THE Word of God differs essentially from any human book. We may take up the loftiest efforts of man’s genius, and with care and application may master their contents.
With “the oracles of God” it is, however, far different. Like the mighty ocean, they contain depths that will ever remain beyond our sounding; as the receding rainbow eludes the grasp of the child, who thinks to reach it by crossing over a field or two, so the infinite God, though brought so nearby His revelation of Himself in Christ, dwells ever “in light unapproachable.”
In the “Scripture of truth” we feel the impress of the divine mind, and are under the gaze of the all-seeing eye. Here only is the truth told as to man’s condition — truth which, once told, the natural conscience must needs bear witness to, but which all the religions of ancient and modern days dared never aver. Here, too, is the love of God, as expressed in the mission and death of the Son of God, to the conception of which no merely human mind ever rose; but when the priceless secret that “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)), is imparted by those divine yet human lips, we instinctively feel that this is a worthy and incomparable exhibition of the benevolence of the eternal God toward fallen and perishing man.
But not only in its plan but in its detail is the Book divine. “The words of the Lord are pure words” (Ps. 12:6). “Every word of God is pure” (Prov. 30:55Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. (Proverbs 30:5)). “The words which I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life,” said Christ Himself (John 6:6363It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. (John 6:63)). “Every Scripture is given by inspiration of God” echoes Paul the apostle (2 Tim. 3:1616All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: (2 Timothy 3:16)). Herein lies the deep importance of the allegiance of the Christian to the very words of Scripture, and to every Scripture contained in the blessed volume. Sometimes well-intentioned friends of revelation forget that, even in the nicest detail, the Word of God should not be altered or adulterated; else is the whole structure dislocated, as we are told that a pebble thrown into the sea will in time displace every drop of water. We have heard a preacher repeat more than once in a discourse from Romans 5:2020Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: (Romans 5:20) that “the law entered that sin might abound,” an alteration, it is true, of but a word, but one which nullifies the reasoning of the apostle, and indeed states of the blessed God that which is untrue and derogatory, as we may see when we examine the verse a little in detail (cf. James 1:13, 1413Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: 14But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. (James 1:13‑14)).
As is well known, in the doctrinal portion of this most important epistle the apostle treats of two subjects — “sins” and “sin” — the acts that render me guilty, and the nature that produced them. Chapter 5:11 Concludes the first subject. The next verse commences the examination of “sin,” the root of the tree, that had borne the terrible fruits alluded to in the first part. “Sin” entered by one man Adam, and the penalty, death, passed universally upon the human family. From Adam to Moses — a period of something like five and twenty centuries — according to the graphic language employed, “death reigned.” In undisputed sway “the king of terrors” wielded his grim scepter, rendering men “through fear of death all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb. 2:1515And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. (Hebrews 2:15)).
Then came the law. It is not here to our purpose to consider the circumstances under which it was given, but merely to notice what God says was His object in permitting its entrance into the scene of man’s responsibility. “The law entered that the offense might abound” (Rom. 5:2020Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: (Romans 5:20)); “it was added,” says the same writer elsewhere, “for the sake of transgression” (Gal. 3:1919Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. (Galatians 3:19)). Now that definite prohibitions are given, within the circumscribed circle of the people of Israel, sin takes a new character, that of “offense” or “transgression” — that is, a perverse will is discovered, which works by disobedience to a known commandment. Clearly this is far worse. Man is proved under law, not only to have a weak and sinful nature prone to wander, and proclivities towards that which the holy nature of God cannot approve; but he is discovered to be at enmity with God, and as a result obtains from the law the curse that it pronounced upon every infringement of its precepts.
So that we have brought together the two distinctive companies of mankind — the Jew with “the offense” abounding inheriting the curse (cf. Gal. 3:1010For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. (Galatians 3:10)); and the Gentile “under sin,” with death reigning still, “having no hope” and being “without God in the world” (Eph. 2:1212That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: (Ephesians 2:12)). How thankful we well may be, that it was not only “where the offense abounded” that grace has superabounded. This would have left out the poor Gentile hopeless and helpless to his doom. How blessed and admirable is the change as embodied in the sentence at the head of this paper! “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” Where did sin not abound? Universal as its presence and power is in this creation, the free and undeserved favor of a Saviour-God has been more abundantly manifested.
Free as the air we breathe, wide as the open canopy of heaven, “grace” now “reigns through righteousness.” Another has now the throne and the crown, and in Him, the blessed glorified Saviour, grace reigns triumphant through righteousness unto life eternal. Not yet has He taken the throne in this world, this would be to crush the rebels. Now He lives to be their Saviour, and it is your happy portion, dear fellow-believer, to tell of such a reversal of the havoc that the first man wrought when he by his sin bequeathed such a solemn heritage to his posterity. “For as by the disobedience of one man the many were constituted sinners, so by the obedience of One shall the many be constituted righteous.”
F. L.