and kingdom,’ and his throne was to be ‘established forevermore’,—words certainly not applicable, in their full extent, to Solomon." Doubtless none would have argued for an exclusive reference to Solomon had it not been for the words which follow in 2 Samuel 7:14. But competent Hebrew scholars tell us that "if he commit iniquity" may fairly be rendered "whosoever shall commit iniquity" and find their parallel in Psalms 89:30-33. "I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son." This was God’s promise concerning the Messiah, David’s Son a thousand years before He appeared on earth. "I will be to Him a Father." I will own Him as My Son, I will treat Him accordingly. This He did. In death He would not suffer Him to see corruption. He raised Him from the dead. He exalted Him to His own right hand. "And He shall be to Me a Son": He shall act as such. And He did. He ever spake of Him as "Father," He obeyed Him even unto death. He committed His spirit into His hands. "And again, when He bringeth in the First-begotten into the world, He saith, ‘And let all the angels of God worship Him’" (Hebrews 1:6). This is a quotation from Psalms 97:7, which in the Sept. reads, "Worship Him, all ye His angels." What a proof was this that the Son had been "made so much better than the angels": so far were these celestial creatures from approaching the glory of the incarnate Son, they are commanded to worship Him! But before we enlarge upon this, let us mark attentively the special character in which Christ is here viewed. Many are His titles, and none of them is without its distinctive significance. It is as "First-begotten" or "Firstborn" that the angels are bidden to render Him homage. As many are far from clear as to the precise value and meaning of this name, let us look at it the more closely. The Greek word, "pro-tokokos," is found nine times in the New Testament, eight of them referring to the Lord Jesus. It is manifestly a title of great dignity. This New Testament title of Christ, like many another, has its roots in the Old Testament. Its force may be clearly perceived in Genesis 49:3, where Jacob says of Reuben, "Thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power." Thus, the primary thought in it is not primogeniture, but dignity, honor, dominion. Note in Exodus 4:22, God calls Israel His "firstborn" because to them belonged the high honor of being His favored people. In the great Messianic prediction of Psalms 89:1-52, after promising to put down His foes and plague them that hate Him (Psalms 89:23), and after the perfect Servant says "Thou art My Father, My God, and the Rock of My salvation" (Psalms 89:26), the Father declares, "I will make Him My Firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth" (Psalms 89:27). Clearly, then, this title has no reference whatever to the eternal origin of His Being, i.e. His "eternal Son-ship," still less does it intimate His creation in time as Russellites and others blasphemously affirm; but relates to the high position of honor and glory which has been conferred upon the Son of man because of His obedience and suffering. The first occurrence of this term in the New Testament is in Matthew 1:25, "she brought forth her firstborn Son," and the second is parallel— Luke 2:7. That Mary had other sons is clear from Matthew 13:55. The Lord Jesus was not only the first in time, but the Chief, not only among but over them. In Romans 8:29 we read, that God has predestinated His elect to be conformed to the image of His Son in order that He might be the Firstborn among many brethren, i.e. their Chief and most excellent Ruler. In Colossians 1:15, He is designated the "Firstborn of every creature," which most certainly does not mean that He was Himself the first to be created, as many today wickedly teach, for never does Scripture speak of Him as "the Firstborn of God," but affirms that He is the Head and Lord of every creature. In Colossians 1:18, He is spoken of as "the Firstborn from the dead," which does not signify that He was the first to rise again, but the One to whom the bodies of His saints shall be conformed—see Php 3:21. In Hebrews 11:28, this term is applied to the flower and might of Egypt. In Hebrews 12:23, the Church in glory is termed "the Church of the Firstborn." This title then is synonymous with the "appointed Heir of all things." It is, however, to be distinguished from "Only-begotten" in John 1:18, John 3:16. This latter is a term of endearment, as a reference to Hebrews 11:17 shows—Isaac was not Abraham’s only "begotten," for Ishmael was begotten by him too; but Isaac was his darling: so Christ is God’s "Darling"—see Psalms 22:20, Psalms 35:17. "Under the law the ‘firstborn’ had authority over his brethren (cf. Romans 8:29, A.W.P.), and to them belonged a double portion, as well as the honor of acting as priests; the firstborn in Israel being holy; that is to say, consecrated to the Lord. Reuben, forfeiting his right of primogeniture by his sin, his privileges were divided, so that the dominion belonging to it was transferred to Judah and the double portion to Joseph, who had two tribes and two portions in Canaan by Ephraim and Manasseh (1 Chronicles 5:1-2); while the priesthood and the right of sacrifice was transferred to Levi. The word ‘firstborn’ also signifies what surpasses anything as of the same kind, as ‘the firstborn of the poor’" (Isaiah 14:30); that is to say, the most miserable of all; and ‘firstborn of death’ (Job 18:13), signifying a very terrible death, surpassing in grief and violence. The term ‘firstborn’ is also applied to those who were most beloved, as Ephraim is called ‘the firstborn of the Lord’ (Jeremiah 31:9), that is, His ‘dear son.’ In all these respects the application of ‘firstborn’ belongs to the Lord Jesus, both as to the superiority of His nature, of His office, and of His glory" (Robert Haldane). "And again when He bringeth in the First-begotten into the world," etc. Commentators are divided as to the meaning and placing of the word "again," many contending it should be rendered, "When He shall bring in again into the habitable earth the Firstborn." There is not a little to be said in favor of this view. First, the Greek warrants it. In the second part of Hebrews 1:5 the translators have observed the order of the original—"and again, I will be unto Him," etc. But here in Hebrews 1:6 they have departed from it—"And again, when He bringeth in" instead of "when He shall bring in again." Secondly, we know of nothing in Scripture which intimates that the angels worshipped the infant Savior. Luke 2:13-14 refers to them adoring God in heaven, and not His incarnate Son on earth. But Revelation 5:11-14 shows us all heaven worshipping the Lamb on the eve of His return to the earth, when He comes with power and glory. Scriptures which mention the angels in connection with Christ’s second advent are Matthew 13:41; Matthew 16:27; Matthew 24:31; Matthew 25:31; 2 Thessalonians 1:7. That Hebrews 1:6 has reference to the second advent of Christ receives further confirmation in the expression "when He bringeth in the First-begotten into the world." This language clearly looks back to Jehovah putting Israel into possession of the land of Canaan, their promised inheritance. "Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance" (Exodus 15:17). "To drive out the nations from before thee, greater and mightier than thou art, to bring thee in, to give thee their land for an inheritance" (Deuteronomy 4:38). In like manner, when Christ returns to the earth, the Father will say to Him, "Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession" (Psalms 2:8). In addition to what has just been said on "when He bringeth in the firstborn" into the world we would call attention to what we doubt not, is a latent contrast here. It is set over against His expulsion from the world, at His first advent. Men, as it were, drove Him ignominiously from the world. But He will re-enter it in majesty, in the manifested power of God. He will be "brought into it" in solemn pomp, and the same world which before witnessed His reproach, shall then behold His Divine dominion. Then shall He come, "in the glory of His Father" (Matthew 16:27), and then shall the angels render gladsome homage to that One whose honor is the Father’s chief delight. Then shall the word go forth from the Father’s lips, "Let all the angels of God worship Him." Our minds naturally turn back to the first advent and what is recorded in Luke 2. But there the angels praised the Sender, not the Sent: God in the highest was the object of their worship though the moving cause of it was the lowly Babe. But when Christ comes back to earth it is the Firstborn Himself who shall be worshipped by them. It was to this He referred when He said, "When He shall come in His own glory, and in His Father’s and of the holy angels." The "glory of the angels," i.e. the glory they will bring to Him, namely, their worship of Him. Then shall be seen "the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man" (John 1:51). May we who have been sought out and saved by Him "worship" Him now in the time of His rejection. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 77: 005.005. CHAPTER 5 ======================================================================== Chapter 5 CHRIST SUPERIOR TO ANGELS Hebrews 1:7-9 The verses which are now to be before us continue the passage begun in our last article. As a distinctive section of the Epistle this second division commences at Hebrews 1:4 and runs to the end of the second chapter. Its theme is the immeasurable superiority of Christ over the angels. But though the boundaries of this section are clearly defined, yet is it intimately related to the one that precedes. The first three verses of chapter one contain a summary of that which is afterwards developed at length in the Epistle, and, really, Hebrews 1:4-14 is a setting forth of the proofs for the various affirmations made in Hebrews 1:2-3. First, in Hebrews 1:2, the One whom the Jewish nation had despised and rejected is said to be "Son," and in Hebrews 1:5 we are shown that He against whom the kings of the earth did set themselves and the rulers take counsel together, is addressed by Jehovah Himself as "Thou art My Son." Second, in Hebrews 1:2 the One who had been crucified by wicked hands is said to be "the Heir of all things," and in Hebrews 1:6 proof of this is given: God affirmed that He is the "Firstborn"—the two titles being practically synonymous in their force. Thus is will be seen that the method followed here by the Holy Spirit, was in moving the apostle to first make seven affirmations concerning the exalted dignity and dominion of Christ, and then to confirm them from the Scriptures. The proofs are all drawn from the Old Testament. From it He proceeds to show that the Messiah was to be a person superior to the angels. Psalms 2:1-12 should have led the Jews to expect "the Son" and Psalms 97:7 ought to have taught them that the promised Messiah was to receive the adoration of all the celestial hierarchies. In Hebrews 1:5-6 the Spirit has established the superiority of Christ both in name and dignity; in the verses which follow He shows the inferiority of the angels in nature and rank. "And of the angels He saith, Who maketh His angels spirits" (Hebrews 1:7). This is a quotation from Psalms 104:1-35, the opening verses of which ascribe praise unto Jehovah as Creator and Governor of the universe. Its second and third verses apparently relate to the intermediary heavens, and the fourth verse to their inhabitants; verse five and onwards treats of the earth and its earliest history. The fact that the earth is mentioned right after the angels suggests that they are there viewed as connected with mundane affairs, as the servants God employs in regulating its concerns. The Spirit’s purpose in quoting this verse in Hebrews 1:1-14 is evident: it was to point a contrast between the natures of the angels and the Son: they were "made"—created; He is uncreated. Not only were the angels created, but they were created by Christ Himself "Who maketh" which looks back to the last clause of Hebrews 1:2, "He (The Son) made the worlds:" it is the making of the worlds that Psalms 104:1-35 speaks of. Moreover, they are here termed not merely "the angels," but "His angels!" They are but "spirits," He is "God;" they are "His ministers," He is their Head (Colossians 2:10). "Who maketh His angels spirits." The Hebrew word for "spirits" in Psalms 104:4 and the Greek word rendered "spirits" in Hebrews 1:7 has both a primary and secondary meaning, namely, spirits and "winds." It would seem from the words which follow—"and His ministers a flame of fire"—that God is not only defining the nature of these celestial creatures, but is also describing their qualities and activities. Thus we are inclined to regard the words before us as having a double force. A threefold reason may be suggested why the angels are likened unto "winds." First, their power to render themselves invisible. The wind is one of the very few things in the natural world which is unseen by the eyes of man; so the angels are one of the very few classes of God’s creatures that are capable of passing beyond the purview of man’s senses. Second, because of their great power. Like as the wind when commissioned by God, so the angels are able to sweep everything before them (2 Kings 19:35). Third, because of the rapid speed at which they travel. If the reader will ponder carefully Daniel 9:21-23, he will find that during the brief moments the prophet was engaged in prayer, an angel from the highest heaven reached him here on earth! Other analogies will be suggested by prayerful meditation. "And His ministers a flame of fire" (Hebrews 1:7). Here, as always in Scripture, "fire" speaks of Divine judgment, and the sentence as a whole informs us that the angels are the executioners of God’s wrath. A number of passages supply us with solemn illustrations of this fact. In Genesis 19:13 we read that the two angels said to Lot concerning Sodom, "We will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the Lord: and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it." Referring to God’s judgments which fell upon Egypt we are told, "He cast upon them the fierceness of His anger, wrath and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels" (Psalms 78:49), by which we do not understand fallen angels but "angels of evil," i.e. angels of judgment—compare the word "evil" in Isaiah 45:7, where it is contrasted not with "good" but "peace." Again, in Matthew 13:41-42 we read, "The Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." Does not this passage throw light on Revelation 20:15?—"And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire"—by whom, if not the angels, the executioners of God’s wrath! "And His ministers a flame of fire." Doubtless these words refer also to the brilliant brightness and terrifying appearance of the angels, when manifested in their native form to mortal eyes. A number of scriptures confirm this. Note how when Baalam saw the angel of the Lord that he "fell flat on his face" (Numbers 22:31). Note how it is said of the angel who rolled back the stone of the Savior’s sepulcher that "his countenance was like lightning," and that "for fear of him the keepers did shake and become as dead men" (Matthew 28:3-4). This accounts for the "fear not" with which angels so frequently addressed different ones before whom they appeared on an errand of mercy: see Matthew 28:5; Luke 1:30; Luke 2:10. Note how in proof the angels are "a flame of fire," we are told that when the angel of the Lord came to Peter, "a light shined in the prison" (Acts 12:7)! Yea, so resplendent is an angel’s brightness when manifested to men, that the apostle John fell at the feet of one to worship (Revelation 19:10)—evidently mistaking him for the Lord Himself, as lie had appeared on the mount of transfiguration. "But unto the Son lie saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever" (Hebrews 1:8). Here the Holy Spirit quotes from still another Psalm, Psalms 45:1-17, to prove the superiority of Israel’s Messiah over the angels. How blessed and marked is the contrast presented! Here we listen to the Father addressing His incarnate Son, owning Him as "God." "Unto the Son He saith," that others might hear and know it. "Thy throne, O God." How sharp is the antithesis! How immeasurable the gulf which separates between creature and Creator! The angels are but "spirits," the Son is "God." They are but "ministers," His is the "throne." They are but "a flame of fire," the executioners of judgment, He the One who commands and commissions them. "But unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God." This supplies us with one of the most emphatic and unequivocal proofs of the Deity of Christ to be found in the Scriptures. It is the Father Himself testifying to the Godhead of Him who was despised and rejected of men. And how fittingly is this quotation from Psalms 45:1-17 introduced at the point it is in Hebrews 1:1-14. In Hebrews 1:6 we are told that all the angels of God have received command to "worship" the Mediator, now we are shown the propriety of them so doing—He is "God!" They must render Divine honors to Him because of His very nature. Thus we may admire, once more, the perfect order of Scripture. "But unto the Son, He saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever." Difficulty has been experienced by some concerning the identity of the "throne" here mentioned. It is clear from what precedes and also from what follows in Hebrews 1:9.—"Thy God," that the Son is here addressed in His mediatorial character. But is it not also clear from 1 Corinthians 15:24-28 that there will be a time when His mediatorial kingdom will come to an end? Certainly not. Whatever the passage in 1 Corinthians 15:1-58 may or may not teach, it certainly does not contradict other portions of God’s Word. Again and again the Scriptures affirm the endlessness of Christ’s mediatorial kingdom: see Isaiah 9:7; Daniel 7:13-14; Luke 1:33; etc. Even on the new earth we read of "The throne of God and of the Lamb" (Revelation 22:1)! If then it is not the mediatorial kingdom which Christ shall deliver up to the Father, what is it? We answer, His Messianic one, His kingdom on this earth. In Luke 19:12, (the Gospel which, distinctively, sets forth His perfect humanity) Christ speaks of Himself as a "Nobleman" going into a far country to "receive for Himself a kingdom and to return," after which He added, "when He was returned, having received the kingdom," etc. (Luke 19:15). It is to this Matthew 25:31 refers, "When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory." As in the days of His first advent, the second Person of the Trinity (incarnate) was more dishonored than the Father or the Spirit, so, following His second advent He shall. for a season, be more honored than They. Following this, then He shall, still in His character as "Son of man" (see John 5:27) "execute judgment," i.e., on His enemies. Then, having put down (by power, not having reconciled by grace) all opposing forces, He shall "deliver up the kingdom to God" (1 Corinthians 15:24)—observe that it is not "taken from" Him! That it is not the mediatorial kingdom which Christ shall deliver up to the Father is clear from 1 Corinthians 15:28, where we are expressly told "then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him." As the Godman, the Mediator, He will be officially subservient to the Father. This should be evident. Throughout eternity the mediation of Christ will be needed to preserve fellowship between the Creator and the creature, the Infinite and the finite, hence five times over (the number of grace) in Holy Writ occur the words, "Thou art a Priest forever after the order of Melchisedek." But in His essential Being the Son will not be in subjection to His Father, as is clear from John 17:5. Thus we trust it has been made clear that whereas the Messianic kingdom of the Son will be but temporal, His Mediatorial kingdom will be eternal. His kingdom on this earth will continue only for a limited time, but His kingdom on the new earth will last forever. Blessed is it to observe that, even as Mediator, Christ is thus owned by the Father "Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever." How far above the angels that puts Him! "A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Thy kingdom" (Hebrews 1:8). The apostle is still quoting from Psalms 45:1-17, and continuing to advance proofs of the proposition laid down in Hebrews 1:4. There is no difficulty in perceiving how the sentence here cited contributes to his argument. The "scepter" is the badge of royalty and the emblem of authority. An illustration of this is furnished in the book of Esther. When Ahasuerns would give evidence of his authoritative favor unto Esther, he held out his scepter to her (see Esther 5:2; Esther 8:4). So here the "scepter" is the emblem of royal power. "The Son is the King; the highest dignity belonging to the angels is that they hold the first rank among His subjects" (Dr. J. Brown). The suffering Savior is now the supreme Sovereign; the mighty angels are His servants. "A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Thy kingdom." This is very blessed. The scepter of Christ’s kingdom then is one not merely of power, arbitrarily exercised, but a "righteous" one. "The Greek word joined by the apostle to the scepter signifieth rectitude, straightness, evenness; it is opposed to wickedness, roughness, unevenness. So doth the Hebrew word also signify; it is fitly applied to a scepter, which useth to be straight and upright, not crooked, not inclining this way or that way; so as that which is set out by a scepter, namely, government, is hereby implied to be right and upright, just and equal, not partially inclining to either side" (Dr. Gouge). Of old the Triune God declared, "He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God" (2 Samuel 23:3). This has never yet been perfectly exemplified on earth, but ere long it will be. When the Lord Jesus shall return to Jerusalem and there establish His throne, He will order all the affairs of His kingdom with impartial equity, favoring neither the classes nor the masses. As the Anti-type of Melchizedek, He will be both "King of righteousness" and "King of peace" (Hebrews 7:2). These are the two qualities which will characterize His reign. "Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and upon His Kingdom, to order it and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever" (Isaiah 9:7). Then will be fulfilled that ancient oracle. "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth." (Jeremiah 23:5). The rewards He will bestow, the judgments He will execute, will be administered impartially. But let it not be forgotten that this is equally true of His government even now, though faith alone perceives it; in all dispensations it remains that "justice and judgment are the habitation of Thy Throne" (Psalms 89:14). "Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity" (Hebrews 1:9). The past tense of the verbs is to be carefully observed. It is still the Father addressing His Son, owning on high the moral perfections He had manifested here upon earth. The reference is to the Lord Jesus in the days of His humiliation. The words before us furnish a brief but blessed description both of His character and conduct. First, He loved righteousness. "Righteousness" signifies the doing of that which is right. The unerring standard is the revealed will of God. From that standard the incarnate Son never deviated. As a Boy of twelve He said, "Wist ye not that I must be about My Father’s business?" (Luke 2:49) perform His pleasure, respond to His wishes. When replying to John’s demur against baptizing Him, He replied, "Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness" (Matthew 3:15). When tempted by the Devil to follow a course of self-will, He answered, "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4). So it was all through: He "became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Php 2:8). "Thou hast loved righteousness." This is much more than doing righteousness. These words reveal to us the spring of all Christ’s actions, even devotedness and affection unto the Father. "I delight to do Thy will, O God" (Psalms 40:8), was the confession of the perfect One. "O how love I Thy law! it is My meditation all the day" (Psalms 119:97), revealed His attitude toward the precepts and commandments of Holy Writ. Herein we perceive His uniqueness. How often our obedience is a reluctant one! How often God’s will crosses ours; and when our response is an obedient one, frequently it is joyless and unwilling. Different far was it with the Lord Jesus. He not only performed righteousness, but "loved" it. He could say, "Thy law is within My heart!" (Psalms 40:8)—the seat of the affections. When a sinful creature is said to have God’s law in his heart it is because He has written it there (see Hebrews 8:10). Because He loved righteousness, Christ "hated iniquity." The two things are inseparable: the one cannot exist without the other (Amos 5:15). Where there is true love for God, there is also abhorrence of sin. Illustrations of the Savior’s hatred of iniquity are found in His action at the close of the Temptation and in His cleansing of the Temple. Observe how, after meeting the vile solicitations of the Devil with the repeated "it is written," He, with holy abhorrence said, "Get thee hence, Satan" (Matthew 4:10). See Him, as the Vindicator of His Father’s house, driving before Him its profane traffickers and crying, "Make not My Father’s house an house of merchandise" (John 2:16). What must it have meant for One who thus loved righteousness and hated iniquity to tabernacle for thirty-three years in such a world as this! And what must it have meant for such an One to be "numbered with the transgressors" and "made sin" for His people! "Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity." This is true of Him still, for He changes not. "He that hath My commandments, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him" (John 14:21). So He still "hates": "So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans which thing I hate" (Revelation 2:15). To what extent do these two things characterize you and me, dear reader? To the extent that we are really walking with Christ: no more, no less. The more we enjoy fellowship with Him, the more we are conformed to His image, the more shall we love the things He loves, and hate the things He hates. "Therefore, God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness" (Hebrews 1:9). The Spirit is still quoting from Psalms 45:1-17. The enemies of God’s truth would discover here a "flat contradiction." In Hebrews 1:8 the One spoken to is hailed as "God," on the throne. But here in Hebrews 1:9 He is addressed as an inferior, "Thy God hath anointed Thee." How could the same person be both supreme and subordinate? If He Himself had a God, how could He at the same time be God? No wonder Divine things are "foolishness to the natural man!" Yet is the enigma easily explained, the seeming contradiction readily harmonized. The Mediator was, in His own person, both Creator and creature, God and man. Once we see it is as Mediator, as the God-man, that Christ is here spoken to, all difficulty vanishes. It is this which supplies the key to the whole passage. Much in Hebrews 1 cannot be understood unless it be seen that the Holy Spirit is there speaking not of the essential glories of Christ, but of His mediatorial dignities and honors. "Therefore, God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee." Concerning this Dr. Gouge has well said, "Christ is God-man, God may be said to be His God three ways: 1. As Christ’s human nature was created of God, and preserved by Him like other creatures. 2. As Christ is mediator, he is deputed and sent of God (John 3:34), and he subjected himself to God and set himself to do the will of God, and such works as God appointed him to do (John 4:34; John 9:4). In these respects also God is his God. 3. As Christ, God-man, was given by God to be a head to a mystical body, which is the church (Ephesians 1:22-23); God, therefore, entered into covenant with him in the behalf of that body (Isaiah 42:6; Isaiah 49:8). Thus he is called the messenger (Malachi 3:1) and the mediator of the covenant (Hebrews 8:6). Now, God is in an especial manner their God, with whom he doth enter into covenant; as he said unto Abraham, ‘I will establish my covenant between me and thee,’ etc., ‘to be a God unto thee’ (Genesis 17:7). As God made a covenant with Abraham and his seed, so also with Christ and His seed, which are all the elect of God. This is the ‘seed’ mentioned in Isaiah 53:10. So by special relation between God and Christ, God is his God in covenant with him. God also is, in especial manner, the God of the elect through Christ." "Therefore, God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee." While here on earth the Mediator owned that God was His God. He lived by His Word, He was subject to His will, He was entirely dependent on Him. "I will put My trust in Him" was His avowal (Hebrews 2:13); yea, did He not declare, "I was cast upon Thee from the womb: Thou art My God from My mother’s belly" (Psalms 22:10)! Many similar utterances of His are recorded in the Psalms. On the cross He owned His subjection, crying, "My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" Even after His resurrection we hear Him saying, "I ascend unto My Father and to your Father; and My God, and your God" (John 20:17). So now, though seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high, He is there making "intercession." So when He returns to this earth in glory, He will "ask" for the inheritance (Psalms 2:8). How this brings out the truth of His humanity, real Man, though true God. Mysterious, wondrous, blessed Person; upholding all things by the Word of His own power, yet in the place of intercession; Himself the "Mighty God" (Isaiah 9:6), yet owning God as His God! "Thy God hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness." There is a plain reference here to the ancient method, instituted by God, whereby the kings of Israel were established in their office. Their coronation was denoted by the pouring of oil upon their heads: see 1 Samuel 10:1; 1 Samuel 16:13; 1 Kings 1:39, etc. It was in allusion to this the kings were styled "anointed" (2 Samuel 19:21) and "the anointed of the Lord" (Lamentations 4:20). "The apostle and Psalmist are both speaking of the Messiah as a prince, and their sentiment is ‘God, even Thy God, hath raised Thee to a kingdom far more replete with enjoyment than that ever conferred on any other ruler. He has given Thee a kingdom which, for extent and duration, and multitude and magnitude of blessings as far exceeds any kingdom ever bestowed on man or angels as the heaven is above the earth’" (J. Brown). Though we are assured that this anointing of Christ with the "oil of gladness" (following the mention of His "scepter" and "kingdom" in Hebrews 1:8) is a reference to His investiture on High with royal honors—the "blessing of the Lord" which the King of glory received at the time of His ascension (Psalms 24:5, and note carefully the whole Psalm)—yet we do not think this exhausts its scope. In addition, we believe there is also a reference to His being honored as our great High Priest, for it is written, "He shall be a Priest upon His throne" (Zechariah 6:13). Thus there is also a manifest allusion in our verse to what is recorded in Psalms 133:1-3. There we read. "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, Aaron’s beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments—cf. Exodus 30:25-30. This is most precious, though its beauty is rarely perceived. How few see in these verses of Psalm 133 anything more than a word expressing the desirability and blessedness of saints on earth dwelling together in concord. But is this all the Psalm teaches? We trow not. What then is the analogy pointed between what is said in Psalms 133:1-2? What is the meaning of "how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious ointment upon the head," etc? What resemblance is there between brethren dwelling together in unity and the precious anointing-ointment which ran down from Aaron’s head to the skirts of his garments? It seems strange that so many should have missed this point. As the high priest of Israel, Aaron foreshadowed our great High Priest. The anointing of his "head" prefigured the anointing of our exalted Head. The running down of the fragrant unguent even to the skirts of Aaron’s garments, adumbrated the glorious fact that those who are members of the body of Christ partake of His sweet savor before God. The analogy drawn in Psalms 133:1-3 is obvious: the dwelling together of brethren in unity is "good and pleasant" not simply for the mere sake of preserving peace among them, but because it illustrates the spiritual and mystical union existing between Christ and His people. Our dwelling together in unity is "good and pleasant" not only, nor primarily, for our own well-being, but because it gives an outward manifestation, a concrete example of that invisible and Divine oneness which exists between the Head and the members of His body. "Anointed Thee with the oil of gladness." As ever in the Old Testament, the "oil" was an emblem of the Spirit, and the anointing both of Aaron and of David were typifications of the enduement of Christ with the Holy Spirit. But the reference here is not (as some of the commentators suppose) to the coming of the Spirit upon Christ at the time of His baptism. This should be apparent from the structure of Hebrews 1:9. The words "Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity" look back to the earthly life of the Lord Jesus, as the past tense of the verbs intimate; the "therefore, God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee," shows that this was the reward for His perfect work, the honoring of the humbled One. It is closely parallel with what we are told in Acts 2:36, "God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ;" and Acts 5:31, "Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Savior." "Anointed Thee with the oil of gladness" refers, we believe, to the Holy Spirit’s being made officially subordinate to the Mediator. Just as the incarnate Son was subject to the Father, so is the Spirit now subject to Christ. Just as the Savior when here glorified not Himself, but the Father, so the Spirit is here to glorify Christ (John 16:14). There are several scriptures which plainly teach the present official subordination of the Spirit to Christ: "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father" (John 15:26). That which took place on the day of Pentecost manifested the same fact: as His forerunner announced, "I indeed baptize with water, but He (Christ) shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit" (Mark 1:8). In Revelation 3:1 the Lord Jesus is referred to as "He that hath the seven Spirits of God," i.e. the Holy Spirit in the fullness of His perfections and the plentitude of His operations; "hath" to minister the Spirit unto His people. It is further proof that the suffering Savior has been exalted to the place of supreme Sovereignty. "Above Thy fellows." Opinion is divided among the commentators as to whether the reference be to angels or to Christians. Both the Hebrew word in Psalms 45:7 and the Greek word here signify "such as partake of one and the same condition." If it be borne in mind that the Holy Spirit is speaking here of Christ in His Mediatorial character, we are less likely to be stumbled by the thought of angels being termed His "fellows." "They are styled His fellows in regard of that low degree whereunto the Son of God, Creator of all things, humbled Himself by assuming a creature nature; so that as He was a creature (Man), angels are His fellows" (Dr. Gouge). Nor must we overlook the fact that the chief design of the whole of this passage is to evidence the Mediator’s superiority over the angels. As already pointed out, the central thought of Hebrews 1:9 is the investiture of Christ with royal honors, following right after the mention of His "scepter" and "kingdom" in Hebrews 1:8. Angels are also rulers; great powers are delegated to them; much of the administration of God’s government is committed into their hands. But the Man Christ Jesus has been exalted high above them in this respect too. A close parallel is found in Colossians 1:18, where it is said of the Lord Jesus, "that in all things He might have the pre-eminence." It is Important to note that in the immediate context there, angels are mentioned in connection with "thrones, dominions, principalities and powers" (Colossians 1:16)! But Christ has been given a "scepter" and royal honors which exalt Him high above them all. But what has been said above does not exhaust the scope of these closing words of Hebrews 1:9. As is so often the case in Scripture (evidencing the exhaustless fullness of its words) there is at least a double reference in the term "fellows:" first to the angels, second to Christians—thus supplying a link with Hebrews 1:14, where the "heirs of salvation" are more directly in view. That the term "fellows" applies also to believers is clear from Hebrews 3:14 where "metochos" is specifically used of them: "For we are made partakers (fellows) of Christ," if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. Though the wondrous grace of God has so united His people to His beloved Son that "he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit" (1 Corinthians 6:17), yet we must carefully bear in mind that He is "the Firstborn (Chief) among many brethren" (Romans 8:29). Though members of His body, He is nevertheless the Head. Though joint-heirs with Him, He is our Lord! So, too, though Christians have been "anointed" with the Spirit (1 John 2:20, 1 John 2:27), yet our blessed Redeemer has been "anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows." The Spirit is now subject to His administration; not so to ours. Christ is the one who is "glorified," the Spirit is the Agent, we the vessels through which He works. Thus in all things Christ has "the pre-eminence." It is indeed striking to see how much was included in the ancient oracle concerning the Messiah which the Spirit here quoted from Psalms 45:1-17. Let us attempt to summarize the content of that remarkable prophecy. First, it establishes His Deity, for the Father Himself owns Him as "God." Second, it shows us the exalted position He now occupies: He is on the throne, and there for ever. Third, it makes mention of His Kingship, the royal "scepter" being wielded by Him. Fourth, it tells of the impartiality of His government and the excellency of His rule: His scepter is a "righteous" one. Fifth, it takes us back to the days of His flesh and makes known the perfections of His character and conduct here on earth: He "loved righteousness and hated iniquity." Sixth, it reveals the place which He took when He made Himself of no reputation, as Man in subjection to God: "Thy God." Seventh, it announces the reward He received for such condescension and grace: "Therefore . . . God hath anointed Thee." Eighth, it affirms He has the pre-eminence in all things, for He has been anointed with the oil of gladness "above His fellows." May the Spirit of God stir us up to search more prayerfully and diligently the volume of that Book in which it is written of Him. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 78: 005.006. CHAPTER 6 ======================================================================== Chapter 6 CHRIST SUPERIOR TO ANGELS Hebrews 1:10-13 The closing verses of Hebrews 1:1-14 present a striking climax to the apostle’s argument. They contain the most touching and also the most thrilling references to be found in this wondrous chapter. In it the Holy Spirit completes His proof for the superiority of the Mediator over the angels, proof which was all drawn from Israel’s own Scriptures. Five times He had cited passages from the Old Testament which set forth the exalted dignities and glories of the Messiah. A sixth and a seventh is now quoted from Psalms 102:1-28 and Psalms 110:1-7, to show that He who had passed through such unparalleled humiliation and suffering, had been greeted and treated by God as One who was worthy of supremest honor and reward. The details of this will come before us in the course of our exposition. It is very striking to observe how that the character of these seven quotations made by the Holy Spirit from the Old Testament agree perfectly with the numerical position of each of them. One is the number of supremacy: see Zechariah 14:9 —there will be none other in that day to dispute the Lord’s rule for Satan will be in the Pit. So the first quotation in Hebrews 1:1-14 brings out the supremacy of Christ over the angels as "Son" (Hebrews 1:5). Two is the number of witness: see Revelation 11:3, etc. So the force of the second quotation in Hebrews 1:1-14 is the unique relation of the Son to the Father borne witness to. Three is the number of manifestation, and in the third quotation we see the superiority of the Mediator manifested by the angels "worshipping" Him (Hebrews 1:6). Four is the number of the creature, and in the fourth quotation the Holy Spirit significantly turns from Christ, who is more than creature, and dwells upon the inferiority of the angels (Hebrews 1:7) who are "made." Five is the number of grace, and the fifth quotation brings before us the "throne" of the Savior (Hebrews 1:8), which is "the throne of Grace" (Hebrews 4:16). Six is the number of man, and the sixth quotation (Hebrews 1:10-12) contains God’s response to the plaint of the Son of Man’s being taken away "in the midst of His days." Seven is the number of completion and of rest after a finished work: see Genesis 2:3; and so the seventh quotation views Christ as now seated at God’s right hand (Hebrews 1:13), as the reward of His finished work. How perfect is every detail of Holy Writ! Hebrews 1:14 furnishes the fullest demonstration of the superiority of Christianity over Judaism and the exaltation of Christ above the celestial hierarchies. So far are the angels below the Savior, they are sent forth by Him to minister unto His people. The fact of this ministry, as well as the nature and value of it, are known to but few today. The subject is a most interesting as well as important one, and will well repay much fuller study than our limited space here permits us to indulge in. May the bare outline we attempt stimulate our readers to fill it in for themselves. "And Thou, Lord, in the beginning, hast laid the foundation of the earth" (Hebrews 1:10). The opening "and" shows that the apostle is continuing to advance proof of the proposition laid down in Hebrews 1:4. This proof of Christ’s excellency is taken from a work peculiar to God, creation. The argument is based upon a Divine testimony found in the Old Testament. The argument may be stated thus: The Creator is more excellent than creatures; Christ is the Creator, angels are creatures; therefore Christ is more excellent than angels. That Christ is Creator is here proved; that angels are creatures, has been shown in Hebrews 1:7. This verse also completes the answer to a question which Hebrews 1:4 may have raised in the minds of some, namely, what is the "more excellent name" which the Mediator has obtained? The reply is "Son" (Hebrews 1:5), "God" (Hebrews 1:8), "Lord" (Hebrews 1:10). "And Thou, Lord, in the beginning, hast laid the foundation of the earth." The Psalm from which this is quoted is a truly wondrous one; in some respects it is, perhaps, the most remarkable of the whole series. It lays bare before us the Savior’s very soul. Few, if any, of us would have thought of applying it to Christ, or even dared to, had not the Spirit of God done so here in Hebrews 1:1-14. This Psalm brings before us the true and perfect humanity of Christ, and depicts Him as the despised and rejected One. It reveals Him as One who felt, and felt deeply, the experiences through which He passed. It might well be termed the Psalm of the Man of Sorrows. In it He is seen opening His heart and pouring out His grief before God. We lose much if we fail to attend carefully to the context of that portion which the Spirit here quotes. Let us go back to its opening verses: "Hear My prayer, O Lord, and let My cry come unto Thee. Hide not Thy face from Me, in the day when I am in trouble; incline Thine ear unto Me: in the day when I call answer Me speedily. For My days are consumed like smoke, and My bones are burned as an hearth. My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat My bread. By reason of the voice of My groaning My bones cleave to my skin. I am like a pelican of the wilderness; I am like an owl of the desert. I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the housetop, Mine enemies reproach Me all the day, and they that are mad against Me are sworn against Me. For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled My drink with weeping. Because of Thine indignation and Thy wrath: for Thou hast lifted Me up, and cast Me down. My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass" (Psalms 102:1-11). The above quotation is a longer one than we are accustomed to make, but it seemed impossible to abbreviate without losing its pathos and its moving effects upon us. There we are permitted to behold something of the Savior’s "travail of soul." How it should bow our hearts before Him! These plaintive sentences were uttered by our blessed Redeemer either amid the dark shadows of Gethsemane, or under the more awful darkness of Calvary. But notwithstanding His awful anguish, mark the perfect confidence in God of this suffering One: "But Thou, O Lord, shalt endure forever, and Thy remembrance unto all generations. Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favor her, yea, the set time, is come. For Thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favor the dust thereof. So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth Thy glory. When the Lord shall build up Zion, He shall appear in His glory. He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer. This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord. For He hath looked down from the height of His sanctuary; from heaven did the Lord behold the earth; to hear the groaning of the prisoner, to loose those that are appointed to death; to declare the name of the Lord in Zion and His praise in Jerusalem; when the people are gathered together, and the kingdoms to serve the Lord" (Psalms 102:12-22). Blessed is it to behold here the Savior looking away from the things seen to the things unseen: from the dark present to the bright future. "He weakened My strength in the way; He shortened My days. I said O My God, take Me not away in the midst of My days" (Psalms 102:23-24). Here again we are permitted to hear the "strong crying" (Hebrews 5:7) of Him who was "acquainted with grief" as none other ever was. Few things recorded in the Word are more affecting than this: that the Lord Jesus, the perfect Man, should, at the age of thirty-three, be deemed by men as unfit to live any longer. He had hardly entered upon man’s estate when they crucified Him. Do you think that was nothing to Christ? Ah, brethren, He felt it deeply. Who can doubt it in the light of this awful plaint: "He weakened My strength in the way; He shortened My days. I said, O My God, take Me not away in the midst of My days." As Man He felt acutely this "cutting off" in His very prime. Those words of the Savior make manifest what He suffered in His soul. He was perfect Man, with all the sinless sensibilities of human nature. A very touching type of Christ’s being cut off in the early prime of manhood is found in Leviticus 2:14. Each grade of the meal-offering described in Leviticus 2:1-16 pointed to the humanity of the Redeemer. Here in Leviticus 2:14 Israel was bidden to take "green ears of corn dried by the fire" and offer it to the Lord as an offering. The "green ears of corn" (compare John 12:24 where Christ speaks of Himself under this figure) had not fully ripened, and so, were "dried by the fire"—symbol of being subjected to God’s judgment. So it was with Christ. Man’s sickle went over the field of corn and He was "cut off" in the midst of His days: when He was barely half of the "three score years and ten" (Psalms 90:10). And what was Heaven’s response to this anguished cry of the Savior? The remainder of the Psalm records God’s answer: "Thy years are throughout all generations. Of old hast Thou laid the foundation of the earth. And the heavens are the work of Thy hands. They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure, yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall be changed: But Thou art the same, and Thy years shall have no end" (Psalms 102:24-27). "How marvelous is this! How incomprehensible this union of divine and human, of eternity and time, sadness and omnipotence! Do not wonder that such language of anguish, faintness and sorrow, of agonizing faith, is attributed by the Holy Spirit to Jesus. Remember the life of Jesus was a life of faith, a real, true, and earnest conflict; and that, although He constantly took firm hold of the promises of God, yet His feelings of sorrow, His sense of utter dependence on God, His anxious looking forward to His last suffering, all this was a reality. He gained the victory by faith; He knew that He was, through suffering, returning to the Father. He knew that as Son of Man and Redeemer of His people He would be glorified with the glory which He had with the Father before the foundations of the world were laid" (Saphir). Let us examine closely the blessed reply of the Father to the plaintive petition of His suffering Son. "And, Thou, Lord." Before His incarnation, David, by the Spirit, called Him "Lord" (Matthew 22:43). At His birth, the angels who brought the first glad tidings of His advent to this earth, hailed Him as "Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11). During His earthly ministry the disciples owned Him as "Lord" (John 13:13). So, too, is He often referred to in the Epistles (Romans 1:3, etc.). But here, it is none other than the Father Himself who directly addresses as "Lord" that suffering Man, as He lay on His face in the Garden, sweating as it were great drops of blood. Thus may, and thus should, every believer also say of Him, "My Lord, and my God" (John 20:28), and worship Him as such. "Thou, Lord, in the beginning." This phrase sets forth the eternity of the being of Him who became the Mediator. If Christ "in the beginning" laid the foundation of the earth, then He must be without beginning, and thus, eternal; compare (Proverbs 8:22-23). "Hast laid the foundation of the earth." We have been deeply impressed with the fact that God has some good reason for referring in His Word to "the foundation" and "foundations" of the earth or world more than twenty-five times. We believe it is to safeguard His people from the popular delusion of the day, namely, that the earth revolves on its axis, and that the heavenly bodies are stationary, only appearing to our sight to move, as the banks and trees seem to be doing to one seated in a rowing-boat or sailing ship. This theory was first advanced (so far as the writer is aware) by Grecian heathen philosophers, echoed by Copernicus in the fifteenth century, and re-echoed by science "falsely so called" (see 1 Timothy 6:20) today. Alas, that so many of God’s servants and people have accepted it. Such a conceit cannot be harmonized with "a foundation" so often predicated of the earth; which, necessarily, implies its fixity! Nor can such a theory be squared with the repeated statements of Holy Writ that the "sun moves" (Joshua 10:12), etc. The writer is well aware that this paragraph may evoke a pitying smile from some. But that will not move him. Let God be true and every man a liar. We are content to believe what He has said. Paul was willing to be a fool for Christ’s sake (1 Corinthians 4:10), and we are willing to be thought a fool for the Scripture’s sake. "And the heavens are the work of Thine hand" (Hebrews 1:10). This seems to bring in an additional thought. In the preceding clause creation is ascribed to Christ; here the greatness of His power. The heavens being of so far vaster dimensions than the earth, suggests the omnipotency of their Maker. "They shall perish, but Thou remainest" (Hebrews 1:11). This verse makes mention of still another perfection of Christ, namely, His immutability. The earth and the heavens shall perish. The apostle John, in prophetic vision, saw "a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away" (Revelation 21:1). But Christ "remaineth." He is "the same yesterday, and today, and forever." "And they all shall wax old as doth a garment, and as a vesture shalt Thou fold them up, and they shall be changed" (Hebrews 1:11-12). This emphasizes the mutability of the creature. Two resemblances are employed: first the earth may be said to "wax old as doth a garment" in that it is not to last forever, but is appointed to an end: see 2 Peter 3:10. The longer, therefore, it has continued, the nearer it approaches to that end; as a garment, the longer it is worn, the nearer it is to its end. May not the increasing number of earthquakes evidence that "old age" is fast coming upon it? Second, the heavens may be said to be "folded up as a vesture," inasmuch as Scripture declares "the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll" (Isaiah 34:4). "Thou shall fold them up." This intimates Christ’s absolute control over all creation. He that made all hath an absolute power to preserve, alter, and destroy all, as it pleaseth Him. He is the Potter, we are but the clay, to be molded as He will. Our Lord Jesus Christ, being true God, is the Most High and supreme Sovereign over all, and He doeth all "that man may know that Thou, whose name is Jehovah, art the Most High over all the earth" (Psalms 83:18). "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made" (Psalms 33:6); by the same word shall they be folded up. The practical value of this for our hearts is plain; such a Lord may be safely trusted; such a Lord should be revered and worshipped. In what holy awe should He be held! "But Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail" (Hebrews 1:12). "The mutability of creatures being distinctly set out, the apostle returneth to the main point intended, which is Christ’s immutability. It was before generally set down in the phrase, ‘Thou remaineth.’ Here it is illustrated in two other branches. Though all these three phrases in general intend one and the same thing, namely, immutability, yet, to show that there is no tautology, no vain repetition, of one and the same thing, they may be distinguished one from another: "‘Thou remaineth,’ pointeth at Christ’s eternity before all times; for it implieth his being before, in which he still abides. ‘Thou art the same’ declares Christ’s constancy. There is no variableness with him; thus, therefore, he says of himself, ‘I am the Lord, I change not’ (Malachi 3:6). ‘Thy years shall not fail’ intendeth Christ’s everlastingness; that he was before all times, and continueth in all ages, and will beyond all times so continue" (Dr. Gouge). "But Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail." This was God’s answer to the plaint of Christ’s being "cut off" in the midst of His days. As man, His "years" should have no end! As God the Son He is eternal in His being; but as Man, in resurrection, He received "life for evermore" (cf. Hebrews 7:14-17). Do we really grasp this? For nineteen hundred years since the Cross, men have been born, have lived, and then died. Statesmen, emperors, kings have appeared on the scene and then passed away. But there is one glorious Man who spans the centuries, who in His own humanity bridges those nineteen hundred years. He has not died, nor even grown old; He is "the same yesterday, and today, and forever!" "But Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail." What assurance was this for the believing of Israel who had been sorely perplexed at the "cutting off" of the Messiah, in the midst of His days! Humbled as He had been, yet was He the Creator. In servant form had He appeared among them, but He was and is the sovereign Disposer of all things. Died he had on the cross, but He was now "alive for evermore." Their own Scriptures bore witness to it: God Himself affirmed it! And what is the practical application of this wondrous passage for us today! Surely this: first, such a Savior, who is none other than Him who made heaven and earth, is a mighty Redeemer, "Able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him." Second, such an One, who is immutable and eternal, may be safely and confidently trusted; none can pluck out of His hand! Third, such an One, who is "Lord" over all, is to be held in holy awe and given the worship, submission, and service which are His due. "But to which of the angels said He at any time, Sit on My right hand until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool?" (Hebrews 1:13). This completes the proof of what the apostle had said in Hebrews 1:2-3. The Old Testament itself witnessed to the fact that the rejected Messiah is now seated at God’s right hand, and this by the word of the Father Himself. The quotation is from Psalms 110:1-7, a Psalm quoted more frequently in the New Testament than any other. Hebrews 1:13-14 belong together. In them another contrast is pointed between Christ and the angels. As an argument it may be stated thus: He that sitteth at God’s right hand is far more excellent than ministers: Christ sitteth at God’s right hand, and angels are "ministers;" therefore, Christ is far more excellent than they. The former part is proved in Hebrews 1:13, the latter is shown in Hebrews 1:14. As D.V. the subject of Hebrews 1:13 will come before us again in our studies in this Epistle, we will now offer only the briefest comment. The Speaker here is the Father; the One addressed is the Son, but in His mediatorial character, for it was as the Son of Man that God exalted Him. Further proof of this is supplied by "until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool." As mediatorial King and Priest, Christ is subservient to the Father; He is subject to Him who has "put all things under Him;’ (1 Corinthians 15:27). "Until I make." Christ is not to sit at God’s right hand forever. 1 Thessalonians 4:16 says, "The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout," etc. He remains there throughout this present Day of Grace. Then, following a brief interval, His enemies shall be made His footstool. This will be at His return to the earth: see Revelation 19:11-21; Isaiah 63:1-3, etc. Then Christ Himself will subdue His enemies: note the "He" in 1 Corinthians 15:25; but it will be by the Father’s decree, see Psalms 2:6-9. "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" (Hebrews 1:14). This verse presents a fact which should awaken in every Christian varied and deep emotions. Alas that, through lack of diligence in searching the Word, so many of the Lord’s people are largely in ignorance of much that is said therein, and here referred to. It should awaken within us a sense of wonderment. The angels are portrayed as our attendants! When we remember who and what they are—their exalted rank in the scale of being, their sinlessness, their wondrous capacities, knowledge and powers—it is surely an astonishing thing to learn that they should minister unto us. Think of it, the unfallen angels waiting upon the fallen descendants of Adam! The courtiers of Heaven ministering to worms of the earth! The mighty angels, who "excel in strength," taking notice of and serving those so far beneath them! Could you imagine the princes of the royal family seeking out dwellers in the slums and ministering to them, not once or occasionally, but constantly? But the analogy, altogether fails. The angels of God are sent forth to minister unto redeemed sinners! Marvel at it. It should awaken within us fervent praise to God. What an evidence of His grace, what a proof of His love that He sends forth His angels to "minister" unto us! This is another of the wondrous provisions of His mercy, which none of us begin to appreciate as we should. It is another of the blessed consequences of our union with Christ. In Matthew 4:11 we read, "angels came and ministered unto Him." Therefore, because Divine grace has made us one with Him, they do so to us too. What a proof is this of our oneness with Him! Angels of God are sent forth to minister unto redeemed sinners! Bow in worship and praise. It should deepen within us a sense of security. True, it may be abused, but rightly appropriated, how it is calculated to quiet our fears, counteract our sense of feebleness, calm our hearts in time of danger! Is it not written, "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them;" then why be afraid? We doubt not that every Christian has been "delivered" many more times from the jaws of death by angelic interposition, than any of us imagine. The angels of God are sent forth to minister unto redeemed sinners. Then let the realization of this deepen within us a sense of the Lord’s protecting care for entrusting us to His mighty angels. "Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be the heirs of salvation?" (Hebrews 1:14). Three things are to be considered: those to whom the angels minister, why they thus minister and the form their ministry takes. Those to whom the angels minister are here termed "heirs of salvation," an expression denoting at least four things. There is an Estate unto which God has predestined His people, an inheritance—willed to them by God. This Estate is designated "salvation," see 1 Thessalonians 5:9, where our appointment unto it is mentioned. It is the consummation of our salvation which is in view, Hebrews 9:28; 1 Peter 1:3-4. Well may this estate or inheritance be called "Salvation," for those who enter it are forever delivered from all danger, freed from all enemies, secured from all evils. This expression "heirs of salvation" also denotes our legal rights to the inheritance: our title is an indefeasable one. Further, it presupposes the coming in of death, Christ’s death. Finally, it implies the perpetuity of it—"to him and his heirs forever." It is to these "heirs of salvation" that the angels minister. To enable us the better to grasp the relation of angels to Christians, let us employ an illustration. Take the present household of the Duke of York. In it are many servants, honored, trusted, loved. There are titled "ladies" and "lords" of the realm, yet they are serving, "ministering," to the infant Princess Elizabeth. At present, she is inferior to them in age, strength, wisdom and attainments; yet is she superior in rank and station. She is of the royal stock, a princess, possibly heir to the throne. In like manner, the heirs of salvation are now in the stage of their infancy; they are but babes in Christ; this is the period of their minority. The angels far excel us in strength, wisdom, attainments; yet are they our servants, they "minister" unto us. Why? Because we are high above them in birth, rank, station. We are children of God, we are joint-heirs with Christ, we have been redeemed with royal blood, yea, we have been made "kings and priests unto God" (Revelation 1:6). O how wonderful is our rank—members of the Royal family of Heaven, therefore are we "ministered" unto by the holy angels. What a calling is ours! What provision has Divine love made for us! Let us now inquire, Why do they thus "minister" unto us? For what reason or reasons has God ordained that the angels should be our attendants? All His ways are ordered by perfect wisdom. Let us then reverently inquire as to His purpose in this arrangement. First, is it not to exercise the graces of obedience and benevolence in the angels themselves? Such a task being assigned them constitutes a real test of their fidelity to their Maker. They are bidden to leave the glories of Heaven and come down to this poor sin-cursed earth; yes, oftentimes to seek out children of God in hovels and workhouses. What a test of their loyalty to God! Not only so, but what an opportunity is thus afforded for the exercise in them of the spirit of benevolence! As the frail and suffering children of God, how their sympathies must be drawn out. There are no such objects in Heaven, there is no distress or suffering there; and me-thinks, that were the angels to be confined to that realm of unclouded bliss, they would be stoics—unable to sympathize with us poor afflicted creatures. Therefore, to cultivate both the spirit of obedience and of benevolence, God has commissioned them to "minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation." Second, has not God assigned to them this ministry in order to give them a closer acquaintance with His own wondrous grace and matchless love for poor sinners? The angels are not simply far-distant spectators of the out-working of God’s wondrous purpose of mercy, but have been made, in part, the actual administrators of it! Thus, by virtue of this commission which they have received from Him, they learn in a practical way how much He cares for us. Third, has not God assigned to them this ministry in order that there might be a closer bond between the different sections of His family? That word in Ephesians 3:15, refers, we believe, not only to the redeemed of Christ, but to all of Heaven’s inhabitants—"of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named." Yes, the angels are members of God’s "family" too. Note how in Hebrews 12:22-23 the two great sections of it are placed side by side: "to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and Church of the Firstborn." Thus, the angels are commissioned to minister for those who shall be heirs of salvation in order that there may be formed a closer bond of intercourse and sympathy between the two great sections of God’s family. Fourth, has not God assigned them this ministry in order to magnify the work of the Lord Jesus? The angels are not only subject to Christ as their Lord, are not only called on to worship Him as God, but they are also employed in watching over the safety and promoting the temporal interests of His redeemed. No doubt this fourth named reason is both the primary and ultimate one. How this magnifies the Savior! Commissioning them to "minister for those who shall be heirs of salvation" is God’s putting His imprimature upon the cross-work of Christ. Let us now consider how the angels "minister" to us. First, in protecting from temporal dangers. A striking example of this is found in 2 Kings 6:15-17. Elisha and his servant were menaced by the king of Syria. His forces were sent out to capture them. An host compassed the city where they were. The servant was terrified; then the prophet prayed unto the Lord to open his eyes, "and the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha," which, in the light of Psalms 68:17 and Hebrews 1:7, we know were the protecting angels of God. In the sequel we learn that the enemy was smitten with blindness, and thus the servants of God escaped. This was a concrete illustration of Psalms 34:7, "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them." Second, in delivering from temporal dangers. A case in point is that which is recorded of Lot: "And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife and thy two daughters which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city. And while he fingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the Lord being merciful unto him, and they brought him forth, and set him without the city." How often angels have "hastened" us when in the place of danger, and "laid hold" of us while we lingered, perhaps the Day will reveal. Another example is found in the case of Daniel. We refer to the time when he was cast into the lions’ den. All Bible readers are aware that the prophet was miraculously preserved from these wild beasts, but what is not generally known is the particular instrumentality which God employed on that occasion. This is made known in Daniel 6:22 : "My God hath sent His angel, and hath shut the lions’ mouths, that they have not hurt me." What an illustration is this of Psalms 34:7, "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them!" Nor is angelic deliverance of God’s people confined to Old Testament times. In Acts 5:17-19 we read, "Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him (which is the sect of the Sadducees) and were filled with indignation, and laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the common prison, But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth." Again, in Acts 12:6-9 we read, "The same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains; and the keepers before the door kept the prison. And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands . . . And he went out, and followed him." One other form which the ministry of angels takes in connection with their custody of God’s children is brought before us in Luke 16:22 : "And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom." To our natural feelings, a death-bed scene is often a most painful and distressing experience. There we behold a helpless creature, emaciated by disease, convulsed with pain, panting for breath; his countenance pallid, his lips quivering, his brow bedewed with a cold sweat. But were not the spiritual world hidden from us by a veil of God’s appointing we should also see there the glorious inhabitants of Heaven surrounding the bed, waiting for God’s summons, to convoy that soul from earth, through the territory of Satan, up to the Father’s House. There they are, ready to perform their last office in ministering for those who shall be heirs of salvation. Then, Christian, why fear death? It should be carefully noted that angels are mentioned in the plural number in Luke 16:22, so also are they in Psalms 91:11-12 : "For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone." There is nothing whatever in Scripture to support the Romish tradition of a single guardian angel for each person or Christian: the plural number in the above passages make directly against it. "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" (Hebrews 1:14). "This text wears an interrogative form; but it is just equivalent to a strong affirmation. It is certain that no angel sits on the throne of God; it is certain that they are all ministering spirits. A minister is a servant—a person who occupies an inferior place, who acts a subordinate part, subject to the authority and regulated by the will of another. The angels are ‘ministering spirits,’ they are not governing spirits. Service, not dominion, is their province. In the first phrase there is an expression of their being God’s ministers or servants; in the second, that He sends forth, commissions these servants of His to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation. They are His servants, and He uses their instrumentality for promoting the happiness of His peculiar people. There is a double contrast. The Son is the co-ruler—they are servants; the Son sits- they are sent forth" (Dr. J. Brown). Finally, it should be observed that "ministering spirits" is a title or designation. Not only do the angels render service to God’s saints, but they have an office so to do. It is not simply that they "go forth" to minister for them, but they are "sent forth." They do not take this work upon themselves, but have received a definite charge or commission from their Maker. How this evidences, once more, the preciousness to Christ of those whom He purchased with His blood! O that our hearts may be bowed in wonderment and worship for this blessed provision of His love toward us while we are left in this wilderness scene. O that our fears may be removed, and our hearts strengthened by the realization that, amid the dangers and perils with which we are now surrounded, the angels of God are guarding and ministering both for and to us. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 79: 005.007. CHAPTER 7 ======================================================================== Chapter 7 CHRIST SUPERIOR TO ANGELS Hebrews 2:1-4 The title of this article is based upon the fact that the opening verses of Hebrews 2:1-18 contains an exhortation based upon what has been said in Hebrews 1:1-14. Thus, our present portion continues the second section of the Epistle. Inasmuch as it opens with the word "Therefore" we are called upon to review that which has already been before us. The first section of the Epistle, contained in Hebrews 1:1-3, may be looked at in two ways: both as forming an Introduction to the Epistle as a whole, and as a distinct division of it, in which is set forth the superiority of Christ over the prophets. In what follows, to the end of the chapter, we are shown the superiority of Christ over angels. This is affirmed in Hebrews 1:4, and the proofs thereof are found in Hebrews 1:5-14. These proofs are all drawn from the Old Testament Scriptures, and the completeness and perfection of the demonstration thus afforded is evidenced by their being seven in number. Thus, centuries before He appeared on earth, the Word of Truth bore witness to the surpassing excellency of Christ and His exaltation above all creatures. As an analysis and summary of what these seven passages teach concerning the superiority of Christ over the angels, we may express it thus: 1. He has obtained a more excellent name than they Hebrews 1:4-5. 2. He will be worshipped by them as the Firstborn, Hebrews 1:6. 3. He made them, Hebrews 1:7. 4. He is the Divine throne-sitter, Hebrews 1:8-9. 5. He is anointed above them, Hebrews 1:9. 6. He is the Creator of the universe, immutable and eternal Hebrews 1:10-12. 7. He has a higher place of honor Hebrews 1:13-14. It is striking to note that these same seven quotations from the Old Testament also furnish proof of the sevenfold glory of the Mediator affirmed in Hebrews 1:2-3. There He is spoken of, first as the "Son:" proof of this is supplied in Hebrews 1:5, by a quotation from Psalms 2:1-12. Second, He is denominated the "Heir:" proof of this is given in Hebrews 1:6, where He is owned as the "Firstborn." Third, it is said in Hebrews 1:2 that He "made the worlds:" proof of this is given in Hebrews 1:10 by a quotation from Psalms 104:1-35. Fourth, He is called "the Brightness of God’s glory:" in Hebrews 1:9 an Old Testament Scripture is quoted to show that He has been "anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows." Fifth, He is the "express Image" of God’s person: in Hebrews 1:8, Scripture is quoted to show that the Father owned Him as "God." Sixth, in Hebrews 1:3 it is said that He has "purged our sins": in Hebrews 1:14 we have mention of "the heirs of salvation." Seventh, in Hebrews 1:3 it is affirmed that He has "sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high"; in Hebrews 1:13 the 110th Psalm is quoted in proof of this. What an example is this of "proving all things" (1 Thessalonians 5:21), and that, by the Word of God itself! Having set forth the excellency of Christ’s Divine nature and royal function, the apostle now, in Hebrews 2:1-18, proceeds to show the reality and uniqueness of His humanity. In passing from one to the other the Holy Spirit moves him to make a practical application to his hearers of what he had already brought before them, for the two things which ever concern and the two ends at which the true servant of God ever aims, are, the glory of the Lord and the spiritual good of those to whom he ministers. God’s truth is not only addressed to our understanding, but to our conscience. It is designed not only to instruct, but to move us and mould our lives. In one sense Hebrews 2:1-4 form a parenthesis, inasmuch as they interrupt the apostle’s discussion of Christ’s relation to angels, which is resumed in Hebrews 2:5 and amplified in Hebrews 2:9. But this digression, so far from being a literary blemish, is very beautiful. When is it that a well-trained mind ceases to think logically? or an instructed preacher to speak in orderly sequence? Is it not when his heart is moved? when his emotions are deeply stirred? So was it here with the apostle Paul. His great heart yearned for the salvation of his brethren according to the flesh; therefore, did his mind turn for a moment from the theme he was pursuing, to address himself to their consciences. He who said to the saints at Rome, "Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved" (Hebrews 10:1), could not calmly write to the Hebrews without breaking off and making an impassioned appeal to them. This, we shall, D.V., find he does again and again. That which is central in our present parenthesis is an exhortation to give good heed to the Gospel. This admonition is first propounded in Hebrews 2:1, and then enforced in Hebrews 2:2-4. Two points are noted for the enforcing of this duty; one is the danger; the other, the vengeance, which is certain to follow on the neglect of the Gospel. The danger is intimated in the word, "Lest we should let them slip." The vengeance is hinted in the question. "How shall we escape"? This is emphasized by a solemn warning, namely, despisers of God were summarily dealt with under the law; therefore, those who shut their ears to the Gospel, which is so much more excellent, are, without doubt, treasuring up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath (Romans 2:4-5). We are now ready to attend to the details of our present portion. "Therefore, we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip" (Hebrews 2:1). In this verse, and in those which immediately follow, the apostle specifies a duty to be performed in regard of that most excellent Teacher which God sent to reveal His Gospel unto them. This duty is to give more than ordinary heed unto that Gospel. Such is the force of the opening, "Therefore," which signifies, for this cause: because God has vouchsafed so excellent a Teacher, He must be the more carefully attended unto. The "therefore" looks back to all the varied glories which set forth Christ’s excellency named in the previous chapter. Because He is God’s "Son," therefore give heed. Because He is "the Heir of all things," therefore give heed. Because He "made the worlds," therefore give heed; and so on. These are so many grounds on which our present exhortation is based. "Therefore is equivalent to, ‘Since Jesus Christ is as much better than the angels, as He hath received by inheritance a more excellent name than they—since He is both essentially and officially inconceivably superior to these heavenly messengers, His message has paramount claims on our attention, belief, and obedience’," (Dr. J. Brown). The eminency of an author’s dignity and authority, and the excellency of his knowledge and wisdom, do much commend that which is spoken or written by him. If a king, prudent and learned, takes upon himself to instruct others, due attention and diligent heed should be given thereunto. "The Queen of the South came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon" (Matthew 12:42), and counted those of his servants who stood continually before him and heard his wisdom, to be happy (1 Kings 10:8). But a greater than Solomon is here referred to by the apostle: therefore, we ought "to give the more earnest heed." It was usual with the prophets to preface their utterances with a "Thus saith the Lord," and thereby arrest the attention and awe the hearts of their hearers. Here the apostle refers to the person of the Lord Himself as the argument for hearing what He said. "Therefore we ought." "It is striking to see how the apostle takes the place of such as simply had the message, like other Jews, from those who personally heard Him; so completely was he writing, not as the apostle magnifying his office, but as one of Israel, who were addressed by those who companied with Messiah on earth. It was confirmed ‘unto us,’ says he, again putting himself along with his nation, instead of conveying his heavenly revelations as one taken out from the people and the Gentiles to which he was sent. He looks at what was their proper testimony, not at that to which he had been separated extraordinarily. He is dealing with them as much as possible on their own ground, though, of course, without compromise of his own" (William Kelly). "We ought to give the more earnest heed." Here the apostle addresses himself to the responsibility of his readers. Here is an exhortation to the performing of a specific duty. The Greek verb is very strong and emphatic; several times it is translated "must." Thus, in 1 Timothy 3:2, "A bishop must be blameless"; that is, it is his duty so to be. That to which the apostle here pointed was a necessity lying upon his readers. It is not an arbitrary matter, left to our own caprice to do or not to do. "Give the more earnest heed," is something more than a piece of good advice; it is a Divine precept, and God has commanded us "to keep His precepts diligently" (Psalms 119:4). Thus, in view of His sovereignty, and His power and rights over us, we "ought to give the more earnest heed" to what He has bidden us do. Descending to a lower level, it is the part of wisdom so to do, and that for our own good; we "ought to earnestly heed the things which we hear" in order to our own happiness. "To ‘give heed’ is to apply the mind to a particular subject, to attend to it, to consider it. It is here opposed to ‘neglecting the great salvation.’ No person can read the Scriptures without observing the stress that is laid on consideration, and the criminality and hazards which are represented as connected with inconsideration. Nor is this at all wonderful when we reflect that the Gospel is a moral remedy for a moral disease. It is by being believed it becomes efficacious. It cannot be believed unless it is understood: it cannot be understood unless it is attended to. Truth must be kept before the mind in order to its producing an appropriate effect; and how can it be kept before the mind, but by our giving heed to it" (Dr. J. Brown). "The duty here intended is a serious, firm, and fixed settling of the mind upon that which we hear; a bowing and bending of the will to yield unto it; an applying of the heart to it, a placing of the affections upon it, and bringing the whole man into conformity thereunto. Thus it comprises knowledge of the Word, faith therein, obedience thereto, and all other due respects that may any way concern it" (Dr. Gouge). "To the things which we have heard." To "hear" is not sufficient, there must be prayerful meditation, personal appropriation. No doubt the wider reference was to the Gospel, which these Hebrews had heard; though the more direct appeal was concerning that which the apostle had brought before them, in the previous chapter concerning the person and work of God’s Son. To us, today, it would include all that God has said in His Word. "Lest at any time we should let slip." There is a difficulty here in making quite sure of the Spirit’s precise meaning. The expression "we should let slip" is one word in the Greek, and it occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. The absence of the pronoun seems to be designed for the allowing of a double thought: lest we "let slip" the things we have heard, and, or, lest we ourselves slip away—apostatize. "Lest at any time we let them slip." The danger is real. The effects of sin are stamped on our members; it is easy to recall the things of no value, but the things of God slip out of our mind. The fault is our own, through failing to give "the more earnest heed." Unless we "keep in memory" (1 Corinthians 15:2), and unless we are duly informed by them, they slip away like water out of a leaky utensil. "Lest haply we drift away." Understood thus, these words sound the first warning-note of this Epistle against apostasy, and this verse is parallel with 1 Corinthians 3:14; 1 Corinthians 4:1; 1 Corinthians 12:25. Perseverance in the faith, continuance in the Word, is a prime pre-requisite of discipleship, see John 8:31; Colossians 1:23, etc. Many who heard, and once seemed really interested in spiritual things, "concerning the faith have made shipwreck" (1 Timothy 1:19). Thus, in the light of the whole context four reasons may be mentioned why we should give the more earnest heed to the things which God has spoken unto us: First, because of the glory and majesty of the One by whom He has communicated His mind and will, the Son. Second, because the message of Christianity is final. Third, because of the infinite preciousness of the Gospel. Fourth, because of the hopeless perdition and terrible tortures awaiting those who reject or let slip the testimony of God’s wondrous grace. "For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward" (Hebrews 2:2). The apostle here advances another reason why the Hebrews ought to attend diligently to the Gospel. Having shown that such attention should be given because of the excellency of its Author and Publisher, and because of the benefits which would be lost through negligence, he now announces the certain vengeance of Heaven on its neglecters, a vengeance sorer than even that which was wont to be executed under the Law. The opening "for" indicates that what follows gives a reason for persuading the Hebrews. The "if" has the force of "since," as in John 8:46; John 14:3; Colossians 3:1, etc. The "word spoken by angels" seems to refer to the Mosaic law, compare Acts 7:53; Galatians 3:19. "The only difficulty seems to arise out of the express declaration made by the sacred historian, that Jehovah spake all the words of the law. But the difficulty is more apparent than real. What lies at the foundation of the apostle’s whole argument is God spake both the Law and the Gospel. Both the one and the other are of Divine origin. It is not the origin, but the medium of the two revelations which he contrasts. ‘He made known His will by the ministry of angels in the giving of the law; He made known His will by the Son in the revelation of mercy.’ It seems probable from these words that the audible voice in which the revelation from Mount Sinai was made, was produced by angelic ministry" (Dr. J. Brown). Because the word spoken, ministerially, by angels was the Word of the Lord, it was "steadfast"—firm, inviolable, not to be gainsaid. Proof of this is furnished in the "and every transgression," etc. The distinction between "transgression" and "disobedience" is not easy to define. The one refers more to the outward act of violating God’s law; the other, perhaps, to the state of heart which produced it. The words "receive a just recompense of reward" signify that every violation of God’s law was punished according to its demerits. The term "reward" conveys the thought of "that which is due." Punishment for the breaking of God’s law is not always administered in this life, but is none the less sure: see Romans 2:3-9. This verse sets out a most important principle in connection with the governmental dealings of God: that principle is that the Judge of all the earth will be absolutely just in His dealings with the wicked. Though the direct reference be to His administration of the Law’s penalty in the past, yet, inasmuch as He changes not, it is strictly applicable to the great assize in the Day to come. There will be degrees of punishment, and those degrees, the sentence meted out to each rebel against God, will be on this basis, that every transgression and disobedience shall receive "a just recompense of reward." In brief, we may say that punishment will be graded according to light and opportunity (Matthew 11:20-24; Luke 12:47-48), according to the nature of the sins committed (John 19:11; Mark 12:38-40; Hebrews 10:29), according to the number of the sins committed (Romans 2:6, etc.). "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?" (Hebrews 2:3). This verse evokes a number of questions to which, perhaps, no conclusive and final answers may be furnished. Who are referred to by the "we"? How shall we escape—what? Exactly what is in view in the "so great salvation?" In pondering these questions several considerations need to be steadily kept before us. First, the people to whom this Epistle was directly addressed and the circumstances in which they were then placed. Second, the central purpose of the Epistle and the character of its distinctive theme. Third, the bearing of the context on this verse and its several expressions. Fourth, light which other passages in this Epistle may shed upon it. The relation between this verse and the preceding ones is evident. The apostle had just been pressing upon his brethren the need of their more earnestly giving heed unto the things which they had heard, which is more or less defined in the second half of Hebrews 2:3 : "which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord"—the reference being to His preaching of the Gospel. By a metonymy, the Gospel, that reveals and proclaims God’s salvation, is here meant. In Ephesians 1:13 it is styled "The gospel of your salvation," in Acts 13:26 the "word of this salvation," in Romans 1:16 it is called "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth," and in Titus 2:11, "the grace of God which bringeth salvation." The Gospel dispensation is denominated "the Day of Salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2). Ministers of the Gospel are they "which show unto us the way of salvation" (Acts 16:17). That under this word "salvation" the Gospel be meant, is also evident from the contrastive expression in Hebrews 2:2 —"the word spoken by angels." That word was spoken before the time of the Gospel’s publication (note that the term "Gospel" is never once found in the Old Testament), and obviously signified the Law. Fitly may the Gospel be styled "salvation:" first, because in opposition to the Law (which was a "ministration of condemnation" 2 Corinthians 3:9), it is a ministration of salvation. Second, because the Author of the Gospel is "salvation" itself: see Luke 2:30, John 4:22, etc., where "salvation" is synonymous with "the Savior." Third, because whatever is needful to a knowledge of salvation is contained in the Gospel. Fourth, because the Gospel is God’s appointed means of salvation: see 1 Corinthians 1:21. True, in Old Testament times God’s elect had and knew the Gospel— Galatians 3:16; Hebrews 4:2 —yet it was not publicly proclaimed and fully expounded. They had it under types and shadows, and in promises and prophecies. The excellency of this salvation is denoted by the words "so great." The absence of any co-relative implies it to be so wondrous that its greatness cannot be expressed. Upon this Dr. J. Brown has well said: "The ‘salvation’ here, then, is the deliverance of men through the mediation of Jesus Christ. This salvation is spoken of by the Apostle as unspeakably great: not merely a great salvation, nor even the great salvation but ‘so great salvation’—an expression peculiarly fitted to express his high estimate of its importance. And who that knows anything about that deliverance can wonder at the Apostle using such language? "What are the evils from which it saves us? The displeasure of God, with all its fearful consequences in time and eternity; and ‘who knows the power of His anger?’ We must measure the extent of infinite power, we must fathom the depths of infinite wisdom, before we can resolve the fearful question. We can only say, ‘According to Thy fear, so is Thy wrath.’ The most frightful conception comes infinitely short of the more dreadful reality. A depravity of nature ever increasing, and miseries varied according to our varied capacities of suffering—limited in intensity only by our powers of endurance, which an almighty enemy can enlarge indefinitely, and protracted throughout the whole eternity of our being—these are the evils from which this salvation delivers. "And what are the blessings to which it raises? A full, free, and everlasting remission of our sins—the enjoyment of the paternal favor of the infinitely powerful, and wise, and benignant Jehovah—the transformation of our moral nature—a tranquil conscience—a good hope down here; and in due time, perfect purity and perfect happiness for ever in the eternal enjoyment of God. "And how were these evils averted from us?—how were these blessings obtained for us? By the incarnation, obedience, suffering, and death of the Only-begotten of God, as a sin-offering in our room! And how are we individually interested in this salvation? Through the operations of the Holy Spirit, in which He manifests a power not inferior to that by which the Savior was raised from the dead, or the world was created. Surely such a deliverance well merits the appellation, a ‘so great salvation!’" But this great salvation, which is made known in the Gospel, may be "neglected." While it is true that salvation is not only announced, but is also secured to and effectuated in God’s elect by the Holy Spirit, yet it must not be forgotten that the Gospel addresses the moral responsibility of those to whom it comes. There is not only an effectual call, but a general one, which is made unto "the sons of men" (Proverbs 8:4). The Gospel is for the sinner’s acceptance, see 1 Timothy 1:15; 2 Corinthians 11:41 [unresolved ref]. The Gospel is more than a publication of good news, more than an invitation for burdened souls to come to Christ for relief and peace. In its first address to those who hear, it is a Divine mandate, an authoritative command, which is disregarded at the sinner’s imminent peril. That it does issue a "command" is clear from Acts 17:30; Romans 16:25-26. That disobedience to this "command" will be punished, is clear from John 3:18, 1 Peter 4:17, 2 Thessalonians 1:8. The Greek word here rendered "neglect" is translated "made light of" in Matthew 22:5. In this latter passage the reference is to the King making a marriage for His Son, and then sending forth his servants to call them which were bidden to the wedding. But they "made light of" the King’s gracious overtures and "went their ways, one to his family, another to his merchandise." The parable sets forth the very sin against which the apostle was here warning the Hebrews, namely, failure to give earnest heed to the things which were spoken by the Lord, and neglecting His great salvation. To "neglect" the Gospel, is to remain inattentive and unbelieving. How, then, asks the apostle, shall such "escape?" "Escape" what? Why, the "damnation of Hell" (Matthew 23:33)! Such, we take it, is the first meaning and wider scope of the searching question asked in Hebrews 2:3. Should it be objected, This cannot be, for in the "we" the apostle Paul manifestly included himself. The answer is, so also does he in the "we" of Hebrews 10:26! That the "we" includes more than those who had really believed the Gospel will be clear from Hebrews 2:4. Coming now to the narrower application of these words and their more direct bearing upon the regenerated Hebrews whom the Holy Spirit was specifically addressing, we must consider them in the light of the chief design of this Epistle, and the circumstances in which the Hebrews were then placed; namely, under sore temptation to forsake their espousal of Christianity and to return to Judaism. Looked at thus, the "so great salvation" is only another name for Christianity itself, the "better thing" (Hebrews 11:40) which had been brought in by Christ. Judaism was about to fall under the unsparing judgment of God. If, therefore, they turned from their allegiance to Christ and went back to that which was on the eve of being destroyed, how could they "escape" was the question which they must face? Hebrews 2:3 must be interpreted in harmony with its whole context. In Hebrews 2:1 the apostle is making a practical and searching application of all he had said in Hebrews 1:1-14, where he had shown the superiority of Christianity over Judaism, by proving the exaltation of Christ—the Center and Substance of Christianity—over prophets and angels. In Hebrews 1:14, He had spoken of the "heirs of salvation" which, among other things, pointed to their salvation as being yet future. In one sense they had been saved (from the penalty of sin), in another sense they were still being saved (from the power of sin), in still another sense they were yet to be saved (from the presence of sin). But God ever deals with His people as accountable creatures. As moral beings, in contrast from stock and stones, He addresses their responsibility. Hence, God’s saints are called upon to give diligence to make their "calling and election sure" (2 Peter 1:10)—sure unto themselves, and unto their brethren. This, among other things, is done, by using the Divinely-appointed means of grace, and by perseverance and continuance in the faith: see John 8:31; Acts 11:23; Acts 13:43; Acts 14:22; 2 Timothy 3:14, etc. The Christian life is likened unto a "race" set before us: 1 Corinthians 9:24; Php 3:13-14; 2 Timothy 4:7; Hebrews 12:1. A "race" calls for self-discipline, personal exertion, perseverance. The Inheritance is set before us in promise, but it is written, "Ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise" (Hebrews 10:36). The "promise" is secured by faith and patience, by actually "running" the race set before us. In the light of this, "neglect" would signify failure to "give diligence" to make our calling and election sure, failure to "press forward" and "run the race." If then we "neglect," how shall we "escape?" Escape what? Ah, note how abstractly the apostle worded it. He did not specify the "what." It all depends upon the state of the individual. If he be only a lifeless professor and continues neglecting the Gospel, Hell will be his certain portion. But if he be a regenerated believer, though a careless and worldly one, then lack of assurance and joy, profitless and fruitlessness, will be his portion; and then, how shall he "escape" the chastening rod of the holy Father? Thus, the question asked in our verse addresses itself to all who read the Epistle. "Which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard" (Hebrews 2:3). This need not detain us long. Its central design is to emphasize the importance and need of heeding that which had been spoken by Christ: with it should be carefully compared Deuteronomy 18:18-19 : Luke 9:35. Incidentally, the words "at the first began" intimates that Christ was the first Gospel-Preacher! The reference is to that which was preached first by Christ Himself, recorded in the Gospels; then, to that which was proclaimed by His apostles, reported in the book of Acts. The title here given to the Savior, "Lord," emphasizes both His dignity and authority, and intimates that the responsibility of the Hebrews was being addressed. Till Christ came and preached, "the people sat in darkness and in the shadow and region of death;" and when He began to preach, they "saw great light" (Matthew 4:16). With the "confirmed unto us" compare Luke 1:1-2. The apostle was calling the Hebrews’ attention to the sureness of the ground on which their faith rested. "God also bearing witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will" (Hebrews 2:4). The reference here is to the miracles wrought by God through the apostles in the early days of the Christian era. The book of Acts records many examples and illustrations of what is here said: see Acts 5:9-10; Acts 13:11; Acts 3:7; Acts 9:40; Acts 19:12, etc. The Gospel was first preached by the Lord Himself, then it was confirmed by the apostles, and then again by God Himself in such works as could not be performed by a Divine power. "Bearing witness with" is a single word in the Greek, but a double compound. The simple verb signifies to witness to a thing as in John 1:7; the compound, to add testimony to testimony, or to add a testimony to some other confirmation; the double compound, to give a joint-testimony or to give-witness-together with one another. A similar compound is used in Romans 8:16. The means employed by God in thus confirming the witness of His servant are described by four terms: signs, wonders, miracles, gifts. The first three refer to the same things, though under different aspects. "Signs" denote the making more simple and evident that which otherwise could hardly be discerned; compare the use of the terms in Matthew 12:38; Matthew 16:1, and note the "see" and "show." "Wonders" points both to the striking nature of the "signs" and to the effects produced in those who beheld them: compare Acts 2:19; Acts 7:36. "Miracles" refers to the supernatural power which produced the "signs" and "wonders." The Greek word is rendered "mighty deeds" in 2 Corinthians 12:12. Thus, "miracles" are visible and wondrous works done by the all-mighty power of God, above or against the course of nature. Our text speaks of "divers miracles": many sorts of supernatural interpositions of God are recorded in the Acts. An additional means employed by God in confirming the Gospel was "gifts of the Holy Spirit." The Greek word here rendered "gifts" means "divisions" or "distributions"; in the singular number it occurs in Hebrews 4:12, where it is translated "dividing asunder." In its verbal form it is found in 1 Corinthians 7:17, "God hath distributed to every man." Because these distributions of the Holy Spirit originated not in those by whom they were exercised and through whom they were displayed, they are not unfitly translated "gifts"; the reference being to the gifts extraordinary, manifested through and by the apostles. These "gifts" may also be seen in the book of Acts—the day of Pentecost, e.g., also in 1 Corinthians 12:4 and what there follows. We may add that these "divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit" were given by God before the New Testament was written. Now that the Scriptures are complete they are no longer needed, nor given. "According to His own will." The fore-mentioned divers miracles and distributions of gifts were ordered and disposed according to the sovereign pleasure of Deity. The act of distributing is attributed to God the Father in 1 Corinthians 7:17, to the Son in Ephesians 4:7, to the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12:11. The Greek signifies, "according to His own will." The will of God is the one rule by which all things are ordered that He Himself doeth, and whereby all things ought to be ordered that His creatures do. Scripture distinguishes between the secret and revealed will of God, see Deuteronomy 29:29, where both are referred to. The secret will of God is called His "counsel" (Isaiah 46:10), the "counsel of His will" (Ephesians 1:11), His "purpose" (Romans 8:28), His "good pleasure" (Ephesians 1:9). The revealed will of God is made known in His Word, and is so called because, just as the ordinary means by which men make known their minds is by the word of their mouth, so the revelation of God’s will is called "His Word." This revealed will of God is described in Romans 12:2, and is primarily intended in the second clause of the Lord’s prayer. Here in our text it is the secret will of God which is meant. In these days of creature-pride and haughtiness, we need reminding that God is sovereign, conferring with none, consulting none; doing as He pleases. God’s will is His only rule. As He creates, governs, and disposes all things, so He distributes the gifts of His Spirit "according to His own will." Should any murmur, His challenge is "Is it not lawful for Me to do what I will with Mine own?" (Matthew 20:15). It is important to note that these gifts of the Spirit were distributed not "according to the faith" of those who received them—just as in the parable of the talents the supreme Sovereign distributed them unequally, according to His own good pleasure. May Divine grace bring both writer and reader into complete subjection to the secret will of God and obedience to His revealed will. What has been before us in Hebrews 2:2-3 tells us how firm and sure is the foundation on which our faith rests. In giving earnest heed to the Gospel, notwithstanding its unique and amazing contents, we are not following cunningly devised fables, but that which comes to us certified by unimpeachable witnesses. First, it began to be spoken by the Lord Himself. Though this was sufficient to make the Gospel "worthy of all acceptation," God mercifully, because of our weakness, caused it to be "confirmed" by those who had heard the Lord for themselves. The witness of these men was, in turn, authenticated by Divine displays of power through them such as was never seen before or since. Finally, additional attestation was furnished in supernatural outpourings of the Holy Spirit. Thus, God has graciously added witness to witness and testimony to testimony. How thankful we should be for these many infallible proofs! May this consideration of them result in the strengthening of our faith to the praise of the glory of God’s grace. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 80: 005.008. CHAPTER 8 ======================================================================== Chapter 8 CHRIST SUPERIOR TO ANGELS Hebrews 2:5-9 The scope, the order of thought, and the logical bearings of our present passage are not so easily discerned as those we have already gone over. That it, the first part at least, picks up the thread dropped in Hebrews 1:14 and continues to exhibit the superiority of Christ over angels, is clear from Hebrews 2:5; but when we reach Hebrews 2:9 we read of Jesus being "made a little lower than the angels." At first glance this seems to present a real difficulty, but, as is generally the case with such passages, in reality Hebrews 2:9, taken as a whole, supplies the key to our present portion. In Hebrews 1:4-14 the Holy Spirit, through the apostle, has furnished a sevenfold proof of the superiority of Israel’s Messiah over the angels. This proof, taken from their own Scriptures, was clear and incontrovertible. In Hebrews 2:1-4 a parenthesis was made, opportunity being taken to give a solemn and searching application to the consciences and hearts of the Hebrews of what had just been brought before them: the authority of the Gospel was commensurate with its grace, and God would avenge the slightings of that which was first proclaimed by His Son, as surely as He had the refractions of that law which he had given by the mediation of angels. Now here in Hebrews 2:5 and onwards an objection is anticipated and removed. The objection may be framed thus: How could supremacy be predicated of One who became Man, and died? As we have shown in a previous article, the Jews actually regarded the angels with a higher veneration than the greatest of the "fathers"—Abraham, Moses, Joshua, and David. And rightly so; their own Scriptures declared that they "excel in strength." Thus a real difficulty was presented to them, in the fact that He whom the apostle affirmed had, by inheritance, obtained "a more excellent name" than angels, was known to them as "the Son of man," for man was a creature inferior to angels. Moreover, angels do not die, Christ had; how, then, could He be their superior? The method followed by the Holy Spirit in meeting this objection and removing the difficulty is as follows: He shows (in Hebrews 2:9) that so far from the humiliation and suffering endured by Christ tarnishing His glory, they were the meritorious cause of His exaltation. In support of this a remarkable quotation is made from the 8th Psalm to prove that God has placed man, and not angels, at the head of the future economy—the "world to come." The design of God in that economy is to raise "man" to the highest place of all among His creatures, and that design has been secured by Christ’s becoming Man and dying, and thus obtaining for Himself and His people that state of transcendent dignity and honor which the Psalmist prophesied should be possessed by man in the Age to come. Thus, those commentators are mistaken who suppose that in Hebrews 2:5 the apostle begins to advance further proof of Christ’s superiority over angels. Complete demonstration of this had been made in chapter 1, as the seven Old Testament passages there cited go to show. True it is that what the apostle says in Hebrews 2:5 makes manifest the exaltation of the Savior above the celestial hierarchies, yet his purpose in so doing was to meet an objector. What we have in our present section is brought in to show that the evidence supplied in chapter 1 could not be shaken, and that the very objection which a Jew might make against it had been duly provided for and fully met in his own Scriptures. Thus may we admire the wisdom of Him who knoweth the end from the beginning, and maketh even the wrath of man to praise Him. "For unto the angels hath He not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak" (Hebrews 2:5). In taking up this verse three questions need to be duly pondered: What is here referred to in "the world to come?" What is meant by its being "put in subjection?" What bearing has this statement upon the apostle’s argument? Let us endeavor to deal with them in this order. Commentators are by no means agreed on the signification of this term "the world to come." Many of the older ones, who were post-millennarians, understood by it a reference to the present Gospel dispensation, in contrast from the Mosaic economy. Others suppose that it refers to the Church, of which Christ, and not angels, is the Head. Others look upon it as synonymous with the Eternal State, comparing it with the Lord’s words in Matthew 12:32, "Whosoever speaketh against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come." The objection against this last view is that the Greek word for "world" is quite different in Hebrews 2:5 from that which is used in Matthew 12:32. We believe the first key to the right understanding of this expression is to be found in the particular term used here by the Holy Spirit, translated "world." It is neither "kosmos," the common one for "world," as in John 3:16, etc.; nor "aion," meaning "age," in Matthew 13:35, Hebrews 9:26, etc. Instead, it is "oikoumene," which, etymologically, signifies "habitable place"; but this helps us nothing. The word is found fifteen times in the New Testament. In thirteen of them it appears to be used as a synonym for "earth." But in the remaining passage, namely, Hebrews 1:6, light is cast upon our present verse. As we sought to show in our exposition of that verse, the words "when again He brings in the Firstborn into the world" (oikoumene) refer to the second advent of Christ to this earth, and point to His millennial kingdom. This, we are satisfied, is also the reference in Hebrews 2:5. The "world to come" was a subject of absorbing interest and a topic of frequent conversation among all godly Jews. Unlike us, the object of hope set before them was not Heaven, but a glorious kingdom on earth, ruled over in righteousness by their Messiah. This would be the time when Jerusalem should be no more "trodden doom by the Gentiles," but become "a praise in all the earth"; when heathen idolatry should give place to "the knowledge of the glory of the Lord," filling the earth as the waters do the sea. In other words, it would be the time when the kingdom-predictions of their prophets should be fulfilled. Nor had there been anything in the teachings of Christ to show these expectations were unwarranted. Instead, He had said, "Ye which have followed Me, in the regeneration (Millennium) when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren for My name’s sake, shall receive an hundred-fold," etc. (Matthew 19:28-30). Those who had believed in Him as the Savior from sin, eagerly awaited the establishing of His kingdom on earth: see Acts 1:6. The "world to come" is the renovated earth under the reign of the Messiah. In the spiritual arithmetic of Scripture the number of the earth is four, a number plainly stamped upon it: note the four seasons of the year, the four points to its compass. How striking is it to note, then, that the Word speaks of exactly four earths, namely, the pre-Adamic, the present, the Millennial (delivered from the curse), the new earth. The "world to come" is the time when Israel shall dwell in their own land in peace and blessing, when wars shall be made to cease, when oppression and injustice shall end, when all the outward creation shall manifest the presence of the Prince of peace. Not unto the angels hath God "put in subjection" this world to come. "Put in subjection" is the translation of a single compound Greek word, meaning "to put under." In its simple form it signifies to appoint or ordain; in its compound, to appoint over. Note the relative "He": God places in subjection whom He will and to whom He will. Because God hath not put the world to come in subjection to angels, therefore angels have no authority over it. "It is the good pleasure of God to use an angel where it is a question of providence, or law, or power; but where it comes to the manifestation of His glory in Christ, He must have other instruments more suited for His nature, and according to His affections" (W. Kelly). To whom, then, hath God subjected the world to come? Instead of supplying a categorical answer, the apostle leaves his readers to draw their answer from what an Old Testament oracle had said. Ere taking up the point last raised, let us now consider the bearing which the contents of Hebrews 2:5 has upon the apostle’s argument. It opens with the word "for," which intimates that there is a glance backwards to and now a continuation of something said previously. This casual particle connects not with the first four verses of our chapter, for, as we have shown, they are of the nature of a parenthesis. The backward glance is to what was said in Hebrews 1:14, where we are told, "Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" The Inheritance will not be governed by angels; they are but ministers to its "heirs." "For He (God) hath not put in subjection to angels the world to come" (the earthly inheritance) whereof we speak. Thus the connection is clear. The "whereof we speak" takes us back to Hebrews 1:14, and is amplified in Hebrews 2:6-9. Before turning to that which follows, let us summarize that which has been before us in Hebrews 2:5. In Hebrews 1:14, the apostle had affirmed that the angels are in a position of subjection to the redeemed of Christ; now he declares that, in the Millennial era also, not angels, but the "heirs of salvation," shall occupy the place of governmental dominion. The "world to come" is mentioned here because it is in the next Age that the Inheritance of salvation will be entered into and enjoyed. In view of what follows from Psalms 8:1-9 and Hebrews 2:5, may possibly set forth a designed contrast from the pre-Adamic earth, which, most probably, was placed under the dominion of unfallen Satan and his angels. The practical bearings of this verse on the Hebrews was: Continue to hold fast your allegiance to Christ, for the time is coming when those who do so shall enter into a glory surpassing that of the angels. "But one in a certain place testified, saying, ‘What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that Thou visitest him?’" (Hebrews 2:6). In seeking to discover the relevancy of this quotation and its bearing upon the apostle’s argument, the scope and details of this remarkable and little-understood Psalm from which it is taken, need to be carefully studied. But observe, first, how the quotation is introduced, "But one in a certain place testified, saying." It suggests that the Hebrews were so familiar with the Holy Scriptures that it was not necessary to give the reference! The "But" intimates that the apostle is about to point a contrast from the angels: not "and," but "but!" Before proceeding further, let us ponder the doctrinal teaching of Psalms 8:1-9. Upon this we cannot do better than reproduce the summary of it given by Dr. Gouge: "The main scope of the Psalm is, to magnify the glory of God: this is evident by the first and last verses thereof. That main point is proved by the works of God, which in general He declares to be so conspicuous, as very babes can magnify God in them to the astonishment of His enemies, Psalms 8:2. In particular He first produceth those visible glorious works that are above; which manifest God’s eternal power and Godhead, Psalms 8:3. Then He amplifieth God’s goodness to man (who had made himself a mortal miserable creature, Psalms 8:4), by setting forth the high advancement of man above all other creatures, not the angels excepted, Psalms 8:5-7. This evidence of God’s greatness to man so ravished the prophet’s spirit, as with an high admiration he thus expresseth it, ‘What is man?’ etc. Hereupon he concludeth that Psalm as he began it with extolling the glorious excellency of the Lord." The force of the Psalms 8:4, the first here quoted in Hebrews 2:1-18, may be gathered from the words which immediately precede: "When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained—What is man, that Thou are mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him?" In view of the magnitude of God’s creation, in contrast from the heavenly bodies, What is man? This is confirmed by the particular word which the Holy Spirit has here employed. In the Old Testament. He has used four different words, all rendered "man" in our English version. The one used here is "enosh," which signifies "frail and fallen man." It is the word used in Psalms 9:20! What is man, fallen man, that the great God should be mindful of him? Still less that He should crown him with "glory and honor?" Ah, it is this which should move our hearts to deepest wonderment, as it will fill us with ever-increasing amazement and praise in the ages yet to come. "What is man that Thou art mindful of him? or the son of man that Thou visitest him?" (Hebrews 2:6). The latter clause seems to be added in order to emphasize the preceding thought. "Son of man" is added as a diminution for "man": compare Job 25:6 for a parallel. Another reason why this second clause may be added to Hebrews 2:6 is to show that it is not Adam who is here spoken of. From the contents of Hebrews 2:5-7 many have thought that Psalm 8 was referring to the father of the human family (see Genesis 1:26); but this second part of its fourth verse seems to have been brought in designedly to correct us. Certainly Adam was not a "son of man!" "Thou madest him a little lower than the angels" (Hebrews 2:7). This supplies additional proof that it is not Adam who is here in view. Both the Hebrew word used in Psalms 8:5 and the Greek word in Hebrews 2:7 signify the failing or falling of a thing from that which it was before. "The word ‘made lower’ does not signify to be created originally in a lower condition, but it signifies to be brought down from a higher station to a lower" (Dr. J. Brown). The Hebrew word is used to denote the failing of the waters when Noah’s flood decreased (Genesis 8:4); and, negatively, of the widow’s oil that did not fail (1 Kings 17:14-16). The Greek word is used of the Baptist when he said, "I must decrease" (John 3:30). But to what is the Holy Spirit here referring in Hebrews 2:7? First, it should be pointed out that both the Hebrew and Greek word here for "little" has a double force, being applied both to time and degree. In 1 Peter 5:10 it is rendered "a while," that is, a short space of time; so also in Luke 22:58 and Acts 5:34. Such, we believe, is in force here, as it certainly is in Hebrews 2:9. Now in what particular sense has God made frail and fallen man a "little while" lower than the angels? With Dr. J. Brown we must answer, "We cannot doubt that man, even in his best estate, was in some respects inferior to the angels; but in some points he was on a level with them. One of these was immortality; and it deserves consideration, that this is the very point referred to when it is said of the raised saints, the children of the resurrection, ‘Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels’" (Luke 20:36). Thus, for a season, man, through being subject to death, has been made "lower than the angels." "Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; Thou crownedst him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of Thy hands" (Hebrews 2:7). Just as in the first part of this verse reference is made to the humiliation of man, so the second part of it speaks of God’s exaltation of man. "The verbs being expressed, not in the Future, but in the past tense, will not be felt as an objection to its being considered as a prediction, this being quite common in the prophetic style. Most of the predictions, for example, in Isaiah 53:1-12 are expressed in the past tense" (Dr. J. Brown). To this we may add, all prophecy speaks from the standpoint of God’s eternal purpose, and so certain is this of accomplishment, the past tense is used to show it is as sure as if it were already wrought out in time: compare "glorified" in Romans 8:30, and see Romans 4:17. Thus we understand the second part of Hebrews 2:7 as referring to the coming glorification of Christ’s redeemed. "Thou crownedst him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of Thy hands." This is applied by the Spirit to the redeemed, the "heirs" of Hebrews 1:14, "whereof we speak" (Hebrews 2:5). That the redeemed are to be "crowned" is clearly taught in the New Testament. For example, in 2 Timothy 4:7-8 the apostle says, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give be at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing." So also James declares, "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him" (James 1:12). They are to be crowned with "glory and honor." In Scripture "glory" is put for the excellency of a thing: hence, what is here predicted is, that the dignity which God will place upon His saints will be the most excellent they could be advanced unto. The Hebrew word means that which is real and substantial, in contrast from that which is light and vain. The word for "honor" implies that which is bright: and in Psalms 110:3 is rendered "beauty." Its distinctive thought is that of being esteemed by others. Thus we have here a striking word upon the glorification of the redeemed. First, they are to be "crowned," that is, they are to be elevated to a position of the highest rank. Second, they are to be crowned with "glory," that is, they will be made supremely excellent in their persons. Third, they are to be crowned with "honor," that is, they will be looked up to by those below them. "And didst set him over the works of Thy hands." This has reference to the rule and reign of God’s saints in the Day to come. In Daniel 7:18, Daniel 7:27 we read, "But the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever . . . And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him." So also in Revelation 2:26 we are told, "And he that overcometh and keepeth My works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations." "Thou hast put all things under his feet" (Hebrews 2:8). The language here employed shows plainly the connection between this quotation from the 8th Psalm and what the apostle had declared in Hebrews 2:5. There he had said, "For unto the angels hath He not put in subjection the world to come whereof we speak." Here we learn that unto "man" will the world to come be placed in subjection. Here we learn that "man," frail and fallen, but redeemed and exalted by the Lord, will have, in the world to come, "all things" put under his feet. It is the blessed sequel to Genesis 1:26 the earthly Paradise regained. The absoluteness of this "subjection" of the world to come unto redeemed man, is intimated by the figure which is here used, "under his feet"; lower a thing cannot be put. It is not simply "at his feet," but "under." The scope of the subjection is seen by the "all things." This goes beyond the terms of Psalms 8:7-8, for the last Adam has secured for His people more than the first Adam lost. All creation, even angels, will then be "in subjection" to man. "For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him" (Hebrews 2:8). This is the apostle’s comment on his quotation from Psalm 8. "Thou hast bestowed on man such honors as Thou hast bestowed on none of Thy creatures. Thou hast set him at the head of the created universe. From this passage it appears that, with the single exception of Him who is to put all things under him, i.e., God, all things are to be put under man. In the world to come even angels are subordinate to them. Man is next to God in that world" (Dr. J. Brown). In Revelation 21:7 we read, "He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son." Our joint-heirship with Christ (Romans 8:17) will be manifested in the world to come. What a prospect! O for faith to lay hold of it and enjoy it, even now. Were it more real to us, the trifling baubles of this world would fail to attract us. Were it more real to us, the trials and troubles of this life would be unable to sadden or move us. May the Lord enable each of His own to look away from the things seen to the things unseen. "But now we see not yet all things put under him" (Hebrews 2:8). This is the language of an hypothetical objector, which confirms and establishes what was said in the opening paragraphs of this article. The "him" here is the "man" of Hebrews 2:6. Anticipating the objection that Jesus of Nazareth could not be superior to the angels, seeing that He was Man, the apostle met it by showing that one of God’s ancient oracles declared that he who, for a short season, was made lower than the angels, has been crowned with glory and honor and set over the works of His hands; yea, that all things, and therefore angels, have been "put in subjection under him." But how can this be? says the objector: "Now we see not yet all things put under him." What you have said is belied by the testimony of our senses; that which is spread before our eyes refutes it. Why, so far from "all things" being in subjection to man, even the wild beasts will not perform his bidding! Unanswerable as this difficulty might appear, solution, satisfactory and complete, is promptly furnished. This is given in our next verse. "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels . . . crowned with glory and honor" (Hebrews 2:9). It is most blessed to observe how the apostle meets the objector: he does so by pointing at once and directly to Him who is the Center of all our hopes and in whose Person all our interests and blessings are bound up. "The following appears to me to be the track of the apostle’s thoughts: ‘In the world to come, men, not angels, are to occupy the first place. An ancient oracle, which refers to the world to come, clearly proves this. The place to be occupied by man in that world is not only a high place, but is the first place among creatures. The words of the oracle are unlimited. With the exception of Him who puts all things under man, everything is to be subjected to him. This oracle must be fulfilled. In the exaltation of Christ, after and in consequence of His humiliation, we have the begun fulfillment of the prediction, and what, according to the wise and righteous counsels of heaven, were necessary, and will be the effectual means of the complete accomplishment of it in reference to the whole body of the redeemed from among men" (Dr. J. Brown). "But we see Jesus." What is meant by this? To what was the apostle referring? How do we "see Jesus?" Not by means of mysterious dreams or ecstatic visions, not by the exercise of our imagination, nor by a process of visualization; but by faith. Just as Christ declared, in John 8:56, "Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it, and was glad." Faith is the eye of the spirit, which views and enjoys what the Word of God presents to its vision. In the Gospels, Acts, Epistles, Revelation, God has told us about the exaltation of His Son; those who receive by faith what He has there declared, "see Jesus crowned with glory and honor," as truly and vividly as His enemies once saw Him here on earth "crowned with thorns." It is this which distinguishes the true people of God from mere professors. Every real Christian has reason to say with Job, "I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth Thee" (Job 42:5). He has "seen" Him leaving Heaven and coming to earth, in order to "seek and to save that which was lost." He has "seen" Him as a sacrificial Substitute on the cross, there bearing "our sins in His own body on the tree." He has "seen" Him rising again in triumph from the grave, so that because He lives, we live also. He has "seen" Him highly exalted, "crowned with glory and honor." He has "seen Him thus as presented to the eye of faith in the sure Word of God. To Him the testimony of Holy Scripture is infinitely more reliable and valuable than the testimony of his senses. The name by which God’s Son is here called is that of His humiliation. "Jesus" is not a title; "Savior" is an entirely different word in the Greek. "Jesus" was His human name, as Man, here on earth. It was as "Jesus of Nazareth" that His enemies ever referred to Him. But not so His own people: to the apostles He said, "Ye call Me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am" (John 13:13). Only once in the four Gospels do we ever find any of His own speaking of Him as "Jesus of Nazareth" (Luke 24:19). and that was when their faith had completely given way. It was the language of unbelief! That He is referred to in the narratival form in the Gospels as "Jesus" is to emphasize His humiliation. When we come to the Acts, which treats of His exaltation, we read there, "God hath made this same Jesus . . . both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36). So in the Epistles: God has "given Him a name which is above every name," and that name is "Lord" (Php 2:9-10). Thus, it is either as "Christ" which is a title, or as the Lord Jesus Christ, that He is commonly referred to in the Epistles: read carefully 1 Corinthians 1:3-10 for example. It is thus that His people should delight to own Him. To address the Lord of glory in prayer simply as "Jesus," or to speak of Him to others thus, breathes an unholy familiarity, a vulgar cheapness, an irreverence which is highly reprehensible. After the four Gospels the Lord Christ is never referred to in the New Testament simply as "Jesus" save for the purpose of historical identification (Acts 1:11, e.g.), or to stress the humiliation through which He passed, or when His enemies are speaking of Him. Here in Hebrews 2:9, "Jesus" rather than "the Lord Jesus" is used to emphasize His humiliation: it was the One who had passed through such unparalleled shame and ignominy that had been "crowned with glory and honor." May Divine grace enable both writer and reader to entertain such exalted views of this same Jesus that we may ever heed the exhortation of 1 Peter 3:15 : "But sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord" (Revised Version). Now that which it is of first importance for us to observe is the use which the apostle here makes of the Savior’s glorification. The exaltation of Jesus is both the proof and pledge of the coming exaltation of His redeemed. The prophecy of Psalm 8 has already begun to receive its fulfillment. The crowning of Jesus with glory and honor is the ground and guarantee of the ultimate glorification of all His people. Christ has entered Heaven as the "First-fruits," the earnest of the coming harvest. He passed within the veil as the "Forerunner" (Hebrews 6:20), so that there must be others to follow. Here, then is, we believe, the true interpretation and application of Psalms 8:1-9. The verses quoted from it in Hebrews 2:1-18 refer not to Adam, not to mankind as a whole, nor to Christ Himself considered alone, but to His redeemed. The Holy Spirit, through the Psalmist, was looking forward to a new order of man, of which the Lord Jesus is the Head. In the Man Christ Jesus, God has brought to light a new order of Man, One in whom is found not merely innocence, but perfection. It is of this "man" that Ephesians 2:15 speaks: "To make in Himself of twain (redeemed from among the Jews and from the Gentiles) one new man"; and also Ephesians 4:13 : "Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." As God looks at His incarnate Son He sees, for the first time, a perfect Man, and us in Him. And as we, by faith, "see Jesus crowned with glory and honor," we discover both the proof and pledge of ourselves yet being "crowned with glory and honor." "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels . . . crowned with glory and honor," as the ground and guarantee of our approaching exaltation. Here then is the Divine answer to the question asked by the Psalmist long ago: "When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars which Thou hast made—What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?" Ah, brethren in Christ, when you go out at night and view the wondrous heavens, and then think of your own utter insignificance; when you meditate upon the glory of God’s majesty and holiness. and then think of your own exceeding sinfulness, and are bowed into the dust; remember that up there is a Man in the glory, and that that Man is the measure of God’s thoughts concerning you. Remember, that by wondrous and sovereign grace, you have been not only predestined to be conformed to His image, but that you should, as a joint-heir with Him, share His inheritance. May the Lord grant each Christian reader that faith which will enable him to grasp that wonderful and blissful prospect which the Word of God sets before him. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 81: 005.009. CHAPTER 9 ======================================================================== Chapter 9 CHRIST SUPERIOR TO ANGELS Hebrews 2:9-11 In our last article we were obliged, through lack of space, to break off our exposition of Hebrews 2:1-18 in the middle of a verse; to have continued further would have required us to go to the end of Hebrews 2:11, and this would have made it much too long. However, the point at which we left off really completed the first thought which the apostle establishes in our present section. As we sought to show, at Hebrews 2:5 the apostle begins meeting an objection which might be, and most probably was, made against what he had set forth in chapter one, namely, the immeasurable superiority of the Mediator, Israel’s Messiah, above the angels. Over against this, two difficulties stood in the way, which needed clearing up. First, How could Christ be superior to angels, seeing that He was Man? Second, How could He possess a greater excellency than they, seeing that He had died? The difficulty was satisfactorily removed by an appeal to Psalms 8:1-9, where God had affirmed, in predictive language, that He had crowned "man" with glory and honor and put "all things in subjection under his feet." To this the objector would rejoin, "But now we see not yet all things put under him" (Hebrews 2:8), how, then, does Psalm 8 prove your point? In this way, answers the apostle, In that even now, "we see (by faith) Jesus crowned with glory and honor," and in His exaltation we find the ground and guarantee, the proof and pledge, of the coming exaltation of all His people. In the remainder of this most interesting portion of Hebrews 2:1-18, we shall see how the Holy Spirit enabled the beloved apostle to meet and dispose of the second difficulty of the Jews in a manner equally convincing and satisfactory as He had dealt with their first objection. Though it be true that angels do not and cannot die (Luke 20:36), and though it be a fact that Jesus had died, yet this by no means went to show that He was inferior to them. This is the particular point which the apostle is here treating of and which it will now be our object to consider. First, he shows why it was necessary for Christ to die, namely, in order that He should taste death for every son, or, as it reads in the A.V., "for every man" (Hebrews 2:9). Second, he declares that God had a benevolent design in suffering His Son to stoop so low: it was by His grace that He so "tasted death" (Hebrews 2:9). Third, he affirms that such a course of procedure was suited to the nature and honoring to the glory of Him who orders all things: it "became Him" (Hebrews 2:10). Fourth, he argues that this was inevitable because of Christ’s oneness with His people (Hebrews 2:11). Fifth, he quotes three Old Testament passages in proof of the union which exists between the Redeemer and the redeemed. Let us now turn to our passage and attentively weigh its details. "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that He, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man" (Hebrews 2:9). The central thought of this verse was before us in the preceding article, namely, the exaltation of the once-humbled One. Now we must examine its several clauses and note their relation to each other. Really, there are five things in this verse, each of which we shall consider First, the humiliation of the Mediator: "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels." Second, the character of His humiliation: "For," or much better "by the suffering of death." Third, the object of His humiliation: to "taste death for every man," better "every son." Fourth, the moving cause of His humiliation: "by the grace of God." Fifth, the reward of His humiliation: "crowned with glory and honor." "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels." How these words should melt our hearts and move our souls to profoundest wonderment! That He, the Creator of angels, the Lord of them, the One who before His incarnation had been worshipped by them, should be "made lower" than they; and this for our sakes! Our hearts must indeed be dead if they are not thrilled and filled with praise as we ponder that fathomless stoop. As was pointed out under our exposition on Hebrews 2:7, the Greek word here for "little" is used in the New Testament in two senses: sometimes where it is a matter of degree, at others where it is a case of time. Here it is the latter, for "a little season." In what particular sense the apostle is here contemplating Christ’s being "made lower" than the angels, the next clause tells us. "For the suffering of death." Many have experienced difficulty with this clause. That which has exercised them is whether the words "for the suffering of death" state the purpose for which Christ was "made a little lower than the angels," or, whether "for the suffering of death" gives the reason why He has been "crowned with glory and honor." Personally, we are fully satisfied that neither of these give the real thought. The difficulty mentioned above is self-created. It is occasioned by failure to rightly define the reference to Christ’s being made "a little lower than the angels." As already stated, we believe this signified "for a little while." If the reader will turn back again to our comments on Hebrews 2:7 he will see we have adopted the suggestion of Dr. J. Brown to the effect that the specific reference is to mortality, the angels being incapable of dying. This, we are assured, is the meaning of the verse now before us. All ambiguity concerning this clause of Hebrews 2:9 disappears if the first word be rendered "by" instead of "for." The English translators actually give "by" in the margin. The Greek preposition is "dia," and is translated "by" again and again, both when it governs a noun in the accusative or the genitive case. Thus by altering "for" to "by" it will be seen that in this third clause the Holy Spirit has graciously defined His meaning in the second. (1) "But we see Jesus;" (2) "who was made a little season lower than the angels;" (3) "by the suffering of death." It was in this particular that Jesus was made for a season lower than the angels, namely, by His passing through a death of sufferings—an experience which, by virtue of the constitution God had given them, they were incapable of enduring. Therefore, the point here seized by the Holy Spirit in affirming that Jesus had been made lower than the angels, was His mortality. But here we must be very careful to explain our terms. When we say that Christ, by virtue of His incarnation, became "mortal," it must not be understood that He was subject to death in His body as the fallen descendants of Adam are. His humanity was holy and incorruptible: no seed or germ of death was in it, or could attack it. He laid down His life of Himself (John 10:18). No; what we mean is, and what Scripture teaches is, that in becoming man Christ took upon Him a nature that was capable of dying. This the angels were not; and in this respect He was, for a season, made lower than they. "By the suffering of death." This expression denotes that Christ’s exit from the land of the living was no easy or gentle one, but a death of "suffering"; one accompanied with much inward agony and outward torture. It was the "death of the cross" (Php 2:8). It was a death in which He suffered not only at the hands of men and of Satan, but from God Himself. It was a death in which He fully satisfied the demands of infinite holiness and justice. This was a task which no mere creature was capable of performing. Behold here, then, the wonder of wonders: Christ undertook a work which was far above the power of all the angels, and yet to effect it He was made lower than them! If ever power was made perfect in weakness, it was in this! "Crowned with glory and honor." This is the dominant clause of the verse. Concerning it we cannot do better than quote from Mr. C.H. Welch: "The crowning with glory and honor is the consecration of Christ as the Priest after the order of Melchizedek. ‘And no man taketh this honor unto himself . . .So also Christ glorified not Himself’ (Hebrews 5:4-5). We shall find an allusion to this in Hebrews 3:3, ‘for this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who builded the house hath more honor than the house. Thus we find Christ superior in honor and glory to both Moses and Aaron; and when we see Him crowned with honor and glory we are indeed considering Him who is the Apostle (Moses) and High Priest (Aaron) of our profession." Here, then, is the first part of the apostle’s answer to that which was, for the Jews, the great "stumbling block" (1 Corinthians 1:23). He who by the suffering of death had been made, for a little season, lower than the angels, has, because of His humiliation and perfect atoning sacrifice, been "highly exalted" by God Himself. He has been "raised far above all principality and power, and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come" (Ephesians 1:21). It is not simply that this exaltation followed the Mediator’s suffering and death, but, as the "therefore" in Isaiah 53:12 and the "wherefore" of Php 2:9 plainly denote, were the meritorious reward thereof. Thus, so far from the Cross needing an apology, it has magnified the Savior. So far from Christ’s degradation and death being something of which the Christian need be ashamed, they are the very reason why God has so signally rewarded Him. The "crown of thorns" which man gave Him, has been answered by the "crown of glory and honor" that God has bestowed upon Him. The humbled Christ is humiliated no longer; the Throne of the Universe is where He is now seated. Ere passing on to the next verse, let us ask the reader, Have you "crowned with glory and honor" Him whom the world has cast out? Do you, in a practical way, own Him as your Lord and Master? Is His glory and honor ever the paramount consideration before you? Is He receiving from you the devotion and adoration of a worshipping heart? "Worthy is the Lamb." O may He, indeed, occupy the throne of our hearts and reign as King over our lives. In what esteem does the Father hold His once humiliated Son: He has crowned Him with glory and honor; then what must He yet do with those who "despise and reject" Him? "That He by the grace of God should taste death for every man." Here is the second part of the apostle’s answer to the Jew’s objection. God had a benevolent design in permitting His Son, for a season, to become lower than the angels. The end in view fully justified the means. Only by the Son tasting death could the sons of God be delivered from the ruins of the fall; only thus could the righteousness and mercy of God be reconciled. This, we take it, indicates the relation of this final clause to the remainder of the verse: God’s design in making His Son lower than the angels was that He might become the Redeemer of His people. The opening conjunction "that" (hopos, meaning "to the end that"), expressing purpose, is conclusive. There has been considerable discussion as to the precise import of the expression "tasted death." Here, as ever in Scripture, there is a fullness in the language used which no brief definitions of man can ever embrace. The first and most obvious thought suggested by the language is, that the Savior consciously, sensibly, experienced the bitterness of death. "The death of our Lord Jesus Christ was a slow and painful death; He was ‘roasted with fire’ as was prefigured by the Paschal lamb. But it was not merely that it lasted a considerable time, that it was attended with agony of mind as well as pain of body; but that He came, as no finite creature can come, into contact with death. He tasted death in that cup which the Lord Jesus Christ emptied on the cross" (Saphir). He tasted that awful death by anticipation. From the beginning of His ministry (yea, before that, as His words in Luke 2:49 plainly show), there was ever present to his consciousness the Cross, with all its horror, see Matthew 16:21, John 2:4, John 3:16, etc. At Calvary He actually drained the bitterer cup. The death He tasted was "The curse which sin brings, the penalty of the broken law, the manifestation of the power of the devil, the expression of the wrath of God; and in all these aspects the Lord Jesus Christ came into contact with death and tasted it to the very last" (Saphir). "That He by the grace of God should taste death for every man." The opening words of this clause set forth the efficient cause which moved the Godhead in sending forth the Son to submit to such unparalleled humiliation: it was free favor of God. It was not because that the ends of Divine government required mercy should be shown to its rebels, still less because that they had any claim upon Him. There is nothing whatever outside God Himself which moves Him to do anything: He "worketh all things after the counsel of His own will" (Ephesians 1:11). It was solely by the grace and good pleasure of God, and not by the violence of man or Satan, that the Lord Jesus was brought to the Cross to die. The appointment of that costly sacrifice must be traced back to nothing but the sovereign benignity of God. "For every man." This rendering is quite misleading. "Anthropos," the Greek word for "man" is not in the verse at all. Thus, one of the principal texts relied upon by Arminians in their unscriptural contention for a general atonement vanishes into thin air. The Revised Version places the word "man" in italics to show that it is not found in the original. The Greek is "panta" and signifies "every one," that is, every one of those who form the subjects of the whole passage—every one of "the heirs of salvation" (Hebrews 1:14), every one of the "sons" (Hebrews 2:10), every one of the "brethren" (Hebrews 2:11). We may say that this is the view of the passage taken by Drs. Gouge and J. Brown, by Saphir, and a host of others who might be mentioned. Theologically it is demanded by the "tasted death for every one," i.e., substitutionally, in the room of, that they might not. Hence, every one for whom He tasted death shall themselves never do so (see John 8:52), and this is true only of the people of God. What we have just said above is confirmed by many Scriptures. "For the transgression of My people was He stricken" said God (Isaiah 53:8), and all mankind are not His "people." "I lay down My life for the sheep," said the Son (John 10:10), but every man is not of Christ’s sheep (John 10:26). Christ makes intercession on behalf of those for whom He died (Romans 8:34), but He prays not for the world (see John 17:9). Those for whom he died are redeemed (Revelation 5:9), and from redemption necessarily follows the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:14), but all have not their sins forgiven. "For it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings" (Hebrews 2:10). This gives the third part of the apostle’s reply to the objection which he is here rebutting, and a most arresting statement it is: he now takes still higher ground, advancing that which should indeed bow our hearts in worship. The word "became" means suited to, in accord with, the character of God. It was consonant with the Divine attributes that the Son should, for a season be "made lower than the angels" in order to "taste death" for His people. It was not only according to God’s eternal purpose, but it was also suited to all His wondrous perfections. Never was God more Godlike than when, in the person of Jesus, He was crucified for our sins. "For it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." There are five things in this verse claiming our reverent and diligent attention. First, the particular character in which God is here viewed; as the One "for whom are all things and by whom are all things." Second, the manner in which it "became" the Most High to bring many sons unto glory by giving up His beloved Son to the awful death of the cross. Third, the particular character in which the Son Himself is here viewed: as "The Captain of our salvation." Fourth, in what sense He was, or could be, "made perfect through sufferings." Fifth, the result of this Divine appointment: the actual conducting of many sons "unto glory." First, then, the special character in which God is here viewed. "For it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things." This expression sets forth the high sovereignty of God in the most unqualified and absolute manner: "all things" without exception, that is, all creatures, all events. "For whom are all things" affirms that the Most High God is the Final Cause of everything: "The Lord hath made all things for Himself" (Proverbs 16:4), i.e., to fulfill His own designs, to accomplish His own purpose, to redound to His own glory. So again we read in Revelation 4:11, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created." This blessed, basic, yet stupendous truth is to be received with unquestioning and unmurmuring faith. He who maketh the wrath of man to praise Him (Psalms 76:10) will not only vindicate His broken law in the punishment of the wicked, but His justice and holiness shall be magnified by their destruction. Hell itself will redound to His glory. "And by whom are all things." Every creature that exists, every event which happens, is by God’s own appointment and agency. Nothing comes to pass or can do so without the will of God. Satan could not tempt Peter without Christ’s permission; the demons could not enter the swine till He gave them leave; not a sparrow falls to the ground apart from His decree. This is only another way of saying that God actually governs the world which He has made. True, there is much, very much in His government which we cannot understand, for how can the finite comprehend the Infinite? He Himself tells us that His ways are "past finding out," yet His own infallible word declares, "For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things: to whom be glory forever" (Romans 11:36). "For whom are all things, and by whom are all things." Nothing so stirs up the enmity of the carnal mind and evidences the ignorance, the sin, and the high-handed rebellion of fallen man as the response which he makes when this great fact and solemn truth is pressed upon him. People at once complain, if this be so, then we are mere puppets, irresponsible creatures. Or worse, they will blasphemously argue, If this be true, then God, and not ourselves, is to be charged with our wickedness. To such sottish revilings, only one reply is forthcoming, "Nay but, O man who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why hast Thou made me thus?" (Romans 9:20). Consider now the appropriateness of this title or appellation of Deity. The varied manner in which God refers to Himself in the Scriptures, the different titles He there assumes are not regulated by caprice, but are ordered by infinite wisdom; and we lose much if we fail to attentively weigh each one. As illustrations of this principle consider the following. In Romans 15:5, He is spoken of as "The God of patience and hope": this, in keeping with the subject of the four preceding verses. In 2 Corinthians 4:6, He is presented thus: "God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts," which is in beautiful keeping with the theme of the five preceding verses. In Hebrews 13:20, it is "The God of Peace" that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus. Why? Because His holy wrath had been placated at the cross. So in Hebrews 2:10 the apostle would silence the proud and wicked reasoning of the Jews by reminding them that they were replying against the Sovereign Supreme. For Him are all things and by Him are all things: His glory is the end of everything, His will the law of the universe; therefore, to quarrel with His method of bringing many sons unto glory was insubordination and blasphemy of the worst kind. And what are the practical bearings upon us of this title of God? First, an acknowledgment of God in this character is due from us and required by Him. To believe and affirm that "for Him are all things, and by Him are all things" is simply owning that He is God—high above all, supreme over all, directing all. Anything short of this is, really, atheism. Second, contentment is the sure result to a heart which really lays hold of and rests upon this truth. If I really believe that "all things" are for God’s glory and by His invincible and perfect will, then I shall receive submissively, yea, thankfully, whatsoever He ordains and sends me. The language of such an one must be, "It is the Lord: let Him do what seemeth Him good" (1 Samuel 3:18). Third, confidence and praise will be the outcome. God only does that which "becomes" Him; therefore, whatsoever He does must be right and best. Those who truly recognize this "know that all things work together for good to them that love God" (Romans 8:28). True it is that our short-sighted and sin-darkened vision is often unable to see why God does certain things, yet we may be fully assured that He always has a wise and holy reason. "For it became Him." More immediately, the opening "for" gives a reason for what has been advanced at the close of Hebrews 2:9. Should it be reverently inquired why God’s "grace" chose such a way for the redeeming of His elect, here is the ready answer: it "became Him" so to do. The Greek term signifies the answerableness or agreement of one thing to another. Thus, "speak thou the things that become sound doctrine" (Titus 2:1), i.e., that are agreeable thereto. So, too, the Greek term implies the comeliness of a thing. Thus, "which become women professing godliness (1 Timothy 2:10). The adorning of Christian women with good works is a comely thing, yea, it is the beauty and glory of their profession. In like manner the grace of God which gave Christ to taste death for His people, answered to the love of His heart and agreed with the holiness of His nature. Such an appointment was suited to God’s character, consonant with His attributes, agreeable to his perfections. Never did anything more exhibit, and never will anything more redound to the glory of God than His making the Son lower than the angels in order to taste death for His people. A wide field of thought is here set before us. Let us, briefly, enter into a few details. It "became" God’s wisdom. His wisdom is evidenced in all His works, but nowhere so perspicuously or conspicuously as at Calvary. The cross was the masterpiece of Omniscience. It was there that God exhibited the solution to a problem which no finite intelligence could ever have solved, namely, how justice and mercy might be perfectly harmonized. How was it possible for righteousness to uphold the claims of the law and yet for grace to be extended to its transgressors? It seemed impossible. These were the things which the angels desired to look into, but so profound were their depths they had no line with which to fathom them. But the cross supplies the solution. It "became" the holiness of God. What is His holiness? It is impossible for human language to supply an adequate definition. Perhaps about as near as we can come to one is to say, It is the antithesis of evil, the very nature of God hating sin. Again and again during Old Testament times God manifested His displeasure against sin, but never did the white light of God’s holiness shine forth so vividly as at Calvary, where we see Him smiting His own Beloved because the sins of His people had been transferred to Him. It "became" His power. Never was the power of God so marvelously displayed as it was at Golgotha. Wherein does this appear? In that the Mediator was enabled to endure within the space of three hours what it will take an eternity to expend upon the wicked. All the waves and billows of Divine wrath went over Him (Psalms 42:7). Yet was He not destroyed. There was concentrated into those three hours of darkness that which the lost will suffer forever and ever, and nothing but the power of God could have upheld the suffering Savior. Yea, only a Divine Savior could have stood up under that storm of outpoured wrath; that is why God said, "I have laid help upon One that is mighty" (Psalms 89:19). It "became" His righteousness. He can by no means clear the guilty. Sin must be punished where ever it is found. God’s justice would not abate any of its demands when sin, through imputation, was found upon Christ: as Romans 8:32 says, He "spared not His own Son." Never was the righteousness of God more illustriously exhibited than when it cried, "Awake O sword against My Shepherd, and against the Man that is My Fellow saith the Lord of hosts: smite the Shepherd" (Zechariah 13:7). It "became" the love and grace of God. Innumerable tokens of these have and do His children receive, but the supreme proof of them is furnished at the cross. "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10). The mercy of God is over all His works, but never so fully and so gloriously was it manifested as when Christ became Man and was made a curse for His people, that theirs might be the blessing. We must next consider the special character in which the Savior Himself is here contemplated: "The Captain of their salvation." This is one out of more than three hundred titles given to the Lord Jesus in the Scriptures, each of which has its own distinctive meaning and preciousness. The Greek word is "Archegos," and is found four times in the New Testament. It signifies the "Chief Leader." It is the word rendered "Author" in Hebrews 12:2, though that is an unhappy rendition. It is translated "Prince" in Acts 3:15 and Acts 5:31. Thus, it is a title which calls attention to and emphasises the dignity and glory of our Savior, yet, in His mediatorial character. It needs to be borne in mind that in New Testament days the "captain" of a regiment did not remain in the rear issuing instructions to his officers, but took the lead, and by his own personal example encouraged and inspired his soldiers to deeds of valor. Thus the underlying thoughts of this title are, Christ’s going before His people, leading His soldiers, and being in command of them. He has "gone before" them in three respects. First, in the way of obedience, see John 13:15. Second, in the way of suffering, see 1 Peter 2:21. Third, in the way of glory: He has entered heaven as our forerunner, so that faith says, "Thanks be unto God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." Thus it will be seen that Hebrews 2:10 continues the same thought as Hebrews 2:9. "The Captain of their salvation." The plain and necessary implication of this title is that we are passing through a country full of difficulties, dangers, oppositions, like Israel in the Wilderness on their way to the promised inheritance; so that we need a Captain, Guide, Leader, to carry us safely through. This title of Christ’s, then, is for the encouragement of our hearts: the grace, the faithfulness, and the power of our Leader guarantees the successful issue of our warfare. It teaches us once more that the whole work of our salvation, from first to last, has been committed by God into the hands of Christ. "To make the Captain of their salvation perfect through suffering." This sentence has occasioned real trouble to many: how can a perfect person be "made perfect?" But the difficulty is more imaginary than real. The reference is not to the person of Christ, but to a particular office which He fills. His character needed no "Perfecting." Unlike us, no course of discipline was required by Him to subdue faults and to develop virtues. We believe that Hebrews 2:9 supplies the key to the words we are now considering: "being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him." The previous verse speaks of Christ "learning obedience by the things which He suffered," which does not mean that He learned to obey, but rather that He learned by experience what obedience is. In like manner it was by the experiences through which He passed that Christ was "perfected," not experimentally, but officially, to be "the Captain" of our salvation. A striking type of this is furnished by the case of Joshua, who, as the result of his experiences in the wilderness, became experimentally qualified to be Israel’s "captain," leading them into Canaan. "To make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." Two other things need to be borne in mind: the particular design of this passage, and the special purpose and aim of the Epistle as a whole. The special design of the apostle was to remove the scandal of Christ’s humiliating death, which was such a stumbling-block to the Jews. Therefore, he here affirms that the sufferings of Christ eventuated not in ignominy but glory: they "perfected" His equipment to be the "Captain" of His people, Hebrews 2:10 amplifies. In regard to the scope of the Epistle as a whole, this word of the apostle’s was well calculated to comfort the afflicted and sorely-tried Hebrews: their own Captain had reached glory via sufferings—sufficient for His soldiers to follow the same path. Thus, this word here is closely parallel with 1 Peter 4:1. It should be added that the Greek word for "perfected" is rendered "consecrated" in Hebrews 7:28. By His sufferings Christ became qualified and was solemnly appointed to be our Leader. It was by His sufferings that He vanquished all His and our foes, triumphing gloriously over them, and thus He became fitted to be our "Captain." What reason have we then to glory in the Cross of Christ! The eye of faith sees there not only consummate wisdom, matchless mercy, fathomless love, but victory, triumph, glory. By dying He slew death. "In bringing many sons unto glory." This is both the Captain’s work and reward. The term "glory" is one of the most comprehensive words used in all the Bible. It is almost impossible to define; perhaps "the sum of all excellency" is as near as we can come to it. It means that the "many sons" will be raised to the highest possible state and position of dignity and honor. It is Christ’s own "glory" into which they are brought: "And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one" (John 17:22, and see Colossians 3:4). Into this "glory" many sons are to come. Some have difficulty in harmonizing this word with "many be called, but few chosen" (Matthew 20:16). In contrast from the vast multitudes which perish, God’s elect are indeed "few" (Matthew 7:14); His flock is only a "little" one (Luke 12:32). Yet, considered by themselves, the redeemed of all generations will constitute "many." Into this "glory" the many sons do not merely "come," but are "brought." It is the same word as in Luke 10:34 where the Good Samaritan "brought" the poor man that was wounded and half dead, and who could not "come" of himself, to the "inn." Let the reader consult these additional passages: Song of Solomon 2:4; Isaiah 42:16; 1 Peter 3:18. This "bringing" of the many sons "unto glory" is in distinct stages. At regeneration they are brought from death unto life. At the Lord’s return they will be brought to the Father’s House (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). The whole is summarized in the parable of the lost sheep; see Luke 15:4-6. In closing, let us ask the reader, "Are you one of these many "sons" whom Christ is bringing "unto glory"? Are you quite sure that you are? It is written, "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" (Romans 8:14). Is this true of you? Can others see the evidences of it? Is your daily life controlled by self-will, the ways of the world, the pleasing of your friends and relatives, or by the written Word, for that is what the Spirit uses in leading His sons. Above we have contemplated that which "became" God; let our final consideration be that which "becomes" His favored children. "Let your conversation (manner of life) be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ" (Php 1:27). If we are now light in the Lord, let us "walk as children of light" (Ephesians 5:8). Let us seek grace to "walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called" (Ephesians 4:1). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 82: 005.010. CHAPTER 10 ======================================================================== Chapter 10 CHRIST SUPERIOR TO ANGELS Hebrews 2:11-13 Inasmuch as we feel led to break up the second half of Hebrews 2:1-18 into shorter sections than is our usual habit (so that we may enter more in detail), it will be necessary to begin each chapter with a brief summary of what has already been before us. Though we dislike using valuable space for mere repetitions, yet this seems unavoidable if the continuity of thought is to be preserved and the scope of the apostle’s argument intelligently followed. Moreover, as we endeavor to study the holy Word of God, it is ever the part of wisdom to heed the Divine injunction, "he that believeth shall not make haste" (Isaiah 28:16). To pause and review the ground already covered, serves to fix in the memory what otherwise might be crowded out. As said the apostle to the Philippians, "to write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe" (Hebrews 3:1). In Hebrews 1:4-14, seven Old Testament passages were quoted for the purpose of showing the superiority of Israel’s Messiah over the angels. Hebrews 2:1-4 are parenthetical, inasmuch as the argument of that section is broken off in order to make a searching application to the conscience of what has already been said. At Hebrews 2:5 the discussion concerning the relative positions of the Mediator and the celestial creatures is resumed. Two objections are now anticipated and dealt with—this is made clear by the last clause of Hebrews 2:8, which is the interjecting of a difficulty. The objections are: How could Christ be superior to angels, seeing that He was Man? and, How could He possess a greater excellency than they, seeing that He had died? In meeting these objections appeal was first made to the 8th Psalm, which affirmed, in predictive language, that God has crowned "man" (redeemed man) with "honor and glory," and that He has put "all things under his feet"; and in the exaltation of Jesus faith beholds the ground and guarantee, the proof and pledge, of the coming exaltation of all His people (Hebrews 2:9). Second, the necessity for the Mediator’s humiliation lay in the fact that He must "taste death," as the appointed Substitute, if "every son" was to receive eternal life (Hebrews 2:9). Third, the apostle affirmed that God had a benevolent design in suffering His Son to stoop so low: it was by His "grace" that He tasted death (Hebrews 2:9). Fourth, it is announced that such a course of procedure was suited to the nature and honoring to the glory of Him who ordains all things: it "became Him" (Hebrews 2:10). Fifth, the Divine love and wisdom in causing the Captain of our salvation to be perfected "through sufferings" was fully vindicated, for the outcome from it is that many sons are brought "unto glory." In Hebrews 2:11, which begins our present portion, the needs-be for the Son’s humiliation is made still more evident: "For both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified, are all of one: for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren." The opening "for" at once intimates that the Holy Spirit is still advancing confirmation of what He had said previously, and is continuing to show why the Lord of angels had been made Man. It may help the reader to grasp the force of this verse if we state it thus: It was imperative that Christ should be made, for a season, "lower than the angels" if ever He was to have ground and cause to call us "brethren." That is a title which presupposes a common state and standing; for this He must become "one" with them. In other words, the Redeemer must identify Himself with those He was to redeem. We may add that the opening "for" of Hebrews 2:11 supplies an immediate link with Hebrews 2:10 : a further reason is now advanced why it "became" God to make the Captain of His people perfect through sufferings, even because He and they are "all of one." Herein lies the equity of Christ’s sufferings. It was not that an innocent person was smitten in order that guilty ones might go free, for that would be the height of injustice, but that an innocent Person, voluntarily, out of love, identified Himself with trangressors, and so became answerable for their crimes. Therefore, "in all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren" (Hebrews 2:17). How this should endear Him to us! "All of one," is very abstract, and for this reason not easy to define concretely. "Observe that it is only of sanctified persons that this is said. Christ and the sanctified ones are all of one company, men together in the same position before God; but the idea goes a little further. It is not of one and the same Father; had it been so, it could not have been said, ‘He is not ashamed to call them brethren.’ He could not then do otherwise than call them brethren. If we say ‘of the same mass’ the expression may be pushed too far, as though He and others were of the same nature as children of Adam, sinners together. In this case Jesus would have to call every man His brother; whereas it is only the children whom God hath given Him, ‘sanctified’ ones, that He so calls. But He and the sanctified ones are all as men in the same nature and position together before God. When I say ‘the same’ it is not in the same state of sin, but the contrary, for they are the Sanctifier and the sanctified, but in the same proof of human position as it is before God as sanctified to Him; the same as far forth as man when He, as the sanctified One is before God" (Mr. J.N. Darby). Though the above quotation is worded somewhat vaguely, nevertheless we believe it approximates closely to the thought of the Spirit. They, Christ and His people, are "all of one." Perhaps we might say, All of one class or company. If Christ were to be the Savior of men, He must Himself be Man. This is what the quotations from the Old Testament, which immediately follow, go to show. We do believe, however, that the "all of one" is a little fuller in scope than that brought out by Mr. Darby’s comments. The remainder of Hebrews 2 seems to show it also has reference to the oneness in condition between the Sanctifier and the sanctified, i.e., in this world. The Shepherd went before the sheep (John 10:4): the path they follow is the same He trod. Thus, "all of one" in position, in sufferings, in trials, in dependency upon God. "For both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one." Many of the commentators have quite missed the meaning of this "all of one." Had sufficient attention been given to the context they should have seen that the apostle is not here treating of the oneness of Christians with Christ in acceptance before God and in glory—that, we get in such passages as Ephesians 1 and 2; instead, he is bringing out the oneness of Christ with His people in their humiliation. In other words, the apostle is not here speaking of our being lifted up to Christ’s level, but of His coming down to ours. That which follows clearly establishes this. But what is meant by "He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified"? The Sanctifier is Christ Himself, the sanctified are the many sons who are being brought to glory. "The source and power of sanctification are in the Son of God our Savior. We who were to be brought unto glory were far off from God, in a state of condemnation and death. What could be more different than our natural condition and the glory of God which we are awaiting? Condemned on account of our transgressions of the law, we lived in sin, alienated from God, and without His presence of light and love. We were dead; and by ‘dead’ I do not mean that modern fancy which explains death to mean cessation of existence, but that continuous, active, self-developing state of misery and corruption into which the sinner has fallen by his disobedience. Dead in trespasses and sins, wherein we walked; dead while living in pleasing self (Ephesians 2:1-2, 1 Timothy 5:6). What can be more opposed to glory than the state in which we are by nature? and if we are to be brought into glory, it is evident we must be brought into holiness; we must be delivered and separated from guilt, pollution, and death, and brought into the presence of God, in which is favor, light, and life—that His life may descend into our souls, and that we may become partakers of the Divine nature. "Christ is our sanctification. ‘By one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified’ (Hebrews 10:14). By the offering of His body as the sacrifice for sin, He has sanctified all that put their trust in Him. To sanctify is to separate unto God; to separate for a holy use. We who were far off are brought nigh by the blood of Christ. And although our election is of God the Father (who is thus the Author of our sanctification, Jude 1:4), and the cleansing and purification of the heart is generally attributed to the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:4-5), yet is it in Christ that we were chosen, and from Christ that we receive the Spirit, and as it is by the constant application of Christ’s work and the constant communication of His life that we live and grow, Christ is our sanctification. "We are sanctified through faith that is in Him (Acts 26:18). By His offering of Himself He has brought us into the presence of God. By the Word, by God’s truth, by the indwelling Spirit, He continually sanctifies His believers. He gave Himself for the church, ‘that He might sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of water by the Word’ (Ephesians 5:26). ‘Sanctify them through Thy truth’ (John 17:17; John 15:3). "Christ Himself is the foundation, source, method, and channel of our sanctification. We are exhorted to put off the old man and to put on the new man day by day, to mortify our members which are upon the earth. But in what way or method can we obey the apostolic exhortations, but by our continually beholding Christ’s perfect sacrifice for sin as our all-sufficient atonement? In what other way are we sanctified day by day, but by taking hold of the salvation which is by Him, ‘The Lamb that is slain’? Jesus is He that sanctifieth. The Holy Spirit, the Comforter, is sent by Christ to glorify Him, and to reveal and appropriate to us His salvation. We are conformed to the image of Christ by the Spirit as coming from Christ in His glorified humanity" (Saphir). "For which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren" (Hebrews 2:11). Because Christ became Man, He is not ashamed to own as "brethren" those whom the Father had given to Him. The community of nature shared by the Sanctifier and the sanctified furnishes ground for Him to call them "brethren." That He did so in the days of His humiliation may be seen by a reference to Matthew 12:49; John 20:17. That He will do so in the Day to come, appears from Matthew 25:40. That He is "not ashamed" to so own them, plainly intimates an act of condescension on his part, the condescension arising out of the fact that He was more than Man, none other than "the Lord of glory." There is, no doubt, a latent contrast in these words: the world hated them, their brethren according to the flesh despised them, and called them "apostates"; but the Son of God incarnate was not ashamed to call them "brethren." So, too, He owns us. Therefore, if He is "not ashamed" to own us, shall we be "ashamed to confess Him!" Moreover, let us "not be ashamed" to own as "brethren" the poorest of the flock! "For which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren." Ere passing from these blessed words, it needs to be said, emphatically, that this grace on the part of Christ does not warrant His people becoming so presumptuous as to speak of Him as their "Brother." Such a thing is most reprehensible. "Question, May we by virtue of this relation, call the Son of God our Brother? Answer, We have no example of any of the saints that ever did so. They usually gave titles of dignity to Him, as Lord, Master, Savior. Howsoever the Son of God vouchsafes this honor unto us, yet we must retain in our hearts an high and reverent esteem of Him, and on that ground give such titles to Him as may manifest as much. Inferiors do not use to give like titles of equality to their superiors, as superiors do to their inferiors. It is a token of love in superiors to speak to their inferiors as equals; but for inferiors to do the like, would be a note of arrogancy" (Dr. Gouge). The same principle applies to John 15:15. Christ in His condescending grace may call us His "friends," but this does not justify us in speaking of Him as our "Friend"! "Saying, I will declare Thy name unto My brethren" (Hebrews 2:12). Once more the apostle appeals to the written Word for support of what he had just affirmed. A quotation is made from Psalms 22:22, one which not only substantiated what had been said in Hebrews 2:11, but which also made a further contribution towards removing the objection before him. As is well known, the 22nd is the great Cross Psalm. In Psalms 22:20-21, the suffering Savior is heard crying, "Deliver My soul from the sword (of Divine justice, cf. Zechariah 13:7), My darling from the power of the dog (the Gentiles, cf. Matthew 15:24-26). Save Me from the lion’s (the Devil’s, cf. 1 Peter 5:8) mouth." Then follows faith’s assurance, "For Thou hast heard Me from the horns of the unicorn." This is the turning point of the Psalm: the cries of the Sufferer are heard on High. What a conclusive and crushing reply was this to the objecting Jew! God’s own Word had foretold the humiliation and sufferings of their Messiah. There it was, unmistakably before them. What could they say? The Scriptures must be fulfilled. No reply was possible. But more: not only did the 22nd Psalm announce beforehand the sufferings of the Messiah; it also foretold His victory. Read again the last clause of Psalms 22:21 : "Save Me from the lion’s mouth: for Thou hast heard Me." Christ was "saved," not from death, but out of death, cf. Hebrews 5:7. Now what is the very next thing in Psalms 22:7 This: "I will declare Thy name unto My brethren" (Psalms 22:22). Here the Savior is seen on resurrection ground, victorious over every foe. It is this which the apostle quotes in Hebrews 2:12. Now that which it is particularly important to note is that in this verse from Psalm 22 Christ is heard saying He would declare the Father’s name unto His "brethren." That could only be possible on resurrection ground. Why? Because by nature they were "dead in trespasses and sins." But as "quickened together with Christ" (Ephesians 2:5) they were made sons of God, and therefore the "brethren" of the risen Son of God. Hence the great importance of noting carefully the very point at which Psalms 22:22 occurs in the 22nd Psalm. The Lord Jesus never called His people "brethren" on the other side of the Cross! He spoke of them as "disciples," "sheep," "friends," but never as "brethren." But as soon as He was risen from the dead, He said to Mary, "Go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father and to your Father" (John 20:17). Here, then, was the unanswerable reply to the Jews’ objection: Christ could reach resurrection ground only by passing through death, cf. John 12:24. "I will declare Thy name unto My brethren." Here the Son is heard addressing the Father, promising that He would execute the charge which had been given Him. The Greek word for "declare" is very emphatic and comprehensive. It means, To proclaim and publish, to exhibit and make known. To declare God’s "Name" signifies to reveal what God is, to make known His excellencies and counsels. This is what Christ came here to do: see John 17:6, John 17:26. None else was competent for such a task, for none knoweth the Father but the Son (Matthew 11:27). But only to His "brethren" did Christ do so. They are the "babes" unto whom heavenly things are revealed (Matthew 11:25); they are the ones unto whom are made known the "mysteries of the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 13:11). From all others these blessed revelations are "hid," to those "without" they are but "parables." "In the midst of the church will I sing praise unto Thee" (Hebrews 2:12). This completes the quotation from Psalms 22:22. No doubt the first fulfillment of this took place during the "forty days" of Acts 1:3 : mark how Acts 1:4 brings in the assembly; though its ultimate fulfillment is yet future. The position in which Christ is here viewed is very blessed, "in the midst": it is the Redeemer leading the praises of His redeemed. Strangers to God may go through all the outward forms of mere "religion," but they never praise God. It is only upon resurrection ground that worship is possible. A beautiful type of this is found in Exodus 15:1 : it was only after Israel had crossed the Red Sea, and the Egyptians were dead upon the shore, that "Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song." Note how Moses, the typical mediator, led their praises! "And again, I will put My trust in Him" (Hebrews 2:13). The apostle is still replying to the Jews’ objection, How could Jesus of Nazareth be the superior of angels, seeing that He was Man and had died? Here, in Hebrews 2:12-13, he quotes Messianic passages from the Old Testament in proof of the statements made in Hebrews 2:10-11. First, Psalms 22:22 is cited, in which Christ is heard addressing His redeemed as "brethren." The implication is unmistakable: that is a title which presupposes a common position and a common condition, and in order to do that the Lord of glory had to be abased, come down to their level, become Man. Then, in the same passage, the Savior is heard "singing praise" unto God. This also views Him as incarnate, for only as Man could He sing praise unto God! Moreover, it is not as Lord over the church, but as One "in the midst" of it He is there viewed. Thus "all of one" is illustrated and substantiated. A second quotation is now made, from Isaiah 8:17, according to the Septuagint version. The passage from which this is taken is a very remarkable one. Beginning at Hebrews 2:13 the exhortation is given, "Sanctify the Lord of Hosts Himself; and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread." This means, give Him His true place in your hearts, recognize His exalted dignity, bow before His ineffable majesty, submit to His high sovereignty, tremble at the very thought of quarreling with Him. Then, in Hebrews 2:14, the Lord of Hosts is brought before us in a twofold character: "And He shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem." These expressions, Sanctuary and Stone of stumbling, define the relation of the Lord to the elect and to the non-elect. To the one He is Refuge, a Resting-place, a Center of worship; to the other, He is an offense. "The Stone" is one of the titles of Christ, and it is most interesting and instructive to trace out the various references, the first being found in Genesis 49:24. Here in Isaiah 8, it is Christ in His lowliness which is in view. Israel was looking for One who would be high among the great ones of the earth, therefore when One who was born in a manger, who had toiled at the carpenter’s bench, who had not where to lay His head, appeared before them, they "despised and rejected" Him. The figure used here is very affecting. How low a place must the Lord of glory have taken for Israel to "stumble" over Him, like a stone lying at one’s feet! Thus, once more, the Holy Spirit refers to an Old Testament passage in which the Messiah was presented in humiliation, as it were "a stone" lying on the ground. It is scarcely necessary to add that the very lowliness into which the Savior entered, coming here not to be ministered unto but to minister, and give His life a ransom for many, is that which makes Him a "precious Stone" (1 Peter 2:6) to all whose faith sees the Divine glory shining beneath the humiliation. What is more moving to our hearts, what is mere calculated to bow them in worship before God as we behold His Son in John 13?—verily, "a Stone" at the feet of His disciples, washing them! Blessed is it to know that the very Stone which the builders rejected "is become the head of the corner" (Psalms 118:22), that is, has been exalted. Returning now to Isaiah 8:15 amplifies what was said in the previous one: "And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken." How solemnly and how literally this was fulfilled in the history of the Jews we all know. Then, in Isaiah 8:16, we have stated the consequences of Israel’s rejection of their Messiah: "Bind up the testimony, seal the law among My disciples." Ever since there has been a veil over Israel’s heart, even when reading the Holy Scriptures (2 Corinthians 3:15). Now comes the word in Hebrews 2:13, "I will put My trust in Him" (Isaiah 8:17, Septuagint version). A most blessed word is this. It reveals the implicit confidence of the Savior in God. Notwithstanding the treatment which He met with from both the houses of Israel, His trust in Jehovah remained unshaken; He looked away from the things seen to the things unseen. The relevancy of this citation in Hebrews 2 is obvious: such a thing could not have been unless Christ had become Man—considered simply as God the Son, to speak of Him "trusting" was unthinkable, impossible. Wonderful proof was this of what had been affirmed in Hebrews 2:11 concerning the oneness which exists between Christ and His people: He, like they, was called on to tread the path of faith. "I will put My trust in Him." This is indeed a word which should bow our hearts in wonderment. What a lowly place had the Maker of heaven and earth taken! How these words bring out the reality of His humanity! The Son of God had become the Son of Man, and while here on earth He ever acted in perfect accord with the place which He had taken. He lived here a life of faith, that is, a life of trust in and dependence upon God. In John 6:57 we hear Him saying, "I live by the Father." This is what He pressed on Satan when tempted to manufacture bread for Himself. Isaiah 8:17 is not the only Old Testament passage which speaks of Christ "trusting" in God. In Psalms 16:1, He cries, "Preserve Me, O God: for in Thee do I put My trust." As Man it was not fitting that He should stand independent and alone; nor did He. The whole of this Psalm views Him in the place of entire dependency—in life, in death, in resurrection. Strikingly will this appear if Psalms 16:10-11 be compared with John 2:19 and John 10:18. In the passages in John’s Gospel, where His Divine glory shines forth through the veil of His humanity, He speaks of raising Himself from the dead. But here in Psalm 16, where the perfections of His manhood are revealed, He is seen trusting in God to raise Him again. How important it is to get the Spirit’s viewpoint in each passage! "I will put My trust in Him." This perfection of our Lord is not sufficiently pondered by us. The life which Jesus Christ lived here for thirty-three years was a life of faith. That is the meaning of that little-understood word in Hebrews 12:2 : "Looking off unto Jesus (His name, as Man), the Author (Greek, same as "Captain" in Hebrews 2:10) and Perfecter of faith." If these words be carefully weighed in the light of their context, their meaning is plain. In Hebrews 11 we have illustrated, from the Old Testament saints, various aspects of the life of faith, but in Jesus we see every aspect of it perfectly exemplified. As our Captain or Leader, He has gone before His soldiers, setting before them an inspiring example. The path we are called on to tread, is the same He trod. The race we are bidden to run, is the same He ran. And we are to walk and run as He did, by faith. "I will put my trust in Him." This was ever the expression of His heart. Christ could say, and none but He ever could, "I was cast upon Thee from the womb: Thou art My God from My mother’s belly" (Psalms 22:10). Never did another live in such complete dependence on God as He: "I have set the Lord always before Me; because He is at My right hand, I shall not be moved" (Psalms 16:8) was His language. So evident was His faith, even to others, that His very enemies, whilst standing around the Cross, turned it into a bitter taunt: "He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver Him, let Him deliver Him, seeing He delighted in Him" (Psalms 22:8). How blessed to know that when we are called on to walk by faith, to submit ourselves unto and live in dependency on God, to look away from the mists of time to the coming inheritance, that Another has trod the same path, that in putting forth His sheep, the Good Shepherd went before them (John 10:4), that He bids us to do nothing but what He has Himself first done. "I will put My trust in Him." This is still true of the Man Christ Jesus. In Revelation 1:9 we read of "the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ": that is the patience of faith, cf. Hebrews 11:13. Hebrews 10:12-13 interprets: "But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool." That is the expectation of faith, awaiting the fulfillment of God’s promise. Ah, dear reader, fellowship with Christ is no mystical thing, it is intensely practical; fellowship with Christ means, first of all, walking by faith. "And again, behold I and the children which God hath given Me" (Hebrews 2:13). This completes the quotation made from Isaiah 8:17-18. The pertinency of these words in support of the apostle’s argument is evident: it is Christ’s taking His place before God as Mediator, owning the "children" as His gift to Him; it is Christ as Man confessing His oneness with them, ranking Himself with the saints—"I and the children," compare "My Father and your Father" (John 20:17). It is the Lord Jesus presenting Himself to God as His Minister, having faithfully and successfully fulfilled the task committed to Him. He is here heard addressing the Father, rejoicing over the fruits of His own work. It is as though He said, "Here am I, O Father, whom Thou didst send out of Thine own bosom from Heaven to earth, to gather Thine elect out of the world. I have performed that for which Thou didst send Me: behold I and the children which Thou hast given Me." Though He had proved a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, yet was He not left without a people; "children" had been given to Him, and these He owns and solemnly presents before God. Who are these "children?" First, they are those whom the Mediator brings to God. As we read in 1 Peter 3:18, "For Christ hath also once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." This is what Christ is seen doing here: formally presenting the children to God. Second, they are here regarded as the "children" of Christ. In Isaiah 53:10-11 it was said, "He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hands. He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied." In John 13:33 and John 21:5 He is actually heard owning His disciples as "children." Nor was there anything incongruous in that. Let the reader ponder 1 Corinthians 4:14-15 : if they who are converted under the preaching of God’s servants may be termed their "children," how much more so may they be called "children" of Jesus Christ whom He has begotten by His Spirit and by His Word! "Behold I and the children which God hath given Me." Those whom God hath given to Christ were referred to by Him, again and again, during the days of His public ministry. "All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me" (John 6:37). "I have manifested Thy name unto the men which Thou gavest Me out of the world: Thine they were, and Thou gavest them Me I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given Me" (John 17:6-9). They were given to Christ before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). These "children" are God’s elect, sovereignly singled out by Him, and from the beginning chosen unto salvation (2 Thessalonians 2:13). God’s elect having been given to Christ "before the foundation of the world," and therefore from all eternity, throws light upon a title of the Savior’s found in Isaiah 9:6 : "The everlasting Father." This has puzzled many. It need not. Christ is the "everlasting Father" because from everlasting He has had "children!" Why were these "children" given to Christ. The first answer must be, For His own glory. Christ is the Center of all God’s counsels, and His glory the one object ever held in view. Christ will be eternally glorified by having around Him a family, each member of which is predestined to be "conformed to His image" (Romans 8:29). The second answer is, That He might save them: "All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me, and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37). "Behold I and the children which God hath given Me." We doubt not that the ultimate reference of these words looks forward to the time anticipated by that wonderful doxology found at the close of Jude’s Epistle: "Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever." When the Lord Jesus shall, in a soon-coming Day, gather the company of the redeemed unto Himself and "present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing" (Ephesians 5:27) then shall He triumphantly exclaim, "Behold I and the children which God hath given Me." In the meantime let us seek to take unto our hearts something of the blessedness of these words that, even now, the "joy of the Lord" may be our strength (Nehemiah 8:10). "Behold I and the children which God hath given Me." Let us endeavor to point out one or two plain implications. First, how dear, how precious, must God’s elect be unto Christ! They are the Father’s own "gift" unto Him. The value of a gift lies not in its intrinsic worth, but in the esteem and affection in which the giver is held. It is in this light, first of all, that Christ ever views His people—as the expression of the Father’s own love for Himself. Second, how certain it is that Christ will continue to care for and minister unto His people! He cannot be indifferent to the welfare of one of those whom the Father has given to Him. As John 13:1 declares, "having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end." Third, how secure they must be! None of His can possibly perish. Beautifully is this brought out in John 18:8-9, where, to those who had come to arrest Him, Christ said, "If therefore ye seek Me, let these go their way: that the saying might be fulfilled, which He spake, Of them which Thou gavest Me have I lost none." Inexpressibly blessed is that which has been before us in Hebrews 2:12-13. The Lord’s people are there looked at in a threefold way. First, Christ owns them as His "brethren." O the wonder of it! The ambitious worldling aspires to fleshly honors and titles, but what has he which can, for a moment, be compared with the honored title which Christ confers upon His redeemed? Next time you are slandered by men, called some name which hurts you, remember, fellow-Christian, that Christ calls you one of His "brethren." Second, the entire company of the redeemed are here denominated "the church," and Christ is seen in the midst singing praise. There, they are viewed corporately, as a company of worshippers, and He who is "a Priest forever" leads their songs of joy and adoration. Third, the Lord Jesus owns us as His "children," children which have been given to Him by God. This speaks both of their nearness and dearness to Himself. Surely the contemplation of these wondrous riches of grace must impel us to cry, "To Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen" (Revelation 1:6). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 83: 005.011. CHAPTER 11 ======================================================================== Chapter 11 CHRIST SUPERIOR TO ANGELS Hebrews 2:14-16 The closing verses of Hebrews 2 are so rich and full in their contents and the subjects with which they deal are of such importance that we feel the more disposed to devote extra space for the exposition of them. More and more we are learning for ourselves that a short portion of Scripture prayerfully examined and repeatedly meditated upon, yields more blessing to the heart, more food to the soul, and more help for the walk, than a whole chapter read more or less cursorily. It is not without reason that the Lord Jesus said in the parable of the Sower, "that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the Word, keep, and bring forth fruit with patience" (Luke 8:15). The only way in which the Word is "kept" or held fast is through prolonged meditation and patient or persevering study. The verses which are to be before us on this occasion form part of the apostle’s inspired explanation of "the Son’s" becoming Man and suffering the awful death of the cross. If the reader will turn back to the third paragraph of the preceding article he will there find five reasons (substantiated in Hebrews 2:9-10), as to why Christ endured such humiliation. In Hebrews 2:11-13 four more are advanced. It was necessary for the second Person of the holy Trinity to be made lower than the angels if He were to have ground and cause for calling us "brethren" (Hebrews 2:11-12), for that is a title which presupposes a common ground and standing. Then, it was necessary for the Lord of glory to become "all of one" with His people if, in the midst of the church, He should "sing praise" unto God (Hebrews 2:12); and this, the Old Testament scriptures affirmed, He would do. Again, it was necessary for Him who was in the form of God to take upon Him "the form of a servant" if He was to set before His people a perfect example of the life of faith; and in Isaiah 8:17, He is heard saying, by the Spirit of prophecy, "I will put My trust in Him" (Hebrews 2:13). Finally, His exclamation "Behold I and the children which God hath given Me" (Hebrews 2:13), required that He should become Man and thus rank Himself alongside of His saints. In Hebrews 2:14-16 we have one of the profoundest statements in all Holy Writ which treats of the Divine incarnation. For this reason, if for no other, we must proceed slowly in our examination of it. Here too the Holy Spirit continues to advance further reasons as to why it was imperative that the Lord of angels should, for a season, stoop beneath them. Three additional ones are here given, and they may be stated thus: first, that He might render null and void him who had the power of death, that is, the Devil (Hebrews 2:14); second, that He might deliver His people from the bondage of that fear which death had occasioned (Hebrews 2:15); third, Abraham’s children could only be delivered by Him laying hold of Abraham’s seed (Hebrews 2:16). "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil" (Hebrews 2:14). "The connection between this verse and the preceding context may be stated thus: Since it became Him for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering; and since, according to Old Testament prophecies, the Sanctifier and the sanctified, the Savior and the saved, must be of the same race; and since the saved are human beings,—the Son of God, the appointed Savior, assumed a nature capable of suffering and death—even the nature of man, when He came to save, that in that nature He might die, and by dying accomplish the great purpose of His appointment, the destruction of the power of Satan, and the deliverance of His chosen people" (Dr. J. Brown). The opening words of our verse denote that the Holy Spirit is drawing a conclusion from the proof-texts just cited from the Old Testament. The Greek words for "forasmuch then" are rendered "seeing therefore" in Hebrews 4:6, and their force is, "it is evident hereby" that the Son of God became the Son of Man for the sake of those whom God had given Him. "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil" (Hebrews 2:14). Here we have the eternal Word becoming flesh, the Son of God becoming the Son of man. Let us consider, First, the Wonder of it; Second, the Needs-be of it; Third, the Nature of it; Fourth, the Perfection of it; Fifth, the Purpose of it. The tragic thing is that, for the present, our minds are so beclouded and our understandings so affected by sin, it is impossible for us to fully perceive the wonder of the Divine incarnation. As the apostle wrote, "But now we see through a glass darkly" (1 Corinthians 13:12). But thank God this condition is not to last for ever; soon, very soon, we shall see "face to face." And when by God’s marvelous grace His people behold the King in His beauty, they will not, we think, be bewildered or dazed, but instead, filled with such wonderment that their hearts and whole beings will spontaneously bow in worship. Another thing which makes it so difficult for us to grasp the wonder of the Divine incarnation is that there is nothing else which we can for a moment compare with it; there is no analogy which in any wise resembles it. It stands unique, alone, in all its solitary grandeur. We are thrilled when we think of the angels sent forth to minister for those who shall be heirs of salvation: that those wondrous creatures, which so far excel us in wisdom and strength, should have been appointed to be our attendants; that those holy creatures should be commissioned to encamp round about poor sinners; that the courtiers of Heaven should wait upon worms of the earth! Truly, that is a great wonder. But oh my brethren, that wonder pales into utter insignificance and, in comparison, fades away into nothingness, before this far greater wonder—that the Creator of angels should leave His throne on High and descend to this sin-cursed earth; that the very One before whom all the angels bow should, for a season, be made lower than they; that the Lord of glory, who had dwelt in "light unapproachable," should Himself become partaker of "flesh and blood"! This is the wonder of wonders. So wonderful was that unparalleled event of the Divine incarnation that the heavenly hosts descended to proclaim the Savior newly-born. So wonderful was it that the "glory of the Lord," the ineffable Shekinah, which once filled the temple, but had long since retired from the earth, appeared again, for "the glory of the Lord shone round about" the awestruck shepherds on Bethlehem’s plains. So wonderful was it that chronology was revolutionized, and anno mundi became anno domini: the calendar was changed, and instead of its dating from the beginning of the world, it was re-dated from the birth of Christ; thus the Lord of time has written His very signature across the centuries. Passing on now, let us consider the needs-be for the Divine incarnation. This is plainly intimated both in what has gone before and in what follows. If the "children" which God had given to His Son were to be "sanctified" then He must become "all of one" with them. If those children who are by nature partakers of flesh and blood were to be "delivered from him that had the power of death, that is the devil," then the Sanctifier must also "likewise take part of the same." If He was to be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, He must in all things "be made like unto His brethren." If He is to be able to "succor them that are tempted," then He must Himself, "suffer, being tempted"; and, as God Himself "cannot be tempted," He had to become Man in order to that experience. The needs-be was real, urgent, absolute. There was no other way in which the counsels of God’s grace towards His people could be wrought out. If ever we were to be made "like Him," He first had to be made like us. If He was to give us of His Spirit, He must first assume our flesh. If we were to be so joined unto the Lord as to become "one spirit" (1 Corinthians 6:17) with Him, then He must first be joined with our flesh, so as to be "all of one" with us. In a word, if we were to become partakers of the Divine nature, He must be made partaker of human nature. Thus we perceive again the force of the apostle’s reply to the objection which he is here removing—How could it be that a Man was superior to angels? He has not only shown from the Jews’ own scriptures that the Man Christ Jesus had been given a name more excellent than any pertaining to the celestial hierarchies, but here he shows us the needs-be for the Lord of glory to become Man. If we were to be "conformed to His image" then He must be "made in the likeness of sin’s flesh." If the children of Abraham were to be redeemed, then He must take on Him the "seed of Abraham." The nature of the Divine incarnation is here referred to in the words "flesh and blood." That expression speaks of the frailty, dependency, and mortality of man. This is evident from the other passages where it occurs. The words "flesh and blood" are joined together five times in the New Testament: Matthew 16:17, 1 Corinthians 15:50, Galatians 1:16, Ephesians 6:12, Hebrews 2:14. It is a humbling expression emphasizing the weakness of the flesh and limitations of man: note how in Ephesians 6:12, "flesh and blood" is contrasted from the mightier foes against which Christians wrestle. "Flesh and blood" is the present state in which is found those children whom God has designed to bring unto glory. By their natural constitution and condition there is nothing to distinguish the elect from the non-elect. The Greek noun for "partakers" is derived from the root signifying "common": in Romans 15:27, Gentile believers are said to be "partakers" of Israel’s spiritual blessings, that is, they enjoy them in common, one with another. So God’s children are "partakers," equally with the children of the Devil, of "flesh and blood." Nor does our regeneration effect any change concerning this: the limitations and infirmities which "flesh and blood" involve still remain. Many reasons for this might be suggested: that we may not be too much puffed up by our spiritual standing and privileges; that we might be rendered conscious of our infirmities, and made to feel our weakness before God; that we might abase ourselves before Him who is Spirit; that the grace of compassion may be developed in us—our brethren and sisters are also partakers of "flesh and blood," and often we need reminding of this. In the words "He also Himself likewise took part of the same" we have an affirmation concerning the reality of the Savior’s humanity. It is not merely that the Lord of glory appeared on earth in human form, but that He actually became "flesh and blood," subject to every human frailty so far as these are freed from sin. He knew what hunger was, what bodily fatigue was, what pain and suffering were. The very fact that He was "the Man of sorrows" indicates that "He also Himself likewise took part of the same." Thereby we see the amazing condescension of Christ in thus conforming Himself to the condition in which the children were. How marvelous the love which caused the Lord of glory to descend so low for us sons of men! There was an infinite disparity between them: He was infinite, they finite; He omnipotent; they frail and feeble; He was eternal, they under sentence of death. Nevertheless, He refused not to be conformed to them; and thus He was "crucified through weakness" (2 Corinthians 13:4), which refers to the state into which He had entered. The perfection of the Divine incarnation is likewise intimated in the words "He also Himself likewise took part of the same." These words emphasize the fact that Christ’s becoming Man was a voluntary act on His part. The "children" were by nature subject to the common condition of "flesh and blood." They belonged to that order. They had no say in the matter. That was their state by the law of their very being. But not so with the Lord Jesus. He entered this condition as coming from another sphere and state of being. He was the Son who "thought it not robbery to be equal with God." He was all-sufficient in Himself. Therefore it was an act of condescension, a voluntary act, an act prompted by love, which caused Him to "take part of the same." These words also point to the uniqueness of our Lord’s humanity. It is most blessed to observe how the Spirit here, as always, has carefully guarded the Redeemer’s glory. It is not said that Christ was a "partaker of flesh and blood," but that "He likewise took part of the same." The distinction may seem slight, and at first glance not easily detected; yet is there a real, important, vital difference. Though Christ became Man, real Man, yet was He different, radically different, from every other man. In becoming Man He did not "partake" of the foul poison which sin has introduced into the human constitution. His humanity was not contaminated by the virus of the Fall. Before His incarnation it was said to His mother, "That Holy Thing which shall be born of thee" (Luke 1:35). It is the sinlessness, the uniqueness of our Lord’s humanity which is so carefully guarded by the distinction which the Holy Spirit has drawn in Hebrews 2:14. The purpose of the Divine incarnation is here intimated in the words that "through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." It was with this end in view that the Son of God took part in "flesh and blood." In the several passages where the Divine incarnation is referred to in the New Testament different reasons are given and various designs are recorded. For example, John 3:16 tells us that one chief object in it was to reveal and exhibit the matchless love of God. 1 Timothy 1:15 declares that "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." But here in Hebrews 2:14 it is the destroying of him that had the power of death that is mentioned. The object of the Holy Spirit in our present passage is to display the glorious and efficacious side of that which was most humbling—the infinite stoop of the Lord of glory. He is pointing out to those who found the Cross such a stumbling-block, how that there was a golden lining to the dark cloud which hung over it. That which to the outward eye, or rather the untaught heart and mind, seemed such a degrading tragedy was, in reality, a glorious triumph; for by it the Savior stripped the Devil of his power and wrested from his hands his most awful weapon. Just as the scars which a soldier carries are no discredit or dishonor to him if received in an honorable cause, so the cross-sufferings of Christ instead of marking His defeat were, actually, a wondrous victory, for by them He overthrew the arch-enemy of God and man. "That through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." It is most blessed to note the bearing of this statement upon the special point the apostle was discussing. The Jews were stumbled by the fact that their Messiah had died. Here the Holy Spirit showed that so far from that death tarnishing the glory of Christ, it exemplified it, for by death He overthrew the great Enemy and delivered His captive people. "Not only is He glorious in heaven, but He hath conquered Satan in the very place where he exercised his sad dominion over men, and where the judgment of God lay heavily upon men" (Mr. J.N. Darby). "That through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." Three things here claim attention: First, what is meant by the Devil having "the power of death"? Second, what "death" is here in view? Third, in what sense has Christ "destroyed" the Devil? From the words of the next verse it is clear that the reference is to what particularly obtained before Christ became incarnate. That it does not mean the Devil had absolute power in the infliction of physical death in Old Testament times is clear from several scriptures. Of old Jehovah affirmed, "See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god with Me: I kill, and I make alive" (Deuteronomy 32:39). Again, "the Lord killeth, and maketh alive; He bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up" (1 Samuel 2:6). And again, "unto God the Lord belong the issues from death" (Psalms 68:20). These passages are decisive, and show that even during the Mosaic economy the giving of life and the inflicting of death were in the hands of God only, no matter what instruments He might employ in connection therewith. The particular kind of "death" which is here in view is explained for us in the words "that through death lie" etc. The death which Christ died was "the wages of sin"—the penal infliction of the law, suffering the wrath of a holy God. The point raised here is a deeply mysterious one, yet on it Scripture throws some light. In John 8:44, Christ declared that the Devil was "a murderer" (literally "man-slayer") from the beginning. In Zechariah 3:1, we are shown Satan standing at Jehovah’s right-hand to resist Israel’s high priest. Upon the subject Saphir has said, "But which death did Christ die? That death of which the Devil had the power. Satan wielded that death. He it was who had a just claim against us that we should die. There is justice in the claim of Satan. "It is quite true that Satan is only a usurper; but in saving men God deals in perfect righteousness, justice, truth. According to the Jewish tradition the fallen angels often accuse men, and complain before God that sinful men obtain mercy. Our redemption is in harmony with the principles of righteousness and equity, on which God has founded all things. The prince of this world is judged (John 16:11); he is conquered not merely by power, but by the power of justice and truth.... He stood upon the justice of God, upon the inflexibility of His law, upon the true nature of our sins. But when Christ died our very death, when He was made sin and a curse for us, then all the power of Satan was gone.... And now what can Satan say? The justice, majesty, and perfection of the law are vindicated more than if all the human race were lost forever. The penalty due to the broken law Jesus endured, and now, as the law is vindicated, sin put away, death swallowed up, Christ has destroyed the Devil." Inasmuch as the Devil is the one who brought about the downfall of our first parents, by which sentence of death has been passed upon all their posterity (Romans 5:12); inasmuch as he goeth about as a roaring lion "seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8); inasmuch as he challenged God to inflict upon the guilty the sentence of the law (Zechariah 3:1); and, inasmuch as even the elect of God are, before their regeneration, under "the power of darkness" (Colossians 1:13 and cf. Acts 26:18), dead in trespasses and sins, yet "walking according to the Prince of the power of the air"; the Devil may be said to have "the power of death." The word "destroy him that had the power of death" does not signify to annihilate, but means to make null and render powerless. In 1 Corinthians 1:28 this same Greek word is rendered "bring to naught"; in Romans 3:3 "without effect"; in Romans 3:31 "make void." Satan has been so completely vanquished by Christ the Head that he shall prevail against none of His members. This is written for the glory of Christ, and to encourage His people to withstand him. Satan is an enemy bespoiled. Therefore is it said, "Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7). To such as believe there is assurance of victory. If the Devil gets the upper hand of us, it is either because of our timidity, or lack of faith. "To ‘destroy him that had the power of death’ is to strip him of his power. It is said by the apostle John, ‘for this purpose was the Son of God manifested, to destroy the works of the Devil,’ i.e. ignorance, error, depravity, and misery. In the passage before us, the destruction is restricted to the peculiar aspect in which the Devil is viewed. To destroy him, is so to destroy him as having ‘the power of death’—to render him, in this point of light, powerless in reference to the children; i.e., to make death cease to be a penal evil. Death, even in the case of the saints, is an expression of the displeasure of God against sin; but it is not—as but for the death of Christ it must have been—the hopeless dissolution of his body: it is not the inlet to eternal misery to his soul. Death to them for whom Christ died consigns, indeed, the body to the grave; but it is ‘in the sure and certain hope of a glorious resurrection,’ and it introduces the freed spirit into all the glories of the celestial paradise" (Dr. J. Brown). This stripping Satan of his power of death was accomplished by the laying down of the Savior’s life, "that through death He might destroy." "The means whereby Christ overcame Satan, is expressly said to be death. To achieve this great and glorious victory against so mighty an enemy, Christ did not assemble troops of angels, as He could have done (Matthew 26:53), nor did He array Himself with majesty and terror, as in Exodus 19:16; but He did it by taking part of weak flesh and blood, and therein humbling Himself to death. In this respect the apostle saith, that Christ ‘having spoiled principalities and powers, made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in the cross’ (Colossians 2:15), meaning thereby, His death. The apostle there resembleth the cross of Christ to a trophy whereon the spoils of enemies were hanged. Of old conquerors were wont to hang the armor and weapons of enemies vanquished on the walls of forts and towers." (Dr. Gouge.) "That through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." A striking type of this is furnished in Judges 14:12-19 —will the reader please turn to this, before considering our brief comments. The riddle propounded by Samson prefigured what is plainly declared here in Hebrews 2:14. The greatest "eater" (Judges 14:14), or "consumer," is Death. Yet out of the eater came forth meat: that is, out of death has come life; see John 12:24. Note in Judges 14 how, typically, the natural man is, of himself, utterly unable to solve this mystery. The secret of the death of Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, must be revealed. Finally, note how that a change of raiment was provided for those to whom the riddle was explained—a foreshadowment of the believer’s robe of righteousness! "And deliver them who through fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage" (Hebrews 2:15). It needs to be carefully borne in mind that throughout this passage the apostle has in view a particular class of persons, namely, the "heirs of salvation," the "sons" of God, the "brethren" of Christ. Here they are described according to their unregenerate condition: subject to bondage; so subject, all their unregenerate days; so subject through "the fear of death." It was to deliver them from this fear of death that Christ died. Such we take it is the general meaning of this verse. 2 Timothy 1:7 gives the sequel: "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." The opening "And" and the verb "deliver" (which is in the same mood and tense as "destroy" in the previous verse) intimate that Christ’s death had in view these two ends which cannot be separated, namely, destroying the Devil, delivering us. Just as Abraham destroyed those enemies who had taken Lot captive together with the other inhabitants of Sodom, that he might "deliver" them (Genesis 14:14), and as David destroyed the Amalekites, that he might "deliver" his wives and children and others out of their hands (1 Samuel 27:9), so Christ vanquished the Devil, that he might "deliver" those who had (by yielding to his temptations) fallen captive to him. What thanks is due unto Christ for thus overthrowing our great adversary! To the "fear of death," i.e., that judgment of God upon sin, all men are in much greater bondage than they will own or than they imagine. It was this "fear" which made Adam and Eve hide themselves from the presence of God (Genesis 3:8), which made Cain exclaim, "my punishment is greater than I can bear" (Genesis 4:13), which made Nabal’s heart to die within him (1 Samuel 25:37), which made Saul fall to the ground as a man in a swoon (1 Samuel 28:20), which made Felix to tremble (Acts 24:25), and which will yet cause kings and the great men of the earth to call on the mountains to fall on them (Revelation 6:15-16). True, the natural man, at times, succeeds in drowning the accusations of his conscience in the pleasures of sin, but "as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool" (Ecclesiastes 7:6). It is from this fearful bondage that Christ delivered His people: through His grace, by His spirit filling them "with all joy and peace in believing" (Romans 15:13). A beautiful and most complete type of the truth in our present verse is to be found in 1 Samuel 17. Will the reader turn to that chapter and note carefully the following details: First, in 1 Samuel 17:4-8 there we have, in figure, Satan harassing the Old Testament saints. Second, where was David (type of Christ) during the time Goliath was terrifying the people of God? 1 Samuel 17:14-15 answer: In his father’s house, caring for his sheep. So through the Mosaic economy Christ remained on High, in the Father’s house, yet caring for His sheep. Third, Goliath defied Israel for "forty days," 1 Samuel 17:16 —figure of the forty centuries from Adam to Christ, when the Old Testament saints lived in fear of death, for "life and immortality" were only brought "to light through the Gospel" (2 Timothy 1:10). Fourth, next we see David leaving his father’s house, laden with blessings for his brethren, 1 Samuel 17:17-18. Note the "early in the morning," 1 Samuel 17:20, showing his readiness to go on this mission. Fifth, mark the sad reception he met with from his brethren, 1 Samuel 17:28 : his efforts were unappreciated, his purpose misunderstood, and a false accusation was brought against him. Sixth, in 1 Samuel 17:32, 1 Samuel 17:38-49, we have a marvelous type of Christ defeating Satan in the wilderness: note how David went forth in his shepherd character (1 Samuel 17:40 and compare John 10). He took "five" stones out of the brook (the place of running water—figure of the Holy Spirit) but used only one of them; so Christ in the Wilderness selected the Pentateuch (the first five books of Scripture) as His weapon, but used only one of them, Deuteronomy. Note David slew him not with the stone! He stunned him with that, but slew him with his own sword: so Christ vanquished him that had the power of death "through death." Read again 1 Samuel 17:51 and see how accurate is the figure of Christ "bruising" the Serpent’s head. Finally, read 1 Samuel 17:52 and see the typical climax: those "in fear" delivered. What a marvelous Book is the Bible! "For verily He took not on angels; but He took on the seed of Abraham" (Hebrews 2:16). This verse, which has occasioned not a little controversy, presents no difficulty if it be weighed in the light of its whole context. It treats not of the Divine incarnation, that we have in Hebrews 2:14; rather does it deal with the purpose of it, or better, the consequences of Christ’s death. Its opening "for" first looks back, remotely to Hebrews 2:9-10; immediately, to Hebrews 2:14-15. The Spirit is here advancing a reason why Christ tasted death for every son, and why He destroyed the Devil in order to liberate His captives; because not angels, but the seed of Abraham, were the objects of His benevolent favor. The "for" and the balance of the verse also, looks forward, laying a foundation for what follows in Hebrews 2:17 : the ground of Christ’s being made like to His brethren and becoming the faithful and merciful High Priest was because He would befriend the seed of Abraham. The Greek verb here translated "He took on" or "laid hold" is found elsewhere in some very striking connections. It is used of Christ’s stretching out His hand and rescuing sinking Peter, Matthew 14:31, there rendered "caught." It is used of Christ when He "took" the blind man by the hand (Mark 8:23). So of the man sick of the dropsy. He "took" and healed him (Luke 14:4). Here in Hebrews 2:16 the reference is to the almighty power and invincible grace of the Captain of our salvation. It receives illustration in those words of the apostle’s where, referring to his own conversion, he said, "for which also I am (was) apprehended (laid hold) of Christ Jesus" (Php 3:12). Thus it was and still is with each of God’s elect. In themselves, lost, rushing headlong to destruction; when Christ stretches forth His hand and delivers, so that of each it may be said, "Is not this a brand plucked from the burning" (Zechariah 3:2). "Laid hold of" so securely that none can pluck out of His hand! But not only does our verse emphasize the invincibility of Divine grace, it also plainly teaches the absolute sovereignty of it. Christ lays hold not of "the seed of Adam," all mankind, but only "the seed of Abraham"—the father of God’s elect people. This expression, "the seed of Abraham," is employed in the New Testament in connection with both his natural and his spiritual seed. It is the latter which is here in view: "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many, but as of one, And to thy seed which is Christ" (Galatians 3:16)—not only Christ personal, but Christ mystical. The last verse of Galatians 3 shows that: "And if ye be Christ’s then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to promise." This verse presents an insoluble difficulty to those who believe in the universality of God’s love and grace. Those who do so deny the plain teaching of Scripture that Christ laid down His life for "the sheep," and for them alone. They insist that justice as well as mercy demanded that He should die for all of Adam’s race. But why is it harder to believe that God has provided no salvation for part of the human race, than that He has provided none for the fallen angels? They were higher in the scale of being; they, too, were sinners needing a Savior. Yet none has been provided for them! He "laid not on" angels. But more: Our verse not only brings out the truth of election, it also presents the solemn fact of reprobation. Christ is not the Savior of angels. "And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, He hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day" (Jude 1:6). On this Dr. J. Brown has well said: "What an overwhelming subject of contemplation is this! He is not the Savior of angels, but of the elect family of men. We are lost in astonishment when we allow our minds to rest on the number and dignity of those whom He does not lay hold of, and the comparative as well as real vileness of those of whom He does take hold. A sentiment of this kind has engaged some good, but in this case not wise men, in an inquiry why the Son of God saves men rather than angels. On this subject Scripture is silent, and so should we be. There is no doubt that there are good reasons for this, as for every other part of the Divine determinations and dispensations; and it is not improbable that in some future stage of our being these reasons will be made known to us. But, in the meantime, I can go no further than, ‘even so, Father, for so it hath seemed good in Thy sight.’ I dare not ‘intrude into things, which I have not seen,’ lest I should prove that I am ‘vainly puffed up by a fleshly mind.’ But I will say with an apostle, ‘Behold the goodness and severity of God; on them that fell, severity’—most righteous severity; ‘but to them who are saved, goodness’—most unmerited goodness." (Dr. J. Brown.) May the Lord add His blessing to what has been before us. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 84: 005.012. CHAPTER 12 ======================================================================== Chapter 12 CHRIST SUPERIOR TO ANGELS Hebrews 2:17-18 The verses which are now to be before us complete the second main division of the Epistle, in which the apostle has set forth the superiority of Christ over angels, and has met and removed a double objection which might be made against this. In showing that it was necessary for the Son of God to become Man in order to save His people from their sins, the Holy Spirit took occasion to bring out some striking details concerning the real and perfect humanity of Christ. In Hebrews 2:11 He affirms that Christ and His people are "all of one." This receives a sevenfold amplification, which is as follows: First, they are one in sanctification, Hebrews 2:11. Second, they are one in family relationship, Hebrews 2:11-12 a. Third, they are one in worship, Hebrews 2:12 b. Fourth, they are one in trust, Hebrews 2:13. Fifth, they are one in nature, Hebrews 2:14. Sixth, they are one in the line of promise, Hebrews 2:16. Seventh, they are one in experiencing temptation, Hebrews 2:18. It is remarkable to notice, however, that in this very passage which sets forth Christ’s identification with His people on earth, the Holy Spirit has carefully guarded the Savior’s glory and shows, also in a sevenfold way, His uniqueness: First, He is "the Captain of our salvation" (Hebrews 2:10), we are those whom He saves. Second, He is the "Sanctifier," we but the sanctified (Hebrews 2:11). Third, the fact that He is "not ashamed to call us brethren" (Hebrews 2:11), clearly implies His superiority. Fourth, He is the Leader of our praise and presents it to God (Hebrews 2:12). Fifth, mark the "I, and the children" in Hebrews 2:13. Sixth, note the contrast between "partakers" and "took part of" in Hebrews 2:14. Seventh, He is the Destroyer of the enemy, we but the delivered ones Hebrews 2:14-15. Thus, here as everywhere, He has the pre-eminence in all things." Another thing which comes out strikingly and plainly in the second half of Hebrews 2 is the distinguishing grace and predestinating love of God. Christ is His "Elect" (Isaiah 42:1), so called because His people are "chosen in Him" (Ephesians 1:4). Mark how this also is developed in a sevenfold manner. First, in "bringing many sons unto glory." (Hebrews 2:10). Second, "the Captain of their salvation" (Hebrews 2:10). Third, "they who are sanctified," set apart (Hebrews 2:11). Fourth, "in the midst of the church" (Hebrews 2:12). Fifth, "the children which God hath given me" (Hebrews 2:13). Sixth, "He took on Him the seed of Abraham" (Hebrews 2:16), not Adam, but "Abraham," the father of God’s chosen people. Seventh, "to make reconciliation for the sins of the people" (Hebrews 2:17). If the reader will turn back to the third paragraph in article 10, and the second and third in article 11, he will find that we have called attention to twelve distinct reasons set forth by the apostle in Hebrews 2:9-16, which show the meetness and necessity of Christ’s becoming man and dying. In the verses which we are now to ponder, two more are advanced: First, the incarnation and death of the Savior were imperative if He was to be "a merciful and faithful High Priest" (Hebrews 2:17). Second, such experiences were essential that He might be able to "succor them that are tempted" (Hebrews 2:18). Thus, in the fourteen answers given to the two objections which a Jew would raise, a complete demonstration is once more given of the two leading points under discussion. Though our present portion consists of but two verses yet are they so full of important teaching that many more pages than what we shall now write might well be devoted to their explication and application. They treat of such weighty subjects as the incarnation of Christ, the priesthood of Christ, the atoning-sacrifice of Christ, the temptation of Christ, and the succor of Christ. Precious themes indeed are these; may the Spirit of truth be our Guide as we prayerfully turn to their consideration. "Wherefore in all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people" (Hebrews 2:17). The Holy Spirit here adduces a further reason why it was necessary for the Son of God to become incarnate and lay down His life for His people: it behooved Him so to do that He might be an effectual High Priest. As the priesthood of Christ will come before us again and again in the later chapters, D.V., we shall not here discuss it at length. Let us now ponder the several words and clauses of our present verse. "Wherefore" is the drawing of a conclusion from what has been said in the previous verses. "It behooved Him": the Greek word is not the same as for "it became" Him in Hebrews 2:10. There the reference is to the Father, here to the Son; that signified a comeliness or meetness, this has reference to a necessity, though not an absolute one, but in conjunction with the order of God’s appointment in the way sinners were to be redeemed, and His justice satisfied, cf. Luke 24:46. "To be made like unto His brethren" is parallel with "all of one" in Hebrews 2:11 and "He also Himself likewise took part" in Hebrews 2:14. The expression goes to manifest the reality of Christ’s human nature: that He was Man, such a man as we are. The words "it behooved Him in all things to (His) brethren to be made like" are not to be taken absolutely. When the writer points out that, in view of other scriptures, the word "all" must be limited in such passages as John 12:32, 1 Timothy 2:4-6, etc., some people think we are interpreting the Bible so as to suit ourselves. But what will they do with such a verse as Hebrews 2:17? Can the words "in all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren" be understood without qualification? Was He made like unto us in the depravity of our natures? Did He suffer from physical sicknesses as we do? Emphatically no. How do we know this? From other passages. Scripture needs to be compared with Scripture in order to understand any verse or any expression. The same Greek words here rendered "all things" (kapapanta) occur again in Hebrews 4:15, where we are told that Christ "was in all points (things) tempted like as we are sin excepted" for thus the Greek word should be rendered. Thus the Holy Spirit expressly declares that the "all things" is not universal! What then does the "all things" signify and include? We answer, everything which Scripture does not except or exclude "when people saw Him, they did not notice in His outward appearance anything super-human, glorious, free from earthly weakness and dependency. He did not come in splendor and power. He did not come in the brightness and strength which Adam possessed before he fell. ‘In all things He became like unto us’ in His body, for He was hungry and thirsty; overcome with fatigue, He slept; in His mind, for it developed. He had to be taught. He grew in wisdom concerning the things around Him; He increased, not merely in stature, but in mental and normal strength. In His affections, for He loved. He was astonished; He marveled at men’s unbelief. Sometimes He was glad, and ‘rejoiced in spirit’; sometimes He was angry and indignant, as when He saw the hypocrisy of the Jews. Zeal like fire burned within Him: ‘The zeal for the house of God consumed Me’; and he showed a vehement fervor in protecting the sanctity of God’s temple. He was grieved; He trembled with emotion; His soul was straightened in Him. Sometimes He was overcome by the waves of feeling when He beheld the future that was before Him. "Do not think of Him as merely appearing a man, or as living a man only in His body, but as Man in body, soul, and spirit. He exercised faith; He read the Scriptures for His own guidance and encouragement; He prayed the whole night, especially when He had some great and important work to do, as before setting apart the apostles. He sighed when He saw the man who was dumb; tears fell from His eyes when at the tomb of Lazarus He saw the power of death and of Satan. His supplications were with strong crying and tears; His soul was exceeding sorrowful" (Saphir). Thus, the Son of God was made like unto His brethren in that He became Man, with a human spirit, and soul and body; in that He developed along the ordinary lines of human nature, from infancy to maturity; and, in that He passed through all the experiences of men, sin, and sickness excepted. "That He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." The Son of God became the Son of Man in order that He might be an High Priest. There was an absolute necessity for this. First, because of the infinite disparity there is between God and men: He is of infinite glory and majesty, and dwells in that light which no man can approach unto (1 Timothy 6:16); they are but dust and ashes (Genesis 18:27). Second, because of the contrariety of nature between God and men: He is most pure and holy, they most polluted and unholy. Third, because of the resultant enmity between God and men (Romans 5:10; Colossians 1:21). Hence we may observe: there is no immediate access for any man to God without a priest; there is no priest qualified to act for men in things pertaining to God, but Jesus Christ, the God-man. Thus has He been appointed "Mediator between God and men" (1 Timothy 2:5-6). Because of the perfect union between His two natures, the Lord Jesus is "a merciful and faithful High Priest": "merciful" man-wards, "faithful" God-wards. To be "merciful" is to be compassionate, ever ready, under the influence of a tender sympathy, to support, comfort, and deliver. Having trod the same path as His suffering and tried people, Christ is able to enter into their afflictions. He is not like an angel, who has never experienced pain. He is Man; nor are His sympathies impaired by His exaltation to heaven. The same human heart beats within the bosom of Him who sits at God’s right hand as caused Him to weep over Jerusalem! To be "faithful" means that His compassions are regulated by holiness, His sympathies are exercised, according to the requirements of God’s truth. There is a perfect balance between His maintenance of God’s claims and His ministering to our infirmities. "To make reconciliation for the sins of the people." It is a pity that the translators of the A.V. rendered this clause as they did. The Revisers have correctly given: "to make propitiation for the sins of the people." The Greek word here is "Hilaskeothai," which is the verbal form of the one found in 1 John 2:2 and 1 John 4:10. The word for "reconciliation" is "katallage," which occurs in 2 Corinthians 5:18-19, and Romans 5:11, though the word is there wrongly rendered "the atonement." The difference between the two terms is vital though one which is now little understood. Reconciliation is one of the effects or fruits of propitiation. Reconciliation is between God and us; propitiation is solely God-ward. Propitiation was the appeasing of God’s holy anger and righteous wrath; reconciliation is entering into the peace which the atoning sacrifice of Christ has procured. "To make propitiation for the sins of the people." Here is the climax of the apostle’s argument. Here is his all-conclusive reply to the Jews’ objection. Atonement for the sins of God’s elect could not be made except the Son became Man; except He became "all of one" with those who had, from all eternity been set apart in the counsels of the Most High to be "brought unto glory"; except He took part in "flesh and blood," and in all things be "made like unto His brethren." Only thus could He be the Redeemer of the "children" which God had given Him. In Scripture the first qualification of a redeemer was that he must belong to the same family of him or her who was to be redeemed: "If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold" (Leviticus 25:25). The redeemer must be a "kinsman": this fact is fully and beautifully illustrated in the book of Ruth (see Ruth 2:20; Ruth 3:12-13; Ruth 4:1, Ruth 4:4, Ruth 4:6). Neither pity, love, nor power were of any avail till kinship was established. The important bearing of this on what immediately follows we shall now endeavor to show. "To make propitiation for the sins of the people." This word, in the light of its setting, is one of the most vital to be found in all Holy Writ on the subject of the Atonement, bringing out, as it does, the absolute righteousness of God in connection therewith. At the back of many minds, we fear, there lurks the suspicion that though it was marvelous grace and matchless love which moved God to give His Son to die for sinners, yet that, strictly speaking, it was an act of unrighteousness. Was it really just for an innocent person to suffer in the stead of the guilty? Was it right for One who had so perfectly honored God and kept His law at every point, to endure its awful penalty? To say, It had to be, there was no other way of saving us, supplies no direct answer to our question; nay, it is but arguing on the jesuitical basis that "the end justifies the means." Sin must be punished; a holy God could not ignore our manifold transgressions; therefore, if we are to escape the due reward of our iniquities a sinless substitute must be paid the wages of sin in our stead. But will not the Christian reader agree that it had been infinitely better for all of us to be cast into the Lake of Fire, than that God should act unrighteously to His Own Beloved? Has, then our salvation been secured at the awful price of a lasting stigma being cast upon the holy name of God? This is how the theological schemes of many have left it. But not so the Holy Scriptures. Yet, let us honestly face the question: Was God just in taking satisfaction from His spotless Son in order to secure the salvation of His people? It is at this point that so many preachers have shown a zeal which is not "according to knowledge" (Romans 10:2). In their well-meant but carnal efforts to simplify the things of God, they have dragged down His holy and peerless truth to the level of human affairs. They have sought to "illustrate" Divine mysteries by references to things which come within the range of our senses. God has said, "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Corinthians 2:14). Why not believe what He has said? You cannot teach a corpse, and the natural man is dead in sin. If the Word of God does not bring him life and light, no words of ours can or will. And to go outside of Holy Writ for our "illustrations" is a piece of impertinency, or worse. When a preacher attempts to simplify the mystery of the three Persons in the Godhead by an illustration from "nature" he only exhibits his foolishness, and helps nobody. Thus it has been with the sacred truth and holy mystery of the Atonement. Good men have not hesitated to ransack the annals of history, both ancient and modern, to discover examples of those who, themselves innocent of the crime committed, volunteered to receive the penalty due to those who were guilty. Sad, indeed, is it to behold this unholy cheapening of the things of God; but what is far worse, most reprehensible is it to observe their misrepresentations of the greatest transaction of all in the entire history of the universe. An innocent man bearing the punishment of a guilty one may meet the requirements of a human government, but such an arrangement could never satisfy the demands of the righteous government of God. Such is its perfection, that under it no innocent person ever suffered, and no guilty person ever escaped; and so far from the atonement of the Son of God forming an exception to this rule, it affords the most convincing evidence of its truth. Once we perceive that the Atonement is founded upon the unity of Christ and His people, a unity formed by His taking part in flesh and blood, the righteousness of God is at once cleared of the aspersion which the illustrations of many a preacher has, by necessary implication cast upon it. The propitiation rendered unto God was made neither by a stranger, nor an intimate friend, undergoing what another merited; but by the Head who was responsible for the acts of the members of His spiritual body, just as those members had been constituted guilty because of the act of their natural head, Adam—when "by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation" (Romans 5:18). It is perhaps worthy of notice in this connection that, in the over-ruling providence of God, it is the head of a murderer’s body which is dealt with when capital punishment is inflicted either decapitation as in France, hanging by the neck as in England, or being gassed as in some parts of the United States. Thus the head is held responsible for the feet, which were swift to shed blood, and the hand which committed the lethal crime. However great the dignity of the substitute, or however deep his voluntary humiliation, atonement for us would not have been possible unless that substitute became actually, as well as legally, one with us. In order to ransom His church, in order to purge our sins, Christ must so unite Himself with His people, that their sins should become His sins, and that His sufferings and death should become their sufferings and death. In short, the union between the Son of God and His people, and theirs with Him, must be as real and as intimate as that of Adam and his posterity, who all sinned and died in him. Thus did He, in the fullness of time, assume their flesh and blood, bear their sins in His own body on the tree, so that they, having died to sin, may live unto righteousness, being healed by His stripes. Therefore, no human transaction can possibly illustrate the surety-ship and sacrificial death of Christ, and any attempt to do so is not only to darken counsel by words without knowledge, but is, really, to be guilty of presumptuous impiety. Probably more than one preacher will be led to cry with the writer, "Father, forgive me, for I knew not what I did." Here, then, is the answer to our question: so far from the salvation of God’s elect having been procured at the unspeakable price of sullying the holy name of Deity, the manner in which it was secured furnishes the supremest demonstration of the inexorable justice of God; for when sin was found upon Him, God "spared not His own Son" (Romans 8:32). But it was against no "innocent Victim" that God bade His sword awake. It was against One who had graciously condescended to be "numbered with transgressors," who not only took their place, but had become one with them. Had He not first had a real and vital relation to our sins, He could not have undergone their punishment. The justice of God’s imputation of our sins to the Savior’s account rested upon His oneness with His people. It is this fact which is iterated and reiterated all through the immediate context. "Both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one" (Hebrews 2:11), "Behold I and the children which God hath given Me" (Hebrews 2:13), "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same" (Hebrews 2:14), "Wherefore in all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren" (Hebrews 2:17). Why? Why? Here is the inspired answer: "To make propitiation for the sins of the people." That was only possible, we say again, because of His union with them. When Christ became one with His people their guilt became His, as the debts of a wife become by marriage the debts of the husband. This itself is acknowledged by Christ, "For innumerable evils hath compassed Me about: Mine iniquities have taken hold upon Me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of Mine head: therefore My heart faileth Me" (Psalms 40:12). "To make propitiation for the sins of the people." In the light of all that has gone before in the Epistle, this statement is luminous indeed. The whole context shows us His qualifications for this stupendous work, a work which none but He could have performed. First, He was Himself "the Son," the brightness of God’s glory and the very impress of His substance. Thus it was the dignity or Deity of His person which gave such infinite value to His work. Second, His moral perfections as Man, loving righteousness and hating iniquity (Hebrews 1:9), thus fulfilled every requirement of the law. Third, His union with His people which caused him "made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." The "propitiation" (which is the New Testament filling out of the Old Testament "to make an atonement") which Christ made, was the perfect satisfaction that He offered to the holiness and justice of God on behalf of His people’s sins, so that they could be righteously blotted out, removed for ever from before the face of God, "as far as the east is from the west." This sacrificial work of the Savior’s was a priestly act, as the words of our present verse clearly enough affirm. For "the sins of the people" is parallel with Matthew 1:21; John 10:11. They plainly teach that atonement has been made for the sins of God’s elect only. "The people" are manifestly parallel with the "heirs of salvation" (Hebrews 1:14), the "many sons" (Hebrews 2:10), the "brethren" (Hebrews 2:12), the "seed of Abraham" (Hebrews 2:16). It is with them alone Christ identified Himself. The "all of one" of Hebrews 2:11 is expressly defined as being only between "He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified." He laid hold of "the seed of Abraham," and not "the seed of Adam." He is the "Head" not of mankind, but of "the church which is His body" (Ephesians 1:21-23). A universal atonement, which largely fails of its purpose, is an invention of Satan, with the design of casting dishonor upon Christ, who would thus be a defeated Savior. A general atonement, abstractedly offered to Divine justice, which is theoretically sufficient for everybody, yet in itself efficient for nobody, is a fictitious imagination, which finds lodgment only in those who are vainly puffed up by a fleshly mind. A particular atonement, made for a definite people, all of whom shall enjoy the eternal benefits of it, is what is uniformly taught in the Word of God. "For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted He is able to succor them that are tempted" (Hebrews 2:18). Here is the final reason given why it was necessary for the Son to become Man and die: He is the better able to succor His tried people. It was not simply His having been "tempted" that qualified Him, for God Himself may be tempted (Numbers 14:22), though not with evil (James 1:13). So men may be tempted, yet as to be moved little or nothing thereby. But such temptations as make one suffer, do so work on him, as to draw out his pity to other tempted ones, and to help them as far as He can. It is this point which the Spirit has here seized. "For in that He Himself hath suffered, being tempted." The subject of Christ’s being tempted is an important one, for erroneous conceptions thereof necessarily produce a most dishonoring conception of His peerless Person. If the Lord wills, we hope to discuss it more fully when we come to Hebrews 4:15, yet feel we must offer a few remarks upon it now. That the temptations to which our blessed Lord was subjected were real ones is evidenced from the inspired declaration that He "suffered" from them, but that they involved a conflict within Him, or that there was any possibility of His yielding thereto, must be emphatically denied. That He became Man with a human spirit and soul and body, and therefore possessed a human will, we fully believe; but that there was the slightest inclination for His heart or will to yield to evil solicitations, is wicked to so much as imagine. Not only was His humanity sinless, but it was "holy" (Luke 1:35), and His inherent holiness repelled all sin as water does fire. The temptations or trials which Christ suffered here on earth must not be limited to those which came upon Him from Satan, though these are included. First, Christ suffered bodily hunger (Matthew 4:1-2), etc. Second, His holy nature suffered acutely from the very presence of the foul Fiend, so that He said, "Get thee hence" (Matthew 4:10). Third, the temptations from the Pharisees and others "grieved" Him (Mark 3:5) Fourth, from the words of His own disciples, which were an "offense" unto Him (Matthew 16:23). Fifth, His greatest sufferings were from His Father’s temptings or tryings of Him. (See John 12:27; Matthew 26:38-39; Matthew 27:46). Note how in Luke 22:28, "My temptation," the Savior spoke of His whole life as one unbroken experience of trial! How real and deep His "sufferings" were, many of the Messianic Psalms reveal. The very fact that He suffered when "tempted" manifests His uniqueness. "He suffered, never yielded. We do not ‘suffer’ when we yield to temptation: the flesh takes pleasure in the things by which it is tempted. Jesus suffered, being tempted. It is important to observe that the flesh, when acted upon by its desires, does not suffer. Being tempted it, alas, enjoys. But when, according to the light of the Holy Spirit and fidelity of obedience, the spirit resists the attacks of the enemy, whether subtle or persecuting, then one suffers. This the Lord did, and this we have to do" (Mr. J.N. Darby). "He is able to succor them that are tempted." Having passed through this scene as the Man of sorrows, He can, experimentally, gauge and feel the sorrows of His people, but let it be dearly understood that it is not the "flesh" in us which needs "succoring," but the new nature, the faithful heart that desires to please Him. We need "succor" against the flesh, to enable us to mortify our members which are upon the earth. Not yet has the promised inheritance been reached. We are still in the wilderness, which provides nothing which ministers to us spiritually. We are living in a world where everything is opposed to true godliness. We are called upon to "run the race which is set before us," to "fight the good fight of faith," and for this we daily need His "succor." The Greek word for "He is able" implies both a fitness and willingness to do a thing. Christ is both competent and ready to undertake for His people. If we have not, it is because we ask not. The Greek word for "succor" here is very emphatic, and signifies a running to the cry of one, as a parent responding to the cry of distress from a child. A blessed illustration of Christ’s "succoring" one of His own needy people is found in Matthew 14:30-31, where we read that when Peter saw the wind was boisterous he was afraid, and began to sink, and cried "Lord save me." And then we are told, "And immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand and caught him." On one occasion the Lord Jesus asked His disciples, "Believe ye that I am able to do this" (Matthew 9:28). And thus He ever challenges the faith of His own. To Abraham He said, "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" (Genesis 18:14). To Moses, who doubted whether the Lord would give flesh to Israel in the wilderness, He asked, "Is the Lord’s hand waxed short?" (Numbers 11:23). To Jeremiah the searching question was put, "Is there anything too hard for Me?" (Jeremiah 32:27). So He still asks, "Believe ye, that I am able to do this?" Do what? we may ask. Whatever you are really in need of—give peace, impart assurance, grant deliverance, supply succor. "He is able to succor them that are tempted." Remember who He is, the God-man. Remember the experiences through which He passed! He, too, has been in the place of trial: He, too, was tempted—to distrust, to despondency, to destroy Himself. Yes, He was tempted "in all points like as we are, sin excepted." Remember His present position, sitting at the right hand of the Majesty on high! How blessed then to know that He is "able" both to enter, sympathetically, into our sufferings and sorrows, and that He has power to "succor." "As Man, a man of sorrows, Thou hast suffered every woe, And though enthroned in glory now, Canst pity all Thy saints below." Oh, what a Savior is ours! The all-mighty God; yet the all-tender Man. One who is as far above us in His original nature and present glory as the heavens are above the earth: yet One who can be "touched with the feeling of our infirmities," One who is the Creator of the universe; yet One who became Man, lived His life on the same plane ours is lived, passed through the same trials we experience, and suffered not only as we do, but far more acutely. How well-fitted is such a One to be our great High Priest! How self-sufficient He is to supply our every need! And how completely is the wisdom and grace of God vindicated for having appointed His blessed Son, to be made, for a season, lower than the angels! May our love for Him be strengthened and our worship deepened by the contemplation of what has been before us in these first two chapters of Hebrews. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 85: 005.013. CHAPTER 13 ======================================================================== Chapter 13 CHRIST SUPERIOR TO MOSES Hebrews 3:1-6 Our present portion introduces us to the third division of the Epistle, a division which runs on to Hebrews 4:6. The first division, comprising but the three opening verses of the first chapter, evidences the superiority of Christ over the prophets. The second division, Hebrews 1:4 to the end of chapter 2, sets forth the superiority of Christ over the angels. The one we are now commencing treats of the superiority of Christ over Moses. "The contents of this section may be stated briefly thus: That the Lord Jesus Christ, the mediator of the new covenant, is high above Moses, the mediator of the old dispensation, inasmuch as Jesus is the Son of God, and Lord over the house; whereas Moses is the servant of God, who is faithful in the house. And upon this doctrinal statement is based the exhortation, that we should not harden our hearts lest we fail to enter into that rest of which the possession of the promised land was only an imperfect type. This section consists of two parts—a doctrinal statement, which forms the basis, and an exhortation resting upon it" (Saphir). Of all the godly characters brought before us in the Old Testament scriptures, there is not one who has higher claims on our attentive consideration than the legislator of Israel. Whether we think of his remarkable infancy and childhood, his self-sacrificing renunciation (Hebrews 11:24-26), the commission he received from God and his faithfulness in executing it, his devotion to Israel (Exodus 32:32), his honored privileges (Exodus 31:18), or the important revolutions accomplished through his instrumentality; "it will be difficult to find," as another has said, "in the records either of profane or sacred history, an individual whose character is so well fitted at once to excite attachment and command veneration, and whose history is so replete at once with interest and instruction." The history of Moses was remarkable from beginning to end. The hand of Providence preserved him as a babe, and the hand of God dug his grave at the finish. Between those terms he passed through the strangest and most contrastive vicissitudes which, surely, any mortal has ever experienced. The honors conferred upon him by God were much greater than any bestowed upon any other man, before or since. During the most memorable portion of their history, all of God’s dealings with Israel were transacted through him. His position of nearness to Jehovah was remarkable, awesome, unique. He was in his own person, prophet, priest and king. Through him the whole of the Levitical economy was instituted. By him the Tabernacle was built. Thus we can well understand the high esteem in which the Jews held this favored man of God—cf. John 9:28-29. Yet great as was Moses, the Holy Spirit in this third section of Hebrews calls upon us to consider One who so far excelled him as the heavens are above the earth. First, Christ was the immeasurable superior of Moses in His own person: Moses was a man of God, Christ was God Himself. Moses was the fallen descendant of Adam. conceived in sin and shapen in iniquity; Christ was sinless, impeccable, holy. Again; Christ was the immeasurable superior of Moses in His Offices. Moses was a prophet, through whom God spake; Christ was Himself "the Truth," revealing perfectly the whole mind, will, and heart of God. Moses executed priestly functions (Exodus 24:6; Exodus 32:11); but Christ is the "great High Priest." Moses was "king in Jeshurun" (Deuteronomy 33:5); Christ is "King of kings." To mention only one other comparison, Christ was the immeasurable superior of Moses in His work. Moses delivered Israel from Egypt, Christ delivers His people from the everlasting burnings. Moses built an earthly tabernacle, Christ is now preparing a place for us on High. Moses led Israel across the wilderness but not into the Canaan itself; Christ will actually bring many sons "unto glory." May the Holy Spirit impress our hearts more and more with the exalted dignity and unique excellency of our Savior. "Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus" (Hebrews 3:1). There are three things in this verse which claim our attention: the exhortation given, the people addressed, the characters in which Christ is here contemplated. The exhortation is a call to "consider" Christ. The people addressed are "holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling." The characters in which the Savior is viewed are "the Apostle and High Priest." "Wherefore." This word gives the connecting link between the two chapters which precede and the two that follow. It is a perfect transition, for it looks both ways. In regard to that which goes before, our present verse makes known the use we are to make of it; we are to "consider" Christ, to have our hearts fixed upon Him who is "altogether lovely." In regard to that which follows, this basic exhortation lays a foundation for the succeeding admonitions: if we render obedience to this precept, then we shall be preserved from the evils which overtook Israel of old—hardening of the heart, grieving the Lord, missing our "rest." The exhortation given here is, "Wherefore . . . consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession." Three questions call for answers: what is meant by "considering" Him; why we should do so; the special characters in which He is to be considered. There are no less than eleven Greek words in the New Testament all rendered "consider," four of them being simple ones; seven, compounds. The one employed by the Holy Spirit in Hebrews 3:1 signifies to thoroughly think of the matter, so as to arrive at a fuller knowledge of it. It was the word used by our Lord in His "consider the ravens, consider the lilies" (Luke 12:24, Luke 12:27). It is the word which describes Peter’s response to the vision of the sheet let down from heaven: "I considered and saw fourfooted beasts" (Acts 11:6). It is found again in Matthew 7:3, Romans 4:19, Hebrews 10:24. In Acts 7:31 "katanoeo" is rendered "to behold." In Luke 20:23 it is translated "perceived." In all, the Greek word is found fourteen times in the New Testament. To "consider" Christ as here enjoined, means to thoroughly ponder who and what He is; to attentively weigh His dignity, His excellency, His authority; to think of what is due to Him. It is failure to thoroughly weigh important considerations which causes us to let them "slip" (Hebrews 2:1). On the other hand, it is by diligently pondering things of moment and value that the understanding is enabled to better apprehend them, the memory to retain them, the heart to be impressed, and the individual to make a better use of them. To "consider" Christ means to behold Him, not simply by a passing glance or giving to Him an occasional thought, but by the heart being fully occupied with Him. "Set Me as a seal upon thine heart" (Song of Solomon 8:6), is His call to us. And it is our failure at this point which explains why we know so little about Him, why we love Him so feebly, why we trust Him so imperfectly. The motive presented by the Spirit here as to why we should so "consider" Christ is intimated in the opening "Wherefore." It draws a conclusion from all that precedes. Because Christ is the One through whom Deity is now fully and finally manifested, because He is the Brightness of God’s glory and the very Impress of His substance; because, therefore, He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than the angels; because He, in infinite grace, became "all of one" with those that He came to redeem, having made propitiation for the sins of His people; because He is now seated at the right hand of the Majesty on High, and while there is "a merciful and faithful High Priest;" because He has Himself suffered being tempted and is able to succor them who are tempted;—therefore, He is infinitely worthy of our constant contemplation and adoration. The opening "Wherefore" is also an anticipatory inference from what follows: because Christ is worthy of more honor than Moses, therefore, "consider" Him. There are two special characters in which the Holy Spirit here bids us contemplate Christ. First, as "the Apostle." This has reference to the prophetical office of Christ, the title being employed because an "apostle" was the highest minister appointed in New Testament times. An apostleship had more honors conferred upon it than any other position in the church (Ephesians 4:11): thus the excellency of Christ’s prophetic office is magnified. The term apostle means one "sent forth" of God, endowed with authority as His ambassador. In John’s Gospel Christ is frequently seen as the "Sent One," John 3:34, John 5:36, etc. The general function of Christ as a prophet, an apostle, a minister of the Word, was to make known the will of His Father unto His people. This He did, see John 8:26, etc. His special call to that function was immediate: "as My Father hath sent Me, so send I you" (John 20:21). Christ is more than an apostle, He is "the Apostle," that is why none others, not even Paul, are mentioned in this Epistle. He eclipses all others. He was the first apostle, the twelve being appointed by Him. His apostolic jurisdiction was more extensive than others; Peter was an apostle of the circumcision. Paul of the Gentiles; but Christ preached both to them that were nigh and to them that were far off (Ephesians 2:17). He received the Spirit more abundantly than any other (John 3:34). With Him the Messenger was the message: He was Himself "the Truth." The miracles He wrought (the "signs of an apostle" 2 Corinthians 12:12) were mightier and more numerous than those of others. Verily, Christ is "the Apostle," for in all things He has the pre-eminence. The special duty for us arising therefrom is, "Hear ye Him" (Matthew 17:5)—cf. Deuteronomy 18:15-18. The second character in which we are here bidden to "consider" Christ Jesus, is as the "High Priest of our profession." As the priesthood of Christ will come before us, D.V., in detail in the later chapters, only a few remarks thereon will now be offered. As we have already been told, the Lord Jesus is "a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God" (Hebrews 2:17). This at once gives us the principal feature which differentiates His priestly from His prophetic office. As Prophet, Christ is God’s representative to His people; as "Priest," He is their representative before God. As the Apostle He speaks to us from God, as our High Priest He speaks for us to God. The two offices are conjoined in John 13:3, "He was from God, and went to God." Thus He fills the whole space between God and us: as Apostle He is close to me; as Priest, He is close to God. "Of our profession." The Greek word here is a compound and properly signifies "a consent." In the New Testament, it is used for the confession of a thing (1 Timothy 6:12-13), and to set forth the faith which Christians profess (Hebrews 4:14). Here it may be taken either for an act on our part—the confessing Christ to be "the Apostle and High Priest," or, the subject matter of the faith we profess. Christians are not ashamed to own Him, for He is not ashamed to own them. The apostleship and priesthood of Christ are the distinguishing subjects of our faith, for Christianity centers entirely around the person of Christ. The confession is that which faith makes, see Hebrews 10:23. The cognate of this word is found in Hebrews 11:13 and Hebrews 13:15, "giving thanks:" these two references emphasizing the "stranger and pilgrim" character of this profession, of which Christ Jesus is the Apostle and High Priest. It remains now for us to notice the people to whom this exhortation is addressed: they are denominated "holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling." These Hebrews were addressed as "brethren" because they belonged spiritually to the family of God. "He evidently refers to the blessed truth just announced, that Jesus, the Son of God, is not ashamed to call us brethren" (Hebrews 2:11). He means therefore those who by the Spirit of God have been born again, and who can call God their Father. He addresses those of God who are in Christ Jesus, who were quickened together with Him; for when He rose from the dead He was ‘the first-born among many brethren’. He calls them ‘holy brethren,’ because upon this fact of brotherhood is based their sanctification: ‘He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one’" (Saphir). No doubt the "holy brethren" was also designed to distinguish them from their brethren according to the flesh, the unbelieving Jews. By his use of this appellation the apostle to the Gentiles evidenced his interest in and love for the Hebrews: he acknowledged and esteemed them as "brethren." "What an interesting and delightful view is thus presented to our minds of genuine Christians scattered all over the earth—belonging to every kindred, and people, and tongue, and nation—distinguished from one another in an almost infinite variety of ways, as to talent, temper, education, rank, circumstances, yet bound together by an invisible band, even the faith of the truth, to the one great object of their confidence, and love, and obedience, Christ Jesus—forming one great brotherhood, devoted to the honor and service of His Father and their Father, His God and their God! Do you belong to this holy brotherhood? The question is an important one. For answer, note Christ’s words in Matthew 12:50" (Dr. J. Brown). "Partakers of the heavenly calling." This at once serves to emphasize the superiority of Christianity over Judaism, which knew only an earthly calling, with an earthly inheritance. The word "partakers" signifies "sharers of." The calling wherewith the Christian is called (Ephesians 4:1) is heavenly, because of its origin—it proceeds from Heaven; because of the means used—the Spirit and the Word, which have come from Heaven; because of the sphere of our citizenship (Php 3:20); because of the end to which we are called—an eternal Heaven. Thus would the Holy Spirit press upon the sorely-tried Hebrews the inestimable value of their privileges. Finally, the whole of this appellation should be viewed in the light of the relation between those addressed and Christ. How is it possible for sinful worms of the earth to be thus denominated? Because of their union with the incarnate Son, whose excellency is imputed to them, and whose position they share. We are partakers of the heavenly calling because He, in wondrous condescension, partook of our earthly lot. What He has, we have; where He is, we are. He is the Holy One of God, therefore are we holy. He has been "made higher than the heavens," therefore are we "partakers of the heavenly calling!" Just so far as our hearts really lay hold of this, shall we walk as "strangers and pilgrims" here. Where our "Treasure" (Christ) is, there will our hearts be also. That is why we are here bidden to "consider" Him. "Who was faithful to Him that appointed Him, as also Moses was in all His house" (Hebrews 3:2). "To speak of Moses to the Jews was always a very difficult and delicate matter. It is hardly possible for Gentiles to understand or realize the veneration and affection with which the Jews regard Moses, the man of God. All their religious life, all their thoughts about God, all their practices and observances, all their hopes of the future, everything connected with God, is with them also connected with Moses. Moses was the great apostle unto them, the man sent unto them of God, the mediator of the old covenant" (Saphir). Admire then the perfect wisdom of the Holy Spirit so plainly evidenced in our passage. Before taking up Christ’s superiority over Moses, He points first to a resemblance between them, making mention of the "faithfulness" of God’s servant. Ere taking this up let us dwell on the first part of the verse. "Who was faithful to Him that appointed Him." The chief qualification of an apostle or ambassador is, that he be Faithful. Faithfulness signifies two things: a trust committed, and a proper discharge of that trust. "Our Lord had a trust committed to Him... this trust He faithfully discharged. He sought not His own glory, but the glory of Him that sent Him; He ever declared His message to be not His own, but the Father’s; and He declared the whole will or word of God that was committed unto Him" (Dr. John Owen). Christ was ever faithful to the One who sent Him. This was His chief care from beginning to end. As a boy, "I must be about My Father’s business" (Luke 2:49). In the midst of His ministry, "I must work the works of Him that sent Me" (John 9:4). At the finish, "Not as I will, but as Thou wilt" (Matthew 26:39). "As also Moses was faithful in all His house." "The key to the whole paragraph is to be found in the meaning of the figurative term ‘house,’ which so often occurs in it (just seven times, A.W.P.). By supposing that the word ‘house’ here is equivalent to edifice, the whole passage is involved in inextricable perplexity. ‘House’ here signifies a family or household. This mode of using the word is an exemplification of a common figure of speech, by which the name of what contains is given to what is contained. A man’s family usually resides in his house, and hence is called his house. This use of the word is common in the Bible: ‘The House of Israel,’ ‘the House of Aaron,’ ‘the House of David,’ are very common expressions for the children, the descendants, the families of Israel, Aaron and David. We have the same mode of speech in our own language, ‘the House of Stuart,’ ‘the House of Hanover.’ Keeping this remark in view, the verse we have now read will be found, short as it is, to contain in it the following statements:—Moses was appointed by God over the whole of His family: Moses was faithful in discharging the trust committed to him. Jesus is appointed by God over the whole of His family: Jesus is faithful in the discharge of the trust committed to Him" (Dr. J. Brown). "The house, the building, means the children of God, who by faith, as lively stones, are built upon Christ Jesus the Foundation, and who are filled with the Holy Ghost; in whom God dwells, as in His temple, and in whom God is praised and manifested in glory. The illustration is very simple and instructive. We are compared unto stones, and as every simile is defective, we must add, not dead stones, but lively stones, as the apostle in his epistle to the Ephesians speaks of the building growing. The way in which we are brought unto the Lord Jesus Christ and united with Him is not by building, but by believing. The builders rejected the ‘chief corner-stone’ (Psalms 118:22); but ‘coming unto Christ’ (1 Peter 2:4-5), simply believing, ‘ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house.’ When we go about the works of the law we are trying to build, and as long as we build we are not built. When we give up working, then by faith the Holy Ghost adds us to Christ, and grafts up into the living Vine, who is also the Foundation. We are rooted and grounded. The house is one, and all the children of God are united in the Spirit" (Saphir). That which the Spirit has here singled out for mention in connection with Moses, the typical "apostle," is that he was faithful in all God’s house, faithful in the discharge of his responsibilities concerning the earthly family over which Jehovah placed him. Although he failed personally in his faith, he was faithful as an "apostle." He never withheld a word which the Lord had given him, either from Pharaoh or from Israel. In erecting the tabernacle all things were made "according to" the pattern which he had received in the mount. When he came down from Sinai and beheld the people worshipping the golden calf, he did not spare, but called for the sword to smite them (Exodus 32:27-28). In all things he conformed to the instructions which he had received from Jehovah (Exodus 40:16). "For this Man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who hath builded the house hath more honor than the house" (Hebrews 3:3). The apostle now proceeds to present Christ’s superiority over Moses. But ere considering this, let us admire again the heavenly wisdom granted him in the method of presenting his argument. In the previous verse he has acknowledged the greatness of Moses, and here he also allows that he was worthy of glory, or praise. This would at once show that Paul was no enemy of Judaism, seeking to disparage and revile it. Equally striking is it to note how, in now turning the eyes of the Hebrews to One who is infinitely greater than Moses, he does not speak of his failures—his slaying of the Egyptians (Exo. 2), his slowness in responding to the Lord’s call (Exo. 3,4), his angered smiting of the rock (Num. 20); but by presenting the glories of Christ. This third verse presents to us the first of the evidences here furnished of the superiority of Christ over Moses: He is the Builder of God’s house; this, Moses never was. Its opening "For" looks back to the first verse, advancing a reason or argument why the Hebrews should "consider" the Apostle and High Priest of their confession, namely, because He is worthy of more glory than Moses the typical apostle. "The phrase, ‘to build the house,’ is equivalent to, be the founder of the family. This kind of phraseology is by no means uncommon. It is said, Exodus 1:21, that God ‘made houses’ to those humane women who refused to second the barbarous policy of Pharaoh in destroying the infants of the Israelites: i.e. He established their families, giving a numerous and flourishing offspring. In Ruth 4:11, Rachel and Leah are said to have built the house of Israel. And Nathan says to David, 2 Samuel 7:11 : ‘Also the Lord telleth thee that He will make thee a house;’ and what the meaning of that phrase is, we learn from what immediately follows, Hebrews 5:12’ (Dr. J. Brown). The contrast thus drawn between Christ and Moses is both a plain and an immense one. Though officially raised over it, Moses was not the founder of the Israelitish family, but simply a member of it. With the Apostle of our confession it is far otherwise. He is not only at the head of God’s family (Hebrews 2:10-13 —His "sons," His "children"), but He is also the Builder or the Founder of it. As we read in Ephesians 2:10, "for we are His workmanship, created in (or "by") Christ Jesus." Moses did not make men children of God; Christ does. Moses came to a people who were already the Lord’s by covenant relationship; whereas Christ takes up those who are dead in trespasses and sins, and creates them anew. Thus as the founder of the family is entitled to the highest honor from the family, so Christ is worthy of more glory than Moses. "For every house is builded by some man; but He that built all things is God" (Hebrews 3:4). Here the Spirit brings in a yet higher glory of Christ. The connection is obvious. In the preceding verse it has been argued: the builder is entitled to more honor than the building: as then Christ is the Builder of a family, and Moses simply the member of one, He must be counted worthy "of more glory." In Hebrews 3:4, proof of this is given, as the opening "for" denotes. The proof is twofold: Christ has not only built "the house," but "all things." Christ is not only the Mediator, "appointed" by God (Hebrews 3:2), but He is God. To how much greater glory then is He justly entitled! "For every house is builded by some one," should be understood in its widest signification, regarding "house" both literally and figuratively. Every human habitation has been built, every human family has been founded, by some man. So "He that built all things" is to be taken without qualification. The entire universe has been built ("framed," Hebrews 11:3) by Christ, for "all things were made by Him" (John 1:3), all things "that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible" (Colossians 1:16). Therefore Christ made Moses, as the whole family of Israel. "He that built all things is God." The Holy Spirit here designedly uses the Divine title because the work attributed to Christ (building the family of God) is a Divine work: because it proves, without controversy, that Christ is greater than Moses; because it ratifies what was declared in the first chapter concerning the Mediator, that He is true God. Therefore should all "honor the Son even as they honor the Father" (John 5:23). "And Moses verily was faithful in all His house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; but Christ as a Son over His own house" (Hebrews 3:5-6). These words bring before us the next proofs for the superiority of Christ over Moses: the typical apostle was but a servant, Christ is "Son;" the one was but a testimony unto the other. The position which Divine grace allotted to Moses was one of great honor, nevertheless he ministered before Jehovah only as a "servant." The words "in all His house" should be duly pondered: other servants were used in various parts of the family, but the glory of Moses was that he was used in every part of it; that is to say, he was entrusted with the care and regulation of the whole family of Israel. Still, even this, left him incomparably the inferior of the Lord Jesus, for He was a Son not "in all His house," but "over His own House." "And Moses verily was faithful in all His house, as a servant." Here again the apostle would subdue the prejudices of the Jews against Christianity. He was not discrediting the greatness of Moses. So far from it, he repeats what he had said in Hebrews 3:2, emphasizing it with the word "verily." Yet the faithfulness of Moses was as a "servant," a reminder to all, that this is the quality which should ever characterize all "servants." The word "as a servant" has the same force as in John 1:14, "we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father:" thus the "as" brings out the reality of the character in view. Moses faithfully conducted himself as a "servant," he did not act as a lord. This was evidenced by his great reverence for God (Exodus 3:6), his earnestly desiring an evidence of God’s favor (Exodus 34:9), his preferring the glory of the Lord to his own glory (Hebrews 11:24-26, Exodus 32:10-12), and in his meekness before men. (Numbers 12:3). "For a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after." This was a word much needed by the Jews. So far from the revelation of Christianity clashing with the Pentateuch, much there was an anticipation of it. Moses ordered all things in the typical worship of the house so that they might be both a witness and pledge of that which should afterwards be more fully exhibited through the Gospel. Therefore did Christ say, "For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me: for he wrote of Me" (John 5:46). And on another occasion we are told, "And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself" (Luke 24:27). "But Christ as a Son over His own house." Here is the final proof that Christ is "counted worthy of more glory than Moses." The proofs presented in this passage of our Lord’s immeasurable superiority are seven in number, and may be set forth thus: Moses was an apostle, Christ "the Apostle" (Hebrews 3:1). Moses was a member of an "house:" Christ was the Builder of one (Hebrews 3:3). Moses was connected with a single house, Christ "built all things," being the Creator of the universe (Hebrews 3:4). Moses was a man; Christ, God (Hebrews 3:4). Moses was but a "servant" (Hebrews 3:5); Christ, the "Son." Moses was a "testimony" of things to be spoken after (Hebrews 3:5), Christ supplied the substance and fulfillment of what Moses witnessed unto. Moses was but a servant in the house of Jehovah, Christ was Son over His own house (Hebrews 3:6). The Puritan Owen quaintly wrote, "Here the apostle taketh leave of Moses; he treats not about him any more; and therefore he gives him, as it were, an honorable burial. He puts this glorious epitaph on his grave: "Moses, a faithful servant of the Lord in His whole house." "But Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house are we" (Hebrews 3:6). Here the "house" is plainly defined: it is a spiritual house, made up of believers in Christ. Not only are the "brethren" of Hebrews 3:1, partakers of the heavenly calling, but they are members of the spiritual family of God, for in them He dwells. How well calculated to comfort and encourage the sorely-tried Hebrews were these words "whose house are we!" What compensation was this for the loss of their standing among the unbelieving Jews! "If we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end" (Hebrews 3:6). Do these words weaken the force of what has last been said? In nowise; they contained a much-needed warning. "There were great difficulties, circumstances calculated especially to effect the Jew, who, after receiving the truth with joy might be exposed to great trial, and so in danger of giving up his hope. It was, besides, particularly hard for a Jew at first to put these two facts together: a Messiah come, and entered into glory; and the people who belonged to the Messiah left in sorrow, and shame, and suffering here below" (W. Kelly). The Hebrews were ever in danger of subordinating the future to the present, and of forsaking the invisible (Christ in heaven) for the visible (Judaism on earth), of giving up a profession which involved them in fierce persecution. Hence their need of being reminded that the proof of their belonging to the house of Christ was that they remained steadfast to Him to the end of their pilgrimage. "If we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end." As the same thought is, substantially, embodied again in Hebrews 3:14, we shall now waive a full exposition and application of these words. Suffice it now to say that the Holy Spirit is here pressing, once more, on these Hebrews, what had been affirmed in Hebrews 2:1, "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip." Let each Christian reader remember that our Lord has said, "If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed" (John 8:31). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 86: 005.014. CHAPTER 14 ======================================================================== Chapter 14 CHRIST SUPERIOR TO MOSES Hebrews 3:7-12 In the first six verses of our present chapter four things were before us. First, the call to "consider" the Apostle and High Priest of our profession. Of old, Moses was God’s apostle or ambassador to Israel, Aaron, the high priest. But Christ combines both these offices in His own person. Second, the superiority of Christ over Moses: this is set forth in seven details which it is unnecessary for us to specify again. Third, the one thing which the Spirit of God singles out from the many gifts and excellencies which Divine grace had bestowed upon Moses, was his "faithfulness" (Hebrews 3:2, Hebrews 3:5); so too is it there said of Christ Jesus that He was "faithful to Him that appointed Him" (Hebrews 3:2). Fourth, the assertion that membership in the household of Christ is evidenced, chiefly, by holding fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end (Hebrews 3:6). That there is an intimate connection between these four things and the contents of our present passage will appear in our exposition thereof. "If we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end." The "hope" mentioned here is that made known by the Gospel (Colossians 1:23), the hope which is laid up for God’s people in Heaven (Colossians 1:5), the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27). Christians have been begotten unto a living hope (1 Peter 1:3), that "blessed hope" (Titus 2:13), namely, the return of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, when He shall come to take us unto Himself, to make us like Himself, to have us forever with Himself; when all God’s promises concerning us shall be made good. The reference to the holding fast the confidence of this hope is not subjective, but objective. It signifies a fearless profession of the Christian faith. It is to be "ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you, a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear" (1 Peter 3:15). Stephen is an illustration. Then, this hope is also to be held fast with "rejoicing" firm unto the end: Paul is an example of this, Acts 20:24. What follows in our present portion contains a solemn and practical application of that which we have briefly reviewed above. Here the apostle is moved to remind the Hebrews of the unfaithfulness of Israel in the past and of the dire consequences which followed their failure to hold fast unto the end of their wilderness pilgrimage the confidence and rejoicing of the hope which God had set before them. A passage is quoted from the 95th Psalm which gives most searching point to both that which precedes and to that which follows. The path in which God’s people are called to walk is that of faith, and such a path is necessarily full of testings, that is, of difficulties and trials, and many are the allurements for tempting us to wander off into "By-path meadow." Many, too, are the warnings and danger signals, which the faithfulness of God has erected; unto one of them we shall now turn. "Wherefore" (Hebrews 3:7). This opening word of our present passage possesses a threefold force. First, it is a conclusion drawn from all that precedes. Second, it prefaces the application of what is found in Hebrews 3:1-6. Third, it lays a foundation for what follows. The reader will observe that the remaining words of Hebrews 3:7 and all of Hebrews 3:8-11 are placed in brackets, and we believe rightly so, the sentence being completed in Hebrews 3:12 : "Wherefore take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God." The reasons for this exhortation have been pointed out above. First, because of the supreme excellency of our Redeemer, exalted high above all Israel’s prophets, and given a name more excellent than any ever conferred on the angels; therefore, those who belong to Him should give good heed that they harden not their hearts against Him, nor depart from Him. Second, because the Apostle, Christ Jesus, is worthy of more honor than Moses, then how incumbent it is upon His people to be especially watchful that they be not, by any means, turned from that obedience which He requires and which is most certainly due Him. Third, in view of the lamentable history of Israel, who, despite God’s wondrous favors to them, hardened their hearts, grieved Him, and so provoked Him to wrath, that He sware they should not enter into His rest, how much on our guard we need to be of "holding fast" the confidence and rejoicing of our hope "firm unto the end!" "As the Holy Spirit saith." Striking indeed is it to mark the way in which the apostle introduces the quotation made from the Old Testament. It is from the 95th Psalm, but the human instrument that was employed in the penning of it is ignored, attention being directed to its Divine Author, the One who "moved" the Psalmist—cf. 2 Peter 1:20-21. The reason for this, here, seems to be because Paul would press upon these Hebrews the weightiness, the Divine authority of the words he was about to quote: consider well that what follows are the words of the Holy Spirit, so that you may promptly and unmurmuringly submit yourselves thereunto. "As the Holy Spirit saith." Striking indeed is it to mark the way it links up with Hebrews 1:1 and Hebrews 2:3. In the former it is God, the Father, who "spake." In Hebrews 2:3, "How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord?" there it is the Son. Here in Hebrews 3:7 the Speaker is the Spirit; thus, by linking together these three passages we hear all the Persons of the Godhead. Observe, next, the tense of the verb used here; it is not "the Holy Spirit said," but "saith:" it is an ever-present, living message to God’s people in each succeeding generation. "Whatever was given by inspiration from the Holy Ghost, and is recorded in the Scripture for the use of the Church, He continues therein to speak it unto us unto this day" (Dr. John Owen). Let the reader also carefully compare the seven-times-repeated, "he that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches" in Revelation chapters 2 and 3. "As the Holy Spirit saith." Dr. Gouge has pointed out how that this sentence teaches us four things about the Holy Spirit. First, that He is true God: for "God spake by the mouth of David" (Acts 4:25). "God" spake by the prophets (Hebrews 1:1), and they "spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:21). Second, the Holy Spirit is a distinct person: He "saith." An influence, a mere abstraction, cannot speak. Third, the Holy Spirit subsisted before Christ was manifested in the flesh, for He spake through David. True, He is called, "the Spirit of Christ," yet that He was before His incarnation is proven by Genesis 1:2 and other scriptures. Fourth, He is the Author of the Old Testament Scriptures, therefore are they of Divine inspiration and authority. "Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts" (Hebrews 3:7-8). Here begins the apostle’s quotation from Psalm 95, the first portion of which records a most fervent call (Psalms 95:1-6) for the people of God to be joyful, and come before Him as worshippers. Most appropriate was the reference to this Psalm here, for the contents of its first seven verses contain, virtually an amplification of the "consider" of Hebrews 3:1. There the Hebrews were enjoined to be occupied with Christ, and if their hearts were engaged with His surpassing excellency and exalted greatness, then would they "come before His presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms" (Psalms 95:2). Their Apostle and High Priest had "built all things" (Hebrews 3:4), being none other than God. The same truth is avowed in Psalms 95:3-5, "For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In His hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is His also. The sea is His, and He made it: and His hands formed the dry land." The apprehension of this will prepare us for a response to what follows, "O come, let us worship, and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For He is our God; and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand" (Psalms 95:6-7). The next thing in the Psalm is, "Today, if ye will hear His voice harden not your heart." So the next thing in Hebrews 3 is, "whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end." Thus the Psalmist admonished those addressed in his day to hearken to the voice of the Lord, and not to harden their hearts against Him as had their ancestors before them. By quoting this here in Hebrews 3, the apostle at once intimated what is the opposite course from holding fast their confidence. "Today" signifies the time present, yet so as to include a continuance of it. It is not to be limited to twenty-four hours, instead, this term sometimes covers a present interval which consists of many days, yea years. In Hebrews 3:13 it is said, "But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today." So in Hebrews 13:8 we read, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today and forever." So in our text. As that present time wherein David lived was to him and those then alive "today", so that present time in which the apostle and the Hebrews lived was to them "today," and the time wherein we now live, is to us "today." It covers that interval while men are alive on earth, while God’s grace and blessing are available to them. It spans the entire period of our wilderness pilgrimage. Thus the "end" of Hebrews 3:6 is the close of the "today" in Hebrews 3:7. "If ye will hear His voice." "Unto you, O men I call; and My voice is to the sons of man" (Proverbs 8:4). But no doubt the immediate reference in our text is unto those professing to be God’s people. The "voice" of God is the signification of His will, which is the rule of our obedience. His will is made known in His Word, which is a living Word, by which the voice of God is now uttered. But, alas, we are capable of closing our ears to His voice. Of old God complained, "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel cloth not know. My people cloth not consider" (Isaiah 1:3). To "hear" God’s voice signifies to attend reverently to what He says, to diligently ponder, to readily receive, and to heed or obey it. It is the hardening of our hearts which prevents us, really, hearing His voice, as the next clause intimates. To it we now turn. "If ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts." It is to the heart God’s Word is addressed, that moral center of our beings out of which are the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23). There may be conviction of the conscience, the assent of the intellect, the admiration of understanding, but unless the heart is moved there is no response. A tender heart is a pliable and responsive one; a hard heart is obdurate and rebellious. Here hardening of the heart is attributed to the creature: it is due to impenitency (Romans 2:5), unbelief (Hebrews 3:12), disobedience (Psalms 95:8). "It appears that unto this sinful hardening of the heart which the people in the wilderness were guilty of, and which the apostle here warns the Hebrews to avoid, there are three things that do concur: 1. A sinful neglect, in not taking due notice of the ways and means whereby God calls any unto faith and obedience. 2. A sinful forgetfulness and casting out of the heart and mind such convictions as God by His word and works, His mercies and judgments, His deliverances and afflictions, at any time is pleased to cast into them and fasten upon them. 3. An obstinate cleaving of the affections unto carnal and sensual objects, practically preferring them above the motives unto obedience that God proposeth unto us. Where these things are so, the hearts of men are so hardened, that in an ordinary way, they cannot hearken unto the voice of God. Such is the nature, efficacy and power of the voice or word of God, that men cannot withstand or resist it without a sinful hardening of themselves against it. Every one to whom the word is duly revealed, who is not converted of God, doth voluntarily oppose his own obstinancy unto its efficacy and operation. If men will add new obstinacy and hardness to their minds and hearts, if they will fortify themselves against the word with prejudices and dislikes, if they will resist its work through a love to their lusts and corrupt affections, God may justly leave them to perish, and to be filled with the fruit of their own ways" (Dr. John Owen). "Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness" (Hebrews 3:8). The reference here is to what is recorded in the early verses of Exodus 17. There we are told that the congregation of Israel journeyed to Rephidim, where there was "no water for the people to drink." Instead of them counting on Jehovah to supply their need, as He had at Marah (Exodus 15:25) and in the wilderness of Sin (Exodus 17:1), they "did chide with Moses" (Exodus 17:2), "and when they thirsted, the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?" (Exodus 17:3). Though Moses cried unto the Lord, and the Lord graciously responded by bringing water out of the rock for them, yet God’s servant was greatly displeased, for in Exodus 17:7 we are told, "And he called the name of the place Massah (Temptation) and Meribah (Strife), because of the chiding of the children of Israel and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us, or not". Once more we would point out the oppositeness of this quotation to the case of the Hebrews. "The thought of Moses (in Hebrews 3:1-5 A.W.P.) naturally suggests Israel in the wilderness. Faithful was the mediator, through whom God dealt with them; but was Israel faithful? God spake: did they obey? God showed them wonder signs: did they trust and follow in faith? And if Israel was not faithful unto Moses, and their unbelief brought ruin upon them, how much more guilty shall we be, and how much greater our danger, if we are not faithful unto the Lord Jesus" (Saphir). It is not only true that the difficulties and trials of the way test us, but these testings reveal the state of our hearts—a crisis neither makes nor mars a man, but it does manifest him. While all is smooth sailing we appear to be getting along nicely. But are we? Are our minds stayed upon the Lord, or are we, instead, complacently resting in His temporal mercies? When the storm breaks, it is not so much that we fail under it, as that our habitual lack of leaning upon God, of daily walking in dependency upon Him, is made evident. Circumstances do not change us, but they do expose us. Paul rejoiced in the Lord when circumstances were congenial. Yes, and he also sang praises to Him when his back was bleeding in the Philippian dungeon. The fact is, that if we sing only when circumstances are pleasing to us, then our singing is worth nothing, and there is grave reason to doubt whether we are rejoicing "in the Lord" (Php 4:4) at all. The reason Israel murmured at Meribah was because there was no water; they were occupied with their circumstances, they were walking by sight. The crisis they then faced only served to make manifest the state of their hearts, namely, an "evil heart of unbelief." Had their trust been in Jehovah, they would at once have turned to Him, spread their need before Him, and counted on Him to supply it. But their hearts were hardened. A most searching warning was this for the Hebrews. Their circumstances were most painful to the flesh. They were enduring a great fight of afflictions. How were they enduring it? If they were murmuring that would be the outward expression of unbelief within. Ah, it is easy to profess we are Believers, but the challenge still rings out, "What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works?" (James 2:14). "When your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty years" (Hebrews 3:9). The "when" looks back to what is mentioned in the previous verse. The "Day of Temptation in the wilderness" covered the whole period of Israel’s journeyings from the Red Sea to Canaan. "The history of the Israelites is a history of continued provocation. In the wilderness of Sin they murmured for the want of bread, and God gave them manna. At Rephidim they murmured for the want of water, and questioned whether Jehovah was with them and He gave them water from the rock. In the wilderness of Sinai, soon after receiving the law, they made and worshipped a golden image. At Taberah they murmured for want of flesh and the quails were sent, followed by a dreadful plague. At Kadesh-barnea they refused to go up and take possession of the land of promise, which brought down on them the awful sentence referred to in the Psalm; and after that sentence was pronounced, they presumptuously attempted to do what they had formerly refused to do. All these things took place in little more than two years after they left Egypt. Thirty-seven years after this, we find them at Kadesh again, murmuring for want of water and other things. Soon after this, they complained of the want of bread, though they had manna in abundance, and were punished by the plague of fiery flying serpents. And at Shittim, their last station, they provoked the Lord by mingling in the impure idolatry of the Moabites. So strikingly true is Moses’ declaration: ‘Remember, and forget not, how thou provoked the Lord thy God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place ye have been rebellious against the Lord’, Deuteronomy 9:7’ (Dr. J. Brown). "When your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty years" (Hebrews 3:9). Israel’s terrible sins in the wilderness are here set forth under two terms: they "tempted" and "proved" Jehovah, the latter being added as an explanation of the former. To tempt one is to try or prove whether he be such as he is declared to be, or whether he can or will do such and such a thing. By tempting God Israel found out by experience that He was indeed the God He had made Himself known to be. In this passage the tempting of God is set down as a sin which provoked Him, and so is to be taken in its worst sense. Instead of believing His declaration, Israel acted as though they would discover, at the hazard of their own destruction, whether or not He would make good His promises and His threatenings. "In particular men tempt God by two extremes: one is presumption, the other is distrustfulness. Both these arise from unbelief. That distrustfulness ariseth from unbelief is without all question. And however presumption may seem to arise from overmuch confidence, yet if it be narrowly searched into, we shall find that men presume upon unwarrantable courses, because they do not believe that God will do what is meet to be done, in His own way. Had the Israelites believed that God in His time and in His own way would have destroyed the Canaanites, they would not have presumed, against an express charge, to have gone against them without the ark of the Lord and without Moses, as they did, Numbers 14:40, etc. Alas, what is man! "Men do presumptuously tempt God, when, without warrant, they presume on God’s extraordinary power and providence; that whereunto the devil persuaded Christ when he had carded Him up to a pinnacle of the temple, namely, to cast Himself down, was to tempt God; therefore, Christ gives him this answer, ‘Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God,’ Matthew 4:5-7. Men distrustfully tempt God when in distress they imagine that God cannot or will not afford sufficient succor. Thus did the king of Israel tempt God when he said, ‘The Lord hath called these three kings together, to deliver them into the hand of Moab,’ 2 Kings 3:13. So that prince who said ‘Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be’, 2 Kings 7:2’ (Dr. W. Gouge). "And saw My works forty years." This brings out the inexcusableness and heinousness of Israel’s sin. It was not that Jehovah was a Stranger to them, for again and again He had shown Himself strong on their behalf. The "works" of God mentioned here are the many and great wonders which He did from the time that He first took them up in Egypt until the end of the wilderness journey. Some of them were works of mercy. In delivering them from enemies and dangers, and in providing for them things needful. Others were works of judgment, as the plagues upon the Egyptians, their destruction at the Red Sea, and His chastening of themselves. Still others were manifestations which He made of Himself, as by the Cloud which led them by day and by night, the awesome proofs of His presence on Sinai, and the Shekinah glory which filled the tabernacle. These were not "works" done in bygone ages, or in far-distant places, of which they had only heard; but were actually performed before them, upon them, which they "saw." What clearer evidence could they have of God’s providence and power? Yet they tempted Him! The clearest evidences God grants to us have no effect upon unbelieving and obdurate hearts. An unspeakably solemn warning is this for all who profess to be God’s people today. A still more wonderful and glorious manifestation has God now made of Himself than any which Israel ever enjoyed. God has been manifested in flesh. The only-begotten Son has declared the Father. He has fully displayed His matchless grace and fathomless love by coming here and dying for poor sinners. When He left the earth, He sent the Holy Spirit, so that we now have not a Moses, but the third Person of the Trinity to guide us. God made known His laws unto Israel, but His complete Word is now in our hands. What more can He say, than to us He has said! How great is our responsibility; how immeasureably greater than Israel’s is our sin and guilt, if we despise Him who speaks to us! A further aggravation of Israel’s sin is that they saw God’s wondrous works for "forty years." God continued His wonders all that time: despite their unbelief and murmuring the manna was sent daily till the Jordan was crossed! Man’s incredulity cannot hinder the workings of God’s power: "What if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid" (Romans 3:3). An incredulous prince would not believe that God could give such plenty as He had promised when Samaria by a long siege was famished; yet, "it came to pass as the man of God had spoken" (2 Kings 7:18). Nor would the Jews, nor even the disciples of Christ, believe that the Lord Jesus would rise again from the dead: yet He did so on the third day. O the marvelous patience of God! May the realization of it melt and move our hearts to repentance and obedience. "Wherefore I was grieved with that generation" (Hebrews 3:10). In these words, and those which follow, we learn the fearful consequences of Israel’s sin. "When God says He ‘was grieved’ He means that He was burdened, vexed, displeased beyond that forbearance could extend unto. This includes the judgment of God concerning the greatness of their sin with all its aggravations and His determinate purpose to punish them. Men live, speak and act as if they thought God very little concerned in what they do, especially in their sins; that either He takes no notice of them, or if He do, that He is not much concerned in them; or that He should be grieved at His heart—that is, have such a deep sense of man’s sinful provocations—they have no mind to think or believe. They think that, as to thoughts about sins, God is altogether as themselves. But it is far otherwise, for God hath a concernment of honor in what we do; He makes us for His glory and honor, and whatsoever is contrary thereunto tends directly to His dishonor. And this God cannot but be deeply sensible of; He cannot deny Himself. He is also concerned as a God of Justice. His holiness and justice is His nature, and He needs no other reason to punish sin but Himself" (Dr. John Owen). "And said, They do always err in their heart" (Hebrews 3:10). To err in the heart signifies to draw the wicked and false conclusion that sin and rebellion pay better than subjection and obedience to God. Through the power of their depraved lusts, the darkness of their understandings, and the force of temptations, countless multitudes of Adam’s fallen descendants imagine that a course of self-will is preferable to subjection unto the Lord. Sin deceives: it makes men call darkness light, bitter sweet, bondage liberty. The language of men’s hearts is, "What is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto Him?" (Job 21:15). Note Israel "always erred in their hearts," which evidenced the hopelessness of their state. They were radically and habitually evil. As Moses told them at the end, "Ye have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you" (Deuteronomy 9:24). "And they have not known My ways" (Hebrews 3:10). The word "ways" is used in Scripture both of God’s dispensations or providences and of His precepts. A way is that wherein one walks. It is not God’s secret "ways" (Isaiah 55:9, Romans 9:33), but His manifest ways are here in view. His manifest ways are particularly His works, in which He declares Himself and exhibits His perfections, see Psalms 145:17. The works of God are styled His "ways" because we may see Him, as it were, walking therein: "they have seen Thy goings, O God" (Psalms 68:24). Now it is our duty to meditate on God’s works or "ways" (Psalms 143:5), to admire and magnify the Lord in them (Psalms 138:4-5), to acknowledge the righteousness of them (Psalms 145:17). God’s precepts are also termed His way and "ways" (Psalms 119:27, Psalms 119:32, Psalms 119:33, Psalms 119:35), because they make known the paths in which He would have us walk. Israel’s ignorance of God’s ways, both His works and precepts, was a willful one, for they neglected and rejected the means of knowledge which God afforded them; they obstinately refused to acquire a practical knowledge of them, which is the only knowledge of real value. "So I sware in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest" (Hebrews 3:11). This was the fearful issue of Israel’s sin. The patience of God was exhausted. Their inveterate unbelief and continued rebellion incensed Him. The sentence He pronounced against them was irrevocable, confirmed by His oath. The sentence was that they should not enter into Canaan, spoken of as a "rest" because entrance therein would have terminated their wilderness trials and travels; "God’s rest," because it would complete His work of bringing Israel into the land promised their fathers, and because His sojournings (see Leviticus 25:23) with His pilgrims would cease. "We may observe, 1. When God expresseth great indignation in Himself against sin, it is to teach men the greatness of sin in themselves. 2. God gives the same stability unto His threatenings as unto His promises. Men are apt to think the promises are firm and stable, but as for the threatenings, they suppose some way or other they may be evaded. 3. When men have provoked God by their impenitency to decree their punishment irrevocably, they will find severity in the execution. 4. It is the presence of God alone that renders any place or condition good or desirable, ‘they’ shall not enter into My rest" (Dr. John Owen). "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God" (Hebrews 3:12). Here the apostle begins to make a practical application to the believing Hebrews of the solemn passage which has just been quoted from the 95th Psalm. He warns them against the danger of apostatizing. This is clear from the expression "in departing from the living God." The same Greek verb is rendered "fall away" in Luke 8:13, and in its noun form signifies "apostasy" in 2 Thessalonians 2:3. Such apostasy is the inevitable outcome of giving way to an "evil heart of unbelief," against which the apostle bids those to whom he was writing to "take heed." Thus the contents of this verse at once bring before us a subject which has been debated in Christendom all through the centuries—the possibility or the impossibility of a true child of God apostatizing and finally perishing. Into this vexed question we shall not here enter, as the contents of the verses which immediately follow will oblige us taking it up, D.V. in our next article. Suffice it now to say that what is here in view is the testing of profession; whether the profession be genuine or spurious, the ultimate outcome of that testing makes evident in each individual’s case. "Take heed brethren." The introducing here of this blessed and tender title of God’s saints is very searching. Those unto whom the apostle was writing, might object, "The scripture you have cited has no legitimate application to us; that passage describes the conduct of unbelievers, whereas we are believers." Therefore does the apostle again address them as "brethren;" nevertheless, he bids them "take heed." They were not yet out of danger, they were still in the wilderness. Those mentioned in Psalm 95 began well, witness their singing the praises of Jehovah on the farther shores of the Red Sea (Exo. 15). They too had avowed their fealty to the Lord: "all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do" (Exodus 19:8); yet the fact remains that many of them apostatized and perished in the wilderness. Therefore the searching relevancy of this word, "take heed brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief." "In departing from the living God." The reference here is plainly to the Lord Jesus Himself. In Matthew 16:16 the Father is denominated "the living God," here and in 1 Timothy 4:10 the Son is, in 2 Corinthians 6:16 (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:16) the Holy Spirit is. The reason for the application of this Divine title to the Savior in this verse is apparent: the temptation confronting the Hebrews was not to become atheists, but to abandon their profession of Christianity. The unbelieving Jews denounced Jesus Christ as an impostor, and were urging those who believed in Him to renounce Him and return to Judaism, and thus return to the true God, Jehovah. That Christ is God the apostle had affirmed here, in Hebrews 1:4, and he now warns them that so far from the abandonment of the Christian profession and a return to Judaism being a going back to Jehovah, it would be the "departing from the living God." That Christ was the true and living God had been fully demonstrated by the apostle in the preceding chapters of this epistle. The extent to which and the manner in which the warning from Psalm 95 and the admonition of Hebrews 3:12 applies to Christians today, we must leave for consideration till the next chapter. In the meantime let us heed the exhortation of 2 Peter 1:10, "Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure," and while attending to this duty, let us pray the more frequently and the more earnestly for God to deliver us from "an evil heart of unbelief." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 87: 005.015. CHAPTER 15 ======================================================================== Chapter 15 CHRIST SUPERIOR TO MOSES Hebrews 3:13-19 There are two great basic truths which run through Scripture, and are enforced on every page: that God is sovereign, and that man is a responsible creature; and it is only as the balance of truth is preserved between these two that we are delivered from error. The Divine sovereignty should not be pressed to the exclusion of human responsibility, nor must human responsibility be so stressed that God’s sovereignty is either ignored or denied. The danger here is no fancied one, as the history of Christendom painfully exhibits. A careful study of the Word, and an honest appropriation of all it contains, is our only safeguard. We are creatures prone to go to extremes: like the pendulum of a clock in motion, we swing from one side to the other. Nowhere has this tendency been more sadly exemplified than in the teachings of theologians concerning the security of the Christian. On the one hand, there have been those who affirmed, Once saved, always saved; on the other hand, many have insisted that a man may be saved today, but lost tomorrow. And both sides have appealed to the Bible in support of their conflicting contentions! Very unwise and unguarded statements have been made by both parties. Some Calvinists have boldly declared that if a sinner has received Christ as his Savior, no matter what he does afterward, no matter what his subsequent life may be, he cannot perish. Some Arminians have openly denied the efficacy of the finished Work of Christ, and affirmed that when a sinner repents and believes in Christ he is merely put in a salvable state, on probation, and that his own good works and faithfulness will prove the deciding factor as to whether he should spend eternity in Heaven or Hell. Endless volumes have been written on the subject, but neither side has satisfied the other; and the writer for one, is not at all surprised at this. Party-spirit has run too high, sectarian prejudice has been too strong. Only too often the aim of the contestants has been to silence their opponents, rather than to arrive at the truth. The method followed has frequently been altogether unworthy of the "children of light." One class of passages of Scripture has been pressed into service, while another class of passages has been either ignored or explained away. Is it not a fact that if some Calvinists were honest they would have to acknowledge there are some passages in the Bible which they wish were not there at all? And if some Arminians were equally honest, would they not have to confess that there are passages in Holy Writ which they are quite unable to fit into the creed to which they are committed? Sad, sad indeed, is this. There is nothing in the Word of God of which any Christian needs be afraid, and if there is a single verse in it which conflicts with his creed, so much the worse for his creed. Now the subject of the Christian’s security, like every other truth of Scripture, has two sides to it: into it there enters both God’s sovereignty and human responsibility. It is failure to recognize and reckon upon this which has wrought such havoc and created so much confusion. More than once has the writer heard a renowned Bible-teacher of orthodox reputation say, "I do not believe in the perseverance of saints, but I do believe in the preservation of the Savior." But that is to ignore an important side of the truth. The New Testament has much to say on the perseverance of the saints, and to deny or ignore it is not only to dishonor God, but to damage souls. There have been those who boldly insisted that, if God has eternally elected a certain man to be saved, that man will be saved, no matter what he does or does not do. Not so does the Word of God teach. Scripture says, "God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth" (2 Thessalonians 2:13), and if a man does not "believe the truth" he will never be saved. The Lord Jesus declared, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3); therefore, if a sinner, does not "repent," he will not be saved. In like manner, there are those who have said, If a man is now a real Christian, no matter how he may live in the future, no matter how far or how long he may backslide, no matter what sins he may commit, he is sure of Heaven. Put in such a way, this teaching has wrought untold harm, and, at the risk of our own orthodoxy being suspected, we here enter a solemn and vigorous protest against it. The writer has met many people who profess to be Christians, but whose daily lives differ in nothing from thousands of non-professors all around them. They are rarely, if ever, found at the prayer-meeting, they have no family worship, they seldom read the Scriptures, they will not talk with you about the things of God, their walk is thoroughly worldly; and yet they are quite sure they are bound for heaven! Inquire into the ground of their confidence, and they will tell you that so many years ago they accepted Christ as their Savior, and "once saved always saved" is now their comfort. There are thousands of such people on earth today, who are nevertheless, on the Broad Road, that leadeth to destruction, treading it with a false peace in their hearts and a vain profession on their lips. It is not difficult to anticipate the thoughts of many who have read the above paragraphs: "We fully agree that there are many in Christendom resting on a false ground of security, many professing the name of Christ, who have never been born again; but this in nowise conflicts with the declaration of Christ that no sheep of His shall ever perish." Quite true. But what we would here point out and seek to press on our readers is this: I have no right to appropriate to myself the blessed and comforting words of the Savior found in John 10:28-29, unless I answer to the description of His "sheep" found in John 10:27; and I have no warrant for applying His promise to those who give no evidence of being conformed to the characters of those He there has in view. Let no man dare separate what God Himself has there joined together. The passage begins with, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me." That is the Lord’s own description of those whom He owns as His "sheep." Now if, to the contrary, I am "hearkening" to the seductive voice of this world, if I am "following" a course of self-will, self-seeking, self-gratification, what right have I to regard myself as one of the "sheep" of Christ? None at all. And if, notwithstanding, I do profess to be one of His, then my walk gives the lie to my profession. And any one who comes to me with words of comfort, pressing upon me the promises of God to His people, is only encouraging me in a course of wrong-doing and bolstering me up in a false hope. It may be replied, "Yet a real Christian may leave his first love." True, and before a church that had done so, the Lord Jesus appeared and said—not, "It will be alright in the end," but—"Repent, and do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick" (Revelation 2:5). "But a real Christian may backslide, and in a large measure become worldly again." Then if he does, his need is not to hear about the eternal security of God’s saints, but the eternal and fearful consequences of giving way to an evil heart of unbelief if such a course be continued in. "Yes, but if he is one of God’s people, he will be chastened, and grace will restore him; and therefore I cannot see the need or propriety of giving him to believe there is a danger of his being lost." Ah, it is not without reason that the Lord Jesus declared, more than once, "he that endureth to the end shall be saved." And let it not be forgotten that in Matthew 13:20-21. He spoke of some who "but endureth for a while"! Again it may be objected, "Such a pressing of the need of perseverance of God’s elect is uncalled for: if a man be a Christian, he will persevere, and if he persevere then there is no need of urging him to persevere." Not so did the apostles think or act. In Acts 11:22-23 we read, "they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch. Who when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord." Again, in Acts 13:43 we read, "Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God." Once more, in Acts 14:21-22 we are told "And when they had preached the Gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and Iconium, and Antioch, Confirming the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God." According to the views of some, such earnestness on the part of the apostles was quite unnecessary. But the impartial Christian reader will gather from the above passages that the apostles believed in no mechanical salvation, wherein God dealt with men as though they were stocks and stones. No, they preached a salvation that needed to be worked out with "fear and trembling" (Php 2:12); in a salvation which calls human responsibility into exercise; in a Divine salvation effectuated by the use of the means of grace which God has mercifully provided for us. True we are "kept by the power of God," but the very next words afford us light on how God keeps—"through faith" (1 Peter 1:5). And not only does faith feed on the promises of God, but it is stirred into healthful exercise and directed by the solemn warnings of Scripture. A real need then is there for such words as these, "But Christ as a Son over His own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end" (Hebrews 3:6). "Oh, blessed word and promise of God, that He will keep us unto the end. But how is it that we are kept? Through faith, through watchfulness, through self-denial, through prayer and fasting, through our constant taking heed unto ourselves according to His Word. ‘Hold fast’ if you desire it to be manifested in that day that you are not merely outward professors, not merely fishes existing in the net, but the true and living disciples of One Master." (Saphir). "But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin" (Hebrews 3:13). "There is need of constant watchfulness on the part of the professors of Christianity, lest under the influence of unbelief they ‘depart from the living God.’ ‘Take heed,’ says the apostle. There is nothing, I am persuaded, in regard to which professors of Christianity fall into more dangerous practical mistakes than this. They suspect everything sooner than the soundness and firmness of their belief. There are many who are supposing themselves believers who have no true faith at all,—and so it would be proved were the hour of trial, which is perhaps nearer than they are aware, to arrive; and almost all who have faith suppose they have it in greater measure than they really have it. There is no prayer that a Christian needs more frequently to present than, ‘Lord, increase my faith’; ‘deliver me from an evil heart of unbelief.’ "All apostasy from God, whether partial or total, originates in unbelief. To have his faith increased—to have more extended, and accurate and impressive views of ‘the truth as it is in Jesus’—ought to be the object of the Christian’s most earnest desire and unremitting exertion. Just in the degree in which we obtain deliverance from the ‘evil heart of unbelief’ are we enabled to cleave to the Lord with full purpose of heart, to follow Him fully, and, in opposition to all the temptations to abandon His cause, to ‘walk in all His commandments and ordinances blameless.’ To prevent so fearful and disastrous a result of apostasy from the living God, the apostle calls on them to strengthen each other’s faith by mutual exhortation, and thus oppose those malignant and deceitful influences which had a tendency to harden them in impenitence and unbelief" (Dr. J. Brown). To "exhort one another daily" is to call attention to and stir up one another for discharging our mutual duties. But in performing this obligation we are sadly lax: like the disciples upon the mount of transfiguration (Luke 9:32) and in Gethsemane (Luke 22:45), we too are very dull and drowsy and in constant need of both exhortation and incitation. As fellow pilgrims in a hostile country, as members of the same family, we ought to have "care for one another" (1 Corinthians 12:25), to "love one another" (John 13:34), to "pray one for another" (James 5:16), to "comfort one another" (1 Thessalonians 4:18), to "admonish one another" (Romans 15:14), to "edify one another" (1 Thessalonians 5:11), to have "peace one with another" (Mark 9:50). Only thus are we really helpful one to another. And, note, the exhorting is to be done "daily," for we must not be weary in well doing. While it is called "Today" warns us that our sojourn in this scene is but brief; the night hastens on when no man can work. "Lest any of you be hardened" adds force to the duty enjoined. In Hebrews 3:8 the terrible damage which hardness of heart produces had been pointed out; here it is warned against. The implication is unmistakable: hardness of heart is the consequence of neglecting the means for softening it—"lest." Clay and wax which are naturally hard, melt when brought under a softening power, but when the heat is withdrawn they revert again to their native hardness. The same evil tendency remains in the Christian. The flesh is "weak," our heart "deceitful"; only by the daily use of means and through fellowship with the godly are we preserved. Oftentimes the failure of a Christian is to be charged against his brethren as much as to his own unfaithfulness. How often when we perceive a saint giving way to hardness of heart we go about mentioning it to others, instead of faithfully and tenderly exhorting the offending one! "Through the deceitfulness of sin." Here is the cause of the evil warned against and upon which we need to be constantly upon our guard. It is the manifold deceits of sin which prevail over men so much. The reference here is to the corruption of our nature, with which we are born, and which we ever carry about with us. It is that which, in Scripture, is designated the "flesh," the lustings of which are ever contrary to the Spirit. God’s Word speaks of "deceitful lusts" (Ephesians 4:22), the "deceitfulness of riches" (Matthew 13:22), for their innate depravity causes men to prefer material wealth to vital godliness and heavenly happiness. So we read of the "deceivableness of unrighteousness" (2 Thessalonians 2:10); philosophy (the proud reasoning of that carnal mind which is enmity against God) is termed "vain deceit" (Colossians 2:8); and the lascivious practices of formal professors are called "their own deceivings" (2 Peter 2:13). This is one of the principal characteristics of sin: it deceives. "All the devices of sin are as fair baits whereby dangerous hooks are covered over to entice silly fish to snap at them, so as they are taken and made a prey to the fisher" (Dr. Gouge). This deceitfulness of sin should serve as a strong inducement to make us doubly watchful against it, and that because of our foolish disposition and proneness of nature to yield to every temptation. Sin presents itself in another dress than its own. It lyingly offers fair advantages. It insensibly bewitches our mind. It accommodates itself to each individual’s particular temperament and circumstances. It clothes its hideousness by assuming an attractive garb. It deludes us into a false estimate of ourselves. One great reason why God has mercifully given us His Word is to expose the real character of sin. By the deceitfulness of sin the heart is hardened. "To be hardened is to become insensible to the claims of Jesus Christ, so that they do not make their appropriate impression on the mind, in producing attention, faith, and obedience. He is hardened who is careless, unbelieving, impenitent, disobedient" (Dr. J. Brown). In the light of the whole context the specific reference in the exhortation of Hebrews 3:13 constitutes a solemn caution against apostasy. What we particularly need to daily exhort one another about is to cleave fast to Christ, lest something else supplant Him in our affections. The whole trend of our sinful natures is to depart from the living God, to grasp at the shadows and miss the substance. This was the peculiar danger of the Hebrews. Sin was trying to deceive them. It was seeking to draw them back to Judaism as the one true and Divinely-appointed religion. To guard against the insidious appeals being made, the apostle urges them to "exhort one another daily," that is, promptly and frequently. The importance of taking heed to this injunction is placed in its strongest light by what immediately follows. "For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end" (Hebrews 3:14). These words complete the exhortation commenced at Hebrews 3:12. They are added as a motive to enforce the dissuasion from apostasy (Hebrews 3:12), and also the warning against that which occasions it (Hebrews 3:13). The contents of this verse are similar in their force to that which was before us in Hebrews 3:6 : in both instances it is profession which is being put to the proof. There are two classes on which such exhortations have no effect: the irreligious who are dead in trespasses and sins, and have no interest in such matters; and the self-righteous religionist, who, though equally dead spiritually, yet has an intellectual interest. Many a professing Christian, who is infected by the Laodicean spirit of the day, will shrug his shoulders, saying, Such warnings do not concern me, there is no danger of a real child of God apostatizing. Such people fail to get the good of these Divine warnings, their conscience never being reached. But where there is a heart which is right with God, there is always self-distrust, and such an one is kept in the place of dependency through taking heed to the solemn admonitions of the Spirit. It is these very warnings against departure from God which curb the regenerate. "Persistency in our confidence in Christ unto the end is a matter of great endeavor and diligence, and that unto all believers. It is true that our persistency in Christ doth not, as to the issue and event, depend absolutely on our own diligence. The unalterableness of union with Christ, on the account of the faithfulness of the covenant of grace, is that which doth and shall eventually secure it. But yet our own diligent endeavor is such an indispensable means for that end as that without it, it will never be brought about. Hence are many warnings given us in this and other epistles, that we should take heed of apostasy and falling away; and these cautions and warnings are given unto all true believers, that they may know how indispensably necessary, from the appointment of God, and the nature of the thing itself, is their watchful diligence and endeavor unto their abiding in Christ" (Dr. John Owen). But it should be pointed out that these solemn warnings of Scripture ought not to be pressed upon weak Christians, who though anxious to walk acceptably before God, are lacking in assurance. "Observe here—for Satan, and our own conscience when it has not been set free often make use of this epistle—that doubting Christians are not here contemplated, or persons who have not yet gained entire confidence in God: to those who are in this condition its exhortations and warnings have no application. These exhortations are to preserve the Christian in a confidence which he has, and to persevere, not to tranquillise fears and doubts. This use of the epistle to sanction such doubts is but a device of the enemy. Only I would add here that, although the full knowledge of grace (which in such a case the soul has assuredly not yet attained) is the only thing that can deliver and set it free from its fears, yet it is very important in this case practically to maintain a good conscience, in order not to furnish the enemy with a special means of attack" (J.N.D.). For the right understanding of this verse it is of first importance that we should note carefully the tense of the verb in the first clause: it is not "we shall be made partakers of Christ if"—that would completely overthrow the gospel of God’s grace, deny the efficacy of the finished Work of Christ, and make assurance of our acceptance before God impossible before death. No, what the Spirit here says is, "We are made partakers of Christ," and in the Greek it is expressed even more decisively: "For partakers we have become of the Christ." The word "partakers" here is the same as in Hebrews 3:1, "partakers of the heavenly calling," and at the end of Hebrews 1:9 is rendered, "fellows." Perhaps, "companions" would be a better rendering. It means that we are so "joined unto the Lord," as to be "one spirit" with Him (1 Corinthians 6:17). It is to be so united to Christ that we are "members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones" (Ephesians 5:30). It is to be made by grace, "joint-heirs" with Him (Romans 8:17). The word "made partakers of Christ" shows there was a time when Christians were not so. They were not so born naturally; it was a privilege conferred upon them when they "received" Him as their Savior (John 1:12). "If we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end." This does not express a condition of our remaining partakers of Christ in the sense of its being a contingency. "What is the one thing which the Christian desires? What is the one great thing which he does? What is the one great secret which he is always endeavoring to find out with greater clearness and grasp with firmer intensity? Is it not this: ‘my Beloved is mine, and I am His’? The inmost desire of our heart and the exhortation of the Word coincide. To the end we must persevere; and it is therefore with great joy and alacrity that we receive the solemn exhortations: ‘He that endureth unto the end shall be saved’; ‘No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.’ We desire to hear constantly the voice which saith from His Heavenly throne, ‘To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My kingdom, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne’" (Saphir). To hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end is to furnish evidence of the genuineness of our profession, it is to make it manifest both to ourselves and others that we have been made "partakers of Christ." Difficulties in the path are presupposed, severe trials are to be expected: how else could faith show itself? Buffetings and testings do but provide occasions for the manifestation of faith, they are also the means of its exercise and growth. The Greek word for "confidence" here is not the same as in Hebrews 3:6 : there the "confidence" spoken of is to make a bold and free confession of our faith; here, it is a deep and settled assurance of Christ’s excellency and sufficiency, which supports our hearts. The one is external, the other is internal. To "hold fast the beginning of our confidence" signifies to "continue in the faith, grounded and settled" (Colossians 1:23). It is to say with Job, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him." (Job 13:15). "Firm unto the end." This is the test. At the beginning of our Christian course, our confidence in Christ was full and firm. We knew that He was a mighty Savior, and we were fully persuaded that He was able to keep that which we have committed unto Him against that day. But the roughness of the way, the darkness of the night, the fierceness of the storm into which, sooner or later, we are plunged, tends to shake our confidence, and perhaps (much to our sorrow now) we cried, "Lord, carest Thou not"? Yet, if we were really "partakers of Christ" though we fell, yet were we not utterly cast down. We turned to the Word, and there we found help, light, comfort. In it we discovered that the very afflictions we have experienced were what God had told us would be our portion for "we are appointed thereunto" (1 Thessalonians 3:3). In it we learned that God’s chastenings of us proceeded from His love (Heb. 12). And now, though we have proved by painful experience to have less and less confidence in ourselves, in our friends, and even in our brethren, yet, by grace, our confidence in the Lord has grown and become more intelligent. Thus do we obtain experimental verification of that word, "Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof" (Ecclesiastes 7:8). "While it is said, Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation" (Hebrews 3:15). The apostle continues to make practical application of the solemn passage he had been quoting from Psalm 95, pressing upon them certain details from it. That which is central in this verse is its directions for cleaving fast to Christ. Two things are to be observed: the duty to be performed, positively to "hear His voice," negatively not to "harden their hearts." This duty is to be performed promptly, "Today," and is to be persevered in—"whilst it is said today" i.e. to the end Of our earthly pilgrimage. The opportunity which grace grants us is to be eagerly redeemed, the improvement of it is to be made as long as the season of opportunity is ours. The admonition is again pointed by the warning of Israel’s failure of old. Thus the sins of others before us are to be laid to heart, that we may avoid them. "When we hear God’s voice—and, oh, how deafly and sweetly does He speak to us in the person of His Son Jesus, the Word incarnate, who died for us on Golgotha!—the heart must respond.... By this expression is meant the center of our spiritual existence, that center out of which thoughts and affections proceed, out of which are the issues of life, that mysterious fount which God only can know and fathom. Oh that Christ may dwell there! God’s voice is to soften the heart. This is the purpose of the divine word—to make our hearts tender. Alas, by nature we are hard-hearted: and what we call good and soft-hearted is not so in reality and in God’s sight When we receive God’s word in the heart, when we acknowledge our sin, when we adore God’s mercy, when we desire God’s fellowship, when we see Jesus, who came to save us, to wash our feet and shed His blood, for our salvation, the heart becomes soft and tender. For repentance, faith, prayer, patience, hope of heaven, all these things make the heart tender: tender towards God, tender towards our fellow-men" (Saphir). "For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses" (Hebrews 3:16). The apostle here begins to describe the kind of persons who sinned in the provocation, amplification being given in what follows. His purpose in making mention of these persons was to more fully evidence the need for Christian watchfulness against hardness of heart, even because those who of old yielded thereto provoked God to their ruin. The opening "for" gives point to what has preceded. The unspeakably solemn fact to which He here refers is that out of six hundred thousand men who left Egypt, but two of them were cut off in the wilderness, Caleb and Joshua. The Greek word "provoke" occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, but the Sept. employs it in Psalms 78:17, Psalms 78:40; Psalms 106:7, Psalms 106:33; Jeremiah 44:8, etc. They "vexed" Him (Isaiah 63:10), and this because of their contempt of His word. Hereby they showed they were not of God, see John 8:47, 1 John 4:6. Should any unsaved man or woman read these lines, we would say, Beware of provoking God by thine obstinacy. To them that believe not, the gospel becomes "a savor of death unto death." "But with whom was He grieved forty years"? (Hebrews 3:17). This being put in the form of a question was designed to stir up the conscience of the reader, cf. Matthew 21:28, James 4:5, etc. "Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness"? (Hebrews 3:17). "He doth not say ‘they died,’ but their ‘carcasses fell,’ which intimates contempt and indignation. God sometimes will make men who have been wickedly exemplary in sin, righteously exemplary in their punishment. To what end is this reported? It is that we may take heed that we ‘fall not after the same example of unbelief’ (Hebrews 4:11). There is then an example in the fall and punishment of unbelievers" (Dr. John Owen). "And to whom sware He that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that believeth not"? (Hebrews 3:18). Having reminded the Hebrews in the previous verse that sin was the cause of Israel’s destruction of old, he now specifies the character of that sin, Unbelief. The order is terribly significant: they harkened not to God’s voice; in consequence, their hearts were hardened; unbelief was the result; destruction, the issue. How unspeakably solemn! The Greek word here rendered "believed not" may, with equal propriety, be rendered "obeyed not"; it is so translated in Romans 2:8; Romans 10:21. It amounts to the same thing, differing only according to the angle of view-point: looked at from the mind or heart, it is "unbelief"; looked at from the will, it is "disobedience." In either case it is the sure consequence of refusal to heed God’s voice. "So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief" (Hebrews 3:19). "The apostle does not single out the sin of making and worshipping the golden calf; he does not bring before us the flagrant transgressions into which they fell at Beth-peor. Many much more striking and to our mind more fearful sins could have been pointed out, but God thinks the one sin greater than all is unbelief. We are saved by faith; we are lost through unbelief. The heart is purified by faith; the heart is hardened by unbelief. Faith brings us nigh to God; unbelief is departure from God" (Saphir). There is no sin so great but it may be pardoned, if the sinner believe; but "he that believeth not shall be damned." The application of the whole of this passage to the case of the sorely-tried and wavering Hebrews was most pertinent and solemn. Twice over the apostle reminded them (Hebrews 3:9, Hebrews 3:17) that the unbelief of their fathers had been continued for "forty years." Almost that very interval had now elapsed since the Son had died, risen again, and ascended to heaven. In Scripture, forty is the number of probation. The season of Israel’s testing was almost over; in A.D. 70 their final dispersion would occur. And God changeth not. He who had been provoked of old by Israel’s hardness of heart, would destroy again those who persisted in their unbelief. Then let them beware, and heed the solemn warning, "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God." May God grant us hearts to heed the same admonitory warning. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 88: 005.016. CHAPTER 16 ======================================================================== Chapter 16 CHRIST SUPERIOR TO JOSHUA Hebrews 4:1-3 The exhortation begun by the apostle in Hebrews 3:12 is not completed till Hebrews 4:12 is reached, all that intervenes consisting of an exposition and application of the passage quoted from Psalm 95 in Hebrews 3:7-11. The connecting link between what has been before us and that which we are about to consider is found in Hebrews 3:19, "So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief." These words form the transition between the two chapters, concluding the exhortation found in Hebrews 3:12-13, and laying a foundation for the admonition which follows. Ere proceeding, it may be well to take up a question which the closing verses of Hebrews 3 have probably raised in many minds, namely, seeing that practically all the adults who came out of Egypt by Moses perished in the wilderness, did not the promises of God to bring them into Canaan fail of their accomplishment? In Exodus 6:6-8, Jehovah said unto Moses, "Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments: and I will take you to Me for a people, and I will be to you a God... and I will bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did sware to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and I will give it you for an heritage: I am the Lord." We quote now from the helpful comments of Dr. J. Brown upon these verses: "This is a promise which refers to Israel as a people, and which does not by any means necessarily infer that all, or even that any, of that generation were to enter in. No express condition was mentioned in this promise—not even the believing of it. Yet, so far as that generation was concerned, this, as the event proved, was plainly implied; for, if it had been an absolute, unconditional promise to that generation, it must have been performed, otherwise He who cannot lie would have failed in accomplishing His own word. There can be no doubt that the fulfillment of the promise to them was suspended on their believing it, and acting accordingly. Had they believed that Jehovah was indeed both able and determined to bring His people Israel into the land of Canaan, and, under the influence of this faith, had gone up at His command to take possession, the promise would have been performed to them. "This was the tenor of the covenant made with them: ‘Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people: for all the earth is Mine: and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation’ (Exodus 19:5-6). ‘Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of Him, and obey His voice, provoke Him not; for He will not pardon your transgressions: for My name is in Him. But if thou shalt indeed obey His voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an Enemy unto thine enemies, and an Adversary unto thine adversaries’ (Exodus 23:20-22). "Their unbelief and disobedience are constantly stated as the reason why they did not enter in. ‘Because all those men have seen My glory, and My miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted Me now these ten times, and have not harkened to My voice; surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked Me see it’ (Numbers 14:22-23), cf. Joshua 5:6. God promised to bring Israel into the land of Canaan; but He did not promise to bring them in whether they believed and obeyed or not. No promise was broken to those men, for no absolute promise was made to them. "But their unbelief did not make the promise of God of none effect. It was accomplished to the next generation: ‘And the Lord gave unto Israel all the land which He sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein’ (Joshua 21:43). Joshua appealed to the Israelites themselves for the completeness of the fulfillment of the promise, see Joshua 23:14. That generation believed the promises that God would give Canaan, and under the influence of this fact, went forward under the conduct of Joshua, and obtained possession of the land for themselves." This same principle explains what has been another great difficulty to many, namely, Israel’s actual tenure of Canaan. In Genesis 13:14-15 we are told, "And the Lord said unto Abraham, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place from where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever." This promise was repeated again and again, see Genesis 7:8, etc. How then came it that the children of Israel occupied the land only for a season? Their descendants, for the most part are not in it today. Has, then, the promise of God failed? In no-wise. In His promise to Abraham God did not specify that any particular generation of his descendants should occupy the land "for ever" and herein lies the solution to the difficulty. God’s promise to Abraham was made on the ground of pure grace; no condition whatever was attached to it. But grace only superabounds where sin has abounded. Sovereign grace intervenes only after the responsibility of man has been tested and his failure and unworthiness manifested. Now it is abundantly clear from many passages in Deuteronomy 31:26-29, that Israel entered Canaan not on the ground of the unconditional covenant of grace which Jehovah made with Abraham, but on the ground of the conditional covenant of works which was entered into at Sinai (Exodus 24:6-8). Hence, many years after Israel had entered Canaan under Joshua, we read, "And an Angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of the land of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break My covenant with you. And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars; but ye have not obeyed My voice: Why have ye done this? Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be a thorn in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you" (Judges 2:1-3). The same principles are in exercise concerning God’s fulfillment of His gospel promises. "The gospel promise of eternal life, like the promise of Canaan, is a promise which will assuredly be accomplished. It is sure to all ‘the seed.’ They were ‘chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.’ Eternal life was promised in reference to them before the times of the ages, and confirmed by the oath of God. They have been redeemed to God by ‘the blood of the Lamb,’ and are all called in due time according to His purpose. Their inheritance is ‘laid up in heaven’ for them, and ‘they are kept for it by the mighty power of God, through faith unto salvation.’ And they shall all at last ‘inherit the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world.’ "But the Gospel revelation does not testify directly to anyone that Christ so died for him in particular, that it is certain that he shall be saved through His death: neither does it absolutely promise salvation to all men; for in this case all must be saved,—or God must be a liar. But it proclaims, ‘he that believeth shall be saved—he that believeth not shall be damned.’ It is as believers of the truth that we are secured of eternal life; and it is by holding fast this faith of the truth, and showing that we do so, that we can alone enjoy the comfort of this security. ‘The purpose of God according to election must stand,’ and all His chosen will assuredly be saved; but they cannot know their election—they cannot enjoy any absolute assurance of their salvation independent of their continuance in the faith, love, and obedience of the Gospel, see 2 Peter 1:5-12. And to the Christian, in every stage of his progress, it is of importance to remember, that he who turns back, turns ‘back to perdition’; and that it is he only who believes straight onward—that continues in the faith of the truth—that shall obtain ‘the salvation of the soul’" (Dr. J. Brown). Our introduction for this article has already exceeded its legitimate limits, but we trust that what has been said above will be used of God in clearing up several difficulties which have exercised the minds of many of His beloved people, and that it may serve to prepare us for a more intelligent perusal of our present passage. The verses before us are by no means easy, as any one who will really study them will quickly discover. The apostle’s argument seems to be unusually involved, the teaching of it appears to conflict with other portions of Scripture, and the "rest" which is its central subject, is difficult to define with any degree of certainty. It is with some measure of hesitation and with not a little trepidation that the writer himself now attempts to expound it, and he would press upon every reader the importance and need of heeding the Divine injunction of 1 Thessalonians 5:21, "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." It should be evident that the first thing which will enable us to understand our passage is to attend to the scope of it. The contents of this chapter are found not in Romans or Corinthians or Ephesians, but in Hebrews, the central theme of which is the superiority of Christianity over Judaism, and there is that in each chapter which exemplifies this. The theme is developed by the presentation of the superlative excellencies of Christ, who is the Center and Life of Christianity. Thus far we have had Christ’s superiority over the prophets, the angels, Moses. Now it is the glory of Christ which excels that attaching to Joshua. Our next key must be found in noting the connection between the contents of chapter four and that which immediately precedes. Plainly, the context begins at Hebrews 3:1, where we are bidden to "consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession." All of chapter 3 is but an amplification of its opening verse. Its contents may be summarized thus: Christ is to be "considered," attended to, heard, trusted, obeyed: first, because of His exalted personal excellency: He is the Son, "faithful" over His house; second, because of the direful consequences which must ensue from not "considering" Him, from despising Him. This second point is illustrated by the sad example of those Israelites who hearkened not unto the Lord in the clays of Moses, and in their case the consequence was that they failed to enter into the rest of Canaan. In the first sections of Hebrews 4, the principal subject of chapter 3 is continued. It brings out again the superiority of our "Apostle," this time over Joshua, for he too was an "apostle" of God. This is strikingly brought out in Deuteronomy 34:9, "And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid hands upon him; and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as the Lord commanded Moses"—the prime thought of the "laying on of hands" in Scripture being that of identification. Let the reader compare Joshua 1:5, Joshua 1:16-18. The continuation of the theme of Hebrews 3 in chapter 4 is also seen by the repeated mention of "rest," see Hebrews 3:11, Hebrews 3:18 and cf. Hebrews 4:1, Hebrews 4:3, etc. It is on this term that the apostle bases his present argument. The "rest" of Hebrews 3:11, Hebrews 3:18 refers to Canaan, and though Joshua actually conducted Israel into this (see marginal rendering of Hebrews 4:8), yet the apostle proves by a reference to Psalm 95 that Israel never really (as a nation) entered into the rest of God. Herein lies the superiority of the Apostle of Christianity; Christ does lead His people into the true rest. Such, we believe, is the line of truth developed in our passage. "Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it" (Hebrews 4:1). The opening words of this chapter bid us seriously take to heart the solemn warning given at the close of Hebrews 4:3. God’s judgment upon the wicked should make us more watchful that we do not follow their steps. The "us" shows that Paul was preaching to himself as well as to the Hebrews. "Let us therefore fear" has stumbled some, because of the "Fear thou not" of Isaiah 41:10, Isaiah 43:1, Isaiah 43:5, etc. In John 14:27, Christ says to us, "Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." And in 2 Timothy 1:7, we read, "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." On the other hand, believers are told to "Fear God" (1 Peter 2:17), and to work out their own salvation "with fear and trembling" (Php 2:12). How are these two different sets of passages to be harmonized? The Bible is full of paradoxes, which to the natural man, appear to be contradictions. The Word needs "rightly dividing" on the subject of "fear" as upon everything else of which it treats. There is a fear which the Christian is to cultivate, and there is a fear from which he should shrink. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and in Proverbs 14:26-27 we read, "In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence.... The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life"; so again, "Happy is the man that feareth always" (Proverbs 28:14). The testimony of the New Testament inculcates the same duty: Christ bade His disciples, "Fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell" (Matthew 10:28). To the saints at Rome Paul said, "Be not high-minded, but fear" (Romans 11:20). To God’s people Peter wrote, "Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear" (1 Peter 1:17). While in Heaven itself the word will yet be given: "Praise our God all ye His servants, and ye that fear Him both small and great" (Revelation 19:5). Fear may be called one of the disliking affections. It is good or evil according to the object on which it is placed, and according to the ordering of it thereon. In Hebrews 4:1 it is placed on the right object—an evil to be shunned. That evil is unbelief, which, if persisted in, ends in apostasy and destruction. About this the Christian needs to be constantly on his guard, having his heart set steadily against it. Our natural proneness to fall, the many temptations to which we are subject, together with the deceitfulness of sin, the subtlety of Satan, and God’s justice in leaving men to themselves, are strong enforcements of this duty. Concerning God Himself, we are to fear Him with such a reverent awe of His holy majesty as will make us careful to please Him in all things, and fearful of offending Him. This is ever accompanied by a fearsome distrust of ourselves. The fear of God which is evil in a Christian is that servile bondage which produces a distrustful attitude, kills affection for Him, regards Him as a hateful Tyrant. This is the fear of the demons (James 2:19). "Let us therefore fear." "It is salutary to remember our tendency to partiality and one-sidedness in our spiritual life, in order that we may be on our guard, that we may carefully and anxiously consider the ‘Again, it is written’; that we may be willing to learn from Christians who have received different gifts of grace, and whose experience varies from ours; above all, that we may seek to follow and serve the Lord Himself, to walk with God, to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd. Forms of godliness, types of doctrine, are apt to become substitutes instead of channels, weights instead of wings. "The exhortations of this epistle may appear to some difficult to reconcile with the teachings of Scripture, that the grace of God, once received, through the power of the Holy Spirit by faith, can never be lost, and that they who are born again, who are once in Christ, are in Christ for ever. Let us not blunt the edge of earnest and piercing exhortations. Let us not pass them over, or treat them with inward apathy. ‘Again it is written.’ We know this does not mean that there is any real contradiction in Scripture, but that various aspects of truth are presented, each with the same fidelity, fullness and emphasis. Hence we must learn to move freely, and not to be cramped and fixed in one position: we must keep our eyes clear and open, and not look at all things through the light of a favorite doctrine. And while we receive fully and joyously the assurance of our perfect acceptance and peace, and of the unchanging love of God in Christ Jesus, let us with the apostle consider also our sins and dangers, from the lower yet most real earthly and time-point of view. "When Christ is beheld and accepted, there is peace; but is there not also fear? ‘With Thee is forgiveness of sin, that Thou mayest be feared’ (Psalms 130:4). Where do we see God’s holiness and the awful majesty of the law as in the cross of Christ? Where our own sin and unworthiness, where the depths of our guilt and misery, as in the atonement of the Lord Jesus? We rejoice with fear and trembling.... It is because we know the Father, it is because we are redeemed by the precious blood of the Savior, it is as the children of God and as the saints of Christ, that we are to pass our earthly pilgrimage in fear. This is not the fear of bondage, but the fear of adoption; not the fear which dreads condemnation, but the fear of those who are saved, and whom Christ has made free. It is not an imperfect and temporary condition; it refers not merely to those who have begun to walk in the ways Of God. Let us not imagine that this fear is to vanish at some subsequent period of our course, that it is to disappear in a so-called ‘higher Christian life.’ No; we are to pass the time of our sojourn here in fear. To the last moment of our fight of faith, to the very end of our journey, the child of God, while trusting and rejoicing, walks in godly fear" (Saphir). "Lest a promise being left us." It is very striking to observe how this is expressed. It does not say, "lest a promise being made" or "given." It is put thus for the searching of our hearts. God’s promises are presented to faith, and they only become ours individually, and we only enter into the good of them, as we appropriate or lay hold of them. Of the patriarchs it is said concerning God’s promises (1) "having seen them afar off, (2) and were persuaded of them, (3) and embraced them" Hebrews 11:13). Certain promises of Jehovah were "left" to those who came out of Egypt. They were not "given" to any particular individuals, or "made" concerning that specific generation. And, as the apostle has shown in Hebrews 3, the majority of those who came out of Egypt failed to "embrace" those promises, through hearkening not to Him Who spake, and through hardening their hearts. But Caleb and Joshua "laid hold" of those promises and so entered Canaan. When the apostle here says, "Let us fear therefore lest a promise being left"—there is no "us" in the Greek—he addresses the responsibility of the Hebrews. He is pressing upon them the need of walking by faith and not by sight; he is urging them to so take unto themselves the promise which the Lord has "left," that they might not seem to come short of it. But to what is the apostle referring when he says, "lest a promise being left"? Surely in the light of the context the primary reference is clear: that which the Gospel makes known. The Gospel proclaims salvation to all who believe. The Gospel makes no promise to any particular individuals. Its terms are "whosoever believeth shall not perish." That promise is "left," left on infallible record, left for the consolation of convicted sinners, "left" for faith to lay hold of. This promise of salvation looks forward, ultimately, to the enjoyment of the eternal, perfect, and unbroken rest of God in heaven, of which the "rest" of Canaan, as the terminal of Israel’s hard bondage in Egypt and their wearisome journeyings in the wilderness, was the appropriate figure. "Any of you should seem to come short of it." Passing over the word "seem" for a moment, let us inquire into the meaning of "to come short of it." Here again the language of Hebrews 11:13 should help us. As pointed out above, that verse indicates three distinct stages in the faith of the patriarchs. First, they saw God’s promises "afar off." They seemed too good to be true, far beyond their apprehension. Second, they were "persuaded of them" or, as the Revised Version renders it, "greeted them," which signifies a much closer acquaintance of them. Third, and "embraced them"; they did not "come short," but took them to their hearts. It is thus the awakened and anxious sinner has to do with the Gospel promise. Wondrous, unique, passing knowledge as it does, that promise is "left" him, and the Person that promise points to is to be "greeted" and "embraced." "That which was from the beginning (1), which we have heard (2), which we have seen with our eyes (3), which we have looked upon (4), and our hands have handled of the Word of Life" (1 John 1:1). At this stage perhaps, the reader is ready to object against what has been advanced above, "But how can the ‘promise’ here refer to that presented in the Gospel before poor sinners, seeing that the apostle was addressing believers? Is not the ‘promise’ plainly enough defined in the ‘of entering into His rest’?" Without attempting now to enter into a fuller discussion of God’s "rest," it should be clear from the context that the primary reference is to the eternal sharing of His rest in heaven. This is the believer’s hope which is laid up for you in heaven, "whereof ye heard before in the Word of the truth of the Gospel" (Colossians 1:5). At first this "hope" appears "afar off," but as faith grows it is "greeted" and "embraced." But only so as faith is in exercise. If we cease hearing and heeding the Voice which speaks to us from heaven, and our hearts become hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, the brightness of our hope is dimmed, we "come short" of it; and if such a course be continued in, hope will give way to despair. The whole point of the apostle’s exhortation here is a pressing upon Christians the imperative need of persevering in the faith. Israel left Egypt full of hope, as their song at the Red Sea plainly witnessed, see Exodus 15:13-18. But, alas, their hopes quickly faded. The trials and testings of the wilderness were too much for them. They walked by sight, instead of by faith; and murmuring took the place of praising, and hardness of heart instead of listening to the Lord’s voice. So too the Hebrews were still in the wilderness: their profession of faith in Christ, their trust in the Lord, was being tested. Some of their fellows had already departed from the living God, as the language of Hebrews 10:25 dearly implies. Would, then these whom the apostle had addressed as "holy brethren" fail, finally, to enter into God’s rest? So it is with Christians now. Heaven is set before them as their goal: toward it they are to daily press forward, running with perseverance the race that is set before them. But the incentive of our hope only has power over the heart so long as faith is in exercise. What is meant by "seeming to come short" of the Gospel promise of heaven? First, is not this word inserted here for the purpose of modifying the sharpness of the admonition? It was to show that the apostle did not positively conclude that any of these "holy brethren" were apostates, but only that they might appear to be in danger of it, as the "lest" warned. Second, was it not to stir up their godly fear the more against such coldness and dullness as might hazard the prize set before them? Third, and primarily, was it not for the purpose of showing Christians the extent to which they should be watchful? It is not sufficient to be assured that we shall never utterly fall away; we must not "seem" to do so, we must give no occasion to other Christians to think we have departed from the living God. The reference is to our walk. We are bidden to "abstain from all appearance of evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22). Note how this same word "seem" signifies "appeared" in Galatians 2:9. The very appearance of backsliding is to be sedulously avoided. "For unto us was the Gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard" (Hebrews 4:2). The contents of this verse unequivocally establish our definition of the "promise" in Hebrews 4:1, namely, that it has reference to the Gospel promise, which, in its ultimate application, looks forward to the eternal rest in heaven. Here plain mention is made of the "gospel." The obvious design of the apostle in this verse is to enforce the admonition of us fearing a like judgment which befell the apostate Israelites, by avoiding a like course of conduct in ourselves—unbelief. The Gospel preached unto Israel of old is recorded in Exodus 6:6-8, and that it was not "mixed with faith in them that heard it" is seen from the very next verse, "And Moses so spake unto the children of Israel, but they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage." We need hardly say that was not the only time a gospel message was proclaimed to them, see Numbers 13:26, Numbers 13:27, Numbers 13:30; and for their unbelief, Numbers 14:1-4. "But the word preached did not profit them." "They were none the better for it. They did not obtain the blessing in reference to which a promise was given them: they did not enter into Canaan: they died in the wilderness" (Dr. J. Brown). The reason for this was, because they did not receive the good news in faith. The mere hearing of the Gospel is not enough: to profit, it must be believed. Thus Hebrews 4:2 is parallel with Hebrews 2:3. "For we which have believed do enter into rest" (Hebrews 4:3). Failure to rightly understand these words led many of the commentators right off the track of the apostle’s argument in this passage. It pains us to have to take issue here with some eminent expositors of Scripture, but we dare not call any man, however spiritual or well-instructed, our "father." We must follow the light which we believe God has granted us, though we would again press upon the reader his responsibility for "proving all things" for himself. "For we which have believed do enter into rest." Many have taken these words as referring to a spiritual rest into which believers enter here and now. But we believe this is a mistake. The apostle did not say, "We which believe have entered into rest." To which it may be replied, "Nor did he say, ‘We which have believed shall enter into rest.’" True, for to have put it thus would have weakened his argument. Moreover, it would be to evacuate the exhortation of Hebrews 4:11 of its significance, "Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief." If then Hebrews 4:3 does not refer to a spiritual rest into which believers now enter, what is its meaning? Bagster’s Interlinear (and we know of no English translation which is its equal) gives, "For we enter into the rest, who believe." This is a literal word for word rendering of the Greek into English. Put thus, the historical tense is avoided, and we have simply an abstract statement of a doctrinal fact. This verse gives us the positive side of Hebrews 4:2, defining the characters of those who will enter God’s rest, namely, Believers. Unbelieving Israelites did not, believing Christians shall. It is important to remember that the "rest" of this whole passage is as yet only "promised," Hebrews 4:1. "For we which have believed do enter into rest." "The apostle speaks of believers of all ages as a body, to which he and those to whom he was writing belonged, and says, ‘It is we who believe, and we alone, who under any dispensation can enter into the rest of God’" (Dr. J. Brown). The opening "for" signifies that what follows is added as a reason to confirm what has been previously stated. The reason is drawn from the law of contraries, the inevitable opposites. Of contraries there must be opposite consequences. Now faith and unbelief are contraries, therefore their consequences are contraries. As then unbelievers cannot enter into God’s rest (Hebrews 3:18), believers must (Hebrews 4:3), that is their privilege. Such we believe is the force of this abstract declaration. "The qualification of such as reap the benefit of God’s promise is thus set down, ‘Which have believed.’ To believe is to yield such credence to the truth of God’s promise, as to rest on Him for participation of the thing promised. We can have no assurance of the thing promised till we do believe the promise: ‘After that ye believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise’ (Ephesians 1:13). ‘I know whom I have believed,’ saith the apostle, and thereupon maketh this inference, ‘and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day’ (2 Timothy 1:12). This, Christ manifested by the condition which He required of those whom He cured, thus, ‘If thou canst believe, all things are possible,’ Mark 9:23." (Dr. Gouge). The second half of Hebrews 4:3 we must leave for the next chapter. In the meantime, "Let us therefore fear." "The absolute safety, the fixed and unchanging portion of the chosen people of God can never be doubted. From the eternal, heavenly, divine point of view, saints can never fall; they are seated in heavenly places with Christ; they are renewed by the Spirit, and sealed by Him unto everlasting glory. But who sees the saints of God from this point of view? Not the world, not our fellow-Christians. They only see our character and walk.... From our point of view, as we live in time, from day to day, our earnest desire must be to continue steadfast, to abide in Christ, to walk with God, to bring forth fruit that will manifest the presence of true and God-given life. Hence the apostle, who says to the Philippians, ‘Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ’ (Hebrews 1:6), adds to a similar thought in another epistle, ‘If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel.’ In the one passage Paul’s point of view is the heavenly, eternal one; in the other he looks from earth heavenwards, from time to eternity. And in what other way could he think, speak, exhort, and encourage both himself and his fellow-Christians but in this manner? For it is by these very exhortations and warnings that the grace of God keeps us. It is in order that the elect may not fall, it is to bring out in fact and time the (ideal and eternal) impossibility of their apostasy, that God in His wisdom and mercy has sent to us such solemn messages and such fervent entreaties, to watch, to fight, to take heed unto ourselves, to resist the adversary" (Saphir). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 89: 005.017. CHAPTER 17 ======================================================================== Chapter 17 CHRIST SUPERIOR TO JOSHUA Hebrews 4:3-10 There has been so much confusion in the minds of commentators, so many conflicting interpretations of Hebrews 4 in the past, that we deem it the more necessary to go slowly, and endeavor to supply full proof of the exposition which we are here advancing. That which appears to have occasioned the most difficulty for many is the statement made at the beginning of Hebrews 4:3, "For we which have believed do enter into rest," or, more literally, "for we enter into the rest, who believed." Having regarded this verse as setting forth a spiritual rest into which believers now enter, they have altogether failed in their understanding of the second part of Hebrews 4:1. That sinners do enter into rest upon believing is clear from the promise of Christ in Matthew 11:28. That the measure in which this is enjoyed, subsequently, will be determined by the degree and frequency with which faith is kept in exercise, we fully allow. But these things are not the subjects of which Paul is treating here in Hebrews 4. Considering that Hebrews 4:3 speaks of the believer’s present rest, many expositors have read this into the opening verse of the chapter, and have regarded its admonition as meaning, Let Christians be on their guard lest, through carelessness and backsliding, they "seem to come short" in their experimental enjoyment of Christ’s rest. In other words, they look upon the "rest" of the opening verses of Hebrews 4 as signifying communion with the Lord. They argue that this must be what was in the apostle’s mind, for he was not addressing the unconverted, but "holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling." With considerable ingenuity they have appealed to the context, the contents of the closing verses of Hebrews 3, as supporting their contention. Those who failed to enter into Canaan (which they consider was a figure of the saints’ present portion) were not heathen, but Israelites, the covenant-people of God. We must therefore expose the error of this interpretation before proceeding farther. First, we would remind the reader once more that the apostle was not here writing to Gentile Christians, but to Hebrews, whose circumstances and temptations were peculiar, unique. There was a very real and grave danger menacing them, not so much of interrupting their spiritual fellowship with Christ, but of shaking their faith in Him altogether. The temptation confronting them was the total abandonment of their Christian profession, of their faith in Jesus of Nazareth, now exalted at the right hand of God; and returning to Judaism. This fact must be kept in mind as we take up the study of each chapter of this Epistle. To lose sight of it, courts certain disaster in our interpretation. Second, while it is true that the apostle’s warning in Hebrews 3 is taken from the history of Israel, the covenant people of God, it needs to be borne in mind that in connection with Israel there was an election within an election, a spiritual one within the national. Romans 9:7-8 distinctly affirms, "Neither because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." Unless this fact be steadily remembered, much misunderstanding and error will ensue. The fact is that Israel as a Nation, in Old Testament times, is not a type of God’s elect in this New Testament dispensation (as so many have wrongly supposed), but a figure of Christendom as a whole. It was only the spiritual remnant, the elect of God within the nation, who foreshadowed His saints of today. Third, close attention to what is said of the Israelites in Hebrews 3 shows conclusively that they were an illustration not of true Christians out of communion with God, but instead, of nominal professors who were never born again. In proof of this note in Hebrews 3:10 it is said of them, "They do always err in heart;" now though believers err frequently they do not so "always;" then it is added, "they have not known My ways"—could this be said of the spiritual election of God? Surely not. Again, in Hebrews 3:11, We are told, "So I sware in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest:" but God is never wrathful with His own children. Further, in Hebrews 3:17 it is not simply said that "they died" but that their "carcasses fell" in the wilderness, sure proof is such language that they were not children of God, for "precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints" (Psalms 116:15). Finally, the words of the apostle in Hebrews 3:19 admit of no misunderstanding, "So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief." Thus, they were "children in whom is no faith" (Deuteronomy 32:20). Now at the beginning of chapter 4 the apostle applies this solemn warning to test the profession of those who were in danger of "departing from the living God." First he says, "Let us therefore fear." The "therefore" would have no real force if after referring to unbelievers he should apply their example to warn believers, of the tendency and danger of ceasing to have communion with the Lord; in such a case his illustration would be strained and irrelevant. No, when he says, "Let us therefore fear" he obviously has in mind the danger of an empty profession, and sets them to a testing of their faith, which test is answered by perseverance. "Lest a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it." It was not a "rest" of communion into which they had entered but were warned against leaving, or failing to enjoy; but instead, a rest that was promised. What follows clearly defines "His rest" and confirms what we have said above. It has to do with the Gospel, and not with precepts to saints! And the point insisted on is the presence or absence of faith. The order of thought in Hebrews 4, so far as we discern it, is as follows: First, there is a searching exhortation made (Hebrews 4:1) to all who profess to be Christians, that they should work out their salvation with fear and trembling, and that their walk should be such as to give no one the impression that they "seem" to be departing from Christ. This is followed by a solemn warning (Hebrews 4:2) that, the mere hearing of the Gospel is not enough; to profit us, it must be received by faith. Third, this is followed by the declaration that only believers enter into the rest of God. In the remainder of our passage the Spirit makes further comment on Psalm 95 and shows (by negative inference) what the "rest" of God is, and how that the believer’s entrance into it is yet future. "For we which have believed do enter into rest, as He said, As I have sworn in My wrath, if they should enter into My rest" (Hebrews 4:3). The relation of these two clauses the one to the other, is denoted by "as He said," what follows being a quotation from the 95th Psalm; their connection with the opening words of the verse being that they supply proof of what is there said. As pointed out in the previous article, "For we enter into the rest, who believed," simply informs us who are privileged to enter God’s rest, namely, Believers. Corroboration of this is now furnished. Upon the second clause of this verse we cannot do better than quote from Dr. Gouge: "These words ‘as He said’ may have a double reference. One immediate, to the words next before. Considered thus, they furnish a proof by the rule of contraries. The force of the argument resteth on that ruled case, which the apostle taketh for granted, Hebrews 4:6, namely, that ‘some must enter’ into that rest which God hath promised. Hereupon this argument may be made: If some ‘must enter,’ then believers or unbelievers: But not unbelievers, for God by oath hath protested against them; Therefore believers shall enter." "The other reference is more remote to the latter part of the former verse. If the first clause of Hebrews 4:3 be included in a parenthesis, the reference of this unto the former verse will appear to be the more fit. For it showeth unbelievers reap no benefit by the word of promise, because God hath sworn that such shall not enter His rest. The relative ‘He’ is to God. That which He said was in and by David, in Psalms 95:11." Upon the words here quoted from the Psalm, Dr. J. Brown said, "According to the Hebrew idiomatical elliptical mode of expressing an oath, ‘they shall not enter into My rest’." "Although the works were finished from the foundation of the world" (Hebrews 4:3). It is at this point the real difficulty of our passage begins, due in part to its peculiar grammatical structure. "The passage that follows wears a peculiarly disjointed appearance, and has occasioned perplexity to interpreters. I apprehend that the last clause of Hebrews 4:3 should be disconnected from the words immediately preceding, and should be connected with those which immediately follow. Along with Hebrews 4:4-5, it appears to be a kind of explanatory note on the expression, ‘the rest of God’." With this explanation the writer is in full accord, indeed, it seems to him impossible to see in the passage any connected sense unless it be taken thus. Continuing to quote from Dr. Brown: "A promise is left us of entering into His rest. The ‘rest’ of God, in its primary use in the Old Testament scriptures, is descriptive of that state of cessation from the exercise of creating energy, and of satisfaction in what He hath created, into which God is represented as entering on the completion of His six days’ work, when in the beginning ‘He formed the heavens and the earth, and all their hosts.’ In this sense the phrase was plainly not applicable to the subject which the apostle is discussing; but in these words he shows that the phrase, the rest of God is not in the scriptures so appropriated to the rest of God after the creation as not to be applicable, and indeed applied, to other subjects. "Hebrews 4:4-5. Although the works were finished from the foundation of the world (for He spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, ‘And God did rest the seventh day from all His works’), yet in this place again, ‘If they shall enter into My rest.’ In this way the three apparently disjointed members are formed into one sentence; and that one sentence expresses a sentiment calculated to throw light on the language which the apostle has employed." "Although the works were finished from the foundation of the world." This sentence is introductory to what immediately follows, in which the apostle, step by step, leads the Hebrews to the consideration of an higher and better rest than ever was enjoyed in this world. There were two "rests" frequently mentioned in the Old Testament as special pledges of God’s favor: the Sabbath and the land of Canaan: the former being styled "the Sabbath of rest to the Lord" (Exodus 35:2), and "the Sabbath of the Lord" (Exodus 20:10); the latter, "the rest which the Lord gave them" (Deuteronomy 12:9; Joshua 1:15). In view of these the Hebrews might well say, We have always enjoyed the Lord’s Sabbath, and our fathers have long occupied Canaan, why then do you speak so much about entering into God’s rest? The verses which follow meet this objection, showing that neither of those "rests" was meant by David in Psalm 95, nor by himself here in Hebrews 4. The "rest" to which the apostle was pointing the Hebrews was so blessed, so important, so far surpassing anything that Judaism had known, that he was the more careful they should not be mistaken in connection with its nature and character. First, he clears the way for a definition of it by pointing out what it does not consist of. He begins with the Sabbath which is the first "rest" mentioned in Scripture. Second, he passes on to the rest of Canaan. The rest of the Sabbath did foreshadow the heavenly rest, and Canaan was, in an important sense, a figure of it too; but Paul would turn them from types and shadows to contemplate and have them press forward to the antitype and substance itself. This reference to "the works" being "finished from the foundation of the world" takes us back to Genesis 2:1-2. It is the works of creation and restoration, detailed in Genesis 1. The word "foundation" here carries with it a double thought: stability and beginning. As pointed out in our remarks upon Hebrews 1:10, "foundation" denotes the fixity of that which is reared upon it: it is the lowest part of an edifice, upon which the whole of the structure rests. As the "foundation" is the first thing attended to in connection with a building, so this term is used here to denote the beginning of this present world system. "For He spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all His works" (Hebrews 4:4). God’s rest on that primitive seventh day possesses at least a fourfold significance. First, it denoted His own complacency, His satisfaction in what He had made: "And God saw everything that He had made and, behold, it was very good." Second, it was the Creator setting before His creatures an example for them to follow. Why had God taken "six days" to make what is described in Genesis 1? Had He so pleased, all could have been done in one day, yea, in a moment! Obviously it was for the purpose of teaching us. Just as the great God employed in works of usefulness, in providing for the temporal necessities of His creatures, so should we be. And just as God has ceased from all the works of those six days and on the seventh day "rested," so must we. Third, that primitive Sabbath was the prophetic pledge of the "rest" which this earth shall enjoy during the reign of Christ. Fourth, it was a foreshadowing and earnest of the eternal Sabbath, when God shall "rest in His love" (Zephaniah 3:17). Perhaps it needs to be added that the words "and God did rest" do not signify, absolutely, that He remained in a state of inactivity. The "rest" of Scripture is never a condition of inertia. The words of our Savior in John 5:17 respecting the Sabbath day, "My Father worketh hitherto" in nowise conflict with Genesis 2:3. God’s "rest" there was from creating new kinds of creatures; what Christ speaks of is His work in doing good to His creatures; it concerns God’s providences, which never cease day or night, preserving, succoring, governing His creatures. From this we learn that our keeping of the Sabbath is not to consist of a state of idleness, but is forebearing from all the ordinary works of the preceding six days. The Savior’s own example in the Gospels teaches us that works of absolute necessity are permissible, and works of mercy proper. Isaiah 58:13-14 informs us how the Sabbath is to be kept. John 5:17 linked to Genesis 2:3 also contains a hint of the eternal "rest" of heaven: it will be a ceasing from all the carnal works in which we were engaged here, yet it will not be a state of idleness as Revelation 22:3 proves. "And in this again, If they shall enter into My rest" (Hebrews 4:5). The line of argument which the apostle is here pursuing will the more readily be perceived if due attention be paid to the word "again". He is proving that there was another "rest" of God beside that which followed upon His works of creation. This is evident from the language of Psalm 95, upon which he comments in the next verse. Thus the Holy Spirit warns us that each expression used in Holy Writ must be interpreted strictly in harmony with its context. A great deal of unnecessary confusion had been avoided if expositors heeded this simple but fundamental rule. Take the oft-quoted words of James 5:16, "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man available much." How often the "righteous man" here is regarded as synonymous with "Christian," one who is "righteous" in Christ. But such a view ignores the context. This statement is found not in Romans, but James. The epistle of James does not give us the believer’s standing, so much as his state. The prayers of a Christian whose ways are not "right" before God, "avail" little or nothing. So all through the book of Proverbs the "righteous" man is not regarded there as one who is righteous imputatively, but practically. Take again the believer’s present experimental "rest." There are numbers of passages in the New Testament where the same word "rest" is found, but they by no means all refer to the same thing or experience. Each reference needs to be studied in the light of its immediate context, in the light of the particular book in which it is found, (remembering the special theme of that book), and in connection with what is predicated of that "rest". "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls" (Matthew 11:28-29). Here it is obvious, almost at first glance, that two distinct "rests" are before us. The first may be designated rest of conscience, which the convicted sinner, groaning beneath the intolerable load of his conscious sins, obtains when he casts himself on the mercy of Christ. The second is rest of soul, which alas, many professing Christians know very little, if anything, about. It is obtained by taking Christ’s "yoke" upon us and "learning" of Him. "Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief" (Hebrews 4:6). The first words give intimation of an inference being drawn from what has gone before. In Hebrews 4:5, God’s protestation against unbelievers is recorded, here the apostle infers therefrom that there is a rest for believers to enter into. Since God has made promise of some entering into His rest, then they must do so: if no unbelievers, then believers. The words, "it remaineth" here signify "it followeth," for no word of God can fall to the ground. No promise of His can be utterly made void. Though many reap no good thereby, yet others shall be made partakers of the benefit of it. Though the vast majority of the adult Israelites perished in the wilderness, yet Caleb and Joshua entered Canaan. "And they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief." The word "preached" here means "evangelize." The same root word is rendered "gospel" in Hebrews 4:2. This shows us, First, that God has employed only one instrument in the saving of sinners from the beginning, namely, the preaching of the gospel, cf. Galatians 3:8. Second, that the demand of the Gospel from those who hear it is faith, taking God at His word, receiving with childlike simplicity and gladness the good news He has sent us. Third, that "unbelief" shuts out from God’s favor and blessing. In Hebrews 11:31 we are told, "By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not." It was not because the others were Canaanites, heathen, wicked people, but because they believed not that they "perished." Solemn warning was this for the Hebrews whose faith was waning. "Again, He limiteth a certain day, saying in David, Today" (Hebrews 4:7). It is evident that Hebrews 5:6 is an incomplete sentence, finished, we apprehend, in Hebrews 5:11. What follows in Hebrews 4:7-10 is a parenthesis, and to its consideration we must now turn. The purpose of this parenthesis is to establish the principle on which the exhortation is based, namely, that since there is a "rest of God" for believers to enter, and seeing that Israel of old failed to enter therein, it behooves us today to give the more earnest heed to the word of the Gospel which we have heard, and to "labor to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief." "Again He limiteth a certain day, saying, in David, Today, after so long a time, as it is said, Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts" (Hebrews 4:7). This may be called the text which the apostle goes on to expound and apply. The Revised Version rendering of it is much to be preferred: "He again defineth a certain day, Today, saying in David, so long a time afterward (even as hath been said before), Today if ye will hear" etc. Having drawn an argument from Psalms 95:11 to show that the promise of rest which is "left" (Hebrews 4:1) Christians, is not the same as that mentioned in Genesis 2:3, the apostle now proceeds to point out that there is another "rest" to be sought after than the land of Canaan—let us not deem the demonstration of this needless, lest we be found impugning the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. The apostle’s argument here turns on the word "Today" found in Psalms 95:7. This was what was "limited" or "defined." The "after so long a time" refers to the interval which elapsed after the Israelites perished in the wilderness and the writing of that Psalm, which contained a Divine exhortation for God’s people living then. Betwixt Moses and David was a period of five centuries (Acts 13:20). "The apostle’s argument may thus be framed: That rest wherewith men are invited to enter four hundred and fifty years after a rest possessed, is another rest than that which Israel possessed. But the rest intended by David is a rest wherein he inviteth men to enter four hundred and fifty years after Canaan was possessed. Therefore Canaan is not that rest" (Dr. Gouge). "For if Joshua had given them rest, then would He not afterward have spoken of another day" (Hebrews 4:8). It is plain that the apostle is here anticipating a Jewish objection, which may be stated thus: Though many of the Israelites which were in the wilderness entered not into Canaan, yet others did; for Joshua conducted their children thither. To obviate this, the apostle proves that the Old Testament Scriptures spoke of another "rest" besides that. He does not deny Canaan to be a rest, but he denies that it was the only rest, the rest to be so rested in as no other was to be sought after. The "then would he have not afterward have spoken of another day" is the proof that Joshua did not settle God’s people in the "rest" which David mentioned. It is right here that we may discern the point to which the apostle would direct the Hebrews’ attention, though to spare their feelings he does not state it explicitly. It was a glorious thing when Joshua led Israel’s hosts out of the wilderness, across the Jordan, into the promised land. Truly that was one of the outstanding epochs in their national history. Nor would the apostle, directly, deprecate it. Yet if the Hebrews would but meditate for a moment on the nature of that rest into which the illustrious successor of Moses led their fathers, they must see that it was very far from being the perfect state. It was only an earthly inheritance. It was filled with enemies, who had to be dispossessed. Its continued tenure was dependent on their own faithfulness to God. It was enjoyed comparatively only a short time. Different far is the rest of God into which the Apostle of Christianity will yet lead His people. Listen to His own words, "In My Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that, where I am, there ye may be also" (John 14:2-3). Here, then, we may see the superiority of Christ over Joshua, as the rest into which He brings His people excels that into which Joshua conducted Israel. "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God" (Hebrews 4:9). This verse gives the conclusion drawn from the preceding argument. The apostle had shown that the "rest" mentioned by David was neither the rest of the primitive Sabbath in Genesis 2 nor the rest of Canaan into which Joshua had conducted the second generation of Israel. Therefore there "remaineth a rest to the people of God:" that is, there is some other rest for God’s people to look forward to. Thus, the "therefore" here is, first of all, a general inference drawn from all that precedes. A "promise is left" of entering into God’s rest (Hebrews 4:1). That promise must be appropriated, "mixed with faith" in those who hear it (Hebrews 4:2). Only believers will enter that rest, for God hath sworn that unbelievers shall not enter therein (Hebrews 4:3). Although there is a rest of God mentioned in Genesis 2 (Hebrews 4:2-3), and although Joshua led Israel into the rest of Canaan (Hebrews 4:8), yet neither of these "rests" was what is promised Christians (Hebrews 4:8). Hence, we can only conclude there is another "rest" for God’s people (Hebrews 4:9). That the Christian’s perfect "rest" is yet future is clear from the language of Hebrews 4:11, where the Hebrews were admonished to "labor therefore to enter into that rest." Thus, regarding Hebrews 4:9, first, as a general conclusion drawn from the whole of the context, we understand it to mean: "Thus it is evident there is a rest for the people of God." These words were designed to reassure the hearts of the Hebrews. In turning their backs on Judaism the "rest" of Canaan was relinquished, but this did not mean that they had, because of their faith in Christ, ceased to be "the people of God," nor did it involve the forfeiture of all privileges and blessings. Nay, the apostle had warned them in Hebrews 3:6, Hebrews 3:12, Hebrews 3:14 that it was impossible to retain the privilege of belonging to the people of God except through faith in Christ. Now he assures them that only for such people was there a rest of God remaining. Above, we have pointed out that the "therefore" of Hebrews 4:9 denotes, first of all, that the apostle is here drawing a general conclusion from all he had said in the context. We would now call attention to a more specific inference pointed by that word. It needs to be most carefully observed that in this verse the Holy Spirit employs an entirely different word for "rest" than what he had used in Hebrews 4:1, Hebrews 4:3-5, Hebrews 4:8. There the Greek word is rightly rendered "rest," but here it is "sabbatismos" and its meaning has been properly given by the translators in the margin—"keeping of a Sabbath." The Revised Version gives the text itself, "There remaineth therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God." The purpose of the Holy Spirit in employing this term here is not difficult to discover. He was writing to Hebrews, Jews who had professed to become Christians, to have trusted in the Lord Jesus. Their profession of faith involved them in sore trials at the hands of their unbelieving brethren. They denounced them as apostates from the faith of their fathers. They disowned them as the "people of God." But as we have said the apostle here reassures them that now only believers in Christ had any title to be numbered among "the people of God." Having renounced Judaism for Christ the question of the "Sabbath" must also have exercised them deeply. Here the apostle sets their minds at rest. A suitable point in his epistle had now been reached when this could be brought in: he was speaking of "rest," so he informs them that under Christianity also, "there remaineth therefore a Sabbath-keeping for the people of God." The specific reference in the "therefore" is to what he had said in Hebrews 4:4 : God did rest on the seventh day from all His works, there]ore as believers in Christ are the "people of God" they must rest too. "There remaineth therefore a Sabbath-keeping for the people of God." The reference is not to something future, but to what is present. The Greek verb (in its passive form) is never rendered by any other English equivalent than "remaineth." It occurs again in Hebrews 10:26. The word "remain" signifies "to be left after others have withdrawn, to continue unchanged." Here then is a plain, positive, unequivocal declaration by the Spirit of God: "There remaineth therefore a Sabbath-keeping." Nothing could be simpler, nothing less ambiguous. The striking thing is that this statement occurs in the very epistle whose theme is the superiority of Christianity over Judaism; written to those addressed as "holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling." Therefore, it cannot be gainsaid that Hebrews 4:9 refers directly to the Christian Sabbath. Hence we solemnly and emphatically declare that any man who says there is no Christian Sabbath takes direct issue with the New Testament scriptures. "For he that is entered into his rest he also hath ceased from his own works, as God from His" (Hebrews 4:10). In this verse the apostle expressly defines the nature of that excellent rest of which he had been speaking: it is a cessation from our works, as God from His. The object in thus describing our rest is to show that it is not to be found in this world, but is reserved for the world to come. The argument of this verse—its opening "for" denotes that further proof is being supplied to confirm what has been said—is taken from the self-evident principle that rest is not enjoyed till work is ceased from. This world is full of toil, travail and trouble, but in the world to come there is full freedom from all these. "Thy commandment is exceedingly broad" (Psalms 119:96). There is a breadth and fullness to the words of God which no single interpretation can exhaust. Just as Hebrews 4:9 has at least a double application, containing both a general conclusion from the whole preceding argument, and also a specific inference from what is said in Hebrews 4:4, so is it here. Not only does Hebrews 4:9 state a general principle which serves to corroborate the apostle’s inference in Hebrews 4:9, but it also has a specific reference and application. The change in number of the pronoun here is not without meaning. In Hebrews 4:1 he had used a plural, "us," so in Hebrews 4:3 "we," and again in Hebrews 4:11 he uses "us," but here in Hebrews 4:10 it is "he and his." "It appears to me that it is the rest of Christ from His works, which is compared with the rest of God from His works in creation." (Dr. John Owen). The reference to Christ in Hebrews 4:10 (remember the section begins at Hebrews 3:1 and concludes with Hebrews 4:14-16) completes the positive side of the apostle’s proof of His superiority over Joshua. In Hebrews 4:8 he had pointed out that Joshua did not lead Israel into the perfect rest of God; now he affirms that Christ, our Apostle, has entered it, and His entrance is the pledge and proof that His people shall—"whither the Forerunner is for us entered" (Hebrews 6:20). But more: what is said of Christ in Hebrews 4:10 clinches our interpretation of Hebrews 4:9 and gives beautiful completeness to what is there said: "There remaineth therefore a Sabbath-keeping to the people of God. For He that is entered into His rest, He also hath ceased from his own works, as God from His." Thus, the Holy Spirit here teaches us to view Christ’s rest from his work of Redemption as parallel with God’s work in creation. They are spoken of as parallel in this respect: the relation which each "work" has to the keeping of a Sabbath! The opening "for" of Hebrews 4:10 shows that what follows furnishes a reason why God’s people, now, must keep the Sabbath. That reason invests the Sabbath with a fuller meaning than it had in Old Testament times. It is now not only a memorial of God’s work of creation, and a recognition of the Creator as our Proprietor, but it is also an emblem of the rest which Christ entered as an eternal memorial of His finished work; and inasmuch as Christ ended His work and entered upon His "rest" by rising again on the first day of the week, we are thereby notified that the Christian’s six work-days must run from Monday to Saturday, and that his Sabbath must be observed on Sunday. This is confirmed by the additional fact that the New Testament shows that after the crucifixion of Christ the first day of the week was the one set apart for Divine worship. May the Lord bless what has been before us. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 90: 005.018. CHAPTER 18 ======================================================================== Chapter 18 CHRIST SUPERIOR TO JOSHUA Hebrews 4:11-16 The verses which are to be before us complete the present section of our Epistle, a section which begins at Hebrews 3:1 and which has two main divisions: the first, setting forth the superiority of Christ over Moses; the second, His superiority over Joshua. In the last six verses of chapter 4 a practical application is made of what had previously been said. That application begins with an exhortation for Christians to "labor therefore to enter into that rest." Both the nature and the place of this "rest" have been defined in the earlier verses. As the opening verse of the chapter shows, it is the "rest of God" which is, in promise, set before us. Beautifully has another said: "But what did God mean by calling it His rest? Not they enter into their rest, but His Own. Oh, blessed distinction! I hasten to the ultimate and deepest solution of the question. God gives us Himself, and in all His gifts He gives us Himself. Here is the distinction between all religions which men invent, which have their origin in the conscience and heart of man, which spring up from the earth; and the truth, the salvation, the life, revealed unto us from above, descending to us from heaven. All religions seek and promise the same things: light, righteousness, peace, strength, and joy. But human religions think only of creature-light, creature-righteousness, of a human, limited, and imperfect peace, strength and blessings. They start from man upwards. But God gives us Himself, and in Himself all gifts, and hence all His gifts are perfect and divine. "Does God give us righteousness? He Himself is our righteousness, Jehovah-Tsidkenu. Does God give us peace? Christ is our peace. Does God give us light? He is our light. Does God give us bread? He is the bread we eat. As the Son liveth by the Father, so he that eateth Me shall live by Me (John 6). God Himself is our strength. God is ours, and in all His gifts and blessings He gives Himself. By the Holy Spirit we are one with Christ, and Christ the Son of God is our righteousness, nay, our life. Do you want any other real presence? Are we not altogether ‘engodded,’ God dwelling and living in us, and we in Him? What more real presence and indwelling, awful and blessed, can we have than that which the apostle described when he said: ‘I live; yet not I, But Christ liveth in me?’ Or again, ‘I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.’ Thus God gives us His rest as our rest" (Saphir). Following the exhortation to labor to enter into God’s rest, reference is made to the living, powerful, and piercing character of the Word of God, and the effects it produces in regeneration. In the light of the solemn warning which follows in Hebrews 4:13, the contents of Hebrews 4:12 seem to be brought in for the purpose of enabling the Hebrews to test the genuineness of their Christian profession: sufficient is there said for them to discover whether or not they had been born again. Then the chapter closes with one of the most precious passages to be found in our Epistle, or indeed in the whole of the New Testament. It makes known the gracious provisions which God has made for His poor people while they are yet in the place of testing. It brings before us the sufficiency and sympathy of our great High Priest, in view of which Christians are bidden to "come boldly unto the throne of grace," that they "may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." May the Spirit of God condescend to open up to us this portion of His Word. "Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief" (Hebrews 4:11). As pointed out in the preceding article, this verse completes the sentence begun at Hebrews 4:6. It is in view of the solemn fact that the great majority of those Israelites to whom the Gospel of Rest was first preached did not receive it in faith, and so perished in the wilderness, and hence because that only true believers will enter into God’s rest, the Hebrews were now enjoined to spare no efforts in making sure that they would not fail and miss it. Hebrews 4:11 is also the complement to Hebrews 4:1. The verb for "let us labor" is derived from another verb meaning "to make haste." It is designed to point a contrast from "any of you should seem to come short of it" in Hebrews 4:1. There the word is derived from a root meaning "afterwards," and some able linguists declare that the word for "come short of" means, literally, "be a day late." We believe the Spirit’s designed reference is to what is recorded in Numbers 14. Israel had already crossed the wilderness, and had reached Kadesh-barnea. From thence Moses had sent the twelve spies to view the land of Canaan. They had returned with a conflicting report. Ten of them magnified the difficulties which lay ahead, and discouraged the people but Caleb said, "Let us go up at once, and possess it" (Numbers 13:30). The congregation listened only to the ten, and "wept that night" and "murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! And wherefore hath the Lord brought us into this land, to fall by the Sword, that our wives and children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt? And they said one to another, Let us make us a captain and let us return into Egypt" (Numbers 14:1-3). Then it was that the wrath of Jehovah was kindled against His unbelieving people, saying, "How long shall I bear with this evil congregation which murmur against Me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against Me. Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in Mine ears, so will I do to you: Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness" (Numbers 14:27-29). But instead of bowing to the Lord’s solemn sentence, we are told, "And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which the Lord hath promised" (Numbers 14:40). Moses faithfully expostulated with them, "Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the Lord? but it shall not prosper. Go not up, for the Lord is not among you; that ye be not smitten." But they heeded him not: "They presumed to go up unto the hill top... Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah" (Numbers 14:44-45). They were a day late! They had delayed, they had failed to trust the Lord and heed His voice through Caleb the previous day, and now they "came short" of entering the promised rest of Canaan. It was in view of Israel’s procrastination at Kadesh-barnea that the apostle admonished the Hebrews, "Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it." As we pointed out the word "seem" regarded their walk: let there be nothing in their ways which gave the appearance that they were halting, wavering, departing from Christ. For Christians to seem to come short, be a day late, in laying hold of the promise "left" them of entering into God’s rest, means to sink to the level of the ways of the world, to settle down here, instead of going forward as "strangers and pilgrims." It means to look back to and long for the flesh-pots of Egypt. Ah, my reader, to which does your daily life witness? to the fact that you have not yet entered your "rest," or that you have found a substitute for it here? If so, heed that solemn word, "Arise ye, and depart for this is not your rest: because it is polluted, it shall destroy, even with a sore destruction" (Micah 2:10). Having then warned the Hebrews in Hebrews 4:1 what to avoid, the apostle now tells them in Hebrews 4:11 what to essay. They were to "labor" to enter into that rest. As stated above, the Greek word is derived from another verb meaning "to make haste;" the one used here signifies to "give diligence" and is so rendered in the Revised Version. In 2 Timothy 2:15 it is translated "study." "The word ‘labor’ is equivalent to ‘eagerly and perseveringly seek.’ The manner in which the Hebrew Christians were to ‘labor to enter unto that rest,’ was by believing the truth, and continuing ‘steadfast and unmoveable’ in the faith of the truth, and in the natural results of the faith of the truth" (Dr. J. Brown). It is human responsibility which is here being addressed again, and Hebrews 4:11 is closely parallel with the exhortations of 1 Corinthians 10:10-12 and 2 Peter 1:5-10. Our real "rest" is yet to come, it is but "promised" (Hebrews 4:1); in the meantime we are to press forward to it. "This world is not a fit place, nor this life a fit time, to enjoy such a rest as is reserved in heaven. Rest here would glue our hearts too much to this world, and make us say, ‘It is good to be here’ (Matthew 17:4). It would slack our longing desire after Christ in heaven. Death would be more irksome, and heaven the less welcome. There would be no proof or trial of our spiritual armor, and of the several graces of God bestowed on us. God’s providence, prudence, power, mercy, could not be made so well discerned. This rest being to come, and reserved for us, it will be our Wisdom, while here we live, to prepare for trouble, and to address ourselves to labor: as the soldiers in the field and as the laborers in the daytime. Yet withal to have our eye upon this rest to come; that thereby we may be the more encouraged and incited to hold out to the end" (Dr. Gouge). "Lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief." To enforce the previous exhortation the apostle points out the danger and damage that would follow a neglect thereof. The "rest" is a word of caution and calls for circumspection as a preventative against apostasy. The "lest any man" intimates that this care and circumspection is not to be restricted to one’s own self, but extended to our fellow-pilgrims. The word "fall" signifies to fall utterly: it is used in Romans 11:22. Professors may fall away; many have done so (see 1 John 2:19, etc.); then let us be on our guard. The "example" of others having fallen through unbelief should make us wary. "We may well observe from this exhortation, 1. That great oppositions will and do arise against men in the work of entering into God’s rest . . . But notwithstanding all these difficulties, the promise of God being mixed with faith will carry us safely through them all. 2. That as the utmost of our endeavor and labors are required to our obtaining an entrance into the rest of Christ, so it doth very well deserve that they should be laid out therein. Men are content to lay themselves out to the utmost and to spend their strength for the ‘bread that perisheth,’ yea ‘for that which is not bread.’ But the rest of the Gospel deserves our utmost diligence and endeavor. To convince men thereof is one of the chief ends of the preaching of the Gospel" (Dr. John Owen). As was the case with the contents of Hebrews 4:9-10, so we are assured there is a double reference to the words of Hebrews 4:11 : a general and a specific. The general, refers to the future and perfect rest of the Christian in heaven; the specific, being to that which is the emblem and type of it, namely, the weekly sabbath. This, we believe, is why the Holy Spirit here says, "Let us give diligence therefore to enter into that rest," rather than "into His rest," as in Hebrews 4:1. "That rest" designedly includes both the eternal rest of God, and the sabbath rest, spoken of in Hebrews 4:10. This we are to "give diligence" to enter, not only because the sabbath-desecration of worldlings is apt to discourage us, but also because there are professing Christians who loudly insist that there is no such thing as a "Christian sabbath." Beware lest we fail to heed this word of God, and "fall through the same example of unbelief" as Israel in the wilderness, who failed to listen to God. "For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12). The first word of this verse (which has the force of "because") denotes that the apostle is here furnishing further reason why professing Christians should give diligence in pressing forward to the rest which is set before them. That reason is drawn from the nature of and the effects produced by the Word of God. This verse and the one which follows appear to be brought in for the purpose of testing profession and enabling exercised souls to discover whether or not they have been born again. "Let us give diligence therefore to enter into that rest . . . For the Word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." It should be evident that the first thing emphasized here is that Christianity consists not so much of external conduct, as the place which the Word of God has within us. The Word of God "piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit" is the effect which it produces, under the application of the Lord, when a sinner is regenerated. Man is a tripartite being, consisting of spirit and soul and body. This, we believe, is the first and deepest meaning of Genesis 1:26, "And God said, Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness." God Himself is a Trinity in Unity, and such He made man to be. The "spirit" is the highest part of man, being the seat of God-consciousness. The "soul" is the ego, the individual himself, and is the seat of self-consciousness; man has a "spirit," but he is "a living soul." The "body" is his house or tabernacle, being the seat of sense-consciousness. In the day that man first sinned, he died spiritually. But in Scripture "death" never means extinction of being; instead, it always signifies separation (see Luke 15:24). The nature of man’s spiritual "death" is intimated in Ephesians 4:18, "alienated from the life of God." When Adam disobeyed his Maker, he became a fallen creature, separated from God. The first effect of this was that his "spirit" no longer functioned separately, it was no more in communion with God. His spirit fell to the level of his soul. The "soul" is the seat of the emotions (1 Samuel 18:1, Judges 10:16, Genesis 42:21, etc.). It is that part of our nature which stirs into exercise the "lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life." The unregenerate man is termed "the soulical man" (1 Corinthians 2:14), the Greek word there being the adjectival form of "psyche" or "soul." That is to say, the unregenerate man is entirely dominated by his soul, his lusts, his desires, his emotions. Spiritual considerations have no weight with him whatsoever, for he is "alienated from the life of God." True, he has a "spirit," and by means of it he is capable of perceiving all around him the evidences of the "eternal power and godhead" of the Creator (Romans 1:20). It is the "candle of the Lord" (Proverbs 20:27) within him; yet has it, because of the fall, no communion with God. Now at regeneration there is, literally, a "dividing asunder of soul and spirit." The spirit is restored to communion with God, made enrapport with Him, "reconciled." The spirit is raised from its immersion in the soul, and once more functions separately: "For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit" (Romans 1:9); "my spirit prayeth" (1 Corinthians 14:14) etc. The first consequence of this is intimated in the closing words of Hebrews 4:12, "And is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." The Word of God now exposes his innermost being. Having eyes to see, he discovers, for the first time, what a vile, depraved and hell-deserving creature he is. Though, in the mercy of God, he may have been preserved from much outward wickedness in his unregenerate days, and so passed among his fellows as an exemplary character, he now perceives that there dwelleth "no good thing" in him, that every thought and intent of his desperately wicked heart had, all his life, been contrary to the requirements and claims of a holy God. The Word has searched him out, and discovered him to himself. He sees himself a lost, ruined, undone sinner. This is ever the first conscious effect of the new birth, for one who is still "dead in trespasses and sins" has no realization of his awful condition before God. Ere passing on let us earnestly press upon the reader what has just been before us, and ask, has the Word of God thus "pierced" you? Has it penetrated, as no word from man ever has, into your innermost being? Has it exposed the workings of your wicked heart? Has it detected to you the sink of iniquity which dwells within? Make no mistake about it, dear friend, the thrice holy God of Scripture "requireth truth in the inward parts" (Psalms 51:6). If the Word of God has searched you out, then you cried with Isaiah "Woe is reel for I am undone" (Hebrews 6:5); with Job, "I abhor myself" (Job 42:6); with the publican, "God be merciful to me the sinner" (Luke 18:13). But if you are a stranger to these experiences, no matter what your profession or performances, no matter how highly you may think of yourself or Christians think of you, God says you are still dead in sin. Let it not be supposed that we have attempted to give above a complete description of all that takes place at the new birth; not so, we have confined ourselves to what is said in Hebrews 4:12. Nor let it be thought that the language of this verse is to be restricted to what occurs at regeneration, not so, that is only in initial reference. The activities of the Word of God therein described are repeated whenever a Christian gets out of communion with Him, for then he is dominated to a large extent by his soul rather than his spirit. It should not need pointing out, yet the terrible ignorance of Scripture prevailing today makes it necessary, that when a child of God is walking in communion with Him, His word does not come to him as a "sword"; rather is it "a lamp" unto his feet. If the reader will compare Revelation 2:12 and Revelation 19:15 he will obtain confirmation of this. The relation of Hebrews 4:12 to the whole context is very striking, and its contents divinely appropriate. It brings out the dignity and Deity of "The Apostle" of our profession. It shows the sufficiency of His Word. It is striking to note that just seven things are here said of it. First, it is the "Word of God." Second, it is living, or "quick." Third, it is mighty, "powerful." Fourth, it is effectual, "sharper than any two edged sword." Fifth, it is penetrating, "piercing." Sixth, it is regenerative, "even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit." Seventh, it is revealing and exposing, bringing to light the "thoughts and intents of the heart, etc." The reference to the Word piercing to the dividing asunder of "the joints (external) and marrow" (internal) tells of its discriminating power over every part of our being. The more we submit ourselves unto its searching and convicting influence the more shall we be blest. "Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do" (Hebrews 4:13). The rendering of the A.V. here is faulty, the opening "Neither" being quite misleading. The Revised Version gives "And there is no creature that is not manifest in His sight" etc. Thus the first word denotes that a reason is being given for the power and efficacy of the Word, a reason which is drawn from the nature of Him whose Word it is, namely, God; who being Himself the Searcher of the heart and the Discerner of all things, is pleased to exercise that power in and by the ministry and application of His Word. The two verses taken together supply a further reason why Christ’s voice should be heeded, even because, as God, He is the omniscient One. "Seeing then that we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession" (Hebrews 4:14). The connection between this and what has gone before is most blessed. The closing verses of our chapter contain precious words of encouragement. They tell of the wondrous provisions of God’s grace for His people while they are still in the place of testing. They assure us that none of those who are really the people of God shall, finally, miss the perfect and eternal rest. The Revised Version reads, "Having then a great High Priest"; Bagster’s interlinear gives, "Having therefore a High Priest, great." The general reference is back to what was said in Hebrews 1:3, Hebrews 2:17, Hebrews 3:1 : the Divine sonship, the incarnation, the exaltation of Jesus, our High Priest, is the supreme motive for holding fast our profession. The particular reference is to the apostle’s main point in this chapter: if the question be asked, What hope have we poor sinners got of entering into God’s rest? The answer is, Because Christ, our High Priest, has already entered heaven, and we also must do so in and by Him. The immediate reference is to what had been said in Hebrews 4:12-13 : we shall be assuredly found out if we fall from our profession, therefore it becomes us to hold it fast. As the priesthood of Christ will, D.V., come before us more fully in the chapters that follow, we shall offer here only a few brief remarks on the verse now before us. First, it is to be noted that the Holy Spirit here designates Christ the "great High Priest"; no other, neither Aaron nor Melchizedek, is so denominated. Its use emphasizes the supreme dignity, excellency, and sufficiency of our High Priest. Second, He has "passed in (Greek "through") the heavens." "This word signifies to pass through notwithstanding any difficulties that may seem to hand. Thus it is said that an angel and Peter ‘passed the first and second wards’ (Acts 12:10). Our Lord Christ having assumed our nature, passed through the virgin’s womb; and being born, in His infancy, childhood, and manhood, passed through many difficulties, temptations, afflictions, persecutions, yea, death itself and the grave; after His resurrection He passed through the air and the stellar heavens, entering the heaven of heavens. Thus we see that nothing could hinder Him from that place where He intended to appear as our Priest before His Father" (Dr. Gouge). "For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15). Most blessed is this. The third thing said in Hebrews 4:14 of our exalted High Priest is that He is "the Son of God." Well may poor sinners, conscious of their unworthiness and vileness, ask, How may we, so weak and worthless, approach unto and seek the mediation of such an One? To reassure our poor hearts, the Holy Spirit at once reminds us that albeit Christ is such a great and glorious Priest, yet, withal, He is full of sympathy and tender compassion for His afflicted people. He is "merciful" (Hebrews 2:17), as well as omnipotent. He is Man, as well as God. He has Himself been tempted in all things, like ourselves, sin excepted. "But was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin," or literally, "who has been tempted in all things according to our likeness, apart from sin" i.e. in spirit, and soul, and body. "He was tempted—tried, exercised—for no more doth the word impart. Whatever is the moral evil in temptation is due to the depraved intention of the tempter, or from the weakness and sin of the tempted. In itself, it is but a trial, which may have a good or bad effect. He was tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Sin may be considered as to its principle, and as to its effect. Men are tempted to sin by sin, to actual sin by habitual sin, to outward sin, by indwelling sin. And this is the greatest source of sin in us who are sinners. The apostle reminds us of the holiness and purity of Christ, that we may not imagine that He was liable unto any such temptations unto sin from within as we find ourselves liable unto, who are never free from guilt and defilement. Whatever temptation He was exposed unto or exercised withal, as He was with all and of all sorts that can come from without, they had none of them in the last degree any effect unto Him. He was absolutely in all things ‘without sin’; He neither was tempted by sin, such was the holiness of His nature; nor did His temptation produce sin, such was the perfection of His obedience" (Dr. John Owen). The Man Christ Jesus was the Holy One of God, and therefore He could not sin. But were not Satan and Adam created without sin, and did not they yield to temptation? Yes; but the one was only a created angel the other merely man. But our Lord and Savior was not a created being; instead, He was "God manifest in flesh." In His humanity He was "holy" (Luke 1:35) and, as such, as high above unfallen Satan or Adam as the heavens are above the earth. He was not only impeccable God, but impeccable Man. The prince of this world came, but found nothing in Him (John 14:30). Thus, He is presented before us not only as an example to be followed, but as an Object upon which faith may rest with unshaken confidence. "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16). This verse sets before us the second use we are to make of the priesthood of Christ. The first is named in Hebrews 4:14, to "hold fast our profession"; here, to "come boldly unto the throne of grace." In relation to the whole context this verse makes known the wondrous and blessed provision God has made for His wilderness people. Herein, too, we may behold again the immeasurable superiority of Christianity over Judaism. The Israelites were confined to the outer court; none at all save the high priest was permitted to draw near to God within the vail. But all Christians, the youngest, weakest, most ignorant, have been "made nigh" (Ephesians 2:13); and in consequence, freedom of access to the very throne of Deity is now their rightful and blessed portion. "And having such a High Priest in heaven, can we lose courage? Can we draw back in cowardice, impatience, and faintheartedness? Can we give up our profession, our allegiance, our obedience to Christ? Or shall we not be like Joshua and Caleb, who followed the Lord fully? Let us hold fast our profession; let us persevere and fight the good fight of faith. Our great High Priest in the highest glory is our righteousness and strength. He loves, He watches, He prays, He holds us fast, and we shall never perish. Jesus is our Moses, who in the height above prays for us. Jesus our true Joshua, who gained the victory over our enemies. Only be strong, and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed. In that mirror of the Word in which we behold our sin and weakness, we behold also the image of that perfect One who has passed through the conflict and temptation, who as the High Priest bears us on His loving heart, and as the Shepherd of the flock holds us in safety forever more. Boldly we come to the throne of grace. In Jesus we draw near to the Father. The throne of majesty and righteousness is unto us a throne of grace. The Lord is our God. There is not merely grace on the throne, but the throne is altogether the throne of grace. It is grace which disciplines us by the sharp and piercing Word, it is grace which looks on us when we have denied Him, and makes us weep bitterly. Jesus always intercedes: the throne is always a throne of grace. The Lamb is in the midst of the throne. Hence we come boldly. "Boldly is not contrasted with reverently and tremblingly. It means literally ‘saying all,’ with that confidence which begets thorough honesty, frankness, full and open speech. ‘Pour out your heart before Him.’ Come as you are, say what you feel, ask what you need. Confess your sins, your fears, your wandering thoughts and affections. Jesus the Lord went through all sorrows and trials the heart of man can go through, and as He felt affliction and temptation most keenly, so in all these difficulties and trials He had communion with the Father. He knows therefore, how to succor them that are tempted, how fully and unreservedly, then, may we speak to God in the presence and by the mediation of the man Christ Jesus! "The Lord Jesus is filled with tender compassion and the most profound, lively, and comprehensive sympathy. This belongs to the perfection of His high-priesthood. For this very purpose He was tempted. He suffered. Our infirmities, it is true, are ultimately connected with our sinfulness; the weakness of our flesh is never free from a sinful concurrence of the will; and the Savior knows from His experience on earth how ignorant, poor, weak, sinful, and corrupt His disciples are. He loved them, watched over them with unwearied patience; prayed for them that their faith fail not; and reminded them the spirit was willing, but the flesh is weak. He remembers also His own sinless weakness; He knows what constant thought, meditation, and prayer are needed to overcome Satan, and to be faithful to God. He knows what it is for the soul to be sorrowful and overwhelmed, and what it is to be refreshed by the sunshine of Divine favor, and to rejoice in the Spirit. We may come in to Him expecting full, tender, deep sympathy and compassion. He is ever ready to strengthen and comfort, to heal and restore, He is prepared to receive the poor, wounded, sin-stained believer; to dry the tears of Peter weeping bitterly; to say to Paul, oppressed with the thorn in the flesh, ‘My grace is sufficient for thee.’ "We need only understand that we are sinners, and that He is High Priest. The law was given that every mouth may be shut, for we are guilty. The High Priest is given that every mouth may be opened . . . We come in faith as sinners. Then shall we obtain mercy; and we always need mercy, to wash our feet: to restore to us the joy of salvation, to heal our backslidings, and bind up our wounds. We shall obtain help in every time of need. For God may suffer Satan and the world, want and suffering, to go against us; but He always causes all things to work together for our good. He permits the time of need, that we may call upon Him, and, being delivered by Him, may glorify His name" (Saphir). "We should come therefore with boldness to the throne of grace" (Bagster). Then let us do so, in the full confidence of our acceptance before God in the person of His Beloved (Ephesians 1:6). The verb in Hebrews 4:16 is not in the aorist tense, but the present—let us "come" constantly, continually; let us form the habit of doing so. This is the first of seven occurrences of this blessed word in our epistle: the other references are Hebrews 7:25; Hebrews 10:1, Hebrews 10:22; Hebrews 11:6; Hebrews 12:18, Hebrews 12:22. To "obtain mercy" is passive, and refers to past failures. "Finding grace" is active, and signifies that we humbly, earnestly, and believingly seek it. To "help in time of need:" this is daily, yea, hourly. But whenever the need may be, spiritually or temporal, grace all-sufficient is ever-available. May it be ours to constantly seek it, for the unchanging promise is, "Seek, and ye shall find." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 91: 005.019. CHAPTER 19 ======================================================================== Chapter 19 CHRIST SUPERIOR TO AARON Hebrews 5:1-4 We are now to enter upon the longest section of our Epistle (Heb. 5:1 to 10:39), and a section which is, from the doctrinal and practical viewpoints, perhaps the most important of all. In it the Holy Spirit treats of our Savior’s priesthood. Concerning this most blessed and vital subject the utmost confusion prevails in Christendom today. Yet this is scarcely to be wondered at. For not only has the time now arrived when the majority of those who profess the name of Christ "will not endure sound doctrine," who after their own fleshly and worldly lusts have heaped to themselves teachers that tickle their itching ears with God-dishonoring novelties, but they have turned away their ears from the truth, and are "turned unto fables" (2 Timothy 4:3-4). Never was there a time when true God-fearing Christians more needed to heed that Divine admonition, "Prove all things, hold fast that which is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:21). Our only safeguard is to emulate the Bereans and search the Scriptures daily to ascertain whether or not the things we hear and read from men—be their reputation for scholarship, piety, and orthodoxy never so great—are according to the unerring Word of God. Romanists, and with them an increasing number of Anglicans (Episcopalians), virtually set aside the solitary grandeur of the Priesthood of Christ and the sufficiency of His Atonement, by bringing in human priests to act as mediators between God and sinful men. Arminians are in fundamental error by representing the priestly office and ministry of Christ as having a relation to and a bearing upon the whole human race. Most of the leaders among the Plymouth Brethren have wrested the Scriptures by denying the priestly character of Christ’s death by insisting that He only entered upon His priestly office after His ascension, and by affirming that it bears no direct relation to sin or sins, but is only a ministry of sympathy and succor for weakness and infirmities. But as it will serve no profitable purpose to deal with the errors of others, let us turn to the positive side of our subject. Three references to the High Priesthood of Christ have already been before us in the preceding chapters of our Epistle. First, in Hebrews 2:17 we read, "Wherefore, in all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people." This, of itself, is quite sufficient to expose the sophistries of those who teach that the priestly work of Christ has nothing to do with "sins." Second, in Hebrews 3:1 we have been exhorted to, "consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus." Third, in Hebrews 4:14 we are told, "We have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God." Here again is a single statement which is alone sufficient to prove that our Savior entered upon His priestly office before His ascension, for it was as the "great High Priest" He "passed into the heavens." Supplementing our previous comments on Hebrews 4:14 and introducing what is to be before us, let us note that the Lord Jesus is designed a "great High Priest." This word at once emphasizes His excellency and pre-eminency. Never was there, never can there be another, possessed of such dignity and glory. The "greatness" of our High Priest arises, First, from the dignity of His person: He is not only Son of man, but Son of God (Hebrews 4:14). Second, from the purity of His nature: He is "without sin" (Hebrews 4:15), "holy," (Hebrews 7:26). Third, from the eminency of His order: that of Melchizedek (Hebrews 5:6). Fourth, from the solemnity of his ordination: "with an oath" (Hebrews 7:20-21)—none other was. Fifth, from the excellency of His sacrifice: "Himself, without spot" (Hebrews 9:14). Sixth, from the perfection of His administration (Hebrews 7:11, Hebrews 7:25)—He has satisfied divine justice, procured Divine favor, given access to the Throne of Grace, secured eternal redemption. Seventh, from the perpetuity of His office: it is untransferable and eternal (Hebrews 7:24). From these we may the better perceive the blasphemous arrogancy of the Italian pope, who styles himself "pontifex maximus"—the greatest high priest. "No part of the Mosaic economy had taken a stronger hold of the imaginations and affections of the Jews than the Aaronical High-priesthood, and that system of ritual worship over which its occupants presided. The gorgeous apparel, the solemn investure, the mysterious sacredness of the high priest, the grandeur of the temple in which he ministered, and the imposing splendor of the religious rites which he performed,—all these operated like a charm in riveting the attachment of the Jews to the now overdated economy, and in exciting powerful prejudices against that simple, spiritual, unostentatious system by which it had been superceded. In opposition to those prejudices, the apostle shows that the Christian economy is deficient in nothing excellent to be found in the Mosaic; on the contrary, that it has a more dignified High Priest, a more magnificent temple, a more sacred altar, a more efficacious sacrifice; and that, to the spiritually enlightened mind, all the temporary splendors of the Mosaic typical ceremonial, wax dim and disappear amid the overwhelming glories of the permanent realities of the Christian institution" (Dr. John Brown). But once more we could fain pause and admire the consummate wisdom of the Spirit of God as exhibited in the method pursued in presenting the truth in this Epistle. Had it opened with the declaration of Christ’s superiority over Moses and Aaron, the prejudices of the Jews had been at once aroused. Instead, the personal dignity of the mediatorial Redeemer has been shown (from their own Scriptures) to be so great, that the glory of the angels was so far below His, it follows as a necessary consequence that, the honor attaching to the illustrious of earth’s mortals must be so too. Moreover, at the close of chapter 4, the High Priesthood of Christ is presented in such a way that every renewed heart must be won by and to it. There the apostle had announced not only that our High Priest is Divine (Hebrews 4:14), holy, Hebrews 4:15), and had passed into the heavens, but also that He is One filled with tender sympathy toward our infirmities, having Himself been tempted in all points like as we are (sin excepted); and, moreover, that through Him we have obtained free access to God’s throne of grace, so that there we may obtain mercy (the remitting of what is due us) and find grace (the receiving that to which we are not entitled) to help in time of need. How we should welcome such a Priest! How thankful we should be for Him! Having thus comforted the hearts of God’s children by assuring them of the tender compassion of Christ as the pledge of His effectual intercession for them on high, the apostle now proceeds to set forth more precisely the nature and glory of the priesthood of the Incarnate Son. He pursues the same method as was followed in the previous sections. As in Hebrews chapters 1 and 2, He has been compared and contrasted with angels, and in Hebrews chapters 3 and 4, with Moses and Joshua, so now in the present and succeeding chapters the order and functions of the Aaronic priesthood are examined, that the way may be paved for a setting forth of the more excellent order to which our High Priest belongs. "In the course of the section he makes it evident that whatever was essential to the office of a high priest was to be found in Christ Jesus, that whatever imperfections belonged to the Aaronical high priesthood were not to be found in Him, and that a variety of excellencies were to be found in Him of which none of the Aaronical priests were possessed," (Dr. J. Brown). "For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins: Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way, for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity. And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins. And no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron" (Hebrews 5:1-4). Here we have defined the intrinsic nature of the priestly office. The verses just quoted above contain a general description of the Levitical high priests. Five things are here said concerning them. First, he must be "taken from among men," that is, he must partake of the nature of those on whose behalf he acts. Second, he acted not as a private individual, but as a public official: "is ordained for men." Third, he came not empty-handed before God, but furnished with "gifts and sacrifices for sins." Fourth, for he himself was not exempt from infirmity, so that he might the more readily succor the distressed (Hebrews 5:2-3). Fifth, he did not presumptuously rush into his office of himself, but was chosen and approved of God (Hebrews 5:4). Let us look at each of these more closely. "For every high priest taken from among men." First, then, his humanity is insisted upon. An angel would be no fitting priest to act on behalf of men, for he possesses not their nature, is not subject to their temptations, and has no experimental acquaintance with their sufferings; therefore is he unsuited to act on their behalf: therefore is he incapable of having "compassion" upon them, for the motive-spring of all real intercession is heart-felt sympathy. Thus, the primary qualification of a priest is that he must be personally related to, possess the same nature as, those for whose welfare he interposes. "For every high priest taken from among men." Bearing in mind to whom this Epistle was first addressed, it is not difficult for us to discern why our present section opens in this somewhat abrupt manner. As was pointed out so frequently in our articles upon Hebrews 2, that which so sorely perplexed the Jews was, that the One who had appeared and tabernacled in their minds in human form should have claimed for Himself divine honors (John 5:23, etc.). But if the Son of God had never become man, He could never have officiated as priest, He could never have offered that sacrifice for the sins of His people which Divine justice required. The Divine Incarnation was an imperative necessity if salvation was to be secured for God’s elect. "It was necessary for Christ to become a real man, for as we are very far from God, we stand in a manner before Him in the person of our Priest, which could not be were He not one of us. Hence, that the Son of God has a nature in common with us does not diminish His dignity, but commends it the more to us; for He is fitted to reconcile us to God, because He is man" (John Calvin). "Is ordained for men." This tells us the reason why and the purpose for which the high priest was taken "from among men:" it was that he might transact on behalf of others, or more accurately, in the stead of others. To this position and work he was "ordained" or appointed by God. Thereby, under the Mosaic economy, the Hebrews were taught that men could not directly and personally approach unto God. They were sinful, He was holy; therefore was there a breadth between, which they were unable to bridge. It is both solemn and striking to observe how at the very beginning, when sin first entered the world, God impressed this awful truth upon our fallen parents. The "tree of life," whose property was to bestow immortality (Genesis 3:22), was the then emblem and symbol of God Himself. Therefore when Adam transgressed, we are told, "So He drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life" (Genesis 3:24). Thereby man was taught the awful fact that he is "alienated from the life of God." (Ephesians 4:18). The same terrible truth was pressed unto the Israelites. When Jehovah Himself came down upon Sinai, the people were fenced off from Him: "And thou shalt set bounds upon the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death" (Exodus 19:12). There was the Lord upon the summit, there were the people at the base: separated the One from the other. So too when the Tabernacle was set up. Beyond the outward court they were not suffered to go; into the holy place, the priests alone were permitted to enter. And into the holy of holies, where God dwelt between the cherubim, none but the high priest, and he only on the day of atonement, penetrated. Thus were the Hebrews, from the beginning, shown the awful truth of Isaiah 59:2 —"Your iniquities have separated between you and your God." But in the person of their high priest, through his representing of them before God, Israel might approach within the sacred enclosure. Beautifully is that brought out in the 28th chapter of Exodus, that book whose theme is redemption. There we read, "And thou shalt take two onyx stones, and grave on them the names of the children of Israel . . . and thou shalt put the two stones upon the shoulders of the ephod for stones of memorial unto the children of Israel: and Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord . . . And thou shalt make the breastplate of judgment and thou shalt set in it setting of stones . . . and the stones shall be with the names of the children of Israel . . . And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breast-plate of judgment upon his heart when he goeth in unto the holy, for a memorial before the Lord continually" (Exodus 28:9, Exodus 28:12, Exodus 28:15, Exodus 28:17, Exodus 28:21, Exodus 28:29). Concerning the high priest being "ordained for men" we are told, "Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness" (Leviticus 16:21). "Is ordained for men." The application of these words to the person and work of Christ is patent. He not only became Man, but had received appointment from God to act on behalf of, in the stead of, men: "Lo I come, to do Thy will, O God" (Hebrews 10:9), announce both the commission He had received from God and His own readiness to discharge it. What that commission was we learn in the next verse: "By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." He came to do what men could not do—satisfy the claims of Divine justice, procure the Divine favor. Note, in passing "ordained for men," not mankind in general, but that people which God had given Him—just as Aaron, the typical high priest, confessed not the sins of the Canaanites or Amalekites over the head of the goat, but those of Israel only. "In things pertaining to God," that is, in meeting the requirements of His holiness. The activities of the priests have God for their object: it is His character, His claims, His glory which are in view. In their application to Christ these words, "in things pertaining to God" distinguishes our Lord’s priesthood from His other offices. As a prophet, He reveals to us the mind and will of God. As the King, He subdues us to Himself, rules over and defends us. But the object of His priesthood is not us, but God. "That He may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins." To "offer" is the chief function of the high priest. He offers to God for men. He offers both gifts and sacrifices; that is, eucharistic or thanksgiving offerings, and sacrificial or propitiatory sacrifices. "The first word includes, as I think, various kinds of sacrifices, and is therefore a general term; but the second denotes especially the sacrifices of expiation. Still the meaning is, that the priest without a sacrifice is no peace-maker between God and man, for without a sacrifice sins are not atoned for, nor is the wrath of God pacified. Hence, whenever reconciliation between God and man takes place this pledge must ever necessarily precede. Thus we see that angels are by no means capable of obtaining for us God’s favor, because they have no sacrifice" (John Calvin). "That He may offer both gifts and sacrifice for sins." The application of these words to the Lord Jesus, our great High Priest, calls attention to a prominent and vital aspect of His death which is largely lost sight of today. The sacrificial death of Christ was a priestly act. On the Cross Christ not only suffered at the hands of men, and endured the punitive wrath of God, but He actually "accomplished" (Luke 9:31) something: He offered Himself as a sacrifice to God. At Calvary the Lord Jesus was not only the Lamb of God bearing judgment, but He was also His Priest officiating at the altar. "For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this Man have somewhat also to offer" (Hebrews 8:3). As Hebrews 9:14 also tells us, He "offered himself without spot to God." Christ on the Cross was far more than a willing victim passively enduring the stroke of Divine judgment. He was there performing a work, nor did He cease until He cried in triumph, "It is finished." He "loved the Church and gave Himself for it" (Ephesians 5:25). He "laid down His life" for the sheep (John 10:11, John 10:18)—which is the predicate of an active agent. He "poured out His soul unto death" (Isaiah 53:12). He "dismissed His spirit" (John 19:30). "Hell’s utmost force and fury gathered against Him: heaven’s sword devouring Him, and heaven’s God forsaking Him: earth, and hell, and heaven, thus in conspiring action against Him, unto the uttermost of heaven’s extremest justice, and earth’s and hews extremest injustice:—what is the glory of the Cross if it be not this: that with such action conspiring to subdue His action, His action outlasted and outlived them all, and He did not die subdued and overborne in the dying, He did not die till He gave Himself in death" (H. Martin on "The Atonement"). "Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself is compassed with infirmity" (Hebrews 5:2). Passing now from the design of the Levitical priesthood, we have a word upon their qualifications, the first of which is compassion unto those for whom he is to act. "The word here translated ‘have compassion’ is rendered in the margin ‘reasonably bear with.’ A person could not be expected to do the duties of a high priest aright if he could not enter into the feelings of those whom he represented. If their faults excited no sentiments in his mind but disapprobation—if they moved him to no feeling but anger, he would not be fit to interpose in their behalf with God—he would not be inclined to do for them what was necessary for the expiation of their sins, and the accomplishment of their services. But the Jewish high priest was one who was capable of pitying and bearing with the ignorant and erring; for ‘he himself also was compassed with infirmity.’ ‘Infirmity,’ here, plainly is significant of sinful weakness, and probably also of the disagreeable effects resulting from it. The Jewish high priest was himself a sinner. He had personal experience of temptation, and the tendency of man to yield to it—of sin, and of the consequences of sin; so that he had the natural capacity, and ought to have had the moral capacity, of pitying his fellow-sinners" (Dr. J. Brown). And what, we may enquire, was the Spirit’s design in here making mention of this personal qualification in the Levitical high priest? We believe His purpose was at least fourfold. First, implicitly, to call attention to the failure of Israel’s high priests. It is very solemn to mark how that the last of them failed, most signally, at this very point. When poor Hannah was "in bitterness of soul," and while she was in prayer, weeping before the Lord, Eli, because her lips moved not thought that she was drunken, and spoke roughly to her (1 Samuel 1:9-14). Thus, instead of sympathizing with her sorrows, instead of making intercession for her, he cruelly misjudged her. True, it is "human to err;" equally evident is it that the ideal priest would never be found among the sons of men. Second, was not the Spirit of God here paving the way for a contrast of the superiority of our great High Priest over the Aaronical? Third, does not this statement of Hebrews 5:2 show, once more, that the value and efficacy of his work was inseparably connected with the personal qualifications of the priest himself, namely, his moral perfections, his human sympathy? Fourth, thus there was emphasized again the necessity for the Son of God becoming man, only thus could He acquire the requisite human compassion. "This compassionate, loving, gentle, all-considerate and tender regard for the sinner can exist in perfection only in a sinless one. This appears at first sight paradoxical; for we expect the perfect man to be the severest judge. And with regard to sin, this is doubtless true. God charges even His angels with folly. He beholds sin where we do not discover it. And Jesus, the Holy One of Israel, like the Father, has eyes like a flame of fire, and discerns everything that is contrary to God’s mind and will. But with regard to the sinner, Jesus, by virtue of His perfect holiness, is the most merciful, compassionate, and considerate Judge. For we, not taking a deep and keen view of sin, that central essential evil which exists in all men, and manifests itself in various ways and degrees, are not able to form a just estimate of men’s comparative guilt and blameworthiness. Nay, our very sins make us more impatient and severe with regard to the sins of others. Our vanity finds the vanity of others intolerable, our pride finds the pride of others excessive. Blind to the guilt of our own peculiar sins, we are shocked with another’s sins, different indeed from ours, but not less offensive to God, or pernicious in its tendencies. Again, the greater the knowledge of Divine love and pardon, the stronger faith in the Divine mercy and renewing grace, the more hopeful and the more lenient will be our view of sinners. And finally the more we possess of the spirit and heart of the Shepherd, the Physician, the Father, the deeper will be our compassion on the ignorant and wayward. "The Lord Jesus was therefore most compassionate, considerate, lenient, hopeful in His feelings toward sinners, and in His dealings with them. He was infinitely holy and perfectly clear in His hatred and judgment of sin; but He was tender and gracious to the sinner. Beholding the sinful heart in all, esteeming sin according to the Divine standard, according to its real inward character, and not the human, conventional, and outward measure; Jesus, infinitely holy and sensitive as He was, saw often less to shock and pain Him in the drunkard and profligate than in the respectable, selfish, and ungodly religionists. He looked upon sin as the greatest and most fearful evil, but on the sinner as poor, lost, and helpless. Thus, while Jesus, in perfect holiness, judges most truly, lovingly, and tenderly of us, He knows by experience the weakness of the flesh, and the difficulty and soreness of the struggle. What a marvelous fulfillment of the Priest’s requisite, that he should be taken from men! one to whom we can look with full and calm trust, our Representative, the Man Christ Jesus, possessed of perfect, Divine love and compassion" (Abbreviated from Adolph Saphir). Those for whom the high priest was deputed to act are here described as "the ignorant and them that are out of the way." These are not two different classes of people, instead, those words give a twofold description of sinners. It has been rightly said that "in the Bible all sin is represented as the result of ignorance, but of blameable ignorance." "The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble" (Proverbs 4:19). "There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God" (Romans 3:11). Every sinner is a fool. "Out of the way" means that men have turned aside from the path which the Word of God has marked out for them to walk in: "All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way" (Isaiah 53:6). "And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins" (Hebrews 5:3). "There was none who could offer sacrifice for the sins of the high priest; therefore, he must do it for himself. He was to offer for himself in the same way and for the reasons as he offered for the people, and this was necessary, for he was encompassed with the same infirmities and was obnoxious as to sin, and so stood in no less need of expiation or atonement than did the people" (Dr. John Owen). For scriptures where the high priest was bidden to present an offering for his own sin, let the reader consult Leviticus 4:3, Leviticus 9:7, Leviticus 16:6, Leviticus 16:24. "And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins" (Hebrews 5:3). Here again we may observe the Spirit of God calling attention to the imperfections of the Levitical priests that the way may be prepared for presenting the infinitely superior perfections of Christ. But that is not all we have in this verse. It is the personal qualifications of the one who exercises his office which is now before us. Before Aaron could present an offering on behalf of Israel, he must first bring a sacrifice for his own sins, that he might be purified and stand accepted before Jehovah. In other words, the one who was to come between a holy God and a sinful people must himself have no guilt resting upon him, and must be an object of Divine favor. Thus, personal fitness was an essential qualification of the priest: in the case of the Levitical, a ceremonial fitness; with Christ, a personal and inherent. "And no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron" (Hebrews 5:4). "The foregoing verses declare the personal functions of a high priest, but these alone are not sufficient to invest any one with that office; for it is required that he be lawfully called thereunto. Aaron was called of God immediately, and in an extraordinary way. He was called by the command of God given to Moses, and entrusted to him for execution; he was actually separated and consecrated unto the office of high priest, and this was accomplished by special sacrifices made by another for him; and all these things were necessary unto Aaron, because God, in his person, erected a new order of priesthood" (Dr. John Owen). "And no man taketh this honor to himself." The expression "this honor" refers to the high priestly office, for one to approach unto the Most High, to have personal dealings with Him, to transact on behalf of others before Him, obtaining His favor toward them, is a signal privilege and great favor indeed. To mark this distinguishing honor, Aaron was clothed in the most gorgeous and imposing vestments (Ex. 28). Looking beyond the type to the Antitype, we may discern how that the Spirit is, once more, bringing before the Hebrews that which was designed to remove the offense of the Cross. To carnal reason the death of Christ was a humiliating spectacle; but the spiritually enlightened see at Calvary One performing the functions of an office with high "honor" attached to it. "But he that is called of God, as was Aaron." This was the ultimate and most important qualification: no man could legitimately act as high priest unless he was Divinely called to that office. "The principle on which the necessity of a Divine calling to the legitimate exercise of the priesthood rests is an obvious one. It depends entirely on the will of God whether He will accept the services and pardon the sins of men; and suppose again that it is His will to do so, it belongs to Him to appoint everything in reference to the manner in which this is to be accomplished. God is under no obligation to accept of every one, or of any one who, of his own accord, or by the choice of his fellow-men, takes it upon him to offer sacrifices or gifts for himself or for others; and no man in these circumstances can have reason to expect that God will accept of his offerings, unless He has given him a commission to offer them, and a promise He will be appeased by them. This, then, from the very nature of the case, was necessary to the legitimate discharge of the functions of a high priest" (Dr. J. Brown). What the apostle is here leading up to was the proof that God was the Author of Christ’s Priesthood. As that will come before us in the verses which follow, we pass it by now. "But he that is called of God, as was Aaron." That which makes an office lawful is the personal call of God. A most important principle is this to recognize, but one which, in these days of abounding lawlessness, is now flagrantly ignored. The will of man is to be entirely subordinated to the will of God. Everything connected with His work is to be regulated by the Divine appointments. Expediency, convenience, popular customs, are ruled out of court. Nor is any one justified in rushing into a holy office uncalled of God. To elect myself, or to have no higher authority than the election of fellow-sinners, is to usurp the authority of God. All ministry is in the hand of Christ (Revelation 2:1). He appointed the twelve apostles, and later the seventy disciples, to go forth. He bids us "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He send forth laborers into His harvest" (Matthew 9:38). When He ascended on high He "gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers" (Ephesians 4:11). In the days of Paul it was said, "How shall they preach, except they be sent?" (Romans 10:15). But in these days, how many there are who run without being "sent!" Men have taken it upon themselves to be evangelists, pastors, teachers, who have received no call from God to such a work. The absence of His call, is evidenced by the absence of the qualifying gift. When God calls, He always equips. Returning to the call of Aaron, we may observe that a time came when his official authority was challenged (Numbers 16:2). The manner in which God vindicated His servant is worthy of our most thoughtful attention. The record of it is found in Numbers 17: Aaron’s rod budded and brought forth almonds. Supernatural fruit was the sign and pledge that he had been called of God. Let this be laid well to heart. Judged by this standard, how many today stand accredited as God’s sent-servants? When God calls a man, He does not send him forth on any fruitless errand. It is a solemn thing for one to obtrude himself into a sacred office. The tragic case of Uzzah (2 Chronicles 26:16-21) is a lasting warning. Alas, how rarely is it heeded; and how grievously is God dishonored! There are those who decry a "one-man ministry," and cut themselves off from many an edifying message from God’s true servants; but after twenty years’ experience on three continents, the writer much prefers that which some so unchristianly condemn, to the lawlessness and fleshly exhibitions of an "every-man ministry" which is their alternative. Again: how many are urged to become Sunday School teachers and open-air speakers who have received neither call nor qualification from God to such work! Again: how many go forth as missionaries, only a few years later, at most, to abandon the work: what a proof that they were not "sent" or "called by God!" Let every reader weigh well Hebrews 5:4. Unless God has called you, enter not into any work for Him. Let restless souls seek grace to heed that Divine command, "Be swift to hear, slow to speak" (James 1:19). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 92: 005.020. CHAPTER 20 ======================================================================== Chapter 20 CHRIST SUPERIOR TO AARON Hebrews 5:5-7 The central design of the Holy Spirit in this Epistle needs to be kept steadily before the mind of the reader: that design was to prove the superiority of Christianity over Judaism. The center and glory of Judaism was the divinely appointed priesthood: what, then, had Christianity to offer at this point? "The unbelieving Jews would be apt to say to their Christian brethren, ‘your new religion is deficient in the very first requisite of a religion—you have no high priest. How are your sins to be pardoned, when you have none to offer expiatory oblations for you? How are your wants to be supplied, when you have none to make intercession for you to God?’ The answer to this cavil is to be found in the apostle’s word ‘We have a High Priest’ Hebrews 4:14," (Dr. J. Brown). That God has provided His people with a High Priest is the fulfillment of His own promise. On the demonstrated failure of the Aaronical priesthood in the days of Eli and his sons (1 Samuel 1:14, 1 Samuel 2:12-17, 1 Samuel 2:22), the Lord declared, "And I will raise Me up a faithful Priest, that shall do according to that which is in Mine heart and in My mind: and I will build Him a sure house" (1 Samuel 2:35). The fulfillment of this is found in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. But in taking up the study of the priesthood of Christ it is of the greatest possible importance to perceive that both the typical persons of Aaron and Melchizedek were required to prefigure the varied actions, and excellencies of the great High Priest who is the center and heart of Christianity. It was failure to recognize this which has resulted in so many inadequate and faulty treaties on the subject. Both Aaron and Melchizedek were needed to set forth the various phases of Christ’s priestly ministry. But before the apostle could take up the latter, he had first to show that Christ fulfilled all which was adumbrated by the former: before he could dwell upon the points in which Christ’s excelled the Levitical priesthood, he must first establish its parallels and similarities. This the apostle does in Hebrews 5. In its first four verses we have a description of the Levitical high priest: first with respect to his nature (Hebrews 5:1), second his employment (Hebrews 5:1), third his qualification (Hebrews 5:2), fourth his duty (Hebrews 5:3), fifth his call (Hebrews 5:4). In the verses which immediately follow, an application of this is made, more directly, to Christ. In so doing the Holy Spirit had before Him a double design: He first shows the fulfillment of the type. God’s purpose in appointing Israel’s high priests was to foreshadow the person and work of the Lord Jesus. Thus, there must be some resemblance between the one and the other. Second, that the Hebrews might know that the ministry and service of the Levitical order had terminated. Their purpose having been served, they were no longer needed; now that the Substance had come, the shadows were superfluous. Nay, more, their very retention would repudiate the design of their institution: they were prefigurative, therefore to perpetuate them would deny that the Reality had come. For the Levitical priesthood to go on functioning would argue that it had a value and a use apart from Christ. Hence the necessity of showing the relation of Aaron’s priesthood to Christ’s, that it might the more plainly appear that a continuance of the former was not only useless but pernicious. That there was a close connection between the priesthood of Aaron and that of Christ is evident from the opening verse of our present passage. Having stated, "No man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as Aaron," the apostle now adds, "So also Christ" (Hebrews 5:5), or, "In like manner Christ." Thus, unmistakably, a parallel is here drawn. As it was with the Levitical high priests in all things necessary to that office, so, in like manner, was it with the Christ. In Hebrews 5:5-10 the same five things (personal sin excepted) predicated of Aaron and his successors were found in our great High Priest. That there were, also, dissimilarities was inevitable from the personal imperfections that appertained to Aaron and his descendants: had there been anything in Christ which corresponded to their blemishes and failures, He had been disqualified. "So also Christ glorified not Himself to be made an high priest" (Hebrews 5:5). In Hebrews 2:17, Hebrews 3:1, Hebrews 4:14 it had been affirmed that Christ is High Priest. A difficulty is now anticipated and met. Considering the strictness of God’s law, and the specified requirements for one entering the priestly office, and more especially seeing that Jesus did not belong to the tribe of Levi, how could He be said to be "Priest?" In meeting this difficulty, the apostle emphasizes the fact that the chief requirement and qualification was a Divine call: "No man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God" (Hebrews 5:4): applying that rule the apostle now shows, from Scripture itself, our Lord’s right and title to this office. Ere weighing the proof for this, let us note that He is here designated "the Christ": the apostle’s design was to demonstrate that the promised Messiah, the Hope of the fathers, was to be High Priest forever over the house of God. The "Anointed One" signified His unction unto this office. "So also Christ glorified not Himself to be made an high priest." He did not take this dignity unto Himself; He did not obtrude Himself into office. As He declared, "If I honor Myself, My honor is nothing: it is My Father that honoureth Me." (John 8:54). No, He had made Himself of no reputation; He had taken upon Him the form of a servant (Php 2:7), and He ever acted in perfect subjection to the Father. Nor was there any need for Him to exalt Himself: He had entered into a covenant or compact with the Father, and He might be safely trusted to fulfill His part of the agreement. "He that shall humble Himself shall be exalted" (Matthew 23:12) was no less true of the Head than of His members. "So also Christ glorified not Himself to be made an high priest." He to whom the authority belonged, invested Christ with the honors of priesthood, as He had Aaron. An ellipsis needs supplying to complete the implied antithesis: "But He glorified Him," or He (God) made Him to be High Priest." That Christ was glorified by being invested with the high priesthood is here plainly inferred. It was a high honor bestowed upon His mediatorial person, that is, upon His humanity (united unto His deity). Scripture plainly teaches that His mediatorial person was capable of being glorified, with degrees of glory, by augmentation of glory: see John 17:1; 1 Peter 1:21. This honor appears more plainly when we come to consider the nature of the work assigned Him as Priest: this was no less than healing the breach which sin had made between God and men, and this by "magnifying the law and making it honorable." It appears too when we contemplate the effects of His work: these were the vindicating and glorifying of the thrice holy God, the bringing of many sons unto glory, and the being Himself crowned with glory and honor. By that priestly work Christ has won for Himself the love, gratitude, and worship of a people who shall yet be perfectly conformed to His image, and shall praise Him world without end. How wonderful and blessed it is to know that the honor of Christ and the procuring of our salvation are so intimately connected that it was His glory to be made our Mediator! There are three chief offices which Christ holds as Mediator: He is prophet, priest and potentate. But there is an importance, a dignity and a blessedness (little as carnal reason may be able to perceive it) attaching to His priestly office which does not belong to the other two. Scripture furnishes three proofs of this. First, we never read of "our great prophet," or "our great King," but we do of "our great High Priest" (Hebrews 4:14)! Second, the Holy Spirit nowhere affirms that Christ’s appointment to either His prophetic or His kingly office "glorified" Him; but this is insisted upon in connection with His call to the sacerdotal office (Hebrews 5:5)! Third, we read not of the dread solemnity of any divine "oath" in connection with His inauguration to the prophetic or the kingly office, but we do His priestly—"The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, thou art a priest forever." (Psalms 110:4)! Thus the priesthood of Christ is invested with supreme importance. "So also Christ glorified not Himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto Him, Thou art My Son, today have I begotten Thee." (Hebrews 5:5). The apostle here cites the testimony of the 2nd Psalm: but how does this quotation confirm the priesthood of Christ or prove His "call" to that office? That the quotation here is adduced as proof-text is clear from the next verse—"As He saith also in another Psalm," which is given as further confirmation of His call. In weighing carefully the purpose for which Psalms 2:7 is here quoted, observe, First, it is not the priesthood but His call thereunto which the apostle has before him. Second, his object was simply to show that it was from God Christ had all His mediatorial authority. Third, in Psalms 2:7, God declares the incarnate Christ to be His Son. The proclamation. "Thou art My Son," testified to the Father’s acceptance of Him in the discharge of all the work which had been committed to Him. This solemn approbation by the Father intimated that our Redeemer undertook nothing but what God had appointed. The Father’s owning of Christ in human nature as "My Son," acclaimed Him Mediator—Priest for His people. In other words, Christ’s "call" by God consisted of the formal and public owning of Him as the incarnate Son. Psalms 2:7 describes the "call." It is to be observed that Psalms 2:7 opens with the words, "I will declare the decree," which signifies a public announcement of what had been eternally predestinated and appointed in the everlasting covenant. It was God making known that the Mediator had received a Divine commission, and therefore was possessed of all requisite authority for His office. The deeper meaning, in this connection, of the proclamation, "Thou art My Son," tells us that Christ’s sufficiency as Priest lies in His Divine nature. It was the dignity of His person which gave value to what He did. Because He was the Son, God appointed Him High Priest: He would not give this glory to another. Just as, because He is the Son, He has made Him "Heir of all things." (Hebrews 1:2.) "Thou art My Son." The application of these words to the call which Christ received to His priestly office, refers, historically, we doubt not to what is recorded in Matthew 3:16-17. There we behold a shadowing forth on the lower and visible plane of that which was to take place, a little later, in the higher and invisible sphere. There we find the antitype of what occurred on the occasion of Aaron’s induction to the priestly office. In Leviticus 8 we find three things recorded of the type: First, his call (Leviticus 8:1-2). Second, his anointing (Leviticus 8:12). Third, his consecration, (Leviticus 8:22) These same three things, only in inverse order again (for in all things He has the pre-eminence) are found on the occasion of our Savior’s baptism, which was one of the great crises of His earthly career. For thirty years He had lived in retirement at Nazareth. Now the time had arrived for His public ministry. Accordingly, He consecrates, dedicates Himself to God—presenting Himself for baptism at the hands of God’s servant. Second, it was at the Jordan He was anointed for His work: "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 10:38). Third, it was there and then He was owned of God. "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." That was the Father’s attestation to His acceptance of Christ for His priestly office and work. Above, we have pointed out the first historical fulfillment of the prophetic word recorded in Psalms 2:7. As all prophecy has at least a double accomplishment, we find, accordingly, this same word of the Father’s approbation of the Son recorded a second time in the Gospel narratives. In Matthew 17:5 we again hear the Father saying, "Thou art my Son," or "This is My Beloved Son." Here it was upon the mount, when Christ stood glorified before His disciples. It was then that God provided a miniature tableau of Christ’s glorious kingdom. As Peter says, "We are eye-witnesses of His majesty" (2 Peter 1:16). And no doubt this is the profounder reference in Hebrews 5:5, for the 2nd Psalm, there quoted, foretells the setting up of Christ as "King." Yet, let it not be forgotten that the priesthood of Christ is the basis of His kingship: "He shall be a priest upon His throne." (Zechariah 6:13). It is as the "Lamb" He holds His title to the throne (Revelation 22:1)—cf. the "wherefore" of Php 2:9. He is a Priest with royal authority, a King with Priestly tenderness. "As He saith also in another, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek" (Hebrews 5:6). A further proof of God’s call of Christ to the priestly office is now given, the quotation being from the 110th Psalm, which was owned by the Jews as a Messianic one. There the Father had by the Spirit of prophecy, said these words to His incarnate Son. Thus a double testimony was here adduced. The subject was of such importance that God deigned to give unto these Hebrews confirmation added to confirmation. How graciously He bears with our dullness: compare the "twice" of Psalms 62:11, the "again" of the Lord Jesus in John 8:12, John 8:21 etc., the "many" proofs of Acts 1:3. "As He saith" is another evidence that God was the Author of the Old Testament. Here, the Father is heard speaking through David; in Psalms 22:1, the Son; in Hebrews 3:7, the Spirit. "As He saith," namely unto the Son. The Father’s here speaking to Him was His "call," just as in Hebrews 7:21, it is His "oath." "Thou art a priest" was declarative of His eternal decree, of the everlasting covenant between the Father and the Son, wherein He was designated unto this office. Thus was Christ "called of God as was Aaron." "Who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared" (Hebrews 5:7). In seeking to expound this verse three things require attention. To ascertain its scope, or theme, to discover its relation to the context and its own contribution unto the apostle’s argument, and to define its solemn terms. Its theme is the priestly ministry of Christ: this is evident from the expression "offered up." "As the theme of Hebrews 5:4-6 is, ‘Jesus Christ has been divinely appointed to the priestly office, so the theme of Hebrews 5:7-9 is Jesus Christ has successfully executed the priestly office.’" (Dr. J. Brown). Its relation to the context is that the apostle was here showing the "compassed with infirmity" (Hebrews 5:2) is found in the Antitype: the "strong crying and tears" being the proof. Its terms will be weighed in what follows. Ere submitting our own interpretations, we first subjoin the helpful analysis of Dr. Brown. "The body of the sentence (Hebrews 5:7-10) divides itself into two parts: 1. ‘He’ Christ in the character of a Priest ‘learned obedience by the things which He suffered.’ 2. ‘He’, in the same character, ‘has become the Author of eternal salvation to all that obey Him.’ The clauses, ‘In the days of his flesh,’ and ‘though He were a Son,’ qualify the general declaration, ‘He learned obedience by the things which He suffered,’ and the clauses, ‘when He had offered up,’ ‘prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears, unto Him that was able to save Him from death,’ and ‘when He had heard’—or having been heard—‘in that He feared,’ contain in them illustrations both of the nature and extent of those sufferings by which Christ learned obedience; whilst the clause, ‘being made perfect,’ qualifies the second part of the sentence, connecting it with the first, and showing how His ‘learning obedience by the things which He suffered,’ led to His being ‘the Author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.’" In Hebrews 5:7 two other of the qualifications of Israel’s high priest are accommodated to Christ. First, his being "compassed with infirmity" (Hebrews 5:2) so as to fit him for having compassion on those for whom he transacted. In like manner was the Son, when He entered upon the discharge of His office, compassed with sinless infirmity. This is here exemplified in a threefold way. First, the time when He fulfilled the Aaronic type, namely, "in the days of His flesh," which was before He was "crowned with glory and honor." Second, from His condition, "in the days of His flesh," which signifies a state of weakness and humiliation. Third, from the manner of His deportment: "with strong crying and tears," for these proceed from the "infirmity" of our nature—angels do not weep. Second, Israel’s high priest was appointed to "offer." (Hebrews 5:1-2). This is what Christ is here seen doing: offering up to God—"to Him that was able to save Him." This was a sacerdotal act, as is clear from the fact that the declaration of Hebrews 5:7 is immediately preceded (Hebrews 5:6), and succeeded (Hebrews 5:10) by a reference to His priesthood. Let us now examine our verse clause by clause. "Who in the days of His flesh." "Flesh as applied to Christ, signifies human nature not yet glorified, with all its infirmities, wherein He was exposed unto—hunger, thirst, weariness, labor, sorrow, grief, fear, pain, death itself. Hereby doth the apostle express what he had before laid down in the person of the high priest according to the law—he was ‘compassed’ with infirmity." (Dr. John Owen.) The word "flesh" is often used in Scripture of man as a poor, frail, mortal creature: Psalms 78:39, Psalms 65:2. The "days of His flesh" is antithetical to "made perfect." They cover the entire period of our Lord’s humiliation, from the manger to the grave—cf. 2 Corinthians 5:16. During that time Christ was "a man of sorrows," filled with them, never free from them; "and acquainted with grief," as a companion that never departed from Him. No doubt there is special reference to the close of those days when His sorrows and trials came to a head. "The ‘days of His flesh’ mean the whole time of His humiliation—that period when He came among men as one of them, but still the Son of God, whose majesty was hid. As applied to Christ ‘flesh’ intimates that He put on a true humanity, but a humanity under the weight of imputed guilt, with the curse that followed in its train—a sinless, yet a sin-bearing humanity. The Lord felt the weakness of the flesh in His whole vicarious work, and though personally spotless, was in virtue of taking our place, subjected to all that we were heir to. We do not, indeed, find in Him the personal consequences of sin, such as sickness and disease, but the consequences which could competently fall to the sinless substitute; for He never was in Adam’s covenant, but was Himself the last Adam. As He took flesh for an official purpose, He submitted to the consequences following in the train of sin-bearing—hunger and thirst, toil and fatigue in the sweat of His brow, persecution and injustice, arrest and sufferings, wounds and death." (Professor Smeaton on the Atonement.) "When He had offered up prayers and supplications." The Greek word for "offer up" signifies "to bear toward." It occurs in this Epistle sixteen times, and always as a priestly act. See Hebrews 8:3, Hebrews 9:7, Hebrews 9:14, Hebrews 10:11, Hebrews 10:14, Hebrews 10:18, etc. Prayers and supplications are expressive of the frailty of human nature, for we never read of angels praying. "Prayers" are of two kinds: petitions for that which is good, requests for deliverance from that which is evil: both are included here. The Greek word for "supplications" occurs nowhere else in the New Testament; in its classical usage it denotes an olive bough, lifted up by those who were supplicating others for peace. What is here in view is Christ "offering" Himself unto God (Hebrews 9:14), His offering being accompanied with priestly prayers and supplications. These are mentioned to exemplify His "infirmity," and to impress upon us how great a work it was to make expiation for sin. These prayers and supplications are not to be restricted to the agony of Gethsemane, or the hours of torture on the Cross; they must be regarded as being offered by Him through the entire period of His humiliation. "The pressure of human guilt habitually weighed down His mind and He was by way of eminence a Man of prayer, as well as a Man of sorrows." (Dr. Brown.) "With strong crying and tears." These words not only intimate the intensity of the sufferings endured by our Priest, but also the extent to which He felt them. The God-man was no stoic, unmoved by the fearful experiences through which He passed. No, He suffered acutely, not only in body, but in His soul too. The curse of the law, under which He had spontaneously placed Himself, smote His soul as well as His body, for we had sinned in both, and He redeemed both. These crying and tears were evoked not by what He received at the hands of man, but what imputed guilt had brought down upon Him from the hand of God. He was overwhelmed by the pressure of horror and anguish, caused by the Divine anger against sin. "With strong crying and tears." These were, in part, the fulfillment of that prophecy in Psalms 22:1 : "the words of My roaring." A part of those "strong cryings" are recorded in the Gospels. To His disciples He said, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death" (Matthew 26:38). To the Father He prayed, "If Thou be willing, remove this cup from Me" (Luke 22:42). There we read of Him "being in an agony," that "He prayed more earnestly," that "His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground." Such was the "travail of His soul" that He cried for deliverance. He voluntarily entered the place into which sin had brought us: one of misery and wretchedness. No heart can conceive the terribleness of that conflict through which our Blessed Substitute passed. "Jesus cried with a loud voice, My God, My God, Why hast Thou forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:46): here again we witness the "strong crying" accompanying His sacrifice. And what is the application of this to us? If His sacrifice was offered to God with "strong crying and tears" let none of us imagine we are savingly interested therein if our hearts are unmoved by the awfulness of sin, and are in the coldness of impenitence and the sloth of unbelief. Let him who would approach unto Christ ponder well how He approached unto God on behalf of sinners. "Unto Him that was able to save Him from death." The particular character in which our suffering Surety here viewed God, calls for close attention. These words reveal to us how Christ contemplated Deity at that time: "unto Him that is able." Ability or power is either natural or moral. Natural power is strength and active efficacy; in God, omnipotence. Moral power is right and authority; in God, absolute sovereignty. Christ looked toward both. In view of God’s omnipotence He sought deliverance; in view of His sovereignty, He meekly submitted. The former was the object of His faith; the latter, of His fear. These two attributes of God should ever be before us when we approach unto His footstool. A sight of His omnipotence will encourage our hearts and strengthen our faith: a realization of His high sovereignty will humble us before Him and check our presumption. "Unto Him that was able to save Him from death." This also makes known the cause of His "strong crying and tears:" it was His sight of death. What "death?" Not merely the separation of the soul from the body, but the "wages of sin," that curse of the law which God, as a just judge, inflicts on the guilty. As the Surety of the covenant, as the One who had voluntarily taken upon Himself the debts of all His people, the wrath of a holy God must be visited upon Him. To this Christ referred when He said, "I am afflicted and ready to die from youth up; I suffer Thy terrors, I am distracted" (Psalms 88:15). Fiercer grew the conflict as the end was neared, and stronger were His cries for deliverance: "The sorrows of death compassed Me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon Me: I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the Lord; O Lord, I beseech Thee, deliver My soul" (Psalms 116:3-4). But what was the "deliverance" which He sought? Exemption from suffering this death? No, for He had received commandment to endure it (John 10:18, Php 2:8). What then? Note carefully that Christ prayed not to be delivered from dying, but from "death." We believe the answer is twofold. First, He sought to be sustained under it. When death as the penal visitation of God’s anger upon Him for our sins was presented to His view, He had deep and dreadful apprehension of the utter inability of frail human nature bearing up under it, and prevailing against it. He was conscious of His need of Divine succor and support, to enable Him to endure the incalculable load which was upon Him. Therefore it was His duty, as perfect yet dependent Man, to pray that He might not be overwhelmed and overborne. His confidence was in "Him that is able." He declared, "For the Lord God will help Me, therefore shall I not be confounded" (Isaiah 50:7). "And was heard in that He feared." The best commentators differ in their understanding of these words. Two interpretations have been given, which, we believe, need to be combined to bring out the full meaning of this clause. Calvin gave as its meaning that the object of Christ’s "fear" was the awful judgment of God upon our sins, the smiting of Him with the sword of justice, His desertion by God Himself. Arguing against the "fear" here having reference to Christ’s own piety, because of which God answered Him, this profound exegete points out the absence of the possessive "His fear;" that the Greek preposition "apo" (rather than "huper") signifies "from," not "on account of;" and that the word "fear" means, for the most part, anxiety—"consternation" is its force as used in the Sept. His words are, "I doubt not that Christ was ‘heard’ from that which He feared, so that He was not overwhelmed by His evils or swallowed up by death. For in this contest the Son of God had to engage, not because He was tried by unbelief (the source of all our fears), but because He sustained as a man in the flesh the judgment of God, the terror of which could not have been overcome without an arduous effort"—and, we may add, without a Divine strengthening. The sufferings of Christ wrung His soul, producing sorrow, perplexity, horror, dread. This is shown by His exercises and agony in Gethsemane. While He suffered God’s "terrors," He was "distracted" (Psalms 88:15). "I am poured out like water," He exclaimed, "and all My bones are out of joint: My heart is like wax, it is melted in the midst of My bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and My tongue cleaveth to My jaws" (Psalms 22:14-15). And again, He cried, "Save Me, O God; for the waters are come in unto My soul. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing . . . Let not the water-flood overflow Me, neither let the deep swallow Me up" (Psalms 69:1-2, Psalms 69:15). Fear, pain, torture of body and soul, were now His portion. He was then enduring that which shall yet cause the damned to weep and wail and gnash their teeth. He was deserted by God. The comforting influences of His relation to God were withdrawn. His relation to God as His God and Father were the fount of all His comfort and joy. The sense of this was now suspended. Therefore was He filled with heaviness and sorrow inexpressible, and, "and with strong crying and tears" He prayed for deliverance. "And was heard." This means, first of all, God’s approval or acceptance of the petitioner himself. Christ’s prayer here was answered in the same way as was Paul’s request for the removal of the thorn in his flesh—not by exemption, but by Divine succor which gave enablement to bear the trial. In Gethsemane "There appeared an angel unto Him from heaven, strengthening Him" (Luke 22:43). So too on the Cross. "His mind and heart were fortified and sustained against the dread and terror which His humanity felt, so as to come to a perfect composure in the will of God. He was heard insofar as He desired to be heard; for although He could not but desire deliverance from the whole, as He was man, yet He desired it not absolutely as the God-man, as He was wholly subject to the will of the Father" (Dr. John Owen). "And was heard in that He feared." Other commentators have rightly pointed out that the Greek word for "fear" here signifies godly reverence or piety: cf. Hebrews 12:28, where it is found in its noun form. Having from godly fear offered up prayers and supplications, He was heard. His personal perfections made His petition acceptable. This was His own assurance, at the triumphant completion of His sufferings: "Thou hast heard Me from the horns of the unicorns" (Psalms 22:21). This brings us to the second and ultimate meaning of the Savior’s petition to be delivered "from death," and the corresponding second response of the Father. "To ‘save from death’ means, to deliver from death after having died. God manifested Himself as ‘Him who was able to save Him from death,’ when, as ‘The God of peace’—the pacified Divinity—‘He brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the everlasting covenant’. Hebrews 13:20" (Dr. J. Brown). Thus, to summarize the contents of this most solemn and wonderful verse, we here learn: First, that our blessed Substitute, in the discharge of His priestly work, encountered that awful wrath of God which is the wages of sin—"death." Second, that He encountered it in the frailty of human nature, compassed with infirmity—"in the days of His flesh." Third, that He felt, to an extent we are incapable of realizing, the visitation of God’s judgment upon sin—evidenced by His "strong crying and tears." Fourth, that He cried for deliverance: for strength to endure and for an exodus from the grave. Fifth, that God answered by bestowing the needed succor and by raising Him from the dead. Many are the lessons which might be drawn from all that has been before us. Into what infinite depths of humiliation did the Son of God descend! How unspeakably dreadful was His anguish! What a hideous thing sin must be if such a sacrifice was required for its atonement! How real and terrible a thing is the wrath of God! What love moved Him to suffer so on our behalf! What must be the portion of those who despise and reject such a Savior! What an example has He left us of turning to God in the hour of need! What fervor is called for if our prayers are to be answered! Above all, what gratitude, love, devotion and praise are due Him from those for whom the Son of God died! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 93: 005.021. CHAPTER 21 ======================================================================== Chapter 21 CHRIST SUPERIOR TO AARON Hebrews 5:8-10 The first ten verses of Hebrews 5 present to us a subject of such vast and vital importance that we dare not hurry over our exposition of them. They bring to’ our view the person of the Lord Jesus and His official work as the great High Priest of God’s people. They set forth His intrinsic sufficiency for the discharge of the honorous but arduous functions of that office. They show us His right and title for the executing thereof. They reveal His full qualifications thereunto. They make known the nature and costliness of His sacrificial work. They declare the triumphant issue thereof. Yet plain as is their testimony, the subject of which they treat is so dimly apprehended by most Christians today, that we deem it necessary to devote a lengthy introduction to the setting forth of the principal features belonging to the Priesthood of Christ. Let us begin by asking the question, Why did God ordain the office of priesthood? Wherein lay the necessity for it? The first and most obvious answer is, Because of sin. Sin created a breech between a holy God and His sinful creatures. Were God to advance toward them in His essential character it could only be in judgment, involving their sure destruction; for He "will by no means clear the guilty" (Exodus 34:7). Nor was the sinner capable of making the slightest advance toward God, for he was "alienated from the life of God" (Ephesians 4:18), and thus, "dead in trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1); and as such, not only powerless to perform a spiritual act, but completely devoid of all spiritual aspirations. Looked at in himself, the case of fallen man was utterly hopeless. But God has designs of grace unto men, not unto all men, but unto a remnant of them chosen out of a fallen race. Had God shown grace to all of Adam’s descendants, the glory of His grace had been clouded, for it would have looked as though the provisions of grace were something which were due men from God, because of His having failed to preserve them from falling into sin. But grace is unmerited favor, something to which no creature is entitled, something which he cannot in any wise claim from God. Therefore it must be exercised in a sovereign manner by the Author of it (Exodus 33:19), that grace may appear to be grace (Romans 11:6). But in determining to show grace unto that people whom He had chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4, 2 Timothy 1:9), God must act in harmony with His own perfections. The sin of His people could not be ignored. Justice clamored for its punishment. If they were to be delivered from its penal consequences, it could only be by an adequate satisfaction being made for them. Without blood shedding there is no remission of sins. An atonement was a fundamental necessity. Grace could not be shown at the expense of justice; no, grace must "reign through righteousness" (Romans 5:21). Grace could only be exercised on the ground of accomplished redemption (Romans 3:24). And who was capable of rendering a perfect satisfaction unto the law of God? Who was qualified to meet all the demands of Divine holiness, if a sinful people were to be redeemed consistently with its claims? Who was competent both to assume the responsibilities of that people, and discharge them to the full satisfaction of the Most High? Who was able both to honor the rights of the Almighty, and yet enter sympathetically into the weakness and needs of those who were to be saved? Clearly, the only solution to this problem and the only answer to these questions lay in a Mediator, one who had both ability and title to act on God’s behalf and on theirs. For this reason was the Son of God appointed to be made in the likeness of sin’s flesh, that as the God-man He might be a "merciful and faithful High Priest" (Hebrews 2:17); for mediatorship is the chief thing in priesthood. Now this is what is brought before us in the opening verse of Hebrews 5. There we are shown three parties: on the one side God, on the other side men, and the high priest as the connecting link between: "For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins" (Hebrews 5:1). No correct conception of priesthood can exist where this double relation and this double service are not perceived. In Christ alone is this perfectly made good. He is the one connecting link between Heaven and earth, the only Mediator between God and "men" (1 Timothy 2:5). From Deity above, He is the Mediator downward to men beneath; and from men below, He is the Head upward to God. Priesthood is the alone channel of living relationship with a holy God. Solemn and awful proof of this is found in the fact that Satan, and then Adam, fell because there was no Mediator who stood between them and God, to maintain them in their standing before Him. Above we have said, that Christ is the one connecting link between Heaven and earth, that He alone bridges the chasm between God and His people, considered as fallen and mined sinners. Our last sentence really sums up the whole of Hebrews chapters 1 and 2. There we have a lengthy argument setting forth the relation between the two natures in Christ, the Divine and the human, and the needs-be of both to fit Him for the priestly office. He must be the Son of God in human nature. He must "in all things be made like unto His brethren" in order that He might be "a merciful and faithful High Priest;" in order that He might "make propitiation for the sins of the people;" and in order that He might be "able to succor them that are tempted." Hebrews 2:17-18 brings us to the climax of the apostle’s argument in those two chapters. The priestly work of Christ was to "make propitiation for the sins of the people." It was to render a complete satisfaction to God on behalf of all their liabilities. It was to "magnify the law and make it honorable." (Isaiah 42:21). In order to do this it was necessary for the law to be kept, to be perfectly obeyed in thought, word and deed. Accordingly, the Son of God was "made under the law" (Galatians 4:4), and "fulfilled" its requirements (Matthew 5:17). And this perfect obedience of Christ, performed substitutionally and officially, is now imputed to His people: as it is written, "By the obedience of One shall many be (legally) made righteous" (Romans 5:19). But "magnifying the law" also involved His enduring its penalty on the behalf of His peoples’ violation of its precepts, and this He suffered, and so "redeemed us from the curse of the law" by "being made a curse for us" (Galatians 3:13). To sum up now the ground we have covered. 1. The occasion of Christ’s priesthood was sin: it was this which alienated the creature from the Creator. 2. The source of Christ’s priesthood was grace: rebels were not entitled to it; such a wondrous provision proceeded solely from the Divine favor. 3. The Junction of Christ’s priesthood is mediation, to come between, to officiate for men God-wards. 4. The qualification for perfect priesthood is a God-man: none but God could meet the requirements of God; none but Man could meet the needs of men. 5. The work of priesthood is to make propitiation for sin. To these we may add: 6. The design of priesthood is that the claims of God may be honored, the person of Christ glorified, and His people redeemed. 7. The outcome of His priesthood is the maintaining of His people in the favor of God. Other subsidiary points will come before us, D.V., in the later chapters. Hebrews 5:8-9 complete the passage which was before us in the preceding article. That we may the better perceive their scope and meaning, let us recapitulate the teaching of the earlier verses. In this first division of Hebrews 5 the apostle’s design was to show how that Christ fulfilled the Aaronic type. First, He had been Divinely called or appointed to the priestly office (Hebrews 5:4-6). Second, to fit Him for compassion on behalf of those for whom He officiated, He was "compassed with (sinless) infirmity" (Hebrews 5:3, Hebrews 5:7). Third, He had "offered" to God, as Priest, "as for the people so also for himself" (Hebrews 5:3), "strong crying and tears" (Hebrews 5:7). That which is now to be before us, brings out still other perfections of Christ which qualified Him to fill the sacerdotal office, and also makes known the happy issues therefrom. "Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered" (Hebrews 5:8). In view of His unspeakable humiliation, portrayed in the previous verse, the Divine dignity of our High Priest is here mentioned both to guard and enhance His glory. "The things discoursed in the foregoing verse seem to have an inconsistency with the account given us concerning the person of Jesus Christ at the entrance of this Epistle. For He is therein declared to be the Son of God, and that in such a glorious manner as to be deservedly exalted above all the angels in heaven. Here He is represented as in a low, distressed condition, humbly, as it were, begging for His life, and pleading with ‘strong crying and tears’ before Him who was able to deliver Him. These things might seem unto the Hebrews to have some kind of repugnancy unto one another. And, indeed, they are a ‘stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense,’ unto many at this day; they are not able to reconcile them in their carnal minds and reasonings . . . "The aim of the apostle in this place is, not to repel the objections of unbelievers, but to instruct the faith of those who do believe in the truth of these things. For He doth not only manifest that they were all possible, upon the account of His participation of flesh and blood, who was in Himself the eternal Son of God; but also that the whole of the humiliation and distress therein ascribed unto Him was necessary, with respect unto the office which He had undertaken to discharge, and the work which was committed unto Him. And this he doth in the next ensuing and following verses" (Dr. John Owen). "Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered" (Hebrews 5:8). First, what relation does this statement bear to the passage of which it is a part? Second, what is the particular "obedience" here referred to? Third, in what sense did the Son "learn obedience"? Fourth, how did the things "which He suffered" teach Him obedience? Fifth, what are the practical lessons here pointed for us? These are some of the questions raised by our verse which call for answer. "Though He were a Son" looks back more immediately to Hebrews 5:5, where a part of Psalms 2:7 is quoted. "That quotation has also reminded us of the Divine dignity and excellence of Christ as the ground of His everlasting priesthood. Jesus had a Divine commission; He was appointed by the Father because He was the Son; and thus He was possessed of all requisite qualifications for His office. Nevertheless the Son had to ‘learn obedience.’ He must not only possess authority and dignity, but be able to sympathize with the condition of sinners. By entering the circle of human experience He was made a merciful and faithful High Priest, and through suffering fitted for compassionately guiding our highest interests, as well as conducting our cause. The bond of brotherhood, the identity of suffering and sorrow, fitted Him to be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He was made like unto His brethren (Hebrews 2:17); He suffered, that He might be in a position to succor them that are tempted (Hebrews 2:18); He was made in all respects like us, with the single exception of personal sinfulness (Hebrews 4:15); and He learned obedience by what He suffered. The design of all this was, that He might be a compassionate and sympathizing High Priest" (Professor Smeaton). Here then is the answer to our first question. In Hebrews 5:8 the Holy Spirit is still showing how that which was found in the type (Hebrews 5:3), is also to be seen in the Antitype. What could more emphatically exemplify the fact that our High Priest was "compassed with infirmity" than to inform us that He not only felt acutely the experiences through which He passed, but also that He "learned obedience" by those very experiences? Nor need we hesitate to go as far as the Spirit of truth has gone; rather must we seek grace to believe all that He has said. None were more jealous of the Son’s glory than He, and none knew so well how His glory had been displayed by His voluntary descent into such unfathomable depths of shame. While holding firmly to Christ’s absolute deity, we must not (through a false conception of His dignity) shrink from following Him in thought and affection into that abyss of humiliation unto which, for our sakes, He came. When Scripture says, "He learned obedience" we must not whittle down these words to mean anything less than they affirm. "Yet learned He obedience" brings out, very forcibly, the reality of the humanity which the Son assumed. He became true Man. If we bow to the inspired statement that "Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man" (Luke 2:52), why balk—as many have—at He "learned obedience?" True, blessedly true, these words do not signify that there was in Him a will which resisted the law of God, and which needed severe discipline to bring it into subjection. As Calvin well says, "Not that He was driven to this by force, or that He had need of being thus exercised, as the case is with oxen or horses when their ferocity is to be tamed; for He was abundantly willing to render to His Father the obedience which He owed." No, He declared, "I delight to do Thy will, O God" (Psalms 40:8). And again, "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me" (John 4:34). But what is "obedience?" It is subjection to the will of another: it is an owning of the authority of another; it is performing the pleasure of another. This was an entirely new experience for the Son. Before His incarnation, He had Himself occupied the place of authority, of supreme authority. His seat had been the throne of the universe. From it He had issued commands and had enforced obedience. But now He had taken the place of a servant. He had assumed a creature nature. He had become man. And in this new place and role He conducted Himself with befitting submission to Another. He had been "made under the law," and its precepts must be honored by Him. But more: the place He had taken was an official one. He had come here as the Surety of His people. He had come to discharge their liabilities. He had come to work out a perfect righteousness for them; and therefore, as their Representative, He must obey God’s law. As the One who was here to maintain the claims of God, He must "magnify the law and make it honorable," by yielding to it a voluntary, perfect, joyous compliance. Again; the "obedience" of Christ formed an essential part of His priestly oblation. This was typified of old—though very few have perceived it—in the animals prescribed for sacrifice: they were to be "without spot, without blemish." That denoted their excellency; only the "choice of the flock" (Ezekiel 24:5) were presented to God. The antitype of this pointed to far more than the sinlessness of Christ—that were merely negative. It had in view His positive perfections, His active obedience, His personal excellency. When Christ "offered Himself without spot to God" (Hebrews 9:14), He presented a Sacrifice which had already fulfilled every preceptive requirement of the law. And it was as Priest that He thus offered Himself to God, thereby fulfilling the Aaronic type. But in all things He has the pre-eminence, for at the cross He was both Offerer and Offering. Thus there is the most intimate connection between the contents of Hebrews 5:8 and its context, especially with Hebrews 5:7. "Yet learned He obedience." The incarnate Son actually entered into the experience of what it was to obey. He denied Himself, He renounced His own will, He "pleased not Himself" (Romans 15:3). There was no insubordination in Him, nothing disinclined to God’s law; instead, His obedience was voluntary and hearty. But by being "made under the law" as Man, He "learned" what Divine righteousness required of Him; by receiving commandment to lay down His life (John 10:18), He "learned" the extent of that obedience which holiness demanded. Again; as the God-man, Christ "learned" obedience experimentally. As we learn the sweetness or bitterness of food by actually tasting it, so He learned what submission is by yielding to the Father’s will. "But, moreover, there was still somewhat peculiar in that obedience which the Son of God is said to learn from His own sufferings, namely, what it is for a sinless person to suffer for sinners, ‘the Just for the unjust.’ The obedience herein was peculiar unto Him, nor do we know, nor can we have an experience of the ways and paths of it" (Dr. John Owen). "By the things which He suffered" announces the means by which He learned obedience. Everything that Christ suffered, from first to last, during the days of His flesh, is here included. His entire course was one of suffering, and He had the experience of obedience in it all. Every scene through which He passed provided occasion for the exercise of those graces wherein obedience consists. Meekness and lowliness (Matthew 11:29), self-denial (Romans 15:3), patience (Revelation 1:9), faith (Hebrews 2:13), were habitually resident in His holy nature, but they were only capable of exercise by reason of His suffering. As His suffering increased, so His obedience grew in extent and intensity, by the very pressure brought to bear upon it; the hotter the conflict grew, the more His inward submission was manifested outwardly (compare Isaiah 50:6-7). There was not only sufferings passively endured, but obedience in suffering, and that the most amazing and unparalleled. To sum up now the important teachings of this wonderful verse: He who personally was high above all obedience, stooped so low as to enter the place of obedience. In that place He learned, by His sufferings, the actual experience of obedience—He obeyed. Hereby we learn what was required to the right discharge of Surety-ship: there must needs be both an active and a passive obedience vicariously rendered. The opening word "though" intimates that the high dignity of His person did not exempt Him from the humiliation which our salvation involved. The word "yet" is a note of exclamation, to deepen our sense of wonderment at His infinite condescension on our behalf, for in His place of servitude He never ceased to be the Lord of glory. "He was no less God when He died, than when He was ‘declared to be the Son of God with power, by the resurrection from the dead,’ Romans 1:4’ (Dr. John Owen). And what are the practical lessons here pointed for us? First, our Redeemer has left us an example that we should follow His steps. He has shown us how to wear our creature nature: complete and unquestioning subjection to God is that which is required of us. Second, Christ has hereby taught us the extent to which God ought to be submitted unto: He was "obedient unto death." Third, obedience to God cost something: "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" (2 Timothy 3:12). Fourth, sufferings undergone according to the will of God are highly instructive. Christ Himself learned by the things which He suffered; much more may we do so, who have so much more to learn (Hebrews 12:10-11). Fifth, God’s love for us does not exempt from suffering. Though the Son of His love, Christ was not spared great sorrows and trials: sufficient for the disciple to be as his Master. "And being made perfect, He became the Author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him" (Hebrews 5:9). "The apostle having declared the sufferings of Christ as our High Priest, in His offering of Himself, with the necessity thereof, proceeds now to declare both what was effected thereby, and what was the especial design of God therein. And this in general was that, the Lord Christ, considering our lost condition, might be every way fitted to be a ‘perfect cause of eternal salvation unto all that obey Him,’ There are, therefore, two things in the words, both which God aimed at and accomplished in the sufferings of Christ. 1. On His own part, that He might be ‘made perfect;’ not absolutely, but with respect unto the administration of His office in the behalf of sinners. 2. With respect unto believers, that He might be unto them the ‘Author of eternal salvation’" (Dr. John Owen). This is a good epitome of the teaching of Hebrews 5:9, but a number of things in it call for fuller elucidation. "And being made perfect." The word, "perfect" is one which is found frequently in this Epistle. It signifies "to consummate" or "complete." It also means "to dedicate" or "fully consecrate." Our present passage contains its second occurrence, the first being in Hebrews 2:10, to which we must refer the reader. There the verb is used actively with respect to the Father: it became Him to "make perfect" the Captain of our salvation. Here it is used passively, telling of the effect of that act of God on the person of Christ; by His suffering He was "perfected." It has reference to the setting apart of Christ as Priest. "The legal high priests were consecrated by the sufferings and deaths of the beasts which were offered in sacrifice at their consecration (Ex. 29). But it belonged unto the perfection of the priesthood of Christ to be consecrated in and by His own sufferings" (Dr. John Owen). It is most important to note that the reference here is to what took place in "the days of His flesh," not at His resurrection or ascension— Hebrews 5:7-9 form one complete statement. The Greek is even more emphatic than the A.V.: "And having been perfected became to those that obey Him all, the Author of salvation eternal." It was not in heaven that He was "perfected," but before He "became the Author of salvation"—cf. Hebrews 10:14, which affirms our oneness with Him in His approved obedience and accomplished sacrifice. "And being made perfect" does not contemplate any change wrought in His person, but speaks of His being fully qualified to officiate as Priest, to present Himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for the sins of His people. His official "perfecting" was accomplished in and by means of His sufferings. By His offering up of Himself He was consecrated to the priestly office, and by the active presentation of His sacrifice to God He discharged the essential function thereof. Thus, the inspired declaration we are now considering furnishes another flat contradiction (cf. Hebrews 2:17) of those who affirm that Christ was not constituted and consecrated High Priest till His resurrection. True, there were other acts and duties pertaining to His sacerdotal office yet to be performed, but these depend for their efficacy on His previous sufferings; those He was now made meet for. The "being made perfect" or "consecrated" to the priestly office at the Cross, finds a parallel in our Lord’s own words, "For their sakes I sanctify (dedicate) Myself" (John 17:19). "Here is the ultimate end why it was necessary for Christ to suffer: that He might thus become initiated into His priesthood" (John Calvin). "He became the Author of eternal salvation." "Having thus been made perfect through such intense, obediental, pious suffering—having thus obtained all the merit, all the power and authority, all the sympathy, which are necessary to the discharge of the high priestly functions of Savior, ‘He is become the Author of eternal salvation.’ This is the second statement which the apostle makes in illustration of the principle, that our Lord has proved Himself qualified for the office to which He has been divinely appointed by a successful discharge of its functions, the subsidiary clause, ‘being made perfect,’ connects this second statement with the first; showing how our Lord’s ‘learning obedience by the things which He suffered in the days of His flesh’—His humbled state led to His being now, in His exalted state, ‘the Author of salvation to all who obey Him’.... ‘Being made perfect’ is just equivalent to ‘having thus obtained’ every necessary qualification for actually saving them" (Dr. J. Brown). The "Author of salvation" conveys a slightly different thought than the "Captain of salvation" in Hebrews 2:10. There it is Christ actually conducting many sons, by the powerful administration of His Word and Spirit, unto glory. Here it is the work of Christ as the meritorious and efficient Cause of their salvation. It was the perfect satisfaction which He rendered to God, the propitiatory sacrifice of Himself, which has secured the eternal deliverance of His people from the penal consequences of their sins. By His expiation He became the purchaser and procurer of our redemption. His intercession and His gift of the Spirit are the effects and fruits of His perfect oblation. "He has done everything that is necessary to make the salvation of His people consistent with, and illustrative of, the perfections of the Divine character and the principles of the Divine government; and He actually does save His people from guilt, depravity and misery—He actually makes them really holy and happy hereafter" (Dr. J. Brown). The salvation which Christ has procured and now secures unto all His people, is here said to be an "eternal" one. First of all, none other was suited unto us. By virtue of the nature which we have received from God, we are made for eternal duration. But by sin we made ourselves obnoxious to eternal damnation, being by nature "the children of wrath, even as others" (Ephesians 2:3). Therefore an eternal salvation was our deep and dire need. Second, the merits of our Savior being infinite, required from the hand of Justice a corresponding salvation, one infinite in value and in duration: cf. Hebrews 9:12. Third, the salvation procured by our great High Priest is here contrasted with that obtained by the Levitical high priest: the atonement which Aaron made, held good for one year only (Lev. 16); but that which Christ has accomplished, is of eternal validity. "To all them that obey Him" describes those who are the beneficiaries of our High Priest’s atonement. "The expression is emphatical. To all and every one of them that obey Him; not any one of them shall be exempted from a share and interest in this salvation; nor shall any one of any other sort be admitted thereunto" (Dr. John Owen). It is not all men universally, but those only who bow to His scepter. The recipients of His great salvation are here spoken of according to the terms of human accountability. All who hear the Gospel are commanded to believe (1 John 3:23); such is their responsibility. The "obedience" of this verse is an evangelical, not a legal one: it is the "obedience of faith" (Romans 16:26). So also in Acts 5:32 we read of the Holy Spirit "whom God hath given to them that obey Him." But this "obedience" is not to be restricted to the initial act, but takes in the whole life of faith. A Christian, in contradistinction from a non-Christian, is one who obeys Christ (John 14:23). The "all them that obey Him" of Hebrews 5:9 is in opposition to "yet learned He obedience" in the previous verse: it identifies the members with their Head! Before taking up the next verse, let us seek to point out how that the passage which has been before us, not only shows Christ provided the substance of what was foreshadowed by the Levitical priests, but also how that He excelled them at every point, thus demonstrating the immeasurable superiority of Christ over Aaron. First, Aaron was but a man (Hebrews 5:1); Christ, the "Son." Second, Aaron offered "sacrifices" (Hebrews 5:1); Christ offered one perfect sacrifice, once for all. Third, Aaron was "compassed with infirmity" (Hebrews 5:2); Christ was the "mighty" One (Psalms 89:19). Fourth, Aaron needed to offer for his own sins (Hebrews 5:3); Christ was sinless. Fifth, Aaron offered a sacrifice external to himself; Christ offered Himself. Sixth, Aaron effected only a temporary salvation. Christ secured an eternal one. Seventh, Aaron’s atonement was for Israel only; Christ’s for "all them that obey Him." "Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchizedek" (Hebrews 5:10). This verse forms the transition between the first division of Hebrews 5, and its second which extends to the end of chapter 7—the second being interrupted by a lengthy parenthesis. In the first section treating of our Lord’s priesthood, the apostle has amplified his statement in Hebrews 2:17-18, and has furnished proof that Christ fulfilled the Aaronic type. In the second section wherein he treats of our Lord’s sacerdotal office, he amplifies his declaration in Hebrews 4:15, and shows that in Christ we have not only an High Priest, but "a great High Priest." The different aspects of his theme treated of in these two divisions of Hebrews 5 is intimated by the variation to be noted in Hebrews 5:6, Hebrews 5:10. In the former he says, "Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek," but in Hebrews 5:10 he adds, "Called of God an High Priest after the order of Melchizedek." The Greek word for "called" in Hebrews 5:10 is entirely different from the one used in Hebrews 5:4, "called of God." The former signifies to ordain or appoint; the latter to salute or greet. To the right understanding of the purport of Hebrews 5:10, it is essential to observe carefully the exact point at which this statement is introduced: it is not till after the declarations that Christ had "offered up" (Hebrews 5:7), had "learned obedience" (Hebrews 5:7), had been "made perfect," and had become "the Author of salvation" (Hebrews 5:9), we are told that God saluted Christ as "High Priest after the order of Melchizedek." What is found in Hebrews 5:6 does not in any wise weaken the force of this, still less does it clash with it. In Hebrews 5:5-6 the Spirit is not treating of the order of Christ’s priesthood, but is furnishing proof that He had been called to that office by God Himself. We do not propose to offer an exposition of the contents of Hebrews 5:10 on the present occasion, but content ourselves with directing attention to the important fact that it was consequent upon His being officially "made perfect" and becoming "the Author of eternal salvation," that Christ was saluted by God as "High Priest after the order of Melchizedek." This act of God’s followed the Savior’s death and resurrection. It was God’s greeting of the glorious Conqueror of sin and death. Hence the propriety of His new title. If the reader refers to Genesis 14 he will find that the historical Melchizedek first comes on the scene to greet Abraham after his notable conquest of Chedorlaomer and his allies. It was upon his "return from the slaughter" of the kings, that Melchizedek appeared and blessed him. Thus he owned Abraham’s triumph. In like manner, God has greeted the mighty Victor. May the Spirit of God fit our hearts and minds for a profounder insight of His living oracles. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 94: 005.022. CHAPTER 22 ======================================================================== Chapter 22 CHRIST SUPERIOR TO AARON Hebrews 5:11-14 At the close of our last article we pointed out that the 10th verse of Hebrews 5 forms the juncture of the two divisions of that chapter. In the first section, Hebrews 5:1-9, the apostle has shown how Christ fulfilled that which was typified of Him by the Levitical high priests, and also how that He excels Aaron in His person, His office, and His work. The second section, which begins at Hebrews 5:10 and extends, really, to the end of chapter 10, continues to display the superiority of Christ over Aaron, principally by showing that the Lord Jesus exercises a priesthood pertaining to a more excellent order than his. In substantiation of this the apostle, in Hebrews 5:10, makes reference to Psalms 110:4. His purpose in so doing was twofold: first, to allow that Christ was not a high priest according to the constitution, law, and order of the Aaronic priesthood; second, to remind the Hebrews there was a priesthood antecedent unto and diverse from that of Aaron; which had also been appointed of God, and that for the very purpose of prefiguring the person of our great High Priest. But at this point a difficulty has been presented to many students. We might state it thus: Seeing that this Epistle expressly declares, again and again, that Christ is priest "after the order of Melchizedek," how can it be true that Aaron, who belonged to a totally different order, could pre-figure His priestly office and work? This difficulty has largely resulted from failure to observe that the Holy Spirit has not said Christ is "an high priest of the order of Melchizedek," but, "alter the order of," etc. The difference between the two expressions is real and radical. The word "of" would have necessarily limited His priesthood to a certain order. For when we say, as we must, that Phineas and Eli were "high priests of the order of Aaron," we mean that they had the very same priesthood that Aaron had. But it is not so with Christ. His priesthood is not restricted to any human order, for no mere man could possibly sustain or perform the work which pertains to Christ’s priesthood. As we have pointed out on previous occasions, it is of the very greatest importance, in order to a clear understanding of the priesthood of God’s Son, to perceive that both Aaron and Melchizedek were needed to foreshadow His sacerdotal office. The reason for this was, that the priestly work of Christ would be performed in two distinct stages: one in the days of His humiliation, the other during the time of His exaltation. Aaron prefigured the former, Melchizedek the latter. In perfect keeping with this fact Christ is not said to be a high priest "after the order of Melchizedek" in Hebrews 2:17; Hebrews 3:1, or Hebrews 4:15. It was not until after the apostle has shown in Hebrews 5:5-9 that Christ fulfilled that which Aaron typified (Hebrews 5:1-4), that He is "saluted of God" as an high priest after the order of Melchizedek. And, we would here point out again that, this was wondrously and blessedly adumbrated in Genesis 14, where Melchizedek is seen coming to meet and greet the victorious Abraham. There were various things, peculiar to the person of Melchizedek, above and beyond what appertained to Aaron, which rendered him an illustrious type of our great High Priest; and when Christ is designated Priest "after the order of Melchizedek," the meaning of that expression is, according to the things revealed in Scripture concerning that Old Testament character. "Because of the especial resemblance there was between what Melchizedek was and what Christ was to be, God called His priesthood Melchizedekecian" (Dr. Owen). "After the order of Melchizedek" does not mean a limitation of His priesthood to that order—else it had said "of the order of Melchizedek"—but points to the particulars in which his priesthood also prefigured that of Christ’s. The various details of which that resemblance consisted are developed in Hebrews 7; all that we would now call attention to is, that nowhere in Scripture is Melchizedek ever seen offering a sacrifice, instead, we read, he "brought forth bread and wine" (Genesis 14:18)—typically, the memorials of the great Sacrifice already offered, once for all. It was in death that Christ fulfilled the Aaronic type, making a full and perfect atonement for the sins of His people. It is in resurrection that He assumed the character in which Melchizedek foreshadowed Him—a royal Priest. It was after He had been officially "perfected" and had become "the Author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him" that the Lord Jesus announced, "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth" (Matthew 28:18). There was first the Cross and then the Crown: first He "offered up Himself" (Hebrews 7:27), then He entered "into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us" (Hebrews 9:24); and there He is seated "a Priest upon His throne" (Zechariah 6:13). "Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchizedek" (Hebrews 5:10). A most important point had now been reached in the apostle’s argument, the central design of which was to exhibit the immeasurable superiority of Christianity over Judaism. The very center of the Jewish economy was its temple and priesthood; so too, the outstanding glory of Christianity, is its Priest who ministers in the heavenly sanctuary, officiating there in fulfillment of the Melchizedek type. But though the apostle had now arrived at the most important point in this treatise, it was also one which required the most delicate handling, due to the fleshly prejudices of his readers. To declare that, following His exodus from the grave, God Himself had greeted Christ as priest "after the order of Melchizedek," was tantamount to saying that the Aaronic order was thus Divinely set aside, and with it, all the ordinances and ceremonies of the Mosaic law. This was the hardest thing of all for a Hebrew, even a converted one, to bow to; for it meant repudiating everything that was seen, and cleaving to that which was altogether invisible. It meant forsaking that which their fathers had honored for fifteen hundred years, and following that which the great majority of their brethren according to the flesh denounced as Satanic. In view of the difficulty created by this prejudice, the apostle interrupts the flow of his argument, and pauses to make a lengthy parenthesis. "The apostle has scarcely entered on the central and most important part of his epistle, when he feels painfully the difficulty of explaining the doctrine of the heavenly and eternal priesthood of the Son, and this not merely on account of the grandeur and depth of the subject, but on account of the spiritual condition of the Hebrews, whom he is addressing. He had presented to their view the Lord Jesus, who after His sufferings was made perfect in His exaltation to be the High Priest in heaven. When he quotes again the 110th Psalm, ‘Thou art a priest, forever after the order of Melchizedek,’ the solemn and comprehensive words which are addressed by the Father to the Son, he has such a vivid and profound sense of the exceeding riches of this heavenly knowledge, of the treasures of wisdom and consolation which are hidden in the heavenly Priesthood of our ascended Lord, that he longs to unfold to the Hebrews his knowledge of the glorious mystery; especially as this was the truth which they most urgently needed. Here and here alone could they see their true position as worshippers in the true tabernacle, the heavenly sanctuary. Here and here alone was consolation for them in the trial which they felt on account of their excision from the temple and the earthly service in Jerusalem; while from the knowledge of Christ’s heavenly priesthood they would also derive light to avoid the insidious errors, and strength to overcome the difficulties which were besetting their path" (Adolph Saphir). In the course of his parenthesis which we are now about to begin, the apostle strikes two distinct notes: first he sounds a solemn warning, and then he gives forth a gracious encouragement. The warning is found in Hebrews 5:11–6:8, the encouragement is contained in Hebrews 6:9-20. Just so long as Christians have the flesh in them and are subject to the assaults of the Devil, do they need constant warning; and just so long as they are harassed by indwelling sin and are left in an hostile world, do they stand in need of heavenly encouragement. All effective ministry to the saints proceeds along these two lines, alternating from the one to the other. Preachers will do well to make a careful note of this fact, fully exemplified in all the Epistles of the apostles; and every Christian reader will do well to take to heart the solemn and searching passage we are now to take up. "Of whom we have many things to say" (Hebrews 5:11). "Of whom:" concerning Christ as the fulfiller of the Melchizedek type, the apostle had much in mind, much that he desired to bring before his brethren. There were many things pertaining to this order of priesthood which were of deep importance, of great value, and most necessary to know; things which concerned the glory of Christ, things which concerned the joy and consolation of His people. But these things were "hard to be uttered," or as the Revised Version has, "hard of interpretation.’ This does not mean that the apostle himself found it difficult to grasp them; nor does it mean they were of such a nature that he labored to find language for expressing himself clearly. No, it was because the things themselves were unpalatable to the Hebrews, that the spirit of the apostle was straitened. This is seen from the next clause. "And hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing" (Hebrews 5:11). "To be ‘dull of hearing’ is descriptive of that state of mind in which statements may be made without producing any corresponding impression, without being attended to, without being understood, without being felt. In a word, it is descriptive of mental listlessness. To a person in this state, it is very difficult to explain anything; for, nothing, however simple in itself, can be understood if it be not attended to" (Dr. J. Brown). The Revised Version is again preferable here; "ye are become dull of hearing." They were not always so. Time was when these Hebrews had listened to the Word with eagerness, and had made diligent application thereof. "When the Gospel was first preached to them, it aroused their attention, it exercised their thoughts; but now with many of them it had become a common thing. They flattered themselves that they knew all about it. It had become to them like a sound to which the ear had been long accustomed—the person is not conscious of it, pays no attention to it" (Dr. J. Brown). The Greek word for "dull" is translated "slothful" in Hebrews 6:12. It signifies a state of heaviness or inertia. These Hebrews had become mentally and spiritually what loafers are in the natural world—too indolent to bestir themselves, too lazy to make any effort at improvement. They were spiritual sluggards; slothful. Let the reader turn to Proverbs 12:27, Proverbs 19:24, Proverbs 21:25, Proverbs 24:30-34, Proverbs 26:13-16, and remember these passages all have a spiritual application. To become, "dull of hearing" or "slothful," is the reverse of "giving diligence" in 2 Peter 1:5, 2 Peter 1:10. In such a condition of soul, the apostle found it difficult to lead the Hebrews on to the apprehension of higher truth. He had many things to say unto them, but their coldness, lethargy, prejudice, restrained him. And this is recorded for our learning; it has a voice for us; may the Spirit grant us a hearing ear. "Ye are become dull of hearing." Of how many Christians is this true today! "Ye did run well; who did hinder you?" (Galatians 5:7). This is a cause of mourning unto all the true servants of God. Because iniquity abounds, the love of many waxes cold. Affections are set upon things below, rather than upon things above. Many who are deluded into thinking their eternal salvation is secure, evidence no concern over their present relationship to God. And Christians who mingle with these lifeless professors are injuriously affected, for "evil communications corrupt good manners" (1 Corinthians 15:33). There is little "reaching forth unto those things which are before" (Php 3:13) and, consequently, little growth in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord. By the very law of our constitution, if we do not move forward, we slip backward. There are few who seem to realize that truth has to be "bought" (Proverbs 23:23), purchased at the cost of subordinating temporal interests to spiritual ones. If the Christian is to "increase in the knowledge of God" (Colossians 1:10), he has to give himself whole-heartedly to the things of God. It is impossible to serve God and mammon. If the heart of the professing Christian be set, as the heart of the nominal professor is, upon earthly comforts, worldly prosperity, temporal riches, then the "true riches" will be missed—sold for "a mess of pottage" (Hebrews 12:16). But if, by Divine grace, through the possession of a new nature, there is a longing and a hungering for spiritual things, that longing can only be attained and that hunger satisfied by giving ourselves entirely to their ceaseless quest. "The loins of our minds" (1 Peter 1:13) have to be girded, the Word has to be "studied" (2 Timothy 2:15), the means of grace have to be used with "all diligence" (2 Peter 1:5). It is the diligent soul which "shall be made fat" (Proverbs 13:4). How many who sit under the ministry of a true servant of God are "dull of hearing!" There is little waiting upon God, little real exercise of heart, before the service, to prepare them for receiving His message. Instead, the average hearer comes up to the house of God with a mind full of worldly concerns. We have to "lay aside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness" if we are to "receive with meekness the engrafted Word" (James 1:21). We have to listen unto God’s Word with a right motive; not out of idle curiosity, not merely to fulfill a duty, still less for the purpose of criticizing; but that we "may grow thereby" (1 Peter 2:2)—grow in practical godliness. And, if what we have heard is not to be forgotten, if it is really to profit the soul, it must be meditated upon (Psalms 1:2), and accompanied with earnest prayer for grace to enable us to "heed" what has been heard. "For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat" (Hebrews 5:12). The opening "for" intimates that the apostle is here substantiating the charge which he had preferred against the believing Hebrews at the close of the preceding verse. His reproof was with the object of emphasizing the sad state into which their inertia had brought them. Their condition was to be deplored from three considerations. First, they had been converted long enough to be of help to others. Second, instead of being useful, they were useless, needing to be grounded afresh in the ABC’s of the Truth of God. Third, so far from having the capacity to masticate strong food, their condition called for that which was suited only to a stunted babyhood. "For when for the time ye ought to be teachers." This, it seems to us, is only another way of saying, Consider how long you have been Christians, how long you have known the Truth, and what improvement of it ought to have been made! It was a rebuke for their having failed to "redeem the time" (Ephesians 5:16). Most probably among these Hebrews were some who had been called during the days of Christ’s public ministry, others no doubt were among the three thousand saved on the day of Pentecost, since which, about thirty years had passed. During that time they had the Old Testament Scriptures which clearly testified to all they had been taught concerning Christ. The Gospel had been preached and "confirmed" unto them (Hebrews 2:1-3). Moreover, as the book of Acts shows, the apostles had labored hard and long among them, and much of the New Testament was now in their hands. Hence, in Hebrews 6:7 they are likened to the earth which drinketh in the rain that "cometh oft upon it." Thus, every privilege and opportunity had been theirs. "Ye ought to be teachers." This tells us the improvement which should have been made of, and the use to which they ought to have put, the teaching they had received. The Gospel is given by God to the Christian, not only for his own individual edification and joy, but as a "pound" to be traded with for Christ’s glory (Luke 19:13), as a "light" for the illumination of others (Matthew 5:15-16). "You ought to be teachers" shows that this was a duty required of them. How little is this perceived by Christians today! How few listen to the ministry of the Scriptures with an ear not only for their own soul’s profit, but also with the object of being equipped to help others. Instead, how many attend the preaching of the Word simply as a matter of custom, or to satisfy their conscience. Two aims should be prayerfully sought by every Christian auditor: his own edification, his usefulness to others. "Ye ought to be teachers." Let not the searching point of this be blunted by saying, God does not want all His people to be public preachers. The New Testament does not limit "teaching" to the pulpit. One of the most important spheres is the home, and that should be a Christian seminary. Under the law God commanded the Israelite to give His words to the members of his household: "And Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up" (Deuteronomy 6:7). Does God require less from us now, in this dispensation of full light? No, indeed. Note, again, how in Titus 2:3-5, the older sisters are bidden to "teach the young women:" never was there a greater need for this than now. So in 2 Timothy 2:2, the brethren are to "teach others also." Yes, every Christian "ought to be" a teacher. "Ye have need that one teach you again." The apostle continues his reproof of the listless Hebrews, and presses upon them the inevitable consequence of becoming "dull of hearing." Spiritual sloth not only prevents practical progress in the Christian’s life, but it produces retrogression. It was not that they had lost, absolutely, their knowledge of Divine truth, but they had failed to lay it to heart, and live in the power of it. In 2 Peter 1, Christians are called on to add to their faith "virtue, and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love;" and then the apostle adds, "For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." On the other hand, we are solemnly warned, "But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins." This was the condition of the Hebrews. "Which be the first principles of the oracles of God." Because of their unresponsiveness of heart, they had gone back so far that they were only fit to be placed in the lowest form of learners; they needed to be re-taught their ABC’s. Clear proof was this of their dullness and lack of proficiency. The "first principles of the oracles of God" signify the rudiments of our faith, the first lessons presented to our learning, the elementary truths of Scripture. Until these are grasped by faith, and the heart and life are influenced by them, the disciple is not ready for further instructions in the things of God. In the case of the Hebrews, those "first principles" or elementary doctrines were, that the Old Testament economy was strictly a typical one, that its ordinances and ceremonies foreshadowed the person and work of God’s Son, who was to come here and make an atonement for the sins of His people. He had thus come: the types had given place to the great Antitype, and therefore the shadows were replaced by the Substance itself. True, he had left this scene, gone into heaven, itself, there to appear in the presence of God for His people. Thither their faith and affections should have followed Him. But instead, they wanted to go back again to the temple-services in Jerusalem. They were setting their hearts upon the now effete types and figures, which the apostle hesitated not to call "the weak and beggarly elements" (Galatians 4:9). Instead of walking by faith, the Hebrews were influenced by the things of sight. Instead of looking forward to an ascended and glorified Savior, they were occupied with a system which had foreshadowed His work in the days of His humiliation. Thus they needed to be taught afresh the "first principles of the oracles of God." They needed to be reminded that that which is perfect had come, and therefore that which was in part had been done away. And what is the present-day application of this expression to Christians? This: the elementals of our faith are, that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners; that His salvation is perfect and complete, leaving nothing for us to add to it; that the only fitness He requires from sinners is the Spirit’s discovery to them of their need of Him. The greater the sinner I know myself to be, the greater my need of Christ, and the more I am suited to Him, for He died for "the ungodly" (Romans 5:6). It was the realization of my ruin and wretchedness which first drew me to Him. If I cast myself, in all my want and poverty, upon Him, then He has received me, for His declaration is, "him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out." Believing this, I go on my way rejoicing, thanking Him, praising Him, living on Him and for Him. But instead of living in the joyous assurance of their acceptance in the Beloved, many give way to doubting. They question their "interest in Christ;" they wonder, "Am I His, or am I not?" They are continually occupied with self, either their good self or their bad self. And thus their peace is at an end. Instead of affections set upon Christ, their attention is turned within, occupied with their faith or their lack of it. Instead of walking in the glorious sunshine of the conscious favor of God, they dwell in "Doubting Castle," or flounder in the "Slough of Despond." Thus, instead of themselves being teachers of others, they have need that one teach them again "which be the first principles of the oracles of God." They are fit only for the kindergarten. They require to be told once more that faith looks away from self, and is occupied entirely with Another. They need to be told that Christ, not faith, is the sinner’s Savior; that faith is simply the empty hand extended to receive from Him. This clause is susceptible of various legitimate applications. Let us consider its bearing upon another class of Christians, among which may be numbers of our readers. Time was when, in the "far country," you sought to be filled with the husks which the swine fed on (Luke 15). But you found your quest was in vain. To change the figure, you sampled one after another of the world’s cisterns, only to find that "whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again" (John 4:13). You discovered that the things of the world could not meet your deep need. Then, weary and heavy-laden, you were brought to Christ, and found in Him that "altogether lovely" One. O the joy that was now yours! "Thou O Christ art all I want," was your confession. But is this the language of your heart today? Alas, "thou hast left thy first love" (Revelation 2:4), and with it, peace and contentment are also largely a thing of the past. Like a sow that returns to her wallowing in the mire, many go back to the world for recreation, then for satisfaction. Ah, have not you, my reader, need to be taught again "which be the first principles of the oracles of God?" Do you not need reminding that nothing in this scene can minister to the new nature, a nature which has been created for heaven? Do you not need to relearn that Christ alone can satisfy your heart? The "oracles of God" is one of many names given to the Holy Scriptures. Stephen called them the "living oracles" (Acts 7:38). "They are so in respect of their Author,—they are the oracles of ‘the living God;’ whereas the oracles with which Satan infatuated the world were most of them at the shrines and graves of dead men. They are so in respect of their use and efficacy: they are ‘living’ because life-giving oracles unto them that obey them (Deuteronomy 32:47). Because they are ‘the oracles of God,’ they have supreme authority over the souls and consciences of us all. Therefore are they also infallible truth" (Dr. John Owen). "And are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat." Here the apostle continues to rebuke the Hebrews for their laxity, and sets before them their deteriorated condition under a figure designed to humble them: he likens them to infants. The same similitude is used in 1 Corinthians 3:1-2. "Milk" here signifies the same thing as the "first principles of the oracles of God." The "strong meat" had reference to the offices of Christ, especially His priesthood, as suited to our needs and affections. "Milk" is appropriate for babes, but Christians ought to grow and become strong in the Lord. They are exhorted to "be not children in understanding" (1 Corinthians 14:20). They are bidden to "quit ye like men" (1 Corinthians 15:13). "For every one that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe" (Hebrews 5:13). "Useth milk" means, lives on nothing else. By the "word of righteousness" is meant the Gospel of God’s grace. In 1 Corinthians 1:18 it is termed "the Word of the Cross," because that is its principal subject. In Romans 10:8 it is designated "the Word of Faith," because that is its chief requirement from all who hear it. Here, the Word of Righteousness, because of its nature, use and end. In the Gospel is "the righteousness of God revealed" (Romans 1:16-17), for Christ is "the end of the law for righteousness unto every one that believeth" (Romans 10:4). Now the Hebrews are not here said to be ignorant of or utterly without the Word of Righteousness, but "unskillful" or "inexperienced" in the use of it. They had failed to improve it to its proper end. Did they clearly apprehend the Gospel, they had perceived the needlessness for the perpetuation of the Levitical priesthood with its sacrifices. The one unskilled in the Word of Righteousness is a "babe." This term is here used by way of reproach. A "babe" is weak, ignorant. A spiritual "babe" is one who has an inadequate knowledge of Christ, i.e. an experimental knowledge and heart-acquaintance with Him. Let the reader note that a state of infancy was what characterized God’s people of old under Judaism (Galatians 4:1-6). They were looking forward to the Christ that was to come, and whose person and work was represented to their eyes by typical pictures and persons. Such was the ground to which these Hebrews had well-nigh slipped back. Earthly things were engrossing their attention. So it is still. A person may have been a Christian twenty or thirty years, but if he is not forgetting the things which are behind, and constantly pressing to the things before, he is, in actual experience and spiritual stature, but "a babe." "But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil" (Hebrews 5:14). Here the apostle completes the antithesis begun in the preceding verse, and describes the character of those to whom strong meat is suited. By necessary implication his statement explains to us why the Hebrews had become "dull of hearing." There is much here of deep practical importance. "Strong meat" is contrasted from "milk" or the "first principles" of God’s Word, which we have defined above. This "strong meat" is the appropriate portion of those who have left infancy behind, who have so assimilated the "milk" of babyhood they have "grown thereby," grown in faith and love. This growth is produced and promoted by using our spiritual "senses" or faculties. Infants have "senses," but they know not how to exercise them to advantage. The proper use of our spiritual faculties enables us to distinguish between "good and evil". It was here the Hebrews had failed so lamentably. "A child is easily imposed upon as to its food. Its nurse may easily induce it to swallow even palatable poison. But a man, ‘by reason of use,’ has learned so to employ his senses as to distinguish between what is deleterious and what is nourishing" (Dr. J. Brown). The same holds good in the spiritual realm. There is in the new man that which corresponds to our "five senses" naturally, namely, understanding, conscience, affections. But these have to be trained and developed. It is only by the constant and assiduous exercise of minds upon spiritual things, by the diligent study of the Word, by daily meditation thereon, by the exercise of faith therein, by earnestly supplicating the Spirit for light, that we acquire the all-important discernment to distinguish between good and evil, Truth and error. "Senses exercised" means ability or fitness acquired, as a disciplined soldier is equipped for his duty, or a trained athlete is for his work. Such capacity is only attained by the Christian through a constant and sedulous application of himself to the things of God. "By reason of use" refers not to spasmodic effort, but to a regular practice, a confirmed habit. The outcome is a spiritual ability to judge rightly of all that is presented to his notice. It was here the Hebrews had failed, as, alas, so many Christians do now. "Their senses had not been exercised; that is, they had not walked closely with God, they had not followed the Master, listening earnestly to His voice, and proving what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. They had not conscientiously applied the knowledge which they had, but allowed it to remain dead and unused. If they had really and truly partaken of the milk, they would not have remained babes" (Adolph Saphir). Because of their slothfulness, they were unable to distinguish between "good and evil," i.e., between Truth and error, the promptings of the Spirit and the solicitations of Satan, the desires of the new nature and the lustings of the old. They were like babes are in the natural world, unable to discriminate between what is wholesome and what is hurtful; therefore were they unable to see the difference between what was right under the Judaic economy, and what was now suited to Christianity. "Senses trained to discern both good and evil" has reference to what is set before a believer as food for his soul. The "good" is that which is nutritious and suited to his nourishment, "evil" is that which tends not to his edification, but to his destruction. Scripture itself is "evil" when wrongly divided and misapplied. This is seen in Satan’s misuse of Scripture with Christ (Matthew 4:6). Truth becomes "evil" when it is not presented in its due and Divine proportions. The enemies of the Hebrews were appealing to the Old Testament Scriptures, as Romanists now do to favor their elaborate form of worship and priesthood. In many other ways is Satan active today in setting before God’s people both "good and evil," and unless their spiritual faculties have been diligently trained, through much waiting upon God, they fall easy victims to his half-lies. "If people really loved and cherished what they so fondly called ‘the simple gospel,’ their knowledge and Christian character would deepen, and all the truths which are centered in Christ crucified would become the object of their investigation and delight, and enrich and elevate their experience There are no doctrines more profound than those which are proclaimed when Christ’s salvation is declared. All our progress consists in learning more fully the doctrine which at first is preached unto us" (Adolph Saphir). It is using the light we already have, putting into practice the truth already received, which fits us for more. Unless this is done, we retrograde, and the light which is in us becomes darkness. Manna not used breeds worms (Exodus 16:20)! Milk undigested—not taken up into our system—ferments. A backslidden state deprives us of a sound judgment. The secret of "senses trained to discern good and evil" is revealed in Hosea 6:3, "Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord." May His grace stir us up so to do. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 95: 005.023. CHAPTER 23 ======================================================================== Chapter 23 INFANCY AND MATURITY Hebrews 6:1-3 The interpretation which we shall give of the above verses is not at all in accord with that advanced by the older writers. It differs considerably from that found in the commentaries of Drs. Calvin, Owen and Gouge, and more recently, those of A. Saphir, and Dr. J. Brown. Much as we respect their works, and deeply as we are indebted to not a little that is helpful in them, yet we dare not follow them blindly. To "prove all things" (1 Thessalonians 5:21) is ever our bounden duty. Though it is against our natural inclination to depart from the exposition they suggested (several, with some diffidence), yet we are thankful to God that in later years He has granted some of His servants increased light from His wondrous and exhaustless Word. May it please Him to vouchsafe us still more. The writers mentioned above understood the expression "the principles of the doctrine of Christ," or as the margin of the Revised Version more accurately renders "the word of the beginning of Christ," to refer to the elementary truths of Christianity, a summary of which is given in the six items that follow in the second half of Hebrews 6:1 and the whole of Hebrews 6:2; while the "Let us go on unto perfection," they regarded as a call unto the deeper and higher things of the Christian revelation. But for reasons which to us seem conclusive, such a view of our passage is altogether untenable. It fails to take into account the central theme of this Epistle, and the purpose for which it was written. It does not do justice at all to the immediate context. It completely breaks down when tested in its details. As we have repeated so often in the course of this series of articles, the theme of our Epistle is the immeasurable superiority of Christianity over Judaism. Unless the interpreter keeps this steadily in mind as he proceeds from chapter to chapter, and from passage to passage, he is certain to err. This is the key which unlocks every section, and if attempt be made to open up any portion without it, the effect can only be strained and forced. The importance of this consideration cannot be overestimated, and several striking exemplifications of it have already been before us in our survey of the previous chapters. Here too it will again stand us in good stead, if we but use it. The apostle is not contrasting two different stages of Christianity, an infantile and a mature; rather is he opposing, once more, the substance over against the shadows. He continues to press upon the Hebrews their need of forsaking the visible for the invisible, the typical for the antitypical. That in taking up our present passage it is also of first importance to study its connection with the immediate context, is evident from its very first word, "Therefore." The apostle is here drawing a conclusion from something said previously. This takes us back to what is recorded in Hebrews 5:11-14, for a right understanding of which depends a sound exposition of what immediately follows. In these verses the apostle rebukes the Hebrews for their spiritual sloth, and likens them to little children capacitated to receive nothing but milk. He tells them that they have need of one teaching them again "which be the first principles of the oracles of God," which denoted they had not yet clearly grasped the fact that Judaism was but a temporary economy, because a typical one, its ordinances and ceremonies foreshadowing Him who was to come here and make an atonement for the sins of His people. Now that He had come and finished His work the types had served their purpose, and the shadows were replaced by the Substance. The spiritual condition in which the Hebrew saints were at the time the Holy Spirit moved the apostle to address this Epistle to them, is another important key to the opening of its hortatory sections. As we showed in our last article, the language of Hebrews 5:11-14 plainly intimates that they have gone backward. The cause of this is made known in the 10th chapter, part of which takes us back to a point in time prior to what is recorded in chapter 5. First in Hebrews 10:32 we read, "But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great flight of afflictions." This "great flight of afflictions" they had, as Hebrews 10:34 tells us, taken "joyfully." Very remarkable and rare was this. How was such an experience to be accounted for? The remainder of Hebrews 10:34 tells us, "Knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance." But this blessed and spiritual state which characterized the Hebrews in the glow of "first love" had not been maintained. While affections were set upon things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, whilst faith was in exercise, they realized that their real portion was on High. But faith has to be tested, patience has to be tried, and unless faith be maintained "hope deferred maketh the heart sick" (Proverbs 13:12). Alas, their faith had wavered, and in consequence they had become dissatisfied to have nothing down here; they became impatient of waiting for an unseen and future inheritance. It was for this reason that the apostle said to them, "Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise" (Hebrews 10:35-36). Now it was this discontented and impatient condition of soul into which they had fallen, which accounts for the state in which we find them in Hebrews 5:11-12. So too it explains the various things referred to in chapter 6. That is why the apostle was moved to set before them the most solemn warning found in Hebrews 6:4-6. That is why we find "hope" so prominent in what follows: see Hebrews 6:11, Hebrews 6:18, Hebrews 6:19. That is why reference is made to "patience" in Hebrews 6:12. That is why Abraham is referred to, and why his "patience" is singled out for mention in Hebrews 6:15. And that is why in our present passage the Hebrews are urged to "go on unto perfection," and why the apostle interposes a doubt in the matter: "This will we do, if God permit" (Hebrews 6:3), for there was good reason to believe that their past conduct had provoked Him. Thus we see again how wondrously and how perfectly Scripture interprets itself, and how much we need to "compare spiritual things with spiritual" (1 Corinthians 2:13). The sixth chapter of Hebrews does not commence a new section of the Epistle, but continues the digression into which the apostle had entered at Hebrews 5:11. In view of the disability of those to whom he was writing receiving unto their edification the high and glorious mysteries which he desired to expound, the apostle goes on to set before them various reasons and arguments to excite a diligent attention thereunto. First, he declares his intention positively: to "go on unto perfection" (Hebrews 6:1). Second, he names, what he intended to "leave," namely, "the word of the beginning of Christ" (Hebrews 6:1-3). Third, he warns of the certain doom of apostates (Hebrews 6:4-8). Fourth, he softens this warning in the case of the converted Hebrews (Hebrews 6:9-14). Fifth, he gives an inspiring encouragement to faith, taken from the life of Abraham (Hebrews 6:15-21). "Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ" (Hebrews 6:1). As already pointed out, the first word of this verse denotes that there is a close link between what has immediately preceded and what now follows. This will appear yet more clearly if we attend closely to the exact terms here used. The word "principles" in this verse is the same as rendered "first" in Hebrews 5:12. The word "doctrine" is found in its plural form and is translated "oracles" in Hebrews 5:12. The word "perfection" is given as "of full age" in Hebrews 5:14. Thus it is very evident that the apostle is here continuing the same subject which he began in the previous chapter. "Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ." The rendering of the A.V. of this clause is very faulty and misleading. The verb is in the past tense, not the present. Bagster’s Interlinear correctly gives "Wherefore having left." This difference of rendition is an important one, for it enables us to understand more readily the significance of what follows. The apostle was stating a positive fact, not pleading for a possibility. He was not asking the Hebrews to take a certain step, but reminding them of one they had already taken. They had left the "principles of the doctrine of Christ," and to them he did not wish them to return. "Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ." More accurately, "Wherefore having left the word of the beginning of Christ." Bagster’s Interlinear, which gives a literal word for word translation of the Greek, renders it, "Wherefore, having left the of the beginning of the Christ discourse." This expression is parallel with the "first principles of the oracles of God" in Hebrews 5:12. It has reference to what God has made known concerning His Son under Judaism. In the Old Testament two things are outstandingly prominent in connection with Christ: first, prophecies of His coming into the world; second, types and figures of the work He should perform. These predictions had now received their fulfillment, those shadows had now found their substance, in the incarnation, life, death, resurrection and ascension of the Son of God. This, the "holy brethren" (Hebrews 3:1) among the Jews had acknowledged. Thus they had "left" the ABC’s, for the Word Himself, the pictures for the Reality. "Let us go on unto perfection." There is the definite article in the Greek, and "The Perfection" is obviously set in apposition to "The word of the beginning of Christ:" note, not of "the Lord Jesus," but of "Christ," i.e., the Messiah. It is the contrast, once more, between Judaism and Christianity. That which is here referred to as "The Perfection" is the full revelation which God now made of Himself in the person of His incarnate Son. No longer is He veiled by types and shadows, His glory is seen fully in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6). The only begotten Son has "declared" Him here on earth (John 1:18); but having triumphantly finished the work which was given Him to do, He has been "received up into glory" (1 Timothy 3:16), and upon an exalted and enthroned Christ the affection of the believer is now to be set (Colossians 3:1). "Wherefore having left . . . let us go on unto perfection." The first word looks back to all that the apostle had said. It is a conclusion drawn from the contents of the whole preceding five chapters. Its force is: In view of the fact that God has now spoken to us in His Son; in view of who He is, namely, the appointed Heir of all things, the Maker of the worlds, the Brightness, of God’s glory, and the very Impress of His substance, the One who upholds all things by the word of His power; in view of the fact that He has by Himself "purged our sins," and, in consequence, has sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having been made so much better than angels, as He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they; in view of the further fact that He was made in all things like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things God-ward, to make propitiation for the sins of the people, and having, in consequence of His successful prosecution of this stupendous work been "crowned with glory and honor;" and, seeing that He is immeasurably superior to Moses, Joshua and Aaron;—let us give Him His due place in our thoughts, hearts and lives. "Let us go on unto perfection" has reference to the apprehension of the Divine revelation of the full glory of Christ in His person, perfections, and position. It is, from the practical side, a "perfection" of knowledge, spiritually imparted by the Holy Spirit to the understanding and heart. It refers to the mysteries and sublime doctrine of the Gospel. It is a perfection of knowledge in revealed truth. Yet, of course, it is only a relative "perfection," for an absolute apprehension of the things of God is not attainable in this life. Now "we know in part" (1 Corinthians 13:9). "If any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know" (1 Corinthians 8:2). Even the apostle Paul had to say, "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Php 3:13-14). "Let us go on unto perfection." Students are not agreed as to the precise force of the plural pronoun here. Some consider it to be the apostle linking on the Hebrews to himself in the task immediately before him; others regard the "us" as the apostle graciously joining himself with them in their duty. Personally, we think that both these ideas are to be combined. First, "let us go on:" it was his resolution so to do, as the remaining chapters of the Epistle demonstrate; then let them follow him. Thus considered it shows that the apostle did not look upon the condition of the Hebrews as quite hopeless, notwithstanding their "dullness" (Hebrews 5:11)—I shall therefore go on to set before you the highest and most glorious things concerning Christ. Second, the apostle condescends to unite himself with them in their responsibility to press forward. "Wherefore:" in view of the length of time we have been Christians, let us be diligent to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was, thus, a call to stir them up. "Let us go on" is passive, "be carried on." It is a word taken from the progress which a ship makes before the wind when under sail. Let us, under the full bent of our will and affections be stirred by the utmost endeavors of our whole souls, be borne onwards. We have abode long enough near the shore, let us hoist our sails, pray to the Spirit for His mighty power to work within us, and launch forth into the deep. This is the duty of God’s servants, to excite their Christian hearers to make progress in the knowledge of Divine truth, to urge them to pass the porch and enter the sanctuary, there to behold the Divine glories of the House of God. Though the verb is passive, denoting the effect—"Let us be carried on"—yet it included the active use of means for the producing of this effect. "All diligence" is demanded of the Christian (2 Peter 1:5). Truth has to be "bought" (Proverbs 23:23). That which God has given us must be put into practice (Luke 8:18). "Let us go on unto perfection." What, we may ask, is the application of this to Christians today? To the Hebrews it meant abandoning the preparatory and earthly system of Judaism, (which occupied their whole attention before believing in Christ as the sent Savior) and, by faith, laying hold of the Divine revelation which has now been made in and through Him: set your affection on an ascended though invisible Christ, who now serves in the Heavenly Sanctuary on your behalf. For Christians it means, Turn away from those objects which absorbed you in the time of your unregeneracy, and meditate now on and find your joy and satisfaction in things above. Lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily besets, and run with perseverance the race that is set before us, "looking off unto Jesus"—the One who while here left us an example to follow, the One who is now enthroned on High because of the triumphant completion of His race. To the Hebrews, this much-misunderstood exhortation of Hebrews 6:1 was exactly parallel with the word which Christ addressed to the eleven immediately prior to His death: "Ye believe in God, believe also in Me" (John 14:1): Ye have long avowed your faith in "God," whom, though invisible, ye trust; now "believe also in Me," as One who will speedily pass beyond the range of your natural vision. I am on the point of returning to the Father, but I shall still have your interests at heart, yea, I am going to "prepare a place for you;" therefore, trust Me implicitly: let your hearts follow Me on high: walk by faith: be occupied with an ascended Savior. For us today, the application of this important word signifies, Be engaged with your great High Priest in heaven, dwell daily upon your portion in Him (Ephesians 1:3). By faith, behold Christ, now in the heavenly sanctuary, as your righteousness, life, and strength. See in God’s acceptance of Him, His adoption of you, that you have been reconciled to Him, made nigh by the precious blood. In the realization of this, worship in spirit and in truth; exercise your priestly privileges. Thus, the "perfection" of Hebrews 6:1 is, strictly speaking, scarcely doctrinal or experimental, yet partakes of both. "The law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did" (Hebrews 7:19). It is Christ who has ushered in that which is "perfect." It is in Him we now have a full revelation and manifestation of the eternal purpose and grace of God. He has fully made known His mind (Hebrews 1:2). And, by His one all-sufficient offering of Himself, He has "perfected forever" (Hebrews 10:14), them whom God set apart in His everlasting counsels. Christ came here to fulfill the will of God (Hebrews 10:9). That will has been executed; the work given Him to do, He finished (John 17:4). In consequence, He has been gloriously rewarded, and in His reward all His people share. This is all made known to us for "the hearing of faith." "Not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works" (Hebrews 6:1). It is most important to see that the contents of the second half of Hebrews 6:1. and the whole of Hebrews 6:2 are a parenthesis. The "Let us be carried on to perfection" is completed in "this will we do if God permits" in Hebrews 6:3. That which comes in between is a definition or explanation of what the apostle intended by his "Having left the word of the beginning of Christ." The six items enumerated—"repentance from dead works," etc.—have nothing to do with the "foundations of Christianity," nor do they describe those things relating to the elementary experiences of a Christian. Instead, they treat of what appertained to Judaism, considered as a rudimentary system, paving the way for the fuller and final revelation which God has now made in and by His beloved Son. Unless the parenthetical nature of these verses is clearly perceived, interpreters are certain to err in their exposition of the details. "Not laying again the foundation," etc. It is to be remarked that there is no definite article in the Greek here, so it should be read, "a foundation," which is one of several intimations that it is not the "fundamentals of Christianity" which are here in view. Had these verses been naming the basic features of the new and higher revelation of God, the Holy Spirit had surely said, "the foundation;" that He did not, shows that something less important was before Him. As said above, this "foundation" respects Judaism. Now there are two properties to a "foundation," namely, it is that which is first laid in a building; it is that which bears up the whole superstructure. To which we may add, it is generally lost to sight when the ground floor has been put in. Such was the relation which Judaism sustained to Christianity. As the "foundation" precedes the building, so had Judaism Christianity. As the "foundation" bears the building, so the truth of Christianity rests upon the promises and prophecies of the Old Testament, of which the New Testament revelation records the fulfillment. As the "foundation" is lost to sight when the building is erected on it, so the types and shadows of the earlier revelation are superseded by the substance and reality. "Not laying again a foundation," etc. This is exactly what the Hebrews were being sorely tempted to do. To "lay again" this foundation was to forsake the substance for the shadows; it was to turn from Christianity and go back again to Judaism. As Paul wrote to the Galatians, who were being harassed by Judaisers, "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith" (Galatians 3:24). To which he at once added, "But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster." Thus, under a different figure, he was here in Hebrews 6:1 simply saying, Let us be carried on to maturity, and not go back again to the things which characterized the days of our childhood. "Not laying again a foundation," etc. It will be noted that the apostle here enumerates just six things, which is ever the number of man in the flesh. Such was what distinguished Judaism. It was a system which appertained solely to man in the flesh. Its rites and ceremonies only "sanctified to the purifying of the flesh" (Hebrews 9:13). Had the fundamentals of Christianity been here in view, the apostle had surely given seven, as in Ephesians 4:3-6. The first which he specifies is "repentance from dead works." Observe that it is not "repentance from sins." That is not what is in view at all. This expression "dead works" is found again in Hebrews 9:14 (and nowhere else in the New Testament), where a contrast is drawn from what is said in Hebrews 9:13 : the blood of bulls and goats sanctified to the purifying of the flesh, then much more should the blood of Christ cleanse their conscience from dead works. Where sins are in question the New Testament speaks of them as "wicked works" (Titus 1:16), and "abominable works" (Colossians 1:21). The reference here was to the unprofitable and in-efficacious works of the Levitical service: cf. Hebrews 10:1, Hebrews 10:4. Those works of the ceremonial law are denominated "dead works" because they were performed by men in the flesh, were not vitalized by the Holy Spirit, and did not satisfy the claims of the living God. "And of faith toward God." Of the six distinctive features of Judaism here enumerated, this one is the most difficult to define with any degree of certainty. Nevertheless, we believe that if due attention be given to the particular people to whom the apostle was writing all difficulty at once vanishes. The case of the Jew was vastly different from that of the Gentiles. To the heathen, the one true God was altogether "unknown" (Acts 17:23). They worshipped a multitude of false gods. But not so was it with Israel. Jehovah had revealed Himself to their fathers, and given to them a written revelation of His will. Thus, "faith toward God" was a national thing with them, and though in their earlier history they fell into idolatry again and again, yet were they purified of this sin by the Babylonian captivity. Still, their faith was more of a form than a reality, a tradition received from their fathers, rather than a vital acquaintance with Him: see Matthew 15:8-9, etc. Israel’s national faith "toward God" had, under the Christian revelation, given place to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. A few references from the New Testament epistles will establish this conclusively. We read of "the faith of Jesus Christ," and "the faith of the Son of God" (Galatians 2:16, Galatians 2:20); "your faith in the Lord Jesus" (Ephesians 1:15); "by faith of Jesus Christ" (Php 3:9); "your faith in Christ" (Colossians 2:5); "the faith which is in Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 3:13). As another has said, "All the blessings of the gospel are connected with ‘faith,’ but it is faith which rests in Christ. Justification, resurrection-life, the promises, the placing of sons, salvation, etc., are all spoken of as resulting from faith which rests upon Christ... ‘Hebrews’ reveals Christ as the ‘one Mediator between God and men.’ It reveals Christ as ‘a Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek,’ and urges the divine claim of the Son of God. The apostle is directing his readers to look away from self to Christ, the Center, the Sum of all blessing. This is not merely ‘faith toward God,’ but it is faith which comes to God by the way of the mediation and merits of His Son." "Of the doctrine of baptisms" (Hebrews 6:2). Had the translators understood the scope and meaning of this passage it is more than doubtful if they had given the rendering they did to this particular clause. It will be observed that the word "baptism" is in the plural number, and if scripture be allowed to interpret scripture there will be no difficulty in ascertaining what is here referred to. It is neither Christian baptism (Matthew 28:19), the baptism of the Spirit (Acts 1:5), nor the baptism of suffering (Matthew 20:23), which is here in view, but the carnal ablutions which obtained under the Mosaic economy. The Greek word is "baptismos." It is found but four times on the pages of the New Testament: in Mark 7:4-5 and Hebrews 6:2; Hebrews 9:10. In each of the other three instances, the word is rendered "washings." In Mark 7 it is the "washing of cups and pans." In Hebrews 9:10 it is "meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal (fleshly) ordinances," concerning which it is said, they were "imposed until the time of reformation." It is to be noted that our verse speaks of "the doctrine of baptisms." There was a definite teaching connected with the ceremonial ablutions of Judaism. They were designed to impress upon the Israelites that Jehovah was a holy God, and that none who were defiled could enter into His presence. These references in Hebrews 6:2 and Hebrews 9:10 look back to such passages as Exodus 30:18-19; Leviticus 16:4; Numbers 19:19, etc. Typically, these "washings" denoted that all the defiling effects of sin must be removed, ere the worshipper could approach unto the Lord. They foreshadowed that perfect and eternal cleansing from sin which the atoning blood of Christ was to provide for His people. They had no intrinsic efficacy in themselves; they were but figures, hence, we are told they sanctified only "to the purifying of the flesh" (Hebrews 9:13). Those "washings" effected nought but an external and ceremonial purification; they "could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience" (Hebrews 9:9). "And of laying on of hands." The older commentators quite missed the reference here. Supposing the previous clause was concerned with the Christian baptisms recorded in the Acts, they appealed to such passages as Acts 8:17; Acts 19:6, etc. But those passages have no bearing at all on the verse before us. They were exceptional cases where the supernatural "gifts" of the Spirit were imparted by communication from the apostles. The absence of this "laying on of hands" in Acts 2:41; Acts 8:38; Acts 16:33, etc., shows plainly that, normally, the Holy Spirit was given by God altogether apart from the instrumentality of His servants. The "laying on of hands" is not, and never was, a distinctive Christian ordinance. In such passages as Acts 6:6; Acts 9:17; Acts 13:3, the act was simply a mark of identification, as is sufficiently clear from the last reference. "And of laying on of hands." The key which unlocks the real meaning of this expression is to be found in the Old Testament, to which each and all of the six things here mentioned by the apostle look back. Necessarily so, for the apostle is here making mention of those things which characterized Judaism, which the Hebrews, upon their profession of their personal faith in Christ had "left." The "laying on of hands" to which the apostle refers is described in Leviticus 16:21, "And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness." This was an essential part of the ritual on the annual Day of Atonement. Of this the Hebrews would naturally think when the apostle here makes mention of the "doctrine (teaching) . . . of laying on of hands." "And of resurrection of the dead." At first glance, and perhaps at the second too, it may appear that what is here before us will necessitate an abandonment of the line of interpretation we are following. Surely, the reader may exclaim, you will not ask us to believe that these Hebrews had "left" the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead! Yet this is exactly what we do affirm. The difficulty which is seemingly involved is more imaginary than real, due to a lack of discrimination and failure to "rightly divide the Word of Truth." The resurrection of the dead was a clearly revealed doctrine under Judaism; but it is supplanted by something far more comforting and blessed under the fuller revelation God has given in Christianity. If the reader will carefully observe the preposition we have placed in italic type, he will find it a valuable key to quite a number of passages. "We make a great mistake when we assume that the resurrection as taught by the Pharisees, held by the Jews, believed by the disciples, and proclaimed by the apostles, was one and the same" (C.H.W.). The great difference between the former and the latter may be seen by a comparison of the scriptures that follow. "After the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets: and have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust" (Acts 24:14-15). That was the Jewish hope: "Martha saith unto Him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day" (John 11:24). Now in contrast, note, "He charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead. And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean" (Mark 9:9-10). It is this aspect of resurrection which the New Testament epistles emphasize, an elective resurrection, a resurrection of the redeemed before that of the wicked: see Revelation 20:5-6; 1 Corinthians 15:22-23; 1 Thessalonians 4:16. "And of eternal judgment." In the light of all that has been before us, this should occasion no difficulty. The Jewish church, and most of Christendom now, believed in a General Judgment, a great assize at the end of time when God would examine every man’s life, "For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil" (Ecclesiastes 12:14). This is described in fullest detail in the closing verses of Revelation 20. It is the Great White Throne judgment. Let us now, very briefly, summarize what has just been engaging our attention. The Hebrews had confessed their faith in Christ, and by so doing had forsaken the shadows for the Substance. But hope had been deferred, faith hath waned, persecutions had cooled their zeal. They were being tempted to abandon their Christian profession and return to Judaism. The apostle shows that by so doing they would be laying again "a foundation" of things which had been left behind. Rather than this, he urges them to be carried forward to "perfection" or "full growth." That meant to substitute "repentance unto life" (Acts 11:18), for "repentance from dead works;" trust in the glorified Savior, for a national "faith toward God;" the all-cleansing blood of the Lamb, for the inefficacious "washings" of the law; God’s having laid on Christ the iniquities of us all, for the Jewish high-priest’s "laying on of hands;" a resurrection "from the dead," for "a resurrection of the dead;" the Judgment-seat of Christ, for the "eternal judgment" of the Great White Throne. Thus, the six things here mentioned belonged to a state of things before Christ was manifested. "And this will we do if God permit" (Hebrews 6:3). Here we learn of the apostle’s resolution as to the occasion before him, and the limitation of his resolution by an express subordination of it to the good pleasure of God. The "this will we do" has reference to "Let us go on unto perfection." The use of the plural pronoun is very blessed. Though a spiritual giant when compared with his fellow Christians, the apostle Paul never imagined he had "attained" (Php 3:12). "This will we do" means, I in teaching, you in learning. In the chapters that follow, we see how the apostle’s resolution was carried out. In Hebrews 5:10 he had said, "an High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, of whom we have many things to say." By comparing Hebrews 6:3 with Hebrews 5:11-12 we learn that no discouragement should deter a servant of God from proceeding in the declaration of the mystery of Christ, not even the dullness of his hearers. "And this will we do, if God permit." This qualifying word may have respect unto the unknown sovereign pleasure of God, to which all our resolutions must submit: "I trust to tarry a while with you, if the Lord permit" (1 Corinthians 16:7 and cf. James 4:13-15). Probably the apostle also had before him the sad state into which the Hebrews had fallen (Hebrews 5:11-14), in view of which this was a solemn and searching word for their conscience: because of their sloth and negligence there was reason to fear they had provoked God, so that He would grant them no further light (Luke 8:18). Finally, we believe the apostle looked to the Divine enablement of himself; were He to withdraw His assistance the teacher would be helpless: see 2 Corinthians 3:5. To sum up—in all things we must seek God’s glory, bow to His will, and recognize that all progress in the Truth is a special gift from Him (John 3:27). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 96: 005.024. CHAPTER 24 ======================================================================== Chapter 24 APOSTASY Hebrews 6:4-6 The passage which is now to occupy our attention is one of the most solemn in the Hebrews’ epistle, yea, to be met with anywhere in the New Testament. Probably few regenerate souls have read it thoughtfully without being moved to fear and trembling. Careless professors have frequently been rendered uneasy in conscience as they have heard its awe-inspiring language. It speaks of a class of persons who had been highly privileged, who had been singularly favored, but who, so far from having improved their opportunities, had wretchedly perverted them; who had brought shame and reproach on the cause of Christ; and who were in such a hopeless condition that it was "impossible to renew them again unto repentance." Well does it become each one of us to earnestly lift up his heart to God, beseeching Him to prevent us making such a shipwreck of the faith. As perhaps the majority of our readers are aware, the verses before us have proved one of the fiercest theological battlegrounds of the centuries. It is at this point that the hottest fights between Calvinists and Arminians have been waged. Those who believe that it is possible for a real Christian to so sin and backslide as to fall from grace and be lost eternally, have confidently appealed to these verses for proof of their theory. It is much to be feared their theory prejudiced them so much, that they were incapable of examining impartially and weighing carefully its varied terms. With their minds so biased by their views of apostasy, they have rather taken it for granted that this passage describes a true child of God, who, through turning his back upon Christ, ultimately perishes. But Scripture bids us "Prove all things" (1 Thessalonians 5:21), and this calls for something more than a superficial and hurried investigation of what is, admittedly, a difficult passage. If on the one hand, Arminians have been too ready to read into this passage their unscriptural dogma of the apostasy of a Christian, it must be confessed that many Calvinists have failed to grapple successfully with and interpret satisfactorily the most knotty points in these verses. They are right in affirming that Scripture teaches, most emphatically and unequivocably the Divine preservation and the human perseverance of the saints, as they have also wisely pointed out that the Word of God does not and cannot contradict itself. If our Lord asserted that His sheep should "never perish" (John 10:28), then certainly Hebrews 6 will not teach that some of them do. If through the apostle Paul the Holy Spirit assures us that nothing can separate the children from the love of their Father (Romans 8:35-39), then, without doubt, the portion now before us does not declare that something will. It may not always be easy to discover the perfect consistency of one scripture with another, yet we must hold fast to the unerring harmony and integrity of God’s Truth. The chief difficulty connected with our passage is to make sure of the class of persons who are there in view. Is the Holy Spirit here describing regenerated or unregenerated souls? The next thing is to ascertain what is meant by, "If they shall fall away." The last, what is denoted by "It is impossible to renew them again unto repentance." Anticipating our exposition, we are fully assured that the "falling away" which is here spoken of signifies a deliberate, complete and final repudiation of Christ—a sin for which there is no forgiveness. So too we understand the "impossible" to renew them again to repentance, announces that their condition and case is beyond hope of recovery. Because of this, Calvinists have, generally, affirmed that this passage is treating of mere professors. But over against this there are two insuperable objections: first, mere professors have nothing from which to "fall away"; second, mere professors have never been "renewed" unto repentance. In addition to the controversy which these verses have occasioned, not a few have turned them unto an unwarrantable use. "Misapprehension of this passage has also, I believe, in many cases occasioned extreme distress of mind to two classes of persons,—to nominal professors, who, after falling into gross sin, have been awakened to serious reflection; and to real Christians, on their falling under the power of mental disease, sinking into a state of spiritual languor, or being betrayed into such transgressions of the Divine law as David and Peter were guilty of: and this has thrown all but insurmountable obstacles in the way of both ‘fleeing for refuge, to lay hold on the hope set before them’ in the Gospel. All this makes it the more necessary that we should carefully inquire into the meaning of the passage. When rightly understood, it will be found to give no countenance to any of the false conclusions which have been drawn from it, but to be like every other part of inspired Scripture, ‘profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness’,—well-fitted to produce caution, no way calculated to induce despair" (Dr. J. Brown). Before attempting an elucidation of the above-mentioned difficulties, and to prepare the way for our exposition of these verses, the contents of which have so sorely puzzled many, let us recall, once more, the condition of soul into which these Hebrew Christians had fallen. They had "become dull of hearing" (Hebrews 5:11), "unskillful in the Word of Righteousness" (Hebrews 5:13), unable to masticate "strong meat" (Hebrews 5:14). This state was fraught with the most dangerous consequences. "The Hebrews had become lukewarm, negligent, and inert; the gospel, once dearly seen and dearly loved by them, had become to them dull and vague; the persecutions and contempt of their countrymen a grievous burden, under which they groaned, and under which they did not enjoy fellowship with the Lord Jesus. Darkness, doubt, gloom, indecision, and consequently a walk in which the power of Christ’s love was not manifest, characterized them. Now, if they continued in this state, what else could be the result but apostasy? Forgetfulness, if continued, must end in rejection, apathy in antipathy, unfaithfulness in infidelity. "Such was their danger. And if they succumbed to it their state was hopeless. No other gospel remains to be preached, no other power to rescue and raise them. They had heard and known the voice which saith, ‘Come unto Me, and I will give you rest’. They had professed to believe in the Lord who died for sinners, and to have chosen Him as their Savior and Master. And now they were forgetting and forsaking the Rock of their Salvation. If they deliberately and wilfully continued in this state, they were in danger of final impenitence and hardness of heart. "The exhortation must be viewed in connection with the special circumstances of the Hebrews. After the rejection of the Messiah by Israel, the gospel had been preached unto the Jews by the apostles, and the gifts and power of the Holy Spirit had been manifested among them. The Hebrews had accepted the gospel of the once crucified and now glorified Redeemer, who sent down from heaven the Spirit, a sign of His exaltation, and a pledge of the future inheritance. Having thus entered into the sphere of new covenant manifestation, any one who willfully abandoned it could only relapse into that phase of Judaism which crucified the Lord Jesus. There was no other alternative for them, but either to go on to the full knowledge of the heavenly priesthood of Christ, and to the believer’s acceptance and worship through the Mediator in the sanctuary above, or fall back into the attitude, not of the godly Israelites before Pentecost, such as John the Baptist and those who waited for the promised redemption, nor even into the condition of those for whom the Savior prayed, ‘for they know not what they do’; but into a state of willful conscious enmity against Christ, and the sin of rejecting Him, and putting Him to an open shame" (Adolph Saphir). "The danger to which this spiritual inertness exposed the Hebrews was such as to justify the strongest language of expostulation and reproof. Apostasy from Christ was a step more easy and natural to a Jewish than to a Gentile believer, because the way was always open and inviting them, as men, to return to those associations which once carried with them the outward sanctification of Jehovah’s name, and which only the power of grace had enabled them to renounce. When heavenly realities became inoperative in their souls, the visible image was before them still, and here was the danger of their giving it the homage of their souls. If there were not an habitual exercise of their spiritual senses, the power of discernment could not remain: they would call evil good, and good evil. The ignorance which springs from spiritual neglect begins its own punishment of apathetic dullness on the once clear mind, and robs the spirit of its power to detect the wily methods of the Devil. It is in the presence of God alone that the Christian can exert his spiritual energies with effect. Abiding in Christ, maintains us in that presence. A more unhappy error cannot befall a believer than to separate, in the habit of his mind, acquired knowledge from the living Christ. Faith dies at once when separated from its object. Knowledge indeed is precious, but the knowledge of God is a progressive thing (Colossians 1:10), whose end is not obtained this side of the glory (1 Corinthians 8:2). The extreme experience of an advancing Christian is that of continual initiation. With a prospect ever-widening he has a daily deepening apprehension of the grace wherein he stands, and in which he is more and more established, by the word of righteousness . . . "A clear and growing faith, in heavenly things was needed to preserve Jewish Christians from relapse. To return to Judaism was to give up Christ, who had left their house ‘desolate’ (Matthew 23:38). It was to fall from grace, and place themselves not only under the general curse of the law, but that particular imprecation which had brought the guilt of Jesus’ blood on the reprobate and blinded nation of His murderers" (A. Pridham). It should be pointed out, however, that it is just as easy, and the attraction is just as real, for a Gentile Christian to return to that world out of which the Lord has called him, as it was for a Jewish Christian to go back again to Judaism. And just in proportion as the Christian fails to walk with God daily, so does the world obtain power over his heart, mind and life; and a continuance in worldliness is fraught with the most direful and fatal consequences. "For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened" etc. (Hebrews 6:4). Here the apostle continues the digression which he began at Hebrews 5:11. The parenthesis has two divisions: the first, Hebrews 5:11-14 is reprehensible; the second, Hebrews 6:1-20 is hortatory. In chapter 6 he exhorts the Hebrews unto two duties: to progress in the Christian course (Hebrews 6:1-11); to persevere therein (Hebrews 6:12-20). The first exhortation is proposed in Hebrews 6:1-2 and qualified in Hebrews 6:3. The motive to obedience is drawn from the danger of apostasy (Hebrews 6:4-6). The opening "For" of Hebrews 6:4 intimates the close connection of our present passage with that which immediately precedes. It draws a conclusion from what the apostle had been saying in Hebrews 5:11-14. It amplifies the "if" in Hebrews 6:3. It points a most solemn warning against their continuance in their present sloth. It draws a terrible contrast from the possibility of Hebrews 6:3. "The apostle regards the retrogression of the Hebrews with dismay. He sees in it the danger of an entire, confirmed, wilful, and irrecoverable apostasy from the truth. He beholds them on the brink of a precipice, and he therefore lifts up his voice, and with vehement yet loving earnestness he warns them against so fearful an evil" (Adolph Saphir). Three things claim our careful attention in coming closer to our passage: the persons here spoken of, the sin they commit, the doom pronounced upon them. In considering the persons spoken of it is of first importance to note that the apostle does not say, "us who were once enlightened", nor even "you", instead, he says "those". In sharp contrast from them, he says to the Hebrews, "Beloved, we are persuaded better things of you". "Afterwards, when the apostle comes to declare his hope and persuasion concerning these Hebrews that they were not such as those whom he had before described, nor such as would fall away unto perdition, he doth it upon three grounds whereon they were differenced from them as: 1. That they had such things as did ‘accompany salvation’; that is, such as salvation is inseparable from. None of these things therefore had he ascribed unto those whom he describeth in this place (Hebrews 6:4-6); for if he had so done, they would not have been unto him an argument and evidence of a contrary end, that these should not fall away and perish as well as those. Wherefore he ascribes nothing to these here in the text that doth peculiarly ‘accompany salvation’. 2. He describes them by their duties of obedience and fruits of faith. This was their ‘work and labor of love’ towards the name of God, Hebrews 6:10. And hereby, also, doth he differentiate them from those in the text, concerning whom he supposeth that they may perish eternally, which these fruits of saving faith and sincere love cannot do. 3. He adds, that, in the preservation of those there mentioned, the faithfulness of God was concerned: ‘God is not unrighteous to forget’. For they were such he intended as were interested in the covenant of grace, with respect whereunto alone there is any engagement on the faithfulness or righteousness of God to preserve men from apostasy and ruin; and there is so with an equal respect unto all who are so taken into the covenant. But of those in the text he supposeth no such thing; and thereupon doth not intimate that either the righteousness or faithfulness of God was anyway engaged for their preservation, but rather the contrary" (Dr. John Owen). It is scarcely accurate to designate as "mere professors" those described in Hebrews 6:4-5. They were a class who had enjoyed great privileges, beyond any such as now accompany the preaching of the Gospel. Those here portrayed are said to have had five advantages, which is in contrast from the six things enumerated in Hebrews 6:1-2, which things belong to man in the flesh, under Judaism. Five is the number of grace, and the blessings here mentioned pertain to the Christian dispensation. Yet were they not true Christians. This is evident from what is not said. Observe, they were not spoken of as God’s elect, as those for whom Christ died, as those who were born of the Spirit. They are not said to be justified, forgiven, accepted in the Beloved. Nor is anything said of their faith, love, or obedience. Yet these are the very things which distinguish a real child of God. First, they had been "enlightened". The Sun of righteousness had shone with healing in His wings, and, as Matthew 4:16 says, "The people which sat in darkness saw great light, and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up". Unlike the heathen, whom Christ, in the days of His flesh, visited not, those who came under the sound of His voice were wondrously and gloriously illumined. The Greek word for "enlightened" here signifies "to give light or knowledge by teaching". It is so rendered by the Septuagint in Judges 13:8, 2 Kings 12:2, 2 Kings 17:27. The apostle Paul uses it for "to make manifest", or "bring to light" in 1 Corinthians 4:5, 2 Timothy 1:10. Satan blinds the minds of those who believe not, lest "the light of the gospel should shine unto them" (2 Corinthians 4:4), that is, give the knowledge of it. Thus, "enlightened" here means to be instructed in the doctrine of the gospel, so as to have a clear apprehension of it. In the parallel passage in Hebrews 10:26 the same people are said to have "received the knowledge of the truth", cf. also 2 Peter 2:20-21. It is, however, only a natural knowledge of spiritual things, such as is acquired by outward hearing or reading; just as one may be enlightened by taking up the special study of one of the sciences. It falls far short of that spiritual enlightenment which transforms (2 Corinthians 3:18). An illustration of a unregenerate person being "enlightened", as here, is found in the case of Balaam; Numbers 24:4. Second, they had "tasted" of the heavenly gift. To "taste" is to have a personal experience of, in contrast from mere report. "Tasting does not include eating, much less digesting and turning into nourishment what is so tasted; for its nature being only thereby discerned it may be refused, yea, though we like its relish and savor, on some other consideration. The persons here described, then, are those who have to a certain degree understood and relished the revelation of mercy; like the stony-ground hearers they have received the Word with a transcient joy" (John Owen). The "tasting" is in contrast from the "eating" of John 6:50-56. Opinion is divided as to whether the "heavenly gift" refers to the Lord Jesus or the person of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps it is not possible for us to be dogmatic on the point. Really, the difference is without a distinction, for the Spirit is here to glorify Christ, as He came from the Father by Christ as His ascension "Gift" to His people. If the reference be to the Lord Jesus, John 3:16, John 4:10, etc., would be pertinent references: if to the Holy Spirit, Acts 2:38, Acts 8:20, Acts 10:45, Acts 11:17. Personally, we rather incline to the latter. This Divine Gift is here said to be "heavenly" because from Heaven, and leading to Heaven, in contrast from Judaism—cf. Acts 2:2, 1 Peter 1:12. Of this "Gift" these apostates had "tasted", or had an experience of: compare Matthew 27:34 where "tasting" is opposed to actual drinking. Those here in view had had an acquaintance with the Gospel, as to gain such a measure of its blessedness as to greatly aggravate their sin and doom. An illustration of this is found in Matthew 13:20-21. Third, they were "made partakers of the Holy Spirit". First, it should be pointed out that the Greek word for "partakers" here is a different one from that used in Colossians 1:12 and 2 Peter 1:4, where real Christians are in view. The word here simply means "companions", referring to what is external rather than internal. It is to be observed that this item is placed in the center of the five, and this because it describes the animating principle of the other four, which are all effects. These apostates had never been "born of the Spirit" (John 3:6), still less were their bodies His "temples" (1 Corinthians 6:19). Nor do we believe this verse teaches that the Holy Spirit had, at any time, wrought within them, otherwise Php 1:6 would be contravened. It means that they had shared in the benefit of His supernatural operations and manifestations: "The place was shaken" (Acts 4:31) illustrates. We quote below from Dr. J. Brown: "It is highly probable that the inspired writer refers primarily to the miraculous gifts and operations of the Holy Spirit by which the primitive dispensation of Christianity was administered. These gifts were by no means confined to those who were ‘transformed by the renewing of their minds’. The words of our Lord in Matthew 7:22-23 and of Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:1-2 seem to intimate, that the possession of these unrenewed men was not very uncommon in that age; at any rate they plainly show that their possession and an unregenerate state were by no means incompatible". Fourth, "And have tasted the good Word of God". "I understand by this expression the promise of God respecting the Messiah, the sum and substance of all. It deserves notice that this promise is by way of eminence termed by Jeremiah ‘that good word’ (Jeremiah 33:14). To ‘taste’, then, this ‘good Word of God’, is to experience that God has been faithful to His promise—to enjoy, so far as an unconverted man can enjoy the blessings and advantages which flow from that promise being fulfilled. To ‘taste the good Word of God’, seems, just to enjoy the advantages of the new dispensation" (Dr. J. Brown). Further confirmation that the apostle is here referring to that which these apostates had witnessed of the fulfillment of God’s promise is obtained by comparing Jeremiah 29:10, "After seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform My good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place". Observe how studiously the apostle still keeps to the word "taste", the better to enable us to identify them. They could not say with Jeremiah, "Thy words were found and I did eat them" (Jeremiah 15:16). "It is as though he said, I speak not of those who have received nourishment; but of such as have so far tasted it, as that they ought to have desired it as ‘sincere milk’ and grown thereby" (Dr. John Owen). A solemn example of one who merely "tasted" the good Word of God is found in Mark 6:20 : "for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and an holy, and observed him; and when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly". Fifth, "And the powers of the world to come," or "age to come." The reference here is to the new dispensation which was to be ushered in by Israel’s Messiah according to Old Testament predictions. It corresponds with "these last days" of Hebrews 1:2, and is in contrast from the "time past" or Mosaic economy. Their Messiah was none other than the "mighty God" (Isa. 9), and wondrous and glorious, stupendous and unique, were His miraculous works. These "powers" of the new Age are mentioned in Hebrews 2:4, to our comments on which we would refer the reader. Of these mighty "powers" these apostates had "tasted", or had an experience of. They had been personal witnesses of the miracles of Christ, and also of the wonders that followed His ascension, when such glorious manifestations of the Spirit were given. Thus they were "without excuse". Convincing and conclusive evidence had been set before them, but there had been no answering faith in their hearts. A solemn example of this is found in John 11:47-48. "If they shall fall away". The Greek word here is very strong and emphatic, even stronger than the one used in Matthew 7:27, where it is said of the house built on the sand, "and great was the fall thereof". It is a complete falling away, a total abandonment of Christianity which is here in view. It is a wilful turning of the back on God’s revealed truth, an utter repudiation of the Gospel. It is making "shipwreck of the faith" (1 Timothy 1:19). This terrible sin is not committed by a mere nominal professor, for he has nothing really to fall away from, save an empty name. The class here described are such as had had their minds enlightened, their consciences stirred, their affections moved to a considerable degree, and yet who were never brought from death unto life. Nor is it backsliding Christians who are in view. It is not simply "fall into sin", this or that sin. The greatest "sin" which a regenerated man can possibly commit is the personal denial of Christ: Peter was guilty of this, yet was he "renewed again unto repentance". It is the total renunciation of all the distinguishing truths and principles of Christianity, and this not secretly, but openly, which constitutes apostasy. "If they shall fall away". "This is scarcely a fair translation. It has been said that the apostle did not here assert that such persons did or do ‘fall away’; but that if they did—a supposition which, however, could never be realized—then the consequence would be they could not be ‘renewed again unto repentance’. The words literally rendered are, ‘And have fallen away’, or, ‘yet have fallen’. The apostle obviously intimates that such persons might, and that such persons did, ‘fall away’. By ‘falling away’, we are plainly to understand what is commonly called apostasy. This does not consist in an occasional falling into actual sin, however gross and aggravated; nor in the renunciation of some of the principles of Christianity, even though those should be of considerable importance; but in an open, total, determined renunciation of all the constituent principles of Christianity, and a return to a false religion, such as that of unbelieving Jews or heathens, or to open infidelity and open godlessness" (Dr. J. Brown). "It is impossible . . . if they fall away, to renew them again unto repentance". Four questions here call for answer. What is meant by "renewed unto repentance"? What is signified by "renewed again unto repentance"? Why is such an experience "impossible"? To whom is this "impossible"? Repentance signifies a change of mind: Matthew 21:29, Romans 11:29 establish this. It is more than a mental act, the conscience also being active, leading to contrition and self-condemnation (Job 42:6). In the unregenerate, it is simply the workings of nature; in the children of God it is wrought by the Holy Spirit. The latter is evangelical, being one of the things which "accompany salvation". The former is not so, being the "sorrow of the world", which "worketh death" (2 Corinthians 7:10). This kind of "repentance" or remorse receives most solemn exemplification in the case of Judas: Matthew 27:3-5. Such was the repentance of these apostates. The Greek verb for "renew" here occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. Probably "restore" had been better, for the same word is used in the Sept., for a Hebrews verb meaning to renew in the sense of restore: Psalms 103:5; Psalms 104:30; Lamentations 5:21. Josephus applies it to the renovation of the Temple! But what is meant by "renewing unto repentance"? "To be ‘renewed’ is a figurative expression for denoting a change, a great change, and a change for the better. To be ‘renewed’ so as to change a person’s mind is expressive of an important and advantageous alteration of opinion, and character and service. And such an alteration the persons referred to had undergone at a former period. They were once in a state of ignorance respecting the doctrines and evidences of Christianity, and they had been ‘enlightened’. They had once known not of the excellency and beauty of Christian truth, and they had been made to ‘taste of the heavenly gift’. They once misunderstood the prophecies respecting the Messiah, and were unaware of their fulfillment, and, of course, were strangers to that energetic influence which the New Testament revelation puts forth; and they had been made to see that that ‘good word’ was fulfilled, and had been made partakers of the external privileges and been subjected to the peculiar energies of the new order of things. Their view, and feelings, and circumstances, were materially changed. How great the difference between an ignorant, bigoted Jew, and the person described in the preceding passage! He had become as it were a different man. He had not, indeed, become, in the sense of the apostle, a ‘new creature’, His mind had not been so changed as unfeignedly to believe ‘the truth as it is in Jesus’; but still, a great and so far as it went, a thorough change had taken place" (Dr. J. Brown). Now it is impossible to "renew again unto repentance" those who have totally abandoned the Christian revelation. Some things are "impossible" with respect unto the nature of God, as that He cannot lie, or pardon sin without satisfaction to His justice. Other things which are possible to God’s nature are rendered "impossible" by His decrees or purpose: see 1 Samuel 15:28-29. Still other things are "possible" or "impossible" with respect to the rule or order of all things God has appointed. For example, there cannot be faith apart from hearing the Word (Romans 10:13-17). "When in things of duty God hath neither expressed command thereon, nor appointed means for the performance of them, they are to be looked upon then as impossible [as, for instance, there is no salvation apart from repentance, Luke 13:3. (A.W.P.)]; and then, with respect unto us, they are so absolutely, and so to be esteemed. And this is the ‘impossibility’ here principally intended. It is a thing that God hath neither commanded us to endeavor, nor appointed means to attain it, nor promise to assist us in it. It is therefore that which we have no reason to look after, attempt, or expect, as being not possible by any law, rule, or constitution of God. "The apostle instructs us no further in the nature of future events but as our own duty is concerned in them. It is not for us either to look or hope, or pray for, or endeavor the restoration of such persons unto repentance. God gives a law unto us in these things, not unto Himself. It may be possible with God, for aught we know, if there be not a contradiction in it unto any of the holy properties of His nature; only He will not have us to expect any such thing from Him, nor hath He appointed any means for us to endeavor it. What He shall do we ought trustfully to accept; but our own duty toward such persons is absolutely at an end. And indeed, they put themselves wholly out of our reach" (Dr. John Owen). It needs to be carefully observed that in the whole of this passage from Hebrews 5:11 onwards the apostle is speaking of his own ministry. In God’s hands, His servants are instruments by which He works and through whom He accomplishes His evangelical purpose. Thus Paul could properly say "I have begotten you through the gospel" (1 Corinthians 4:15). And again, "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you" (Galatians 4:19). So the servants of God had, through the preaching of the Gospel, "renewed unto repentance" those spoken of in Hebrews 6:4. But they had apostatised; they had totally repudiated the Gospel. It was therefore "impossible" for the servants of God to "renew them again unto repentance", for the all-sufficient reason that they had no other message to proclaim to them. They had no other Gospel in reserve, no further motives to present. Christ crucified had been set before them. Him they now denounced as an Imposter. There was "none other name" whereby they could be saved. Their public renunciation of Christ rendered their case hopeless so far as God’s servants were concerned. "Let them alone" (Matthew 15:19) was now their orders: compare Jude 1:22. Whether or not it was possible for God, consistently with His holiness, to shame them, our passage does not decide. "Seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh" (Hebrews 6:6). This is brought in to show the aggravation of their awful crime and the impossibility of their being renewed again unto repentance. By renouncing their Christian profession they declared Christ to be an Imposter. Thus they were irreclaimable. To attempt any further reasoning with them, would only be casting pearls before swine. With this verse should be carefully compared the parallel passage in Hebrews 10:26-29. These apostates had "received the knowledge of the truth", though not a saving knowledge of it. Afterward they sinned "wilfully": there was a deliberate and open disavowal of the truth. The nature of their particular sin is termed a "treading under foot the Son of God (something which no real Christian ever does) and counting (esteeming) the blood of the covenant an unholy thing", that is, looking upon the One who hung on the Cross as a common malefactor. For such there "remaineth no more sacrifice for sins". Their case is hopeless so far as man is concerned; and the writer believes, such are abandoned by God also. "Seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame". "They thus identify themselves with His crucifiers—they entertained and avowed sentiments which were He on earth and in their power, would induce them to crucify Him. They exposed Him to infamy, made a public example of Him. They did more to dishonor Jesus Christ than His murderers did. They never professed to acknowledge His divine mission; but these apostates had made such a profession—they had made a kind of trial of Christianity, and, after trial, had rejected it" (Dr. J. Brown). Such a warning was needed and well calculated to stir up the slothful Hebrews. Under the Old Testament economy, by means of types and prophecies, they had obtained glimmerings of truth as to Christ, called "the word of the beginning of Christ". Under those shadows and glimmerings they had been reared, not knowing their full import till they had been blessed with the full light of the Gospel, here called "perfection". The danger to which they were exposed was that of receding from the ground where Christianity placed them, and relaxing to Judaism. To do so meant to re-enter that House which Christ had left "desolate" (Matthew 23:38), and would be to join forces with His murderers, and thus "crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh", and by their apostasy "put Him to an open (public) shame". We may add that the Greek word here for "crucify" is a stronger one than is generally used: it means to "crucify up". Attention is thus directed to the erection of the cross on which the Savior was held up to public scorn. Taking the passage as a whole, it needs to be remembered that all who had professed to receive the Gospel were not born of God: the parable of the Sower shows that. Intelligence might be informed, conscience searched, natural affections stirred, and yet there be "no root" in them. All is not gold that glitters. There has always been a "mixt multitude" (Exodus 12:38) who accompany the people of God. Moreover, there is in the real Christian the old heart, which is "deceitful above all things and desperately wicked", and therefore is he in constant need of faithful warning. Such, God has given in every dispensation: Genesis 2:17; Leviticus 26:15-16; Matthew 3:8; Romans 11:21; 1 Corinthians 10:12. Finally, let it be said that while Scripture speaks plainly and positively of the perseverance of the saints, yet it is a perseverance of saints, not unregenerate professors. Divine preservation is not only in a safe state, but also in a holy course of disposition and conduct. We are "kept by the power of God through faith". We are kept by the Spirit working in us a spirit of entire dependency, renouncing our own wisdom and strength. The only place from which we cannot fall is one down in the dust. It is there the Lord brings His own people, weaning them from all confidence in the flesh, and giving them to experience that it is when they are weak they are strong. Such, and such only, are saved and safe forever. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 97: 005.025. CHAPTER 25 ======================================================================== Chapter 25 THE TWOFOLD WORKING OF THE SPIRIT Hebrews 6:4-6 In our last article we attempted little more than an explication of the terms used in Hebrews 6:4-6. Lack of space prevented us from throwing upon these verses the light which other portions of God’s Word affords, yet this is necessary if we are to form anything like a true and adequate conception of the particular characters which are there in view. One chief reason why students of Scripture continue to experience difficulty in ascertaining the meaning of any verse therein, is because they fail to prayerfully and patiently compare "spiritual things with spiritual" (1 Corinthians 2:13). All of us are in far too much a hurry, and for this reason miss the best of what God has provided—true both of temporal and spiritual things. Probably few of our readers considered that we had succeeded in clearing away all the difficulties raised by this solemn passage, therefore the need of a further article thereon. On the present occasion we propose to take up our passage more from a topical viewpoint than an expository, seeking (as God may be pleased to graciously enable) to open up more fully that in it which has caused the most trouble, namely, the precise relation of the Holy Spirit to the characters therein mentioned. They who "fall away" and whom it is "impossible to renew again unto repentance", are said to have been "made partakers of the Holy Spirit". We ask now, On what has the Spirit wrought? What was the character of His work toward them? How had they been made "partakers" of Him? To what extent? This leads us to point out that Scripture reveals a twofold working of God’s Spirit with men: with the elect, and with the non-elect. It is of the latter we shall here treat. Concerning the Spirit’s work with the non-elect, we begin by enquiring, Upon what does He work? We answer, Upon the faculties of men’s souls. First, He works upon the understanding. There are in all men natural faculties of understanding, will, and affection. A man could not love God unless he had in him the faculty of affection—a stone could never love God! So a man could never understand spiritual things unless he had the faculty of understanding. With the elect, the Holy Spirit "renews" the understanding (Romans 12:2 compared with Titus 3:5); but with the non-elect, He only enlightens or educates it. The understanding of fallen and unregenerate men, which is enlightened by the Spirit, is capable of knowing, in some measure, both the Godhead, and parts of His law. Let us give Scripture proof of this. In Romans 1:18 we read of men who "hold the truth in unrighteousness", and what is there referred to is explained in what follows: "Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made: His eternal power and Godhead" (Romans 1:19-20). The reference there, as the later verses show, is to the Heathen. Now what we would press upon the attention of the reader is, that in addition to poor fallen nature, God has granted to men a manifestation of Himself; that which "may be known of God", which He "hath showed unto them". It is not merely that creation reveals a Creator, but that the Creator has revealed Himself—"when they knew God" (Romans 1:21), and that must have been by the Spirit’s enlightening their natural understanding. Again, in Romans 2:14-15 we read, "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law are a law unto themselves: Which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness". The Holy Spirit is speaking here of men according to "nature", not grace. In his natural heart there is written "the work of the law"—by whom but by the finger of God! Except for this, man would be destitute of moral light, for the Fall robbed him of all light. The understanding in man, or the principle of reason, may, by education and contact with others, be developed to a considerable extent, so that a man may become exceeding wise; nevertheless, his knowledge and wisdom is only natural, even though his understanding be exercised upon supernatural objects. But let now the light of reason and the light of conscience be brought to the Scriptures for instruction, and man’s knowledge will be much further increased, yet still his light is but natural, it rises not to the level of what grace produces. Proof of this is seen in the case of the Jews: "Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God; and knowest His will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law; and are confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness" (Romans 2:17-19). How like thousands of unregenerate souls in Christendom today! From the last-quoted passage we learn what is the effect of the light of nature (reason) being brought to the law of God: it is increased and improved. As we have seen above, a man has some light by nature that there is a God; let that light be brought to Scripture, and he becomes "confident" there is. A man by nature has some light about the duties which God requires of him; let him bring that light to the Scriptures and he will have "the form (systematized) of knowledge, and of the truth in the law" (Romans 2:20). When the understanding of the natural man is illumined by the Scriptures, his light is both ratified and added unto, yet is it still natural light which he has; it is but the educating of his natural reason. Second, the Holy Spirit works upon the affections of the natural man. There is in fallen man a natural devotion to a deity. This is evidenced by the fact that practically all of the heathen worship some god or other. In Acts 13:50 we read of "devout women" being stirred up against Paul and Barnabas: they had a devotion in them which is common to mankind. Now let men bring their natural devotion to the Scriptures and they will come to know of the true God, and learn to reverence Him too; yet is that only nature improved. Through the Word, the Holy Spirit may (usually, does) convince its reader that the Maker of heaven and earth is the true God, and therefore worthy of honor and homage. The fact is, though very few indeed recognize it, the identical principle which causes a Hindu to worship Buddha, causes the Anglo-Saxon to worship the Father of Jesus Christ. Again; there is in every sinner the natural recognition that his sins deserve eternal death, and that God, unless He be appeased, will punish him. Doubtless many of our readers will feel inclined to call into question this last statement; let our appeal again be to the Word of Truth. There we read, "Who, knowing the judgment of God, that they might commit such things are worthy of death" (Romans 1:32). That, be it noted, is said of the heathen. No bring one having such knowledge to the law of God, and what will follow? This, "But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things" (Romans 2:2). There it is the Jews speaking. The natural man enlightened from the Word has his conviction deepened. Again, if a man is conscious of his sins, and realizes that the justice of God calls for their punishment, is it not natural for him to think next of a mediator, to desire someone to intercede for him with God? Such a concept is by no means a sure evidence of regeneration. This too is found in mere nature. Every heathen religion, with the propitiatory offerings which are brought to their gods, exemplifies it. Romanism with its mediating priests demonstrates the same fact in this land. Illustrations are also to be found in the Holy Scriptures. When Pharaoh was convicted of his sins, he entreated Moses to intercede for him (Exodus 10:16-17). So too wicked Simon Magus desired Peter to pray for him (Acts 8:24). Once more; there is in the heart of every natural man a desire for happiness, and for a greater happiness than this poor world can provide. It is plainly evident that man rests not in anything down here, for like a bee which goes from one flower to another, so the heart of man cannot be satisfied with any earthly object. When Balaam saw the blessedness of God’s people, he exclaimed, "Let me die the death of the righteous" (Numbers 23:10). The most abandoned wretch does not want to go to hell, and to the very end he hopes that he will be taken to heaven. So, likewise, is the matter of believing that a man really is a child of God. There is such self-love and self-flattery in the fallen heart that if an unregenerate man hears, out of the Word of God, the good news that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, he at once concludes that he is the man God will honor, as wicked Haman imagined that he was the man king Ahasuerus would honor. So when the Holy Spirit has terrified a man’s conscience, by giving it a sight of sin before a holy God, when he learns about remission of sins through Christ, he at once fondly imagines that his own sins are pardoned. Alas, in the vast majority of cases it has to be said, "the pride of thine heart hath deceived thee" (Obadiah 1:3). Now let us take note of how the Holy Spirit may work upon there natural principles of the human soul, mightily raising them, and yet not changing a man’s heart. Just as the rays of the sun shining upon plants in a garden adds no new nature to them, but serves to aid their best development, so the Holy Spirit when He deals with the reprobate communicates nothing new to them, yet raises their natural faculties to their highest point. The principles or faculties of man’s soul are capable of being wrought upon without the impartation of regenerating grace. As we have seen, man’s understanding is illuminated by the light of conscience, but let the Holy Spirit—without imparting a new eye—still further enlighten that conscience, bring before it the exalted claims of the thrice holy God, and its knowledge will be greatly increased. Nevertheless, this educated conscience falls far below the level of the spiritual discernment possessed by one who has been brought out of death into life. Let us particularize: 1. The Spirit restrains the Corruptions of men. In Genesis 20:6 we read of how God bound the lust of Abimeleck when Sarah was at his mercy, "I also withheld thee from sinning against Me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her". So in 2 Peter 2:20 we read of some "having escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ", yet from what follows in the next two verses it is clear they were never regenerated. There the apostle uses the similitude of a sow being washed from her filth, and being kept for a while, after she is washed, from going back again into the mire; yet is there no changing or "renewing" of the swine’s nature. Contrast now what is said of the Lord’s people in 2 Peter 1:3-4, "According as His Divine power hath given unto us all things pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these ye might be partakers of the Divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust". In 2 Peter 2:20, the Greek word for the "pollutions" of the world, signifies the gross and outward defilements into which the irreligious run; but in 2 Peter 1:4, the regenerated are said to have escaped "the corruption" that is in the world through lust or "desire", i.e. the inward disposition toward evil. Moreover, the Lord’s people are made "partakers of the Divine nature", which means, the Divine image is stamped upon them: "life and godliness" are seen in them. Again; in the similitude used in 2 Peter 2:20, the apostle likens those who have known "the way of righteousness" to a dog that has been made sick, but which turns to its own vomit again. The figure is very striking and forcible. When the Holy Spirit brings the Word of God to bear upon an unregenerate man’s conscience, he is made sick at heart. Of Christians it is said, "For ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear" (Romans 8:15), but to the non-elect He often becomes a Spirit of "bondage" by binding their sins upon their conscience. Whereas before they had a glimmering light that the judgment of God is against sinners, their conscience now is set on fire, and the temporary consequence is that sins are refused with loathing, vomited out. Yet, like a dog, such a one loves them still, and ultimately returns thereto. 2. The Spirit causes men to turn naturally toward the Redeemer. When conscience is wrought upon by a few sparks of God’s wrath falling upon it, what saith the soul next? This, O for a physician! There is, as we have pointed out above, a natural principle in men which causes them to make use of a mediator unto God—a witch-doctor, a priest, or a preacher, as the case may be. Now a man who has lived under the sound of the Gospel learns that Christ is the one Mediator. Scriptural education has taught him this, just as the heathen education teaches a Turk that Mahomet is the one mediator. And, by the same principle that Agrippa believed Moses and the prophets, the unregenerate "Christian" (?) believes in Christ. Nay further, the light of the Spirit shining upon him, as the sun on the plants, develops his natural understanding and causes him to now remember that Redeemer which before he ignored. A scripture clearly to the point of what we have just said above is Psalms 78:34-35, "When He slew them, then they sought Him: and they returned and enquired early after God. And they remembered that God was their Rock, and the high God their Redeemer". Yet what immediately follows? This, "Nevertheless they did flatter Him with their mouth". And what signifies this "flattering"? Why, they sought Him merely out of self-love, simply because they felt their very lives were in imminent danger. There is a seeking out of friendship, out of love to the object. But if one seek unto an enemy because he hath need of him, that is but "flattery" or self-love. So if sinful man feels he is in extremity, if his conscience remains sick, mere nature will call for the Physician. Self-love is the predominant principle in the natural man: he loves himself more than he loves God; it is this which lies at the root of depravity and sin. Now when a man’s conscience is convicted so that he perceives his need of a physician, and recognizes that happiness comes from Christ, such good news appeals to his self-love. Satan, who knows human nature so well was right when he said, "skin for skin yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life" (Job 2:4). Make the self-love of the natural man conscious of the wrath of God, and he is ready to "accept Christ", or do anything else which the preacher bids him; yet that is only the workings of nature, he is still unregenerate. When the storm arose and threatened to sink the ship in which Jonah lay asleep we read, "Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god"; then the captain awoke Jonah and said. "Arise, call upon thy God, if so be God will think upon us that we perish not" (Hebrews 1:5-6). So a conscience terrified by the prospect of Hell, will cause a man to seek Christ after a natural way. It is but the instinct of self-preservation at work. Add to this, the craving for happiness which self-love ever seeks, and hearing that such happiness is to be found only in Christ, little wonder that multitudes seek Him now for what they can get from Him, as of old they sought Him for the sake of the loaves and fishes. In John 6:33, we are told that Christ announced, "For the bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world". What was their response? This, "Then they said unto Him, Lord, evermore give us this bread". Yet their eager request sprang not from a renewed heart, but from the corrupt spring of self-love. Proof of this is found in the immediate sequel. In John 6:36 the Lord tells them plainly, ye "believe not". In John 6:41 we are told that they "murmured at Him". Yet that very same people said to the Lord, "Evermore give us this Bread"! Ah, all is not gold that glitters. An enlightened understanding, moved by self-love, is prepared to take up Divine duties never practiced before, yea, to walk in the commandments of God. This was demonstrated plainly at Sinai. When Jehovah appeared before Israel in His awesome majesty, and their conscience was smitten by His manifested holiness, they said to Moses, "Go thou near, and hear all that the Lord our God shall say; and speak thou unto us all that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee; and we will hear and do". They were prepared to receive and obey the Lord’s statutes. Yet mark what God said of them, "Oh, that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments always". They still lacked the principle of regeneration! 3. The Spirit elevates the natural faculties of man. Just as the shining of the sun causes plants to grow higher and fruits to be sweeter than would be the case were the heavens to remain cloudy and overcast, so the Spirit works upon the faculties of the unregenerate and causes them to bring forth that which left to themselves they would not produce. Or, just as fire will raise the temperature and level of water, causing it to bubble up and ascend in steam, though the principle of heat is in the fire and not in the water, for when the fire is withdrawn the water returns to its natural coldness again; so the Spirit enlightens the understandings of the non-elect, stirs their affections, and moves their wills to action, without communicating a new principle to them, without regenerating them. He elevates the understanding. In Numbers 24:2 we read that the Spirit of God came upon Balaam, the consequence of which he has told us: "The man who had his eyes shut, but now opened, hath said: he hath said, which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling but having his eyes opened: How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, thy tabernacles, O Israel!" (Numbers 24:3-5). Thus Balaam had a vision of the Almighty, and perceived the blessed estate of His people; yet was he still unregenerate! He elevates the affections. In 1 Samuel 11:1-3 we read of how the enemies of Jehovah insulted His people. Then we are told, "And the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard these tidings, and his anger was kindled greatly" (1 Samuel 11:6). That was holy indignation, yet it proceeded from a reprobate! As the winds blowing upon the sea will, at times, raise its waters to a great height, so the Spirit, under a faithful sermon, will blow upon the affections of the unregenerate, and elevate them to nobler objects and occupations. Yet, He stops short of making them new creatures in Christ Jesus. Again; as we have seen, there is in man a natural desire for real happiness, hence, when Christ is presented in the Gospel, many receive Him "with joy"; yet, are they, for the most part, but stony-ground hearers, destitute of any root of vital godliness (Matthew 13:20-21). Nature may be so raised by the light which the Holy Spirit brings to it, that unregenerate men may taste of the heavenly gift, Christ, see John 4:10. So too they are enabled to taste of the "powers of the world to come". As in their conscience, they get a taste of Hell, and so know for a certainty that there is a Hell, the same natural principle which desires a happiness which is beyond this world, is confirmed and comforted when they have a "taste" of what belongs to the world to come. He elevates the will and sets it to work in the way of obedience to God. The Holy Spirit is the Author of all moral and civil righteousness which there is in the world. The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus to issue a proclamation for the building of His house (Ezra 1:1-2); and He also moved Caiaphas to prophesy of Christ (John 11:51). Of wicked Herod we read that, when he heard John "he did many things, and heard him gladly" (Mark 6:20). And God will be no man’s Debtor: every act of obedience, performed by him in obedience to His Word, shall be rewarded: a temporary joy shall be the portion of such. The tragic thing is that so many conclude from such an experience that they are in a state of grace, and therefore become loud in their professions of assurance, being fully persuaded that they are really born-again persons. Now we trust that what has been said will enable some of our readers to understand the better what is found in Hebrews 6:4-6. One eminent commentator suggested that these verses describe neither the regenerate nor the unregenerate, but a third condition, midway between; because there must be a third state between that of mere nature and that of supernatural grace. Nor are we at all surprised that he arrived at this conclusion. Few indeed have perceived the force of 1 Corinthians 12:6, "And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all". There are operations of the Spirit upon men’s hearts which are above nature, which are works of Divine power, which produces that in and from unregenerate men which leads multitudes of them to fondly imagine that they have been actually born again, and yet this work of the Spirit falls far short of that "exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe" (Ephesians 1:19). Hebrews 6:4-6 supplies a most striking example of this, for there we have men who are made "partakers of the Holy Spirit". There we see a work which is above nature, for they taste of the "heavenly Gift". It is a work of power, for they taste of the "powers of the world to come". As 1 Corinthians 12:4 tells us, "There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit". And why is this? 1 Corinthians 12:11 answers, "But all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will": He proportions His power as He pleases, to an inferior or a superior work. Note carefully, there are "good gifts" from above, as well as "perfect gifts" (James 1:17)! Of old Jehovah said, "My Spirit shall not always strive with man" (Genesis 6:3). There we find the Spirit putting forth power upon man, for He "strives" with him; yet, not in the fullness of His power, or it had not been resisted. In other cases He puts forth power and men yield thereto (as did Balaam), yet is that power simply directed to the winding up of man’s natural faculties to their greatest height, and comes far short of regenerating them. This is clearly illustrated in the parable of the Sower. There is the stony-ground hearer, who received the Word with joy, yet falls away in time of persecution. There is also the thorny-ground hearer, who withstands persecution, and brings forth fruit, yet not "to perfection". And both of them represent unregenerate souls. And why does God put forth His power upon the reprobate, yet not the "exceeding greatness" of His power? God has seen well to test men in various ways. First, He gave them the light of nature, the work of the law written in their hearts, augmented by the light of conscience—a light which enabled men to know there was a God and of their duties toward Him. And Socrates, who knew nothing of the Scriptures, went so far as to die for the truth that there was One God. But this light of nature did not regenerate men, nor enable them to bring forth the fruit of the Spirit. Again; He tried the Jews with His Law. He would make it evident how far the light of nature, improved by the light of His Law, would go. And let it not be forgotten that of Israel under the Law it is said. "Thou gavest also Thy good Spirit to instruct them" (Nehemiah 9:20). Nevertheless, the law was "weak through the flesh" (Romans 8:3): it could not bring forth that which was truly spiritual. And just as God gave Socrates as the highest product of what the light of nature could produce, so He gave Saul of Tarsus—a man who walked blamelessly (Php 3:6)—as the highest product under the Law. But now He is trying men with the Gospel, to show how far human nature as such can go. That Gospel is accompanied with the Spirit, and Hebrews 6:4-6 shows us the highest point which can be attained under it, by man in the flesh. He may be enlightened, renewed unto repentance, enjoy the Word of God, be made a partaker of the Holy Spirit, and yet apostatize and perish forever. So too the same characters are said to have "done despite unto the Spirit of grace" (Hebrews 10:26). The tragic thing is that the vast majority in Christendom look upon these inferior workings of the Spirit as evidence of His new-creating grace. And what, we may enquire, is God’s purpose in these secondary operations of His Spirit? It is manifold. We can barely mention the leading designs. First, it is to exhibit the excellency of Grace. Every thing in nature hath either its counterfeit or counterfoil. If there are stationary stars, there are also shooting stars. If there are precious stones, there are pebbles which closely resemble yet differ widely from them. The one serves to set off the other. So there is a natural faith—"Many believed in His name when they saw the miracles which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself unto them" (John 2:23-24); "The demons believe" (James 2:19)—and there is a supernatural faith, "the faith of God’s elect" (Titus 1:1), called "precious faith" (2 Peter 1:1)! So there are common operations of the Spirit, and special operations; inferior workings upon the flesh, and superior workings that beget "spirit" (John 3:6). By virtue of this contrast, God says to each of His elect, See how much I have wrought on mere nature in the reprobate! yet it was not grace; I might have done no more for you, but I showed the "exceeding greatness of My power" (Ephesians 1:19) toward you. Second, to show the depravity of human nature. No matter under what trial God places man, that which is born of the flesh remains naught but flesh. The Law was weak through the flesh; so too is the Gospel, notwithstanding the shining of God’s Spirit upon men. The conscience may be convicted, the understanding enlightened, the affections raised, and the will moved, yet it still remains true that "every man at his best state is altogether vanity" (Psalms 39:5). Men may be instructed in the truth, believe in the living God, "accept Christ as their personal Savior", contend for the faith once delivered to the saints, and pass among men for devout Christians, yet be no better than "whited sepulchers, full of dead men’s bones". Third, to place bounds upon sin. The general workings of God’s Spirit upon the reprobate serve to curb the risings of man’s corrupt nature. As it is His presence here upon earth which hinders the full manifestation of the mystery of iniquity in the appearing of the anti-Christ (2 Thess. 2), so His operations upon the non-elect prevent many outbursts of wickedness. In the time of Israel’s apostasy the Holy Spirit (the "glory") withdrew gradually, stage by stage (Ezek. 11), so as the apostasy of Christendom increases, the restraining operations of the Spirit are decreasing and hence the rising tide of lawlessness. Fourth, to afford protection for the elect. God’s flock is only "the little" one (Luke 12:32), very, very much smaller than is commonly supposed. Christ Himself declared that only "FEW" are in the Narrow Way which leadeth "unto life" (Matthew 7:14). Nor must Revelation 7:9 be made to contradict these clear passages; instead, the "great multitude which no man could number" is to be compared with and interpreted by the expressions found in Judges 6:5, Judges 7:12; 2 Chronicles 12:3; Joel 1:6. Now suppose that only the elect had been reformed by the Gospel, and all the rest of the world had remained in utter enmity against it, then the fruits of the Gospel had been too bare, being without leaves. The leaves of a tree, though not fit for the table, are serviceable to the fruit, and ornamental to the tree, for without them the fruit would be exposed to ripen on bare twigs. An acknowledgement of the doctrine of the Gospel, where it is not accompanied by regeneration of heart, may indeed be suitably compared to the leaves of a tree which shelter and protect the fruit. Thus they are serviceable, though not valuable in God’s account. The leaf of the vine does more good to the grapes against a scorching sun, than the leaf of any other fruit tree—how much we may learn from God’s creatures if only we have eyes to see! So God’s elect have been outwardly shaded by the multitude of nominal Christians around them. For this we may well thank the kind providence of our Lord. Moreover, God has rewarded the doctrinal faith of the great crowd of unregenerate professors by preserving our public liberties, which the little handful of the regenerate could never, humanly speaking, have enjoyed, without the others. Again; the operations of the Spirit upon the reprobate have shamed the wicked, increased sobriety, promoted morality, and caused nominal professors to support externally the preaching of the Gospel, the carrying on of the ministry, and thus providing for the benefit of common hearers. This is all useful in its season, but will reap no reward in eternity. The writer most seriously doubts if there be a single church on earth today, having in it sufficient of God’s elect to support a preacher, were all the unregenerate in it excluded. Yea, most probably, most of God’s own sent-servants, would be so completely dismayed if they could but see into the hearts of those who have a name to live and are dead, that they would be in despair. Yet though we cannot see into the hearts of professors, we can form an accurate idea of what is in them, for "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh". And the worldliness and emptiness of the ordinary speech of the majority shows plainly Who is not in their hearts. We sincerely trust and earnestly pray that it may please our God to strike terror into the souls of many who read this article, that their false peace may be disturbed, and their worthless profession be exposed. Should some of the more thoughtful exclaim with the apostles, "Who then can be saved"? we answer in the words of our Lord, "With men this is impossible" (Matthew 19:26). Conclusive proof is this, my reader, that no sinner can be saved by any act of his own; and faithfulness requires us to tell you frankly that if your hope of Heaven is resting upon your act of "accepting Christ", then your house is built upon the sand. But blessed be His name, the Redeemer went on to say, "But with God all things are possible". "Salvation is of the Lord" (Jonah 2:9), not of the creature (Romans 9:16). Then marvel not that Christ said, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 98: 005.026. CHAPTER 26 ======================================================================== Chapter 26 THE TWO CLASSES OF PROFESSORS Hebrews 6:7-8 Our preceding article was entitled "The Twofold Working of the Spirit". This was suggested by the contents of the first six verses of Hebrews 6. In them we find persons belonging to two entirely different classes are spoken of. The former, one in whom a work of Divine grace had been wrought, effectually applying to them the "great salvation" of God. The latter, one upon whom a work of Divine grace was also wrought, transforming its objects to a considerable degree, yet falling short of actually regenerating them. "The Lord is good to all: and His tender mercies are over all His works" (Psalms 145:9), but the richness of His "mercy" is reserved for the objects of His great love (Ephesians 2:4). So too God puts forth His power in varying degrees, proportioned to the work which He has before Him. Thus, Christ referred to His casting out of demons "with the finger of God" (Luke 11:20). Speaking to Israel, Moses said, "With a strong hand hath the Lord brought thee out of Egypt" (Exodus 13:9). When referring to the amazing miracle of the Divine incarnation Mary said, "He hath showed strength with His arm" (Luke 1:51). But when Paul prayed that God would enlighten His saints to apprehend His stupendous miracle of grace in salvation, it was that they might know "the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward". God’s power was put forth and is displayed in the natural creation (Romans 1:20). It will be made known in Hell, upon the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction (Romans 9:22). It is exercised upon the reprobate in this life (in some more than in others, according to His sovereign pleasure) in subduing their corruptions, restraining their sins, reforming their characters, causing them to receive the doctrine of the Gospel. But the greatest excellency and efficacy of His power is reserved for His beloved people. His power toward them is such that it exceedeth all our thoughts: "Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us" (Ephesians 3:20). The recognition of only one of the two distinct operations of God’s Spirit upon men has divided theologians into two opposing camps. On the one hand, are the Arminians, who insist that Scripture teaches a common grace of God toward all men, a grace which may be despised. So far they are right, for Jude 4 expressly speaks of a class who turn "the grace of our God into lasciviousness". But they err when they teach there is no special grace, which is always efficacious upon those in whom it works. On the other side, the majority of modem Calvinists (the older ones did not) deny a common grace of God to all men, and insist in distinguishing grace to the elect only. In this they are wrong, and hence their unsatisfactory interpretations of Hebrews 6:4-6 and Hebrews 10:26. Now as we have shown in our last article, James 1:17 tells us "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above" etc. Two distinct "gifts" are here referred to. Scripture draws a clear line of distinction between that which God calls "good", and that which He designates "perfect". The main difference between them being that, usually, "good" is applied to something which is temporal, "perfect" to that which is spiritual. The operations of the Spirit upon the non-elect produces that which is "good", that which accomplishes a useful purpose in time, that which is serviceable to God’s elect. But His operations upon the children of God produces that which is "perfect", i.e. spiritual, supernatural, eternal. The difference between these two classes and their relation to God in time, was clearly foreshadowed in the Old Testament. The commonwealth of Israel was the type of Christendom as a whole; the "remnant according to the election of grace" in Israel (Romans 11:5), represented the regenerated people of God now. Hence in both the Tabernacle and the Temple there were two distinct grades of worshippers; so there are today. Those who are merely nominal Christians are the outer-court worshippers; the regenerated Christians, who have been made "kings and priests unto God" (Revelation 1:6), worship in the holy place (Hebrews 10:19). Both classes are contemplated in Hebrews 6. In the short passage which is to be before us on this present occasion, the apostle sums up and makes a searching application of all that he has been writing about in the preceding verses, and this in the form of a parable or similitude. In the context two different classes of people are viewed, though at first it is by no means easy to distinguish between them, the reason for this being that they have so much in common. They had both enjoyed the same external privileges, had been enlightened under the same Gospel ministry, had alike been made "partakers of the Holy Spirit", and had all made a good profession. Yet, of the second class it had to be said, as Christ said to the young ruler, "One thing thou lackest", namely, the shedding abroad of God’s love in their hearts, evidenced by leaving all and following Christ. The first class is addressed in the opening verses of our chapter, where the apostle bids the truly regenerated people of God "Go on unto perfection", i.e. having left the temporal shadows, seek to apprehend that for which they had been apprehended—live in the power and enjoyment of the spiritual, supernatural, and eternal. This, the apostle had said, "will we do, if God permit" (Hebrews 6:3). Divine enablement was needed if they were to "possess their possessions" (Obadiah 1:17), for the regenerate are just as dependent upon God as are the unregenerate. The second class are before us in Hebrews 6:4-6, where we have described the principal effects which the common operations of the Spirit produce upon the natural faculties of the human soul. Though those faculties be wound up to their highest pitch, yet the music which they produce is earthly not heavenly, human not Divine, fleshly not spiritual, temporal not eternal. Consequently, they are still liable to apostatize, and even though they should not, they are certain to perish eternally. The apostle’s design in this 6th chapter was to exhort the Hebrews to progress in the Christian course (Hebrews 6:1-3), and to persevere therein (Hebrews 6:12-20). The first exhortation is presented in Hebrews 6:1 and qualified in Hebrews 6:3. The motive to obedience is drawn from the danger of apostacy: (Hebrews 6:4-6, note the opening "for"). His purpose in referring to this second class (of unregenerate professors, who apostatize) was, to warn against the outcome of a continuance in a state of slothfulness. Here in the similitude found in Hebrews 6:6-7, he continues and completes the same solemn line of thought, showing what is the certain and fearful doom of all upon whom a regenerating work of grace is not wrought. First, however, he describes the blessedness of the true people of God. "For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it and bringeth forth herbs meet for them for whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God; But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned" (Hebrews 6:7-8). In taking up these verses we shall endeavor to give, first, an interpretation of them; second, make an application of their contents. The interpretation respects, in its direct and local reference the Jews, or rather, two classes among the Jews; the application belongs to all who come under the sound of the Gospel. The two verses quoted above are designed to illustrate and confirm the solemn admonition found in the six preceding verses, therefore are they introduced with the word "for". In the context two classes of people are in view, both of which were, according to the flesh, Jews. This we have sought to establish in our previous expositions. With the first class the apostle identified himself, note the "we" in Hebrews 6:3; from the second class Paul dissociates himself, note the words "those" in Hebrews 6:4 and "they" in Hebrews 6:6. So, too, two different pieces of ground are now described: first, fruitful ground, which depicts those who have been truly regenerated, and who in consequence, had received the Word into good and honest hearts. Second, unfruitful ground, which represents that class against whose sin and doom the apostle was warning the Hebrews; namely, those who, however great their privileges and fair their professions, bring forth only thorns and briers, who, being rejected by God, are overtaken with swift and terrible destruction. "For the earth which drinketh in the rain". The prime reference is to the Jewish nation. They were God’s vineyard (see Isaiah 5:7-8; Jeremiah 2:21 etc.). It was unto them God had sent all His servants, the prophets, and last of all His Son (see Matthew 21:35-37). The "rain" here signifies the Word, or Doctrine which the Lord sent unto Israel: "My doctrine shall drop as the rain" (Deuteronomy 32:2 and cf. Isaiah 55:10-11). Note how when Ezekiel was to prophesy or preach, his message would "drop" as the rain does (Ezekiel 21:2 and cf. Amos 7:16). The figure is very beautiful. The rain is something which no man can manufacture, nor is the Word of human origin. Rain comes down from above, so is the Gospel a heavenly gift. The rain refreshes vegetation, and causes it to grow, so too the Doctrine of God revives His people and makes them fruitful. The rain quickens living seeds in the ground, though it imparts no life to dead ones; so the Word is the Spirit’s instrument for quickening God’s elect (John 3:5; James 1:18), who previously had (federal) life in Christ. There is nothing in nature that God assumes the more into His own prerogative than the giving of rain. The first reference to it in Scripture is as follows, "For the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth" (Genesis 2:5). All rain is from God, who gives or withholds it at His pleasure. The sending of rain He appeals to as a great pledge of His promises and goodness: "Nevertheless He left not Himself without witness, in that He did good, and gave us rain from heaven" etc. (Acts 14:17). Whatever conclusions men may draw from the commonness of it, and however they may imagine they are acquainted with its causes, nevertheless God distinguishes Himself from all the idols of the world in that none of them can give rain: "Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain?" (Jeremiah 14:22). Hence the prophet said, "Let us now fear the Lord our God, that giveth rain" (Jeremiah 5:24). The high sovereignty of God is also exhibited in the manner of His bestowal and non-bestowal of rain: "Also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereon it rained not withered" (Amos 4:7). Thus it is absolutely in connection with His providential sending of the Gospel to nations, cities, and individuals: it is of God’s disposal alone, and He exercises a distinguishing authority thereon. "Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Spirit to preach the Word in Asia, After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not" (Acts 16:6-7). God sends His Gospel to one nation and not to another, to one city and not to another—there are many large towns both in England and the United States where there is no real Gospel preached today—and at one season and not at another. The natural is but a shadowing forth of the spiritual. What a contrast was there between Egypt (figure of the world), and Canaan (type of the Church)! "For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and waterest with thy foot, as a garden of herbs. But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven: A land which the Lord thy God careth for; the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year unto the end of the year... I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain" (Deuteronomy 11:11-14). Thus,—there were two special wet seasons: the first in October (the beginning of Israel’s year), when their seed was cast into the ground: the other in March when their corn was nearly grown. Hence we read, "Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest" (Joshua 3:15, and cf. 1 Chronicles 12:15). Besides these, were many "showers" (Psalms 65:10). "The rain that cometh oft upon it". The reference is to the repeated and frequent ministerial showers with which God visited Israel. To them He had called, "O earth, earth, earth, hear the Word of the Lord!" (Jeremiah 22:29). It was looking back to these multiplied servants which Jehovah had sent to His ancient people that Christ said, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together" (Matthew 23:37). This then was the "earth" in which were the plants of God’s husbandry. In what follows to the end of the passage the apostle distributes the plants into two classes: "herbs" (Hebrews 6:7), "thorns and briers" (Hebrews 6:8). The former, represent those who, having believed and obeyed the Gospel, brought forth the fruits of practical godliness. These constituted that "remnant according to the election of grace" (Romans 11:5), which obtained mercy, when the rest of their brethren according to the flesh were blinded. These still continued to be the vineyard of the Lord, a field which He cared for. They formed the first Gospel church, gathered out from the Hebrews, which brought forth fruit to the glory of God, and was blessed by Him. The latter, were made up of obstinate unbelievers on the one hand, who persistently rejected Christ and His Gospel; and on the other hand, of those who embraced the profession of the Gospel, but after a season returned again to Judaism. These were rejected of God, fell under His curse and perished. "And bringeth forth herbs". Several have noted the close resemblance which our present passage bears to the parable of the Sower, recorded in the Gospels. There are some notable parallels between them; the one of most importance being, to observe that in both places we have men looked at, not from the standpoint of God’s eternal counsels (as for example, Ephesians 1:3-11), but according to human responsibility. The earth which receives the rain, is a figure of the hearts and minds of the Jews, to whom the Word of God had been sent, and to whom, in the days of Christ and His apostles, the Gospel had been preached. So our Lord compared His hearers unto several sorts of ground into which the seed is cast—observe how the word "dressed" or "tilled" presupposes the seed. What response, then, will the earth make to the repeated rains? or, to interpret the figure, What fruit is brought forth by those who heard the Gospel? That is the particular aspect of truth the Holy Spirit here has before Him. "And bringeth forth herbs". The verb here properly signifies the bringing forth of a woman that hath conceived with child, cf. Luke 1:31. So here the earth is said to bring forth as from a womb impregnated, the rains causing the seeds to issue in fruit. The Greek word for "herbs" occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It appears to be a general term for vegetables and cereals. It is found frequently in the Sept. as the equivalent of the Hebrews "eseb", which has the same extensive meaning. Now just as the cultivator of land has a right to expect that, under the providential blessings of God, his toils shall be rewarded, that the seed he has sown and the ground he has tilled, should yield an increase, so had Jehovah the right to expect fruit from Israel: "And He looked that it (His vineyard) should bring forth grapes" (Isaiah 5:4). "Meet for them by whom it is dressed". The Greek may be rightly rendered thus: equally so, as in the margin, "for whom" it is dressed: either makes good sense. "By whom" would look to the actual cultivator; "for whom," the proprietor. The apostle’s design here is to show the importance of making a proper use of receiving God’s Word: a "meet" or suitable response should be forthcoming. The ministry of the Gospel tests the state of the hearts of those to whom it comes, just as the fallen rain does the ground which receives it; tests it by exhibiting its character from what is brought forth by it. As it is in nature, so it is in grace; the more frequently the rain falls, and the more the ground be cultivated, the better and heavier should be the yield. Thus it is with God’s elect. The more they sit under the ministry of the Word, and the more they seek grace to improve what they hear, the more fruit will they yield unto God. Thus it had been with the godly in Israel. "Receiveth blessing from God." The "blessing" here is not antecedent in the communication of mercies, for that we have at the beginning of the verse; rather is it a consequent upon the bringing forth of "herbs" or fruit. What we have here is God’s acceptation and approbation, assuring His care unto a further improvement: "A vineyard of red wine: I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day" (Isaiah 27:2-3). Three things then are included in God’s blessing of this fruitful field: First, His owning of it: He is not ashamed to acknowledge it as His. Second, His watch-care over it, His pruning of the branches that they may bring forth more fruit (John 15:2). Third, His final preservation of it from evil, as opposed to the destruction of barren ground. All this was true of that part of Israel spoken of in Romans 11:5. "But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected" (Hebrews 6:8). It is important to note that in the similitude there is a common subject of the whole, which is then divided into two parts, with very different events ascribed unto each. The common subject is "the earth," of the nature whereof both parts are equally participant. Originally, and naturally, they differ not. On this common subject, on both parts or branches of it, the "rain" equally falls. And too both are equally "dressed." The difference between them lies, first, in what each part of "the earth" (Israel) produced; and secondly, God’s dealings with each part. As we have seen, the one part brought forth "herbs" meet for the dresser or owner: a suitable response was made to the rain given and the care expended upon it. The other, which we are now to look at, is the very reverse. "But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected." Everything here is in sharp antithesis from the terms of the preceding verse. There, the good ground, "bringeth forth", the Greek word signifying a natural conception and production of anything in due order and season. But the evil ground "beareth" thorns and briers, the Greek verb signifying an unnatural and monstrous production, a casting out in abundance of that which is not only without the use of means, but actually against it. As God said of His Israelitish vineyard, "He looketh that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes" (Isaiah 5:2). The Greek for "thorns and briers" is identical with the Sept. rendering of Genesis 3:18, which, in our Bibles, is rendered, "thorns and thistles". Three thoughts seem suggested by the term here given to the product of this evil ground. First, it brought forth that which was of no profit to its owner, that which promoted not the glory of God. Second, "thorns and briers" are of a hurtful and noxious nature: see Ezekiel 28:24, etc. Third, these terms tell us that all which is brought forth by the natural man is under the curse of God: Genesis 3:18, Genesis 4:11-12. "But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected". Land which, after cultivation, brings forth only such products, is abandoned by the farmer as worthless. The Greek word here for "rejected", signifies the setting aside as useless after trial has been made of a thing. The application of it here is to by far the greater part of the Jewish people. First, Christ had warned them "the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof" (Matthew 21:43). Second, after their full and open rejection of Himself and His Gospel, Christ told them, "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate" (Matthew 23:38). Third, proof that the Nation as a whole had been "rejected" by God, is found in Acts 2:40, when, on the day of Pentecost, Peter bade the believing remnant, "Save yourselves from this untoward generation". "And is nigh unto cursing". This is in sharp contrast from what was said of the good ground: "receiveth blessing from God". The word "cursing" here, means, "given over to execration", or "devoted to destruction". It was given over to be "burned", which, according to the analogy of faith, means, it would be visited with Divine judgment. Israel had become a barren tree, a cumberer of the ground, and the word had gone forth, "Cut it down"(Luke 12:7-9). Further proof that Israel as a nation was given over to "execration", is found in the solemn incident of Christ’s cursing of the "fig tree" (Matthew 21:19), figure of the Jews, see Matthew 24:32. True, a short respite had been granted—another "year" (Luke 13:8)—hence the "nigh unto cursing". "Whose end is to be burned". In Eastern lands, when a husbandman discovers that a piece of ground is worthless, he neglects it, abandons it. Next, he breaks down its fences, that it may be known it is outside the bounds of his possession. Finally, he sets fire to its weeds, to prevent their seeds being blown on to his good ground. Thus it was with Israel. In the last chapter of Acts we see how the apostle Paul warned the Jews how that God had set them aside (Acts 28:25-28), and shortly after, the solemn words of Christ in Matthew 22:7 were fulfilled, "He sent forth His armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city". The contents of Hebrews 6:7-8 are not to be restricted to the regenerated and unregenerated Jews, for "as in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man" (Proverbs 27:19). "This is a similitude most appropriate to excite a desire to make progress in due time; for as the earth cannot bring forth a good crop in harvest except it causes the seed as soon as it is sown to germinate, so if we desire to bring forth good fruit, as soon as the Lord sows His Word, it ought to strike roots in us without delay; for it cannot be expected to fructify, if it be either choked or perish. But as the similitude is very suitable, so it must be wisely applied to the design of the apostle. "The earth, he says, which be sucking in the rain produces a blade suitable to the seed sown, at length by God’s blessing produces a ripe crop; so they who receive the seed of the Gospel into their hearts and bring forth genuine shoots, will always make progress until they produce ripe fruit. On the contrary, the earth, which after culture and irrigation, brings forth nothing but thorns, affords no hope of a harvest; nay, the more that grows which is its natural produce, the more hopeless is the case. Hence the only remedy the husbandman has is to burn up the noxious and useless weeds. So they who destroy the seed of the Gospel, either by their indifference or by corrupt affections, so as to manifest no sign of good progress in their life, clearly show themselves to be reprobates, from whom no harvest can be expected. The apostle then, not only speaks here of the fruit of the Gospel, but also exhorts us promptly to embrace it, and he further tells us, that the blade appears presently after the seed is sown, and that grain follows the daily irrigations". (Dr. John Calvin). The Lord Jesus completed His parable of the Sower by saying, "Take heed therefore how ye hear" (Luke 8:18): how you profit by it, what use you make of it; be sure that you are a good-ground hearer. Such, are those in whom, first, the Word falls, as into "an honest and good heart" (Luke 8:15), i.e., they bow to its authority, judge themselves by it, are impartial and faithful in applying it to their own failures. Second, they "receive" the Word (Mark 4:20): they make personal appropriation of it, they take it home to themselves, they apply it to their own needs. Third, they "understand" it (Matthew 13:23): they enter into a spiritual and experimental acquaintance with it. Fourth, they "keep" it (Luke 8:15): they retain, heed, obey, practice it. Fifth, they "bring forth fruit with patience" (Luke 8:15), they persevere, overcome all discouragements, triumph over temptations, and walk in the paths of obedience. Upon such the "blessing" of God rests. Now in contrast from the good-ground hearer, are the wayside, stony, and thorny-ground hearers. These, we believe, are they who come under the common or inferior operations of the Holy Spirit, spoken of in our last article. Let it be carefully noted, First, that even of the wayside hearer (the lowest grade of all) Christ said the Seed was "sown in his heart" (Matthew 13:19). Second, that of the stony-ground hearers it is said, "the same is he that heareth the Word, and anon with joy receiveth it" (Matthew 13:20), and "for a while believeth, and in time of temptation falls away" (Luke 8:13). Third, that of the stony-ground hearer Christ said, "Which when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection" (Luke 8:14). Yet none of them had been born of the Spirit. All that they had brought forth, under His gracious operations, was but the works of the flesh—"thorns and briers". Above, in our interpretation, we called attention to the difference between the "bringeth forth" of herbs in Hebrews 6:7, and the "beareth" thorns in Hebrews 6:8. There is a like producing, but an unlike manner and measure. The former "Bring forth in their lives what was before conceived and cherished in their hearts. They had the root in themselves of what they bring forth. So doth the word here used signify, viz., to bring forth the fruit of an inward conception. The doctrine of the gospel as cast into their hearts, is not only rain but seed also. This is cherished by grace, as precious seed, and as from a spiritual root or principle in their hearts, bringeth forth precious fruit. And herein consists the difference between the fruitbearing of the true believers, and the works of hypocrites or false professors. These latter bring forth fruit like mushrooms, they come up suddenly, have oft-times great bulk and goodly appearance, but are merely a forced excrescence, they have no natural seed or root in the earth. They do not proceed from a living principle in the heart". (Dr. John Owen). Thus, it should be most carefully borne in mind that the "thorns and briers" of Hebrews 6:8 have reference not to sins and wickedness as men view things, but to the best products of the flesh, as cultivated by "religion", and that, as instructed out of the Scriptures, and "enlightened" by the Holy Spirit. This is evident from the fact that the thorns and briers, equally with the "herbs", are occasioned by the same "rain" which had come oft upon the earth, and from which they sprang. However fair the professions of the unregenerate may appear in the eyes of their fellows, no matter what proficiency they may reach in an understanding of the letter of Scripture, nor what their zeal in contending for the faith, loyalty to their church, self-sacrifice in their service; yet, in the sight of Him who searcheth the heart and taketh note of the root from which things spring, all is worthless. These products or works are only the fruits of a nature which is under the curse of a holy God. "But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected" i.e., of God. Little did the Jews believe this when Paul penned those words. Their great boast was that they were God’s people, that He preferred them above all others. Nevertheless, though He yet withheld His wrath for a little space, He had disowned them. The sad analogy to this is found everywhere in Christendom today. Countless thousands who bear the name of Christ, and who have no doubts but that they are among the true people of God, are yet "rejected" by Him. Are you, my reader, among them? What need is there for every professing Christian to heed that word in 2 Peter 1:10, "Give diligence to make your calling and election sure"! Those who sit under the ministry of God’s Word are upon trial, and it is high time that many of us who have been so long privileged, should call on ourselves to a strict account with respect to our improvement thereof. What are we bringing forth? Are we producing "the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God" (Php 1:11)? If so, all praise to Him who has made us fruitful. Or are we, though not notoriously wicked persons, yet so far as fruit for God is concerned, cumberers of the ground? If upon inquiry we find ourselves at a loss to be sure of which sort of ground we belong unto, and this because of our barrenness and leanness, unless we are hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, we shall give ourselves no rest until we have better evidences of our bearing spiritual fruit. O let these solemn words search our hearts: "And is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned". Such is the awful fate confronting multitudes of professing Christians in the churches today, who resist all exhortations to produce the fruit of godly living. Corrupt desires, pride, worldliness, covetousness, are as plainly to be seen in their lives, as are thorns and briers on abandoned ground. O what a thought! professing Christians, "nigh unto cursing"! Soon to hear their last sermon. Soon to be cut off out of the land of the living. Afterwards to hear from the lips of Christ the fearful sentence, "Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his angels" (Matthew 25:41). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 99: 005.027. CHAPTER 27 ======================================================================== Chapter 27 TWO CHRISTIANS DESCRIBED Hebrews 6:9-11 The passage which is to be before us is in strong and blessed contrast from what we found in Hebrews 6:4-6. There we beheld a class of people highly favored, blest with grand external privileges, richly gifted, and wrought upon by the Holy Spirit. There we see the faculties of the natural man’s soul wound up to their highest pitch: the conscience searched, the understanding enlightened, the affections drawn out, and the will moved to action. There we have described the character of a class which constitutes a very large proportion of those who profess the name of Christ. Yet, though they have never been born again, though they are unsaved, though their end is destruction, nevertheless, it is by no means an easy matter for a real child of God to identify them. Oftentimes their head-knowledge of the truth, their zeal for religion, their moral qualities, put him to shame. Still, if he weigh them in the balances of the sanctuary, they will be found wanting. The careful reader of the four Gospels, will discover that in the days of His flesh, the Lord Jesus healed those concerning whom nothing is recorded of their faith. The blessings which He dispensed were not restricted to His disciples. Temporal mercies were bestowed upon natural men as well as upon spiritual. And, be it carefully noted, this was something more, something in addition to, the providential goodness of the Creator, which is extended to all of Adam’s race: "He maketh His sun to rise, on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matthew 5:45). Rather did those gracious acts of Christ unto the unbelieving, foreshadow that which we designated in the preceding article, the inferior operations of His Spirit. On a few Christ bestowed spiritual blessings, saving mercies; to others, He imparted temporal blessings, mercies which came short of saving their recipients. In our last article we made reference to James 1:17 : "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above". We believe that, in keeping with the character, theme and purpose of that epistle, those words have reference to two distinct classes of gifts, for two different classes of people: the "good" referring to those bestowed, under Gospel-ministry on the non-elect; the "perfect" imparted to God’s own people. A scripture which we believe supplies strong corroboration of this is found in Psalms 68:18. There, in a Messianic prophecy concerning the ascension of Christ, we read, "Thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also": gifts are bestowed by Christ on two distinct classes. It is to be particularly observed that a part of this verse is quoted by the Spirit in Ephesians 4:8; part of it we say, for its closing words, "the rebellious also" are there omitted. And why? Because in Ephesians it is the elect of God (see Hebrews 1:3-4 etc.) who are in view. Yet, in addition to them, Christ has received "gifts" for the "rebellious also"; that is, for the non-elect too. Few indeed have perceived that there is a double work of GOD being prosecuted under the ministry of the Gospel. Plain intimation of this is found in the words of Christ in Matthew 22:14, "For many are called, but few chosen." Half of the human race has never heard the Gospel; those who have, are divided into four classes, as Christ has taught us in His parable of the Sower. The "wayside" hearers are those upon whom the preaching of the Gospel produces no effect. The "stony" and the "thorny" ground hearers are they which form a very large percentage of "church members" or who are "in fellowship" with those known as "the Brethren". Of these it is said that they "for a while believe" (Luke 8:13); nor are they unproductive, yet they "bring no fruit to perfection" (Luke 8:14). In them the "enmity" of the carnal mind is, to a considerable extent, subdued; yet it is not vanquished. There is a work of the Spirit upon them, yet it falls short of the new creation. They are "called" but not "chosen". Only as due attention is paid to the distinction just noted, are we really able to appreciate the point and meaning of the qualifying language which the Spirit of God has used when speaking of the saving call of God’s elect. For example, in Romans 8:28, they are denominated the called "according to His purpose", which notes a distinction from others who receive an inferior "call" according to His providence, under the general proclamation of the Gospel. So too in 2 Timothy 1:9 we read of those "called with a holy calling... according to His own purpose and grace", which is the language of discrimination, signifying there are others called yet not with "a holy calling". So again in 1 Peter 5:10, "The God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory", is in antithesis from the many who are only called unto a temporal righteousness in this world. It needs to be very carefully noted that the "us" of the Epistles is frequently used with a far narrower discrimination than from all the rest of the world: very often the "us" is in contrast from the great crowd of lifeless professors which ever surrounds the little handful of God’s true people—professors which, though spiritually lifeless, are yet to be distinguished from the vast multitudes of non-professors; distinguished by a real work of the Holy Spirit upon them, but still an abortive work. Of this class the Epistle of James has much to say. Concerning them John, in his first Epistle, declares "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us" (1 John 2:19). A work of "calling" must have been wrought upon them, for they had once separated from the world, and united themselves with the true people of God. Moreover, that work of "calling" must have produced such a change in them that they had been accounted real Christians, or otherwise they had not been admitted among such. The occasion of Christ’s uttering those words "For many are called, but few chosen" (Matthew 22:14) is exceedingly solemn and searching. The context records the parable of the wedding-feast of the King’s Son. First, the invitation to it had been given to the Jews, but they despised it, mistreated God’s servants, and, in consequence, their city was destroyed. Then God’s servants are sent forth into the Gentile highways to bring in others. But when the King inspects the guests, He sees a man "which had not on a wedding-garment". The awful sentence goes forth, "Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness." Immediately after, Christ said, "For many are called, but few chosen". Now in sharp and blessed contrast from the many professing the name of Christ who have received only the inferior call of God through the Gospel—a call which, yet, leads them to assent to the doctrine of His word, which brings them to espouse the outward cause of Christ in this world, which produces a real reformation in their ways, so that they become respectable and useful members of their community, as well as provide a measure of protection to the few of God’s "chosen" from the openly antagonistic world;—our present passage treats of "the remnant according to the election of grace" (Romans 11:5). This is clear from its opening words, "But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you." The "But" sets these "beloved" ones in opposition from those mentioned in Hebrews 6:8. The "better things" also points an antithesis. "Better" is an adjective in the comparative degree, set over against something which is merely "good". Those described in Hebrews 6:4-5 had good things, yet these possessed something far better. Mark how this confirms what we have said on James 1:17! In Hebrews 6:9-12 we find the apostle doing three things: first, he expresses his good will towards the Hebrew saints; second, he declares his judgment concerning their state; third, he gives the grounds upon which his judgment was based. His aim was that they should make a proper use of what he had set before them in the first eight verses, so that on the one hand they might not be discouraged, and on the other hand not become careless. We subjoin Dr. J. Brown’s summary of our passage. "The general meaning of this paragraph, all the parts of which are closely connected together, plainly is: The reason why I have made these awful statements about apostates, is not because I consider you whom I am addressing as apostates for your conduct proves that this is not your character, and the promise of God secures that this doom shall not be yours; but that you may be stirred up to persevering steadiness in the faith, and hope, and obedience of the truth, by a constant continuance in which alone you can, like those who have gone before you, obtain in all their perfections the promised blessings of the Christian salvation." "But, beloved" (Hebrews 6:9). This term testified to the apostle’s good will toward and affection in the Hebrew saints. Such an expression was more than the formal language of courtesy; it revealed the warmth of Paul’s heart for God’s people. Though he had spoken severely to them in Hebrews 5:11-14, it was not because he was unkindly disposed toward them. Love is faithful, and because it seeks the highest good of its objects, will reprove, rebuke, admonish, when occasion calls for it. Spiritual love is regulated not by impulse, but by principle. Herein it differs from the backboneless amiability and affability of the flesh, and from the maudlin sentimentality of the day. "We hence conclude, that not only the reprobates ought to be reproved, severely, and with sharp earnestness, hut also the elect themselves, even those whom we deem to be children of God" (John Calvin). "The apostle hastens to comfort and encourage, lest the Hebrews should be overwhelmed with fear and sorrow, or lest they should think that their condition was regarded by him as hopeless. The affection of the writer is now eager to inspire hope, and to draw them with the cords of love. The word ‘beloved’ is introduced here most appositely, a term of endearment which occurs frequently in other epistles, but only once in ours; not that the apostle was not filled with true and fervent love to the Hebrew Christians, but that he felt obliged to restrain as it were his feelings, by reason of the prejudices against him. But here the expression bursts forth, as in a moment of great danger or of anxious suspense the heart will speak out in tender language (Adolph Saphir). "But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you". In these words the apostle sets forth his judgment concerning the spiritual state of the Hebrews (cf. Hebrews 3:1). The "persuasion" here did not amount to an infallible certitude, but was a strong confidence based on good grounds. It is similar to what we find in Romans 15:14, "I myself also am persuaded of you my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another". So again in 2 Timothy 1:5, "When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also." However low the spiritual condition of these Hebrews (Hebrews 5:11-14), there had been, and still was found in them, fruit, such as manifested them to be truly regenerated souls. It ever holds good that a tree is known by its fruits, hence, the genuineness of my Christian profession is evidenced by what I bring forth, or its worthlessness by what I fail to produce. There may be a "form of godliness" (2 Timothy 3:5), but if the power thereof be "denied" by my works (Titus 1:16) then is it profitless and vain. "But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you." It is the bounden duty of every pastor to ascertain the spiritual condition of his people: "Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks" (Proverbs 27:23). This is very necessary if the servant of God is to minister suitably and seasonably. While he is ignorant of their state, he knows not when or how to rebuke or console, to warn or encourage. A general preaching at random is little more than a useless formality. A physician of bodies must acquaint himself with the condition of his patients, otherwise he cannot prescribe intelligently or effectually. Equally so it is with a physician of souls. The same principle holds good in the fellowship of Christians one with another. I cannot really love a brother with the Gospel-love which is required of me, unless I have a well-grounded persuasion that he is a brother. "And things that accompany salvation" (Hebrews 6:9). The word "accompany" signifies "conjoined with", or inseparable from, that which has a sure connection with "salvation". The principal things that "accompany salvation" are sorrow for and hatred of sin, humility or self-abnegation, the peace of God comforting the conscience, godly fear or the principle of obedience, a diligent perseverance in using the appointed means of grace and pressing forward in the race set before us, the spirit of prayer, and a joyous expectation of being conformed to the image of Christ and spending eternity with Him. True Gospel faith and sincere obedience are far "better things" than the most dazzling gifts ever bestowed on unregenerate professors. To believe on Christ is very much more than my understanding assenting and my will consenting to the fact that He is a Savior for sinners, and ready to receive all who will come to Him. To be received by Christ, I must come to Him renouncing all my righteousness (Romans 10:3), as an empty-handed beggar (Matthew 19:21). But more; to be received by Christ, I must come to Him forsaking my self-will and rebellion against Him (Psalms 2:11-12; Proverbs 28:13). Should an insurrectionist and seditionist come to an earthly king seeking his sovereign favor and pardon, then, obviously, the very law of his coming to him for forgiveness requires that he should come on his knees, laying aside his hostility. So it is with a sinner who comes to Christ for pardon; it is against the law of faith to do otherwise. An "unfeigned faith" (2 Timothy 1:5) in Christ, is one which submits to His yoke and bows to His authority. There is no such thing in Scripture as receiving Christ as Savior without also receiving Him as Lord: "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk ye in Him" (Colossians 2:6). If it be an honest and genuine faith, it is inseparably connected with a spirit of obedience, a desire to please Him, a resolve to not henceforth live unto self, but unto Him which died for me (2 Corinthians 5:15). The man who really thinks he has a saving faith in Christ, but yet has no concern for His glory and no heart for His commandments, is blinded by Satan. There are things which "accompany salvation", that have a certain connection therewith. As light is inseparable from the shining of the sun, as heat is inseparable from fire, so good works are inseparable from a saving faith. "Though we thus speak" (Hebrews 6:9). The reference is to what the apostle had said about apostates in Hebrews 6:6-8, and which had been written to these Hebrews as a solemn and searching warning for them to take to heart. "In the visible professing church, all things outwardly seemed to be equal. There are the same ordinances administered unto all, the same profession of faith is made by all, the same outward duties are attended unto, and scandalous offenses are by all avoided. But yet things are not internally equal. In a great house, there are vessels of wood and stone, as well as of gold and silver. All that eat outwardly of the bread of life, do not feed on the hidden manna. All that have their names enrolled in the church’s book, may yet not have them written in the Lamb’s book. There are yet better things than gifts, profession, participation of ordinances and whatever is of the like nature. And the use hereof in one word is to warn all sorts of persons, that they rest not in, that they take not up with an interest in, or participation of the privileges of the church, with a common profession, which may give them a name to live; seeing they may be dead or in a perishing condition in the meantime" (Dr. John Owen). "For God is not unrighteous to forget your work" (Hebrews 6:10). Here the apostle makes known the ground on which his "persuasion" rested, and that was, the unchanging faithfulness of God toward His covenant promises unto His people, and why he believed that these Hebrews were numbered among them. The foundation on which confidence should rest concerning my own security unto eternal glory, as that of my fellow-Christians, is nothing in the creature. "It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed" (Lamentations 3:22). The believer’s perseverance is not the cause but the consequence of God’s preservation. "For God is not unrighteous to forget your work". A scripture which enables us to understand the force of these words is 1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins". God is "faithful" to His covenant engagements with us in the person of His Son; "just", to the full satisfaction which He rendered unto Him. The very justice of God is engaged on the behalf of those whom Christ redeemed. His veracity towards us is pledged: "In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began" (Titus 1:2). And because God is immutable, without variableness or shadow of turning, He cannot go back on His own oath: "For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed" (Malachi 3:6). Therefore have we the absolute assurance that "He which hath begun a good work in you will finish it" (Php 1:6). "For God is not unrighteous to forget your work". Some have found a difficulty here, because these words seem to teach that heaven is a reward earned by good works. But the difficulty is more seeming than real. What God rewards is only what He Himself hath wrought in us: it is the Father’s recognition of the Spirit’s fruit. "The act of a benefactor in entering into engagements with his beneficiary may be wholly gratuitous, and yet, out of his act, rights may grow up to the beneficiary. The advantages thus acquired are not the less gracious, because they have become rights; for they originated in free grace" (Dr. Sampson, 1857). It may look now as though God places little value on sincere obedience to Him, that in this world the man who lives for self gains more than he who lives for Christ; yet, in a soon-coming day it shall appear far otherwise. "For God is not unrighteous to forget your works". "God does not pay us a debt, but performs what He has of Himself freely promised, and not so much on our works, as on His own grace in our works; nay, He looks not so much on our works, as on His own grace in our works. And this is to be ‘righteous’, for He cannot deny Himself . . . God is righteous in recompensing works, because He is true and faithful; and He has made Himself a debtor to us, not by receiving anything from us, but, as Augustine says, by freely promising all things" (John Calvin). They who imagine there is an inconsistency between the God of all grace "rewarding" His people, will do well to ponder carefully the Reformer’s words. "Your work". We believe the reference here is to their faith. First, because he is here speaking of the "things that accompany salvation", and faith is inseparable therefrom. Second, because faith "worketh by love" (Galatians 5:6), and the very next thing mentioned in our verse is their "labor of love". Third, because in 1 Thessalonians 1:3 we read of the "work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope", and in Hebrews 6:11, we have their "hope" mentioned. Should it be inquired, Why did the apostle omit the express mention of "faith" here? We answer, Because their faith was so small and feeble. To have commended their faith directly, would have weakened the force of his repeated exhortations in Hebrews 3:12, Hebrews 4:1-2, Hebrews 6:12, Hebrews 12:1 etc. "Your work" refers not to any single work, but to a course of working, i.e., the whole course of obedience to God, of which faith is the principle moving thereunto. Evangelical obedience is thus denominated "your work" because this is what they had been regenerated unto (see Ephesians 2:10), and because such a course calls for activity, pains, toil; cf. "all diligence" (2 Peter 1:5). A living faith is a working faith (James 2:17). Two things are plainly and uniformly taught throughout the New Testament. Justification is by faith, and not by works, (Rom. 4, etc.). Yet, such justifying faith is a living, operative, fruitful faith, evidencing itself by obedience to the commands of God (1 John 2:4, etc.). Christ gave Himself for us that "He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works" (Titus 2:14). This greatly needs emphasizing today and pressing repeatedly upon those professing to be believers in the Lord Jesus, for multitudes of these have a name to live, but "art dead" (Revelation 3:1). Their faith is not that of God’s elect (Titus 1:1), but nothing better or different than that which the demons have (James 2:19). "Your faith and the labor of love", for so the Greek reads. These were the evidences upon which the apostle grounded his confidence concerning the Hebrew saints. Five things are to be noted. First this distinguishing grace, their "labor of love": let the reader turn to and ponder carefully 1 John 3:16-19; 1 John 4:7-12. "Mutual love among believers is a fruit of the Spirit of holiness, and an effect of faith, whereby being knit together in the bond of entire spiritual affection, on the account of their joint interest in Christ; and participation of the same, new, divine, spiritual nature from God, they do value, delight and rejoice in one another, and are mutually helpful in a constant discharge of all those duties whereby their eternal, spiritual and temporal good may be promoted" (Dr. John Owen). Note "labor of love": a lazy love, like that of James 2:15-16, is no evidence of saving faith. True love is active, diligent, untiring. "Which ye have showed". This gives us the second feature of their love. It was not a secret and un-manifested love: but one that had been plainly evidenced in a practical way. In James 2:18 the professor is challenged to "show" his faith, today it would also be pertinent to ask many of those who bear the name of Christ to "show" their love, especially along the line of 1 John 5:2. "Which ye have showed toward His name," defines, third, the end before them in the exercise of their ardent love in ministering to the saints. The words last quoted have a threefold force. Objectively, because God’s name is upon His people (Ephesians 3:15). It is both blessed and solemn to know that whatever is done unto the people of God, whether it be good or evil, is done toward the name of Christ: Matthew 25:34-45. Formally: they ministered to the saints as the people of God. This it is which gives spiritual love its distinctive character: when it is exercised to souls because God’s name is on them. Efficiently: the "name of God" stands for His authority. God requires His people to love one another, and when they do so out of obedience to Him, it is, necessarily, done "toward His name", having respect to His will. "In that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister". This tells us, fourth, the manner in which their love had been exercised: in an untiring service. Fifth, it announces, the objects of their love, God’s "saints". Many of God’s people are in various kinds of temporal distress, and one reason why their loving Father permits this is, that their brethren and sisters in Christ may have the holy privilege of ministering to them: see Romans 15:25-27, 2 Corinthians 8:21, 2 Corinthians 9:11-15. But let such ministry be rendered not from sentimental considerations, nor to satisfy an uneasy conscience, still less with the object of vain glory, to gain a reputation for benevolence; rather let it be "shown toward His name". It is the owning of His authority, the conscious performance of His will, which alone gives life, spirituality and acceptance unto all those duties of love which we are able to perform to others. In summing up the teaching of Hebrews 6:9-10, let us observe how the apostle justified the Hebrews according to his Master’s rule in Matthew 7:15-20. Genuine Christians give plain evidence that their profession of the Gospel is accompanied by transforming grace. The obedience of faith and the labor of love toward the saints—not from human instincts, but out of submission to the revealed will of God—both in the past and in the present, were the visible ground of Paul’s good persuasion concerning them. It is important to note what were the particular graces singled out for mention. The apostle says nothing about their clear views of the truth, their missionary activities, zeal for "their church"—which are the things that many formal professors boast in. "And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end" (Hebrews 6:11). The apostle looks back to the exhortation of v. 1 and also the solemn warning pointed in Hebrews 6:4-8. His purpose had been to excite them unto a diligent persevering continuance in faith and in love, with the fruits thereof. All he had said was unto this end. The closer connection of this verse with the preceding one is: having expressed his conviction about their spiritual state, and having assured them of a blessed issue of their faith from the fidelity of God, he now presses upon them their responsibility to answer to the judgment he had formed of them, by diligent progress unto the end. In Hebrews 6:11 the apostle, with heavenly wisdom, makes known the proper use and end of Gospel threatenings (Hebrews 6:6-8), and Gospel promises (Hebrews 6:9-10): either may be, and often are, abused. Many have looked upon threatenings as serving no other purpose than a terrifying of the minds of men, causing them to despair; as if the things threatened must inevitably be their portion. Few have known how to make a right application of them to their consciences. On the other hand, many have abused the promises of God: those who had no title to such have suffered themselves to be deceived, and to be so falsely comforted by them to lie down in a carnal security, imagining that no evil could befall them. But here the apostle reveals the proper end of each, both to believers and unbelievers: the threatenings should stir up to earnest examination of the foundation of our hope; the promises should encourage unto a constant and patient diligence in all the duties of obedience. What wisdom is needed by a minister of the Gospel to make a proper and due use of both upon his hearers! "And", or rather (Greek) "But we desire". In Hebrews 6:9-10 the apostle had told them what was not his object in making to them the statements of Hebrews 6:4-8; now he tells them what it was. The word "desire" here signifies an intense longing; without this, preaching is cold, formal, lifeless. "That every one of you": the loving care and untiring efforts of the minister should be extended to all the members of his flock. The oldest, as much as the youngest, is in need of constant exhortation. "Do show the same diligence... unto the end". Unless this be done, our profession will not be preserved nor God glorified. Paul knew nothing of that half-heartedness and sluggish neglect of the means of grace which today satisfies the generality of those bearing the name of Christ. "Give thyself wholly to them" (1 Tim. 4-15). Many are very "diligent" in their worldly business, still more are most punctual in prosecuting their round of pleasure and fleshly gratification; but there are very few indeed who exercise a godly concern for their souls. To an earnest endeavor after personal holiness, the work of faith and labor of love, the vast majority of professors are strangers, nor can they be persuaded that any such things are required or expected from them. They may be regular attenders of "church" from force of custom; they may perform certain acts of charity for the sake of their reputation; but to be really exercised in heart as to how they may please and honor God in the details of their lives, they know nothing and care still less. Such are destitute of those things which "accompany salvation"; they are deluded and lost souls. Make no mistake, my reader, unless there is in you a work of faith in keeping God’s commandments, and a labor of love toward His saints as such, then "the root of the matter" (Job 19:28) is not in you. This is the test of profession, and the rule whereby each of us shall be measured. Nor can this work of faith and labor of love be persisted in without studious diligence and earnest endeavor. It calls for the daily searching of the Scriptures, and that, not for intellectual gratification, but to learn God’s will for my walk. It calls for watchfulness and prayer against every temptation which would turn me aside from following Christ. It requires that I should rightly abstain from "fleshly lusts that war against the soul" (1 Peter 2:11), yielding myself unto God as one that is passed from death unto life, and my members "as instruments of righteousness unto God" (Romans 6:13). It requires that I "lay aside every weight" (whatever hinders vital godliness) and the sin which doth so easily beset (the love of self), and run (which calls for the putting forth of all our energies) the race that is set before us" (Hebrews 12:1-2),and that race is a fleeing from the things of this doomed world, with our faces set steadfastly towards God. Those who despise, or even continue to neglect such things, are only nominal Christians. This "diligence" is to be shown "to the full assurance of hope". Full assurance here signifies a firm conviction or positive persuasion. "Hope" in the New Testament means an ardent desire for and strong expectation of obtaining its object. Faith looks to the Promiser, hope to the things promised. Faith begets hope. God has promised His people perfect deliverance from sin and all its troubles, and full enjoyment of everlasting glory with Himself. Faith rests on the power and veracity of God to make good His word. The heart ponders these blessings, and sees them as yet future. Hope values and anticipates the realization of them. Like faith, "hope" has its degrees. "Full assurance of hope" signifies a steady prevailing persuasion, a persuasion which issues from faith in the promises made concerning "good things to come". The "diligence" before mentioned, is God’s appointed means toward this full assurance: compare 2 Peter 1:10-11. To cherish a hope of Heaven while I am living to please self is wicked presumption. "Unto the end": no furloughs are granted to those called upon to "fight the good fight of faith" (1 Timothy 6:12); there is no discharge from that warfare as long as we are left upon the field of battle. No spiritual state is attainable in this life, where "reaching forth unto those things which are before" (Php 3:13) becomes unnecessary. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 100: 005.028. CHAPTER 28 ======================================================================== Chapter 28 CHRISTIAN PERSEVERANCE Hebrews 6:12-15 Two exhortations were set before the Hebrew Christians in the 6th chapter of this epistle· First, they were bidden to turn their backs upon Judaism and go on unto a full embracing of Christianity (Hebrews 6:1). The application to God’s people today of the principle contained in this exhortation is, Abandon everything which enthralled your hearts in your unregenerate days, and find your peace, joy, satisfaction in Christ· In contemplating the peculiar temptation of the Hebrews to forsake the Christian position and path for a return to Judaism, let us not lose sight of the fact that a danger just as real menaces the believer today. The flesh still remains within him, and all that Satan used in the past to occupy his heart, still exists in the present· Though Israel came forth from the House of Bondage, passed through the Red Sea, and started out joyfully (Exodus 15:1) for the promised land, yet it was not long ere their hearts went back to Egypt, lusting after its fleshpots (Exodus 16:3). It is worse than idle to reply to what has been pointed out above by saying, Real Christians are in no "danger", for God has promised to preserve them. True, but God has promised to preserve His people in a way of holiness, not in a course of sinful self-will and self-gratification. Those whom Christ has declared shall "never perish" are they who "hear His voice and follow Him" (John 10:27-28). The apostles were not fatalists, neither did they believe in a mechanical salvation, but one that required to be worked out "with fear and trembling" (Php 2:12). Therefore Paul, moved by the Holy Spirit, did not hesitate to refer to the Israelites who were "overthrown" in the wilderness, and say, "Now these things were our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted· Neither be ye idolators, as were some of them;... Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents . . . Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition . . . Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall" (1 Corinthians 10:6-12). The second exhortation of Hebrews 6 is found in Hebrews 6:11-12, the first part of which was before us at the close of our last chapter. There the apostle says, "And we desire that everyone of you do show the same diligence". This, together with the verses that follow, is a call to perseverance in the path of godliness. To a church which had left its "first love" Christ said, "Repent, and do the first works" (Revelation 2:4-5). What are these "first works"? A submitting of ourselves unto God, an humbling of ourselves before Him, a throwing down of the weapons of our hostility against Him. A turning unto Christ as our only hope, a casting of ourselves upon Him, a trusting in the merits of His precious blood. A taking of His yoke upon us, bowing to His Lordship, owning His authority, earnestly seeking grace to do His commandments. Now the Christian is to continue as he began. He is to daily own his sins before God. He is to daily renew the same acts of faith and trust in Christ which he exercised at the first. Instead of counting upon some experience in the past, he is to maintain a present living upon Christ. If he continues to cast himself upon the Redeemer, putting his salvation wholly in His hands, then He will not, cannot, fail him. But in order to cast myself upon Christ, I must be near Him; I cannot do so while I am following Him afar off. To be near Him, I must be in separation from all that is contrary to Him. Communion is based upon an obedient walk: the one cannot be without the other. For the maintenance of this, I must "show the same diligence" I did when I was first convicted of my lost estate, saw Hell yawning at my feet ready to receive me, and fled to Christ for refuge. This same diligence which marked my state of heart and regulated my actions when I first sought Christ, is to be continued "unto the end". This means persevering in a holy living, and unto this the servants of God are to be constantly urging their hearers. "Ministerial exhortation unto duty, is needful even unto them who are sincere in the practice of it, that they may abide and continue therein. It is not easy to be apprehended how God’s institutions are despised by some, neglected by others, and by how few, duly improved; all for want of taking right measures for them. Some there are, who, being profoundly ignorant, are yet ready to say, that they know as much as the minister can teach them, and therefore, it is to no purpose to attend unto preaching. These are the thoughts, and this is too often the language, of persons profane and profligate, who know little, and practice nothing of Christianity. Some think that exhortations unto duty, belong only unto them who are negligent and careless in their performance; and unto them, indeed they do belong, but not unto them only, as the whole Scripture testifieth. And some, it may be, like well to be exhorted unto what they do, and do find satisfaction therein, but how few are there (it was the same then! A.W.P.) who look upon it as a means of God whereby they are enabled for, and kept up unto their duty, wherein, indeed, their use and benefit doth consist. They do not only direct unto duty, but through the appointment of God, they are means of communicating grace unto us, for the due performance of duties" (Dr. John Owen, 1680). "Do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end". Hope is a spiritual grace quite distinct from faith or love. Faith casts me upon God. Love causes me to cleave to and delight in pleasing Him. Hope sustains under the difficulties and discouragements of the way. It supports the soul when the billows of trouble roll over it, or when we are tempted to despair, and give up the fight. That is why, in the Christian’s armor, Hope is called "the helmet"(1 Thessalonians 5:8), because it wards off the sharp blows or bears the weight of those strokes which befall the saint in trials and afflictions. Hope values the things promised, looks forward to the clay of their realization, and thus is nerved to fresh endeavor. Hope views the Promised Land, and this gives alacrity to the weary pilgrim to continue pressing forward. Hope anticipates the welcome and the glorious fare awaiting us at the Heavenly Port, and this gives courage to go on battling against adverse winds and waves. There is the test. Many pretend to the possession of a good hope who yet have no faith. Others make a profession of faith who yet have no real hope. But real faith and real hope are inseparable. A spiritual faith eyes the Promiser, and is assured that He cannot lie. A spiritual hope embraces the promises, esteems them above all silver and gold, and confidently anticipates their fulfillment. But between the present moment and the actual realization of our hope lies a rugged path of testing, in which we encounter much that wearies, disheartens and retards us. If we are really walking in the path of God’s appointment, there will be oppositions to meet, fierce persecutions to be endured, grievous troubles to be borne. Yet, if our valuation of God’s promises be real, if our anticipation of their fulfillment be genuine, the comfort and joy they afford will more than offset and over-balance the effects of our trials. The exercise of hope will alone deliver from fainting and despondency under continued afflictions. Now to be in the enjoyment of "the full assurance of hope unto the end", the Christian must continue giving "the same diligence" to the things of God and the needs of his soul, as he did at the beginning. When the terrors of God first awakened him from the sleep of death, when he was made to feel his own awful danger of being cast into the eternal burnings, when he learned that Christ was the only Refuge, no half-hearted seeker was he. How diligently he searched the Word! How earnestly he cried unto God! How sincere was his repentance! How gladly he received the Gospel! How radical was the change in his life! How real did Heaven seem unto him, and how he longed to go there! How bright was his "hope" then! Alas, the fine gold has become dim; the manna has lost much of its sweetness, and he has become as one who "cannot see afar off" (2 Peter 1:9). Why? Ah, cannot the reader supply the answer from his own experience? But we dare not stop short at the point reached at the close of the preceding paragraph. Backsliding is dangerous, so dangerous that if it be persisted in, it is certain to prove fatal. If I continue to neglect the Divine means of grace for spiritual strength and support, if I go back again into the world and find my delight in its pleasures and concerns, and if I am not recovered from this sad state, then that will demonstrate that I was only the subject of the Holy Spirit’s inferior operations, that I was not really regenerated by Him. The difference between thorny-ground and the good-ground hearers is, that the one brings forth no fruit "to perfection" (Luke 8:14), whereas the other brings forth fruit "with patience" or perseverance (Luke 8:15). It is continuance in Christ’s word which proves us His disciples indeed (John 8:31). It is continuing in the faith, grounded and settled, and being "not moved away from the hope of the Gospel" (Colossians 1:23) which demonstrates the reality of our profession. "He said to the end that they might know they had not yet reached the goal, and were therefore to think of further progress. He mentioned diligence that they might know they were not to sit down idly, but to strive in earnest. For it is not a small thing to ascend above the heavens, especially for those who hardly creep on the ground, and when innumerable obstacles are in the way. There is, indeed, nothing more difficult than to keep our thoughts fixed on things in heaven, when the whole power of our nature inclines towards, and when Satan by numberless devices draws us back to earth" (John Calvin). Once more would we press upon our hearts that it is only as "diligence" in the things of God is continually exercised that a scriptural "hope" is preserved, and the full assurance of it attained. First, because there is an inseparable connection between these two which is of Divine institution: God Himself has appointed "diligence" as the means and way whereby His people shall arrive at this assurance: cf. 2 Peter 1:10-11. Second, because such "diligence" has a proper and necessary tendency unto this end. By diligence our spiritual faculties are strengthened, grace is increased in us, and thereby we obtain fuller evidence of our interest in the promises of the Gospel. Third, by a faithful attention to the duties of faith and love we are preserved from sinning, which is the principal evil that weakens or impairs our hope. "That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises" (Hebrews 6:12). These words confirm what we have said above concerning the force of the exhortation found in Hebrews 6:11. There the apostle, is giving a call to perseverance in the path of practical holiness. But there are multitudes of professing Christians that cherish a hope of heaven, who nevertheless continue in a course of self-will and self-pleasing. "There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness" (Proverbs 30:12). Christ came here to save His people "from their sins" (Matthew 1:21) not in them. No presumption is worse than entertaining the idea that I am bound for Heaven while I live like a child of Hell. "That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises". This verse forms the connecting link between the preceding section and the closing one of this chapter. The apostle here warns against any evil, indolence and inertia, which stands opposed to giving "diligence": they are the opposite virtue and vice. Slothfulness persisted in would effectually prevent the performance of the duty just enjoined. In Hebrews 5:11 Paul had charged the Hebrews with being "dull (slothful—the same Greek word) of hearing", not absolutely, but relatively; they were not as industrious in heeding "the word of righteousness" (Hebrews 5:13) as they ought to have been. Here he bids them be not slothful in good works, but emulators of the saints who had gone before. "That ye be not slothful". "He knew that the utmost intention of our spirits, the utmost diligence of our minds, and endeavors of our whole souls, are required unto a useful continuance in our profession and obedience. This, God requireth of us; this, the nature of things themselves about which we are conversant, deserveth; and necessary it is, unto the end which we aim at. If we faint or grow negligent in our duty, if careless or slothful, we shall never hold out unto the end; or if we do continue in such a formal course as will consist with this sloth, we shall never come unto the blessed end which we expect or look for. The oppositions and difficulties which we shall assuredly meet with, from within and without, will not give way unto feeble and languid endeavors. Nor will the holy God prostitute eternal rewards unto those who have no more regard unto them, but to give up themselves unto sloth in their pursuits. Our course of obedience is called running in a race, and fighting as in a battle, and those who are slothful on such occasion will never be crowned with victory. Wherefore, upon a due compliance with this caution, depends our present perseverance, and our future salvation" (Dr. John Owen). The slothfulness against which the apostle warns, is in each of us by nature. The desires of the "old man" are not toward, but away from the things of God. It is the "new man" which is alone capacitated to love and serve the Lord. But in addition to the two natures in the Christian, there is the individual himself, the possessor of those natures, the "I" of Romans 7:25, and he is held responsible to "make not provision for the flesh" (Romans 13:14) on the one hand, and to "desire" the sincere milk of the Word that he may grow thereby" (1 Peter 2:2) on the other. It is the consciousness of this native sloth, this indisposition for practical holiness, which causes the real saint to cry out, "Draw me, we will run after Thee" (Song of Solomon 1:4); "Make me to go in the path of Thy commandments, for therein do I delight"; "Order my steps in Thy Word, and let not any iniquity have dominion over me" (Psalms 119:35, Psalms 119:133). It is this which distinguishes the true child of God from the empty professor—his wrestling with God in secret for grace to enable him to press forward in the highway of holiness. "But followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises". The reference here is to the believing forefathers of the Hebrews, who, by continuing steadfast in faith and persevering in hope amidst all the trials to which they were exposed, had now entered into the promised blessings—Heaven. Dr. J. Brown has pointed out that there is no conflict between this declaration and what is said in Hebrews 11:13. Though during their lives they had "not received the promises", yet at death, they had entered into their rest, and are among "the spirits of just men made perfect" (Hebrews 12:23). The word "inherit" denotes their right thereto. The example which the apostle here sets before the Hebrews was that of the Old Testament patriarchs. Just as in the 3rd chapter he had appealed to one portion of the history of their fathers in warning, so now he makes reference to another feature of it in order to encourage. Two things are here to be taken to heart: the happy goal reached by the patriarchs and the path of testing which led thereto. Two things were required of them: faith and patience. Their faith was something more than a general faith in God and the inerrancy of His Word (James 2:19); it was a special faith which laid hold of the Divine promises concerning the covenant of grace in Christ Jesus. Nor was this a mere notional faith, or bare mental assent to the Truth: it was marked by a practical and influential acknowledgement that they were "strangers and pilgrims on the earth" see Hebrews 11:13. Such is the faith which God requires of us today. The second grace ascribed unto the patriarchs is their "patience" or "longsuffering" as the word is usually rendered. A different word is employed in Hebrews 10:36 and Hebrews 12:1, where an active grace is in view. Here it is more of a passive virtue, hence it is used of the "longsuffering" of God in Romans 9:22, 1 Peter 3:20 etc. "It is a gracious sedate frame of soul, a tranquility of mind on holy grounds with faith, not subject to take provocation, not to be wearied with opposition" (Dr. John Owen). It is a spirit which refuses to be daunted by the difficulties of the way, which is not exasperated by trials and oppositions encountered, so as to desert the course or flee from the path of duty. In spite of man’s hatred, and of the seeming slowness of God’s deliverance, the soul is preserved in a quiet waiting upon Him. "These were the ways whereby they came to inherit the promises. The heathen of old fancied that their heroes, or patriarchs, by great, and, as they were called, heroic actions, by valor, courage, the slaughter and conquest of their enemies, usually attended with pride, cruelty and oppression, made their way into heaven. The way of God’s heroes unto their rest and glory, unto the enjoyment of the Divine promises, was by faith, longsuffering, humility, enduring persecution, self-denial, and the spiritual virtues generally reckoned in the world unto pusillanimity, and so despised. So contrary are the judgments and ways of God and men even about what is good and praiseworthy" (Dr. John Owen). As reasons why the apostle was moved to set before the Hebrews the noble example of their predecessors, we may suggest the following. First, that they might know he was exhorting them to nothing but what was found in those who went before them, and whom they so esteemed and admired. This, to the same end, he more fully confirms in chapter 11. Second, he was urging them to nothing but what was needful to all who shall inherit the promises. If "faith and patience" were required of the patriarchs, persons who were so high in the love and favor of God, then how could it be imagined that these might be dispensed with as their observance! Third, he was pressing upon them nothing but what was practicable, which others had done, and which was therefore possible, yea, easy for them through the grace of Christ. Ere turning from this most important verse, we will endeavor to anticipate and dispose of a difficulty. Some of our readers who have followed attentively what has been said in the last few paragraphs, may be ready to object, but this is teaching salvation by works; you are asking us to believe that Heaven is a wage which we are required to earn by our perseverance and fidelity. Observe then how carefully the Holy Spirit has, in the very verse before us, guarded against such a perversion of the gospel of God’s grace. First, in the preposition He used: it is not "who for faith and patience inherit the promises", but "through". Salvation is not bestowed because of faith and patience, in return for them; yet it does come "through" them as the Divinely appointed channel, just as the sun shines into a room through its windows. The windows are in no sense the cause of the sun’s shining; they contribute nothing whatever to it; yet are they necessary as the means by which it enters. Another word here which precludes all ground of human attainment and completely excludes the idea of earning salvation by anything of ours, is the verb used. The apostle does not say "purchase" or "merit", but "inherit". And how come we to "inherit"? By the same way as any come to an inheritance, namely, by being the true heirs to it. And how do we become "heirs" of this inheritance? By God’s gratuitous adoption. "Ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs" (Romans 8:15-17). God, by an act of His sovereign will, made us His children (Ephesians 1:4-5). This Divine grace, this free assignment, is the foundation of all; and God’s faithfulness is pledged to preserve us unto our inheritance (Hebrews 6:10). Yet, we are such heirs as have means assigned to us for obtaining our inheritance, and we are required to apply ourselves thereunto. "For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could sware by no greater, He sware by Himself" (Hebrews 6:13). The opening "For" denotes that the apostle is here giving a reason why he had appealed to the example of the patriarchs, as those who "through faith and patience inherit the promises": that they really did so, he now proves by a most illustrious instance. Paul here cites the case of one whom he knew would be most notable and forcible. God made promise to Abraham, but he did not obtain the fulfillment thereof until after he had "patiently endured" (Hebrews 6:15). The one to whom God made promise was Abraham. He was originally called "Abram", which signifies "an exalted father". Upon Jehovah’s renewal of the covenant to him, his name was changed to Abraham, God giving as the reason "for a father of many nations have I made thee" (Genesis 17:5). The reference was not only to those nations which should proceed naturally from him—the descendants of Ishmael (Genesis 17:20) and of Keturah’s sons (Genesis 25:1-4)—but to the elect of God scattered throughout the world, who should be brought to embrace his faith and emulate his works. Therefore is he designated "the father of all them that believe", and "the father of us all" (Romans 4:11, Romans 4:16). "Because he could sware by no greater, He sware by Himself". The assurance which was given to Abraham was the greatest that Heaven itself could afford: a promise and an oath. We say the greatest, for in Hebrews 6:16 the apostle declares that amongst men an "oath" is an end of strife; how much more when the great God Himself takes one! Moreover, observe He swear "by Himself": He staked Himself; it was as though He had said, I will cease to be God if I do not perform this. The Lord pledged His veracity, declared the event should be as certain as His existence, and that it should be secured by all the perfections of His nature. Dr. J. Brown has rightly pointed out, "The declaration was not in reality made more certain by the addition of an oath, but so solemn a form of asseveration was calculated to give a deeper impression of its certainty". "Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee" (Hebrews 6:14). It seems strange that almost all of the commentators have quite missed the reference in the preceding verse. There we read, "God made promise to Abraham". Some have regarded this as pointing back to the first promise Jehovah made to the patriarch in Genesis 12:2, renewed in Genesis 15:5; others have cited Genesis 17:2, Genesis 17:6; still others, the promise recorded in Genesis 17:15-16; and thus they limit the "patiently endured" (Hebrews 6:15) to a space of twenty-five years, and regard the "he obtained the promise" as finding its fulfillment at the birth of Isaac. But these conjectures are completely set aside by the words of our present verse, which are a direct quotation from Genesis 22:17, and that was uttered after Isaac was born. That which God swore to was to bless Abraham with all blessings, and that unto the end: "Surely, blessing I will bless thee". The phrase is a Hebrew mode of expression, denoting emphasis and certainty. Such reduplication is a vehement affirmation, partaking of the nature of an oath: where such is used, it was that men might know God is in earnest in that which He expressed. It also respects and extends the thing promised or threatened: I will do without fail, without measure, and eternally without end. It is indeed solemn to note the first occurrence in Scripture of this mode of expression. We find it in the awful threat which the Lord God made unto Adam: "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof dying thou shalt die" (Genesis 2:17). It is Genesis 2:17 which supplies the first key that unlocks the meaning of Genesis 22:17. These are the first two occurrences in Holy Writ of this unusual form of speech. They stand in direct antithesis the one to the other. The first concerned the curse, the second respected the blessing. The one was the sentence of irrevocable doom, the other was the promise of irreversible bliss. Each was uttered to an individual who stood as the head and representative of a family, upon whose members the curse and the blessing fell. Each head sustained a double relationship. Adam was the head of the entire human family, and the condemnation for his sin has been imputed to all his descendants (Romans 5:12, Romans 5:18-19). But in a narrower sense Adam was the head of the non-elect, who not only share his condemnation, partake of his sinful nature, but also suffer his eternal doom. In like manner, Abraham was the head of a natural family, that is, all who have descended from him; and they share in the temporal blessings which God promised their father. But in a narrower sense Abraham (type of Christ as the "everlasting Father" Isaiah 9:6 and cf. Isaiah 53:10, "His seed", and His "children" in Hebrews 2:13) was the head of God’s elect, who are made partakers of his faith, performers of his works, and participants of his spiritual and eternal blessings. It was through their failing to look upon Abraham as the type of Christ as the Head and Father of God’s elect, which caused the commentators to miss the deeper and spiritual significance of God’s promise and oath to him in Genesis 22. In the closing verses of Hebrews 6 the Holy Spirit has Himself expounded the type for us, and in our next article (D.V.) we shall seek to set before the reader some of the supporting proofs of what we have here little more than barely asserted. The temporal blessings wherewith God blessed Abraham—"God hath blessed Abraham in all things" (Genesis 24:1 and cf. Genesis 24:35)—were typical of the spiritual blessings wherewith God has blessed Christ. So too the earthly inheritance guaranteed unto Abraham’s seed, was a figure and pledge of the Heavenly inheritance which pertains to Christ’s seed. Let the reader ponder carefully Luke 1:70-75 where we find the type merging into the antitype. "Surely, blessing I will bless thee" is further interpreted for us in Galatians 3:14, where we read, "That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ". Thus, in blessing Abraham, God blessed all the heirs of promise, and pledges Himself to bestow on them what He had sworn to give unto him: "If ye be Christ’s then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Galatians 3:29). That the deeper and ultimate signification of Genesis 22:17 had reference to spiritual and future "blessing" is not only established, unequivocally, by Romans 9:7-8, but also by the fact that otherwise there had been no relevancy in Paul’s setting before the Hebrews, and us, the example of Abraham. That with which God promised to bless Abraham and his seed was faith, holiness, perseverance, and at the end, salvation (Galatians 3:14). That which God pledged Himself unto with an oath was that His power, His long-suffering, should be engaged to the uttermost to work upon the hearts of Abraham and his spiritual children, so that they would effectually attain unto salvation. Abraham was to live on the earth for many long years after God appeared unto him in Genesis 22. He was to live in an adverse world where he would meet with various temptations, much opposition, many discouragements; but God undertook to deliver, support, succor, sustain him unto the end, so that His oath should be accomplished. Proof of this is given in our next verse. "And so after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise" (Hebrews 6:15). This means that, amid all the temptations and trials to which he was exposed, Abraham studiously persevered in believing and expecting God to make good His word. The emphatic and all-important word here is "And so" which joins together what was said in Hebrews 6:13-14 and what follows here in Hebrews 6:15. It was in this way and manner of God’s dealing with him; it was in this way of conducting himself. He "patiently endured", which covers the whole space from the time that God appeared to him in Genesis 22 until he died, at the age of one hundred and seventy-five years (Genesis 25:7). It is this exercise of hope unto the end which Paul was pressing upon the Hebrews. They professed to be Abraham’s children, let them, then, manifest Abraham’s spirit. "He obtained the promise": by installments. First, an earnest of it in this life, having the blessing of God in his own soul; enjoying communion with Him and all that that included—peace, joy, strength, victory. By faith in the promise, he saw Christ’s day, and was glad (John 8:56). Second, a more complete entering into the blessing of God when he left this world of sin and sorrow, and departed to be with Christ, which is "far better" (Php 1:23) than the most intimate fellowship which may be had with Him down here. Abraham had now entered on the peace and joy of Paradise, obtaining the Heavenly Country (Hebrews 11:16), of which Canaan was but the type. Third, following the resurrection, when the purpose of God shall be fully realized in perfect and unending blessing and glory. ======================================================================== Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/writings-of-a-w-pink-volume-1/ ========================================================================