SCRIPTURE presents three instances of those who “went about” the performance of different objects. And by “going about” we must understand an intensity and an energy of pursuit. They sought the accomplishment of their purpose by the use of very diligent means. First, there were those who, “being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God” (Rom. 10:33For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. (Romans 10:3)). This is a large class, and a very diligent one.
The passage refers primarily to “Israel, who had not attained to the law of righteousness,” but it includes multitudes besides. It embraces all from Cain, who presumed to present himself to God on the ground of a bloodless sacrifice, to those who, standing before the glory of the King, have the temerity to say to Him, “Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to thee?” It takes in all who, be their circumstances what they may, stand before God on the ground of their own merit. They are guilty of the sin of self-righteousness, and marvelous it is what a darling sin is that! See how Paul had learned to loathe it when in Philippians 3:99And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: (Philippians 3:9) he said, “that I may be found in him, not having mine own righteousness.” He had learned to repudiate it.
It sticks to the saint, who at the same time hates it; it is hugged by the mere religionist, who loves it as his only fig-leaf of hope. Such an one goes about (vain effort) to establish his own righteousness, till, like Job, he says, “I hold it fast.” Oh! think of a sinful man (any one of us) daring to say, “I am not sinful.” What a clean denial of our very nature! It is no question of an enormous sin—or of a small one either—but of the character of that “flesh” which is in us all. To assert my own righteousness in a mere whisper were folly; to go about in order to establish it were worse than madness. Yet it is done! And there is more hope for the publican and the harlot than there is for such. It is full-blown Phariseeism.
Second, we read in 1 Peter 5:8,8Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: (1 Peter 5:8) “Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walketh about seeking whom he may devour.” Observe, he is called your adversary. He is the constant enemy of God and man. His one object is to oppose the welfare of the Christian, and if possible to devour him. The plans he may adopt may be varied. These may be persecution and outward injury, as in days of old, or they may be the more subtle and dangerous snares of the present day, but his object is ever the same.
The devil hates Christ, and therefore hates His people. He walketh about seeking whom he may devour.
His power is no imagination, nor is his actual existence a mere idea. There is a veritable impersonation of evil, though in power and knowledge limited, who is called in Scripture the devil.
He it was who assailed our Lord in the wilderness, using the very temptations that had proved successful in Eden, only to find in Him One who lived “by every word of God,” and in whom there was no sin, nor capability, therefore, of yielding to him.
He it is who is spoken of as the “prince of the power of the air,” whose sphere of malicious activity is the “heavenly places” (Eph. 6), who accuses the saints before the throne of God (Rev. 12:1010And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. (Revelation 12:10)), but whose end is to be “the lake of fire”―not as king of regions infernal―but as the hopeless and miserable victim of “torment day and night forever and ever!” (Rev. 20:1010And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. (Revelation 20:10)). This is the judgment written, and small marvel that Satan should hate the Bible! That faithful record describes his fall, his character, and his final doom. No wonder that he should seek to impugn its veracity, and darken its light. “Yea, hath God said,” is now called higher criticism! Should it not be called lower? It comes from hell and from “your adversary the devil.”
He it is who is “the father of lies,” and to call in question what God has said, under the euphemistic term of “higher criticism,” is certainly a clever way of devouring, and destroying the sheep of Christ.
“Yea, hath God said,” is the voice of Satan. “It is written” is the language of Christ. What has been written will stand every test and strain. On that faith has always built, and has never been disappointed. What is needed is that we should be vigilant and sober, dependent and obedient. Thus is the adversary resisted.
Lastly, in bright and beautiful contrast with the adversary who walketh about seeking whom he may devour, we read in Acts 10:3838How 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; for God was with him. (Acts 10:38) of One “who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed with the devil, for God was with him.”
How refreshing! how grandly peculiar! how different to the career of all besides!
Of man we read “there is none that doeth good, no, not one” (Rom. 3:1212They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. (Romans 3:12)). Jew and Gentile are alike involved in the charge of guilt; and then, when we come to the saints, we read that “in many things we offend all” (James 3:22For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. (James 3:2)), but here is One who not only did good, but whose habit it was to go about in the performance of it.
The whole of those three and a half years of patient and faithful ministry was signalized by this. See the record given by Mark, how unwearied were His labors. Some forty times in, that gospel we have the word immediately, one event following another in His service to man.
Late at night and early in the morning we find Him in prayer; and as call after call presses on Him, we find a willing response. Wherever need urged its claim, He kindly replied. No wonder that “his fame was spread abroad.” Multitudes were fed miraculously; diseases were healed; lepers were cleansed; the blind received sight; the dead were raised! In our midst was one of truest sympathy. “Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” He made God known.
Yet they spat upon and crucified Him! and why? Had He not done among them works that no other man had done? Certainly! Then could any convince Him of sin? None!
There appears, therefore, this awful moral contradiction that One who was innocent of, all evil, and infinitely kind in all His actions, was set at naught and crucified!
But He was not crucified for His kindness. Man could surely appreciate benevolence; but what he failed to appreciate, and what he hated, was that, beneath all the lovely outward display of grace, there was the absolute holiness of One who, though a Man amongst men, was at the same time God. Man hates God, and hates Him in spite of His love. That is the awful contradiction. Then what must the nature of man be?
Thank God, love did not end when He who is love was crucified. Nay, it was just then that He said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Love survived death itself and―
“The very spear that pierced His side
Drew forth the blood to save.”
What a victorious lover! How His patient grace wins the heart. He is just what He was, “the same yesterday, today, and forever.” May His unwearying love win many a heart still. There is none like Christ—the Christ of the Gospels—now seated on His Father’s throne. J. W. S.