A great deal can be compressed into few words. We have the apostle’s statement “I had rather speak five words with my understanding... than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue” (1 Cor. 14: 19), and in keeping therewith it is worthy of note how many of the most pregnant sentences of Scripture contain only five words.
For an instance take these words: — “We have peace with God” (Rom. 5:11Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: (Romans 5:1)) and think into them as you would gaze down into some clear lake whose still waters run deep. Can you see the bottom? No! There are depths in those words unexplored yet by the believer of ripest experience, though “peace with God” is not something to be attained at the close of a Christian career, but something to be received at the beginning. It is the choice birthright of every child of God.
In spite of it being so, however, we may safely affirm without fear of exaggeration that there are today thousands of believers who cannot say “we have peace with God,” as a matter of personal experience. That Jesus made peace “through the blood of His cross” (Col. 1:2020And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. (Colossians 1:20)), they do not doubt: to say “I have peace” is, however, a different matter. Truth would remind that they should say “I have many a doubt and fear in my heart.”
Let us clearly recognize that this is a very abnormal state of things. Sincere souls may think it becomes them to remain to the end of their days in humble uncertainty as to their exact relations with God, and consider doubts and fears to be an especial sign of grace, but Scripture lends no countenance to such an idea. Indeed, it teaches the very opposite. To the “little children,” that is, the babes of God’s great family of the redeemed, John says “I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His Name’s sake” (1 John 2:1212I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. (1 John 2:12)); and again: — “ These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life” (chap. 5:13).
Why then the uncertainty which darkens so many hearts, and prevents the bold and happy utterance of those words “I have peace with God”?
Cases differ, especially in details of a secondary nature, but the primary cause lying at the root of the whole matter is the failure to grasp in the soul the meaning and bearing of the resurrection of Christ.
In the first verse of the fifth chapter of Romans there is a much-overlooked word: — “Therefore...” That word refers us back to that which immediately precedes.
Let us then ask “wherefore?” — and for answer we must read “Jesus our Lord... who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification. Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God.”
Two important facts lie upon the surface of this text.
Firstly: Our peace with God depends upon our being justified by faith; and hence, since to be “justified ‘ is to be” righted,” and thus to be right with God, we may say that to be right with God is the only basis for peace with God. Peace on any other basis must be but a delusion and a snare.
Secondly: Our justification by faith depends upon the death and resurrection of Christ. We are “righted” altogether by the work of Another, and that work altogether apart from us. But “righted” by faith.
The Puritans used to speak of faith as a recumbence, a leaning; the soul reposing itself upon an outside object. How simple this is! and how completely it exposes the folly of the oft-repeated saying of anxious souls, “Oh, but I can’t believe.” Indeed! Is believing then so great a load? Nay. It is but to cease from doing, and to lean on that which is done, and the One who did it. Let no man say he cannot lean.
But faith not only reposes upon an outside object; it also sees, apprehends, and grasps the meaning of that upon which it leans. Here it is that the break-down comes. The death and resurrection of Christ are believed in as historic facts, reposed upon as the basis of salvation, but inasmuch as many do not grasp in faith their meaning and bearing upon the question of their own justification, they dwell in uncertainty instead of in peace.
Ponder well that last verse of Romans 4 Let us go over it slowly, and in faith, that some light may dawn upon us.
“Who”: that is, Jesus our Lord, the Son of God. None less than He! “Was delivered”: He was given up to death and judgment. Who delivered Him? God. “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God...” (Acts 2:2323Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: (Acts 2:23)). It was an act of God on our behalf.
“For our offences”: Not as a martyr merely, but as a sacrificial victim, He stood in our stead. He took upon Himself the awful load of our guilt. He charged Himself upon Calvary’s tree with the full weight of our broken responsibilities, and the dread liabilities resulting therefrom. He stood there representatively for us. Each believer may say “He went into death as my representative beneath the load of my offenses.”
“And was raised again”: This great truth is as much part of the gospel as is the death of Christ. It speaks of victory over every adverse power, and of the complete settlement of every claim of the righteous throne of God. Death and the grave could not hold Him. He arose.
“For our justification”: These words give the bearing of His resurrection upon us who believe. Keep in mind that He represents us if you would seize their meaning. Has He come forth free from the dominion of death? Then we are free. Is He triumphantly cleared from the burden of our offenses? Then we are clear. As clear as He is. We stand or fall by our Representative. His position is our position. If death and judgment are behind Him they are behind us.
This is strikingly illustrated by that well known scene in the valley of Elah (1 Sam. 17.). The conflict lay between the champions of Israel and Philistia, David and Goliath. Upon either side of the valley stood the two armies in battle array, yet the battle wholly lay between their respective representatives.
What a tempest of conflicting emotions must have raged in many an Israelite’s breast as they watched David walking down into the valley to meet the giant. If reason prevailed, and they estimated David’s chances by the laws of probability, doubts and fears must have held undisputed sway. And if faith raised its voice, and brought Israel’s God before them, hope must have been kindled in their hearts. But so long as it was only David going down into the valley, it was a case of hoping for the best.
A few more moments and the victory was won. The smooth stone crashed into the Philistine’s skull, the big man lay prone on the ground, slain with his own sword, his head in David’s hand; and the stripling commenced his triumphal walk up from the valley to the hill-top.
“And the men of Israel and of Judah arose and shouted.” Every doubt and fear vanished before the return of their victorious representative. His victory was their victory. They were as clear and as free from the Philistine oppressor as he was.
The application of this lies plainly before us. Our Lord Jesus, the greater than David, has been into death’s dark valley “delivered for our offenses.” Many a Christian stops there, and consequently gets no further than hoping for the best. The gospel does not stop there however. Having vanquished the foe, our great Representative has come up out of the valley “raised again for our justification.” His victory is our victory. His freedom is one freedom. This is the meaning for us of His resurrection.
Remember then “Jesus Christ... raised from the dead according to my gospel,” and, with peace in your heart, rise up with the true Israel of God to shout His praise.
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The key of faith unlocks God’s mysteries; the key of prayer unlocks God’s treasuries.
Christians are the world’s Bibles. The world will not read the Book, but they will read you and me.
All eternity will be lit by the once wounded Face.
One of our greatest lessons is to learn to put God between us and our circumstances; then they are seen, if at all, modified and qualified by His intervening presence: but if we put our circumstances between us and God, they often hide Him from us altogether. Blessed are they who always set the Lord before them, and keep Him between themselves and all their foes and fears!
The old age of grace is maturity, not decay — advance not decline — perfection not imbecility. We go from strength to strength, from grace to grace.
The serene beauty of a love-lit and holy life is the most powerful influence in the world next to the might of God.
When Abraham interceded for Sodom, God did not stop granting till Abraham stopped asking. When Elisha poured the oil in the Shunamite’s vessels, the oil ceased not till the vessels ceased. When Jesus opened His treasures on the mount, and fed the multitude, His supply did not stop till they ceased in their demand. “As much as they would,” this was God’s measure. So it is now, Christ’s measure is infinite... Remember, if we have little grace, the fault is ours, not His.