In the midst of so much to humble us in the present state of the Church, it is cheering to notice that the fullness of the Scriptures as containing all truth, has been gradually developing itself to the minds of many of God’s dear children, Many are now brought to estimate the value of this treasure committed to their trust. They have discovered. how much Satan has prevailed to draw them away from this pure source to the writings of men, and in this manner secretly to discredit the Word of God. Many a truth which man has reached unto as a probability, by the long and laborious process of induction, they have therein found simply revealed to faith. “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” (Heb. 11:33Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. (Hebrews 11:3).) Many a difficulty has been found to have arisen either from ignorance of the Scriptures, or from doubting their sufficiency to meet it, and from doubting the guidance of the Spirit into truth through the means of it.
All Scripture as being given by inspiration of God, addresses itself to faith. And herein is the all-important difference in value of the same Scriptures, in the estimation of one led by his natural understanding, and of one led by the Spirit of God. In the one, the Scripture is subjected to the understanding; in the other, his mind is subjected to Scripture; it is addressed to him with authority—“Thus saith the Lord.” Hence it necessarily comes to pass that, (save as an authentic record of facts,) the Scriptures of the Old Testament have no value in the estimation of the wise men of this world. They are looked upon as the writings of men of different ages, under a great variety of circumstances, disconnected one from another, and without any unity of design. They may appear to involve contradictions, and instead of affording the kind of light, which the mind expects to find, often lead “to oppositions of knowledge falsely so called.” The perplexities and difficulties arising from the Scriptures to the mind of man, naturally skeptical, must be familiar to every Christian, who finds in his daily experience that the difficulties of Scripture are so peculiarly its own, that they cannot be removed by reasonings. Whilst therefore, in subjection of his will to God, he understands whether the doctrine be of God, the natural man (in the pride of self-will,) turns the Scriptures of God against himself. Thus it was with the parables of our blessed Lord, whilst they conveyed instruction and opened mysteries to faith, they blinded the minds of those who believed not, “They stumbled at the word, being disobedient.” And unto this day in propounding the most simply revealed truths of God, to the mere natural understanding, they say “Doth he not speak parables?” But, whilst it is generally admitted that “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned,” the tendency in the spiritual man to exercise his own mind on things revealed by the Spirit of God, has not been sufficiently guarded against. There is such a thing as a natural knowledge concerning the things of God, as it is written, “what they know naturally as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.” Philosophy, jurisprudence, commerce, ethics, have availed themselves of the Scriptures, when it has served their purpose so to do, but not using the Scriptures for the end. for which God gave them, they have not profited by them; or rather, they have corrupted themselves by the very means by which they should have been profited. And it is in this way that Christians have failed to profit by the Scriptures, they have gone to them for the confirmation of a truth, rather than for the ascertainment of the mind of God. They have traced throughout Scripture some great principle of God, and seeing it in great prominence have only valued the Scripture, as bearing on this single point.
We have a striking instance of this in the recovery of the blessed truth, of a sinner’s Justification before God. at the time of the Reformation. The Scriptures were searched from one end to the other for this single point, and this truth (so intimately connected with God’s glory and man’s blessing,) is traceable from Abel downwards. But although this principle is illustrated throughout Scripture, it does not exhaust the Scriptures in which it is to be found, but there are many truths taught in them beside, and they are peculiarly appropriated by God, and (however applicable in principle at all times,) are capable of, and intended to bear a most distinct and definite interpretation. We are constantly failing, because we are looking for a truth in the Scriptures instead of the truth from them. Hence we have attached to the several parts of Scripture their relative importance, instead of viewing it as a whole. Hence we have attempted. to systematize, but the Scriptures will not bear our yoke.
Now one cause of our failure in coming at the truth will be found. to arise from our not having sufficiently attended to the way in which it has pleased God to make it known. All Scripture is occupied in gradually unfolding to us the accomplishment of the purpose of God with respect to Man, in Creation, and in Redemption; taking up the apparent failure in Creation, and showing not only all things created by Christ Jesus, but “for Him.” Now God in His wisdom has been pleased to announce His purpose generally, as, “Let us make man in our image and in our likeness, and let them have dominion.” God’s purpose has not failed, the new man, conformed to the image of God’s own Son, is made a Priest and King unto God. But how much of God’s counseled wisdom, how much is there needful to be learned both of Him, and for man to learn of himself, before this original purpose is accomplished. And in how many other ways is God to be manifested, the progress of which manifestation is detailed in the Scriptures.
Now let us take as an example the case of Abraham, there to learn the manner which God uses of throwing light on His own purpose in bringing it about. We find first the promise in general terms, “ Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee, and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing, and 1 will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee, and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, “Unto thy seed will give this land.” (Gen. 12:1,71Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee: (Genesis 12:1)
7And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him. (Genesis 12:7).) Again, (c. 13:15.) And the Lord said unto Abram after that Lot was separated from him, “Lift up now thine eyes and look from the place where thou art, for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever.” But God had left Himself room, so to speak, to introduce a great deal more into the body of this promise, so as gradually to unfold the manner and the time of its accomplishment. And as to its practical bearing on Abram, it was not the general promise, but the subsequent light, which taught him to be a pilgrim and stranger in the land of promise. Had nothing by way of filling up the outline been added to the original promise, Abram might have expected its immediate fulfillment. But the communication and vision (c. 15.) taught him how to look for the accomplishment of the promise, and using this later light which the Lord had given to him, he was kept in calmness and patience of spirit, assuredly believing that what God had promised He would perform. Now the using of the later light in order to the development of God’s purpose, I believe to be of great importance, and very helpful indeed in order to produce that settledness of mind as to the great truths of Scripture, which alone leads to practical results. There is such a thing as “always learning and never coming to the knowledge of the truth,” always questioning a first principle, which we allow and see abundantly revealed, by arraying against it all the difficulties with which others may suppose it to be encompassed; and thus rather to attribute the difficulty to want of clearness in the Scripture, than to the lack of a spiritually enlightened understanding in ourselves. It is thus that Satan effectually hinders God’s truth from becoming sanctifying, and many have thus been driven back from Scriptural truth, to receive again the doctrines and traditions of men. It is a proof of no small hardihood on the part of man, that he even ventures to explain away Scripture by the very light of Scripture, in the face of such solemn assertions as these, “The Scripture cannot be broken,”—“It is not possible that the word of God hath failed.” (Rom. 9:66Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: (Romans 9:6). Greek.) Surely we ought to seek the harmony of its several parts, instead of making it apparently to have failed, because we have used the light which God hath given us to minister to our own selfishness, instead of to the revelation of His own purpose.
Now in seeking rightly to divide the word of truth, there are two principles which will be found very helpful indeed. The first is, “Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world.” (Acts 15:1818Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. (Acts 15:18).) There is no afterthought in God; no remedy because of failure on His part; but man’s failure has been the occasion of bringing out into light, the counseled wisdom of God. He is always steadily working to the accomplishment of His own purpose; oftentimes it may seem to our shortsightedness and ignorance as though it had been forgotten or changed. “Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, my way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not neither is weary? there is no searching of His understanding,” (Isa. 40:28, 2928Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. 29He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. (Isaiah 40:28‑29).)
Israel is not forgotten, although so long and dreary a blank would intervene. So again, “The Lord is not slack, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to usward, not desiring that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” This therefore must be a fixed principle in our souls—God’s promise cannot fail; it may to us appear forgotten or thrust out, because of something new to us which He has brought to light, but in fact, the works were all known unto Him from the beginning of the world—all orderly arranged, but only brought out into manifestation in God’s “own times.”—ιδιοις καιροις (1 Tim. 6:1515Which in his times he shall show, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; (1 Timothy 6:15).) in “the fullness of time.”
There might have been some difficulty in the minds of the Apostles, as to the faithfulness of God to Israel, in taking from the Gentiles a people for Himself; God might have seemed to have altered His purpose. But no; James, led by the Spirit of truth, was enabled, to put this work of God in its right place, as not at all infringing His purpose with respect to Israel; but as that which filled up a blank, which had been left in the Lord’s declarations concerning that people. This new thing did not do away with, or supersede the old. There was a space left for a something from the casting off of Israel, to their restoration, and that space was just filled up by the declaration of that mystery which had been hid in God from the foundation of the world. In the Prophet we find the Lord bringing His own people down to the level of the nations. “Are ye not as the children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith the Lord, Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Assyrians from Kir?” Thereon follows their judgment: “Behold the eyes of the Lord are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth, saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob: but lo I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations,” &c. Next follows the promised restoration: “In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen,” &c. (Amos 9:77Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith the Lord. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir? (Amos 9:7), &c.) Here in the interval between the dispersion and the restoration, James, as a scribe instructed unto the kingdom of heaven, brought forth new and old; not making the new to nullify the old, but to throw light on it. There was no difficulty in his mind to see the promise to Israel as yet awaiting its fulfillment, but meanwhile another work that God had purposed from the beginning of the world, brought into action. “In that day,” says the Prophet—“After this,” says the Apostle—able to show a thing which had not been revealed to the Prophet.
The other principle is, “the Vail is done away in Christ.” Of this, the most striking proof to us, is our ability to understand the Old Testament; whilst those to whom these Scriptures were addressed, are blinded as to them to this day. “Because they know Him not, nor yet the voice of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath day; they fulfilled them in condemning Him.” However clearly this principle may be recognized with respect to Israel, it is not so easily seen that in measure the same blindness attaches to us, because our capacity to see God’s truth, only arises from our being so placed in blessed. security in Christ, as to draw from above the wisdom which is without partiality and without hypocrisy. Till established in Christ, we are prone to use the Scriptures with partiality, as ministering to our own selfishness. We anxiously search them (and surely not without profit and comfort) in order to gather something suitable to our own case, and thus are not in the capacity to judge righteous judgment. I believe that our own slowness in understanding the things written in the Prophets, arises in a great measure from our being little established in the gospel of that grace wherein God hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence.
Now, by the grace of our God, we are put in possession of things new. “it is given unto you (the disciples of Christ) to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for I say unto you, that many Prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them, and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.” And this declaration of our blessed Lord becomes more forcible when it is said of Him, in teaching these new things, “I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.” Now it is in rightly applying these new things, so as to obtain the light which the Lord hath designed to give, that our wisdom will be discovered. And I believe we shall find the revelation of any new truth to cast its light back on what had previously been revealed, to show us how to fill up its outline, or to make us acquainted, as it were, with God’s working place. The fact of the incarnation is the leading clue to guide us through Scripture; the 8th Psalm, the 110th Psalm, the 50th of Isaiah, only become intelligible to us through the knowledge of the incarnation. “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
But to speak more particularly, Jesus being presented to the Jews as the Messiah, their rejection of Him made way for opening the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. If we put ourselves in the place of a Jew, hearing John the Baptist’s testimony, (Matt. 3) we should have been prepared to expect, that the moment He came to whom John bare witness, his work being before Him, that it would have been executed in rapid succession. The ax would have been up lifted, and would have hewn down the trees; the wheat would have been gathered into the garner, and the chaff burnt up with unquenchable fire. We cannot read Isa. 40 without perceiving that from such a testimony this would naturally have been Jewish expectation. There is no intimation of the cutting short of the career of the forerunner, nor of Him whose messenger he was. It was this which our Lord opened to His disciples, when tie said, “Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise also shall the Son of Man suffer of them.” (Matt. 17:1212But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. (Matthew 17:12).) This rejection of the forerunner, and of Him whose messenger he was, makes a break in this testimony to the Messiah as properly Jewish; and standing in this break we are enabled to see the harmony of the prophetic testimony unto the sufferings of Christ and the glories which should follow. But at the second coming, these testimonies, so to speak, will be taken up afresh and acted out continuously. Of this we have a very plain instance in Isa. 611For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. (Isaiah 62:1). There was a proclamation of the great jubilee, the year of general release. It would have appeared from this single Scripture, that the moment that the One came who could say— “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek,” &c. that the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God, would have been simultaneous in deliverance to the people of Israel, and in fury towards their oppressors. But very early in His ministry the Lord showed an interruption in this prophetic strain. And there was delivered unto Him the book of the Prophet Esaias, and when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor, He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” Here then He stopped, and said unto them, “This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.” This was a plain intimation of an interruption—so that there would be a sense in which there would be an acceptable year of the Lord apart from its connection with “building the old wastes, and raising up the former desolations.” Here again the rejection of Jesus as the Messiah, snapped a link in the chain of prophecy. The whole course of Messiah’s dealings with His own, to whom He came and they received Him not, was thereby disarranged. It must ever be borne in mind, that to those under the law, strictly speaking, were the prophecies given, and the marvelous wisdom of God in them is thus shown, that whilst the failure of man is proved. complete, and God’s succeeding dealings apparently originate from that failure, everything has been done “according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.” It was thus that our blessed Lord on a subsequent occasion instructed His disciples. “We (said they to Him, at that time unknown to them) trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel.” Then He said unto them, “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken! Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory?” Until we recognize the important truth that God is showing His own unchangeableness in the constant failure of man—and that His counsel standeth after all, we are hardly morally capacitated into Scripture. “In Christ the vail is taken away.” When we see the Church as something new, completely sui generis, set up in the purpose of God before the foundation of the world, but brought it to manifested reality, by the coming down of the Holy Ghost, after the ascension of Christ, the Revealer and Communicator of the spiritual blessings in the heavenlies; then we are not driven to the necessity of forcing Jewish prophecy into present application, or of assigning to it a vague and indefinite interpretation. But we are enabled to see every promise to them of earthly things made good by the sovereignty of God’s grace, and secured in Jesus, which have failed when left in the least degree to their own strength. Here then again, may we see “when it shall turn to the Lord, the Vail shall be taken away,” and this prophetic strain in Isa. 611For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. (Isaiah 62:1) receive its orderly fulfillment. The link which has been snapped by the rejection of Jesus, shall be riveted at His second appearing, and the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God be at one and the same time, as it was previously written, “And He saw that there was no man, and He wondered that there was no intercessor, therefore His arm brought salvation to Him, and His righteousness it sustained him. According to their deeds, accordingly He will repay, fury to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies, to the islands He will repay recompense. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him, and the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord.” (Compare Isa. 5912For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them; (Isaiah 59:12); Rom. 1112Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? (Romans 11:12))
Another instance in which we are able to carry the light back to the opening of Scripture, is concerning the title our Lord instantly assumed to Himself, “the Son of Man.” That this was equivalent to Jewish ears to the claim of being Messiah, is clear from John 12:3434The people answered him, We have heard out of the law that Christ abideth for ever: and how sayest thou, The Son of man must be lifted up? who is this Son of man? (John 12:34). “the people answered, we have heard out of the law that Christ abideth forever, and how sayest thou the Son of Man must be lifted up. Who is this Son of Man?” Now the part of Scripture in which this appellation is most clearly given to the Messiah, is Dan. 7:13,1413I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. 14And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. (Daniel 7:13‑14). “I saw in the night visions, and behold One like the Son of Man, canto with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought Him near before Him, and there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” Here the Son of Man is connected with the glory of His kingdom, and no intimation whatever of His being lifted up. “Who is this Son of Man?” as if they had said, “we know one of this title to be invested with supreme dominion, but nothing of a Son of Man to be lifted up.” It was at the time the Gentiles came to ask to see Jesus, that He, (looking at His rejection by His own,) had brought before Him most vividly the whole scene of His sufferings, through which these Gentiles would be brought into blessedness. He had been rejected on earth, “but I (says He) if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all to me. This He said signifying what death He should die.” Now the ascertainment of this fact of the lifting up of the Son of Man, the fact now known to us as the basis of all God’s dealings, not only with the Jew but with the world, the fact on which all blessing is suspended, leads us into the discovery of a great deal that is new, but not the setting aside of that which is old. The glory of the Son of Man and the abiding of His kingdom are truths; and we know that these are yet future, from the testimony of the Lord on the very eve of suffering. “Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.” The High Priest fully understood this to be tantamount to His claiming to be the Son of Man, mentioned Dan. 714And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. (Daniel 7:14). Thus did Jesus still point at Himself, as the proper object of Jewish expectation; and in this character, as the Son of Man, to be manifested in God’s “own times.” After His resurrection, the thing uppermost in the disciples’ minds, (and they were not to tell the vision of His glory which they had seen on the Mount, till after He was risen from the dead,) was, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” They had seen Messiah to have suffered according to the Scriptures, and to have risen again; what then hindered the bringing in “the everlasting covenant, even the sure mercies of David?” The reply of the Lord clearly showed that they were not yet so placed as to be able to see the fullness of God’s truth. There were many things which they could not then have borne, which the coming of the Holy Ghost, the Comforter would reveal to them. The expectation was quite right as to. the restoration of the kingdom to Israel. “But He said unto them, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in His own power, (τη ιδια εξουσια) but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” It was after the Holy Ghost had come to them revealing “what eye had not seen, neither had entered into the heart of man to conceive,” that they would be enabled to see the order of the fulfillment of God’s promises, which had always been so ordered, that the times and seasons of them were always kept in God’s “own power.” Our present ability to do, this is the recognition that the blessings of the Church are not earthly but heavenly, and that its date is not in time, but from before the foundation of the world; and therefore it was never intended to thwart or supersede any of God’s earthly arrangements. It is this alone which enables us to put the several parts of God’s truth in their right places, and not to use them so as to neutralize one the other. No time-arrangements can interfere with that which was promised and settled before the world began; on the other hand, (although for the manifestation of this, which had been “hid in God from the beginning of the world,” (Eph. 3:99And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: (Ephesians 3:9).) there was necessarily one interruption in them,) those arrangements stand based upon the unchangeable promise of God, however they may await “His own times” for their completion.
To take another instance from Rom. 9. The Apostle quotes two distinct passages in a cursory way from the Prophet Hosea; not.as giving their interpretation, but for the purpose of establishing that which he had before him—i.e. that God’s purpose of taking out of the Gentiles a people for His name, was no violation of His faithfulness to Israel. The burden of the Prophetic testimony to them was their rejection and subsequent restoration. In the interval between these, room was left for another work of God, which then had just begun to be filled up, by calling Gentiles into the fellowship of the body of Christ. However true therefore it might be in application, that the Gentiles who were not owned as a people by God, were now, in the called out, so owned; yet in the passage under consideration, it is clear that the Apostle did not mean to interpret “not my people” of the Gentiles. The passages quoted are these—Hos. 2:2323And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God. (Hosea 2:23), “I will say to them which were not my people, thou art my people.” (literally, I will say to the Lo-ammi, Ammi, thou.) Then the former part of the verse, “I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy,” (I will have mercy on Lo-Ruhamah.) These typical names were given to the children of the Prophet. (c. 1:8, 9.)
The other passage is c. 1:10.—“And it shall come to pass that in the place where it was said unto then], ye are not my people (Lo-Ammi, ye), there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.” The argument of the Apostle appears to turn on this—During the time that Israel was nationally “Lo-ammi,” was God to have any on the earth whom He could recognize as worshippers, and as His? Yes—the vessels of mercy which He had afore prepared into glory, even us, whom He hath called, “not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles.” Here was the space left for this work of God—the time and season of which He had kept in His own power. This would easily be apprehended by those who were in Christ, but on the others blindness would rest.
Having thus shown the value of making our own standing in Christ to bear on the Scriptures of the Old Testament; we may briefly mark the same principle in the New Testament, viz, the gradual unfolding of the purpose of God. If we turn to the gospels, (for example to the first chapter of Luke,) everything at the first is of a Jewish character. “Jesus Christ was made a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers.” The annunciation to the Virgin bears marks of this. “The Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David, and He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end.” So again in the song of the Virgin, “He hath holpen His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy to Abraham, and to his seed forever.” The whole strain of Zacharias, when filled with the Holy Ghost, is the accomplishment of the mercy of Israel in the Person of Jesus. And this is in fact the great point of prophecy, connecting everything with the seed to whom the promise was made—the Person of Christ. In these testimonies we have the faithfulness of God to Israel announced, in that He had raised up to them a Savior, Jesus. But the ministry of the Lord gradually prepared the minds of the disciples for something besides God’s faithfulness to Israel. This was done at first in opening to them the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, and then more plainly in those peculiar Church discourses. (John 14 to 17.) Everything there struck deeply at Jewish feeling, an unseen instead of a seen Savior mansions prepared in heaven, instead of each under his vine and fig tree—tribulation and persecution, instead of deliverance from the hands of their enemies. The only comfort held out to their sorrowing minds was, “I will come again to you.” The question of Judas is sufficiently indicative of the feeling of the disciples at the novelty of Jesus as the Messiah seen by them, but unseen by the world. “Lord how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself to us, and not unto the world?” (John 14:2222Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? (John 14:22).) Their thought was “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.” (Isa. 40:55And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. (Isaiah 40:5).) They knew not until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead, and the Comforter had come, how that glory could be secretly revealed to the souls of some, and not publicly manifested. The Lord’s reply to Judas (while it tended to cast him simply on His word,) pointed to the coming of the Comforter, for clearing up the present difficulty, and bringing further light, which would then become available. “He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you.” And repeatedly throughout these discourses, we find the clearing up of difficulties referred to the time of the Comforter, “who should guide into all truth, and show things to come.” This teaching of the Comforter we get in the Epistles, which fill up and supply that which had been left in obscurity. The Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians appear to be but the amplifying and enlargement of the Word of the Lord. “At that day (the coming of the Holy Ghost,) ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” And, in passing, let it be noticed that the things which Paul taught, he insists on as being by direct revelation from the Lord from heaven; so that we have, as it were, in the visions and revelations given to Paul, that which would fill up the outline left by the Lord, according to this Apostle’s own word, “the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, (rather to complete or fill out πληρωσαι the word of God, which had not previously been set forth in all its dimensions,) even the mystery,” etc.. (Col. 1:25,2625Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; 26Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: (Colossians 1:25‑26).) In the Epistles, so peculiarly our own, we have ample directions for the conduct of those, who, being brought into the fellowship of Christ, are yet in an evil world. Sorrow and suffering are there pointed out as the allotted portion of such, till the coming of Christ. This one point is the encouragement to diligence—the consolation under suffering—the caution unto watchfulness. The darkening prospect before the Church here, (especially in the moral signs, iniquity abounding, love waxing cold, profession solely based on selfishness,) is most plainly intimated. The world is only recognized as judged, but yet the subject of the riches of God’s goodness and long-suffering—to be terminated only by the coming of Christ. But we have, even after this, things new. The coming of the Lord Jesus is taken up in the Revelation and established as the sustaining point of hope. “Behold He cometh with clouds, even so, Amen.”
Thus established, the soul is prepared to view all the corruptions of the Church, first become the subject of the judgment of the Son of Man; (c. 2, 3.) And next of prophetic testimony, dealt with only in longsuffering, as the world was represented in the Epistles. But, what is deeply interesting to us, we here find the same One (who, previously to His going away from the earth, had told His disciples what they were to expect in and from the world,) again, as the Lamb opening the seals and telling forth all the disasters of the Church, lest they should be offended. Thus showing the largeness and darkness of that interval before His appearing, which had first been generally stated in His own discourses, “Ye shall weep and shall lament, but the world shall rejoice;” then more enlarged in the Epistles, but now filled up in the Revelation. Again, from the light afforded in the Epistles, (except in the way of indefinite statement, as in the expression, Eph. 210For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. 11Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; 12That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: 13But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:10‑13) “ages to come,”) we might have expected the dispensation commencing at the coming of the Lord, to have been the final one. But here we have another measured dispensation, which we are enabled to look through, to the introduction of one beyond it. This work of God, known unto Him from the beginning of the world, but only here made known definitely to us, is the light which God has given us, in order that we may rightly divide the word of truth. There must be consistency in the truth of God, not to be reached by forcing into one point, according to our own narrowmindedness, all that He has revealed, but by patiently seeking after His order, who has put the times and seasons in His own Dower. Now had there been no fresh light thrown on 2 Peter 3:10-1310But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. 11Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, 12Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? 13Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. (2 Peter 3:10‑13), “The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat;...... nevertheless we according to His promise look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness,” we might rightly have looked for the introduction of a perfect state immediately on the Lord’s coming. But not more rightly than the disciples looked for the restoring of the kingdom to Israel, after that Jesus had suffered and risen. There was something to intervene (which God had known, and kept in His own power, from the beginning in both these cases,) the introduction of which did not at all nullify the previously revealed purpose of God. There was room left for it there, however the promise of God might appear to man to be deferred. There are few whose minds have not been perplexed by the passage of Peter above, who see most clearly the ample testimony from Scripture, to the Pre-millennial advent of Christ, and yet have failed to receive it in its practical power, because of the difficulty here presented, Now surely it is our wisdom to take back the fresh light given to us in the ascertainment of this measured dispensation, and to see that it intervenes before He that sits on the throne says, “Behold I make all things new.” (Rev. 21:55And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. (Revelation 21:5).) Now the knowledge which we have of this intervening dispensation is a very principal Key to unlock the treasures of Old Testament prophecy. We have declarations of a state of blessedness in the earth, perfect as compared with the present, yet still with imperfection in itself, and we have at the same time declarations of a state of unmingled blessedness; as it is written, “Behold I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not come into mind; but be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create, for behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy; and I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people, and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.” Now here we have first a statement of general blessedness, then an earnest of it in the case of Jerusalem. But there are other statements which harmonize with the perfect blessedness of Jerusalem, but not with the universal blessedness of the earth. Now if we once bring to bear on this the Revelation of the Millennium, and then a dispensation subsequent to it, we at once get the true character of the Millennial state, as one of extended blessing, yet imperfect and progressive; and see the harmony of prophetic statements. We have seen that our mistake has ever been to run before God, and to get all truth exhausted as speedily as possible, by bringing it all to bear on that which is our own point of hope, but it is our wisdom patiently to mark the unfolding of the counsels of God, and to see How He is bringing out into revelation and public manifestation, “the works known to Him from the beginning of the world.”