The Death of Jesus Christ:
What are its uses and applications, by the Spirit, in the Scriptures?
G. V. Wigram.
Part 1.
The death of the Lord was,
1, the expression of Israel's rejection of Him; and His way of getting by resurrection upon the new ground proper to the church. (Matt. 16: 21.)
2, As connected with the resurrection, it was His secret to the disciples till He took the ground proper to them as the church. (Matt. 17: 9.)
3, It was man's act — the Gentiles (Mark 10: 34; Luke 18: 33) did it, though the Jews might have first sought it: while His opening of it to His followers was the proof of His love to them. (Matt. 17: 22.)
4, Yea, of His God-like care and sympathy, knowing the while their wretched selfishness. (Matt. 20: 17-19.)
5, The desire of it was mentioned by Him as the proof of the nation Israel's rejection of Him. (Matt. 28: 38.)
6, But it was not the desire of the people only, but the planned counsel of the chief office-bearers both in religion and in state. (Matt. 26: 3, 4.)
7, In the anticipation of what was before Him, His soul was sorrowful even unto death. (Ver. 38.)
8, It was the deep, settled, unwavering desire of the heads of the Government, ecclesiastical and political. (Matt. 27: l.)
9, Though they could find no plea in truth, nor even by false witnesses establish a fair appearance of a plea, but were obliged to make the Lord's grace and truth (that He was the Christ, the Son of the Blessed) the plea for His death. (Mark 14: 55-65.)
10, Against which the judge three times protested, inasmuch as both himself and Herod had found no fault in Him. (Luke 23: 13-22; John 19: 7.)
11, Nevertheless it is hurried to a close, though shown to be under the over-ruling hand of God in that the circumstances were predicted in prophecy, (Luke 23: 32.)
12, Yet He died not by the death of the cross, though He died upon the cross: His suffering was cut short before the wonted time; for this, among other reasons that the scripture might be fulfilled, "not a bone of him shall be broken." (Mark 15: 44; John 19: 33.)
13, Their dread of its being reported He had obtained the victory over the grave and had risen leads them to protect the place where His body is laid by means which become unquestionable evidence of his resurrection. (Matt. 28: 64.)
14, Yet His victory over death and the grave by resurrection is fully evidenced: and that not only by their own guards. but by the disciples, and the angels also by whom it was first communicated to them. (Matt. 28: 7; Luke 24: 5.)
15, Though these disciples had heard, like many now, in vain the Lord's instruction concerning what was coming upon Him. (Luke 24: 20; John 20: 9.)
1. The death of the Lord was the expression of Israel's rejection of Him, and His way of getting, by resurrection, upon that new ground proper to the church — "From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples, how he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day." (Matt. 16: 21.)
From WHAT time? From the time that, having experimentally discovered that the Jews were prepared to reject their Messiah, He had for the first time declared that "The knowledge of Himself as the Son of the living God, should become the foundation of a new kingdom, to be called the church." (Read vers. 16-20.) His being killed, therefore, is here to be looked at not only as in itself (as ver. 21) the expression of Jerusalem's rejection of Him, and of the hatred entertained against Him by false professors of that day; but also as connected with the church in the resurrection; for it was only by resurrection that Jesus got into a place where He could gather Jew and Gentile unto Him, as now gathered in the church.*
*'The Church,' as spoken of here, does not mean simply "God's true people looked at as individuals." We know that God has always had true worshippers in the world — for there have always been on earth, since the fall, some that feared and loved God, but they were not called to be united visibly together. Half a dozen Gentiles might have been true worshippers of God and dwelling in Jerusalem, at a time when no Jews really erred about God — such Gentiles would have been parts of God's elect church, though cut off from the privileges of the outward worship of God's nation, and having no tie to bind them visibly together; for God's accredited worship was that of the Jewish nation. But after Christ died and rose, then God said He would gather together in one in every place those that feared and loved Him, and not accredit any form of worship any more save the union together in one of those who profess to know Jesus. And the church is here used by Christ as the name of this gathering together.
Let persons who think themselves as religious as those around them, see how the great grace of Jesus in being willing to be killed, proclaimed the utter vileness of all that looked fair in the accredited religion of that day. For where and by whom was the Lord slain? Let us observe also the effect its announcement had upon a true-hearted disciple by reason of his ignorance: "Then [ver. 22] Peter took him, and began to rebuke him"!!!*
*How sadly does ignorance always thus unfit us for sympathy with our Lord. There is a striking contrast on this subject, to which I would here revert: in Luke 9: 30, 31, we read, Two men, "Moses and Elias," appeared in glory, and spake of His decease (His exodus) which He should accomplish at Jerusalem, and in Mark 9: 10, it is added — "they [the disciples] kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean."
In the former of these passages we find the intelligence of heavenly manhood sympathising with the Lord in His bitter portion; and in the second, the want of intelligence of the infantine state finding sorrow and perplexity even in its own portion of glory which was to issue from that His bitter cup.
How gracious of Jesus to open the interests of His God and Father as soon as possible to the disciples! to tell them too the subject exercising His own mind, and to invite them thus to enter with Him into the sorrow into which His faithful service to His Father and tender love toward them was leading Him! Compare Mark 8:31; Luke 9: 22.
2. As connected with the resurrection, it was His secret to His disciples, till He took the ground proper to them as the church. - "As they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead." (Matt. 17: 9.)
The next thing was to show His followers the glory and kingdom; compare Matt. 16: 28, and 2 Peter 1. A foretaste of the rich harvest to be reaped from His humiliation was thus given to them, to cheer and strengthen them in their sympathy with Him, and in their sorrowful anticipation of having themselves likewise to follow Him in it. For Jesus had said plainly (chap. 16: 24-26), that His followers' must share the humiliation with Him. Here, then, having shown them the fruits of His humiliation that they might be the better able to sympathise with Him, He tells them not to tell others of it until his humiliation being past, theirs would have to begin: compare Mark 9: 9. The vision presents the triumph of more than Jesus over death by glory, for Moses and Elias were there in it, as representatives of the church in that day of coming glory, for which we wait, at Christ's second coming. (2 Peter 1: 16-21.)
Surely the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us!
3. It was man's act — the Gentiles (Mark 10: 34; Luke 18: 33) did it, though the Jews might have first sought it; while His opening of it to His followers was the proof of His love to them. — "And while they abode in Galilee, Jesus said unto them, The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men: and they shall kill him, and the third day he shall be raised again. And they were exceeding sorry." (Matt. 17: 22.)
Thus did He again remind them of the burden that was upon His soul, and prepare them all for it; while at the same time He confirmed to the three who had been with Him in the mount, His reason for having taken them there, and guarded them all from trusting in man.
In Mark 9: 32, it is added, "But they understood not that saying [They shall kill Him; and after that He is killed, etc.,] and, were afraid to ask him."
In Mark 10: 34, it is said of the Gentiles, They shall mock and scourge, and shall spit upon and shall kill him; showing that the Gentiles are guilty not only of reproaching Him, but of His death; see also Luke 18: 33.
4. Yea, of His God-like care and sympathy, knowing the while their wretched selfishness "And Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again." (Matt. 20: 17-19.)
What tender guardian care! what gracious solicitations for sympathy! what fixedness of purpose! what divine self-repose and self-possession is His with whom we have to do. Oh, how unlike to us — and what patience of love! His eye seeing, while He so spake, the question which was going (ver. 20) to be preferred to Him for the two most honoured seats in His kingdom, and the anger, too, ready to rise in the other ten disciples against the two for whom the pre-eminence was sought — His own soul meanwhile saw that the glory was the fruit of the humiliation. (Read vers. 20-28.)
5. The desire of it was mentioned by Him as the proof of the nation Israel's rejection of Him. The next passage I would revert to is — "When the husbandmen saw the son they said . . . . 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." (Matt. 21: 38; compare Mark 12: 7, 8; Luke 20: 14, 15.)
Having arrived at Jerusalem, in the appointed way (Matt. 21: 9), riding on an ass, He was received there with shoutings, and "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord!" was rightly among the cries. But a little onward it appears that though the right words were used, they were wrongly used by them, for they used them only in a subordinate sense; for the words in their full import pointed out Jesus as Jehovah of Hosts — and so shall they hereafter be used; but they used them of Him simply as "the prophet of Nazareth," sent by God, and so come in His name, instead of Jehovah Himself, personally present in His own character and name.
He purges the temple (ver. 12); heals the sick in it (ver. 14.); and when the chief priests begrudge Him even the lower title of Son of David (ver. 15), He will not sleep in the city, but retires from it. (Ver. 17.) On the morrow in the fruitless fig tree, He typically curses Israel (ver. 19); meets and confounds the foolish question put in the temple, "By what authority doest thou these things?" etc.; and then in parables shows, first, the hypocrisy of the religion around Him (ver. 9-8), and then, secondly, its selfish independence and direct opposition to God in the parable whence I have quoted. (Ver. 33.)
Oh, what an awful picture is this of the character of those who have the form of godliness but deny the power of it! And how beautifully does it present the implicit obedience and self-renouncing devotedness of Him who was the true servant of God.
6. But it was not the desire of the people only, but the planned counsel of the chief office-bearers both in religion and in state. - "Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest . . . . Caiaphas, and consulted that they might take Jesus by subtlety, and kill him." (Matt. 26: 3, 4; Mark 14: 1; Luke 22: 2.)
Nothing short of His destruction could satisfy the malice, or still the fears of these, the conductors of His temple worship, and the rulers of His people; — as His people were in the last quotation shown by Him to be ready to kill Him, so here the same is shown in the chief leaders of the religion of that day.
7. In the anticipation of what was before Him, His soul was sorrowful even unto death. — "Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death; tarry ye here, and watch with me." (Matt. 26: 38; Mark 14: 34.)
Had sorrow killed the Lord here, He would not have been its first victim but though many have died simply from anguish and the fear of coming trials, and though the sorrows of Jesus at this point of time were enough to have killed any man, Him it could not kill; for divine strength was in Him, and death in Him was reserved for a special purpose of grace and love; and though nature might thus faint, its cords could not break till His hour was come, and He said, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit."
8. It was the deep, settled, unwavering desire of the heads of government, ecclesiastical and political. — "When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death." (Matt. 27: l.)
How painful a proof have we here of the deep, settled, unwavering desire of the chief priests and elders of the people for the Lord's death. And this is always God's way, even to cause such delay to man in his doings and labours as to give him time to see clearly the true character of the principle and motive on which he is acting. And this, I conceive, it is which so strikingly exhibits the patience of God, both in judgment and mercy and leaves those that walk in their own way without excuse, while oft (as doubtless. in this case) it is the preparation in the consciences of many of the transgressors for the outpouring of mercy.
"How unsearchable are his ways, and his judgments past finding out."
9. Though they could find no plea in truth, nor even by false witnesses establish a fair appearance of a plea, but were obliged to make the Lord's grace and truth (that He was the Christ the Son of the Blessed) the plea for His death. — "The chief priests and all the council sought for witness against Jesus to put him to death; and found none. For many bare false witness against him, but their witness agreed not together," etc. (Mark 14: 55-65.) It is deeply instructive, in comparing this with the two citations which will follow, to see how ecclesiastical apostasy is always the leader in insult to God, persecution to the people of God, and bloodthirsty cruelty — for, in truth, nothing so thoroughly sears the conscience, hardens the mind, and steels the heart, as the form of godliness without the power. The fuss and busy activity of outward religious worship and service, where grace and truth are not the rest of the mind and the stay of the heart, has ever destroyed even the kindlier feelings of humanity.
In this awful scene we have the failure of the attempt of the chief priests and rulers, not only to find any fault in Jesus worthy of death, but to establish even the appearance of it by false witnesses; and then the horrid wickedness of our nature exhibited in their making His true confession, that He was the Christ, the Son of the Blessed, the ground of their clamorous concurrence.
Ah! wilful human nature! how wilt thou ever, when left to thyself, turn to thine own condemnation thy hatred of grace and truth: how dost thou hate that in which all that ever was most dear to God is found, that which is the only seed of hope to thyself or others.
10. Against which the judge three times protested, inasmuch as both himself and Herod had found no fault in Him. - "And Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people, said . . . . Behold, I, having examined him before you, have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof ye accuse him: no, nor yet Herod: for I sent you to him; and, lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him. He said . . . . the third time — Why, what evil hath he done? I have found no cause of death in him." (Luke 23: 13-22.) "By our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God." (John 19: 7.)
It is striking how the want of all semblance of justice in the death of the Lord is brought out at every point. In the last quotation, we had the want of all evidence of guilt proved, in the failure of the ringleaders of the conspiracy in their attempt to get even false witness against Him, which might seem to hang well together. Here, where the conspiracy, in spite of this, is found before the judge, even he is constrained to confess that he can find no fault in Him; no nor even Herod, to whom he sent Him. Yea, and to this, his prisoner's innocence, he is constrained three times to bear witness. Nevertheless, the accusers were clamorous — and though their charge, as then advanced, was one apparently calculated only to alarm the judge, "that he said he was the Son of God," yet, in spite of all that reason might suggest against the Roman governor acting upon such a charge, or venturing to condemn the innocent One who laid such a claim, He is given up to be murdered. How strangely, in this sinful world, do things almost intuitively combine together against God — God's Son was in the world, the fallen world, lying under Satan: as its prince, surely neither it nor he would allow God's Son a place in it, in its then state of alienation from God. The intelligence of man, reason, etc., etc., seem to man all important points in connection with man's conduct under given circumstances, but, in fact, these things do but lie upon the surface to beguile those that lean upon their own understandings and judge by the sight of the eye: to faith, the deeper governing principles are open, and it can see how these now, as in the case we are considering, will rule somehow or other, and, so far as this world is concerned, always act against God. The high priests, the elders, the people of Israel, Herod and Pontius Pilate, had each one of them the very strongest reason to pursue the opposite course, but, some in one way, some in another, all had their minds brought round by the master-mind that ruled them to murder the Lord. Poor, blind nature! How blind, though ever boasting of its power of perception and judgment!
11. Nevertheless it is hurried to a close, though shown to be under the over-ruling hand of God, in that the circumstances were predicted in prophecy. — "There were also two other, malefactors, led with him to be put to death." (Luke 23: 32.)
Two things strike me here — first, the overruling hand of God in so leading their malice, which was all their own, as that they should fulfil the prophecy in Isaiah 53, in associating Jesus with the malefactors; secondly, the rapidity of the action, He is seized upon unlawfully one night, and, in spite of all Roman law and justice, executed the next day. Barabbas bad not been so treated by man; neither were James, Peter, nor Paul afterwards allowed to be so treated. A longer interval at least was granted to them, though denied to Him who was the Prince of life.
12. Yet He died not by the death of the cross, though He died upon the cross. His suffering was cut short before the wonted time; for this, among other reasons, that the scripture might be fulfilled, "a bone of him shall not be broken" — "Pilate marvelled if he were already dead, and, calling the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead." (Mark 15: 44.) "When they came to Jesus and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs." (John 19: 33.)
Rapid was man's wicked movement in its hurried enmity against the Lord to murder Him! And He yielded Himself to their hands; yet when all was accomplished that man could do, He was content and lingered not for the usual death of the cross — Having cried with a loud voice, He yielded up the ghost. In Psalm 69: 20, we read, Reproach hath broken my heart; and it seems as though this indeed was the immediate cause of the Lord's death. Sorrow upon sorrow had burst in upon Him, when, having cried with a loud voice, He ceased to breathe. That it was unusual for one crucified so soon to die, is evident from the first of the above quotations. And one reason for its being so is seen in the second; for it was written, "a bone of him shall not be broken" — so graciously had God, by the predictions of His prophets, set a stamp upon every step of the path through which His beloved was to pass; and thus not only showing how greatly He loved to ponder all those steps of the lonely way of His Son, but how anxiously He desired to give every confirmation possible to them that should draw near to Him through Jesus.
"Lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, he is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first." (Matt. 27: 64.)
Was this conscience at work, or was it the deeper plan of the enemy, forecasting what would be the issue, and trying to anticipate the report of the resurrection, and by such an anticipatory report to discredit it when it was really reported? That it was from beneath is too evident — and how completely in this, as in other things, does evil outwit itself. In guarding against the report of an event they gather witnesses to behold it. Yea, they make the seal fast and the guard sure, in the full complacency, doubtless, of their own minds; but both the one and the other became the unquestionable witnesses against themselves in the result: for it is but a little onward and we read
"Go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead: and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you." (Matt. 28: 7.) "Why seek ye the living among the dead?" (Luke 24: 5.)
But all their precautions were in vain — His was the mastery over death and the grave; and no sooner had He lain there the appointed time than its power was broken and the joyful news spread abroad — He is risen! Welcome news indeed to one who understands the resurrection for in it, as we shall see, the whole proof of the value and acceptance of His sacrifice was presented. It is a sorrowful thing to think how few now know the value and importance of the resurrection. I do not mean that they do not assent to it as a point in their creed — surely every Christian does — yet very few see it and know it themselves in the spirit before God, so as for it to be a reality with themselves, as in the presence of God, and not merely a point of mental agreement with men around them.
"Our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death." (Luke 24: 20.) "For as yet they knew not the scripture that he must rise again from the dead." (John 20: 9.)
The entire unpreparedness of the disciples for the event of His death, notwithstanding all that Jesus had said to them to prepare them for it, is evidenced by these two passages. Their heads full of Jewish notions and hopes about the land and themselves, there seemed no room for the words of the Lord with them, it was new truth to them, and instead of laying up in their hearts till further light might dawn upon it, it seems to be hardly attended to by them. Surely we may be warned by this; and the more so, as there is not the same excuse for such conduct in us as there was in them — Jews — and without that deeper gift of the Spirit proper to us as Christians — living too in the very day of transition from one dispensation to another — such a thing in them can be more accounted for than the almost similar state we find now in many, as to those truths which open to them from the word, or may be heard by them from others. Surely the truth which has been brought to light within the last thirty years in England from the word, has brought with it deep responsibility to all that have heard it. May the Lord deliver us from all blindness and hardness of heart!
Part 2.
1. Death, powerless to the Lord because it was revealed in scripture as His appointed passage into conferred blessing. (Acts 2: 23.)
2. His death and rejection the measure of Israel's sin. (Acts 3: 14, 15.)
3. Victory through the Lord, in resurrection over death, the preaching of the apostles, and that which offended the religionists of that day. (Acts 4: 2.)
4. His death and rejection laid home as the sin of the ecclesiastical rulers. (Acts 4: 10, 11.)
5. And so, to the apostles, that, which neutralised the commandments of the priests and rulers. (Acts 5: 29.)
6. Testified of by Stephen as the expression and climax of the nation Israel's ways before God. (Acts 7: 52.)
7. The special way of blessing to any beyond Israel. (Acts 8: 32.)
8. As connected with remission of sins to them that believe, and the office of Judge of quick and dead, the testimony which let. in the Gentiles by Peter. (Acts 10: 38.)
9. His death and resurrection to Israelites out of the land, and to Gentiles, the basis of fuller and more gracious testimony than to Jews in Jerusalem, compare Acts 17: 3. (Acts 13: 28, 34, 38.)
10. The resurrection of the Lord out of death, the proof of His being Judge of the world, and, therefore, the subject of derision to those wise in their own conceits. Acts 17: 31, 32.
11. The death of the Lord reckoned among men as His end, and the assertion of the resurrection by the apostles attributed to madness, and the whole considered a question subject to intellect. (Acts 25: 19.)
12. Testimony thereunto the sure place for the presence and power of the Spirit and of boldness. (Acts 26: 23.)
13. Victory over death the proof of Jesus being the Son of God, upon which all the church's blessing hangs. (Rom. 1: 4.)
14. And the pattern to which in principle every saint is conformed. (Rom. 4: 23.)
15. The death of Christ God's mode of commending His love toward us. In all our weakness, ungodliness, hostile character and sinfulness, God gave His Son to die for us, and thus are we reconciled. (Rom. 5: 6, 8.)
16. The Lord's death, that through which the saint is free from sin, grace counting us one with Him in it by the Spirit. (Rom. 6: 2-13.)
17. The Lord's death, in like manner, our exemption from the power and claim of the law. (Rom. 7: 4.)
18. The Lord's triumph through God over death, the pledge of the perfection of quickening power to them that have the Spirit. (Rom. 8: 11.)
19. His death the clearing from all condemnation, as the resurrection is the proof thereof. (Rom. 8: 34.)
20. Therein as the expression of God's grace is the contrast of the law, which was God's search into what was in man. (Rom. 10: 6-9.)
21. Christ's object herein the basis of the disciples' general conduct. (Rom. 14: 8.)
22. And His constraint in brotherly love. (Rom. 14: 15.)
1. "Him . . . . ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death; because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. For DAVID speaketh concerning him," etc. (Acts 2: 23-25.) To the sin of Israel's cruel rejection of the Lord is here contrasted God's action toward Him so rejected. They slew Him, God raised Him: and then the cause of this, in the Lord's high personal glory. He loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that He should be holden of it. For David speaketh, etc. The hindrance to death's power, as here assigned, is not the innate power of the Lord, as we have it in Romans 1, declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, but the personal glory and dignity ascribed to Him by the counsel of God as the one witnessed of by the Spirit in David; and not in David only, but in all the scriptures. There is no truth more manifest to the spiritual mind, or more important to the student of scripture than this, that Jesus is the sum and substance of the Spirit's testimony in scripture. His name the clue and thread to what (if this is not seen) are to our poor foolish minds the mazes and obscurities of scripture. Reader, when you study scripture what do you look for in it? Testimony to Jesus, or something about yourself? If the latter, the book will be a dark book to you, for the saint's portion all flows through Jesus; no scripture touches the saint save immediately through Jesus, and if you will thrust self forward to see how much can be forced to apply to it, so losing sight of Jesus as the centre of it all, you will find a poor — poor portion.
What I learn here is, death powerless to the Lord, because represented in scripture as His appointed passage into conferred blessing. May we adore the grace which in God counselled, and which in Christ undertook, and which in the Spirit revealed, such a path for Him to obtain a glory He could share with us.
2. "Ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; and killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses." (Acts 3: 14, 15.) The sin of the nation Israel seems strikingly measured in this context. Israel's God, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of their fathers, had sent His Son Jesus Christ among them; they had betrayed Him, and denied Him, and prevented Pilate's desire to free Him. This one, whom they had denied, was the Holy One and the Just, though they had preferred a murderer to Him; and He was also the Prince of life, though they had killed Him. Everything which ought to have bound Israel broken and despised, and everything which could magnify their rejection of Him found in the act. And yet, as we see in the whole context, this very sin of theirs, this very slaying of the Prince of life, was but the occasion of fresh grace. As the rock, when smitten, poured forth its needed and refreshing streams in the wilderness, so here this murdered Prince of life is presented as the One through whom there were not only gifts of healing, but the present proffer to Israel of all those things of which God had spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. Who can see the lingering of the heart of this Prince of life, who, though rejected by Israel, still sent the first testimony of His most highly honoured servants to it with such proffers, and not be bowed down with the fulness of His grace and goodness? without seeing, indeed, that He was and is full of grace and truth?
3. "Being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead." (Acts 4: 2.) This chapter records the first movement of the ecclesiastical rulers against the truth after the resurrection. It says they were Sadducees: this, in measure, accounts for their hatred to the resurrection, but not entirely; for the doctrine here taught as the resurrection from the dead was not merely the general resurrection which their antagonist party the Pharisees held — which would have been rather the resurrection of the dead. This latter was simply that there would be a resurrection of the dead, that is, of all men, but the former was a much more specific and blessed thing, even that there was through Jesus a resurrection from among the dead — that is, the first resurrection. So that I conceive it was not the mere bruit ['report'] of the resurrection which these Sadducees feared might strengthen and be upheld by the faction to which they were opposed, but in addition thereto, the presenting so alluring and winning a hope before the people, one too so full of grace and blessedness as that God would grant to those that followed the banner of Christ here below to arise first, (1 Thess.) of which the resurrection of the Lord Himself was a sort of pledge and type. And this surely it is which is of such power to the saint when known, and which is so little known in our own day among the saints. How few comparatively even know or are established in the truth of the first resurrection. Reader, art thou? If not, surely thou hast overlooked one of the richest fruits of Jesus' resurrection and of God's grace, and hast one thick fold of the veil of nature's darkness still over thy mind.* And if this were more clearly preached, would not both the manifest tendency of it and the practical results in them that believe lead to more persecution? Nothing but this hope will give victory over the world, because nothing but it enables the Christian to see the worthlessness of the world.
*There are two little tracts connected with this subject — "Resurrection, not Death, the Hope of the Believer," and "The First Resurrection."
4. "Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him doth this man stand here before you whole." (Acts 4: 10.) In Acts 2 we had Peter's testimony to the death and resurrection of Jesus as the only way of salvation for the remnant. In Acts 3 the same is again brought forward, as the only way by which the covenanted blessings of the nation can reach them; and in this fourth chapter, when brought up before the ecclesiastical rulers, their testimony is the same, presenting the miracle of the healed body of him that was lame, as the testimony of the grace of Him whom these builders in their folly had rejected. "This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."
How different was testimony in the apostles' day from what men count preaching now-a-days! They were content to make the simple statement of the few facts connected with the Lord, and to reiterate them in all simplicity of speech, leaving the matter then in the hand of the Spirit. The power was His, and if He gave witness with the word it was enough to quicken any soul, and in itself enough to draw forth the enmity of the heart of man where not bowed down by grace. Now the stores of intellect must be searched to deck and dress the truth, to commend it, if possible, to the flesh, and at all events to present something with it which the flesh can value and appreciate, so as to pardon in some measure the feeble covered statement of truth. It is singular that when the apostles, in the full power of the Spirit, should have thought the naked truth, pure and by itself, the best, men, at the close of the dispensation, should have discovered that there is danger in administering it without some medium of fleshly talent or wisdom.
5. "We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him." (Acts 5: 29-32.)
How simple and yet how beautiful is the spirit and conduct of the disciple as here exhibited in the apostles! They exhibit no self-will, they plead no liberty of their own to do as they like, they murmur not against the injustice exercised upon them; but they simply take their stand as in their known recognised responsibility to God. God was in all their thoughts; and the single eye toward Him could see no intricacy, no difficulty as to their conduct or course here below. In the first place, it could see this truth, and to the creature it is a universal truth — "We ought to obey God rather than men." And how does this simplicity of subjection to God always clear the path for him that walks in it! See it here. The eye which has just, in grateful dependence, looked up to God as its only guide and centre, next turns on these ecclesiastical rulers, and, gazing upon them in the light of God, and notwithstanding all the paraphernalia of priestly array, and the manifestation of power and rule, what does it read? — "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree." Thus it detects, first their opposition to God in His works and ways — to the God of the fathers of the nation and to Jesus the Lord; then the character of the opposition, murderers and manslayers; and then the continued contrariety of their present conduct to the grace presented. "Him hath God exalted . . . . to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness." These things alone would have sufficed to have shown to the eagle eye of faith, that the rulers' command, however apparently accredited, was powerless: but much more so, when this same single eye passes onward to measure and estimate the position and standing of themselves, the apostles. "And we are his witnesses . . . . and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him." Such passages surely are very precious, as showing the quick scent and keen eye of the fear of the Lord, and so presenting one of the great provisions God, has made for the protection of those that are His. A provision, however, powerless, save when we really walk near to Him.
6. "Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers." (Acts 7: 52.)
The death of Jesus, though the climax of Israel's sin, was not in character a new sin with them. The report of His coming had been enough, in times that were passed, to make that nation abhor and murder all the prophets sent to them. What an enmity this bespeaks! not only that when He appeared they should murder Him, but such inveterate rancour, that even, ere they saw Him, any one that prophesied of His coming was put to death! This their blood-thirsty subjection to him who had been a murderer from the beginning, is here charged home by Stephen upon the council as having been exhibited against the Lord, and as the nation's crowning sin. And him they murdered — the first martyr in the church. It may be well for us to remember that in Israel God was making trial of human nature as such — and therefore in their conduct we see what Gentiles would have done, had opportunity been given to them: for the trial in Israel was, as we have said, of human nature [our nature], as such.
7. "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter: and like a lamb dumb before her shearer, so opened be not his mouth." (Acts 8: 32.)
At every turn, under all circumstances of testimony, how does the humiliation of the Lord unto death stand prominently forward. In the case before us, the eunuch was reading Esaias when Philip was bidden to go and join himself to the chariot. In considering the last quotation we saw how the murderous spirit, which issued in the betrayal and murder of the Lord was the permanent trait in Israel's character, and if so of human nature. Here, on the contrary, the universal applicability of that death as a cure begins to open upon us. In itself the ground of Israel's rejection in nature, it was yet, through grace, the open door for the Lord to deal in grace with Israel. But grace was beyond promise, higher up, as it were, nearer the fountain-head, and as open to Gentiles in itself as to the Jews. The promises and covenants, they were Israel's; but grace, which alone secured them through the death of Jesus, knew no such restraints; and in this very context we get it, as it were, travelling in the gladdened heart of the eunuch into the far country of the Ethiopians, so bringing before us the first thoughts of that wider range, apart from Jerusalem, which grace was about to take. In the record of the preaching to the Samaritans, the fact of the preaching is merely stated, none of the particulars of it; but both here and in the next citation, where the circle of testimony is widening, the humiliation of the Lord unto death is distinctly mentioned. I think this observable: for the mercy to the Samaritans was in their being noticed at all by the Spirit; and as we see, from our Lord's conduct with the woman of Samaria, they were not reckoned as being altogether and entirely upon different ground to that on which Israel in His day stood: but to the Gentiles, as such, He had nothing to say until rejected unto death by Israel, whereby He gained in resurrection the place of blessing. whom He would.
8. "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him . . . . whom they [the Jews] slew and hanged on a tree: him God raised up the third day, and showed him openly: not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead. To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins." (Acts 10: 38-43.)
Such was, in part, the testimony of Peter to Cornelius and the Gentiles when first, through the grace of God, he went to open their way into the kingdom. It is remarkable, that the office of the Lord, consequent upon death and resurrection, of being the appointed Judge of all men, is mentioned first by Peter here, and secondly by Paul at Athens — that is, in both cases when bearing testimony to the Gentiles. I think it important as showing how God's Spirit in testimony would ever act, upon the recognisable responsibility of those to whom He speaks. With the Jew there were other and greater, and nearer glories in the Messiah, the responsibilities of which they had neglected and despised, which therefore were taken up. With the Gentiles, no such deposit as the law or the oracles of God rested, and therefore we find, in the first chapter of Romans, creation and its testimony: here the office of Judge of quick and dead, together with the power of pardon in the Lord's name when received, and in Acts 17 creation, God's display of providence, combined with this same office of judge, pressed upon the attention of the Gentiles. it is of interest, as showing how God, while never leaving His own principles of judgment, does not arraign man upon them abstractedly, but brings them all to bear upon man's own mind and conscience, arguing each case as it were in the arena of man's own mind, so as to leave all, upon their own principles, without excuse. From the context before us it appears that Peter knew that Cornelius and they that were with him had heard of the life of Jesus, through whom God sent preaching peace. His death is presented as Israel's sin, and the contrast of God's estimate of Him raising Him from the dead and setting Him as Judge of all, yet as now speaking peace and forgiveness to them that received Him. It is a solemn thought, reader! that there is a judgment to come, and oh! how blessed a one, that He that is the ordained Judge is He through whose name is now preached remission of sins to all that believe, while surely the same is a most solemn and fearful thought to them. that believe not, that they will meet in the person of the Judge the very one whose grace and truth they have despised and rejected.
9. "They that dwelt in Jerusalem . . . . though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain." (Acts 18: 28.) "But God raised him from the dead." (Ver. 30.) "And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David." (Ver. 34.) "Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." (Vers. 38, 39.)
In this context, we get the testimony, in part, of Paul; when sent forth with Barnabas, by the Holy Ghost, from Antioch for the preaching of the gospel, he was testifying, before the Jews of the dispersion, in Antioch in Pisidia. What heart-felt pity and unbounding grace, does this looking after Israel on the part of our God bespeak! Jerusalem had killed all the prophets; yet the Son would come to them if haply they might repent. Him they crucified, yet His pity and love they could not quench. Risen from the grave He sought no revenge upon His enemies, but in grace caused the word of the value of faith in His name to flow abroad "beginning at Jerusalem." Three times rejected in His witnesses, and so driven as it were out of the city, His eye is still in pity upon His kindred according to the flesh; and His grace allows not even the servant, whom He had formed as the Apostle of the Gentiles, to get his full range or proper sphere of service till Israel will have none of his testimony. The deep, the unwearied character of His love, while any door of hope remains untried is very precious!
It is remarkable, if we compare this scene and the auditory, presenting Jews, out of the land, and Gentiles, to see how much more full the testimony is to the blessedness of the results of the Lord's death and resurrection than where the testimony was given in Jerusalem. The reason is obvious. The evidence and facts of the case are stated, and the sin laid home upon Jerusalem, its inhabitants, and their rulers; but no charge of sin against those present (though all alike before God guilty of the fact) is pressed, but the glad tidings of the fulfilment of the promise made to the fathers announced, even of Jesus risen from the grave. Gladsome news to Israelites, for it was on this wise God said, "I will give you the sure mercies of David" — though they knew it not, the blood of the covenant opening grace to them and securing every blessing of dominion, righteousness, and power to them — that blood, I say, flowed in the veins of Jesus while on earth. Gladsome news therefore to them that it had been poured forth and yet Himself risen in the power of an endless life because the Son of God, ready and able to dispense all the blessings which were His own as Son of David! and gladsome news to the poor Gentiles, in whatever way looked at, for when David's Son stands in glory, the distributor of these sure mercies, then shall be brought to pass the saying — "Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people." And even ere that, to Israelites and Gentiles alike, there is this blessed word: "Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses."
How completely, how perfectly does this, poor sinner, whoever thou art, meet thy case! the only door of hope, a door into immediate present rest! What words could be stronger than these — "and by him all that believe ARE justified from all things?" May God grant thee, reader, to know this as true of thyself. If thou believest in Him, "thou art justified from all things." What blessed grace! And if one who has believed in Him, but yet will not admit the value of belief in Him to be so great as this, even complete present justification from all things, if one such reads this, let such attend to the word which follows — the sure result of unbelief and the tendency of all those doubts which so many, in so ungracious a way, cherish, and God's sentence against them.
"Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets; Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you."
Compare also with this, Acts 17: 3: "Paul . . . . reasoned . . . . opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead."
10. "God . . . . now commandeth all men everywhere to repent: because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter." (Acts 17: 31.)
Such was part of the testimony of Paul, the apostle of the uncircumcision, to the Gentiles at Athens. The reference to the Lord in the character of "the judge" is of interest, as was noticed in connection with Acts 10: 38. There Peter, speaking to the Gentiles in measure acquainted with Jewish worship, presents Him as ordained Judge of quick and dead; here as a "Judge of the world in righteousness." The testimony begins with the declaration of God as Creator of the world and all things in it, and as witnessed thus by all His works as well in the originating of them as in the sustaining of them daily and hourly, and then passes on to the assertion before us.
The character of the Lord's resurrection (as is seen in Rom. 1) declared Him to be the Son of God with power: and to this Son, as we read in John, all judgment was committed. "The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son:* that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father." (John 5: 22.) In this way, the resurrection of the Lord becomes a pledge of the coming judgment to all: for His victory over death proved and showed who and what He was, even the eternal Son of the Father, and to Him belongs the judgment to come. How humbling the contrast between the thoughts of God and man! The victory of Jesus over the grave and death, and this victory, the way of all blessing to poor lost man, was God's high wisdom and glory. A full expression of divine wisdom, and power, and grace was in it. The joy of God was in it, even of the Father; and He who was the Son rejoices in it, as meeting His Father's mind, fulfilling His own glory; the happy subject of testimony to the Spirit, the theme, triumph to His saints, and of praise to every power that loved Him. The blessed Spirit found rest and satisfaction there at last in connection with man and with mankind; the church also led by Him was tasting of its sweetness, and the proud persecuting Pharisee had left his all in the sense of the joy of it to go and tell the wondrous tale. But when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter. Alas, poor nature! in self-sufficiency ready to laugh at that which God glories in; and even in its better and more decent mood postponing to some more convenient season the troublous matter where alone its peace with God, for time or eternity, could be found. And but for grace so should we have been; but that same distinguishing grace which reaches unto us was present then also, and we read "Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed." Blessed God of all grace, how is thine hand ever ready to save!
*I would suggest to those competent to judge, whether the truth I am endeavouring to trace is not built upon other passages rather than upon a literal translation of this text. I am inclined to render instead of "whereof he hath given assurance unto all men," thus, "having afforded proof to all men," in which case the passage would show not the Lord's resurrection to be a proof of His being the judge, which is sure truth however, but another equally sure truth, that the resurrection put Him in a place not peculiar to the Jews exclusively, but, as we shall see shortly, in a position quite above them, though through His grace never forgetful of them; a place moreover whence alone He could reach beyond Israel's coast, or give blessing deeper and more blessed than Israel's portion. It matters not much which way we read it, for both are true. How blessed it is to feel that no truth hangs upon criticism; but that all its parts to a humble Spirit-led saint are broadly stamped upon the very surface of scripture.
11. "But bad certain questions against him of their own superstition, and of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive." (Acts 25: 19)
In this context Festus is explaining to Agrippa Paul's case; and we get in this, their intercourse, no unfair specimen of the world's estimate of the death and resurrection of the Lord: for what Festus in simplicity felt, they do practically likewise, so many as have not known the quickening power of the Spirit. Festus looked upon the death of the "one Jesus" as the close and end of the matter as to Him; and upon the assertion of Paul about resurrection as something peculiar to himself, and upon the whole matter as involving nice questions, connected with superstition, of which it was very hard to make anything definite, though from circumstances, it might be needful to twist and turn the subject about till something reason could lay hold of could be made of it. I fear greatly that professing Christendom knows the death and resurrection of the Lord much in the same way. Circumstances place the subject before nominal Christians, and their reason runs upon them and converses — yet always, like Festus, considering their connection with these subjects to be of an official character; they ate born Christians, Christians by country, nationally believers, and so it is unreasonable quite to overlook these subjects — though they, alas, have conscience enough not to make them, as did Festus, so familiar as to be the topic of interest to any coming visitor. The poor worldling, and the poor (so called) evangelical, seem to me sadly represented by Festus and Agrippa. May our souls humbly adore the grace that has saved us from such hardness and such folly; and has placed us, through grace, with the third party in the scene — in fellowship with Paul, suffering for Jesus' sake.
12. "I continue . . . . witnessing . . . . that Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first to rise from the dead, and should show light unto the people, and to the Gentiles." (Acts 26: 23.)
Called upon by Festus and Agrippa, Paul is here giving his testimony; in doing which he relates his heavenly vision and call to the apostleship, and the result — that he, having obtained help of God, continued witnessing of that which was the burden of the prophets, and Moses, even "that Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should show light unto the people, and to the Gentiles." How clear, how strong, how distinct the disciple's assurance when in testimony; how blessedly contrasted with the worldling in his estimate of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Surely, when we see the power of the Spirit in the apostle, in such positions, we may take courage, for the same Spirit who witnessed in him is ours, and is by very nature above all that can be found in circumstances to oppose him. And it is this which most especially strikes me in this context — the invincible boldness of Paul, though alone, when testifying to the death and resurrection of the Lord; though Festus might say with a loud voice, "Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad," . . . or Agrippa but add, "Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian;" and though there was none to stand by him, on earth, still, the Lord stood by him in power and might, because he stood near the Lord in witnessing to His death and resurrection.
13. "His [God's] Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." (Rom. 1: 3, 4.)
The connection of this verse with the substance of the Epistle is very close. The Epistle might be entitled, to distinguish it from the other Epistle, as "a vindication of Christianity," for it not only presents a most comprehensive summary of all the doctrine connected with the dispensation, but also meets and answers all the difficulties which might arise upon the first observation of the entirely new ground taken by the dispensation. The epistle naturally divides itself into parts. The first, contained in Romans 1, 2, 3 to verse 10, shows, the entire fall, bankruptcy, and condemnation of nature. The second (containing Romans 3: 19 to end, and Romans 4, 5) argues the grace of God, through faith, as the mode God had chosen in which to show out His love. Part third (comprised in Romans 6, 7) argues the question of law as bearing upon one so found by faith of grace. Part fourth, Romans 8, the blessing, in all its fulness, into which such an one is brought. Part fifth (that is, Romans 9, 10, and 11), the bearing of this upon dispensation, in which it is shown that the Jewish dispensation passed, though the remnant according to the election in it, stood, and that so this dispensation likewise shall pass, making way for another, though God will not forget His own in it, thus establishing the difference, all important as it is, between God's objects in revealing grace upon earth, for time, and for eternity. He reveals it among men, and in time it proves how irreparable man is — no dispensation which grace has formed in man's hand has stood or will stand; but though such be in time the issue, in eternity it will be found that they that were in Christ have stood, and are there presented as fruits of its blessing. And then the epistle closes with part fifth, a beautiful outline of the duties of the saved.* To many a high-minded self-sufficient. Gentile, it never may have occurred that there was a difficulty, and that a very great one, likely to occur to any mind, as to God's dealing to all with the Gentiles upon an equal footing with the Jews. Alas, so high-minded are many that they would monopolise the whole interest of the Spirit in scripture to self, and entirely forget, not only God's ancient people, whose are the covenants, but the Lord Himself also, and hardly look at or care for any of His work, save that which bears upon self. Yet to one who knows how the Old Testament prophets are full of the testimony of the earthly glory of Messiah, in connection with the house of Israel and the land, surely the heavenly blessing now thrown open to both Jew and Gentile alike, must be a strange, and a new, and a wondrous thing. The case is argued at length as to dispensation in Romans 9, 10, and 11, but the whole principle of the answer as to God, and Israel, and us, is presented in these short words, "Jesus Christ . . . . made of the seed of David according to the flesh — and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead."
*It has often struck me with admiration, that this epistle should have been addressed to Rome, containing as it does, so full and complete a refutation of all the many errors peculiar to the apostasy of that church. A more striking guard against Romanism, or refutation of it, could hardly have been penned — so far as concerns the soul of an individual.
Messiah, a Jew of the royal family of David, dead. And how so? Rejected by Israel — and in His death that glory bursting forth, which plainly told that He was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. For in death His glory shone forth as one that had life in Himself; and that He was the very Son of God was declared by the resurrection from the dead. Of none, save Him, could it ever be said, "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again Of no one could this ever be said save of Him, who being indeed Son of man, was at the same time very and indeed Son of God. Jesus rose not in the power of that life which is in the blood, but in the power of that which was and is His own as Son of God — as the life-giving Spirit. And this is what is referred to here; for though as man He was called "the Son of the Most High," as having been conceived by the virgin Mary, by the overshadowing of the power of the Holy Ghost — it is not that which is here referred to in this passage, but that deeper, and fuller, and more wondrous glory which was His, as the eternal Son — one in the Trinity; one with the Father and the Holy Ghost; God over all blessed for evermore: and His resurrection distinctly marked Him off from all others as the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness — His in Sonship. His being dead who was the heir of David's throne, showed the ground of Israel's rejection, while His resurrection set Him in a position to deal in grace with all whom He would; in that there was no kindred tie with earth, and though, indeed, the sure mercies of David were thus, and thus alone, secured; this was simply because Israel lay in the purpose of God to bless them; for the position obtained by resurrection was one binding Him by ties alone to God, and His purposes. I would notice, also, that the effulgence of the divine glory here brought out in Him, according to the spirit of holiness, was inseparable from the church's true standing. His death closed the door, for a time at least, on Israel; His resurrection set Him in a new place, where he could deal with things, not according to earthly order, but in prerogative grace, and that to Gentile equally with Jew; while that Sonship, according to the spirit of holiness, herein manifest, was the basis and formative principle of the church's hope, standing and blessing, as is most largely seen in Romans 8, and in the whole of the Ephesians.
Thus it was death which became the Lord's path into the position in which we know Him, and, in His victory over it, the means of manifesting that divine power and glory in Him, without which the church has no place, or portion, or even being.
14. "Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification." (Rom. 4: 23.)
In this passage and chapter we may see the saints conforming to the principle exhibited in the Lord. He got into His position of blessing and of exercising the power of life-giving Spirit, through death by resurrection — in this it was that the power and glory that were in Him shined out. Now in this fourth chapter, we find the father of the faithful, as the representative of the whole family, assimilated in measure to the principle fully carried out in the Lord. And so is it with every believer. The promise is given to us in all the barrenness and unfruitfulness of surrounding circumstances, and the sentence of death passes over every means in us, or around: yea, but we have the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in Him that raised the dead. But Abraham's faith was in God, and nothing could touch or remove that; the deadness of Sarah's womb, the suggestion of nature about his own great age; none of these things even came near to touch his faith. They might, indeed, have distracted him from faith, and led him to give up hope, if rested upon, but the ground of hope they could never touch; that was in God: God had promised, and He was faithful, and able, and true: but they did not prevent his faith, for it also was of God, and had, therefore, in it that resiliency of life, which being of God, gave it. Oh that the saints remembered this more surely, there would be less fear and trembling than there is in many, as the aspect darkens around them. Perhaps, with all its self-complacency about religion, there never was an age in which there was so little trust in God as the present! And how does Abraham's faith shame us: he had, as it were, only a promise to rest on, though it were the promise of the faithful and true God — the way how God could be just while dealing with a sinner and imputing righteousness to him, was not then fully opened — to us it is, and that as a thing once done and accomplished for ever. He was delivered on account of our offences, and has been raised on account of our justification, and, as it were, in the very presence of this past work, God says, Trust yourselves in all your wretchedness to Me, and I will clear you. Shame, shame, shame, on the unbelieving believers, who still doubt. Surely, to do so is not only to make God a liar, but to give a judgment, as it were, against the worth and value of that death and resurrection so presented, and to grieve the Spirit.
15. "When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For 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." (Rom. 5: 6-10.)
Is there any who, in false humility, would doubt the love of God and Christ, because of what he is in himself? Let such an one read this passage, and see how, as it were, the Lord, the Spirit, gathers the group of them that are without strength, the ungodly, the enemies, sinners, as those to whom He would tell how, in the death of Jesus, God sought to commend His love to us. Wondrous, surely, the love as discovered in God towards us; but more wondrous still, how amid all the discouragements to it in us, it should yet not only not be able to shut itself up, but seek to commend itself to us. To how many an object does a man feel pity, aye and love too, to whom he will never attempt to communicate it, for to do so he would prove a desire of fellowship, and the recognition of power of response in the object loved; and surely our God's seeking to commend His love to us does tell His desire of fellowship, while, where it is made known, it gives the power, through grace, of response, and we, reconciled by the death of His Son, love Him because He first loved us.
16. "How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? know ye not, that so many of us as were baptised into Jesus Christ were baptised into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reins in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God." (Rom. 6: 2-13.)
The argument of Paul seems here to be towards the proving by God's estimate of the death of Christ for the church, and the church's fellowship by the Spirit in that estimate, that the church is free from sin, and so free as to have no pretext for continuing to live in it. If God's object, says he, was, that as sin hath reigned unto death even so might grace reign, through righteousness, unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord, no one can say, We will continue in sin that grace may abound, And then the context quoted follows — the grand truth of which seems to be that our exemption from the charge and guilt of sin comes by God reckoning us dead with Christ by the Spirit: being planted in the likeness of His death, we were baptised thereinto and buried with Christ by baptism into death. That is, God, having given to us the Spirit of Christ Jesus, looks upon us as one with Him, and so imputes to us all that was true of Christ. Now He died under the charge and the power of sin imputed — but when He had died it had done its all, and being raised from the dead He dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over Him — for He liveth unto God. And now, if all this has been done by God to His Son for the church, let every member of it reckon himself dead indeed unto sin, so as neither to allow it to reign in the mortal body by obedience to its lusts, nor to yield the members of the body as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. The whole weight of the argument seems to me to turn upon the mode in which the church got her freedom from sin, in the power and guilt of it, even by being identified of God, through grace in the Spirit, with that which was the all that the charge and power of sin imputed could effect upon Christ Jesus.
This passage has often been taken as if it applied to the death of Christ as presented to the world. That such a view involves a complete violation of the characteristic marks of the whole context, as well as very unsound doctrine, is plain. Perhaps the saints do not look enough at the inseparable union of their blessing and the life of the Son of God. If we know Him we must have His Spirit, and this Spirit is the Spirit of the Son, and identifies us fully in all things with Him, so that God looks upon us by virtue of it, as having that true of us which personally was only true of Him whose Spirit we have received, and thus retrospectively we are said to have been crucified together with, died together with, and been buried together with, Him, as well as quickened together with Him: for though the life that was in the Lord was not fully manifested to man till the resurrection, when He became manifest the second Adam; yet I need not say that He was not intrinsically and personally, after the resurrection, other than what He was from the beginning, the only begotten Son of the Father, the Lord of all glory. The death of the Lord in this place seems presented as the place of the saints' and church's clearance from all the charge and power of sin.
17. "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God," etc. (Rom. 7: 4.)
In the last citation the death of the Lord was shown as the means of clearing the church in principle, from under sin; here it is presented as having the same effect as to law, and on this simple ground, that the claim of the law having been met by Christ fully, they who are looked upon as one with Him are free from it. This to the individual believer is of immense importance in connection with obedience; for as long as the mind of the Christian turns to law, as though it still rested upon him, he will be under that which stirs up the evil of the flesh, and, God knows, we need not either that, or the sorrow consequent upon it, in addition to the difficulties of our walk. I would only further notice that the expression, "that ye should be married to another," should rather be "that you should be for another," for it refers to the saints' present connection with the Lord, and that is one of espousal, not yet marriage. And again. in verse 6, "that being dead wherein we were held should rather be "that we being dead to that wherein we were held," as a closer and more literal rendering, as well as one more consistent with the sense of the context.
18. "If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." (Rom. 8: 10, 11.)
What blessed consolation and comfort is here! Having in the seventh chapter traced the practical effect upon the mind, and its thought of regeneration as in a Jew, so regenerated, considering the question of law, and then shown how sorrow and depression were the result, here we find the apostle presenting. as it were, the same individual, with the question of law disposed of, in the blissful meditation upon the work of redemption wrought for us by Christ. The question of regeneration had turned his thought inward, and then the question of the spiritual character of the law had scared him: redemption lifts up his mind from self to Christ, to all accomplished by Him, and no condemnation established — and more than this, it meets the very thoughts awakened about the body of sin, and death in us proves that our bodies are so, or Christ need not have died; and throws the mind therefore not upon anything in self, but upon the faithfulness of God, who, having delivered Christ for our sins raised Him again. and will quicken into newness of life all those who make that death the ground of their acceptance before God. And thus, believer, as thou well knowest, is described both thine experience and thy hope as to thy body — it is dead because of sin; but it shall be quickened because the Spirit of Him that raised up Christ from the dead dwells in thee.
19. "Who is he that condemneth? 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." (Rom. 8: 34.)
Oh, that the saints more simply understood the death of Jesus in this light! For then, instead of the uncertainty of guilt being removed, as we find in so many, there would be a clear, and steady, and abiding joy in their exemption from all death. No saint reads the death of Christ aright, but he who reads in it "no condemnation for me;" and this not simply as a surmise, or a hope, but with that certainty, as here expressed, as to enable him to challenge a condemner, while himself standing in the midst of those whom he knows not only seek to condemn but proffer those charges with indefatigable perseverance. Let Satan, let the world, let conscience condemn as they may and will, if their sentence is contrary to that of God, well may the believer say, "Who is he that condemneth?" And the more so, because the power of his heart in this challenge is not in the thought of innocence from sinfulness, but in the fact of the very fullest expression God could give, of having seen all his sin, yet met it and put it away, in and by the death of Christ. And He having died under sin once, now lives in resurrection, and His very life is the pledge and proof that there is no condemnation, and no one that believes in Him can say, "I am guilty still," without disparaging and denying the value of His sacrifice, and arraigning the truth and grace of God's testimony about it.
20. "The righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart,. . . . Who shall descend into the deep? that is to bring up Christ again from the dead. But what saith it? . . . . If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." (Rom. 10: 6-9.)
The substance of what was said upon the last quotation (namely, that the death of Jesus is, under God's estimate, the clearing of the believer from all condemnation), is here argued in a comparison of the principles of righteousness as proposed by the by-gone and by the present dispensation. The former, which was the law, was God searching man, and its word was, "Do this and live;" the latter, which is grace, is God showing the exceeding riches of His own grace in the person of Christ, risen from the grave; teaching us sin not indirectly, that is, by giving a commandment, which sin in us has disabled us from keeping; but directly, that is, presenting His Son, in resurrection, as the One that has borne sin in His own body on the tree, and now is at His right hand, the pledge of acceptance. And so plainly and distinctly is He presented, that there can be no "Lo, here," or, "Lo, there," to them that know Him; neither a descending into the deep to see what has become of Him, nor an ascending into the height to bring Him down — for, risen and ascended there where He is, has He presented Himself to God for us, and our consciences, and to learn peace from seeing how God has made peace, and not to suppose that till we feel peace, God has not made peace. May God grant unto us all to walk in the light of this finished work, therein knowing our peace perfected for ever with God, and so becoming His servants.
21. "Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: . . . . for to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living." (Rom. 14: 8, 9.)
There is a passage somewhat similar to this in Corinthians; yet with this characteristic difference between the two. This presents the conduct of the Christian with the basis of Christ's object in His death; that presents rather the motive in the Christian's mind resulting from the apprehension of Christ's object in His death. And this distinction is both worthy of observation, and of importance. For blessed as it is to have right motives for conduct, and a right understanding of what conduct becomes us, much more blessed is it to have fulfilled practically that which we see becomes us as disciples. And of this, as true in Himself, and them that are Christ's, the apostle here speaks, "Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord." And does not this present a certainty of conduct, a stedfastness of purpose, and an accomplishment of desire, very unlike the Christianity current in our own day? Alas! how few servants of the Lord there are, compared with the number of saints; how few who can truly say as to their daily walk, "In all things more than conqueror through him that loved us." I would we might all think more of this, that practical obedience is that which the Lord looks for, and that rightness of motive and rightness of understanding as to what should be done, are of no value, save as means to an end — that is, as stimulating and guiding into outer obedience. I say, again, I would this might rest upon our minds; for it is a sad fact that many are satisfying themselves in having right motives, and clear understanding of what they should be instead of evidencing that they have these motives and this light by their actions.
22. "If thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died." (Rom. 14: 15.)
The preceding citation looked at the death of the Lord as the basis of the disciples' general conduct as before God; this presents it as the light in which the brotherhood is seen, and thereby presents both the constraint and the measure of our love to a brother in Christ. And how much need is there to pray that the memory of this may be revived among the saints; for in these many thoughts of doing this and doing that, alas! how sadly is the Lord's new commandment forgotten and neglected. Dear reader, if a saint let this be thine especial care before man — to show that indeed, thine eye can read in every, even the weakest saint, one for whom Christ Jesus died, and for whom thou also oughtest to be ready to lay down thy life also.
Part 3.
1. The death of Jesus, God's executed judgment against the law of leaven in us — because executed on Him, we are free from its guilt, and thereby called to purge out all practical leaven from ourselves. (1 Cor. 5: 7.)
2. The Lord's death, as exhibited in the supper, the guard against the abuse of that which God has made the centre of the church's gathering upon earth. (1 Cor. 11: 26.)
3. The Lord's death, His only way of putting away our sins, and having the church in fellowship with Himself in resurrection. (1 Cor. 15: 1-7.)
4. The memory thereof, the Christian's stimulant to be ready to he always delivered unto death himself for Jesus' sake. (2 Cor. 4: 10.)
5. As (in the last context) His preparative for suffering, so also for doing all the will of Christ; yea, for living entirely to Him. (2 Cor. 5: 13.)
6. The Lord's death, the entire rupture and breaking up of all Jewish and earthly order, and blessing, and authority. (Gal. 1: 1.) And this on account of the imbecility thereof, through man's sin — for no righteousness could be found for man, but by and in the death of Christ. (Gal. 2: 21.)
7. The Lord's death, His clearance of the church from all charge against her, being the power of the judgment He bore for her, ere He rose into newness of life with her, in Him. (Eph. 1: 20.)
8. Jesus' death, the measure of His obedience, and the procuring cause of His redemption honours. (Phil. 2: 8.)
9. Conformity thereunto, the believer's path to glory as to outward experience (as in Rom. 4: 23, in the trial of faith). (Phil. 3: 10.)
10. The Lord's victory, in resurrection, over death, the precursor and mean of all resurrection. (Col. 1: 18.)
11. The Lord's death the means of our privilege of being reconciled unto God in Him, presented holy, unblamable, and unreprovable in His sight. (Col. 1: 22.)
12. Fellowship in the benefits of the Lord's death and resurrection inseparable. If the believer can plead any benefit from the death, he has all benefit from the resurrection. (Col. 2: 12.)
13. This leads him into practical freedom from subjection and bondage to ordinances as of the world, and the conceits of man's mind about service and duty. (Col. 2: 20.)
14. The knowledge of the resurrection of Jesus, by God, from death, the church's and the saints' secret of power, and health, and strength. (1 Thess. 1: 9, 10.)
15. The death of Jesus, the pattern of what we have to expect from man while so standing. (1 Thess. 2: 15.)
16. And this to the saint is no sad commandment; for in the pattern he sees the judicial act whereby his own sins are for ever put away, and the pledge given to him of his coming in glory with Jesus. (1 Thess. 4: 14.) 17. For Jesus' death has been to him the mean of fellowship in the present life of the Lord, so as to enable him to live as in the power of his life, who is upon the Father's throne. (1 Thess. 5: 9, 10.)
1. "Purge out the old leaven, that ye way be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us." (1 Cor. 5: 7.)
There is much worthy of observation in this context. Every believer, as we see from Romans 8, has in him the carnal mind which is enmity against God, yet power withal provided for him to walk contrary to it; for he knows that though this be so, yet he has also the spirit of life in Christ Jesus in him, and that God estimates him according to this — one with Jesus, and free from all condemnation through the death of the Lord upon the cross vicariously for the sin of the church. But these Corinthians not only had this evil in them, but had been walking according to it; and we find that fornication (and that of a very offensive kind) had been allowed. It is about the correcting the working of this leaven that Paul is here writing: "Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened." Observe they had leaven in principle in them in nature, and this leaven moreover, had been allowed to work, and therefore the apostle was rebuking them: and yet he says, "as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us." Were they, then, at one and the same time, leavened and unleavened? Yes, in two different ways. In Christ they were, as we all (who are Christians) are, unleavened, for Christ our passover is sacrificed for us. This sacrifice has made atonement for the sin in us; and in His Person we find full unhindered access to God, to whose eye the principle of leaven in us is not counted as sin, so lone, as it be not allowed to work. In Christ they were unleavened; but this very thing brought with it the claim and responsibility to purge out the working of the old leaven. This they had neglected to do, and so in themselves not only they contained leaven, but had leaven working. The principle they could not purge out; the working they could, and were bound moreover to do. There were many offerings of the old sanctuary which typified this state in the church, such as loaves having leaven but baked; as having leaven, unfit to be offered up to God; yet as being baked leaven, in a state not able to work. Now, as it was the death of the lamb in the passover which was the sign for the leaven to be put out of the house, as it were, so truly, antitypically, it was the death of the Lord which did put the leaven out in principle, and as before God, from the church. "Ye are unleavened, for Christ our passover is sacrificed for us." And this, dear brethren, is universally the way of our God in teaching us obedience. You have a spiritual privilege in Christ, which requires you to act in practice in this way and that way. Oh! this is a loving way, in which He leads us on into the perfect liberty of His service. May we all then keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. A little, and not a grievous commandment is this, if we remember in whose house, and at whose cost, the Lamb has been provided, and we have eaten of it! Too poor, and our family truly too little, to provide a lamb, our lot in this matter has been thrown into the hands and house of another, according to the liberty given even to Israel of old. (Ex. 3: 4.) Our God has provided Himself a Lamb — truly one without spot and blemish — and in His house have we fed upon that Lamb. The door into this holiest is by a new and living way consecrated for us, even the rent veil of Jesus' flesh. Surely if in spirit, and by faith within the veil, feeding in blissful security in God's house (as one with Jesus) upon Him, as the Lamb slain and alive again for evermore, it is a little thing, in the ample and rich provision there found, to put away our own poor, stale, defiled, and defiling provender. And if we feel there is a little self-renunciation in so doing, what is it more than the children of this world do daily, in the hope of regaining health of body — giving up the food they love for, or exchanging it with, bitter, nauseous medicines? May we be wise in our generation, as they in theirs.
2. "As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come." (1 Cor. 11: 26.)
The especial sins which drew from the Spirit the portion in which this is found, were these defiling the supper of the Lord, by making it a place of riotous eating and drinking, and neglect of brotherly love thereat. And both of these sins had their cure in the meaning of the supper, if rightly understood. Death, the Lord's death, the death of the Son of God, was God's estimate of man's way of choosing to please himself. In the supper, this too was presented as being the subject of mutual delight to God and the church; to God, because therein was the expression of His own grace and truth, and of the inestimable value of His Son; to the church, because therein she found that by which alone she could rejoice in the holy justice of God, as being, through grace, for herself, though most strongly against her sins. And how, while so exercised in such delights, could so filthy a mean of self-pleasing be indulged? Impossible. Ere the body could be given to such scenes, the soul must needs have lost its fresh savour of the very truth of the supper. And, on the other hand, if the truth presented in the supper met man's passion in their very root and source of self-pleasing, how distinctly does the way in which that truth is presented correct the attendant sin of neglect of brotherly love. He died for the church collectively; and no man can know his own fellowship in the blessing, without having at the same time strongly brought to his mind those who are thus bound up in one bundle of life with Himself; and this most especially at the supper, where the many brethren are always assembled together in celebration.
These seem to have been the two sins at Corinth. But it is blessed to see how the Bible is a book of principles, and how, therefore, the failure in one instance brings in from the Spirit a correction to ten thousand others. Had man been looking at the case, he would have satisfied himself by setting the failure in practice to rights. Not so the. Spirit; in doing this, he will so do it as to give the church a principle to guide her, not only in a case exactly similar, but also in others, in which, though the form of the evil may be different, the principle of it is the same; and therefore, he goes on (ver. 27), "Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord." Here is the universal rule, as it were, of which the former is but one instance — eating this bread, and drinking this cup of the Lord unworthily. And then He first blessedly defines the church's mode of escape, "Let each examine himself, and so let, him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup;" and, secondly, guards what he has said, lest any (as so many have) should suppose that even this sin could unchristianise them. It is not so; if judged, they are chastened, that they may not be condemned with the world. If they fail, He fails not, and though it may be by chastening and discipline, yet will He keep His own in spiritual separation from the evil of the world, the ways of which, as well as its character, tend to judgment.
I would only further notice the expression, "Ye do show the Lord's death till he come" (ver. 26), as proving (like 1 Cor. 10: 16, 17, etc.) the supper as the rallying point of the saints' upon earth.
3. "I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved . . . . how that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures: and that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: after that, he was seen of about five hundred brethren at once . . . . after that . . . . of James; then of all the apostles. And last of all . . . . of me also, as of one born out of due time." (1 Cor. 15: 1-8.)
The assertion I am about to make may seem to many strange (nevertheless I believe it to be truth), that great and general as is the profession of religion in our own day, so little and so rare is the understanding of the gospel, that not one out of ten of the religious would be able to give a simple and a scriptural answer to the question, "What is the gospel?" If any one calls this assertion in question, let him go into the coteries of his religious society, and try whether the question, simple as it is, will not elicit answers so various, as to prove that either there are many gospels, or that the one gospel is most strangely misrepresented in the minds of most. "'The vagueness of the answer, when the question has been raised about this or that minister's preaching the gospel, also has often struck me forcibly. "Is the gospel preached where I attend? Oh yes! I thought you knew what an excellent, or what a pious, or what a devoted man our minister is," is a frequent reply, as though there were no such a thing as distinct truth in the world. And so, I believe, in many minds the case is, that there is no clear, simple, distinct truth known; but truth, instead of being known in that firm, unvarying form in which it has been presented to us by God in the word, is looked at rather in the fickle, changeable forms in which it has been received by man, taught the fear of the Lord by the traditions of men. To illustrate what I mean, I would say, that in any mixed religious society, the m