A BISHOP was one day conversing with a physician who was an infidel. “I am surprised,” said the doctor, “that such an intelligent man as you should believe such an old fable as the gospel.”
The bishop replied, “Doctor, suppose years ago someone had recommended to you a prescription, and taking it according to order, you had been cured of a terrible disease, what would you say of the man who would not try your prescription?”
“I WOULD SAY HE WAS A FOOL.”
This was the reply of the doctor. The bishop continued: “Twenty-five years ago I tried the power of God’s grace. It made a different man of me. All these years I have preached salvation, and WHENEVER ACCEPTED, I HAVE NEVER KNOWN IT TO FAIL.”
Tens of thousands in every rank of life could bear the same testimony as the good bishop.
With all man’s inventive powers he finds himself today utterly unable to remedy his own wretched state. He cannot make himself happy in the present, nor can he avert the inevitable doom he so much dreads in the future. Infidelity can do nothing but condemn those who accept it. What is the good of men talking against the remedy the gospel proposes when they have nothing to supply in its stead?
Death is here, and we want a remedy. Sin is here also, and we want victory over it. Death would cause us alarm if sin were not here. Sin has brought death, and man, has a conscience which every time he sins reproves and makes him feel it. “Conscience makes cowards of us all,” said Shakespeare, for he knew what God had said — “After death the judgment” (Heb. 9:2727And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: (Hebrews 9:27)).
It is admitted that there are many social improvements today. But often those who are highest in the social scale are the most inveterate sinners towards God. “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?”
Improve or restrain man as we may, the evil is in himself. If it does not break out in one form it will in another. So it is asked in Job, “How then can man be justified (made right) with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?”
The answer to these questions is found in the gospel only. “Being justified (made right) by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:1, 21Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:1‑2)).
Three things come out very plainly in these verses: ―
First, justification and its result—peace with God.
Second, acceptance and its result—freedom of approach to God.
Third, joy now in a future hope—the glory of God.
JUSTIFICATION AND ITS RESULT.
It is an utter impossibility for man to justify his fellow. We may pardon an injury, but we find it almost impossible to forget it. God alone can justify —that is, clear from all charge of guilt.
It cannot be insisted on too strongly that the only right way in which God could justify a sinner is through the work of Christ; it alone could meet the claims of that throne we, as sinners, had rebelled against. He through the eternal Spirit offered Himself up as a willing victim to make propitiation for sin.
Had this not been so, no gospel could ever have reached us. On our side we were absolutely without hope, and must have remained so forever had God in grace not acted on our behalf. David brought back Absalom, without judging his sin of murder, because he loved him, hence in God’s righteous government he himself suffered in consequence.
If we are brought back to God righteousness must be maintained. In love God gave His own Son to die for the guilty. He, blessed be God, came in full accord with His holy mind, to do His will, and accomplish our eternal redemption. Nothing was left incomplete on His side. All that Divine wisdom and love could do has been done. He said, “I have glorified thee on the earth, and finished the work thou gavest me to do.” “IT IS FINISHED.” Wonderful words!
Nothing more is needed. Nothing more does God ask. God is glorified and the eternal justification of the believer is secured. Our justification is a present thing. “Much more then, being NOW JUSTIFIED BY HIS BLOOD, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” “And by him all that believe ARE JUSTIFIED from all things” (Rom. 5:99Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. (Romans 5:9); Acts 13:3939And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. (Acts 13:39)).
The resurrection of Christ is the fullest evidence of it. In love He settled all for us. In righteousness God has raised Him, in proof that all is settled to His satisfaction and glory. “He was raised again for our justification.” If He is raised we are as clear of our sins as He is. What a Saviour!
PEACE WITH GOD is the sure result of knowing my perfect justification by God, who, instead of being my judge, has become my best Friend—my justifier. Besides being cleared of all the past, we have received a new life in Christ, to which no charge of sin can be attached. This Scripture calls “justification of life.” We are made the righteousness of God in Him, “who of God is made unto us wisdom, RIGHTEOUSNESS, sanctification, and redemption.”
God may well challenge the whole universe to bring a charge against the subjects of His grace. If the question is asked, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” the answer is, “IT IS GOD THAT JUSTIFIETH. Who is he that condemneth?” Before angels, men, and demons we may hold up our heads and walk fearlessly on, because God is for us, and if He be for us who can be against us?
ACCEPTANCE AND ITS RESULT.
FREEDOM OF APPROACH TO GOD is the result of knowing my perfect acceptance with God. This is the grace or favor in which we always stand. This never changes because it is all of grace. The experience which flows from the knowledge of it may change, but the favor itself changes not.
What would it be for any sovereign to pardon a man who attempted his own life, and to give him liberty to have access to his household, and sit down at his well-spread and richly furnished table? All would exclaim that such would be marvelous grace. If the same man were made to feel when he sat as the king’s guest that he was very much an object of royal favor, how glad would that pardoned man feel. That would be grace abundant or “much more” grace.
So the believer has not only been forgiven and completely justified, but he has free access to God in Christ who is the beloved of God. The Holy Spirit has been given to us to assure our hearts of this love. He makes us feel that we are objects of Divine and special favor. The favor of God is only measured to us by the measure in which it rests on Christ.
If we walk in simplicity and live in the light of all this wonderful love or favor, there will be no difficulty in our being happy. Our rejoicing in hope of the glory of God will be a real thing. I would rather say that the difficulty would be not to rejoice or be happy. Happiness is not something we can manufacture. It is the result of enjoying the favor we have been brought into with God.
If believers are not happy there are two reasons for it at least. Either we do not understand or live in the enjoyment of grace, or else we are allowing in our heart and ways what is inconsistent with holiness.
True happiness walks hand in hand with holiness. The enjoyment of grace makes me happy. When I am happy in the sense of grace, God commands my whole moral being. I live to Him in the power of His grace. That is holiness. I love what He loves, and hate what He hates.
Holiness is not an attainment as some think, it is a result. I cannot live to God by an effort of my mind, I must have power—inward power—for such a path. The enjoyment of grace gives me, by the Spirit, all the power I need. If I walk in grace the flesh is subdued or mortified without effort. Though I say without effort, I do not mean without exercise.
But even exercise is the fruit of grace working. In my exercise I think of what pleases God. I turn to Him for grace that I may not fail, and in confession and self-judgment if I do fail. Effort is the effect of legal strain It only shows I am not established in grace. Exercise is healthy, and it promotes spiritual growth. An exercised state leads to self-distrust, which is always a safe state.
OUR FUTURE HOPE.
THE GLORY OF GOD takes in all that shall be displayed in the millennium or the world to come, when the Church, the loved object of Christ and the subject of eternal counsel, will be brought out before the astonished universe to be the eternal witness of all that God is in His nature and character.
When Jesus comes all the saints will be caught up to meet Him in the air. He will introduce us into the joy of the Father’s house, where we shall enjoy the Father’s love in all its fullness as that love is known to Himself as man. That will only be known by us; it will not be seen by the world. The Father’s house will not be display. The glory of God will be the full and perfect display of what His heart is.
What a future is ours! We may well rejoice in view of it, and count the trivial things of earth as vanity or worse in comparison to the glory that awaits us. Paul, who suffered the loss of all things for Christ in this world, endured privations of every kind and martyrdom at last, said that “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be displayed in us.” “When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory.”
We are unknown to the world now as the children of God. We only appear like other men to it. Our Master was unknown also, yet He was God’s Son. That makes its guilt the more awful for rejecting Him. Because it rejected Him and covered Him with shame instead of glory, we ought to be content to be unknown by it. If we follow in His footsteps with our eye fixed on Him who is our hope, we cannot look for great things here.
Christ is heir to all things in the vast universe. We are joint-heirs with Him. All the world’s glitter, glory, pomp, and pageant dwindle in utter insignificance and nothingness in comparison with what shall be our eternal portion.
But besides and underneath all, we shall enjoy His love in a special and peculiar way. This will be even greater than the glory. What were the glory if we did not know His love! Of course the glory is the result of His love. But oh! His love. What a sweet spring of deep eternal joy to the heart that has tasted it now and drunk into its living depths!
After the apostle has taken in the vast expanse of heights and depths, and lengths and breadths, he falls back on the love he had lived in the enjoyment and constraining power of when he said, “And to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge” (Eph. 3). That love will bring us to heaven.
“Glory supreme is there,
Glory that shines through all,
More precious still that love to share,
As those that love did call.”
P. W.