A
BOOK FOR THE ANXIOUS
BY:
HORATIUS BONAR, D.D.
Redacted
by Ronald Coleman, D.D., ThD.
“To
him who works not, but believes.” Rom. iv.2
This
volume is stereotyped and perpetuated by a donation from the late Mrs.
E. K.
Smith, of
As
a tribute of respect and affection to the memory of her mother, Mrs.
Matthew
Kerr.
CHAPTER
I. GOD’S
TESTIMONY CONCERNING MAN
CHAPTER
II. MAN’S
OWN CHARACTER NO GROUND OF PEACE
CHAPTER
III. GOD’S
CHARACTER OUR RESTING PLACE
CHAPTER
IV. RIGHTEOUS
GRACE
CHAPTER
V. THE
BLOOD OF SPRINKLING
CHAPTER
VI. THE
PERSON AND WORK OF THE SUBSTITUTE
CHAPTER
VII. THE
WORD OF THE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL
CHAPTER
VIII. BELIEVE AND
BE SAVED
CHAPTER
IX. BELIEVE
JUST NOW
CHAPTER
X. THE
LACK OF POWER TO BELIEVE
CHAPTER
XI. INSENSIBILITY
CHAPTER
XII. JESUS,
ONLY
“God’s
way of Peace”, by the Rev. Horatius Bonar of
Its
use is commended to pastors and laymen who would lead burdened
individuals to
the enjoyment of Peace with God.
(There
is a plethora of richness in many out of print books that should be
read
today. I have
redacted this book for the
purpose of making it readable for people of the 21st
century. I have
changed grammar, punctuation, and the
flow of words to make this book much easier to comprehend. However, I did not change
the gist of its
message. -Dr.
Ronald Coleman)
God knows us. He knows what we are; he
knows also what he
meant us to be; and upon the difference between these two states he
founds his
testimony concerning us.
He is too loving
to
say anything needlessly severe; too true to say anything untrue; nor
can he
have any motive to misrepresent us; for he loves to tell of the good,
not of
the evil, that may be found in any of the works of his hands. He declares, them
“good”, “very good”, at
first; and if he does not do so now, it is not because he would not,
but
because he cannot; for “all flesh has corrupted its way upon
the earth.”
God’s
testimony
concerning man is that he is a sinner.
He bears witness against him, not for him, and testifies
that “there is
none righteous, no, not one;” that there is “none
that doeth good;” none “that
understands;” none that even seeks after God, and still more
none that loves
him. God speaks of
man kindly, but
severely; as one yearning over a lost child, yet as one who will make
no terms
with sin, and will “by no means clear the guilty.” He declares man to be a
lost one, a stray
one, a rebel, no “hater of God;” not a sinner
occasionally, but a sinner
always; not a sinner in part, with many good things about him; but
wholly a
sinner, with no compensating goodness; evil in heart as well as life,
“dead in
trespasses and sins;” an evil doer, and therefore under
condemnation; an enemy
of God, and therefore “under wrath;” a breaker of
the righteous law, and
therefore under “the curse of the law.”
Man has fallen! Not this man or that man,
but the whole
race. In Adam all
have sinned; in Adam
all have died. It
is not that a few
leaves have faded or been shaken down, but the tree has become corrupt,
root
and branch. The
“flesh,” or “old man” -
that is, each man as he is born into the world, a son of man, a
fragment of
humanity, a unit in Adam’s fallen body, - is
“corrupt.” He
not merely brings forth sin, but he
carries it about with him, as his second self; nay, he is a
“body” or mass of
sin, a “body of death,” subject not to the law of
God, but to “the law of
sin.” The
Jew, educated under the most
perfect of laws, and in the most favorable circumstances, was the best
type of
humanity, - of civilized, polished, educated humanity; the best
specimen of the
first Adam’s sons; yet God’s testimony concerning
him is that he is “under
sin,” that he has gone astray, and that he has
“come short of the glory of
God.”
The outer life of
a
man is not the man, just as the paint on a piece of timber is not the
timber,
and as the green moss upon the hard rock is not the rock itself. The picture of a man is
not the man; it is
but a skillful arrangement of colors, which look like the man. The man that loves God
with all his heart is
in a right state; the man that does not love Him thus is in a wrong one. He is a sinner because his
heart is not right
with God. He may
think his life a good
one, and others may think the same; but God counts him guilty, worthy
of death
and hell. The
outward good cannot make
up for the inward evil. The
good deeds
done to his fellow man cannot be set off against his bad thoughts of
God. And he must be
full of these bad thoughts so
long as he does not love this infinitely lovable and infinitely
glorious Being
with all his strength.
God’s
testimony then
concerning man is, that he does not love God with all his heart; nay,
that he
does not love him at all. Not
to love
our neighbor is sin; not to love a parent is greater sin; but not to
love God,
our divine parent, is greater sin still.
Man need not try
to
say a good word for himself, or to plead “not
guilty,” unless he can show that
he loves, and has always loved God with his whole heart and soul. If he can truly say this,
he is all right, he
is not a sinner, and does not need pardon.
He will find his way to the kingdom without the cross and
without a
Savoir. But, if he
cannot say this, “his
mouth is stopped,” and he is “guilty before
God.” However
favorably a good outward life may
dispose him and others to look upon his case just now, the verdict will
go
against him hereafter. This
is man’s
day, when man’s judgments prevail; but God’s day is
coming, when the case shall
be strictly tried upon its real merits.
Then the Judge of all the earth shall do right, and the
sinner be put to
shame.
There is another
and
yet worse charge against him. He
does
not believe on the name of the Son of God, nor love the Christ of God. This is his sin of sins. That his heart is not
right with God is the
first charge against him. That
his heart
is not right with the Son of God is the second.
And it is this second that is the crowning crushing sin,
carrying with
it more terrible damnation than all other sins together. “He that
believes not is condemned already;
because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of
God.” “He
that believes not God has made him a
liar; because he believes not the record which God gave of his
Son.” “He
that believes not shall be damned.”
Hence it was that the apostles preached
“repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus
Christ.” And
hence it is that the first sin that the
Holy Spirit brings home to a man is unbelief; “when he is
come he will reprove
the world of sin, because they believe not on me.”
Such is
God’s
condemnation of man. Of
this the whole
Bible is full. That
great love of God
that his word reveals is based on this condemnation.
It is love to the condemned.
God’s testimony to his own grace has no
meaning, save as resting on or taking for granted his testimony to
man’s guilt
and ruin. Nor is it
against man as
merely a being morally diseased or sadly unfortunate that he testifies;
but as
guilty of death, under wrath, sentenced to the eternal curse; for that
crime of
crimes, a heart not right with God, and not true to his Incarnate Son.
CHAPTER II.
If God testify
against us, who can testify for us?
If
God’s opinion of man’s sinfulness, his judgment of
man’s guilt, and his
declaration of sin’s evil be so very decided, then there can
be no hope of
acquittal for us on the ground of personal character of goodness,
either of
heart or life. What
God sees in us
furnishes only matter for condemnation, not for pardon.
It is vain to
struggle or murmur against God’s judgment.
He is the Judge of all the earth; and he is right as well
as sovereign
in his judgment. He
must be obeyed; his
law in inexorable; it cannot be broken without making the breaker of it
(even
in one jot or tittle) worthy of death.
When the Holy
Spirit
opens the eyes of the soul it sees this.
Conviction of sin is just the sinner seeing himself as he
is, and as God
has all along seen him. Then
every fond
idea of self-goodness, either in whole or in part, vanishes away. The things in him that
once seemed good
appear so bad, and the bad things so very bad, that every self-prop
falls from
beneath him, and all hope of being saved, in consequence of something
in his
own character, is then taken away.
He
sees that he cannot save himself; nor help God to save him. He is lost, and he is
helpless. Doings,
feelings, strivings, prayings,
givings, abstainings, and the life, are found to be no relief from a
sense of
guilt, and, therefore, no resting-place for a troubled heart. If sin were but a disease
or a misfortune,
these apparent good things might relieve him, as being favorable
symptoms of
returning health; but when sin is guilt even more than disease; and
when the
sinner is not merely sick, but condemned by the righteous Judge; then
none of
these goodnesses in himself can reach his case, for they cannot assure
him of a
complete and righteous pardon, and, therefore, cannot pacify his roused
and
wounded conscience.
The question,
“Wherewith shall I come before the Lord?” is not
one which can be decided by an
appeal to personal character, or goodness of life, or prayers, or
performances
of religion. The
way of approach is not
for us to settle. God
has settled it;
and it only remains for us to avail ourselves of it.
He has fixed it on grounds altogether
irrespective of our character; or rather on grounds which take for
granted
simply that we are sinners, and that therefore the element of goodness
in us,
as a title, or warrant, or recommendation, is altogether
inadmissible,
either in whole or in part.
To say, as some
inquiring ones do at the outset of their anxiety, I will set myself to
pray,
and after I have prayed a sufficient length of time, and with tolerable
earnestness, I may approach and count upon acceptance, is not only to
build
upon the quality and quantity of our prayers, but is to overlook the
real
question before the sinner, “How am I to approach God in
order to pray?” All
prayers are approaches to God, and the
sinner’s anxious question is, “How may I approach
God?” God’s explicit
testimony to man is, “You are unfit to approach
me;” and it is a denial of the
testimony to say, “I will pray myself out of this unfitness
into fitness; I
will work myself into a right state of mind and character for drawing
near to
God.” Anxious
spirit! Were you
from this moment to cease from sin,
and do nothing but good all the rest of your life, it would not do. Were you to begin praying
now, and do nothing
else but pray all your days, it would not do!
Your own character cannot be your way of approach or your
ground of
confidence toward God. No
amount of
praying, or working, or feeling, can satisfy the righteous law, or
pacify a
guilty conscience, or quench the flaming sword that guards the access
into the
presence of the infinitely Holy One.
That which makes
it
safe for you to draw near to God, and right for God to receive you,
must be
something altogether away from and independent of yourself; for,
yourself and
everything pertaining to yourself God has already been condemned; and
no
condemned thing can give you any warrant for going to him, or hoping
for
acceptance. Your
liberty of entrance
must come from something, which he has accepted;
not from something that
he has condemned.
I knew an awakened
soul who, in the bitterness of his spirit, in this way set himself to
work and
pray in order to get peace. He
doubled
the amount of his devotions, saying to himself, “Surely God
will give me
peace.” But
the peace did not come. He
set up family worship, saying, “Surely God
will give me peace.” But
the peace came
not. At last he
bethought himself of
having a prayer meeting in his house as a certain remedy. He fixed the night; called
his neighbors; and
prepared himself for conducting the meeting, by writing a prayer and
learning
it by heart. As he
finished the
operation of learning it, preparatory to the meeting, he threw it down
on the
table saying, “Surely that will do, God will give me peace
now.” In
that moment, a still small voice seemed to
speak in his ear, saying, “No, that will not do; but Christ
will do.” Straightway
the scales fell from his eyes,
and the burden from his shoulders.
Peace
poured in like a river. “Christ
will
do,” was his watchword for life.
The
sinner’s peace
with God is not to come from his own character.
No grounds of peace or elements of reconciliation can be
extracted from
himself, either directly or indirectly.
His one qualification for peace is that he needs it. It is not what he has, but
what he lacks of
good that draws him to God; and it is the consciousness of his lack
that bids
him look elsewhere, for something both to invite and embolden him to
approach. It is our
sickness, not our
health that fits us for the physician, and casts us upon his skill.
No guilty
conscience
can be pacified with anything short of what will make pardon a present,
a sure,
and a righteous thing. Can
our best
doings, our best feelings, our best prayers, and our best sacrifices
bring this
about? No, having
accumulated these to
the utmost, does not the sinner feel that pardon is just as far off and
uncertain as before? And that all his earnestness cannot persuade God
to admit
him to favor, or bride his own conscience into true quiet even for an
hour?
In all false
religion
the worshipper rests his hope of divine favor upon something in his own
character, or life, or religious duties.
The Pharisee did this when he came into the temple,
“thanking God that
he was not as other men.”
So do those in our day who think to get peace by doing,
feeling, and
praying more than others, or than they themselves have done in time
past; and
who refuse to take the peace of the free Gospel until they have amassed
such an
amount of this doing and feeling as will ease their consciences, and
make them
conclude that it would not be fair in God to reject the application of
men so
earnest and devout as they. The
Galatians did this also when they insisted on adding the Law of Moses
to the
Gospel of Christ as the ground of confidence toward God. In this way do many act
among us. They will
not take confidence from God’s
character or Christ’s work, but from their own character and
work; though in
reference to all this it is written, “The Lord has rejected
thy confidences,
and you shall not prosper in them.”
They object to a present confidence, for that assumes that
a sinner’s
resting place is wholly out of himself, - ready-made, as it were, by
God. They would
have this confidence to be a very
gradual thing, in order that they may gain time, and, by a little
diligence in
religious observances, may so add to their stock of duties, prayers,
experiences, devotions, that they may, with some humble hope, as they
call it,
claim acceptance from God. By
this
course of devout living they think they have made themselves more
acceptable to
God than they were before they began this religious process, and much
more
entitled to expect the divine favor than those who have not so
qualified
themselves. In all
this the attempted
resting-place is self, - that self which God has
condemned. They
would not rest upon unpraying, or
unworking, or undevout self; but they think it right and safe to rest
upon
praying, and working, and devout self, and they call this humility! The happy confidence of
the simple believer
who takes God’s word at once, and rests on it, they call
presumption or
fanaticism; their own miserable uncertainty, extracted from the doings
of self,
they speak of as a humble hope.
The
sinner’s own
character, in any form and under any process of improvement, cannot
furnish
reasons for trusting God. However
amended, it cannot speak peace to his conscience, nor afford him any
warrant
for reckoning on God’s favor; nor can it help to heal the
breach between him
and God. For God can accept nothing but perfection in such a
case. The sinner
has nothing but imperfection to
present. Imperfect
duties and
devotions cannot persuade God to forgive.
Besides, be it remembered that the person of the
worshipper must be
accepted before his services can be acceptable; so that nothing can be
of any
use to the sinner save what provides for personal acceptance
completely, and at
the outset. The
sinner must go to God as
he is or not at all. To
try to pray
himself into something better than a condemned sinner to win
God’s favor is to
make prayer an instrument of self-righteousness; so that, instead of
its being
the act of an accepted man, it is the purchase of acceptance, - the
price which
we pay to God for favoring us, and the bribe with which we persuade
conscience
no longer to trouble us with its terrors.
Neither knowledge of self nor consciousness of improvement
of self can
soothe the alarms of an awakened conscience or be any ground for
expecting the
friendship of God. To
take comfort from
our good doings, or good feelings, or good plans, or good prayers, or
good
experiences is to delude ourselves, and to say peace when there is no
peace. No man can
quench his thirst with
sand or with water from the Dead Sea; so no man can find rest from his
own
character however good or from his own acts however religious. Even were he perfect, what
enjoyment could
there be in thinking about his own perfection?
What profit, then, can there be in thinking about his
imperfection?
Even were there
many
good things about him, they could not speak peace: for the good things
which
might speak peace, could not make up for the evil things which speak
trouble;
and what a poor, self-made peace would that be which arose from his
thinking as
much good and as little evil of himself as possible.
And what a temptation would this furnish, to
extenuate the evil and exaggerate the good about ourselves, - in other
words,
to deceive our own hearts.
Self-deception must always, more or less, be the result of
such estimates
of our own experiences. Laid
open as we
are in such a case, to all manner of self-blinding influences, it is
impossible
that we can be impartial judges, or that we can be “without
guile,” as in the case of
those who are freely
and at once forgiven.
One man might say,
"My sins are not very great or many; surely I may take peace." Another might say I have
made up for my sins
by my good deeds; I may have peace.
Another might say I have a very deep sense of sin; I may
have
peace. Another
might say I have repented
of my sin; I may have peace. Another
might say I pray much, I work much, I love much, I give much; I may
have
peace. What
temptation in all this to
take the most favorable view of self and its doings!
But, after all, it would be vain.
There could be no real peace; for its foundation
would be sand, not rock. The
peace or
confidence which comes from summing up the good points of our
character, and
thinking of our good feelings and doings, or about our faith, and love,
and
repentance, must be made up of pride.
Its basis is self-righteousness, or at least
self-approbation.
It does not mend
the
matter to say that we look at these good feelings in us, as the
Spirit’s work
and not our own. In
one aspect this
takes away boasting, but in another it does not.
It still makes our peace to turn upon what is
in us, and not on what is in God.
Nay,
it makes use of the Holy Spirit for purposes of self-righteousness. It says that the Spirit
works the change in
us in order that he may thereby furnish us with a ground of peace
within
ourselves.
No doubt the
Spirit’s
work in us must be accompanied with peace.
Not because he has given us something in ourselves to draw
our peace
from. It is that
kind of peace which
arises unconsciously from the restoration of spiritual health; but not
what
Scripture calls “peace with God.”
It
does not arise from thinking about the change wrought in us, but
unconsciously
and involuntarily from the change itself.
If a broken limb be made whole, we get relief straightway;
not by
“thinking about the healed member, but simply in the bodily
case and comfort
which the cure has given. So
there is a
peace arising out of the change of nature and character wrought by the
Spirit;
but this is not reconciliation with God.
This is not the peace that the knowledge of forgiveness
brings. It
accompanies it, and flows from it, but the
two kinds of peace are quite distinct from each other.
Nor does even the peace that attends
restoration of spiritual health come at second hand, from thinking
about our
change. It comes
directly from the
change itself. That
change is the soul’s
new health, and this health is in itself a continual gladness.
Still it remains
true
that in ourselves we have no resting place.
“No confidence in the flesh” must be
our motto, as it is the foundation
of God’s Gospel.
We have seen that
a
sinner’s peace cannot come from himself, or from the
knowledge of himself, nor
from thinking about his own acts and feelings, nor from the
consciousness of
any amendment of his old self.
Whence, then, is
it to come? How
does he get it?
Had God told us
that
he was not gracious, that he took no interest in our welfare, and that
he had
no intention of pardoning us, we could have no peace and no hope. In that case our knowing
God would only make
us miserable. Our
situation would be
like that of the devils, which “believe and
tremble;” and the more we
knew of such a God, we
should tremble the more. For
how fearful
a thing must it be to have the great God that made us, the great Father
of
Spirits, against us, not for us!
Strange to say,
this
is the very state of disquietude in which we may find many who profess
to
believe in a God “merciful and gracious!”
With the Bible in their hands, and the cross before their
eyes, they
wander on in a state of darkness and fear, such as would have arisen
had God
revealed Himself in hatred not in love. They seem to believe the very
opposite
of what the Bible teaches us concerning God; and to attach a meaning to
the
Cross-, the very opposite of what the Gospel declares it really bears. Had God been all frowns,
and the Bible all
terrors, and Christ all sternness, these men could not have been in a
more
troubled and uncertain state than that in which they are.
How is this? Have they not
misunderstood the Bible? Have
they not mistaken the character of God,
looking on him as an “austere man” and a
“hard master?”
Are they not laboring to supplement the grace
of God by something on their part, as if they believed that this grace
was not
sufficient to meet their case, until they had attracted it to
themselves by
some earnest performances, or spiritual exercises, of their own?
God has declared
himself to be gracious. “God
is
love.” He
has embodied this grace in the
person and work of his beloved Son.
He
has told us that this grace is for the ungodly, the unholy, the unfit,
the
stouthearted, and the dead in sin.
The
more, then that we know of this God and of his grace the more will his
peace
fill us. Nor will
the greatness of our
sins, and the hardness of our hearts, or the changeableness of our
feelings,
discourage or disquiet, however much they may humble us, and make us
dissatisfied with ourselves.
Let us study the
character of God: - holy, yet loving; the love not interfering with the
holiness, nor the holiness with the love; absolutely sovereign, yet
infinitely
gracious; the sovereignty not straightening the grace, nor the grace
the
sovereignty; drawing the unwilling, yet not hindering the willing, if
any such
there be; quickening whom he will, yet having no pleasure in the death
of the
wicked; compelling some to come in, yet freely inviting all! Let us look at him in the
face of Jesus
Christ. He is the express image of his person, and he that hath seen
Him hath
seen the Father. The
knowledge of that
gracious character, as interpreted by the cross of Christ, is the true
remedy
for our inquietude. Insufficient
acquaintanceship with God lies at the root of our fears and
gloom. I know that
flesh and blood cannot reveal God
to you, and that the Holy Spirit alone can enable you to know either
the Father
or the Son. But I
would not have you for
a moment suppose that this Spirit is reluctant to do his work in you;
nor would
I encourage you in the awful thought, that you are willing while he is
unwilling; or that the sovereignty of God is a hindrance to the sinner,
and a
restraint of the Spirit. The
whole Bible
takes for granted that all this is absolutely impossible. Never can the great truths
of divine
sovereignty and the Spirit’s work land us, as some seem to
think they may do,
in such a conflict between a willing sinner and an unwilling God. The whole Bible is so
written by the Spirit,
and the Gospel was so preached by the apostles, as never to raise the
question
of God’s willingness, nor to lead to the remotest suspicion
of his readiness to
furnish the sinner with all needful aid.
Hence the great truths of God’s eternal
election, and Christ’s
redemption of his Church, as we read them in the Bible, are helps and
encouragements to the soul. But
interpreted as they are by many, they seem barrier-walls, not ladders
for
scaling the great barrier-wall of man’s unwillingness; and
anxious souls become
land-locked in metaphysical questions, out of which there can be no way
of
extrication save that of taking God at his word.
In the Bible God
has
revealed himself. In
Christ he has done
so most expressively. He
has done so
that there might be no mistake as to it on the part of man.
Christ’s
person is a
revelation of God. Christ’s
work is a
revelation of God. Christ’s
words are a
revelation of God. He
is in the Father,
and the Father in him. His
words and
works are the words and works of the Father.
In the manger he showed us God.
In the synagogue of Nazareth he showed us God. At Jacob’s well
he showed us God. At
the tomb of Lazarus he showed us God.
On Olivet, as he wept over Jerusalem, he
showed us God. On
the cross he showed us
God. In the tomb he
showed us God. In
his resurrection he showed us God.
If we say with Philip, “Show us the Father,
and it suffices us;” he answers, “Have I been so
long time with you, and yet
have you not known me? He
that hath seen
me hath seen the Father.”
This God, whom Christ reveals as the God of righteous
grace and gracious
righteousness, is the God with whom we have to do.
To know his
character
as thus interpreted to us by Jesus and his Cross- is to have peace. It is into this knowledge
of the Father that
the Holy Spirit leads the soul whom he is conducting, by his almighty
power,
from darkness to light. For
everything
that we know of God we owe to this divine Teacher, this Interpreter,
this “One
among a thousand.”
But never let the sinner imagine that he is more willing
to learn than
the Spirit is to teach. Never
let him
say to himself, “I would fain know God, but I cannot of
myself, and the Spirit
will not teach me.”
It is not enough
for
us to say to some dispirited one, “It is your unbelief that
is keeping you
wretched; only believe, and all is well.”
This is true; but it is only general truth; which, in many
cases, is of
no use, because it does not show him how it applies to him. On this point he is often
a fault; thinking
that faith is some great work to be done, which he is to labor at with
all his
might, praying all the while to God to help him in doing this great
work; and
that unbelief is some evil principle, requiring to be uprooted before
the
Gospel will be of any use to him.
But what is the
real meaning of this
faith and this unbelief?
But the inquirer
denies that he has a good opinion of himself, and owns himself a sinner. Now a man may say this;
but really to know it
is something more than saying. Besides,
he may be willing to take the name of sinner to himself, in common with
his
fellow men, and not at all own himself such a sinner as God says he is,
- such
a sinner as needs a whole Savior to himself, - such a sinner as needs
the
cross, and blood, and righteousness of the Son of God.
He may not have quite such a bad opinion of
himself as to make him sensible that he can expect nothing from God on
the
score of personal goodness, or amendment of life, or devout observance
of duty,
or superiority to others. It
takes a
great deal to destroy a man’s good opinion of himself; and
even after he has
lost his good opinion of his works, he retains his good opinion of his
heart;
and even after he has lost that, he holds fast his good opinion of his
own
religious duties, by means of which he hopes to make up for evil works
and a
bad heart. Nay, he
hopes to be able so
to act, and feel, and pray, as to lead God to entertain a good opinion
of him,
and receive him into favor.
All such efforts
spring from thinking well of himself in some measure, and from his
thinking
evil of God, as if he would not receive him as he is.
If he knew himself as God does, he would no
more resort to such efforts than he would think of walking up an Alpine
precipice. How
difficult it is to make a
man think of himself as God does!
What
but the almightiness of the Divine Spirit can accomplish this?
But the inquirer
says
that he has not a bad opinion of God.
But has he such an opinion of him as the Bible gives or
the cross
reveals? Has he
such an opinion of him
as makes him feel quite safe in putting his soul into his gracious
hands, and
trusting him with its eternal keeping?
If not, what is the extent or nature of his good opinion
of God? The
knowledge of God, which the cross
supplies, ought to set all doubt aside, and make distrust appear in the
most
odious of aspects, as a wretched misrepresentation of God’s
character and a
slander upon his gracious name.
Unbelief, then, is the belief of a lie and the rejection
of the
truth. It
obliterates from the cross the
gracious name of God, and inscribes another name, the name of an
unknown god,
in which there is no peace for the sinner and no rest for the weary.
Accept, then, the
character of God as given in the Gospel; read aright his blessed name
as it is
written upon the cross; take the simple interpretation given of his
mind toward
the ungodly, as you have it at length in the glad tidings of peace. Is not that enough? If what God has made known
of himself were
not enough to allay your fears, nothing else will.
The Holy Spirit will not give you peace
irrespective of your views of God’s character.
That would be countenancing the worship of a false god,
instead of the true
God revealed in the Bible. It
is in
common connection with the truth concerning the true God,
“the God of all
grace,” that the Spirit gives peace.
It
is the love of the true God that he sheds abroad in the heart.
The object of the
Spirit’s work is to make us acquainted with the true Jehovah,
that in him we
may rest; not to produce in us certain feelings, the consciousness of
which
will make us think better of ourselves, and give us confidence toward
God. What he shows
us of ourselves is only evil;
what he shows us of God is only good.
He
does not enable us to feel or to believe, in order that we may be
comforted by
our feeling or our faith. Even
when
working in us most powerfully he turns our eyes away from his own work
in us,
to fix it on God, and his love in Christ Jesus our Lord. The substance of the
Gospel is the NAME of
the great Jehovah, unfolded in and by Jesus Christ; the character of
him in
whom we “live and move and have our being,” as the
“just God, yet the Saviors,” the Justifier of
the ungodly.
Inquiring spirit, turn your eye to the cross and see these two things, - the Crucifiers and the Crucified. See the Crucifiers, the haters of God and his Son. They are you. Read in them your own character, and cease to think of making that a ground of peace. See the Crucified. It is God himself; incarnate love. It is the God who made you, suffering, dying for the ungodly. Can you suspect his grace? Can you cherish evil thoughts of him? Can you ask anything farther to awaken in you the fullest and most unreserved confidence? Will you misinterpret that agony and death by saying that they do not mean grace or that the grace, which they mean, is not for you? Call to mind what is written, “Hereby perceive we the love of God, that he laid down his life for us.” “Herein is LOVE, not that we love God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation of our sins.”
CHAPTER IV.
We have spoken of
God’s character as “the God of all grace.”
We have seen that it is in “tasting that the
Lord is gracious” that the
sinner has peace.
But let us keep in
mind that this grace is the grace of a righteous God; it is the grace
of one
who is Judge as well as Father. Unless
we see this we shall mistake the Gospel, and fail in appreciating both
the
pardon we are seeking, and the great sacrifice through which it comes
to
us. No vague
forgiveness arising out of
mere paternal love will do. We
need to
know what kind of pardon it is and whether it proceeds from the full
recognition
of our absolute guilt by him who is to “judge the world in
righteousness.” The
right kind of pardon comes not from love
alone, but from law; not from good nature, but from righteousness; not
from
indifference to sin, but from holiness.
The inquirer who
is
only half in earnest overlooks this.
His
feelings are moved, but his conscience is not roused.
Therefore he is content with very vague ideas
of God’s mere compassion for the sinner’s
unhappiness. To him
human guilt seems but human misfortune
and God’s acquittal of the sinner little more than the
overlooking of his
sin. He does not
trouble himself with
asking how the forgiveness comes or what the real nature of the love
that he
professes to have received is. He
is
easily soothed to sleep, because he has never been fully awake. He is, at best, a
stony-ground hearer soon
losing the poor measure of joy that he may have, becoming a formalist;
or
perhaps a trifler with sin; or it may be, a religious sentimentalist.
It does not
satisfy
him to say, that, since it comes from a righteous God, it must be
righteous
grace. His
conscience wants to see the
righteousness of the way by which it comes.
Without this it cannot be pacified or
“purged;” and the man is not made
“perfect as pertaining to the conscience;” but must always
have an uneasy feeling
that all is not right, that his sins may one day rise up against him.
What soothes the
heart will not always pacify the conscience.
The sight of the grace will do the former; but only the
sight of the
righteousness of the grace will do the latter.
Until the later is done, there cannot be real peace. The hurt is healed
slightly and peace is
spoken where there is no peace.
Speaking peace where there is peace can only bring about
the healing of
the hurt.
Here the work of
Christ comes in; and the cross of the Sin-bearer answers the question
which
conscience has raised, “Is it righteous grace?”
It is this great work of propitiation that exhibits God as
“the just
God, yet the Savior;” not only
righteous in spite of his
justifying the ungodly, but also righteous in doing so.
It shows salvation as an act of
righteousness; no, one of the highest acts of righteousness that a
righteous
God can do. It
shows pardon not only as
the deed of a righteous God, but as the thing which shows how righteous
he is
and how he hates and condemns the very sin that he is pardoning.
Hear the word of
the
Lord concerning this “finished” work.
“Christ died for our sins.” “He
was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our
iniquities.” “Christ
was once offered to bear the sins of
many.” “He
gave himself for us.” “He
was delivered for our offences.”
“He gave himself for our sins.” “Christ died for
the ungodly.” “He
has appeared to put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself.” “Christ
has suffered
for us in the flesh.” “Christ
has once
suffered for sins, the just for the unjust.”
“His own self bore our sins in his own body on
the tree.”
These expressions
speak of something more than love.
Love
is in each of them; the deep, true, real love of God; but also justice
and
holiness; inflexible and inexorable adherence to law.
They have no meaning apart from law; law as
the foundation, pillar and keystone of the universe.
Their connection
with
law is also their connection with love.
For as it was law, in its unchangeable perfection, that
constituted the
necessity for the Surety’s death, so it was this necessity
that drew out the
Surety’s love and gave also glorious proof of the love of him
who made him to
be sin for us. For
if a man were to die
for another when there was no necessity for his doing so we should
hardly call
his death a proof of love. At
best, such
would be foolish love, or, at least, a fond and idle way of showing it. But to die for one when
there is really need
of dying is the true test of genuine love.
To die for a friend when nothing less will save him, this
is the proof
of love! When
either he or we must die;
and when he, to save us from dying, dies himself, this is love. There was need of a death
if we were to be
saved from dying. Righteousness
made the
necessity. To meet
this terrible
necessity the Son of God took flesh and died!
He died because it was written, “The soul that
sins, it shall die.”
Love led him down to the cradle; love led him up to the
cross! He died as
the sinner’s substitute.
He died to make it a righteous thing in God
to cancel the sinner’s guilt and annul the penalty of his
everlasting death.
Had it not been
for
this dying, grace and guilt could not have looked each other in the
face; God
and the sinner could not have come nigh; righteousness would have
forbidden
reconciliation; and righteousness, we know, is as divine and real a
thing as
love. Without this
exception it would
not have been right for God to receive the sinner nor safe for the
sinner to
come.
But now mercy and
truth have met together; now grace is righteousness and righteousness
is
grace. This
satisfies the sinner’s
conscience by showing him righteous love for the unrighteous and
unlovable. It tells
him; too, that the reconciliation
brought about in this way shall never be disturbed, either in this life
or what
is to come. It is
righteous
reconciliation and will stand every test as well as last throughout
eternity. The peace
of conscience thus secured will be
trial-proof, sickness-proof, deathbed-proof, and judgment-proof. Realizing this, the chief
of sinners can say,
“Who is he that condemns?”
What peace for the
stricken conscience there is in the truth that Christ died for the
ungodly and
that it is of the ungodly that the righteous God is the Justifier! The righteous grace thus
coming to us through
the sin-bearing work of the “Word made flesh,”
tells the soul, at once and
forever, that there can be no condemnation for any sinner upon earth
who will
only consent to be indebted to this free love of God, which, like a
fountain of
living water, is bursting freely forth from the foot of the Cross.
This righteous
free
love has its origin in the bosom of the Father where the only begotten
has his
dwelling. It is not
produced by anything
out of God himself. It
was man’s evil,
not his good that called it forth.
It
was not the drawing to the like, but to the unlike; it was light
attracted by
darkness and life by death. It
does not
wait for our seeking. It
comes unasked
as well as undeserved. It
is not our
faith that creates it or calls it up.
Our faith realizes it as already existing in its divine
and manifold
fullness. Whether
we believe it or not,
this righteous grace exists and exists for us.
Unbelief refuses it; but faith takes it, rejoices in it
and lives upon
it. Yes, faith
takes this righteous
grace of God and, with it a righteous pardon, a righteous salvation,
and a
righteous heirship of the everlasting glory.
CHAPTER V.
But an inquirer
asks,
“What is the special meaning of the blood, of which we read
so much? How does
it speak peace? How
does it “purge the conscience from dead
works?” What
can blood have to do with
the peace, the grace, and the righteousness of which we have been
speaking?
God has given the
reason for the stress that he lays upon the blood; and, in
understanding this
we get to the very bottom of the grounds of a sinner’s peace.
The sacrifices of
old
from the days of Abel downward furnish us with the key to the meaning
of the
blood and explain the necessity for its being “shed for the
remission of
sins.” “Not
without blood” was the great
truth taught by God from
the beginning, the inscription that may be said to have been written on
the
gates of tabernacle and temple. For
more
than two thousand years during the ages of the patriarchs there was but
one
great sacrifice - the burnt offering.
This, under the Mosaic service, was split into parts - the
peace
offering, trespass offering, sin offering, etc.
In all of these, however, the blood and the fire preserved
the essence
of the original burnt offering -, which were common to them all. The blood, as the emblem
of substitution, and
the fire, as the symbol of God’s wrath upon the substitute,
were seen in all
the parts of Israel’s service but especially in the daily
burnt offering, the
morning and evening lamb, which was the true continuation and
representative of
the old patriarchal burnt offering.
It
was to this that John referred when he said, “Behold the Lamb
of God that takes
away the sin of the world.”
Israel’s
daily lamb was the kernel and core of all the Old Testament sacrifices,
and it
was its blood that carried them back to the primitive sacrifices and
forward to
the blood of sprinkling that was to speak better things than that of
Abel.
In all these
sacrifices the shedding of the blood was the infliction of death. The “blood was
the life;” and the pouring out
of the blood was the “pouring out of the soul.”
This blood shedding or life-taking was the payment of the
penalty for
sin; for it was threatened from the beginning, “In the day
you eat thereof you
shall surely die;” and it is written, “The soul
that sins, it shall die,” and
again, “The wages of sin is death.”
But the blood
shedding of Israel’s sacrifices could not take sin away. It showed the way in which
this was to be
done, but it was in fact more a “remembrance of
sins” than expiation. It
said life must be given for life before
sin can be pardoned; but the continual repetition of the sacrifices
showed that
there was needed richer blood than Moriah’s altar was ever
sprinkled with and a
more precious life than man could give.
The great blood
shedding has been accomplished; the better life has been presented; and
the one
death of the Son of God has done what all the deaths of old could never
do. His one life
was enough; his one
dying paid the penalty. God
does not ask
two lives, or two deaths, or two payments.
“Christ was once offered to bear the sins of
many. In that he
died, he died unto sin once.”
“He offered one sacrifice for sins
forever.”
The
“sprinkling of
the blood” was the making use of the death by putting it upon
certain persons
or things so that these persons or things were counted to be dead, and,
therefore, to have paid the law’s penalty.
So long as they had not paid that penalty they were
counted unclean and
unfit for God to look upon; but as soon as they had paid it they were
counted
clean and fit for the service of God.
Usually when we read of cleansing we think merely of our
common process
of removing stains by water and soap.
But this is not the figure meant in the application of the
sacrifice. The
blood cleanses, not like
the prophet’s “niter and much soap,” but
by making us partakers of the death of
the Substitute. For
what is it that
makes us filthy before God? It
is our
guilt, our breach of law and our being under sentence of death in
consequence
of our disobedience. We
have not only done
what God dislikes--we have done what his righteous law declares to be
worthy of
death. It is this
sentence of death that
separates us so completely from God, making it wrong for him to bless
us and
perilous for us to go to him.
When covered all
over
with that guilt whose penalty is death, the great High Priest brings in
the
blood. That blood
represents death; it
is God’s expression for death.
It is
then sprinkled on us, and death, which is the law’s penalty,
passes on us. We
die.
We undergo the sentence and the guilt passes away. We are cleansed! The sin that was like
scarlet becomes as snow
and what was like crimson becomes as wool.
It is in this way that we make use of the blood of Christ
in believing;
faith is just the sinner’s employing the blood.
Believing what God has testified concerning this blood, we
become one with
Jesus in his death and in this way we are counted in law, and treated
by God,
as men who have paid the whole penalty.
We have been “washed from their sins in his
blood.”
Such are the glad
tidings of life, through him who died.
They are tidings that tell us not what we are to do, in
order to be
saved, but what He has done. This
only
can lay to rest the sinner’s fears; can “purge his
conscience;” can make him
feel as a thoroughly pardoned man.
The
right knowledge of God’s meaning in this sprinkling of the
blood is the only
effectual way of removing the anxieties of the troubled soul and
introducing
him into perfect peace.
It is not by
incarnation but by blood shedding that we are saved.
The Christ of God is no mere expounder of
wisdom and no mere deliverer or gracious benefactor.
Those who think they have told the whole
Gospel when they have spoken of Jesus revealing the love of God do
greatly err. If
Christ were not the Substitute, he is
nothing. If he did
not die as the Sin
bearer, he has died in vain. Let
us not
be deceived on this point or misled by those who, when they announce
Christ as
the Deliverer, think they have preached the Gospel.
If I throw a rope to a drowning man, I am a
deliverer. But is
Christ no more than
that? If I cast
myself into the sea and
risk my life to save another I am a deliverer.
But is Christ no more?
Did he but
risk his life? The
very essence of
Christ’s deliverance is the substitution of Himself for us,
his life for
ours. He did not
come to risk his life.
He came to die! He
did not redeem us by
a little loss, a little sacrifice, a little labor, or by a little
suffering.
“He redeemed us to God by his blood;”
“the precious blood of Christ.”
He gave all he had for us, even his life.
This is the kind of deliverance that awakens
the happy song, “To Him that loved us, and washed us from our
sins in His own
blood.”
The tendency of
the
world’s religion just now is to reject the blood and to glory
in a Gospel,
which needs no sacrifice, no “Lamb slain.”
In this way they go “in the way of
Cain.” Cain
refused the blood and came to God
without it. He
would not own himself a
sinner, condemned to die, and needing the death of another to save him. This was man’s
open rejection of God’s own
way of life. Foremost
in this rejection
of, what is profanely called by some scoffers, “the religion
of the shambles,”
we see the first murderer. He
who would
not defile his altar with the blood of a lamb pollutes the earth with
his brother’s
blood.
The heathen altars
have been red with blood, and to this day they are the same. These worshippers know not
what they mean in
bringing that blood. It
is associated
only with vengeance in their minds; and they shed it to appease the
vengeance
of their gods. But
this is no
recognition either of the love or the righteousness of God. “Fury is not in
him,” whereas their altars
speak only of fury. The
blood that they
bring is a denial both of righteousness and grace.
Look at
Israel’s
altars. There is
blood; and they who
bring it know the God to whom they come.
They bring it in acknowledgment of their own guilt, but
also of his
pardoning love. They
say, “I deserve death;”
but let this death stand for mine; and let the love that otherwise
could not
reach me, by reason of guilt, now pour itself out on me.”
Inquiring soul! Beware of Cain’s
error on the one hand, in
coming to God without blood; and beware of the heathen error on the
other, in
mistaking the meaning of the blood.
Understand
God’s mind and meaning in “the precious
blood” of his Son. Believe
his testimony concerning it. Doing
this your conscience shall be pacified
and your soul shall find rest.
It is into
Christ’s
death that we are baptized. Therefore
the cross, which was the instrument of that death, is that in which we
glory. The cross is
to us the payment of
the sinner’s penalty, the extinction of the debt, and the
tearing up of the
bond or handwriting that was against us.
And as the cross is the payment, so the resurrection is
God’s receipt in
full for the whole sum, signed with his own hand.
Our faith is not the completion of the
payment, but the simple recognition on our part of the payment made by
the Son
of God. By
this recognition we
become so one with Him who died and rose that we are henceforth
reckoned to be
the parties who have paid he penalty.
We
are treated as if it were we ourselves who had died.
Because of this we are justified from sin and
then made partakers of the righteousness of him who was not only
delivered for
our offences, but who rose again for our justification.
CHAPTER VI.
Life comes to us
by
way of death; and therefore grace bounds towards us in righteousness. This we have seen in a
general way. We
have something more to learn concerning
him who lived and died as the sinner’s substitute. The more that we know of
his person and his
works, the more shall we be satisfied, in heart and conscience, with
the
provision that God has made for our great need.
Our sin-bearer is
the
Son of God, the eternal Son of the Father.
Of him it is written, “In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God.”
He is
“the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his
person.” He
is “in the Father, and the Father in him;”
“the Father dwells in him;” “he that has
seen him has seen the Father;” and “he
that hears him, hears him that sent him.”
He is the “Word made flesh;”
“God manifest in flesh;” “Jesus the
Christ,
who has come in the flesh.” His name is
“Immanuel,” God with us; Jesus, the
“Savior;” “Christ,” the
anointed One, filled with the Spirit without measure;
“the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and
truth.”
He came preaching
the
Gospel of the kingdom, that is, the good news about the kingdom;
teaching the
multitudes that gathered round him; healing the sick, and opening the
eyes of
the blind, and raising the dead; “receiving sinners and
eating with them.” “He
came to seek and to save what was lost;” He went about
speaking words of grace
such as man never spoke, saying, “I am the Way, and the
truth, and the Life: no
man comes unto the Father, but by me.”
He went out and in as The Savior, and in his whole life we
see him as
the Shepherd seeking his lost sheep, as the woman her lost piece of
silver, and
as the father looking out for his lost son.
He is “mighty to save;” he is
“able to save to the uttermost;” he came
to be “the Savior of the world.”
In all these
things
thus written concerning Jesus there is good news for the sinner, such
as should
draw him in simple confidence to God, making him feel that his case has
really
been taken up in earnest by God; and that God’s thoughts
towards him are
thoughts, not of anger, but of peace and grace.
Heaven has come down to earth!
There is goodwill toward man.
He
is not to be handed over to his great enemy.
God has taken his side, and stepped in between him and
Satan. This world
is not to be burned up, nor its
dwellers made eternal exiles from God!
The darkness is passing away and the true light is shining!
It is not the
person
of Christ or his birth or his life that can suffice.
That the Son of God took a true but a sinless
humanity of the very substance of the virgin; becoming bone of our bone
and
flesh of our flesh; being in very deed the woman’s seed; that
he dwelt among us
for a lifetime, is but the beginning of the good news; the Alpha, but
not the
Omega. This was
shown to Israel and to
us in the temple veil. That
veil was the
type of the flesh; and, so long as that curtain remained whole there
was no
entrance into the near presence of God.
The worshipper was not indeed frowned upon; but he had to
stand far
off. The veil said
to the sinner,
“Godhead is within;” but is also said,
“You cannot enter until something more
has been done.” The
Holy Ghost, by it,
signified that the way into the Holiest was not yet open. The rending of the veil,
that is, the
crucifixion of “the Word made flesh,” opened the
way completely.
Hence it is that
the
Holy Spirit sums up the good news in one or two special points. They are these: Christ was
crucified. Christ
died.
Christ was buried. Christ
rose
again from the dead. Christ
went up on
high. Christ sits
at God’s right hand,
our “Advocate with the Father,” “ever
living to make intercession for us.”
The knowledge of
these is salvation. On
them we rest our
confidence for they are the revelation of the name of God; and it is
written,
“They that know your name will put their trust in
you.”
Let us listen to
apostolic preaching and see how these facts form the heads of primitive
sermons; sermons such as Peter’s at Jerusalem or
Paul’s at Corinth and
Antioch. Peter’s
sermon at Jerusalem was
that Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified, had been raised from the
dead and
exalted to the throne of God, being made Lord and Christ. This the apostle declared
to be “good
news.” Paul’s
sermon at Antioch was, in
substance the same - a statement of the facts regarding the death and
resurrection of Jesus; and the application of that sermon was in these
words,
“Be it known unto you, men and brethren, that through this
man is preached unto
you the forgiveness of sins: and by him all that believe are
justified.” His
sermon at Corinth was very similar.
He gives us the following sketch of it:
“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I
preached unto you,
which also you have received, and wherein you stand; by which also you
are
saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you. For I delivered unto you
first of all what I
also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the
Scriptures;
and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according
to the
Scriptures.” Then
he adds: “So we preach
and so you believed.”
Such was apostolic
preaching. Such was
Paul’s Gospel. It
narrated a few facts respecting Christ;
adding the evidence of their truth and certainty—that all who
heard might
believe and be saved. In
these facts the
free love of God to sinners is announced and the great salvation is
revealed. It is
this Gospel that is “the
power of God unto salvation to every one who believes.
For therein is the righteousness of God
revealed from faith to faith.”
Its
burden was not, “Do this or do that; labor and pray, and use
the means;” - that
is, law, not Gospel; - but Christ has done all!
He did it when he was “delivered for our
offences, and raised again for
our justification.” He
did it all when
he “made peace by the blood of his cross.”
“It is finished.”
His doing is so
complete that it has left nothing for us to do.
We have but to enter into the joy of knowing that all is
done! “This
is the record: God has given to us
eternal life; and this life is in his Son.”
Let us gather
together some of the “true sayings of God”
concerning Christ and his work. In
these we shall find the divine
interpretation of the facts above referred to.
We shall see the meaning that the Holy Spirit attaches to
these, so our
faith shall not “stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power
of God.” It
is in this way that the Lord himself,
before he left the earth, removed the unbelief of the doubters around
him. He
reminded them of the written word, “Thus it is written, and
thus it behooves
the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day; and that
repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among
all
nations beginning at Jerusalem.”
These are all
divine
truths written in divine words. These
sayings are faithful and true; they come from Him who cannot lie. They are as true in these
last days as they
are today--“the word of our God shall stand
forever.” In
them we find the authentic exposition of
the facts that the apostles preached and in that we learn the glad
tidings
concerning the way in which salvation from a righteous God has come to
unrighteous man. Jesus
died! That is the
paying of the debt, the endurance
of the penalty; the death for death!
He
was buried. That is
the proof that his
death was a true death, needing a tomb as we do.
He rose again. This
is God’s declaration that he, the
righteous Judge, is satisfied with the payment, no less than with him
who made
it.
Could there be
better
or happier news to the sinner than this?
What more can he ask to satisfy him, than what has so
fully satisfied
the holy Lord God of earth and heaven?
If this will not avail, then he can expect no more. If this is not enough,
then Christ has died
in vain.
God has
“brought near
his righteousness.” We
do not need to go
up to heaven for it; that would imply that Christ had never come down. Nor do we need
to go down to the depths of
the earth for it; that would say that Christ had never been buried and
never
risen. It is near. It is as near as is the
word concerning it
that enters into our ears. We
do not
need to exert ourselves to bring it near; nor need we do anything to
attract it
towards us. It is
already so near, so
very near, that we cannot bring it closer.
If we try to get up warm feelings and good dispositions to
remove some
fancied remainder of distance we shall fail, not simply because these
actions
of ours cannot do what we are trying to do, but because there is no
need of any
such effort. The
thing is done
already. God has
brought his
righteousness near to all. The
office of
faith is not to work, but to cease working; not to do anything, but to
own that
all is done; not to bring near the righteousness, but to rejoice in
that it as
already near. This
is “the word of the
truth of the Gospel.”
CHAPTER VII.
How shall I come
before God and stand in his presence with happy confidence on my part
and
gracious acceptance on his?
This is the
sinner’s
question; and he asks it because he knows that there is guilt between
him and
God. No doubt this
was Adam’s question
when he stitched his fig leaves together for a covering. But he was soon made to
feel that the fig
leaves would not do. He
must be wholly
covered, not in part only; and that by something which even
God’s eye cannot
see through. As God
comes near, the
uselessness of his fig leaves is felt and he rushes into the thick
foliage of
Paradise to hide from the Divine eye.
The Lord approaches the trembling man and makes him feel
that his hiding
place will not do. Then
he began to tell
him what would do. He
announces a better
covering and a better hiding place.
He
reveals himself as the God of grace, the God who hates sin, yet who
takes the
sinner’s side against the sinner’s enemy - the old
serpent. All this
through the seed of the woman - “the
man” who is the true “hiding place.” Adam
can now leave his thicket safely and feel that in this revealed grace
he can
stand before God without fear or shame.
He has heard the good tidings, and brief as they are they
have restored
his confidence and removed his alarm.
Let us hear the
good
news, and let us hear it as Adam did - from the lips of God himself. For what is revealed for
our belief is set
before us on God’s authority, not on man’s.
We are not only to believe the truth, but we are to
believe it because
God has spoken it. Faith
must have a
divine foundation.
We gather together
a
few of these divine announcements asking the anxious soul to study them
as
divine. Do not
allow him say that he
knows them already; but let him accept our invitation, to traverse
along with
us the field of Gospel statement.
It is
of God that we must learn; and it is only by listening to the very
words of God
that we shall arrive at the true knowledge of what is the Gospel. His own words are the
truest, simplest, and
best. They are not
only the likeliest to
meet our case; but they are the words that he has promised to honor and
to
bless.
Let us hear the
words
of God as to his own “grace,” or “free
love,” or “mercy.”
“The Lord passed by before him, and
proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious,
long-suffering, and
abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving
iniquity, and transgression, and sin.” “The Lord is
long suffering and of great
mercy.” “His mercies are great.”
“The Lord your God is gracious and merciful.”
“You are a God ready to pardon, gracious and
merciful.” “His mercy endures
forever.” “You, Lord, are good, and ready to
forgive, and plenteous in mercy
unto all those who call upon you;” “you are a God
full of compassion and
gracious long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth;”
“your mercy is
great unto the heavens;” “your mercy is great above
the heavens;” “his tender
mercies are over all his works;” “Who is a God like
you, that pardons iniquity
and passes by the transgressions of the remnant of his heritage; he
does not
retain his anger forever because he delights in mercy;” “I will love
them freely;” “God so loved the
world, that he gave his only begotten Son;” “God
commends his love towards us;”
“God, who is rich in mercy, for the great love wherewith he
has loved us, even
when we were dead in sins;” “the kindness and love
of God our Savior toward
man;” “according to his mercy he saved
us;” “in this was manifested the love of
God towards us, because 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;” “the only
begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth;”
“grace and truth came by
Jesus Christ;” “the word of his grace;”
“the Gospel of the grace of God.”
Those are a few of
the words of Him who cannot lie, concerning his own free love. These sayings are faithful
and true; and
though perhaps we may but little have owned them as such, or given heed
to the
blessed news that they embody; yet, they are all fitted to speak peace
to the
soul even of the most troubled and heavy laden.
Each of these words of grace is like a star sparkling in
the round, blue
sky above us; or like a well of water pouring out its freshness amid
desert
rocks and sands. Blessed
are they who
know these joyful sounds.
Let no one say,
“We
know all these passages. What
use is it
to read and re-read words so familiar?”
Much use in every way.
Chiefly
because it is in such declarations regarding the riches of
God’s free love that
the Gospel is wrapped up; and it is out of these that the Holy Spirit
ministers
light and peace to us. Such
are the
words that he delights to honor as his messengers of joy to the soul. Hear in these the voice of
the Spirit’s love
of the Father and the Son! If
you find
no peace coming out of them to you as you read them the first time,
read them
again. If you find
nothing the second
time, read them once more. If
you find
nothing the hundredth or thousandth time, study them yet again. “The word of God
is quick and powerful;” his
sayings are the lively oracles; his word lives and abides forever; it
is like a
fire, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces.
The Gospel is the power of God.
It is by manifestation of the truth that we
commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of
God.
There are no words
like those of God in heaven or in earth.
Hence it is that we are to study what is written, for He
Himself wrote
it for you. Do not
think it needless to
read these passages again and again.
They will blaze up at last and light up that dark soul of
yours with the
very joy of heaven.
You have sometimes
looked up to the sky at twilight searching for a star that you expected
to find
in its wonted place. You
did not see it
at first, but you knew it was there and that its light was undiminished. So, instead of closing
your eye or turning
away to some other object, you continued to gaze more and more intently
on the
spot where you knew it was. Slowly
and faintly,
as you gazed, the star seemed to come out in the sky. Your persevering
search
ended in the discovery of the long sought gem.
It happens the same way with those passages that speak to you of the free love of God. You say, I have looked into them, but they contain nothing for me. Do not turn away from them, as if you knew them too well already, y