OM 5:1-11{I ALWAYS think, beloved -friends, that these few verses which we all know so well,—by heart, most of us,-beginning as they do at the very threshold of truth, yet lead us up to the very highest point. Of course there are other parts of the Word that take us into greater details in the deep things of God, but still everything is. contained in this: if I get God as the very light and joy of my soul, I cannot get beyond that. It is sad, the tendency that is in us to stay at the threshold. There are such multitudes who are aiming at getting peace with God, and such other multitudes who, having got it, have all that they want, and who are, as they say, "perfectly clear as to their salvation "; but I do not think they are ever "clear" if they do not want to go on-if they think they have got everything. I do not think that 'soul has full, and settled peace that stays at the threshold; mere knowledge of what the cross has done will' not do if we stop there.
The first verse of this chapter is such a sweet one: "Being justified by faith, we have peace, with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." It introduces us at the first step on to this blessed ground of peace with God—everything now behind us that once we feared. But the Spirit of God does not stop there, though we often hear it quoted without the second: “By Whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God "; we have access. It is not enough, dear friends, to take the first-step-to say, Now I am secure, now I am happy; but I must go on to say, Now I have access. What a wonderful thing! The cross is the place where our sins were dealt with, and, if Christ bore them there, we shall never have to bear them ourselves; whatever else we may have to account for, we shall never have to give account for sins that Jesus bore. In the last chapter we see that "Abraham staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith." Nothing staggers faith, and we know that "the Lord has laid on Him the iniquities of us all," and our faith receives it, but we must not stay there. There is much more in God's heart for us than to be mere bare forgiven sinners here; it is an immense thing to be that, but it is not everything.
As David says, “He hath brought me forth into a large place." We are brought to God. Christ suffered not merely to make peace, to put away sin, but to bring us nigh; we "are made nigh by the blood of Christ;" and what we want to know more of is that which God 'sent His Son into this world to do; and that is-thou oil we do not always know it that is what the anxious soul really craves after, that is what every man really longs for,-of course I am not speaking of the poor empty worldling who has no desires at all. And why is this? It is because nothing but God can really fill the heart of man; the heart of man is really the biggest thing in creation,-the whole world cannot fill it. This we are divinely told in the Book of Ecclesiastes. There we read, “What can the man do that cometh after the king?" Solomon had tried everything in the world; he had tried what he could get out of it to satisfy himself; no one could have tried more than he had done, so he says, "What can the man do that cometh after the king? " And what had it all proved to him why, that not the whole world—nothing will give rest. The heart's capacity is immense, and nothing will fill it. Poor, weak, failing as we are, yet nothing but God can fill us. And God sent His Son into this world to meet this want. God sent Him down to where we were, with no possibility of approaching Him—down to this poor world in grace He sends the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, that He may declare God to man, that you may know God, and that you may know Him thoroughly.
And this is a great thing to say. We cannot know the secrets of each other's hearts; we cannot trust one another; but we can know and may know the eternal God; and it is in the knowing Him that is the fullness of peace, not in mere forgiveness. And it is through our Lord Jesus Christ, remember, that we get all this; it is through Him that "we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand "; it is by the knowledge of Him that we know and understand what a large place He has brought us into—a place where God Himself may be known. We are to walk down here where nothing is right-nothing right round us under the sun-everything wrong; but we in the midst of it all, with the full and perfect knowledge of God Himself. We get all this in the passage that I have read; we get the soul fully established for everything; from having peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and access by faith through Him, He leads us on step by step into the knowledge of His counsels and His ways until we " joy in God."
I remember when I was first converted my one great desire was to be with the Lord; I wanted Rim; either' His coming, or for myself to die; anything, I thought, rather than run the danger of falling back into that world from which I had been delivered. God could take us away directly we are converted, if He would but He does not; He wants us here; He wants a people here living in the power of that new and eternal life He has given them as sons and daughters of God: otherwise He would take us out of the world. I often think what a wonderful thing it is that God should allow to go on all the dishonor that is done to His name, for the sake of the honor that is brought to Him by the few who are true to Him in the midst of it. And it will always be but a few, but a remnant: Even true believers have failed; but God will always have a few who are true to Himself; and He goes on with the world because He will have this witness to Himself in it. God loves to have a people here, so He does not take us out of the world: He wants us here for His own sake and for His Son's sake.
And He does not leave us here to do impossibilities; He does not leave us here without power. We know, alas! that the unbelief of some of His people is so great that they say the Bible is not to be believed literally; but there is not a word in it that we cannot act upon. Paul says, " I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me," and one case of being able to do proves all. If one man can say by the Lord Jesus that he can do all things, why, another man can say it too. And whilst, of course, we must own failure, yet we may never call black white to please anybody. I believe that is one of the ways of being true to God; it is hateful to God to “call evil good, and good evil; to put darkness for light, and light for darkness." He links us with Himself by faith, and faith can judge. Faith is true; it never says black is white; it always calls everything by its name; and to know a thing to be right is half way to doing it.
Well, at the beginning we are brought to the knowledge of God Himself; and then we have to get through this scene, and this passage teaches us how-how the soul that is justified by faith can get on. The first two verses, as we have seen, are easy, and then comes the next: "And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also." Suddenly brought from the heights of blessing to the depths of tribulation! I am going to learn something, down here in this trouble which I cannot learn up there in His glory, because there will be no sorrow there. Now that is totally contrary to nature. You cannot find any person naturally rejoicing in trouble; you cannot find any person in nature as the apostle was in the Philippians: rejoicing in the Lord always even though in a prison, and able to say, glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me." So here, "we glory in tribulations." Why? Not because the tribulation is pleasant: sorrow is sorrow, and God knows it. The blessed Lord Jesus knew, it; He could weep with those that wept; and more than any of us, because He had a perfect heart. There never was with Him, as there so often is with us, a smile upon His lips at what was wrong. I do not know anything more sad than that, even we who know God, instead of being ashamed at sin, we often smile at it. He knew what sorrow was; and, as I said, sorrow is sorrow, and yet we glory in it. I do not think that means that we glory about it, but that we glory whilst we are in it. Naturally we wish we were out of it; we hate difficulties; we hate pressure: yet grace teaches the soul to be patient under it because nothing comes except from God. I- we all—say that everything comes from God, but the thing is to act on it. If I know that the One who has blessed me with every blessing in Christ sees well to bring me under pressure-under trial of any kind-shall I seek to escape it? No; we shall bear it as coming from Him; and glory in it.
Nature can endure. One has heard of people bearing agony of body in the most wonderful way; that is endurance; but it is not the " patience spoken of here, which comes through tribulation. Patience includes two things. I do not think we are truly patient unless we have the hope of deliverance-the certainty of deliverance in God's own way. That is what I call divine patience; whilst we endure we do not try to get out of it, we do not try to escape the pressure, but we know that God will take it off when it is good to do so.
And patience, experience." Experience of what? I believe it is of God; not experience such as men talk of. When there is patience under these trials then experience of God comes in; we learn God. We learn what it is to reap what- we have sown; but when the soul is right with God it does not shrink, it is satisfied, it says, This is just as it ought to be. God is with us in it all.
"And experience, hope," He may well hope who can say farther on, " He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? " Knowing God by the cross, by the gift of His Son, and holding this fast, the soul goes through happily, "because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us," What a wonderful thing! What a wonderful succession the soul has passed though with God in all this, wherein the tribulation, patience, experience, hope, are all perfect, and the love of God shed abroad in our hearts!
And then this love is brought out again: " For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly"; we have got back again to that which gave us "peace with God." And then this love is measured: “Scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." It is very sweet, I think, dear friends, to see how all this comes round in a circle; you are brought through a succession, in which you can rejoice,' not only in glory, but in tribulations also; not only what God will be to us in the future, but what He is to us in this present scene.
How God, as it were, delights in bringing back the soul to that perfect proof of Divine favor: “Christ died for us." However high we may get, we have to come back to this-to this thing " not done in, a corner," but done down here in this very world where sin has been committed, and where the name of God has been dragged in the mire. In the place where the debt was made, the debt was paid. All that God gave to His blessed Son, all that He earned, the glory that God gave Him for His work done down here,-we shall never lose sight of it through all eternity. It is always a wonderful thing to me that in this world such a work as this was wrought out. He brings us to God Himself, and then leaves us here to prove what these things are worth.
Now, do we prove them day by day and hour by hour? Are they the things that strengthen and comfort our hearts? Faith's path is not meant to be an easy thing. There must be practice in the things of God: we must prove, not only whether these things are so, but whether they are as good to us as God means them to be. This is what I think this little passage puts before us; and I am sure, beloved friends, that it is a real thing. Do we do it? The Hebrews of old “took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing in themselves that they had in heaven a better and an enduring substance.” But there..is a tendency in all of us to get weary, as they did; and yet if the soul is going on with God it is not so, for "the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." The soul that is brought near to God, and walks with Him, becomes more and more intimate with Him as time goes on, loves Him more; there is no weariness in it. We do not get tired of living with people that we love; we find out all their beauties, and here people are failing, whereas with God it is all perfection; so that instead of getting weary we are continually finding out new perfections. The place we are brought into is one of access; access is going on step by step until we get to the perfect day.
“Much more then being now justified by His blood we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." Beautiful that is, beloved! What a thought it gives us of the blessedness of having a living Christ at God's right hand for our hearts; not only a dead Christ on the cross for our sins, but a living One for us now in heaven. They were enemies, and a dead Christ reconciled them; now they are children, and a living Christ sustains them. How much more! You can see how His service now, follows that of the cross. We have got a living, loving, active Savior at the right hand of God, and He is there now as a living Christ, having been first on the cross as a dead Christ for God's glory and for the putting away of our sins. And He will be with us every step of the way; we are saved every step of our path down here by His life up there. How much, more! As much more as life is, better than death!
Thus we are brought to God; and just as He has brought us to Himself so we may bring Him into everything-have nothing, be nothing, do nothing without bringing God into it. It is our business,. our privilege, our blessing, to have God with us-to have all that God is to fill our hearts in full perfect love casting out fear. We joy in God-in all that God is; we joy in Christ; we say, There is the Almighty God manifested in flesh, perfect love, tenderness, beauty; and that is the One we are called to please. We are to learn so to have Him before us, that we can bring Him into everything.
Can I say, I have got God to satisfy me? I have got this High, this Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity; He has brought me into the light to love Him, to know Him, to be with Him, as a child with a father, with no reserves. May God give us to know it! This is real peace-real peace-to know that we have got God to fill the heart. He is the only One who can do it-the only One who can fill these poor hearts, which, unless filled' with Him, are always trying to satisfy themselves with the poor passing things of this world.
It is much harder to believe that I am "without strength," than that I am " ungodly;" conscience tells me that I am a sinner, but I must have my will broken before I know that I have no strength.
(J. N. D.)