(Continued from page 207.)
IV. (2 Kings chap. 5.)
As the subject of our last article presented the gospel according to the teaching of Paul, so the one now before us presents it according to the teaching of John. In Naaman the Syrian it is not the righteous settlement of a debt, but the cleansing of a leper; not deliverance from bondage, but from a defiled and a defiling condition. Doing evil makes a man guilty, and brings in the need of forgiveness and justification to make us fit for dwelling with God. Being evil is quite another thing. It comes from our birth, from the nature imparted to us by our progenitors, and shuts us out of God's company because we are inherently unclean by it. No leper was admitted within the bounds of the temple at Jerusalem, which means, in New Testament language, that in our condition as sinners- a condition in which every child of Adam is born- we cannot come near to God. We must be cleansed. What the needful cleansing is, the story of Naaman tells us in figure very fully.
First of all it is evident, by the concern of those about him, that he realized that he was a leper and desired to be healed. It is a great step, under the operation of the grace of God, when a man is conscious of being, unfit for God's presence, and desires to be made fit. He may not know the way, but he is ready to hear those who can tell him.
In the case of Naaman it was a little maid, brought as a captive from the land of Israel, who, knowing the way, was God's messenger to make it known to, him. What a proof we have, in her case, of the wisdom of bowing submissively to whatever circumstances God may see fit to bring upon us. Instead of fretting in her bondage, and struggling to get out of it, the little maid attends to her new duties, and displays the spirit of genuine love; so, instead of hating her master for having ravaged her country, and rejoicing at his deadly disease, she makes known how he may be cured.
Had Naaman followed the way she indicated he would have suffered none of his disappointments. She had pointed to the prophet, and he goes to the king. She would have him go simply as a leper, and he goes as commended by the great king of Syria. But God must have truth in the inward parts. A man who comes as being worthy when he should come as an unclean sinner, is doomed to disappointment.
When finally he is at the prophet's door, the message he gets is clear and simple:"Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean."
The Lord Himself supplies the New Testament language for this. He says:"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus, amazed, asks how this can be done. The Lord replies by first telling God's side of it:" The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth:so is every one that is born of the Spirit" (Jno. 3:8); that is, God is sovereign and almighty, and can work in man a new and spiritual creation as He had worked at first for the material creation. But there is this difference, that in creation He had worked with irresponsible clay, whilst in new creation He works with responsible man. So the Lord gives man's side of the new birth as well as God's side. He says, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life " (Jno. 3:14, 15). When a poor sinner, no matter how vile he is, can look up in simple faith to Jesus on the cross, he is born of God (i Jno. 5:i), he has eternal life (i Jno. 5:13), he "is clean every whit" (Jno. 13 :10). Naaman had to wash seven times, to illustrate the Lord's words, ''Clean every whit;" for seven, in Scripture, expresses completeness, perfection.
If the reader of these lines is a believer in the Lord Jesus, he has the eternal life abiding in him (i Jno. 3:9), enabling him to have " fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ" (i Jno. 1:3). As by the possession of human life we can see, and enter into, and comprehend what belongs to the human sphere, so by the possession of divine life we can see, and enter into, and comprehend what belongs to the kingdom of God, for it is the seed of God which dwells in us; which shrinks from all sin and loves holiness. As we were constituted sinners by the life we received from man, so are we constituted saints by the life we received from God at the new birth.
Naaman is angered by the prophet's message. First of all, he had expected some fine religious ceremony over him. Was he not a great man? Had he not brought with him abundant money to pay well for his being cured? And if washing was all, could he not as well wash in the rivers of Damascus as in Jordan? His pride was hurt, as the gospel of the grace of God still hurts the pride of our day. Why so dependant on Jordan? Because Jordan tells of Jesus, and Jesus is the exclusive person by whom alone sinners can be saved. That is what necessitates every man to have to do with Him-now for salvation, or later on for condemnation; for as He is the God-appointed Saviour, so is He the God-appointed Judge.
Every man who follows Jordan to its end falls into the Dead Sea. This means eternal perdition. But when the ark, that lovely figure of Jesus, once came to the overflowing Jordan, it dried up a passage through it; it planted itself in the midst of its bed and held back the waters till all the thousands of Israel had passed through. As the brazen serpent spoke of the righteousness of God in the punishment of sin, so the passage of Jordan speaks of Jesus, standing in our place, made sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21), that we might be perfectly at home with God. To be washed in the waters of that river was, typically, to be made as clean as the death of Jesus can make us. That death ends all the question of sin for us. It has left none for the believer to be accounted for. We are clean indeed. " He that is washed (bathed) is clean every whit," said our Lord to Peter, referring to the washing of regeneration; such need only to have their feet washed thereafter (Jno. 13:10).
The pleadings of love from Naaman's servants lead him to surrender. He goes to Jordan, washes, and is cleansed. He returns to the prophet to offer of "what he had brought with him as reward for his cure. The prophet refuses it, for under the circumstances it would have clouded the grace of God, and since it is by that grace we are saved, no veil, however thin it may be, must be suffered to be put upon it. An apostle, an angel from heaven even, bringing a gospel other than that is to be accursed. How deeply serious it is. How precious must the gospel be to God since He has so guarded it – it cost the Son of God the agonies of the cross to provide it.
If the prophet will receive no reward from Naaman, he will not refuse to give him holy ground with which to build an altar in his native land, for hereafter he could worship none other but the true God-the One who has freed him from his leprosy. One thing alone troubles him:an evil association with the king of Syria. His conscience feels it, but he has not yet the courage to break with it. "Go in peace "is the prophet's answer. An enlightened and exercised conscience can be trusted.
But now comes Gehazi, the covetous servant. If his master will, under no circumstances, allow the grace of God to be veiled, he is ready to take advantage of that grace to make himself rich. His profane spirit sadly represents a fallen Christendom, whose concern is money, procured in whatever way. As he runs after Naaman who is not yet far away, he invents a very sure means of getting what he wants without being called a beggar. He says, "My master hath sent me, saying, Behold, even now there be come to me from mount Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets:give them, I pray thee, a talent of silver, and two changes of garments." Then he hides what he has obtained and tries to deceive his master; but all is brought up to his face by his master, and the leprosy-of Naaman is in judgment fastened to him for ever. Such is the sentence of God expressed in Heb. 10 :26-31 against a fallen, apostatizing Christendom. It is indeed " a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
How much better it is to suffer the opposition of a corrupted Christianity, and at the end be able to say with the apostle :"I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day:and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing" (2 Tim. 4:7, 8).
(To be continued.)