All who are called by divine grace and who are savingly united to the Lord Jesus Christ are called to a life of faith in the Son of God. It is by faith that the soul of a sinner is united to Jesus Christ and it is by faith that that soul is to live in this world. “The just shall live by faith.” “Without faith it is impossible to please God for he that cometh to God must believe that He is and that He is the rewarder of all those who diligently seek Him.” Having come to believe on the divine Redeemer the soul is to draw by faith out of the fulness that is in Him. There is a fulness in Christ to meet all His people’s needs at all times. The more they are brought by His grace to rest in Him, the more they will receive out of His fulness. In this way they are to go from strength to strength until at last they appear before Him in Zion.
While this is true it does not mean that their path in this world is always to be an easy one. The Lord has warned His people of this: “In this world ye shall have tribulations,” and again, “All that will live godly in this present life shall suffer persecution.” “For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.” There are to be bitter things in the believer’s cup as well as sweet things. His people must remember this, lest when difficulties and persecutions arise they become offended. The graces of the believer must be tried, each grace in its own way.
The Apostle Peter in writing to the strangers scattered throughout the provinces of Asia Minor spoke to them of the trial of their faith. It was through many and varied temptations they were tried and through these temptations they were brought into heaviness. It is evident from this that these temptations were not easy to bear. Yet the Apostle shows them that the end that was in view was a God-glorifying one. He does not only speak of the trial of their faith, but of their faith even being tried with fire. What a fierce trial that must have been! Gold must be tried in the fire so that
it may be purified. So their faith must be tried, not to weaken it, but to strengthen it, and to show that it is indeed the faith of God’s elect and not a spurious faith which the fiery trial would burn up. The Word of God makes plain that the troubles that afflict the just are many. They are assaulted by the world, the flesh and the devil. They have to contend with inward corruptions as well as outward enemies. They are engaged in a conflict and warfare with many enemies. They are severely tried at times as the Lord sees good for them. Yet it is not their destruction He intends but their good.
How are they to stand up to such trials? We see how Job was tried and how he comforted himself in the midst of it when he said: “He knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” Though he could not understand the way that the Lord was dealing with him, yet he knew that the Lord knew why he was dealing with him in this way. In a time of great trial, David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. So must the soul in the midst of the trial look to the Lord as the One who knows all things and who has promised his people that though their afflictions are many, yet He will bring them out of them all, and bring them to a wealthy place.
What will be the result of all these trials? The Apostle Peter could say to those to whom he was writing that the trial of their faith would be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. In time itself, the Lord’s tried ones shall come forth from the fiery trial to praise and to magnify His great and holy name. In eternity, the trials that His people had to pass through in this world will only make their song rise higher. They will then be of those who have come out of great tribulations and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. “Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” There in everlasting glory “the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”
Sermon
by Rev. Charles Calder, Ferintosh
(Continued from Page 312)
“And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.” John 12: 32.
Thirdly, What gives peculiar attraction to the Cross of Christ, and communicates to it the most powerful influence in bringing nigh those that
were far off, is the love therein manifested to the sinful, perishing children of men. Much of the goodness of God may be seen by an enlightened eye in creation, much in His providential care over His creatures; but it is in the Cross of Christ that the glory of divine love has been most eminently displayed, and shines forth with a lustre surpassing all wonder and praise. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends; but Christ hath recommended His love to us, in that, while we were sinners and enemies, He died for us. He hath recommended His love in submitting for such not only to the tortures of crucifixion to be lifted up as a spectacle of ignominy and woe on the accursed tree, but in submitting to sufferings of a nature far more exquisite, to the hiding of His Father’s face and to the unknown sorrow of soul-suffering, which threw Him into sore amazement and a bloody sweat, which extorted from Him strong crying and tears, and made Him, though silent as a sheep before her shearers, amidst all the cruelties and indignities He met with from men, to pour out, in the anguish of His soul, that bitter complaint, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Oh! what manner of love was this! Oh! the height and depth, the breadth and the length, of the love of Christ which passeth knowledge! If we conceive of Christ lifted up upon the Cross, and addressing us in the pathetic exclamation of the prophet Jeremiah, “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by, behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow?” Must we not reply with admiration and gratitude, No, Lord, never was sorrow like unto Thy sorrow; never was love like unto Thy love? And how must admiration of this love be heightened; how powerful must its attractive influence be felt, from the believing contemplation of the holy alacrity with which our blessed Lord, knowing all things that were to come upon Him, went forth to surrender Himself to these tremendous sufferings, and of the wonderful meekness, the patience, the constancy, and the willingness with which He persevered in the dreadful conflict! He failed not, nor was He discouraged till he brought forth judgment unto victory, and, having power over His own life to reserve it, or lay it down when He pleased; yet He did not save Himself, because He would save others; nor did He yield up the ghost till He had drank out the dregs of the cup of wrath, till He could pronounce, “It is finished,” — till he had paid His people’s full ransom, and obtained for them redemption and everlasting salvation.
Christ is therefore to be held forth in the preaching of the Gospel, as voluntarily submitting to be lifted up upon the Cross; He is to be represented there in His dyed garments and red apparel, wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities; His pierced bleeding heart
panting with desire for the salvation of sinners; His blessed arms extended wide to invite and welcome them into this glorious sanctuary, that by the powerful magnetism of His dying love their hearts may be won to Him, and aliens converted, in the day of His power, into fellow-citizens with the saints, and strangers and foreigners into faithful members of the household of God. Christ is thus to be held forth in the preaching of the glorious Gospel as lifted up upon the Cross, and as addressing perishing sinners in the tender, affectionate strain of Joseph to his brethren: “I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt, come near unto me I pray you;” so that, drawn by the cords of this mighty love, and by these bands of a man, His seed, as foretold by Isaiah, may be brought from the east and gathered from the west, that the north may give up, and the south keep not back; that His sons may be brought from far, and His daughters from the ends of the earth; and that they may be seen flying to Him as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows, seeking Jesus who was crucified, and asking the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, “Come and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.” “Thine are we, David, and on thy side thou Son of Jesse.” “Hosannah! to the Son of David, blessed be he who came in the name of the Lord to save us, Hosannah! in the highest.”
Fourthly, The harmony of the divine attributes, as displayed in the Cross, has a powerful influence in drawing sinners to Christ, and encouraging their approaches to God through Him. To reconcile the seemingly opposite interests of justice and mercy in the salvation of sinners, must, to us, have forever appeared impossible. But in the Cross of Christ, the incomprehensible wisdom of God has revealed a method for the accomplishment of this infinitely important object; a method which excites the wonder and animates the praises of the blest above; a method from which glory arises to God in the highest — peace on earth and good will to the children of men; a method by which the glory of God’s justice and holiness is reconciled to the amplest exercise of His mercy and love, in the eternal salvation of the guilty, humbled sinner. It were easy to conceive of God’s righteousness declared in the punishment of sin; it is the Cross of Christ alone that declares His righteousness in the remission of sin. It manifests justice in the way of pardoning sin, and mercy in the way of punishing it. In the sufferings of a Surety of such infinite dignity, the justice of God is more awfully displayed than if the whole human race had been doomed to everlasting destruction, and mercy at the same time shines forth in a more amiable way than if justice had been entirely dispensed with, and sin left altogether unpunished. Here, then, spotless justice, inviolable truth,
infinite mercy, and love shine all at once, none of them obscures the other; each gives lustre to the rest, they mingle their beams, and shine forth with united and eternal splendour, as David speaks; “Mercy and truth have met together, righteousness and peace have embraced each other” (Ps. 85: 10). Mercy and peace must have been ever inclined to serve man, but truth exacted the performance of God’s threatening, “The soul that sinneth it shall die,” and righteousness could not but give to every one his due. God must be true in all His ways, and righteous in all His works.
Now Christ is to be set forth in the preaching of the Gospel as lifted up upon the Cross, satisfying the demands of all these claimants, restoring union between them, and showing, in His death, how God’s Word can be true and His work just, and the sinner notwithstanding find mercy and obtain peace. Is the sinner convinced of his obnoxiousness to the stroke of divine justice, how attractive in this view is the Cross of Christ, and with what joy must he welcome the call to repair thither. Contemplating from thence stern justice and soft smiling mercy (as an illustrious writer expresses it) in perfect concord, supporting in full majesty the throne of God; hearing from thence the justice of God calling for grace, mercy and peace to be multiplied to the penitent believer in Jesus, must he not, in holy wonder, cry out, “This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it?” Who is a God like unto Thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgressions of the remnant of Thine heritage, who retainest not Thine anger for ever, because Thou delightest in mercy? “Oh! the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out.”
Fifthly. That sinners may be brought to experience the attractive influence of the Cross of Christ it is necessary to represent to them the victory obtained thereby over all the powers of darkness and the enemies of our salvation. It was on the Cross that the seed of the woman bruised the head of the serpent. It was by His death that Christ destroyed him who had the power of death, that is the devil. By the expiation of guilt on the Cross, He disarmed death of his formidable sting, and spoiled the powers of darkness of the trophies they had gained, by drawing man into their own apostacy, and subjecting to themselves this part of God’s rational creation. Accordingly, says Christ in the verse preceding our text speaking of the death He was about to accomplish: “Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the Prince of this world be cast out.” When He made His soul an offering for sin, and laid down His life on the Cross, as a ransom for many, not only did He overcome the world with all its terrors, but trampled on death and hell, and on sin the author of both;
expelled Satan from the empire which he had so long usurped over the minds of men, and took the prey from the mighty and delivered the lawful captive. It is through manifold tribulations that we must enter into the kingdom of heaven. The enmity betwixt the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent never ceaseth; those whom Christ hath chosen out of the world, the world will hate. Satan desires to have them that he may sift them as wheat, and still goeth about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
To the soul enlightened to see its danger, and ready to be oppressed with fear and sorrow from such a host of spiritual foes, how attractive must the Cross appear, when Christ, by the preaching of the Gospel, is there represented to the eye of faith, in His dyed garments, and in the greatness of his strength, wresting by his pierced hand the keys of death and of hell from Satan’s possession and trampling with his bruised feet all the enemies of God’s glory and of our salvation; making a show of them openly, and triumphing over them on the Cross, and by his victory securing victory to all His faithful followers. For they also shall overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the power of His grace, and turn out conquerors at length, and more than conquerors through Him that loved them.
We are therefore, in the preaching of the Gospel, to direct the afflicted in the world, for comfort, to the Cross of Christ, and to bid them possess their souls in patience, whilst they hear His gracious saying, “My kingdom is not of this world.” “In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer I have overcome the world, and in me ye shall have peace.” Those tossed by the tempests of temptation, we are to guide thither for rest, and we bid them dismiss their fears, while they view the glorious captain of their salvation leading captivity captive, and thereby giving them the assured hope, that the God of Peace shall shortly bruise Satan underneath their feet also.
The bowed down under a sense of guilt we are to lead to the same blessed resting place, that they may lift up their heads and behold with joy the Man of God’s right hand, who is mighty to save, taking away the sin of the world by the sacrifice of himself, bearing it into a land not inhabited; so that when the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for there shall be none, and when the sins of Judah shall be sought for they shall not be found. It is by exhibiting thus the glorious conquests of the Cross, and proclaiming there liberty for the captives, and comfort to all that mourn, that the outcasts of Israel shall be assembled and brought nigh, and the dispersed of Judah gathered into one; that the weary soul shall be satiated, and the sorrowful soul replenished with joy unspeakable and full of glory. And
in that day as the Prophet Isaiah speaks, “There shall be a Root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek, and his rest shall be glorious” (Isa. 11: 10).
Lastly. That sinners may be effectually drawn to Christ, we must lay before them the inestimable purchase of the Cross. Of the glorious blessings which Christ hath purchased by his death, and now dispenseth in the most gratuitous manner, little indeed of the value can be conceived or uttered by us. To the redeemed of the Lord they shall be the subject of eternal wonder and praise. The apostle Paul tells us that he made peace by the blood of His Cross, that he submitted to that accursed death, “that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles that we should receive the promise of the spirit through faith;” and that he entered in once by His own blood into the holiest of all, having obtained for us eternal redemption. Christ is therefore in the preaching of the Gospel to be represented as lifted up upon the Cross, purchasing for the rebellious peace and reconciliation with God, the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit, and an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away. How attractive in this view must the Cross of Christ appear! How suited to man’s wretched condition by nature are those blessings for which he there shed His precious blood! and how graciously calculated to satisfy and solace an immortal spirit formed originally for God and eternity. The scriptures of truth represent man by nature as in a state of enmity and rebellion against God: as enemies to God in their minds and by wicked works. The soul convinced of the misery of such a state and trembling under a sense of danger from hearing as from the mount covered with tempest and that burned with fire, that awful denunciation: “Let the potsherds of the earth strive with the potsherds of the earth; but woe to the man that striveth with his Maker.” Such we are to direct to Mount Calvary, there to behold the Son of God pouring out His soul unto death; there to hear His blood speaking better things than the blood of Abel; speaking in a voice the sweetest and loudest in the world, louder than the thunder of Sinai; a voice that reacheth heaven and earth, pleading with God in behalf of men, and beseeching men to be reconciled to God; a voice more melodious to the self-condemned penitent than the sound of the jubilee trumpet to the captive and oppressed Israelite of old; a voice that turneth into a heavenly calm the tempest of the troubled soul, that diffuseth into the contrite heart a joy with which strangers shall not intermeddle, and a peace that passeth all understanding.
The Scriptures again represent our condition by nature, as without God in the world, not having the Spirit nor the fruits of the Spirit, without
light, without hope, without joy; like the earth in the beginning, till the Spirit of God moved on the face of the deep; without form and void, and overspread with darkness. The soul brought to feel and lament the misery and wretchedness of such a state we are to direct to the cross of Christ, that he may behold Him there purchasing the gift of the Holy Spirit without measure, and that he may behold Him now, exalted at the right hand of God, in virtue of His obedience unto death; in order that from a throne of grace on high He might breathe on the spiritually dead, and say unto them, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost;” that He might thus form them into living temples, into an habitation of God through the Spirit; and fill them with hope, and light, and joy in believing, that out of His fulness He might communicate to them grace for grace; that unction from the Holy One which teacheth all things, and those consolations of His Spirit which can make His people to rejoice even in the midst of tribulations.
We are all by nature children of wrath, and liable to that eternal death which God in His word has declared to be the just wages of sin. To the soul trembling under that conviction, and crying out with the awakened jailor of old; “What shall I do to be saved?” how reviving the tidings of the gospel, the glorious doctrine of the Cross, when Christ is there represented to the eye of faith, suffering the just for the unjust, that He might bring sinners unto God, not only to deliver them from the wrath that is to come, but likewise to consecrate for them, by the rending of the vail of His flesh, a new and living way into the Holiest of all; to the possession of an inheritance eternal in the heavens. With what holy ardour must such sinners welcome and obey the call to view the blessed and divine Redeemer wearing a crown of thorns to purchase for them a crown of glory! to hear Him saying as from the cross, “I lay down my life for my sheep, I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any be able to pluck them out of my hands. In my Father’s house are many mansions, and I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am there ye may be also.” Christ is called the Prince of Peace. With reference to Him it was said in prophecy, that the “gathering of the people should be unto Shiloh.” When He is represented in the preaching of the gospel as lifted up betwixt heaven and earth, to make peace between both, His precious blood streaming forth, from His sacred mangled body, and the waters of life, oceans of spiritual and eternal blessings, issuing freely from the same source, for the guilty and perishing children of men; it is thus they shall be brought to enlist with joy under the banner of the Cross, and that the children of God, scattered abroad, shall be gathered together into one, and come to be blessed in Him, and to call Him bless-
ed; of whom it was foretold that “in Him all the kindreds of the earth should be blessed.”
I shall not trespass on your patience by any application of this subject further than just to observe, that from the faint imperfect view laid before you of the attractive influence of the Cross of Christ, we may learn with what a rich variety of motives the doctrine of the Cross furnishes the minister of the gospel, to urge and encourage sinners to repair to Christ for salvation, the obligation resulting from thence on him to determine, with Paul, on making Christ crucified the chief subject of his discourses. And having the grace given him of God to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ, and knowing that, with regard to one and all of those to whom he is sent with the message of salvation, it must prove either the saviour of life unto life, or of death unto death; must he not cry out, Who is sufficient for these things? But our sufficiency is of God, who hath committed the treasure of the gospel to earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us; and whose encouraging declaration to His faithful servants is, “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts.”
(Preached at Contin on 15th August, 1793, at the ordination and admission of Mr Dallas.)
Who Can Harm You?
by Rev. K. D. MacLeod
Some thoughts on 1 Peter 3: 13: “And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?”
We live in a world where everyone, to one extent or another, suffers harm and damage; it is a world which, to a tremendous degree, is given over to violence. But even those, who in God’s kindness are spared suffering from the actions of criminals and the effects of war, will certainly not have a perfectly smooth passage through life. Yet the greatest harm that can ever befall anyone is not the catastrophe and the suffering that are so common in this world. Greater and more awful by far is what lies before the ungodly in a lost eternity, which is the result of remaining unreconciled to God. We are accordingly told by the Saviour, “Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Mt 10: 28).
In giving this warning Christ doubtless had in mind times of persecution before His people, and Peter wrote this epistle to those whose troubles certainly included persecution. Peter in effect said, “Do not be afraid of
what man can do, as long as you are followers of what is good.” Persecutors may indeed harm the bodies of God’s children, but that is not real harm for they cannot damage their souls; their souls are under God’s special protection. But what awful suffering God will at last bring on sinners who will not turn to Him! Paul clearly announced man’s duty when he said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16: 31).
Those who thus believe will be safe from going, body and soul, into hell to endure the pain which ungodly sinners must experience throughout eternity. Thus it is obvious that sinners are doing tremendous harm to themselves when they reject the gospel, when they refuse to close in with Him who came into the world to die for the ungodly. Even for this life itself sinners are doing themselves harm when they continue in their sins, for “the face of God is against them that do evil” (v12b). Although the ungodly would have as much of the good things of life as those whom Asaph described in Psalm 73, who had “more than heart could wish” (v7), yet they would not have God’s blessing with these temporal benefits. Nobody has any real blessing, if everything that they have is for this life and they have nothing of spiritual substance for the next. Those in that sad position must at death pass to their long home of agony and despair.
We are repeatedly commanded in the Bible to fear God. This is not the terror which the wicked will have after death. Hatred to sin is the real expression of the fear of God — “the fear of the Lord is to hate evil” (Pro 8: 13). We can look at the matter from the opposite direction and say, The fear of the Lord is to follow after what is good. To hate evil is something more than to keep away from outward sin. Those who hate evil will indeed strive to keep away from sin, but this fear of God is more than something outward. It goes along with what is outward, but at the same time there is in the soul an inward holy reverence for a great and a glorious God, a God whose law is holy and just and good and who is consistently offended by sin. And there is love in that fear. There is no love in the terror of the wicked, and especially in the terror of the wicked on the day of judgement. But the souls of God’s children are open to the law of God, and are all the more desirous of forsaking sin because they love God as a good God; they see that God has given us His law because He is good and gracious.
In this world they will get no further than following after good. Attaining to good is only for the world to come; it can only be reached at death. Perfection is out of the question in this world, but it is something that is ahead of every child of God. Where there is the fear of the Lord in
this world, there will be perfect obedience in the next; then there will be a complete capacity to obey God perfectly, however weak and feeble they may be in this world. Believers may feel that their sins are standing against them before a perfect God. But, because they are believers, God has cast behind His back the sins of their unconverted days, and He casts their continuing sins behind His back also, for He imputes none of these sins to their account.
Yet it is the highest description of the child of God in this world — as far as sin is concerned — that he is fleeing from sin. And if we look at the same individual from the opposite point of view — he is following after what is good. Certainly there is sinful imperfection in everything he does in this world, though he will not use this imperfection as a pillow to put under his head. It has been described as the hypocrite’s pillow but the child of God’s burden. And that great and gracious child of God, the Apostle Paul, was very conscious that his running of the Christian life was only a following after. “Not as though I had already attained”, he acknowledged, “either were already perfect, but I follow after” (Phil 3: 12). And, however far anyone today may feel himself behind Paul, who can harm him if he is a follower of that which is good? “I follow after”, Paul went on, “if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.” He had the resurrection of the dead before him — and by the grace of God he expected to attain to it.
Who then could harm Paul, as one who was following after what is good? No, nothing could harm him, for he had cast in his lot with the great Saviour who was crucified outside the gates of Jerusalem. Christ had revealed Himself to Paul, and Paul had closed in with Him by faith. He was therefore united to Christ. And all those who are followers of that which is good make it clear that they likewise are united to Christ by faith.
Was Paul, to take him again as an example, a sinner who deserved to die eternally? Of course he was but, because Paul was united to Christ by faith, the death which Christ accomplished at Calvary was accounted Paul’s death. The wages of Paul’s sin, which was eternal death, had been borne by his Saviour. It was thus impossible for Paul to suffer eternally, and he could say, “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal 2: 20). the union between Paul and Christ was as close as that. And the union between Christ and all who follow after that which is good is just as close, although they may not have advanced in grace to the same
extent, or be able to give their Master the same degree of service, as Paul did. If they have the same degree of assurance, they too can say with the same confidence, “I am crucified with Christ . . . who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
The believer is a new creature, for “if any man be in Christ he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor 5: 17). He has been renewed in every part of his soul by the Holy Spirit, but he is by no means perfect. There is much room for growth in grace — much room for his love, his faith and all his other graces to grow. And grow they will until the very moment of death, when the work of God in the soul will be brought to absolute perfection.
Paul could also speak of how Christ “gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works” (Titus 2: 14), which is just to describe God’s redeemed ones as enthusiastic followers of that which is good. By way of example we might note how Peter exhorts everyone “that will love life and see good days: Let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile; let him eschew evil and do good; let him seek peace and ensue it” (1 Pet 3: 10f). Truthfulness is called for, but there are many ways of giving one’s tongue to evil without directly breaking the Ninth Commandment, which states, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour”. Peter thus exhorts all to keep their tongues from what will do evil and from what is in any way polluted, and at the same time to be free from guile — to be simple, honest and straightforward.
To eschew evil and to do good is a complete summary of the life God directs us to live. Job was a man commended by God Himself as someone who eschewed evil. He fled from evil; he had such a hatred to evil that he got as far away from it as he possibly could. He would not loiter near evil, he would not stay as near it as he dared without actually getting involved in it. It is true that there is sin in every soul — the believer’s included, but Peter’s exhortation is to let the sin in ourselves have as little opportunity as possible to meet with temptation, which can so easily set on fire the evil within. Can we do that in our strength? It is impossible; only by the strength of divine grace can we do so. And those who eschew evil not only seek to flee from outward sins, but from heart sins also, for they have the fear of God in their souls.
Peter, however, acknowledges that such believers may suffer considerably in this world. “But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake”, he says, “happy are ye” (v14). What did he mean? Was it not harm to Paul if he should be beheaded? Was it not harm to Peter if he too
should suffer a violent death? Was it not harm to Peter and Paul and multitudes more that they should suffer the hardships of imprisonment? Undoubtedly it was, if we look no further than the thing itself.
But let us read Peter’s question in the light of that other truth: “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Rom 8: 28). Who then is he that can harm those who are followers of that which is good? If they suffer for righteousness’ sake the Lord will more than make it up. There may be outward harm, there may be pain and suffering, there may be many difficulties in providence, but if the sufferer is one who hates evil all things will work together for his or her good. Grace will be given, and God’s favour will be increasingly shown, to that soul.
To take the extreme case, what was it for Paul to have his life taken violently from him? Where did it take him, but into the immediate presence of the Lord to reign with Him for ever? He knew “that if the early house of this tabernacle were dissolved” there was before him “a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor 5: 1). Could Paul then be harmed when he had borne a good testimony for his Master before Nero? Death could only take him into the house of many mansions. And Paul, gracious man that he was, was encouraged, even when there was such an unnatural death in prospect, by the crown of righteousness that was laid up for him.
If we turn our attention to God’s control of providence, what we see is that “the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers” (v12a). That is why no one can harm them. God is watching over them; He recognises their needs and He will supply them all — as He understands them, which is infinitely better than the way they understand their needs. He has promised never to leave or forsake His children. They are His, and they will be His for ever. Accordingly they will at last be brought without spot into the presence of God. So, as Paul sums up his thoughts on the safety of God’s children, he puts the matter very positively: “I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8: 38). Who then — on earth or in hell — is able to harm anyone that is united to Christ, when nothing whatever can separate them from the love of God?
We have the promise of God, but it may be another matter to lean on the promise. But how can the distance be bridged which seems to lie between the soul and the promise, except by faith? And where can that faith
come from, but from God Himself? Should God’s children then not seek grace to lay hold more and more on this, and on every other, promise. Christ still calls to His children — whatever their trouble and whatever their sorrow — “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11: 28).