Part 18 (1/2)
To all which St. Paul answers: ”G.o.d was justified in the Spirit.”
You do not see what that has to do with it? Then let me show you.
To be justified means to be shown and proved to be just, righteous.
Now what justified G.o.d to man was the Spirit of G.o.d, as He showed Himself in the Lord Jesus Christ. For when G.o.d became man and dwelt among men, what sort of works were His? What was His conduct, His character; of what sort of spirit did He show Himself to be? He went, we read, doing good, for G.o.d was with Him. Not of His own will, but to do His Father's will, and because He was filled without measure by the Spirit of G.o.d, He did good, He healed the sick, He rebuked the proud and self-conceited hypocrite, He proclaimed pardon and mercy to the broken-hearted sinner, wearied and worn out by the burden of his sins. Thus, in every action of His life, He was fighting against evil and misery, and conquering it; and so showing that G.o.d hates evil and misery, and that the evil and the misery in the world are here against G.o.d's will. Strange as it may seem to have to say it, so it is. Jesus Christ showed that howsoever sin and sorrow came into the world, it is G.o.d's will and purpose to root them out of the world, and that He is righteous, He is loving, He is merciful, He does and will fight against evil, for those who are crushed by it; and help poor sufferers always when they call upon Him, and often, often, of His most undeserved condescension and free grace, when they are forgetting and disobeying Him. And so by the good, and loving, and just spirit which Jesus showed, G.o.d was justified before men, and showed to be a G.o.d of goodness and justice.
The next puzzle, I said, was about angels and spirits, whether we need to pray to them to help us, and not to hurt us. St. Paul answers: G.o.d, when He was manifested in the flesh of a man, was seen by these angels. And that is enough for us. They saw the Lord G.o.d condescend to be born in a stable, to live as a poor man, to die on the cross. They saw that His will to man was love. And they do His will. And therefore they love men, they help men, they minister to men, because they follow the Lord's example, and do the will of their Father in Heaven, even as we ought to do it on earth. Therefore we have no need to fear them, for they love us already. And, on the other hand, we have no need to pray to them to help us, for they know already that it is their duty to help us. They know that the Son of G.o.d has put on us a higher honour than He ever put on them; for He took not on Him the nature of angels, He took on Him the nature of man; and thus, though man was made a little lower than the angels, yet by Christ's taking man's nature, man is crowned with a glory and honour higher than the angels. Know ye not, says St. Paul, that we shall judge angels? And the angels, as they told St. John, are our fellow-servants, not our masters; and they know that; for they saw the Son of G.o.d doing utterly His Father's will, and therefore they know that their duty is to do their Father's will also; not to do their own wills, and set themselves up as our masters, to be pleaded with by us. They saw the Son of G.o.d take our nature on Him, when they sang to the shepherds on the first Christmas night: ”Peace on earth, and good-will toward men;” and therefore they look on us with love and honour, because we wear the human nature which Christ their Master wore, and are partakers of the Holy Spirit of G.o.d, even as they are. For no angel or archangel could do a right thing, any more than we, except by the Holy Spirit of G.o.d. And that Holy Spirit is bestowed on the poorest man who asks for it, as freely as upon the highest of the heavenly host.
And this leads us on to the next puzzle of which I spoke: Men were apt, and are apt now, to say to themselves: Does G.o.d care whether I know what is right? Does G.o.d care to teach me about Himself? Is G.o.d desirous that I should do my duty? For if He does not care about my being good, why should I care about it?
To this St. Paul answers: ”G.o.d, who was manifest in the flesh, was preached to the Gentiles.”
G.o.d does care that men should know about G.o.d; for He loves them. He yearns after them as a father after his children, and He knows that to know G.o.d, to know the truth about G.o.d, is the beginning of all wisdom, the root of all safety and honour and happiness. He willeth not that any should perish, but that all should come to the knowledge of the truth. And, therefore, when the Son of G.o.d died for our sins, He did not stop at that great deed of love; but He ordained Apostles, and put upon them especially and above all men, His Holy Spirit, that they might go and preach to all nations the good news that G.o.d had become flesh, and dwelt among men, and borne their sorrows and infirmities, and to baptize them into the very name of G.o.d itself, into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; that so, instead of fancying now that G.o.d did not care for them, they might be sure that G.o.d so longed to teach them, that He called every child, even from its cradle, to come into His kingdom, and be taught the whole mystery of G.o.dliness.
The next puzzle I mentioned was: ”But this right life, this mystery of G.o.dliness, is it not something very strange and difficult, and past the understanding of simple men who are not extraordinarily clever and learned scholars or deep philosophers?” To that St. Paul answers: No. It is not past any man. It is not too deep or too difficult for the simplest, the most unlearned countryman. For, says St. Paul in the text, we Apostles have had proof of that; we have tried it; we Apostles preached the mystery of G.o.dliness, and it was believed on in the world. People of the world, plain working men and women going about their worldly business, who had no time to be great readers, or great thinkers, or to shut themselves up in monasteries to meditate on heavenly things, but had to live and work in the commonplace, busy, workday world--they believed our message. We Apostles told them that the Son of G.o.d had showed Himself in the likeness of man, and called on every man to repent, and to be such a man as He was. And worldly people believed us, and tried, and found that without giving up their worldly work, or deserting the station in which G.o.d had put them, they could live G.o.dlike lives, and become the sons of G.o.d without rebuke. They saw that scholars.h.i.+p was not wanted, leisure was not wanted, but only the humble heart which hungers and thirsts after righteousness. About their daily work, by their cottage firesides, among their poor neighbours, the Spirit of Almighty G.o.d gave them strength to live as Jesus their pattern lived; He filled them with all holy, pure, n.o.ble, brave, loving thoughts and feelings, fit for angels and archangels. He enabled them to rise out of their sins, to trample their temptations under foot, to leave their old low brutish sinful way of life behind them, and become new men, and persevere in every word, and thought, and action, in virtues such as the greatest heathen sages could not copy; ay, even to shed their life-blood freely and boldly in martyrdom, for the sake of G.o.d and the truth of G.o.d. They, these plain simple people, living in the world, could still live the life of G.o.d, and die like heroes for the sake of G.o.d.
And this again brings us to the last puzzle of which I spoke: ”But what became of those holy and G.o.dlike people when they died? What reward did they receive for all they had done, and given up, and suffered? What will become of us after we die? What will the next world be like? What is heaven like? Shall I be able to enjoy it?
Shall I be a man there, or only a ghost, a spirit without a body?”
To this St. Paul answers: That Christ, the Son of G.o.d, after He was manifested in the flesh, was received up into glory. He does not tell us what heaven is like; for though he had been caught up into the third heaven, yet what he saw there, he says, was unspeakable.
He neither ought to tell, or could tell, what he saw. Neither does St. Paul tell us what the next life will be like; for as far as we can find, G.o.d had not told him. All he says is: The man Christ Jesus, who walked this earth like other men, was received up into glory; and He did not leave His man's mind, His man's heart, even His man's body, behind Him. He carried up into heaven with Him His whole manhood, spirit, soul, and body, even to the print of the nails in His hands and in His most holy feet, and the wound of the spear in His most holy side. And that is enough for us. Because the man Christ Jesus is in heaven, we as men may ascend to heaven. Where He is we shall be. And what He is, in as far as He is man, we shall be.
What we shall be we know not; but this we know, that we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And He is a man still; for it is written: ”There is one Mediator between G.o.d and man, the man Christ Jesus.” And He will be a man at the day of judgment; for it is written that: ”G.o.d hath ordained a day in which He will judge the world by a man whom He hath chosen.” And He will be a man for ever; for it is written: ”This man abideth for ever.” And He Himself said to His disciples: ”I will not drink of this fruit of the vine, till I drink it new with you in the kingdom of my Father.” And again He declared, even when he was on earth, that He was the Son of Man who is in heaven. And in heaven nothing can grow less. But if Christ were not man for ever as well as G.o.d, He would become less; for He is now G.o.d and man also at once; but if He laid down His manhood, and so became not man any more, but G.o.d only, He would become less, which is not to be believed of Him of whom it is written: That Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. For, as the Athanasian creed teaches us, He is not G.o.d alone, nor man alone, but G.o.d and man is one Christ; and therefore, when St. John declares that Christ shall reign for ever and ever, he declares that He shall reign not only as G.o.d, but as man also. Therefore whatever we do not know about the next life, we know this, that we shall be men there; not sinful, weak, and mortal, as we are here, but holy, strong, immortal, after the likeness of our Lord, the firstborn from the dead, who has ascended up on high and raised our human nature to the heaven of heavens, and is gone to prepare a place for us, into which we too shall enter in that day when He shall change these mortal and fallen bodies which we now wear, the bodies of our humiliation, the bodies by wearing which we are now a little lower than the angels; them the Lord will change, that they may be made like unto His glorious body, according to the mighty working whereby He subdueth all things unto Himself, that we may see Him face to face, and dwell with Him in the glory of G.o.d the Father for ever.
Oh my friends, who is sufficient for these things? What shall we say of man? Is he not indeed fearfully and wonderfully made? Here we are, weak creatures, more liable to disease and death than the dumb beasts round us; full of poverty, and adversity, and longings which are never satisfied; our minds full of mistakes, our hearts full of false conceit, full of spite and folly, struggles, murmurings, quarrellings; our consciences full of the remembrance of sins without number. The greatest of all heathen poets said, that there was not a more miserable and pitiable animal upon the earth than man. He knew no better. He could not know better. How could he, when G.o.d had not yet been manifest in the flesh? How could he dream that the Lord G.o.d would condescend to be made flesh, and dwell among us, and show man His glory, the glory of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth--how could he dream that? And more than all, how could he dream that G.o.d, instead of throwing away our human nature when He rose again, as if it was too great a degradation for Him to be a man one moment more, should condescend to take up His human nature, His man's body, soul, and spirit, with Him into everlasting glory, that He might feed with it for ever the bodies and souls of those who trust in Him, so as to make them fit for us at the last day, to share in His everlasting life? The old heathen poet knew as well as you or I that there was an everlasting life beyond the grave; that men's souls were immortal, and could not die: but the thought of it was all dark, and dreary, and uncertain to him and to all mankind, till the Son of G.o.d brought life and immortality to light, when He was manifest in the flesh.
Wonderful mystery of G.o.dliness! Wonderful love of G.o.d to man!
Wonderful condescension of G.o.d to man! Still more wonderful patience of G.o.d to man!
Oh you who live still in sin, when the Son of G.o.d died and rose again to make you righteous; you who defile your bodies with sins worse than the brutes, when the Son of G.o.d offers to raise those bodies of yours to be equal with the angels; how shall you escape if you neglect so great salvation; if you despise this unspeakable love; if you trample under foot, like swine, the everlasting glory and happiness which G.o.d offers you freely, without fee or price, for the sake of His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, who died to buy them for you?
XLIV--THE WORK OF G.o.d'S SPIRIT
If I go not away, the comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you. And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on me: of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more: of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.--JOHN xvi. 7-11.
I no not pretend to be able to explain to you the whole meaning of this text, or even more than a very small part of it. For it speaks of G.o.d; of G.o.d the Holy Spirit. And G.o.d is boundless; and, therefore, every text which speaks of G.o.d is boundless too, as G.o.d is. No man can ever see the whole meaning of it, or do more than understand dimly a little of its truth. But what we can see, we must think over and make use of. What can we see, now, from this text?
First, we may see that the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, is a person. Not a mere thing, or a state of our own hearts, or a feeling in us, or a power, like the powers and laws by which the trees and plants grow, and the sun and moon move in their courses; but a person, just as each of us is a person. He, the Holy Spirit, gives life to trees and plants, sun and moon: but He is not their life. He gives them their life; and, therefore, that life of theirs is not He, or He could not give it; for you can only give something which is not you.
The Scripture speaks of the Holy Spirit, not as it, but as He; as a person, and not as a thing; as a person who can speak to men's souls, guide and teach them.
”When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth; for He shall not speak of Himself.”
But we may see also that the Holy Spirit is neither G.o.d the Father, nor the Lord Jesus Christ. For the Lord speaks of Him, the Holy Spirit, as a different person either from Him or from the Father.
”The Spirit,” He says, ”shall glorify me; for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.”
But we may see also that there is no difference in will, or opinion, or love, between the Holy Spirit and the Father and the Son. For the Spirit does not speak of Himself; there is no self-will in Him.