‘ ‘Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break mine
heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to
die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." (Acts 21:13.)
Conducted by the hand of God, and strengthened by His grace, he is
led, bound in the spirit, to pass through circumstances that put to the
test his state of soul, and brought his public career to a close.
He goes up then to Jerusalem forewarned (though neglecting or resisting these various
warnings of the Spirit), accompanied by the brethren who were with him, and
an old disciple, Mnason, with whom he was to lodge. Arrived at Jerusalem,
the disciples receive him gladly; and here begins the history of submission to
human forms and Jewish customs which terminated in his captivity at Rome. But
he does not follow these Jewish forms and ceremonies that he may thereby
attract his countrymen to the gospel, but because persuaded into them by the
elders and James, in order to shew that he was himself a good
Jew, faithful to the law, and to Jewish customs.
It was precisely this which threw him into the hands of the hostile
Jews, and then into those of the Gentiles.
Jesus, on the contrary, in the dignity of His perfection, sits in the
temple to instruct the multitude. All classes of Jews come to prove Him,
but all are judged, and reduced to silence by the divine patience of
the Saviour, and none dare ask Him any more questions. Then as we
have said, the Lord is condemned for the witness He bore to the
truth.
When Paul arrives, the elders assemble with James, and, attached as they were
to Judaism, and surrounded by Christian Jews, in order to Uphold the reputation
of their religion and unite Christianity to Judaism, counsel Paul to satisfy the
prejudices of the believing Jews by purifying himself after their custom, and offering
sacrifices in the temple, so that he might appear a good Jew in
their eyes.
Paul accedes to their proposal; and we encounter the strange spectacle of the
apostle offering sacrifices, as though all such had not been abolished by the
Lord’s death. He neither upholds nor wins the Jews who were not set
free from their customs. Still God permitted him willingly to conform to these
Jewish ceremonies. Being at Jerusalem, though warned by the Spirit not to go
there, what could he do?
Let us remember, if we have been cast out for the Lord’s name
from a place where we have been under the authority of the governing
power, not to re-enter it so that we may not again be placed
in the position from which we have been freed. The relationship has been
broken by the authority itself, and if we have left it by the
will of God, by returning we place ourselves anew under the abandoned authority;
and if this be contrary to that of the Lord Jesus, under which
we came when liberated from human authority, we reestablish over us the authority
which had been destroyed, and thus strife begins between the authority of Christ
over us, and that which we have abandoned.
It is impossible to go on well thus. We were free under the
authority of Christ, free to do His will; and we have returned to
the authority which prohibits obedience to Christ. For example, suppose that a son
or a daughter has been driven from home for the Lord’s name; by
this act the parents have renounced their authority. If this son returns to
his father’s house, he places himself under paternal authority, and what can he
do when his parents oppose the faith of Christ? He is powerless; and
moreover, has so lost his liberty, as to renew over himself the authority
which opposes that of Christ, has given up the latter to return to
that which is contrary to it.
… Let us remember that his submission to these customs put an end
to the public testimony of the
apostle. ….
(From "Meditations on the Acts of the Apostles.")
FRAGMENT "For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make
myself a transgressor."
(Galatians 2:18)
"And Saul sought to smite David even to the wall with the javelin;
but he slipped away out of Saul’s presence, and he smote the javelin
into the wall:and David fled, and escaped that night." (1 Sam. 19
:10.)
"No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper." (Isaiah 54:17.)
"There is a man in thy kingdom, in whom is….. light and understanding
and wisdom…..an excellent spirit and knowledge." (Daniel 5; 11, 12.)
"Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us." (Psalm 90:
17)
A venerable saint, recently departed, gave as his sober retrospection of 80 years,
mostly spent in public life, this:"I have often been wrongfully attacked, but
have never attempted to defend myself. I have borne in silence and committed
my cause to God, and there has never been a wrong done me
that has not been rectified, no blow aimed at me which has not
recoiled on him who dealt it." (selected)
Onward then to glory move; more than conquerors ye shall prove; though opposed
by many a foe, Christian solider, onward go. (selected)
FRAGMENT "The chastisement of our peace was upon Him." (Isa. 53 :5.)
Not the crowd whose cries assailed Him,
Not the hands that rudely nailed Him,
Slew Him on the cursed tree;
Mine the sin, from heaven that called Him,
Mine the sin, whose burden galled Him,
On the sad, sad Calvary.