Α revelation gives the perfect presentation of the divine mind on the subject of which it treats to one who is spiritually capable of understanding it. But in doing this, it gives us a true picture of what man is, and this not merely by a dogmatic statement, but by a large historical development of what man has done — what he has been in various stages of progress through the revelations afforded him. If the Bible had merely given us God’s judgment, we never should have had the same testimony to conscience as we have, by its affording us man’s actual history under the various dispensations of God towards him. But to do this, we must have man as he was, his feelings expressed as they were in him: whether without God, or under the influence of piety, or animated as to his heart by God’s Spirit. Otherwise, it would not have been the true and needed account of man, nor even a divine one.
Positive Revelations
In this process we get positive revelations from God, given in order to act upon men according to their state. We also get the inspired testimony of what God’s own mind is. Yet even here God’s grace has adapted it to the conscience and spiritual information possessed, and His dealings with men in such a time or such a state. If He deigned to deal with them, He has done it in condescendence for their blessing. He leads them up and onward; indeed He is the one leading. A gracious father speaks to his child according to what suits it, yet never what is at the same time unworthy of Himself. So has God dealt with men. How else could He have dealt with them, if He meant them to be morally developed?
God’s Picture of What Man Is
Thus, in the Old Testament, we have a perfect, divinely-given picture of man, under this gracious process, in the various relationships in which God has placed him, so as to get his whole condition fully brought out. Thus by a divinely-given history we may know ourselves, and at the same time the whole course of God’s dealings, and what man was under them, until the time for the manifestation of His perfect and supreme grace. This God manifested in Christ as the supreme grace which man needed, and man and God get into the relationship which was His full purpose according to the security which flows from the unchangeableness of His nature and the perfection of His love. “When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom. 5:88But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)). Hence it is said, “For the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare at this time His righteousness” (Rom. 3:2525Whom 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; (Romans 3:25)). He dealt with them for the full development of His ways. He received them according to His knowledge of the perfect work to be accomplished in Christ.
No Progression Beyond Christ
The effectual means of all grace was Christ from the beginning. “God’s righteousness was declared at this time.” The Apostle John wrote, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life” (1 John 1:11That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (1 John 1:1)). That is, he calls back to what was from the beginning as the safeguard against all seduction. There is no progressive development since Christ. To suggest otherwise is a blasphemous arraignment of the perfection of God Himself manifested in Christ, fully revealed by the apostles. “Whosoever goes forward and abides not in the doctrine of the Christ has not God. He that abides in the doctrine, he has both the Father and the Son” (2 John 9 JND).
Now God has given us a perfect revelation of all this, but we never could have had the knowledge either of man or of our God Himself, and of His wondrous and all-perfect and patient ways with us, if we had not been shown exactly what man was along each step of the way. The statement of morality simply by God would, no doubt, have shown what man ought to be. That we have in the law. But it would not have shown us what man is — what he is under the various dealings of God. Now we have this, and, moreover, we have it under the influence of God’s Spirit.
The Key to Spiritual Understanding
Now in New Testament times I pass a moral judgment on many things in the Old Testament, because God has given us the true light, and the darkness is now passed. I judge them in the perfect light. But it is He who is light who has given me the history to judge of and the light by which to judge. God means to inform my spiritual judgment and to reveal His ways to me, to show me that He has never ceased dealing with men — that the world has not gone on without His knowledge. He has given me the key to everything, and therefore He has afforded me all these elements with divine perfection, on which and by which my judgment is to be spiritually formed and my senses exercised to discern good and evil, as man has learned it through past ages. Now Christ has given the perfect key by which to judge it all. Hence Paul says that the scriptures are “able to make [us] wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:1515And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. (2 Timothy 3:15)). And so, when poor Peter would have put Moses and Elias in the same rank with Christ, they disappear, and a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son: hear him. And ... Jesus was found alone” (Luke 9:35-3635And there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him. 36And when the voice was past, Jesus was found alone. And they kept it close, and told no man in those days any of those things which they had seen. (Luke 9:35‑36)).
The Conscience
Then, besides these historical pictures of God’s ways and of their effect on man, I also get direct addresses to the conscience at the time in the prophets, and when suffering under the evil state of God’s people, the eye of the saints is directed to that better day which the Christ who should visit them as the dayspring should bring in, setting all things right. They looked on to it and were saved by hope, as we are; if not so clear a hope, yet as true, and indeed the same, though only partially revealed, and in its earthly part, yet so as that heaven was necessarily brought in by it. Abraham rejoiced to see Christ’s day; he saw it and was glad, and he lived as a stranger in the Canaan which had been promised him. He looked for “a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Heb. 11:1010For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. (Hebrews 11:10)). In the glory of all this he will enjoy the blessings of the inheritance of his children in a better and sweeter way than those who shall actually possess them. The Old Testament is gained, not lost, thus; we have it from our God’s own hand to instruct us. What happened as proofs of God’s present interference in a temporal way to them — which suited their state and God’s government of the earth — is spiritual instruction for us, written for our learning, which is what we want. It is that by which we can more fully know God: All He teaches in it is perfect, and from that I learn His ways. This does not depend on “my powers” save as God may use them, nor on “my scientific knowledge.” I have the perfection of Christ by which to judge. It does depend on my spiritual progress, my moral state, as to being able to use the Word, and this is exactly what ought to be.
J. N. Darby (adapted)