[The present paper, like the one in vol. ii., page 89, is inserted with remarks following it on some points 'where it appears to depart from important distinctions laid down in Scripture.—ED.]
JEHOVAH’S oath is the great charter of human salvation. Of this wonderful instrument, written in the blood of the incarnate Jehovah, stamped with the broad seal of heaven, and bearing upon the past, the present, and the future, there is no danger of overrating the importance. Its value is not sufficiently felt even by those who are saved by its virtue. Abraham, the depositary of this oath-Abraham, the example and monument of free grace, the example, I say, illustrative of the preventing and effectual manlier in which that free grace operates upon fallen and helpless man—Abraham, the heir of the world, the ancestor of Christ himself, the first individual of the human race to whom the Gospel was preached in all its plenitude, is pushed from his place. Other saints are thrown into such prominent, I may say such disproportionate, relief—representatively, typically, or dispensationally—as confuses the divine plan, and throws into the shade of obliteration those edifying peculiarities which Scripture evermore attaches to Abraham, and to none but him.
It has been assumed that the Gospel was preached to our first parents, and that they believed it. “It shall bruise thy head," are words assumed to have been understood by them in an evangelic sense. Whether our first parents so understood these words or not; whether they ever heard them or not; whether they knew of their having been spoken or not; whether or not they were intended, although evangelic in their import, to be so understood when they were first uttered to the serpent, (for it was he to whom they were spoken,) does not appear with any certainty.
Without however wishing to combat that opinion, which ascribes to our first parents faith in a revealed Savior (through sacrifices or otherwise)—admitting this to have been the case with them—admitting (which is much less questionable) this to have been the case with Noah and others, before the time of Abraham-it is certain that none of these were on the level of that patriarch, or that they were the depositaries of Jehovah's oath. It is also certain that all the saints, as well before as after Abraham, were saved and blessed by virtue of the oath sworn unto that patriarch, unless we suppose them saved and blessed otherwise than by the Seed to whom the promises were exclusively made. (Gal. 3:1616Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. (Galatians 3:16).) This oath, together with Him who sware it, the pledge and the Pledger, considered not irrespectively of each other, is the true source of spiritual consolation. As when we draw a glass of water from a crystal spring, we leave its deep resources unexhausted, but not untouched; even so the Holy Ghost administers evangelic truth from the calm, clear, unfathomable depths of that well of salvation, Jehovah's oath. The living waters of heavenly consolation spring from hence. Every evangelic promise uttered by the prophets is built upon the oath of Jehovah, sometimes expressed, always understood. Jehovah's words: “Behold I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah," (Jer. 31:3131Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: (Jeremiah 31:31),) may bear this kind of paraphrase:
“Behold, I have evangelized Abraham; I have deposited with him my oath, the Gospel, (Gen. 2:16-1816And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. 18And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. (Genesis 2:16‑18). Gal. 3:88And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. (Galatians 3:8),) the great, the only charter of human salvation, which, operating first upon the houses of Judah and Israel as the first-fruits of a new terrestrial creation, (Rev. 14:44These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. (Revelation 14:4),) and afterwards upon all the fatuities of the earth, shall bring in the restitution of all things; and in the meantime, by virtue of this same oath or Gospel, all who trust, or who have trusted, in my incarnation, death and righteousness, are saved, justified, and blessed."
Zacharias' song, as I have already observed, proves that the new covenant, operating in the restoration of Israel, is included in Jehovah's oath. And here it is to be remarked, that the term "new covenant," taken in a restricted sense, as in Jer. 31:3131Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: (Jeremiah 31:31), is included in the oath.; while, taken in the widest sense, as in Heb. 9:1616For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. (Hebrews 9:16), it is identical with the oath.
A distinction indeed is sometimes made between the oath and the promise. But there are no grounds for this distinction; nor are these things, the oaths and the promise, as is sometimes supposed, the " two immutable things " spoken of in Heb. 6., which indeed are, text and context being considered, the διαθήκηand the διαθένος,the PLEDGE and the PLEDGER, the character and attributes of the latter, WHO CANNOT LIE, being taken into the account. The veracious character of God being well considered, the "two immutable things” rise upon our view; namely, the PLEDGE On the One hand; on the other hand, the VERACITY OF GOD, WHO GIVES THE PLEDGE. The Testator or διαθέμενος, that is, the Lord God of Israel, who aware unto Abraham, hung upon the cross on Mount Calvary in furtherance of his pledge. He who deposited with Abraham the charter of human salvation, interposed his own death in proof of his veracity. Not the veracity only, but also the comprehensiveness of the oath, is proved by the death of Him who swam it. Διαθήκηand διαθέμενοςbeing relative terms, the death of the latter relates to the same gifts which were promised by the former, unless we suppose those gifts, or any of them, extra-diathecal, not contemplated by the διαθέμενος or testator. The connection between the testament and the death of the Testator is a thing which we should steadily keep in view.
For, as the whole of the oak is contained in the acorn, so all the blessings, whether in heaven or in earth, promised to Adam's race, are secured by the death of the incarnate Jehovah; and if by his death, then by his testament, that is, by his oaths, TESTAMENTARY IN ITS CΗARACTER, with which his death is indissolubly connected. (Heb. 9:1616For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. (Hebrews 9:16).)
As the restoration of Israel is the effect of the oath which Jehovah mare unto Abraham, (Luke 1:72, 7372To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; 73The oath which he sware to our father Abraham, (Luke 1:72‑73),) so the effect, or that which follows in the train of that restoration, is life from the dead, (Rom. 11.) the swallowing up death in victory, (Is. 25.) the planting of the heavens and earth: (Is. 51.) all this, and more than this—all that is to be inherited by the Church in glory, or by the nations of the earth in happier 'dispensations—all is included in the oath, pledge, promise, covenant, testament, or Gospel, call it which you please, which God preached to Abraham, unless a plurality of Gospels be supposed.
"The mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men as it is now revealed," is certainly included in Jehovah's oath. Human recipients of heavenly glory cannot trace back their natural pedigree otherwise than from "the families of the earth;” and the spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ (Eph. 1:33Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: (Ephesians 1:3)) are assuredly not forgotten by the beneficent Testator, but are included in the blessing of Abraham.
(Gal. 3:1414That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. (Galatians 3:14).) This "mystery" is: Christ the second Adam, the quickening Spirit, Jehovah our righteousness, the source, principle, and author of eternal life within the souls of believers, revealed to them by the Holy Ghost, as the preventing effect of divine grace.
Thus much of the "mystery of Christ" is common to the saints, both before and after the finished work of Christ on the cross. (unless we suppose them quickened otherwise than by the SECOND, and enlightened otherwise than by the rump, Person of the Trinity.) But it is peculiar to times subsequent to this finished work of Christ on the cross that the Holy Ghost, in addition to the vital subjects of testimony already mentioned, should bear witness to that work as FINISHED. The divine veracity is set forth to us, as we have seen, as a source of strong consolation. When Jehovah's submitted to incarnation and death in PROOF of his veracity, and in furtherance of his oath, the Holy Ghost's inward revelations became thenceforth necessarily more clear and vivid on those points, and constitute the παράκλησις, (Heb. 6:1818That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: (Hebrews 6:18). John 14:1616And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; (John 14:16),) the strong consolation of the latter times, that part of the "mystery of Christ" which was not known to the saints before the finished work on the cross.
Consequent upon this finished work, and upon the coincident rejection of Israel, is the admission of the Gentiles to a federal relation with Jehovah, (Deut. 32:2121They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. (Deuteronomy 32:21),) never before vouchsafed to the nations of the earth as such; (Ps. 142:20;) by virtue of which relation they are cleansed (Acts 10:1515And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. (Acts 10:15)) in an outward manner, for a temporary purpose, with reference to, and in abrogation of; former exclusiveness, as well Levitical as patriarchal.
If not in respect of the federal position already mentioned, yet certainly in respect of spiritual life and light enjoyed by all which be of faith, (Gal. 3:99So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. (Galatians 3:9),) the Gentiles are now fellow-heirs and partakers of the promise in Christ by the Gospel, (Eph. 3:66That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: (Ephesians 3:6),) but in an incipient manner. For it belongs to future ages to reveal and develop, in all its full plenitude of beneficent operation on Adam's race, the whole substance of Jehovah's evangelic, comprehensive and testamentary oath, abounding in grace, inclusive of his own incarnation and death, and restorative of that which he took not away.