Introductory.
The mind of man is so narrow that it would ever attempt to reduce the revelations of God to a few heads, which it might retain even when occupied about many other things. And hence we find " systematic divinity " perfectly compatible with worldly-mindedness. And this must ever be the case when the end of God in revelation is put out of sight, and another which meets man's selfishness is put forth for it. Even if we put forth the Church itself, an object confessedly dear to God's heart, as the end unto which God is working, rather than the glory of His own great name; we, by this substitution, not only promote our own self-complacency and high mindedness, hut destroy the present use of the Church as the repository of God's counsels. One of the most painful and alarming features of the day in which we live, is the existence of so much doctrinal truth together with very great ignorance of the Scriptures. The whole effort of men seems to be to bring all that is stated in Scripture into a certain number of propositions. And it is by no means believed that in Scripture are laid out to the spiritual apprehension all the Divine counsels and arrangements: so that we can look back and discover, under God's own comment, that His counsels of old are faithfulness and truth; and forward and assert, upon God's own declaration, what is coming to pass. The relation which the Scriptures bear to the Church is very remarkable. These writings occupy the place to the Church of God's actings unto Israel. " The things that happened unto them for en-samples (‘ types'), are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come " (1 Cor. 10:11).
We have first, by direct inspiration of God, a narrative of facts—of facts so selected and arranged as to manifest a purpose of God: many material things—material, as man would judge—are either entirely omitted or but slightly touched on; and many apparently immaterial and trifling circumstances are largely expatiated on. Hence the man who would regard the narrative of the Scripture as mere history, would find it, to his apprehension, very imperfect; whereas, he who reads if hi order to the ascertainment of God's purpose and mind, finds it complete and perfect. For, the Spirit of God gives prominence to those facts which are in pursuance of God's purpose. But we have, further, the comment of God Himself on those facts; and this forms a material part of the Prophecies as well as of the New Testament. And as we stand at the ends of the dispensations or ages, before they are all wound up, and their great results are fully brought out in the day of the appearing of Christ, all the truths that they severally teach converge and bear on us; and, therefore, are said to have been written for our admonition. Scriptural accuracy becomes therefore of the greatest importance to us; and when we see how the apostles of old used a single Scriptural quotation, as warrant for the assertion of a principle, and that our Lord has said, " the Scripture cannot be broken," this certainly demands much more attention than we have been ready to bestow. On reflection, also, it will appear, how much of Scripture we have received traditionally. There are numerous phrases in almost every one's mouth, which, from their having been received in this manner, carry no force with them, and are absolutely unmeaning. And constantly we find the soul of a believer resting on a promise of the Old Testament, when the same promise, with the addition of all the blessed relationship in which we stand, is given to us in the New Testament, in connection with Him " in whom all the promises of God are Yea and Amen unto the glory of God by us " (2 Cor. 1:20). As a familiar instance, we constantly find Isa. 33, " bread shall be given him, his waters shall be sure," used as a kind of traditionary promise; when the same security, with the blessed addition of the loving care of a Father's hand and a Father's heart, is given us in Matt. 6:25-34: " Your heavenly Father knoweth that Ye have need of all these things." Surely, the other promise may be rightfully used; but how much more fully do we get it when it comes to us in our proper place—as children! Another instance where tradition has led to perfect mis-statement, is in the confusion of quoting COL 3:11, as though it were 1 Cor. 15:28, " Christ is all in all. " The truth is not denied; but it is, " Christ is all and in all;" that is, in the day of the manifestation of the Church, all that will appear will be Christ—nothing of the old Adam, and Christ will he in all; and we are called on to act on this truth now: to recognize Christ as everything, and in every believer, be his condition what it may, as his grand characteristic. And this is quite different from God being " all in all; which will not be manifested till after the millennium.
Now, I believe that such phrases as "The fullness of the time," "The fullness of times," "There should be time Ito longer," convey for the most part very vague ideas to the mind of Christians; when, at the same time, they are pregnant with meaning and instruction.
" the Fullness of the Time."
The passage in which the first phrase occurs is Gal. 4:4: " But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law." In all that God has done, He has revealed Himself to those who are in fellowship with Him, as abounding " in all wisdom and prudence." So that, if it be asked why so long a period elapsed before the promise made to the woman was fulfilled in the Babe at Bethlehem, the answer is, the time was not fully come. Much instruction needed previously to be given to man—much was to be taught him, through his painful experience of his real standing, before the great truth could be brought out, that creature unupheld by the Creator must fail—that tendency to fail is the very essence of creature; stability, the attribute of God alone. And what is the proof of both, but man's failure under every possible advantage, and his stable standing only through life in and from the Son of God? The first great lesson taught was the instability of man, though coming forth from God's hands in all the perfection of creatureship. By disobedience he became independent of God; and being left to the trial of all his powers, he was unable to reinstate himself in the place of blessing which he had originally occupied. He had become as God, to know good and evil: as God, to assert his own will as his rule; but that will had not power equal to its pretensions, and could never open the way for him back into Paradise. " God drove out the man," and the condition into which man had fallen was impotence of will. Yes, had man had power equal to his will, he would have actually done that to which he will yet and shortly pretend-hurl God from His throne, and occupy it himself. (See 2 Thess. 2) But God has many times proved Himself to be " The blessed and only Potentate:" and the creature man has, whenever left alone, proved himself to be wise and powerful only to do evil, and to corrupt his way on the earth. How deeply important is it to recognize that the trial of man's power has been made, and that it has failed; and that all the activity and energy of the present day is but the busy bustling of that power which had failed before the flood; and that man, notwithstanding his toil and efforts, has not regained Paradise!
In the setting up of Noah as the head of restored creation, man was not similarly circumstanced as before. He had now had experience of the power, and justice, and grace of God. He was therefore called upon to acknowledge himself, not as creature standing in his own strength, but as having found grace with God as one lost, and this, by God's own prescription as to blood, and to acknowledge God as the righteous Judge, in His punishing murder with death-a punishment not hitherto appointed. But God was recognized neither in His grace nor in His justice; and men became " vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, &c.," (Rom. 1); and thus all the world went into idolatry. Thus man furnished a proof of his inability to sustain the new standing in which God had put him. And now we meet with a new feature in God's dealings—" calling out;" and as this is connected with the purpose of God, it rises above failure; and the proof that the security rests, not in him that is called, but in Him that calleth, is immediately afforded. The condition in which man was when we are made acquainted with this part of the divine procedure, is thus given us of God: "And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood ('river' i.e. Euphrates) in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nachor; and they served other gods. And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood." Now, here we see a certain fullness of time for the interference of God in this special manner. Previously to the deluge, judgment had not been tried; nor had man been ostensibly set as a sinner standing in grace, and acknowledging God as the Judge of all the earth. But now, all had gone into idolatry, as previously all flesh had corrupted its way on the earth. There was therefore the opportunity for God thus to interfere, and to show the irremediableness of the condition of man (the only blessing being to rescue him out of his condition); and further, to show that the standing of the one so called out was not in any communicated strength (for this standing was tried in the case of Abraham, and it proved man's failure, for Abraham went down into Egypt), but in the unfailingness
of Him who called him. “Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that begat you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him " (Isa. 51). Now, this principle of " calling out " thus established, has been the principle and basis of God's blessing unto whomsoever: although, after its establishment, man was put under, further advantages of trial, in order to prove that this basis alone could insure the blessing of the creature. The gifts and calling of God are not repented of by Him. God might create and destroy, and again create innumerable beings for the display of His glory: He might too uphold creature (as He has upheld the elect angels), by His sovereign power, so that the creature might keep its first estate'. But then the great lesson of the failingness of the creature, and of the unfailingness of the gift and calling of God, would not have been afforded. Therefore is it that the promise made to Abraham in the way of grace was, four hundred years after, proposed to Abraham's descendants to be realized by their own competence. Such conditions they undertook; and, accordingly, the law was introduced: a system originating from Divine wisdom, having for its end the present blessing of the nation of Israel; yet, so absolutely did it fail, "in that it was weak through the flesh," that the possession of the land of Canaan was gotten, not by Israel's obedience to the Sinai-covenant, which was broken as soon as made, but for His name's sake who could say, in spite of all failure, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy: and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. Now, I do not think it is adequately considered
that the law, as given by God, was in truth an experiment to determine what moral training under all the advantages of the consummate wisdom of the Giver, and of present interest to those receiving it, would effect; and it is not duly considered that the result was failure most manifest. " There is none that understandeth—none that seeketh after God: they are all gone astray; there is none that doeth good, no not one (Rom. 3:11, 12). And this the law says of them who had been under its discipline, as Rom. 3:19, shows. The failure was not in the law. No alteration of that could have produced a different result; for " the law was holy, just and good." The importance of seeing the law in this more extensive bearing is very great and practical, in an age of advanced intelligence, putting forth all its, moral as well as physical energies. And the attentive reader of Scripture will find that it in speaking of law, argues on it in the abstract, showing its necessary insufficiency and failure; for if the law of God failed of producing a desirable end, a fortiori, the law of nature, and every other law, must fail—because the material to be worked on by it has in itself a principle opposed to law altogether. The great truth brought out is, that moral training, as a means of leading man unto God, has been tried on him under the most favorable circumstances; and that it has signally failed. Not to the impeachment of His wisdom, who gave the rule of training, but to show how entirely man had departed from God, and to open the way for the introduction of a new power to bring him back to God. But, before this was introduced manifestatively, trial was made of what moral suasion would effect towards bringing back disaffected and revolted man: there were proclaimed, as immediate consequences, judgment in the case of refusal to hear, and blessing in the case of hearing. This formed the ministry of the prophets: " Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets" (Hos. 6:5). " I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and. used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets" Hos. 12:10). But the prophets, whilst they were thus a witness against man, were also a witness for God; and by reiterated declarations of God's faithfulness, they turned the faithful from considering the failure of that which was before them, to rest upon the promises which they brought in. 2 Chronicles 36:15, 16, records the failure of this ministry also: " And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by His messengers, rising up betimes and sending; because He had compassion on His people, and on His dwelling-place; but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and misused His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy." It is this very ground which our blessed Lord Himself assumes, when opening in parables, the divine counsels in mercy and judgment. " Again he sent another, and him they killed and many others, beating some and killing some " There was no remedy." " Having yet therefore one Son, His well beloved, He sent Him also, saying, They will reverence my Son " (Mark 12:6,7). The intermediate judgment and restoration appears to be passed over, although the same ministry is reckoned as being carried on during the whole period: "the law and the prophets were until John." Then something new was to be introduced; but the very newness testified the complete failure of man.
He had been tried before the flood, whether, left to himself, he could find his way back to God; but, instead of this, he only corrupted his way on the earth. He had been brought under the discipline of fearful judgment, the vestiges of which were all around him-but he went into idolatry. He had been tried by being brought into special favor with God in all outward blessings, and by a law being given him to secure him in the possession of them-but he lost all. He had been tried to be reclaimed by the ministry of the prophets, that he might return and be blessed; but he mocked and murdered these messengers of God's love: "There was no remedy." Here the history of man, as a moral and intellectual being, might close; and, as to remedying his condition by any moral means, it does close. The statement made by the apostle in the first two chapters of Romans is to this point: the Gentile given over to a reprobate mind; the Jew, no understanding in seeking God; none doing good; no fear of God before their eyes. And this too at a period of very advanced civilization among Gentiles, and of great external religion among the Jew. It was when man was in such a condition, so that there was no remedy, that " the fullness of the time was come," and " God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law." Under these two conditions, the Son shows forth unswerving dependence and perfect righteousness; vindicating God in never departing from Him, in the midst of the most trying circumstances, and in carrying His obedience to the uttermost. Here was the One in whom God was well pleased: yet His bright example, His gracious words, His devotedness of life to cure man's misery, and His mighty miracles—all failed of producing in man's mind any emotion correspondent to the love declared in " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Surely, if moving appeals to the feelings, if MORAL SUASION could have reclaimed man, here was the opportunity! It is important to trace the personal ministry of the blessed Lord in this point of view, and to note the result of it: not the improvement of man, but the manifestation of man's entire inconsistency with God. It is a striking word, "The husbandman said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours."
There wanted apparently only such an opportunity as the love of God afforded in the gift of His Son, to evidence the latent enmity of man's heart, and to show forth the fullness of its evil. And thus the rejection of the Son of God was the demonstration that the fullness of the time was come for God to bring forth His wisdom and power in triumphing over such manifested failure. And this He did in the Cross—at once the evidence of man's total failure as man, and of the necessity of setting up a new creation in resurrection; to be sustained in One as a Head who had proved Himself to be above failure. What a mass of moral truth there is contained in that expression, " The fullness of the time!" And how constantly need we now to recur to where we are, when God addresses us, preaching peace through the blood of the Cross: even as having been already proved to be irreclaimable by any other means than by being brought into union with One who can uphold us by His own power! And surely, after this, for any to go back to moral improvement as the way of bettering the condition of man before God, is only to manifest, through protracted bitter experience, that which He, who knows what is in man, has fully brought out and manifested already.