THERE is often much force in a little word in Scripture. The connection in which it occurs, too, is important. I have been thinking of the word “in,” and of the difference of thought and state conveyed by it in different passages. Take, for example, Acts 17:2828For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. (Acts 17:28). Paul is preaching to the heathen. What he says is applicable to men, as men―to all men. “In Him,” that is God, “we live, and move, and have our being.” There it is evident the Godhead is spoken of, and men in their natural lives, breathing upon earth, are looked at as subsisting in and by the power of the Creator―life, and breath, and all things being His gift. This is true, universally, of men living on the earth, and hence the testimony of God to such is of a judgment day to come, and the command of God to such is to repent. The opportunities given to men by being continued in earthly existence, by providential arrangements and gifts, is to, the end that they should “seek the Lord.” He is not perceived by them in their natural state, for they are blind; though if they feel after Him they may find Him, the sense of need in their souls being His gift also―the working of His Spirit. How wonderful this is. In God, as Creator, every man; and yet, if only in Him thus, lost, and on the way to judgment. Repent, says the word of God. “Turn to God.” Happy if the prayer arises, “Turn thou me, and I shall be turned, for thou art the Lord my God.” For repentance is God’s gift, the gift of Him whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus. God gives repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. Jesus is a Prince and a Saviour, exalted to give repentance and remission of sins. To Israel? Yes; and to the Gentiles also. “Thus it is written and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations.” (Luke 24) Repentance is preached as a gift as well as remission of sins. The one is as much Christ’s bounty as the other, and comes in grace and by grace to sinners. He is the Judge, and will fall the judgment-seat by-and-by over all men; but till then till He assumes that character, He saves. He is the Saviour.” God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3) Who would not, then, seek repentance and remission of sins at His hands while it is called today?
There is another “in.” (Hosea 14:33Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy. (Hosea 14:3).) “In thee the fatherless findeth mercy.” Here it is, “The Lord thy God.” Israel has a covenant relation with the Lord. Not her covenant, the Sinai one; for mercy would not come that way, but His, and His covenant is life and peace. (Mal. 2:55My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name. (Malachi 2:5).) He finds all resources in Himself for blessing her. His gracious love flows forth upon its objects, the helpless children, the fatherless. How truly this is seen where He is known. Jehovah, God of love and peace. But it is “in thee,” a very different thing from being in Him only as a creature in the Creator. In Thee, Jehovah, the tenderly merciful Lord, Creator too, but known in Jesus. In thee the fatherless findeth mercy. Mercy, not only to the soul, full mercy there, washed in the blood, sanctified by the word and Spirit, but in everything mercy. Mercy all down to the lowest want of the body, the food, the raiment, by the covenant love of the Father, the Lord, the God of Israel. (Isaiah “65:8; Matt. 6:6-86But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. 7But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. 8Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. (Matthew 6:6‑8).)
But there is yet another “in,” and Christ is the circle that encloses it; a mighty circle, blessed be His name! ―a circle that secures all within it. “In” is multiplied, too, in Christ. He is the One who multiplies all blessing. Look and see. “Chosen in Him before the foundation of the world.” (Eph. 1) “In whom we have reclamation through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grave; wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence.” “In whom [Christ] also we have obtained an inheritance.” Again, in chapter 2. “In Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” And in chap. 3:12: “In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him” [Christ Jesus]. Here then, is a cluster of blessings for the believer, in a sphere “far above” an earthly one. It is heavenly. By the believer I mean a regenerate one, one born again of the Spirit. The new nature is heavenly in its character, clogged, and confined, and hindered by the earthly often times, but free in Christ; and each believer, however sundered by time and space from others, may look into the character of His blessings, and by faith ascend into a region where nature cannot follow. What does he see there? what does he know there? God’s choice from all eternity in Christ; God’s love to him; God’s acceptance of him in the Beloved; God’s recognition of him as a child, dearly beloved and longed for; God’s view of him in Christ Jesus; God’s nearness to him; his nearness, his boldness in Christ, his confidence, because of Christ, in God His Father. Everyone in Christ dear to God. The blessed God forever looking with complacency on Christ and those in Him, triumphant faith smiling amid all circumstances, grass withering below, God all in all above. How wonderful a portion is the Christian’s. Well may he rest, his heart expanded and expanding, while he looks upon his portion, caring for the glory of the One who loved him, caring for the interest of those He loves, waiting for Christ, waiting for the moment of deliverance and rapture, to be forever with the Lord.
WHEN Jesus was here, He said, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” When He comes again He will be able to san “He that hath seen Me hath seen the King of kings and Lord of lords.”