Horatius Bonar
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I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
BE STILL
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)
E still, my soul; Jehovah loveth thee;
Fret not nor murmur at thy weary lot;
Though dark and lone thy journey seems to be,
He ever loves; then trust him, trust Him still;
Let all thy care be this, in doing his will.
Thy hand in His, like fondest, happiest child,
Place thou, nor draw it for a moment thence;
Walk thou with Him, a Father reconciled
Till in His own good time He call thee hence.
Walk with Him now; so shall thy way be bright,
And all thy soul be filled with His most glorious light.
Fight the good fight of faith, nor turn aside
Though fear of peril from or earth or hell;
Take to thee now the armour proved and tried,
Take to thee the spear and sword; oh, wield them well;
So shall thou conquer here, so win the day,
So wear the crown when this hard live has passed away.
Take courage! Faint not, though the foe be strong;
Christ is thy strength; He fighteth on thy side.
Swift be thy face; remember, ’tis not long,
The goal is near; the prize He will provide.
And then from earthly toil thou restest ever;
Thy home on the fair banks of life’s eternal river!
He comes with His reward; ’tis just at hand;
He comes in glory to His promised throne.
My soul, rejoice; ere long thy feet shall stand
Within the city of the Blessed One.
Thy perils past, thy heritage secure,
Thy tears all wiped away, thy joy for ever sure!
—Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope, First Series (James Nisbet & Co., 1878).
salme 67
(Geneva Bible)
To him that excelleth on Neginoth. A Psalme or song.
1 God be mercifull vnto vs, and blesse vs, and cause his face to shine among vs. Selah.
2 That they may know thy way vpon earth, and thy sauing health among all nations.
3 Let the people prayse thee, O God: let all the people prayse thee.
4 Let the people be glad and reioyce: for thou shalt iudge the people righteously, and gouerne the nations vpon the earth. Selah.
5 Let the people prayse thee, O God: let all the people prayse thee.
6 Then shall the earth bring foorth her increase, and God, euen our God shall blesse vs.
7 God shall blesse vs, and all the endes of the earth shall feare him.
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
While today’s heretics insist that they are, like, so totally not whatever anyone says they are, and definitely not anything like the liberals (or anyone else) of the past, I keep seeing them pop up whenever I read the objections of dead theologians to the errors of their day. Consider these words from Horatius Bonar (1808–1889):
Some well-meaning theological literateurs, or rather amateur theologians, who patronize religion in their own way, are fain to warn us of the danger of not “keeping abreast of the age,” as if we were imperiling Christianity by not by not being quite so learned in modern speculations as they are. We should like, certainly, to keep abreast of all that is true and good, either in this age or any other; but as to doing more than that, or singling out this age as being pre-eminently worthy of being kept abreast of, we hesitate. To be “up to” all the errors, fallacies, speculations, fancies, mis-criticisms of the age, would be an achievement of no mean kind; to require us to be “up to” all this under threat of endangering Christianity, or betraying the Bible, is an exaction which could only be made by men who think that religion is much beholden to them for their condescending patronage; and will only be accepted by men who are timid about the stability of the cross of Christ if left unpropped by human wisdom; and who, besides, have three or four lifetimes to spare. We may be in a condition for believing, and even for defending the Bible, without having mastered the whole deistical literature of the last century, or the present. We may be qualified to accept the doctrine of sacrificial substitution even though we are not “up to” everything that has been spoken against it . . .
In attempting to “keep abreast of the age,” there is some danger of falling short of other ages; and we are not sure but that the object of those who shake this phrase so complacently in our faces, both as a taunt and a threat, is to draw us off from the past altogether, as if the greater bulk of all its literature were rude lumber, a mere drag upon progress. . . . Old theological terms and Scripture phraseology are set aside . . . Sharp adhesion to old doctrines is imbecility; and yet defined expression of the new is avoided, the mind of the age being in a transition state, unable to bear the whole of what the exact and honest exhibition of “advanced” Christianity would require to utter. . . . They shrink from bold and definite statements of Reformation doctrine, lest they should be pronounced “not abreast of the age”—stereotyped, if not imbecile. Indefinite language, mystical utterances, negative or defective statements, which will save the speaker’s or writer’s orthodoxy without compromising his reputation for “intellect” and “liberality”—these are becoming common. . . .
—Horatius Bonar, Christ Is All, ed. Michael A. G. Haykin & Darrin R. Brooker (Reformation Heritage Books, 2007), 31–32.
Sound familiar?
—Horatius Bonar, Christ Is All, ed. Michael A. G. Haykin & Darrin R. Brooker (Reformation Heritage Books, ), 55–56..
—Horatius Bonar, Christ Is All, ed. Michael A. G. Haykin & Darrin R. Brooker (Reformation Heritage Books, 2007), 62–63
Church of the living God, be separate—dwell alone! That is your security, your strength, your influence. Let the world see that you are not of it; that you do not need it. And you will serve it best by dwelling alone. Not by coldness, sourness, distance; but by love, geniality, gentleness, patience, by all acts of benevolence and words of peace. These are things which are only to be found by “dwelling alone.”
—Horatius Bonar, Christ Is All, ed. Michael A. G. Haykin & Darrin R. Brooker (Reformation Heritage Books, 2007), 83–84.
Men may call these speculations. They may condemn them as unprofitable. To the law and to the testimony! Of such speculations, the Bible is full. There man is a helpless worm, and salvation from first to last, is of the Lord. God’s will, and not man’s, is the law of the universe. If we are to maintain the gospel—if we are to hold fast to grace—if we are to preserve Jehovah’s honor—we must grasp these truths with no feeble hand. For if there be no such being as a Supreme, pre-determining Jehovah, then the universe will soon be chaos: and if there be no such thing as free electing love, every minister of Christ may close his lips, and every sinner upon earth sit down in mute despair.
—Horatius Bonar, Christ Is All, ed. Michael A. G. Haykin & Darrin R. Brooker (Reformation Heritage Books, 2007), 89.
If I throw a rope to a drowning man, I am a deliverer. But is Christ no more than that? . . . The very essence of Christ’s deliverance is the substitution of Himself for us, His life for ours. . . . He did not redeem us by a little loss, a little sacrifice, a little labour, a little suffering, “He redeemed us to God by His blood;” “the precious blood of Christ.”
—Horatius Bonar, Christ Is All, ed. Michael A. G. Haykin & Darrin R. Brooker (Reformation Heritage Books, 2007), 111–113.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
LET US DRAW NEAR
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)
WHY stand I lingering about,
In fear, and weariness, and doubt,
When all is light within?
Thou, the new and living way,
The trembler’s Guide, the sinner's Stay,
My High Priest, lead me in!
I know the mercy-seat is there,
On which thou sitt’st to answer prayer;
I know the blood is shed;
The everlasting covenant sealed,
The everlasting grace revealed,
And life has reached the dead!
Not the mere Paradise below;
The heaven of heavens is opened now,
And we its bliss regain.
Guarded so long by fire and sword,
The gate stands wide, the way restored,
The veil is rent in twain!
Without the cloud and gloom appear,
The peril and the storm are near,
The foe is raging round;
Then let me boldly enter in,
There end my danger, fear, and sin,
And rest on holy ground.
—Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope, First Series (James Nisbet & Co., 1878).
Psalme 109
(Geneva Bible)
To him that excelleth. A Psalme of David.
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let neither your words nor your lives give any uncertain sound. Every man to whom the Bible comes is responsible for believing all the truth which the revelation proclaims, and for rejecting all the error which it condemns. Cleave, then, to the Word of the living God; and sit, as teachable disciples, at the feet of Him who has said, “Learn of me.”
—Horatius Bonar, Christ Is All, ed. Michael A. G. Haykin & Darrin R. Brooker (Reformation Heritage Books, 2007), 109–110.
—Horatius Bonar, Christ Is All, ed. Michael A. G. Haykin & Darrin R. Brooker (Reformation Heritage Books, 2007), 115.
I have come to the conclusion that Horatius Bonar could never have written a book called A Generous Orthodoxy*.
Truth is a mighty thing in the eyes of God, whatever it may be in those of men. All error is, more or less, whether directly or indirectly,. A misrepresentation of God’s character, and a subversion of his relation (Rev. 22:18, 19).
—Horatius Bonar, Christ Is All, ed. Michael A. G. Haykin & Darrin R. Brooker (Reformation Heritage Books, 2007), 123–124.
*Read reviews of A Generous Orthodoxy by Tim Challies, Albert Mohler, Gary Gilley, Bob DeWaay, Roger Overton, Randy Brandt, and John Hendryx.
More evidence from the pen of Horatius Bonar that there is nothing new under the sun:
. . . Man is now thinking out a Bible for himself; framing a religion in harmony with the development of liberal thought; constructing a worship on the principles of taste and culture; shaping a god to suit the expanding aspirations of the age. The process of evolution on all these points is so satisfactory and so well advanced that disguise is no longer needful. Faith and certainty, in things outside our senses, are, in the meantime at least, not to be taken into account. . . .
Amid all this dazzling confusion, it is well to keep in mind that the way leading to life is narrow, the way leading to death is broad. The danger arising from want of spiritual discrimination is more serious than many think. For one authentic light there are a thousand spurious ones. The false christs are many, the true Christ is but one; and whilst glorying in the vitality of truth we must stand in awe of the marvelous fecundity of error. Discrimination is not censorious.
—Horatius Bonar, Christ Is All, ed. Michael A. G. Haykin & Darrin R. Brooker (Reformation Heritage Books, 2007), 125–126.
These words by Horatius Bonar, though written around one hundred and fifty years ago, have never been more true than they are today. While those who would call themselves “the church” today are always looking for something fresh and innovative, they continually fall back on the same errors that have been common in ages past. The good news, then, is that we need no fresh answers. The saints who have gone before us and, indeed, Scripture itself, have said all that needs to be said.
Christianity is both life and dogma; quite as much one as the other.
But it is a dogma before it is life; it cannot be the latter till it has been the former. It is out of the dogma that the life emerges; not the dogma out of the life; and the importance that is attached in Scripture to knowledge—right knowledge—should make us cautious in disparaging doctrine, as if it were harmless when wrong, and impotent or uninfluential when right. The mystics of different ages have tried hard to depreciate doctrine, to praise what they call “the spirit” at the expense of “the letter”; And it is somewhat remarkable that infidelity has generally taken their side . . .
. . . doctrine in general, at least if precise and defined, is inconsistent with liberty of thought and expansion of intellect. “Life” is a pliable thing; it is unfenced and common; it may mean anything a man likes to call it or to fancy it; there is no imperiling of human liberty in calling Christianity a life; the men of “progress” and “freshness” are safe in making their standard; for Christianity = life may mean just Christianity = 0; at least it is an equation capable of being manipulated as to bring out any result which the theological algebraist may desire.
And then there is the advantage of having a popular and high-sounding watchword. “Christianity a life, not a dogma” sounds noble. . . . it is an axiom rather than a proposition. It takes largely; it convinces hundreds without further inquiry or argument . . . it would enable us to believe anyone to be pious—Moslem, Hindoo, Romanist, Pantheist, or Sceptic—who could produce a worthy and earnest life.
. . . Religion without creed, religion without truth, religion without the Bible, religion without Christianity, religion without Christ—is set down now, not simply among things possible, but amongst things desirable. . . . “Unconditioned” religion is to be accepted as not inconsistent with philosophy or liberty, but conditioned or defined religion is to be regarded as imbecility.
—Horatius Bonar, Christ Is All, ed. Michael A. G. Haykin & Darrin R. Brooker (Reformation Heritage Books, 2007), 145–146.
—Horatius Bonar, Christ Is All, ed. Michael A. G. Haykin & Darrin R. Brooker (Reformation Heritage Books, 2007), 171.
A self-indulgent religion has nothing to do with the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ; or of that cross of ours which He has commanded us to take up and carry after him, renouncing ease and denying self. Our time, our gifts, our money, our strength, are all to be laid upon the altar. We are to be “living sacrifices” (Romans 12:1).
—Horatius Bonar, Christ Is All, ed. Michael A. G. Haykin & Darrin R. Brooker (Reformation Heritage Books, 2007), 197.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
WHO ARE THESE, AND WHENCE CAME THEY?
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)
“Et de Hierosolymis et de Britannia aequaliter patet aula coelestis.”—Jerome. Ep. ad Paulinum.
Not from Jerusalem alone,
To heaven the path ascends;
As near, as sure, as straight the way
That leads to the celestial day,
From farthest realms extends;
Frigid or torrid zone.
What matters how or whence we start?
One is the crown to all;
One is the hard but glorious race,
Whatever be our starting-place;—
Kings round the earth the call
That says, Arise, Depart!
From the balm-breathing, sun-loved isles
Of the bright Southern Sea,
From the dead North‘s cloud-shadow‘d pole,
We gather to one gladsome goal,—
One common home in Thee,
City of sun and smiles!
The cold rough billow hinders none;
Nor helps the calm, fair main;
The brown rock of Norwegian gloom,
The verdure of Tahitian bloom,
The sands of Mizraim‘s plain,
Or peaks of Lebanon.
As from the green lands of the vine,
So from the snow-wastes pale,
We find the ever open road
To the dear city of our God;
From Russian steppe, or Burman vale,
Or terraced Palestine.
Not from swift Jordan‘s sacred stream
Alone we mount above;
Indus or Danube, Thames or Rhone,
Rivers unsainted and unknown;—
From each the home of love
Beckons with heavenly gleam.
Not from gray Olivet alone
We see the gates of light;
From Morven‘s heath or Jungfrau‘s snow
We welcome the descending glow
Of pearl and chrysolite,
And the unsetting sun.
Not from Jerusalem alone
The Church ascends to God;
Strangers of every tongue and clime,
Pilgrims of every land and time,
Throng the well-trodden road
That leads up to the throne.
—Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope, First Series (James Nisbet & Co., 1878).
Psalme 122
(Geneva Bible)
A song of degrees, or Psalme of David.
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
PRAISE
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)
Praises to Him who built the hills;
Praises to Him the streams who fills;
Praises to Him who lights each star
That sparkles in the blue afar!
Praises to Him who wakes the morn,
And bids it glow with beams new-born;
Who draws the shadows of the night,
Like curtains, o’er our wearied sight!
Praises to Him whose love has given,
In Christ His Son, the life of heaven;
Who for our darkness gives us light,
And turns to day the deepest night!
Praises to Him, in grace who came
To bear our woe, and sin, and shame;
Who lived to die, who died to rise,
The God-accepted sacrifice!
Praises to Him the chain who broke,
Opened the prison, burst the yoke,
Sent forth its captives, glad and free,
Heirs of the endless liberty!
Praises to Him who shed abroad
Within our hearts the love of God;
The Spirit of all truth and peace,
Fountain of joy and holiness!
To Father, Son and Spirit now
The hands we lift, the knees we bow;
To Jah-Jehovah thus we raise
The sinner’s endless song of endless praise!
—Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope, First Series (James Nisbet & Co., 1878).
Psalme 14
(Geneva Bible)
To him that excelleth. A Psalme of Dauid.
1 The foole hath said in his heart, There is no God: they haue corrupted, and done an abominable worke: there is none that doeth good. 2 The Lord looked downe from heauen vpon the children of men, to see if there were any that would vnderstand, and seeke God. 3 All are gone out of the way: they are all corrupt: there is none that doeth good, no not one. 4 Doe not all the workers of iniquitie know that they eate vp my people, as they eate bread? they call not vpon the Lord. 5 There they shall be taken with feare, because God is in the generation of the iust. 6 You haue made a mocke at the counsell of the poore, because the Lord is his trust. 7 Oh giue saluation vnto Israel out of Zion: when the Lord turneth the captiuitie of his people, then Iaakob shall reioyce, and Israel shall be glad.
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
PRAISE TO CHRIST
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)
Jesus, the Christ of God,
The Father’s blessed Son,
The Father’s bosom Thine abode,
The Father’s love Thine own.
Jesus, the Lamb of God,
Who us from hell to raise,
Hast shed Thy reconciling blood;
We give Thee endless praise.
God, and yet man, Thou art,
True God, true man art Thou;
Of man, and of man’s earth a part,
One with us Thou art now.
Great sacrifice for sin,
Giver of life for life,
Restorer of the peace within,
True ender of the strife.
To Thee, the Christ of God,
Thy saints exulting sing,
The bearer of our heavy load,
Our own anointed King!
True lover of the lost,
From heaven Thou camest down,
To pay for souls the righteous cost,
And claim them for Thine own.
Rest of the weary, Thou!
To Thee, our rest, we come;
In Thee to find our dwelling now,
Our everlasting home.
—Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope, First Series (James Nisbet & Co., 1878).
Psalme 56 (Geneva Bible) To him that excelleth. A Psalme of David on Michtam, concerning the dumme doue in a farre countrey, when the Philistims tooke him in Gath.
1 Be mercifull vnto me, O God, for man would swallow me vp: he fighteth continually and vexeth me. 2 Mine enemies would dayly swallowe mee vp: for many fight against me, O thou most High. 3 When I was afrayd, I trusted in thee. 4 I will reioyce in God, because of his word, I trust in God, and will not feare what flesh can doe vnto me. 5 Mine owne wordes grieue me dayly: all their thoughtes are against me to doe me hurt. 6 They gather together, and keepe them selues close: they marke my steps, because they waite for my soule. 7 They thinke they shall escape by iniquitie: O God, cast these people downe in thine anger. 8 Thou hast counted my wandrings: put my teares into thy bottel: are they not in thy register? 9 When I cry, then mine enemies shall turne backe: this I know, for God is with me. 10 I will reioyce in God because of his worde: in the Lord wil I reioyce because of his worde. 11 In God doe I trust: I will not be afrayd what man can doe vnto me. 12 Thy vowes are vpon me, O God: I will render prayses vnto thee. 13 For thou hast deliuered my soule from death, and also my feete from falling, that I may walke before God in the light of the liuing.Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)
THE CROSS AND THE CROWN
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)
NO blood, no altar now:
The sacrifice is o‘er;
No flame, no smoke, ascends on high;
The Lamb is slain no more!
But richer blood has flowed from nobler veins,
To purge the soul from guilt, and cleanse the
reddest stains.
We thank Thee for the blood,
The blood of Christ, Thy Son;
The blood by which our peace is made,
Our victory is won;
Great victory o’er hell, and sin, and woe,
That needs no second fight, and leaves no
second foe.
We thank Thee for the grace
Descending from above,
That overflows our widest guilt,
The eternal Father’s love:
Love of the Father’s everlasting Son,
Love of the Holy Ghost, Jehovah, three in
One.
We thank Thee for the hope,
So glad, and sure, and clear;
It holds the drooping spirit up
Till the long dawn appear:
Fair hope! with what a sunshine does it cheer
Our roughest path on earth, our dreariest desert
here!
We thank Thee for the crown
Of glory and of life;
’Tis no poor with’ring wreath of earth,
Man’s prize in mortal strife:
’Tis incorruptible as is the throne,
The kingdom of our God and his Incarnate
Son.
—Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope, First Series (James Nisbet & Co., 1878).
Psalme 119:1–8
(Geneva Bible)
Aleph.
1 Blessed are those that are vpright in their way, and walke in the Lawe of the Lord.
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. Psalm 122:1 (Geneva Bible)
THE END OF THE DAY
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)
COME, for thy day, thy wasted day, is closing,
With all its joy and sun;
Bright, loving hours have passed thee by unheeded;
Thy work on earth undone,
And all thy race unrun.
Folly and pleasure hast thou still been chasing,
With the world’s giddy throng,
Beauty and love have been thy golden idols;
And thou hast rushed along,
Still list’ning to their song.
Sorrow and weeping thou hast cast behind thee,
For what were tears to thee?
Life was not life without the smile and sunshine;
Only in revelry
Did wisdom seem to be.
Unclasp, O man, the syren hand of pleasure,
Let the gay folly go!
A few quick years will bring the unwelcome ending;
Then whither dost thou go,
To endless joy or woe?
Clasp a far truer hand, a kinder, stronger,
Of Him the crucified;
Let in a deeper love into thy spirit,
The love of Him who died,
And now is glorified!
—Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope, First Series (James Nisbet & Co., 1878).
Psalme 119:49–56
(Geneva Bible)
Zain.
49 Remember the promise made to thy seruant, wherein thou hast caused me to trust.
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lorde Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. Psalm 122:1 (Geneva Bible)
CONFESSION
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)
O this soul, how dark and blind!
O this foolish, earthly mind;
This ever froward, selfish will,
Which refuses to be still!
O these ever roaming eyes,
Upward that refuse to rise;
These still wayward feet of mine,
Found in every path but thine!
O these pulses felt within,
Beating for the world and sin,
Sending round the fevered blood,
In a fierce and carnal flood!
O this stubborn, prayerless knee,
Hands so seldom clasped to Thee,
Longings of the soul, that go,
Like the wild wind, to and fro;
To and fro without an aim,
Returning idly whence they came,
Bringing in no joy, no bliss,
Adding to my weariness!
Giver of the heavenly peace,
Bid, O bid, these tumults cease;
Minister Thy holy balm,
Fill me with Thy Spirits calm!
Thou the life, the truth, the way,
Leave me not in sin to stray;
Bearer of the sinners guilt,
Lead me, lead me, as thou wilt!
—Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope, First Series (James Nisbet & Co., 1878).
Psalme 119:97–104
(Geneva Bible)
Mem.
97 Oh howe loue I thy Lawe! it is my meditation continually.
98 By thy commandements thou hast made mee wiser then mine enemies: for they are euer with mee.
99 I haue had more vnderstading then all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation.
100 I vnderstoode more then the ancient, because I kept thy precepts.
101 I haue refrained my feete from euery euil way, that I might keepe thy word.
102 I haue not declined from thy iudgements: for thou didest teach me.
103 Howe sweete are thy promises vnto my mouth! yea, more then hony vnto my mouth.
104 By thy precepts I haue gotten vnderstanding: therefore I hate all the wayes of falshoode.
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lorde Jesus Christ.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. Psalm 122:1 (Geneva Bible)
THE MEETING-PLACE.
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)
Where the faded flower shall freshen,—
Freshen never more to fade;
Where the shaded sky shall brighten,—
Brighten never more to shade:
Where the sun-blaze never scorches;
Where the star-beams cease to chill;
Where no tempest stirs the echoes
Of the wood, or wave, or hill:
Where the morn shall wake in gladness,
And the moon the joy prolong,
Where the daylight dies in fragrance,
’Mid the burst of holy song:
Brother, we shall meet and rest
’Mid the holy and the blest!
Where no shadow shall bewilder,
Where life’s vain parade is o’er,
Where the sleep of sin is broken,
And the dreamer dreams no more:
Where the bond is never severed;—
Partings, claspings, sob and moan,
Midnight waking, twilight weeping,
Heavy noontide,— all are done:
Where the child has found its mother,
Where the mother finds the child,
Where dear families are gathered.
That were scattered on the wild:
Brother, we shall meet and rest
’Mid the holy and the blest!
Where the hidden wound is healed,
Where the blighted light re-blooms.
Where the smitten heart the freshness
Of its buoyant youth resumes:
Where the love that here we lavish
On the withering leaves of time,
Shall have fadeless flowers to fix on
In an ever spring bright clime:
Where we find the joy of loving,
As we never loved before,—
Loving on, unchilled, unhindered,
Loving once and evermore:
Brother, we shall meet and rest,
’Mid the holy and the blest!
Where a blasted world shall brighten
Underneath a bluer sphere,
And a softer, gentler sunshine
Shed its healing splendor here:
Where earth’s barren vales shall blossom,
Putting on their robe of green,
And a purer, fairer Eden
Be where only wastes have been:
Where a King in kingly glory,
Such as earth has never known,
Shall assume the righteous sceptre,
Claim and wear the holy crown:
Brother, we shall meet and rest,
’Mid the holy and the blest.
—Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope, First Series (James Nisbet & Co., 1878).
Psalme 119:145–152
(Geneva Bible)
Koph.
145 I haue cried with my whole heart: heare me, O Lord, and I will keepe thy statutes.
146 I called vpon thee: saue mee, and I will keepe thy testimonies.
147 I preuented the morning light, and cried: for I waited on thy word.
148 Mine eyes preuent the night watches to meditate in thy word.
149 Heare my voyce according to thy louing kindenesse: O Lord, quicken me according to thy iudgement.
150 They drawe neere, that follow after malice, and are farre from thy Lawe.
151 Thou art neere, O Lord: for all thy commandements are true.
152 I haue knowen long since by thy testimonies, that thou hast established them for euer.
Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lorde Jesus Christ.
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
THE HOME SICKNESS.
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)
“civitas sancta, civitas speciosa, de longinquo te saluto,
ad te clamo, te requiro.”—Augustine, De Spir. et Anim.
And whence this weariness,
This gathering cloud of gloom?
Whence this dull weight of loneliness,
These greedy cravings for the tomb?
These greedier cravings for the hopes that lie
Beyond the tomb, beyond the things that die;
Beyond the smiles and joys that come and go,
Fevering the spirit with their fitful flow;
Beyond the circle where the shadows fall;
Within the region where my God is all.
It is not that I fear
To breast the storm or wrestle with the wave,
To swim the torrent or the blast to brave,
To toil or suffer in this day of strife
As He may will who gave this struggling life,—
But I am homesick!
It is not that the cross
Is heavier than this drooping frame can bear,
Or that I find no kindred heart to share
The burden, which, in these last days of ill,
Seems to press heavier, sharper, sorer still,—
But I am homesick!
It is not that the snare
Is laid around for my unwary feet.
And that a thousand wily tempters greet
My slippery steps and lead me far astray
From that safe guidance of the narrow way,—
But I am homesick!
It is not that the path
Is rough and perilous, beset with foes,
From the first step down to its weary close,
Strewn with the flint, the briar, and the thorn.
That wound my limbs and leave my raiment torn,
But I am homesick!
It is not that the sky
Is darkly sad, and the unloving air
Chills me to fainting; and the clouds that there
Hang over me seem signal clouds unfurled,
Portending wrath to an unready world,—
But I am homesick!
It is not that the earth
Has grown less bright and fair,—that these grey hills,
These ever-lapsing, ever-lulling rills,
And these breeze-haunted woods, that ocean clear,
Have now become less beautiful, less dear,—
But I am homesick!
Let me, then, weary be!
I shrink not, murmur not;
In all this homelessness I see
The Church’s pilgrim-lot;
Her lot until her absent Lord shall come,
And the long homeless here, shall find a home.
Then no more weariness!
No gathering cloud of gloom;
Then no dull weight of loneliness,
No greedy cravings for the tomb:
For death shall then be swallowed up of life,
And the glad victory shall end the strife!
—Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope, First Series (James Nisbet & Co., 1878).
John 1:14
14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
The passage of Scripture now before us is very short, if we measure it by words. But it is very long, if we measure it by the nature of its contents. The substance of it is so immensely important that we shall do well to give it separate and distinct consideration. This single verse contains more than enough matter for a whole exposition.
The main truth which this verse teaches is the reality of our Lord Jesus Christ’s incarnation, or being made man. St. John tells us that “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.”
The plain meaning of these words is, that our divine Saviour really took human nature upon Him, in order to save sinners. He really became a man like ourselves in all things, sin only excepted. Like ourselves, he was born of a woman, though born in a miraculous manner. Like ourselves, He grew from infancy to boyhood, and from boyhood to man’s estate, both in wisdom and in stature. (Luke ii. 52.) Like ourselves, he hungered, thirsted, ate, drank, slept, was wearied, felt pain, wept, rejoiced, marvelled, was moved to anger and compassion. Having be come flesh, and taken a body, He prayed, read the Scrip tures, suffered being tempted, and submitted His human will to the will of God the Father. And finally, in the same body, He really suffered and shed His blood, really died, was really buried, really rose again, and really ascended up into heaven. And yet all this time He was God as well as man!
This union of two natures in Christ’s one Person is doubtless one of the greatest mysteries of the Christian religion. It needs to be carefully stated. It is just one of those great truths which are not meant to be curiously pried into, but to be reverently believed. . . .
But while we do not pretend to explain the union of two natures in our Lord Jesus Christ’s Person, we must not hesitate to fence the subject with well-defined cautions. While we state most carefully what we do believe, we must not shrink from declaring boldly what we do not believe. We must never forget, that though our Lord was God and man at the same time, the divine and human natures in Him were never confounded. One nature did not swallow up the other. The two natures remained perfect and dis tinct. The divinity of Christ was never for a moment laid aside, although veiled. The manhood of Christ, during His life-time, was never for a moment unlike our own, though by union with the Godhead, greatly dignified. Though perfect God, Christ has always been perfect man from the first moment of His incarnation. He that is gone into heaven, and is sitting at the Father’s right hand to intercede for sinners, is man as well as God. Though per fect man, Christ never ceased to be perfect God. He that suffered for sin on the cross, and was made sin for us, was “God manifest in the flesh.” The blood with which the Church was purchased, is called the blood “of God.” (Acts xx. 28.) Though He became “flesh” in the fullest sense, when He was born of the Virgin Mary, He never at any period ceased to be the Eternal Word. To say . . . that at any instant of His earthly ministry He was not fully and entirely God, is nothing less than heresy.
The cautions just given may seem at first sight needless, wearisome, and hair-splitting. It is precisely the neglect of such cautions which ruins many souls. This constant undivided union of two perfect natures in Christ’s Person is exactly that which gives infinite value to His mediation, and qualifies Him to be the very Mediator that sinners need. Our Mediator is One who can sympathize with us, because He is very man. And yet, at the same time, He is One who can deal with the Father for us on equal terms, because He is very God.—It is the same union which gives infinite value to His righteousness, when imputed to believers. It is the righteousness of One who was God as well as man.—It is the same union which gives infinite value to the atoning blood which He shed for sinners on the cross. It is the blood of One who was God as well as man.—It is the same union which gives infinite value to His resurrection. When He rose again, as the Head of the body of believers, He rose not as a mere man, but as God.—Let those things sink deeply into our hearts. The second Adam is far greater than the first Adam was. The first Adam was only man, and so he fell. The second Adam was God as well as man, and so He completely conquered.
Let us leave the subject with feelings of deep gratitude and thankfulness. It is full of abounding consolation for al who know Christ by faith, and believe on Him.
Did the Word become flesh? Then He is One who can be touched with the feeling of His people’s infirmities, because He has suffered Himself, being tempted. He is almighty because He is God, and yet He can feel with us, because He is man.
Did the Word become flesh? Then He can supply us with a perfect pattern and example for our daily life. Had He walked among us as an angel or a spirit, we could never have copied Him. But having dwelt among us as a man, we know that the true standard of holiness is to “walk even as He walked.” (1 John ii. 6.) He is a perfect pattern, because He is God. But He is also a pattern exactly suited to our wants, because He is man.
Finally, did the Word become flesh? Then let us see in our mortal bodies a real, true dignity, and not defile them by sin. Vile and weak as our body may seem, it is a body which the Eternal Son of God was not ashamed to take upon Himself, and to take up to heaven. That simple fact is a pledge that He will raise our bodies at the last day, and glorify them together with His own.—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007) [Westminster (PB) | Amazon (HC)], 3:24–28
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
THE LAND OF LIGHT.
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)
That clime is not this dull clime of ours;
All, all is brightness there;
A sweeter influence breathes around its flowers,
And a far milder air.
No calm below is like that calm above.
No region here is like that realm of love;
Earth’s softest spring ne’er shed so soft a light.
Earth’s brightest summer never shone so bright.
That sky is not like this sad sky of ours,
Tinged with earth’s change and care:
No shadow dims it, and no rain-cloud lowers,—
No broken sunshine there!
One everlasting stretch of azure pours
Its stainless splendor o’er these sinless shores;
For there Jehovah shines with heavenly ray,
There Jesus reigns dispensing endless day.
Those dwellers there are not like these of earth.
No mortal stain they bear;
And yet they seem of kindred hlood and hirth,—
Whence, and how came they there?
Earth was their native soil, from sin and shame,
Through tribulation they to glory came;
Bond-slaves delivered from sin’s crushing load.
Brands plucked from burning by the hand of God.
Those robes of theirs are not for these below;
No angel’s half so bright!
Whence came that beauty, whence that living glow?
Whence came that radiant white?
Washed in the blood of the atoning Lamb,
Fair as the light those robes of theirs became,
And now, all tears wiped off from every eye,
They wander where the freshest pastures lie,
Through all the nightless day of that unfading
sky!
—Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope, First Series (James Nisbet & Co., 1878).
The Gospel According to John
Christ Changes Water to Wine
2 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; 2 and both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.” 6 Now there were six stone waterpots set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing twenty or thirty gallons each. 7 Jesus said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.” So they filled them up to the brim. 8 And He said to them, “Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.” So they took it to him. 9 When the headwaiter tasted the water which had become wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter called the bridegroom, 10 and said to him, “Every man serves the good wine first, and when the people have drunk freely, then he serves the poorer wine; but you have kept the good wine until now.” 11 This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.
We learn, firstly, from these verses, how honourable in the sight of Christ is the estate of matrimony. To be present at a “marriage” was almost the first public act of our Lord’s earthly ministry.
Marriage is not a sacrament, as the Church of Rome asserts. It is simply a state of life ordained by God for man’s benefit. But it is a state which ought never to be spoken of with levity, or regarded with disrespect. The Prayerbook service has well described it, as “an honourable estate, instituted of God in the time of man’s innocency, and signifying unto us the mystical union that is betwixt Christ and his Church.” Society is never in a healthy condition, and true religion never flourishes in that land where the marriage tie is lightly esteemed. They who lightly esteem it have not the mind of Christ. He who “beautified and adorned the estate of matrimony by His presence and first miracle that He wrought in Cana of Galilee,” is One who is always of one mind. “Marriage,” says the Holy Spirit by Paul, “is honourable in all.” (Heb. xiii. 4.)
One thing, however, ought not to be forgotten. Marriage is a step which so seriously affects the temporal happiness and spiritual welfare of two immortal souls, that it ought never to be taken in hand “unadvisedly, lightly, wantonly, and without due consideration.” To be truly happy, it should be undertaken “reverently, discreetly, soberly, and in the fear of God.” Christ’s blessing and presence are essential to a happy wedding. The marriage at which there is no place for Christ and His disciples, is not one that can justly be expected to prosper.
We learn, secondly, from these verses, that there are times when it is lawful to be merry and rejoice. Our Lord Himself sanctioned a wedding-feast by His own presence. He did not refuse to be a guest at “a marriage in Cana of Galilee.” “A feast,” it is written, “is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry.” (Eccles. x. 19.) Our Lord, in the passage before us, approves both the feast and the use of wine.
True religion was never meant to make men melancholy. On the contrary, it was intended to increase real joy and happiness among men. The servant of Christ unquestionably ought to have nothing to do with races, balls, theaters, and such-like amusements, which tend to frivolity and indulgence, if not to sin. But he has no right to hand over innocent recreations and family gatherings to the devil and the world. The Christian who withdraws entirely from the society of his fellow-men, and walks the earth with a face as melancholy as if he was always attending a funeral, does injury to the cause of the Gospel. A cheerful, kindly spirit is a great recommendation to a believer. It is a real misfortune to Christianity when a Christian cannot smile. A merry heart, and a readiness to take part in all innocent mirth, are gifts of inestimable value. They go far to soften prejudices, to take up stumbling-blocks out of the way, and to make way for Christ and the Gospel.
The subject no doubt is a difficult and delicate one. On no point of Christian practice is it so hard to hit the balance between that which is lawful and that which is unlawful, between that which is right and that which is wrong. It is very hard indeed to be both merry and wise. High spirits soon degenerate into levity. Acceptance of many invitations to feasts soon leads to waste of time, and begets leanness of soul. Frequent eating and drinking at other men’s tables, soon lowers a Christian’s tone of religion. Going often into company is a heavy strain on spirituality of heart. Here, if anywhere, God’s children have need to be on their guard. Each must know his own strength and natural temperament, and act accordingly. One believer can go without risk where another cannot. Happy is he who can use his Christian liberty without abusing it! It is possible to be sorely wounded in soul at marriage feasts and the tables of friends.
One golden rule on the subject may be laid down, the use of which will save us much trouble. Let us take care that we always go to feasts in the spirit of our divine Master, and that we never go where He would not have gone. Like Him, let us endeavour to be always “about our Father’s business.” (Luke ii. 49.) Like Him, let us willingly promote joy and gladness, but let us strive that it may be sinless joy, if not joy in the Lord. Let us endeavour to bring the salt of grace into every company, and to drop the word in season in every ear we address. Much good may be done in society by giving a healthy tone to conversation. Let us never be ashamed to show our colours, and to make men see whose we are and whom we serve. We may well say, “Who is sufficient for these things?” But if Christ went to a marriage feast in Cana there is surely something that Christians can do on similar occasions. Let them only remember that if they go when their Master went, they must go in their Master’s spirit.
We learn lastly, from these verses, the Almighty power of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are told of a miracle which He wrought at the marriage feast, when the wine failed. By a mere act of will He changed water into wine, and so supplied the need of all the guests.
The manner in which the miracle was worked deserves especial notice. We are not told of any outward visible action which preceded or accompanied it. It is not said that He touched the waterpots containing the water that was made wine. It is not said that He commanded the water to change its qualities, or that He prayed to His Father in Heaven. He simply willed the change, and it took place. We read of no prophet or apostle in the Bible who ever worked a miracle after this fashion. He who could do such a mighty work, in such a manner, was nothing less than very God.
It is a comfortable thought that the same almighty power of will which our Lord here displayed is still exercised on behalf of His believing people. They have no need of His bodily presence to maintain their cause. They have no reason to be cast down because they cannot see Him with their eyes interceding for them, or touch Him with their hands, that they may cling to Him for safety. If He “wills” their salvation and the daily supply of all their spiritual need, they are as safe and well provided for as if they saw Him standing by them. Christ’s will is as mighty and effectual as Christ’s deed. The will of Him who could say to the Father, “I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am,” is a will that has all power in heaven and earth, and must prevail. (John xvii. 24.)
Happy are those who, like the disciples, believe on Him by whom this miracle was wrought. A greater marriage feast than that of Cana will one day be held, when Christ Himself will be the bridegroom and believers will be the bride. A greater glory will one day be manifested, when Jesus shall take to Himself His great power and reign. Blessed will they be in that day who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb! (Rev. xix. 9.)—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007) [Westminster (PB) | Amazon (HC)], 3:88–92
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
Advent.
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)
The Church has waited long
Her absent Lord to see;
And still in loneliness she waits,
A friendless stranger she.
Age after age has gone,
Sun after sun has set,
And still in weeds of widowhood
She weeps a mourner yet.
Come, then, Lord Jesus, come!
Saint after saint on earth
Has lived, and loved, and died;
And as they left us one by one,
We laid them side by side;
We laid them down to sleep,
But not in hope forlorn;
We laid them but to ripen there,
Till the last glorious morn.
Come, then, Lord Jesus, come!
The serpent’s brood increase,
The powers of hell grow bold,
The conflict thickens, faith is low,
And love is waxing cold.
How long, O Lord our God,
Holy and true, and good,
Wilt the not judge Thy suffering Church,
Her sighs and tears and blood?
Come, then, Lord Jesus, come!
We long to hear Thy voice,
To see Thee face to face,
To share Thy crown and glory then,
As now we share thy grace.
Should not the loving bride
The absent bridegroom mourn?
Should she not wear the weeds of grief
Until her Lord return?
Come, then, Lord Jesus, come!
The whole creation groans,
And waits to hear that voice,
That shall restore her comeliness,
And make her wastes rejoice.
Come, Lord, and wipe away
The curse, the stain, the sin,
And make this blighted world of ours
Thine own fair world again.
Come , then, Lord Jesus, come!
—Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope, First Series (James Nisbet & Co., 1878).
John 4:7–26
There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9 Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” 11 She said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? 12 You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?” 13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.” 16 He said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.” 17 The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.” 19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 “Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
We should mark, firstly, the mingled tact and humility of Christ in dealing with a careless sinner.
Our Lord was sitting by Jacob’s well when a woman of Samaria came thither to draw water. At once He says to her, “Give me to drink.” He does not wait for her to speak to Him. He does not begin by reproving her sins, though He doubtless knew them. He opens communication by asking a favour. He approaches the woman’s mind by the subject of “water,” which was naturally uppermost in her thoughts. Simple as this request may seem, it opened a door to spiritual conversation. It threw a bridge across the gulf which lay between her and Him. It led to the conversion of her soul.
Our Lord’s conduct in this place should be carefully remembered by all who want to do good to the thoughtless and spiritually ignorant. It is vain to expect that such persons will voluntarily come to us, and begin to seek knowledge. We must begin with them, and go down to them in the spirit of courteous and friendly aggression. It is vain to expect that such people will be prepared for our instruction, and will at once see and acknowledge the wisdom of all we are doing. We must go to work wisely. We must study the best avenues to their hearts, and the most likely way of arresting their attention. There is a handle to every mind, and our chief aim must be to get hold of it. Above all, we must be kind in manner, and beware of showing that we feel conscious of our own superiority. If we let ignorant people fancy that we think we are doing them a great favour in talking to them about religion, there is little hope of doing good to their souls.
We should mark, secondly, Christ’s readiness to give mercies to careless sinners. He tells the Samaritan woman that if she had asked, “He would have given her living water.” He knew the character of the person before Him perfectly well. Yet He says, “If she had asked, He would have given,”—He would have given the living water of grace, mercy, and peace.
The infinite willingness of Christ to receive sinners is a golden truth, which ought to be treasured up in our hearts, and diligently impressed on others. The Lord Jesus is far more ready to hear than we are to pray, and far more ready to give favours than we are to ask them. All day long He stretches out His hands to the disobedient and gainsaying. He has thoughts of pity and compassion towards the vilest of sinners, even when they have no thoughts of Him. He stands waiting to bestow mercy and grace on the worst and most unworthy, if they will only cry to Him. He will never draw back from that well known promise, “Ask and ye shall receive: seek and ye shall find.” The lost will discover at the last day, that they had not, because they asked not.
We should mark, thirdly, the priceless excellence of Christ’s gifts when compared with the things of this world. Our Lord tells the Samaritan woman, “He that drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but he that drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.”
The truth of the principle here laid down may be seen on every side by all who are not blinded by prejudice or love of the world. Thousands of men have every temporal good thing that heart could wish, and are yet weary and dissatisfied. It is now as it was in David’s time—”There be many that say who will show us any good.” (Psalm iv. 6.) Riches, and rank, and place, and power, and learning, and amusements, are utterly unable to fill the soul. He that only drinks of these waters is sure to thirst again. Every Ahab finds a Naboth’s vineyard near by his palace, and every Haman sees a Mordecai at the gate. There is no heart satisfaction in this world, until we believe on Christ. Jesus alone can fill up the empty places of our inward man. Jesus alone can give solid, lasting, enduring happiness. The peace that He imparts is a fountain, which, once set flowing within the soul, flows on to all eternity. Its waters may have their ebbing seasons; but they are living waters, and they shall never be completely dried.
We should mark, fourthly, the absolute necessity of conviction of sin before a soul can be converted to God. The Samaritan woman seems to have been comparatively unmoved until our Lord exposed her breach of the seventh commandment. Those heart-searching words, “Go, call your husband,” appear to have pierced her conscience like an arrow. From that moment, however ignorant, she speaks like an earnest, sincere inquirer after truth. And the reason is evident. She felt that her spiritual disease was discovered. For the first time in her life she saw herself.
To bring thoughtless people to this state of mind should be the principal aim of all teachers and ministers of the Gospel. They should carefully copy their Master’s example in this place. Until men and women are brought to feel their sinfulness and need, no real good is ever done to their souls. Until a sinner sees himself as God sees him, he will continue careless, trifling, and unmoved. By all means we must labour to convince the unconverted man of sin, to pierce his conscience, to open his eyes, to show him himself. To this end we must expound the length and breadth of God’s holy law. To this end we must denounce every practice contrary to that law, however fashionable and customary. This is the only way to do good. Never does a soul value the Gospel medicine until it feels its disease. Never does a man see any beauty in Christ as a Saviour, until he discovers that he is himself a lost and ruined sinner. Ignorance of sin is invariably attended by neglect of Christ.
We should mark, fifthly, the utter uselessness of any religion which only consists of formality. The Samaritan woman, when awakened to spiritual concern, started questions about the comparative merits of the Samaritan and Jewish modes of worshiping God. Our Lord tells her that true and acceptable worship depends not on the place in which it is offered, but on the state of the worshiper’s heart. He declares, “The hour cometh when you shall neither in this place nor at Jerusalem worship the Father.” He adds that “the true worshipers shall worship in spirit and in truth.”
The principle contained in these sentences can never be too strongly impressed on professing Christians. We are all naturally inclined to make religion a mere matter of outward forms and ceremonies, and to attach an excessive importance to our own particular manner of worshiping God. We must beware of this spirit, and especially when we first begin to think seriously about our souls. The heart is the principal thing in all our approaches to God. “The Lord looketh on the heart.” (1 Sam. xvi. 7.) The most gorgeous cathedral-service is offensive in God’s sight, if all is gone through coldly, heartlessly, and without grace. The feeblest gathering of three or four poor believers in a lowly cottage to read the Bible and pray, is a more acceptable sight to Him who searches the heart than the fullest congregation which is ever gathered in St. Peter’s at Rome.
We should mark, lastly, Christ’s gracious willingness to reveal Himself to the chief of sinners. He concludes His conversation with the Samaritan woman by telling her openly and unreservedly that He is the Saviour of the world. “I that speak to thee,” He says, “am the Messiah.” Nowhere in all the Gospels do we find our Lord making such a full avowal of His nature and office as He does in this place. And this avowal, be it remembered, was made not to learned Scribes, or moral Pharisees, but to one who up to that day had been an ignorant, thoughtless, and immoral person!
Dealings with sinners, such as these, form one of the grand peculiarities of the Gospel. Whatever a man’s past life may have been, there is hope and a remedy for him in Christ. If he is only willing to hear Christ’s voice and follow Him, Christ is willing to receive him at once as a friend, and to bestow on him the fullest measure of mercy and grace. The Samaritan woman, the penitent thief, the Philippian jailor, the tax-collector Zacchæus, are all patterns of Christ’s readiness to show mercy, and to confer full and immediate pardons. It is His glory that, like a great physician, He will undertake to cure those who are apparently incurable, and that none are too bad for Him to love and heal. Let these things sink down into our hearts. Whatever else we doubt, let us never doubt that Christ’s love to sinners passes knowledge, and that Christ is as willing to receive as He is almighty to save.
What are we ourselves? This is the question, after all, which demands our attention. We may have been up to this day careless, thoughtless, sinful as the woman whose story we have been reading. But yet there is hope. He who talked with the Samaritan woman at the well is yet living at God’s right hand, and never changes. Let us only ask, and He will “give us living water.”—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007) [Westminster (PB) | Amazon (HC)], 3:201–206
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
REST YONDER.
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)
This is not my place of resting,
Mine’s a city yet to come;
Onward to it I am hasting—
On to my eternal home.
In it all is light and glory,
O’er it shines a nightless day;
Every trace of sin’s sad story,
All the curse, has passed away.
There the Lamb, our Shepherd, leads us,
By the streams of life along;
On the freshest pastures feeds us,
Turns our sighing into song.
Soon we pass this desert dreary,
Soon we bid farewell to pain;
Never more be sad or weary,
Never, never sin again.
—Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope, First Series (James Nisbet & Co., 1878).
John 5:24–29
Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. 25 Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; 27 and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. 28 Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, 29 and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.
The passage before us is singularly rich in weighty truths. To the minds of Jews, who were familiar with the writings of Moses and Daniel, it would come home with peculiar power. In the words of our Lord they would not fail to see fresh assertions of His claim to be received as the promised Messiah.
We see in these verses that the salvation of our soul depends on hearing Christ. It is the man, we are told, who “hears Christ’s word,” and believes that God the Father sent Him to save sinners, who “has everlasting life.” Such “hearing” of course is something more than mere listening. It is hearing as a humble learner,—hearing as an obedient disciple,—hearing with faith and love,—hearing with a heart ready to do Christ’s will,—this is the hearing that saves. It is the very hearing of which God spoke in the famous prediction of a “prophet like unto Moses:”—“Unto him shall you hearken.”—“Whoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.” (Deut. xviii. 15—19.)
To “hear” Christ in this way, we must never forget, is just as needful now as it was eighteen hundred years ago. It is not enough to hear sermons, and run after preachers, though some people seem to think this makes up the whole of religion. We must go much further than this,—we must “hear Christ.” To submit our hearts to Christ’s teaching,—to sit humbly at His feet by faith, and learn of Him,—to enter His school as penitents, and become His believing scholars,—to hear His voice and follow Him,—this is the way to heaven. Until we know something experimentally of these things, there is no life in us.
We see, secondly, in these verses, how rich and full are the privileges of the true hearer and believer. Such a man enjoys a present salvation. Even now, at this present time, he “hath everlasting life.”—Such a man is completely justified and forgiven. There remains no more condemnation for him. His sins are put away. “He shall not come into condemnation.”—Such a man is in an entirely new position before God. He is like one who has moved from one side of a gulf to another: “He has passed from death unto life.”
The privileges of a true Christian are greatly underrated by many. Chiefly from deplorable ignorance of Scripture, they have little idea of the spiritual treasures of every believer in Jesus. These treasures are brought together here in beautiful order, if we will only look at them. One of a true Christian’s treasures is the “presentness” of his salvation. It is not a far distant thing which he is to have at last, if he does his duty and is good. It is his own in title the moment he believes. He is already pardoned, forgiven, and saved, though not in heaven.—Another of a true Christian’s treasures is the “completeness” of his justification. His sins are entirely removed, taken away, and blotted out of God’s book, by Christ’s blood. He may look forward to judgment without fear, and say, “who is he that condemneth?” (Rom. viii. 34.) He shall stand without fault before the throne of God.—The last, but not the least, of a true Christian’s treasures, is the entire change in his relation and position toward God. He is no longer as one dead before Him,—dead, legally, like a man sentenced to die, and dead in heart. He is “alive unto God.” (Rom. vi. 11.) “He is a new creature. Old things are passed away, and all things are become new.” (2 Cor. v. 17.) Well would it be for Christians if these things were better known! It is lack of knowledge, in many cases, that is the secret of want of peace.
We see, thirdly, in these verses, a striking declaration of Christ’s power to give life to dead souls. Our Lord tells us that “the hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear shall live.” It seems most unlikely that these words were meant to be confined to the rising of men’s bodies, and were fulfilled by such miracles as that of raising Lazarus from the grave. It appears far more probable that what our Lord had in view was the quickening of souls, the resurrection of conversion. (Ephes. ii. 1.; Colos. ii. 13.)
The words were fulfilled in not a few cases, during our Lord’s own ministry. They were fulfilled far more completely after the day of Pentecost, through the ministry of the Apostles. The myriads of converts at Jerusalem, at Antioch, at Ephesus, at Corinth, and elsewhere, were all examples of their fulfillment. In all these cases, “the voice of the Son of God” awakened dead hearts to spiritual life, and made them feel their need of salvation, repent, and believe.—They are fulfilled at this very day, in every instance of true conversion. Whenever any men or women among ourselves awaken to a sense of their soul’s value, and become alive to God, the words are made good before our eyes. It is Christ who has spoken to their hearts by His Spirit. It is “the dead hearing Christ’s voice, and living.”
We see, lastly, in these verses, a most solemn prophecy of the final resurrection of all the dead. Our Lord tells us that “the hour is coming when all that are in the grave shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of damnation.”
The passage is one of those that ought to sink down very deeply into our hearts, and never be forgotten. All is not over when men die. Whether they like it or not, they will have to come forth from their graves at the last day, and to stand at Christ’s judgment bar. None can escape His summons. When His voice calls them before Him, all must obey.—When men rise again, they will not all rise in the same condition. There will be two classes,—two parties—two bodies. Not all will go to heaven. Not all will be saved. Some will rise again to inherit eternal life, but some will rise again only to be condemned. These are alarming things! But the words of Christ are plain and unmistakable. Thus it is written, and thus it must be.
Let us make sure that we hear Christ’s quickening voice now, and are numbered among His true disciples. Let us know the privileges of true believers, while we have life and health. Then, when His voice shakes heaven and earth, and is calling the dead from their graves, we shall feel confidence, and not be “ashamed before Him at his coming.” (1 John ii. 28.)—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007) [Westminster (PB) | Amazon (HC)], 3:289–293
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
The Kingdom.
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)
Peace! earth’s last battle has been won;
Its days of conflict now are o’er;
The Prince of peace ascends the throne,
And war has ceased from shore to shore.
Rest! the world’s day of toil is past;
Each storm is hushed above, below,
Creation’s joy has come at last,
After six thousand years of woe.
Messiah reigns! earth’s king has come!
Its diadems are on his brow,
Its rebel kingdoms have become
His everlasting kingdom now.
This earth again is Paradise;
The desert blossoms as the rose;
Clothed in its robes of bridal bliss,
Creation has forgot its woes.
O, long-expected, absent long.
Star of creation’s troubled gloom!
Let heaven and earth break forth in song,
Messiah! Saviour! art thou come?
For thou hast bought us with thy blood.
And thou wast slain to set us free;
Thou mad’st us kings and priests to God,
And we shall reign on earth with thee!
—Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope, First Series (James Nisbet & Co., 1878).
John 6:28–34
Therefore they said to Him, “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” 30 So they said to Him, “What then do You do for a sign, so that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.’” 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. 33 For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.” 34 Then they said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread.”
We should observe, for one thing, in these verses, the spiritual ignorance and unbelief of the natural man. Twice over we see this brought out and exemplified. When our Lord instructed his hearers to “labour for the food which endures to eternal life,” they immediately began to think of works to be done, and a goodness of their own to be established. “What shall we do that we might work the works of God?” Doing, doing, doing, was their only idea of the way to heaven. Again, when our Lord spoke of Himself as One sent of God, and the need of believing on Him at once, they turn round with the question, “What sign showest thou? what dost thou work?” Fresh from the mighty miracle of the loaves and fishes, one might have thought they had had a sign sufficient to convince them. Taught by our Lord Jesus Christ himself, one might have expected a greater readiness to believe. But alas! there are no limits to man’s dulness, prejudice, and unbelief in spiritual matters. It is a striking fact that the only thing which our Lord is said to have “marvelled” at during His earthly ministry, was man’s “unbelief.” (Mark vi. 6.)
We shall do well to remember this, if we ever try to do good to others in the matter of religion. We must not be cast down because our words are not believed, and our efforts seem thrown away. We must not complain of it as a strange thing, and suppose that the people we have to deal with are peculiarly stubborn and hard. We must recollect that this is the very cup of which our Lord had to drink, and like Him we must patiently work on. If even He, so perfect and so plain a Teacher, was not believed, what right have we to wonder if men do not believe us? Happy are the ministers, and missionaries, and teachers who keep these things in mind! It will save them much bitter disappointment. In working for God, it is of first importance to understand what we must expect in man. Few things are so little realized as the extent of human unbelief.
We should observe, for another thing, in these verses, the high honour Christ puts on faith in Himself. The Jews had asked Him,—“What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?” In reply He says,—“This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” A truly striking and remarkable expression! If any two things are put in strong contrast, in the New Testament, they are faith and works. Not working, but believing,—not of works, but through faith,—are words familiar to all careful Bible-readers. Yet here the great Head of the Church declares that believing on Him is the highest and greatest of all “works!” It is “the work of God.”
Doubtless our Lord did not mean that there is anything meritorious in believing. Man’s faith, at the very best, is feeble and defective. Regarded as a “work,” it cannot stand the severity of God’s judgment, deserve pardon, or purchase heaven. But our Lord did mean that faith in Himself, as the only Saviour, is the first act of the soul which God requires at a sinner’s hands. Until a man believes on Jesus, and rests on Jesus as a lost sinner, he is nothing.—Our Lord did mean that faith in Himself is that act of the soul which specially pleases God. When the Father sees a sinner casting aside his own righteousness, and simply trusting in His dear Son, He is well pleased. Without such faith it is impossible to please God.—Our Lord did mean that faith in Himself is the root of all saving religion. There is no life in a man until he believes.—Above all, our Lord did mean that faith in Himself is the hardest of all spiritual acts to the natural man. Did the Jews want something to do in religion? Let them know that the greatest thing they had to do was, to cast aside their pride, confess their guilt and need, and humbly believe.
Let all who know anything of true faith thank God and rejoice. Blessed are those who believe! It is an attainment which many of the wise of this world have never yet reached. We may feel ourselves to be poor, weak sinners. But do we believe?—We may fail and come short in many things. But do we believe?—He that has learned to feel his sins, and to trust Christ as a Saviour, has learned the two hardest and greatest lessons in Christianity. He has been in the best of schools. He has been taught by the Holy Spirit.
We shall observe, lastly, in these verses, the far greater privileges of Christ’s hearers than of those who lived in the times of Moses. Wonderful and miraculous as the manna was which fell from heaven, it was nothing in comparison to the true bread which Christ had to bestow on His disciples. He himself was the bread of God, who had come down from heaven to give life to the world.— The bread which fell in the days of Moses could only feed and satisfy the body. The Son of man had come to feed the soul.—The bread which fell in the days of Moses was only for the benefit of Israel. The Son of man had come to offer eternal life to the world.—Those who ate the manna died and were buried, and many of them were lost forever. But those who ate the bread which the Son of man provided, would be eternally saved.
And now let us take heed to ourselves, and make sure that we are among those who eat the bread of God and live. Let us not be content with lazy waiting, but let us actually come to Christ, and eat the bread of life, and believe to the saving of our souls. The Jews could say,—”Evermore give us this bread.” But it may be feared they went no further. Let us never rest until, by faith, we have eaten this bread, and can say, “Christ is mine. I have tasted that the Lord is gracious. I know and feel that I am His.—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007) [Westminster (PB) | Amazon (HC)], 3:355–358
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
Strength by the Way
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)
Jesus, while this rough desert-soil
I tread, be Thou my guide and stay;
Nerve me for conflict and for toil;
Uphold me on my stranger-way.
Jesus, in heaviness and fear,
’Mid cloud, and shade, and gloom I stray
For earth's last night is drawing near;
O cheer me on my stranger-way.
Jesus, in solitude and grief,
When sun and stars withhold their ray,
Make haste, make haste to my relief;
O light me on my stranger-way.
Jesus, in weakness of this flesh,
When Satan grasps me for his prey;
O give me victory afresh;
And speed me on my stranger-way.
Jesus, my righteousness and strength,
My more than life, my more than day;
Bring, bring deliverance at length;
O come and end my stranger-way.
—Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope, First Series (James Nisbet & Co., 1878).
The Gospel According to John
Christ’s Brothers Do Not Believe
7 After these things Jesus was walking in Galilee, for He was unwilling to walk in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill Him. 2 Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was near. 3 Therefore His brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. 4 For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” 5 For not even His brothers were believing in Him. 6 So Jesus said to them, “My time is not yet here, but your time is always opportune. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil. 8 Go up to the feast yourselves; I do not go up to this feast because My time has not yet fully come.” 9 Having said these things to them, He stayed in Galilee.
Christ Secretly Goes to the Feast
10 But when His brothers had gone up to the feast, then He Himself also went up, not publicly, but as if, in secret. 11 So the Jews were seeking Him at the feast and were saying, “Where is He?” 12 There was much grumbling among the crowds concerning Him; some were saying, “He is a good man”; others were saying, “No, on the contrary, He leads the people astray.” 13 Yet no one was speaking openly of Him for fear of the Jews.
We should observe in this passage the desperate hardness and unbelief of human nature. We are told that even our Lord’s “brethren did not believe in Him.” Holy and harmless and blameless as He was in life, some of his nearest relatives, according to the flesh, did not receive Him as the Messiah. It was bad enough that His own people, “the Jews sought to kill Him.” But it was even worse that “His brethren did not believe.”
That great Scriptural doctrine, man’s need of preventing and converting grace, stands out here, as if written with a sunbeam. It becomes all who question that doctrine to look at this passage and consider. Let them observe that seeing Christ’s miracles, hearing Christ’s teaching, living in Christ’s own company, were not enough to make men believers. The mere possession of spiritual privileges never yet made any one a Christian. All is useless without the effectual and applying work of God the Holy Ghost. No wonder that our Lord said in another place, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him.” (John vi. 44.)
The true servants of Christ in every age will do well to remember this. They are often surprised and troubled to find that in religion they stand alone. They are apt to fancy that it must be their own fault that all around them are not converted like themselves. They are ready to blame themselves because their families remain worldly and unbelieving. But let them look at the verse before us. In our Lord Jesus Christ there was no fault either in temper, word, or deed. Yet even Christ’s own “brethren did not believe in Him.”
Our blessed Master has truly learned by experience how to sympathize with all his people who stand alone. This is a thought “full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort.” He knows the heart of every isolated believer, and can be touched with the feeling of his trials. He has drunk this bitter cup. He has passed through this fire. Let all who are fainting and cast down, because brothers and sisters despise their religion, turn to Christ for comfort, and pour out their hearts before Him. He “has suffered Himself being tempted” in this way, and He can help as well as feel. (Heb. ii. 18.)
We should observe, for another thing, in this passage, one principal reason why many hate Christ. We are told that our Lord said to His unbelieving brethren, “The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.”
These words reveal one of those secret principles which influence men in their treatment of Christ. They help to explain that deadly enmity with which many during our Lord’s earthly ministry regarded Him and His Gospel. It was not so much the high doctrines which He preached, as the high standard of practice which He proclaimed, which gave offence. It was not even His claim to be received the Messiah which men disliked so much, as His witness against the wickedness of their lives. In short, they could have tolerated His opinions if He would only have spared their sins.
The principle, we may be sure, is one of universal application. It is at work now just as much as it was eighteen hundred years ago. The real cause of many people’s dislike to the Gospel is the holiness of living which it demands. Teach abstract doctrines only, and few will find any fault. Denounce the fashionable sins of the day, and call on men to repent and walk consistently with God, and thousands at once will be offended. The true reason why many profess to be infidels, and abuse Christianity, is the witness that Christianity bears against their own bad lives.—Like Ahab, they hate it, “because it does not prophesy good concerning them, but evil.” (1 Kings xxii. 8.)
We should observe, lastly, in this passage, the strange variety of opinions about Christ, which were current from the beginning. We are told that “there was much murmuring among the people concerning him: for some said, He is a good man others said, Nay, but he deceiveth the people.” The words which old Simeon had spoken thirty years before were here accomplished in a striking manner. He had said to our Lord’s mother, “This child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel: and for a sign which shall be spoken against;—that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” (Luke ii. 34, 35.) In the diversities of opinion about our Lord which arose among the Jews, we see the good old man’s saying fulfilled.
In the face of such a passage as this, the endless differences and divisions about religion, which we see on all sides, in the present day, ought never to surprise us. The open hatred of some toward Christ,—the carping, fault-finding, prejudiced spirit of others,—the bold confession of the few faithful ones,—the timid, man-fearing temperament of the many faithless ones,—the unceasing war of words and strife of tongues with which the Churches of Christ are so sadly familiar,—are only modern symptoms of an old disease. Such is the corruption of human nature, that Christ is the cause of division among men, wherever He is preached. So long as the world stands, some, when they hear of Him, will love, and some will hate,—some will believe, and some will believe not. That deep, prophetical saying of His will be continually verified: “Do not think that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword.” (Matt. x. 34.)
What do we think of Christ ourselves? This is the one question with which we have to do. Let us never be ashamed to be of that little number who believe on Him, hear His voice, follow Him, and confess Him before men. While others waste their time in vain jangling and unprofitable controversy, let us take up the cross and give all diligence to make our calling and election sure. The children of this world may hate us, as it hated our Master, because our religion is a standing witness against them. But the last day will show that we chose wisely, lost nothing, and gained a crown of glory that fadeth not away.—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007) [Westminster (PB) | Amazon (HC)].
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I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
The Feast.
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)
Love strong as death, nay stronger,
Love mightier than the grave;
Broad as the earth, and longer
Than ocean’s widest wave.
This is the love that sought us,
This is the love that bought us,
This is the love that brought us
To gladdest day from saddest night,
From deepest shame to glory bright,
From depths of death to life’s fair height,
From darkness to the joy of light:
This is the love that leadeth
Us to his table here,
This is the love that spreadeth
For us this royal cheer.
—Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope, First Series (James Nisbet & Co., 1878).
John 8:21–30
Then He said again to them, “I go away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come.” 22 So the Jews were saying, “Surely He will not kill Himself, will He, since He says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” 23 And He was saying to them, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. 24 Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” 25 So they were saying to Him, “Who are You?” Jesus said to them, “What have I been saying to you from the beginning? 26 I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and the things which I heard from Him, these I speak to the world.” 27 They did not realize that He had been speaking to them about the Father. 28 So Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. 29 And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.” 30 As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him.
We learn, for one thing, that it is possible to seek Christ in vain. Our Lord says to the unbelieving Jews, “Ye shall seek Me, and shall die in your sins.” He meant, by these words, that the Jews would one day seek Him in vain.
The lesson before us is a very painful one. That such a Saviour as the Lord Jesus, so full of love, so willing to save, should ever be sought “in vain,” is a sorrowful thought. Yet so it is! A man may have many religious feelings about Christ, without any saving religion. Sickness, sudden affliction, the fear of death, the failure of usual sources of comfort—all these causes may draw out of a man a good deal of “religiousness.” Under the immediate pressure of these he may say his prayers fervently, exhibit a strong spiritual feelings, and profess for a season to “seek Christ,” and be a different man. And yet all this time his heart may never be touched at all! Take away the peculiar circumstances that affected him, and he may possibly return at once to his old ways. He sought Christ “in vain,” because he sought Him from false motives, and not with his whole heart.
Unhappily this is not all. There is such a thing as a settled habit of resisting light and knowledge, until we seek Christ “in vain.” Scripture and experience alike prove that men may reject God until God rejects them, and will not hear their prayer. They may go on stifling their convictions, quenching the light of conscience, fighting against their own better knowledge, until God is provoked to give them over and let them alone. It is not for nothing that these words are written,—“Then shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer; they shall seek Me early, but they shall not find Me: for they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord.” (Prov. i. 28, 29.) Such cases may not be common; but they are possible, and they are sometimes seen. Some ministers can testify that they have visited people on their deathbeds who seem to seek Christ, and yet to seek in vain.
There is no safety but in seeking Christ while He may be found, and calling on Him while He is near,—seeking Him with a true heart, and calling on Him with an honest spirit. Such seeking, we may be very sure, is never in vain. It will never be recorded of such seekers, that they “died in their sins.” He that really comes to Christ shall never be “cast out.” The Lord has solemnly declared that “He hath no pleasure in the death of him that dieth,”—and that “He delighteth in mercy.” (Ezekiel xviii. 32; Micah vii. 18.)
We learn for another thing, how wide is the difference between Christ and the ungodly. Our Lord says to the unbelieving Jews,—“Ye are from beneath, I am from above: ye are of this world, I am not of this world.”
These words, no doubt, have a special application to our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. In the highest and most literal sense, there never was but One who could truly say, “I am from above,—I am not of this world.” That One is He who came forth from the Father, and was before the world,—even the Son of God.
But there is a lower sense, in which these words are applicable to all Christ’s living members. Compared to the thoughtless multitude around them, they are “from above,” and “not of this world,” like their Master. The thoughts of the ungodly are about things beneath; the true Christian’s affections are set on things above. The ungodly man is full of this world; its cares, and pleasures, and profits, absorb his whole attention. The true Christian, though in the world, is not of it; his citizenship is in heaven, and his best things are yet to come.
The true Christian will do well never to forget this line of demarcation. If he loves his soul, and desires to serve God, he must be content to find himself separated from many around him by a gulf that cannot be passed. He may not like to seem peculiar and unlike others; but it is the certain consequence of grace reigning within him. He may find it brings on him hatred, ridicule, and hard speeches; but it is the cup which his Master drank, and of which his Master forewarned all His disciples.—“If ye were of the world the world would love His own, but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” (John xv. 19.)—Then let the Christian never be ashamed to stand alone and show his colors. He must carry the cross if he would wear the crown. If he has within him a new principle “from above,” it must be seen.
We learn, lastly, how awful is the end to which unbelief can bring man. Our Lord says to his enemies, “If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins.”
These solemn words are invested with peculiar solemnity when we consider from whose lips they came. Who is this that speaks of men dying “in their sins,” unpardoned, unforgiven, unfit to meet God,—of men going into another world with all their sins upon them? He that says this is no other than the Saviour of mankind, who laid down His life for His sheep,—the loving, gracious, merciful, compassionate Friend of sinners. It is Christ Himself! Let this simple fact not be overlooked.
They are greatly mistaken who suppose that it is harsh and unkind to speak of hell and future punishment. How can such people get over such language as that which is before us? How can they account for many a like expression which our Lord used, and specially for such passages as those in which He speaks of the “worm that dieth not, and the fire that is not quenched”? (Mark x. 46.) They cannot answer these questions. Misled by a false charity and a morbid amiability, they are condemning the plain teaching of the Scripture, and are wise above that which is written.
Let us settle it in our minds, as one of the great foundation truths of our faith, that there is a hell. Just as we believe firmly that there is an eternal heaven for the godly, so let us believe firmly that there is an eternal hell for the wicked. Let us never suppose that there is any lack of charity in speaking of hell. Let us rather maintain that it is the highest love to warn men plainly of danger, and to beseech them to “flee from the wrath to come.” It was Satan, the deceiver, murderer, and liar, who said to Eve in the beginning, “Ye shall not surely die.” (Gen. iii. 4.) To shrink from telling men, that except they believe they will “die in their sins,” may please the devil, but surely it cannot please God.
Finally, let us never forget that unbelief is the special sin that ruins men’s souls. Had the Jews believed on our Lord, all manner of sin and blasphemy might have been forgiven them. But unbelief bars the door in mercy’s face, and cuts off hope. Let us watch and pray hard against it. Immorality slays its thousands, but unbelief its tens of thousands. One of the strongest sayings ever used by our Lord was this,—“He that believeth not shall be damned.” (Mark xvi. 16.)—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007) [Westminster (PB) | Amazon (HC)].
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
The Sleep of the Beloved.
“So he giveth his beloved sleep.” —Psalm cxxvii. 2.
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)
Sunlight has vanished, and the weary earth
Lies resting from a long day’s toil and pain,
And, looking for a new dawn’s early birth,
Seeks strength in slumber for its toil again.
We too would rest, but ere we close the eye
Upon the consciousness of waking thought,
Would calmly turn it to yon star-bright sky,
And lift the soul to him who slumbers not.
Above us is thy hand with tender care,
Distilling over us the dew of sleep:
Darkness seems loaded with oblivious air,
In deep forgetfulness each sense to steep.
Thou hast provided midnight’s hour of peace,
Thou stretchest over us the wing of rest;
With more than all a parent’s tenderness,
Foldest us sleeping to thy gentle breast.
Grief flies away; care quits our easy couch,
Till wakened by thy hand, when breaks the day—
Like the one prophet by the angel’s touch,—
We rise to tread again our pilgrim-way.
God of our life! God of each day and night!
Oh, keep us till life’s short race is run!
Until there dawns the long, long day of light,
That knows no night, yet needs no star nor sun.
—Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope, First Series (James Nisbet & Co., 1878).
John 9:25–41
He then answered, “Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” 26 So they said to him, “What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?” 27 He answered them, “I told you already and you did not listen; why do you want to hear it again? You do not want to become His disciples too, do you?” 28 They reviled him and said, “You are His disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where He is from.” 30 The man answered and said to them, “Well, here is an amazing thing, that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him. 32 Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.” 34 They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us?” So they put him out.
35 Jesus heard that they had put him out, and finding him, He said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 He answered, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?” 37 Jesus said to him, “You have both seen Him, and He is the one who is talking with you.” 38 And he said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped Him. 39 And Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.” 40 Those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and said to Him, “We are not blind too, are we?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.
The same thing may be seen in other places of Scripture. The servants of Pharaoh saw “the finger of God” in the plagues of Egypt, when their master’s heart was hardened. The servants of Naaman saw the wisdom of Elisha’s advice, when their master was turning away in a rage. The high, the great, and the noble are often the last to learn spiritual lessons. Their possessions and their position often blind the eyes of their understanding, and keep them back from the kingdom of God. It is written that “not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.” (1 Cor. i. 26.)
The Christian poor man never need be ashamed of his poverty. It is a sin to be proud, and worldly-minded, and unbelieving; but it is no sin to be poor. The very riches which many long to possess are often veils over the eyes of men’s souls, and prevent their seeing Christ. The teaching of the Holy Ghost is more frequently to be seen among men of low degree than among men of rank and education. The words of our Lord are continually proved most true, “How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the Kingdom of God.”—“Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.” (Mark x. 23; Matt. xi. 25.)
We see, secondly, in these verses, how cruelly and unjustly unconverted men will sometimes treat those who disagree with them. When the Pharisees could not frighten the blind man who had been cured, they expelled him from the Jewish Church. Because he manfully refused to deny the evidence of his own senses, they excommunicated him, and put him to an open shame. They cast him out “as a heathen man and a publican.”
The temporal injury that such treatment did to a poor Jew was very great indeed. It cut him off from the outward privileges of the Jewish Church. It made him an object of scorn and suspicion among all true Israelites. But it could do no harm to his soul. That which wicked men bind on earth is not bound in heaven. “The curse causeless shall not come.” (Prov. xxvi. 2.)
The children of God in every age have only too frequently met with like treatment. Excommunication, persecution, and imprisonment have generally been favourite weapons with ecclesiastical tyrants. Unable, like the Pharisees, to answer arguments, they have resorted to violence and injustice. Let the child of God console himself with the thought that there is a true Church out of which no man can cast him, and a Church-membership which no earthly power can take away. He only is blessed whom Christ calls blessed; and he only is accursed whom Christ shall pronounce accursed at the last day.
We see, thirdly, in these verses, how great is the kindness and condescension of Christ. No sooner was this poor blind man cast out of the Jewish Church than Jesus finds him and speaks words of comfort. He knew full well how heavy an affliction excommunication was to an Israelite, and at once cheered him with kind words. He now revealed Himself more fully to this man than He did to any one except the Samaritan woman. In reply to the question, “Who is the Son of God?” He says plainly, “Thou hast both seen Him, and it is He that talketh with thee.”
We have here one among many beautiful illustrations of the mind of Christ. He sees all that His people go through for His sake, and feels for all, from the highest to the lowest. He keeps account of all their losses, crosses, and persecutions. “Are they not all written in His book?” (Psal. lvi. 8.) He knows how to come to their hearts with consolation in their time of need, and to speak peace to them when all men seem to hate them. The time when men forsake us is often the very time when Christ draws near, saying, “Fear not, for I am with thee: be not dismayed, for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” (Isai. xli. 10.)
We see, lastly, in these verses, how dangerous it is to possess knowledge, if we do not make a good use of it. The rulers of the Jews were fully persuaded that they knew all religious truth. They were indignant at the very idea of being ignorant and devoid of spiritual eyesight. “Are we blind also?” they cried. And then came the mighty sentence, “If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.”
Knowledge undoubtedly is a very great blessing. The man who cannot read, and is utterly ignorant of Scripture, is in a pitiable condition. He is at the mercy of any false teacher who comes across him, and may be taught to take up any absurd creed, or to follow any vicious practice. Almost any education is better than no education at all.
But when knowledge only sticks in a man’s head, and has no influence over his heart and life, it becomes a most perilous possession. And when, in addition to this, its possessor is self-conceited and self-satisfied, and imagines he knows everything, the result is one of the worst states of soul into which man can fall. There is far more hope about him who says, “I am a poor blind sinner and want God to teach me,” than about him who is ever saying, “I know it, I know it, I am not ignorant,” and yet cleaves to his sins.—The sin of that man “remaineth.”
Let us use diligently whatever religious knowledge we possess, and ask continually that God would give us more. Let us never forget that the devil himself is a creature of vast head-knowledge, and yet none the better for it, because it is not rightly used. Let our constant prayer be that which David so often sent up in the hundred and nineteenth Psalm. “Lord, teach me thy statutes: give me understanding: unite my heart to fear Your name.”—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007) [Westminster (PB) | Amazon (HC)].
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
The Name of Names.
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)
Father, Thy Son hath died
The sinner’s death of woe;
Stooping in love from heaven to earth,
Our curse to undergo;
Our curse to undergo,
Upon the hateful tree.
Give glory to Thy Son, O Lord,
Put honour on that name of names,
By blessing me!
Father, Thy Son hath borne
The sinner’s doom of shame;
Bearing his cross without the gate,
He met the law’s full claim;
He met the law’s full claim,
Sin’s righteous penalty.
Give glory to Thy Son, O Lord,
Put honour on that name of names,
By pardoning me!
Father, Thy Son hath poured
His life-blood on this earth,
To cleanse away our guilt and stains,
To give us second birth;
To give us second birth,
From sin to set us free.
Give glory to Thy Son, O Lord,
Put honour on that name of names,
By cleansing me!
Father, Thy Son hath risen.
Overcoming hell’s dark powers;
His surety-death was all for us,
His surety- life is ours;
His surety life is ours,
Ours, ours eternally.
Give glory to Thy Son, O Lord,
Put honour on that name of names,
By quickening me!
Father, Thy Son to thee
Is now gone up on high,
Enthroned in heaven at Thy right hand,
He reigns eternally;
He reigns eternally,
In might and majesty.
Give glory to Thy Son, O Lord,
Put honour on that name of names,
By raising me!
Father, Thy Son on earth,
No one to own Him found,
He passed among the sons of men
Rejected and disowned;
Rejected and disowned,
That we received might be!
Give glory to Thy Son, O Lord,
Put honour on that name of names,
By owning me!
Father, Thy Son is king.
Heaven’s crown and earth’s is his;
For us, for us, he bought the crown,
For us he earned the bliss;
For us he earned the bliss,
Amen, so let it be!
Give glory to Thy Son, O Lord,
Put honour on that name of names,
By crowning me!
—Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope, First Series (James Nisbet & Co., 1878).
John 11:17–29
So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off; 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother. 20 Martha therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet Him, but Mary stayed at the house. 21 Martha then said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world.”
28 When she had said this, she went away and called Mary her sister, saying secretly, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she heard it, she got up quickly and was coming to Him.
We learn, firstly, what a strange mixture of grace and weakness is to be found even in the hearts of true believers.
We see this strikingly illustrated in the language used by Martha and Mary. Both these holy women had faith enough to say, “Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother would had not died.” Yet neither of them seems to have remembered that the death of Lazarus did not depend on Christ’s absence, and that our Lord, had He thought fit, could have prevented his death with a word, without coming to Bethany.—Martha had knowledge enough to say, “I know, that even now, whatsoever Thou wilt ask of God, God wilt give it to Thee,—I know that my brother shall rise again at the last day,—I believe that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God.”—But even she could get no further. Her dim eyes and trembling hands could not grasp the grand truth that He who stood before her had the keys of life and death, and that in her Master dwelt “all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” (Colos. ii. 9.) She saw indeed, but through a glass darkly. She knew, but only in part. She believed, but her faith was mingled with much unbelief. Yet both Martha and Mary were genuine children of God, and true Christians.
These things are graciously written for our learning. It is good to remember what true Christians really are. Many and great are the mistakes into which people fall, by forming a false estimate of the Christian’s character. Many are the bitter things which people write against themselves, by expecting to find in their hearts what cannot be found on this side of heaven. Let us settle it in our minds that saints on earth are not perfect angels, but only converted sinners. They are sinners renewed, changed, sanctified, no doubt; but they are yet sinners, and will be until they die. Like Martha and Mary, their faith is often entangled with much unbelief, and their grace compassed round with much infirmity. Happy is that child of God who understands these things, and has learned to judge rightly both of himself and others. Rarely indeed shall we find the saint who does not often need that prayer, “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.”
We learn, secondly, what need many believers have of clear views of Christ’s person, office, and power. This is a point which is forcibly brought out in the well-known sentence which our Lord addressed to Martha. In reply to her vague and faltering expression of belief in the resurrection at the last day, He proclaims the glorious truth, “I am the resurrection and the life;”—“I, even I, your Master, am He that has the keys of life and death in His hands.” And then He presses on her once more that old lesson, which she had doubtless often heard, but never fully realized: “He that believeth in Me will live, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die.”
There is matter here which deserves the close consideration of all true Christians. Many of them complain of want of sensible comfort in their religion. They do not feel the inward peace which they desire. Let them know that vague and indefinite views of Christ are too often the cause of all their perplexities. They must try to see more clearly the great object on which their faith rests. They must grasp more firmly His love and power toward those who believe, and the riches He has laid up for them even now in this world. We are, many of us, sadly like Martha. A little general knowledge of Christ as the only Saviour is often all that we possess. But of the fullness that dwells in Him, of His resurrection, His priesthood, His intercession, His unfailing compassion, we have tasted little or nothing at all. They are things of which our Lord might well say to many, as he did to Martha, “Believest thou this?”
Let us take shame to ourselves that we have named the name of Christ so long, and yet know so little about Him. What right have we to wonder that we feel so little sensible comfort in our Christianity? Our slight and imperfect knowledge of Christ is the true reason of our discomfort. Let the time past suffice us to have been lazy students in Christ’s school; let the time to come find us more diligent in trying to “know Him and the power of His resurrection.” (Philip. iii. 10.) If true Christians would only strive, as St. Paul says, to “comprehend what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge,” they would be amazed at the discoveries they would make. They would soon find, like Hagar, that there are wells of water near them of which they had no knowledge. They would soon discover that there is more heaven to be enjoyed on earth than they had ever thought possible. The root of a happy religion is clear, distinct, well-defined knowledge of Jesus Christ. More knowledge would have saved Martha many sighs and tears. Knowledge alone no doubt, if unsanctified, only “puffeth up.” (1 Cor. vii. 1.) Yet without clear knowledge of Christ in all His offices we cannot expect to be established in the faith, and steady in the time of need.—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007) [Westminster (PB) | Amazon (HC)].
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
Mine and Thine.
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)
“Didicisti quod nihil tui boni præcesserat, et gratia Dei converses es ad Deum.”—Augustine.
All that I was, my sin, my guilt,
My death was all my own;
All that I am, I owe to thee,
My gracious God alone.
The evil of my former state
Was mine, and only mine.
The good in which I now rejoice
Is Thine, and only Thine.
The darkness of my former state,
The bondage all was mine;
The light of life in which I walk,
The liberty is Thine.
Thy grace first made me feel my sin,
It taught me to believe;
Then, in believing, peace I found,
And now I live, I live.
All that I am, even here on earth,
All that I hope to be,
When Jesus comes, and glory dawns,
I owe it, Lord, to Thee.
—Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope, First Series (James Nisbet & Co., 1878).
The Gospel According to John
12 Jesus, therefore, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 So they made Him a supper there, and Martha was serving; but Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him. 3 Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was intending to betray Him, said, 5 “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and given to poor people?” 6 Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it. 7 Therefore Jesus said, “Let her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of My burial. 8 For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me.”
9 The large crowd of the Jews then learned that He was there; and they came, not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He raised from the dead. 10 But the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death also; 11 because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus.
We see, for one thing, in this passage, what abounding proofs exist of the truth of our Lord’s greatest miracles.
We read of a supper at Bethany, where Lazarus “sat at the table” among the guests,—Lazarus, who had been publicly raised from the dead, after lying four days in the grave. No one could pretend to say that his resurrection was a mere optical delusion, and that the eyes of the bystanders must have been deceived by a spirit or vision. Here was the very same Lazarus, after several weeks, sitting among his fellow-men with a real material body, and eating and drinking real material food. It is hard to understand what stronger evidence of a fact could be supplied. He that is not convinced by such evidence as this may as well say that he is determined to believe nothing at all.
It is a comfortable thought, that the very same proofs which exist about the resurrection of Lazarus are the proofs which surround that still mightier fact, the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Was Lazarus seen for several weeks by the people of Bethany, going in and coming out among them? So was the Lord Jesus seen by His disciples.—Did Lazarus take material food before the eyes of his friends? So did the Lord Jesus eat and drink before His ascension.—No one, in his sober senses, who saw Jesus take “broiled fish,” and eat it before several witnesses, would doubt that He had a real body. (Luke xxiv. 42.)
We shall do well to remember this. In an age of abounding unbelief and scepticism, we shall find that the resurrection of Christ will bear any weight that we can lay upon it. Just as He placed beyond reasonable doubt the rising again of a beloved disciple within two miles of Jerusalem, so in a very few weeks He placed beyond doubt His own victory over the grave. If we believe that Lazarus rose again, we need not doubt that Jesus rose again also. If we believe that Jesus rose again, we need not doubt the truth of His Messiahship, the reality of His acceptance as our Mediator, and the certainty of our own resurrection. Christ has risen indeed, and wicked men may well tremble. Christ has risen from the dead, and believers may well rejoice.
We see, for another thing, in this passage, what unkindness and discouragement Christ’s friends sometimes meet with from man.
We read that, at the supper in Bethany, Mary, the sister of Lazarus, anointed the feet of Jesus with precious ointment, and wiped them with the hair of her head. Nor was this ointment poured on with a niggardly hand. She did it so liberally and profusely that “the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.” She did it under the influence of a heart full of love and gratitude. She thought nothing too great and good to bestow on such a Saviour. Sitting at His feet in days gone by, and hearing His words, she had found peace for her conscience, and pardon for her sins. At this very moment she saw Lazarus, alive and well, sitting by her Master’s side,—her own brother Lazarus, whom He had brought back to her from the grave. Greatly loved, she thought she could not show too much love in return. Having freely received, she freely gave.
But there were some present who found fault with Mary’s conduct, and blamed her as guilty of wasteful extravagance. One especially, an apostle, a man of whom better things might have been expected, declared openly that the ointment would have been better employed if it had been sold, and the price “given to the poor.” The heart which could conceive such thoughts must have had low views of the dignity of Christ’s person, and still lower views of our obligations to Him. A cold heart and a stingy hand will generally go together.
There are only too many professing Christians of a like spirit in the present day. Myriads of baptized people cannot understand zeal of any sort, for the honour of Christ. Tell them of any vast outlay of money to push trade or to advance the cause of science, and they approve of it as right and wise. Tell them of any expense incurred for the preaching of the Gospel at home or abroad, for spreading God’s Word, for extending the knowledge of Christ on earth, and they tell you plainly that they think it waste. They never give a farthing to such objects as these, and count those people fools who do. Worst of all, they often cover over their own backwardness to help purely Christian objects, by a pretended concern for the poor at home. Yet they find it convenient to forget the well known fact that those who do most for the cause of Christ are precisely those who do most for the poor.
We must never allow ourselves to be moved from “patient continuance in well-doing,” by the unkind remarks of such persons. It is vain to expect a man to do much for Christ, when he has no sense of debt to Christ. We must pity the blindness of our unkind critics, and work on. He who pleaded the cause of loving Mary, and said, “Let her alone,” is sitting at the right hand of God, and keeps a book of remembrance. A day is soon coming when a wondering world will see that every cup of cold water given for Christ’s sake, as well as every box of precious ointment, was recorded in heaven, and has its rewards. In that great day those who thought that anyone could give too much to Christ will find they had better never have been born.
We see, lastly, in this passage, what desperate hardness and unbelief there is in the heart of man.
Unbelief appears in the chief priests, who “consulted that they might put Lazarus to death.” They could not deny the fact of his having been raised again. Living, and moving, and eating, and drinking within two miles of Jerusalem, after lying four days in the grave, Lazarus was a witness to the truth of Christ’s Messiahship, whom they could not possibly answer or put to silence. Yet these proud men would not give way. They would rather commit a murder than throw down the arms of rebellion, and confess themselves in the wrong. No wonder that the Lord Jesus in a certain place “marvelled” at unbelief. Well might He say, in a well-known parable, “If they believe not Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead.” (Mark vi. 6; Luke xvi. 31.)
Hardness appears in Judas Iscariot, who, after being a chosen Apostle, and a preacher of the kingdom of heaven, turns out at last a thief and a traitor. So long as the world stands this unhappy man will be a lasting proof of the depth of human corruption. That anyone could follow Christ as a disciple for three years, see all His miracles, hear all His teaching, receive at His hand repeated kindnesses, be counted an Apostle, and yet prove rotten at heart in the end, all this at first sight appears incredible and impossible! Yet the case of Judas shows plainly that the thing can be. Few things, perhaps, are so little realized as the extent of what desperate hardness and unbelief there is in the heart of man.
Let us thank God if we know anything of faith, and can say, with all our sense of weakness and infirmity, “I believe.” Let us pray that our faith may be real, true, genuine, and sincere, and not a mere temporary impression, like the morning cloud and the early dew. Not least, let us watch and pray against the love of the world. It ruined one who basked in the full sunshine of privileges, and heard Christ Himself teaching every day. Then “let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” (1 Cor. x. 12.)—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007) [Westminster (PB) | Amazon (HC)].
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
Abide in Him
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)
“Tecum volo vulnerari
Te libenter amplexari
In cruce desidero.”—Old Hymn.
Cling to the Crucified!
His death is life to thee;
Life for eternity.
His pains thy pardon seal;
His stripes thy bruises heal;
His cross proclaims thy peace,
Bids every sorrow cease.
His blood is all to thee,
It purges thee from sin;
It sets thy spirit free,
It keeps thy conscience clean.
Cling to the Crucified!
Cling to the Crucified!
His is a heart of love.
Full as the hearts above;
Its depths of sympathy
Are all awake for thee:
His countenance is light,
Even in the darkest night
That love shall never change,
That light shall ne'er grow dim;
Charge thou thy faithless heart
To find its all in him.
Cling to the Crucified!
—Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope, First Series (James Nisbet & Co., 1878).
John 13:16–20
Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. 18 I do not speak of all of you I know the ones I have chosen; but it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ‘He who eats My bread has lifted up his heel against Me.’ 19 From now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He. 20 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.”
We are taught, for one thing, in these verses, that Christians must never be ashamed of doing anything that Christ has done. We read, “Verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his Lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.”
There seems little doubt that our Lord’s all-seeing eye saw a rising unwillingness in the minds of the Apostles to do such menial things as they had just seen Him do. Puffed up with their old Jewish expectation of thrones and kingdoms in this world, secretly self-satisfied with their own position as our Lord’s friends, these poor Galileans were startled at the idea of washing people’s feet! They could not bring themselves to believe that Messiah’s service entailed work like this. They could not yet take in the grand truth, that true Christian greatness consisted in doing good to others. And hence they needed our Lord’s word of warning. If He had humbled Himself to do humbling work, His disciples must not hesitate to do the same.
The lesson is one of which we all need to be reminded. We are all too apt to dislike any work which seems to entail trouble, self-denial, and going down to our inferiors. We are only too ready to dispute such work to others, and to excuse ourselves by saying, “It is not in our way.” When feelings of this kind arise within us we shall find it good to remember our Lord’s words in this passage, no less than our Lord’s example. We ought never to think it beneath us to show kindness to the lowest of men. We ought never to hold our hand because the objects of our kindness are ungrateful or unworthy. Such was not the mind of Him who washed the feet of Judas Iscariot as well as Peter. He who in these matters cannot stoop to follow Christ’s example, gives little evidence of possessing true love or true humility.
We are taught, for another thing, in these verses, the uselessness of religious knowledge if not accompanied by practice. We read, “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.” It sounds as if our Lord would warn His disciples that they would never be really happy in His service if they were content with a barren head-knowledge of duty, and did not live according to their knowledge.
The lesson is one which deserves the continual remembrance of all professing Christians. Nothing is more common than to hear people saying of doctrine or duty,—“We know it, we know it;” while they sit still in unbelief or disobedience. They actually seem to flatter themselves that there is something creditable and redeeming in knowledge, even when it bears no fruit in heart, character, or life. Yet the truth is precisely the other way. To know what we ought to be, believe, and do, and yet to be unaffected by our knowledge, only adds to our guilt in the sight of God. To know that Christians should be humble and loving, while we continue proud and selfish, will only sink us deeper in the pit, unless we awake and repent. Practice, in short, is the very life of religion. “To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” (James iv. 17.)
Of course we must never despise knowledge. It is in one sense the beginning of Christianity in the soul. So long as we know nothing of sin, or God, or Christ, or grace, or repentance, or faith, or conscience, we are of course nothing better than heathens. But we must not overrate knowledge. It is altogether valueless unless it produces results in our conduct, and influences our lives, and moves our wills. In fact knowledge without practice does not raise us above the level of the devil. He could say to Jesus, “I know Thee who Thou art, the Holy One of God.” The devils, says St. James, “believe and tremble.” (James ii. 20.) Satan knows truth, but has no will to obey it, and is miserable. He that would be happy in Christ’s service must not only know, but do.
We are taught, for another thing, in these verses, the perfect knowledge which Christ has of all His people. He can distinguish between false profession and true grace. The Church may be deceived, and rank men as Apostles, who are nothing better than brethren of Judas Iscariot. But Jesus is never deceived, for He can read hearts. And here He declares with peculiar emphasis, “I know whom I have chosen.”
This perfect knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ is a very solemn thought, and one which cuts two ways. It ought to fill the hypocrite with alarm, and drive him to repentance. Let him remember that the eyes of the all-seeing Judge already see him through and through, and detect the absence of a wedding garment. If he would not be put to shame before assembled worlds, let him cast aside his false profession, and confess his sin before it is too late. Believers, on the other hand, may think of an all-knowing Saviour with comfort. They may remember, when misunderstood and slandered by an evil world, that their Master knows all. He knows that they are true and sincere, however weak and failing. A time is coming when He will confess them before His Father, and bring forth their characters clear and bright as the summer sun at noon-day.
We are taught, finally, in these verses, the true dignity of Christ’s disciples. The world may despise and ridicule the Apostles because they care more for works of love and humility than the pursuits of the world. But the Master bids them remember their commission, and not be ashamed. They are God’s ambassadors, and have no cause to be cast down. “Verily, verily,” He declares, “He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth Me; and he that receiveth Me receiveth Him that sent Me.”
The doctrine here laid down is full of encouragement. It ought to cheer and hearten all who lay themselves out to do good, and specially to do good to the fallen and the poor. Work of this kind gets little praise from men, and they who give themselves up to it are often regarded as miserable enthusiasts, and meet with much opposition. Let them however work on, and take comfort in the words of Christ which we are now considering. To spend and be spent in trying to do good, makes a man far more honorable in the eyes of Jesus than to command armies or amass a fortune. The few who work for God in Christ’s way have no cause to be ashamed. Let them not be cast down if the children of the world laugh and sneer and despise them. A day comes when they will hear the words, “Come ye blessed children of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you.” (Matt. xxv. 34.)—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007) [Westminster (PB) | Amazon (HC)].
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
Lost but Found.
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)
“Arte mirâ, miro consilio,
Quærens ovem suam summus opilio,
Ut nos revocaret ab exilio.” —Old Hymn.
I Was a wandering sheep,
I did not love the fold;
I did not love my Shepherd’s voice,
I would not be controlled.
I was a wayward child,
I did not love my home,
I did not love my father’s voice,
I loved afar to roam.
The Shepherd sought his sheep,
The Father sought his child,
They followed me o’er vale and hill,
O’er deserts waste and wild.
They found me nigh to death,
Famished, and faint, and lone;
They bound me with the bands of love;
They saved the wandering one!
They spoke in tender love,
They raised my drooping head:
They gently closed my bleeding wounds,
My fainting soul they fed.
They washed my filth away,
They made me clean and fair;
They brought me to my home in peace,—
The long-sought wanderer!
Jesus my Shepherd is,
’Twas He that loved my soul,
’Twas He that washed me in his blood,
’Twas He that made me whole.
’Twas He that sought the lost,
That found the wandering sheep,
’Twas He that brought me to the fold,
’Tis He that still doth keep.
I was a wandering sheep,
I would not be controlled:
But now I love my Shepherd’s voice,
I love, I love the fold!
I was a wayward child;
I once preferred to roam,
But now I love my Father’s voice,-
I love, I love his home!
—Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope, First Series (James Nisbet & Co., 1878).
John 20:11–18
But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping; and so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. 13 And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” 14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (which means, Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene came, announcing to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and that He had said these things to her.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
We see, first, in these verses, that those who love Christ most diligently and perseveringly, are those who receive most privileges from Christ’s hand. It is a touching fact, and one to be carefully noted, that Mary Magdalene would not leave the sepulcher, when Peter and John went away to their own home. Love to her gracious Master would not let her leave the place where He had been lain. Where He was now she could not tell. What had become of Him she did not know. But love made her linger about the empty tomb, where Joseph and Nicodemus had recently laid Him. Love made her honor the last place where His precious body had been seen by mortal eyes. And her love reaped a rich reward. She saw the angels whom Peter and John had never observed. She actually heard them speak, and had soothing words addressed to her. She was the first to see our Lord after He rose from the dead, the first to hear His voice, the first to hold conversation with Him. Can any one doubt that this was written for our learning? Wherever the Gospel is preached throughout the world, this little incident testifies that those who honor Christ will be honored by Christ.
As it was in the morning of the first Easter day, so will it be as long as the Church stands. The great principle contained in the passage before us, will hold good until the Lord comes again. All believers have not the same degree of faith, or hope, or knowledge, or courage, or wisdom; and it is vain to expect it. But it is a certain fact that those who love Christ most fervently, and cleave to Him most closely, will always enjoy most communion with Him, and feel most of the witness of the Spirit in their hearts. It is precisely those who wait on the Lord, in the temper of Mary Magdalene, to whom the Lord will reveal Himself most fully, and make them know and feel more than others. To know Christ is good; but to “know that we know Him” is far better.
We see, secondly, in these verses, that the fears and sorrows of believers are often quite needless. We are told that Mary stood at the sepulcher weeping, and wept as if nothing could comfort her. She wept when the angels spoke to her: “Woman,” they said, “why weepest thou?”—She was weeping still when our Lord spoke to her: “Woman,” He also said, “why weepest thou?”—And the burden of her complaint was always the same: “They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him.”—Yet all this time her risen Master was close to her, with “body, flesh, and bones, and all things pertaining to the perfection of man’s nature.” (Article IV.) Her tears were needless. Her anxiety was unnecessary. Like Hagar in the wilderness, she had a well of water by her side, but she had not eyes to see it.
What thoughtful Christian can fail to see, that we have here a faithful picture of many a believer’s experience? How often we are anxious when there is no just cause for anxiety! How often we mourn over the absence of things which in reality are within our grasp, and even at our right hand! Two-thirds of the things we fear in life never happen at all, and two-thirds of the tears we shed are thrown away, and shed in vain. Let us pray for more faith and patience, and allow more time for the full development of God’s purposes. Let us believe that things are often working together for our peace and joy, which seem at one time to contain nothing but bitterness and sorrow. Old Jacob said at one time of his life, “all these things are against me” (Gen. xlii. 36); yet he lived to see Joseph again, rich and prosperous, and to thank God for all that had happened. If Mary had found the seal of the tomb unbroken, and her Master’s body lying cold within, she might well have wept! The very absence of the body which made her weep, was a token for good, and a cause of joy for herself and all mankind.
We see, thirdly, in these verses, what low and earthly thoughts of Christ may creep into the mind of a true believer. It seems impossible to gather any other lesson from the solemn words which our Lord addressed to Mary Magdalene, when He said, “Touch Me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father.”—No doubt the language is somewhat mysterious, and ought to be delicately and reverently handled. Yet it is only reasonable to suppose that the first surprise, and the reaction from great sorrow to great joy, was more than the mind of Mary could bear. She was only a woman, though a holy and faithful woman. It is highly probable that, in the first excess of her joy, she threw herself at our Lord’s feet, and made greater demonstrations of feeling than were seemly or becoming. Very likely she behaved too much like one who thought all must be right if she had her Lord’s bodily presence, and all must be wrong in His bodily absence. This was not the highest style of faith. She acted, in short, like one who forgot that her Master was God as well as man. She made too little of His divinity, and too much of His humanity. And hence she called forth our Lord’s gentle rebuke, “Touch Me not! There is no need of this excessive demonstration of feeling. I am not yet ascending to my Father for forty days: your present duty is not to linger at my feet, but to go and tell my brethren that I have risen. Think of the feelings of others as well as of your own.”
After all, we must confess that the fault of this holy woman was one into which Christians have always been too ready to fall. In every age there has been a tendency in the minds of many, to make too much of Christ’s bodily presence, and to forget that He is not a mere earthly friend, but one who is “God over all, blessed forever,” as well as man. The pertinacity with which Romanists and their allies cling to the doctrine of Christ’s real corporal presence in the Lord’s Supper, is only another exhibition of Mary’s feeling when she wanted Christ’s body, or no Christ at all. Let us pray for a right judgment in this matter, as in all other things concerning our Lord’s person. Let us be content to have Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith, and present when two or three are met in His name, and to wait for the real presence of Christ’s body until He comes again. What we really need is not His literal flesh, but His Spirit. It is not for nothing that it is written, “It is the Spirit that quickeneth: the flesh profiteth nothing.” “If we have known Christ after the flesh, yet henceforth know we Him no more.” (John vi. 63; 2 Cor. v. 16.)
We see, lastly, in these verses, how kindly and graciously our Lord speaks of His disciples. He bids Mary Magdalene carry a message to them as “His brethren.” He bids her tell them that His Father was their Father, and His God their God. It was but three days before that they had all forsaken Him shamefully, and fled. Yet this merciful Master speaks as if all was forgiven and forgotten. His first thought is to bring back the wanderers, to bind up the wounds of their consciences, to reanimate their courage, to restore them to their former place. This was indeed a love that passeth knowledge. To trust deserters, and to show confidence in backsliders, was a compassion which man can hardly understand. So true is that word of David: “Like as a Father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth those who fear Him. For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust.” (Psalm ciii. 13, 14.)
Let us leave the passage with the comfortable reflection that Jesus Christ never changes. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. As He dealt with His erring disciples in the morning of His resurrection, so will He deal with all who believe and love Him, until He comes again. When we wander out of the way He will bring us back. When we fall He will raise us again. But he will never break His royal word: “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” (John vi. 37.) The saints in glory will have one anthem in which every voice and heart will join: “He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.” (Psalm ciii. 10.)—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007) [Westminster (PB) | Amazon (HC)].
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
The Word Made Flesh.
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)
The Son of God in mighty love,
Came down to Bethlehem for me;
Forsook his throne of light above,
An infant upon earth to be.
In love, the Father’s sinless child
Sojourned at Nazareth for me;
With sinners dwelt the undefiled,
The Holy One in Galilee.
Jesus, whom angel-hosts adore,
Became a man of griefs for me;
In love, though rich, becoming poor,
That I through him enriched might be.
Though Lord of all, above, below,
He went to Olivet for me;
There drank my cup of wrath and woe,
When bleeding in Gethsemane.
The ever-blessed Son of God
Went up to Calvary for me;
There paid my debt, there bore my load,
In his own body on the tree.
Jesus, whose dwelling is the skies,
Went down into the grave for me;
There overcame my enemies,
There won the glorious victory.
In love the whole dark path he trod,
To consecrate a way for me;
Each bitter footstep marked with blood,
From Bethlehem to Calvary.
’Tis finished all; the veil is rent,
The welcome sure, the access free;—
Now then we leave our banishment,
O Father, to return to thee!
—Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope, First Series (James Nisbet & Co., 1878).
If you’ve been following these Lord’s Day posts, you know that we’ve finished The Gospel of John with J. C. Ryle. Now I need to decide on something else to fill this space. Suggestions are welcome.
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
We Know Not When
Christina Rossetti (1830–1894)
We know not when , we know not where,
We know not what that world will be;
But this we know: it will be fair
To see.
With heart athirst and thirsty face
We know and know not what shall be:
Christ Jesus bring us of His grace
To see.
Christ Jesus bring us of His grace,
Beyond all prayers our hope can pray,
One day to see Him face to Face,
One day.
—Christina Rossetti, Poems (Alfred A. Knopf, 1993).
Romans 1:14
I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.
Paul has many names for himself; none of them lofty, all of them lowly; the highest, simply “an apostle.” Sometimes it is Paul “the servant of Jesus Christ”; sometimes, Paul “the aged”; sometimes, Paul “the prisoner”; sometimes it is “less than the least of all saints”; sometimes, the “chief of sinners.” Here it is another, “a debtor.” It is then of Paul the debtor we are to speak. It is himself that takes the name; he proclaims his debts; no man lays them to his charge; God does not accuse him. It is some profound, inexpressible feeling that leads him to cry out, “I am debtor.”
I. To whom is he a debtor? Not to self; not to the flesh; not to the law. He owes nothing to these. We might say, he is debtor to God; to Christ; to the cross. But these are not now in his mind. It is to Greek and Jew, wise and unwise; men of all nations; the whole fallen world, that he feels himself a debtor. He seems to stand on some high eminence, and looking round on all kingdoms, and nations, and tongues, with all their uncounted millions, he says, “To all these I am debtor, and I must pay the debt.” They have done nothing for him indeed; they have persecuted, stoned, condemned, reviled him; yet that does not alter his position or cancel his debt. Do to him what they like,—hate him, imprison him, scourge him, bind him,—he is their debtor still. His debt to them is founded on something which all this ill-usage, this malice cannot alter. He loves them still; pities them, pleads with them, beseeches them to be reconciled to God; confesses himself to be their debtor in spite of all. We speak of the world being a debtor to Paul; so, in one sense, it was; but in another, Paul is a debtor to the world. Yes, a Christian is debtor to the world,—not to his family only, or his nation,—but to the whole world. Let this thought dwell in us, and work in us; expanding and enlarging us; elevating our vision; throwing back our horizon, delivering us from all narrow heartedness on the one hand, and all false liberality on the other. We speak of the world being debtor to the church; let us never forget that according to Paul’s way of thinking, and to the mind of the Holy Spirit, the church is debtor to the world.
II. When and how he became a debtor. Even as a Jew he was a debtor; for he possessed something which the world did not; and the moment I come into possession of something which my neighbor or my fellow man has not, I become debtor to that fellow man! This is God’s way of reckoning, though it is not man’s; for God’s thoughts are not our thoughts; and it is love only that can teach us to feel and reason thus. Yet it is true reasoning, it is divine logic. It was when Paul became possessed of the unsearchable riches of Christ that he felt himself a debtor to the world. He had found a treasure, and he could not conceal it; he must speak out; he must tell abroad what he felt. He was surrounded by needy fellow men, in a poor empty world: Should he keep the treasure to himself? No. As the lepers of Samaria felt themselves debtors to the starving city, so did Paul to a famishing world. But there is much more than this,—a higher “when” and “how.” Who had done all this for him, and made him to differ? It was God,—Christ Jesus. It is to God, then, that in the first place he feels himself an infinite debtor in the fullest sense. To God Himself he cannot pay this debt directly, but he can indirectly, by pouring out the God-given treasure upon others. His debt directly is to God; but then, indirectly, it is to the world. Thus the Christian man feels his debt,—his obligation to the world because of his obligation to God. But then a man must know that he has the treasure himself before he can be quickened into a feeling of his responsibility to others. The love of Christ must constrain us; a sense of what we owe to him must impel and stimulate us. Do you know yourself to be the possessor of this infinite treasure? and under the expanding pressure of this, are you roused to feel your infinite debt to all?
III. How he pays the debt. By carrying to them that gospel which he had received. That gospel, or the gift which that gospel reveals, has enriched himself infinitely, he takes these riches to others; and so he endeavors to pay his debt to God by enriching the world. He goes to Corinth,—doing what? Paying there a part of his infinite debt. He goes to Athens, to Thessalonica, to Rome,—doing what? Paying in each place part of the infinite debt which he owes to God, for his love, his pardon, and the hope of the glory. He is a rich man, and can afford to give!
We pay our debt,
(1.) By making known the gospel to others. Speak out the glad tidings, wherever you go. You are debtors. Thus pay the debt.
(2.) By prayer for others. We can reach millions by prayer, otherwise inaccessible to us. Pray for others; not your own circle only, but the world. Go round the world. Embrace all nations in your intercessions.
(3.) By our givings. In giving let us remember what we are doing, paying our debt to God. Shew your sense of his love, his gifts, by your generosity.
(4.) By our consistent life. This, at least, is expected of us. Do not misrepresent the gospel. Be a true and faithful witness for God.
Yes, you are debtors to all. Shew that you feel this. Be constrained by a loving sense of your infinite obligations and responsibilities to Him who loved you.
—Horatius Bonar, Light & Truth: Bible Thoughts & Themes
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
Continual Repentance
O God of grace,
Thou hast imputed my sin to my substitute,
and hast imputed his righteousness
to my soul,
clothing me with a bridegroom’s robe,
decking me with jewels of holiness.
But in my Christian walk I am still in rags;
my best prayers are stained with sin;
my penitential tears are so much impurity; 
my confessions of wrong are so many
aggravations of sin;
my receiving the Spirit is tinctured with
selfishness.
I need to repent of my repentance;
I need my tears to be washed;
I have no robe to bring to cover my sins,
no loom to weave my own righteousness;
I am always standing clothed in filthy garments,
and by grace am always receiving change of
raiment,
for thou dost always justify the ungodly;
I am always going into the far country,
and always returning home as a prodigal,
always saying, Father, forgive me,
and thou art always bringing forth
the best robe.
Every morning let me wear it,
every evening return in it,
go out to the day’s work in it,
be married in it,
be wound in death in it,
stand before the great white throne in it,
enter heaven in it shining as the sun.
Grant me never to lose sight of
the exceeding sinfulness of sin,
the exceeding righteousness of salvation,
the exceeding glory of Christ,
the exceeding beauty of holiness,
the exceeding wonder of grace.
—The Valley of Vision, Arthur Bennett, editor (Banner of Truth Trust, 2002).
Romans 1:16
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
It is of great moment to know the proper value of a thing before we either praise or dispraise it. Let us beware of either overrating or underrating anything of which we are called to speak. Of the gospel the apostle speaks as one who knew its value. Do we so know its value as to say, What shall it profit me to gain the world and lose the gospel?
The apostle so knew it as to be able to say, I am not ashamed of it; just as elsewhere speaking of the cross he says, “God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.” He was not ashamed of it at Jerusalem, or Athens, or Rome. Many things were there to make him ashamed of it; Jewish prejudice and Gentile pride. But these prevailed not. In spite of contempt and hatred he held it fast.
We are apt to be ashamed of it. It looks weak, foolish, unintellectual, unphilosophical. It lags behind the age. It has become obsolete! It is beginning to be supplanted by learning and eloquence! Men are apt to shun the gospel as a feeble, childish thing, that has done its work in time past, but is giving place to something higher and more in accordance with the “deep instincts of humanity.”
There were some places in which the apostle might have been specially tempted to be ashamed of the gospel, or afraid of preaching it. At Jerusalem, for there the whole strength of Jewish ritualism rose against it; at Athens, for there it was confronted by the power of Grecian wisdom; at Ephesus, for there the dazzling subtleties of heathen magic rose against it; at Corinth, for there the torrent of human lust and pleasure rushed against it; at Rome, for there was time concentrated energy of earthly idolatry. Yet none of these things moved him. He was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, though all that was intellectual, and eloquent, and sensual, and refined, and powerful in humanity protested against it, or mocked it as folly.
We are tempted in our day to be ashamed of the gospel. It is thought to be bare, unintellectual, almost childish by many. Hence they would overlay it with argument and eloquence, to make it more respectable and more attractive. Every such attempt to add to it is being ashamed of it. The old apostolic gospel seems so bald that before we can avow connection with it, we must introduce something like philosophy into it! This is not treating it as Paul did. Some mistake it, others reject it, others are indifferent to it. But there are others who are ashamed of it.
If any might have been ashamed of it, Paul much more. His education, his life, his teachers, his companions were all such as to make him turn aside from a thing so plain. But, rising above all, he protests that he is not ashamed of that which so many of his former friends and teachers scorn.
But why was the apostle not ashamed of it? Had it been the feeble, childish thing which men said it was, he would have been ashamed of it. But it was not so. It was mighty; mightier than philosophy, or argument, or eloquence. It was “power.”
Many “apologists” for the gospel have, in their defense of it, assumed somewhat different ground from that of the apostle here. They defend it because it is noble, philosophical, reasonable, benevolent. It is all this, and more. Yet such are not Paul’s reasons for glorifying in it. He has fathomed man’s infinite need and misery; he has, with divinely opened eyes, looked into man’s present condition and his prospects. He sees in that gospel that which meets man’s great necessity as a lost being; and it is this glorious suitableness that makes him prize it so much. He is not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, because it is the power of God unto salvation. Had it been less than this, however intellectual and philosophical, he would have been ashamed of it. No other excellence, however great, however appreciated by the human intellect, could compensate for the want of this. To be the wisdom of man, the wisdom of the world, the wisdom of words, was nothing to him. In thus listening to Paul’s reasons for not being ashamed of the gospel, let us learn what he thinks of that gospel, and what he understands it to be. (1.) It is the embodiment of God’s power for the salvation of the sinner; (2.) it is the revelation of God’s righteousness to the sinner. This is the sum of his reasons for glorying in the gospel of Christ.
I. It is God’s power unto salvation. Men were lost. Nothing but a great salvation could deliver; a salvation which embodied omnipotence. We may say it is a gospel preceded by omnipotence, succeeded by omnipotence, accompanied by omnipotence, containing omnipotence. God’s power was needed. Where has God placed it? In the gospel! Out of that gospel it goes forth to save the sinner. In that gospel omnipotence is wrapped up. Out of that gospel omnipotence goes forth to save. The power that is needed for the salvation of a sinner is that which is contained in the gospel. The gospel alone contains this saving power, and as such the apostle is not ashamed of it. But every one is not saved, even by this mighty gospel. Who, then, are saved by it? Only they who believe. Into all who believe, this mighty gospel comes with saving power, working in them and for them the reversal of all that made them lost; the whole of that which God calls salvation. It is in believing this gospel that we are saved; saved at once, freely, completely, forever. This gospel is wide as the world. It embraces all kindreds, and nations, and tongues. It goes first to the Jew; it begins at Jerusalem; but it does not end there. It goes round the earth; it takes in all men, the Greek as well as the Jew,—barbarian, Scythian, bond and free. To every man this mighty gospel comes and says, “Believe and be saved.” There is salvation for thee; not by working, or waiting, or praying, or reforming, but simply not by believing. He who believes is saved, whoever or whatever he may be.
II. It is the revelation of God’s righteousness. This mighty gospel saves in a righteous way. Its power unto salvation consists in its being a revelation of the righteousness of God. This righteousness is not that which we call the attribute of God. Nor does it merely mean “God’s method of justification”; though it is indeed such. It is that righteousness which was displayed in Him who is the righteous One, whose name is “Jehovah our righteousness.” It is a righteousness planned by God, provided and prepared by God, exhibited and unfolded by God to the sinner.
(1.) It is a righteousness revealed. No longer concealed, or but darkly unfolded; but fully and brightly displayed by God in Christ.
(2.) It is a divine righteousness. Not merely human, yet still human; human, yet divine; the righteousness of Him who was both God and man.
(3.) It is a righteousness by faith. This is the meaning of the words. “Therein is that righteousness of God, which comes to us by believing, revealed to be believed.” We get the whole of this glorious righteousness in accepting God’s testimony to it and to Him who wrought it out.
(4.) It is righteousness presented to us to be believed. God holds it out to us. He says, Take this from my hand; and if you ask, How am I to take it? the answer is, Believe what God says to you concerning it, and straightway it is yours.
(5.) It is the same righteousness which was possessed by the Old Testament saints. “The just shall hive by faith,” or “the just by faith shall live,” are the words of the ancient prophet, not merely predicting what shall be, but what has been and what is. It was Paul’s favorite text. It was also Luther’s. We become, or are constituted just, by or in believing; and we live by and in believing; for both these propositions are contained in the passage. One justification from the beginning, one faith, one life! The patriarchs “lived” by believing in Him who was to come; we “live” by believing in Him who has come. But it is one Saviour, one salvation, one cross.
God’s testimony to this righteousness is very full and explicit. He tells us what kind of righteousness it is, whose it is, and how we get it. It is divine, perfect, glorious, suitable; begun, carried out, completed by Christ during His life and death below: “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners; so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” He who believes the divine testimony gets the righteousness. It becomes at once the property of him that believeth,—not of him that worketh. “He that believeth is justified from all things.” All the evil that is in us passes over to Christ, our surety; all the excellence that is in Him passes over to us as soon as we accept time testimony. “He was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”
The power of the gospel is wholly saving; it is armed with power,—just in order to save. There is nothing else in our world that can save but this. This gospel contains in it all that is needful to save. It reaches and reverses the condition of the lost. Nothing else does this. It saves, heals, comforts, gladdens, brings out of darkness into light. Salvation! This is its object. Nothing less than this. Not merely to reform, or elevate, or refine; but to save. Whatever it does less than this is in vain. It is salvation that we preach in preaching the gospel,—present, immediate, sure, eternal salvation! What then has the gospel done for you? Has it saved you? If not, it has come to you in vain. If it has only made you moral, or kept you moral, it has fallen short of its end.
It is through believing that this salvation is realized. We are saved when we believe the gospel. A gospel not believed will do nothing for us, but condemn. A believed gospel saves; and saves as soon as believed.
That gospel is the Holy Spirit’s testimony to God’s free love, and to the finished propitiation of the cross. The reception of that divine testimony is salvation. Has this salvation, O man, found its way into you? Or is it still resisted? Is the evil heart of unbelief still shutting it out? Is it still appealing to you in vain? Is it still telling to you the old story of the love of God, the love of Christ, but telling it in vain? Have you not yet discovered the good news which it brings to you! Are you still unsaved? Unsaved, because rejecting this gospel, and refusing the free gift it brings.
—Horatius Bonar, Light & Truth: Bible Thoughts & Themes
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
Hymn 57. (c. m.)
Original sin. Rom. v. 12, &c.; Psa. li. 5; Job xiv. 4.
Backward with humble shame we look
On our original;
How is our nature dash’d and broke
In our first father’s fall!
To all that’s good averse and blind,
But prone to all that’s ill
What dreadful darkness veils our mind!
How obstinate our will!
[Conceived in sin, O wretched state!
Before we draw our breath
The first young pulse begins to beat
Iniquity and death.
How strong in our degen’rate blood
The old corruption reigns,
And, mingling with the crooked flood,
Wanders through all our veins.]
[Wild and unwholesome as the root
Will all the branches be;
How can we hope for living fruit
From such a deadly tree?
What mortal power from things unclean
Can pure productions bring?
Who can command a vital stream
From an infected spring?]
Yet, mighty God! thy wondrous love
Can make our nature clean,
While Christ and grace prevail above
The tempter, death, and sin.
The second Adam shall restore
The ruins of the first;
Hosannah to that sovereign power
That new-creates our dust!
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts. Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book I: Collected from the Holy Scriptures (Soli Deo Gloria, 1997).
And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer . . .
—Romans 1:28
They quickly forgot His works . . .
—Psalm 106:13
God has well remembered man; remembers him every day. God might easily forget man; he is so insignificant, worthless, unloveable. But He does not. He has never done so. This world, evil as it is, has been truly, what one has called it, “His well-beloved world,”—His well-remembered creation. Each of us, however poor, however sinful, is a fragment of that world, that race which He has never forgotten: “Thou shalt not be forgotten of me.” Each moment’s mercies are tokens of the divine mindfulness. He ever retains us in His knowledge and memory.
God desires to be remembered by man. He has taken unspeakable pains to keep Himself before His creatures, so as to make forgetfulness on their part the greatest of all impossibilities. In everything that God has set before our eyes or ears, He says, Remember me. In every star, every flower, every mountain, every stream,—in every joy, every comfort, every blessing of daily life,—God says, Remember me. How affecting this desire of God to be remembered by man! Yet how has man responded to it? We shall see. The world’s history, and Israel’s history not less, have shewn how God’s wish to be kept in affectionate remembrance by the creatures He has made has been met. “They gave me hatred for my love.” They did not “like to retain Him in their knowledge.”
It is not, however, merely a “deity,” a divine being, that is to be remembered. It is the one living and true God. Every departure from this is idolatry and dishonour. This true God wishes to be remembered,
(1.) Reverently. He is great and glorious; to be had in reverence of all creature hood. Reverence and godly fear are His due.
(2.) Confidingly. His character is such that He deserves to be trusted. Trustful, childlike remembrance, is what He expects of us.
(3.) Joyfully. Not by constraint, or through terror, or hope of profit; but with the full and happy heart.
(4.) Lovingly. We love Him because He first loved us. Loving remembrance He would fain have. Nothing less will do.
(5.) Steadfastly. Not by fits and starts; at certain “devotional seasons,” but always. “Perpetual remembrance” is what God asks,—”everlasting remembrance.”
This God, whose name is Jehovah, is worthy to be remembered, He is so infinitely glorious, and good, and great, and loveable. The wonder is, how one so great should ever for a moment be forgotten. That He should forget us, so insignificant, would not be surprising; but that we should forget Him, so great and mighty, is inconceivably marvelous. We may suppose a creature, an atom of the dust, sitting alone and admiring this great Being, and saying, He may not think of me, or notice me, who am such a grain of sand, but I cannot help continually thinking of Him, looking up to Him, praising Him, loving Him, whether He cares for me or not; whether I am overlooked or not,—if He will only allow me thus to praise and love. But can we suppose the opposite? the worm of the earth never thinking of this great God at all, and yet this God continually thinking of Him!
Yet man forgets God! He hears of Him, and then forgets Him. He sees His works, and then forgets Him. He acknowledges deliverances, and then forgets Him. Thus it is that man deals with God. For his fellow men man’s memory serves him well, but towards God it is utterly treacherous.
Israel is frequently charged with such things as these:
(1.) They forgot His words. All that He had spoken, in grace or righteousness, as warning or as love, they forgot. His words were to them as idle tales. Thus we treat our God.
(2.) They forgot His works. Miracle on miracle of the most stupendous kind did He for Israel, in Egypt and in the desert, as if never wearied with blessing them, yet the work was no sooner done than it was out of mind. They sang His praise, and then forgot His works.
(3.) They forgot Himself. Yes, Himself! Their God, their Redeemer, their Rock, their Strength! They thrust Him out of their thoughts and memories. He and they were to live apart; to have no intercourse with each other. They were to live in His world, and forget Himself; to enjoy His gifts, but not Himself; to breathe His air, bask in His sunshine, drink His rivers, climb His mountains, sail over His wide sea in storm or calm, and forget Himself? “They did not like to retain God in their knowledge.”
Forgetfulness of God is God’s charge against His creatures. He does not exaggerate their guilt, or bring out into view the gross and hideous crimes of the race. He simply says, “You have forgotten me.” That is enough. “My people have forgotten me.” It is they who forget God that are turned into hell. This may seem to some a small sin, a negative evil, a sin of omission; but God places it in the foreground of iniquity. “Consider this ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces when none can deliver” (Psalm 50:22).
God lays great stress upon remembering Him and His works. Often did He use that word to Israel, “Remember.” “Remember the way that the Lord led thee.” “Remember the commandments of the Lord.” “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” “Remember thy Creator.”
In the New Testament the words of the Lord himself must occur to every one, “This do in remembrance of me”; amid the response of the church, “We will remember Thy love more than wine.”
Forget not, O man, the God that made thee. He has given thee no cause to forget Him. He ever keeps thee in mind; keep Him in mind.
Amid all thy forgetfulness let not Him be forgotten. Amid all thy remembrances let Him be ever uppermost. His remembrance will be joy and peace, fragrance, and refreshment, and strength. Retain Him in thy knowledge; root Him in thy memory; fix Him in thy heart forever.
—Horatius Bonar, Light & Truth: Bible Thoughts & Themes
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
Petitionary Hymns
Poem XXXII.
Where two or three are gathered together in my name, &c. 
Augustus Toplady (1740–1778)
Jesus,
God of love attend,
From thy glorious throne descend;
Answer now some waiting heart,
Now some harden’d soul convert:
To our advocate we fly,
Let us feel Emanuel nigh:
Manifest thy love abroad,
Make us now the sons of God.
Hover round us, King of kings,
Rise with healing in thy wings;
Melt our obstinacy down,
Cause us to become thine own:
Set, O set the captives free,
Draw our backward souls to thee;
Let us all from thee receive
Light to see and life to live.
Prostrate at thy mercy seat
Let us our beloved meet;
Give us in thyself a part,
Deep engraven on thine heart:
Let us hear thy pard’ning voice,
Bid the broken bones rejoice;
Condemnation do away,
O make this the happy day!
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
Join to seek and save the lost:
Raise some sinner to thy throne,
Add a jewel to thy crown!
Are we not, without thy light,
Darken’d with Egyptian night?
Light of light, thy pow’r exert,
Lighten each benighted heart!
Prayer can mercy’s door unlock;
Open, Lord, to us that knock!
Us the heirs of glory seal,
With thy benediction fill:
Holy Spirit, make us his,
Visit ev’ry soul in peace;
Give our vanquish’d hearts to say,
Love divine has won the day!
Give the heavy laden rest,
Christ make known in ev’ry breast:
Void of thee we quickly die,
Turn our sackcloth into joy:
Witness all our sins forgiv’n,
Grant on earth a glimpse of heav’n;
Bring the joyful tidings down,
Fit us for our future crown.
Let us chaunt melodious hymns,
Loud as those of cherubims;
Join with heart and tongue to bless
Christ our strength and righteousness:
All our praise to him belongs,
Theme of our sublimest songs;
Object of our choicest love,
Thee we laud with hosts above.
Thee we hail with joint acclaim,
Shout the glories of thy name;
Ever may we feel thee thus,
Dear Immanuel, God with us!
Prince of peace, thy people see,
All our thanks we aim at thee;
Deign our tribute to receive,
Praise is all we have to give.
—The Complete Works of Augustus Toplady (Sprinkle Publications, 1987).
For there is no partiality with God.
—Romans 2:11
This cannot mean that God makes no difference between man and man. He does make a difference; and not one, but many. Our world is a world of differences; nor would it be the fair, orderly, and goodly world it is, were it not for these. Heights, depths, colors,—mountain, valley, rock,—sea, forest, stream,—sun, moon, and stars,—“one star differing from another star in glory”: these are some of the material or physical differences that make our world what it is. Then in man there is race, nation, color; gifts of body and mind; riches and poverty; fame and obscurity; ranks, degrees, circumstances, sorrows, joys, health, sickness: these in themselves constitute a vast variety, and then they subdivide themselves into minor varieties, which increase, ad infinitum, the differences between man. God has given to every man something of his own, in respect of mind, body, parentage, possessions, gifts, feelings, country, age, health, constitution, which belongs to no other. Thus in many respects He does make a difference between man and man.
Nor can this mean that He treats men at random, without reason or plan; irrespective of character, or doings, or believings, as if His dealings were all chance dealings, blind and arbitrary. No. His treatment of His creatures is sovereign, for He is God; but they are not unreasonable; nay, they are most just, wise, and reasonable,—infinitely so.
Nor does it mean that He has no fixed plan, but takes every man as he comes, allowing each to do as he pleases, and accepting every one because of sincerity, or earnestness, or amiableness, irrespective of error or unbelief.
These are the things which men have often assumed; on which they have acted; on which they presume that God acts. These are the things on which the unbelief of the present day lays great stress; resolving every difficulty as to truth, and righteousness, and judgment to come by the reiteration of the text, “God is love.” Whether such men really believe in a God at all may be questioned; at all events, the God in whom they believe is not the God of the Bible; the “Jehovah” of the Old Testament, and the “Lord” of the New; the God of the deluge, the God of Sinai, the God of the great white throne, the God of the second death; but a God who plays fast and loose with law, and morality, and truth, and holiness; whose pardons are the result of mere indifference to sin,—if there be such things as pardon at all; whose coming assize of judgment will be a mere form or mockery, perhaps the proclamation of universal amnesty to men and devils, with the abolition of hell itself as the summing up of the whole.
But let us consider what the apostle means by saying that God is no respecter of persons. It means two things.
1. That God has no respect to the outward appearance or circumstances of a man in dealing with him. God takes him for what he is, not for what he seems. The word translated, “person,” means mask or face covering; that which disguises a man, and makes him look different from what he is. God regardeth not the person or appearance of a man. To God the man is just what he is exactly, and neither more or less. False pretences or disguises are vain. The crown of the king is no thing to him; the gems of the wealthy add nothing to the man’s acceptance; the power of the statesman does not overawe the Judge of all; the Briton is not favored because he is such, nor the Chinese disfavored because he is such. In regard to all these externalisms, or shows, or masks, there is no respect of persons with God.
2. That in regard to justice and grace, God does not follow man’s estimates at all, either outward or inward. God has His own standard, His own estimate, His own way of procedure in treating the sinner, whether for condemnation or acceptance. The usual elements which decide man’s judgment have no place in God’s.
(1.) God’s estimate or rule in regard to justice, is that the doers of the law, the whole law, the unmodified law, shall live by it. So that if any man, whoever he be, Jew or Gentile, Briton or African, can come to God, and shew that he has kept the whole law, he shall be accepted without any abatement made in consideration of outward circumstances whether national or personal.
(2.) God’s estimate or rule in regard to grace, is that any man, whoever he be, who will consent to be indebted to the Son of God and His work for acceptance, shall be accepted. This is the way in which grace shews itself to be no respecter of persons. He that has a personal claim, shall have that claim fairly considered and weighed; he that has none, but is willing to take instead the claim of another, even of Christ, shall be received according to that divine claim; whatever he may be, or may have been, in respect of sin, or demerit, or nation, or intellect, or circumstances.
The apostle’s object is to declare these three things:—
1. God’s purpose of dealing with the sons of men. He is not going to let them alone, nor to allow them to have their own way.
2. God’s plan of dealing with them. He does so as God, sovereign and righteous, yet gracious. He will be fair and reasonable in all His dealings. He will not respect men’s persons, whether high or low.
3. His willingness to receive any. He has provided a method of reception; and He invites them. He is willing, infinitely willing, to receive any one of Adam’s sons and daughters, whoever or whatever he may be.
—Horatius Bonar, Light & Truth: Bible Thoughts & Themes
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
The Assistance and Influence of the Blessed Spirit
Philip Doddridge (1702–1751)
Tis not in my weak pow’r alone, 
To melt this stubborn heart of stone,
My soul to change, my life to mend,
Or seek to Christ, that gen’rous friend.
’Tis God’s own Spirit from above
Fixes our faith, inflames our love.
And makes a life divine begin
In wretched souls, long dead in sin.
That most important gift of heaven
To those that ask and seek is given;
Then be it my immediate care
With importunity of prayer,
To seek it in a Savior’s name,
Who will not turn my hopes to shame.
God from on high, His grace shall pour,
My soul shall flourish more and more.
Press on with speed from grace to grace,
Till glory end and crown the race.
Since then the Father and the Son,
And Holy Spirit, three in one,
Glorious beyond all speech and thought,
Have jointly my salvation wrought;
I’ll join them in my songs of praise,
Now and through heaven’s eternal days.
—Worthy Is the Lamb (Soli Deo Gloria, 2004).
But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets
—Romans 3:21
It is of sin and righteousness that the apostle speaks so fully and so minutely throughout this whole epistle. Up to the verse from which our text is taken, he has been settling this point, that man is a sinner, and needs a righteousness, else he cannot stand before God. Circumcision cannot give a righteousness; it merely tells us that a righteousness is needed, no more. The law cannot give a righteousness; it is merely a declaration of what righteousness is, and that the unrighteous shall not stand before God. It condemns, it cannot justify. By the law is the knowledge of sin, and thus every mouth is stopped, and the whole world brought in guilty before God. But, notwithstanding this, there is a righteousness; a righteousness which meets the case of the unrighteous in every part; a righteousness which can reverse even the verdict of the law against the unrighteous; a righteousness on the footing of which we can stand with boldness in the presence of the holy God without either shame or fear. It is of this righteousness that he proceeds to speak in the words of our text. Let us hear what he affirms regarding it.
I. First, it is the righteousness of God. It is a divine, not a human righteousness. That righteousness which we had lost in Adam was, after all, but a human thing, finite hike him who lost it; but that which we gain is a divine righteousness, and by being divine, forms an infinite compensation for that which Adam lost for us; and we, in receiving it, are made partakers of a most glorious exchange. It is called the righteousness of God, because it is a righteousness provided by Him; a righteousness which was conceived by Him, set on foot, and carried out in every part by Him, entirely and by Him alone; a righteousness, in the providing of which we had nothing to do, even in thought or in desire, far less in execution; a righteousness, the origin and accomplishment of which are wholly and purely God’s, not man’s at all. Again, it is called the righteousness of God, because it is a righteousness founded on the sufferings of the Son of God. It behoved Him, who is the only-begotten of the Father to take flesh and suffer, ere the very first step towards the providing of that righteousness could be taken. And He has suffered, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God; and thus the foundation of a divine righteousness has been laid.
Again, it is called the righteousness of God, because it is a righteousness made up of time doings of the Son of God. It is not merely with His sufferings that this righteousness has to do, but it is with His doings as well. These two things enter into its composition, so that, without both of them, it would be imperfect. What He did on earth in magnifying the law and making it honourable; what He did on earth in obeying the Father’s will in every jot and tittle, makes up this righteousness. These doings of His were infinitely pleasing to the Father, infinitely glorifying to the Father’s holiness, and infinitely honouring to that law which our unrighteousness had violated and dishonoured.
Further, it is called the righteousness of God, because it provides such a compensation for human unrighteousness, that it not only takes it all away, but brings in a new and far higher and surer footing for the sinner to rest on. It introduces a new standing of acceptance, so that the man who becomes a partaker of this provided righteousness becomes divinely accepted, divinely righteous, divinely blessed. It is not a mere simple righteousness that God sets forth; it is a super abounding one, an infinite one, one which can leave no room for doubt on our part at all, one that is most amply sufficient to meet our case were we the very guiltiest on whom the sun has ever shone.
II. Secondly, it is a righteousness without the law. He does not mean that it is in any sense an unlawful righteousness,—a righteousness not based on law,—a righteousness, in providing which, law has been set aside in any sense; but it means a righteousness which, in so far as we are concerned, has nothing to do with law at all. It is not a righteousness which asks any doing, or working, or obeying, on our part, in order to complete it, in order to make it what it is—“the righteousness of God”; for did it require anything of this kind on our part, it would cease to be what it is here represented to be, “the righteousness of God,” and would become, to a large extent at least, “the righteousness of man.” This righteousness does not send us to the law in order to be justified; it does not throw us upon our own works, either in whole or in part; it proceeds from first to last upon such principles as these, announced elsewhere in this epistle, and in the Epistle to the Galatians: “By time deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified.” And again, as it is written “To him that worketh not, but believeth in Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” In no sense, and at no time, does it say to us, “Do this, and thou shalt live; do this, and thou shalt be saved.” In no sense does it give us the idea of a thing far off, but of a thing nigh, at our very side; not of a thing to be toiled for, a thing to be waited for on our part. In no such sense has this righteousness anything to do with law, or with our doing of the law. For what is the whole of the Epistle to the Galatians but a protest against the idea that this righteousness of God has anything to do with the law, in so far as the sinner is concerned? In so far as God is concerned, in so far as the Son of God is concerned, it had everything to do with law; but in so far as we are concerned, it has nothing to do with it; it is a righteousness without the law. Let us, brethren, hold fast then this truth of the gospel, this foundation truth; righteousness without law, righteousness founded in no sense upon our keeping of the law; but wholly and absolutely upon this fact, that another has kept the law for us, and that other no less than the Son of God Himself.
III. Thirdly, This righteousness has been “manifested” acceptance. “Now,” he says, “the righteousness of God is manifested;” it has been clearly brought to light, so that there can be no mistake concerning it, and no mystery in it. It is not a thing hidden, wrapped up, reserved, held back, veiled from our view. It is a thing clearly brought out today, and shone upon by God’s own light, so that the difficulty seems to be, not how to see it, but how to miss seeing it, how to keep ourselves from apprehending it. It has been clearly manifested. God has been at infinite pains to bring it forward to view, both on our own account, and on account of Him whose righteousness it is. In every way He has sought to guard it against the possibility of being mistaken by man. In every way has He taken precautions against this being hidden from view, or darkened by the words of man’s wisdom. He has set this righteousness as a star in the firmament above us, that every eye may see it, that no mountains of earth may come between us and the heavenly vision; He has made it peculiarly bright, that every eye may be attracted to it. He has removed other stars from around it, that it may not be mistaken, but stand alone in its brilliance. It is to this star we point the eye of each sinner here; the Star of Bethlehem, the brightest in God’s firmament, the bright and morning star, the star which God has set there as His light to the world. He presents it to each one of you, that on recognizing it you may not walk in darkness, but have the light of life, and that, knowing it as it has been manifested, you may no longer stand in doubt as to your relationship with God, as to your personal acceptance. He so puts this righteousness at your disposal that you may come to Him in confidence, using it as if it were entirely your own.
IV. Fourthly, This righteousness is a righteousness “to which the law and the prophets bear witness.” By this expression, we understand the whole of the Old Testament. It is not something (he means to tell us) now come to light for the first time, not understood in the ages gone by; it is something which has been proclaimed from the beginning hitherto. To these oracles the eye of every saint, from Abel downward, has been directed; on this righteousness the feet of every saint from the beginning have stood; of this righteousness every prophet has spoken; to this righteousness every type has borne witness; and this righteousness every sacrifice has set forth. It is this Star which shone down upon the pilgrimage of Old Testament worthies, and in the light of which they walked. It is this Star which sheds light on every page of their history; it was to this Star that they, with one consent, age after age, pointed the eye of all around. They knew none but this; they cared for none but this; to them, as to those who believe now, Christ was “all and in all” On this righteousness they rested, in it they rejoiced. It is no new righteousness which we preach. It is no new foundation of which we tell. It is the old one, the well-proved one. It has been abundantly sufficient in past ages, and it has lost none of its efficiency now in these last days. It was enough for the saints in former ages, it is enough for us now. They who found salvation, ages and generations ago, found it here; and he who finds salvation now finds it also here.
V. Fifthly, This righteousness is a righteousness which is by the faith of Jesus Christ: “Even the righteousness of God, which is by the faith of Jesus Christ, unto all, and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference.” He means to say by this expression, that it is a righteousness which comes to us by believing in Jesus Christ. It is not our faith that is our righteousness; it is not our act of believing that justifies. If your faith were your righteousness, then faith would be just reduced to the level of all other works, and would be itself a work. If it were our faith, our act of faith, that justified, then should we be justified by our own acts, by our own deeds. The expression, then “the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ,” means simply that it is a righteousness which passes over to us, and becomes available for us, by believing in Him whose righteousness it is; that is, by believing the Father’s testimony concerning Jesus Christ. It is by believing that we are identified with Him, so that His doing becomes our doing in the eye of God, and in the eye of the law; His suffering becomes our suffering; His fulfilling of the law becomes our fulfilling of the law; His obedience to the Father’s will is our obedience to the Father’s will. Such is the position into which we are brought by being made, in believing, one with Him. Thus “the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ,” is presented to us, that in believing on Him, He may become ours. Righteousness is here laid down at our feet. It is there, whether we receive it or not. It is there, whether we believe it or not; whether we reject it or receive it. Your receiving it does not create it; your receiving it does not complete it; it is all created, it is all completed, it is all free, it is all at our feet, whether we take it or thrust it away; and our condemnation hereafter, if we be lost, will be not that there was no righteousness, not that we refused to complete a righteousness which had been begun, but that we rejected the righteousness which was completed, and which was so presented to us by God himself. It is in believing, or, as the apostle expresses it, by faith in Jesus Christ, that this righteousness, with all its privileges, and with all its results, passes over to us. For in believing, what are we saying but just this: “I have no works to bring to God; I am a sinner, but I take this work of the Son of God, and I ask to be dealt with by God according to its value, and just as if I had done the work, and not He.” Or, it is just as if we were saying, “I have no righteousness, seeing I am wholly a sinner; but I take this righteousness of the Son of God, and I draw near, expecting to be treated by God, just as if I and not He were the righteous person. I cannot present any suffering to Him in payment of penalty; bat I take this suffering of the Son of God, and I claim to have it reckoned to me as payment of my penalty.” Thus it is, “Christ is the end of the law, for righteousness to every one that believeth.”
VI. Sixthly, This righteousness is a righteousness for the unrighteous. It “is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” It is righteousness for the unrighteous. It is not righteousness for the good, but for the evil. It is not righteousness for the worthy, but for the unworthy. It is our unrighteousness that fits us for this righteousness. It is the evil that is in us that fits us for the excellency that is found in it. How foolish, then, to say as men, when convinced of sin, or when going back into former iniquity, are sometimes found saying, “I am too great a sinner to be for given.” Why, if you were not such a sinner, you would not need such a righteousness. It is the extent of your unrighteousness that fits you for a righteousness so infinite, so divine. If the righteousness were not the righteousness of God, if it were a human and not a divine righteousness, if finite and not infinite, your fear would be natural; but seeing it is divine not human, infinite, not finite, can anything be more foolish, more presumptuous, more profane, than to say, “My unrighteousness is too great for the righteousness of the Son of God”? This righteousness for the unrighteous is said by the apostle to be “unto all.” It is a righteousness which is like the sun in the heavens. It is one sun; yet it is enough for every one, it is free to every one. God works out a righteousness, and then sets it down on this fallen earth, that every one may avail himself of it. We are, therefore, not to say, Is this righteousness provided for this one or for that one, for many or for few? but there it is, there is the righteousness, go and take it. That is the gospel. Looking at the natural sun, do you ever think of asking, Is it for me, for this man or for that, the many or the few? You open your eye and enjoy its beams without asking any questions. Your making such inquiries would indicate a very unhealthy state of body; and so your asking such questions regarding God’s intention as proposed in this righteousness, indicates an unhealthy state of mind. To every sinner here, we preach the good news of this righteousness; a righteousness not only suitable and sufficient, but glorious and free; righteousness for the unrighteous; righteousness for the most unrighteous of the children of men.
Again, it is a righteousness which is “upon all them that believe”: It is “unto all”; but it is only “upon” them that believe. The moment that we believe through grace, we are accepted in the Beloved, redeemed from condemnation and from wrath. Till then the wrath of God abideth upon us. It is in believing that this righteousness is put upon us; and in believing what? In believing what God has testified concerning this righteousness, and concerning Him whose righteousness it is.
Again, the apostle affirms regarding this righteousness for the unrighteous, that “there is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” There is no difference as to its fitness for the sinner, whatever his sin may be; and there is no difference as to the fitness of the sinner for the righteousness. There is this twofold fitness: the fitness of the righteousness for the sinner, and the fitness of the sinner for the righteousness. “There is no difference”; there is no man more fit than another; all are equally fit or equally unfit, equally qualified or equally unqualified, for “all have sinned”; and it is this that brings down all to the same level, and down to this level it is that the righteousness comes. For it is not a righteousness which has only come down to a certain level,—which has lighted upon earth, but only upon some of its highest peaks; it is a righteousness which has come down to the very lowest valleys, a righteousness which may be found out without climbing, and even beside our very dwellings. No one, then, can say, “I deserve it, therefore it is for me”; and no one, on the other hand, can say, “I do not deserve it, therefore it is not for me.” There is no difference, for “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Thus it suits the case of all; so that no one can put it away, and say, “It does not suit my case, but it may suit others.” Nay, friend, if you are not an unrighteous man it will not suit you, I grant; but if you are an unrighteous man it must suit you. There is no question as to the kind of your unrighteousness, the length of time, the amount or degree; there is no question about that, the simple question is, Are you an unrighteous man? Then it suits your case. And it is a righteousness near to each one of you; it is not afar off: it is not in heaven above, so that you have to climb to the seat of God to obtain it; and it is not down so low that you must dig to earth’s center to find it: it is near, it is at your very side; and if you reject it, it cannot be because of its distance. God has brought it near. He ells you it is near. “I bring near my righteousness.” God says that; and who are you that you should say, It is far off? Nay, more, it is free,—“Without money and without price.” There is no payment asked; no payment can be taken. The very idea of payment is insulting to the righteousness, and insulting to Him whose righteousness it is. Yet many seek to buy it,—not perhaps by their gold and silver, but by other things equally worthless. Some would buy it by their penances and fastings, some by their confessions; some would buy it by their repentance, some by their prayers, some by their self-mortification and privations, some by their fair lives and excellent deeds.
It is righteousness for the unrighteous that we proclaim, the righteousness of God, a righteousness which has come down from heaven to earth on very purpose that it may be presented to you. It is God’s wish that you should take it. Do you refuse it? He hinders not. Where then lies the hindrance? In you, not in Him. The refusal will not be on His part; it must be on yours; and if you perish, you perish, not because He would not be reconciled to you, but because you would not be reconciled to Him; not because there was not a provided righteousness, but because you rejected it; not because there was not sufficient love in God to give you that righteousness, but because you willfully put away from you both the righteousness and the love.
—Horatius Bonar, Light & Truth: Bible Thoughts & Themes
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
The Voice from Galilee.
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)
I heard the voice of Jesus say,
Come unto me and rest;
Lay down, thou weary one, lay down
Thy head upon my breast.
I came to Jesus as I was,
Weary, and worn, and sad;
I found in Him a resting-place,
And He has made me glad.
I heard the voice of Jesus say,
Behold, I freely give
The living water: thirsty one,
Stoop down, and drink, and live.
I came to Jesus and I drank
Of that life-giving stream;
My thirst was quenched, my soul revived,
And now I live in Him.
I heard the voice of Jesus say,
I am this dark world’s light,
Look unto me, thy morn shall rise,
And all thy day be bright.
I looked to Jesus, and I found
In Him my Star, my Sun;
And in that light of life I’ll walk,
Till travelling days are done.
—Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope, First Series (James Nisbet & Co., 1878).
Bonar
Kingsfold
For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness
—Romans 4:3–5
Justification by faith is a very old doctrine,—one of the oldest dogmas on record. It is as old as Abraham; as old as Abel. The patriarchs knew it well, and lived thereby. It was as believing men that they were justified. The old pagans had not so much as a glimpse of this. It required a divine revelation to communicate even the idea or possibility of it, much more the actual thing.
The apostle goes back to Abraham for his illustration of this free justification, and reminds us that his faith was counted for righteousness, that is, his believing was reckoned instead of his working, in the great question of acceptance. He took God at His word, and in thus honouring Him, “pleased God.” Hence the apostle thus strongly puts the matter,—“To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”
I. Who justifies? “It is God that justifieth.” The Judge, the Lawgiver, is the Justifier. Self-justification is as useless as it is impossible. To acquit myself is of no avail, unless the law and the lawgiver do the same. I must have my sentence of acquittal or justification from God Himself. It is only His verdict that can satisfy me now, or can avail me in the day of the great reckoning. “Not guilty” from my own hips or from man’s lips, will profit nothing; “not guilty” from His lips is altogether sufficient; I need no more to set my soul at rest, and to give me peace of conscience, tranquility of soul.
II. What sort of justification does He give? Man’s ideas of justification are vague and low; we must recognize God’s thoughts upon the question. His justification is,—
(1.) Righteous. The adjustment of the question between us and God is a righteous adjustment. Its basis is righteousness. Nothing but this would satisfy God or ourselves, or make us feel safe in accepting it in our dealings with a holy God. This righteousness is secured by the full payment of the penalty by a surety or substitute. He does what we should have done; He suffers what we should have suffered; He lives our life, He dies our death, He descends to our grave. Thus He exhausts the penalty, and so makes justification a righteous thing; and our justification is that of men who have suffered the law’s full penalty for our sins; our pardon is that of men who, in the person of their substitute, have undergone all that they deserved eternally to undergo. The Just One suffering for the unjust makes the justification of the unjust a just and righteous thing.
(2.) Complete. It extends to our whole persons; to our whole lives; to every sin committed by us. The whole man is justified. It is no half-pardon, no semi-acceptance, that we receive, but something complete and divine; perfect as God can make it; so perfect as to satisfy conscience here, and to stand the test of the judgment seat hereafter. Nothing in us or about us that goes to make up our character as sinners, is left unjustified.
(3.) Irreversible. No second verdict can alter our legal position. God is not a man that He should lie. Pardoned once, then pardoned forever. “Who is he that condemneth?” “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?”
(4.) Divine. It is a justification worthy of God; a justification which shall place the justified on a far higher level than the first Adam stood upon; a justification which can only be likened to that of the Son of God Himself when He rose from the dead, being “justified in the Spirit” (1 Timothy 3:16).
III. For whom is it? For the ungodly. Yes; for such alone. Righteousness for the unrighteous is that which the Righteous One came to bring. In this matter of pardon and acceptance, the principle is not, “To him that hath shall more be given, but to him that hath nothing shall all be given. It is not partial or incipient godliness that attracts this justification to an individual. The only fitness or qualification is our need, our ungodliness, our unrighteousness, total and complete, without one particle of goodness or deservingness. It was for the ungodly that Christ died. It was for the ungodly that this righteousness was provided; and he who thinks to have it on any other footing save that of simple need or in any other character save that of unrighteousness or ungodliness, cannot possibly obtain it. The “good news” which we bring concerning this righteousness is that it is for the ungodly,—for the ungodliest; and he who would qualify or explain away that word ungodly, subverts and denies the whole gospel of the grace of God.
IV. How we get it. By believing. In accepting God’s testimony to the righteousness,—in crediting His word concerning this justification,—we are justified at once. The righteousness becomes ours; and God treats us henceforth as men who are righteous, as men who, on account of the righteousness which has thus become theirs, are entitled to be dealt with as righteous, out and out. Of Abraham it is said, “His faith was counted for righteousness”; that is, God counted this believing man as one who had done all righteousness, just because he was a believing man. Not that his act or acts of faith were substituted as equivalent to work, but his believing brought him into the possession of all that working could have done. Thus, in believing, we get the righteousness. Our believing accomplishes for us all that our working could have done. The apostle’s words are very bold, and the comparison between the working and believing which they embody, brings out the great distinction between man’s thoughts and God’s, man’s ways and God’s, “To him that worketh not, but believeth.” We are so apt to mix up the two together, the believing and the working, the believing and the feeling, that it is needful to have a strong statement like this thoroughly to clear up our thoughts, and to prevent confusion. The expression here, “believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly,” is another way of expressing the truth, “believing in the Lord Jesus Christ”; for it points us to God, who laid our sins upon His Son, that by this bearing of them, in the person of a divine surety, God might be just, and the Justifier of him who believes.
Come and be justified, is His message to the sinner. Credit my testimony, and be freely pardoned! For our gospel is not, “Do this” or “that,” but, Come, reap the fruits of what another has done. Come, and, without working, or waiting, or praying, or feeling, enter into the complete justification of him who believeth!
—Horatius Bonar, Light & Truth: Bible Thoughts & Themes
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
Hymn LVIII.
O Lord, I will praise thee! Isaiah xii.
William Cowper (1731–1800)
I will praise thee every day
Now thine anger’s turned away!
Comfortable thoughts arise
From the bleeding sacrifice.
Here in the fair gospel field,
Wells of free salvation yield
Streams of life, a plenteous store,
And my soul shall thirst no more.
Jesus is become at length
My salvation and my strength;
And his praises shall prolong,
While I live, my pleasant song.
Praise ye, then, his glorious name,
Publish his exalted fame!
Still his worth your praise exceeds,
Excellent are all his deeds.
Raise again the joyful sound,
Let the nations roll it round!
Zion shout, for this is he,
God the Savior dwells in thee.
—Olney Hymns. Book I: On select Passages of Scripture.
6 just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:
7
“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven,
And whose sins have been covered.
8
“Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.”
—Romans 4
The apostle asks, How was Abraham justified? He answers, “By believing.” Then he asks, How was David justified? And he answers, “By believing.” In both cases by the “righteousness of God”; a righteousness “without works”; a righteousness “without law” and yet a righteousness witnessed by the law and the prophets; a righteousness in accordance with all true law and government; a righteousness for the unrighteous.
Again, the apostle raises the question, What makes a blessed man? And he refers to David’s announcement respecting blessedness, and its cause or root. The blessed man is the man to whom “God imputeth righteousness without works.” To a sinner this is absolutely essential; it is a sine qua non, indispensable. There can be no blessedness in any other way. After the imputation has taken place, there are innumerable sources of blessedness, all pouring in their joy and peace; but this is the beginning. No blessedness without this divine reckoning of righteousness; but with this a man’s blessedness commences. Heaven is begun within him, the heaven that David tasted, and which he so often speaks of: “in His favor is life.” (Psalm 3:5.)
There is, then, blessedness on earth, even to a sinner,—true blessedness,—that which God calls by that name. In spite of weariness, sorrow, conflict, cares, fears, burdens, there is such a thing as blessedness. And this blessedness God freely presents to each unblessed, sorrowful, burdened son of Adam, without money and without price.
The apostle, in quoting the words of David, thus prefaces and interprets them: “David describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works.” Righteousness without works was that which David enjoyed. He obtained righteousness without working for it at all; righteousness by simply taking it from another, and using it as if it were his own.
We must have a righteousness, else we cannot stand before God; we cannot have a religion. God must deal with us, and we must deal with God, on the footing of righteousness; not simply of grace; for He is the righteous as well as the gracious God. When we go to Him we must do so with a righteousness in our hand, either our own or another’s. Our transactions with God must all be of this nature. They must be righteous transactions; dealings between a righteous God and men who are, at the same moment, in His eye, both righteous and unrighteous, and therefore needing both grace and righteousness. A personal righteousness on our part is an impossibility. We cannot work for it; and we cannot get it by working. In going to God we must begin, not encl with righteousness; so that we must have it before we can please God or do any good thing; in other words, it must be free, and it must come to us at once, and it must satisfy both God and our own conscience. Only the righteousness of another can do this; “righteousness without works”; righteousness which does not depend on our doing, or feeling, or praying, or repenting, but which comes to us at once from God, as the root and fountainhead of all working, and goodness, and holiness on our part. The prodigal did not work for the “best robe,” but got it all ready-made from his father’s hands; Joseph did not work for his coat of many colors, but received it as the gift of his father’s love; Adam did not work for the skins with which the Lord God clothed him: so is it with the sinner in his approaches to God, and in God’s approaches to him. “Righteousness without works” is given him; nay, put upon him as a raiment, a divine raiment, to fit him for drawing near to God.
There are three things noted here as making up this blessedness, and indispensable to its existence:
I. Iniquities are forgiven. It is “transgression” in the original Psalm. This is one kind of sin, and generally denotes the worst. There is then “transgression” or “iniquity”; but it is forgiven (or “borne,” as the word means); for there is forgiveness with God, that He may be feared; a complete, free, divine forgiveness; such as God delights to give, and the sinner to receive. “He forgiveth all our iniquities”; He forgives without reserve, or stint, or uncertainty. He removes our iniquities from us as far as east is from the west. He retains not one; He blots out all.
II. Sins are covered. There is, and there has been, sin; but it is no longer visible; it is buried; it is covered; it is put out of sight, as if God himself no longer saw it. It is God who covers, not man; He covers by means of the blood of atonement; He covers by burying it in the grave of Christ. Thus our sins are completely covered, hidden, forgiven. They are first “borne,” and then “buried.” Could any words more completely express forgiveness?
III. Sin is not imputed. There are three words in this passage expressive of sin, as in God’s first full announcement of Himself as the great forgiver (Exodus 34:6.); transgression, iniquity, sin; meaning every kind and form of sin. And there are three words used in reference to the putting away of sin,—forgiving (bearing), covering, not imputing. This last,—the non-imputation,—is said specially to be Jehovah’s doing. This non-imputation is without works; it is free; it is divine; it is perfect; it is sure; it comes as the consequence of believing.
Thus there are three foundation stones laid for the sinner’s blessedness; each of them ample; all of them together fully sufficient. On these he must rest. Without these he can have no joy. His belief of God’s testimony to these is that which connects him with this threefold foundation, and with the blessedness. He believes, and becomes a blessed man. The grace or free love of God, contained in these three things, is that which pours blessedness into his soul.
The Psalmist adds, and “in whose spirit there is no guile.” Forgiveness makes him a guileless man; it takes away all temptation to speak or act untruly and deceitfully with God, or with man, or with himself. He becomes an Israelite indeed. Pardon has made him such. Being fully forgiven, he has no longer any motive to conceal the very worst of himself. God’s forgiveness frank and ample has superseded the necessity of any palliation or excuse; has delivered him from the temptation to make the best of his case and of himself. He thinks, feels, acts, speaks honestly. He confesses sin, and he finds God faithful and just to forgive his sins.
—Horatius Bonar, Light & Truth: Bible Thoughts & Themes
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
Tune Me, O Lord
Christina Rossetti (1830–1894)
Tune me, O Lord, into one harmony
With Thee, one full responsive vibrant chord;
Unto Thy praise all love and melody,
Tune me, O Lord.
Thus need I flee nor death, nor fire, nor sword.
A little while these be, then cease to be,
And sent by Thee not these should be abhorred.
Devil and world, gird me with strength,
To flee the flesh, and arm me with Thy word:
As Thy Heart is to my heart, unto Thee
Tune me, O Lord.
—Christina Rossetti, Poems (Alfred A. Knopf, 1993).
through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.
—Romans 5:2
Let us note here—(1) The grace; (2) The introduction into it; (3) The abiding, or standing; (4) The rejoicing.
I. The grace.—It is here called “this grace,”—a well known, most suitable, and sufficient grace, or free love; the free love of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. This is “the true grace of God”; free love in the heart of God to the ungodly, to the unloving and unloveable. This grace, or free love, is absolute and unconditional; considering not our deservings or qualifications, but simply our need. It looks at us not as good, but as evil; not as sensible, but insensible; not as penitent, but impenitent; not as good in any sense or degree, but as wholly evil. It is not created or awakened by our amendments, or good feelings, or love, or prayers, or regeneration. It regards us simply as sinners, ungodly, needing God’s favor and help. It is this free love that begins, carries on, and consummates a sinner’s deliverance. The knowledge of this divine free love is life eternal. Out of this fountain, ever full and flowing, there comes to us pardon, and joy, and health, and consolation, and light. He that knows that free love, knows that which saves him, and draws him into happy fellowship with God. He that knows it not, is still afar off; the child of darkness, and the worshipper of an unknown God. We can neither be happy nor holy till we know it. It is the good news of God’s free love that we preach. This is “the ministry of the reconciliation”; this is our mission and commission, “to testify the gospel of the grace of God,” and to tell that it is “by his mercy that he saves us”; to speak of “the exceeding riches of the grace of God.”
II. The access, or introduction.—We do not create or awaken this free love by any goodness or qualification of our own. It exists independent of these. Nor did Christ, by His coming and death, create that love. This love existed before; it was this that sent Christ. “God so loved the world, that He gave his Son.” Yet, without Christ, this love could never have reached us. It would have been a distant and inaccessible well, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. It is through Him that this free love has found its way to us. He brings it to us, and us to it. He gives access, and entrance, and introduction; for the word implies all these, and is used elsewhere to signify the bringing or introducing one person to another (Luke 9:41; Acts 16:20); and is employed not simply in reference to the grace of God, but to God himself (1 Peter 3:18; Ephesians 2:18, 3:12).
Our outward or objective Introducer and introduction is Christ himself; our inward or subjective introduction and introducer is faith. Jesus brings us to time Father and the Father’s grace, but He does so by producing faith in us. Without, or apart from Christ, the grace cannot come to us; and without faith, Christ and we are kept at a distance from each other. God has given us His true testimony, both as to His grace and as to His Son; and we, in believing that testimony, become connected with both. The grace is deposited in Christ for us; and we, in coming to Him, get the grace that is in Him. The grace that is in Him, He has received for men, even for the rebellious; and this was the grace which He manifested when here on earth, both in his words and deeds. He was the gracious One, and, as such, the representative of the Father. We go to Him to get His own and the Father’s grace, the free love of Godhead.
III. The standing, or abiding.—In this grace, or free love, we have stood since we were introduced into it; and in it we are standing, and shall stand. “We stand in it!” This is a believing man’s true position. He takes his stand on the free love of God. This raises him up and holds him up; keeps him from fainting, or falling, or sliding. This free love is to him—(1) abiding peace, (2) abiding strength, (3) abiding security. This free love is to him—(1) sunshine, (2) rain, (3) food, (4) water, (5) medicine, (6) wine. At this well he stands and drinks, in this sun he basks, to this storehouse he comes for everything. Have we used this free love as we ought? Are we using it constantly? Do we use it for strengthening our faith, for quickening our daily life, for increasing our holiness, for dispelling our doubts, for ministering consolation? In the constant recognition of this love, there is provision for a close walk with God, and for a useful, zealous life. Are we thus employing it? Are we using it pure and undiluted; love—true, free, unmingled, unmerited love? Or are we diluting it,—polluting it, by mingling something of our own with it; making it less pure, and heavenly, and generous ; less absolutely, and unconditionally, and entirely free? Let us remember how much our steadfastness and progress depend on our constant recognizing of, and living on, this free love. Apart from it, all is weakness, bondage, darkness, and instability. O free love of God, what a fountain of life and strength thou art to the weary, helpless sinner!
IV. The rejoicing.—This grace is not merely stability for us, but joy, and hope, and glory. Standing in this grace, we are filled with joy. This joy comes not merely from the past and present, but from the future; not merely from the knowledge that we are beloved of God, but from the knowledge of what that love is to do for us hereafter. We rejoice because our future is filled with hope,—the hope of the glory of God. Joy comes, then, from hope; hope from the God of love; hope sure and steadfast; hope that maketh not ashamed; everlasting hope. Glory is ours in prospect,—the glory of God; and so great is it, that we reckon that the sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared with the glory to be revealed,—the “exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” It is the glory of the new heavens and earth, the glory of resurrection, the glory of the kingdom, the very glory of Christ. And it is all ours, simply as those who have known and believed this free love of God. Hence the apostle’s prayer, “The God of (the) hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.” Take these lessons:
1. Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.—It is on this we plant our feet; it is this that makes us strong. This love is our strength.
2. Rejoice in the Lord.—Ours should be a full and constant gladness; for, both before and behind, we are compassed about with that which gladdens.
3. Abound in hope.—It is bright, blessed, and glorious. It is the hope of reigning with Christ. It will sustain and sanctify. It will animate and cheer. Thus do we glorify the God of hope.
4. Realize the glory. Keep the eye steadfastly fixed upon it, till its brightness fills our whole being.
—Horatius Bonar, Light & Truth: Bible Thoughts & Themes
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
Confession and Petition
Holy Lord,
I have sinned times without number,
and been guilty of pride and unbelief,
of failure to find thy mind in thy Word,
of neglect to seek thee in my daily life.
My transgressions and short-comings
present me with a list of accusations,
But I bless thee that they will not stand against me,
for all have been laid on Christ.
Go on to subdue my corruptions,
and grant me grace to live above them.
Let not the passions of the flesh nor lustings
of the mind bring my spirit into subjection,
but do thou rule over me in liberty and power.
I thank thee that many of my prayers
have been refused —
I have asked amiss and do not have,
I have prayed from lusts and been rejected,
I have longed for Egypt and been given a
wilderness.
Go on with thy patient work,
answering ‘no’ to my wrongful prayers,
and fitting me to accept it.
Purge me from every false desire,
every base aspiration,
everything contrary to thy rule.
I thank thee for thy wisdom and thy love,
for all the acts of discipline to which I am subject,
for sometimes putting me into the furnace
to refine my gold and remove my dross.
No trial is so hard to bear as a sense of sin.
If thou shouldst give me choice to live
in pleasure and keep my sins,
or to have them burnt away with trial,
give me sanctified affliction.
Deliver me from every evil habit,
every accretion of former sins,
everything that dims the brightness
of thy grace in me,
Everything that prevents me taking delight
in thee.
Then I shall bless thee, God of Jeshurun,
for helping me to be upright.
—The Valley of Vision, Arthur Bennett, editor (Banner of Truth Trust, 2002).
2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; 4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope;
—Romans 5:2–4
How simply does the apostle put the “good news” in the conclusion of the previous chapter! “It was not written for his (Abraham’s) sake alone, that it was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered because we had sinned, and was raised because we were justified.” Then in the fifth chapter he thus continues,—”Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom we have access (introduction) by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we even glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience (δοχιμή, approval after trial,—approval by God; perhaps here “a sense of approval”), and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed (will not disappoint), because the love of God is shed abroad (poured out of one vessel into another) in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.”
Thus, then, all true religion begins with our being justified; this justification is immediate,—by believing; then follows inseparably, peace with God; and this peace is through Jesus Christ, who is our peace, and who has made peace by the blood of His cross. This Jesus who has effected the peace has brought us at the same time into a state of favor, and placed us on a new footing, namely, of grace or free love, so that all our intercourse and transactions with God henceforth proceed on this new footing; God deals with us in free love, and we count on being dealt with at all times in free love; we expect nothing save from free love, and from it we expect everything. This fountain of God’s free love, thus opened for us, and to which, we are brought by Jesus Christ, is all we need for the fullest supply of our innumerable wants. Let us give all credit to the divine testimony concerning it; and act upon it continually; so shall we be kept in peace, and strength, and liberty.
But let us look at the second verse a little more closely.
The two things which the apostle brings before us in connection with our justified condition, are the grace and the glory. Let us take up these two subjects.
I. The grace. This means, of course, the state of favor with God; as when we read, “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” It is that state in which we are dealt with by God in free love, and in free love alone; that state in which not law but free love regulates everything, gives everything; so that keeping this in mind, we may live, and act, and pray as those who are entitled to feel themselves absolutely sure of everything that free love can bestow. The apostle refers to two things in our connection with this state, our introduction or access into it, and our abiding in it.
(1.) Access or introduction. It is Christ that introduces us into it, places us in it,—Christ himself; for “through Him we have access by one Spirit unto the Father.” Christ is the revealer of the Father, the embodiment of the Father’s free love. Christ takes us by the hand, and leads us in to the Father’s presence; and thus led in by Him, we find there nothing but grace, favor, love. There is no other Introducer but He; there is no other introduction or recommendation but His blood. He leads us in, saying, Father, here is one who is willing to be indebted to me for everything, to my blood for cleansing, to my righteousness for covering, to my merit for acceptance, receive him graciously, love him freely. Thus by Christ we are introduced into the favor of God.
(2.) Abiding in it. It is a state of permanence, unchanging permanence. It is not free love today and law tomorrow, but free love perpetually henceforth; we are not under the law but under grace; where sin abounded, grace has much more abounded. We are not in favor one hour, and out of favor the next, according to our frames; but always in favor, through Him who has introduced us into a state, out of which we can never be cast. There may be much inconsistency, much conscious evil, much that is in itself fitted to separate us from God, or draw His frown upon us; but we are now in a state of favor,—and God deals with us now only in free love. This free love faith realizes; keeping us ever under a sense of it, “rooted and grounded in love.” Out of the happy consciousness of this, nothing but unbelief can drive us or keep us. Let us, then, know our privilege as believing men, and stand in this free love; let “us be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” It is often hard so to abide; to realize God’s free love in the midst of much conscious evil; but that is the condition of every one who has believed in Jesus; and on this free love he ever falls back when Satan would prompt him to despond, or lead him to self-righteousness. The remembrance of this free love will alone keep him in perfect peace. Nothing else will avail.
II. The glory. It is “the glory of God”; not the essential glory of the divine character, but the glory conferred on us by God; the glory of His kingdom; the glory of His glorious heaven; the glory of resurrection, when that which is sown in dishonour shall be raised in glory; the glory of the inheritance of the saints in light.
Connected with this glory there is first joy, and then hope.
(1.) Joy. The word is more properly to triumph, or boast, or exult. It is the expression of the soul’s exuberant fullness at the tidings of such a glory. It is joy more than sufficient to counterbalance all earthly sorrows, as well as to eclipse all earthly joys. We glory in the glory. We triumph every time we think of what God has promised to us, and will ere long bring to pass.
(2.) Hope. This glory is expressly given us as a hope, as something for hope to feed upon; an object large enough and bright enough to gladden the hoping eye, and fill the hoping soul. It is preeminently the thing hoped for, the “blessed hope.” We are men of hope. We are saved by hope. We love by hope. We are comforted by hope. We are sustained and sanctified by hope. It is a hope that maketh not ashamed. It will not fail nor disappoint. It will, when realized, prove itself to be worthy of the joy which it gave us here; worthy of that God who prepared it for us, of that Christ who bought it for us.
The root of all this is faith,—faith beginning at the cross and stretching forward to the throne; faith which brings us into the possession of the divine favor, and keeps us in perfect peace, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God.
Let us live the lives of believing men; at peace with God; rooted and grounded in love; free, happy, earnest, self-denied; never losing hold of the free love of God, and never losing sight of the glory to be revealed; walking not only in the love of God, but in the law of God, which is holy, and just, and good, keeping our eye continually on the “statutes,” and “judgments,” and “testimonies,” and “commandments” of the Lord our God, knowing that “great peace have they that love this law,” and that it is to this that we are called,—”that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.”
—Horatius Bonar, Light & Truth: Bible Thoughts & Themes
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
Hymn 62. (c. m.)
Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God, worshipped by all the creation. Rev. v. 11–13.
Come, let us join with cheerful songs
With angels round the throne;
Ten thousand thousand are their tongues,
But all their joys are one.
“Worthy the Lamb that died,” they cry,
“To be exalted thus:”
“Worthy the Lamb,” our lips reply,
“For he was slain for us.”
Jesus is worthy to receive
Honor and power divine;
And blessings more than we can give,
Be, Lord, for ever thine.
Let all that dwell above the sky,
And air, and earth, and seas,
Conspire to lift thy glories high,
And speak thine endless praise.
The whole creation join in one,
To bless the sacred name
Of him that sits upon the throne,
And to adore the Lamb.
—from The Psalms & Hymns of Isaac Watts. Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book I: Collected from the Holy Scriptures (Soli Deo Gloria, 1997).
10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
—Romans 5
There are four distinct facts or events given us here, on which the argument of the passage builds itself. Two of these have reference to the history of the sinner, and two of them to tile history of the sinner’s deliverer. The first two are, man’s enmity and man’s reconciliation; the last two are, the Saviour’s death and the Saviour’s life. Out of these four facts the apostle’s argument is constructed—an argument as profound as it is simple, as convincing as it is natural. It is apparently but one argument, and yet it divides itself very easily into three quite separate parts, rising out of these two classes of facts. The first argument is—“If God did so much for us when enemies, what will He do for us when friends?” The second is—“If Christ’s death has done so much for us, what will His life do?” The third argument is—“If Christ’s death did so much for us when enemies, what will his life do for us when friends?”
Such is the argument of our text,—threefold in its construction, and yet each part not merely linked to the other, but most naturally and simply rising out of the other, so that a person in possession of the facts could not help following time steps of his reasoning, and acquiescing in his triumphant conclusions. But before proceeding to consider these, there is a truth which may be brought out here, and kept in mind as we pass along, being implied in and illustrative of time argument. It is this— “If God’s thoughts were gracious before sending His Son, they cannot be supposed to be less ‘so after He has been sent.” Now, we know that His thoughts were thoughts of peace and grace from all eternity. Had they not been so, He never would have sent His Son. And we know that it is written: “God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son;” “God commendeth His love towards us, in that, while ye were yet sinners, Christ died for us;” “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” There having been in His infinite bosom this exceeding love before He gave His Son, it is wholly incredible that He should be less gracious now, less compassionate, less loving, less willing to bestow all needed gifts. For (1) that gift did not exhaust His love. It did not empty the heart of God, nor dry up the fountain of His grace. God’s love is not like man’s love, ebbing and flowing, bursting forth and then subsiding.’ No. The gift, though unspeakable, was not the exhaustion but the manifestation of the love, demonstrating it to be an infinite love, and shewing the infinite lengths to which it is willing to go. So far from having made God unwilling to do more for us, it has proved that there are no limits to His willingness to do for us exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. (2.) That gift has not thrown any hindrance in the way of God’s love. It is not now a more difficult thing for God to love us; nay, if we can say so, it is easier than ever. All hindrances have now melted away. That gift which displayed the love, contained in it provision for the removal of all barriers that stood in its way. There are now no breaks nor barriers to stay its course. It is at liberty to roll on unhindered in its amplest fullness. It is now a righteous thing in God to love, to pardon, and to bless. And will He love less now that there exist no longer any obstacles to check the course of love? Will He love less when His love is no longer pent up, but has free course; when He is free to love; nay, to give vent to it, even to the uttermost;—nay, when in doing so, He magnifies His law, glorifies Himself, and puts honour on His Son? Instead, then, of God’s loving us less, we should be led to conclude, that, if that were possible, He must love us immeasurably more!
Having thus briefly noticed this important truth, we now pass on to consider time three special heads of argument.
1. If God did so much for us when enemies, what will he do, or rather, what will He not do, for us now that we are friends? He is speaking, of course, in the name of those who have entered into reconciliation over time blood of the great sacrifice—who, in believing, have found peace with God, and have exchanged enmity for friendship, hatred for love. Speaking in their name, he reasons “If, when we were enemies, He reconciled us to Himself, much more now, when reconciled, will He bless us. Our enmity did not hinder His blessing us, much less surely will our reconciliation. Our enmity, great as it was, did not hinder His bestowing such an unspeakable gift; what is there, then, within the whole circle of the universe, which we may not count upon, now that that enmity has been removed, and we have entered into eternal friendship with Him? Nothing was too costly for us when we were enemies; can anything be too costly now that we are friends. The great difficulty of our enmity being surmounted, what is there that remains to hinder the fullest outflow of His hove? Nay, what is there that will not tend to draw out that love in larger and larger measures?”
He loved and blessed us when enemies; will He not much more love us when friends? He loved us when we hated Him; will He not love us more when we return His love? He loved us when aliens, strangers, prodigals; will He not love us more when we have become sons, and, as sons, have returned to the parental home, and have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry “Abba, Father”? He loved us when unrighteous,—when we had not even so much as a creature’s righteousness,—will He not love us unspeakably more when we stand before Him in righteousness, and that the righteousness of His only-begotten Son? He loved us when unholy; will He not love us now when His Spirit has taken old timings away, and made all things new? He loved us when there dwelt in us only the spirit of the world, nay, the very god of this world himself; will He not love us when His own Spirit dwells in us, making us temples of the living God? He loved us when we were heirs of wrath; will He not love and bless us more when we are heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ?
There may be said to be three stages in this love, at each of which it rises and increases:—First, He loved us when enemies. Secondly, He loves us more when friends, even in this imperfect state of still-remaining sin. Thirdly, He will love us yet more when imperfection has been shaken off, and we are presented without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. The first stage of this love is, when we were heirs of perdition; the second is, when we become heirs of the kingdom; the third is, when we actually get possession of the kingdom, and are seated with Christ upon His throne.
Here, then, is love in which we may assuredly triumph. It was love which expressed itself by an infinite gift. It did so when we were afar off when we were enemies; what expression, then, will it give, or rather, what expression will it not give to itself now when we have been brought nigh to God, and have entered into covenant with Him? Nay, more, what a portion must be ours hereafter, what a sum of blessedness, what an exceeding and eternal weight of glory! Especially when, in giving vent to His love to us, He is getting vent to His love towards His Son; when, in honouring and glorifying us, He is honouring and glorifying His Son! Being, then, justified by faith, not only have we peace with God, not only have we access into this grace wherein we stand, but we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. We reason thus: If God has lavished on us such a love when we knew Him not, what will He not do for us now that we know Him? If He is loving us and blessing us here, oh! will He not love us and bless us in the day when we take possession of the provided inheritance?
II. If Christ’s death did so much for us, what will not His life do? If a dying Saviour did so much for us, what will not a living Saviour be able to do?
The expression “saved” used here, denotes the whole blessing which God has in store for us—complete deliverance in every sense of that word—a complete undoing of our lost estate—the full possession of every blessing. Salvation, in God’s sense of it, takes in the very widest compass of blessing, from the forgiveness of the first sin to the possession of the eternal glory. Of this salvation, reconciliation was the commencement. In being brought nigh to God through the blood of the cross, our salvation began. Its consummation is, when Jesus comes the second time without sin unto salvation.
The apostle’s argument rests on the fact of the existence of these two opposite states of being—the two opposite extremities of being, death and life. Death is the lowest pitch of helplessness, lower even than the feebleness of infancy. It is the extremity of weakness. It is the utter cessation of all strength. Life is the opposite of this. It is the full possession of being, with all its faculties and powers. It is the guarantee for the forth putting of all the vigor and strength which belongs to the individual in whom it dwells. And it is thus that the apostle reasons: If Christ in His lowest state of weakness accomplished such marvels for us, what will He not be able to do for us now that He is in the full exercise of His almighty strength? If when reduced to the very extremity of helplessness, He did so much for us, what will He not do for us now when He can say, All power is given to me in heaven and in earth? If, when going down into the tomb, He yet wrought such achievements for us, what will He not do when rising from the tomb, nay, ascending on high? If when under the power of His enemies, and nailed in helpless agony on the tree, He yet prevailed in our behalf how will He not prevail now that He has triumphed over all? If when made a little lower than the angels, He did so much for us, what will He not do when raised far above principalities and powers, and every name that is named? If, when subjected to the dominion of him who had the power of death, He yet conquered for us, and won such glorious spoils, what will He not do now when He has led captivity captive, and completed His mighty victory? If the cross and the tomb have done so much for us, what will not the throne secure?
How perfect the reasoning! How blessed the conclusion! Resting on such an argument, we may stand unshaken and unruffled. Using this as our shield, what fiery darts of the wicked one may we not repel? And shall we not ply it to the utmost in dispelling our darkness, in banishing our doubts, in making us thoroughly ashamed of our fears? Using it as time apostle does, and reasoning with ourselves—“If a dying Saviour did so much for us, what will not a living Saviour do?” let us say, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? still trust in God; for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.”
III. If Christ’s death did so much for us when enemies, what will not His life do for us when friends? In other words, If a dying Saviour did so much for us when enemies, what will not a living Saviour do for us when friends? This is the conjunction of the two previous conclusions. It completes the whole argument by thus putting the two into one. It is a double argument; double in its structure, and double in its strength. It is an argument of resistless power, making us feel the perfect and absolute security which we have for everything included in that word salvation. If enemies have tasted such love, and received such blessings, at the hands of a dying Saviour, what may not friends receive at the hands of Him who is not only alive, but liveth for evermore? If, in the extremity of His weakness, and in the extremity of our alienation, such wonders were wrought for us—in spite of that weakness on His part, and that alienation on ours—what may we not expect now that He is invested with the perfection of all power, and when we have not simply been reconciled, but have been made friends and sons, nay, taken to His bosom as His chosen bride? If a father, in the midst of poverty and weakness, will do much for a prodigal child, what will he not, in the day of his riches, and power, and honour, do for a reconciled son?
Here, then, are two truths which, in assuring us of pardon, assure us of everything. “Jesus died, and Jesus liveth,”—these are the truths which contain everything for us. “Jesus died!”—that contains everything that we need for reconciliation and peace: “Jesus liveth!”—that contains everything pertaining to the promised inheritance. In knowing the former, I enter into friendship with God; in knowing the latter, I get hold of a security for all heavenly blessing, which takes away the possibility of a suspicion arising in my soul, even in my most troubled hours, as to my joy and glory for eternity. “Jesus died—Jesus liveth!” The simple knowledge of these simple truths is salvation, forgiveness, peace, eternal life. All that the death and life of Christ combined can accomplish is ours! All that can come forth from His grave, or down from His throne,— all that a dying and a living Saviour can do, is ours! All that is embraced in the wide compass between the lowest depths of the tomb of Jesus and the infinite heights of His eternal crown, all is ours! Many were the wonders which His death achieved for enemies; many more will be the wonders yet to be accomplished for His friends!
Hear how Scripture speaks of His life. “When He who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory.” His appearing as our life shall bring with it all that blessedness and glory which pertain to Him as the living One—as our life. “Because I live ye shall live also.” He cannot die; He liveth forever. He is the resurrection and the life; therefore life, and all that life comprises, shall be ours. “He ever liveth to make intercession for us.” He lives as if just on purpose to intercede for us; and oh, what will not the intercession of this ever living One secure for us! “Fear not,” He says, “I am He that liveth and was dead; and am alive for evermore; and have the keys of hell and death.” What more can we need, not simply to dissipate all fear, but to call up in us the most assured hope—nay, to fill us with the joy unspeakable and full of glory?
Of what, then, is it that this life of Christ gives us the assurance? Of salvation says the apostle: “We shall be saved by His life.” Reconciliation is the result of His death; salvation, of His life!
But what does this salvation include? It is, as we have already seen, the entire reversal of our lost estate. And this includes much. It is, in the very largest sense, a “manifold salvation.” It is deliverance from the wrath to come, from the horrors of an eternal hell. Of this, His death gives us the assurance; His life, much more; for hell itself, with all its powers and potentates, cannot prevail against Him who has subdued its prince. It is deliverance from guilt. However infinite that guilt may be, there is entire salvation from it all, salvation sure and irreversible. It is deliverance from sin. It assails sin in its very citadel, the inmost soul, and casts it out. No amount of corruption can withstand it. Self gives way, the flesh is crucified; the old man dies; the inward man is renewed day by day. It is deliverance from death,—the death both of body and soul, the first and second death. The Saviour has shaken the grave, and flung open its gates. Life,—life beyond the tomb, life in resurrection,—is what He has secured for us. “I am the resurrection and the life”; “Because I live ye shall live also”; “I have the keys of hell and death.” Thus he speaks to us assuring us of redemption from the power of the grave. It is deliverance from want. His fullness takes away the possibility of any want, from the moment that our connection with Him began. Want from that time became impossible; for all His riches became ours. His fullness was always at command. It is deliverance from enemies and perils. Many and mighty as these might be, they could not affect us. We were beyond their reach. They might aim at us, but they could not harm. Our victory over them was sure.
And as we are thus assured not only of reconciliation but of salvation from all evil in every form, so are we put in possession of every good. “All things” become ours: for He who saves us makes full provision for His saved ones. All that a dying Saviour could secure for us is freely given; nay more, all that a living Saviour possesses for Himself becomes also ours. Joy, glory, dominion, royalty, priesthood, and a boundless inheritance,—all these are ours, and all of them made irreversibly sure to us from the fact that “Jesus liveth.” He was dead and is alive; yea, and He liveth for evermore. This is our pledge for the perpetuity of our possession. He lives; and all that a living Saviour can do for us shall be done. He ever liveth to make intercession for us: what more do we need to assure us that “things present, things to come, life and death,” all are ours; for we are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s? If His death made such a glorious commencement for us when we were enemies, what will not His life carry out and consummate for us now that we are friends?
Here, then, let us rest, for surely the resting place is a sufficient one. With arguments such as those of the apostle, let us confront Satan, breaking all his snares, overthrowing all his might; and disentangling ourselves from his subtlest sophistries. On grounds such as these, let us cast aside the various processes of doubting through which so many seem to think it necessary to pass; not listening to the whispers of unbelief, but meeting them all with the resistless argument of our text.
Here, too, let us greatly rejoice, turning this argument into a song of triumph; for surely it is both. It is as much the latter as it is the former. And more especially let us do so in these last days, when we are looking for the return of this same living Saviour. The prospect of His speedy arrival seems to impart to it double edge and force. Carrying out the argument we can say, If an absent Saviour has done so much for us, what will not a present Saviour do? If, when afar off, He has done such things for us, what will He not do when He is nigh? If the Man of Sorrows did so much for us, what will not the mighty Conqueror do? If, when put to shame, He did such great things for us, what will He not do when He is glorified? If, upon the cross, He so blessed and befriended us, what may we not expect when He sits upon His throne? If when He appeared on earth without form or comeliness, He wrought such wonders for us, what may we not look for when He comes in His beauty as the Church’s Bridegroom? If, when He came as the son of the carpenter,—the despised son of Mary,—He achieved such victories and won such honours for us, what may we not anticipate when He comes in glory as the King of kings and Lord of lords.
—Horatius Bonar, Light & Truth: Bible Thoughts & Themes
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
Petitionary Hymns
Poem XXXIII. Augustus Toplady (1740–1778)
Come from on high, my King and God,
My confidence thou art;
Display the virtue of thy blood,
And circumcise my heart.
From heav’n, thy holy place, on me
Descend in mercy down;
Water of life, I thirst for thee,
To know thee for my own.
Rend, O rend the guilty veil,
That keeps me from my God;
Remove the bar, and let me feel
That I am thine abode.
O might this worthless heart of mine
The Saviour’s temple be!
Empty’d of ev’ry love but thine,
And shut to all but thee!
—The Complete Works of Augustus Toplady (Sprinkle Publications, 1987).
19 . . . the revealing of the sons of God.
—Romans 8
The name, sons of God, is not exclusively applicable to the church. Angels are called sons (Job 38:7); so is Adam (Luke 3:38); so is Israel (Hosea 1:10). Yet the redeemed get that name in a deeper, fuller sense, by reason of their higher standing and their closer connection with the Son of God (1 John 3:1; Romans 8:17, 29; Revelation 21:7). There are thus outer and inner, higher and lower, circles of sonship; Christ the one center; and His redeemed occupying the innermost circle or region nearest to Himself, and nearest to the Father.
The history of these “sons,”—these heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, the redeemed from among men,—divides itself into the following parts or epochs:
I. Their past eternity. They had a history ere they were born; not conscious to themselves, but truly in the eye and purpose of God. (Roman 8:29; Ephesians 1:3, 5; 2 Timothy 1:9; Revelation 17:8.) In these passages the history of each saint and of the church of God is traced to that eternity in which God only existed. Even then they were sons of God by anticipation; sons of God in the Father’s purpose, and in the everlasting covenant. How marvelous, how glorious their history!
II. Their unregenerate life on earth. They were born no better than others; shapen in iniquity; children of wrath; able to claim kindred only with the first Adam, only with the flesh and with earth; not a vestige of the second Adam about them; no trace of heavenly sonship; no lineament of their Father in heaven; walking according to the course of this world; hateful and hating one another; their hearts “enmity against God.”
III. Their adoption. In God’s purpose this adoption stood from eternity; but it was seen when they actually passed out of the family of the evil one into that of God. When they were begotten again they became sons, receiving the name, privileges, legal rights of Sons. Let us note the different statements of Scripture as to these things:
(1.) They are begotten again. (1 Peter 1:3.) They are born of time Spirit (John 3:3), born from above. (2.) They believe. (Galatians 3:26.) They pass out of the region of unbelief into that of faith. In believing they become sons. (3.) They receive Christ. (John 1:12.) They accept the Father’s testimony to Him as the Son of God, and the Christ of God.
(4.) They get the name of sons. (1 John 3:1) They are now “called” sons of God. This is their new name, given by God himself.
(5.) They receive the spirit of adoption. (Galatians 4:5,6.) A new spirit fills them; the spirit of sonship; and, “Abba, Father,” is their cry.
(6.) They are led by the Spirit. (Roman 8:14.) They are not their own guides; nor do they trust in human guidance; but are led by Him.
(7.) They are chastened. (Hebrew 12:7.) Discipline is their lot; and chastisement is the badge of sonship.
(8.) They are brought to glory. (Hebrew 2:10.) To this are they redeemed and called. “Whom He justified, them He also glorified.”
(9.) They are made like Christ himself. (Romans 8:29; 1 John 3:2.) Conformity to the Son of God is their destiny and their privilege: “We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”
IV. Their time of obscurity. For a season they are hidden; men’s eyes are holden so that they do not recognize them; they are in disguise; the world does not believe that they are what they claim to be, or that their prospects are so very glorious. Their life is hid with Christ in God. It doth not yet appear what they shall be. They do not wear the raiment either of kings or of sons. They are strangers and pilgrims. This is the day of their obscurity and non-acknowledgment by men. As it was with their Lord, so with them. He was unknown and unrecognized; nay, despised and rejected. This is the discipline through which they are passing; this the manner in which they glorify the Father upon earth; this the trial of their faith, and this the touchstone of the world’s willingness to own their Lord. Are we content with obscurity?
V. The manifestation. The obscurity does not last always; nay, not long. The day is coming when the disguise shall drop off, and their royal robes display themselves; when He who is their life shall appear, they shall appear with Him. Then shall they be like Him to whom they adhered in the day of sorrow and gloom. But let us see, (1.) What this manifestation is. (The word is the same as in 1 Corinthians 1:7; 2 Thessalonians 1:7; 1 Peter 1:7, 13; 4:13.) It is revelation, or outshining, or transfiguration. They are in this conformed to their Lord. They were like Him in their obscurity; they shall be like Him in their manifestation. It shall be transfiguration glory; resurrection glory; royal glory; bridal glory; priestly glory. What a contrast between the obscurity and the manifestation will be presented in that day of unveiling, when they shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. What a future is ours! how unlike our present!
(2.) When shall the manifestation be? In the day of Christ’s appearing; not in the day of death. The soul of the saint is blessed when he dies; he is with Christ in Paradise; but still the glory is not full, and the body is still in the grave; the grave is part of our obscurity. But when time Lord descends from heaven, then the dead in Christ shall rise; then this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and death be swallowed up in victory.
(3.) How long shall the manifestation be? Forever. A whole eternity of glory. Our obscurity was but a day; our glory is everlasting. We are to shine as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars forever and ever. What a blaze of splendor will break forth from the glorified church, in the day of manifestation! What, in comparison with this, is the brightness of the sun or stars?
Let us walk worthy of our prospects; content with present obscurity and shame; “passing the time of our sojourning here in fear.”
—Horatius Bonar, Light & Truth: Bible Thoughts & Themes
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
The Riches of God’s Word 
Samuel Stennett (1727–1795)
Let avarice, from shore to shore,
Her favorite god pursue;
Thy word, O Lord, we value more
Than India or Peru.
Here mines of knowledge, love, and joy,
Are opened to our sight;
The purest gold without alloy,
And gems divinely bright.
The councils of redeeming grace,
These sacred leaves unfold;
And here the Savior's lovely face
Our raptured eyes behold.
Here, light descending from above
Directs our doubtful feet;
Here, promises of heavenly love
Our ardent wishes meet.
Our numerous griefs are here redrest,
And all our wants supplied;
Nought we can ask to make us blessed,
Is in this book denied.
For these inestimable gains,
That so enrich the mind,
O may we search with eager pains,
Assured that we shall find!
—Worthy Is the Lamb (Soli Deo Gloria, 2004).
19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. 23 And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.
—Romans 8
When the night is darkest, and the stars are hidden, and the clouds are black, then we think most of the clear fair day, and long for its dawn. When the storm is roughest, with the waves and wind roaring round the labouring vessel, then we are troubled, and look eagerly out for the glad and sunny calm. When winter binds earth in its chain of frost, and wraps it in snow and ice, then we begin to ask for spring, with its flowers, and songs, and verdure. So with the saint, as represented by the apostle here. This is night, and storm, and winter to him; he is ever thinking of the day, and the calm, and the spring. Like one sitting amid the ruins of the earthly Jerusalem, lie sighs for the glory of the heavenly city.
“From banishment she more and more,
Desires to see her country dear;
She sits and sends her sighs before,
Her joys and treasures all be there.”—(Old Hymn.)The weariness, and conflict, and sufferings of this present life, call up in the apostle the wonderful thoughts contained in these verses relating to creation and to the Church of God, to the wretchedness of this evil world and groaning earth, and the perfection of that world that is to come,—that new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. We thus interpret the whole passage, beginning, as it ought, at the middle of the seventeenth verse:—“If indeed we suffer together, it is that we may be also glorified together; for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory about to be revealed in us, (which reaches towards us, έις). For the earnest expectation of creation waiteth for the revelation of the sons of God; for creation was subjected to vanity, not willingly, but on account of the subjecter (God), who (for His own purposes), hath subjected it in hope, because creation itself shall be delivered from the bondage of the corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans together and travails together until now. And not creation only, but we ourselves also, (although) possessing the first fruit of the Spirit, (the Spirit as a first fruit), even we groan in ourselves, waiting for the adoption, that is, the redemption of our body; for (moreover) by this hope we are saved; (the things of this hope are no doubt unseen, otherwise it would not be hope) but a hope that is seen is not a hope. But if we do not see, and yet hope, then we wait in patience.”
Such is the meaning of the passage; let us now learn in detail what the apostle reveals as to creation, and as to the church.
I. Creation. Here (as in Matthew 10:6, “from the beginning of the creation,”) (the word signifies “the earth and the fullness thereof” (1 Corinthians 10: 26), or that which the Holy Spirit describes in the first chapter of Genesis, and pronounced “good” and “very good.” For matter (no less than spirit) is God’s handiwork, and therefore precious in His sight. Let us read and understand Genesis 1; Psalms 8:19, 148:; Proverbs 8.
(1.) Its subjection to vanity. Vanity means that which is vanishing, liable to change and decay, “vanity of vanities.” It means evil in opposition to good, emptiness in contrast with fullness. This material creation was made “good” and stable; but man’s sin let in evil upon it, brought on it the curse, made it crumble down and wither, till it not only decays and waxes old, but is ready to vanish away. To this vanity the Creator has subjected it, in consequence of its connection with man: “Cursed is the ground for thy sake” (Genesis 3:17). This passage in Genesis contains the act or sentence of subjection, as putting it under the power of “vanity,”—decay, corruption, disease, death. Not its own sin but man’s was the cause: “for thy sake.”[8]
(2.) Its earnest expectation. The word signifies the eagerness expressed by the head bent forward and the neck outstretched—intense and anxious longing. Such is the feeling figuratively ascribed to creation, as in Psalm 96:2, when it is called on to be glad, and rejoice, and clap hands, in expectation of its coming Deliverer and King. This, then, is creation’s attitude as seen and interpreted by God. He looks down on creation, and regards it as expecting, waiting, watching, longing, just as He is said to hear the cry of the young lions for food.
(3.) Its groans and travail-pangs. It is hike a sick man racked with pain, and crying out for relief; it is as a woman in labour, suffering the pains of childbirth, and longing for the moment when she shall be delivered. All nature sighs as if conscious of imperfection, as if bowed down under the curse. Blight, decay, death, storms, earthquakes, lightnings, are all the groans of creation, and perhaps still more, the sufferings of the beasts of the field, and fowls of the air; for their case seems unspeakably sad, suffering at the hands of man in a thousand ways not by any fault of their own. Perhaps also the labour pangs of earth may not simply be to shake of the corruption with its bondage; but especially to be delivered of the millions and millions of bodies which it contains. Does it not travail in pain to be delivered of the dust of the saints which it has carried in its womb for ages? and of earth also shall it not be said, “in the beauties of holiness from (more than) the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of thy youth (Psalm 110:3)?”
(4.) Its deliverance. This is the day of creation’s bondage, in which corruption (the corruption or old curse) holds it; the day of its liberty,—“the liberty of the glory,”—is coming, the “times of the restitution of all things;” the revocation of the curse; the bestowal of the long deferred blessing; the renewal of “the heavens and earth which are now.” Creation is represented as knowing this its glorious destiny, and looking forward to it, as simultaneous with the manifestation of the sons of God, the day when these sons shall shine forth in the kingdom of their Father; for, “when He who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory.”
Thus all creation looks forward to its perfection, groaning under imperfection; anticipating the “new heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” Bright hope! Sweet consolation to us when moving about each day amid the vanity of a sin-laden earth, and listening to its groans and pangs! Rest for a weary world, tarry not! Earth’s days of weariness are now drawing to a close. These long ages of suffering and vanity have surely been enough to demonstrate the exceeding sinfulness of sin.
II. The church. It is described as “we who have the first fruits of the Spirit,”—as “the sons of God.” It is composed of the redeemed from among men from him by whom the curse and the vanity were brought in, to the last of His redeemed sons; a glorious church,—whose members are “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ,”—“the general assembly and church of the firstborn,”—God’s kings and priests, prepared for His everlasting kingdom.
What, then, says the apostle here of this church—of its present and its future.
Mark,—
(1.) Its sufferings. He calls them the sufferings of this present time; sufferings with Christ, as well as sufferings for Christ. There are fightings without, and fears within; enemies all around; tribulation on every hand,—in body, and soul, and spirit; weary limbs, weeping eyes, drooping hands, feeble knees, fainting spirits, aching heads, broken hearts: even when outward persecution assails not. “Through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom of God.” “I fill up that which is behind of the sufferings of Christ.”
(2.) Its groans. “We ourselves groan within ourselves,” sometimes articulately, and sometimes with the groanings that cannot be uttered. As Jeremiah says, “Our sighs are many, and our heart is faint.” The church’s groans are in unison and sympathy with a groaning creation. An absent King, a present usurper, a cursed soil, overflowing evil, disease, sorrow, death: these make it groan even in the midst of its “joy unspeakable.”
(3.) Its waiting. “Waiting,”—“patient waiting,”—“hoping,”—this is the church’s attitude, in harmony with creation. The feeling and attitude of the church intimates that the inheritance is yet to come. “Not now, not yet; but soon and surely; therefore we wait,” may be said to be its language. It waits now, in accordance with the saints of all ages past, for deliverance from the bondage of the corruption, and for the liberty of the glory, for the reversal of all the evil which the first Adam introduced, and for the in bringing of all the good and the glory which the second Adam has purchased.
(4.) Its adoption. “Even now are we the sons of God;” we have already received the Spirit of adoption, crying, Abba, Father. But as it was resurrection that manifested (Romans 1:4) Christ’s own Sonship (though He was the eternal Son), so by resurrection is our sonship or adoption to be manifested. The day of adoption is here called the day of the redemption of the body. For this fullness of divine, and visible, and proclaimed adoption, we wait in hope and patience.
(5.) Its manifestation. “It doth not yet appear what we shall be.” As Christ is hidden, so are we just now. We are sons, and kings, and heirs, in disguise. But the day of revelation comes; “when He who is our life shall appear, we shall appear with Him in glory.” If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him. The day of His recognition and crowning shall be ours also.
(6.) Its liberty. In one sense we are free, Christ bath made us free. In another, we are sharers of the bondage of the corruption; we groan within ourselves; we cry, O, wretched men, who shall deliver us; we are carnal, sold under sin. The day of full freedom is at hand, eternal and glorious.
(7.) Its glory. This is “the glory to be revealed;” it is the day of the glory for heaven and earth, of which it is said, “The wise shall inherit glory,”—Christ’s glory, the church’s glory, creation’s glory,—glory such as that described in the two last chapters of Revelation, an exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
See then,—
1. The power and poison of sin. It was one sin that ruined man, and marred creation, and introduced death. The effects of that one sin are still felt; they have lasted nearly six thousand years, and are as terrible as ever. What must sin be!
2. The completeness of the deliverance. Not man only, but man’s earth, shares this; not man’s soul alone, but man’s body too; it will be the undoing of the wrongs, and sorrows, and groans, of ages. The second Adam’s triumph will be complete. His blood will not only give white raiment to His saints, but will wash creation white.
3. The unbelieving man’s loss. He loses his soul; he loses heaven, and God, and glory, and the resurrection unto life; the incorruptible inheritance; the blessedness of the eternal rest, and the liberty of the glory, the joy and brightness of the manifestations of the sons of God.
—Horatius Bonar, Light & Truth: Bible Thoughts & Themes
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
Hymn LIX.
The Refuge, River, and Rock of the Church.
Isaiah xxxii. 2.
John Newton (1725–1807)
He who on earth as man was known,
And bore our sins and pains;
Now, seated on th’ eternal throne,
The God of glory reigns.
His hands the wheels of nature guide
With an unerring skill;
And countless worlds extended wide,
Obey his sov’reign will.
While harps unnumber’d sound his praise,
In yonder world above;
His saints on earth admire his ways,
And glory in his love.
His righteousness, to faith revealed,
Wrought out for guilty worms,
Affords a hiding place and shield,
From enemies and storms.
This land, thro’ which his pilgrims go,
Is desolate and dry;
But streams of grace from him o’erflow
Their thirst to satisfy.
When troubles, like a burning sun,
Beat heavy on their head;
To this almighty Rock they run,
And find a pleasing shade.
How glorious he! how happy they
In such a glorious friend!
Whose love secures them all the way,
And crowns them at the end.
—Olney Hymns. Book I: On select Passages of Scripture.
32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?
—Romans 8
This is inspired logic; yet it is most simple and natural reasoning. It goes straight down to understanding, heart, and conscience. It is irresistible. It contains, moreover, the whole gospel of the grace of God. It announces to us that perfect love which casteth out fear; and shews us the gracious character of God, as interpreted and illustrated by the gift of his Son. It says, “herein is love, and what will that love not do for you? here is the measure of that love, and does not that measure take in all you need?
Let us put the statement in this way—the one gift, and the many gifts,—or the one great gift, and the many lesser gifts flowing out of it, and pledged to us by the love which gave it.
I. The one gift. It is “the unspeakable gift,” of which it is said, “God so loved the world that he gave his Son.” Our text thus expresses it, “he spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all.” It is then of his Son, his own Son, his only begotten Son, his beloved Son, that the passage speaks. And regarding him it says, that “he spared him not.” He might have spared him; he did not need to do otherwise; it was an infinite sacrifice; yet he spared him not, that he might spare us. It was not want of love to him, but it was love to us that led him not to spare him. “How shall I give thee up?” he said to rebellious Israel, how much more to his obedient holy Son, “How shall I deliver thee up?” “How shall I nail thee to the cross, and lay thee in the grave?” “My heart is turned within me, my repentance is kindled together.” This one great gift He freely gave. He spared not his Son, but delivered Him up for us all. To lowliness, to shame, to weariness, to banishment, to sorrow, to hunger and thirst, to agony and death, He delivered Him up. He spared not Him, that He might spare us; he delivered Him up, that He might not deliver up us. The gift is one, but it is infinite. There is none like it; none; nor can be. It is the great gift, the gift of gifts.
But the “delivering up,” is that which so greatly enhances the giving and the gift. He was delivered up (1) not to honour, but to dishonour; (2) not to joy, but to sorrow; (3) not to the blessing, but to the curse,—nay, was made a curse for us, was made sin for us; (4) not to angels to worship, but to devils to tempt; (5) not to a throne, but to a cross; (6) not to life, but to death. How immense then the gift! Though but one, it transcends myriads; nay, all other gifts gathered together. It was a test of love such as nothing else could have been. How real, how true, how vast must that love have been. Here is its sincerity demonstrated. Here are its dimensions measured. What is its height? The answer is, “He spared not His Son.” What is its depth? “He spared not His Son.” What is its length? “He spared not His Son.” What is its breadth? “He spared not His Son.” Nay, He delivered Him up. Nay, He laid our sins upon Him; He made Him a curse for us. The more that we meditate on this one gift, the more does its greatness display itself. It passeth all measurement and all understanding. Such a gift for such creatures! Such a gift for sinners; for those whose portion was wrath and condemnation!
II. The many gifts. These are the “all things” of which the apostle speaks. His argument is, “He who has given you His Son, will He deny you anything?” We cannot possibly need or ask anything half so precious as that which He has already given, and therefore we need not fear obtaining anything. He who has given a whole ocean, will He refuse a drop? He who has given all earth and heaven, will He refuse an inch of land? His willingness to give, and to give to any extent whatever, has been so manifested in the gift of His Son, that we cannot doubt. That one great gift was given freely, will He not give all other things as freely? That one gift was given unasked, will He not give all others for the asking? That one gift cost Him much, these others cost Him nothing but the delight of giving. That one gift was sent to us when we were turning away from Him, will He not bestow these lesser gifts on those who are turning towards Him? That one gift came when there was “no intercessor,” what, then, may we not expect when there is such an Intercessor as He who is Himself both gift and intercessor? When the great gift was sent there was no blood, no righteousness, no sacrifice; what may we not count upon as to the lesser gifts, now that blood, and sacrifice, and righteousness have come?
We are thus thrown upon God’s character as interpreted by His great gift, and we are taught how to reason from that gift, how to draw our confidence towards God from that gift, respecting “all things.” Among these “all things,” let us note the following:—
(1.) Forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness,—complete, and free, and unchangeable,—for the chief of sinners; regarding which we reason, as did the apostle, He that spared not His own Son, will He not forgive my sins? will He not give me peace of conscience, and a sense of acceptance, and deliverance from condemnation?
(2.) Light and love. These are what He delights to give; and they have been purchased for the sinner. There is now no hindrance to His giving these. For the darkest mind there is light; for the coldest heart there is love. He that spared not His own Son, will He refuse us these?
(3.) Renewal in the whole man. He who spared not His own Son, will He not renew us in the spirit of our mind? Will He not take out of us the stony heart, and give the heart of flesh?
(4.) The Holy Ghost. He that gave His Son, will He refuse His Spirit? It cost Him much to give His Son; but it costs Him nothing to give His Spirit. Will He not give Him when we ask?
He that spared not His Son, will He not give us all things? Will He not quicken, and comfort, and heal, and bless, and cheer, and save?
—Horatius Bonar, Light & Truth: Bible Thoughts & Themes
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.