THE NEW TESTAMENT
THE GOSPELS
In turning to the gospels, we find them written by four servants of the Lord, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. But we must dismiss from our minds at once the thought, that they were written by men who recorded what they had known as facts, each one according as his memory served him. This is how men generally write biographies; but it is quite certain that the writers of the gospels often omitted to mention facts with which they were most conversant, and recorded at length other circumstances of which they had no personal knowledge. Let us turn to a few examples. In the raising of the daughter of Jairus from the dead, we are distinctly told that no one was present with the Lord but Peter, James, and John; and yet, most striking as the fact is, and most important, too, in the history of our Lord’s ways, neither of them refer to it; but Matthew, Mark and Luke, who were not present, all name it, and enter into particulars of it.
Again, at the time when the Lord’s compassion was so drawn out toward the widow of Nain, who was attending the funeral of her only son, that He then and there raised him from the dead in the presence of crowds of people, and as we might expect, would be talked of far and near, yet neither of the apostles refer to it, and Luke only has recorded it. Whether he was present or not we are not told; but such a marvelous miracle, and so full of tenderness to a bereaved widow in raising her son to life and delivering him to his mother, if the writers were merely recording facts from memory, as people naturally would do, it would certainly not have been omitted.
In the transfiguration also, we find that only Peter, James, and John were favored to be present, to behold the pattern of the coming kingdom. But neither of them have recorded in their writings the particulars of it. Peter alludes to it in his second epistle, and says, “We were eye-witnesses of His Majesty” (2 Peter 1:1616For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. (2 Peter 1:16)); but neither John nor James tell us anything about it, important beyond all expression as the event was.
Then again, look at our Lord in Gethsemane. One would have thought that every one there present with the Lord in that time of bitter agony and exercise, as anticipating the sorrows of the cross, then immediately before Him, would have fully described the scene. But it is not so. Perhaps no one entered into it more feelingly than that disciple whom Jesus loved, and who leaned on His bosom at the supper; but he gives no details of it, and only makes the briefest allusion to it. Peter, so heavy with sleep there, tells us nothing about it. James, also, is entirely silent; but Matthew, Mark, and Luke, who might not have been near enough to have seen the Lord in such sorrow bowed down to the ground in earnest prayer, each give us a detailed report of it; and yet more remarkable still, after leaving the garden, and going over Cedron with His disciples, when they met Judas and his band of men, and, as the effect of the Lord’s words, “they went backward and fell to the ground” (John 18:66As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground. (John 18:6)), John only mentions this.
Now these examples are surely enough to convince us, that the gospels were not written as men write a biography, by merely gathering all the well-attested facts they could, and putting them together, for it must be clear to every fair mind this was not the case, but that each wrote according to the direction and guidance of the Spirit who inspired him.
Instead, therefore, of regarding the four gospels as the writings merely of four biographers however true, and trying, as people say, to study “the harmonies of the gospel,” we find that each writer had a distinct and definite line of truth to convey, in no wise contradictory to each other, but each gospel written with a definite object. This, when seen, enhances each of the four gospels immensely, and our interest in them becomes largely intensified. It is intelligible enough that four architects might give us the plans of a square building, each taking a separate side; and although they were all of them different in some particulars, so that no one could understand them till he knew that each represented a different side of the same building, yet then, and not till then, would he get the true idea of what the building really was. So with the gospels. Matthew clearly sets forth the Messiah in relation to God’s ancient people, the Jews; Mark, the Son of God as a perfect Servant; Luke, Son of God born of Mary, yet Son of Man; and John, the Son who came forth from the Father, came into the world, and went back to the Father.
Because MATTHEW presents Him to us as the Messiah promised to Israel, to set up His kingdom on earth, as predicted by prophets, He is at once introduced as “the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.” His genealogy is traced, not on Mary’s side, but in connection with Joseph, as legal Heir to the throne. In Matthew 1, He is called Jesus, meaning Jehovah our Savior; and though born of Mary, is really surnamed-God with us. In Matthew 2, He is said to be “born King of the Jews,” and the prophet Micah is referred to as to Bethlehem being the place of His birth into this world; and there it is added, to show the infinite glory of His person “whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” (Mic. 5:22But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. (Micah 5:2)). In Matthew 3, John, His forerunner according to Isaiah and Malachi, called on the nation to “repent,” because the King was there, and ready to set up the kingdom of heaven. It was therefore “at hand.” In Matthew only we have the expression, “kingdom of heaven,” for this the Jewish people were taught to expect by the prophets; and Moses especially spoke of “the days of heaven upon earth” (Deut. 2:2121A people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; but the Lord destroyed them before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead: (Deuteronomy 2:21)). The expression, “kingdom of heaven,” occurs about twenty-eight times in this Gospel. John the Baptist had to seal his testimony of “the gospel of the kingdom,” first by imprisonment, and then by death.
Jesus, however, takes up the same testimony, and adds to it the signs of His being the Messiah, by miraculous power, and gives in the sermon on the mount, the principles on which the kingdom must be set up, then touches a leper and by His word heals him, and also a palsied man. The healing of the one showed, that however degraded and unclean the nation might be, there was grace and power in Him beyond all ordinances, however good, for healing; and on the other hand, however helpless the people, He could not only heal the body but forgive sins. In Matthew 10, He gives power to His apostles also to work miracles, and preach the glad tidings of the kingdom, which was a further testimony of His Messiahship. Afterward we find Him feeding thousands once and again on a few loaves and fishes, and baskets of fragments remaining after every one was filled. Now why was this? It was a further testimony to His being the Messiah, because it had been written in Psalm 132:1515I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy her poor with bread. (Psalm 132:15), “I will abundantly bless her provision, I will satisfy her poor with bread.” So we might go through the Gospel if our space permitted, only we cannot fail to see that it sets before us a line of instruction found nowhere else in Scripture, and yet in perfect keeping with all that had gone before or came after. It is well to notice, that in the twelfth chapter, the Messiah is so entirely rejected by the Jews, that they take counsel to destroy Him (Matt. 12:1414Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him. (Matthew 12:14)); in Matthew 28 He is seen risen from the dead, but not ascended, a risen Man on the earth. And why is this? Because the Messiah’s sphere as such is not ascension glory as His church will have with Him as Bridegroom, Head of His body and Lord of all; but His earthly people, while they will know Him as having died for that nation, and therefore risen, will know Him as reigning here on earth, before His ancients gloriously, and sitting in David’s throne; thus fulfilling all the prophecies of Him, and all the promises to Abraham and his seed. Then of the Jewish people it will be truly said, “The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick; the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.” This they will know and rejoice in, when they sing, “Bless Jehovah, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name” “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases” (Isa. 33:2424And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity. (Isaiah 33:24); Psa. 103:1,31<<A Psalm of David.>> Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. (Psalm 103:1)
3Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; (Psalm 103:3)). Such a truly Jewish character has this Gospel, that here only the expression of the wicked people, “His blood be on us, and on our children,” (Matt. 27:2525Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children. (Matthew 27:25)), is recorded; and in neither of the other gospels have we such particular and prophetic instruction as to the great tribulation, the coming of the Lord to Israel, and His judging the nations.
(Continued from Volume 2, page 314)
(To be Continued).