Rome was the center of the universal empire of the world, the Gentile. metropolis, and Paul had not been there; but God had made him apostle and teacher of the Gentiles (2 Tim. 1:1111Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. (2 Timothy 1:11).) In fulfilling his apostolic functions, his heart was naturally drawn toward that seat of the empire and the Christians living there, or who flocked thither from all sides, to confirm them in the faith, and to establish the Church forming in that important locality on the foundations of divine truth. This is what the epistle to the Romans presents us with. It is a summary of the great truths which form the groundwork of the Gospel of Christ.
(* That from which this paper is taken has been by me since the Autumn of 1848. It was written in French, but was never published, except it were in Italian, as was then proposed. It is a mere sketch, but hav- i iv, been asked for by some who have found blessing from. the writer's 0013r works, I give the translation of it.-[Ed.])
Let us consider a little the position of man, and of the world, before God. Christianity, it is evident, was not introduced at the beginning of the history of the human race.
Already nearly 4000 years had elapsed before the Son of God appeared among men. How many things had taken place under the eye of God during that long period!
Let us examine the grand traits of this history. God had created man innocent, and had placed him in a state of happiness in a terrestrial paradise. He, following the sad example of his wife, who had listened to the seductive words of the tempter, disobeyed God, and lost at once his innocence and his happiness. He dares not present himself before God. A bad conscience leads him to avoid His presence, even before the just judgment of God drives him from the garden, and from Himself, source alone of true happiness: man-ungrateful, disobedient man, who had taken for his friend and his counselor, in preference to God, Satan, had believed him rather than God Himself-the slave of Satan and his own will, was lost. Being driven from the garden was but a natural consequence of his fall. The way to the tree of life was closed to him. He stays in the world outside, the slave of sin and death.
But God, in driving man out from His presence, had not forgotten to be gracious; and in pronouncing sentence on the serpent, he speaks of a Redeemer who should destroy the power of the enemy of man. It was pure grace; and testimony was given of it in the very title of the Deliverer, " the Seed of the woman," of her who by listening to Satan had plunged man into ruin; but before sending the Redeemer for the accomplishment of the work of redemption, man must be tried, and in every way, to see whether, such as he is, he could attain to the power of life eternal, or secure himself in a state of happiness. God knew well what he was. Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. But we are prone enough to entertain a good opinion of ourselves for it to be salutary for us to make trial of what we are, that the conscience, convinced of sin, may be willing to profit by pure grace and the goodness of God. So, during centuries, God left man without checks to the inclinations of his own heart.
The Savior had been announced, it is true, and a living testimony had been given on the part of God.
The names of Abel, Enoch, and Noah, shine in the pages of the Holy Scriptures, like lights in those remote ages. But the light itself shone in vain. Man corrupted himself more and more, so that after long patience, God was led to wash corrupted humanity in the terrible scourge of the deluge. But he who is ever remembering His mercy in the midst of his judgments, pointed out a means of salvation to those who alone had listened to His Word; and Noah, with his family, becomes the parent stock of a new world.
But the terrible lesson of a world destroyed was lost upon man; chastisements do not change nature. We soon find that idolatry is introduced and propagated in all quarters of the world. That is to say, to avail ourselves of the words of the Apostle Paul, " the heathen sacrificed to devils and not to God." God called Abraham in order to preserve in the midst of the world the knowledge of the true God, and that he might be the depositary of the promises of God, and that the promised seed should rise from his family. And Abraham, as well as Isaac and Jacob, his son and grandson, were strangers and pilgrims on the earth through faith. Of his posterity the Lord raised up an earthly people (called Israel, known generally, in the present day, under the name of Jew), that it might be a witness and preserver of the doctrine of the unity of the true God, against the errors of the heathen. In Abraham the call of grace from out of the world, and free salvation through faith, had been signally shown in the ways of God. Now, a striking testimony as to the deliverance by the blood of a victim, substituted for the sinner whose penalty it bore, was presented in a figure; and this thought, this answerer to the needs of conscience harassed by the conviction of sin, was spread through all nations; disfigured, doubtless, by the gross and abominable ideas of idolaters, who falsified the character of God in worshipping demons; but, in its first principle, as in its origin, a divine provision for the necessity of the sinner before a just God. When God called Israel to Himself that they might be his people, He put ransom as the ground of their deliverance. The blood guarded them from the just judgment of God,-guarded them perfectly. The people, come out of Egypt, is led through the desert to be tried, and at last is brought to Sinai. And now a principle quite new is presented to them. The covenant of the law is offered to the people, that is to say, the blessing and the enjoyment of promises under condition of obedience to the law of God. " If ye obey my voice," said the Lord to the people, " thou shalt be a peculiar treasure unto me." "Do this, and thou shalt live." This is then the principle of the law of God, a principle perfectly just, like the law, which was the rule of conduct which God proposed, and which the Lord Jesus summed up in those Holy Words:-" Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy mind, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and thy neighbor as thyself." It was a perfect and admirable rule of what man ought to be, and which would secure happiness to the creatures living according to its requirements. The Lord therefore proclaimed the law, under the form of Ten Commandments, with His own mouth to the people, at Sinai. If they kept it they should be blessed, if not, they would be condemned and cursed.
Now the law, as it ought, proposed to them a perfect obedience, even (what is in fact alone such) the perfect obedience of the heart. " Thou shalt not covet." It is evident, that if God was entering into relationship with man, He must look to the heart. "Thou shalt not covet." To act otherwise would be to justify the hypocrite. The law was thus given. It was a holy, just, and perfect law, which declared what man ought to be, in order to please God, and to have life eternal. If God was pure, holy, and just, man must be so to be happy. But mark here, if the law described what man ought to be, it did not at all declare what God was, except that He was just, and would punish the sinner. It is the Gospel which shining, while it recognizes fully this justice, and the perfection of the law, reveals what God in grace is to him who transgresses it. We shall speak of it presently. Here let us follow our subject. The law, which required perfect righteousness and obedience in man, had been given-to whom? To man already a sinner? What can a perfect law do (and the law of God must be such) for a sinner? Condemn him in convincing him of his sin. Was it the law which was in fault? Quite the contrary: it was its holiness and righteousness which did thus. It was the necessary result of a perfect law given to a sinner. A rule gives neither life nor strength-it require certain things-it gives nothing. There is another result of the law. There is a will of his own in man. One knows it, one feels it, one sees it. The law forbids the gratification of our will. It is the expression of the will of God which we ought to obey. Our will kicks against the will of God We always desire to do that which is forbidden. Forbid a child to look into a basket to see what is therein, and longing will begin to stir at once in its heart. It would not have thought of it had it not been told not to look into the basket; but now it wishes to examine it. Sin finds an occasion in the law. The unbeliever will say, perhaps, " How unjust to give us a law which can only condemn us!" One might say so indeed, however useless it would be to contend against God, if it were true that God had given it in order that we might be saved through its means, but this is what He has not done. God gave the law that sin might be made manifest, and that sin by the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.. To show not only that man had committed sins, but that his will. was wicked and corrupt, and so audacious, that he would commit them in spite of God's prohibition; and so wicked, as a will, that a prohibition was only an occasion for this will to wish to leap clean over the barrier which might oppose itself to it. It is Christ who saves, not the law. Israel, to whom God committed the care of this law, had trangressed it in making a golden calf even before Moses had come down from the mount with the tables upon which God had engraved it. The patience of God, however, still showed itself in sending prophets to put Israel in remembrance of the requirements of the law, and of the goodness of God, proclaiming with increasing light the accomplishment of the promise of the Messiah. Israel despised their warnings and their testimony. At last John the Baptist, herald of the King of Israel, of the Christ of God, arrives, and soon after the Lord Himself appeared on the scene. "I have yet my Son, my only Son," said God, proclaiming Himself under the figure of a parable,-" they will reverence my Son."
We all know what happened to the man of sorrows. "Behold," said the husbandmen (to use still the words of the Parable), "Behold the heir! come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours." The Son of God appeared,-they spat in His face, and crucified Him. Such is the history of the world: is man wicked or not? And consider what the Son of man was-it was no more the law; for although the Son was born, in His grace, under the law, He was the manifestation of the love and of the goodness of God, even towards those who had transgressed it. He did them good-He did not impute their sins to them. It was God in the midst of men and their misery- God delivering them from it without imputing to them the sin that had brought them there..Re required nothing, bore everything, and healed their sick. He gave to eat to those that were hungry-He raised their dead. It was power and divine love; BUT it watt the light, it was God Himself, and whatever His goodness might be, man would not have Him.
The Jew, alas! hated Him-the Gentile, despising Rim, rid himself of Him, to avoid the tumult raised by the jealousy of the Jews; all, unknown to themselves, accomplished the will and the counsels of God.
The crime, without parallel, which the sin of man committed, was the testimony and the accomplishment or the perfect love of God.
The victim of propitiation was sacrificed. The blood which redeemed, which accomplished our salvation, was spilled. Man had been left without law-corruption and violence had characterized the world. Man had been put under the law, with all the privileges of the presence of God in His temple, with the testimony of the prophets, the ordinances and the direct government of God; had transgressed the law, despised the prophets, and forsaken God for idols of his own choice. The Son of God Himself, God manifested in the flesh, had appeared on the scene of misery which man had created for himself by his own sin, the testimony of the infinite goodness of God. Man knew Him not-the Jews would not have Him-they all united together in rising against the Lord and His Anointed. They spat in His face and crucified Him; they hated Him without a cause. Sad picture.: We prefer our own way to everything. Thus man has been tested in every way-the tree was bad. Now comes the question. What will God be with regard to man, wicked man? A just Judge doubtless, of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, to look at sin. Grace and love will He be before He begins with judgment.
It is here that the epistle to the Romans begins its instruction, addressing the Gentiles on the one hand, and the Jews on the other. Let us sum up in a few words the thread of thoughts which the Holy Spirit presents us with in this important part of the Word of God.
In the first chapter, after having announced Christ as the Son of David, heir of the promises made to Israel and Son of God-in power-addressing himself affectionately to the Christians at Rome, he proclaims at once the Gospel as the power of God unto salvation,, to the Jew first; and also to the Gentile, because a righteousness of God is revealed therein-man had none for God.-God has one in His grace for man, sinful and wretched man.
Now, if God has revealed it as a righteousness which is His own, and which He has made available for man;- If God, I say, has revealed it as a righteousness perfect and accomplished on His part, it is through faith that we must receive it. It is faith which receives a revelation; -it is faith which lays hold of and trusts to an accomplished fact. The Apostle Paul asserts that the wrath of God is revealed against all unrighteousness. What was there else amongst the Heathen? Against all ungodliness in men who held the truth in ungodliness. Had not such been the case with the Jews up to that day? Alas, and may we not add now, with many of the most orthodox persons who call themselves Christians. The patience of God had lasted long, but He has fully revealed Himself in Christ, and every sin whatsoever; put into the light, is unbearable.
In the course of the first and second chapters, the Apostle shows the horrible iniquity which characterized the state of the Heathen, and the culpability of the Jews. Noah's family had known God; his descendants would not retain this knowledge. Proofs also of Scripture, and of the power of the only true God, surrounded them everywhere! They were inexcusable. They had degraded the very idea of God. They were left to degrade themselves.
Philosophers and moralists judged well of this state of things. Were they changed themselves? By no means. Could God accept of such things? Surely not. And the Jews who boasted of the law, and wished to be the instructors of the ignorant? They transgressed the law of which they boasted and the name of God was blasphemed among the Heathen through their means.
It was not the outward appearance of man that was of any value in the eyes of God. He looks at the heart.
Did the Apostle deny then the privileges the Jews had above the heathen? By no means. But the possession of religious privileges renders those who do not profit thereby more guilty; so likewise the doctrine of Christ renders more culpable those who possess it, if they are not real and living Christians. Now the Apostle shows to the Jews, by passages taken from their own Scriptures, that they were condemned, so that, he says, "every mouth is stopped, and the whole world stands guilty before God. By the works of the law shall no man be justified before God, for those who had the privilege of that law were so much the more guilty in that they had transgressed it. Who can stand before the law of God? Who can say, ' I have not transgressed it.' How can one justify oneself by a law one has transgressed? By the law is the knowledge of sin. What is to be done? Hear what the Apostle says: " But now the righteousness of God without the law is made manifest, being witnessed to by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God by faith in Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His Grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood."
It is the precious blood of Christ, the Lamb of God, which is the only answer (which God Himself has furnished to us) to the demand of the justice which condemns the sinner. It is the righteousness of God by Jesus that makes righteous the man who has no righteousness to present to God, so that God is just in justifying him that has faith in Jesus.
What Grace! What a blessing for the poor sinner who has a heart broken enough and cleansed, sufficiently true for him to condemn himself! Boasting is excluded through faith in Jesus. We have now summed up the great principles of the three first chapters.
In chap. 4 the Apostle, in reasoning with the Jew, presents to us other considerations in support of the divine thesis which he treats of. What shall we say of Abraham, the honored and recognized chief of Israel, and the Father of the faithful? He was justified by faith before the law was given, before even he himself was circumcised. But this is not all. On what did he himself rest? On the power of God who raises the dead. For there he was, as to the promise that was made to him; and this was imputed to him for righteousness-" if' we believe in Him who has raised Jesus from among the dead"-that is to say, faith is in Him who, not only by the blood of the precious Savior has satisfied the demands of the justice of God; but (when Jesus has borne in our place the punishment due to sin, has borne our sins in His own body on the tree, has been delivered for our offenses and died for us) God, in His mighty power; raised Him, and has there done with our sins once for all, and has placed us, who believe in Jesus, in Him, in His presence, fully justified by means of what Jesus has done, since He has done it for those who believe. In believing, therefore, in this work of Jesus, we know that He has taken away our sins, and has placed us in the actual enjoyment of the favor and of the grace of God, before whom we find ourselves according to the efficacy of the work of Christ, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. This is what the fifth chapter reveals to us. There also we find two principles of infinite importance.
The love of God does not find any motive in us, but in Himself, in His nature, all the while that it finds the occasion of displaying itself in our misery. The Gospel is the glad tidings, that the love of God has made provision of a perfect righteousness in Christ Jesus for poor sinners had none. A righteousness which we enjoy through faith in Jesus, so that all is a gift-all is gratuitous-to Jesus belongs all the glory-He alone is worthy. We are made partakers of it through grace. Perhaps a man would die for a good man.- It was when we were yet without strength that Christ died for the ungodly. We may reckon on that love. If God has reconciled us by the death of Jesus when we were enemies, lie will save us to the end through His life. The second principle in this chapter is, that the question is not only concerning the law, we must go back as far as Adam, the head of the human race. All fell and were ruined in him, having superadded, at the same time, their own sins-" the law entered to make the offense abound." Sin was already known as a principle-the law in forbidding it, made of it an offense, a positive and formal transgression, of every act which sin has produced in Us.
But God be blessed! where sin abounded, grace has much more abounded. But as by the disobedience of one (that is to say Adam) many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one "we are justified through the obedience of Jesus" many shall be justified; so that as sin has reigned unto death, grace has reigned through righteousness unto life eternal by Jesus Christ our Lord. Now the unbeliever, man's wicked heart may be ready to say here-Ah since it is through the obedience of one that we are constituted righteous from being unrighteous, which I am; and since where sin abounded grace has much more abounded, let us sin that grace may abound. Doubtless that is what the flesh likes. Here is the answer of the apostle; -How are you made a partaker of this divine righteousness in Christ? It is because he is dead to sin-that He has done with sin in His death (He, who always was without sin), and that He is risen, and that you have been baptized into his death, in order that you might thus have part in His resurrection. Now if you are dead by faith in Him to sin (and that is what faith would say, that is the meaning of your baptism), how live in sin? You have no part in the death of Christ if you still live in the flesh. If you are made partaker of justification, it is in Christ, by the power of the life in which He is risen. To have part in Christ as being dead and risen, is not to live in sin, but quite the contrary. So that to enjoy this perfect justification in the soul, implies necessarily the death to sin and the life of God in the soul, because we possess this justification in Him alone, who, for us, has died to sin once, and liveth to God always. But what is to be done with the law? Here is the answer.-We have shown that the true Christian is dead in Christ, being made a partaker with Him who died on the cross. Now, the law knows not how to accuse a dead man; so that instead of being condemned by the law as sinners, we live (as of a new life) unto God, in order to glorify Him by good fruits, which we bear by His grace, being already fully justified by the work of Christ Himself.
At the end of the seventh chapter, the Apostle pictures the inward conflict which is found in a soul which, being renewed, loves the righteousness of the law; and in its desire to fulfill it, makes experience of its own weakness and want of capacity, and which has not yet learned, notwithstanding its sincerity, to submit itself to the righteousness of God-a righteousness already accomplished through grace. The moment it submits and seeks (not to do something to make itself better, but) the Deliverer, it is made free. The soul is made free-fruit of grace-when, instead of looking to itself, it looks to Jesus and to His work.. It will never be satisfied with itself if it is -sincere, and if it recognizes what it ought to be before God.. But God himself is satisfied with Jesus, and with the work He has done for that poor soul. He has been fully glorified as to His love, as to His righteousness, as to His majesty and His claims for the obedience of man; as to His truth, in every way. God has been glorified in the work of Christ on the cross, and the soul can trust itself to it fully before God.
There is, therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ.
Now if they are in Jesus Christ, what belongs to them? what characterizes them?
" No CONDEMNATION."-Then they are made free from the law of sin and of death. Sin as a principle of their nature, is no more a law to them. The conflict still continues; but sin is no more a law to us, because. the power of the Spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus has made them free, which the law could not do because of the flesh. God has made for us, by the coming of Jesus, sacrifice for sin. He has condemned sin in the flesh-that is to say, the law could not get to the end in condemning this criminal, this rebel; he always justified himself in the flesh which nourished him, and which the law could not change. Now Christ, sacrifice for sin, in delivering us from the imputation of sin, having taken it upon Himself, succeeded in condemning sin in our nature, while making us ourselves free from the condemnation.
Having life in Him, sin is no more really as it was before; the believer, born of God, and quickened by the Spirit of life, loves the things which are of the Spirit; as those who are of the flesh love and seek after the things which- are of the flesh.
Now we thus make this solemn discovery, that the affection of the flesh (that is to say our whole nature before we were renewed) was enmity against God, and thus it was impossible that we should please God. Now it is evident that a real change of heart is necessary when the question is about enmity against God. For what art thou that provest that we are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit? It is not something of man, it is that the Spirit of God dwelleth in us. But if it be thus, the body is not the source and the motive power of our life. It is considered dead, for it produces nothing but sin. It is the Spirit who is life, for He produces righteousness.
Now we have this precious confidence, that if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus dwells in us, this same power operates likewise in us, and God will raise up again our mortal bodies by His Spirit which dwells in us.
It is those that are led by the Spirit who are real children of God. And what a blessing? Children of God! This is no vain title. It is to enjoy the love of the Father-it is to be assured of His favor. It is to be accepted in the Beloved. It is to be able to trust ourselves (without the thought that He is imputing to us our sins from which Christ has washed us) to the goodness, to the fatherly affection of God. The Holy Spirit dwells in the children. He can do so since they are washed in the blood of Christ. He gives them the full assurance that they are the children of God. This is then Christian life. Washed from our sins in the blood of Jesus, the Spirit that dwells in us leads us by spiritual affections, and at the same time gives us the perfect assurance that we are children of God. Now see the beautiful reasoning of the Spirit of God. If I am a child, then am I an heir-heir of God-joint-heir with Christ. What titles to the glory! Then the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Afterward the creation itself, not only the soul, at the time of the glorification of the children, shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption. Grace delivers the soul from it now: Glory is about to deliver even creation itself. We have salvation. We are waiting for the redemption of the body. While waiting we have the earnest of the Spirit which dwells in us, and He groans in us, according to God, and gives a voice to the actual sufferings of the creation, although often we ourselves know not what we should pray for,- to help us in our infirmities. Now God who searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit when He intercedes thus in us. Thus, in the real believer, who has submitted to the righteousness of God accomplished in Christ, the Holy Spirit dwells, as the spring of a faith holy and infinite, while giving me the consciousness of being a child of God and heir of the glory, and as Comforter amid the sufferings of the present time, urging the soul to seek relief in God, with groanings that cannot be uttered.
Now in all this, that happy soul is the object of the-thoughts and of the counsels of God. It is not of our own will that this has happened; neither the Gentile nor the Jew sought Jesus according to the Spirit. It is of grace. It is the counsels of the God of love. He makes all things work together for good-for the very best-to those who love Him, whom He has called according to his purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also could predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son. What grace! that He might be the first-born amongst many brethren. Those whom he did predestinate, them He also called, and whom He called, them He also justified, and whom He justified them He also glorified.
What precious links in God's ways to assure our blessing. So that as there is no condemnation for those that are in Jesus Christ, there is no separation from the love which has placed them there.-Never.
Behold where grace, where the love of God puts us. Through him we are more than conquerors in all the difficulties and sufferings which happen to us on the road.
Here terminates the doctrine of the Epistle properly so called. In the three 'chapters which follow, viz., 9, 10 and 11, the Apostle answers an objection which an unbelieving Jew might very well make to trouble a sincere believer of his own nation.-" If you say that there is no difference; that Jew and Gentile are equally sinners and that we must submit, as being in- the same abyss of condemnation to God's righteousness-what do you do with the promise made to Israel? How reconcile the privileges of that people, as descendants of Abraham, with this complete leveling of everything, in order to make of all men, without distinction, a race of sinners in Adam?" In chapter 9 the Apostle' answers-" You cannot support your own thesis. If you trust to your descent from Abraham, without having respect to the sovereignty of God, you must admit Ishmael to the privileges of Israel; moreover you must admit the Edomites as the posterity of Esau.
" God has been sovereign to your profit, and it is well He is so, Now, He will exercise this sovereignty in favor of some poor Gentile sinners, in calling some to participate in the salvation by Christ. But if you will have righteousness, you have made the golden calf. God did spare you on the principle of His sovereignty-(the passage is quoted from Exodus, and it is what God told Moses on the occasion of the idolatry of Israel at Sinai)-'Twill have compassion on whom I will have compassion; and I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.' Now, if He spared you on this principle, He will do likewise towards some poor Gentile sinners."
Afterward, lie proves by the prophecies, how God had foretold that there would be only a little remnant that would be saved from among the Jews; that the nation would stumble upon the stumbling-stone, that is to say, upon Christ (He being the end of the law for righteousness to every believer), and that God had declared at the same time, that whosoever should call on the name of the Lord should be saved. Precious promise! Thereupon he shows that consequently the Gospel was to be preached to all, that they might all call on the name of the Savior. And he quotes the testimonies of the
Prophets against Israel as a proof of their rebellion against the Gospel of Christ. In the eleventh chapter, He asks, " Will the promises of God fail towards this people?" By no means. "Already," says he, "there is a residue according to the election of grace. 2ndly, God called the Gentiles to provoke the Jews unto a holy jealousy, therefore it was not to reject them. 3rdly, In the latter days they will certainly be brought back to the enjoyment of their privileges according to the promises and the testimony of God. But that according had shut them up in unbelief, as were the Gentiles by nature, in order that it might be pure grace on His part towards all, whether Jew or Gentile."
In the chapters following, the Apostle rests on these principles (mercy in God)-exhortations to a walk that responded to this goodness, and that sought only His perfect will with the intelligence of a renewed mind. He exhorts them to moderation, to meekness, to use their spiritual gifts, whatever that might be, with diligence, confining themselves to what God had communicated to each of them, to the spirit of grace, of kindness towards the saints that were in want-to patience when they suffered wrong ("vengeance belongeth to God")-to submission under the authorities as being ordained of God. In short, to imitate Christ in their walk, and not to seek to satisfy the flesh.
He sums up his doctrine in the fifteenth chapter, and confirms it by quotations taken from the Old Testament, and sends affectionate salutations to the Christians whom he personally knew at Rome.
J. N. D.
The "Orphan" Psalms (see p. 50). In Psa. 111 and 112 the first word " Hallelujah" is (I would suggest) clearly a Title; because, though each of these Psalms has but ten verses, they are both of them Acrostic. Two clauses in the first eight verses in each, and three clauses in the last two verses, begin with a letter of the Alphabet as found in the Alphabetical order. ED.
The Jewish Remnant In The Latter Day.
My desire is to present (according to the measure of the ability which God Himself may be pleased to supply) the instruction afforded in Scripture on the above subject. May He by His Spirit make the truth efficacious to our souls, in engaging and interesting us with those things which He has revealed as objects of interest to His own heart of grace and love; and may we thus be separated more and more from all those lower, groveling, creature-thoughts which would detain us here.
At the close of the sevenfold terrible denunciations of Lev. 26 we read (vet 38, etc.) "And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them. If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me, • and that I also have walked contrary to them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies: if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember, and I will remember the land." There are two points here. First, there is an unconditional covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which is the basis of all true blessing to Israel. Second, the bringing in of that blessing is to succeed the heart: humbling of those who are left in the enemies' lands, and their accepting the punishment of their iniquity. Then will God remember His covenant, and remember the land. But in this passage it is put conditionally; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled; it is not a positive prediction that this shall take place.. But this we have in Deut. 30:11And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee, (Deuteronomy 30:1), etc. " And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee, and shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt obey His voice.... that then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee. The fourth verse and the sixth are both very emphatic; and the latter taken in connection with the New Covenant in Jer. 31:31-34, shows it to be entirely a work of grace in the hearts of those referred to: the passage in Jer. 31 is so quoted in Heb. 8, and is, in a general sense, the covenant under which believers are placed now, as well as that under which repentant Israel will be placed by and bye.
The two passages in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, take as the basis of all further instruction in Scripture as to the Remnant; and one thing is obvious from those passages, that it is before their restoration to the land that their hearts begin to break down before God. It is while they are yet in the countries to which they have been driven in their dispersion, that God begins to work this gracious change in their hearts.
From many other passages it is quite clear, however, that this broken-hearted remnant are not the only Israelites who, in the first instance, return to their own land. Many of the Jews return thither unconverted, and perish in their sins. "And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third part shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried; they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people, and they shall say, The Lord is my God" (Zech. 13:8,98And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. 9And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God. (Zechariah 13:8‑9)). The next chapter describes the deliverance of this third part by the coming of the Lord, with all His saints, at the season of their utmost extremity. Ezek. 9, while doubtless referring to the judgment then about to fall on Jerusalem, and the preservation of the remnant of that day, may surely be viewed as a foreshadowing, at least, of the like circumstances in the latter day. How solemn in this view is the description there given of the matured evil which inevitably brings on judgment-" The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness; for they say, The Lord hath forsaken the earth, and the Lord seeth not." And how seasonable at all times the delineation of those who at such a period are marked for preservation from the destroyer. " Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof." Such, on the one hand, will be the character of the unbelieving mass of the nation; and such, on the other hand, the spirit of the chosen remnant in the latter day. The one will be in league with the Gentile adversaries of God, jest as Herod and Pontius Pilate and the chief priests joined together to mock and crucify our Lord. Isa. 28:14-2214Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. 15Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: 16Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. 17Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. 18And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. 19From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report. 20For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it. 21For the Lord shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act. 22Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord God of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth. (Isaiah 28:14‑22) informs us of their covenant with death and agreement with hell, and of its utter overthrow by the overflowing scourge. But the fullest instruction on the subject is in Isa. 63; 64 and 65. In chapter 63:15, the sighing, crying, mourning remnant, identifying themselves before God with the whole nation of that and former generations, confessing the sins of their fathers as well as their own sins, begin their strain of solemn lamentation and confession, which is continued through chapter 64. "Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste..Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O Lord? Wilt thou hold thy peace and afflict us very sore?" Such is their importunate appeal. The answer of God is in chapter 65. He answers roughly first-as Joseph did his brethren-He takes them at their word, and answers as though they were the nation, and thus vindicates his dealings with the nation. Then He distinguishes between the remnant and the nation, and opens to the remnant His purpose of grace concerning them. The first sort of answer closes with verse 7. Then we have, in verse 8, and afterward, " Thus saith the Lord, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it; so will I do for my servants' sakes that I may not destroy them all. And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains; and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there. And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor [where the accursed thing and the hider of it were got rid of in righteous judgment], a place for the herds to lie down in-for my people that have sought me. But ye [the nation] are they that forsake the Lord, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that troop [of Antichrist, I suppose], and that furnish a drink-offering unto that number, Therefore will I number you [the nation] to the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter: because when I called ye did not answer; when I spake ye did not hear; but did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not. Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry; behold my servants shall drink, but ye shall, be thirsty;- behold my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed; behold my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit. And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen; for the Lord God shall slay thee, and call his servants by another name; that he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from mine eyes."
I have little doubt that the hundred and forty and four thousand sealed ones in Rev. 7 represent this Jewish remnant in the latter day. But their preservation is not, as I judge, from persecution (even to death in many instances), but from the judgments on the wicked which come direct from God's hand, or are inflicted by the executioners of His wrath. The remnant will, I believe, suffer great persecution, not only from the Gentile oppressors, but also from their own countrymen. " Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at His word; your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name's sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified; but He shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed." As is somewhere expressed in substance by another, the sufferings of these devoted servants of the Most High God are the subject of numerous predictions, and have often been foreshadowed in the history of the nation. Such foreshadowings we have in Joseph cast out by his brethren, and oppressed by Potiphar; Moses rejected by his brethren and forced to flee before the wrath of the King; David rejected by Saul who sought his life, and was aided in his murderous design by Doeg, the Edomite; and above all, our blessed Lord and His disciples, who were the Jewish remnant of their day, until the final rejection of the Gospel by their nation made way for the development of God's deeper purpose in the present calling of the church to a higher glory than any that is Jewish and earthly. But just as the Jewish remnant before Pentecost became then the beginning of God's building-the Church, so, I doubt not, the Jewish saints converted and martyred after the taking away of the church, will yet be incorporated with it in its governmental glory as reigning with Christ over the millennial earth. Rev. 20, shows most clearly that they who are beheaded for the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus, and they who had not worshipped the beast, live and reign with Christ through the thousand years. And if the difficulty should occur that in this view there be more than one catching away of the saints, Rev. 11:12 would quite prepare one for that. It would appear that besides the taking up of the church, which will be, I believe, before any of those dealings of God with the Jews,- and which will moreover, I believe, be a secret thing, there will be a going up of individual faithful sufferers to heaven in a cloud in the sight of their enemies. I say not that the Two Witnesses are the martyrs of the remnant; I can quite allow that Rev. 11 is occupied primarily with the ministry of two individuals, men of whom God speaks as His two witnesses; but one could hardly confine the statements of that chapter to them. It seems to me that the fruits of their testimony are included with them. And I think that while Rev. 14:6-76And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, 7Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. (Revelation 14:6‑7), describes an extraordinary testimony to all nations after the taking away of the church, so the Two Witnesses are a new and extraordinary testimony among the Jews during the earlier part of the same period. But these are subjects on which one needs (while expressing in the confidence of brotherly love what commends itself to one's own soul as true). to hold oneself very open to further light from any quarter in which God may please to send it.
Among others, Psa. 74 and 79 are very full of instruction as to the Jewish remnant; and so are four chapters in Isaiah, viz., 24-27: But before noticing them I would first remark, that while some of those forming that remnant are martyred for their faithful adherence to the name and worship of God, and the coming of the once rejected Jesus as the hope of their nation., others will be miraculously preserved through the whole period, which is thus spoken of (Jer. 30:77Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. (Jeremiah 30:7))-"Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it." The entire remnant are preserved from the judgments which come upon the enemies.. Some of them are slain indeed by the sword of persecution, while others escape that sword, and are preserved by the power of God throughout the fires of that great and terrible day of the Lord, when the sun shall be darkened, and the moon withhold her shining, to enjoy the fullness of earthly blessing in the millennial kingdom. Isa. 24 is one of the most solemn descriptions we have of that great and terrible day. In the midst of it (ver. 13-15) we have a delightful view of the security and solemn joy of the preserved remnant. The next chapter gives us a sweet prospect of the glorious period which succeeds; when, " the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously." Verse 9 shows us what had been the sustaining hope of the remnant throughout the period of their sorrows; and the triumphant song of chapter xxvi„ still further unfolds this. Verses 3 and 4 are very precious. -They seem like a. voice to us from the future, laden with the precious fruits of the experience of those who have found God a sufficient stay and refuge amid scenes of horror and desolation, such as earth has never witnessed yet. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever; for in the Lord JEHOVAH is everlasting strength." The song finished, in verse 20 and 21, God Himself speaks in anticipation of all this, inviting His favored remnant to the place of safety while the storm of judgment passes over. "Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation he overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain." Then chapter 27 is like a summing up of the Whole. Carefully compared with Duet. 32, it shows the end which God has in view in all these dealings of His, both in judgment and in grace. The whole of the two chapters will amply repay the labor of diligently perusing and collating them. Some verses may be particularly noticed; as Deut. 32:3636For the Lord shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left. (Deuteronomy 32:36), compared with Isa. 27:7,8,97Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him? or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him? 8In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind. 9By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up. (Isaiah 27:7‑9). Deut. 32:27, 2827Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they should say, Our hand is high, and the Lord hath not done all this. 28For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them. (Deuteronomy 32:27‑28), compared with Isa. 27:1111When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will show them no favor. (Isaiah 27:11). Yes, Israel, that people wonderful from the beginning hitherto, who have been at school all these thousands of years, to learn the lesson they never have learned yet, to cease from themselves and from man and stay only upon God, will learn it effectually amid the scenes we have glanced at. And when this lesson is once really learned, when the Lord sees that their power is gone, and there is none shut up or left, then will he take the cup of trembling out of their hands, and put it into the hands of those strange nations which have been His rod for the chastening of His own beloved people; and after that there is nothing but healing and victory and peace and prosperity for Israel.
It may lead me rather beyond the precise subject of this paper; and yet it is so intimately connected with it, that I will not withhold one more remark. There will doubtless be many, many Israelites scattered among the nations during the period in which all these events are transpiring in the Holy Land. Isa. 66 and Ezek. 20 both describe a bringing again of the children of Israel, distinct from that return of the Jews which precedes the coming of the Lord. Ezek. 20, I believe, refers to the restoration of the Ten Tribes, and in their case the rebels are purged out from among them before they enter the land, not in it. Isa. 66 may include the Ten Tribes, but also, I believe (and whether it does include the Ten Tribes or not) refers to the gathering, after the Lord's coming, of those Jews who had not returned to the land previously. Isa. 49:2121Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been? (Isaiah 49:21) shows the surprise of those already in the land, when they see the multitudes of their brethren thus brought back, laden, as we may see in Isa. 60, with wealth and treasure, and brought as a clean offering to the Lord. Most of the passages which speak of the Lord restoring His people to their own land refer, I suppose, to these peaceful, triumphant restorations of them after the coming of the Lord; not to the return of those who pass through the ordeal of all the troubles in the land -which precede the Lord's coming. By this last phrase in such a connection is meant the coming of the Lord with all His saints, not that previous stage in His return in which He takes up His saints to meet Him in the air to be forever with Him where He is.
T.
Hebrew Proper Names.
" Pharaoh" means Prince or Leader 111D from which it is derived, is to be or make free. Note, here, two things. First,-The play on the word in Ex. 5:44And the king of Egypt said unto them, Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works? get you unto your burdens. (Exodus 5:4), Pharaoh says, "Why do ye, Moses and Aaron, let [Pharaoh it over] the people "; Secondly,-The name, in the bad sense of free, lawless, or self-willed, as was Pharaoh in the history of the Exodus, strongly points, as that whole history does, to the coming Apostate Infidel King. G.