IF there should be a contradiction between anything which God has said and that which man may say, on the same subject, whose words are bound to stand?
Well, that is easily answered, “God is stronger than man”: and on that score alone He is sure to succeed; but that is not the only reason why He should do so. “God,” we read, “cannot lie.” He can do all things but that. Man, on the other hand, is naturally false. “Let God be true and every man a liar,” is the necessary conclusion of the highest wisdom (see Rom. 3:44God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. (Romans 3:4)), where God is seen in the light of the truth, and man in the darkness of the lie that resulted from his fall in Eden.
“Every man a liar,” is indeed a painful and humbling verdict, but it is absolutely correct.
It is not a question of the number of lies told, whether called black lies or white. For, in this case, we all differ; but, down at bottom, in the fallen nature of all men there is an inherent principle of falsehood. “The heart,” we read, “is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked”; and that being so, what sort of crop can be expected?
Certain soils favor a certain vegetation, and the soil of the heart of man produces a veritable luxuriance of evil. “Out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts,” and then follows a catalog of twelve sins of various degrees and intensity, flowing from these “evil thoughts,” and these again from “the heart of men” (see Mark 7:21, 2221For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: (Mark 7:21‑22)). What a sin-creating machine must this wicked little heart be! Well, then, how can you expect anything true to come out of it? That is just the question. “In me,” said the Apostle Paul―one who of all others had carried out the old philosophic advice: “Man, know thyself,”― “in me,” he said, “(that is, in my flesh), dwelleth no good thing” (Rom. 7:1818For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. (Romans 7:18)). Mark that! No good thing dwells in the flesh, either of thought, word, or deed; so that the above verdict is neither wrong nor too severe.
Whose words should stand?
The question need hardly be asked. But what wonderful patience on the part of God to tolerate the contradiction! What proof have we that the words of God shall stand?
Take this: “Upholding all things by the word of His power” (Heb. 1:33Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; (Hebrews 1:3)). You may say, that creation is controlled by certain laws. Quite true, but not all the truth. The word of His power has sustained creation without fail, day by day, since its beginning. These laws are of Him.
Creation, then, is a witness that the words of God shall stand, a witness which should greatly confirm the faith of His people―and an assurance that, in a work greater than creation―that of redemption―the truth shall prevail, and the words of God stand. “Heaven and earth shall pass away,” said the blessed Lord, “but My words shall not pass away.”
But creation is a thing seen, while redemption is not so! True, but the words of God guarantee both; and if we find them to be true in the realm of the seen, we may rest assured that they are not less true in that which is unseen. The secret infidelity that questions this goes to prove that the heart is deceitful and man a liar.
Whose words shall stand? Those of God, or those of man? Truth, or the contradiction of it? If God has spoken, and He has, nothing but the most absolute and unquestioning confidence in His words becomes the faith of His people. “Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him.”
J. W. S.