Faith, that divinely given principle by which the testimony of God is livingly received into the soul, is one and the same principle in every individual believer, in every age; and life, through faith, is one and the same divine life, no matter in whom, or in what dispensation it is found. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abram, Moses, Paul, and ourselves, are on common ground as to this; but the unity of faith, and the unity of life, do not, by any means, involve identity in the blessings presented to faith, nor, what is' the same thing, identity in the hopes unto which believers of different dispensations have been quickened. The blessing presented to the faith of Noah, for example, was not the same as that presented to the faith of Abram. Noah's blessing was in connection with the whole earth, as the sphere, and the whole family of man as the subject of his rule. Universal government was committed to him, and responsibilities pit upon him in connection therewith, for the suppression of violence, and for the maintenance of the principles on which the due relation of man. (on earth) to God depended..
The failure of mankind under the Noahic calling, the sad progress of which failure resulted in universal idolatry, led to the calling out of Abram whose promised blessing was connected with a given land, and with his own seed in particular as part only of the human family.
This earth was from the beginning, so far as revelation teaches, the destined sphere of man's existence and blessing. Neither the sin of our first parents, nor of man in any subsequent age, has led God to abandon His purpose as to this, though He has from time to time in the riches of His grace materially changed His ways, and brought to light more and more of the wisdom and perfection of His goodness. The calling of Abram was accordingly no abandonment of the larger purpose of God as set forth in the calling of Noah; on the contrary, it was a " witty invention " of God, to secure to Himself a channel through which He would fulfill all His purposes of goodness and of glory in connection with man on the earth in spite of man's sin.
length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give—unto thee." Also Chapter xv. 7, " 1 am the Lord that brought thee out of the land of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it;" and again, xvii. 7, 8, "And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God."
Nothing I apprehend could be plainer than the difference thus pointed out between the specific objects presented to the faith of these patriarchs, and nothing surely could be more plainly defined than the earthly character and sphere of their respective callings.
The mission of the blessed Lord Jesus Christ to this earth, viewed in connection with the position and responsibilities of Israel, was for the ostensible purpose of fulfilling to them the promises made to the fathers. The history of His life and ministry furnished in the gospels—is not the history of the abrupt and formal setting aside of Judaism, and the equally abrupt and formal introduction of what we understand by the Christian dispensation, but the history of the last trial of Israel, whether having failed from age to age and forfeited their blessing, they would then judge themselves by the light of Him who was the light, and accept their blessing at His gracious hands. They hated and crucified their Deliverer and King; and after He had been raised from the dead, and received back into the heavens, taking manhood in His own blessed person thither, they rejected the offer of His return made by the Holy Ghost through Peter (Acts 3:19-2119Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; 20And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: 21Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. (Acts 3:19‑21)), and finally, by the stoning of Stephen, they sealed their own doom for a season.
At this juncture a mighty change in the relation of Christ and of His people to this present world took place. It became no longer an earthly people awaiting the return of the Lord to establish the kingdom and the glory here; this He will do when the proper time arrives in spite of everything; but a people called out from the world, from its hopes and interests alike, as well as from its judgment, to be associated with Christ in heaven, not to be reigned over by Him as Israel will be, but to reign with Him-the Church, which is His body-the bride, the Lamb's wife. This is our present calling, and of this the Old Testament Scriptures taught nothing. It is the mystery of Eph. 3:33How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, (Ephesians 3:3) that was made known to Paul, not by the Scriptures, but by special revelation. It had, as the Apostle says, " been hid in God from the beginning of the world to the intent that now [in this time of the Lord's rejection and the consequent postponement of Israel's blessing] unto principalities and powers in the heavenly places, might be known by the Church, the manifold wisdom of God." This is the blessing presented to faith now, as distinct from that which pertained to any previous age.
The atonement wrought by the death of -Christ on Calvary is the one common basis of ALL blessing to man, whether in heaven or on earth; but the blessing of man on earth under the reign of Christ, and the blessing of the Church in association with Himself in heaven, are essentially different things, and cannot be confounded without serious damage to the present testimony; both must have their fulfillment. To have a portion in the heavens, where all will admit he now is „awaiting- the resurrection, will be to Abraham far better than the fulfillment of the promises respecting Canaan, but it will not
be in itself THEIR Fulfillment, nor is it what was revealed and promised to him, and if through the want of a better understanding of the testimonies of God we attribute to Abram as the object of his faith, a calling and a hope identical with that of the Church of God in the present dispensation, we falsify the Scriptures, and the effect must be to lower the tone of our own walk. The relationship of God with Abram was marked by special outward providences, and the possession of worldly riches, posterity, etc., were marks of the favor of God, but it is not so now, and if we overlook or forget this difference, we shall be quickly betrayed into the pursuit of earthly things, and shall measure God's love to us by the providential bounties of His hand instead of by the gift of His Son, and the revelation He has given to us In His word of the counsels and interests of His heart concerning us. It has an attractive appearance of humility to refuse to accept a higher order of blessing than the worthies of old were called to know as theirs; kit what we have to do with is the testimonies of God.
It is impossible to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called, unless we know of a surety what that vocation is, and if the enemy of God and of His Christ can betray us by a " voluntary humility " from the sense of our high and holy calling to a common level in this respect with the calling of any in by-gone dispensations, the power of a true and effective testimony is gone. Let us see to this with all fear in the presence of God. Before entering briefly into the consideration of Heb. 11:88By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. (Hebrews 11:8), which is the stronghold of those who assume Abram to have been actuated by a spiritual and not a literal understanding of the promises, I would remark upon two passages in particular which are also Used as if they taught that these the blessing of believers of every age was one and the same thing, and that all were-merged into one great family. First, in Gal. 3, Abram is- called the father of the faithful, and it is said that we that are of faith are blessed with faithful Abram.
" Blessed with"- does not here signify identity of blessing, but identity of the principle, faith, upon which we are blessed in opposition to works. The other passage is Eph. 3 where the expression every family is rendered the whole family, as if, as we have just said, all distinctions between the heavenly and the earthly people of God were merged. That -Abram will have a place and a portion in the heavens in the day of glory, cannot, I think, be denied; several scriptures seem to indicate this; but that that place and portion will be in the church of God as now called out, and that this was the object presented to his faith when upon earth,' and what he looked for as that which was signified by the promises’ made to him concerning Canaan are what the Scriptures nowhere teach, as we have already intimated. In Matt. 8:10-1210When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. 11And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. 12But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 8:10‑12), the Lord said, in connection with the faith of the Gentile centurion, which contrasted so strikingly and so sadly with the unbelief of the Jews,' " Verily I say unto you I have not found so great faith, no not in Israel; and I say unto you that many shall come from the east and west (i e., Gentiles] and shall sit down with Abraham, and. Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven, but the children of the kingdom [i e., Jews] shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." This passage directly connects Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob with the kingdom of heaven, which is certainly not heaven, much less is it "the Church which' is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all" (Eph. 1:2323Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. (Ephesians 1:23)).
We will now turn to Heb. 11:8-168By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. 9By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: 10For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. 11Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. 12Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable. 13These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. 15And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. 16But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city. (Hebrews 11:8‑16), etc.
Ver. 8. " By faith, Abram, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out, not knowing whither he went."
None have -a doubt I suppose but that the place Abraham was called to go out into, and which he should after receive for an inheritance, is the land of Canaan.
. Ver. 9, 10. " By faith, he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country, dwelling in TABERNACLES with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he looked' for a city which bath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." That which is to be particularly noticed here, is, that Abraham's faith did not suffer him to go before God, in taking possession of any part of the land of promise. In patience he possessed his soul; and until God should be pleased to give as well as to promise him an inheritance therein, he was content to be a stranger though in it. He did not build himself a city, nor anything of the nature of a settled habitation; but dwelt in tabernacles. Nor was this a passing effort of faith, much less was it a mere excitement of the energy of the flesh which passed away with the novelty of his position: it was an enduring confidence in the word of Him that had promised; and therefore it is said, not only that he dwelt in tabernacles, but that he did so with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promises. A hundred years did he thus wait upon God,. WAITING indeed for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. " A city which hath foundations" is here in contrast with tabernacles which have none, being movable; and its builder and maker being God, is in contrast with anything he might have built for himself. There is not a syllable in these verses to make it necessary to assume that the city the patriarch waited for was to be in heaven, or anywhere in fact but in Canaan. It was moreover to be Abraham's habitation, whereas the Holy City, the new Jerusalem to which this passage is said to refer, is not the habitation of the risen saints, but the risen saints themselves the habitation of God.
Verses 11 and 12 may be looked upon in connection with the present subject as parenthetical.
Verse 13. " These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." It seems to me that to attribute to these worthies a hope IN heaven as distinct from a heavenly order and condition of earthly things in Canaan with God for their God, nullifies entirely the special and peculiar excellence of their faith, as set forth in these verses, and robs the passage of its proper force and beauty as an illustration and example to us.
Had heaven been the object of their hopes, there would have been nothing so particularly remarkable in their DYING in faith; death would have been to them, in that case, a step in the direction of their hopes, as it is with us; it would have brought them so much nearer the consummation of their desires: but if, instead of this, death were according to the nature of things the cutting of them off from the very place which God had promised to give them for an inheritance; if it were the natural severance of them from the place of the fulfillment of the promises, it was marvelous faith that could enable them thus to die out of the scene and yet to believe that God would give it to them. This is, I take it, what gives its especial value to their faith; it was faith in the living God that raiseth the dead. The expression " on the earth," at the close of this verse, very naturally suggests the idea of a contrast between earth and heaven; it is, however, the same word in the original as that rendered in verse 9, "the land of promise." It was in " the land" that they confessed themselves to be strangers and pilgrims.
Verses 14, 15. " For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned: but now they desire a better, that is a heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He bath prepared for them a city."
These verses show conclusively that in God's view the question that might possibly have exercised the minds of these worthies (Abram, Isaac, Jacob, and Sarah), would not have been between the relative attractiveness of heaven and earth, but of CANAAN and MESOPOTAMIA. Had heaven been the place of their hopes as contrasted with the earth, the land from whence they came out would have had no more attractions for them than Canaan, and the Holy Ghost's argument would have been of little force. The better country which they desired Was not heaven as better than earth; but Canaan as better than Mesopotamia. A heavenly country indeed, that chosen land will be, that is, ordered and arranged in a heavenly and divine way, and in it there shall be nothing contrary to God; the heavens ruling and the days of heaven realized upon earth. One thing is certain, viz., that a heavenly country is not heaven.
Furthermore, the declaration that God was not ashamed to be called their God, is, I take it, another proof of the earthly character-of the hope that actuated these worthies: for on reference to Gen. 17:88And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. (Genesis 17:8),- it will—be seen that it was in direct connection with the promise to give Abram and his seed this very land, Canaan, wherein he was-then a stranger, that God said He would be their God. By faith they looked forward to the possession of that land, and God owned their faith by calling Himself' their God. The words of Gen. 17:88And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. (Genesis 17:8), are, "And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein—thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God."
If anything further be needed to satisfy any one of the essential difference between the blessing promised to the saints in the past dispensations from Abram downwards, and the proper hope and calling of the Church in this, it is found, I think, in the last verse-of the chapter before us (Heb. 11), where it is declared that they have not yet received the fulfillment of their hopes, because it is the good pleasure of God to have provided some BETTER. THING for us; and that they should not enter upon the fulfillment of theirs until we, believers in this dispensation, shall enter upon the consummation of OURS. " And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise; God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." Compare Rom. 8:19-2319For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. 20For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, 21Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 23And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:19‑23), where the whole creation is said to groan, waiting for the same thing, viz., our perfection in redeemed risen bodies, before
it can be delivered into the glorious liberty that awaits it. The fulfillment of earthly blessing in connection with even church blessing is seen in the fact that the t: twelve apostles are to possess earthly glory as well as heavenly, for they are to it upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
G. O.