The subject of the gospel is: God's love towards a world of sinners and enemies, manifested in the gift of His only begotten Son, Who is “the Way, the Truth and the Life,” and Who” suffered the Just for the unjust, to bring us unto God.” Or, to put it more precisely: the love of God and the righteousness of God, manifested in the person and work of His Son Jesus Christ, sinners “being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation Through faith in His blood, to declare at this time His righteousness, that He might be just and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”
The Epistle to the Romans answers Job's question, “How should man be just with God?” Jesus could say, “I am the truth.” Now, “truth” is the exact expression of what man ought to be in obedience to and dependence on God. Jesus, as Son of man, was in his life on earth ever the perfect expression of that. ln the very first preaching at Pentecost, the Spirit of God, in describing the perfect humanity of Jesus, refers to Psalm 16, “I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for He is on my right hand, that I should not be moved,” etc., etc. Therefore Jesus, in His character as “Son of man,” was and is “the Truth,” being ever in the place of perfect dependence and obedience, and thus showing that everybody and everything in this world was out of that place. Therefore the “truth as it is in Jesus,” as the perfect “Son of man,” would only have condemned man, who ever since the fall has been the very opposite. But, blessed be God, “Truth” is not only the expression of what man as a creature ought to be towards God; it is also the perfect expression of what God is towards men. Christ, in His character as “Son of God,” was also the perfect expression of this—the divine-side of the “Truth." This it is that saves us. “No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.” “God was manifest in the flesh.” “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing trespasses.”
But neither the truth, as expressed in the “Son of God,” nor as it was in Jesus, the “Son of man,” would do for men. The “Son of man” must become the “Lamb of God.” Men would not be reconciled by the life of Him, Who in this world was the expression of God's love towards sinners and enemies, but “hated Him without a cause.” Then God, in His wondrous love and longsuffering grace, again manifests in the gospel His love in the death of His Son, saying as it were, “You would not be reconciled to Me by the life of My Son. Will you now be reconciled by His death? Can you doubt My love to you when you behold Him as the ‘Lamb of God' dying upon the cross, and listen to His first and last words upon that cross? ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,' and, ‘It is finished.'“ “He made Him, Who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” On the cross “mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” Now the Father may kiss the returning prodigal and “grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ, our Lord” (Romans 5).
Blessed solution of the enigma: “God is Light” and “God is love,” applied to a sinner, without the one clashing against the other.
4.—THE OBJECT OF THE GOSPEL.
Its object is: God glorified in the salvation of sinners. “Glory to God in the highest!” This comes first; then, “Peace on earth,” and, “good will toward men." God's glory must be paramount, here as everywhere. God glorified in the salvation of one sinner is more than ten thousand saved. Leave out God's glory, and salvation becomes a very small thing indeed.
“ This is an hard saying; who can hear it?” may be said here by some Christian philanthropists, who take a humanitarian view of the gospel, making the salvation of souls from hell the chief object, and the glory of our Savior God, as it were, the secondary thing, though not in words, yet in fact. Have those kind philanthropists ever really chimed in with the song of that heavenly choir in the night of the Savior's nativity? If we want true and genuine philanthropy, let us look at Titus 3 Here we find it. “For we ourselves also were sometime foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.” “But after that the kindness and philanthropy [the literal rendering] of our God and Savior appeared,” etc.
This is real, true philanthropy, which will stand the test, because it is divine. The apostle Paul could say, “For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God.” God's glory was the first thing; then he adds, “or whether we be sober, it is for your cause.” Such was his love for souls. And why? “For” he continues, “the love of Christ constraineth us.” That was the secret. His love for souls partook of a divine character, so that the less he was loved the more he loved. I am afraid the philanthropy of many of our modern gospel workers would not stand this test.
How those words of the great apostle (2 Cor. 5:13) remind us of Moses on the mount, in his wonderful pleading for the people; and of Moses in the camp among the idolatrous people, in his unsparing zeal for the glory of God!
A few words as to Moses. Why did he leave Pharaoh's court “when he was come to years?” Providence had put him there. Why did he not wait till providence called him thence for the deliverance of the people? In his high and influential position what golden opportunities he might have had for relieving the distress of God's and his own people! It was far from being unlikely, that on Pharaoh's demise the son of Pharaoh's daughter might have ascended the throne of Egypt, and then he might have delivered the people by one stroke of his pen. But in that case God would have been shut out, and Moses been glorified instead, in the deliverance of the people. It would not have been, “Stand still and see the salvation of God,” but, “see my (Moses') salvation.” And what would have become of the glorious song of deliverance in Ex. 15 beginning with those words, “I will sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation!”
If I think of myself and my own immortal soul, I rejoice in the assurance of being saved, and I thank God for it, of course; but if I think of my God and Savior, I rejoice in my Savior-God, and in the thought that He is glorified in my salvation, which is far more and far better.
In the first chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews we have the greatness of our Savior, and in the second our great salvation. If we neglect realizing the former, we shall soon begin to neglect the latter.
Next to the glory of God in the salvation of sinners comes as second object of the gospel the forming of the saved ores into one body, even the body of Christ which is the church of God. God's wondrous counsels of wisdom, grace, and glory, do not confine themselves to pardoning penitent sinners, nor does Jesus stop short at delivering them from the wrath to come and from that place “where their worm dieth not and the fire never will be quenched,” but to bring many sons onto glory, to share it with Him in the Father's house, whither the “First-begotten from among the dead,” and the “Firstborn of many brethren” has gone before to prepare a place for us to be forever with Him, not only as sons of God, brought to glory, but as the glorious bride of Him Who died for us and by His precious blood has washed us from our sins and made us a kingdom of priests, and made us fit to dwell with Him in glory, to be the “Lamb's wife” in glory, and His bride, His body already here on earth. As observed below, Jesus died not for that (Jewish) nation only, but that also He should gather into one (i.e., into the church) the children of God that were scattered abroad (i.e., of the Jews and Gentiles) John 11:52. He died not merely to get a certain number—however great—of saved individuals or units, but that those units should be united, i. e., baptized by the Holy Ghost into one body, of which He Himself, Who died for us and rose again, is the glorious Head there above.
Do we sufficiently realize, beloved, this second object of the gospel of grace and glory? This is not merely “sinners saved by grace,” (blessed keynote though that be!) but “many sons to be brought to glory.” And not only so, but these many sons, given by the Father to the Son, to be His bride, baptized into one body—His body—by the Holy Spirit, Who also unites us with our Head above. “Thine they were, and Thou gavest them to Me,” said the Son to the Father when about to leave this world and go to the Father.
“Children of God,” “Heirs of God,” “Joint-heirs with Christ,” to be “glorified together with Him,” after having suffered with Him down here, and during His absence having reflected here below in our poor measure Him and His light, Who on earth was ever “the Light of the world” and the “express image” of the Father.
Being ourselves objects of such divine love and grace, objects of such counsels of divine wisdom past finding out, at; His love passeth knowledge, how far do we realize the importance of the second object of the gospel, even the formation of the church of God as being members of that one family of God, that one body of His Son, our blessed Savior and Head in glory? How much do we live “up there,” whilst testifying “down here”? To live heavenly on earth, and be reflectors of Christ, our Head, we must live in heaven.
The evangelist who neglects these things will soon lower the tone and standard of the gospel to the level of the common preachers in the systems of the religions world, stopping short at the grave of Jesus and leaving out or scarcely touching upon the heavenly side of the gospel, and of our union with the risen and glorified Lord and Christ, not to speak of the glorious hope of His coming again.
5.—THE EFFECTS OF THE GOSPEL.
Its effects are life and peace for the believer: eternal life by believing in the Son of God, and peace with God, yea, joy and peace in believing. His life is bound up with Christ; for God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son, so that “he that Lath the Son, hath life.” And having believed in God, Who in His love delivered up Jesus for our offenses, and in His power raised Him from the dead, he is justified from all that he has done, and his peace is just as solid and settled as is the work that has procured it, even the work of Him Who has made peace by the blood of His cross. Wherever a full gospel has been preached and received (i.e., believed), these will be the unfailing results, viz., eternal life as bound up with the person of the Son of God, in Whom he has believed, and peace with God, a peace procured and bound up with the work of His Son.
To sum up—the realization in his own soul of the glorious subject of the gospel preserves the preacher from becoming a mere “sounding brass” and “tinkling cymbal “; the realization of its two glorious objects preserves Christians from glorifying a saved sinner rather than God, especially where his previous course of life has been very bad (he may have been an Indian chief, or a prize-fighter, or a chimneysweep, or a fiddler), and thus ruining, as far as they can, precious souls, for whom Jesus died, by setting them up on the pinnacle of vain glory; whereas the realization of the second object, even the formation of the church and its high and glorious calling, keeps both the convert and the preacher from relapsing to the low spiritual level of the professing religious world, which, especially in these closing days, ends but too often with wallowing in the mire and with rationalism, if not open infidelity.
As to the effects of the gospel: eternal life and peace for the believer, they do not depend of course—on the progress of our spiritual life, though carelessness and neglect as to the latter may result in overclouding, and even temporary bankruptcy of assurance and enjoyment of either.