Q.-What is the meaning of that verse in the 12. of Matthew, "A bruised reed shall He not break, and smoking flax shall He not quench, till He send forth judgment unto victory?"
A.-This verse is often used as expressive of God's tenderness and consideration to a weak believer. No doubt God is tender and considerate towards His feeble children, beyond expression, but this verse conveys no such teaching. It is quoted as marking Christ's character, and mode of dealing, with that which opposes Him, during the present day of grace. The weakest things, which a broken reed and smoking flax symbolize, He will not deal with in destructive energy till the time of judgment. Then, coming in power and glory, He will sweep everything before Him in victorious and righteous power. It is a prophecy therefore concerning Christ, and can't be properly used to express God's tenderness to weak faith, for, blessed be God, that never ceases, whereas the teaching in the passage is, that this present mode of dealing with weak, but evil things, will cease, and end in their complete judgment.
Q.-What is the meaning of reckoning ourselves "dead indeed unto to sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord?"
A.-The Apostle in the 6th of Romans, from which this verse is quoted, is showing how the believer is set free from the evil nature he has from Adam, and lives to God in a new nature that he has from Christ. In figure, in baptism, the believer participates in the death and resurrection of Christ, and this being his actual and abiding standing before God, he has, by faith, to practically reckon himself dead to sin in the death of Christ, and alive to God in the life of Christ., Q.-In what way is faith looked upon as a gift in 1 Cor. 12:99To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; (1 Corinthians 12:9)?
A.-The faith spoken of here is not the faith which, through grace, all believers' hive equally, and in virtue of which they are saved and justified, but is a distinct, and superadded thing that distinguishes the one that has it from other believers. It is faith in power for overcoming difficulties, and for special service.
A.-All the saints before the coming of Christ had divine life, but by His coming, in virtue of His death and resurrection for His sheep, they would have life more abundantly, as having it in resurrection with Himself.
Q.-What is the meaning of Christ being a propitiation for " the sins of the whole world" 2 John 2:22And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage. (John 2:2)?
A.-The translators by putting in " the sins," words not in the original, and as their being in italics indicates, have given room for a very false application of the atoning work of the Lord Jesus. If Christ had been a propitiation for " the sins of the whole world," all the world would necessarily be saved. Christ has only been a propitiation for the sins of those that believe on Him. He has met substitutionally all their personal responsibilities in respect of sins. The teaching of the passage is, that the work of Christ, as a propitiation, did not limit itself to Israel, as the nation that God acknowledged in a special way, but looked towards the whole world, and was available for all that looked to God through that sacrifice, without any question of their being either Jews or Gentiles.