“And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be, able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness.”―Genesis 4:5, 65But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. 6And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? (Genesis 4:5‑6).
THE gospel for us is exactly on the same lines as it came to Abraham in this starry night scene. He takes God at His word. The Lord imputes his faith to him for righteousness, of which he had none in himself. He stands reckoned as a righteous man because of his faith in God. He rests upon what God was about to do, we on what He has done; but the principle of our justification is exactly the same.
Justification is presented in three ways in the Epistle to the Romans. In the third chapter we get the complete ruin of man detailed, and then the statement, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (vs. 23). That is our condition by nature. Then we are told that we are “justified freely by his grace (God’s grace) through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (vs. 24). In the first verse of the fifth chapter of Romans we read— “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.” In the ninth verse of the same chapter we have― “Much more then being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” So you see justification spoken, of in these three ways.
Are there then three ways of justification? No. There are three parties to justification. Do you know who they are? God, Christ, and yourself. And what is God’s part in it? Listen: “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Grace is the spring of it all. It all comes from God. And what is the next thing? “Being now justified by his blood”―the blood of Jesus― “we shall be saved from wrath through him.” That is Christ’s side― “his blood” ―His death. And what is your side and mine? It is faith. Righteousness shall be imputed to us “if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (4:24, 25, 5:1). What is your side and mine? Faith! God’s side is Grace. That is the spring. It all flows from Him. And Jesus’ side? Blood. His death is the instrumental means and basis—the groundwork of our justification. Your side and mine is Faith! And what is that? It is the hand put out to take the blessing which God’s grace oilers, and Jesus’ blood secures. Justification, therefore, is by grace, through blood, and on the principle of faith—not works.
But there is more instruction in the scene before us as to the basis of the soul’s blessing. The Lord says to Abraham: “I am the Lord, that brought ‘thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it” (vs. 7). To this Abraham replies: “Whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?” (vs. 8.) What evidence can I have that I shall inherit the land, is the thought of his heart. The Lord says to him: “Take me” ―He does not say “Take thee”― “an heifer of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon” (vs. 9). Why these five animals? Would not one have been sufficient for God? I ‘believe one would have been enough for God, but the five were needed for Abraham, and for us as learners of his lesson. I believe the truth brought out here is to show us that God’s way of blessing is always based on death. Sacrifice is the instrumental means whereby you and I can be justified, and whereby God has been glorified in respect of sin.
Only death can put away sin. Death came by sin―the sin of the first man―and sin can only be put away by death―the death of the last Adam. There must be sacrifice. The groundwork of ow blessing is the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore God bids Abraham take these victims. But you might say, Why the five? Five is always the number in Scripture that is coupled with weakness. The weakness of man, and the weakness of the soul. There are five people in this room tonight, and all five rest on Jesus, but have different measures of apprehension and enjoyment. Do you think that each one is as happy as the other? I never knew two people to be equally happy. I find some happy, and others happier still. We certainly ought to enjoy Christ, but our enjoyment will depend on our appreciation of Him; and that is the point here, I take it.
Now, observe these five animals were of different relative values. There was the heifer, the she-goat, the ram, the turtle-dove, and the pigeon. The heifer was much more valuable than the she-goat; but the turtle-dove, and the pigeon, what were they in value as compared with the heifer? Each victim presents Christ in death, but Christ differently apprehended; Christ, not as God estimates Him, but as you and I estimate Him. There may be five souls in this hall tonight, I repeat, resting on the work of Jesus, and but one having a clear, full grasp of Christ. You will find that person brimful of “joy and peace in believing,” with sweet and precious views of Christ, and deep enjoyment of Christ. I come to the one who was only converted last night perhaps, and I find that he has but a very feeble sense of the value of the work of Jesus. One sees the heifer, the other the pigeon, so to say.
Now tell me, Are the souls who are most advanced more truly and certainly saved than those who know little about Christ? Not a bit of it! The most advanced is not a bit more safe than the one who is only just beginning his journey. He may be happier, but he is not safer. Friend, if you tonight can say, I really believe on, and rest in Jesus, then you are saved. If you have found Christ, and have rested your guilty soul on Him, and His wondrous work―even if you know very little about Him―you are as safe as the most advanced Christian. The man of a day’s knowledge of the Lord is as safe as the man with fifty years’ experience. They have both found the same Saviour. Ah! but, you say, I do not appreciate Christ as I should. True, but God appreciates Him at His true value, that is the point, and He accepts you on His estimate of Christ, not yours, I value the Lord Jesus greatly, but God values Him infinitely more. Our value of Him does not regulate our acceptance, though it may, and does affect our joy. It is God’s estimate of the work of Christ, in which the believer is set before Him, and according to which he is accepted and blessed.
Two things have to be borne in mind. It is the word of God that connects your soul with the Lord, and it is the work of Christ by which you are redeemed, and brought to God. Abraham knew he should inherit the land on the ground of sacrifice. This is exactly, in principle, what the fourth of Romans gives us as the ground of our knowledge of justification. Jesus has been among the dead, and God has raised Him up from among the dead. He “was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification.” All the offenses were borne by Him, blotted out, and washed away in His precious blood. On the ground of that finished work of His, we are forgiven, and justified by God. We stand in all the credit and value of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ-not as we appreciate it, but as God appreciates it.
Our appreciation of Christ must ever be feeble, because we are finite. God’s appreciation of His work is infinite, and we stand in His own infinite appreciation of the work by which He has been glorified. We stand accepted before God according to His own estimate of the work of His beloved Son. He has “made us accepted in the beloved” (Eph. 1:66To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. (Ephesians 1:6)). He was delivered for our offenses―therefore we are delivered from them: He was raised again for our justification—therefore we are justified, and He becomes our righteousness.
A very blessed consequence becomes, therefore, our present possession. “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:11Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: (Romans 5:1)). This is peace with regard to all the past—peace with regard to sin. But there is more than that, for it is added: “By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God” (vs. 2). If I look back, I have peace; if I look up, grace; and if I look to the future, glory. That is a fine canopy to be under. There are three segments in the arc of the Christian’s firmament. These are the three: Peace, as regards the past; Grace, for the present; and Glory, for the future. No judgment? Nay. No condemnation? Nay. You are justified by faith in Jesus and His work, and God will never bring the work of His Son into judgment; for, mark it well, it is by the work of His Son, and by that alone, that you are justified.
It is important to see that not only has the believer justification from all offenses, but also that he has “justification of life” (Rom. 5:1818Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. (Romans 5:18)). We are possessors now of eternal life in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have life on the other side of death. I think many a person has learned justification from offenses, who has not learned that he possesses justification of life. I live before God in the life of my Saviour. That is where we have peace, rest, joy, and delight in the presence of our Lord.
God give you, my friend, this rest; and if, as in our picture, the fowls come down upon the sacrifice, do as Abraham did― “He drove them away.” And what are the fowls? They are the doubts and suggestions of the devil―the doubts of the day. “And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away.” My friend, let nothing come in to intercept the view of your soul of that precious work which the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross. Drive these fowls away; they are the doubts―the fears―the uncertainties, which spring up in the heart of the believer if he is not careful. If you are beset by them, merely do as Abraham did. “Resist the devil,” says Scripture, “and he will flee from you.” What do you mean by the fowls? you ask. They are the devil really. That is the figure under which he is presented in the thirteenth of Matthew, where the Lord speaks of the birds of the air picking up the seeds by the wayside. That is how the Lord expresses the fact that the devil takes away the word of God out of the heart, lest the sinner “should believe and be saved.” Every evil thought suggested, and every doubt of any kind as regards Christ and the value of His work, is of the devil. Abraham drove the fowls away. You and I must do the same, and “resist the devil.”
God give you rest, and joy, in His Son, and the knowledge of what it’ is to be justified by Him from all offenses, and that you are the possessor of “justification of life.”
“No works of merit now I plead,
But Jesus take for all my need;
No righteousness in me is found,
Except upon redemption ground.
Redemption ground, the ground of peace!
Redemption ground, oh, wondrous grace!
Here let our praise to God abound,
Who saves us on redemption ground!”
W. T. P. W.