It gives great rest to the heart to know, on the authority of the word of God, that our place, our portion, and our prospect, all flow from the eternal purpose of God; all is according to the love of His heart, and all to the glory of His great Name.
These three facts, we may say with all possible confidence, form the solid foundation of the believer’s peace and rest; and they are presented with uncommon force and fullness in the opening sentences of the Ephesians. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings, in the heavenlies, in Christ.”
What a place! What a portion! “In the heavenlies”—“In Christ”—“All spiritual blessings!” What perfect security is here! It is not like Israel of old, placed in the land of Canaan, in the enjoyment of an earthly inheritance, surrounded by enemies, liable to be dislodged from their position, and robbed of their portion; holding both the one and the other on the slender and slippery condition of their obedience.
How different in our case! Instead of certain temporal blessings, we have “all spiritual blessings.” There is nothing wanting, not a single blessing omitted. And then, it is in the heavenlies, beyond the reach of every enemy and every hostile influence. We can say, “There is neither adversary nor evil occurrent” in the sphere of our blessings. True, we have to wrestle with spiritual wickednesses in seeking to make good our position and realize our portion. But we are blessed according to all the fullness of the expression used by the Holy Ghost, “all spiritual blessings,” and these blessings are not temporal or earthly, but spiritual and in heaven—yea, in Christ. They are heavenly, eternal, divine. Nothing can touch them; no power of earth or hell, men or devils, can wrest a single one of our blessings out of the hand of Him in whom we possess them. Our Lord Christ has won them for us—won them by His death on the tree—won them in pursuance of God’s eternal counsels, and according to all the love of His heart. “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be Holy and without blame before him in love.”
Here we are conducted to the very source of it all. And, oh, what a marvelous source! God’s choice, God’s purpose laid in Christ before the foundation of the world. Can anything touch this? Can anything occurring in time, anything in us or about us? Can aught hinder the accomplishment of God’s purpose? Impossible I That purpose was formed in eternity, and founded in Christ, the eternal Son of the Father. Assuredly God will make good His own purpose, spite of every opposing influence. The devil thought to hinder, by leading the first man to commit sin; he thought he had gained his end by getting him put out of paradise.
But God was above him. His purpose, blessed be His name, was not based on the first man in paradise, but on the Eternal Son; and hence the first man’s sin, and his expulsion from the garden, only furnished the occasion for God to bring forth from the treasury of His eternal counsels His purpose of love toward us. It was not possible that any creature, man, devil, or else could hinder the accomplishment of the blessed purpose of God. Eden itself might be overrun with thorns and briers; the man who had been set up there in innocence, to dress it and keep it, might be turned out a complete wreck, a hopeless ruin. But Eden was not to be the sphere, or the first man the instrument, of our blessing. God’s counsels could not find a solid foundation amid the dust of the old creation, or in the doings of the first man. No; this would never do; and hence, when sin entered, our ever gracious God took occasion from it to display the riches of His grace, in His kindness toward us by Christ Jesus.
Now, we hear nothing of grace amid the bowers of paradise, or throughout the fields of the old creation. We see power, wisdom, goodness, but no grace. There was no need. An innocent being was not a subject for grace. But when sin entered, when the first man had fallen irretrievably, then the divine purpose in grace was unfolded—a purpose, not to restore the ruin of the first man and of the old creation, but to introduce the second Man, and in Him the new creation, in which all things are of God, and in which—all praise to sovereign grace and redeeming love! —we have our place forever.
What a mistake the devil made in meddling with man in the garden of Eden! How completely he missed his mark! If, indeed, the purpose of God had been founded on Adam, if the sphere of its display was to be the first creation, then, verily, the enemy would have triumphed. Bat, thank God! it was not so. Adam was not the man, nor Eden the sphere, but “The Man Christ Jesus,” and “The new creation.”
We repeat, this gives perfect rest, settled and everlasting repose, to the heart. The matter is taken completely out of our hands, and off the ground of mere nature—whether innocent or guilty, fallen or unfallen. The whole fabric of the divine counsels, and of our blessing, rests, only and altogether, on the imperishable ground of accomplished redemption. The ruin is met, and met in such a way as to bring everlasting glory to God, and to put us on a better, higher, firmer ground than Adam in innocence could ever have occupied.
With what joyful emphasis, therefore, can we repeat the apostle’s doxology, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”—not merely the God and Creator of Adam—“who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings, in the heavenlies, in Christ”—not temporal blessings in Eden. “According as he hath chosen us in him, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy”—not merely innocent—“and without blame before him in love.”
How magnificent is all this! How it exceeds all human thought! It brings us back to the unfathomable depths of God’s eternal mind, and unfolds before our eyes His marvelous counsels respecting us. Here we learn, to our unspeakable joy and deep consolation, that it was God’s purpose to have us in His presence, “holy and blameless,” even as His own beloved Son. “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”
Can aught exceed the moral grandeur and glory of all this? What can the devil do here? What can sin, or death, or aught else do? Who or what can prevent the Almighty God from accomplishing His eternal purpose? Can anything in the wide range of creation interfere, in the smallest degree, with the divine determination to have us in His presence, according to His own choice, and according to the love of His heart? If God was pleased to counsel, before the foundation of the world, that from the midst of a world of wretched sinners, dead in trespasses and sins, He would elect some to be in His presence, holy and blameless, in the blessed relationship of sons, who or what can hinder? Who shall disannul the eternal purpose of God? Where is the power that shall frustrate His plans?
The christian reader will do well to get a very firm grasp of the truth on which we have been dwelling. It is the eternal purpose of God to have us in His presence, “holy and without blame.” And not only so, but it is the joy of His heart to have us there before Him. We hear Him saying, “It is meet we should make merry and be glad.”
The sense of this must assure the heart and set it at perfect liberty. “Perfect love casteth out fear.” God would not have us in His presence with a single trace of fear or misgiving in our hearts. He must have us perfectly at home, perfectly at ease; and therefore He makes us fit to be there.
But we must remember that it cost God something to carry out His purpose, and gratify His heart with respect to us. For we were sinners—guilty, ruined, hell-deserving sinners—“Dead in trespasses and sins,” “Walking according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the Spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience; among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”
Now, the question is, how can a holy, sin-hating God, who is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity—how can such an One have to do with us? If He cannot allow a single taint of sin in His holy presence, how can we be there? The enemy would raise this question. He would use the truth of divine holiness and human guilt and vileness, as an inseparable barrier to the carrying out of God’s eternal purpose, to have us in His presence, “holy and without blame.”
But, blessed forever be the God of all grace! He has, triumphantly and gloriously, answered this question. He has removed every barrier, and silenced, forever, the enemy and the avenger. “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son.” And, then, we have the other side of this great subject, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so mast the Son of man be lifted up.”
Here, the full, glorious truth shines before us. The Son of God was given—given in love—perfect love. But, the Son of man was lifted up—in righteousness—perfect righteousness. This is the solid foundation of the whole matter. God loved the world; but sin must be judged, must be utterly and eternally condemned. It will not do to take up merely one side of this stupendous question; we must have both. If God were to bring us to heaven in our sins, where were the righteousness? If He were to send us to hell, because of our sins, where were the love?
Mark the answer—the glorious answer to the question—the triumphant solution of the difficulty! God gave His Son, in love, and bruised Him, in righteousness. He loved the world, but He hated sin; and when we behold the Son of God and Son of man hanging on the tree, we read, in characters divinely deep and broad, God’s love to sinners, and His eternal hatred and condemnation of sin. “Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.”
Yes, reader, sin must be punished, must be judged, must be eternally banished from the divine presence; and hence, ere ever God’s marvelous counsels of grace could be carried into effect—ere ever His purpose could be made good, He had to give forth from His bosom, the Son of His love, and bruise Him on Calvary’s cursed tree. Thus it is that “grace reigns through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Magnificent utterance! The very gist and marrow of the gospel! “Grace reigns”—not at the expense of but—“through righteousness;” and this, “unto eternal life;” and all, “by Jesus Christ our Lord.”
The Lord be praised for such “A Solid Foundation.”