- 1. Death, the terminus of suffering as in the Lord, so to each saint. (2 Tim. 2: 8.)
- 2. Death, the object proposed in the humiliation, was the result of God's grace, and is presented for the church's admiration, as that by which Christ united the two extremes, namely, the divine glory which He saw in God, to be the church's, and the abject thraldom in which she lay under the devil; thereby redeeming the church from under the hand of the devil, destroying his power, and bringing her into the liberty of that divine nature which, in God, He saw to be hers (Heb. 2: 9-14.)
- 3. Death, the especial subject of the Lord's fear. (Heb. 5: 7.)
- 4. The redemption of transgression under the first covenant, and the ratification and confirmation of the second. (Heb. 9: 15, 16.)
- 5. That from which our Lord Jesus, as the great Shepherd of the sheep, was brought by the God of peace, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, as the security to us of all power of obedience. (Heb. 13: 20.)
- 6. That, His victory over which, through the grace of God, was the begetting of us to a lively hope. (1 Peter 1: 3.)
- 7. That deliverance from which into glory, was God's claim upon the church for her faith and hope to rest in Himself. (1 Peter 1: 21.)
- 8. The death of Christ, God's sentence, and the believer's plea against the sins of the flesh. (1 Peter 3: 18.)
- 9. The Lord in victory over death the strength of the saint amid the wreck of apostasy. (Rev. 1: 5, 18; Rev. 2: 8.)
- 10. The leading thought of heaven and its hosts, and their measure of the worthiness of the Lamb. (Rev. 5: 6, 9, 12.)
- 11. Death, the Lord's title in connection with the book of life, and the exoneration of those who worship not the beast. (Rev. 13: 8.)
1. "Remember that Christ Jesus, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel.", (2 Tim. 2: 8.)
The leading thought of the Spirit's mind in this epistle seems to be the hardships to which the followers of Christ must expect to be subject; see 2 Tim. 1: 8, 12, etc., etc.; 2 Tim. 2: 3; 2 Tim. 3; 2 Tim. 4: 5, etc., accompanied by exhortations to patience therein. The citation is in harmony with this, the stress being, I conceive, laid upon the resurrection being from the dead. And if the Captain of our salvation had to suffer even unto death; if even He, who was of the seed of David, to whom all the promises in connection with Israel's glory belong, could only come at them by being rejected in death; if the blessedness of the gospel, Paul's joy, and Timothy's joy, and the joy of every saint, is the Lord's victory, though slain -- surely suffering must be a most integral part of Christian experience. And Paul did suffer trouble, even as an evildoer, unto bonds, though the word of the Lord was not bound. Surely we greatly fail herein. Some few of us see it so far clearly as to be able to talk about it, though not all the saints, for many seem rather to think that ease and comfort here are our proper portion; yet of the few who can see that suffering is our portion here, how few have the loins of the mind girt up so as patiently to abide therein. Yet it is written, "If we suffer, we shall also reign with him." It is blessed to see the cause of our suffering and the rationale of it -- the cause, says Paul (ver. 10), "1 endure all things for the elects' sake, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory," -- the rationale of it, "It is a faithful saying, for if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him." And I would just notice, that while, in the context before us, Jesus' passage through death is His way into the possession of the promises of David, and the place of the testimony, death is likewise clearly marked as the extreme bourn, the terminus of suffering. The looking a little carefully at this, and at the blessed rest which to sleep in Jesus is to the believer, might give many a poor, weak, shrinking one, nerve and boldness to endure hardness as the good soldier of Christ; for our sufferings are not like Jesus', nor are ourselves like Him as to our capability of suffering; His sufferings were infinite even as His capability for suffering was infinite; and death came to Him, not simply as by the exhaustion of nature's powers -- for then to Him it never could have come at all -- but having fully accomplished His Father's will, He bowed His head and gave up the ghost. In nature little suffering drains all our strength, and we sink into blissful sleep through exhaustion and weakness, though not without direct permission of Him, without whom not a. sparrow falleth to the ground; and the greatest suffering the greatest saint can bear is in truth but as nothing when measured aright, that is, when compared with Christ's. It is true our sufferings may seem to us great, and I believe all suffering does so while we are occupied with it; but this is owing to our inability to bear any in ourselves, and to the fact that as the Lord's object in sending suffering is to exercise us in dependence upon and submission to Him, He apportions the measure of strength for the suffering, to the measure of suffering; often, too, giving more sensible support under the greater than under the less afflictions, that we may learn in the little ones the nothingness of our own strength and competency, and in the greater and more trying scenes the grace of His love present with us, and how His strength is made perfect in weakness. Surely His ways are lovely, and gracious, and perfect; may we learn to mark and understand them more; and may this be the abiding thought of each saint, beloved of God, that he has a debt of love and gratitude to pay to God and Jesus, even the life which is left to him. We owe our life, our all, to Jesus, and His love covets earnestly the testimony of love from us; His love, I say, longs to receive from us the pledge and proof of our love to Him, and to see us hold life itself as something due to Him. His love is a jealous love; it cannot, because true love, rest without a return -- yea, and that return of love from us is bound up in all the holy associations of the Lord's mind. Where did He learn His love toward us -- was it not in His intercourse with the Father? There He saw love to the church; there He learnt to love her. But His jealousy of love to the Father makes Him heedful that there should be reciprocity of love in us -- else would the Father's love be dishonoured. Moreover, His own love, though, if we may so say, guided to the church by the counsel of the Father, is a genuine, true, and personal love. I speak of Christ's love; and true love, as I have said, rests not till it sees the response of love awakened. And it has been taught us -- how? By the Holy Ghost shedding it abroad in our hearts, a sure and mighty and unfailing way. May we watch against the flesh and the world, and see that body, soul, and spirit are sanctified, wholly set apart for the Lord; and may we, in the sense of His love, and the way in which it was shown through death, be strong and faithful in the purpose of our souls to Him -- not loving our lives unto the death. Father! for Jesus' sake, strengthen by thy Spirit the purpose of our souls to suffer all things.
2. "We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God, should taste death for every man. For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren . . . . Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." (Heb. 2: 9-14.) We cannot rightly understand the various parts of this context without looking at it as a whole; for it gives us a very beautiful summary or outline of the gracious purpose and work of God in behalf of the church, with the way wherein it has been accomplished. And there is much to he admired in the way in which it is first presented to us -- for first of all is presented to us that which does in fact first of all meet our notice in the world, the object above all others worthy of attention, the humiliation of the Son, made a little lower than the angels; but why thus humbled? Why is He (of whom it is written, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever," and again, "Worship him, all ye angels") made lower than the angel? -- for the suffering of death. And what is the needs be for that? Was not God's blessedness and felicity perfect in itself? Was it not enough for Him to enjoy that which He had and was? Nature, man's nature, poor fallen nature may have such thoughts as these; but they are far removed from God's thoughts, as well in connection with others as with Himself. As to Himself, He never has been, nor can as God, be contented to rest, as it were, either in Himself or in His own; He lives to display His own glory, and loves to do so; and again, as to others, His creatures, He cannot rest without displaying to them, which can be done alone in works, that blessed character, and grace, and wisdom, and power, and goodness, the knowledge of which is enjoyment and delight to those who, being in dependence upon Him, enter into the understanding of that which He has ministered to them. But while this shows us why He acts (surely the very desire to act in Him is most blessed and gracious, for it is the desire of presenting, ever more and more clearly, that One, whom to glorify and to know is blessedness), the needs be for the humiliation in connection with His action, if for blessing in this world, is found in our sadly fallen state. For man to be met by God, as God, with His glory, would have been destruction. But God meets him as one with Him in the meek and lowly Jesus, the man of sorrow, though God manifested in the flesh. And yet, what avails even this meeting? True, they may thus be able to meet, and the glory of God being veiled awhile, poor man be enabled to stand in His presence, and hear His mind, and goodness; but alienated in heart from God, the very holy anxious care for God and man in Jesus only moves him to displeasure -- it condemns him -- it shows him what he should be and what he is not. But this was not all that was proposed in the humiliation; this was not even the object in it, but rather death was the object; which, while it teaches us the same blessed zeal in Jesus for God and man, does it in a way to lead us not to turn from the loveliness of His obedience to the loathsomeness of our disobedience, and then in self-condemnation, to hate Him as the standard, but rather to turn from all that is in us to the blessed grace in Him, who in that death put away our sins, and so filling our hearts, with the joy of restored favour to God, and our hands with the spoils of His victory, He leads us captive in His love, rejoicing in Him and in His perfectness of obedience (for in that is our security). and so He makes us willing to condemn ourselves as self-convicted through the light of His love.
But after presenting us with this, the Spirit would lead us into the spring of it; for neither He nor Jesus would have us know the love of Jesus as a thing separate from God; and thus we have it here said, "That he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man." This is most blessed -- most blessed! His tasting death was "of God" -- the God we had sinned against, the God we had to meet in judgment -- of that God it was that Jesus tasted death for us. Well may it be said to be by grace. Surely it was an unmerited display of goodness -- a free gift; for nothing could be seen by God in us (much as there was in Himself) which could have suggested such a thought. By grace I understand a free gift; a gift not merited, not deserved in any way, and that in God which leads Him to make such gifts the spontaneous rising and flowing of His own superabundant goodness; and such it was which in this case led to this mercy. Mercy and grace are not the same thing; for mercy is the overlooking of sin, and the communicating of goodness to what positively deserves wrath and judgment. Grace might be shown I conceive, to an unfallen angel; mercy or the pity of God, toward the rebellious only, to poor fallen man. And the form in which His free gift embodied itself toward us, was that of giving His Son to taste death for every man. But while we most surely have to adore His thoughts toward us herein, the next verse reminds us that He had thoughts about Himself too in the matter, and that in so acting He meant to put the church into the association with Himself in those thoughts concerning Himself in the matter. For we read, it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren; saying [and that too in the midst of glory], I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee."
"It became him" -- surely such expressions as this would lead us at once to look at the subjects in connection with which they are used, as presenting, in a peculiar way, the wisdom and grace of God, while they constrain us likewise to recognise the marvellous place the church is set in, as able to have such an appeal made to her. And such expressions are not rare or uncommon. In Luke 15 we have, "It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found." In 1 Corinthians 2: 6, "Howbeit we speak wisdom among them which are perfect; yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory." Again (Col. 1: 19), "For it pleased the Father [or, it was pleasing, that is, to Godhead] that in him should all fulness dwell;" and indeed there are many others of similar character which present that which is the expression of the divine mind for the church's admiration, thereby at once teaching her God and His ways, and that her own high calling is to possess the mind of Christ, which alone can enter into the admiration of that which was pleasing to God. And surely it becomes us with holy reverence to endeavour to trace what there was which "became" God in all these things. Now here we have it said, "It became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth, and they that are sanctified, are all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren." The church is God's* church, and has been so from before the foundation of the world; in God the Son first saw her, and tracing, in the divine purpose and counsel, both the oneness in divine nature of God that sanctifieth, and the church so sanctified (for her new nature is derived from God as it is written, John 3: 6, "that which is born of the Spirit is spirit;" and 2 Peter 1: 4, "partakers of the divine nature"), and the glory to which she was set apart, He was not ashamed to call them brethren. But the way in which these many sons were to be presented in glory was even then before the foundation of the world, and therefore long before the fall, thus manifested as necessarily involving the captain of their salvation being perfected through sufferings.
*The expression "Church of Christ," though a very common one among men, is not, I believe, often found in scripture. There her common designation is the "church of God."
The humiliation of the Son, as Captain of salvation, was no merely remedial step brought in after the fall -- no last resource of the benevolence of God to man, perversely departed from by him as far as possible, merely: these things it was truly; but to us, as able to enter into the deep things of God, it was also far more, even the settled purpose of the divine mind from before the fall and the foundation of the world, for all things are for God; and all things are by God; and so even the mystery of iniquity neither began nor has run its course, save by His permission and for the manifestation of His glory. The setting of the many sons in glory was not to be immediate -- the mere expression and opening of an additional proof of His power and Godhead to the many displayed in creation: it was to be by redemption from evil; a presentation of the grace and patience of God in bright contrast with the dark wickedness of His adversary the devil, and of His amazing love in turning the hearts of many of those taken captive by him at his will, and then giving them escape from him. The sons were sons of redemption; and grace was to be the song and burden they should sing. The pit whence these sons were to be brought, and the object connected with their redemption thence (the revelation of salvation) seemed to have the needs be, to have constituted the propriety referred to in its being said, "It became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings."
And death -- the Lord's death, thus became the wondrous link between the marvellous purpose and grace in God toward the many sons, and the monstrous position of thraldom and sin out of which they were to be redeemed. From the throne of God He stooped down in humiliation and suffering to earth, where He could meet and converse with those there known to Him as brethren; but He stooped lower still, even beneath that which was the burden that kept them bound there, the sense of which ever veiled their hearts in darkness and fear before God -- death, the judgment of their sin and guilt: and in this there are these two distinct things, the grace, great and marvellous as it is of his becoming associated with us in our scene and circumstances of misery -- "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same . . . . for verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people: for in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted." And again, "We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." These and such like passages show us some of the gracious objects of the incarnation in humiliation as to the brethren.* He would become so associated with them as to learn all their sorrows, Himself the man of sorrows, the prince of grief, that they might have liberty before Him, and He power likewise to be touched with every feeling of infirmity. And the extent of His sorrows thus, and therefore of power of sympathy, is thus marked, Hebrews 5: 7; "Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears, unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that be feared; though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him."
*On the passage, "Behold I and the children which God hath given me," I would just remark, that though we often hear people talking about Christ's children -- this passage does not so call them, but contrariwise it is part of the apostle's argument that they are Christ's BRETHREN. God's children they were, and God, as their Father, and as His Father, gave and committed them to Him, and so He became their elder brother and guardian. I question whether the heavenly saints are ever spoken of as Christ's children.
The second object referred to has the devil more as its end. "Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." It is far too common for us to limit the scope of the divine objects to those one or two things in which we can trace our own individual interest; thus in effect making ourselves, and not Jesus, to be the centre of scripture. There are many portions which show us such is not the mind of Christ, presenting to us many varied and different objects accomplished by one and the same action in God. See for instance the parable of the sower, Matthew 13; the object of the testimony of the word of the kingdom is there shown to be not only the salvation of the church, or the manifestation of the true character of the seed in them who receive it into ground prepared; this is but one of the objects effected by the sowing of the good seed; besides this, it makes manifest the character of the birds of the air, that is the devil -- and the unprofitable character of the stony ground, that is the flesh -- and the injurious character of the thorns, that is the world. So that, while we might only look for that which concerns ourselves, we should see but one point of instruction here, and overlook those others of equal interest to the divine mind in the places, and of pre-eminent moment to us if following the Lord. The connection of the death of the Lord with Satan in like manner is too much overlooked, though the perception of it puts the church's freedom and liberty in a very clear and bright light. Having referred to this once before, when speaking of the blood, I shall here only briefly allude to it. The power of Satan against man was both in itself, and in its effect upon conscience, in the array of the character of God against fallen man, and the position he had taken by, and in the fall. Man was guilty and in rebellion, and against that Satan rejoiced to see the character of God ranged. Yea, and more than this, his power of death was by the just award of God; and upon every man that came into the world he could justly press it, for all had sinned: but when Jesus came, he had no claim or right over Him -- against Him personally there was no sentence from God for sin; and when Satan touched Him he had exceeded his commission, and it became a just thing for the very God who had sanctioned his power of death, to sanction it no longer; justice and righteousness, which had been Satan's defence in the infliction of death, now, more loudly, called for vengeance; yea, and he had, like they of old of Gaza, taken captive one whom neither he nor his prison could hold -- one that could up in the night and take the city gates upon his shoulders, leading captivity captive, and thus, by death, He destroyed him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and delivered them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage. The Lord's death, looked at vicariously, and as a matter between Him, and the Father, and the Spirit in the church, was the freedom of the church; but as looked at personally between God and Satan, it was Satan's death-warrant and sentence. "Now is the prince of this world judged," etc. But the matter stayed not there: the power of the jailer was destroyed, and the work effected, by means of which (as we see in Rev. 19 and Rev. 21) all his power and works shall be shortly crushed, the captives were free; and this same death which broke the jailer's arm and power it is, which delivers from his thraldom, and from the tyranny of fear, those who, all their lifetime, had been subject to bondage through fear of death; for seeing His death substituted for their judgment, death has ceased to be to them what it was, and has rather become the blessed rest of the weary pilgrim in his march through the world: and thus the Lord has gained the church from Satan now, and by His death stopped the power and force of his accusations for ever to them that believe, and fitted them thus to become temples of the Holy Ghost, and to take their place outwardly and in conscious liberty among the sons of God.
3. "Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him." (Heb. 5: 7.)
What a contrast between this and the preceding portion! In that the Son, having marked the high calling and nature of the church in His Father's mind, is presented to us as coming down into the midst of her sorrows and captivity, by His own death to destroy. him that had the power of death -- that is the devil, and to deliver them who through fear of death were all. their lifetime subject to bondage: here the same blessed One is seen realising in His own person all the sorrow and anguish of the fear of death and, though heard, not delivered from it -- "when he had offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared." Unasked, undesired, he came, in the deep sympathy of His own perfect soul, to remove the fear of death, and that too at His own proper charges, from those that were underlying it. But in this act and deed He had placed, Himself where all that love which was in the Father toward Him, could only act under restraint How wondrous is the love of God to the church, how marvellous the grace of Christ toward her. May we never forget either His love in thus tasting death for us, or the reality of the bitterness of the draught to His soul; and may we ever remember, that He having drank the cup, it remains not for us.
4. "For this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth." (Heb. 9: 15-17.)
It is singular what confusion the translators of our, generally excellent, authorised version have made in some passages by needlessly rendering one and the same Greek word by a variety of English words. Thus the word diatheke, rendered uniformly throughout Hebrews 8 "covenant," is here rendered "testament;" covenant is surely the correct rendering. Probably they felt this in chapter 8, as seeing that to have rendered it testament would have been to make the law not a compact from God, ratified with the symbolic blood of bulls and goats, but (which it evidently is not) a testamentary deposition of the slain beast. Perhaps also in chapter 9, the, verses before us formed their difficulty, and it was one which the more easily passed from the truth of the second covenant, so far at least as it has been applied to the church being a testamentary deposition of the Lord's; though this is not the meaning of the passage.
The passage would read much more simply thus: -- "And for this cause he is the mediator of the new covenant, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a covenant is, there must also of necessity be the death of the thing covenanted over. For a covenant is of force upon the basis of dead things: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the thing covenanted over is alive. Whereupon, neither the first covenant was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the covenant which God hath enjoined unto you."
Whereby we get a most simple truth presented to us about the confirmation of the covenant; and the death of the Lord presented us at once the redemption of the transgressions which were under the first covenant, and the ratification of the second covenant. The transgressions under the first covenant would just be the fruits of its imperative demands upon fallen man, in weakness and in rebellion before God; the more "do and live" is pressed upon him, the more will he feel both his own inability to do, and the motions of sin which are by the law: the second covenant acts in blessed contrast to this, as it is written in Hebrews 10: 16: "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin." And Oh, how wondrously full the value of the Lord's death! -- at once the antitype of all the Mosaic and Levitical sacrifices! the redemption of transgressions under that covenant, and the power and virtue of that better compact of pure divine grace, wherein God pours forth out of His own abundant fulness, according to His estimate of the wants and necessities of His poor fallen creatures, and gives all blessings unto them that believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord!
5. "Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." (Heb. 13: 20, 21.)
These two verses cannot be separated, if we would have the comfort and the instruction our God would teach us by them; for it is the character in which our God is presented in the former, which forms the known security of the church's power for the service presented in the latter. And I would, en passant, notice here, how much those rob themselves and God of, who either separate privilege and precept, or overlook the different titles and names, under which God presents Himself, when seeking to instruct and guide the church. The call to be perfect in every good work to do His will, having that which is well-pleasing in God's sight wrought in us, would be a sorrow-quickening thing if presented to us by itself, for it would be a draining demand upon nature for more than nature contains; but when it comes as a given character in God, wherein He has presented Himself as the worker of all blessing yea, the basis of all blessing in Himself raising the Lord, our Lord Jesus, from the dead, and that, too, in the character of the great Shepherd of the sheep, and through the blood of the everlasting covenant, it comes with joy and blessing, for rich is the cluster of mercies and blessings it brings along with it; and it is impossible to think of them and not to rest in Him who did them, as the doer and effectuator of all the other things which they seem to involve, suggest, and lead into. And thus the precept, instead of being a heavy, heart. breaking burden, becomes a blessed and refreshing consolation, because it throws us afresh off the resources of nature, upon the fulness of the grace and power of God.
6. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time." (1 Peter 1: 3-5.)
Oh, that the saints were brought off their own dark fleshly experiences to rest more simply upon God and His work! "Surely there are comparatively but few who have learnt to tell the beads of mercy which are theirs in Christ; -- "begotten again to a lively hope, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time." Is it not a precious string of rich gems? But whose are they? Surely they are the property of every believer! Yet they know it not; but too many of them question and doubt, as though nothing were theirs; and why is this, but because instead of taking what God has done as their portion and security (that is, the experience of faith and the Spirit), they will look for evidences and testimonials inside themselves (which is the experience of unbelief and nature), whereby they never get a firm footing in grace at all. Blessed truth, that the resurrection of Jesus was our begetting again to a lively hope to all these blessings and glories. May the knowledge of this as a thing true, in God eternally true, lead us into perfect freedom, and holy joy and delight. For this will bring our poor dark hearts into the place of light, and peace, and gladness, and enable us to sine, for joy, and to find strength (for the joy of the Lord is His people's strength) to go forth and do His will.
7. "Christ . . . . manifest . . . . for you, who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God." (1 Peter 1: 20, 21.)
In Hebrews 13 we had a passage somewhat similar to this, only there God's conduct in graciously raising Him from the dead for us was the pledge of all power to us for service to God; here the same thing is presented, as showing that in God there is a basis and claim for our faith and hope. God raised Him from the dead, and God gave Him glory, and that for the sake of us who believe: now if this resurrection, as we have seen, is the begetting of us to a lively hope, with all the attendant blessings -- what a blessed rest in Himself has God presented for our faith and hope! And surely, nothing but having these in God Himself will suffice. All and everything outside of God is variable and uncertain, but He changes not, and the faith and hope which are in Him cannot fail nor cease. I do think, in our own day, there is very little of faith and hope in God. What with wrong and erroneous views of the work of the Son, such as many have, imagining His work was not the result of, and the expression of, the Father's grace, but something brought in to move the Father; and what with the confounding together of the work of the Son and of the Spirit, and again, the confused notions about faith and the Spirit, it has come to pass that really very few have their faith and hope in God Himself. Reader, is it so with thee? A simple rest upon, and expectation from, God Himself, resulting from the knowledge of what He has proved Himself to be by the marvellous work He has done in raising Christ from the dead for the church, and giving her glory, that our faith and hope might be in God. And surely, this last clause shows that not only has He presented a basis for faith and hope in Himself but moreover, that He lays claim to have them there. Alas, our little faith, our little intelligence of service to One so gracious, so patient, so anxious in love toward us!
8. "It is better . . . . that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing. For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit." (1 Peter 3: 17, 18.)
The force and meaning of this, when taken in connection with the few first verses of 1 Peter 4, is very plain, "Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you: who shall give account to him that is ready to judge, the quick and the dead." No one, indeed, but one understanding the mystery of the union of Christ and the church can comprehend such things; but to such the argument is weighty and simple; Christ died for you on account and by reason of your flesh, therefore you must count it a thing crucified, and to be crucified with Him. And thus we are reminded here of the gracious way in which our God has given us His sentence against, and full estimate of, our flesh, and that in such a way as to make His sentence necessarily the plea of every one that believes against the sins of the flesh. As connected with the death of the Lord, and the lesson thence to be derived by us, I shall here make no further remark; but as there are two parts of the context which have presented to many great difficulties, I would just make a remark or two, tending perhaps to throw some light upon the subject to many minds, and which seem to me connected with the meaning which, rightly or wrongly, I attach to the passages in question.
The argument, it will be observed, is especially addressed to the Jewish Christians (see the opening and course of the epistle), and at this part, from 1 Peter 3: 18 to 1 Peter 4: 7, turns upon the question of the effect of the knowledge of God's judgment upon a believer. This, to a Gentile mind, would have been comparatively a simple thing, requiring merely the enunciation of it. But to a Jewish mind the case was somewhat different, for it had before it, not only its own state as one that had been subjected to law, but likewise the case of the antediluvian world, concerning which it might raise a question, such as, whether the statement of the principle was so universal as to include them. And this question would arise, not from captiousness necessarily, for he that knows God and His ways aright, knows the uniformity of the principles of His conduct. It is this, as it seems to me, which leads Paul into his argument in Romans 5: 12-14; for he was ever careful, as we should be, to establish in the minds of those with whom he had to do, that God's ways were equal; and so he shows them there, that there having been no standard of right or wrong given to any body of people in the world, until the law came by Moses, did not at all touch the question of God's judgment as to man's real state. Until Moses, there had been no standard given in the world, and no God, present daily, to mark departure from this standard, and to bring it into present judgment for it; and after Moses this had been the case: nevertheless, though in the world there might be this difference, the prevalence of death from Adam to Moses, showed that God's estimate of them all was very much the same -- all died.
In the same way Peter here seems to me to anticipate such thoughts arising, and in several of the verses in the context to be labouring to show that the principle he was stating was of universal applicability as to man. I should read and paraphrase it thus, "It is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing." For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just One for the many unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: and then, lest a Jew should say, as it seems to me, -- "well, we see the needs-be of such a testimony and estimate to one who has been under the law, but what of those as to whose sin God bore no such testimony in themselves, as He had by the law to us Jews: say, the antediluvians?" Peter adds, and by the which Spirit (the very same whereby Christ was quickened), He went and preached (by Noah) unto the spirits (now) in prison; which formerly were disobedient, when the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, etc.
9. "Grace unto you and peace . . . . from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead . . . . I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death . . . . These things saith the first and the last, which was dead and is alive." (Rev. 1: 5, 18; Rev. 2: 8.)
The book of the Revelation is a very solemn and yet blessed book. It opens to us, in a peculiar way, the dark outline of the churches' departure from God, and gives many fearful details of the trials and difficulties the faithful few will have to meet with; in corresponding contrast most bright and blessed is the aspect in which the blessed Lord presents Himself.
"Grace unto you and peace . . . . from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead."
The blessed Captain of Salvation having waded through all necessities and trials, and gained the shore, calling to those for whom He stemmed the mighty stream, to mark the place He held and this His present victory over all their very present trials after the full experience of them. And surely this is both blessed and gracious. For landed safely there, and now, care and thought no longer demanded from Him, for Himself and His God, the work being finished which He gave Him to do, His whole care and thought could be for the church; and who so fitted as He to sympathise with her as Himself, just come out of the conflict in which she still is? And the blessedness of this, His position, so held, for the church, shortly afterwards shines out; for when John fell at His feet as one that was dead when he saw Him -- this was His gracious way: "And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first. and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead: and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death."
"If God be for us, who can be against us?" is a blessed word; but how pre-eminently blessed is this presenting of the Lord in His risen glory, just returned from the conflict, as being for the church too. Jesus, manifested as God, with memory fresh as to all the details of the conflict for us, Himself having the mastery of them all, present to give us the same. May God realise the blessed thought to us, that in confidence of His possessing the keys of hades and of death, we may advance with all boldness under the immediate scrutiny of His eye. Strongly confirmatory of the view here taken of the object of the character thus assumed by the Lord, to my own mind at least, is the use of the same character in the address to the church of Smyrna, "These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive."
Any one that carefully reads the letters to the seven churches, will see that not only are the insignia under which the Lord introduces Himself to them, respectively, different, but that likewise there is an internal harmony in each letter between the insignia adopted -- the state of the church, and the promises or warnings given to it. It was, I believe, the peculiarly trying state of things at Smyrna, but the faithfulness of the church thereunder, which led the Lord Jesus, in addressing it, to take the same choice character in which He had introduced Himself to John in the first chapter, in the midst of his embarrassing feebleness, and by which, John, in opening the book, is led by the Spirit to introduce Christ, as sending with Him, which is, and which was, and which is to come, and with the seven spirits that are before His throne, grace and peace to them.
10. "In the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb, as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth . . . . Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth . . . . Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing."
These three passages, in painful contrast to the world's course of thought give us Heaven's estimate of the Lamb as it had been slain. And, first, we have this as connected with the mind of God, and the settled ordered arrangements of the glory of the place.
"In the midst of the throne, and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a lamb as it had been slain." And not only do we find Him in this place of glory as to the throne of the Lord God Almighty, but even that throne itself sharing in His name, as oft afterwards the throne is called the throne of God and the Lamb. Then, secondly, we have the song of the elders (representatives of the church on earth) in full accordance with the mind of Him, before and around whose throne they are hymning still the death of Jesus: "Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests; and we shall reign on the earth." And then, thirdly and lastly, the full chorus of those whose minds are in full unison with the mind of heaven; "And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. And the four living creatures said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever."
Surely it ought to give us great boldness and liberty, when thinking of the glory that awaits us, and the place prepared for us, amid the many mansions of the Father's house; to see the place those grand and leading truths (which our present necessities and circumstances so press home upon our hearts and minds) hold in the hearts and minds of them that are there. If our sin, and sinfulness, and misery, and failure, make the death of Jesus, and His life from death, our one abiding constant resource, these things are better known, and more appreciated there, whither we go, than here. And, indeed, while from the flesh in us we may be more conscious of being driven to them by pressure of passing circumstances, and the evil in us and around, we must never forget, that the secret of our power to value them at all, is the mind of Christ, which we have from the Spirit; and this is the mind of heaven; so that in principle we, as those there, do rejoice in these things in their intrinsic value, though it may be that, amid much weakness, and infirmity, and failure, we may be more conscious of being driven to them by circumstances than drawn by their intrinsic preciousness.
11. "All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." (Rev. 13: 8.)
When will the end of grace be reached, love divine fathomed, or the value of the death of Jesus be fully, rightly known? Here we have it in a new and fresh light still. The book of life endorsed with His name, as "the Lamb that had been slain," and the connection in which this book is here presented, show us, moreover, that it is in this character that deliverance is found in Him for those who worship not the beast. Blessed Lord, how various is Thy love and glory, how precious the applications and uses to Thy saints of them, by the Spirit in Thy word! How wretched and ruinous the state and condition of those that know them not, amid that world, whence Thy grace has redeemed us to Thyself, that we, knowing our names written in Thy book of life, might be enabled to give ourselves wholly to Thee as Thy worshippers and servants. Amen, and Amen.
