By late REV. JAMES S. SINCLAIR.
We live in times of change. There are changes constantly taking place in almost every sphere of life. Some of these are for the better; many of them for the worse. But the Gospel changes not. The idea, however, that it ought to change has gained widespread currency at the present time, and the most of the religious leaders of our day are doing their utmost to change it, in order to suit the carnal ideas of men. The reason of this is that unbridled intellect is seeking to usurp the throne of God, and whatever principle or doctrine of the Gospel does not yield to its imperious claims must be set aside, and something new substituted in its place. For all this, the Gospel changes not. Intellect may substitute a new Gospel for the old, but the old continues the same, and is ever new. A spurious Gospel may introduce a seeming paradise into the souls of men, but it is the paradise of the opium-eater, that exists in his imagination for a brief moment, and then departs from him for ever, leaving a hell of misery behind it. So, we fear, it will be with multitudes at the present day. Their new Gospel and new heaven will leave them at death, and they will be miserable throughout an endless eternity.
The Gospel changes not, because the Bible is unchangeable. “The Word of the Lord endureth for ever.” It is only one Bible we have got. The same Book that was adapted for the first century of the Christian era is adapted for the twentieth; nothing can be added to it or taken from it. All the achievements of literature and science have failed to produce any other book that may be compared for a moment with the Bible. It proclaims the same message of salvation to the people of every age, and therefore, whatever changes may take place among the sons of men, the Gospel is unchangeable. The Gospel our fathers preached at the glorious Reformation is the same as we stand in need of at the present day.
The Gospel changes not, because God is unchangeable. The Bible is His Word, and His Word is the Gospel. It is “the Gospel of God,” which first was spoken by Christ and then by His apostles.
* Opening Article in Free Presbyterian Magazine, August, 1899.—Editor.
God is unchangeable in His being and perfections. His perfections, like Himself, never change. His holiness is unchangeable, and therefore in all ages He hates sin with an infinite hatred. His righteousness is unchangeable, and therefore He punishes sin in all ages with an infinite punishment. The grace, mercy and love which He showed to the Church in Old Testament times, and manifested in supreme fullness and glory in the Person and work of Jesus Christ, are also unchangeable. We may as well expect, therefore, that the self existent Jehovah, who is ever the same in substance, power and glory, should change in the very essence of His being, as that the Gospel which He has sent for the salvation of men should change. It is the same God we have to do with today as in former ages of the world’s history. Nations may depart from Him and worship vain idols, but He looks down from the immutable throne of His glory, and will yet call them to account for their doings that are not good. We may also be certain that the unchangeable Redeemer, Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday and today and for ever, will yet appear in flaming fire to take vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel. God—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—is unchangeable, and therefore the Gospel of salvation, which is of the Father, through the Son, and by the Holy Ghost, changes not.
The Gospel changes not, because the soul of man in its spiritual needs is unchangeable. The external environment of life may undergo many changes, but the soul does not change in its essential nature. Go back to the time of Cain and Abel, and go forward to the days of the Millennium, and the soul of man in its spiritual requirements is the same. Go to the darkest parts of the savage world, and go to the highly cultured schools of Christendom, and the soul in its spiritual requirements is the same. Every human being possesses understanding, conscience, will and affections. Every human being is a rational responsible agent. The soul of every human being is accountable to God, and is destined to exist throughout the ages of Eternity. It has also deep capacities that nothing but God Himself can fill. The soul is a World in itself, replete with activities, and marked by deep cavernous regions not easily explored. It is in its own nature more precious and wonderful than any or all material objects put together. It is capable of knowing, enjoying, and glorifying God its Creator, and fearful degradation it is for its noble powers to be the slaves of sin and Satan. “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”
Man sinned shortly after he was created. The soul which was created in the holy image of God, lost that image. The whole race of mankind shared the loss. The soul now comes into the world with the impress of sin upon all its faculties, and under the displeasure and curse of God its Creator. The same God, however, in rich mercy, sent His beloved Son into the World that He might suffer and die in the room of an innumerable company of sinners of our race, and obtain eternal redemption and eternal life on their behalf. The blessings of salvation thus procured, are presented to us in the Gospel for our acceptance. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.” Faith is the gift of God, and His command is, “Ask and it shall be given you.” All the blessings of the Gospel are needed by sinners now-a-days as much as they ever were, no matter to what extent educational progress has been made. The wisest philosopher, the most accomplished man of letters, the most acute scientist, the most masterful politician, and the most eloquent ecclesiastic, all require to know the same Gospel of salvation in their souls as the poorest, weakest, and silliest creatures of the race. Saul of Taurus was a man of spotless morality, outstanding intellectual powers, extensive learning, and uncommon zeal in religion. Yet, until the Lord met with him on the way to Damascus, he was as dead in sins and as great an enemy to Christ as the most illiterate and narrow-minded Jew. He needed the unchangeable Gospel to be spoken with living power to his soul. This by the grace of God, he got to his own good, and the good of multitudes in all ages. Many in our day think that if a man has learning, intellectual ability, and moral behaviour that he needs nothing more for salvation. No greater delusion than this could take possession of the heart of man no matter how cultured. Every individual needs to know the Gospel in its power if he is to be saved. Whatever diversity of intellectual attainments and external advantages there may be among men, the soul in its essential, moral, and spiritual necessities is the same in all.
The Gospel changes not, because heaven and hell are unchangeable. The heaven of today is as holy a place and as much closed against atheists, infidels, unitarians, and legalists as ever it was. “Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” Not a few imagine that because many preachers put all and sundry to heaven, let them believe what they may or live as they please, that therefore the gate of entrance is much wider now than it used to be. This is a delusion. The Most High will yet make it manifest before an assembled universe that He turns the unbelieving into hell, and all that live in forgetfulness of God. Many in the folly and blindness of their hearts will try to deny that there is such a place as hell. They regard the belief in it as a mere relic of barbarism. But hell is still the same unchangeable place of never-ending misery as it was in the past. Preachers of the Gospel had much to say about it in days of old, because they loved the souls of men, and desired them to escape from the woeful misery to which they were exposed. The pulpits of the present age, however, have little or nothing to say on the subject, and yet the vast proportion of Church goers are in the broad way which leadeth to destruction. For the Bible tells us that “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” There are few or none of the marks of this birth to be seen upon the greater number of people who attend church in Scotland and England today. We refer not to exceptional places where some of the Lord’s people gather together for the maintenance of the truth, and where sometimes a goodly number of the congregations truly fear the Lord. It is the unchangeable Gospel we need now as in the past, if we are to escape hell, and to enter upon the everlasting felicity of heaven.
In conclusion, we remark that the cry at the present time after a new gospel is a sign of the prevailing darkness of the age as to spiritual and eternal realities. There is much intellectual light, but that helps as nothing for eternity. If the light that is in us be darkness, how great is that darkness! May the Lord grant that our readers will hold fast to the fresh, ever new and unchangeable Gospel of Jesus Christ who is God over all, blessed for ever!