Is That the Aim of the Gospel of God?
MY DEAR YOUNG FRIEND, ―In the letter which you left here last night, for my perusal and comments, your sister says a good many things that are true in their consequences, as we know them in ourselves, and see them in the world around us. Her idea is consistent enough with her theory―namely, “recovery, from an existing state; and restoration to a previous, but lost one.”
For instance, were I to ask her to distinguish the endowments of man (of which she is so enamored) from his nature and being, and to tell me whether a fallen nature can be recovered by its endowments, to the primitive and Adamic state, what could she say? These very endowments of “intellect, heart, and will” on which she so depends, are the three energetic powers and proofs of a fallen nature; so that these tools with which she is going to work, are wrested out of her hands. Another has got hold of them; she is already “sold under sin.” The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Of what avail is it for her to talk of these “three parts of our nature, being reinstated into their original place; and that a man is not harmoniously developed, nor that which God intended him to be, till this is accomplished.”
Is it possible that your sister supposes this harmonious development to lie upon the bright horizon of her hope; or is it not rather the sad story of what once existed in the garden of Eden, where God walked with the man, whom afterwards He drove out?
Again, are we going on to a point in advance of us, where man by nature may reach what God intended him to be? or, are the Scriptures the history of a ruined creation; man’s fall, and consequent loss of the likeness of God in which he originally stood? What does Genesis 5 say, “For the day that God created man, in the image of God made he him.” And is not this a thing far back, and left in the past? Listen again, “and Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his linage.” And what was this, but that of a fallen creature?
I have put these two things as questions, in the light of these Scriptures―which your sister makes in the way of assertion, and would ask her is “harmonious development” behind her, or before her? Is what God intended man to be, the point of his sad departure, or the point of attainment? May the Lord keep her from an idea, that her own fancy paints bright in the future; and give her to own the depths of man’s departure from God, by seeing her own ruin in the dark shade of the Cross, where with wicked hands the Christ of God, was crucified and slain! Who can talk any longer of man’s harmonious development, or agreement with God, teat sees the crowd around the cross, and hears the cry, “away with Him, crucify Him?”
But to pursue your sister’s letter― “the wrong use of our reason (she says) may lead us astray.” Here again she is caught by the consequences, instead of getting at the cause—reason in itself, is no longer to be trusted—for what is reason now in a fallen creature, but fallen reason? I should not be a fallen creature as a man, were it not se. Moreover, the word of God settles this point of our reason, just as it decides the others of intellect, heart, and will― “So then they that are in the flea cannot please God.” Shall I depend upon nay endowments, after what we have been considering, or dare to plead them in the face of a scripture which forces upon me a far deeper inquiry―Are you in the flesh? If so, you cannot please God. What does history prove to us, but this same great fact, or else why was the deluge? Were those days of vengeance on account of harmonious development centuries after the first man had been driven out? Was the receiving the Lord Jesus Christ back again into the heavens, on account of mankind reaching what God intended man to be? or, because the carnal mind was enmity against him? Solemn and searching inquiries these!
Again, what is God’s order with fallen man, since redemption in a ruined creation has been wrought out by the atoning blood of Christ? Will He be satisfied with the washing of the hands, or of pots and cups and tables? or does He say, “make the tree good, and his fruit shall be good”? Was it right that a man like Job should be made to abhor himself, go to dust and ashes, and repent before the Almighty? Of what had he to repent and humble himself, looked at as to his endowments among men? Was it right in later times that a Nicodemus should be laid low as to all his advantages, and this Master of Israel take his place at the foot of the Cross, to be born again of the Spirit? Was it in accordance with truth and holiness that Paul sad, “if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more―but what things were gain to me those I counted loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord?” Was this the Harmonious development of his own nature, any more than that of Nicodemus or of Job, and a reinstatement into their original place, by the endowments of intellect, heart, and will? “Marvel not that I said unto thee ye must be born again,” tells out another and far happier lesson. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, do what you will with it; but that which is born of the Spirit is spirit; horn again not of the will of man, nor of the will of the flesh, but born of God.
Once more, your sister says, “our will, our hearts, our affections, must find in God their center; our reason, also, must be rescued from the error by which it was led astray.” Here let me ask, was it mere reason and the faculties which were led astray, or was Adam himself led away from God, so that he dove out the man? It is not my endowments that can recover me, for they are but part of myself. It is I that must be born gain—it is I who am to go down to the foot of the Cross in conscious ruin, sin, and wretchedness―to take forgiveness through the worthiness of another―salvation through the blood of my Saviour―healing by His stripes and no condemnation through the sufferings which He bore in my stead. Oh! to be “found in Him” ―what a translation! neither having my sins between me and God for punishment; nor having mine own righteousness, for judgment; but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. Now that the fullness of time is come (and past) for God to send into the world, His Son―now that Christ has been made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him―now that the last Adam has come in, to set aside the first Adam―now that the second man from heaven has superseded the first, shall I build again the things which He destroyed? What does Christianity teach me? Not merely that a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit, so that my bad deeds must be atoned for, but more, “O wretched, man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” It is not only that my intellect, heart, and will are all astray from God, so that there is none that doeth good, no not one―but my nature, my very being, which has done what it ought not, and left undone what it should have done, is at fault. It is no longer a question of the endowments of my nature, but the nature itself! Nor is there any remedy for this but death, which has put it aside-nor any resource but Christ; “Our old man has been crucified with Him,” is the key-note of our deliverance. The tree itself—from its root to the boughs and outermost twigs, with all its fair show, has been judged where my sins were judged, and on Him who bore the whole in His body on the tree. No, it is not by recovery of my faculties, nor by the delusive idea of a fallen nature restoring me, so as to make God their center once more (the very God who has driven man out), but by totally other ways and means than these! “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Here is God’s philanthropy towards man. It is no longer a disappointing inquiry, of what I must be, but of what Christ is; no longer, what I must bring to God, but of what He has brought to me; no longer, what I must do to be saved, but what my Saviour has finished on the Cross, and what I can render to Him who has saved me. As a new creature, partaker by grace in another life with Christ risen and glorified, I mortify my members which are upon the earth. Partaker of the divine nature, I walk above my fallen self in the conscious strength of the mighty power of God, that worketh in me “to will and to do of His good pleasure.” By the body of Christ in death, I am taught to reckon myself dead unto sin and to the law; and I am free to be married to another, even to Hint that is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit to God. Made conscious by the indwelling Spirit through the Word, that “ye are washed, ye are sanctified, ye are justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God,” we can look at ourselves as the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own; ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body. This is true Christianity, and worthy the name of Him who has laid its foundations upon His own sufferings and death. A Christianity which bids us “stand fast in the liberty wherewith He has made us free,” introducing us as the true circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, who rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. A Christianity final, but which gives this Christ to us, as passed into the heavens the first begotten from the dead, and Head of His body the Church; giving us the blessed hope of His speedy coming to receive us to Himself, and of introducing us to the presence of the Father, faultless and with exceeding joy. The perfection of our blessedness is to be found in this assurance, “we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” May the Lord in the little while we tarry for Him, make us know the practical power of this blessed expectation, “he that hath this hope in Him, purifieth himself even as He is pure.” This is what such a Christianity provides for us, now and hereafter. May your sister learn it and receive all as the fruit of Christ’s travail, and the purchase of His precious blood, that she may be filled “with joy unspeakable and full of glory.”
If she still lingers over the wreck and ruins of human nature, and dwells on the endowment of mind, heart, and will, let her at least be honest with her own self, and add to them the words of rebuke from scripture, which denote their present quality. If she will speak of the mind let her listen to this, “a reprobate mind―a carnal mind―the mind and conscience defiled.” Will she speak of the heart? Let her remember this: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked―who can know it?” Will she claim this prerogative―or shall He who says, “I, the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give to every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.” Will any dare to meet God on this footing? Who can answer Him when He riseth up out of His place? Lastly, as to will—let her ponder the terrible significance of those words, “Then Pilate delivered Jesus to their will”!
Our only refuge is Christ, and Christ crucified, and risen. The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. May your sister turn from the creature, and learn the love of God in calling us out to be one with the Son of man, at His right hand in glory―the last Adam, Head of the new creation. ― Faithfully yours, J. E. B.