2 Col. 5.
WHAT God has wrought is enough to warrant every believer in the Lord Jesus having the fullest confidence in Him. There is not the least excuse for a fear or mistrust. Every need has been met, and every necessity provided for. There is not a state of soul, not a step of the way the believer is called to pass, that has not been anticipated. God has been for us in His counsels and ways in Christ, and always will be for us. Not only has He redeemed us from sin, and Satan, and death, and rescued us from this present evil age, but He has redeemed us unto Himself, unto eternal glory; predestinated us to be conformed to the image of His Son, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the power whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself. Saints in the apostles’ days knew these things hence they could say, “We are always confident.” Like other men, they had every now and then something to humble them; but this did not shake their confidence in God. Paul speaks of fighting’s without and fears within, of his having been so tried with troublous circumstances as to be pressed out of measure and above strength; but this did not shake his confidence in God. Whatever might be the difficulties of the path, the workings of Satan to hinder, or the failure of the saints, still he could say, “We are always confident.” It is well to see this, and to learn from Scripture the true secret of abiding confidence.
It is clear, that if this confidence had been grounded on what Paul was, or felt, or experienced, or wrought, it would have been very changeable; for of whom could it be said but the blessed Lord Himself, that He changeth not? If this confidence had been based on Paul’s success in his ministerial labors, it would have greatly fluctuated; for at one time he had difficulty to restrain some from worshipping him as a god, and at another time they tried to stone him to death. The saints who at one time were ready to pluck out their ayes for him, at another counted him their enemy. Many who once walked with him in brotherly affection and confidence, afterward turned away from him. But with all these changes, he could still look up and say, “We are always confident.”
Paul was contemplating eternal realities when he wrote these words. He knew that his earthly tabernacle was a tent, and had the sentence of death on it. He felt that he was a sinner―chief of sinners; and that as a saint he was less than the least, and not meet to be called an apostle. But he knew whom he had believed. He knew the blessedness of the fact, that Christ was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification. He gloried in the cross. He rejoiced in having redemption, and being made nigh to God in Christ Jesus, and through His blood. He triumphed in an already accomplished work; so that when a question suggested itself to him as to the security of the believer, his answer was, “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.” These are realities on which the soul can rest, and they are enough to give the surest ground of confidence. No marvel, therefore, that the apostle cried out, “We know (not we hope, but we were) that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” (2 Cor. 5:11For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (2 Corinthians 5:1).) Blessed confidence! The triumph and language of faith―the utterance of a soul at perfect peace with God. There is no “if” here; but it is the expression of full rest, and unquestionable hope. It is a soul declaring that it has everlasting consolation and good hope through grace. But more than this. He goes on to say, “Now He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.” This is more than forgiveness, or even acceptance; it is the consciousness of having received already part of the eternal possession; the Holy Ghost having been given as the abiding Comforter; the earnest of all the glories that are to follow. He knew that, as a believer, he was “sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory.” (Eph. 1:1414Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:14).) He was therefore already in the enjoyment of part of the blessings that the precious blood of Christ had secured for him. Hence he exultingly exclaimed, “Therefore we are always confident.” What more, I would ask, can the believer have to assure him of his eternal security, and of the certainty of being forever in glory, than the present possession of the abiding Comforter? Blessed fruit this of the redemption work of Jesus! Glorious gift to the sons of God! for surely the Holy Spirit could not dwell in an unpurged temple. What could He have to seal on the heart of a sin-stricken soul who has fled to Jesus to escape the wrath to come, but the infinite value, cleansing power, and sanctifying efficacy of the precious blood of Christ? And to whom could He possibly be “the earnest,” but to the heirs of God, and the joint-heirs with Christ? The subject here, then, is the security of the believer; the truth opened up is the ground of his present and everlasting rejoicing in Christ. How blessed! What dishonor to the Lord for a believer to be fearing and questioning his eternal safety, when such an unquestionable warrant for unchanging confidence is spread out before him in the Scriptures of infallible truth!
It is clear, then, that the faithful and unchanging God is the alone ground of being “always confident.” Creatures cannot be trusted; every cistern is broken; every gourd withers; death is stamped on everything we see; the most devoted saint knows that he is full of imperfection; experiences are ever changing; frames and feelings vary continually; but God changeth not. He abideth faithful. He cannot deny Himself. His mercy endureth forever. His word will never pass away. He freely delivered up His beloved Son that we might live through Him; and having finished the work, God raised Him from the dead, and exalted Him to His own right hand. In heaven He appears for us, pleads for us, shepherds us, blesses us, and unceasingly cares for us. Well may we worship the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, and continually ring, “Bless the Lord, O my soul and all that is within me, bless His holy name!”
“Secured in Christ, their Head on high,
The saints below may boldly cry,
Praise to our God! Amen!
To God in Christ all praise be given;
For evermore on earth, in heaven
Amen! amen! amen!”