2 Corinthians 3
It is astonishing how hard it is to get the heart of man to believe in the efficacy of the work of Christ. Even in the case of those who have felt their need of it, the simplicity is unseizable; and, therefore, their power is lost. There is liberty before God, and power where there is liberty. It is of this full and blessed liberty which belongs to the believer in Christ, that it is so hard to persuade. I am sure the more I go on, the more I see how little those who believe enjoy the full and blessed grace in which God has set them. When once we have seen our entire ruin, and are cast entirely on what God is, and what God has done, then the simplicity of the Gospel is apprehended. But not till then. Here it is called " that which remaineth."
And truly this is what conforms to Christ, as the last verse shows. No responsibility can bring to this. How can I be an epistle of Christ, If I am trying to get to Him? It is Christ that is ministered; and through the ministration of Christ we are put in the presence of God, without fear or torment, so to enjoy the glory as to reflect it. It is Christ glorified in heaven who is thus graven on the heart, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
Now what is the Christ thus ministered? A Christian is a person who carries Christ graven on his heart before the world. What is this Christ? Is it a Christ graven on stones? No, that was on the outside. When God puts man under responsibility He gives a rule outside of man. Christ, even, as an example, was outside of man. He was perfection; but I am brokenhearted because I am not it. But if Christ is written on my heart, I am it.
When the Gospel is presented in its simplicity there is great plainness of speech. Nothing can be simpler in itself than the Gospel. Nothing simpler than this: you are lost. Nothing simpler than God so loved us as to send His Son to die for us, that we might live through Him. But what the apostle is doing here is showing what men are doing—that they are mixing up law and grace; not taking up pure law, but a mixture of law and grace. And that is done in two ways: in the way the natural man takes it up; and in the way the quickened man takes it up. Pure law no man would take up. At bottom no man would pretend to stand by it. So they say that God is merciful. But mercy with them is God's treating sin as lightly as they do. A quickened person will not go so far; yet in his case the mixing up of law and grace is far deeper and more subtle.
When Moses came down the first time his face did not shine. Then it was pure law. But when he came down the second time, the skin of his face shone, and Aaron and the children of Israel were afraid to come nigh him. Now it was on this second occasion that the Lord proclaimed his name. " The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, and that will by no means clear the guilty." That is what men say they wish to stand on. But that is precisely what they cannot stand on. True, there is the revelation "forgiving iniquity," &c., but Moses brought back the law, and the authority of God's law cannot be given up. That is what men want. They wish to use the mercy of God to weaken, the authority of the law of God. But this God will never do. He will never weaken the authority of His law. If one ray of the glory of God comes in on the principle of law, it will terrify you. Israel could not look at it. Moses said, " If thou wilt forgive their sin-; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou least written." But God answered, the man that sins, him will I blot out. You must either destroy the authority of the law, or rest under death and condemnation.
But the moment I am brought, in my conscience, to bow to the condemnation which is my due, and so am cast entirely on God, I find that what the law could not do, God has done for me by the death and resurrection of His dear Son. Now I get two things in this ministration of Christ; righteousness and the Holy Ghost. " And where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty." Thus I find that God can meet me in my sin; that God is so entirely above sin that He can meet me in my sin, in order to this wondrous deliverance. One thing is needed to understand it, and that is confession.
In taking up this Epistle to the Romans, I purpose, guided I trust by the Lord, not to enter into every detail of the Epistle, but to trace its leading idea, the intention of the Spirit of God in it, and the course of the apostle's reasoning, trusting that the Lord will give some practical exhortation to the profit of souls.
In speaking lately of the Epistle of John, I remarked on the distinction of the writings of Paul and John. The subjects of John's Epistle being the character of the divine life, which was with the Father, manifested in the Son, and communicated to us through the Spirit; so that the divine nature in us should be traced out in the affections of the child of God. In sum, the general scope of John's Epistle is, first, the manifestation of the divine life; and, secondly, the communication of it: Paul's Epistles have another character altogether. They reveal the counsels and the ways of God, and the consequent relationships in which men are put, through the grace which justifies them in His presence.
The great subject of the New Testament is the manifestation and communication of the divine life, the making us partakers of the divine nature, and our presentation before God, and enjoyment of Him in that nature. The child derives his life from his father; thence results, not merely likeness of character, but also the peculiar relationship of a child.
But the better to comprehend this, I would here recall the four truths prominent in the New Testament. 1st, There is the manifestation and communication of divine life. 2nd, The counsels of God in the accomplishment in Christ of all the promises given from Adam downwards, made good to the Jews, His people. 3rd, The mercy granted to the poor Gentiles, as in Rom. 15:88Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: (Romans 15:8) " Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy. 4th, The Church, as united to Christ its Head. The first is in John's Epistle. The manifestation, then the communication of the divine life. The 2nd and 3rd are found in Romans, with only a glance at the 4th: individual relationship with God being the main subject of that Epistle. This 4th and last is brought out in Ephesians. The Church is only hinted at, not taught in Romans. The 4th point of truth, which is revealed in the Epistle to the Ephesians, is distinct from the promises to the Jews and the general idea of mercy to the Jews, being a new thing. The seeing these distinctions greatly facilitates the understanding of the Epistles, and clears up passages otherwise obscure.
We have seen that in Romans there are two great subjects brought out: the accomplishment of the promises made to the Jews, and mercy to the Gentiles. In treating these points, the apostle lays the foundation of all relationship between God and man. Thus the commencement of the first chapter is an introduction to all that is afterward unfolded in the Epistle.
The Epistle to the Romans has this large character, naturally enough. It consists well with an address to the great center of the world's empire; for Paul was writing to the Romans, whom he had never seen, as the apostle of the Gentiles, and takes his stand on the high ground of being the one to whom God had committed His counsels. Peter, in addressing the Jews, presents resurrection as a living hope; and speaking to them on this new principle, addresses himself to them as to strangers and &c., thus carrying out that which was consequent on this principle here below, as regards those who are to participate in the resurrection itself.
Thus the varied Epistles are suited to the varied need of those addressed: as in Corinthians, to the case of' moral evil; Colossians, slipping away from the Head; Galatians, falling from grace; Thessalonians, deep affliction, and the clearing up of the doctrine of the Lord's coming. But the Epistle to the Romans addressed to the capital of the world, where the apostle had not yet been, takes the great principles of God's relationship with men, and that which He has with the Jewish people, in connection with these principles.
There are two parts in this Epistle. From the beginning, up to the close of the 8th chapter, forms the first part: the 9th, 10th, and 11th chapters form the second: the concluding chapters are occupied with precepts. In the first part you get both Jews and Gentiles reduced to the common condition of sinners. But some might object, and say, if this be so, that there is no difference between the Jew and the Gentile, how, then, admitting that the law only aggravates the sin of the Jew, is God to make good His promises to the Jews? The infallibility of the promises of God is shown, and this truth reconciled, and that from the Jewish history and scripture, in chaps. 9—-11, the common ground on which both Jew and Gentile are set in perfect salvation, common to both, in Christ Jesus. In the next place, mark the way in which Paul sets man aside, as being proved a sinner, poor, vile, and lost; and that be does this to bring God in. It is not merely that he introduces man, as a sinner; but man must be thoroughly put down, to bring in God Himself, in the place of man, that God may act towards man in His own way, and according to His own character. As in Ephesians, after Jew and Gentile are spoken of as children of wrath, the apostle passes over at once, to that which God is in grace; and God is brought out in His own character, as " rich in mercy;" and what He has done, and what He is to such as they are, is unfolded. We can have no settled peace or rest of heart till we are on this ground; nor can we know God, so as to trust Him, to rest in Him and adore Him, till we know Him thus. Then it is a settled question, and our hope and trust are in God. As it is written, " Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God." Therefore the apostle does not say, we are justified before God, though that also is true, but " it is God who justifies," that the heart might be brought to rest in God Himself.
Paul himself had gone to the extreme extent of sin. It was not a mere looseness of expression when he called himself the " chief of sinners;" for Paul in heart was the wickedest man that ever trod the earth; not guilty, of course, of immorality-as he says of himself, "after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee,"—but the most deliberate and ardent enemy of God's anointed. When he reached the highest point of his wickedness, " being exceedingly mad against them," at that moment he was separated unto the gospel of God.
We will now rapidly go over, without entering into the detail of it, the history of what man was. God had borne with man, leaving him at first to himself; but the result of leaving man to himself was, that, so great was his iniquity, he must be destroyed from off the face of the earth; and it became necessary to put a close to his abominations by a flood. The law followed, and that was broken. The prophets came next, and they were despised, stoned, and were sawn asunder. Last of all, God sent His Son, and Him they killed. It was not all, therefore, that man had broken God's law, and slain His prophets. The goodness of God had come, and men hated the goodness, and Jesus was rejected and crucified. But even then Jesus prays for His murderers, pleading their ignorance: " Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." As in the case of the one who owed the ten thousand talents, forasmuch as he had nothing to pay, his lord forgave him his debt. And this is what I take to be the meaning of this passage. Israel was guilty of the death of Christ, yet in the testimony of the Holy Ghost, God deals in forgiveness with them; but they reject the principle of grace. And mark here, that the Holy Ghost takes up again, and carries on, this very intercession of our Lord, as forgiveness of sins is preached by Peter at Jerusalem, saying, " And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out." Did they repent? No. Not only had they killed the Prince of life, but, in stoning Stephen, they now fill up the measure of their iniquity by rejecting the testimony of the Holy Ghost to the grace and goodness of God. Just at this point, in the history of man and of Israel, it is that Saul of Tarsus comes upon the scene, as the participator in this hostility to the testimony of God; and so mad was he against it, that he became, voluntarily, the very apostle of the enmity in the heart of man, against the testimony of the Holy Ghost to the grace and goodness of God. But here God meets him in the way and his mouth is closed in conviction, and to all but the grace that had visited and pardoned so bitter and determined an enemy. All that God could do to reach the heart and act on the responsibility of man had been brought into operation in this testimony, and Paul was found in the most active hostility to it, being determined to put a stop to the testimony of grace and goodness if he could. While thus occupied, the Lord appears to him in glory, revealing the Church's connection with Himself, " Why persecutest thou ME? "—for "he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit." Thus Paul sets out as the leader of this active energy, in opposition to God; and is called, in the midst of his career of enmity, that he might be a perfect witness of the grace that overcame him, as he himself sets it forth, testifying that there is grace and forgiveness for one such as he. " That in me first," be says, " Christ might show forth all long-suffering." Everything that could have religiously sustained his heart was broken down when God met him by the way. Take conscience, for instance how very terrible it must have been to Paul to find that his natural conscience had been all wrong. He had thought that " he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth." He was an enemy of the Lord in doing it. All his thoughts are upset. Three days without sight, he neither eats nor drinks. Then take the law. He had been blameless as regards its enactments; zealous for it; but he is the Lord's enemy by his zeal. It is his ruin before God. Then the priests, the pharisees, and his own zeal, had only led him into opposition and open rebellion against God; and everything in which his heart had trusted, every prop suddenly broken, and its falseness and futility shown to his amazed heart, left him a mere sinner, naked in the presence of the glory of God. Thus ended all means, leaving Paul a child of WRATH, even as others.
But the consequence is, through grace, that Paul starts, not from what he is, from what God is. His will is broken, too, before the divine presence, and he commences his onward journey, as the Lord's servant. " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" He starts in his career, and so addresses the Christians at Rome, as a called apostle, separated unto the gospel of God. It is not merely, remark, the gospel of Christ, but the gospel of God: and it is a wonderful expression. The gospel of God is the activity of God's love, going out into a world of men, as hopeless and bad as Paul had been. It is not dealing with man on the ground of what man may be, save as ruined and miserable, but on the ground of what God is. The gospel of God is God's own good news in giving His Son to carry this message of mercy and grace to lost man. It can well be called the gospel of Christ also, as it is He who brings the message of salvation to man, and who declares Himself to be the only way of access to God.
The Jews accused the Lord of breaking the sabbath. The sabbath was the sign of the covenant between God and His people, and to be kept on the seventh day. It was also the expression of God's rest in the creation, which He had pronounced very good. But that covenant is set aside—buried in the tomb of Christ, where He passed the sabbath which characterized it. But besides this, as we find in John 5:1717But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. (John 5:17), there was no sabbath, for sin had come in; and there is no rest for a holy God where sin is—none for a God of love, where the misery it brings in reigns. " My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." It was not that the people were to work; but God had come down where sin was, and God was working in grace; and His Son, too, was working in the accomplishment of that grace. Such is God's place, as revealed in this glorious answer of Christ to the malicious accusation. God might destroy in judgment; but grace in the Father and the Son works in redemption. Paul comes in here as the servant, or slave, bound to the work, and bondsman to Christ; separated unto the gospel of God. That was his business. If he could further the gospel by making tents, of course he would continue to make them; but he was an apostle called to the gospel of God; and where God gives ministry it is as the vessels of God's activity in grace, for the calling of sinners and the building up and edification of His saints.
It is very important to distinguish between teaching to the Church and the testimony of mercy to the world. The Old Testament is full of mercy; but that is not the Church: nor is what He had promised afore by His prophets, in the holy scriptures, the Church. The Church was not the subject of promise, but the gospel of God was: " the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." The Gentiles had not the promises; for the promises of God were made to the second Adam, and not to the first. The promises in Genesis that the serpent's head should be bruised, was made to the seed of the woman, which Adam was not. So it is said, to Abraham were the promises made and to his seed, that is, the promises given to Abraham were confirmed to the one seed (Gen. 22) offered and received from the dead in figure. The promises, then, are entirely connected with Christ, who is the seed in whom all these promises center. The person of Christ is the great subject of the gospel, even before His work. This point is of all importance. God is now claiming subjection to His Son. There is not an infidel, nor a rebel, however great, that shall not bow the knee to Jesus. If in grace it is salvation; but if the heart does not bow to the grace, the knee must bow under the judgment.
In this 3rd verse, "concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh," the apostle is bringing out the double character of the Lord. In the first place, we have the person of the Lord as the subject of the gospel. Then, secondly, He is presented as the seed of David according to the flesh. Then, thirdly, Paul brings out definitely the character of the Son, "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead." There is the accomplishment of promise and the introduction of divine power in the deliverance of man from the state in which he was lying. Then we have the Son of God with divine power, though clothed in humiliation. Further, we have the Son in the midst of defilement, according to the spirit of holiness. This was shown all through the whole scene of evil through which He passed, untouched and unsoiled by sin, though in contact with it, and touching it all round. Separate Himself, He touches the leper. Was He defiled? No. In touching it He chases away the uncleanness without becoming un-clean Himself. None but the Son of God could do this. But His was perfect grace coming down into defilement, banishing it and dispelling it without receiving defilement Himself. Such was Christ living in the world.
Further, the manifested power of Satan was this, that he had the power of death. This Satan had by the judgment of God Himself, for God had said, " in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die;" and God could not go from His own word. Thus man was under the power of him "who had the power of death, that is the devil." Therefore, if the Son of God is to deliver man from under this power of Satan, He Himself must go down to his stronghold, this last citadel of Satan. He must Himself go down under the power of death; for God's judgment was there as well as Satan's power, "that through death he might deliver them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage." He, the Son of God, feared it as the judgment of God, but "He was heard in that he feared." He broke all the bars by which Satan held us, and has set us free. Satan committed himself entirely by putting his hand on the spotless person of the Prince of life, who bore our sin. By His rising from the dead the judgment of God, the sin which was its cause, the power of Satan in death, were all gone for him who had part in this work. The resurrection shows the divine power of the Son of God. When Peter said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," the Lord said, " upon this Rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it;" that is, neither the power of death, nor Satan who possesses it, (for that is the meaning of the gates of hell or hades,) shall prevail against the Church, which is founded on Him who has the power of the life of God in Him. Man bad been tried by every means besides the law, which gave the measure of His responsibility. He only brought forth wild grapes. It was in result double death, while bolding out the promise of blessing to obedience. But if the foundation of blessing be the Son of the living God, the gates of hell, the power of death, shall not prevail against it. The power of the spirit of holiness, which characterized the life of Christ, is demonstrated by resurrection from the dead. If we consider the resurrection, as it was displayed in Christ, and will be in the saints, it is the power of God coming into the place of death and breaking its bonds in those that are His, and taking them out from among the wicked dead. This resurrection in spirit is our present state, though we still wait for the redemption of the body. The very same power, we learn in Eph., which raised Christ from among the dead, has wrought in us and quickened us together with Christ. The Son of God goes down in grace for us to the very place we had got by sin, and by His own divine power breaks the bands of death, and takes us up from under its power, placing us, according to the efficacy of His own work, in the presence of God. Thus all that my sin could do has been met by divine power and put away; rendering void of power him that bath the power of death, that is, the devil. How marvelous the grace! The consequence is not merely that there ought to be holiness in us, but that there must be holiness. How did Christ get out of death? By His own divine power. Well, it is the same divine energy raising me from the dead that will be the power of a new life in me. All that He has done is mine as righteousness before God; but I enter into it by virtue of a new life, which is a holy one. It is not merely a duty to be holy; but there is holiness in us, because we are partakers of justification by means of a life which is essentially holy. Let us ever remember this wonderful truth, that the Son of God has come down in divine power into the place of sinners, and broken all those bands by which Satan held us, and set us free. This is the gospel of God, God in the activity of His own love in the person of Christ, coming down here and walking in holiness where sin was, going down under the power of death, that He—might deliver us from Him who had the power of death; for I am raised—now spiritually and morally by the very same divine power that will take up my body.
"By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations." All are called now to bow to the revelation of Christ, who was dead and is alive again for evermore. The expression "called to be saints," is incorrect; it should be, saints called, that is, saints by the calling of God: the same principle here as the apostle called. We are saints called, thus showing the grace of God. It is not to us by birth or descent, as to the Jews; but it is all of grace: so Abraham was called, and chosen, and faithful. If we are called, it is not of the will of man, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God. And we are bound to give thanks, in that "God hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling." What a very different thing it is in our souls, (for what a very different thought we have of God) when we believe the activity of His love! It is not only that God is love; but that God is ACTIVE IN HIS LOVE. "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Alas! we pass over these gracious words very lightly; and what is there that we do not pass over lightly? The apostle felt what he said in the power of the Spirit. Favor and peace from the Father and the Son. Mercy is only added when the epistles are addressed to individual saints. But when the saints are looked at as a whole, they are seen as the objects to whom all "mercy" has been already extended, being seen by the eye of God as under the influence and energy of the love and grace that had saved them. Still, as individual saints, they need mercy every day. The apostle looked at them as under the eye of a Savior God, and he wished them to have the full manifestation of what was in the God that had saved them-all the effect of there being not a cloud between them and God. God is never called a God of joy, though He gives joy; but constantly He is called the God of peace. The apostle desires their peace from God should be undisturbed—that they should have perfect peace in Him in the midst of this wilderness. He desired for them all the effect in their own souls of the consciousness of their position—the full exercise of what God was to them in this relationship. If a child feels towards his father as towards a master, he does not know his position. If we have not unlimited confidence in God as our Father we have not found our place. All these relationships are known, not by the intelligence placing us in them; but in the exercise of affections flowing from the consciousness of bring in them. A child addresses his father as such—why? servant his master as such, and why? They live in these relationships. The saints, in the love of the family, will address God as their Father. In the government of the Church it is the Lord Jesus we shall address. This distinction will be always marked when praying in the Spirit, not by an effort of attention, but by being in the spirit of the relationship. In all our petitions, as children, even in our failures, confessions, and need, we go as individuals to God as our Father; but in everything relating to the Church—conduct and order—we go to the Lord Jesus, as Head of the Church. The consciousness of our relationship is of great importance in our daily walk; for the character of our walk, and the state of our souls depend upon it. If our souls have not unlimited confidence in God to go to Him with our very follies, we do not know " the Father."
If Christ said, It is my meat to do His will, Paul could say, " whom I serve with my spirit in the Gospel of His Son." It is no service at all, if it be merely outward. Unless we can say, " Of thine own have we given thee," it is no service at all: true service must flow from communion with the source of service. It is no service if we are not drinking in Christ, and conscious that we are doing His will. If I could take up any service without being confident God would have me do it, there would be no power in it. Service, then, if real, must flow from direct communion with God. We may go on in a course of action, as a consequence of communion, for a good while. Thus, for instance, contrast the Thessalonians with the state of the Church at Ephesus in Revelation. In the Thessalonians Paul knew " their work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope." Here we see the three cardinal points, faith, hope, charity, springs of the activity displayed by the saints; so that their service had all the freshness of the source from which the service flowed. Not so in the address of the Lord to Ephesus in the Revelation. There was work, labor, patience; but there was not the present spiritual power of that which comes direct from God. Therefore we find the candlestick removed. They had left their first love. How often does our service flow rather from something we may have to do, than from direct communion with God. It then becomes the mere activity of the flesh, or of habit, or, at best, a mere duty; instead of serving with " my spirit."
What a comfort, that all my life through I may be serving the Lord with my spirit. This would be a wilderness, a labyrinth, but God is guiding us through it. When Israel was in the wilderness, was there any path for them? None. " They wandered in the wilderness where there was no way." So we read that Moses said to Jethro, his father-in-law, " Leave us not, I pray thee, forasmuch as thou knowest how we are to encamp in the wilderness; and thou mayest be to us instead of eyes." No; God says, I will be as eyes to you; for as Israel departed from the mount a three days' journey, the ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them three days' journey, to search out a resting-place for them. Now the ordered place of the ark was in the midst of Israel; for they were to keep the charge of the Lord, and they were to journey as they encamped. But when Israel journeyed it went before them as eyes to them. Again to Israel: "Though I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come." And is God less than this to us? No; He is leading us through this world's wilderness, where there is no path, no way, but Jesus; for He is our only track in this wilderness of sin and sorrow. But what an unspeakable comfort to have such a track; for if we are perfectly dependent, we shall discern the perfect path that has in it the stamp of the Lord's own footsteps. But to this end flesh must be practically mortified and the WILL subdued.
" Without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers." See the apostle's wonderful energy with God. And this is one mark of spiritual power—the capacity of keeping up in his own soul, an interest for all saints everywhere. In practice he intercedes for all saints in every place. This leaves him in entire dependence on the will of God; for no real spiritual power takes us out of' the place of waiting on God. So it was with Eliezer. He said, "Lord, let the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher,.... be the same thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac." And when the woman had given him drink, and his camels also, he does not say, Oh! here is the answer to my prayer; but he is still waiting on God, and, "wondering at her, held his peace; to wit, whether the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not." And when the camels had done drinking, he said, "Whose daughter art thou?" And when he found that she answered the description, that is, according to the will of God by the word of Abraham, "he bowed his head and worshipped the Lord." Success often takes us out of the place of communion; because it is our success when we do not acknowledge God in it.
"I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation." It is God's coming in in power. That is the true character of the gospel. It is complete in its object, and in the means it employs to effect it. And it is God who works in it to produce this effect; it is not a mixture of man and God; but God acting for, and in quickening power in, man, justifying the believer by the work which He has wrought, and creating us again in Christ Jesus. "The wrath of' God is revealed from heaven." It is not yet manifested, though it was seen, to a certain extent, in the deluge. On the cross it was complete in the moral sufferings of Christ, though not yet executed against the sinner. But the nature and character of God is brought out. Hence, necessarily, all that is contrary to His nature and character is necessarily judged. Wrath is revealed against all that is opposite to His nature. It is not merely certain acts condemned, according to the measure of a revelation, in which God remains as yet veiled in His own nature. He is revealed; and hence what is contrary to Him is judged. But then in the gospel He is revealed to meet what man is. God now looks at what man is, in the presence of what God is. But it is the very perfectness of the activity of grace that has brought out what man is. Is it claiming righteousness? No; for now man's righteousness is entirely laid aside. It is God's righteousness made known; not something which is to grow up to righteousness, but that which is perfect now. It is revealed from faith to faith,—that is, faith is the principle, on which it is revealed; and henceforth, wherever it is found, has part in it. God's righteousness being a perfect and existing thing, complete in itself, is revealed on the principle of faith. The man that has faith gets it. If it were given on the principle of righteousness, the righteous man would have it.
I would desire that our hearts might rest on this wonderful truth—the activity of God's love coming down into a world ruined by sin, and under wrath, when every remedy had been tried, and nothing would do. But God Himself has conic in, and done it, and there we rest. The more pains God has taken to set men right, the more only was it proved that the more you dig and dung a bad tree, the more bad fruit it will produce. But God, from the beginning, has had His own way of salvation; and He who undertook the work comes down into the stronghold of Satan's power and God's wrath, and by rising from the dead, has openly declared that Satan's power is destroyed, through death, and God Himself is satisfied in this righteous claim.
And now there is a perfect revelation of God's righteousness—not of man's working or man's righteousness, but of God's working and God's righteousness—to be trusted in and believed, that it may be by grace. It is God's righteousness, and given to us at the same time, according to the spirit of holiness. He Himself is the rest of our souls and conscience, as He is the guide all the way; His divine favor and unchanging love and goodness accompanying and abiding with us all the journey through.
The Lord only give us the simplicity of faith, that we may see this activity of love, that we may apprehend His ways in grace, and thus know Him,—know His grace in working, that we may know Himself.