CHAPTER III. GODS CHARACTER OUR RESTING-PLACE
We have seen that a sinner's peace cannot
come from himself, nor from the knowledge of himself, nor from thinking about
his own acts and feelings, nor from the consciousness of any amendment of his
old self.
Whence, then, is it to come? How does he get
it?
It can only come from God; and it is in knowing
God that he gets it. God has written a volume for the purpose of making
himself known; and it is in this revelation of his character that the sinner is
to find the rest that he is seeking. God himself is the fountainhead of our
peace; his revealed truth is the channel through which this peace finds its way
into us; and his Holy Spirit is the great interpreter of that truth to as:
"Acquaint thyself now with God, and be at peace."[7] Yes, acquaintanceship with God is peace!
Had God told us that he was not gracious, that he
took no interest in our welfare, and that he had no intention of pardoning us,
we could have no peace and no hope. In that case our knowing God would only
make us miserable. Our situation would be like that of the devils, who
"believe and tremble;"[8] and the more we knew
of such a God, we should tremble the more. For how fearful a thing must it be
to have the great God that made us, the great Father of Spirits, against us,
not for us!
Strange to say, this is the very state of
disquietude in which we may find many who profess to believe in a God "merciful
and gracious!" With the Bible in their hands, and the cross before their eyes,
they wander on in a state of darkness and fear, such as would have arisen had
God revealed himself in hatred not in love. They seem to believe the very
opposite of what the Bible teaches us concerning God; and to attach a meaning
to the Cross, the very opposite of what the gospel declares it really bears.
Had God been all frowns, and the Bible all terrors, and Christ all sternness,
these men could not have been in a more troubled and uncertain state than that
in which they are.
How is this? Have they not misunderstood the
Bible? Have they not mistaken the character of God, looking on him as an
"austere man" and a "hard master?" Are they not laboring to supplement the
grace of God by something on their part, as if they believed that this grace
was not sufficient to meet their case, until they had attracted it to
themselves by some earnest performances, or spiritual exercises, of their
own?
God has declared himself to be gracious. "God is
love." He has embodied this grace in the person and work of his beloved Son.
He has told us that this grace is for the ungodly, the unholy, the unfit, the
stout-hearted, the dead in sin. The more, then, that we know of this God and
of his grace, the more will his peace fill us. Nor will the greatness of our
sins, and the hardness of our hearts, or the changeableness of our feelings,
discourage or disquiet, however much they may humble us, and make us
dissatisfied with ourselves.
Let us study the character of God: - holy, yet
loving; the love not interfering with the holiness, nor the holiness with the
love; absolutely sovereign, yet infinitely gracious; the sovereignty not
straightening the grace, nor the grace the sovereignty; drawing the unwilling,
yet not hindering the willing, if any such there be; quickening whom he will,
yet having no pleasure in the death of the wicked; compelling some to come in,
yet freely inviting all! Let us look at him in the face of Jesus Christ; for
He is the express image of his person, and he that hath seen Him hath seen the
Father. The knowledge of that gracious character, as interpreted by the cross
of Christ, is the true remedy for our disquietness. insufficient
acquaintanceship with God lies at the root of our fears and gloom. I know
that flesh and blood cannot reveal God to you, and that the Holy Spirit alone
can enable you to know either the Father or the Son. But I would not have you
for a moment suppose that this Spirit is reluctant to do his work in you; nor
would I encourage you in the awful thought, that you are willing while he is
unwilling; or that the sovereignty of God is a hindrance to the sinner, and a
restraint of the Spirit. The whole Bible takes for granted that all this is
absolutely impossible. Never can the great truths of divine sovereignty and
the Spirit's work land us, as some seem to think they may do, in such a
conflict between a willing sinner and an unwilling God. The whole Bible is so
written by the Spirit, and the gospel was so preached by the apostles, as never
to raise the question of God's willingness, nor to lead to the remotest
suspicion of his readiness to furnish the sinner with all needful aid. Hence
the great truths of God's eternal election, and Christ's redemption of his
Church, as we read them in the Bible, are helps and encouragements to the soul.
But interpreted as they are by many, they seem barrier-walls, not ladders for
scaling the great barrier-wall of man's unwillingness; and anxious souls become
land-locked in metaphysical questions, out of which there can be no way of
extrication save that of taking God at his word.
In the Bible God has revealed himself. In Christ
he has done so most expressively. He has done so that there might be no
mistake as to it on the part of man.
Christ's person is a revelation of God. Christ's
work is a revelation of God Christ's words are a revelation of God. He is in
the Father, and the Father in him. His words and works are the words and works
of the Father. In the manger he showed us God. In the synagogue of Nazareth
he showed us God. At Jacob's well he showed us God. At the tomb of Lazarus he
showed us God. On Olivet, as he wept over Jerusalem, he showed us God. On the
cross he showed us God. In the tomb he showed us God. In his resurrection he
showed us God. If we say with Philip, "Show us the Father, and it sufficeth
us;" he answers, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not
known me? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father."[9] This God whom Christ reveals as the God of righteous grace
and gracious righteousness, is the God with whom we have to do.
To know his character as thus interpreted to us
by Jesus and his cross, is to have peace. It is into this knowledge of the
Father that the Holy Spirit leads the soul whom he is conducting, by his
almighty power, from darkness to light. For everything that we know of God we
owe to this divine Teacher, this Interpreter, this "One among a thousand."[10] But never let the sinner imagine that he is
more willing to learn than the Spirit is to teach. Never let him say to
himself, "I would fain know God, but I cannot of myself, and the Spirit will
not teach me."
It is not enough for us to say to some dispirited
one, "It is your unbelief that is keeping you wretched; only believe, and all
is well." This is true; but it is only general truth; which, in many cases, is
of no use, because it does not show him how it applies to him. On this point
he is often a fault; thinking that faith is some great work to be done, which
he is to labor at with all his might, praying all the while to God to help him
in doing this great work; and that unbelief is some evil principle, requiring
to be uprooted before the gospel will be of any use to him.
But what is the real meaning of this faith and
this unbelief?
In all unbelief there are these two things, - a
good opinion of one's self, and a bad opinion of God. So long as these two
things exist, it is impossible for an inquirer to find rest. His good opinion
of himself makes him think it quite impossible to win God's favor by his own
religious performances; and his bad opinion of God makes him unwilling and
afraid to put his case wholly into his hands. The object of the Holy Spirit's
work, in convincing of sin, is to alter the sinner's opinion of himself, and so
to reduce his estimate of his own character, that he shall think of himself as
God does, and so cease to suppose it possible that he can be justified by any
excellency of his own. Having altered the sinner's good opinion of himself,
the Spirit then alters his evil opinion of God, so as to make him see that the
God with whom he has to do is really the God of all grace.
But the inquirer denies that he has a good
opinion of himself, and owns himself a sinner. Now a man may say this; but
really to know it is something more than saying. Besides, he may be willing to
take the name of sinner to himself, in common with his fellow men, and not at
all own himself such a sinner as God says he is, - such a sinner as needs a
whole Saviour to himself, - such a sinner as needs the cross, and blood, and
righteousness of the Son of God. He may not have quite such a bad opinion of
himself as to make him sensible that he can expect nothing from God on the
score of personal goodness, or amendment of life, or devout observance of duty,
or superiority to others. It takes a great deal to destroy a man's good
opinion of himself; and even after he has lost his good opinion of his works,
he retains his good opinion of his heart; and even after he has lost that, he
holds fast his good opinion of his own religious duties, by means of which he
hopes to make up for evil works and a bad heart. Nay, he hopes to be able so
to act, and feel, and pray, as to lead God to entertain a good opinion of him,
and receive him into favor.
All such efforts spring from thinking well of
himself in some measure; and also from his thinking evil of God, as if he would
not receive him as he is. If he knew himself as God does, he would no more
resort to such efforts than he would think of walking up an Alpine precipice.
How difficult it is to make a man think of himself as God does! What but the
almightiness of the Divine Spirit can accomplish this?
But the inquirer says that he has not a bad
opinion of God. But has he such an opinion of him as the Bible gives or the
cross reveals? Has he such an opinion of him as makes him feel quite safe in
putting his soul into his gracious hands, and trusting him with its eternal
keeping? If not, what is the extent or nature of his good opinion of God? The
knowledge of God, which the cross supplies, ought to set all doubt aside, and
make distrust appear in the most odious of aspects, as a wretched
misrepresentation of God's character and a slander upon his gracious name.
Unbelief, then, is the belief of a lie and the rejection of the truth. It
obliterates from the cross the gracious name of God, and inscribes another
name, the name of an unknown god, in which there is no peace for the sinner and
no rest for the weary.
Accept, then, the character of God as given in
the gospel; read aright his blessed name as it is written upon the cross; take
the simple interpretation given of his mind toward the ungodly, as you have it
at length in the glad tidings of peace. Is not that enough? If that which God
has made known of himself be not enough to allay your fears, nothing else
will. The Holy Spirit will not give you peace irrespective of your views of
God's character. That would be countenancing the worship of a false god,
instead of the true God revealed in the Bible. It is in common connection with
the truth concerning the true God, "the God of all grace," that the Spirit
gives peace. It is the love of the true God that he sheds abroad in the
heart.
The object of the Spirit's work is to make us
acquainted with the true Jehovah, that in him we may rest; not to produce in us
certain feelings, the consciousness of which will make us think better of
ourselves, and give us confidence toward God. That which he shows us of
ourselves is only evil; that which he shows us of God is only good. He does
not enable us to feel or to believe, in order that we may be comforted by our
feeling or our faith. Even when working in us most powerfully he turns our
eyes away from his own work in us, to fix it on God, and his love in Christ
Jesus our Lord. The substance of the gospel is the NAME of the great Jehovah,
unfolded in and by Jesus Christ; the character of him in whom we "live and move
and have our being," as the "just God, yet the Saviors,"[11] the Justifier of the ungodly.
Inquiring spirit, turn your eye to the cross and
see these two things, - the Crucifiers and the Crucified. See the Crucifiers,
the haters of God and his Son. They are yourself. Read in them your own
character, and cease to think of making that a ground of peace. See the
Crucified. It is God himself; incarnate love. It is the God who made you,
suffering, dying for the ungodly. Can you suspect his grace? Can you cherish
evil thoughts of him? Can you ask anything farther to awaken in you the
fullest and most unreserved confidence? Will you misinterpret that agony and
death by saying that they do not mean grace, or that the grace which they mean
is not for you? Call to mind that which is written, - "Hereby perceive we the
love of God, that he laid down his life for us."[12] "Herein is LOVE, not that we love God, but that he
loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation of our sins."[13]
[7] Job xxii.21
[8] James ii.19
[9] John xiv. 8,9
[10] Job xxxiii. 23
[11] Is. xiv. 21
[12] 1 John iii.16
[13] 1 John iv. 10
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