by the late Rev. William Jay
“The grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 1 Pet. 1: 13.
The display of Him is everything. Be it therefore observed, that “the revelation” of him is fourfold; and though the least of these manifestations be here intended, all of them may be properly and usefully noticed in their order.
Scriptural Revelation
The first revelation of him we call scriptural. This began very early, even in Paradise. There the Sun of righteousness dawned, and from thence shone more and more unto the perfect day. He was announced as the seed of the woman, and the bruiser of the serpent’s head; — then, as the seed of Abraham, in whom all the families of the earth were to be blessed; — then, as the Shiloh of Judah, to whom the gathering of the people should be; — then as the son of David, and his Lord. Of him, Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write. He was held forth not only in words but types. He was seen in Moses as a prophet, in Aaron as a priest, in Joshua as a conqueror, in Solomon as the prince of peace, in Jonah as dying and rising again. Every bleeding sacrifice expressed him as an offering for sin; the manna from heaven, and the water from the rock, as the bread and water of life; the tabernacle and temple, as the residence of divinity, in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. This exhibition of him may be likened to a perfect portraiture of a most distinguished and endeared personage, at full length, rolled up on the side of a room, and which the owner gradually opens to the beholders, till the whole figure stands disclosed; so God gradually revealed the Desire of all nations, while his delighted and wondering church exclaimed, “He is fairer than the children of men,” — Yea, he is altogether lovely.”
Incarnate Revelation
The second revelation of him is incarnate. “God was manifest in the flesh.” — “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he should destroy the works of the devil.” — “We know that he was manifested to take away our sins, and in him was no sin.” Thus he was not only declared but perceived. He appeared not in vision but in person. Not tremendously, as in the giving of the law, when even Moses said, “I exceedingly fear and quake;” but familiarly, “clothed in a body like our own.” Not transiently, as when he paid visits to his people of old, but by a continuance of three-and-thirty years — for “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us — full of grace and truth.”
Spiritual Revelation
The third revelation of him is spiritual. And we call it spiritual because it is produced by the Spirit of God in the spirit of man. It is expressed by sight. Not a carnal sight of him; not a sight of him by the eye of sense, but by the eye of faith, according to the words of our Saviour: “He that seeth the Son, and believeth on him, hath everlasting life.” It is such an acquaintance with him as draws forth our admiration, excites our love, gains our confidence, and secures our obedience. It is what Paul means when he says, “It pleased God to reveal his Son in me,” — and which he prayed for an increase of when he said, “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made comfortable unto his death.”
Glorious Revelation
The fourth revelation of him is glorious. After all he is now much concealed. There are hundreds of millions of our fellow-creatures who know nothing even of the existence of such a Being. Even where he is professedly known, there are multitudes to whom he has no form nor comeliness, nor any beauty, that they should desire him. Even among those who wear the name of Christians, there are many to be found who deny his divinity, renounce his redemption, and ridicule the operations of his Spirit. Thus he is despised and rejected of men. This, to those who know his name, and put their trust in him, is humbling and distressing. But they are relieved and cheered with the thought, that it will not be so always. They believe that the number of his admirers is increasing. They are sure that he will be exalted and extolled, and be very high; that he will sprinkle many nations; that all nations shall fall down before him; and the whole earth be filled with his glory. They know also that there is a day approaching, called, by way of distinction, “the day of Christ” — “the revelation of Jesus Christ.” He will then appear the second time without sin unto salvation. He will come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him. We shall see him as he is. He will be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe. Then his grandeur will be acknowledged. Then his love, power and patience, and truth, — his character as a Saviour, — his tenderness as a friend, — his dominion as Lord of all, will be developed, — and he will enter, accompanied by a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, a world where he will attract every eye, and engage every tongue — and saints and angels will unite with a loud voice, “worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.”
The Grace that is to be Brought
But what is to be expected at the revelation of Jesus Christ? “THE GRACE THAT IS TO BE BROUGHT UNTO YOU.”
Two Inquiries
What does “the grace” here spoken of mean? It comprehends the fulness of the promise, “I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there ye may be also,” — his changing their vile bodies, and fashioning them like unto his own glorious body, — his absolving and acknowledging them before an assembled world, — his commendation, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant” — his invitation, “Come, ye blessed of my Father,” — his placing them in a state of blessedness, which far transcends all our powers of expression and conception. After all our knowledge derived from Scripture and experience, it doth not yet appear what we shall be; “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” It is a glory which shall be revealed.
But why is it called grace? Why is it not said, “The glory that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ”? May it not be, first, to exclude merit from all share in attaining it? There is only one Being who reigns in heaven by his own right. Jesus deserved his throne, and could claim it on the ground of worthiness. But we are not worthy of the least of all God’s mercies. How, then, could we claim an immensity, an eternity of riches and honour? If we look for a reward, it must be a reward of grace. Our work bears no proportion to the recompence. If our obedience was perfect, it could not be meritorious, because it is due to God; but our services are really full of defects and defilement; and therefore, if they were dealt with according to their desert, they would be rejected. To which we may add, that all our good works are performed in the strength of the Lord; we live and walk in the Spirit. Every one, therefore, that knows himself will say, with the apostle, “By the grace of God I am what I am; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” And we are sure, “the top-stone of the spiritual temple will be brought forth with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.”
And secondly, may it not be so called to show the identity of grace with glory? They are not only so intimately and inseparably connected, but so greatly resemble each other, and are so essentially the same, that the one is interchangeably used for the other in the Scripture. Thus Paul calls glory grace, when he says, “We are changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord;” meaning, advancement from one degree of glory to another; or, as it is elsewhere expressed, being “renewed day by day,” or going “from strength to strength” in the divine life. And here Peter names glory grace. In fact, grace is glory in the bud, and glory is grace in the flower. Grace is glory in the dawn, and glory is grace in the day. But the morning and noon are produced by the same sun; and the bud and flower issue from the same plant. Let us remember this, that glory is nothing but the completion of what grace begins. It is the perfection of those principles, dispositions, services, and enjoyments, by which Christians are distinguished even in this world. Have we any thing of heaven in us already? It will be a state of sinless purity. Do we delight in holiness now? It will consist in the society of the godly. Are they our dearest companions now? Death changes our place, but not our state, nor our nature. The change, to a Christian, is a change not in quality, but degree. He has now the foretastes of the bliss, the first-fruits of the harvest, the earnest of the inheritance. “He that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given to us the earnest of the Spirit.”
“Duty-Faith and Duty-Repentance”
by Rev. J. P. MacQueen
If left, in the least degree, to themselves, even people professing interest in evangelical Christianity will go either to one extreme in their theological outlook, or the pendulum will swing to what is diametrically opposite. It is thus characteristic of fallen humanity, unless constantly upheld by divine grace, to swing away from the golden mean, or medium, to one extreme or the other. Arminianism and Hyper-Calvinism clearly illustrate this truth. Arminians hold that the fallen will of man has the inherent power to believe and repent when, where, and how the individual pleases, without any regard to the indispensable necessity of the exercise of Divine supernatural omnipotent power, while Hyper-Calvinism, with a view to correcting Arminianism, and thus safeguarding Divine sovereignty makes man as irresponsible regarding his soul’s everlasting salvation as the stolid ox is regarding the consequences of his goring, with its horns, its human master. Thus the Hyper-Calvinist delights in ridiculing all exhortations to believe and repent, on the part of a rational accountable being, as “duty-faith and duty-repentance.” To counteract this lamentable folly we here record an extract from a sermon by the saintly well-balanced Rev. John Flavel on the subject as follows:-
“It is a great encouragement, if rightly considered, that faith is constituted a duty by a plain Gospel precept (1 John 3: 23); for this cuts off the pretence and plea of presumption. What, such a vile wretch as thou, saith Satan, presume to believe in Christ? But here is a command from the highest Sovereign, the contempt of which men shall answer at their peril. This also is the declared intention of the Gospel promises and threatenings, whereby the souls of sinners are assaulted on both sides. As for promises, how are all the sacred pages of the Bible adorned with them as the firmament with radiant stars, among which that in the text (Rev. 3: 20) seems to excel in glory: ‘If any man open to me, I will come in to him.’ Like unto which is this: ‘I am the bread of life. He that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst; him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out’ (John 6: 35 – 37). Such rich encouragements to faith had never been put into the promises, but for faith’s sake. And then for Gospel threatenings, though they have a dreadful sound, yet they have a gracious design. What a terrible thunder-clap is this: ‘He that believeth not the Son, shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him’ (John 3: 36). To which another threatening echoes with a like terrible voice: ‘He that believeth not shall be damned’ (Mark 16: 16). There are dreadful things, you see, threatened in the Gospel against unbelievers; but what is the design of these threatenings, but to rouse men by fear out of their unbelief and carnal security and guide them to Christ? Thus both the promises and the threatenings, though of far different natures, conspire and meet in the self-same design, even to open the heart to Christ by faith.
“For the sake of this design, all Gospel ordinances and offices are instituted and continued in the world to this day. Why did Christ at His triumphant ascension shed forth such a variety of gifts upon men, but that God might dwell among them? ‘Thou hast ascended on high: Thou hast led captivity captive; Thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them.’ (Psalm 68: 18). The whole frame of Gospel ordinances is set up to bring men to Christ, and build them up in Him.’ (Eph. 4: 12).
“All the Scripture records of converted sinners, whose hearts God has in any age opened, were made to encourage other souls by their example to believe in, or open unto, Christ as they did. For this purpose the memorable conversion of Paul was graciously recorded. ‘Howbeit, for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for a pattern (or model) to them that should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting?’ (1 Tim. 1: 16). Never was any man’s heart bolted and made fast with stronger prejudices against Christ than this man’s was; yet the Spirit of the Lord opened it. O, how submissively flexible became his otherwise obstinate and obdurate will: ‘Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do’ (Acts 9: 6). This gives great encouragement to other sinners to come to Christ as he did; and, therefore when men see other sinners receiving Christ, and themselves continue unbelieving, the examples which God has set before their eyes are a dreadful aggravation of their unbelief. ‘John came to you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not (a condemnation of them for their unbelief); but the publicans and the harlots believed him; and ye, when ye had seen it repented not afterwards, that ye might believe him,’ thus emphasising their responsibility and accountability as rational beings (Matt. 21: 32). Though you saw publicans, reputed the worst of men, and harlots, the worst of women, convinced, humbled, and brought to faith, these sights affected not your souls, as if you were no more responsible than dumb animals, and you never had one such reflection as this: Lord, have not I as much need to flee from the wrath to come (for our God is a consuming fire against unforgiven sin), and to seek the salvation of my soul, as these? Will it not be a dreadful aggravation of my misery, that such as these should obtain Christ and Heaven, and I be shut out?” Thus Rev. John Flavel did not countenance, on the one hand, the un-Scriptural Arminian view of the inherent powers of the fallen human will to save the soul, as is the fashion with modern evangelists, nor, on the other hand, did he fall into the opposite un-Scriptural error that man, though a rational being, has no responsibility for the salvation, spiritual health, and eternal destiny of his immortal soul. To be kept, therefore, from these extreme errors, and all others, we must learn perpetually, like Rev. John Newton, not to lean on our own understanding, but “to Divine grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be.”