We have seen how firm and immovable (because divine) is the foundation on which our peace with God rests, and how vain every attempt to obtain it in our own (i.e., human) way, instead of that ordained by God. That peace with God we acquire by faith, which does not look at our poor heart, but at God and His Son Jesus Christ, and His written word and testimony as to the complete and all-sufficient work of Jesus Christ, and finds rest and peace there, where God Himself rests, forever satisfied in all His claims.
God then by His Spirit fills the heart, of one who has been justified by faith and become a child of God, “with joy and peace in believing;” so that in the quiet assurance of faith we may enjoy that peace procured by Jesus Christ. Every believer, who has peace with God, knows this from God's own word (Rom. 15:13) and from his own experience, which is very different from making that peace with God dependent upon our experience and feelings.
True peace is deep and lasting and something far more solid than mere joy, which often is of a transitory and superficial nature. Peace with God, on the contrary, rests on that which has been settled for evermore. In Matt. 13 the Lord refers to a class of souls who receive the word with joy, yet wither and fall away when the heat of tribulation and persecution arises. Where the grace of God is perceived, and self for a moment lost sight of, there may be much joy, without the conscience being purged, and therefore there is no peace. The eye of faith looks. at God and His Son Jesus Christ; unbelief looks at self and our own heart.
I have dwelt more explicitly on this first part of our blessed relationship to God, which forms the subject of our meditations, because it is the foundation for all that follows; true enjoyment and realization would be impossible without a clear perception, by faith, of this foundation. Thus it will be possible to deal more concisely with the following, though no less blessed, privileges of grace, they being the natural result, as has just been said, of an unbroken peace with God, and closely connected with it. Concerning then,
1. Our past, we have peace with God. All our past) that is, everything connected with the old man, not only the sins, committed by us, but also sin, which is in us, that is, all that we are by nature) has been dealt with, put away and settled as to every believer. The result of it is: Perfect unbroken peace with God.
2. As to the present: Jesus Christ, through whom we have peace with God, has also, as being our living way, opened up for us an access to God's blessed presence in the unclouded sunshine of His favor. As that dying believer triumphantly exclaimed,
“Not a spot within,
Not a cloud above.”
“Yes, such cases there are indeed,” I hear some readers of the old school say, “on the death-bed of some pious Christians, where God in His mercy grants them such a peaceful cloudless sunset after many struggles and earnest wrestling in prayer. But as to me, I have not yet attained to being able to say, 'Not a spot within, not a cloud above.' “To such I can only say: The difference between us, dear friend, is just this: you are speaking of the sunset, and I of the sunrise. You have been taught to look at that unbroken peace with God and the unclouded sunshine connected therewith, as being the goal of a Christian's course of life, whilst I, and I trust many of the Christian readers of these pages, have learned, through the grace of God and from His own word, to look at it as the starting post of our Christian race. In the very first verse of our chapter (v.) of the Epistle to the Romans we find this unbroken peace with God. Every one who simply believes what is written in the word of God, that “the blood of His Son Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin,” and that those who thus worship God have no more conscience of sins, and therefore, liberty to enter into the holiest through the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He has consecrated through the vail, that is to say, His flesh, is enabled already now to chime in with the triumphal strain of that dying Christian man.
“Not a spot within,
Not a cloud above.”
Many souls confound “no more conscience of sins” with consciousness of sins, and thus are kept in a constant state of uncertainty. Only the true Christian worshipper can draw nigh into God's thrice holy presence with a perfect conscience, i.e. a conscience which has been thoroughly purged through the blood of Jesus Christ. How could we otherwise dare as worshippers to approach Him before Whom even His holy angels cover their faces? It would be nothing less than the most daring and unholy boldness, to approach God as worshippers even with one single spot on our conscience; just as it would be a gross affront to the majesty of a king, if anyone would dare to appear in his presence in an unclean attire, or even with one spot upon it. The brilliancy of the light surrounding the person of the King would at once expose the spot, and the irreverent intruder expelled into the darkness without.
What then does it mean to have “no more conscience of sins”? (Heb. 10:2.) It simply means that the conscience of the worshipper who approaches God has been so thoroughly purged, that is, made perfect through the precious blood of Jesus Christ Which “cleanseth from all sin,” that the worshipper, in drawing nigh, can appear there without any consciousness of guilt upon him—yea, justified (Rom. 5:1), fearless, nay, with holy boldness and perfect confidence and liberty. For he knows that the perfect light of God's holy presence, which would expose the smallest speck or stain, makes manifest the precious blood sprinkled on the mercy-seat and before it, which has cleansed him from every sin. The blood was sprinkled on the mercy-seat in the sight of God, who looks at the blood, and not at the sin that has been put away by the blood. It was sprinkled before the mercy-seat in the sight of the approaching worshipper, as a proof that God will “no more remember his sins and transgressions.” Thus the worshipper can appear and stand before God with a purged conscience without any sense of guilt, that is, with a perfect conscience.
But it is not only with a perfect conscience that the Christian worshipper—one who has peace with God, appears before Him, but also with perfect (though holy) liberty and confidence of heart. If God (in Heb. 10:17) had only said, “I will pardon your sins and transgressions” (not bring you into judgment for them), it would give peace to the conscience, but not to the heart. It would be similar to a child who having offended its father, but repented of and confessed its sin, had obtained pardon and freedom from punishment. The child then would appear without fear in the presence of its father, having no longer an evil conscience before him. But suppose he saw in the face of his father—no cloud indeed, but—sadness at the offense that had been committed, what would be the effect? The conscience of the child would be at peace and free before his father, but his heart would not feel free and at liberty in his presence, he would be shy and would keep at a distance. But if on the contrary the child perceived by the smiling face of the father, that he had not only forgiven the offense, but did not longer think of it, he would approach his father with a free and confident heart and with a grateful and joyful face, and enjoy, as hitherto, the father's love and favor without hindrance, though with a humbled and chastened joy, which would not in the least impede his liberty, and only give it its proper subdued and reverential character.