CHAPTER THREE
It has been pointed out by another that the New
Testament is concerned mainly with the presentation of three great facts:
first, that the Son of God has been to the earth but has gone away; second,
that the Holy Spirit has come down to this earth and is still here; third, that
the Son of God is coming back again to this earth. To quote - "These are the
three great subjects unfolded in the New Testament Scriptures; and we shall
find that each of them has a double bearing: it has a bearing upon the world,
and a bearing upon the church; upon the world as a whole, and upon each
unconverted man, woman, and child in particular; upon the church as a whole,
and upon each individual member thereof, in particular. It is impossible for
any one to avoid the bearing of these three grand facts upon his own personal
condition and future destiny" ("Papers on the Lord's Coming" by C. H. M.[5]). A few words now on each of these facts.
First; the Son of God has been to this earth but
has gone away. Here is a fact marvelous in its nature and far-reaching in its
effects. This world has been visited by its Creator. The very feet of the
Lord of Glory have trod this earth on which we now dwell. From heaven's throne
there descended the Only-begotten of the Father, and for upwards of thirty
years He tabernacled here among men. His appearing was not attended with regal
pomp and outward splendor. His glory was veiled and His Divine prerogatives
were laid aside. He who was in the form of God took upon Himself the form of a
servant. He who thought it not robbery to be equal with God, was made in the
likeness of men. He who had received the worship of angels was born in a
manger. What an infinite stoop! What amazing condescension! What matchless
grace! Were it not that we have grown so familiar with the recital of these
things, were it not that our cold hearts had lost their sense of wonderment, we
should be overwhelmed with adoring gratitude. Were it not that we were so
occupied with the things of this world and our own interests we should
prostrate ourselves before God in worship and cry, "Worthy is the Lamb that was
slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and
glory, and blessing" (Rev. 5:12). Here then is the first great fact
presented in the New Testament - the Son of God came down to this earth.
How was He received? What welcome did He meet
with? What effect did the coming of the "Mighty God" (Is. (:6) have upon the
world? What effect would we suppose it to have had? Should we expect to learn
that the birth of the God-man was hailed as the most wondrous and blessed event
in all history? Should we expect to find the rulers of the earth casting their
scepters at His feet? Should we expect to find Him an Object of universal
worship? Such expectations would but betray our ignorance of the depths of
human depravity. Of sinners it is written "They did not like to retain
God in their knowledge" (Rom. 1:28). And why? Because "the carnal mind is
enmity against God" (Rom. 8:7). - such it was demonstrated to be when God was
manifested in the flesh. "There was no room for them in the inn" (Luke
2:7) sums up the whole tragic story. The Christ of God was not wanted. His
ineffable holiness condemned the vile wickedness of sinners. He came here to
"heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering
of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised," but the world
hated Him, "hated" Him "without a cause" (John 15:25). Men said,
"This is the heir; come, let us kill Him" (Mark 12:7), and no ordinary death
would suffice and appease the hatred of their wicked hearts. He must die the
death of a criminal, He must be crucified - a form of punishment
reserved for slaves who were guilty of the vilest crimes (Josephus). By
wicked hands He was "crucified and slain" (Acts 2:20).
"Where sin abounded grace did much more
abound" (Rom. 5:20). Marvelous are the ways of God. He maketh, even the
"wrath of man" to praise Him (Ps. 76:10). Those wicked hands of men which
nailed to the Cross the Lord of Glory, were but fulfilling, unknown to
themselves, the eternal purposes of Jehovah. The Lord Jesus as "delivered by
the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God" (Acts 2:23). These words
bring before us the Divine side of that mysterious transaction. As He
hung there on the Cross the Lord Jesus suffered not only at the hands of man,
but He was also smitten by the hand of God (Is. 53:4, 10) because it was then
and there that He "bare our sins in His own body on the tree" (1 Pet. 2:24).
On the Cross, our blessed Saviour who knew no sin was "made sin for us" (2 Cor.
5:21). It was because He hung there as the Sin-Bearer that Jehovah said,
"Awake, O sword, against My shepherd, and against the man that is My Fellow,
saith the Lord of hosts: smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered"
(Zech. 13:7). Thus, the Death of Christ must be viewed from two great
standpoints. From the side of the world His death was a deliberate,
cold-blooded murder; from the side of God it was a satisfaction rendered unto
His justice and holiness which had been outraged by sin. From the side of the
world, the Cross was the climatic display of its sin and guilt; from the Divine
side it was God's provision to remove the sin and guilt of all who believe.
From man's side, the world has yet to account to God for the death of His Son.
Therefore it is that God has a "controversy" with the nations. My reader, you
are living in a world over which hangs the judgment of God! And the day of His
vengeance draws near. God has yet to reckon with a world that is stained with
the blood of His beloved Son and soon will His fearful wrath be poured out upon
it. How rarely, in these days, is this side of the Cross pressed upon
men's consciences and hearts. The Death of the Lamb of God secured our
salvation, but it consummated the world's guilt.
Christ is absent. Why? Because the world
rejected Him. Yet, if the world disowned Him, the heavens received Him. If
men despised Him, God hath highly exalted Him, and given Him the name which is
above every name. We shall consider now, though, more briefly, the second
great fact.
God the Holy Spirit has come down to this
earth and is still here. This, also, is an amazing and stupendous fact.
God did not abandon the world to which in love He sent His Son, even though
that love was requited by the crucifixion of the Holy One. How strictly just
it would have been had God then and there entirely deserted this rebellious
race of ours! He "spared not" the angels that sinned but "cast them down to
hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment"
(2 Pet. 2:4), why then should He continue to deal in mercy with a race that had
committed a crime which far surpassed in wickedness any sin of which the angels
could have been guilty? Ah! God's ways are "past finding out." Where sin
abounded grace did much more abound. The day of God's wrath was
postponed. A world guilty of murdering God's beloved Son was granted a
reprieve. In marvelous long-sufferance God gave the world an opportunity, a
protracted opportunity, to repent and thus reap the benefits of the Death
Divine.
The Holy Spirit has come down to this earth.
Here is an amazing fact of stupendous magnitude. There is a Divine person on
earth to-day. He has been here, now, for eighteen centuries unseen, unknown,
and unappreciated by the world, yet here, nevertheless. Like the absence
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the presence of the Holy Spirit has a double
bearing - a bearing upon the world, and a bearing upon the Church. His
relation to the world is a solemn and an awful one. The Holy Spirit is here to
convict the world of its terrible crime in rejecting and crucifying the
Son of God. This is clear from the language of John 16 - "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 judge"
(vss. 8-11). These verses do not refer to the work of the Holy Spirit in
individual sinners, but speak of the consequences of His presence on
earth toward the world. It is true that by His gracious operations the
Holy Spirit brings sinners to repentance, but this is not the subject of the
above verses: there, as we have said, we have set forth the relation of
the Holy Spirit toward the "world" in general. The above quotation
brings before us the significance of the Spirit's presence on earth
rather than defines the character of His work. In the sense that He is now
here, the Holy Spirit would not be present at all if the Lord Jesus had not
been cast out by the world. The Holy Spirit is here to fill the place of an
absent Christ. The presence of the Holy Spirit is the demonstration of
the fact that Christ is absent. Therefore it is that His presence here
"reproves the world," reproves the world "of the cause of
Christ's absence, reproves the "world" of its awful crime in putting to
death the Lord of Glory. He reproves the world of "sin." Furthermore; the
presence here of the Holy Spirit reproves the world of "righteousness," of
righteousness because Christ has gone to the Father and the world sees Him no
more, nor will it see Him until He returns in judgment. The "righteousness" of
which the Spirit reproves or convicts the world is the righteousness of God the
Father in His exaltation to His own right hand of the One cast out by the
world. Finally, the presence here of the Holy Spirit convicts the world of
"judgment" because Satan, the prince of this world, is already judged, though
the sentence has not yet been executed. So much then for the world-ward
bearing of the fact of the Holy Spirit's presence on earth.
Like the fact of our Lord's rejection by the
world, the presence of the Holy Spirit on earth also has a bearing upon the
Church - a blessed bearing. God has overruled the issues of this second great
fact. Though the presence here of the Holy Spirit condemns the world, it
involves infinite blessing for the Church. Churchward, the Holy Spirit is here
to take the place of our absent Saviour. He is here to "quicken" (John 3:6) as
Christ quickened (John 5:21). He is here to "teach" (John 14:26) as Christ
taught (Matt 7:29). He is here to "comfort" (John 16:7) as Christ comforted
(John 14:1). In short, the Holy Spirit is here to do for God's people what
Christ would have done for them had He remained on the earth. The
consequences, then, of the presence here of God the Holy Spirit are
unspeakably solemn as regards the world, but infinitely precious as regards the
saints.
We are now prepared to consider the third great
fact which is presented to our notice in the New Testament scriptures that fact
which forms the subject of this chapter - the fact of the Redeemer's Return.
And -
[5]15 cents. Bible Truth Depot, Swengel, Pa.