The life of righteousness on earth, the life that is pleasing to God, must needs be a life of faith; because the great transgression has estranged God from the world that was made by Him (John 1:10), and so polluted it that it cannot be the rest and portion of the righteous. Wherefore it is written, “He that cometh to God, must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him” (Heb. 11:6).
Faith is therefore the principle of all righteousness, practical as well as personal: personal righteousness or justification is of faith, that it may be of grace (Rom. 4:16); and practical righteousness or godliness must, as we thus see, be of faith also. Faith was thus the secret power that was working in all those who have ever obtained a good report (Heb. 11:2). Excellent things are indeed spoken of them; but these were all wrought through faith, which is of the operation of God. Faith in Noah floated the ark, while as yet, for 120 years, nothing but the dry land appeared. Faith in Abraham inherited the place and the everlasting city, while as yet those things rested only in vision and in promise. Faith in Moses saw Him that was invisible; and in multitudes (whom time would fail to tell of) faith would have nothing but the “better resurrection.” In all these there was found the simple vigorous exercise of the soul, believing the word and promise of God. No religion of their own wrought this in them; no effort at raising affections towards God and unseen things could have done it, but the blessed power (which is faith) of taking God's own word from His own mouth as true, of counting Him faithful Who had promised. Ltd so too, above all, in Jesus, the first and chiefest in the noble army of martyrs— “the author and finisher of faith,” faith rejoiced in what “was set before Him,” and reached after it, though it lay on the other side of the terrors and shame of the cross; such terrors (Thy “face was so marred more than any man,” Thou bruised Lamb of God!) as the heart of man had not conceived.
Paul exhorts his son Timothy, “to fight the good fight of faith, and to lay hold on eternal life,” in remembrance of this faith that was in the blessed Savior Himself. “Fight,” says he, “the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. I give thee charge in the sight of God, Who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, Who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession, that thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Tim. 6:12-14). Eternal life was to be laid hold on by Timothy, and nothing was to be allowed, as it were, to shake off his prey. As the brightness of “the joy set before Him” was never dimmed in the perfect faith of Jesus, though the cross tried His tenure of it to the uttermost; so was Timothy to keep his grasp of eternal life, let him forego what else he might. God in promise had set that before him; and that He would bring out in all its promised blessing and glory at the appearing of Jesus; and to that Timothy was to cling in spite of all the world. The world around him were contentedly getting their portion in this life; and many through the love of it had erred from the faith (ver. 10); but Timothy was to flee this in his pursuit of eternal life. Faith knew its object from the word of promise; and Timothy was to embrace it at every cost.
But there is ever to be confession as well as faith. “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made onto salvation” (Rom. 10:10). For God is to be confessed in a world that has disowned Him, as well as believed on in a heart that has departed from Him. This is His present glory in His saints, and this their service unto Him—service, which (it is true) may try them here. Their faith, like gold, may be cast into the furnace now, but it shall come forth hereafter stamped with the King's own image; for it shall “be found unto praise and honor, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:7).
When Jesus was a child, in subjection to His parents at Nazareth, He grew in favor with man as well as with God; for He was then serving as under the law, infinitely attractive in all that was blameless and good. “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52). But when called from under that subjection, to witness for God in a God-denying world, then the world began to hate Him; as He says to His brethren, “The world cannot hate you; but Me it hateth, because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil” (John 7:7). Then did His sorrows at the hand of the world (because of this His testimony) begin and take their course; every man's hand was against Him, while He sat alone. All His life then became confession, and innumerable evils at once and continually encompassed Him His supports were the supports of faith, and the light of God's countenance, and the hope of “the joy set before Him.” Thus was He throughout His ministry: but in an eminent sense was He the Confessor, when He fully entered into the character of “the Lamb of God.” Previously to this, He had been either in controversy with the unbelief of the Jews, or manifesting the name of the Father to those who had been given Him out of the world; but His character as “the Lamb of God” was formally taken up at the supper, when, like the worshipper under the law, He presented Himself as the victim or offering, saying, “This is My body;” and in that character He stood and suffered, from the time of His entrance into the garden, down to His giving up the ghost on the accursed tree.
In the progress of His deep and mysterious journey, after He had thus entered upon this character, He was successively called before both the Jewish and the Roman powers: and before both He stands the Confessor, ready (as He afterward accomplished) to seal His testimony with His blood.
And here I would turn aside for a while to inspect this blood, the blood of the precious chosen Lamb of God; for surely there is much in it of which we do not properly make our account. That blood was shed for the remission of sins, and it makes clean the conscience of the believing person. But what is found in that blood, that it should bear with it such a savor of rest and refreshing with God, and be of such virtue with Him for tainted sinners who plead it? It was, it is true, blood of God's own; as Paul says to the Ephesian elders, “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God which He hath purchased with His own blood.” It was the blood of Him Who was, Jehovah's fellow, without which indeed it had been nothing save that of a mere man. But this was not all that it was; it was the blood of the righteous One also—of Him Who had magnified the law and made it honorable, presenting Himself to God without spot—of One who willingly poured it out rather than fail in one jot of service and obedience to God. It was the blood of Him Who had finished the work that was given Him to do; Who had stood for God against the whole world, at the expense and loss of everything; Who had before emptied Himself of glory, that God in the Son of Man might be glorified, as in man He had been dishonored; and after He had thus emptied Himself, He still went down even to the death of the cross. There was all this in the blood; it was poured out bearing all this in it, and the savor of it with God was refreshing, “a sacrifice and an offering to God for a sweet smelling savor.” Of old the joy in it entered so deeply, that “God said in His heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake” (Gen. 8:21). It was the blood of the righteous obedient Servant, it was the blood of Jesus the Confessor.
Confession is that which stands by the truth of God against the lie of man, and stands by it at the hazard of everything; and this confession was witnessed by our Jesus. Throughout His life and ministry, it is true, it had been the way of the Son of God to hide Himself: for having emptied Himself of glory when He took the ministry of our peace upon Him, His manner was, to refuse to know Himself save as the Servant of God. For He had come in His Father's name and not in His own, to seek not His own glory, but the glory of Him that sent Him. But the time was to be, when He must openly stand confessed. Therefore, when adjured by the high priest to answer whether He were the Christ, the Son of the Blessed, He stood to the confession of the truth and His glory, saying, “Thou hast said” (Matt. 26:64). But this was at the cost of everything; for then they at once began to spit on Him, to buffet Him, to cover His face with shameless effrontery, and to lead Him off as their prey, saying, “What need we further witness? for we ourselves have heard of His own mouth” (Luke 22:71, Matt. 26:65).
And He was to make confession still more public than this—more as in the presence of the world's collected powers and enmity—and more immediately too in the very face and shame of the cross. And therefore is it that this last testimony of the great Confessor is so singularly marked out by the Spirit of God as His “good confession” (1 Tim. 6:13). But I desire here to be somewhat particular, and listen very attentively to the character and bearing of this good confession, recorded as it is in John 18:33-37.
“Then Pilate entered into the judgment-hall again, and called Jesus, and said unto Him, Art Thou the King of the Jews?”
Pilate throughout this solemn scene was clearly desirous to quiet the people, and deliver Jesus from the malice of the Jews. It appears from the very first, that he was sensible of something peculiar in this prisoner of theirs. His silence had such a character in it, that, as we read, “the governor marveled greatly.” And what divine attractions (we may here observe) must every little passage of His life, every path that He took among men, have had about it? and what must the condition of the eye and the ear, and the heart of man have been, that they did not discern and allow all this? But it is ourselves, dear brethren; we have looked in the face of the Son of God and have seen no comeliness there!
The governor's impression was strengthened by everything that happened as the scene proceeded: his wife's dream and her message to him, the evident malice of the Jews, and above all, the righteous guiltless Prisoner (though thus in shame and suffering) still persisting that He was the Son of God, all assailed his conscience. But the world in Pilate's heart was too strong for these convictions. They made a noise, it is true, in his heart; but the voice of the world there prevailed, and he went the way of it, though thus convicted. Could he, however, have preserved the world for himself, he would willingly have preserved Jesus. He let the Jews fully understand that he was in no fear of this Pretender, as he might judge Him to be; that Jesus was not such an One as could create with him any alarm about the interests of his master the emperor. But they still insisted that Jesus had been making Himself a King, and that if he let this Man go, he could not be Caesar's friend.
And here we are led to see that there is no security for the soul but in the possession of the faith that overcomes the world. Pilate had no desire after the blood of Jesus as the Jews had; but the friendship of Caesar was not to be hazarded. The rulers of Israel had once feared that, if they let this Man alone, the Romans would come and take away both their place and nation (John 11:48); and Pilate now fears to lose the friendship of the same world in the Roman emperor. And thus did the world bind him and the Jews together in the act of crucifying the Lord of glory: as it is written, “For of a truth, against Thy holy servant Jesus, Whom Thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel determined before to be done” (Acts 4:27, 28).
(To be continued.)