Q. Can you favor me with an explanation of Matthew 9:14-18? ―J. S. N.
A. The question of John’s disciples, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, and thy disciples fast not?” opened the door for our blessed Lord to set before them their real condition, both as individuals and as a nation, and also to expose the folly of endeavoring to make themselves better by religiousness. Like the present time, it was not a question of fasting, but of life. It was not a point of mending up the natural man, or the nation, but of the new birth. “Ye must be born again.” Besides, how could the disciples of Jesus fast and mourn while He Himself was with them? Our Lord therefore replied, “Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the Bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.” But men always prefer religiousness to Christ; they refuse God’s testimony to their real condition, and try to patch up by redoubled efforts what God has condemned as utterly unclean, and incurably bad. The nation had revolted, and separated themselves from God by their sins. Jesus “came unto His own, and His own received Him not;” and, as He afterward brought out, it would yet take to itself seven other spirits more wicked than the first, so that their last state would be worse than the first.” (chapter 12:45.) Their religiousness in fasting, &c. did not therefore meet the case. They were only trying to patch up the old garment, which the Lord knew to be threadbare, rotten, and unmendable. Patching therefore was in vain. Again, they might study Scripture theologically, and disseminate Bible instruction; but the vessel being corrupt, it was like putting new wine into old bottles, which would only end in destruction. Man must be born again. He does not need education, but life. The garment must be new. The bottle must be new. “Except a man be born again, He cannot see the kingdom of God.” The thought of the Pharisees then, and the thought of many now is, to get into the kingdom of God without being born again of God’s Spirit, ―by some other means short of that “eternal life” which is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. The nation, which is now a rotten, laid-by garment, with all the patching of self-righteous rejectors of Christ only makes “the rent worse.” But a nation shall be born at once. Then, and not till then, shall “Israel blossom, and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.” (Isaiah 27:6.)
Q. How do you understand that “we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us”? (Romans 8:37.) ―A. B.
A. Does not this Scripture chew, that those who trust in the Lord Jesus not only get deliverance, but also much profit and blessing, and all through Him that loved us? When David, in deep distress, trusted in God, he not only recovered all, but had so much more, that he comforted and enriched others. (1 Samuel 30:1-26.) Again, when the enemies of Jehoshaphat threatened to swallow him up, he trusted in God. He said, “We know not what to do; but our eyes are upon thee.” (2 Chronicles 20:12.) What was the result? Not only full deliverance, but very much spoil― “more than they could carry away.”