The Bible – Its Unity
It is important though to observe the unity of thought pervading all Scripture as to man’s utter ruin, an incurably bad condition, calling for nothing less than being born anew. If, early in Scripture, we are told that “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,” many hundreds of years after, another prophet declared, that “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked”; while hundreds of years later, our Lord said, “from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts,” and He did not name anything good in it. Later on an apostle declared, that “the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Rom. 8:77Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. (Romans 8:7)); so that as to man’s moral condition in God’s sight, ever since the fall, the testimony throughout has been, that “there is none righteous, no not one.” The giving of the law, instead of helping or improving those who accepted the yoke, only caused the offense to abound, and gave “the knowledge of sin.” Happy are they who so know the Lord Jesus Christ as their life and peace, as to be not under law, and vainly hoping to reach God by doings and efforts, but as brought to God in Christ and through His precious blood can bow in adoring praise and thanksgiving to Him for the accomplished work of eternal redemption. Such is the uniform testimony of God concerning man throughout the entire volume of inspiration.
The bright line which runs from Genesis to Revelation, and gives the whole book a unity which nothing else could, is its testimony to the infinite glory of the person of the Son, the eternal efficacy of His one sacrifice for sin, His moral worth and excellency beyond all thought, the glorious offices on our account He now sustains, as well as His glories yet to be revealed when He cometh with clouds, and His saints accompany Him, to put down all that is contrary to God, and fulfill all the promises to Israel, and much more, which assure us of the verity of our Savior’s words when speaking of the “Scriptures,” “they are they which testify of Me” (John 5:3939Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. (John 5:39)).
It has been well said, that redemption was no after thought with God – that God’s thoughts and purposes of love were toward us before the foundation of the world. And, in sweet accordance with this, we find the first man, who “was a figure of Him that was to come,” with his loved and loving helpmeet by his side, on awaking from his deep sleep; saying, “This is now bone of my bones.”
But by one man sin entered into the world, and “by man came death”; but no sooner had these enemies been brought into God’s creation than we hear of a Redeemer, a suffering Redeemer, too, who should effectually render null all the power of that old serpent, the devil. This Abel believed, and therefore offered a firstling of the flock and of the fat thereof; and “Jehovah had respect unto Abel and to his offering.” Noah’s burnt-offerings of every clean beast and of every clean fowl, again in type set forth the sweet savor of the offering of Christ, and the blessings to man and the earth which flow from it to this day. Abram offering up Isaac, as we have seen, prefigures, as no other type does, that “the Father sent the Son, the Savior of the world”; that He would provide a lamb for a burnt offering. Thus we have in Isaac, bound on the altar and afterward loosed from it, a striking type of the death and resurrection of God’s only-begotten Son. And as the Holy Spirit makes no mention of Isaac after this, till he comes forth to meet, and embrace his beloved bride, so in the intermediate chapters we have the line of pilgrimage and present circumstances of the man of faith, as well as the father of the typical dead and risen one, calling out a bride for his loved and only son, the heir of all his possessions. God’s way of blessing having been set forth by the death and resurrection of Isaac. Sarah dies, type of the Jewish system being broken up, the man of faith is a pilgrim and stranger, can find nothing here to possess but a grave; and though in the world, not of it, not beholden to it or indebted to it for anything, he obtains a grave for which he pays full price. On the other hand the true sent one is calling out a bride for the dead, risen, and now hidden son by whose testimony she is separated in heart unto him, whom she has not seen but loves; and the first glance she has of him detaches her from everything here, and she hides herself under her veil. Absorbed with the object of her heart, self was lost sight of in the consummation of her longing desire to “see his face.”
And so we might trace in Joseph again the dead and risen Christ in relation to Israel. While in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, as well as Deuteronomy, types and shadows abound in the various sacrifices offered of the infinite value and various aspects of that one offering of the body of Christ, offered once for all, never to be repeated; “for by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified” (Heb. 10:1414For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. (Hebrews 10:14)). In so many ways, and by such various types, the sufferings and death of our adorable Savior are set before us in many parts of the sacred writings, that we can now go from the New Testament statements of facts to learn details in the records of the Old Testament types and prophecies.
Not only did God declare that our Redeemer should be the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, and the fruit of David’s loins, as concerning the flesh, but that He should be the virgin’s Child, and yet His name be Immanuel, God with us. It may be frequently noticed in Scripture, that when the Savior’s perfect Humanity is brought before us, His deity is also mentioned not far off. Again, we are told that Bethlehem would be the place of the Savior’s birth; and there it is added, “whose goings forth have been of old from everlasting,” words which can only apply to deity. Prophets had long before declared that He would grow up before Jehovah as a tender plant, be a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, be despised and rejected of men who were so blind that they saw no beauty in Him that they might desire Him, so that in astonishment the prophet could add, “Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” Not only His spotless and unblemished life, in suffering, temptation, and sorrow occupied the prophetic page, but the cross in all its unutterable woe was again and again set forth. If one spake of Him as wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, and that it pleased Jehovah to bruise Him, and to put Him to grief as having our iniquities laid upon Him, another was able to foretell the details of those sorrows some hundreds of years before they occurred, and that His cry at that moment under desertion would be, “My God, My God, why has Thou forsaken Me?”
The actual death of the cross had been predicted as having His hands and His feet “pierced.” The derision and mockery and cruel scourging of men, and His heel under the bruising of Satan, were not forgotten. His betrayal for thirty pieces of silver, the scattering of the sheep when the Shepherd was smitten, the rejection of the “Stone” which was to be the Head of the corner were not omitted by the prophetic pen. That the soldiers should part His garments among them, and for His coat cast lots, that He should occupy in death a rich man’s grave, that He would be numbered with the transgressors, bear the sins of many, pray for the wicked murderers, and His soul be made an offering for sin, that a bone of Him should not be broken, but that they should look upon Him whom they “pierced,” we have only to look into the New Testament to find every jot and tittle of it literally fulfilled. That He died for our sins according to the Scriptures; was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, was what Paul declared in the gospel that he preached (1 Cor. 15:3-43For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: (1 Corinthians 15:3‑4)); and Peter also owning Him as “Lord of all,” and coming to judge the living and the dead, delighted to add, “to Him give all the prophets witness that through His name, whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins” (Acts 10:4343To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. (Acts 10:43)). If in almost the beginning of the sacred Volume the blood of the firstling of the flock was shed, as the only way of sinful man approaching God, at nearly the end we find it is blessedly recorded, “Unto Him that loveth us, and hath washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and Priests unto God and His Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever, Amen.” Is it possible, we may well ask, that anything can more clearly demonstrate the unity of the Bible than the discovery that the one grand absorbing and paramount subject throughout, is Jesus the Son of God who is Lord of all, and the Savior of sinners who believe?
(Continued and to be continued).