THE DOCTRINES TAUGHT.
We have already looked at the starting-point, The Holy Scriptures, inspired in the full sense of God speaking to us, “Thus saith the Lord.” It must be evident, then, that without this starting-point, we have no basis. If God has not spoken, all is blank uncertainty. But since God has spoken, we need no man, or church, to tell us, that what He has said is true. What then were the doctrines taught?
Let us begin with the death of the Lord Jesus on the cross. What was that death to the apostles, and the early church, as seen in their inspired writings? We read, “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.” (1 Cor. 15:3.) The more we meditate on these words, the more wonderful they seem. Think how those scriptures of Moses, the Psalms, and the prophets bring before us this great fact, that without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. What victims had been offered in sacrifice, from Abel downwards to the lamb that must be killed, ere Israel could be redeemed from Egypt! There was no escape from judgment and slavery until that lamb was killed. Then what blood had to be shed to make it possible for man to be kept in relation with Jehovah in the wilderness, and in the land! There was no approach to God but by blood.
The faith of Abraham was expressed in those wonderful words, “My son, God will provide himself a lamb.” Yes, Jehovah Jireh, the Lord, will see, or provide. The faith of the early church was, that the Lord hath seen to it: God hath provided His Lamb. “Behold the Lamb of God that beareth away the sin of the world.” Behold the living Person of the Son of God, God’s Lamb. God has seen to man’s deepest need: God has provided. The doctrine of the First Years of Christianity, all centered in Him, God’s Lamb. Not man’s Lamb; not man’s providing, but the sent One of God. The Holy One was delivered for our offenses, and was raised from the dead “for our justification. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Notice, all was divine certainty. The whole church of God had peace with God; and this peace was made by the very blood of Christ. “And having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself: by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight.” (Col. 1:20-22.) Thus they had peace with God; and that peace was made by the blood of the cross. They had not one thing to do to make their peace with God. Jesus had made that peace by His own blood; they had been enemies, but they now were reconciled. What was the object of Jesus in dying, as to all believers? Through death to present all believers holy, and unblameable, and unreprovable in His sight.
Such was the value of the atoning death of Christ to all believers in the First Years of Christianity, and such their knowledge of God. And they had such certainty as to the value of the redemption blood of Christ, that they could so peacefully give thanks. Just hear them. “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.” (Col. 1:12-14.) Oh, what precious certainty they had in those First Years! How seldom do we see anything like it now.
What a separate people they were from the dark, doubting, guilty world around them. They were meet for the inheritance of the saints in light; delivered from the power of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love, in whom, in Christ, they had redemption. Sins were all forgiven. Ah, it was something worth while to be a Christian in those First Years. What completeness, was it not? As it is written, “And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.”
In those years they had a very exalted conception of the glory of the Person of the Son of God, as giving infinite value to His atoning sacrifice. “Who being the brightness of his [God’s] glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat clown on the right hand of the majesty on high.” (Heb. 1:3.)
That is the starting-point in the Hebrews—the finished work. He has done the work on the cross that puts away our sins forever. The proof of this is clear. He sits, His work being done, on the right hand of the Majesty on high. There is very little notice taken of this in these last years. It is very important to remember this, when we think of priesthood, or of worship. God has seen to it, God has provided His Lamb, the work that puts away our sins is done, God has accepted that work, and that Person who has done it to His own right hand. What rest to the soul this gave in those First Years.
Another thing was then revealed: that whilst the offerings of the law could never rend the veil, and bring poor sinful man into the presence of God, Christ having come, by the one offering of Himself on the cross, the veil was rent; sins were purged. The way into the holiest was then opened, and all this was eternal: not for a year, but for eternity. This is all opened up to us in Heb. 9. For this purpose He appeared “to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”
No person bearing the name of Christ ever thought of questioning the purpose of the atoning sacrifice of Christ, the bearing the real judgment of God on sins. “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment; so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” (Heb. 9:27, 28.) Thus the true doctrine of the First Years was this, That Christ came in the end of the world, or at the end of all the ages of the trial of man; that He undertook to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. This will be yet seen in the new heavens and the new earth, that He undertook and bore the judgment of divine wrath due to the sins of many: for this purpose He was offered, the sacrifice for sins, When He appears a second time, there will be no question of sins for those who wait for Him.
All this is abundantly confirmed and applied in the next chapter, Hebrew 10. God could never be satisfied with those many sacrifices of the law which could never purge the conscience from sins. The Son of God says, “Lo I come to do thy will, Ο God.” The Son of God came, He offered Himself once the sacrifice for sins, and then in continuance sat down on the right hand of God. Now what was the effect of this one sacrifice to all believers as revealed in the First Years of Christianity? “By one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.” This fact is of such immense importance, that we read further, “Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us,” &c. It was very blessed when men believed this witness of the Holy Ghost; that God in infinite love had sent His Son, in the body prepared for Him, that He might put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself; that the Son had done this, and that as to all charge of sins against the believer, the Holy Ghost was Himself a witness, that all believers separated to God by the death of His Son, were perfected forever, or in continuance. Ah, when men no longer believed the witness of the Holy Ghost, then they invented masses, penances, fresh sprinklings, &c, until the witness of the Holy Ghost as to the efficacy of that one sacrifice was forgotten.
Oh, the folly, with such scriptures before us, of again offering sacrifices for the living and the dead, that can never take away sins. If we would enjoy peace with God, we must turn away from all these inventions of men, and go back to that which was in the beginning. What folly it is if you are in the dark, to think you must have a priest as dark as yourself, to offer a mass. There was no such priest, and no such mass in the First Years of Christianity. No, then it was distinctly understood that God said, “And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.” As many as were in the light had fellowship with one another. They knew the whole matter of sins was settled forever, that the blood of God’s dear Son cleansed them from all sin.
It is manifest from the very opening chapters of the history of the sons of fallen Adam, that there could be no approach to God most holy, but by the death of a Substitute. Thus Abel came before God through the death of the lamb. Thus did Noah worship God as he stepped out of the ark. Thus did Abraham also through the sacrifice 0:1 his altar. Thus only could Israel be redeemed from Egypt by the death of the lamb. It must be killed and its blood sprinkled. And thus for forty years was the lesson taught in sacrifices in the wilderness: that without the shedding of blood was no remission. Yea, for fifteen hundred years this great truth was set forth in every sacrifice on the brazen altar, that death alone can put away sin. And yet all these sacrifices could not in themselves put away sins. All pointed forward to that one Sacrifice that puts away sins forever.
In the prophets they read of a person who should be wounded for transgressions, bruised for iniquities; a Person on whom Jehovah would lay iniquities: One whom the Lord should bruise. (See Isa. 53) That Person they distinctly taught was Jesus, the Son of God. (Acts 8) In a word, the one only foundation of the church of God, then was that “we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins;” and that this redemption was not for a time only, but was eternal redemption. (Col. 1:14; Heb. 9:12.) This great foundation truth runs through the Epistles. All believers then could say, “Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.” Soon all the redeemed will be gathered around the Lamb in the midst of the throne; yea, and all angelic hosts will say with a loud voice, “ Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.”
Reader, are you quite sure you have that “redemption through his blood” here? Then you may be assured you will sing His everlasting praise there. But if not, to whom can you look for forgiveness of sins?