Unparalleled Statements in Scripture.
On opening the pages of Scripture we are met at once by statements, which are in form authoritative and positive, on subjects about which man knows nothing. They claim belief. Man has no power either to confirm or to contradict that which is declared by them. As truth from God, that which is stated is sure and certain, and is known to be so solely because the statements are His. As human utterances they would be worse than worthless.
The end that awaits this world, the events that it is yet to witness, the personal, and eternal future of man,, the purposes which God is working out in and through all, and the manner and means of their fulfillment are some of the subjects into which human knowledge cannot penetrate, neither gather data from which a judgment can be formed, and yet in the Scripture there are plain, positive and authoritative statements concerning these matters.
A Definite Position Unavoidable
Facts thus are declared which could only be made known by divine authority. Whether or not the Scriptures do possess this &Vine 'authority is the question.
As to this, an uncertain and equivocal answer can easily be given, and it is even popular to do so, but it must be remembered that an indefinite position is impossible.
Statements are made which are so simple that difficulty in understanding what is said cannot, with any pretense to honesty, be urged as a reason for uncertainty concerning the facts which are stated.
If there is uncertainty or ignorance with respect to facts stated in Scripture, it must be because they have not been believed.
Every man is either assured as to the facts plainly stated, or he is not. His position must be one either of faith or of unbelief.
Statements As to Personal Salvation
No statements raise the question of whether there is to be faith, with greater force; or prove with greater distinctness whether the position is of faith or unbelief, than those which assure the believer personally of eternal salvation.
How could any man, if judging from what he is, feels, has done, or knows, say that he has eternal life? His judgment would be that he has not. By what authority could anyone declare that he will not come into judgment? His conscience tells him that he will; although he does not feel that his state is so corrupt before God as to be called a state of death. And yet in the Scriptures we are told in the most emphatic and precise way possible that the believer has eternal life and shall not come into judgment. “Jesus saith unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my' Word and believeth on Him that sent Tile, shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life."
There can in this case be no possible uncertainty either as to what is declared or is to whom the declaration applies to Not Only life is said to be possessed but everlasting life which Can hardly be taken to mean life temporal or conditional, and not everlasting.
He who declares that such an one shall not come into judgment is said in the context to be He to whom all judgment has been committed, The Judge himself declares that he will not judge: The newness and necessity of the gift bestowed could not -be indicated with greater emphasis than by declaring that the state preceding its reception is one of death. And this is true of those who have heard the word and believed in Him who sent Christ.
The Fact of an Essential Difference Among Men
We have then a difference among Men declared.
With the divine authority of the Son of. God, The fact is that there are those who possess eternal life and there are those who do not.
Everyone who values the Scripture, will value and welcome, these results of scholarship or research that help to elucidate the Meaning of difficult or obscure passages. But the difficulty in this case assuredly cannot be said to be in understanding what is declared. The meaning lies on the surface so that 'a wayfaring man though a fool can understand it. The difficulty is one of faith. That is, there is difficulty in believing,—but in believing whom?
Statements, of Fact Are Not Theory.
The statement is one of fact and in considering it this must be remembered. For, paradoxical as it sounds, those who have attained the greatest, reputation for delicacy of thought and expression have proved themselves peculiarly susceptible to the confusion of the fact itself with their notion of it; and when vital consequences depend on the fact the confusion is fatal.
The idea of a fact may be known with accuracy and truth and the fact itself be unknown and unpossessed. The writer well remembers a young undergraduate at Cambridge, then lately brought into the joy of knowing what he possessed, calling on the Regius Professor of Divinity and in the course of the 'conversation bringing tip the subject of the ground of justification. The Professor, with readiness and much kindness fully and carefully explained the seven different Ways of justification as exhibited in the text of the original.' But when the inquiry was politely made as to whether he knew himself to be justified by any one of them the reply was sadly vague and uncertain.
Let the questions raised by the Scriptures then be considered at least as to fact and not as to theory. Has my render been born again? Does he possess eternal life.? Is he justified?
Personal Posses Sion and Knowledge of Possession of Eternal Life
The fact so simply stated in the foregoing quotation must be either accepted or rejected as such; but Scripture statements test the heart and conscience still further.
It is positively declared that Scriptures have been written, order that the believer may know.
After such a word it is impossible to say that Scripture teaches that the personal possession of eternal life should, not be known. And yet how sadly common are ignorance, and indifference on this subject, especially when the excepted standing of religion tends to confirm them.
The religious man may be thoroughly versed in the dogmas of his Creed, or punctilious in performing every rite and ceremony of his church, or strong in his argument for the peculiar' tenets of his sect, and yet never have had once to do with God in his soul.
The demands made by dogmas and ceremonies are such as the human mind can meet, if not fulfill, with its theoretical acceptance: But when, a man comes. To the Scriptures he finds he is utterly incapable of learning the truth of its simplest and plainest statement without having to do with God in reality and in truth.
A Personal Question.
Let the reader pardon the inquiry, whether he knows that he possesses eternal life. For no one knows better than himself whether honestly he can or he cannot 'say that he has.
The late J. L.P., who lost his life during the mutiny of the Sudanese in Uganda, whither he had gone to preach Christ, doubtless himself never forgot an answer given to him, which also made a deep impression on the present writer. During his first months in college at Cambridge he was known for taking every opportunity to oppose those who had the certainty and joy of possessing Eternal Life. When he appeared at a meeting which some undergraduates had arranged for the purpose of telling to others in their college what they themselves had learned from the Scriptures, it was generally known what had brought him there. After the meeting he came forward with all the points of his arguments against what had been said, jotted down on a little slip of paper, and began addressing one who had spoken:—How do you know I am not a child of God? What right have you for the assumption?" and went on to argue that no one can tell. At the conclusion he to whom he had been speaking replied, “Well, P., I think if you were a child of God you would be only too pleased to say so." A reply P. apparently had not anticipated, and. though greatly the superior in argument and in the love of it, he found manifest difficulty in answering this reply with satisfaction to himself or to any other.
The Cause of Difficulty in Understanding Scripture
The difficulty then of knowing the truth of the statements that have been referred to, certainly is not that of understanding what is stated, but rather of acknowledging the need for that which is offered and 'haying to do with God, as to it. When the need is owned, the message, is listened to in simplicity. "The difficulty unquestionably is in the man, not in the statements. Through the needs of the heart and the conscience; and not by the strength and ability of the mind, 'the wealth, wisdom and truth of God's word unfold themselves. It is to the heart and conscience that the Scriptures speak, and only to them. And their teaching becomes plain and simple, and intelligence is gained, according to the measure in which the need for that teaching is owned. It is through the heart and conscience that we have to do with God Himself; with the mind alone we can have only as it were conceptions of truth, not truth itself.
By this very fact the Scripture renders its own witness of its Author, as does theology to its author. For in the hands of man even the things of God are reduced to his own level. The theologian systematizes his theology. He places the study of theology amongst other branches of science and accords his emoluments and honors to those who have displayed pre-eminence in learning. From the order in the Theological Tripos List can be learned the degree of mental superiority in each. But the test the Word brings by that which is written the plainest is, how far the soul has had to do with God. Of old one win) had been accorded by man the place of a teacher of the Jews, had it declared to him by the word of the Son of God, “Marvel not that I said, unto thee, ye must be born again." 'The religious world found no flaw in his theology, on the contrary had given him the pre-eminent place. Before the Son of God he had to learn to know his need of being born again, in order to see the kingdom of God. He knew nothing of God's truth and yet he had been chosen as a teacher.
No Difficulty If What Is Stated to Be Fact Is Known in Fact.
What difficulty does one who has been born again find in what is declared necessary? He knows no, other words could express so completely and yet so simply what, has been wrought in him by the Word.
And again the Scripture, “Being born again net of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the Word of God which liveth and abideth forever" (1 Pet. 1:2323Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. (1 Peter 1:23)) means precisely what it says.
It was by the Word, the second birth was as real in spirit as the first was in the flesh.
Difficulties, of course; will and must be found 'where the new birth is not known. That birth will have to be regarded as a mystical birth at baptism by the ritualist; or by the rationalist as an imaginary and sentimental thing; ritualist and rationalist are thus agreed in owning nothing of the reality of that of which Scripture speaks. But a. common portion and joy, independent of rank or learning, is that of all who know the reality of that birth spoken of in Scripture.