WE were reading the other day a paper by a well-known writer on “The love of Christ and the experiences that flow from it.” A sentence or two on the first page struck us very much. The more so, perhaps, because our own mind had been running in the same direction. This is what he says: —
“There are two points seen distinctly in our salvation and in the ways of God. The first is God bringing His thoughts to pass about us in grace; the second is the dealings of God with us to bring us into the enjoyment of them. I am sure we ought to take heed to the difference between these two things and to hold both distinctly. The first is as sure, settled, and steadfast as God Himself is, because ‘Hath He said, and shall He not do it?’ But the other is His work also, and it is a process that must be carried on in our souls.”
It is upon those two points that we want to say a few words.
First, the blessings wherewith God has blessed His saints have been freely bestowed on all of them alike. They are the gifts of His grace — that is, they are neither inherited by right, nor do we acquire them by anything of a meritorious nature that we can do. He gives them of His own free favor. Unlike an earthly patrimony, which is often unequally distributed, the blessings with which God enriches His children belong in equal measure to every member of His family. No one has more than another, and no one less. They all share alike. Every spiritual blessing is the assured portion of the youngest believer, nor is it possible for the oldest to have more. All that love could give has been given, and no labor on our part can enlarge the boundaries of our spiritual inheritance. If the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings, it is clear that more than “all” none can have. But when we speak of the soul being led into the knowledge and conscious possession of them by the Holy Spirit, then we speak of another thing. But more of this anon.
If we name some of the spiritual blessings which the infinite grace of God has made ours, it will be seen that there is no difference between the believer of yesterday and the one who has known Christ and served Him faithfully from youth to old age. Take the name of Father. It indicates the relationship in which we have been set — that of children. “Beloved, now are we the children of God” (1 John 3:22Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)). It is plain that in this there can be no degrees. The babes in the family of God are His children now. They will not be more so at any later period of their Christian life, not even when they are in glory with Christ. In our own families this is never doubted. The new-born babe, cradled in his mother’s arms and dandled on her knees, is as much her child as that other son who is perseveringly pushing his way to the first form at school, and whose growing intelligence is the delight and pride of his parent’s heart. There is no difference. So is it in the family of God. All there are His dear children, born of Him and sealed with the Spirit of His Son (Gal. 4:66And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. (Galatians 4:6)).
The same may be said of other blessings. There is the justification of the believer — his clearance from every charge of guilt. “By Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses” (Acts 13:3939And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. (Acts 13:39)). In this there can be no measures. The believing soul just starting on his Christian course is as completely justified as was “Paul the aged” when he said: “I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.” The young recruit and the veteran with scars received in many a conflict with the foe, the newly enrolled disciple only beginning to decipher the first letters of the Christian alphabet, and the advanced scholar at home among the profoundest truths of the Bible, are alike justified before God. There is no difference. God has justified them both, and none can condemn or lay aught to their charge (Rom. 8:3333Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. (Romans 8:33)).
And it is equally true if we speak of the believer’s fitness for heaven. “Giving thanks unto the Father, who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light” (Col. 1:1212Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: (Colossians 1:12)). Note those words, “Who hath made us meet,” not “Who is making us meet.” And this was said of all the saints at Colosse, and it is assuredly true of all saints today. We are now dealing with a point that is not clearly seen by every Christian. Many think that our fitness for heaven is in proportion to the progress we make in personal sanctification. In their judgment it is a matter of growth, and as a necessary consequence some saints (all believers are called saints in Scripture) are more fit for heaven than others because they are more devoted to Christ and have made greater progress in the divine life. We believe this to be a profound mistake. Do we, then, make little of devotedness and of spiritual progress? God forbid! But we distinguish between things that differ. Observe afresh the reading of Colossians 1:12: “Who hath made us meet.” It is perfectly done, and nothing can be added to make it more complete. From whence, then, is our fitness derived? We answer, first of all, that, on the ground of the One Sacrifice for sins offered on Calvary, the believer’s sins and iniquities shall be remembered no more (Heb. 10:1717And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. (Hebrews 10:17)). They are forever gone — blotted out, cast into the depths of the sea. Clean, clean as the blood of Jesus can make him, so is he in God’s sight. Nor is he ever otherwise. “He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel” (Num. 23:2121He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel: the Lord his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them. (Numbers 23:21)). Plenty of both if you examine their practical ways, but in “the vision of the Almighty” it had no place. The eye of God sees our sins no more. The Blood, the precious blood of Christ, covers them and hides them out of sight forever.
But not only so, the believer has been born again. He is a new creation in Christ; he is God’s handiwork, “created in Christ Jesus unto good works” (Eph. 2:1010For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)). This is not poor fallen human nature made better; the flesh improved; our old man revived and set upon his feet again. “Our old man has been crucified with Christ,” says Paul in Romans 6:66Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. (Romans 6:6). How, then, can it be made better and get a new start? No, there is no betterment of “our old man.” Thank God, there is a new man. “If anyone be in Christ, there is a new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17,17Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17) N.Tr.). Thus cleansed from their sins and a new creation in Christ Jesus, all believers are made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. In this, too, there is no difference, inasmuch as our fitness to stand before God is the fruit of the redemption work of Calvary and of our being “in Christ.”
And so we might go on naming, one after another, the spiritual blessings freely bestowed on us. But we must turn to another side of the truth in which there are undoubtedly varying measures, and in which the soul should be making progress.
It will be evident to every reflective mind that such things as these of which we have been speaking are revealed in the Holy Scriptures that we might really possess them in the faith of our souls. Otherwise, though they are all ours, they yield no spiritual increase, we do not become enriched by them, and we miss the good they are intended to bring. Diligence of soul is called for, a searching of the Word of God with an earnest desire to know what is made known there, together with prayer for teaching which the Holy Spirit alone can give. Without this we shall starve in the midst of plenty and be poor though boundless riches are waiting to be claimed. And when we begin to be in earnest on this line, then experiences begin and God deals with us to bring us to the real and true knowledge of things, which, perhaps, we have known in the letter long ago.
Take Rom. 7, for example. It is a deeply experimental chapter. It describes, not true Christian experience, but the experience of many true Christians. In speaking thus we are not playing upon words, for the difference is very great. Now, what are two of the main lessons the soul learns by the painful processes so vividly portrayed?
First, “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) good does not dwell” (vs. 18). The discovery is made that no good is there, not the smallest particle of it. There is no tiny germ which under holy influences might grow and develop into something good.
“The flesh” is wholly and hopelessly evil. Can a (rotten apple be made sound again, or a bad egg ever become fresh and sweet?
Secondly, “How to perform that which is good I find not... When I would do good, evil is present with me” (verse 18:21.). The soul is unable to attain to the good it longs to reach. It is without strength. It strives to conquer the evil it finds within, but is baffled, beaten back, and discomfited. It labors with all its might to come up to the standard the Law requires, but never succeeds. Worn out and utterly exhausted, it is obliged at last to give up the contest and, to cry: “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me?” Now let me ask, Was all this only true of the individual when he had learned those lessons? Nay, it had been always true. Goodness and strength he had never had. But what possibly he would have confessed in terms long before had now been learned experimentally. “I know” is not now mental light, but deep inward knowledge. To that point the soul had to be brought that it might go on to understand and enjoy by divine teaching the blessedness of being “in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:11There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Romans 8:1))
To pursue this a step further. Look at the opening statement of Rom. 8. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” Is not every saint “in Christ Jesus”? Can anyone receive the forgiveness of sins through faith in Him and the gift of the Holy Spirit and not be “in Christ Jesus”? Impossible! But is every converted soul intelligently and consciously there? We think not. Why, the experiences described in Rom. 7 are the experiences of one who is passing in the consciousness of his soul from Adam to Christ — from Adam, whose disobedience overwhelmed all his posterity in one common ruin, to Christ, whose obedience even unto death brings all who are His out of the Adam ruin, into a new standing and condition before God. But is a person only “in Christ Jesus” when the blessedness of all this breaks in upon his soul? Nay, he was there before. In “the vision of the Almighty” he was there from the first moment he had believed in Christ Jesus and been sealed with the Holy Spirit. But what is true of us in God’s sight is made true in our souls by the ministry of the truth and the power of the Holy Ghost. To stop short of this last is to suffer great loss. It is to have riches without really possessing them, like a man having land under the surface of which are rich mineral deposits who either does not know that they are there, or, if knowing, does not delve and dig for them.
And the same line of argument might be pursued in reference to other great Christian truths. It would carry us too far to discuss them. Enough has been said to show that many truths have more sides than one. It is the forgetfulness of this that sometimes leads to misunderstandings. We are apt to press one side as if there were no other. There is danger in that. The thoughts of God about His people are revealed in the Holy Scriptures, and to the Scriptures we must go if we would learn them. But, then it is also true that it is the office of the Holy Spirit to lead us into the knowledge and enjoyment of them, so that they become glorious realities to us, separating us by their sanctifying power from the world and unto God. Hence the importance of our not grieving the Holy Spirit by indifference and worldly ways. The Corinthians were doing this, and the Apostle had to tell them that he had given them milk to drink, for they were not able to be fed with meat (1 Cor. 3:22I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. (1 Corinthians 3:2)). So was it with the Hebrews. They had become such as had need of milk (Heb. 5:1212For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. (Hebrews 5:12)). It was to their reproach. Yet to these same Corinthians the apostle said: “All things are yours” (1 Cor. 3:2121Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; (1 Corinthians 3:21)). And all things are ours, every spiritual blessing in Christ. In this we may rejoice and bless God, the Giver of them all. But let us not be content with knowing that it is so. Let it be our constant prayer that what is truly, really, alienably ours, as the gift of God, may also be known and possessed by our souls in the power of the Spirit.
W. B.