The Message of God to Man.
Is then the message to man in what he, first needs clear and unmistakable?, Is that which is written in the Scriptures so plain that there can be no doubt even as to whether the reader has understood aright? Can difficulties be found as to this subject?
Blessed be God, His Word will not mock, as the world does, the man who seeks truth for his deepest and most heartfelt needs.
The need will lead him straight into the depths of, its wealth, and not into darkness, because of what the truth is.
He may be unacquainted With the fact that the question is raised in. the book deemed by many to be the first written book of Scripture, " How can man be just with God? " He may be ,
ignorant of the manner in which the subject is taken up, tested, illustrated, in precept, history and prophecy. And finally, at the end, after every test has been made and man is proved to have no righteousness in which to stand before God, the ground stated, in the first book of the volume is held out as the hope of 'the people. whose history is itself a testimony to their own ruin, and to the righteousness of God's ways; and the message in the prophets is to Israel,—as it is to all men, at all times—" The just shall live by faith."
All this 'illustrates the subject, but where the need is real, the substance and not the shadow will be sought. Certainly when the need of being justified before God is in reality felt, the Epistles, where these subjects are known be definitely and carefully taught, would be turned to, and the very first would answer the seeker's needs best. In turning to the Romans he would have no difficulty in understanding from the first chapter, that the rejection of the evidence of creation to a Creator renders all who reject it without excuse before Him; from the second, that man under law is brought in guilty by the breaking of the law, and without the law knows his guilt from his conscience; while the summing up in the third, leaves no possibility of Misunderstanding. The character of man is described according to God's estimate of him; and the manlier in which God has met his need it’s a sinner, by the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,, is plainly stated. The result of which is the statement, " By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight... therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith."
The Fact of Faith
The only question about which there could remain any doubt would be as to what the faith was by which God justified, and With reference to this it would be well to read on. For in the fourth chapter it is said, “Abraham believed God." Faith; then, is believing God.
The word of the Lord had come to Abraham at a time when his needs had Made themselves felt at his heart. And moreover, although all creature resources had failed him, with the message that God would undertake for him came a grace and power which were His. The promise was as distinct in what it said as was ' the test the statement brought. Could he trust God to accomplish that in which he 'lad known himself to fail? and would he acknowledge to be God's a power and grace that were outside the limits of his finite comprehension? And the Scriptures declare that, Abraham believed 'God, thereby becoming the father of the faithful. But there are, at the root of man's being, deeper needs’ than those through which God spoke to Abraham.
Man still with all his talents and progress has needs he cannot satisfy. Is God as resource less as he is to supply his need and meet the requirements of his heart and conscience?
The Message of God Concerning His Son.
The message of the Gospel concerning His Son Jesus Christ declares not the promise of what He will do, but the work He has accomplished. And he who genuinely desires to know how he may have peace with God, learns that righteousness is through believing on Him Who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. The in message then to the sinner to-day is as clear and distinct as that one in the past was to Abraham.
But to be justified by believing God is wholly contrary to the, religious propensities and other impulses of the natural heart and mind. The natural thought is, that the man himself must do Something in order to better himself and make himself more fit for God. The message to man in the Scripture is, that he must believe 'what (hid has done for His Son and accomplished by His Son. T his way may not be according to man's thought, but it is certainly according to the Scriptures which teach on this subject.
Difficulty From Confusion of Fact and Idea
There can be no difficulty, in understanding is written first, perhaps, some difficulty may be found in the attempt to grasp the idea conveyed the witness to this difficulty may be found, in many a commentary. But this wall again test the reality of the need in the heart, and will again be the guide, not to the idea ‘but, to the facts. Of Which the Scriptures speak., In attempting to grasp the idea the reader will find himself pursuing a phantom: The facts 'when all Was accomplished, and their worth; are declared in the. Scriptures.
Resurrection As a Fact
The fact of the resurrection puts an end to all conjecture and surmise as to whether man has to answer to God and is responsible to Him.
That which has been testified to, all can read for themselves in the Scriptures. The resurrection is the proof that God has in fact concerned Himself with man's personal responsibility, together with the deep needs arising there from; and it: is in view of what, He has accomplished and revealed Himself to be that the responsibility of rejecting the testimony to the resurrection must be assumed, or else the fact must be recognized.
The resurrection being a fact, the truth that it declares is incontrovertible. There is no qualification or equivocation in the testimony to the fact itself. Rather, the minutest details are given that the power mid the act of which it gives the proof might be faced and considered. " He whom God raised from the dead saw no corruption “as had been foretold. " Thou wilt not suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption. He (David) seeing' this before spake of, the resurrection of Christ." Acts 2:3131He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. (Acts 2:31).
The power the resurrection thus witnesses to, was contrary to the course of nature and was the proof that God Himself had interposed with an act that was peculiarly and directly His 1 Cor. 15
For the glory of the resurrection an analogy may he found in nature, but not one for' its power.
He whom God raised saw no corruption. By the Gospel Life and Incorruptibility are brought to light.
And When the little company of disciples were gathered together, the risen Lord stood in the midst of them, saying, "'Behold my hands and my feet, a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye See me have.'' They had the demonstrative evidence before them that God Himself had concerned. Himself with their needs. They had before them the evidence that could not but solemnize their hearts, and which they could not deny. God Himself had had to say to them. Whose was the act that had raised Him they had laid in the grave? Whose was the power displayed, before them and whose the glory? The living God was brought directly home to them by what He had done. And in the twentieth century, with the wonderful development of natural resources, and their subjugation to the will and intellect of man for his own needs as well as for his own glory, the act of the resurrection still stands without a parallel, in the most striking contrast to all the triumphs that science can boast of. It still gives its unequivocal testimony that God has acted. in this world With a power outside all human and even satanic calculation and understanding; and that He, by what He has done, has made known, both what His will is and His own power to carryall out in spite of sin 'and its consequences being existent facts in a world in which His will was to have effect. In and through the history of this world, God has His own purposes to fulfill, which He accomplishes by power and means that are in His hands, and already His act in this world has given the proof that the natural course of events and the apparently conclusive results of man's purposes can be suddenly and effectually broken into by a power that is His.
The Testimony of God
But the fact has done more than give the proof that there is a living and true God, not merely with whom man must have to do, but who has to do with man: It has also given the proof of what His will and counsel are and what is acceptable to Him.
It is God who has raised Jesus our Lord, thereby marking Him out as the Holy One, His beloved Son in whom is all His. And God, by what He has done, has manifested that the activity of His grace and power are engaged in giving an effect to all His counsels and love which center in the blessed Lord. Only 'One has ever in this world's history been found to have righteously bad a claim, by His worthiness; upon a Special and immediate act of divine power to vindicate His name and cause and to testify to His person and work. Many have been accorded public honor and glory in response to their acts or labors during their life-time, and others have had their names banded down in the roll of this world's glory. But one fact is common to all: From the grave they have not been claimed. Their glory is from man; not from God. It is. from the grave, as from the resurrection,, that the believer is taught by fact, that in himself he has not one whit more claim upon God than the vilest sinner The resurrection gives God's witness both as to Who it was upon the cross and as to the glory of the work there accomplished. It is the proof that it is the work on the cross that has been acceptable to Him and by which He has been glorified. The depth or the fullness of what was accomplished on the Cross we may not 'know,—what finite mind could fathom this?—but that it has been accepted we do know, and moreover from its being so we have proof of the necessity for it.
The Testimony From the Fact the Cross.
In the estimate man may form of himself, the of extent of his guilt before God, or the depth of the ruin in his own heart, or, on the other hand, the results of the development of his powers and talents, may be subjects of conjecture to him, but we must remember that it is the Cross that gives God's estimate of him. That bears His seal, as being His estimate. Man truly has a paramount position in this world, and his powers of mind are stupendous—but he is a sinner before God. And, as typified long before, the head in common With the offal had to meet with the same judgment and condemnation in the sin-offering. And He who undertook to answer the full claims of God's holiness again had to take the place of judgment and death.
It is then from the facts alone that peasant or professor can have positive assurance as to God's truth; and as, believers they are alike taught of God.
Their knowledge of God's truth depends not upon their theological acumen but upon what God has accomplished; and by this they are alike as believers taught of God and moreover' know with Certainty that what they believe, is His truth.
The Power of the Message
The Simplest soul finds the Scriptures speak to him from God, when need and conscience have created the desire for His word, while the profoundest scholar and theologian stumbles at the simplest truths when the sense of need and conscience are lacking; and' it' is this difficulty, of being right with God, that is used as an objection—and that by many Professing to believe the Scriptures to be His word—to going to the Scriptures to learn! It is a difficulty truly not found in the treatise of the theologian—his idea can be grasped apart from man's true state before God. It is human in its, character. 'And it is this difficulty that makes it seem preferable' and easier to get from the lips of men the declaration of the absolution of sins, rather than from the Word of God, that only speaks with God's authority and maintains His rights instead of usurping them.
The Testimony to the Faithfulness of God’s World.
It can be stated 'without fear of contradiction, that no one has ever come to God, in the way which the Scriptures have declared, that has not proved it to be His way, and that has not found His word faithful. And that no one ever attempted to secure; that which was promised in, his own, Way without laboring at his own charges and being conscious of barrenness and destitution underneath all profession to blessing or religion, knowing nothing of God's way of blessing, and proving that front God Himself he had received nothing.