At the Manchester, Kansas Conference Oct., 1905.
Chap. 3:15-iv,
(Continued from page 323- Vol. 23:)
We have now the covenant that God made with Abraham considered in relation to the law. Ques. What is a covenant?
Ans. Our verses. 15, 16, and 17 clearly tell. It is a promise made by God of something which He pledges Himself to do-the purpose of His own heart-by which a special relationship is formed between Him and the one to whom He makes the promise. In the case of Abraham now before us there are no conditions whatever, as we may see in Gen. 13:14-17, again in chap. 15:, and again to Isaac and to Israel. If we turn to Exod. 32:11-14, we shall see how Moses pleads this unconditional covenant at the very time when Israel deserved to be cut off for their ways. Nothing whatever can check God from the fulfilment of such a covenant. "Thou swarest by Thine own Self" makes it secure, whatever be the people's ways. But in Exod. 19:and 20:, there is another covenant made with the people-a conditional one. This is quite distinct and apart from the other, and, without affecting in the least the former, it brings in the dealings of God with the people because of their sinful ways. In i Kings 8:23-53, Solomon, at the dedication of the temple, refers to this conditional covenant.
It is the unconditional covenant which we have in our lesson here. The grace of God in Christ-that sovereign grace which saves to all eternity, and without any conditions whatever, every poor sinner who believes in Jesus is in nowise affected by the governmental ways of God upon those saved people, however severe they may have to be sometimes. So, the law which was given 430 years after God had made the promises, could in no wise hinder the fulfilment of the promises. It was not a condition imposed upon the unconditional grace, for conditional blessing is no grace at all. It was a totally new thing, introduced to prove to the people that grace was their only hope. Law then is given long after grace has been proclaimed, that men may learn how hopeless is their case except through sovereign grace.
Moses was the mediator of law between his people and God; and Christ is the Mediator of grace between His people and God; but both covenants are of the God who is One in all His mind, and who ordained both for the fulfilment of His one purpose. How grand are God's ways! How worthy of being searched out by us. He gave the law to teach us how desperately sinful we are; His law bringing out man's sin as transgression, so that in our despair we might turn to Christ and learn that we can become children of God only "by faith in Christ Jesus."
Ques. What is the difference between transgression and sin?
Ans. Sin is the outgoings of our sinful nature without the sense of its being forbidden. Transgression is the same under the sense that God forbids it, and this produces guilt. It makes sin "exceeding sinful."
Mark one very rich thought in this chapter:In ver. 16, the Spirit applies to Christ what the letter of the promise to Abraham applies to Isaac. We see in this how Christ fills the mind and heart of God.; Isaac – real fulfilment of the promise as he was- was only a figure of Christ who is the true Seed of Abraham. But in ver. 29, we, believers, are also called Abraham's seed. Does not this show the divine oneness in which we stand with Christ? And, whatever be the government of God upon us on the way, this oneness with Christ is what the grace of God has formed, and it never changes. In this New Creation oneness "there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female. Peter's gospel left the Jew still a Jew, and the Greek still a Greek, but Paul's did not. It was a revelation beyond Peter's, ushering in far deeper and more blessed things. It was taught to Paul by the Lord in heaven, whilst Peter had been taught by the Lord on earth. And you find in Scripture that the position the Lord occupies when He gives a revelation has much to do with the character of the revelation He gives.
Chap. 4:introduces to us the difference between the children of God before Christ came and since. They were born of God just the same as we are; children of God just the same as we are; possessors of eternal life just the same as we are. But they had not the intelligence of it as we have; nor the comfort of it therefore as we have; nor the power of it -A their souls and for their lives as we have; for since Christ has come and accomplished redemption, the Spirit has come and taken His abode in us. This was not before; the Spirit wrought in and with the people of God but did not dwell in them. We can have the comforts and joys of an accomplished redemption, but they could only look forward to its being accomplished. They had the dark cloud of the sufferings of Christ between them and the glory, whilst with us this cloud is past, and with unveiled faces we can look into the glory into which we may be transferred at any moment.
So by the appointment of God, they were just where a little child is by the appointment of his father under tutors and governors-and, though lord of all, differing in nothing from a servant.
Ques. But they were not mere servants, were they?
Ans. No, no more than a child is a mere servant because he is, for the time being, placed under tutors. There had to be a training for our souls which could be done effectually only in this way. What a blessing to us all this is. And indeed though we are not by the appointment of God under tutors any more, yet what practical lessons for us in all this. How much of legal bondage we sometimes pass through before we fairly enjoy our God-given place as sons. And when we do, we wake up to find that Christendom in general is but one vast Judaism- all " fallen from grace."
But whatever Christendom in general has become, the truth remains; Christ has obtained an eternal redemption for us by His blood; we are saved eternally by it; we know it because God says so; "and because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." None of the Old Testament saints could use that cry. The least of the New Testament saints uses it freely, even if hampered and befogged by the legal teachings all around.
Ques. So then though we be not in our true Christian state, yet we are not in the Old Testament place.
Ans. Quite so. Else how could we teach believers? For teaching believers is instructing them, in what belongs to them in Christ, that we may pre-sent them perfect in Christ Jesus, that is, as men who have apprehended the rich grace of God toward them and have grown thereby into a true Christian state.
From ver. 9, he rebukes them for returning to law, instead of going on to acquire that Christian state, Here minds them of his "infirmity of the flesh" when he brought the gospel to them. The gospel of God's grace was so sweet and blessed to them that they did not despise its messenger because of that infirmity. Why had they so changed? Why was he now, as it were, pushed aside by them ?Was it not because the "blessedness"had left their souls through receiving a gospel which was not the gospel? Then from ver. 21, he seals his instruction by introducing the two sons of Abraham, one by the free, the other by the bond, woman. The free woman is the type of grace, and of the Jerusalem above, whose children we, who are of faith, are. The bond-woman is law, and the earthly Jerusalem, whose children are those who earn their way by law-keeping. And grace with her children has ever been an object of persecution by the children of the law. Grace abases man, law exalts him. Grace exalts Christ; law makes Him of no effect-for law-keepers need no Saviour. Grace binds the heart to Christ and constrains us to a path of obedience to Him in all things; law makes man self-important and leaves him self-willed. So therefore "all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." How sweet is the last verse of our lesson. " So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free."
(To be continued.)