Part 3 (1/2)
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 friends.h.i.+p. ”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 workmans.h.i.+p, 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 wors.h.i.+p 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 wors.h.i.+p 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 s.h.i.+ning 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!