[As an Appendix to the extracts above given, it may be well to present to the reader the paper on “Fullness of time," &c., written by the same author many years ago.—ED.]
THE mind of man is so narrow that it would ever attempt to reduce the revelations of God to a few heads, which it might retain even when occupied about many other things. And hence we find “systematic divinity “perfectly compatible with worldly-mindedness. And this must ever be the case when the end of God in revelation is put out of sight, and another which meets man's selfishness is put forth for it. Even if we put forth the Church itself, an object confessedly dear to God's heart, as the end unto which God is working, rather than the glory of His own great name, we, by this substitution, not only promote our own self-complacency and high-mindedness, but destroy the present use of the Church as the repository of God's counsels. One of the most painful and alarming features of the day in which we live, is the existence of so much doctrinal truth together with very great ignorance of tine Scriptures. The whole effort of men seems to be to bring all that is stated in Scripture into a certain number of propositions. And it is by no means believed that in Scripture are laid out to the spiritual apprehension all the Divine counsels and arrangements: so that we can look back and discover, under God's own comment, that His counsels of old are faithfulness and truth; and forward and assert, upon God's own declaration, what is coming to pass. The relation which the Scriptures bear to the Christian Church is very remarkable. These writings occupy the place to the Church of God's actings unto Israel. “The things that happened unto them for ensamples, are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come."
We have, first, by direct inspiration of God, a narrative of facts—of facts so selected and arranged as to manifest a purpose of God: many material things—material, as man would judge—are either entirely omitted or but slightly touched on; and many apparently immaterial and trifling circumstances are largely expatiated on. Hence the man who would regard the narrative of the Scripture as mere history, would find it, to his apprehension, very imperfect; whereas, he who reads it in order to the ascertainment of God's Purpose and mind, finds it complete and perfect. For the Spirit of God gives prominence to those facts which are in pursuance of God's purpose. But we have, further, the comment of God Himself on those facts; and this forms a material part of the Prophecies as well as of the New Testament. And as we stand at the ends of the dispensations or ages, before they are all wound up, and their great results are fully brought out in the day of the appearing of Christ, all the truths that they severally teach converge and bear on us; and, therefore, are said to have been written for our admonition. Scriptural accuracy becomes therefore of the greatest importance to us; and when we see how the apostles of old used a single scriptural quotation, as warrant for the assertion of a principle, and that our Lord has said, " the Scripture cannot be broken," this certainly demands much more attention than we have been ready to bestow. On reflection also, it will appear, how much of Scripture we have received traditionally. There are numerous phrases in almost every one's mouth, which, from their having been received in this manner, carry no force with them, and are almost absolutely unmeaning. And constantly we find the soul of a saint resting on a promise of the Old Testament, when the same promise, with the addition of all the blessed relationship in which we stand, is given to us in the New Testament, in connection with Him "in whom all the promises of God are Yea and Amen unto the glory of God by us." As a familiar instance, we constantly find Isa. 33., " bread shall be given him, his waters shall be sure," used as a kind of traditionary promise; when the same security, with the blessed addition of the loving care of a Father's hand and a Father's heart, is given us in Matt. 6:25-34: "Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have-need of all these things." Surely, the other promise may be rightfully used; but how much more fully do we get it when it comes to us in our proper place—as children! Another instance where tradition has led to perfect misstatement, is in the confusion of quoting Col. 3:11,11Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all. (Colossians 3:11) as though it were 1 Cor. 15:28,28And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all. (1 Corinthians 15:28) "Christ is all in all." The truth is not denied; but it is, " Christ is all and in all;" that is, in the day of the manifestation of the Church, all that will appear will be Christ—nothing of the old Adam, and Christ will be in all; and we are called on to act on this truth now: to recognize Christ as everything, and in every believer, be his condition what it may, as his grand characteristic. And this is quite different from God being "all in all;" which will not be manifested till after the millennium.
Now, I believe that such phrases as "the fullness of time," "the fullness of times," "time shall be no longer," convey for the most part very vague ideas to the mind of Christians, when, at the same time, they are pregnant with meaning and instruction.
The passage in which the first phrase occurs is Gal. 4:44But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, (Galatians 4:4). “But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law." In all that God has done, He has revealed Himself to those who are in fellowship with Him, as abounding "in all wisdom and prudence." So that, if it be asked why so long a period elapsed before the promise made to the woman was fulfilled in the Babe at Bethlehem, the answer is, the time was not fully come. Much instruction needed previously to be given to man—much was to be taught him, through his painful experience of his real standing, before the great truth could be brought out, that creature un-upheld by the Creator must fail—that tendency to fail is the very essence of creature; stability, the attribute of God alone. And what is the proof of both, but man's failure under every possible advantage, and his stable standing only in and through his union with the Son of God? The first great lesson taught was the instability of man, though coming forth from God's hands in all the perfection of creature ship. By disobedience he became independent of God; and being left to the trial of all his powers, he was unable to reinstate himself in the place of blessing which he had originally occupied. Re had become as God, to know good and evil; as God, to assert his own will as his rule; but that will had not power equal to its pretensions, and could never open the way for him back into Paradise. “God drove out the man," and the condition into which man had fallen was impotence of will. Yes, had man had power equal to his will, he would have actually done that to which he will yet and shortly pretend—hurl Got from his throne, and occupy it himself. (See 2 Thess. 2) But God has many times proved Himself to be the blessed and only Potentate: and the creature man has, whenever left alone, proved himself to be wise and powerful only to do evil, and to corrupt his way on the earth. How deeply important is it to recognize that the trial of man's power has been made, and that it has failed; and that all the activity and energy of the present day is but the busy bustling of that power which had failed before the flood; and that man, notwithstanding his toil and efforts, has not regained Paradise!
In the setting up of Noah as the head of restored creation, man was not similarly circumstanced as before. He had now had experience of the power, and justice, and grace of God. He was therefore called upon to acknowledge himself, not as creature standing in his own strength, but as having found grace with God as one lost, and this, by God's own prescription as to blood, and to acknowledge God as the righteous Judge, in His punishing murder with death—a punishment not hitherto appointed.' But God was recognized neither in His grace nor in His justice; and men became " vain in their reasonings, and their foolish heart was darkened, and they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like unto corruptible man;" and thus all the world went into idolatry. Thus man furnished a proof of his inability to sustain the new standing in which God had put him.
And now we meet with a new feature in God's dealings—" calling out;" and as this is connected with the purpose of God, it rises above failure; and the proof that the security rests, not in him that is called, but in Him that calleth, is immediately afforded. The condition in which man was when we are made acquainted with this part of the divine procedure, is thus given us of God. "And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Torah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor; and they served other gods. And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood." Now, here we see a certain fullness of time for the interference of God in this special manner. Previously to the flood, judgment had not been tried; nor had man been ostensibly set as a sinner standing in grace, and acknowledging God as the Judge of all the earth. But now, all had gone into idolatry, as previously all flesh had corrupted its way on the earth. There was therefore the opportunity for God thus to interfere, and to show the irremediableness of the condition of man; (the only blessing being to rescue him out of his condition;) and further, to show that the standing of the one so called out was not in any communicated strength, (for this standing had been tried in the case of Abraham, and it had proved man's failure, for Abraham went down into Egypt,) but in the unfailingness of Him who called him. “Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him." Now, this principle of “calling out" thus established, has been the principle' and basis of God's blessing unto whomsoever: although, after its establishment, man was put under further advantages of trial, in order to prove that this basis alone could ensure the blessing of the creature. "The gifts and callings of God are not repented of by Him." God might create and destroy, and again create innumerable beings for the display of His glory; He might too uphold creature, (as He has upheld the elect angels,) by His sovereign power, so that the creature might keep its first estate. But then the great lesson of the failingness of the creature, and of the unfailingness of the gift and calling of God, would not have been afforded. Therefore is it that the promise made to Abraham in the way of grace was, four hundred and thirty years after, proposed to Abraham's descendants to be realized by their own competence. Such conditions they undertook; and, accordingly, the law was introduced: a system originating from Divine wisdom, having for its end the present blessing of the nation of Israel; yet, so absolutely did it fail, in that it was weak through the flesh, that the possession of the land of Canaan was gotten, not by Israel's obedience to the Sinai-covenant, which was broken as soon as made, but for His name's sake who could say, in spite of all failure, " I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy: and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious."
Now, I do not think it is adequately considered that the law, as given by God, was in truth an experiment to determine what moral training under all the advantages of the consummate wisdom of the Giver, and of present interest to those receiving it, would effect; and it is not duly considered that the result was failure most manifest. “There is none that understandeth—none that seeketh after God: they are all gone astray; there is none that doeth good, no not one." And this the law says of them who had been under its discipline. The failure was not in the law. No alteration of that could have produced a different result; for “the law was holy, just, and good." The importance of seeing the law in this more extensive bearing is very great and practical, in an age of advanced intelligence, putting forth all its moral as well as physical energies. And the attentive reader of St. Paul will find that he, in speaking of law, argues on it in the abstract, showing its necessary insufficiency and failure; for if the law of God failed of producing a desirable end, a fortiori, the law of nature, and every other law, must fail:—because the material to be worked on by it has in itself a principle opposed to law altogether. The great truth brought out is, that moral training, as a means of leading man unto God, has been tried on him under the most favorable circumstances; and that it has signally failed. Not to the impeachment of His wisdom, who gave the rule of training, but to show how entirely man had departed from God, and to open the way for the introduction of a new power to bring him back to God.
But, before this was introduced manifestively, trial was made of what moral suasion would effect towards bringing back disaffected and revolted man:—there were proclaimed, as immediate consequences, judgment in the case of refusal to hear, and blessing in the case of hearing. This formed the ministry of the prophets: —" Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets:" (Hos. 6:55Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth. (Hosea 6:5).) “I have also spoken by the prophets; and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets:" (Hos. 12:0.) But the prophets, whilst they were thus a witness against man, were also a witness for God; and by reiterated declarations of God's faithfulness, they turned the faithful from considering the failure of that which was before them, to rest upon the promises which they brought in.
The concluding words of the second book of Chronicles show to us the failure of this ministry also. "And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by His messengers, rising up betimes and sending; because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling-place; but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and misused His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy." It is this very ground which our blessed Lord Himself assumes, when opening, in parables, the divine counsels in mercy and judgment.
"Again he sent another, and him they killed and many others, beating some and killing some." "There was no remedy." "Having yet therefore one Son, His well-beloved, he sent Him also, saying, They will reverence my Son." (Mark 12:6, 76Having yet therefore one son, his wellbeloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son. 7But those husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours. (Mark 12:6‑7)) The intermediate judgment and restoration appears to be passed over, although the same ministry is reckoned as being carried on during the whole period:—" the law and the prophets were until John." Then something new was to be introduced; but the very newness testified the complete failure of man. He had been tried before the flood, whether, left to himself, he could find his way back to God; but, instead of this, he only corrupted his way on the earth.
He had been brought under the discipline of fearful judgment, the vestiges of which were all around him;-but he went into idolatry. He had been tried by being brought into special favor with God in all outward blessings, and by a law being given him to secure him in the possession of them;—but he lost them all. He had been tried to be reclaimed by the ministry of the prophets, that he might return and be blessed;—but he mocked and murdered these messengers of God's love. “There was no remedy." Here the history of man, as a moral and intellectual being, might close; and, as to remedying his condition by any moral means, it does close. The statement made by the apostle in the first two chapters of Romans is to this point:—the Gentile given over to a reprobate mind;—the Jew, no understanding in seeking God;—none doing good; no fear of God before their eyes. And this too at a period of very advanced civilization among Gentiles, and of great external religion among the Jews.
It was when man was in such a condition, so that there was no remedy, that the fullness of time was come, and God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law. Under these two conditions, the Son shows forth unswerving dependence and perfect righteousness; vindicating God in never departing from Him, in the midst of the most trying circumstances, and in carrying His obedience to the uttermost. Here was the One in whom God was well pleased:—yet, this bright example, His gracious words, His devotedness of life to cure man's misery, and His mighty miracles,—all failed of producing in man's mind any emotion correspondent to the love declared in " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Surely, if moving appeals to the feelings, if MORAL SUASION could have reclaimed man, here was the opportunity! It is important to trace the personal ministry of the blessed Lord in this point of view, and to note the result of it: not the improvement of man, but the manifestation of man's entire inconsistency with God. It is a striking word, “the husbandman said among themselves, This is the heir; let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours." There wanted apparently only such an opportunity as the love of God afforded in the gift of His Son, to evidence the latent enmity of man's heart, and to show forth the fullness of its evil. And thus the rejection of the Son of God was the demonstration that the fullness of time was come for God to bring forth His wisdom and power in triumphing over such manifested failure. And this He did. in the Cross-at once the evidence of man's total failure as man, and of the necessity of setting up a new creation in resurrection; to be sustained in one, as a Head who had proved Himself to be above failure. What a mass of moral truth there is contained in that expression, “the fullness of time!" And how constantly need we now to recur to where we are, when God addresses us, preaching peace through the blood of the Cross: —even as having been already proved to be irreclaimable by any other means than by being brought into union with one who can uphold us by His own power! And surely, after this, for any to go back to moral improvement as the way of bettering the condition of man before God, is only to manifest, through protracted bitter experience, that which He, who knew what is in man, has fully brought out and manifested already.
The expression "fullness of times" occurs Eph. 1:1010That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: (Ephesians 1:10); and it is so distinct from that of "fullness of time," that the one is applied to a past fact, the other to one yet future: —"that, in the dispensation of the fullness of times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him." There is a connection between this expression and that which declares our standing, "upon whom the ends of the ages are met." (See note, p.108.) These ages or dispensations had all been cut short,—each αἰὼνhad failed in man's responsibility; and before God takes them up again, He has (so to speak) left them: as it is written, " For, said the Lord unto me, I will take my rest, and consider in my place;" and before He sets to His hand the second time to prove His superiority to failure,—whilst we stand at the end of these ages,—there is a secret process going on, of gathering out from every nation a body for Christ. When God takes up again these ages, then are we introduced into “the dispensation of the fullness of times." On this expression I would dilate a little. This is the time of God's long-suffering and bearing with evil, instead of judging it. It is a limited period. “Once" the long-suffering of God lasted one hundred and twenty years, and then came the judgment. But now it may be said, speaking generally, that God's long-suffering has been from the flood to the present day, and will be limited only by Christ's taking His power and putting His enemies under His feet. This period, therefore, becomes the period of testimony, corresponding to the times before the flood for, although the long-suffering began at the fall, yet is it specially marked at its close, as a period of testimony, when Noah was a preacher of righteousness. So now, when man is despising the riches of God's goodness, and forbearance, and longsuffering, it is the period or time of testimony to the Cross and Resurrection to all the world; because all the world will be involved in Christ's coming to judge it in righteousness. Therefore, the testimony is to every creature. The command is, “Goεἰςπάντατὰἔθνη, and when the Son of man shall come in His glory, before Him shall be gathered πάντατὰἔθνη." Connected with this is another time, and that is “the time of misrule" because power is in the hands of men, and not directly exercised by God. (Compare Ps. 82., Rev. 11:1717Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. (Revelation 11:17).) Consequently, it is the time of the Church's suffering; for the Church being righteous and faithful to God in the midst of an evil age, and God not as yet interfering in judgment, suffering is necessarily its portion. But, to speak more definitely, it is "the time of Israel's blindness and rejection, which is the mystery made known to us in Rom. 11. "blindness in part is happened unto Israel until," &c., and it is co-extensive with the period of "preaching unto the Gentiles." Again, there is the time of Gentile supremacy; that is, their being the head, and Israel being the tail. "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." Once more, it is the time of creation's thralldom. “We know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth together in pain until now." And this groaning is limited by another "until," as we road in Acts 3.
“Repent therefore, and be converted, that (or unto the blotting out of) your sins may be blotted out, that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, whom the heavens must receive until the times of the restoring of all things." There is a time also for Satan to " deceive the nations," (Rev. 20:3,3And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. (Revelation 20:3)) "to be going about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour;" and the limit of this we find thus stated.—" he laid hold of Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled." But all these afore-mentioned times depend upon one yet to be mentioned. The Lord Jesus occupies His present position only for a definite period, according to that Scripture; "Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool." Now, "the dispensation of the fullness of times” is that in which all these several times will have run out, and into which they all are now running; and when the Lord Jesus leaves the right hand of God, then will God visibly interfere with all that is measured by these times. The threads of them had been cut off at the rejection of Christ, and now they are resumed again. "The time of misrule" ends by Christ's taking His power and reigning. "The time of testimony" ends by judgment. “The time of the Church's suffering " ends by her being glorified with her Lord. "The time of Israel's blindness" ends by the veil being taken away; (2 Cor. 3.;) when the Lord Christ shall say, " Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind." (Is. 42:18; compare verses 6, 7.) "The time of Gentile domination" ends by the Stone cut out without hands smiting the image. “The time of creation's thralldom" ends by the manifestation of the sons of God, (Rom. 8:21,21Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. (Romans 8:21)) and this, we know, is when Jesus shall be manifested. (1 John 3) And Satan, who had in the ministry of our Lord asked not to be tormented before the time, will then know that the time of his restraint is come, though his judgment will even then be in prospect. Surely, a dispensation so marked is of the deepest importance!—a dispensation in which all the apparent failures of God will be proved to have been but the means of displaying His power and wisdom. And so far from time being done with, as men say, at that period, it would be more proper to say that God is not now interfering in temporal things, but is only gathering to an eternal state, and that then He will interfere with things both temporal and earthly. This is of great importance; because the saint has now to do only with things heavenly and eternal, except so far as the present evil circumstances of the world afford occasion for his learning obedience through suffering.
And this leads me to notice the other expression. "Time shall be no longer." It is usual to say that time ends and eternity begins—a statement very vague and unmeaning, and involving much practical error. For the believer in Christ has already entered on eternity, and has begun to look, not “at things which are seen, which are temporal, but at timings which are not seen, which are eternal." The expression is found in Rev. 10, and the context fully explains that it has no such signification as that " time ends," but that it means no more time shall be allowed to elapse before the interference of God, and that God will no longer allow man to go on to the apparent frustrating of His purposes. "The angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer; (no longer any lapse of time;) but that in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished as He hath declared to His servants the prophets." Now, if we have at all attentively considered how much of the prophetic testimony is yet unfulfilled, we shall immediately see that many of the declared events require a course of time when once the action begins; and, more than this, that the prophetic testimonies have most expressly to do with things connected with time. The expression, therefore, clearly does not mean that time is no more, but that the strangeness of God's ways, the mystery, as it is here said, of letting man go on without God's interfering in judgment, is now finished: in other words, God's long-suffering has reached its limit.
It would appear, from this expression, that the whole period (of which we are so boastful) of modern history is but as a blank before God; that His history of the earth, and the things in it, is already written in the Scriptures of truth; and whatever revolutions may take place, God's purpose of introducing earthly blessing is very definitely arranged, and all man's efforts will only tend to illustrate the completeness of his failure. "Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts that the people shall labor in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity? For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." (Hab. 2:13, 1413Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts that the people shall labor in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity? 14For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. (Habakkuk 2:13‑14).)