LITTLE as the world may think of such unwelcome subjects, it is nevertheless guilty, condemned, and on the eve of judgment.
The witness of a broken law is, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become “guilty before God” (Rom. 3:1919Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. (Romans 3:19)). As a measure and a test of human responsibility it shows this, for “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”
But, apart from the teaching of God’s Word, whoever thinks of applying this test, “the glory of God,” to man’s moral condition? Not the moralist, the philanthropist, nor the social reformer. These aim at the improvement of conduct and of morals, at the doing of good to others, and so of greater happiness here; making the world more attractive, life more pleasant, and people generally more agreeable to each other. But this is all too late, for “he that believeth not is CONDEMNED ALREADY.” Light has come into the world, and has been rejected. Love was there too in perfect fullness, but man would have none of it (John 3:16-1916For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (John 3:16‑19)); and so the wrath of God abideth on every unbeliever. Solemn words, tremendous sentence: “guilty before God,” “condemned already,” “wrath of God is revealed from heaven.”
Now, dear reader, this being so, on the authority of the word of Him who cannot lie, is there not a shelter provided from this impending judgment? Yes; blessed be God, there is; and where is it?
Let Exodus 12:1313And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. (Exodus 12:13) supply the answer; read the whole chapter. The testimony of God by Moses (the light) had been rejected and rebelled against. The world, in its then highest wisdom and most advanced civilization, had, up to a certain point, successfully imitated the miracles accompanying that testimony as credentials; and Satan had used this fact to harden the hearts of Pharaoh and his servants to withstand the truth, and refuse obedience to the claims of God.
Opportunity of repentance there had been, pleading and expostulation; but now, on this solemn “night of the Lord,” judgment must be executed; there could be no longer respite. Now that God was coming into Egypt as a Judge, the whole question of sin was raised: How could Egyptian sinners be judged, and Israelite sinners be saved? For we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth; there can be no unrighteousness with Him who is the Judge of all. If God were kept out as Judge (and safety could be in no other way), there must be an atonement made to Him for sins; He must have a sufficient reason for passing over the houses of His people.
The slain lamb, and its blood sprinkled on the lintel and doorposts, was typical of that atonement. The sign of death for God’s eye alone, was the evidence that the judgment of death had been in that household, and the destroying angel need not enter. The word of God, His authority for the work of judgment, was the guarantee and pledge of safety for all under that shelter. The solemn events of that night with all its surroundings, separated from this enlightened age by more than three thousand years, furnish us with a true, if a faint, picture of the position of the world and all in it today.
Here, a company of people, as truly shut in for safety by God as Noah and his family had been long before, are found as pilgrims all ready for the journey, loins girded, staff in hand, eating in haste “the Lord’s Passover.” Theirs was the obedience of faith, under the shelter of God’s own providing; His word was the ground of their confidence.
Outside, death and judgment were everywhere: “And at midnight there was a great cry.” The Egyptians had to own, “We be all dead men.” The Israelites had figuratively owned it before God, by accepting the sign of death as their shelter, and the righteousness and glory of God were pledged to their deliverance. And so believers in Christ now are “waiting for God’s Son from heaven,” and feeding upon Christ.
“He that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me;” but it is Christ as God presents Him to me— “Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water.” It is a Christ who has passed through the judgment of God’s holy indignation against sin.
His blood is the answer for my sins before God, and all His divine perfection and excellence and acceptance in the heavens are for me as a forgiven sinner; I feed upon Him.
Now, dear reader, which is your company? where are you? under the sentence of death? or under the shelter of death — the death of Christ?
G. S. B.