I have thought that a few remarks upon these subjects might, at the present moment, tend to help some to discern things that differ. In conscious weakness (such, indeed, as none but the God of all grace could stoop to use and own), I make the attempt.
1.-Revelation
By revelation, so far as man is concerned, I understand the uncovering before man of truth which man is capable of recognizing, but which he could never have attained to the knowledge of by his natural faculties as man. The nature of that which is thus made known (whether things past, present, or to come,-persons or doctrines, etc.), matters not; neither, as we shall see, does the mode in which the knowledge is communicated, etc., enter into the definition of revelation.
It must he clear to any simple mind, that a man does not, and cannot, intuitively know what preceded His existence here on earth, or what will follow after the moment actually present. And man-Adam in the garden of Eden-could not know intuitively, of the creation of that part of the world which preceded his own existence, as the account of it is given to us in Scripture (Gen. 1:1-26). If Adam knew it at all, it was by a divine communication. So, again, as to the revelation given to John in Patmos. The great mass of the things revealed were lying in the distant future. It was only by a divine communication, that John could know them.
Now, how Moses learned about the creation of the world we know not. Were it through a vision, in which the scenes were made to pass before him; or were it by tradition, handed down to him from Adam, of what God revealed to him; or were it by thoughts breathed into him by God, through a "Thus saith the Lord," as in Old Testament times; or were it that God told Moses himself about it, as one man speaketh face to face with a friend -as, indeed, He did communicate to Moses all about the tabernacle, etc., when on the mount-the mode of communication matters not; the how the revelation was made to Moses, who wrote the account of it for us, this is not the important thing. Again, John, in the Apocalypse, learned by seeing and hearing, and so far, the mode of the revelation being made to him was unlike the mode in which the Spirit of the Lord came upon a Balaam, a Saul, an Isaiah, etc., with a "Thus saith the Lord." Balaam and Saul had, though they were wicked men, a flow of truth breathed through them, of truth which no mere man could ever have attained to as mere man. It was a divine communication. Now, the mode of communication to Moses in the Mount, and to David (as to the patterns of the tabernacle, the temple, etc.) were of other kinds altogether from a "Thus saith the Lord." Again, the four evangelists saw and heard all that they wrote, apparently, as following their Master upon earth, and conversant with others that did so likewise. Much of what they wrote about was perfect as a revelation. They had seen and heard; "God manifest in the flesh, full of grace and truth." They had, as men in the body, had the Christ of God as their Leader and Master. HE was the revelation of God in the highest sense of the term. But then there were a number of outside facts which were not in themselves revelations (Acts 1:21,22), which, also, they had to write about.
Enough has been said to slew what revelation is. And, if we consider the person of our blessed Lord while upon earth, we shall see how the purest, fullest, most perfect revelation, even that of God himself in His Son (Heb. 1), can exist and be before man in open display quite independently of inspiration, or of sacred scripture. No man hath seen God at any time. "The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him (John 1:18; 1 John 1:1,2).
Inspiration
We have seen, then, that there may be revelation without inspiration. The blessed Lord Jesus was in His own person, as God manifest in the flesh, a pure revelation of the truth. Yet because of his very fullness-in whom dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily- we could not say he was inspired. To say so, would’ be an injurious limitation to His glory; for. He was not one merely breathed into; but the One who could breathe upon and into man. Of whom but Himself alone could it have been written, "Then said He to them again, Peace, be unto you; as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained" (John 20:21-23). Again, I think it may fairly be said, that inspiration is based upon revelation; so that wherever there is inspiration, there, of necessity, revelation is presupposed. There may be, as was shown before, revelation independently of inspiration; but there is never inspiration independent of revelation.
When Paul wrote (2 Tim. 3.16), All scripture is (θεοπνευστος) given-by-inspiration-of-God (God-inspired; literally, breathed of God), he gave us, from God Himself, a very solemn peculiarity of the scriptures. He is speaking of the scriptures, they are God-breathed. The essential distinctive quality “θεοπνευστος" attaches there to scripture; and so is distinguishable from what is written in 2 Peter 1:21, "The prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy MEN of God SPAKE as they were moved (carried) by the Holy Ghost." For here-in a retrospective view taken of prophecy, and prophecy as spoken in olden times to Israel-he speaks of the inspiration of the speaker. In the other passages (2 Tim. 3:16) it is said the scripture-all scripture-is inspired. The words of a man God-breathed, and the writings of a man God-breathed, are very distinguishable. To the faith of an individual believer, Scripture is much more; for, as used by the Spirit of God, it is, as the breath of God; giving life, nourishment, defense, etc., all instrumentally that faith needs (2 Tim. 3:17). I notice this, here, because it is important, and is connected with inspiration, not in the action of inspiring, but in an effect which is of immeasurable importance to man. There is a standard measure of truth; standard and touchstone which was given by inspiration, in the highest, and, as I believe, purest sense; there is one Book, the writing of which, and the book as written, is inspiration, and inspiration without alloy. The movement, by the Holy Ghost, of holy men, who spake, was, in itself, both divine and pure; but over and beyond this-grace gave A BOOK which contained all that truth which God saw was instrumentally needful for His glory-Satan’s defeat, and man’s blessing.
Holy men of old, and, in later times, Peter and Paul, were, at times, inspired to -say things which were inspired; but, also! they were able and did say, and do, things at times, which were not inspired. I have to judge Peter and Paul’s conduct in every way by their doctrine as written. Holy men of God were divinely moved to write a divinely inspired record of Satan’s antagonistic conduct to the Gospel; of man’s treacherous dealing against God; and of God’s grace, works, and purpose. For the thing written about is not necessarily of God, because the writer is inspired, and his writing inspired too. A record may be pure inspiration; it may be through a movement of inspiration in a man, who is, however, a man of like passions as ourselves; and the subject treated of may be of that which is most antagonistic to God, as the world, the flesh, and Satan. All, alas! all this we wanted.
All Scripture is inspired of God. If God had been pleased to write the Bible, as He wrote the two tables which Moses brake, there could have been no doubt that “God’s book" would have been a correct name for it, just as “God’s tables" was a correct name for the two tables of the Law (Ex. 32:15,16). The tables themselves and the writing were both God’s in this case. These were they which Moses brake (Ex. 34:1). But the second edition of the tables of the Law was not less God’s when written, and had not less authority and weight than had the first. They were prepared by Moses, but written upon by God (Ex. 34:1; Deut. 10:1-4). They were a divinely accredited transcript of the Divine mind upon the subject then in hand, as much as were the first.
Just so, though God did not write with His own finger the Bible, the book was God’s book; the writing was divinely-breathed, and it was thus a divinely accredited transcript of the Divine mind upon the subject in hand, quite as much so as if His own finger had traced it on a rock, and that rock was before us.
It is clear, both as to a Moses and a Paul, that they were fallible men; it is clear, too, that they did speak at times unadvisedly with their lips: but God not only revealed to them thoughts of His own, but also inspired them to write; and, not only that, but inspired the writing. I rest on this, because I find so few mark the importance of the differences alluded to. I could not say of a Moses or of a Paul, that he was the perfect transcript of one single truth in God (that can be said only of Him, the Son of Man, who is the truth); but of Scripture, given by a Paul or a Moses, I can say, This is as much and as purely the transcript of the Divine mind, as if the finger of God had written it.
If God thus wrote, through the instrumentality of man, about Satan, or the world, or man, the record is divine: the subjects treated of might be (as I said, and. as we wanted God’s explanation of such as were in violent opposition, as Satan; or a system in which man can intoxicate himself with the pleasures of sin, which are but for a season (and so sin away the day of grace), as the world, or man, in his imbecility, vibrating between opposite influences, yet, like a stone rolled down a hill or cast into a pit, always descending, as man’s flesh: subjects in insubjection to God, yet of which He has given a divine exposition, in the past, present and future of their histories.
As we have seen, revelation may be without any inspiration: also, as in the case of a Balaam and an Agabus, it might be through inspiration. The prophetic Spirit might move in a man, and make revelations through him: There is an interesting point to be noticed, and that is, the action of the Spirit in inspiration, when gleaning up for writing revelations which had been made otherwise than by inspiration. It is illustrated in the four gospels, as much as in a Moses, an Ezra, etc. The Spirit brought to the memory of each evangelist the very things which he, in particular, was to record; when Truth, which had been revealed to sight and hearing, was brought afresh by the Spirit to the mind of each evangelist who had to write it-this bringing to mind was inspiration (John 14:26; 15:26, 27; 16:8-11, 13-15, 25). It is often quite separable from revelation, as in the historic facts recorded in the four gospels. But then, as I have urged before, there is another thing here besides that Divine recalling to mind of past revelations and facts, as doubtless Peter had when preaching at Pentecost,-and that is, such a full power put forth, somehow or the other, as to enable the writer to pen down that which contains nothing but what God would have inscribed, and yet contains all that infallibly present.
The distinction, then, between revelation, inspiration, and scripture, with its infallibility, is evident. A remark or two more on this part of our subject may suffice. One has said, “All scripture, then, is given by inspiration of God. Yet some scripture, by no means all, is given by revelation of God."
If I look at Peter-a godly Jew, fearing God, and listening, perhaps, like Timothy, to Jewish scripture from childhood; inquiring about Messiah, and then following Him as a disciple-he saw and heard the blessed Master and, all the circumstances through which they passed.
If I turn from Peter’s case to Paul’s, what a difference meets me. He had been a bitter persecutor, ignorant of God, and a blasphemer of Christ-but all was revealed directly to him by Christ in ascension glory. Then if I think of myself-with nothing but God and the word of His grace: no sight, no hearing of the Lord as a man upon earth; no open vision, no fresh revelation; but the means, of all my blessing found in God and the word of His grace-I see no difficulty in tracing vast differences in the modes of God’s dealing-differences, too, which throw light upon the distinctions of revelation, inspiration, and the characteristic of the word of the Lord, in the light in which we have looked at it.
I would now turn to consider my subject in a somewhat different connection.
There are several deeply important purposes connected with the revealed mind of God. 1St. The revelation of it was and is the vindication of the divine glory in a world of sin; 2ndly, the committing of the oracles of God to a people, however formed upon earth, constituted an intelligible ground of responsibility; 3rdly, the application by divine power of His word, is His means of connecting man with Him in blessing for time and for eternity.
1St. By the word of the Lord not only were the heavens made, but, it was by the word of the Lord that. Adam’s charter of blessing was fixed, and that the continuance of blessing was made to hinge upon his continued subjection and obedience to that word so spoken. But, while the higher parts of the testimony were thus fixed by the word of the Lord, there was also that-a creation all around-which rendered a. testimony to Him in His eternal power and God-head, in the very works which He had previously called into being. When, however, sin had entered through man’s disobedience, the creation-testimony did not suffice any longer. It would not have been per se, even in its best estate, a sufficient testimony for God Himself when dealing with sinners; and man’s rebellion against God left the creation, in a measure, under the power of one who was an enemy; and the conscience of man, when estranged from God, could find no answer in creation to the new need which sin had created. There was, in truth, nothing the voice of which could meet the sinner’s need. When God announced that the seed of the woman should bruise the head of the serpent, there was introduced in this word that which vindicated God fully in His new work, and in the circumstances. It had a testimony, too, in it, before principalities and powers, which spake to man of that purpose of God in redemption, which alone could meet the sinner’s need. It was a word spoken by God and spoken to the serpent, though in the presence of man, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel (Gen. 3:15).
Now this was the germ of that which is the perfect vindication of God and Godhead under the new circumstances, both in itself and in the way of putting it forth; it contained everything that man needed as to his position and self; and it presented that which could give blessing. That God could pass by what had just occurred, was impossible. Creation told of His eternal power and Godhead; His truthfulness was pledged by the word of warning which He had spoken to Adam. He might have vindicated Himself against this new inroad of His adversary the devil, by putting forth destroying power. But He was God; and He drew His motives from within Himself. He had plans and counsels of displaying the exceeding riches of His grace, which would not have been answered by destroying judgments: He took up the question as one of controversy with Satan. Man had lost, thrown up, the first place in that scene-yielded it to Satan. The seed of the woman whom Satan had beguiled should bruise the serpent’s head.
Here was a vindication of Himself before all intelligences. Satan, the destroyer and the liar, should find the destruction of his power and the vanity of his own lie, through a feeble one whom he had betrayed to destruction by a lie, and should himself work out his own destruction. The Paradise made to display the eternal power of. Godhead in a creation placed by the Word of God under Adam, but which Adam had betrayed, Satan should he allowed to turn to a trap and a snare in which to cage himself. Man had sunk to a place of zero. He must now choose between God and Satan. If he listened to self and circumstances, he would go on under Satan, and having made choice of him, would share his fate. If he would, even amid inward and outward ruin, receive and own the Word of God, he would find himself rescued from Satan, and identified with God in blessing. Such was the divine plan. But as he had ‘lost all through neglecting God’s warning, man could alone be rescued from his lost estate by the God, who, in his hearing, had declared that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head, and by honoring that Word. This declaring things to come-the end from the beginning-is much rested upon in Isaiah (as in ch. 40-43) as an indisputable mark of divine glory. And if we think of Adam and Eve in Eden, ruined in them, selves, under Satan, and of the Lord having then and there dropped a word which was to contain a seven ‘thousand years’ history of man upon earth, and then to issue in a new heaven and a new earth; and Satan bruised in the lake prepared for him and his angels, we can well see the propriety of this setting forth of God’s consciousness of the worth of His Word, and of His determination that man should bow to it. As to the handing down of the Word of God, doubtless it was handed down from Adam to Moses. But the writing of that which had preceded, so far as God was pleased to have it put on record, was quite a new thing, and involved inspiration... 2nd. It was not done, so far as we know, until Israel was owned of God as a people, who were the center of His governmental plans for the earth. They were made the keepers of the Oracles of God. The deposit to them referred to in Rom. 3:1, 2, "What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the Oracles of God," is one thing. The consequence of this, in certain dispensational dealings of God with them (as referred to in Rom. 11) is another. Thus, the nation Israel became witnesses of God upon: earth (Isa. 43:9, 10, 12; 44:8). The responsibility in time is quite separable from the question of the bearing of truth upon eternity. This is true in the Old Testament times, and may be proved in various ways.
"Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore. I will punish you for all your iniquities" (Amos 3:1; 2) [see also Isa. 1; Balaam, Num. 22; 24 and Jer. and Ezek.]. So, also, Paul separated between a dispensation of the Gospel, having been committed to him (1 Cor. 9:17; Eph. 3:2), and his own faithfulness (1 Cor. 9:27), and broadly states that his ministry had an end, independent of the kind of effect which it took upon the souls of his hearers (2 Cor. 2:14-17): "Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh. manifest the savor of His knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: to the one we are the savor of death unto death; and to the other the savor of life unto life. And. who is sufficient for these things? For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of. God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ." This is, in principle, the same as Ezek. 2:5: "And they, whether, they will hear, or whether they will forbear (for they are a rebellious house), yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them." This responsibility exists now-little thought of as it is. There is among men a class which has had the Oracles of God committed to it; and those oracles so committed to the nominal church, constitute a responsibility: a responsibility which will be distinctly judged (Rev. 22:11-15).
3rd. The application, in divine power, of the Word of God, or His means of connecting man with Him in blessing for time and for eternity.
It will be seen, that I make a distinction between revelation, inspiration, and infallibility. I do so, because they differ in themselves. I must now call attention to another difference. We may not forget that the connections of a truth, often modify, qualify, and affect its force. For instance, if I speak of the Bible, I say of it, absolutely and without qualification: “A revelation from God; a divinely inspired book: infallibly perfect."
If I knew how to express, more strongly than I have thus done, the absolute perfection of Scripture as a standard of truth; that the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible is owned by me as alone the standard of truth; that it contains revelations of things, such as none but God could make; that it was (in the writing of it)-fully and divine inspired, and, therefore, infallibly perfect; I say, if I knew how to express myself more strongly on these matters than I have done, I would gladly do it. But if I have to speak of myself as a man, I cannot forget that a perfect standard of truth, while it is enough to vindicate God, and to condemn men, and every man, is not enough to save a soul.; not enough in itself and without the Spirit’s blessing, to make me now a servant of God, and hereafter a possessor of glory. And again, if I speak of myself as a saint, I am not, because I cannot apply the terms Revelation, Inspiration, and Infallibility to myself, in the same way as I can apply them to Scripture, I am not", I say, to deny that I am taught of God; have an unction from the Holy One, whereby I know all things; that I am dependent upon the inbreathing of the Spirit, and upon his revelations of truth to my soul. True: in all these actings toward me and towards His saints, He who acts is divinely perfect, for the Holy Ghost is God; and He is subserving the present glory of Christ in so acting in me. But I am an earthen vessel, with a law of sin and death in me, and much dross. The Teacher is a living Teacher, and is infallibly perfect; and, having given a standard of truth, He applies such parts of it to my soul as grace appoints. Am I infallible then? No. An Infallible Teacher may teach infallibly that which a fallible pupil may learn but defectively. There is the revelation of the truth in itself as a whole to a soul, by the Spirit, as giving life through the spiritual knowledge of the Lord Jesus. This is a thing done once and at once; and there is the development, in detail, of the truth in the affections, conscience, and understanding of the believer. In teaching the saved child, the Infallible Teacher may, in grace, only breathe in parts of truth at a time; and the most fallible disciple may not receive the part so presented to him, perhaps, without adding on something of his own to it, or dropping some portion. But to see the infallibility of the Teacher, His perfect power to breathe in, and His perfect power to reveal fully and perfectly, and in every detail, to such an- one as I am-all truth-you must wait a little. God has His own ways of acting. He will not, on the one hand, let you condemn me; because, having taken me up in grace, He has reserved the full expression of what His apprehension of me is, until the Lord Jesus comes; nor, on the other, will He allow me either to accredit myself with having wrought that which He has wrought in me, or to entertain the shadow of a doubt as though His promise were not as sure of fulfillment as it is of having been spoken and written.
The perfection of Revelation, Inspiration, and Infallibility of God’s standard (among men) of truth in the Scriptures is, to any simple mind, easily seen to be quite distinct from the glory of the Holy Ghost as an infallible Teacher, Revealer, and Inspirer of truth to the believer. And pitiful it is to find, that, while they who are babes in Christ find no difficulty, some that count themselves wise, see no alternative for them but to decide that the saints are either infallible in their views, and enjoyers of new revelations; and perfectly inspired, or can have no moral spiritual certainty in their souls, because of their being still in bodies of sin and death. There is but one thing more sad, and that is the ecclesiastical fallacy of supposing that both experiences exist. "I, the infallible teacher, and my fellows, the taught, dependent upon me." What is man!! Dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1); a child of wrath (ver. 3); having the devil for his father (John 8:38-44) and god (2 Cor. 4:4); at enmity with God (Col. 1:21): and fully under the power of the world, the flesh and the devil, was Saul. of Tarsus when grace picked him up. And, truly, in this case Christ was found of one that sought Him not; was made manifest to one that inquired not after Him (Rom. 10:20). Yea, more; there was aggressiveness in love on the part of Christ, towards this poor lost one (see Acts 9).
Nothing could meet the needs of the case, save the free gift of a new life; eternal life in the Son (Col. 3:3); free pardon (Eph. 1:7); and acceptance in the Beloved (Eph. 1:6.); the adoption of children (ver. 5,); translation into the Kingdom of God’s dear Son (Col. 1. 13,); the spirit of adoption, crying, Abba, Father (Rom. 8.15), sent into his heart (Gal. 4:6), as a token of the relationship which faith in the Son involved (Gal. 3 and 4) There is nothing homogenous between God and Satan, or between the state of a child of wrath and that of an adopted son of God. No grace of congruity between a Saul of Tarsus and a Paul. Contrast-well and strongly defined-and not similarity-marks the opposite extremes. When I look at a Saul of Tarsus, the bitter persecutor and destroyer of the faith, and then look at Paul, as he shall be hereafter in glory, most highly owned and blessed, in the glory given by God to Paul’s Master, “mercy, from first to last," is all that I can think or say of the golden cord and the divine conduct, that passed him from one position and state to the other.
To originate life, to sustain and uphold life (in any form of it), is not work for a creature, however highly blessed. But to give fellowship with the eternal life that is in the Son of God; to quicken one who was dead in trespasses and sins, is clearly a work pertaining to Him alone, who is the Second Adam, life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). And this life, the source of which He, Himself, is (Col. 1, 2, 3) the communicator of which He is (John 4:14)—the divine nature communicated (2 Peter 1:4)—is a blessing of such a nature, that it is debtor in nothing to the party to whom it is given; and, when given, owes its sustainment, preservation, and guidance, entirely to God. This, as we shall see, does not prevent God from subjugating all that was in the man to the new nature; nor His using certain things which were in the man for His own glory. Let us not be unstable and unlearned, and wrest scripture to our own destruction: for some, because God dwells and works in man, would accredit the flesh and themselves thereby; so putting self above God and His grace, and that to their own dishonor: for He will not give His glory to another.
The verse, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit (John 3:6)," proves that the blessed Lord owned not only two sources of being, "flesh," and spirit;" but also two channels of wisdom, energy, and purpose.
I would now look (first), at the birthright portion of an individual so blessed; and, then (secondly), at his place in the body; and (thirdly, and) lastly, at the bearing of the teacher.
The doctrine of the Lord (Matt. 6:16-34) teaches us that the purpose of the heart decides its state and its condition. If the glory of God, and subjection to His will, is the purpose -of my heart-light, with all its attendant blessings, is mine. If, on the other hand, my inward purpose is to serve myself in any way, then dark, tress, and want of blessing, is mine. This flows out of the reality of Divine glory: God cannot deny Himself. If any have found grace to seek to subserve His pleasure, they hold their proper position as creatures, and they will find that He will ‘not deny Himself if any man will do God’s will he shall know as to the doctrine. How many a. soul has found a buoy in that declaration, as well as a just ground of humiliation as to itself, and a complete uncovering of the awfulness of its past voluntary insubjection to God. But, when so exercised, it learns that "this is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom hath sent." (John 6:29.)
"For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father.. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life" (John 5:22-24).
Paul’s word (Gal. 3:26.) settles summarily both the principle on which we are blessed, and the character of the blessing: "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." The principle is faith-wise; the position into which we are brought is, that of being children of God. This is authoritative, and obliges us to judge all our doubts and fears as being dishonoring to God [Rom. 3:4, Heb. 6:18-20], and as proofs of the contrast between us and Christ. All blessing is ours already in Him; and are we too much occupied with our own feelings to think about Him? Nay; there is to the ruined, rest in Him. In Him, there is, to faith, Divine certainty of salvation for the lost. So also as to the blessing which they have as children, “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father" (Gal. 4:6). The cry of "Abba" comes, even before they know the truth which justifies to their understandings its being addressed by them to God? Whence comes it? The Spirit in them is the spirit of adoption (Rom. 8:16), and they are all taught of God (John 6:45). They have, as babes among the children of God, an unction from the Holy One, that they may know all things (1 John 2:20), and the Spirit has his own thoughts and modes of deduction (Rom. 8:17): “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with. Him, that we may be also glorified together."
2ndly. The believer’s place in the body.
Life and blessing are my own: life and blessing too which set me apart in isolate Nazariteship to God, even the Father; to Christ who is the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, the Paraclete; and this, ere ever I have to do with another man. And more than that, the whole flow of my life and service is as an individual before God. I cannot, for a brother’s sake, or for a fellow servant’s sake, forget whose I am and whom I serve. In saying this, I am not losing sight of the Father’s heart being upon all His children; or of Christ being Head of the Body His Church; or of the truth of the descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost making the church an habitation of God, through the Spirit, and displaying the union of the members in one body. Not so; but I am guarding against a very common abuse of these precious truths, by the which the individual acts towards the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, according to the low sunken state of those around Him, instead of acting towards his associates and before the world, according to that which is true in Christ in God; and true to my heart, at least if I have faith, through the Holy Ghost.
I now cite a few verses, as showing the individual dealing of Christ with the saved people, and the revelation to them of a Father’s love.
Matt. 10:19,20: “But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what you shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you."
John 14:19-23: “Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him."
Eph. 5:18,19: “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord."
1 Thess. 4:9: “But as touching brotherly, love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another."
I must now notice a jealousy which exists in some minds against the use of the word "revelation," in one sense and connection in which it certainly is used in scripture. Now, clearly all jealousy against what is scriptural, is prejudice and prejudicial, and flows from defective light and knowledge; it is prejudicial to the party under it, and leaves the soul exposed to error. In a day like the present, when the lightness and irreverent levity of man’s self-sufficiency has impugned the reality of God’s having written a book, which is a revelation-one can quite understand how a reaction has been produced in an opposite direction to that of the current of avowed infidelity; so that I attribute no wrongness of intention; yet, as a matter of fact, Christian men are often jealous of, one scriptural use of the word reveal, and by their jealousy prepare fresh weapons for the, enemy’s hand against themselves and others.
My statement, then, is this: not only did God by revelation bring out truth, and place it by inspiration in the Bible, which truth man could never have guessed at without revelation-and this in vindication of Himself, and for the condemnation of man-whether men will hear or whether they will forbear-but, also, if the individual is to be blessed, God has to reveal the truth to the soul of the individual believer. For man (and much more—fallen man) is not competent to take to himself, to understand, and to appropriate, even the most palpable, most distinct, truth which God has disclosed. But I will give some of the texts.
They are texts which I present to the simple reader, and leave them with him before the Lord, with the single remark, that they seem to me to prove that the use of the words "revelation," "reveal," etc., is not in: scripture limited to God’s bringing out, or setting forth, truth which could not otherwise have been known-but is extended also to the action of Christ, or of the Spirit of Christ, in pouring into individual souls truth which had been divinely revealed previously.
Matt. 11:25,27: “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son Will reveal him" (Corn. Luke 10:22, etc.).
Phil. 3:14,15: "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you."
Matt. 16:17: “And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven."
Eph. 1:15-17: “Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not. to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him."
Gal. 1:15,16: “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood."
1 Cor. 14:30: "If anything be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace." (See also 1 Cor. 2:20.)
The reader may further examine for himself, the difference between, 1St, “The shining out from God, of truth;" and 2nd, "Its shining in to many hearts, and sometimes out again therefrom." (Luke 10:22; 17:30; Rom. 1:17, 18; 8:18, 19; Eph. 3:5).
3rdly. The teacher given of God.
There is, in all true teaching, a present action of the Holy Ghost in the teacher himself. I say not discernible to him; but still it is there; for, if it be not there, then the energy that is there, is that which is born of the flesh, and, is flesh; and human intellect is left to use known Scripture, and the gift of aptitude to talk.
Ex. 3:11-4:16; Jer. 1:6, 7; 2 Cor. 2:6; 10:10, show with what weakness, and fear, and trembling, and (alas!) even guilty unbelief, the service of the most highly-endowed may be mixed.)
It has been quietly assumed by some, that the truth of God is a theory which is committed to man’s care to hold, and to the teacher’s intellect only to communicate. Because, in natural things, a man cannot give you what he does not possess, or teach that which he does not know, I cannot assume this to be true in divine things. I admit that I could not give the first principles of Hebrew grammar, and arithmetic, etc., unless I possessed them and knew them thoroughly myself. But is this true as to divine things? I say No: a young believer, whose heart and conscience has been reached by truth, through the Spirit of all grace, will often (if he does not go beyond his own experience, but, modestly, presents merely what himself has felt) be found to be a wise teacher. He cannot speak as a doctor; but he speaks of that which he has felt and known. Then, again, some of the best teaching that I ever heard was impromptu; the teacher learning in his chapter as he taught others. The Lord giving quite as much to him in teaching; yea, sometimes, more than to the taught, though all might get a portion. And, again, when I am taught, that which the teacher presents may blend itself with matter previously in my mind; matter which is altogether beyond the teacher’s ken, or even standing, and which elicits truth new to me: truth which the teacher, never thought of.
To degrade a teacher given of God to a mere communicator of mentally known truth, is not to honor God, or to exalt oneself as His servant.
God has His own way of making a standard of truth- set forth, in vindication of Himself and in warning to all, before all. But He never left that standard to accredit itself, nor His servants (prophets, apostles, or gifted men) to themselves in applying it.
"Paul may plant, Apollos water; it is God that giveth the increase" (1 Cor. 3:6). "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit" (Zech. 4:6). Apollos-how was it that he came to listen to an Aquila and a Priscilla (Acts 18:26), disciples of Paul, as they were (ver. 2)-when he afterward had no ear to hear Paul (1 Cor. 16:12)? I suppose, that Paul was not one whit behind the chiefest of the apostles; but he found, with all his knowledge, gifts, and faithfulness, that he could not breathe into any soul, either gospel for sinners or truth for saints. He had to be faithful; and God was honored, and man’s wickedness was shown out, when he was faithful: for he was a sweet-smelling savor to God, both in them that are saved, and in them that perish. But the being a savor of life unto life; the building up, too, in the most holy faith, supposes a present action of the Holy Ghost attending the word, and this may not be ignored any more than the overruling and suggestion, by the Spirit, in the teacher.
Note on Inspiration
In English, the word inspiration, usually, and not incorrectly, drops from the lips and pens of common people, and of accurate scholars too, as meaning "a breathing into."
The Church of England Prayer-book may fairly be quoted in this connection; viz., in proof of what both learned and unlearned mean by "inspiration."
"Almighty God, unto whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid; cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of Thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love Thee, and worthily magnify Thy name, etc. See the Collect in the Communion Service.
The idea is simple, and, as stated here, is scriptural: we need not only the written word, but, also, the inbreathing of the Holy Ghost, if love and, holiness are to be perfected in us. Each believer is a temple of the Holy Ghost- truly: but who can read Rom. 8:26 and 27, and Heb. 4:12 and 13, without admitting that, the Scripture theory is, that the Holy Ghost does form desires and prayers; and does apply a word to the heart, in secret; and that this is not of, man but of God. See, also, Phil. 1:19, "through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ;" also 2:12, 13.
The address to God, as Inspirer and Hearer of prayer, is commonly known; and is not, that I am aware of, unscriptural.
Again, in Bunyan, we find this same idea. He describes one of his experiences, ere he found peace. A thought possessed his soul, which seemed breathed into him, concerning the Christ; the thought was Sell Him, sell Him, sell Him, sell Him." Which he endeavored to outspeak, and speak down by the words: "Not for a thousand worlds, not for a thousand worlds, not for a thousand worlds." But in vain; for the thought which Satan had breathed in (it was a Satan-inspired thought) could not be smothered by Bunyan’s words. Satan’s spirit was stronger than his. And are not fiery darts often spoken of as Satan-inspired, breathed into us by Satan.
The damsel possessed with a spirit of divination (Acts 16:6) was Satan-inspired.- So were the oracles of old. See also Acts 5:3; and 1 Cor. 7:5; 2 Cor. 11:14; 12:7; 2 Thess. 2:9, etc., etc. And what is witch craft (Gal. 5:20) as still practiced in the dark corners of the earth?
What, again, in the better sense, but inbreathing from Christ, does Matt. 10:19, 20 refer to? And who, that is Christ’s does not know what it is, when sometimes a light surprises the Christian on his road." How, when heavy and cast down, some new thought will come like a breeze o’er his soul,-thought about Christ and heaven; and how, when fully set upon some coming action, a thought of danger and warning will come over him, which, in the end, proves to have been of God.."
There is nothing’ superstitious in trusting to GOD and the word of His grace. And it is not soundness of faith to despise impression and do violence to impulses without first judging them in God’s presence by the word. If they are against His word, let them be despised.
I have no doubt that sober Christian men are quite correct in speaking of inspiration in the sense referred to; as a privilege of the believer; and yet, at the same time, dividing, as the intelligent do, between this and that fullest kind of divine inspiration, in which not only God breathes with the truth, but in which He adds quite ANOTHER THING; and that is infallible perfectness; so as to enable a prophet of old to say, and to say correctly, "Thus saith the Lord;" so as to enable a Stephen to be so full of faith and the Holy Ghost, when he was a-dying, that (as I suppose) all that he then said was not only divinely breathed into him, but divinely expressed by him. This is what people mean by plenary inspiration. All Scripture is God-inspired (2 Tim. 3:16).
2 Peter 1:15-21 brings before us a variety of things connected with this same subject -
(1) Apostolic handing down (2) of teaching, (3) concerning a special revelation, (4) communicated in a most wonderful vision, (5) when Christ was on the Mount of Transfiguration, (6) according with a more sure word of written prophecy, which (7) came through a direct movement of the Holy Ghost as to the speaker.
2 Peter 1:15-21: Moreover I will endeavor that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of His Majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with Him in the holy mount. We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.