(MATTHEW XVI. 18.)
(Continued from page 6.)
THE subject of our remarks is one of the most majestic of Christ’s utterances during the days of His flesh. He speaks in the full consciousness of His divine Sonship and equality with the Father, when He makes the impressive declaration: “And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” In last issue we called attention, first, to the Rock, and secondly, to the Church. We endeavoured to show that the Rock was not Peter, but the Son of God Himself whom Peter confessed, and pointed out that the Son in His divine person and covenant offices was the mediatorial foundation on which the elect Church was to be built, while the truth concerning the same adorable Redeemer was the declarative foundation on which the visible Church was to be similarly placed. In regard to the composition of the “Church,” we indicated that, according to the Scriptures, it consisted of members of Adam’s fallen race who were, first, in God’s eternal purpose the “called out” from a world lying in wickedness, and who were afterwards so dealt with in the days of time. As the objects of divine election, they are generally described as the invisible Church, while as manifested in the world by effectual calling and a profession according to the Gospel, they are known as the visible Church. At the same time, we observed that the Lord Himself constantly recognised the fact that some might be members of the visible Church in profession of the truth who were not so in vital possession. A solemn circumstance indeed, that is fitted to stir every sincere soul to self-examination and diligence in making his or her calling and election sure! We now pass on to notice our next head.
III.—The Builder: “Upon this rock I will build my Church.“
The Lord Jesus, who is the Church’s foundation, from one point of view, is its builder from another.
1. Let us observe that the language used sets forth the Church under the aspect of a house or temple, to be erected as the Lord’s spiritual dwelling-place, where He is to be worshipped and served.
This is a beautiful figure of the Church which is frequently employed in the Scriptures. The Apostle Paul speaks of the saints as “the household of God,” a “building fitly framed together,” growing unto “a holy temple in the Lord,” and “an habitation of God through the Spirit” (Ephes. ii. 19-22); and the Apostle Peter describes them as “lively stones, built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Peter ii. 5).
2. The Lord Jesus speaks of Himself as the Builder of His spiritual house, the Church.
He is so in His capacity as mediator between God and men. While it is true that the Holy Ghost is the divine source of power in the application of redemption, it is equally true that He exercises His power as the agent of the Godhead under the covenant of grace. All saving operations upon men’s souls are of the Father, and through the Son, as well as by the Holy Ghost. The Son of God, as the righteous mediator between the Most High and sinners of our race, administers by the Father’s appointment all the blessings of the new covenant, and so sends forth with heavenly authority the Holy Spirit in His special influences. The Son is thus the builder of the Church upon the Rock by the Spirit’s all-powerful agency. He carried on the work of building in this way during the days of His humiliation, and does so still in His glorious estate of exaltation. “Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins” (Acts v. 31).
3. Let us now observe the manner in which the Divine Builder performs His work.
And first, where does He find the stones which He purposes to place in the spiritual house? He finds them in the dark quarry of a fallen estate—buried deep in the earth of a world lying in wickedness. The saints are by nature dead in trespasses and sins, children of disobedience and wrath, even as others. “There is no difference; all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” But the Lord employs means to bring them out of this low condition, and to make them fit for their place in the Church, He sends forth the Holy Spirit as the divine agent (to whom we have already referred), who exercises His gracious power in connection with “the Word of truth,” read or preached, upon their understandings, consciences, and hearts. It is His usual method, first, to awaken them to a sense of their fallen and lost condition, and to cause them to cry for mercy, deliverance, and newness of life, making use of His law and gospel for these important ends, and then, secondly, to dispose and enable them to fall in with His way of salvation as presented in the Gospel. Thus He cleanses these “stones” from all their filthiness, infuses into them a new and heavenly life, and brings them to the sure foundation laid in Zion. The Divine Builder
lays them straight and square upon the Rock of salvation. These “living stones,” enlightened in the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, are deeply sensible, in every fibre of their being, that, if they had been left to their own resources, they would have utterly perished in their sins, and that they are eternal debtors to the free grace and omnipotent power of God by Jesus Christ for their having been raised out of inexpressible depths of sin and misery and laid upon the Rock—Christ. They ascribe the glory to Him who sitteth on the throne. Such is the manner in which the Son of God builds His living Church upon the immutable foundation.
4. As to the visible Church, the Lord Jesus, in the course of His operations, does bring some persons within its walls, who have a certain place in the building which is not vital in its nature.
The families of true believers have such a place, and so have nominal professors and their families. Some of these classes may, by the grace of God, be made “living stones” in the spiritual temple before the Lord’s work is completed, but the remainder will be cast out at last, like the foolish virgins and the tares of the field as related in the parables.
5. Let it be here noted in conclusion on this point, that none have any right to conclude that they have been savingly placed in the Church, invisible or visible, who do not adhere to the truth concerning the Lord Jesus in His person and atonement.
Many, now-a-days, think that they have a perfect title to be considered true Christians though they have no real faith in the Godhead or Atonement of Christ. Such are under a manifest delusion. They are not resting upon the Rock of Ages, and so are outside the Church of Christ. Salvation is far from such self-satisfied unbelievers.
IV.—Our fourth and last point is the Church’s Safety: “And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
The Church is assailed by many powerful enemies, but they shall not succeed in accomplishing its destruction.
1. What does Christ particularly mean by “the gates of hell?”
He evidently means Satan and his forces. Hell appears to be here represented as a city possessing gates. In ancient times, among the Jews and perhaps elsewhere, the chief men and magistrates of a town were accustomed to sit, for purposes of deliberation, in the gates. There they decided cases of dispute, and there they took counsel with a view to advance the city’s interests. “The gates” were thus the seat of the wisdom and power of the city. The figure in the present case is obvious. Satan is the chief ruler in the dark city of hell, at whose gates he and his confederates sit in evil counsel, and from which they come forth to execute their subtle designs. The Saviour, therefore, employs this graphic and awe-inspiring expression, “the gates of hell,” to describe the prince of darkness and his agents in all their subtlety and power. Satan is the chief enemy of Christ and His Church. He rules in the hearts of the children of disobedience, and is “the god of this world,” the god whom the world worships and obeys. He also still possesses some place in the souls of God’s people. Sin, though cast down is not cast wholly out, and he exerts his influence to stir up “the old man,” who is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. The devil may be said therefore to exert his power against Christ’s Church, either directly on the minds of its professing members, or mediately through the action of others who are its open enemies. He has no doubt made much use in the history of the world of open enemies, such as Paganism and Mohammedanism, to resist the progress of the Church; but he has been most aggressive and successful against its interests through the instrumentality of professed friends. The activities and successes of the Papal legions is an outstanding illustration of this on a large scale. They profess to be the friends of Christ, and are all the while fighting against His true Church. The great adversary also has not failed in setting up encampments within the pale of professed Protestantism. He has influenced the minds of many, who profess to respect the Bible as the supreme standard of faith and practice, to depart from its clearly-expressed doctrines, and to maintain opinions, either out of harmony with these doctrines or entirely contrary to them. Sometimes he has also caused unnecessary divisions among those who were standing for the truth of God in its purity. The gates of hell have advanced against Christ’s Church along many channels, error in doctrine, disorder in practice, individual corruption and such like. Not seldom the adversary as a man of war, robes himself in the bright garments of an angel of light, and so deceiving the unwary to their hurt, inflicts injuries on Christ and His Church. He even entered into the Apostle Peter shortly after the Lord uttered the words of our text, and Christ had to say to Peter, “Get thee behind me, Satan; thou art an offence to me; for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men” (Matthew xvi. 23).
2. Let us now observe that “the gates of hell shall not prevail” at any time completely against the Church upon the Rock, but shall be ultimately driven back for ever into the bottomless pit.
Satan and his legions “shall not prevail” finally against any living member of the elect Church united to the Rock, Christ. They may indeed succeed too much at times, to the dishonour of God and the injury of the soul, but they shall not obtain a permanent victory. Every stone that Christ has laid upon the sure foundation and given a place in the spiritual temple shall be eternally saved, in spite of all the powers of darkness. “I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish” (John x. 28). Satan and his forces shall not succeed in overthrowing utterly the Church of Christ in the world. The Lord has made provision for the maintenance of His cause to the end of time. When many of His people are transferred to the better country, He will still have a remnant upon earth, according to the election of grace, who shall bear witness for His truth. “They shall fear Him while sun and moon endure.” The powers of darkness shall not “prevail against” any branch of the visible Church while it stands upon the Rock of Christ’s truth. Mere professors may be swept off the foundation of a sound creed, if they yield to the enemy’s suggestions, but this does not essentially weaken the living and faithful Church. It is, lastly, clear from the Scriptures that the Church upon the Rock shall yet, by divine grace, prevail against the gates of hell. There is a day coming, even in this world, when the Church, “fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners,” shall triumph over its enemies, and shall extend its borders to the uttermost ends of the earth. The whole earth will be filled with the knowledge and glory of the Lord (Psalm lxxii). After this lengthened period of triumph and prosperity, the Church will enter upon a short period of decay and weakness, and then the end shall come. Christ shall appear in the glory of His Father, with the holy angels, and shall sit upon the throne of His glory, and at last shall be declared the eternal victory of the whole elect, redeemed, regenerated, and witnessing Church over sin and Satan and all the hosts of hell (Matt. xxv. and Rev. xx.).
A Salvation Surpassingly Great.
A SERMON BY REV. D. BEATON, WICK.
“How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?”—HEBREWS ii. 3.
THESE words form part of a solemn exhortation addressed by the Apostle to the Hebrews. He had begun by impressing upon them the greater glory of the New Dispensation, inasmuch as “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,” but “hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son.” And in order that his hearers might be duly impressed he goes on to describe the character of the Son. This he does by showing His equality with God, and so placing Him high above all angels and every created being. At this stage of his argument he turns aside, as it were, as one who has seen a wonderful sight. The greatness of the salvation of God comes within the range of his spiritual vision, and as one looking into its glorious provisions for perishing sinners and its suitability and perfection for the purpose it was intended, he is evidently overwhelmed by the thought of the utter impossibility of being saved if this salvation is neglected. In the Apostle’s view there are certain features connected with this salvation which, in the very nature of the case, renders it eternally impossible that any other salvation can be placed alongside of it, as holding out a hope to lost men of another way of being brought nigh to God. It is a salvation provided on a scale far surpassing all that the mind of man could anticipate, and the evil from which it delivers is not imaginary but very real and terrible. It is the greatness of the salvation that gives solemnity and point to the Apostle’s searching question: “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?” If God provided a salvation on such an unheard-of scale, then the state from which it delivers must be a thousand times more serious than men generally believe. Hence he presses on their notice the danger they run in neglecting this salvation. In dealing with the surpassing greatness of God’s salvation there are many standpoints from which it may be considered. For instance, if sinful men could fully realise what is implied in sin, then the deliverance from such an evil would appear surpassingly great in their eyes. Of course we take it for granted, in making such a statement, that it applies to those whose minds have been enlightened by God’s Holy Spirit. All others, whatever views they may have of sin, are unable to understand what God’s salvation means. Yet even those who have been most deeply taught by God’s Spirit have only seen, after all, a part of the evil of sin. And yet what a great part it appears to us when we hear a Jonathan Edwards saying, “I know not how to express better what my sins appear to me to be than by heaping infinite upon infinite and multiplying infinite by infinite.” This is not the language of exaggeration, but of a sinner in true sanity of mind looking at things as they really are. Still, after all, there is a depth in sin that has not been reached by any plummet held in the hand of man. To get some idea of what it really is would imply the fathoming on our part, as it has been said, of three great oceans—”the ocean of human suffering in time, the ocean of the sufferings of the Lord of Glory, and the ocean of future suffering that awaits the impenitent.” Our lines are too short to reach these abysmal depths, and it is from such a state of things that this great salvation saves. But for our present purpose we intend to look at this salvation in order to get a view of its surpassing greatness—
I.—In its preparation;
II.—In its marvellous adaptability to the state and condition of those for whom it was intended;
III.—In its application, and
IV.—In the infallible security it gives to all the heirs of salvation of being with Christ at last.
I.—The Surpassing Greatness of God’s Salvation seen in its Preparation.
This is a great theme: let us turn aside with reverence to view the wonderful sight. The Apostle who saw so much of the wonders of God’s salvation took special delight in directing the eyes of his hearers to the great Fountain from which all their blessings, in time and eternity, flowed. Let us seek to follow his example, and direct our thoughts, with all humility, to the transactions of a Covenant God, whose thoughts from all eternity were thoughts of love and not of evil for that multitude who are to be with Him for ever. When God prepared a remedy whereby ruined men were to be saved, He prepared it on a scale sufficiently great and comprehensive to meet the needs of a countless multitude. It is becoming, therefore, in considering the greatness of God’s salvation as seen in its preparation, to notice (1) that it was prepared for a multitude whom no man can number. Herein is the omniscience and omnipresence of the God of salvation revealed. His provision was not simply on a scale hitherto unapproached, but forever unapproachable except by Him who provided this. It was no finite mind that scanned the successive generations of men who were to pass through time, for He who provided this salvation knew those whom He had given to Christ, knew their number, the nations from which they would be called, and the time when the dayspring from on high would visit them—and the resources that He had at His command were boundless. It was not a salvation that might save millions of men and then lose its power, but a salvation that would never fail when applied by the Holy Ghost to all for whom it was provided, though they should be countless as the sand on the sea shore for number or the stars in the firmament of heaven.
Again, the surpassing greatness of God’s salvation in its preparation is seen in this, (2) that when God prepared it He did so for beings that were to have an endless existence. He leaves us in no manner of doubt that this was to be a distinguishing feature of His salvation that it would be a salvation forever. He whose eye saw the countless multitude, belonging to every kindred and tongue and nation, that were to be saved, measured the endless years of their existence, and made provision that their joy might be an everlasting joy. There are pleasures for evermore at God’s right hand, and as believers contemplate their goodly inheritance, may they not say with the Psalmist—
“God is of mine inheritance.
And cup the portion;
The lot that fallen is to me
Thou dost maintain alone.
Unto me happily the lines
In pleasant places fell;
Yea, the inheritance I got
In beauty doth excel.”
The fact that this salvation is forever explains the designation that is given to the good tidings that announce it—the everlasting gospel. For all eternity this salvation will not cease to be glad tidings. Here below, even in this world with its sins and sorrows, the people who have heard the joyful sound are declared to be blessed; how much more so will this be realised in a state where they shall know even as they are known, and where, no longer looking through a glass darkly, but face to face, they shall realise the greatness of their inheritance.
Again (3), in the revelation of God’s wisdom, which was given in this salvation, we have a further view of the surpassing greatness of His salvation. Even in the contemplation of certain aspects of it the Apostle Paul is moved to the very depths of his being as he gives expression to his feelings in the words, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his counsellor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him are all things; to whom be glory for ever” (Rom. xi. 33-36). The same impression is left on the mind when he writes to the Ephesians, saying:—”To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Eph. iii. 10, 11). In this salvation the principalities and powers get a view of the many aspects of God’s wisdom—the manifold wisdom of God. Herein the divine wisdom is seen, not only in its manifold aspects, but also in its excellency in the adaptation of means, seemingly useless as far as human wisdom can see, yet accomplishing the end intended with infallible certainty. The whole glorious plan of God’s salvation, had it been submitted to a council of the wisest of earth’s inhabitants, would have been set aside as utterly impossible to accomplish, by the means provided, the end intended. Yet, herein is the depth of God’s wisdom revealed that it actually accomplished all that God purposed, proving that “The foolishness of God is wiser than men” (1 Cor. i. 25). But that which crowns this salvation with an unspeakable glory is the fact that its very possibility centres in the gift of God’s Son. And in this we are not only called to contemplate the utmost length that love went, but the utmost length that it was forever possible for it to go. God could never find a greater gift, and, as the Apostle Paul thinks of God’s gift he finds that human language utterly fails to indicate what it means, so he describes Christ as “the unspeakable gift.” And what a glory there is in this salvation when we are made to see how it became possible at all that there should be deliverance from sin. It was when the Apostle was speaking of the matchless glory of the eternal Son, His co-equality with the Father, and His connection with this salvation, that he addressed his question to the Hebrews: “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation”? If deliverance from sin actually required such a sacrifice, then in the very nature of the case no sacrifice can be provided to equal God’s sacrifice. How utterly hopeless does that question make the case of the sinner who neglects this salvation. For in this salvation there was no needless expenditure of power, of wisdom, or of love, and in each case they were immeasurably beyond anything that ever had entered the heart of man. But it should never be forgotten that the very greatness of the gift of Christ gives a note of solemnity to this question the meaning of which no tongue can tell. God’s salvation is not a thing to be trifled with. It was provided to meet a real and terrible evil, and the magnitude of the scale on which it was provided shuts out for ever any hope of being delivered by any other way. It also makes very plain that there is no other name given under heaven whereby men must be saved.
II.—The Surpassing Greatness of this Salvation as seen in its Marvellous Adaptability to meet the State and Condition of those for whom it was intended.
The Scriptures, while emphasising the universality of mankind’s departure from God, are careful to point out that each one took his own way: “All we like sheep have gone astray,” is the witness of the prophet; “we have turned every man to his own way” (Isa. liii. 6). And when God provided His salvation it was to meet the state of a people who, while they all had this in common that they had departed from the living God, were at the same time pursuing divers courses in that departure. It was not a salvation that was to prove ineffectual in meeting sin in the countless forms in which it has manifested itself in the world. It came to the most abandoned sinner—the outcast from his fellowmen, with all natural feeling gone, and it told him of a God waiting to be gracious and with sufficient power to break forever the awful power that had led him captive. It came to the sensualist, wallowing in his lusts; to the drunkard, seemingly beyond all hope, and to the blasphemer, and it said to them, in the words of Him who spake as never man spake: “All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men” (Matt. xii. 31). What gracious encouragement do these words hold out to the sinner when led by the Holy Spirit to see himself hopelessly lost as far as all human power is concerned. But it has not only to deal with the abandoned, and those whom even their fellowmen brand as sinners, it was a salvation provided for men upon whose moral character there was no outward stain, who were perfect in their own eyes as concerning the law. Between these and the class already mentioned men recognise that there is a wide gulf, but God’s great salvation was as much needed by the latter as the former, and in meeting cases at the opposite poles in human conduct it showed an adaptability that reveals that this was not an ordinary remedy prepared by men, but a remedy prepared by God.
The Scripture tells us not only of the depths to which sin brought sinners, it speaks also of the great distance to which they have wandered from God. God’s provision for bringing back His elect was not meant to meet them half-way and allow them to do the rest for themselves, but it was prepared in such a way that it recognised to the fullest extent that if left to themselves they would never come back. To the awakened sinner the distance between him and his God appears immeasurable, but He who knows the fullness of His salvation says: “Is my hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem?” (Isa. l. 2). As much as to say, is the distance you have wandered so great that my hand, by which I dry up the sea and make the rivers a wilderness (Isa. l. 2), powerless to reach you? To believe so is to set limits to the Holy One of Israel and lightly esteem His salvation.
Again, it must be borne in mind that those for whom this salvation was prepared were dead in trespasses and sins. There are many remedies known among men for the living, but the most deluded physician that ever lived, if in possession of his reason, recognises that the dead are forever beyond his power to restore to life. On this side the grave the skill of the most gifted of earth’s healers ends. But any remedy if limited to this sphere spiritually would have utterly failed if it had no power to meet the case of the dead. Hence God’s salvation was provided to meet the needs of those who required nothing short of the exceeding greatness of His power to quicken them. It is a salvation that recognises in its provision the utter ruin and wreck sin has made. The boundaries of its provisions are far beyond anything that ever entered into the heart of man, and within these boundaries are all the cases of the countless number given to Christ.
The marvellous adaptability of this salvation is again seen in the manner that it meets the needs of rich and poor, learned and unlearned, wise and foolish. It is as suitable for the rich as the poor when they are made to see their poverty in spiritual things. The gulf dividing rich and poor in this world may be great, but God’s salvation is the one remedy for both, and it is suited for the needs of both. It is as suitable for “Angus of the Hills” and Ewen Cameron* as it was for men endowed with the extraordinary mental power of the Apostle Paul, Augustine, and Calvin.
* These were two half-witted men, wonderfully taught by the Holy Spirit in spiritual things, but incapable of grasping the merest rudiments of human learning.
The more, therefore, the marvellous adaptability of this salvation is considered, the more will the impression grow upon us that it is a salvation surpassingly great.
III.—The Surpassing Greatness of the Salvation seen in its Application.
The preparation of the remedy, perfect though it was, required application in order that it might benefit those for whom it was intended, and in this application we get another view of the surpassing greatness of God’s salvation. The opposition to be overcome—the vast and imposing array of hostile powers that had to be subdued—rendered the work, as far as man’s power was concerned, seemingly hopeless. But He to whom this work was entrusted had power sufficient at His command to render His work irresistible. All the faculties of man’s soul were opposed to the entrance of this gracious One; but He came in the might of His power, renewed the sinner’s will, and enabled him to receive Jesus Christ as He is freely offered in the gospel. Bunyan has shown, in his own inimitable way, the manner in which man’s heart was garrisoned by the enemy. Out of that citadel every enemy of Christ is to be driven; for the purpose of God is that all that were given to Christ shall be with Him at last, and through the gates of the city of the Great King no enemy shall ever pass. God’s power is a theme too high for us to understand, and the Apostle, in writing to the Ephesians, prays that the eyes of their understanding might be opened, in order that they might know, among other things, “what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead” (Eph. i. 18-20). This is the power that is at work in God’s salvation, and the apostle directs the thoughts of the Ephesians to it working in the grave of Christ, overcoming every obstacle in the way, until He was placed far above all principality and power and might and dominion, “and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come.” Before this power no conceivable combination of created powers can stand and be victorious. We need not fear that this salvation may fail when confronted with some of the mightiest strongholds of Satan, for it is a salvation that has proved in numberless cases that it is the very power of God unto every one that believeth. Hence there is no uncertain note, arising from the thought of the possibility of failure, in the Apostle’s announcement when he says, “He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God through him.” He who came to the demoniac of Gadara in the might of His power, and cast down that stronghold of Satan in the possessed, is worthy to have His fame declared before assembled elders as one that is mighty to save. In God’s salvation there is a complete provision made for the accomplishment of this end.
There is also to be taken into consideration the powerful armies that held the soul in subjection—the world, the flesh, and the devil. All these must be overcome, and the power by which they are overcome is that of the Holy Ghost. Still the array is imposing enough, and a sight of it brings home to the sinner his utter helplessness. “I see,” said Dr. Kennedy, “three great armies besieging the believer—the world, the flesh, and the devil—and they pursue their object with tireless persistence; and as I see them advance my heart sinks within me as I dread the issue. But I look again, and now I see three great bulwarks defending him; there is the electing love of God the Father, the redeeming love of God the Son, and the sanctifying love of God the Holy Spirit, and over it all the glory of God. And fear and dismay now give place to wonder and adoration.”
IV.—The Surpassing Greatness of God’s Salvation is further seen in the Infallible Security it gives to all the Heirs of Salvation of being with Christ at last.
If deliverance from sin is a work that requires divine power, the keeping of those thus delivered is no less divine. When it is remembered that the believer, from the day he is quickened by God’s Spirit until the day of his death, is living in an enemy’s country—an enemy who is active, and who with sleepless vigilance watches the career of God’s saints in this world, the fact of their being with Christ in the end is one of the wonders of His marvellous salvation. “We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places,” is the testimony of one who felt what it was to press on towards the mark of the prize of the high-calling of God in Christ Jesus through this formidable array of hostile powers. The gospel of the grace of God, however, has no despondent note, as if it might meet with an opposition before which it must go down. It recognises on our part weakness enough and reason that we should pass the time of our sojourn here in fear, but faith in exercise in the believer’s heart cries out when confronted with seemingly insurmountable difficulties, “Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depth of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over? He that wrought these deliverances in the past is the God of salvation and faith sees Him with power capable of drying up the waters of deeper rivers and seas than Israel ever passed through on their way to the promised land.
Not only in journeying through this world will He keep them and deliver them from all their enemies, but when they have to face death He will take them safely through in whatever form it may come or however terrible it may be. For this salvation tells of an incorruptible life which Christ brought to light in the Gospel that is a life over which death has no power. Death may and will exercise its power over their natural life, but it may not touch the life they received from Christ. Their life is hid with Christ in God, and when we remember that God dwells in light that cannot be approached unto—a light unto which no enemy can approach and live, then the indestructible nature of the believer’s life is brought home in a convincingly vivid manner.
He has promised that none shall ever pluck them out of His Father’s hand, because He is greater than all. With such a promise well may the believer look forward to the future, putting his trust in God alone. A salvation that infallibly delivers from sin, and as infallibly gives security to all who are delivered that they shall be with Christ at last, is the salvation that is set before us in the Word of God. And how are we to be put in possession of such salvation as this? “We are made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ,” say the Westminster divines, “by the effectual application of it to us by His Holy Spirit,” and the Spirit applies to us this redemption “by working faith in us, and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling.” When we consider, therefore, on what a comprehensive scale God has made provision, how solemn and searching does the Apostle’s question become: “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?” May we not apply to this salvation the words of Moses when he addressed Israel of old, saying: “Ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it?” (Deut. iv. 32).
The Baptised Family:
OR AN INQUIRY INTO THE CONDITION OF CHILDREN
IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
BY CAESAR MALAN, DOCTOR IN THEOLOGY.
“For me and my house, we shall serve Jehovah.”—JOSHUA xxiv. 15.
(Translated for the first time from the French.)
(Continued from page 471, vol. xvii.)
CHAPTER IV.—WATER-BAPTISM IS NOT A SEAL PUT UPON FAITH.
Samuel.—”I admit that I had not noticed in time past the force of these considerations which you have been bringing before my mind, and I admit that the considerations remarked on may be well-founded. I shall not therefore insist on that first point. [The non-validity, that is, of Samuel’s own baptism as an infant.] But as to the second [that baptism is only for believers, capable of making profession of their faith] I do not think that it can be denied; for it is quite plain, I should say, that the Word of God says that faith ought to go before baptism.”
The father of the family.—”For my part, dear Samuel, I am so far from seeing it so, that, on the contrary, I believe that in no case can water-baptism be an act of faith, no more than the baptism [that is, regeneration in the narrow sense] of the Holy Spirit is such. They are both from God to man, and faith is not an agent in either case.”
Samuel.—“Neither have I been saying that water-baptism is an act of faith; but I did say, and I believe it, that water-baptism is a seal which God puts upon the person that has believed, and that in that case water-baptism is a sign of the baptism of fire or of the Holy Spirit which believers are made partakers of.”
The father of the family.—“If that were so, and that in fact faith were absolutely necessary to the candidate for baptism, then John the Baptist should have erred in baptising with water the Lord Jesus, and the Lord Himself would not have received* true baptism, for surely it was not by faith that the Saviour lived, and neither was it after a confession of faith on His part that His forerunner baptised Him. Neither, in our Lord’s case, could water-baptism have been a sign or confirmation of His having been baptised with the Holy Spirit, since the Spirit descended upon Him after His baptism.”
* Malan seems in every sense to deny faith to Christ. I find it hard to believe that that was exactly Malan’s meaning. Christ was the object of faith. But He was also brought into a state of dependence upon the Father. In that sense He exercised trust, and surely trust is faith. Owen, e.g., says (Works, vol. xx., p. 430), “It was his (Christ’s) duty to betake himself by faith unto the care and protection of God.” One can scarcely imagine but that Malan would have admitted all that, and that he should have shewn, had the matter presented itself to him, that his argument only required that Christ did not exercise faith altogether in the sense in which sinners must do so in order to their passing from death to life.—J. R. M.
Samuel.—“Ah, I do not know if one can draw any conclusion from the circumstances you are now referring to; for, can one be certain that the baptism of John was one and the same with that now administered in the Christian Church?”
The father of the family.—“Why, now, I should like to know, do you call their identity in question? Do you think that the Head of the Church, who received baptism from John, did not take on Himself that baptism which His body is bound to receive? Or, did the Apostles receive any other baptism than that of John? And was it not that same baptism which the Apostles administered, and that under the direction of their Master, who Himself commenced His ministry with precisely the same kind of preaching as did John his, saying, just as John had been doing, ‘Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’” (Matt. iii. 2; iv. 17).
Samuel.—“We see, nevertheless, from Acts xix., that certain disciples who had already been baptised by John, were baptised a second time in the name of the Lord Jesus.”
The father of the family.—“No, dear brother, that was not so, and besides could not have been so; for, to begin with, you will admit that if the baptism of John had not been a valid and true baptism, neither the Lord nor His Apostles would have received it; and it is certain they were not re-baptised any more than were those other disciples of John of whom the Gospel speaks. And, as to those you have been referring to, your mistake in respect of them is the result of a mistranslation. For, according to the original text, we ought to read thus (verse 4)—‘Then Paul said: John baptised with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on Him which should come after him, that is, on Jesus Christ; (verse 5)—And they that heard this were baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus.’ These two verses
(4 and 5) are both of them part of Paul’s discourse, although in our translations verse 5 is given as though it were an observation made by the sacred historian.”
Samuel.—”I am not able to express an opinion on a question of that kind; but I admit that if the facts are as you say, the sense is perfectly plain, for verse 5 is in that case merely an observation made by the Apostle Paul on the baptism of John, declaring it to be one and the same with that of the Saviour.”
The father of the family.—”That is to me evident, and this is how I understand the passage as a whole: The Apostle had asked of certain disciples whether they received the Holy Spirit when they believed. They, in turn, asked if the Spirit had in fact been given to the Church. Whereupon the Apostle with surprise asked them with what baptism they were baptised. To which they replied, with that of John. But, says the Apostle, that of John was made in the name of Jesus Christ, for those who heard the preaching of John, heard him announce the Lord.”*
* Though we admire Malan’s general argument in this discussion, we do not commit ourselves to all his expositions of particular passages.—ED.
Samuel.—“But admitting your exposition of the passage in question, is one at liberty to regard the baptism of water wherewith the Saviour was baptised as affording an example to us? Was it not rather something extraordinary and exceptional?”
The father of the family.—“Prejudice again, Samuel! Now, I ask you, where is our example or our model in anything if not in Him who is the Head of the Church, and in whom ‘all righteousness was fulfilled?’ Does not water-baptism belong to the dispensation of the righteousness of God which is unto the Church? And was not that righteousness fulfilled by the Saviour? Whence then should I learn how this thing behoves to be done, and done well, if not from the example of Him who perfectly fulfilled all?”
Samuel.—“What mean you, dear friend? Think you that water-baptism ought only to be received at the age at which the Saviour received it, and after the same manner as He received it?”
The father of the family.—“What I mean to say, my brother, is that the Saviour’s baptism, which took place within the Church, and not without the Church, shews us in what manner this ordinance of God ought to be administered within the Church. I maintain that this baptism of the Saviour is for us the model to follow within the Church, that it is this that constitutes the rule, and that the exception is in the case of baptism administered without the Church.”
Samuel.—“I am quite taken aback at the remark that the baptism of the Saviour took place within the Church. I had not before noticed it, and yet nothing is more certain, since the Church is only the body of which the Lord Jesus is the Head. . . . But what do you thence infer as to baptism?”
* It is somewhat doubtful if Malan gives the true exegesis of Acts xix. 5, when he interprets it as constituting a part of Paul’s own words. Turretine understood Acts xix. 5 exactly as Malan does, and although Calvin does not seem to me to speak clearly hereanent, in a general regard, he is quite at one with Malan; in fact Malan’s thoughts seem to have been much influenced by Calvin’s comments in loc. Jos. Addison Alexander, however, is, upon the whole, inclined to disagree with Turretine here. That of course does not mean that Alexander disagrees with Turretine or with Malan on the general question of the identical significance of the baptism of John and Christian baptism.
The father of the family.—“I conclude from it that within the Church baptism ought to follow in the same track, if I may put it so. Thus (1) as it was at His first visible entrance into the new dispensation that the Lord Jesus received water-baptism, it is also at a man’s first visible entrance into that dispensation that water-baptism ought, as a rule, to be administered. (2) As the Saviour had not faith, seeing that He was the object of faith, and that He made no profession of faith, so also, free from that condition, ought baptism, as a general rule, be administered within the Church.”
Samuel.—“What you say may contain some truth, but at the same time the actual baptisms which John, which the Apostles, which the Lord Himself administered, were administered quite otherwise than you say should be the rule.”
The father of the family.—“Within the Church? No, never; not in a single case. Without the Church, without doubt, the case was as you say; there are those I call the exceptions. Thus the Jew, the Ethiopian, the Greek, or for that matter the German and the Briton, who were without the Church, could not be treated as if on the same footing with those who were within the Church. God approached those without, first by His Word, then in virtue of the confession which they made of having received (not accepted) the Word, they entered visibly within the Church, and after that first entrance they received (not accepted) on themselves the seal of the gracious calling wherewith they were called. This is how the matter stood when the Ethiopian eunuch, Lydia, and the Philippian jailor, made their entrance into the Church. And this is the ordinary practice of our own day when those heretofore without come near, and are added to the Church. In their case, without doubt, confession of faith is required, for it is necessary to know that the Promise became theirs before the seal of the Promise could be given them. And even it may well be that the Holy Spirit should have been given, as was the case with Cornelius and his house; but mark well that it all has regard to such as had been without the Church, and that therefore we cannot conclude anything from such cases as to what takes place within the Church.”
Samuel.—“Within! say you. Should it not be a case of following the same rule?”
The father of the family.—“No, no, dear brother. But as the infants of members of the Church are certainly born within the Church, I maintain that we ought, in the matter of baptism in their case, to follow the rule supplied by the Lord in the case of His own baptism. In other words, they ought to receive it as following upon their visible entry into the Church, even although the Holy Spirit, who was promised them, and whom possibly like John the Baptist they may have received from their mother’s womb, has not yet manifested Himself in them.”
Samuel.—“So that, good friend, you believe that the children of Christian parents are members of the Church of Christ?”
The father of the family.—“Of the obedient Church? No, by no means; but they are certainly of the Church called [many are called] and consecrated by the name of the Lord. And as it is to this latter that water-baptism belongs (whereas to the former belongs the baptism of the Holy Spirit, along with the Supper), I believe that infants born in the Church ought in it to receive the sign of the Promise under which they were called, until, that having come by faith to be members of the obedient Church, they receive the seal of the Holy Spirit (Eph. i. 13, 14), and that they bear witness thereto in taking the Supper of the Lord.”
Samuel.—”I understand you now, and I admit that your remark on the baptism of the Lord Jesus would have had some force as bearing on the baptism of infants, if infants were in truth within the Church of Christ. But it is, I think, with regard to this last point that we most of all differ, for I, for my part, see the matter quite otherwise in the Word.”
The father of the family.—”In what declaration of that Word, I pray you?”
Samuel.—”For example, when the Saviour says towards the end of the Gospel according to Mark: He that believeth and is baptised, shall be saved. How in view of that can one admit that an infant that has not believed may be baptised, or that not having believed it should belong to the Church of Christ?”
The father of the family.—”Let us proceed gently and soberly, dear Samuel, for more may be implied in your words than you intend. And, to begin with, do you reckon that absolutely all the infants of Christian parents, dying in early infancy, are lost?”
Samuel.—”I know that that is a difficult question; nevertheless I answer it without fear, by saying that they are not; for if they are of the elect, they are saved.”
The father of the family.—”You admit then that it is possible that in heaven an infant should be a member of the Church although it had not manifested faith on earth?”
Samuel.—”I see it is implied in what I do say, although I had not thus thought of it before.”
The father of the family.—”You see also, surely, that the same infant who should become a member of the Church in heaven might possibly be a member of the Church on earth?”
Samuel.—”Yes, of the elect Church, but not of the believing Church.”
The father of the family.—”You mean to say, I think, that that the infant, as long as it had not believed, could not shew its faith; and that goes without saying.”
Samuel.—“But not having believed, could it, in consistency with the Lord’s own words, be baptised?”
The father of the family.—“If the Lord had said: He that believeth, and he alone, shall be baptised, the answer would need to be a negative; for in that case there should exist a positive interdiction against an infant’s baptism. But He did not say that, far from it. For, first of all, notice that the passage, taken word by word, says: He that has (or shall have) believed, having been (or being) also baptised, shall be saved, which may not necessarily mean that baptism comes after believing.”
The father of the family.—“It is true, if yours is a literal rendering of the text that one might understand it as if baptism had preceded faith.”
The father of the family.—“But, especially, I lay weight on the consideration that by baptism in Mark xvi. 16, we are, as I believe, to understand the baptism of the Holy Spirit,* seeing that not only is salvation never joined in the Scriptures to water baptism, but that on the contrary St. Peter declares positively that it is not water baptism that saves but that of the Spirit, through which the conscience is cleansed (1 Peter iii. 21). I reckon then that the Saviour in making mention of baptism distinguishes true faith from that which is merely external and in the mouth; that is to say, from the superficial or hypocritical profession of many disciples.”
Samuel.—“But, my brother, are there two ways of believing? Is it not written, ‘that there is but one faith and one baptism?’” (Eph. iv. 5).
The father of the family.—“It is also written, ‘that Simon, the sorcerer, believed, and that at the same time he had no part in the things of God’ (Acts viii.) Even so it is said of many who believed that they went back from following the Lord, and, in another place, that such went out from us, because they were not of us” (John vi. 66; 1 John ii. 19).
Samuel.—“Nevertheless faith is a gift without repentance, and he that hath believed, hath eternal life. How then could one cease believing?”
The father of the family.—“He who has believed with the heart has believed in virtue of the power of God, and such is the person who, having been baptised of the Holy Spirit (Eph. i. 13, 14), will be confirmed unto the end (1 Cor. i. 8) through the faithfulness of God. But many who make profession of believing, not having been baptised of the Holy Spirit, will, as to the faith, make shipwreck (1 Tim. i. 18). Now this that I have just been saying is what the Lord made His apostles to realise, when He sent them to found His church among the nations.”
Samuel.—“You do not believe, then, that the words of our Saviour can refer to water baptism?”
The father of the family.—“I do not think so, for you see that the Lord, when proceeding to add that he that would not believe should be damned, made in this last connection no mention at all of baptism, because that He knew that in regard to unbelievers there was no room for speaking about the baptism of the Holy Spirit; whilst, on the other hand, He was not ignorant of the fact that many who had only believed in appearance had been baptised with water. If then He had intended to refer to water baptism in Mark xvi. 16, it seems to me that He would have said: ‘He that believeth not, although he should have been baptised, will be damned.’”
Samuel.—“I ought to say that I am not far from accepting your exegesis, seeing that it is in keeping with the analogy of the faith. I shall not therefore insist on Mark xvi. 16, but there is another passage which, in my opinion, sets forth the distinctive character of the Church under the Gospel, and which certainly has only one meaning. I refer to the prophecy of Jeremiah, quoted by St. Paul in Hebrews viii., where it is expressly said that, in the new covenant, ‘God will put His laws into the understanding and hearts of every believer, that none of them shall teach his brother, neither will he have need of being taught, since they all shall know the Lord, from the greatest to the least.’ Now as those things now spoken could not be true of an infant, how is it possible to regard that infant as a member of the Church, or a proper subject for water baptism?”
The father of the family.—“How can you reason or how can your heart’s disposition allow you to interpret Scripture after that fashion? What? Is it, good friend, that, because God declares that the potency of the Gospel covenant will be of a spiritual nature, and that a new heart will be the characteristic of the elect people, you infer from that that the promise embraces no infants—that it is made only to adults, even to those only who are capable of showing that they received it, and who may rejoice in it? But, my brother, if your reasoning were just, what must one think of the position of infants under the old covenant in respect of the spiritual privileges that it certainly contained, for they were ‘much every way, especially in that to them were committed the oracles of God’ (Rom. iii. 2). Were these infants then not members of the Church, when the Church submitted herself to the Lord, and walking in His statutes as in the days of Asa, of Jehosaphat, of Hezekias, of Ezra, and of Nehemiah, already in part received the accomplishment of the promise, and prospered under the teaching of the Word? Is it the case that at that time little children belonging to believing and blessed families had been cut off from the Church?”
Samuel.—“I do not think so: since they bore the seal of the covenant, they were assuredly parties to it.”
The father of the family.—“That was the case with infants then; that is to say, they were members of the Church of God at that time that God was saying to His people: ‘Oh that there were always such an heart in them, to obey me and to keep my commandments.’ And yet at that time they did not, in their own person, know the Lord, and they had need that one should teach them His ways!”
Samuel.—”I can only say with you.”
The father of the family.—”Seeing then that, in a time of spiritual blessings, the ignorance of the little children could not deprive them of a privilege which God had brought to them, and in the bosom of which they were born; seeing, further, that when God was circumcising the heart of His people, the little children could have their share in that grace, although they were yet incapable of shewing it forth; seeing, in a word, that, quite as well as Jeremiah, who was set apart from his mother’s womb, many other infants might have been blessed in the same way, and have thus in their soul the germ of spiritual life, although they were as yet entirely ignorant of it; seeing, I say, that all that is so, why should you say that when the Lord will have more abundantly poured of that grace upon His people, infants will have been excluded from the Church because of their being incapable of feeling or of showing forth this more abundant grace? Surely, my brother, they will not be more incapable then of being in the kingdom and under the influence of the blessing than they were before? And if in proportion only to their thinking capacity they should know the Lord, that will be all one with saying that they can enter into covenant only as they are capable of declaring its nature. If the case were so, Samuel, what was hidden in God, and what was in the purpose of His grace, should mean nothing at all, until it became an accomplished benefit in man! And if man were in fact in covenant only when he knew it, only when he could acknowledge it and call upon the Lord, it would mean that these blessings should have had no existence in any sense until man knew it—that is to say, before his conversion he was in every sense without that covenant! What in that case becomes of the eternal election of God, and how could the Church have been redeemed before it could have given thanks for it?”
Samuel.—”Nevertheless, my brother, the terms of the prophecy are formally put down, and they declare that under the Gospel covenant all shall know the Lord. And, besides, everything in that new covenant is different from what things were in the old covenant in which all was visible, temporal, carnal, and earthly, while as in the new covenant everything is spiritual and heavenly. The New Testament Church therefore cannot take in that which is not yet spiritual.”
The father of the family.—”No, my brother, the spiritual, the elect church, can only contain the elect, can contain only spiritual persons; and certainly in the eyes of God the body of Christ is composed only of such members. But what prevents, or who has declared to us, I pray you, that an infant even from its mother’s womb may not have had part in that spiritual dispensation? Certainly if the infant is an elect person it has part in it, at least in the decree of God, and in the work which the Saviour perfected, and possibly a part already in the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless it knows nothing of all this, neither do we, but the thing is not on that account less real, and God, assuredly, sees that infant in a perfect covenant of which He said that it was different from that of the Law.”
Samuel.—”It is, then, still to the sovereignty of God that you bring back this whole question?”
The father of the family.—”Absolutely, and you may see that I am right; for, in short, suppose that God had created that elect infant under the first dispensation, the infant would have been neither more or less blessed from his birth then. Only it would have behoved to pass under shadows, and types and figures, and be led by a legal pedagogy, all which it should carry as a yoke; but in regard to which, when it came to years of discernment, it should perceive the meaning and beauty. It should then have been not only of the people of God in an external sense, but also, and especially, of His people, in an interior sense—a people knowing the Lord, being taught by Him. Ah well! when God creates that infant at another time and under a dispensation set free from the shadows and figures, is the infant less an elect person on this account; less an object of the love of God; less called to the possession of privileges; less belonging to the people who are taught of God, and who know Him?”
(To be continued.)
Millennial Dawnism and its Chief Exponent.—Pastor Russell, who is the founder and expositor of “Millennial Dawnism,” has a genius for advertising. It must cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase the space allotted to him by the secular press. As long as the press will accept his money for their space, and publish his teachings, it is a matter that does not concern us. But when Russell has it published that he “stands unrivalled in a place not previously occupied by another,” that he preaches to “the largest congregations in America,” that he is “the American Spurgeon,” that “he has just been inducted to the charge of the London Tabernacle, known as the pulpit of the revered Spurgeon,” and that “the gospel of the Kingdom will be preached as a witness to all nations by the end of this year, by him alone,” we gasp for breath and ask, Has the man no conscience? What will Dr. Dixon and the church of which he is pastor say when they learn that “Pastor Russell” is the true and “inducted” pastor of the Tabernacle? These representations are false, and ought to be called by a shorter and uglier name.—Watchword and Truth.