Throughout the years of the Old Testament, God was showing His rich mercy, but all this was done with a certain distance and reserve, God remaining still in His own sanctuary, though He was thus gracious. He met the need of a sinner, but He was still in the temple, in the holiest of all. He met the need of His people in the desert, but it was by remaining still in heaven. He met the disease of a poor leper, but it was only after such a leper had been separated, outside the camp. In each case there was a style in the action that spoke of distance from the object of His love and goodness.
God Near Us
The Lord Jesus, God manifest in the flesh, is seen doing the same works of divine love and power, but there is altogether another style in those same actions; the reserve — the distance — is gone. We see God, not withdrawn into the holiest, but abroad in this ruined world. He pardons, but He stands beside the sinner to do it. He feeds, but He is at the very table with those that are fed. He heals, but He puts forth His hands on as many as were diseased. And there is in this a “glory that excelleth,” so that the former has no glory by reason of it. How we should bless Him for this display of Himself! It is the same God of love and power in both, but He has increased in the brightness of His manifestations.
The religious rulers tried to keep God and the people separate, for it was a great interference with them; it trespassed on their places. “Who can forgive sins but God only?” — and to them, God was in heaven. The Son of Man forgiving sins on earth was a sad disturbance of that by which they lived in credit and plenty in the world. But whether they received it or not, this was the way of the Son on earth. He encouraged the happy and confident approach of all needy ones to Him. He brought the blessing home to every man’s door.
Faith That Understood
He came into the world to be used by sick and needy sinners, and the faith that understood and used Him accordingly was its due answer. We see this in the action of those who, breaking up the roof, let down the bed whereon the sick of the palsy lay “into the midst before Jesus.” There was no ceremoniousness in this — nothing of the ancient reserve of the temple. It was a strong expression of faith and according to the mind of Jesus, so that, on seeing their faith, without further to do, His heart uttered itself in an expression as full and strong: “Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.”
Happy faith which can thus break down partition walls! In the lively, happy impression of this truth through the Spirit, the soul tastes something of heaven. What blessedness to know that this is the way of God our Saviour! It is only divine love that can account for it. But the rulers did not like it. Their interest and credit in the world would keep the forgiveness of sins still in the hand of Him who was in heaven.
But even in our day, much occasion has been given for this principle to live and act just as vigorously. There may have been the assertion of grace and the presenting of the marvelous condescending grace of the dispensation, but those who have asserted it have not carried themselves towards it and in the presence of it, with that reverence, that holiness of confidence, which alone became them. And this has given man’s religiousness occasion to revive.
The Old Religion
Many are doing what they can to withdraw the Lord to that place which He has forever abandoned. They are making Him appear to build again the things which He had destroyed. While they would protect the holiness of Christ, they obscure His grace. They are seeking to do a service for Him that grieves Him most deeply. They are teaching man that He is an austere Master; they withdraw Him to the place where it is felt to be a fearful thing to plant one’s foot.
But religiousness is neither faith nor righteousness. With the Pharisees it was adopted as a relief for a bad conscience or a cover for evil; in them it was, therefore, opposed to faith. During His earthly ministry, the Lord sought to lead man away from their own reasonings and calculations, to Himself and His works. How simple! How precious! And on this hangs the grand distinction between faith and religiousness. Man’s religion gives the soul many a serious thought about itself and many a devout thought about God. But God’s religion gives the soul Jesus and the works and words of Jesus.
J. G. Bellett, adapted