IT may be new, to some of our readers that each book of Scripture has its own subject — its own line of truth, in which, it differs from every other. The following headings are designed to help those who study for themselves the Word of God, to lay hold of these characteristic differences. The “Scripture-Outlines” which follow this paper are intended to bring out more distinctly and in more detail the same thing. Both will be so far of service to any as they are content to examine the Word patiently and prayerfully in connection with what is here brought forward. The Lord guide and bless.
MATTHEW gives us the Lord as “Son of David,” king of Israel, offering Himself as such to them, and rejected, and then as “Son of Abraham” (chapter 1:1) bringing in blessing for the Gentiles on the principle of, faith. Yet is He king of the Jews to the last, and brings in blessing for them in days yet to come, as such.
In His work He is looked at as the “Sin-offering” of Leviticus 4, enduring the whole wrath of God upon Sin, as a victim “burned without the camp.”
MARK gives us the Son of God as a Servant, ministeng.to man’s need, and glorifying God in the path of perfect subjection and obedience.
In His work, therefore, as the Trespass-offering (as Leviticus 5:1414And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, (Leviticus 5:14) — 2:7) making up all the injury that Sin had done to God and man, so as to overpay both.
LUKE gives us the Lord as perfect man, in connection with man as such, whether Jew or Gentile. And in His work as the “Peace-offering” (Lev. 3 and 7:11-21). putting God and man at one. “Salvation,” “Saviour,” “peace,” (in the gospel sense), and “grace,” appear here for the first time in the Gospel. The parables of the lost sheep, lost piece of money, prodigal ton, of the good Samaritan, &c., show this character. And, on the Cross there is no cry of being forsaken, but, the cry of “Father,” the prayer for forgiveness of His enemies, and the salvation of the thief.
JOHN on the other hand gives us the Deity of Christ. As made flesh He is “the light of the World,” (for “God is light,” John 1:55And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. (John 1:5)) Life is in Him, and He gives it (chapter 5) Thus in this gospel only you have “new-birth” plainly spoken of, (chapter 1:13 and 3) He is all through outside Judaism, for man is dead and law cannot give him life, (the truth in chapter 5)
As to His sacrificial work, He is the Burnt-offering, (Lev. 1), “cut into its pieces” to show its perfectness, and all going up to God upon the altar as a sweet smell. So here the Lord gives His testimony to the perfection of His work, (chapter 17:4 and 19:30.)
THE ACTS gives us the beginning of the Christian Church at Pentecost, by the baptism of the Holy Ghost; and its gradual shifting from Jewish to Gentile ground; yet its chief Apostle closing his history in a prison at Rome; though “the word of God is not bound.”
I give the epistles in a different order from that in our Bibles, simply for convenience of comparison.
ROMANS gives us first the great question of righteousness. The apostle first spews, that man has none for God, and law does not help, but condemns him, (chapter 1-3:20.) Then, that God in the gospel declares His righteousness in justifying sinners through the blood of Jesus (3:21-31) by faith only, God’s principle long bore shown in Abraham (chapters 4); and the blessed position of one so justified (chapters 5:1-2.)
This is the first part. The second part shows the believer’s place in righteousness before God in Christ risen, all the value of Christ attaching to him; and together with this, how righteousness is wrought out in the believer by his deliverance through Christ’s death (he having, for God and for faith, died with Christ) from sin (chapter 6) and from law (chapter 7); and walking in the power of the Spirit as one with Christ. (chapter 8)
Chapters 9-11 Complete the doctrine of the epistle by showing that the promises to the Jews are not inconsistent with this principle of grace, but on the contrary it is the only way of blessing for them also. And that the Gentile church, looked at as a professing body, stood no less upon the ground of responsibility than Israel, and would be cut off as such if they failed. (chapter 11) This is no question of the salvation of the soul. Exhortations close the epistle.
GALATIANS gives us the contrast between Judaism and Christianity in their distinguishing principles of law; and grace. The law was “the elements of the world,” took up men upon their own ground, tried them, and left them under curse. God’s children were in bondage under it. It was not God’s principle from the beginning, but only came in as a schoolmaster, 430 years after God had “preached the gospel unto Abraham” (so that the gospel is older than the law) in a promise which secured blessing to all nations on the principle of faith. This covenant of God no law coming in afterward could set aside or add to; it was only a schoolmaster, “till the seed (Christ) should come.”
On the other hand, grace alone justified, gave liberty to the soul, and power over sin; a place moreover crucified to the world by the cross of Christ, and a “rule” for walk, not as circumcised or uncircumcised (Jew or Gentile) but as in Christ, a new sort of mature. (chapters 6:14, 15.)
COLOSSIANS carries us a step further. The believer is looked at as “risen with Christ,” which had only been implied before, not dwelt upon. He is seen too as “the Head of the body, the church,” our hope is shown as “laid up in heaven,” “our life hid with Christ in God,” our affections to be above where He is.
In order to this all His glories are set before us: One in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, and in whom we are complete. His blood reconciles not only earthly but heavenly things. He is the beginning of a new creation in His own person. We have passed out of the world, the old creation, by His death, all trespasses forgiven, and have put off the body of the flesh. We are risen, and our life hid with Him in God, and when He appears, we shall appear with Him in glory.
The practical effect is, having put on the new man, renewed in knowledge after the image of God, Christ is all, and in all, — filling the whole scene.