Genesis 17
There were several distinct ways in which God revealed Himself to Abraham, as Almighty, as Jehovah, &c. Again it is said, "The word of the Lord came to Abraham," giving him a certain prophetic revelation of something future. But in this chapter He revealed Himself in a new character and in a certain sense in a more important one, viz., as God Himself. It is what God is. That gives it an immense character and of great import to our souls. Because if we have not come to God there will always be a question in the conscience. If I have not come to God how can I tell what He will be to me when I do come, for I have certainly to come to Him. If my conscience is not perfect for God all will have to be settled over again. So when God had not done the work which perfects the conscience He did not reveal Himself. He dwelt in the thick darkness. But now in Christ the conscience is perfected, that we may be able to stand before Him when His whole character is revealed.
There are a multitude of blessings given when we are brought into relationship, and exercises in which the soul is perfected with God. But these suppose relationship as existing. This one great question must be first settled, Can I stand before God at all? If the exercises go on before it is settled, before I have been with God, there never will be peace. But when I have been before Him there is peace; and that is what faith does. Then it is a question of communion. God Himself can come and talk with' us, as here He does with Abraham. True, Abraham was on His face before God, but he was there.
This is the character of the book of Hebrews. Can I go into the Holiest? Not, can I walk down here-not what is the state of my affections-but can I go into the Holiest without raising a question in God's nature or in my conscience?
It is God here, not Jehovah. The very substance of this chapter is that we have to be with God. But, first, we have to stand each man for himself before God-in Christ of course. But how can. I have communion with a person to whom I cannot come? There may be hopes and fears, but no communion. It is a blessed thing to be so perfectly brought to God as that He can talk with us without raising one question in our conscience.
I will turn a little now to the privileges we get when set in this place. They are here alluded to in the covenant of circumcision, that is, the whole arrangement of God's purposes in connection with Abraham as head of a new race.
But, first, I would remark that it is no Adam-race. The Adam-race had its place and standing as turned out from God. We forget it too often. If I look at myself as a child of Adam, I may say, are not you to be judged? Yes, of course I am. Then you are to be condemned. There is no judgment at all without condemnation. " Enter not into judgment with thy servant, for in thy sight shall no man living be justified." Settle it well in your minds, that there is no judgment without condemnation. If God were to judge Adam when innocent, He would judge His own work. But when Adam sinned then it was God had to judge him. We turn God into a judge by sinning, and so necessarily judgment is condemnation. God does put man under law just to bring that judgment into his conscience. We have to get this thoroughly into our minds, that there is no judgment apart from condemnation.
Here I find what led me to that: Abraham set up as the head of a new race. Of course it was through grace, but it is not Adam-seed, but Abraham-seed.
The world, after the flood, had become settled in "nations and peoples and tongues." God called Abraham to leave it all. " Get thee out of thy country, unto a land that I will skew thee." God was in effect saying to him, I am doing an entirely new thing- I am going to have a people for myself. Believers answer to this now. This brings out in full definite distinctness, that God called out of the very system which He Himself had set up, but which had departed from Him. It is the mark of the character of faith all through. Whereas Adam's race is a convicted, condemned race, Abraham's is a called race. Thus we get the coming in of God into the very scene of judgment, and taking men out of it.
Now mark the consequence. God sets about blessing them in His own way. It is not putting them on conduct or responsibility, but it is God going to shew how He blesses people. It is through the church that He is teaching angels this. When the angels see the thief on the cross, Mary Magdalene, Paul, you and me, in the same glory in which Christ is, then they will see the way in which God blesses. It is the setting up by God of an entirely new thin& of which He is the origin. There were faithful persons before Abel, but they were never called out of a judged world. Now He sets them as His family.
Mark another thing. Having called this people out, He has made us the depositaries of His blessing after His own heart. It is a great thing to be the very expression of the way in which God blesses and shows the exceeding riches of His grace I Is it in a stone that God does this? in a heart that does not feel? It is in a heart that knows God. It is the possession of the love of God, which is His nature, shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost. " God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." We dwell in Him, and He in us.
Now mark the consequence. That is the character of our blessing, but it is the witness of it as well. (I need not say it is grace.) I am in it, and it flows out. That is the other divine thing. We have all the blessedness that is in God; and that becomes a river in us to those who have it not. It is Christ Himself, all and in all. There is the place where the Christian is set. I get turned now from the face of being able to stand before God to the enjoyment of God, so as to be the expression of this in my words and ways. Alas 1 it is hindered. There are plenty of things to be corrected that we may enjoy it more; but it is where we are. What a difference between this and going on with the world, so as not to know if we are saved!
This chapter is higher up than the 15th; but in the 15th we get the ground of it. He does not say here, I am thy God; but, " I am the Almighty God." It is the proper revelation of Himself. In the 15th chapter, " he believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness." God can now talk with him. That is the way all these particular relationships have place. They are founded on this, " it was counted to him for righteousness." They are all founded on His estimate of righteousness; for who was counting? " HE counted it to him for righteousness." I may ask a person, Is your heart happy in Christ, or are you going on with the world? But that is quite another thing from asking, Is your conscience perfect before God, so that you can stand before Him? It is a terrible thing to have my ways to be settled at the day of judgment. People say they hope to get off then; but all that is from their counting righteousness I Here I get God's counting. It was counted to Him, not by him. We have God Himself counting the thing, and bringing it to him. What does He count? Is it human righteousness? No. He has counted that, and condemned it. It is divine righteousness that He is counting. That sets me on a ground on which I can have communion with God. "We joy in God." You cannot talk of enjoying God if there is a fear of judgment. A prisoner cannot talk of enjoying his judge. I must get God's righteousness. God reckons every believer divinely righteous. We are "made the very righteousness of God in him."
In this chapter it is God. It is God Himself, taken as God, in His own holiness. I can talk with Him, on my face it is true, but still I can have communion with Him. The heart is perfectly free in God's presence because God had made it free. God has counted Christ to me for righteousness, and He has told me so. " We have boldness to enter into the holiest." When we come to the details we see how-in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Herein is my faith. God has proved His righteousness in accepting me, in making me righteous. How do I know that God is righteous? In His having set Christ at His own right hand, because He has put away all our sins. I see it in the reward given to Christ Himself because He has put away all my sins.
In chap. 17 Abraham receives the seal of the faith which he had in chap. 15. " He believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness." Circumcision was the seal to him; the Holy Ghost is to us, the seal of faith. In Rom. 4 lie is presented as Father of all that believe, head of this new race, just as Adam was head of the sinful race.
What a sense the Apostle Paul had of the blessing lie had in God, how he felt himself to be a blessing! He says to Agrippa, " I would to God that not only thou but also all that hear me this day, were both almost and altogether such as am, except these bonds.". What fullness of meaning in that " as I am!" He had that consciousness of His own blessedness that he could not wish them a better thing than to be as he was. " And not Agrippa alone, but all that hear me this day." What a partaking of the divine nature! As it is said in Ephesians, " that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith." If a creature has got God, he has got what is infinite, though he himself is finite. The best wish I could wish a person is to be a Christian.
We do well to remember distinctly these three points: first, that it is not the responsibility of a ruined Adam-race, but that it is the calling of God, starting all from Himself as a new source and origin; second, this calling is to such an enjoyment of blessing as that we are to be a pattern and model of blessing to angels; third, that which puts us in present relationship with God so as to enjoy it, as "Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness." All is founded on divine righteousness. It is not the reckoning of conscience, but God's reckoning it to those that believe in Jesus. I can stand in His presence now, and have communion with Him. David could go and sit before God and say, " Is this the manner of man?" No: it is the manner of God. Thus He gives the capacity in righteousness for free happy, blessed intercourse with Himself: He says, You are my children, and I am your Father. It is a people called out of this world. " Get thee out of thy country." O, what a different thing from dragging on, uncertain how it will end, or having no taste for fellowship with the Father-no sense of what Christ has spent His life for, that we might have the enjoyment of it.
The Lord give us to be vigilant and diligent, and to remember His presence where only we can enjoy it.-Brief Notes of a Lecture.