GOD has never left Himself Without a witness to Himself, or without a testimony to the world, since the fall. In fact, these are the abiding proofs that He has neither given up His sovereign rights to Creation through sin, nor 'His control over it through Satan, even when man and the world gave Him up.
Enoch was perhaps the earliest example of this, for " he pleased God," and was both a witness for God, in the day when he was not found, because of, his translation, and a testimony to the, world, because they were all left behind him upon the earth.
The call of Abraham, by the God of glory, became a still further witness on the one hand, and a testimony on the other. This " calling out was also on the ground of holiness and truth, and was yet gracious than Enoch's translation to heaven, because it left Abraham, as " the friend of God," still upon the earth as -His witness, in their midst; though it likewise put him as a living testimony against mankind, on account of., the idolatry out of which God called him. This difference is plain: Abraham was kept here below; as a witness for God, in his daily walk before the world; whilst Enoch was taken away from it by translation and " was riot found." The heavens were to become his home, and they received their first man, as the elect of God "; and, as the precursor of those who are presently to " be caught up to meet the Lord in the air." " Both these principles are of immense importance. The translation of Enoch abstracted him from the world; whilst the calling out of Abraham—separated him from its evil, and its awful departure from God afterward at Babel. It is of consequence to notice, likewise, that Noah and the ark filled an intermediate place; between Enoch's translation, and the calling out of Abraham, being neither akin to the one, nor to the other. It brought in another principle of action, and declared the sovereignty of God, in saving out of universal judgment, an elect family for the re-commencement of the earth Which is now." These are the three great and distinguishing circles, which contain." the elect of God " (before that Christ came), and include the various ways of God towards them, in different ages of the world. They make manifest, also, the respective and diverse revelation of His thoughts and intentions concerning each and all, in the times and seasons which He has appointed for their accomplishment, to His own glory, and their full and everlasting blessing. The first in this primeval order, and the most glorious in fulfillment, is the circle of ",God's elect " of which the translated Enoch was the exemplar, and represents those who are Christ's at His second coming. A heavenly family who " will then be caught up to meet Him and be presented in the presence of His Father "faultless, and with exceeding joy." The second is the circle of God's elect," in which the called out Abraham appears, as the head of a family of faith, to walk with God upon the earth, in separation from the world, the flesh, and the devil. Still he lived under the power of a calling, by virtue of which he looked forward to a city, even a heavenly, whose builder and maker is God. The-third is the circle of "Goad's elect" in which the spared Noah, with the ",two and two of all flesh, wherein was the breath of life," came forth from the ark, having been saved out of the terrible death and judgment of God upon the world before the flood. He represents those who will be redeemed from amongst men, to replenish the millennial earth, according to its' new order of peace and prosperity, under- the Lord of lords and King of kings; after the wrath of God has cleansed the world again from its corruption and blasphemies, as -by a flame of fire.
We may now pass away from " the elect Of God " under these general and world-wide considerations of our subject, to the special and peculiar character of " the elect " in this dispensation, as those Whom God has "predestinated to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will." Marvelous as this definition of God's 'elect is, both as to its manner and object, yet because it is so wonderful, it must needs be sustained by an analogous power, whether for our present communion with the Father's love, or in its full accomplishment to the glory of God by us,; and for the joy and satisfaction of Christ eternally., And' so it is; for who can gainsay the one or the other, who reads its 'infinitude and height of blessing, on the part of God, in the words that follow," to the praise of the glory of his grace? " or our own meetness and title for it, as " the elect of God," under the assurance, " wherein he hath made. us accepted in the beloved?
Another principle is to be observed by us, as regards our election: that, when God acts towards us, according to His own counsels in Christ, He always makes Himself the rule of His wisdom and power" in their accomplishment. There is a double blessedness in this fact, he cause it connects indissolubly His own glory, which is always His object, with our own portion in Christ by His own grace j so that these two are concurrent, and reach their accomplishment together. Were., it not so, " the exceeding riches," or " the love which passeth knowledge," or "filled into all the fullness of God," or " the joy unspeakable and full of glory," might well overpower us by their immensity, and leave no more spirit. in us. But observe how every purpose of God is carried out to perfection towards us, as "His own elect," by our being first created anew in Christ Jesus,-" according as he hath chosen us in him, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy, and without blame before him, in love." Indeed we shall only add what completes the circle of our Own distinct blessing, if we observe that the Spirit of God has no other form, by which to address us whilst upon this earth, than as " the elect of 'God, holy and beloved." To whom else could He say, " Be, ye imitators of God as dear, children, and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us?" Or, "Put on therefore bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness' of mind, meekness, long-,suffering?" Or again, "Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye? "
As we have observed, God must needs be, and is, a rule to Himself, whenever His counsels come into operation in the new- creation (because they are apart from all creature responsibility), just as truly as in the material one, when He said, " Let there be light, and there was light," for it is Himself who must produce it.
There is, however, this difference, and a very great one it is, between the two, for in the old creation there was innocency in' Adam, and love in God, without any existing divergence, and therefore nothing to judge. Grace and truth would have been out of place before the fall, but have come in 'since by Jesus Christ, because the holiness of God and the 'sin of man are in antagonism, and are as wide asunder as was the light from the darkness. Nothing short of grace would serve for the guilt and ruin of a sinner: and nothing but truth could be the basis for the action of God in holiness. Who was to bring these two strangers to one another' into the world? and if they came in, how could they be substantiated, and where, and when, between God-and man, as a turning point for the requirements of each? For such a crisis, and for such an hour as this, the 'cross was in waiting, that by the sacrifice and death of Christ upon it, " mercy and truth might meet together, and righteousness and peace embrace each other."
If sin, and death as the wages of sin, had entered into the -World, and passed upon all men, because that all had sinned; grace and truth had likewise come in by Christ,' and had established themselves at the cross, by the blood of atonement, and were confirmed in their exercise by His resurrection to the right hand of God.' Grace, to the full extent of all that the sinner needed for pardon and redemption, flowed forth even from "the mercy seat " where God sat. Grace, to the uttermost of all which a Father's love had purposed to give forth to us for His eternal glory, found an open way, through the righteousness of the exalted Son of man in heaven, for its bestowment. Truth likewise, in its majesty and power, had been vindicated in righteous judgment, up to the wrath of God, in the vicarious sufferings of our Substitute; and down to death and the grave when passing through the power of Satan. Truth was now set at liberty, in the ascended 'Son of man, to make good every thought of God for His own glory, And the glory. of His Son, in the everlasting blessedness of all for whom Christ died. Such is truth, and such is grace, as learned in Christ upon the cross!
That cross was the door of entrance by which grace and truth could- make themselves a home, and abound, where sin and death reigned; and. that cross with its sepulcher were the royal paths for the mighty One to pass through, on His way up to the "throne of the Majesty in the heavens." The grace in Christ, and the truth in Jesus, made sure by His own death, and by the act of God in raising Him from the dead, are the foundations of God's glory, and a believer's blessing, and they travel on in company.
We have thus viewed " the elect of God, holy and beloved " upon the high ground of the counsels of God towards us in `'Christ before the foundation of the world, and Concerning which, as we said, God must be a rule to' Himself. We have now to consider the other ground laid for God's actings; by Christ's sufferings and death, in this scene of enmity and sin, and the devil's hate; by which He might come down and take a new place in this lapsed world, as the just God, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.'". It is in these wondrous ' Ways that God has come back again into the midst of men, because of the full and final settlement Of all questions touching sin and holiness,- by the substitution " of the just One for the unjust ones, that he might bring us to God."
The Father, who had counseled the cross and its triumphs, with the Son of His love, through the Holy Ghost, from before the foundation of the world, has carried out these purposes of glory by the mystery of God manifest in the flesh. He has, in the glory of the incarnation, passed through the length and breadth of this groaning creation, as a -witness to Himself and to men; for “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses to them." In effectual and 'divine operation, by the blood of Christ on the cross, God has brought down into time, and carried out as a matter of fact (and what a fact!), in the very midst of men, all that He had counseled before time, and the world, and Adam, were in being. Concerning " the depth of the riches both of this -Wisdom and knowledge of God" with His elect, we may recall the challenge by the Spirit in Paul: " For who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed to him again? " How blessed for us, in all these eternal counsels, as well as in their fulfillment on the cross and in the coming glory, to join issue with our own apostle, and know nothing to rest upon outside God; " for of him, and through him, and to him are all things; to whom be glory forever. Amen." It is a great source of strength, even to an awakened conscience, when as a sinner he discovers that " the glad tidings " proclaimed for ".the obedience of faith " in Rom. 1 are declared to be " the gospel of God," concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. The great truth we have before our souls in the gospel is this: that God is the first to act towards us in " grace and glory," upon the new ground of eternal redemption, accomplished by Christ on the cross, and accredited to us by the fact, that God has raised Him from the dead. It is by this stupendous act of glorious and yet righteous power, that God takes the initiative with His elect in Christianity, by crowning Christ, our Lord and Savior with honor and glory, " 'that our faith and hope may be in God." He has glorified Himself by raising the righteous Son of man, to His own right hand, " having put all things under his feet, and given him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all."
It is into this inner circle of the eternal counsels with Christ, that we are thus carried by His death and resurrection, and sealed by the Holy Ghost, as the " elect of God, holy and beloved." We are the fruit and result to God now, of the accomplished work of Christ in time, and gathered -out from this ruined creation. The counsel of God is substantiated to us in fact by the Spirit.
We may, whilst upon the ground of the " gospel of God" to sinners in their sins, pass on to the blessed knowledge of Christ " delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification," and from thence to our standing in grace, and to where we meet, and worship God in peace, and rejoice in hope of His glory. All His paths drop fatness, as we follow on, out of darkness into light, to where He leads " the elect of God" in Rom. 8. We may perhaps, for others, dwell further on the fact, that in the previous chapters the guilty sinner of 'chap. 3., is justified by God from all that he has committed, and freely forgiven by His grace, through the redemption that is in ''Christ Jesus. The cross has enabled God to change His place of judge, for that of a justifier, and this change of places with God and the sinner is the grand issue.
It is He who bids us" joy in God, by whom we have received the reconciliation " through the blood of his Son.; whilst, on His own part, He sheds his love abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. What changes are these! The " wretched mall. that I am " of chap. 7. is likewise delivered from " the law of sin in his members," and all that he is by nature, as still having " the flesh " in him. He is set at liberty by " the body of Christ " in death, and free to be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, " that we 'should bring forth fruit unto God."
Such are the plants of this new-planting,-and their changes too, as they pass out of death into life. These are the trees which grow in this Paradise of God, by the rivers of water, " that bringeth forth his fruit in its season, and whose leaf also shall not wither.' As the " elect of God " they, gladly pass out of the chaos and groanings of the old creation, and the old man's sin and wretchedness, into the garden of the Lord. This new enclosure of chap. 8. is where the tree of life welcomes us, and in ' which God comes forth to hand its fruit' to us. In it, He is the beginner of another creation, with the second Man whom He has raised from sin, and death, and the grave, and Satan's power.
"My Father worketh hitherto, and I work," had long ago 'been counseled in the godhead, and was declared by Jesus when in the flesh, and walking amidst the ruins, or viewing the range of the desolator, as the only power that could reconcile all things in heaven and earth to Himself. " The Father quickeneth, and raiseth the dead," has likewise come forth in its new creative character, because " Christ has been made sin for us who knew no sin." This foundation, which God has laid for His eternal glory in His Son, and Our Savior Jesus. 'Christ, is no longer a reserve in the counsels of the godhead, but has come out into manifestation at the cross, and been accomplished for "the elect 'of God," in the death and resurrection of Christ. Adam' the sinner is no longer the rule of God's action towards us, but Christ, in whom the purposes of God; both for present grace and future glory, have been made yea and amen from the gates of Hades up to the right hand of the Father, where He is crowned with all power who did it.
The triumphs of the cross below in clearing all away that was against us, and the victories of the Son of man in the glory above, by which We are made one with Him, are 'become the two centers of God’s operations towards His elect," and are the unchangeable rule of all His acts and deeds towards us. " As Christ is, so are we in this, world, is no longer a counsel in godhead wisdom and grace, or a purpose hidden in God, till "the time was come to send forth his Son, made of a woman," but witnessed by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.
The Epistle to the Romans becomes, indeed, the veritable reception of the repentant prodigal (no longer in parable, but in fact) by the Father. In this view, chap. 3:24, 25, is the kiss given; chaps. 4. & 5. may be the cordial embrace, and the welcome home in peace and joy; if not, what are they? The chaps. 6. & 7. reveal the secret by which all upbraidings are judged, and reckoned" to be out of place, and kept under the silence of death in this home of love. In the " liberty " of chap. 8., he must be introduced in the best robe, with the ring on the finger and the shoes on his feet. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus which maketh free from the law of sin and death, and brings us into conscious relationship with the Father, can only be under the witness -of " the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba." Christ, as the life; and our being alive in Christ, who is our; and the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, setting us in the relationships of this life with God the Father, and in the conscious enjoyments which belong to us as the children of God, by the Spirit's operations in us, fill- the house with music and dancing. The Son of God's own love, is become the model and rule of the Father's actings in the house; " no condemnation," is upon the threshold, and meets the eyes of the " elect of God " as he enters; and " no separation "- is the order and law of the family circle, into its highest and happiest delights. This divine -life, and its relations with the Father arid the Son., as " heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ," together with its enjoyments in the house, are all founded, and maintained in communion, upon " the -fatted calf." "Bring it forth, and kill it," is the secret of " Let us eat, and be merry." I judge—it to be on this account that in this Epistle, and in this chap. 8., the Father for the first time takes His place in the midst of those who are "in Christ,," to hand over to " His elect " this marvelous charter of their new rights and privileges, by grace and adoption. The earth and the heavens are given forth after another pattern, and for higher purposes with Christ; the former to suffer in, as one with a rejected Lord; and the latter to reign in with Him. " If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together." This wonderful chapter, with the second Man for its head and center, is thus the record and witness by the Spirit of our complete emancipation and deliverance from every giant power, 'that once held us in captivity. It is the great charter of our Christ-life and Christian liberties; and is a summary of our immunities and privileges as in Him. Before God the Father, we are no longer in the flesh, but in the Spirit, and only wait for the redemption of the body.'
It is further to be observed, and of immense moment too, that, in this circle, God utters that mighty challenge to the whole universe around Him and us: " Who shall lay anything to the charge of. God's elect? " In all His counsels He must be a 'rule to Himself, as, we have seen, but in His operations, Christ, and the work of Christ, becomes the rule of His actings towards us. For example, " it is God that justifieth," silences every accuser, and shuts every mouth; and it follows, as a blessed fruit of Christ's one sacrifice, that if we are free and -uncharged before God (who alone could bring a charge, against us), He must, be our justifier against all accusers: Again, we listen to another challenge by God, in the midst of His elect ones, "Who is he that condemneth?" And let us now see as to this, how God makes the cross of Christ a rule of his own proceedings; for He answers the challenge by -the reply: "It is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." The elect of this election are thus neither in their sins, nor in the flesh, lout in' Christ, and in the Spirit, and there is no condemnation, or power of Separation from any creature, be they principalities above or beneath. " If God be for us, who can be against us? " 'is -the challenge that grace puts into our mouths, in the face of all our enemies, and " we are more than conquerors," over those who once, held us captive- by sin and by death.
Not only does God take this Marvelous place " for us," as regards every claim which His own holy nature demanded, on the one hand; or our state and condition as sinners required on the other; but He is free to proclaim in this blessed chapter His own eternal purposes about these elect as accomplished facts. See how Christ is made of God, " to us," the model and rule' of His own action from everlasting to everlasting: " For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren." And now see how these counsels are accomplished in time, and made good to us, as " the elect of God, holy and beloved." Moreover, "whom' he did predestinate them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified them he also glorified. "
We may doubtless have to pass, as "the elect of God," chosen out of the world, into other circles of blessing with the Father and the Son; and ascend into higher glories with Christ, as in other Epistles; but the attractions of this chapter, and its revelations of life, by the in-dwelling Spirit in us, will gladly be carried by us, as our title, up to any height. God seems to be so close to us here, as to be doing everything with His own hand and according to His own mind, in this first circle of redemption with His elect. One can almost feel Him to-Laing us, as when He originally made the " coats of skin," and clothed Adam and Eve. Or again, like the Father with the prodigal, we are conscious that we are kissed, and know right well who He is that falls upon our-neck in grace, and folds the lost one to His bosom.
We are fully conscious, in this Rom. 8, that everything is out of God Himself, and brought to us from the Father's house, and proof of the Father's love. Not only this, but ill is put on us to His own satisfaction, and to suit His own heart. We have the joy of knowing it is ourselves who are clothed in the best robe, and are presented before His eye in the perfectness of Christ. Nowhere else does the Father seem so one with us as here, though. "'the far country " in this Epistle, be not very far away, and even in sight. May be " the heavenly places," or much more the " being raised up, and' seated' there," together with Christ, may be very distant, and unknown, as yet by those who go. no further on. Nevertheless: the knowledge of God, so very near to us, as to pardon and justify us when ungodly, by faith in Jesus crucified, is a grand elementary lesson, and lies as a firm foundation stone for all else in the superstructure.
It would have been a great omission to have passed over the early operations of grace, and of such an acquaintance with God as this is, in writing upon the mature subject in Col. 3 of " the elect of God, as holy and beloved," and dead and risen with Christ. Rom. 8 is the grand circle, in which God appears before the whole universe with His elect, challenging heaven, and earth, and hell, to lay anything to their charge. This was a great and necessary preliminary to their positive and ultimate blessing in those self-same heights, to which Christ has ascended. Certainly if Christians were more at home as the elect of God," with the God who justifies them, on the ground of the Christ who died, they would follow where He is. If they were equally at home with the Christ who is risen again, and is even at the right hand of God to make intercession for them, they would see how they are upheld and kept by His grace, to glorify God on this earth. They would also be better qualified for communion in the heavenly places themselves, where their Lord is already seated as Head over all things to the church, and from whence the Holy Ghost has descended, as the glorifier of Christ to take of the things of Christ and to show them to us as our birthright and portion.
Indeed it is the presence of the Holy Ghost, as sent down from the Father in answer to the prayer of the ascended Lord, which is the last distinguishing gift to " the elect of God " in this economy. The action of the Holy Ghost, in; correspondence with the Father's counsels and the Son's finished work, is formative of this dispensation (if indeed it can be rightly called one at all), and gathers out the members of Christ into the unity of His body.
This door opens likewise into that marvelous ministry of the Son, comprised in the central group of chapters in John's Gospel, which gives out to us the revelation of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, in their several and combined relations. It is this, which contributes- our own portion: in the new creation and in the Father's house as " the elect of God." " At that day ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in me, and I in you;" and this is characteristic: too; but we must not enter through this door now.
J. E. B.
The restoration of the sinner is the object of divine love; but he is only restored when the origin of the evil is judged. Christ does not reproach Peter with denying Him, but He does say, " Lovest thou me more than these?" He will have to judge all that led him away from God.
(J. N. D.)