QUES. 43.-It is held by some of us that resurrection with Christ is not found in Romans. Is this true ?

ANS.-Yes, it is true. The great subject of Romans is deliverance from the guilt of our sins, that we may have peace with God; and from the power of sin, that we may bring forth fruit to God. The first is illustrated by Israel under the blood of the Lamb in Egypt, which frees from the wrath of God; the other, by their passing through the Red Sea, which frees from all connection with our enemies-the sin within us, the law against us, and the world around us. Their power over us is broken forever. But it does not give the new place in resurrection in which we stand. It is in Ephesians and Colossians we get that. So, in Romans death with Christ is the Red Sea-letting us out of bondage; while in Colossians it is Jordan-letting us into our new place by resurrection with Christ. By leaving out the wilderness, which is not God's purpose, but only His ways, the Red Sea and Jordan coalesce :one letting us out, the other letting us in. It is a wonderful thing to realize that what is true of Christ is true of every believer in Him-that God never looks at the believer apart from Christ.

QUES. 44.-I am sending you a recent copy of an English magazine which we have been taking lately. It has in it an article on "New Birth and Eternal Life," which sounds to me far from the truth. Would you kindly give us what you think of it?

ANS.-We think as you do, that it is far from the truth, and it needs only to be tried by the word of God to be so shown.

First of all, the reasoning as to the relations of faith and new birth rests on false premises. We are not aware of a single expression in Scripture which teaches that faith is the outcome of the new birth. Eph. 2 :8 says, "It is the gift of God;" and 2 Pet. 1:1 is written "to them that have obtained like precious faith with us." If eyes are required to see the light, it is God who provides the eyes for the light as well as the light for the eyes. There is no need therefore of thinking that they deny the utter ruin of man who believe that the new birth is through faith. When God breathed into man the breath of life, He breathed it into an inert, irresponsible mass of clay. Not so when He breathes into him eternal life. Though utterly dependent, he is responsible now. He is in the image of God, and he must be made to feel it. If a thing impossible to him is necessary, he must turn to Him to whom all things are possible. Such is the solemn lesson to Nicodemus in John 3. He is told that he must be born again. But how ? The answer is in verse 8 as to his dependence, and in verses 14-16 as to his responsibility, adding to it what kind of a life it is he gets in the new birth-not a created life now, but a life eternal, proceeding from Him who is the Eternal Life.

Moreover, to put the new birth among "earthly things," as this article does to make it fit a certain theory, is both repellent to the Christian mind and a poor recommendation to the theory itself. "The kingdom of God," we know, has its earthly as well as its heavenly things, and being born of God is the only way of entrance into it, whether in its earthly or its heavenly side. If the Lord had presented Himself to "His own "-the Jews-as the One who was to make good the earthly things promised them, and they had not believed Him, how could they believe Him if He should present to them heavenly things-higher and greater things?

That Nicodemus, a recognized teacher, should have known the necessity of the new birth to enter the Kingdom in its earthly things Ezek. 36 :25-30 clearly shows. That these earthly things are not mentioned in John 3 is self-evident. In saying, " Ye receive not our witness," "Ye believe not," the Jews as a whole were evidently before the Lord's mind. He had borne witness to them, and they had not received it.

And now as to eternal life itself. This article makes it distinct from the spiritual life gotten at new birth. The spiritual life is represented as that by which we live-the vital principle communicated to us :the eternal life, as the result of this-"the life lived and led continuously."

If this be so, what becomes of the fact that eternal life is the gift of God (Rom. 6 :23) ? Is our daily Christian life, "lived and led continuously," the gift of God?

What, also, becomes of the fact that eternal life is given to keep us from perishing ? (John 3 :15.) Is the Christian life of communion and devotedness, "lived and led continuously," that by which we escape perishing? Is not this salvation by works over again? Having put it out by the front door, is it not knocking now at the back door? Is it not the "concision" in a new and pious dress? Let it once take hold, and the power to proclaim the gospel of the grace of God will be gone, for the grace will have disappeared.

Again, this article represents eternal life as the "condition, or character," of the spiritual life by which we live. But 1 John 5 :20 calls our Lord " the true God, and Eternal Life." Is He, then, a "condition, or character, of life?" or is He a Person?-the blessed One who, becoming flesh, has been heard, seen, contemplated, handled here by men who have borne witness to us, that we may share the blessing with them and our joy be full? (1 John 1.)

With all the powers of our renewed nature, we say, No-a thousand times, No-eternal life is not "a condition, or character." It is a glorious Person, unchanging and unchangeable, who in infinite grace has all along communicated, and still communicates, His life-the eternal life ly which we live-to all who believe. John holds Him up to the eyes of all, that, believing, they might have life through His name (John 20 :31)-spiritual, eternal life, whose character is indeed holy; so holy, that "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin ; for His seed remaineth in him :and he cannot sin, because he is born of God " (1 John 3 :9).

One thing more. This cloudy, pretentious theory of eternal life means, of course, special "intelligence of the mind of God." If you have not reached the measure of spiritual intelligence required, you have not eternal life yet; "you have not touched it yet," as some advocate of this teaching has said. If so, what becomes of the fact that men may possess it and yet not know it? (1 John 5:13.) Strange "intelligence" this, is it not?

But if eternal life is the life by which we live, received from Him who is the Eternal Life and imparts it to us, all is plain as day. An infant may be quite unconscious of the life it possesses, while giving abundant proofs of its being alive to all in the house. In due time knowledge will give it intelligent consciousness. So the man born of God. He may be quite unconscious of the possession of eternal life; but when he learns that "whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God," he will know, and be intelligently conscious, not that he is acquiring eternal life, as this article would teach, but that he has it-had it from the instant of new birth.

We still need to "prove all things, hold fast what is good," and the apostolic admonition, "Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them :for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee" (1 Tim. 4 :16).