The Great Commission Part 18

The fact is, the enemy does not want souls to see that, in the death of Christ, sentence was pa.s.sed on fallen human nature and upon the whole world. This was not the case in incarnation at all. An incarnate Christ put man to the test--a dead Christ put man to death--a risen Christ takes the believer into union with Himself. When Christ came in the flesh, fallen man was still under probation. When Christ died on the cross, fallen man was wholly condemned. When Christ rose from the dead, He became the head of a new race, each member of which, being quickened by the Holy Ghost, is viewed by G.o.d as united to Christ, in life, righteousness, and favor--he is viewed as having been dead, as having pa.s.sed through judgment, and as being now as free from all condemnation as Christ himself. "He hath made Him to be sin for us, [He] who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of G.o.d in Him."

Now, it must be plain to the reader who bows to Scripture, that incarnation did not, and could not accomplish all this. Incarnation did not put away sin. Need we stop here to dwell upon the glories of the mystery of incarnation? Will anyone imagine that we take away from the value, or mar the integrity of that priceless fundamental truth, because we deny that it puts away sin, or forms the basis of our union with Christ? We trust not. That incarnation was essentially necessary for the accomplishment of redemption is plain to all. Christ had to become a man in order to die. "Without shedding of blood is no remission." He had to give His flesh for the life of the world. But this only goes to prove the absolute necessity of death. It was the _giving_ of His flesh, not the _taking_ of it, that laid the foundation of the whole fabric--life, pardon, peace, righteousness, union, glory, all. Apart from death, there is, and could be, absolutely nothing. Through death we have all.

But we cannot pursue this profound subject any further now. Enough has been said to set forth its connection with our special thesis--the ministry of reconciliation. When we read that "G.o.d hath made Christ to be sin for us," we must see that this involved nothing less than the death of the cross. "THOU," says that blessed One, "hast brought ME into the dust of death" (Psa. xxii.). What an utterance! Who can fathom the mighty depths of those words--"Thou"--"Me"--and "death"?

Who can enter into the question, "My G.o.d, My G.o.d, why hast _Thou_ forsaken _Me_?" Why did a holy, righteous G.o.d forsake His only begotten, well-beloved, eternal Son? The answer contains the solid basis of that marvelous ministry whereof we speak. Christ was made sin. He not only bore our _sins_ in His own body on the tree; but He was made sin. He stood charged with the entire question of sin. He was "the Lamb of G.o.d bearing away the sin of the world." As such He gloriously vindicated G.o.d, in the very scene where He had been dishonored. He glorified Him in respect to that very thing by which His majesty had been insulted. He took upon Himself the whole matter--placed Himself beneath the weight of the whole burden, and completely cleared the ground on which G.o.d could lay the foundations of the new creation. He opened those eternal flood-gates which sin had closed, so that the full tide of divine love might roll down along that channel which His atoning death alone could furnish; so long as sin was _in_ question, reconciliation must be _out_ of the question.

But Christ, being made sin died and put it away forever, and thus changed entirely the ground and character of G.o.d's dealing with man and with the world.

The death of Christ, then, as we have seen, is the alone basis of reconciliation. That divine work has opened the way for placing men and things in their right relationship to G.o.d, and on their proper footing before Him. And this, be it remembered, is the true sense and meaning of reconciliation. Sin had alienated "men" from G.o.d, and set "_things_" entirely astray, and hence both men and things needed to be reconciled, or set straight; and the death of Christ has cleared the way for this.

It is well to see clearly the distinction between "atonement" and "reconciliation." They are often confounded, through inattention to Scripture; and the honored translators of our excellent Authorised Version have not, with sufficient accuracy, marked this distinction.

For example, in Rom. v. 11, they have the word "atonement" where it ought to be rendered "reconciliation" and in Heb. ii. 17, we have the word "reconciliation" where it ought to be "atonement."

Nor is the distinction by any means unimportant. The word "atonement,"

or "propitiation," occurs, in some one or other of its forms, six times in the Greek New Testament. (See carefully Luke xviii. 13; Rom.

iii. 25; Heb. ii. 17; ix. 5; 1 John ii. 2; iv. 10.) The word "reconciliation" occurs, in one or other of its forms, thirteen times in the New Testament. (See Rom. v. 10, 11; xi. 15; 1 Cor. vii. 11; 2 Cor. v. 18, 19, 20; Eph. ii. 16; Col. i. 20, 21.) If the reader will take the trouble of examining and comparing these pa.s.sages, he will see that atonement and reconciliation are not the same thing, but that the former is the foundation of the latter. Sin had made man an enemy and thrown things into confusion; and in Col. i. 20, 21, we read, "And, having made peace through the blood of his cross (here is the foundation), by Him to reconcile all _things_ unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And _you_, that were sometime alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now _hath he reconciled_, in the body of His flesh, _through death_, to present you holy, and unblamable, and unreprovable in his sight." Here we have the death of Christ set forth as the ground of the reconciliation of both men and things.[16]

[16] If the reader will turn, for a moment, to 1 Cor. vii. 11, he will see the use of the word reconciliation. "But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be _reconciled_ to her husband." In cla.s.sical Greek the word is applied to the _changing_ money: the _exchanging_ one thing for another; _exchanging_ prisoners; the changing a person from _enmity to friendship_. In short, everywhere the distinction is maintained between "atonement," or "propitiation" and "reconciliation."

The former is ??as??, the latter, ?ata??a??.

Now this leads to another point of immense importance. We often hear it said that "the death of Christ was necessary in order _to reconcile G.o.d to man_." This is a pious mistake, arising from inattention to the language of the Holy Ghost, and indeed to the plain meaning of the word "reconcile." G.o.d never changed--never stepped out of His normal and true position. He abideth faithful. There was, and could be, no derangement, no confusion, no alienation, so far as He was concerned; and hence there could be no need of reconciling Him to us. In fact, it was exactly the contrary. Man had gone astray; he was the enemy, and needed to be reconciled. But this was wholly impossible if _sin_ were not righteously disposed of; and sin could only be disposed of by _death_--even the death of One, who, as being a man, could die, and being G.o.d, could impart all the dignity, value, and glory of His divine Person to the atoning sacrifice which He offered.

Wherefore, then, as might be expected, Scripture never speaks of reconciling G.o.d to man. There is no such expression to be found within the covers of the New Testament. "G.o.d was in Christ reconciling the world (in its broad aspect--men and things) unto himself, not imputing their trespa.s.ses unto them." And again, "All things are of G.o.d, who hath reconciled _us_ to Himself by Jesus Christ." In a word, it is G.o.d, in His infinite mercy and grace, through the atoning death of Christ, bringing us back to Himself, and placing us not merely in the original place, or on the original footing, or in the original relationship; but, as was due to the work of Christ, giving us back far more than we had lost, and introducing us into the marvelous relationship of sons, and setting us in His presence, in divine and eternal righteousness, and in the infinite favor and acceptableness of His own Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amazing grace! Stupendous and glorious plan! What a ministry! And yet need we wonder when we think of the death of Christ as the foundation of it all? When we remember that "Christ was made sin for us," it seems but the necessary counterpart that "we should be made the righteousness of G.o.d in Him." It would have been no adequate result of such a work as Christ accomplished, to have brought men and things back to the Adamic or old creation ground. This would never have satisfied the heart of G.o.d in any way, whether as respects Christ's glory or our blessing. It would not have furnished an answer to that omnipotent appeal of John xvii.: "I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do. And _now_, O Father, glorify Thou Me, with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was" (vers. 4, 5). Who can gauge the depth and power of those accents as they fell upon the ear of the G.o.d and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ?

But we must not enlarge, much as we should like to do so. Little remains to be said as to the _objects_ of the ministry of reconciliation, inasmuch as we have, in a measure, antic.i.p.ated them by speaking of "men and things," for these are, in very deed, the objects, and they are included in that comprehensive word "world."

"G.o.d was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself." We would merely add here, that it is utterly impossible for any creature under heaven to exclude himself from the range of this most precious ministry. Before the reader can shut himself out from the application of all this grace to himself, he must prove that he does not belong to the world. This he cannot do, and hence he must see that G.o.d is beseeching him to be reconciled.

But this leads us to look, for a moment, at the _features_ which characterize this glorious ministry.

1. And first, let us mark G.o.d's att.i.tude. He is beseeching sinners.

What a thought! It seems too much for the heart to conceive. Only think, reader, of the Most High and Mighty G.o.d, the Creator of the ends of the earth--the One who has power to destroy both soul and body in h.e.l.l--think of Him as beseeching and praying you to be friends with Him! It is not a question of your praying to Him and His hearing you.

No: but the very reverse--He is praying you. And for what does He ask you? Is it to do anything or to give anything? Nay; He simply asks you to be friends with Him because He has befriended you at the cost of His own Son. Think of this. He spared not His only begotten and well-beloved Son, but bruised Him in your stead. He made Him to be sin for you. He judged your sin in the person of His Son, on the cross, in order that He might be able to reconcile you. And now He stretches forth His arms and opens His heart to you, and prays you to be reconciled--to be friends with Him. Surpa.s.sing grace! It really seems to us as though human language can only tend to weaken and impoverish this grand reality.

We would only further suggest that the force of ver. 20 is greatly weakened by the word "you," which, as the reader will observe, ought not to be inserted. It makes it appear as though the apostle were beseeching the Corinthian saints to be reconciled, whereas he is only setting forth the terms and the style adopted by all "amba.s.sadors" for Christ wherever they went through the wide world--the language in which they were to address "every creature" under heaven. It is not, "Do this or that"--"Give this or that." It was not command or prohibition; but simply, "Be reconciled."

2. And then, what encouragement to the poor trembling heart that feels the burden of sin and guilt to be a.s.sured that G.o.d will not impute, will not reckon, one of his sins! This is another precious feature of the ministry of reconciliation. "_Not_ imputing their trespa.s.ses unto them." This must set the heart at rest. If G.o.d tells me that He will not count one of my trespa.s.ses to me, because He has already counted them to Jesus on the cross, this may well tranquilize my spirit and emanc.i.p.ate my heart. If I believe that G.o.d means what He says, perfect peace must be my portion. True, it is only by the Holy Ghost that I can enter into the power of this glorious truth; but what the Holy Ghost leads me to believe and rest in is, that G.o.d does not, and will not, blessed be His name, impute a single sin to me, because He has already imputed _all_ to Christ.

But this leads us to the third feature of the ministry of reconciliation.

3. If G.o.d will not impute my trespa.s.ses to me then what will He impute? Righteousness--even the righteousness of G.o.d. We cannot attempt to unfold the nature and character of this righteousness. We may do so on another occasion, if the Lord permit; but here we confine ourselves to the statement contained in the pa.s.sage before us, which declares that G.o.d hath made Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin for us who were all sin, that we might become the righteousness of G.o.d in Him. Most glorious truth! Sin is made an end of, as regards the believer. Christ lives as our subsisting righteousness, before G.o.d, and we live in Him. There is not so much as one single entry to our debit in the book of divine justice; but there is a risen and glorified Christ to our credit. Nor is this all. Not only are our sins gone, our guilt cancelled--our old self completely ignored--not only are we made the righteousness of G.o.d in Jesus; but we are loved by G.o.d as Jesus is loved--accepted in Him--one with Him in all that He is and has, as a risen, victorious, ascended, and glorified Man at G.o.d's right hand. Higher than this it is impossible to go.

And now we must close, and we do it reluctantly. We do it with a certain painful consciousness of the feebleness and poverty of our handling of this lofty and comprehensive theme. But all this we must leave in the Master's hand. He knows all about the subject and the treatment thereof--all about the reader and the writer of these lines. To Him we commit all, while we make one solemn, closing appeal to the unconverted, unawakened reader.

Dear friend, let us remind you that this glorious ministry will very soon close. The acceptable year, the day of salvation, shall ere long come to an end. The amba.s.sadors shall soon be all called home and their emba.s.sy be closed forever. The door shall soon be shut, and the day of vengeance set in in terror and wrath upon a Christ-rejecting world. Let us entreat of you to flee from the wrath to come. Remember that the One who is now praying and beseeching you to be reconciled, has uttered the following awful words, "Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out My hand, and no man regarded. But ye have set at nought all My counsel, and would none of My reproof; I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh"

(Prov. i. 24-26). May the reader escape the unutterable horrors of the day of wrath and judgment!

C. H. M.

THE QUESTION OF QUESTIONS

Some call Him a Saviour, in word, But mix their own works with His plan; And hope He His help will afford, When they have done all that they can: If doings prove rather too light (A little they own they may fail), They purpose to make up full weight, By casting His name in the scale.

Some style Him "the Pearl of great price,"

And say, He's the fountain of joys; Yet feed upon folly and vice, And cleave to the world and its toys: Like Judas, the Saviour they kiss, And while they salute Him, betray: Oh! what will profession like this Avail in His terrible day?

If asked what of Jesus _I_ think, Though still my best thoughts are but poor, I say, He's my meat and my drink, My life and my strength and my store; My Shepherd, my trust and my Friend, My Saviour from sin and from thrall; My Hope from beginning to end, My Portion, my Lord and my All.

THE GREAT COMMISSION

"And He said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning Me. Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures, and said unto them, _Thus it is written_, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And, behold, I send the promise of My Father unto you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high" (Luke xxiv. 44-49).

This splendid pa.s.sage of Holy Scripture sets before us the great commission which the risen Lord entrusted to His apostles just as He was about to ascend into the heavens, having gloriously accomplished all His blessed work upon earth. It is truly a most wonderful commission, and opens up a very wide field of truth, through which we may range with much spiritual delight and profit. Whether we ponder _the commission itself_, its _basis_, its _authority_, its _power_, or its _sphere_, we shall find it all full of most precious instruction.

May the blessed Spirit guide our thoughts, while we meditate, first of all, upon

THE COMMISSION ITSELF.

The apostles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ were specially charged to preach "repentance and remission of sins." Let us all remember this. We are p.r.o.ne to forget it, to the serious damaging of our preaching, and of the souls of our hearers. Some of us are apt to overlook the first part of the commission, in our eagerness, it may be, to get to the second. This is a most serious mistake. We may rest a.s.sured that it is our truest wisdom to keep close to the veritable terms in which our blessed Lord delivered His charge to His earliest heralds. We cannot omit a single point, not to say a leading branch of the commission, without serious loss in every way. Our Lord is infinitely wiser and more gracious than we are, and we need not fear to preach with all possible plainness what He told His apostles to preach, namely, "repentance and remission of sins."

Now the question is, are we all careful to maintain this very important connection? Do we give sufficient prominence to the first part of the great commission? Do we preach "repentance?"

We are not now inquiring what repentance is; that we shall do, if G.o.d permit. But, whatever it is, do we preach it? That our Lord commanded His apostles to preach it is plain; and not only so, but He preached it Himself, as we read it in Mark i. 14, 15: "Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of G.o.d, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of G.o.d is at hand; repent ye and believe the gospel."

Let us carefully note this record. Let all preachers note it. Our divine Master called upon sinners to repent and believe the gospel.

Some would have us to believe that it is a mistake to call upon persons dead in trespa.s.ses and sins to do anything. "How," it is argued, "can those who are dead repent? They are incapable of any spiritual movement. They must first get the power ere they can either repent or believe."

What is our reply to all this? A very simple one indeed--Our Lord knows better than all the theologians in the world what ought to be preached. He knows all about man's condition--his guilt, his misery, his spiritual death, his utter helplessness, his total inability to think a single right thought, to utter a single right word, to do a single right act; and yet He called upon men to repent. This is quite enough for us. It is no part of our business to seek to reconcile seeming differences. It may seem to us difficult to reconcile man's utter powerlessness with his responsibility; but "G.o.d is His own interpreter, and He will make it plain." It is our happy privilege, and our bounden duty, to believe what He says, and do what He tells us. This is true wisdom, and it yields solid peace.

Our Lord preached repentance, and He commanded His apostles to preach it; and they did so constantly. Harken to Peter on the day of Pentecost. "Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." And again, "Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord." Harken to Paul also, as he stood on Mars' Hill, at Athens: "But now _G.o.d commandeth all men everywhere_ to repent; because He hath appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness, by that Man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given a.s.surance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead." So also, in his touching address to the elders of Ephesus, he says, "I kept back nothing that was profitable, (blessed servant!) but have showed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews, and also the Greeks, _repentance toward G.o.d_, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." And again, in his address to king Agrippa, he says, "Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision, but showed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that _they should repent_, and turn to G.o.d, and _do works meet for repentance_."

Now, in the face of this body of evidence--with the example of our Lord and His apostles so fully and clearly before us--may we not very lawfully inquire whether there is not a serious defect in much of our modern preaching? Do we preach repentance as we ought? Do we a.s.sign to it the place which it gets in the preaching of our Lord, and of His early heralds? It is vanity and folly, or worse, to talk about its being legal to preach repentance, to say that it tarnishes the l.u.s.tre of the gospel of the grace of G.o.d to call upon men dead in trespa.s.ses and sins to repent, and do works meet for repentance. Was Paul legal in his preaching? Did he not preach a clear, full, rich, and divine gospel? Have we got in advance of Paul? Do we preach a clearer gospel than he? How utterly preposterous the notion! Well, but he preached repentance. He told his hearers that "G.o.d now commandeth all men everywhere to repent." Does this mar the gospel of the grace of G.o.d?

Does it detract from its heavenly fulness and freeness? As well might you tell a farmer that it lowered the quality of his grain to plough the fallow ground before sowing.

No doubt it is of the very last possible importance to preach the gospel of the grace of G.o.d, or, if you please, the gospel of the glory, in all its fulness, clearness, and power. We are to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ--to declare the whole counsel of G.o.d, to present the righteousness of G.o.d and His salvation, without limit, condition, or hindrance of any kind--to publish the good news to every creature under heaven.

We should, in the very strongest possible manner, insist upon this.

But at the same time we must jealously keep to the terms of "the great commission." We cannot depart the breadth of a hair from these without serious damage to our testimony, and to the souls of our hearers. If we fail to preach repentance, we are "keeping back"

something "profitable." What should we say to a husbandman, if we saw him scattering his precious grain along the beaten highway? We should justly p.r.o.nounce him out of his mind. The ploughshare must do its work. The fallow ground must be broken up ere the seed is sown; and we may rest a.s.sured that, as in the kingdom of nature, so in the kingdom of grace, the ploughing must precede the sowing. The ground must be duly prepared for the seed, else the operation will prove altogether defective. Let the gospel be preached as G.o.d has given it to us in His Word. Let it not be shorn of one of its moral glories; let it flow forth as it comes from the deep fountain of the heart of G.o.d, through the channel of Christ's finished work, on the authority of the Holy Ghost. All this is not only most fully admitted but peremptorily insisted upon; but at the same time we must never forget that our Lord and Master called upon men to "repent and believe the gospel;" that He strictly enjoined it upon His holy apostles to preach repentance; and that the blessed apostle Paul, the chief of apostles, the profoundest teacher the Church has ever known, did preach repentance, calling upon men everywhere to repent and do works meet for repentance.

And here it may be well for us to inquire what this repentance is which occupies such a prominent place in "the great commission," and in the preaching of our Lord and of His apostles. If it be--as it most surely is--an abiding and universal necessity for man--if G.o.d commands all men everywhere to repent--if repentance is inseparably linked with remission of sins--how needful it is that we should seek to understand its true nature!

What, then, is repentance? May the Spirit Himself instruct us by the word of G.o.d! He alone can. We are all liable to err--some of us have erred--in our thoughts on this most weighty subject. We are in danger, while seeking to avoid error on one side, of falling into error on the other. We are poor, feeble, ignorant, erring creatures, whose only security is in our being kept continually at the feet of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. He alone can teach us what repentance is, as well as what it is not. We feel most fully a.s.sured that the enemy of souls and of the truth has succeeded in giving repentance a false place in the creeds, and confessions, and public teachings of Christendom; and the conviction of this makes it all the more needful for us to keep close to the living teachings of Holy Scripture.