If the reader has been enabled through grace to make his own of what has passed before our minds in this series of articles, he will have a perfect remedy for all uneasiness of conscience and all restlessness of heart. The work of Christ, if only it be laid hold of by an artless faith, must of blessed necessity meet the former; and the Person of Christ, if only He be contemplated with a single eye, must perfectly meet the latter. If, therefore, we are not in the enjoyment of peace of conscience, it can only be because we are not resting on the finished work of Christ; and if the heart is not at ease, it proves that we are not satisfied with Christ Himself.
And yet, alas! how few even of the Lord’s beloved people know either the one or the other. How rare it is to find a person in the enjoyment of true peace of conscience and rest of heart! Many professing Christians are not a whit in advance of the condition of Old Testament saints. They do not know the blessedness of an accomplished redemption. They are not in the enjoyment of a purged conscience. They cannot draw nigh with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having the heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, and the body washed with pure water. They do not apprehend the grand truth of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, enabling them to cry, “Abba, Father.” They are, as to their experience, under law. They have never really entered into the deep blessedness of being under the reign of grace. They have life. It is impossible to doubt this. They love divine things. Their tastes, their habits, their aspirations, yes, their very exercises, their conflicts, their anxieties, doubts, and fears all go to prove the existence of divine life. They are, in a way, separated from the world, but their separation is rather negative than positive. It is more because they see the utter vanity of the world, and its inability to satisfy their hearts, than because they have found an object in Christ. They have lost their taste for the things of the world, but they have not found their place and their portion in the Son of God where He now is at the right hand of God. The things of the world cannot satisfy them, and they are not in the enjoyment of their proper heavenly standing, object, and hope; hence they are in an anomalous condition altogether; they have no certainty, no rest, no fixedness of purpose; they are not happy; they do not know their true bearings; they are neither one thing nor the other.
Is it thus with the reader? We fondly hope not. We trust he is one of those who through infinite grace “know the things that are freely given” them of God, who know that they have passed from death unto life — that they have eternal life. Who enjoy the precious witness of the Spirit; who realize their association with a risen and glorified Head in the heavens, with whom they are linked by the Holy Spirit who dwells in them; who have found their object in the Person of the blessed One whose finished work is the divine and eternal basis of their salvation and peace; and who are earnestly looking for the blessed moment when Jesus shall come to receive them to Himself, that where He is they may be also, to go no more out forever.
This is Christianity. Nothing else deserves the name. It stands out in bold and striking contrast with the spurious religiousness of the day, which is neither pure Judaism on the one hand, nor pure Christianity on the other, but a wretched mixture composed of some of the elements of each, which unconverted people can adopt and go on with, because it sanctions the lusts of the flesh, and allows them to enjoy the pleasures and vanities of the world to their heart’s content. The archenemy of Christ and of souls has succeeded in producing an awful system of religion, half Jewish, half Christian, combining in the most awful manner the world and the flesh, with a certain amount of Scripture so used as to destroy its moral force, and hinder its just application. In the meshes of this system souls are hopelessly entangled. Unconverted people are deceived into the notion that they are very good Christians indeed, and going on all right to heaven. And on the other hand the Lord’s dear people are robbed of their proper place and privileges, and dragged down by this dark and depressing influence of the religious atmosphere which surrounds and almost suffocates them.
It lies not, we believe, within the compass of human language to set forth the appalling consequences of this mingling of the people of God with the people of the world in one common system of religiousness and theological belief. Its effect upon the former is to blind their eyes to the true moral glories of Christianity as set forth in the pages of the New Testament; and this is to such an extent, that if anyone attempts to unfold these glories to their view, he is regarded as a visionary enthusiast or a dangerous heretic. Its effect upon the latter is to deceive them altogether as to their true condition, character, and destiny.
It will, perhaps, be said in reply to all this, that our Lord in His wonderful discourse in Matthew 13 distinctly teaches that the wheat and the tares are to grow together. Yes; but where? In the Church? No; but “in the field”; and He tells us that “the field is the world.” To confound these things is to falsify the whole Christian position, and to do away with all godly discipline in the assembly. It is to place the teaching of our Lord in Matthew 13 in opposition to the teaching of the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 5.
However, we shall not pursue this subject further just now. But we must leave it for the present, and draw this part to a close by a brief reference to the third and last part of our subject; namely,
THE WORD OF CHRIST AS THE ALL-SUFFICIENT GUIDE FOR OUR PATH
If Christ’s work suffices for the conscience, if His blessed Person suffices for the heart, then, most assuredly, His precious Word suffices for the path. We may assert with all possible confidence that we possess in the divine volume of Holy Scripture all we can ever need, not only to meet all the exigencies of our individual path, but also the varied necessities of the Church of God in the most minute details of her history in this world.
We are quite aware that in making this assertion we lay ourselves open to much scorn and opposition in more quarters than one. We shall be met on the one hand by the advocates of tradition, and on the other by those who contend for the supremacy of man’s reason and will. But this gives us very little concern indeed. We regard the traditions of men, whether fathers, brothers, or doctors, if presented as an authority, as the small dust of the balance; and as to human reason, it can only be compared to a bat in the sunshine, dazzled by the brightness, and blindly dashing itself against objects which it cannot see.
It is the deepest joy of the Christian’s heart to retire from the conflicting traditions and doctrines of men into the calm light of Holy Scripture; and when encountered by the impudent reasonings of the infidel, the rationalist, and the skeptic, to bow down his whole moral being to the authority and power of Holy Scripture. He thankfully recognizes in the Word of God the only perfect standard for doctrine, for morals, for everything. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Tim. 3:1616All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: (2 Timothy 3:16)).
What more can we need? Nothing. If Scripture can make a child “wise unto salvation,” and if it can make a man “perfect,” and furnish him “thoroughly... unto all good works,” what do we want of human tradition or human reasonings? If God has written a volume for us, if He has graciously condescended to give us a revelation of His mind as to all we ought to know and think and feel and believe and do, shall we turn to a poor fellow mortal — be he ritualist or rationalist — to help us? Far away be the thought!
All praise and thanks be to our God. He has given us in His own beloved Son all we want for the conscience, for the heart, for the path — for time with all its changing scenes — for eternity with its countless ages. We can say, “Thou, O Christ, art all we want; more than all in Thee we find.” There is, there could be, no lack in the Christ of God. His atonement and advocacy must satisfy all the cravings of the most deeply exercised conscience. The moral glories, the powerful attractions of His divine Person must satisfy the most intense aspirations and longings of the heart. And His peerless revelation — that priceless Volume — contains within its covers all we can possibly need from the starting point to the goal of our Christian career.
Christian reader, are not these things so? Do you not, from the very center of your renewed moral being, own the truth of them? if so, are you resting in calm repose on Christ’s work? Are you delighting in His Person? Are you submitting in all things to the authority of His Word? God grant it may be so with you, and with all who profess His name. May there be a fuller, clearer, and more decided testimony to “The All-Sufficiency of Christ” till “that day.”