IN this lovely passage we have what we may well term three grand realities―three priceless privileges to be possessed and enjoyed by every true believer, every child of God, every member of the body of Christ. We have “peace,” to begin with; “grace,” to go on with; and “glory,” at the end. As to the past, all is divinely settled; as to the present, all is divinely provided for; and as to the future, it is an eternity of glory, in the presence of God. Eternal and universal homage to His Name!
But, it may be that, at the outset, the reader feels disposed to ask, For whom are these immense favors provided? On what are they based? And how are they to be had? These questions are, at once, interesting and important, in the very highest, degree; and the opening chapters of the epistle to the Romans furnish an answer to each, so full; clear, and distinct as not to leave a shadow of doubt on the mind of any one who is prepared to take God at His word—to believe what He says, because He says it.
And, first, as to the persons for whom these unspeakable blessings are provided, if the reader will just turn for a few moments to Romans 1:29-3229Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. (Romans 1:29‑32); and chapters 3:10-18, he will find two divine photographs of man, the first, a Gentile; the second, a Jew; and, underneath the two, the solemn sentence of God the Holy Ghost, “There is no difference; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” The Gentile, having the light which creation afforded, gave up the, true God and worshipped reptiles; and, by his habits of life, proved himself more degraded than the beasts of the field.
Then, as to the Jew who thought himself so much better than the Gentile, and made his boast of having the law and the holy Scriptures, we have a full-length portrait of him taken from those very Scriptures in which he gloried. And oh! what a humbling picture it, is! We shall just quote the passage for the reader: ―
“What then? are we better? no, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood: destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace have they, not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes.”
What a photograph! Here we have man to the life. We often hear it said that human photographs fail in giving the expression; but here we have a speaking likeness. It must be perfect, inasmuch as it is drawn by the Holy Ghost. “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.”
Here we have a sweeping, comprehensive sentence. There is no escape. “All the world guilty.” “Every mouth stopped.” “There is no difference; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” A person may say, “I have never been guilty of anything which would place me below the level of a beast. I have lived a blameless, harmless life. I cannot discern my photograph, either in Romans 1 or 3. I know I am not what I ought to be; but I do not think these scriptures apply to me.”
To any one speaking or thinking thus, we reply, You are offering a flat contradiction to the solemn declaration of God the Spirit. He declares, “There is no difference.” You declare there is. His standard of measurement is perfect. Yours is not. He measures all by the glory of God. You measure yourself by other men, like the Pharisee in Luke 18. Hence, your conclusion is utterly false; and you will find this out sooner or later. God grant you may find it now, and own yourself a lost, ruined, guilty, hell-deserving sinner; for then you will find to your unspeakable joy, that it was just for such as you that the God of all grace has made such ample provision in His glorious gospel. He has provided life for the dead; salvation for the lost; righteousness for the guilty; deliverance for the slave; power for the helpless; wisdom for the fool; holiness for the vile―all that the very chief of sinners can need, for time and eternity, for earth and heaven; and not only all that the sinner needs, but all that the glory of God demands.
Thus much as to our first question, “For whom are these immense favors provided?” We shall now consider, for a moment, the second question, “On what are they based?” Thanks and praise to our God, they are not based on aught in us; on works of righteousness which we have to do; on works of law, in any shape-or form; on prayers, fastings, almsgiving, rites, ordinances, sacraments or ceremonial observances. Not any of these things, or all of them put together, could furnish a righteous ground for the salvation revealed in the blessed gospel of God. It is perfectly clear, that, if “every mouth is stopped,” and “all the world guilty before God” every possible ground of human merit is swept away. This is divinely clear and unanswerable.
The Lord be praised that it is so! When this is seen; when the sinner takes his true place, as guilty, not a word to say, not a plea to urge, not a hair’s-breadth of ground to stand upon, then verily he is in the true position to get a full, clear, soul-saving, emancipating view of God’s salvation. It is when all the rubbish of human righteousness is flung aside, that we are prepared to see and delight in the glorious foundation of the righteousness of God laid in the peerless sacrifice of His Son. “Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded” (Isa. 28:1616Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. (Isaiah 28:16); 1 Peter 2:66Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. (1 Peter 2:6)). The weakest believer in Jesus shall never be confounded; but everlasting confusion shall be the certain portion of all who trust in any one or anything else. Assuredly, God’s foundation may well command the heart’s full confidence. God has found all he wants in Christ, found it for us; and tells us so, in His precious Word.
Here lies the divine and eternal basis of peace. Christ has made peace by the blood of His cross. “He was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification.” Who delivered Him? “He was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.” “God spared not his own. Son, but delivered him up for us all.” He not only gave Him, but bruised Him on the cross, in order that He might have the joy of receiving to His bosom poor wretched prodigals, and making them eternally happy with Himself. His claims are satisfied, His name glorified, and His heart gratified in that precious work which secures the full salvation of the sinner. God’s glory and man’s salvation rest upon the same basis—the death and resurrection of our adorable Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
It is a grand and all-important point for the awakened soul to see clearly God’s place and part in the work of redemption. It is this which attracts the heart to Him. “God go loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in him might not perish but have everlasting life.” The heart of God is the blessed source from whence our eternal salvation flows; Christ’s work is the righteous channel through which it flows; and the testimony of the Holy Ghost is the stable authority on which I receive it. Thus it is all of God, from first to last. Every link in the golden chain is divine.
And, now, a word in reply to the third inquiry, “How are these blessings to be had?” To this question, so full of interest and importance to every earnest spirit, Scripture gives an answer clear, brief, and conclusive, namely, “By faith.” Precious answer, ―precious beyond all human thought or utterance, ―an answer which gives God and man their true place. “But now the righteousness of God, without law, is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God, by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all, and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference; for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely, by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past”―or the passing by the sins of bygone ages― “through the forbearance of God; to declare at this time his righteousness; that he might be just and”―what? the judge? Nay, but― “the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Rom. 3:21-2621But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. (Romans 3:21‑26)).
Such is the unvarying testimony of Holy Scripture: The voice of prophets and apostles, inspired by the Holy Ghost, are in perfect harmony on this grand question. They all declare, with one voice, that, all the magnificent privileges of the gospel—eternal life, divine righteousness, perfect sanctification, perfect acceptance, eternal glory, are all bestowed as a free gift by God, all treasured up in Christ, all to be had by faith which itself is the gift of God.
We might fill pages with Scripture proofs on this momentous point, but there is no need. The volume of God from cover to cover literally teems with evidence to prove that the salvation of God―salvation for the very chief of sinners―is to be had by faith, and in no other way. “To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” Wondrous fact! Wondrous revelation! A holy, righteous God can take up a creature such as is described in Romans 1:29-3229Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. (Romans 1:29‑32), and 3:10-18,―one whose heart is, by nature, a cesspool of iniquity and the seed-plot of every sin that ever was committed in this world,―He can take up such an one and, justify him freely from all things, and take him to His bosom, washed, sanctified, justified, and accepted, in the Son of His love. And all this in free sovereign grace, and all by faith.
And are we to do nothing? Hear the Divine response. “To him that worketh not.” Not by works of righteousness which we have done.” “Not of works, lest any man should boast.” This Divine “not” cuts up by the roots and flings to the winds every form of self-righteousness. It clears the scene completely of man and his doings, and opens the blessed door of faith into that scene where Christ is all and in all. It shuts out “dead works” as well as “wicked works,” and gives us instead those beauteous “life-works” which are only to be found in the new creation wherein all things are of God, all in Christ, all by faith.
But here it may be well to meet a difficulty which the enemy constantly uses to cast dust in the eyes of anxious inquirers. It is this, “How am I to know whether I have the right kind of faith?” This seems very plausible; and we have met numbers of souls who are stumbled by it. But it vanishes in a moment when the pure light of Scripture is brought to bear upon it. When Scripture speaks of faith, it means faith. It does not raise a question as to the kind of faith, for that would be to turn the heart from the Divine object of faith and occupy it with its faith. Now, it has been well remarked by another, “Faith is the soul’s outward, not its inward look.” The question is not, Have I the right kind of faith? but, Have I got the right object, the proper authority, the true testimony?
True, we read of “great faith” and “little faith”; and we read of “faith growing exceedingly.” But how does faith “grow”? How does “little faith” become “great”? Certainly not by being occupied with itself, but with its Divine object. Faith is believing what God says, because He says it; and the more we dwell upon God’s Word and feed upon it, the stronger our faith will grow; but if we look away from our Divine authority, away from the precious Word of God, away from Christ, and begin to analyze our faith, we shall become as miserable as if we were looking to our works, our feelings, our frames, our evidences, our experience, our anything. In short, self-occupation, in its every phase, turns the heart away from Christ, from the precious Word of God, and robs it of all peace and joy in believing. “He that believeth hatch set to his seal that God is true.”
Here lies the grand secret of the whole matter. It is not analyzing my faith, but resting like a little child on the Word of God, which is settled forever in heaven. This is the Divine basis of peace, and nothing can touch it. If the devil comes and asks me how do I know I have got the right kind of faith, I tell him that is not the question, but is God’s Word a proper authority. “If we receive the testimony of man, the testimony of God is greater.” How often have we received, without a question, the testimony of man. We do not look at our mode of believing, but at the authority on which we believe. “Abraham believed God.” This was the right kind of faith, and “he counted it to him for righteousness.”
Thus, blessed be God, it is in every case, as the apostle is careful to tell us, for our exceeding comfort. “It was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if”―what? If we have the right kind of faith? Nay, but if we have the right object, the true authority― “if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification.”
How vast the difference in every way between being occupied with our faith and being occupied with God’s object, God’s Word, God’s Christ! No human language could give expression to it. The one is the fruitful source of uncertainty, gloom, and depression; the other the Divine source of “safety, certainty, and enjoyment.”
C. H. M.