Rom. 5:6-116For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 10For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. 11And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. (Romans 5:6‑11).
IN these few verses we have not only the great truth of the death of Christ, but also of the love of God for the sinner. The connection of verse 5 with verse 6 is evident. “For” indicates that we are the objects of God’s love, for Christ died for us. “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” Here, the reasoning of the apostle, the way he links these precious truths together, is beautiful and assuring. He proves that the Christian’s hope can never be disappointed, because the love of God is shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost which is given to him. The love of God, the work of Christ, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, give abundant assurance of the believer’s blessing, whatever may be the troubles of the way. The wheels of his soul have been set in motion by tribulation, patience, experience, and hope; but that which sustains the believer in the midst of the trials of this life can never fail.
The love of God, as resulting in the cross of Christ and the gift of the Spirit, is the ground of his confidence, the full assurance of his hope. “And hope maketh not ashamed,” says the apostle, “because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”
“To God our weakness clings through tribulation sore,
And seeks the covert of His wings till all be o’er.
And when we’ve run the race, and fought the faithful fight
We hope to see Him face to face with saints in light.”
Thus we have in verse 5 the love of God in us―His love shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost; and in verse 6 we have the love of God for us; for when destitute of all strength, “Christ died for us.” What a picture for faith to contemplate! What a treasure for the heart to cherish! What a stronghold in the day of trial! ―the love of God as come into our hearts through the presence of the Holy Ghost there, and also publicly manifested in the gift, the work, the resurrection, and the glory of the Saviour. And notice also that this is the first passage which speaks of the love of God being shed abroad in our hearts, or of the Holy Spirit being given to us. But God’s due time was come for the full revelation of His love, both subjectively and objectively.
Although God knew from the beginning what man was, and what man would be, He allowed him to be fairly tested under every possible circumstance in which he could be placed. In the patience of God he was under a state of probation for four thousand years. Surely this was trial enough! But what was the result? That there was nothing good in man; that he was essentially ungodly; that he was unable to do anything towards his own deliverance from divine wrath, even with ordinances and ceremonies of divine appointment, as under the law; that he was like the man at the pool of Bethesda, who had no strength to take advantage of the troubling of the waters. But it may be interesting to trace for a moment the whole history of man, from the garden of Eden to the cross of Christ, where it ends, morally viewed, and which was God’s due time for the outflow of His love, and for the accomplishing of His purposes, especially as to the church.
The History of Man
In the garden man was innocent; he was made in the image of God, after His own likeness; surrounded with every favor and blessing, and enjoying the kindness of God, without knowing good or evil, righteousness or holiness. He had no conscience till after he sinned; before that he could not have understood what good and evil meant. Righteousness discriminates between right and wrong; holiness loves purity, and abhors evil; but Adam knew nothing of such distinctions, he was formed to understand and obey God. “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” This was the command of God, and a test for Adam. He gave him but one command, and one of easy observance, and both Adam and Eve knew that the Lord who so loved them had a right to their obedience. Had he been told that it would be a moral evil to eat of the fruit of that tree, he might have said, “What does that mean?” But he knew that God had forbidden it, and that all depended on that command. We know what happened. Man listened to the tempter, believed his lie, forfeited the favor of God in eating the forbidden fruit, and in the presumptuous hope of being as gods, knowing good and evil. Thus man disobeyed, sinned, fell, and was driven from the Garden of Eden, and the fair creation was laid under the withering curse of sin.
Man, alas! fallen and guilty, had now a conscience, but it was a bad one. He knew good and evil, but it was to be under the power of evil, and to know that he had lost the happiness which he once enjoyed with God and with all around him. His innocence was gone, and all the sweet enjoyments of that state gone―gone forever; though God, in mercy, had something infinitely sweeter and better in store for him, through the Second man, the last Adam, head of God’s new creation, which can never be laid in ruins.
Thus we see that conscience was acquired by the fall. That which has been such an important element in the whole history of man, which has so affected his responsibility in all the relationships of this life, and in his responsibility to God, came in by sin. But in place of man being humbled thereby, we find the skeptic deifying himself because of his conscience; he professes to believe in no other law, to own no higher authority, to bow to no other tribunal, than conscience. Nevertheless, the place which conscience occupies in the ways of God in grace with the sinner is unspeakably important, and will be noticed by-and-by.
Man an Outcast
Adam is now outside of Eden as lost and ruined, but not without hope. The Seed of the woman was announced as the bruiser of the serpent’s head, the destroyer of his power, and the deliverer of the fallen pair. We doubt not that, through grace, they laid hold on the blessed hope thus set before them by their merciful Creator. But though the subjects of God’s saving grace, the helpless objects of His compassion, they had now, in addition to body, soul, and spirit, what scripture calls “the flesh” ―a perverse will―the carnal mind which is enmity against God, which is not subject to His law, neither indeed can be. This is the dreadful evil which was infused into man’s nature when he took of the forbidden fruit in obedience to Satan. It was then that the enemy dropped this deadly poison of unbelief into the heart of his victim, and which, in process of time, and with the increase of the human family, filled the whole earth with corruption and violence, and brought in the flood on the world of the ungodly.
This is the sin, the sin of universal man―the sin of Jew and Gentile, of believer and unbeliever―the root-sin of all others. And yet how little the most enlightened Christian may sometimes think of it. But what is it? It is the principle of distrust in God, and results in every form of self-will; that I like my own way, and not God’s; that I am determined to have my own will and my own way, whether God wills it or not. Whenever there is this strong desire to have what we wish, the voice of the tempter is listened to. He suggests many reasons to prove that this something which we so crave after is right in itself, and so blinds the mind as to God’s will on the subject. This is the very essence of sin, and the root of all other sins, because it proceeds from the unbelieving thought, that we can do better for ourselves than God is disposed to do for us, therefore we reckon not on Him, wait not for Him, but take things into our own hand, and pursue our own way. “Give me the portion of goods that falleth to me” is the language of self-will―the worst sin of the prodigal son. His wish was to get away from his father’s house, his father’s will, his father’s ways, and revel in his own.
This is “the flesh,” that evil thing which Adam knew nothing of before the Fall, but the moment sin entered it displayed itself. “And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.” Guilt on the conscience causes man to tremble at the sound of God’s voice. Self-convicted of departure from Him, they sought to veil their nakedness from their own eyes, and then to hide themselves from Him. This dread, this distrust, of God is the sad inheritance which the primeval pair have bequeathed to all their posterity, but from which, thank God, every believer is delivered through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, the last Adam. There, on the cross, as a man and a sinner a child of the first Adam―he comes to his end. He dies to sin in Christ’s death, and is raised to newness of life in His resurrection.
Government in the Hand of Man
After the deluge which closed the scene of man’s wickedness on the earth, and the first period of his history, the dispensational ways of God begin. The principle of government in the hand of man is now introduced. It does not appear that there was either law or government in the antediluvian world; man was left to himself, and this brought out his lawlessness. But God remembered mercy, and gave many testimonies to His grace in such individual cases as Abel, Enoch, and Noah, besides the wonderful type of deliverance through Christ in the ark which Noah was so long in preparing.
God now makes a covenant with the earth. When Noah went forth from the ark, he built an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt-offerings thereon. From this beautiful figure of the sacrifice of Christ, Jehovah smelled a sweet savor, and assures mankind that the earth would never again be visited with a universal deluge. “While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease.... And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.”
These principles, now established on sacrifice, will be infallibly maintained throughout the different ages, until Jesus, after having glorified God in government for a thousand years, “shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father: when he shall have put down all rule, and all authority, and power.” 1 Cor. 15:2424Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. (1 Corinthians 15:24).
But, alas! scarcely had the sword of human government been entrusted to Noah, than it fell dishonored from his hand. His humiliating failure proved that he could not govern himself. This fresh trial of man only shows what is always true―that in all things man utterly fails, and comes short of the glory of God. The Noahic dispensation closes with a new form of evil―the worship of false gods; and the God of glory calls out one man into the place of separation, makes him the depositary of promise, and the root of the olive-tree.
In tracing the sad history of man so far, we have seen his trial and failure in the Garden of Eden, with the revelation of divine mercy through Christ the woman’s Seed. But man’s perverse will, not corrected by conscience, not restrained by government, nor bowed in gratitude for the promised Deliverer, only sinned more and more, until, as we read, “the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.” All flesh had corrupted his way, and the deluge destroyed the world of the ungodly. But grace again shines. The ark rests on Ararat, God’s new ground after the execution of judgment. Hence we have in type the Holy Spirit and worship, founded on the sacrifice of Christ; the heart of God finds perfect rest, He sets His bow in the cloud, which embraces both the sea and the dry land, and millennial blessing is shadowed forth.
But, alas! the failure of Noah resulted in the boldest sin of man idolatry. Corruption and violence characterized the first period, idolatry the second period, of the history of man. The aim of this sin is to dethrone the living God, set up a dumb idol, and then fall down and worship it.
The Period of Promise
It is very evident from scripture that before God called out Abram the great sin of idolatry was prevalent among men, even among the descendants of Shem, the line of the chosen family.
Joshua, in his final charge to the tribes and elders of Israel, tells them that their fathers who dwelt on the other side of the flood―that is, the river Euphrates―were idolaters. “And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abram, and the father of Nachor; and they served other gods.” (Josh. 24:22And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods. (Joshua 24:2)). This was the craft of Satan, and the most daring act of man’s rebellion against the authority of God. From other scriptures we learn that these gods were demons. “They sacrificed unto devils, not to God―to gods whom they knew not―to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared.” The apostle referring to this passage, observes, “But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God; and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.” (Deut. 32:1717They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not. (Deuteronomy 32:17); 1 Cor. 10:2020But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. (1 Corinthians 10:20)). No language can describe the moral degradation to which man, through the subtlety of Satan, had now fallen. That which he calls his religion is his greatest folly, and his deepest sin. Demons have taken the place of the true God in his mind, and have the ascendancy over him. He bows down to a dumb idol, but Satan is behind it to receive his homage. What dreadful wickedness! we may well exclaim; and how can God bear with it? But have we not many idolaters around us even in Christendom, so-called? Many who will bow down to a piece of rotten wood, alleged to be part of the true cross, who never bowed the knee in faith to Him who died for sinners there? And may there not be an element of it nearer ourselves than we are aware of? Any object taking the place of Christ in the heart of the Christian, though unintentional, becomes his idol. Hence the needed word of warning: “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” 1 John 5:2121Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen. (1 John 5:21).
In Gen. 12 we are introduced to an entirely new order of things in the history of man. God’s link with the old world, with mankind as hitherto, through the worship of false gods, is completely broken. It is no longer man as such, but a man called of God to the place of separation, without disturbing the world’s arrangements, and to know His thoughts and purposes of blessing, even to all the families of the earth. This is infinitely more precious than all that man had lost, as the full accomplishment of these purposes depended solely on the faithfulness of God.
Stephen, in his noble address to the Jewish council, refers to the call of God as the basis and glory of their existence as a distinct people. “The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran. And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee.” Having thus called Abram, and led him out from Ur of the Chaldees, and brought him to Himself to the place of separation from the idolatrous world, He makes him the depositary of promise. It is a definite promise to Abram alone, who now becomes a new root, the father of the faithful, and the channel of universal blessing.
The period of promise now begins. “And I will make of thee,” said Jehovah, “a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” This marks a great change in the ways of God with mankind. It is not merely the revelation of a deliverer, or of conscience judging between good and evil, or of government in the hand of man; but it is God Himself interfering, and revealing His purposes of blessing, and that, just because He is pleased to bless, and to express His love in blessing to fallen man. The promise is positive, absolute, and unconditional: the sphere of its application embraces all the families of the earth, and its full accomplishment is dependent only on the faithfulness of God. It has been delayed, we know, through the failure of man, but God will yet prove His faithfulness in the face of the whole world, by a stream of blessing which will overflow all Jewish limits and cover all lands, according to the promise which in grace He made to Abram.
It may be well to notice here the order in which the promises were given, and the special occasions chosen of God for the revelation of His purposes.
1. The promise of blessing to the Gentiles is given to Abram alone in Gen. 12, not to Abraham and his seed when numbers are expressed. “In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”
2. This promise was confirmed to the seed―to Isaac, type of Christ; see Gen. 22:1818And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. (Genesis 22:18). The apostle, referring to this passage, says, “He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.” The distinction between the “many” and the “one” is clearly defined after the offering of Isaac. There can be no real blessing to the soul, or separation to God, but through death―the death of the true Isaac. There is no deliverance from sin and the world but by the solemn article of death. This chosen type of God’s own love, not only in the gift, but in the death, of His beloved Son, throws fresh light on the dealings of God with lost man at this period of his history. Compared with this, all other types but feebly express the Father’s love in not sparing His Son, and His perfect grace in meeting the whole need of man. It is the grand central truth of our faith, and the basis of divine reasoning. “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?” The lesser is included in the greater, and all is secured to faith in the gift of His Son. “He that hath the Son hath life.” Nothing can be lacking when the Son is possessed. Rom. 8:3232He 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); 1 John 5:1212He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. (1 John 5:12).
The death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus are fully carried out in figure by the offering of Isaac as a sacrifice, and the substitution of the ram as a burnt offering in his stead. Abraham receives back his son, his only son, from the dead in a figure, which shadows forth the risen Christ after the accomplishment of His sacrifice. The promises immediately follow. “And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, and said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son; that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.” Gen. 22:15-1815And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, 16And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: 17That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; 18And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. (Genesis 22:15‑18).
Here it is not difficult to distinguish between Jewish and Christian blessing, especially if we consider the use which the apostle makes of this passage in the Epistle to the Galatians. The numerous seed possessing the gate of their enemies refers to the Jews, as the descendants of Abraham, and in the place of exaltation in the earth, and of supremacy over their enemies. When the seed is spoken of without allusion to numbers, Christ is meant, as typified by Isaac, offered up in sacrifice, and risen again, and there we have the blessing of the Gentiles. The promise is twofold. Exaltation and supremacy in the earth is never promised to the Gentiles―only to the Jews. In the millennial age, all the glowing descriptions with which both the Old and the New Testament abound, as to the Israel of the future day, shall be fully accomplished. Thus will the Jews be blessed in the coming age in their own land, and under the scepter of their own Messiah. But the Christian is blessed in and with a risen Christ. He will reign with Him, not under Him, and shine in the same glory forever and forever.
Such will be the glorious results of the unconditional promises of God to Abraham and to his seed. But it must all be in connection with Him who died and rose again. Death is the only principle and power of separation from the world to God, and the only foundation of blessing before Jesus died we hear Him saying to the woman of Canaan, “I am not sent save to the lost sheep of the house of Israel;” but this He will say no more. In resurrection He is free to bless all who come unto Him, all who believe in Him, even according to the fullest purpose of the God of all grace. Every covenant condition has been fulfilled by Him, every covenant promise has been secured by Him; God has been glorified, sin has been blotted out, redemption has been accomplished, and righteousness established. Both Jew and Gentile have now only to believe, and become fellow-heirs with Him of all the promises of God. Nothing is withheld from faith. Blessed forever are all they who put their trust in Jesus. “Now I say that Jesus Christ was the minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.” Rom. 15:8-98Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: 9And that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy; as it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name. (Romans 15:8‑9).
Before speaking of the period of law, it may be profitable to notice two or three circumstances in connection with the response of Abraham to the call of God. It would have disturbed the thread of our narrative to have introduced them before, but we are unwilling to pass them by altogether. They have a loud voice for us, and are full of wholesome and solemn warning.
Reflections on the Call of Abraham
Abraham, like the unbeliever now, was living in the midst of the evil of the old world, and his family worshipping idols, when God called him.
What light may have been communicated to Abraham as to the state of things in Ur of the Chaldees, when the God of glory appeared unto him, we are not told, but now all was plain: “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee.” Here he is called to separate himself from all that connected him with his natural position on the earth, and to obey the call of God, on the ground of faith in His word.
Nothing could be more simple. But did Abraham obey in simplicity? Far from it. His first step was a false one. He left his country, but not his kindred; or perhaps they did not, or would not, leave him. Abraham was soon involved in family difficulties and family trials. How constantly we find this same kind of hindrance in the case of young converts now! Sometimes it may be in the way of manifested opposition, and sometimes from their concealment of God’s call, or, in other words, of their own conversion, and decision of heart for Christ, lest they should displease those who are opposed to the truth. But things could not thus go on happily. Conscience accuses, they are ill at ease; the truth, sooner or later, must come out; or, as in the case of Abram, death may be sent to close the scene of perplexities, if not of unfaithfulness. Thus we read, “And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan: and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there. And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years; and Terah died in Haran.” Gen. 11:31, 3231And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there. 32And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran. (Genesis 11:31‑32).
Surely this was failure at the very outset. Terah takes the lead, Abram is a mere follower; but God had said to Abram not to Terah, “Get thee out.” This was nature, not faith in the promise and word of Jehovah. It may seem amiable for a son so to yield to his father, but it was an influence counter to the call of God. Obedience to God, not subjection to his father’s will, was Abram’s duty at that moment. So long as Terah lived, no progress was made; they dwelt at Haran, but this was not the land of promise. At length, however, God interfered. The natural hindrance is removed by the father’s death. Government takes its course, though its steps may appear slow. Grace also appears, and triumphs. The pilgrim pursues his journey, and enters the land of Canaan. Lot goes with him, though he had not been called, but he proved a great encumbrance to Abram, only, being his nephew, he was subject to him, and God allowed it.
Separation to God the Path of Blessing
From the days of Adam to Abraham it does not appear that men of piety, such as Enoch, who walked with God, were called to break with nature and the world their country and their kindred; but from the days of Abraham, even until now, the principle of separation from the world to God is the only recognized path of blessing. As for the Christian now, his place is defined; his Saviour and Lord, as dead, risen, and ascended, is the measure, character and power of his separation from the world, and of his nearness to God. Speaking of His disciples, He says, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” And again He says, “If any man serve me;” what is he to do? Seek to be an attractive public speaker? a great worker? a useful Christian? No; however good these aspects of service may be and in many cases they are happily combined with the most faithful discipleship such is not the way the Master describes the service which he most appreciates: “If any man serve me, let him follow me” —follow Me in My path of rejection as to this world, and in My path of obedience as to the will of God. Follow Me through the dark hour, the uplifted cross, and the execration of the world follow Me, through death and resurrection, into the new creation of God. “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die.” To keep the eye on the Master, to mark His footsteps, and only do the things which we believe He has given us to do, is our most acceptable service, and will be rewarded with double honor. “And where I am, there shall also my servant be; if any man serve me, him will my Father honor.” John 12; 17
This is the grace and goodness of the heavenly Master. How many true and faithful followers He has whose names are never heard of here, but who will have their own place and their own reward in the coming kingdom. The true Philadelphian, who has but “little strength” now, will be made a pillar in the temple of God ere long; and of those who have not denied His name―where human names are thought so much of―He says, “And I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.” These exceeding great and precious promises are made to those whom He describes as having “little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.” The call of Abraham was to separate him from his father’s house and his native country, that he might belong to God, and walk in communion with Him in the Promised Land. But the Christian is called to fellowship with Christ in heavenly places, and this necessarily separates him in heart and soul from all that is earthly or worldly in his surroundings, even though it may assume the fascinating form of natural affection or relative duties. Everything must be judged in the light of his heavenly calling, and of his heavenly relations to Christ. Faithfulness to Him as one that is espoused is the first and all-commanding consideration of every Christian. This relationship seems to have been in the mind of the great apostle when writing to the Corinthians, where he says, “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. But I fear lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” 2 Cor. 11:2, 32For 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. 3But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. (2 Corinthians 11:2‑3).
Need we say how few there are who ever think of such a relationship, of such thorough separation? and how many there are who allow family or mere natural influence to hinder them from obeying implicitly the call of God, or from following His word after their conversion? Thousands of young converts are ruled by what their friends say, without ever consulting the word of God. The conversion may be genuine, and friends may mean well, but God is robbed of His glory, and the young believer of his blessing. Haran, not Canaan, becomes the dwelling place. But there is no advancement in spiritual things, divine ground has not been taken, and the full blessing of salvation is unknown. Substance is increased, and souls are born in Terah’s family at Haran, but there is neither tent nor altar. Until we see the call of God to be paramount there can be no true separation of heart to Him, nor looking into His word as our only sure guide in all divine things. Every truly converted soul has been as really called of God as Abram was, and has to do as directly with Him, only in a much more blessed way, so that our answer to His call ought to be all the more complete and unhesitating. We are brought near to God in Christ, nearer than ever Abraham was.
With the prophet of old we are ready to exclaim, “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!” For God, we know, can never lower His standard to that of man’s shortcomings; He cannot alter His word, and unless we are content to come to the place which He has shown to us, we must go without the full blessing of His call. Eighteen hundred years ago the apostle, in writing to the Ephesians, earnestly prays to God that they may know what the hope of His calling is, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. The Lord grant that this prayer may be answered in the experience of many in our own day. We know of nothing so essential to the peace, joy, and happiness of the believer as the knowledge of what God has separated us from, and what He has called us to, through the power of the Holy Spirit. May we not, then, be unduly influenced by our families and our friends, but give good heed to the word, to the voice of God, which calls us to arise, to leave our position in nature on the earth, and follow the Lord fully, according to His own revealed will; it is the very opposite of fanaticism so to do, as we own no guide in spiritual things but the written word of God.
The Canaanite and Famine in the Land
After the death of Terah, Abram was free to pursue his journey. Now he acts according to the word of the Lord. “And Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him.” He reached the land of Canaan, but he did not find it a place of rest, according to the full purpose of the God of glory: “The Canaanite was then in the land.” But God reveals Himself to the true heir, and points out the inheritance which his seed would enjoy when there should be no Canaanite in the land. And Abram, now in his heavenly position, erects an altar in the presence of his enemies, worships God in faith, and enjoys communion with Him in these revelations of His grace. “And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord who appeared unto him.” Gen. 12:6, 76And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. 7And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him. (Genesis 12:6‑7).
Abram is now in his right place, and, as a consequence, God reveals Himself unto him. “There he builded an altar unto the Lord who appeared unto him.” This is the place, and this is the power, of true worship. We must be on divine ground as worshippers before the Holy Spirit is free to reveal the glories of Christ to our souls. Canaan is the type of the heavenly places where we are now in Christ Jesus; and our worship ought to be characterized by these two things―I am on the ground which God has called me to, and in the conscious enjoyment of His presence as the spring and power of heavenly worship.
In verse 8 we have the other grand feature of the man of faith―the tent. This was the symbol of his pilgrim character. But, notwithstanding these exalted privileges and blessings, he is overcome, and fails sadly, from the pressure of circumstances. “And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there.” Alas, how many have failed under the pressure of circumstances! But this is just the kind of trial to test the genuineness of faith, especially as to its object. If the living God be the object of our faith, He can never fail us, whether the famine rages in our social or in our ecclesiastical circumstances! But it does not appear that Abram even sought divine guidance on this occasion, or spread out his circumstances before the Lord, but goes of his own will into the place of danger; “for the famine was grievous in the land.” This is the only reason given for his going to the world for help instead of the living God. But such, alas! is man, man all through, man in every position, man under every possible circumstance; he is ever found to be utterly wanting before God, and to fail in the very grace in which he was called to excel.
We have now clearly seen, from God’s dealings with Abraham and his seed, that the blessing of both Jew and Gentile is secured by promises, and that, too, without the question of man’s condition as a sinner being raised. Abraham knew nothing of law, or of conditions on his part, as the ground of the promise being fulfilled. It was by unconditional promise that God gave to him the inheritance. “To Abraham and to his seed were the promises made.” It was purely of grace on the part of God, and His faithfulness will perform in due time all He has promised.
But man utterly failed to understand, to appreciate, grace as the ground of God’s dealings towards him, and being naturally self-righteous, terms were proposed which raised the question of law-righteousness, and claimed it on the part of God.
The Period of Law
Four hundred and thirty years after the date of promise the law was given. Redemption having been prefigured by the slain lamb in Egypt, and the passage of the Red Sea, the children of Israel journeyed to the wilderness of Sinai. Then, alas! insensible of their mercies, they gave up the ground of grace, and entered into covenant with God, on the ground of their own competency, to keep the law. Thus it happened.
“In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the mount. And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself. 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. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. And Moses came, and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him. And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do.” Ex. 19:1-81In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. 2For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the mount. 3And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; 4Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. 5Now 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: 6And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. 7And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him. 8And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord. (Exodus 19:1‑8).
Up till this time all was grace. Redemption was accomplished; God had brought them to Himself. The murmurs and the unbelief of the people only served to spew the riches of God’s grace, and His tender mercy towards His poor failing people. But here the course of grace formally terminates, and obedience to the law is made the condition of blessing. This was a great change, a most important epoch in man’s history. How fully all this proves what man’s state of mind really was as to the things of God! 1. It proves that the preciousness of grace―so priceless to every Christian that knows it―had never truly entered the heart of the Jew. In place of leaving the promised blessing to rest simply on the infallibility of the Promiser, they vainly preferred to rest it on condition of their own obedience to the law. Never was man’s self-righteousness―the legality of the human heart―more fatally manifested than here, for the law worked wrath, and brought men under the curse, because of their utter failure. Had that unspeakably, inconceivably precious thing, grace, been appreciated, they would all have cried out as with the heart of one man, “May we have no such terms proposed to us, O Lord; no such responsibility laid upon us. We dare not place ourselves under such conditions, we should certainly lose our blessing. Thy grace, O Lord, is our only hope as sinners.” But no, they undertook to do all that the Lord had spoken. 2. Their conduct at Sinai also proves that they had no just sense of their own weakness in the sight of God, and no proper knowledge of His righteousness and holiness. Grace, grace without rebuke, is the only ground on which the sinner can stand, the only plea he can urge, and the only refuge in which he can find a shelter.
“Grace is a mine of wealth
Laid open to the poor;
Grace is the sovereign spring of health;
‘Tis LIFE FOR EVERMORE.”
Why the Law Was Given
But why, it may be asked, were such terms proposed to Israel, when they had no strength to keep them? God saw that it would be good and wholesome for man to know the truth about himself, and the nature and extent of God’s claims upon him; and for this end He gave the law. It was the perfect standard of what God required of man, of what man ought to be, and the prohibition of that to which he was strongly inclined. The Ten Commandments, for the most part, are like an interdict on the human will. “Thou shall not.”.... “Thou shalt not,” is the stern, prohibitory voice of the moral law.
It will now be seen that the office of the law was to detect and register man’s deeds, and put in evidence his character as a transgressor. “Wherefore then serveth the law?” says the apostle; “it was added because of transgression.” From the fall, down to the promulgation of the law at Sinai, man had been left to prove what his fallen nature is without the restraints of law: after that period we see what he becomes when subjected to an authority which forbids and opposes the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Without law men were lawless, under law they are lawbreakers; and when Christ came, full of grace and truth, Him they rejected and crucified.
But to return to the question. “Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgression.” Not because of sin, observe, but because of transgression. It is important to mark the difference. Again, the apostle says, “Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound.” Not, of course, that sin might abound. God could never sanction anything that would cause sin to abound. But what is the difference? some may inquire. Sin is the lawlessness of the flesh, a much deeper and wider thing than transgression. Sin was in man from the fall, but transgression is the violation of a known and positive law. Who filled the world with corruption and violence? And who afterward filled it with idolatry? Sinners, most assuredly. But this was before the law entered, and they are not called transgressors. “For where no law is there is no transgression.” ―The apostle does not say, observe, “Where no law is there is no sin.” This he could not say, for sin was as much in man before the law was given as after. At the same time let us not forget that all transgression is sin, though sin in its root and principle is never called transgression; it is not necessarily the violation of a given law.
Through the subtlety of Satan, some have endeavored to mystify the apostle’s reasoning, and affirm that where there is no law there is no sin. This is a most ruinous doctrine, entirely opposed to all scripture, and intended by the enemy to encourage men in doing their own will. We know that the natural tendency of the human heart is to do its own will, in spite of God, if it can. Thus Cain went and built a city, and established himself and his family, outside the presence of God. This was sin―the lawlessness of the flesh―and long before anything was heard of law as given by Moses. “Whosoever committeth sin,” according to the literal reading of 1 John 3:4,4Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. (1 John 3:4) “committeth lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.” Thus it was that God saw it to be necessary and important to introduce a law that would put man thoroughly to the test, place in evidence his real condition as a sinner, and raise the question of righteousness on the part of God. It never was intended that the law should bring man into blessing; that was infallibly secured by promise through the seed of Abraham; for man, being already a sinner, and loving sin, the holy law of God could only prove him guilty, and condemn him to its penal sanction. “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.” Gal. 3:1010For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. (Galatians 3:10).
The Object of the Law Misunderstood
Many excellent Christians, we are sorry to add, through the blinding power of Satan completely mistake the real object of the law. Hence they look to it as the rule of life. This is a subtle snare of the enemy to draw away the heart from Christ, and back into the world. For the law has its place in this life, not in heaven. We cannot take the law as the rule of life without being on the world’s, or Satan’s, ground; and there he has blinding power. The blessed Lord Jesus, now in heaven, is the only rule of life for the Christian. The law, because of man’s sinful condition, must be to him the rule of death. “For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.” The apostle first experienced in his soul death by the law, then death to the law, and then in grace beyond it, life in a risen Christ alive unto God. Communion with a heavenly Christ, through the power of the Holy Ghost, is the rule of a Christian’s life. “For me to live is Christ,” says the apostle. We may often come short of our divine standard, but to be content with a lower one is fatal to our practical Christianity. “He that saith he abideth in him, ought himself also so to walk even as he walked.” Thus we have the two apostles in perfect harmony on this grand practical subject. Need we wonder, then, that so many Christians are harassed with doubts and fears, when we know that the law―which never fails to curse the sinner―is their object, in place of Christ, who never fails to bless, and to bless abundantly, all who put their trust in Him?
The law looked on to Christ. “It was added because of transgression, till the seed [Christ] should come, to whom the promise was made.” This explains the character and limits of the legal period in the history of God’s dealings with man. It was the wholesome discovery to man himself of his real condition, that his conscience might be exercised, and that he might be well assured that there was no hope for him as a lost sinner but through faith in Christ, the heir of all the promises. For “the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.” Gal. 3; Rom. 4; 2 Cor. 3
For man “under sin” there cannot be one ray of hope apart from Christ as the crucified One. He is the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by Him. He died, the just One in the room of the unjust, that He might bring us unto God. He magnified. God’s law which man had broken, and endured its awful sanction, which man had incurred. Having fully met every claim of heaven, the accomplishment of all the promises is established in His Person. It is only by His precious blood that guilt can be removed from the conscience, so that the believer can say in holy triumph, “no more conscience of sins.” There is no such thing on the face of the whole earth as a good conscience, a peaceful mind, a happy heart, a holy path, apart from that blessed One. As the stars disappear before the rising sun, so all thoughts, all schemes, all doings, all epochs, all dispensations, as shadows flee away before the bright, effulgent, transcendent glories of the once lowly, but now exalted, Christ of God. He is the perfect covering for the eyes, the filling up, the overflowing of the human heart. All, all is gone for man save Himself. His death shuts the door on all the previous positions proposed to man. It writes death, absolute death, on the first man. His whole history is summed up and closed in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, the second Man, the Lord from heaven.
Forget not, then, O my reader, that where thou now art, as thou now art, without waiting to do something, or to be something, look to Jesus.
“There is life in a look to the crucified One,
There is life at this moment for thee.”
Every other door of hope is closed against thee, and closed forever. There is no salvation for any soul of man but through faith in Him. Oh, momentous truth! Thy soul may be quivering in the balance, a mighty struggle may be going on; who is to gain the victory? Christ or Satan? It must be the one or the other. There is no middle path or place; it must either be Christ and the full salvation of God, or Satan and the endless torments of hell. Oh, suffer not the enemy to deceive thee, to thy eternal ruin, by the attractions of the world; there is no time to lose; look to Jesus at once, believe on Jesus at once, give thy heart to Jesus at once, surrender thy whole self to Jesus at once, take up thy cross, which is death to the world, and follow Jesus at once; then shall thy soul be saved, thy heaven secured, and thy eternal, unmingled, happiness far, far, beyond the reach of every foe. “But now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” Eph. 2:1313But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:13).
The history of man, from Adam to Christ, may also be viewed as the history of God’s grace and goodness in His dealings towards him. Condemned, indeed, we know rebellious man to be, but still, in patience infinite, God’s grace lingers over him. The sentence, long pronounced, is not yet executed. But every day that sentence is suspended must be owned as another day’s grace to the world. There was no such lingering love shown to the rebel angels; their punishment was immediate and irremediable. But man! oh, living, abiding miracle of grace! is still borne with, and still allowed to prosper in this life, though he continues to despise the grace, and rebel against the majesty, of heaven; but the awful consequences of his unbelief will surely come, though the day of reckoning may be delayed. Thus the history of man is twofold: unbelief and apostasy on his part from the beginning, and patient grace and unwearied goodness on the part of God. We will now consider
Man’s Responsibility Under Law
Without attempting to trace or estimate the conduct of man, the Jew, as under law, from Sinai to the cross, we will briefly consider it as set forth by the Lord Himself in His parable of the householder.
“Hear another parable: There was a certain householder which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country. And when the time of fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another.” Here the Lord draws a picture of the love that has been shown, and the care that has been taken, in Jehovah’s dealings with Israel. But, alas! man utterly fails; God is dishonored in every way in His law, His authority, and His grace. It is Adam and Eve over again; the same old story of human responsibility ending in total ruin. The parable of our Lord answers perfectly to the song of the prophet in Isa. 5, where he sings of the goodness of God, and the transgressions of His people. Moses also, in his magnificent song (Deut. 32), celebrates the riches of God’s sovereign grace in blessing to His people Israel, and their sins and ingratitude, for which they would be sorely punished, but afterward restored to their own land, and all the nations rejoicing with them. We turn for a moment to the lovely song of Isaiah.
“Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: and he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.” This was God’s tender care of Israel. He had blessed them with all temporal blessings in a pleasant land, the Lord separated them to Himself, surrounded them with His favors, gave them His law, or, as the apostle says, “To them pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises.” Nothing was lacking on God’s part; but the nation, as a whole, had departed from Him, transgressed the covenant, and wholly corrupted their ways. And now the appeal of Jehovah to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the men of Judah is full of the most melting grace and tenderness. “Judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes.” But there was no fruit meet for God under the law; with man on the ground of responsibility there is nothing but failure, and as law must take its course, judgment follows. “And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down; and I will lay it waste.” The sad song, or lamentation, of all the prophets is man’s sin and God’s judgment.
But dark though the picture of the prophet be, and unrelieved by one ray of grateful love, there are deeper and darker lines in the one drawn by the blessed Lord. He has to portray His own death as man’s answer to God for all the favors and blessings He had lavished upon him since the day he fell in Eden. He has to refer to one servant after another being sent in the patience of God, and all meeting with the same treatment from the husbandmen. Every possible means had been tried to obtain fruit from the vineyard, but all in vain. Only one solitary hope remained. “They will reverence my son.” All know what happened, and what followed. “But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him.”
This was more than withholding the fruit of the vineyard―more than robbing God of His dues more than resisting Moses, or stoning the prophets; it was “the fullest outbreak of rebellious hatred, when tested by the presence of the Son of God in their midst. Probation is over; the question of man’s state, and of God’s efforts to get fruit from His vineyard is at an end..... Thus the death of Christ is viewed in this parable, not as the groundwork of the counsels of God, but as the climax of man’s sin, and the closing scene of his responsibility.”
Such was man, man under law, the holy law of God. Provoked by the restraints which the law put on his self-will, the evil that was there and at work manifested itself in the most open, daring, contempt for God’s authority. The truth of man’s moral state was now fully revealed, the law entered that the offense might abound. Do we not see many around us daily, but especially on the Lord’s Day, sinning with a high hand sinning openly, unblushingly, in trading, in seeking their own pleasure, on the first day of the week? and that, not in ignorance, but in contempt of the known and acknowledged authority of God? But the law was given that men might know the truth about himself and about the claims of God in righteousness; both have been fully discussed, and all is in evidence now. Insensible as the Jews were to their sad condition, they condemn the husbandmen, and thus bear witness against themselves. “When the Lord, therefore, of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard to other husbandmen, who shall render him the fruits in their season.”
The Moral History of Man Closed in the Cross
Thus closed the trial of man, of the Jew, of the first Adam. Four thousand years of probation had run their course. And what is the result of this long trial? Most humiliating to the pride and vanity of man―to the religious imagination and the reasoning powers of the self-righteous, self-sufficient man. The law brought out, and demonstrated in a variety of ways and conduct, what man really is. Not what man might or should have been, as men talk, but what man is as God proved. When tried by a divine standard, and under the most favorable circumstances, no good thing is found in fallen man, but the presence of every principle of evil. Search has been made, and the human heart is found to be deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? is the challenge; I, the Lord, is the answer. None can fathom the depths of its wickedness but Himself. But in the betrayal and crucifixion of Christ, man’s sin rose to its fullest height. The presence of perfect love and goodness in the Person of the blessed Lord, brought out the bitter enmity of the heart against God, and demonstrated, beyond a question, that man was utterly incorrigible.
We have now reached the end of man’s history, as under trial before God. His moral history closes in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Innocence lost; conscience disobeyed; promises despised; covenants broken; prophets persecuted; and, last of all, the Christ of God cast out and crucified. Henceforth man is to be dealt with as morally dead.
All blessing must now flow through Christ the Second man, and be received by faith, on the ground of sovereign grace alone. This has been essentially true from the beginning, but now that man is fully manifested, God takes His place more openly as the Saviour of the lost.