WE shall now glance, for a little, at Paul’s preaching. He himself, as one converted directly by contact with the glory, was truly the fitting one to proclaim that which he calls “my gospel”— “the gospel of the glory of the Christ” (2 Cor. 4:44In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. (2 Corinthians 4:4))— “the gospel of the glory of the blessed God” (1 Tim. 1:1111According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. (1 Timothy 1:11)) committed to his trust. We do not find this phase of the gospel of God brought out in the Acts. “The gospel of the grace of God” (ch. 20:24) is there proclaimed; and, although the gospel of the glory truly brings in God’s grace pre-eminently, yet we must not confound the preaching throughout the Acts with that brought out in Paul’s epistles.
In Acts 13 Paul does go beyond anything the other Apostles preached; yet even that chapter does not give us what Paul designates as “my gospel.” Man is never told he is “dead in trespasses and sins” in the Acts; of course, historically, the gospel of the glory was proclaimed during the cents recorded, but we shall not find it there. Until man is pronounced a cumberer of the ground, as dead before God; glory cannot be for him, although One in glory can be preached to him. “As is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly,” is language we shall not find in the Acts. The highest phase of the gospel there proclaimed is as I have said, in ch. 13, namely, justification from all things. This is more than forgiveness; but it is not “the gospel of the glory of the blessed God,” though, of course, included in it.
Now, in Acts 13, how do we find the Gospel brought out? Does Paul begin with Jesus bearing the believers’ sins on the Cross? Nay. It is— “For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him (the ‘Savior Jesus’) not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him. And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulcher.” Is there a him here of One bearing sins? Is it not rather the malice and wickedness of man in nailing goodness and grace on a malefactor’s cross? Does Paul go on now to speak of that murdered One as He who “bore our sins in his own body on the tree?” Nay; he could not use the word “our” till he had believers to address. His next words are— “But God raised him”—the spurned One— “from among the dead.” What next do we read? What are the “glad tidings” he begins with— “the promise—which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus; as it is also written in the second Psalm, Thou art my Son (this fact is the foundation of all Paul’s preaching), this day have I begotten thee. And as concerning that he raised him up from among the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David.”
What were these “sure mercies? Just what our blessed Lord questioned the poor earthly Jews concerning, in Matt. 22— “What think ye of the Christ whose son is he?” They could only think of Him as David’s Son: they could not see Him as God’s Son—One fit only for heaven and glory. Hence their puzzled minds. “They say unto him, The Son of David. He saith unto them, ‘How then doth David in spirit call him Lord’, saying, “The Lord saith unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thy enemies thy footstool.” These things are “the sure mercies of David”—a rejected Messiah sitting as “Lord and Christ,” at God’s right hand in the glory.
David could comfort his heart, as we look at him as a type of the believing remnant chastened for their sin in common with the nation. “The child” born after the flesh must die. But will David be the loser after all? Nay; he can rise up, and eat and drink, to the astonishment of his servants; he can say, after he has “worshipped” the Lord, and returned to his own house to wait God’s purposes, “I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.” If David lost an heir “according to the flesh,” he gained an Heir in the glory—One to whom, as his Lord, he would “go” in common with all the heavenly family. He would become a heavenly man; 1 Cor. 15:4949And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. (1 Corinthians 15:49) will be true of David: he has sure and everlasting mercies of which Solomon was the pledge. These things Paul brings forth from “things new and old” as he draws out the desires of the new life of the very remnant David typified as he wept over his child.
Thus conscience is aroused in his believing quickened, perhaps, as he was uttering the words we have already been considering. How are they, to be associated with this heavenly Savior? Are they not sinners—yes, and transgressors tool Had He remained on earth as a Deliverer from their enemies around, they might follow Him, and not feel their need of forgiveness and a purged conscience. Yes, and be quickened souls too. But as they gaze upon “the sure mercies” their sins sink them in despair-they are more in number than the hairs of their heads. How have they found this out? Are they gazing on a Christ suffering for sins, the Just for the unjust? No; they are looking at the Lord at the right hand of David’s Lord, and feel as David felt himself, because he could thus gaze “in spirit.” Flesh cannot enter where those “sure mercies” are viewed. They want the cross near, for they are “heavenly.” It is sin that troubles them, not merely a craving for temporal ease from the Roman yoke. Their eyes have seen the Lord’s salvation, because they hear with quickened hearts of a Light to lighten (reveal) the Gentiles, and the Glory of Thy (the Lord’s) people Israel.
Nothing makes the quickened one so anxious for the Sin-bearer on the cross as a sight of the Lord Jesus in the glory. It needs no trouble to lead him back thither, seeing he knows where to find it, even where he was viewing the despised and world-rejected One as a proof of his heart’s malice. How fitting the order in Acts 13 Paul can bring forth the additional news with full power— “Be it known unto you therefore,” (on the grounds of these very “sure mercies,”) “men (and) brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.” “Yes, and more” and in him, every one believing, is justified from all things from which ye could not be justified in the law of Moses.”
In chapter 16, though we have not the order in which the glad tidings were brought out to the jailor at Philippi, yet does the language addressed to him as he utters the words, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved,” imply that a risen and heavenly Christ was first placed before his eyes— “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” It was not— “Believe on Jesus who was nailed to the cross for sin:” it was His title as an exalted Christ which was first uttered by Paul and Silas—the One whom God had made both Lord and Christ.”
We often lose much by not observing the order in which the names of Jesus are placed. When a short account of what the Apostles uttered is given us, we may be able to know whether they are fixing the eyes of their hearers on a risen Jesus or on a Messiah before He suffered, by carefully examining the order in which the titles of Christ occur. It is by no means the same thought to say. “Jesus Christ died for us,” as to say, “O Christ Jesus died for us.” In the former expression the mind may be carried from our Lord on earth and on the cross as the sin-bearer, on to resurrection and glory. Whereas, in the latter expression, the winds of those to whom the words are addressed are carried from a risen and ascended Lord back to the cross.
For instance, in 1 Cor. 15, when Paul declares or teaches to his brethren at Corinth the Gospel, he says — “For I delivered unto you, first of that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures; and that he was seen of Cephas, and last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.” His eye is on an ascended Christ. He is going to speak to them of resurrection and heaven and glory, and he fixes their eyes on Jesus up there, telling them He was the One who died and rose again. So, in the short account given us of the conversion of the Philippian jailor, the Lord Jesus Christ is the One who saves, and it is “the word of the Lord” which is spoken to him and all in his house.
In the 17th chapter we have Paul’s preaching among the Greeks, at Athens. What is the order there? Does he lead their minds and consciences to the cross where the Sin-bearer bore sins? Here are hardened idolatrous Gentiles, before him. Why not at once tell them of Him who bled and died for sinners such as they? Why not tell of the love of God in sending a Savior who righteously satisfied the claims of justice about sin? Would not such preaching at once reach the consciences and hearts of any of those present who might need a Savior? Ah! it was to find out the needy one—to lead such to that cross which they must see in order to ease their burdened consciences, that Paul does not thus speak of the cross first. And, as we shall see in the sequel, he was not allowed to go back to that peace-speaking place by the most of his hearers; although, by the very order they adopted, he had a severance made, and found out who were really anxious and wanted a heavenly place and a heavenly Christ.
Having spoken in language suitable to the kind of sinners lie was addressing, having declared what God was as Sovereign Ruler, he says— “Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at (overlooked), but now commandeth that all men everywhere should repent; because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world (the habitable earth) in righteousness in [the person of] the man whom he hath ordained, affording proof to all, in that he hath raised him from amongst the dead. And when they heard of resurrection of dead [people], some mocked and others said, “We will hear thee again concerning this.” Some might say, “Why disturb their minds by fixing their thoughts on a risen One, when they must need the cross first?” Was it not out of place to startle people, like the Athenians, with a fact that must at once arouse their reasonings and perplex their minds as natural men? Surely Jesus as the Sin-bearer could have been boldly proclaimed before leading the hearers on towards the glory? But such is not the order. Paul, it is true, is stopped ere he puts an exalted Jesus before his hearers. But he had said enough to sever the chaff from the wheat. Some became really anxious. To them he could preach Him who bore the sins of all believers. He drew out the anxious debtors of whom we have been speaking in our illustration. He gets the token that the conscience of some are in need of purgation. No doubt, when he again spoke to those who wanted to hear more of resurrection, he led them on to the presence of a God in light inaccessible. That God and that light must drive the soul either back to the cross, if quickened, or back to darkness as a hater of the light, if still possessing only nature-whether it be religious, intellectual feeling, or callous flesh.
A soul can be quickened without ever even hearing of the cross. The work on the cross is the foundation on which and by which all blessing can be given. But it is the Person of Jesus, as the Life, from which quickening comes: He gives life as One who died and rose again. When the anxious soul has found life by faith exercised towards Himself, as the One wanted-the One who can meet his need: when “the hem” is touched by the hand of faith—real faith—looking at Jesus anywhere, anyhow; the soul lives—and forever. Now the cross is consciously wanted by such a one, and peace follows just in proportion as that cross is seen to meet the various wants, as to sins, sin, the flesh, self, and man.
Peace is a large word. There is the peace of forgiveness (Luke 7:5050And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace. (Luke 7:50)); the peace of justification from all things (Rom. 5:11Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: (Romans 5:1)); the peace of justification from sin by the crucifixion of the old man (Rom. 6.); the peace of seeing Him made sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2. Cor. 5.); and the peace of being accepted in the Beloved, holy and without blame before the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ— “Love made perfect to us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world.” Nothing but the cross can bring peace to him who has life eternal; but the cross can bring no peace save where that life is present in the soul. Hence God’s order-resurrection and glory first proclaimed ‘ere the want of conscience is satisfied, by leading the soul to the cross where He who is in the glory, has put away all against the believing sinner. I bring a soul first to the place where Christ is, and then—having thus searched him for a token of need, as the piercings of the living and powerful word pass through biro, or the love of a Father’s Son makes him long to have all impediments removed that he may reach His person-I open up where Christ was but is not now.
When the Son told out the love of God in the words” He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, path everlasting life; and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life,” did he proclaim Himself as the One who was to become the Sin-bearer? Nay it was His person, and God’s love in sending Him as full of grace and truth, which He proclaimed. Anyone who wanted his need supplied, as He stood before man, got it fully met. If a longing one but touched the “fringe of his garment” in faith, life eternal was the result. It was in resurrection, and knowing He was risen, that the need of conscience could be met. The one already quickened must look back at the spot where the Lamb of God died who beareth away the sin of the world; a living Jesus is preached, and where He is as He speaks to us, ‘ere the soul—thus searched—is brought to see the cross of the Sin-bearer.
(Continued from page 8.)
(To be continued.)