Finally, as to the sphere. It is, "all nations." This includes me, beyond all question. There is no sort of exception, condition, or qualification. The blessed tidings were to be wafted, on the wings of love, to all nations--to all the world--to every creature under heaven. How could I exclude myself from this world-wide commission? Do I question, for a moment, that the beams of G.o.d's sun are intended for me? Surely not. And why should I question the precious fact that remission of sins is for me? Not for a single instant. It is for me as surely as though I were the only sinner beneath the canopy of G.o.d's heaven. The universality of its aspect precludes all question as to its being designed for me.

And surely, if any further encouragement were needed, it is found in the fact that the blessed amba.s.sadors were to "begin at Jerusalem"--the very guiltiest spot on the face of the earth. They were to make the earliest offer of pardon to the very murderers of the Son of G.o.d. This the apostle Peter does in those words of marvelous and transcendent grace, "Unto you first G.o.d, having raised up His Son, sent Him to bless you, by turning away every one of you from your iniquities." (Acts iii. 26.)

It is not possible to conceive any thing richer or fuller or more magnificent than this. The grace that could reach the murderers of the Son of G.o.d can reach any one: the blood that could cleanse the guilt of such a crime can cleanse the vilest sinner outside the precincts of h.e.l.l.

Anxious reader, do you, can you, still hesitate as to the forgiveness of your sins? Christ has suffered for sins. G.o.d preaches remission of sins. He pledges His own Word on the point. "To Him give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins." What more would you have? How can you any longer doubt or delay? What are you waiting for? You have Christ's finished work and G.o.d's faithful word. Surely these ought to satisfy your heart and tranquilize your mind. Do, then, let us entreat you to accept the full and everlasting remission of all your sins.

Receive into your heart the sweet tidings of divine love and mercy, and go on your way rejoicing. Hear the voice of a risen Saviour, speaking from the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, and a.s.suring you that your sins are all forgiven. Let those soothing accents, from the very mouth of G.o.d Himself, fall, in their enfranchising power, upon your troubled spirit,--"Your sins and iniquities will I remember no more." If G.o.d thus speaks to me, if He a.s.sures me that He will no more remember my sins, should I not be fully and forever satisfied?

Why should I go on doubting and reasoning when G.o.d has spoken? What can give certainty but the Word of G.o.d, that liveth and abideth forever? It is the only ground of certainty; and no power of earth or h.e.l.l--human or diabolical--can ever shake it. The finished work of Christ and the faithful Word of G.o.d are the basis and the authority of full forgiveness of sins.

But, blessed forever be the G.o.d of all grace, it is not only remission of _sins_ which is announced to us through the atoning death of Christ. This in itself would be a boon and a blessing of the very highest order; and, as we have seen, we enjoy it according to the largeness of the heart of G.o.d, and according to the value and efficacy of the death of Christ, as G.o.d estimates it. But besides the full and perfect remission of sins, we have also

ENTIRE DELIVERANCE FROM THE PRESENT POWER OF SIN.

This is a grand point for every true lover of holiness. According to the glorious economy of grace, the same work which secures the complete remission of _sins_ has broken forever the power of _sin_. It is not only that the _sins of the life_ are blotted out, but the _sin of the nature_ is condemned. The believer is privileged to regard himself as dead to sin. He can sing, with a glad heart,

"For me, Lord Jesus, Thou hast died, And I have died in Thee; Thou'rt risen, my bands are all untied, And now Thou livest in me.

The Father's face of radiant grace Shines now in light on me."

This is the proper breathing of a Christian. "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." This is Christianity. The old "I" crucified, and Christ living in me. The Christian is a new creation. Old things are pa.s.sed away. The death of Christ has closed forever the history of the old "I;" and hence, though sin dwells in the believer, its power is broken and gone forever. Not only is its guilt canceled, but its terrible dominion completely overthrown.

This is the glorious doctrine of Romans vi.-viii. The thoughtful student of this most magnificent epistle will observe that from chapter iii. 21 to chapter v. 11 we have the work of Christ applied to the question of _sins_; and from chapter v. 12 to the end of chapter viii. we have another aspect of that work, namely, its application to the question of _sin_--"our old man"--"the body of _sin_"--"_sin_ in the flesh." There is no such thing in Scripture as the forgiveness of sin. G.o.d has condemned sin, not forgiven it--an immensely important distinction. G.o.d has set forth His eternal abhorrence of sin in the cross of Christ. He has expressed and executed His judgment upon it, and now the believer can see himself as linked and identified with the One who died on the cross and is raised from the dead. He has pa.s.sed out of the sphere of sin's dominion into that new and blessed sphere where grace reigns through righteousness. "G.o.d be thanked," says the apostle, "that ye _were_ [once, but now no longer are to be] the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that type of doctrine to which ye were delivered. (Margin.) Being then made _free from sin_ [not merely sins forgiven], ye became the servants of righteousness. I speak after the manner of men, because of the infirmity of your flesh; for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. For when ye _were_ the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made _free from sin_, and become servants to G.o.d, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life." (Rom. vi. 17-22.)

Here lies the precious secret of holy living. We are dead to sin; alive to G.o.d. The reign of sin is over. What has sin to do with a dead man? Nothing. Well, then, the believer has died with Christ; he was buried with Christ; he is risen with Christ, to walk in newness of life. He lives under the precious reign of grace, and he has his fruit unto holiness. The man who draws a plea from the abundance of divine grace to live in sin, denies the very foundation of Christianity. "How shall we that have died to sin, live any longer therein?" Impossible.

It would be a denial of the whole Christian standing. To imagine the Christian as one who is to go on, from day to day, week to week, month to month, and year to year, sinning and repenting, sinning and repenting, is to degrade Christianity and falsify the whole Christian position. To say that a Christian _must_ go on sinning because he has the flesh in him is to ignore the death of Christ in one of its grand aspects, and to give the lie to the whole of the apostle's teaching in Romans vi.-viii. Thank G.o.d, there is no necessity whatever why the believer should commit sin. "My little children, these things write I unto you that ye sin not." We should not justify ourselves in a single sinful thought. It is our sweet privilege to walk in the light, as G.o.d is in the light; and most surely, when we are walking in the light, we are not committing sin. Alas! we get out of the light and commit sin; but the normal, the true, the divine idea of a Christian is, walking in the light, and not committing sin. A sinful thought is foreign to the true genius of Christianity. We have sin in us, and shall have it so long as we are in the body; but if we walk in the Spirit, the sin in our nature will not show itself in the life. To say that _we need not sin_ is to state a Christian privilege; to say that _we cannot sin_ is a deceit and a delusion.

PART III

From what has already pa.s.sed before as, we learn that the grand result of the work of Christ in the past is to give us a divinely perfect standing before G.o.d. "He has perfected forever them that are sanctified." He has introduced us into the Divine Presence, in all His own perfect acceptability, in the full credit and virtue of His name, of His Person, and of His work; so that, as the apostle John declares, "as He is, so are we in this world." (1 John iv. 17.)

Such is the settled standing of the very feeblest lamb in all the blood-bought flock of Christ. Nor could it possibly be otherwise. It must be either this or eternal perdition. There is not the breadth of a hair between this standing of absolute perfectness before G.o.d and a condition of guilt and ruin. We are either in our sins or in a risen Christ. There is no middle ground. We are either covered with guilt or complete in Christ. But the believer is declared, by the authoritative voice of the Holy Ghost in Scripture, to be "complete in Christ"--"perfect, as pertaining to his conscience"--"perfected in perpetuity"--"clean every whit"--"accepted in the Beloved"--"made [or become] the righteousness of G.o.d in Christ."

And all this through the sacrifice of the cross. That precious atoning death of Christ forms the solid and irrefragable foundation of the Christian's standing. "This Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of G.o.d." A seated Christ is the glorious proof and the perfect definition of the believer's place in the presence of G.o.d. Our Lord Christ, having glorified G.o.d about our sins, and borne His judgment on our entire condition as sinners, has conducted us, in living a.s.sociation with Himself, into a place, not only of forgiveness, acceptance, and peace, but of complete deliverance from the dominion of sin--a place of a.s.sured victory over every thing that could possibly be against us, whether indwelling sin, the fear of Satan, the law, or this present evil world.

Such, we repeat, is the absolutely settled standing of the believer, if we are to be taught by holy Scripture. And we earnestly entreat the Christian reader not to be satisfied with any thing less than this.

Let him not any longer accept the muddled teachings of christendom's creeds, and its liturgical services, which only drive the soul back into the darkness, distance, and bondage of Judaism--that system which G.o.d found fault with, and which He has forever abolished, because it did not meet His holy mind, or satisfy His loving heart, in giving the worshiper perfect peace, perfect liberty, perfect nearness to Himself, and that forever.

We solemnly call upon all the Lord's people, throughout the various sections of the professing church, to consider where they are, and to see how far they understand and enjoy the true Christian position, as set forth in the various pa.s.sages of Scripture which we have quoted, and which might easily be multiplied a hundredfold. Let them diligently and faithfully compare the teachings of christendom with the Word of G.o.d, and see how far they agree. In this way they will find how completely the professing Christianity of the present day stands in contrast with the living teachings of the New Testament; and as a consequence, souls are robbed of the precious privileges which belong to them as Christians, and they are kept in the moral distance which characterized the Mosaic economy.

All this is most deplorable. It grieves the Holy Spirit, wounds the heart of Christ, dishonors the grace of G.o.d, and contradicts the plainest statements of holy Scripture. We are most thoroughly persuaded that the condition of thousands of precious souls at this moment is enough to make the heart bleed; and all this, to a large extent, is traceable to christendom's teachings, its creeds and its formularies. Where will you find, amid the ordinary ranks of Christian profession, a person in the enjoyment of a perfectly purged conscience, of peace with G.o.d, of the Spirit of adoption? Is it not true that people are publicly and systematically taught that it is the height of presumption for any one to say that his sins _are_ all forgiven--that he _has_ eternal life--that he _is_ justified from all things--that he _is_ accepted in the Beloved--that he _is_ sealed with the Holy Ghost--that he cannot be lost, because he is actually united to Christ by the indwelling Spirit? Are not all these Christian privileges practically denied and ignored in christendom? Are not people taught that it is dangerous to be too confident--that it is morally safer to live in doubt and fear--that the very utmost we can look for is the hope of getting to heaven when we die? Where are souls taught the glorious truths connected with the new creation? Where are they rooted and grounded in the knowledge of their standing in a risen and glorified Head in the heavens? Where are they led into the enjoyment of those things which are freely given of G.o.d to His beloved people?

Alas! alas! we grieve to think of the only true answer which can be given to such inquiries. The flock of Christ is scattered upon the dark mountains and desolate moors. The souls of G.o.d's people are left in the dim distance which characterized the Jewish system. They know not the meaning of the rent vail, of nearness to G.o.d, of conscious acceptance in the Beloved. The very table of the Lord is shrouded with the dark and chilling mists of superst.i.tion, and surrounded by the repulsive barriers of a dark and depressing legality. Accomplished redemption, full remission of sins, perfect justification before G.o.d, acceptance in a risen Christ, the Spirit of adoption, the bright and blessed hope of the coming of the Bridegroom,--all these grand and glorious realities--these chartered privileges of the Church of G.o.d are practically set aside by christendom's teachings and religious machinery.

Some, perhaps, may think we have drawn too gloomy a picture. We can only say--and we say it with all sincerity--Would to G.o.d it were so!

We fear the picture is far too true--yea, the reality is far more appalling than the picture. We are deeply and painfully impressed with the fact that the condition, not merely of the professing church, but of thousands of the true sheep of the flock of Christ, is such, that if we only realized it as G.o.d sees it, it would break our hearts.

However, we must pursue our subject, and by so doing, furnish the very best remedy that can possibly be suggested for the deplorable condition of so many of the Lord's people.

We have dwelt upon that precious work which our Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished for us, in the putting away of all our _sins_, and in the condemnation of _sin_, securing for us perfect remission of the former, and entire deliverance from the latter, as a ruling power. The Christian is one who is not only forgiven, but delivered. Christ has died for him, and he has died in Christ. Hence he is free, as one who is raised from the dead and alive unto G.o.d, through Jesus Christ our Lord. He is a new creation. He has pa.s.sed from death unto life. Death and judgment are behind him, and nothing but glory before him. He possesses an unblotted t.i.tle and an unclouded prospect.

Now, if all this be indeed true of every child of G.o.d--and Scripture says it is--what more do we want? Nothing, as to t.i.tle; nothing, as to standing; nothing, as to hope. As to all these, we have absolute, divine perfection; but then our _state_ is not perfect, our _walk_ is not perfect. We are still in the body, compa.s.sed about with manifold infirmities, exposed to manifold temptations, liable to stumble, to fall, and to wander. We are unable of ourselves to think a right thought, or to keep ourselves for one moment in the blessed position into which grace has introduced us. True it is, we have everlasting life, and we are linked to the living Head in heaven, by the Holy Ghost sent down to earth, so that we are eternally secure. Nothing can ever touch our life, inasmuch as it is "hid with Christ in G.o.d."

But while nothing can touch our life, or interfere with our standing, yet, seeing that our state is imperfect and our walk imperfect, our communion is liable to be interrupted, and hence it is that we need

THE PRESENT WORK OF CHRIST FOR US.

Jesus lives at the right hand of G.o.d for us. His active intervention on our behalf never ceases for a single moment. He has pa.s.sed through the heavens, in virtue of accomplished atonement, and there He ever carries on His perfect advocacy for us before our G.o.d. He is there as our subsisting righteousness, to maintain us ever in the divine integrity of the position and relationship into which His atoning death has introduced us. Thus we read, in Romans v. 10, "If, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to G.o.d by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." So also in Hebrews iv. we read, "Seeing then that we have a great High-Priest that has pa.s.sed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of G.o.d, let us hold fast the confession. For we have not a High-Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted, in like manner, 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." Again, in chapter vii.--"But this Man, because He continueth forever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto G.o.d by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them." And in chapter ix.--"For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of G.o.d for us."

Then, in the first epistle of John, we have the same great subject presented under a somewhat different aspect.--"My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any one sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins; and not our sins only, but also for the whole world."

How precious is all this to the true-hearted Christian, who is ever conscious--deeply and painfully conscious--of his weakness, need, infirmity, and failure! How, we may lawfully inquire, is it possible for any one, with his eye resting on such pa.s.sages as we have just quoted, to say nothing of his own self-consciousness--the sense of his own imperfect state and walk, to call in question the Christian's need of the unceasing ministry of Christ on his behalf? Is it not marvelous that any reader of the epistle to the Hebrews, any observer of the state and walk of the most advanced believer, should be found denying the application of Christ's priesthood and advocacy to Christians now?

For whom, let us ask, is Christ now living and acting at the right hand of G.o.d? Is it for the world? Clearly not; for He says, in John xvii, "I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given Me; for they are Thine." And who are these? are they the Jewish remnant? Nay; that remnant is yet to appear on the scene. Who are they, then? Believers--children of G.o.d--Christians, who are now pa.s.sing through this sinful world, liable to fail and to contract defilement every step of the way. These are the subjects of Christ's priestly ministry. He died to make them clean: He lives to keep them clean. By His death He expiated our guilt, and by His life He cleanses us, through the action of the Word by the power of the Holy Ghost.

"This is He that came by water and blood; not by water only, but by water and blood." We have expiation and cleansing through a crucified Saviour. The double stream emanated from the pierced side of Christ, dead for us. All praise to His name!

We have all, in virtue of the precious death of Christ. Is it a question of our guilt? It is canceled by the blood of atonement. Is it a question of our daily short-comings? We have an Advocate with the Father--a great High-Priest with G.o.d. "If any man sin." He does not say, If any man repent. No doubt there is, and must be, repentance and self-judgment; but how are they produced? whence do they proceed? Here it is: "We have an Advocate with the Father." It is His all-prevailing intercession that procures for the sinning one the grace of repentance, self-judgment, and confession.

It is of the very utmost importance for the Christian reader to be thoroughly clear as to this great cardinal truth of the advocacy or priesthood of Christ. We sometimes erroneously think that when we fail in our work, something has to be done on our part to set matters straight between our souls and G.o.d. We forget that ere we are even conscious of the failure--before our conscience becomes really cognizant of the fact, our blessed Advocate has been to the Father about it; and it is to His intercession we are indebted for the grace of repentance, confession, and restoration. "If any man sin, we have"--what? The blood to return to? No; mark carefully what the Holy Ghost declares.--"We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." Why does He say, "the righteous"? why not the gracious, the merciful, the sympathizing? Is He not all this? Most surely; but not any one of these attributes would be in place here, inasmuch as the blessed apostle is putting before us the consolatory truth that in all our errors, our sins, and our failures, we have "a righteous" representative ever before the righteous G.o.d, the holy Father, so that our affairs can never fall through. "He _ever_ liveth to make intercession for us;" and because He ever liveth, "He is able to save _to the uttermost_"--right through to the very end--"them that come unto G.o.d by Him."

What solid comfort is here for the people of G.o.d! and how needful for our souls to be established in the knowledge and sense of it! Some there are who have an imperfect sense of the true _standing_ of a Christian, because they do not see what Christ has done for them in the past; others, on the contrary, have such an entirely one-sided view of the _state_ of the Christian that they do not see our need of what Christ is doing for us now. Both must be corrected. The former are ignorant of the extent and value of the atonement; the latter are ignorant of the place and application of the advocacy. Such is the perfection of our _standing_, that the apostle can say, "As He is, so are we in this world." If this were all, we should certainly have no need of priesthood or advocacy; but then, such is our _state_, that the apostle has to say, "If any man sin." This proves our continual need of the Advocate. And, blessed be G.o.d, we have Him continually; we have him _ever living for us_. He lives and serves on high. He is our subsisting righteousness before our G.o.d. He lives to keep us always right in heaven, and to set us right when we go wrong upon earth. He is the divine and indissoluble link between Our souls and G.o.d.

PART IV

Having, in the three preceding papers of this series, sought to unfold the grand foundation-truths connected with the work of Christ for us--His work in the past and His work in the present--His atonement and His advocacy, we shall now seek, by the gracious aid of the Spirit of G.o.d, to present to the reader something of what the Scriptures teach us as to the second branch of our subject, namely,--

CHRIST AS AN OBJECT FOR THE HEART.

It is a wonderfully blessed thing to be able to say, "I have found an object which perfectly satisfies my heart--I have found Christ." It is this which gives true elevation above the world. It renders us thoroughly independent of the resources to which the unconverted heart ever betakes itself. It gives _settled rest_. It imparts a calmness and quietness to the spirit which the world cannot comprehend. The poor votary of the world may think the life of the true Christian a very slow, dull, stupid affair indeed. He may marvel how such an one can manage to get on without what he calls amus.e.m.e.nt, recreation, and pleasure;--no theatres, no b.a.l.l.s or parties, no concerts, no cards or billiards, no hunts or races, no club or news-room, no cricket or croquet parties.

To deprive the unconverted man of such things would almost drive him to despair or lunacy; but the Christian does not want such things--would not have them. They would be a perfect weariness to him. We speak, of course, of the true Christian, of one who is not merely a Christian in name, but in reality. Alas! alas! many profess to be Christians, and take very high ground in their profession, who are, nevertheless, to be found mixed up in all the vain and frivolous pursuits of the men of this world. They may be seen at the communion-table on the Lord's day, and at a theatre or a concert on Monday: they may be found a.s.saying to take part in some one or other of the many branches of Christian work on Sunday, and during the week you may see them in the ball-room, at the race-course, or some such scene of folly and vanity.

It is very evident that such persons know nothing of Christ as an object for the heart. Indeed, it is very questionable how any one with a single spark of divine life in the soul can find pleasure in the wretched pursuits of a G.o.dless world. The true and earnest Christian turns away from such things--turns away instinctively; and this, not merely because of the positive wrong and evil of them--though most surely he feels them to be wrong and evil--but because he has no taste for them, and because he has found something infinitely superior, something which perfectly satisfies all the desires of the new nature.

Could we imagine an angel from heaven taking pleasure at a ball, a theatre, or a race-course? The bare thought is supremely ridiculous.

All such scenes are perfectly foreign to a heavenly being.

And what is a Christian? He is a heavenly man; he is a partaker of the divine nature. He is dead to the world--dead to sin--alive to G.o.d.

He has not a single link with the world: he belongs to heaven. He is no more of the world than Christ his Lord. Could Christ take part in the amus.e.m.e.nts, gayeties, and follies of the world? The very idea were blasphemy. Well, then, what of the Christian? Is he to be found where his Lord could not be? Can he consistently take part in things which he knows in his heart are contrary to Christ? Can he go into places and scenes and circ.u.mstances in which, he must admit, his Saviour and Lord can take no part? Can he go and have fellowship with a world which hates the One to whom he professes to owe every thing?

It may perhaps seem to some of our readers that we are taking too high ground. We would ask such, What ground are we to take? Surely, Christian ground, if we are Christians. Well, then, if we are to take Christian ground, how are we to know what that ground really is?