1 Peter 1
THE Jews under the law said indeed, trusting to their own strength, We will do all that Thou hast spoken. They undertook to do everything when it was prescribed to them as a condition. But here it is much more; it is the Spirit that makes one say, “What wilt thou have me do?” It is submission, it is the principle of obedience really produced in the heart “I know not what Thou wilt, but here am I to do Thy will.” It is obedience without reserve. There is no question here of rules that man cannot accomplish, but of the whole will changed, no more to do one's own will but to do God's will.
The book of the law was sprinkled, as well as the people. That in fact gave its efficacy to the requisitions of the law. But the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus, gives to the changed heart the purification and the peace which belong to those who are placed under the efficacy of His blood. We are placed there as the Jews were under the blood of the goat of atonement, not however for a year only but forever.
Take a soul, then, that the Holy Spirit has hewn out of the quarry of this world, being honest, amiable, kept by the good providence of God, but withal doing its own will. Well, God has found it there in the world and of the world, notwithstanding all its good qualities; and He has to put His love in its heart, in order that it may, without hesitation, only care about the will of God to do it. But, thus separated, it is under the blood of sprinkling, it is cleansed from all its sins.
This is the first principle; the separation wrought by God Himself, Who places us outside of this world, or rather of the things of this world, and makes us Christians. Without this there is no Christianity.
God acts effectually; He does nothing by halves, and that is all His work. God does not deceive Himself. He must have realities. He does not deceive Himself as we deceive ourselves, and as we try to deceive others, although we deceive others less than we deceive ourselves.
I would point out to you the meaning of the word sanctification. It is rarely used in the scriptures in the sense in which we generally use it, that is to say, in the progressive sense. It is only three times spoken of in this sense. It is said, “Follow peace with all men, and holiness (sanctification), without which no man shall see the Lord” (Heb. 12:1414Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: (Hebrews 12:14)). “The very God of peace sanctify you wholly” (1 Thess. 5:2323And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 5:23)). These two passages show that I do not set aside this sense of the word.
But it more particularly designates an act of separation from evil, a setting apart for God. If we have not laid hold of this meaning, there will be an entire mistake as to what sanctification is. In the two passages quoted above, the word has an everyday application. In the sense in which it is used by the apostle in the beginning of this Epistle, it is perfectly in the sense. Of taking a stone out of the quarry of the world to fashion it for God. Sanctification is attributed to the Father in more than one place in the Bible; see Heb. 10:1010By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Hebrews 10:10). Now, it is by this will that we are sanctified; by the offering once made of the body of Jesus Christ. It is by the will of God that we are sanctified.
1. There is the first thought, the will of God which is to set us apart (to sanctify us);
2. And the means, namely, the offering of Christ.
And it is always, with scarce more than a few exceptions, which we have already quoted, in this manner that it is spoken of in the Hebrews. Sanctification is attributed to God the Father in another passage also, Jude 11Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called: (Jude 1) [though the better reading says, “beloved “].
The Father having willed to have children for Himself, the blood of Jesus does the work, and the Holy Spirit comes to accomplish the counsels of the Father, and to give them efficacy by producing the practical effect in the heart. The soul separated from the world is sanctified by His vital act. There is the old trunk which pushes forth its shoots, but God acts in quickening, and His act, which takes place by the Holy Spirit, works the daily practical sanctification. The heart each day more and more realizes it. It is not like a vase, because in man it is the heart which is set apart. Thus, when life is communicated, and thereby the man is sanctified, there is a daily work of sanctification which applies to the affections, to the habits, to the walk, &c.
Let us see how God does this (verse 3).
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again to a living hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
Such is the way God does it. He sets us apart for Himself. It is not by modifying what was bad in us, but by creating us anew. He makes afresh a new creature, for the old man cannot be made subject to the law. He gives a new life.
If one be not thus born anew, one belongs yet to the world, which is under condemnation; but when God acts, it is altogether another thing. Being born in Adam, we have need to be born by Christ. When the heart is visited by the Holy Spirit, it is born anew by a life which is not of this world, which urges it to another end—Christ. It is not by precepts addressed to the old man; it is by another life. The precepts follow afterward. That is to say, that this life of which we speak, which is the new birth, belongs not to this world, neither in its source, nor in its aim; it cannot have a single thing in common with the old life. This life is found here below in the body; we eat, work, &c., as before: but this is not what Christ came for. Christ came to make us comprehend quite another thing from the life here below, into which He entered. And such is the rule of the Christian's conduct. He has for object, for aim, and for joy, what Christ has for object, aim, and joy; his affections are heavenly, as those of Christ.
If the life of Christ is in me, the life and the Spirit of Christ I have cannot find joy in that wherein Christ finds not His joy.
The Spirit of Christ in me cannot be a spirit differing from what was in Him; and it is evident that he who is separated from this world for God cannot find pleasure in the life of sin of this world, or prefer it to that of heaven.
We know well that the Christian often fails in this rule; but this hinders not that there is nothing in common between the life of heaven and that of the world. It is not a question of prohibitions as to using this or that, but of having altogether other tastes, desires, and joys. Hence it is, on that account, people imagine that Christians are sad, as if they were absorbed by only one thought. It is that our joys are altogether different from those of the world; for the world knows not our joys.
No unregenerate person can comprehend what renders the Christian happy. In other words his tastes are not for the things of this world. His thoughts rise higher. This is the joy of the Christian, that Christ is entered into heaven, and has Himself destroyed all that could have hindered us from entering there.
Death, Satan, and the wicked spirits, have been conquered by Christ, for the resurrection has annihilated all that was between him and the glory. Christ placed Himself in our position. He underwent the consequence of it. He has conquered the world and Satan. It is written, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you “: if he is already conquered, we have not to conquer him, but to resist him. When we resist him, he knows he has met Christ, his conqueror. The flesh does not resist him. Jesus gives us a living hope by His resurrection from the dead; in this way, and being in Him, we are on a foundation which cannot fail.
Christ has already shown that He has won the victory; and what grace is here presented to us! Even that of obtaining “the inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us who are kept by the power of God through faith,” &c.
The treasure is in heaven. I have nothing to fear: it is in perfect safety. But this is what I fear for myself, temptations, all sorts of difficulties; for I am not in heaven. This is true, but what gives every security, is not that we are not tried or tempted, but that we are kept in the trial here below, as the inheritance is kept in heaven for us.
Here is the position of the Christian, set apart by the resurrection of Christ, and regenerated. It is that, in waiting for the glory, we are kept by the power of God, through faith, separated from the world by the power and communication of the life of Him Who has won the victory over all that could have hindered us from having a part in it. And why are these trials sent to us? It is God Who works the soil, in order that all the affections of the heart, thus sifted, may be purified and exercised, and perfectly in harmony with the glory of heaven and with the objects which are set before us.
Is it for naught that gold is put in the furnace, or because it is not good? No, but to purify it. God, by trials, takes out of our hearts that which is impure, in order that when the glory arrives, we may enjoy it.
(To be continued, D.V.)