A RECENT issue of a “Parish Magazine” touches a subject of such vital moment that, in the interests of souls generally, we call attention to it. The following is an extract (no italics in the original):—
“No vessel is safe until it has reached the port and cast anchor, so no soul can be pronounced safe until it has cast anchor within the veil. If a St. Paul, with his absolute faith in God and his devotion to Jesus Christ, was yet haunted by the thought that in the end he might be a castaway, we are driven to the conclusion that no man is sure. Some latent weakness may be developed; some unexpected temptation may prove too strong. ‘The gray-haired saint may fall at last, the surest guide a wanderer prove.’ But from this awful uncertainty death sets the Christian free. While he lives this cannot be.”
“NO MAN IS SURE.” That all depends. In many cases the statement is true. You cannot be sure of the weather for two days together. “The wind bloweth where it listeth,” and you can neither tell its next movement nor the consequent result. You may make your “forecast” and be moderately correct, but “no man is sure.” Again, you cannot be sure of what may seem even more trustworthy than changing winds—the continued possession of riches. Hence the exhortation, “Charge them that are rich, that they trust not in uncertain riches, but in the living God” (1 Tim. 6:1717Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; (1 Timothy 6:17)). “Riches certainly make themselves wings: they fly away” (Prov. 23:55Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven. (Proverbs 23:5)). You may have them today, but as to how long you will keep them no man is sure. Indeed, man’s life abounds with “open questions.” Whether that fine ship just leaving the dock will reach her destination; whether that child, blooming with health today, will ever arrive at the years of manhood; whether the peace of Europe will continue for another ten years—are all open questions; and there are thousands more.
But how serious it would be to put the word of “the living God” on the same ground! Who could place the sentence which heads this paper after the sentence with which the Epistle to the Hebrews opens, and say,
Though “God hath spoken, no man can be sure”
What, then, is the secret of such a statement as the one we find in the “Parish Magazine”? It is based most probably on the utterly false notion that it is man’s good behavior, and his own satisfaction with it, that entitles him to say he is saved from coming wrath and fitted for future glory. Ministrations from the pulpit, participations at the “altar” (so-called), and even Christ’s death itself, are understood to be necessary helps, but only helps—helps to his finally becoming good enough to go to heaven. But since “the gray-haired saint may fall at last,” if he can only be put right at some point before the close, and then sin no more till he reaches the end, he thinks—and his teachers encourage him to think—that he will be taken into heaven on that sinless ground. He can then, at least, claim some little merit, have some little show of goodness; and so with a hope, because God is merciful, that the past is all forgiven, he considers himself ready to die! Hence, the supposed necessity of the “rites of the Church” for the dying, whether it be the Lord’s Supper in Protestantism, or the Confessional and Extreme Unction in Romanism.
All this is built upon the false thought that man needs only a Helper. But the man who has no strength for holiness worthy of God, and no means of giving righteous satisfaction as to his sins, is absolutely lost, and needs a Saviour. Even help for the future will not atone for the sins of the past. “But when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom. 5:66For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6)). “He came into the world to save sinners”; “to seek and to save that which was lost.”
Instead of man being able, either by his own effort or anybody else’s help, to make himself good enough to be saved, he discovers, when taught by the Spirit of God, that he is bad enough to be lost; that if God’s righteous judgment must fall upon his every sin he must, without a sin-bearer, pass eternally under that righteous judgment, But this is not the only discovery the Spirit makes to him. He finds that God has, at His own personal cost, provided One equal to the task of bearing sin’s righteous consequences and expressing His love to the sinner at the same time. “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:88But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)). “Who was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification.... Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 4:25; 5:125Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. (Romans 4:25)
1Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: (Romans 5:1)).
God can accept nothing short of perfection: and who could stand before Him on the ground of his own merits and be pronounced perfect? Has He not recorded it for our enlightenment, that He considers “there is none that doeth, good; there is none righteous, no not one”? Who, knowing that “God requireth that which is past,” dare be judged for his sins and expect to escape damnation? “Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, O Lord, for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified” (Eccl. 3:1515That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past. (Ecclesiastes 3:15); Psa. 143:22And enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified. (Psalm 143:2)).
Be it well remembered that God’s righteousness admits of no compromise. You must stand absolutely on the ground of your own personal merits, or entirely on the ground of the merits and work of Christ. Do not imagine that you can use the merits of Christ as a makeweight for your deficiencies. It must be self without Christ or Christ without self. The true believer is said to be “accepted in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:66To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. (Ephesians 1:6)) and to have “no confidence in the flesh” (Phil. 3:33For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. (Philippians 3:3)). But it is only when we have been brought to true repentance, brought to realize the hopelessness of trusting our own merits, that we really turn to Christ and rest our souls on His merits alone. Two things characterize every true conversion—the condemnation of what is evil in one’s self and the appreciation of the good that is in Christ—and these cover the whole of the true believer’s history; that is, “repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.”
A mariner does not send up his “distress rocket” for lifeboat assistance until he has been brought to absolute despair as to his own ship. And so with the real believer. He has no doubt, no uncertainty, either as to his own lost condition or as to the trustworthiness of the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour. The more deeply he learns the wretchedness of all that is in himself naturally, the more tenaciously does he cling to the one only Refuge, the precious blood of Christ and the perfection of His never-to-be-repeated sacrifice. In this lies his only ground of acceptance; nor does he want another, for its ever-abiding efficacy is reckoned by God to his account, just as Abel was counted righteous because of what his sacrifice was (Heb. 11:44By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. (Hebrews 11:4)). Hence of the sacrifice of Christ it is written, “By one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.” “And their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more” (Heb. 10:14, 1714For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. (Hebrews 10:14)
17And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. (Hebrews 10:17)).
But it may be asked, “What of Paul’s ‘awful uncertainty’ and of his being haunted by the thought that in the end he might be ‘a castaway’?”
The answer is as simple as it is emphatic. As far as the record of Scripture goes Paul had no such haunting fears! Let him speak for himself, First look at the context of the passage referred to in the “Parish Magazine” (1 Cor. 9:26, 2726I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: 27But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. (1 Corinthians 9:26‑27)). Open your Bible and read it for yourself carefully. “I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air.” Would it be common honesty to erase the words, “not as uncertainly,” and put in their place, “with awful uncertainty”? Let the reader judge.
But it may be asked, “Then why does the apostle add in the last verse, ‘But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway’?” Note here it is not a question of becoming a castaway, but of being one, i.e. of giving proof that he never was a genuinely converted man. Unless there was a work in the soul that caused him to keep his body under spiritual control, his being a preacher stood for nothing; he was but “as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal” (1 Cor. 13).
The passage presents Paul, the preacher, comparing his own case with that of certain teachers in Corinth who, while professing the name of Christ, were, by report, living in a carnal, fleshly way. In seeking to reach their conscience, and expose to them their jeopardy, he makes use of a common enough form of argument.
Take a supposed case by way of illustration. A certain sea captain knows that the master of another vessel makes a practice, while afloat, of living in ease and careless self-indulgence, instead of maintaining the constant watchfulness that becomes him. He will allow any member of the crew to take control of the ship and guide it according to his own peculiar will and fancy. One day, while together in harbor, he says to this careless commander, “If I acted on board my ship as report says you do; if I did not keep a close watch on my crew and hold them to their proper posts of duty; if I allowed them to control me instead of my controlling them—I should expect to see my vessel brought to a complete wreck some day, even though I had for years been giving instruction in navigation to others.” In a similar way the apostle speaks when he says: “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” SCRIPTURE NEVER SUPPOSES THE TRUE CHRISTIAN TO BE CHARACTERIZED BY A SINFUL COURSE. On the contrary, a desire for holiness according to God and a shrinking from sin are ensured by his new birth. True, he still possesses a fallen, sinful nature, and is therefore liable to fall into sin. But is he therefore given up? No. It is because he is “sealed unto the day of redemption” that he is exhorted not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God (Eph. 4:3030And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. (Ephesians 4:30)). And should he sin, there is a provision for his restoration. “If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” Discipline, rebuke and chastening may come in, but all to bring about the restoration of his soul to communion with the Father.
We say unhesitatingly that Paul had no doubt of his own safety. Listen to him still further. “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor. 5:11For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (2 Corinthians 5:1)).
In verse 8 he says, “We are confident”; and in verse 6, “We are always confident.”
In Rom. 8:3030Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. (Romans 8:30), “Whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified”; and in verses 35 to 39, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Once more we ask, Is this the language of “awful uncertainty”? The very opposite. We close our remarks by quoting those words of the Lord Jesus Himself in John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24), “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” To this we boldly add SINCE GOD HAS SPOKEN, EVERY MAN MAY BE SURE.
GEO. C.