In Genesis 1 we
read about God creating the universe, the earth, and all the inhabitants of
earth. In chapter 2, where we begin reading of God’s close relationship and
communication with man, He is revealed not just as “God” but as “LORD God” or
“Jehovah God.” Who is Jehovah? What is the meaning of His Name?

                      The Word
“Jehovah”

In the Hebrew
Old Testament, the word “Jehovah” is given by four letters, sometimes
represented by JHVH, but more accurately YHWH. There are a great many
four-letter words in the Hebrew language. But these four letters are so
special, referring as they do to such a special Person, that they are referred
to in theological circles as “the Tetragrammaton” (meaning “the four letters”).
This word can be found in many English dictionaries. The original Hebrew text
had only consonants; the vowel points were added later by Biblical Hebrew
scholars. Some believe that, with the vowels added, the word should be
“Yahweh,” and others “Yehowah” or “Jehovah.” It does not matter so much how the
word is pronounced; it is the consonants that determine its meaning.

                   The Meaning
of “Jehovah”

According to
Morrish’s New and Concise Bible Dictionary, “Jehovah” is a contraction
of “was, is, and is to come.” It is closely related to God’s revelation of
Himself to Moses:“I AM THAT I AM” (Exod. 3:14). He is the eternal,
self-existent One. The French Bible captures this thought nicely by rendering
the Hebrew name Jehovah as l’Eternel, the eternal One.

                 Why Both
“God” and “Jehovah”?

God (or Elohim
in Hebrew) is a more general word for the Supreme Being. The pagan nations
generally considered themselves to have many elohim or gods. “Jehovah”
was the special name by which God revealed Himself to His covenant people, the
nation of Israel. It was the name by which the one true God distinguished
Himself from the imagined gods (such as Baal, Milcom, and Dagon) of the
heathen.

Here is the
interaction between God and Moses that shows the meaning and significance of
the name “Jehovah”:“And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the
children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers has sent
me unto you, and they shall say to me, What is His name? What shall I say unto
them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM:and He said, Thus shall you say
unto the children of Israel, I AM has sent me unto you. And God said moreover
unto Moses, Thus shall you say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God [or
Jehovah God] of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God
of Jacob, has sent me unto you:this is My name for ever, and this is my
memorial unto all generations” (Exod. 3:13-15).

                    Jehovah
and the Trinity

Several
pamphlets have been published with the purpose of identifying Jehovah of the
Old Testament with Jesus of the New Testament. These have had the intended
purpose of answering the Jehovah’s Witnesses who claim that Jesus was only the
highest created being, not the co-equal, co-eternal Son of God. These pamphlets
have served their purpose well; however, they are so persuasive that they have
misled many evangelical Christians into believing that every time the Old
Testament refers to Jehovah (or “the LORD” as it usually reads in the King
James and other versions), it is referring specifically to God the Son. This is
not the case. We shall now present some passages in which Jehovah refers to God
the Father or to God the Holy Spirit, as well as some that can be identified
with the coming Messiah. No doubt many of the Old Testament references to
Jehovah apply to the entire Trinity. These would include particularly the ones
where Jehovah addresses one of His prophets or the nation of Israel (for
example, Isa. 1:2; Jer. 1:2; Ezek. 1:3; Hos. 1:1; Joel 1:1; Amos 1:3; Obad 1;
Jon. 1:1; Mic. 1:1; Nah. 3:5; Hab. 2:2; Zeph. 1:1; Hag. 1:1; Zech. 1:1; Mal.
1:1; and hundreds more).

In the verses
to follow, “Jehovah” is substituted for “the LORD” as found in the King James
Version.

                   Jehovah Is God the Father

Jehovah
raises up a Prophet and a Branch. “Jehovah said unto me … I will raise
them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto you, and will put My
words in His mouth; and He shall speak unto them all that I shall command Him”
(Deut. 18:18). “Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did,
said, This is of a truth that Prophet who should come into the world” (John
6:14; 7:40; Acts 3:22).

“Behold, the
days come, says Jehovah, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a
King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the
earth. In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely:and
this is His Name whereby He shall be called, Jehovah our Righteousness [or
Jehovah Tsidkenu]” (Jer. 23:5,6).  Note that this passage begins with Jehovah
as God the Father and ends with Jehovah as the future Messiah.

Jehovah
speaks to the Messiah. “Jehovah has said unto Me, Thou art My Son; this day
have I begotten Thee” (Psa. 2:7).

“Unto which of
the angels said He at any time, Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee?
And again, I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son?” (Heb. 1:5).

“Jehovah said
unto my Lord [Adonai in Hebrew], Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make
Thine enemies Thy footstool” (Psa. 110:1).

“While the
Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, What do you think
of Christ? Whose Son is He? They say unto Him, The Son of David. He said unto
them, How then does David in spirit call Him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto
my Lord, Sit Thou on My right hand, till I make Thine enemies Thy footstool? If
David then call Him Lord, how is He his son?” (Matt. 22:41-45; also Mark
12:35-37; Luke 20:41,42).

“For David is
not ascended into the heavens; but he said himself, The Lord said unto My Lord,
Sit Thou on My right hand, until I make Thy foes Thy footstool. Therefore let
all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made that same Jesus whom
you have crucified both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:34-36).

The
suffering Christ trusts on Jehovah. “All those who see Me laugh Me to
scorn; they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on
Jehovah that He would deliver Him; let Him deliver Him, seeing He delighted in
Him” (Psa. 22:7,8).

“Likewise also
the chief priests mocking Him, with the scribes and elders, said, He saved
others; Himself He cannot save…. He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now,
if He will have Him:for He said, I am the Son of God” (Matt. 27:41-43).

The
suffering Christ prays to Jehovah. “Withhold not Thou Thy tender mercies
from Me, O Jehovah; let Thy loving-kindness and Thy truth continually preserve
me…. Be pleased, O Jehovah, to deliver Me; O Jehovah, make haste to help Me”
(Psa. 40:11,13).

“I waited
patiently for Jehovah; and He inclined unto Me, and heard My cry” (Psa. 40:1).

“But as for Me,
My prayer is unto Thee, O Jehovah, in an acceptable time; O God, in the
multitude of Thy mercy hear Me, in the truth of Thy salvation…. Hear Me, O
Jehovah; for Thy loving-kindness is good” (Psa. 69:13,16).

Jehovah judges
the Messiah for sin. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned
every one to His own way; and Jehovah has laid on Him the iniquity of us
all…. It pleased Jehovah to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief; when Thou
shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall
prolong His days, and the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in His hand” (Isa.
53:6,10).

                    Jehovah is
God the Son

The following
comparison of Old and New Testament passages links Jehovah with God the Son or
links Old Testament prophecies concerning Jehovah with the Lord Jesus Christ of
the New Testament:

Jehovah is
Creator. “Jehovah God made the earth and the heavens” (Gen. 2:4). “Jehovah
made the heavens” (1 Chron. 16:26).

“In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…. All
things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made”
(John 1:1,3).

“The Father …
has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son, in whom we have redemption
through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins; who is the image of the
invisible God, the firstborn of every creature; for by Him were all things
created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers:all things
were created by Him and for Him” (Col. 1:12-16).

Jehovah
Makes Appearances as an Angel Prior to the Incarnation. “And the Angel of
Jehovah appeared to the woman…. And the Angel of Jehovah said to him, How is
it that you ask after My name, seeing it is Wonderful…. And Manoah said to
his wife, We shall surely die because we have seen God” (Judg. 13:3,18,22 JND).
Note that His name, “Wonderful,” is the same as that attributed to the Messiah
in Isa. 9:6.

Another
preincarnation appearance of Jehovah, this time to Abraham, is described in
Genesis 18. It is well to distinguish these Old Testament appearances of
Jehovah to man from the Incarnation in which the eternal Son of God was
manifested in this world as God and Man in one Person (John 1:14). (Lord,
willing, this subject will be discussed in more detail in a future issue of Words
of Truth.)

The way in
the wilderness is prepared for Jehovah. “The voice of Him who cries in the
wilderness, prepare the way of Jehovah, make straight in the desert a highway
for our God” (Isa. 40:3).

“The beginning
of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God:as it is written in the
prophets, Behold, I send My messenger before Thy face, who shall prepare Thy
way before Thee. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of
the Lord, make His paths straight. John did baptize in the wilderness and
preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins” (Mark 1:1-4).

Jehovah is
Immanuel, God with us. “Jehovah of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is
our refuge” (Psa. 46:11).

“Therefore the
Lord Himself shall give you a sign:behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a
son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Isa. 7:14).

“And you shall
call His name Jesus…. And they shall call His name Immanuel, which being
interpreted is, God with us” (Matt. 1:21-23).

Jehovah
accepts worship. “For you shall worship no other god:for Jehovah is … a
jealous God” (Exod. 34:14).

“They saw the
young child … and fell down and worshiped Him” (Matt. 2:11).

“Then those who
were in the ship came and worshiped Him, saying, Of a truth Thou art the Son of
God” (Matt. 14:33; also Matt. 8:2; 9:18; 15:25).

“And as they
went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they
came and held Him by the feet, and worshiped Him” (Matt. 28:9,,17).

“Let all the
angels of God worship Him” (Heb. 1:6).

“Blessing and
honor and glory and power be unto Him who sits upon the throne, and unto the
Lamb for ever and ever. And the four [living creatures] said, Amen. And the
four and twenty elders fell down and worshiped Him” (Rev. 5:13,14).

Peter refused
worship (Acts 10:25,26). Barnabas and Paul refused worship (Acts 14:8-17). The
revelatory angel refused worship (Rev. 19:10; 22:8,9). But our Lord Jesus
Christ never refused worship. On the contrary, He said, “All men should honor
the Son, even as they honor the Father” (John 5:23).

Jehovah is
Saviour. “I, even I, am Jehovah; and beside Me there is no Saviour” (Isa.
43:11).

“Yet I am
Jehovah your God from the land of Egypt, and you shall know no god but Me:for
there is no Saviour besides Me” (Hos. 13:4).

For unto you is
born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke
2:11).

“And we have
seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the
world” (1 John 4:14).

“Be it known
unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the Name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by Him
does this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at
nought of your builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is
there salvation in any other; for there is no other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:10-12).

Jehovah is
Redeemer. “Thus said Jehovah, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel….”
(Isa. 43:14).

“O Jehovah, my
Rock and my Redeemer” (Psa. 19:14).

“Christ has
redeemed us from the curse of the law” (Gal. 3:13).

“Having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself …
in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins,
according to the riches of His grace” (Eph. 1:5-7).

“But Christ
being come … by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having
obtained eternal redemption” (Heb. 9:11,12).

Jehovah is
Shepherd. “Jehovah is my Shepherd, I shall not want” (Psa. 23:1).

“Hear the Word
of Jehovah, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He who
scatters Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd does his flock”
(Jer. 31:10).

“I am the good
Shepherd:the good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep” (John 10:11).

“Now the God of
peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of
the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in
every good work to do His will” (Heb. 13:20,21).

“When the chief
Shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fades not away”
(1 Pet. 5:4).

Jehovah is
the First and the Last. “Thus says Jehovah the King of Israel, and His
Redeemer Jehovah of hosts:I am the first, and I am the last; and beside Me
there is no God” (Isa. 44:6).

“And in the
midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man…. And when I saw
Him, I fell at His feet as dead. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying
unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last; I am He who lives, and was
dead, and behold I am alive forever more” (Rev. 1:13,17,18).

“Behold, I come
quickly…. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the
last” (Rev. 22:12,13).

Jehovah is a
Stone of Stumbling and a Rock of Offense. “Sanctify Jehovah of hosts
Himself; and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread. And He shall be
for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense to both
the houses of Israel” (Isa. 8:13,14).

“But we preach
Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks
foolishness” (1 Cor. 1:23).

“If so be you
have tasted that the Lord is gracious. To whom coming, as unto a living stone,
disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious…. Unto you therefore
who believe He is precious; but unto those who be disobedient, the stone which
the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone
of stumbling, and a rock of offense” (1 Pet. 2:3-8).

Jehovah is
Judge. “Behold, the day of Jehovah comes, cruel both with wrath and fierce
anger, to lay the land desolate; and He shall destroy the sinners thereof out
of it” (Isa. 13:9; also Psa. 50:1-6).

“The Father
judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son … and has given
Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man” (John
5:22,27; also 2 Thess. 1:7,8; Rev. 19:11,13,16).

The day and
Name of Jehovah. “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into
blood, before the great and the terrible day of Jehovah come. And it shall come
to pass that whosoever shall call on the Name of Jehovah shall be delivered”
(Joel 2:31,32).

“But this is
that which was spoken by the prophet Joel…. The sun shall be turned into
darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the
Lord come; and it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the Name of
the Lord shall be saved. You men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth
… delivered … crucified and slain … raised up…. God has made that same
Jesus, whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:16,20-24,36).

Jehovah is
King for ever. “Jehovah is King for ever and ever” (Psa. 10:16).

“Thou … shalt
call His Name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the
Highest; and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David;
and He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of His kingdom there
shall be no end” (Luke 1:31-33).

                 Jehovah
Encompasses All Three

                    Persons of
the Trinity

Some have
suggested that the Old Testament expression, “the Spirit of Jehovah” identifies
Jehovah with the Holy Spirit. Alternatively, Jehovah in these passages may
refer to God the Father or the entire Trinity. Here are some examples:

“And Jehovah
said, My Spirit shall not always plead with men” (Gen. 6:3).

“And the Spirit
of Jehovah came upon David from that day forward” (1 Sam. 16:13; also Judg.
3:10; 6:34; 11:29; 13:25; 2 Sam. 23:2; 2 Chron. 20:14; etc.). “How is it that
you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord?” (Acts 5:9).

“And the Spirit
of Jehovah shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the
spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of
Jehovah” (Isa. 11:2). “And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out
of the water:and lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit
of God descending like a dove and lighting upon Him” (Matt. 3:16).

“Who has
directed the Spirit of Jehovah, or being His counselor has taught Him? (Isa. 40:13).

Exod. 34:34
along with 2 Cor. 3:16-18 might also link Jehovah with the Holy Spirit.

The passages
quoted in this article should suffice to show that Jehovah of the Old Testament
is sometimes identified with God the Father, sometimes with God the Son as He
occasionally appeared to men and women on earth, sometimes with God the Son in
prophecies of the Lord Jesus Christ of the New Testament, sometimes with the
Holy Spirit, and most often with the entire Godhead.

It should pose
no theological problem to us to discover that Jehovah is identified with God
the Father in some Old Testament passages, with God the Son in others, and with
God the Holy Spirit in still others. Jehovah, as mentioned above, is the
special name God took in His covenant relationship with the nation of Israel.
God did not clearly reveal Himself to the nation of Israel as a Trinity, though
there certainly are hints of the Trinity in the Old Testament (Gen. 1:1,2,26;
3:22; 11:7; 2 Sam. 23:2,3; Prov. 30:4; Isa. 6:3,8; 48:16; 63:7-10). Thus, there
is no necessity to identify Jehovah always with God the Father, or always with
God the Son. The context of each passage will help us to decide which Person
Jehovah is referring to, if indeed it is necessary for us to know.

(This article
includes Scripture references suggested by (1) Stan Thompson in “Who Is
Jehovah” in September-October 1989 Words of Truth, (2) C.H. Brown in Jesus
Is Jehovah, published by Bible Truth Publishers, Addison, Illinois, (3)
Edwin Read, and (4) Drew Johnson.)

1 John 2:13-27

Let us look for a few moments at the question of growth as
the apostle puts it before us here. The spiritual growth of a babe into a man
is produced in two ways. First, God in His discipline sets trials and
circumstances before the soul. These trials serve to awaken the heart and mind
of the believer, leading him out of various forms of selfishness and
worldliness and into a greater sense of God’s grace and goodness. Second, God
shows us His perfect example of what he would have us grow up to and the soul
is stimulated and encouraged to imitate this example. God puts Christ before us
that we may grow up into Christ (Eph. 4:15).

            The admonition, therefore, of the apostle to the
babes and young men-to the fathers he has none-is to let nothing take away
their eyes from Christ. He warns the babes as to antichrist, not that he may
perfect them in prophetical knowledge, but because in their little acquaintance
as yet with the truth of what Christ is, they might be led away into some
deceit of the enemy. Satan’s first snare for souls is some distorting error
that deforms to us the face of Christ in which alone all the glory of God
shines, or which substitutes for His face some counterfeit for the natural eye.
Through the subtlety of Satan, the heart becomes entangled unawares with this
substitute, supposing it to be the true and divine object. This is antichrist,
though not yet the full denial of the Father and the Son. “Even now there are
many antichrists” (1 John 2:18). Oh, that Christians would realize more the
immense value of truth! And the terrible and disastrous effect of error!

            The apostle therefore warns the babes as to
false Christs. The young men are not in the same danger as to this. They are strong,
the word of God abides in them, and they have overcome the wicked one. Their
danger now lies in the allurements of a world into which their very energy is
carrying them. The word to these is, “Love not the world, neither the things
that are in the world” (2:15). It is one thing to have seen by the Word that
the world is under judgment, and another thing to have viewed it in detail,
counting it all loss for Christ (Phil. 3:7,8)).

            This, however, the fathers have done; therefore
he says to them-and it is all he needs to say-“You have known Him who is from
the beginning” (2:13,14). There is nothing we gain by examining the world
except to be able to say of it, “How unlike Christ it is!” This the fathers
have learned. And what do we do when we have reached this? Has the “father”
nothing more to learn? Oh, yes, he is but at the beginning. He has only now his
lesson book before him for undistracted learning. But he does not need to be
cautioned in the same way against mixing anything with Christ. How much toil to
reach, and how slow we are in reaching, so simple a conclusion! But then the
joy of eternity begins. Oh, to have Him ever before us, unfolding His glories,
as He does to one whose eyes and whose heart are all for Him! The knowledge of
the new man is, “Christ is all!”

One lesson I am
learning of late is our absolute dependence upon the power of God every time we
speak; it is not our liberty nor our words, but it is the power of God that
affects the souls to whom we speak (see 1 Cor. 12:6).

We are as
dependent upon God when we speak to one soul as when we preach to a thousand. I
have learned this by experience; I have gone to see a sick person in great
self-confidence and found I had nothing to say. And then the Lord taught me I
must wait upon Him for the message for a single soul as much as when I was
going to preach. May we ever remember this, that there may be no trace of
self-confidence remaining in the heart.  

As children of
men we are known in this world; the world can point to us and say, “His father
was son-and-so,” and according to our high or low connection in that way, honor
or despise us.

As children of
God we are not known for the simple reason that our Father is unknown. Let any
man in any circle, high or low, of this world’s society be introduced as a
child of God, and see what a blank astonishment will follow such an
introduction. They know not God, therefore they cannot appreciate such a
relationship with Him. Therefore, those of us who are in that relationship as a
child of God are, as such, real strangers and foreigners in this world. Our
being born of God constitutes us that, and according to the degree in which we
ourselves value this wonderful relationship, so will we realize our
strangership among the very people where we are so well known; so too will it
practically separate us from their company, their object, their mode of life,
and their pleasures and pursuits.

But there is
more. The way we have become children of God is through faith in Jesus Christ,
who, “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,” was “lifted up” on the
cross, “that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life” (John 3:14,15). This blessed Jesus, therefore, becomes now the object and
delight of our hearts. How else could it be? It is by His suffering upon that
cross that our sins are forgiven:“with His stripes we are healed” (Isa. 53:5).
It is by His blood that we have “boldness to enter into the holiest” (Heb.
10:19)—the very presence of that holy God before whom the seraphim angels have
to veil themselves. It is by His death that we are set free from the guilt and
dominion of sin and that we escape the visitation of the angel of death at
midnight, pass out of the land of bondage, and pass into the land flowing with
milk and honey.

Jesus is now,
therefore, the object of our hearts. “We love Him because He first loves us” (1
John 4:19). As the man who, out of love, “leaves his father and mother and
cleaves unto his wife” (Gen. 2:24), so Christ left His Father and home in glory,
and out of love to us suffered as none ever suffered. But, in return, the wife
clings to her husband and follows him all through. So with us who love Him. If
He is in heaven, our hearts follow Him there, and are at home only there. If He
is still rejected and despised by this world, we want nothing else from the
world than what they give Him. We cannot endure to be received and honored
where He is refused and despised. Still more, we cannot even feel at home with
His professed friends who give Him but a back seat and grieve Him by their
ways.

One will
readily see that this is not pretending to be holier and better than this one
or that one, but a natural outcome of a love that is true. No true wife could
be at home where the husband she loves is not given the place that belongs to
him. So no lover of Christ can ever be at home in this world while “Christ” is
a despised name in it. Nor can we be more comfortable among those who profess
His name while they have among them that which wounds the Lord. Therefore, when
the world had crucified Christ and cast Him out, God said to His children,
“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love
the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15).

He also foresaw
what His professing people would do, and how things would turn out in the end,
so He said again to His people, “In the last days, perilous times shall come.
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud,
blasphemers, disobedient to parents,… lovers of pleasures more than lovers of
God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof:from such
turn away” (2 Tim. 3:1-5).

Oh, beloved
brethren! Children of the God of love! Oh, for such a measure of that
devotedness of heart to our Lord as to make it morally impossible for us to
abide with whatever dishonors Him, but will compel us to follow Him anywhere
and at whatever cost! Thus, and only thus, shall we know the reality of our
relationship with Him, even as He has said, “Wherefore come out from among them
and be separate, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean; and I will receive
you, and will be a Father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters,
says the Lord Almighty (2 Cor. 6:17,18).

(From Help
and Food, Vol. 7.)

“Having
predestinated us unto the adoption of [sons] by Jesus Christ to Himself,
according to the good pleasure of His will” (Eph. 1:5). Verse 4 of this chapter
mentions the simple fact that we were chosen in Christ; verse 5 adds the
further truth that God had a special destiny in view for those chosen ones.
They are predestinated to the adoption of sons. This goes far beyond the mere
fact of our being saved or redeemed. There were many dear saints of God in the
Old Testament saved by His grace, but they were not sons of God as we are now.
God specially predestinated us to that glorious position.

It may be
noticed that the apostle John always speaks of the believer as a child
of God—a “born” one—while Paul speaks much of sonship. The one speaks of our
family relationship, the other of our position. He has made us sons “according
to the good pleasure of His will.”

A glance at
Galatians 4 will show the meaning of this truth of the adoption of sons. Paul
there contrasts the saints of the Old Testament with those of the New. In the
Old Testament a believer had merely the status of a “child” in the family of
God. Paul speaks of the Jewish saints when he states in Gal. 4:3 that “we, when
we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.” The Jews were
under law, a law that told them, “Thou shalt” and “Thou shalt not.” That is the
way we talk to a child. But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent
forth His Son. His precious Son redeemed those who were under the law that we
might receive the adoption of sons. Because of the work of Christ on the cross,
believers are now no longer under the law and thus subject to ordinances, but
they are given the place of sons.

In our language
today the word “adoption” carries the idea of a child taken into a home and
given the place of a child by a couple who are not themselves its parents. But
in the Bible the word “adoption” has no such meaning. Its literal translation
is “the placing of a son.” When Rome was in power, adoption was a ceremony in
which parents would publicly present their child to society, somewhere at the
age of sixteen or so. That child would thereafter take his place in society as
the acknowledged son of the family.

Upon the death
of Christ, believers are no longer under law—under rules and regulations as a
child is—but are given the dignity and liberty of grown-up sons and daughters
of God. Does this mean that we are now free to do whatever we please?
No, but rather we are now free to carry out the full extent of God’s
will for us instead of confining ourselves to the do’s and don’ts of the law.
The Spirit of God Himself indwells us, thus enabling us to walk to God’s glory
as we are led and instructed by Him (Rom. 8:4). To enjoy the adoption of sons
means to enjoy the liberty wherewith Christ has set us free; thus we walk as
intelligent, spiritually-educated men and women.

Gal. 4:7 adds,
“If a son, then an heir of God through Christ.” Thus this predestination to the
adoption of sons in Ephesians 1 carries with it the thought of our being
blessed with all that the heart of God could devise. It is a position that will
be ours throughout all eternity. We are sons of God already; we shall be
manifested as such when Christ Himself is manifested (Rom. 8:19).

(From Ephesians,
published by Loizeaux Brothers, Neptune, New Jersey.)

Do you know the
national motto of the United States? It is found on each coin of the realm:“In
God we trust.” While the exact wording of this motto is not found in the Bible,
many verses closely approximate it.

Past:
“God … they put their trust in Him” (1 Chron. 5:20).

Past and
present:“In God I have put my trust” (Psa. 56:4,11; 73:28).

Present:
“We trust in … God” (2 Ki. 18:22; Isa. 36:7; 2 Cor. 1:9; 1 Tim. 4:10). “God,
in Thee do I put my trust” (Psa. 7:1; 16:1; 25:2; 141:8). “God, Thou art my
trust” (Psa. 71:5).

Present and
future:“God … in Him will I trust” (2 Sam. 22:3; Psa. 18:2; 91:2). “God
… I will trust in Thee” (Psa. 55:23).

Imperative:
“Trust in … God” (1 Tim. 6:17).

The Hebrew and
Greek words for “trust” in these passages convey the thoughts of fleeing for
protection, having confidence, being safe, secure, and assured. These are words
that denote activity—such as fleeing to God for safety—more than
passively waiting for God to do something.

As believers in
Christ, we “have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us” (Heb.
6:18). But the question each believer ought to ask him/herself often is this:
“In whom did I trust yesterday, in whom am I trusting today, and
in whom will I trust every moment of every day of the rest of my life?” 

                   Competitors
for Our Trust

It is well to
be aware of the many competitors for our trust that rise up each day. The Bible
tells us about some of these:

Human
weapons and defenses. “He shall besiege you in all your gates, until your
high and fenced walls come down, wherein you trusted” (Deut. 28:52).

“The children
of Benjamin … were smitten … because they trusted unto the liers in wait”
(Judg. 20:36).

“Some trust in
chariots, and some in horses:but we will remember the name of the LORD our God”
(Psa. 20:7).

“For I will not
trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me. But Thou hast saved us from
our enemies” (Psa. 44:6,7; also Matt. 26:52).

What is the
first thing we think of when we notice the first symptoms of a cold, get a
headache, have insomnia, or fall and injure ourselves? Is it vitamin C,
aspirin, a sleeping pill, a bandage, a doctor? Or do we immediately flee to,
trust in, and call upon the Lord to help us, heal us, and/or give us wisdom as
to what kind of medical help to seek?

Idols.
“Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands…. Those who make
them are like unto them; so is every one who trusts in them. O Israel, trust in
the LORD” (Psa. 115:4-10).

“They shall be
greatly ashamed that trust in graven images” (Isa. 42:17).

As Christians,
we do not bow down to idols of wood, stone, or precious metals. But we may put
our trust in other kinds of idols to help us forget the pain of a broken
relationship, a difficult boss, failing grades at school, and the like. These
idols may include alcohol, narcotics, pornography, novels, television, movies,
and many other kinds of amusement. These are all designed to help us forget our
problems, whereas God wants us to cast our burdens upon Himself (Psa. 55:22; 1
Pet. 5:7) and find out how He wants us to deal with our problems and
what He wants us to learn from them. “No chastening for the present
seems to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it yields the
peaceable fruit of righteousness unto those who are exercised thereby”
(Heb. 12:11; also Rom. 8:28).

Falsehood.
“This is your lot … saith the LORD, because you have forgotten Me and trusted
in falsehood” (Jer. 13:25).

If someone is
hurt by an offensive or demeaning comment, do you lie and say, “I was just kidding”?
If you are caught in a sin, do you deny it or blame it on someone else? The
Lord has provided a place of refuge for sinners—repentant sinners, that is.
When we sin, let us humble ourselves, accept the truth about ourselves, confess
our sin, receive a fresh application of God’s forgiveness and cleansing (1 John
1:9), and be reconciled to the person(s) we have sinned against (Matt. 5:24).

Wealth,
riches. “Lo, this is the man who made not God his strength, but trusted in
the abundance of his riches” (Psa. 52:7; Job 31:24-28).

“Those who
trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches,
none of them can by any means redeem his brother” (Psa. 49:6,7).

“Charge those
who are rich in this world, that they [not] trust in uncertain riches, but in
the living God who gives us richly all things to enjoy” (1 Tim. 6:17).

Do you try to
use your riches (or your imaginary riches made available through your credit
cards) to purchase happiness, to make other people like and respect you, or to
influence people (even other brothers and sisters in the assembly) to do what
you want them to do? Or do you have the spiritual maturity to realize (a) that
true happiness and peace are found only in trusting the Lord (Isa. 26:3,4; Psa.
16:11); (b) that only by trusting and pleasing the Lord will we gain the love
and respect of our fellow believers, and often even that of our enemies; and
(c) if we are trusting the Lord, we will want others to trust the Lord as well
so that they might learn to do His will and not what we want them
to do.

Friends,
fellow-men, princes, guides. “Yes, my own familiar friend, in whom I
trusted,… has lifted up his heel against me” (Psa. 41:9; Prov. 25:19).

“It is better
to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in
the LORD than to put confidence in princes” (Psa. 118:8,9).

“Trust not in a
friend, put not confidence in a guide” (Mic. 7:5).

Sister A
trusted the Lord for her salvation but she was a fearful, anxious woman. Her
husband had left her and she depended upon her unbelieving and abusive son who
lived with her to take her places and to protect her from a host of imaginary
foes. The Lord took her son away in death at the age of 29 and Sister A
practically went out of her mind. She had not learned to place her trust and
dependence first and foremost upon the Lord. As a possible application to
ourselves, are we so dependent upon our husband/wife that if he/she should die,
we would immediately feel we had to seek a new marriage partner?

Brother B was
brought to the Lord by Brother C, and he became an intensely devoted follower
of Brother C’s teachings. Sadly, he failed to be like the Bereans who “searched
the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11), and was
carried away by serious errors taught by Brother C. Do we ever depend more upon
our Bible commentaries than upon the Bible itself, and uncritically accept
everything our favorite writer teaches?

Teenage sister
D had a very close friendship with another girl her age. They hardly did
anything or went anywhere without the other. When D’s friend wanted to try
marijuana, D went along with her, fearing to say or do anything that would
cause their friendship to break up. D’s trust and dependence upon her friend
far exceeded her trust and dependence upon her Lord and Saviour.

Our own
understanding, wisdom, righteousness, works. “Trust in the LORD with all
your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways
acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths” (Prov. 3:5,6).

“He who trusts
in his own heart is a fool” (Prov. 27:26).

“Because you
have trusted in your works and in your treasures, you shall also be taken”
(Jer. 48:7).

“And he spoke
this parable unto certain who trusted in themselves that they were righteous:
two men went up into the temple to pray:the one a Pharisee and the other a
publican….” (Luke 18:9-14).

“For we are the
circumcision, who worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and
have no confidence in the flesh” (Phil. 3:3).

Most of my
readers have already read (Words of Truth, Sept/Oct 1993, page 113) or
heard me tell of the consequences of leaning to my own understanding and not
trusting in the Lord on an occasion when my car battery was dead.

Now here is
another one that you probably have not heard yet. We once had a wisteria tree
(or more like a bush) in our back yard. However, a honeysuckle bush had grown
up with it and the branches of the one were intimately entwined about the
branches of the other. One day in late winter or early spring I got the idea in
my head (did Satan put it there?) to perform major surgery on the honeysuckle.
I really whacked away with my pruning shears and cut that honeysuckle down to
ground level. However, I made three mistakes:(1) I didn’t ask God for His
help; (2) I didn’t ask my wife for her advice; and (3) as a result of mistakes
(1) and (2) I cut the wisteria to the ground and left the honeysuckle fine and
healthy. “Lean not unto your own understanding” took on a fresh and poignant
meaning to me that day.

Another aspect
of trusting our own wisdom relates to the present day cultural ideal of living
independently. Children and teenagers are taught by their parents how to launch
out on their own and live independently. But God never intended for His
creatures to live independently. He gave us parents first of all for us to
depend upon, and He counts upon parents to help their grown up children to
transfer that dependence from the parents to God Himself. When we become
elderly we will often need more and more help from others, such as our
children. If we have never learned real trust and dependence upon the Lord in
our daily lives, we are going to have a difficult time adjusting to this period
of increasing dependence upon others.

Beauty.
“Your renown went forth among the heathen for your beauty, for it was perfect
through my comeliness which I had put upon you, saith the Lord GOD. But you
trusted in your own beauty” (Ezek. 15:14,15).

Young brother
or sister in Christ, are you trying to attract a life partner by means of your
physical attractiveness, strength, or athletic ability? “Favor is deceitful and
beauty is vain:but a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised” (Prov.
31:30). If you marry one who is attracted only by your outer beauty, what will
happen to the marriage when that beauty begins to fade. However, if you and
your life partner are mutually attracted by each other’s “inner beauty,” that is,
your spiritual characteristics and love for the Lord and His Word and will,
that inner beauty has the potential of continual, lifelong growth and increase.
As each partner grows in conformity “to the image of [God’s] Son” (Rom. 8:29),
they will grow correspondingly closer to each other, making for a wonderful,
truly beautiful marriage.

In whom are you
trusting?

“We know that
all things work together for good to those who love God” (Rom. 8:28).

God does not
take His people out of the world, does not take them away from the evil, does
not even keep the evil away from them. But He makes all things, both good and
evil, work together for good to those who love Him. He brings good to His
people out of the evil. The trouble is that while God’s people may see the evil
very plainly, they have not the knowledge of God to realize His power over the
evil to make it work for their good.

How often it is
true of us that we look at the evils, at circumstances, at things that are
taking place around us, and base our hopes and fears on them instead of upon
our God, the eternal and unchangeable One. Our worst fears are very often
imaginary, and the evils we anticipate may never come. But God is the real One;
all here is vanity and of the fallen creation. We need to remember that all
things are in His hands; He is good; He does only that which is good; He makes
all the things that take place about us work together for our good if we love
Him.

“All things.”
How much ground that covers:all the bad things, all the evil things, all the
things that seem so hard to bear, all the sorrowful things, all the
afflictions, all the trials, all the disappointments, all the attacks of Satan
and wicked men, all the failures and mistakes of others. “All things
work together for good to those who love God.”

Does not God
take wonderful care of those who love Him? He cannot do too much for them, but
then He does it in His perfect way and time, and that is where the trial comes.
It is our part to believe His words, to trust Him with all our hearts, to cling
to Him whatever comes. And it is His free grace that enables us to do this. He
will not keep any good back from His own faithful people (Psa. 84:11). So we
can rejoice in Him and praise Him with full hearts.

"Be transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable,
and perfect will of God" (Rom. 12:2).

Being saved is not a matter of
receiving Christ into our life as we often hear it. It is receiving an entirely
new life in Christ Jesus. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature
[or creation]:old things are passed away; behold, all things are become
new" (2 Cor. 5:17).

Many people, when they are saved,
make a change in certain outward behaviors according to what other, more mature
Christians teach them. So, for example, they stop smoking and drinking and
dancing and start reading their Bibles and praying and attending the meetings
of the assembly. But Christianity is much more than making changes in
activities. Being a Christian involves a total transformation, a renewing, a
reprogramming of our mind. Our basic thinking patterns need to be
straightened out, our responses to other people’s bad (and good) behavior
revised, our attitudes toward our spouse, children, parents, friends,
neighbors, and brothers and sisters in Christ needs to be changed. Our minds
need to be reprogrammed so we can begin to say like the apostle Paul, "We
have the mind of Christ" (1 Cor. 2:16).

Let us consider a number of ways
in which we need to experience the renewing of our minds.

                     From Proud to Humble

"Be clothed with humility,
for God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves
therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time"
(1 Pet. 5:5,6; also Psa. 138:6). "Let this mind be in you, which was also
in Christ Jesus:… He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross" (Phil. 2:5-8).

What do the following statements
have in common? Do you ever say or think anything like them?

1. "I am not going to let him
get the better of me, or let her get away with saying that to me."

2. "He is not going to tell me
what to do.

3. "I want everyone in this
house to know that I am the boss and I am not going to tolerate any
insubordination."

4. (After pronouncing a word
incorrectly):"What will people think?"

5. (In an assembly meeting):
"I am going to keep my mouth shut; that will keep me from saying something
wrong."

6. (After winning a game of
Scrabble):"What’s the matter? You didn’t do so well tonight, did
you!"

7. (After losing a game of
Scrabble):"You sure are lucky; you got all the good letters."

8. (After being called out in a
close play at first base):"You’re blind! I was safe!"

9. "I am truly humbled to be given
this award."

What do these have in common? They
are all expressions of the pride of our hearts. Even number 9, while it may
sound humble, can often be a statement of pride. For example, a local
professional ball player spoke these words upon receiving an award. If he had
been truly humbled, he would not have demanded a $3 million dollar per year
salary increase a few months later.

The one whose mind has been
transformed from pride to humility may respond in ways like these:

1. (When criticized):Yes, you are
right; I was wrong."

2. (After being called out in a
close play at first base):"Wow, that was a great catch you made,
Buddy."

3. (After receiving a compliment
or an award):"Praise the Lord! He gave me the ability, and besides, lots
of others helped me."

4. "What can I do to show the
love of Christ to my office mate who is always saying nasty things to me?"

5. (After saying or doing
something stupid in public):"Lord, help me to be more wise and careful;
and help me not to crawl into a shell just because I made a mistake."

We lingered extra long on this
first area of transformation because of the subtlety of pride and the
difficulty of recognizing it in ourselves. We shall be much more brief in
defining the rest of the areas in which our minds need to be renewed.

                 From Wanting to be Waited on

                  to Wanting to Serve Others

"He who is greatest among
you, let him be as the younger; and he who is chief, as he who serves"
(Luke 22:26). "Jesus … began to wash the disciples’ feet…. If I then,
your Lord and Maser, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one
another’s feet. For I have given you an example that you should do as I have
done to you" (John 13:3-18). "Christ Jesus … took upon Him the form
of a servant" (Phil. 2:5-7). "By love serve one another" (Gal.
5:13).

Husbands, what is your attitude
toward some of your wife’s home duties? Do you regard fixing your
supper, washing your dirty dishes, ironing your shirts, vacuuming
your living room, or changing your baby’s diaper as being beneath
your dignity? Do you enjoy serving and helping your wife as much as you enjoy
having her serve and help you? Do you enjoy serving the Lord as much as you
enjoy having Him serve and help you and answer your prayers?

                      From Pleasing Self

                      to Pleasing Others

"We then who are strong ought
to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one
of us please his neighbor for his good to edification. For even Christ pleased
not Himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of those who reproached Thee
fell on Me" (Rom. 15:1-3).

                  From Selfish, Indifferent,

                     and Hateful to Loving

"Charity [or love] … seeks
not her own" (1 Cor. 13:5). "Every one who hates his brother is a
murderer…. Hereby have we known love, because He has laid down His life for
us; and we ought for the brethren to lay down our lives. But whoso may have the
world’s substance, and see his brother having need, and shut up his bowels from
him, how abides the love of God in him?" (1 John 3:15-17). "Love one
another; as I have loved you, you also love one another" (John 13:34).
"Walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and has given Himself for us an
offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor" (Eph. 5:2).

Hate is not the only opposite of
love. As seen in 1 John 3:16,17, another opposite of love is indifference. And
since love is self-sacrificing by its very nature, a third opposite of love is
selfishness as seen in 1 Cor. 13:5.

              From Covetous, Getting, and Stingy

                    to Giving and Merciful

"Let covetousness not be once
named among you, as becomes saints … for … no … covetous man, who is an
idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God" (Eph.
5:3,5). "Shall I then take my bread and my water and my flesh that I have
killed for my shearers, and give it unto men whom I know not whence they
be?" (1 Sam. 25:11). "Let him who stole steal no more; but rather let
him labor, working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have to
give to him who has need" (Eph. 4:28). "Give to every man who asks of
you … and lend, hoping for nothing again…. Be therefore merciful, as your
Father is merciful" (Luke 6:30-36).

                   From Gloomy and Depressed

                           to Joyful

"Hannah … was in bitterness
of soul, and prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore…. And Hannah prayed and
said, My heart rejoices in the LORD … I rejoice in Thy salvation" (1
Sam. 1:9,10; 2:1). "Comfort the faint-hearted" (1 Thess. 5:14 JND).
"Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say, Rejoice" (Phil. 4:4).

                  From Unthankful to Thankful

"When they knew God, they
glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful" (Rom. 1:21). "In the
last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be … unthankful" (2
Tim. 3:1,2). "Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts
with praise:be thankful unto Him, and bless His name" (Psa. 100:4).
"In every thing give thanks" (1 Thess. 5:18). "Giving thanks
always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ" (Eph. 5:20).

The unthankful spirit so prevalent
in the world today comes from the attitude, "I deserve it, so why should I
say `thank you’?" On one occasion, Jesus healed ten lepers, but only one
turned back "and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his
face at [Jesus’] feet, giving Him thanks" (Luke 17:15,16). That thankful
man received an unexpected bonus:"Your faith has made you whole [that is,
spiritually as well as physically]" (verse 19).

              From Anxious, Worried, and Fearful

                   to Peaceful and Prayerful

"Do not be careful [full of
care] about your life, what you should eat and what you should drink, nor for
your body what you should put on" (Matt. 6:25-34 JND).  "Why are you
so fearful … and they feared exceedingly…. And they were afraid…. The
woman, fearing and trembling,… told Him all the truth…. Be not afraid, only
believe" (Mark 4:40,41; 5:15,33,36). "Be careful [full of care] for
nothing, but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let
your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passes all
understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus"
(Phil. 4:6,7). "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you"
(John 14:27).

                 From Quarrelsome to Peaceable

"Put off … anger, wrath,
malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth…. Forbearing one
another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any….
And let the peace of God rule in your hearts" (Col. 3:8,13,15).
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of
God" (Matt. 5:9).

There are at least three ways we
can be peacemakers:

1. We can keep from teasing and
kidding (Prov. 26:18,19; Eph. 5:4), provoking (Eph. 6:4), and striving (2 Tim.
2:24) with one another, and "follow after the things that make for
peace" (Rom. 14:19).

2. We can seek to make peace with
our enemies (Matt. 5:44; Rom. 12:18-21) or help two warring parties to be
reconciled (1 Cor. 7:11).

3. We can "preach the gospel
of peace" (Rom. 10:15) so that souls might be "justified by
faith" and thus "have peace with God" (Rom. 5:1).

                From Impatient to Longsuffering

"Charity [or love] suffers
long … endures all things" (1 Cor. 13:4,7). "Put on …
longsuffering" (Col. 3:12; Eph. 4:2). "Be patient toward all
men" (1 Thess. 5:14; 2 Tim. 2:24).

              From Angry and Bitter to Forgiving

"Looking diligently … lest
any root of bitterness springing up trouble you" (Heb. 12:15). "Let
not the sun go down upon your wrath…. Let all bitterness, and wrath … be
put away from you, with all malice, and be kind one to another, tender-hearted,
forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you"
(Eph. 4:26,31,32). "Put off … anger, wrath … forgiving one
another" (Col. 3:8,13). "[Love] thinks no evil" (1 Cor. 13:5);
this could appropriately be translated, "Love does not keep an account of
the evil done to one," or in short, "Love does not hold a
grudge."

                 From Controlling to Yielding,

                         Kind, Gentle

"I wrote unto the church, but
Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, does not receive us
… neither does he receive the brethren, and forbids those who would, and
casts them out of the church" (3 John 9,10). "Let your moderation [or
yieldingness] be known unto all men" (Phil. 4:5). "Be kind one to
another" (Eph. 4:32; Col. 3:12).

                From Apathetic to Helpful, Good

"Apathetic" means
unmoved or not interested. In today’s language, it is an attitude of "I
can’t be bothered:let George do it." "Let us not sleep, as do others;
but let us watch and be sober…. Edify [or build up] one another" (1
Thess. 5:6,11).

"There came down a certain
priest that way; and when he saw [the wounded man], he passed by on the other
side. And likewise a Levite … came and looked on him, and passed by on the
other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was; and
when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his
wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him
to an inn, and took care of him" (Luke 10:30-34).

Notice that the word
"good" is never specifically used in this story of "the good
Samaritan." However, every action of the Samaritan toward the robbed and
wounded man help to define the word "good." The word "good"
in the New Testament does not mean the same thing as "righteous"; it
is not the opposite of "bad" or "unrighteous." It means
being helpful and beneficial to others.

                 From Hypocritical to Sincere

"Hypocrisy" is
pretending to be something different from what you really are.

"Woe unto you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! for you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make
long prayer…. You pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted
the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith" (Matt.
23:13-36). The fatal sin of Ananias and Sapphira was that of pretending
to give all of the proceeds of the land sale to the apostles (Acts
5:1-10). "Let love be without dissimulation [or hypocrisy]" (Rom.
12:9). "Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through
the Spirit unto unfeigned [or unhypocritical] love of the brethren, see that
you love one another with a pure heart fervently" (1 Pet. 1:22). "In
simplicity and godly sincerity … we have had our conversation [or manner of
life] in the world" (2 Cor. 1:12). "That you may be sincere and
without offense till the day of Christ" (Phil. 1:10).

The Greek word for
"sincere" is literally "judged by the sun." The English
word "sincere" is from the Latin words, sine and cera,
meaning "without wax." In Bible times, makers of pottery used a waxy
substance to cover fine cracks in their earthenware. The crack was detectable
only if one held the vessel up to the light. Thus the sellers of the finest
pottery might have had signs saying, "Sincere-ware sold here." In
other words, buyers could hold the pieces up to the sun and be reassured that
there were no hidden cracks. A truly sincere person is one whose private life,
if held up to public scrutiny, would be found to be as exemplary as his/her
public life.

                      From Unbelieving to

                      Trusting, Faithful

"He marveled because of their
unbelief" (Mark 6:6). "Lord, I believe; help Thou my unbelief"
(Mark 9:24). "We walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Cor. 5:7).
"Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not unto you own
understanding" (Prov. 3:5).

                       From Deceitful to

                      Truthful and Honest

"Deceive not with your
lips" (Prov. 24:28). "Deceit and guile depart not from her
streets" (Psa. 55:11). "Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man
truth with his neighbor" (Eph. 4:25). "[Speak] the truth in love"
(Eph. 4:15). "Provide things honest in the sight of all men" (Rom.
12:17).

               From Macho to Meek and Confessing

"And the king [Rehoboam]
answered the people roughly … saying, My father made your yoke heavy, and I
will add to your yoke; my father also chastised you with whips, but I will
chastise you with scorpions" (1 Ki. 12:13,14). "Miriam and Aaron
spoke against Moses…. Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men
which were upon the face of the earth…. Miriam became leprous, white as
snow…. And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, Heal [Miriam] now, O God, I
beseech Thee" (Num. 12:1-13). "Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly
in heart" (Matt. 11:28). "Father forgive them, for they know not what
they do" (Luke 23:34). "Put on … meekness" (Col. 3:12).
"Bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for
those who despitefully use you and persecute you" (Matt. 5:44).
"Confess your faults one to another" (Jas. 5:16).

The macho man does not admit to
any wrong or any weakness, and is quick to take vengeance against any offense
against himself. The meek man is quick to confess his wrongdoings, both to God
and to those whom he has wronged, and leaves vengeance to the Lord (Rom.
12:19).

                        From Fearful to

                      Bold and Courageous

"[Peter] began to curse and
swear, saying, I do not know this Man of whom you speak" (Mark 14:71).
"Peter … lifted up his voice and said unto them … Jesus of Nazareth
… you have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain…. God …
has glorified His Son Jesus, whom you delivered up … and killed the Prince of
life" (Acts 2:14-36; 3:13-26). "[The authorities] commanded [Peter
and John] not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and
John answered and said unto them … We cannot but speak the things which we have
seen and heard…. We ought to obey God rather than men" (Acts. 4:18-20;
5:27-32).

                 From Prejudiced to Impartial

"How is it that Thou, being a
Jew, askest drink of me, who am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no
dealings with the Samaritans" (John 4:9). In "the new man … there
is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian,
bond nor free:but Christ is all and in all" (Col. 3:9-11). "My
brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with
respect of persons" (Jas. 2:1-5). "The wisdom that is from above is
… without partiality" (Jas. 3:17).

               From Out-of-Control to Temperate

"In the last days … men
shall be incontinent [or intemperate or out-of-control]" (2 Tim. 3:1,3).
"The tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly
poison" (Jas. 3:8). "I keep my body under and bring it into
subjection" (1 Cor. 9:27). "If any man offend not in word, the same
is … able also to bridle the whole body" (Jas. 3:2).

                    Concluding Observations

Did you notice how often the
verses in Ephesians and Colossians about putting off and putting on were
referenced? This surely fits in with the idea of a total transformation taking
place in one who is saved.

Finally, if we go down through the
section headings, we will notice the need to be transformed to
"loving" (section 4), "joyful," "peaceful,"
"peaceable," "longsuffering," "gentle,"
"good," "faithful," "meek," and
"temperate" (last section before this one). Do you remember seeing
these words in another setting? Yes, they are the nine-fold fruit of the Spirit
of Gal. 5:22,23. One of the chief ways the Holy Spirit transforms us by the
renewing of our minds is by ministering to us the qualities, characteristics,
and Person of the Lord Jesus Christ (John 16:14,15). When we truly receive the
Spirit’s ministry of Christ to us, it is expressed in our lives as the fruit of
the Spirit.

Let us each read through the
section headings once again with the thought of asking ourselves if there are
one or two areas where we need further renewing of our mind. Let us not be
satisfied with a standard less than this:"We have the mind of
Christ" (1 Cor. 2:16).

"All
things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do"
(Heb. 4:13).

It is a blessed
thing to know that we "have to do" with God (Heb. 4:13). If we are
seeking happiness, where shall we find it, except in God? He is not only the
source of our blessing, but the blessing itself.

Once we really
come to know God, we will know Him as love (1 John 4:8). Then, knowing that
everything comes to us from Him—no matter what the circumstances—we interpret
all by His love. I may be called on to pass through pain and sorrow and trial
as part of His discipline; but everything that comes from God comes from a
source and spring in which I have confidence. I look, through the
circumstances, to Him, and nothing can separate me from His love.

Where God is but
little known, and where there is not therefore confidence in His love, there
will be murmuring and rebellion at circumstances. In such a case, the sense of
having to do with God will cause more fear than gladness.

Is it not true
that we often stop, practically, at the circumstances in which we find
ourselves placed and consider only our feelings and judgment about them? This
is a proof that our souls are not living in the fullness of communion with God.
That with which we should be occupied is, not the circumstances, but what God
intends by them.

There may be
some secret evil working in my heart of which I am as yet unaware. Then God
sends some circumstance that discovers to me the evil in order that it may be
put away. Is not this a blessing? The circumstance does not create the evil
which it excites; it only acts upon what it finds to be in my heart and makes
it manifest. The evil being discovered, circumstances are all forgotten; God’s
end alone is seen.

If there are
circumstances that try and perplex our hearts, let us ask the question,
"What is God up to with me?" The moment the soul finds itself in
communion with God about the circumstances, all is well.

(From Collected
Writings, Vol. 16.)

Elijah was an
inhabitant of Gilead, a city noted for its wickedness. As a solitary witness he
stood for God and rebuked the throne on which sat one of the most wicked of
Israel’s kings (1 Ki. 16:33).

Elijah had the
strength to do this because the Lord had commanded him. It is necessary for us
to be thus dependent on the Word of the Lord if we desire to do His will. After
speaking to others and exhorting them to obey the Word of the Lord only, the
preacher is (and ought to be) exercised himself. The Lord takes him aside and
asks, “Are you dependent on Me as you have been telling others to be? Do you
believe I will supply all your need? Are you troubled in these trials,
or do you cast all on Me?” So the Lord speaks to the speaker.

After Elijah
gave his public testimony, the LORD directed him, “Turn eastward, and hide
yourself by the brook Cherith that is before Jordan” (1 Ki. 17:5). The Lord
promised to sustain him by extraordinary means—by impossible means, we should
say—for the brook was fed by rainfall that had been stopped as Ahab’s
punishment, and the ravens were the most unlikely birds to bring him food. They
are specially spoken of as crying for meat in Job 38:41 and Psa. 147:9. They
are also noted for eating carrion, and so would naturally be repulsive to
Elijah.

What a test of
faith it was for Elijah to dwell by the brook Cherith which daily grew smaller.
It was close by the much larger Jordan River, but he must stay here and must
not go there because it was the word of the Lord. Do you realize what it meant
to him and means to us? We, like Elijah, are to stay just where the Lord would
have us, in separation from all, alone, beside a brook that will surely dry up
because its sources have been cut off, in full view of the Jordan (which speaks
of judgment). Do we have a brook on which we depend? It must dry up and fail,
but the Lord who placed us there knows this and will make provision when it
does. Are we content to be thus waiting for “the word of the Lord” when it
looks foolish to stay?

When the brook
did dry up the Lord put Elijah’s faith to a further test and sent him to
Zarephath, a city of Zidon (a Gentile city), to a widow woman who did not have
enough food for herself. Indeed, when Elijah asked her for food her need was
revealed; she said she had only “a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil
in a cruse” and was about to prepare her last meal and die. But Elijah said,
“Make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for
you and for your son. For thus says the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal
shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail until the day that the
LORD sends rain upon the earth.” (1 Ki. 17:12-14).

The widow did
this; she had faith to provide for God’s representative first, and her own
needs were satisfied, not only for the present but for the immediate future
also. Notice that she spoke of “a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil
in the cruse,” but the LORD God of Israel referred to it as “the barrel
of meal” and “the cruse of oil.” Do we put the Lord’s interests first as
this widow did? Do we? If we do, then He will look after our interests.

“Bring all the
tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in My house, and prove Me
now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of
heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to
receive it” (Mal. 3:10).

“Seek ye first
the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added
unto you” (Matt. 6:33).

A little boy
once said to his mother when things were at low ebb:“Oh, mother, I believe God
waits until He hears the scraping of the bottom of the barrel.” And He does
hear. He is the all-sufficient One. May we just trust, and make use of faith’s
keys, and “The barrel of meal shall not waste and the cruse of oil shall not
fail.”

(From Help
and Food, Vol. 46.)

                             *
* *

May we thus, in God confiding,

And from self‑dependence
free,

Find our rest—in Christ abiding—

Till with joy Himself we see.

                                              Philip
Doddridge

Of David it is said that he
"went on and grew great," or as translated by another, "went on
going and growing" (2 Sam. 5:10).

"The LORD God of hosts was
with him" (5:10). He was progressing in the establishment of his kingdom.
His enemies were being laid low by his armies. The well-being of his people was
being assured, prosperity was marking his rule. He was going on and growing.

Should it not be thus with us who
believe, in these glad Christian days?  We should go and grow.

We should be found progressing on
our heavenly homeward way. Is there not danger, great danger, of
settling down satisfied with knowing that our sins are forgiven, that our souls
are saved, that eternal life is ours, that heaven is secured for eternity?

In the thought of God for His own
these blessings, great as they may be, are but the beginnings of the good that
is ours as Christians. They are the A, B, C, and not the X, Y, Z; the starting
point, and not the terminus, of the believer’s benefits. Beyond these there is
much land to be entered upon and we should press on to possess our possessions,
to enjoy all that God has made ours in Christ.

This energy of faith is found in
the apostle Paul. Thirty years after his conversion he tells us his earnest
endeavor in the words, "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high
calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:14). He still pressed on his way
to finish his course. He did not stop to count the milestones already past. He
did not measure the distance already traversed. The goal was still before him.
He had been laid hold of by Christ for glory and until that was reached he
would not rest. Meanwhile, his heart was set on the glory of Christ and the
furtherance of His interests. "That I may know Him, and the power of His
resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto
His death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the
dead" (Phil. 3:10,11). What "going" is in these words! And the
apostle calls upon Christians to be thus minded and to "be followers
together" of himself (3:17). Should we not stir up ourselves to pursue,
shaking ourselves free of all that would hinder us?

                             * * *

Furthermore, we should be found growing.
We begin as babes in Christ. This is right. But we should grow up to be men in
Christ.

Parents rejoice to see their
little ones develop. They delight in the baby ways, but they look for growth as
the days pass by, and that childhood and youth will be succeeded by manhood and
womanhood.

So it is for us to grow up into Christ
in all things, to have our faith grow exceedingly (2 Thess. 1:3), to "grow
in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2
Pet. 3:18), that we may attain perfection, maturity, and full growth as
Christians, and thus be more and more for the pleasure of our Lord, and more
and more fruitful for His praise and for the blessing of others.

Our Lord has graciously provided
for all this "going and growing." We do not have to set about these
things in our own strength. God has given to us the Holy Spirit to empower us
and to guide us in our way. He has given to us boldness to enter into the
holiest, right of access into His immediate presence. There at the throne of
grace we obtain and fine grace for seasonable help. He has given to us His Word
upon which to feed as new born babes, desiring "the sincere milk of the
Word that we may grow thereby" (1 Pet. 2:2). Giving diligence in reading
and meditating upon the holy Scriptures, we shall be able to say with the
prophet of old, "Thy words were found and I did eat them; and Thy Word was
unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart" (Jer. 15:16). True prosperity
will be ours.

God has given to us for our
encouragement others like-minded with ourselves, fellow-members of His body,
the assembly. Companying with them we shall find mutual help and edification.

May going and growing mark us all
more and more.

"I will go in the strength of
the Lord GOD" (Psa. 71:16).

(From Help and Food, Vol.
45.)

                         Introduction

When we are
experiencing pain, grief, or suffering we tend to ask lots of questions:Why am
I having so much pain? Why did my loved one have to die? Why isn’t God
answering my prayers? What did I do to deserve this? Where is God in all of
this? A well-known television preacher was trying to answer these questions and
is reported to have said the following:“I want you to know that God has
nothing whatsoever to do with suffering and death. All pain, suffering, and
death is the responsibility of the devil.” Do you agree with that statement? No
doubt this preacher meant well in trying to vindicate God, trying to defend God
before people who might be angry at Him because of suffering and death. But I
believe he was very wrong in his explanation. There is nothing wrong with our
trying to defend God against the attacks or hard feelings of others, but we
must do it according to the truth of His Word. The truth of the Scriptures is
that God has everything to do with pain and suffering.

                             Why?

Why does God
allow pain and suffering? And why is it important for us to know why? Our
questions relate primarily to the meaning and purpose of our pain. If we know
there is a meaningful outcome, it will be far easier for us to endure the pain
and suffering. I sometimes wonder how it is that so many women in the world
purposefully try to have more children after having to endure the discomforts,
morning sickness, and sometimes much worse of nine months of being pregnant,
and then experiencing the intense labor pains associated with childbirth. I
believe the answer lies in their expectation of experiencing the fruit of their
labors—the anticipated joy of having a baby—that makes it all seem worthwhile.

                       The
Olympic Games

Consider the
Olympic Games. Why would any man or woman want to put up with the long hours,
the grueling training, the pain, and the risk of injury to train for the Games?
Is it not because of the hope of being crowned, or receiving a medal, or
enjoying a moment of fame? Or for some who may have little hope of winning a
medal, it is the glory, the national recognition of simply being privileged to
compete in the Games. So when we are experiencing pain and suffering, we ask
"Why? What is the purpose in it?" because we want to know that our
suffering is going to result in long-term benefit to ourselves or others.

                       Job—a
Case Study

Let us take up
a case study of the patriarch Job—a man renowned for enduring pain and
suffering. Here is a synopsis of Job 1 and 2:

1. Job was a
God-fearing man (1:1).

2. He had many
children and was prosperous (1:2,3).

3. The Lord
took the initiative, asking Satan about Job (1:6-8).

4. Satan
responded, “Of course Job fears You! You have bribed Job!” (1:9-11).

5. Job suffered
the loss of his children, possessions, and health (1:13-19; 2:7).

Who was
responsible for Job’s loss? God? Satan? the Sabeans and Chaldeans? To some
extent all four shared in the responsibility. God allowed Satan freedom to do
these things to Job. What about the Sabeans and Chaldeans (1:15,17)? These two
groups could not say, “The devil made me do it,” or “God told the devil to make
me do it.” They no doubt had been looking at Job for a long time. Perhaps they
had even attempted to plunder Job’s possessions but God had protected Job and
his property up to this point by putting a “hedge about him and about his
house” (1:10). What is a hedge? An example may be found in 2 Kings 6:15-17.
When the prophet Elisha and his servant were surrounded by the Syrian troops,
they found themselves surrounded even more closely by an army of angels
protecting them. Once God removed the hedge around Job, all Satan had to do was
whisper into the ear of one of the Sabeans and Chaldeans, “Why don’t you try
Job again.” On the one hand, they were responsible before God for their own sinful
practices. On the other hand, God used their innate sinfulness to work out his
own purposes with Job. We see the same thing with respect to Nebuchadnezzar.
The Lord refers to the king of Babylon as “My servant” (Jer. 27:6). God made
use of Nebuchadnezzar’s sinful pride and ambition to apply a whipping to the
nation of Israel who had turned away from God. If we get robbed, the robber
will have to bear the consequences of his sinful actions before God the judge
of all; but at the same time, it is possible that the Lord removed for a brief
time, for reasons He knows best, the hedge of protection He had put around us.

In Job 2, the
Lord again took the initiative concerning Job. Satan complained that God did
not give him enough room to work with Job the first time around. Satan says,
“Touch his bone and his flesh and he will curse Thee to Thy face”(2:6).

                    Was Job
Treated Fairly?

Let us step
back a moment. Here is a controversy between God and Satan and poor Job seems
to be caught in the middle. Some might ask, “Is it fair for man to be
made a pawn in such affairs between God and Satan? What did poor Job do to
deserve such loss and suffering?” We must be very careful about asking
questions beginning with, “Is it fair?” or making statements, “It’s not fair.”
Let us rephrase the question:“Did Job deserve that God should continue
to give him great prosperity and good health?” And then we must ask:“Do I
deserve that God should bless me and prosper me continually? Does God owe
me anything?” Read carefully now; I am about to make perhaps the most important
point of this entire article:IF WE GOT WHAT WE DESERVED, WE WOULD ALL
BE IN THE LAKE OF FIRE AT THIS MOMENT, INCLUDING UPRIGHT JOB. Job had some
sense of this. He says, “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall
I return there; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name
of the Lord” (1:21). Again he says when covered with boils, “Shall we receive
good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil?” (2:10). Dear brothers
and sisters in Christ:Do you realize how immensely blessed each one of us is?
God has been so merciful to us! We tend to take His mercies for granted. So
when He occasionally withholds His mercy from us, when someone or something
dear to us is taken away from us, we may get angry at God as if we deserve
to have that precious person or thing. I DON’T DESERVE ONE SINGLE THING IN THIS
LIFE! The only thing I deserve is eternal separation from God because of my
sins! Often when the gospel is preached we are reminded that none of us
deserves the wonderful salvation that God offers to us. But it is more than
this. None of us deserves ANYTHING! All that we have and are is a result of
God’s grace—favor shown to people who deserve the opposite. “Not by works of
righteousness that we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us”
(Tit. 3:5). If we don’t deserve the greatest blessing of all—God’s eternal
salvation—then surely we don’t deserve any lesser blessing.

                    Are We
Treated Fairly?

Have any of my
readers ever said or thought, “It’s not fair!”? As children, did you ever say,
“It’s not fair! Billy’s piece of cake is bigger than mine!”? As teenagers, did
you ever say to your parents, “It’s not fair! You let Susie stay out till 11:00
and you only let me stay out till 10:30!”? As adults, have you ever said, “It’s
not fair! Mr. Jones has not been with the company as long as I have and he has
been promoted above me!”? When we say or think, “It’s not fair the way I have
been treated,” we are essentially saying, “I deserve to be treated better.” We
need continually to remind ourselves, I DON’T DESERVE ANYTHING! That was one of
the lessons God was teaching Job and one of the lessons He wants us to learn
when He tests us and brings us into pain and suffering. This is why the apostle
Peter exhorted his readers, “Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 3:18). This is why the apostle Paul
exhorted young Timothy, “Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace
that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 2:1). We need to grow in the realization that
all we have and are is a result of God’s grace—demerited favor—toward us.
Instead of complaining about the things that go wrong in our lives, we need to
be reminded by the occasional set-backs we experience of all the things that
have gone well in our lives, by the grace and mercy of God, and all the things
that will go well with us for eternity. "For our light affliction,
that is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight
of glory" (2 Cor. 4:17).

                   A Lesson in
Righteousness

                           and
Mercy

Read Matt.
20:1-16. Here we have a lesson concerning righteousness and mercy. Was it
unrighteous for the master to give only a penny to those who had labored all
day? No, because that is what they agreed to be paid. But what about those who
got paid the same amount for less work? They were recipients of the master’s mercy.
They received more than they deserved. That is how God deals with all of
us each and every day. He gives us more than we deserve. And how much do
we deserve? That’s right, WE DON’T DESERVE ANYTHING! The master says, “Is it
not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is your eye evil because I
am good?” God says, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy” (Rom. 9:15).

                   Job Brought
Glory to God

Up to this
point Job vindicated God:“Shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall
we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips” (Job 2:10). Job
did not curse God as Satan had said he would. Job therefore brought great glory
to God by his patience in putting up with his great loss and pain and
suffering. His patience is especially noted in the New Testament:“You have
heard of the patience of Job” (Jas. 5:11). Job brought glory to God by
declaring God’s sovereign right to do what He wants to do with His created
beings. Here is one reason God allows pain and suffering:it gives His people
an opportunity to bring glory to Him by the way they respond to that pain and
suffering.

                     Another
Kind of Pain

As long as Job
was by himself, he handled his suffering very well. But now we have three more
characters coming on the scene—Job’s three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and
Zophar. They had come to mourn with Job and comfort him, and initially they did
weep (2:12). But then they sat down with him seven days and nights and none
spoke a word unto Job. Sometimes we may find ourselves in a situation where we
have gone to comfort a friend or relative, and we cannot find any words to say.
All we can do is sit and hold that person’s hand and perhaps listen to what
he/she has to say. Sometimes this may be the best way of comforting the person—just
being there. Maybe this is what Job’s three friends were doing. But their
speeches to Job in the subsequent chapters suggest that their silence meant
something else to Job. I believe Job detected looks of disapproval and
accusation on the faces of his three friends, even before they opened their
mouths. Job 16:4 suggests that they were shaking their heads at him. Have you
ever had the experience, perhaps with your wife or husband or your parent or
child? You detect a certain look on that person’s face and you ask, “What’s the
matter?” And the other responds, “Did I say anything was the matter?” “No, but I
can read it on your face.”

I believe Job
could read on the faces of his three friends exactly what they were thinking.
And what was that? As manifested later by their speeches to Job, they were
thinking that Job must have committed some terrible sin in order for God to be
punishing him so severely. Was their thinking “off the wall” as we might say?
Were they expounding principles that were contrary to what they knew about God?
No, not at all. It is generally believed that Job lived around the same time as
the patriarch Abraham. Job and his three friends surely knew the story of God’s
destruction of nearly the entire human race in the great flood because of their
wickedness. It may have been in the lifetime of Job and his friends that Sodom
and Gomorrah were destroyed because of the people’s wickedness. And on the
other hand, they surely knew the story of righteous, godly Enoch being taken
straight to heaven without dying. So the principle that these three friends
were espousing, that man’s suffering is proportional to his sin and his
prosperity and blessing is proportional to his righteousness, was not out of
line with what they had learned at that time concerning God’s dealings with
man. The only problem was that man’s sin and man’s righteousness are not the only
factors that bear upon his suffering or prosperity. The three friends were
totally wrong in applying those general principles to Job.

I believe Job
realized what his friends were thinking and he began to feel sorry for himself.
The only thing worse than suffering and not knowing why, is having your
so-called friends tell you that you must be a really bad sinner because of your
suffering. Job knew he was a righteous man who tried in every way to please
God. The condemning looks of his three friends may have started him thinking,
“What right does God have to punish me so severely? I surely do not deserve it,
as my friends seem to think. What could possibly be God’s purpose in it?” And
so Job, not knowing the purpose and meaning of his great suffering, cries out
at the beginning of chapter 3 and curses the day of his birth. (Note that he
does not curse God, though he comes close to it.) He cannot take it any more.
He wishes he were dead, or that he had never been born! What follows is over 30
chapters of dialogue between Job and his three friends plus a younger man,
Elihu, who comes on the scene later on. The three friends try to get Job to
admit to the great sin of which he must be guilty. Job all the while protests
his innocence. Then he begins to complain to God (chapters 29-31). Note that
Job and his friends start out rather mildly, but progress to caustic and biting
words against each other (compare 4:2-7 with 22:5-9). Just so with us, disputes
that begin over small things can quickly escalate to something ugly. That is
why those who play the role of peacemakers, who seek to restore others who are
“overtaken in a fault” must do their work “in the spirit of meekness” (Gal.
6:1).

                     Physical
Pain versus

                          People
Pain

Let me insert
here the observation that God’s people—like Job—often are able to handle
physical pain and suffering much better than the bad behavior of other people.
We tend to think of the physical sufferings as being from the Lord, but when people
hurt us with their actions or words or insinuations or the disapproving looks
on their faces, we easily take offense. Our human pride is wounded. We feel a
need to defend ourselves. But these “people trials” are allowed by God for our
benefit as much as the trials of physical pain and suffering. Such trials
provide a very good and sobering means of helping us to see the immense amount
of pride that lurks in our deceitful and desperately wicked hearts. So when we
are experiencing a trial as a result of a difficult person in our lives, it is always
well for us to examine ourselves whether there is pride in our hearts that
needs to be judged.

                       God’s
Perspective

Job rehearses
the many good and righteous deeds he performed throughout his lifetime
(chapters 29 and 31), suggesting that God should be rewarding him rather than
causing him such pain and loss. He implies that he is more righteous than God
(35:2). He cries out, “Oh that one would hear me! Behold, my desire is that the
Almighty would answer me” (31:35). God never tells Job why He has caused him so
much pain and suffering. Rather, God responds to Job by saying in essence:
“Job, do you presume to tell Me how great and wonderful your works and good
deeds are? Let Me ask you some questions before I answer yours”:
“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? … Who shut up the
sea with doors? … Have you commanded the morning since your days and
caused the dayspring to know his place? … Have you perceived the breadth of
the earth? … Who has begotten the drops of dew? … Can you …  loose the
bands of Orion? … Did you give goodly wings unto the peacocks? … Does the
eagle mount up at your command? … Shall he who contends with the Almighty
instruct Him? He who reproves God, let him answer it. The Job answered the Lord
and said, Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer Thee? I will lay my hand upon
my mouth. Once have I spoken, but I will not answer; yea, twice, but I will
proceed no further” (38:4,8,12,18,28,31; 39:13,27; 40:2-5).

Job is starting
to get the picture, but God is not yet through with him:“Will you condemn Me,
that you may be righteous? Have you an arm like God? or can you thunder with a
voice like Him? … Whatsoever is under the whole heaven is Mine” (40:8,9;
41:11). In other words, God is saying to Job, “Who are you, Job, that you
should be telling me about your works and good deeds. I think something
is backward here!” Job responds, “I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the
ear, but now my eye sees Thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and
ashes” (42:5,6). Among the other purposes of God’s testing of Job, we see that
there was a root of self-righteousness and pride and self-importance in Job
that needed to be uncovered. He “was perfect and upright, and one who feared
God and eschewed evil” (1:1). But we also read that “Job … was righteous in
his own eyes” (32:1). He had to come to see himself from God’s perspective. Job
was “the greatest of all the men of the east” (1:3). But he had to learn the
immense power and greatness of God and his own littleness in comparison. And
Job did learn these lessons, repenting before God in dust and ashes. Job had
also spoken sinfully and impatiently to his three friends; even though they
were wrong in their accusations against him, he had to humble himself to pray
for them (42:10).

                   The Fire of
Purification

God took a man
who was already perfect and upright before his fellow men, one whom his fellows
admired and looked up to. And God put Job through the fire of pain and
suffering to purify him even more. A goldsmith does not take random
pieces of rock and melt them down to see if there is any gold in them. Rather
he takes that which already gives every evidence of being gold. He then heats
the gold until it melts in order for impurities to rise to the surface. The
goldsmith skims off the impurities in order to make the gold more pure. Just
so, our trials and sufferings often have a purifying effect upon us. The
psalmist prays, “Cleanse Thou me from secret faults” (Psa. 19:12). Trials of
pain and suffering may help to uncover within us pride or hidden faults that we
were not aware of. “You greatly rejoice …  that the trial of your faith,
being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with
fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus
Christ” (1 Pet. 1:6,7).

We already
referred to gold that is refined by heat. The quality and value of clay pottery
likewise is directly proportional to the degree of heat applied to it. The
finer pottery that is decorated in different colors may have to be fired
several times, once for each different mineral used to give it color. Diamonds,
on the other hand, are pieces of carbon that have been subjected to intense
pressures. Diamonds in the rough are then cleaved and cut to produce facets
that reflect light in an optimal manner. So nature teaches us that the finest,
most beautiful jewelry and pottery comes only from intense heat, pressure, and
cutting. Likewise, the finest, most beautiful Christians tend to emerge from
intense trials and sufferings.

God chastens us
“for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness” (Heb. 12:10). “All
things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the
called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28). And what is that purpose of God
for His own? The next verse tells us:that we might “be conformed to the image
of His Son.”

                    Benefits
from Suffering

In summary,
there were several kinds of benefits that came out of Job’s sufferings. First,
God was glorified in that Job did not curse Him as Satan had predicted. Do we
love and appreciate God so much that we value the opportunity presented to us
by pain and suffering to bring glory to Him? Second, Job was purified through
the suffering; he learned more about himself (especially his pride and
self-righteousness) and God; he learned to see himself in his proper
relationship to God—God’s intrinsic greatness and his own smallness. Third, God
commended Job for speaking right things about God (42:7,8). Fourth, and perhaps
least, God blessed Job in the end with far more material possessions than he
had at the beginning as well as with long life (42:12-17).

If we look at
that long hero-roll in Hebrews 11, is it not striking that it is for triumph
over earthly difficulties that their names are emblazoned thereon? No doubt
there is in this a lesson for us that is enforced by the principle of our
Lord’s utterance:“If I have told you of earthly things and you believe not,
how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things?” Are we not apt often
to be more sure of the heavenly than the earthly? Are we not more afraid about
things down here than of righteousness and eternal judgment? Why is this? Is
Christ less reliable in His promises as to earth than He is as to those
concerning heaven? Can we be certain as to the future if the present is clouded
with doubt?

The story of
Zacharias in the temple gives us a remarkable instance of the inconsistency of
faith. He is in the presence of God. He is offering incense, without which none
could enter the presence of God and live. Without doubt he is firmly convinced
that it is Jehovah with whom he has to do. Yet, when suddenly on the right hand
of the altar there appears an angelic messenger from God, he is afraid. He does
not tremble in the presence of God, but he trembles in the presence of His
messenger! There are two things that we may notice about Zacharias. First, it says
he was doing what was the custom for priests to do. Very possibly when
he had first offered that incense to the holy God, he had done it in fear and
trembling; but as day after day passed he had grown familiar with the truth
that God would have him carry out, and his fear had taken wings and fled. But
he was not accustomed to seeing an angel, so he trembled.

But he saw
an angel also; God he did not see. Oh how the faint vision of our fleshly eyes
will at times fill us to the blotting out for a time of all the eternal truths
that are summed up in Him who is the living “Truth”!

There are two
things that tend to lead to God’s people being sure as to eternity, but
doubting as to time, and they are just those two things with which we have
become familiar by hearing. First of all we have become well grounded in the
eternal security of the believer. We have grown familiar with the thought that
“Death and judgment are behind us, grace and glory are before.” We have
reasoned much about God’s Word being pledged that heaven is inviting us to
enter into its “love and light and song” through the merits of Jesus’ blood,
but we have not exercised ourselves in the same way about the present. We have
not considered that God’s Word is just as surely pledged as to our security
amid earthly troubles as it is as to safety from the storm of judgment, and
consequently we doubt. How inconsistent it would be if we should be valiant
before the consequences of our sin and all the marshaled hosts of hell while at
the same time cringing before the circumstances of this present life!

The next moment
after his fear we find that Zacharias has so forgotten it that he asks the
angel how he shall know that his promise is true. Again we have a marvelous
inconsistency, but what is the reason? What has made him forget his fear of
God’s messenger and question his word? Why he looks at circumstances. He says,
“I am an old man,” and consequently it seems impossible that a child should be
born. We remember here also that thus, too, had Abraham, the pattern man of
faith, been overcome. How solemn and sad that God has to bring in other
circumstances to convince Zacharias, and so for his lack of faith he is struck
dumb!

O my reader,
has not this dumbness fallen often also upon you and me because of our unbelief.
Have not our mouths been closed and our voice of testimony hushed because we
could not trust God as to the things of daily life?

There are many
degrees of faith. What is your degree? Is it such as those had to whom the Lord
could not commit Himself because it was only intellectual? Or is it like
Peter’s who truly had faith enough to walk for a way on the waters, but whose
faith in the power of the waves presently grew greater than his trust in
Christ, and he began to sink? Do a thousand dollars in your pockets give you
more rest of mind than a check on your heavenly Father’s bank for full supply
of all your need, yes, of everything that is good for you (Rom. 8:28)?
Does the assurance, “My God shall supply all your need,” leave you still
in doubt whether it was ever intended that you should trust Him for tomorrow’s
supply of bread? Do you take anxious thought for the morrow when your Lord has
enjoined upon you not to do so, solemnly asserting that your Father in heaven
knows all about it and will care for it? If it be so, is it not better also for
you to trust that a thousand charitable deeds will do more to save you from
hell than all the pledged Word of God? O dear reader, let us have more faith in
Christ than we do in circumstances!

Let me close
this paper with a beautiful example of how to argue from circumstances and
triumph over them. There was a violent earthquake once that greatly alarmed the
inhabitants of a certain village. They rushed out of their houses, their faces
full of consternation, fearing sudden destruction. There was one old woman,
however, whose face was a marked contrast to those of the rest. It seemed to
beam with joy. One of the villagers was so struck with it that he could not
help asking her:“Mother, how is it you look so happy; aren’t you afraid?” “Oh
no indeed,” came the bright answer. “I rejoice that I have a God who can shake
the earth!” She saw the God who was in it all and well she might rejoice. Oh,
shall we not cry much to God to give us more a simple, child-like trust. It is
a prize well worth striving for and will richly reward its diligent seeker.

(From Help
and Food, Vol. 20.)

“For the LORD
God is a sun and shield; the LORD will give grace and glory; no good thing will
He withhold from those who walk uprightly. O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man
who trusts in Thee” (Psa. 84:11,12).

“And we know
that ALL THINGS work together for good to those who love God, to those who are
the called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28).

All Scripture
from beginning to end is a revelation of God. In these two quotations we have a
word from the Old and one from the New Testament. They reveal what God is to
His people. The revelations were suited to the different times in which they
were written, and we may note as one of the wonders of the Book that while
Romans could not have been written before the cross, yet the value of the
Psalms and the whole Old Testament has not been diminished by Christ’s coming,
but increased immensely. Both reveal God’s relationship to those who were and
to those who are His people.

How much is
expressed in the words “sun” and “shield.” Men are learning more and more of the
blessings that the sun brings to mankind and to the earth. Placed at such a
distance away, yet it is the perpetual source of countless blessings to the
earth and all upon it. Its ministry is unceasing. It is the servant of its
Creator. It is a picture of His power, His goodness, His wrath. Around us we
see the blessings brought by the sun. In the torrid zone with its vast deserts
is to be seen the power of the sun to blight and destroy.

Once there were
no deserts, no icebergs, no barren lands. The climate of the earth was mild to
the poles. The science of the day with its unbelief in God and Scripture has
little or nothing to say of this time in the history of the earth because
evolution has no explanation to offer for it, or for why, when, or how there came
about such a mighty change in climate on the earth. Of all the writings known
to man, only the Book of Genesis gives an account of the change and its causes.
God the Creator brought about the change on account of man’s sin.

But God is also
a shield. While the sun is a source of blessing, the shield guards from evil.
And probably no words in Scripture make this power of God so vivid as the
quotation from Rom. 8:28. From some permitted evil source there comes that
which, were it not for God’s constant care, would harm. He simply makes it work
for good. We have the greatest possible example of this in the cross. All
sources of evil unite there to accomplish the greatest crime ever known; and
God glorifies Himself in making the cross the greatest blessing ever known. The
infinite Power that made the cross an infinite blessing can surely make all
other attempts of evil turn to blessing. “There shall no evil befall thee”
(Psa. 91:10) reveals what a wonderful shield our God is.

We have an
example of it in 2 Corinthians 12. Satan was permitted to send a special
messenger to bear evil to Paul, “a thorn in the flesh.” Here the man who wrote,
“We know that all things work together for good those who love God,” got a
perfect example of that great truth. The Lord God is a shield. Anything
that would make a man so used to suffering as Paul was pray three times that it
might depart from him must have been some terrible affliction. But God did not
remove it. He had a far better way. He made the evil into a very great blessing.
Read over again the Scriptures at the head of this article. Place beside them,
“There shall no evil befall thee.”

Do you not get
a wonderful view of the power of God to make all things work together for good?
Evil cannot befall those who are Christ’s because He turns it into blessing!
Could anything be more wonderful? It starts out an evil, but before it gets to
God’s people it is turned into a blessing. Well, now, if in the battle every
stroke of the enemy, instead of harming, only adds to your strength because of
that power in God to thus change it, why should any of the Lord’s people fear?
God has put into your hands the “shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able
to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked” (Eph. 6:16).

Do you not see
why Psalm 84 ends with “O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in
Thee”? Try as he might, Satan could not harm Paul. God made Paul evil-proof.
There simply could not any evil befall him, for when it reached him it was
turned to blessing. “He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for you, for My
strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory
in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take
pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in
distresses for Christ’s sake:for when I am weak, then am I strong” (2 Cor.
12:8-10).

Now, if all
things do really work together for good to those who love God, is not the
knowledge of that power of God the very best thing for God’s people in days
like the present? Everywhere there is a pressure that has never been felt
before. For every one who loves God this pressure means not evil but good.
You can leave every other question out but one:Do you love your Saviour? Have
you His Holy Spirit? “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Spirit who is given unto us” (Rom. 5:5). If anyone has received the Holy Spirit
by faith in Christ, then we may be sure all that comes is being made to work
for good to us. It means turning away from self and sin and the world, and
receiving Christ as our only Saviour. That is all and that is enough. It is a
part of the rest He gives.

(From Help
and Food, Vol. 50.)

(Luke 15:20)                                                 

In the distant land of famine,

Craving with
the swine to feed;

Oh, how bitter that awakening

To my sin, and
shame, and need!

Dark and dreary all around me,

Now no more by
sin beguiled;

I would go and seek my Father,

Be a bondsman,
not a child.

Yet a great way off He saw,

Ran to kiss me
as I came;

As I was my Father loved me,

Loved me in my
sins and shame.

Then in bitter grief I told Him

Of the evil I
had done—

Sinned in scorn of Him, my
Father,

Was not meet
to be His son.

But I know not if He listened,

For He spake
not of my sin—

He within His house would have
me,

Make me meet
to enter in;

From the riches of His glory

Brought His
costliest raiment forth,

Brought the ring that sealed His
purpose,

Shoes to tread
His golden courts.

Put them on me—robes of glory,

Spotless as
the heavens above;

Not to meet my thoughts
of fitness

But His
wondrous thoughts of love.

Then within His home He led me,

Brought me
where the feast was spread,

Made me eat with Him, my Father,

I, who begged
for bondsman’s bread!

Not a suppliant at His gateway,

But a son
within His home;

To the love, the joy, the
singing,

To the glory I
am come.

Gathered round that wondrous
temple,

Filled with
awe His angels see

Glory lighting up the Holiest,

In that glory
Him and me.

This the ransomed sinner’s
story,

All the
Father’s heart made known—

All His grace to me the sinner,

Told by
judgment on His Son—

Told by Him from depths of
anguish,

All the
Father’s love for me,

By the curse, the cross, the
darkness,

Measuring what
that love must be.

(Abridged from
Hymns of Ter Steegen and Others, Vol. 1.)

"I beseech you therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God" (Rom. 12:1).

The first lesson to be learned
here is a very important one—the apostle’s style of address. How graciously and
tenderly he entreats the saints at Rome as brethren! Great apostle as he was,
he places them all on the same level with himself. This, of course, is true of
all Christians as regards their pardon and acceptance in Christ, however varied
their condition may be as to the manifestation of the divine nature. "One
is your Master, even Christ, and all of you are brethren" (Matt. 23:8).
But how endearing is the apostle’s manner, compared with the high, imperious
style of many who profess to be His successors, or at least to be ministers of
Christ! "I beseech you therefore, brethren." This is true humility
though accompanied with divine authority. Only nearness to the Lord can give
both. But what an example for all Christians when having to do with the poorest
of the flock!

"The mercies of God."
This is the foundation on which the exhortation rests. True Christian
devotedness evidently flows from the devout consideration of the mercies or
compassions of God to the poor outcast sinner. The apostle appeals to the
hearts of the brethren as being happily acquainted with the riches of divine
mercy to lost and ruined souls. The effect of meditating on this aspect of
God’s character is transformation to His image, and devotedness to His glory,
as our holy, acceptable, and reasonable service. Most blessed, precious
privilege! And this holy imitation of the divine character, be it observed, is
not the result of our own efforts, but flows naturally from the blessed truth
that we are made partakers of the divine nature, as taught more fully by the
apostle elsewhere. "Be therefore followers [or imitators] of God, as dear
children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us, and has given Himself
for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor"
(Eph. 5:1,2). Here pause for a moment and meditate deeply; the subject is vast
and most practical. Talking of devotedness, of holiness, of consecration, what
is your standard? Is it your own possible attainments by unwearied watchings,
fastings, diligence, or what? Self in a thousand ways may be your governing
object, but wrong in all. Could God present a lesser or lower object to His
children than Himself, as morally displayed in the Person and work of His
beloved Son? Impossible! As another has written:"It would dishonor
Himself and the grace He has shown us; and it would be the most grievous loss
to His beloved children whom He would train and bless yet more and more even in
this scene of evil and sorrow, turning the most adverse circumstances into an
occasion of teaching us what He is in the depths of His grace…. Neither law
nor even promise ever opened such a field as this. The very call so to imitate
God supposes the perfect grace in which we stand:indeed, it would be
insupportable otherwise" (Lectures on Ephesians by W. Kelly.)

Returning to Romans 12, the word
"mercies" is here used in the plural because it signifies, not mercy
as an attribute of God simply, but the compassions of God that have been fully
manifested to us in so many different ways. It may have a special reference to
verse 31 of chapter 11 where we find Jews as well as Gentiles concluded in
unbelief that God may have mercy upon all. It was pure mercy that thought of us
in the counsels of eternity, that gave us a place in the purposes of God, that
wrote our names in the Lamb’s book of life, that watched over us in the days of
our unbelief, that called us by His gospel, that gave us deliverance from sin
and condemnation, that gave us the Holy Spirit, union with Christ, the hope of
His coming, communion with God the Father, and the enjoyment of all the
unspeakable blessings of His grace and love.

"That you present your bodies
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service." The apostle leaves no room here for the liberty of the flesh, or
for going back to the law as a rule of life. The believer is to be formed
morally by the knowledge of God, and consecrated to Him as his reasonable
service. It is of the body, or outer man, that the apostle expressly speaks.
The body is here viewed as the sacrifice, and the believer as presenting it, so
that the whole man is to be yielded up as an offering to the Lord.

If you would understand this
character of devotedness, you must study and master chapter 6 of Romans. There
we learn that Christians are, first of all, to reckon themselves "dead
indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (6:11).
We are brought into this position by death and resurrection ,as set forth in
baptism, in virtue of the finished work of Christ. "Therefore we are
buried with him by baptism unto death, that like as Christ was raised up from
the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of
life" (6:4). Baptism is the symbol of Christians having part with Christ
in death. He died for sin, and they died to sin in His death. This is the grand
fundamental truth of entire devotedness and practical holiness. "How shall
we who are dead to sin live any longer therein?" (6:2). Such is the
reasoning of the Spirit of God. All true Christians believe that Christ died for
our sins, but comparatively few believe or enter into the truth that we died
to sin in His death.

The consequences of not
apprehending this plain truth is occupation with self in all things. Whether it
be the young believer longing after peace with God, or the advanced believer
straining after holiness and perfection, they are looking for it within. The
eye is turned inward in search after feelings, or a consciousness of having
arrived at a higher state of Christian life.

Coming back again to chapter 12,
the idea of sacrifice is surely that of entire consecration—of body, soul, and
spirit. The devoted victim under the law was slain and laid on God’s altar. It
was an act of complete surrender. Christians are to present their own
"bodies" as a "living sacrifice" in contrast with
the sacrifices of the law that were put to death. It is self-sacrifice, and
"with such sacrifices God is well pleased" (Heb. 13:16). And it is
the only sacrifice that is holy and acceptable to Him now.

"And be not conformed to this
world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what
is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God" (Rom. 12:2). The
connection between the first and second verses is beautiful. We have the body
in the one and the mind in the other; the whole man is brought in. We are also
reminded thereby that mere bodily exercise, though consisting in the diligent
observance of rites and ceremonies, would profit nothing without the renewal of
the mind. The inner as well as the outer man must be formed morally for God and
His service. Hence the one grand end for the Christian to gain is the
discernment of the will of God; and the highest expression of Christian life in
this world is the life that is most perfectly subject to the divine will. We
have to prove—though we may be long in doing so—that this and this only is
good, acceptable, perfect, and well pleasing in His sight.

"And be not conformed to this
world." This is a difficult lesson to learn. To be personally in a place
where the habits and opinions of men rule, and yet to be outside of it morally
where the will of God rules, is our lesson. Nothing but the grace of God and a
close walk with Him could make us triumph here. The secret of our strength is
the knowledge of Christ and the heart’s occupation with Him.

"But be transformed by the
renewing of your mind." We have briefly glanced at the negative side of
the second verse—non-conformity to the world, separateness from its maxims and
ways. We now come to the positive side—the renewing of the mind. This is all
important. It is the renewal of the whole inner man, the deep springs of the
heart which only the eye of God can see. He looks for the renewal of the
understanding, affections, and will. Our old ideas which ruled the mind before
we knew God and His Christ must all be given up, and new thoughts, new motives,
new objects, new feelings, new intentions, springing from our one new
object—Christ in the glory—must have full sway over all the faculties of the
mind as well as over all the members of the body. There must be a complete
transformation within and without by the renewing of the mind. The Christian is
a new man in Christ, "which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him
who created him" (Col. 1:10).

Without the inward renewal which
the apostle here insists upon, there could be no discernment of the mind of God
and no real separation from the world. The outward difference between the
believer and the man of the world must flow from the condition of the mind as
renewed and strengthened by grace. Otherwise, it would be the merest formality.
The path of separation is too narrow for the natural eye to discern. No broad
lines are laid down in the Word of God to mark the Christian’s way through this
world; the spiritual eye alone can see the way out of it.

The calling and responsibility of
the Christian, then, is to "prove what is that good, and acceptable, and
perfect will of God." This is to be our one grand object as to the whole
path of our service in this world. How is this end to be gained? By
like-mindedness to Christ. "Let this mind be in you, which was also in
Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5). If we are to walk so as to please God, we must
walk even as Christ walked (1 John 2:6).

The measure of the soul’s
obedience to the will of God is Christ; He must be the one object before the
mind. But to prove that will practically, we must be whole-hearted for
Him, and be strengthened by the power of His grace acting on the renewed mind.
Christian devotedness is thus complete when the whole man is consecrated to the
Lord and laid upon His altar. The body is yielded up, the mind is transformed,
the will of God is discerned, and the man as a whole is devoted to God.

Elsewhere the apostle prays for
the complete sanctification of the entire man:"And the very God of peace
sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be
preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thess.
5:23). In this remarkable passage, it is the expressed will of God that those
who have been saved through grace, and brought into relationship with himself,
should be entirely consecrated to Him. This, surely, is devotedness without
limit. It is the will of our God that the Christian, in every part of his
being, should be wholly sanctified or consecrated to himself. What grace, what
love, what goodness! It is overwhelming! As water rises to its level, so God
would have us, in every though of our minds, in every part of our being, rise
to Himself as our proper object, resource, and rest.

Oh fellow Christians, we may well
give up the tinseled vanities of time for the glories of eternity! But even now
we know our place in the glory. Christ in His Person and in His present
position in the presence of God is the expression of our place there. Every
believer has his place before God in Christ and in the righteousness of God
which He accomplished in Christ, having glorified Himself in that obedient,
blessed One. And now God would have all who are brought into this relationship
with Himself, to have no object before our minds but Christ in the glory, so
that we may do His will, and be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ.

"Wherefore laying aside all
malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as
newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that you may grow
thereby" (1 Pet. 2:1,2).

In one sense, as here taught us by
the Spirit of God through the apostle, the healthful position of the saint is
ever that of the "newborn babe." However, in another sense we are to
be making progress so as to become young men and fathers in Christ. As to
practical position of soul in receiving truth from God, it is that of the
newborn babe. But if we are to grow by the sincere milk of the Word, it is not
by the exercise of our minds upon the Word, nor yet even by the greatest study
of it. We need the teaching of the Holy Spirit, and in order to this, there must
be the exercising of ourselves unto godliness—the "laying aside all
malice, etc." so that the Holy Spirit may not be grieved. There can be no
growth in the true knowledge of the things of God if these things are working
in the Christian’s heart. Therefore he is called upon to be ever a
"newborn babe" in the consciousness of his own weakness, littleness,
and ignorance, and in simplicity of heart coming to receive food from the Word
of God.

Having "tasted that the Lord
is gracious" (2:3), we come to His Word and receive from Him that which we
need to comfort, nourish, and refresh our souls. I may study the Word again and
again, but unless I get into communion with Him by it, it will profit me
nothing—at least at the time.

God does not reveal His things to
"the wise and prudent" but unto "babes" (Matt. 11:25). It
is not the strength of man’s mind judging about "the things of God"
that gets the blessing from Him; rather it is the spirit of the babe desiring
"the sincere milk of the Word."

This applies as well to the
speaking of God’s truth. Whenever we cannot "speak as the oracles of
God" through the power of communion, it is our business to be silent. We
should be cautious not to trifle with truth that we have not made our own and
acted upon in our own lives. We then act as masters and not as learners, and
our spiritual growth is greatly hindered. Our position as regards speaking the
truth of God must be ever that of "newborn babes."

"If so be you have tasted
that the Lord is gracious." How difficult it is for us to believe this!
the natural feeling of our hearts is, "Thou art an austere man" (Luke
19:21). Consider the poor prodigal in Luke 15; the thought of his father’s
grace never once entered into his mind when he set out on his return, and therefore
he only reckoned on being received as a "hired servant." But what
does the father say? "Bring forth the best robe, etc." This is grace,
free grace.

Our natural heart has gotten so
far away from God that it will look to anything in the world—to the devil
even—to get happiness; anywhere but to the grace of God. Our consciences, when
at all awakened to a sense of sin and of its hatefulness in the sight of God,
think that He cannot be gracious. Adam, had he known the grace of God, when he
found himself naked, would at once have gone to God to cover him. Rather, he
sought to hide himself from God among the trees of the garden. So it is with
us. The consciousness of being naked before God, apart from the understanding
of His grace, makes us flee from Him.

On the other hand, there is
sometimes the thought that grace implies God’s passing by sin. But no, quite
the contrary; grace supposes sin to be so horribly bad a thing that God cannot
tolerate it. Were it in the power of man to patch up his ways and mend himself
so as to stand before God, there would then be no need of grace. The very fact
of the Lord’s being gracious shows sin to be so evil a thing that man’s state
is utterly ruined and hopeless, and nothing but free grace will be able to meet
his need.

The Lord that I have known as
laying down His life for me is the same Lord that I have to do with every day
of my life; and all His dealings with me are on this same principle of grace. I
must continue to learn this as a "newborn babe desir[ing] the sincere milk
of the Word that I may grow thereby."

The great secret of growth is the
looking up to the Lord as gracious. How precious, how strengthening it is to
know that Jesus is at this moment feeling and exercising the same love towards
me as when He died upon the cross for me! This is a truth that should be used
by us in the most common everyday circumstances in life. Suppose, for example,
I find an evil temper in myself which I feel it difficult to overcome. Let me
bring it to Jesus as my Friend and virtue goes out of Him for my need. Faith
should be ever thus in exercise against temptation, and not simply my own
effort; my own effort against it will never be sufficient. The source of real
strength is in the sense of the Lord’s being gracious.

May the Lord give us thus to be
learners of the fullness of grace which is in Jesus so that we may be
"changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of
the Lord." May we, beloved, in searching into the truth of God,
"having tasted that the Lord is gracious," ever be found "as
newborn babes, desir[ing] the sincere milk of the Word, that [we] may grow
thereby."

(From "Growth through the
Truth" in Collected Writings, Vol. 12.)

Nothing seemed to be a greater
burden on the heart of the apostle Paul than to have the believers lay hold of
their privileges in Christ. We know that Christ has died for us, but this does
not have the power over us as it ought to have. In addition, we are risen with
Him; we are seated "together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus"
(Eph. 2:6) within the veil. The question is whether we are realizing this.

The secret of everything is found
in the truth, "You are complete in Him" (Col. 2:10). Christ Himself
said, "At that day you shall know that I am in My Father and you in
Me" (John 14:20). But what is that? and where is Christ now? In heaven.
Then I am there too, and my affections should be there also. My hope is to be
thoroughly identified with Him. The portion I have is what He has in the glory,
and all my associations are with Himself. He is in heaven, and I am there too
in spirit, and He will soon bring me there in fact.

Where did Paul see Christ? Not on
earth, for long after Christ had left the earth Paul was a persecutor. But he
saw Him in heavenly glory. His only knowledge of Christ at all was of a Christ
in heaven. Christ’s course on earth he might learn. But the revelation of
Christ that brought Paul’s soul into the presence of God in the power of an accomplished
redemption was the revelation of Christ in heaven and in glory.

It was this that ruled the
apostle’s affections, as he says, "that I may win Christ" (Phil.
3:8). His object was to "bear the image of the heavenly" (1 Cor.
15:49). His mind was full of it. The Holy Spirit has come down to bring all
these things to our remembrance.

What is the practical consequence
of all this? Why, if the glory He has is mine, and I am going on after Him,
then all the world is but dross and dung in my esteem. This will be faith’s
estimate of everything in the world, when Christ is filling the heart’s
affections, and when the soul is pressing on after Him in the certain hope of
being forever with Him. One moment’s real apprehension of Christ in the glory
is sufficient to dim the brightness and glitter of every earthly thing; but the
soul must be occupied alone with Christ for this.

If our affections and desires are
lingering on earth, or stopping short of a glorified Christ in heaven, as the
One in whom our life is hid, and to whom we are presently to be conformed in
glory, we shall find soon that earthly things are something more than dross and
dung. Leave a stone on the ground for a time and you will find that it will
gradually sink into it. And our hearts, if they are not practically in heaven
with Christ, will soon become attached to earthly things.

There is a constant tendency in
earthly things to press down the affections. Duties are more apt to lead away
the soul from God than open sin. Many a Christian has been ensnared by duties,
whose heart would have shrunk from open sin. But we have only one duty in all
the varying circumstances of life—to serve Christ. And we should remember that
if things on earth are dark and the heart is tested in journeying through the
world, all on the side of God is bright. "Wherefore leaving the word of
the beginning of Christ, let us go on to what belongs to full growth"
(Heb. 6:1).

(From The Bible Treasury,
Vol. N-7.)

Oh, the Rest of simply
trusting!

Yielded to my
Father’s will,

In His loving arms enfolded,

Just to trust
Him, and be still.

Rest from toiling, rest from
bearing;

Rest beneath
the midday sky;

Trusting Jesus, leaning on Him,

Truest,
sweetest rest have I!

Oh, the Peace of simply
trusting!

Perfect peace,
full, deep, serene,

Like an endless river flowing

With an
ever-brightening sheen.

Peace in conflict, peace in
trial,

Peace, while
tempests o’er me sweep;

’Mid the fiercest, wildest
tumults,

Christ my soul
in peace will keep.

Oh, the Joy of simply
trusting!

Is there joy can
equal this?

Calm delight and holy gladness,

Foretaste of
the coming bliss!

Joy, though sorrows dark enshroud
me;

Joy, though
doubts and fears assail;

Joy in deepest tribulation,

Trusting Him
who ne’er can fail.

Trusting! oh, who would not trust
Him,

When He gives
rewards like these?

Rest complete, and joy unending,

Fullest pardon,
perfect peace!

Trust Him—this is all the secret;

Take Him simply
at His word;

Trust Him only, trust Him wholly,

Christ, thy
Saviour and thy Lord!

(From Help
and Food, Vol. 42.)