There are two very important links in Christianity which we should seek to understand, namely, first, the link of everlasting life; and, secondly, the link of personal communion. These links, being perfectly distinct, should never be confounded; and, being intimately connected, should never be separated. The former is the ground of our security; the latter, the secret spring of our enjoyment and he source of all our fruitfulness. That can never be broken; this may be snapped by a thousand things.
Seeing, then, that these links are of such immense importance, let us reverently and prayerfully enter upon the examination of them in the divine light of inspiration.
And, first, then, as to the precious link of everlasting life, we cannot possibly do better than quote a few plain passages of scripture setting forth whence it comes, what it is, when, and how, it is formed.
But, first of all, it must be distinctly borne in mind that man, in his natural state, knows nothing of this link, " That which is born of the flesh is flesh." There may be much that is truly amiable, great nobility of character, great generosity, strict integrity; but there is no eternal life. The first link is unknown. It matters not how you cultivate and elevate nature, you cannot, by any possibility, form the grand link of everlasting life. You may make it moral, learned, religious, but so long as it is mere nature, there is no eternal life. You may select all the very finest moral virtues, and concentrate them in one individual, and that individual may never have felt so much as a single pulsation of everlasting life. It is not that these virtues and qualities are not good and desirable in themselves; no one in his senses would question that. Whatever is morally good in nature is to be estimated at its proper value. No one would think, for a moment, of placing a sober, industrious, amiable, well-principled man on a level with a drunken, idle, cross-grained spendthrift. Looked at from a social and moral point of view, there is, obviously, a wide and very material difference. But, be it clearly understood, and well-remembered, that we can never by the finest virtues and noblest qualities of the old creation purchase a place in the new; we can never by all the excellencies of the first Adam, even if concentrated in one individual, establish a title to membership in the Second. The two are totally distinct—the old and the new—the first and the Second. " That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." " Therefore, if any man be in Christ he is a new creation; old things are passed away; behold all things are become new."
Nothing can be more explicit, nothing more conclusive, than the last quoted passage from the fifth chapter of Second Corinthians. " Old things" of what kind so ever they be, " are passed away." They are not recognized as having any existence in the new creation, wherein, " all things are of God." The old foundation has been completely removed, and new foundations laid in redemption. Nor is there so much as a single particle of the old material worked up into the new. "All things are become new"—"All things are of God." The old creation "bottles" have been flung aside, and redemption bottles set in their stead. The old creation " garment" has been cast away, and the new, the spotless robe of redemption, substituted. In this fair robe man's hand never wove a thread, nor set a stitch. How do we know? Ηow can we speak with such confidence and authority? For the best of all reasons, because the divinely authoritative, and therefore absolutely conclusive voice of holy scripture declares that, in the new creation, " All things are of God." The Lord be praised that it is so! It is this that makes all so secure—that places all so entirely beyond the reach of the enemy's power. He cannot touch anything or anyone in the new creation. Death is the limit of Satan's domain. The grave forms the boundary of his dominion. But the new creation begins at the other side of death—it opens upon our enraptured gaze at heaven's side of that tomb where the Prince of Life lay buried—it pours the brilliant beams of its glories around us in the midst of a scene where death can never enter, where sin and sorrow are unknown, where the hiss of the serpent can never be heard, nor his hateful trail be seen. " All things are of God."
Now, it would remove a host of difficulties and perplexities, and simplify matters amazingly, if this point of the new creation were clearly understood. If we look around on what is called the religious world, or the professing church, what do we see? A large amount of effort to improve man, in his Adamic, his natural, or old creation condition. Philanthropy, science, philosophy, religion, are all brought into play; every species of moral leverage is brought to bear, for the purpose of raising man in the scale of existence. What do men mean when they talk, as they often do, of " elevating the masses? " How far can they go in their operations? To what point can they elevate them? Can they raise them into the new creation? Clearly not, seeing that in that creation all things are of God.
But, further, who, or what, are these " masses " that are sought to be elevated? Are they born of the flesh, or born of the Spirit? Of the flesh confessedly and assuredly. Well, then, " That which is born of the flesh is flesh." You may elevate it as high as you please. You may apply the most powerful lever, and raise it to the very loftiest point attainable. Educate, cultivate, sublimate it as you will. Let science, philosophy, religion (so-called), and philanthropy bring all their resources to bear; and what has been done? You cannot make it spirit—you cannot bring it into the new creation—you cannot form the first grand link of everlasting life. You have done absolutely nothing towards man's best, his spiritual, his eternal interests. You have left him still in his old Adamic state, his old creation circumstances; you have left him in his liabilities, his responsibilities, his sins, his guilt; you have left him exposed to the righteous wrath of a sin-hating God. He may be more cultivated in his guilt, but he is guilty all the while. Cultivation cannot remove guilt; education cannot blot out sins; civilization cannot remove from man's horizon the dark and heavy clouds of death and judgment.
Let us not be misunderstood. We do not want to make little of education or civilization, true philanthropy or true philosophy. We say, distinctly, let them go for what they are really worth, let them be estimated at their true value. We are ready to allow as large a margin as may be demanded, in which to insert all the possible advantages of education, in all its branches; and having done so, we return with accumulated force to our grand thesis, namely, that in " elevating the masses," you are elevating that which has no existence before God, no place in the new creation; and we repeat it, with emphasis, and urge it with energy, that until you get the soul into the new creation, you have done absolutely nothing for it, with respect to eternity, to heaven, and to God. True, you may smooth man's way through this world; you may remove some of the roughness from the highway of human life; you may dandle the flesh in the delusive lap of luxury and ease; all this you may do, and much more; you may wreath man's brow with every species of laurel that ever was won in the various arenas in which men have carried on the competitive struggle for fame; you may adorn his name with all the titles that ever were bestowed by mortal upon his fellow mortal, and after all this, you may leave him in his sins, and exposed to death and eternal damnation. If the first grand link be not formed, the soul is like a vessel broken from her moorings, and driven over the watery waste, without either rudder or compass.
Now, we most earnestly desire to press this point upon the attention of the reader. We deeply feel its immense practical importance. We believe there is hardly any truth to which the devil offers more fierce and constant opposition than the truth of the new creation. He knows well its mighty moral influence, its power to lift the soul up out of present things, to produce deadness to the world, and practical and habitual elevation above the things of time and sense. Hence his efforts to keep people ever engaged in the hopeless work of trying to elevate nature and improve the world. He has no objection to morality, to religion as such, in all its forms. He will even use Christianity itself as a means of improving the old nature. Indeed his masterpiece is to tack on the Christian religion as a "new piece" upon the "old garment" of fallen nature. You may do what you like, provided you leave man in the old creation; for Satan knows full well that so long as you leave him there, you have left him in his clutches. All in the old creation is in the grasp of Satan, and within the full range of his guns. All in the new creation is beyond him. " He that is born of God keepeth himself and that wicked one toucheth him not." It is not said that the believer keepeth himself and that wicked one toucheth him not. The believer is a complex being, having two natures—the old and the new, the flesh and the Spirit, and if he does not watch, " that wicked one" will speedily touch him, upset him, and cut out plenty of sorrowful work for him. But the divine nature, the new creation, cannot be touched, and so long as we walk in the energy of the divine nature, and breathe the atmosphere of the new creation, we are perfectly safe from all the assaults of the enemy.
And, now, let us proceed to inquire how it is we get into the new creation—how we become possessed of the divine nature—how this link of everlasting life is formed. A quotation or two from the word will suffice to open this point to us. " God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Mark these words, reader, observe the connection, " Believeth in him—" Have everlasting life." This is the link—simple faith. Thus it is we pass from the old creation, with all its belongings, into the new creation with all its belongings. This is the precious secret of the new birth—faith wrought in the soul by the grace of God the Holy Ghost—faith that takes God at His word, that sets to its seal that God is true—faith that links the soul with a risen Christ, the Head and beginning of the New Creation.
Take another quotation, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my words, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment; but is passed from death unto life." Here is the link again. " Believeth on me "—" Hath everlasting life." Nothing can be more simple. By natural birth we enter the precincts of the old creation, and become heirs of all that appertained to the first Adam. By spiritual birth, we enter the precincts of the new creation, and become the heirs of all that appertains to the Second Adam. And if it be asked, what is the secret of this great mystery of the spiritual birth? the answer is, "Faith." "He that believeth on me." Hence, if the reader is one who believes in Jesus, according to the language of the above passages, he is in the new creation—he is a possessor of the divine nature—be is linked on to Christ, by a link which is perfectly indissoluble. Such an one can never perish. No power of earth or hell, men or devils can ever snap that link of everlasting life which connects all Christ's members with their risen Head in glory, and with one another.
And let the reader note particularly that, in reference to the link of eternal life, and its formation, we must take God's thoughts in place of our own; we must be governed exclusively by the word of God, and not by our own vain reasonings, foolish imaginings, and ever changing feelings. Moreover, we must be careful not to confound the two links which, though intimately connected, are perfectly distinct. We must not displace them, but leave them in their divine order. The first does not depend upon the second; but the second flows out of the first. The second is as much a link as the first; but it is second, and not first. All the power and malice of Satan cannot snap the first link; the weight of a feather may snap the second. The first link endureth forever; the second may be broken in a moment. The first link owes its permanency to the work of Christ for us, which was finished on the cross, and to the word of God to us, which is settled forever in heaven; the second link depends upon the action of the Holy Ghost in us, which may be, and alas! is, interfered with by a thousand things, in the course of a single day. The former is based upon Christ's victory for us; the latter is based upon the Spirit's victories in us.
Now, it is our firm conviction that thousands get shaken as to the reality and perpetuity of the first link of everlasting life, by reason of failure in the maintenance of the second link of personal communion. Something occurs to snap the latter, and they begin at once to question the existence of the former. This is a mistake; but it only serves to show the immense importance of holy vigilance in our daily walk so that the link of personal communion may not be broken by sin, in thought, word, or deed; or» if it should be broken, of having it instantly restored by self-judgment and confession, founded upon the death and advocacy of Christ. It is an undeniable fact, confirmed by the sad experience of thousands of true saints of God, that when the second link is snapped, it is next to impossible to realize the first. And this, though so vitally important to us, is, in reality, but a secondary thing; for, surely, the suspension of our communion is a small thing when compared with the dishonor done to the cause of Christ, and the grief offered to the Holy Ghost by that which occasioned the suspension.
May the Spirit of God work in us mightily to produce watchfulness, prayer fullness, seriousness, and earnestness; that nothing may occur to interrupt our communion, but that the two links may be understood and enjoyed in their due place and order, to the glory of God by us, the stability of our peace in Him, and the integrity and purity of our walk before Him!