Now, my brother, just turn heavenward and ask the Father, by the Holy Spirit, to show thee the beautiful heavenly life. Ask and expect it.
Keep thine eyes fixed upon it. The great blessing of the New Covenant is obedience; the wonderful power to will and do as G.o.d wills. It is indeed the entrance to every other blessing. It is paradise restored and heaven openeda"the creature honouring his Creator, the Creator delighting in His creature; the child glorifying the Father, the Father glorifying the child, as He changes him, from glory to glory, into the likeness of His Son.
[7] In a volume just published, The School of Obedience, the thoughts of this chapter are more fully worked out.
CHAPTER XIV.
The New Covenant: a Covenant of Grace "Sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace."-ROM. vi. 14.
THE words, Covenant of grace, though not found in Scripture, are the correct expression of the truth it abundantly teaches, that the contrast between the two covenants is none other than that of law and grace. Of the New Covenant, grace is the great characteristic: "The law came in, that the offence might abound; but where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly." It is to bring the Romans away entirely from under the Old Covenant, and to teach them their place in the New, that Paul writes: "Ye are not under the law, but under grace." And he a.s.sures them that if they believe this, and live in it, their experience would confirm G.o.d"s promise: "Sin shall not have dominion over you." What the law could not doa"give deliverance from the power of sin over usa"grace would effect. The New Covenant was entirely a Covenant of grace. In the wonderful grace of G.o.d it had its origin; it was meant to be a manifestation of the riches and the glory of that grace; of grace, and by grace working in us, all its promises can be fulfilled and experienced.
The word grace is used in two senses. It is first the gracious disposition in G.o.d which moves Him to love us freely without our merit, and to bestow all His blessings upon us. Then it also means that power through which this grace does its work in us. The redeeming work of Christ, and the righteousness He won for us; equally with the work of the Spirit in us, as the power of the new life, are spoken of as Grace.
It includes all that Christ has done and still does, all He has and gives, all He is for us and in us. John says, "We beheld His glory, the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."
"The law was given by Moses grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." "And of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace." What the law demands, grace supplies.
The contrast which John pointed out is expounded by Paul: "The law came in, that the offence might abound," and the way be prepared for the abounding of grace more exceedingly. The law points the way, but gives no strength to walk in it. The law demands, but makes no provision for its demands being met. The law burdens and condemns and slays. It can waken desire, but not satisfy it. It can rouse to effort, but not secure success. It can appeal to motives, but gives no inward power beyond what man himself has. And so, while warring against sin, it became its very ally in giving the sinner over to a hopeless condemnation. "The strength of sin is the law."
To deliver us from the bondage and the dominion of sin, grace came by Jesus Christ. Its work is twofold. Its exceeding abundance is seen in the free and full pardon there is of all transgression, in the bestowal of a perfect righteousness, and in the acceptance into G.o.d"s favour and friendship. "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sin according to the riches of His grace." It is not only at conversion and our admittance into G.o.d"s favour, but throughout all our life, at each step of our way, and amid the highest attainments of the most advanced saint; we owe everything to grace, and grace alone. The thought of merit and work and worthiness is for ever excluded.
The exceeding abundance of grace is equally seen in the work which the Holy Spirit every moment maintains within us. We have found that the central blessing of the New Covenant, flowing from Christ"s redemption and the pardon of our sins, is the new heart in which G.o.d"s law and fear and love have been put. It is in the fulfilment of this promise, in the maintenance of the heart in a state of meetness for G.o.d"s indwelling, that the glory of grace is specially seen. In the very nature of things this must be so. Paul writes: "Where sin abounded, grace did more exceedingly abound." And where, as far as I was concerned, did sin abound? All the sin in earth and h.e.l.l could not harm me, were it not for its presence in my heart. It is there it has exercised its terrible dominion. And it is there the exceeding abundance of grace must be proved, if it is to benefit me. All grace in earth and heaven could not help me; it is only in the heart it can be received, and known, and enjoyed. "Where sin abounded," in the heart, there "grace did more exceedingly abound; that as sin reigned in death," working its destruction in the heart and life, "even so might grace reign," in the heart too, "through righteousness into eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." As had been said just before, "They that receive the abundance of grace shall reign in life through Jesus Christ."
Of this reign of grace in the heart Scripture speaks wondrous things.
Paul speaks of the grace that fitted him for his work, of "the gift of that grace of G.o.d which was given me according to the working of His power." "The grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant, with faith and love." "The grace which was bestowed upon me was not found vain, but I laboured more abundantly than they all; yet not I, but the grace of G.o.d which was with me." "He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee; My strength is made perfect in weakness." He speaks in the same way of grace as working in the life of believers, when he exhorts them to "be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus"; when he tells us of "the grace of G.o.d" exhibited in the liberality of the Macedonian Christians, and "the exceeding grace of G.o.d" in the Corinthians; when he encourages them: "G.o.d is able to make all grace abound in you, that ye may abound unto every good work." Grace is not only the power that moves the heart of G.o.d in its compa.s.sion towards us, when He acquits and accepts the sinner and makes him a child, but is equally the power that moves the heart of the saint, and provides it each moment with just the disposition and the power which it needs to love G.o.d and do His will.
It is impossible to speak too strongly of the need there is to know that, as wonderful and free and alone sufficient as is the grace that pardons, is the grace that sanctifies; we are just as absolutely dependent upon the latter as the former. We can do as little to the one as the other. The grace that works in us must as exclusively do all in us and through us as the grace that pardons does all for us. In the one case as the other, everything is by faith alone. Not to apprehend this brings a double danger. On the one hand, people think that grace cannot be more exalted than in the bestowal of pardon on the vile and unworthy; and a secret feeling arises that, if G.o.d be so magnified by our sins more than anything else, we must not expect to be freed from them in this life. With many this cuts at the root of the life of true holiness. On the other hand, from not knowing that grace is always and alone to do all the work in our sanctification and fruit-bearing, men are thrown upon their own efforts, their life remains one of feebleness and bondage under the law, and they never yield themselves to let grace do all it would.
Let us listen to what G.o.d"s Word says: "By grace have ye been saved, through faith; not of works, lest any man should glory. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which G.o.d afore prepared that we should walk in them." Grace stands in contrast to good works of our own not only before conversion, but after conversion too.
We are created in Christ Jesus for good works, which G.o.d had prepared for us. It is grace alone can work them in us and work them out through us. Not only the commencement but the continuance of the Christian life is the work of grace. "Now if it is by grace it is no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace; therefore it is of faith that it may be according to grace." As we see that grace is literally and absolutely to do all in us, so that all our actings are the showing forth of grace in us, we shall consent to live the life of faitha"a life in which, every moment, everything is expected from G.o.d. It is only then that we shall experience that sin shall not, never, not for a moment, have dominion over us.
"Ye are not under the law, but under grace." There are three possible lives. One entirely under the law; one entirely under grace; one a mixed life, partly law, partly grace. It is this last against which Paul warns the Romans. It is this which is so common, and works such ruin among Christians. Let us find out whether this is not our position, and the cause of our low state. Let us beseech G.o.d to open our eyes by the Holy Spirit to see that in the New Covenant everything, every movement, every moment of our Christian life, is of grace, abounding grace; grace abounding exceedingly, and working mightily. Let us believe that our Covenant G.o.d waits to cause all grace to abound toward us. And let us begin to live the life of faith that depends upon, and trusts in, and looks to, and ever waits for G.o.d, through Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit, to work in us that which is pleasing in His sight.
Grace unto you, and peace be multiplied!
CHAPTER XV.
The Covenant of an Everlasting Priesthood "That My covenant might be with Levi. My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared Me, and was afraid before My name. The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips; he walked with Me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity."a"MAL. ii. 4-6.
ISRAEL was meant by G.o.d to be a nation of priests. In the first making of the Covenant this was distinctly stipulated. "If ye will obey My voice, and keep My covenant, ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests."
They were to be the stewards of the oracles of G.o.d; the channels through whom G.o.d"s knowledge and blessing were to be communicated to the world; in them all nations were to be blessed.
Within the people of Israel one tribe was specially set apart to embody and emphasise the priestly idea. The first-born sons of the whole people were to have been the priests. But to secure a more complete separation from the rest of the people, and the entire giving up of any share in their possessions and pursuits, G.o.d chose one tribe to be exclusively devoted to the work of proving what const.i.tutes the spirit and the power of priesthood. Just as the priesthood of the whole people was part of G.o.d"s Covenant with them, so the special calling of Levi is spoken of as G.o.d"s Covenant of Life and Peace being with Him, as the Covenant of an everlasting priesthood. All this was to be a picture to help them and us, in some measure, to apprehend the priesthood of His own Blessed Son, the Mediator of the New Covenant.
Like Israel, all G.o.d"s people, under the New Covenant, are a royal priesthood. The right of free and full access to G.o.d, the duty and power of mediating for our fellowmen and being G.o.d"s channel of blessing to them, is the inalienable birthright of every believer.
Owing to the feebleness and incapacity of many of G.o.d"s children, their ignorance of the mighty grace of the New Covenant, they are utterly impotent to take up and exercise their priestly functions. To make up for this lack of service, to show forth the exceeding riches of His grace in the New Covenant, and the power He gives men of becoming, just as the priests of old were the forerunners of the Great High Priest, His followers and representatives, G.o.d still allows and invites those of His redeemed ones who are willing, to offer their lives to this blessed ministry. To him who accepts the call, the New Covenant brings in special measure what G.o.d has said: "My Covenant of Life and Peace shall be with him"; it becomes to him in very deed "the Covenant of an everlasting priesthood." As the Covenant of Levi"s priesthood issued and culminated in Christ"s, ours issues from that again, and receives from it its blessing to dispense to the world.
To those who desire to know the conditions on which, as part of the New Covenant, the Covenant of an everlasting priesthood can be received and carried out, a study of the conditions on which Levi received the priesthood will be most instructive. We are not only told that G.o.d chose that tribe, but what there specially was in that tribe that fitted it for the work. Malachi says: "I gave him My covenant for the fear wherewith he feared Me, and was afraid before My name." The reference is to what took place at Sinai when Israel had made the molten calf. Moses called all who were on the Lord"s side, who were ready to avenge the dishonour done to G.o.d, to come to him. The tribe of Levi did so, and at his bidding took their swords, and slew three thousand of the idolatrous people (Ex. x.x.xii. 26-29). In the blessing with which Moses blessed the tribes before his death, their absolute devotion to G.o.d, without considering relative or friend, is mentioned as the proof of their fitness for G.o.d"s service (Deut. x.x.xiii. 5-11): "Let Thy Thummim and Thy Urim be with Thy holy one, who said unto his father and to his mother, I have not known thee; neither did he acknowledge his own brethren, nor know his own children: for they have observed Thy word and kept Thy covenant."
The same principle is strikingly ill.u.s.trated in the story of Aaron"s grandson, Phineas, where he, in his zeal for G.o.d, executed judgment on disobedience to G.o.d"s command. The words are most suggestive. "And the Lord apake unto Moses, saying, Phineas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, hath turned away My wrath from the children of Israel, in that he was jealous with My jealousy among them, so that I consumed them not in My jealousy. Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him My covenant of peace: and it shall be unto him, and his seed after him, the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was jealous for his G.o.d, and made an atonement for the children of Israel" (Num. xxv. 10-13). To be jealous with G.o.d"s jealousy, to be jealous for G.o.d"s honour, and rise up against sin, is the gate into the Covenant of an everlasting priesthood, is the secret of being entrusted by G.o.d with the sacred work of teaching His people, and burning incense before Him, and turning many from iniquity (Deut. x.x.xiii. 10; Mal. ii. 6).
Even the New Covenant is in danger of being abused by the seeking of our own happiness or holiness, more than the honour of G.o.d or the deliverance of men. Even where these are not entirely neglected, they do not always take the place they are meant to havea"that first place that makes everything, the dearest and best, secondary and subordinate to the work of helping and blessing men. A reckless disregard of everything that would interfere with G.o.d"s will and commands, a being jealous with G.o.d"s jealousy against sin, a witnessing and a fighting against it at any sacrifice a"this is the school of training for the priestly office.
It is this the world needs nowadaysa"men of G.o.d in whom the fire of G.o.d burns, men who can stand and speak and act in power on behalf of a G.o.d who, amid His own people, is dishonoured by the worship of the golden calf. Understand that as you will, of the place given to money and rich men in the church, of the prevalence of worldliness and luxury, or of the more subtle danger of a worship meant for the true G.o.d, under forms taken from the Egyptians, and suited to the wisdom and the carnal life of this world. A religion G.o.d cannot approve is often found even where the people still profess to be in covenant with G.o.d. "Consecrate yourselves to-day unto the Lord, even every man upon his brother." This call of Moses is as much needed to-day as ever. To each one who responds there is the reward of the priesthood.
Let all who would know to the full what the New Covenant means, remember G.o.d"s Covenant of Life and Peace with Levi. Accept of the holy calling to be an intercessor, and to burn incense before the Lord continually. Love, work, pray, believe, as one whom G.o.d has sought and found to stand in the gap before Him. The New Covenant was dedicated by a sacrifice and a death: reckon it your most wonderful privilege, your fullest entrance into its life, as you reflect the glory of the Lord, and are changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord, to let the Spirit of that sacrifice and death be the moving power in all your priestly functions. Sacrifice yourself, live and die for your fellowmen.
One of the great objects with which G.o.d has made a Covenant with us, is, as we have said so often, to waken strong confidence in Himself and His faithfulness to His promise. And one of the objects that He has in wakening and so strengthening the faith in us, is that He may use us as His channels of blessing to the world. In the work of saving men, He wants intercessory prayer to take the first place. He would have us come to Him to receive, from Him in heaven, the spiritual life and power which can pa.s.s out from us to them. He knows how difficult and hopeless it is in many cases to deal with sinners; He knows that it is no light thing for us to believe that in answer to our prayer the mighty power of G.o.d will move to save those around us; He knows that it needs strong faith to persevere patiently in prayer in cases in which the answer is long delayed, and every year appears farther off than ever. And so He undertakes, in our own experience, to prove what faith in His Divine power can do, in bringing down all the blessings of the New Covenant on ourselves, that we may be able to expect confidently what we ask for others.
In our priestly life there is still another aspect. The priests had no inheritance with their brethren; the Lord G.o.d was their inheritance.
They had access to His dwelling and His presence, that there they might intercede for others, and thence testify of what G.o.d is and wills.
Their personal privilege and experience fitted them for their work. If we would intercede in power, do let us live in the full realisation of New Covenant life. It gives us not only liberty and confidence with G.o.d, and power to persevere; it gives us power with men, as we can testify to and prove what G.o.d has done to us. Herein is the full glory of the New Covenant, that, like Christ, its Mediator, we have the fire of the Divine love dwelling in us, and consuming us in the service of men. May to each of us the chief glory of the New Covenant be that it is the Covenant of an everlasting priesthood.
CHAPTER XVI.
The Ministry of the New Covenant "Ye are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men; being made manifest that ye are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living G.o.d: not in tables of stone, but in tables that are hearts of flesh. And such confidence have we through Christ G.o.dward: not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from G.o.d: who also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant; not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth fife."a"2 COR. iii. 2-6.
WE have seen that the New Covenant is a ministration of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit ministers all its grace and blessing in Divine power and life. [8] He does this through men, who are called ministers of a New Covenant, ministers of the Spirit. The Divine ministration of the Covenant to men, and the earthly ministry of G.o.d"s servants, are equally to be in the power of the Holy Spirit. The ministry of the New Covenant has its glory and its fruit in this, that it is all to be a demonstration of the Spirit and of power.
What a contrast this to the Old Covenant. Moses had indeed received of the glory of G.o.d shining upon him, but had to put a veil on his face.
Israel was incapable of looking on it. In hearing and reading Moses, there was a veil on their hearts. From Moses they might receive knowledge and thoughts and desires,a"the power of G.o.d"s Spirit, to enable them to see the glory of what G.o.d speaks, was not yet given.
This is the exceeding glory of the New Covenant, that it is a ministration of the Spirit; that its ministers have their sufficiency from G.o.d, who makes them ministers of the Spirit, and makes them able so to speak the words of G.o.d in the Spirit, that they are written in the heart, and that the hearers become legible, living epistles of Christ, showing the law written in their heart and life.
The ministry of the Spirit! What a glory there is in it! What a responsibility it brings! What a sufficiency of grace there is provided for it! What a privilege, to be a minister of the Spirit!
What tens of thousands we have throughout Christendom who are called ministers of the gospel. What an inconceivable influence they exert for life or for death over the millions who depend upon them for their knowledge and partic.i.p.ation of the Christian life. What a power there would be if all these were ministers of the Spirit! Let us study the word, until we see what G.o.d meant the ministry to be, and learn to take our part in praying and labouring to have it nothing less.
G.o.d hath made us ministers of the Spirit. The first thought is that a minister of the New Covenant must be a man personally possessed of the Holy Spirit. There is a twofold work of the Spirit: one in giving a holy disposition and character, the other in qualifying and empowering a man for work. The former must always come first. The promise of Christ to His disciples, that they should receive the Holy Spirit for their service, was very definitely given to those who had followed and loved Him, and kept His commandments. It is by no means enough that a man have been born of the Spirit. If he is to be a "sufficient minister" of the New Covenant, he must know what it is to be led by the Spirit, to walk in the Spirit, and to say, "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death."
Who that wants to learn Greek or Hebrew would accept a professor who hardly knows the elements of these languages? And how can a man be a minister of the New Covenant, which is so entirely "a ministration of the Spirit," a ministration of heavenly life and power, unless he knows by experience what it is to live in the Spirit? The minister must, before everything, be a personal proof and witness of the truth and power of G.o.d in the fulfilment of what the New Covenant promises.
Ministers are to be picked men; the best specimens and examples of what the Holy Spirit can do to sanctify a man, and by the working of G.o.d"s power in him to fit him for His service.
G.o.d hath made us ministers of the Spirit. Next to this thought, of being personally possessed by the Spirit, comes the truth that all their work in the ministry can be done in the power of the Spirit. What an unspeakably precious a.s.surancea"Christ sends them to do a heavenly work, to do His work, to be the instruments in His hands, by which He works: He clothes them with a heavenly power. Their calling is "to preach the gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven." As far as feelings are concerned, they may have to say as Paul: "I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling." That does not prevent their adding, nay rather, that may just be the secret of their being able to add: "My preaching was in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." If a man is to be a minister of the New Covenant, a messenger and a teacher of its true blessing, so as to lead G.o.d"s children to live in it, nothing less will do than a full experience of its power in himself, as the Spirit ministers it. Whether in his feeding on G.o.d"s word himself, or his seeking in it for G.o.d"s message for his people, whether in secret or intercessory prayer, whether in private intercourse with souls or public teaching, he is to wait upon, to receive, to yield to the energising of the Holy Spirit, as the mighty power of G.o.d working with him. This is his sufficiency for the work. He may every day afresh claim and receive the anointing with fresh oil, the new inbreathing from Christ of His own Spirit and life.
G.o.d hath made us ministers of the Spirit. There is something still, of no less importance. The Minister of the Spirit must especially see to it that he lead men to the Holy Spirit. Many will say, If he be led of the Spirit in teaching men, is not that enough? By no means. Men may become too dependent on him; men may take his Scripture teaching at second-hand, and, while there is power and blessing in his ministry, have reason to wonder that the results are not more definitely spiritual and permanent. The reason is simple. The New Covenant is: they shall no longer every man teach his brother, know the Lord, for all shall know Me, from the least even to the greatest. The Father wants every child, from the least, to live in continual personal intercourse with Himself. This cannot be, except as he is taught and helped to know and wait on the Holy Spirit. Bible study and prayer, faith and love and obedience, the whole daily walk must be taught as entirely dependent on the teaching and working of the indwelling Spirit.
The minister of the Spirit, very definitely and perseveringly, points away from himself to the Spirit. This is what John the Baptist did. He was filled with the Holy Spirit from his birth, but sent men away from himself to Christ, to be by Him baptized with the Spirit. Christ did the same. In His farewell discourse He called His disciples to turn from His personal instruction to the inward teaching of the Holy Spirit, who should dwell in them, and guide them into the truth and power of all He had taught them.
There is nothing so needed in the Church to-day. All its feebleness and formalities and worldliness, the lack of holiness, of personal devotion to Christ, of enthusiasm for His cause and kingdom, is owing to one thinga"the Holy Spirit is not known and honoured and yielded to, as the one only, as the one all-sufficient source of a holy life. The New Covenant is not known as a ministration of the Spirit in the heart of every believer. The one thing needful for the Church isa"the Holy Spirit in His power dwelling and ruling in the lives of G.o.d"s saints.
And as one of the chief means to this there are needed ministers of the Spirit, themselves living in the enjoyment and power of this great gift, who persistently labour to bring their brethren into the possession of their birthright: the Holy Spirit in the heart, maintaining, in Divine power, an unceasing communion with the Son and with the Father. The ministration of the Spirit makes the ministry of the Spirit possible and effectual. And the ministry of the Spirit again makes the ministration of the Spirit an actual experimental reality in the life of the Church.
We know how dependent the Church is on its ministry. The converse is no less true. The ministers are dependent on the Church. They are its children; they breathe its atmosphere; they share its health or sickliness; they are dependent upon its fellowship and intercession.
Let none of us think that all that the New Covenant calls us to is to see that we personally accept and rejoice in its blessings. No, indeed; G.o.d wants everyone who enters into it to know that its privileges are for all His children, and to give himself to make this known. And there is no more effectual way of doing this than taking thought for the ministry of the Church. Compare the ministry around you with its pattern in G.o.d"s word (see specially 1 Cor. ii.; 2 Cor. iii.). Join with others who know how the New Covenant is nothing, if it be not a ministration of the Spirit, and cry to G.o.d for a spiritual ministry.
Ask the leading of G.o.d the Holy Ghost to teach you what can be done, what you can do, to have the ministry of your Church become a truly spiritual one. Human condemnation will do as little good as human approbation. It is as the supreme place of the Holy Spirit, as the representative and revealer of the Father and the Son, is made clear to us, that the one desire of our heart, and our continual prayer, will be, that G.o.d would so discover to all the ministers of His word their heavenly calling, that they may, above everything, seek this one thing,a"to be sufficient ministers of the New Covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit.
[8] It may be well to read again and compare Chapter VII.: "The New Covenant: a Ministration of the Spirit.")
CHAPTER XVII.
His Holy Covenant.
"To remember His Holy Covenant; to grant unto us that we, being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, should serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all our days."-LUKE i.
68-75.
WHEN Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, he spoke of G.o.d"s visiting and redeeming His people, as a remembering of His Holy Covenant. He speaks of what the blessings of that Covenant would be, not in words that had been used before, but in what is manifestly a Divine revelation to him by the Holy Spirit; and gathers up all the former promises in these words: "That we should serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life."
Holiness in life and service is to be the great gift of the Covenant of G.o.d"s Holiness. As we have seen before, the Old Covenant proclaimed and demanded holiness; the New provides it; holiness of heart and life is its great blessing.
There is no attribute of G.o.d so difficult to define, so peculiarly a matter of Divine revelation, so mysterious, incomprehensible, and inconceivably glorious, as His Holiness. It is that by which He is specially worshipped in His majesty on the throne of heaven (Isa. vi.
2; Rev. iv. 8, xv. 4). It unites His righteousness, that judges and condemns, with His love, that saves and blesses. As the Holy One He is a consuming fire (Isa. x. 17); as the Holy One He loves to dwell among His people (Isa. xii. 6). As the Holy One He is at an infinite distance from us; as the Holy One He comes inconceivably near, and makes us one with, makes us like Himself. The one purpose of His holy Covenant is to make us holy as He is holy.
As the Holy One He says: "I am holy; be ye holy; I am the Lord which hallow you, which make you holy." The highest conceivable summit of blessedness is our being partakers of the Divine nature, of the Divine holiness.
This is the great blessing Christ, the Mediator of the New Covenant, brings. He has been made unto us "both righteousness and sanctification"a"righteousness in order to, as a preparation for, sanctification [9] or holiness. He prayed to the Father: "Sanctify them; for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves may also be sanctified in truth." In Him we are sanctified, saints, holy ones (Rom. i. 7; 1 Cor. i. 2). We have put on the new man which after G.o.d is created in righteousness and holiness. Holiness is our very nature.
We are holy in Christ. As we believe it, as we receive it, as we yield ourselves to the truth, and draw nigh to G.o.d to have the holiness drawn forth and revealed in fellowship with Him, its fountain, we shall know how divinely true it is.
It is for this the Holy Spirit has been given in our hearts. He is the "Spirit of Holiness." His every working is in the power of holiness.
Paul says : "G.o.d hath chosen us unto salvation, in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." As simple and entire as is our dependence on the word of truth, as the external means, must our confidence be in the hidden power for holiness which the working of the Spirit brings. The connection between G.o.d"s electing purpose, and the work of the Spirit, with the word we obey, comes out with equal clearness in Peter: "Elect, in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience." The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the life of Christ; as we know, and honour, and trust Him, we shall learn and also experience that, in the New Covenant, as the ministration of the Spirit, the sanctification, the holiness of the Holy Spirit is our covenant right.
We shall be a.s.sured that, as G.o.d has promised, so He will work it in us, that we "should serve Him without fear, in righteousness and holiness before Him, all the days of our life." With a treasure of holiness in Christ, and the very Spirit of holiness in our hearts, we can live holy lives. That is, if we believe Him "who worketh in us both to will and to work."
In the light of this Covenant promise, with the Blessed Son and the Holy Spirit to work it out in us, what new meaning is given to the teaching of the New Testament. Take the first epistle St. Paul ever wrote. It was directed to men who had only a few months previously been turned from idols to serve the Living G.o.d, and to wait for His Son from heaven. The words he speaks in regard to the holiness they might aim at and expect, because G.o.d was going to work it in them, are so grand that many Christians pa.s.s them by, as practically unintelligible (1 Thess.
iii. 13): "The Lord make you to increase and abound in love, to the end He may stablish your hearts unblamable in holiness at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints." That promises holiness, unblamable holiness, a heart unblamable in holiness, a heart stablished in all this by G.o.d Himself. Paul might indeed say of a word like this: "Who hath believed our report?" He had written of himself (ii. 10) : "Ye know how holily and righteously and unblamably we behaved ourselves."
He a.s.sures them that what G.o.d has done for him He will do for thema"give them hearts unblameable in holiness. The Church believes so little in the mighty power of G.o.d, and the truth of His Holy Covenant, that the grace of such heart-holiness is hardly spoken of. The verse is often quoted in connection with "the coming of our Lord Jesus with His saints"; but its real point and glory,a"that when He comes we may meet Him with hearts stablished unblamable in holiness by G.o.d Himself: all too little this is understood or proclaimed or expected.
Or take another verse in the Epistle (v. 21), also spoken to these young converts from heathenism, in reference to the coming of our Lord.
Some think that to speak much of the coming of the Lord will make us holy. Alas! how little it has done so in many .cases. It is the New Covenant Holiness, wrought by G.o.d Himself in us, believed in and waited for from Him, that can make our waiting differ from the carnal expectations of the Jews or the disciples. Listen-"THE G.o.d OF PEACE HIMSELF "a"that is the keynote of the New Covenanta"what you never can do G.o.d will work in youa""SANCTIFY YOU WHOLLY"; this you may ask and expect,a""and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, UNBLAMABLE, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." And now, as if to meet the doubt that will arise: "Faithful is He that calleth you, WHO WILL ALSO DO IT." Again it is the secret of the New Covenanta"what hath not entered into the heart of man,-G.o.d WILL WORK in them that wait for Him. Until the Church.awakes to see and believe that our holiness is to be the immediate almighty working of the Three-One G.o.d in us, and that our whole religion must be an unceasing dependence to receive it direct from Himself, these promises remain a sealed book.
Let us now return to the prophecy of the Holy Spirit by Zacharias, of G.o.d"s remembering the Covenant of His Holiness, to make us holy, to stablish our hearts unblamable in holiness, that we should serve Him IN HOLINESS AND RIGHTEOUSNESS. Note how every word is significant.
To grant us. It is to be a gift from above. The promise given with the Covenant was: "I the Lord have spoken it; I will perform it." We need to beseech G.o.d to show us both what He will do, and that He will do it.
When our faith expects all from Him, the blessing will be found.
"That we, being delivered out of the hands of our enemaes." He had just before said: He hath raised up an horn of salvation for us; salvation from our enemies and the hand of all that hate us. It is only a free people can serve a Holy G.o.d, or be holy. It is only as the teaching of Rom. vi.-viii. is experienced, and I know what it is that we are "freed from sin," and "freed from the law," and that "the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death," that in the perfect liberty from every power that could hinder, I can expect G.o.d to do His mighty work in me.
Should serve Him. My servant does not serve me by spending all his time in getting himself ready for work, but in doing my work. The Holy Covenant sets us free, and endows us with Divine grace, that G.o.d may have us for His work,a"the same work Christ began, and we now carry on.
Without fear. In childlike confidence and boldness before G.o.d. And before men too. A freedom from fear in every difficulty, because having learnt to know that G.o.d works all in us we can trust Him to work all for us and through us.
Before Him. With His continued unceasing presence all the day, as the unceasing security of our obedience and our fearlessness, the neverfailing secret of our being sanctified wholly.
All our days. Not only all the day for one day, but for every day, because Jesus is a High Priest in the power of an endless life, and the mighty operation of G.o.d as promised in the Covenant is as unchanging as is G.o.d Himself. Is it not as if you begin to see that G.o.d"s word does appear to mean more than you have ever conceived of or expected? It is well that it should be so. It is only when you begin to say, Glory to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think, and expect G.o.d"s almighty, supernatural, altogether immeasurable power and grace to work out the New Covenant life in you, and to make you holy, that you will really come to the place of helplessness and dependence where G.o.d can work.
I pray you, my Brother, do believe that G.o.d"s word is true, and say with Zacharias, "Blessed be the Lord, the G.o.d of Israel, who bath visited His people, to remember HIS HOLY COVENANT, and to grant us, that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, should serve Him without fear, in holiness rind righteousness before Him, all our days."