We are then justified by faith. With that the teaching about the work of Christ in a manner closes, in so far as it deals with His blood, and the putting away of our sins through the shedding of the same. The resurrection of Christ is the proof that God has accepted this work as satisfaction for our sins, and assuredly for His own glory. What a blessed thought! The righteousness of God rests in the value of the work of Christ. This righteousness has revealed itself in the fact that He has raised His Son from among the dead, and has justified us on account of Him: our sins are forgiven, we are washed white in His blood. We have contributed nothing, and can contribute in nothing, to our justification; we are justified solely by the work of Christ. Our sins are the only part we have in the sufferings of Christ, by which we are cleansed before God. The value of this work becomes our portion by faith, which, however, can add nothing to it. This work is our highest motive for serving Him and praising Him unceasingly, but in so doing we add nothing to the work of Christ before God; it is complete, and not only that, but it is accepted and acknowledged as entire satisfaction before God. How blessed it is to know that all our sins are put away by God Himself, and conformably to His own righteousness; whilst He has raised Christ, on account of the work which He has accomplished for us, an eternally existing proof that God has accepted this work as fully satisfying His glory. This would be enough for our justification, but God has done yet more. He has raised Christ to His right hand, and He is seated there now as man, until His enemies be made His footstool. “By one offering He hath perfected forever” (with regard to the conscience) “them that are sanctified.” If they are not perfected through this offering, they never can be, neither can their sins be put away. For without shedding of blood is no remission, and Christ cannot shed His blood once again for us; the work is done, or it can never be done.
In the first part of chapter 5 (v. 1-11) we have a summary of this infinite grace of God in all its aspects. Let us briefly consider the contents of these precious verses. The work is accomplished; faith knows that God has accepted it, because He has raised Christ and seated Him at His right hand. Nothing remains but the value of the work of Christ, and the acceptance of His person between God and man, born again and sanctified. The blood of Christ is always before the eyes of God, and He Himself appears in the presence of God for us. This gives us, in the present, blessed privileges, as well as the hope of glory in the future which we shall enjoy with Him. However, we will not go outside our chapter, but limit ourselves to the consideration of the perfection of the grace of God, so wondrously therein developed. We find here what God is for us, whilst our standing before Him in Christ is treated of later on.
The first eleven verses contain the development of the grace and gracious ways of God; they speak first of what grace gives, and then of the experiences of its recipients. Christ having been delivered for our sins, and raised again for our justification, we are justified by faith; it is a complete justification; our sins are effaced, our conscience is purified, and because the value of this work is eternal and immutable before God, so our justification is forever valid. Consequently we are in the possession of constant peace with God. No sins can be imputed to us, for they are all already borne, so that we can no longer have any consciousness of sins. We have indeed the knowledge of the existence of sin in the flesh, but it can no longer be a question of the sins which Christ has already borne. We may well humble ourselves, if at any time something occurs to remind us that we were guilty of those, hateful fruits of the flesh, and of bringing this load upon the beloved Saviour; but in the presence of God, where Christ and His blood are forever present, we can never question whether all is forgiven. It is important that I should not confound the state of my soul with the value of a work accomplished outside of me, in the accomplishment of which I had no part, unless indeed my sins. If, however, my sins were there laid on Christ, they cannot now be any longer before God. Christ has not got them on Him in heaven. If I think of myself before God, I see on the one side nothing but infinite, unchangeable love, because Christ is there; and, on the other, nothing but perfect and divine righteousness in Him, also because He is there Infinite love, perfect and divine righteousness, are the part of the believer in Christ before God.
This leads us a step farther in the consideration of the fruits of grace. Not only are our sins put away, so that we have peace with God, but we can also enjoy the grace of God by which peace is made, grace which is now ever in the heart of God for us. Grace has not only set aside every obstacle through the work of Christ, but it remains ever the same in the heart of God. His eyes rest upon us with the same love as on Christ. Through Christ we have peace, through Him also access by faith into this grace and favor in which we stand in Him before God. Not only does the heavenly Judge justify us, but a heavenly Father receives us; the light of His gracious countenance, beaming with a Father’s love, illumines and rejoices our souls, and comforts our hearts, so that we can be in His presence and walk before Him with perfectly restful hearts; we have the blessed consciousness of standing in the favor of God. With regard to our sins, they are all put away; with regard to our present condition before God, all is love and favor in the bright light of His countenance; with regard to the future, we await the glory; it is our portion, although we do not yet enjoy it. Peace, divine favor, the hope of glory, such is the portion of the believer, the blessed fruit of God’s love.
Here someone might say, “Then we have that which is needed for the past, the present, and the future.” The apostle has still, however, something to add. The glory being still a thing of the future for us, there remains a path to be trodden in order to reach it, and God does not forget us along the road. Therefore the apostle says, “Not only so, but we glory in tribulations also.”
The desert is the place where the experiences of the redeemed are made with regard to their actual condition and the governmental ways of God. Redemption is accomplished; we are brought to God, as it is written: “I have borne you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.” This is a present accomplished fact, determined beforehand in the counsels of God. The glory forms part of the counsels of God, and it must also have its fulfillment for those who are justified. The wilderness forms no part of these counsels, but it is the place where we learn to know His ways with us. The thief on the cross indeed went to be with Christ in Paradise the same day, to dwell with Him there. His condition was fit for such a position. If he has to suffer from man the consequences of his misdeeds, Christ bore all for him of which he was guilty before God, and the justified sinner follows Him the same day straight to the mansions of bliss. But he had no long pathway of experiences to traverse. The believer in general has to tread his pilgrim way through a world, where difficulties and temptations meet and surround him on all sides. We are called to walk in the footsteps of Christ, who has passed through this world before us, and thereby our state is tested. Our redemption is not thereby called in question, for it is that which has brought us into the wilderness. But we are responsible according to the calling and position in which redemption has placed us, to walk worthy of God, who has called us to His own kingdom and glory.
Tribulations test our souls as to how far self-will is working; they make manifest the operations of sin, that we may be able to detect them. God probes us. We learn on the one hand what we are, and on the other what God is for us in His faithfulness and daily care. We are weaned from the world, and become better able to perceive and appreciate what is heavenly. So the hope which is already in the heart becomes clearer and brighter. This is the light in which to view all our afflictions, because we possess the key to them all— “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” The providential care of God in this respect is wonderful. “He withdraweth not His eyes from the righteous.” He thinks of all which concerns His children, their characters, circumstances, and temptations; He does all that is necessary to bring them to the blessed end of their pilgrimage. After forty years’ wandering in the desert, the feet of the children of Israel did not swell, neither did their clothes wear out. He makes all things work together for good to them that love God.
There remain several more important points to be considered. We find the Holy Spirit mentioned here for the first time. The Holy Ghost shed abroad in the heart is quite another thing from the new birth. We must indeed be born again to receive the Holy Ghost, but the sinner needs something more than the new birth. In this passage the Holy Ghost is looked upon as the seal given to the believer of the value of the blood of Christ, and of the perfect purification in which he participates through its application. Washed from his sins, he becomes the habitation of the Holy Spirit. He is the unction, the believer’s seal, and the earnest of the glory. Through Him we cry, “Abba, Father.” (Galatians 4:66And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. (Galatians 4:6)) Through Him we know that we are in Christ, and Christ in us. (John 14:16-2016And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. 18I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. 19Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. 20At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. (John 14:16‑20)) And here, in this passage, we learn that by Him also the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. God’s ordering for the purifications of the leper (Leviticus 14) furnishes us with a striking type of what takes place now with believers. The leper was first washed with water, then sprinkled with blood, and finally anointed with oil. So now the sinner is first converted, then perfectly purified by the blood of Christ, and finally sealed by the Holy Ghost. Through Him we are fully assured of sharing in an accomplished redemption by virtue of our blessed relationship to God and to Christ, as He is the earnest of the future glory. Rut all flows from the sprinkling of the blood of Christ.
Thus we know God, we become partakers of the divine nature, we have understanding of our redemption and justification, and experience His faithfulness. He reveals Himself to our souls, and reveals to us also the glory which lies before us. We know that we are in Him, and that God dwells in us. So we glory, not only in what He has given us—namely, in our salvation—but in God Himself. A grateful child is not merely. happy about all that he has received from his father, but his heart rejoices in having such a father as he has shown himself to be by his loving ways. He is happy because his father is all that his heart could desire; he rejoices in what he personally finds his father to be, and glories in him. What a privilege to be able to boast in God Himself! That makes our joy in, and enjoyment of, grace immense. The highest character of our eternal delight is thus already realized down here, and deep peace accompanies this delight. What God is in Himself is the infinite yet present object for a nature capable of enjoying Him, the Holy Ghost revealing Hint to the soul.
J. N. D.